AN: Been sitting on this one for a while. Finally decided to post it. Now onto the disclaimer:I do not own BTVS or Ghost Rider
Buffy walked across the sands of the L.A. beach, enjoying the feel of the sun on her face as she listened to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore, when she suddenly felt a strong pair of arms wrap around her waist. A soft smile spreads across her face, as she looked back to see Angel leaning his head over her shoulder.
"How'd you find me?" she asked, brushing her hand against his cheek.
"If I was blind, I would see you"
Buffy lowered her and to embrace his arms tightly to her.
"Stay with me"
"Forever" Angel whispered in her ear. "That's the whole point. I'll never leave. Not even if you kill me."
Buffy woke with a start, finding herself in her rundown apartment. Ever since she ran away to L.A., after killing Angel, her dreams have been filled with constant reminders of what she'd done in her role as the Slayer. Never allowing herself to forget the look of betrayal on his face, when he returned to himself just in time for her to profess her love as she ran him through.
Later that afternoon, Buffy walked the streets of Los Angeles, dressed for her waitress job, trying to get her dream of Angel, out of her mind. Looking for a distraction Buffy stopped as she came across a local kid spray painting a mural, depicting a flaming skull, surrounded by X's.
"They say he hit again last night" said the kid.
"Who?" Buffy asked.
"The Ghost Rider. You must not be from around here."
"Guess I've just had my fill of legends" Buffy said wistfully, as she continued on her way.
Helen's Kitchen was by no means an upscale restaurant. Between the diner's sleazy interior, and even sleazier customers, constantly harassing her, it took everything Buffy had to get through the days.
Moving to her next table, where much to Buffy's relief, a young couple was seated. While the break from lecherous old men was much appreciated, serving the young couple was proving to have its own minor problems as the young lovers were too into each other to notice her.
Clearing her throat Buffy asked, "You guys ready?"
"Yeah. I think we're good" the guy forced himself to look away from his girl to read Buffy's nametag "Um…Anne."
Anne took out her pen and pad. "What'll you have?"
Dumping a handful of change onto the table the guy asked, "What can we get with this?"
His girlfriend smiled at him and asked, "Can we get cake?"
"Lily, we got to eat healthy. We can't have cake" he turned back to Anne. "Can we get pie?"
"We've got a peach pie" she replied, writing down the order. "I can't guarantee there's a peach in it."
"We shouldn't have blown all our money, Rickie" Lily told her boyfriend.
"Come on, it was worth it" Rickie smiled, holding out his forearm on the table. Lily smiled back and did the same. "Hey, check this out" he told Anne.
Anne looked at their arms as they held them together and saw they each had a tattoo of half of a heart with a ribbon across it, with the other's name on their respective halves.
"It's nice" Anne smiled weakly. "It's nice and, uh, permanent."
"Yeah, forever" said Rickie, putting his arm around Lily. "I mean, that's the whole point."
Anne looked down sadly at the reminder of what Buffy once had with Angel.
"Hey, do I know you?" Lily asked, looking intently at Anne.
"I don't think so" she replied, keeping her head down. "I'll get your pie."
That night Anne left Helen's Kitchen and was on her way back to her apartment when the girl from that afternoon, Lily suddenly came running up behind her.
"Anne?" she called but she got no reply. "Anne?" Lily called a little louder, but still no response. "Buffy!"
At the sound of her actual name, froze Buffy in her tracks.
"Don't be mad" said Lily. "I won't turn you in or nothing. I guess you don't recognize me."
Buffy took a moment to think about it, "Lily?"
"I mean from before" the other girl clarified, seeing that Buffy didn't recognize her she explained. "I was calling myself Chanterelle then. I used to…Well, I was in this cult that worshipped vampires. So, lame, I know."
"Yeah…I, uh, I remember" Buffy was growing uncomfortable, not wanting to be confronted with her past.
"But...you kinda saved us. I never thanked you or anything."
