Happy Development
by Whedonist
The Long Way Home
[reviews]
Chapter 19 — The Long Way Home
The knot that had settled in her stomach after she had left the basement seemed to grow with every passing step. Faith was barely conscious of where her feet were taking her as she exited the house and followed the path out to where they had placed Serenity. She had known this day was coming. Should have listened to the voice in her head screaming at her to avoid the emotional entanglements of forming a relationship, in any form, with River, but no, Faith ignored it. Now she was going to pay dearly for not listening.
Of course, that was the way things had always been with Faith. Find someone that means anything to you and then let them die, leave them or they leave you. No one who had meant anything to her, who had tried to help her through her turbulent life, had stayed. She looked up at the afternoon sun, while at the moment it shone bright; the air was tepid with heavy clouds on the horizon. The threat of rain made the air thick and seemed to add to her plummeting disposition. Glancing up ahead, she saw Mal and Jayne taking inventory of some of the things they had purchased here.
"Hey." Faith tried to smile but by the looks of their reactions knew she had failed.
"Howdy, Faith." Mal returned Faith's attempt at a grin with a genuine one. "What brings you out this way?"
"Giles asked me to let you guys know that you should prep everything to go home. Seems like we'll be able to get you back before the end of today."
Mal's face lit up at the thought and he playfully punched Jayne in the arm. "Some of the best news I've heard in awhile. Good. I'll get everyone together then. Jayne, finish this up." Mal didn't glance back as he entered the ship through the cargo bay.
The slayer rubbed the back of her neck and looked at Jayne. "You don't know where River is do you?"
Jayne raked his eyes over Faith's body and licked his lips, "Whatcha want her fer'?"
She ignored his glances for the time being and answered, "Just wanna talk to her. You know or what?"
"Dunno why you wanna talk with that xiong meng de kuang ren fer', but last I seened 'er was walkin' up to the bridge." Jayne watched her ass as Faith walked off without even a backwards glance. Shaking his head he muttered disgustedly, "Fine piece like that more interested in a barely legal, moon brained girl. Even if the girl ain't bad on the eyes...whatta waste."
Faith caught Jayne's parting words, but ignored them and entered the cargo bay. Trying to remember her way to the bridge, she noticed that the place seemed a bit too quiet. Rounding the corner, she found herself looking into the med bay of the ship. Simon was there stocking up and he smiled as he saw her.
"Hi Faith."
"Hey Simon. I got lost. I was lookin' for River. Jayne said she was headed towards the bridge?"
"Ah, sure. Go up those steps to your right and then hang another right. You'll see it from there."
"Thanks." Faith followed his instructions and was climbing the small set of steps that would take her onto the bridge when she heard River's voice. Pausing a moment to give her friend some privacy she waited until River was done talking. "...love you all." was the last she heard, so Faith stepped through the door and smiled as River looked back and grinned at the slayer.
"Figured I'd come check in. I just told Mal and Jayne..."
"To get ready to leave." River finished.
"You do know it's kinda creepy when you do that right?" Faith leaned against the railing by River.
"They've said. You know," River pointed out of the windows as she rose from her seat and stood next to Faith, "I remember the first time it was clear that I was sailing around in space."
"When was that?" Faith asked wrapping her arm around River's shoulders as the girl rested her head on Faith's arm.
"The ship had been detained by the Alliance and Mal, even then, made sure that we weren't found. Simon was so scared. We put on suits and went outside the ship. We hung to the side as the Alliance tore it apart. It was then, with nothing but fabric and glass separating me from The Black. I turned and the stars were..."
"I think I can imagine." Faith said.
"No, I don't think so. I mean I think you can imagine, but it's different. I'll hold on to that memory forever. It'll be enough."
"Enough?"
River glanced up into sad, brown eyes, "To treasure and make memories from. Like you here. I wish you could see it. Once even."
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Dawn was doing her best to ignore the tense silence that hung in the basement air as she and Willow worked on finishing the preparations for the spell. She could feel some talk, any talk regarding her reaction to her sister and the witch was coming. Willow kept on shooting her glances when she thought she wasn't looking. Dreading the upcoming discussion, she grumbled to her self thinking she should have stayed with everyone else to avoid the impending doom.
