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Title:
Repercussions, Reactions and Retaliation Book IV Author:
The Bear! Spoilers:
None really, this is in the Triadverse AU and follows RR&R Book III
(it’s about a month later) Pairing:
Willow/Buffy/Tara Joyce/Giles Dawn/Xander
Faith/Non-BtVS Characters Summary:
An enemy begins a campaign to bring down the Scoobies; plus, the
Watcher’s Council is coming to town, but I repeat myself. Warnings:
NC17 (People will be having hot, sweaty, sticky, kinky, yummy sex in this
story! (This chapter not so much) If that offends you, feel free to PISS
OFF) Disclaimer:
If I owned ‘em, they’d have to show it on the Xstasy Network. Author’s
Note: I’ve neglected to thank my wonderful Beta Reader, Howard
Russell, for the wonderful job he does on these. Of course, I’m too
impatient to actually wait for the Beta before I post these parts, so any
mistakes herein are mine. If you read it on my website, you’re
getting the Beta’d stuff. Any errors there are still mine, but I
can slough off a bit of the guilt for those onto Howard. ;) ========== BtVS ========== Chapter 5(c) ‘That
poor girl...she’s so young...to lose her lover like that,’ Sara
Sidle mused sympathetically as she approached the hallway leading to the morgue
and the autopsy bay. ‘She
seemed so broken, but like she was putting up this tough exterior. I
still can’t believe she knocked Iverson out with one punch!’ she
couldn’t help the smile that formed on her lips at that thought. she
was startled out of her thoughts as the ME’s voice sounded out from
behind, “I haven’t started the post on your shooting vic
yet.” “Jesus
Doc,” Sara complained. “Don’t sneak up on me like
that!” Doctor
Al Robbins gave her a disbelieving look and then glanced down at his metal cane
and prosthetic limbs. ‘Damn,’
Sara thought, her face hot with embarrassment. “Sorry,
sorry...guess I was distracted.” She muttered. “Stealth
is not an attribute that I’m normally associated with these days,”
he offered with a wry grin. “So,
you haven’t started the autopsy?” she asked in a rather lame
attempt to change the subject. They
started again toward the autopsy bay as the doc answered. “No,
though I did look him over as David was preparing the body. It seems
pretty straightforward, though.” “Yeah,”
she agreed. “Witnesses all heard shots...” “And
he has several obvious gunshots in the back,” the doc interjected.
“Of course we won’t know for sure until we open him up and recover
the bullets, but it seems pretty straightforward. I don’t expect
any surprises.” She
smiled at him and teased, “Well, they wouldn’t be surprises if you
expected them.” He
shot her a moderate glare before opening the door to the bay and gesturing for
her to precede him. She
smirked at him and then entered. “David’s
not back yet,” the doc observed. “We’ll have to wait a
minute to move the vic to the table.” “Which
drawer?” Sara asked, curious to take another look at the body. “Number
seven,” he replied as he walked over to the counter. “Amazing
that he was the only one hit, especially with every witness agreeing that the
gunfire was from a full-auto weapon,” she commented as she went to open
the drawer. “Strange,”
his voice sounded out. “I
guess, certainly not what you normally expect,” she agreed. “No,”
he corrected. “Strange that it looks like someone opened the bag
with the vic’s personal effects, and took everything out but left the bag
behind.” Just
then Sara opened the drawer. “Huh,” she grunted.
