BEWITCHED AND BOTHERED
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Oh, Slay-errrr…", Spike's voice sounded like a sing-song from directly outside of the closet. "Poo-oof!" The blond vampire's footsteps stopped.
"I know you're in there! Come on!" he taunted. Inside the closet, both Slayer and elder vampire heard a rifle being cocked.
Buffy signaled to Angelus. Fortunately for her, the 240-year-old was good at interpreting hand movements. For a tense moment, no one twitched a muscle; then, as Spike readied himself to jerk the door open, it slammed into him, knocking him to the floor. The rifle discharged, firing its bullet into the ceiling. Buffy and her ex split up: she, kicking the rifle to the left; he, going into the gym to find a stronger weapon.
The Slayer saw Spike rising out of the corner of her eye. She kicked him viciously in the groin so that he saw stars.
Gotta keep him down! Gotta break his concentration! She thought. Spike slammed his arm into hers, blocking the blow she would have reigned on him. Vamping out, the revenant went for her head, but Buffy grabbed his arm and twisted with all her might.
"Oi!" Spike said, jerking it back. "That hurt, you li'l bitch!"
"Good!" Buffy said. She and Spike traded blows as the image of the rifle receded from his mind.
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In the car, Willow was staring at the information displayed on the laptop. "According to this," she said after a moment, "in order for the spell to work, we need to do the same thing in the same exact spot again. Seems that the science lab is a magic hot spot."
"So we have to go to the lab and do what we saw Buffy and Amy doing?" Xander asked.
"Totally cyclical," Oz commented.
Before Jenny or anyone else could say or do anything, several demons walked past the Magic Shop. Some bore the purple hue of the Ra'sha'hoo; others were scaly or slimy demons; on the opposite end, some humans were also walking past the store.
Willow pointed outside the window, saying, "Uh, guys…we may have a bigger problem…".
Jenny saw the direction the beings were taking and shuddered. "They're heading East, towards the school," she breathed. "Giles, we have to go there." She took out her cell phone, but the battery indicator was flashing.
The computer teacher cursed as she realized that it was dead. "Does anyone else have a cell phone that works?" Jenny asked. Oz helpfully handed her his cell phone. The teacher dialed, but then she got Buffy's voice mail. When she reported that to the others, Giles grimaced.
"Well, that's no help!" the Watcher exclaimed. "Why is it that people buy a transitory phone only to shut it down at the most inopportune moments? Such a bloody inconvenience!"
Giles threw the gear into reverse and said, "I pray that we are not too late to sort things out and undo this dreadful spell."
The Watcher drove back at breakneck speed.
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Inside Sunnydale High, Principal Roy Snyder was licking his lips like he always did whenever he caught one of the students doing something illegal, or simply whenever he wanted revenge. Policemen were with him, having accompanied the firemen who came in response to the alarm.
The firefighters had finished their investigations, having deemed the non-existent emergency to be a possible short circuit in the alarm system since Sunnydale High's had not been checked as regularly as the other, larger schools. The Principal knew better. He would have bet his life that the alarm had been caused deliberately, and that Buffy Summers, a confirmed troublemaker, had been at the heart of it. To that end, Snyder had convinced the police to stay a little longer, telling them that he was not quite sure if the fire emergency had been due to a faulty circuit.
The Principal was in his element. He had waited for Buffy to return; then, when it had looked like she was standing him up, he had called the authorities about the alarm that had rung. Sunnydale carried the strictest penalties given the unusual occurrences that happened there daily if a person created an emergency under false pretenses.
Snyder inwardly thanked the Mayor for his no tolerance policy concerning fraudulent alarms to cope with the strain the emergencies placed on the police and fire departments.
To Roy, this could actually be a win-win situation. After all, if Buffy was found guilty of a crime like committing fraud by pulling a fire alarm hoax and his beautiful chick was behind bars even if it was only temporary…well, she couldn't go anywhere, now could she? And, that way, Buffy couldn't reject him by not showing up to be with him. He could visit her at his leisure, and maybe make a deal with her and her snooty mother.
"You sure this is warranted?" an officer wanted to know.
The older man was totally oblivious to the policeman's question as he only thought about the Summers girl. Snyder knew exactly how to play this.
If Buffy went to a holding cell for all of the numerous crimes she had done desperate to want to avoid some serious trouble with the law, she would do anything, even fall into his arms.
He realized the officers were waiting for an answer. Extracting the folder from the drawer with the papers he had not yet torn up, the Principal threw it to the cops. One plucked it from the floor and began looking at the information on Buffy Summers. The youngest cop whistled as he read the information.
Peering at the Principal, he asked, "You sure about all this? Did she really burn down a gymnasium in San Francisco?"
