Drifters 2 (Oz/Xander, 15)
Jun. 25th, 2006 08:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thismazFic : Drifters, (Oz/Xander, 15, 2/2)
Drifters 2/2
'Shit!' he had forgotten the woman. Wearily raising his head, he once again scrambled to his feet and walked back towards the scene. 'Scene of the crime' his inner voice noted.
"Yeah, I'm okay." 'Oh God! What do I do now?'
The woman, hardly more than a girl, had got to her feet and was slowly limping towards him on her high heeled sandals, keeping her head averted from the mangled mess that had been her companion.
"You're hurt" she observed. "Got a first aid kit in there?"
Xander rubbed his brow with one shaking hand and paused to think. "Uh, yes, I think so, uh, somewhere, hang on. You okay? He cut you at all?"
"No, he didn't cut me. But let me clean that up for you. I think you just saved my life. Least I can do, right?"
"Okay. Then I guess we need to do something about that" Xander nodded towards the body.
Half an hour later, his arm cleaned and bandaged, Xander stood contemplating the body of the guy they had killed. Nicole had offered to help him drag the body into the undergrowth, but Xander hadn't wanted her foot prints anywhere near where he was going to leave it, so he had said he could manage it alone. She had looked relieved at his refusal.
He was thankful that his hellmouth training in morgues and cemeteries had given him some immunity to the gut churning effect of mutilated corpses when he bent down to take a firm grasp of the cold dead hands.
He hadn't been a particularly big guy, and he wasn't carrying much excess weight, but it was still hard, slow, work to pull his body off the gravel, across the grass, and through the scrub and bushes. He dragged it as far as he could, then rolled it the rest of the way, to stop against the fence that separated the rest area from the field beyond, thankful that it stopped face downwards.
When he got back to the rest area she was standing exactly where he had left her, next to the car.
"We have to get out of here. Right now!" She said.
"We can't, not until the moon has set. Then we need to put the van back together. Here, help me unload the stuff from the cab, so we're ready to load it in the back, as soon as we can."
She looked as if she was going to question that, but maybe she saw the exhaustion in his face. Whatever it was, she just slipped her sandals off, shrugged, and walking along the grass verge in her bare feet, came to help him drag the mattress out onto the ground.
"That is one big dog you got there."
"Not a dog. He's a wolf. Well sometimes. Listen. Do you have anywhere to go? You could take his car."
"No. I've got nowhere to go, and anyone who knows Clyde, knows his car. I don't think I want to be found with it. Don't want to go back to town at all. Think I'd rather be dead. You know, as far as that lot are concerned."
Xander took another deep breath and thought about it. He thought a bit more and looked at his watch. 5.30am. About an hour before Oz would be back. He didn't want to make any offers without consulting Oz, but the whole situation was a bit out of control. If he couldn't get her to walk away, she was going to see things anyway.
"Okay" he said. "Help me get this stuff stacked up near the back doors. "We'll be out of here as soon as the moon sets. And I need to explain to you why that's important."
An hour later, coffee brewed, there was a polite knocking from the inside of the van. Xander untied the clothesline from the handles and opened the doors.
Oz clambered out scrubbing his hands across his face and took in the sight of preparations. "Guess something did happen then, huh?"
"Oh yeah! Here, drink this. This is Nicole. We'll pack up. We need to move."
They didn't bother to do anything more than chuck the stuff in the back and slam it shut.
"Right! Now listen! Oz, we have a dead body. We need to be gone before his car is spotted. And we need to appear to be gone before it even arrived." He saw the shock beginning to take hold on Oz's face. "Oz! Don't think! Thinking comes later! For now, just do! Get in the van. Drive it out onto the road and get us facing out of town. Wait for us, okay? Nicole, go back over near the car and put those sandals back on. Oz! Don't drive over the car tracks!"
With Oz safely negotiating the van back on to the road, Xander went over to Nicole. "Okay! Listen! I need to have a fight with you and you need to fall to the ground right there! Okay? Can you do that?"
"Why?"
"Tracks! Come on, please, the sun is coming up and there will be traffic soon. Can we just do this?"
"Okay! Okay. Whatever."
Gripping hold of her shoulders, Xander started to shuffle them backwards and forwards a bit, then he said "Right! I am going to push you. You go down. Then I drag you across Oz's tracks to the road and we ride away into the sunrise. Okay?"
"Okay."
For the second time in two hours Xander dragged a slumped body across the ground. One of her shoes came off and she began to scrabble, as if to retrieve it. "Leave it!" he said. "You can have a pair of my sneakers until we can sort something else out"
Once onto the road, she stood up. He took he other sandal from her and helped her get into the cab, climbing in after her. Oz was behind the wheel, pulling on a t-shirt. Xander noticed a newly healed scar across his chest.
"Oh God Oz! I forgot about that. Are you okay?"
Oz shrugged "I heal quicker as the wolf" he said. "But you need to tell me what happened."
Now that they were all safe and the action was over, Xander's adrenaline rush started to fade and exhaustion began to set in. He allowed his head to fall back against the rest and recounted the events of the night. Nicole fell asleep within minutes.
"What I don't understand," finished Xander "is how you got out. And what exactly you were, when you did."
"The wolf let me out" said Oz. "I think," he glanced over at Xander and saw he was asleep. "I think I'll just drive." he said. "Put some distance behind us."
Oz drove and brooded, and brooded and drove, accompanied by the purr of the engine and the gentle snores of his companions. He glanced over at them occasionally. He had not yet exchanged more than 'hello' and 'yes' with Nicole. From what Xander had said, he gathered she was a prostitute, but beyond that, Xander had been too caught up in dealing with the situation for him to find out more.
He thought about the wolf, and the fact that now, when he felt he was at last making progress... Now, was when he killed a man. He needed to know more about Clyde. He needed to mourn him. He understood the mechanics of what had happened. He understood why the wolf had let him take partial control of their body. But he couldn't accept it. He had killed a man and it hurt.
Three or four hours later, there was movement beside him and Nicole slowly opened her eyes. She struggled to sit upright, lifting her head from where it had fallen, onto Xander's shoulder. She checked him first, then turned fearful eyes to Oz.
"You going to throw me out?" she asked.
"I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do. I don't know anything at the moment. Tell me what happened."
"You don't know?"
"I remember bits. Tell me what you saw."
"Didn't see much really. Clyde was being a bastard. 'S funny. Couple of weeks ago, I thought he was wonderful. Like he promised."
Oz raised an eye-brow in question.
"He took me off the street. I wasn't doing so good. Got desperate. Tried to get some money off a man. Clyde got in the way. Told me he would look after me. See I was alright. Told me how to do it right. Set me up with a couple of tricks. It was okay. Then last night, he wanted me to..." her voice faded away.
"It's okay. You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. I just need to know what happened last night."
"I said 'no'. He said 'yes'. He was driving me there and I kept saying 'no'. He pulled over to, persuade me, I guess. But, I've still got my pride. Susanna, she said 'always hang on to your pride'. She said 'they can't take that away from you. No matter what you got to do to survive'. I can be stubborn. I think... Oh God! I think he was going to kill me!"
Xander stirred slightly in his sleep, but didn't wake.
"Shh!" said Oz. "Don't wake him. You're not sure?"
"Oh no! I'm sure al' right! Not at first. First he was just going to beat me up. He's never done that before. But then he pulled the knife. Yes! He was going to kill Xander, and then he was going to kill me."
"So what happened?"
"I got out of the car. He was yelling at me. I was saying 'no'. I tried to run. Then Xander was there." Her voice took on a note of wonder. Like no one had ever stood up for her before. "He knocked him down. They were rolling on the ground. Then Clyde pulled the knife and they were fighting. I didn't do anything. I couldn't. Just watched them. Then this big dog was there. Or, I guess it was you?"
"Yes, it was me. Xander explained about me?"
"Yeah. Not sure I believe it though."
"Believe it! So then?"
"You killed him. Oh God! What am I going to do without him?"
"You loved him? I'm so sorry."
"No!" she said scornfully "I didn't love him." She sounded lost. "But he looked after me. What am I going to do?"
"Well. First, we are going to find somewhere to get something to eat. And I'm going to try and work out how I feel about the fact that I killed someone."
"We killed someone" said Xander, his voice slightly slurred from sleep. "Not you. We!" He groaned again. "I need coffee."
"I saw a sign a mile back. There's a place coming up soon. We can stop there." said Oz.
"You got any clothes I could wear?" Nicole asked. "These are a bit of a mess."
"Sure" said Xander. "You can borrow some of mine. Be a bit baggy on you, but better than torn glitter, I guess."
The diner came into view and Oz pulled in to the parking lot. He parked the van as far from the road as he could and they climbed out. Opening the back they reviewed the utter chaos, and began to sort it out. Xander found a pair of sweats and a t-shirt for her and Oz pulled out his spare sneakers.
"Change in there" said Xander. "You can straighten yourself up properly in the rest room, once we're inside."
Twenty minutes later Oz and Xander were sitting opposite each other at a booth table, with coffee, while they waited for Nicole to come back to order breakfast.
"We can't just dump her, can we?" Oz observed.
"No, I don't think we can. She said she had nowhere to go. I'm really sorry. I had to tell her about you. She wasn't going to go away and she had already seen you. I couldn't think of anything else to do."
"It's okay. I don't think she really believed you. She's a bit too calm."
"So, are we going to take her with us then?"
"Yeah. For now anyway."
"How far have we come?"