“You think that’s strange,” “What?”
the doc asked, sounding agitated now. She
heard him make his way as quickly as he could toward her while she pulled out
the drawer. She
looked down at the nearly empty drawer, its only contents some dried blood and
a handful of deformed bullets. Then she looked up at the doc to see a
profoundly annoyed look on his face. ‘I shouldn’t...but I
can’t resist,’ she thought mischievously. “Surprise.” ========== BtVS ========== ‘This
is never going to work, someone’s gonna notice you’re wearing a
freaking lab jacket! What are they going to do? Can you get in
trouble for being in the morgue and not being dead? Would they shoot me
again and put me back in the drawer?’ Xander’s thoughts were
threatening to spin out of control as he walked down the hall, head hanging and
eyes locked on the floor. ‘Nobody
look at the slightly crazy man,’ he thought, as though trying to project
a field of invisibility. ‘Move along, nothing to see here,
certainly not a recent corpse walking around in a lab coat!’ His
hope not to be noticed was dashed when he walked straight into someone. “Whoa,
you alright man?” a baritone voice sounded out more with concern than
annoyance. A
quick glance showed him a tall, lanky black man. ‘Whoa, nice
afro,’ the non-sequitor popped into his head.
“Uh...sorry,” he muttered in response to the questioning look. “Can
I help you with something?” the man asked, still sounding concerned. His
heart sped up when he saw the official card identifying this person as a crime
scene investigator. ‘Damn, I hope he didn’t investigate my
crime scene,’ he thought. “Uh, just trying to...um...get the
hell out of here,” he said quietly, his panic rising at his inability to
come up with any plausible story. The
man looked behind Xander toward the morgue he’d just left and his eyes
took on a sympathetic look. “You were just in the morgue?” he
asked quietly. ‘Crap!’
his brain froze. Unfortunately his head nodded up and down, apparently not
noticing his mind’s desperate desire to lye. The
man nodded back and said, “Look,” he pointed down the hall to
Xander’s left. “Down that hall to the end, take a right,
it’ll take you right out to the parking lot, ok?” “Yeah,”
Xander nodded again, feeling sweat running down his back. “Uh,
thanks,” he mumbled and then turned to follow the man’s
instructions. “Hey,
no problem,” the man answered. “You take care, ok?” Xander
just nodded as he thought, ‘don’t run, don’t run, walk
normally, Don’t run.’ ========== BtVS ========== “Hey,
Grissom?” Sara said, somewhat agitated as she swept into her
supervisor’s office. “What
is it Sara?” he asked, looking up from his paperwork and staring at her
over the top of his reading glasses. ‘God
he looks sexy like that,’ she stood there silently for a moment,
considering the man on whom she harbored a major crush. “Sara?”
he prompted, continuing to stare at her, his eyebrows raising at her silence. “Um...oh,”
she shook herself out of her momentary reverie. “There’s a
problem with the body in the “Well...what’s
the problem?” he questioned when she didn’t immediately elaborate. “Well,
it’s missing,” she answered. “Missing,”
he said, the word somewhat drawn out. ‘I
can almost see the wheels turning already,’ Sara thought with a tiny
smile. “Yeah, but that’s not the weird part,” she
added, eliciting another eyebrow-raised, questioning look. “The
body is missing, but that’s *not* the weird part,” he parroted,
clearly intrigued. “Right,”
she verified his understanding of the situation. He
took off his glasses and his mouth twitched into the barest beginning of a
smile. “And, pray tell; what is the weird part?” Her
own mouth stretched into a wide smile. ‘He looks like a little boy,
sometimes. An excited little boy,’ she silently observed, feeling
her breath catch just a bit with a flush of desire. “Well,”
she began. “The body is gone, but the sheet he was wrapped in,
along with a fair amount of blood—and several deformed bullets—were
left behind. ‘Aha!’
she thought, ‘you thought you had the answer right up till the end there,
didn’t you?’ she thought as his face registered surprise. “Bullets,”
he fairly jumped on the word. “As in, the bullets that were
previously *in* the body?” “Uh
huh,” she answered. “And, the bag with his personal effects
was torn open and the contents missing,” she added. “Bodies
don’t just get up and walk away after being shot dead,” he said
almost as though he expected her to contradict him. “No,
you don’t,” she agreed. “Someone
moved the body,” he went on in the same vein. “But
left the bullets behind?” she asked doubtfully. “Well...”
he began. “We need to verify that they are the bullets from the
victim.” “Doctor
Robbins is sending blood and tissue from the bullets to match with the samples
Catherine and I collected at the scene,” Sara informed him. “Well,
good,” he offered. She
just smiled, thinking, ‘I knew he’d be excited by this.’ “And
we have someone looking...” “To
see if someone ‘misplaced’ the body,” she interrupted.
