A/N BunnyKat: Angel and Faith are DawnÂ’s parents, and you did miss it in the reading, that's ok though.
Anon: Sh! You're giving away my plot.
And James Lee: You reviewed right when I finished this chapter.
Anyway, thank you for reviewing, and welcome to chapter three.
Disclaimer: Is back in the first two chapters.... I'm not going to put it in anymore....
Different Sides Of The Track
Buffy stood in the doorway for a couple of minutes admiring Xander's ability to handle children, smiling, and still thinking about how he was going to be one hell of a great father.
She looked at Gunn and felt that he would be one of the people she was going to enjoy helping. He already seemed to be at come, and was very polite to her, and Xander, maybe he could help her watch Dawn while he was staying here.
The idea of him staying brought up other questions in her mind. How long had he been out, and with the Underground Railroad? It had to have been a couple of days if Xander had brought him here already, maybe even weeks, considering sometimes the runaways stayed for a while and did all they could to help the people that were helping them escape.
She stepped into the kitchen, and let the door close behind her, setting the milk pale on the floor, and taking the eggs out from her pocket. She placed them in another small basket on the table, and sat down.
Xander looked up at her, "Well Buffy." He said standing, and handing Dawn to her; "I guess I'll see you in a couple of weeks then?"
"I guess so," She said, "Would you like help hitching your horse up? I could help it you wanted."
"That's alright, I'm sure I can handle doing it on my own today, you've got other things to tend to." He said, and she knew he meant Dawn.
"If you're sure, I could put Dawn in her crib upstairs."
"It's fine Buffy, I can do it." He said, turning from her, and opening the door, "I'll be seeing you."
"Right, goodbye Xander." She said as the door closed behind the man.
She sighed, and looked down at Dawn, "What am I going to do with you?" she asked the child, "Oh, never mind, I have work to do, c'mon."
Buffy then realized she had forgotten Gunn, she looked up to see him still leaning up against the wall, smiling.
"Charles, please, make yourself at home, I have some work to do, and please, don't hesitate to ask me if you need anything." She told him standing up.
"Is there anything I could do to help?" he asked.
Buffy blinked, "No Charles, you're my guest, you don't have to do anything, just relax."
He nodded, but Buffy thought she saw it as rather reluctant, maybe he wanted to help. Oh, but she couldn't make him work, he had been working his entire life for nothing in return, and now that he escaped that, she didn't want him to be forced to do any kind of work for her, especially because she couldn't afford to pay him.
She smiled at him, and then moved to go upstairs, carrying Dawn with her. Though she had just awoken a little bit earlier, Dawn looked like she was ready to go down for a nap. It was probably because Xander had fed her a lot. Dawn was like that, a fully stomach and she's out like a light.
Buffy yawned, she was feeling a bit tired to, but that as only because she had kept herself awake all last night, waiting for Xander to arrive with Gunn. She shook her head, and entered her bedroom, lying Dawn down in the crib.
"Ok, now all you have to do is cry when you wake up, and I'll come back up stairs, alright?" she said to the child, and Dawn, obviously not understanding, giggled and yawned. "Sleep tight."
Buffy turned from the crib, and went back down the stairs, only to find that Gunn was still in the same position, leaning up against the wall, only now he was looking bored, instead of smiling. She sighed, and walked over to him.
"Charles, please, do something, anything you would like to, just don't stand there looking like you're going to fall asleep from boredom." She said, sounding a little like she was pleading with him.
"I'm sorry if I have offended you, Miss Summers" he said quickly, standing up straight, "But, seeing as you have told me not to work, I haven't anything to do."
She looked him in the eyes, "You haven't offended me in any way Charles, really, what could you have done? And you certainly can't have nothing to do, sure, this isn't the most interesting place in the world, but there are some things you could be doing..." Buffy said, but even she wasn't sure of what he could do, seeing as there really wasn't anything to do.
He looked at her doubtfully, but gave her a sincere nod before sitting down at the table, "I guess I will find something to do, but don't let me keep you from whatever it is you need to be doing."
