Title: Networking, part 2: From the ashes
Author: Am-Chau Yarkona
E-mail: grant@hagden169.fsnet.co.uk
Summary: The family are together again. All hell breaks loose, as normal.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Giles/Spike, Buffy/Clem, etc.
Spoilers: For most of seasons 3 and 6.
Warnings:
Author Notes:
Story Notes: One joke in here was borrrowed from As Time Goes By's Jean and
Lionel. Can you spot it?
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing in Joss' sandpit. With Buffy. And Spike and Giles on the swings. Get it? I'm dreaming!
William:
When I wake, we are in the car, heading- and even I'm not sure how I know this- for Sunnydale. It is evening, ten or fifteen minutes before sunset.
"Rupert?" I ask. I haven't opened my eyes, but it smells like Rupert: cocoa, dust, and a tang of stale alcohol.
"It's me, William. I don't know why, but we're going to Sunnydale, so we can get this, whatever it is, sorted out."
"Thanks."
"How are you? There's a bag of blood in the boot- if you like, we can stop and you can have it."
"No. Keep driving."
"Okay."
There is silence again, and I am drifting back towards sleep, when he asks, "What were you dreaming? You keep muttering something about England and books."
"Um- could you give me a detailed update?" I want to know what's going on and how much Rupert knows before I start telling him how I dreamt something about going back to England to search the watcher's library for volumes that mention Steven.
I think I know roughly what our mission is, and certainly what Alice meant about visions, but I can't exactly rush stright into that. I'm glad she told me what she did about the ritual for turning a vampire and letting them keep their soul- it means I feel I have literally all the time in the world with Rupert.
"We're all- me, you, Angel, Fred, Gunn, Steven, Cordelia, Wesley, Buffy, Willow, Dru, Xander, Harmony, Lorne, whoever else, I've lost track. Ranguger's stayed behind to bury his mistress' body as she desired. The rest of us are all going to Sunnydale, because Buffy says Clem and Dawn have to be involved in the planning for our next step. I think Steven doesn't know he's the Annointed One, or at least, Buffy's telling him on the way. Speed seems to be of the essence."
"Indeed. I think I had one of the visions Alice mentioned, that'd what my dream was. We're going to be part of the research team, maybe working with the Watchers."
Rupert doesn't look happy about that- I can't see why. He just goes on driving, staring at the road.
"You okay, pet?" I ask lightly, wanting to know but trying to keep my emotions in check.
"I'm fine," he says. We keep on rushing along the dark streets towards Sunnyhell, and I notice that I can see Angel's car in the rear view mirror. He doesn't look happy either.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Everyone here?" Buffy asks, and I realise that Alice must have been given some Slayer power, somehow. They are just so alike, so commanding, so. bad William. It's thoughts like that which get you into fights you have to win or run away from.
She's apperently decided we are. We've been squashed into the Summers' front room, all fifteen of us. "At the moment," she tells us, "I see five things that need doing. Dawn needs guarding, Steven needs guarding," from her expression, she notices their twin muntianous looks at this, but carries on regardless, "Research needs doing, and the places we think things might start happening need guarding- that's LA and Sunnydale. Can anyone think of anything else we need to cover?"
Met with an absense of suggestions, she goes on. "I'm told I'm in charge of this operation, so I'm assigning tasks as follows. Dawn and Steven take some responsibility for their own safety, and Clem and I help Dawn. Steven, do you have any opion about who you want to help you?"
"No demons," the lad says. He still looks overwhelmed by the number of people, and more than a little scared. If he's lucky, Buffy'll give him someone he knows already.
"How about Fred and Gunn?" she asks.
He considers this. "Okay."
"Right- Fred, Gunn, you're with Steven. We'll talk about where you go in a minute. I think some of the books we need are in England, so I need you to get on that, Giles, with Spike to help you. You're in charge of research- anyone who finds anything, get in touch with Giles. Wesley, you seem to know your way around the scrolls, so I want you to work on that as your main priority. Angel, you've pretty much got charge of LA, and I'm hoping that between four- Xander, Willow, Harmony, Drusilla- Sunnydale won't need me."
The green guy- Lorne- pipes up. "What about me and Anya? We want to help, too."
The cheerleader echos him. "And me. New found demon skills must be a help."
"Yeah- I want you, all three of you, to help Angel. If something big goes down in LA, telepathy might come in handy. We're going to have to spilt up, but I want everyone to keep in touch. It's phone calls and e-mails every day, right?"
