Chapter Three – I Turn To You
Naomi sat on her stool at the table surrounded by her friends with Dawn half listening but half not wanting to. "So tell us again what happened," said Julie.
"Well he asked me to dance and we started asking each other questions on why we were here tonight, where we are from, how old, what school etc. and it just lead onto more dancing. It's all kinda a blur if that makes any sense," said Naomi in glowing way.
"Oh I so know what you mean," added Sarah.
"So what town is he from?" asked Belle.
"He actually never answered that question. I dunno if it was on purpose or what. Oh he said he was nineteen turning twenty in a few months."
"So he's a few years older than you, that doesn't matter," said Julie.
"Well did you tell him hold old you were?" asked Sarah.
"Yeah that came up. He seemed fine. Which was… umm… good." Naomi turned towards Dawn, "Are you okay Dawnie?"
Dawn looked up suddenly and had the spotlight on her from her friends. "Oh I'm okay, just feeling a little sick, stomach bug or something. I'll be fine."
"Sure? Cause we could go home, well back to the motel."
"No, no I'm fine, let's stay here for a little while longer."
"Okay then."
"Has he started college yet?" asked Belle.
"I dunno! God. What's with the questions Belle?"
"Sorry. Pft!" Belle got up from her seat and walked over to the bar to sit alone. Everyone else ignored her little outburst except Dawn. Soon after Dawn got up from her seat without being noticed and went to sit next to Belle.
Dawn ordered herself a drink and Belle one too. They instantly bonded and started talking about Naomi behind her back, with the both of them every so often checking back to see if the othes knew what they were talking about. Then as soon as they turned back around once Dawn flicked her hair out of her face when Belle told Dawn to be quiet and Dawn had no idea what was going on. Belle then whispered to Dawn that two of the guys from Brad's group were now sitting not too far away from them.
When Faith came back with two beers from the bar, she couldn't find Robin on the dance floor, figured he'd be sitting down somewhere. Her eyes found him in the crowd sitting down on one of the couches looking lonely. "Hey there lonely boy," she said and accidently clinked the bottles together, "What'cha thinking about?" Faith asked as she sat down on the couch next to him, shifting closer to him.
"What makes you think I'm thinking about something?"
"It's that look you have, the thinking one."
"Great description there Faith."
"Well I was never one for top marks in English, did drop out of high school you know."
"Did you ever think of going back?" asked Wood.
"Never did. It was like, I made that choice and never went back on my decision, it's done and behind me and hey I turned out alright and no more comments about it from you okay," said Faith jabbing her finger at Robin.
"Not going to say a word about it," said Wood holding his arms up high in the arm like he was surrendering.
"Good," said Faith with a nod and handing over one of the beers to Wood. "So did you have time to think about why I am prettier, no wait we know why that is, what I meant is why you need to look in the mirror and I don't to know how I'm looking right now, yeah, that's it, did you think about that?"
"Oh I thought that was all part of the fun and games that didn't make any sense called teasing in a twisted sense. I didn't know I had to sit here and think hard about it while you sat here trying to look pretty."
"There you go, you're going on about it when you said you never wanted to mention it in the first place."
"Okay I'll admit I can be a tad contradicting at some points. I won't lie about that." Wood took a sip of his beer and noticed Faith took a sip of her beer too but spilt some of her top. "Great one. Real lady like."
"Damn!" she said instantly and started to swear out loud and grabbed part of Robin's jacket to dry it off.
"What the hell do you think your doing?" he asked when she tugged on his jacket.
"What do you think it looks like? I needed something to dry it off. Want me to grab some other guy's jacket to wipe my top down? Would you like that?" she said in a sarcastic tone.
"Oh yes, I would prefer that not. Want to see defensive persona again? I'd rather not."
"Ah me too."
Robin just looked at her as she let go of his jacket after finishing using it for other purposes than to keep the cold away. "So why didn't you bring a jacket?"
"I dunno. Didn't occur to me to bring one or that I needed one."
"Fair enough, I guess."
Faith had a better grip on her beer now and there was to be no more spills with it. Robin laughed to himself and Faith looked up at him. "I can't believe you spilled your drink and you weren't even drunk. I guess your super strength and abilities don't apply to these sort of things." Faith gave him an evil glare. "Oh come on Faith, you were way too cute to scare me off."
