Ok, there has to be something wrong here. Two updates in two days? It's just that this story's going well. I've actually got another four chapters in draft form, but I suspect some of them will need some serious editing!
Darryl, you got your daily update, this time at least.
dustyvamp, yes, I want more B/S too, but I'm trying to make it realistic. If you've read anything else I've written, you know I'm B/S through and through. It will happen, I'm just not saying when.
Haley and Sport, I'm sorry you don't like Riley, but he is necessary to the story.
Teri, I am trying to make Xander a bit more likeable. By going into his mind, I'm trying to show that he does what he does for the best of reasons. Sorry if that's not coming off, I'll try a bit harder for the next Xander chapter. (Not sure when that will be, maybe not for a while.)
t_geyer, As always, your comments are interesting. I'm not saying any more.
To everyone who has reviewed this, many thanks. I've broken my record for reviews on this one, and I'm really chuffed! I'm not sure when I'll update again, as we've got family visiting this weekend, and next week is a busy one for pre-Christmas socialising and other, more mundane matters. So, I'll just have to keep you guessing.
Chapter 18 - A Near Miss
I'm putting my things in my locker at the end of another day. All in all, High School could have been worse, but today has not been good. I'm working with two others on a science project, and we weren't allowed to choose groups. I got landed with Josh Handley and Dave Buerk. They think they're a comedy act, they really do. Anyway, even though I've been working hard on the things I have to do, Mr. Winston decided the project was failing, and we need to work on it tonight. I told him it wasn't my fault, but he said that with my record, he found that hard to believe.
Oh, I was so angry. Buffy would be too, if she knew. Not that I'm going to tell her, though, because, the last thing I need is to end up with the rep of getting my sister to fight my battles for me. So, now I'm stuck with those two clowns in the science lab for a couple of hours.
I had to tell Buffy about staying late, of course, and she didn't look happy. I almost felt a grounding coming on, so I pointed out the work I'd already done on the project, and she eventually agreed that I hadn't been slacking. She offered to talk to Mr. Winston, but I asked her not to. She just shrugged, and said she had plenty to keep her busy. I also noticed the way she headed straight for Spike's office when she finished talking to me. They're taking this joint responsibility thing very seriously. I mean, there was a time Buffy would have yelled at Spike for even suggesting she needed him for anything. Not that that stopped her asking for help when she needed it.
I smile when I think of earlier today. I heard Mary Perkins sounding off in the toilets earlier. She's obviously gone off Spike in a big way. I don't know what he's done, but I'm gonna find out. I should have known he'd do something after I told Buffy what was going on. Oh, it must have been good, to hear her talking about him now.
I reach the science lab, and, surprise, surprise, I'm all alone. I go in, and start to get things set up. I'm so involved in what I'm doing that I almost missed it. There's a noise, a slight scratching in the distance. I look up, trying to identify the source of the sound. I gasp as I see it, a huge shadow, it's coming round the door towards me. I scream, wondering if Spike will hear, and then hear two idiots dissolve into convulsive laughter.
Another practical joke. I don't believe it, and as usual, Winston's not here to see it. I'm so angry, I can hardly speak.
"Did you hear that scream?" Dave gets out between bouts of incapacitating laughter.
The laughter halts suddenly as footsteps approach. Mr. Winston is standing there, his glasses too far down his nose, and his frown almost obliterating his eyes. "You two, are coming with me to the Principal's office now. Wait outside." He turns to watch them leaving, then faces me. "And Miss Summers, I had been told that your behaviour was now better. It seems I have been misinformed. That scream was completely out of order as a reaction to such a childish prank. However, in view of this incident, I am going to relieve you of the necessity to work with those boys. You will work alone, and I will not accept any excuses regarding the quality of your project on the grounds that it is a solo effort. I will assign them alternative time to complete their work, as I suspect the Principal will have something with which to fill their time this afternoon. You may carry on now."
At least half a dozen times while he was speaking, I tried to explain, to tell him that I was really frightened by what happened, but Winston has a way of carrying on regardless, not allowing interruptions. By the time he's finished, I realise that I'm best to say nothing. How can I explain to him why I'm so jumpy? Telling him that I'm this mystic ball of energy that's due to avert an apocalypse is really likely to impress him, now isn't it?
