The Summoned
by acs
Possibilities
[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: See End of Chapter.
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Possibilities
After taking a quick walk around the neighborhood to assure herself that it was safe from familiar predators, Buffy had gone to bed to the early morning sounds of the unfamiliar city. She wasn't able to sleep for long. She couldn't quite pinpoint it but something had pulled her out of her deep, travel induced sleep. Lying there, listening to the morning traffic with her eyes closed, she felt more comfortable than she'd thought she would be when she'd settled down on the couch the night before.
And, as she tried to stretch, keeping her eyes closed against the morning sun, she discovered that apparently she wasn't alone. There was a good reason she felt so warm and comfortable. Someone was holding her tightly and from the way they were pressed up against her back it was definitely a female someone. Slightly confused, she finally opened her eyes and noticed that she also wasn't on the couch as she'd expected. Turning her head slightly, she saw a pale face, obscured by wisps of red hair.
Without having to think too hard about it, she instinctively knew that if she lifted the blanket she would see one of Willow's pale, freckled arms wrapped around her waist and the pressure against her stomach could only be the long fingers of one of her slim hands moving in her sleep. Somehow, during the brief night, she'd ended up in the same bed with Willow.
The events of the previous night, after she'd returned from her walk and tucked a restless Willow back into bed were very foggy in her mind. But she hadn't been so tired that she wouldn't remember moving to the bed some time during the night. She hoped things would make more sense once she'd woken up completely. But first she had to get out of bed, preferably without waking up Willow.
Gently removing herself from Willow's grasp, one appendage at a time, she rolled out of the bed, grateful that Willow hadn't woken up. Explaining to her how they'd ended up like that, in such an intimate position, when she had no idea how it happened herself, was not something she wanted to attempt before her first cup of coffee. If she were lucky Willow wouldn't have noticed anything and she would have time to figure it out.
Shivering in the cold bedroom air Buffy gave one last wistful look at the slight redhead in the warm bed before leaving the room. Crossing the sitting room, she grabbed her smaller case and shut herself in the bathroom.
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The shower had been strange, with water coming out of nozzles at a number of different points and velocities in the small compartment, not missing an inch of her skin, making it difficult to use her soap and shampoo but somehow she'd managed to finish without feeling too much like a drowned rat. She could see where there might be some use for it if she'd just spent the last few hours fighting her way through a cavern full of slimy monsters and really wanted to get clean but when she just wanted a simple shower it was a bit too much. Hopefully she or Willow would be able to figure out the controls so she could take a normal shower before they had to leave.
Rummaging through her suitcase for something comfortable to wear, Buffy grabbed a pair of worn jeans and pulled them on before replacing the large t-shirt she'd slept in with a brightly embroidered peasant blouse. Digging further, she found a pair of soft leather shoes that were more appropriate for indoor exploring than the leather boots she'd worn the day before. They didn't look as protective or as stylish as the boots but they too were the result of a morning visit to the Council armorer the previous week.
The armorer, an ancient former field Watcher, had been delighted with the opportunity to provide an actual slayer with some of the special weapons and tools she'd spent so much of her time developing. She had been unable to share them with their intended users while Quentin Travers had been Council Head. Direct access to such Council resources had been one of the many things that had convinced Buffy of the seriousness of the new Council Head's plans to modernize and liberalize the slayer support system.
Taking a peak in the bedroom after she'd finished dressing, Buffy decided to let Willow continue sleeping. She'd had been unable to be completely silent while getting herself ready for the day but Willow had managed to sleep through it. She was obviously still exhausted from the previous day's trip. Watching her for a minute, huddled under the covers, Buffy decided that it wouldn't hurt their schedule if they spent an extra day settling in at the Guest House, before doing any serious investigation of it for the Council. And from the thick layer of dust that seemed to cover every flat surface Buffy didn't think it would take much to convince Willow to take the extra time if she needed it.
After a quick glance in the dusty kitchen, Buffy slipped out of the Guest House, leaving the still sleeping Willow a note just in case she woke up before she made it back. She'd seen a bakery and coffee shop several blocks away the night before. The Coven healer had warned her that Willow was eating just barely enough to keep herself alive, but hopefully she could find something there that she would be willing to eat for breakfast. A real trip for food and any other supplies would have to wait for later in the day.
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Willow woke up to a sliver of sunlight shining on the bed. She wondered if she'd imagined Buffy's presence in the bed the night before but stretching out she could just barely make out a faint scent that she'd long ago come to identify as belonging to her friend. Curious, she sat up and looked around but couldn't find any other signs of Buffy's presence. Any further thoughts she might have had were erased from her mind by the enticing smell of fresh coffee mixed with something she was sure were blueberry muffins. Scrambling out from under the covers, she followed her nose out into the manager's office.
"I know it isn't anything fancy," Immediately noticing her standing there, Buffy addressed her from behind the desk, "but the kitchen needs to be cleaned before we can use it."
