By Dannette
Buffy is losing her emotional battle, but an unlikely savior will come, and it's someone from her past.
***
"Giles? Xander? Willow?" Buffy asked, slowly walking into the magic shop, she went to walk down the steps, to walk further into the shop, but she rolled her eyes and turned around. "Pike, come on." Buffy said, she turned back around and walked down the three carpeted steps. She took off her leather jacket and placed it on one of the chairs, she stared at the magic shop, like she hadn't been there in days. Buffy watched from the corner of her eyes as Pike brushed past her and looked through some of the books.
"101 ways to defeat your stereo typical demon." Pike mused, smirking to himself.
Buffy whirled around. "What?" She asked, Buffy walked over to Pike and read the title of the book and rolled her eyes.
"I really can't believe you just fell for that. What? In Sunnydale, you people believe anything a person says?" Pike asked. He smirked, and put the book back into the bookcase, he continued to look around the magic shop with an interested look in his eyes. He had been to a lot of magic shops in LA, but this one was quite different, it had a different feeling to it. "So where's all your friends?" Pike asked, turning to Buffy. "I'm not going to get pummeled again, am I?" Pike asked, raising up his eyebrow.
Buffy smirked, and shook her head abruptly. She felt a weight being lifted off from her shoulders, granted that it was just last night that she had opened up to Pike, but she felt better. Maybe she had been over due for a talk, or maybe it was the fact that it was Pike. Pike was different from everybody else, she felt connected to him in so many ways, more connected to him than some of her other friends. It wasn't anything personal, but it was just because ... it's Pike. Pike, who understood the meaning of sacrifices.
"Who's he?"
Buffy looked away from Pike and smiled briefly when she saw Anya emerge from the back room. "Hey Anya, this is my friend."
"Who is he?" Anya asked again. "Xander who is he?" Anya asked, once Xander emerged out of the back room and stood by her side. "I don't know him, I didn't think Buffy had any friends besides us. Who is he?" Anya kept asking questions.
"Pike." Pike answered, inserting a piece of gum in his mouth. "And you would be the guy that pummeled me last night, did I ever thank you for that?" Pike asked sarcastically, narrowing his eyes at Xander who was staring at him, with a skeptical look in his eyes. "You really did wonders to my already injured shoulder." Pike snapped, he walked over to the counter and smiled at Anya. "Old friend of Buffy's, from LA, and you are?" Pike asked, reaching out his hand, for Anya to shake, he smiled at Xander.
"Anya." Anya said, shaking his hand. "You pummeled him Xander? Why?" Anya asked.
Buffy smirked, she walked over to the counter and shot a look at Xander and then looked at Pike. "It was just a big misunderstanding, right Pike? Pike, Xander and Dawn got their wires crossed, everything is fine now though. So just drop it okay, Pike?" Buffy asked, she locked her arm with his and led him away from the counter. "Come with me to the back room, I want you to meet Giles and Willow." Buffy replied, smiling up at Pike, her smile widened a bit when Pike smiled back.
"Giles? He the new watcher?" Pike asked, walking into the back room with Buffy.
"He knows you're the Slayer?" Anya asked.
Xander followed Buffy and Pike silently, Xander still didn't trust Pike. Xander didn't care that Pike was a friend of Buffy's, until Pike proved that he could be trusted, there was no way in hell Xander was going to play nice. Xander had met too many people who pretended to be Buffy's friends who then ended up trying to kill her, Xander was prepared this time. But Xander would have to be blind not to see the slight change in Buffy today. There was something different about her, she didn't seem to be so gloomy.
Buffy nodded. "Pike was one of the first two people that knew I was the Slayer." Buffy answered, she tugged on Pike's arm once they approached Giles and Willow who were researching. "Giles, Willow, I want you guys to meet Pike." Buffy replied.
Willow looked up and stared at Pike. He was donned in a black t-shirt, black leather jacket, and blue jeans. Willow didn't recognize him from any of Buffy's friends outside their little circle, actually Willow didn't even recognize him as a resident of Sunnydale. Willow shut the book she was reading, pushed it to the side and stood up, Pike was a tad bit taller than her, which made him even more intimidating. Willow looked to the side where Xander was, she frowned when Xander looked like he wasn't that happy at the appearance of this Pike person. "Hi Pike, I'm Willow." Willow said, shaking hands with Pike. "Uh, you live in Sunnydale?" She asked.
"No, car broke down." Pike answered.