"It's all right there in the record," Snyder responded. The officer nodded, his face grim.
"Given that she is still a minor, she could end up in a juvie hall," he said. "The only problem is that there doesn't seem to be a taping of this incident. Looks like conjecture rather than solid evidence even though she was caught fleeing the scene. We'll have to check this out."
The officer made a mental note to inquire about Buffy's behavior with the Henley High School's principal as soon as possible.
"We'll also want to involve her mother," he added. "Maybe she can provide more information."
Good luck with that plan! Snyder thought sarcastically.
He remembered how Joyce Summers had jumped to her daughter's defense when Buffy took matters into her own hands during parent-teacher night when the drug crazed gang had invaded the school. But unfortunately, the law was the law. Of course, if Roy Snyder sounded convincing enough, he could turn Buffy's mother against her. Without a parental leg to stand on, the young upstart would be his for sure.
Snyder grinned as he picked up the desk phone with relish. "It'll be a pleasure to clue Mrs. Summers in," he said, punching in the buttons for Buffy's mother's phone number.
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Joyce Summers woke up tiredly to hear the phone ringing. At first, she had thought she was dreaming, given the earliness of call, but when the phone kept ringing the elder Summers sighed, picking it up, her curly, unkempt hair dropping in front of her face.
"Hello…?" she asked. She heard a slimy sounding male voice, but couldn't make it out.
"Would you mind repeating that?" she requested, rubbing the tiredness out of her eyes. When she heard Principal Roy Snyder's voice, Buffy's mother sat straight up in her bed.
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In his office, Snyder said slowly, "Mrs. Summers, I have reason to believe that your daughter is here at the school and she is in a lot of trouble. You need to come here and get her right away, or I will turn her over to the police!"
A policeman grabbed the phone. Amidst Snyder's protest, the cop glared at the Principal. He knew Joyce Summers from the times he'd helped her at the art gallery, and she seemed to be a nice, friendly woman. Of course, that didn't mean she, or her daughter, weren't guilty of something. One could never tell simply by looking at a person.
"Mrs. Summers, this is Deputy Chief Henry Harrison…you know, from the attempted theft of some artifacts from the gallery about a week ago?" Harrison's deep base tone said.
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As Joyce threw off the covers, she smiled, despite herself. The policeman with the café-au-lait complexion and slight Caribbean accent had seemed nice, and he hadn't been judgmental when it was established that no robbery had taken place.
"Hello, Officer Harrison," she greeted. "What can I do for you?" She heard Harrison ask if she had seen her daughter.
"Buffy is asleep in bed," Joyce said. Buffy's mother just knew her daughter couldn't be out and about at this hour, especially since she had told the younger Summers that Buffy was supposed to be home by eleven.
"Could you check, ma'am?" Harrison's voice asked. "It's really important."
"Not until you tell me what this is all about," Joyce replied firmly.
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Harrison handed the phone back to the Principal, certain that he could explain himself.
"Mrs. Summers, Snyder here again," the Principal's voice told her.
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**The little troll,** Joyce thought, not unkindly.
She remembered meeting the Principal on parent-teacher's night when the PCP gang had tried to kill all of them. Snyder had impeded her daughter's trying to get everyone out, and she had recognized how capable Buffy had become at being a leader under pressure. She knew Snyder had a personal grudge of some kind against Buffy, and like a mother hen, Joyce wanted to defend her daughter.
"If you've done something to Buffy…" Joyce threatened, not knowing what she would do, but settling for any action she could legally take against the repulsive ogre of a man.
"Just see if your daughter is there," Snyder's half-request; half-order came over the phone.
After saying that she would, Joyce threw off the covers and went to Buffy's room. The middle aged woman felt a sinking feeling pooling in her stomach as she saw the comforter half on the floor on Buffy's bed. She went over to the sheets and touched them. Joyce sank down on the bed as she realized their coolness indicated Buffy had been gone all night.
Grabbing the phone by her daughter's bed, Joyce said into the receiver, "I'll be there in about 30 minutes." She hung up.
Joyce looked at the desk where Buffy sometimes kept her homework, and her diary which also doubled sometimes as a notepad. Ignoring the pang of guilt at invading her only daughter's privacy, Joyce rummaged through the papers to see if Buffy had written down where she had been after the Bronze was closed for the night.
When she didn't see any papers detailing her daughter's whereabouts, Joyce's eyes fell on Buffy's steamer trunk. Her daughter had kept a lot of personal things in there, her mother knew, when Joyce had broken up from Hank Summers, Buffy's father. Maybe there was something in there.
Buffy just couldn't be involved in any goings on at the school, Joyce told herself. She just had to be innocent this time.