"About two hundred miles. I think that might be enough. We can slow down now."
"Okay."
"I really need to think, Xander. I need to work out what happened. Somehow, the wolf let me out. I think it was because it saw you in danger. But, I don't know. Not really. Can we park all that for a while? Just until I've got it a bit clearer in my head?"
"Sure. We need to think about what we do next anyway. Here comes Nicole."
Nicole slid into the seat next to Xander and smiled wanly at him. "I don't have any money" she said.
Xander braced himself again. "Doesn't matter Nicole. First, we get breakfast, or lunch, or whatever. Then we think."
Without her make-up she looked even younger. She smiled slightly "Thank you" she said. She took a breath. "It's not actually Nicole" she added. "It's just plain Nicola. Most people used to call me Nikki. I just thought Nicole was, classier? Like Nicole Kidman, you know?"
Xander smiled back and rubbed his hands together. "Nikki it is then! Now, I'm starving. I need food."
The food did them all good.
They were driving again when something occurred to Oz. He turned to Nikki "Do you need a fix of any sort?"
Nikki glared at him. "Yeah I need a fix" she growled. "I need a shower and some clothes that fit and all the bullshit to go away. That would be a fix."
Oz smiled, relieved. "We'll find a motel then. Maybe stop one night out of the van. What do you think, Xander? Feel like a real bed would be good for a change?"
Xander took one hand off the wheel and reached into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out his wallet. He threw it across to Oz. "Take a look. I think we can spring for a real bed for one night."
Oz pulled all the bills out of his own wallet and Xander's "Need to rustle up some more cash soon though"
Nikki scowled again. "I'm not working" she said.
Xander turned to her in amazement. "Well you're not freeloading" he retorted. "Sorry! Not part of the deal. We all need to find work if we can. There are always places that need dish-washers, waiters or sales staff. We all have to contribute to this, or.... well, we just do!"
Nikki looked slightly abashed. "Oh! yes! I can do that."
Xander went into momentary shock. "You really thought...?" his voice trailed off.
"No! Well, yes, sort of. Look, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't..."
"It's okay." Oz interrupted her stumbling apology. "We'll find some work."
The next day, clean and well rested, they did find work; picking soft fruit. It was back-breaking and left them too tired for conversation, beyond the practicalities of cleaning, cooking and sleeping. After the one night in a motel, they slept in the van; top and tail, Oz and Xander with their heads to the doors, Nikki with hers to the front seats.
The first night, as they settled down, Nikki nudged the chains, "So are you two together then? This is some kinky stuff you've got here".
"No, we aren't together" Xander said. "I told you what that was for."
"Yeah. Sure. Werewolf." Nikki shrugged. "I saw a big dog. I just don't know where it went."
When she inevitably found out; first, she was disbelieving, as Oz and Xander stripped the van, then indignant, as she realised this meant sleeping outside, and finally, amazed and fascinated, when she saw the wolf's eyes, for the first time, peering at her through the cage and the windscreen.
*****
Nikki had been with them for four or five weeks, and they were moving again, when she began to ask questions about their past; where they came from, how they met. Never the future. But Oz saw it as progress.
Xander told her stories of their school days, or nights, hamming it up for laughs. At first Oz just listened too; concerned a little at the light weave of comedy. But, they had met nothing scary in all the months they had been together, other than himself. Slowly, he too, got sucked into the rose coloured glow of nostalgia.
"So, you really were like Ghost Busters?" Nikki asked.
Xander smirked. "Well, we didn't have any of their equipment, just stakes, swords and axes. But, yeah. We really did do that stuff."
"Just, not professionally." Oz added.
*****
"The Master. Now there was a vampire with serious facial challenges. Face like a mouldy prune. But he almost opened the Hellmouth and he did kill Buffy. You never met him did you Oz?" Not really stopping for a reply, he went on "Then there was the invisible girl, who wanted to kill Cordy. Not sure I can forgive her for that."
"The trying, or the failure?" asked Oz.
*****
Little by little she opened up and told them a bit about her life, where the monsters were just as real, but wore human faces. Xander recognised that the benign neglect of his own childhood had been a warm and nurturing environment, compared to Nikki's.
*****
"Then the hyena possessed me. That was the same year the Incan mummy fell in love with me and almost sucked my life away, and on top of that we had to deal with The Master.
"You were possessed by a hyena? Did you change like Oz does?"
No, I just got an instant injection of confidence, arrogance and good dress sense. I also ate a pig and attacked Buffy; not to eat her. Afterwards I told them all that I didn't remember, but I did. All of it.
"Is it gone now?"
"Yeah. Mostly. I still, sort of, have memories. Sometimes... I can almost remember what it felt like. Sometimes it is clearer than others."
"What about you Oz? What does it feel like to you?"
"Outside of full-moon? I can always feel the wolf. Sometimes I think it's talking to me. Sometimes I think I can remember."
"You don't remember? Xander remembered being possessed by the hyena. Why don't you remember the wolf?"
"It's getting clearer with time. Easier to remember. But before, I didn't remember anything. It was like it was here, and I was gone. On the other hand, maybe I'm just getting more familiar with the inside of the van. So it feels like I remember more."
"No" said Xander. "I've noticed the wolf is quieter at night now. Doesn't shake its chains so much."
"But, what about the memory thing?" asked Nikki. "Xander remembers everything, straight off."
Oz thought about that. "I think," he said, "that the difference is that Xander was possessed by the hyena. I am the werewolf. It's not separate." Oz fell silent, thinking about the wolf, as the other two chattered on.
*****
"I left in the end." Nikki mused, staring straight ahead across the wheel, her hands gripping more tightly than necessary. "I was fourteen. Slept rough for a while. Went hungry. Then I met Tommy. He was eighteen. He knew stuff. That was good. He looked after me. We found a squat. I got a job." she trailed off and somehow, maybe Hellmouth instinct, they knew not to ask what had happened to Tommy. "I wonder," she said "he just disappeared. Never came back."
*****
They followed the fruit picking north.
*****
"So," Nikki asked, "is it like, just this one place? Just Sunnydale? Because it's the Hellmouth? Or are there vampires and bug-lady teachers everywhere?"
Xander thought about it. "We haven't seen anything weird anywhere else. But, we haven't exactly been looking either. I do still have a cross and a stake in my bag somewhere. Got to admit though... I couldn't get at them in an emergency." Turning to Oz "Are we being reckless? We're being reckless, aren't we?"
"I don't know. If we had ever run into things, I suppose we would still have that stuff close. The fact that we don't..." Oz petered off, thoughtfully.
"I think it's a Hellmouth thing" Xander said. "I mean, the vampires and such must exist other places; they have to come to Sunnydale from somewhere. But maybe they're just spread thinly? What if the Hellmouth has a way of attracting the nasties? We had this swim coach. He was human. But, he had ideas with fish DNA and performance. Maybe the Hellmouth just attracts evil in truckloads? Makes things work, that wouldn't anywhere else. I don't think he could have made his ideas work anywhere else on earth. And Chris! Remember Chris, Oz? If it wasn't Sunnydale, do you think that anybody, no matter how brainy, could really build a girl out of bits of dead ones in an ordinary school science lab?"
"That was before I met you lot" Oz said. "But, I remember hearing about it. You might have a point. Pete was never that bright at school. Kind of evidenced by what he tried to do."
Nikki demanded all the details and Xander was happy to supply them, just to see her reactions.
*****
But sometimes they were serious.
There were playing a desultory game of I-Spy, as Nikki took her turn her driving.
"C?" Xander's asked again, squinting as the afternoon sun momentarily blinded him.
"C.P." Oz corrected.
"Oh yeah. Right. C.P. C.P. C.P." frustration was beginning to tinge his voice.
"Cloud patterns?" asked Nikki.
"No"
"Corn pops? Coat pocket? Ceiling paint? Clockwork patchwork?" Xander suggested.
"No. Now you're getting desperate."
"Oh, I give up!" Nikki said. "I can't see anything that starts C.P. anywhere."
Xander nodded agreement and the Oz grinned "Cigarette Packet" he said.
"Where? There's no cigarette packet here. You don't smoke, nor does Nikki. Do you?"
"No, I don't. Though I'm thinking of taking up drinking."
"It was crumpled up by the side of the road" Oz explained.
"When? Where?"
"About ten miles back. Before the last crossroads"
"You're making that up."
"Want to go back and look?"
"Yeah! Nikki, turn around, we have to prove this. It's important! We need to find that packet, or prove it doesn't exist!"
It took them an hour, and two runs back and forth, but, just before sunset, Oz was vindicated and Xander admitted as much, with grudging grace.
*****
Sometimes she talked about leaving them, still uncertain of her welcome, or her right to stay. But each time Oz gave her his quiet smile and a task to do. So, somehow it never happened. He taught her to sew and how to cook in one pan and she showed him how to put on make-up so you wouldn't know it was there, while it emphasised his eyes and his cheekbones. "You need it heavier for the stage" she said. "The lights can bleach the colour from your face. You need to emphasise the shadows."
Xander was coming back with an arm load of gathered wood, when he stopped and watched Oz and Nikki chatting quietly over a pan and chopping board. Nikki was chopping onions and Oz reached over, taking her hand with the knife and moved it slightly, to indicate the size he wanted them cut to, looking up into her eyes to check she understood. It was an easy, familiar gesture, and it cut Xander to the bone. So, he fixed a grin on his face and joined them; dropping the sticks in an untidy heap. "So, let me guess. Spaghetti bolognese?"