Instead she gripped her chalk pencil and helped Willow draw the design on the concrete floor. Dawn looked around at the nearly complete symbol and shrugged. It was 13 feet in diameter with crude representations of Nordic Runes surrounding, what to Dawn, looked like a cowboy hat and fish hooks drawn by Dali, but was instead the symbol of an archaic god of destruction. The entire drawing was circumferenced by a bold, white circle.
As she completed the outside circle, Dawn heard Willow ask, "Can we uh, stop for a moment and talk?" Willow asked quietly.
"Any way I'm gonna get out of it?" Dawn asked sarcastically turning her attention from the rag clutched in her hands she was using to wipe off the dust and turned to the redhead now rising from her haunches on the other side of the circle.
"Nope." Willow grinned.
"Then talk."
Willow was a little taken aback by Dawn's tone, but she forged ahead anyhow. "Buffy didn't say exactly what you two talked about yesterday, but I know she was really upset when I found her. Why?"
Dawn looked at Willow then and saw the hurt and betrayal reflected in green eyes. "She's gonna mess up Will. She's gonna pull a classic Buffy maneuver and you're going to leave. Then what? We get left picking up the pieces like usual. If it was anyone else, I wouldn't care, but it's you."
Willow nodded not really seeing the girl's logic. "It's not really your decision. Buffy and I, not what I had expected, not saying it wasn't thought about, but it's different Dawnie. I can feel it. Look at your sister. Something's changed in her. I'm not saying I'm the responsible party, but she's different, better." Dawn tried to interrupt, but Willow held up her hand to stop her. "I'm not done. You can be mean to me if you want. You can be nasty and cruel as much as you feel, but you need to apologize to Buffy. This is huge in new and scary ways for her. I know what it's like. So you either have something nice to say or nothing to say at all."
Dawn ducked her head and then nodded as she looked up at Willow.
"Now I'm not saying that things are going to be perfect between Buffy and I, but I'm never leaving. Even if we break up, which I don't want to happen, but if we do, you're my family and nothing is going to change that. I love you Dawn, but ya know, sometimes, you can be a bit of a brat?"
Dawn rolled her eyes at the witch, "Comes with the age." She joked then, taking a more curious tone, she asked, "Wills, how?"
The smile spread over Willow's face when she heard Dawn's tone. Knowing that it wasn't perfect, Dawn would at least quit being nasty and rude to her sister. "Faith and I got drunk and Buffy..."
"Wait, you and Faith?" Dawn's eye's grew big as her mind took her to another place, "Buffy walked in on you and Faith having sex!?"
"What? No. Here let me make this easy. If I look back and am totally honest with myself. Buffy, she's always had a piece of me that no one else could touch. I guess I've had a piece of her too. It just took us a while to get around to the natural progression. She called me a dummy the night we got together."
"Pah, like she's one to talk." Dawn teased.
"She's right tho'. And I think I kinda get Dawn, the why behind your...No one ever plans on breaking up or leaving, if we did then it'd be kinda weird and well why bother when you know that you aren't gonna at least try to give it an honest shot. Buffy and I, I can't make guarantees. I know that I do love her and she loves me. We've been through a lot together already. I hope it's enough."
Dawn bobbed her head up and down in understanding, "As long as neither of you go nuclear on us or leave. I can deal. All I know is she better treat you right." Grinning Dawn, put her arm around Willow's shoulder pulling her into a half hug. "And if she starts to shove you away?"
Willow's brow scrunched together and she pursed her lips for a moment before answering, "I shove back."
Buffy's hand rested on the doorknob of the research room as she listened to the conversation her sister and lover were having. She smiled as she turned and walked away thinking that she would talk to Willow later.
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By the time Willow and Dawn had finished up in the basement, Mal and his crew had prepped the ship to leave. Everyone met in the field behind the school where Serenity was located and all had to squint against the needle pinned drops of rain that fell from thick clouds overhead.
Inara shifted on her feet. Goodbyes were never something that she could do with people who she had grown attached to. When she had first left Serenity, the only one who she had parting words with was Mal and even that had been filled with too much tension and silent tears. This was proving to be nearly as difficult for her. They hadn't known each other for long, but as she stepped up to Willow, she knew the redhead had captured a small piece of her heart.
