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Another Crisis
by Mary Borsellino
Crisis of Faith Part VI
email: thebitterone@hotmail.com or fagette@hotmail.com
Rating: very, very high PG13. Nothing worse then what's been on the show, but still pretty intense.
Warnings: Oh, a big bunch of them. Vampires, for a start (yeah, I know, totally different from the content of the shows) . And badly written exposition. And slash (in a PG way). And violent squicky bad guy stuff involving blood play. And Oz fans will probably try to do bad things to my spleen.
Spoilers: Everything, including season 5 / season 2 rumors. This story probably wont make a drop of sense unless you've read all the Crisis of Faith stories.
Disclaimer: For these characters to be mine would require me to have paid Joss a zillion dollars. Which might be the explanation for my bank account being so low... oh wait, that's because I didn't make any money off this! Rightio then.
Archive: UCSL, of course. Eterniata can have this if desired. Anywhere else, just ask.
Feedback: Love makes Buffy do the wacky. Feedback makes Mary write sequels. So many people have been good about telling me what they think. If you want another piece following this one, then do the right thing and email comments to me, ok? I'm playing with characters I've never written with before. I need to know if I'm doing ok or if I should find a new hobby.
.Random irrelevant song lyric: Why am I so selfish, pushing away everyone who loves me? Why am I so childish, is it because my mother never loved me? I don't wanna be like this... I just want someone to hold me. - videodrone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The water is cold against her hands as she tests the temperature, but only lukewarm as her body slides under the bubbled surface of the bath. She'd always had bad circulation, even as a little girl. Whenever Xander would comment on it, her childish face would take on the bored look of someone bored with defending themselves. "Cold hands, warm heart." Was a reply that usually did the trick. She had no idea if the saying was true. Buffy always told her she was a good-hearted person, but Buffy was biased.
Lying back in the water, Willow sighed and closed her eyes. The sounds of life continuing as per usual were muffled downstairs. She'd lost track of how many days she'd been sleeping on Giles' couch. After about a week of it he'd asked her for God's sake to stop calling him that and use his first name. Willow had never seen him smile quite like he had as he said that, but she was willing to put money down that Jennifer Calendar had. Whether that whole line of thought was disturbing or not, she wasn't sure yet.
Tara had asked her straight out. "Are you with him?" and Willow's heart had nearly broken. How could Tara possibly think Willow would cheat on her like that? She'd fought the urge to reassure her physically and simply explained that there were a lot of things she needed to think about, that the stuff with Angelus and Darla had left her shaken. She just needed a week or two to recover in a place she felt safe. This was the safest place in Willow's world. Near Giles - Rupert. He wanted her to call him Rupert.
But she wasn't going to think of Tara now. That way led to bad icky horrible unsure thoughts. Willow had promised herself, after Oz, that she was never going to be hurt that much again, and being hurt by your main squeeze turning evil was a whole other ballgame. One she'd seen firsthand with Buffy and Angel years ago. Willow had no plans of letting her life go down that track, no matter how happy the ending that couple had gotten.
Her thoughts swirling in a spiral like draining water, Willow had returned to her first idle musing. The muttered sounds downstairs. Anya and Xander had been bickering for a while now. If she closed her eyes and concentrated, Willow could pick up snatches of the conversation. She didn't know if it was just her normal good hearing or if she was using her witch thing unconsciously.
"Buffy, you agree with me, don't you?" that was Anya's voice.
"Oh I am so staying out of this conversation." Willow smiled at her best friend's tone of voice. She could almost visualise the scene, Buffy and Angel sitting side by side on the couch, Anya standing up in front of a seated Xander, Giles - Rupert - standing off to the side, looking bemused. Buffy was probably fussing over Angel's arm again, ever since he and Angelus had split he'd been learning about how to be human again. One thing he hadn't learnt fast enough was that humans can't sense when there's a thorny branch next to the garbage can when taking out the trash. The cut was minor, but Willow secretly thought Buffy might simply be enjoying fussing just because she was able to fuss.
Willow always just sort of knew when there was a branch in the way. Maybe that was a witch thing. Maybe it was just a thing.
Anya spoke again, her voice exasperated, as if she couldn't understand the argument at all.
"I can't understand this argument at all. Menstruation is uncomfortable. Procreation is the way that people reproduce. You all fight evil, so I know you don't want the human race to die out. Why is my wish to reproduce so odd?"
