Bodyswapping Only Looks Fun On TV 2/4: Friday Night's All Right For Fighting (Blood Ties)

[mhalachai]

This stupid story refuses to be two chapters. It's now a four-parter. So there. But hey, all the more fun for us.

Bodyswapping Only Looks Fun On TV (Friday Night's All Right For Fighting) (2/4)
A Blood Ties story
by mhalachaiswords

Summary: Whatever fantasies Vicki had about waking up in Henry's bed, none of them including waking up as Henry...
Disclaimer: None of these characters or shows belong to me. The Blood Ties series started with Tanya Huff and slipped sideways into Lifetime. Read and watch, yo.
Rating: R (to be on the safe side) for swearing, adult content, some sort-of-slash, nakedness. But not all at once.
Spoilers: Up to "The Devil You Know"
Words: 3,315 this part
Note: While this story is primarily Henry/Vicki, there are some other pairings that pop up. And because of the nature of the story, I'm going to leave those as a mystery :)

Part One ~ Part Two ~ Part Three ~ Part Four




After Vicki had realized that Henry wasn't waking up any time soon, she managed to lift him up and lay him out on the couch. And then, because she knew how chilly the office could get these days, she covered him with a blanket and stood back to watch him sleep.

Or rather, watch herself sleep.

This is really weird, Vicki thought as she sat on the edge of the table. It's me, but it's not me. Looking at herself in a mirror certainly wasn't the same as seeing herself through someone else's eyes. Especially the eyes of a vampire.

Even in sleep, her body looked tired.

Vicki shook her head. "Back to work," she said to herself. This case wasn't going to solve itself, and with Henry down for the count, she needed to get working.