“Of course.” “Well,
it’s definitely a mystery,” he said, his voice more eager than
annoyed. ========== BtVS ========== “Anything?”
Grissom asked the moment she entered his office. Sara
smiled. “If you mean, did we find out what happened, then
no.” His
head tilted slightly to the side as he responded, “But you did find out
something.” “Yeah,
more weird, though,” she answered. “You’re going to
love this: we found the vic’s bloody shirt in the trash.” “And,”
he prompted, apparently able to tell that she was holding back. Her
smile grew even wider. “And, Doc Robbins seems to have, um,
misplaced his lab coat.” Grissom’s
eyes narrowed as he repeated, “Misplaced.” “Well,
he says he’s absolutely sure he left it hanging on the back of the
door...” she started. “Sara,”
he interrupted in a surprised and reproachful tone. “I
know, I know,” she replied defensively. “Dead bodies
don’t get up and walk out of the morgue on their own...but
someone’s putting a lot of effort into making it look like this one
did.” He
looked taken aback. “Do you think someone is playing an elaborate
practical joke?” ‘I
hadn’t thought of that myself,’ she pondered the question for a
moment. “I don’t think so,” she offered with a slight
shake of the head. “No one that works here would interfere with a
case like this, plus the lack of respect for the victim and his family...I
gotta tell you, I don’t want to have to be the one that explains to his
girlfriend that we lost his body.” “It’s
interesting that you would say that,” he said with a frown.
“Why not?” “Why
not?” she parroted with raised eyebrows. “Well,
beyond the obvious, that it makes us look incompetent,” he
explained. “Are
you kidding me?” she asked, surprised. “Didn’t you hear about
what happened at the scene?” “No,”
he said with a shake of the head. “What happened at the
scene?” “I
guess she was still doing CPR and they couldn’t get her to stop, so
Iverson grabbed her and pulled her away.” His
face took on a distasteful look at the mention of Officer Iverson. Sara
almost laughed at the look, thinking, ‘He’s going to love
this!’ “So,
she decked him,” she continued her story. “Really?”
he asked in surprise, a small smile slowly forming on his lips. ‘Mmm,’
she thought, momentarily lost while staring at his mouth. “I
didn’t hear about that,” he continued, startling her out of her
daydream. “Did he arrest her?” “Huh?
Oh, no,” she said, refocusing on the discussion at hand. “No,
as Brass described, it he was...busy,” she paused for effect, waiting
until he inhaled to ask the question. “...being unconscious.” “Unconscious?”
he asked, startled. “Yeah,
apparently she laid him out with one punch,” She confirmed. This
time the smile that formed on his face was broad. “She sounds like
a fascinating young lady.” Sara
sobered immediately. “She seemed pretty devastated.” He
just raised a brow questioningly. “I
mean, more so than most...you know, not in an overly dramatic crying, screaming
fit kind of way,” she tried to explain her thoughts without fully
understanding them herself. “She just seemed...lost. So
empty.” “Well,
maybe she was in shock,” he offered. “Yeah,
except she could speak just fine. No lack of awareness of her
surroundings or situation, she didn’t act confused or disoriented.
