A new coven on the outskirts of Nebula, just beyond the confines of the University, had sprung up and were now terrorizing the guards of the institution, often taking them back, only to have the bodies turn up days later.

Though their general location was known, Danae could find no exact distinction of where they were hiding, just short of waltzing into the forests near the shores and flushing them out herself...But that was not the duty of a resourcer, not unless the most desperate of times called for suicidal measures.

Instead, she had plotted the topographical area and worked through Aerial views, enhanced and cleaned until finally, something had come up. In the midst of the towering trees that were not destroyed by the great catastrophic event of years gone by, there was a small structure that seemed to have its roots underground. Scanning images and heat sensors had told her that beneath it was an open cavern and so, she knew, that the creatures of the night had to be hiding somewhere in there.

Considering the issues at hand, it was not a mission to be handled alone. Raelin was out for the night, with Jacob, no doubt, and that had left Danae at MSI until well past midnight, searching, scrounging for information that might break the lock and seal the deal to end this case and silence the screams of terror that rang out each and every time a body had been discovered, the throat ripped out.

Files in her bag, Danae left MSI and headed for the other half of her investigative team, hating to disturb Marcus at home, but knowing that he would want to have some information as soon as possible, allowing her and Raelin to determine the best angle for approach. Walking up the steps and letting her knuckles fall lightly against the door, she waited, the moment in the Medical Wing from days before creeping back into her mind.

She had walked away from him, and since then, the tension had risen so much and encompassed them so thickly that save for the necessities, she hardly spoke to the Investigator at all. Tonight, however, left her no choice since Raelin was not to be found...Telling herself it was strictly business, she waited, pushing the dark chestnutt locks of hair over her shoulder and looking out behind her at the quiet city street...

Was it so far off the mark to say that he was feeling rather like an idiot for pushing her away so much in the hospital earlier in the week? Except it had been necessary. . .had it not? To keep the distance that he himself had put between them for the sake of maintaining what? The memory of innocence? The thoughts that travelled through his mind about her? He knew that he had been distracted lately, his head was most assuredly not in the game as it should have been. Raelin had noticed. She had questioned him on it but he had brushed her aside as well, not caring to bring up those thoughts better left from his head.

A knock on his door. . .Frowning slightly, Marcus climbed off the couch and soundlessly made his way to the door, running a hand back through his hair. His hand reached out, wondering who in the hell would visit him at an hour so late and knowing it was more then likely work, business, something that needed to be done and could not wait until. . .until what? He had almost forgotten for a second the absurdity of that notion. Could not wait until daylight? The same daylight that he could never again step foot into? He smirked and it fell away as he opened the door, his head jerking back in slight surprise because there she stood. The object of his sprint from sanity.

"Danae. . .this is a surprise. . .what brings you knocking on my door at this hour? Oh wait. . .let me guess. . .work. And hear I thought you might be simply asking me for a lovely midnight jaunt. . ." he said, a sincere smile of welcome spreading across his face as he stepped back to let her enter.

She had half hoped that he would not be home, those hopes crushed as he answered the door, a smile on his face as she turned around. Returning the smile as best she could, Danae nodded to him as she passed through the door, repressing the shiver that ran down his spine.

"Yes, unfortunately, it is about work," she said, though why unfortunately? If it were not for work, his door would have been the last place she had come on this night... No matter, she would try to handle this with the pleasentries of their partnership as she had done for countless years. "I've found the hideout of the coven on the edges of Nebula University. Raelin is otherwise occupied and so, I've brought the details of it to you. I thought that perhaps you could comb over the specifics tonight and then confer with Raelin and decide on a plan of action tomorrow..."

She had been staring at the open file in her hands, but now, she finally lifted her eyes and met his, offering a quiet smile. Damn him...She wanted nothing more than to scream at him what was so plainly before them, what every member of MSI could so unerringly see, but she did nothing except stand there, shrugging her shoulders as she handed the manilla file folder over to him for his own viewing.

