Part 29 - Love, Complicated
Xander tried to push free from Rene, but her strength was phenomenal. She leaned away from him. Humiliation played out on her delicate looking features. Tears streamed from her eyes. She shrank away from Xander's touch, curling up on the floor in a limp heap. Was she being tortured, played with?
"Rene, are you okay?" Xander asked. His wrists hurt from her iron grasp.
"P-please"¦ go, go a-away," she shot back. Xander loomed nearby, unsure of what to do. Rene glared at him. He was a good man, this much she could sense. But she only wished him to leave the chamber.
"GO AWAY!" An invisible force slammed into him, knocking him to his back.
"Owwwe," he groaned, wincing. The force slid him out the door and across the vanished wooden floor, ramming him into the plush living room couch. He looked back in to see her covering her mouth with her hands. She glanced at him for a moment as something slammed the heavy door, between them, shut.
-
It was around 9: 30 at night, and Rupert and Jenny sat in a corner booth at a tiny Italian Bistro. Giles flipped through the pages of his journal, reading his notes on Rene Laroche, while Jenny nibbled away at a turkey club sandwich. Oladrick had been uncharacteristically generous in allowing some of his own volumes to be borrowed by the Watcher's Council. This made Rupert very apprehensive. Oladrick never did favors out of benevolence. As a confidant of the Immortal, Oladrick preferred the trade of services, and the favor he owed Giles simply didn't constitute the removal of such aged texts.
Her mouth half full, Jenny asked, "What are you trying to figure out now?"
"How the slayer line could have been carried on"¦ that has got me very curious. It would have required powerful magics to accomplish such a"¦" Giles stopped. He looked up at the beautiful raven-haired woman and smiled at her. All this time, he thought"¦ all this time and she still lights up the room. As though she read his mind, Jenny placed her hand on top of his. "Yes, anyhow, to manage such a feat."
They could see and feel and taste it. The attraction. Lingering, longing, overriding. So much had been denied to them; love, emotion"¦ a life together. As a watcher, you rarely have those things to look forward to. But now, bubbling under the surface, long gone feelings stirred in them both. The problem was they both felt it. As well, they both fought to suppress it. Now wasn't the time for such tomfoolery, thought Giles. He inhaled sharply and set back to his studies. Jenny gave a mild frown and set back to her sandwich.
-
In the Ukraine, it was even later. Oz's band had just finished up their set and they were now packing up his van. Petra and Ivan were resting against the side of the building, kissing and nuzzling. Emelle hauled an arm full of cords out to the van. Oz and Natalie walked out of the front door. Oz locked it tightly behind him.
"So, what's this carnival you were talking about?" asked Oz, in decent Russia, to Ivan. Petra kissed Ivan's neck as he looked up and said, "Oz, it should be fun. Games, lights, music, and all the alcohol you can drink." His Russian was far better.
Emelle, closing the doors to Oz's van, said, "I keep telling him, Oz. If he keeps drinking, he's going to pickle himself."
Ivan shot back, "I shall drink my vodka till the day I die, it is my second girlfriend. It will be what any affairs I have will be with." Petra cuffed him hard on the back of the head. Ivan turned to face her, a playful smile on his face.
"You wish," she said, "you are lucky I love you"¦ just a tiny bit." Petra closed her fingers to show how much she meant by a little bit. Oz, Natalie, and Emelle all laughed at the look Ivan gave her.
"Anyhow," said Oz, "did you want to meet there tomorrow? What time?"
"Tomorrow night, seven o'clock," said Ivan, "I'll bring Petra, you can bring Natalie"¦ oh, and I suppose one of us should get Emelle."
"Only if you want to still have a drummer, you will," Emelle shot back as he got into the back seat of Ivan's run down car. Petra walked over and spoke quickly with Natalie in Russian. Oz couldn't keep up, but he had a suspicion it was about him. His suspicion was confirmed when he caught Petra look at him and quickly turn away when she saw that he saw her. The two giggled. Petra and Natalie hugged as Ivan yelled out, "Oz, see you tomorrow night, my friend," in Russian. As Petra got in the car, the others sped away. Oz and Natalie stood there next to his van. She slid her arms into his coat and rested her head on his shoulder. They loved sharing a comfortable silence as much as they loved talk.
