r***@aol.com
2006-09-30 17:35:59 UTC
You Only Live Thrice..." Part XI...
PGS. 13
Summary: A certain 'benevolent' supervillain has tried to employ a
little more cleverness, patience, and respect for modern science and
technology than the usual Bverse evildoer...
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon,
Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire
Slayer series...
Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse,
www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html .
Or direct to story at
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/yolt.html ..
***
Part XI..
Sleeping car of high speed train from Geneva to San Lucea...4 am...
"Al...I think your phone..." 2nd PR assistant Andrea nudged the
Immortal's European Field Director, Alexander George, who mumbled,
groaned, rolled...
"Alexander...Your phone..." she tried again, this time he turned
and blinked...Huh?...
Oh..."Thanks, darling..." he took the phone she offered him...
"George here?...Yes, sir?..."
Geesh...Doesn't His Benevolence ever sleep?...Andrea wondered...
"I'm on the train for San Lucea now, sir...Well, thank you,
sir...Oh, not at all, Your Benevolence...What, sir?...Really?...Well,
it is a logical choice, sir...Actually it only helps if we won't be
forced to employ our operatives again to get them to come, sir...But we
will be on guard, sir...Yes, sir, Your Benevolence...I'll have
Phillips standing by in case we require activation, sir, but of course
we'll do all we can to avoid exposure...Thank you, sir...And may I
wish you a good morning too, sir...Yes, Your Benevolence...Thank
you..."
"Hmmn..." he looked at Andrea as she took the closed phone and set
it back on the bedside stand...She taking careful care not to disturb
whatever great matters were on his mind...
"Looks like Mr. Wells and I think alike...According to our latest
from England, the Walthrops are coming straight into our
web...Tonight..."
"Really?..."
"Yeah, it seems they called and booked a room at the Casino's Grand
Hotel...There was no need to utilize our operatives..." he
frowned...Hmmn...
"You figured they'd come..." Andrea noted... "You said our
operatives had been instructed to get him to San Lucea before...After
Mr. Wells got Walthrop out of LA..."
"Yeah...But general instructions that'd get them to suggest San
Lucea, not to head straight to the target...I thought they'd make for
San Lucea, take a look see from some quiet spot and we could manipulate
things to get them to the Casino in our own good time...I wonder...Of
course the Casino is one of the hottest places in the principality and
all Europe...A famed watering hole for spies of all kinds and
species...I guess it stands to reason they'd try it right off the
bat...And their cover story is that they're on vacation..."
"At Casino Regale?...Watchers' Council and Angel's place must
really pay..."
"Still...It is a little too good...You know, I've a gift for
sensing these things..."
"You're ready for them there, right?..."
"Oh, sure...Sure..." he drummed fingers a bit...Hmmn...
"Maybe it's time we firmed up our intelligence net a little...And
I'd best put in a call to Creed...Just so he and Drusilla are on
their toes tonight..."
***
London...Watchers' Council secret medical facility...4:20 am...
"You awake?..." Hesitant whisper...
"Am now..."
"Sorry..."
"It's fine...But not too loud..." he indicated the sleeping
baby...
"Yeah...God, Will...Isn't he wonderful?..."
"That he is..." fond glance... "A fine addition to the Walthrop
line...Me mum..." he paused...
"Yeah...So would mine..."
"A boy and girl...It's..." he shook his head a little in
wonder...
"Yeah..." a contented sigh... "Will?...Thanks..."
"For what?..."
"For him...And for everything..."
"You too..."
"Thanks..."
"Say, Dawn said you were wearin'..."
"Yeah...I forgot to show you...Wanna see?..." she held her hand out
to him...A large gold wedding band on the fourth finger of the left
hand...
"That's really it?...The same one?..." He repressed a momentary
urge to yank it from the finger...No, she believes she's here...She
is here...Save it, save it for that benevolent bastard...
"It is...Right out of the archives..."
"Jesus...Say, how the hell did the Watchers get it?...Pry it off your
dead hand?..." Did it?...he wondered...No, she's
alive...Wherever...They needed her and she is alive...
But for taking this from her finger...He stroked the ring gently...I
will take several of his...And force-feed them down his Immortal
throat...And various other orifices of my choice...
Pardon me, love...Our...Choice...
"I wondered myself...No use dwellin' on it though..." she held
the ring hand up closer to her eyes...