"Are we leaving Sunnydale, then?" Nibblet asks.
"Not yet, Dawnie. I think we'll wait quietly until we know someone has wind of where we are. There's no point attrating attention to ourselves by rushing madly around. We'll keep you and Steven separate for the most part, though, so as not to make it easy for anyone who wants to kill both of you."
"Some of the books we're going to need are in England," I tell her. Rupert looks exhausted.
"Right. You and Giles should probably go back there fairly soon, then. Maybe Steven could go with you- if he and Gunn and Fred went to England, it wouild make a good starting point for some travels."
"I've got two return tickets for tomorrow night," I recall suddenly. "They'd slipped my mind, but two of us could travel then, and there might still be other tickets available."
"I'd want to go back to LA before we flew out," Gunn says. "There's some stuff there I oughta finish."
"If you went back to LA with Angel and Cordy tomorrow, then took Steven out to England in a few days time?"
"Yeah, that's cool."
"Are we all clear then? Who haven't I told what to do?" She spins round slowly, pointing at every member of our little Happy Family. "Dawn, Clem, Xander, Harmony, Drusilla, Willow, with me, here; Angel, Cordelia, Lorne, Anya, Wesley, to LA, to look after the city and into the books; Giles and Spike to England; Fred and Gunn with Steven, to LA in a day or two, then England after that, then on to wherever. We can use you three as a roving band, following up any leads we get. Okay. Now it's time for most of you to go to bed and me to patrol. Goodnight all."
I'm not sure why she dragged us all down here, only to send most of us back to LA or away again, but I can't really be bothered to question her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hello."
"Hello."
"Not great at conversation in bed, are we?"
"We could do something else," I leer.
"Not now- and this time I mean that."
"Is something the matter, love?"
"No. Why?"
"Well, you don't seem too keen to get back to England."
"I guess I'm not. All these developments are kind of turning my life upside down."
I slide a little further down under the blankets, getting comfortable, before I speak again. "I know what you mean. Before the Call, we were getting into a sort of routine, helping people out, solving what mysteries we could. Now, we've got a mission, something big to do, and we've got to try and go back to where we were, but fit that in as well."
"I guess it gives us a measure of insight into how a Slayer feels when she's called. I never dreamed it could be this.unsettling."
"It isn't exactly comfortable, is it?"
"No. And I've got to change my whole mindset."
"How do you mean?"
He seems reluctant to answer, fighting one of those internal battles I used to see back in Bath. "Nothing major," he says after a while, and rolls over so that he's facing away from me.
I move up onto my elbows and look down at his face, the face I've fallen in love with, every line, every blemish, every wonderful square inch. "It didn't sound like 'nothing', pet."
Another stuggle. "Alice," he tells me, finally. "I've spent the past- what, nearly nine months- looking for Alice Malone, because I thought she could help Willow with the magic addiction. I was told she was living quietly in England. When I find her, she's in LA, and she dies before I can ask her."
There is silence for a moment while I digest that information. That's what he was really after- Alice. He wanted to help Willow, so he looked for Alice- which makes a kind of sense, if he'd heard of her- but he couldn't find her. "Is that the mission, the one you wouldn't tell me about, the one you obssesed over, the one you had nightmares about?" I ask, eventually.
Quietly, "Yes."
"Oh, love. I'm sorry. But she has helped Willow- Drusilla is much nearer sane than I've ever seen her, and Willow's drawing a lot of strength from helping her."
"You said Alice had vision, didn't you, knew almost everything that was going on?"
"That's right. It could be she knew. She was only part human- perhaps it was her demon side's idea of ironic."
"If it had a sense of humor anything like yours, that's quite likely."
I have to laugh at that, and he opens his eyes again. I feel I could sink into them, their swirls of grey tinged brown and the little uneven patch in the left one. "I love you," I tell him. "We'll get through this if we stick together."
"By the way," he says then, seriously, but I can see he's laughing somewhere behind his eyes, "What on earth possesed Buffy to assign you to help me with research? I wasn't aware she knew you could read, let alone anything else."
"I think Angel may have told her some of what I told you, about being a poet beofre Dru met me. She certainly knows more than I told her directly. Maybe she worked it out- after all, I am pretty good with the books, even if I say so as shouldn't."
"You definatly shouldn't," and he can hardly restrain the smile now. "I can, though- you've very clever, and I love you."
I lean down a little. Before I know it, we're kissing. Life looks sweeter when you're kissing the man you love.