"Did you tell anyone who I was?" Buffy needed to know if it was time for her to run again.
"Oh, no! Not-not even Rickie" Lily assured her. "I mean, I was so surprised to see you here, waiting tables…But I wouldn't tell. I know how it is when you gotta get lost."
The two former Sunnydale girls started walking together.
"Do you, uh, do you live nearby?" Buffy asked uncomfortably, trying to make small talk.
"Well, there's a couple of places Uh, they're abandoned, and a lot of people stay there" Lily confessed. "So, how'd you come up with Anne?"
"It's my middle name."
"Lily's from a song. Rickie picked it. I'm always changing anyway. Chanterelle was part of my exotic phase."
"It's nice. It's a…it's a mushroom."
"It is? That's really embarrassing."
Buffy blushed realizing she stuck her foot in it, "Um, well, it's an exotic mushroom, if that's any comfort."
"Well, before that, I was following this loser preacher and calling myself 'Sister Sunshine.'"
"What do they call you at home?"
Lily looked away, telling Buffy that was one question that would go unanswered.
"I like Lily" she told her, succeeding in improving the other girl's mood.
"It's cool for now" said Lily. "Hey, do you have any money?"
Buffy gave her a surprised look.
"I didn't mean it like that" Lily said hurriedly, realizing how it sounded. "Well, I just mean . . . I know this guy, he's gonna have this kinda rave thing in his basement. We could go. I mean, I could show you if you had—Cause I'm broke."
"I – I don't think so" said Buffy. "I just kind of…I want to be alone."
"I didn't mean to bug you."
"No! I-I didn't, I didn't mean that, it's just…Well, a – a lot of people like that, it's, it's too much."
Buffy looked away, not wanting to see the disappointment on Lily's face.
"I-I do have the money though, so why don't you and Rickie go, and then maybe I could meet you some other time" she offered, digging through her purse.
But Lily waved her off, not wanting a free handout when she was legitimately trying to make a friend. Suddenly an elderly homeless man rudely pushed his way between the girls, who stared after him.
"That's not very polite" Lily commented.
At the sound of her voice, the homeless man turned around and stared expressionlessly at them.
"Are you ok?" Buffy asked.
"I'm no one" the man said blankly.
Buffy's eyes widened in concern as the homeless man stepped into the middle of the road, standing there with his arms stretched out waiting to be run down. As if sensing his wish a pickup truck suddenly came racing down the street. With the truck making no attempts to stop, Buffy dropped her bag and rushed out into the street and pushed the homeless man out of the way, only get hit by the truck herself.
Despite the pain, Buffy managed to get on her hands and knees, by the time Lily rushed to her side.
"Are you ok?" Lily asked worriedly. "Maybe you shouldn't move."
"I'm fine" Buffy assured her. "What about the driver?"
Sure, her abilities let her brush off things like this relatively unscathed but one would think the driver would want to see if they'd killed her. Lily directed Buffy's attention to where the pickup truck sat idly in the middle of the road.
Suddenly one of the passengers came outside, a man marked with gang tattoos all over his arms, carrying an RPG of all things.
Ok forget about the hit and run Buffy would be lying if she said she wasn't worried about what the gangster planned on doing with that kind of hardware. The part of herself that she'd tried to burry was starting to urge her to do something when suddenly the gangster aimed the weapon up the street, as the sound of an engine roared through the night. Then it appeared a black 1969 Dodge Charger speeding towards them.
"Shoot it!" they heard the driver say from inside the truck.
Buffy wanted to cry out a warning to whoever was driving the Charger but it was too late, the RPG fired and hit the car dead on. The blast threw the car into the air, spinning end over end but despite that, the Charger received no damage instead fire erupted from within covering the car's engine and wheels in flames, causing the Charger no damage as it rammed into the side of the pickup.
