Drusilla...
PG-13
Summary: An alternate Cicelyverse tale...In 1880 Cicely Addams Walthrop makes the right choice and saves her William on that fateful night. But Drusilla is not so easily cheated of her Prince...
A companion story to "Groom of Rosenberg" for Halloween, at the request of the Shes Who Must Be Obeyed...The musical touches are their idea...Sorry...they want a "Phantom-ish" story...
You might want to read my Cicelyverse page to get a handle on the situation, possibly my "Romance Palace" as well... .
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Part IX...
There is nothing so valuable...Simon Farris noted to himself as he entered the massive Antiquarians Hall, home to the Royal Council of Librarians and Antiquarians…As holding the confident and complete trust and regard of one's peers, superiors...And...Pupils.
A status which he himself had earned with years of diligent service and support...
Capital not to be squandered too lightly...Particularly with regard to Miss Addams.
No...he corrected bitterly, glancing out the large windows of the Hall's main foyer.
By now, Mrs. Walthrop...
However...A change of name is a minor matter, easily rectified.
What's in a name...?
And the heart...Especially that of a foolish young woman...Soon forgets its trivial wanderings and flirtations.
No, in spite of his arrangements with Halfreck, agent of demon lord D'Hoffryn...Farris still harbored the faint hope of getting Cicely to see reason. Once what's-his-damned-name was dealt with...And take her proper place on the throne beside him.
Of course that might antagonize Lord D'Hoffryn, a rather formidable foe, but it should be an easy
matter to hold the mighty demon off with promises until as Chairman Farris he could rally the full Council and Slayer against this menace. And use the secret powers hidden in the Council's darkest recesses...
After all, destruction the Lord of Vengeance Demons was surely a worthy challenge for Council and Slayer...
In the Chairman's apartments, he found Rathskeller, several Council members of Observer status, and Miss Wilhemina Rosenberg, known to him slightly from previous encounters with Abraham Van Helsing...
Seeking help from the competition, Arthur?...he thought, as he smilingly greeted the group and shook hands with Willow.
Bit unseemly...The Van Helsing group's methods were so unorthodox. And while the good doctor was willing to share information on his "clients", he was somewhat suspicious of both certain Council members and the group as a whole in terms of their ultimate use of the powers they were acquiring in the course of their work.
In Professor Van Helsing's opinion...Certain past Chairmen...And some present members...Often seemed less interested in protecting Humanity and giving peace to the condemned than in gaining knowledge of the dark powers.
For its part, as a general policy, the Council discouraged such independent efforts…Sometimes with extreme prejudice. However, Rathskeller was something of a liberal on such matters and had encouraged contacts with outsiders, especially his old friend Abraham who'd assisted him as a young Observer on several occasions.
All fighting for the same goal and all that... Farris mentally quoted his dear, soft-headed Chairman as he sat.
To allow that little old fool to have the glory of the Dracula hunt, now in progress… He beamed at Willow, now outlining what they'd found in the old nest…As Rathskeller ordered all information on the Angelus pride, particularly, Drusilla brought up to them.
Well, at least it meant he'd only have to deal with the little granddaughter for now. Keep her and the rest off the track until the little nobody (what was his damned name?) was disposed of...
And things would be different when he took the chair.
As a Conservative Watcher, Farris objected to independent vampire hunters like Van Helsing and Rosenberg on principle...
The principle of consolidation of power...In his own hands.
…
Cicely seemed a bit withdrawn as the ceremony ended...Except for nearly crushing her new husband with an embrace of rather startling force.
Sorry...she released him.
"Alright, sweetheart...?"
Hmmn...Amazing...Will thought, waving a hand. Fine, fine...As he gasped for breath...
Just like the time she threw me across her back garden with one blow...
Well...They say the fairer sex has hidden strength.
He and Henry noticed she seemed rather quiet as they accepted the priest's congratulations and headed back for their carriage. A dinner awaiting them arranged by Best Man/He Who Gaveth the Bride Henry...
"Lost in contemplation of your new state, Mrs. W...?" Henry smiled at her as Amelia pulled Will away a moment.
She smiled a wan smile back. And seemed to be hesitating...As if reaching a decision...Henry noted to himself.
What have I done? What can I do...?
They know who I am. They know who he is. And this pride is famous for attacking those dearest to their hunters. Mr. Farris having given her quite a detailed outline of their past history...