"I suppose...Unless they ever screw us again, in which case we add it
to the list of grievances...Agreed?..."
"Sure..."
"Looks good there..."
"Yeah...I can keep it on now, too...Even on the mission...The
Soon-to-be-Mortal knows about Cicely and our marriage..."
"Ah...No wonder he wanted me deader..."
"I bet you say that to all your reincarnated wives...William...?"
"Yeah?..."
"Was it really just?...In LA, I mean..."
"Love, it was only once...I'd been disembodied essence for
months...I'm sorry..."
"What?...I'm talkin' about you not coming to Europe..."
"Oh..."
Dawn, don't tell me you knew and she didn't...
"What were you talking' about?...Or, rather, who...?"
"Uh...The same thing, I think..." he looked straight up at the
ceiling...
"...'only once'?...Doesn't sound like angst over a decision to
meet up with your honey..." she'd turned her head to frown at
him...
"It wasn't that I didn't want to come...Soon as I corporealized,
I took on ole Angel in what we thought was a fight for the
Prophecy..."
"Prophecy?...Which prophecy?...Oh, the human thing...Will..." eager
lilt...
"Beat 'im, too..." slyly calm tone... Then dip... "But it was
all a trick...Still, if I had won..."
"I didn't need you human, you moron...I needed you..."
Yeah...And if I had been here, like I should've been...Maybe...
"I know I let you down, love..."
"Are we talking about Ms. 'only once' again?...Or..."
"I mean I should've come straight away...But I was just afraid
I'd come and..."
"Sounds like I was the one who let you down..." she sighed...
"You didn't believe 'cause I didn't let you...But...I think now
it was Cicely's fear holding me back..."
"I'd say we both screwed it then...Maybe, though, we both needed
the time to work things through..."
"Hmmn...Will, we've both said a lot of stupid things in our
lifetimes...But that's the stupidest thing ever..."
"Yeah..."
"Well...Cicely's 'protect Will by sending him away' scheme was
about as dumb I suppose...I guess we should say things like that to
people who ask and pretend it was profound and wise to wait...And swear
between us we'll never do something so stupid again...Leave it at
that?..."
"I can just see the critical essays by historians of the occult right
now, sneering at the common dolt asking if it wasn't just plain
stupid of us..."
"You know two Councilors already want to write a book on
us...Willow's thinkin' about one...Giles is withholding permission
supposedly till we settle my curse project and with the Immortal, but I
think he's really just tryin' to leave Willow a chance to start
first...So, who was she?..."
"Red wants to do our lives' stories?...Well...Why not?...But I
wouldn't mind us takin' a crack at an autobiography..."
"Oh, God...Was it Dru?...Tell me it wasn't Drusilla...?"
"No...Certainly not...Cicely, I never even considered it..."
"Thank God...So...There was someone...?" hesitant tone...
"Though if any one else writes our story I do think Willow would be a
good choice...Assuming she can write..."
"Fine...I guess I have no right to ask...I left you to die, after
all...Hell, yesterday I was terrified you wouldn't even speak to
me...It's probably good you have someone in the wings in case I screw
it again..."
"Will you stop?..."
"...Though I did reincarnate to save you, I'm sure of it now...You
know Giles warned me after I found out about Cicely in the
archives...Said I ought to realize even if it were true, you might have
moved on...And I remembered how you were when you got the soul
back...No more hounding me at every turn, telling me you'd do
anything to prove you loved me...You were all understanding and
resignation...So nobly romantic...I hated it...I thought you'd
remembered somebody else...The real love of your life Spike had seen
somehow in me...I even thought maybe that was why you were so willing
to die at the Hellmouth...You wanted to go chasing her again, that girl
you tole me about...Who never loved you..." she paused...
"So I thought...For an instant, only..." he replied... "Though,
maybe...In a way...But I didn't not love you...I told you enough
times post- as well as presoul and you know that ...It's just...Maybe
in a way..."
"Yeah...Woman's intuition...But you loved me, I knew...Only, in the
end, not enough to stay...God, God I was so..." she gulped... "I
hated you for dying and not believing me...I hated me for letting you
go ...The first second in the archives, when I saw Cicely's photo
with you, I wanted to die..."
He turned to stare at her...
