SECOND
CHANCE
NOTE: I own none of the Scooby gang because they belong to mean old Joss.
A/N: I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the reviews that I've gotten so far. I have a plot planned out for this story but if you have any suggestions or requests then I might fill them in.
CHAPTER 15
Buffy, Willow, and Xander all marched into the Summers home, Buffy with an irate, yet determined look on her face. As they entered the living room where the others were Autumn came down to see what was going on. Angel stood up from where he sat and went over to Buffy.
"Buffy, you hung up on me," the vampire said. "You didn't even give me time to—"
"What happened to Dawn?" Buffy asked strong-mindedly.
"She got kidnapped," Jeff piped up, explaining the story once again. "We were at school and she was freaking out a little over something she'd seen and the next thing I know this big... thing has her and just takes her away."
"We have to find her," Buffy said firmly as if she hadn't even heard Jeff's story.
"Jeff." Everyone turned to see Autumn. She went up and gave her brother a quick hug. "Hey. Look we need to talk."
"Can't it wait?" Jeff asked her, brushing her off.
"No," Autumn replied directly. "It's important."
"Not as important as this," Dawn told the younger slayer.
Jeff started, "Dawn's been—""Kidnapped!" Autumn interrupted. "Yeah, I heard. Is that all you care about, Dawn, Dawn, Dawn? I've seen the way you drool over her, Jeff. What? Does tall and skinny do it for you now? You always did have a thing for Alley Mcbeal."
"What's with you?" Jeff snapped. "You can't think about anyone but yourself for once?"
Everyone in the room stopped to look at the scene between brother and sister.
"Yeah, Jeff, this is the way it is with you, isn't it? You find out that your sister is some... Chosen One and the first thing you look at is the tall brunette." Autumn scoffed in disgust. "You don't even care that Dad's cheating on Mom."
That caught Jeff off guard. "Wait. What do you mean by—?"
Autumn nodded with a smirk. "That's right, Jeffy. Dad has been cheating on Mom." She scoffed again. "And you say I'm absorbed in my own world?"
Jeff didn't know what to say. Just stood there stunned.
Autumn heard a snicker from behind her and turned to see Connor.
"You're kind of dramatic," the bush haired boy commented. "Why don't you take it easy?"
"Why don't you stay out of my business?" the red head retorted. "Plus didn't I tell you to find your trusty rotted corpse and slitter under it?"
Connor sneered at her, looking amused. "Yeah, I was in hell for a good chunk of my life and you think that hurts me?"
"Connor..." Angel warned.
"No," Autumn replied to Connor. She suddenly hurled off and socked him in the mouth, taking all of them by surprise.
"Whoa!" Gunn observed, slightly impressed.
Connor held his bleeding mouth.
Angel looked furious.
"Autumn." Maggie couldn't believe her.
Autumn turned to Maggie next. "Oh, and where have you been, off drinking tea with the queen?"
Maggie's mouth dropped open in shock at Autumn's coarseness. "Autumn, I tried calling you."
"Yeah? Could have fooled me," Autumn said callously. "Here I thought we were friends. I guess I was wrong. I'll just go back to happy, anti-social Autumn."
Maggie's eyes widened. Was this really Autumn?
"OK." Buffy pointed at Autumn. "You need to calm down."
Autumn looked at her and scoffed. "Or what? You won't impart your slayer wisdom on me? Ooh, I'm so scared."
"What's with you?" Connor asked, also surprised by her.
Autumn glanced at him again angrily. "What? You didn't get enough last time? Let me help with that." Autumn socked him in the face again, making his head roll back. She suddenly kicked him in his lower stomach, hard, making him fall down. "I'm sick of you!"
Angel practically ran to Connor's side.
Fred stood and approached Autumn. "Honey, Buffy's right. You need to calm down."
"Leave me alone!" Autumn shouted at her. "You don't know anything about me!" She looked around at all the surprised faces. "None of you do. You don't know what it's like to pack up and leave your home, suddenly have this lame ass destiny tossed your way, have a brother who lives to make your life hell, and, to put the nice cherry on top, have your father cheat on your family!" Autumn had practically lost it.