Faith flinched. "Don't say that sort of stuff, ahh! Too weird." Faith sat up properly on the seat. She had kept sinking into the couch in a weird position before.
"Like? Oh you mean cute and all that? Oh I see. You want to keep the tough girl attitude with me okay. I'll stop that for you if you want," said Robin sipping his beer and looking around the room.
"No Wood, seriously, it's okay. I don't love it but I can deal, for you."
"I could reply to this in a different way which would make you flinch but I'll just say thanks," and he kissed her on the lips.
"Hey you tricked me!"
Less than an hour later Faith and Wood had finished their teasing and games and danced one more time until they went to round up the troops to start making their way home soon as well.
Naomi went over to find Brad while the other girls went off to the car. On Naomi's way over to the couch where Brad had been before she noticed Dawn and Belle sitting with the guys looking rather comfortable and in mid conversation so she stormed on over there. "Hey Dawn, hey Belle. Faith just came over to tell us it's about time to get going. Early morning and all," said Naomi at first trying to ignore Brad in her sudden pissy mood.
"Hi Naomi," he said.
She turned and said hello back and told him the story and that she might not see him again but really would hope they would see each other again somewhere in the near future. She hugged him goodbye and Dawn and Belle said goodbye to all the guys and the three girls walked out of REX to the misty blue car.
"Well, well, don't you two have some explaining to do."
As Belle was usually the quiet type Dawn spoke for herself and Belle. "I don't think it's any of your business really. We don't have any explaining to do. Leave us alone."
"Fine be that way Dawn. You were very close to be being accepted into our group and now you're like this. If the rest of the girls are in a good mood then you might get a second chance."
"What?" Dawn stopped walking over to the carpark and Belle went on ahead while Naomi stopped near Dawn. "This is all like some stupid bloody test for me to get into your 'group'? How pathetic. Forget it. This will be my last ride with you and the rest of the talk we have is your everyday manners, polite talk, hello, goodbye."
"Fine." And Naomi walked off in a huff and got into the driver's seat and Dawn got into the back with Belle and Sarah.
The next morning, after a good cooked breakfast, they were all on the road again bright and early. To some it was obvious who were morning people and who weren't. Some Slayers fell back to sleep on the bus resting their heads on pillows.
Faith was tired for a change and rested her head on Robin who she was sharing a seat with but she was streched out over most of the seat so Robin was kind of uncomfortable but he didn't say a word to Faith just to everyone else around him thought he looked uncomfortable and they looked sorry for him too. This sentence is far too long. Find a way too break into down into smaller sentences rather than one long run-on sentence. Buffy had grabbed some maps and was looking through them while sitting at the front of the bus near Giles who was driving. Xander was sitting near by and so were Willow and Kennedy. Dawn had still been a bit distant towards Buffy and was sitting somewhere in the middle of the bus next to Belle. Not too far away were Sarah, Julie and Naomi, staring at Dawn and Belle, talking behind their backs and especially about last night.
"According to one of the maps I picked up and what the owner of the motel told me, there's a town not too far from here called Cherster. It's bigger than Brunty but nothing enormous. But judging from the map, not Sunnydale size, not Los Angeles size, Cherster size… just right."
"Buffy you make it sound like goldilocks and the three bears."
"Xander. You may have just jinxed the place," said Willow jokingly.
"Huh?"
"Now the town might be under some fairy tale spell."
"As if Will. Something like that has never happen." Xander paused for a second. "Oh wait."
"Yeah, something worse has happened," added Willow.
"Well Cherster has a certain ring to it." Kennedy looked at Buffy. "Okay, okay, not really but I'm just trying to be optimistic people."
"Oh hey they have a wishing well!" yelled Xander. Buffy, Willow and Kennedy shot him looks all at once. "Okay. I'll stop but hey the map does show it has one," said Xander pointing to it on Buffy's map.
"Umm Xander," began Buffy looking directly at Xander, "that isn't a wishing well."
Xander looked confused and Willow and Kennedy leant over towards the map in Buffy's hands. "It's a mill. A flour mill. See," said Willow pointing to another key symbol of the same shape, "there's another mill."
"Oh," replied Xander feeling awkwardly stupid right now.
Giles then called out, "Is everything okay back there?"
"Yeah Giles. Everything seems fine. Thanks for asking. Do you need a rest from driving yet?"
