|
|
Once the kissfest had ended, and once Angel felt well enough to walk on his own, he and Buffy seemed to come up with a mutual but unspoken plan. First, they wandered the many corridors until they tracked down Cordelia, getting official confirmation that Ethan was still around and his whereabouts. Buffy and Angel walked slowly towards her former cell, both of them clinging to each other in a sort of mild desperation. And along the way, they found time to talk over this whole ordeal.
“I can’t help thinking this is all a dream,” Buffy admitted with tears in her eyes. “Like I’m going to wake up any minute and I’ll still be where I was.” She shuddered, clinging to her husband a little tighter. “I don’t know how long it will be until it goes away, until I start feeling safe again.”
Angel leaned forward slightly to kiss the top of her head, breathing in the sweet scent of her. “Don’t worry about waking up. You already are awake,” he whispered. With a deep sigh, he added, “You have no idea how much I’ve missed this, how I’ve missed you. I thought I’d die when I thought you did in that explosion, all those years ago...”
Buffy bit her lip. “And I thought I’d die from grief over losing you, and everyone.” She stopped in her tracks, pulling out of his grasp just enough so she could turn to look at him. “I feel like I missed out on too much. We never even got our honeymoon, and... God, do you realize I had promised Stefanie that I would try to be there for when her baby was born?! I don’t even know if she had a boy or girl!”
Angel smiled ever so slightly. “It was a girl,” he told her softly. “Stefanie named her Risa.”
This time, it was Buffy’s turn to smile slightly. “After Rhys, her one true love. That is so Steffi’s style. She’s such a romantic!” Buffy paused, looking up into Angel’s eyes. “Not that that’s a bad thing... God, it’ll be good to see her again! Tell me, does she look much different?”
Angel nodded once. “Older, and more mature, if that’s possible. She’s had to deal with a lot. First you ‘died’, then Cordelia, Giles, and Jenny left town... And then, when a contract supposedly went out on my life, I dumped Ivory on her and left our daughter for her to raise while I fled.” Before Buffy could get a word in edgewise, he added quickly, “Believe me when I say that’s the last thing I wanted. But there were too many vampires constantly after me. And that’s not the kind of life I wanted Ivory exposed to, or to have her caught in the crossfire... It wasn’t until she was called as the new Slayer that I came back into her life.”
Much to Angel’s surprise, Buffy simply nodded, appearing not at all fazed by the news. “I know,” she replied tearfully, reaching up to lay one hand on his face. “Ethan was ‘kind’ enough to keep me posted on most of it. Every bit of news designed to crush me a little bit more. I can’t decide what’s worse now, the bit that Ivory was destined to follow in my footsteps... or that Ethan revealed he’d killed Giles.”
Angel was caught totally off guard by that last statement. “Come again?!”
Buffy bit her lip, her tears threatening to spill over. “Ethan went to see him in England to confirm what he suspected about Ivory. Got himself invited into Giles’ house by the maid on a pretense, then went back to look through Giles’ files when he thought he and Jenny were out for the evening.” Angel remained silent, allowing his wife to continue. “Giles caught him, and Ethan chose to use that to his advantage. He goaded Giles with the knowledge that he had failed me, that I’d been alive all that time and Giles should have known.” Buffy’s facade broke at this point as she burst into tears, weeping for her lost mentor.
Angel pulled her close, letting her cry against his chest. “So, Ethan brought on Giles’ stroke,” he murmured, mostly to himself. “Oh, Buffy, I’m sorry!” He paused for a long while until she had recovered, then leaned back, cupping her face in his hands. “So, what kind of punishment would you say Ethan deserves at this point?”
Buffy launched into a rather graphic spiel on the subject, making Angel smile deviously. “That’s my girl,” he whispered with a note of pride. “So, shall we?”
Buffy let Angel continue leading her down the corridor, sighing and feeling overjoyed just to be back in his arms again. Then, on the pretext of telling him about Leeloo, she asked coyly, “How’d you like to hear something that will make you hate Ethan even more...?”
The next few days brought so many changes that Ivory almost had trouble keeping up with them. After an hour, she and Leeloo had left the hospital to return to the apartment complex, where Ivory called her high school and gave a cover story about a family emergency to explain her absence. Then, come nightfall, while she was curled up in bed half asleep, Ivory heard her parents enter and rose to greet them. And she and her mother had shared a long, well-overdue embrace while Angel said something about having spent the past few hours exacting revenge on Ethan. *If the slight bloodstains on my mother and father’s clothing was any indication,* Ivory had mused, *then I wouldn’t have wanted to have been in his shoes!*
When questioning about Cordelia, Ivory learned that the brunette vampiress had elected to stay at the caverns for an undetermined amount of time. Apparently, during her search for inhabitants to stake, Cordy had stumbled across the human population, pregnant teens, women, and all. And, Buffy had said, Cordelia had appointed herself the job of seeing that they were all gradually brought back into the world where they belonged, no matter long such a task may take.