"Oz, do you feel okay," she asked in English. Natalie looked up at the moon. It was the first night of a full moon, and although he hadn't changed in a long time, she was always slightly nervous this time of the month. She had known his little secret for some time now. Oz didn't want secrets between them. Natalie simply didn't care if he was a werewolf, were-tiger, or were-rat. She loved the man he was. Natalie brushed her lips against his; her warm sweet breath met his. The two kissed passionately.
-
Faith, Wood, and Andrew walked down the road. All three wore filthy torn clothes and looked half dead. They had expected a fight with a strong demon in those tunnels, but what they got was far more than they had anticipated. Whatever that thing was, they had been forced to play by its rules. Its strength was beyond measure and nothing seemed to hurt it. None of them were kidding themselves. They had all seen the hundreds of dead demon bodies littering the floor of the now extinct subterranean city. That thing, they knew, had taken all those lives. But now, it was crushed beneath the ground. Still, Andrew remained very quiet, much more so than his usual self.
"What is it, Andrew?" asked Wood.
"Yah, that thing didn't hurt you, did it?" Faith added.
"Oh, um, no. I'm fine. I just was wondering if that thing is really dead. Because in the movies, stuff like that never actually kills the monster. They always come back."
"Yes," said Wood, "but even if it is still alive, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I don't care how strong it is. It's trapped."
"Don't sweat it, Andy," Faith said, "This isn't a movie. I'm sure the Robo-freak has seen his last sunset. We won, we may not have beaten it, but we lived. That's close enough to winning for me."
"That's not what's got me thinking, Faith," Andrew replied.
"Then what is it?" asked Wood. Andrew just kept walking. He placed his hands in his pockets, a slight smile played on his face.
"Oh nothing," he said casually, "It's just been a crazy night. Got a lot on my mind. Thinking long vacation. Maybe Japan"¦ or Italy." His attitude was slightly different than earlier in the day, much calmer and collected.
"I know what you mean, pal," said Faith. "Most of the slayers have been found, everything's changing"¦ it feels like we are, what"¦ growing up."
"People have a tendency to do that," said Robin.
"What's that?" Andrew asked pointing down the road. Nearly a hundred vehicles, painted in camouflage formed a procession coming down the road while several helicopters flew overhead.
"Oh, crap," said Faith, "it's the army."
-
She breathed heavily. Rene knew she had slammed the door, but she never touched it. She shook from loneliness. The memories she confiscated from Xander were comforting, but left her with a sense of loss greater than before she first took them. She wanted more. They were infinitely better than the collage of misery and disgust that she remembered of her own life.
Rene tried to remember before. Before the Quartoth. Before Rishaka. But the memories were gone, lost to oblivion. She wished she could stop crying, but she couldn't cease the flow of tears. Misery was what she was; it was part of her being. Besides, she still had many doubts as to if she was not just dreaming the relief of Earth. Curled on the floor, she cried. Chill night air lowered the temperature in the room, reminding Rene of the smashed window. Sniffling, she walked over to it. She glanced back to the door. She could sense Xander just on the other side. Turning back to the window, she began to climb out to the ledge.
The ledge was narrow and the wind was blowing hard up at this height. Rene stepped on the shards of glass. They sliced at her feet, but she didn't notice. Thirty-two thousand years has a way of desensitizing you to pain. She held onto the wall as she peered down at the ground three stories below. Vertigo overtook her and she sailed, headfirst, to meet the cement.
-
Oz ran his hand through Natalie's hair. It was now or never, he thought. He had the ring in the pocket of his jeans.
"Natalie." He said.
"Yes Oz?" She spoke in English.
"You know that you mean more to me than I can describe"¦ right?" He played with a box in his pocket. It wasn"expensive ring, but it was hers for the taking. "I feel like we can talk about anything.
"Yes, you too."
"Good. I wanted to make sure you knew that before"¦" he started nervously.
"Oz?"
"Yes?"
"I would love to marry you." Natalie smiled and leapt at him taking Oz in an embrace. They kissed for a while.
"Cool," he said, as their foreheads rested together.
