Happy Development
by Whedonist
Houzi Pigu
[reviews]
Chapter 15 — Houzi Pigu
Dust billowed from behind the small hill that hid Slayer Central, New Mexico, Kaylee and Simon had been waiting outside for an hour for the rest of their family to get home. Now in the post dusk hours, she saw the van crest the hill closely followed by the giant truck that hopefully held their way home. The two days that her family had been gone had been uneventful at best for the young mechanic. She had filled her time talking to Carrie about Serenity, life in the Black and slaying. The Scottish slayer seemed to only have two areas of conversation: Slaying and Not Slaying, but the pink haired teen had proven a good companion which Kaylee was grateful for. She cast a small smile towards Simon as the van pulled to a stop in front of them.
River was the first out and into her sister-in-laws arms. Before Simon brought his sister in for a hug, he held her back and did a once over assessing her health. Appearing no worse for the journey, he quickly folded her into an embrace and kissed the top of her head. The remaining crew followed suit and Simon stood amazed that not one person came back with a bullet hole, knife wound or broken something for him to tend to. He sent a small prayer of thanks to God and followed his un-naturally bouncy sister in to the house.
Kaylee had taken her turn looking over Mal, Zo' and Jayne, but when she got to Inara it was only a look that passed between the two and the mechanic grabbed her friend's hand and led her away from the rest of the group. Inara's smile said everything and the companion was able to relay what happened during the two days away. Inara indulged the mechanic in the basic details and couldn't help the warmth that settled over her.
The two were interrupted by a loud cough from behind, "I don't mean to interrupt the warm fuzzy reunion little Kaylee, but we've got work to do." Mal smiled and steered his mechanic away from Inara. "We don't need that one fillin' yer head with stories."
Kaylee slapped Mal on the arm, glared and kissed him on the cheek, "It's about time." was all she said then bounced off to go see the rest of the group.
The captain turned to Inara. "So..."he shuffled his feet as Inara took the offered hand. "I, uh, well, I was hopin' we could get an alteration on the sleepin' arrangements if it seems okay with you?"
"I think we can work something out." Inara looked up and met his gaze, "If it's okay with you too that is? Mal, did last night really happen?"
"It really did." Was all he offered as he led her into the house.
Everyone had situated themselves around the dining room table when the two joined up.
"...I'm not sure that's the best option. Sure Kaylee can fix the wiring and now that we have that the real question is how are we going to get back home?" Zo''s gaze swept over the group.
"Guys," Buffy's voice was drowned out by the din of people arguing about the next step in the plan. "Hey!" the blonde waited a beat to get everyone's attention after her outburst. "Listen We all know the problems coming up, but let's focus on the problem right now. Kaylee let's see if we can get Serenity up and running first. We'll work on the whole time travel headachey mess after. One bridge at a time okay"
"Besides," Willow offered her support, "We need some serious time for research. I know a lot of you are unfamiliar with how we do things, but it's best this way. I've got Giles sending me a few books and another three on order that might be able to help."
"So you have some idea about getting us back?" Mal questioned.
"There are some theories regarding time travel, special relativity theory along with time dilation. I've been thinking about it yes, but using pure science I'm not sure if we can. What I've been thinking about is using some physics and magick. Like I said, research. There's lots to consider."
River's head snapped up at Willow's answer, "You're thinking of using Lorentz's theories?"
Willow turned to the girl, "Some, not all. You do know it's all theoretical and hasn't actually been proven?"
"Sort of, but it has been to an extent by our time. It's part of how we travel. Not as severe, but the engineering behind Serenity's engine is based on a few basic theories surrounding Lorentz and Einstein."
The witched perked up and thought there might be a chance after all. "Kaylee, do you have any material on the workings of the ship that I can read over?"
"I'm sure I can find some stuff. Not quite sure what you'd be looking for."
"Tomorrow maybe you, River and I can start looking?" The redhead offered.
"Shiny with me, River?" Kaylee smiled when River nodded enthusiastically.
Buffy sent a grateful smile to the redhead, "We are all agreed then. Kaylee will start on the ship first, while Wills figures out how to bend time and space?" Nods and murmurs of consent were given throughout the group. "Alright then, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm still tired and that drive did nothing for me. Can we start on Serenity tomorrow?"
