Rift, Hellmouth, Same Difference (3/?)
Title: Rift, Hellmouth, Same Difference
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: "Buffy" through The Becoming, all of Torchwood.
Summary: Buffy gets sucked into the Hell vortex at the end of Becoming, only to end up on the rain-slicked streets of Cardiff. What's Torchwood to do with a lost Slayer?
Disclaimer: Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my iPod.
AN: Thank you to the amazing revdorothyl for betaing!
Chapter One | Two
Banner by the awesome skylar0grace
Chapter Three
Feeling someone touch her arm, Buffy started awake, thinking for a moment she was still in Hell. She reached blindly for the being that woke her up before remembering she was no longer there and instead was back in the somewhat real world. Sheepishly she looked at the unfortunate soul who she’d nearly attacked. Gwen looked at her with a shocked expression on her face.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Buffy apologized with a slightly ashamed tilt of her head. “I just got used to going into survival mode if anyone touches me when I’m napping.” Gwen just nodded, seemingly unsure what to make of this information. Buffy sighed. “Any reason you woke me from my nap or was it just to test my reaction time.”
“Jack and Ianto wanted to talk to you,” Gwen told Buffy as she finally found her voice. “Something about getting you settled.”
“Oh, that,” Buffy replied, suddenly deflated. Just another reminder that there was a good chance she might not see home again. “Well, let’s get this over with.” Buffy followed the taller woman towards the glass office-thingy that she’d noticed before. Entering, she noticed Jack and Ianto talking to each other quietly before noticing she and Gwen had arrived. Gwen looked like she wanted to stay, but the look Jack sent her caused her to frown slightly and leave the room. No one said anything as Jack and Ianto both looked at Buffy.
“Gweny said you wanted to talk to me,” Buffy began, hoping to break the awkward silence.
“Gweny?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. “Do you give everyone you meet nicknames?” Buffy could see through his ploy to try and make her relax, but she decided to play along with it to see what he was going to tell her.
“Of course,” she answered, giving him a small smile. “Regular names are so boring most of the time. How do you think I ended up with Buffy instead of plain Elizabeth? Ianto’s name is unique enough to escape the nicknamage for now, but it could change. Again, you wanted to see me about something?”
“Under normal circumstances, what we do to people who find out about Torchwood is Retcon them to erase their memories about …”
“No one is touching my memories,” Buffy interrupted as she leapt away from the men suddenly. “You try and mess with my head, you’ll regret it. My memories are all I have left of home and I’m not going to lose them!” She backed away from them slowly, trying to find the door behind her.
“If you would let me finish, I was going to go over the other option we might use with someone in your position would be to try to integrate them into normal life. For obvious reason, we can’t really do that. So,” he paused and gave her a look that she couldn’t really interpret. “Ianto here has volunteered to be your legal guardian and take care of you.”
Jack watched the shocked reactions on both Ianto and Buffy’s faces. OK, so he had slightly modified Ianto’s original offer, but it basically amounted to the same thing. Ianto recovered the fastest, quickly hiding his shock under his normally calm façade. Buffy’s face, however, was an interesting study in conflicting emotions. Hope, fear, sadness and something Jack couldn’t quite identify all kept continuously flitting across her face.
Buffy couldn’t believe what Jack Harkness had just told her. Suit Boy was, for all intents and purposes, her parent. Given the quickly hidden shocked look, he hadn’t expected to be appointed into guardianage of her. “This is so you can monitor me isn’t it?” she asked Jack with a pointed glance. “You don’t trust me.”
“No, I don’t,” he told her frankly. “You drop in out of the Rift, you manage to beat a Weevil senseless without breaking a sweat, and you refuse to give us a direct answer to what you are.”
“Hey, mister, I’ve answered all of your questions,” Buffy protested. Yeah, so they had been a roundabout, loopy sort of way, but she’d still answered them! It wasn’t like the SAT where they penalized you for guessing, was it? There was a part of her that wanted to refuse this offer, but this place might be the best chance she had of finding her way back home.
“What does Ianto being my guardian mean?” She didn’t want to be too much of a problem for him, especially since she planed to book it back to her home dimension as soon as they found a way to send her there.
“Torchwood will help him handle your expenses, but he’s going to be responsible for housing and feeding you, as well as making sure you go to school.” Buffy made a face when she heard this. The whole school thing was not high on her list of priorities. At least there wouldn’t be random vamps chowing down on the students and no forces of evil to deliver a beat down to on a daily basis.
