Chapter 14
Once more the Winchester family stood around a grave, this time it was Mary's and they were alone. There were no other grieving family members this grey wind swept day, just the five of them. And only two of the people there had known Mary. Sam had been far too young to have even the slightest memory of her when she died. Buffy and Dawn felt bad not for the lady in the grave; for them death, even at the hands of a demon, was a sad thing but something that happened rather frequently. No, the ones that they felt badly for were the men standing around it. It would always be the survivors who had it the hardest. That they knew from experience.
John had lost the love of his life, Buffy knew. She knew that he loved her as well, but there was nothing and no one that could take Mary's place in his heart. That was the way it should be. No one could take Angel's place in hers and he was as lost to her as Mary was to John, even if she hadn't lost him to death.
Dean had lost the only mother he had ever known or would ever want. There was nothing more to say than that. For four years she had been his whole world and then a demon had torn it apart. That he had been able to go on at all was a testament to how John had raised him. Most little boys would have needed years of therapy and or support from family. All Dean had had was John and his baby brother. Without a doubt that was why they meant so much to him now. For Dean, family was everything.
For Sam, this trip was very different than the times he had made it in the past. For the first time he had a memory of his mother. He only wished it wasn't one of her spirit destroying itself to save his life. It seemed to be a running pattern in his relationship with his mother. She sacrificed herself twice for him, once as a baby and once as an adult, neither time did he get to spend very much time with her before she was gone.
This time, Buffy and Dawn hung back to watch as the men said their pieces to the dead woman. Although Buffy could hear every word they said, thanks to her slayer hearing, she didn't want to intrude upon their grief and pretended she couldn't hear a thing. And really, it wasn't much more than what was said a few days before at Jessica's grave. From Sam and Dean, it was mostly 'We got him Mom, none of them will hurt anyone again.' It was when Dean and Sam both went to stand beside Buffy and Dawn and John was alone that anything different was said. "Go on back to the car, ok guys? Your dad will be along in a minute and I want a chance to say some stuff too." Buffy said quietly.
"Sure, Buffy." Dean said quietly and shooed his little brother and sister back to the car.
"Well, like the boys told you Mary, we got them. The whole clan of demons is dead. Dean was the one who did it. The worst part was if they had just left us alone, if they had just left you alive, we wouldn't have gone after them. The only reason they came after us was because of this stupid prophecy. It said that Dean would kill them but they thought it meant that Sammy would. Idiots, Dean's power may be more passive, but it's just as strong as Sammy's."
John sighed. "A lot has happened this year Mary. Most of it in the last six months or so. I have a daughter. Her name is Dawn. I didn't get her in the regular way, Mary. You know I would have told you if I'd found someone. I have met someone, but it's Dawn's mother and I didn't meet her until after I found out about Dawn. You see, Dawn was conceived by magic and then aged up to fourteen. She's almost a year old now. In fact her first birthday is in less than two weeks and I've got to start worrying about boyfriends already. She's a great girl, just as smart as Sammy but the questions she asks! She has to know every little detail! At least I can tell her I don't know something and she'll accept it. Sam and I always did go round and round.
"He's a seer, Mary. Lately we've been having the same dreams. Little girls being killed and there wasn't anything we could do to stop it. We did save one though, sort of. We managed to warn her. She's a potential slayer. Slayers," John laughed. "Well, it seems our family is going to be neck deep in them now Mary. Dawn's mother is Buffy. She's the senior Slayer. God, that was a trip finding that out! I love her Mary. It's like I died without you. I only stayed alive for the boys and to get that damned demon. I don't think I would have survived or even wanted to if I hadn't met her. The boys are all grown up and it was dead. But she woke me up and I started to live again.
"I just stopped to help out with an apocalypse and the next thing I knew I was neck deep in Watchers and Witches and Slayers and everything that was connected to her life. I still don't know how I ended up as her boyfriend. I mean she's just this little whirlwind and she grabbed me up and tossed me where she wanted me and realistically I couldn't be happier. I know you wouldn't want me to be alone forever Mary, but she's someone who really understands not just what my life has become, but your place in it too.
"Oh and she was so good with the boys about a month ago. They got hit with this spell and they were little kids for about a week. She's a really good mother. She's also one hell of a fighter. I know I'll loose her too, but it'll be ok Mary. I'll be ok. Because this time I'm going to be right there with her when she goes. I figure whatever takes her out will be wounded enough that I can take it with me. Hell, she's so good that I might even go first this time. But it doesn't matter. Life will work itself out like it always does.
"Dean's got himself a Slayer as a girlfriend. Her name is Faith and she's a real match for him. If we can keep her alive long enough she'll make him a good partner one day, although she says she doesn't want to get married. We'll just see how that goes. He gets along with her Watcher well so things are going good for him.
"Sammy is going to school to be a doctor, Mary. A doctor. Your father was really pleased to see that. We sort of mended fences with him and the boys got to meet your brother. He's a nice guy. It was all Dean could do to keep his smart mouth down to a minimum though. Dawn didn't hold back any. I've got to go now, Mary. The kids are waiting on me." John got up and walked back to the Impala, stopping at where Buffy was waiting.
"I'm going to say a few things to her and meet you back at the car, ok?" Buffy asked after giving John a hug.
"No problem. It'll give me a chance to get myself together before we go over to see Missouri."