I have three choices, she thought. Looking ahead to where Amelia was excitedly talking to her brother...
Destroy the pride tonight...If I can...Since Will and I can't be together until we leave tomorrow night after the family's party. Possible but difficult...I will have to see what Simon has learned...
But they may not even have been located yet...
Or...
Run...Now...Tell William everything or at least enough to make him agree. And run...
But...Abandon London to these creatures? Knowing that they know who I am and may know where my family lives...? And always knowing they may choose to come after us in the end...
Or...
Make him leave me. Drive him away. In the hopes that he'll be safe until I destroy the pride...If I succeed...I can try and explain it to him. If he doesn't accept it or I die...At least he'll be safe.
But...How can I drive him away? How could I bear it, even to save him...? He'd see I was lying no matter how hard I'd try. And refuse to leave...Try to find out what was really going on...
He's a determined fellow that way...she thought proudly. No obstacle stops him...Unless it kills him.
And even then...
Like the day I tossed him across the back garden for his rudeness... Telling me he was going..."Out for a walk,...b...". God…
And he picked his startled self up, brushed his one good suit off. Congratulated me on my amazing agility. Apologized. And telling me to forgive his being angry at a world that would never allow him to even consider approaching me...Left me...With my jaw hanging.
And was back the next day. Ostensibly to see Henry as always. In reality to see if I had any answer for his suit. She couldn't keep the smile from coming to her lips...Yes...
The world might never allow it...But he had the slightest impression...I might.
…
"Gilbert and Sullivan? The ones who wrote Pinafore?"
Amelia Walthrop was eagerly quizzing her brother at the restaurant where Henry'd taken them.
Will nodded but his attention was on his bride, who seemed lost in thought...
Though she picked up a bit at hearing of her hubby's potential position with the most popular figures on the current London theater scene.
Sweet Henry, she smiled at him a moment.
Not that her William wouldn't make it under any circumstances under his own steam, as he always had. Just sweet of Henry to smooth things a little...Heck someone had had to introduce Gilbert and Sullivan to each other.
Now if only Mr. Farris would help her introduce Angelus and family to the sharp end of her favorite stake... "Dickens"...For its biting edge...Like Mr. D's.
"Cicely...?" Will slid over closer to her on the booth bench...And took her hand.
"All well?..." he eyed her. A bit nervous...
She nodded, kissing him...
"Just wishing we could be together tonight..." she whispered in his ear.
"Why not...?" he whispered back, eager to junk her previously insisted upon plan of staying at her home...On this night of all nights...And just to keep gossip down by attending the final family party of this social season.
"Lets forget everything and go to Henry's...Tonight. Then find a place near Cambridge tomorrow..."
"I can't leave until after tomorrow night, it would embarrass Papa too much. We mustn't implicate Henry any further. And you'll have to make proper arrangements for us, we can't just waltz into any town together...Like a couple of lovers on the run." she noted, eyeing him with a smile at the last.
Lovers...Amelia sighed to Henry, watching them whisper.
She having no questions in her mind that her brother was eminently worthy of anyone, including the oft-mentioned (Amelia being an avid reader of the society pages of the Times) Miss Cicely Addams...
"All right...But after tonight...Always..." Will whispered back.
"Always..." she squeezed his hand.
"After all, dearest... 'Eternity is ours'." he smiled at her. Speaking aloud now...
"Just telling her how much I liked the inscription on the rings..." he grinned at Henry and Amelia.
"Eternity is ours..." she repeated. Nodding...
No...I could never send him away. If it was death to him to stay, I couldn't do it...I must get to Simon, destroy the pride...Or run with Will tonight.
…..
The new lair passing Darla's inspection, the reunited Angelus clan was off and about its nightly rounds. Cautiously...
Not too successful a hunt given the elders' nervousness...Looking for Watchers and Observers in every corner. Except, sadly, the right ones...And with Drusilla's attention rather distracted...
The Lady must tell true...She must...But He is taken...The Other has taken him...she moaned to herself...As Darla furiously dragged her slow-moving granddaughter along the street.
What a way to hunt humans...she sighed.
"Angelus..." she called.
"Dru's of no help tonight. I'll take her home and join you later..."
Join me later...he thought contentedly.
Difficult to do once I'm off on a boat for France. Or perhaps America...Another land of opportunity where an English Slayer is not all that likely to appear.
