WAR: The Prodigal Vamp
by Catherine Boone and Perri Smith

August 3, 9 p.m.
Nick's Loft

"So, what do we do now?" Dottie asked, leaning back against the couch. 
"We've searched almost the entire city, including almost every single
place Nick has ever hung out, and all we've managed to do is annoy the
Cousins, among others, and raise general chaos throughout the city of
Toronto." 

"Hey, annoying the Cousins is a good thing in and of itself," Perri
cracked. 

Cath gave her an exasperated look. "We haven't even managed to track down
Natalie, much less the book. This is not a good thing." 

Perri shrugged, too tired to really care at this point. 

Cath heard the elevator door open behind them and frowned, doing a quick
head count. All Knighties present and accounted for, which meant it was
either an attack or.... Next to her, Perri froze, breathing an "Ohmigod." 

Cath turned around slowly, alerted by the sudden silence. 

Nick Knight was standing in the doorway, dressed in jeans and a white
shirt, a bag dangling from his hand and a small, uncertain smile hovering
around his lips and eyes. He looked over the assembled crowd, staring back
at him, and the smile got a little smaller. He cleared his throat. "Hello,
everyone." 

Dead silence. 

He tried again. "I, uh... heard about what's been going on and thought
I'd, um, see if you needed any help. Since I got you into this." 

No response except the CD playing in the background. His smile faded away
almost completely. "Maybe this, ah, wasn't such a good idea." 

He started to retreat back into the elevator, but then Perri finally
moved.  She got up and walked towards him, hesitantly at first, then
slowly and deliberately. Then, she broke into a dead run, hurling herself
into his arms as only Perri could do. By ones and twos and tens, the rest
of the Knighties joined her in a babble of hugs and greetings.  Cath was
last, far in the back, able only to hug the Knighties furthest to the
outside.  She didn't even notice the fact while, tears streaming down her
face, she hugged those nearest her for all she was worth. 

[The rest of this scene is being cut out of consideration to those
listmembers who may have diabetes or other sugar intolerence disorders. We
now return to your regularly scheduled war, already in progress. -- The
Management]

"Nick, you are such an idiot!  Where was your brain, runnign off like
that?" Amy Denton demanded. 

The somewhat incoherent and completely unrestrained display of affection
had tapered off after some time, and the Knighties were scattered around
the loft again, most of them either trying to sit as close to Nick as
possible (to defend him), and a few as far away from him as possible (to
get the best firing range), depending on how forgiving they were feeling. 

Cath and Perri were among the close ones -- the lingering anger at Nick
for his two months of silence lost out to the sheer happiness of having
him back. 

Nick leaned back on his couch, giving the door furtive glances. But enough
Knighties were surrounding him that he wouldn't have made it more than a
few steps, and he knew it. Trapped, he started to explain. They sat in
silence through Divia's appearance, most of which they knew already. A few
sniffles sounded when he got to Vachon's death, a few more when he hit
Tracy's a little later. The Knighties next to him moved a little closer. 
Perri looked away, smothering a grin. Cath's glare warned her to tell Nick
about Vachon *later*. 

Then came the events of that last night (severely edited for his audience,
Cath suspected). He skimmed over what had happened between him and
Natalie. 

"I asked LaCroix to.. send me with Natalie. To give at least a chance to
be together. I thought he was going to, but then... he threw down the
stake, and went for Natalie instead, to bring ehr across. I didn't even
have time to think, I just, dove for him, and knocked him away from her,
out the window." Several sets of Knightie eyes followed his gesture
towards the boarded-up window they'd discovered, when the electricity had
finally come on, letting them open the shutters. "We wound up outside and
we... fought.  I won, I think. At any rate, he left." 

"When I returned to the loft, Natalie was gone." 

"What do you mean, 'gone'?" Judy frowned. 

"I mean, she was *gone*!"  Nick looked as unnerved as they felt.  "When I
left her, she was right..." he gestured to a patch of floor on his left. 
Carrie and Robbi, who were sitting closest to that particular spot, tried
to edge away quickly without looking like they were.  Nick paused, and
abruptly continued, "And when I got back, she wasn't. I know LaCroix
didn't take her, so she must have left here on her own -- I don't know
how, but she must have. All I found were --" he paused, confusion in his
eyes. "-- cookie crumbs. Mint cookie crumbs, everywhere." 

Cath and Perri exchanged a look -- another clue added to the theory. "Then
what?" someone prompted. 

"I searched until sunrise, but couldn't find her. The only thing I knew I
could do to help her was to get away from Toronto and hope that LaCroix
would be satisfied with that. That he would follow me and stay away from
her, wherever she was." He shook his head, closing his eyes. "It was all I
could do to keep her safe." 

There was something resembling a joint 'Awwww' from most of the Knighties. 
if anyone held a different opinion, they sat on it. 

"Anyway, I've been hiding for a few months now, trying to stay as far away
from Toronto as I could. Then I found out LaCroix was still here, and
realized I'd left my account book and all of you came up here and... well,
I guess I needed an excuse to come back and... tie up the mess I left." He
gestured sort of helplessly and let his voice trail off. 

There was a long moment of silence, then Dottie patted Nick's hand (she
was sitting right next to him, of course). "Whatever you need to clear up,
we'll help." 

"Of course," Allie chimed in. "Whatever you need us to do." 

"Like always," someone else kicked in. 

And maybe only Dottie, Perri and Cath, sitting closest, saw the stark
relief that crossed Nick's face as the Knighties closed ranks around their
prodigal friend.