Willow's eyes filled with tears as she wrapped her arms around Inara's body. Squeezing tight, they both held on to each other. Willow was the first to break away and pull back. "So, it's not like we can write, but..." She was unable to finish the sentence as Inara just nodded in agreement.
Giles interrupted them with a cough, "While I can say that stranger things have happened to us. It would be remiss of me to not say that this round of strange was the most pleasant experience. It's been a joy to get to know you all."
Mal nodded, "It's been fun. I can say that sure enough." He swung his arms in front of him mildly uncomfortable. He ran his right hand through the back of his hair and up to the front, "Now, I know that speeches and such are kinda, well not expected, but I guess, as best as I can 'sus out. Y'all did a mighty good turn helpin' us out. If we could, or you know I'll just leave it as we owe you one."
"Y'all've been great really. Xander, Faith, Buffy thanks for the help on the wiring. Willow, I don't know how you do what you do, but it was sure nice meeting ya'll." Kaylee said trying to make up for some of the things that maybe couldn't be said.
"We done now? We got some thievin' to do in our own time," said Jayne.
"Righty-o. Alright Ladies and Simon. Let's get out of here." Mal grabbed the bag at his feet turned and followed his crew inside. As Kaylee set to close the bay doors, she, Inara, Mal, Simon, and Zoe turned and waved goodbye. As the doors closed on the people outside, Mal turned to his crew, "We best get ready to hit the Black little Kaylee. Let's fire her up so's you can show me what I keep you around for."
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Willow, Buffy and Faith made a quick retreat to the basement while Giles, Dawn and Xander stayed to watch the ship depart. Making their way through the school, Buffy and Faith stopped at the weapons cache to pick up two dart guns to tranq the six remaining demons. Buffy was the first one in the containment area and let off three successive shots. She was followed by Faith who put down the 3 demons left standing.
"I'll grab the head and you take the feet?" the blonde suggested as she stepped to the center of the room and over to the first still form.
"Why not? I don't get to drag demons around nearly enough as it is." The brunette retorted. She leaned down and released the manacles on the demon.
"If I said it once, I'll say it again; the dustiness of vamps just makes you appreciate them more. No muss, no fuss they're just a pile of dust."
Faith raised an eyebrow at the blonde as she grunted under the strain of hoisting the lower half of the beast up, "You turn in to Dr. Seuss while I wasn't watchin'?"
Buffy just grinned then groaned as they maneuvered the body out of the door and down the hall to where Willow was finishing her preparations.
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The witch set down her notes as Buffy and Faith brought in the last demon and dropped him in the remaining gap of the circle of bodies.
"You ready Wills?" Buffy asked stepping up to Willow placing steady hands on her girlfriend's shoulders. A small nod came from Willow and Buff leaned in capturing Willow's lips in a soft kiss. "Be careful, love you." Buffy said as she pulled away.
"Hmm, love you too." Willow grinned at the blonde goofily then seemed to remember Faith still standing off to her left. She looked over and blushed a deep read as Faith leered at the two lovers standing together.
Recovering from the sudden affectionate moment, Willow started, "Alright, I drew the circle before so all I need is to raise some energy and I think say some nifty words." Taking a seat, Indian style, at the center of the circle, the witch began to center herself.
Buffy and Faith stood a few feet back from the bottom of the circle and watched from the sidelines. Buffy's fine hairs stood on end as the energy from the spell coalesced around her. Willow's slow, steady mumbling seemed to increase the tension as the spell gained power causing the pressure in the room to rise. The only sounds that were heard were the soft snores of a few of the demons and Willow's hushed words. Buffy glanced nervously at Faith and they both looked over as Willow began speaking louder. Taking a more opposing stance, they stood watch in case the demons awoke.
"Kabluresh, Deus da Guerra, Senhor do Caos. Vá. Liberte os viajantes deste tempo. Leve-os de volta para o pr...prio. Deixe-nos saber para terminarmos. Que assim seja".
As Willow's voice died, Buffy felt the air in her lungs leave. The effect left her feeling like she was being sucked into a vacuum. As soon as it began it ended and when the blonde's breathing regulated she noticed her back was pressed up against the far wall of the basement some 20 feet from where she and Faith had been standing watch. She groaned as she stood and looked around. Faith was still on her butt shaking her head to try and figure how they went from where she was standing to where she was sitting. Offering her hand, Buffy helped the brunette to her feet.