While the Charger remained undamaged the pickup wasn't so lucky, leaking oil onto the road, igniting upon contact with the black car's flames creating a wall of fire cutting Buffy and Lily off from the gangsters and whatever they were running from.
With the wall of fire blocking her sight Buffy could just make out what appeared to be a flaming skeleton dressed in a black leather jacket, stepping out of the Charger. She couldn't see what happened next but from the horrified and tortured screams of who she assumed were the gangsters, it wasn't heard to guess.
Then just as suddenly as he appeared he was gone, leaving Buffy and Lily stunned by what they'd seen.
Days later Buffy was in Helen's Kitchen, filling the sugar dispensers, and doing her best to forget about Slayers and Ghost Riders, when Lily came rushing into the dinner.
"Buff – um, Anne? Can I talk to you?"
"This isn't a good time" said Buffy, as she continued to work. "Can it wait?"
"Rickie's gone" Lily blurted out. "I haven't seen him for more than a day. I—he's never left for that long. I think something's…happened. Maybe something's happened. What if the Ghost Rider got him?"
I so don't need this "Did you call the police?" Buffy asked.
"Rickie skipped out on his parole" Lily sighed. "They'd just cause more trouble."
"Well, have you asked around?"
"Can you help me?"
"Uh, I – I can't"
Buffy tried to walk away but Lily stubbornly followed after her.
"But…but that's who you are and stuff, right? I mean, you help people, and, you know…"
"I can't get into this. I'm sorry, Lily."
"You, you know how to do stuff" Lily said desperately. "I don't know what to do."
Buffy was practically kicking herself as she followed Lily into a local blood bank.
"We gave blood lots of times 'cause you get a few bucks" Lily explained. "And they
have cookies!"
"Guessing you're a fan of the sugar rush?"
"It's nice" Lily smiled.
A nurse then approached them asking if they were planning to donate blood.
"Uh, we're actually looking for a friend" said Buffy.
"Rickie Thomas?" Lily supplied. "We come in sometime."
"Rickie, sure" said the nurse, now remembering the couple. "Uh, he's not here."
"Do you know if he's been here for the last day or so?" Buffy asked.
The nurse checked the computer but could find no record of Rickie making a recent donation. With their first lead a bust, Buffy and Lily decided to split up to look for Rickie, making plans to meet back at Buffy's apartment. As they left the girls didn't notice the nervous expression on the nurse's face.
While Buffy was searching for Rickie, across town someone else was conducting a hunt of their own. The gangster with the RPG from a few nights ago was beaten bloody, and left chained up against the wall of an old garage. Standing before him was a dark haired young man of Hispanic descent – the Ghost Rider's car sitting idly behind him.
"Please, no more" the gangster begged, flinching as he watched the boy…no demon before him play with his keys.
"I asked you a question" he said coldly, his eyes suddenly burning red with hellfire.
"Ah! Ok, ok, we get the names from some nurse at the blood bank!" the gangster screamed. "Now, please let me go!"
Satisfied the Rider got into his car and for a moment the gangster thought, just maybe he was being let go. That hope was quickly thrown away once he realized he was chained to the only exit.
"No! No! Please I don't deserve to die!" he cried.
"Everyone always says that" unmoved by his captive's tears, the Rider slammed his foot down on the ignition, crushing the man against the hood of his car, as he smashed through the garage door, and drove off into the night.
After spending hours searching, Buffy thought it was a good time to return to her apartment and meet with Lily, hoping that she'd found something. She wasn't far from her apartment when suddenly the old homeless man she recognized from the other day came stumbling across her path. The man barely took two steps before he collapsed at her feet. Concerned, Buffy checked for a pulse but to her sorrow found none. Buffy sighed thinking no one deserved to die cold and alone on the sidewalk, as she put his arm down, she noticed a tattoo on the man's arm. A very familiar tattoo of half a heart with a banner proudly displaying the name Lily.
"Rickie?" she gasped, confused as to what could've happened.