Chapter Three

Visions of Arranging Schedules Hell

"Spike?" she answers the phone quickly before it can awaken Daniel.

"No it's Wes," her brother, whom she hadn't seen in nine years, not since they staged her death, replies. "Hi Aliana." She wanders out into the living room, having a feeling that she was going to be doing a lot of growling at her nincompoop of a brother.

"What the hell are you doing calling me Wes? What the hell do you have going on down there?" she growls. That had answered her question on where she'd be going, to visit her uncle and brother. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Um, three in the morning," replies Wesley. "It's good to hear you again." It was good to hear him as well, but not at three in the morning. She had broken most of her nocturnal tendencies.

"0300," growls Aliana. "Three in the bloody a.m. Where did you get this number from?"

"Spike gave it to me," Wesley replies. "Listen, we need you help, with a spell."

"Spell?" frowns Aliana. "Not slaying?"

"Nope, just a spell, and some translation, we don't think there's any fighting that's going to occur."

"Well, that's a relief," Aliana nods. "So, when do you need me? I already put in for leave."

"Right now, or as soon as possible anyway," Wesley requests. "How did you know?"

"Usual way actually," replies Aliana. "Black outs then being told what I said."

"Shouldn't you have outgrown them?" Wesley frowns.

"I mostly have, but in the spring..." Aliana shrugs. "They avoid happening when I'm about to go into battle, but other than that, their as strong as ever."

"That's interesting," Wesley replies.

"I should be getting going, I have to pack and grab my car before going to L.A.,' Aliana states. "I'll see you all there, okay little bro?"

"Thank you Ali," Wes says as she hangs up the phone. She lays a note she had composed on top of her will, which she leaves on Daniel's desk. Slipping out of the house, she walks her bike to the end of the street before getting on it and gunning the motor. Her house is about fifteen minutes away, and she makes plans on the ride over. She wouldn't be taking her motorcycle for this jaunt. She'd be using her classic car, that her uncle had bought her, and taking most of her supplies.

She doubted their promise of no fighting would come true. Therefore, she went through the chest with the false bottom and checked her supply of weapons for sharpness. She had learned her lesson early in her life of fighting never to assume because it isn't night that demons aren't abroad. She had only two areas in her house that no one was allowed to get into, the chest of 'toys' and the cabinet in her guest bedroom. She goes through that and grabs the rarest of her ingredients. She was more of a potions witch than a chant the spells type. Of course, like any witch, she could do both, but she specialized in potions.

She had been accumulating odd potion ingredients for years. Checking the wards on her property, she finally packs the simplest of her traveling paraphernalia. She grabbed her night outfit out of her toy chest, and pulls out street clothes for working with her brother. She packs her combat boots, true combat boots issued with her job into the same as her working clothes. They'd come in handy for kicking ass. She chucks her bathing kit into the duffle bag and grabs a couple of the dresses she had in a separate bag. Re-checking the wards she activates the ones she only used when she wasn't sure when she would be home. Finally, she makes three trips to her Mustang mach 1 and activates the last of the wards, before driving off.

In the car, she begins making calls. She checks with her supplier in L.A., checks with her spy in Wolfram and Hart, a vampire friend of hers, and with various other contacts in LA to get a feel for the situation and the history of recent times. Her vampire friend of hers is the most useful. Her careful guidance had gotten the girl into a good spot, right where she could be of the most service. The picture that's painted for her is not a pretty one. She steels herself for the changes that had occurred to her brother. It sounds as though not all of them are good. She should have been alerted sooner. Just because she was mostly retired didn't mean she did not want to be kept in the loop about things. She couldn't blame her contact, but she could blame her idiot brother and uncle. Males!

Finally, as dawn lightens the sky, and a new day begins again with all its hopes and joy, heartbreak and pain, she makes two last calls. She calls Hammond and Sam Carter. She tells Hammond that the call from her past had come in. She assures him that she would do her best to not be killed, and reassures him that she would be back as soon as possible. She is assured that he would keep her job for her as long as necessary. Her conversation with Sam goes less smoothly. Sam keeps on asking unanswerable questions.

Ali had made the decision years ago not to involve anyone she loved in her other life. She had watched too many colleagues killed over the years. The only ones who knew about her double life were already in it up to their eyeballs, and General Hammond. She had told Hammond so if she called in sick, he'd understand that she was probably injured and not wanting to deal with wondering why she healed in a matter of hours or as now, when she had to take an unplanned indefinite leave of absence, it wasn't because she randomly felt like it. She had a feeling Jack knew something was going on. She knew Daniel had questions. She had been unable to answer them. Such as how she knew what some non human languages were before they had a chance to translate them or why she came out a battle without cuts, bruises or other signs of having been in the middle of a fight. She just couldn't logically explain her skills away. She sometimes received calls at odd times of the night with him and had to leave immediately. He questioned her about those as well and she had never been able to answer them.

Sam knew about vampires and things that when suck in the night, but had never gone out with her at night. Sam was the only member of the SGC to know already about that stuff, having been on the review board of the Initiative, and so that's why she and Sam had been good friends. She involved Sam in those things as little as possible, and Sam had helped her field questions on any number of occasions.

As she reaches the suburbs of LA, she stops to grab some hamburgers, and rests for a few minutes. She knew once she met with her brother and uncle, rest would be in short supply, and mostly happen when she passed out with exhaustion. Getting back into her car, she reaches Wolfram and Hart once darkness had fully fallen. Walking up the steps, she sighs and opens the door, letting her old identity fall around her like a silk dress.