TITLE:Displaced part 11/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
SUMMARY: If you don’t know by now I’m in trouble
FEEDBACK: Please
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Spike/Buffy, Wes/Willow and Ethan/Lorne yes it’s kind of crack, why do you ask?
RATING: FRT ( Read more... )
TITLE: Displaced part 10/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
SUMMARY: If you don’t know by now I’m in trouble
FEEDBACK: Please
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Spike/Buffy, Wes/Willow and Ethan/Lorne yes it’s kind of crack, why do you ask?
RATING: FRT
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goodTITLE: Displaced part 9/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK: Please, it would make my day.
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Wes/Willow, Buffy/Spike
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: Ethan explains some things.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to JaneDavitt for making it readable.
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TITLE: Displaced part 8/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK: Please, it would make my day.
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Wes/Willow, Buffy/Spike
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: This chapter Giles get rid of the library-wear and meets an old friend.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to JaneDavitt for making it readable.
I was disappointed that Rupert hadn’t left a trench coat or something similarly suited to the detective image for me to wear over the jeans and T-shirt I found in his wardrobe. However, the brown leather jacket he had left behind fitted like an old friend and the pockets were very convenient for stashing weapons.
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TITLE:Displaced part 7/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK: Please
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Wes/Willow, Buffy/Spike
RATING: FRT
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to JaneDavitt for making it readable.
It was decided that Anya and I would pick Dawn up from the airport while Willow tried a locator spell to find Buffy. We had no way of knowing just how much danger she was in and it was better to act quickly than to let a trail go cold. I very quickly discovered it was a mistake to get into a vehicle with Anya in the driver’s seat. She didn’t speed or tailgate but she drove as if she had received her license in a dimension without traffic lights. At least I wouldn’t have to explain the lack of gray in my hair to Dawn.
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TITLE: Displaced part 6/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK: Please
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Wes/Willow, Buffy/Spike
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: This chapter is the exposition -palooza sorry.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to JaneDavitt for making it readable.
The ever-practical Anya said, “It would be simplest for you to just take Rupert’s place. If anyone notices how good you look they’ll just assume you had work done or that it’s a glamour, depending upon who it is. "Either way, they'll be too polite to ask.”
“Not that I wish to replace your Giles,” I reassured her. “I don’t know the first thing about being a detective.”
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curiousTITLE: Displaced part 5/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK/EMAIL: please
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: This chapter isn’t that great but stuff almost happens.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to JaneDavitt for making it readable and to pinkdormouse for being a sounding board. What is a ‘sounding board’ anyway I’ve always wondered.
“Don’t expect this kind of treatment all the time,” Anya said as she placed an enormous sandwich in front of me. Any sting the words might have held were banished by her smile.
Spike had popped in and was sitting on the kitchen island. Did he have an aversion to using a chair? I soon found out that he wanted that vantage point to gaze longingly at my food while I ate. When Anya noticed, she hit him with a dishtowel that naturally went right through him.
“Why do you even miss the taste of food? You’re the ghost of a vampire. Isn’t it blood you should miss?” I asked. The Spike I knew ate human food but I really thought it was mostly an effort to annoy me by eating my groceries.
“You can give Giles the whole ‘food is more than mere sustenance’ speech sometime when I’m not around to hear it again, Spike,”Anya said.
“You take that back, I haven’t used the words ‘mere sustenance’ in over a century!”
Anya might have argued the point but just then Willow and Wesley walked in.
“As we expected,” Wesley said, “Faith can’t think of anyone who would want to use Giles’ death as a way of warning her off something. Xander wasn’t at home when I called but Faith said that if we need their help with this they could leave Hellmouth Jr.”
“Buffy’s not answering her phone. I don’t know if that’s because of who’s calling or if she’s out,” Willow said.
This seemed to worry me more than the others. I said, “It’s possible that whoever is after her has made his move already.”
“Somebody dial the number for me,” Spike said. “I’ll get the stubborn Slayer to answer.”
“About damn time,” Willow said.
This just didn’t sound like Willow to me, even my more battle-weary Willow wouldn’t add the expletive. This Willow was so much younger that it seemed doubly odd.
“Why is everyone looking at me like that? I can cuss when I want.”
Wesley whispered something in Willow’s ear that made her blush. I did my best to ignore the couple and Anya laughed then said, “I’m the one who tactlessly points out the truth around here, missy!”