"Sure. Wasn't gonna do much anyhow. Though it would be kinda nice to get the wiring off the rig so we can start fresh in the morning and not worry about it." Kaylee settled back in to her chair.
"Jayne, Xander can you guys handle that?" Mal looked at the two men and waited.
Xander got up and waited on Jayne, "Come on Animal let's go do the lady's bidding."
"Animal? Who you callin' an animal you ben tian sheng de yi dui rou. (stupid inbred stack of meat)" Jayne mumbled his way out the door.
"Huh?" Xander followed him confused. "You do know the insult's lost if you can't understand right?"
Willow and Buffy exchanged glances as the rest of the table, who understood Jayne, snickered. Shrugging it off, they let the meeting break up.
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Willow and Buffy headed to their room after grabbing a quick snack in the kitchen. The witch had been expecting Buffy to be ready for some serious napping after last nights revelations and today's escapade, but instead she watched the blonde practically bounce into their room and start pulling out what looked like her favourite slaying outfit.
"Uh, weren't we going to bed?" Willow asked confused from her spot on the bed.
"Was. Now I'm not so tired. I was thinking I could talk you into a quick shower then maybe we could go for a light patrol followed by some dancing?" Buffy's face was hopeful as she began to disrobe and wait on her lover's response. The blonde moved over and took Willow in her arms, "Please say yes. Slaying's no fun with out good conversation. Vampire's suck at current events."
"Buff, if you haven't noticed, you me and everyone else are kinda in B.F.E. Where were you planning on scaring up some vamps?"
"Well we could drive into town, it's not that far and I noticed a bar that might be worthy of our presence."
Willow raised her eyebrow, "Were you planning this?"
Buffy blushed, "I, I, crap. Maybe. Yeah okay so I disbanded the meeting a little early, but it's not like we were getting anywhere anyhow. I figured you and I could I dunno do a datey type night. If you're not too tired."
Willow appeared to think for a minute and just as the pout began to form on her new lover's lips, she smiled, "Is this just general cabin type stuff or are you really wanting to dance and hang?"
"Hmm, some exercise would be good, but the dancing and hanging was the major plany part of the plan."
Willow removed herself from Buffy's arms and went to her bag by the desk. She removed her laptop and booted the machine up. Turning to Buffy she grinned, "How about we stay in. I can provide the music and a dance partner." Willow turned back and brought up a few play lists and let the music fill the room.
"And my energy?" Buffy asked curiously.
"Hmm," Willow turned her attention back to the blonde, "I think." She wrapped her hand around Buffy's waist pulling the small blonde to her, "we can find ways to dispel it."
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Faith had just rounded the corner to the back of the house when an arm shot out and grabbed her. Getting caught off guard she pulled away and took a fighting stance.
"Don't shoot." River said jokingly.
"Jesus Riv. Don't do that to a girl. You're liable to get hurt." Faith relaxed and then settled herself in to one of the chairs that lined the back wall. River took her cue and sat down next to the slayer.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"No worries Riv. So what are you doing out here anyhow?"
"Waiting on you."
Faith raised an eyebrow, "You knew I'd be out this way?"
"Yep."
The short answer kept Faith off balance. There were moments in their private time together where the girl would say the oddest thing and then later the comment made sense or when River would say someone was doing something and then a few hours later the person she mentioned was doing whatever it was River had mentioned. The brunette thought that maybe the girl was psychic and the whole thing just added to the mystery that surrounded River Tam.
"You were looking for me Faith. To tell me things. Would you like to now or would you like to ask the questions?" River sat back and drew her legs to her chest resting her chin on her knees.
"I...ya know being at a loss for words isn't something I'm used to?"
"I know. So why don't I make this easy on you. I feel it too. The connection between you and I. That's one thing you can cross off your list. The others are hard to explain. Who I am is easy. I'm River Tam sister of Simon. What I am with the weird insight and occasional veiled comment is different and harder to explain."
"Can you try?"
River nodded and began in a quiet voice, "I was sent away to a school for gifted children. An Alliance funded school that wasn't so much with the education as it was with the experimentation. I was tortured and poked and prodded and a whole lot of other not nice things."
