[Reviews - 199]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 5358 times

- Text Size +




Chapter 3 – Filling in the Blanks


“This is just too weird,” Dawn said, staring back and forth between the two blondes.

“Uh…yeah,” Anne said, nodding slightly. “I guess…who are you again?”

Buffy and Willow looked up from their conversation- all thoughts of how to get the other Buffy back where she came from were gone as they heard the question.

“You don’t know Dawn?” Buffy asked, her lips parting in confusion.

“Should I?” she replied, looking around the room at the perplexed faces.

“Dawn’s my sister,” Buffy said, trying to come up with a logical explanation why Anne wouldn’t know her.

Willow quickly jumped in and filled in the other woman on what happened the year before.

“Oh,” Anne said, her eyes wide in surprise. “Okay.”

“I’m not in your world?” Dawn asked, becoming slightly uncomfortable.

“Well…Glory was never a big threat for me,” she said, sitting up a little straighter when three gazes were directed at her, each with an expression of disbelief. “She was strong,” Anne continued, feeling the need to correct herself. “But she was taken out of the equation pretty fast.”

“Meaning…?” Dawn asked, still looking confused.

“Spike and I were at the factory the first night I saw her. We fought for a while and my back got hurt. Spike got me out of the building and went back in- he said that he saw Glory change into some guy and he…he killed him.”

“The Spike in your world doesn’t have a chip?” Willow asked, her eyes wide.

“Like the Initiative did to those demons a couple of years ago?” Anne asked, her brows furrowed in confusion. “No. Why? Does this one?”

“Yeah,” Buffy said, looking down at her hands, wondering why Spike was with her at the factory that night. She knew that Dawn had been there at the time- she had a clear memory of her. Of course, she had a clear memory of everything, knowing that in her mind, Dawn had always been there.

“When Spike killed Ben, the portal hadn’t opened,” Willow whispered, keeping her voice low so Dawn couldn’t overhear. “My best guess? Dawn’s blood opening the portal bound her to this world. She was probably in the other Buffy’s dimension, but…the best example I can come up with is that she faded away and there was a reverse effect since the Key wouldn’t need to be protected. I’d have to do some research on it, but I think we’re looking for something in that ballpark.”

“The same way I remember Dawn in the past, she doesn’t remember the time she had with her.”

“Mirror image,” Willow said with a slight grin. “You’re the same in every way, except for a few distinct differences.”

“So…what’s it like in your reality?” Dawn asked Anne excitedly, drawing Buffy’s attention back to the two other young women in the room.

“Dawn,” she said in a warning tone, raising an eyebrow at her sister.

“What? Like you’re not going to be asking a lot of questions?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

“It’s late,” Buffy said, turning toward the other blonde. “I guess we should probably patrol a little.”

“I’ll be at the Magic Box,” Willow said, gathering the few books she’d been reading. “I’ll try and figure out what we’re dealing with and how to get you back,” she said to Anne.

“Thanks, Wills,” she said, smiling slightly.

“Come on,” Buffy said, walking toward the stairs. “You can use some of my clothes, and we can go bag the vamps.”

Anne followed the other woman out of the living room and up the stairs. Quickly changing into a black sweater and red leather pants, Anne caught a glimpse of the bed through the mirror. Her heart was filled with a dull ache as she wished for her Spike to be in this dimension. Jumping in surprise when she heard Buffy speak, she turned toward the other woman.

“I have to ask,” Buffy said, curling a leg under her body as she sat down on the bed, watching the reflection of the other woman.

“You want to know what my life is like,” Anne replied with a smile, turning around to face Buffy before walking toward the bed and sitting down, curling a leg beneath her in a similar pose.

“Yeah,” Buffy said with a sheepish smile. “If you don’t want to tell me, I completely understand-”

“No, it’s okay,” she said, shaking her head. “I just don’t really know where to begin. I mean…where do the differences start?”

“Well…when did you get called as the Slayer?” Buffy asked.

“When I was fifteen,” Anne replied, focusing on a point on the wall as she remembered. “Merrick was my first Watcher.”

“And at first he just seemed like this creepy old guy,” Buffy filled in, smiling with the other woman.

“Okay, so we have that in common,” Anne said with a giggle. “I came to Sunnydale when I was sixteen, Giles was my Watcher, met up with Willow and Xander.”

“Check, check, and check,” Buffy replied, smiling at the happier memory.

