Title: Destination: Home

Author: AlyenaTheBandit a.k.a. Bandit

Feedback: Yes, please! All reviewers get a cookie!

Rating: Anywhere between PG-13 and R for now. Warnings if it gets any harsher.

Spoilers: Everything up through Grave. Starts off as alternate Season 7.

Disclaimer: I own a Alyena, a computer, and a stale cup fo coffee. Hurrah to the starving artist.

Summary: This is what could have been if some events didn't happen, some did, and some people had relatives we didn't know about. Main characters are W/T and an OC named Alyena. The story is written episode per episode and focuses mainly on Alyena. Bear with me kids, it's gonna get confusing.

Tagline: What would you do if you had no one? Cry? Fight? Lose your mind? Alyena Danford is finding out. Sunnydale isn't the best place to be alone, but where else is? At least at the Hellmouth you know what you're in for...

Episode One: Bye, Bye Boston

Darkness. It was so dark and quiet.

She heard the motors running outside and her insides froze and hardened. Suddenly, the window was breaking and they were everywhere, destroying what was left of her life. She plunged her stake into heart after heart but they never stopped coming, never left.

The fire; she didn't remember starting it but it was everywhere, engulfing her. There was smoke and burning and vampires and she couldn't find Diego anywhere. She rushed towards the kitchen and Him: He was biting Diego.

She screamed something unintelligible and pressed her cross to His face, catching Diego as he was released. She kept her cross up as best as she could but the smog burned her eyes and her lungs and Diego was just so heavy. She went down and He was coming for her and her world went black…

When Alyena woke up, she could smell pancakes downstairs. She got up off of the bed and all the way down the stairs without opening her eyes, a skill that took her mere days to develop.

Opening her eyes, Alyena saw Tara pouring batter into a pan on the stove while Willow poured four glasses of orange juice. She grunted, "Coffee," and headed for the brewing pot.

Once she had successfully downed two cups and was onto her third, she sat down at the island smiling contentedly.

Tara never looked up from her cooking, her face contorted in an adorable frown as she scraped burnt pancake remains out of her skillet.

She gave Willow a suspicious look followed by what was obviously a smirk and Alyena laughed into her orange juice, covering with a vicious coughing fit.

Tara smiled conspiratorially at Alyena and questioned, "Funny shapes or rounds?"

Alyena mumbled through the piece of toast she had shoved in her mouth to quell her laughing, "Mm...Igh dun curr..'ow bout..." She swallowed finishing, "Rounds?"

Willow, completely oblivous to the goings on, teased, "Why don't you try swallowing your food before you talk? It tends to make conversation less caveman and more, educated twenty-first century teenager."

Alyena replied indignantly, "I am perfectly capable of carrying on a caveman free conversation! I just choose not to because that gives people ideas and ideas lead to work and work leads down the dark road of badness."

Willow pointed out, "You have a job though! A job that entails work spawned from the ideas of a Capitalist ex-vengeance demon which, honestly if you think about it is a scary idea in and of itself. I mean, looking at the facts, the history we've learned about Anya--vengeance demons in general--I'm sensing a pattern here. We could research until we're blue in the face--and we still wouldn't have enough answers to prove that she's after anything other than personal monetary gain--but there are some extreme risks to working in the facility of..."

Just as Willow-babble was taking a sharp left and veering off the ramp into out of control, Tara turned off the burner on the stove and moved over to Willow.

Cupping the redhead's face in her hands, she forcefully kissed her, causing Willow to lose all focus and the ramble to end. It wasn't just your average morning kiss either; tongues dueled, teeth scraped, Willow was bent slightly over the sink as hands went to places Alyena would rather not think about.

Alyena ducked down, staring into her coffee mug as if it were the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. She noticed she had chipped a little bit off of the handle washing it the night before and dug her bitten fingernail into it, scraping off little sharp edges.

After an excruciatingly long moment, the two pulled away, out of breath and heavy lidded and Tara returned to the stove, leaving a baffled and slightly disheveled redhead staring blankly forward.

An uncomfortable silence filled the kitchen as Willow stared lustily at Tara, Tara focused on her pancakes with a trademark half grin on her face and Alyena tried to look anywhere except directly at the two witches.

After a beat Alyena tried to spark up a conversation asking, "So where's Dawn? I figured she'd already be up by now, what with the whole 'I actually like school' mantra."

Willow pulled herself out of her reverie explaining, "Dawnie doesn't have school today, so she decided to celebrate by sleeping in. I tried to convince her to come to the computer store with me and she said no! I think she might be possessed."

