((Okay first shouts out and thanks to those of you who sent me emails
and/or reviewed. I do apologize for taking what seems to be my good ol'
time with this, but life's been hectic, and I have a point really, I should
be getting there soon :- ) This chapter takes into account the events Of
Episode 7x17 "Lies My Parents Told Me, with the omission of Willow running
off to LA and grabbing Faith. That is all.))
Chapter 10: Moments
She had a vague memory of having been taught once in science class about these little bugs that could skate across the surface of water. Their feet balancing them precariously on top. Something about the water's surface tension snuggly holding itself together and thus allowing the little Jesus bugs to walk on water. She shook her head tiredly, blinking for a few times. Just a vague memory really, but somehow it reminded her of this bustling circus moving all around her. The sense that at any given moment one more bug might land on their already overcrowded pond and tumble them all down into oblivion. The place was just. . .Tense.
Dawn was snapped out of her reverie as some nameless, faceless, dark haired, cereal eating, bathroom hogging, clothes stealing potential bumped her elbow with such force that Dawn's head nearly hit the countertop as her chin's only means of support was suddenly stolen from underneath. "HEY! Watch it!"
"Oops, sorry, didn't mean to," The girl crinkled her nose, "Not much room for the elbows in here I guess." She ducked away at that.
"Geez, not much slayer grace in there I guess." The words were barely a mumble from her irritated throat as she pushed away from the counter and stomped from the kitchen as only a teenage girl could. Just avoiding barreling down the resident vamp in her wake.
" 'eh there, Bit." He swung out of range of the teenager's path. "What little fly got in your soup?" He cocked his head at her, a half smile on his face, knowing that the swarms of potentials where little more then locusts in her eyes at this point. Never good to have so many teenage girls under one roof at a time, much longer of this and the Boxer Rebellion would pale in comparison.
She snarled back at the kitchen, her brown hair whipping around her, as another Potential came whisking by wearing an all too familiar blue shirt. If it was possible Spike believed her crimson face darkened even further. "Do me a favor, Spike, if you see one of these," she gestured emphatically about the house, "Flys, so much as look at my dresser, eat them for me, okay?" She nodded at him and stomped out, grabbing her bookbag and heading out the door and off to school.
Spike just merely shook his head once, strange, that'd be two firsts for Dawn in one minute. 1. She was asking Spike to eat someone and 2. She couldn't wait to get out the door and to school. He laughed to himself, sure sometimes living all the Hellmouth was just this side of Looneyville, but damn if it couldn't be amusing on occasion too.
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Buffy stared into the fogging bathroom mirror, her pupils dilating and contracting as she tried to focus. She ducked her head again, cupping her hands in the already steaming water and rinsing her face. Once. Twice. Three times. A silent shudder running through her body, despite the warmth of the fluid, before lifting her gaze to herself once more. The dreams hadn't stopped. But they were no longer vivid. No longer tangible. She was having a hard time remembering them when she woke up now. She just knew that they came. Plying her. Letting her know in so not subtle ways what was to come, what she couldn't stop, or what she couldn't do.
She moved to her room and dressed, paying little attention to what she draped on herself. Her mind was feeling as foggy as the mirror had been. It had been two days. Two days since Wood had tried to kill Spike. Two days since Spike had won. Two days since Giles had left to retrieve another hopeful, leaving behind a very hurt, very betrayed, very angry Buffy. She wasn't angry now though. Sullen, yes and perhaps a tad depressed. But her anger had dissipated once Giles was far enough away that she didn't have to think about it all. Not that she didn't think about it, but she didn't have to.
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She had stayed in her room that night for hours, just sitting on the edge of her bed, trying to understand what was happening around her. What was happening inside her own mind. She had fiddled with a silk flower that had belonged to her mother, caressing its petals gently. *Oh, how they love to hurt you Buffy let me count the ways. . .* Why did it seem that in the end she always ended up alone? Tired and cold, and yes, she could admit to herself if to no one else, just the tiniest bit afraid. Afraid of what it meant that they always broke her heart. Afraid of what that said about her. Afraid of what it had made her become.
But a small voice in the back of her mind said she wasn't alone. Said that she didn't need to be frightened. He was still here, changed yes, not the same man that she. . . not the same man, but here nonetheless. With her, because she asked him to be. He didn't deserve to be lumped into the same group. Not anymore at least.
She had gone downstairs at that, and had found him sitting on the back porch, face half cloaked in darkness, the moonlight outlining the rest of him in a pale silver hue. He dragged languorously on the end of a cigarette, a small puff of smoke dancing through the still night air before him. She nearly choked at the sight of him, but years of practice had caught the sound in her throat as she took a seat a few feet away on the top of the steps. How many times had they sat like this in the past she wondered? These where their steps she realized with an almost imperceptible smile. Spike noticed of course. Afterall, he noticed everything about her.