Author: Am-Chau Yarkona
E-mail: grant@hagden169.fsnet.co.uk
Summary: The family are together again. All hell breaks loose, as normal.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Giles/Spike, Buffy/Clem, etc.
Spoilers: For most of seasons 3 and 6.
Warnings:
Author Notes:
Story Notes: One joke in here was borrrowed from As Time Goes By's Jean and
Lionel. Can you spot it?
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing in Joss' sandpit. With Buffy. And Spike and Giles on the swings. Get it? I'm dreaming!
William:
When I wake, we are in the car, heading- and even I'm not sure how I know this- for Sunnydale. It is evening, ten or fifteen minutes before sunset.
"Rupert?" I ask. I haven't opened my eyes, but it smells like Rupert: cocoa, dust, and a tang of stale alcohol.
"It's me, William. I don't know why, but we're going to Sunnydale, so we can get this, whatever it is, sorted out."
"Thanks."
"How are you? There's a bag of blood in the boot- if you like, we can stop and you can have it."
"No. Keep driving."
"Okay."
There is silence again, and I am drifting back towards sleep, when he asks, "What were you dreaming? You keep muttering something about England and books."
"Um- could you give me a detailed update?" I want to know what's going on and how much Rupert knows before I start telling him how I dreamt something about going back to England to search the watcher's library for volumes that mention Steven.
I think I know roughly what our mission is, and certainly what Alice meant about visions, but I can't exactly rush stright into that. I'm glad she told me what she did about the ritual for turning a vampire and letting them keep their soul- it means I feel I have literally all the time in the world with Rupert.
"We're all- me, you, Angel, Fred, Gunn, Steven, Cordelia, Wesley, Buffy, Willow, Dru, Xander, Harmony, Lorne, whoever else, I've lost track. Ranguger's stayed behind to bury his mistress' body as she desired. The rest of us are all going to Sunnydale, because Buffy says Clem and Dawn have to be involved in the planning for our next step. I think Steven doesn't know he's the Annointed One, or at least, Buffy's telling him on the way. Speed seems to be of the essence."
"Indeed. I think I had one of the visions Alice mentioned, that'd what my dream was. We're going to be part of the research team, maybe working with the Watchers."
Rupert doesn't look happy about that- I can't see why. He just goes on driving, staring at the road.
"You okay, pet?" I ask lightly, wanting to know but trying to keep my emotions in check.
"I'm fine," he says. We keep on rushing along the dark streets towards Sunnyhell, and I notice that I can see Angel's car in the rear view mirror. He doesn't look happy either.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Everyone here?" Buffy asks, and I realise that Alice must have been given some Slayer power, somehow. They are just so alike, so commanding, so. bad William. It's thoughts like that which get you into fights you have to win or run away from.
She's apperently decided we are. We've been squashed into the Summers' front room, all fifteen of us. "At the moment," she tells us, "I see five things that need doing. Dawn needs guarding, Steven needs guarding," from her expression, she notices their twin muntianous looks at this, but carries on regardless, "Research needs doing, and the places we think things might start happening need guarding- that's LA and Sunnydale. Can anyone think of anything else we need to cover?"
Met with an absense of suggestions, she goes on. "I'm told I'm in charge of this operation, so I'm assigning tasks as follows. Dawn and Steven take some responsibility for their own safety, and Clem and I help Dawn. Steven, do you have any opion about who you want to help you?"
"No demons," the lad says. He still looks overwhelmed by the number of people, and more than a little scared. If he's lucky, Buffy'll give him someone he knows already.
"How about Fred and Gunn?" she asks.
He considers this. "Okay."
"Right- Fred, Gunn, you're with Steven. We'll talk about where you go in a minute. I think some of the books we need are in England, so I need you to get on that, Giles, with Spike to help you. You're in charge of research- anyone who finds anything, get in touch with Giles. Wesley, you seem to know your way around the scrolls, so I want you to work on that as your main priority. Angel, you've pretty much got charge of LA, and I'm hoping that between four- Xander, Willow, Harmony, Drusilla- Sunnydale won't need me."
The green guy- Lorne- pipes up. "What about me and Anya? We want to help, too."
The cheerleader echos him. "And me. New found demon skills must be a help."
"Yeah- I want you, all three of you, to help Angel. If something big goes down in LA, telepathy might come in handy. We're going to have to spilt up, but I want everyone to keep in touch. It's phone calls and e-mails every day, right?"
