Fic: Getting Up (9/?)
Fic: Getting Up (9/12)
Authors: muses-circle and Pen37
Series: Slayer!Chloe
Beta: muses-circle
Fandoms: Supernatural, Smallville, Buffy/Angel Verse
Pairing: Chloe/Dean
Rating: Pg-13
Wordcount: 1,501
Summary: Chloe has left the relative safety of the Winchester's company. But she may regret it when she's stalked by a former Slayer who is now of the fanged persuasion.
Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5, Ch. 6, Ch. 7, Ch.8, Ch. 9, Ch. 10, Ch. 11, Ch. 12
Chloe had Andy take the couch while she paced back and forth like a caged lion in front of the rectory window. Outside, the grounds around the cathedral were quiet, but she didn't want to take the chance that the slaypire and her not-so-little friends were still out there lying in wait for her.
She hadn't been this keyed up since she'd been nearly-killed by the Turok-Han back in Cleveland.
Of course, back then she'd been juggling her slayer job and her relationship with Dean, which was always volatile enough to keep her nerves strung wire-tight.
Dean.
She wasn't ready to deal with that. Not yet. Instead, she shoved those thoughts into the same mental box as thoughts about her dad, Lois, Clark and the life she'd left in Smallville, and shut the lid.
She'd deal with that later.
Assuming there was a later. Given her poor performance against the slayer-turned-vampire and her minions earlier - it was a very real possibility that she wouldn't survive their next encounter.
With nothing better to do, she sat on the floor with her back to the front door, pulled her knees to her chin, rested her head on them and shut her eyes.
She knew she was dreaming when she opened them, and found herself in the Smallville Cemetery again.
Automatically, she looked for her dad's headstone. Seems like whenever she was troubled, she came here, where it all started really. But this time, the headstone wasn't vacant. A short girl with strawberry blonde hair was sitting on Gabe's headstone. Based on the few pictures that she'd seen before, Chloe recognized the girl as Susan Ride.
Chloe sat next to her, and pulled out a stake to wait. She did this every night. And every night, her dad didn't rise from the grave. Sometimes she wondered what she would do if he did pop out of the ground.
“It's not random chance, you know,” Susan looked over at her with a frank expression. “We're all chosen for a reason.”
“Even you?” Chloe asked.
“Maybe I was chosen to become your reason,” Susan said with a faint smile.
“What do I do now?”
“You endure,” Susan said. “For both of us. For Mary Winchester. For your dad.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Gabe Sullivan broke in. Chloe turned suddenly and looked up at him. He'd come up behind them wordlessly, and put his hands on Susan's shoulders. “They didn't bury you with me, pumpkin. So stop acting like they did.”
Chloe shut her eyes against the tears that threatened to fall. “I've made such a mess of things, Daddy.”
“There isn't a mess so bad you can't clean it, honey.” Gabe said. “But if you don't try, it just gets worse.”
That wasn't what Chloe wanted to hear. “I know. It's just hard. And . . . I'm afraid.”
“Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”
Chloe chuckled at that. Leave it up to her dad to render fortune cookie wisdom from her favorite movie. She took a fortifying breath, and nodded slowly. “Okay. Where do I start?”
Gabe looked at the entrance to the cemetery. “You won't find the answers here, sweetheart. It's time to let this place go.”
She took a step toward the entrance. Then hesitated and looked back.
“Go on,” Susan made a shooing motion with her hands.
“You don't need this place anymore, Chloe. It's nothing but a field full of rocks.”
Chloe nodded. Then she turned her back resolutely on her father's headstone, and walked toward the gates.
When she stepped through them, she knew that she was no longer Chloe Sullivan. Instead she was Maria Santiago. She'd been a slayer for three years: since she was thirteen and it was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
She'd been an orphan, shuttling from foster home to foster home in the Kansas City area when her watcher took her in. Now she had a home and a purpose.