"Because you're a teenager?" Xander hazarded. Willow smiled, imagining the death-glare he would have earned for that.
"What year was Angel born in? 1972, 71? He looks around that age."
"Anya, you know Angel's a lot older then that..." Xander's voice trailed off as the penny dropped. "Oh, right."
Willow laughed silently, lying in the cooling bathwater, her eyes still closed as she listened. Anya understood the concept of sarcasm? She was really going native.
In the mental image of the room downstairs she'd constructed, Willow noticed a shape outside the window, carrying a newspaper and some shopping. Cordelia. Before that little addition could strike her as odd Anya spoke again.
"Here comes Cordelia. Perhaps she will see my point."
Sitting up in the bathtub abruptly, Willow stopped listening to the voices downstairs, the sloshing of the disrupted water drowing out anything they were saying. She'd been seeing the room, really seeing it, not just imagining what was happening. She'd seen Cordelia through the window.
Pulling her clothes on without bothering to towel herself dry, Willow tried to decide if this was a happy moment or a weird moment. It was kind of happy-weird. It was a good skill to have, she guessed. It would have been less good if she'd been sharing a house with either couple downstairs.
With that vaguely disturbing, vaguely voyeuristic thought, Willow went to join in the insane conversation.
~~~~
Liquid steel, so hot it felt freezing to the touch. Temperature that extreme always blends into the other extreme. The liquid iron was running over other steel, so cold it scorched. Fire and ice, becoming one finally, reaching a state that was neither and both and something else again. On earth, a substance such as that would destory a human being, burning away even bone. Here, where the souls couldn't find escape through something simple as death, it left remains behind that were usually capable of a second round.
Angelus was enjoying Hell. He'd never been there unchaperoned, and it just hadn't been the same with that revolting soul controlling everything and angsting up all the fun. Things didn't taste as good here, admittedly, like when humans have a cold. But there were so many other things to do, so many soft bits of flesh and so many sharp, shiny things to poke into that flesh. It was like performance art.
Darla had snorted when he'd made that comparison, pointing out that he'd never actually seen performance art, had he? Which was true. She'd explained that it was never as interesting as Hell was, and far more likely to include flouncy clothing and silly choreography.
Angelus was worried about Darla. She'd been quiet lately.
"Does Mummy want to come play with the Puppy?" Willow asked, sitting next to Darla's chair and looking up with wide eyes.
Darla didn't move to get up, stroking Willow's hair a little and smiling softly instead. She really cared about the redhaired girl, Angelus could tell. So much like Drusilla, and so different to the Willow he'd known.
It had been a source of confusion, at first. How a Willow that wasn't *the* Willow existed. The girl herself had been no source of information, but luckily she wasn't alone.
Puppy had been a wonderful source of information. Angelus was so good at pretending to be broody. Furrowed brow, pensive squint. His idiot double had actually believed the story he'd spun about Alcatha. Well, technically it was true, but that trip hadn't been as fun as this one. He'd put two and two together and worked out there was only one Hell for all the worlds. Or possibly many, many Hells, and sheer lucky coincidence had put them all in this one. Darla, Willow, Angel, Puppy and Xander.
The thought of Xander made Angelus smile widely. Yes, he was really enjoying Hell.
That train of thought made him reach a conclusion that he thought might offer some comfort to his sire.
"He might just be in another Hell." he suggested. Darla shrugged.
"Maybe."
"Or they're torturing him and he's loving every moment of it."
"Maybe." The disaffected tone annoyed Angelus. She couldn't be pining, could she? Not Darla, also known as so many serial killer monikers Angelus had lost count.
"Chin up old gal. In a few more centuries down here it'll be next week where you're from and your lawyer buddies will work out what's happened. You'll be back up there before you know it."
Angelus turned at the sound of the new voice. Xander didn't walk so much as slide, like a serpent in human form. Angelus liked his style, black and more black, with a little black for contrast. His voice was only half-sarcastic, because he too liked Darla immensely. It was hard not to. When she wasn't pining, few people could make the meat puppets cry out as she could.
That reminded him.
"Willow, you've caught Puppy again?" the stupid creature had a habit of dislocating his bones to get out of his chains. They always found him quickly, and punished him. That was the best part. They liked it when he escaped.
