Title: Missing

Author: Neamh1

Disclaimer: Note mine

AN: Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through Torn, especially Michebabyblue who has asked about this story so here it is, i hope you all enjoy it! Oh yeah and feedback pretty please?

"Buffy, honey? You have some mail!" shouted Joyce Giles to her daughter; walking back into the kitchen she placed the mail on the counter.
Soon Joyce could here the sound of her daugther dragging herself out of bed and stomping down the stairs. Buffy had finished university two months ago and had been applying for jobs ever since but with no luck. It wasn't that she hadn't had plenty of job offers; she'd been on so many interviews she had to keep a file with all the job specs and reasons why she had turned them down, just so that she didn't apply more than once for the same job. There just wasn't anything that really appealed to her after the interview. Every morning she got up when her mother shouted to let her know the mail had arrived. She would come downstairs go through the letters and then arrange interviews, this morning was no different. Buffy came in the kitchen wearing her yummy sushi pyjamas and sat down at the island in the kitchen; her mom placed a cup of steaming hot coffee in front of her.
The weather outside had been unbearable the last few days; they were having a heat wave which made sleeping as uncomfortable as being awake. Buffy's mom always insisted that a hot drink on hot days cooled the body down, Buffy couldn't see how but she chose to humour her mother anyway.
"Morning dear, sleep well?" Joyce asked her daughter as she watched for the millionth time as Buffy opened letter after letter, Joyce couldn't understand why Buffy had turned down most of the jobs she'd already been offered. Buffy mumbled her reply as she continued to sort through the letters.
"Good morning!" Said Rupert, with a cheery smile on his face as he came into the kitchen and gave Joyce a quick kiss on the cheek before sitting down at the table. Joyce placed a mug of tea in front of him; Rupert smiled his thanks and unfolded the newspaper as he sipped from his mug.
Joyce and Rupert had been married for three years now and Buffy and Rupert's relationship had grown into that of a loving father and daughter. Rupert had been the librarian at Buffy's high school which was how he came to meet both Buffy and Joyce. He had met Joyce at parents evening and the two had immediately hit it off. At first Buffy didn't like the idea and made things very difficult for the both of them, that was until she realised how much they really did care for one another.
"Anything promising in your mail today Buffy?" asked Rupert.
"Actually, I think there might be." Said Buffy with a smile on her face as her mother came up behind her to see what Buffy was clutching in her hand.
"Ooh, Mounts Film Studio's, that sounds exciting!" said Joyce.
"Yeah, it says that they are looking for a full time assistant to work on the set of a new TV programme that they will be launching later on this year, and they'd like me to call to set a date for an interview. I can't even remember sending out a resume to them… I'm going to go and call them and see if I can get an interview this week!" Buffy jumped up from her chair and went into the living room to make the call.

"Where is the studio located Joyce, it doesn't sound like they'd have a filming studio in Sunnydale." Rupert said to his wife.
"No it's not." She replied with a sad tone to her voice. "It's in L.A. that's a two hour drive from here… well I guess it could be worse, she could have gotten a job in another country." She said as she sat down to sulk at the table and nurse her cup of coffee.
"Now Joyce," said Rupert as he tried to comfort his wife. "We both knew that this day would come, we can't have her living at home for the rest of our lives, it's not fair on her. She needs to go out and make a life for herself. Experience new things and she can't very well do that in Sunnydale, she's outgrown this town and it's time for her to move on. Try to be happy for her dear, she won't be far away and that's if she is even chosen for the position. Let's just wait and see what happens."

Buffy entered the kitchen with a huge smile on her face, "I have an interview this Friday! Mr Wyndam-Pryce says that my resume looked very promising and he's looking forward to meeting me. I have to wait until Friday though because he has to send me a security pass by courier so that I can get access to the premises…what's wrong?" she asked when she saw the look on her mother's face.
Buffy knew that this would happen, she could tell what that look meant, it meant – I'm going to loose my only child.
"Mom, your not getting upset about this already are you?" she asked as she went and sat down next to her mom taking her hand. "I haven't even been for the interview yet and you knew that I wouldn't take a job in Sunnydale unless I absolutely had to. I want to get out of this town; you knew this even before I finished university. L.A. isn't far away, and anyway, you can visit whenever you want, I promise I won't be a stranger when I move." Finished Buffy as her mom gave her a quick hug and a renewed smile and went about cooking them all some breakfast.

