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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for the lack of updates lately and how irregular they've been too. Real life has just been taken over since school started back up. I can't promise when the next chapter after this will be up but I can tell you I'm working on it as much as I can. Please note I'm also judging for the forbiddenawards again this round, so that might slow things down a bit more. *crosses her fingers and hope it won't* Just please bare with me?
Beta'd by the lovely and wonderfully talented VamptasticA
Gwen had been on edge ever since her phone call with her half brother, but it was too late to back down now. She had the papers in her hand and she was less than a block away from the outdoor café where she was to meet Riley in only a matter of minutes.

Stopping just outside the café she pulled the cell that belonged to Buffy and called Faith. The conversation was brief, only telling her lover she was there and for her to start the clock.

She’d meant what she said if Faith didn’t see her in the flesh within an hour and a half or heard from her within an hour. She wanted Faith to send the emails out, and also she wanted her to call the cops and tell them just where she was. She didn’t trust Riley one bit.

Snapping the phone shut, she slipped it into her pocket and took a deep breath and prepared herself for the fight she knew was to come. Clutching her briefcase in her hand she marched into the café and straight to where Riley was already seated.

He looked positively pissed, and that gave her a little joy to see such a slime ball look so irritated. It was about time he didn’t get everything he wanted, and he was about to get something he really wouldn’t want .

“Where is she?” he growled in a low disgusted tone as he stared at her with eyes not quite their normal shade of blue eyes.

“Already told you, don’t know. Wouldn’t tell you if I did,” Gwen smirked sitting across from him.

Pausing she pulled out the papers and slid them over the table to him, setting a pen on top. “Now, if you’d just sign beside the X, we’ll both be able to go about our business.”

Riley grabbed her forearm as she set the pen down and squeezed,hard, “What. The. Fuck. Is. This?” he ground out through clenched teeth, after glancing down at the divorce papers.

Good god she was scared, but she knew she couldn’t let him see it, or sense it even, because if she did she was dead. He was even more of a caged animal this morning than normal. Was it just the fact that she was so nervous that he seemed more intense? Or was there something else going on?

Was the fact that Buffy had really left him bothering him that much? She knew for a fact he didn’t give a rat’s ass about her. Hell, she even knew for a fact that Riley had been screwing around behind Buffy’s back with every tramp he could find.

But even taking all that away he was acting like a man… possessed? ‘Must just be he hates having his things taken away from him, like he always did as a kid,’ her subconscious reasoned it away.

Yeah that had to be it, she acknowledged, it had to be. Riley just didn’t like not winning and that’s how he’d see it.

Telling herself to stay calm and not pull away from his iron clad grip even as it tightened even more around her arm, to the point where he could quiet possibly break something. She stated evenly, “I told you already, Buffy’s gone, for good this time. This is a just formality. I want to make sure you can’t touch her again.”

Riley’s grip tightened even more and she thought for sure she heard something pop as pain raced up her limb. The only sound she allowed herself was a mere whimper that escaped before she caught herself.

“What makes you think that I'm going to allow that? Or that I’m going to let either of you livvveee?” he snarled. “I know you had something to do with her escaping, that’s so like you, always the good little bitch.”

She swallowed her pain and fear as she watched his eyes turn red and something swirled where his pupils were just moments ago, and his hand transformed into something she’s only seen on the SciFi channel. It was a cross between a human hand and a misshapened animal’s claw with long sharp talons that grew out of the tips. His whole hand had become this ashen, pale-grey color, while the rest of him stayed the same color it had always been.

“You won’t kill me,” she said licking her suddenly dry lips, as she tried to speak as if she wasn’t being consumed by a terrible throbbing sensation that felt as if it were trying to engulf her. “I’ve got too much on you and if Faith doesn’t see me in less than an hour she’ll send out emails to Father, the local and state police not to mention a few people that might be very interested in this case.”

“You don’t have shit!” he spat out, glaring at her.

Very slowly and carefully she leaned over just enough to retrieve the disk out of her brief case and slid the CD over to him with her free hand. “I have more than enough to put you away for a very long time, Riley. Just take a look.”

Riley sat there for several moments looking from her, to the disc, to the wrist he still held in his tight grip. Emotions flew across his face so fast that Gwen couldn’t read them all but one thing was for sure she’d surprised him. He didn’t know what to do and that’s what she wanted. Keep him on his toes and on guard and she was pretty sure she’d live to see tomorrow.

“Well go ahead take a look at them, you know you want to.” she offered sweetly, taunting him just a bit. When he made no movement she added, “Oh wait you left your laptop at home. Well, why don’t you let go of my hand and I’ll let you use mine.”

And to her amazement he did. Resisting the urge to assess the amount of damage done, she carefully pulled her arms towards her and retrieved her laptop from the bag beside her, using mostly the non- injured hand in the process.