Tara smirked again, reminding, "Wil she's not possessed, she's a teenager. I know it seems strange to you that anyone wouldn't be willing to wake up early on a Friday and hang out with you at a computer store, but it does actually happen Sweetie."

Willow sat down next to Alyena pouting, "It's not fair though! I thought I would get this fun bonding time with Dawnie and she thinks sleep is cooler than me! I really am insane!"

Alyena smirked, stabbing several pancakes onto her plate as Willow and Tara once again had the 'No, you're not insane' debate.

She poured some more coffee and settled in just as Tara sat down and fought back, "Honey, we've already had this discussion! You're not insane, you're just a little...quirky. You do the most adorable things that other people might find crazy or nerdy but we both know that they are just part of Willow."

Willow speared a pancake onto her plate before deflating, "Fine. I'm just Willow and I'm not insane. I still don't have anyone to go to the computer store with though."

Alyena looked up suggesting, "Why don't you ask your bestest bud Xander to go? He probably doesn't have anything better to do."

Tara glared at Alyena who quickly covered, "I-I mean he would probably appreciate going more than Dawn! What could be more fun than hanging with your best friend around all that technology?"

Tara nodded slightly at Alyena who visibly relaxed, exhaling slightly. They both waited with bated breath as Willow pondered this new development.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about ten seconds, Willow brightened up and cracked a huge grin.

Both Tara and Alyena internally gave sigh of relief as Willow agreed, "I bet Xander would love to come! We could hang out just like old times! I look at the latest updates for my laptop, he plays video games on the demonstration Playstation...and then maybe we could go to the Espresso Pump and get mochas!"

Alyena let Willow continue her babble of fun times with Xander, standing up and placing her dishes in the sink. She headed off towards the stairs exclaiming over her shoulder, "Gotta get to work before Anya beheads me! Catch ya later!"

Alyena looked up from her stock list at the sound of the bell that signaled the entrance of someone. She headed down from the loft, sweeping her long dark locks into a quick ponytail as she went. Tucking her pencil behind her ear, she greeted, "What can I do ya for?"

A sandy haired boy of about seventeen scanned the store before turning to face her and responded, "I'm just looking for a couple things my mother ordered. Do you think you could find them for me?"

Alyena looked into his eyes, almost dozing off in the sea of blue before shaking herself unnoticeably and speaking, "Do you have a list? I can probably just go look it all up."

The boy began searching through his pockets as he noted, "Yeah, she gave me a list if I can just find it. She said you might not carry one of the books, but that she'd never tried this place before and heard you were good."

He handed Alyena a piece of paper, folded in half and she commented, "We do have a better selection than anywhere else in town. We've got more hardcore stuff than some of the other shops because everyone seems to be getting into trinkets these days. Little mementos and love spells sell better than gizzard in most cases."

He laughed at her truthfulness and replied, "I think you'll be very helpful then. I'm Gavin Merimer by the way."

Alyena replied, "I'm Aly; Alyena that is. Alyena Danford." As she turned to go find his things he smiled curiously to himself whispering, "Alyena."

She returned a moment later with a jar of rat's eyes and a small satchel of sage informing, "I think I can find everything on your list, but raven feathers can be a little pricey because we've been low on them lately. Someone hasn't been catching enough ravens."

She smirked at her own joke, walking over to the counter and placing the supplies she had retrieved there. She called to him from the back of the store, "Is your mother trying anything in particular? You seem to be getting some strange supplies for just one spell."

Gavin nearly shouted back, "She's mostly just restocking. She has a trip coming up and she wants to have everything she'll need taken care of."

Alyena reappeared holding a couple raven feathers and a box containing various kinds of incense asking, "If you don't mind my asking, where is she going?"

Gavin took the supplies from Alyena so she could head up to the loft responding, "She's going up to England to meet a coven. She wants to work on magical control and calming techniques."

Alyena sifted through piles of books saying, "Oh yeah? My guardian went up to a coven in England for the same thing. If we're talking about the same coven, they're fantastic. I know your mom will have a wonderful time."

She came down the stairs with three books and tripped, nearly falling, but managing to land on her feet and catch all three books in one hand.

Gavin reached for her, taking the books under his arm exclaiming, "Wow! That was amazing! Are you part tiger or something?"

They both let out a short laugh and Alyena brushed her hair out of her face and smirked, "I am often referred to as the jaguar of the stock room."

Gavin placed the books on the counter remarking, "Hey, you found all three!"

Alyena exhaled, "Yeah, I think I can get everything on that list. Anything else you need while I go get the last few things?" before heading to the back of the store.

Gavin squirmed a bit and mumbled quietly, "Hemlock, black poplar, yew."