In the meantime, Leeloo and Angel had been introduced to each other at long last, although it was sort of an awkward meeting. Finally, Angel had soothed her fears and his own by assuring that he’d make an effort to grow closer if she would. Leeloo had smiled at this and even stepped forward to give him a quick hug, which Ivory personally thought was a good start.
On day two, Angel placed a call to Stefanie in Sunnydale, immediately allowing his wife to get on the phone to talk to her friend. Ivory had heard later that it was quite an emotional phone conversation, that there was an excess of tears on both ends. But strangely, it made the Slayer glad; seeing her mother’s heart reawaken after all these years was something she wouldn’t have traded for anything.
On day three, arrangements were made to transfer Chase from the Arizona hospital to one in Sunnydale, which Ivory supposed was the best thing to do despite her own misgivings. She wanted to argue that it was too soon, that she wanted to wait until her graduation so she wouldn’t have to spend too much time away from him. But, then, she opted that maybe a short separation from him would do her good; Ivory needed the time to sort out her feelings for him.
On that same evening, while sorting through Chase’s things, Ivory stumbled across a journal he had been keeping, for quite a while, it seemed. She spent a few hours by herself just reading through it, and was quite unprepared for the emotions that were stirred within when she got to the entries about her. Chase’s writings about her, about what a great person she was, was so moving that it brought tears to her eyes and made her commend his sacrifice even more.
Day four brought even more changes, as it saw Ivory’s parents pack up to return home. Before he left, Angel had told Ivory and Leeloo that by the time they were ready to return to Sunnydale, he and Buffy would probably already have bought a new house for them to live in. Ivory professed that she would miss both of them, but also felt glad for her mother in the sense that things were getting back to normal for her. And surprisingly, Leeloo admitted to the same thing, even though she declined to go with them at this time. “It’s too soon,” Leeloo had said. “I’m not ready to face all those people that Mom knew. Not until they’ve had a chance to get used to the idea of me.”
The next few weeks seemed to pass in a flash for Ivory, with the occasional chitchat with her sister, keeping up with her schoolwork, and being paid a visit every so often by Kenyon or Risa or Hannah. At last, her graduation ceremony took place, attended by Leeloo and a visiting Stefanie and Willow. Immediately after the celebration, the two sisters were at last driven all the way back to their rightful home.
When she first laid eyes on the new home her mother and father had picked out, Ivory had to admit she was beyond amazed. She had seen several pictures of this place; it was where her Mom and grandmother had lived when they first moved to town way back when. In awe, Ivory had asked how they’d been so lucky to acquire it.
“Just pure luck,” Buffy had said, one arm wrapped tightly around her husband. “I had to come here just to reminisce and was nearly blown away when I saw the For Sale sign in the front yard! It was so perfect, I just had to beg Angel to make an offer... So, here we are, all set to live together as a family in the perfect house. I wouldn’t be surprised if these walls see many more generations of the Summers clan.”
Ivory had grinned broadly at this. “I have it feeling it will,” she had replied, walking inside with her parents and sister to begin work on the place, to get it exactly the way they all wanted it...
At first, everything was fine. Ivory settled back into her life with ease and even believed that, given time, she’d come clean to Kenyon about what happened between her and Chase and ease her guilt. But the more time wore on, the more days that went by, she kept neglecting to do so. And with each new date, every few hours spent with him, that guilt only continued to grow. Then came the final, most disastrous date of all.
Kenyon picked her up early one night late in June (two months past her Mom‘s rescue), driving her up to a cliff overlooking the town and simply parked to watch the sunset. Ivory had snuggled close to him, her head laying on his shoulder as they watched the sun go down, although her eyes were aching slightly under the brightness of it. And somewhere in there, the two of them started kissing each other nonstop, kicking off a makeout session.
At first, Ivory was fine; she didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable. It wasn’t until Kenyon shifted position, undoing his seatbelt and maneuvering so his body was half entwined with hers, that the Slayer began to panic. Everything was suddenly too intimate, she thought, her heart pounding nervously in her chest at his proximity. After a few long moments, Ivory gently pushed him away, knowing even as she did so that she was in for it.