After that, he began to notice how Nikki gravitated towards Oz. How she always seemed to go and help him, when they set up camp, no matter what task of Oz had chosen to undertake that day.
But it was not a big thing. She seemed to like them both and she was obviously not interested in sex with anyone. And Xander still woke up, some mornings, to find Oz in his arms and occasionally he got a kiss for his troubles.
But, as time went by, anxiety became a permanent state; sitting at the back of his mind and in the pit of his stomach. His cheerfulness became more forced, as he felt Nikki and Oz apparently drawing closer together, leaving him outside. He knew that anxiety was blowing his every fear and self-doubt out of proportion. He knew that was what happened when anxiety became a state of mind; not a single worry, about a specific thing. He knew it wasn't real. But he could do nothing about it. He did the only thing he did know how to do. He hid behind his cheerful mask, as he had done for years. And Nikki didn't know him that well.
*****
Xander watched Oz catch his eye across the fire; saw the swift understanding, before his features settled back into their usual calm friendliness. But, there was a touch of sorrow in his eyes as he continued to gaze into Xander's. Xander found he was waking up alone more often.
*****
They were on the southern shore of Lake Erie, debating whether to head for New York, or follow the shore, past Cleveland, and go see Niagara. Niagara won, but Xander held onto an option on New York for afterwards.
The moon was waxing, but they still had three nights before full and they were walking back towards the van from the all-night diner they had spotted and investigated for a late dinner. This area of town was fairly quiet at night; some offices, closed and dark, a newspaper office and parcel couriers, both still working; light spilling into the street, then the rail yard. The chain mesh fence sagged on its struts; the occasional hole showing where local children got in to play, or maybe older residents went looking for other amusements, or profit.
They were walking three abreast Nikki in the middle, as usual, an arm through one each of theirs, when the dark figure stepped out of the shadows in front of them. Oz first registered surprise at the silence of his movements, before scent alerted him; the man smelt of earth and camphor. His suit was dirty and torn in places; his movements though, were smooth and strong.
"He's new, but he's eaten, at least once." Oz whispered across to Xander.
"Oh shit!" said Xander. "Nikki, what's behind us?"
Nikki glanced over her shoulder "Nothing." She said.
"Run! Back to the diner. Stay there!"
Then the vampire pounced. Nikki ran and Xander went down under 150 lbs of yellow eyed snarl. Oz felt a matching snarl building under his diaphragm and pounced too; jumping on the vampire's back, getting one arm around its neck and pulling its head back by a claw in its hair. Xander, pinned beneath them both, managed to get one arm free. Then Oz was on his back and someone was screaming. Oz shook his head to clear his mind of the red rage that was threatening to take over and saw the vampire scrambling backwards, on its ass, clawing at its own face, as Xander gasped and choked, still waving his water pistol haphazardly from side to side, as he tried to get to his feet.
Then it was quiet again; somehow seeming deathly quiet, in spite of the pants and growls and gasps. The relative silence was shattered, as a train hooted and clattered past, and Nikki was tentatively edging her way back to them from where she had stopped, frozen, twenty yards away.
Xander got to his feet and looked around. Cautiously he approached Oz and crouched on the ground, in front of him.
"Oz man? You okay? Oz? Come back to us Oz." Oz growled again and looked down at his front claws braced on the ground, then up into Xander's face. "Oz?"
Oz shook his head again and felt the crunch and grind of his features settling back to human. "Where'd he go? He asked.
"Don't know. He's gone. Are you okay? I'm okay."
"Think so. Nikki?"
"I'm here. Wow! That was a weird. Oz what happened?"
Oz sat back on the road and looked down at himself. His clothes were not torn and his hands now looked normal again "I don't know. I think I changed... Just not all the way."
Nikki and Xander helped him to stand. The clouds shifted and he stared up at the gibbous moon, then back down at himself. "Think I need to sit down" he said. "Think I need a drink."
Sitting in a booth at the back of the first bar they found, they tried to figure it out.
Oz felt weary. His joints ached. "I don't know if I can explain it" he said. "The wolf. It's been getting closer to the surface for months. It doesn't feel like it's trying to take over. The meditation I do in the morning, or when it's one of you driving, I sometimes feel like I'm the wolf, curled up, half asleep, warm, not quite alert, sort of watching. I'm not explaining this well. Does that make any sense at all?"
"Yeah, I think it does" said Xander.
"I don't know" said Nikki. "I understand what you saying. But I don't understand what you mean."
Xander seemed to realise that he needed time to process this. "Meanwhile," he said "we have a vampire. So, what do we do?"
"What can we do?" Nikki asked.
"Well, we can drive away, or, we can hunt it down."
"If we leave it, it will keep killing people, won't it? And they won't know what to do to stop it. This isn't the Hellmouth. There's no Slayer here."
"Oh God!" Xander sighed "I really hate this stuff! I thought we'd got away from all that. We were having fun. Minding our own business." He trailed off and an awkward silence developed. Looking between them he sighed again "Okay! I give up! I'm in. We go back and find it, yeah?"
"First, we go back to the van and see if we can find some stakes and those crosses you mentioned you still had. And maybe an axe. And what were you doing with a water pistol full of holy water, anyway?" asked Oz as an afterthought.
Two hours later they felt they had walked the whole area, at least three times, with no luck and were each beginning to make noises about heading back. The question of whether they felt they would have to do this again, the next night, was being avoided by all.
It was only a small noise. Possibly just a rogue breeze disturbing a fallen drinks can. But their ears had been straining for any unusual sound for so long, that they all caught it. Edging closer to the opening of the alley Xander peered around. Pulling his head back, he turned to the others and mouthed 'Bingo!'
Carefully placing his sneakered feet, one in front of the other, rolling from heel to toe as silently as possible, he edged forwards. The vampire had not even bothered to pull its victim far into the alley. He was just five feet from its unsuspecting back when he saw it tense. It raised its head and sniffed, before turning around "You Again?" it snarled.
For a moment, Xander froze. Then he heard Nikki rushing forward and Oz's growl and he sprang. He managed to grab an arm and swing the creature round. Oz caught it in the gut with his shoulder and the creature slammed into the wall, momentarily dazed by the attack. Nikki ran forward, stake raised.
"The heart!" Xander cried "Go for the heart!"
And she did. And then there was dust everywhere and they were collapsed over each other; hanging on for mutual support, gasping in relief and from the adrenaline rush.
"Oh wow! " panted Nikki "Did you see? Did you see? It just disappeared. Oh my god! You said. But I didn't really believe it! Oh my god! It went in so easily. I didn't think it would be like that. Oh God! I'm going to be sick!" and she was.
Oz held her up as she leant against the wall with one hand, until the shudders stopped. Xander walked over to the body and touched its neck. "We were too late" he said, dully. "Too late for this guy anyway."
"But not for the others it would have got" said Oz, offering what cold comfort he could.
"Yeah. I guess." Xander looked over at them. Oz was still holding a shivering Nikki, one arm protectively around her shoulders. "Lets go" he said.
Nikki looked up then, hair streaked and plastered to her face, a weary, washed out look in her eyes. "What about?" she asked, with a half-hearted gesture towards the dead man.
"We can't do anything for him," said Xander "and we had better not touch him. I doubt the police here are as retiring as their brothers in Sunnydale. We can't afford to leave prints. We'll make a call once we are back at the van."
Nikki had nightmares that night and ended up turned around, sleeping, huddled, between the two men.
By an unspoken agreement they did not move on to Cleveland and Niagara the next day. They stayed on the derelict plot, where they had parked the day before and went back to the diner for coffee, when they woke.
Oz hovered over Nikki, urging her to eat, and eventually she gave in, mainly to shut him up, Xander suspected. Oz squeezed her shoulder, then turned to Xander and grabbed his hand, giving that a squeeze too and holding on.
"We're going to be okay" he said.
They watched the day go by, through the window of the diner; saw the police head in, and then back out of the alley, saw the area return to normal. And eventually they talked.
"We don't know if it turned that guy" Xander said. "We might have just swapped one vampire for another. Maybe I should have taken his head off? I just didn't think of that. I was worried about us."
"You were right" said Nikki. "You were right! But, what does that mean?"
"It means, we might still have a problem. I wonder where the nearest morgue is."
"I guess it would be at the nearest hospital. Do you want to go and investigate?" asked Oz.
"No. It's too dangerous. I may know how to get into the Sunnydale morgue. But here, in a strange town? No. Us getting caught would lead to questions we couldn't answer, especially when the supporting evidence is dust."
"He looked like an ordinary guy," said Nikki "like he was just coming out of work or something. You know? I've never seen a dead body before, before Clyde..." and she started to shake again, bending her head forward over the table; hair falling to hide her face.
Oz placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards him, making quiet 'shh-ing' noises. Xander watched them, feeling again the pain of exclusion.
"You know, there are people who revere vampires. There was a group in Sunnydale once, almost got themselves killed."
Conversation petered off, to silence, again.
Mid-morning they went for a walk, scouting the area, getting a breath of cold, and almost clean, air. They found a hospital, even saw the entrance to the morgue, but they didn't try to go in.
Back in the diner, in the late afternoon, Oz was apparently ready to start thinking again.
"From what I remember," he said "they don't tend to wander much. At least, not when they're new. That summer, when Buffy was away, the ones we missed one night always seemed to be still around the next. If he was turned, if he wakes in the hospital, we have a good chance of finding him still around here tonight, maybe? If we catch him before he feeds, he won't be as strong."
