"Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year..."
Summary: In the last days of 1880, betrayal and tragedy have their way with Cicely the Vampire Slayer... A prequel of sorts to "Heliophobia", "Who…?", "Anne…", and other Cicely- and Anne- verse tales.
("But Cicely wasn't...And Halfreck..." Now, now Joss never confirmed that Cicely wasn't or that Haly was. Besides you're in the Cicelyverse AU now...And to read up on how Haly took Cicely's form that night, the plot against William, etc...Go to the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse. )
[Update-A slight retweak of one of my favorite and saddest Cicely tales...To give the newbie but devoted Buffy viewer a quick explanation...Buffy was Cicely Adams in 1880, seeking and failing to save her doomed poet by driving him away using Halfreck.]
Disclaimer: Joss, you left the gap, I exploit it...But the Buffy stuff's all yours and ME's...
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse
Part I...
"Jan-u-ar-y and Feb-ru-ar-y were nev-er so emp-ty and gray
Tragically I feel like crying
"Without you, my darling, I'm dying."
But let's rather put it this way:
Spring will be... a little late this year,
A lit-tle late...ar-riv-ing in my lone-ly world o-ver here
For you have left me, and where is our April of old?
You have left me, and winter continues cold,
As if...to say...Spring will be a lit-tle slow to start,
A little slow...reviving music it made in my heart.
Yes, time heals all things, so I needn't cling to fear,
It's merely...that spring will be a little late this year."
London...Evening, late November 1880...
The grand hall of the Antiquarian Hall of the Royal Society of Antiquarians and Librarians...
Chairman of the Society...Council of Watchers to those present or otherwise in the know...Arthur Rathskeller, a slight but resolute-looking man of sixty, with greying hair, stood at the podium...Awaiting the securing of the hall doors for this most secret of sessions. Eyeing the sea of faces before him...Mostly male, but including some females...But for his strong bearing, he every inch the stereotypic image of a scholar who spent his days lost among tales and legends of the past...Excepting also perhaps the weary yet firm set of the eyes. Eyes which had seen far too much in his varied career...
A career now closing...
Beside him on the platform, his close friend and field Watcher to the current Slayer, Simon Farris. White-haired, but vigorous, in his late fifties. Tall with quick yet always controlled movements. A grim and sober cast to his features...As befitting both the current critical situation and the heavy charge about to be placed upon his shoulders...
"Ladies and gentlemen..." Rathskeller called the group to order, the sounds of various voices about the hall quickly fading out. "I call this session open. And without further ado, wave the reading of the last session's minutes and shall proceed directly to my report..."
"As you know, the situation with our Slayer, Miss Adams...Or, I should say, Mrs. Walthrop." Various expressions at the second name about the room, ranging from vague glimmerings of sympathy through annoyance to pure disgust. Farris, impassively solemn beside the Chairman...
"Has been deteriorating for some time now. She has broken nearly all communication with us and continues to refuse both our assistance in her current 'activities' and our pleas that she resume her duties following on the upcoming birth of her child..."
A handful in the audience, summoned from the far corners of the globe and not currently in the full know of all details, gasped a bit...
Child?
Further...Rathskeller paused. "We have reason to believe, from the reports of the Watcher in field, Dr. Farris, with me here..." A slight nod to his companion... "That she is close to making contact with the vampire demon who has taken the body of her husband…"
"Therefore..." the Chairman's face turned infinitely weary. "This organization is now faced with a crisis in which extreme measures must be considered..."
…
Southern England, late November 1880, same time...
AHHHH...A deep-voiced cry...Followed by full, all-out howl of rage...
The hideous furry creature in foreground, facing the source of the howl, blanching a bit. Ma'am...
"I says I surrender..." it whined, raising all of its arms. Staring down at the terrifying in her anger, if small, dark-haired woman in tawny-colored, open jacket, white starched blouse and long dark red skirt, slit on the sides to allow some ease in movement. Stake in her hand...The essential hat precariously perched and pinned on her piled hair...
"I don't..." she breathed deeply. "...Care..." she paused now, clearly in some distress. The creature politely, if nervously, looking to see if there was any thing it might do... "Are you all right?...Ma'am?" it asked, a note of honest concern...
"Tell me...What do you know about him?"
Hmmn? Genuine puzzlement...
"Spike..." she gasped out the name. "William? Your old, even deader, friends said you knew him..."
"Spike William? Never heard tell of him, Slayer..."