"You thinking of driving?" asked Giles sounding surprised.
"Maybe. Why?"
"Oh nothing."
"Okay," replied Buffy.
Willow picked up a pamhelt from off the seat Buffy was sitting on alone. "What's this one about?" Willow scanned it. "Oh housing. Oh renting and a caravan park."
"As adventurous as it sounds Will, we ain't getting all eighteen of us staying at a caravan park."
Willow looked disappointed.
"We have to be serious about this."
"Just thought it would be fun."
"I know. You can have some fun soon I promise." Buffy laughed and Willow smiled.
"According to this," began Kennedy, "it looks like Brunty and Cherster aren't that far apart if this housing pamphlet covers the areas between the two towns and includes the towns as well."
"Maybe there is a really small town population in all the places."
"You thinking vampire kills Buffy?"
"Ah no but now that you mention it but then again we have no proof. We are all just guessing here."
"Oh, the pamphlet only displays eight places for rent and sale."
"Any of the places look any good Kennedy?" asked Buffy.
"Just this one place," she said handing the pamphlet over to Buffy placing her finger on the house. "It has character. I like it."
Xander leant in. "Looks alright. But Buffy, did you look at the price, we don't have that kind of money, in fact we don't have much at all."
"I can dream right?"
"Dreaming is allowed."
"Good," replied Buffy smiling at Xander.
At the moment the Scooby School Bus was passing through a small quiet town and had stopped at an intersection. Buffy got out of her seat and went over to Xander and gave him a hug. "You know I love you, you know."
"I love you too Buffy."
Then all of a sudden Willow got up and went over to hug them. "I love you guys."
In unison Xander and Buffy said, "We love you Willow."
The three of them were standing up right now hugging one another and the bus started to move because the traffic light was green and they came tumbling down on the ground into the isle of the bus and they burst out with laughter and so did some of the Slayers surrounding them plus Dawn and her friend Belle. Same with this sentence. Too many and they, and they, and they… Turn it into a couple of sentences. Naomi pretended not to care and Julie and Sarah copied her.
Buffy sat on the floor of the bus smiling and giggling with her two friends and a tear came out of the corner of her right eye. Even though she seemed to be dealing better and having good times with her best friends, she still found it hard to move on without Spike. The further the bus drove away from Sunnydale the harder it was getting. She felt like she was leaving him behind and she didn't want to do that but it was her only choice.
When the bus stopped once again Giles turned his head around to see what had happened. He let out a chuckle and the three of them looked at him and they laughed as they managed to get back up on their feet to sit back down in their seats.
Faith had slept all through this while Robin saw everything and laughed at how clumsy the three of them had looked. Robin looked down at Faith in her same outfit from the day before. It still looked dirty from the fight at the high school but Robin thought to himself she still seemed to look good in the clothes even if they were dirty, she looked good in anything. Robin lifted up his other hand to brush the hair of her small fringe out of her face and she started to twitch. Robin pulled his hand back.
By now the bus had grown noisy again from everyone talking about their own thing. Robin went to move her hair out of her face and he got the same reaction from Faith and then she decided to just take over more room on the seat so Robin was now pressed up against the side of the bus. It was actually a funny sight to anyone but Wood. Then it clicked. Wood thought she could be faking this all but then he wasn't sure so he tried to move the hair out of her face again. She twitched once again and then went to grab at Robin's shirt. He grabbed her hand and that "woke" her up.
Faith sat up and with her right hand she grabbed her hand that hurt. "What'd you do that for?"
"Huh?"
"Grab my hand like that."
"I didn't even grab it hard Faith," replied Robin trying to put his arm around Faith but she moved slightly apart concentrating on her hand. Robin had no idea what was going on until Faith explained.
"That doesn't matter. Man you grabbed the hand I cut open at the Hellmouth and ironically it hurts like hell now."
"Oh, I'm sorry Faith I didn't know."
"Well now you do," she said in a nicer tone and moved back to her sort of original spot to be closer to Robin and he put his arm around her.
"So were you really sleeping then Faith right at the end?"
"Yeah."
"Really? Cause I kept trying to brush the hair out of your face and you kept twitching about and then the last time I tried you went to grab my shirt and then that's when I grabbed your hand."