"Yes." Willow nodded. "He's crying again. Big baby. The tears make the blood on his face all streaky, like a big candy cane."
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Xander whispered softly into his ear. Angelus nodded.
"We'll see you two later." With that farewell to Darla and Willow, Angelus turned and began to walk off. He could hear Xander walk over and plant a soft kiss on Willow's forehead before following.
It was time for play.
~~~~
The Willow on earth, the human-witch-sometime-hacker Willow, was glaring at the toaster. It kept burning her bread. Willow didn't eat burnt bread, it tasted like something left after a campfire went out.
Buffy was standing next to her, also annoyed at the toaster. Xander and Anya had gone home, no doubt to have sex. Safe, protected sex, because the argument had been put off with a promise that they would talk about it when Xander had a steady job. Buffy and Willow had been talking about it before the toaster started playing up. They thought Xander would make a cute dad. With parents like that, though, the child certainly would have a unique way of speaking.
Angel and Wesley were looking at that damn book again, the one they'd found when exploring the old school library with Gi-... with Rupert. Translating the last part of the scroll. Willow thought it was all sort of interesting. Too bad so many of their prophecies hinged on the vampire with a soul, last seen headed for the horizon. Well, where the horizon would have been if it had been day.
Distracting herself from the toaster for a moment, Willow wondered what they would be up to right now. Driving, probably, turning a mental quest into a physical one. Faith would be behind the wheel, because Lindsey couldn't be. They would have woken up at dusk, an hour past, probably in some little room that was like home to Faith and a brave new world to her undead lover.
Willow didn't like Faith. At all. So she assumed that anyone who'd take off with the girl, bloodsucking fiend or not, would be likely to indulge in some random killing. So Lindsey probably wouldn't drink from bloodbags like a good little housepet.
He hadn't fed tonight, though. Not yet. Faith knew it, and was doing all she could to test Lindsey's strength of will.
"Gee, I'm wicked thirsty. Can we stop and get a drink somewhere?"
"Ok, there should be a rest stop soon."
"Good, cos a thirst like this needs to be taken care of. It's all I can think about." Faith cast a sly glance at her passenger. Lindsey rolled his eyes.
"I've got three bottles left in the back. Soon as we stop I'll get one out." he smiled. Faith looked crestfallen.
"Damn. I thought you finished those. I was gonna make you totally horny and pull over when we hit more cornfields. So much for my fun."
"I went to the bloodbank when you were scoping out that tattoo place."
"I couldn't believe the prices they were charging. Two hundred bucks for one measley little design. Whatever." Faith shook her head.
Willow opened her eyes abruptly. Aside from the total kink of the conversation, which fitted in with what Willow expected, the thing that struck her was Lindsey's mention of a bloodbank. That wasn't expected at all. Which meant that hadn't been an idle daydream.
Well. Talk about a happy-weird moment. How powerful was she, anyway?
(Human-Willow's definition of 'total kink' was a fairly broad one, with blood play fairly high on the list. People who were into that stuff were either unbalanced, like those kids they'd met who stood around in floaty black clothing talking about the morbidity of their dying crimson roses, or they were vampires. Vampires and kink were terms that just seemed to naturally fit together.)
~~~~
Puppy was unchained, too weak to run but painfully aware that he had the chance to. Xander had a razor in one hand, the blade rusted and stained from earlier games. He was making little cuts, barely enough to draw a faint pink line of blood, enough to sting like the devil when tongued and licked. All up one leg, all down the other. He was starting on the torso now.
Puppy cried out loudly as Xander pressed down with the sharp edge of the metal. The ground was cool and slimy, moss on brick. It made the welts on his back burn.
Angelus growled low in his throat as Xander made Puppy cry out again. He rubbed at his hand, an itch starting at the base of his thumb.
"His palm." he said to Xander. Puppy whimpered. Xander smiled and nodded, slicing in at the exact place Angelus was scratching his own hand. This game was fun, but they never played it for long before abandoning the beaten Puppy and moving on to games that only needed two.
~~~~
Faith chewed on her thumbnail. She only needed a few hours sleep at a time, so there was always at least an hour or two when Lindsey was asleep and she was awake. Faith knew how to amuse herself, but it sure did get boring sometimes.