Opening it, she booted it up before popping in the disc and told the computer to make the images into a slide show of horror. Then she turned the screen to him just as the first picture was popping up on the screen. Photograph after photograph flashed on the screen in thirty second intervals.

Through the next five minutes Riley sat there motionless, but Gwen knew the longer the photos went on the more irritated he was becoming. His nostrils flared and his eyes grew eerier and eerier as he watched the computer screen.

“The clock is ticking, Riley. You only have twenty minutes left before everyone who’s anyone sees these pictures and they come looking for you. If I were you, I’d sign the divorce papers, and leave the country before it’s too late.” She told him, cradling her injured arm against her.

His eyes flicked from her to the slide show in front of him and back again. Then he hit a button stopping it before closing down the laptop. Giving her his full attention once again, which she wasn’t too sure she wanted since he now looked more like a monster than ever before. Not even the time he’d beat the crap out of her after raping Buffy had she ever seen him look like this.

When he spoke his voice sounded more like an animal’s than a man’s. “If I sign thisss…” he said slurring his ‘S’s’ “You’ll destroy thessse photographs and all copiesss?”

Gwen shook her head, she wasn’t about to get rid of the evidence. No quite the contrary, she was saving them as a guarantee that he wouldn’t try anything funny like try and come back and kill any of them.

“No, I won’t destroy them, but if you sign them and promise to leave Buffy, Faith and myself alone, I won’t send them. If you so much as contact or attempt to contact any of us I’ll send them. In a heartbeat.”

He just sat there staring at her and at the same time through her for several more heartbeats, then to her amazement he picked up the pen and signed before tossing both the pens and papers at her. In a blink of an eye he was back to being Riley again not the monster she’d just been dealing with.

Getting up he smoothed his suit, ran his hand though his hair straightening it and then turned to leave as if they’d just had a normal everyday business meeting.

Looking over his shoulder at her he added, “Tell the cunt she can rot in hell when you see her again,” he smiled showing just the glimpse of jagged teeth. “And she was the worst lay I ever, had.”

With that he walked away leaving Gwen thoroughly and truly stunned.



A thin willowy young woman approached the table Gwen was still sitting at several minutes after Riley left. After she made sure the coast was clear, Fred pulled off her baseball hat and sunglasses before fluffing out her hair and taking a seat.

She frowned looking at her old friend, “How bad’s the arm?” she asked gently.

Gwen shook her head, returning to reality upon hearing Fred’s voice. “It’s pretty bad, but I need to get this to Buffy first then I’ll get it checked out.” Pausing for a moment she readjusted the position of the injured arm.

“Could you get anything from him?” she asked starting to gather all her belongings.

Fred nodded helping her pack the computer back into its bag, “Yeah I did. He’s evil, Gwen. Worse than anything I’ve ever seen.”

Gwen sighed, “I could have told you that. Do you know what he is? Can you tell me anything about him that I don’t know about?”

She paused for moment to think over what she’s ‘seen’ and felt coming off the man. “Well he’s defiantly not human that’s for sure. I’m thinking some type of hybrid demon by the look of him.” Fred said staring out in to small café but not really seeing it at all.

“He’s killed before and he’s not above doing it again, especially to get what he wants or feels that he deserves. And he desperately wants something right now, but I couldn’t tell what.” Shaking her head the petite brunette sighed, she felt useless. She hadn’t really been able to tell Gwen anything about Riley that might help her, Buffy or any of them.

“The only other thing I could pick up is he’s got a thing for blondes, oh and… He’s worried about something back at the penthouse. That’s why he left in such a hurry.”

Gwen’s face lit up, so Riley had a secret hidden away at his penthouse huh? She might just have to check that out…. Later after she had her arm looked at and maybe after she called someone, maybe Spike, she mused.

“No, sweetie you did great. I sorta figured he wasn’t human with the super human strength, glowing- swirling eyes and claws, the rest was new but at least it confirmed my suspiscions.” Gwen said offering a reassuring smile to the other woman.

Getting the last of her things together,Gwen told Fred thanks again, and she’d talk to her later. They said their goodbyes and the two of them left the café. Once outside, Gwen called Faith on her way to her car, filling her in on everything that had happened at her meeting with her half brother. Faith wanted to send the files anyways but her lover convinced her it was better to hold off and wait, for now.

By the time she got off the phone with Faith, Gwen was already heading back towards Sunnydale. All she had to do now was call Buffy tell her the good news and drop off the papers to her then she’d meet her girlfriend back at their apartment so she could drive her to the hospital…. Good god she hoped Buffy answered on the first ring and she was close by, her wrist was really starting to hurt like a mother fucker….


Tbc…





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