Kenyon stared at her in the dimming light with a look of confusion for a long moment, then asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ivory paused for a second too long, then shook her head. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.” Kenyon didn’t appear convinced, but that was pushed aside when she took the initiative and kissed him again, one of her hands going to the nape of his neck. This, too, was fine; Ivory managed to bury her guilt this time, determined not to let it get in the way. Before long, it became more impassioned, and Ivory let out a soft moan when his mouth moved to her neck, as he left tiny kisses along the side of her throat. Then she made the mistake of opening her eyes, and caught sight of her hand where it lay on him.
In shock, Ivory lifted both hands to get a better look, so subtly that Kenyon was unaware that anything was wrong. And, much to her horror, they looked wrong, her fingers elongated and tipped with claws, her palms impossibly rigid and appearing more callused than she was used to. In a fright, the Slayer pushed Kenyon away more forcefully, making a point to hide her malformed hands from his sight.
“Damn it!” Kenyon swore, appearing incredibly peeved. “What is wrong, Ivory?!”
She let out a cry, instantly turning to open the car door and step out into the warm night air. Ivory took a few steps towards the cliffs, hands clasped against her stomach as she peered out at the lights of the town below her. It wasn’t long before she felt Kenyon join her, could tell he was there even before he gripped her shoulders lightly. “Ivory, talk to me,” he pleaded in a gentler tone. “Something’s obviously bugging you. If you just tell me...”
“What?” she asked, a sob caught in her throat. “You’ll make it all better. You can’t, Kenyon. No one can... It’s my problem.”
Ivory wasn’t sure if she was referring to the incident with Chase or the unexplained phenomena just now, but Kenyon was thankfully oblivious to both. Still, he persisted, “There’s nothing you can’t talk to me about! You know how much I care about you. I want to help.”
Ivory hadn’t intended to tell him the truth at this juncture, but if it would get rid of him, to allow her to be alone to deal with the new development, she was all for it. “Can you turn back the clock?” she asked, in a harsher tone than she meant to. “Can you make that night go away, make it so that Chase and I never slept with each other?!” She paused, his sharp intake of breath giving her the incentive to go on. “You can’t, Kenyon... You were right about me from the start, when you called me Miss High and Mighty Prude. I am that way, when it comes to you and me, at least.”
He was speechless for a minute, stunned by her sudden admission. But when the shock wore off, it was quickly replaced by anxiety. He wasn’t quite ready to blast her for it. “Why are you doing this?” he asked with a fearful note. Before she could answer, he added, “Why are you trying to sabotage what we have?”
“There’s nothing TO sabotage! We have nothing! Look, Kenyon, I’m sorry it happened, but I’m also not sorry! And you know why?! Because he really proved himself! Do you know why he’s in the hospital in a coma?! He loved me too much to watch me die! Can you say the same about yourself?” Ivory replied harshly, simply wanting him to leave now.
Kenyon remained silent for another long while, then spoke, his voice filled with bitterness. “You know, I knew you were a lot of things, but I didn’t think a liar, a cheat, and a bitch were among them,” he answered, his eyes narrowing. “I grew to care about you because you were everything but! I have to admit, I was scared about Chase being in the picture at first, but I thought our relationship was solid enough to get past that!” He paused, seething with rage. “No, I can’t say that I love you, Ivory! There hasn’t been enough time for my feelings to grow that deep! Funny, I somehow thought I’d get that time! But no, you have to jump the bones of the first other guy who comes along...”
Ivory wanted very much to turn and slap him for that statement, but a quick glance at her hands prevented her from doing so; they were still anything but normal. “Chase is not just another guy,” she said through clenched teeth, interrupting Kenyon. “In either case, he is not the cause of this!” She turned her head slightly to look at him. “We as an item was never going to work, Kenyon. You know why? Because you were just a means to distract myself from this whole battle to get my Mom back.”
Kenyon felt a lump forming in his throat, a mix of emotions running through him at her unexpected cruelty. Shifting his weight, both hands resting on his hips, he said bitterly, “Congratulations, Ivory. You just managed to work your way up to professional heartbreaker and certified bitch... You want to go ahead and throw away any shot we had as a couple, be my guest! I’m out of here!”
The moment she heard the car door slam and the engine start, Ivory let loose with the tears she’d been holding in. “Kenyon,” she whispered apologetically, much too late. Now, she could only listen to him drive off, as the full impact of what she’d done hit her.
Ivory sank to the ground, simultaneously pulling a stake from her jacket sleeve and cradling it in her malformed palms, as sobs wracked her body. One vampire tried to take her during this period, but the Slayer was still more than a match for him despite her vulnerability. When she was all cried out, Ivory thought to look at her hands, relieved when she saw they were back to normal. But, it left her wondering as to what had caused the change, and made her worry all the way home if something was terribly wrong with her...