Part Two
As she pulled the car to a stop, Buffy found herself smiling. Familiar streets, familiar houses, familiar people inside waiting for her. There were three cars in the driveway, so Buffy parked her car on the street to allow them to go in and out. Everyone was here, but Buffy was one of the few that was staying for longer than one evening.
Getting out of the car and hefting her bags, Buffy flashed her daughter a brief smile. She’d been named Joyce after Buffy’s mother, and Buffy could see much of her in the girl’s looks. Well, and a hefty dose of her father, but a whole lot younger; she was fourteen and entering high school in the fall. The girl had been sullen most of the way here. Joyce was resistant to this move away from her home, but just like the move from Sunnydale before she was born Buffy knew that returning now was the right thing to do.
It was, she reflected as they walked together towards the door, only appropriate that they arrived in Sunnydale just after the sun set.
The door to the house opened before the two of them could reach it. Buffy’s smile grew. “Hey, Willow.”
“You made it!” Willow said happily from the doorway. “I didn’t know when you’d get here.” She gave Buffy a brief hug once she came up the walkway, and then turned with a smile to Joyce. “You’ve cut your hair,” she said in surprise.
Joyce fidgeted and fingered her shoulder length waves. “Yeah, uh, a while ago.”
“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you,” Willow pointed out lightly. She gave Joyce a brief hug as well. “I’m glad you’re here,” she said to both of them.
Buffy felt a small flash of guilt. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be here sooner.”
Willow waved her off. She might have said more, except at that moment Xander appeared right behind her. “Quit hogging the guests!” he teased. He squirmed past her. “Hey, Joyce,” he said happily. “Let me take that.”
Joyce surrendered her bag, finally smiling. “Thanks, Uncle Xander.”
Willow stood aside for the moment and he led the two of them into the house. Then everything seemed to happen at once, as Xander and Buffy put the bags down out of the way, Willow closed the door, and the newcomers were suddenly mobbed with attention.
Buffy eagerly met the enthusiastic hug from her younger sister. “Dawn!” she said happily.
“Hey!” she returned, then stepped back from the hug. “Sunnydale has missed you terribly,” she teased.
Buffy did not reply to that. “Wow,” she declared. “You look great. Married life must be agreeing with you far better than it did me.”
Dawn blushed but smiled.
The greetings with Dawn’s husband were a bit awkward but friendly. The whole time, Buffy watched from the corner of her eye as Joyce moved hesitantly from person to person, taking in her own greetings.
“Joyce,” Buffy said suddenly. “You remember Silvia and Kelsey, right? Xander and Anya’s daughters?”
The twin girls stood somewhat awkwardly next to their mother, much like Joyce at that moment. They were a couple of years older than Joyce, identical twins that were difficult to tell apart even as they got older – a fact that they had used to their advantage more than once. “Hey,” one of them said in brief greeting.
Joyce nodded. “Hey. Uh, it’s nice to see you.”
Hoping that the girls would proceed to hit it off, Buffy just smiled and waited.
“So,” Willow said once all of the introductions and greetings were over, “have you eaten?”
Buffy nodded. “We grabbed fast food earlier – we didn’t know quite how long it would take to get here.”
Willow nodded. “Okay. Then...I guess you want to start getting settled?” She didn’t seem so pleased at the prospect.
“It can wait,” Buffy said.
Her old friend shook her head. “No, best to get it over with,” she muttered. She grabbed Joyce’s bags and led the way up the stairs and away from the crowd for the moment.
The silence between them didn’t last for long. “Thanks for letting us stay with you,” Buffy said as they reached the upstairs hallway.
Willow flashed her a smile tinged with sadness. “No problem. It’s...good to have someone else here. This house is really to big for one person.” Her voice stopped as she reached the master bedroom. “Here,” she said, opening the door and turning on the light. “I’ve...cleaned out all of their personal things, packed them up...but that’s all. I haven’t been able to redecorate any of it yet.”
“Are you sure you’re doing okay?” Buffy asked in concern, putting down her luggage.
Willow sighed and nodded. “As well as can be expected,” she said. “It’s just...my parents and I weren’t close in recent years, you know? I’d just always thought there would be time for us to make things right again.”
