Characters and settings are used without permission, and with no intention of damaging copyright in the original stories. This story may not be distributed on any profit-making basis. Distribution Fanfiction.net, Twisting The Hellmouth, Fonts of Wisdom, other sites please ask. I'm British, so's my spelling - live with it.
by Marcus L. Rowland
X
"Good morning, you're through to SunnyD Technology, April Summers speaking. How may I help you?"
"Hi, this is Billie Newman, Willow's aunt. Is she around?"
"Hi, nice to talk to you again. She'll be in college all day. Can I help at all?"
"I just wanted to check if she's still planning to come up to LA this weekend."
"Yes, she'll be at the Hyperion on Friday night."
"The Hyperion again?"
"She's using a suite there, eventually it'll be our LA office until we need something bigger. Angel has room to spare at the hotel, and the rent will pay for a lot of refurbishment. Willow says that with Angel and his team around we can be reasonably sure it'll be secure when we're not there."
"Will you be coming this weekend?"
"No, I think it's just Willow this time, Tara has to study for another test and I'm staying here to look after the office. She's giving Dawn a lift but Dawn won't be staying at the hotel, she's visiting her father."
"I'm going to try to get in touch with some of our more distant relatives, try to arrange some sort of get-together, maybe a Sunday brunch if Willow's agreeable. Possibly some of my friends too, people who met her mother. Ask her to let me know if she has a problem with that. I'll be at my work number from about ten onwards."
"Okey-dokey."
"Have things quieted down since the drives were announced?"
"Once your story appeared some of the reporters left, the rest gave up once Willow had been interviewed four times and they got the idea that we simply aren't very interesting. What we're left with now is occasional science and computer journalists and even they are gradually giving up."
"How did you manage that?"
"Magic. As I understand it, it's the reversal of a spell which is supposed to make its user more attractive. I understand that Tara used it to make Willow seem boring when she was interviewed."
"Understand?"
"I can't tell. It doesn't affect me."
"Oh? Oh of course, I was forgetting."
"That I'm a robot? Thank you, that's always good to hear. Some magic will work on me, I think, but I appear to be immune to that spell."
"That's useful, I suppose."
"Not so far, but it might be in the future."
"Okay, I'd better get back to work."
"Before you go, Willow has been watching to see if there was any news of the attempt to kidnap you, but there appears to be nothing. Have there been any developments?"
"Nothing. The police seem to have run out of leads, it looks like they've blamed it all on that lawyer and his doctor friend."
"MacDonald and Hoskins?"
"That's right."
"Willow is sure that Wolfram and Hart are responsible for attempting to kidnap you. She has tried to find proof, but that data does not appear to be available. She hasn't been able to work out how Holtz is involved."
"Holtz? I don't think he was working with them, I think he just happened to be there."
"The odds against that are astronomical."
"I know, but coincidences do happen."
"Certainly, but his subsequent interest in you suggests some prior knowledge." Billie wondered if that could be right; Holtz had already denied it, but he could be lying. April added "It seems more likely that he waited for the kidnappers to strike then intervened so that you would be grateful to him. Has he contacted you again?"
Billie thought quickly and said "I think I've seen him from a distance a couple of times since the day I met Willow, my guess is he may still be watching me." It was true enough, though far from being the whole story.
"If the situation changes please let Willow know, she is worried."
"Okay... and thanks for telling me."
"You're welcome. Have a nice day."
"Thanks, goodbye." Billie hung up and said "She'll be here this weekend, and I've made the suggestion you wanted. Now do you mind telling me what that's about?"
"It's simple," said Holtz, "I'd like a friend to attend your brunch..."
"Hello, this is Lou Grant. I'm not at home right now, but if you leave..." The phone clicked, then the real Grant said "Hello, who's calling?"
"Hi, Lou, this is Billie Newman."
"Billie? How are you? I heard about your arm, how's that going?"
"It's healing well, Lou, should be out of the cast soon."
"And the guys that tried to kidnap you, and the guy that killed them, have the police got anywhere with that?"
"Nothing but dead ends, unfortunately."
