ff:Exquisitely Bored Chapter 6 The Monster Inside

[Carol.Clarke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Title: Exquisitely Bored Chapter 6 The Monster Inside
Rating R or PG13
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
Summary: In an alternate world Willow is the Slayer and she and her Father
have just moved to Sunnydale. Cordelia and Buffy, life long friends, run
head long into the new slayer in town.
Warning: Love and sex between two women, if you don't like it don't read it.

Note: I really need feed back. I need direction. Just don't hurt me too
badly, and yes I already know I suck at spelling and grammar. Who knew I
would need those in life?
Thanks: Special thanks go to AleXander Thompson whose transcripts made this
story possible.
More Thanks: To my goddess Dysfunctional Girl

The Monster Inside

They had made a plan to look into what might be the cause of Amber bursting
in flame. It wasn't a super plan, but Mrs. Summers had been pleased by it.
It was really just a lot of research and internet work, but it was a plan. 

"That means hacking illegally into the school's computer system. At last,
something *I* can do!" Willow said, the happy little slayer.

After dinner the girls talked about boys, bands, clothes, and Xander Harris.
Willow watched how hard this was for Buffy. Both Cordelia and the Slayer
knew Buffy was gay. They both tried to be as supportive as possible but
Buffy was having so much trouble with it. Mostly with trusting that her
friends would still be there for her. Being different was never easy for a
teenager. In the end it was the little things that made it so hard for
Buffy. 

"You know what I want? I want to get the new CD by the Indigo Girls." The
Slayer said sitting cross-legged on the floor looking at Buffy's music
collection.

"Oh, I love them. I listen to the "Rites of Passage" CD all the time. It's
great to leave on when I draw." Cordelia said, handing Buffy a CD to put in
the stereo.

"How about you Buffy? You like the Indigo Girls?" Willow asked, looking at
Buffy's CDs for anything of theirs.

"Why would you think I would have anything like that?" Buffy said very
defensively.

"God, you really are Miss Closeted America, Buffy. Owning a CD by somebody
gay doesn't automatically make you gay. You don't catch it." Cordelia said.

"I know it's just........." Buffy really couldn't finish. She was just so
unsure of herself, of what was right, or what people expected of her. She
was still young enough to care what others thought.

"We love you for you, now get over it. Besides, I know were you hide all the
good stuff anyway, so whip out Melissa and put in Breakdown."

Shrugging her shoulders in defeat, Buffy pulled out a trunk from the bottom
of her closet. She opened it. It was full of dolls and stuffed animals. All
kinds of girlie stuff. Then she took the top off and revealed the false
bottom. The trunk held the cheerleader's forbidden treasures. Willow leaned
in and picked up a book. 

"The Well of Loneliness. Never heard of it, is it any good?" Willow asked,
staring at the trunk's contents. 

"Not really, it's very depressing." Buffy said, shifting from foot to foot
uncomfortably.

Willow examined the trunk's contents . There were maybe ten or twelve
paperback books, 15 CDs mostly Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls and
some magazines: OUT, Curve and the Advocate. Willow picked up one of the
CDs, turning it around. The Slayer had never heard of Kate Clinton. In the
trunk there was a diary and three different spiral notebooks.

"So you hide that book in a trunk because it's depressing?" Willow asked
puzzled.

"No, I hide the book from my mother in the trunk, because she would be
really pissed if she knew I was gay." Buffy said, taking the book out of
Willow's hands, sounding angry but really just frightened.

"Buffy, you are so lucky. You have great parents. They will love you even if
you are gay and sooner or later you will have to tell them." Cordelia said,
stopping Buffy from closing the trunk.

"Yeah, like you are going to tell your dad how much you want to go to art
school after high school." Buffy knew it was a mean thing to say, but her
defenses were up. The whole thing between her mom and Giles was really
bothering her more then she wanted to admit. Giles was the only real father
she had. Losing him would be hard and she didn't want to lose him. And Buffy
was also not ready to come out. She was barely out to herself, and being out
to her two best friends was a huge step that she wanted to take slowly.

"Yeah, well that's different." Cordy whispered back. Cordelia was terrified
of her father and the beating he would give her if he found out she wanted
to be an artist. 

"What are the notebooks for?" Willow said to change the subject. Her Slayer
senses were on tension overload.

"You'll laugh, but I'll tell you." Buffy said taking them out. "This one I
write down quotes, song lyrics, lines I hear on TV, just stuff I like, and
this one, I write these very bad poems in. And no, nobody will ever get to
read them. I just write stuff I am feeling." Buffy then started to put them
back.

"What is the third one for?" Willow asked, dying to read Buffy's poetry. 

"It's just a book I use to work things out. Some times if I write a letter
to myself, I figure stuff out. It's how I figured out I was gay."

"Oh, I do that, only on the computer." Willow said.

The rest of the night went well, the girls listening to music and laughing. 

Willow walked Cordelia home before making a sweep of the cemetery. When she
dropped Cordelia off she knew the girl was embarrassed by her home. Cordelia
was nervous just letting Willow know where she lived. Willow just assumed
the cheerleader didn't want anyone from school knowing she lived on the
wrong side of town, a block from the Bronze. Willow was very wrong. 

Sometimes being the Slayer had its down side. When she was almost done with
patrol the redhead got a feeling she needed to retrace her steps. When she
made it to outside of Cordelia's house the noise was deafening. Glass and
furniture was being broken. Uninvited, Willow rushed into the house. 