Buffy glanced over to where Willow and the demons were. The red head still sat Indian style in the center but there were light scorch marks where the bodies of the demons had lain. Taking a lungful of air her face scrunched at the smell of scorched ozone.
Willow grinned up at the two shell shocked slayers, "That was fun."
"Uh, Will, what was that?" Buffy asked dusting off her pants.
"What?" Willow asked confused as she finished siphoning off excess energy.
"We'll start with easy Red, what the fuck just threw us 15 feet backwards?" Faith interjected before Buffy had a chance to clarify.
Willow shrugged, "Oh, uh," She giggled nervously and said, "Side effect?"
"Side effect? Was that supposed to happen?" Buffy asked.
"It happened when they got here or at least we can assume it did since that's what took us out to the lake in the first place, but it could have just been for the return trip."
"Ah, and the spell? I thought you worked in Latin?" Faith cocked her head to the side appearing truly puzzled by the recent casting.
"Portugese." Willow kicked at the scorch mark closest to her and mumbled, "Hmmm."
"Why?" Buffy queried rolling her shoulders to take away some of the stiffness from the impact against the brick wall.
"Rio. I had to learn some of the language and it's way easier than Latin, but it's based in Latin. We all know I suck at Latin and my spells seem to work better."
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Giles sat up and straightened his glasses before looking over to check on Dawn and Xander. Xander was helping Dawn to her feet as the watcher struggled to his. He then cast a cursory look over to where Serenity had been. He rubbed his temples to remove some of the tension being thrown back had caused. The ship was gone leaving a ring of scorched grass where it had been.
"That was most unexpected. Everyone alright?" Feeling that everything had gone off well, Giles smoothed out his clothes while Xander answered.
"Yep, sore, but good G-man."
"Fine, Giles. Do you know what that was?" Dawn asked as she looked down at her clothes, "Damn it, I'll never get these grass stains out."
"I think perhaps it was the spell ending. It would seem to fit." Giles was interrupted by Isa running over the hill.
"Mr. Giles, Xander, Dawn. Is everything alright? The house is in a bit of a state after that..."
"Mini-explosion?" Xander offered.
"Yep."
"Isa, radio in tell them that everything is fine and all is back to normal." Xander directed. The young girl was on her COM-Link before he finished. All three watched as she turned, and sprinted back to the house.
"Ah, okay then, remind me not to do that again anytime soon. Whaddya think Dawnie, we get a good 15 feet in distance? So what's that a 10?"
Dawn looked over to where she thought they had been standing, "Seems about right, but our form was horrible, judges are weighing in and oh, 7.5."
They both laughed and snorted at the same time. "Well, those Brits are awful tough with the judging."
"Sure, sure. It's 'cuz of their tea intake." Dawn smirked and then looked pointedly at Giles.
Giles rolled his eyes at the two and began walking towards the school, "If you two would quit poking fun at the Brit and let's be on our way. We still have that body to tend to and I would like to check in with Willow, Buffy and Faith to see if there was anything out of the ordinary."
"You mean besides being knocked on your ass some distance away from where you originally were?" Xander's sarcasm was only noted by a slight backwards glance from Giles.
"Dawn, the body we found is in the holding freezer?" Giles asked making his way inside. They bypassed the kitchen and dining area heading straight for the infirmary.
"In the cooler. I don't have to touch it do I?" The disgust and nervousness evident in her tone.
"No, No. I'm just going to snap some photos and if Xander would be so kind as to fingerprint or at least try to fingerprint the victim, perhaps Willow or someone else could ID the man so that we may inform the proper authorities and family."
They had taken the long way back to the large walk-in cooler/freezer that was used for preservation. The path carried them around the infirmary and past the small ward used to house injured students and staff. On the way over, Xander had grabbed a camera and the supplies necessary to take the prints. Giles reached the far end of the hallway and stopped at the thick steel door that opened up the cooler. Turning to address the two with him he said, "Dawn, if you want, stay here. We will only be a moment."
Dawn nodded thankfully and took a seat to the left of the door.
