Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own anything.
Summary: After leaving her sister in a mental institution years ago, Sam Carter had thought she had gotten over Elizabeth Summers untimely death three years ago. But, when Carter's alternate self from another reality comes through the Quantum Mirror she hears that Dr. Samantha Carter's ( "I prefer Samantha, thanks") sister, though having died at a young age, had a wonderful life, a loving husband, and a supportive sister. The incident leaves Carter wondering, had she not abandoned her own sister, would the young woman still be alive? Or, at the very least, would she have died knowing that her sister had loved her? But, is her sister really as dead as she believes? Nah. After all, what would have happened if no one had informed Sam that her sister had been brought back to life a year after her death? And now with the Goa'uld inching closer and closer, secrets and misconceptions are ready to be brought into the light, whether any one wants them to be or not.
- CHAPTER FOUR-
Across the galaxy, heedless of the possibility of aliens bent on world domination, with the possible exception of Andrew, one very paranoid young man who the others tended to ignore, and in a very large and noisy house, a girl stood amidst a pile a discarded packing paper, empty boxes, and torn tape.
Early in the fight against the first, as people began to flood out of Sunny dale, it was proposed by Giles that perhaps, just perhaps, several houses and buildings could be destroyed during the upcoming battle. After all, no one had ever gone against the first evil and no one was sure what quite the ramifications of winning the battle would be. Though they were all very aware that losing the fight meant that humanity was extinct. Plus, the bringers had attacked the house so often that there was no telling whether the Summers' residence would be able to withstand another attack.
In the mad dash to prepare for the fledging Slayerettes, the Scooby gang had gathered their most precious belongings and sent them all to Angel and the Fang Gang. Every one smiled and said it was 'just in case', no one wanting to believe that everything they had could be destroyed, but, one thing the Hellmouth had taught it's residences was to be always prepared. And following the destruction of Sunnydale, no one had been able to think beyond the fact that their home was destroyed and now they needed their stuff, the only visible links to a past that they had literally buried underneath several tons of rubble.
Upon arrival in L.A., Lorne had been the one to suggest that the bedraggled survivors remain in Angel's now unused hotel, the place where Angel Investigations had once been operated from, and think of their next move.
Two weeks after they had arrived every one was ready to move on, disturbed not only by Angel's distance, but, also his groups reluctance to discuss what was going on at Evil Inc.; granted the reason they told them about their abrupt departure was that they all desired to have their own home again.
Packed with only the belongings they had shipped months ago, the survivors traveled to Cleveland, setting up operations in an abandoned and very dilapidated mansion. When the group had first walked into the mansion, before they even had a real idea about the kind of place they really wanted, piles of dust had accumulated over years of disuse, rather large and intimidating webs hung from the ceiling, and the first step Giles had taken up the stair case, his foot had gone through the rotten wood. Every one had been vehemently against the acquisition until Xander had spoken for the first time since they had walked through the once grand entrance. Xander's first words had been that he could fix it up in a jiffy and no one had wanted to tell him no; the young man needing something to do so badly now that Anya was dead. After the simple statement Xander began to walk away, talking about plans for the building and one pleading look later from Dawn had Buffy and Giles caving in right then, both telling Kennedy to shut up when she voiced her dislike of the 'dump', as she called it. And, thus, had the growing group found their new home, a very large and beautiful building after months of work which could house both the current and any newly activated Slayers, the Scooby Gang, the newly reformed Watcher's Council, and most recently a blond vampire, and a very musical, very green demon.
However, although they had moved with all of their possessions from L.A., no one had really turned their attentions to unpacking, not with renovations, purchasing furniture, reforming the Council, and training the new girls needing to be done.
Which is why Dawn Summers now stood nearly buried in discarded packing paper and cardboard, grinning happily at the lone box that sat before her.
After seven months she was down to one box.
"I am the ma-woman!"
