Displaced, Part Three
Buffy just finished taking out the trash when the beat up red Ford truck pulled into the driveway. She was surprised when Bella slid out of the driver’s seat. She looked nervous as she walked up the gravel driveway.
“Hi, Bella. Dawn’s not here. She went to Port Angeles with some girls from school.”
The teen shook her head. “I’m not here to speak to Dawn. I’d like to talk to you, if that’s okay?”
She hoped she masked her surprise well because she had no idea what Bella wanted to speak to her about. They both went inside the house. “Can I get you something to eat or drink?”
Bella looked like she would refuse, but changed her mind at the last moment. “Water would be nice.”
“One water coming right up.”
Buffy filled up two glasses with water and walked back into the living room. Bella was looking around at all the pictures that Dawn put on every available surface she could find. Most of them were from Sunnydale times but there were many pictures with the newer slayers.
She held out the glass and Bella took it. Buffy sat on the couch and tucked her feet up under her. “So, what would you like to talk about? If you want information about the vampires, I think we’ve already proven I don’t know much about this species.”
That spawned another round of chuckles when she thought the word “sparkly”.
Bella shook her head and abandoned looking at pictures to sit in one of the armchairs. “No, that’s not really it.”
Buffy could sense her hesitation. “Look, I’m not going to judge you. I’ve been dealing with vampires since I was your age and younger. Whatever you want to talk to me about, it’s okay.”
“You mentioned you dated vampires at dinner the other night.”
She wanted to groan. That always came back to bite her in the ass.
“I did. I fell in love with Angel when I was your age. Spike came... later. Much later.” Buffy was worried where this questioning was going, because she didn’t think Bella would appreciate the answers Buffy was going to give. “Are you sure you want to start this? I don’t know if you’ll like what I have to say.”
“No,” Bella said adamantly. “I need to know this and I need all the information I can find. Edward...” she trailed off, trying to find the words. “He thinks that it’s too dangerous for me to be around him.”
“He’s right.”
“I don’t care!” Bella said stubbornly.
“Why the hell not?” Buffy asked loudly. “Do you have a death wish or something?”
Bella was becoming more frustrated. “Wasn’t it dangerous for you to be around Angel? Did he tell you the same thing?”
She sighed. Angel was considered the exception to every rule with her. “No. It was more dangerous for Angel to be with me.”
“I don’t understand.”
Buffy shook her head. “He was a vampire already condemned with a soul. He had no friends in the vampire community and most considered him a waste of a vampire. Then we fell in love and it was like he had a purpose again, but we were each others’ weakness. He lost his soul and he spent every waking moment trying to kill me and everyone I cared for.”
Bella swallowed, holding Buffy’s gaze steadily. “And did he?”
“He killed my teacher Jenny Calendar himself and laid her out in my Watcher’s bed for him to find. He told his girlfriend to kill my sister slayer, Kendra. On his orders, vampires working for him put my friend Willow in a coma and injured my Watcher.”
It was silent in the room as Bella digested what she was told. “What happened?” she asked after a few moments.
“In the end, it was him or me, and I chose to live. I killed him.”
Bella shook her head disbelievingly. “But you loved him.”
Buffy grinned at her sadly. “It’s the ones that love us that hurt us the most.” She sighed. “I sent him to hell but he returned after a few months. It was longer there, but I helped nurse him back to health. He stayed another year and we tried to have a normal relationship.”
“What happened then?”
“Even though we both loved each other, he had to leave. It just wasn’t possible for us to be together. He moved to L.A. and I stayed in Sunnydale. We still saw each other sometimes, but it was usually only if the world was ending.”
She was lost in her memories, both good and bad. Buffy sighed, shaking her head. “It got easier every time.”
“What did?”
“Saying goodbye,” Buffy replied looking back at Bella. “Angel made things...muddled. Bringing back those old feelings was harmful, because it was just something neither of us could have. It took time, but we both realized that we were better separated.”
Bella was looking down at her feet, her face displaying her clear disappointment. Buffy tried to put herself in her shoes. If she was told just after meeting Angel that their relationship was probably going to end in heartbreak, she would probably have that same look on her face.
The teenager looked up at her, her demeanor rapidly changed. “What about the other one? You said there was another vampire.”
She grinned as she thought of Spike. “Spike is... different for a vampire. He’s more human than other vampires. He feels great emotion, like jealousy, anger, and love.” The smile fell from Buffy’s face. She realized that Spike’s story was going to do more harm than good when Bella heard it, and she’d heard enough for one day. “But I’ll tell you that later. The love doctor is done with this session.”