All the same, she took a moment to smooth the hair back from Henry's face, and if her fingers lingered a little too long on his cheek, there was no one there to see it.

~~~

Henry's little nap lasted three hours.

As she closed the last of the case files at the desk, Vicki's ears picked up the slight change in Henry's breathing. She picked up her note pad and headed over to the couch.

When she sat on the edge of the cushions, Henry opened his eyes, then blinked a few times before closing them again.

"Hey," Vicki said softly. "Time to wake up and face the night."

Henry curled around Vicki's body, still not opening his eyes. "I feel strange."

Vicki squashed her growing amusement. I never would have taken Henry Fitzroy for a cuddler. "Your body is doped up on painkillers and the first sex it's had in over a year. You're probably flying a little high."

Henry opened his eyes, still weighed down with sleep. "Painkillers are nice," he murmured sleepily.

Vicki touched her fingers against Henry's forehead. He still felt fever-hot. "Are you feeling any better?"

Henry nodded. "The headache is gone and I no longer feel ill." Vicki could almost see him fighting his way to full consciousness. After a moment, he gave her a sheepish smile. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"For everything." Henry untangled himself from the blanket and sat up. If he noticed that he had been cuddled around Vicki, he took no notice, and Vicki held back comment.

"You're welcome." Vicki held out her note pad. "Time to get back to work. We have a case to solve."

Henry stood. "I will need a minute."

"To what?"

"To, um..."

Taking in Henry's disconcerted expression, Vicki figured it out. "Run to the little private detective's room?" Henry glared at her. "It's down the hall."

Vicki waited until Henry had cleared the door before allowing herself to smile. Poor Henry. His princely ego wasn't holding up very well under the indignities of every-day life. She wasn't sure which was worse to him, being alive or being a woman.

With great effort, she managed to calm herself before Henry returned.

The vampire-turned-human came into the room and made a beeline for the couch. He sat beside Vicki, eying her warily.

"What?"

"How do you feel?"

Vicki raised her eyebrows at him. "Fine."

"Not hungry? Agitated?"

"I told you, I'm fine. I just ate, remember? What's up with you?"

Henry held up his wrist. Two tiny red puncture marks lay upon the middle of Astaroth's mark. "You fed through this!"

"Your point?"

Henry's gaze grew dark. "My point is that you fed through the demon's mark!"

"For crying out loud, Henry, what do you expect to have happened? I've been walking around with those things for months and nothing bad has happened. And if you will recall," Vicki shot back at him, "You fed off me in that elevator without anything bad happening to you!"

"I didn't take your blood through this!" Henry thrust his arm at Vicki.

Clenching her jaw, Vicki deliberately sat back on the couch. "If I start having uncontrollable urges to take over the world, I'll let you know. Can we get back to the case?"

"No, we cannot!" Henry continued. "What if there are repercussions from what you've done? What if we can't get back to our true selves or--"

Vicki had heard enough. "You want to talk repercussions?" she demanded. "You might have mentioned that vampires can addict their entrees before you went waving my arm in your face!"

"I didn't think that you--"

"That is exactly my point! You didn't think!" All the lingering confusion and apprehension over the day, of waking up as Henry and being all alone, pushed its way out as anger towards Henry. "You weren't thinking when you didn't come over to your apartment after sunset, you weren't thinking when you ate too much and you didn't think when you offered up my blood on a silver platter to a 'new' vampire!"

Henry sat frozen, face pale and heart pounding loudly in his chest. Vicki had no idea what to make of his expression.

As quickly as her emotions came, they faded into nothingness. Vicki tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and made herself exhale. "Look, tempers are obviously a little frayed right now. Let's just focus on solving this mess so we can go back to getting angry at each other in our own special ways as ourselves." She picked up her notepad. "I have some ideas of where to start with this. I've gone over the cases we've worked together over the last few weeks."

Henry was still staring at her.

"What?"

He shifted slightly, gaze never wavering. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Have something of this magnitude happen to you, and not panic?"