"Oh, really? I would have said twerp." Buffy stood in the doorway, smiling from at her younger sister as she leaned against the door frame.
Dawn stuck her tongue out and expertly tossed her hair, hmphing at the petite blonde.
"Ok, gotta make a note to make sure you spend a lot less time with Lorne, he's rubbing off on you." Rolling her eyes, Buffy walked in and hopped up to sit beside the box that her sister was about to open. Buffy remembered the vivacious and vibrantly dressed demon from the two weeks they had spent with Angel as her little party readied for their next move and the demon who showed up on their doorstep two months later looked nothing like the Lorne that she had watched old movies and gone shopping with, but, she was happy that he was at last coming out of his shell and beginning to smile again. "Speaking of the big green, I thought he was in here with you."
"Nope, Lorne said he needed to do some thinking and Spike took him out to a bar." Dawn smiled at the thought, there were unlikelier friends then Spike and Lorne, and the two had bonded quickly after the show down in Los Angeles when the two showed up at the Scoobies new house within a day of each other; granted a great deal of it had been over a sincere dislike of Angel.
"I just hope Spike didn't take him to a karaoke bar again. I am so not going to pick them up this time." Leaning over, Buffy tapped on the box beside her, feeling slightly guilty that Dawn had been the one to unpack most of their belongings. "So, that's the last one, huh?"
"Yep. One more and we'll be moved in."
"Moved in? Boy, you sure could've fooled me these past seven months since we settled in Cleveland's Hell Mouth," The blonde said sarcastically.
"They don't officially count though, two of those months we were looking for somewhere to live, and since then every one has been so busy with the restructuring of the watcher's council and training the new slayers, we haven't even been able to actually work on unpacking everything and making this place…well, home." Dawn's eyes briefly flitted over to Buffy who had quirked an inquiring eyebrow. "You know what I mean; remember when we moved from Los Angeles?" Dawn asked. "It took almost three months to unpack everything and mom always said-"
"That home isn't home until the last box is unpacked." Buffy finished.
"Yep. Ah-ha." Dawn held the knife up exultantly but the smile faded from her face. Buffy hoped down and looped an arm around her sister's waist.
"What's wrong? Dawn?"
"You remember that night we finally put out the last box?" Buffy nodded, she did remember, only she had two sets of the memory, one with and one without her sister. "Mom made us come downstairs, we weren't talking right then, I had read your diary and you were mucho mad at me, but, mom said we had to get over it because we were sisters and were stuck together. She brought it out and said it was the very last one and then we all opened it up; it had all the pictures. A ton of mom and dad and she spent hours telling the stories behind most of them. She said that we were finally home," Dawn looked as her sister, the green eyes troubled, "I remember her telling you that it was our final move; that we were home." Dawn fell silent again and Buffy hugged the tall girl.
"Well, we're home now."
"We're going to move again aren't we?" Dawn asked, staring intently at her sister, searching for an answer that Buffy was unsure of herself.
Buffy drew back, looking at her sister with equally troubled eyes. "Why do you say that?"
"I don't know. It's just a feeling I get some times. You're always looking out the window when you think we aren't paying attention. You haven't... you haven't been the same since... since that night." Dawn looked down at the floor, avoiding her sister's probing gaze, and shrugged.
Neither sister deemed it necessary to mention which night Dawn was talking about; both knew. The blonde Slayer was still having difficulty mending the bonds with her friends and sister. The memory of them turning on her hit too close to home, to close to other memories of a family Buffy had locked away that had abandoned her. Buffy had thought that she had healed over those feelings of abandonment, but when her second family turned away from her, all of the old pains and insecurities had resurfaced.
After Buffy had returned with the scythe only hours after Dawn and the others had kicked the oldest Slayer out of her own house, she had told them that she never wanted the incident mentioned, and it hadn't been, but, it still hung heavily between them all.