"That's a lot of 'if's' and 'maybe's' Oz."
Oz looked momentarily crestfallen "I know," he said "but it's the only idea I have."
"I could do that bait thing" Nikki suggested.
"That bait thing?"
"Yeah, Xander told me how you got your friend Cordelia to do that, in the old days. How she would sit on a park bench and the vamps would come for her and then you would dust them all."
"Er... Yeah," Oz replied "sure, we tried that, a few times." He trailed off in the face of her mounting enthusiasm.
"There's a park just across from the hospital. You saw it. If I sat there? He tries for me and you get him. You are really fierce when you change Oz."
"But, it's not a full moon. I can't do that."
"You did it last night. So, it can't be just the moon."
Xander could see problems with this plan. But he held his peace, letting them talk over him, arguing back and forth; feeling his helplessness in the face of their relationship.
"Whatever!" He said. "We have to do something."
So, come sunset, there they were, in the small park opposite the hospital morgue, in full view of the doors but out of sight of the main entrance. Xander still had an uneasy feeling. But now he was also angry. Angry with the vampire yesterday; for existing. Angry with the dead man; for possibly being turned. Angry with Oz and Nikki; for coming up with a plan he really didn't like. And angry with himself; for not saying anything. And when Xander got angry, he got stubborn. 'Mulish' his mother used to call it, and he acknowledged that. He was too honest with himself, nowadays, to try and get away with 'dignified silence', even in his own head.
Nikki sat on a bench, under a street light, her back to the road, reading a newspaper. Xander, and a semi-naked Oz, hid in nearby bushes with a view, through the branches, to the door of the morgue. Every now and then she would look over to them and one of them would quietly call out "Nothing Yet". At 8pm she complained that she was now more up-to-date with current affairs then she had ever wanted to be. At 10pm she complained about the quality of the personal ads. By midnight she had read the entire paper twice, cover to cover, and Oz and Xander were taking turns watching the door.
A few people, obviously members of staff, had come and gone, but no one else. The road was quieter now and pedestrian traffic was down to almost zero. Boredom was eventually doing for Xander, what reason had failed to do earlier, while his sense of unease was growing. Eventually the pressure grew to a point where he had to speak.
"I don't like this Oz" he whispered. "This never worked when we tried it at home and now I know a bit more; it just feels dangerous. I know Cordy never got hurt. But that was sheer luck, you know? I have a bad feeling. We should come up with a better plan. We don't even know if there is a vampire."
"But if there is, this might be our only chance to get it" Oz whispered back. "If it gets away tonight, it might head back to its human home and we don't know where that is."
"We could follow it. Ambush it as it walks. Nikki is a sitting duck out there. Do you even know if you can change?"
"I did before. I think I can again. I realise now; the wolf is not my master. It is part of me. I'm not afraid of it any more. You can't realise what that means to me. You gave me that Xander. You saw the truth. I would never have learnt to love it. I can do this. I know I can." Oz turned towards him, to emphasise his point "I'm not scared Xander! You have no idea what this means, after years of repressing it. To realise it's my friend. It really is me! I can feel it, so close. The Moon's nearly full, so it's easier tonight. I can change now if I need to. Or, I can stay like this if I don't."
Turning back, he resumed his watch of the door.
Xander glanced towards Nikki and the shock sent a bolt of adrenaline into his bloodstream. It was there! He was up and running before the words left his mouth "Change!"
Xander ran towards the bench. Nikki was struggling in the vampire's grasp. One of its hands was over her mouth, the other in her hair, pulling her head aside. The world seemed to shift into slow-motion. He could hear Nikki's muffled cries. He heard his own feet hitting the ground and he heard Oz's growl turn into a howl of savage anger. He was almost there when the wolf tore past him and pounced on the vampire's back. The blow knocked the vampire to the ground, but it dragged Nikki with it; it's feeding frenzy making it slow to react to this external threat. Oz tore into the side of its neck, forcing it to release Nikki, as it howled itself, rolling backwards, with Oz on top. Xander tried to grab one flailing arm, to keep the claws away from both Nikki and himself. But it wrenched loose and he felt the hot pain as it raked his thigh. The wolf squealed and rolled off, exposing the vampire's chest and Xander brought the stake down hard. He pulled back, expecting the dust, but the vampire merely howled again. Then Oz was there, half-human and naked. He grabbed the stake, pulled it out and plunged it back in. This time the dust did explode around them.
Xander scrambled across the ground to Nikki's still form. He couldn't tell if she was breathing or not. As quickly as he could, he gathered her up and started to run, calling back "Get dressed! Follow me!"
His thigh burned as he staggered into the hospital, shouting for help. He had a fleeting memory of another time, with a sick Slayer; the staff seemed to take so long to react, shocked by his sudden appearance. Then, just as Oz careered in behind him, they broke into rapid action. A trolley appeared. A dressing was pressed to the sluggish flow at the neck. Rapid-fire questions of "What happened?" "How long ago?" which he tried his best to answer. A call for blood. A cry for a surgeon. Someone bending over her checking for vital signs. Then it all went still. The doctor pulled back and stood upright with a sigh of regret.
Xander's brain refused to accept that. "Come on! Come on!" he shouted. "You have to do something for her!"
The Doctor turned in slow motion "I'm sorry" he said. "She's dead."
Xander felt his knees give way.
Then a nurse was helping him to sit on another trolley and was cutting his jeans away from his leg. The doctor cleaned the wound and applied a dressing, asking questions about tetanus shots, which he hardly heard. He saw Oz, shirt still unbuttoned, lean back against the wall and slowly collapse. Another nurse ran to him. He had a claw scratch across his chest, in almost exactly the same place that Clyde's knife had cut him, so many months ago.
And then it was quiet.
As soon as they let go of him Xander staggered across the room and leaned over Nikki's body. There was no blood on her lips or teeth. He stroked her hair back from her cheek, and wept. Oz joined him, putting an arm around his shoulder, pulling him into an awkward embrace.
Sunnydale wits came to the fore as they explained about the wild dog attack. The nurse made some comment about it being the second such in two days. The police took their statements and promised to catch it. Nikki was wheeled away and they were guided into a quiet room away from the entrance traffic. The sign on the door said 'Family Room'.
Later, as they sat numb on the couch, hands clasped, Xander's arm around Oz's shoulder and Oz's head on his shoulder, a social worker came to talk about practical things; like funerals.
Oz pulled his wallet out and emptied it, Xander did the same and a total of $352 was collected on the seat. The social worker sighed and left, to get the forms for them to request help from the city. It all seemed to take forever, but the need to be practical pulled them out of their shock. Oz's driving licence gave his address as his dorm at UC Sunnydale and they used that. The social worker was not totally satisfied, but Xander had put his wallet away. He volunteered the trailer park in Oxnard as his last fixed address.
At last it was done and they were allowed to leave. That night, and then for another three, Xander slept with his head resting on a wolf's flanks and in the mornings, they held each other tight.
A week later, after more awkward reassurances from the police, that the dog would be caught, and a sorry funeral service, with $38 between them, they drove away; heading south.
Oz did most of the driving; his nights as a wolf having helped him to heal more quickly than Xander. The passenger seat seemed too big without a third person occupying it.
They found work again and, with it, conversation returned.
Oz berated himself for looking away. Xander blamed himself for going along with a plan he knew was flawed. But, eventually, as Oz had learned, so many months ago, the mind can only take so much anguish. Eventually, they turned to 'Do You Remember', and the tension began to seep out of their bones and their spirits.
"She was so fragile, behind the toughness" said Oz. "I don't think she had ever, really, had a friend, let alone two at once."
"There was Tommy."
"He was her protector, not an equal relationship, so not necessarily a real friend."
*****
"Remember when you asked if she was a druggy?"
*****
"She really liked to cook. You taught her that."
"I liked her beef stew, even with the carrots."
*****
"Yesterday I found the bag she made me. The one she made from her hooker dress. I'm going to keep my badges in it."
*****
"She was swamped in your T-shirt. Looked like a little girl."
"But when she got clothes that fitted..."
"She still looked like a little girl."
"I failed her" said Xander, suddenly honest. "I was jealous. I thought you were going to leave me behind."
"We both failed her," Oz said "and we failed ourselves."
"What about us?"
"We decide, what is important."
"Life."
"Yes. Life is important. But, more important, is living well."
"So, how do we live well?"
Oz laughed, it felt to him like the first time he had laughed in, forever. "We decide what is important."
"You can't really run away can you? The fight always catches you." Xander paused in thought. "I wonder how the Hellmouth is. What they're doing."
"Shall we go home?"
"Yes. Let's go home. That's where our fight should be."
"Do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon."
"Are you going all deep on me there, Oz?"
Oz smiled, as he put the van in gear and started to drive.
That night they made love for the first time; clinging together, searching only for comfort and release. Thrusting and rubbing against each other; they both found something else.
The next day, they started their long drive home to Sunnydale.
************
Don't be sad. 'Cause one out of three ain't bad. - a misquote of the final chorus line in 'From Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad', by Meatloaf.
Do not despise the snake... From the introduction to each episode in the cult Japanese television series, 'The Water Margins', made in the 70's and dubbed into English by the BBC.
Drifters 2/2
'Shit!' he had forgotten the woman. Wearily raising his head, he once again scrambled to his feet and walked back towards the scene. 'Scene of the crime' his inner voice noted.
"Yeah, I'm okay." 'Oh God! What do I do now?'
