Best Actress based on the Angel Universe - HETERO
Below are samples of writing from each of the nominees.
Please read the sample, then cast your vote in the poll at the_josscars
Best Actress based on the Angel Universe - HETERO
-- Actresses based on or from the Angel Universe that is in a Hetero relationship. --
01.
After Wesley left I sank back into the pillows, and let out a tense sigh. I knew I'd screwed up somehow. I'd made a mistake with Wesley, and it was going to come back and bite me in the ass again, if it wasn't doing that already. But what had he expected me to do? I hadn't really known myself that anything was wrong until last night.
I'd hid it from him though. I hadn't lied exactly, but a lie of omission wasn't anything to be proud of either. And the trust between us, it had always been shaky at best.
But would I have changed things if I could? Would I have told him last night about my fears, knowing now what his reaction would have been? I didn't think so.
Kinda odd to think that I was actually dying. Surreal. It wasn't something I really wanted to think about, and yet now I had to face the fact it was possible. That if we couldn't meet with this shaman and get me healed up, then I might die in a few days.
I suppose in many ways I deserved to die painfully and horribly more than most did too. The deeds I'd done, the people I'd destroyed....for the firm, and for my own self interest. I'd made choices knowing the consequences, and now I was reaping those consequences.
But Wesley...
I didn't want to have to see him like this. The hurt on his face, the guilt and the bitter anger that must have been seething inside of him. He'd lost so much already, and I knew that despite his protests, he cared what happened to me. He didn't want to lose me on top of everything else he'd lost.
And so I guess I was gonna have to hold on. Defy Death from coming to claim me. Find some way to cheat the son of a bitch. Because I didn't want to hurt Wesley again if I could help it.
I think I dozed off for a while, because when I opened my eyes a different program was on the television. Where the hell was he? Had he managed to meet with Rennig? I moved to sit up and felt a twinge in my belly. I concentrated on breathing in and out. I looked at the wound again and saw that the whorls of discoloration had extended out a little further. Great, just great.
02.
I stopped in my tracks, my eyes locking onto his. Trailing from dark eyes down to the blood stained lips, the limp figure in his arms. Lilah Morgan. I wasn't about to be crying over the death of an evil lawyer, but my heart hurt for Wesley. They had some kind of relationship going on, and I wasn't even entirely sure what that was all about. All I knew was that she meant something to him...and Angelus had just murdered her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. We're you attatched to the ice bitch?" Angelus said, a cruel grin gleaming across his face as he dropped Lilah's body to the floor with a thud. He made no move to advance towards me, but I backed up a few steps anyways. Sure, I was half demon girl now, and I'd learned a thing or two about fighting. But fighting Angelus? "Don't worry Cordy." Taking me in with his eyes he started stepping closer to me, gliding across the floor gracefully. "I haven't forgotten about you, kitten. I have special plans for you."
I had a stake. I had a stake, didn't I? Yes, I did, in my pocket. Fumbling for it, it was quickly jerked out of my grasp as my back hit the wall hard. His face was inches from mine, cold dark eyes peering through me. "I think I'm just going to leave Lilah here, a present to good ol' Wes. What do you think? Think he'll like it? Maybe I should find him and tell him the good news myself." I glared at him, as his fingers idly trailed down my hair. "And you? I'll be back for you." One second he was in my face and then cold lips pressed hard against mine. Then I looked up to see a dark figure jumping from the second floor window and disappearing.
Finally I caught my breathe and glanced down at Lilah's corpse on the floor. Dammit. Not that I was any rush to swoop in and save Lilah but I thought that...I don't know. I was a pretty tought girl if I did say so myself, and I just thought I'd be able to keep it together a little better around Angelus. I guessed nothing prepared me for seeing my best friend that way.
Now there was Connor...and, well I just owed him so damn much. We had to find a way to bury Angelus back inside Angel, so at least I'd have the chance to apologize. I was just scared and confused, and blabbity blah. I didn't know why I was all with the excuses. There were no excuses for the way I'd hurt Angel with Connor.
