“Do me a favour, Dru. Take a look at this.” Contrary to popular belief, Angelus did, in fact – on occasion – ask for favours. He didn’t always demand. Especially when it came to Drusilla. She would always get into a right tizzy when he did that, and right now, he wanted her at least partially sane. Not completely because he didn’t do all that work for nothing after all. As for right now, though, he was passing her a spell book. He was looking for more ways to make his ex-lover, the sunshine slayer, miserable, and he figured that turning the world into his own private hell dimension could just about do the trick. He needed Dru to look over the spell first though. She was the spell caster in his small little family. He and Spike - he chuckled - the Spike with legs, could plan and fight for all they were worth, but they couldn’t cast spells.
She smiled at him indulgently, putting down that creepy china doll that she insisted on calling Miss Edith as she took the open spell book and looked down at the page, reading calmly, eyes seeming to dance across the page. He sat there patiently, waiting, knowing it would do no good to rush her, as she would likely throw the book across the room and refuse to help him with it at all. Eventually, a slow smile crept up onto her lips, and she looked up at him through the tendrils of hair that Spike hadn’t pulled up behind her head that morning, laughter flickering in her eyes, even as she said solemnly,
“There is work to be done, Daddy.”
***
Buffy walked through the graveyard, stake arm swinging by her side as she hummed to herself. She had been thinking a lot lately. About Angel, and how he’d gone bad. She’d realised that there had been no reason for him to be good in the first place. Humans could be evil, even with souls, so soul or no soul… she shouldn’t have been with him. The risk was far too high. She knew now that the next time she met him, she wouldn’t hesitate. Sure, there may be some way to re-soul him, like Miss Calendar had said, but it had been lost, and so it was a pretty farfetched idea. That, and there was no way to know whether this would ever happen again or not. Not by her hands, that was for sure, but some other girl, some day. Vampires could live forever, after all.
No. She’d kill him. Possibly imaginatively to make herself feel better. Fish on a string, indeed! He should never have messed with Willow. Her best friends were her best friends, and he should have known she was nothing like Drusilla. She wasn’t some virginal, naïve nun. She was a vampire slayer. She’d died and come back to life for Christ sake. He would not break this girl.
She turned as she heard something in the bushes. She shrugged before twisting around and carrying on, crossing past the next 200 metres of tombstones to reach the exit. She hadn’t seen anything, and she wasn’t going to waste precious sleeping time chasing after a black cat. She had school in the morning, which meant her mom would be getting her up early. Sometimes she hated the fact that her mom couldn’t know that she was the Slayer. One day, she’d turn up dead, and her mother would have no idea why. She wished she could tell her sometimes, but it’d just make her worry. And there was no reason for that.
With a sigh, Buffy reached her front yard, and walked to the tree, hoisting herself up onto the lowest branch and swinging her legs, vaulting herself up onto the porch roof and through her open bedroom window. She closed it and latched it behind her, before pulling off her sneakers and the rest of her clothes, changing into her comfy Yummy Sushi pyjamas –she frowned as it reminded her of Willow’s poor pets yet again - and clambering into bed. She smiled even she snuggled down. It was going to be a good day tomorrow.
***
Buffy climbed out of the car the next morning, saying goodbye to her mom as she closed the door. She smoothed out her knee-length sun yellow cotton skirt and white halter neck before moving towards the school, pulling her books in close to her body as she head towards her locker and the redhead there. She grinned at Willow.
“Hey Chick, how was your weekend?”
Willow shrugged, “No more dead pets. How was yours?", tucking her hair behind her ear with one hand, holding onto the strap of her rucksack with the other.
Buffy winced, turning to her locker and twisting in her combination, before opening the door and shoving all her books but science into her locker.
“Same old. Did I say how sorry I am about your fish?” She closed her locker, leaning against it as she pulled at her straight blonde hair so it fell down her back, looking earnestly at her best friend. Willow simply smiled apologetically and nodded.
“Only about a thousand times. I didn’t mean to bring it up. It just kinda… came out of my mouth. Honestly, I’m really, really glad that I don’t have a puppy. I don’t think I could have handled that.” Buffy nodded, standing up straight from where she’d been leaning, starting to head down the corridor towards the science labs, Willow turning with her to walk towards their first class.
“So am I. I really wish this hadn’t happened. All I can say is, I’ve learnt my lesson. Things aren’t just black and white. People aren’t just good or bad.” Buffy looked down at the floor as she walked. “Giles makes out that all demons are bad, and all humans are good, but is Hitler good? No one on this earth – in their right mind, so that doesn’t include the Nazis – would ever say yes to that question, but he’s a human. So maybe there are some good demons. I don’t know, and I’m not about to go around asking them if they actually want to fight when they attack me in the cemetery, because, duh, but I’m not going to go looking just because Giles says there’s a nest somewhere. For all I know it’s a family of little peaceful demons. I don’t wanna bust in there and kill a little four-year-old baby whatjamacallit just because Giles says so.” Willow bit her lip and nodded.
“If you put it like that, it does seem a bit mean.” Buffy nodded.
“I never should have trusted Angel. So he had a soul. Big fat deal. He was never good in the first place, and the soul was just a string leech holding back a bulldog. It was never going to work. Something was just waiting to snap. And it did.” The girls finally reached the science lab, ready to get on with the projects they’d been given partners for on the Friday. They’d worked on what they were going to do in the double lesson then, ready to actually get on and do the chemistry today. Usually, Buffy would have gone with Willow, but the teacher had decided to air everyone up this time, and she’d been paired with Jonathon, and Willow with some guy named Andrew. Apparently he was Tuckers brother. That put him in some context but otherwise…no idea.