“Not a big fan of school are you?” Jack asked, seeing her face.
“Me and schools are kinda un-mixy things,” she told him before the brain filterage kicked in, the Hemery gym and frequent destruction of Sunnyhell flashing before her eyes. “It’s not my fault though,” she added hastily. “There’ve always been other circumstances, like faulty wiring and gangs on PCP.” She sucked at the whole secret identity thing. Maybe she should just wear a shirt that said “Hello, Slayer here. Please attack.”
“School’s almost over for the year here, so we’ll see where you are and enroll you for the fall. It’s non-negotiable,” Jack told her with a stern look on his face as Buffy scrunched her nose. “Talk to Tosh tomorrow and we’ll get you documented here.”
“She can do that?” Buffy asked. “Doesn’t the government, I don’t know, get mad?”
“We’re beyond the government. It allows us to do what’s necessary in order to protect the world.”
“Nifty.”
“Now, however, Ianto’s going to take you back to his flat and help get you settled. I’ll see you both later.”
“He’s bossy isn’t he?” Buffy commented to Ianto as he led her back into the main area of the Hub. “It seems like he says jump and, well, you know.”
“Well, there are certain privileges of being the boss,” Ianto said as he lead her to the garage. He would show her the other entrances some other day, possibly tomorrow. “The other side Buffy,” he corrected her as she reached for the driver’s side door out of instinct. She made a face and quickly walked over to the other side. Ianto shook his head and started the car.
The ride to his flat was short and uneventful. Fortunately, he had a spare room in case he ever needed it. He would worry about clothes tomorrow; right now, however, he needed to get Buffy settled and figure out a way to get back to Torchwood to check in on Lisa.
“You certainly go for the whole ‘less is more’ deal,” Buffy commented as she scanned the neat, bare apartment. There were very few personal touches scattered around, mostly confined to the odd knick-knack arranged with martial precision. If there were any photographs, they were hidden in a place Buffy couldn’t easily see them.
“This will be your room,” Ianto told her as he opened one of the doors that lead off the small hallway. The room was as neat and Spartan as the rest of the place, with a bed, desk and bookshelf all neatly arrayed. “The bathroom is the first door on the left. I have some old sweats that you can change into if you wish to freshen up. I’ll take you shopping tomorrow for new clothes.” Buffy only nodded silently, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Ianto left for a moment and returned with a neatly folded pile of clothes.
Ianto left her to shower and he sat down on the nearest couch, taking stock of the strange and sudden twist his life had taken. He blamed Gwen. She had to make the comment about how boring their day was. Ianto knew he was being slightly irrational, but his life had changed from simply worrying about Lisa to that and caring for a dimensionally challenged American with an even worse penchant for nicknames than Jack.
Ianto was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t register Buffy leaving the bathroom for a few moments. “Earth to Ianto, you there?” Buffy’s voice broke through his thoughts. Starting, he looked at her and had to choke back a laugh at the sight of her in his clothes. He wasn’t a big man by any stretch of the imagination, but she was swimming in the clothes.
“Yes?” he replied as he managed to keep a straight face.
“I just wanted to say, well, thanks. I know Jack kinda shoved the whole guardianship thing on you, but just, well, thanks for everything today.” She gave him a small smile and shuffled back into her room. Ianto looked after her with an indescribable look on his face.
~*~*~
“Buffy?” Buffy looked up in shock as she heard the familiar voice of Angel whisper her name. He stood there, right before her, with a small smile on his face. For a moment she thought it was Angelus toying with her again, but the way he was looking at her was all Angel.
“Angel? What’s going on?” she asked him confusedly. He said nothing but walked towards her and cupped her cheek.
“Surprised?” he asked in a low voice. Buffy nodded as she felt the tears form in her eyes. He leaned in and gave her a long, slow, gentle kiss.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered after they broke apart for air. “I killed you.” Tears started falling now and she resisted the urge to sniffle.
“Shh, it’s OK,” he reassured her as he pulled her closer to comfort her. Gradually, she relaxed into his strong embrace and inhaled the scent that was uniquely him. Suddenly his face changed, his features distorting and eyes changing to yellow. Buffy screamed and tried to break free but his arms held her fast. “Let me return the favor,” he said right before he bit her.
“No!” Buffy screamed as she shot straight up in the bed. Her eyes darted frantically around the room as she tried to get her racing heartbeat under control. After a few moments, she calmed down and slowly pried her hands from the sheets that she had been holding in a death grip.
