Author: AriellaGiselle
Rating: Probably PG, for now. May go up... who knows.
Pairing: Well, this is mostly a gen piece, but if I had to give a pairing I'd say Darien/Willow and Bobby/Buffy.
Summary: Darien and Willow try to find the truth behind Claire's murder.
Notes: This is an AU story! It's set about 3 or 4 years in the future. Also, I have nothing against Claire or Shannon Kenny. The character seemed to fit into the place of the murdered person.
Status: Work in Progress
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Well, except Abriel and Sebastian. They're mine. Everyone else belongs to Joss Whedon, Arron Spelling, Stu Segal, USA Studios, Sandollar, Kuzui Enterprises, Lazy Dave, and various other production companies.
ENJOY!!!
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"I can't explain it. I don't believe in all that supernatural mumbo-jumbo, but I can't think of another explaination," Darien said uneasily.
Now, I know Darien and he isn't wigged out easily, but whatever happened on their latest mission had him seriously spooked.
"How can you not believe in the supernatural when your best friend is a witch, and especially when you yourself have the power to go invisible?" I asked him.
"Ok, Willow, I see your point, but come on, a ghost is definitely a stretch."
I threw up my hands in exasperation. "D, come on! Perhaps you don't remember where I spent my high school and college existence! The Hellmouth! I've dealt with ghosts before. And demons, and vampires, and everything you've always told yourself wasn't real," I stopped my tirade for a moment when I noticed him staring. "What are you looking at?" I poked a finger in his side and giggled when he squirmed in his chair.
"Nothing, nothing! Ok, I'm sorry, Wills. I know about all that, but I've never seen any of that stuff face to face, so I can't really believe it," he apologized, taking my hand.
"It's ok," I whispered, squeezing his hand.
Darien and Willow. The Invisible Man and Witch. That was us; the very best of friends.
We met a few years ago when it was revealed that Xander worked for the same agency as Darien and Bobby. Now, of course we were shocked, all of us except Riley, who appearantly knew the entire story on Xander. But Riley left before he told Buffy and we haven't heard from him since.
Darien's partner, the aforementioned Bobby Hobbes, was immediately smitten with Buffy. And for the longest time, she ignored his advances. Finally, I supposed that she realized that Riley wasn't coming back to her, and she consented to a date with Bobby.
They got married the next summer.
He was amazingly understanding about Buffy's slaying duties.
But a few months after they were married, Buffy decided she wanted to concentrate more on her marriage and (officially) retired from the council. And thus, another Slayer was called. (We all just hoped she'd had a happier childhood than Faith!)
Granted, Buffy wasn't really quitting. She just wanted a little help, citing, "I'm not as young as I used to be," and, "I'm married now!" for said help.
Within two weeks, the new Slayer, Abriel-Abby, for short-arrived in Sunnydale, by way of the bus, just for a touch of film noir, I suppose. Naturally, Giles stayed on as her watcher.
Buffy and Abby bonded almost immediately. Common heritage thing, I guess. It doesn't really bother me like it did when Faith was around.
I'm older now, with Darien to take care of.
But listen to me, I digress. We were all happy for a while. Everybody had somebody. I was with Tara. Buffy had Bobby. Xander and Anya had gotten married soon after Buffy and Bobby. And dearest Giles was growing ever closer to the beautiful Claire Keeply.
The only one of the group I ever worried about was Darien. He didn't have anyone to call his own. D always told me he was fine, that I was all the companionship he needed or could handle, but I still worried.
I mean, even Angel and Cordy had someone. Ok, so Angel's was just a seriously close friendship, but he and Kate got on well enough. And Gunn took very good care of Cordy and their baby girl.
But everything changed the day that Claire was murdered.
D was, of course, devistated. I tried to be there for him as much as I could, but my schoolwork and my Slayerette duties often took a front seat to Darien's pain.
A year after I graduated from UC Sunnydale, the Official offered me Claire's job. It seemed as if they'd been through two or three keepers in the span of about seven months. Something about Darien being uncooperative with them or something. When the Official read my transcripts and saw that I had doubled up my workload my junoir and senoir years with Biology and MedSchool classes, he jumped at the chance to have me on board.
I accepted to be closer to Darien. The Agency even agreed to relocate to Los Angeles, so that I could stay semi-close to home.
But, soon after all this, Tara received a full ride to study at Oxford, and she left. I heard from someone that she had fallen in love with a History professor there and was getting married in the fall. I haven't spoken to her since she left. I find myself thinking about her every once in a while, but not very often anymore.
This all happened within the span of the last three years. The Official's kept Claire's case open for those two and a half that Claire's been dead. The Official never believed in the guilt of the man they'd captured and convicted.
That man was Allianora's male counterpart, Sebastian. No one knows who he really is and what he looks like.
The Official and Eberts knew that the only people who knew his identity were the President and the director of the CIA, and for all the begging and pleading and political sucking up, the Official, never could squeeze the name out of either of the two high powered men.
