To Conquer Death
by Rainne
Interlude: Homecoming
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"I wish Mercedes had come with us. She'd love Georgia," Janna sighed.
"Me, too," Dakota replied, gazing around at the stately oaks with their dripping Spanish moss. "But she liked San Francisco so much, she wanted to stay. And she and Elliott got along so well."
"Dawn liked him, too. She said he reminded her of Clem, only without the intense floppiness. And with horns." Janna grinned, picturing Clem, who they had both met just before leaving Sunnydale.
Dakota laughed. "Yep. So... you ever getting out of the car?"
"No."
Dakota sighed. "Janna..."
She turned to the vampire, pleading in her eyes. "You go. Maybe... maybe make sure they still want me."
Dakota sighed. "They still want you. But I'll go." She restarted the car, pulled across the highway and drove up the gravel driveway to the large house under the oak trees. It was an old house, not grand, but large and seemingly well-cared-for.
"It's just like I remember," Janna whispered.
Dakota parked in front of the house, got out, and ascended the weathered steps to the front door, which stood open with a screen door shut in front of it. She peered into the depths of the house, saw no one, and banged on the door. "Hello?"
"Comin'," said a woman's voice from up the nearby stairs. In a moment, a woman in her late thirties, possibly early forties, descended the steps. In an accent as country as a turnip green she asked, "Kin I he'p you?"
"Yes, ma'am," Dakota said politely. "I hope so. Are you Jackie Markham?"
"I am," the woman replied, opening the door and stepping out onto the porch. "And you are?"
"Dakota Walsh, ma'am. I uh... Are you Janna's mother?"
Betty's face went through several remarkable changes, finally settling on a faint, reluctant hope-against-hope. "Yes, yes I am. Do you know somethin' 'bout her? Please!" She took Dakota's hands, squeezing them urgently. "Please, tell me what you know!"
Dakota smiled gently. "I know where she is, Mrs. Markham." She turned towards the car and nodded.
Janna climbed slowly out of the car and walked around it more like a woman on her way to the gallows than a girl coming home to her family.
"Janna? Janna, baby, is it you? Is it you, baby?"
Janna stopped at the porch step and scuffed her foot in the dirt for a moment, then looked up at her mother, fear on her face. "Yeah, Mama," she whispered. "It's me."
Jackie Markham flew down the steps and gathered Janna in a bone-crushing hug, crying and thanking God for her baby. Then she turned suddenly to the house. "Jimmy! Jimmy get out here! Jimmy, it's our own baby, come home to us! It's a miracle!"
A huge bear of a man came out of the house. Dakota quickly stepped aside as he came down the steps, the same disbelieving look on his face. "Janna? Janna, honey?"
Janna looked up at her father from her mother's embrace. "Yeah, Daddy, I'm home. I'm home, Daddy!"
He took her in his arms, swinging her up off the ground and holding her tightly to him, tears streaming down his face. He pulled Jackie into his embrace as well, and they held tightly to one another, the parents and their lost lamb.
A moment later, Dakota heard the scrape of feet in the hallway and turned to see a troop of children gathered against the screen, staring out at the scene before them. The youngest was about two years old, but the oldest was probably thirteen, and he looked as excited as his parents. He pushed the screen door open, leading the smaller children all out onto the porch.
"Daddy?" he called out. "Izzat who I think it is?"
"Come here, Jack," their daddy called out. "All y'all chi'ren, come here! It's Janna! It's your sister, come home to us at last!" With that, the children poured off the porch and surrounded Janna, reaching out to touch her with awed eyes and eager hands.
Jackie remembered Dakota suddenly, and came over to her. "How'd this happen?"
Dakota sighed and began the story the two of them had cooked up on the way to Georgia. She told Jackie, and then shared the telling with Janna as they told the rest of the gathered clan about Janna's kidnapping, weaving an elaborate but believable tale that culminated in Janna's escape upon discovering that another girl was being targeted for kidnap. Janna explained that she had wanted to warn the other girl, to be kept safe, and that she had succeeded on her mission, even at the cost of hitchhiking across America to do it.
The entire Markham clan was called in for a celebration, at which the family insisted Dakota be present. There were cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and grandparents everywhere. Janna reintroduced herself to her truck-driving uncles, explaining the need for the subversion she'd used and obtaining their forgiveness easily. And sometime after dark but before midnight, Janna turned around to look for Dakota, only to discover that the vampire was gone. She ran to look for Dakota's car, but it, too, was gone. Later, she discovered a note upstairs in her bedroom.
"Janna, honey, I'm sorry to have disappeared on you that way, but I had to. It would have been too hard to go any other way. And I've never been one for long goodbyes. You'll always know how to get in touch with us if you need us — the Magic Box, Buffy's or Xander's house, or the number below, in England. That's the retreat in the Cotswolds, where Faith is right now with the other Potentials. I hope you never get the call, sweetie, but if you do, I'll be there for you. Take care, and keep up your training. My love always, D."