Title: Loose Ends
Author: Jane McCartney
Disclaimer: All the characters you recognize belong to Joss & co. (all hail the crackhead). I'm just fooling around with his universe, with no intention of making money or anything.
Classification: Buffy-Angel crossover
Rating: PG13
Feedback: Yes, please! Doesn't everyone want it?
Email: janemccartney@bol.com.br
Distribution: Anywhere, I don't mind, just credit me and inform me where it's at.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Theo, who actually made this project a viable one with his amazing and wonderful work â€" I'm truly grateful for your help with the English grammar and all the necessary adaptations. You're my savior.
Note: This is my very first attempt at fan fiction, and English is definitely not my native language, so I'd be happy if you guys didn't go too hard on me â€" please. I'm just doing the best I can here.
Summary: [Buffy-Angel Crossover] Xander shows up in Los Angeles, and brings with him a secret that'll lead him into dangerous territory. Can he cope with that? And his friends, will they be there for him?
***
A familiar noise that was starting to become way too common for the people of Angel Investigations lately rang its strident tone, and cut short the previously silent ambience.
Fred dashed out of her room, straight to the Hyperion's lounge. Would they finally get any news of Cordelia's, or Xander's whereabouts, after a long night without any success? The Texan's stomach did a flip-flop of anxiety and fear at the thought.
Wesley, also noticing the telephone's piercing and persistent ring, and with similar hopeful thoughts, was also on his way.
And these elements gave rise to one gawky, painful and unforeseen bump, as the two members of the Fang Gang clumsily ran into each other.
"Ouch!" Fred snapped and Wesley groaned in sudden pain, rubbing his forehead repeatedly.
"Good bloody Lord, kindly look where you're going before you kill me one day, Fred," the Englishman cursed, staggering a little to reach a nearby chair.
"Uh, sorry," the brunette Texan awkwardly apologized, blushing a little. "I'm so really sorry," she added, rebuking herself for her routine clumsiness.
"Let me help you," Fred offered tentatively, pushing the chair closer to Wesley.
What the brunette didn't notice was, that the dazed former Watcher was already sitting down on the furniture at the exact moment she'd pulled it away; causing the dark-haired man to miss the chair by half an inch, and fall ungraciously on the hard floor.
"D-do you think I should run now?" Fred's jumpy voice asked an amused Gunn, who had just come into the room to witness the entire oafish scene.
The young man just shrugged, nodding mockingly. "I think it'd be a damn good idea."
Wesley's reaction wasn't quite the expected one, though. Instead, the Englishman's gaze was concentrated solely on the ambivalent expression of Angel's face, once the vampire had answered the phone while his and Fred's bumping into each other had taken space.
"Angel?" Wesley said with a hint of cold feet.
If, at any other time, the scenario of him sitting awkwardly on the floor would appear rather ridiculous, now it simply didn't seem to reach anyone's sense of humor.
"I don't like this," Fred muttered nervously under her breath.
"Where's the newspaper?" Angel asked harshly.
Wesley looked to Gunn, Gunn looked to Fred, and Fred looked back at them both, with an expression that seemed to say, 'How the hell should I know?'
"Angel, what happened?" Wesley asked carefully, gathering his composure and standing up again, brushing his clothes absent-mindedly.
"Is it Cordelia?" Fred then added, unable to hide a distinct spark of unease and, at the same time, expectancy in her voice.
A tense and thick silence followed soon afterward, and Angel's gaze was diverted away from any of his friends' ones.
"Cordelia was hurt last night," Angel deadpanned.
An utter stillness. The wind grew stronger; and, for a single second, all of them felt a freezing cold running violently down their spines.
"Is she..." Gunn's sentence trailed off, as the young fighter realized what he was just about to say and felt a sharp twist in his heart.
Angel's eyes widened instantly. "No, no. I mean, no! Cordy's gonna be OK, though she'll need to stay in hospital one more night as a precaution."
Fred, Gunn and Wesley sighed in unison, more a sigh of relief than worry this time.
"Xander?" Wesley asked, his question sounding surprisingly like a statement, even to himself.
Angel kept absolutely quiet.
"That bastard," Gunn grumbled raggedly. "She trusted him, that goddamn bastard!" he added louder, in an incredulous and sharp tone.
Fred jumped in fear and tenseness, snapping her head around to offer a wild gaze at Gunn.