When Buffy stood up, Bella grabbed her wrist like it was a lifeline in the ocean. The grip didn’t hurt, but it showed how serious the teenager was. “Please, Buffy. I need to know.”
“No, you don’t. You can’t compare my relationships to yours. You won’t like how it ends.”
“Just tell me.”
Buffy sat back down after a few moments. “Damn, you’re stubborn.”
Bella smiled a bit at that and settled back into the couch, finally taking a drink of the water Buffy gave her when she first arrived.
“Spike’s real name is William, but he got the nickname after he became a vampire. William was in love with a woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day. When he confessed his love to her, she shot him down and broke his heart. A vampire named Drusilla turned him that night when he was grieving and he became a part of a coven of vampires that terrorized Europe.”
In her mind, Buffy was flashing back to the first times he met Spike and saw Drusilla. When they were together, the world stopped for them. If she was honest, she was jealous of that admiration and devotion at the time. When it was turned on her, well, she joked sometimes that she knew why Drusilla went for the Chaos demon.
“He and Drusilla loved each other, or well, he loved her. She became very sick and Spike was determined to find the cure. Finally, after years of searching he found it. It nearly killed him. The tables turned, but instead of Drusilla taking care of him like he had for her, she turned to another vampire for love.”
Buffy chuckled. “Spike has no patience whatsoever. Willow thinks he has ADD, but he waited for his revenge on her. He wanted to steal her away and rekindle their relationship. In the end he kidnapped her and took her to South America, but she left him again.”
She could see the story was confusing Bella. “But he loved her and nearly died for her. She turned him; she made him.”
Buffy didn’t like how reverent Bella sounded when she spoke of Drusilla turning Spike. “Dru turned him into a vampire, something he didn’t ask for. She preyed on his weak emotional state. There’s nothing redeeming about that.”
Buffy knew the words Edward is different were on the edge of Bella’s tongue, so she continued with the story. “Drusilla said Spike didn’t really love her anymore because he’d fallen in love with someone else. A human. So Spike went to confront the human and kill her as proof that he didn’t love her.”
“Did he?” Bella asked quickly and Buffy grinned at her.
“No matter how many times we fought, Spike could never kill me, and I could never kill him.”
Bella’s jaw dropped. “So, it wasn’t love at first sight with Spike?”
Buffy snorted. “I never loved Spike, not the way I loved Angel. With Spike...” she sighed. “I love Spike in a way I love a really good friend. He’s there when I need him, knows what to do for me, and sometimes he knows me way better than I know myself. It took three years and a truly screwed up relationship for us to see that.”
“What happened when he tried to kill you?”
“He couldn’t do it,” she said with a grin. “I couldn’t kill him either. It was a stalemate. That’s what drew us together. He’d killed slayers before and God knows I’d killed plenty of vampires, but we were equal in strength.”
Buffy sighed. Maybe hearing this would be good for Bella, and she would see that love and equal strength didn’t matter with vampire relationships when she was still human. “In the end, and I mean the very end, he sacrificed himself to save us.”
It was quiet in the living room until Buffy cleared her throat. “And then the powers that be decided he’d make an awesome ghost and sent him packing to L.A. until they made him corporeal. Since then, I’ve sworn off vampires...as possible boyfriends.”
She tried to figure out what Bella was feeling by looking her over. The young girl was curled up on the end of the couch, staring intently at the floor, obviously going through the information she’d been told in her mind. “It’s not really what you wanted to hear, is it? It’s not a romantic story where you live happily ever after.”
After a few more moments of silence, Bella shook her head. “I was hoping I’d get a glimmer of hope; I’d know what it was about me that was drawn to Edward and vice versa.”
“That’s where you’re the anomaly,” Buffy said with a chuckle. “One thing I’ve noticed about vampires no matter the race is that they always have an equal. They’re drawn to that equal.” She stopped herself from making a mating for life joke. “Sure, there are always leaders in a group and there are minions, but the really strong ones have a mate. The Cullens are great examples.”
She thought hard about every vampire she could remember encountering, from the almost extinct race in Colorado to the demonic vampires that gravitated toward Hellmouths. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a vampire with a human girl as anything but a snack. I’ve never believed in the whole I value your frailty and fragileness line either.”
That seemed to upset Bella even more. Her face showed her desperation. “But you’re not a vampire and you had long term relationships with them.”
Buffy didn’t know how she could explain this more clearly. “But I’m strong. I’m super strong. Angel and Spike didn’t have to hold back with me. We could fight and they didn’t have to worry about hurting me. Think about it. What do people do with something really valuable but fragile, like a crystal vase? They show it off for a little while then put it on a shelf so it won’t get destroyed. The only time they ever think about it again is when someone sees it for the first time and points it out or it needs to be cleaned and taken care of.”
