Just a brief vignette brought about by the rain
outside my window. Standard disclaimer. I don't own
Natalie, Sony does.

Permission given to archive at the FTP and fkfanfic
sites.

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Natalie looked out the window into the gently-falling
rain. The late afternoon light was a pale gray and
matched her mood. Slightly melancholy, a bit blurred,
and suprisingly soft. She looked over her shoulder at
the radio, a soft rock station. She frowned at the
love song playing, then looked back out the window. A
tear leaked out her eye. She and Tom had broken up for
good the previous evening, after drifting apart for
several months. Although they had been almost
inseparable during her residency, once she started at
the coroner's office, her schedule had been too
difficult on their relationship.

Tom was brilliant, a pathologist that she had learned
an immense amount from during her three month rotation
with him. Two days after she had completed her
rotation, he had asked her out to dinner and a show.
Their relationship had been light-hearted and fun. Too
much so, in retrospect. Tom was handsome, carefree and
saw the bright side of everything in life. She had to
admit to herself that his lack of seriousness had
sometimes irritated her. His pranks and practical
jokes had often been overboard, but he always
apologized sweetly. He had never had a moment of
disappointment or despair in his life, and his naive
optimism had exasperated her more and more often. But
for all that, she had smiled a good deal when she was
involved with him, and laughed more in the year they
had been together than any other time of her life
since childhood.

Now she didn't need to worry about it. She had cared
for him, but she knew she hadn't been in love with
him. She wasn't truly devastated, just sad that she
was alone again. Her career was on the fast track, she
was the youngest woman in the city's history to gain
the prestige that she had. She enjoyed working the
night shift, although it could be lonely. Oh well. She
was still young. She would be just twenty-eight in a
month or so; Hhr biological clock wasn't ticking like
a bomb, not just yet.

But she wondered if there was anyone in the world that
would be a match for her. Someone strong and
sensitive, but that had endured enough of life's ups
and downs to appreciate how fragile life truly was.
Someone compassionate and kind, but that she could
respect. Sighing, she turned around to make her
"breakfast" before darkness fell and she returned to
the world of the mysterious dead she now inhabited.

Kristen Fife
http://www.fkvoyage.com/fkfanfic/fife_kristen/
"I have a vampire by my side and I'm not afraid to use him!" -Tanya Huff