Crime and Punishment: Part 1
by Fire Girl
And we now come to part 4 of the series. I don't own anything but Sheri, Rich and Fa Hung's Chinese Palace.
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Part One
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Hey Buff, here's this week's letter. Enjoy.
Dear Buffy,
How've you been in LA? You're probably having more fun than we are. Sunnydale is so boring without you.
Anyway, forget the small talk. I've got some big news! As you may or may not know, Giles and Ms. Calendar continued to see each other when we got Angel back. Apparently things have gotten serious. And last week, he proposed!!!!!! She accepted and they're getting married in the fall. They wanted to wait until you got back. Giles said that they couldn't have a wedding without you. In the meantime, I get to help Jenny with planning.
When she was making out the guest list, I found it kinda sad that none of her family would be there. She said that they would probably shun her from now on. They would be very disapproving and willing to disown her. For some reason, she didn't seem that disappointed. The date is set for Sept. 19 so there shouldn't....
Dear Buffy,
How's my favorite little vampire slayer? Hopefully as bored as I am, so you'll come home sooner. Just kidding. If you're having fun, I'm happy for you. I'm just very unhappy for me.
Guess what? Our friendly neighborhood watcher is getting hitched. He popped the question to Ms. Calendar last week. My sources tell me it was one of those big diamond ring, down on one knee kinda thing. I know, I know, with all the excitement around how could I possibly be bored, right? Simple. The majority of my friends are busy or gone!
Cordy got a job. Gasp. Scream. Faint. I know, it's a shock to us all, but she's working at the Charlotte Russe over on Crips Street. Willow is busy helping Ms. Calendar with all the wedding plans and stuff and what do I get stuck with? Complete and absolute boredom. I'm actually starting to wish I had Summer school this year so I would have something to do. I bet you never thought I could ever get that bored. Well, behold the bored mass that is Xander. I hope that I'll....
Dear Buffy,
Hey beautiful, you having fun down there? I hope so, but not too much fun. I do want you to come home. I miss you. Also, everyone is insisting that I hang out with them. I'm necessarily saying that's a bad thing, it would just be more fun if you were here.
If you haven't already heard, Giles and Jenny are getting married. I haven't seen either of them in a while, so I had to hear it from Willow. I can't say I didn't see it coming. They've been dating for nearly a year and from what I can tell, are very much in love. The wedding is in September, so you'll be here to see it. As I write this, I'm hoping and praying that you're happy about it. I know you and Jenny aren't the best of friends, believe me, I'm not too thrilled with her myself, but we can at least be happy for Giles.
Actually, I feel kind of sorry for her. She wrote to her family, telling them what was going on, and they wrote back telling her not to write again. She's been disowned, which is really....
Buffy leafed through the letters that her friends had sent her. There were two more, but she decided that she'd read them later. She turned back to her mirror to apply some lipstick.
"Buffy!" her dad called from the bottom of the stairs, "Sheri's here!"
Buffy ran down the stairs to meet her friend.
"Bye, Dad." She kissed his cheek, then ran out the door. She hugged her friend upon seeing her. Sheri had been in Las Vegas visiting family for the past three weeks, so Buffy hadn't gotten the chance to see her and fill her in on the more recent events of her life.
"Look at you! You're so skinny! What happened? You didn't need to get skinny!" exclaimed Sheri.
"Get in and I'll tell you all about it."
They hopped into Sheri's car and drove off.
"So, what happened that you couldn't write to me about? And where were you? After ten days with no letters from you, I started to worry. I packed a bag and even got a bus ticket to Sunnydale. I was all ready to go down there."
"I've been trapped in a hole. We were down there for nearly two weeks."
"A hole?"
"In the middle of the forest."
"Oh, my God. Who's we?"
"Angel was with me. We had been driving home from a party, and the car skid off the road. It rolled down the hill and when it reached the bottom, it fell into some tunnel thing."
"How did you survive?"
"Luckily, there were water pipes in the tunnel. We had to break one, so that I could drink."
"So, you were down there, alone, for two weeks. Did you guys, uh..."
"No! Think Sher, we had much more important things to think about, like how to survive. Besides, we had to conserve our energy."
