No One Can Walk Alone

Chapter 2 - Trapped

As I lay in my bed that night, I thought about lots of things, but mostly about how much I missed my parents. This mission with Connor was supposed to be about growing up and about figuring out who I was independent of them. It was an adventure, away from family and safety nets. And I don't even think Connor expected it to go on for three years.

The worst part was, he didn't seem to care that so much time had passed. All Con cared about was finding Danny, like that would be the be all and end all of his problems. At this point, I wasn't even sure finding my nephew would help him. He was just too … depressed all the time.

I wished I would have thought about it more before following Connor out the door. I wished I would have realized that Dad was doing what he thought was best for everyone. I wished Daddy would have agreed to come with us, despite Dad's hardheaded line in the sand. I wished I could hug them both, snuggle between them like I did when I was little and just fall asleep. I wished Brian was still here and that I didn't keep shedding tears over him every night. It was stupid, really. We'd only been together three months before he died.

And I should have been used to losing loved ones, right? Mom, my sister Katie, though I really don't remember either of them, Aunt Dawn, Giles, my sister-in-law, Tam. And Danny, who felt more like a younger brother to me than a nephew. There were more. Friends and relatives lost to this battle. The battle I was born to fight, just like Con. Just like Katie, if she had made it that far.

It was too much and I wanted to go home, just for a moment, so I picked up my phone and called Daddy.

"'lo, luv," he answered sleepily, and I tried to remember what time it was there. "Can't sleep?"

"Yeah," I told him sheepishly. He may not be one of my biological parents, but Daddy helped raise me from day one, and I missed how well he knew me. "Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, but it's alright, pumpkin," he replied, and I heard shuffling noises that must have meant he was getting out of bed. "Almost time to get up anyway. Might wake your dad in a few," he said, lecherously and I could almost see him wiggle his eyebrows mischievously.

"Ew," I replied with a little laugh. "You know, most parents are kind enough not to divulge that information to their children."

"What can I say, pet," Daddy replied, his voice getting louder as I heard him shut a door. He must be out in the sitting room now, flopping down on the couch in front of the TV. "I've never been kind."

"Bollocks," I cried. "You're the kindest vampire there's ever been."

"Well, glad to know you think so highly of me," he said with a brash sniff. "Though a vamp might think you're callin' him soft."

"Well, you do sleep with Dad..." I teased him.

"Ouch, pet," he laughed. "Goin' for the whole nancy boy angle, then?"

"Never hurts to pick the low-hanging fruit first."

"Joy," he growled, and I knew it was his posturing growl, "I'd kick your ass if you weren't so bloody far away."

"You'd try," I smirked, posturing right back at him.

"God, not even a bloody slayer and the chit thinks she can take me."

"Hey," I sighed, losing momentum. "I learned from the best."

"Mmm," Daddy hummed in agreement, letting a few moments of silence pass. Then, he asked, "How's your brother?"

I sighed, trying to think of an answer that fit, but wasn't so depressing as the truth.

"That bad?"

"Getting worse. I thought he might have been ready to call it quits," I told Daddy, "but then he found out about this spell…"

"Bloody hell," he replied. "Without someone trained in magic there to help you, this is gonna be a bloody disaster."

"I know," I whispered quietly. Then, I heard Connor moving around the apartment, opening the front door and locking me back inside. "Shit."

"What is it, luv?" Daddy asked as I got out of bed and pulled on my shoes and a jacket.

"He's gone back after the basilisk without me." I ran up to the front door, only to find Connor had secured it from the outside. "Fuck! He locked me in so I couldn't follow!"

"Oh, pet," Daddy whispered soothingly. "Calm down. He's not gonna be followed if he doesn't want, even if you could get free, yeah?"

"It's a suicide mission, though! God damn it," I cried, shaking with fury as I slid down the inside of the door. "Stupid bloody fucking bastard!" Connor was going to get himself killed. And then it was going to be just me, yeah and some slayers if I needed them, keeping this Hell in check. It was too much, too sad, and too utterly pathetic of Con to go out like this.

"Joy..."