Vicki shrugged. "A lot of strange shit has been happening to me ever since I met you. You just deal."

Henry was shaking his head. "No, I do not. I have lived through much, but nothing could have prepared me for this." He finally looked away. "I do not understand you."

"Well, if we don't fix this, you'll have the rest of my life to figure it out," Vicki stressed, trying to pull the conversation back on point. "First, you need to tell me what happened to you today. The last thing I remember from before this," she waved her hand to indicate the both of them, "was cutting across the park outside my place to get to the bus. Then blackness, then I was waking up in your place. No flashing lights, no pain, no demons, nothing."

Henry opened his mouth, breathed out without speaking, and tried again. "The first thing I remember was the light." Out of the corner of her eye, Vicki noticed movement, and looked down. She startled at what she saw.

His hands were shaking.

"The light was everywhere, and I did not burn." Henry clenched his hands into fists. "I stood in the light of the sun and I did not die." His eyes were almost glowing through what might have been unshed tears, but then he blinked and the moment was gone. "I... I didn't know what to do."

As much as Vicki didn't want to interrupt Henry's rediscovery of the day, she didn't have time for this. "What happened next? You didn't start having a religious experience in the middle of the park, did you?"

Henry smiled faintly. "If you can call a paradigm shift a 'religious experience', then yes." The smile grew. "But if you are asking if I caused a scene, then the answer is no. I told the nice man who stopped to help me that I had something in my eye."

"What, did you fall or something?"

Henry's smile changed, rueful. "Five hundred years ago, and this was the day I returned to grace."

Vicki rolled her eyes. "Can you stop with the religious metaphors? It'll be the first tip-off to anyone who knows me that I'm different."

"You are not religious?"

"Not hardly." Vicki suddenly couldn't take Henry's curious gaze any longer. "My mom was one of those holiday Christians. You know, show up at church for Christmas and Easter and that's it. I stopped going after my father left."

"How old were you when that happened?"

Vicki folded over an edge of the paper on her lap. "Ten. But it was fine, me and mom, we managed."

A warm hand settled on her knee. "You are a remarkable woman, Victoria." Henry shifted closer to her on the couch. "That is another thing we have in common."

"What are you talking about?"

"Serious father issues."

Vicki couldn't help smiling. "You ever think about how things would have been different, if you hadn't become a vampire?"

"Sometimes." Henry looked down at the marks on his wrists. "A bill was before Parliament to acknowledge me as my father's heir, and I might have become King of England. I would have stayed married to a young woman who was faithful and religious and quiet and the opposite of Christina in every way, and I would have been unhappy for the rest of my life."

None of this was news to Vicki -- since meeting Henry, she'd read every book she could find on Henry VIII's reign and his son's "death". But to hear Henry bring those dusty word to life with the faintest hint of bitterness and regret...

"Then you could have been the one to deal with the Church and Spain," Vicki said to break the tension in the room.

Henry scoffed. "More likely I would have been beheaded after Edward was born. And what fun that would have been. Better for sister Elizabeth to have that on her plate. She was much more like our father than I was."

"Speaking of plates, you want to explain the all-you-can-eat day you've been having?" Vicki nudged Henry's arm. "I mean, don't get me wrong. Food's great, but you of all people should know the dangers of giving into that gluttony impulse."

"I thought you wanted to go over the day," Henry retorted archly.

"Knock yourself out." It was interesting to watch Henry be evasive. Vicki was used to it, but it was fascinating to see the words coming out of her own mouth.

"After I recovered from the... shock, shall we say, of being you, I sat on a park bench for a while and contemplated what to do next. As luck would have it, your phone rang and took the decision away from me."

"That's right, blame the inanimate object." Vicki leaned back to get a better look at Henry. "Who was it?"

"Detective Celluci."

Vicki blinked. "What did you do?"

"I answered the phone."

"And?"

"And he wanted your assistance on the case and asked if he could take me to lunch."

A sharp pain was developing behind Vicki's left eye. "And you said no and started to work right away on why you were in my body."