"Dawn, look at me," Buffy gently took her sister's chin in her hand and tugged her face down, mentally rolling her eyes at the fact that her sister now towered four inches over her. "Listen to me, we are home. We are together, we're family, and nothing will keep our family apart. Nothing. We've survived demons, vampires, watchers, death, well at least I did, you hitting puberty, a hell goddess, a psycho doctor, and maniacal reporters; there's nothing that we haven't faced and kicked its ass. Nothing out there will keep us apart, and even if we do move again, we'll move together, I'm not leaving you again, I promise."
Dawn offered a watery smiled, running a hand under beneath her nose as she sniffled.
"Eww, tissue." Buffy said and whipped out a handkerchief.
Laughing Dawn blew her nose and was about to offer the cotton cloth back before Buffy held up a hand. "Ok, I love you but you're not five any more and I don't want your boogies in my pocket. You can keep it." Laughing the brunette hugged her sister and the two stayed that way for several moments before either one moved away.
Andrew suddenly streaked past the door at that moment shrieking Buffy's name.
"That sounds bad." The blonde slayer said, wincing at the high pitch of the young man's voice which remained stubbornly loud and annoying even though he had passed by the room and was headed outside. From above them there was a loud crash and even louder shouting. For a moment, neither heard anything, but, the moment was short lived and before either spoke they heard screams and several more crashes followed by another momentary pause and then the sound of heavy thuds and Kennedy's angry yell as she landed at the base of the stairs on her ass. Faith leaped down from the stairs and the two continued fighting. Buffy looked over at her sister and they shared a weary, but, amused smile. The blonde sighed as she stood up and walked over to the door.
"You gonna be okay?" Buffy asked, stopping at the door. Dawn smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, I'll just start unpacking."
"Ok, I'll break them apart and be back in a few to help you finish up okay? Then you and I will go out to celebrate without a gaggle of people"
"Yeah, sure, that'd be great."
Buffy had just stepped out of the room when her sister's voice stopped her.
"Buffy?"
"Hmm?" There was another loud crash, a startled shout, and then from outside the hall they heard Lauren shout. "Oh my God! They destroyed the fucking door! Hey! Buffy's gonna be mad at y'all if you don't stop!"
The slayer wrinkled her nose, yep, definitely home, nothing could be louder.
"I know we can take demons and all the supernatural baddies that the PTB throw against us, but, what about aliens?" Dawn asked teasingly and Buffy shuddered at the question. Both remembered Andrew's latest obsession with aliens, Area 51, government conspiracies, and how the government supposedly had some methods of traveling to others worlds.
"Yeah right, aliens don't exist. Not even the PTB would be that mean." Laughing the blonde jogged out, making her way down the hall, away from her sister, and towards the sounds of fighting.
Sighing Dawn turned back to the waiting box and started to unpack it; still troubled by the feeling that something very big was on the way.
And hour later Buffy walked back through the door, smiling happily, with a Cheshire cat grin upon her face.
Dawn looked up from where she was sitting on the floor, photos spread out around her. "So what happened?"
Buffy shrugged as she sat down beside her sister, picking up a picture. "Oh, nothing much, same old same old. Kennedy saw Faith hug Willow, Kennedy accused Willow of sleeping with Faith, both of them denying it, Kennedy bitch slapping Faith and calling her a whore before running to Faith's room and grabbing her favorite leather pants which she proceeded to destroy, Faith finding her and tossing her out of her room, Faith knocking Kennedy down the stairs and then through the new door, some tussling, and then I doused both with the hose."
"The garden hose? That's not too bad." Dawn said with a snort.
The blonde smirked, flipping through the pictures. "No, the fire hose that Giles had them put in after the big boom that Willow caused a few months ago."
"Eww, that had to hurt."
"Yep, from their curses, I do believe so." Buffy looked at the picture in her hand. Joyce stared up at her, smiling and young, forever frozen with the carefree expression that Buffy had only rarely seen upon her mother's face. "So the last box was full of pictures. Kinda spooky."
