"Snowfall" by Dorothy E., 1999
- Short Story (21KB)
- PG
- Present-day setting indeterminate, flashbacks circa 1830s following "Let No Man Tear Asunder"
Summary:
Snowy weather near Christmas reminds Nick of a rescue he once accomplished.
Recommendation:
With Nick confiding a tale of his past to Natalie to the strains of "Silent Night," this chilly flashback and cozy present combine in a seasonal story affirming the hope and determination characteristic of first-season Forever Knight. Dispirited by his failure to save a friend who rejected him, the long-ago Nick of "Snowfall" makes his way toward Janette, who will accept him, only to be diverted into an archetypal triumph of life as he assists a laboring woman — where his actions bring benediction. Nick learns again that he still has more to offer the world, and it to him, in a memory beautifully, vividly, sensually triggered by every aspect of snow.
Characters:
Nick, Natalie, Other
"Windows" by Tara LJC, 1995
- Short Story (19KB)
- G
- Set in second season
Summary:
A call from Captain Cohen delays a Schanke father-daughter fishing trip.
Recommendation:
The title "Windows" fits its story in several ways, perhaps the most telling of which is the cherished, hard-won windows of opportunity for Jenny Schanke to spend time with her night-shift, homicide-cop dad. Briefly bringing Jenny (Schanke's home life) into the precinct (his workplace) dramatizes the character's refrain that her "dad was a cop" — not just a statement of fact, but expressing the man as an indivisible whole. The cumulative effect, as Jenny expands her understanding and repeatedly restates her vision of her dad, is a strong, clean nostalgia — sweet like cherry Coke.
Characters:
Schanke, Jenny, Cohen, Natalie, Nick
"Eternal Rest" by April F., 2003
- Short Story (98KB)
- PG
- Set in first season, between "Spin Doctor" and "Dying for Fame," with flashbacks to 1830s Scotland
Summary:
Nick and Schanke stake out Halloween costume parties to catch a serial killer.
Recommendation:
Minutely attentive to first-season's most beloved components, "Eternal Rest" delightfully integrates police mystery, flashback, nightmare, humor by Schanke, movie with Natalie, advice from Janette, and Nick puttering around his loft in a symbolic manner as he waits for the sun to go down. The theme of Nick getting in his own way may seem slightly mismatched (more second season than first), but the combination proves thoroughly episode-like. One of the challenges of translating the Forever Knight structure to narrative prose is how to execute the visual transitions — between present and flashback, dreaming and waking. This story eschews the standard signals, and intriguingly attempts literal representations of the camera's cuts, wipes and juxtapositions.
Characters:
Nick, Lacroix, Natalie, Schanke, Stonetree, Janette, Others
"A Zucchini By Any Other Name Would Taste as Bland" by Nancy K., 1997
- Short Story (16KB)
- PG (Mild violence)
- Set some September before third season
Summary:
At harvest time, Nick encounters zucchinis everywhere he goes.
Recommendation:
The quiet amusement of "A Zucchini By Any Other Name" provides a pleasantly timely diversion. Cast in his classic first-season position of outside observer, a bemused Nick witnesses the annual migration of unwanted vegetables from backyards to breakrooms. This second installment in Nancy's quirky "Mortal Annoyances" series offers an abbreviated — but fully functional — cop plot, potential cure, and insight into human nature, not to mention one light Natalie/Nick innuendo, and a sly Schanke flourish.
Characters:
Nick, Schanke, Natalie
"Dream Vacation" by Cousin Mary, 2005
- Short Story (31KB)
- PG (Mild violence)
- Diverges before "Fever"
Summary:
On vacation, Tracy goes to Australia and bumps into Screed.
Recommendation:
Truly new scenarios are a precious, endangered resource in a fandom as long out-of-production as Forever Knight, and Mary's cheery "Dream Vacation" convincingly posits an untried situation. While the narration skims lightly, keeping a buoyant, airy feel, the story nevertheless uses the conventions of Tracy's vacation to float the weightier theme of unequal relationships — with her father, partner, and even Vachon. And when the tale introduces romance, it manages to surprise in an area where preconceptions usually rule.
Characters:
Tracy, Screed, Bourbon, Vachon, Urs
"Resolution" by Lizbetann, 1997
- Short Story (34KB)
- G
- Set after "Last Knight"
Summary:
Natalie's estranged sister investigates her disappearance, and worries over her sanity.
Recommendation:
"Last Knight" inevitably leaves us asking why? Why this end? Why this way? "Resolution" puts that question right back into the wreckage of the finale, without disturbing the evidence. Working through two original characters — Joanna, Natalie's sister, and Rene, an Enforcer — who become avatars for the absent canonical characters, the story gingerly explores the dissonance between the resolution offered and the one desired. The cooler, detached-yet-invested perspective of the original characters draws firm lessons, hard to see in the heat of the show's last moments.