Willow looked down at the steaming styrofoam cups and paper plate full of muffins on the desk. "This looks great, Buffy." She grabbed a chair from the wall and pulled it over to the desk. Sitting in it, she grabbed a warm muffin and the other cup. She could feel Buffy's eyes on her as she consumed the muffin between careful sips of hot coffee.
Focusing on her muffin, she idly wondered if Buffy would bring up where she'd slept the previous night. When nothing was said by the time she'd finished her muffin she dismissed it from her mind for the time being. Sighing, she stood up and put her chair back. "Where did you want to start?"
"The kitchen would be good." Buffy answered, getting up herself. "We can clean it up so we can use it and go shopping after lunch."
"What about the rest of the building?" Willow wrinkled her nose in thought. "You didn't want to clean that too did you?"
"No. That isn't what we're here for." She paused for a moment, a distant look on her face, before continuing. "The Council can pay someone to do that after we give them the all clear. I don't feel anything wrong here. If there's anything unusual about it, I haven't noticed. But I'm not as sensitive to auras and magic as you are."
"So you want me to take the building's 'psychic temperature' ?" Willow frowned as she watched Buffy disposing of the remains of their breakfast.
"Yes, Please." Buffy smiled warmly at her and Willow felt something undefinable but almost familiar growing in the pit of her stomach. "Do you need anything special for that?"
"Just some place to sit as close to the center of the building as possible." Willow told her. "And time."
"Can you do it while I start on the kitchen?" Buffy asked her. "No sense in both of us getting grimy."
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After taking a shower and getting dressed, with Buffy's help Willow made herself comfortable in a large, empty, ground floor room they both decided had been used for some kind of social activities in the guest house's heyday. With a quick smile she motioned Buffy out of the room towards the kitchen. She quickly discovered that cleaning it was mostly a matter of removing the thick layer of dust that seamed to coat everything in sight. It had apparently been cleaned thoroughly before being closed up by the Council.
Sitting Indian style on a large cushion she'd found in a linen closet while rummaging for cleaning supplies for the kitchen, Buffy watched as Willow pulled herself out of whatever deep meditation had been necessary. Blinking in the late morning sun that was now flooding the large room, she smiled hesitantly at Buffy.
"How did it go?" Buffy asked softly. "Is there anything here?"
Yawning, Willow stretched her arms above her head and shook her shoulders before answering. "Sort of."
"Sort of?" Buffy frowned. "What kind of 'sort of' are we talking about?"
"There is nothing evil in the house." Willow told her. "But there is an echo of something coming from the basement. Like something bad happened there once and someone performed a cleansing ritual."
"And that's the 'sort of'?"
"No..." She reluctantly answered.
Buffy could tell that Willow was bothered by something she'd felt in the house. "So we have a basement that we need to check out. What else? Is it haunted?"
"Not exactly." Willow yawned again. "I think there is some sort of guardian or earth spirit in the neighborhood..."
"Am I going to have to kill it?" Buffy asked, looking around and trying to detect whatever Willow had felt.
"No!" Willow blurted out. "Killing guardian spirits is a bad thing! Lots of bad karma would result from something like that."
"What if it attacks us?" Buffy "Are we allowed to defend ourselves?"
"I don't think we could if we tried." Willow frowned again. "If we leave it alone it shouldn't even notice we are here. I think."
"Okay... no bothering of the spirits." Buffy stood up and reached out towards Willow. "Let's go get some lunch. There's a deli down the street. We can eat and do some shopping. The basement can wait until this afternoon. Or tomorrow if you want."
"This afternoon is fine." Willow told her before grabbing her hands and being pulled to her feet. "No sense in putting it off until tomorrow."
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It was a rare warm autumn day in October and with Claire in Niagara Falls for the rest of the week, Dean had taken advantage of the weather to begin preparing the Guest House for winter.
He'd managed to clean the outside of most of the front windows on the ground floor when the normal rythms of Tuesday morning Kingston were interrupted by the sounds of two people arguing. Stepping down off of his ladder, Dean looked in the direction of the voices and changed his assessment. Not two people. A Keeper and a cat. Headed in his direction.
Not foolish by the stretch of anyone's imagination, Dean went back to his windows and tried to ignore the two as they neared him. If they were arguing about what it sounded like he had no desire to become involved. He really didn't need to know about Diana's love life.
"Everyone knows that human-elf romances only work in fan fiction." the softer of the two voices pronounced as they stopped next to his ladder.
"Says who?" Dean winced at Diana's tone. He'd had enough experience with arguments between Claire and Austin to know that she had just lost whatever argument she and Samuel were engaged in.
"Just because you wrote a Willow/Arwen fic last Spring doesn't mean your real life is going to turn out the same."
"You're a Buffy/Frodo shipper! What do you know?" Diana whined.
"I'm a cat." Sam told her haughtily as if that answered everything, jumping down out of her backpack. Landing next to Dean's ladder he sniffed delicately at the bucket of soapy water Dean was using on the windows.
