Summary: Set post-Chosen. After the Slayers are activated, the balance between good and evil is disturbed, and the Scoobies are flung to the far corners of the world to respond to the crisis. In the midst of all of this, will they be able to keep their relationships strong? Or will they be divided by circumstances and torn apart by fate? Follows my short story Yesterday.
Rating: PG-13
1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 :: 6 :: 7 :: 8 :: 9 :: 10 :: 11 :: 12 :: 13 :: 14 :: 15 :: 16 :: 17 :: 18 :: 19 :: 20 :: 21 :: 22 :: 23 :: 24 :: 25 :: 26 :: 27 :: 28 :: 29 :: 30 :: 31 :: 32 :: 33 :: 34 :: 35 ::
“…I’m glad that Bertrand is turning out to be such an asset, particularly when both Xander and Corey are gone. Tell them both to contact me as soon as they are able. We have had more trouble, this time in Brazil, and I want to have up-to-date reports of our resources…” ~Excerpt from an email from Rupert Giles to Miles Bennett
Giles woke slowly, the shaking insistent. “What?” he mumbled groggily.
“Talia had a Slayer dream.” It was Buffy’s voice, and he knew how serious the situation was by her tone. “I just got off the phone with Willow.”
He roused himself, fumbling for his glasses on the bedside table. “Start at the beginning,” he ordered. “I’m awake now.”
“Talia had a Slayer dream,” Buffy repeated patiently. “She described a couple of people, and I recognized one of them as Zoë, so I called Willow, who sent some of her Slayers out to find them. I guess she was out with Arnold.”
“How bad is it?” Giles asked. Glancing at the clock, he could see that it was the middle of the night, but it would still be relatively early in Rio.
“They’re alive,” Buffy replied. “They don’t know for how long.”
“Do they know what happened?”
“A demon, and whatever it was, it managed to get the jump on both of them.” Buffy sighed. “Willow said that they arrived in time to keep them from bleeding to death, but only time will tell for the rest of it.”
Giles’ mind was racing, considering the alternatives. “Buffy, I realize this is asking a lot, but—”
“You have enough teachers here,” Buffy said softly. “And Willow is going to need me. Not only does she have the Slayers to train, but she’s going to have a couple of invalids on her hands—assuming they survive.”
“Yes.” He breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry.”
“Hey, no big deal,” she said, trying to muster a smile. “I’ve always wanted to see Brazil, and it’ll give me a chance to work on my tan.”
Giles knew his Slayer well enough to know that her use of shallow reasons to visit Brazil was how she made light of the gravity of the situation. Although it had once frustrated him, he appreciated it now. “When can you leave?” he asked gently.
“Whenever you get the tickets,” she replied. “It won’t take me long to pack. I’ve had plenty of practice.” Buffy crossed her arms in front of her chest, striving for a smile. “I should go rescue Spike from Talia. She was pretty shaken up by that dream, and he’s staying with her.”
Giles raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t that be the other way around, then?”
Buffy snorted. “She recovered after about thirty seconds in his presence. Talia’s probably trying to bat her eyelashes at him by now.”
After she left, he rose, changing out of his pajamas and into his street clothes. He would have preferred to go back to bed, but there was no way he’d be able to sleep now.
Giles was somehow not surprised to find Miriam waiting for him in his study. “Have you heard already?”
“My room is close to Talia’s,” she reminded him. “The commotion woke me up.”
“How is she?”
“Recovering quickly.” Miriam smiled. “The resilience of youth.”
“Indeed.”
“You’re sending Buffy?”
“I would really you rather not read my mind.”
“I ran into her in the hallway on the way here,” Miriam said, her expression amused. “She didn’t look happy, so I asked her what was going on.”
Giles sighed, pulling his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose. “There’s nothing else to be done.”
“No, but she’s worried that there will be a time when she leaves and doesn’t see Spike again.”
“Does she have reason to worry?” he asked.
Miriam was silent.
“I see.”
“I don’t believe that she needs to worry about not seeing him again.” Miriam’s tone was apologetic, and Giles understood what she meant. The emphasis was telling.
“How long?”
“I don’t know that.” Miriam’s expression was stern. “You cannot tell her.”
“Do you really think that Buffy won’t do her duty?” he demanded. “She has killed her lover to save the world in the past.”
“This is different,” Miriam replied. “Trust me, Rupert. If there were any other way—”
“I know.” He leaned his head back against the couch. “How is Harry?”
Miriam had taken the boy under her wing, and he seemed to be quite attached to her. “He’s doing well. I believe he’ll make a fine Watcher someday.”
“Is that what you’re thinking for his future?”
“Why not?” She smiled. “He is involved in this world now, Rupert. There is no changing that fact.”