“Buffy?” came the muffled voice from behind her door. She mentally cursed herself. She didn’t mean to wake up Ianto with her reaction. “Are you alright?”
“Peachy with some extra keen,” she managed to say in a somewhat normal voice. She could almost imagine the small frown crossing his face and prayed that he wouldn’t open the door to check on her himself. Finally, she heard him walk away and his door close softly as he returned to his own room. She let out the breath she had been holding in and collapsed back on to the bed. Before she could stop herself, she began sobbing into her pillow so that Ianto wouldn’t hear her.
She woke up the next morning to sunlight seeping through the blinds and hitting her face. “Mmm, it’s too early,” Buffy muttered as she burrowed deeper into the bed. In the distance, she could hear someone, hopefully Ianto, moving around in what could be the kitchen. Groaning softly, she extricated herself from the tangle of blankets and quietly made her way to the kitchen, where the blessed, absolutely sacred smell of coffee was coming from.
The kitchen was almost minuscule but it was arranged with the same order and precision of the rest of the apartment. “Morning, Ianto,” she greeted as she tried to stop herself from drooling at the fresh pot of coffee. It had been too long since she’d had her last caffeine fixage.
“Good morning,” he replied, looking up from the laptop that sat on the counter separating the kitchenette from the rest of the apartment. Looking at Ianto, Buffy felt even more scruffy and worn out than she had earlier. Even though it was only 9:30 (Way, way, way too early by her standards after everything she’d been through. Damn screwed up Slayer sleep cycle), he was immaculately dressed in stylish, yet casual clothing. “Help yourself to the coffee.”
Ianto knew certain Americans had addictions to coffee, he was fond of the drink himself, but he had never seen anyone move that quickly to pour and inhale a cup of it.
“Oh my God, this is amazing!” Buffy sighed, emerging from the mug long enough to breathe before finishing it and pouring another. “I don’t know what coffee magic you worked, but this is so good.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
Feeling slightly more Buffyesque after her morning jolt, she noticed that Ianto had placed a loaf of bread, some butter and jam by the toaster. “Any plans for today?” she asked him as she made her breakfast.
“I was going to take you shopping for some new clothes. Gwen dropped by earlier and left some of her clothes to wear for today. They’ll be a little big on you,” he added, eyeing her small frame critically.
“Shopping would be of the good,” she replied before dedicating herself to polishing off her breakfast in record time. Not really eating for a couple of months made you realize how much you missed the good ole basic necessity of life. “There’ll be shoes involved right?” she added eagerly. Ianto took in her expectant face and nodded warily. “Good, because Lord knows I need a new pair. Or several.” Buffy left the room humming happily at the thought of the bargain hunt ahead, while Ianto resisted the urge to groan. What had he gotten himself into? At least Torchwood was footing the bill.
~*~*~
“Oh, look at that pair!” Buffy squealed as she ogled a pair of boots in a store window. Ianto resisted the urge to sigh. They had been shopping for almost four hours at this point and he had somehow ended up being the carrier of Buffy’s purchases.
“I think that’s enough shoes for now, Buffy,” he told her as he gently grabbed her arm and led her away towards his car. “I do need to go to work sometime this week.” Buffy pouted but followed Ianto after giving the boots one last, longing look.
“I’m going to leave you at my flat to put away your clothes and pick you up when I do a dinner run for the team in a few hours. Does that work for you?” Buffy nodded and stared out the window.
“Why are you doing this for me?” she asked suddenly, looking at Ianto out of the corner of her eye. “I mean, you’re putting me up and taking me shopping and putting up with me in general?”
“That’s what Torchwood does for people in your situation.”
“I didn’t mean Torchwood, Ianto. I meant you. You made sure I had food, I’m guessing you stood up to Captain Suspenders yesterday and you put up with me shopping. Why?” she asked again, finally turning around to look at him. Thankfully before he could answer they had reached his flat. He helped her quickly unload the various bags and made his escape to Torchwood going over Buffy’s words in his head.
~*~*~
“Ianto, are you feeling OK?” Tosh asked her coworker hesitantly. He had been hours late, which he had never done before in all of his time at Torchwood Three, but he also appeared to be in some sort of shock. “Ianto…”
“I knew women liked shopping, but that was unbelievable,” he said in an amused voice, Tosh’s question apparently shaking him out of his stupor. “Did you know there are over ten shoe stores within a kilometer radius of my flat and we managed to go to every single one, as well as a variety of clothing stores.”