Marcus wasn't quite sure how he felt about Danae standing in his living room but he wasn't about to give it too much thought. It was, after all, his fault that they kept up with this dance of two steps forward and ten steps back but he could not reconcile anything else. She was mortal and he was. . .not. How could he ever offer her the world that she deserved, the life that she deserved? She would grow old and pass on from the world and barring anything short of a violent death he would remain. He could not tolerate that and furthermore than that his memories of her stretched all the way back to her first smiles, her first words. . .he knew that she did not understand why he could not bridge the gap between them and he could not properly explain.

The tension between them, for the moment, was stifling. Marcus took the file that she handed him and looked it over, his eyes lowering to the papers and scanning them quickly. Vampires. . .he held back the sigh that threatened to come out before deciding that another night alone in his home, or even another few minutes of deep thought regarding the woman in front of him would be rather intolerable. The longer that she was in his presence with no distraction the harder it was to remain stoic and certain of his decisions even though he knew that he was right. He had to be right because surely she deserved better than he could ever offer.

Marcus tossed the file over his shoulder with an off-handed shrug and a half smirk, turning to grab his black coat off the hook near the front door. A grandiose gesture of exit and he caught her gaze, his hand extended toward the door.

"Well then what say you we skip the last part of that plan. . .the part about consulting with Raelin. . .and get this little shindig on the road? We've got some errant vampires to put into place, I think.

She watched with arms crossed and brows raised as he studied the file with all the interest of a four year old at a Republican party meeting, and then casually tossed it over his shoulder, tossing her that same old smile that had gotten into more than enough situations.

He had no intention of waiting for Raelin, or for the next nightfall for that matter. But then, deep down, Danae did live for this. Despite being a resourcer, she had been trained personally by Uncle Antony in hand to hand combat, and the use of simple weaponry. It was never a stretch for her to double as backup when her investigators, Marcus and Raelin, headed into a field mission.

"Alright, then," she said with a simple nod, and as she buttoned the front of her jacket closed once more, Danae exited his home and took in a deeper breath, glad for the awkward silence that never came.

(it's crap, but I tried to squeeze in someething for you to do while you were replying...sowwy.)

Marcus knew that he probaby should wait for back-up, that he probably should take anyone other than Danae out into the field because this was just going to be like any other time alone with her. Strained, awkward, in need of words to fill the void that could never be spoken, not truly. He could only hope that the distraction of a few vampires would be enough to keep him from saying something supremely ridiculous, would keep him from wanting to touch her hair and look into her eyes, to tell her the truth. . .what truth? Was there a truth to be had? He was not sure and even if he was he knew that he could not be so selfish as to speak it.

For the first few blocks Marcus kept his silence, seeming to glide along the pavement with his fingers pushed deep into the recesses of his blazer pockets. The silence stretched between them and while Marcus was able to hear whispered words unspoken lace the air just barely, it was not quite as tense as he would have thought it to be. As it had managed to be before in nights gone past. . .

"So. . .are we playing the Silent Game, then? Why don't you tell me what's been going on with you. . .really. Not "I'm fine" and all that other crap you babble out to people with half a brain. . .the truth."

She had been quite content to say nothing and walk in silence. It had proved far more effective than on the times that they did speak. Each and every conversation she recalled, they said words they could not mean, but never spoke the ones that their hearts screamed.

As his voice filled the air, a quiet sigh rushed past her lips. Drawing the wool trench coat tighter around her frame, Danae shrugged her shoulders in response to his question. Whispered secrets around the halls of MSI mingled with the way her eyes changed when he came into view, plus the cases and the foreboding warnings all tipped the scales of balance she normally held...And then there was Dorian Cael, a name she would not dare utter to Marcus...Never.

"But I am fine," she finally said, shrugging once more, as if that made it more believable. "Work is hectice, you know, as always...There's some sort of secret working its way through MSI, but I know nothing of it...And on top of the increased number of cases we've been dealing with lately, I've encountered a most interesting acquaintance."

And she had said to much, spilled nearly all that she had no intention of telling him...Save for the words that stopped in the middle of her throat now. [i]"And I care about you,"[/b] she thought in her mind, but did not voice it. His telepathic abilities were impressive, and thoughs he could mask her thoughts witht he best of them, he had always managed to break through and place a chink in the armor she so valiantly tried to wear.

