A
Altoz
Guest
HAMMERFELL PARK: November 2002:
At first, they had been massively outnumbered. No-one gave any thought to why- later, they concluded that it had been the consequence of serious power struggles in Los Angeles, given police and military reports intercepted by the Watchers Institute and their satellite high above the California coast. The thermographic readings indicated that there had been a massive vampire diaspora northward from Los Angeles and it was inevitable that some would turn up in the Sunnydale area.
There had therefore been several nights of near-anarchy within the town as Buffy, Willow, Oz and Doug worked overtime to target the unwanted incursion of newcomers. There was much ripping out of throats, decapitation with swords, remote controlled airborne stakes, axework, suncaster spells and other creative methods of vampire disposal over that period. By the third day, however, all four of them were tiring visibly. Willow had expended considerable energy trying to remote cast the Kalderash spell to Los Angeles to revert Angelus to his normal ensouled state, but the spell didn't work without proximity to its subject, no matter if she was enhanced by the efforts of Tara and Doug within their coven. Tara was busily warding Ravello Drive from the intruder and protecting Dawn from hostile opportunists. Doug was similarly running low after several nights of his metabolic enhancement spell, while Oz was not looking forward to the end of the full moon phase and the ebbing of his wolfstrength and his own enhanced metabolism.
On the fourth night, Doug was barrelled back into a rotten tree, while Oz helped him to his feet but groaned with the effort when he lifted a large piece of wood from his lover's arm. Willow found herself only able to field a limited number of aerial stakes and teleporting distances took effort. While Buffy was not as affected by the physical and psychological strain of the recent evenings, there was no one to assist her when one elder, exceptionally wily vampire kicked the axe away from her, pinned her against a tree and began to choke the life out of her. Doug rushed to assist the slayer but was flung back, while Willow and Oz were otherwise occupied. And then came an unexpected source of assistance, as a figure stepped into the clearing, hefted his own samurai sword and decapitated the unwary vampire. With its apparent leader disposed of summarily, the vampire mob soon dissolved into the night as the newcomer assisted the Scoobies until there was no-one left to fight.
Finally, the stranger pulled back the hood that had shielded him from identification:
"Bloody hell! Lindsay MacDonald?!" Doug exclaimed, as he recognised who it was.
"Thank you for the help. It's been years since we saw each other last. You've changed."
"Buffy, I hate to say this, but he's ex-Wolfram and Hart. Can we trust him?" Doug said warily.
"Hey buddy, emphasis on the ex part of that. I hate those bastards now. They,,,manipulated someone I cared for."
"You were on track to becoming one of their senior partners, mate. Pardon my scepticism." Doug replied curtly.
"Lilah Morgan got there before me. Or tried to. I heard she's no longer on this plane."
"Can't say I'm sorry, I tangled with her in Berlin several years ago. Look, perhaps you can explain why my telepathic scan isn't registerin' anything in there. You're obviously not a vampire-"
"Doug, stop. Part of that is fatigue talking. Willow?"
"Mr McDonald here is an immortal, Buffy. That's why Doug and I can't read his mind."
"In other words, we have no way of verifying where he's been over the last few years."
"Does the name Methos ring any bells, then?" Lindsey asked.
"It does to me. Giles told me about him- he's a benign immortal elder, who trains less experienced ones. So I take it you experienced an awakening on the road and fought the usual battle and won." Buffy commented.
"There's something you should know. I ran into an elder vampire in Toronto. She...had Wesley Wyndham-Price with her. And a newcomer, a very powerful young darkmage..."
Buffy nodded: "Thanks for volunteering that information, Yeah, we're encontered Dru, Price and their new offsider Hekate. So, are you passing through?"
Lindsey shook his head: "Nope. I'm setting up as a community lawyer so I can help out the less fortunate here."
"I'm sure we'd welcome some extra help on the front line."
"Yeah," Lindsey and Doug regarded each other warily once more, until they turned and strode away from each other.
In Doug's Audi on the way back to their apartment, Oz asked:
"What got into you back there? I've never seen you like that- it was almost like the good old days with Xander, Angel and Spike. Shit, X-Man was majorly jealous of those two. Is it alpha male antler locking testosteroneness?"
"I'm not sure testosteroneness is even a word, Danny. Look, he's with Evil Incorporated, lawyers to the depraved and wicked. Or was. Maybe he still is. This could be some sort of deep cover job. No-one's heard anything from him over the past two or three years and suddenly he turns up supercharged and immortal? Sorry, Danny. I intend to protect the slayer. She may not be thinking straight."
"Hey. She's been lonely for long enough, Doug. If it happens, it happens."
"Danny, that's precisely what I'm afraid of."