Faith watched the tears swell and fall down the pale cheeks of her friend and she swallowed the lump in her throat to find her voice, "Riv, you don't..."
"I do...you have to know. Just like you feel you have tell me about Alan Finch and the others." River missed the look passing over Faith's face as she continued, "To make a horrible story somewhat shorter. They molded and shaped me to be an assassin. I'm what in my time they call touched, psychic. Things were stripped and eroded and medicated away. I can see things other's can't and know things other's don't." Faith opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped by River's words, "My brother came and rescued me. He threw away a medical career and the world he knew to save me."
"Oh."
"He rescued me and then we found our way on to Serenity. It was bad for awhile. I couldn't..." She met Faith's intense gaze and shrugged. "Think of it as, okay, your emotions you can shut them off, tune them out, or ignore them. I can't. Not only do I have to deal with everything that I feel as soon as it comes, but I also am...you would call it empathic. I also have to filter and sort through what the people surrounding me are feeling. And my filter is broken."
Faith moved and had River in her lap before she had time to process her actions. The need to comfort the girl overrode everything else. She felt the small body shudder under her touch and it caused Faith to hold on tighter. They stayed that way for a few minutes until River was able to get herself under control.
"Wh, what made it better?" Faith asked tucking an errant strand of hair behind River's ear.
"The biggest secret, all those people screaming and no one knowing." River shuddered and continued, "No one knew and everyone was yelling. The blood flowed in rivers drowning cities."
Faith held on a little tighter as River's speech grew more obscure. "Riv, hey, stop okay it's okay I get it. It was bad that's all I needed to know." Faith tilted the girl's face towards her and smoothed the lines on her forehead. "Stop just don't go there okay?"
River stopped and leaned in to the touch. The slayer watched the lines and pain disappear from her friend's features and decided it was time for her to do her own bit of sharing. Bracing herself, Faith started, "I'm gonna say this quickly Riv, my home life sucked until the age of 14 when I was pulled out and met my watcher. She was killed and then I ran until I ended up in Sunnydale..."
"Where you met Buffy and then you met Richard Wilkins. I know Faith you've already shown me."
"Uh?" The shock clear on the slayer's face.
"When I'm around you for a few moments, I see them, all of them. The people that have hurt you and you have hurt. I know about the murders and the attempts to kill yourself. I know about the jail and the things that you had to do there to make sure you didn't hurt anyone."
"How?"
"I don't know how it works. I just know what I feel and what I see when you are around. I try...I don't ask for it, but it comes anyhow and there I am stuck with knowledge I didn't want."
"Is that why..."
"It's why I know and it's why I kind of lose it sometimes. It used to be worse. I was lost for so long that it's only been getting better the past year or so."
Faith let it all sink in while holding River in her lap. It answered questions about the girl and some of her passing comments that she had made about or to the slayer, but it still was a lot. Here was a girl that knew some of Faith's worst moments and still continued to befriend her. It wasn't like the Scoobies relationship with her; it was vastly different.
The silence stretched between the two girls and River had grown tired of the uncomfortable air Faith had surrounded herself with. Rejection loomed in River's mind and it wasn't something she thought she could deal with right now. "I'm gonna go. You need time and I need sleep."
River started to get up when Faith pulled her back, "Don't go. Okay so it's not really what I was expecting and being wicked freaked...well it's kinda old hat around these parts." Faith bit her bottom lip trying to think of the words. "But it doesn't mean I like you any less. Not sure what you and I are, but finding out is something I want. If you do?"
River broke out in to a smile and whispered, "Further up the rabbit hole we go."
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Willow glanced at the clock on the bedside table and smirked. It didn't appear that sleep would be something they would be doing anytime tonight. Swinging her leg over Buffy's naked waist she laid a kiss on soft sweaty lips and snuggled into her lover's arms. She began tracing random patterns over Buffy's heaving chest and couldn't help the smug smile that infected her features. "So you still energized?"
Buffy looked down at sweat slicked red hair and planted a firm kiss on the crown of Willow's head, "Uhm, nope, maybe a little buzzed, but that's about it."
"Good. Heya Buff?"
"Yeah Wills?"
"Why the need?"
"The need for what?"
"To go out and slay? Aren't you working on a life of semi-retirement?"
