FIC: The Pain of Innocence (2/3) [Part 6 of "Season 5"]

[Patrick Kelly <bandits@xxxxxxxxx>]

Title: The Pain of Innocence (2/3)
Author: Pat Kelly
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Part 6 of what I've now deemed simply, "The Season 5 Series".
Disclaimer: Joss and Mutant Enemy only. I do not own..
No money is being made.

Part 2

Buffy, Willow, Xander and Dawn entered Giles' house to find him sitting at his table
playing cards with Anya. They each were carrying hot cups of coffee, and were quiet so as
not to disturb the two players. They wanted to watch them a little longer.

"I had twenty one." Anya was insisting.

"Ace is one and eleven. Not two and nine." Giles explained to her.

"Since when?" She asked. "I was sure it was two and nine in 1856. But I always did have
trouble understanding Texans when they were intoxicated."

"Uh&hey guys." Willow said, announcing their presence.

She and Buffy automatically sat on the couch, managing to snuggle and sip their coffee at
the same time. Xander went over to the table where his girlfriend and Giles were playing
blackjack. Despite the strangeness of the scene before him, he handed Giles a cup. The
older man was about to question why they were all here, and why he was brought coffee when
they knew he liked tea, but Xander beat him to the punch.

"I get the feeling you'll wanna be alert for this."

"Where's my coffee?" Anya asked, not looking at him as she spoke.

"I didn't know you were going to be -" He held out his cup to her. "Take mine. I'm wired
enough already."

She didn't accept it. "I waited at the Bronze. You didn't show. You said you were coming."

Xander mentally chided himself. He had completely forgotten that he had told her they were
going. His father, and the new girl (that frankly spooked him a little), had been
occupying his mind. He should have gone by the Bronze and gotten her.

"I'm an idiot."

"Yes." She agreed without hesitating. "You are."

"We were going to go, and then I went to get Buffy and Willow, and then Dawn was there,
and plans got changed. We ended up going to the Expresso Pump&"

"And we would have been here sooner, but it took forever to get Willow to order decaf. She
kept fighting with us, but she knows how she gets." Buffy said from the couch.

"It doesn't make me jumpy anymore!" Willow insisted. "I'm older now. Caffeine has no
effect on me. It tries, but it doesn't succeed."

"Willow, last week you had one can of Coke and you wouldn't go to sleep until four in the
morning." Buffy reminded her.

"That was just -" She was right, but Willow wasn't going to be defeated. "I didn't hear
you complaining!"

Buffy flushed. They both remembered that they weren't alone, and turned around to meet the
stares of Giles, Xander, and the grinning face of Dawn. Anya, however, was still focused
on Xander. She grabbed his face, and turned his head so he was looking at her again.

"You were apologizing." She said.

He smiled, and leaned in to kiss her lips. "I'm sorry."

"I was worried. I came here, and you weren't&I thought you were hurt."

"I've had a lot on my mind. I didn't mean to leave you out."

"So have I."

Meanwhile, Dawn was still standing by the door, looking nervous, and feeling out of place.
Giles noticed this, and greeted her. Then he looked in Buffy and Willow's direction for an
explanation. Buffy smacked herself on the head.

"Whoops. Giles, Dawn. Dawn, Giles." She looked at Anya, who she saw was keeping Xander
busy. That introduction was later. "She's got something to tell us, I hope. Cause I
understand nothing."

"Except every language on the planet." Willow pointed out.

"Right." Buffy said softly. That wasn't something she liked to spread around.

"Please, have a seat." Giles said to Dawn.

"Thanks." She said. She went over and squeezed next to Buffy and Willow on the couch.
"Okay, uh&here goes."

***

During the commotion of the ambulance, the EMT's, the police, and the night staff of the
Home trying to keep the kids calm, Pete snuck out. He needed to get away from everything.
The Home, the town, all of it. He hated seeing that look of disappointment on Sarah's
face, and he knew if he stayed, he'd just keep doing it to her. He had to escape. If he
left, maybe he could start over, erase his past.

Get the images out of his head too. Of his convict uncle raping him at the age of five,
because he was out on parole for good behavior&of his father locking him in the basement
and letting it happen&his mother not being aware of any of it&of being too afraid to tell
her&he grabbed his head. They haunted him every night. That's why he would leave the Home.
To find something to do on the outside that would distract him, and keep the memories at
bay.

But that wasn't good enough anymore. It had happened in this town, the house still
existed; though no one lived there anymore. His father had died of alcohol poisoning, and
then he had told his mother everything. She couldn't handle it, the descriptions coming
from a five-year old's mouth. So, feeling herself not fit to take care of him, she gave
him to the Home and got out. Maybe he could find her. Go live with her now. It was that
thought that caused him to run faster.

