“He’s doing fine,” Kennedy said, kissing Willow’s neck. “On patrol he saved my ass at least three times.”
“I’m not worried about him physically.”
“You better not be complimenting him physically,” Kennedy joked, licking Willow’s ear.
“Wow,” Willow said dully. “Kennedy acting jealous. Can I tell you how much of a surprise that’s not?”
“I was joking. But we’re laying here naked and I’m tonguing your ear, hoping to get the chance to tongue something else, and you won’t shut the hell up about Connor.”
“I’m worried,” Willow snapped, sitting up and pulling the sheets around her. “I know what it’s like to lose someone you love that way.”
“Oh,” Kennedy said sarcastically. “Were there similarities between Emily and Tara? I hadn’t realized.”
“I can’t believe you’re making fun of this.”
“I’m not,” Kennedy said, wrapping her arms around Willow from behind. “I’m just pent up because we haven’t had sex in almost a month. So I guess you could say I’m worried.”
“About sex?”
“About us.”
“What?”
“I just . . .” Kennedy leaned her head against the back of Willow’s neck and lightly kissed it. “Megan. She’s hot. And I know you’ve been kind of a mentor to her on coming out and stuff. And . . . .well, she’s hot. Like I said.”
Willow turned and faced Kennedy, the slightest of smiles on her lips. “You’re jealous of Megan?”
“Yeah,” Kennedy said as tears began to fill her eyes. “And I . . . I can’t lose you, Will. Before I met you, I was tough and cocky and so sure I had it all going on. I look back at that now and realize that half of me was missing then and I didn’t even know it. Because you’re my other half. And as comfortable as I was back then, now that I know what it means to be with you, now that I know how it feels to be whole, I can never go back to being incomplete.”
“God you’re dumb some times.” Willow kissed Kennedy passionately on the lips, then looked her in the eye. “As long as I’m alive, you’ll never be alone or incomplete. I only have eyes for you Kennedy. I always have, from the first time we kissed until now. I still only have eyes for you.”
*
“Hey,” Connor said, opening his dorm room door slightly.
“You look like you just rolled out of bed,” Dawn said.
“You woke me up,” Connor said grumpily, his clothes wrinkled and his hair a mess.
“It’s almost five at night.”
“I’m kind of nocturnal these days.”
“Kennedy was out patrolling just as late as you were and she’s been up since ten. Connor, you’re depressed.”
“I’m fine.”
“If you’re fine, come to dinner with me. Willow wants to see you.”
“Why?”
“To talk about how depressed you are.”
“Dawn,” Connor said, rubbing his eyes. “Don’t take this personally, but,” without notice, Connor quickly stepped back and slammed the door in her face.
Dawn stared at the ground the whole way to Willow’s. The witch of course knew something was wrong the moment she saw Dawn’s long face. “Want to talk about it?”
“Whoever said honesty is the best policy is an idiot,” Dawn said as she walked past Willow into the house and flopped on a sofa.
“It’s okay, Dawnie. We’ll talk to him sooner or later.”
“It’s just . . . he was so mean to me. I . . . . I try not to care, but . . . I still . . . well, care.”
“About Connor.”
“As sad and pathetic as this is,” Dawn said, looking down, “I still only have eyes for Connor. But he still only has eyes for Emily.”
“Maybe another guy will come along and change that.”
“I doubt it. Other guys, sometimes I notice that they’re cute or smart or nice. I talk to them and, I don’t get goose bumps. My stomach doesn’t get butterflies. There are no physical reactions named after animals whatsoever.”
“The animal reactions are the meaning of life,” Will said with a sympathetic smile. She sat next to Dawn and put a comforting arm around her. “He’s repressing his emotions right now. But they’re in there and he’s going to take them out on anyone who gets in his way. Especially someone who’s trying to get him to deal with what happened.”
“He just hates lying so much. Even the littlest of white lies. I figured I should just be straight with him.”
“I think you should, too. And no matter how much he seems like he wants to be alone right now, later he’ll appreciate you for sticking by him. Well, he will if he reacts like I did to Tara. Which, so far, you know-”
“He totally has,” Dawn laughed darkly. After enough years on a Hellmouth, death becomes a little funny sometimes.