"Don't lie to me. You didn't have a condom, did you?"
Buffy laughed, "Ok, that was part of it, but mostly it was those other things."
Sheri looked at her doubtfully.
"God, you read me like a book, Sher. Stop it!"
"Ooh, I have a question, how did he survive? You at least had water, what did he do? Did you feed him?"
"Yeah, I force fed him. He was being his noble self and refused to let me. I had to wait until he was unconscious, before he would accept it. Even then he didn't want to. He actually got mad at me for saving him."
"How sad."
"I think he's over it, but I'm still kinda scared. I wish I could stay there, but I have to come here, every summer. Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but-"
"But, he needs you there."
"I think so."
"How long, you gonna be here?"
"Two more weeks."
"Yeah, so you'll be back soon."
"Oh yeah, guess what? Giles is getting married."
"To who? To Ms. Calendar?"
"Yeah."
"Is that good? I thought you didn't like her."
"Well, I took a lesson from Xander."
"Creepy."
"You don't know. Anyway, he and Angel have become friends, which is something I never expected. He stopped hating Angel for dumb reasons, and I think I should do the same about Jenny. It's about time I forgave her completely. I mean, I kinda made her feel better, on the night we got Angel back, but I didn't exactly forgive her."
"Well, your watcher's gonna marry her, so you should probably get rid of all the ill feelings, you have, or there may be trouble."
"I know. I'm gonna talk to her, when I get back."
"Do you ever call your friends?"
"No, our parents have made it very clear that there is to be no long-distance calling. So, I get letters from everyone each week. That's the only way we can communicate."
They reached Sheri's house soon after.
"I just need to get my wallet. C'mon inside. You can say ‘Hi' to Rich. I'm sure he'd love to see you."
Buffy groaned. Sheri's perverted, little brother, who happened to have a crush on her, was the last thing she needed.
After giving him an uncomfortable "Uh...hi." they went up to Sheri's room and shut the door.
"Hey, look in that trunk." Sheri pointed to a wooden trunk, which sat at the foot of her bed, then turned to her dresser to find her wallet. Buffy opened the trunk and found a huge stack of paper. As she looked at them, she recognized her handwriting.
"You kept every letter?"
"Yup. Every letter from every day for the past year and a half."
"What are gonna do with them?"
"I'm gonna write a book about you. What I have now, would be enough for a series. The stuff about Angel, alone, would fill up six volumes. Which reminds me: when you were telling me everything about Kayla and she being Angel's wife and everything, you didn't tell me what happened with that. She's out now, doesn't that kinda mean they're still married."
"You know, it's never come up. I guess they called the marriage off. I mean, technically, he is dead and it was ‘til death us part.'"
"Good point." Sheri found her wallet and the girls left the room.
As they got in the car, Buffy said, "I don't know about this book idea. I don't think Giles would like it. He doesn't even know I've told you everything."
"Don't worry, I'll change the names for your protection. They'll think I made it up."
Their first stop was a drive-through Chinese restaurant called Fa Hung's Chinese Palace. They thought about the drive through, but then decided to eat inside.
"We have one of these in Sunnydale." Said Buffy, when they had their food, "They make one hell of an egg role."
"Have you tried their chicken salad?"
"No, I heard it was bad."
"Whoever told you that is a liar. This stuff is great."
"Remember that cooking thing I told you about? You know, the guys cook for us one night then Willow, Cordelia and I cook, the next week? Well, the guys made us an authentic Chinese chicken salad, the first night."
"Where'd they get the recipe?"
"Well Angel's been all over the world, I guess he picked it up in China."
"Here," said Sheri, offering Buffy some of the salad, "Try it, see if it compares."
Buffy took a bite, "It's good...really good...too good...I'm gonna have a very long talk with him, when I get back."
"Busted." Said Sheri.
When their meal was finished, they drove to The Romju, which was the local teen hangout, to meet some friends. Buffy's night was spent listening to the "joys" of Las Vegas. According to Sheri, it was "so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk."
Although she had some things weighing on her mind, Buffy tried to keep her spirits up. Sheri could see her feeble attempts and soon dragged her onto the dance floor. After a few minutes, Buffy had forgotten her worries and was finally having fun.
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