Alyena returned with a bit of jasmine, lavender, and mugwort asking, "Excuse me? I couldn't hear you."

She put the remainder of the supplies on the counter and waited patiently as he shifted in place for a moment before repeating, "I need hemlock, black poplar, and yew."

Alyena gave him a mildly suspicious look and looked in the back of the store for a moment before returning with all three in hand. She placed the black poplar and yew on the counter with the other supplies asking, "What do you need hemlock for?"

Gavin stuffed his hands in his pockets replying rather reluctantly, "I want to poison my best friend as a test. He hasn't been the same lately and I think he might be….well that's not really important. You wouldn't believe me anyway."

Alyena locked eyes with him stating evenly, "Try me. There's not much that surprises me these days."

Gavin looked up at the ceiling stating quickly, "I think he might be a vampire."

Alyena exhaled a sigh of relief saying, "Well, you're doing it wrong. There is a much easier test to see if he's a vampire. If you want a more subtle approach, take some holy water and pour it in a glass. It looks just like regular water so he won't be suspicious. All you have to do is spill it on him and see if it burns him."

Gavin seemed relieved as well and asked, "Do you know where I could find any holy water?"

Alyena replaced the hemlock in the storeroom and reached for a bottle of holy water on a high shelf. She tossed it to him saying, "This should do the trick. You might want to keep it hidden though; there are a lot of people in this place that will not want you to have that."

Gavin caught the bottle replying, "Thanks. How do you know so much about vampires anyway?"

Alyena smiled, "I could ask you the same question; only you don't seem to know much at all."

Gavin shuffled his feet, laughing at the response. He commented, "You're one strange girl, Aly!"

Alyena acted offended saying, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Gavin said in a soft voice, "I think you're probably the most commanding girl I've ever met, but you have a good sense of humor to counter it. You're very pretty, but you act and dress like you don't think you are. Also, you have the best laugh I've ever heard."

Alyena seemed taken aback by this and remained silent for a moment before looking up at the clock and remarking, "I should get you checked out so you can get home before sundown."

Gavin seemed puzzled by this stating, "I don't need to be home by sundown! I can stay as long as I want actually."

Alyena began ringing up his supplies enforcing, "You do need to be home by sundown. Do you live here or not?"

He seemed even more frazzled by this response and she finally caved, "Oh, fine. How about I ring you up, then you help me close up the store before Anya can murder me. After that, I'll take you for coffee at the Espresso Pump as penance and walk you home so you're safe. I can get home after that just in time for Willow to yell at me for not doing my laundry this morning, and maybe squeeze in a responsive argument. Sound fair?"

Gavin smiled, "Sounds a lot better than what I had in mind."

Alyena smiled to herself as she bagged his items and set them on the counter. She told him the total and he pulled out a few folded bills from his wallet saying, "You really are very strange."

Alyena snatched the bills out of his hand and replied with a smirk, "Just for that, I'm making you carry three boxes of perhaps the smelliest product on the face of the earth, rather than just two!" Gavin smiled and they walked off to get things from the storeroom.

Gavin and Alyena were sipping coffee when Gavin asked, "You said something about a guardian earlier. What did you mean?"

Alyena looked up from her coffee and replied, "You mean Willow? Well, I live with my guardians Willow and Tara. They're sort of like my adoptive big sisters. Well, I didn't adopt them, they adopted me. So, legally they're called my guardians." Alyena paused snickering, "Willow really fits the title well with the way she nags me and protects me."

Gavin smiled, "If you're adopted, may I ask where your real family is?"

Alyena clutched her mug a little too tightly and it shattered in her hand, spraying coffee and ceramic across the table.

Gavin saw her response and backpedaled, "I'm sorry for asking. That's obviously a sore subject so you can just ignore it. Here let me help you with that." He began sweeping bits of ceramic into a pile and sopping up coffee with his napkin.

Alyena shook her head, cleaning up some of the mess while replying, "It's okay. You weren't trying to hurt me. I'll explain. I was born and raised in Boston, but my family moved here last year. About four months ago, they were murdered. My dad, my mom, my little brother; all of them. I got out with my life for who knows why and Willow and Tara took me in. They've been with me ever since and they adopted me about two months back so the state wouldn't take me away."

Gavin nodded somberly, "I'm so sorry about your family. I'm glad you have a new one though. I wouldn't want you to be in a foster home."

Alyena collected the debris saying, "I wouldn't want to be in one either."

Alyena looked up, changing the subject and asked, "What about you? Do you live with your whole family?"

Gavin sighed, "I live with my mom. My older sister is off at college in Europe somewhere and my dad lives in New York. My parents got divorced a few years back and I don't see him much anymore. That's alright though, just my mom and me. We're really close."