Both the Official and Darien believed Arnaud de Fohn had had something to do with it. Another assumption was that Crysalis had something to do with her murder. Another more frightening assumption was that, the two had worked together, which was a bit improbable, but not impossible.
I miss Claire from time to time. I didn't know her like D did, but we were friends.
I take care of Darien as best I can. I still don't think I do enough. And now, Darien is sitting here telling me about his latest mission mishap.
"Tell me more about this man you and Bobby were fighting," I said, preparing a dose of counteragent.
"Well, he was strong. Tall, blonde, blue eyes," he rattled off.
"Wow, you remember the color of his eyes?"
"Well, they kinda looked right through ya."
"Oh," I whispered, "How tall would you say?"
"6 foot, 6'2'. Something like that.
A thought creeped through my head. *Could it be? Is Riley...* I couldn't bring myself to even think the rest of it. It just wasn't possible.
"And why were you fighting him, again?" I must admit, I am a bit miffedt that the Agency doesn't keep me as well informed as they did Claire, but I don't push it. I don't need to know to take care of Darien. Besides, D tells me everything anyways. He even regales me with wild tales of thievery days, pre-quicksilver. He does this more often than I'd like sometimes, but I understand that he needs to talk to someone, and I figure that Hobbes would just tell him to shut up.
"He is helping Arnaud," Darien winced as I gently stuck the counteragent needle in his arm. "He's engineered. I mean, nobody can be that way naturally."
"Why do you say that?"
"You ever read X-Men?"
I shook my head. "Nope, comics are Xander's department, not mine." I smiled at him.
He laughed, "Well, he's like the character Rouge. He can drain people's strengths and energy just by touching them. I mean, is that even possible?"
"Not naturally, like you said. But maybe-- and this is remote --if he were engineered. It would be a lot of work. A virtual rewiring of the nevous system."
"But it is possible, right?"
"Maybe, but even if Arnaud is the one who did this, I don't know if he has the resources or the know-how to do something that extensive."
"Willow? Will, are you in the lab?" a soft, feminine voice floated down through the halls.
"Yeah, Pheobe. I'm just finishing up some stuff. Come on in," I called.
About six months ago, I met Pheobe Halliwell in a magick shop in San Francisco. She, too, is a witch, but she's one of the legendary Charmed Ones. The three most powerful good witches on the face of the earth. "What's up, Pheebs?" I asked.
"Not much. Cole had to come up here for a meeting with the Official. So, I thought I's stop by and say hi," Pheobe spoke, "Hi, Darien. How's it going?"
"Good, Pheobe. And you?" D small-tlaked.
"Good, good," she answered.
"How is Cole?" I asked.
"He's good. He's excited about the wedding next week, but he's-- for a lack of a better word --good," she smiled.
I smiled back. "I'm excited about the wedding, too. You're going to be a gorgeous bride, Pheebs," I offered, cleaning up the supplies for D's shot.
"I've got to go check on Cole and the Fat Man. Make sure they're not at each other's throats," D chuckled.
"Ok, D. I'll be up in a little bit to give my report to the Official," I said. Darien leaned down and kissed my cheek.
I think he's falling for me. I honestly hope so. I realized my love for him a few weeks ago, but I've just been too nervous to say anything to him. He smiled at Pheobe and left the lab.
"So, are you gonna ask him out or not?" Pheebs asked slyly.
"I don't know. I think he feels the same way."
"Oh, honey, he does," she smiled. I thought about this for a moment before going back to the cleaning job I had started.
"Can I ask you something, Pheebs?"
"Go for it, hon."
"Do you think someone who's adamantly anti-evil suddenly turn evil?"
Yeah, probably. Why do you ask, Wills?"
"Something Darien was telling me."
"You mean... I mean, you think that Darien..." she trailed off.
"Oh! Oh, no! Not at all!" I recovered, "It's Buffy's ex-boyfriend Riley."
"Oh, why do you think he's crossed over?"
"Darien went up against someone last night that looked exactly like Riley."
"Oh," she whispered.
"Yeah," I murmered, "Someone who, from the way Darien tells, acts like Riley."
"How do you think Buffy will react, Will?"
"React to what, Pheebs?" a soft voice came from the door of the lab; a voice that could only belong to the petite ex-Slayer.
"Oh, uh, nothing, Buffy. Just Agency stuff," I stuttered.
"Oh. I could've sworn I heard my name," she trailed off, "Oh, well. Bobby and I just dropped in to invite you all to a little get-together at our house. This evening at seven. We'd love for you and Cole to come, too, Pheebs."
"Oh, um, yeah, we'll be there, Buffy. Wouldn't miss it." Pheobe gingerly put her hand on Buffy's shoulder.
"Where is Bobby?" I interjected.
"Oh, he's in with Darien, Cole, and Charlie."
