The Summoned
by acs
The Long Way Home
[reviews]
Disclaimer: All BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. All "Keeper" characters belong to Tanya Huff, and others. None of these people or organizations have read this nor endorsed it. The story idea might be mine but this is a derivative work.
Summary: See Chapter 1
Spoilers: See Chapter 1
AN: This used to be the 2nd half of the prologue. This story no longer has a prologue. Both parts have been revised/lengthened but nothing major has been changed.
[Revised/Added: 25-Apr-2005]
---- ---- ---- ----
The Long Way Home
Waking midway through their flight, Buffy silently watched her sleeping companion, carefully memorizing her face. She couldn't remember the last time Willow had looked that peaceful. It was almost twenty minutes before she could bring herself to disturb her.
"Willow?" Gently shaking her friend's shoulder, Buffy called her name several times before she opened her eyes. "Have a nice nap?"
"Nap? Wasn't any napping going on here!" Willow feebly protested. "I was just resting my eyes after meditating."
Buffy smiled at her reaction. "If you say so. You had some questions?" She raised an eyebrow when Willow looked around, as if trying to see if anyone was listening to them, before asking her first question.
"Buffy? Why the British passport?"
"Why? I'm not sure how he did it but Giles managed to drag you half way around the world without a passport." She frowned. "Or any other identification. You needed something official looking so I convinced the Council to exercise some of that political power Quentin Travers liked to wave around. They got us both passports to replace our lost ones."
"But we both already had passports. And they weren't lost." Willow gave her a puzzled look. "All you had to do was bring mine with you. And why did we get British passports when we aren't British?"
"Well... yes. I did bring your US passport with me. You still need it when we want to get back into the States." Buffy looked at her nervously, not sure how she would take the next part. "You know, citizenship is a funny thing."
"What do you mean?"
"A long time ago someone in the Council decided that things would be easier if all Slayers and their watchers, no matter where they lived, were British citizens." She grinned at the expression on Willow's face. "Yes, I am legally entitled to wear tweed."
Willow snorted in response. "You better not let Xander know that." She thought about it for a minute before blurting out "Why do I have a British passport? I'm not a slayer! I'm not even British."
"Uh, Will?" Buffy grinned at her and put her hand on Willow's shoulder. "I hate to tell you this... but you are now. No, not a slayer!" she quickly corrected. "You now have dual citizenship like I do. So you are allowed to have a British passport."
"Why? And how?" She frowned at Buffy. "Oh. This was a Council thing wasn't it? I don't really want to know how they did it, do I?"
"No. 'How' the Council does something like that... it's better if we don't think too hard about it." Buffy shook her head before continuing. "As for the why? I thought it was a good idea and the Council agreed with me. If things work out, we should both be travelling a lot to places where it's better to be British. And if you ever really want to go to Oxford, it'll be a lot easier to get in if you are a British citizen."
"Oh." Willow gave her a bewildered look before sitting back in her seat and rubbing her eyes. "Why Oxford?"
"All Watchers spend time there eventually." Buffy took Willow's hand in her own again, squeezing it lightly. "And since you're my Watcher..." and waited for the explosion.
"I'm your what!" Willow gasped, looking around to see if anyone had heard her outburst. "Why me? I don't know anything about being a Watcher. And what about Giles?"
"He's not my Watcher anymore. Quentin Travers forced him to retire this summer." Buffy told her.
"Well, make him unretire!" An agitated Willow insisted. "I can't be your Watcher!"
"It doesn't matter. The new Council Head already has other plans for Giles. If we really need him he'll help out but he won't have time to be my Watcher." Buffy squeezed her hand. "And as much as I love him, Giles isn't the right Watcher for me anymore. You are." She held up her other hand and emphasized her count with her fingers. "I need - One - Someone who knows magic and can really use it. Two - Someone who is good at research. Three - Someone who won't tell me how to live my life but won't let me forget the important things like friendship and family. And four - a friend who's been with me almost from the beginning. And that would be..." She gave Willow a firm look. "You."
