After two years in the making my story is finally complete, my muse is so happy :) I can stop procrastinating now because it's done! Yay!

Shadows We Live In
By Vixen

"Ready to go, girl?" Gib reentered the basement room one hour later, on schedule. Hollowing him was Nadia, who carried a small dart gun fill with tranquilizers. It fit in her hand like it was crafted for her.

Buffy stood her ground, she wasn't about to let them do this to her, though she didn't have any idea how she would stop them. Judging by the look Tommy gave the slayer, neither did he. As soon as Nadia shot them, they'd be sleeping like babies and shipped off, chained up, and be claimed as sideshow freaks. "I'm not going anywhere!"

"I beg to differ, slayer." Nadia raised the weapon, pointed it at Tommy and squeezed the trigger ever so slightly. "You'll like it in Russia, I assure it."

"Ow!" Tommy had tried to duck but was one second too late. "She shot me!" Suddenly he felt uneasy, this was the second time in the past two days he'd been sedated. It really sucked. But, still he was moving, it would take another dart to take him out completely.

"Damn it," Buffy cursed. Why weren't Merton and Willow here, how could she have been so stupid to wind up in a situation like this, there looked like there was no way out.. and then she heard it. Faintly as first, then progressively louder. Sirens. Police sirens.

The basement door shot open again, the calvary had finally arrived.

"There they are, officer, the ones who kidnapped our friends," Merton and Willow were backed up by a dozen police men.

"Merton! You finally got here." Tommy looked relieved. If not for his sake, then for the fact that nothing had happened to his best friend.

"Couldn't let you down," Merton waited for one of the policemen to unlock the cage.

"We, um, we were going to burst in here with weapons and everything," Willow explained as she hugged Buffy, thank goddess everything had worked out. "But then we realized how unprepared we were for a fight..." She took a second to look over her shoulder where Nadia and Gib were getting read their Miranda rights, "Decided to do the smart thing and call someone."

"Merton," Tommy started, "Willow... you guys saved my butt, thank you!"

"Yeah, it's good to know they are normal people I the world you can trust," Buffy added.

"They are not normal!" Nadia was making a ruckus at the other end of the room. "He's a werewolf! She is a vampire slayer!"

The police looked over at the teens.

Willow shrugged, "Told you they were insane."

If they only knew...



Willow and Merton had arrived at the party an hour ago with Buffy. The slayer had then excused herself to go find her commando boyfriend, leaving the witch and the goth alone in cute couple-ness. Tommy had decided to stay at the dorms and rest tonight, he had still been feeling the effects of the tranquilizer.

"Willow, I hear you had a very eventful evening."

"Xander!" Willow turned around to see his grinning face. "I didn't know you were coming!"

"Hey, Will, you know I love to party." Xander replied, showing off a small version of her dancing 'skills'.

"Plus I promised him I'd give him orgasm fun if he took me out." Anya butted in.

Willow turned red trying not to giggle.

"So, Will, who is this?" Xander motioned to the new guy.

"This is Merton," Willow beamed proudly while Merton embraced her, "My new boyfriend."

Xander looked surprised, but in a good way. Willow deserved someon to make her happy after Oz left. And if Willow was happy, then so was he. "Well, Merton, Welcome to the Scooby Gang." The two men shook hands.

"Thanks," Merton shot a glance at his new girlfriend, "I think I'm going to like it here. Sunnydale really has it all."

Xander and Anya excused themselves. Willow watched as they headed for the door, she smirked. Those two were just making with the loving lately. Well, now it was her turn... in a less libidinous way, at least for tonight.

"Would you like to dance, Merton?"

"Uh--sure, I just hope I don't step on your feet."

They strolled over to the dance floor. As the DJ put on a slow song, Willow and Merton started dancing, following the melodic beat and each other's movements. They let the stress of the past few datys float away as they melted into each other.

This was good, this was nice. After Oz, Willow had thought it would never happen again, but then it did. She had fallen in love again.

Her gaze traveled over to the door where Tommy was just walking in. he looked alright, just a little depressed.

Then she saw Buffy excuse herself from Riley and walk over to Tommy. Willow figured all would work out, eventually, and rested her head on Merton's shoulder.



"Hi, Tommy."

Tommy looked up from the glass of soda he held. Buffy looked amazing in a silky red dress. He could feel his emotions and werewolf-ness coming to the surface, but tried to act nonchalant, "Oh, Hi Buffy."

"I don't suppose you would want to dance with me." Buffy looked up at him with innocent eyes.

"Buffy... you're here with your boyfriend. I--"

"He won't mind."

Tommy shook his head.

"Why not?

"You pretty much said we can't get together, and you know how I feel... I don't want a pity dance."

"It wouldn't be like that-- It'd be just a dance, between two good friends."

Tommy paused and let out a sigh. "Good friends? I guess I could live with that."

They joined the rest of the crowd on the dance floor, but were alone in conversation.

"You know, we could have been stars," Buffy said mock-dramatically. She laughed.

"Yeah, 'come see the strongest girl in the world and werewolf-boy'." Tommy shook his head. "Nah, I think I like just a few people knowing... for now at least."

Buffy was quiet for a moment and then put forth a question she had asked herself hundreds of times before, "Do you think you'll ever tell the world? You know, come out of the shadows?"

"Maybe... but for now you know, and Willow knows, and Merton knows... and that's good enough for now."

"And Giles," Buffy added.

"Giles?" The thought of non-recognition crossed Tommy's face. "Who's he?"

"My watcher... well, he doesn't know who you are, but he does know that there's another werewolf in town. You can meet him, if you want... and the rest of the Scooby Gang. They know about weird stuff."

"They're you're friends?"

"Yeah, they're good people."

"Then I think I'd like to meet them. Any friend of Buffy's... yadda, yadda.."

The song ended.

"Well, this is my stop." Tommy grinned at her. "Thank you for the dance."

He walked off and out of the building, having gotten more than he would have thought possible. Friends, good friends, people who knew and understood what he was.

"Welcome to the Scooby Gang, Tommy," Buffy whispered behind, watching him leave.

We all live in shadows. Sometimes it's someone else's shadow, hanging over you preventing you from becoming someone you want to be, until you break through and realize that it's not stopping you at all. And sometimes it's the shadow of living with the lies you've built around yourself, to protect people from getting to know the real you. But, sooner or later, we all have to come out of the shadows.
The End