Hey everyone! Hope you are liking these last few chapters. I just gotta tell you, next chapter will be... shocking, I hope. It'll be written from Dawn's POV. WARNING: It might not be what you expect. AND there's a reason for everything. I swear.
But here we have another chapter, hope you enjoy this one! We get to find out more about Ally!
As always, thanks so much to the people who take their time to write reviews, I'm immensely to you guys and I'm happy to announce TMS has gotten over 18 thousand views already!
Enjoy!
Lee out.
"Your what?" Dawn blurted, eyes wide. Buffy was basically her reflection.
Ally just stared agape at the group, eyes stinging from guilt and fury from her previous rant. No one even moved, just observed. She could feel the shame, the fear of judgement. She'd felt if before, but it was dimmer. She never expected them to find out. Not like that, at least.
"They don't know?" Riley's voice dropped to a civilized tone. More like his usual self.
Her eyes slowly moved from her sisters to her old protector. She clenched her jaw and shook her head, tears welling up in her eyes. He had dropped the bomb, there was not hiding it anymore.
They knew.
"You have a brother?" Buffy inquired again, approaching her, still in shock.
Ally glanced at Riley again, knowing she wouldn't be capable of answering, opening her mouth and not bursting out in tears. He seemed to understand and left his previous anger aside to place one hand on the brunette's shoulder and stand by her side as he turned to look at the other Slayer.
"Maybe we should leave this until the mission is over. We have no time to waste."
Ally took this as her way out, steeling herself to mumble the sentence as quick as possible and leave. "I'll go ahead and check on a source." She spun on her heel and left as quick as possible.
Buffy knew who her source was, and she knew not to go there anytime soon.
He was at the top level of his crypt when she arrived. He was sitting on top of the tomb, reading, a few candles lit around the crypt. He immediately looked up when she opened the door, and left the book to jump off the tomb when he noticed her distraught condition.
God, she'd missed him. She hadn't seen him in a couple days.
"What's wrong, love?" He cupped her face and made her look at him, taking in her trembling lips and tear stained rosy cheeks. She'd been running. As soon as she was out of sight from the Summers house, she'd sprinted. His other hand fell to her waist, his thumb rubbing soothingly through her t-shirt.
"A... an old friend came. He..."
"Not that lawyer, is it?" He frowned, his hold on her waist tightening.
"No, not Lindsey." She closed her eyes and lightly shook her head. "From before. From before my parents..." She took a deep breath when her voice started trembling too. "Riley. He's Buffy's ex, apparently." She humourlessly snorted, her eyes opening again. "He dropped the bomb. They know now. You should know too."
"Know what?" He subconsciously pulled her closer to him, a slight growl to his voice.
He would find out anyway.
"I have a brother. And more family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents... If they're still alive. I haven't seen them in six years. They probably think I'm dead." She exhaled when she was done, searching his eyes for a reaction.
His face relaxed, probably having been expecting something else, and she took it as her chance to relax. She dropped her forehead to his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist, breathing in his scent.
How she needed him.
"Why didn't you tell us, love?" He whispered against the crown of her head.
"Because I abandoned them. When my parents died, I hid. I was ashamed. I am ashamed. I knew about vampires and demons, not too much, but I knew. When they attacked us... My dad didn't know what they were. He couldn't defend himself. I could, and didn't save them. So I hid and made everyone believe I was dead... or turned... or kidnapped. I didn't even call my family... And now they all know. You should have seen their faces..." Her voice was muffled by his t-shirt, but she knew he could hear her perfectly. Perks of having a vampire boyfriend.
"Don't really care what they think. You needed to take charge. To fight what killed your parents. You didn't want others to go through the same and they would've stopped you." She marvelled at how close to her own words he had been. "Think you did the right thing."
She held him tighter then, lifting her head to look at him directly.
How she loved him.
She moved one of her hands to the back of his neck and pushed him down to meet her lips, a low growl making his chest vibrate.
That was it. He was all she needed. And she was going to take it.
A couple hours later, the vampire and the Slayer were woken by the door opening with a bang. They were covered by not very thick blankets, lying on top of the tomb Spike had previously been sitting at, the bleach blond's arm around the girl's waist as she laid on over the vampire's chest. He knew she didn't like the cold stone on her bare skin and preferred the feel of his own skin. She always ended up smiling softly when she was half-asleep, mumbling about how it got warm when in contact with hers.
Sitting up quickly, Ally's eyes widened at seeing Riley and Buffy standing near the door, the former clutching the gun in his hands as he glared at the couple.
"Huh, Captain Cardboard's back in town." Spike leaned back on his forearms, glaring back at the soldier.
"Knew I should have gotten rid of you long ago." Riley shot back, taking a couple steps closer.
"Watch you words, Finn." Ally growled, holding a blanket to her chest. "Why did you bring him here, Buff?" She whined, jumping off the tomb to fetch her clothes.