He was going to the bus station. He had enough money to put distance between him and
Sunnydale. Wrapped up in his thoughts and counting his money, he had drifted from the
sidewalk, and into the street. Reaching a street light that was just before an
intersection, he stopped so he could see the value of his coins and bills without having
to squint. Fifteen thirty-seven. Not great, but it would have to do. He began walking
again, and was right smack in the middle of where the streets converged.

Pete didn't realize the lights coming from the right belonged to a bus until it was too
late.

The bus stopped as soon as the driver felt the impact, but Pete was already dead. His body
was lying face up, several feet from where it had just been standing. His forehead was
bleeding, and it was caved in. Six smoke-like entities with red eyes swirled around the
body. When the driver rushed over though, he couldn't see them. They were invisible to the
normal human eye.

"Feel the pain." One said.

Another vanished, going into the body. A few seconds later, he came back out.

"Perfect. There's little left. He can join."

With that confirmation, the six of them reached their "hands" inside, and began to pull.
Pete's body gave an almost imperceptible twitch, and six became seven. The new member
circled the body it had been locked in, and mocked the soul it had once been a part of.
But it was missing something now. It joined the rest of them, hungry.

***

"So that's it." Dawn said with a sigh.

She told them everything. Well, everything she *had* to, anyway. Of meeting Tara, the
blonde witch's vagueness about her talent, how she was supposed to help the gang, and
walking in the street and seeing those beings around the little girl. She almost lost it
there. That was horrifying to her. But she didn't tell them she was the one who asked for
the school to be rebuilt, or about her past.

"Ah, but there's one thing you haven't explained." Xander said, in his best detective
voice. "One piece of the puzzle, one piece of the pie, one -"

Buffy, Willow, and Anya screamed at him as one voice. "Ask the question already!"

"Why were you, and don't try to deny it, stalking me?" He asked, looking around for a
light to shine in her face, but he couldn't find any. Instead, he moved his face in close
to her and stared, until she looked down at her lap in guilt.

"She did what?" Anya asked, coming over to join her boyfriend.

Xander nodded. "And here I was ready to commit myself."

"I just thought he was&cute, that's all." Dawn said quietly, trying not to blush.

Buffy and Willow felt sorry for the girl, and had sympathetic smiles on their faces. She
must have been crushed when she found out he was already taken. Xander was speechless, and
Anya was ready to burn holes into Dawn with her eyes. Willow and Buffy came over to break
it up. The redhead put her arm around Dawn's shoulders.

"I know how you feel." Willow comforted her.

"Give her room." Buffy advised. "It's okay. You can breathe."

Anya pulled Xander away, and Giles cleared his throat.

"Perhaps you could tell me more about these 'smoke creatures'?" He asked.

Dawn shrugged. "I've told you everything I know. They were moving around this little
girl&talking about their thirst&and how she was perfect and stuff."

She looked at Xander again, and was met by the daggers that were Anya's eyes, instead. The
woman was obviously very protective.

"Did anyone else just get chills?" Buffy asked.

"Man, when little kids are in the mix&" Xander trailed off, shaking his head. "I may be
desensitized to alotta things, but kids dying, especially at the hands of magic demon
smoke, is just plain wrong." He shuddered, and then looked as if he had had a revelation.
"Raise your hands if you think it's Philip Morris' fault. Anti-smoking ads my ass."

Willow appeared disturbed. "They're just innocent kids."

Giles perked up. "Say that again, Willow?"

"What? That they're innocent?"

Thoughts were beginning to formulate in his head, and then they all heard the whir of an
ambulance siren, as it flew down the street outside the house.

"That's the second one in the last hour." Buffy observed. "I know the hospital gets a lot
of business, but does anyone else find it a little strange?"

Willow studied Buffy's face. "You think we should go see what's up, don't you? And not
just because it's strange."

The blonde nodded. It was just a feeling. Surprisingly, Dawn was nodding along with her.

"We should." The black-haired girl said. Her reason was not because of a feeling, however.
As soon as she had heard the siren, an image of those creatures popped into her head.

"Let's hurry then." Giles said, getting up.

As they were going out the door, Xander couldn't help but make a comment.

"I thought lawyers were the only ones who chased ambulances."

"There's two big differences between us and them, Xand." Buffy said.

"Yeah?"

"One, we don't get paid for doing this. They do."

"And two?"

"We're not sleazeballs." Willow answered for her girlfriend. "At least&I'm not."

"Hey!" Buffy and Xander yelled, offended.

