THROUGH AN ANGEL'S EYES – CHAPTER 9

We decided to stay for a couple of day, just hang out and relax. I had to go and take care of an emergency, but it was easy and quickly resolved. When I got back, Dawn had gone to the beach with Janice, so I found the chosen two. I thanked Buffy and Faith profusely for the job that they had done with Janice, and asked if there was anything I could do to help them out.

"Give Riley a brain transplant" Faith said. Buffy shot her a look, but said nothing.

"So he still hasn't realized that you've changed" I asked.

Both slayers shook their heads. I sighed, "I'll see what I can do about that, meanwhile, anything else."

They asked me to work on a couple of songs with them and we had fun amending (butchering) some classic rock. Eventually, they had things to attend to so I retired to the Library. I thought about looking for Riley, but I wanted to talk to Janice and Dawn first.

I could feel them coming back and went to meet them. I couldn't believe it when they arrived. The showed up in matching thongs. Dawn was a bit daring, so I wasn't too surprised but Janice being that self confident really brought home to me the job that Faith had done. I decided to clown it a bit; so when they came to themselves I jumped down Dawn's throat for corrupting my sister. She just pointed to Janice and said "it was her idea".

She sputtered a bit as I rounded on her, "and you, trying to seduce every teenage boy in northern Spain. What would the Archangels have to say about your current outfit?"

She wasn't sure how to take this, but Dawn dropped her a wink, so Janice stuck her tongue out at me and started back to her room, putting an extra wiggle in her hips.

Not wanting to allow this, I quickly grabbed Dawn's towel and snapped Janice's left butt cheek with it. She whirled around and glared at me. I just smiled back. She continued to walk away, rubbing her offended anatomy and muttering about 'mean old farts'. I asked her to meet me in my room when she was properly dressed. She just nodded.

On the way to our room, I asked Dawn what her overall impression of Janice was.

She said that she thought Janice ready for the field. I tended to agree, but I thought one last test was in order. Dawn changed into something a bit more appropriate and when Janice showed up; I asked them both about Riley.

I asked Dawn how he and Sam were earlier and Janice what she thought of him now. Dawn said one significant thing, and that was that Sam was pretty much calling the shots back in Sunnydale. With this information, Janice was better able to tell me where he was now. I mulled over the facts, and came to a very surprising conclusion. I explained it to Dawn and Janice. Dawn was incredulous at first but then nodded, as though it answered a lot of questions. I asked Janice when her nightly chess game was so Dawn and I could search Riley's room. We resolved to wait and check our conclusions. In the meantime we had a fun discussion about music and my apparent lack of taste in it. At least some things never change. Eventually we went to dinner and then Janice left with Riley for their nightly game.

Dawn and I went into his room; she searched while I checked for telltales and listened into Janice so I knew when he would be coming. It didn't take long to find what was there. Our suspicions were confirmed, now the only problem was how to confront him.

We let ourselves out moments before Janice let us know that their game had ended.

Dawn and I went back to our room and discussed how to approach Riley on this matter. We came up with an opening gambit, and I decided to wing it from there. I extended my awareness and found Riley exactly where I expected him to be. I walked up as he was looking at his wife's grave.

"So, you loved Buffy but married Faith."

He turned, looking wildly about, "what the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh come on Riley, east coast, no family, aggressive, brunet, do you want me to go on?"

He was shaking his head, but I could tell that he was trying to digest what I was saying and finding a bit too much of the truth for his liking. "Shut up" he muttered.

"I've seen pictures, they're close enough to be sisters, were they related?"

His shoulders slumped; "not that I was able to determine, but the thought did cross my mind. Who all is aware of this", he did not have to define what 'this' was.

"Me, Dawn and Janice, we were worried about you. You find a substitute, but then on the heels of losing her you're faced with the original and the knowledge that a relationship will never happen. It's a bad situation."

He just nodded, he was facing away from me so I could not read his expression, but his body language told me all I needed to know. "I could tell you to get over it and move on, but you already know that. All I will tell you is that in time, it will get easier."

"You guarantee that" he asked.

"Absolutely" I said, "Scouts honor".

He looked at me with a quizzical expression, "you were a boy scout?"

"At one time; yeah; I just didn't get too far into it, before, well you know."

He nodded.

"So, you OK?"

"No" he answered "but I'll be five by five one of these days."

I left him there, having given him a lot to ponder. When I got back to the main house, Faith was all bent out of shape because Krelvin had to leave the band for a clan war or some such thing.

"Where am I supposed to find a bass player on short notice that will actually be good and able to cope with the band?"

I had an idea and whispered it to Dawn; she gave me a shocked look and then, slowly smiled. "Leave it to us Faith, we'll find a replacement" she said.

Faith looked a bit skeptical but just said "remember, good and flexible."

Once that was resolved, a bunch of us sat down to watch 'Fellowship of the Ring'. I asked Janice how it compared to the book; she said it was good, but noticed that Frodo kept dropping his sword. She said that it confirmed his "dipwad' status. She did think that the Boromir character came off better in the movie than the book, and that he was cute. I laughed and with Dawn, went to bed. I looked back and saw Janice arguing with a couple of the trainees that thought Frodo was a hottie, and were offended that Janice thought he was anything less than that.