Buffy nodded sadly. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Maybe if I’d been here....”
“No one could have known,” Willow interrupted her. “I mean, only five demon related deaths in the last ten months, and then this.”
“It won’t happen again,” Buffy said vehemently, willing to give the only consolation gift she could. “The demon....”
“Is already dead,” Willow said.
Buffy shot her a sharp look.
“Not magic,” Willow assured her. “Xander and Anya rigged a trap for it.”
“Oh.”
Willow nodded and backed out of the room. “Anyway, Joyce will get the old guestroom,” she said, changing the subject. “You both are free to do whatever you want to the rooms. Please, make them your own.” She put Joyce’s things inside the other doorway, and then Buffy followed her back downstairs.
“Really,” Buffy said again. “It’s so good of you to have us live with you.”
Willow flashed her a genuine smile. “What did you think I was going to do, throw you out on the street?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Buffy said, teasing. “There is always that seedy hotel on the edge of town. That is, if it’s...”
“It’s still in business,” Willow acknowledged. “Please, like you’d live there? Over twenty years, and it still makes me think of Faith.”
For some reason, Buffy couldn’t help but chuckle at that. And for whatever reason, Willow joined in the laughter. It fed off of each other, and the two of them were giggling helplessly by the time they joined the group in the living room.
“What’s the joke?” Anya asked, looking at them oddly as they entered.
Buffy forced herself to calm down. “It’s just...” she began breathlessly, then froze. “Where’s Joyce?”
The entire room went deathly silent.
Thank goodness for summer nights and late sunsets.
Connor didn’t know how exactly he’d ended up in this town about two hours from home. No, wait, he did know exactly how he’d gotten there, but it had all happened quite quickly and without a lot of thought on his part. Only moments after the brief fight with his father, Connor had been swiftly packing up his essentials and ducking out of the hotel without anyone being the wiser. And if his father had heard him leave...there had still been an hour before the sun set enough for him to follow.
He slowed the motorcycle as he entered a more residential area. He hadn’t really set out with any distinct destination in mind. Instead, he had just concentrated on getting away. Now, though, his thoughts were starting to calm down enough to realize that this wasn’t perhaps the smartest thing he had ever done.... For one, he really didn’t have much means to support himself for longer than a week.
He was not about to turn around and go home, though; not with this anger still buzzing around his brain. He’d been lied to...about everything! Okay, maybe not lied to, but it was a lie by omission and that was more than enough. Connor liked the world and the people in it. Why the hell would he ever destroy it?
And who knew how far the lie went. When had his father found out about this prophecy? Had Connor even been born yet? And who else knew about it? Had every one of the adults he trusted been keeping this a secret from him his entire life?
No, he definitely wasn’t going to go home begging for forgiveness now. Why, they should be begging him!
A sound other than the rumble of the motorcycle engine drew Connor’s attention. He didn’t even notice it at first. In fact, if he hadn’t slowed and been very used to being observant of his surroundings at night, he wouldn’t have noticed it at all. He turned off the engine, pulled off his helmet, and listened.
Nothing for a long moment except for the nighttime sounds of a quiet town. Then....a howl of anger and pain, followed by a young female voice.
“I said get away from me!”
Connor took off at a run.
What he found was a girl facing off with four vampires. Though she didn’t stand a chance, she’d already given it her best shot. A cross necklace hung plainly down her front, probably one of the reasons she wasn’t dead already. That, and the empty bottle in her hand, and the screaming blistered vampire who showed what had once been in the bottle.
Holy water.
“Need some help?” Connor asked, drawing the attention of both girl and vampires alike.
For a moment the girl hesitated, then her gaze fell upon the stake he removed from his jacket pocket. “It would be nice,” she replied, and took out a stake of her own.
The vampires quickly sized up Connor as the more dangerous foe and went after him. There was the rushing sound of a vampire being dusted as the girl went after the vampire she’d blinded with holy water just as Connor began to grapple with his first opponent.
The vampire went down easily. Connor found himself smiling. These vampires weren’t as difficult as the ones he was used to in L.A., and all of the training and patrolling with his father had definitely paid off. He could do this without breaking a sweat!