“And just like I had Xander,” Willow smiled sweetly, “Connor had you.”
Dawn felt at once wonderful and awful. She always thought that the depth of her understanding and love for Connor would make him realize how special she was. But she’d known from watching Riley and Spike pursue Buffy that loving someone never guaranteed that the person would love you back.
Speaking of Buffy, “Dawnie,” the slayer said from the doorway. “Are you okay?”
Dawn looked up, then jumped to her feet. “Buffy!”
“Hey,” Buffy said as she entered and hugged her sister. Buffy patted her sister’s back.
“What are you doing here?”
“I thought with what happened to your roommate, you probably needed family. “Willow and Kennedy are putting me up in the guest room.”
*
“What do you want!” Connor shouted above the sound of crashing. “Just tell me!”
“Connor?” Kennedy called, knocking on his dorm room door. “Connor, what’s going on in there?”
“Nothing!” he shouted through the door.
“Who’s in there with you?”
“No one. I’m on the phone.”
“Okay. Call me when you get off. I need to talk to you.” Kennedy stepped away from the door, then circled to the side. She leaned forward and pressed her ear to the door. She heard him pacing. There was the sound of scratching and Connor paced more quickly.
“Baby, I can’t. I . . . I have to stay here and help other people like you.”
More scratching.
“Okay,” Connor whispered. “Okay, I’ll do it. I . . . I love you. I’d do anything for you. You know that, Em.”
“Okay, Kennedy,” the slayer said to herself. “Does Connor going crazy justify busting in.” She squared with the door and kicked it hard, knocking it off the frame. “I’m going to go with yes.”
Connor turned to face her. He was crying and holding a knife to his wrist. Join me, Connor was scratched into the wall. Beneath it was scrawled, I still need you.
“Kennedy,” he started.
“Please drop the knife, Connor. I don’t want either of us to hurt you.”
“You don’t understand,” Connor said in a ghastly voice, his face pale but for the dark black bags under his eyes.
“You can make me understand. With talking.”
“It’s Emily. She wants me to go to her.”
“Could be. Or you might have broken your sanity pan and scratched stuff in the wall with the knife you’re holding.” Suddenly, Kennedy felt a force hammer her in the chest, knocking the wind form her and pushing her into the hallway. “Or, it could be a ghost.”
Connor lowered the blade to his wrist and slashed it open without hesitation. Kennedy charged back into the room and tackled him to the ground. The knife was knocked across the room. Connor looked up at her, his face filled with hopelessness and sorrow.
“Sorry, kid,” Kennedy said as she slammed the top of her head down into his forehead as hard as she could. Connor winced and slumped backward, but still clung to conscienceless. “Damn vampire strength,” Kennedy said as she repeated the head butt, this time knocking him out.
*
“He needs a hospital,” Buffy objected.
“They’ll know he tried to kill himself,” Kennedy said as she laid Connor on the couch. She’d called ahead on the cell phone and Dawn had been waiting with the supplies Kennedy needed to patch Connor up.
“He’ll be fine,” Dawn said as she began sewing his wrist shut. She’d stitched enough slayers to work quickly but carefully. “I’ve seen him lose more blood and still kick a demon’s ass. He’ll be fine.”
“What about after he wakes up?” Buffy asked.
“We’re not restraining him, if that’s what you’re suggesting,” Willow said.
“I . . . I don’t know what I’m suggesting. We . . . we should call Angel. He’s Connor’s father. He can talk to him.”
“I’ll call him,” Kennedy said. “Short of knocking his door down, conking him out, and dragging him back, I’m not good for much in these situations. I always say the wrong things.”
“I’ll bet you apologized before you knocked him out,” Willow smiled.
“Actually, yeah. I did.”
“Well, that was a nice touch,” Buffy said, trying to encourage Kennedy. As Kennedy left the room, Buffy turned back to Willow. “I’m glad she’s calling. Talking to Angel is hard enough. But if Nina had answered, I think I’d have started crying.”
“You didn’t hear?” Willow said. “Angel and Nina broke up.”
“What?”