“I killed the Master, Spike came to town a few months later, and the rest is history.”

Buffy blinked.

“Excuse me?” she asked softly, feeling an unfamiliar churning in her stomach at the mention of Spike, remembering what she’d said to him earlier that day.

“Spike,” Anne said with a slight smile, already pinpointing the moment where their timelines must have split. “William the Bloody. The hottie vamp that walked me over here,” she said in a teasing voice.

Ignoring the twinge of jealousy, Buffy took a deep breath. “Yeah, but…‘the rest is history’,” she repeated. “What’s ‘the rest’? Definitely not remembering that, and I sure don’t remember anything being classified as ‘history’.”

“Well,” Anne said slowly, trying to remember the earlier details of their relationship. “He showed up…a lot happened…history.”

“When?” Buffy asked in disbelief.

“Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t remember,” she said with a smile.

“Remember…what?” she asked, obviously confused.

“The clapping,” Anne said, nearly giggling as she remembered. “Staking the vamp outside of the Bronze, and he just comes out of nowhere and starts clapping.”

“I remember,” Buffy said with a slight smile, picking at the comforter as the memory came back to her.

“Do you remember how you felt?”

“Nervous,” she replied, looking up at the woman who was her, by all rights, and seeing the disbelief on her face. “You weren’t?”

“After a minute, yeah,” Anne replied. “But that first moment…the second that he walked out of the shadows…you don’t remember that flippy feeling in your stomach? The way his eyes looked as he stared at you with such intensity? The way everything seemed to fade out for the briefest moment?”

Taking a deep breath, Buffy slowly nodded. “Yeah,” she whispered. “I remember that.”

“After that, everything just kind of fell into place,” Anne said with a shrug. “Spike broke into the school and tried to threaten me, then he bit me.”

Buffy nodded as she remembered that night before looking over at Anne in shock. “Excuse me?”

“Which part?” Anne asked, looking confused.

“The bitey part?”

“Um…we fought,” Anne said, her eyebrows furrowing as she remembered the events of that night. “He hit me with a two-by-four and then bit me.”

“That’s where it changed,” Buffy murmured, her eyes going wide. “In my reality- this reality- Mom hit him with an axe.”

“Wow! She did?” Anne asked excitedly, giggling at the image of her mother wielding and axe and what Spike’s expression would have been.

“What happened after that?”

“He took a lot of blood,” Anne said, nodding as she remembered. “But he didn’t kill me…told me that he wasn’t finished with me yet. Just kind of left me there. I recovered pretty quickly and went home. He went through this whole phase where he followed me on patrols and watched me fight. I teased him later, asking why he didn’t just send a minion, and he said it was because he liked to watch me fight. He said it was a silent dance between us.”

“Could have danced all night with that one.”

“You think we're dancing?”

“That's all we've ever done.”

Shaking her head to clear it of the memory, Buffy took a deep breath. “That sounds about right,” she murmured before looking up once again. “And you two are…together?” she asked, her brows furrowed in confusion.

“For the last four years,” she said with a nod, causing Buffy’s eyes to widen.

“But…what about your friends?” she asked, staring at Anne in confusion.

“What about ‘em?” she asked with a shrug. “It’s my life. They weren’t exactly happy about it, but they love me and want me to be happy. It’s not like Spike’s still feeding on people- I got him out of that really quickly,” she said with a smile. “I guess that would be the very definition of ‘conflict of interests’.”

“But…I don’t understand,” Buffy murmured, looking down at the bedspread. “He’s soulless.”

“You have no idea how many times I tried to tell myself that when I wanted to talk myself out of it,” Anne said, studying the other woman carefully as she spoke, noticing the slight flinch when she spoke. “But the bottom line is- what’s a soul? I mean…what does it do, exactly?” she asked. “It doesn’t really tell you right from wrong- it just gives you guilt. Humans have souls and they still kill all the time and rape and torture. I thought a lot about it and realized that if Spike could choose between right and wrong, well…that’s better than guilt any day of the week.”

Reeling from the information she was being given, Buffy took a deep breath. “What about Drusilla?”

“She was…around,” Anne said, obviously pained about the subject. “Spike didn’t really find a cure for her, so she just got weaker and weaker until she wouldn’t even feed anymore.”

“She’s dead?” Buffy asked, watching Anne nod. “Did he…did he choose you over her?”

