Little Bitty Puzzle PiecesBy PJzallday
Re-encounter
On an unusually chilly night, two young Slayers were finishing rounds of the cemetery.
"Hey Vi?" called her colleague.
"Yeah?" the red-headed Sunnydale veteran replied in a stage-whisper, trying not to alert too much of the area's undead population. "What is it?"
"I think the thrill's warn off," the other teen declared as she sat down on one of the great stone monuments and pulled her knees up to her chest.
"Thrill? It isn't supposed to be a thrill. It's our duty." Vi was indignant. She stood strong and tall with her chin held high and hands on her hips. "We're saving the world from evil. Protecting humanity from demons and vampires and-"
"Creatures that go bump in the night?" a third Slayer appeared from out of nowhere startling the first two, causing Vi to jump and the other girl to tumble backwards off the headstone.
"Jess!" Vi squealed happily. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm supposed to start my rotation here after Christmas, but…" She quickly somersaulted in the air from where she'd been standing, narrowly avoiding the grasp of a fledgling rising from beneath her feet. "I got bored," she finished as she dropped to her knees and plunged her stake through the young vampire's chest, which exploded to dust along with the rest of the creature. "How could you ever get tired of that? It's just so cool!"
"Ashley, this is Jessica," Vi introduced casually. "She was with me in Sunnydale. Jess, Ashley. She's… ah… What's the opposite of 'mentor'?"
"Lacky?" the other experienced Slayer suggested.
"Hey!" Ashley objected.
With a smirk, Vi said, "Well, I'm her mentor. Better get used to the idea: I'll bet Mr. Giles has someone lined up for you too."
Jess rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Whatever. So, where are you headed from here?"
"I'm going home for the next semester," the red-head stated contentedly. "My mom and dad are pretty happy about that. I've hardly been home since before Sunnydale. After that, who knows? Guess there's a bunch of new girls, so it might be a while before I rotate back to Cleveland."
The other girls nodded.
"Vi?" Ashley began tentatively. "How does this hellmouth compare to the one in Sunnydale?"
"Hard to say really. Things were pretty crazy when we were there," the red-head said.
Jess scoffed, "No kidding. Living in a house with thirty other girls."
"And one bathroom," noted Vi.
"One bathroom?" the newest Slayer remarked. "You really were in hell."
The three laughed and headed for the cemetery's main gate.
***
Once John decided what his next course of action would be, he had quickly made arrangements for someone to take his shifts at the lot for the week, let his landlady know he'd be away and stuffed some clothes and things into a bag for the trip. Soon, he had nothing to do but sit and wait out the two-day bus ride north.The trip was long. People got on; others got off in a seemingly endless cycle through countless cities and towns. The rocking motion of the vehicle combined with the jarring halts had John constantly in and out of sleep.
Tired and sore, he stumbled forward to lean on her for support. The scent of vanilla and citrus and the subtlest hint of spice and perspiration filled his senses; relief eased his mind; gratitude filled his heart.
She gazed empathetically into his eyes — soft, warm, her green eyes looking deep into his soul.
"Um… excuse me."
John took a deep breath and yawned it out again as he rubbed his lids. When he opened his dry eyes, the disoriented man found himself nearly cheek to cheek, slumped over against a young woman with a crinkled brow. "Sorry," he said awkwardly as he shifted upright into his own seat.
"That's OK," the girl assured. "I mean, taking the bus kinda sucks. And hey, at least you didn't drool." She gave him a comforting half smile.
"Yeah, I s'ppose."
"Are you going home for Christmas?" she asked.
"Ah… no. I'm goin' to see an old friend," stated John with some trepidation.
The girl nodded. "Hey that's cool. I'm going home for winter break." She offered him some chips; he gave her a bottle of juice. The two continued to chat until late afternoon when the bus pulled into the Greyhound terminal.
"Well… nice talkin' with you." John smiled. The student had proved a wonderful distraction keeping the man's troubled mind occupied for a couple of hours, but now the aim of his mission and the questions returned. Duffle in hand, John took a deep breath as his feet touched down in Eugene, Oregon. He wandered through the station, grabbed a coffee, a couple of sandwiches and a transit map then headed out to find an economical motel to shower, change and figure out how to get to Alex Harris' home.