“No, I suppose there isn’t.” Giles closed his eyes and felt her hand run through his hair. He relaxed into her touch, trying to remember how long it had been since he’d been this close to another person.
Too long. Far too long.
~~~~~
Buffy watched with some amusement as Spike shut the door firmly behind Talia. “Persistent bint,” he muttered in an undertone.
“She’s got a thing for you. I get that.”
“You’re no help,” he grumbled, collapsing on the bed next to her. “You’re leavin’ then?”
She sighed. “Willow is going to need some help.”
“I know. Knew that as soon as you called her an’ found out what had happened,” he replied. Spike’s blue eyes were rueful. “Bloody hell, I was just getting used to havin’ you around.”
“Same here.” Buffy tugged him down to lie next to her, wrapping arms and legs around him. “I’m sure it won’t be for that long.”
“I’m not,” he murmured. “We’re headin’ towards somethin’ big, luv. I can feel it.”
“So can I. I guess all those years in Sunnydale gave me a sixth sense for an apocalypse.”
He pulled her in closer, holding her tightly. “Guess we just have to hope we’ll face it together.”
“I’ll settle for ending it together.” Buffy buried her face in his shoulder. “Promise me that you won’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.”
“I could ask you for the same,” he shot back. “In fact, chances are I’m goin’ to be here, teachin’ the little ones. Don’t think you have to worry about me.”
“I can’t help it.”
“I guess it’s better than you not caring.”
“I always cared.” Buffy raised her head and grinned at him. “I hated you, I loved you, but I was never indifferent.”
His eyes darkened. “I love you.”
“I know.” Buffy traced the line of his jaw, ran a finger over his lips, searching his face. She wanted to memorize every line, every expression. There was a small part of her that knew that this was not going to be a short separation.
Their lovemaking was tinged with desperation, and Buffy found that she was afraid—afraid of what she might become without him in her life.
She didn’t say anything about it, however, not wanting to share her apprehension. If nothing happened—if she came back, and Spike was still in Bath—she didn’t want to cause unnecessary worry.
And if this was the last night they would have together for some time to come, she didn’t want to ruin it.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Spike whispered into her hair as they both lay there, sated.
She mustered a smile. “Yeah. I know.”
It wasn’t the first time she’d lied to him.
~~~~~
“Are you alright?”
Oliver’s precise British accent never failed to bring a smile to Dawn’s face. “I’m fine.”
“Because you don’t look it.” He maneuvered himself into the chair next to her with difficulty, leaning his crutches against the table with a grunt of pain. “Is it about your sister?”
Dawn hesitated for a moment. Although they weren’t dating—and there was no shortage of physical attraction, at least on her side—they had become good friends. They didn’t quite fit in with the other Watchers; Oliver, because he’d completed the training but had been sent home because of his accident, and she’d had no training.
No formal training anyway, Dawn thought. She’d probably seen more action than any of them ever would.
“Partly,” she admitted. “It was good to have Buffy around again, but I knew Zoë fairly well, too.”
“I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Oliver’s hand touched her shoulder in an awkward, tender gesture. “She’s a lot tougher than she looks.”
“You know her, too?”
“We’re related somehow,” he admitted. “But then, nearly every Watcher is related to the others at some point.”
Dawn’s nose wrinkled. “That’s kind of icky.”
His eyes twinkled. “Not really, but learning the family tree can be a bit of a chore.”
That brought a giggle from Dawn. “I guess.”
“It will be easier for Zoë,” Oliver said softly after a few minutes of companionable silence.
Dawn didn’t understand what or who he was referring to. “What will be easier?”
“Have you ever seen a crippled Watcher before?”
She realized that she hadn’t, but had never given it a thought. “It’s dangerous.” Dawn spoke hesitantly, knowing that they were touching on a sensitive subject. “I mean, it’s sort of life or death, right?”
“Most of the time,” he agreed. “But there are occasions when a person can survive, only to be incapable of doing the job they had been bred and raised to do.”
Dawn snorted. “Come on, Oliver. You’re just as good at research or anything else.”
He shook his head. “I’m average when it comes to that sort of thing. I was better with weapons.”
“What happened?” She asked the question gently, much as she would have asked Xander how he lost an eye, if she hadn’t already known.
He swallowed. “You’ve heard about the final test for Watchers?”
“The one that Giles got rid of?”
“That’s the one.” A smile touched his lips. “You’d have to have been at the Academy to understand how much everything has changed. I know that some people grumble about it, but it really is better now.”
“What happened at the test?”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t at the test. We went to face a vampire on our own.” Oliver sighed. “We wanted to be sure we knew what we were doing, that we could kill a vampire and look good doing it.”
