FIC: The Summoned - R - Part 3 [3/?]

[Andy Stoffel <see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE:  The Summoned - Part 3 (3/?)
RATING: R
DISCLAIMER: All BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant
Enemy, Fox Television, and others. All "Keeper" characters
belong to Tanya Huff, and others. None of these people or
organizations have read this nor endorsed it. The story idea
might be mine but this is a derivative work.
SUMMARY: A BtVS/Tanya Huff "Keeper" series crossover/AU. With a
heavy B/W vibe.
SPOILERS: Seasons 1-6 of BtVS. All of the "Keeper Chronicles"
DISTRIBUTION:  buffywantswillow, ikoly, TtH, ff.net, and my blog
fanfic pages. Anyone else, e-mail me please. 
AUTHOR'S NOTES: See End for any notes. 

----

Chapter Title: "Thicker than Dust"

----

Willow held on tightly to Buffy's hand as they walked through
the cold, damp parking garage at the Ottawa airport. Buffy had
somehow convinced the Council to have a car waiting for them
somewhere in the concrete maze. Her skepticism taking over, she
no longer believed Buffy's claims that the Council was providing
them with all of these things for their trip simply because
she'd asked for them. And she certainly wasn't going to fall for
any of the other vague reasons Buffy had given.

There was something else going on and she planned to get to the
bottom of it before they reached Cleveland. As soon as she was
warm again, she thought, trying to get close enough to Buffy to
share her warmth without invading her space. Which was not
looking like it would happen any time soon if the expression on
Buffy's face was any indication. "Buffy?"

"Yes?" She stopped and turned back to Willow.

"Do you have any idea what it looks like?"

"Yes. It looks like a car-truck thing. I think it's something
British." She gave Willow an exhausted grin before going back to
scanning the rows of vehicles in the florescent light. "Go
figure."

Standing so close to Buffy was not doing much to help take care
of the chill she was feeling, but it was having other unexpected
side-effects. Too numb from all of the travelling they'd been
doing to think about anything other than getting warm again,
Willow decided to save attempting to analyze her feelings for
later. Helping Buffy find the car seemed more important right
now. "And how do you know that?"

"This." Buffy reached into a jacket pocket with her free hand
and pulled out a small black object Willow recognized as a car
key fob. "It was in the envelope that watcher type who was
waiting for us at the gate gave me."

"Doesn't it have one of those 'find me' buttons on it?" Willow
asked, holding out her hand to Buffy, who handed it over with no
objection.

"Yes. I've been pushing it whenever we get near something that
looks English." She stood on her toes in an attempt to see over
the cars filling the row they were walking down in the large
parking garage. "I think we're still too far away."

"They couldn't just tell you where it is?" Willow glared at the
fob, trying to glean something from the nondescript plastic
object. She hadn't paid much attention to the person who'd met
them other than to note they were male and dressed in something
giving off the faint metaphysical aura of tweed. "What kind of
car did he tell you it was?"

"He said something about a dog." Buffy sighed.

Willow raised an eyebrow at her companion. While Buffy's only
exposure to anyone even remotely resembling a car guy had been
Riley Finn, Willow had lived through Xander's car fanatic stage
in middle school and remembered more about cars than she really
wanted to. "English? Dog? Wouldn't happen to have been a Rover?"
she asked.

"That's it!" Buffy laughed in obvious relief. "Do you see one?"

Standing on her toes, Willow looked around in the stark light.
Just barely taller than Buffy, she didn't expect to see much
further, especially without Buffy's much vaunted superior Slayer
vision. Six months ago she could have quickly done a simple
spell to find it. But that was a darker, angrier kind of magic
that she was now afraid to use. In her exhaustion all she could
feel of the lighter earth oriented magic the coven had
encouraged her to use was a small spark within herself. And she
wasn't sure if Buffy would approve of any magic not matter how
friendly it was. "No. Maybe it's on the next level up? He would
happen to have mentioned a floor or row number for it? Or even a
color?"

Buffy shrugged slightly, her movement hampered by Willow's hand
on one side and their suitcases on the cart she was pushing with
the other. "Not that I remember." Releasing the cart for a
moment, she pulled a small square of paper out of a jacket
pocket. "We have this parking stub also but I didn't see a
number written on it."