"Okay, want me to put my investigative reporter hat on and see if I can find out anything?"
"Believe me, we're working on it."
"Okay, then what can I do for you?"
"You've heard that I found my niece at last?"
"Great human interest story, surprised you didn't do more with it."
"There are reasons. Anyway, you met my sister Janice a couple of times, didn't you?"
"Once or twice, when she visited you at work. What about it?"
"I'm hosting a Sunday brunch for Willow, that's my niece, to meet friends and family who knew Janice. It'd be great if you could make it and I'm sure all the gang would love to see you again."
"Sure. Are you still at the same address?"
"That's right. Oh, maybe you can help with something. I can't seem to get in touch with Charlie Hume, any idea where he's living these days?"
There was an awkward silence, then Lou said "He's in a home. Alzheimers."
"Oh... I hadn't heard. But you're okay?"
"Same old Lou."
"That's good. If you could let me have Charlie's address I'll send him some fruit or something, visit him when I get a chance."
"I'll bring it along on Sunday."
"Thanks."
"So what's this deice of yours like?"
"Smart... very smart... she's still in college but she's already started her own business, looks like it's going to be very successful."
"What kind of business?"
"Computer technology."
"Well, let's hope she gets the breaks, there's plenty tried to make a go of that business and failed. Tell her to keep studying."
"I wouldn't worry too much, Lou, she's well on her way to her first billion."
"Her first what?" Billie smiled at the surprise in his voice.
"You heard. She owns a very important patent, a lot of the big companies are going to use it."
"Does she like older men?" he asked jokingly.
"In your dreams, Lou."
"Wait a minute... is this why they tried to kidnap you?"
"It's beginning to look like it. There's a theory that someone wanted to put a ringer in, someone who would influence Willow and maybe get control of her company."
"Any idea who?"
"Not really... it turns out to be real Twilight Zone stuff, if you know what I mean."
"Oh. That kind of stuff. Never did like dealing with those people."
"Me neither, most of them anyway, but my contacts have the idea that Wolfram and Hart are involved."
"Wolfram and Hart? Now there's a name I haven't heard in a while. There were a lot of rumours about them having fingers in some very nasty pies. If they're involved you want to be very careful indeed."
"I will be. Maybe we can talk about it some more on Sunday."
"Okay. Talk to you then."
"Okay," said Billie, leading Willow through her house to the garden, where Lou was trying to get the barbecue lit, "I was hoping to get some relatives here, cousins and so forth, but it looks like nobody could make it. I guess I didn't give them enough warning, none of them actually live in LA."
"That's okay," said Willow, "I guess it's best to start off slow, get to know you before I meet the rest of the family."
"Maybe, but it'd be nice to have them here. Anyway, what I can do is introduce you to some colleagues from the Trib. First, this is Lou Grant. He was editor of the Trib in the seventies and eighties, he's now retired. I think you met my sister a few times, didn't you?"
"Once or twice anyway," said Lou, offering Willow a charcoal-black hand which she gingerly shook. "Let me get this damn thing lit, we can talk properly later."
"Okay," said Billie, "This is Joe Rossi, who runs the World New desk, and Animal, our photo editor. Both of them met your mother a couple of times."
"I'm pleased to meet you both," said Willow, shaking hands. "Joe, um.. Animal."
"Actually it's Dennis," said Animal, "Everyone used to call me Animal in the eighties when I met your mother, I had a lot more hair then, and it stuck."
Willow gazed at the bearded shaggy-haired photographer and tried to imagine where more hair could have possibly fitted in, then made an effort and said "I guess it was the style then. Did either of you talk to her much?"
"Not really," said Joe, "she was always in a hurry, came by to see Billie then ran off again."
"I did get some photos once," said Animal. "Came back to the office from an axe murder, shot half a roll of Tri-X of her and Billie to finish the roll."
"I remember," said Billie, "didn't the police take the negatives when they were trying to find out what had happened to.. to Willow?"
"That's the way I remembered it, but when I checked my files yesterday I found that I'd made a copy of the negatives for them. Still had the originals." He handed Willow and Billie folders containing stacks of black and white eight by ten glossies. Both women leafed through them, then Willow said "thank you" and kissed him.