"He was admitted as a mental patient, hours after he brought Cordelia to St. Matthew's," Angel rationalized, taking a step further along the lounge and moving away from his shadowy spot.
"Schizophrenia," the dark-haired vampire pointed out, when nobody else said a word.
"A wacko, great," Gunn snorted in sarcasm.
"But you're not buying it," Wesley stated softly, noticing the vamp's troubled expression. "Do you think it has something to do with the medallion?"
Angel needlessly exhaled a breath he didn't actually have, given his condition as a vampire. "Maybe. Anyway, we'll have to-"
"Yeah, yeah, research," Gunn moaned almost painfully, timely finishing the sentence.
"Research and search for answers," the dark-haired vampire concluded, as if Gunn's words were never spoken. "And Buffy said Giles found some interesting prospects that may enlighten us too. We have to wait for them to finally get here..."
Angel turned his back on the A.I. team and grabbed his leather duster. The rest of the Fang Gang exchanged a dubious glance, when he started to wordlessly walk in the direction of the sewer entrance.
"Angel? Wesley's voice demanded, a little uncertain and craggy.
"You three stay, do the research and wait for Buffy and the others to come. I'll go see Cordelia, and see if I can get information on what really happened," the vampire replied in a rather harsh tone, still with his back to them and not stopping his rough walk for an instant.
"Information?" Fred questioned lowly, her eyes sparkling with unease and growing fear.
"The man's gonna kick some demon butt," Gunn whispered, looking at the brunette Texan with a small grin. "Glad I ain't in his way."
"He's all bossy," she blurted out, releasing a weary sigh. "Did I say I so don't like this?"
"Princess is hurt, vampire's mad," the young fighter retorted pointedly.
On the other corner of the room, Wesley stood still, a dumb look on his face. "Angel?
But the vampire was nowhere to be found in the room anymore, walking hurriedly through the dark and smelly tunnels of the sewers of Los Angeles to get to St Matthews' entrance without getting harmed by the sunlight.
"I hate it when he does that," the Englishman grunted.
***
"He's losing too much blood," Michael stated quietly, looking up to find Faith's expectant eyes stabbing him in confusion and apprehension.
The sandy-haired doctor stood up from Xander's side, where he'd formerly and futilely been trying to stop the hemorrhaging with a ragged piece of his own silk shirt. He sent a protective and reassuring glance to Kelly. The young nurse just bit her lower lip, unease obvious in her eyes.
Michael sighed tensely â€" the surrealistic scenario was just the perfect irony to the young doctor at this moment.
Xander's fallen body, laying on his own pool of blood as his brunette friend, uncertainty obvious in her tense dark eyes, seemed to examine every move he made with utter attention and certain irresolution â€" and he'd previously thought this would be a boring day.
"I can't help him, not like this. We gotta get him into the hospital," Penn risked saying, his voice cautious and slightly trembling. "Or he won't make it," he then softly added, instantaneously spotting a sideways gaze from Kelly.
"No," Faith snapped fidgetingly, glancing at Xander. "We can't do that, you â€" you'll help him here," the time-traveler insisted harshly, in stubborn denial.
"But I can't-" the doctor tried to utter, but the Slayer quickly interrupted him, by pointing the rifle at his general direction.
"Faith," Kelly's shaky voice was literally a whisper, so low that neither the brunette nor the doctor were able to actually hear her. "Faith!" the curly-haired nurse then said louder, and this time, the required attention was finally won.
And, staring at the two pairs of expecting eyes intensively drilling hers, stabbing her soul with examination and expectance, Kelly couldn't help but feel incredibly intimidated.
The nurse blinked a few times. And then, several more. Her hands started to sweat, and her heart was going at full-speed.
God, Kelly thought, unable to remember a time where she'd been so nervous at that very same moment. Either I'm very stupid, or very suicidal...
"He won't make it through this, if we don't get him into proper treatment. If you care about him, you should know that," Kelly's harsh voice announced with determination and, in the single second when nobody was looking at her, the blonde gulped loudly.
Gee, I'm pretty sure you're both, Kelly, the nurse snorted, annoyed with herself.
Faith looked to Xander and, as the Slayer felt an intense wave of worry and doubt passing fully through her thoughts, she was only able to nod slowly. "OK."
"OK what?" Michael asked cautiously.