Buffy sat down across from him, "I don't need to be doing anything at the moment, but I do need to speak with you for a second."
He nodded, signaling for her to continue.
"There are some guidelines I set up when we have the runaways stay here." She said, "Now, you may have heard some of them before, but please don't interrupt." He nodded again.
"Don't go outside during the day time for any reason, don't answer the door, and when I do, stay upstairs and stay quiet. And when you feel it's getting close to when you want to move on to the next safe house, tell me. I will be your escort there." She finished.
He looked at her, "I understand, Mr. Harris had rules like those, only I could go outside...."
Buffy looked at him sympathetically, "Well, it's just that some of the people around here, strongly believe that you should be back where ever you came from working. They don't understand civil rights the way Xander and I do. They see the world in a different light."
Gunn blinked, understanding what Buffy meant. Xander hadn't had any neighbors close by like Buffy did, that was why he was aloud to roam, but Buffy must have really racist people living near her and she didn't want to chance it. He smiled at her, silently thanking her for thinking of this, because he certainly would not have.
"I just don't want anyone to sent you back." She said as a personal explanation.
A cry from upstairs got Buffy and Gunn's attention, she apologized, and stood up going to check on Dawn. Gunn stayed thinking over what Buffy had said about how some people see the world in a different perspective than he and she did. It was confusing to him, but he figured he would eventually figure it out.
Buffy looked at Dawn in her crib, she was crying loudly. She picked her up and rocked her slowly, trying to calm her down.
"C'mon Dawnie, stop crying for Buffy. Please?" she asked the child, pretty much pleading after five minutes of howling.
Dawn closed her mouth and sniffed, looking up at Buffy, pouting. Buffy smiled, this kid could go from being the loudest thing on the planet, to the quietest and cutest thing Buffy had ever seen.
Contemplating whether or not to put Dawn back down, Buffy sighed. She really couldn't carry Dawn around with her all day, not if she wanted to finish all of what she had to do, but she couldn't put her down either, Dawn would cry until Buffy couldn't ear any more.
"What am I going to do with you?" she asked, and Dawn giggled.
Buffy shook her head, and headed downstairs once more, carrying her cousin's daughter with her. She sat down at the table again, and smiled at Gunn.
"She didn't want to nap I guess...." She told him, sighing, and he shook his head smirking.
There was a knock at the door that alerted both people in the house, and Buffy looked down the hallway at the door. She glanced at Gunn, who stood up and made his way up stairs quickly, just as Buffy had told him to do earlier. She got up again, taking Dawn with her, and walked down the hall to the door.
-({-:-})-
William sighed, he wasn't sure where he was, and he wasn't sure what he was going to do about it. He was at the border of Virginia, and there was pretty much no one out there. He had stopped at a couple of houses, but that had been a while back, and he was wondering if maybe he had accidentally turned west a while back.
Shrugging off the thought that he had made a wrong turn, William continues to follow the dirt road, looking for another town or just a house where he can stop.
For miles he sees nothing, and was becoming rather bored with the scenery. To many grassy meadows, and small trees. None of the trees even had any fruit on them; man how he really didn't like this part of the country. Sure, it was warm, but hey, it wasn't anything like Georgia, and crossing it on horseback wasn't exactly what he wanted to be doing right now.
He cursed his father for having him take this idiotic trip north, knowing damn well that there was no way he was ever going to see that slave again. Ok, three or four days wasn't going to get the nigger to British territory, but he was miles ahead of William, and was probably way more excited about the trip than he was.
Sighing again, William kicks PenDragon in the side a little harder than he had intended to do, causing his horse to start cantering down the road. Not that William was complaining about the breeze he was getting from the quick pace, but at this speed, Pen could only travel for about a day, then need about twelve hours of rest before he could get going again full strength.
Will pulled on the reins, and PenDragon slowed down, now going at a fast walk, snorting at the dust he had just kicked up, and Will shielded his eyes, not wanting to get any pebbles or dirt in them.