Not convinced, Willow stared at her, her eyes wide. "Does he know this? And how did you convince the Council to go along with this? Wouldn't they rather have one of their watcher people be yours?"
"There was a Council meeting in London tonight that he was invited to. All they would tell him before the meeting was that he isn't retired anymore. He won't find out that he isn't my Watcher until the meeting. He should know by now what they really want from him." Buffy laughed. "It's going to be a complete surprise. Once he stops yelling about the Watcher thing he won't be able to resist. I just hope they get pictures of his face like they promised me." She shook her head. "And why did they agree? I didn't give them any choice. It was either you or no one. But you do have to attend the next Council new Watcher indoctrination next summer so you know all the Council rules and regs. And I expect you to go back to school in the Spring."
"Oh..." Willow mumbled before announcing, "I'm not going to wear tweed or act all stuffy! And I'm not gonna follow any rules that don't make sense or don't help you with your slaying. Can't make me!"
Grinning slightly at the appearance of the old Willow, if only briefly, Buffy leaned back into her seat. Reluctant to let go she held onto Willow's hand, gently rubbing her palm with her thumb as she continued. "I told you that Quentin Travers is dead, right?"
Willow nodded. Buffy frowned at the sad expression that crossed her face.
"Well... I spent a couple days in London with the new Council Head before I picked you up. Some protocol thing when a new Head Watcher is selected. She's an interesting person. She's the first potential slayer in one of the Watcher families in a couple centuries." Willow looked over at her in surprise. "She and Giles have some sort of history, though neither one would tell me what."
"And?" Willow prompted. Buffy flashed her a smile before continuing.
"I made another deal with the Council." she admitted, giving Willow a hesitant grin at her disturbed expression. "Not just the one about who my watcher is."
Willow frowned worriedly. "What kind of deal?"
Buffy shrugged nonchalantly. "A good one, I hope. I agreed to work on some of the Head's special projects if they would help out financially."
"So they're going to start paying you?" Willow suggested hopefully.
Buffy shook her head. "Not exactly. That would be too sudden of a change for the new Council Head to make."
"What does financial help mean then?"
"Well... to start with the Council is going to pay off the mortgage on the house and pay for any improvements they think it might need. And they'll pay for my school expenses if I decide to go back to college." Buffy could tell that Willow didn't really know how to react to that revelation. "It isn't much but it makes sense in the long run. There was no way I could do anything extra for the Council with the money I was making working at the 'Double Meat' going into the house." She gave Willow another glance to see how she was taking it. "And even though you're all set for school with your scholarships and the money from your parents, I convinced them that my Watcher would need a stipend to help pay for Watcher stuff like books and weapons."
"There must be a catch." Willow insisted. "The Council isn't suddenly going to be that generous, even with Travers gone."
"Yes..." Buffy admitted slowly. "There are a couple big ones. The Council now owns the house. The Head wants it to be Watcher Central on the West Coast. And they'll pay us to run it. We'll have to move all of the books and weapons out of the Magic Box. It's going to need a lot of work to meet Council standards." She smirked. "Xander will finally get paid to fix up the house."
Willow shook her head at Buffy's scheming. "What else?"
"Part of the agreement is that I get another job. The Head was horrified when I told her where I was working."
"She isn't the only one." Willow grumbled. "If the rest of us had been paying attention to you instead of pretending things were hunky-dory you would never have had to work there."
Letting go of Willow's hand, Buffy leaned over and gave her a hug. "Thanks." she whispered in her ear.
They stayed like that for several minutes before Buffy, starting to feel awkward, let her go. "Of course, some of those special projects do sound kind of dangerous. And they aren't actually being that generous. They're really just giving me the same housing allowance any Council employee gets if they live in a foreign country. I'm not going to get a lot. But any unusual expenses for special projects will be covered by the Council."