She took a deep breath and grabbed Bella’s hand, prompting the young girl to look up at her. “Eventually, things get broken, and there are only so many times people are willing to put things back together again.”
Bella’s stood suddenly and looked at her watch. “I’m supposed to meet Edward. He said they were going to play baseball tonight.”
Buffy wasn’t surprised that Bella was done with the discussion. It was heavy and full of things she hadn’t wanted to hear. In the middle of standing up off the couch and grabbing the glasses of water, Buffy stopped mid-action. “And by they you mean?”
“The Cullens,” Bella answered and Buffy nodded.
“See, that’s what I thought you meant, but I had no idea vampires played baseball. Of course, I didn’t think vampires sparkled either, but I guess I got schooled in that department.”
She started to walk back to the small kitchen when Bella spun around and in rush questioned, “Do you want to come with me?”
Buffy’s eyebrows went up as she turned to Bella in surprise. “What?” Buffy thought she was the last person Bella wanted to be around at the moment.
“Maybe you could come with me and play? You know, so I’m not the only...” she trailed off, but the word human hung in the air almost as if she’d spoken it. That meant she was taking Buffy’s warnings more seriously.
With Dawn away with friends and nothing good on the television, Buffy figured that it couldn’t hurt. She didn’t need to patrol and so that meant her evening was doomed to be boring. “Are you sure it’s okay? I don’t want to intrude.”
Before Bella could answer, her cell phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out. Buffy’s brow furrowed as she looked at the message. Wear the new shoes. “How did she...?” She sighed before flipping the phone closed. “Never mind. I just got an invite from Alice. Looks like I’m destined to play baseball tonight.”
Relief was evident on Bella’s face and Buffy felt a bit of sympathy for the girl. She obviously loved Edward but was unsure of his family. Buffy found it ironic that she was the complete opposite when it came to the Cullens. Love-struck vampires were more dangerous than the others.
It didn’t do to dwell on it. Buffy took the glasses into the kitchen then came back out into the living room. “Let me change and then I’ll drive us over to the Cullen’s. I’ll bring you back when we’re done.”
...................................
Buffy drove to the Cullen’s and then Edward took them to the place where they would be playing baseball. Ever the cautious one, she grabbed the duffle bag full of stakes, holy water, and her scythe. She hardly went anywhere without it. They all drove in the large Jeep and when they stopped in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees, she looked around curiously. “Wow. Quite a field you’ve got.”
Emmett emerged from the trees to her right and her eyebrow went up.
“The field is quite a bit away, up near a cliff. It would take too long to walk, so we can take you,” Edward said with a grin, as Bella jumped on his back and locked her arms and legs around him body.
Buffy took a step back when Emmett took a step forward. “Okay, hold up. No one said I would be getting a sparkling pretty pony ride up the mountain.”
“Just…close your eyes and you’ll be fine,” Bella pleaded. Buffy sighed, knowing that Bella didn’t want to be left alone, and it wasn’t like she had a way to get home anyway.
“All right, fine. But the bag is coming with me.”
Emmett walked over and put his back to her. When Buffy locked her arms around his shoulders, he grunted a bit and looked over his shoulder when he leaned up. She locked her legs around his waist, but it was like gripping a rock. Sure that the duffel bag was secure, Buffy took a deep breath and held on tight.
“You’ve got a grip there. We might have to arm wrestle sometime.”
She chuckled at the thought of arm wrestling with a vampire but couldn’t remark because they were suddenly flying through the forest. More than a few times, Buffy thought they were about to fly into a tree, but Emmett was able to dodge them effortlessly. In a few seconds, they were in the clearing and Buffy hopped off of Emmett’s back.
Rosalie didn’t look to happy about the fact that Emmett was the one to give her a piggy back ride through the forest, so Buffy patted him on the shoulder after she caught her breath. “I will definitely take you up on the arm wrestling, as soon as I can catch my breath. Damn.”
The vampire chuckled and joined the rest of the coven. Buffy stuck close to Bella, both for the girl’s own reassurances and because she just had an icky feeling in her stomach. She felt a little anxious, like she usually did right before an earthquake.
She watched as they made the playing field in the clearing, the bases much farther apart than in a traditional game, but judging how fast Emmett and Edward had run through the forest, it made sense. They were a lot quicker than the vampires she usually encountered.
Esme walked over as everyone got in their places. “I swear I’ve stepped into bizarro land. If some of the vamps I knew played baseball, I’d throw in the towel and give up.” Thunder sounded overhead and Buffy made a face. If it rained or she got struck by lightning, she was going to be pissed off. Buffy dropped off her duffel bag by a boulder that was out of the way but easily accessible.
