Sunnydale
Willow mentally shook herself and dialled Oz's number immediately.
Ring Ring, Ring Ring
"Oz here."
"Oz? Hey, it's Willow. Okay I need your van...well...I mean...I need you to bring your van, so we can go to the airport. If that's alright..."
"Sure, be there in a minute." He hung up, he always trusted her no matter what she said. Lately whenever she thought of Oz, she got this great pang in her chest. She knew what it was...guilt and it was to do with a certain strong attraction to the brooding vampire. Ever since she restored his soul and brought him back from hell, which none of the Scooby gang actually knew about, she's had this strong pull towards him. Of course, she saw how sexy and gorgeous he is but it was more than that, it goes past the physical realm right into the spiritual. It was probably just some after effects from having his soul pass through her...but still...there was something compelling her to him. Some bind that was unbreakable.
Dialling again, Willow called up Giles. "Giles? Its me, Willow. No no no, nothing's wrong. I'm sorry, I know it's quite early, it's just I need you to drive to the airport. Why? Oh, um some of my friends from Roswell have arrived and are going to be staying in the unused cabin. Yes, I know I should've told you yesterday but I got sidetracked by the whole kidnapping. Eeee um...can you tell me what you have found later 'cause they're waiting at the airport now! I've called Oz and he'll be here as well. How many? Um...lets see, eight teenagers and one adult. Okay, Oz is here, got to go. See you in a minute, bye." Willow ran out of her house, barely managing to grab her bag and jumped into Oz's van.
"Right, to the airport now. Giles is going to be there as well, I have a friend coming to stay for a while in Sunnydale from Roswell, she's brought 7 other friends and an adult, obviously, they thought they would have a holiday out of it...though I have no idea why they would holiday over here in the middle of nowhere....they're staying in the cabin and I need to take them there…and..." Willow stopped mid-babble and tried to catch some breath.
"Breathe Will, breathe." Oz reminded her, in his good-naturedly way. Will smiled back thinly and cast a worried look out into the scenery that sped past her.
- - - - -
Willow arrived at the airport in about 10 minutes; she had no idea how she was going to spot them in a crowd like this. Oz was holding her hand and Giles walked up next to them. Putting a hand over her eyes, she tried to block out the bright sun streaming through the window. Hmm where could they....aha! Finally, she caught a glimpse of them; Michael was just as Maria described, tall, hunky, spiky hair. Of course, she wouldn't go for him, Maria had told her enough about his issues and commitment problems to be slightly discouraged but hell, he was hot! Naughty thoughts Willow, naughty thoughts. Oz is right there next to you. You're such a bad person. Willow scolded herself as she walked closer the the group.
"Maria?" She called out, a small but vibrant blonde stepped forward a little hesitantly.
"Willow?" She asked back, in a single moment moment they had one another enveloped in one of the biggest hugs known to man. "Oh my god! Wow, Will, it's so strange to see you in real life," Maria laughed, "when you used to be just Times Roman font size." Willow laughed along with her, and then she noticed Maria staring at her companions.
"Oh my god, where are my manners? Maria, this is Oz," she pointed at the relaxed lead guitarist, "and this is Giles."
"Hey," Oz said simply
"How do you do." Giles said in his rather formal British way. Suddenly Giles caught a glimpse of Jim Valenti; his expression paled and gave him a questioning look. Jim nodded slightly and put his fingers against his lips, telling Giles to not say anything. The teenagers were oblivious to the message that passed between the two adults and continued introducing each other.
After the introductions were made, they piled into the cars, dragging their baggage with them; Liz, Max and Jim went in Giles'car and Willow, Maria, Michael, Kyle, Tess, Alex and Isabel squashed up in Oz's van. Willow gave directions to the cabin, Giles followed behind and in about 30 minutes, they had arrived.
"We're finally here!" Willow chirped happily, knowing that the guys would love to stretch their legs outside.
The cabin was gorgeous! It was quite big with ivy growing around the doors and woods surrounding it. Willow went to the door and opened it, nearly being trampled by a rush of eager teenagers. The inside was beautiful too: heavy draperies in a dark red, open fireplace, a red PVC couch and two-seater, a soft brown carpet, a TV and video player, countless videos, a hi-fi with CD's…and that was just in the living room.
"Willow, how much is this to rent then?" Jim asked. Willow beamed; she had nearly forgotten to tell them!
"Its free." She said, now with a small smile playing around her lips.
"Free? How?" Alex asked.
"My uncle owns it and he said if it's my friends that are coming down then they are friends of his, so he said you can stay as long as you like for free. However, there are a few conditions, do not break/take anything, say thank you when you next see him, he'll be dropping by later to meet you all and lastly…have fun! I came in before you arrived and brought some videos, books and cd's so you'll be comfortable." Willow's grin grew bigger as she watched Maria and her friends whoop with happiness.