"Stop it," Buffy ordered firmly, approaching the teenager. "You think you're the only one who ever had to move away, or change schools, or feel like they lost everything? My parents aren't even together anymore. Don't get me started with the lame ass destiny thing."
"Yeah, well, that's all good and sweet. But has the man who calls himself your watcher ever given up on you?" Autumn asked. Buffy stood silent, glancing down at the floor. "I thought not."
"Autumn." She looked at her brother. Jeff pointed down. "You hurt him."
Autumn looked down at Connor, who looked pretty injured, clutching his heavily bleeding mouth. Angel held onto his son and shot a glare up at Autumn. Images flashed through Autumn's head then. She had done the same thing to her father. Mr. Tucker had been barely able to stand.
"Oh, my God..." Autumn exclaimed softly. From out of nowhere tears formed in her eyes and she sobbed openly. "What did I do?"
Fred, without hesitation, reached out and pulled Autumn into a hug. "Honey, it's all right."
Autumn shook her head and pulled away from Fred. "No." She turned to Connor. "I'm so sorry." Autumn looked at the group. "I'm sorry!" She wanted to leave out the door but decided she had nowhere to go and just ran upstairs.
"Wow." Xander watched her go up. "Talk about mood swings." Willow glared at him. "What?"
Fred proceeded to go upstairs, after the red haired girl.
"Uh, is it safe for my girl to be going up there?" Gunn asked. "You know. Like a fly when they go into one of them zappers. Why do they do that?"
"Fred will be fine," Angel assured Gunn but his worries wore all on Connor. "Are you all right?"
Connor nodded. Mostly his pride hurt.
Giles saw how hurt Maggie looked and approached her. "Are you all right, sweetheart?"
Maggie stood frozen for a moment. "Yes, I'm fine."
"Giles, Autumn was right about one thing," Buffy said. The Englishman turned to her. "You never did give up on me. We need to get Wesley here, now."
Upstairs Fred knocked on Dawn's bedroom door, where Autumn had run. "Autumn, please. I know you're in there."
"I can't talk right now," Fred heard Autumn's muffled voice.
Fred opened the door to see Autumn's face stuffed under a pillow. "I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you. Did you say come in?"
Autumn pulled her head out from under the pillow as Fred walked over and took a seat near her on the bed. "Life's a joke."
"What do you mean?"
"One minute you're in New York and having a halfway decent life. The next minute you're in Sunnyhell and you're all super hero-y and humiliating yourself by bursting into tears in front of a large group of people." Autumn sighed and pouted.
Fred offered her a smile. "Well, if it helps, I spent five years in another dimension starving in a cave." Autumn looked at her strangely. "Yeah, it's true."
Autumn slowly became interested. "What happened?"
"I was rescued by Angel, Charles, Wesley, and Cordelia."
"Wait," Autumn stopped her. "Number one, Wesley saved you? Number two, who is Cordelia?"
"Oh, well, Cordelia use to work with us at AI, Angel Investigations, that's what we call ourselves. And, yes, Wesley did help me but I fell in love with Charles."
Autumn became filled with questions as if she were a curious five-year-old. "Wait. If Wesley worked with you then why doesn't he anymore?"
Fred fidgeted. Should she really explain it all? "That's a long story," the brunette finally replied.
"Well, what about Angel?" Autumn inquired, loosening up to Fred, even enjoying her company. "What's his deal?"
Fred smiled and decided to start from the beginning.
Later as sunset came a ring came at Buffy's door. She, Willow, Jeff, and Connor were all in the living room. Autumn and Fred were still upstairs and the others were scattered about the house. Buffy went and answered her bell, revealing it to be Wesley.
"You finally made it over," Buffy said. "Gee, that only took you an eternity."
Wesley moved passed Buffy. "Well, where is she?" he asked.
"Who, Autumn?" Buffy asked, shutting her door.
"No, Britney Spears. Of course I mean Autumn," Wesley replied.
