Chapter 1
Contradicting most things said about Chicago, the wind could not be found on this particular evening. The city itself seemed to be asleep, as if everyone had collectedly agreed upon the laziest Sunday night in the history of the world. Deep within the city in an old, abandoned warehouse, something was brewing both figuratively and of course, literally.
A man dangled upside down from the rafters of the ceiling, the only thing connecting him between life and death was a rusted metal chain tied around his ankles. To top it off, the man (clearly a wall street office stud) had been blind folded with his own tie and gagged with his own expensive, Gucci socks.
He thrashed like a fish on a hook as he turned every which way looking for safety and security, but found nothing confirming his life beyond the next five minutes. The sound of a door creaking open stopped his thrashing as he lay still, his chest heaving up and down.
"Ricky, give yourself a break," a thick European accent floated from the ground and echoed back into the dangling man's ears. "Just enjoy the last few minutes of your life, okay?"
"Why?" Ricky mumbled underneath the gag. He looked toward the sound of the man's voice, and if he could have laid eyes on the monster, he likely would have screamed in terror. The European man on the ground smiled with delight.
It wasn't everyday a Vampire got to interact with sophisticated suit and tie such as Ricky. He was going to enjoy every drop of blood the wealthy young man had to offer.
The Vampire advanced on Ricky, licking his dry wrinkled lips and cracking his knuckles. He liked to play with his food, to have a bit of fun before going in for the kill. He remembered how his mother always taught him not to play with his food, and how he still made the little cabin out of carrot sticks and the bushes from the broccoli. What he was doing now wasn't much different.
Unbeknownst to the Vampire, a figure moved along the rafters with precision and grace. The only thing alluding to her presence was a small speck of dust that drifted down and tickled Ricky's nose, causing him to sneeze.
The Vampire recoiled as tiny bits of snot fell over his suede leather jacket. "Gross," he mumbled, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping the wet spots. "I just bought this jacket."
"And the 90's called… they want it back."
The Vampire turned on his heels and jumped a little in his skin. There she was, the legend, the one who has killed hundreds of his kind in her mere forty-five years on this earth. He had hoped to be elusive enough as to never have to cross her path, but somewhere along the line he had failed himself.
"But you know what," Buffy said, circling around the European in a slow fashion. "I think they would want it back with interest, seeing as how you completely destroyed it by just simply putting it on your fugly body."
"Fugly?" A deeper voice came out from the shadows, causing the Vampire to trip backwards and landing heavily on his ass.
The man was wearing a tight-fitting sweater, one that looked both casual and professional. He wore army pants with a belt that hung many a dagger and a small handgun. A bow and arrow was strapped tightly around his muscled back and he sported a small scar under his left eyelid. A story in which ended in romance instead of a bad memory.
"You know, Fugly," Buffy answered him back defensively. "That's totally a word. All the kids say it nowadays."
"I don't think that's what they say, honey. And if anything, this man's jacket is antique, I would totally wear it out for dinner."
Buffy's blood ran cold. She let the stake in her hand fall to her side. She advanced in on the man behind the Vampire, her eyes narrowing in anger. Seizing this as an opportunity, the Vampire lunged at the Slayer, just in time for her to kick him swiftly to the ground. The Vampire slid across the floor and into a pile of metal barrels. The sound echoed throughout the warehouse, including his screams as a piece of rebar struck his heart, turning him into ashes within seconds.
Buffy pushed the man playfully on his chest, causing him to stagger backwards at her attempted gentle blow. "If you so as where that out on a date night I'm going to have to personally stake you."
The man laughed. He bent down and kissed Buffy gently on the forehead and then proceeded to rifle through the fallen barrels. He came back with his prize, the 'fugly' leather jacket. He put it on over top of his sweater.
"Actually," Buffy softened, cocking her head to one side. "That does look pretty sexy on you. I think you should keep it for Friday night."
"Oh yeah? And what's on Friday night?"
Buffy smirked. "You shouldn't ask these questions so close to your Birthday, Markus."
Markus ran at her, sweeping her up off her feet and twirling her around. In this moment, Buffy thought, she could live forever, gazing into her lover's eyes and never ever leaving his grasp.
"Help?" A muffled voice came from above, and instantly Buffy and Markus were turned to the attention of the dangling man.
"Shit," Buffy whispered as she expertly bounded from the fallen barrels, through the air and attached herself to the chain holding the man hostage to the rafters.
"Markus, hand me the bolt cutters?"
In a swift motion that came with practice, Markus threw the bolt cutters up to Buffy. She got to work on the thick chain.
"Can you give me any hints as to what you have planned?" Markus inquired from the ground, smoothly his curly black hair subconsciously.
"Not without giving away the whole thing. I will say that Willow is flying in to look after the kids for us for the weekend."