"Lets sort out bedrooms!" Maria cried and ran up the stairs so quick you could hardly see her move. The first room she wandered into Maria immediately knew this was hers; it had a blue water ripple effect that had been painted on the walls with a fire pattern stencilled over it around the bottom edge. There were two beds, single, with a dresser between them against the wall. There was a bookcase, with books and novels in them and a stereo on top of it.
Isabel followed Maria up the stairs and found her gaping at the room she has walked in.
"Maria, are you okay?"
"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine! I think I'll have this room." Maria smiled; she knew this was perfect for her Spaceboy as well. She needs to have a talk with him, tell him how she feels and what they are going to do with this non-relationship.
"Maria, what are we going to do about your friend? Eventually they'll find out, especially since we're staying for so long and then what's going to happen when she introduces us to her group?
"Don't worry Isabel, I'm sure its all going to be fine as long as you all control your powers." The others came upstairs to sort out the rooms but Willow and Giles hung back.
"Willow how are we meant to deal with these, ah, teenagers while danger is afoot. Buffy is missing, we have no leads to where she is, and if she's even alive. This is a distressing time for us and it is going to even more, ah, stressful with your friends staying. Moreover, there is a prophecy I have uncovered which is…not good." Giles mentally chuckled dryly, not good was an understatement. I wonder why Jim is here, after all these years of being away we finally bump into each other. I should talk to him and see what he can make of the prophecy and Buffy being missing.
"Don't worry Giles, I'll distract them whenever the slaying comes up and maybe they could help us if we say our friend has gone missing. Of course, not tell them the whole truth but still…it might work." Willow sounded more confident than she was. How the hell am I going to control this?
- - - - - -
The rooms were finally sorted. Jim made it perfectly clear there were not going to be couples in rooms, though surprisingly Liz and Kyle protested rather loudly at that. They decided it would be best if there were one alien and one human in a room together, of the same sex. Maria and Isabel stayed in one room, Tess and Liz stayed in another, Michael and Alex in the boy 'quarters' and finally Kyle and Max in the last one. Jim had a downstairs room to himself, which he was quite pleased with. Willow had long since gone home, promising to come over in the morning to introduce them to her friends. Giles lingered behind, wanting to talk with Jim.
"So Jim, long time no see...I thought you were still in Texas. Do the kids there know much about your past?" Jim glanced upstairs, praying the kids were asleep Then he tossed Giles a beer and opened his own.
"No they don't, but I'm betting they will soon enough. I was opposed to coming here because I knew it would happen, but that Maria, she's a damn persuasive little thing, just like her mother." Jim's eyes twinkled at the thought of Amy, Giles smirked at Jim as he daydreamed for a while.
"So Jim what have you been doing since you quit being a Watcher?" Giles sat back, nursing his cold beer. He doesn't usually drink beer anymore. Give him a brandy or scotch on the rocks anytime, but a beer felt needed today.
"Well, I went to New Mexico, Roswell no less. I became a sheriff, had a kid - that was Kylie that you met, but cancer took my wife when Kyle was quite young. He was really broken up about it for ages, he loved his mom, almost as much as I did. So Rupert, in all of your research have you found proof of aliens?" Giles nearly spurted out his beer in shock.
"No…uh…not yet really. Why?"
"Because four of the eight kids up there are undeniable aliens, two of them have been healed by an alien and so have I." Giles' normal unflappable facade was dropped as he stared at Jim with a mixture of shock, interest and disbelief. Its strange, Jim mused, people in the 60's took acid to make the world seem weird. Today, people take Prozac to make it seem normal. Jim waited patiently for Giles to come out with a fairly coherent sentence instead of doing what he was doing at that precise moment, which was opening his mouth and then closing it, looking fairly similar to some kind of goldfish.
"W…what? Aliens? Okay....I guess if there's vampires and demons and witches...I suppose there can be aliens too...but...aliens? Wow and I thought my kids were very mixed species; a witch, two Slayers, two master vampires, one who is souled, a werewolf, a teen beauty queen and the other...a Zeppo."
"Jeez, that is mixed! Okay I'll tell you about how I came to know these aliens and you can tell me your story, sound fair?" Giles nodded, now this was something you never expected to hear everyday, how his old buddy met a group of teenage aliens. Giles repressed the urge to laugh and listened to Jim spin his tale.
"…so then Michael killed Agent Pierce and we decided to come here to lay low for a while, a vacation of sorts." Jim smirked as he saw Rupert's eyes wide, hanging onto every word. "It's your turn now, how did you get lumbered with not one but two Slayers and a group full of 'different' people?" In all truth Jim was really very interested to hear this story, especially about this whole souled vampire bit. He grabbed another beer, settled back on to the couch and listened to Rupert tell his side.
"…so Buffy has been kidnapped and Spike has just returned wanting to help for some god knows reason." Now it was Giles turn to smirk, Jim was more bug-eyed than he was! Jim whistled his amazement.
"Wow that is something. Tell me again about this prophecy you mentioned, it sounds like a biggie, maybe I can get the kids to help."
"Well…
tbc...