As her alarm went off, she sprang out of bed eager to get through the day. School was pointless: she wasn't going to use anything they tried to teach her there. The only thing that mattered was what she did once she left school. Every vamp she dusted gave her more cred with her watcher: Minh Xao.
She practically glowed every time he smiled at her and called her little sister. It was his special name for her and he only used it when doling out rare complements.
As she raced down the stairs, she found a note on the table.
Maria,
I've heard of a nest that might be hiding in the cemetery near Stull. I'm going to investigate. See you tonight,
Xao.
She didn't think much of the letter. Xao told her that watchers didn't usually check into things on their own, but Xao was different. He wasn't much older than Donnie Walberg.
And a lot cuter, Maria thought with a grin as she threw her books and half-completed homework into her satchel and took off out the door.
Maybe it was because she didn't have much use for school, but she just couldn't focus on her classes while Xao was out there poking around the cemetery. She spent most of her morning waiting on her principal to give her a note from Xao with her beeper on. By lunchtime when Xao hadn't called to tell her he was back, she had a lot of worry on her mind.
She ditched class after lunch, and thumbed her way out past Lawrence Kansas. The locals sneered at her when she asked for directions to the cemetery. But then again, she supposed they got a lot of harassment from college kids looking for the devil out there.
Eventually, by flirting with a convenience store clerk, she tracked down the graveyard. As she approached on foot, a heavy feeling settled into her stomach. Xao's car was still parked at the base of the hill in front of the cemetery.
She vaulted the chain fence easily. Then, stake at the ready, she crept up the hill to the old stone church.
But she hadn't been prepared for what she found inside.
Xao's body lay sprawled against one wall. Headless. Bloodless.
She stared at the corpse in numb horror. Forgetting all caution, she dropped her stake and ran to his body.
As she held it and rocked, she thought she heard dry chuckling from the shadows. Then, something was rolled at her. She blinked in shock as Xao's head came to rest at her feet. His sightless eyes stared up at her. His mouth was open in a silent scream.
Since he couldn't scream anymore, she did.
Then they were on her. She didn't even try to fight back as four mammoth vampires pulled her into the shadows.
“No fight in this one,” one of them complained.
“The elevator isn't going all the way up,” the second said.
“So should we kill her?” The third one grinned, taking obvious delight in his twisted visage and saber-toothed appearance.
“No,” the fourth one said at last. “I've got a better idea.”
Chloe opened her eyes and sat up with a jerk. She looked around quickly and realized that she was back at the rectory, and she was herself again. Outside, the sun had risen. It was a new day.
With the dream still fresh in her mind, Chloe knew what she had to do.
“Andy?”
On the couch, the scruffy man snorted in sleep. Then he opened his eyes.
“You awake yet?”
He groaned. “What time is it?”
“Early,” Chloe said.
“Why'd you wake me up, then?”
“We've got limited daylight. And I think I know where we need to go.”
* * *
They found her records at the police station. Maria Santiago. Missing person. Suspected in the murder of her guardian, Minh Xao.
As Chloe flipped through the records, a nervous-looking detective watched her.
“I could get into so much trouble doing this,” he said.
She looked at Andy, and then at the exit. He nodded, and then waved his hand theatrically in front of the detective. “These are not the droids you're looking for. Move along.”
“Move along,” the detective nodded, and then left.
“What do you think about that?” Andy said proudly.
“Yeah, you're an uber-leet Jedi with mad skills, Yoda,” Chloe said dismissively as she flipped through the case file. “There's an address here.”
“So?” Andy said.
“So, I'm betting that's where her nest is.”
In response, Andy groaned and rolled his eyes. “We're going to go over there, aren't we?”
Chloe pinned him with a sorrowful look. “You don't have to go. It'll probably be dangerous.”
“No,” Andy shook his head. “If you're going to Fredina Kruger's house, I may as well go, too.”
Chloe gave a half-nod, as if to say that it was his choice.
“Besides. You'd be lost without me,” Andy reasoned.
Chloe tried not to laugh at that.