“Sorry, I was speaking as the newly in love and therefore romantic member of the team. I guess you’re right though- ‘about damn time’ could go either way.”
It was strange to see the two women acting like friends instead of acquaintances or reluctant allies. It seemed almost as if Anya had replaced Buffy as Willow’s best friend- had that happened? “As amusing as the friendly banter is, I would really like it if someone explained to me what’s going on here.”
“I’m sorry,” Wesley said. “If you can tell us the biggest difference you notice between our dimensions we’ll do my best to clear up your confusion.”
“I don’t know where to start. None of you should be here working together. I don’t mean to say that it’s bad that you are; just that this is not how I remember it. I haven’t seen you since 1999. More importantly, why isn’t Buffy taking your calls?”
“I suppose the starting point should be my return to Sunnydale with Faith then,” Wesley said. “That was when her relationship with the others began to fall apart.”
“Things were falling apart long before you showed up; it wasn't your fault,” Willow said.
“In any case, I was working in L.A. last year when I was told that the First was on the rise in Sunnydale and that this was truly shaping up to be the final battle. In spite of her employer’s goals, my informant-”
Willow made a coughing sound and muttered something that sounded like “lawyer- ho.”
“She saw little benefit to hell on earth, and gave me the amulet to stop the Turok- Hans. She also arranged for Faith’s release from prison. The original plan was for Faith to wear the amulet but Giles found a prophecy that indicated it needed to be worn by a male,” Wesley continued.
I said, “Anya told me that it was timed so that Spike wasn’t supposed to be killed.”
“It wasn’t anyone’s fault but my own,” Spike said, “I knew going in that I’d have to die to get it done and I was right. But Buffy blamed all of you. She retired from slaying and cut ties with everyone to live a normal life. It’s what she wants.”
Anya shot Spike an exasperated look. “She hasn’t taken up bridge and ballroom dancing, Spike. She’s dating the Immortal and she’s partying non-stop so she doesn’t have to think about you being gone.”
I hadn’t thought so at the time but looking back I could see that the Buffy I knew had been no different. Would she have died so young if I had told her about Spike’s return? Would Dawn have been less wild too and not fallen prey to addiction?
“What good would my showing up like this have done!” Spike flickered out of sight, reappeared and said in a determined voice, “Doesn’t matter now - she’s in some kind of mess and we need to get her out. It’s time for me to get on the horn.”
“We’ve been so busy explaining our problems we forgot about yours! We need to find a way to get you home,” Willow said.
“Dear Lord, I can’t believe I’ve forgotten Willow! I have to get back and get her out of that library before it collapses.”
“I still have some of my old powers. I can open a window so we can see what’s happening to her but getting you back there will take a little more time. I’d have to ask the PTB for teleportation permission.”
“Willow managed to get me here. Can’t you bend the rules in an emergency?” I had been a desperate commuter trying to get a seat on a flight home before but home had never been this far away.
“Giles, I’m really sorry but bending the rules probably got Willow killed.”
“Show me then,” I demanded. “I need to see for myself.”
“Take my hand so that I know where to look.”
When I took Anya’s hand in mine the room became filled with a gray haze. The haze didn’t smell like smoke or fog and it was neither damp nor dry. It was simply there until it gathered and formed what looked like a smoke ring that framed the kitchen window.
The view of the back garden disappeared and in its place, I saw Willow lying in the rubble. Her hair had gone completely white like when she had called the Slayers but her eyes were wide open in a death stare. “Is it possible for you to send me back to an earlier time?” I asked when I could find my voice. The words came out rusty as if the brief silence had been much longer.
“It doesn’t work that way.” Anya dropped my hand and as she put her arm around me in a one-armed hug the view returned to normal. “I could return you to a dimension where Willow didn’t die but it wouldn’t be exactly your Willow.”
I thought for an endless moment and looked around at the strangers who seemed more familiar and dear than any living being in my own reality. “I don’t have a home left to go to. If it doesn’t rip a hole in the fabric of reality I’ll be staying. Besides I’d like to help.”
TITLE: Displaced part 4/14
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK: Please
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Wes/Willow, Buffy/Spike
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: This chapter is the exposition -palooza sorry.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to JaneDavitt for making it readable.
I should’ve been prepared for what I saw in the mirror. Both Anya and Willow had said I looked younger but the words had just washed over me in the flood of information. I looked like the man I was when I first arrived in Sunnydale. I took off my shirt: twenty years of battle scars had disappeared. Willow’s healing spell had done a bloody good job. I hit the mirror hard with my fist.
