Ain't destiny's grand?: Chapter 31
by i_hate_mornings

Disclaimer:I don’t own any characters or locations. All belong to Joss.

Chapter 31

Buffy sat comfortably in the circle of Angel’s arms, a wide smile on her face. She absently fingered the cross about her neck. Ever since he’d given her the beautiful piece of jewelry, she hadn’t been able to wipe the smile from her face.

They sat curled together in front of the open fire in the living room. That was something Buffy was sorely going to miss about this place when she moved. That was still something she couldn’t wrap her head around. Sure, she liked the mansion a lot; it was large and comfortable and there was plenty to keep her occupied but it just wasn’t her. She’d never really felt at home in the massive building. She’d never thought anyone had noticed.

The fire in front of her cracked as the flames engulfed the logs. She admired the dancing orange and yellow as she leant further back against Angel. At the moment she was completely glossing over the fact that Angel had to leave soon. She just wanted these stolen moments, held securely in his arms, to last as long as they possibly could.

The door to Giles’ office opened and the man himself entered the room. Buffy didn’t bother to glance up, just kept her head resting lazily against Angels chest. ‘Hi Giles.’

‘Buffy,’ Giles greeted. A pause. ‘Angel?’

‘Angel just dropped by to say hi,’ she informed him.

‘Right, well,’ Giles stood there for a moment before he sent Buffy a don’t-be-long look and left the room.

Buffy felt herself being shifted and realised Angel was getting up. She rose with him, a sound of protest escaping her lips. He was leaving already?

‘You’re leaving already?’ she asked him quietly. Why did it always seem like they never got to spend any time together?

‘I have to,’ he said gently. ‘I told Cordy and Wes that I’d be back before dawn.’

‘You could stay,’ Buffy tried but knew it was useless.

‘You know I can’t,’ Angel touched the side of her face lightly. ‘I will be back sometime next week hopefully. Until then…’ he lent over and kissed her hard.

Buffy opened her mouth instantly and deepened the kiss. She didn’t want to let him go but she knew she had to. He would be back next week after all.

She reluctantly walked him to the door and after a last lingering kiss; he left her standing in the doorway of the mansion as he drove back to L.A.

********************************************

Angel had been gone only moments when Willow and Xander came crashing through the front door.

‘Where’s Deadboy?’ Xander's head swiveled and bobbed around on his shoulder as he peered behind Buffy, trying to locate the missing vampire. He reminded Buffy of one of those dogs on the dashboard with the moving heads.

‘He’s gone, Xander,’ Buffy sighed in annoyance. Why did he have to call him that?

‘He’s gone?’ Willow gave her a significant look.

Buffy nodded in return. ‘Yeah, it’s okay…I’m okay.’

Willow nodded. ‘You know what we need? Indian movies.’

Xander jumped into action. ‘On it,’ he saluted as he disappeared back out the front door.

Willow immediately turned back to Buffy. ‘You sure you’re okay?’

Buffy nodded. ‘Yeah. We talked things through and he’ll be back this weekend anyway,’ she shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of it, though she had the urge to call him even now, just to hear his voice. ‘I just… miss him, a LOT.’

‘Yeah but on the bright side he’s coming back so…yay?’ Willow smiled hopefully. The redhead turned as Giles entered the room.

Buffy gave a small smile as she watched her friend. ‘Yeah,’ she murmured. ‘Yay.’

****************************

Poof. Buffy smiled grimly as she drew back the stake. That had been the third vampire tonight. Things were looking up.

‘You know,’ an unfamiliar voice called out from the darkness. ‘I didn’t know little girls could do that.’

Buffy was instantly alert. ‘I’m not a little girl,’ she crouched down slightly and tried to pinpoint the speaker’s position.

‘Hmm, that you are not,’ the voice chuckled from behind her.

Buffy swung round quickly. How had it moved so fast? She eyed the shadows of the alley behind the Bronze warily, looking for any sign of movement. ‘Who are you? What do you want?’

The voice chuckled again. ‘Aren’t they the questions we ask ourselves constantly? Who am I? What do I want out of life?’

Buffy gritted her teeth in annoyance. Why did men have to be so damn annoying? They could never just say what they meant, no, they had to be all cryptic and with the not sharing.

‘You are all just so… human,’ he laughed at his own pun.

Buffy had had enough. If he wasn’t going to fight, she wasn’t going to stand here and waste time. Turning on her heel, she confidently strode away from the man and out of the ripe smelling alley.

She reached the mouth and turned to walk in the opposite direction of the Bronze when something tackled her. She collided hard with the pavement as she fell, the force sent a ringing through her head. A moment later the weight on her was gone and she quickly turned and flipped to her feet, landing in a fighting stance. There was no one there.

Confused, she glanced around the alley and closed her eyes, using her senses to discern any enemies but nothing registered. Buffy frowned. Sunnydale just kept getting weirder and weirder.

She searched the area around her, looking for any clue of her attacker, which she knew to be the man from the alley but there was no trace. He seemed to have vanished. She glanced warily around the alley before shrugging her shoulders and turning away. Who ever it was, he was long gone.

She kept her stake held tightly in her hand as she left the alley. As she strode out of the alley, she missed the quick flash of leather as a figure darted out of the alley behind her.

*******************************

‘It was way weird, Giles,’ Buffy sat, feet propped up on the coffee table in front of her in the cavernous lounge of the Crawford St mansion, also known as home. Though, if all went well, not for much longer.

‘Yes, well,’ Giles was frowning as he digested what Buffy had told him.

She smiled at the familiar sight. Sometimes she wished things would never change.

‘We’ll have to research this,’ Giles announced. Buffy groaned. Then again, some things could.