"That would have been the smart thing to do."

The pain started pounding along with a non-existent heart-beat. "You went to lunch with Mike? You hate Mike!"

"I was trying to be you! It is absolutely vital that no one find out what has happened to us!"

"Were you mean to Mike?" Vicki demanded. Henry looked away. "Oh god. What did you do?"

Henry squirmed. "I met Mike for lunch and he was... he was nice to me. So I was nice back."

"He wasn't nice to you, he was nice to me," Vicki argued. She felt as if she should go look out the window to see if pigs were taking flight in the Toronto skies.

"And I was trying to be you, so there you go."

Henry was staring at his hands so intently that Vicki started to worry. "What happened? He ask you a personal question you couldn't answer? He get suspicious? Ask if you were possessed or something?"

Henry lifted his hand to stare more intently at his left thumbnail. "We had lunch and he gave me a ride to your office and..."

"And?" Vicki was starting to have a bad feeling about whatever Henry wasn't saying.

"And... we said goodbye."

That wasn't so bad.

"And he kissed me."

Vicki's heart dropped. "What?"

"What was I supposed to do? I was pretending to be you!"

The guilty expression on Henry's face told Vicki the rest of the story. "You kissed him back?"

"I was pretending--"

Vicki shot to her feet. "You son of a bitch! You let Mike Celluci kiss you and you kissed him back and you are blaming this on me?"

"How am I supposed to know how close you two are these days?" Henry asked defensively. "For all I know, you might have been with him recently."

Vicki stared at Henry, aghast. "Please tell me that you didn't do anything more than kiss him."

Seeing the horror on Henry's face was almost worth the last half hour. Almost. "What do you take me for?" Henry demanded.

"Oh, I don't know, you just told me you were making out with my cop ex-boyfriend after he took you out for lunch! What am I supposed to think?"

"So you are together with Mike!"

"I am not!" Everything was spiraling out of control. Mike had kissed Henry. Henry had kissed Mike. Vicki was a male vampire who had just fed on her own blood. If only flying pigs were the worst of my worries. Vicki put her hands on her hips and tried to calm down. "I haven't been with Mike, and I certainly haven't been with Mike, since I quit the force. And the way things were going, I thought things between us were over. We're just friends."

Henry shot Vicki an unbelieving glance. "You might want to tell that to Mike. That wasn't a 'just friends' kiss he gave me."

"Which makes me wonder exactly how nice you were to him," Vicki snapped.

"Do not blame this on me!"

Calm. Think calm. Do not think about Mike and Henry making out. Perversely, the idea wasn't as abhorrent as Vicki would have hoped. The visual Vicki conjured up was actually rather hot.

This is so incredibly fucked up.

"After Mike kissed you--"

"Please stop saying that!"

Vicki clenched her jaw. "After you and my ex-boyfriend had a hot makeout session in his squad car? Is that better?"

Henry buried his head in his hands.

"After 'the incident', you came up to the office and did what?"

Henry's voice was muffled. "Coreen was here and she told me about the work on a wrapped-up case and I tried to look through your files, but it was hard to read anything. I called you a few times but the sun hadn't set yet."

That would explain the four new messages on Henry's phone. "I haven't got your pass code," Vicki said, pulling Henry's phone out of her pocket. "Here."

Henry uncurled and took the phone from Vicki, not looking at her. "Thanks."

"And then Mike came over with Chinese, bolstered by the growing rapport between you two, and you ate and had a grand time until I came in. That sum up the rest of the evening?"

"Yes," Henry said grudgingly. "He wasn't as annoying as he usually is."

"Well, he actually likes me." Vicki sat down again on the couch. She was beginning to feel like a jack-in-the-box, with all the moving around she was doing. She didn't remember Henry being this twitchy, but decided against mentioning it to avoid another 'you're a vampire now' lecture. "You, he doesn't like."

"Lucky me."

Vicki picked up the note pad. "Okay, faux homoerotic makeout sessions aside, sounds like your day was a bust." She was starting to enjoy how Henry winced whenever she brought up the kiss. "Let's try and figure out what might have done this to us and go kill it, how does that sound?"

"Just fine."

Vicki pointed at the top of the pad. "Yesterday we were working that carpet warehouse case. Did you sense anything out of the ordinary about that one?"