"What else aren't you telling me?" Willow asked her suspiciously. "Why are we flying to Ottawa? And what is Giles really going to be doing for the Council?"
"Giles?" She wanted to avoid the Ottawa question as long as possible. Even in her current frame of mind Buffy didn't think Willow would be happy with her when she found out what she'd been committed to for the next month. "He's going to be in charge of all of the potential slayers the Council finds." Before Willow could get too excited, Buffy reluctantly added a small dose reality to the equation, warning her. "Don't start throwing him a party just yet. It isn't going to be that easy. He isn't perfect. Look at what happened with Faith. And he can be kinda stuffy and ruthless at times. But at least he actually cares about the slayer as a person."
"Faith?" Willow stared at Buffy, taking the bait. "What did Giles have to do with Faith turning evil?"
"He was too busy with my problems to notice when she needed help. But he wasn't the only one." Buffy looked down at her lap. "I had a lot of time to think about things this summer. I think we all failed her but Giles and I were the worst. She was our responsibility and we blew it."
"Buffy! How can you say that? You didn't make her turn against us!" Willow protested.
Buffy gave her a stern look. "And who tried to end the world last spring?" she reminded her. "And who didn't notice that something was wrong a long time before that?"
"That was different!" Willow told her huffily, slumping back into her seat.
"Was it?" Buffy raised an eyebrow at Willow's tone. "Someone, who shall remain nameless due to extreme embarrassment, ignored the problems her friend was having and let her crash and burn more than once without offering any real help."
"I'm so sorry." Willow mumbled quietly in a sad voice, pulling her hand away from Buffy's grasp and compulsively rubbing both hands together. Avoiding looking directly at Buffy, her voice barely hinted at her feelings. "If I'd known you needed me I would have done things better."
Reaching over, Buffy gently took Willow's chin in her hand and pulled her face up until they were looking into each other's eyes. Shaking her head, she smiled sadly before she spoke. "I wasn't talking about you."
Her eyes brimming with some emotion that Buffy couldn't quite figure out, Willow made a small sound and asked tremulously "What do you mean?"
"Last year wasn't my best." Buffy admitted. "In fact it sucked way beyond anything. I was too busy trying to escape my crappie life with the Spike thing to notice your problems until it was too late to do more than pick up the pieces. A good friend wouldn't have let things get so bad."
"You had nothing to do with Tara dying and what I did to Warren." Willow whispered hoarsely. "That was all my doing."
"You're wrong. And you're not the only one feeling guilt here." Buffy refused to completely accept Willow's attempt to blame herself. "If I had been there for you last spring, even if he had still killed her, you wouldn't have reacted like that." Not giving Willow a chance to respond, Buffy grabbed her bag out from under the seat in front of her and pulled out several large envelopes. Pretending to ignore Willow's distress at her statement she opened one of them and started studying its contents.
---- ---- ---- ----
The silence was broken only once by a flight attendant doling out the evening meal. With the exception of the interruption, Buffy was able to spend almost an hour reading before Willow recovered her composure enough to continue questioning her.
"Buffy?" the sound of Willow's voice just barely reached her over the planes background noise.
"Yes?" She looked up from the document she was attempting to make sense of.
"You never explained."
"Explained what?"
"Why we're flying to Canada, and why our tickets don't seem to have connecting flights to anywhere after that." She held her ticket up for Buffy's inspection. "How are we getting to Sunnydale after we get to Ottawa?"
"We're driving." Buffy tried not to laugh at Willow's incredulous expression.
"Why?"
"We have to make a number of stops along the way. It just seemed to make more sense to go by car. With all of the places we need to stop it's more efficient." She watched Willow curiously, wondering if she would notice how much Buffy wasn't telling her and how long it would take for her to try to take over their travel plans.
"What kinds of stops and why?"
