"I don't know," she said, sitting back, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Let me read you something," he said, spinning the laptop around. "'Buffy Summers became the slayer when she was fifteen. She moved to Sunnydale, and that's where she met Angel, the love of her life. But he was a vampire with a soul…' Heard enough?" he asked, looking up at her. She looked shaken.
"Wh-what is that?" she asked.
"A website we found," Brennan said.
"We searched for a record on your lawyer, and found nothing. We went to him, and he gave us some nicknames I checked out. This is one of the things that came up."
"What does the writer mean by slayer?" Brennan asked. "Is it some sort of gang?"
Buffy sighed, "Not exactly…"
"And what about this mention of vampires? Is this some sort of slang?"
"Not exactly…"
"Okay, we need some definite answers. Now," Booth said.
"I can't tell you," Buffy said.
"Why not?"
She sighed, "Because it's my job, okay?" They just stared at her so she elaborated, "I save lives. That's the lot I was given in life. These other girls, all of them at the school, were born into the same lot. We die so you don't have to." She held up a hand, "I know that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. We fight, we die, so that others can go on living. That's why I can't tell you. That's why I couldn't allow you to decimate those girls' bodies. They earned their gift. Just let them have it…" she sighed, "I've said too much…"
"No, no, you've said just enough," Booth said.
"You think I'm crazy."
"No, I think that both you and your boyfriend are lying."
"He's not my boyfriend," she told them. "And right now, I've been the most truthful I've ever been."
Both crossed his arms across his chest, mimicking Brennan's stance, leaning against the wall in the corner.
"You don't believe me?" she asked, jumping up. "Fine, you want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?" she asked, beginning to pace, "In every generation, a girl is born with the strength and speed to hunt them. The vampires. The werewolves. The demons. She is called the slayer. She alone has what it takes to hunt them where they lurk, in the darkness. She alone dwells in the darkness. She's not allowed to have friends. No one is supposed to know what she is, what she does. No one but her watcher, some stodgy British guy, who gets to tell her what to do, when to do it. Every night, he sends her to her death, fighting the forces of evil upon this earth, stopping apocalypse after apocalypse, only to die in the end. And she's not even mourned, because the second her last breath leaves her body, another is called, another girl who has the same destiny thrust upon her!
"And this has been going on for over 2000 years!" she cried, "This barbaric custom of taking a young girl that has the potential to become this killing machine away from her family and friends, raising her, honing her killing skills on the chance that someday might be her 'lucky' day, when the current slayer dies, and the power decides to jump into her body!
"But then, the power chose someone that wouldn't follow the rules, that had friends, and family, and a life outside of her destiny. But every chance it got, that fucking destiny screwed her life over, again and again. She killed her boyfriend, she alienated her friends and family, all for some world that doesn't give a rat's ass. Stopping apocalypse after apocalypse, dying twice for this world.
"And then the big one came. The one that was supposed to end the world. And this girl, who had survived through every thing else thrown at her, who had been torn out of heaven-yes, such a place exists-had to soldier up once more. Girls around the world started dying for no apparent reason, their families started dying, their mentors started dying. So it was her job to house them, and feed them, and protect them, when she could barely protect her own sister.
"And when an evil time forgot started preying on these poor, defenseless girls, it was her job to keep them safe. And when they died, it was her strength that was used to dig their graves.
"And then the end came. But what could one girl do against an army of millions, even with super human strength?" she asked, stopping her pacing in the middle of the room to stare at them forlornly, "What more could she give? She had given her 'normal' life, she had given her friends, her family, her heart, and her very life. But still she had to keep giving. What was there left to give?
"And then her witch friend stumbled upon a spell, and with her magic voodoo powers, she made it so that one girl wasn't alone anymore. She shared the burden among many, among hundreds. And they beat back the wave that was going to engulf the world. And they saved it once again. And they would never have to be alone again.
