"I hate the fucking hospital."
"It's only for a day. Two, tops. I'll be there."
"Two days when I can't do anything because they'll have me wired up like a Christmas tree."
"There definitely won't be an angel over your head."
Jo glared at Blair.
"Once we know what's going on, we'll come home."
"Good morning, Ms. Polniaczek, Ms. Warner." Dr. Hudson smiled cheerfully.
"Unless you're here to spring me, you can turn around and leave," Jo answered.
"You're going home today."
"What did you find?" Blair asked.
"It's more what I didn't find. I think this is just part of the healing process. It's been accelerated all along, so I think this will pass soon."
"In the meantime?"
Dr. Hudson looked at Jo. "Still the same. Take your meds, try to avoid stress, don't bang your head on the floor. No driving. Get dressed and I'll get your paperwork done." She left them.
"Happy now?" Jo asked.
"Thrilled," Blair answered honestly, smiling.
When the doctor returned 20 minutes later, Jo was fidgeting. Once they were finished with the paperwork, Jo asked, "Doc, can I lose the babysitters?"
"Not yet."
"C'mon," Jo whined.
"Nope. You go a month with no major episodes, I say it's safe for you to be alone. Until then, someone needs to keep an eye on you."
"Damn it," Jo muttered and hopped off the bed.
"Wheelchair," Dr. Hudson reminded her.
"No." Jo picked up her bag and walked out the door. Blair rolled her eyes, took the discharge papers, said goodbye to Dr. Hudson, and followed her.
Jo and Blair were both busy for the next two weeks. Between preparing for the holidays and the end of the school term, Blair was on a tightly scheduled tear. Jo stood back and watched everything happen. She did her own shopping while Blair was in school. The find that delighted her the most was a ring, the channel of silver colored metal holding diamonds.
She bought her mother a new winter coat. At an antiques store, she found an intricate gold cuff bracelet for Blair's mother, and a fountain pen for her father. She bought a few other things for Blair - a leather notebook, a gold necklace, and a silk blouse – before her cash reserve was tapped out. She and Amy talked about it, and decided against exchanging gifts. It was just too weird, they concluded.
Blair's last final was on Friday, exactly a week before Christmas. She came home and disappeared into the bedroom. An hour later, she came out carrying two small bags, which she put by the door before finding Jo in the kitchen.
"You ready to go?"
"Go where?"
"Someplace warm and sunny."
"Works for me."
"I packed your bag. We need to get moving so we don't miss our flight."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. Get a move on."
Someplace warm and sunny turned out to be a resort in the Virgin Islands. After shopping for swimwear and a few outfits, they spent the rest of the time on the beach or in bed. Jo continued to have small seizures, and Blair continued to keep track of them, but didn't make a big deal out of it.
They went back to Wellesley on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, packed to go to New York. Blair took care of choosing clothes, knowing they had at least three parties to attend. She worried a little about their effect on Jo. On Christmas Eve, at least, they would be at her mother's, so Jo could slip away to lie down if she had to. The other nights, they would play by ear. They had to make at least an appearance at parties on two other nights before they could return home.
They'd talked about what to do for New Year's Eve, but hadn't reached a decision. Blair's paternal grandparents gave a formal party every year. They could go to Times Square, or they could just stay home in Wellesley. Blair wanted to go to her grandparents' party, while Jo leaned toward staying home. Both of them knew that if Blair really wanted to go, Jo would accompany her.
A large suitcase and two suit bags later, Blair was finished. Jo, who finished packing the gifts an hour before, looked at them on the bed and sighed. Blair did not understand traveling light. Jo picked them up, and Blair went to the front door. She held it open while Jo exited, picked her purse from the closet door, and closed it. In the elevator, she found her keys in her bag, and by the time Jo reached the trunk, it was open.
Jo got the computer bag and the suitcase full of wrapped gifts. Blair got their coats, and they went downstairs again. Jo put these bags in the floor behind the passenger seat and got in the car.
They had dinner with Monica that evening, but she left them to attend a charitable function. Jo and Blair lay in Blair's bed and watched television.
Jo put her foot down about Christmas Eve shopping, and instead, they went first to the lawyer's office. After that, they went to Rockefeller Center and ice-skated for an hour. They had a cup of hot chocolate and walked around and looked at decorations for another hour before deciding they had enough of the crowds and went back to Monica's apartment to hide in Blair's bedroom for the rest of the day.
