New FK Fic "Unpacking" (for FKFicFest)
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fkficfest release is my story!
Grief has a way of resurfacing when you're not expecting it.
In the aftermath of "Sons of Belial" and the arrival of a new homicide case, Natalie finds herself confronting long-avoided feelings about what happened to her brother, feelings that have haunted her for years.
Natalie's grief and guilt intertwine with growing worry for and uncertainty about Nick. But she finds that she is not alone, and that for both of them, the only way forward is through.
Check it out on AO3:
Unpacking
And as I am wont to do from time-to-time...
Some navel-gazing meta about the story.
Almost right away with the "antique hairbrush" prompt, I thought of Richard Lambert. How/what/why, I had no idea. But for me, it was Richard’s hair, 100%.
Of FK's bazillion one-off characters who are never spoken of again, Richard was among the ones that bugged me the most. When re-watched "I Will Repay" to refresh myself on those events, it bugged even more. By A LOT.
"I Will Repay" ends rather abruptly with Nick and Nat talking to Richard’s wife Sara. Nick whammied Sara into forgetting that Nick turned her husband into a vicious, bloodsucking creature of the night. And also that Nick killed him. Sara, who then believed Richard died from gun violence, decided she was going to tell her daughter that "God wanted Daddy dead” (what the actual-—and I cannot emphasize this enough-—FUCK?). Nat was all, sure, sounds good, kids are resilient. The end. THE. END.
How was that the end? What a flat, unsatisfying conclusion to such an intense episode! We had Nick and Nat going through so many emotions as Richard lay dying in the hospital. In her grief, Natalie had some very low moments, lashing out at and emotionally manipulating Nick as she tried to convince him to bring Richard across.
For his part, Nick was also distressed and had major doubts about what to do. Janette advised him not to make another vampire, and admonished him that if he did, he'd better be prepared for the responsibility that it would mean (spoiler alert: he was not entirely prepared).
At the hospital, with Nat in the depths of despair as Richard started to flatline, Nick gave in and brought him across. And what happened? Absolute disaster.
So while we had all this huge emotional build up with Nick and Nat about Richard's imminent demise in the hospital, the episode offered no emotional resolution between them after Richard lost control as a vampire and Nick killed him to save Nat and Sara. That seemed like, IDK, kind of a big deal! Unlike Sara, Nick and Nat sure don’t get to have the benefit of a good whammy to forget everything that went down when Richard became a vampire, or their roles in that.
As I noodled through what to do about this, I initially messed around with setting the story in the time period shortly after "I Will Repay." That wasn't really working for me though, so I thought, well, what if in the aftermath of that episode, Nat and Nick hadn't talked about or reached any kind of resolution? What if Nat froze Nick out because of the grief and guilt she carried over her role in all of it? What if something triggered her such that couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore? What would that something be? I thought that the threat of Nick losing control would be one avenue. Thus, this story is set not shortly after the events of "I Will Repay," but instead shortly after the events of "Sons of Belial."
In "Sons of Belial," Nick went after Natalie while he was possessed, almost biting her. And in the episode coda the next night, when he and Nat were talking in the loft, he was upset, but seemed like he was okay-ish/had it together. Then, his eyes vamped out and we could hear him listening to her heartbeat, confessing that human blood sounds pretty good right about now. Those events frightened Natalie, and I couldn't recall her being frightened of Nick like that previously. Even when she first met him, she seemed more startled than anything, and then curious. (I could be wrong on that, but if so, canon schmanon. This is FK and we do what the plot calls for.) Anyway, I thought, maybe the events at the end of SoB would bring back for Natalie how Richard vamped out and became violent toward his family at the end of "I Will Repay."
For good measure, I also threw in a case that made Natalie think even more of Richard and how his mortal life ended, to make sure she couldn't keep tamping down the feelings that were surfacing. Salt, meet wound.
Because I love me some Nat and LaCroix scenes and will NOT miss an opportunity to put them in a verbal volley, I decided to include one here. We only got, if I recall correctly, three substantive scenes between the two of them on the series. But I just love the idea of these oppositional forces in Nick's life coming into contact. Always fun to write!
