Wooohooo three chapters in three days! Can't believe I'm being so productive, like back when I first started this fic. I'm really excited to announce that this fic is not even 2 months all and has exceded all my expectatives. Almost 12000 reads in less than 2 months and 800 visitors only this month! Thanks to every single one of you, I can't believe people even like what I write.
Mia: I know, I love the sister fluff too! The inspiration for those moments comes from my two baby sisters, who I love more than anything. I'm the kind of big sis to threaten to pick up the shotgun when the eldest (14) brings her first boyfriend home.
Also, for anyone that wants to see what I think Ally might look like, there are a couple pics of the face claim on my profile. Tell me what you think about them!
Enjoy!
Lee out.
She was a Summers girl. Legally. Dog bless Lindsey and his not-so-legal lawyer methods. He'd done it once before, when she left L.A., helped her change her last name and get new documentation. She owed him a drink next time she met him. And they had a good party to celebrate it, also with the added 'we didn't get to celebrate your nineteenth birthday because you were dead'. So there were gifts, and drinks, and no magic stuff. Lots of snacks and music and dancing with Dawnie for Ally, even dancing with Willow, anything to get her mind off the fact that Spike wasn't there.
He hadn't been around for some time. Not even when she went to see him at his crypt. It looked like he knew when she'd go or had a hell of a sixth sense and hiding abilities. It hurt, more than she had expected. She hadn't expected him to take it so bad. She had just called Lindsey for help, it was not like she had arranged a snogging session and banged the daylights out of him. She couldn't understand why he took it so bad. No one had seen him in the last two weeks, yet his things were still at the crypt, so he couldn't have left, could he.
Still, she tried to enjoy the party as much as possible.
With Buffy working at the Doublemeat Palace, the party had started quite late, as they wanted to wait for her to get back from work before doing anything. After all, she had the idea of throwing a party, and was going to bring greasy food for whoever wanted it.
So there they were, the three sisters dancing, Buffy precariously holding a cup with something that smelled awfully similar to the liquors Spike favoured while moving to the music.
"Oh, I can't believe you are now legally our sister, Alls!" Dawn shrieked as she hugged Ally once more. She'd been doing that quite a lot since they got the papers in the mail the day before, a letter from Lindsey attached to it.
"You can call me Ally Summers." She grinned, holding the teen tightly between her arms. "Sounds good."
"It does." Buffy agreed as she took another gulp from the cup.
Soon, Dawn left the 'dance floor' (a.k.a. living room) and scurried to the kitchen, probably to get something cold from the fridge, the eldest Summers girls sitting down on the arm chairs next to Xander and Anya, who were still discussing wedding arrangements. Willow was swaying to the music in her seat on the couch as she listened to the couple and tried to keep Xander entertained through Anya's endless chatter.
"There's somebody outside waiting to see you, Alls." Dawn whispered to her when she came back, trying to hold back a smirk and gesturing with her head towards the entrance.
Ally raised her eyebrows, wondering who would have come so late, but stood and walked over to the door to see who the mysterious visitor was from the glass next to it.
Her jaw dropped and she opened the door as quickly as possible, almost breaking it in her haste to get outside, not believing her eyes. How...? Why...?
There stood Spike, bleach blond hair standing out in the dark, looking all the bit broken and like a lost puppy as he held a present between his hands. His eyes found hers, regret flooding them as she stop right under the doorframe, watching him like a deer in headlights. She didn't come closer, and he didn't move from his spot in the walkway for some time.
Why was he there? After the last two weeks, giving no signs he was even alive, why had he come home? Why?
"Spike..." His name left her lips almost unconsciously, so soft a human wouldn't have been able to hear it. Yet he did, and she knew he did, as his face set in a determined expression and he started approaching her.
"You look beautiful, love." He commented, nodding towards the silver and black dress she had chosen for the party. Dawn had said it brought out her eyes, and added that she would sometime borrow it from her part of the closet. They basically shared most clothes by then, anyways. Same jean size, same top size, same shoe size. It was like a trip to the mall for Dawn when she'd grown the last couple inches. "Heard you had a party, new Summers girl, huh?" He stopped a couple feet in front of her, still holding the gift in his hands, like a peace offering.
"Heard from whom? I've been trying to find you. It was like you'd disappeared. Or was it only for me?" The hurt that seeped into her voice made him avert his eyes for a couple seconds.