And it was what happened. Lindsey found a stable nearby and took the weekends and evenings off, riding through the Sunnydale Hills forests. For a moment, it was as if he was an Oklahoma farm boy again. And then he saw the slayer on a horse of her own, and their eyes met. Lindsey looked away, but realised that she'd aged pleasantly and looked good for it. Buffy had also begun to realise how attractive the newcomer was, in a way that had escaped her when she was closer to Angel. Especially when she travelled by his house on the outskirts of town and witnessed him shirtless through a window, having just zipped up his jeans after a bath. One thing led to another.
One evening, when he closed the new Sunnydale Community Law Center for the evening, and after he'd grabbed some fries from a fast food joint, Buffy drove past. On the next day, she was looking down from her house on Ravello Drive as he drove past. Several lingering glances later, Buffy stopped her car as Lindsey was walking home:
"Going my way?"
"Yeah. Buffy, I..."
"I know, Lindsey. We're seriously both attracted to each other. But I need to know if this is on the rebound."
"Buffy, you're the first woman I've been with for the last few years since I've been on the road. Before that, there was Angel's sire, Darla."
"Did you...?"
"It was unrequited. And later, when I tried to run over Angel in a fit of rage, he handed me several teeth and one of my ribs. The next thing I heard, he'd gotten her pregnant and she died in childbirth, self-staking. The child was Angel's brat, Connor."
"I haven't seen Angel in years. I know what the unfulfilled longing's like. Now...he's turned back into Angelus and I don't know whether I can bring him back again this time."
"I don't think it'd be unfulfilled this time, Buffy, or unrequited. At least, not on my part."
"Doug will be furious when he finds out."
"Yeah, what is it with that guy? He comes on strong and he's drivin' an Audi. And he's an accountant."
"And things have changed in the 'Dale over the last few months. Spike got staked, Xander and Giles were murdered. He was as close to Giles as I was, he was as much of a mentor to him as he was with me. It hurt both of us, but he never talks about it. He thinks he has to be strong for us."
"Well, it can't be because he's got it bad for you- he's gay, I caught that much with the way he and Oz the werewolf were lookin' at each other."
"He's not a very conventional gay man, though. He prefers catching up on medieval weaponry to interior decorating, he had to be introduced to male cosmetics by my sister Dawn and Oz is a far better cook than he is. But he's my guy best friend. It's almost like having Xander back, except Doug's seriously manlier."
"And me?"
"I need to be kissed. I need to be held. I need to be..."
Lindsey kissed her: "Loved?"
Thereafter, the slayer and her immortal rolled around a great deal, kissed some more and things got.,,interesting.
TO BE CONTINUED
At first, they had been massively outnumbered. No-one gave any thought to why- later, they concluded that it had been the consequence of serious power struggles in Los Angeles, given police and military reports intercepted by the Watchers Institute and their satellite high above the California coast. The thermographic readings indicated that there had been a massive vampire diaspora northward from Los Angeles and it was inevitable that some would turn up in the Sunnydale area.
There had therefore been several nights of near-anarchy within the town as Buffy, Willow, Oz and Doug worked overtime to target the unwanted incursion of newcomers. There was much ripping out of throats, decapitation with swords, remote controlled airborne stakes, axework, suncaster spells and other creative methods of vampire disposal over that period. By the third day, however, all four of them were tiring visibly. Willow had expended considerable energy trying to remote cast the Kalderash spell to Los Angeles to revert Angelus to his normal ensouled state, but the spell didn't work without proximity to its subject, no matter if she was enhanced by the efforts of Tara and Doug within their coven. Tara was busily warding Ravello Drive from the intruder and protecting Dawn from hostile opportunists. Doug was similarly running low after several nights of his metabolic enhancement spell, while Oz was not looking forward to the end of the full moon phase and the ebbing of his wolfstrength and his own enhanced metabolism.
On the fourth night, Doug was barrelled back into a rotten tree, while Oz helped him to his feet but groaned with the effort when he lifted a large piece of wood from his lover's arm. Willow found herself only able to field a limited number of aerial stakes and teleporting distances took effort. While Buffy was not as affected by the physical and psychological strain of the recent evenings, there was no one to assist her when one elder, exceptionally wily vampire kicked the axe away from her, pinned her against a tree and began to choke the life out of her. Doug rushed to assist the slayer but was flung back, while Willow and Oz were otherwise occupied. And then came an unexpected source of assistance, as a figure stepped into the clearing, hefted his own samurai sword and decapitated the unwary vampire. With its apparent leader disposed of summarily, the vampire mob soon dissolved into the night as the newcomer assisted the Scoobies until there was no-one left to fight.
Finally, the stranger pulled back the hood that had shielded him from identification:
"Bloody hell! Lindsay MacDonald?!" Doug exclaimed, as he recognised who it was.
"Thank you for the help. It's been years since we saw each other last. You've changed."
"Buffy, I hate to say this, but he's ex-Wolfram and Hart. Can we trust him?" Doug said warily.
