THE BEST REVENGE (Is True Love, Of Course)
Summary and Prologue: Elizabeth Summers (Buffy, but she’s not called that yet in this story) has spent the past two years in a Sunnydale minimum prison facility; for crimes she did not commit. For some bizarre reason (a screwed sense of loyalty no doubt) Elizabeth took the fall for her gangster boyfriend, Liam ‘Angel’ O’Connor. (I’ll explain why she did it as the story goes on).
When the Sunnydale police chief and his boy scout assistant (guess who!) come to Elizabeth with an offer of an early out…well, who is she to look a gift horse in the mouth? Especially when what she is asked to do not only helps a young girl’s flight for life, but will also exact revenge on Angel and those who set her up for her fall.
This will be Spuffy, I promise, but not for a few chapters. Please bear with me. Oh, Dawn’s along for the ride, but she is not Buffy’s sister; more like her charge.
Warnings: This story will deal in angst; references to child abuse; adult language; some graphic violence and Spuffy sexual situations, of course.
I must emphasize that Angel is Buffy’s ‘ex’ boyfriend and there will be no graphic sexual situations between them. Buffy is out for revenge on Angel and his mentor Ethan Rayne and to help out Dawn. Her feelings for Angel include bitterness and resentment; her love for him is dead and gone.
A/N: This fiction is loosely based on ‘Gloria’ directed by the late John Cassevettes, starring his wonderful wife, Gena Rowlands.
I have added my own Spuffy twist to it and no Spike is not a bad guy in this one. In fact, I almost used Riley as Buffy’s gangster ex-boyfriend, but decided Angel was a better fit. At one time, Buffy would have done anything for Angel, in the show, and I felt he would be a more realistic character in this part.
Spike’s character will not actually meet Buffy for a few chapters (this is where the plot really goes off canon from the movie itself) but I promise he will be fun.
Please give this a read; my other stories were on my hard drive that was in the computer that toasted and my husband is still trying to fix that.
This is my way of starting fresh for a while and I hope you’ll give this a go.
Thanks, spufette.
Chapter 1: ‘Going Under’
Elizabeth returned the once borrowed book to it’s rightful place on the shelf of the prison library. This was her job, for the last two years; no, more like her position at the Sunnydale Minimum Facility that she was imprisoned in.
How she hated it here; although it could have turned out worse in the long run. At least she had been ‘placed’ in a fairly decent facility, just two hours or so from her beloved hometown of Los Angeles California.
Here at least, Elizabeth, or Liz as Angel had called her, had some freedoms and a ‘position’ as a somewhat librarian. Yeah, it could have been worse; she could have been stuck in the laundry room, like her ‘roomie’ Faith. Poor Faith was stuck washing; drying and folding the other female inmates’ clothing, etc.
The truth was, Elizabeth had it pretty fucking easy since she’d been imprisoned for a crime she didn’t commit. All in all, she had adapted and survived for the last two years and now she just had five more to go and…..
Liz’s green eyes fell on ‘T’ shelf of the library and immediately she scanned the books for ‘that’ one; the one that always put her in mind of Liam ‘Angel’ O’Connor. He was the reason she was here, well him and Ethan Rayne, his mentor.
‘There the damn thing is,’ she thought to herself, somewhat mesmerized by the rather slim edition of ‘The Torrent’ by V. B. Izbana.
The book itself wasn’t overly popular, even in this small prison library, but Liz had read it more then once. She realized it was somewhat masochistic on her part, but she couldn’t help herself.
The Torrent always put her in mind of herself and Angel, which always reminded her of that wailing song by EvaneScence:
{Song lyrics are by EvaneScence and are in italics}
“Now I will tell you what I’ve done for you…
50 thousand tears I’ve cried for you
And you still won’t hear me!
Don’t want your hand this time; I’ll save myself.
Maybe I’ll wake up for once…
Not tormented daily deflated by you.
Just when I thought I’d reached the bottom
I’m dying again.
I’m going under
Drowning in you
I’ve got to break through
I’m going under.
Blurring and stirring the truth and the lies
So I don’t know what’s real and what’s not
Always confusing the thoughts in my head…
So I can’t trust myself anymore…
I’m going under.
So go on and scream
Scream at me; I’m so far away
I won’t be broken again…
I’ve got to breathe. I can’t keep going under.
With a deep heavy sigh, Liz ran her finger lightly over the somewhat dusty little book and shook her golden head.