Trouble was, it seemed that Jonathon wasn’t there. Buffy frowned. He was never not there. It was one thing you could say about Jonathon. He never missed a day off school and he was never ever late. This was very bizarre. The two girls looked at each other and frowned, before making their way to their seats. Buffy would work without him for now, but she was worried, and her face showed it. She’d see what she could find out tonight. Maybe go see when his parents had last seen him.
***
After school, Buffy did just that, Willow alongside. She knocked on the door, and waited. There was a rush of noise from inside, and the door opened, greeting the two with Jonathon’s mother, who looked frantic. However, when she saw them, she visibly tensed and smiled tightly.
“Hello girls. If you’re here for Jonathon, he’s out at the moment.” Buffy and Willow looked at each other again.
“Actually, Mrs Levinson, we were here to ask about him. He wasn’t at school today, and he’s never taken a day off. We realised that the only reason could be because he was sick, and we were worried.” The woman visibly deflated and shook her head, looking as if she were about to cry.
“He’s not sick. At least, he could be, but I don’t know. He could be dead for all I know. We haven’t seen him since Saturday afternoon when he went out to see some new movies. I’m so worried. I thought you might be the police come to bring some news.” Willow nodded, looking worried. Buffy simply looked determined. Any other kid, they would have found their body by now. No. Jonathon had been kidnapped, and the likely suspect was Angelus.
“I really hope they find him. We’ll go now and leave you in peace, ok? Tell us if we can do any for you, will you?” Mrs Levinson nodded and forced a smile for them.
“I will do, bye now, girls. I want to get back to the phone, make some more calls.” They nodded and turned around as she closed the door, heading down the porch steps, standing at the bottom.
“They would have found him by now if he’s dead. No, he’s alive somewhere, and I’ll bet you anything Angelus knows where.” Buffy looked at Willow from where she’d been looking at the tree in the front yard, not really seeing anything. “And I’m going to find him.”
“I hope so Buffy. I’ve known Jonathon since kindergarten, and I don’t know what I’d do if he died. He’s like this odd constant. White noise. You don’t really realise it’s there until it’s gone. Just like now. I never really talk to Jonathon, but I know he’s there. I wave to him when I see him at school, if I’m next to him in the cafeteria queue, I’ll chat to him about the latest computer software.” Buffy reached out and wrapped her arms around Willow, giving her a little squeeze.
“It’ll be ok. I’ll find Angelus and make him tell me where he’s keeping Jonathon. Hopefully, he’ll be stupid enough to keep him at the factory, but I very much doubt it. If he won’t tell me, I’ll sneak in when he and Dru are out and beat on Spike. He’ll tell me, I’ve no doubt.” Willow frowned as she pulled away.
“Don’t be too harsh on him, Buffy. He is in a wheelchair after all, and that’s got to be pretty awful, especially as you put him there in the first place. As you said, demons can be people too, and Spike multiplies his feelings a lot. Anybody would go crazy being stuck in those chairs all day.” Buffy wrinkled her nose.
“Alright, I’ll try. But if it turns out that he’s been exercising those legs and can get up, don’t you be thinking that I won’t defend myself, because I so totally will.” Buffy shook her finger at the redhead, who just giggled, turning to walk up the street towards her house.
“I don’t expect you to let him kill you just because you disabled him for a while. Just don’t be too mean to him if he’s still in the chair. That’s just overkill.” Buffy nodded.
“Yeh, I know. I never hated Spike anyways. He was always my favourite mortal enemy. Could quip back and was a brilliant match in a fight. It was always a good bit of fun. It’s actually kinda sad to think about him not being able to bounce around on his feet like he always seemed to be.” Willow nodded, turning up towards her own house, which was just down the road from Jonathon’s.
“I hope you find him, Buffy. I hope you find him alive.” Buffy smiled at her best friend and nodded.
“Don’t worry, Willow, I’ll find him.” Willow nodded, going inside. Buffy turned and walked home for dinner.
***
Joyce set the potatoes down on the table next to the peas that Buffy had just brought in, sitting down at the head of the table, Dawn on her left, Buffy on her right. Chicken for dinner. Buffy was a happy girl. She loved her family, she loved her friends, and she loved her food. If only Angelus would go away, life could be perfect.
“How is your science project with Jonathon going, Buffy?” Joyce spooned some peas onto her plate before tucking in, Dawn seeming to ignore the pair of them.
“He wasn’t at school today. I went by his place this afternoon, because as far as I know he’s never taken a day off sick. His mom says that he’s been missing since Saturday afternoon. I’m really worried.” Dawn looked up, a frown on her young face and Joyce made a sound that sounded a little bit like an ‘oh no’.
“His poor parents. I can’t imagine how I’d be if one of you two went missing. I think I’d be frantic.” Buffy bit her lip, looking down at her meal, feeling extremely guilty. She knew she could go missing any day, but yet, she still couldn’t tell. She hated it. Dawn spoke up quietly.
“I hope he’s ok.” Buffy looked up and smiled at her little sister.
“Me too, Dawnie, me too.”
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Thanks so much to Xaphania for the awesome banner!Author's Chapter Notes:
I've got straight into the plot. I would have drawn it out a bit, but this may take a while anyways, so I wanted to get straight into it. Constructive criticism is always welcome just don't be shouting at me for anything because it's not at all helpful.
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Tell me what you think? Thanks! And if anyones any good at making banners, do me one? Thank you in advance!