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A MURDER IN SUNNYDALE


Chapter 38: ‘Remembrances and Revelations’

A/N: Is the murderer revealed in this chapter??? Well, please read it and find out….Luv, Spuf


Buffy had made sure, with a ‘cross your heart and hope to die’ promise from both Willow and Tara. She had made sure that neither of the women mentioned the ‘picture’ of Nickolas ‘Nick’ Harris’ and Katerina McClay, to anyone.

On the drive home, from Willow and Tara’s apartment, Buffy was silent. At least for ‘most’ of the way. She just stared out the window of the BMW, deep in thought.

Spike couldn’t take it anymore, he blurted out, near the turnoff to the highway into town. “Okay, Princess, what’s this all about?”

“I’m not sure,” Buffy muttered, then…… “turn here!” she suddenly shouted to Will. “Turn to the left and head out to the Ocean. Please Will.”

Spike didn’t ask why, he did as he was ‘asked’ by his wife. He drove along the highway that intersected with the road to the beach.

Pulling the BMW up to the edge of the parking lot, which was closed at this time of night, Spike turned the engine off.

“Buffy?” he murmered softly as he reached over and ran his fingers down his wife’s cheek.

“Oh, God, Will,” she groaned, her green eyes began to tear up.

“I’m scared, really scared now,” she whispered.

“Don’t be,” Spike assured Buffy, taking her in his arms. “I’m here. I’ll be by your side. You know that, right Princess?”

“I know,” she murmered in response and snuggled in closer to her husband.

“Can we go for a walk? On the beach?” Buffy asked softly.

“Of course, baby,” Spike answered as he disentangled his arms from Buffy and got out of the car. He went around to the passenger side and opened the car door for his wife.

Once she was out of the BMW, Spike took Buffy by the arm and led her down to the empty beach. He could tell that his wife was worried and confused. Spike knew it was best just to let whatever was troubling Buffy come out, on her own terms. In her own time.

“Will,” Buffy murmered as she lay her head on his shoulder. They had found a spot, on a huge rock by the water’s edge. The whole beach was deserted, not surprisingly, at this time of night. After all, it was against the law, now anyway, for bond fires or lover’s trysts on this shore. At this time of night that is.

“This Nick Harris, your partner’s cousin?” Spike asked carefully. “Do you think he’s got something to do with Holden and Katerina’s death?”

Buffy gave a short, derisive snort. “That, darling,” she almost chuckled, sarcastically, “would be a little difficult.”

“Difficult?” Spike asked, confused as bloody hell by now.

“Nickolas Harris has been dead, for nearly four years now, honey,” Buffy mumbled.

“I don’t get it,” Spike finally admitted. “Why the drama? What happened with this Nick Harris? How does your partner fit in?”

Buffy gazed into her husband’s deep, blue eyes and shook her head. “Maybe no one fits in, but, I’m not so sure,” she sighed in frustration.

“I’ll try to explain, from the beginning, or at least what ‘I’ think is the beginning,” Buffy sighed heavily. Her brows were scrunched up in puzzlement and frankly, she was just as lost as everyone else by now.

“Just listen,” Buffy ordered Will, firmly, “then give me your input. I don’t know, baby,” she continued, “but this whole case is just fucked up, completely.”

“Alexander ‘Xander’ Harris was born and raised here, in Sunnydale,” Buffy began. “Into a real dysfunctional family. I mean the Sunnydale Harris’s definitely did not put the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional. Xander’s dad is a mean drunk, from way back. His mother has one of the worst reps in town, as far as morals go. At least in her prime, you know?”

Spike shrugged, “okay, I get this. Xander’s from a weird family. What’s this got to do with the murders?”

Buffy groaned miserably, “Xander’s dad and mom, they weren’t just verbally abusive to him. They were physically and mentally abusive. No one in Xander’s family was safe from the wrath of the Harris parents. Not Xander, not his younger brother Frank. Xander’s dad, he had a younger brother, who also lived in Sunnydale. This uncle of Xand’s, he was as mean and abusive as his own father. There was an only child, a son, Xander’s cousin, Nickolas, or Nick as everyone called him.”

“They were close, like brothers, Xander and Nick that is. Even though Nick was quite a bit younger then Xander,” Buffy tried to remember, every detail about that time.

“We were friends, then,” Buffy frowned, “most of us anyway. Poor Xander, he never seemed to really ‘fit’ anywhere. But Nick, he adored his older cousin and looked up to him. I guess you could say that Xander and Nick were each other’s safety nets?”

“They kind of protected each other from the horror that were the Harris family.” Buffy almost felt numb, as she relayed this to Will. It made her so sad to have to rehash her police partner’s past pain. The whole thing was beginning to make Buffy real uneasy, scared actually.