She thought about calling Buffy. No, she wouldn't do that. B was part of the past now. So long as Faith never had anything to do with her again, she could pretend that the blonde Slayer was living happily ever after. Faith needed to believe in happy endings.
Finding her portable CD player in her bag, Faith settled down to listen to some tunes. She was turning into a regular yuppie, owning a discman and everything. How very non-tailer trash of her.
Lindsey shifted in his sleep next to her and Faith turned the volume dial down a little. She'd forgotten he could hear better then her. She could run faster, but even if Slayers had super-hearing Faith listened to enough loud music to kill that skill.
As the earliest risers, the bakers and the farmers, got out of bed, Faith snuggled in closer to the slightly cold man beside her and closed her eyes, loud bass beats pounding through her skull and driving dark daydreams out of her head.
~~~~
Lying on the couch with the pretense of sleep, Willow found no solace in dreams. Tossing and turning, her thoughts crackled like lightning, jumping from one idea to another. She didn't feel tired, but knew that if she tried to do anything constructive that she'd barely be able to keep her eyes open. It must be dawn by now, she thought to herself. Another night completely devoid of sleep.
Turning over onto her back, Willow shut her eyes tightly and thought about her friends. Where was Buffy right now? Letting her thoughts drift, she began to think of the places she could be. The Bronze... no, not there. Patrol? Nope. Her mother's house. Yes, that was it.
Sitting on her bed, Angel opposite her. Her diary from a few years ago in her hands. When she'd first come to Sunnydale. She was reading out entries and they were both laughing. Willow was glad of that. They hadn't had many chances for laughter before. It suited them.
"A's eyes are penetrating. I feel like he can see through my skin, straight down into me. He can see the things I used to shoplift from the makeup counters. He can see the way I used to bring a flask of hot chocolate to ice skating, with Rainbow Brite stickers all over it to cover that gross tartan pattern. When A looks at me, I feel like he can see everything that I am. It's kinda nice."
Buffy smiled at the innocent whimsy of the writing. Life at sixteen had seemed so incredibly adult, dealing with monsters and demons and moving to a new highschool. She'd felt everything so deeply then, like it was the end of the world when she missed her favourite movie on tv.
She smiled at Angel, then flicked through the pages to find another passage about him. A few days ago Buffy had realised with a jolt that she'd never really been in love before. Riley... Riley had been a nice guy, and she liked him a lot. But it hadn't been love. And the whole Angel thing, well that had been a whole lot of things. Heartbreaking, life threatening, intense, amazing. Which Buffy supposed is exactly what true love should be. It hadn't been love, though. He'd been a romantic, tortured figure with a dark side and good bone structure. Nobody can be in love with something like that. You can worship it, but you can't love it properly.
But she loved him now. Sometimes her skin ached so badly to be against his that she couldn't think. It didn't even feel real, she kept expecting something to go terribly wrong and tear them apart. She felt as if the powers that be were determined to ruin any chance of happiness she and Angel might have had. God struck Buffy as a bitter, insane individual with a particular fetish for screwing up her life.
Maybe God had finally realized that she deserved some happiness. Maybe He was just on vacation.
She began to read again.
"Well, scratch knowing nothing about A. I know hardly anything, and it's still too much. It's strange, I still daydream about him and wish he was nearby all the time. Is love supposed to be this complicated?"
She'd always just assumed, since then, that love *was* supposed to be that complicated. That any guy she liked was going to be a vampire, or seeking to become a vampire, or a player, or involved in some top-secret government thing. She'd never know anybody who was just ordinary. Love would never be skipping through the fields singing tra la la.
Closing her diary, Buffy looked at Angel for a long while, studying him. He held his body differently now, less innate grace, more endearing clumsiness.
"I hope you know how much you mean to me." she said with a small smile.
Angel took her hand and squeezed it lightly in reply. It was all he needed to say.
~~~~
They didn't even have to wait for Wolfram and Hart. Some teenage warlock was trying to impress his pimply girlfriend by summoning some demons. He hadn't actually planned ahead very well, and had forgotten to initiate any kind of binding spell against their escape. Four vampires can make very short work of two humans. It was good to be back.
They'd left Puppy behind, figuring that if they were up on earth for say, five hundred years, it would give him ample time in Hell to ponder all the delightful games they'd play with him when they returned. Xander had mentioned the time elapse difference between the two dimensions. Even better, then. Puppy would have lots and lots of thinking time.