It was just...when someone wasn’t directly asking her a question she
would, I don’t know...it’s like she would just shut down...turn
off.” ‘Like
a piece of her was missing,’ she carefully didn’t say aloud, not
wanting to seem like she was overly empathizing. He
tilted his head and frowned slightly. “You’re worried about
her. Something about this case is getting to you,” he posed the
query. She
shook her head and forced a smile. “No, I’ve just never seen
any react quite the same way she is.” “Hey
Gris, Sara,” Warrick Brown’s voice sounded out from behind her. “Warrick,”
Grissom acknowledged, his eyes leaving hers with a look of reluctance. ‘Thank
goodness for that,’ she thought with an almost audible sigh of relief. “I
hear you guys lost someone,” he said with a slightly teasing note. More
than willing to put up with a little teasing if it meant avoiding a particular
conversation with her boss, Sara turned and said, “Yeah, vic’s body
disappeared, maybe someone’s idea of a bad joke?” “So
you don’t think he got up and walked away?” Warrick asked, the
teasing note growing. “Who
knows?” she asked, playing along. “See anyone who looks like
this?” she asked, opening the file and pulling out the victim’s
picture. Warrick
was smirking at her when he took the proffered photo, but the smirk immediately
died away as he looked at it. “You’re kidding, right?”
he asked, disbelievingly. “You’re going to have to do better
than that.” “What
do you mean?” Grissom interjected. Sara
frowned at the look on Warrick’s face. “Look,”
Warrick started. “It was a nice try; setup was good, but your delivery
sucks,” “What
are you talking about?” Sara asked with a weird feeling forming in her
stomach. “I
just talked to this guy, like five minutes ago,” he said, his tone no
longer teasing, but rather like he was bursting their bubble with his comment. “Not
possible,” she said. ‘all fun aside, there is no way that guy
got up and walked out of the morgue!’ she thought, the weird feeling in
her stomach turning into a cold shiver running through her body.
‘It’s just not possible!’ “Twin
brother?” the tall black man asked, his face indicating he still thought
it might be a joke, or at least a misunderstanding. “No,
his girlfriend is the only one here...any family’s in He
again considered the photo and then said, “I’m sure. I just
talked to him!” “What
did you talk about?” Grissom interjected. Warrick
shook his head and looked upward as if trying to remember the encounter.
“I was walking from DNA, came around the corner and this guy walked right
into me. He looked lost and pretty shaken up. I asked him if he was
alright, and then I asked him if I could help him with something, and he said
he was trying to find his way out.” “That’s
interesting,” Grissom mused aloud. “Yeah,
he looked pretty shook up, kinda lost,” Warrick went on. “I
asked him if he’d just come from the morgue—I thought maybe
he’d just had to identify someone, you know, close. He had that
kind of look on his face. So, I pointed the way out.” He
ended his explanation with a shrug. “This
can’t be the same guy,” Sara said, feeling bewildered.
“He was shot multiple times and bled out on the sidewalk. I’m
talking bled out—there had to be 6 or 7 pints on the concrete...I think
his girlfriend kinda pumped him out with all the CPR,’ she trailed
off. ‘God, how horrible,’ she thought, feeling again a
sympathetic pang for the pretty young brunette. “If
he went out the front, we should have him on the surveillance cameras,
shouldn’t we?” Grissom asked. ‘God,
how stupid am I?’ Sara kicked herself silently at the quizzical look on
his face. Anything
she might have said was cut off when Grissom’s cell phone started to
ring. “Catherine,”
he mumbled as he looked at the caller-ID on his phone. Opening it, he
answered, “Yes...what? Catherine, calm down...” He
jerked his head away from the phone and Sara could hear a loudly shouted
“Just get here!” from the earpiece of the phone. “Catherine...hello?
Hello?” he looked at the phone as if stunned. “She hung
up.” “What
happened?” Sara asked, concerned. “Is she alright?” “I
don’t know,” he said, still wearing a surprised look on his
face. “She said something impossible happened and that she needed
to see me right now.” “Where
is she?” Sara asked, now more confused than concerned. “She’s
at the “I’m
going with you,” she argued, her tone brooking no argument. She
unconsciously reached back to touch the gun on her belt under her jean-jacket. He
raised his eyebrows at her—even more so as she reached for her weapon. “That’s
where our shooting victim and his girlfriend were staying,” she said,
answering his silent question. “I’ll
pull the tape, have AVI go over it and the photos from the scene,”
Warrick interjected. “Just to verify that it’s *not* the same
guy,” his tone made it clear that he wasn’t about to embrace any
thoughts of this being something other than coincidence. Grissom
nodded at Warrick and turned back to Sara. “Ok, let’s
go.” ========== BtVS ========== “Ow!”