The woman, hardly more than a girl, had got to her feet and was slowly limping towards him on her high heeled sandals, keeping her head averted from the mangled mess that had been her companion.
"You're hurt" she observed. "Got a first aid kit in there?"
Xander rubbed his brow with one shaking hand and paused to think. "Uh, yes, I think so, uh, somewhere, hang on. You okay? He cut you at all?"
"No, he didn't cut me. But let me clean that up for you. I think you just saved my life. Least I can do, right?"
"Okay. Then I guess we need to do something about that" Xander nodded towards the body.
Half an hour later, his arm cleaned and bandaged, Xander stood contemplating the body of the guy they had killed. Nicole had offered to help him drag the body into the undergrowth, but Xander hadn't wanted her foot prints anywhere near where he was going to leave it, so he had said he could manage it alone. She had looked relieved at his refusal.
He was thankful that his hellmouth training in morgues and cemeteries had given him some immunity to the gut churning effect of mutilated corpses when he bent down to take a firm grasp of the cold dead hands.
He hadn't been a particularly big guy, and he wasn't carrying much excess weight, but it was still hard, slow, work to pull his body off the gravel, across the grass, and through the scrub and bushes. He dragged it as far as he could, then rolled it the rest of the way, to stop against the fence that separated the rest area from the field beyond, thankful that it stopped face downwards.
When he got back to the rest area she was standing exactly where he had left her, next to the car.
"We have to get out of here. Right now!" She said.
"We can't, not until the moon has set. Then we need to put the van back together. Here, help me unload the stuff from the cab, so we're ready to load it in the back, as soon as we can."
She looked as if she was going to question that, but maybe she saw the exhaustion in his face. Whatever it was, she just slipped her sandals off, shrugged, and walking along the grass verge in her bare feet, came to help him drag the mattress out onto the ground.
"That is one big dog you got there."
"Not a dog. He's a wolf. Well sometimes. Listen. Do you have anywhere to go? You could take his car."
"No. I've got nowhere to go, and anyone who knows Clyde, knows his car. I don't think I want to be found with it. Don't want to go back to town at all. Think I'd rather be dead. You know, as far as that lot are concerned."
Xander took another deep breath and thought about it. He thought a bit more and looked at his watch. 5.30am. About an hour before Oz would be back. He didn't want to make any offers without consulting Oz, but the whole situation was a bit out of control. If he couldn't get her to walk away, she was going to see things anyway.
"Okay" he said. "Help me get this stuff stacked up near the back doors. "We'll be out of here as soon as the moon sets. And I need to explain to you why that's important."
An hour later, coffee brewed, there was a polite knocking from the inside of the van. Xander untied the clothesline from the handles and opened the doors.
Oz clambered out scrubbing his hands across his face and took in the sight of preparations. "Guess something did happen then, huh?"
"Oh yeah! Here, drink this. This is Nicole. We'll pack up. We need to move."
They didn't bother to do anything more than chuck the stuff in the back and slam it shut.
"Right! Now listen! Oz, we have a dead body. We need to be gone before his car is spotted. And we need to appear to be gone before it even arrived." He saw the shock beginning to take hold on Oz's face. "Oz! Don't think! Thinking comes later! For now, just do! Get in the van. Drive it out onto the road and get us facing out of town. Wait for us, okay? Nicole, go back over near the car and put those sandals back on. Oz! Don't drive over the car tracks!"
With Oz safely negotiating the van back on to the road, Xander went over to Nicole. "Okay! Listen! I need to have a fight with you and you need to fall to the ground right there! Okay? Can you do that?"
"Why?"
"Tracks! Come on, please, the sun is coming up and there will be traffic soon. Can we just do this?"
"Okay! Okay. Whatever."
Gripping hold of her shoulders, Xander started to shuffle them backwards and forwards a bit, then he said "Right! I am going to push you. You go down. Then I drag you across Oz's tracks to the road and we ride away into the sunrise. Okay?"
"Okay."
For the second time in two hours Xander dragged a slumped body across the ground. One of her shoes came off and she began to scrabble, as if to retrieve it. "Leave it!" he said. "You can have a pair of my sneakers until we can sort something else out"
Once onto the road, she stood up. He took he other sandal from her and helped her get into the cab, climbing in after her. Oz was behind the wheel, pulling on a t-shirt. Xander noticed a newly healed scar across his chest.
"Oh God Oz! I forgot about that. Are you okay?"
Oz shrugged "I heal quicker as the wolf" he said. "But you need to tell me what happened."
Now that they were all safe and the action was over, Xander's adrenaline rush started to fade and exhaustion began to set in. He allowed his head to fall back against the rest and recounted the events of the night. Nicole fell asleep within minutes.
"What I don't understand," finished Xander "is how you got out. And what exactly you were, when you did."
"The wolf let me out" said Oz. "I think," he glanced over at Xander and saw he was asleep. "I think I'll just drive." he said. "Put some distance behind us."
Oz drove and brooded, and brooded and drove, accompanied by the purr of the engine and the gentle snores of his companions. He glanced over at them occasionally. He had not yet exchanged more than 'hello' and 'yes' with Nicole. From what Xander had said, he gathered she was a prostitute, but beyond that, Xander had been too caught up in dealing with the situation for him to find out more.
He thought about the wolf, and the fact that now, when he felt he was at last making progress... Now, was when he killed a man. He needed to know more about Clyde. He needed to mourn him. He understood the mechanics of what had happened. He understood why the wolf had let him take partial control of their body. But he couldn't accept it. He had killed a man and it hurt.
Three or four hours later, there was movement beside him and Nicole slowly opened her eyes. She struggled to sit upright, lifting her head from where it had fallen, onto Xander's shoulder. She checked him first, then turned fearful eyes to Oz.
"You going to throw me out?" she asked.
"I don't know. I don't know what we're going to do. I don't know anything at the moment. Tell me what happened."
"You don't know?"
"I remember bits. Tell me what you saw."
"Didn't see much really. Clyde was being a bastard. 'S funny. Couple of weeks ago, I thought he was wonderful. Like he promised."
Oz raised an eye-brow in question.
"He took me off the street. I wasn't doing so good. Got desperate. Tried to get some money off a man. Clyde got in the way. Told me he would look after me. See I was alright. Told me how to do it right. Set me up with a couple of tricks. It was okay. Then last night, he wanted me to..." her voice faded away.
"It's okay. You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. I just need to know what happened last night."
"I said 'no'. He said 'yes'. He was driving me there and I kept saying 'no'. He pulled over to, persuade me, I guess. But, I've still got my pride. Susanna, she said 'always hang on to your pride'. She said 'they can't take that away from you. No matter what you got to do to survive'. I can be stubborn. I think... Oh God! I think he was going to kill me!"
Xander stirred slightly in his sleep, but didn't wake.
"Shh!" said Oz. "Don't wake him. You're not sure?"
"Oh no! I'm sure al' right! Not at first. First he was just going to beat me up. He's never done that before. But then he pulled the knife. Yes! He was going to kill Xander, and then he was going to kill me."
"So what happened?"
"I got out of the car. He was yelling at me. I was saying 'no'. I tried to run. Then Xander was there." Her voice took on a note of wonder. Like no one had ever stood up for her before. "He knocked him down. They were rolling on the ground. Then Clyde pulled the knife and they were fighting. I didn't do anything. I couldn't. Just watched them. Then this big dog was there. Or, I guess it was you?"
"Yes, it was me. Xander explained about me?"
"Yeah. Not sure I believe it though."
"Believe it! So then?"
"You killed him. Oh God! What am I going to do without him?"
"You loved him? I'm so sorry."
"No!" she said scornfully "I didn't love him." She sounded lost. "But he looked after me. What am I going to do?"
"Well. First, we are going to find somewhere to get something to eat. And I'm going to try and work out how I feel about the fact that I killed someone."
"We killed someone" said Xander, his voice slightly slurred from sleep. "Not you. We!" He groaned again. "I need coffee."
"I saw a sign a mile back. There's a place coming up soon. We can stop there." said Oz.
"You got any clothes I could wear?" Nicole asked. "These are a bit of a mess."
"Sure" said Xander. "You can borrow some of mine. Be a bit baggy on you, but better than torn glitter, I guess."
The diner came into view and Oz pulled in to the parking lot. He parked the van as far from the road as he could and they climbed out. Opening the back they reviewed the utter chaos, and began to sort it out. Xander found a pair of sweats and a t-shirt for her and Oz pulled out his spare sneakers.
"Change in there" said Xander. "You can straighten yourself up properly in the rest room, once we're inside."
Twenty minutes later Oz and Xander were sitting opposite each other at a booth table, with coffee, while they waited for Nicole to come back to order breakfast.
"We can't just dump her, can we?" Oz observed.
"No, I don't think we can. She said she had nowhere to go. I'm really sorry. I had to tell her about you. She wasn't going to go away and she had already seen you. I couldn't think of anything else to do."
"It's okay. I don't think she really believed you. She's a bit too calm."
"So, are we going to take her with us then?"
"Yeah. For now anyway."
"How far have we come?"
"About two hundred miles. I think that might be enough. We can slow down now."
"Okay."
"I really need to think, Xander. I need to work out what happened. Somehow, the wolf let me out. I think it was because it saw you in danger. But, I don't know. Not really. Can we park all that for a while? Just until I've got it a bit clearer in my head?"
"Sure. We need to think about what we do next anyway. Here comes Nicole."
Nicole slid into the seat next to Xander and smiled wanly at him. "I don't have any money" she said.