Taking Willow's hand, Buffy entwined their finger's and began running her thumb over the soft palm, "I am or was or Giles is forcing me to. I don't know Wills, but this...this urge to fight to go out and kill things; it never goes away. I need it. It sounds crazy ya know. Even in my head, but..." Buffy shook her head unable to find the words.
The seriousness of the slayer's tone threw Willow for a moment. She hadn't been expecting it. "Kinda like magick?"
Buffy nervously shifted around under Willow's body and looked at their hands. "Maybe I don't know what it's like for you. I just know that it's a tension that builds up inside and" She looked down at Willow and noticed the smirk, "okay gutter brain not that kind of tension...or maybe. I mean it's just like a little voice that says "Summer's you need to kill something or beat something up.""
"We call that schizophrenia."
"Then fine I'm crazy. I'll blame it on Sunnydale. It's why I kinda wanted the break. It's not like I want out of the loop I just want to be less in the loop but still know what's going on. Does that make sense?"
"No not really. You want to kinda retire, but you still wanna beat things up and make with the killing. It kinda sounds like..." Willow thought for a moment and realization came. She mentally smacked herself and tried to clarify for her lover, "You, you of all people want a passive role in the world saveage? Buffy you'll never learn will you?"
"'Splainy, Wills...I'm not following."
Willow shifted her weight and sat up to meet her lover face to face. "The fact that this thing you're trying to do is total BS and you need to face it."
"BS?"
"Buffy, I love you, you know that right?"
The blonde nodded and grew more anxious.
"That being said, 'cuz it was just said and agreed upon that I do, love you that is, then don't get mad when I say this. Can you promise me that?"
Buffy sat up and folded her arms across her chest and she waited.
"Sweetie," Willow took a lock of Buffy's hair and twirled it between her fingers, "As much as it kills me to say this to you. You can't retire. You may not like it, but just because...just because I changed the slayer line and there are more slayer's out there than there were, you're still the original." She gave the blonde a lopsided smile. "I get that you being a leader isn't something you wanted, but you got it and you have to deal. You taking this passive role will not end in the good way."
"Why not?"
"Because it's not who you are. Those girls not only look up to you, but they need you. You tried so hard to maintain a normal life and look where that got you, goddess look where it got all of us. We aren't normal Buff. Our lives don't allow for that and if you continue to fight for it you're only going to end up being hurt more. Why is it so hard for you to realize that you don't have to be normal? In fact normal, in my opinion, far overrated."
Buffy fidgeted under her lover's gaze, "I, I'm tired, I guess or maybe it's because normal is something I can finally have."
"Do you really believe that? Would we be here right now if you did? All I'm saying is think about it. I know deep thoughts hurt the Buffy brain, but I have confidence that you will see what I'm talking about. It's like you can't let go of the childhood fantasies." The witch took hold of Buffy's hands and urged the blonde to understand, "We've grown up Buff and you need to reconcile these fantasies with the reality you live in. Besides, what would be so bad about you and me running the show in Cleveland and then when we hit retirement age we could seriously consider the whole hanging up the stakes thing."
"Because I don't want to die again." The words were out before she had a chance to filter them. She broke away from Willow's touch and folded her arms around her knees. Willing herself not to cry.
"That's what it is? You not wanting to die?" Willow let out a sigh and shook her head.
"If I, if I stay as active as I am or was, I'm going to die again before I can finish out whatever it is I'm supposed to do."
"And what is it that you're supposed to do?"
"I don't know. Not really. It's just a voice that says I need to back off a bit. Not be so killy and to try and focus on Buffy." The blonde buried her face in her hands and mumbled, "So this makes me selfish and wrong and a part of me just really doesn't care."
Willow sent a sad smile over to her lover and decided to take pity on her. She gathered the blonde in her arms and smoothed out her hair. "You need balance baby. What you want and what you are...I'd have thought you would have learned that by now."
"Nope haven't figured that out yet." Buffy sighed.
"We'll work on it. Together." Willow placed a light kiss on the tip of Buffy's nose. The reassuring smile she sent Buffy seemed to calm her a bit, so the witch took the initiative. "Now, I've got some extra energy. Wanna help get rid of it?" She wiggled her eyebrows and then lowered Buffy back on the bed to resume her position straddling Buffy's thighs