Heading downstairs I found the tranq gun and kept it held tightly in my hand. If Angelus came back in here to finish the game? Well, I'd be ready for him and I'd put a dart in him before he could say 'blah blah look how scary I am when I can hurt you'. He thought he was scary? Pfffft! I dare Angelus to try sitting through three hours of listening to David Nabbit after he drank a few lattes. Now that was frightening.
Gripping the gun in my hand I walked back towards the office and leaned against the desk. I didn't want to move. I just wanted Wesley, Connor and Gunn to come back. I wanted them to come back dragging unconscious Angelus behind them. Then I wanted to find someone to put a soul back in him, because...well, just because. That was the way things were supposed to be.
Hours, minutes, days ticked by. I didn't know how long it was honestly. It was like living in a vacuum of my own thoughts for a little while. It couldn't have been more then a few hours though because when I heard the lobby door swing open it was still dark outside. Peering out from behind the door, the tranquilizer gun still in one hand it took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. But after a minute I saw one solitary figure standing in the shadows.
"Wesley?"
03.
When we blew back into the Dale after goin' shopping care of Lilah Morgan the queen bitch of Wolfram and Hart, I couldn't help but stare out the window sullenly as Wesley drove. The silence was thick and depressing and bein' back in Sunnydale was not exactly puttin' my mind to ease. Mostly cause this was where B lived. Also because this was pretty much the place where I'd taken that big dive off the deep end. Startin' with rammin' a stake through Finch's heart, then from there it was all downhill. The Mayor, gettin' stabbed in the gut, switchin' bodies with Buffy. A world of badness lay in this town and I wasn't even talkin' about the mystical forces of the hellmouth or whatever.
For some reason? I figured the first thing I had to do was see Buffy. If these bringers guys were the real deal she needed to know about 'em, assuming she didn't already. Probably the fact that I was a glutton for punishment factored into the need to see B too. I was a masochist no doubt, and I knew I was in for it as soon as I set foot anywhere near Revello Drive. Wesley had offered to come with me, but I'd quickly told him no. It was just something that I needed to do on my own and I think he got that. He said he had stuff to do anyway and he wanted to check out the wreckage over the hellmouth that used to be Sunnydale High. Told him there was nothin' left to see but a pile of rubbel but I guessed he wanted to see it for himself. I got that. Either way, I was gonna meet up with him back at the motel we were stayin' at after I'd gone to see Buffy. The Sunnydale Motor Inn. Some things never changed.
I swallowed hard when I stopped on the top step of Buffy's house, my hand pausing before I actually knocked on the door. How did I do this? What did I say? 'Hey B, remember me? Your old pal from back in the day who tried to kill you alot? What was that? How was prison you ask? Oh it was a fuckin' walk in the park once you got past all the Bertha's tryin' to either kick your ass or tap that ass...not to mention the guards'. Yeah, somehow I didn't think that was gonna fly with my sister slayer. Honestly, when it came to all things Buffy? I worried. Didn't mean I worried about her although I did my fair share of that too. But naw, I was too busy bein' worried about me. I was afraid that I couldn't do it, that I couldn't stop myself when it came to her.
"Stop bein' such a wuss, Faith." I hissed at myself, forcing my arm to raise my fist to knock on the solid mahogany wood that stood between me and Buffy.
Crossing my arms I raised one thumbnail to my mouth and began to nervously chew on it as I shifted back and forth. Could hear someone movin' around inside and I hoped it was Buffy. Last thing I needed was to have lil sis all up in my grill, tryin' to whine at me til I was annoyed to death.
Finally the door opened and there she stood. Pale blonde hair and shining eyes, her expression going from confused to horrified as she took me in.
04.
Blinking I looked up and shot Wesley a look before reaching down lazily and picking up the cd case. Cat Stevens? Who the hell was he? Whoever he was, he needed to get himself a few electric guitars and practice screamin' or whatever. Cause he sucked.