Xander braced himself again. "Doesn't matter Nicole. First, we get breakfast, or lunch, or whatever. Then we think."
Without her make-up she looked even younger. She smiled slightly "Thank you" she said. She took a breath. "It's not actually Nicole" she added. "It's just plain Nicola. Most people used to call me Nikki. I just thought Nicole was, classier? Like Nicole Kidman, you know?"
Xander smiled back and rubbed his hands together. "Nikki it is then! Now, I'm starving. I need food."
The food did them all good.
They were driving again when something occurred to Oz. He turned to Nikki "Do you need a fix of any sort?"
Nikki glared at him. "Yeah I need a fix" she growled. "I need a shower and some clothes that fit and all the bullshit to go away. That would be a fix."
Oz smiled, relieved. "We'll find a motel then. Maybe stop one night out of the van. What do you think, Xander? Feel like a real bed would be good for a change?"
Xander took one hand off the wheel and reached into the pocket of his jacket, pulling out his wallet. He threw it across to Oz. "Take a look. I think we can spring for a real bed for one night."
Oz pulled all the bills out of his own wallet and Xander's "Need to rustle up some more cash soon though"
Nikki scowled again. "I'm not working" she said.
Xander turned to her in amazement. "Well you're not freeloading" he retorted. "Sorry! Not part of the deal. We all need to find work if we can. There are always places that need dish-washers, waiters or sales staff. We all have to contribute to this, or.... well, we just do!"
Nikki looked slightly abashed. "Oh! yes! I can do that."
Xander went into momentary shock. "You really thought...?" his voice trailed off.
"No! Well, yes, sort of. Look, I'm sorry. I guess I didn't..."
"It's okay." Oz interrupted her stumbling apology. "We'll find some work."
The next day, clean and well rested, they did find work; picking soft fruit. It was back-breaking and left them too tired for conversation, beyond the practicalities of cleaning, cooking and sleeping. After the one night in a motel, they slept in the van; top and tail, Oz and Xander with their heads to the doors, Nikki with hers to the front seats.
The first night, as they settled down, Nikki nudged the chains, "So are you two together then? This is some kinky stuff you've got here".
"No, we aren't together" Xander said. "I told you what that was for."
"Yeah. Sure. Werewolf." Nikki shrugged. "I saw a big dog. I just don't know where it went."
When she inevitably found out; first, she was disbelieving, as Oz and Xander stripped the van, then indignant, as she realised this meant sleeping outside, and finally, amazed and fascinated, when she saw the wolf's eyes, for the first time, peering at her through the cage and the windscreen.
*****
Nikki had been with them for four or five weeks, and they were moving again, when she began to ask questions about their past; where they came from, how they met. Never the future. But Oz saw it as progress.
Xander told her stories of their school days, or nights, hamming it up for laughs. At first Oz just listened too; concerned a little at the light weave of comedy. But, they had met nothing scary in all the months they had been together, other than himself. Slowly, he too, got sucked into the rose coloured glow of nostalgia.
"So, you really were like Ghost Busters?" Nikki asked.
Xander smirked. "Well, we didn't have any of their equipment, just stakes, swords and axes. But, yeah. We really did do that stuff."
"Just, not professionally." Oz added.
*****
"The Master. Now there was a vampire with serious facial challenges. Face like a mouldy prune. But he almost opened the Hellmouth and he did kill Buffy. You never met him did you Oz?" Not really stopping for a reply, he went on "Then there was the invisible girl, who wanted to kill Cordy. Not sure I can forgive her for that."
"The trying, or the failure?" asked Oz.
*****
Little by little she opened up and told them a bit about her life, where the monsters were just as real, but wore human faces. Xander recognised that the benign neglect of his own childhood had been a warm and nurturing environment, compared to Nikki's.
*****
"Then the hyena possessed me. That was the same year the Incan mummy fell in love with me and almost sucked my life away, and on top of that we had to deal with The Master.
"You were possessed by a hyena? Did you change like Oz does?"
No, I just got an instant injection of confidence, arrogance and good dress sense. I also ate a pig and attacked Buffy; not to eat her. Afterwards I told them all that I didn't remember, but I did. All of it.
"Is it gone now?"
"Yeah. Mostly. I still, sort of, have memories. Sometimes... I can almost remember what it felt like. Sometimes it is clearer than others."
"What about you Oz? What does it feel like to you?"
"Outside of full-moon? I can always feel the wolf. Sometimes I think it's talking to me. Sometimes I think I can remember."
"You don't remember? Xander remembered being possessed by the hyena. Why don't you remember the wolf?"
"It's getting clearer with time. Easier to remember. But before, I didn't remember anything. It was like it was here, and I was gone. On the other hand, maybe I'm just getting more familiar with the inside of the van. So it feels like I remember more."
"No" said Xander. "I've noticed the wolf is quieter at night now. Doesn't shake its chains so much."
"But, what about the memory thing?" asked Nikki. "Xander remembers everything, straight off."
Oz thought about that. "I think," he said, "that the difference is that Xander was possessed by the hyena. I am the werewolf. It's not separate." Oz fell silent, thinking about the wolf, as the other two chattered on.
*****
"I left in the end." Nikki mused, staring straight ahead across the wheel, her hands gripping more tightly than necessary. "I was fourteen. Slept rough for a while. Went hungry. Then I met Tommy. He was eighteen. He knew stuff. That was good. He looked after me. We found a squat. I got a job." she trailed off and somehow, maybe Hellmouth instinct, they knew not to ask what had happened to Tommy. "I wonder," she said "he just disappeared. Never came back."
*****
They followed the fruit picking north.
*****
"So," Nikki asked, "is it like, just this one place? Just Sunnydale? Because it's the Hellmouth? Or are there vampires and bug-lady teachers everywhere?"
Xander thought about it. "We haven't seen anything weird anywhere else. But, we haven't exactly been looking either. I do still have a cross and a stake in my bag somewhere. Got to admit though... I couldn't get at them in an emergency." Turning to Oz "Are we being reckless? We're being reckless, aren't we?"
"I don't know. If we had ever run into things, I suppose we would still have that stuff close. The fact that we don't..." Oz petered off, thoughtfully.
"I think it's a Hellmouth thing" Xander said. "I mean, the vampires and such must exist other places; they have to come to Sunnydale from somewhere. But maybe they're just spread thinly? What if the Hellmouth has a way of attracting the nasties? We had this swim coach. He was human. But, he had ideas with fish DNA and performance. Maybe the Hellmouth just attracts evil in truckloads? Makes things work, that wouldn't anywhere else. I don't think he could have made his ideas work anywhere else on earth. And Chris! Remember Chris, Oz? If it wasn't Sunnydale, do you think that anybody, no matter how brainy, could really build a girl out of bits of dead ones in an ordinary school science lab?"
"That was before I met you lot" Oz said. "But, I remember hearing about it. You might have a point. Pete was never that bright at school. Kind of evidenced by what he tried to do."
Nikki demanded all the details and Xander was happy to supply them, just to see her reactions.
*****
But sometimes they were serious.
There were playing a desultory game of I-Spy, as Nikki took her turn her driving.
"C?" Xander's asked again, squinting as the afternoon sun momentarily blinded him.
"C.P." Oz corrected.
"Oh yeah. Right. C.P. C.P. C.P." frustration was beginning to tinge his voice.
"Cloud patterns?" asked Nikki.
"No"
"Corn pops? Coat pocket? Ceiling paint? Clockwork patchwork?" Xander suggested.
"No. Now you're getting desperate."
"Oh, I give up!" Nikki said. "I can't see anything that starts C.P. anywhere."
Xander nodded agreement and the Oz grinned "Cigarette Packet" he said.
"Where? There's no cigarette packet here. You don't smoke, nor does Nikki. Do you?"
"No, I don't. Though I'm thinking of taking up drinking."
"It was crumpled up by the side of the road" Oz explained.
"When? Where?"
"About ten miles back. Before the last crossroads"
"You're making that up."
"Want to go back and look?"
"Yeah! Nikki, turn around, we have to prove this. It's important! We need to find that packet, or prove it doesn't exist!"
It took them an hour, and two runs back and forth, but, just before sunset, Oz was vindicated and Xander admitted as much, with grudging grace.
*****
Sometimes she talked about leaving them, still uncertain of her welcome, or her right to stay. But each time Oz gave her his quiet smile and a task to do. So, somehow it never happened. He taught her to sew and how to cook in one pan and she showed him how to put on make-up so you wouldn't know it was there, while it emphasised his eyes and his cheekbones. "You need it heavier for the stage" she said. "The lights can bleach the colour from your face. You need to emphasise the shadows."
Xander was coming back with an arm load of gathered wood, when he stopped and watched Oz and Nikki chatting quietly over a pan and chopping board. Nikki was chopping onions and Oz reached over, taking her hand with the knife and moved it slightly, to indicate the size he wanted them cut to, looking up into her eyes to check she understood. It was an easy, familiar gesture, and it cut Xander to the bone. So, he fixed a grin on his face and joined them; dropping the sticks in an untidy heap. "So, let me guess. Spaghetti bolognese?"
After that, he began to notice how Nikki gravitated towards Oz. How she always seemed to go and help him, when they set up camp, no matter what task of Oz had chosen to undertake that day.
But it was not a big thing. She seemed to like them both and she was obviously not interested in sex with anyone. And Xander still woke up, some mornings, to find Oz in his arms and occasionally he got a kiss for his troubles.