"What about you? How have you been..." she asked, knowing the last time they spoke had been in the Medical Wing hall, their same old dance to a different rhythm where one of them always walked away.

Marcus slowed the steps of his long legs so that she could keep pace with an easier time, his fingers idly playing with the cool skin of a quarter that he had discovered there two seconds ago. His fingers were less calloused than they should have been and he could feel all the grooves against his fingers as he twisted it between his fingers. He tilted his head slightly to the side at her response and for a moment a frown tainted his face, his eyebrows drawing together just enough to indicate confusion and mild concern. A new acquaintance? He could sense the hesitance in her voice.

"I've been fine, Danae. . .Why don't you rewind to this new acquaintance? Who is that has caught your interest?"

Just as she knew he would, Marcus had to dwell on the singular part of her response that she didn't wish to elaborate on. Clenching her jaw slightly, she pushed her hands deeper into the pockets of her wool overcoat before glancing up at him again. Damned, he could read her mind, and so, she blocked out all thoughts and visions of Dorian Cael.

Shrugging her shoulders, she turned back to the street ahead of them, rounding a corner in an effort to make it to the coven site before dawn...But then, it was a poor excuse. Dawn will still a long time in coming.

"I...I doubt you know him, Marcus," she said cautiously, her mind echoing that he knew the man all too well. It wasn't a name within the realms of CSI that one did not know. "He's quite...Well, he calls himself Dorian." She doubted that it would give him away, but even as she spoke the name, blonde hair and ethereal eyes flashed into her visions...A vampire, and he had somehow captivated her attention...And returned the gesture. Something that the man...vampire...at her side had always failed to do. "It's hardly worth discussing, really..."

Marcus very nearly stopped in his tracks when the name fell from her lips although he refrained, managing to do no more than stiffen at the name. She doubted that he knew him? Had she turned into a fool? Marcus's eyes flared for a moment and he clenched his teeth, recognizing her ducking and dodging when he saw it. The very name of the wretched vampire that she had "acquainted" with made him want to slam his fist through something very solid within the next two minutes. Anger scorched his veins that held nothing but false life and for awhile he said nothing, trying to calm down and reach a point of reason.

He sensed that it was more than just one chance meeting with the little punk. . .Although he no verbal proof he saw the flash in her green eyes, only the slightest of giveaways and yet he knew that she was dancing around the topic, avoiding the truth. . .a blind man would have been able to see that. Marcus took a breath of air that he did not need before he stepped in front of her and blocked her progression down the path, his hands shoving deeper into the pockets of his duster as he regarded her critically, the smoldering anger still buried in his eyes even though he tried to push it away.

"Dorian. You've been 'acquainting' with Dorian. In what way, Danae? Have you lost your mind? You know what kind of creature that vile little piece of. . .you know what he is. You know what he does. What is wrong with you?"

Damn...She knew, just from the sounds of the man next to her, that he was hardly pleased with her answer, and he had read far more into her words than even she had known was there. Closing her eyes for a minute, she cursed herself for even letting his name slip, but without any other signs to give her away, she continued walking...Until Marcus saw fit to block her path.

Stopping just short of running into him, Danae lifted her gaze. As he spoke, her eyes blazed with annoyance, with frustration...Who did he think he was, having the audacity to question what she did, who she associate with, and why?

Her jaw clenching slightly, she saw the rage burning in his eyes, and some part of her was glad. Good, let him be angry...Let him stare at her that way...Let him know that she had grown tired of his games...And that someone else had charmed his way into her good graces.

"For all his faults, at least he does know what he wants. Manipulative, he may be, and while he does have a track record fit to marvel all the czars in Russia....he has never laid a hand to me." Danae paused then, considering that he had laid hands to her on several occassions, but...never to harm her. "At least, not to hurt me."

Perhaps it was not the best thing to tell the angered vampire standing before her, but where Marcus worried for her life, for her mortality, Dorian sought to show her what could be. She could still hear his voice echoing in her mind...And again, she knew it was true. Had it been anyone else fraternizing with the vampire, Danae wondered if he would care...Or if it was only know that someone else stepped to her side, however momentarily, that Marcus finally took notice.