“Hey guys,” Dawn said as she wrapped Connor’s wrist with gauze. “Can we catch up on gossip when our friend isn’t lying on a couch after trying to kill himself? Maybe we can do it over dinner.”
“Right,” Buffy said, backing from the room nervously. “I have to call some people anyway.”
“People in Rome?” Willow said with a slight grin.
“Yes.”
*
“I know it was stupid.”
Dawn and Angel jumped when they heard him speak. After three hours of standing vigil over the boy, they were relieved he was finally awake. Connor was tough, but a slayer head butt, let alone two, had been known to cause concussions.
Angel turned to look at his son. His eyes were puffy from tears while paradoxically filled with tremendous anger. “Do you have any idea what that would have done to me?”
Connor nodded, then paused and shook his head. “I don’t know. I just . . . it’s been three nights. The past three nights I couldn’t sleep. She was hitting the bed and throwing things, and-”
“It wasn’t Emily,” Dawn said.
“It was,” Connor croaked.
“Emily would never want this for you, Connor. I knew her and I know she wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”
“How do you know?!” Connor shouted, sitting up. “How do you know it isn’t better where she is? Peaceful? Why wouldn’t she want that from me?”
“If it’s better and peaceful,” Angel said. “Why would she come back?”
“For me! She came back to get me!”
“She didn’t,” Dawn said. “Willow and Buffy are at your dorm room now trying to figure out what’s going on. But I know this much; Emily did not come back to get you to kill yourself.”
“Aren’t ghosts your area more than Buffy’s?” Connor asked. “Why didn’t you go?”
“Because they wanted someone who knew Emily who could tell you definitively that Emily would never want to hurt you!”
Connor slumped back on the couch and folded his arms petulantly. In contrast with his posture, he regretfully said, “I’ve just been so confused since she’s been gone.”
Angel sat next to Connor and stroked his son’s hair. “You could have called me.”
“Or me,” Dawn said. “Or Willow or Kennedy or any of us.”
Angel leaned his forehead against Connor’s and savored his son’s warmth. “It isn’t like before, son. Not like L.A. Or Quar’Toth. You have friends, now. Lots of them. And . . . and you have me. I know I wasn’t there for you before. But I’m here for you now. Whenever you’re in pain, I’ll be here for you.”
“I wasn’t exactly the world’s best son,” Connor said.
“And I never gave you any reason to be.” Angel kissed Connor’s forehead. “We have a lot to get past, I know. So let’s get past it.”
Connor laughed and cried as he hugged his father. Dawn smiled sadly. She wished she could still have moments like that with her own father. Then again, it sounds like Angel and Connor were once in a worse place than she and Buffy were with Hank. If Angel had come back, maybe Hank could, too.
*
“What’re we looking for?” Buffy asked.
“Anything that could narrow down what kind of entity we’re dealing with,” Willow said.
“Such as?”
Willow looked at the slayer and shrugged.
“We really suck at this,” Buffy said.
Kind of makes you miss Giles.” Willow started looking through Connor’s books. “Check under the bed and see if you can find anything.”
“Nothing under it,” Buffy said. “Night stand?”
“Why not?”.
“Wait a sec,” Buffy said as she opened the drawer. “Looks like we have something hidden in the top drawer of the night table.” She pulled out the contents of the drawer then dropped them and jumped back. “Ewww!” she shouted.
“Animal sacrifice?” Willow asked hopefully.
“Nudy magazines,” Buffy answered.
“Oh,” Willow said disappointedly. “I doubt they’re involved. Although, if the girls are cute, see if you can steal one for me and Kenn.”
“Sorry,” Buffy said. “I’m not touching a guy’s dirty magazines. You’ll have to procure your own porn.”
“Good alliteration.”
“Thanks. Okay. We’ve searched thoroughly and found no signs of summoning materials.”
“And the school’s records show nothing in this dorm that would bring about a haunting. I’ll have to consult my books.”
*
Angel paced the room. “Most ghosts return because they feel like they have unfinished business. So we have one of two possibilities. This is a specter, a ghost whose sole intent is to cause havoc and harm, or we have a standard typical ghost whose unfinished business is killing my son. That’s not going to happen.”