"Oh, well that's weird. I hope I'm not always like that when I sleep. Oh well. But that explains why you grabbed my sore hand."
"But doesn't explain why you grabbed my shirt."
"I can think of reasons why if you like," commented Faith with a grin.
"Someone seems wide awake now and not in a bad mood."
"When was I in a bad mood?"
"When I accidently grabbed your hand or did you just loose your memory?"
"Oh yeah that. I remember."
By using his arm around Faith he pulled her into his chest and kissed her on the cheek and as he pulled away she shook her face. "What too early for kisses or something like that?"
"No."
"Then what was that about? Was it some weird Faith law?"
"Faith law?"
"Yeah you have a way of living and rules of life or so I've heard," said Robin rolling his eyes.
"Someone fill in the blanks about my past for me?"
"Well you did the other night and before back in Sunnydale. But Buffy and Giles told me some stuff earlier on."
"Hmm. Oh really? What they'd say?"
"Like I'm going to tell. It was secret stuff."
Faith was squirming in her seat now. "Tell me."
"Are you sure you want to know?"
Faith thought about it. "Nah. Seriously. What's in the past is gone but I'll get you to tell me some stuff later on maybe. But for now just leave it."
Then Robin burst out with, "Five by five."
"Hey! That's my saying."
"Five by five."
"Stop saying it. You're saying it all wrong."
Wood raised his eyebrow, "Really?"
"Yes."
"Well I'll make a deal. I'll stop saying it if you tell me what it means."
"Oh no way. No blackmail."
"Blackmail?"
"I see this as blackmail."
"I'm wicked cool. Five by five."
"Oh god, man stop. You sound like a try hard," said Faith laughing as hard as she could. "You're going to ruin it. If you don't stop, your bed is going to be cold tonight," said Faith with a sly grin.
"Oh and next you'll say you don't believe in blackmail." Robin paused for a moment to think over what Faith said. "Nah uh. You won't do that. You haven't detached from me since we left damn Sunnydale, you can't trick me."
"Detached?"
"Yeah you clinged onto me like a monkey and it's banana tree."
"Okay I won't take the monkey reference personally this once but in this scenario I'm a monkey and you're a tree. Just one question. Are you okay? Are you high on something?"
"No I'm not but thanks for asking."
"Hey! I'm not clingy. Never been a clingy kind."
Robin coughed, "Till now."
"Heard that. Slayer powers and all."
"Crap."
Faith smiled. "I bet you can't spend a night without me."
"Do you seriously want to bet on this?"
"Not with cash Robin, like just to see if we can last without spending time together."
"Meaning every waking moment."
"Don't talk about me like that. It's not nice."
"Okay miss... hey what is your last name?"
"Ah ah. Not going to get that one out of me either."
"You're stubborn."
"Extremely."
"Look at those two," said Naomi. "It's so sickening."
"You know she killed people and he knows that. How could a man be that close to a killer," continued Naomi. "She acts like she's good and pure. She was bad, is bad. She broke out of jail you know. And now she's here pretending to do good and look at her with him. It's just wrong. She should be back in prison where she belongs."
Julie and Sarah just nodded their heads and agreed and listed to their ring leader, Naomi.
"I can't stand it," said Naomi turning around and facing towards Sarah sitting next to her. "So what are your thoughts on this?"
"Thoughts on this? Umm," replied Sarah starting to stumble on her words because she didn't know what to say that might sound cool.
An hour later they had entered Cherster and everyone had piled out of the bus onto the side of the road. They were at the town centre.
Buffy walked along the street until she found a pay phone. She had a number to contact Andrew on, his pager.
Andrew was standing in the foyer of the Hyperion Hotel looking around the room when his pager went off and he knew it must be Buffy. He got out his tracking device, attached it to the pager to trace the call. He traced the number which was for a pay phone and the pay phone rung. Luckily no one from town had seen or heard the pay phone just ring on its own.
"Hey Buffy. I see you have made it to the next main town."
"Hello Andrew. So we have. We are in a town called Cherster. I think it's going to end up being the town we settle down in."
"Awesome. Hometown Cherster."
Buffy smiled but of course Andrew didn't know.
Andrew leaned against the hotel reception desk.
"So you've made it to the Hyperion then?"
"Yes, yes I have Buffy."
"So is Angel and everyone there?"
"Actually no."
"Huh?"