"Because there's someone else in your life who isn't as forthright. Isn't there? Some man, perhaps. No, not just a man... you've been raised around too great of things to fall for a man. Something else... some other creature that you can't quite understand. Some other shadow you chase... And you wonder why he doesn't chase you."

Dorian had summed up it all within a few words and as the words rushed into her mind again, she looked away from Marcus, her hair falling and covering her face. "There is nothing wrong with me, and no, I haven't lost my mind. In fact, I do believe I just gained it back. I spent years waiting for a ghost to come to me...and he did, but his looks were far different than the one I had hoped to see...and as horrible as he may seem, years have mellowed him."

Finally, she turned back to look at Marcus and something had gone out of her eyes. Anger no longer remained. Frustration had slowly leaked from her features...Regret and longing for something that would never be remained...but Dorian sought to give her what her heart ached for... Something the vampire before her would never bring himself to do...

"I suppose I should thank you, after all..." And Danae knew that of all the words that never should have passed her lips, those were the worst, the ones she did wish she could take back...Her mind had given up on Marcus, settled for the other vampire whose past was marked so darkly...because he was there and there was something reminiscient of the MSI Agent within him, however fiendish the blonde devil was. Perhaps this way, she could at least manage to trick her heart...

Marcus hated Dorian Cael with nearly every fiber of his being and it was for fairly obvious reasons. He knew that his viewpoint was shared by that of the Dreamwalker, Morpheus, and although himself and the Immortal were not quite the best of drinking friends they shared views in this. For a second the vampire entertained the notion of approaching Morpheus about the problem that Cael had surely become. . .Marcus would not tolerate the fool's presence around Danae, even if he had to rend his scrawny neck from his shoulders with his bare hands.

The more that Danae spoke the more that instinct bubbled up within him and the more his rage ran hot through his veins in place of the blood that did not flow. His eyes swirled to stygian black and his fangs descended on impulse, emotional instinct, and it took everything in his power to maintain control rather than to last out in her direction. She was goading him, barbing for a response. . .and damned if she did not get one. The thought of that filthy creature's hands on her in any way. . .Marcus snarled his rage for the moment and turned away from her, afraid that if he touched her right then he might accidentally harm her.

Her last words hit him like a slap in the face and his head actually jerked back even though he was not facing her. He did not trust himself to speak, to move. . .he did not trust himself to exist in that moment and he knew that she was right. In the end it was his own hand that had pushed her in the direction that she had gone and yet. . .it still did not make it right. He did not mind her seeking solace in the arms of a man that might give her the life she deserved but Cael. . .Cael was not an option and never would he be. Marcus would ensure that if it was the last thing he did. He turned back to her with a nearly feral snarl and took two quick steps forward, almost a blur, seizing her shoulders. The fire of rage burned hot and dangerous in his eyes and for a moment he was almost not certain what he would do now that he had her in his grip. He breathed in deeply, sharply, an intake of air he did not need.

"You will have no future with him, Danae," he snarled, shaking her slightly. "You foolish, insolent girl. Cael is not a distraction or a method of making yourself believe in falsities. Cross him from your mind, Danae. For as of tonight Cael is no more than a memory and I will wipe all trail of him from the face of what's left of this damnable world."

She knew he would be angry, but...this reaction was not quite was she had expected. In the back of her mind, she had hoped, all along, that something would give him away, but this? Still, Danae could not tell if it was his concern for her, or merely the morality's edge on which she teetered that unnerved him so.

As he turned back to her, eyes black as night and fangs extended like she had seen only rarely, she did not stiffen or back away. Someday, he would see that she was not afraid of him...Never.

His words angered her, enthralled her, and hurt her, all at the same time...to put it mildly. How dare he tell her how she would live her life, spend her nights, when they had nothing to do with him, and by his own choice, rightly so? And yet, he fought with her, for her, for her better interests. Still, she knew that tomorrow would be no different, that no matter what passed between them tonight, tomorrow they would remain partners and he would disappear whenever she came into view. Her jaw clenched slightly as he shook her shoulders, but just the same, slender hands reached up and clasped around his wrists as her emerald eyes stared into his blackened orbs.