“Wait a minute,” Tosh interrupted him with an upraised hand. “You were late because you took Buffy shopping?” Ianto nodded as he made his way to the coffee machine to make Jack an incredibly delayed morning cup. Tosh followed him and leaned on a table next to him. “I know you said you would help get her settled, but isn’t that a bit much?”
Before Ianto could respond to Tosh’s question, Jack’s voice drifted down from the stairs above him. “I know I told you to get her some new clothes, but that didn’t mean buy every single thing that’s wearable in the city.”
“I tried, sir,” Ianto replied mournfully as he handed Jack his coffee. “I don’t know if she’s always like that or if she was using it as some sort of therapy, but I doubt even you could rein her in.” Jack only sighed as he sipped his first Ianto-made cup of the day.
“Oh, Ianto, before I forget, I got started on creating an identity for Buffy this morning,” Tosh said as she lead Ianto to her desk and handed him a folder. Ianto flipped it open to find a sheet of paper detailing where she had lived previously in California, as well as giving him a familial tie through a non-existant maternal cousin. “I’m going to put more details in once I get a chance to talk to her, but I figured I might as well start when I could.” Ianto nodded and gave her a small smile before heading back to the tourist office.
Before he realized it, dinnertime had arrived and he was off again to his flat to collect Buffy. He opened the door to his flat only to find her sitting at the table staring vacantly into space. She started when she noticed him but quickly collected herself.
“I was wondering when you’d show up, Coffee God,” she said as she grabbed the purse and jacket she’d bought earlier that day. “I don’t know if the whole institutionalized thing works for you but it gives me the wiggins.”
“Coffee God?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, choosing to overlook the comment about his décor. He happened to like the spare, uncluttered look of the flat.
“That coffee this morning was so good, it could only be made by a god of coffee,” she explained as they made their way to the Chinese restaurant where Ianto had ordered the team dinner. “Besides, I was getting bored with Suit Boy as an alternative to your name.”
“I thought you said I would be spared from the nicknames.”
“I changed my mind. Is that not allowed?” she asked with a slight tilt of her head. Ianto didn’t reply, but kept driving silently. “Oh, you have Chinese food here. I’m a fan.” By the time they reached Torchwood, Buffy had lapsed into silence again, staring out the window while holding the almost overflowing box of Chinese food in her lap.
“That better be dinner,” Owen groaned as he spun around to see Buffy carrying the box followed closely by Ianto. “Thank God,” he breathed as he lunged for the box. Buffy adroitly sidestepped him and gave him a glare.
“Don’t even think about it, Harper,” she snapped at him playfully, doing her best to hide the emptiness she was feeling. “You need to wait just like everyone else. Do I look like a Buffy-shaped vending machine?”
“No, but I’m hungry and you owe me for threatening my equipment yesterday.”
“Wait a minute here, I owe you? You’re the one who shot me up with sleepyjuice weren’t you? If anything you owe me. Now move,” she ordered with a narrowing of her eyes. “Before I make you.” Owen shot her one last glare but stepped aside to let her pass. Buffy gave him a bright smile before depositing the meal on the conference table.
“So what did you order us, Ianto?” she asked as she reached for the first box. Her eyes widened and a grin blossomed on her face before she looked up. “I think I love you more than I did this morning,” she announced before digging into the sweet and sour chicken, completely ignoring Owen’s shout of “Hey, that’s mine.”
“Snooze you lose, Owen,” she told him as she settled down in her chair and watched the rest of the team descend on the food. She noticed that Ianto held back and took whatever was left after the Torchwood feeding frenzy ended.
After dinner, everyone drifted back to their respective stations to finish up their work for the day, leaving Buffy sitting alone at the conference table. From there, she watched the four people bustle around while Jack observed from above. Watching them move around this alien space, Buffy couldn’t believe she actually missed the Sunnydale library. She missed Xander and Giles and Willow and Oz. As a sign of how weird this new world was, she even kinda-sorta missed Cordy. Most of all though, she missed her mom.
How had she reacted when she hadn’t come home? Did her mom think she ran away? Did she think she was dead? How long would the Scoobies look for her before they realized she was gone for good? Buffy felt tears starting to form in her eyes but bit her lip to stop herself from crying. Feeling overwhelmed and alone, she rested her head on her arms and let her tears fall where no one could see them.