Adding LaCroix into the mix gave me a chance to have him clue Nat in more about the nature of "related" vampires. He doesn't really explain it in detail, but it winds up giving Nat something to think about. In her grief and guilt about Richard, she didn't realize that Nick might have been similarly impacted. In the scene with LaCroix, I also wanted to bridge a bit of a gap between "Night in Question" and "Fever" when it came to him and Nat. He was not hostile toward her in NiQ. In that episode, he was quite chill and tolerant, and, it seemed to me, kind of amused, like it was a game. For him, I suppose maybe it was. In "Fever" though, he was very hostile toward Nat. He'd already gotten his vengeance against the person he perceived as responsible for the fever, but that was not enough. He wanted to rub that murder in Nat's face. He blamed her and what she stood for for the plight of the vampire community. They have such a deep and fundamental disagreement about vampirism that I thought the little scene in my story could ratchet up the tension between them a bit. That way, him showing up at the morgue out of the blue in "Fever" would fit in a more logical progression.
As for Nick, he (as ever) carries a lot of guilt and grief over Richard, which can finally come out when Nat agrees to talk about what happened. Everything about Richard was a "no win" situation. I think Nick really had convinced himself that it could work because it had to; the alternative meant Richard was going to murder people. Unthinkable!
The "I Will Repay" flashbacks illustrate the problem of a new vampire wanting to go off on a murder spree, as we saw with Elizabeth. I think the "Fever" flashbacks illustrate it even better because we know what kind of person Gerald Archer was before he came across. Gerald was a very "Richard-like" character. A Good Guy as a mortal, but fundamentally altered once a vampire. (The same was true of Nick himself, really, until his modern existential crisis.) Unfortunately, in "I Will Repay" Nick's hopes for Richard living an almost normal life did not bear out as Richard behaved just like Elizabeth and Gerald did.
In this story, LaCroix posits that if he'd been around after Nick turned Richard, Richard would have lived. Maaaaaaybe. But I don't know that that means Nick would have been a "better" master with LaCroix hovering around. I'm sure Nick and Nat have very different ideas than LaCroix on what a "good" outcome would have been. LaCroix would have had no problem with what Richard was doing on a moral level, only a practical one. He'd have been down to show Richard the vampire ropes and how to keep your murders more... discreet. One has to wonder in that scenario if Richard would have been a pawn, a tool for LaCroix to exert more of his influence Nick. Probably.
I liked having the chance for Nick and Nat to open up with one another about what happened with Richard, and their feelings about it all. The cardboard box is a running (perhaps slightly heavy-handed) metaphor for the unresolved grief and guilt Natalie has been grappling with. So to resolve it, she had to open it for. Literal and figurative unpacking.
And inside the box, among other things, she finds the antique hairbrush. I also managed to include a second-hand book in there. The items in the box were also a nice way to facilitate more discussion between Nat and Nick about Richard, and allow Nat and Nick to make happier connections than the ones they had been carrying around.
Even though much of this story is melancholy, for me at least, it brought some closure to the whole “Nick turned Nat’s brother into a vampire, it ended traumatically and tragically, and no one ever talked about it again” thing. It was nice to bring Nick and Nat together to get some resolution, letting them talk it through, understand one another, and reach a more healing conclusion than Sara's "God wanted Richard dead."
The whole story is from Nat's POV so we don't actually get to tap into anyone else’s unexpressed thoughts, feelings, or activities (including any work on the case by the police; I realize it’s kinda set up as case fic, but Natalie isn’t a detective so couldn’t “work the case” beyond her role as a coroner).
Even though the story is limited to Nat's POV, I kinda wondered about some of the non-POV characters’ "off screen" activities. We know LaCroix was trying to impose his will and influence over Nick. That's his whole jam! So I wound up writing some Nick and LC scenes set during the nearly two weeks before this story takes place. Those little melodramas were for my own personal enjoyment lol, but may make it into a separate story one day. They’re on the heap of miscellaneous "scenes in search of a story" that I may develop someday.
Glad I was able to participate in the fest this year and hope people enjoy the story!
fkficfest release is my story!Grief has a way of resurfacing when you're not expecting it.
In the aftermath of "Sons of Belial" and the arrival of a new homicide case, Natalie finds herself confronting long-avoided feelings about what happened to her brother, feelings that have haunted her for years.
Natalie's grief and guilt intertwine with growing worry for and uncertainty about Nick. But she finds that she is not alone, and that for both of them, the only way forward is through.
Check it out on AO3:
And as I am wont to do from time-to-time...
Some navel-gazing meta about the story.
Almost right away with the "antique hairbrush" prompt, I thought of Richard Lambert. How/what/why, I had no idea. But for me, it was Richard’s hair, 100%.