Making up my mind once and for all, I told Daddy, "Put Dad on the line. I want to talk to him."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," I growled. "I'm fucking sure!"

"Alright, luv, alright," he replied defensively. "But if he dusts me for waking him up, it's your fault, pet."

"Disclaimer received," I agreed. "Just put him on."

Daddy covered the mouthpiece of his phone and I heard muffled voices for a few minutes until that mistakable sound of Dad clearing his throat came over the line. "Joyce," he said coolly, the first word he'd spoken to me directly in almost three years. Then, I heard a smack and Dad complained, "Ow! … I mean … Hi, peanut."

"Hi, Dad," I replied, wondering now that I had him on the phone, could I go through with the conversation?

"How…" he sighed, shuffled around a bit, and asked, "How are you?"

"Alright, I guess," I told him.

"I'm sorry about Brian."

Surprised, I asked, "Daddy told you?" I didn't know Dad knew that we talked, much less that he might even care what Daddy and I talked about.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I'm … glad you wanted to talk to me."

"Been awhile, huh?" I replied, my heart hurting at how nice it was to hear his voice. For years, I'd had those last few words of his in my head, snarled out in anger. After awhile I'd realized that he didn't mean them, but by then, it was too late to convince Connor to go back, or even to call.

"Almost three years," Dad agreed. "Though Spike's been keeping me updated. So thanks, for talking to him at least."

"Con didn't want me to," I confessed. "He didn't even know for the longest time."

"I taught you well?" he asked, and I could hear the little smile in his voice.

Thinking of all the things I'd learned about stealth growing up with vampires as fathers, I told him, "Yeah, Dad, you did."

There was a long silence, as I tried to find the words I needed. Finally, I came out and said, "I can't protect him anymore."

"You want to come home?" Dad asked hopefully.

"I wanted to come home after the first week, Dad. But, I literally can't protect Connor anymore. Not when he insists on doing these suicidal missions without me."

Dad sighed, and then just put it out there. "Are you asking me for something?"

Taking a deep shuddering breath, and trying not to cry, I said in a small voice, "I'm asking you to come, Dad. Please? Come help?"

"I'm on my way right now," he insisted, above the shuffling and knocking around noises on the other end of the connection. "Do you think I should bring anyone else?"

"Daddy?" I suggested.

Dad laughed, "I meant besides him. I couldn't leave Spike behind. Let me tell you, I've tried for the past twenty years and it just doesn't take."

I laughed, wiping a few tears away from my face, knowing that Dad didn't mean it. He just says those things to tease. It was nice, knowing that things between them, at least, were the same. That not too much had changed in the time I'd spent away from home. "I don't know who else. I don't even know if Connor's gonna survive the night, Dad." A sob broke through again, and though I tried to hide it from him, I heard Dad breathe in sharply, which he almost never does.

"Shh," he whispered. "Just hang on, sweetheart. We'll be there soon, okay?"

"Call me again when you're in the air?"

"I don't know if we…" His voice grew louder as he yelled at Daddy, "Hon? Do these things work on airplanes?"

"We've a satellite hub in the plane, ponce," I heard Daddy reply, his voice growing close. "And have for up on ten years now."

"So…?"

"It'll work." I laughed at the exchange, so reminiscent of growing up with them, and comforting. "Gimme the phone, luv," Daddy continued and there was more scraping and shuffling. "Pet?"

"Yeah, Daddy?"

"Be safe, yeah?"

"Ta," I whispered, trying not to lose it again. "I'm just … I don't think I've ever been this scared before."

"Not even when we went up against that giant?"

"Pft," I scoffed. "That mofo was a wuss."

Daddy laughed, a full, deep-throated bark of amusement, and I couldn't help but join him. "We'll be there right quick if Fred can come."

"Alright," I agreed, banging my head back against the door behind me. "See you soon?"

"Aye, pumpkin. Soon."

When the line went dead, I sighed again, clunking my head back against the door several more times. How could Connor do this to me? My biggest fear was that he'd really just given up and wanted it to end. Like, he wasn't just taking stupid risks on the chance that he'd find his son, but was taking them with the hope that something would finally put him out of his misery.

Fuck.