Xander and Willow, whom Angelus and Darla had taken to calling Mickey and Mallory to tell them apart from the human, goody-goody versions, had never played on this earth before. Mallory-Willow had been here once, but all she would say about the experience was that she'd been all fuzzy and it hadn't been any fun.
"What's the plan?" Mickey-Xander asked Darla while Angelus and Willow posed the bodies in different positions for the boy's parents to find. They were bickering, Willow wanted the girl to be naked with ritual carvings on her and the boy to be praying before her body, Angelus wanted them tanlged on the bed with clothes thrown haphazardly around the room. Darla and Xander ignored them.
"I'm putting my foot down right now and saying no Sunnydale. No way, no how. Being killed twice is more then enough." Darla said firmly. Willow caught their conversation and turned, relinquishing her hold over the dead boy to join in the discussion.
"I want to find some more new friends..." Willow said, rubbing her cheek against Xander's shoulder. "Can we find some more like us to play?"
"There aren't as many here as there were at home, Will." Xander said. She mewed unhappily. Darla smiled at her.
"Don't worry, we'll find someone."
~~~~
Anya sat in bed, watching Xander as he got dressed.
"I want something to nurture. You don't need nurturing."
"Anya, I love you, but houseplants are afraid of you. I don't think a child is the best choice right now."
"I've seen lots of women with babies. They were doing well. I can copy them."
"Am I right in guessing you saw these women while doing various horrible things to their menfolk? Not the role model you're going to need, I'm thinking."
The telephone rang. Xander reached for it but Anya snatched the handset away from him.
"Hello?"
"Is Xander there?" Cordelia's voice.
"Yes." Anya glared at her boyfriend.
"Well can I talk to him?" Cordelia prompted.
"All right." Anya handed the phone over grudgingly.
"Joe's cryogenics, you kill em we chill em."
"Glad to see you still have that wonderfully geek-like sense of humor. Willow told me you have a washing machine with a special setting for fragile fabrics."
"I can see how that would come up in everyday conversation, too."
"Can I use it?" Cordelia's tone was only a question in theory. There was no way that he could answer no.
"Will you people stop treating me like the local odd job? And I don't mean the guy with the spiffy hat either. Are there no other washing machines you have access to?"
"If you want my blouse to fall apart into shreds, fine."
"Am I supposed to be _persuaded_ by that?"
Cordelia sighed. "I'm bringing my things over."
Xander put the phone down. There were just too many Scoobies in Sunnydale. The town could only support so many, and what with the holiday season they'd gone way over maximum occupancy.
~~~~
Faith yawned into her hand and kept singing along with the car stereo. "Hey you, you're way ahead of me, you're drunk on apathy..." They were driving until they found somewhere to stay. Faith was sick of travel, she didn't even know what state they were in anymore. But they had to keep going until they found home.
"Hey, there's someone up ahead." Lindsey said, looking out at the dark in front of the windscreen. Faith squinted, catching the shape of something in the headlights.
"It's a kid. Hitching at night." Faith raised her eyebrows in surprise. "I didn't think anybody was that dumb."
Lindsey ignored that. He knew for a fact that Faith had been a regular frequent flyer on the highways as a child. Her self-depreciation was getting a little more gentle, though. He was glad of that.
"Do you want to pick her up?" he asked. Faith shrugged.
"Ok. I guess it'd be cool to have another road trip buddy. More the merrier."
She was very young to be out alone, little jelly sandals on her feet and a backpack with flowers drawn in magic marker all over it.
"Hey." she offered by way of greeting. "I'm Dawn."
"I'm Lindsey and this is Faith."
"Pleased to meet you." Dawn smiled. Lindsey smiled back. She looked sort of like his baby sister.
"Where you off to?" Faith asked her. Dawn shrugged.
"Where you going?"
"Same place you are. Anywhere but here." Lindsey said. Dawn giggled.
~~~~
"I know him." Willow said, following the slightly built man with her eyes. "I don't like him."
"Who?" Angelus looked up from the homeless man he'd been draining. "Well, well. Look what we have here."
"I want to make him scream." Willow said with a smile. "I like it when there's screaming."
