Called to Duty

By Donna and Abs

Sleeping was not easy for Detective John Prudhomme. Every time he closed his eyes, he relived the horror of his young son's death. Finally, he couldn't stand it anymore. Slipping out of bed, he dressed in the dark, and then headed out of the house to the police station. It was still several hours before the day shift would show up, but he could always do paper work. Anything was better than lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. 

But when he arrived at the station it looked different.  And sitting behind the desk was a stranger he'd never seen before!  Stranger than that, there were no computers on the desks in the old brick building at all.  What had happened? 

"What the hell?" he asked. "Where am I?" He flashed his badge, asking the man behind the desk the location of the precinct he worked at. It was dark outside, and he was new to Chicago anyways. That, coupled with sleep deprivation, was enough to get him mixed up on his directions, he thought. 

Nick Knight looked at the badge and said, "Welcome to Esperanza.  Apparently you've been transferred without being told."  He smiled and offered his hand in friendly greeting. 

"Transferred? Esperanza?" he asked, confusion on his face. Nick had him sit down, and then poured him a drink of the coffee substitute that they had on Edan, and explained to him what was going on. John sat and listened, his face draining of all color. "Oh God, my wife!" he said, rising from the chair. He had to go find her. But when he opened the door to the station, it was obvious that he was no longer in Chicago, and the truth hit him with all the force of a shotgun blast. He had not only lost his son, but his wife as well. 

Nick was a vampire, but a very soft hearted one. He was standing behind him, ready to put out a hand to give comfort, when suddenly he rolled his eyes.  "Hey, Nick!" said a familiar voice.  At least to him.  "Where in the world are we?" 

"Come on in, Schanke," said Nick; "My hands are full at the moment.  Where did everyone come from at once?  I've been here alone for over a year!" 

"I'll be back in a moment," Prudhomme said, stepping outside into the night air. He wanted to scream, to hit something, but he couldn't. He had to somehow get control over his grief and to carry on. He took a few deep breaths, and then went back inside. "Okay, so we are stuck here. Who is in charge?" 

While he was outside, Nick had been explaining to his partner, Don Schanke, that he would never see his wife and daughter again.  Schanke might be more familiar with Nick, but he was in the same boat as Prudhomme, and not taking it as well!  Nick was hovering over his partner as the Italian/Pole wept! 

"Shit," Prudhomme whispered, guessing the cause. The floodgates of his own emotions threatened to burst, but he savagely thrust them inside of him again. "Anything I can do?" 

Nick shook his head.  "He's the emotional type," he said.  He was about to say something else, when he smiled sadly and waved behind Prudhomme to the open door.  "And as for who is in charge, that was my Captain on Earth.  Captain Joe Stonetree, meet Detective John Prudhomme, from Chicago.  Or is it New Orleans?" 

"New Orleans was home. We..., I moved to Chicago due to personal reasons," the Cajun policeman said, looking behind him at the person that had just walked in and extending his hand to him in greeting.  If Stonetree was Captain in his old station, he didn't see any reason why it wouldn't be that way here too. "You look just as lost as the rest of us, Captain," he said with a shake of his head. 

"I am!"  The Captain was a large man with a distinctly Native American look about him.  "Nick, can you explain this?" 

"Sure, Captain," said the vampire.  "But on top of it all I think I should also tell you something I should have told you all a long time ago.  I won't be able to hide it here." 

"Hide what?" asked Schanke. 

Nick was ready to tell them he was a Vampire when Aaron Grey came in the door for his shift.  Aaron did not exactly blend in with the humans well!  So, when Nick confessed to his blood addiction, he almost seemed to make as much sense as being brought to an entirely new world! 

"Are you saying that this city is filled with *friendly* vampires?" Prudhomme inquired, a rather sour tone to his voice.  "Now why does this not surprise me. Anything else we should know about?" 

"Werewolves?" asked Nick with another cringe. "Faeries?" 

"I think I need a drink," Prudhomme sighed, sitting down heavily into the nearest chair and burying his face in his hands. What kind of nightmare world was this? 

****

 Chandra had been in the forest a long time.  She had once helped out at the way station.  But suddenly, now that the new fae had arrived, she felt a pull to go to Esperanza.  Being the New Moon, she still had a link to the creatures of the night.  Velveta, a new fae who had come as a wolf, was also feeling the call to go there.  And another new fae called Tawny. 

Together, the three made their way through the night, talking quietly with each other as they went, enjoying their time together. Tawny didn't know why she felt the urge to head that direction as well, but she went anyway. 

They were drawn to Jean-Claude, because his animal to call was a wolf, and Velveta could not resist him.  She was very pretty, and curvaceous, when in human form, and Faia had been gone for some time.  So Jean-Claude was more than happy to have her by his side.  Chandra also came, to be with the weres, but she could have gone to either the Fuzzy Penguin or the Cat's Eye; it did not really matter to her.  She just came to the Penguin because Velveta did!  And of course, Tawny came along, too. 

Because they were all fae, the other fae who lived nearby came to say hello, and that included BA Methos' wife Bea, and the pregnant Pearl.  Pearl of course said she was working at the clinic nearby, and was very happy there. 

"Is that a healing place?" Tawny asked softly. "Before I came here, I found a young fawn with an injured leg, and I stayed with it, helping it to be well and strong again. Do you heal animals at this clinic of yours?" 

Pearl shook her head.  "No, only humans.  Most of the animals here have a Vampire who looks after them, but they cannot actually heal the natural animals." A natural animal would be a real wolf, not one that was human part of the time. 

"Maybe that is why I was called here," Tawny told her sisters. "So that the creatures of this place may have a healer as well." 

"Makes sense to me," said Beatrice.  "Though I must admit Methos and I have still not quite figured out what we were meant to do here, other than have baby Moses, of course," she added with a proud smile. 

"Perhaps it is he who is supposed to be here," Tawny suggested with a shrug. "Who knows what is in store in the future."