"What do you think you are doing, Ally?" The soldier demanded to know, shooting daggers with his eyes. "He's a vampire, in case you haven't noticed."
"He's my vampire." She snapped, freezing for a moment before pulling her underwear on.
"He's the same thing that killed your parents!" He countered, obviously forgetting the other people in the room.
"Also the same thing that saved me from being their next meal! Not all of them are bad, Finn." She quickly shrugged her jeans on and hid behind Spike as she pulled her t-shirt over her head.
"They're demons."
"My best friends in L.A. were demons. Don't be too quick to judge." She shot him a dry glare once she was fully dressed again.
"Don't be too quick to trust." He turned his eyes toward the vampire, cold and hard, like ice. "Doctor."
Time stopped as she turned toward her vampire, gauging his reaction. It couldn't be him. But when he glanced at her, even as he started denying Riley's accusations, she knew the soldier was right.
He was the Doctor.
Feeling lost and ready to hit something, Ally's gaze found her sister. She was looking back at her, unusually silent next to her ex. She hadn't uttered a word since they'd arrived.
Surprisingly, she was staring sympathetically back at Ally. She didn't look angry.
Realizing the men were still arguing and she hadn't been listening to what they were saying, Ally focused on her boyfriend and her oldest friend, one avoiding accusations while the other insisted on the vampire's secret identity.
And then she turned, walking towards the hole that led to the lower level. She didn't say anything, simply jumped down, noticing how the pair shut up when she disappeared.
"Ally?" She heard Riley follow her almost instantly, jumping right behind her with his expression much softer.
"There's nothin' to see down there!" Spike claimed from above, just as the junior Slayer and soldier walked through the tunnels she knew like the palm of her hand.
"We gotta find that nest." Riley reaffirmed as Buffy joined them, Spike not far behind.
And then she found them. Eggs -if you could call those deformed beach balls eggs- with scaly shapes and a disgusting reddish-grey colour, surrounded by a mucus like substance were all placed on the floor of the tunnel, carelessly sitting there. Waiting to hatch.
"I can explain." The vampire changed his plan when he saw they'd found them.
Riley, though, ignored him completely, keeping his gun raised as his voice got more and more troubled. "We're gonna need more weapons. Spike screwed up. You didn't keep 'em frozen, did you ... Doctor?"
The bleach blond still wasn't going to give up, his eyes intermittently passing over his girl, who just stared at the eggs emotionlessly. It worried him how impassive she was. She was never like that with him. Never. "You can stop calling me that any time. If I may, the thing of it is, I'm holding these for a friend, who..."
Ally raised her gaze and glared at him, a look he had never received, such venom was held in those eyes. "Shut up." She hissed, her hands turning into fists at her sides. "You better leave before I finally snap. We'll talk later."
He clenched his jaw, looking all the bit betrayed and hurt, as if he had any right to, before turning on his heel and storming out of the crypt.
She didn't even have time to really understand what was going on before sounds started to come from the eggs, warning the three people still in the tunnels that they were about to hatch. Riley backed away, keeping her by his side, Buffy slightly behind him. He passed his gun to the brunette, shooting her a brief glance. "You still remember our lessons?"
"Yeah. Still practice once in a while." She replied, keeping her voice stony, never betraying the situation as she grabbed hold of the gun while the man pulled a taser stick out.
She started shooting at the bugs crawling toward them, her aim much better than he remembered. Still, there were too many, they were going to be the baby Suvolte's next meal if they didn't hurry up. Riley grabbed her arm not too much later, coming to the same realization. "We have to pull out."
They ran upstairs, Buffy ahead of them and helping them to the top before taking Riley's belt from him and throwing the grenade down the hole, the blast shaking the ground around them as the soldier covered Ally with his own body.
Old habits die hard.
Not too much later, when they had gotten back to the Magic Shop, the Suvolte issue cleared, Ally took her chance to approach Sam, given Xander was basically bombarding her with questions about the wedding, and talk to her privately. Riley and Buffy were out talking too, that was her chance.
"I, uhm... I just wanted to... say, I'm really happy for you too. Well, you did steal my future husband," They both smirked at that, feeling a bit more comfortable. "but I think you two look great together, you make a great couple. You know, I'm probably one of the people hardest to please when it comes to Finn's romantic relationship, I thought I would never be happy with anyone he chose to be with, because I would always think he deserved better, but I'm really glad he's with you. And you made a great choice. He's the best." She placed a hand on Sam's arm, nodding at her to support her words.
"Thanks. It means a lot. You are really important for him, and... even with the... problems, the not so ideal situation... I can see he's ecstatic to see you again. If there was one thing I knew when I married him, was that he would never stop looking for you. It felt like I knew you." Her gaze softened even more and she paused to take a deep breath, some emotion seeping into her voice. "Miller and Rye are... they never let go of you. They never will."