He used to be so happy, when I was little, especially. He was happy with his job in Scotland, working with our father. He was in love, and married Tam when I was eight. She died five years later, and that's when everything went downhill. And then, Danny got taken, on his way to school here in Cleveland, where they lived at the time. He was only seven when he was taken, and the slayer protecting him was killed. Connor always blamed himself for being too busy to drive Danny to school that day, even though I'm sure it would have been him dead, rather than Holly.

If Danny was still alive, and if time ran the same where he was as it did here, Danny would be twelve. Would he even remember any of us? Would he know us as his family? Five years was a long time when you were that young. Hell, five years was a long time when you were a teenager and your almost-brother nephew went missing and your whole family really started falling apart.

I couldn't just sit still anymore. I couldn't! So, I went looking for something I could use to bust the door open. I might not be as strong as Con, or Dad, or even a slayer, but I was close. I could figure it out. There! In Connor's workshop, was a crowbar. He was always ordering new weapons somehow, and they came in these big wooden crates he had to open. I didn't know where we got our money, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to ask. Somehow, I'd always figured it came from Dad, or maybe Daddy was helping us somehow. Con didn't really have any other friends in Slayer Central. Not anymore. And he asked me over and over again not to call Dad, not to talk to him or let him know where we were. At the time, still angry with how things played out, I'd agreed.

What can I say? I was seventeen and fiercely loyal to my brother. I didn't understand why Dad wanted him to give up. I guess now, I did.

So, I took the crowbar to the door and tried to pry it open. Unfortunately, Con had welded heavy steel plates and locks on it, seeing as we were living in Hell. I tried once more, pulling with all my strength, and the damn thing shocked me! Physically shocked me flat on my ass with a bolt of numbing electricity.

"Fuck!" I cried again, laying back on the floor and rubbing my tingling arm. "What if there was a fire, Con?" I yelled into the empty apartment. "Bloody hell!"

Eventually after a while of just lying there, feeling sorry for myself, my phone rang, and I hoped it was Connor, telling me he was okay and he was sorry. But the display said otherwise. Flipping open the video screen and camera, I answered the call, saying, "Hey, Daddy."

He smiled at me, sharp eyeteeth flashing as he said, "Hullo, Joyce. Still trapped?"

"My brother booby trapped the door!" I told him, huffing in frustration as I sat up. "I can't even pry it open without risking bloody cardiac arrest!"

"Tough love?" Daddy suggested and I laughed ruefully.

"You're in the plane?" I asked.

"Yep," he nodded, pointing his phone around quickly so I could see.

"Hi everyone," I called out, trying to process the quick-moving image. When Daddy pointed me back toward him, I asked, "Who's coming with you?"

"Fred," he replied, sneering as he said the next name, "and Xander. Faith. Rita. Bethany. The usual."

"The A-team?" I asked, and I heard a laugh in the background.

"Damn straight!" Faith's voice carried over the line.

Daddy laughed, pointing off screen, presumably at her, and then turned back to look at me, his amusement dissolving. "We've got the local slayers on the inside, luv. They're lookin' for him."

"They know how to handle a basilisk, right?"

Suddenly the view swished around and I was looking at Dad, for the first time in three years. "They've been briefed," he assured me. "They'll find him."

"You don't know that," I moped and Dad frowned, his big brow furrowing up, exactly the same as when I'd been little. It struck me that, unless I got that whole prolonged youth like Connor, in a few years, I'd look older than both my fathers. Weird.

Dad looked away and sighed before turning back. It took him a few tries, but eventually he said, "It's good to see you, Joy."

"Yeah," I whispered, nodding and looking away for a moment. "Yeah, you too, Dad."

"I've got to hang up so Fred can get us going quicker. But where's your safehouse?"

I gave him directions, praying that the line was secure. There were some smart demons out there, and Con and I had hidden our apartment for a reason. "Bring Bethany so she can remove the wards."

"Alright. We'll all be there soon," he insisted. "Okay?"

God, the way he looked at me with such sympathy and guilt, it was enough to set me off again. Looking up to try to drain the tears before they fell, I sniffed and nodded. "Soon."

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