Title: Baby Doll
Author Restive Nature
Disclaimers: I do not own any of the characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel the Series. They belong to the almighty Joss and I just play with them for my own amusement before putting them away neatly.
Spoilers: Buffy Season Three "Amends"
Summary: A teenage girl with mysterious ties to Angel helps him with his Christmas Amends.
Chapter Twelve
Party
"I’m surprised that Dru managed to sit and go through your diary," Angel commented thoughtfully. "I don’t recall that books ever interested her. Unless they had… pictures."
"She knew that everything she wanted to know about me was in that book," Dylan offered. "When Dru gets an idea in her head as strongly as she had that one, you can’t stop her."
"What idea did she have about you?" his curiosity was piqued again.
"Well obviously, I was her doll," Dylan scowled. "I don’t know. Maybe she saw my diary as some sort of instruction manual."
"Could be," he answered solemnly. "So, did she celebrate Christmas with you?"
"No," Dylan shook her head. "She had something else to occupy her by then?"
"What was that?"
"The Judge."
"She was scheming about that for that long?" he was incredulous. But he should have realized. It would have taken a lot of research to discover exactly where the boxes containing the Judge were located. "But how did you manage to escape his wrath?"
"The same way I wasn’t vamped," she smiled.
"Dru warned him off?"
"Actually, it was Spike."
*****
"What’s going on Dru?" Dylan asked cheerfully. Ever since her birthday, she’d felt a bit better. Her nights weren’t so long and lonely any more. When she wasn’t visiting with Dru or Dalton, or helping Spike try to regain the use of his legs, she was playing around with her gifts. They’d ignored Christmas, but Spike had laughingly gotten her drunk on New Year’s eve. He teased her all about it the next day and unfortunately, she couldn’t remember what she’d done to embarrass herself. But then, she had discovered the pictures she’d taken with her digital camera and found out that Spike had been just as drunk, if not more than she. So she teasingly made her own threats. And thankfully Spike took it in stride, rather than blatantly threatening her, as he would have once done.
Dru turned her had to see her daughter approaching. "We’re having a party."
"Another one?" Dru nodded happily. "What is it for this time?"
"It’s my coming out party," she announced. "We have to get everything ready."
"Can I help?"
"Of course." So they spent a companionable few hours deciding color schemes. Dru had already chosen red and black, her favorites. But the exact shade of red was a heated debate. And then they chose flowers. Red roses of course, but Dru seemed to want them to smell like lilies instead of roses. Dylan nearly tore her hair out in frustration, as she couldn’t make Dru understand that that wouldn’t work. Spike finally came along and suggested quietly to Dylan that she simply spritz some lily scented perfume around the room. It’s what he did when she was in this mood. Dylan thanked him and the party panning went on.
"Dru, ducks," Spike finally interrupted, "just a quick question." Dru turned to him. "What are you planning on doing with the bit," he nodded his head towards
Dylan, "when our guest of honor arrives?" Dru’s eyes widened and she turned to stare at Dylan.
"Oh my," the Vampiress whispered. "I gave no thought to my girl."
"What?" Dylan asked with a tiny sense of dread. She’d overheard them talking about certain things. But the Judge meant nothing to her.
"He’ll burn the humanity right out of her," Spike continued as though Dylan hadn’t spoken.
"Huh?" Dylan was obviously confused. Of all the mystical lore there was in the world, she was only familiar with Vampires. Other demons didn’t figure into her world. Spike spared her an almost sympathetic glance.
"You’ll have to turn her luv," he instructed Dru. The Vampiress simply nodded.
"Okay, again, do I not get a vote?" Dylan interrupted angrily. Both Vampires turned to gawk at her.
"Look bit," Spike drawled finally, "you get a choice between becoming one of us, or permanent dead. Which do you prefer?"
"Oh," in shock she sank back slowly to the chair she’d resided in before. "Well, if those are my choices, I guess I’ll go with turned."
Spike grinned, "knew you’d eventually see it my way!" He glanced up at Dru. "Well, what are you waiting for pet? Have at her." Dru gazed at the girl with sorrowful eyes. She knew that Spike was right. She didn’t want to risk losing her baby doll. But it wasn’t imperative that she do it that second. Just in that moment, Dalton and some of the others arrived, a large box in their possession.
"One more day," Dru whispered, stroking the girl’s hair softly. "I’ll give you that time to finish what you need to."
"Thank you Dru," Dylan whispered back shakily. She tried to order her mind. What did she want to do with her last night and day as a human? Watch a sunrise? Finish the painting she was working on? She probably wouldn’t care about it as a Vampire, so it seemed imperative to get it done now. And she realized that Dru had known it too. But as Dylan hurried off, she wondered what she’d be like as a Vampire.
*****
"That was certainly magnanimous of her," Angel noted. "So what happened to prevent your turning?"
"The last box arrived," Dylan answered simply. "She got caught up in moving up her preparations. And kind of forgot about me."
"Did you get everything done that you wanted?"
"Yeah, I finished the painting, watched the sunrise, finished all the books I could and listened to my CD’s one last time."
"You were really certain that stuff wouldn’t matter to you anymore?" Angel wondered. "Because when a person is turned, they don’t completely lose all the personality they had to begin with. There are some carry overs."
"Well, I didn’t know that, did I?"
"I guess not."