The party was beginning to thin out by 10 p.m. Jo was glad. She'd been caught by Blair several times staring at nothing, and she was tired. She let Blair talk, answering only direct questions, otherwise smiling and trying to look interested. Blair kept them away from the spiked punch bowl.
Christmas morning, Jo woke first. Blair covered her, and Jo sighed happily. Although the other gifts were under the tree, she kept the ring nearby. Blair was beginning to wake up, and when she raised her head, Jo smiled at her. "Merry Christmas."
Blair kissed her. "Merry Christmas."
"I have something special I wanna give you before we get up."
"Me too."
"Bathroom and back to bed?" Jo suggested.
"Deal." Blair kissed Jo again before rolling out of bed. Jo waited until Blair left the room to open the nightstand drawer and pull out the ring box. She put it on the nightstand and closed the drawer, then got out of bed. She straightened up the covers while she waited for Blair to return.
Jo took her turn in the bathroom, and Blair got a box of her own from her purse. When Jo came back, they sat beside each other in the middle of the bed. Jo handed Blair the small box. "I'm really glad you're back in my life, and I want to make sure you know it." She kissed Blair's cheek. "Merry Christmas, sweetheart."
Blair opened the box and smiled. "I think we had the same idea." She handed Jo a box.
Inside, Jo found the mate to the ring she gave Blair. She smiled hugely.
"Is that a yes?"
"Yes," Jo answered, and kissed her.
They slid the rings onto each other's left hands and kissed again, trading "I love you"s, before getting up to begin the day.
Christmas was quiet. They traded gifts with Monica, then caught a cab to visit David, and a third to have dinner with Rose. It was 10 p.m. before they returned to Manhattan.
The rest of the week was equally busy, and before they knew it, it was New Year's Eve. Blair's grandparents were looking forward to meeting Jo, her grandmother told Blair, and Jo knew that was what they were doing on New Year's Eve. She wasn't looking forward to it at all, not even to seeing Blair all dressed up.
The all dressed up bit was pretty good, Jo had to admit. Blair was lovely. Jo felt more comfortable than expected in the dress Blair picked out for her, but would have preferred a tux. "Do we have to dance?"
"Yes."
"I don't know how."
"All you have to do is relax and follow me. Come here."
Jo approached Blair. Blair placed Jo's right hand at her waist and picked up her left.
"Ready?" Blair asked.
Jo nodded. Blair began to move. Jo had trouble at first, but Blair persisted until they were dancing smoothly.
"See? It's not a big deal." Blair kissed her.
At midnight, they kept dancing through their kiss. The power stayed on, and none of the things everyone feared actually happened, and Jo and Blair left the party at 12:30. The streets were clogged with traffic, and there was no getting a cab. Fortunately, it was only a three-block walk.
That afternoon, they drove home to Wellesley to start the new year.
It was a good year. Blair made the Dean's List, and Jo had fewer seizures. At the end of March, after three months with no major seizures and only one petit mal episode every few days, Dr. Hudson okayed Jo staying alone. Jo passed the GED tests on the first try. She completed the tests, and had the certificate before Blair's birthday in April. Jo didn't push patrolling, as much as she itched to do it. Instead, she continued reading and teaching herself how to operate different computer programs. She took Blair's car one morning, and Blair came home from class to find Jo on the floor with parts of three computers spread out around her. Two days later, the bits had been reassembled into one machine, and the rest were gone.
At the end of June, they returned to Boston for another appointment with Dr. Hudson. Dr. Hudson had Jo in the hospital again. She took CT scans and EEGs, and told them that no sign of damage remained. They would try now to stop the anti-seizure medication, and if that went well, Jo would be released at the end of the year. Dr. Hudson told Jo to wait a month after stopping the medication, a seizure-free month, she stressed, to return to martial arts.
They spent the rest of the summer at the Warners' beach house in Georgia. Jo spent a lot of time training, although it didn't look that way to anyone who saw her. She ran in the sand and through the surf, played volleyball, and swam every day, rebuilding her endurance. When Blair returned to classes, Jo started patrolling again.
The first few nights, Blair was sitting up waiting for her, even though Jo agreed to come in by midnight and carried a new cell phone with GPS tracking. On Friday night, when Jo came in, she sat Blair on the sofa to talk before bed.