"You," Faith pointed to Kelly, and the young nurse shuddered, letting a small cry of surprise escape from her pink-colored lips.
"Go and get what you guys are gonna need from the hospital," the brunette said, stooping once again and passing a hand through Xander's dark hair, mumbling something neither Kelly nor Michael were able to hear.
"You don't understand, Xander needs to be taken care of in the hospital, under appropriate conditions! I can't bring the whole hospital out here!" the blonde tried to reason with Faith, but only managed to get a shocked look from the Slayer's tense features.
"Xander?" a surprised Faith demanded, bitterness and apprehension clear in her voice. "How the hell did we get to a first-name basis? Like, I don't think an ID brings a person's nickname in it," the brunette snorted sarcastically, a troublesome look causing the curly-haired nurse to get goosebumps.
If Kelly's posture seemed arrogant and confident seconds before, her small and scared voice totally betrayed it now. "I, I treated Miss Chase last night..."
Once Kelly's inner voice was done screaming at her not to tell Faith about her enthusiastic involvement in Xander's acceptance as a mental patient the previous night, the blonde decided she wouldn't go against such good advice or she'd really, really be a stupid and suicidal girl.
"Queen C, yeah â€" right," Faith whispered in recollection, obviously more to herself than to anybody else.
"What do I do?" Kelly decided to ask, not before sending a quick glance of worry to Michael, and then to Xander.
"Go and get supplies. Blood bags, plasma, I don't know, everything you need and might help," the brunette Slayer retorted, evidently uncertain of her decision to not bring Xander to the hospital after all.
"But-" Kelly tried to argue, but Faith suddenly gripped Michael Penn's shirt by the collar and made him stand up, to then point the rifle at the sandy-haired doctor's temple.
"Doc here stays, and I swear I'll blow his head off if you take one false step, do you hear me Nurse Girl? Now git!" Faith's fidgety voice would almost convince one of her kick-ass tone, if the Slayer's eyes hadn't seemed so panicked.
Kelly glanced horrified at Michael, who could only gulp and send a frightened look back at her. He mouthed a silent 'go' to the nurse, and she started to stagger away with uncertainty and dread from the dark alley.
And then, as the curly-haired blonde unconsciously risked sending a hurried look over her shoulder, Xander's body started to convulse.
Immediately entering into Michael Penn MD mode, the sandy-haired doctor quickly let his own body fall to the floor and darted a dark look to Kelly.
Faith stood there, absolutely still, and absent-mindedly let the rifle fall from her hand. C'mon, stud, stay and fight damn it! I, I need you, c'mon, help me here!
Rage, chaos, worry, fear and a deep sensation of spiritual pain overtook Faith's mind at that single instant, seeing the dark-haired boy's convulsing body.
The brunette Slayer would have been surprised, if her mind could have allowed any other feeling besides those right then.
Because, deep down, she knew that her care for Xander went beyond that for just a dying partner in this stupid, disturbing mission.
What really frightened her the most was losing someone so important to her, someone who had kept his presence in her thoughts for so many long and lonely nights without any kind of contact, apart from two exchanged letters.
Such significant letters they'd been, though...
Kelly paused; a realization seeming to make her heartbeat rise to double its usual speed.
Only three or four steps away, the sharp noise of a rifle falling onto the hard concrete seemed to completely overwhelm any other noise produced by faraway ambulances, cars passing by and people shouting â€" what you'd hear on a customary, regular, noisy day in St. Matthew's neighborhood.
The blonde nurse slowly looked around, the whole world seeming to move in slow-motion for those endless seconds.
Xander, his body in convulsions, and Michael trying to help him, not having much success without the right equipment to work with for the young man. And a few feet away, a perplexed and seemingly lost brunette girl standing still, her eyes widened and her lips trying to restrain a groan in her throat.
Without giving it another thought, the curly-haired woman hurried towards St. Matthew's and left the rifle behind on the cold pavement.
For some odd reason, and beyond any logical explanation, Kelly just decided to ignore that part of her mind shouting at her for her stupidity in leaving the gun there â€" and very possibly risking hers and Michael's life along with it.
Something deep inside her, a stronger part indeed, just felt like helping Xander and Faith was the right thing to do.
And what the heck, her panic be damned â€" if only her shaking hands would agree with her...
***
Dawn Summers sighed. Heavily.