Traffic was a bitch on the way out of the city too. Nothin' like the traffic in L.A. even New York wasn't this bad. Shoulda really been a two hour trip but it was five hours later when we finally arrived at the hotel. Hotels, hey it was a step up from motels which is where we'd been stayin' off and on for a wicked long time now. Nice of Wolfram and Hart to keep my company credit card still active. Although you gotta wonder why exactly they kept that active. Sure, the building was gone but that Black Thorn guy was still out there. Wes seemed pretty sure that Wolfram and Hart still existed.
Wesley seemed wiped out, and I couldn't help but wonder why that was. Didn't wanna ask, but I really wanted to know. He had said something about havin' to hold off Vail's magick thingmabob or whatever. I didn't fucking know! I wasn't lying when I said I didn't know jack about magick. It just wasn't my thing. But could that be like...wearin' Wesley out? We were gonna have to think of ap lan real quick to dealin' with this guy. At least holdin' him off 'til we can work out a real deal plan to gettin' rid of him for good.
After we got a room, Wes went upstairs to unlock it and do whatever. Myjob? Gotta find a way to sneak Noname into our hotel room. Easy enough I thought. Once I had the little mutt under my jacket, I stayed next to some tall old dude. Noname kept squirming and barking and I kept havin' to shush him. Stupid little dog was gonna get my ass in trouble. The guy next to me smiled down at me though and I knew I had an accomplice. Everytime Noname would bark the guy walkin' beside me would start coughing. Sure that charming smile helped convince him. I'm good like that.
Finally the elevator stopped on the sixth floor and my eyes widened when from down the hall I saw one familiar petite brunette walking into a room. At first I just shook my head and stared but that was definitely Kennedy. Could hear her loud mouth from a mile away. So, looked like Red and Ken were just down the hall. How conveniant.
Sauntering into our room, Wesley was already sitting by a small table. Kicking the door shut lightly from behind I set the dog down on the floor. He yapped happily and ran over to Wes, jumping in his lap.
"We got company down the hall." I said, jerking one thumb in the direction of where I'd seen Kennedy disappear.
05.
Slender fingers curled around mine, and I squeezed back. She didn't have a lot of strength left to squeeze back but she was tryin'. And everytime she tried, everytime she moved her eyes or bit back a cough it felt like I was dyin' just a little bit along with her. And I didn't know whether to be sad, cause she was about to leave me. Or be terrified that she was about to leave me and I was next on the list.
Could feel the tears springing to my eyes when she coughed. Never heard a cough like that come from a slayer. Course last I checked most slayers didn't get taken out by big government super flu's either. Her skin was all patchy and flaky, and she'd stopped lookin' like the Buffy I knew a day or so ago. Now she was just a corpse waitin' to die. Waitin' for it all to be over. After all of her fighting, after how hard she'd loved and lost none of it made a damn. For so long we thought we were all untouchable. We'd lived outside of the world for so long, fought back apocalypses and it didn't matter. None of it mattered. Because Dawn, Giles, Red, Xander...they were all gone. All knocked out in one fell swoop by a virus that the government couldn't even fucking contain.
Spike would have a big old laugh over this. I was sure of it. All of his noble self-sacrifice, dying to save a world that was about to kill itself off slowly and painfully.
Xander was the first one that got sick. The big black patches spreading up across the skin of his arm. Then it did nothin' but spread. Could still hear Dawn crying for her mother as she died. Didn't think I'd ever shake the sound of her wails as she laid in a bed across the hall from mine. And I remembered....remembered hating myself because the whole time lil sis was dying I couldn't shake the terror that I'd be next. That I'd wake up in the morning with black patches dotting my skin.
