Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
"What's on your mind?" Tuscany had her hands in her pockets. Spike was unusually quite tonight and Tuscany found this perplexing. Normally he could talk the hind off a horse. Tonight he was contemplative.
"Nothin'" he answered curtly. Tuscany snorted. She didn't believe him for a second but she dropped it. Spike didn't strike her as the kind of guy that would benefit from friendly prodding. They were patrolling the graveyard while Buffy took the streets.
Tuscany was worried about her older sister. In fact she was worried about both her sisters. Since Giles had left and Tara had separated from Willow things were tense. Buffy had been going off for increasingly longer periods of time 'to think.'
Dawn had been hiding up in her room and only coming out occasionally to eat and glare at Tuscany. Like it was her fault somehow. Tuscany knew what her issue was. They had bonded very well when no body could remember who they were. That really irked her.
Tuscany supposed she could begrudge her siblings wanting thinking time. Tuscany had been reflecting on the strange fact that she could do magic. Giles had given her and odd look and told her he would be in touch very soon! She could tell it all from his expression that she wasn't meant to be able to do that. That there had never been any evidence to suggest a slayer could tap into the magic's.
Spike stirred impatiently at her side.
"What?" Tuscany demanded irritably. He was entitled to his secrets but if he was going to make it so bloody obvious that something was wrong he damn well better let her in and let her know what was going down.
"I'm going to find Buffy," He replied simply and stalked off, his black coat billowing behind him. Tuscany shook her head and sighed. Something had changed.
Tuscany patrolled for another hour then headed back to the Summers house. Things were dead in the graveyard and she felt like a good long sleep would do her the world of good.
She walked inside. To her surprise there was a strange girl curled up on the couch eating cookies and watching the TV. Buffy was talking to her.
"Gatorade has a new flavour. Blue." Buffy was explaining.
"Hey?' Tuscany made her presence unknown.
"And I have a sister. Another one! Tuscany meet Amy. Amy Tuscany."
Tuscany raised a hand in greeting. She had heard that name before but it had been mentioned in reference to a rat.
"See? Head spinning. People getting frozen ... Willow's dating girls ... and did you hear about Tom and Nicole?"
Buffy and Tuscany exchanged concerned looks.
"People are getting frozen?" Buffy asked concerned.
Amy nodded and turned up the volume on the TV.
"...In critical yet stable condition as local authorities continue their investigation into the robbery that left one man frozen solid," a TV reporter was saying. When Amy turned around both Summers girls were gone.
"And I thought it would be a boring night," Tuscany groaned on their way to the museum.
"I wish," Buffy muttered recalling her encounter with Spike.
There was a large crowd out the front of the museum. Between the two girls they managed to push their way to the front of the queue.
"I hate being short," Buffy said.
"I could give you a leg up," Smirked the taller Tuscany. Buffy chose to ignore her.
Tuscany's eyes widened as the man was wheeled out. This had to be the work of some monster. Buffy's face was one of grim determination. Here was a chance to prove she didn't need Giles.
"I'm gonna go all Nancy Drew and see if I can interrogate one of the police man and find out what was stolen," Tuscany elbowed her way forward. Buffy watched her go and then tried to inconspicuously inspect the surrounding grounds. There may be clues.
Tuscany all but begged and flashed her breast at the officer to get him to reveal what had happened but he remained tight lipped. Eventually she gave up and went seeking Buffy.
She didn't have to look hard. Buffy came stalking out of the crowd and seized Tuscany's elbow. She looked royally pissed off.
"Should I even ask?" Tuscany began. Buffy shook her head with a grimace. Tuscany allowed herself to be led away by a sulking Buffy. If she had looked back she would have seen a grinning Spike watching the slayers leave.
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Tuscany was lying on her back in the Magic box with a book hovering inches from her face concealing the fact she actually had her eyes closed. She was over looking up frosty monsters from the deep.
"Here. Says the guard's definitely gonna live," Willow stated excitedly.
"He's all thawed out, says they used hair-dryers. Huh." Xander sounded mildly interested in that last fact.
"Everything slowed down. His nervous system, circulatory system. He's still unconscious," Willow clucked sympathetically.
Anya made a loud whine. Tuscany lowered her book and looked up.