After a while, he thought he saw a house in the distance, and in relief, kicked PenDragon once again into a faster pace. By this time, William personally didn't care who was at the house, as long as he could get some water. About three hours with out any had made him quite thirsty, so any kind of drink would have been great now.
As the building grew closer, William was disappointed to find that it was only a lone shed, with quite the number of holes in the sides and roof. Pretty useless. There was also a concrete foundation of a house, he figured that a while back, maybe someone had lived here, but by now had cleared out.
Slightly annoyed at what he saw, William didn't even dismount, just glanced at the foundation and shed, then went on his way again, finding his way back to the trampled ground used as a road.
He road on, not even noticing how long he had been riding. It had been about an hour more, and that meant it was just about mid morning. He yawned at his lack of sleep over the last day or two, and slouched in his position on PenDragon's back.
Again he thought he saw something in the distance, but now what ever it was, was moving towards him. It was a man driving a small wagon, led by one horse. Deciding to keep his pace, he waited until who ever it was, was in shouting distance before calling out to them in greeting.
"Hey, you there!" he called, and saw the driver look up.
William stopped when he reached the side of the wagon, the other man doing the same.
"Good morning." The man said, looking at William.
Will replied with a nod, "Good morning to you as well." He said, "You wouldn't happen to know how long it was to the next town, if it wasn't any trouble to you."
"Well, you wont be finding your way to any towns for the next couple of days," he said, "However, there are some houses up there, Mr...."
"Scott."
"Right, Mr. Scott. You really wont see any one, for a couple of miles anyway. Everyone's pretty spread out around here."
"I get what you mean, back in Georgia it's the same way. I was just looking for a place to stop for a while, maybe get some water or something." "I have some water if you'd like it. Plenty of it to be exact, carrying it with me on my way back down to South Carolina."
"If I may?"
"Go ahead, just let me get it for you."
The man jumped off the wagon, and made his way around to the back. He opened the tail up, and called Will over, pulling a large barrel to the edge.
"Thanks a lot." Will said, filling his two water bottles.
"No problem. I'm always happy to help someone in need."
"Good man, and I don't think you mentioned your name."
"Right, Harris. Alexander Harris, most call me Xander though, so feel free." Xander said, nodding when Will had finished with his water. He closed up the back of the wagon, and moved around to the front, patting his horse on the muzzle before getting back up onto his seat.
"Then it'd only be fair if you called me Will." William told him, "And thanks again for the water, I needed it."
Xander nodded, "Well, unless we don't meet again Will, I'll be seeing you."
William smiled, "Right, see you then."
He mounted back up onto PenDragon, who was rubbing noses with the other horse. Kicking him into a slow walk, William waved to Xander, and continued on his way.
Now in somewhat of a better mood, William smiled to himself, and began to hum, thankful for the water, and to finally see another person out on the road. And it was a while before he stopped again, dismounting to give PenDragon some water, and to take a break himself. There was something about traveling alone that made him wish he were back home, even if his father was there. What he really needed to do was find a way to get out of that house, but his only two options were running away, or finding a woman.
He'd ruled out running away along time ago, but never really thought about his other options. The women in his town were like strangers, and he really had only taken a liking to one of them. But, he figured, just because he had liked her, her father had packed up, and they had left for Texas, leaving him with no one else to even think about.
Sitting down in a rock on the side of the road, William decided it would soon be time for lunch. He had bought some jerky at the last town he had been to, and could eat that, or he could wait. Seeing as that Xander guy had said there was a house or tow up here in a little while, he figured he'd wait, and maybe ask for something when he found a house.
He got back up on his horse, and urged him to go just a little bit further until he saw what he had been thinking about.
A house. And a barn.
He smiled to himself, but didn't make a move to go any faster, taking his time, relieved to finally find a place where he might be able to rest in a chair.
The house was small, he decided jumping down off Pen on the coble stone road that lead up to the house. He led his horse over to the barn and tied him up outside, hoping it would be all right. Then making his way up the stone walk way, he knocked on the door, and waited for someone to answer.