Alyena nodded, "I'm glad that you're so close! Are you just going to stay home when your mom goes on her trip or are you going somewhere?"

Gavin shrugged, "I guess I hadn't really thought about it. I would stay at my best friend Brandon's house, but you know I think he might be a vampire. It might not go over so well."

Alyena nodded, sipping some of Gavin's proffered coffee and pointed out, "We should get you home before it gets too late. Where do you live?"

Gavin stood up, responding, "I live over by the new high school. Is that too far from where you live?"

Alyena shook her head saying, "I don't live too far from there. I can get back before curfew if I run."

Gavin and Alyena began walking towards his house and he commented, "You're a runner? Athletic girl…hmm."

Alyena smiled, "Something like that. I like to get exercise, so sometimes I run in the mornings or late at night if I can't sleep."

Gavin asked, "Where do you go to school? I don't think I've ever seen you at Sunnydale High before."

Alyena replied, "I don't go to school actually. I graduated early because I took some extra classes so, no senior year for me. I might enroll in UC Sunnydale for the fall though."

Gavin put one hand in his pocket and exclaimed, "Wow. I feel a little intimidated now! I'm just your B+ average senior over here."

Alyena laughed, "Don't be. I'm not some smarty-pants genius, believe me. I just had a lot on my plate, so I re-worked my classes so I could get it all done. I happened to graduate early which just kind of added to the mix."

She exclaimed, "You want to meet a real genius? You should see Willow, or my best friend from Boston, Savvie! Willow graduated Valedictorian of her class with a full scholarship to every college in the world while Savvie is the first sixteen year old to ever be accepted to Harvard."

Gavin whistled, "Whoa…now I feel less intimidated by you, but more illiterate all around!"

Alyena smiled, bumping into him with her shoulder and stuck her hands in the back pockets of her jeans commenting, "It's a beautiful night, don't you think? I love fall. It reminds me of the times I used to go to the country in Massachusetts. It's beautiful there."

Gavin responded, "I bet so! I love California, but I think it'd be amazing to live in the northeast just for the falls and winters."

Alyena looked up at the stars sighing lightly in response. Gavin spoke, "Alyena, I want to ask you something."

Alyena looked at him responding, "Sure, what's on your mind?"

Gavin was about to speak when Alyena exclaimed, "Hold that thought!" and threw him out of the way.

A vampire ran towards her, tackling her to the ground on the sidewalk as Gavin looked on, stunned. Alyena kicked the vampire off, flipping herself upwards and gave him a nice punch to the face. He returned the sentiment with a powerful left hook that bruised her jaw considerably.

She threw her head down, her hand flying to her face and cursed, "Where's a damn Slayer when you need one?"

The vamp tried to punch her again, but she caught the punch and twisted his arm behind his back, using it force him to his knees. He flipped upwards, almost kicking her in the face but landed behind her instead. She used her head to butt him from behind and grabbed his arm, flipping him over her shoulder. He reached out and clawed her face, leaving a nice cut through her left eyebrow and fell flat on his back on the ground.

Alyena saw Gavin trying to get up to help her in her peripheral vision and grunted, "Gavin, don't! I got this."

She wrestled the vampire to the ground, pulling a stake from her jacket and slamming it into his chest with both hands. She sank to the ground on top of the dusted vamp and blew her hair out of her face.

Gavin rushed over and helped her up shouting, "What just happened? Are you alright?"

He helped her to her feet and she responded as she ran her fingers through her hair, "It's okay. That was just a vampire out for the kill. I'm no Slayer, but I can kick him around a bit. Luckily, he didn't put up too much of a fight or I would've been vamp-meat. I'm not at the top of my game right now, but this is basically my life."

Gavin seemed shocked by this and sputtered, "You fight vampires?"

Alyena shrugged as they started walking again responding, "Not really. Normally, I just leave that up to the Vampire Slayer, but considering she's out of town, I'm helping out a bit lately. However, the supernaturally undead does happen to be one of my specialties."

Gavin shook his head saying, "Wow, you really are some kind of girl."

Alyena looked up at the high school ahead of them and asked, "Where is your house?"

Gavin pointed to a quaint house about a block down and Alyena nodded. Once they arrived at the door, Alyena checked his bag to make sure all his supplies were still there.

She noted, "The incense is a little crushed, but it should be alright. Sorry about everything."

Gavin shook his head saying, "This is the most fun I've had in a long time. I'd really like to see you again. About what I was going to ask you earlier….could I have your phone number? Then maybe I could call you sometime and we could see each other."