"Anya?" Buffy eyed the ex-demon.
"It's such a pain. The text I wanted, Giles took it with him. He has this thing that ... owning a book makes it like his property."
"Evil English man!" Tuscany declared closing her eyes again.
"What should we do, should we call him? It's like the middle of last night there. Or maybe it's tomorrow. Anyone remember how that works?" Buffy asked anxiously looking around from face to face. Her resolve to face this problem without his aid was rapidly fading.
"That's okay, no one freak. We'll just do it another way," Willow reached for her bag. Tuscany's eyes sprang open at the mention of magic. Xander glanced nervously from slayer to slayer.
"I-I don't think we need to resort to ... I mean..." Buffy spluttered attempting intervention.
Willow pulled out a laptop. Every breathed a visible sigh of relief.
"Oh hey cool," Buffy endorsed the technology.
"All right, back to basics. A little old-fashioned state-of-the-art hacker action," Xander grinned at his fiancée who nodded encouragingly.
"That's great, Will, I haven't seen you do that in a long time," Buffy was smiling now and Tuscany had actually moved from the floor to a chair. Maybe Willow had learnt her lesson when Tara left her.
The keyboard glowed white and willow's eyes became blank and unfocused. Tuscany had been very wrong. She looked quickly at Buffy but her eyes were fixated on her friend.
"I-I don't remember that part," Buffy commented blankly.
"It's quicker. It'll just take me a sec to go through the files. Okay. Internal police report," Willow continued speaking. Tuscany put her head in her hands whilst the others shifted uncomfortably.
"A diamond was stolen from the museum last night. A big one. On loan from the British museum. They're withholding information to smoke out the criminals. Oh! It's pretty. There's a picture," Willow grinned with success.
"Well, is it a, a supernatural diamond? You know, like, healing powers, or, or good-lucky?" Buffy tried to focus on anything other than the magic.
"Or cursing?" Tuscany asked.
"Diamonds are excellent for cursing," Anya agreed.
"Lets keep looking shall we," Willow's hands glowed brighter.
"Well, you know, I am kinda beat, and I bet you that's tiring, that ... thing you're doing there..." Xander finished lamely with a very fake yawn.
"Guys, I'm fine. What's the deal with," Willow asked confused.
"Oh, for crying out loud," Anya finally snapped, "This is bizarre. You're all, 'la la la!' with, with the magic, and the not talking, like everything's normal, when we all know that Tara up and left you and now everyone's scared to say anything to you. Except me."
Tuscany gave her an encouraging look while Xander shook his head exasperated.
"Guys ... it's okay. It's hard ... but I-it's better this way. Little things just ... starting taking over, things that didn't matter, but we saw them differently, so ... they got blown out of proportion. And, this time away will help us sort through things. Really. Now, let's just keep working on this. I don't wanna leave Amy alone in the house so long," That wasn't true but now she knew how her friends really felt she needed to escape.
"Hows she adjusting," Xander asked desperately changing the subject. Anya looked at him annoyed.
'It's hard to say. It's a lot to take in. I keep expecting her to do, like, ratty stuff, you know, licking her hands clean, shredding newspaper, leaving little pellets in the corner," Willow gave a small smile.
"Lets definitely not leave Amy alone in the house too long," Buffy said with a wry look.
Willow left and they watched her.
"Should we really let her leave?" Tuscany asked nervously.
"She's my best friend and I trust her enough not to hurt anyone," Buffy defended the absent witch.
Anya however caught Tuscany's eye and what passed was darkly significant and for the first time Tuscany got the sense that Anya was in fact 2 thousand years old.
The time passed uneventfully and slowly. Tuscany was slowly descending into a sleepy stupor again when Xander cried out, "Aha! I got it! Uh, here's our villain right here!"
Buffy didn't look up and Anya shook her head.
"What?" Xander asked confused.
"That's a D & D manual sweetie," Anya patiently informed him. Tuscany stifled a giggle.
"No but it could," Xander began desperately grasping at straws.
"Let's face it, we're not gonna find this thing because it doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a frost monster who eats diamonds," Anya proclaimed.
"Well, maybe he doesn't eat them. You know, maybe he just ... thinks they're pretty…" Buffy looked hopeful for a second before Tuscany's incredulous look made her slam the book shut.