"Are we leaving Sunnydale, then?" Nibblet asks.
"Not yet, Dawnie. I think we'll wait quietly until we know someone has wind of where we are. There's no point attrating attention to ourselves by rushing madly around. We'll keep you and Steven separate for the most part, though, so as not to make it easy for anyone who wants to kill both of you."
"Some of the books we're going to need are in England," I tell her. Rupert looks exhausted.
"Right. You and Giles should probably go back there fairly soon, then. Maybe Steven could go with you- if he and Gunn and Fred went to England, it wouild make a good starting point for some travels."
"I've got two return tickets for tomorrow night," I recall suddenly. "They'd slipped my mind, but two of us could travel then, and there might still be other tickets available."
"I'd want to go back to LA before we flew out," Gunn says. "There's some stuff there I oughta finish."
"If you went back to LA with Angel and Cordy tomorrow, then took Steven out to England in a few days time?"
"Yeah, that's cool."
"Are we all clear then? Who haven't I told what to do?" She spins round slowly, pointing at every member of our little Happy Family. "Dawn, Clem, Xander, Harmony, Drusilla, Willow, with me, here; Angel, Cordelia, Lorne, Anya, Wesley, to LA, to look after the city and into the books; Giles and Spike to England; Fred and Gunn with Steven, to LA in a day or two, then England after that, then on to wherever. We can use you three as a roving band, following up any leads we get. Okay. Now it's time for most of you to go to bed and me to patrol. Goodnight all."
I'm not sure why she dragged us all down here, only to send most of us back to LA or away again, but I can't really be bothered to question her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hello."
"Hello."
"Not great at conversation in bed, are we?"
"We could do something else," I leer.
"Not now- and this time I mean that."
"Is something the matter, love?"
"No. Why?"
"Well, you don't seem too keen to get back to England."
"I guess I'm not. All these developments are kind of turning my life upside down."
I slide a little further down under the blankets, getting comfortable, before I speak again. "I know what you mean. Before the Call, we were getting into a sort of routine, helping people out, solving what mysteries we could. Now, we've got a mission, something big to do, and we've got to try and go back to where we were, but fit that in as well."
"I guess it gives us a measure of insight into how a Slayer feels when she's called. I never dreamed it could be this.unsettling."
"It isn't exactly comfortable, is it?"
"No. And I've got to change my whole mindset."
"How do you mean?"
He seems reluctant to answer, fighting one of those internal battles I used to see back in Bath. "Nothing major," he says after a while, and rolls over so that he's facing away from me.
I move up onto my elbows and look down at his face, the face I've fallen in love with, every line, every blemish, every wonderful square inch. "It didn't sound like 'nothing', pet."
Another stuggle. "Alice," he tells me, finally. "I've spent the past- what, nearly nine months- looking for Alice Malone, because I thought she could help Willow with the magic addiction. I was told she was living quietly in England. When I find her, she's in LA, and she dies before I can ask her."
There is silence for a moment while I digest that information. That's what he was really after- Alice. He wanted to help Willow, so he looked for Alice- which makes a kind of sense, if he'd heard of her- but he couldn't find her. "Is that the mission, the one you wouldn't tell me about, the one you obssesed over, the one you had nightmares about?" I ask, eventually.
Quietly, "Yes."
"Oh, love. I'm sorry. But she has helped Willow- Drusilla is much nearer sane than I've ever seen her, and Willow's drawing a lot of strength from helping her."
"You said Alice had vision, didn't you, knew almost everything that was going on?"
"That's right. It could be she knew. She was only part human- perhaps it was her demon side's idea of ironic."
"If it had a sense of humor anything like yours, that's quite likely."
I have to laugh at that, and he opens his eyes again. I feel I could sink into them, their swirls of grey tinged brown and the little uneven patch in the left one. "I love you," I tell him. "We'll get through this if we stick together."
"By the way," he says then, seriously, but I can see he's laughing somewhere behind his eyes, "What on earth possesed Buffy to assign you to help me with research? I wasn't aware she knew you could read, let alone anything else."
"I think Angel may have told her some of what I told you, about being a poet beofre Dru met me. She certainly knows more than I told her directly. Maybe she worked it out- after all, I am pretty good with the books, even if I say so as shouldn't."
"You definatly shouldn't," and he can hardly restrain the smile now. "I can, though- you've very clever, and I love you."
I lean down a little. Before I know it, we're kissing. Life looks sweeter when you're kissing the man you love.