But, as time went by, anxiety became a permanent state; sitting at the back of his mind and in the pit of his stomach. His cheerfulness became more forced, as he felt Nikki and Oz apparently drawing closer together, leaving him outside. He knew that anxiety was blowing his every fear and self-doubt out of proportion. He knew that was what happened when anxiety became a state of mind; not a single worry, about a specific thing. He knew it wasn't real. But he could do nothing about it. He did the only thing he did know how to do. He hid behind his cheerful mask, as he had done for years. And Nikki didn't know him that well.
*****
Xander watched Oz catch his eye across the fire; saw the swift understanding, before his features settled back into their usual calm friendliness. But, there was a touch of sorrow in his eyes as he continued to gaze into Xander's. Xander found he was waking up alone more often.
*****
They were on the southern shore of Lake Erie, debating whether to head for New York, or follow the shore, past Cleveland, and go see Niagara. Niagara won, but Xander held onto an option on New York for afterwards.
The moon was waxing, but they still had three nights before full and they were walking back towards the van from the all-night diner they had spotted and investigated for a late dinner. This area of town was fairly quiet at night; some offices, closed and dark, a newspaper office and parcel couriers, both still working; light spilling into the street, then the rail yard. The chain mesh fence sagged on its struts; the occasional hole showing where local children got in to play, or maybe older residents went looking for other amusements, or profit.
They were walking three abreast Nikki in the middle, as usual, an arm through one each of theirs, when the dark figure stepped out of the shadows in front of them. Oz first registered surprise at the silence of his movements, before scent alerted him; the man smelt of earth and camphor. His suit was dirty and torn in places; his movements though, were smooth and strong.
"He's new, but he's eaten, at least once." Oz whispered across to Xander.
"Oh shit!" said Xander. "Nikki, what's behind us?"
Nikki glanced over her shoulder "Nothing." She said.
"Run! Back to the diner. Stay there!"
Then the vampire pounced. Nikki ran and Xander went down under 150 lbs of yellow eyed snarl. Oz felt a matching snarl building under his diaphragm and pounced too; jumping on the vampire's back, getting one arm around its neck and pulling its head back by a claw in its hair. Xander, pinned beneath them both, managed to get one arm free. Then Oz was on his back and someone was screaming. Oz shook his head to clear his mind of the red rage that was threatening to take over and saw the vampire scrambling backwards, on its ass, clawing at its own face, as Xander gasped and choked, still waving his water pistol haphazardly from side to side, as he tried to get to his feet.
Then it was quiet again; somehow seeming deathly quiet, in spite of the pants and growls and gasps. The relative silence was shattered, as a train hooted and clattered past, and Nikki was tentatively edging her way back to them from where she had stopped, frozen, twenty yards away.
Xander got to his feet and looked around. Cautiously he approached Oz and crouched on the ground, in front of him.
"Oz man? You okay? Oz? Come back to us Oz." Oz growled again and looked down at his front claws braced on the ground, then up into Xander's face. "Oz?"
Oz shook his head again and felt the crunch and grind of his features settling back to human. "Where'd he go? He asked.
"Don't know. He's gone. Are you okay? I'm okay."
"Think so. Nikki?"
"I'm here. Wow! That was a weird. Oz what happened?"
Oz sat back on the road and looked down at himself. His clothes were not torn and his hands now looked normal again "I don't know. I think I changed... Just not all the way."
Nikki and Xander helped him to stand. The clouds shifted and he stared up at the gibbous moon, then back down at himself. "Think I need to sit down" he said. "Think I need a drink."
Sitting in a booth at the back of the first bar they found, they tried to figure it out.
Oz felt weary. His joints ached. "I don't know if I can explain it" he said. "The wolf. It's been getting closer to the surface for months. It doesn't feel like it's trying to take over. The meditation I do in the morning, or when it's one of you driving, I sometimes feel like I'm the wolf, curled up, half asleep, warm, not quite alert, sort of watching. I'm not explaining this well. Does that make any sense at all?"
"Yeah, I think it does" said Xander.
"I don't know" said Nikki. "I understand what you saying. But I don't understand what you mean."
Xander seemed to realise that he needed time to process this. "Meanwhile," he said "we have a vampire. So, what do we do?"
"What can we do?" Nikki asked.
"Well, we can drive away, or, we can hunt it down."
"If we leave it, it will keep killing people, won't it? And they won't know what to do to stop it. This isn't the Hellmouth. There's no Slayer here."
"Oh God!" Xander sighed "I really hate this stuff! I thought we'd got away from all that. We were having fun. Minding our own business." He trailed off and an awkward silence developed. Looking between them he sighed again "Okay! I give up! I'm in. We go back and find it, yeah?"
"First, we go back to the van and see if we can find some stakes and those crosses you mentioned you still had. And maybe an axe. And what were you doing with a water pistol full of holy water, anyway?" asked Oz as an afterthought.
Two hours later they felt they had walked the whole area, at least three times, with no luck and were each beginning to make noises about heading back. The question of whether they felt they would have to do this again, the next night, was being avoided by all.
It was only a small noise. Possibly just a rogue breeze disturbing a fallen drinks can. But their ears had been straining for any unusual sound for so long, that they all caught it. Edging closer to the opening of the alley Xander peered around. Pulling his head back, he turned to the others and mouthed 'Bingo!'
Carefully placing his sneakered feet, one in front of the other, rolling from heel to toe as silently as possible, he edged forwards. The vampire had not even bothered to pull its victim far into the alley. He was just five feet from its unsuspecting back when he saw it tense. It raised its head and sniffed, before turning around "You Again?" it snarled.
For a moment, Xander froze. Then he heard Nikki rushing forward and Oz's growl and he sprang. He managed to grab an arm and swing the creature round. Oz caught it in the gut with his shoulder and the creature slammed into the wall, momentarily dazed by the attack. Nikki ran forward, stake raised.
"The heart!" Xander cried "Go for the heart!"
And she did. And then there was dust everywhere and they were collapsed over each other; hanging on for mutual support, gasping in relief and from the adrenaline rush.
"Oh wow! " panted Nikki "Did you see? Did you see? It just disappeared. Oh my god! You said. But I didn't really believe it! Oh my god! It went in so easily. I didn't think it would be like that. Oh God! I'm going to be sick!" and she was.
Oz held her up as she leant against the wall with one hand, until the shudders stopped. Xander walked over to the body and touched its neck. "We were too late" he said, dully. "Too late for this guy anyway."
"But not for the others it would have got" said Oz, offering what cold comfort he could.
"Yeah. I guess." Xander looked over at them. Oz was still holding a shivering Nikki, one arm protectively around her shoulders. "Lets go" he said.
Nikki looked up then, hair streaked and plastered to her face, a weary, washed out look in her eyes. "What about?" she asked, with a half-hearted gesture towards the dead man.
"We can't do anything for him," said Xander "and we had better not touch him. I doubt the police here are as retiring as their brothers in Sunnydale. We can't afford to leave prints. We'll make a call once we are back at the van."
Nikki had nightmares that night and ended up turned around, sleeping, huddled, between the two men.
By an unspoken agreement they did not move on to Cleveland and Niagara the next day. They stayed on the derelict plot, where they had parked the day before and went back to the diner for coffee, when they woke.
Oz hovered over Nikki, urging her to eat, and eventually she gave in, mainly to shut him up, Xander suspected. Oz squeezed her shoulder, then turned to Xander and grabbed his hand, giving that a squeeze too and holding on.
"We're going to be okay" he said.
They watched the day go by, through the window of the diner; saw the police head in, and then back out of the alley, saw the area return to normal. And eventually they talked.
"We don't know if it turned that guy" Xander said. "We might have just swapped one vampire for another. Maybe I should have taken his head off? I just didn't think of that. I was worried about us."
"You were right" said Nikki. "You were right! But, what does that mean?"
"It means, we might still have a problem. I wonder where the nearest morgue is."
"I guess it would be at the nearest hospital. Do you want to go and investigate?" asked Oz.
"No. It's too dangerous. I may know how to get into the Sunnydale morgue. But here, in a strange town? No. Us getting caught would lead to questions we couldn't answer, especially when the supporting evidence is dust."
"He looked like an ordinary guy," said Nikki "like he was just coming out of work or something. You know? I've never seen a dead body before, before Clyde..." and she started to shake again, bending her head forward over the table; hair falling to hide her face.
Oz placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards him, making quiet 'shh-ing' noises. Xander watched them, feeling again the pain of exclusion.
"You know, there are people who revere vampires. There was a group in Sunnydale once, almost got themselves killed."
Conversation petered off, to silence, again.
Mid-morning they went for a walk, scouting the area, getting a breath of cold, and almost clean, air. They found a hospital, even saw the entrance to the morgue, but they didn't try to go in.
Back in the diner, in the late afternoon, Oz was apparently ready to start thinking again.
"From what I remember," he said "they don't tend to wander much. At least, not when they're new. That summer, when Buffy was away, the ones we missed one night always seemed to be still around the next. If he was turned, if he wakes in the hospital, we have a good chance of finding him still around here tonight, maybe? If we catch him before he feeds, he won't be as strong."
"That's a lot of 'if's' and 'maybe's' Oz."
Oz looked momentarily crestfallen "I know," he said "but it's the only idea I have."
"I could do that bait thing" Nikki suggested.
"That bait thing?"
"Yeah, Xander told me how you got your friend Cordelia to do that, in the old days. How she would sit on a park bench and the vamps would come for her and then you would dust them all."