Esme smiled as she looked out over the group. “Don’t let the image fool you. They play hard and are quite ruthless.”
“Do you not play?” Bella asked, keeping her eyes on Edward as he teased Emmett from the outfield.
“I like to referee and keep the game fair,” Esme replied with a small grin. “That way the teams are evenly matched and I can squash down any fights that might occur.”
“It’s time!” Alice shouted, and everyone assumed their positions. Emmett was up to bat first.
She looked around in confusion, seeing that Bella was just as confused as she was. Alice was staring at Emmett, the ball visible in her hand. “Um,” Buffy said, “Time for--”
Buffy was cut off when Alice’s hand flicked out and Emmett swung the bat in a blur, the steel bat making a large jarring sound, almost like the thunder she’d heard just a few moments before. It made her ears ring.
“Good God, that’s loud!” she shouted. But her attention quickly turned back to the blur running around the bases. She hadn’t seen where the ball went, but Edward wasn’t in the outfield. Thinking for sure Emmett scored, Esme held up her hand and a proud smile came over her face.
“Out!”
“Eh?” Buffy questioned, until Edward stepped out of the trees surrounding the clearing with the ball in his hand. “How the hell did he catch that?”
Carlisle was next up to bat and Emmett went back to Rosalie. Esme kept her eyes on the game, but spoke to Buffy. “Emmett hits the ball the hardest and longest, but Edward is the fastest. They’re always on opposite teams, just to keep things fair.”
Alice flicked her wrist again and suddenly the ball was in Jasper’s hand. He threw it back to her with a smile. Buffy paid closer attention to Alice and this time she could see the movement of her body as she pitched the ball. Carlisle swung hard and the ball impacted the steel with the loud booming noise.
After a few more innings, Buffy stepped closer to Esme. “I think I could hit one of the balls. I couldn’t run as fast, so someone else would have to, but I’m pretty sure I could get it far.”
She looked surprised but nodded. Edward was on third base and it was Jasper’s turn to bat, but he held it out for her with a grin and stood behind her so he could run should she hit it. When Buffy glanced up and saw Rosalie glaring at her from the center of the field as she twisted the baseball in her fingers, she figured that waiting until Alice was pitching would have been better.
Too late now, she thought and heard Edward chuckle until she glared at him. It was enough of a distraction for Rosalie to fire off a ball into Carlisle’s waiting hand. Buffy blew a piece of hair out of her face in irritation and imagined smashing the bat into Rosalie’s head to get that smug grin off her face. Edward started laughing again but Buffy was focused on the ball.
When Rosalie barely twitched her hand forward, Buffy swung the bat as hard as she could. In the next few seconds, Edward ran home and Jasper ran the bases. Emmett came up to her with a grin and held the baseball. Her arms hurt from the metal bat vibrating hard, but she was grinning too much to care. Yes, he’d caught it, but he’d had to run hard and work for it.
“You should play with us all the time. You hit as hard as us.”
He tossed the ball to her and she caught it, her grin widening when she saw that the seams were starting to split on the leather. “Awesome.”
Everyone had come in from the outfield to switch teams, so everyone noticed when Alice gasped and Edward quickly looked at her in worry
“They heard us play and they’re coming. I, I thought...” Alice trailed off and next thing she knew she and Bella were shoved to the back of the group. Then Emmett and Jasper both put their frames in from of her and she had to stand on her tip-toes to see around them.
“What the hell is going on?” Buffy asked firmly.
“There are other vampires who are coming to join the game,” Alice said.
Her eyebrows went up. “And you don’t want anyone to join your exclusive little club? Wow. How bitchy are you?”
“They aren’t like us. They’re nomads, possibly responsible for the deaths around town. If I’m to hazard a guess, they are responsible for the dead female you came across in the woods,” Carlisle said calmly, but Buffy noticed how tense everyone was and how their eyes strayed to the tree line.
“Do we need to go?” Buffy asked quickly, gesturing to Bella.
“I couldn’t get her out of range in time. They would just start the hunt,” Edward said, and Buffy made a face. He was the fastest runner, so there went her last hope.
Her eyes strayed to her duffel bag and she nodded to herself. “Fine, then. Do we fight?”
Alice flitted over nervously. “There may still be a way to have them leave so we can get you to safety. Put your hair down and stay behind us. Don’t make eye contact, because they will notice you do not have the same eye color we have.”
Buffy and Bella did as Alice said and the rest of the vampires continued the game, with Carlisle and Edward staying close. Emmett was the catcher while Rosalie, Jasper, and Alice stayed in the outfield. Carlisle grabbed the bat as if he was going to play, but stayed close to them. Buffy was a bit miffed at all the protection; she could take care of herself.
