Happy Development
by Whedonist
Kidnapping Schmidnapping
[reviews]
Disclaimer: See priors....
A/N: I bow to my Beta's superior English skills and will eventually find him a present worthy of his ownership. Also for the kick in the pants everyone needs now and again. =0)
Chapter 7 — Kidnapping Schmidnapping
River had assured her brother for what felt like the bazillionth time that she was okay and in no way traumatized by the kidnapping before he would let her leave the room. She was hungry and wanted to see if there was anything in the kitchen to eat. It had been funny the past year or so, her brain after sharing some of the secrets that she knew, had begun to quiet. There were still the memories of the things she knew. Of the secrets she had gleaned, not only from the parliament of the Alliance, but also the people she came into contact with and her family. Simon had done the best he could and she loved him for it. The entire crew, except maybe Jayne, had all watched out for her and continued to do so, but there was a small part that just wanted to begin to live a normal (whatever that meant for someone like her) life. She loved flying Serenity. It gave her something to do and kept her mind from going to too many places at once.
Letting out a frustrated sigh River entered the kitchen and stopped as Faith looked up from a huge bowl of cereal. She gave a small wave and received a huge grin in return. Images flashed through her mind as she neared the brunette. There was one of an angry woman standing over her with belt in one hand and a cigarette in the other. The next was of a woman being tortured by hoofed vampire looking guy. She stopped the flow of imagery with as much control as she could muster and sat down across from the slayer.
"Heya." Faith said around a mouthful of Captain Crunch.
"Hi. I...was hungry?"
"It's cool; I always get hungry after fighting. You okay with the kidnapping and all?"
As lucid as she felt now, River decided to try and maintain a conversation. Faith had peaked her curiosity the first time she saw her. As it was this was also the first time they were alone together. Thanking the universe for her clear-headedness, River nodded and asked, "You were kind of gone there for a while, are you okay?"
"Got a headache the size of Nebraska, but I'll live."
"What's Nebraska?"
Laughing, Faith shook her head, "It's a state. Like Ohio." Faith watched a look of confusion flow over the girls face. She tipped her chair back and smiled, "How much to you know about America or now that I think about it how much abouth this time did they know that they taught you?"
"They know more than they let on I think, but it's all kind of muddled with fiction. People rewrite the past to suit the needs of the future."
"Uh, yeah. So you were hungry. What's your poison?"
"N-no poison, uh if you have any of the chicken from dinner that would be good."
Smiling Faith pushed back from the kitchen island and nodded, "We do, but have you ever tried Captain Crunch?"
"I don't eat captains..."
"It's a cereal...made of wheat or somethin'" Faith shoved her bowl at River "Try some. I promise if you don't like it, we'll find somethin' else for ya."
River eyed the bowl and its contents for a moment and then picked up the spoon. She got a few pieces of the cereal on the spoon and cautiously brought it up to her mouth. She was surprised by the sweetness first and then the way the crunching cereal mixed with the refreshing milk to make it taste better. Nodding her head, she looked at faith, "Is there any more of this?"
"We've got tons. It's a staple in this place." Faith got up and turned to make River her own bowl. She came back to the counter a moment later with a bowl half the size of hers and pushed it towards the dark haired girl. "Eat up kiddo."
The two girls sat in the kitchen for sometime talking. Conversation flowed naturally for River for the first time in what felt like forever. Despite a few of the emotions she picked up on from the slayer, River felt like they had known each other for a while and was happy to just have a conversation with someone with out them worrying about her health or mental stability. Sure she knew that there were things wrong, but she didn't need the coddling. Faith proved to not be the coddling type while also being open and easy to talk to.
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Willow woke to a vaguely remembered sensation. A body was pressed into her back and it was a small one at that. She craned her aching neck and head around and was met with blonde hair covering the face of her best friend. She looked around more closely and realized that she was in Buffy's room. Doing her best not to disturb a restful slayer, Willow extracted herself from the bed and turned around to pick up her shoes lying on the floor. It was when she looked up that she noticed Buffy. A robe clad Buffy who at the moment in time had one breast neatly exposed and who had just been spooned to Willow's back. Blushing a healthy shade of red, Willow quickly turned and made her way out of the bedroom as quietly as possible.
She walked the five feet to her room and opened the door. She needed a hot shower, a change of clothes, ten aspirin, and some breakfast preferably in that order. Thinking about it she added a large cup of coffee to the list. Deciding on the most efficient way to go about it, she was done in the shower in less than 10 minutes and dressed by 15. Willow was halfway to the kitchen when she changed course deciding to stop and see if Inara was awake and had eaten yet. She glanced down at her watch; it was still early 9am.
Willow knocked quietly and was rewarded with the sound of Inara granting access. She pushed the door open and smiled. "Hey, mornin' I just wanted to know if you've eaten yet?"
Inara sent a sheepish smile to the redhead, "No, I just woke up."
Willow looked the woman over. The make up was perfect, the hair was down and flowing over her shoulders in a way that caused feelings in Willow that she thought were long since buried and the companion's sari was a deep burgundy then made her skin glow or so Willow thought. She then looked over at the bed, that too was made and immaculate. "Well if this is you waking up, then I don't think my heart could take it if it saw you ready to go out."
Inara laughed at the hidden compliment and motioned Willow to sit down, "Were you going to go get something to eat?"
"Yeah," Willow took a seat in a recliner off to the side. "I figured I'd stop by and see if you would like to maybe eat me, er ah, grab something to eat with me. Sorry, my brain's still all jumbly from last night."
"It's quite alright. Are you feeling okay? Buffy looked really worried and I must admit that I too was concerned. What you did...I'm not sure that I've ever seen anything so surreal."