‘Giiiiles,’ Buffy wined pitifully. He took of his glasses and glared impatiently at her. ‘You know I’m no good with the research thing, I’m slay-gal.’

‘Yes, well, as… slay-gal,’ Giles slipped his glasses back onto his face. ‘You should know what you are up against and therefore should be part of the entire process. You are a Slayer. Never has a Slayer been given as much freedom as you have enjoyed since your calling.’

‘Geez, Giles,’ Buffy said, her voice filled with hurt. ‘I was kidding, you know, it was a joke.’

Both Watcher and Slayer were silent for a few moments before Buffy spoke quietly. ‘Would you tell me about her?’

Giles seemed confused for a moment while Buffy waited patiently. Kendra had been weighing heavily on her mind lately. What had the other Slyer been like? How, exactly did she die? Why were people so hesitant in talking about her? These were questions she desperately wanted answered.

‘Kendra… was… she... uh,’ Giles stammered. He wrenched off his glasses and began to furiously polish them. Buffy sat quietly, a calm look on her face as she waited for the Watcher to compose himself.

Eventually he stopped and the spectacles back onto his face. Tucking away the ever present cloth, he sat straight in his chair and took a deep breath. ‘Kendra was a magnificent Slayer. She was brave, fair, a good warrior, her technique was flawless,’ he gazed off to a place only he could see, a smile on his face. Buffy watched him curiously.

‘I knew from the offset she would do great things,’ he shook his head. ‘I also knew she had no hope of winning.’

Buffy frowned at the statement. She had no hope of winning? What did he mean by that?

‘Though her technique was flawless,’ the Watcher continued, seemingly reading Buffy’s mind. ‘She had no passion, no thirst for life and no imagination. In the end it was her downfall.’

‘My emotions give me power…. total assets,’ Buffy whispered wonderingly. She’d told Pike that once. He’d laughed in her face before turning his back on her and leaving.

‘What was that?’ Giles asked, leaning in closer.

‘Huh? Oh… nothing,’ Buffy shook her head. ‘You were saying Watcher-mine?’

‘Power alone isn’t enough. A good fighter needs to know how to improvise, to go with the flow. As… skilled… as Kendra was, she never really understood all she possessed. You, Buffy… you are different. Never has there been as Slayer such as you.’

Buffy grinned. She couldn’t help it. She knew exactly what he meant. Never had a Slayer been a loose cannon like she was. Slayers were meant to be tools for use by the Council. There to protect life and slay the monsters. Never had a Slayer gone against the Council. Until Buffy.

The smile slid from her face like water down a window. There were still many thing Giles didn’t know about her. His distance from the Council these many years had served Buffy the past weeks. Giles didn’t know about the battle between her, Merrick and Travers.

‘Of course, I’m sure the Council would agree,’ Giles finished with a meaningful glance at the silent Slayer.

Buffy’s gaze flew to Giles’. He knew. How did he know? He was not supposed to know. I never thought Travers would tell him. It was too embarrassing; The Council losing control of one of its toys.

‘How?’ she asked, dumbfounded.

‘I may not have been in contact with the Council, for my own reasons, but that does not mean I was kept out of the loop. I know everything that happened, Buffy.’

‘And you’re telling me this NOW?’ Buffy’s voice rose disbelievingly. ‘After all this time you knew?’

‘Yes,’ Giles nodded.

‘Oh,’ Buffy sat back, the fight gone out of her as quickly as it had come. ‘I never wanted it to happen that way. They left me no choice,’ she felt the need to explain herself to the Watcher.

He nodded seriously. ‘I know,’ he stood and walked over to the bookshelf.

Pushing some books aside, he pulled out a manila folder and brought it over to Buffy. She took it but didn’t open it. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘If I had, what would you have done?’ he asked patiently.

Buffy nodded in recognition. She’d have run. They both knew it. She’d thought her past to be long dead and buried but to find out this was not the case, it unnerved her. ‘Who else knows?’

‘Wesley is in possession of a similar folder but no one besides myself had seen the contents,’ he assured her.

Buffy slowly pulled back the front cover of the folder. Her face was the first thing she saw. She immediately closed her eyes against the hot tears gathering in them. That was a face she’d truly hoped to never see again. The sunken eyes, the purple bruising around the tortured pits, the shadows and cuts marring her face… a tear leaked out from under a lid and her hand tightened into a fist.

Opening her eyes, she took a last look at the photo and turned it over, focusing on the documents behind it. There were reports from Council officials, documents detailing her moves at times she was not with Merrick, even copies of her birth certificate and school test results.

Her frown deepened as more personal documents followed: each more detailed than the last. Her hand froze as she reached for the next page. Then, spurred into action, she frantically began turning the next pages, searching though them before coming back to rest on the first.

It was one of many medical certificates from one of many doctors in the Californian area. All said basically the same thing:

Buffy Summers suffers from severe depression and hallucinations. It is of our opinion that she be admitted for treatment at the Los Angeles Psychiatric Ward. She is a danger to herself and others and must be dealt with immediately. The death of a close friend has had such an impact that we no longer advise contact between Miss Summers and the outside world.

************************


I’m sorry I’ve been out of commission for a while. You would not believe the month I’ve had. Two of my friends were hit by cars, in separate countries, days apart. I got a new boyfriend, school finally finished and there was a mad rush to get everything done and now Christmas. I’ve had literally no time to myself for weeks. This would have been up a few weeks ago but I really lacked the motivation.

But here is a new chapter. I’m getting more into Buffy’s background now. What did you think?

Oh, by the way, has anyone else realized just how great a show Firefly is? I brought the box set for my brother and he let me watch it. Go Joss!!


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