The Prophet
by Rainne
Part Three
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I brought Willow back to the hotel with me. She'd asked if I wanted to go to her house, but then she dropped the minor fact that she roomed with the Slayer, and I politely declined. I had no intention of being found in the Slayer's house without her express permission, possibly not even without an engraved invitation. Maybe not even then.
Willow was telling me about some of the things that had been going on in her life. "So then the Mayor turned into this giant worm thing, and ate the Principal - "
"Mr. Flutie?" I asked, appalled. I had liked Mr. Flutie.
"Oh, no, no, no — Mr. Snyder. Mr. Flutie got eaten by hyena people in tenth grade year. That was right after Buffy came. The worm thing ate Mr. Snyder. It was actually a pretty good thing."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
We sat in silence for a moment, just as we once had as teenagers, then glanced at each other briefly and caught the giggles. When we finally calmed down, I asked her if she was seeing anyone.
She responded with a long silence and then, "Well, not — not — not really."
I smelled blood, figuratively speaking. "Oho! So who's the lucky girl?"
She went totally deer-in-the-headlights, and it would've been comical if I hadn't been afraid she would pass out. "You didn't forget."
I smiled slightly. "How could I?" I asked softly. "Relax, love, no one else knows. And I won't tell them. Your friends don't even suspect." Not even the one who'd cry for joy over knowing it, I added in my mind. So, who's the lucky girl?"
I could almost feel her thinking fast. "Well, there's this girl, Tara, who comes to the Wicca group," she began. "She's really nice. And I think she might be interested in me, too." There was a hint of a question to her voice.
"Is she the only one you're interested in?"
"Well, yeah," she responded, but it was too quick, too emphatic.
I could have found out everything I wanted to know easily, but Willow was my friend. And once, maybe more. I could never invade her like that, tear through her barriers and abuse her trust. I simply looked at her, examining her face carefully. She wouldn't meet my eyes. I just shook my head. "Don't lead this Tara on if she's not the one you really want," I cautioned quietly. "It'll just lead to heartache in the end — for her, for you, and probably for whoever it is that you really love."
She laid her head in her hands and sighed. "You've always known."
"I know you, my Willow," I responded.
I'd have said more, but my cell phone rang. It was Mercedes. "School's out. Can you come get me?"
"Sure. Be there in a bit." I closed the phone and turned to Willow. "Gotta go pick up Mercedes. Ride along?"
"Sure," she responded. "Who - Who's Mercedes?"
I explained about my "little sister" on the ride to the junior high school. Willow was appropriately appalled by the thought of a thirteen-year-old child hitchhiking from Alabama to California. "I think the Alabama part might even be true — she's got a little accent," I confided.
I pulled up in front of the school and Mercedes was waiting for me with another young girl. Willow put her window down as we approached. "Hey, Dawnie!"
"Hey, Willow," the girl replied. She was cute in an understated sort of way. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, Dakota and I go way back," she responded, grinning.
Mercedes was climbing into the back seat. "Hey, Dakota, can we take Dawn home?"
I sighed theatrically. "Now, look, Mercedes, how many times have I told you, stealing is NOT the right way to get a little sister?"
She caught the joke and hung her head in mock shame. "Sorry, Dakota."
The car filled with giggles as Mercedes moved over and let her friend into the car. We started down the road and were waiting merrily at a stop light when Willow, in an undertone, dropped her bombshell on me. "Dawn is Buffy's little sister."
If I didn't have nerves of iron, I swear I would have wrecked the car. "What?!" When Willow nodded in confirmation, I groaned. "Oh, great. Just what I need. Now I have the Slayer chasing me, wanting to rip my head off for snatching her kid sister. Wonderful."
"You didn't snatch me," Dawn replied, munching on a candy bar she'd pulled out of her bag. "I came on my own."
"Oh, even better." I was beginning to think I should've stayed in Vegas and just sent a postcard.
Arriving at the Slayer's house, the two girls dashed inside while Willow and I came up behind them. We were on the porch steps when the phone began to ring and Willow, being Willow, dashed inside to answer it, forgetting that some members of our little group needed an invitation to enter the house. I was stranded at the door, waiting for her to come back, when Dawn and Mercedes came out of the kitchen carrying sodas and heading for the stairs. Dawn gave me a quizzical look. "Why are you standing out there?" she asked, and then suddenly seemed to come up with the answer for herself just as a screech of tires announced a car pulling up at the curb at a very high speed. "Oh my God," Dawn said. "You're a vampire." And then she started to scream.
