Greetings all, this is the third installment of my 'On Their Own' series. The first two are "On Their Own" and "Alone in a Crowd." (This story won't make any sense if you haven't read them.) Just a reminder, these are the stories where Nat and Tracy brought themselves across sans vampires ;-)= Enjoy! Sisters By: Cousin Mary (Jenkins) (10-98) Something was wrong. She could feel it. Nat rolled over in bed, wrapping herself tightly in the sheets and blankets that used to belong to -him.- If she breathed very deeply she could still smell him, or maybe she just imagined she could. It didn't really matter, either way it gave her comfort. Comfort. That's what she needed these days. In the last few weeks Tracy had been acting strange. Well, stranger than usual. Nat sighed and sat up, opening her mind to search the loft for her sister. Nothing. Tracy must have soon after the sun set…that's not what had woken her though. It wasn't really a conscious knowledge that Tracy was gone, more of just an empty tug in the back of her mind. No, whatever had woken her had been something different. Almost like a sound, but not quite. It had to have been something from the link, something from Tracy. 'So where's she gone,' Nat wondered. It was their night off too she knew, Tracy and Owen's. Nat frowned slightly as she thought of her sister's new partner. Owen Metcalf, he wasn't anything like Schanke, or Nick for that matter. And Tracy didn't really treat the middle-aged man as a partner, he was more of her henchman than anything else. Owen would never complain when given the lion's share of the paperwork, or grumble that his partner never seemed to share her insight about a case. Simply because, to Owen, Tracy could do no wrong. He was fiercely loyal, almost to the point of obsession. Nat didn't like him at all, though Tracy said he was harmless and not to worry. Nat slowly crept out of bed, still wrapped in Nick's blankets, and wandered down the hall to Tracy's room. She pushed open the door, all her stuff was still there, so obviously she hadn't left for good. That fact garnered a mix reaction. Sometimes she wished just that, that one day she'd wake up and find Tracy had left, without a word, no forwarding address, nothing. Her unnatural sister alarmed her at times, she was so distant, too controlled, seemingly without weakness. It was almost as if there was nothing human left about her at all. Then there were other times, times when the thought of Tracy leaving filled her with ice-cold dread. Tracy was all she had now, and even if she'd never admit it out loud, she needed her. Not to do anything in particular, just to -be- there. A connection, if only slight. Of course, there was little to hold on to. Sometimes she'd get an inkling that she cared, like after she'd come home from a horrible day at work to find an already warmed bottle sitting on the counter, her favorite movie sitting on the VCR and a small note saying the laundry was done, or the books for the Raven finished. Nothing really deep or profound, but just enough to show that Tracy -did- care, if only a little. Sometimes it was enough. Or maybe it was enough simply because it - had- to be. Nat pushed open the bedroom door further and stepped inside. The bed was made, of course. The dresser sat dusted and polished, a set of silver brushes and combs sitting on top, lined up with military precision. There were matching accessories sitting around the beige and burgundy room, throw pillows, a vase of silk calla lilies, family photos of the Vetter clan, even one of her and Nick. It was a pretty room, almost too pretty. It looked like an ad in a decorating magazine, no clutter, no soul, almost as if no one really lived here. Nat looked around a bit more, a chill darted down her spine. No, this room gave her no clue to where Tracy might have gone, it was empty. She went back to her room, Nick's room, and went through the motions of getting dressed and getting ready. Usually she just slept through her days off, but tonight she had to find her sister. She wasn't sure why, but for the first time since the night she'd helped her come across, she knew Tracy needed her. >>>>>>>>>> Now that Nat had decided to look for her, she had no idea where to begin. First she checked in at the Raven, but Miklos told her Tracy hadn't been in in days. Next she called Owen, but not only was he excessively rude, Nat got the impression that he had no idea where his partner was either. She was just about to give up, when a fresh wave of…something echoed through the link. "The morgue," Nat whispered, aware that for the first time she was actually feeling something -from- Tracy. That had never happened before, Tracy often picked up on her thoughts and emotions, but never the other way around. Something bad must have happened. Pressing the gas, she sped all the way over. >>>>>>>>>> She found her there, standing in the corner of the harshly lit morgue, watching