“I heard the glass break; you’re bleeding.” Anya said startling me from behind.
I didn't know if I'd forgotten to lock the door or if she'd teleported. “God, don’t do that to me, Anya. You just aged me twenty y…” I giggled at what I was about to say but it wasn’t a happy sound.
“Lucky for you, we always keep lots of bandages on hand.” I waited for her to ask why I’d do such a stupid thing. She simply cleaned and bandaged my hand.
“Just let me, I’ve done this before.” I knew she meant more than just taking care of my cuts. I could see by looking in her eyes that Anya knew what it was like to see a stranger in the mirror.
“Did you love him?” I asked as she showed me to my bedroom.
“We were all close to Rupert but only as close as he’d let us be.”
"Oh," I said flatly I had a thousand questions about everything here - why did I have to ask that one?
“You must be exhausted. I had a full night's sleep and suddenly I’m very tired.” Anya started to leave and then turned around. “Would you mind if I just laid down with you?”
“Not at all; there’s plenty of room on the bed.”
“I don’t take up much room. Willow and Wes will be making calls and they have each other anyway. Spike has probably disappeared to not-brood about Buffy.” Anya was fighting tears; apparently the grief and stress of the morning was finally hitting home
“Anya, I already said you could. Just get into the bed.”
“Giles, I’m sorry about pulling the knife on you.”
“When did that happen - last week?” I joked and Anya laid down on her side as close to to the edge of the bed as she could. She seemed surprised when I put my arm around her but she snuggled closer without complaint. We might feel awkward once we woke up but I didn’t see any point in napping together if we clung to opposite sides of the bed.
***
When I woke up from a surprisingly dreamless sleep the bedside clock and the light in the room told me it was four in the afternoon. Instead of being in my arms Anya was calling for me to wake up on the other side of the door. I was absurdly grateful when she came in. Anya’s presents grounded me and lessened the time it took to remember where I was.
“Giles, you look much better now. Are you ready to get something to eat?”
“Yes, that would be a good idea. May I ask you something first?
“Sure, I’m shocked you haven’t already asked us a million questions by now.”
“I think you said something before about becoming a demon again to help. How did that happen? In my dimension Anya was human.”
“I was left at the altar by Xander and took up vengeance again but I wasn’t any good at it. D’Hoffryn fired me as a favor. He didn’t simply kill me; he let me chose how I would live out my life. I could become a powerless and short-lived human again. This time I’d be stripped of all my memories of ever being anything else or I could keep my ties to my human life and stay a demon. The fine print to that deal was that I had to take an active role in fighting evil. He figured either way I'd live a very short and friendless life.”
“You aren’t friendless are you?” The way she had turned to me last night had me worried about her.
“No. Willow and Wes are a new couple though and sometimes seeing them together makes my teeth ache.”
“They do look rather sweet together. Do I need to prepare myself for one of them to call the other snookums? What about Spike? Is he a good friend and why is he here anyway?”
“Spike’s a sweetheart," Anya said. "The poor guy kind of pops out of this reality when he gets upset. He’s haunting here because this is where he used to live when he was a human. But I’m not sure it’s really called haunting. Spike wanted to be sure that every one had gotten out so he wore the amulet longer than we knew was safe and he dusted but the gem kept his soul from death. Now he’s in between and we’re trying to get him his body back. Oh, and Buffy confessed her love at the very last minute and Spike said he didn’t believe it or something like that.”
I remembered the words that Buffy had cried over the few times she allowed herself to admit to grieving for Spike. “I suspect the exact words were ‘No you don’t, but thanks for saying it.’”
“I guess some things are constants.” Anya sighed. “You’re caught up on everyone but Buffy now; I suppose I should tell you about her.”
“You don’t sound very happy about that prospect. Do you have some idea of who or what this warning is all about?”
“As far as I know the only people Buffy Summers annoys lately are the ones that used to be her friends. Let’s go down and eat. I think I’m going to need back up for this one.”
TITLE: Displaced part 3/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK/EMAIL: Melissa@lee-grant.com
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles possibly only UST
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: Everywhere Giles looks there are familiar strangers; even in the mirror.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I made one change in the previous chapter. The Big Bad wanted Giles body dropped on the Slayer’s doorstep not Anya’s. You don’t really need to go back to read it.