In her heart, Liz knew that she had just been kidding herself for the last two years; no, make that the last six years really. It was six years ago that Angel had taken her in and changed her life so radically. For the last six years, Elizabeth Summers had been floundering, barely keeping herself from going under.
“I’ll never shed another tear over you Angel. I‘m not going under ever again,” she promised herself before she turned out the library lights and locked the door behind her.
It was 7:00 PM and the library had already been open too long. Elizabeth had missed supper in the commissary at five o’clock because she had overstayed in the library. No big deal really, although the prison food here wasn’t too bad, even for champagne tastes like hers.
When she got back to her cell, or ‘room’ as the inmates called it, Liz found Faith already in her twin-sized bed and scanning a fashion magazine of all things.
“Anything good in there?” Liz asked her room mate casually as she strode into the adjacent small bathroom they shared.
“Nah,” Faith grumbled, never taking her eyes off the pages of the magazine.
“Same old skinny models in the same old latest crap they call fashion. I won’t be out of this shit hole for ten more years so I don’t know why I bother,” Faith grumbled and tossed the magazine next to her bed.
“How’s the library? Anything shakin’ in there,” the brunette called to Liz in the bathroom.
Liz heard Faith chuckled in her husky female voice and smiled to herself. As if anything was ‘shakin’ in the library for God’s sake.
“No Faith,” she replied wearily, “I’m sure the laundry is much more exciting then the library on any day.”
“Yeah, at least we have hot, wet towel snapping contests in the laundry,” Faith laughed loudly in response. “I’ve made more play dates that way,” the woman continued to laugh raucously.
Elizabeth grinned at herself in the mirror, knowing that what Faith was saying was the truth, really. Faith was bisexual and had even made a move on Liz when she first became room mates with the brunette.
Liz had made it clear from the start, that there was not going to be any ‘playing’ that way between her and Faith. She was a one man woman, well, okay, a woman that liked men only and that was that.
After the ground rules as room mates had been clearly established, Liz and Faith had become fast friends. Faith always protected Liz and she in turn stuck up for the troubled younger woman.
Liz even covered for Faith when the other woman snuck around to be with the male guard, Parker. She never, however, took Faith up on the offer to share Parker with Liz; just covered for the two ‘lovebirds’ and nothing more.
Nearly seven thousand miles away, across the Atlantic Ocean, William Brenton of England awoke with a start in his lonely bed. He shook his blond head and scanned his simple bedroom with his blue eyes.
“At least I could have finished the bloody dream,” he mumbled to himself as he checked the alarm clock on the end table next to his bed.
William, or Spike as he was nicknamed by the locals, reached over and grabbed a half-empty package of smokes next to the little clock.
He lit one and took a deep drag; it was close to 2:30 AM, nearly three hours until dawn. At least more then two hours until he had to get up and start the work day on his farm.
It had been ‘that’ dream again; that wonderful, mysterious dream that he’d had at least once a week for the past few months. William did not dream much, anymore, but when he did, he had ‘that’ marvelous dream of his.
There wasn’t much to the dream, really, but then again, there was a hell of a lot to it really. ‘She’ was in the dream; the mystery woman with the golden hair and gorgeous emerald green eyes.
Although he had no clue who his mysterious dream woman was; had never met her in real life as far as he knew. William felt as if he knew her forever anyway. Her with her warm smile and…..
“I sound like the poncy poet again,” he snorted and stubbed out his smoke in the full ashtray on the end table.
There was a lot of work to do on his farm; the one he had inherited from his late parents, and Spike needed his sleep. Even with the help of his hired hands, Sean and Margaret Walsh along with his best mate, Xander Harris; Spike’s hard work never seemed to be finished.
After punching his mussed pillow back into shape, he lay his head down on it. He knew he’d probably toss and turn for at least an hour before he slept again.
Finally, he managed to fall back asleep, hoping against hope that . He hoped that he’d have that dream again. The one with ‘her‘ in it.
Even if he wasn’t much for signs, premonitions or omens; Spike felt as if the continuous visits by his dream woman had to mean something.
Didn’t they?
Elizabeth stirred the fairly decent looking oatmeal with her spoon and tried not to quite hear what Faith was going on about.
“So Parker and me, last night,” Faith chuckled lowly, wolfing down her oatmeal and toast. “We really did the wild thing in style this time. He took me to the laundry room and…..”
“Okay Faith, I get it, Parker’ s a good lay,” Liz muttered before taking a bite of her own oatmeal. “I’m still not going to join your little love fest and…..”
“Summers,” a loud booming female voice broke the conversation between the two woman.