"You don't have to wait up for me."
"I want to."
"Then you shouldn't have taken 8:30 classes every morning. I'll be here when you wake up or you'll know why."
"What if you get hurt again?"
"It's"
"Don't you dare say it won't happen."
"It isn't likely. I'm being very careful. I wasn't then."
"I'm going to worry about you."
"Worry is fine. Obsessing isn't." Jo touched Blair's cheek.
"Have I been obsessing?"
"Maybe a little."
"So if I wait for you naked in bed, am I still obsessing?"
"No, naked in bed is another kind of obsession." Jo smirked. "Wanna see how it works?"
"Five minutes," Blair answered, and kissed Jo briefly before heading to the bedroom.
Jo started working on getting her boots off.
That night, she had the first nightmare she'd had in a long time. Something was coming from under the ground to take everything she held dear, before setting its sights on her. Jo sat up panting, sweating, and it took a few seconds for her to realize it wasn't real.
She got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a glass of water, and after she drank it, stood at the windows until she was calm enough to return to bed.
It wasn't any different from any other night of patrol. Jo stalked through cemeteries and alleys, again in her aunt's neighborhood. She was walking through the final cemetery of the night, on the way to her bike, when she heard movement behind her.
When Jo turned, there were two of the oddest-looking men she'd ever seen. They were pale, with eyes sewn shut. Black robes with silver decoration included hoods that sometimes covered their faces.
Despite not being able to see, they had a good idea where to slash with their big knives. Jo was quicker, and disabled and disarmed one after a minute or so of dancing around it. The second was a little harder, and she had to get around to its back so she could twist its neck.
When they were both down, Jo checked them for other weapons and memorized their faces, wishing there was enough light to take a picture with her phone. Something about the eyes bothered her, beyond the fact that they were sewn shut. She stashed the knives in her saddlebag and rode home, paying attention at every place she had to slow or stop.
Jo didn't go right to bed that night. She spent some time researching the beings she ran into on patrol, but didn't get very far. She went back to research when she got up, after another nightmare of something formless rising from the earth, and kept at it until 4 p.m. There was no patrol tonight, a year since Jo found Blair on campus. They had reservations at someplace in Boston that required them to dress up. Blair's flowers were delivered at lunchtime, and Jo knew she would delight in carrying them around all day. She half-expected a phone call about them.
Blair got home at 4:30, as she usually did, and once her arms were empty, tackled Jo on the sofa. "They're beautiful," she said between kisses. "Thank you so much."
"Mmm. You're welcome."
"What time's our reservation?"
"Seven."
"Plenty of time," Blair said, smiling. She got up from the couch and tugged on Jo's arm.
Jo scrambled to follow.
On patrol the next night, in a different part of town, Jo was attacked by two more of the strange beings. This time, she sliced open her palm stopping a knife before she took them down. She cut off her shirttail to wrap around her hand until the bleeding stopped.
Jo called it a night, then, and went back home to continue her research. She hoped, when she stumbled to bed exhausted, that she would sleep through, but she dreamed again, of demons and fire and the end of humanity.
The third night brought three of them, and a more difficult fight. She was so amped up by it that she was out until 3 a.m., chasing down shadows. When the alarm got Blair out of bed, Jo was at the computer, still trying to learn about the things she encountered in the cemeteries. Blair put her to bed, but even sleeping in sunlight, Jo's nightmares continued.
There were no more of the strange things for a few weeks. Jo continued to research, but didn't find much. The next night, she encountered two packs of vampires and one of the strange robed men. When she got home, she looked up phone numbers she never thought she'd need again, and waited until 9:30 to call Sunnydale. She could tell someone answered each number, but there was too much static for Jo to recognize who or to have a conversation.
That night, she stopped abruptly when she saw Buffy, leaning against a building, seemingly waiting for her.
"B?"
"Faith," Buffy smiled back.
"I tried to call you."
"I know."
"You shoulda let us know you were comin'. We'd'a picked you up."
Buffy shrugged. "It's not necessary."
"What're you doin' here?"
"I can't just drop in to see an old friend?"
Jo heard a noise and turned to look over her shoulder. She saw the robed demons and turned back to Buffy. "Have you seen these guys?"
"I'm familiar."
"You gonna gimme a hand?"