an autopsy. She was about as far from the table as she could get, but her blue eyes were locked on the body as if it would be impossible for her to look away. "Dr. Lambert," Garry, one of the other Medical Examiners, looked up, "What are you doing here? Isn't it your night off?" Nat smiled, "Yeah, but I was just looking for Tracy. Who's this lucky customer?" She gestured towards the lump of flesh stretched out across the stainless steel table. She was glad it wasn't her case, it looked like a burn victim. And a bad one too. "Tracy? You mean Det. Vetter?" Gary paused mid-incision, "Haven't seen her. As for this guy, John Doe. They dug him and another one up this afternoon, buried out on Shoreline Drive, near the water." "Haven't seen…" Nat trailed off and shot Tracy a look, the blonde just kept staring at the body. It was then Nat realized her sister had whammied Garry, he didn't see her standing there. The hairs on the back of her neck rose in apprehension, Garry was a resistor. She knew, she'd tried to use her powers to switch shifts with him several times, but to no avail. But Tracy obviously had had no problem, and now she was watching him do an autopsy. There was something very wrong about her sister's silent vigil. She turned back to Garry, trying to keep her tone light, "Two bodies you say?" "The second one's in the cooler," Gary nodded towards the appliance, "Looks worse than this one though." Nat took a step forward, forcing herself to look at the husk-like body of what had once been a man. Dark hair, there were little tufts of it still visible. His skin was a map of welts and boils, bloody, raw. Nat could feel the bile rise in the back of her throat at the same time as she felt the beast raging to break free. She took a quick step back, trying to quiet both, but not before she noticed something. The body wasn't human. It was a vampire, a dead vampire. She shot Tracy another look, but the blonde didn't look back. Tracy was still staring, almost unseeingly at the corpse. She looked like she was in shock. Nat closed her eyes and swallowed, "Um, Garry?" "Yeah?" The examiner looked up again, "Did you want to assist?" "No," Nat laughed nervously, "Actually, I was wondering if I could have this one, the case I mean, him and the one in the cooler." Garry frowned, "Why would you want-?" He wasn't going to let her, she could hear it in his voice. Nat opened her eyes and concentrated on his heartbeat. This had never worked before, but it -had- to this time. "Garry, listen to me…" "Look Nat, why don't you go home," Garry looked uneasy, almost as if he knew she was trying to get into his head, "Enjoy your night off, you really don't need anymore work." "Tracy!" Desperation sounded in her voice as Nat called to her. "Will you please?" Garry looked alarmed as Nat talked to someone who, as far as he could tell, wasn't there. "Dr. Lambert-" Nat cut him off, "Tracy Anne Vetter!" She was louder this time, trying to break her sister out of whatever internal reflection was holding her. This was scary, she'd never seen Tracy do anything like this before. She was always so stable, so intent on her job. She'd never faltered before. Nat was just about to call her name again when suddenly Tracy shook her head slightly and then nodded to Nat. As Tracy approached Garry, Nat watched in horrified fascination, the man didn't even see her. It wasn't until Tracy started talking, her voice a slow monotone, that Garry's eyes finally focused on her. Nat listened as Garry was convinced to give the cases over to her, to take the night off in fact, she'd finish up. He should be happy, he owed Nat one. She watched Garry leave after that, his coat buttoned wrong and his hat one backwards, before she finally approached the body again. Tracy was close to it now, staring down, weeping. Nat looked on in shock as silent tears rolled down her sister's cheeks. "You knew him?" She asked, putting a comforting hand on Tracy's shoulder, she was further amazed that she let her. Tracy had never let her get close before, she never wanted to talk, she never opened up. That Tracy might actually be about to share something personal with her was a remarkable thing. "I killed him," Tracy whispered before turning and collapsing, sobbing into Nat's arms. Nat was shocked, she didn't know what was going on, but she found herself patting Tracy's back and mumbling comforting nonsense. Tracy had just confessed to killing someone, maybe two someones and probably burying them, and to her surprise Nat found she didn't care. At last, she had her sister. >>>>>>>>>>>> Kind of creepy huh? Anyway, just for the record, the vampire corpses are burned because I said they were exhumed in midday, so the sun got to them a little before they were covered in tarps and moved into body bags. Basically I needed Nat not to recognize them Send all comments and term papers on 'Paganism's Influence on the Early Christian Church' to anteros@juno.com