Alyena took a pen from her pocket and scribbled the number on the side of the paper bag saying, "Give me a call sometime."

Alyena pulled away speaking, "It's time for me to go home. It's getting late and dark outside."

Gavin nodded moving away before responding lamely, "Yeah, I suppose you should get home before anyone else ambushes you. Are you sure you're okay?"

Alyena replied, "What are a couple bumps and bruises? I'll be alright. Goodnight, Gavin."

Gavin opened his front door as he watched her walk away whispering, "Goodnight, Aly."

Alyena managed to get home without any trouble, and opened the kitchen door of the Summers' home.

She sat down at the island, putting a hand to her bruised jaw in exhaustion. She tested the area to see how bad it was and reached upwards, feeling blood pooling around the cut through her eyebrow.

Willow called to her from the living room, "You're late, again. I know you had to close up, but you had enough time to…" She paused at the sight of Alyena and pressed, "What happened to you? Aly, are you alright?"

Willow rushed over to her and pulled down a med kit from one of the cabinets as Alyena responded, "Don't worry; it's just a few scratches. I got attacked by a vamp on my way home and he reminded me that I'm seriously out of shape, but I managed to send him to Dustville. Nobody got hurt."

Willow was rushing around trying to find something to clean Alyena's wounds with when Tara entered the room.

Upon surveying the scene, she decided to calm Willow down and find out what happened. Tara reached for a dish rag and opened the med kit, pouring some of the alcohol on it before dabbing at Alyena's eyebrow.

She asked calmly, "What did this?"

Alyena replied equally as calmly, "A now very dusty vampire."

Tara nodded and Willow nearly exploded. "That's it? You just let her say that and continue with your evening activities?"

Tara turned to Willow and spoke firmly, "She took care of it, Wil. It's terrible that she even has to, but she's done all she can and it's over. There's nothing we can do about it now except take care of her and put her to bed."

Willow calmed down a little apologizing, "I'm sorry, Tara. I just hate seeing her like this. If Buffy was here this would've never happened! I knew it was a bad idea for her to leave."

Tara soothed, "She'll be back as soon as she can. She hasn't been gone that long and she only has to stay for a year. That's only four more months, Wil. You know she'll come back as soon as Mr. Giles and Wesley will let her."

Willow sank onto a stool next to Tara and said quietly, "She's been gone a long time, Tare. I just want her back."

Tara shushed, "I know, Sweetie. Why don't you go check on Dawn? She's been upstairs for awhile and I suspect she's been talking to James." Tara grinned as Willow seemed almost angry in her mother bear protectiveness before giving Tara a small smile and heading off.

Alyena asked Tara while she disinfected her eyebrow, "What's Willow so worried about? When I lived in Boston we barely ever had a Slayer and we got by alright. As far as I know, Cleveland hasn't imploded yet. Buffy just needs to be in L.A. for a bit, but she'll be back right?"

Tara sighed, "Willow is just worried. Buffy is her best friend and Sunnydale just doesn't seem the same without her here. I think it's also because Buffy ran off a couple years back and the vampire percentage went up considerably. Nobody was sure if she'd ever come back."

Tara pulled out a small butterfly bandage and began placing it over Alyena's eyebrow before continuing, "Willow still gets scared some times. When Buffy died everything was really crazy for awhile. I actually remember that one. A bunch of demons and vampires tried to destroy the town because Buffy was gone."

Alyena nodded after Tara finished applying the bandage and responded, "I mean it's not that bad. The baddies don't know she's gone as far as I can tell and I've been taking out a few here and there. If I was in better shape I might even be able to patrol a little. Dawn and Xand and I could really give 'em a run for their money."

Tara smiled and put a little ice on Alyena's bruise saying, "I think right now you should focus on not getting hurt. You seem to have a problem with that."

Alyena nodded, standing up and heading out, "I'll go up to bed and rest."

She paused a moment adding, "I'm sorry, Tara. Tell Willow I'm sorry too. I just…I had someone with me and if that vampire had gotten him I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I've had enough casualties at the hands of vampires for one lifetime."

Tara understood, replying, "It's okay, Sweetie. I'll talk to Willow. Everything will turn out just fine!"

Alyena gave her a small half grin exhaling, "You're the best, Tare!"

Tara questioned, "If I want to come in later and talk…?"

Alyena finished, "I'll leave my door unlocked!" as she headed for the stairs.

Tara shook her head, smiling to herself as the girl left her eyesight.

The verdict? Good, bad, ugly? Please give me some feedback, I'd love to hear what you have to say! This is my first story so hopefully I'm doing okay.

-Bandit