Willow let go of her hand, taking the parking stub from her.
Examining it closely, she noticed several faint markings on one
side. Groaning, she looked at Buffy "Giles never bothered to
teach you Council short-hand, did he?"

"He mentioned there was a secret language, but he said it was
only used for recording certain Council meetings." She gave
Willow a puzzled look. "Why?"

"That isn't strictly true." Willow told her. "Some Watchers used
it for their diaries. You can also use it to safely write down
some kinds of spells. Whomever invented it must have been very
clever." She shook her head. "Looks like that Watcher who gave
you the keys is a fan."

"So the numbers are there? But in that secret Watcher language?"
Buffy asked.

"Yes." Willow slowly translated the script in her head. It was
an unusual written language and required some effort to wrap her
brain around. She suspected, from the grammatical twists and
turns it took, that it had been invented by a slayer and later
been appropriated by the Council for their own uses but she'd
yet to find any proof. "Looks like we're on the correct level."
She looked around for some indication of the row they were on.
"We're on Row F But we need to find Row J."

"Okay..." Buffy looked around again, repeating an odd hop she'd
been doing earlier to see over the rows of cars that Willow
found fascinating. "That way." she pointed back the way they'd
come.

Finally reaching the correct row, Willow pressed the button
again. A small vehicle at the opposite end of the row flashed
its lights.

Willow stared at it in disbelief. "Yellow? Someone wants to be
able to pick us out of a crowd. A hundred miles away."

----

The sound of tires humming away as they headed southwest towards
Kingston, with the occasional muted thud as they ran over a bump
or expansion joint in the pavement, was oddly soothing to her
enhanced hearing after being barraged for hours by the sound of
roaring jet engines on their flight from London.

Glancing over in the dim light at her dozing friend, Buffy
wondered how long the truce would last. How long it would take
for Willow to stop trying to hide from her problems and assert
herself. She wasn't really sure what she'd expected when she'd
picked Willow up from the Coven but this clingy, distant version
of her old friend certainly wasn't it. This person only remotely
resembled the Willow who had kept the Scoobies together when
she'd died.

It wasn't that she minded the physical closeness that had sprung
up between them. She had initiated a lot of it herself, unable
to resist grabbing one of Willow's hands at the slightest
excuse. But they hadn't shared each other's personal space so
much since Willow had met Tara. Even though the Coven's healers
had encouraged her to maintain some physical contact with Willow
as part of her healing, Buffy didn't want to do anything that
would interfere with Willow's progress in dealing with her
grief.

She knew they still had so many issues to work out between them
if they were going to remain friends, but she couldn't imagine
how to even begin bringing them up. She wasn't sure she could
even explain to herself why she was still angry at being brought
back from Heaven but accepting of Willow's self-destructive
madness when she couldn't bring Tara back. Hopefully this trip
would give her the opportunity.

----

After several minutes of jiggling the key turned reluctantly in
the rusty lock. Taking a quick look over her shoulder at Willow,
still asleep in the Rover, Buffy turned the door knob. Flicking
on the flashlight she'd found in the glove-box with her other
hand, she pushed open the front door and peered around it
curiously before reluctantly entering the dark building. She
wasn't expecting anything to be wrong but thought it would be a
good idea to take a quick look around and get their suitcases
into the small hotel before she woke Willow.

The trip down from the airport hadn't been long, compared to the
rest of their journey from Westbury, but after leaving the close
quarters of their warm Rover, Buffy couldn't avoid shivering in
the damp air of the hotel's lobby. Standing just inside the door
and shining her flashlight along the floor and into the dark
corners she could see from her position that a think layer of
dust seemed to cover everything. It looked like nothing had been
in the hotel for a long time. Stretching out with her enhanced
senses Buffy couldn't detect any signs of life, or even unlife,
in the hotel. Sighing with relief, she decided they could begin
exploring in the morning.

The small collection of papers the Council had given her had
mentioned a manager's suite attached to the hotel office. That
seemed to be the best place to spend the night. Looking around
she spotted a door behind a counter on the other side of the
room. Cautiously walking across the lobby, she stopped in front
of the counter and looked for a way through it. While jumping
over it was always an option, the dust covering the floor was so
thick that she didn't want to risk slipping. She would prefer to
find the proper way to reach it.