"We suck!" She announced.
"Maybe we just need Giles," Tuscany tried making her sister feel better.
"We need new brains. What's up with Willow?" Xander wanted to know.
"Out with Amy I guess," Buffy sighed.
"Great someone to do more magic with," Anya grunted.
"Amy's a witch?" Tuscany stopped pretending to read the book in front of her.
"Well she used to be a rat," Xander tried to explain but shrugged after he realised Tuscany wasn't getting it.
"At least she's not all cooped up and crying. That's forward momentum. Now, I know that I don't ... know everything that happened with her and Tara, but it…" Buffy struggled with words.
"Tara thought Willow was using too much magic and she's not the only one," Xander said firmly.
"Finally a confession," Tuscany said relieved. Anya looked similarly thankful.
"I know. But I-I think she'll be fine. You know, it's, it's Willow. She of the level head," Buffy stated in what Tuscany thought was a pathetic attempt to reassure herself and others.
"Well, those are the ones you have to watch out for the most. Responsible types," Anya said nodding. Buffy started emphatically.
"Right, she might go crazy and start alphabetising everything," Buffy joked weakly.
"I'm serious. Responsible people are ... always so concerned with ... being good all the time, that when they finally get a taste of being bad ... they can't get enough. It's like all kablooey," Anya gestured.
"That's not true," Buffy protested in an odd tone.
"Okay, not kablooey, more like bam," Anya continued missing the point.
"It's human nature, Buff. Will's getting a taste of something powerful, way bigger than her," Xander explained.
"Yeah, she was getting out of control with it before Tara left, and now that she's gone..." Anya trailed off with the promise of something worse.
"It' gotta be seductive. Just giving and going wild," Xander finished. Tuscany hadn't said anything. She was busy watching the interesting and surprising expression on her sister's face. It all begged the question: what had Buffy been considering giving in to?
"Okay. Okay, we'll, we'll keep an eye. But we can't assume that everybody's getting seduced, you know, sometimes…" Buffy was getting defensive. Then the phone rang.
Buffy sprang to answer it. Xander went back to his book of D&D but Anya and Tuscany kept a close eye on Buffy's phone call. All three of the narrowed their eye's in confusion when Buffy mentioned Spike's name and lowered her voice to a whisper. When she hung up she looked flustered and perplexed.
"So, what did Captain Peroxide want?" Xander asked.
"Nothing! You know, he just, you know, wanted to see if I-I wanted to patrol, for, for the, the monster. But I, I told him that I ... would ... not," Buffy bit her lip.
"I think we shoukd call it a night, Gtuscany suggested and it was met with enthusiasim. They all scrambled to leave the shop. They had spent too much time in there today. Outside Buffy tugged on a denim jacket.
Tuscany dismissed her self and left before the conversation could continue. She had spent a lot of time with these people today and felt like it was time for some alone time.
She entered the graveyard and realised how much she was dying for a fight with anything or anyone. The people in her life now made her very existence too stressful.
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she bumped straight into a robed figure.
Tuscany looked up startled to stare at a what she now realised was a vamp.
"Oh thank god," She breathed. I get to fight she thought to herself. She went to charge the vamp but he held up a hand.
Tuscany stoped confused.
'What!" she demanded.
"I wanted to talk to you that is all," he had an odd accent.
"Um is this a new age vamp thing?'
"I'm not 'new age' on the contary I'm ages old," the vamp inclined his head.
"I'll hazard a guess. Dracula?"
"How did you guess?" Dracula asked smoothly.
"You talk like a pansy. Didn't Buffy kill you?"
"I can't truly be killed," Dracula didn't elaborate.
"So are you here to kill me, her or everyone," Tuscany sounded flippant but she was remembering the story Giles had told her about Dracula and Buffy's fight.
"I just wanted… to talk,' Dracula bowed his head.
"Why do I feel like I'm in a lot of trouble?" Tuscany mumbled.
AN: well I the next chapter is gonna be solely about Tuscany. I thought it was appropriate. Lots of characters are going to discover things. Buffy discovers sex with Spike and Willow discovers Rack. And obviously Dracula is alive because I said he could be! Any one who reads my other stories they will all be updated in the next three days. First time I've had time in ages.
MD666