The brown-haired teenager hadn't any thought but one, which was consuming every fiber of her being with a mix of anger, worry and â€" quite honestly â€" deep annoyance.
Living on the Hellmouth totally, completely sucked. And, like, big time.
Once again, it was like they were being thrown into the Coliseum of ancient Rome, as Christians having to fight for their lives against hungry, infuriated lions. To satisfy an amazingly large crowd of excited people, waving cheerfully at their upcoming death, that were trapped in their own blissful ignorant bloodlust.
Dawn knew. Her history teacher had made her study all this.
But now, the laughs didn't belong to the crowd. Neither were lions their treats. OK, they even weren't that religious anyway.
So sue me, Dawn rebuked herself with a distinct hint of sarcasm. I suck in the metaphor department.
The only thing the Key knew for sure was that, 24 hours ago, the man for whom she'd kept a not-so-secret crush for years was about to marry a happy former vengeance demon.
The night had started to announce its imminent disaster when they'd learned that Xander was apparently nowhere to be found. Dawn hadn't believe that, even with the mighty and unique potential of the Hellmouth to make things worse every minute, things could actually get worse than Anya's choice of her bridesmaid dress.
Which, of course, the brunette teenager had taken special care to register in numberless photos â€" potential blackmail material, as a matter of fact.
And then, well, then they were all here. In the middle of Los Angeles, the city she'd lived in for the first ten years of her life â€" or rather, the city that those monks had made her believe she'd lived in until her 10th birthday.
Dawn didn't know why Buffy had let her come to LA, and she'd been spared that whole speech about keeping out of danger and blah, blah, blah â€" maybe it was because confusion could very definitely be a word to describe last night.
Or maybe, just maybe her sister's empty Slayer head had actually finally grown some gray matter inside the skull. And she'd realized that, no matter how much they could try and run away from danger, it'd always be there by their sides, with its stupid wide grin waiting to show up and mess with their lives even more than it already had.
So, trying to prevent her coming along was basically pointless.
Certainly, brains wasn't one of the items in a Slayer's package, after all.
***
TBC
Hey you guys! My computer´s finally broken... I´ll try to update soon, but it´ll be difficult. Hey, check my other stories!
And please, review!
Author: Jane McCartney
Disclaimer: All the characters you recognize belong to Joss & co. (all hail the crackhead). I'm just fooling around with his universe, with no intention of making money or anything.
Classification: Buffy-Angel crossover
Rating: PG13
Feedback: Yes, please! Doesn't everyone want it?
Email: janemccartney@bol.com.br
Distribution: Anywhere, I don't mind, just credit me and inform me where it's at.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Theo, who actually made this project a viable one with his amazing and wonderful work â€" I'm truly grateful for your help with the English grammar and all the necessary adaptations. You're my savior.
Note: This is my very first attempt at fan fiction, and English is definitely not my native language, so I'd be happy if you guys didn't go too hard on me â€" please. I'm just doing the best I can here.
Summary: [Buffy-Angel Crossover] Xander shows up in Los Angeles, and brings with him a secret that'll lead him into dangerous territory. Can he cope with that? And his friends, will they be there for him?
***
A familiar noise that was starting to become way too common for the people of Angel Investigations lately rang its strident tone, and cut short the previously silent ambience.
Fred dashed out of her room, straight to the Hyperion's lounge. Would they finally get any news of Cordelia's, or Xander's whereabouts, after a long night without any success? The Texan's stomach did a flip-flop of anxiety and fear at the thought.
Wesley, also noticing the telephone's piercing and persistent ring, and with similar hopeful thoughts, was also on his way.
And these elements gave rise to one gawky, painful and unforeseen bump, as the two members of the Fang Gang clumsily ran into each other.
"Ouch!" Fred snapped and Wesley groaned in sudden pain, rubbing his forehead repeatedly.
"Good bloody Lord, kindly look where you're going before you kill me one day, Fred," the Englishman cursed, staggering a little to reach a nearby chair.
"Uh, sorry," the brunette Texan awkwardly apologized, blushing a little. "I'm so really sorry," she added, rebuking herself for her routine clumsiness.
"Let me help you," Fred offered tentatively, pushing the chair closer to Wesley.
What the brunette didn't notice was, that the dazed former Watcher was already sitting down on the furniture at the exact moment she'd pulled it away; causing the dark-haired man to miss the chair by half an inch, and fall ungraciously on the hard floor.