Anon: Sh! You're giving away my plot.
And James Lee: You reviewed right when I finished this chapter.
Anyway, thank you for reviewing, and welcome to chapter three.
Disclaimer: Is back in the first two chapters.... I'm not going to put it in anymore....
Different Sides Of The Track
Buffy stood in the doorway for a couple of minutes admiring Xander's ability to handle children, smiling, and still thinking about how he was going to be one hell of a great father.
She looked at Gunn and felt that he would be one of the people she was going to enjoy helping. He already seemed to be at come, and was very polite to her, and Xander, maybe he could help her watch Dawn while he was staying here.
The idea of him staying brought up other questions in her mind. How long had he been out, and with the Underground Railroad? It had to have been a couple of days if Xander had brought him here already, maybe even weeks, considering sometimes the runaways stayed for a while and did all they could to help the people that were helping them escape.
She stepped into the kitchen, and let the door close behind her, setting the milk pale on the floor, and taking the eggs out from her pocket. She placed them in another small basket on the table, and sat down.
Xander looked up at her, "Well Buffy." He said standing, and handing Dawn to her; "I guess I'll see you in a couple of weeks then?"
"I guess so," She said, "Would you like help hitching your horse up? I could help it you wanted."
"That's alright, I'm sure I can handle doing it on my own today, you've got other things to tend to." He said, and she knew he meant Dawn.
"If you're sure, I could put Dawn in her crib upstairs."
"It's fine Buffy, I can do it." He said, turning from her, and opening the door, "I'll be seeing you."
"Right, goodbye Xander." She said as the door closed behind the man.
She sighed, and looked down at Dawn, "What am I going to do with you?" she asked the child, "Oh, never mind, I have work to do, c'mon."
Buffy then realized she had forgotten Gunn, she looked up to see him still leaning up against the wall, smiling.
"Charles, please, make yourself at home, I have some work to do, and please, don't hesitate to ask me if you need anything." She told him standing up.
"Is there anything I could do to help?" he asked.
Buffy blinked, "No Charles, you're my guest, you don't have to do anything, just relax."
He nodded, but Buffy thought she saw it as rather reluctant, maybe he wanted to help. Oh, but she couldn't make him work, he had been working his entire life for nothing in return, and now that he escaped that, she didn't want him to be forced to do any kind of work for her, especially because she couldn't afford to pay him.
She smiled at him, and then moved to go upstairs, carrying Dawn with her. Though she had just awoken a little bit earlier, Dawn looked like she was ready to go down for a nap. It was probably because Xander had fed her a lot. Dawn was like that, a fully stomach and she's out like a light.
Buffy yawned, she was feeling a bit tired to, but that as only because she had kept herself awake all last night, waiting for Xander to arrive with Gunn. She shook her head, and entered her bedroom, lying Dawn down in the crib.
"Ok, now all you have to do is cry when you wake up, and I'll come back up stairs, alright?" she said to the child, and Dawn, obviously not understanding, giggled and yawned. "Sleep tight."
Buffy turned from the crib, and went back down the stairs, only to find that Gunn was still in the same position, leaning up against the wall, only now he was looking bored, instead of smiling. She sighed, and walked over to him.
"Charles, please, do something, anything you would like to, just don't stand there looking like you're going to fall asleep from boredom." She said, sounding a little like she was pleading with him.
"I'm sorry if I have offended you, Miss Summers" he said quickly, standing up straight, "But, seeing as you have told me not to work, I haven't anything to do."
She looked him in the eyes, "You haven't offended me in any way Charles, really, what could you have done? And you certainly can't have nothing to do, sure, this isn't the most interesting place in the world, but there are some things you could be doing..." Buffy said, but even she wasn't sure of what he could do, seeing as there really wasn't anything to do.
He looked at her doubtfully, but gave her a sincere nod before sitting down at the table, "I guess I will find something to do, but don't let me keep you from whatever it is you need to be doing."