He leaves me to get on with my work, taking the others to see the Principal. Too soon he's back, going into his office at the back of the lab. He can look out of there and see what I'm doing, so it's kind of like being in a goldfish bowl. I pick up where I left off. I'm actually relieved. Sure, it would have been more fun to work on this with some people who were actually willing to contribute, but this way, at least I know where I am.
Next time I look at my watch, I'm surprised to see that my two hours are almost up. Winston's been watching me, but hasn't interfered at all, so it seems he approves. I'm just about finished. I mean, I'm going to have to write the report, but I've got all the information I need, so I start to pack up. Looking at my watch, I know Buffy will be expecting me, unless she's been side-tracked by something. I hear footsteps approaching, and I bend down to pick up my bag from the floor. When I look up, I see, not Buffy, but three, no, five vampires.
"There she is," the one in the lead tells the others. "You know what we've got to do."
They walk towards me, and I drop my bag and start to back away from them, towards Winston. He comes out as soon as he sees what's happening, spluttering at the intrusion. They ignore him.
"Hey, boss, why did they send us to get her? She's only a girl, even if she is the Slayer's sister."
"I guess they just wanted to be sure."
My back is against the wall, and I'm screaming. I remember with despair when I screamed before. Only Winston heard, and he's not going to be a lot of use against these. I scream again, but the closest is reaching out a hand to me. He's stroking my face, and the others are grinning stupidly.
"Such a pity he told us not to play. We could have had such fun."
Winston tries to get to me, crazy man actually thinks he can stop them. One of them reaches out to him, snapping his neck in a single movement, and drops the lifeless body to the floor.
I try to scream again, but something's wrong with my voice. "Why did he say we couldn't drink?" one asks.
"I don't remember," the leader replies. "But it can't hurt to have a little drink, can it?"
With a horrifying leer, he pushes my head over, turning his own head to bring his fangs down to my neck. I feel the sharp pain as they pierce my neck, then feel the blood flowing into his mouth, and down my neck, onto my sweater. My heart's hammering in my chest, louder and louder. I close my eyes to banish the picture of the creature in front of me, and I see red. The red's getting darker, and darker, and …
*-*-*
I'm doing a walk around, checking for anything out of the ordinary. It's been a quiet day, well, unless you count that little bint coming to my office, and locking us in. I couldn't believe the nerve of her. I felt like teaching her a lesson, I really did. Coming in, looking for trouble, I've seen too many of her type before. I've killed too many.
I was deliberately dense. Pretended I didn't know what she was offering, and treated her like she was a little girl. I managed to get between the door and her, listening to her splutter her indignation, and walked out. She hadn't been in there more than a minute.
She stalked out after me, and I made a note to fix my door so that it can't be locked from the inside without a key. The last thing I need is for someone to try that again, and someone to think I engineered it. If that happens, Buffy'd never let me near Dawn again, and I can't protect her if I'm not around.
I'm just checking the basement, and I've found something. Someone has broken through the wall next to the boiler room. For some reason, the wall there is only made of plasterboard, and it leads to the infamous Sunnydale tunnel system. As soon as I notice that, I smell blood. I follow the scent, and go into the corridor. There's a door opened a few yards along from the boiler room. I remember the Principal saying there were some boxes in there that needed to be unpacked and sorted. I go in, and see two, twisted bodies. They're students here, or at least they were. I recognise the faces, even if I don't know their names. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they're dead, and that they were killed by vampires.
I start to walk away, thinking I'd better check on Dawn, when I feel it. It grips me in my stomach, and I start to run. Dawn is afraid, and I feel it like my own fear. I follow the sensation, running faster, remembering the nearest staircase, going up it two, no, three steps at a time.
As I reach the ground floor, I feel her terror intensifying. I increase my speed. I round the last corner, skidding as I do so, grabbing onto the wall to pull myself around, and down the corridor. I go into the science lab, and I see them. There are five of them. Four are watching, laughing, getting a kick out of seeing my Bit having her blood drained, and the fifth is …
I launch myself at the first, and then things become blurry. I mean, I see what's happening, it's just like it's happening to someone else. The detail's gone, it's just an all-consuming need to get to Dawn.
