August 3, 2001
Coralis sat on her inn's bed on a Friday night, 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 for a few drinks in town, but she decided to stay in their room and take advantage of her time alone to call Frank.
She always refused to use the satellite function on her hologram to call him as she saw it as an unnecessary risk. Gus gave her a code that she could dial from any landline phone or payphone to make the call untraceable.
"Hey!" she said when he picked up the call.
"Hey! Just as I was losing hope!"
"Losing hope? Am I that bad?"
"Depends," said Frank, softly laughing, "when will I get to take you out for your birthday? You know that I'm getting a car tomorrow, so I'm also looking forward to showing it to you and taking you places."
"I'm not sure when I'll be in town. Don't worry about my birthday, I don't particularly care about it. It's just a day in the year."
"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 did 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, and why she didn't know when she'd be back.
"It's not that simple, I 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."
"Is it 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."
August 8, 2001
Coralis and Andrew wrapped up their case and flew to London to drop their reports, then left right away. Neither of them wanted to linger around any longer than they had to. Andrew just wanted to go back to his mate, and Coralis wanted to spend time with Frank and 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 and to call him to see if she could fly directly to wherever he was. 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 to Montreal shortly?"
"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. Would I get to 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 undisclosed locations. 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 be just 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.
"I suppose we'll be continuing the night at my place. Victoria will be out all night," said Coralis, looking at the bottle Frank gave her.
She passed her free 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," said Frank, his lips still on hers.
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea, but yes, let's go eat."
Frank unlocked his door, so she could leave the bottle there. He then passed his 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 not thinking that about you. I work 80+ hours a week and 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 did.
Frank woke up when he felt her shaking against his chest. Realizing she was having a nightmare, he gently rubbed her arm to try to wake her up. She was sleeping on her side.
"Luv… luv…," he whispered in her left ear while keeping her back against his chest.
She suddenly sat down, panting, and looked around.
"Want to talk about it?" he said.
"Not really. I'm okay, sorry to have woken you up."
He passed his arms around her, brought her back against his chest and kissed her neck.
"You know, I always assumed that you got these scars at work, but maybe not?" said Frank, kissing those on her shoulders.
Realizing that Frank was next to her, she quickly grabbed her eyeglasses sitting on the bedside table by her.
"Uh, no, I got those at school when I was 12."
"12? How?"
"Yes, 12. Intruders at school targeted me because of whom my parents worked for."
Frank stayed silent, pondering on her answer. Coralis barely spoke of her past. He wanted to know more but decided against asking more that night.
"I don't know if it's due to the moonlight coming in through the cracks of your blinds, but for a second when you woke up, I swear your eyes looked silver."