“It’s a tough situation,” Anne said with a nervous smile, tucking a lock of long blonde hair behind her ear. “Obviously- yes, he chose me over her. But at the same time…when Spike loves someone, he doesn’t do it lightly. He wasn’t going to turn his back on Dru, but he wasn’t spending a lot of time trying to find a cure, and I know that he didn’t want it to end that way.”

Buffy nodded as Anne turned toward her. This time, it was her turn to have the confused expression. “What about you?” she asked. “You and Spike? There’s obviously got to be something. I know from first-hand experience that he can’t be ignored,” she said with a grin.

“It’s…complicated,” Buffy said softly, avoiding the other girl’s eyes as she looked down at her hands.

“Buffy,” Anne said, gaining her attention once again. “When is it ever easy?”

“I just…there’s a lot that’s different. I never…Spike and I…”

“I’m listening,” Anne said softly, seeing the pain on the other woman’s face, confused at what possibly could have put that expression there.

“Angel,” Buffy murmured, raising her eyes to Anne’s. “What about Angel?”

“Mr. Tall Dark and Brooding?” Anne asked, shrugging when Buffy nodded. “He was around for a while. Never really a big part of my life, if that’s what you’re wondering. He was kind of there, but he always remained the lurky guy. What is he to you?” she asked in confusion.

“More,” Buffy replied softly, looking up when she heard a snort. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Anne said, shaking her head. “I guess I just…I mean, he was okay at first, but…the overbearing thing really got old. And so did the cryptic messages. I guess I just grew out of my fan-girl phase and went right into the bad-boy phase. I grew up,” she said with a shrug, unknowingly insulting Buffy.

“You have no idea what he meant to me…to this world.”

“Is he still alive?” Anne asked, leaning back on her hands.

“Yeah,” Buffy said quietly, looking down at the comforter.

“Then where is he?”

“He left,” she murmured.

“Love of your life, huh?” Anne asked in a slightly mocking voice.

“Yeah,” Buffy said irritably, making eye contact with her mirror image. “What about it?”

“The love of your life doesn’t leave.”

“It was for my own good,” Buffy said defensively.

“So it was your decision, then?”

“Well…no.”

“So…the best decision for you was for you not to make your own decisions,” Anne said with a raised eyebrow.

“He wanted me to have a normal life,” Buffy said, avoiding the other woman’s eyes once again.

“How’s that workin’ out for you?”

“Where do you get off being all superior?” Buffy asked, getting to her feet and pacing the room. “You’re the one who’s shacking up with a soulless demon.”

“Yeah,” Anne agreed with a nod, waiting until Buffy looked her in the eye before continuing. “And guess which one of us is the happy one.”

“That’s not…”

“Fair?” Anne filled in, pulling her hair into a high ponytail as she spoke. “Since when is life fair? I’m the… we’re Slayers,” she said, finishing her task and giving Buffy a shrug. “We don’t get much happiness in the world. We don’t get many moments when we’re able to forget about everything and just be Buffy. So when you find that, you have to grab onto it and hold it as tight as you can. Now, I’m asking you,” she said, standing up and moving to stand in front of Buffy, crossing her arms over her chest. “I believe you when you say you loved Angel…but who do you think of now?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Who do you want to be with?” Anne asked. “Who do you need? Who fills every waking hour?”

‘Spike.’ Buffy’s mind automatically flashed to his face, leaving her to briefly close her eyes, remembering the sorrow that she had caused him.

“I’ve learned to depend on him,” Anne continued, studying the other woman, knowing exactly who she was thinking of. “Maybe that’s a flaw of mine. Maybe a Slayer shouldn’t depend on anyone. I’ve known you an hour and I can already tell that you’re a lot more independent than I am.”

“Thanks,” Buffy said, narrowing her eyes, not taking what was being said at face value.

“And you’re lonely,” she continued, trying to give her a slight smile before turning and walking toward the door. “Think about whether it’s better to be lonely and please everyone around you or whether your happiness is more important.”






Thanks so much to: MidnightGirl, Bree, symbolica, Spikeyreader, spuffette, Cordykitten, Olivia-luv, Bloodshedbaby, Mariana, riam, Trish, BuffyandSpikeForever, blondiebear, DK, Caitie, Juanita, willowmouse, phantomwriter & Crystal Pegasus for reviewing!





You must login (register) to review.