Shining her flashlight along the barrier, she noticed a small
hinged section of countertop next to the wall. Walking over to
it she couldn't find anything like a latch that would allow her
to move it without destroying it. Taking advantage of a gap she
could duck under, Buffy found herself behind the counter.

Next to the door was a large collection of numbered light
switches. On a whim, and hoping the Council had managed to have
the electricity turned on as promised, Buffy pressed the switch
closest to the office door. The area around the counter was
flooded with a dim yellow light that caused her to squint until
her eyes adjusted to the sudden change.

Opening the office door, she ran her free hand along the wall
just inside the room until it collided with something that felt
like a light switch. Pulling on it, she grinned to herself when
the office lit up. Looking around she decided that the office
could probably also wait for the morning. She really needed to
find the door to the suite so she could get herself and Willow
into bed.

There didn't seem to be an obvious door but one wall was free of
any bookshelves. Several large dark panels in the center of the
wall didn't quite match the color of the rest of the room.
Stepping up to it she noticed that one of the panels had an edge
that slightly stuck out from the wall. Pressing on it curiously,
she heard a small click and quickly stepped back in surprise
when the entire section popped out to reveal a doorway. "That
was cool." she muttered to herself. Cautiously walking through
the short hallway, Buffy found herself in a small sitting room.
Finding another light switch, she turned on the only light in
the room, a small table lamp next to a small love-seat. It
revealed a tall, skinny window in one wall and doors in the
other two opposite walls.

Looking in the room to her left, Buffy found a small bedroom
with a closed closet, a double bed and dresser. The bed had a
bare mattress and the only light in the room seemed to have a
burned out bulb in it. Frowning, she shone her flashlight
around. Hopefully, somewhere in the hotel she could find
something to put on the bed.

The other door opened on to a moderately sized bathroom. It
wasn't very fancy but at least the lights worked. Glancing
quickly at the strange looking shower and turning a faucet on
the sink, she sighed with relief when she saw that they at least
had running water. It even seemed to be clean.

Buffy took one last look around the suite before heading back
out to the Rover to get their things. Willow could have the
bedroom and she would sleep on the love-seat.

----

With their suitcases sitting in the manager's sitting room,
Buffy took a quick break to get a feel for their surroundings.
Standing at the top of the steps, she looked around in the dim
glow from a nearby streetlight. There didn't seem to be anything
special about the neighborhood to merit the Council's attention.
The nightlife she'd seen so far was definitely of the non-evil
variety. The hotel itself hadn't set off her apocalypse detector
yet either. Whatever supernatural weirdness the Council thought
the hotel contained wasn't something blatantly obvious.

Shrugging, knowing that if there was any weirdness in the area
it was bound to be attracted to her before they left Kingston
for their next stop, she headed over to the Rover and opened
Willow's door. The redhead was curled up in her seat like a
small child. She wasn't sure she could get her into the hotel
without waking her but she was going to try.

Leaning as close as she could, Buffy placed Willow's right arm
across her shoulder. Gently reaching between the seat and
Willow's lower back with her left arm and under her knees with
her right, Buffy pulled Willow towards her and out of the Rover,
glad for her slayer strength. Willow murmured in her sleep and
instinctively tightened her arms around Buffy's neck.

She managed to get Willow into the hotel, past the counter, and
onto the love-seat without waking her. She wished she could just
leave her sleeping and tuck her into the bed and join her, but
she still had to find something to put on the bed and somehow
she didn't think Willow would appreciate someone else getting
her into her pajamas.

Walking into the bedroom, lit only by the light from the other
room, Buffy looked through the dresser, finding it completely
empty. Turning next to the closet, she opened the door and
noticed a cord and bare bulb dangling from the ceiling. Pulling
on the cord flooded the closet and bedroom with a shaft of light
from the closet. Surprisingly, the closet wasn't completely
empty. On a shelf that ran the length of the closet were several
dust covered, sealed packages. Reaching up to grab them, Buffy
grunted in exasperation when they fell on her head, covering her
hair with dust.

----

The first thing Willow noticed was the lack of motion. The next
was that she was no longer in their Rover and that she was lying
on some sort of couch in a dimly lit room. She assumed she was
at their hotel but she couldn't remember getting there. There
seemed to be several doors in the room leading elsewhere and a
tall, skinny window occupying what she assumed was an outer
wall.