"Hey buddy, emphasis on the ex part of that. I hate those bastards now. They,,,manipulated someone I cared for."
"You were on track to becoming one of their senior partners, mate. Pardon my scepticism." Doug replied curtly.
"Lilah Morgan got there before me. Or tried to. I heard she's no longer on this plane."
"Can't say I'm sorry, I tangled with her in Berlin several years ago. Look, perhaps you can explain why my telepathic scan isn't registerin' anything in there. You're obviously not a vampire-"
"Doug, stop. Part of that is fatigue talking. Willow?"
"Mr McDonald here is an immortal, Buffy. That's why Doug and I can't read his mind."
"In other words, we have no way of verifying where he's been over the last few years."
"Does the name Methos ring any bells, then?" Lindsey asked.
"It does to me. Giles told me about him- he's a benign immortal elder, who trains less experienced ones. So I take it you experienced an awakening on the road and fought the usual battle and won." Buffy commented.
"There's something you should know. I ran into an elder vampire in Toronto. She...had Wesley Wyndham-Price with her. And a newcomer, a very powerful young darkmage..."
Buffy nodded: "Thanks for volunteering that information, Yeah, we're encontered Dru, Price and their new offsider Hekate. So, are you passing through?"
Lindsey shook his head: "Nope. I'm setting up as a community lawyer so I can help out the less fortunate here."
"I'm sure we'd welcome some extra help on the front line."
"Yeah," Lindsey and Doug regarded each other warily once more, until they turned and strode away from each other.
In Doug's Audi on the way back to their apartment, Oz asked:
"What got into you back there? I've never seen you like that- it was almost like the good old days with Xander, Angel and Spike. Shit, X-Man was majorly jealous of those two. Is it alpha male antler locking testosteroneness?"
"I'm not sure testosteroneness is even a word, Danny. Look, he's with Evil Incorporated, lawyers to the depraved and wicked. Or was. Maybe he still is. This could be some sort of deep cover job. No-one's heard anything from him over the past two or three years and suddenly he turns up supercharged and immortal? Sorry, Danny. I intend to protect the slayer. She may not be thinking straight."
"Hey. She's been lonely for long enough, Doug. If it happens, it happens."
"Danny, that's precisely what I'm afraid of."
And it was what happened. Lindsey found a stable nearby and took the weekends and evenings off, riding through the Sunnydale Hills forests. For a moment, it was as if he was an Oklahoma farm boy again. And then he saw the slayer on a horse of her own, and their eyes met. Lindsey looked away, but realised that she'd aged pleasantly and looked good for it. Buffy had also begun to realise how attractive the newcomer was, in a way that had escaped her when she was closer to Angel. Especially when she travelled by his house on the outskirts of town and witnessed him shirtless through a window, having just zipped up his jeans after a bath. One thing led to another.
One evening, when he closed the new Sunnydale Community Law Center for the evening, and after he'd grabbed some fries from a fast food joint, Buffy drove past. On the next day, she was looking down from her house on Ravello Drive as he drove past. Several lingering glances later, Buffy stopped her car as Lindsey was walking home:
"Going my way?"
"Yeah. Buffy, I..."
"I know, Lindsey. We're seriously both attracted to each other. But I need to know if this is on the rebound."
"Buffy, you're the first woman I've been with for the last few years since I've been on the road. Before that, there was Angel's sire, Darla."
"Did you...?"
"It was unrequited. And later, when I tried to run over Angel in a fit of rage, he handed me several teeth and one of my ribs. The next thing I heard, he'd gotten her pregnant and she died in childbirth, self-staking. The child was Angel's brat, Connor."
"I haven't seen Angel in years. I know what the unfulfilled longing's like. Now...he's turned back into Angelus and I don't know whether I can bring him back again this time."
"I don't think it'd be unfulfilled this time, Buffy, or unrequited. At least, not on my part."
"Doug will be furious when he finds out."
"Yeah, what is it with that guy? He comes on strong and he's drivin' an Audi. And he's an accountant."
"And things have changed in the 'Dale over the last few months. Spike got staked, Xander and Giles were murdered. He was as close to Giles as I was, he was as much of a mentor to him as he was with me. It hurt both of us, but he never talks about it. He thinks he has to be strong for us."
"Well, it can't be because he's got it bad for you- he's gay, I caught that much with the way he and Oz the werewolf were lookin' at each other."
"He's not a very conventional gay man, though. He prefers catching up on medieval weaponry to interior decorating, he had to be introduced to male cosmetics by my sister Dawn and Oz is a far better cook than he is. But he's my guy best friend. It's almost like having Xander back, except Doug's seriously manlier."
"And me?"
"I need to be kissed. I need to be held. I need to be..."
Lindsey kissed her: "Loved?"
Thereafter, the slayer and her immortal rolled around a great deal, kissed some more and things got.,,interesting.
TO BE CONTINUED