Then they were all gone. All of them were dead. Fuck, the entire city of Cleveland was dead nothin' but a big demon playground now. No more people, except for me and Buffy. We thought that we'd made it because we were slayers, that we were immune. Everything had gone to hell in a handbasket, but the two of us? Chosen two. We were gonna be okay, we were gonna live. So we did. We grieved, we comforted eachother, but we lived on as best as we could without the others. Me and my sister slayer. Then one day, no warning, the black patches crept onto Buffy's skin. Could still remember the grim way she had told me that she needed to show me something. My heart had practically stopped when she lifted her shirt and showed me the black flaky patches on her back. And then for the first time, it really felt like the world was over. She wasn't supposed to leave me. She was supposed to be here with me, help me get through it.
She wasn't gonna help me get through it though. She was dyin' in her bed and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. I was about to be the last person left standin' in Cleveland. The last remnant of Slayer Central, and if no one else thought this was some big fucking cosmic joke that I must be the butt of then I must be missin' something for real.
06.
Things had been going really well for me since Sunnydale took it's big plunge into evil nothingness. We went to England for a little while because Giles wanted to do his watcher thing. He had a point though, we had just done something so big it was going to change the world forever. Willow's spell called all the potentials to slayer duty and we had a boatload of girls to train. Giles managed to scrape up what was left of the council and we headed for Rome. Kennedy and Will were in South America doing some slayer and witchy type things. Xander was in Africa rounding up more potentials and Dawn was loving school in Rome. All the things I'd always wanted to give her, I finally could. Don't get me wrong though, we still had our share of fights. Mostly about the green fuzz growing around a plate of food in her room. I made a serious ick face when I saw that.
And I had someone. Someone with...the eyes, and the chest, and the...something. It felt nice to be treated like a princess again too. I had spent so long being the slayer, being the chosen one I had taken the time to just be girl Buffy in a long time. One hell of a woman, right? Isn't that what Spike had said to me? The Immortal had....wow. Sometimes it was almost like he owned the city. Lots of expensive dinners, and romance and the occasional boring ramble about Tibetan monestaries.
So things were great. They were better than great, peachy with a side of keen. I couldn't figure out why the scars on my neck suddenly started to ache. It wasn't really painful, just enough to keep distracting me. Like a little tickle in the back of my mind that kept pulling me back to it. After awhile it was mostly starting to annoy me.
I was even more annoyed when I got back home after a night out with Jack, only to find Andrew practically bursting at his annoying seams. Apparently, there was a message that had been delivered from a hotel. A message from Angel asking me to meet him in the square after sunset. That was why I'd felt the dull ache at the base of my throat. Angel was in town, and apparently calling ahead is too complicated a task for him to handle. It almost made me smile at how completly him it was.
07.
I heard a voice pull me out of my sleep and I smiled as I opened my eyes slowly, I was met with the sight of Lindsey standing on the other side of the car door. It had already gotten dark but that didn’t dim the light I saw in his eyes.
I couldn’t remember if I’d seen it there when we had first met. Then again I didn’t want anything to do with him then. I’m glad something intervened and kept smacking us together.
I reached out and brushed his hair away from his eyes. “Hey,” Sitting up slowly I look around and see that we’re at a cabin. “Sorry I fell asleep on you.” Then again I’m not surprised, I hadn’t slept much the past few days. I’ve had a lot on my mind.
Slowly getting out of the car I stretched and looked around. “It’s so beautiful out here. It’s a shame we are staying inside. It’s so beautiful, would be nice to camp out.” I saw Lindsey heading to our bags in the back of the truck, I hurried over and took two of them - his - out before he could. “Deal.” I stuck my tongue out at him and turned towards the cabin.
Well, that was stupid. I don’t have the key.
I set the bags down and turned to Lindsey. “I’m a dope. You have the keys…at least I hope you do.” I grinned at him and walked back a few steps up to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I’m having such a good time. Thank you.” I leaned up and kissed him softly before pulling back and wrapping my arms around myself. “Ok, c-cold here.”
08.
It only took a moment and a little wiggling, before the lock clicked softly, the tumblers kicking back against the pin. I stood, giving the doorknob a twist and a push, and stepped aside so Wesley could go in. Expected was his hurrying past me and the door shutting. What wasn't was the kiss on the cheek. Not that it was bad or anything, it was just... different.