Buffy sat down across from him, "I don't need to be doing anything at the moment, but I do need to speak with you for a second."
He nodded, signaling for her to continue.
"There are some guidelines I set up when we have the runaways stay here." She said, "Now, you may have heard some of them before, but please don't interrupt." He nodded again.
"Don't go outside during the day time for any reason, don't answer the door, and when I do, stay upstairs and stay quiet. And when you feel it's getting close to when you want to move on to the next safe house, tell me. I will be your escort there." She finished.
He looked at her, "I understand, Mr. Harris had rules like those, only I could go outside...."
Buffy looked at him sympathetically, "Well, it's just that some of the people around here, strongly believe that you should be back where ever you came from working. They don't understand civil rights the way Xander and I do. They see the world in a different light."
Gunn blinked, understanding what Buffy meant. Xander hadn't had any neighbors close by like Buffy did, that was why he was aloud to roam, but Buffy must have really racist people living near her and she didn't want to chance it. He smiled at her, silently thanking her for thinking of this, because he certainly would not have.
"I just don't want anyone to sent you back." She said as a personal explanation.
A cry from upstairs got Buffy and Gunn's attention, she apologized, and stood up going to check on Dawn. Gunn stayed thinking over what Buffy had said about how some people see the world in a different perspective than he and she did. It was confusing to him, but he figured he would eventually figure it out.
Buffy looked at Dawn in her crib, she was crying loudly. She picked her up and rocked her slowly, trying to calm her down.
"C'mon Dawnie, stop crying for Buffy. Please?" she asked the child, pretty much pleading after five minutes of howling.
Dawn closed her mouth and sniffed, looking up at Buffy, pouting. Buffy smiled, this kid could go from being the loudest thing on the planet, to the quietest and cutest thing Buffy had ever seen.
Contemplating whether or not to put Dawn back down, Buffy sighed. She really couldn't carry Dawn around with her all day, not if she wanted to finish all of what she had to do, but she couldn't put her down either, Dawn would cry until Buffy couldn't ear any more.
"What am I going to do with you?" she asked, and Dawn giggled.
Buffy shook her head, and headed downstairs once more, carrying her cousin's daughter with her. She sat down at the table again, and smiled at Gunn.
"She didn't want to nap I guess...." She told him, sighing, and he shook his head smirking.
There was a knock at the door that alerted both people in the house, and Buffy looked down the hallway at the door. She glanced at Gunn, who stood up and made his way up stairs quickly, just as Buffy had told him to do earlier. She got up again, taking Dawn with her, and walked down the hall to the door.
William sighed, he wasn't sure where he was, and he wasn't sure what he was going to do about it. He was at the border of Virginia, and there was pretty much no one out there. He had stopped at a couple of houses, but that had been a while back, and he was wondering if maybe he had accidentally turned west a while back.
Shrugging off the thought that he had made a wrong turn, William continues to follow the dirt road, looking for another town or just a house where he can stop.
For miles he sees nothing, and was becoming rather bored with the scenery. To many grassy meadows, and small trees. None of the trees even had any fruit on them; man how he really didn't like this part of the country. Sure, it was warm, but hey, it wasn't anything like Georgia, and crossing it on horseback wasn't exactly what he wanted to be doing right now.
He cursed his father for having him take this idiotic trip north, knowing damn well that there was no way he was ever going to see that slave again. Ok, three or four days wasn't going to get the nigger to British territory, but he was miles ahead of William, and was probably way more excited about the trip than he was.
Sighing again, William kicks PenDragon in the side a little harder than he had intended to do, causing his horse to start cantering down the road. Not that William was complaining about the breeze he was getting from the quick pace, but at this speed, Pen could only travel for about a day, then need about twelve hours of rest before he could get going again full strength.
Will pulled on the reins, and PenDragon slowed down, now going at a fast walk, snorting at the dust he had just kicked up, and Will shielded his eyes, not wanting to get any pebbles or dirt in them.
