Thirteen Steps -3- Gravity
by Valyssia
Where Are You?
[reviews]
Description: Season 8 - We swing way the heck away from Joss. What can I say? Dawn as a giant just annoyed me.
Disclaimer: Buffy, Willow and all things Slayer belong to Joss Whedon and the good folks at Mutant Enemy.
Feedback: Any and all reviews will be welcomed. Feel absolutely free to tell me just how much you think I...ummm...errr...inhale sharply.
Waking up from a very deep, restful sleep, Buffy found herself going over the events of the morning. She was a bit shocked by how tired Willow had left her. They had half-carried each other back to bed after Willow's bath. She had been really pleased to see that the heavy bruising left by the redhead's encounter with Warren and Amy had started to fade as a result of the offering she made. The bruises were a yellowish brown now, not nearly so angry, and Willow no longer recoiled when touched.
Buffy pulled Willow up into a hug as she thought. It was curious...she looked back...no Willow for so long and now they seemed so close. It was like they just picked back up like nothing had changed. But something had...they were strangely more familiar for their time apart...almost too familiar.
I suppose that will change once Willow is fully healed, the Slayer reflected. A mournful wave washed over her. I'm not sure I want it to change. Just knowing Willow is there...being able to reach out and take comfort in her presence is something I...well...I think I need it, she reflected. Maybe I'm just afraid to let her out of my sight because of the poof thing? She does have a way of disappearing without much warning.
Careful not to wake the witch, Buffy stole off into the bathroom to take a quick shower and dress for the day. 11:13am. Yeah, the morning is slipping away and we have things to do. She needed to find Leah to see if she could borrow a pair of her jeans for Willow. The clothing Willow had arrived in sat long discarded in the other room and there was no way that she could wear anything of Buffy's except for maybe a skirt or some sweats so...Leah should be cool with it and they look to be about the same size.
Returning to her room after a short jaunt to pick up the jeans, Buffy found that Willow was awake, but still a bit groggy. "Morning, sleepyhead...did you rest a bit better this time?" she smiled as she spoke. Willow is so cute in the morning, she found herself thinking. What the hell was that? She puzzled internally.
"Yeah...much better now for the sleep...and well...thank you, Buffy." Willow stretched a bit as she spoke in a small voice.
Buffy turned to her closet and began sorting through clothing, selecting items for Willow to dress in. "You'll have to recycle your bra, but otherwise I think we have a full set of stuff that'll fit you just fine here."
"Thank you, again...I'm not sure what I would do without you. Anyway, I need to get on the phone and see if some of the sisters will pack me a bag and send it a little later in the day." Willow beamed as she spoke a bit more clearly for the waking up.
"Why don't you take a shower and I'll give Xander a call. I think we should get that debriefing thing over with as soon as possible. They will all be waiting for word from us and you know how things are with the waiting." Buffy trailed off slightly as she finished.
Willow got up, swinging herself out of bed. Yeah...I do feel better... She thought. She headed off to the bathroom, speaking as she went, "You think we could get him to come up here? I'm not feeling much like a crowd and I expect he's perfectly able to share what needs to be shared with the rest of the gang. Besides, if we do this in a more subtle way it'll have a more personal sorta feeling...more like the old days...just us Scoobies."
Buffy picked up the phone and dialed the extension for the communications center; the girl who picked up patched Buffy into Xander's earpiece. She heard Xander say, "Good morning," and replied with the same. "Willow would like for you to contact Giles and come up to my room for a conference call. She's ready to talk about last night. There's definitely some interesting stuff you need to be aware of, and pulling Giles into the loop is almost never of the bad," Buffy offered cheerfully.
Xander said, "Okay Buff...no trouble. I'll be up in a few. How is Willow anyway? She was looking really bad last night."
Buffy put on an encouraging voice and replied, "She's doing a lot better this morning, or she seems to be at least. It was a bad night. I helped her as much as I could," she paused for a second considering what she might be forgetting, "Oh... Xander I need to find Will a toothbrush. Save me some time tracking one down, please?"
"Oh...yeah... There are spares on the third floor in the closet at the end of the main hall. I'm glad Willow's better. It'll be good to see her looking not quite so much the rough. I'll be up in about 30 minutes give...take," Xander replied and cut the connection.
Buffy raised her voice to speak over the running water, "Hey, Will, I'm going to go see if my mega-sister wants to eavesdrop through the window. I figured I'd ask her this time instead of her just doing it as usual...might make her feel a bit better about life," hearing an affirmation from the redhead, Buffy set out to find this closet Xander was referring to, and then her sister. At least the second part of that should be easy.
Finding the closet about ten minutes after leaving the room, Buffy headed outside. This place is just unnecessarily huge. Okay, now Dawn...this part should be much more the simple...she's sorta hard to miss these days. I mean, she has to bathe in the lake after all... Spying her sitting on the lawn looking depressed, Buffy approached her carefully saying her name. "Hey there! Would you want to come up to the castle in a bit and sit-in, so to speak, on a meeting about last night? It's just going to be the gang and I think you deserve to be included. You can just stand outside my window...I'll even open it and everything this time."
"Sure!" Dawn smiled at the thought of actually being included. She had felt like everyone started ignoring her even more when she got all super-sized and stuff. She was amazed that this had actually seemed to be working. She was pretty damned hard to miss, all things considered.