“You never look good killing your first vampire,” Dawn said, remembering her own first attempt.
But Buffy had been there, telling her that missing the heart for the first time was normal, and not to worry about it. Granted, Buffy fully intended that her first attempt be her last, but Dawn understood. It might drive her nuts sometimes, but she got it.
“No, I guess you don’t,” he agreed. “We had a break from the Academy, and we agreed to go to London. One of the boys from my class claimed he knew where to find a vampire or two.”
“How many were there?”
“Three.” Oliver was quiet, his eyes very far away. “There were six of us, and maybe that should have been enough, but it wasn’t. Ernie was bitten badly; he lost enough blood to be in a coma for a week. The others were alright, though.”
“What happened to your leg?”
“We were in a bad area of London, where there are a lot of warehouses,” Oliver explained. “In the one we found the vampires in, there were bales. I still don’t know what was inside them. I managed to stake one on my second try, and a stack fell on me and crushed my leg. The doctors said that I was lucky, because I was close to losing it. Sometimes I wish that I had.”
Dawn swallowed. “Why?”
“It might have been better in the long run,” Oliver replied. “I’d have had a prosthetic, instead of a useless limb.”
“They probably thought it would heal better,” she said awkwardly, cursing herself silently even as the words left her mouth. That wasn’t going to make him feel better, she knew.
He shrugged. “That’s certainly what my father believed, and one of the reasons why he insisted the doctors try to save it. When it became clear that I’d never be whole, his hopes were dashed.”
Dawn frowned. “But why?”
“Because Watchers live or they die, but they certainly don’t become cripples.”
“That’s bullshit,” Dawn said fiercely. “Look at Xander! He lost an eye, and he’s doing just fine. You might be on crutches, but who knows? You might find the answer we need to save the world.”
A little of the melancholy left his face, and he smiled. “Thanks.”
Dawn snorted. “Don’t thank me for telling you the truth.” She hesitated. “What happened to them? Your parents, I mean.”
He shook his head. “They had a potential, and the Bringers went after them. They didn’t make it.”
“Oh.” Then, because she couldn’t think of any other way to express her solidarity and her sorrow, Dawn leaned over and hugged him.
And they simply embraced for the longest time.
~~~~~
Spike watched Buffy throw clothing into a suitcase. He could see by her quick movements and tense shoulders that she was not happy about this. “Relax, luv. It’s gonna be fine.”
“You have to promise me something,” Buffy said quietly, closing the suitcase and turning to face him.
“Anything.”
“You have to promise to be here when I get back.”
He closed his eyes, wishing that he hadn’t been so quick to agree. “We don’t know what’s goin’ to happen, pet.”
“I know, but if you promise, you’ll be here.” There was desperation in her voice, and fear, and it hurt him to hear it.
Spike rose from the bed and took her hands in his. “If it’s within my power to be here, I will be. If it’s within my power, I’ll be by your side ‘til the end of the world.”
“And beyond?”
“If there is one.” Spike pulled her close, feeling her arms latch behind him, and he stroked her hair. He had no idea why she was so afraid, so desperate. “Do you know somethin’ I don’t, Buffy?”
“I don’t know anything,” she replied, her voice muffled by his chest. “It’s just a feeling. It’s the same feeling I had before we went up against Glory, and the First.” She paused. “I feel like I’m going to lose.”
“You didn’t lose before.”
“In a way, I did.” Buffy pulled back to meet his eyes. “I love you.”
“I know you do.”
“I didn’t tell you that in time,” she continued. “I should have said it earlier. I should have said it as soon as I knew.”
“When did you know?” he asked, curious. They hadn’t talked about the specifics of her attraction. Spike thought that Buffy probably knew when it had happened for him.
She shook her head. “I don’t remember now. I guess—I knew for sure when you said you were going to leave, and I was really sure when I thought that Wood had killed you.”
Spike wondered what he would have done if she had told him. Would he have still been able to go through with it? Would he have been able to allow the amulet to immolate him, knowing that what Buffy said to him was nothing but the truth?
“You told me when you could,” he finally said, not knowing the answer to that question, and knowing that it did no good to wonder. What was done was done. “Let’s just focus on now, Summers. An’ right now, you need to help Willow, an’ I need to train these Slayers.”
“Yeah.” But he could tell that he hadn’t convinced her, that she was still frightened. Spike wondered if it wasn’t her Slayer sense, telling her that something was coming—something that she wouldn’t be able to stop.
Her kiss was deep, bruising, and when she pulled away, she immediately reached for her suitcase. “See you soon?”
“Yeah.” Spike shoved his hands in his pockets and watched her leave the room.
She didn’t look back, but she didn’t have to. He knew that she was fighting tears.
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