~~~

"I changed my mind."

Henry pulled Vicki towards the bed in Henry's bedroom. "It doesn't matter. The sun will come up and you will die for the day and nothing can stop that. Wouldn't it be better to spend the day on a nice bed rather than crumpled on the hard floor?"

Growing apprehension and an awareness was distracting Vicki.

Something was coming.

It was like knowing something was standing just behind her with a knife and she wouldn't be able to turn around fast enough.

"Come on," Henry coaxed. He pushed Vicki onto the bed. "You'll be safe here until the sun sets."

"Are you sure?" Vicki twisted around, looking around the room. There's something coming. "Maybe you're wrong, what if something did this to get to you during the day?"

"They wouldn't have needed to swap our bodies if they wished to attack me during the day," Henry reminded her. "It is only the approaching sun."

"Only?" Vicki echoed. Her head was vibrating and fear was like a knife on her tongue. "It's like this all the time?"

Henry gently guided Vicki to lie down, fully clothed. "Every day," he said quietly as he lay down next to her. He rested his head on her shoulder, his warmth and steady pulse something for her to concentrate on, to keep the panic at bay. "The sun cannot hurt you in here."

Breathe. "You'll keep working on a way to fix this?" Vicki asked.

"I will."

Vicki was about to ask Henry to promise to avoid Mike that day, but then the sun rose and took her life away.

~~~

The violent return of life to Vicki's body even worse the second day. The disorientation lasted a full minute before Vicki could manage to get her bearings.

A quick glance at her hands showed that nothing had changed overnight. Still Henry. Fucking great.

The apartment was silent. Vicki looked around. The bed looked more rumpled than it had the previous night.

At least Henry got some sleep.

A note lay on the bedside table with her name on the outside. Rubbing her eyes, Vicki picked the paper up and turned it over.

Vicki,

I have gone to your office. Meet me there.

You should not need to eat. If you are hungry, come to your office and we will deal with the issue.

Henry

PS: Did I hear you correctly last night when you said you hadn't been with a man in over a year?

"Bastard," Vicki muttered as she dropped the note.

It was all well and good that Henry was demanding her presence (and answers), but she'd gone a full day without a shower and she felt gross. There was still the issue of being naked while being Henry, but she'd deal with it. I'll just leave the lights off and not look. Yeah, that'll work.

The bathroom was warm and damp and smelled of floral soap. A surge of panic swept through Vicki, that someone had been in the apartment, but reason soon returned. Henry had slept over, he probably had just had a shower before he left for the day.

Vicki didn't want to know exactly what Henry had done with her body in the shower, all naked and wet and soapy--

"Oh my god, stop it!" Vicki told her reflection. Henry's face stared back, dark eyes crystal-clear in the mirror. Vicki closed her eyes. She wasn't going to be addicted to Henry's vampire powers. She wasn't going to think about what Henry had done with her body while he was naked in the shower. She wasn't going to think about Mike and Henry making out. She wasn't going to think about all the naughty things she could get up to with Henry's body.

Just to be on the safe side, the shower she took was a cold one.

Very cold.

Next Chapter

Comments

[td4bz2.livejournal.com]

Of course Henry would remember the the one little comment that Vicki hadn't been with a man in over a year....LOL

Mike and Henry/Vicki making out....hysterical....

I agree with Vicki I can just imagine Henry/Vicki taking a shower and having a good time with the soap....

And I certainly don't blame Vicki/Henry for taking a 'Very Cold' shower......although I just may enjoy that shower more then Vicki did....evil laugh here....

Loved it, can not wait for an update.....and thank you for the wonderful Thanksgiving gift....T

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Frankly, Vicki's lucky Henry didn't pick up on it before. In his defense, he had been dealing with something he hadn't in almost five hundred years - sleep.

What would be interesting would be to see who has the dirtier mind - Vicki wondering what Henry's up to, or what Henry's actually up to.

And then there's the whole Mike problem. That poor guy. I know how it all ends, but it's still funny to think about.

More soon, and I'm glad you enjoyed :)

[m-tigerc.livejournal.com]

hahahah Henry had an interesting day. ^^ Sounds like lots of fun. haha I mean a day with Mike. For a minute I actually thought Henry slept with Mike. haha But he didn't. haha Then I loved the whole "After Mike kissed you..." Then Henry is like please stop saying that. haha then she kicks it up a notch and goes "After you and my ex-boyfriend had a hot makeout session in his squad car? Is that better?" hahah I loved it. It was hilarious. That was great and I can't wait for more. ^^

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Henry's life certainly has become interesting since he met Vicki :P Henry of the books was rather bi, but still he and Mike never got along, and the idea that Henry kissed Mike (esp. in Mike's ignorance) is full of wacky hilarity.

More soon :)

[m-tigerc.livejournal.com]

haha Yeah I remember the books. ^^ I have been rereading them off and on for the last few days....I really need to go to the library. Yeah, at the end of one of the books, I am pretty sure I was the 4th one, Henry pretty much tells Mike that he would have loved Mike as a lover if not for Vicki.

haha and it is hilarious because if Mike knew. He would probably flip out. Which would be hilarious. Since Mike is extremely straight.

[sabriel-0405.livejournal.com]

So good. This is so good. My fingers are itching to watch and read and read and watch. Thanks!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're enjoying :) I had to get this section out, it's just a fun story to write. Hopefully we'll see more BT soon :)

[askani.livejournal.com]

I love it, keep it coming! ♥