Pretending he hadn't observed the exchange, Dean looked curiously at Diana "What brings you here?"
"A summons." Diana grumbled. "I was busy with other things."
"Oh. Of course." He nodded nervously. He'd witnessed first hand how busy Keepers were kept though he was surprised she was here and not Claire. The Guest House seemed to attract all sorts of problems that needed attention from a keeper. "What is it?"
"I'm not sure. It hasn't happened yet."
"Is that possible?" Dean asked curiously. "Knowing about one before it happens?"
"No." Sam announced. "She was just looking for a reason to avoid an argument with an elf."
"Was not!" Diana muttered. "And there will too be a summons. I could feel the shifting possibilities. Something is going to happen here, and since Claire is out of town and I'm free it'll be mine."
"You think." Sitting, Sam stretched out a rear foot, and extending its claws, examined it critically before addressing Dean. "Isn't it lunch time?"
Reflexively looking down at his watch, Dean ignored Diana's amused snort. "Yes." He climbed down from the ladder and followed Sam around to the back door. Diana trailed behind them, shaking her head.
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By mutual agreement, they'd begun exploring the basement together after returning from their lunchtime shopping trip.
"Any idea where we should look first?" Buffy muttered. "Looks like an ordinary basement to me."
Willow stopped several feet from the bottom of the basement stairs. "This way." She headed towards a large fire-door at the end of the hall. She ran her hands lightly across it. Following her example, Buffy couldn't feel anything herself but the expression on Willow's face, the same look she'd worn earlier upstairs, gave her the answer she needed. She gently moved the unprotesting Willow away from the door and guided her back to the steps, hopefully out of range of anything that might happen.
"Wait here." She gingerly walked back and prepared to open the door. Her muscles tense, ready to react, she reached down and turned the doorknob. Pushing it open, she quickly reached in and flipped the light switch she felt just inside the door before going through the door herself.
From the size of the rest of the Guest House, Buffy guessed that the room took up at least a third of the basement. At least half of it was empty, with things that Buffy vaguely recognized from other basements filling the non-empty space. Not seeing anything unusual, and not sensing any danger, she stepped back out. "It looks okay." She called out to Willow.
Willow quickly walked over to the door and peered inside. "Looks like a standard basement." She told Buffy. "Hot water heater, boiler, electrical panels." She followed Buffy into the room, stopping in the middle of the open space. "Whatever is causing those psychic echoes happened here. Maybe."
"Maybe?" Buffy had been wondering at Willow's vagueness and gave her a skeptical look. "Is it related to that 'sort of' earlier?"
"Umm... yes." Willow gave her a sheepish look. "I can't really explain it better than that. It really is like an echo. Or waves in a pond when you drop a rock in the water. It's like I'm not close enough to get an exact picture of whatever happened."
"Any idea why?"
"Possibly."
"And?" Buffy demanded. She didn't want to push Willow too far before she was ready but she needed to know what she was thinking. Too much vagueness in unfamiliar territory made her nervous.
"Can it wait? I need to think about it some more." Willow protested.
"Okay." Buffy reluctantly agreed. "But if it is dangerous I need to know so we can deal with it."
"As soon as I figure it out I'll tell you." Willow acknowledged. "Can we check the rest of the basement?"
"Sure." Buffy strode out of the boiler room, Willow following her. Back at the steps, Buffy noticed that Willow seemed to be having a hard time turning her attention away from it towards the rest of the basement, even though it had been her idea to move on. "What's wrong?" She asked.
"I'm not sure." Willow admitted. "I can't seem to clear that echo from my head."
"Do you want to skip the rest of the basement?" Buffy asked her. "We can start checking out the rest of the house tomorrow and save the rest of the basement for last."
"No. I'll be fine." Willow sat on the bottom step, rubbing her temple. "But maybe I should stay here while you look around?" She gave Buffy a pleading look.
"Okay." Buffy looked at her stubborn friend. She wasn't too worried. Yet. "There are just a couple doors. I'll see what is behind them and then we can do something else for the rest of the day."
Willow nodded. Buffy could feel her watching as she walked back to the other end of the basement and opened the door across the hall from the boiler room. "Will?" She called, as she looked in. "Looks like this is the laundry room." She closed the door and moved to the next door, next to the stairway. Before opening it she looked at Willow, who was quietly watching her.
Feeling for a light switch, she flooded the space beyond the door with light. "Hey! Look!" She walked in through the open door. "Looks like a small apartment," she called out to Willow. "I bet it was used by someone who worked here. Not exactly where you would put a guest." She walked back out of the small apartment, turning off the light and closing the door behind her. "I guess that's it," she told Willow, returning to the steps.
"What about that door?" Willow asked curiously, pointing down the hallway.
"What door?" Buffy looked around in surprise. Willow was pointing at a blank section of wall.
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Continued in "Guest Appearance"
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