Giles stood up as well, he stared at Pike, who had his arm around Buffy's neck. Giles removed his glasses, he cleaned them briefly, put them back on and smiled at Pike. "Why, hello Pike. I'm Giles." Giles replied, reaching his hand out. "How do you know Buffy?"
"LA." Pike answered, shaking Giles' hand. "We're friends from her time in LA, you know before she decided to blow up the gym and all. So you're the watcher, right?" Pike asked, he made a face when Buffy hit him. "Hey!" Pike mock whined.
"It was your idea, idiot. You told me that it was the easiest way to take them all out." Buffy answered.
"I'm a guy, I like explosions."
Giles stared at Pike, examing the young man in front of him. It was obvious Pike had a rebellious sort of attitude, and by the way his arm was draped around Buffy's neck, it was shown that he had a protectiveness towards Buffy, friendship or not. But as Giles look deeper into the young man, he saw an inner turmoil, a struggle, a constant battle, much like Buffy. "Well, I'm not her lawful watcher. I was fired a while back, on Buffy's 18th birthday, because they believed me to be too personal." Giles replied calmly.
Pike nodded, he started to
feel a bit uncomfortable under all the stares of the group he was getting.
***
"I'm sorry if I don't buy the whole 'my car broke down, got lost, and then heard you scream' story he's feeding Buffy. Buffy hasn't even seen this guy in what, eight years? And out of the blue he shows up, his car conveniently breaking down in the same town Buffy lives in? And he just happens to stroll into the graveyard and save Buffy, right before she's vamp food? It just seems too convenient." Xander snapped, sitting next to Anya. Along with him and Anya, there sat Willow and Giles; Buffy and Pike were out with Dawn, who seemed to take akin to Pike. "And what I find is weird, is that last night he nearly kills Dawn, and now she's best friends with him? I'm sorry, but where did this guy come from? He looks like he's a toss up between Spike and Angel."
Anya shrugged. "He seemed nice, and boy do you see his butt? What I wouldn't do to ... " Anya stopped and smiled at Xander. "Of course I love your butt better Xander, his butt is nowhere near yours." Anya said, kissing Xander on the lips quickly.
"Giles you agree with me on this one right? I mean doesn't he look like he came out from a B horror movie? Night of the living dead or something? I just find it all too convenient that he's coming into Buffy's life after all these years they've been separated."
Giles sighed, rubbing his eyes gingerly. "Like Buffy said, he saved her life."
"Yeah, that's just a ploy. We've seen guys like this, they pretend like they're Buffy's best friends but end up being some guy who wants to be a vampire, or someone working for some vampire pack, trying to bring down Buffy." Xander replied bitterly.
"They seemed awfully close Xander," Willow finally entered the conversation. "And Dawn is not some trusting little girl, she obviously has a reason for being so ... trusting of Pike. We don't know his background Xander, and I think you're just judging him wrongly."
"So we find his background. His name is Pike, how many Pikes are there in LA?" Xander questioned. "Get on that jiffy piece of technology you call a laptop Will, and find out what we need to know about this guy. This isn't invading privacy, this is just looking out for Buff. She's really ... emotional right now? Especially after ... you know, we just need to look out for her."
Giles sighed, stood up and walked out of the room, he would be no part of this.
Willow bit down on her lip, she didn't want to do this, but Xander did have a point. They should just check up on his background, just in case, he was a danger, to just be on the safe side. "Okay." Willow replied, she flipped her laptop open, clicked on the AOL icon which was on her desktop and connected to the internet. But as she started to search on Pike, she felt an uneasy feeling enter her body, this was wrong. They shouldn't be doing this, this was being unfair and invading Pike's privacy, but Xander was relentless.
Anya picked up a magazine and started flipping through the pages. "When this comes back and bites you in the ass Xander, honey I'll be praying for you, that Pike doesn't come around with a battle axe, ready to chop off your head." Anya replied, busily engrossed in her magazine, that she seemed to not realize the grossed out looks on Xander and Willow's face, she just kept on reading.
Xander shrugged. "We're doing
this for the safety of Buffy, Dawn and the rest of us." Xander assured
the two ladies.
***
"I'm sorry." Dawn said, as her and Pike stood in line at the fast food restraunt, Buffy was at some shoe store, getting a new pair of tennis shoes, so it just left Dawn and Pike alone. "I overheard your conversation with Buffy last night, about Clarice." Dawn said.