After Anya brought me inside she called up the stairs. Willow came down looking fresh from a shower and incredibly young. The woman I knew had lived through sixteen hard years more than this Willow. I didn’t recognize the man a few steps behind Willow until Anya called him ‘Wes’. While Willow was younger than I’d last seen her Wes was more mature. At least the lines on his face and his calm reaction to my arrival were mature… The sweatpants and Scooby Doo T-shirt made me wish my glasses weren’t in the rubble of another dimension. Was he the ‘rogue demon’ now? Did they all live and work here together? I set those questions aside as unimportant for now.
I did my best to explain briefly who I was and what I had seen earlier. Willow read my aura and pronounced me a ‘good guy’ then I started to shake. Anya led me to the office and sat me down on a hideous-looking but comfortable blue sofa. She wrapped me in a blanket like the disaster victim I was and Wesley soon had a strong cuppa laced with whiskey in my hands. That was when I saw that Spike was the vampire- ghost Anya mentioned. My heart lurched, had the Giles here succeeded in killing him and was being haunted because of it?
“I don’t trust the aura reading mumbo jumbo. I say we tie him to a chair and have an early Thanksgiving,” Spike said, grinning at his own joke as he drummed his heels on the front of the desk ‘missing’ every now and then which resulted in his feet going right through. “Just because we’re back home doesn’t mean we can’t have a nice turkey dinner.”
“Spike, we can’t do that! This is Giles, or um- almost anyway.” Willow protested.
“Why not? That’s what you did to me isn’t it?”
Willow said, “That was different, you were evil back then.”
“So how do we know that Almost Giles isn’t evil?” Spike turned to Anya and said, “It can’t hurt to have Samantha and Darrin do a little truth spell after the pie.”
I was about to tell Spike that I would gladly be chained to the bath if I could get some sleep then I was distracted by what Spike had called Willow and Wesley.
They were obviously a couple and this should have seemed odd but something about how Wesley and Willow interacted; their body language or some invisible connection between them triggered my memory. It wasn’t until Willow looked up at Wesley and thanked him for the cup of coffee that he handed her that my tired brain made the connection. This was how Willow had been with Tara. This was Willow in love.
“You’d think dying to close the Hellmouth and help avert the last apocalypse would raise you above that kind of petty vengeance.” Wesley sent an apologetic look Anya’s way and continued, “Willow’s said he’s not evil. Besides- Spike, you can’t even eat.”
“He may not be evil but something is wrong with the bloke. He keeps smiling at everyone and not talking, it’s giving me the heebie-jeebies,” Spike muttered.
“He’s in shock and he has dimension-lag. His reactions are bound to be muzzy. And maybe if you’d be quiet long enough he’d be able to say something.” Anya’s said. Her defensive tone on my behalf was more comforting than the warm drink.
Willow said, “Guys, he just said it was 2019 in his dimension. Why does he look younger than our Giles? And where is our Giles anyway, didn’t he come home last night?”
Oh Lord, I’d only told half my story. I’d given this kind of news to both friends and strangers it was never easy. “Last night the portal left me by the river. I saw, I saw a body being dumped. It was your Giles.”
Anya removed the hand she’d been patting his back with and rubbed it down her skirt as if something foul had gotten on her palm. “No, you must be mistaken. Rupert was my friend and business partner, he told me I would have more warning. A hospital bed and many machines hooked up to him. He promised- when I knew I’d have to stay part -demon to help him. He promised to give me time to say goodbye before…”
“I’m sorry, but it was him. I’m sure he meant to keep his promise.” I felt like this was probably the stupidest thing I'd ever said.
Willow was sobbing and clinging to Wesley whose face had become pale and tight. When I looked over at Spike his face was a mask of grief too. He left his perch on the desk and began to pace angrily. “Who or what did this, Watcher? How do we make ‘em hurt?”
Suddenly the blanket around my shoulders felt ridiculous and I shrugged it off. I reached up involuntarily for my glasses and ran my hands over my tired eyes instead. “There were two vampires, minions, they killed him without permission. I overheard them say the boss wanted to leave the body on the Slayer’s doorstep.”
Willow was wiping her eyes with Wesley’s handkerchief. I found the fact that he carried a cloth hanky reassuring. It was something the Wesley I knew would’ve done and I grasped at every scrap of familiarity even if it was in someone I didn’t like. “What we need to discover is who their boss is because it sounds like Buffy or Faith may be in danger.” Wesley said.
“So there are only the two Slayers here now?” I asked.
“Yeah, Buffy died for a while so another one was called.” Willow said sniffling.