"Tell me about it. You know though, there's some pics in here I don't recognize."
Buffy looked up interested. "Really? What?"
Dawn leaned over and picked up a photo she had placed beside her. "I mean I recognized you but I have no idea who the other..." The young woman's voice trailed off as she looked up at her sister. "Buffy? Buffy what's wrong?" Dawn asked worriedly.
Buffy's face had paled beneath her makeup, the blush on her cheeks standing out harshly against the pale face. Her hazel eyes were wide with shock and Dawn reached over, taking a trembling hand in her own. She hadn't seen her older sister this freaked out since the night that Buffy had returned from the dead and had to dig herself out of her own grave. The younger woman was willing to admit that Buffy's reaction to this was… frightening. Buffy stood straight up, her sudden ascent causing a stack of photos by her to topple and fall. She was still clutching at the picture and heedless of the other photos that lay now scattered on the floor.
Dawn could see her sister shutting down her emotions as the hazel eyes grew glassy; hiding the feelings she was repressing as though they weren't even there.
"They're no one." Buffy said and stood. "Listen, I got wet from the whole hosing them down thing and gotta go change and then we'll go out and celebrate the whole official moving in thing." Dawn nodded, still shocked and her sister gave her a tight smile that didn't reach the hazel eyes as she crumpled the picture, tossing it into the trash can before she hurried out.
Dawn stared in shocked silence for several moments before carefully standing and making her way towards the trash can. Picking the crumpled photo out of the can she looked down in curiosity, seeking some idea of why it had upset her sister so much.
Nope; nothing extraordinary about it. A balding dark haired man and pretty blonde woman stood close to each other, their eyes happy as they looked down at the two girls and a boy who were wrestling on the ground. The boy was laying on the ground, his eyes closed, but a smile playing at his lips, and the larger blonde girl had a pretty good hold on the smaller girl who looked like she was laughing. Dawn recognized the smaller girl. Buffy still had the same look at times when she was genuinely happy and it was a look she rarely saw anymore. Carefully she put the picture in her back pocket for later. Given how her sister had reacted to the picture, Dawn was glad she hadn't told Buffy about the folders she had found beneath the pictures. And she wouldn't, at least not until she read them first. But first, she had to get ready to go, and then later, well, later she was going to find out who the people in the picture were.
Some one had hurt her sister at some time, some one that Dawn had never meet, and the knowledge that Dawn didn't recognize any one else besides Buffy worried the brunette. The monks had seamlessly integrated Dawn into Buffy's past. They had actually spent a night discussing the differences, Dawn had asked Buffy for almost a month straight before the Slayer had relented, and never, not once, had her sister ever talked about any of these people. But it still wasn't as disturbing as the fact that some one had hurt her sister, yeah, Dawn admitted they had messed up, they weren't perfect, but even on that night, Dawn didn't see Buffy lose her control as much as she had just now. Some one had hurt her sister and Dawn was going to make sure that they would never have the opportunity to do so again.
-----
Daniel leaned back in his chair, attempting to stop the spasms as his aching back protested the several hours he had spent bent over various book, researching to no avail the Slayer.
In the month since Carter had told Daniel the tragic story of her sister's short and very mysterious life, the name had been tugging at Daniel's memory. Now, having returned from their latest mission after a downed U.A.V. that, in turn, had led to a very interesting encounter with a Goa'uld employed bounty hunter, Daniel finally had a free moment to try and satisfy his curiosity. Granted he really hoped that he was wrong and that he hadn't come across the name before. The archaeologist didn't want to be the one that had to tell Sam that there had been an actual mention of the Slayer before, that maybe her sister hadn't been crazy. He really didn't.
"The Slayer, hmmmm…." His hand trailed along the bindings of an ancient book, the pages of leather had grown stiff with the passage of time, though the ink still held surprisingly well despite its age.