Buffy rolled her eyes. His humor wasn't very humorous. "Your mini slayer is upstairs." She went into the living room with Wesley behind her.
Jeff looked up at Wesley, recognizing him. "It's another British guy."
Connor glared at the British guy, as Jeff had put it. "What's he doing here?"
"He's Autumn's watcher," Buffy told Connor. "Let me guess, you have some issues with him, too?"
"It's only his fault that I ended up in a hell dimension." Connor continued to glare at Wesley.
"Nice to see you again, Connor," Wesley said, ignoring the boy's fierce look.
Autumn and Fred headed down the hall, going towards the stairs. Fred had filled Autumn in on the past Buffy and Angel history, about how Angel has a soul and the difference between he and Angelus, Connor's situation, even though she had left out the part about Wesley being the kidnapper, and a few more facts she thought might interest the girl or, at least, bring her out of her depression.
"Fred, I can't believe these stories," Autumn beamed as they reached the stairs. "You have an interesting life."
"Better get use to it," Fred smiled back. "I get the feeling yours is about to head in that direction." They went down to the living room then and Fred spotted Wesley. "Um, which is about to start now."
Autumn slowly walked up to Wesley. "Um, what are you doing here?"
"I came to talk to you," Wesley replied. "Autumn, I never meant to hurt you."
Autumn crossed her arms stubbornly. "What makes you think you hurt me?" Wesley just stared at her humorlessly. "All right, you hurt me."
"I'm sorry," Wesley apologized. "But I still need to know that I can trust you. Can I?" Autumn just nodded. "I'd like an actual reply, please."
Autumn was caught off guard by the firmness in his voice. He sounded like a principal. "You can trust me. Really."
"That's good. Then I think, maybe I can try it, at being your watcher."
Fred smiled. The moment between them was so sweet. Angel walking in interrupted the moment. Connor looked up at his father, who didn't look at all happy to see Wesley.
Autumn turned to an angry Angel. "Uh, hey, Angel." Autumn coward in fear as Angel came upon her. "Look I'm sorry about hitting Con—" As Angel swung a punch Autumn gasped.
Angel socked Wesley in the face. "You son of a bitch," Angel called him in a low voice.
Wesley held his aching jaw, as he looked Angel in the eyes. "Angel, you have every right to be upset."
"Hey!" Autumn stood protectively in front of Wesley. "That... was so not nice."
"He kidnapped my son," Angel told her.
Autumn turned to Wesley with a shocked look on her face. "That was so not nice."
"It's a long story," Wesley said to the red head.
"I heard the story." Autumn turned to Fred. "I just didn't hear this part exactly."
"Um, Wesley, hi," Willow finally greeted him.
Wesley looked at her. "Hello, Willow."
"Those were warm greetings," Buffy noted sarcastically.
Angel looked down at Autumn. "By the way, I would never hit a kid." He nodded his head towards Connor. "Except maybe him."
Connor glared at his father. "Hey!"
"Need I remind you people that Dawn is still missing?" Buffy piped up. "Jeff, what was the demon you saw? Maybe Willow can ID it."
Jeff thought. "It was huge, really huge, bloody, yuck, and... well, it's hard to describe."
Maggie entered the room then. "What's going on around here?" she asked with her arms folded. A hole formed in the middle of the floor then, large enough to fit a demon, the demon that had taken Dawn, through it. The disgusting demon crawled from the hole and grabbed Maggie. "Aah!"
"Maggie!" nearly the entire room exclaimed.
The demon began to drag Maggie down into the hole.
She screamed horrified.
Giles ran in then. "Margaret!"
Autumn and Buffy rushed up. "Maggie, hold on!" Autumn shouted.
"Take my hand!" Giles yelled out to Maggie, reaching his arm out.
Maggie tried to reach her own hand out but the demon held her tightly, pinning her down.
Before Buffy or Autumn could move the hole was gone and so was Maggie.
"Oh, my God!" Autumn couldn't believe it.
Jeff said, "Uh, it looked like that."
A/N: There is a lot of dialogue in this chapter but I love that stuff. Well, please review.