"We really should wait for Darla and Mickey." Angelus pointed out. Willow pouted. His heart, or the evil equivalent of his heart, melted. "Fine. Go have fun."
"Oh, I will." Willow smiled, her face contorting as she walked over to the small redhead waiting at the traffic lights.
~~~~
Cordelia woke up screaming.
"Oh my God, oh my God." she clutched at her temples as her head pounded. "Oh my God."
She could hear her mother stirring in the next room over and tried to quieten her shallow panting. Her bedside phone rang.
"What? Uh, I mean, hello?"
"Cordelia?" Giles. She could hear screams in the background.
"Is that Willow?" she asked, getting out of bed and grabbing the closest clothing, pulling it on as she spoke.
"Yes." He sounded very worried, still a little disoriented from sleep, and a little afraid.
"I'll be there soon as I can." If Willow's nightmare had been anything like Cordelia's, no wonder she was screaming.
~~~~
She wasn't coherant. She couldn't form thoughts, although forming the thought that she couldn't form thoughts was a thought she was forming, wasn't it? Her head was so busy. Oz had always said that, so many thoughts inside her head. If it was so busy, why couldn't she put the flashes together into a string of something decipherable?
Dimly, she knew she was shaking. Violently. There was somebody beside her, but it seemed such a long way off. Buffy. Buffy was next to her. Giles... no she had to call him Rupert, like the bear, the one with the yellow scarf who went on adventures, Rupert the Bear... Rupert had called them all. Because she wouldn't stop screaming.
Footsteps. Somebody else has arrived. She wasn't alert enough to notice the footsteps were the click of high heels, but she knew it was Cordelia anyway. Weird moment. No happy here.
"Willow?"
Her name. The name of her. She should say something.
"I got a vision just before Giles called me. I'm so sorry." Cordelia hugged her tightly. Willow received the embrace without speaking or moving at all.
"What happened?" Buffy asked, not moving from beside her. Good. Willow needed her there to stay afloat. She'd drown if Buffy moved away.
"Some vampires attacked Oz. Usually when I get a vision it's before anything happens, so I can tell Angel and he'll stop it. But this..." Cordelia closed her eyes and drew a shuddering breath, tears slipping down her face. Willow noticed numbly that she wasn't wearing any makeup.
"Angel." Willow whispered through dry lips. He came through the door, he'd been with Buffy when Giles had called and had gone to collect Xander, Anya and Tara. He walked through the door a second after she spoke. Willow turned to look at him, standing up. The blanket someone had draped over her shoulders slipped down to the floor. "Why didn't you save him? You saved Lindsey for Faith and she's evil and she kills people and he's a lawyer and you still saved him for her and I'm very seldom naughty and I never do anything bad and they tore him apart but it wasn't a they it was me, me, I killed him, I saw it, I hurt him and he saw it was me before he died and you didn't save him and -" her ramble died as shouts were replaced by sobs and she collapsed against Buffy, covering her face with her hands. "It w-w-was m-m-me." The whisper was barely words, hiccoughing gasps of air.
"Willow." Tara pushed past Angel, who had frozen in the doorway at Willow's outburst. Willow looked up again, glaring.
"Don't you touch me!" she screamed, pulling away from Tara. "Don't come near me, any of you. Only Buffy and Cordelia and Rupert." she huddled against Buffy, who held her gently, like she was a doll that would break easily.
"Ok, Willow, we're here. C'mon up to the bedroom, you can get some sleep." Cordelia said, trying to sound her usual chipper self and failing rather badly.
"Buffy and Cordy and Rupert." Willow muttered again, allowing herself to be led by the three of them.
~~~~
Dawn cried out, clutching at her head. Faith's hands jerked on the wheel in surprise. As she tried to put the car back on the correct side of the road, Lindsey tried to twist in his seat enough to help the little girl.
"I think she's having an epileptic fit or something!" Faith said, turning around herself. Good thing there was nobody on the roads at this hour.
"No, I think it's a vision. Our little passenger is a seer." Lindsey said, stroking Dawn's hair as the episode seemed to pass. "Dawn, are you all right?"
"Stop the car!" Dawn cried out. Faith put the brake on reflexitively.
"Why're we stopping?" she asked the girl. Dawn looked uncomfortable.
"You'll think it's dumb."