Chapter Four
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: "Buffy" through The Becoming, all of Torchwood.
Summary: Buffy gets sucked into the Hell vortex at the end of Becoming, only to end up on the rain-slicked streets of Cardiff. What's Torchwood to do with a lost Slayer?
Disclaimer: Joss owns "Buffy," RTD and the BBC own "Torchwood," I own my iPod.
AN: Thank you to the amazing revdorothyl for betaing!
Chapter One | Two
Banner by the awesome skylar0grace
Chapter Three
Feeling someone touch her arm, Buffy started awake, thinking for a moment she was still in Hell. She reached blindly for the being that woke her up before remembering she was no longer there and instead was back in the somewhat real world. Sheepishly she looked at the unfortunate soul who she’d nearly attacked. Gwen looked at her with a shocked expression on her face.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Buffy apologized with a slightly ashamed tilt of her head. “I just got used to going into survival mode if anyone touches me when I’m napping.” Gwen just nodded, seemingly unsure what to make of this information. Buffy sighed. “Any reason you woke me from my nap or was it just to test my reaction time.”
“Jack and Ianto wanted to talk to you,” Gwen told Buffy as she finally found her voice. “Something about getting you settled.”
“Oh, that,” Buffy replied, suddenly deflated. Just another reminder that there was a good chance she might not see home again. “Well, let’s get this over with.” Buffy followed the taller woman towards the glass office-thingy that she’d noticed before. Entering, she noticed Jack and Ianto talking to each other quietly before noticing she and Gwen had arrived. Gwen looked like she wanted to stay, but the look Jack sent her caused her to frown slightly and leave the room. No one said anything as Jack and Ianto both looked at Buffy.
“Gweny said you wanted to talk to me,” Buffy began, hoping to break the awkward silence.
“Gweny?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. “Do you give everyone you meet nicknames?” Buffy could see through his ploy to try and make her relax, but she decided to play along with it to see what he was going to tell her.
“Of course,” she answered, giving him a small smile. “Regular names are so boring most of the time. How do you think I ended up with Buffy instead of plain Elizabeth? Ianto’s name is unique enough to escape the nicknamage for now, but it could change. Again, you wanted to see me about something?”
“Under normal circumstances, what we do to people who find out about Torchwood is Retcon them to erase their memories about …”
“No one is touching my memories,” Buffy interrupted as she leapt away from the men suddenly. “You try and mess with my head, you’ll regret it. My memories are all I have left of home and I’m not going to lose them!” She backed away from them slowly, trying to find the door behind her.
“If you would let me finish, I was going to go over the other option we might use with someone in your position would be to try to integrate them into normal life. For obvious reason, we can’t really do that. So,” he paused and gave her a look that she couldn’t really interpret. “Ianto here has volunteered to be your legal guardian and take care of you.”
Jack watched the shocked reactions on both Ianto and Buffy’s faces. OK, so he had slightly modified Ianto’s original offer, but it basically amounted to the same thing. Ianto recovered the fastest, quickly hiding his shock under his normally calm façade. Buffy’s face, however, was an interesting study in conflicting emotions. Hope, fear, sadness and something Jack couldn’t quite identify all kept continuously flitting across her face.
Buffy couldn’t believe what Jack Harkness had just told her. Suit Boy was, for all intents and purposes, her parent. Given the quickly hidden shocked look, he hadn’t expected to be appointed into guardianage of her. “This is so you can monitor me isn’t it?” she asked Jack with a pointed glance. “You don’t trust me.”
“No, I don’t,” he told her frankly. “You drop in out of the Rift, you manage to beat a Weevil senseless without breaking a sweat, and you refuse to give us a direct answer to what you are.”
“Hey, mister, I’ve answered all of your questions,” Buffy protested. Yeah, so they had been a roundabout, loopy sort of way, but she’d still answered them! It wasn’t like the SAT where they penalized you for guessing, was it? There was a part of her that wanted to refuse this offer, but this place might be the best chance she had of finding her way back home.
“What does Ianto being my guardian mean?” She didn’t want to be too much of a problem for him, especially since she planed to book it back to her home dimension as soon as they found a way to send her there.
“Torchwood will help him handle your expenses, but he’s going to be responsible for housing and feeding you, as well as making sure you go to school.” Buffy made a face when she heard this. The whole school thing was not high on her list of priorities. At least there wouldn’t be random vamps chowing down on the students and no forces of evil to deliver a beat down to on a daily basis.