She jerked it back and down by the arm. Its howl fading quickly into a pleading whimper...
"Ohhhh!..."
"I've...No...Time for games..." she pulled it back to its feet. The creature staggering and holding its arm...
"Don't know him, Slayer. Not by name. Tells us his looks. Eygo will tell you true if she's seen him..."
She?...Cicely eyed the seven foot thing. A mass of fur with four arms...But, if one looked in the...Hmmn, yes only two...Hard to tell till it'd brushed the facial fur back to see her better...Rather soulful eyes. Yes, a female...Of sorts...
"Is a pretty one? Yours?..." it asked. A bit coyly now as the pain in its arm dropped a bit...
"This high..." a hand flat at barely an inch above her own head."Brown...Hair...Wait...I've..." Cicely paused, trying to fight for breath...
Picture...she waved a rather tattered old daguerreotype of a solemn-looking, bespectacled young man in stiff-looking suit. A gift from William's poor, now-frantically-anxious-over-brother-Will's-long-absence, sister Amelia...
"Him? Oh, yes..." Eygo beamed, making an attempt to clap with pleasure. OW! She rubbed her arm reproachfully...
"I know...He be a prowlie-growlie...I seen him."
"Vampire?"
"Yes...Pretty one, too. He with the whacko one..." Eygo looked a bit distressed at the thought of the 'whacko' one...
Hmmn?...
"Like you, Slayer...Dark hair..."
Drusilla...
"Drusilla? Was the 'whacko' one, Drusilla? Black-hair, pale..."
"Aye, aye, aye Slayer." an eager nod. "Yes... 'Come on, Dru'…he says. 'Take care, uh girlie?' he says. He like Eygo..." she beamed. "He wave other night going by...Ah!...Yes, I tell my pallys Clem and Foupa 'bout nice, pretty prowlie-growlie. They tell?"
"Where? Where did you see them?" breathing heavily but attempt at threatening presence…
"Prowlie?..." it thought a moment. Cicely now rather noticeably wobbly on her legs...
"You sick? Sit..." Eygo pointed to a bench about ten feet from them. "Eygo think it out...Hard..." It gave a expression of determined thought, hesitantly starting to move to the bench…
"Better for the little one..." it eyed Cicely's protruding belly. "Sit..." it repeated, rather sternly...
"Yes...All right...But tell me..." Cicely rather gratefully staggered over to the bench and sat, breathing hard. Her thin, lined face pale as a 'prowlie-growlie'...
Eygo delicately taking a seat next to her, careful to keep what distance it could on a small bench...
"Prowlies were in the dead park...That way..." it pointed to the left. "Pretty one fight other prowlie. 'Mate, I'm no toff. And that's no way to speak to a lady, especially mine.' he says."
"The graveyard in town? They must be resting there..." Cicely hastily stood up. Barely able to stand...
Eygo eyeing her sympathetically.
Poor Slayer...
"Pretty one yours..." it noted firmly but gently. "Sorry..."
"Yes...Thank you, I must..."
"You no go alone. Not now in prowlie-growlie time..." it worriedly pointed one of several handlike appendages at the moon above. "Prowlies in dead park, lots..."
"I kill prowlies...Miss..." Cicely smiled wanly. "But thank you again..."
"Eygo come...You no go lone..." it rose from the bench.
"No...I'm better...I do best alone. Thank you..."
"Me come..." a firm tone. "I was human once and I lost my husband that way too, miss." Eygo eyed her carefully. "Before I foolishly consorted with the Dark Powers to save him and ended up..."
Eygo...it smiled sadly at Cicely's startled stare...
"Me able talk pretty sometimes. When I thinks hard..." a gentle smile...
…
London...
The Council of Watchers in secret session...Same time...
The Chairman continued...
"Given my failure to contain this situation, I have decided to resign my position." He hurried on without acknowledging the scattered "No!"s and other shouts of support. "And given Dr. Farris' experience with and knowledge of this Slayer...Along with his considerable expertise and ability in all matters pertaining to our work. I feel that he among us is best qualified to assume the Chairmanship and guide us in these very difficult times..."
A few "No!"s somewhat louder among the crowd...Most silent...A few offering lukewarm murmurs of support...
"Dr. Farris will now give his report and then I will throw the session open to those who wish to nominate and second other candidates...However..." Rathskeller eyed the crowd sternly.