Bella stiffened next to her and Buffy knew the vampires showed up. She didn’t put her back to them outright, but kept glancing between the nomads and the Cullens. They knew they couldn’t talk because their voices would give them away, but Buffy hoped she got her be still across through their gazes.
She let Carlisle talk to them, trying to lure them away from the playing field so she and Bella could make their escape. It almost worked until Buffy felt a slight breeze blow from the north that carried their human scent right to the other vampires.
The next thing she knew, Edward leaned forward, snarls ripping from his throat. He sounded like Angel when he came back from hell. Now that the secret was out, Buffy finally looked up at the three people causing the trouble.
The only female of the group had red hair to rival Willow, but she was staring at Bella with a gleeful expression on her face. One male, the one conversing with Carlisle, was staring at them curiously, and Buffy heard him question the Cullens for keeping humans around. It was the vampire being outright hostile that she wanted to keep an eye on.
When she saw the red eyes staring at Edward, Buffy couldn’t help the “Oh crap” that came out of her lips. No longer were the Cullens a strange vampire species she’d never encountered. Red-eyed vampires were no secret to her. “This is so going to suck.”
The female switched her gaze from Bella to Buffy, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She dove for the duffel bag and barely had her scythe out before the vampire descended on her.
Counting on the magical vampire ass-kicking powers of the scythe, Buffy slashed in the general direction and was awarded with an ear-piercing shriek. The blade sliced across the vampire’s collarbone, creating a sound of fingernails scratching a chalkboard. Her arm was hurting; it took much more force to slice through the hard skin of these vampires than the others.
Buffy kept the scythe in front of her as the female vampire clutched at the shallow cut that had already was healing over. The vampire engaged with Edward looked clearly torn between attacking her or going after Bella.
“Back off,” Buffy replied slowly and clearly. “Or I will kill you.”
“Incredible,” the vampire conversing with Carlisle said as he looked over. “A human with the ability to injure a vampire such as ourselves.”
“I don’t think you’ll be the one doing the killing, human,” the vampire across from Edward hissed at her.
“James.”
“She hurt Victoria, Laurent!”
She now had names to go with the faces, and she turned to Victoria. Her chest was healed and she’d taken up a stance similar to James. As angry as James was, he didn’t seem like he was asking for permission to kill them. It was more like he was stating a fact and going to act on it anyway.
“Victoria lunged first. It was self-defense,” Carlisle said clearly. “Now, I think it would be best if we went our separate ways.”
“I agree,” Laurent said, taking a few steps back. Buffy and Edward still kept their tense stance but slowly, Victoria and James backed away with Laurent.
“I’ll kill you for this,” James promised her and Buffy just grinned.
“How original. Are you going to get my little dog too?”
Buffy knew it wasn’t nice to antagonize, especially those vampires, but she was confident. They couldn’t touch her.
Even though the three nomads were out of sight, everyone was still tensed and waiting until a few moments later. Both Edward and Alice relaxed a bit, but only for a moment before plans were being made.
“Carlisle, I have to take Bella away. He’s a tracker and won’t stop until he has her,” Edward said quickly, with his face showing disgust. “The things he was thinking...”
Buffy picked up her duffel bag but kept the scythe out. “Someone needs to take me home. Dawn is out and I need to get her home.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Esme said patiently, even though Buffy could see she was extremely worried.
“I think I just proved that I can take care of myself,” Buffy said confidently. “They can’t touch me. Now take me home.”
In the end, it was clear Buffy just wanted to go home and Edward needed to get Bella away. He would take Buffy straight home and then start to get Bella away from Forks. As Emmett carried her away from the field, all Buffy could think was how she was never going to play baseball again.
They made it to the house in a few short minutes and Buffy wasn’t far behind. Lights were on inside the house, which meant Dawn was home. Buffy breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly unlocked the door and stepped through the doorway. She wasn’t prepared for Edward to push her away in a burst of unseen speed. Buffy didn’t know what to make of it until his body froze up and twitched in uncontrollable spasms.
Part of her was grateful that Edward had saved her from the torment, but the other half had to roll her eyes at the chivalry.
Dawn was staring down at Edward, grimacing. Bella started to run to him, but Buffy held her back and pushed her behind her. If James wasn’t out hunting them down, she would have pushed Bella out the door and told her to go home. Instead, she tried to shield her as much as possible as she looked in the shadows for the person causing Edward the pain.
“Jane!”
Master Post | Part One | Part Two | Part Four | Notes and Acknowledgments | Outtake | Story Art | Soundtrack