"D-do you think I should run now?" Fred's jumpy voice asked an amused Gunn, who had just come into the room to witness the entire oafish scene.
The young man just shrugged, nodding mockingly. "I think it'd be a damn good idea."
Wesley's reaction wasn't quite the expected one, though. Instead, the Englishman's gaze was concentrated solely on the ambivalent expression of Angel's face, once the vampire had answered the phone while his and Fred's bumping into each other had taken space.
"Angel?" Wesley said with a hint of cold feet.
If, at any other time, the scenario of him sitting awkwardly on the floor would appear rather ridiculous, now it simply didn't seem to reach anyone's sense of humor.
"I don't like this," Fred muttered nervously under her breath.
"Where's the newspaper?" Angel asked harshly.
Wesley looked to Gunn, Gunn looked to Fred, and Fred looked back at them both, with an expression that seemed to say, 'How the hell should I know?'
"Angel, what happened?" Wesley asked carefully, gathering his composure and standing up again, brushing his clothes absent-mindedly.
"Is it Cordelia?" Fred then added, unable to hide a distinct spark of unease and, at the same time, expectancy in her voice.
A tense and thick silence followed soon afterward, and Angel's gaze was diverted away from any of his friends' ones.
"Cordelia was hurt last night," Angel deadpanned.
An utter stillness. The wind grew stronger; and, for a single second, all of them felt a freezing cold running violently down their spines.
"Is she..." Gunn's sentence trailed off, as the young fighter realized what he was just about to say and felt a sharp twist in his heart.
Angel's eyes widened instantly. "No, no. I mean, no! Cordy's gonna be OK, though she'll need to stay in hospital one more night as a precaution."
Fred, Gunn and Wesley sighed in unison, more a sigh of relief than worry this time.
"Xander?" Wesley asked, his question sounding surprisingly like a statement, even to himself.
Angel kept absolutely quiet.
"That bastard," Gunn grumbled raggedly. "She trusted him, that goddamn bastard!" he added louder, in an incredulous and sharp tone.
Fred jumped in fear and tenseness, snapping her head around to offer a wild gaze at Gunn.
"He was admitted as a mental patient, hours after he brought Cordelia to St. Matthew's," Angel rationalized, taking a step further along the lounge and moving away from his shadowy spot.
"Schizophrenia," the dark-haired vampire pointed out, when nobody else said a word.
"A wacko, great," Gunn snorted in sarcasm.
"But you're not buying it," Wesley stated softly, noticing the vamp's troubled expression. "Do you think it has something to do with the medallion?"
Angel needlessly exhaled a breath he didn't actually have, given his condition as a vampire. "Maybe. Anyway, we'll have to-"
"Yeah, yeah, research," Gunn moaned almost painfully, timely finishing the sentence.
"Research and search for answers," the dark-haired vampire concluded, as if Gunn's words were never spoken. "And Buffy said Giles found some interesting prospects that may enlighten us too. We have to wait for them to finally get here..."
Angel turned his back on the A.I. team and grabbed his leather duster. The rest of the Fang Gang exchanged a dubious glance, when he started to wordlessly walk in the direction of the sewer entrance.
"Angel? Wesley's voice demanded, a little uncertain and craggy.
"You three stay, do the research and wait for Buffy and the others to come. I'll go see Cordelia, and see if I can get information on what really happened," the vampire replied in a rather harsh tone, still with his back to them and not stopping his rough walk for an instant.
"Information?" Fred questioned lowly, her eyes sparkling with unease and growing fear.
"The man's gonna kick some demon butt," Gunn whispered, looking at the brunette Texan with a small grin. "Glad I ain't in his way."
"He's all bossy," she blurted out, releasing a weary sigh. "Did I say I so don't like this?"
"Princess is hurt, vampire's mad," the young fighter retorted pointedly.
On the other corner of the room, Wesley stood still, a dumb look on his face. "Angel?
But the vampire was nowhere to be found in the room anymore, walking hurriedly through the dark and smelly tunnels of the sewers of Los Angeles to get to St Matthews' entrance without getting harmed by the sunlight.
"I hate it when he does that," the Englishman grunted.
***
"He's losing too much blood," Michael stated quietly, looking up to find Faith's expectant eyes stabbing him in confusion and apprehension.