Pike looked to Dawn and frowned. "You did?" He asked, he shook his head. "It happened a while back, I'm over it."
"You don't look over it." Dawn interrupted. "I'm no therapist or anything, but you look really sad. Your eyes, you look really sad. It must have killed you to have to make that choice, to choose between your wife and the little girl. I don't know if I could have made the right choice if I was in your shoes, I would want to be selfish and save the one I loved." Dawn stated, slowly and softly.
"Is that why you're sorry Dawn?" Pike asked.
"Yeah," Dawn started.
"Don't be sorry Dawn." Pike snapped. "Don't be sorry for me, don't be sorry for anything you'll do in the future, don't be sorry for anything. Sorry doesn't get you anywhere, it just gets you a whole lot of wasted breath. I've heard enough sorries over the years, even before I was with Clarice, I've heard too many say I'm sorry to me. Sorry is completely over-rated. Dawn, I made a choice that night ... and deep down it was the right one, but if I had to do it again, I'm not sure I could pick the right one. Clarice, I loved her deeply, and I lost her, and for the longest time, I was bitter and harsh, and I just wanted it all to end. Never be sorry Dawn."
"But I am, for what you lost." Dawn replied.
Pike sighed, not a sigh of annoyance, just a sigh, a long shuddering sigh. "Don't be sorry. Sorry is just a word Dawn, it's just a word. Like blood is just a fluid in our body, or how pain or fear is just an emotion. When it comes down to it Dawn, all the sorries in the world, aren't going to be what saves us. When it comes down to it, what saves us, are each other, not the 'I'm sorry for your lost'."
Dawn stared at Pike, she let a small smile play with her lips. Pike was unlike anyone else she ever met, he seemed so wise at times. Sure Dawn hadn't gotten the best first meeting with Pike, but she felt like she could trust him. After all, he was the one that got Buffy to partially open up, Dawn had prayed so hard that Buffy would talk to one of them, but it wasn't until Pike, that Dawn's prays came into a reality. Pike was this savior, he just waltzed in their lives, 24 hours ago, and he was already saving them.
"What?" Pike asked.
"Do you love my sister?" Dawn asked.
Pike smirked, then smiled softly. "Love is over-rated Dawn." Pike replied, he was quiet for a long time, he could sense the disappointment that Dawn held, he heaved a sigh. "But yeah, if I had to pick a word for it, I would say love summed it up."
Dawn grinned.
Buffy stood in the far background,
not being able to hear what was being said, but the image she was receiving
was enough to make her smile. Pike and her sister. Dawn and Pike. Bonding.
Talking. Whatever. It was a sight, she definitely wanted to see again.
Buffy held the plastic bag that held her new shoes in, across her chest,
as she continued to stare at the talking Pike and Dawn.
***
"He was married." Willow replied, staring at the article that they had printed out from the main computer in the back room, which belonged to Giles. "Clarice Johnson. They lived in a small apartment in mid-town Los Angeles. They were married for about a year, almost a year. But Clarice was brutally killed. Police said it was a mugging. A young girl, by the name of Amy O'Haire was involved. She was supposedly kidnapped by a bunch of 'nethandrals', and Pike and Clarice got involved. Pike saved Amy from getting hurt, but Clarice was killed in the process." Willow said, her eyes holding a sad look. "There is this article on this site, paranormal happenings. Seems the 'nethandrals' weren't human at all, they were a pack of Shakira demons, they kidnapped Amy to sacrifice to their spiritual god, which happened to some sort species figuratively related to a serpent, a linked species of the snake." Willow continued to read, she held the various pages of articles in her hands. "On the autopsy report for Clarice, there were three unidentifiable scratches across Clarice's abdomen, the cuts were very deeply, she had no chance of living the injuries."
"How long ago was this?" Xander questioned. "Maybe he's trying to find a way to bring Clarice back to life." Xander replied, he winced when he saw Willow stare at him angrily. "What? That could possibly be why he's back. Will, we don't even know this guy. All we know is that his wife was brutally murdered and now he shows up, wanting to play nice to Buffy, who's a Slayer?"
Willow shook her head. "It's been almost a year since her murder."
"Anything else on him?" Xander asked, ignoring the look Anya was giving him.