For the sake of my loved ones' safety, of course…
"Sounds like a good idea, dearest..." he beamed at Darla. Who frowned, narrow-eyed at him...
Finding it too unbearable to leave her beloved to face destruction, the loving Darla considered an alternate plan...
(He's much too eager on this, he's got something up his sleeve, she realized. Probably means to run out on us. Damn you...If you think I'm letting you out of my sight...With Dru on my hands...?)
"Perhaps it's not such a good idea..." she pondered, glaring at him.
Dru's likely to make noise and attract attention to the new place if she's left alone...
"Dru...Would you like to stay with Father here while I go about my business...?" she eyed Dru.
Hmm-hmmn...she beamed at Angelus. Eager to tell him about the fairy lady's promise...
Oh...God...Angelus sighed. As Darla hastily disengaged Dru's clutching hand from hers to his and raced off...
(So much for my escape from this Hell on Earth...)
I am not to be allowed to save my poor little family from danger, it seems...The noble vampire prince sorrowed.
I had to be a father...
"Angelus...A fairy princess came to me..." Dru began.
Yes, yes...he sighed.
(Well, at least I avoid hunting for a night. And Darla always gets...Someone...)
Tomorrow night she said...I must wait till tomorrow...We must wait, sister...Dru called within to her trapped soul.
A vague and incoherent cry from within...
You mustn't lie to me, sister...Dru chucked to herself. I know you want him as much as I do...
He is calling to you, too.
A cheery-looking tavern down the street recommended itself to the mighty Angelus as a suitable waiting spot. Excellent for reconnoitering the local area for signs of Watcher activity... Despite the grave risk of detection, he decided to take the chance...In hopes of assuring his dear ones' safety...
"Come along, my dear..." he led Dru down the street. As she continued to whine faintly about her Prince...Who was coming...Tomorrow...
Well, he noted...Perhaps your Prince waits in the fairy castle over there...he pointed to the tavern.
(He left Darla to hunt on her own in the presence of Watchers and the Slayer and went carousing while he baby-sat his "daughter". No doubt planning to throw her at the first Watcher or Slayer rearing a head...Vladimir noted to himself.
No great surprise there...)
….
The scouts sent out by the Chairman having failed to provide any useful information to Rathskeller's and Miss Rosenberg's group...And the others, with useful information, being Simon's own agents likewise on his secret order offering nothing on the Angelus pride's new lair...The meeting broke up with plans to reconvene tomorrow afternoon and Farris returned to his own rooms.
Where he would prepare for Miss Addams'...er Mrs. What's-his-fool-name?'s return...
Willow and the Chairman both having urged him to again press Miss Addams to see her Duty and assist them, he had every intention of carrying out their wishes.
Just not quite in the way they expected...Having as he did, definite information as to the new lair of the Angelus "family".
Back in his rooms, eyeing himself in a mirror, Farris sang blithely...
(This is from Polly, the banned sequel to "The Beggar's Opera" by John Gay)
"In pimps and politicians
The genius is the same;
Both raise their own conditions
On others guilt and shame:
With a tongue well-tipt with lyes
Each the want of part supplies
And with a heart that's all disguise,
Keeps his schemes unknown.
Seducing as the devil,
They play the tempter's part,
And have, when most they're civil
Most mischief in their heart.
Each a secret commerce drives,
First corrupts and then connives
And by his neighbours vices thrives
For they are all his own.
And by his neighbours vices...Thrives (high note)
For they...Are all his own."
A knock at his door...Dear Cicely's...
He let her in...She rushed in...Staring at him.
"I apologize for coming so late without notice, Simon..."
He nodded...Waving at a chair...
"Have you got any new information?..." she asked.
"We do..." he paused, eyeing her...Ring on her finger...Though she'd managed to change her clothes...
"I see congratulations are in order..." he smiled at her.
She started a moment then smiled...The ring...
"I forgot to take it off..." she murmured. And removed it gently, putting it in her pocket "I'm sorry you couldn't be there. We kept it very small."
"I would have made a most reluctant guest, my dear." he noted.
"I cannot approve of what you've done, Cicely. You know that..."
"You've foolishly endangered this man and all those you might have saved in the future with my...and the Council's help."
"I'll still be a Slayer, Simon..." she frowned at him.