***

On the way to the hospital, Buffy sat in the passenger seat while Giles drove, as the
other four members of the ever-expanding Scooby Gang squeezed in the back. It was a tight
fit, but they all wanted to come, so they would have to put up with the lack of space.
Anya was especially adamant on accompanying them, because she wanted to keep an eye on
Dawn. Buffy looked in the rearview mirror and shook her head. She'd never understand the
ex-demon.

"Buffy," Giles was saying to her, "I want to apologize for not even considering your
reasoning for how Krischten faked his demise at first. It's not as if it's implausible for
him to have hypnotic abilities. As you said, the Master certainly did."

The blonde slayer sighed. "But I was being 'I'm Miss Right and you're Mr. Wrong.' I was
snapping, and I shouldn't have."

"I can be stubborn just like anyone else. At least now we have something to go on." He
smiled. "It's not as if we have any other explanations, and I should know by now to trust
your instincts. Especially now."

"Still, I'm sorry. You're still the King of Research to me." She was silent for a moment,
thinking about something else that had been bothering her. "I'm being bitchy to a lot of
people lately. Guess I've just been on edge."

"What do you mean?"

"There's this&uh&Lesbian Alliance club on campus, and&well, it's not actually on campus,
but they asked Willow and me to join. I started off by just saying no, and then I got
really mean to her."

"We were both doing it." Willow said from the backseat.

"Yeah, but you were just following my lead, Will."

"Is there a reason you declined the offer?" Giles asked.

"The girl who came to us, she's closeted. The whole group is. Will and I are so open, and
I didn't want to band together with 'my sisters' and feel sorry for my situation in
society and rage against guys." Buffy explained. "We don't need them."

"Don't you think you're being rather judgmental?"

"And you're not completely out of the closet." Xander added.

"Of course we -" Buffy began.

"Did you tell your parents?" The girls were silent. "Aha! That's what I thought."

"That's true, Buffy." Willow had to admit.

"Maybe they want you to join the group *because* you're not afraid to be so open. They
could want your&I dunno, influence, so they can be less afraid. Maybe they look up to you,
for courage or whatever." Dawn said, shrugging.

Buffy and Willow's eyes met in the rearview mirror. They hadn't thought of that.

"We're here." Giles announced.

***


Spike trudged somewhat happily through the cemetery, making his way to his crypt. He had
just gotten his fixed microwave back, and could have hot blood again. And he wouldn't have
to go to that moronic ex-watcher's flat anymore. He really hated them all. He'd gotten
more information since he spoke to Giles, and had found out that the new arrival was
Krischten Taelano. He wasn't going to try and team up with him.

Wasn't he supposed to be dead, anyway? That's what Spike kept asking himself as he looked
over his shoulder. He had heard rumors that just before his supposed death, Krischten had
gone mad and started killing vampires instead of humans. If that's what supreme power to a
vampire, Spike sure as hell didn't want it. All he did want, was to add a third slayer to
his kill total, and feed on humans every once in awhile.

Those were just the basics of being a soulless vampire. So why couldn't he have them?

Suddenly, he felt the urge to hit something really hard. But if the damn microwave broke
again&he settled for kicking rocks as he walked, and was satisfied when they connected
with things and shattered. He passed by a mausoleum. There had been noises coming from
inside there the past couple nights, and it was shut up and locked. He never saw anyone
come out.

For laughs, he got up close to the structure, and listened.

"I deserve it!&I gave you life!&I freed you!&you can't go making&just go get more!"
Someone inside yelled.

He was male, human, and sounded like he was off his nut. Who the hell was he talking to?
By the accent, Spike could tell he was a fellow Englishman. He had heard that England was
going downhill, but this man, whoever he was, was obviously insane. America had lower
immigration standards than he thought.

He continued on his way. Wasn't his problem.

***

In the OR, a doctor checked the time on the wall clock just above the door. He pulled the
sheet over the head of the small body, and looked at the nurse who was assisting him.

"Time of death, 9:27 P.M. Cause is unexplained. Normally, I would suggest an autopsy, but
there doesn't appear to be any discernable part or organ left on the boy's body."

"Yes doctor." She didn't know whether to cry or vomit.

"Have the body taken to the morgue anyhow. Hopefully freezing it&well, there should be
something left to bury."

Timmy's body was dried out completely. Just a shell now. And they could do nothing but
watch the body die before their eyes. Children were the hardest of all. Another nurse
poked her head in.

"EMT's just brought another one in. Pete."

That kid always ended up here. He would run from the Home, then get in a fight, and he'd
have to patch him up and call the Home and turn him in.

"What happened?"

"A bus&didn't see him&he's DOA."

The doctor closed his eyes. It wasn't fair. "Does Sarah know?"

His answer was a shaking head. Wonderful. He'd have to tell the young woman that two of
her kids were gone. It never got any easier.