That week went unbelievably slow for Buffy, she received the pass on Wednesday morning and got herself a hotel room booked for the Friday night so that she didn't have to drive straight home. Her interview was at 3:00pm and Buffy had been sent a small list of directions to help her find her way from the main gates to Mr Wyndam-Pryce's office. On Thursday Buffy went out and brought herself a new trouser suit in ivory and a new pair of strappy Gucci shoes for the interview. After her shopping trip she met her friend Willow and they went to lunch together and then went to catch a movie. Buffy loved spending time with Willow and if she moved she would really miss her, but Willow had Tara and they would write and phone every other day to keep in touch.
At the end of the night Buffy dropped Willow off at the apartment which she shared with Tara.
Willow and Tara had met in their first year of college; they had both joined the same extra curricular group and had become really good friends. The friendship had grown and feelings between the two had developed. They had been romantically involved for about six weeks when Willow had finally plucked up the courage to tell Buffy and Xander. Buffy, Xander and Willow had been friends since high school and the three were inseparable. Both of them were obviously shocked at the change but were happy to accept Tara because she meant so much to Willow.

"Good luck tomorrow. And don't forget to call and let me know how it went." She said before getting out of the car and heading to the door where Tara was waiting for her.
"Kay, bye Will, bye Tara." Shouted Buffy as she reversed from the driveway and headed back home.
She pulled into the driveway of her house and parked up her car, then headed into the house to find that her mom and Rupert had gone out for the night and wouldn't be home until late. Buffy decided to go upstairs and take a long hot bath to try and relax herself for the meeting tomorrow, she really wanted to make a good impression. She knew she would love working in the film industry, when she had been at college she had taken a class in theatre and had spent a lot of her spare time performing in productions at the Regal Theatre just outside of town. She had also been sent to Boston for two weeks on a course and had performed at a theatre there too. Buffy had mainly done it for fun, she knew that she would never get a career in the theatre; it was like saying that you were going to be a pop-star when you grew up. Working on a filming set, even as an assistant was as close to that type of career as she was going to get and she was extremely excited about it.

10:00am and Buffy was packed and ready to go, she had decided it would be best to get there a little early so that she could shower and change before going for her interview. She was planning on getting there at about 1:00pm; she could grab some lunch and then head over to the studio for the interview, and hopefully not bring up her lunch through nervousness. Her mom came to say good bye at the car, Rupert was already at work and so he had bid her farewell early in the morning, telling her that he wanted to hear from her as soon as she got out of the meeting to let them know how everything went.

"Now Buffy, you'll call me when you arrive at the hotel to let me know you got there safe? The roads can be very dangerous in LA, especially with all the traffic they have." Said Joyce as Buffy got in behind the wheel of her sky blue Honda Civic.
The car had been a gift from her parents for her 21st birthday, she had only had it for just under a year now and the car had been a life saver.
"I'll call you straight away, I promise. Speak to you soon." Buffy replied as her mother shut the car door and walked back to the front porch to wave her off. She backed out of the driveway and waved goodbye to her mom as she drove off down the road towards the highway.

The drive was extremely boring and when Buffy arrived at the hotel to check in all she wanted to do was curl up in bed and sleep for a week. She had chosen to stay in the Marriott Hotel in downtown L.A. It was a lovely hotel and she wanted to make sure she was staying somewhere nice in case Mr Wyndam-Pryce asked for her number to call her later on that night for any reason.
She was given the keys to her room and told what floor she was on, then; grabbing her small suitcase she took the elevator up to her room. She had been put on the seventh floor because she had requested a view from her room. She liked the view of Los Angeles in the night when all the lights were on; it was like the stars had been brought down from the heavens for her to see up close.
When she entered the room she was pleasantly surprised. It was decorated in dark Blue and cream; there was a large king-size four poster bed in the centre of the room and a dressing table with a matching seat in the corner of the room by the window. The TV was opposite the bed and on either side of the TV were large mirror covered wardrobes. On the side of the bed near the door was an old fashioned lie down navy and gold sofa and next to that was the door for the bathroom. The wall paper was cream and gold and the carpet was a think fluffy royal Blue. Placing her bags on the bed Buffy went to have a look at the bathroom. It was again decorated with elegance in cream and gold, the walls were tiled from top to bottom with tasteful pictures of half nude women surrounded with flowers, which reminded Buffy of Eve and the Garden of Eden. The shower cubical was large enough for two people and the bath could be used as a swimming pool, it was huge! There was a large mirror above the sink and a towel rack with freshly cleaned towels hanging ready for use.
After looking around the suite and unpacking her things she decided that it was nearly time to take a shower and get ready for her interview, but before doing that she called her mom to let her know that she had arrived safely.
After hanging up with her mom she called for room service and had a salad sandwich delivered to her room, she stocked up on food then headed for the shower.
Getting out of the shower she went to the bathroom mirror and put on her deodorant and some vanilla perfume. She then went about drying her hair and pulling it back from her face with an emerald butterfly clip which matched the colour of her eyes. The ivory suit was made from satin and she wore an emerald green v-neck top under the suit to match her clip. Looking at her self in the mirror and checking her appearance she fiddled with the suit until she was satisfied and then mentally prepared her self to be as charming as hell. She was going to get this job and knock the socks off Mr. Wyndam-Pryce. "Here goes" she said to herself as she took one last look in the mirror and left her room.

TBC