Characters:
Others
"From Solitude..." by Amanda B., 2004
- Short Story (25KB)
- G
- Set in a reality that diverged at "The Human Factor"
Summary:
Years after parting, Natalie and Lacroix each separately arrive again in Nick's life.
Recommendation:
With vast respect for the characters, this simplest of plots peeks in on each in turn, finding them subtly matured; years lived apart seem to have granted them, finally, knowledge of what they want, and the ability to ask for it. Two canonical talismans of reconciliation — the "Father's Day" watch and the "Partners of the Month" painting — delicately weight the reunions. "From Solitude..." combines an energizing first-season dignity with the dreamy peace of third-season denial. (Prequel: "Alone.")
Characters:
Natalie, Lacroix, Aristotle, Nick, Others
"Sense and Insensitivity" by Havocthecat, 1999
- Vignette (3KB)
- PG
- Diverges from the final seconds of "Last Knight"
Summary:
Psychological insight overwhelms the characters.
Recommendation:
This tiny vignette punches a drainage hole under "Last Knight" and flushes the melodramatic sludge with breezy parody. Undermining that tragic final decision, the semi-repressed Freudian subtext of the vampire family suddenly roars to the surface in this spoof. The timing is ironic — too late — and the abruptly adept use of psychobabble jargon satirizes not only Nick's notorious emotional inarticulateness and Lacroix's remoteness, but the disproportion of those supposed motivations as the series came tumbling down.
Characters:
Lacroix, Nick, Natalie
"After the End" by Last Scorpion, 2004
- Vignette (4KB)
- PG
- Set about a century after "Last Knight"
Summary:
Janette reflects on Lacroix's periodic mourning.
Recommendation:
Soft but chill, this quiet meditation triangulates on the waste of "Last Knight" by withdrawing to a great distance in time, and then looking back with the eyes of Janette, who was not present for that tragedy, at the habits of Lacroix, who was. "After the End" imparts a sketch of Lacroix unusually rich for its brevity, and one richer yet of Janette, whose analysis of her old master reveals even more about herself. (Companion piece: "An Ancient Roman General on a Plane.")
Characters:
Janette
"A Special Offering" by Jarvinia, 2002
- Short Story (28KB)
- PG-13 (vampire behavior)
- Set in an August following "Night in Question"
Summary:
Natalie accompanies Nick to Lacroix's to deliver a gift.
Recommendation:
Natalie's dogged approach to precise answers encases the hazy, shifting bog of Nick and Lacroix's relationship with surprising smoothness in "A Special Offering." Providing a buffer between the two vampires, Natalie's anomalous presence in Lacroix's territory inhibits their habitual quarrels. Without disregarding the immense differences between the two men, the story uses the classic Natalie characteristic of tenacious puzzle-solving to force a neutral space in which they can temporarily make the different connections each ardently desires, regardless of their struggles.
Characters:
Natalie, Nick, Lacroix
"And Memories, Like Diamonds, Shine" by Susan G., 1994
(This author died in 2010.)
- Short Story (19KB)
- PG
- Set before second season
Summary:
A burglar interrupts Janette's jewelry inventory.
Recommendation:
"And Memories, Like Diamonds, Shine" lightly invokes the metaphor of vampiric greed to frame a two-tiered horror tale of material greed. On one level, the thief's avarice draws him deeper and deeper to his doom. On another, Janette barely resists being possessed by her possessions. The sheer volume of Janette's jewelry attains a kind of psychic vampirism, not only screaming with the massed memories of all the years of her existence — "psychometry" is the word for it — but relentlessly sucking animate energy into its insatiable, inanimate hunger for tribute. Additionally, "And Memories, Like Diamonds, Shine" hints at Janette's past as envisioned before second-season aired to answer those questions.
Characters:
Janette, Other
"Honor the Heart" by Jill K., 1995
- Novella (154KB)
- PG
- Set between the second and third seasons
Summary:
On the rebound from Nick, Natalie meets a charming out-of-towner named Duncan MacLeod.
Recommendation:
"Honor the Heart" celebrates the essential Natpack fantasy. A decisive Natalie severs relations with an indisputably guilty Nick, whose penitence grows as she finds consolation in the arms of another, better, man. But beyond amply gratifying those common peeves, the story achieves a melancholy double-vision, as Natalie gathers herself for a clear-headed, heart-hopeful new beginning, while Nick compulsively echoes "Crazy Love" and foreshadows "Last Knight." (A crossover with Highlander, "Honor the Heart" requires no special HL knowledge. HL fans, however, may enjoy comparing Joe and Natalie's respective mortal conflicts with immortal friends.) Sequel: "The Heart of the Holidays."
Characters:
Natalie, Grace, Nick, Schanke, Janette, Miklos, Lacroix, Others
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Naturally, these fanworks are entirely fictional (there's no such thing as a vampire). Forever Knight was created by Parriot & Cohen and belongs to Sony. Feedback and suggestions are welcome; please let me know what you think. Thank you very much for reading!