After a while, he thought he saw a house in the distance, and in relief, kicked PenDragon once again into a faster pace. By this time, William personally didn't care who was at the house, as long as he could get some water. About three hours with out any had made him quite thirsty, so any kind of drink would have been great now.
As the building grew closer, William was disappointed to find that it was only a lone shed, with quite the number of holes in the sides and roof. Pretty useless. There was also a concrete foundation of a house, he figured that a while back, maybe someone had lived here, but by now had cleared out.
Slightly annoyed at what he saw, William didn't even dismount, just glanced at the foundation and shed, then went on his way again, finding his way back to the trampled ground used as a road.
He road on, not even noticing how long he had been riding. It had been about an hour more, and that meant it was just about mid morning. He yawned at his lack of sleep over the last day or two, and slouched in his position on PenDragon's back.
Again he thought he saw something in the distance, but now what ever it was, was moving towards him. It was a man driving a small wagon, led by one horse. Deciding to keep his pace, he waited until who ever it was, was in shouting distance before calling out to them in greeting.
"Hey, you there!" he called, and saw the driver look up.
William stopped when he reached the side of the wagon, the other man doing the same.
"Good morning." The man said, looking at William.
Will replied with a nod, "Good morning to you as well." He said, "You wouldn't happen to know how long it was to the next town, if it wasn't any trouble to you."
"Well, you wont be finding your way to any towns for the next couple of days," he said, "However, there are some houses up there, Mr...."
"Scott."
"Right, Mr. Scott. You really wont see any one, for a couple of miles anyway. Everyone's pretty spread out around here."
"I get what you mean, back in Georgia it's the same way. I was just looking for a place to stop for a while, maybe get some water or something." "I have some water if you'd like it. Plenty of it to be exact, carrying it with me on my way back down to South Carolina."
"If I may?"
"Go ahead, just let me get it for you."
The man jumped off the wagon, and made his way around to the back. He opened the tail up, and called Will over, pulling a large barrel to the edge.
"Thanks a lot." Will said, filling his two water bottles.
"No problem. I'm always happy to help someone in need."
"Good man, and I don't think you mentioned your name."
"Right, Harris. Alexander Harris, most call me Xander though, so feel free." Xander said, nodding when Will had finished with his water. He closed up the back of the wagon, and moved around to the front, patting his horse on the muzzle before getting back up onto his seat.
"Then it'd only be fair if you called me Will." William told him, "And thanks again for the water, I needed it."
Xander nodded, "Well, unless we don't meet again Will, I'll be seeing you."
William smiled, "Right, see you then."
He mounted back up onto PenDragon, who was rubbing noses with the other horse. Kicking him into a slow walk, William waved to Xander, and continued on his way.
Now in somewhat of a better mood, William smiled to himself, and began to hum, thankful for the water, and to finally see another person out on the road. And it was a while before he stopped again, dismounting to give PenDragon some water, and to take a break himself. There was something about traveling alone that made him wish he were back home, even if his father was there. What he really needed to do was find a way to get out of that house, but his only two options were running away, or finding a woman.
He'd ruled out running away along time ago, but never really thought about his other options. The women in his town were like strangers, and he really had only taken a liking to one of them. But, he figured, just because he had liked her, her father had packed up, and they had left for Texas, leaving him with no one else to even think about.
Sitting down in a rock on the side of the road, William decided it would soon be time for lunch. He had bought some jerky at the last town he had been to, and could eat that, or he could wait. Seeing as that Xander guy had said there was a house or tow up here in a little while, he figured he'd wait, and maybe ask for something when he found a house.
He got back up on his horse, and urged him to go just a little bit further until he saw what he had been thinking about.
A house. And a barn.
He smiled to himself, but didn't make a move to go any faster, taking his time, relieved to finally find a place where he might be able to rest in a chair.
The house was small, he decided jumping down off Pen on the coble stone road that lead up to the house. He led his horse over to the barn and tied him up outside, hoping it would be all right. Then making his way up the stone walk way, he knocked on the door, and waited for someone to answer.