“I’ve been thinking,” Willow said. “Maybe we should call the watcher in Atlanta and have her salt and burn Emily’s bones.”
“No!” Connor and Dawn shouted in unison.
“It’s not Emily,” Dawn said. “We’ve established that.”
“Emily didn’t seem the type to return from the grave to kill her boyfriend,” Angel concurred. “If someone did want to return to kill Connor, who would it be?”
“Maybe Amy Madison,” Willow said. “She was just killed and Connor played no small role in that.”
“Ooh!” Dawn jumped up excitedly. “Steven Radinsky!”
“Who?” Buffy asked.
“Think about it!” Dawn said.
“Dawn!” Willow tried to interrupt her.
“Steven had strong magical powers,” Dawn said. “And he wanted revenge for his brother’s death even before Connor killed him.”
“Wait a minute,” Buffy said. “You’re telling me Connor has killed three people in less than a year?”
Willow knew Buffy would have trouble with that. “He had to, Buffy,” she said. “We had no choice in that matter.”
“We?” Buffy said, looking at Willow harshly.
“We,” Kennedy said firmly, stepping between Buffy and Willow so that Buffy was staring at her instead of Willow.
“Fine.” Buffy threw her hands up. “I just thought the Watcher’s Council was investigating instances of human deaths.”
“I investigated,” Willow said. “All three deaths were unavoidable.”
“You’re a little biased, aren’t you Will?” Buffy said.
“Can we have this very important, yet nonetheless untimely philosophical conversation after we’ve dispatched the ghost trying to kill my son.”
“Buffy, call Rona in New York and have her handle Amy Madison’s bones,” Willow said. “Kennedy, Dawn, and I will go handle Steven Radinsky’s bones. Angel, stay here with Connor. Bond or something.”
“I want to come,” Connor said.
“Sorry,” Willow said. “You’re sitting out this round.”
*
Willow, Dawn, and Kennedy crept through Alta Mesa Memorial Park cemetery in Palo Alto. The wind was still, but the air was still cold.
“Couldn’t we do this during the day?” Dawn asked.
“Ghosts aren’t like vampires,” Willow responded. “They can attack whenever they like.”
“I know. But this place is still spooky at night.”
“Especially when a tombstone is flying your way,” Kennedy said before tackling Dawn out of the way. The tombstone smashed to pieces on another tombstone behind Dawn.
“Looks like we have the right graveyard,” Willow said.
“We’re not going to be able to dig the body up if we’re under attack,” Kennedy said.
“Dawn and I will cover,” Will answered.
A tree branch shot for Kennedy, but Willow waved her arm and deflected it. Kennedy jumped to her feet and grabbed the shovel she’d brought. Another branch shot for her, but she slapped it away with the shovel.
She found Steve Radinsky’s grave and began digging frantically as Willow and Dawn repelled flying objects. “Done!”
Kennedy hadn’t uncovered the coffin’s entire surface, only a small part of it. Willow dove to the hole and dumped a powder down onto the coffin. “Surface!”
With a tremendous force, the coffin shot up from the grave as if propelled by an explosion. Dirt and soil filled the air and the trio began coughing.
“Willow!” Dawn yelled, pointing around her. When Steven’s coffin shot to the surface, so had the coffins in the eight graves surrounding them. Zombies climbed out of the coffins and began lumbering toward Willow and the others.
“Always with the zombies,” Willow growled. “I hate this guy.”
“You take the grave, I take the zombies,” Kennedy said, hurriedly picking up her shovel again. She charged forward and slammed the blade of the shovel between the neck and head of the first zombie. It dropped dead.
Willow opened the coffin to find Steven Radinsky’s rotting corpse. She dumped gasoline on top of it and dropped a match. The dead warlock’s flesh and bone lit ablaze. Willow anxiously watched the corpse burn as Dawn and Kennedy fought off the zombies.
“Kennedy, duck!” Dawn yelled.
The slayer hit the ground as another headstone flew past her and nailed the zombie that was charging her.
When the remains were sufficiently black, she dumped the salt on top of it and pushed the body back into the grave. With a wave of her hands, the dirt slid back into the grave, covering the body.