***

Going into the hospital, the gang made their way to the ER. Or as close as they could get
without security being involved. They sat in a waiting room, avoiding the nurse's stare.
The woman was behind a desk, and was looking at them because they didn't give any
indication that they had a reason to be there. They would have been happy to give her one,
but they simply didn't have one to give.

Buffy noticed a crying woman at the other end of the room. Besides automatically feeling
for her, she got the impression right away, that she was connected somehow to whatever
they were here for. She discreetly got everyone else's attention, and they tried to watch
her without being obvious about it. A few seconds later, a doctor came over to the woman,
and even though they were speaking in a low tone, she could hear what they were saying.

"I'm sorry, Sarah." The doctor was saying. Sarah started to openly weep. "I know this is
hard&but I haven't seen anything like it."

"There's more, isn't there?" Sarah asked, choking on her tears.

"Pete was brought in a minute ago."

"Oh no&"

"It was a head on collision&I -"

She cut him off, trying to make her face a mask. "I should call the Home. Is there a
phone?"

"Ask the nurse at the desk."

"Thank you."

Buffy shook her head sadly. "Sounds like two kids died&doctor's baffled." She whispered.

They all sat quietly in a moment of silence, and then Dawn spoke.

"This is gonna sound morbid&but I think we oughta look at the bodies."

"You're right. It does sound morbid." Buffy agreed.

"Can I come?" Anya asked.

"Dawn and Buffy should go." Willow said, looking at Anya strangely. It almost sounded as
if she *wanted* to look at death. Wait&why was that surprising?

She'd looked at the deceased before, but she couldn't look at kids.

"I'd go now. That woman's on the phone and the nurse is busy trying to make her feel
better." Xander said.

"You up for -" Buffy started, but Dawn was already going.

"Be careful." Giles cautioned.

***

"Do you know where you're going?" Buffy asked, as they hurried down a hallway.

"No, I thought you were leading." Dawn said.

"Great. Of all the places to get lost in&" She looked at the other girl closely. "You
okay?"

"What? Oh. Uh huh." She nodded. "Just a little nervous, you know?"

"Mm hmm. But just so you know, you don't have to put on a brave face. This is not
something I'm looking forward to either."

Dawn gave her a little smile. "I know. And I'm not."

They saw 'EXIT' doors ahead, and then out of an adjoining hallway, came two men, each
pushing a tray that held a prone body. The girls stopped walking, and once the men were
out the doors, they followed. As they got outside, they saw a truck, and heard the men.
They were standing in front of it. Buffy could see the cigarette smoke. The bodies were at
the rear of the truck, near the two of them, waiting to be loaded on.

"Bastards." Buffy muttered, referring to the men. They walked up to the trays and looked
at the sheet. "We'll pull together. Ready?"

Dawn nodded, and they both took a deep breath. Lifting the sheet, they looked on the form
of what they assumed was a little boy.

"Oh my God." Buffy breathed in disbelief. "He's&"

Dawn turned her head, and got sick all over the asphalt. There were tears in her eyes.
Buffy lifted the sheet back up.

"Those 'things' did this. I know it. But&not to both. Not the same thing."

They had been heard, because they could hear footsteps.

"We can go tell Giles something at least." Buffy said. "Let's get out of here."

***

The next day, Xander sat in class, his mind not at all on the course being taught. All
that kept going through his mind was a visual of that boy Buffy described. Poor Dawn
couldn't even speak. Buffy was back in her dorm room; not even feeling up to going through
the routine of class, and Willow had taken the day off with her. But Giles seemed to be
formulating some ideas, which was good.

It was also obvious that he and Anya needed to talk, and surprisingly, she appeared
willing. He wanted to tell her about his father, and he guessed she wanted to talk to him
about what exactly was going on with her. Only then would they be able to get back on
solid ground again, and he needed a sounding board as much as she did. He hadn't talked
about this father with anyone. Not even Willow knew what the man was really like.

But he just kept imagining that poor boy being "sucked dry" and&he stopped. He suddenly
felt like he was being watched again. He was flattered by Dawn, really, but if she was
starting again, he was going to get worried. But he really didn't think it was her. She
was at home. At least that's what Willow told him. He glanced around. There was nobody
there. Oh well. He guessed he should try to concentrate on what the professor was saying.

Out of Xander's view, someone was turning around and leaving, still not convinced. And
feeling somewhat jealous.


--
"I wanna set the record straight. I thought the cop was a prostitute." (Homer J. Simpson)

"You think you know? What's to come? What you are? You haven't even begun."
(Tara to Buffy, BTVS)


"Since when is there a cowboy in 'Death of a Salesman' anyway?" (Willow, BTVS)