"Er... Yeah," Oz replied "sure, we tried that, a few times." He trailed off in the face of her mounting enthusiasm.
"There's a park just across from the hospital. You saw it. If I sat there? He tries for me and you get him. You are really fierce when you change Oz."
"But, it's not a full moon. I can't do that."
"You did it last night. So, it can't be just the moon."
Xander could see problems with this plan. But he held his peace, letting them talk over him, arguing back and forth; feeling his helplessness in the face of their relationship.
"Whatever!" He said. "We have to do something."
So, come sunset, there they were, in the small park opposite the hospital morgue, in full view of the doors but out of sight of the main entrance. Xander still had an uneasy feeling. But now he was also angry. Angry with the vampire yesterday; for existing. Angry with the dead man; for possibly being turned. Angry with Oz and Nikki; for coming up with a plan he really didn't like. And angry with himself; for not saying anything. And when Xander got angry, he got stubborn. 'Mulish' his mother used to call it, and he acknowledged that. He was too honest with himself, nowadays, to try and get away with 'dignified silence', even in his own head.
Nikki sat on a bench, under a street light, her back to the road, reading a newspaper. Xander, and a semi-naked Oz, hid in nearby bushes with a view, through the branches, to the door of the morgue. Every now and then she would look over to them and one of them would quietly call out "Nothing Yet". At 8pm she complained that she was now more up-to-date with current affairs then she had ever wanted to be. At 10pm she complained about the quality of the personal ads. By midnight she had read the entire paper twice, cover to cover, and Oz and Xander were taking turns watching the door.
A few people, obviously members of staff, had come and gone, but no one else. The road was quieter now and pedestrian traffic was down to almost zero. Boredom was eventually doing for Xander, what reason had failed to do earlier, while his sense of unease was growing. Eventually the pressure grew to a point where he had to speak.
"I don't like this Oz" he whispered. "This never worked when we tried it at home and now I know a bit more; it just feels dangerous. I know Cordy never got hurt. But that was sheer luck, you know? I have a bad feeling. We should come up with a better plan. We don't even know if there is a vampire."
"But if there is, this might be our only chance to get it" Oz whispered back. "If it gets away tonight, it might head back to its human home and we don't know where that is."
"We could follow it. Ambush it as it walks. Nikki is a sitting duck out there. Do you even know if you can change?"
"I did before. I think I can again. I realise now; the wolf is not my master. It is part of me. I'm not afraid of it any more. You can't realise what that means to me. You gave me that Xander. You saw the truth. I would never have learnt to love it. I can do this. I know I can." Oz turned towards him, to emphasise his point "I'm not scared Xander! You have no idea what this means, after years of repressing it. To realise it's my friend. It really is me! I can feel it, so close. The Moon's nearly full, so it's easier tonight. I can change now if I need to. Or, I can stay like this if I don't."
Turning back, he resumed his watch of the door.
Xander glanced towards Nikki and the shock sent a bolt of adrenaline into his bloodstream. It was there! He was up and running before the words left his mouth "Change!"
Xander ran towards the bench. Nikki was struggling in the vampire's grasp. One of its hands was over her mouth, the other in her hair, pulling her head aside. The world seemed to shift into slow-motion. He could hear Nikki's muffled cries. He heard his own feet hitting the ground and he heard Oz's growl turn into a howl of savage anger. He was almost there when the wolf tore past him and pounced on the vampire's back. The blow knocked the vampire to the ground, but it dragged Nikki with it; it's feeding frenzy making it slow to react to this external threat. Oz tore into the side of its neck, forcing it to release Nikki, as it howled itself, rolling backwards, with Oz on top. Xander tried to grab one flailing arm, to keep the claws away from both Nikki and himself. But it wrenched loose and he felt the hot pain as it raked his thigh. The wolf squealed and rolled off, exposing the vampire's chest and Xander brought the stake down hard. He pulled back, expecting the dust, but the vampire merely howled again. Then Oz was there, half-human and naked. He grabbed the stake, pulled it out and plunged it back in. This time the dust did explode around them.
Xander scrambled across the ground to Nikki's still form. He couldn't tell if she was breathing or not. As quickly as he could, he gathered her up and started to run, calling back "Get dressed! Follow me!"
His thigh burned as he staggered into the hospital, shouting for help. He had a fleeting memory of another time, with a sick Slayer; the staff seemed to take so long to react, shocked by his sudden appearance. Then, just as Oz careered in behind him, they broke into rapid action. A trolley appeared. A dressing was pressed to the sluggish flow at the neck. Rapid-fire questions of "What happened?" "How long ago?" which he tried his best to answer. A call for blood. A cry for a surgeon. Someone bending over her checking for vital signs. Then it all went still. The doctor pulled back and stood upright with a sigh of regret.
Xander's brain refused to accept that. "Come on! Come on!" he shouted. "You have to do something for her!"
The Doctor turned in slow motion "I'm sorry" he said. "She's dead."
Xander felt his knees give way.
Then a nurse was helping him to sit on another trolley and was cutting his jeans away from his leg. The doctor cleaned the wound and applied a dressing, asking questions about tetanus shots, which he hardly heard. He saw Oz, shirt still unbuttoned, lean back against the wall and slowly collapse. Another nurse ran to him. He had a claw scratch across his chest, in almost exactly the same place that Clyde's knife had cut him, so many months ago.
And then it was quiet.
As soon as they let go of him Xander staggered across the room and leaned over Nikki's body. There was no blood on her lips or teeth. He stroked her hair back from her cheek, and wept. Oz joined him, putting an arm around his shoulder, pulling him into an awkward embrace.
Sunnydale wits came to the fore as they explained about the wild dog attack. The nurse made some comment about it being the second such in two days. The police took their statements and promised to catch it. Nikki was wheeled away and they were guided into a quiet room away from the entrance traffic. The sign on the door said 'Family Room'.
Later, as they sat numb on the couch, hands clasped, Xander's arm around Oz's shoulder and Oz's head on his shoulder, a social worker came to talk about practical things; like funerals.
Oz pulled his wallet out and emptied it, Xander did the same and a total of $352 was collected on the seat. The social worker sighed and left, to get the forms for them to request help from the city. It all seemed to take forever, but the need to be practical pulled them out of their shock. Oz's driving licence gave his address as his dorm at UC Sunnydale and they used that. The social worker was not totally satisfied, but Xander had put his wallet away. He volunteered the trailer park in Oxnard as his last fixed address.
At last it was done and they were allowed to leave. That night, and then for another three, Xander slept with his head resting on a wolf's flanks and in the mornings, they held each other tight.
A week later, after more awkward reassurances from the police, that the dog would be caught, and a sorry funeral service, with $38 between them, they drove away; heading south.
Oz did most of the driving; his nights as a wolf having helped him to heal more quickly than Xander. The passenger seat seemed too big without a third person occupying it.
They found work again and, with it, conversation returned.
Oz berated himself for looking away. Xander blamed himself for going along with a plan he knew was flawed. But, eventually, as Oz had learned, so many months ago, the mind can only take so much anguish. Eventually, they turned to 'Do You Remember', and the tension began to seep out of their bones and their spirits.
"She was so fragile, behind the toughness" said Oz. "I don't think she had ever, really, had a friend, let alone two at once."
"There was Tommy."
"He was her protector, not an equal relationship, so not necessarily a real friend."
*****
"Remember when you asked if she was a druggy?"
*****
"She really liked to cook. You taught her that."
"I liked her beef stew, even with the carrots."
*****
"Yesterday I found the bag she made me. The one she made from her hooker dress. I'm going to keep my badges in it."
*****
"She was swamped in your T-shirt. Looked like a little girl."
"But when she got clothes that fitted..."
"She still looked like a little girl."
"I failed her" said Xander, suddenly honest. "I was jealous. I thought you were going to leave me behind."
"We both failed her," Oz said "and we failed ourselves."
"What about us?"
"We decide, what is important."
"Life."
"Yes. Life is important. But, more important, is living well."
"So, how do we live well?"
Oz laughed, it felt to him like the first time he had laughed in, forever. "We decide what is important."
"You can't really run away can you? The fight always catches you." Xander paused in thought. "I wonder how the Hellmouth is. What they're doing."
"Shall we go home?"
"Yes. Let's go home. That's where our fight should be."
"Do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon."
"Are you going all deep on me there, Oz?"
Oz smiled, as he put the van in gear and started to drive.
That night they made love for the first time; clinging together, searching only for comfort and release. Thrusting and rubbing against each other; they both found something else.
The next day, they started their long drive home to Sunnydale.
************
Don't be sad. 'Cause one out of three ain't bad. - a misquote of the final chorus line in 'From Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad', by Meatloaf.
Do not despise the snake... From the introduction to each episode in the cult Japanese television series, 'The Water Margins', made in the 70's and dubbed into English by the BBC.
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no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 05:53 pm (UTC)And you got the cut stuff okay - go you!
And god, I used to watch the Water Margin religiously when it was on when I was at school. Badly dubbed Chinese imports, you've got to love them - do you know it's being repeated on ITV4 at the moment. I haven't been watching, but I might have to have a peak just for a giggle one night.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-26 05:22 am (UTC)I am glad you enjoyed it. As for getting the 'cut stuff' - that is down to the quality of my teacher.
Yeah, I used to love the Water Margins. We went and bought it on DVD last year. Did you know there were actually only 2 series? I remember it felt, at the time, like one of those endless things. In fact, it even had a continuous storyline, I discovered, rather than a series on independent stories. Who would have guessed?