Or Forever Hold Your Peace

by JodithGrace

 

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of these characters except the ones I made up myself, and they pretty much have minds of their own anyway. The rest are owned by Joss Whedon and the WB and UPN. I merely toy with them for my own amusement.

Summary: Riley comes back just as William and Buffy are about to tie the knot.

 

Chapter 8

Buffy was just contemplating getting out of bed, when the telephone rang. She reached over William to answer it, assuming that it was Willow or Xander about today’s plans. Instead, it was Mrs. Hernandez, the Secretary of Emily’s school. Had she perhaps forgotten to notify the school that Emily would be absent today? Was she sick? Buffy was confused. "There must be some mistake. I sent Emily to school this morning with her aunt...my sister. She must be there. Please check again. I’ll ask Dawn."

Buffy got up and threw on some clothes. She hadn’t heard Dawn come in, but she and William had both fallen back to sleep after making love, so Dawn could be here or anywhere. Could she have taken Emily out for ice cream or to the park or something, as kind of a wedding day treat? It was possible. But not very likely. Dawn knew how overprotective Buffy could be, and wouldn’t risk her sister’s wrath. She was putting on her boots, when William woke up. "What’s up, love? You going out?"

Buffy tried to stay calm but her trouble alarms were going off in her slayer’s brain. "William, it might be nothing. But Emily never got to school this morning. If I don’t find Dawn here in the house, I’m going to walk to the school, and check out the route. It’s only five blocks away. What could have happened to them in five blocks?" At William’s look, she added, "In broad daylight?"

Buffy ran quickly through the house, the little 3-bedroom brownstone she had bought with Giles’ CoW pension and Insurance money. Unless Dawn was hiding under the stairs, she wasn’t home. She was zipping up her parka when she stopped in the bedroom, to find William dressed already. "Dawn’s not back either. You wait here in case the school calls back. They might have just misplaced her, or miscounted, or something.." That sounded lame even to her. It was a very good private school…they didn’t misplace students.

"Don’t have much choice, do I love?" William said bitterly. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t go outside. So he got to sit by the phone.

Buffy walked slowly down the familiar route to Emily’s school. She looked in every direction for some clue that might lead her to her sister and daughter. She got all the way to the school without seeing anything out of the ordinary. At the school, she met with Mrs. Franklin, the principal, and Ms St. Claire, Emily’s first grade teacher. Emily was much happier in First Grade then she had been in kindergarten, because Ms St. Claire had been a lot more accepting of Emily’s rather unconventional lifestyle. She actually knew the truth about William, and scheduled parent teacher conferences in the evenings. Unfortunately, today they had no good news for Buffy. Emily had not shown up at school, and none of her friends had seen her.

 

Buffy walked slowly home, looking again for any clue she might have overlooked. A voice from over her head called out, "Yoo hoo, Dear!"

Buffy looked up. Elderly Mrs. Montgomery, who usually walked her Bichon Frise in the afternoons when Buffy and Emily were walking home, was waving from her upstairs window. "Dear, whatever happened to your dear little girl?"

Buffy’s heart was in her throat. "What do you mean?"

"Why she and your sister went off with that Policeman this morning. I hope that they aren’t in some kind of trouble."

Heart pounding, Buffy ran up the stairs and knocked loudly on her neighbor’s door. But Mrs. Montgomery could only tell her that Emily and Dawn had gotten into a green car, which wasn’t a police car. Her eyesight was none too good, and she couldn’t see if the girls were upset or if the policeman had used force or a weapon of any kind. As Buffy left, she called out, "I do hope everything is all right, dear."

Back home, William phoned the police station to ask if the girls had been brought in, by some chance and Buffy used her portable phone to phone the gang, both old and new. It was time to do summon the troops and do some brain storming.

 

 

 

Dawn looked around and tried to assess her situation. They were in a large damp basement, which looked filthy and smelled worse. A rusted out boiler stood in one corner, and an ancient washer and drier looked as though they hadn’t worked in years. The building above it had looked condemned, with the doors and windows boarded over to keep out the crack addicts and worse. Fortunately the only other residents of this basement seemed to be of the vermin persuasion, spiders and rats who went about their usual business regardless of the strange new visitors.

Dawn was tied quite thoroughly to a wooden kitchen chair. It might have been old, but it felt very sturdy, no chance of jogging it to pieces.. There had been a gag in her mouth until a very convincing attack of asthma had convinced Finch to remove it. She still wheezed occasionally, to keep up the act. Thank heavens for acting school.

Emily had fared a little better. Finch had been concerned about hurting her and had merely handcuffed her to a large pipe. The cuff was too big for her little wrist, so Finch had put it around her ankle instead. This way Emily could stand or sit, and she had her hands free. She sat still, knees up, close to the pipe, in a state of shock, Dawn guessed.

On the way here, Finch had made no effort to prevent Dawn from seeing which way they were travelling, which probably wasn’t a good sign. And he had told her his name…another bad sign. On the other hand, aside from the fact that he had kidnapped them, he had treated them very well. For the moment he was gone, but she knew that he, or someone worse, could come back any second. She was tied tightly to the chair...the ropes were not uncomfortable, except for the horrible feeling of not being able to move. Still, she wondered, if she played her asthma card again, maybe she could get them loosened up.