The sandy-haired doctor stood up from Xander's side, where he'd formerly and futilely been trying to stop the hemorrhaging with a ragged piece of his own silk shirt. He sent a protective and reassuring glance to Kelly. The young nurse just bit her lower lip, unease obvious in her eyes.
Michael sighed tensely â€" the surrealistic scenario was just the perfect irony to the young doctor at this moment.
Xander's fallen body, laying on his own pool of blood as his brunette friend, uncertainty obvious in her tense dark eyes, seemed to examine every move he made with utter attention and certain irresolution â€" and he'd previously thought this would be a boring day.
"I can't help him, not like this. We gotta get him into the hospital," Penn risked saying, his voice cautious and slightly trembling. "Or he won't make it," he then softly added, instantaneously spotting a sideways gaze from Kelly.
"No," Faith snapped fidgetingly, glancing at Xander. "We can't do that, you â€" you'll help him here," the time-traveler insisted harshly, in stubborn denial.
"But I can't-" the doctor tried to utter, but the Slayer quickly interrupted him, by pointing the rifle at his general direction.
"Faith," Kelly's shaky voice was literally a whisper, so low that neither the brunette nor the doctor were able to actually hear her. "Faith!" the curly-haired nurse then said louder, and this time, the required attention was finally won.
And, staring at the two pairs of expecting eyes intensively drilling hers, stabbing her soul with examination and expectance, Kelly couldn't help but feel incredibly intimidated.
The nurse blinked a few times. And then, several more. Her hands started to sweat, and her heart was going at full-speed.
God, Kelly thought, unable to remember a time where she'd been so nervous at that very same moment. Either I'm very stupid, or very suicidal...
"He won't make it through this, if we don't get him into proper treatment. If you care about him, you should know that," Kelly's harsh voice announced with determination and, in the single second when nobody was looking at her, the blonde gulped loudly.
Gee, I'm pretty sure you're both, Kelly, the nurse snorted, annoyed with herself.
Faith looked to Xander and, as the Slayer felt an intense wave of worry and doubt passing fully through her thoughts, she was only able to nod slowly. "OK."
"OK what?" Michael asked cautiously.
"You," Faith pointed to Kelly, and the young nurse shuddered, letting a small cry of surprise escape from her pink-colored lips.
"Go and get what you guys are gonna need from the hospital," the brunette said, stooping once again and passing a hand through Xander's dark hair, mumbling something neither Kelly nor Michael were able to hear.
"You don't understand, Xander needs to be taken care of in the hospital, under appropriate conditions! I can't bring the whole hospital out here!" the blonde tried to reason with Faith, but only managed to get a shocked look from the Slayer's tense features.
"Xander?" a surprised Faith demanded, bitterness and apprehension clear in her voice. "How the hell did we get to a first-name basis? Like, I don't think an ID brings a person's nickname in it," the brunette snorted sarcastically, a troublesome look causing the curly-haired nurse to get goosebumps.
If Kelly's posture seemed arrogant and confident seconds before, her small and scared voice totally betrayed it now. "I, I treated Miss Chase last night..."
Once Kelly's inner voice was done screaming at her not to tell Faith about her enthusiastic involvement in Xander's acceptance as a mental patient the previous night, the blonde decided she wouldn't go against such good advice or she'd really, really be a stupid and suicidal girl.
"Queen C, yeah â€" right," Faith whispered in recollection, obviously more to herself than to anybody else.
"What do I do?" Kelly decided to ask, not before sending a quick glance of worry to Michael, and then to Xander.
"Go and get supplies. Blood bags, plasma, I don't know, everything you need and might help," the brunette Slayer retorted, evidently uncertain of her decision to not bring Xander to the hospital after all.
"But-" Kelly tried to argue, but Faith suddenly gripped Michael Penn's shirt by the collar and made him stand up, to then point the rifle at the sandy-haired doctor's temple.
"Doc here stays, and I swear I'll blow his head off if you take one false step, do you hear me Nurse Girl? Now git!" Faith's fidgety voice would almost convince one of her kick-ass tone, if the Slayer's eyes hadn't seemed so panicked.
Kelly glanced horrified at Michael, who could only gulp and send a frightened look back at her. He mouthed a silent 'go' to the nurse, and she started to stagger away with uncertainty and dread from the dark alley.