"Oh they signed some deal with a law company. Wolf and Hert."
"Wolfram and Hart."
"Ah that's it. At the moment they are moving their stuff into their brand new apartments and offices so they haven't been around the Hyperion much. They said I could stay here for these next few days."
"Oh okay. Do you know anything else about this deal with Wolfram and Hart?"
"No they didn't tell me much"
"Alright. Well if you speak to Angel or to anyone else for that matter tell them I called. When I get a mobile phone I'll page you okay. Otherwise if I page sooner it will in emergency and I hope that won't be the case."
"Okay got it all. I have to go now Buffy. Nice hearing from you."
"Okay Andrew. Bye."
The night before.
Andrew rode his motorbike down the street the Hyperion existed on and parked his bike outside the large building. He walked inside holding his helmet. His hair had now formed a different shape. It was helmet hair shape. Andrew pushed open the glass doors and walked down the steps into the foyer and thought he saw some movement in the dull lit foyer.
"Hello? Hello? Anybody there? Is there a Fred there?"
A man walked out of an office holding a box of junk. "Hey man. We're closing up place here for a few days so if you need any help you can contact us now at the law firm Wolfram and Hart." Gunn pulled a business card out of his jean pocket. "This is my only card but you can have it. But if you're in urgent need of help I'm sure Angel and the rest of us can lead a hand. Oh by the way my name's Gunn, Charles Gunn."
Andrew shook Gunn's hand in a manly way. "Ah is Fred here?" asked Andrew now knowing the man who had been talking to him wasn't who he had talked to on the phone.
"Oh so your not a client?"
Andrew looked puzzled. He didn't really know what Angel and his mates got up to in Los Angeles, he didn't know anything about them.
"You don't need any help of the unusual kind? Don't be afraid to ask."
"Fred works here?"
"Oh Fred's out back. I'll go get her and tell her someone's to see her.
Andrew thought this over and mumbled softly to himself, "I guess Fred is a girl."
Gunn didn't come back but instead Fred did. "Hey... who are you? I'm Winifred."
"Oh I'm Andrew, sorry."
"Do I know you?"
"No not exactly. I spoke to you once on the phone."
Fred kept listening.
"You called up to speak to Willow about something."
"Oh, Willow Rosenberg from Sunnydale?"
"Yes, that's right. I answered the phone."
"Oh so you're from Sunnydale too then. What you doing here? I thought Angel said there was a battle on there? Well that's what I last heard."
"Yeah. It's over now. Sunnydale's no more. All a big hole. It collapsed and us who survived the fight barely made it out."
"It collapsed?"
"Yeah. Quite amazing."
"So big bad First defeated?"
"Yep. Buffy and the Slayers defeated it and its minions."
"Slayers?"
"It was part of the plan. Buffy got Willow to use the scythe and draw out its essence and made any potential have the power of the Slayer so now they all share the power. Oh I think I wasn't meant to tell you all that much."
"Oh it's my fault. I find all this stuff so interesting. It's not really my field, I'm more into the sciences. This is Wesley's kind of stuff but it fascinates me. Do you want me to get Angel?"
"Yes that would be great."
Not too soon after Angel appeared and Andrew explained who he was and why he was there. To let Angel know the battle went as well as it could and that the survivors are on the move including Buffy to a new hometown along the coast which was not too far away from their last hometown. He informed Angel that Sunnydale wasn't on the map anymore.
"Well at the moment we are in the middle of moving offices so to speak and since you're a friend of Buffy's…"
"Well I'm not exactly…"
"No, you can stay here for a few days before you head back to find Buffy and the rest. Do you have a number I can contact Buffy on?"
"Not yet. They have no phones."
"Oh, okay well when you do have a way for me to contact her, inform me. I'll be coming back here later so if you have any questions, you can ask me then."
"Alright. Thanks Angel."
Present
Buffy thought to herself as she sat down on the green street seat. Giles came walking over. "Is there a problem Buffy?"
"Well actually I'm not sure," she said as she turned to Giles.
"What do you mean?"
"I spoke to Andrew and he seemed fine from his mission which is good but he mentioned something about Angel and the gang signing some deal with Wolfram and Hart."
"The evil law firm?"
"Yeah. It just doesn't sound like something Angel would do or his friends. Something doesn't seem right."