"No. Been out of town. Came back a couple days ago. The Nibblet found me yesterday;" His gaze fell to the floor, as if he was ashamed. "screamed my ears off, scolded me like a brat, threatened to stake me herself if I didn't 'man up'. Her own words. Told me about the party. Said she'd become a Slayer herself to hunt me down if I didn't come and..." By then, he'd caught the slight twitch to Ally lips and seemed to relax a bit, taking an unnecessary breath. "I'm sorry, Ally Cat."
Oh, so the tables had turned. Last time, it was her asking for forgiveness at his place. Then, it was him. Her eyebrows shot to her hairline in surprise. She'd thought he was angry because she'd called Lindsey.
"Been acting like an idiot. Shouldn't have left like that." He continued, his eyes finding hers again.
"No, you shouldn't." She agreed, nodding her head as she brought her arms around her stomach, hugging herself. "But you're back."
"I'm back." He nodded too and looked at the present in his hands. "Here. For you."
She let her eyes glance from the gift to his face for a few seconds, watching as he got more and more nervous the longer it took her to accept it. Finally, she grabbed the present and tore the red wrappings, revealing a light wooden box, similar to a jewellery box. She raised an eyebrow at him, surprised he'd give something like that when she never wore any jewellery.
"Not what you think. Open it." He gestured toward the lid and waited until she'd lifted it, revealing a set of five daggers, ranging in shape size, all of them shiny and polished, with black handles and matching sheaths. "I remember what you said during the memory spell Red put us under, about not liking jewels. Thought you'd like these better."
"I do." She smirked, lifting her gaze to meet his. "Don't leave again." She pleaded, her voice dropping a few notches.
He shook his head, eyes sincere and regretful. "I won't."
She left the box on the bench beside the entrance and grabbed him from the lapels of his coat, bringing him close in one pull, his arms going around her with practiced ease. "You better. Or I'll train Dawn so she can fulfil her promise."
He lightly smirked, his baby blues reflecting on his improving mood. "You've got the scariest sisters, you know that?"
She smirked back, pride filling her chest. "Summers women are like that."
As she closed the distance between their lips, his hands pulling her closer to him, a flash startled them both, breaking the kiss that had only lasted a few seconds. When they turned to find the origin of the flash, they found Dawn holding the new camera Xander and Anya had gifted Ally with.
"I wanted to put it to good use. What better moment to use it for the first time?" She explained, shrugging in innocence.
It was one of the few nights Buffy and Ally patrolled together. Buffy had been too occupied, what with working -sometimes double shifts- and patrolling afterwards, even if Ally covered most nights. Buffy thought it would be better if they both patrolled different parts of town some days, cover more terrain, so they were almost never together. The blonde usually stayed out patrolling longer than Ally did, or the brunette stayed over at Spikes when she could, now that he was back, so they usually didn't see each other until morning, before the two youngest Summers girls left to go to high school.
Moreover, Ally had been spending most of what was previously her 'free time' -meaning she wasn't training, patrolling, taking care of Dawn or with Spike- with her long time love: physics. She gotten back to doing her research, keeping up to date with the latest findings, writing some articles of her own, or even looking up some courses or seminars at UC Sunnydale.
Once in the graveyard, the Slayers didn't talk much, paying attention to their surroundings so they could catch any suspicious sounds. But the cemetery was dead -well, deader than usual- and they got bored pretty fast.
"There's nothing here." Buffy complained, twirling her stake between her fingers. "Not even a single newbie."
"We might be doing our job too well." Ally supplied, grinning lightly at her sister, who rolled her eyes. "We're running out of things to punch."
"We can always go visit dear William." The blonde suggested, receiving a dry glare from her sister in exchange. In fact, they were not far from his crypt.
"He can punch you back now, you know." The brunette reminded, still quite confused as to what had happened to them.
Buffy's voice turned softer, more reassuring than mocking, knowing it was something that bothered them both. "I met Tara and told her about it, maybe she can find out what's wrong."
"Hope she can."
She didn't want to thing about it, really. She didn't want to think that something was wrong with her sister and her, that they might not be completely human anymore. She wanted to think about something else, anything to get her mind of her dark thoughts.
And right then, they heard the scream. Just her luck.
They both sprinted toward the shrieks, running among the trees until they saw two cloaked figures attacking a girl. They tackled the attackers, or tried to, as they disappeared as soon as they touched them, leaving them both kneeling on the forest floor.
