[Reviews - 202]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 1955 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
*Chapter Repost* lost five chapters somewhere in cyberspace. But review anyway, please?
APRIL 9, 2005

After reading the entirety of Jonina's journal, Giles felt conflicted. The world she described was indeed a world that needed preparing for, but he knew from experience that time and space could be a fickle thing. Often if one thing were thrown out of balance, nature compensated, and very quickly, too.

Angel was correct in one respect. Willow's spell was ingenious. It helped them to defeat an obvious enemy. But, much like the animal kingdom, there is a delicate relationship to predator and prey. If one is overpopulated, often the other becomes weak and dies off. In the case of the vampire and the Slayer, on its face, this may seem to be a good thing, but with no prey, the predator often becomes extinct.

There was a reason there was only one Slayer the whole world over. And, Willow's magic, although an ingenious stratagem may have been shortsighted. The illness described in this young lady's journal, may have been natures way of restoring the balance.

If that were to be tampered with things could be made worse.
*******************************
IN THE INTERREGNUM

"Dove, I know you're anxious to fix what you did," he smiled a little at the way she'd taken after him, "You're a bit like your Da that way. But, you need to give the old Watcher time to figure it out. And you need to give him," he shook his head. Spike still couldn't get used to referring to himself in the third person, "a chance to get to know his daughter. Angel has taken you away from him for the time being."

Joni tried not to cry. She hadn't seen her Daddy in so long that it was hard to keep the tears away, "Angelus didn't take anything from him Daddy. I did."

"Sweetling," he cooed, "we are not going through this again. This is not your fault. If anything, this is Angelus's fault, for jumping the gun."

Jonina was inconsolable, "Then it is my fault, Daddy," she resisted his embrace, but Spike didn't loosen his gentle hold on her, "If I'd only listened to Aunt Willow! Then it would have stopped," her voice quivered, "with you. And your death wouldn't have been for nothing. I'm so sorry, Daddy."

He shook his head, "Hush, none of that now," he smiled, gently lifting her chin to meet his eyes, "Or, do I have to bring your Mum in here?"

"Daddy, this is so hard. All I wanted was you, and now all I want to do is help. Now, I can't do that!"

Looking into her sienna eyes, Spike realized how much he did love her and how much he would love her, if he were given the chance, "Can't help? Now, come on, you know how smart your Mum and Dad are. I'm sure you can. You just have to wait a few more months so that your Da can get his footing again. And when he knows what you can do, when he puts the cure with the disease, when he sees what you can do?" he hugged her tightly, "Sweetling, when it all falls into place, your Da will move Heaven and earth to protect you. Even from Angelus. You are the key to stopping this. Angelus didn't see that. But your Da, he will. I'll make sure of it."

"I know you will, Daddy. I just don't want to see you hurt again. I hate it."

"I know, Dove," he said as he kissed her hair, "I know."
*************************

Giles knew that nature sometimes encapsulated the cure within the disease somewhere. Darwinian Theory even had a term for it. It was called a, "spontaneous genetic mutation."

The fittest among a population do survive. And, Jonina Dustin, bless the young lady's heart, had somehow defied time and space to place the answer to an upcoming apocalypse in their hands, months, perhaps years before it was needed. And now, all that was left of Jonina Irene Dustin was a page of numbers and ratios he did not understand.

There were a few trinkets, some of which confirmed who she seemed to be. There was that small journal which, along with telling of a horrible disease, also told of a daughter's love for her mother and her father. But, from what Giles could glean from her words, Jonina had an incredibly loving relationship with her father, one that, at times, as he read the words from a phantom life, would bring a tear to his eye.

It was the kind of relationship that Buffy had said, over and over again, ad infinitum, that Spike was capable of. A relationship that, until reading the words in this journal, Rupert Giles had thought was impossible for a creature such as he.

And now, because of the impulsive actions of Angelus, the cure to an absolutely horrid plague may have turned to a handful of white ash.

Giles gathered up the leather-bound volume that delineated a small but incredibly enormous life and swept it into his palm, where it rested with the weathered and aged wedding band, the same one that he had last seen glistening happily on a young bride's finger as she held her husband's hand. A hand with a band of silver that glowed in answer to its mate, along with that rested the treasured chrome-plated lighter. These were small treasures of a life that, through another's actions, would not, at least through any avenue he could foresee, be able to preserve the lives she loved so well.
********************

Buffy winced as Spike ran his fingers lightly over her swollen ankle, "That hurt, Love?"

She bit her lip, trying not to yelp even as tendrils of pain shot through her leg as he touched it, "Um hum," she whimpered.

He shook his head as he watched her ankle turn purple and swell even more as he touched it, "It was your bright idea to go hiking...in the daylight...without me. You're lucky I found you."

"What, I didn't yell loud enough? I think the whole park heard me," she sighed, "Of course, you brought out 'Dudley Do-Right' and his pals. So that could have helped a little. Stupid rock. Stupid shoe."

"You were wearing plimsolls, Love," he said, looking at her with a soft gaze, "It wasn't the shoes. You shouldn't have gone out without me."

"You're looking at me like I'm made of glass. You know I'm not."

"I just don't want to see you hurt, Love. I just found you."

"Ditto."

Just then, the cell phone she'd insisted on bringing along even though he protested, chirped for her attention, "This had better be good," she said cheerily, "Because we're on a honeymoon and we plan to be so for another week. So, talk fast," she winked at Spike, " 'Cause, we're busy. And plan to get busier."

"Glad to hear it," her Watcher's tense voice filtered into her ear, "And I wish I didn't have to pull you away from your well deserved happiness, Buffy. But, it seems that, in your absence, another apocalypse has reared its head."

"Oh, that," Buffy grumbled, "It must be Tuesday...somewhere."





You must login (register) to review.