"But a second later, I remembered..." she said simply... "And
horrible as it was...Knowing I'd killed you twice...Condemned
you...That it was all my fault...I was so happy...Between it all I
think I went a little crazy...I nearly killed Giles right then and
there, I was so insane with rage, but all the time my heart was
singin'...I wish you'd been there..."
"I should've...I'll never forgive myself for not being
there..."
"Don't ever say that..." she quickly replied, tense...
"There's been enough of that over this century...We've had enough
angst and sorrow to last all Eternity...It's time to be dumbly happy
and content..."
"Sounds like the American dream..."
"My gift from life as Buffy, the happy little Californian
blonde..." she smiled...
"Wasn't all that..." he eyed her...
"No...But I think I've learned the hard way to appreciate the times
it was...For her...And for Cicely...And cherish those moments as much
as the romantically profounder ones..."
"This qualify?..."
"Middlin' between..."
He nodded...And sighed...
"Harmony...But just the one time..."
"Oh, shit!...Harmony?!...Oooh, sorry..." she gently soothed the
now-crying baby who settled down after a few moments...
"Harmony?!..." she continued, in a harsh whisper...
"I thought Dawn told you...She knew..."
"Dawn knew?..." she whispered...
"I guess she didn't want you hurt...Though who told her, I don't
know..."
"She made the first call to Angel...When we wanted to establish
secret communication with him...Giles figured the safest way was just
to have her call from a random Italian pay phone when the Immortal was
with us in London...I'll bet anything Harmony told her..."
"That would be like her..."
"Maybe..." she gave him a sidelong look... "It's good, in a
way...I was having something of a problem about Riley and Angel...This
kinda makes us even...So..."
"I mean I don't count Drusilla..." she noted quickly... "That
was Spike..."
"Right..." Phew... Wait... "'Even'?...One time with Harmony,
just to check things out after recorporealization?...That's
'even'?..."
"Quit while you're ahead..."
"Right..." he sighed...
"Will?...Did you really beat Angel to that thing?...The phony
prophecy?..."
"Left him soddin' in the dust...It was for you, after all...Well,
the intent..."
"You're a good man, William Soames Walthrop...But I knew that in
1880..."
***
'Even'...Right...
***
PGS. 13
Summary: A certain 'benevolent' supervillain has tried to employ a
little more cleverness, patience, and respect for modern science and
technology than the usual Bverse evildoer...
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon,
Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire
Slayer series...
Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse,
www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html .
Or direct to story at
http://www.angelfire.com/zine2/buffyrebecca/yolt.html ..
***
Part XI..
Sleeping car of high speed train from Geneva to San Lucea...4 am...
"Al...I think your phone..." 2nd PR assistant Andrea nudged the
Immortal's European Field Director, Alexander George, who mumbled,
groaned, rolled...
"Alexander...Your phone..." she tried again, this time he turned
and blinked...Huh?...
Oh..."Thanks, darling..." he took the phone she offered him...
"George here?...Yes, sir?..."
Geesh...Doesn't His Benevolence ever sleep?...Andrea wondered...
"I'm on the train for San Lucea now, sir...Well, thank you,
sir...Oh, not at all, Your Benevolence...What, sir?...Really?...Well,
it is a logical choice, sir...Actually it only helps if we won't be
forced to employ our operatives again to get them to come, sir...But we
will be on guard, sir...Yes, sir, Your Benevolence...I'll have
Phillips standing by in case we require activation, sir, but of course
we'll do all we can to avoid exposure...Thank you, sir...And may I
wish you a good morning too, sir...Yes, Your Benevolence...Thank
you..."
"Hmmn..." he looked at Andrea as she took the closed phone and set
it back on the bedside stand...She taking careful care not to disturb
whatever great matters were on his mind...
"Looks like Mr. Wells and I think alike...According to our latest
from England, the Walthrops are coming straight into our
web...Tonight..."
"Really?..."
"Yeah, it seems they called and booked a room at the Casino's Grand
Hotel...There was no need to utilize our operatives..." he
frowned...Hmmn...
"You figured they'd come..." Andrea noted... "You said our
operatives had been instructed to get him to San Lucea before...After
Mr. Wells got Walthrop out of LA..."