“Go on,” Spike whispered gently, snuggling his wife closer to him. He tried to watch Buffy’s face, intently, while she told the story, worried by the sick look on her face.

“Well,” Buffy sighed, “Nick’s parents seperated, legally and his mother moved them to Los Angeles, some years ago. I think Xander would have been about seventeen then, so,” she paused in thought, “Nick was maybe twelve? Anyway, with his little cousin gone, Xander was left to ‘deal’ with his family all on his own. That and I suppose he always felt like he now couldn’t protect Nick from his own miserable excuse for a family life.”

“Sometime, after Nick moved with his mom to LA, Xander started hearing things about his cousin. Hearing some pretty bad things and all. Poor Nick, he wasn’t doing too well. He’d gotten mixed up with a pretty tough crowd and spiraled into drugs, etc., etc. You know, everything that goes along with that crap.” Buffy shook her head, sadly.

“Heck, Nick even changed his last name, took his mother’s maiden name of let me think,” she scrunched up her brows. “Branson, that was it. Nick started going by Branson as a last name.”
“Of course,” she continued, “what could Xander do about that? His cousin was underage and under the guardianship of his mother, who, by the way, was no prize herself. As I remember. Anyway, life went on and around the time we were all getting settled in our careers and such. Nick suddenly re-emerged up here in Sunnydale. Xander was thrilled, especially when it seemed that Nicky had returned to get away from the fast life of LA and keep himself straightened out. Let’s see, I think Nick was about twenty or twenty-one then.”

“For months, according to Xander, everything seemed to be going fine for Nick. He and Xander re-connected and became close again. Xander even got his cousin a job, at a construction company in town. Then, about six or seven months after Nick got back to Sunnydale, something happened. Xander noticed a change in his cousin. He, Xander, would come to work, unhappy, grouchy and pissed off, always mumbling something about Nick and lowlife sleazes.”

“What happened?” Spike asked quietly, beginning to feel pretty unsettled by now.

“Apparently,” Buffy began again, slowly, “Nick’s past from LA caught up with him. Up here in Sunnydale. Xander mentioned, a couple of times, some old flame of Nick’s, from Los Angeles. She’d finally caught up to Nick, up here in Sunnydale and Xander always felt that the girl was no good. Blamed this mystery ex of Nick’s for what happened next.”

“What happened?” Spike asked evenly.

“Evidently, Nick began to get into drugs again. Got mixed up in the wrong crowd, but this time here in Sunnydale. Like I said, Xander always blamed this girl for Nick’s descent back into Hell. Although, I don’t recall Xander ever actually knowing this girl’s name. If he did, he certainly never told any of us, his friends. In no time at all, Nick had fallen back into the bad life, lost his job at the construction company and was constantly calling Xander to bail him out of some trouble.”

“How,” Spike asked, carefully, “how’d the boy die?”

Buffy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remember every detail of that forty-eight hour period in Xander and Nick’s life.

“It was a Friday,” Buffy began, her voice in a whisper. “I remember because there was a party, for a female officer. She was getting married in a couple of weeks. Marcie and me, we had planned a little impromtu shower for her. Anyway, Xander got a call, from Nick. When Harris got off the phone, he was white as a ghost.”

“Xander took off, out of the break room, where the shower was, and bolted like a bat out of hell. I followed, we were pretty good friends then, although, not partners yet. I caught up to Xander, near the men’s bathroom. Poor guy, looked like he was going to be sick.”

‘Flashback Buffy’s POV’


“Xander!” Buffy cried out to her friend, “what is it?”

The tall, dark-haired man turned to face Buffy, his mouth twisted in pain and his eyes full of torment.

“Nick,” Xander rasped, “he’s in trouble. That bitch girlfriend of his. She’s gotten him mixed up in drugs again. I knew it. Knew the bitch was nothing but trouble since she hit town. Nick says the little whore went and got knocked up by him, I guess. Then she comes in, to Nick’s apartment, just an hour or so ago. Tells my cousin that she’s had an abortion and needs him to repay her for it. Just like that? Like it was nothing Buffy. No big deal. But, Nicky, he’s devestated.”

“I’m sorry Xand,” Buffy whispered, truthfully, “but Nick needs to cut this girl loose. She does sound like trouble and all. Who is this girl, anyway? Especially if she’s giving Nick drugs?”

“No idea,” Xander shook his head sadly. “Nick won’t give me a name. I suppose he thinks I’ll send half of the force after the skank. Which I might, if I knew who the fuck she is.”


‘End Flashback’

“So, that was on a Friday. On Saturday,” Buffy continued, “I went to work and ran right into Xander. He seemed pretty shaken up, still, about Nick and all, but he was at work anyway. The day went on, nothing unusual around Sunnydale, then about 2:00 PM or so, Xander gets another call. This time from the Sunnydale Hospital. Nick ‘Harris’ or Branson as he was going by now, had overdosed on a speedball and was dying, in the ER of the hospital.”