I know, it wasn't on the lips or anything, but still. Sure, Wes and I hugged. A friendly gesture, even sometimes comforting after particularly long and nasty nights of slaying and tracking down whatever evil the Powers That Be sent us after. It was just different, and I hated how odd that sounded in my own head.
As he was dressing, I went back into the kitchen to clean up the mess I made. A mental note was made, as I was stuffing the contents of my purse back in, to clean out said accessory because it was just getting ridiculous. Scooping up it and my portfolio, I dumped both on the couch, before going back into the kitchen to put away the groceries.
It took some moving around of things, but I fit everything that was for us and for Cordy's party in there. Ever since Wesley moved in, the fridge was never really empty anymore. If I'd forget that we were out of milk, he'd usually remember, and a fresh gallon would be sitting on the shelf when I'd stumble in, bleary-eyed. Wesley emerged from his room right about then, fully dressed and less red.
"So, ah... that was Cordelia on the phone? What's the latest from our starlet's new abode?"
I stepped out of the way, so he could finish cleaning up the little mess he made with his breakfast. Grabbing the carton of fruit punch, I shrugged, twisted off the lid, and took a drink.
I caught myself mid-swallow and nearly choked. Stupid old habit. My aunt had never minded me drinking from the carton. I put the lid back on and set it down, discreetly wiping my mouth. "She's still gushing about how it's nice to have a place she can invite her friends to. Meaning her Sunnydale friends and acting class friends. And she said Phantom Dennis is getting better about houseguests. And I would hope so, cause she's throwing a party tonight."
I put the fruit punch back in the fridge, leaning against it as I watched and tried to gage his reaction. He and Wesley were the last two to hear about it, both of them just today. "It could be fun. A break from the nights of patrolling and slaying for me, a break from the research desk for you."
09.
Wes looks like he's definitely had one helluva nightmare. Wonder if he's gonna buy my story about how I got in his bed.
"You snuck into my bed because I had a nightmare..."
Well, when he says it like that, it really does sound stupid. Wasn't too sure how he'd feel if I said I was cold and wanted to steal some of his body heat. Don't want to rock the boat.
He gets this expression like he's about to laugh or somethin', but instead just flops back down on the bed. Gotta admit this is wicked amusin'. Wes and me in the same bed. Not fightin'. Big step, yo.
"Alright, fine..."
Woah, is he agreein' to let me stay? Somehow I was expectin' yellin' and screamin'.
"Just don't hog the covers, or I'll get very cross..."
Hoggin' the covers, huh? I think I can play this to my advantage. "Wouldn't dream of stealin' your covers, Boss. Whatcha say we get some shut-eye, and try to forget about all these nightmares and shit," I yawn through most of what I tell him, but I'm pretty sure he understands.
Slidin' over to my side, I lay back, but it's hard to concentrate on sleepin' when my thoughts are scattered everywhere. All I really want to do is lay next to him and sleep. I like the calmin' effect being near him has on me. Sighin' quietly, I realize this is way too awkward. I groan under my breath at the restless twitchiness that won't seem to go away. Sittin' up again, I turn to face him and ask, "Okay, I know I've been actin' all kinda of bizarre and shit. But...can I, maybe-" And I'm so fuckin' nervous all the sudden that I can't get it out. Why does he make me feel like I'm this little kid who has to ask for permission? Back in my Psycho Slayer days, I didn't give a fuck what anyone else wanted me to do. Take, want, have--that was my motto. But that's not me now, and I do care what Wes thinks. So, I just sigh and say, "Forget it," before rollin' onto my side, facin' away from him.
I close my eyes, wishin' things could be different, wishin' he and I weren't so fuckin' screwed in the head, wishin'...I could let go of the past and all the pain that came with it. Ballin' my fists underneath the pillow, I try to block out all the noise in my head.
I just want it stop.