"Yeah...But general instructions that'd get them to suggest San
Lucea, not to head straight to the target...I thought they'd make for
San Lucea, take a look see from some quiet spot and we could manipulate
things to get them to the Casino in our own good time...I wonder...Of
course the Casino is one of the hottest places in the principality and
all Europe...A famed watering hole for spies of all kinds and
species...I guess it stands to reason they'd try it right off the
bat...And their cover story is that they're on vacation..."
"At Casino Regale?...Watchers' Council and Angel's place must
really pay..."
"Still...It is a little too good...You know, I've a gift for
sensing these things..."
"You're ready for them there, right?..."
"Oh, sure...Sure..." he drummed fingers a bit...Hmmn...
"Maybe it's time we firmed up our intelligence net a little...And
I'd best put in a call to Creed...Just so he and Drusilla are on
their toes tonight..."
***
London...Watchers' Council secret medical facility...4:20 am...
"You awake?..." Hesitant whisper...
"Am now..."
"Sorry..."
"It's fine...But not too loud..." he indicated the sleeping
baby...
"Yeah...God, Will...Isn't he wonderful?..."
"That he is..." fond glance... "A fine addition to the Walthrop
line...Me mum..." he paused...
"Yeah...So would mine..."
"A boy and girl...It's..." he shook his head a little in
wonder...
"Yeah..." a contented sigh... "Will?...Thanks..."
"For what?..."
"For him...And for everything..."
"You too..."
"Thanks..."
"Say, Dawn said you were wearin'..."
"Yeah...I forgot to show you...Wanna see?..." she held her hand out
to him...A large gold wedding band on the fourth finger of the left
hand...
"That's really it?...The same one?..." He repressed a momentary
urge to yank it from the finger...No, she believes she's here...She
is here...Save it, save it for that benevolent bastard...
"It is...Right out of the archives..."
"Jesus...Say, how the hell did the Watchers get it?...Pry it off your
dead hand?..." Did it?...he wondered...No, she's
alive...Wherever...They needed her and she is alive...
But for taking this from her finger...He stroked the ring gently...I
will take several of his...And force-feed them down his Immortal
throat...And various other orifices of my choice...
Pardon me, love...Our...Choice...
"I wondered myself...No use dwellin' on it though..." she held
the ring hand up closer to her eyes...
"I suppose...Unless they ever screw us again, in which case we add it
to the list of grievances...Agreed?..."
"Sure..."
"Looks good there..."
"Yeah...I can keep it on now, too...Even on the mission...The
Soon-to-be-Mortal knows about Cicely and our marriage..."
"Ah...No wonder he wanted me deader..."
"I bet you say that to all your reincarnated wives...William...?"
"Yeah?..."
"Was it really just?...In LA, I mean..."
"Love, it was only once...I'd been disembodied essence for
months...I'm sorry..."
"What?...I'm talkin' about you not coming to Europe..."
"Oh..."
Dawn, don't tell me you knew and she didn't...
"What were you talking' about?...Or, rather, who...?"
"Uh...The same thing, I think..." he looked straight up at the
ceiling...
"...'only once'?...Doesn't sound like angst over a decision to
meet up with your honey..." she'd turned her head to frown at
him...
"It wasn't that I didn't want to come...Soon as I corporealized,
I took on ole Angel in what we thought was a fight for the
Prophecy..."
"Prophecy?...Which prophecy?...Oh, the human thing...Will..." eager
lilt...
"Beat 'im, too..." slyly calm tone... Then dip... "But it was
all a trick...Still, if I had won..."
"I didn't need you human, you moron...I needed you..."
Yeah...And if I had been here, like I should've been...Maybe...
"I know I let you down, love..."
"Are we talking about Ms. 'only once' again?...Or..."
"I mean I should've come straight away...But I was just afraid
I'd come and..."
"Sounds like I was the one who let you down..." she sighed...
"You didn't believe 'cause I didn't let you...But...I think now
it was Cicely's fear holding me back..."
"I'd say we both screwed it then...Maybe, though, we both needed
the time to work things through..."
"Hmmn...Will, we've both said a lot of stupid things in our
lifetimes...But that's the stupidest thing ever..."
"Yeah..."
"Well...Cicely's 'protect Will by sending him away' scheme was
about as dumb I suppose...I guess we should say things like that to
people who ask and pretend it was profound and wise to wait...And swear
between us we'll never do something so stupid again...Leave it at
that?..."