The next thing I see clearly, dust is falling around me, and Dawn is in my arms. She's so pale, and her heartbeat is weak. I stumble to my feet, lifting her as I do so, and head towards the car park. I almost stumble over the body of a man. I hadn't even noticed him before. All I could see was Dawn. He's obviously dead, beyond help, so I ignore him.
As I turn the corner towards the front entrance, I almost bump into Buffy.
"Dawn," she screams.
"She's still alive, but she's lost a lot of blood. I'm taking her to hospital."
She nods, her skin almost as pale as her sister's. She follows me, and when we get to my car, I tell her to take my keys from the pocket of my jacket.
"Get in," I tell her as she opens a door to the back seat. I place Dawn in with her, her head on Buffy's lap, and run round to the driver's door.
As I pull out, she gasps, "What happened?"
"Vampire attack. There were five of them. It looks like they got two others before they went upstairs. I found two bodies in the basement. And, one of the science teachers. He was dead in the lab."
I can still hear her, although she's no longer talking to me. She's crooning at Dawn, telling her she's going to be ok, telling her she's on her way to hospital, telling her she's safe.
Safe. I've let her down again. I was nearly too late, I may have been too late. I feel the cold, clammy feeling of fear inside me. She can't die. The Bit can't die, and I'm not in the least concerned with the fate of the world. She can't die because Buffy couldn't take it. I couldn't take it.
I stop in a screech of brakes outside the hospital, and run around to help Buffy out of the car. She takes Dawn this time, reluctant to allow me to take the burden. As we're going inside, someone tells me to move the car. Can't they see we've got an emergency going on? He's insistent. Dawn's on a trolley now, and the medical staff has taken over, Buffy running along behind. Mr. Move-Your-Car isn't about to get out of the way, so it's either hit him or do as he's telling me. I very nearly go with the hitting him option.
I move the car to the car park as quickly as I can, and run into the building. I see Buffy, standing at a desk where someone's asking questions. The usual things - name, address, medical history. Buffy's answering as well as she can, but she keeps looking along the corridor. At last, the questioner seems to realise she's not going to get any more, and we're released. We continue along the corridor, stopping outside a room with glass panels in the walls. Inside, we can see Dawn, surrounded by the team of people who are trying to save her life. As Buffy tries to open the door, she's stopped again, told to wait outside, pointed in the direction of some chairs.
I put an arm around her, and lead her to the suggested area. She's shaking, I can feel the tremors as I lead her away. We sit down, and she doesn't pull away, so my arm stays around her shoulders.
She's looking at her hands, and they're in perpetual motion. Rubbing, scratching, entwining, over and over. The only thing that's keeping me sane is the contact. I know I shouldn't be touching her, but I know she needs to be touched. It's grounding both of us.
I don't know how long we sit there, silent, fidgeting, wishing for news as long as it's good. At last, someone approaches.
"Miss Summers?" She's a doctor, I saw her in that room with Dawn before we were told to get out of the way.
Buffy stands up, and I follow.
"How is she?" Her voice is barely more than a whisper.
"She's lost a lot of blood. We're transfusing her now. She should be ok, but I've got to say, if she had lost any more blood, or if you'd wasted any time getting her here, I doubt I'd be able to say that."
"Can I see her?" Buffy's voice is less even than before.
"You can go in for a minute, but she's unconscious, and I think she'll stay that way for the rest of the night. Put your mind at rest with a quick peek, then go home and get some sleep is what I'd advise."
"I'd rather stay," Buffy insists.
The doctor nods, and leads us into the room where Dawn lies, blood dripping into her arm. She's still so pale, she looks dead, but I can hear her heart beat, and it's noticeably stronger than before.
We sit for a while, just watching her, listening to her breathing, but then we're hustled out again. They're going to move her to a room, and we're in the way again.
We leave, returning to where we waited before. "Can you call Giles and Willow, ask them to call Xander? Let them know what's happened."
I nod, but I'm reluctant to leave her. I make sure she's sitting where I can see from the phone before I go to make the call. While I'm there, I call the authorities about the other bodies.