Cordelia's parents were drunk and shouting obscenities at each other. Her
mother was throwing dishes at her father between drinks. Her father had
Cordelia bent over a chair in the living room. Cordelia's sketch
book lay torn to pieces at her feet while her father used his belt on her
back side. He was screaming "Artists are drunken layabout losers!" As he
went to hit the cheerleader one more time Willow caught his arm and forced
him to drop the belt. 

"Mr. Chase, you are soo wrong right now!" Willow said, still shocked. The
Slayer continued to hold Mr. Chase's arm until she forced him to his knees.
Mrs. Chase just continued throwing dishes, shouting and drinking. She was
too drunk to know what was happening . Thankfully for Willow, the police
picked that moment to come in. The police knew this couple well. 

>From that point on all the Slayer remembered was holding Cordelia while she
cried. The police had let them both go to Cordelia's bedroom. It too was in
the same mess the rest of the house was in. Cordelia's drawings were thrown
around the room. Torn in small pieces. All her pencils broken. The smell of
alcohol filled the room. There were at least 14 empty beer cans in
Cordelia's bed. 

Later a policewoman came in the room and looked Cordelia over. Cordy's
bottom was black and blue. Cordy had stopped crying and started packing a
bag. She wouldn't look at Willow. Once packed she made one phone call. She
called Rupert Giles. The policewoman then asked Willow to call her father.

Giles and Ira Rosenberg arrived at the Chase house almost at the same time.
Well in time to see Mr. Chase being dragged bodily from the house. 

"She promised, she promised she would stay out of trouble this time." Ira
Rosenberg said as he watched the police putting Mrs. Chase in another car.

"Mr. Rosenberg?" Giles asked

"Yes, can I help you?" Ira answered, thinking he was one of the police until
he heard the British accent.

"Ah, yes, we have spoken on the phone a few times." Giles never was good
with people.

"We have?" The puzzled father said.

"Oh right, sorry," Giles realized the man didn't know him by sight. "I am
Rupert Giles, the school librarian. Your daughter and my step-daughter have
gotten to be good friends."

"They went ice skating?" Ira remembered from a few weeks earlier. "Your
daughter is Buffy,
yes?'

"I am not sure about the skating, but yes, my daughter is Buffy." 

"So, is she messed up in this thing, what ever this thing is? Damn! That
girl promised me she was going to behave. Willow was a straight A student.
On the honor roll. Nice kid, wouldn't say boo to a flea. Now I never know
whether she is coming or going. I try. But it's like talking to a brick
wall." Ira said, frustration showing in his tone. 

"Yes well, Buffy does try my patience as well. I believe it has something
to do with teenage American girls, but my wife swears it doesn't just happen
with American girls." Giles said.

"Your daughter Buffy, I thought she was going to be a big influence on my
Willow. Looks like it's the other way around." Ira sighed. Both men had
moved near enough to the house to smell the alcohol.

"Actually, I don't think Willow had anything to do with this. The girls were
at our house for dinner. Then...." Giles had no idea what the girls did in
the bedroom other then play loud music. "Well, I am not sure what they did,
but they were in Buffy's room listening to atrocious music."

"Oh" Ira had no idea what his own daughter did in her room with friends but
the music was awful.

"Afterwards Willow walked Ms. Chase home, and was going to go home herself.
Actually, I am surprised she is not home now." Giles added, wondering what
really happened.

"Ms Chase?" Ira asked.

"Cordelia Chase, another friend of my daughter's. This is her home." Giles
really hoped the girls were okay. He had often wondered about Cordelia's
safety. Even watched for signs of abuse. The cheerleader always seemed well
fed and clothed. He often let her stay with Buffy when her parents were
drinking, even picking her up in the middle of the night, but he had never
seen any sign that her parents abused her.

Cordelia had a lifetime of being hit by her father. One of the first things
she learned was how to hide the bruises. Not even her best friend Buffy knew
how often she was bruised and sore. Her bottom spent most of its time
purple. She never changed in public. Always in bathrooms. Buffy's being gay
had been a big relief for Cordelia. Buffy was so insecure that she never
looked at the brunette cheerleader closely. Not when she was undressed,
anyway.

The police brought the two men inside. After a few standard questions, they
explained what would happen next. The Rosenbergs and Giles, for that matter,
were free to go. Cordelia would be taken to the hospital for a check up and
then to foster care. That was what the two men and the police believed.
Slayers are a lot harder to convince. 

What did happen was this: Cordelia was taken to the hospital with Willow and
Giles in tow. Pictures were taken, detectives spoken with and charges made.
Ira woke up his lawyer. By 3 PM the next day, Mr. and Mrs. Giles had helped
Ira Rosenberg become the temporary legal guardian of one Cordelia Chase. The
Giles had tried for custody but lacked the main requirement. A spare
bedroom. By 5 PM all of Cordelia's belonging were in the Rosenberg home. In
truth the court just looked at it as one less kid to lose in the system. 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Even with all the activity cheerleading tryouts continued on. And on Friday
the list was posted. Willow was surprised to see that she was first
alternate. Her new friend Amy was 3rd alternate and didn't take it well.
That afternoon in the school parking lot Buffy went blind.

The blindness came on suddenly and she lost her way. Xander Harris slammed
on his brakes and skidded to a stop in front of Buffy. Xander jumped out of
his car with more speed then he knew he had to reach the girls side.

"Summers, are you crazy?!" The frightened Xander screamed When he made it to
the blonde cheerleader's side and found only the whites of her eyes were
showing, he learned a new meaning of fear. Xander carried Buffy all the way
to the nurse's office.


"The extreme always gets a reaction" -Heathers

"Anyone who's not having fun here, follow me." -Buffy