Everything was a mess from then on. First, he girl was lying on the floor, sobbing, then she disappeared and voices started whispering to them, 'What did you do?', 'What did you do Ally?'. Then Ally was alone, looking around in confusion. Not sooner had the fear of something really wrong started seeping in, she turned, only to find Spike on the floor before her, blood dripping for a tiny cut on his lip. "Bloody hell, what'd you do that for?" He growled, surprised at her apparent attack on him.
"Spike?"
What was going on?
And right the next second, one of the cloaked figures was punching her. There were more, one more that there had originally been when she and Buffy had arrived. Even Spike was there, helping them fight the three demons. After snapping the neck of one of them, he turned, blood still staining the corner of his mouth, game face on. "Ally!" He shouted in warning, barely giving her time to knock down one of the figures before the one that had been attacking Buffy was on her, punching her.
And then it was gone. And it was Spike in front of her again.
"Spike. What's happening?" She couldn't keep the feeling of weakness and bewilderment from getting to her voice.
"So you thought you could just slip away then?" He smirked, nearing her with his usual swagger. He was all drama and ego, but she loved him just like that. "Vampire, remember? I could feel you." His voice dropper, husky and inviting, now they were alone in the woods. Yet she knew, it wouldn't last long.
She was right. In the blink of an eye, she was back in the fight, another demon on her. When she turned to punch another, the scene changed again, and she was hitting Spike, sending him to the floor once more. "Bloody hell, what'd you do that for?"
Again. Was she in some kind of loop? What was going on? Was she going crazy?
Right there, a few feet from where she was standing and Spike was trying to get up, the girl they had seen at first dropped to the floor, sobbing.
And the demons were back. And then they were gone. Over and over, there was the fight, and there was her alone in the woods. She was fighting alongside her sister and boyfriend, and then she was on her own. And right when she thought it was just another demon on her, elbowing it as it grabbed her shoulder from behind, she saw the girl from before as she fell down the slope, rolling, not able to even protect herself from the fall.
Oh, no.
The next moment, Buffy was right beside her, looking at the body just like her, face contorted into a horrified grimace. They ran after the girl, slipping down the slope as quickly as possible, leaving Spike to deal with the last demon. Still, they could hear him, calling after the brunette, shooting after them as soon as he could.
By the time he reached them, reached the body of the girl, the Slayers' eyes were unseeing, lost in their own demons.
Ally couldn't even begin to understand what had happened, but she knew what she'd done.
She'd killed the girl.
Her sister's voice only confirmed her thoughts. "She'd dead." Ally's chest constricted, no air reaching her lungs for a few moments. "I killed her."
Just like that, her head whipped to the side to look at Buffy, kneeling right beside her.
"No, Buffy. I did it. I elbowed her. It was me." She corrected.
But Buffy shook her head, not even looking at her. "No. It was me. I punched her. I thought it was another demon."
What was she talking about? They couldn't have both hit her. They couldn't have both killed her. It was so confusing.
"We have to go." Spike muttered behind them, only to be ignored.
"What happened?" The senior Slayer's voice mirrored her thoughts.
"There's nothing you could do now." He insisted, approaching the brunette. "We have to go before someone sees you."
None of the Slayers were listening to him, though, too caught up in their own guilt, ther minds seemingly synchronized. "What did I do?" They whispered, still staring at the body.
She was young. She should not be dead. And she was dead.
"We have to go now!" Spike snarled, grabbing one arm from each of the girls and making them stand, dragging them with him and away from the body. Once they had put some distance between the girl and them, he stopped, bringing both Slayers in front of him, still clutching their arms. "All right. Listen to me. Ally. Buffy!" He shook them, trying to snap them out of it.
"She's dead." Buffy muttered, not meeting his gaze.
"I killed her." Ally sobbed, tears gathering in her eyes.
"It was an accident." He corrected her, as if it changed the fact that the girl was dead.
But Buffy hadn't seemed to listen to any of them. "I killed her."
"I'm gonna get you home."
That brought the same answer from both of them, their eyes flying to his, horrified. "No!"
He wasn't taking any of it. "I'm gonna get you home, and you're gonna crawl in your warm comfy beds and stay there!" He growled, before softening his voice, his eyes finding Ally's. "We're gonna sort this out. Trust me."
She did trust him. She always did.