Dawn moaned in pain as she returned to consciousness. ‘Oh, major
headache,’ she thought as she sat upright and opened her eyes. “What
did you do?!” a strangled voice with a strong note of panic in it hit
Dawn’s ears, causing her to cringe in pain. “Shh!
Not so loud,” she hissed, looking up at the source of the question.
‘Oh God!’ the pain in her head was forgotten as a giant crashing
wave of despair slammed into her. Memories of who the older redhead was,
and why she was there served to remind her of her situation.
‘Xander’s dead,’ she began to cry silently. “What
did you do?” the redheaded CSI’s voice was a hoarse whisper. ‘Why
is her gun out...oh crap!’ Dawn’s head whipped around looking for
their assailant. “Oh God!” she grunted, both at the pain from
moving her head so fast and at the sight of the man who killed her lover. He
lay on the floor almost as though sleeping. Any idea of restful peace, however,
was shattered by the look on his face: eyes and mouth were stretched open as if
screaming, but all that remained therein were open pits of charred
ruination. The
image, along with the sudden scent of burned flesh sent Dawn stumbling toward
the bathroom. “Holy
crap, I killed him!” she thought as she knelt to empty her stomach into
the toilet. As she sat there though, her nausea subsided. ‘I
killed him,’ she again thought, waiting for the horror to come. “I
killed him,” she repeated—aloud this time. Still
no horror. “I’m
glad I killed him,” she whispered, realizing the truth of it.
‘He killed Xander—I’m glad I killed the
son-of-a-bitch!’ She
rolled her head from shoulder to shoulder, wincing at the pain.
‘Damn my head hurts!’ she thought. ‘I wonder
why?’ She
stood up and rummaged through her ditty-bag for some ibuprofen.
‘Ok, so he’s dead, and I’m not sad about it...but the
cop-chick saw me do it,’ she began to ponder her immediate problem as she
filled a glass with water and washed down four of the little brown pills.
Thinking about this issue allowed her to ignore for the moment the overwhelming
sadness that thinking about Xander brought. “What
did she see really?” she whispered to herself. ‘It’s
not like she’s going to believe in magic...but she definitely seems to
think that, whatever happened, I’m responsible for it.’ She
looked into her eyes in the mirror, still a bit surprised at her lack of
feeling. A knock at the suite’s door caused a pang of fear.
‘She must have called the cops...of course, of course she would,
she’s a cop—it’s not like she can just ignore this.
But, what could they arrest me for? It looks like I burned him up from
the inside...I never imagined I could do something like that!’ She
felt no pride, or sense of accomplishment, anymore than she felt guilt or
sorrow. “I’m not a monster,” she told herself.
“It was totally self-defense.” ‘Ok,
mostly vengeance...that bastard killed Xander!’ Again tears started
to leak from her eyes. ‘I can’t believe he’s dead...my
Sugar Bear!’ She
put down the toilet lid and sat down, not caring about the cops in the outer
room, she sat and wept. ========== BtVS ========== “Ok
Catherine, what’s the emergency?” Grissom’s voice was flat. ‘Way
to start a conversation,’ Sara thought as she followed her supervisor
into the suite at the “You
found a body?” Grissom asked, apparently seeing the corpse lying across
the room. “Why didn’t you call it in?” “I
didn’t *find* the body Gil!” Catherine’s voice was brittle
and angry. “Jesus, don’t you think I would have called it in
if we just walked in here and found a body?” Despite
the apparent gravity of the situation, Sara couldn’t help but grin as she
watched Grissom’s head move back and forth from the body to Catherine
several times. “But...I’m
confused,” he finally stated. Sara
walked over to get a closer look. ‘Doesn’t look
burned,’ she thought as she approached. “Well
maybe if you’d let me explain, instead of coming in here and jumping down
my throat!” Catherine groused at the befuddled male CSI. “Please
do,” he said. ‘Oh
that’s infuriating,’ Sara thought in sympathy for her female
counterpart. ‘I hate it when he gets that patronizing tone of
voice.’ “I...you...Argh!”
