As they watched the bus rollaway,
Buffy and Dawn gave each other a hug. “She’ll be back soon” Dawn
said to her big sister, then wiped a tear from her
eye.
*****
“Angel?” Willow called out as she
opened the door to the Hyperion, causing a flurry of
activity.
“Angel’s not he…” One of the two
brunettes in the room started before recognition set in.
The other immediately started to
look for an escape route. Trying to get some time to think she said
“Red. Hold on.”
Willow took in the dishevelled look
of Faith and Cordelia then said “Faith, don’t worry. I’m not looking
for trouble. I assume that if Cordy is making out with you you’re
not evil, right?”
“Right.” Faith said her eyes on the
floor.
“Ok, then so when’s Angel due
back?” The redheaded witch asked.
“He just left with Gunn totake out
a nest. It could be a couple of hours.” Cordelia replied. “Is there
something I can do to help?”
“I sorta need a place to stay for
like two weeks a month tops.” Willow said embarrassed to be
basically begging for shelter.
“Shouldn’t be a problem,Angel’s
got lots of room” Faith said gesturing around the
lobby.
“If for some reason, he won’t let
you stay, Will, you can sleep on my couch, but you might need
earplugs.” Cordy said, then blushed when Faith grinned at her, with
lust in her eyes.
“Thanks.” Willow said hesitantly.
“So how’s Sunnydale?” Cordy asked
to make conversation.
“Good and bad, as usual.” Willow
said distractedly.
“So why are you here?” Faith asked,
wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “When I heard you’d hooked up
with B, I figured you’d never leave.”
“Well, a lot of stuff has happened
lately, and I need some time to think, without Buffy’s constant
reassurance that everything will be ok.” Willow tried to explain why
she’d left her lover.
“Well, we could always usethe
help.” Cordy said.
Faith on the other hand wanted to
know what had happened.
“There’s this thing thatwe found
out about ourselves, and I’m not sure how…” Willow stopped talking
as she felt the presence of another immortal, and turned to face the
door.
“Willow?” Angel asked before
realising that the redhead was looking right past him at
Gunn.
“I have no quarrel with you, nor do
I want one.” The young looking black man addressed the
witch.
“What are you talking about?” Faith
asked Gunn, who ignored her. “And why are you talking like
that?”
“I’m here to visit a friend, I
don’t want a fight either.” Willow said, removing her hand from
under her coat, as Gunn did the same thing.
“Excuse me?” Cordelia interjected
“But what the hell are you two doing, how do you know each other?”
“We don’t” They both said at the
same time.
“Then why the private
conversation?” Faith backed her girlfriend up.
“They don’t know about you?” Willow
asked Gunn.
“It never came up. They don’t know
about you either.” He replied.
“Yes, but I just found out.”
“Oh.”
“If you two don’t stop that I’m
going to become very angry.” Cordy threatened.
“You’ve known them longer, you tell
them.” Gunn said.
“Ok, you two remember about the
thing I was about to tell you before we were joined by the men?”
They nodded “Well, it’s like this. I’m immortal. Buffy istoo. We
found out like seven months ago, and since then we’ve been learning
more about how to fight, how to survive.”
“Immortal?” Faith laughed, thinking
it was a joke.
“I’m serious.” Willow said her tone
proving her words.
“Yeah!” Snorted
Faith.
“Gunn, do you have a knife?” Gunn
reached into his pocket and pulled out a jackknife, which he handed
to the witch. She opened the blade, and before anyone could stop her
made a deep cut in her palm. “Ow” she
exclaimed.
Everyone in the room, exceptGunn
rushed towards her, screaming bloody murder.
“Relax!” She commanded, then wiped
the blood away, and displayed her hand, which was absolutely fine,
except for a rapidly fading, angry red line.
“What the fuck?” Faith said as she
staggered backwards.
“She’s immortal like shetold you,
and so am I.” Gunn said once everyone had calmed down a
bit.
“How old are you anyway?” Willow
asked of Gunn.
“237 years old. I was bornin
Africa, then I was captured and brought to America as a slave. I was
bought by an Immortal named Connor McCleod, who freed me and taught
me about being immortal.” Gunn said.
“I’ve heard of him. Two of my
teachers, were taught by Duncan McCleod, his clansman.”
“Duncan? I met him, a longtime
ago. He had a woman with him, one of us.” Gunn
reminisced.
“Amanda?” Willow
asked.
“That was her name. Why?”
“She’s my other
teacher.”
“Whoa there. Teacher? Whatdid you
need to learn?” Cordelia asked.
“How to use this.” Willow said
drawing her sword.
“A rapier. Elegant, easy to use,
fast, and strong. Nice sword.” Gunn commented.
“Why, what do you use.” Faith
asked, eyeing her friend trying to ascertain if her was carrying a
sword.
“Well, Conner taught me with a
Katana, but I usually carry a big axe too.” Gunn replied drawing his
from beneath his coat.
“How do you hide a sword in your
usual clothing.” Cordelia asked, knowing that the man facing her
often wore very tight clothing.
“It’s an immortal thing,you can
hide a sword, and as long as it’s concealed, no one notices it.”
Gunn explained.
“No one notices a 3 and a half foot
sword?” Faith asked sceptical.
“You didn’t!” Gunn
replied.
Angel had stood quietly while all
this was going on. In fact Willow was thinking that he looked like a
mannequin, standing there in nice clothes, not breathing.
“So, Willow, why are you here?” He
asked finally.
“I need some time and space between
myself and the gang, mostly Buffy. I have to sort out who I am,and
what I want with my life.”
“You can stay here as longas you
need.” Angel said.
“Thank you.” Willow
exclaimed.
“I’ll show you to your room.” Angel
said picking up the one bag Willow had brought with
her.
“Will?” Gunn asked as she started
to follow Angel.
“Yes?”
“Would you like to spar with me
tomorrow? It’s been forever since I had a good sparring partner.” He
asked.
“That’d
be great. I’ll see you in the morning?” He nodded. “Ok then night
all.”