*****
She didn’t realize until later that Dru had come to see her. But she’d fallen into an exhausted sleep. It wasn’t until she’d awoken and felt the heavy clink of the chain on her leg that she realized she was still alive. Nevertheless, she felt for her own pulse and breathed a heavy sigh of relief when she found it. But soon the panicked feeling set back in. There was a palpable feeling of excitement in the air. But it only served to feed her own trepidation. So she looked to distract herself until Dru came for her.
But there was no coming. Overhead, she heard music begin to play, loudly. There were the muted sounds of laughter and chatting, but Dylan barely paid any attention. The party was starting. She puttered around her room, eating a quick meal distractedly. She reverted back to her bathroom method she’d come up with when Spike had first been injured. She tried to distract herself with a book, but soon threw it down in frustration. It was then that a loud argument caught her attention. She couldn’t make out the words, but there was yelling. And then a feeling of emptiness. Dylan gasped at the pain of it. Something was lost.
*****
"What did that come from?" Angel swiftly interrupted.
"The Judge," she answered. "He killed Dalton."
"But why?" Angel was puzzled. The Judge’s whole purpose had been to burn the humanity from people. Dalton wasn’t a person.
"Because Dalton felt passion for books," Dylan recalled sadly. It had taken her a while before she could summon up the nerve to ask Spike about it. When she’d mentioned it to Dru, the Vampiress had just giggled madly. It was Spike who’d told her the reason behind Dalton’s demise. "The Judge viewed that as a betrayal to demonkind."
"What about you?"
"Spike told me later that the Judge could kind of eventually sense that I was there," Dylan frowned. It was one time she was actually grateful to the bleached blonde Vampire. "But Spike warned him off, like I said."
"Why would he have done that?" this really bothered Angel. Spike was a killer. Getting rid of Dylan would have provided the Vampire with amusement and the need to kill. So why did he hesitate? That just wasn’t in Spike’s nature.
"Because of something the Judge said to him," Dylan provided the clue needed. "He accused Spike and Dru of being too human." Angel’s eyes widened a little. They’d never let that slip to Angelus. "Spike told the Judge that since they were the ones that resurrected him, he couldn’t do anything about it. That’s when he killed Dalton." She halted a moment. "I think Spike realized then that what Dru felt for me was more than just affection. And it would only hurt her if I were killed. So he warned the Judge to leave me be and let Dru turn me. Then neither of them would have any worries. The Judge agreed."
"Lucky for you."
"Yeah, very lucky." She glanced away. More had happened that night. But she couldn’t share it with Angel. It would have been too painful for him. The reminder that it was the night he’d lost his soul.
*****
After the commotion had settled down, Dylan wondered at the abrupt silence. Someone was still above her, but it seemed the party was over. She sank back to her bed, her mind turning over the possibilities. She kept berating herself for not having run away when she had the chance. She’d always believed that where there was one chance, there’d be another. She finally fell into a fitful sleep. Which was surprising since she’d slept most of the day away.
And then she began to dream. She was in an unfamiliar place, an alleyway. There were street lamps alight on the street, but only part of the light reached back into the shadow. Dylan felt as if she were floating along, away from her body. She wasn’t really there. But there was something there that she needed to see. And finally, a figure erupted from a basement stairwell. He stumbled out into the main alley. Sank to his knees as he howled in pain. Another figure now, a female, cautiously approaching the figure. Dylan watched, trying not to shiver as the male figure rose easily to his feet, Vampiric ridges very much in evidence. The woman came closer; mouthing something that Dylan didn’t catch. Her throat closed up as she watched the one thing she despised in this world spun around and drained the woman to a husk. Angelus was back.
And so were the dreams.
*****
She wouldn’t have said anything, but Angel brought it up by himself.
"That was the night…" he began, the memory of it still so difficult. But he couldn’t regret all of that night. He’d finally had his dream come true, of being able to physically express his love for Buffy. He only regretted the things that had happened after that.
"I know," Dylan smiled sadly. "You were happy. Too happy." She frowned then. "I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s still painful to think of, let alone talk of."
"It’s always painful," he nodded. "That was the second prediction you made? That I would be a traitor to… what was it?"
"You would betray friends, then foes, then foes and friends," Dylan smirked. "I still don’t know where I came up with that."
"It doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?" he grinned. "Aside from the obvious connotation."
"Well, if you don’t take it as an instantaneous thing," Dylan shrugged. "But something that happened over time." She sighed when she realized that he didn’t understand where she was going with this. "You betrayed your friends by turning into Angelus. And suddenly you were quasi-friends with Spike and Dru." She held up her hand when he would have spoken. "I know, Vampires don’t have friends. But your previous friends became your foes. And down the road you betrayed them all again when you were possessed by that spirit ghost thingy." She had more theories on this subject, but she didn’t want to bring them up. Angel looked partly satisfied with her answer.
"So," he went back to what she’d said before, "you did know the night I returned? How?"
Dylan looked down at her lap. Should she lie to him now? If she kept telling him about her time with them, he’d eventually figure it out. Tell him the reason why Dru hadn’t killed her to begin with. Maybe if she answered this, he wouldn’t delve too deeply into that reason? "I dreamed about it," she shrugged. She saw him wince and felt bad for the pain she caused. But this was better in the long run, than his knowing the full truth.
Chapter Thirteen
No comments:
Post a Comment