They sat in silence then as he watched her out the corner of his eye. He knew that something how'd gone down with the watcher, had heard him leave. Hadn't bloody cared though. It was taking more restraint then he knew he had not to kill everything that moved.
"I didn't know."
A simple statement of fact. He knew it. She knew it. It hadn't needed to be said, not really. Her reaction back at Wood's having been answer enough. But she wanted to say it, and he wanted to hear it, so they just left it out there, mingling with his smoke for a few minutes.
"I know."
That was it, that was all. They had sat in silence for minutes stretching into hours after that. Neither one willing to move, neither one wanting to talk. It was enough, just being there. For once, it was enough.
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Willow and Buffy convened in the dining room, after Buffy finished her shower, for researching, or what could be considered researching given their pitiful excuse for resources at the time. Xander would be around after work, and Kennedy had the girls out back for another training lesson. Andrew bustled about the house picking things up that the girls had left behind, doing his damnedest to be useful while being far, far away from Buffy. He hadn't quite gotten over their little excursion to the school basement yet.
As for Buffy and work? Well she hadn't bothered to go in the past few days. And Robin hadn't bothered to call and ask why. He already knew. There was no way he was going to sever what few ties might be left by bothering her about something as mundane as work right now. No, he'd just hide low for awhile while everyone cooled off.
Willow had been saying something to Buffy about a containment spell when her eyes flickered over the blonde milling about the kitchen. Moving out of her range only when the microwave dinged so he could retrieve his newly warmed blood.
God, she could be so thick at times. What was it that Inner Buffy had been saying? About letting go, enjoying her time here? *Sigh* damned if she could. A small smile tickled her lips, just watching him. So normal at times, yet light-years away. . .*Wait, did I just think in light-years? Ohhh, that Andrew. . .* she mentally chastised herself.
"Buffy!"
"Huh, what, huh?'
"Yeah, something like that. . ." The redhead shook her head at her friend. She knew that Buffy was hurting after everything with Giles. Knew that she was busy trying to keep everyone in the house together and in one piece. But her friend had been losing focus ever so slightly since Giles had left again. This couldn't last, well, not if any of them wanted to be alive afterwards.
"I was saying that maybe I could do a containment spell. I mean we already figure that whatever this is that is going to go down is going to start at the Hellmouth, right?"
Buffy nodded to her friend, her focus back. "Well, it seems the most likely place. What with the seal right there, all nice and shut off, what better place to unleash legions of doom then at the mouth itself since they can't use their handy-dandy little highway anymore." She shrugged. Everyone had been tapping their collective brains for weeks, taking into account what they had learned from Andrew about the seal and the First's role in getting him to open it. Topping that off with a little Buffy vision, seasoned with some Spike trigger, and viola Hellmouth special sauce. So far the best they had come up with was the most obvious thing to everyone. First opens Hellmouth, massive carnage ensues as demons spill forth, world ends. Your usual apocalyptic scenario in the lovely little haven that is Sunnydale.
Willow continued on, "So anyways I was thinking that if we could contain the energy from the Hellmouth when it opens up, sorta like a barrier ya, know? We could at least keep the fight within plausible quarters."
"Until the little bubble you make is bursting with little Demon and Scooby parts all over the place."
"Well, yeah until that. . ."
They both sighed heavily and with that they kept on working.
-------------------- -----------------------------------------------------
Nearly six hours later and they were starting to get somewhere. Somewhere along the line Spike had seated himself in a nearby chair, doing some reading of his own, since training with the potentials was even lower on the least then researching. Not to mention they were working out in the yard, which left his options limited to begin with. While to his own surprise Andrew had started going through Willow's spell books (the ones she wasn't using of courser) trying desperately to remember what Jonathan had taught him about glamours and the like. He figured it could be useful.
The four worked in silence, taking notes as needed. Stopping for food breaks here and there. Occasionally jumping up at some tidbit they'd found, only to have another of the team bury said tidbit under layers of logic. Eventually Xander and Dawn had joined them and things began to pick up from there.
Dawn and Andrew worked over the glamours a little, asking Willow for some advice, Getting a raised eyebrow at first, but once they explained Andrew's intention, the info came more smoothly. Spike had found some info on the uber-vamps next that he brought to Buffy's attention, and Anya, who arrived last, soon quipped in with her random demon lore. Proving, more then once, to be quite useful.
Sometime after the sun set the session was concluded. The potentials having worn themselves out during the day's training, retired to the living room and other assorted places. Buffy and Spike ran through a quick patrol soon after the girls settled in. Dusting about a half dozen vamps and returning home fairly early.