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks! More soon :)

[nessa5.livejournal.com]

this is fun.
but they are no closer to solveing the problem

More soon I hope
thank you

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're enjoying it :) Yes, there will be more soon.

[nyteknight.livejournal.com]

o.O That was good. My sides hurt from laughing so hard (and too much turkey). Keep it coming =)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it :) I'm not usually one for comedy, but this whole situation is too hilarious. At least in this chapter. Things will get a little more "interesting" next time :)

[serpentine-moon.livejournal.com]

First off, Happy Turkey Day!!! Second...she has Henry's body all alone in the shower and she won't take advantage of that? Raise your hand if you would've just gone for it *five million hands shoot up*. And the mike/Henry-Vicki kiss and the "what was Henry-Vicki doing in the shower while I was sleeping" thing was cute. Can't wait for more!

[oportunemoments.livejournal.com]

::raises hand yet still attempts to look innocent::

[randomlaughter.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, this story is brilliant.

<3

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm having total fun writing it too. I'm not sure how I'll deal with the most recent BT ep tho... I suspect I'll ignore it for now :)

[kira-snugz.livejournal.com]

this is made of win. of win.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it :) I'm having fun writing this one. Blood Ties is itself made of win.

[elle-blessing.livejournal.com]

Hee! I loved this! You do Vicki's voice well.. and Henry... he was full of the cute this chapter :D

Thanks for sharing!

[oportunemoments.livejournal.com]

Two of Four now? I don't know whether to be upset because of more waiting, or happy because of more reading. :P

Ah well... I love this story ^_^ The bickering about The Kiss was way beyond cute. And I can just hear the gears in Henry's mind working out ways in which to fix Vicki's little problem of not being with someone in over a year.... And it's wonderful ^_^

Can't wait for more!

Oh, and Happy beleated Ritual Sacrifice with Pie day!

[amelora.livejournal.com]

I don't like reading fan fic with out knowing something about the book/show/movie it is based on.However I love reading your stories so much that started reading the books. And where was I when I started reading the first book? The north bound platform of eglinton west station. There is nothing quite like reading about a murder happening less then 10 ft away from you. Now to finish the book, so I can starting reading your story :)

[chegs74.livejournal.com]

Hystercal!! I love very single word of it. I love Vicki being embarassed of making a shower in Henry's body!! You are really great!!!

[oriundus.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful. I love your characterization, and the awkwardness of Henry telling Vicki about his day, and I absolutely adore that Vicki thinks Henry and Mike kissing is hot! A nice touch, too, that Vicki-as-Henry can feel the sun coming up, and that Henry deals with that every day. I loved Vicki's innate fear and the impeding panic as the sun is rising.

And I really, really want to see what Henry's doing with Vicki's body!

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

Speaking of addiction, you are an evil, evil creature and now I remember why I don't read WIPs! :-D

Speaking of evil, that PS... :: thwacks Henry ::

:: waits impatiently for next chapter ::

[vivichick.livejournal.com]

Great! Now I have to tey to concentrate the reat of the dy with a visual of a wet, naked Henry.
I'm still loving it! Keep it coming! :)

[ghost5576.livejournal.com]

I love this! I, like another poster, am not normally particularly fond of body-swap stories, but wow are you pulling it off! Great characterizations and you've got the mythology of the show down so well that when you add things (like the sense of the rising sun), it all fits and makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for sharing!

[sexynikki12.livejournal.com]

LMAO I LOVE IT. THIS IS A FANTASTIC STORY. CAN"T WAIT FOR MORE.

[lyndalynn.livejournal.com]

Just surfing around and I came across your FANTASTIC fic. Mind if I friend you so I can come back for more?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked the fic! Of course you can friend me, I am a very friendly person. Welcome to the blog :)

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

This is just brilliant! I cannot wait for the rest of the story!!!!!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you are enjoying the story :) More soon.

I love your icon. So very true.

[chococrack21.livejournal.com]

I don't know why I started to read this. Boredom, maybe?
You have no idea how bad I thought this was going to be. Bodyswapping has never come out well.

Until now.

Holy crap. I can't believe I love this. <333
It's so funny and so perfect.
I can't wait for more!!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you took a chance on my story :) I too have seen those really horrible bodyswap stories... it's hard to write the characters as each other without the sappy freaky friday stuff. I hope my story manages to miss that dreck :P

More this week :)

[dragonfly]

Hee! This is so wonderful! Thanks loads for writing BT for us!

But to hear Henry bring those dusty word to life with the faintest hint of bitterness and regret...

Sheer genius. I loved this.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you are liking it :) There's something about a new fandom that is very entertaining. And exciting :) This is a fun story to write. Body-swaps can be like that.

[rosxdafemme.livejournal.com]

poke poke. I like this story. but, ummmm, where's the rest? It's coming soon, right?

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's coming soon. I haven't had any time to write this week (work = death) but I have a date with my laptop and a comfy chair tomorrow.... All hail weekends!

[odintsova-27.livejournal.com]

Okay the Mike and Henry make-out? HOT!!!!!!! Nice visual there, even if he's in Vicki's body. This story his hilarious, I can't wait to read the rest of it!