Ally's eyes glistened even as she tried to smile and Mrs Finn, the older woman's hand resting on top of her shoulder in a silent attempt at comfort.
That was how the rest of the group found them when it was time to join Finn and Buffy outside.
"You have my email, you promise you'll keep in touch?" Sam checked with Willow, the witch nervously smiling at her.
"You won't get traced? I don't wanna lead the bad guys to your location by mistake."
The special agent couple smiled at each other before looking back at the redhead. "Our line's secure."
"Oh, huh, duh, of course it is! I keep thinking of you like regular people, but no, you're not."
"Oh, right, like demon-hunting is all exotic to a girl from Sunnydale." Mrs Finn said ironically, rolling her eyes. She had really hit it off with everyone there.
Dawn stopped right on front of Riley as the conversation went on, crossing her arms over her chest as she tried to remain impassive. "So you gonna say goodbye this time, or just ... split all secret-agenty like last time?"
"Depends. I warrant a hug?" He invited her and it didn't take her long to step into his arms, making Ally smile softly at the image. "Goodbye, Dawn."
"I thought it would suck less this time. It doesn't." She admitted.
They started to hear a helicopter approach, the army couple pushing everyone to one side of the street as they looked up towards the night sky. Ally wrapped an arm around Dawn as they stood behind Riley, his broad frame shielding them from the dust being lifted by the helicopter landing in the middle of the road.
The black shiny helicopter parked as if it wasn't in the middle of town, and Ally tried to glance over Riley's shoulder at it, Dawn doing the same from one side, the other covered by Sam.
"Buffy." Someone greeted from the helicopter, the familiar voice making Ally drop her arm from around her sister.
"Hey, Miller. We got a surprise for you." Sam announced, a smirk finding its way to her lips as Riley and her stepped aside at the same time, wearing similar expressions on their faces.
And there he was. Right next to the helicopter, clad in the same black gear the other two soldiers wore, looking a bit older and more serious than Ally remembered.
That is, until he saw her.
She didn't even give him time to realize she was there before she sprinted forward and jumped on top of him, sending him tumbling backwards. He stumbled a couple steps before finding his balance again, his arms wrapping around the girl hanging onto him like a monkey as if his life depended on it.
No one uttered a word for a couple minutes, giving the pair time to adjust, silence surrounding them until Graham leaning his head back to look at Ally's face, his eyes still wide in shock.
"It's really you?" He tried to verify.
"It's really me." She grinned, laying her head on his shoulder while he held her a bit tighter. "I missed you too, soldier-boy."
"Holy..." He dropped her and held her by her shoulders at arms length, giving him the opportunity to look her up and down. "You've grown."
"It happens when you give food, water and sunshine to a teenager." She joked, eyes mirthful.
"Holy..." He repeated, giving her another once over. "You look beautiful, doll."
"You don't look so bad yourself, Miller." She hugged him once again before she heard Riley approach, probably getting a bit nervous already.
"We should be leaving, Ally." He sounded regretful, his face mirroring it when she turned to look at him.
"Call me? Come back to visit? All of you." She fixed the three soldiers with a firm stare.
"I'll call soon. We still need to talk. About everything, including the vampire." Riley nodded. "I'll try to come back as soon as we get a break in our missions." He engulfed her in a bear-hug, squeezing tightly. "There a lot we need to go over. "
"I know." She agreed before squeezing him back. "Take care of her, alright? She's one of a kind." The junior Slayer whispered, stepping back and looking at Sam while Riley approached the helicopter. The woman immediately embraced her too, Ally taking her time to get used to her before whispering again. "Take care of him, please. I need him back in one piece."
"I will. We'll get in contact soon."
And then it was only Graham left behind.
"Another one?" She invited him, stretching her arms out for him to move into them again. "Come back. Promise me."
"I promise, doll. Although I'm not completely sure this isn't a figment of my imagination." He sighed and rubbed her back as he used to so long before. "You make sure to stay alive until we come back, alright? Sunnydale is not exactly safe."
She chuckled, patting his back before letting go of him. "Tell Riley to inform you on what he knows about me now. You're in for quite a shock. Take care, soldier-boy." She smiled at him and stepped back, joining her friends and sisters on the side of the street to give the helicopter more space.
The three soldiers watched them as the aircraft took off, often glancing at Ally to find her staring back at them, barely blinking.
There went what was left of her childhood.
Her boys.
And then she remembered and ran forward a few feet, cupping her hands around her mouth to shout at the helicopter. "I need another back-up husband!" She yelled. Graham obviously understood, as he smirked boyishly before glancing at Riley.
"Yes, I do!" He screamed back, the other couple smiling at them. "Always knew it'd be you and me in the end, doll!"
A/N: Again, I repeat. There's a reason for everything. There's a reason why Spike is still the Doctor here even if he's behaving much better because of Ally than he did in the show.