Everyone turned in feeling a little bit more. . .or was it perhaps, less, of something. Whatever the feeling was, it was enough to lighten the heavy mood around the house just enough and everybody got a moments peace that night as they slept. No more, no less.
.
Chapter 10: Moments
She had a vague memory of having been taught once in science class about these little bugs that could skate across the surface of water. Their feet balancing them precariously on top. Something about the water's surface tension snuggly holding itself together and thus allowing the little Jesus bugs to walk on water. She shook her head tiredly, blinking for a few times. Just a vague memory really, but somehow it reminded her of this bustling circus moving all around her. The sense that at any given moment one more bug might land on their already overcrowded pond and tumble them all down into oblivion. The place was just. . .Tense.
Dawn was snapped out of her reverie as some nameless, faceless, dark haired, cereal eating, bathroom hogging, clothes stealing potential bumped her elbow with such force that Dawn's head nearly hit the countertop as her chin's only means of support was suddenly stolen from underneath. "HEY! Watch it!"
"Oops, sorry, didn't mean to," The girl crinkled her nose, "Not much room for the elbows in here I guess." She ducked away at that.
"Geez, not much slayer grace in there I guess." The words were barely a mumble from her irritated throat as she pushed away from the counter and stomped from the kitchen as only a teenage girl could. Just avoiding barreling down the resident vamp in her wake.
" 'eh there, Bit." He swung out of range of the teenager's path. "What little fly got in your soup?" He cocked his head at her, a half smile on his face, knowing that the swarms of potentials where little more then locusts in her eyes at this point. Never good to have so many teenage girls under one roof at a time, much longer of this and the Boxer Rebellion would pale in comparison.
She snarled back at the kitchen, her brown hair whipping around her, as another Potential came whisking by wearing an all too familiar blue shirt. If it was possible Spike believed her crimson face darkened even further. "Do me a favor, Spike, if you see one of these," she gestured emphatically about the house, "Flys, so much as look at my dresser, eat them for me, okay?" She nodded at him and stomped out, grabbing her bookbag and heading out the door and off to school.
Spike just merely shook his head once, strange, that'd be two firsts for Dawn in one minute. 1. She was asking Spike to eat someone and 2. She couldn't wait to get out the door and to school. He laughed to himself, sure sometimes living all the Hellmouth was just this side of Looneyville, but damn if it couldn't be amusing on occasion too.
-------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------
Buffy stared into the fogging bathroom mirror, her pupils dilating and contracting as she tried to focus. She ducked her head again, cupping her hands in the already steaming water and rinsing her face. Once. Twice. Three times. A silent shudder running through her body, despite the warmth of the fluid, before lifting her gaze to herself once more. The dreams hadn't stopped. But they were no longer vivid. No longer tangible. She was having a hard time remembering them when she woke up now. She just knew that they came. Plying her. Letting her know in so not subtle ways what was to come, what she couldn't stop, or what she couldn't do.
She moved to her room and dressed, paying little attention to what she draped on herself. Her mind was feeling as foggy as the mirror had been. It had been two days. Two days since Wood had tried to kill Spike. Two days since Spike had won. Two days since Giles had left to retrieve another hopeful, leaving behind a very hurt, very betrayed, very angry Buffy. She wasn't angry now though. Sullen, yes and perhaps a tad depressed. But her anger had dissipated once Giles was far enough away that she didn't have to think about it all. Not that she didn't think about it, but she didn't have to.
-------------- ----------------
She had stayed in her room that night for hours, just sitting on the edge of her bed, trying to understand what was happening around her. What was happening inside her own mind. She had fiddled with a silk flower that had belonged to her mother, caressing its petals gently. *Oh, how they love to hurt you Buffy let me count the ways. . .* Why did it seem that in the end she always ended up alone? Tired and cold, and yes, she could admit to herself if to no one else, just the tiniest bit afraid. Afraid of what it meant that they always broke her heart. Afraid of what that said about her. Afraid of what it had made her become.
But a small voice in the back of her mind said she wasn't alone. Said that she didn't need to be frightened. He was still here, changed yes, not the same man that she. . . not the same man, but here nonetheless. With her, because she asked him to be. He didn't deserve to be lumped into the same group. Not anymore at least.
She had gone downstairs at that, and had found him sitting on the back porch, face half cloaked in darkness, the moonlight outlining the rest of him in a pale silver hue. He dragged languorously on the end of a cigarette, a small puff of smoke dancing through the still night air before him. She nearly choked at the sight of him, but years of practice had caught the sound in her throat as she took a seat a few feet away on the top of the steps. How many times had they sat like this in the past she wondered? These where their steps she realized with an almost imperceptible smile. Spike noticed of course. Afterall, he noticed everything about her.