"That will be good for all of them. How is Willow doing after… everything?"
"I think she's hanging in there."
The bolt cutters sliced through the metal and broke free from the rafters. Both Buffy and the man supposedly named Ricky fell six feet to the floor below. Ricky landed with a thud on his stomach with Buffy landing on her feet next to him. She picked him up with one hand and tore the socks from his mouth and cut the tie from around his face.
Ricky blinked twice, observing his surroundings for the first time in a few hours. He was no longer outside the bar where he stumbled drunkenly from into an alleyway. He found his tie on the ground and let out a shrill gasp.
"Do you know how much I paid for this?" He growled at Buffy, showing her the remains of his once satin matte black tie.
"Too much?" Buffy scoffed, returning the bolt cutters to Markus's belt around his waist. "Thank you, would suffice."
"Thank you." Ricky mumbled as he watched the strangest couple he had ever met walk out of the warehouse, hand in hand, and very much in love.
As soon as the sun rose above the Chicago skyscrapers, the coffee pot clicked on in the kitchen and began to pour the brown sludge that gave humans the drive to keep on going. The back door slowly nudged open, careful not to wake the sleeping inhabitants of the home.
Anna stepped into the kitchen cautiously, hoping her mother hadn't been out for the night hunting down various demons and Vampires. It looked as if a normal Saturday night had happened; an empty popcorn bowl on the counter along with a couple empty cans of beer. She smiled to herself. Her parents were probably both asleep upstairs, unaware that she hadn't returned home the previous night.
She took off her coat and hung it up lazily on the hooks next to her sister's various jackets, hats and scarfs; she didn't have the passion for shopping like her mother and little sister.
Passing her reflection in the coffee pot, she noticed her lip had become swollen and dried blood clung to her skin. She reached for the paper towel just as the key turned in the front door. Her heart began to race; she couldn't greet her parents like this, she wasn't going to get caught this way…
She found an escape underneath the kitchen sink, fitting her small, eighteen-year-old body between the pipes. She hated herself for sinking this low (no pun intended of course), for hiding from her parents in the most awful way possible. But she couldn't tell them. Not now, and not ever.
"Shh, they're probably still asleep." Buffy whispered to Markus as they tip toed through the hallway and into the kitchen. They were still laughing giddy from their romantic evening together, stopping a few times to peck each other on the lips. Anna cringed from the sound.
"That's weird," Markus mumbled as he got to the coffee pot. "There's mud all over the floor."
"Chloe was probably out in the yard with the dog, you know how she forgets to wipe his paws off."
Anna breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't even have to blame anything on her sister, her mother had done it for her. She sat in silence as she listened to the common going on's of the morning. Coffee being poured in a mug, small talk about the nosy neighbours, which demon they wish they could have slayed differently, and then:
"What are we going to do about Anna?"
It came from her father, and this struck Anna hard in the chest. All her life she had been close to the man. They even had the same wavy brown hair and liked all the same TV shows. Unlike her sister, she enjoyed the Dad jokes he told and liked the smell of the secret cigars he tried to hide from her mother that lingered on his jacket.
"Markus, not now." Buffy sighed, too tired to talk about the hardships her daughter was clearly facing.
"She's nineteen, she's been graduated for a year and she just… lingers around the house."
"Several kids take a gap year, it's not unusual."
"This is different, Buffy. She just, is here. She's not working, she's not doing anything."
If only they knew. Anna thought from under the sink, feeling truly alone in her thoughts and her life. She shifted her weight and felt the wad of cash brush up against her skin through the hole in her jeans.
"Take it easy on her," Buffy came to her daughter's defense. "She's been having a hard time since the accident."
"It's been nearly two years. She needs to move on. She has to move on."
"Markus…"
"No, I've had enough. We need to talk to her, present her with some options like college or find a few job postings she might be interested in, it's time."
"I think you should go to work. You're going to be late. " Buffy was firm in her voice, she was done with this conversation once and for all. Anna heard her father place his coffee mug on the table gently. The chair slid across the floor and the sound of the back door opened.
"I would like to pick this conversation up later."
"I'll talk to Anna."
The door closed, and between the wood cabinets that shielded her presence, Anna thought she could hear a faint crack in her mother's voice as she sighed and exited the room.
As much as she enjoyed parenthood, Buffy always wondered what it would have been like if she had travelled the world, if she had taken time off from her Slayer duties and just… relaxed. She was satisfied with the life she had made in Chicago, and it had worked out to her advantage.
After Sunnydale had imploded, she spent a few months travelling from city to city, job to job, and eventually settled when she fell head over heels for Markus in the windy state. It was quite literal, really. She hadn't meant to fall over the balcony of her second-floor apartment when fighting a rogue Vamp, but she was sure glad she fell onto the only person walking on the sidewalk below.