A cursory investigation turned up nothing as the curly haired woman glanced at the perfume bottles that Hank had mailed to Buffy and the fake pearl necklace that her ex husband had presented Buffy with on her twelfth birthday.
Joyce was about to abandon her search to get dressed when something peeked out from under the top section of the trunk. Joyce took the top portion off and was perplexed as she stared at the bottles of holy water, crosses, pieces of wood resembling stakes and fresh garlic.
**Oh, God…**Joyce thought.
Her mind flew to a time in her daughter's young life when Buffy had talked to her about the undead. The then fifteen-year-old had said curiosity had motivated her to ask the question when Joyce had pressed her for an explanation. But shortly after that, there were several incidents that made Joyce wonder.
Her mother had sent Buffy to have a psychological evaluation. The doctor had pronounced that the teenager needed counseling and some medicine to get her moods in order. So, much to her daughter's chagrin, Joyce had Buffy stay at the clinic for a month during the summer.
After a few months, the doctor, Hubert Merrick by name, had said Buffy was cured; that her delusions were just a flash in the pan. Joyce had wanted to believe the doctor, but something in his tone suggested that there had been more to the story. Her suspicions were confirmed when the fire at Henley had occurred soon after, followed by the suspension.
Locating the tiny notebook entitled "Buffy's diary", Joyce flipped through its pages. Inside, she saw dozens of entries concerning bizarre things Buffy had done to individuals she thought were vampires, including the one during parent-teacher's night.
**Buffy's gone off the deep end again!** Joyce thought fearfully.
Her hands sweating, Buffy's mother called Hank Summers. When his answering machine responded, Joyce left a message to contact her right away, then she called the Sunnydale Rest Home. After some questions, she explained her suspicions.
"You did the right thing in calling us," a kindly female doctor told her. "We'll send someone over to the school as soon as possible."
Joyce wasted no time heading for the Sunnydale High. If Buffy was there, her mother would place the girl in confinement to help her daughter get the psychiatric help she needed.
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The object of Joyce's thoughts was still engaged in a vicious fight with Spike near the closet.
"I should've known that you'd be here with that wanker!" Spike accused, punching empty air as Buffy avoided his fist.
"It's always about Angelus, isn't it?" Spike shouted.
"What can I say, Spike? It will never be about you," Buffy rejoined, not noticing the flicker of pain, then defiance in Spike's eyes.
Angelus moved in to keep his grandchilde from attacking. The blond bastard had tried to take Dru away by reinstating his status as a pronounced Slayer Killer, and there had been talk amongst the demon hordes that Angelus had gone soft in his allowing the Chosen One to live.
This was definitely a matter of pride. The dark haired vampire would take Buffy somewhere after Spike paid for his insolence, then he'd have his extremely evil sadistic way with her.
**Wonder if I should use a hatchet on her?** Angelus mused. **Or, maybe a whip and a knife. So many possibilities!**
He forced himself to concentrate on Spike as the younger vamp delivered a savage blow to Angelus' midsection
"You're off your trolley, Poof!" Spike yelled. "She's better off DEAD!"
"Except that I'm the one who's gonna do it, Spikey!" Angelus fired back.
When Buffy got a baseball bat lying in a corner to attack the vampires, a pair of hands grabbed the Slayer, forcing her to drop her weapon.
"Drusilla!" Buffy exclaimed softly. The vampiress tried to claw the Slayer's eyes out, and the fight between all four was on.
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Giles and the others managed to beat the demons to Miss Beekman's classroom, but just barely as they heard noises from outside.
"They're coming closer!" Willow stated the obvious. "We have to hurry!"
Jenny had looked up the words, and as Oz held the beaker with Angel's name on it, she removed the magic words from her pocket.
"When the smoke rises, drop something of Angel's into the beaker," the computer teacher instructed.
"We don't have anything of Deadboy's," Xander said.
Willow thought a moment, then said, "Oh! I might have something!" She withdrew a small watch that Angel had given her for her seventeenth birthday before he'd become evil.
"Will this be okay?" she asked, relating the presenting of the watch to her as a present. Miss Calendar took the timepiece.
"This is perfect!" she said. She gathered the herbs and set the beaker on fire, waiting for the smoke to issue.
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"She's in the gym, and several more are with her," one demon, a pale gold one, said.
"Then that is where we'll be," another demon, a self pronounced leader, declared. "The Rash are not the only beings who'll collect on such a tasty dish like the Slayer!"
He gestured for the other demons to follow him. They headed for the gym with determined looks on their faces.
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Buffy hit Drusilla with the bat in the chest, watching as she smacked into the wall. Angel punched Spike across the younger vampire's jaw.