And then, as the curly-haired blonde unconsciously risked sending a hurried look over her shoulder, Xander's body started to convulse.
Immediately entering into Michael Penn MD mode, the sandy-haired doctor quickly let his own body fall to the floor and darted a dark look to Kelly.
Faith stood there, absolutely still, and absent-mindedly let the rifle fall from her hand. C'mon, stud, stay and fight damn it! I, I need you, c'mon, help me here!
Rage, chaos, worry, fear and a deep sensation of spiritual pain overtook Faith's mind at that single instant, seeing the dark-haired boy's convulsing body.
The brunette Slayer would have been surprised, if her mind could have allowed any other feeling besides those right then.
Because, deep down, she knew that her care for Xander went beyond that for just a dying partner in this stupid, disturbing mission.
What really frightened her the most was losing someone so important to her, someone who had kept his presence in her thoughts for so many long and lonely nights without any kind of contact, apart from two exchanged letters.
Such significant letters they'd been, though...
Kelly paused; a realization seeming to make her heartbeat rise to double its usual speed.
Only three or four steps away, the sharp noise of a rifle falling onto the hard concrete seemed to completely overwhelm any other noise produced by faraway ambulances, cars passing by and people shouting â€" what you'd hear on a customary, regular, noisy day in St. Matthew's neighborhood.
The blonde nurse slowly looked around, the whole world seeming to move in slow-motion for those endless seconds.
Xander, his body in convulsions, and Michael trying to help him, not having much success without the right equipment to work with for the young man. And a few feet away, a perplexed and seemingly lost brunette girl standing still, her eyes widened and her lips trying to restrain a groan in her throat.
Without giving it another thought, the curly-haired woman hurried towards St. Matthew's and left the rifle behind on the cold pavement.
For some odd reason, and beyond any logical explanation, Kelly just decided to ignore that part of her mind shouting at her for her stupidity in leaving the gun there â€" and very possibly risking hers and Michael's life along with it.
Something deep inside her, a stronger part indeed, just felt like helping Xander and Faith was the right thing to do.
And what the heck, her panic be damned â€" if only her shaking hands would agree with her...
***
Dawn Summers sighed. Heavily.
The brown-haired teenager hadn't any thought but one, which was consuming every fiber of her being with a mix of anger, worry and â€" quite honestly â€" deep annoyance.
Living on the Hellmouth totally, completely sucked. And, like, big time.
Once again, it was like they were being thrown into the Coliseum of ancient Rome, as Christians having to fight for their lives against hungry, infuriated lions. To satisfy an amazingly large crowd of excited people, waving cheerfully at their upcoming death, that were trapped in their own blissful ignorant bloodlust.
Dawn knew. Her history teacher had made her study all this.
But now, the laughs didn't belong to the crowd. Neither were lions their treats. OK, they even weren't that religious anyway.
So sue me, Dawn rebuked herself with a distinct hint of sarcasm. I suck in the metaphor department.
The only thing the Key knew for sure was that, 24 hours ago, the man for whom she'd kept a not-so-secret crush for years was about to marry a happy former vengeance demon.
The night had started to announce its imminent disaster when they'd learned that Xander was apparently nowhere to be found. Dawn hadn't believe that, even with the mighty and unique potential of the Hellmouth to make things worse every minute, things could actually get worse than Anya's choice of her bridesmaid dress.
Which, of course, the brunette teenager had taken special care to register in numberless photos â€" potential blackmail material, as a matter of fact.
And then, well, then they were all here. In the middle of Los Angeles, the city she'd lived in for the first ten years of her life â€" or rather, the city that those monks had made her believe she'd lived in until her 10th birthday.
Dawn didn't know why Buffy had let her come to LA, and she'd been spared that whole speech about keeping out of danger and blah, blah, blah â€" maybe it was because confusion could very definitely be a word to describe last night.
Or maybe, just maybe her sister's empty Slayer head had actually finally grown some gray matter inside the skull. And she'd realized that, no matter how much they could try and run away from danger, it'd always be there by their sides, with its stupid wide grin waiting to show up and mess with their lives even more than it already had.
So, trying to prevent her coming along was basically pointless.
Certainly, brains wasn't one of the items in a Slayer's package, after all.
***
TBC
Hey you guys! My computer´s finally broken... I´ll try to update soon, but it´ll be difficult. Hey, check my other stories!
And please, review!