Chapter Two
“Come on, push it Sally. Let it go. Let it out. You’re like a freaking mouse. Hit her.”
Sally flinched as Rowena’s kick came towards her head. She ducked and cowered, quickly backing away from the blonde tomboy slayer.
“Jesus, how are you ever going to get any better? You’re never going to get out on the field if you can’t fight.” Buffy dusted the crumbs of her sandwich off her hands and sent her most scathing look towards the older blonde bombshell.
“I can fight! I just don’t want to hurt her.” Sally whispered to her feet.
The castle practice courts were hemmed with freshly mown grass, the damp grainy sand of the arena flicked up as the Slayers’ feet slapped down. The Scottish moor was heavy with fog, each sucking in of air an effort and a half. Somewhere, a Golden Eagle sounded as the sweaty sheens of the Slayers’ skin slapped together.
“She’s stronger than you! She’s been training for longer.” Buffy menacingly stalked towards Sally, ire in every step.
Buffy couldn’t see the desire or the fear of rejection or the abject terror that covered Sally’s eyes in a glazy film.
“You are delusional if you think that your age will grant you respect when you are out there, killing monsters. It’s not just instinct. If you don’t learn technique, you’re going to die. Just like--”
Buffy’s face almost touched Sally’s, her body taut and ready to slap her hands together at Sally’s nose, reminiscent of a night long past with a defanged vampire. But before Buffy could say ‘Lesson, the first’, Xander walked into the castle training courts.
“Haggis is up!” From the looks of disgust on the three women’s faces, Xander lifted his hands in the air and back up. “Just kidding. Buffy, a message from G-man just came in.”
“Start again, from the left kick drills.”
Buffy walked up the cold draughty stairwells to the private workroom she shared with Xander. The phone blinked and Buffy sighed. She just knew she didn’t want to take this phone call.
“Hi Giles. What’s the what?” Absently twirling the stake she’d taken from out of her pocket, Buffy sat down on her squeaking chair and leaned back to place her grubby boots on the smooth wooden desk.
“Sally, how is she coming along?”
“Why, is there some mystical prophecy pertaining to the training of an annoying slayer?” The stake flipped up into the air and a deft small hand caught it.
At the bottom end of the UK, Giles removed his glasses, polishing furiously.
“How is she annoying, Buffy?”
“She’s with the blondeness and the shyness and the sexiness. And her shoes! Jesus, what did Angel do? Go and loot the nearest D&G?”
Giles rolled his eyes and huffed from behind the safety of the telephone line.
“Is there anything wrong with the way she is training? Has she shown the potential Wesley saw?”
Buffy looked at the CCTV camera that showed the practise courts and sighed. The woman was really, really beautiful and she had finally lost her temper. Buffy watched as Sally threw kick and punch at the shorter slayer, limbs speeding through the air in a blur.
“Jesus.”
“What?” Giles asked, fearing the worst and polishing harder.
“She’s got more than potential Giles. She’s…good.”
Giles’ voice was a distant buzz as Buffy’s senses focused on the little television screen. The salty slick sweat shined on Sally’s body. Buffy was panting as the jabs and kicks flew towards Rowena.
“Sorry Giles, gotta go. In the middle of Sally’s training session.”
By the time Buffy got back to the training court, Sally’s anger had subsided and she was breathing heavily, her body bent in half with her hands on her knees, head tucked between her arms. Rowena was looking at Sally with a tinge of fear and a large helping of apprehension.
“What did it? What did Rowena say that finally pushed you over the edge?” Buffy asked the buxom blonde.
Sally flicked the golden curls away from her face, a small smile tickling her lips and blush covering her cheeks. She looked up at Buffy.
“She insulted my hair.”
****
Buffy’s heart ripped out of chest, again. The hand, the fire, the smoke, the dust, the sun. All of the aspects of a horrible whole that had come together to release Spike out of her life. God, she just wanted to…
Her sobs echoed from the turret, down the secluded stairwell that led straight to Dawn’s room. Buffy could have won the blue ribbon in ‘wracks of the upper torso’ if only the Olympics had a sporting category for grief. Maybe javelin.
The salty tears flowed down the smooth expanses of skin that hid behind her tiny hands. Dawn could hear her, but couldn’t do anything, stuck inside the biggest room as her sister’s soul screamed in pain just up the staircase.
“Are you okay?” Sally stood, looking up at her cautiously from the bottom step.
Buffy did not want her newest, strangest recruit to see her vulnerable. But Willow was off dealing with Kennedy and Xander didn’t know or approve of Buffy’s feelings for Spike. There was no one, beside Giantess, she could talk too. And conversations with said Big Girl never went well. So Buffy told the newest blonde pest in her life about the old one.
“No. The guy…the man, the man I was in love with. He died eighteen months ago today. Did you know that’s five hundred and forty-seven days?” Buffy wiped away the tears from her face and threw her hands up in the air.
“He was stupid! Told me I didn’t love him. Thanked me for it. Then burnt to a bloody crisp! He didn't have to die. We could have gotten out of there. It was a shitty ending. I want it rewritten. It's not fair.” New salty droplets burst forth suddenly. Sally didn’t move from the bottom of the steep corridor.
“He needn’t have died. I could have him here now. I need him here now. Oh God, I miss him. Stupid vampire, I loved him.”
Buffy looked down at the woman before her. Through the haze of tears she could clearly see that Sally had been crying. Crying for her. A sob choked in Buffy’s throat.
Sally stepped up to comfort her with soothing words and soft touches but Buffy saw the older blonde’s body move and immediately hunched her shoulders and leaned away from Sally’s outstretched hand. Disappointment crinkled Sally's face.
“I’m sorry. It’s just…he was the last person to touch me.”
TBC
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Okay, just want to clear up my end note from last chapter. This is a 100% Spuffy story. Sally's a cog thrown into the mix and we'll see what Spike has to make of her in Chapter Four. I was going to post on Sunday night but it's my city's Writers Festival this weekend and I'll be attending panels all weekend.
Comic Spoilers still apply.
Comic Spoilers still apply.