okay, i realise that the chapter might be a little sucky, but im tired and i have writers block and i had to work today and i have to babysit for the next four days so it might be a while before an update. but anyways, enjoy what's there. its my longest chapter so far and the e-claire fluff moment near the end is so cliche and tacky i just had to put it in there. lol. enjoy!
p.s. reviews are appreciated. thanks. constructive critism is welcome and encouraged. D
"Daddy, where are we going?" asked Elle Bishop. For the last two days it had been heaven for Elle and Bob. He had her memories erased and since then she trusted him completely, never questioning the fact that parts of the days over the last two and a half months had disappeared from her mind. Bruises and cuts still covered her body and she had no idea where they all came from which scared her even though most of them were healing nicely.
"California. You get to follow the Bennet's again. Maybe toy with Claire," suggested Bob, stepping into the private jet that was fuelled and waiting on a private runway near the airport.
"This is gonna be fun," Elle muttered loud enough for him to hear and smirked at the suggestion as she pushed herself through the aeroplane door and into one of the comfiest aeroplane seats her father's money could buy. "How long's the flight?"
"Should be about three or four hours. Sit back and get some sleep. I'll wake you before we land," said Bob, who actually sounded like a genuine father to Elle for a minute there.
She did as her father gently ordered and fell asleep after shoving her iPod into her ears, looking forward to the torture and pain she was about to cause. She wasn't expecting the reaction that the Pom-Pom or Bennet would give her. Hell even people she did remember ever meeting.
Claire was lying on her bed in her cousin's house, staring at the ceiling and watching the shadows cast by the trees and the sunlight from behind the clouds outside her closed window. Rain was drizzling outside and it made the day even more miserable. When they got home from the morgue, Noah suggested everyone go for an afternoon nap seeing as the trip down to hospital took a lot out of all of them. So there she was on her and Elle's bed waiting for the cell phone next to her to ring shrilly and break the silence, for Peter to be on the other end, telling her where Elle was and how he was going to get her.
Below her in the kitchen, Noah and Xander could be heard having a very grown up talk which almost didn't seem possible for Xander, with him being childish and all. Claire was anxious, scared and grieving. Her mother was a wreck, Buffy had hardly said a word, Dawn hadn't stopped crying after she saw her mother, Lyle was in denial, Willow and Xander were still in shock and Tara and Anya had no clue what to do.
The cell phone beside her rang loudly and she was sure that it woke anyone up that had been asleep.
"Hello," mutter Claire quietly.
"Claire. It's Peter. She's ah... on her way back to Sunnydale-," started Peter, but he was cut off.
"Oh, thank god. You found her. Is she okay?" asked the young girl, sitting up on her bed and pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Yeah, that's the thing. She's on her way back with her father. The Haitian apparently wiped her memories of you two dating or ever being your friend or of her ever helping us. She just left in a jet and should be there in a few hours. She's been given permission to torture you for fun," explained Peter.
"Can the memories maybe be triggered by something?" asked Claire, tears welling up in her eyes about the fact that her girlfriend may never remember her that way. Claire could hear Peter whispering in the background asking exactly what she asked. "Who are you talking to, Peter?"
"Uhhhhh, the Haitian. I found him and got him to tell me. Yeah. The memories can be triggered by significant from the time that is gone," said Peter, sighing into the phone. "In other words, you have to get pretty close and I don't know, kiss her or something."
"Thanks, Pete," said Claire, shutting the phone and hurrying downstairs to tell her father.
As she reached the kitchen, Claire slowed her pace and looked him. Xander was sitting at the island and Noah was leaning against the sink. They were the men in Buffy and Dawn's life and needed to be there for them.
"Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?" asked Claire softly. Xander made up some excuse about having to take Anya home because she might drive someone crazy. He left with a gentle hand on Claire's shoulder and a quiet goodbye.
"I thought you were asleep," said Noah, moving to lean against the island as Claire took the now open seat.
"I couldn't. Too many things on my mind," replied the young girl. "Ummm, I just talked to Peter again. Elle and Bob are coming out. He had her memories wiped about us over the last two, three months. She doesn't remember us as her...friends."
"Claire Bear, why are you taking her kidnapping so hard?" asked Noah, putting his hands on his daughters shoulder. Claire knew that if she told her father that she was in love with a deranged sociopath, then she would never see Elle again. So she would have to play this out till she got back.
"I just worry is all. Her memories of her childhood came back and she was different. I just want her to be okay," answered Claire, immediately feeling guilty about lying to her father.
"We'll get her back. When is she supposed to be getting here?" assured Noah.
"Peter said she just left in a just so in a few hours I guess," replied Claire, hugging her father. "I'm going to go get some fresh air.
Claire and Buffy had both refused to go anywhere near the couch since that morning when Joyce was alive with a small headache. She pulled out a thick warm blanket from the hallway closet and went outside to sit on the swing on the front porch. If Elle knew where she was, then she was mostly likely to either watch her or come after her.
It didn't take very long for the sky to go from a light grey to a dark grey to black, the rain got heavier and still, hours later, Claire was sitting on the front porch swing with a thick blanket waiting for the girlfriend who didn't remember her.
At nearly nine pm that night, a warm shiver went down Claire's spine. A kind of shiver she only got around Elle. Shaking the sleep out of her, she sat up on the swing and looked out into the darkness of Revello Drive, spotting a darkened figure walking towards her with an umbrella. The figure reached the stairs of the porch moved the umbrella back to show her face.
"Hey, Pom-pom. What's up?" smirked Elle.
"Elle!" exclaimed Claire, letting out a sigh she had been holding in since the older girl had been taken. Reaching out for a hug, she remembered the memory loss and suddenly retracted.