Catherine sputtered and then growled. “Sometimes you...never
mind!” “Holy
cow!” Sara exclaimed when she saw the eyes and mouth on the corpse.
She took out a penlight from her jacket pocket and shined it into the
burned-out orifices. ‘What could have caused that?’ she
wondered, ignoring the gross-out factor in favor of curiosity. Sara
looked up as Grissom immediately turned away from Catherine and hurried to her
side. “Fascinating!” he sighed as he took in the view. “What
happened?” Sara asked, making eye contact with Catherine in hopes of
breaking the tension before her supervisor’s behavior once again set off
the fiery redhead. I
brought our shooting vic’s girlfriend back here from the station and just
after we walked in, he,” she pointed toward the body on the floor,
“Came out from there,” She pointed at the doors to the bedroom. Sara
looked in the indicated direction and then kicked herself as she noticed the
submachine gun laying on the floor. ‘Damn, how did I not notice
that?’ “You
shot him?” Grissom asked, looking around the body. ‘If
she did, where’s the blood?’ Sara wondered. ‘And that
doesn’t explain the eyes and mouth.’ “No,”
Catherine answered. “I couldn’t even draw my weapon, he had
that sub pointed right at me...muttered something about charging extra for a
cop.” ‘Oh
my God,’ Sara thought in sympathy when she saw Catherine shudder at the
memory. “Then
the girl, Dawn, accused him of killing her boyfriend. Apparently, our vic
wasn’t the target, because he said something about him just getting in
the way...then he said she’d join him in a minute,” Catherine
paused, staring silently at the body for a moment, then her eyes moved up to
the closed door to Sara’s left. “She screamed at him...then
he started screaming...then they both collapsed.” “Where
is she?” Grissom asked. “Is she dead too?” “No,”
Catherine’s voice was markedly quieter as she went on. “No, I
checked...she was just unconscious, but he...dead. And, um...hot.
Hot to the touch, I mean,” she muttered. “She’s
in there?” Sara asked, gesturing toward the door that had captured
Catherine’s attention. “I
called you...then she woke up and ran in there.” Catherine continued. “And
you just left her there?” Grissom’s voice was incredulous. “She
did that!” the redhead hissed as she pointed to the body. “I
wasn’t going in there until you got here.” “She
did...what exactly did she do?” Grissom asked in a questioning voice that
clearly conveyed disbelief. “I...I...something!”
the redhead’s glare was fierce. “She screamed at him and
suddenly he’s...it’s like she burned him up from the
inside...somehow,” she trailed off with a blush. “Catherine...”
‘Uh
oh,’ Sara thought. ‘Now he sounds like he’s trying to
humor a crazy person. “You
can’t believe that. You have to know that what you’re saying
isn’t possible,” Grissom explained slowly. “How could
she possibly have done what you’re accusing her of doing?” For
a moment the redheaded CSI looked like she might explode with rage, but then
she deflated. She walked over to one of the ornate, overstuffed couches
and collapsed onto it. “I don’t know,” she admitted
with a weary headshake. “You think I don’t know how crazy
this all sounds? But, I saw it happen! I felt...I don’t
know...something. It was like this deep chill ran through me...Jesus,
there was smoke coming out of his damned eye sockets!” Just
as Grissom looked like he was about to start with the questions, Sara
interrupted. “Shouldn’t we get the girl out of there? I
mean, I’m not entirely comfortable with this whole situation, especially
with wondering what she might be doing in there.” ========== BtVS ========== “Shouldn’t
we get the girl out of there? I mean, I’m not entirely comfortable
with this whole situation, especially with wondering what she might be doing in
there.” Dawn
snorted when she heard that. “The Girl...nice,” she
groused. “God I just want this day over...I still can’t
believe he’s gone.” She
blinked back the tears that threatened to once again overflow her eyes.