Hearing some grumbling from someone that could only be Buffy,
she rolled off of the couch and clumsily got to her feet.
Looking around, she headed towards the door the voice was coming
from.

Leaning against the doorjamb, Willow watched her friend bustling
energetically around a small bedroom. She'd never thought of her
as very domestic so the sight of her making a bed and attempting
to fluff up several very flat pillows was mildly amusing. Buffy
gave no indication that she'd noticed her yet but Willow knew
that there was no way she hadn't seen her standing there. So she
was either ignoring her because she didn't want to talk or she
was intentionally putting on a show.

"Buffy?" Willow asked quietly, finally catching Buffy's
attention. "Where are we?"

"The manager's suite in the Guest House."

"How did I get here?" She waved her arm in a vague motion,
encompassing the two rooms she could see.

"I carried you in." Buffy admitted.

"You couldn't wake me up?" Willow frowned at her.

"You looked so peaceful. I didn't want to disturb you." Buffy
shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal."

"Have you checked things out yet?" She asked curiously.

"No." Buffy shook her head. "I thought we could start after
breakfast. The place hasn't had anyone in it in months. We're
lucky the Council remembered to have someone turn on the
utilities for us. And that they work."

Willow shivered. It wasn't really that cold but compared to the
English weather they had just left it was noticeably chilly. She
was still tired from the trip and could feel the cold settling
into her bones. "Where's the bathroom?" she asked, yawning.

"It's that door on the other side of the suite." Buffy told her.
"Why don't you get ready for bed, I'm almost done. Your case is
next to the bathroom door."

"What about you?" Willow asked.

"I'm all set for now. I'll get ready when you're done."

"Okay." Willow yawned again before turning around and heading
across the sitting room.

----

She came out of the bathroom later to find Buffy missing.
Noticing a light coming from under the door she'd noticed
between the bath and bedroom, she cautiously opened it to find
herself in what was obviously an office of some sort. Buffy was
sitting behind a large desk that dominated the room, seemingly
absorbed in the stack of folders open in front of her.

"Buffy?"

"Hey Will!" Buffy looked up, giving her a quick smile. "All
set?"

"Yup. It's all yours." She looked around curiously. "What's this
room?"

"The manager's office. The front desk is out that way." Buffy
waved towards another closed door. "I'll show you tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Why don't you head to bed? I'll be in in a few minutes." And
she went back to examining something in front of her as if
Willow wasn't there. Willow stood there for a moment, just
staring at her friend. This was a side of Buffy she'd rarely
seen until she'd shown up in Westbury, so uncharacteristically
focused and business-like.

"What side do you want?" Willow asked over her shoulder as she
turned to leave. "Of the bed?" She clarified at Buffy's blank
look.

"Side?" Buffy frowned at her. "The bed is all yours. I'm
sleeping on the love-seat."

Willow just nodded, not completely surprised. She wasn't sure
why Buffy felt the need to sleep there when there was plenty of
room in the bed for both of them but she was too tired to argue.

Crawling into the cold bed, Willow lay there for a long time,
staring up at the dark ceiling and listening for any sounds that
Buffy getting ready for bed, before eventually falling asleep by
herself. Some time during the night she was awoken by a
nightmare. The details were gone from her mind before she could
remember them, leaving only a vague uneasiness behind.

Waking up again several hours later she was surprised to find
she was no longer alone in the large bed. Lying on the bed,
facing away from her towards the door, was a familiar blonde
headed woman.

"Buffy?" she whispered in a soft voice. Her old friend just
murmured something unintelligible into the pillow and didn't
wake up. Still groggy and sleepy, Willow wrapped her arms around
Buffy's waist from behind and held on tightly. She would figure
out later how, after her announcement that she was sleeping on
the love-seat, Buffy had ended up in the bed anyway. For now,
for the first time since Tara's death, her need for human
contact overrode her fear of rejection. Burying her face in
Buffy's hair, Willow took a deep breath and fell back asleep.

----

TBC in "Possibilities"

----
AN[1]: The Ottawa airport does have a parking garage, but it
isn't as big as the one this chapter implies it to be. And it is
too new to have existed when Buffy and Willow would have arrived
there.



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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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