“Not a big fan of school are you?” Jack asked, seeing her face.
“Me and schools are kinda un-mixy things,” she told him before the brain filterage kicked in, the Hemery gym and frequent destruction of Sunnyhell flashing before her eyes. “It’s not my fault though,” she added hastily. “There’ve always been other circumstances, like faulty wiring and gangs on PCP.” She sucked at the whole secret identity thing. Maybe she should just wear a shirt that said “Hello, Slayer here. Please attack.”
“School’s almost over for the year here, so we’ll see where you are and enroll you for the fall. It’s non-negotiable,” Jack told her with a stern look on his face as Buffy scrunched her nose. “Talk to Tosh tomorrow and we’ll get you documented here.”
“She can do that?” Buffy asked. “Doesn’t the government, I don’t know, get mad?”
“We’re beyond the government. It allows us to do what’s necessary in order to protect the world.”
“Nifty.”
“Now, however, Ianto’s going to take you back to his flat and help get you settled. I’ll see you both later.”
“He’s bossy isn’t he?” Buffy commented to Ianto as he led her back into the main area of the Hub. “It seems like he says jump and, well, you know.”
“Well, there are certain privileges of being the boss,” Ianto said as he lead her to the garage. He would show her the other entrances some other day, possibly tomorrow. “The other side Buffy,” he corrected her as she reached for the driver’s side door out of instinct. She made a face and quickly walked over to the other side. Ianto shook his head and started the car.
The ride to his flat was short and uneventful. Fortunately, he had a spare room in case he ever needed it. He would worry about clothes tomorrow; right now, however, he needed to get Buffy settled and figure out a way to get back to Torchwood to check in on Lisa.
“You certainly go for the whole ‘less is more’ deal,” Buffy commented as she scanned the neat, bare apartment. There were very few personal touches scattered around, mostly confined to the odd knick-knack arranged with martial precision. If there were any photographs, they were hidden in a place Buffy couldn’t easily see them.
“This will be your room,” Ianto told her as he opened one of the doors that lead off the small hallway. The room was as neat and Spartan as the rest of the place, with a bed, desk and bookshelf all neatly arrayed. “The bathroom is the first door on the left. I have some old sweats that you can change into if you wish to freshen up. I’ll take you shopping tomorrow for new clothes.” Buffy only nodded silently, feeling slightly overwhelmed. Ianto left for a moment and returned with a neatly folded pile of clothes.
Ianto left her to shower and he sat down on the nearest couch, taking stock of the strange and sudden twist his life had taken. He blamed Gwen. She had to make the comment about how boring their day was. Ianto knew he was being slightly irrational, but his life had changed from simply worrying about Lisa to that and caring for a dimensionally challenged American with an even worse penchant for nicknames than Jack.
Ianto was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t register Buffy leaving the bathroom for a few moments. “Earth to Ianto, you there?” Buffy’s voice broke through his thoughts. Starting, he looked at her and had to choke back a laugh at the sight of her in his clothes. He wasn’t a big man by any stretch of the imagination, but she was swimming in the clothes.
“Yes?” he replied as he managed to keep a straight face.
“I just wanted to say, well, thanks. I know Jack kinda shoved the whole guardianship thing on you, but just, well, thanks for everything today.” She gave him a small smile and shuffled back into her room. Ianto looked after her with an indescribable look on his face.
~*~*~
“Buffy?” Buffy looked up in shock as she heard the familiar voice of Angel whisper her name. He stood there, right before her, with a small smile on his face. For a moment she thought it was Angelus toying with her again, but the way he was looking at her was all Angel.
“Angel? What’s going on?” she asked him confusedly. He said nothing but walked towards her and cupped her cheek.
“Surprised?” he asked in a low voice. Buffy nodded as she felt the tears form in her eyes. He leaned in and gave her a long, slow, gentle kiss.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered after they broke apart for air. “I killed you.” Tears started falling now and she resisted the urge to sniffle.
“Shh, it’s OK,” he reassured her as he pulled her closer to comfort her. Gradually, she relaxed into his strong embrace and inhaled the scent that was uniquely him. Suddenly his face changed, his features distorting and eyes changing to yellow. Buffy screamed and tried to break free but his arms held her fast. “Let me return the favor,” he said right before he bit her.
“No!” Buffy screamed as she shot straight up in the bed. Her eyes darted frantically around the room as she tried to get her racing heartbeat under control. After a few moments, she calmed down and slowly pried her hands from the sheets that she had been holding in a death grip.