When I get back, we're given Dawn's room number, and we make our way there. My arm's around her shoulder again, and again, she's not pushing it away.
We go in, and it's a relief to see her without the tubes. She looks like she's sleeping peacefully, just the dressing at her neck to show for her ordeal.
"What happened?" Buffy asks, without taking her eyes off her sister.
"Found two bodies in the basement. I was on my way to check on her, when I knew she was scared. I ran, and found five vampires. One was feeding. What happened then isn't too clear, but when they were dust, I picked her up, and then bumped into you."
She's quiet for a while, then looks at me, a puzzled look on her face. "How did you know she was scared?"
I shrug, trying to find the words to describe the sensation. "It felt like I was scared. A clenching in my stomach, feeling slightly sick. But I knew it was Dawn."
"Funny, just before I left my office to try and find her, I felt a bit sick. I thought it was just something I'd eaten. Do you feel like that for anyone who's scared?"
I think about that. As a vampire, you feel fear, and it's a bit like I described, without the nausea. The demon loves to feel that, it's not too fussed whether it's the host who's scared or someone else. Either way, you get a huge buzz. Since I've been back, I have still felt that, the general feeling of fear, but only when I'm close to someone. In another room, or even across the street, I wouldn't pick up on it. "No," I answer, "I mean, I can tell if someone's scared, if they're close. But at that distance, it's only happened with Dawn."
We're silent again, but it's a silence based on comparative peace, rather than panic. Soon, the door bursts open, and Giles and Willow come in. As soon as they do, Buffy jumps up, running to them and hugging them. She sits again, but this time, she doesn't sit next to me.
I repeat the story, this time giving Giles all the details he needs. Willow looks shaken, listening to everything I say. Within five minutes, Xander crashes in. He takes in the group around the bed, Buffy surrounded by Willow and Giles, and me sitting apart. He takes a chair from beside me, and goes over to the others. The inevitable question is asked, and the answer is given.
To my surprise, he doesn't start yelling at me. He looks at me, as if he's trying to see into my mind, trying to get a direct line to my memory. It's obvious that Buffy's planning on spending the night, and the conversation shifts to who should stay with her. No one asks me if I want to be there. In the end, Giles agrees to stay, and Xander offers to take Willow home. They stand to leave, and Xander looks pointedly at me.
"We're going now," he states unnecessarily.
I ignore him, turning to Buffy. "Are you going to be ok?"
"Yeah, I think so. She's going to be ok. You go home and get some sleep. You'll have enough to do tomorrow without being here all night."
It's a dismissal, and I recognise it. I don't want to go, but she doesn't seem to want me here. If there had been any hint that she had, nothing would have moved me from her side.
Xander escorts me to my car, at least that's how it feels. It looks like he doesn't trust me not to go back as soon as his back's turned.
I drive back to school. I've got work to do. I need to arrange to have the basement secured. Then, I'll have to find out if there are any other walls on the school plan which don't actually exist.
Inevitably, while I drive, I think. I've always felt something for Dawn. I don't really understand it. I know it wasn't just because of Buffy. I've felt protective of the Niblet from the first time I saw her. I think she reminds me of my own sister a little. Eyes, hair colour and the shape of her nose. Then, there's the attitude too. She was about Dawn's age when Drusilla got her hands, or should I say her fangs, on me. I remember Katherine better than all the rest of my family. We were close. She used to come to me when she was scared. She really thought I was important. Strong. Brave. I wasn't any of those things, but my little sister thought I was. I was her hero.
It's after midnight before I get away from the school. I managed to get someone in to do a temporary fix on the wall, and did a survey of the rest of the walls. I found another four places where there doesn't seem to be any wall behind the plasterboard.
I head out to do a quick patrol on the way home. To my surprise, I meet Xander and Willow in one of the cemeteries. Xander claims to be surprised that I would bother without Buffy. Willow says nothing. I ignore him, and leave them to get on with it. Well, not exactly leave them. I stay where I can hear if they're in trouble. I know Buffy couldn't cope if one of then got hurt, but there's not much about tonight. I hear them agreeing to call it a night, and follow them back to Xander's car. When I'm sure they're safe, I head home.