"Oh, for God's sake!" I exclaimed in frustration. But I didn't have the chance to say anything else as I went flying across the porch to land in a heap next to a planter, my head feeling as though it had taken a direct hit from a twenty-pound cannonball.
The cannonball turned out to be the Slayer's booted foot; she'd decked me with a well-placed roundhouse to the left jawbone that was sure to leave my ears ringing for an hour. As I lay on the wood floor, moaning in agony, she came to stand over me. "You stay away from her," she growled.
"I didn't do anything!" I exclaimed. "I came here with Willow, for Christ's sake! She forgot I needed an invite, Dawn saw me waiting on the porch, put two and two together and came up with fangs! I never touched her!"
"You took her from school!" Buffy accused.
"And look where she is now! At home — her home!" I retorted. The looked up as Dawn's small hand offered me an ice pack. "Thank you, love," I told her as I took it and placed it gingerly against my face.
"We took her from school," came the voice of my savior. Willow came around Buffy and helped me up. "She asked for a ride home. She's not Spike, okay, Buffy?" As I was sorting out the modifiers of Willow's pronouns, she was helping me sit down on the stair with my back to the roof post. Standing around me now in a loose little circle were Buffy, Willow, Xander, Dawn, Mercedes and a gentleman whom I did not recognize. Willow was glaring at all of them and so, I noticed, was Mercedes. "She- she- she's not with the chip and all, but she's got a soul. Like Angel. She doesn't kill people. Well, not much. Okay?"
Buffy stared hard at Willow. "Why are you so intent on defending her?"
"Friendship." The answer came from Xander, who was looking down at me with a strange expression.
"Excuse me?" said the nameless gentleman in a British accent.
"Friendship. Dakota and Willow were best friends from day one. The only person who knows more about Willow Rosenberg than I do sits before you with an ice pack. Friendship's a strong tie. I'd defend you, Buffy, or Willow, just the same if the roles were reversed."
"Yeah," Willow agreed, looking down at me with a smile. "We really were best friends. Sleepovers and everything." Then she laughed. "I guess it's kind of hard to fear the evil when you know what it looks like in its jammies."
The resultant laugh eased the tension somewhat and then Xander had the presence of mind to introduce me to Buffy's watcher, Giles, who then suggested that we adjourn to the interior of the house to prevent the neighbors from wondering what was going on. But something still wasn't sitting well with Buffy. She looked at me carefully, as though gauging whether or not I could be trusted with an invitation into her home.
Suddenly, I was mad. Here I was, minding my own business, I'd killed no one and done nothing but put my "sister" in school and try to find a house, and already here's the Slayer with an intent to kill. "Is everybody in this town guilty until proven innocent? What is it with you, Slayer?"
"Yeah!" said a voice which entered the conversation now for the first time. Mercedes was suddenly standing over me, all defiance and righteous wrath. " You act like she's killed somebody's mama or something! I didn't know she was a vampire until Dawn said so, but I don't care. Even if she is, I don't care. If she'd of wanted my blood, she could have had it any time in the last three days. But she didn't. She picked me up, fed me, got me a shower and some clean clothes and made me go to school like she gave a crap about me, which is more than what my mama or daddy ever done for me. So you better be nice to her or I'll — I'll — well, I don't know what I do but I reckon you won't like it much!" And she crossed her arms and glared at Buffy with giant, pointy daggers in her eyes.
There was a long silence, and then Giles spoke softly. "Well, Miss Walsh, It would appear that you have a more staunch defender than any of us would have expected or imagined."
"Yeah," Dawn said, somehow grinning at me and glaring at Buffy at the same time. "A little sister can come in handy sometimes, huh?"
Everyone looked at Buffy, who was staring at me. She seemed to be deep in thought. Finally, she extended a hand to me and helped me up, looking me square in the eyes before I could avoid it. "Dakota, would you like to come in?"
Her intentions were as clear to me as though she'd written them on glass. She really was willing to give me a chance. I smiled. "I'd be honored."