A flying gravestone dropped to the ground, but the two remaining zombies were still coming. Kennedy hacked one down with the shovel while Dawn tripped the other with one of the branches that had hit her. Kennedy drove the shovel into the zombie’s neck and decapitated it.
“So,” Kennedy said, panting as she leaned on the shovel. “What’s for dinner?”
“I was thinking of ordering take out,” Willow said, still lying on her stomach by the grave.
“Chinese?” Dawn asked, sitting near the last zombie they’d killed.
“Sounds good,” Kennedy huffed.
*
“So how’s the Immortal?” Angel asked, no longer able to ignore the two ton elephant in the room.
“To tell you the truth, he’s a little heartbroken at the moment,” Buffy said.
Angel looked at her quizzically.
“I broke up with him,” Buffy said. “Just today.”
“Was he cheating on you?”
“Possibly. But that’s not why I left him.” Buffy stepped toward Angel nervously. “I heard about you and Nina.”
“Buffy,” Angel started.
“No. No Buffy. No more complications or bad timing or, excuses. I have waited for this moment since you came back from hell, Angel. For you to be human and single and . . . I love you. And there are complications with me and Spike and the Immortal. Not to mention you and Darla and stuff with Cordy. But we’re getting past that.”
She began to cry as her voice rose. “I am sick of all the excuses. After all this time, Angel, the timing is finally right.”
Angel smiled. “All I was going to ask was if you wanted to maybe get a cup of coffee.”
“Oh,” she said. “It’s kind of late. Maybe some decaf.”
*
“Connor’s gone back to the dorm,” Dawn said. She sat at the kitchen table with Willow and Kennedy. “Buffy and Angel are out being Buffy and Angel.”
“Because the one thing we’ve been lacking lately is drama,” Willow smirked.
“They look happy.”
“What’s bothering you, baby?” Kennedy asked Willow. “Still worried about Connor?”
“A little. But it’s the grave that bothers me.”
“What about it?” Kennedy asked.
“It didn’t have any talismans. He should have had one if he’d put a protection spell on his grave. Unless he knew he was going to be buried there, but what are the chances of that?”
“So what does that mean?” Kennedy asked.
“Someone else planted the spell,” Dawn said.
“Which means maybe someone else summoned Steven Radinsky’s spirit,” Willow said.
“Who?” Kennedy asked.
Willow shook her head to indicate she didn’t know. “We’ll start looking into it tomorrow.”
Dawn walked back to her dorm. She’d only stepped inside for a minute when there was a knock at her door. She opened it to find Connor.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she answered.
“I’m . . . I’m sorry to bother you. I . . . I was just wondering if . . .”
“What?”
“If I could stay in Emily’s bed tonight,” he said, looking down. “It . . .it still smells like her. At least to me.”
“Um . . . okay,” Dawn said. She let Connor in and closed the door.
Connor laid face down on the bed and gathered the covers to his face. He inhaled deeply and started crying.
*
Just off campus, a knock on the door disturbed Kennedy from her sleep in the early morning hours.
She lumbered down the steps and got to the door. Opening it, she found an attractive middle aged man. “Hello?” she said.
“Sorry to come so early. I’m still on Europe time. I was wondering if Dawn Summers is here. She gave me this address when she called me.”
“Called you?” Kennedy asked. “Who are you?”
“I’m Hank Summers,” the man said. “Dawn’s father.”
|
|
|
|
Rave
Barbie Girl (Becca)
biscuit07
Filmtheory (Jim)
Malice (Jess)
MebbtheScribe (MichaelB)
Reset (Allie)
Shay (Marrisa)
somnambulist29 (Shea)
Stephanie Loss
Wendyness (Wendy)
Questions?Contact Us
|
|
All stories on this site have been archived with the authors' consent. Do not copy these stories for your own uses without the express consent of the author themselves. Buffy the Vampire Slayer TM and Angel TM are © UPN, WB, Fox and its related entities. All photos on the site are © UPN, Fox, Warner Bros, and/or their respective owners. No profits are being made by use of these images.
Powered with the assitance of eFiction.
|
|
|