"Diana, Goddess of love, be gone. Hear no more your siren's song!" Miss Calendar cried, putting Angel's object into the beaker.
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When the insane vampiress slowly rose, Spike hit her with all his might. Drusilla crumpled, temporarily unconscious. Buffy and Angel circled each other, looking for a perfect time to attack. The blond vampire conjured up his magic rifle once more, and as he saw his two greatest enemies alone, he knew the coast was clear. He squeezed the trigger, and fired.
As Spike felt his mind clearing, he realized the terrible thing he had done. Channeling his mind into one single thought, the younger vampire willed the rifle back to the great beyond, speaking the magic words that would keep him from using it again.
Dru awakened in time to see her Sire lying on the floor, his face in total agony, and his body oozing blood. Buffy was horrified as she realized with a sickening feeling that things had irrevocably changed.
Her eyes flew to the vampire who she had once loved, the one who was now dying his last because of her.
"Angel..." she whispered. She started to go to him, but Spike blocked her.
"Spike…" she began. His eyes jerked upward toward her. Pure, unadulterated anger and hatred were in them.
The Slayer couldn't move or think as she saw Angelus and the others. True, she wanted to rid the world of them, but not like this. Not because of a love spell gone horribly wrong.
Drusilla was sobbing over her vampiric father. "Daddy…" she said, holding him in her arms. Angelus murmured, but lost consciousness again.
Not one to pull a verbal punch, Spike said, "You'll leave bloody well alone, Slayer! Hope you're fucking happy! Got what you wanted all along, di'nt you, you daft bint! So why don't you finish it, then go home and shag yourself silly over your good fortune?"
Buffy was stunned beyond belief. Not only was her ex boyfriend expiring because of her need for vengeance, but the vampire she started having some feelings for absolutely hated her. Her mind tried to tell her that here was a plum opportunity, just as Spike had said.
Nature had given her the means to do Angelus, Spike and Drusilla in, but for the moment, her heart wasn't cooperating. She just couldn't kick a vampire when he was helpless, and when his childe and grandchilde looked so lost. Buffy knew in that instant that she had truly lost her mind.
"I'll go…" Buffy offered. **Get help,** she had thought before collecting herself. She walked toward the exit as Spike and Drusilla lifted Angelus from the floor.
**Giles will tell me what to do,** she mentally reasoned. Sealing the door to the gym and knowing the vampires wouldn't venture out into the sun, the seventeen-year-old went to find her Watcher.
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In the science lab, the last of the magic smoke dissipated. No one said anything as, outside, the sun shined its rays on the ground. Morning had arrived, and with it, the erasing of a very potent love spell.
Giles, Xander and Oz each felt the weight of what Buffy's wish had caused them to do. What if, they each thought, they had ended up really hurting each other because of her?
Jenny and Willow each had their own bones to pick; Willow, because of Oz being involved, and Jenny, because of her anger over the foolish thing Buffy had done.
"Jenny, I…" Giles started saying apologetically. Her soft hand caressed his shoulder.
"Rupert, it's okay," she responded. "It's not your fault." Her eyes bore damnation in them at the girl who had caused all of the mayhem.
Xander was equally angry. "I think we need to put her on trial," he said. When the others looked at him, the young brunette haired youth shrugged.
"What?" he asked. Sniffing, Oz picked up Buffy's scent.
"She's nearby," Oz confirmed, heading outside of the library. The group followed him, determined that they would have it out with Buffy when they found her.
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At the threshold of the stairs leading inside Sunnydale High, the demons blinked several times, wondering what had befallen them. When their memories surfaced, they retreated back to their individual hell holes, totally abashed that they should be in love with the Slayer.
"Retreat!" one said.
Not wanting to face embarrassment for their feelings towards the Slayer, they decided, upon the cloak of night, that they would mount a more substantial attack once their goals were clearly reiterated.
The human males who had been further away were also wondering what made them react the way they had.
"What the hell…?" one asked.
They looked at one another; then, one broke off from the crowd, followed by another. As far as all of them were concerned, it was Saturday, a day to go home and sleep off whatever insanity caused them to have the hots for a strange girl like Buffy even if she was hot.
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Joyce's car pulled up in front of the school. She gripped the steering wheel as the white hued truck bearing the name Sunnydale Rest Home pulled up behind her. She stifled a cry as she prepared for the grim task ahead.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A/N: I took a cue from the ep. "Normal Again" in Season Six for this chapter, which was very hard to write. I'm also using Merrick, Buffy's first Watcher, in a slightly OOC way. Buffy is also OOC. Just letting everyone know.
Please read and review, but no flames! LOL
Please read and review, but no flames! LOL