"Foolish? Insolent? Because I've found what you've been too damned afraid to give? He is a distraction, my distraction, because when we do come together, I can forget...what hurts the most. For all his faults and wrongdoings, Dorian Cael does understand heart, compassion, romance...." she shot back, but left out one word- love. She would never love Dorian Cael...And she knew full well, without being lectured, that no future rested in the cards with him. It was about the moment, the impulse, the desire to know if what he said was true.

Dropping her gaze, she turned her head away from him, but her tiny hands still remained clasped around his lips. Her anger was getting the better of her, just as his own had done, and as he threatened Dorian's existence, Danae looked up once again. Her eyes had become darker, more tormented that she had been, even when she first knocked on his door. Shaking her head slightly, she sighed, then asked in a whisper, "Why does it matter, Marcus? It is my decision, my mistake...Why do you care? How can you wipe him from my memory when you've laid no claim to me?"

Never in his life would he harm her or lay a hand to her in anger but at the moment he was on the teeter-tottering edge of rage, his emotions running high and wild. If she had sought to gain his attention in this regard then she had succeeded far better than anyone could have ever hoped and still, yet, he could not rectify in his own mind demanding her attention in return. To think of Dorian's hands on her in anyway filled him with a liquid fury unrivaled by any he had ever known in all his years. He knew that no matter what she said he would hunt that little worm down and ensure that he trembled with fear should Marcus's name even be whispered in his direction. . .

"You have found nothing! Nothing but false promises and a second of reprieve that means nothing. Dorian Cael does not deserve a second of your glance and you seek to hide behind the web of lies and deceit that he will spin around your mind. Dammit, Danae. A claim to you I might not have laid but I will not allow his treachery into your life, whether you want it to be so or not. Dorian's games are at an end and his days are numbered. Should you seek to spend time with him again, ensure you impart that message."

Marcus released her abruptly and stepped away, turning his back on her again and breathing hard of the oxgyen that he did not need. He only sought to protect her from that which he did not think she fully understood. . .honesty told him that she would never care to understand. Life with him was not the life that she deserved, the hope and the light. . .Dorian's offers would be no different and, if anything, they would bring only further darkness into her life. Fury swept through him again and in that moment Marcus knew that he would be paying Morpheus a visit, knowing that the Dreamwalker might well be the only being who shared his views and his hatred for the skinny-necked, meddling vampire.

He had no right...No control whatsoever over the life she chose to lead, and yet, he could stand there in all his anger and glory and threaten those that she chose to keep company with. Her dark green eyes sparked with obvious anger and annoyance as she looked up at him. She did not move from his touch, never able to fear him, not even at his darkest moments...Never.

"Take him the message yourself," she told him, her voice quiet and low as she stared at the man before her, feeling as if the very heart that beat within her chest were being ripped in two. "At least then, he can see face to face, the one who never dared..."

As he stepped away, she knew it was the final straw. Closing her eyes, silver tears streaked down her cheeks and she bowed her head. Taking in a slow. deep breath, Danae looked up once more, reaching out, just enough so that her fingertips brushed against his shoulderblade.

"I forfeit, Marcus...You win. I step aside. I stand down...You'll have it your way..." she said quietly, because something in that moment told her that she would never have him. He would fight for her, die for her, but he would never stand by her side... "But I know that someday....Someday you'll know. Until that day, I will decide how and where and when and with whom I spend my time."

An old and forgotten song, Danae heard the melody playing over and over again in her mind. It seemed to fit, at least for her side of the matter, her heart.

Someday we'll know if love can move a mountain...
Someday we'll know why the sky is blue...
Someday we'll know why I wasn't meant for you...

Someday he'd know...And Danae knew that it would come to pass, and she feared that by then, she would lie beneath a cold, marble marker and it would be far too late.

Someday we'll know why Samson loved Delilah...
One day, I'll go dancing on the moon...
Someday you'll know that I was the one for you..."