“Buffy?” came the muffled voice from behind her door. She mentally cursed herself. She didn’t mean to wake up Ianto with her reaction. “Are you alright?”
“Peachy with some extra keen,” she managed to say in a somewhat normal voice. She could almost imagine the small frown crossing his face and prayed that he wouldn’t open the door to check on her himself. Finally, she heard him walk away and his door close softly as he returned to his own room. She let out the breath she had been holding in and collapsed back on to the bed. Before she could stop herself, she began sobbing into her pillow so that Ianto wouldn’t hear her.
She woke up the next morning to sunlight seeping through the blinds and hitting her face. “Mmm, it’s too early,” Buffy muttered as she burrowed deeper into the bed. In the distance, she could hear someone, hopefully Ianto, moving around in what could be the kitchen. Groaning softly, she extricated herself from the tangle of blankets and quietly made her way to the kitchen, where the blessed, absolutely sacred smell of coffee was coming from.
The kitchen was almost minuscule but it was arranged with the same order and precision of the rest of the apartment. “Morning, Ianto,” she greeted as she tried to stop herself from drooling at the fresh pot of coffee. It had been too long since she’d had her last caffeine fixage.
“Good morning,” he replied, looking up from the laptop that sat on the counter separating the kitchenette from the rest of the apartment. Looking at Ianto, Buffy felt even more scruffy and worn out than she had earlier. Even though it was only 9:30 (Way, way, way too early by her standards after everything she’d been through. Damn screwed up Slayer sleep cycle), he was immaculately dressed in stylish, yet casual clothing. “Help yourself to the coffee.”
Ianto knew certain Americans had addictions to coffee, he was fond of the drink himself, but he had never seen anyone move that quickly to pour and inhale a cup of it.
“Oh my God, this is amazing!” Buffy sighed, emerging from the mug long enough to breathe before finishing it and pouring another. “I don’t know what coffee magic you worked, but this is so good.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
Feeling slightly more Buffyesque after her morning jolt, she noticed that Ianto had placed a loaf of bread, some butter and jam by the toaster. “Any plans for today?” she asked him as she made her breakfast.
“I was going to take you shopping for some new clothes. Gwen dropped by earlier and left some of her clothes to wear for today. They’ll be a little big on you,” he added, eyeing her small frame critically.
“Shopping would be of the good,” she replied before dedicating herself to polishing off her breakfast in record time. Not really eating for a couple of months made you realize how much you missed the good ole basic necessity of life. “There’ll be shoes involved right?” she added eagerly. Ianto took in her expectant face and nodded warily. “Good, because Lord knows I need a new pair. Or several.” Buffy left the room humming happily at the thought of the bargain hunt ahead, while Ianto resisted the urge to groan. What had he gotten himself into? At least Torchwood was footing the bill.
~*~*~
“Oh, look at that pair!” Buffy squealed as she ogled a pair of boots in a store window. Ianto resisted the urge to sigh. They had been shopping for almost four hours at this point and he had somehow ended up being the carrier of Buffy’s purchases.
“I think that’s enough shoes for now, Buffy,” he told her as he gently grabbed her arm and led her away towards his car. “I do need to go to work sometime this week.” Buffy pouted but followed Ianto after giving the boots one last, longing look.
“I’m going to leave you at my flat to put away your clothes and pick you up when I do a dinner run for the team in a few hours. Does that work for you?” Buffy nodded and stared out the window.
“Why are you doing this for me?” she asked suddenly, looking at Ianto out of the corner of her eye. “I mean, you’re putting me up and taking me shopping and putting up with me in general?”
“That’s what Torchwood does for people in your situation.”
“I didn’t mean Torchwood, Ianto. I meant you. You made sure I had food, I’m guessing you stood up to Captain Suspenders yesterday and you put up with me shopping. Why?” she asked again, finally turning around to look at him. Thankfully before he could answer they had reached his flat. He helped her quickly unload the various bags and made his escape to Torchwood going over Buffy’s words in his head.
~*~*~
“Ianto, are you feeling OK?” Tosh asked her coworker hesitantly. He had been hours late, which he had never done before in all of his time at Torchwood Three, but he also appeared to be in some sort of shock. “Ianto…”
“I knew women liked shopping, but that was unbelievable,” he said in an amused voice, Tosh’s question apparently shaking him out of his stupor. “Did you know there are over ten shoe stores within a kilometer radius of my flat and we managed to go to every single one, as well as a variety of clothing stores.”