‘Just go out there, get this over with and try to sleep,’ she
thought resignedly. ‘Tomorrow I’ll call Buffy...tomorrow
I’ll try to figure out what I’m going to do...how I’m going
to go on without him.’ She
ran cold water in the sink, splashing her face to wash away the fresh
tears. Then she toweled off and went to the door. “We
need to call Brass, Catherine,” the male voice chided. ‘Sounds
like some of my teachers,’ Dawn thought of the admonitory tone the man
took with the redhead. “And
tell him what?” she responded. They
were all facing away from Dawn, so she shrugged and took a seat on the
sofa. ‘under other circumstances this would probably be
interesting,’ she thought with a tired sigh. The
sigh attracted the brunette’s attention. “We
treat this like any other death with questionable circumstances,” the man
continued punctiliously. “Questionable
circumstances? I saw her...” “Hey,
guys?” the brunette interjected, blushing slightly. “What?
Oh,” the redhead visibly deflated upon turning to see Dawn. ‘I’d
probably be embarrassed by that,’ Dawn thought as she noted the fear in
Catherine’s eyes. ‘If I had the energy to care.’ “Ms.
Summers, my name is Gil Grissom,” the man said after a pause.
“I think you’ve met Sara and Catherine?” he asked, gesturing
toward each in turn. “Yep,”
she said with a nod. “Well,”
Grissom said, apparently trying to decide what to do next. “Look,
normally I try not to be rude,” Dawn interjected. “But,
I’m in the middle of having the crappiest night of my entire life and I
*really* don’t have the energy right now. So if you could just
hurry it up and do what you need to do—and then leave—I’d
really appreciate it.” ‘Still
nothing,’ she thought as she glanced over toward the corpse on the
floor. ‘I wonder if I should be worried? Does that make me a
sociopath or something?’ Turning
her attention back to the trio of CSIs, she added, “Oh, and if you could
take that thing with you, that’d be great.” Sara’s
eyes bugged out. Catherine
choked. Grissom
just frowned and had a thoughtful look on his face. “That...that
thing?” Catherine sputtered, sounding outraged. “That’s
a human being and you killed him, you little...” “That
*thing* killed my Xander!” Dawn shouted over the angry redhead. ‘Boy,
now I’m feeling something,’ Dawn thought as her stomach churned in
rage. “And,
as I remember it, that *thing* was about to kill you and me both!” she
growled in a slightly quieter voice. “So, why don’t you back
off a little bit on the attitude, ok?” “Ok,
everyone,” Grissom broke in, hands raised in a universal ‘calm
down’ gesture. “Let’s take it easy here for a minute,
alright?” “Fine,
whatever,” Dawn exhaled, crossing her arms over her chest. “You
say he was threatening to kill you?” Grissom asked. “Well,
he had the gun pointed at me, told me I was about to join Xander—who he
killed—and started to pull the trigger...yeah, I felt pretty
threatened,” Dawn said sarcastically. ‘Jeeze,
Summers...bitchy much?’ she thought, a little surprised at her own
behavior. “What
did you do to him?” Catherine’s voice was laced with fear. “I...”
she trailed off, wondering, ‘How do I explain this? Should I even
try?’ “I...does
it matter?” she said at last. “He’s dead, we’re
not.” “Of
course it matters,” Sara said. “Cause of death is a huge part
of resolving a case.” Dawn
shook her head and sighed. ‘They’re never going to believe
me...God, I’m so tired, I wish they’d just leave already.’ “Fine,
it was magic. You happy now?” she said resignedly. “Magic,”
Sara said with surprise and clear disbelief. “Yep.” “Do
you seriously expect us to believe you killed this man, using magic?”