His over-confidence cost him, and the second vampire took advantage of it to knock him off his feet. The wind temporarily knocked out of him, Connor looked up to see a non-descript, rather scrawny male vampire about to go in for the kill. Abruptly there was a sizzle and the revolting smell of burnt flesh. The vampire reared back, screaming in pain and dancing in circles, trying to claw something out of the back of his shirt. The girl jumped back from his antics and was smiling in amusement.
Her cross suddenly fell out the bottom of the vampire’s shirt. He froze and growled at her, and the girl’s laughter cut off abruptly. The vampire lunged for her...
And crumbled to dust as Connor stake hit home through his back.
The fourth and final vampire looked at the two of them...and took off running into the nearby woods.
The girl dusted herself off and smiled. “Thanks,” she said happily.
Connor nodded and put his stake away.
“You’re, uh...you’re really good with that. You...fight vampires often?”
Connor looked at her curiously. He already knew that she’d known exactly what she was facing. He just hadn’t expected her to be so frank about it. “Family business,” he replied shortly.
The girl nodded. “I know the feeling,” she said. She held out her hand. “I’m Joyce,” she introduced herself.
Now that the fight was over, he could see that she was younger than he’d originally thought. Four or five years younger than himself, he guessed. “Connor.” A glimmer of silver at his feet drew his attention. “I think this is yours,” he said, reaching down and picking up the cross.
She calmly placed the necklace back around her neck.
“Don’t you think you should be going home now?” he said to her pointedly.
Joyce gave an exaggerated sigh. “Yeah, I guess. I was out here to...get away, but I wasn’t expecting vampires.” She smiled very slightly. “Want to make sure I get home safe?” she teased. There was nothing flirtatious in her tone, just amusement. It was a relief.
Connor met her teasing. “It would be silly to go through all of that workout just to have you get killed,” he replied, and fell into step beside her.
The walk was short, and neither of them said anything more until Joyce reached her house. Finally she stopped in the driveway of a house that barely looked different from any of the others on the street. “This is it,” she declared.
Connor nodded and began to walk away.
“Connor?”
He turned to see her standing on her front steps.
“Maybe I’ll, uh, see you around?”
Connor gave her a small smile. “That depends.”
“On what?” she asked warily.
“On whether there’s a hotel somewhere in this town.”
Joyce smiled. “I think I saw one earlier,” she said. “Down...that way,” she gestured towards the main street.
Connor smiled back and flashed her a wave, then was gone.
Joyce stood in the door for a moment after Connor had turned away, watching him continue down the street. Definitely not what she had expected to meet on her evening stroll...but then, neither were vampires. Still, there was something...intriguing about him, something unusual. Joyce found herself thinking of him already as if he were a puzzle to work out. Who was he, really?
The door opened sharply, making Joyce jump.
“Joyce Hillary!”
She cringed at the sound of her mother’s voice and walked inside. “Mom,” she said sheepishly.
Buffy closed the door behind her...a bit too hard. “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick!”
Joyce floundered for an explanation. “I just...needed some air.”
“You left without telling anyone!” her mother said sternly. “What were you thinking?”
“I just...” Joyce shrugged.
Buffy sighed. “You scared me,” she said in a softer tone. “I’ve told you before – Sunnydale isn’t like what you’re used to. It’s dangerous out there.”
“Vampires. I know,” Joyce replied, trying not to let any annoyance show. She was still in one piece, right?
“And demons and who knows what else on a nightly basis,” Buffy said. “I just...I’m glad you’re safe.”
Almost wasn’t, Joyce thought, but then thought better of mentioning her rescuer to her mother. It would only make her worry more, and Joyce kind of liked the idea of having a friend that no one else knew about. “I’m sorry,” she said eventually.
Buffy frowned but did not reprimand her again. “It’s late,” she said at last. “Why don’t you go upstairs and start unpacking, and we’ll talk more about this in the morning.”
Joyce nodded and headed for the stairs without another word. Her back to her mother, she thought of her evening and smiled secretly. No, Sunnydale wasn’t going to be boring at all.
On to Part Three