Chapter 38

August 3, 2001

It was a Friday night. Coralis sat on her inn's bed, her back against the wall. She arrived in Glasgow the previous night, to work a case alongside her mentor Andrew and some other EBEE agents. They wanted to go out to grab a few drinks in town, but she decided to stay in their room and take advantage of her time alone to call Frank.

To call him, she always refused to use the satellite function on her hologram, as she saw it as an unnecessary risk. The Fullemon twins gave her a code that she could dial from any landline phone, that would make the call untraceable, and she made sure to use it whenever she could call him from a landline phone or a payphone.

"Hey!" she said when he picked up the call.

"Hey! Just as I was losing hope!"

"Losing hope? Am I that bad?"

"Depends," he softly laughed, "when I am going to be able to take you out for your birthday? You know that I'm getting a car tomorrow, so I'm also looking forward showing it to you and taking you places."

"Probably not, but don't worry about my birthday, it's not a day I particularly care about."

"I do care about it. I care about spending time with you. You're supposed to be off work for a few weeks, yet you've been working more than you've been for the past few months."

Coralis closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. She didn't know what to answer him. She wanted to tell him all about why she had to be in Scotland for a couple of days, why she didn't know when she'd be able to come back.

"It's not that simple, I really don't have the luxury to tell them no, I told you that. If it was up to me, I would be with you right now."

"It is a life-or-death type of situation?"

"Very much so," she said, thinking about her case.

Coralis and Andrew, along with some other EBEE agents, were investigating a group of Djinns kidnapping humans to sell them to vampire clans.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be an ass, I wish I knew more about what you do, but I trust you. I miss you, so I'm a bit annoyed that I don't even know when I'll see you next."

Coralis and Andrew wrapped up their case the following Wednesday. They flew to London to drop their reports and left right away. Neither of them wanted to linger around any longer than they had to. Andrew just wanted to go back to Lalima, his spouse, and Coralis wanted to spend time with Frank, to escape her world for a moment.

Before leaving the city, she stopped by her flat to see if Frank had left any messages on her voicemail. She also wanted to call him, to see if she could just fly to wherever he would be. Her roommates weren't home. She was disappointed to see that he didn't leave any messages, as she enjoyed listening to them. 'Maybe I need to get him a new phone card for long distances,' she thought.

"Hey luv!" said Frank, knowing who it was just by hearing the ringtone. "If you're calling me from your London apartment, does that mean you'll be on your way back here soon?"

"Yes, I'm coming back to Montreal today. Can I see you tonight?"

"I'm supposed to work tonight… but tell me where and when, and I'll make it happen. I can even pick you up from the airport."

Even if he needed the money, Frank was planning on calling in sick at work. He knew that he could easily pick up more shifts when she would have to leave again, and he didn't want her to leave again without seeing him. He didn't know for how long she'd be in town, so he wanted to spend as much time with her as he could.

Coralis calculated how long it would take her to fly to Montreal if she'd board an airplane and the time difference. She wanted to leave now to go to him, but wouldn't be able to explain why it only took her 4 hours to travel from London to Montreal, knowing human flights take much longer to cover the distance.

"You know that I don't travel on commercial flights and that I usually land in Mirabel. I should arrive early evening, want to meet me for dinner somewhere? I'm not sure at what time exactly I'll be in Montreal, but I'll call you after landing."

They decided to meet in Saint-Jerome, in a restaurant Coralis knew she wouldn't risk running into werewolves or other supernatural she knew. She wanted to spend time alone with Frank, without being interrupted by people calling her Blue. She wanted to be where no one knew her, where she could just be Coralis. She knew eventually she would have to explain her world to Frank, but tonight wasn't the night.

Frank wanted to get her flowers, as it was his night out with her for her birthday, even if it was a week past. Not knowing when she'd have to leave again, he decided against it, as she wouldn't be able to care for or appreciate them before they died. He knew she wouldn't let him pay for dinner, so he didn't want to arrive at their meeting place empty-handed. On his way there, he stopped at a liquor to get a bottle of whiskey he knew she liked.

"Guess we'll be continuing the night at my place, Vic will be out all night," she said as she was looking at the bottle she was holding with her left hand.

She passed her right hand behind his neck and pulled him closer to kiss him. His hands went on her waist and he brought her even closer.

"Hmm let's go in now before I decide to eat you in my car instead," he said, still with his mouth on hers.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but yeah, let's go eat."

Frank unlocked his door, so she could leave the bottle there. After locking it back, he passed his right arm behind her waist and led her into the restaurant.

"Nice car, by the way. You know, if you ever need help financially, you can always ask me."

"I know, you told me before, and Vic also said something like that. I am not comfortable asking you for money, not because I'm a guy, but because I don't want you to think that I like you for your money or that I'm taking advantage of you."

"I'm really not thinking that about you. I work 80+ hours a week and I don't have time to spend what I earn, so you could ask me for anything and I wouldn't question it."

After dinner, they drove to her place and he stayed the night. As they got lost in each other in her bedroom, she was hoping her pager wouldn't go off and was considering ignoring it if it went off.

Frank was woken up when he felt her shaking against his chest. He realized she was having a nightmare. She was sleeping on her right side, so he gently rubbed her left arm to try to wake her up.

"Luv… luv…," he whispered in her left ear while keeping her back against his chest.

She suddenly sat down, panting, and looked around. Realizing that Frank was next to her, she quickly grabbed her eyeglasses sitting on the bedside table next to her.

"Want to talk about it?" he said.

"Hmm no, sorry to have woken you up, but don't worry, I'm fine," she said, looking at him.

He didn't like that answer, but he knew that he couldn't make her talk. He passed his arms around her, brought her back against his chest, and kissed her neck.

"I just wish you would let me in, but hopefully you will eventually. I don't know if it's due to the moonlight coming in through the cracks of your blinds, but for a second, I swear your eyes looked silver."