Buffy nodded and made her way to Mary Winchester's grave. "Hi Mary, I'm Buffy. I just wanted you to know that I love John and I'm going to take good care of him. Well, as much as I can any way. I'll watch his back. Most of the time he's the one taking care of me. I don't think he knows how much I appreciate that. It isn't that I've never told him, it's more that we tend to speak different languages because of the age gap I think.
"Yeah, I'm a lot younger than he is, but being a Slayer I won't make it too much longer. I've already passed my twentieth birthday and that's ancient for a Slayer. Very few of us ever make it to our eighteenth, never mind our twentieth. But I've got a lot of good people backing me and John's in good hands with them. They'll take care of him when I can't.
"Dean is dating Faith and it is serious. He's so much like his dad the way they went about courting us. Don't worry about Faith though; they're good for each other. I think the only way it will go bad is when she dies. It sucks having such a short shelf life compared to everyone around you. You at least had the chance to have a family even if they did loose you. John's done really well raising your boys. They're good men. My family will look after them for both of us when I'm gone. They won't be alone again." Buffy stood up and left the cemetery. It felt good to be able to make that promise to Mary. She knew that it would be kept regardless of whether or not she made it past her next birthday
Missouri Mosley hummed to herself as she set her kitchen table. Her guests would be here soon. It wasn't often that she had a house full of guests and it would be wonderful seeing John with his boys once more. Even meeting his new daughter and his Slayer was going to be an experience. She laughed at herself. She hadn't been this upbeat in years.
She blamed it all on John; usually the man brought a black cloud with him where ever he went. This time he was a blazing sun with only wisps of clouds covering the light. It was so good to feel her old friend in love. She went and checked on the pot roast she had in the oven. She hoped she had enough food. Slayers were notoriously big eaters and Sam wasn't that far out of the 'eat everything in sight' stage either. Dawn, now she could go either way. Some girls ate like birds while others fed their growing bodies properly. John and Dean of course were both big men, which meant big appetites.
She smiled and went to the door. They were here. She opened the door before anyone could knock and smiled again at the surprised look on Dawn's face. "Come in, come in honey child. You too boys. John it's so good to see you. Hello Buffy, now all of you get in here and set yourselves right on down. None of that Dean Winchester!" Missouri smacked Dean on the head and led the way to the dinning room.
Buffy stared at Dean while Sam and John laughed. "Missouri reads minds." Dean said sourly.
"Yeah, and she doesn't put up with your crap either." Sam laughed.
"If it didn't come out of my mouth it doesn't count." Dean groused.
Buffy painfully smiled. "Dean, if she reads minds she probably can't help it. I had a problem once with that and it just about overwhelmed me. In fact that was how I found out about what really happened during the band candy thing. I was shocked and horrified."
Missouri laughed and settled the Winchesters' around her table. "It isn't that bad for me, but you know how some people are. They just can't help but think the most outrageous things. Besides Dean, the last time you were here you needed someone to get mad at. You needed the distraction."
The research had been going on for days. Every book that any of the three Watchers had was searched for even the tiniest reference to the mysterious seal that had been found by Faith and Jack. Jack had even gone as far as e-mailing Daniel a copy of a picture of the seal. So far no one had much luck in finding anything. There was one good thing though, Jack thought as he opened the e-mail from Daniel. SG1 was back from off world and if anyone could translate the thing, it was Danny.
Jack, where on earth did you find this? I've only found a few references to a similar seal off world. From what I've managed to decipher from those it is made to seal a 'well of power' that is basically untamable. Scary stuff, Jack. Think about when you got
the Ancient's archive downloaded into your brain. We're talking about something that they considered to be untamable. There is a
way to unseal it, of course, but the Ancient's weren't fools. It takes about seven months and requires a lot of blood from the local
population in a ritual to unseal it. The best translation for the writing that I can come up with is, "From beneath you it devours"
Jack, be careful with this. If you need any help, send us a message. This wasn't what we had planned when we sent you there. It
was supposed to be a sleepy little small town, not one that was hiding an Ancient artifact.
Daniel
Jack paced up and down the living room of Xander's apartment. Danny had said a lot of blood from the local population. When he said local population in regards to one of these things he wasn't talking about the town's population, he was talking about the population of the planet the artifact was found on. That meant that someone had started opening the hellmouth on Halloween. Hell, the spiders had probably been a distraction! As much as he didn't want to, he was going to have to start talking about what he knew in more than very vague terms. But first he had to have permission from the General. He sat down and sent General Hammond an e-mail.
General, as Dr. Jackson may have informed you, I have a situation here that requires some delicate handling. I need to know if this
group of people has any clearance, or has any hope of clearance to know about the Ancients.
Rupert Giles, British citizen Wesley Pryce, British citizen
Elizabeth Giles, British citizenGrace Henry, British citizen
Buffy Ann Summers, American Alexander Lavell Harris, American
Willow Rosenburg, AmericanJohn Winchester, American
Samuel Winchester, AmericanJoyce Summers, American
These people are involved as are a few others. Sir, in my opinion they can be trusted with the information. They have a similar covert
job and are very good at what they do. They have allowed me to join them and so I have learned a great deal about their operations
here. They are good people, George. If hell is about to come down on their heads, they need to know about it.
Jonathan Jackson