Spike shook his head and sighed, “I’m sorry, baby,” he whispered to her. Snuggling her closer.

“I was never that close to Nick, but Xander? Oh, God, Will, he was devestated. Especially when his cousin didn’t make it. It scarred Xand for life, I know it. But what was especially hard to swallow, for all of us? The heroin in that speedball? Where do you think that came from?”

“Holden,” Spike mumbled, ashamed to be related to the man, by now. He could barely face his wife at the moment, his fuck of a cousin had screwed up so many lives.

“Yes,” Buffy sighed heavily, “or at least more then likely. Your cousin, even then, ran the whole drug base here in Sunnydale. Like I said before, Sunnydale is small potatoes, worldwide. But to us? Holden Webster was Tony ‘Scarface’ Montanna, locally anyway.”

“I’ve a feeling, luv,” Spike said quietly, “that you’re going to let me in on just ‘who’ you think this girlfriend of Nick’s was?”

“Well,” Buffy began, softly, “I can’t swear to it. Like I said, Xander always ‘acted’ like he had no idea who the girl was. But, I can tell you this much. Nick began to falter and fall again, about four to five years ago. And if I checked things out, totally? I’d be willing to bet that Katerina McClay hit Sunnydale at the same time as Nick’s descent.

“Jesus,” Spike hissed. “Are you saying that Xander does know who this girl was, the one that he blames for his cousin’s downfall? His death?”

“I can’t be sure,” Buffy responded, sadly, “but if you put two and two together? You get four. That picture, of Katerina’s? She definitely knew Nick Harris, or Branson, as the case was. In Los Angeles, she, Kat, must have known Nick as Branson. When he came up here to Sunnydale, he still used that as a last name. After his return, anyone who didn’t know Nick from the old days would think that Branson was his real name. That’s how Katerina must have always known him. Her, and everyone else in Sunnydale. Including Holden. If your cousin was even in Katerina’s orbit by that time, that is.”

“I guess, what I’m getting at?” Buffy whispered, her face white as a ghost. “If Nick Branson was involved with Katerina McClay, up here in Sunnydale, then anyone who knew her, wouldn’t connect him to a Harris. Once Nick was dead, Katerina was a free agent in Sunnydale. How long would it take before a girl like that, a big time party girl, got mixed up with a guy like Holden?”

“Not long, I suppose,” Spike grimmaced as he said the words.

“So, Katerina goes along her merry way, gets involved with Holden, in some capacity. Xander, who’s been aware of Holden Webster for years, connects all the dots and realizes some harsh facts. Holden provided the drugs that killed Nick, period. Everyone knows that Webster was the go to guy for heroin in Sunnydale. In some capacity anyway.”

Spike looked sick with horror and Buffy snuggled even closer to him. “That’s your cousin, baby,” she cooed as she ran her hand down his arms. “Not you. I get that now.”

“Thanks baby,” Spike purred as he nuzzled his wife’s blond head with his mouth. ‘God, I wish I could take all this pain away from my Buffy,’ he thought sadly.

“Anyway,” Buffy continued, “Katerina gets to Sunnydale, for whatever reason, and hooks back up with Nick. They start their party time again and before long, Nick is doing drugs like a rock star and his girlfriend, Kat, gets careless. Of course, she’s doing some designer drug too, that’s a given. But, unfortunately, Katerina gets pregnant, with an already doomed baby. A drug addict can’t make Mom of the Year, anywhere, right? So, Katerina does the best thing, for her, she can and has an abortion.
Nick, in his drug addled mind, can’t cope with it. He shoots up a combo cocktail and goes bye bye in Sunnydale Hospital.


“Xander Harris,” Spike continued for his wife, “who, by-the-way, knows more then he’s saying, is devestated and…..”

“And?” Buffy asked weakly, her green eyes were wide with fear and disbelief.

“Xander Harris,” Spike continued in a whisper, “he flies off the handle, publicly. Mourns, publicy and goes on with his life. Publicy.”

“But privately?” Buffy asked, her right brow raised up in question.

“Privately, my sweet,” Spike sighed heavily, “your present partner sits back and plots the ultimate revenge.”


A/N: I am so not happy with this chapter. Actually I wanted to make it longer. Explain a little more and have more angst in it. Next chapter, I will definitely do that. Spike and Buffy have no real proof as to Xander’s involvement in the murder, do they? What will they do to prove their theory and how hard is that going to be for Buffy? After all, Xander is everyone’s friend.

Oh, next chapter? There will be Spuffy sex on the beach!

Thanks for reading, please review. Luv, Spuf

(PS…who guessed it was Xander, right from the start?)





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