"Yeah, something way back in 1992, it has something to do with Buffy. They were accused of the explosion of a LA high school gym. Pike briefly was jailed, a few weeks, but eventually got off, because he was 17 at the time. He got community service, but after he served his probation time, he seemed to disappear off the records, no more trouble with police, until a few years later, 1995. A friend of his, or at least an acquaintance, Louis Peters, was killed in a fire started by Pike. Then he disappeared off the records again, until 2001 ... just a few months ago, when his wife was killed. That's all on him." Willow announced.
"I think this is wrong," Anya spoke up. "This is his privacy and it's obvious he's not here to use Buffy, he just needed to leave. Xander, why can you leave him alone? You should know about wanting to start over again, than anyone else."
Giles rubbed his eyes, he grabbed the articles out of Willow's hands. "I completely agree with Anya, which is a first. Xander you had no right digging into Pike's past. He is Buffy's friend and that is all we need to know, and by god I hope he doesn't find out what you have done. If I was in his place, I would want to hurt the person who dared to invade my privacy, this is OVER." Giles barked.
"But Giles ... "
"Xander, I'm telling you, this is over." Giles replied, his eyes narrowed. "And if Pike finds out about you doing this, I won't lie. So you better hope to god, he doesn't find these articles and ask who in the hell did this. Because I won't lie for you. Xander, you are very loyal to your friendship to Buffy and I appreciate that, but what you have done goes beyond friendship. Do you understand what I hold in my hands? It's years full of pain, and I won't stand back and watch this. I love Buffy, like she was a daughter, and in that love ... I trust Pike. He saved her, he has answered the questions we all asked him, and that is all I need to know about him."
Xander stood next to Willow
and Anya, all three of them watching Giles turn on his heel and stomp out
of the room in anger.
***
"Hey guys," Anya greeted with a smile, when Pike, Buffy and Dawn entered the magic shop. She stared at Pike, she smiled at him. She wasn't good at lying, and she felt a need to tell Pike what Xander and Willow did, but she bit it in. There was no way she could tell on her fiancé, man ... only if humans didn't have such big hearts, Anya thought to herself, pouting slightly.
"Hey," Dawn said, grinning. "I bought the coolest outfit, Pike helped me pick it out." Dawn replied.
"Yeah, she didn't want to ask me if it was okay. She was like I'll just ask Pike." Buffy said, smirking at Pike. "Pike, I had no idea you were so suave when it came to girls clothing." Buffy said, putting her bags down. "So where's everybody? It seems so quiet here." Buffy replied, out of the corner of her eyes, she watched Dawn and Pike going through the bags, she smiled at the image that flew through her head ... at the moment they were acting like two excited little kids on Halloween, going through their bags of candy. Buffy shook the thought out of her head and looked at Anya, for the first time realizing how fidgety she was. "Are you okay?"
"Fine!" Anya exploded, she lowered her tone when Pike and Dawn stopped searching through the bags for a few seconds to look at Anya. "I'm fine, um everyone is in the back room ... " Anya stopped when Willow, Giles and Xander emerged from the back room. "Oh no they're not, look here they are." Anya replied, smiling. "Buffy, Pike and Dawn are back from the mall." She announced.
"We brought donuts." Dawn replied, she grabbed the box full of donuts and walked over and put them on the counter. "But me and Pike ate the creamed ones on the way here. It was so cool, Pike even promised me he would give me a ride on his motorcycle later. Oh yeah Xander, you have to go get Pike's car. It's abandoned on the side of the road, near Wilmington street." Dawn replied.
Xander just nodded, without saying a word.
"There is no way I'm letting Dawn on that thing Pike." Buffy replied, staring at Pike, with humor in her eyes.
"Then I'll just grab her in the middle of the night and whisk her away on my as you call it, contraption from hell." Pike answered.
"Hey, I have no problem with that!" Dawn exclaimed, grinning widely.
Giles smiled softly. "We have a car repair shop in town, but it takes them forever to fix anything. It might take a few days, you don't have anywhere to go do you? Because they're very slow in fixing, even their own cars." Giles replied, tiredly.
Dawn looked at Pike questioningly, soon followed by Buffy.
Pike looked at both the Summers' girls and then smiled at them reassuringly. "No, I'm free for the next few days."
Dawn grinned.
***
"Need any help?" Pike asked Willow, who had an arm full of books, which looked like spell books.
Willow looked through the space in between the books and smiled when she saw Pike. "Um sure," she said, the minute she said the words, half the books were taken. "Hey I can see now." Willow said, smirking. "I just need them to go in the back room, I need to price them, and look through them, to just see if they have anything we would actually need." Willow said, "So follow me." Willow replied, she started to walk in the back room, with Pike a few steps behind her. "Dawn seems to take a liking to you."