"You sure? Maybe if you get to talk to Angel about it it will make more sense maybe."
"So are you okay from the other night? You seemed a little… well, not right. Did I come in at a bad time or something? Was it something I said?"
"No, no of course not Buffy. I had just been doing some research and I had just been thinking about what I had read. Nothing to be concerned about."
"Okay then but if anything comes up tell me okay." Buffy got up from the street bench and walked over to the rest of them sitting on the edge of the street in one large clump talking.
A few days later, everyone managed to find coins and notes on the bus, in clothes, in odd places and just in their pockets and wallets and joined their money together so they could buy a mobile phone as their way to contact the world. They were now broke of course but where they were all staying at was a large property a few miles from town and everyone had jobs to do on the farm to earn their meals. And a place to sleep. At some stage they all knew someone would find a job in the local newspaper or at the town centre on the notice board and this living and work arrangement would only last for a few more days at the most and then they would actually be able to pay for motel accommodation at least.
From Andrew Buffy had gotten Angel's new office number and she was scared to ring it up. It was up to Buffy to make the call.
Sitting in her small bedroom on the farm, she picked up the mobile and dialed the number she had in her hand written on a piece of paper. "Um hi. This is Buffy Summers speaking is Mr… Is Angel there?" said Buffy as she started to relax her tone.
There was a silence.
Buffy waited on the other line for an answer or something.
"Hello Buffy."
"Angel! You don't know how good it is to hear your voice. I didn't know if I would make it through the battle but I did. I just did."
"Buffy. I had the second front ready and everything and then it hit me. I realised that you didn't need a second front. Somewhere deep down inside you knew it too. You knew you'd win and you did. I'm proud of you Buffy but I still wish you had let me fight that fight."
"Well there's nothing you can do about it now."
"True. So where are you calling from?"
"Oh I'm now in a town called Cherster. You heard of it?"
"No, I don't think I have."
"It's not a big place on the map."
"So where are you staying? You know you could have always travelled up this way like Andrew did and stay here?"
"I didn't want to invade your town with a group of new Slayers."
"We could have put them to use somehow."
"It's just it's so complicated with our town thing. You know whose town is who. Well my town collapsed so beat that. Now I got a brand new one. I hope this one goes better than the last."
Angel smiled and laughed. "I heard about Sunnydale collapsing from Andrew. God he's a, he's different. He's your friend?"
"Wouldn't exactly say that."
"He asked me for tips on redemption today."
"Oh my god. Really?"
"Yes."
"What did you say?"
"I didn't have time to talk so I quickly jotted down some points for him to read. He hasn't taken his eyes off the same piece of paper since. So where you staying again?"
"Well at the moment we are working on trying to find jobs so we can stay at a proper motel. We spent all our money on this phone I'm talking on. We are staying at a farm and doing jobs there for the place to stay and food for now."
"Oh alright then. I can help you with that situation. But wait, how did Andrew get the money for that bike?"
"Don't say anything about it to him but he rented it out. It isn't his bike so to speak but he likes to thinks he owns it."
"How would you like it if I bought you a place to stay in? Live in?"
"Angel, you couldn't. How could I repay you?"
"This isn't about borrowing. It would be a gift."
"A gift for what?"
"Do you have to ask so many questions?"
"Always."
There was another silence.
Flashback occurred to both them. Think 1999.
At Angels mansion Buffy and Angel are talking over the Faith siutation that happened earlier on. "I never wanted it to go that far."
"I know that. It's not even a question of that. It's just, after ... I need a little bit of a break. Please." Buffy then starts to turn and walk away.
"You still my girl?"
"Always," replies Buffy who then leaves.
Angel broke the silence, "Just think of it as a gift okay. Got any place in mind?"
"Ah as a matter of fact yes. I don't know how big it will be though. Like how many rooms. Can I get back to you on that tomorrow?"
"Of course you can. So how you holding up?"
"What? What did the little squirt Andrew say?"
"Buffy he didn't say what you think he said. I can tell by the way you speak. I knew you very well for years remember? I can sense what happened. Spike and I well, that's a complicated thing but with all the disagreements and hatred we had a connection, we could have been really good friends. I've never sensed something like that before Buffy. I don't mind if you talk about him. I may not know what or how but you can just talk. I'll be here listening."
Buffy began to speak and the words kept following as did the tears.