"Okay, give us about 30 minutes to get things set up. Xander is going to video conference Giles in too; should be a party..." Buffy smiled as she turned to walk away.
A short time later, all the bodies were gathered around the computer displaying the image of a smiling Giles. Buffy wasted no time in starting, "Thanks for taking time out of your day for us." She gave the redhead on the bed next to her a significant glance as she continued, "This is not really about me so... Tell us what happened last night, Willow. If you can...heavy on the details, please, 'cause it's still making all kinda sense to me... that's not."
The group grew quiet and waited patiently for Willow to begin.
Willow had been openly dreading this. She took Buffy's hand for strength as she steeled herself, then she told the entire story from the night prior in detail as her friends sat and eyed her in awe. It was a painful monolog that seemed to go on for hours, or so she reckoned, but when she looked at the clock as she finished, barely thirty minutes had passed. She breathed a deep sigh of relief with the last few words she spoke.
"Giles, Xander... You need to contact Buffy's doubles and let them know about this. They are likely in grave danger," she added, looking sharply at the two men.
The room was silent for a few moments. It was Giles who broke through the quiet again, "I will be happy to handle it, Xander. I need to get in touch with all of our branches and let them know of this new development anyway. This is far too important to leave rest for long."
"Oh! Crap! I nearly forgot!" Buffy interjected, suddenly struck by the vision in her dream. "Giles, I met an old friend of yours last night when Amy had me under that spell. You remember Ethan Rayne?"
"Jeeze!" Xander exclaimed, "...And the fun just keeps on a leavin'. I thought things had sort of leveled out...color me wrong...not that shocking, I know," he trailed off, considering what the two girls had said.
Giles' eyes widened as he spoke almost over what Xander was saying. "Bugger! What'd that prat want?"
"To show me something...another stupid mystery symbol...like we needed another. It looked like three X's lined up in a row and then bent ninety degrees. They met so they sort of formed a box without the backside. I've got no clue what it meant, other than that it made me think of porn, but...well...you know that's not it...having been around Ethan more than I can really stand in the past though, it might be. His ick-factor is pretty high." Buffy said, making a face at the end.
"Anyway, he went to a ton of trouble to drag me across the dreamscape and led me to believe it was not from my mind, but Amy's or maybe his...I'm not sure." she looked as though she was straining to recall something just out of reach the entire time she spoke.
Giles looked thoughtful, "Perhaps it was his twisted way of showing you the number thirty? That's the only reference that immediately comes to mind."
"You know, Giles, we should look at sending the San Diego team in to recon the area. This is sounding pretty serious and they should be able to at least get an idea where this installation is on the map," Xander said, half thinking aloud.
"Okay, Xander. Please have them take a look tonight and report back. Obviously, the Westbury coven is working on the issue but having some one go in and observe the area might be useful. Tell them to take no unnecessary chances," With this, Giles pulled off his glasses to clean them.
Seeing that they were finishing up, Willow turned to look at Dawn from the bed where she sat with Buffy. "Dawnie... I'm going to hit full research mode this afternoon and try to find some antidotey goodness for you. I suspect that you are pretty tired of living like that and, for our part, the Doritos bill alone will bankrupt the Watcher's Council in short order if this is allowed to continue. Oh...and nice steppage last night dear! You really showed Amy who was boss!"
Dawn nodded, beaming, "Don't mention it, Willow. You were pretty impressive yourself!"
The entire room chuckled, even Giles...
Willow smiled and chimed in, "I really missed you guys!"
"Yeah, Will, where'd you disappear off to?" Xander interjected.
"Oh well... You know... Life was a bit wonky after we left Sunnydale and I had to get away. I never managed to fully master my power after the badness so..."
Willow stood up, saying her farewells to Giles and Xander. Then she walked to the window to look at Dawn. "Don't worry, honey. We'll fix you up good as new in no time."
Dawn stuck her hand up to the window sill and said, "Hop on...trust me. I won't drop you. "
An apprehensive look crept over Willow's face but she followed Dawn's instructions just the same. Boy, this is weird, she thought to herself.
Dawn spoke to the little witch in her hand as she stepped back from Buffy's window to afford them some secrecy, "God, I sure hope so...this is getting a bit old. I want my own room and some real solitude. You know how hard it is to find privacy for the simple stuff you used to take for granted when you are almost thirty feet tall?" Dawn looked a bit embarrassed as she voiced this. "Anyway...first thing I'm doing when...is a hot bath with enough bubbles that they drift out into the hall." Dawn said, snapping back to herself again.
"Yeah...I'll get researchy...it shouldn't be too bad. Your natural state is, well, much smaller, so it should just be like when Xander was split in two... but I need to confirm that. I'm not sure...it doesn't feel quite like that and honestly I'm a bit perplexed. How'd this happen, sweetie?" she asked, looking over her shoulder to make sure they could not be overheard. "Was I right about the Thricewise thing? I mean, it was a wild guess and all but..."
Dawn admitted, "Yeah...at least I guess so...I'm not even sure what a Thricewise is, to be honest, but I did...um...yeah..." she whispered the last little bit.
"Okay, then...all I needed to know." Willow confirmed. "On it..." she added grinning. "I'll come out and see you in a few hours...let you know what I find. Please take me back so I can begin now." Willow smiled sympathetically at the oversized girl.