Of FK's bazillion one-off characters who are never spoken of again, Richard was among the ones that bugged me the most. When re-watched "I Will Repay" to refresh myself on those events, it bugged even more. By A LOT.
"I Will Repay" ends rather abruptly with Nick and Nat talking to Richard’s wife Sara. Nick whammied Sara into forgetting that Nick turned her husband into a vicious, bloodsucking creature of the night. And also that Nick killed him. Sara, who then believed Richard died from gun violence, decided she was going to tell her daughter that "God wanted Daddy dead” (what the actual-—and I cannot emphasize this enough-—FUCK?). Nat was all, sure, sounds good, kids are resilient. The end. THE. END.
How was that the end? What a flat, unsatisfying conclusion to such an intense episode! We had Nick and Nat going through so many emotions as Richard lay dying in the hospital. In her grief, Natalie had some very low moments, lashing out at and emotionally manipulating Nick as she tried to convince him to bring Richard across.
For his part, Nick was also distressed and had major doubts about what to do. Janette advised him not to make another vampire, and admonished him that if he did, he'd better be prepared for the responsibility that it would mean (spoiler alert: he was not entirely prepared).
At the hospital, with Nat in the depths of despair as Richard started to flatline, Nick gave in and brought him across. And what happened? Absolute disaster.
So while we had all this huge emotional build up with Nick and Nat about Richard's imminent demise in the hospital, the episode offered no emotional resolution between them after Richard lost control as a vampire and Nick killed him to save Nat and Sara. That seemed like, IDK, kind of a big deal! Unlike Sara, Nick and Nat sure don’t get to have the benefit of a good whammy to forget everything that went down when Richard became a vampire, or their roles in that.
As I noodled through what to do about this, I initially messed around with setting the story in the time period shortly after "I Will Repay." That wasn't really working for me though, so I thought, well, what if in the aftermath of that episode, Nat and Nick hadn't talked about or reached any kind of resolution? What if Nat froze Nick out because of the grief and guilt she carried over her role in all of it? What if something triggered her such that couldn’t keep it bottled up anymore? What would that something be? I thought that the threat of Nick losing control would be one avenue. Thus, this story is set not shortly after the events of "I Will Repay," but instead shortly after the events of "Sons of Belial."
In "Sons of Belial," Nick went after Natalie while he was possessed, almost biting her. And in the episode coda the next night, when he and Nat were talking in the loft, he was upset, but seemed like he was okay-ish/had it together. Then, his eyes vamped out and we could hear him listening to her heartbeat, confessing that human blood sounds pretty good right about now. Those events frightened Natalie, and I couldn't recall her being frightened of Nick like that previously. Even when she first met him, she seemed more startled than anything, and then curious. (I could be wrong on that, but if so, canon schmanon. This is FK and we do what the plot calls for.) Anyway, I thought, maybe the events at the end of SoB would bring back for Natalie how Richard vamped out and became violent toward his family at the end of "I Will Repay."
For good measure, I also threw in a case that made Natalie think even more of Richard and how his mortal life ended, to make sure she couldn't keep tamping down the feelings that were surfacing. Salt, meet wound.
Because I love me some Nat and LaCroix scenes and will NOT miss an opportunity to put them in a verbal volley, I decided to include one here. We only got, if I recall correctly, three substantive scenes between the two of them on the series. But I just love the idea of these oppositional forces in Nick's life coming into contact. Always fun to write!
Adding LaCroix into the mix gave me a chance to have him clue Nat in more about the nature of "related" vampires. He doesn't really explain it in detail, but it winds up giving Nat something to think about. In her grief and guilt about Richard, she didn't realize that Nick might have been similarly impacted. In the scene with LaCroix, I also wanted to bridge a bit of a gap between "Night in Question" and "Fever" when it came to him and Nat. He was not hostile toward her in NiQ. In that episode, he was quite chill and tolerant, and, it seemed to me, kind of amused, like it was a game. For him, I suppose maybe it was. In "Fever" though, he was very hostile toward Nat. He'd already gotten his vengeance against the person he perceived as responsible for the fever, but that was not enough. He wanted to rub that murder in Nat's face. He blamed her and what she stood for for the plight of the vampire community. They have such a deep and fundamental disagreement about vampirism that I thought the little scene in my story could ratchet up the tension between them a bit. That way, him showing up at the morgue out of the blue in "Fever" would fit in a more logical progression.