"Why would I do that?"
"Oh, c'mon, I didn't anything that bad." Jo turned to face the Bringers.
"Helping you won't get me anywhere near my goal."
"Your goal?" Jo disarmed one Bringer and used it as a shield against the others.
"To take over the world one Slayer at a time. Oh, wait. There's only one who matters."
"Whaddya mean?" Jo snapped the Bringer's neck and shoved its body forward. The second and third Bringers stumbled over it while she backed up.
"Well, let's see, I died, and Kendra came, and Kendra died and you came, and you died and the new girl came, and I died, but no one else came. So, smart math says knock off the experienced Slayer first, then the potentials, and when there's no one else, that child."
"Child." Jo kicked the second Bringer into the third, and while they were down, drove the first one's knife into their chests.
"Well, she's hardly experienced enough to be called a Slayer."
"Say you do all that," Jo said while she straightened up. "Then what?"
"The end of the world as we know it," Buffy chuckled. "And I feel fine. See you next time." She disappeared into a blip of light.
"Fuck, shit, piss, and corruption." Jo stared a few seconds longer where Buffy had been. She looked at the Bringers and sighed, then headed for her bike. Patrol was over for tonight. There were too many things she needed to learn quickly.
As soon as she got home, she tried to call Sunnydale again. There was only endless unanswered ringing. She worried about that, and checked the news. Nothing about any disaster in California, natural or otherwise, and she called repeatedly.
As morning approached, Jo decided that the first thing she needed to do was check on the newest Slayer and her Watcher in the hope they might have some information. She left Blair a note and walked to the church. Jo fidgeted through the service, and when it was over, walked to Father Mike.
"Good to see you, Jo."
"You, too, Father."
"Are you worried about something?"
"The other girl. In Boston. Is she all right?"
"I suppose so."
"Do you know how I can find her?"
"She's in Brookline."
"Could you be more specific?"
"They start in the St. Michael Cemetery."
"The fancy one?"
Father Mike nodded. "Why all the questions?"
"Let's just skip the crazy story and say somethin' really weird's goin' on."
"I can help," Father Mike offered.
Jo shook her head.
"Have you called California?"
"Can't get through."
"Is that why you're worried?"
"Part of it."
"Come with me." Father Mike turned toward one of the side doors.
Jo followed him to his office. She stood and watched while he went through a card file, then picked up the receiver and dialed a number. After several minutes, he hung up the phone. "No answer," he reported. "That's never happened before." He looked at Jo. "When was the last time you took communion?"
Jo shrugged.
"Come on," he instructed.
"I haven't been to confession."
"I think God will understand," Father Mike answered, and led Jo back to the empty church. He gave her communion, adding to the ritual his own prayer for her safety, and walked Jo up the aisle. He handed her a chain with a medallion. "Wear this and be careful," he said sternly.
"Yes, Father," Jo answered. "What is it?" she asked.
"St. Michael, warrior angel," he answered.
Jo put it on and slipped the medallion under her shirt.
"Be careful," Father Mike repeated.
"I will," Jo answered, and headed back to the empty apartment to try to get some sleep.
Blair woke her up when she came home from classes. "Have you been sleeping all day?" she asked with mock exasperation.
"Apparently." Jo sat up and stretched, then looked at the clock. "I gotta go," she said urgently, and got out of bed. She kissed Blair on the way to the bathroom, and again when she came back in to get dressed.
"Something wrong?" Blair asked while she watched Jo throw on clothes.
"Hope not. I'll probably be late." Jo started to leave, then turned around. She stopped in front of Blair. "I love you," she told her, and kissed her without hurry. Then she rushed from the bedroom. Blair heard the closet door open and close, then the front door.
Jo knew she was early. It was still dusk. She could have stopped to eat, but her stomach was as unsettled as her nerves. She leaned against the mausoleum and looked around.
At first, she thought they were shadows, but she caught a glimpse of a huge silver knife and took off after it.
It joined a pack surrounding a small, dark woman. She was fighting hard, but Jo kept losing sight of her and joined the battle to even the odds. When the Bringers were no longer a danger, the girl flew at Jo. When she landed a punch, she stopped moving and stared at Jo.
"Holy shit, you're real."
"Of course I'm real," Jo snapped.
"No, you don't understand. You've been out here every night, taunting me."