"I wish they were better," said Animal, blushing, "but I was rushing to make deadline, didn't have time for fancy composition."
"They're better than anything else we've got," said Billie, "and I don't think that there are any that were taken later."
"My pleasure. It was nice to work with film again, don't use it much these days, but it's still handy sometimes. If these new drives of yours work as advertised I doubt I'll be using it much in the future."
"Drives?" asked Lou, as he finally got the barbecue alight.
"I kinda stumbled across a new way to store data," said Willow. "It's probably going to be pretty big, especially for things like portable computers and cameras where you want a lot of storage and don't want it using much power or space."
"It's been all over the business and science news for the last week or so," said Joe. "SunnyD Technology, you must have seen it."
"That's Willow?" asked Lou.
"Me, a secretary, a few computers and a web site."
"Then Billie wasn't kidding about you being rich. Like older men?"
Willow blushed and said "Actually I'm kinda in a relationship."
"So ditch him and..."
"Her. And no."
"Okay... well, I really don't want to have the operation, but if you ever change your mind give me a call."
"You're incorrigible, Lou," Billie said as Willow blushed again.
"Spent a lot of years being the stony-faced editor, decided to relax once I'd retired. Trouble is... hey, that damn thing's gone out again."
"Maybe I should use the stove," said Billie, while Willow fanned the embers with one of the old newspapers Lou had been using to start the fire and murmured "Ignis". A thin plume of grey smoke rose from the coals, then yellow flames began to flicker. "Hey, it's alight," said Willow, "you had it lit, it just needed fanning a little." Only Billie noticed the guilty look on her face and guessed what she'd done.
"Better put the food on quick," said Joe. "Once the steaks are cooking the fat should keep it going."
"I thought you were a vegetarian," Willow said to Billie, accompanying her to the kitchen.
"I am," said Billie, getting the meat and adding some vegetarian burgers and sausages, "but they're not and I want everyone to enjoy themselves. Was it my imagination or did you help that fire along a little?"
"Kinda. I try not to use magic for things like that, but I could see that Lou was pleased when he got it lit and upset when it went out. It's a slippery slope, but I think I managed to keep it under pretty good control. First time I tried to light a barbecue there were some serious side-effects, it rained for most of the afternoon."
"You're right, it did make him happy... but maybe he would have enjoyed lighting it again, I've given up trying to understand how men think."
"Maybe you're right... and maybe it would have lit again without the spell if I'd just fanned it. Anyway, let's get this stuff outside before the fire goes out again or it starts to rain."
"The thing about Wolfram and Hart," said Joe, "is that they think that they're above the law. They use it, but they really hate it when anyone uses it against them. They're good lawyers, but they get careless sometimes. Serve an injunction on the wrong person, like they did with Billie, or leave gaps in their defences because they think people will be too cowed to challenge them. That friend of yours, Angel, one time he destroyed their case by producing a witness everyone thought had run off. I've always wondered how he found him.." There was a hint of a question in his voice.
Willow shrugged and said "I don't know much about what he's done since he moved to LA, but he's always been good at tracking people down. Look at the way he found Billie for me."
"You'd think he'd be better known," said Lou.
"He kinda specialises in odd cases, things that don't make the papers. Billie called it 'Twilight Zone' stuff, if you know what I mean?"
"Sure, we've all run into it, but how did he come to be in that line of work?" asked Joe. "For that matter, how do you come to know about it?"
"I think he spotted a gap in the market and took it on. As for me, my best friend used to be his girlfriend, and we all ran into a few odd things in my home town. Vampires, a werewolf, that sort of thing. I think that kinda started the ball rolling."
"Yes, but..."
The doorbell rang, and Billie went to answer it, leaving Willow to field the awkward questions. There was a tense-looking woman with reddish-brown hair at the door, and Billie said "Hi, glad you could make it!" and led her back to the garden.
"Everyone," said Billie, "This is Willow's second.. no, third.. cousin by marriage. Willow, everyone, I want you all to meet Justine Cooper."
To Be Continued