As Giles opened the door, he turned to step in and was stopped by the slim figure of River Tam standing next to the body of the man they'd pulled from the caves. "Oh, dear Lord."
Willow was the first to turn and look as the basement door came flying open. The witch dropped the broom in her hand as River Tam became visible. "Oh Goddess." Her mind quickly went over the spell to see if there were any errors. Finding none, she turned her shocked gaze to Dawn.
"Giles, take the door off th..." Buffy stopped as she saw River standing between Xander and her old watcher. "Oh."
"G, B..." Faith's heart soared and crashed in the instant her gaze settled on River. "You...?"
"Are where I'm supposed to be for now." River smiled sheepishly at Faith and waved to Buffy and Willow.
Disregarding everything else, Faith dropped the dust pan in her hands and rushed to River. She scooped the young girl up and twirled her around ignoring the shocked expressions of the people around them. River giggled as Faith spun her around happy that the slayer didn't appear to be upset by her appearance. She held on tight and breathed in the slayer's scent.
As the shock wore off, Faith put River back on her feet, but held a firm grip on her hand. "What happened?"
Buffy quickly recovered from Faith's open display of affection and asked, "Yeah, anybody with an answer? Will?"
Willow's mouth opened and closed a few times in response, but no sound came out.
Tentatively, River raised her hand in response to Buffy's question, "I think maybe I can answer that."
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"Cortex and Navsat are both operational, Sir. We're back." Zoe smiled over at Mal. He had control of the ship while Zoe checked the systems monitors once they got shot back through to their own time.
A weight lifted off the captain as he leaned back and engaged the auto-pilot. "Hey," He said sitting up, "You seen our River runnin' about? I ain't seen her since before we boarded."
"I saw her walk in right before we said goodbye to everyone. Maybe she's in her quarters. Could be she's upset." Zo' offered looking over one of the panels one last time before turning her attention fully to Mal.
Mal laced his fingers behind his head and went back to reclining in the seat, "Suppose so. Her and Faith seemed to get awful close. You don't think that she and Faith, uh, had..." Mal blushed at the thought then shook his head in a vain attempt to rid his mind of the images.
Simon ran up the steps to the bridge calling out, "Mal! Zoe! Have any of you seen River?"
"Why Doc, we were just talki..."
Mal was interrupted by the ships PA system coming to life. It crackled popped and hissed, then River's voice filled the ship. Mal and Zoe both sat up as they recognized who was speaking. Simon looked around and then remembered this is what happened the time that bounty hunter had tried to take River from him. He smiled at the memory and the way River had handled the situation.
"8 for 8. That's what those demons bargained for or with. We were a trade. They get access to this dimension while we get displaced in it. They had brought 8 here and needed 8 for that time. I'm not sure exactly how that works about, but it is. The 8th person is dead. The body they found in the caves and he couldn't come back anyhow. No name, no home, no future, dead. It shifted the balance, a ratio of 1 to 1 to be able to return to where we came from. They had 6 we had 7. I wasn't going to let anyone make that decision." River's voice rang clear throughout the entire ship. As her message played, the rest of the crew filed onto the bridge one by one.
"Goodbye's are hard, even harder when you know they're coming. I wasn't sure what to say or how to say the things that need to be said." River's voice had grown thick with emotion as she continued to speak. "You should hear this by the time it's too late to do anything but to move forward. We sacrifice for the one's we love and this is mine to you."
Simon's hand flew to his mouth as River's words registered in his mind. He was unaware when his legs gave out and his wife cradled him in her arms. The shock coursed through him moving quickly to disbelief then settled on pain and grief. After throwing his life away to rescue her, his sister had chosen to leave them and stay 500 years in the past. His mind spun at the thought that he would never again see the person he had risked everything for, for the last remaining blood tie he knew.
A choked sob came through the speakers and then River's voice cleared again, "Words are inadequate and non-sensical for messages like these, yet I feel the need to say something, anything to get you to be ok Simon. Sacrifice, something you know a lot about. I needed to do this for you, for all of you that have watched over me. You will always be my brother. You will always be with me. You gave me that gift, this gift of freedom and choice and showed me love in ways I thought had long since been taken away. Know I'm safe. Know I'm happy. Know that I love you all. Yes, even you Jayne."
A/N: Thank you Onno for the translation...