“Yes, I know about- never mind. I was never very close to Faith so I doubt a killer would feel compelled to leave me at her door. Unless things are different here, I believe he was talking about Buffy.”
Wesley said, “Good point. I’ll call Faith and Xander to be on the safe side but they probably would’ve rung if there was serious trouble in Cleveland.”
“I guess that means I get to make the call to Rome.” Willow said sounding very unhappy with the idea of telling Buffy her Watcher had been killed and replaced.
Anya said, “Everyone should do something. Spike, you go on with the haunting. I’ll show Giles to his- I mean to where he can wash up and sleep.”
***
I should’ve been prepared for what I saw in the mirror. Both Anya and Willow had said I looked younger but the words had just washed over me in the flood of information. I looked like the man I was when I first arrived in Sunnydale. I took off my shirt: twenty years of battle scars had disappeared. Willow’s healing spell had done a bloody good job. I hit the mirror hard with my fist.
TITLE: Displaced part 2/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK please do.
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen”
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Wesley/Willow, Buffy/Spike
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: The Council Library is blown up again and Willow gets Giles out of there the only way she can.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ezagaaikwe I know it doesn’t look like it but this is the start of you Giles PI in London story.
This time I landed behind a bunch of barrels on an unfamiliar dock. It was a very good thing that I had cover because the first thing I saw when I peered around them was my own murder.
Well, it would be more accurate to say that the two minions were dumping a body that was already very dead. Even from here in the dim light I could tell it was my double and it was all I could do to keep from being sick. I focused on the minions standing over the body. The lisping British voices of the two vampires carried easily on the night air. I could only hide there hoping that the scent of my double concealed my presence. When she opened the portal Willow must have done a very effective healing spell too because I was no longer bleeding.
The heavier of the two vampires stood wringing his hands while the other took their victim’s watch. “The boss is going to dust us for sure!”
“Naw, he’s too old school for that, wouldn’t want to get his hands all dusty. He’d send a minion to do us.”
“You’re not making me feel better here, mate. What’re we going to do? You heard the boss- he wanted to play with him a little longer then dump him on Slayer’s doorstep with a warning. Why did I listen to you? I could’ve slipped out and had a nice little blonde to eat at the corner shop.”
Which Slayer; Buffy, Faith some other new girl? My heart pounded in my ears so loudly I was sure the vampires could hear me. Wherever I was it wasn’t any version of the past I was familiar with.
“We’ll just dump him here and tell the boss he escaped. Not our fault he got ate on the way home is it?” The unnatural angle of the corpse's legs made me cringe; I’m not sure if it was in sympathy or because I couldn’t believe that someone like me had been killed by a vampire so stupid. There was no way their boss would believe his prisoner escaped with both of his legs broken.
Reminding myself that they called it dumb luck for a reason I tried to see if there was anything nearby I could use as a weapon. Just as the bigger of the two looked in my direction, I picked up a nearby piece of broken pallet. A sensible man of my age would’ve tried to run the other way but having died already made me either brave or foolish. The bigger vampire actually seemed to get paler when he saw me and took off. There was a brief scuffle with the other one before I dusted him. It had been a long time since I’d done any fighting and I was surprised at how well I did. The adrenaline rush tempted me to go after the one that ran away but he was long gone. I braced myself instead to look though my double’s pockets and finish dumping the body in the river. It would be simpler not to have to explain a twin.
There was no wallet or ID but I did find a business card for Giles Investigations – Paranormal Spec. with a Brunswick Gardens address and phone number. This struck me as funny- ‘Rupert Giles PI’. I wondered if I had a beat-up trench coat and a fedora. Before I could play dress up though I needed to find out exactly where and when I was.
By the time, I stood in front of the Victorian home that matched the address on the card it was morning. I was cold and exhausted, my adrenaline rush long over, but at least I was a bit less lost. I had spotted a newspaper kiosk and knew that it was October 1 2003; the autumn after Sunnydale was destroyed, at least in my dimension. World events here seemed to have occurred pretty much as I recalled; there were no anachronistic Nazis roaming the streets anyway. To anyone passing by I’d look like a vagrant huddled on the stoop without a coat but I didn’t have a key and had nothing to break in with. I could only hope that I didn’t work alone and some employee would show up soon.