Another forty minutes later, Daniel was still behind his desk, hunched over a book. Around him books, scrolls, papers, and in a couple of cases, tablets lay strewn on every space of his desk. All lay forgotten though, as none of them had contained the information he sought. Leaning back in his chair he rubbed at his red rimmed eyes and picked up the last untouched book. Sighing he flipped the leather bound cover open and began to skim through the pages, a smell of decay wafting with each page turn, the ink was invisible from age.
"Slayer, Slayer, Slay- uh-oh." Shit, he was right, he had heard about the Slayer. There it was in all its faded glory, an ancient reference to the Slayer. Surprise at the discovery warring with both the elation of having found out a possible clue that validated the existence of a mythical being and also empathy with Sam. Telling her that there was references to the Slayer would be like losing her sister twice. It wasn't easy losing a person you loved twice, the feeling was one that Daniel knew and would have spared Sam the knowledge of ever knowing.
The blue eyes widened as he began to translate the runes before him, one finger of his left hand skimming along the page as he read the script while his right hand jotted down the notes as he translated the text.
Another hour had passed before he sat back in his chair, thoughtfully regarding the book before him. He almost hadn't pulled it; unlike most of his collection it didn't deal with gods, with Egypt, with mythology really at all, and instead it dealt with lore demon lore in particular.
Pausing to unbury his phone from the mountain of books covering it, Daniel picked it up, his hand hovering over the key pad. Punching in the extension he heard the phone ring; one, two, come on and pick up the phone-
"Hey Jack," there was a pause as Daniel listened to O'Neill begin the usual litany that the Colonel ran through any time that Daniel interrupted his TV time.
"No, I'm not injured or sick…" frowning, Daniel rolled his eyes as the questions kept coming from the colonel.
"No, I don't need to go and see Janet…
"No, I haven't taken leave of my senses, at least, that I am aware of. Listen, Jack, I found…"
Daniel sighed as he listened to his friend, his free hand moving to massage his head, a futile attempt at easing the headache that was beginning to form. He began to shake his head in disagreement when he realized that Jack couldn't see him. "No, I wasn't aware that there was an A-Team marathon…
"Thank you, but, no, I don't really want to come over and watch it…
"Listen, Jack….
"Jack!...
"Could you please turn off the T.V.? Thanks. Jack, I found something and I think you should come and see it…
"No, Jack, you should come here…
"I know I don't have a T.V. in my office, that's why you should come here instead of me going to your room…
"No, I can't go into it over the phone; it would take to long….
"Teal'c? He's there?...
"Oh, I see, I think, though I would argue about it being a staple of Earth life…
"No, ask him to come with you, he should hear this as well…
"Okay, see you in a few." The phone receiver had barely settled down before Daniel snatched it back up and redialed the extension.
"Jack?...
"Yeah, one thing, don't let Sam know you're coming over…
"She's still in the lab?...
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about the roshnah, well, just don't tell her…
"Jack?!?!...
"No, I'll tell you when you get here…
"Jack, for God's sake, if the curiosity is killing you then you should hang up the phone and hu-"
Daniel found himself talking to the dial tone and sighed as he put the receiver back on its cradle.
"Great, now all I have to do is wait." He said to himself and looked back at the book, he was still for a moment before he flipped to the next page and continued, mumbling under his breath as he translated.
The guilt he felt about sharing the information that Carter had confided in him was overwhelmed by the knowledge that when he told her, and he would, this wasn't something that he would ever keep hidden from his friend, she would need her family around her, and for better or worse they were her family now.
Whew!! Hope y'all like the chapter. Just wanna say thanks to the lovelies who've helped and prompted me along! And kisses to all of my reviewers.
Please let me know what you think; reviews make my day. As always, any questions, just send them all on in and I'll answer any that I can.
P.S.- Definitely more surprises to come! The next chapter is gonna be a dozy. ::Evil smirk:: Tehetehe.