Elizabeth cringed when she recognized the familiar harsh voice of Sam, the head female security guard.
“Godzilla’s callin’ you Liz,” Faith hissed and elbowed her companion in the ribs. “Wonder who pissed in the bitch’s Wheaties this morning,” the brunette continued, “she sounds pissed beyond…..”
“Summers, get your ass into Warden Snyder’s office, pronto!” Sam bellowed loudly so the whole commissary could hear.
“Yes maam,” Elizabeth replied meekly, giving no resistance to the imposing guard’s order.
“Christ, what’s that weasel Snyder got up his ass about you today,” Faith grumbled just before Liz stood to do as she was told.
“Who knows,” Liz sighed, “God knows I’m probably the best behaved inmate in this joint,” she finished bitterly.
“Hey, maybe you’re getting’ out early ‘cos of good behavior,” Faith intoned brightly with a large grin.
“Always the optimist, aren’t you Faithy?” Elizabeth mumbled as she shuffled slowly off to ‘face’ Warden Snyder. A heavy sinking feeling in her tummy made her cringe again and worry over what weasel Snyder had in mind for her.
On the way to the dreaded warden’s office, Liz pondered the crazy dream she had had last night. She didn’t dream often, Liz didn’t, but lately she had been having a confusing, if not disturbing dream.
In her weekly dreams, a mysterious blond, nearly white-haired, young man would come to her. The stranger’s eyes were blue, nearly violet-blue, Liz decided; and they were warm, kind eyes. Nothing like the brooding dark, nearly chocolate brown eyes of her ex-lover Angel. Angel’s eyes were closed and cold; the dream stranger’s were open and honest to Liz.
It was always the same in the dream; the blond man would smile at her, take her hand and walk with her. Just walk with her really, but sometimes he would recite poetry to her; all that romantic junk, like in the books in the prison library.
Elizabeth liked the stranger in her dream, even if she knew she had never met him in real life. What in the hell did it all mean, really?
When Elizabeth entered Snyder’s office, the little weasel of a warden was actually chuckling at something a male ‘guest’ was saying.
Liz stood at the door; she knew the routine of Snyder’s office and she would not say a word until spoken to. She was smart that way, Liz was, even though most of the other inmates would scream foul words at the warden and…..
Snyder’s nasally voice broke her train of ruminations.
“This is Elizabeth Summers gentlemen,” Snyder unceremoniously introduced Liz to the two men who actually stood up for her.
“Miss Summers,” Snyder grunted, “this is the chief of police in Sunnydale, Rupert Giles and his assistant, Sergeant Finn was it?”
The one that looked like a farm boy from Iowa, Finn, smiled wanly at Liz, then blushed when she gave him a quick once over.
Hell, it had been a long time since Liz had seen a guy this wholesome and good looking, not to mention close to her own age. Why shouldn’t she give him a quick once over and scan the goodies?
No harm in that after all.
Snyder gave Liz that ‘be a good girl Summers’ glare of his and turned the floor over to the older man with the tall drink of water that was Finn.
“Miss Summers,” Chief Giles began in a clipped, proper British accent, “I am pleased to meet you,” he finished by actually reaching out his hand to take her‘s in it.
“What’s this about?” Liz asked suspiciously, even though she squeezed Giles’ hand just slightly in return. Obviously, this was all a little overwhelming to her, especially since she was not used to so much fucking politeness from anyone. Besides, old Rupert wasn’t so bad on the eyes either, but she kept that particular thought to herself.
It dawned on Liz that Chief Giles sounded a bit like the mysterious stranger of her dreams. Except he was probably close to thirty years older then dream guy and…..
“Well,” Rupert Giles cleared his throat and spoke in a soft, almost fatherly tone. He graced Liz with a warm smile that somehow relaxed her immediately.
“It’s about you mostly dear and a way to help a troubled young girl,” the British gentleman continued evenly. “However, it’s also very much about Ethan Rayne and his lap dog, your ex-paramour Liam O’Connor and oh yes,” he added with a wry smile. “A chance for you, Miss Summers, to get some well-deserved revenge on both of them.”
Tbc…..
A/N: Well, this is the start. Spike made an appearance in a way, briefly as promised.
Oh, and I wanted to add this: I'm making Buffy a librarian in this story to honor a Spuffy fan from another site I used to go to. Her moniker was Scarlett and I miss her so.....
In the next chapter, our Rupert and Riley will make Elizabeth and offer she might not be able to refuse. What will it be???
Please read and review. Thank you, spufette.
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!