"I remind the Council that this is not a time for petty politics or ambition. Dr. Farris..." he waved the Watcher forward…
Farris eyeing the crowd...Not exactly a friendly house...Some ambitious for power themselves, some others well acquainted with him not entirely confident of his own motives and ambitions. The majority not exactly convinced this rather unassuming and colorless to date Watcher had quite the stuff for leadership under any circumstances. And tending to hold him at least as responsible as the well-liked, gentle Rathskeller for the current calamity...
But the road to power is never easy...And he'd done the difficult work. Now it was merely time to show these fools the steel in the velvet casing...
And then to the minor business of the last act...Providing the heroine with a quick exit from the stage...
A minor bit of messy business already well in hand...And keeping that mess as neat and quietly forgotten as possible the primary reason for which they would hand him the position he'd so carefully worked toward all these years of toil...
For which he would at last be fully recompensed...
"Fellow Councilors..." he began in loud, firm voice.
….
"What u say?...Er, Miss…"
The three large vampires...Two husky males, former dock workers, one rather fleshy female, their former favorite burlesque hall entertainer…Now on their knees, the first male to the left feeling Cicely's stake 'Dickens' hard against his throat...Were understandably having trouble believing their ears...
"Miss?..." the other male looked at Cicely. And what appeared to be her seven foot dog...No, just a demon... "You say we can go? Undead? If we tell you where this..."
"William...Or 'Spike'...He may be going by either name." Cicely nodded. Eygo watching the three carefully as well as dutifully keeping an eye out for other p-gs…
Tell me where you've seen him, take me there. She held up the daguerreotype. "And so long as you're not lying, you all go free..."
"Good deal, Johnny..." the female noted to the first male, he trembling at the feel of the stake. Nodding slightly, but carefully...Yeah...Sure…
"Yeah..." the second male, the speaker agreed. "Exceptin' I've never seen the bloke..."
The others glaring at him...Moron...
This is no time to be a plain-spoken villain...Geesh...
"We have!" they chorused.
Oh, please...the male speaker frowned.
Embarassin' to have mates like this, that's what it is...
And the poor kid lookin' in the family way and all. Awful to lead her on a wild goose chase that's just gonna end in dust. He well aware of Cicely's formidable reputation...
"I see...Godhavemercyonyourpoorsoul...Godhavemercyonyourpoorsoul..." Cicely hastily murmured as she quickly staked the first male and female. The speaking male awaiting his end patiently...
"Thank you for your honesty..." she nodded to him, motioning him to stand. "If you can lead me to the main gathering places in here for your kind, I will let you go..."
"Your mate, eh?..." he stared at her. Yes, she nodded...
"Bad business...For you humans...To try and get them back, you know." he shook his head...Replacing the greasy cap he'd naturally removed at once on meeting with a lady. "He's not him who you knew..."
"There's still something there...I know it. Please...And don't try running off..." she waved her stake. He sighed and stepped off. She following, Eygo behind her, both carefully moving off and quickly hidden among trees and tombstones. Even her human scent hard to pick up, he noted as he moved along...
Wonder what she uses to cover...
…..
"I think..." Farris paused, looking to the large illuminated screen he'd had set up, on which an image of Cicely facing a huge and vicious demon had been visible throughout his summary of her career. "That given the exploits I have just reviewed. We must all concede that Cicely Addams Walthrop has been the greatest of our Slayers. To lose her is not only a bitter source of shame and a personal tragedy for myself...But a tragedy for all Humanity..."
However...
"We must imagine her great ability turned and used as a weapon of Evil against Humanity. Which is the inevitable consequence of allowing her to pursue her current hopeless course. In its venerable history, this organization has many times seen the results of a Slayer's attempts to rescue loved ones from the Darkness into which they have fallen. If I may recall to the Council just one example, the incident of 1347. A Slayer turned by her own daughter, lying in wait for the new Slayers until she'd turned five others in succession..."
"Only the transfer of all their power to the following Slayer through our united intervention...And the transportation difficulties of the era…Saved Humanity..."
"Councilors...I have loved...Love...This young woman...As I would my own daughter." A slight pause. "But, like you, I must put aside all such feeling and think of all the young women and men who could suffer for her headstrong actions..."
Cicely's warmly smiling face appearing before him a fleeting second...At the door of his rooms...Surprising him on his birthday...Bringing the only warmth, the only springtime he'd ever known into his life...
He closed his eyes and the vision was gone...
"Yes...Her headstrong actions..."
…