As for Nick, he (as ever) carries a lot of guilt and grief over Richard, which can finally come out when Nat agrees to talk about what happened. Everything about Richard was a "no win" situation. I think Nick really had convinced himself that it could work because it had to; the alternative meant Richard was going to murder people. Unthinkable!
The "I Will Repay" flashbacks illustrate the problem of a new vampire wanting to go off on a murder spree, as we saw with Elizabeth. I think the "Fever" flashbacks illustrate it even better because we know what kind of person Gerald Archer was before he came across. Gerald was a very "Richard-like" character. A Good Guy as a mortal, but fundamentally altered once a vampire. (The same was true of Nick himself, really, until his modern existential crisis.) Unfortunately, in "I Will Repay" Nick's hopes for Richard living an almost normal life did not bear out as Richard behaved just like Elizabeth and Gerald did.
In this story, LaCroix posits that if he'd been around after Nick turned Richard, Richard would have lived. Maaaaaaybe. But I don't know that that means Nick would have been a "better" master with LaCroix hovering around. I'm sure Nick and Nat have very different ideas than LaCroix on what a "good" outcome would have been. LaCroix would have had no problem with what Richard was doing on a moral level, only a practical one. He'd have been down to show Richard the vampire ropes and how to keep your murders more... discreet. One has to wonder in that scenario if Richard would have been a pawn, a tool for LaCroix to exert more of his influence Nick. Probably.
I liked having the chance for Nick and Nat to open up with one another about what happened with Richard, and their feelings about it all. The cardboard box is a running (perhaps slightly heavy-handed) metaphor for the unresolved grief and guilt Natalie has been grappling with. So to resolve it, she had to open it for. Literal and figurative unpacking.
And inside the box, among other things, she finds the antique hairbrush. I also managed to include a second-hand book in there. The items in the box were also a nice way to facilitate more discussion between Nat and Nick about Richard, and allow Nat and Nick to make happier connections than the ones they had been carrying around.
Even though much of this story is melancholy, for me at least, it brought some closure to the whole “Nick turned Nat’s brother into a vampire, it ended traumatically and tragically, and no one ever talked about it again” thing. It was nice to bring Nick and Nat together to get some resolution, letting them talk it through, understand one another, and reach a more healing conclusion than Sara's "God wanted Richard dead."
The whole story is from Nat's POV so we don't actually get to tap into anyone else’s unexpressed thoughts, feelings, or activities (including any work on the case by the police; I realize it’s kinda set up as case fic, but Natalie isn’t a detective so couldn’t “work the case” beyond her role as a coroner).
Even though the story is limited to Nat's POV, I kinda wondered about some of the non-POV characters’ "off screen" activities. We know LaCroix was trying to impose his will and influence over Nick. That's his whole jam! So I wound up writing some Nick and LC scenes set during the nearly two weeks before this story takes place. Those little melodramas were for my own personal enjoyment lol, but may make it into a separate story one day. They’re on the heap of miscellaneous "scenes in search of a story" that I may develop someday.
Glad I was able to participate in the fest this year and hope people enjoy the story!
no subject
Date: 2025-06-02 08:18 pm (UTC)We had Nick and Nat going through so many emotions as Richard lay dying in the hospital.
That scene in the hospital had a major blunder in the German dubbing, which tends to drive me crazy everytime. The dubbing is usually not bad. But here they failed miserably. When Nat says "he's strong", the doctor replies "But he's not superhuman", which may be appropriate. In the German version, instead of "übermenschlich" the doctor literally says "But he's not Superman." Totally unprofessional in a situation like that!
In her grief, Natalie had some very low moments, lashing out at and emotionally manipulating Nick as she tried to convince him to bring Richard across.
I found there is a fascinating parallel to Hans from "Let no man tear asunder". Both use the help they provided to Nick as leverage to press him into doing something he's against in order to save a loved one.
I thought that the threat of Nick losing control would be one avenue.
Connecting these two episodes is such a great idea. It worked very well!
Then, his eyes vamped out and we could hear him listening to her heartbeat, confessing that human blood sounds pretty good right about now.
That is one of my most favourite scenes in the entire show. It's so wonderfully chilling.
Because I love me some Nat and LaCroix scenes and will NOT miss an opportunity to put them in a verbal volley, I decided to include one here.
I enjoyed that very much. :)
But I just love the idea of these oppositional forces in Nick's life coming into contact. Always fun to write!
Indeed. I love writing those two, too!
Those little melodramas were for my own personal enjoyment lol, but may make it into a separate story one day. They’re on the heap of miscellaneous "scenes in search of a story" that I may develop someday.