***
They'd just finished dinner and were clearing dishes when the doorbell rang."You expecting someone, hun?" Alex Harris asked his girlfriend Nicole as he dropped his dishes into the sink and headed for the door.
"No," she replied. He'd met her on his first Habitat for Humanity project. She was volunteer, a student at the community college and she had a great sense of humour. After only three months dating, they moved in together. "Bet this was just your evil plan to get out of helping with the dishes."
"Hey, whatever it takes," he joked in return. "I'm always looking-" He stopped mid-sentence when, after opening the door, he found a familiar figure on his front step. Average height, slight but strong build, pale skin, pronounced cheek bones. In a knee-jerk reaction, Harris slammed the door shut and just stood wide-eyed and open-mouthed, stunned. After a few moments, there was hesitant knock on the door. Alex snapped out of his daze, took a deep breath and re-opened the door.
The figure on Harris' doorstep was still there but his expression had changed. His head was tipped to the side; his brow was raised, questioning; and his posture drooped self-consciously. "Ah… Guess I should've rung first."
Harris couldn't help himself; he couldn't believe his eyes so he reached out a finger, slowly at first then swiftly he poked the ghost from his past — hoping that a ghost really was what the figure would prove to be.
"Eh!" the visitor yelped. "Whaddya do that for?"
"Spike?" Harris was dumbfounded.
"Spike," John repeated quietly to himself, then louder, "Spike?"
The carpenter studied his visitor sceptically. "You changed your hair," he noted somewhat snidely of the other man's golden brown waves.
"So you remember me?" the fairer man hoped.
Alex sighed. "You're kinda hard to forget. Believe me, I've tried."
John wasn't sure what to make of the other man's remark but he was anxious to know more. "You mind if I come in?" He moved to enter but the stocky figure shifted to block his way.
Harris didn't want to let Spike in. He didn't want to open the door to the past by inviting a vampire into his home. He'd left it all behind: slayers and witches, demons and vampires, and "Xander", high school loser and demon magnet. He was happy with the normalcy of his new life and didn't want that life destroyed. "Hey, you may have been Mr. Nice Guy before, but how do I know you aren't up to your old tricks?" he asked with a steely glare.
"You tell me what my 'old tricks' were, I'll tell you if I'm up to 'em," John muttered.
"Huh?"
"Look mate, I'm not lookin' for money or whatall. Just a bit of information," John stated sincerely.
"What sort of information?" Harris was both suspicious of and bewildered by his visitor. He didn't want to give anything away; let Spike make the first move.
Looking the guy square in the eye, John asked, "Who am I?"
***
"Buffy," Giles called softly after knocking on the door to Dawn's room, which she'd been sharing with her sister while Willow was staying in L.A. "We're ready to go. Are you coming?"She'd been sitting on the lounge chair with her feet tucked up under her, watching the television when he came in, but on seeing him, Buffy sneered, "Coming where?"
The man gritted his teeth and cursed himself for his part in the recent tragedy. "You know Wesley and the others planned a memorial-"
"Ha! Since when do we mourn vampires," she scoffed. "Giles, I've killed hundreds- no, thousands and we never stopped to give any of them a second thought."
"But-"
"But Angel had a soul? He was on a mission of redemption?" she snapped back sarcastically, rising to her feet then going toward her former Watcher. "Since when did that matter to you? Spike had a soul; he was trying to be a better man. That didn't stop you from helping Robin Wood try to kill him."
Giles went again to speak, to explain, but Buffy kept on with her tirade.
"And when he did die, none of us ever bothered to stop and say a few words about him. Or raise a glass. Or shed a tear." The fragile heart paused. "Now Angel…" She swallowed hard and took a breath for strength. "You never cared about Angel when he was alive, why pretend to care now? Hypocrite." The blonde turned her back then in a low bitter tone growled, "Get out."
Giles stood disheartened realizing there was nothing more he could say in answer to her attack.
When she heard the door close behind him, the broken heart collapsed onto the bed sobbing into the pillow.