"No, I think the Tom Green show is dumb. I think non-alcoholic beer is dumb. I think little girls yelling and holding their heads and then telling me to stop the car is sort of interesting. Why did you want me to stop?"
"Promise you won't laugh at me."
"We promise." Lindsey said. "Now what's wrong?"
"There are vampires this way." Dawn said, not looking at either adult.
Faith raised her eyebrows. "Really? Cool. How many?"
"Don't make fun of me!"
"Sweetheart, if I was gonna make fun of you I'd find something funnier then that to say, trust me." Faith started the car again. "Now, how many we talking here?"
~~~~
"She's sleeping ok now." Cordelia came back down the stairs. "Only ate half my valium supplies." she caught Xander's expression. "Hey, don't give me that look. You try sleeping naturally when your dreams are like that one."
"Is sh-sh-she going to b-b-be ok?" Tara asked quietly. Cordelia shrugged and nodded at the same time.
"Yeah, I guess. It was pretty horrible."
"Sh-sh-she said it was her in the v-v-vision. What did sh-sh-she mean?" Tara's usual stutter was worse then normal.
"You don't think..." Angel trailed off. "The Willow from the other world? She could have found a way back here."
"Gee, lately it's just been one reunion after another." Xander said, running his hand through his hair to push it off his forehead.
"If only Faith and Lindsey were here." Angel said, almost to himself. Cordelia sat down next to him.
"Here? We don't even know where Oz was, whoever did it could be days away. Anyway, that prophecy you and Wesley are so in love with - not that I'm bad-mouthing a thing that got me out of that horrible repeat-cycle vision - says that the vamp with a soul has a seer as his link to the PTB. So even if Lindsey is your man, which I'm still not buying by the way, then that would make me the seer. Otherwise I wouldn't still get the visions. So eventually our paths are gonna cross, right?"
"Actually, a lot of people receive visions. Willow obviously did." Tara pointed out. Cordelia looked disbelieving.
"No way."
"She's right." Angel agreed. "Drusilla gets them."
"Please, please don't tell me _she's_ going to pop out from behind a tombstone and join the party." Xander said, looking up as Buffy came down the stairs. "How's our gal doing?"
"She's ok, she woke up and asked for a glass of water. Still shaken, but no longer over the cuckoo's nest." Buffy sighed and leant against Angel, closing her eyes. "She won't let Giles out of her sight though. It's all so... God, is it too much to ask for a week with no deaths or torments or ends of the world?"
Anya murmured in her sleep, Xander automatically reached out to soothe her. Poor Will. Xander doubted he would have coped as well as she had, even if that hadn't been that well on a scale of one to actually coping.
~~~~
"See, Dawn, vamps aren't really a problem for me." Faith said with a grin, sauntering away from the third and final pile of dust she'd just added to the sidewalk and putting her arm around Lindsey's shoulders where he stood next to the young seer. He hissed in pain.
"Crap, sorry Lind. Must have spilt Holy Water on my sleeve." Faith pulled her jacket off and pushed it through the open car window. "Hey, what's this town called, anyway?"
"Didn't catch the sign." Lindsey admitted before noticing Dawn's expression. "I'm not going to hurt you."
"But you're a vampire."
"Yes."
"I think I need to get some sleep before I hear any more big newsflashes." Dawn commented, looking a little dazed.
"We'll go find a place to get some shut-eye." Faith agreed, laughing at the expression on the child's face. The three of them climbed back into the car and set off looking for a place for the little girl to get her rest.
~~~~
"The clientel here isn't that great." Willow said, putting her feet up on the table she was sitting at. There had only been a few people in the bar, but enough to fill their beer mugs at least. "So quiet. Place is lifeless."
Angelus laughed. "You would have loved Dru, Mallory. She had such a wonderful sense of humor."
"Had?" Darla, walking over with Xander, sat down with them. It struck Angelus that the two of them were together a lot of the time. He stood and moved behind the younger vampire, nipping at his neck as he continued to talk to the two women. No harm in reminding Xander who was the Alpha here. Which was a pity, because Angelus was fond of harm.
"She's got a point. For all you know, she could still be alive somewhere." Oz said, breaking the silence he'd been sitting in beside Willow. The redhaired girl smiled and licked a smear of blood off his cheek.
"Such a messy little wolfie. Mummy Willow's gotta clean you up."
~~~~
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