That's cool. I hope inspiration strikes and you find a story around that. I'm looking forward to reading more Nick & Lacroix interaction.
Glad I was able to participate in the fest this year and hope people enjoy the story!
I did!!!
no subject
Date: 2025-06-03 03:19 am (UTC)Oh yeah, that's a big flub in the dub!
Fun to learn this little factoid about the German version though.
I found there is a fascinating parallel to Hans from "Let no man tear asunder".
I still haven't rewatched that one! Probably should at some point. I don't remember the story at all.
I'm looking forward to reading more Nick & Lacroix interaction.
Here's one of those misc. scenes (the most well developed of them) for your enjoyment as well ☺️ (set after SoB but before where the story picks up with Natalie... ):
---
"Oh, Nicholas," LaCroix sighed to himself under his breath with the same resigned irritation he had felt countless times before.
Even from a distance, he could sense Nicholas's agitation. Not that that was anything new. Some level of distress had become so normal that LaCroix largely tuned it out, like an annoying buzz that faded into white noise in the background. But this… this was sharper, more urgent. Given how Nicholas had been lately, LaCroix would be irresponsible to ignore it.
Still, did it have to be when the weather was sleeting?
“Here,” LaCroix said abruptly to the taxi driver.
“Here?” The man said, confused.
“Yes, here,” LaCroix insisted. "Pull over. Now.”
He'd given the driver Nicholas's address, assuming that’s where Nicholas would be. This drenched and empty street was miles away from there. Nonetheless, this was where LaCroix needed to get out.
The driver eased the taxi to the curb. "But we aren’t there yet. We aren’t really… anywhere." He waved at the dark office buildings and shuttered restaurants lining the street. "And it's pouring out there.”
LaCroix reached inside his raincoat, pulled out his wallet, and handed the driver enough cash to cover the fare and a generous tip. "None of that is your concern."
The driver shrugged, taking the cash as LaCroix realized he hadn't brought a hat or umbrella. Given the blustery weather, perhaps that made no difference. He opened the door and got out of the cab, buffeted by the ice and rain. Before shutting the door, he ducked his head back inside and said, "Do not look back."
The driver nodded and pulled away.
LaCroix scanned the area and saw Nicholas’s car ten meters ahead, idling. He flew toward it and landed beside the driver's side door. Inside, Nicholas sat gripping the steering wheel tightly, staring forward as if frozen. He didn’t seem to register LaCroix’s presence.
LaCroix rapped on the window. No response. He tried again. Still nothing. He tested the door handle. Unlocked. Opening the door finally drew Nicholas's attention. He turned his head slowly to look at LaCroix with golden eyes.
“Move over,” LaCroix said.
Wordlessly, Nicholas obeyed, sliding across the bench seat to the passenger side.
LaCroix climbed in and closed the door behind him. The interior of the car was warm, heat blowing in gently from the vents. He wiped a hand over his face, brushing away cold water.
"I told you this would be a problem," LaCroix said, voice even.
"I thought I could handle it," Nicholas replied tightly.
"And you couldn't," Lacroix said, unsurprised. "So what's your plan? Head home to curl up with a bottle of cow's blood and pretend that will fix everything?"
"That was the idea," Nicholas said stiffly.
LaCroix studied him. "Then why are you sitting here?"
Nicholas hesitated. "I’m trying to stay in the car."
“Why?”
Nicholas didn't answer right away as an all too familiar guilty look entered eyes. "There was a man. He was, I don’t know…" Nicholas gestured vaguely at the office buildings. "He must have been working late. He came out alone. No one else was around. I… I wanted to…"
He broke off, eyes downcast.
"I see," LaCroix said. "And did you?"
"No," Nicholas breathed. “I started to follow him. I pulled over. But I didn't get out."
"Pity," LaCroix said. "Though perhaps it's just as well. Some of us are not eager to endure yet another round of your tireless self-flagellation."
LaCroix glanced down at his watch. "Did you know it’s nearly dawn?"
Nicholas blinked. "Dawn?"
"And you’re almost out of fuel.” He tapped the gauge. "Let's hope it's enough."
LaCroix shifted into drive and pulled away from the curb.
Outside, the dark downpour began to lighten to gray with the earliest hint of morning. LaCroix glanced at Nicholas, who had turned to look out the passenger-side window. Nicholas didn’t even ask where they were going.
no subject
Date: 2025-06-04 08:43 pm (UTC)