"I can just see the critical essays by historians of the occult right
now, sneering at the common dolt asking if it wasn't just plain
stupid of us..."
"You know two Councilors already want to write a book on
us...Willow's thinkin' about one...Giles is withholding permission
supposedly till we settle my curse project and with the Immortal, but I
think he's really just tryin' to leave Willow a chance to start
first...So, who was she?..."
"Red wants to do our lives' stories?...Well...Why not?...But I
wouldn't mind us takin' a crack at an autobiography..."
"Oh, God...Was it Dru?...Tell me it wasn't Drusilla...?"
"No...Certainly not...Cicely, I never even considered it..."
"Thank God...So...There was someone...?" hesitant tone...
"Though if any one else writes our story I do think Willow would be a
good choice...Assuming she can write..."
"Fine...I guess I have no right to ask...I left you to die, after
all...Hell, yesterday I was terrified you wouldn't even speak to
me...It's probably good you have someone in the wings in case I screw
it again..."
"Will you stop?..."
"...Though I did reincarnate to save you, I'm sure of it now...You
know Giles warned me after I found out about Cicely in the
archives...Said I ought to realize even if it were true, you might have
moved on...And I remembered how you were when you got the soul
back...No more hounding me at every turn, telling me you'd do
anything to prove you loved me...You were all understanding and
resignation...So nobly romantic...I hated it...I thought you'd
remembered somebody else...The real love of your life Spike had seen
somehow in me...I even thought maybe that was why you were so willing
to die at the Hellmouth...You wanted to go chasing her again, that girl
you tole me about...Who never loved you..." she paused...
"So I thought...For an instant, only..." he replied... "Though,
maybe...In a way...But I didn't not love you...I told you enough
times post- as well as presoul and you know that ...It's just...Maybe
in a way..."
"Yeah...Woman's intuition...But you loved me, I knew...Only, in the
end, not enough to stay...God, God I was so..." she gulped... "I
hated you for dying and not believing me...I hated me for letting you
go ...The first second in the archives, when I saw Cicely's photo
with you, I wanted to die..."
He turned to stare at her...
"But a second later, I remembered..." she said simply... "And
horrible as it was...Knowing I'd killed you twice...Condemned
you...That it was all my fault...I was so happy...Between it all I
think I went a little crazy...I nearly killed Giles right then and
there, I was so insane with rage, but all the time my heart was
singin'...I wish you'd been there..."
"I should've...I'll never forgive myself for not being
there..."
"Don't ever say that..." she quickly replied, tense...
"There's been enough of that over this century...We've had enough
angst and sorrow to last all Eternity...It's time to be dumbly happy
and content..."
"Sounds like the American dream..."
"My gift from life as Buffy, the happy little Californian
blonde..." she smiled...
"Wasn't all that..." he eyed her...
"No...But I think I've learned the hard way to appreciate the times
it was...For her...And for Cicely...And cherish those moments as much
as the romantically profounder ones..."
"This qualify?..."
"Middlin' between..."
He nodded...And sighed...
"Harmony...But just the one time..."
"Oh, shit!...Harmony?!...Oooh, sorry..." she gently soothed the
now-crying baby who settled down after a few moments...
"Harmony?!..." she continued, in a harsh whisper...
"I thought Dawn told you...She knew..."
"Dawn knew?..." she whispered...
"I guess she didn't want you hurt...Though who told her, I don't
know..."
"She made the first call to Angel...When we wanted to establish
secret communication with him...Giles figured the safest way was just
to have her call from a random Italian pay phone when the Immortal was
with us in London...I'll bet anything Harmony told her..."
"That would be like her..."
"Maybe..." she gave him a sidelong look... "It's good, in a
way...I was having something of a problem about Riley and Angel...This
kinda makes us even...So..."
"I mean I don't count Drusilla..." she noted quickly... "That
was Spike..."
"Right..." Phew... Wait... "'Even'?...One time with Harmony,
just to check things out after recorporealization?...That's
'even'?..."
"Quit while you're ahead..."
"Right..." he sighed...
"Will?...Did you really beat Angel to that thing?...The phony
prophecy?..."
"Left him soddin' in the dust...It was for you, after all...Well,
the intent..."
"You're a good man, William Soames Walthrop...But I knew that in
1880..."
***
'Even'...Right...
***