"Just not at the beck and call of the Council...And not in London."
"Or England, perhaps...?" he looked away.
"Perhaps..." she looked at him.
"It might be best if we left...After he's taken his degree. And you've said there was some danger to the sealed Hellmouth portal in America..."
Hmmn...She'd remembered that. But that was a project for after he had secured the
Chairmanship. To find the sealed portal by making use of ole Heinrich Nast, the self-proclaimed "Master" of vampires, the first to challenge old Dracula for top spot in many centuries, who was known to be seeking the portal himself with knowledge acquired from many enemies human and demonic...To locate the thing and then, after destroying the "Master"…Utilize its powers himself...
"Aren't you happy for me, Simon...?" she came over to him. Kneeling at his chair...
"Next to my Papa, you're the one person in the world I am saddened to hurt over this..." she began.
"If you could just..."
"You are a fool, girl!..." he raged. His self-control slipping in her immediate presence. Knowing that he had lost her, must destroy her...
And still...Wanting her...
He rose...
"Throwing yourself away on the first fool with a smile and a clever word. A nobody...God, you silly fool...You were made for a king...!"
"I don't want a king...I want William..." she replied coldly. Rising as well...
"And I want freedom..."
Maybe from you, too...she thought. Staring at him...
Made...And he my Maker? In his own mind, at least...
No...Simon is just concerned for me. As always...
He got hold of himself...
"I apologize, my dear. Your happiness is all that matters to me. But, I fear you will not be happy in the end, abandoning your work and your Duty..."
"I am not abandoning my Duty, Simon. I have told you that. And that is why I am here..."
"Yet you haven't told your...Husband...About that work..." he pointed out.
"Do you intend to...?" he leaned against a bust of Caesar. The one luxury of a kind he'd allowed himself in his rooms besides the volumes necessary for his research...
"When the time's right...And I will decide for myself when that is."
He stared at her a long moment. Weighing something in his mind...
Somehow...For the first time since she'd first met him, when her governess...A Council agent...Had taken her to see him for an initial evaluation at 13. And he'd coldly eyed the frightened young girl, destined to become his special charge and pride... She was terrified...
Back then she'd whole-heartedly believed they would kill her if she didn't pass their tests...Not entirely a false assumption at the time...But one that had vanished under Simon's kindness and praise. His exhortations to make the most of what God had given her for the service of Humanity. His portrayal in vivid tones of the fight between Dark and Light she had been called to...
Her pride and, to be honest, arrogance, in having a special calling that raised her above the fools she dealt with in the trivial social whirl she managed so deftly...
No mere butterfly was she...No mere human in fact...And Farris had stroked that ego for many years.
Indeed he'd done his clever best to fill the gap in her life that the death of her mother and her father's inability to express his love outside his domineering pride in her...And his watchfulness...had left. Until he'd become a third parent to her...One whose efforts had saved her many a time.
But now...She was that terrified child again. Gazing into the eyes of a cold and calculating "parent" who she somehow knew. Would kill her if she failed his tests...
He relaxed a bit. Smiling at her...And she brushed the fear from her mind...
"You have always known your own mind, dear." he nodded.
And...There always is another Slayer...he did not say.
"Well...To the matter at hand..."
….
Shortly after Cicely had left, armed with the address of the new lair. He summoned Haly again...
"You've sent her?" the demon, now in the same clothes Cicely had worn a few moments before, asked him.
"She's off to the pride's new lair..." he nodded.
"Aren't you risking a great deal giving her such information? Are you so sure she won't encounter them...And defeat or be defeated by them...Tonight?"
"We must have her believing I am doing all I can in her behalf. The rest, my dear...Is up to you and your Lord, as we agreed..." Farris eyed Halfreck.
"If you want her in that state of despair that might lead her to accept D'Hoffryn's offer...You must see she lives and does not destroy our dear Drusilla tonight."
"However, I intend to put my best efforts into the scales..." he waved an airy hand.
"My dearest charge is in deadly danger and I fully intend to go to her assistance..."
Haly frowned. A lot being put on her in this deal...Still one item was fairly secure.
"Drusilla is out with the others. The lair is empty for now..."
"Then all you must do is see they do not return. This night... While I arrange the final piece in our puzzle..."
"Dear Cicely must be made to see the danger abandoning her duty places her family in..." he smiled.