There was one window, crusted with dirt. It was across the basement, from Dawn, light years away. Oh for a little bit of Buffy’s slayer strength! Suddenly Finch was back in the room, carrying a brown grocery bag. "You okay?" He asked Dawn.

Dawn nodded, but gave a subtle wheeze. Finch reached into the grocery bag and pulled out an over the counter asthma inhaler. "I know this isn’t prescription, but it should help if you have another attack."

Great, thought Dawn. So much for playing that asthma card again. She smiled at Finch with phony gratitude.

"Listen," he said," I got one job here. To keep you both alive and well until tonight."

"T-tonight?" Emily burst into uncontrollable sobbing.

"What did I say?"

"She’s supposed to be in a wedding tonight." Dawn said, "I am too, as a matter of fact. We will be missed."

Finch was looking at Emily with concern. He reached into his bag and pulled out a juice box. He handed it to her.

"Emily! Don’t drink anything he gives you! "Dawn hissed.

"Hey!" Finch looked insulted, "It’s sealed, look!" he thrust the box in front of Dawn. "You think I would hurt a kid? The sugar. It calms ‘em down. Usually I give crying kids a lollipop." At Dawn’s nod, he gave the box back to Emily.

"So what are you when you’re not pretending to be a cop? Bozo the clown?"

"Hey, I am a cop. I’m just not NYPD…that’s why I had to borrow the uniform. I work in DC. I’m on vacation this week. Anyway...I may not be a great cop, but I never hurt a kid in my life. Riley assured me that…"

"Riley? You work for Riley Finn?"

"Well, sure. What did you think?"

"I didn’t know what to think. You haven’t exactly been the answer man, here. Okay, so let me get this straight. You’re holding us to lure my sister here?"

"Yeah, pretty much. He wants to talk to her."

"He never heard of a telephone? Oh this is a great plan! I mean, if it didn’t work for Harmony, the world’s greatest vampire mastermind, what makes Riley think it will work for him?"

"Huh?"

"Been there, done that. Never mind. What makes you think Riley won’t hurt us?"

"He assured me. I have the utmost respect for Riley."

"You do know that he’s a vampire, right? One of the bad guys?"

Finch looked uncomfortable.

Dawn continued, "How much money could he possible be paying you to make you work for him?"

Finch bristled, "I don’t help Riley out for money! He and the others, they aren’t such bad guys. Honest. "

Others? "Yeah.. I’m sure he’s a regular Boy Scout."

Finch had become rather agitated, and was pacing back and forth, clearly uncomfortable about what he was doing. He was a hefty man, with grayish hair and a pleasant face. Dawn noticed that the borrowed uniform shirt was too tight for him in the neck, and it strained against his potbelly. Finally he opened the collar of his shirt to relieve the strain. As he bent down to check on Emily, Dawn could see a fresh bandage on his neck. No wonder his collar had been chafing him. And no wonder he worked for vampires for free. Dawn had no doubt that his arms were also full of interesting scars.

 

 

By the time the gang assembled at Buffy’s house, she was frantic. The police had no record of Dawn and Emily; neither did the hospitals, or God forbid, the morgues. William had spent the entire morning on the telephone, desperate to help the best way he could.

"I’m sure this is related to Riley, somehow," said Xander.

"But this guy was obviously human. He took them in broad daylight."

"Riley must have human minions," concluded William.

"It’s been known to happen." muttered Xander, "Hey, he must be in thrall to Riley!"

"Sorry, Renfield. But no way is Riley strong enough for that sort of thing. Mind control is a gift. Very few vamps have it and it develops with age. I’ve only known two vamps who could do it…your friend, Dracula, and Drusilla. Probably how she got to Riley in the first place."

Willow spoke up. "Tara and I could do a locator spell."

"Oh...can I help?" Winnie pleaded, "I have a whole lot of myrtle essence. I use it on my hair."

"Oh...so that’s how you get it that…interesting color." Willow smiled politely. She wasn’t sure that she wanted this very odd girl helping her with spells.

"I know I’m not a very good witch," Winnie admitted, "but I’m a terrific psychic. I really can help."

Willow and Tara exchanged glances. Tara spoke up. "We’d be glad to have your help Winnie. Maybe you could get a reading on Dawn and Emily right now."

 

 

"Well, they’re alive…I can tell you that." A wave of relief swept the room. Winnie was holding one of Emily’s frogs in one hand, and a favorite scarf of Dawn’s in the other. "I see a washing machine. Oh…and a dryer."

"Well, that narrows it down to just about every apartment basement in New York," said Xander aching with frustration.

"What can I do?" asked Tina.

At that point the phone rang.

Buffy grabbed it. She listened and her face grew pale. "That late? Can’t we do it sooner?…Well okay, but can I speak to Emily?" she asked calmly. "Hi honey. Are you all right? Don’t cry, sweetie…I‘ll be coming to get you as soon as I can. Is Dawn all right?…Yes, baby he’s right here…. No don’t worry we won’t have the wedding without you! What? ….okay. Listen, whoever you are. Please don’t hurt them. I’ll be there; I’ll do whatever you want. Listen, if you’re human, please…" She looked up. "He hung up." Buffy started to cry for the first time that day. William came over and took her in his arms. He held her while she sobbed.

 

Continue to Part 9

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