They sat in silence then as he watched her out the corner of his eye. He knew that something how'd gone down with the watcher, had heard him leave. Hadn't bloody cared though. It was taking more restraint then he knew he had not to kill everything that moved.
"I didn't know."
A simple statement of fact. He knew it. She knew it. It hadn't needed to be said, not really. Her reaction back at Wood's having been answer enough. But she wanted to say it, and he wanted to hear it, so they just left it out there, mingling with his smoke for a few minutes.
"I know."
That was it, that was all. They had sat in silence for minutes stretching into hours after that. Neither one willing to move, neither one wanting to talk. It was enough, just being there. For once, it was enough.
-------------- --------------------
Willow and Buffy convened in the dining room, after Buffy finished her shower, for researching, or what could be considered researching given their pitiful excuse for resources at the time. Xander would be around after work, and Kennedy had the girls out back for another training lesson. Andrew bustled about the house picking things up that the girls had left behind, doing his damnedest to be useful while being far, far away from Buffy. He hadn't quite gotten over their little excursion to the school basement yet.
As for Buffy and work? Well she hadn't bothered to go in the past few days. And Robin hadn't bothered to call and ask why. He already knew. There was no way he was going to sever what few ties might be left by bothering her about something as mundane as work right now. No, he'd just hide low for awhile while everyone cooled off.
Willow had been saying something to Buffy about a containment spell when her eyes flickered over the blonde milling about the kitchen. Moving out of her range only when the microwave dinged so he could retrieve his newly warmed blood.
God, she could be so thick at times. What was it that Inner Buffy had been saying? About letting go, enjoying her time here? *Sigh* damned if she could. A small smile tickled her lips, just watching him. So normal at times, yet light-years away. . .*Wait, did I just think in light-years? Ohhh, that Andrew. . .* she mentally chastised herself.
"Buffy!"
"Huh, what, huh?'
"Yeah, something like that. . ." The redhead shook her head at her friend. She knew that Buffy was hurting after everything with Giles. Knew that she was busy trying to keep everyone in the house together and in one piece. But her friend had been losing focus ever so slightly since Giles had left again. This couldn't last, well, not if any of them wanted to be alive afterwards.
"I was saying that maybe I could do a containment spell. I mean we already figure that whatever this is that is going to go down is going to start at the Hellmouth, right?"
Buffy nodded to her friend, her focus back. "Well, it seems the most likely place. What with the seal right there, all nice and shut off, what better place to unleash legions of doom then at the mouth itself since they can't use their handy-dandy little highway anymore." She shrugged. Everyone had been tapping their collective brains for weeks, taking into account what they had learned from Andrew about the seal and the First's role in getting him to open it. Topping that off with a little Buffy vision, seasoned with some Spike trigger, and viola Hellmouth special sauce. So far the best they had come up with was the most obvious thing to everyone. First opens Hellmouth, massive carnage ensues as demons spill forth, world ends. Your usual apocalyptic scenario in the lovely little haven that is Sunnydale.
Willow continued on, "So anyways I was thinking that if we could contain the energy from the Hellmouth when it opens up, sorta like a barrier ya, know? We could at least keep the fight within plausible quarters."
"Until the little bubble you make is bursting with little Demon and Scooby parts all over the place."
"Well, yeah until that. . ."
They both sighed heavily and with that they kept on working.
-------------------- -----------------------------------------------------
Nearly six hours later and they were starting to get somewhere. Somewhere along the line Spike had seated himself in a nearby chair, doing some reading of his own, since training with the potentials was even lower on the least then researching. Not to mention they were working out in the yard, which left his options limited to begin with. While to his own surprise Andrew had started going through Willow's spell books (the ones she wasn't using of courser) trying desperately to remember what Jonathan had taught him about glamours and the like. He figured it could be useful.
The four worked in silence, taking notes as needed. Stopping for food breaks here and there. Occasionally jumping up at some tidbit they'd found, only to have another of the team bury said tidbit under layers of logic. Eventually Xander and Dawn had joined them and things began to pick up from there.
Dawn and Andrew worked over the glamours a little, asking Willow for some advice, Getting a raised eyebrow at first, but once they explained Andrew's intention, the info came more smoothly. Spike had found some info on the uber-vamps next that he brought to Buffy's attention, and Anya, who arrived last, soon quipped in with her random demon lore. Proving, more then once, to be quite useful.
Sometime after the sun set the session was concluded. The potentials having worn themselves out during the day's training, retired to the living room and other assorted places. Buffy and Spike ran through a quick patrol soon after the girls settled in. Dusting about a half dozen vamps and returning home fairly early.
Everyone turned in feeling a little bit more. . .or was it perhaps, less, of something. Whatever the feeling was, it was enough to lighten the heavy mood around the house just enough and everybody got a moments peace that night as they slept. No more, no less.
.