Sara pressed. Dawn
chuckled humorlessly. “No,” she replied, slightly
exasperated. “No, I expect you to think I’m crazy, that the
sorrow of losing my lover has driven me over the edge.” Turning to
Grissom, she continued, “You, I expect will go to great lengths to figure
out what really killed him, doing you best to prove that there’s no such
thing as magic, ‘cause that would destroy your whole little world where
everything can be explained by science.” Grissom’s
eyebrows quirked up in surprise. Turning
to Catherine, Dawn added, “You...you believe me, and it scares the crap
out of you. But, you’ll probably never admit it—for sure not
to these two, and probably not even to yourself.” ‘This
would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that I’ll probably never
laugh at anything ever again,’ she thought as all three gaped at her. “So,
could you please hurry this up and get the hell out of my room? I’m
really tired and, if you couldn’t already tell, I’m starting to get
really cranky.” ========== BtVS ========== “I hope she’s here,” Xander
whispered to himself as the cab he’d taken back to the Self
consciously rubbing his hands over the white labcoat that was uncomfortably
tucked into his jeans, he walked into the casino and began to make his way back
to the elevators. ‘Crap!’
he flinched hard as one of the slot machines near him began to pay off a win,
dropping the coins into the metal container with a cadence that was too
reminiscent of gunfire. ‘Take
it easy Xan,’ he told himself. ‘Once again it’s time to
ignore the weirdness that is my life and try to pretend everything’s
alright. He
started to become more and more antsy as the elevator rose to the 51st
floor. ‘Please be there, please be there,’ he muttered to
himself, tapping his fingers on the wall of the elevator behind him. When
the elevator doors finally opened he found himself jogging down the hall to his
room. “Come on, come on!” he grumbled at his shaking hands as he
tried to pull the key card out of his wallet and insert it into the door lock. “Magic
isn’t real,” a female voice said with enough volume that Xander
heard it through the door. ‘Well,
that means she’s probably in there,’ Xander thought, pausing for a
moment. ‘But she’s definitely not alone.’ “Do
you realize what an incredibly stupid thing that is to say?” Dawn’s
voice was clearly very annoyed with whomever she was speaking.
“Either I’ve lost it—in which case you’re not going to
convince me of anything—or I’m right, and you’re basically
standing there telling me gravity isn’t real.” ‘Hoo
boy, she is pissed!’ Xander thought with a snicker, momentarily
forgetting the gravity of the entire situation as he listened to his lover
verbally shred someone. ‘I
probably should wait until...no way. I gotta see Dawn right freaking
now!’ his brain vacillated only for a moment, but his body was way ahead
of him as he slipped the key card in and opened the door. “I
bet people just like you thought Einstein was crazy when he...Xander?”
Dawn’s rant turned into a gasped cry as she turned toward him. “Dawn!”
he answered with a loud exhale, drinking in the sight of her as though
he’d not seen her in months. “But
you died,” Dawn’s incredulous cry elicited a sharp pang in his
chest. Her
eyes narrowed suddenly, “You’re not...” “No,”
he cut her off, pulling out his cross and holding it so that she could see it
clearly. “Oh
God, Xander!” she cried, now sounding joyous as she practically leapt
across the room into his arms. “Love
you Dawn!” he gasped before leaning down to meet her in a torrid kiss. He
barely noticed the sudden green glow surrounding them as his eyes slipped shut. ========== BtVS ========== TheBear! http://papa-bear.com Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in." Buffy: "I kinda love you." --'Choices' Community email addresses: Post message: buffywantswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subscribe: buffywantswillow-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Unsubscribe: buffywantswillow-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx List owner: buffywantswillow-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Shortcut URL to this page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow Official archive for the list: http://www.ikoly.com/fanfic Other links to Buffy/Willow fics: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow/links YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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