"It never fails to amaze me," I laughed.
"What's that, Will?" Pheobe asked.
"Oh, just that Buffy always gets away with calling the Official 'Charlie'," I smirked.
From out of the corner of my eye, I could see Pheobe looking at Buffy blushing uncontrollably. I guess she decided it was time to get back to a less embarrassing topic for Buffy.
"So, um, what's the purpose of this little soiree tonight?" Pheobe inquired.
"Oh," Buffy sturggled to regain her composure, "Well, it's, uh, uh, a s-surprise." She looked at me hopefully, but I only raised an eyebrow. I wasn't about to help her out of this one.
"Surprise?" I queried.
"Yeah, um, boy is this hard," Buffy stammered.
"What is it, Buffy?" I pushed softly.
"Buffy? Honey, you in the Keep?" Bobby's Brooklyn accent bounced around the room. Buffy, looking obviously relieved, glided gently into his waiting arms.
*Yeah, saved by the Bob,* I thought. "We'll definately be there tonight, Buffy, Bobby," I said, grinning.
"Looking forward to it," Bobby beamed and kissed the top of the blonde woman's head. "Well, ladies, we must attend to some business before the party this evening. If you will excuse us," he charmed.
I hugged Buffy and patted Bobby's head playfully. "See ya at seven, guys."
Buffy squeezed Pheobe's shoulder and left the room with Bobby gladly in tow.
"They are so damned cute together!" Pheobe announced.
"I know. It's sickening sometimes," I said dryly. Pheobe just laughed. "Well, we better go check on our men."
"Yeah, make sure they're not pulling each other's hair out!" And at that, we burst into a fit of giggles.
"I'm so glad you and Cole live in L.A. now," I managed between giggles.
"Yeah, it definately puts a strain on the whole Charmed Ones gig, but we manage."
I locked up my cabinets and turned off all the equipment. "All right, let's boogie," I said giggling again.
We walked the halls of the Agency still stifling small laughter. When I finally gained control of myself, a thought hit me. "What do you think Bobby and Buffy's surprise?" I said conspiritorially.
"I have NO clue! They were being awfully hush-hush, weren't they?" Pheobe almost whispered.
We stopped in front of the Official's office. I tapped my fellow witch on her shoulder, and she leaned closer to me. "No yelling," I whispered, "Is that good or bad?" She pondered this and shrugged. I leaned in, "Let's find out." The mischievious gleam in her eyes gave me the affirmation I needed.
I muttered some words in Latin and flicked my wrist. The lock on the office door clicked and the door rattled slightly.
"Cool, I never tried that one before," I smirked.
"Definately a spiffy move, my Wicca Chica!" Pheebs agreed. I smiled proudly. (She later asked me to teach her the trick.)
"Watch this, my friend," I whispered. She paid rapt attention to my movements. I pressed my palm to the air in front of the door. Pheobe's eyes grew wide with wonder as the doorknob turned and the door swung open, smacking against the file cabinet behind it.
"In six years as a witch, I've seen some pretty cool things and that's one of them!" Pheebs laughed and raised her hand in high five fashion, which I happily obliged.
"What the hell is going on out here?!?!" the Official bellowed. Eberts whimpered something and appeared in the doorway, visibly shaken.
"Pheobe," I doubled over in laughter, "Look at E's face!" I heard Pheobe burst out with her own laughter.
Not surprisingly, D was unsuccessfully trying to stifle his snickers of amusement.
"Cute trick, Wills," Darien called between laughs, "But I think you pissed him off." He collapsed back into another fit of laughter.
"Come on, sir," I began as I walked towards the Official, "We were just having a bit of fun," I whined softly, smoothing out the rumpled lapels of his suit coat and giving him my innocent face. I could hear D laugh even harder.
*Wow, he has a nice laugh,* I thought.
*I heard that,* Pheobe thought back.
It's one of the things Pheobe and I had been working on. Telepathic communication. Pheobe usually has to work a little harder for it, but I think she's been practicing.
*Sorry, was I broadcasting?* I asked her.
*Just a little,* she answered.
"Don't play here, Rosenberg," the Official had softened his tone just a little.
"I won't do it ever again," I promised him.
Eberts was stufying me carefully. I concentrated on his thoughts for a moment. I smiled to myself. He's wondering how I did it when I was obviously standing against the wall.
"Ah, sweet Albert," I said, knowing he'd blush. He didn't let me down. "That's for me to know, and you to find out." I gave them my most innocent, sweetest smile. They just stood there, staring at me.
After a moment, I patted the Official's shoulder and moved passed him and Eberts. I could hear Pheobe following me shortly.
"D, darling, did Bobby tell you about the whatever at he and Buffy's tonight?" I asked.
"Yeah, you going?"
"Yup, you?"
"Of course, Bobby's my partner. I would never hear the end of it if I didn't go."
"Yeah, probably," I said smiling.