Willow ducked her head embarrassed, "I..." The folded hands in her lap began to fidget, "It was kind of an accident. I tend to get upset when things beat up on Buffy."
Inara only nodded and waited on Willow to continue.
"I haven't done anything like that in a while. Magic wise it's pretty hard on the system."
"Why?" Inara pulled up a chair next to the redhead and grabbed a hand.
Willow looked up into concerned brown eyes and felt her pulse pick up. "It's...that type of stuff, the hurting and maiming and the...the killing comes from a dark place. Touching that now... just... it leaves a stain that I can't ever seem to remove." Willow looked at the confused face in front of her and realizing that this was probably her first real introduction to magic tried to explain to Inara. "You can think of magic as energy transfer. Have you heard Energy can not be created or destroyed but is transferred from one system to another?" Inara nodded her head.
"Well that's like magic. Magic is the connection between everything. It exists and we can use it to perform acts. Intent is also a major player in magical use. It's like knowledge neither good nor bad, it's the user that defines the label. Last night, despite the why of the intent, my intent was clear."
"And that was?"
"To Kill. They were going to kill Buffy and probably everyone else. So I killed them instead and that regardless of the why leaves its mark that can't be easily washed away." Willow ducked her head back down trying to reign in her emotions.
Inara cocked her head to the side in confusion. This side of the world, the vampires, and demons and magic was all still hard to understand, but after last night, after she had cried herself to sleep in the privacy of this room, she couldn't deny the truth of what these people had said. "I'm not sure I completely understand, but if it hurts you, then why do it?"
"The alternative is death." Willow scrunched her brow together and tried to clarify the statement, "The alternative to me not doing stuff like that means that someone I care about can die. Buffy told you guys I brought her back to life. That wasn't a lie, but the price I paid for her, well, I'm not entirely sure that didn't earn me a spot in a special place in a hell dimension when I die."
"A hell dimension and why would the price be that?" Inara was growing more confused as this conversation continued. She had thought that this would be easy, in the realm of listening to a client easy, but the pain etched in the redhead's features spoke more than the words she used to try and explain.
Willow answered the simple one first, "A hell, yes there is more than one dimension that is hell like, each unique and possibly limitless. The why well, that's a long story and a bit heavy for morning, especially before coffee, can we maybe revisit this later?"
Inara just nodded and stood pulling Willow to her feet. "Breakfast it is then. What do you like to eat?"
Willow smiled thankful that Inara had dropped the topic. "Uh, coffee first, aspirin and then maybe some fruit."
"Fruit?"
"You do know what fruit is don't you? Do they not have stuff like that in the future?"
"Yes we have fruit, but traveling the way we do, we eat flavored protein. On the core planets I was telling you about, it's a tad more common, but still a delicacy. Truth be told I haven't had a piece of any type of fruit for quite some time..." Inara sent Willow a heart warming smile and followed her to the kitchen.
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Mal rolled over and sat up in an empty bed. He stretched his sore muscles and looked around to find his pants and shirt. Taking a quick glance at the clock he moved slowly to the bathroom. After last nights patrolling fiasco, he had barely made it to the room upright after checking on everyone. His head hurt, his stomach was growling and Zo' had obviously been awake for some time. The shower looked to have been used a while ago.
Last night, they hadn't even had a chance to talk about what in the hell happened. He still reeled at the things he saw. He had been in war, he had seen some of the worst man had to offer, but watching Willow do the things she had done had unnerved him. It just wasn't natural to him. The more he thought about it the more he needed to see to it that he and his crew got back to where they belonged. He didn't feel that they fit in here. He was out of place in this world and this time. He raked a hand through his floppy mass of hair and left the room to find some grub.
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Buffy groaned as her ribs audibly creaked when she moved to get up. Willow was obviously gone and she had overslept. Cursing, Buffy rolled out of bed, dressed and made her way to get a sorely needed cup of coffee. She walked down the hall thinking about last night events. Hopefully Xander had some information for her. She was also still worried about Willow. She needed to make sure that the witch was okay with what had happened.
Buffy froze when she walked into the kitchen. Willow was apparently up and feeling okay, because there she sat in a huddled conversation with the time traveling companion. They were sitting knee to knee and giggling like schoolgirls. A flash of jealousy flared as Buffy was taken back to a time where a scene similar to this played out, but the girl next to Willow had been Tara and Buffy had yet to realize what her feelings had meant. She coughed to let her presence be known.
Willow looked up startled and then sent her friend a smile. "Mornin' Buffy, you sleep okay?"
Buffy nodded and made a dash for the coffee pot. She needed to clear her head before she said something she would regret later. Kicking herself once again for having these thoughts she turned from the two girls and excused herself to the back yard. Sitting down on one of the benches that riddled the backyard she took a long drink of the coffee that she'd hastily made and grimaced, too much sugar and not nearly enough half and half. She threw the contents in the grass and rested her head in her hands.
She couldn't seem to stop the thoughts about Willow that had been plaguing her for the past year. It had started a bit after Willow had come back from Rio. Buffy began to see Willow in a whole new way and it scarred the living shit out of the slayer if she were honest with herself. She had never been attracted to Willow before then or had she? The slayer got lost in thoughts of the redheaded witch and completely ignored Dawn sitting down next to her.
"Buffy?" Dawn nudged her sister's shoulder and waited on a response.
"Uh," Buffy looked up startled. "Oh Dawnie hey. What's up?"
"Giles, Xander in the war room. They want your assistance."
Buffy nodded, "Anyone else?"
"Willow went in with Inara and Faith was sent to go get the rest of the people from the future. How weird does that sound? People from the future, as if our lives weren't complicated or strange enough?" Dawn sighed out loud and stood waiting for Buffy to follow.
"Well squirt, it's the life we live..."