Although she had broken Markus's collarbone upon impact, Buffy had this feeling that she shouldn't leave his side, not even for a second. Later that year, Anna's arrival had surprised both of them, and that led to a happiness that Buffy never thought she would ever be capable of feeling again.
Buffy dragged her feet up the stairs and towards the master bedroom. The day had started out badly, and she had little hope that it was going to pick up and turn itself around. Before she could turn the handle on the bedroom door, she was greeted by a loud yawn behind her.
"Mom? Are you just getting in?" Chloe was standing in her pajamas, her blonde hair array and her eyes tired with sleep.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Buffy smiled at the teenager. "I'm going to sleep for a few hours."
Buffy saw so much of herself in Chloe it scared her. Her delivery had been rough, and Markus almost lost both mother and child, but in the end thanks to the Chicago doctors (and a spell from Willow, although she would never admit it), all had turned out well.
"When is Aunt Willow flying in?"
"This afternoon, I'll pick her up from the airport."
"I can't wait to show her my new spell books. She's going to freak!"
And there it was, the similarities went away and were replaced by a vast amount of differences.
"Is you sister still asleep?" Buffy changed the subject.
"I haven't seen her," Chloe shrugged. "I think she was up pretty late, she never turned her bedroom light out."
Buffy turned to look at the door at the end of the hallway. Sure enough, it was closed with a small light beam illuminating the hardwood floor. Anna had been having a hard time, mostly with herself and her identity, but also with putting away recent traumas and moving on with her life. It was something that pained Buffy to see her go through, but it wasn't her fault, after all… no, she couldn't talk about it. In nineteen years she had never uttered the truth aloud, not even to Anna herself.
Buffy knocked on the door lightly. "Anna?"
No response.
She tapped again. "Anna are you awake?"
Silence.
Buffy gently opened the door, peering into the crack. She felt like she was invading Anna's privacy; she knew she was technically an adult, but deep down Buffy could feel her eldest wasn't making good choices.
The bed was empty, and Buffy's heart sank. Had Anna even come home the night before? Was she safe? What if she was being held captive by a demon or worse, what if she had been kidnapped or killed?
Upon opening the door further, she was alerted to a noise by the window, the noise of feet sneaking in beneath the plastic curtains and the sound of gasping… busted.
"Anyanka Summers-Jenkins!" The tone came unexpectedly out of her mouth, but Buffy meant every last syllable. She was angry, and she had every right to be.
Anna sighed with disgust as she stepped through the window and onto the plush carpet. "I hate it when you use my full name. My name is Anna, not Anyanka."
"You were named after a brave, courageous, and immensely annoying ex-demon who gave her life for all of us."
"I've heard the story, Mom," Anna sighed and sat down on the bed, taking off her muddy boots. "I've had a really long night and would just like to go to sleep. I'm sure you can understand that."
"Slaying Vampires and doing god knows what all night are totally different things! What happened to your lip?"
Buffy rushed to the bed and ran her fingers along the cut on Anna's lip. She flinched and swatted her mother away. The wad of cash fell out of her pocket and onto the floor. Buffy was too quick to pick it up. She sprang to her feet and began pacing.
"Anna, how much cash is in here? Where did you get it from? Are you being safe? Oh no…" Buffy paused and looked her daughter up and down. "You're not stripping, are you?"
"What? Mom, no!"
"Because if you are, I mean," Buffy stammered. "I know it's being socially accepted now but, I don't think you should be… you know… stripping."
"Mom, please stop! I am not a stripper, I am not doing anything illegal. At least not in the eyes of you know, America."
Buffy paused. She knew where this was going. "But in the eyes of Giles?"
Anna bit her lip and looked away from Buffy. "Grandpa Giles would say it was illegal."
"Oh God," Buffy stalked over to the window to heave in a gulp of fresh air. "Your father was right, we do need to talk to you about life. So what's this business your involved in?"
"I don't want to tell you."
"Oh, missy, you are going to tell me."
"I'm nineteen, Mom, you can't make me quit anything."
"Is it a demon bar? Please tell me you're just the bartender or a waitress. I could leave with you being a waitress."
"I make better tips than waitresses…"
Silence fell over the two of them and they were interrupted by a knock at the door. A giddy Chloe appeared, beaming from ear to ear. "Aunt Willow caught an early flight. Her taxi just pulled up!"
Chloe hurriedly ran back to her bedroom, no doubt running to get some of her new spell books.
"It could be worse," Anna laughed. "I could be her."
"We will have this conversation when your father gets home. Until then, not a word of this to your sister."
"She's on summer vacation, she probably already knows."
Buffy stomped out of the room. She hoped Willow had multiple bottles of wine in her bag.