"Daddy says, I get to play with you," said Elle, sending some playful shocks to the cheerleader.
As pain went through her body in small waves, tears began to stream down her face as she looked at her girlfriend. As Claire landed on the stairs, a hand went to her head. It felt like it was going to explode and the tears coming down her face didn't help either.
"Are you crying?" whispered the older girl, kneeling down beside her. When Claire's head turned her way, she smirked at the pain she had caused. Once she realised that there was no trick and that it was serious, her face straightened. "What's wrong?"
Claire waited moments before replying in clenched teeth. "I love you and don't even know it. You don't know it because of your father."
"Wait, what do you mean you love me?" asked Elle, standing up and backing away slowly to stand a few feet away in the pouring rain, forgetting all about the umbrella in her hands. "You're lying. You don't love me. You hate me, remember?"
"No, I don't hate you. I haven't hated you for last two and a half months because I've been in love with you and you can't remember it. If you don't remember us, then remember that I'll always love you, no matter what," explained Claire, her words coming out more as an angry sob than anything else.
"You're lying!" Elle nearly screamed as more thunder boomed over their heads. For every step she would take back, Claire would take one forward towards her.
"He had your memory erased. What – you find the fact that parts of the last two months are gone fine?" yelled Claire, taking two steps closer and being less than five feet away from the older girl.
A look of realisation came over Elle's face as tears began to mix with the rain drops that were sliding down her face. A voice sounded behind Elle, "Elle, what are you doing? You should be torturing her, not having a girly chat."
"You don't remembering him having you tortured every day for two weeks? You don't remember me and Peter saving you? Why is your father limping? Huh? It's because Peter shot him in the foot when we were trying to save you," explained Claire. Her voice had started off quietly, loud enough to hear over the rain and then she had gotten louder with anger.
"ELLE!" screamed Bob. All the screaming was making it harder and harder for Elle to believe one and not the other. When something clicked in her mind, she turned to her yelling father and screamed, "SHUT UP!"
"If what you're saying is true, and he did have my memory erased, how are you going to prove it? How do you prove that you 'love' me?" asked Elle. More thunder boomed over head and lightning light up the shadows of Claire's face, making her more beautiful if that was possible.
"Elle, get in the car," said Bob, trying one last time to convince his daughter that Claire Bennet was lying.
"Like this," said Claire, moving even closer. She could visibly see Elle gulp as her hand moved to the back of her neck, pulling her closer and brushing their lips together. At first, the older blonde didn't react but as the seconds went by quickly, she moved her lips against Claire's and her tongue begged for entry which was speedily granted.
As air became an issue fast, they reluctantly pulled back, Claire smiling and Elle slightly dazed until she saw who was standing in the doorway of the Summers house. Lowering her head, wishing so badly that she was dry so she could shock her father, a shiver ran down her spine. The ones that used to go from her head to her toes every time Claire kissed her.
"Girls, get inside," said Noah. He had seen and heard everything from the very first shock Elle had sent his daughter's way. He was shocked and confused when Claire had kissed Elle and angered by the fact that they both lied to him. He wondered if anyone in the house knew.
Claire mouthed a 'fuck' when she heard her father behind her and turned with her head down and walked straight past him and into the house. Elle looked at him through the rain and could see him nod his head for her to get inside as well, which she did slowly. Her memories were beginning to re-invade her mind as she walked past Noah with her head up. Tara was standing at the door with some towels she had conjured and handed them to the drowned looking girls.
The front door was still open and Elle stood behind Noah, towel wrapped around her shoulders and Claire behind her. "Are you okay?" was whispered into her ear by Claire and she nodded, still watching the man who had raised her since birth.
"You've taken my daughter from me Noah! So I'll just personally execute yours," said Bob, a gun being pulled from underneath his jacket and held at his side.
"What are you gonna do? I can't die," said Claire, hoping that he didn't know about the fact the she could die if there was something in her head.
"You're wrong there, Claire. The gun was pulled up and aimed at Claire's head.
'Shit,' thought Claire. 'The bastard knows how to kill me.'
Without any warning or movement that was noticed by Noah or Claire, a straight jet of electricity knocked him off him feet and threw him into the nearest telephone pole across the road. The ground around him was crackling with vibes and he was down for the time being. Either till someone picked him up for he just got up. Elle had shocked him badly and he was down for the rest of the fight.
Turning to the two girls, Noah said to Elle, "I knew I liked having you around."
He stepped into the warm house, as Claire nudged Elle smiling until he turned around to face them and their smiles dropped from their faces.
"Oh, and this," he started, pointing between the two of them, "is not happening."
Claire sighed and clenched her jaw before walking into the house miserably.
"One of you can feel free to sleep in Dawn's room," he said, walking into the kitchen where Buffy, Willow, Tara and Sandra were. Minutes later, the two witches walked out of house to go back to their dorm room. Dawn had suddenly taken to sleeping in her mother's room which meant her and Buffy slept in there, Sandra and Noah were in one guest room, Lyle was in a spare bedroom, Claire in Buffy's room and Elle now in Dawn's. This was going to become a nightmare if her father didn't approve of them.
"Kill me," ironically slipped out of Claire's mouth as her and Elle went upstairs to get out of wet clothes and shower. Just before they walked into Claire's room for some clothes and to move Elle's things into Dawn's room, Elle stopped Claire, tugging on her hand gently.
"Thank you for saving me," said Elle.
"You don't need to thank me for that. What, you don't remember that either?" teased Claire.
A cold and shivering young woman whispered in her ear as she turned the handle to open the door to her room. "I love you, too."