"Marie Robichaud, Candace Miller, Isabel Cortez, Chao-Ann, Rachel Collins and Sarah-Beth Scott. All slayers. Those marks on Marie's neck, and on Rachel, those were vampire bites. Candace was attacked by a Gnarl demon, which feeds on the living flesh of its victims. It's fingernails secrete a venom that causes paralysis. Isabel and Chao-Ann were attacked by a werewolf. Sarah-Beth's neck was snapped. Also done by a vampire, trying to get me in trouble.
"Why me?" she asked them, having gone too far to stop now, too far to stop the truth from bubbling out. "Maybe because I've been doing this for almost ten years. Maybe because I won't stay dead. Maybe because I always get my guy. Or maybe it's because they can't get rid of me any other way.
"And the worst part, the worst part is you've left my girls vulnerable. I could be out there trying to find this psychopath that will stop at nothing to see me taken out of the picture!" she cried, raising her arm as if to prove her point, "But no, I have to be locked in here while they plan to take over the world, and I can't do anything about it!" she lowered her voice, "Do you really think those girls could save the world? Even if there were one thousand of them, they couldn't. You wanna know why? Because they're inexperienced. Not one of those girls can barely handle a nest of vampires on their own. They'd crack under the pressure of saving the world."
"And you haven't?" Booth asked.
"I've had no choice," she said softly. "I don't know what you read on that website of yours, but it's the glorified version of my life, that's for sure. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy, and yet I forced it upon these girls," she told them, sitting down, exhausted, in her chair. "That's why I have to protect them. I can't rest, I can't sleep. Always protecting, always leading. Because who will be there to pick it up if I put it down?" she asked, looking at them, "Who would want the burden of being different?"
After a few minutes of strained silence, Booth cleared his throat, "Thank you, Miss Summers. You're free to go," he said. Brennan looked at him, but he didn't see the surprise he expected to see in her face, just agreement.
She hung her head, "Thank you," she wouldn't look at them.
An hour later, Angel came and picked her up, after they dropped the charges and closed the investigations. When she saw him in the lobby, she ran to him, hugging him. He picked her up in his embrace, a powerful man despite his humanity. He pulled her as close as he could, trying to merge their bodies so they would never be apart again, but all too soon he knew he had to put her down.
Once her feet had touched the ground, she turned to Brennan and Booth, "Thank you for believing me," she said, giving them the first smile since meeting her, "I know you could have locked me up in the Looney Bin."
"The world's changing," Booth told her, "After what you did in Sunnydale, demons aren't such a huge secret anymore. Hell, there was a government agency studying them," he told her.
"I know, I dealt with them. They tried to make their men able to fight the demons with drugs, giving them super strength. But nothing compares to slayer power, because it comes from the demon itself. The demon in all of us." At Angel's confused look, she smiled at him, "I told them the truth. They're right, the world of demons and darkness isn't so dark anymore."
"This would explain some of the cases of finding humanoid bones that we couldn't identify," Brennan said. Booth just looked at her, shaking his head with a smile. "I would really like to do some research in regards to this enlightenment…think of all the unsolved cases that could be closed, all the murderers that were convicted wrongly…"
"Thank you so much," Angel said, tucking Buffy under his arm. "There are about fifteen girls back at the house that can't wait to see you," he told her.
"The problem with being popular."
They turned to go, but then Angel turned back. "Oh," he said, "Part of that story was true. Liam O'Connor did get Kristin O'Riely pregnant before he was turned into a vampire. For some reason, Angelus didn't kill her, or the child, even though he had many opportunities. I never understood how he could kill his family and not this girl that meant nothing to him. That little girl grew up, and had a family…I lost track of her when I regained my soul, but I had Wolfram and Hart do some research. They just got back to me. Your great great great great great great great great great grandmother was Kristin O'Riely," he told Booth softly. Then he and Buffy turned and walked away.
They stared after them, standing side by side, "You just met one of your ancestors," Brennan said slowly.
"Yeah," Booth said. "That's really freaky. Maybe we shouldn't have pushed her," he said, "This door that she opened, we can never close it."
"Would you want to? With this knowledge we can right more wrongs, save innocent lives…"
"Let's get you back to the lab before you start talking crazy talk."
END