"She's cool," Pike replied, walking into the back room behind Willow. "One hell of a shopper, just like her sister, back in LA."
"Was Buffy that bad?" Willow asked, setting the books down on the wooden table, the books resting on the stack of articles on Pike. "I've only heard a few stories from Buffy, she said she was worse than the cheerleaders in our old high school. But I find that a bit unbelievable, I just can't think of Buffy being like them, she's just so ... um, realistic?" Willow posed the question, smiling.
Pike chuckled. "Oh she was horrible. She was like the queen of the valley girls. She would use words like 'as if, like, oh my god, whatever, loser' four billion times in one sentence. But yeah, you're right, she does seem a whole lot mature. She's been through a lot of pain, forced to grow up early, she's had a hard life. She deals with it very maturely." Pike replied, he smiled. He hauled the books over to the wooden table and slammed the books on top of the prior books. He went to turn to Willow but a flash of white caught his eye. Pike looked down and saw a stack of papers stuck underneath the books. Pike grabbed the papers, he stared at them questioningly, and stared reading them. A few words into the first page, his eyes were narrowed in anger.
Willow stared at Pike, and froze when she saw his eyes, and what he was looking at. "Pike," She started.
"Who?" Pike asked, looking up from the stacks of paper. "Who got these? Was it you?" Pike asked, his eyes blazing in anger.
"I searched for them, I didn't want to Pike. Will you just listen to me? Xander, he was just worried for Buffy and Dawn. He was afraid that the only reason you were in Sunnydale was to use Buffy, we've had a few of Buffy's friends come into town, just to use her. So he just wanted to search on you. I didn't want to, it was invading your privacy, but Xander was just so worried ... "
Pike's face hardened. "I can't believe this."
"Pike, wait!" Willow screamed.
Pike turned on his heel and stomped out of the back room, with Willow just one or two steps behind him. He stared at Anya first, then Giles, he glanced over at Buffy and Dawn, before finally setting his eyes on Xander. "How dare you?" Pike asked, he threw the papers down to the ground and grabbed Xander by the collar of his shirt and threw him against the wall.
"PIKE!" Buffy screamed, she ran over to Pike and tugged at his arm. "What in the hell are you doing?" She exploded.
Dawn bent down and grabbed the papers, she began reading them, suddenly all of her shock was gone from her body and anger was soon replaced. Dawn shook her head, she ran over to Buffy and handed Buffy the papers. "Look!" Dawn exclaimed.
"I just NEEDED to know who you were!" Xander choked out.
"That was MY past, you had no right. I didn't come here for all of you to dig into my past. You had no damn right, you invaded my privacy and that was just plain wrong. You don't see me looking around in any of your past do you? You don't know what happened, and I don't care how concerned you were about Buffy, you had no right, no right whatsoever." Pike screamed, he let Xander go and shook his head. He rubbed his face and turned to Buffy. "I'm out of here." He said, running out of the magic shop.
Giles sighed, he began picking up the books and other items that had fallen, but didn't dare say a word. He looked up and saw the enraged look that was embedded in Buffy's eyes, and her anger was directed at Xander. The look he saw in Buffy's eyes were enough to make Giles want to stay quiet for the rest of his life. He knew this would come back, he just knew it.
"How dare you," Buffy said, in an outraged voice, but it was oddly calm. "This was Pike's past, you didn't need to know any of it. All you needed to know was that Pike is my friend, and that he saved me, that was all you ever needed to know. What happened to Pike before he came here, was none of your business. I don't care what your reasons were, but you crossed a line Xander."
Xander pushed himself up. "I was just worried that he was using you ... "
"You had no right." Buffy replied. "Dawn get your stuff, we're going to leave, hopefully we'll be able to catch Pike before he leaves Sunnydale. And you know what? I don't blame him, for wanting to leave, Xander ... if you wanted to chase him out of town, then you did a wonderful job, thanks a whole lot. You want to know something? I'm in so much pain right now, you guys tore me away from heaven, away from my pain, away from my happiness ... and then the one person that makes me smile, comes back and you guys chase him off! It's not fair, just leave me alone." Buffy exclaimed, she ran out of the magic shop, with Dawn behind her.
"Are you happy with yourself?" Giles exploded, walking into the back room.
Willow and Anya looked at
each warily and then walked over to Xander and helped him up.