“Rupert, did you lose your keys again?” I didn’t know I was waking up. At first I thought, oh good my nightmare’s over and I’m dreaming of Anya now. Funny, even half-asleep after all these years the sound of her voice is still familiar. She looked as beautiful as I remembered her. Her hair was blonde now and it made me wonder if this Anya colored hers as frequently and I smiled. That was when she realized I was a stranger and reached inside her carry all to pull out a very deadly looking knife. “What are you and what have you done with my business partner?”
“Look I’m Giles, just not your Giles.” I tried to sound as harmless as I could and raised my hands slowly. “I need your help and I think you might need mine.” I tried what others had called my ‘watcher voice’ “It’s terribly cold down here; may I get up so we can discuss this inside?”
“All right, but don’t think you’ll catch me off guard just because you were nice enough to have Rupert’s body mystically dry cleaned before you took it over. I won’t be alone; there’s a rogue demon hunter, a really powerful witch and ghost- vampire inside and two out three of them has tried to kill you before.”
This would’ve sounded more like the opening line of a joke than a threat if it weren't for the way her face altered from human to vengeance demon, faint black lines appearing as I watched.
Willow’s idea of a safe place was beginning to make some of the lesser-known hell dimensions look restful.
TITLE: Displaced part 1/15
AUTHOR: Appomattoxco
FEEDBACK: Pretty please
DISTRIBUTION: just let me know.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not making any money off this or anything else actually so don’t sue.
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Wildly AU post “Chosen” in other words comics, there are comics?
PAIRING/CHARACTERS: Anya/Giles, Buffy/Spike
RATING: FRT
SUMMARY: The Council Library is blown up again and Willow gets Giles out of there the only way she can.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ezagaaikwe I know it doesn’t look like it but this is the start of you Giles PI in London story. Thanks to JaneDavitt for the beta.
January 18th, 2017 Giles:
I had to laugh; there was a calendar lying in the rubble beside me. It was Buffy’s birthday and even ten years after her death terrible things still happened. The laugh sounded more like a hacking cough and sent a spear of pain through my side. If anyone knows exactly how painful an actual spear through the side is it’s me.
“Giles, is that you? I’m stuck, I can’t move, oh.” Willow’s voice sounded like a sandcastle crumbling in the tide; her tears breaking the sound down and carrying it away.
“Willow, don’t stop talking. I’ll find you and get us out of here!” I prayed to whoever would listen that I would find her alive under the rubble that used to be the Council library. I had buried first Buffy, then last year I had beheaded Xander to keep him from becoming what he hated most. Willow was bloody well going to live to put me in the ground, if I had to speed my own death along to see it happen.
I held my hand to my bleeding side and awkwardly climbed over and around toppled bookcases and desks. Willow didn’t call out again and I wondered if I had imagined her voice. I looked to my left and finally saw Willow’s pale face illuminated by the faint light that found its way in through a hole in the ceiling. A beam had overturned a bookcase and trapped her under it; her legs crushed under the combined weight. I was so sure that she was dead that when she smiled I was startled. “Dear God, Willow!”
“Giles, happened - so fast - didn’t have a chance…” Her voice crumbled again washing away in chunks. There was even a gurgling sound. I stroked her hair and tried to completely ignore the tears coursing down my face. If I didn’t draw attention to them perhaps she wouldn’t notice them in the shadowy wreck. I heard the building groan and shielded Willow from more falling debris with my body. Willow whispered, “go!” in my ear and with surprising strength shoved me backwards. I fell into a void and kept falling.
Then suddenly I was watching myself hand a book to Buffy on the day we met. Before I could even blink, I was yanked away to somewhere – somewhen?- else. I fell again and this time I had a chance to watch myself kill Ben. No one appeared to notice me; was I dead and seeing my life flash before my eyes? Had Willow opened a portal in time or to other dimensions? I looked down and the wound in my side was gone. Before I could see if I had any substance in this world I was yanked away from it.
***
This time I landed behind a bunch of barrels on an unfamiliar pier. It was a very good thing that I had cover because the first thing I saw when I peered around them was my own murder.
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busyI have all kinds of space for icons here but most of my icons come from LJ users. Is it bad manners to use them here if the maker isn't on IJ? Also I know there's a way to use semagic to cross post but I can't figure it out.
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dorkyIt's soo hot the AC can't keep up. I've been trying to pretty stuff up here but anything that requires real thought is a lost cause. I should just beg some kind soul to make me a layout on exchange for fic or something.
I'm going to try to Big Bro to see Stardust this Friday if it's playing in my area IMDb didn't have it listed when I looked last night.
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hot