"It wasn't me. C'mon, we need to talk to your Watcher."
"Who are you?"
"Jo."
"I'm Kennedy."
Jo offered her hand. "Good to meet'cha. Let's go."
Kennedy shook her hand, and set off behind Jo.
They rode Jo's Harley, Kennedy giving additional directions whenever they stopped for a stop sign or traffic light. When they got to the house, the front door was open. Jo went in first, leading with the short sword she began carrying the night after she met her first Bringers.
The house was torn apart, furniture tossed aside, curtains down, and Kennedy's Watcher was dead in front of the fireplace, the hearthstones dark with her blood. Jo knew that the next time she slept, she'd dream of Catherine, see her blood spurt, smell her coming death, hear her scream until it was the only noise that ever existed in the world. Jo turned around and grabbed Kennedy's shoulders. The girl didn't need to see her Watcher's body. She directed Kennedy up the hallway. "Where's your room?"
"What's in there?"
"You gotta get some clothes so we can get outta here." Jo kept pushing, slowly moving them toward the staircase.
"Where are we going?"
"California."
"You're kidding."
"I never kid," Jo said. "Where's your room?"
Kennedy bolted up the stairs, and Jo followed her. "Get a couple changes of clothes."
Kennedy dove into her closet and threw two duffel bags out. Jo picked them up and tossed them on the bed. She grabbed the clothes Kennedy tossed toward the bed and rolled them tightly before fitting them into one of the duffels.
"C'mon, Junior, we need to go." Jo zipped the bag and tossed it to Kennedy.
"I need to get some weapons."
"You don't need a damn thing else. Let's go." Jo wasn't gentle about it. She had height, a little weight, and experience backing her up, and she marched Kennedy out of the house. They get on Jo's bike and ride out to Wellesley.
Jo woke Blair. "We need to go now, sweetheart," she said urgently.
"What's going on?"
"Those things I told you about, with the eyes sewed close? They're a warning. Something huge is trying to end the world, and we need to go to California."
"I thought there was a Slayer out there."
"I think she's dead."
"Call them."
"Tried. Can't get through. We have to go, Blair. Get dressed."
"All right."
"The new Slayer's in the other room. She's kinda freaked out."
"She's not the only one."
Jo ignored her. She pulled a suitcase from the closet. She put underwear, bras, and socks for both of them in it, two pairs of leather pants, jeans for each of them, half a dozen random shirts from the closet, and a handful of t-shirts.
Jo put the suitcase by the door and packed up the laptops. She took the iPods, too. They had a charger in the car. Blair came out of the bedroom, dressed and yawning. Jo introduced Kennedy, told Blair to get her coat and purse, and they left.
Jo was glad Blair traded her sports car for a sedan. They drove cross-country, changing drivers whenever who was at the wheel needed a break, Jo and Kennedy constantly monitoring their surroundings. Stop for gas, stop for one sit-down meal every 12 hours. Each gas stop, stretching legs, emptying bladders, clearing out trash. And looking around. Jo couldn't stop doing that, even when she and Blair embraced, Blair asking for reassurance that Jo, for the first time, couldn't give. All they could do was keep moving and hope it wasn't too late when they got where they're going.
When Kennedy drove, Jo and Blair stayed in the back seat together. Touching, always touching, while Jo and Kennedy talked about Slaying. Kennedy talked about her Watcher, grieving, but shed no tears. Jo hadn't, and Blair hadn't, and Kennedy was damned if she'd look like a little girl in front of them.
Jo pierced that veil. At the wheel, driving through the middle of the country where there was nothing but miles of empty fields and sky, with Blair sleeping in the back seat and Kennedy edgy in the passenger seat, Jo told Kennedy exactly how she felt watching Kakistos dismember Catherine and afterward. She told her how alone she felt, even in Sunnydale, and how much she missed simple human contact. She told Kennedy that the Watcher's Council was wrong, and Buffy was the proof that even Slayers need more than to fight and die.
Jo was hoarse when she finished, and Kennedy was crying silently, and Blair's hands, on her shoulders since she wasn't sure when, squeezed gently, and Jo knew she had a reason to fight. It wasn't duty or the way it made her feel. It was making sure Blair was safe, that their friends and family got to wake up every morning and live lives that were busy and fulfilling and in the long run meant as much as Jo's own.