“Wait a minute,” Tosh interrupted him with an upraised hand. “You were late because you took Buffy shopping?” Ianto nodded as he made his way to the coffee machine to make Jack an incredibly delayed morning cup. Tosh followed him and leaned on a table next to him. “I know you said you would help get her settled, but isn’t that a bit much?”
Before Ianto could respond to Tosh’s question, Jack’s voice drifted down from the stairs above him. “I know I told you to get her some new clothes, but that didn’t mean buy every single thing that’s wearable in the city.”
“I tried, sir,” Ianto replied mournfully as he handed Jack his coffee. “I don’t know if she’s always like that or if she was using it as some sort of therapy, but I doubt even you could rein her in.” Jack only sighed as he sipped his first Ianto-made cup of the day.
“Oh, Ianto, before I forget, I got started on creating an identity for Buffy this morning,” Tosh said as she lead Ianto to her desk and handed him a folder. Ianto flipped it open to find a sheet of paper detailing where she had lived previously in California, as well as giving him a familial tie through a non-existant maternal cousin. “I’m going to put more details in once I get a chance to talk to her, but I figured I might as well start when I could.” Ianto nodded and gave her a small smile before heading back to the tourist office.
Before he realized it, dinnertime had arrived and he was off again to his flat to collect Buffy. He opened the door to his flat only to find her sitting at the table staring vacantly into space. She started when she noticed him but quickly collected herself.
“I was wondering when you’d show up, Coffee God,” she said as she grabbed the purse and jacket she’d bought earlier that day. “I don’t know if the whole institutionalized thing works for you but it gives me the wiggins.”
“Coffee God?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, choosing to overlook the comment about his décor. He happened to like the spare, uncluttered look of the flat.
“That coffee this morning was so good, it could only be made by a god of coffee,” she explained as they made their way to the Chinese restaurant where Ianto had ordered the team dinner. “Besides, I was getting bored with Suit Boy as an alternative to your name.”
“I thought you said I would be spared from the nicknames.”
“I changed my mind. Is that not allowed?” she asked with a slight tilt of her head. Ianto didn’t reply, but kept driving silently. “Oh, you have Chinese food here. I’m a fan.” By the time they reached Torchwood, Buffy had lapsed into silence again, staring out the window while holding the almost overflowing box of Chinese food in her lap.
“That better be dinner,” Owen groaned as he spun around to see Buffy carrying the box followed closely by Ianto. “Thank God,” he breathed as he lunged for the box. Buffy adroitly sidestepped him and gave him a glare.
“Don’t even think about it, Harper,” she snapped at him playfully, doing her best to hide the emptiness she was feeling. “You need to wait just like everyone else. Do I look like a Buffy-shaped vending machine?”
“No, but I’m hungry and you owe me for threatening my equipment yesterday.”
“Wait a minute here, I owe you? You’re the one who shot me up with sleepyjuice weren’t you? If anything you owe me. Now move,” she ordered with a narrowing of her eyes. “Before I make you.” Owen shot her one last glare but stepped aside to let her pass. Buffy gave him a bright smile before depositing the meal on the conference table.
“So what did you order us, Ianto?” she asked as she reached for the first box. Her eyes widened and a grin blossomed on her face before she looked up. “I think I love you more than I did this morning,” she announced before digging into the sweet and sour chicken, completely ignoring Owen’s shout of “Hey, that’s mine.”
“Snooze you lose, Owen,” she told him as she settled down in her chair and watched the rest of the team descend on the food. She noticed that Ianto held back and took whatever was left after the Torchwood feeding frenzy ended.
After dinner, everyone drifted back to their respective stations to finish up their work for the day, leaving Buffy sitting alone at the conference table. From there, she watched the four people bustle around while Jack observed from above. Watching them move around this alien space, Buffy couldn’t believe she actually missed the Sunnydale library. She missed Xander and Giles and Willow and Oz. As a sign of how weird this new world was, she even kinda-sorta missed Cordy. Most of all though, she missed her mom.
How had she reacted when she hadn’t come home? Did her mom think she ran away? Did she think she was dead? How long would the Scoobies look for her before they realized she was gone for good? Buffy felt tears starting to form in her eyes but bit her lip to stop herself from crying. Feeling overwhelmed and alone, she rested her head on her arms and let her tears fall where no one could see them.
Chapter Four