"Just the usual Council approved stops." Buffy pulled a document out of the pile in front of her and offered it to Willow.
"Usual what?" Willow grabbed the document and started looking through it. "Buffy! This looks like a vacation itinerary!"
Buffy winked at her. "It is. Mostly. Courtesy of the Council. Just don't tell them."
"Why aren't we going straight back to Sunnydale?" Willow asked nervously. "The truth, Buffy!"
Buffy noticed that, just like when she'd convinced her to leave the Coven and go back with her to Sunnydale earlier in the day, Willow didn't call Sunnydale home. She thought for a minute before putting her thoughts into words. "I do know you don't want to go home..."
"I'm not sure I have a home anymore." Willow mumbled, avoiding her eyes and focusing on the list.
"You do." Buffy insisted. "Dawn and Xander are getting anxious for you to come home. But I didn't think it was fair to drop you down onto Hellmouth city so quickly when you just started having some control over your magic. So we're going to ease into things over the next month or so. A bunch of quick demon and evil chasing excursions for the Council. Small doses of evil before the big one. Think of it as a working vacation." She gave Willow a perky smile before shaking a finger at her in mock disapproval. "One that you can't tell them about. The working part anyway. Xander would seriously freak."
"Okay. If you say so." Buffy was surprised at how easily Willow was accepting the explanation. Giving Buffy a puzzled frown, she looked back at the list. "Uh Buffy, why do I recognize some of these places?"
"It was a long summer and I was bored?" Buffy told her sheepishly. "Do you remember that book you had with all of the haunted hotels in it?"
"Yes. Tara wanted to spend the summer after we graduated going to some of them." She told Buffy, her face going blank.
"Geeze Willow, I'm sorry!" Buffy blurted out.
"No, it's alright." Willow answered in a tone of voice Buffy recognized as one that said she was definitely not okay. She gave Willow's hand another squeeze before continuing with her explanation.
"The Council has a list of potentially evil places that it likes to keep an eye on. Some of the hotels in that book were on it." Buffy shrugged. "Most of them are actually just haunted. Some have the added bonus of being mysterious. The Head let me pick out some of them to investigate on our trip. I think it'll be fun." She smiled encouragingly at her friend.
"There are some I don't recognize." Willow pointed to several names on the list.
"Well... that one is our first stop after the airport." She put a finger below one of the names. "It doesn't say how it happened but the Council bought it a few years ago. I guess they wanted to protect people from the weirdness that happens there." She handed Willow a folder labeled 'Elysian Fields Guest House'. "It's in Kingston. If we can figure that one out the Council can use it for something Watchery."
"What about Cleveland?" Willow asked, going back to the list after a quick glance through the folder. "Why is it on this list?"
"That would be the ringer in the pile." Buffy grimaced at the way her comment sounded to her ears. "Of the couple non-vacationy places on the list that might actually need both of us to figure out, that is the dangerous one." She pulled another slim folder out of the other envelope and handed it to Willow. "It's the Cleveland Hellmouth."
"Another Hellmouth?" Willow visibly shivered. "What does the Council think we can do about it? Other than get ourselves killed?"
"They are spending a lot of money to get us there if that's their plan." Buffy told her. "This isn't a going to be a cheap trip."
"That they don't have to pay most of if we die in Cleveland."
"Well, there is that." Buffy admitted. "And if that happens you have my permission to say 'I told you so.'" From Willow's expression, Buffy could tell she wasn't too thrilled with the idea. "I think we should give them a chance."
Any further discussions of their plans were cut short with the pilot's announcement that they would be landing soon. Keeping a concerned eye on Willow, who seemed to be displaying a recently acquired fear of flying, clenching her seat with her hands as if coaxing the plane to land by pure force of her will, Buffy spent the few remaining minutes of the flight gathering together all of their things from where they'd drifted during the flight.
---- ---- ---- ----
Continued in: Thicker than Dust
---- ---- ---- ----