I would like to extend thanks to everyone who has read and continues to read this story! I appreciate the feedback and the fact that it entertains you. I apologize for the wait between updates; my mom has recently had major surgery and is having a tough time. Please keep her in your thoughts.
The next few updates may be few and far between but they will keep coming and I will try to keep them as regular as possible. Please hang tight!
As for personal thanks:
Zampsa1975 Thank you for your continued support! No, Willow can definetely not stand losing Tara again. By the way, in case it is not as obvious as I had hoped, Tara
did die in this story in canon with season six. That's just another twist; Why is she back? *hands cookie*
LittleBit Thanks for continuing to read and give feedback through my whole two and quarter updates! Your feedback is greatly appreciated and I will try not to disappoint! The time issue was explained above, but I hope to hold everyone anyway! *hands cookie*
MsKittyB Thank you as well for your feedback! I'm glad my story caught your eye and I hope you will continue to read in the future. This is a long fic but for those of you that will bear with me, it should be a good read! *hands cookie*
As per request, full scale update-y goodness.
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Title: Destination: Home
Author: AlyenaTheBandit a.k.a. Bandit
Feedback: Yes, please! All reviewers get a cookie!
Distribution: Give me a heads up and some credit and it's all yours
Rating: Anywhere between PG-13 and R for now. Warnings if it gets any harsher.
Spoilers: Everything up through Grave. Starts off as alternate Season 7.
Disclaimer: I own a Alyena, a computer, and a stale cup fo coffee. Hurrah to the starving artist.
Summary: This is what could have been if some events didn't happen, some did, and some people had relatives we didn't know about. Main characters are W/T obviously, Dawn, and an OC named Alyena. The story is written episode per episode and focuses mainly on Alyena but W/T are not at all overlooked. Bear with me kids, it's gonna get confusing.
Tagline: What would you do if you had no one? Cry? Fight? Lose your mind? Alyena Danford is finding out. Sunnydale isn't the best place to be alone, but where else is? At least at the Hellmouth you know what you're in for...
Episode Three: Cousins
Dark.
Dark and quiet. That eerie kind of quiet that freaks you out in the head.
It hurts. It’s hot and smoky and I can feel the soles of my boots liquefying. Stupid ass cheap boots.
That’s just a shadow. Shadows aren’t real. He’s not here. He’s not…
What was that?
I saw something. It was there. No, just one of those firemen. No big, I’m safe.
Well that’s kind of ironic, eh? I’m in a burning building looking for someone that I possibly can’t save trying not to have a psychological breakdown.
Safe? Not really.
What’s with all the tech talk anyway? Starting to sound like Willow. Damn.
Come on, Al. Just find her and get out. This is different: different place, different fire, different people, absolutely no one that can kill you here.
Except me. I could kill myself. I tend to get myself in situations that could get me killed regularly.
What can I say? It’s a thing.
Tara…where is she? I think I see her. Over there?
It is her! Wait. I think? It looks like...it’s not Mom. It isn’t. She’s gone now and…Diego?
Yego, where are you? Where am I? Why is it so hot here?
He’s coming. He can see me now; smell me. I didn’t hide well enough. I knew He’d find me.
Diego tried to warn me. He tried so hard to tell me it was all going to be okay. It’s not okay. It’s not…
Wait. Willow? That sounds familiar. I should know that name. Why are they yelling my name like that…?
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After Alyena had gone into the fire, Willow had finally calmed to a sort of catatonic state where nothing seemed to register with her except that Tara was in danger.
Gavin exclaimed in a hushed voice to Anya, “What does she think she’s doing!? She’s a seventeen year old girl, not Superman! She’s going to get them both killed if she’s not careful!”
Anya responded in a louder voice, “Oh, don’t worry! She’s like some super-strong-wonder-girl type person. She likes being a hero. Sometimes Xander and I play games where I get to be Wonder Woman and I tell him why he’s been a naughty…”
Gavin gagged, “Please, please do not finish that sentence!” He smiled weakly at her before continuing, “We just have other stuff to worry about right now, you know?”
Anya nodded at him as if he were a one year old just learning to speak and he spoke up again, “What do we do if she can’t find Tara? I mean, I get that she’s not exactly….average, but she’s still just a kid! I couldn’t even do that!”
Willow interjected softly looking straight forward into the flames, “She’ll find her. Aly never lets me down. She just may not be Aly anymore when she comes back.”
Gavin and Anya both gave her a questioning look and Gavin asked as gently as he could, “Willow, what happened to her? Is this how her parents died?”
Willow pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders and made a sound in the back of her throat that sounded like a choked sob.
It took her a moment to compose herself before she said detachedly, “It was like something out of one of those monster movies. It was horrible, every second I saw. I just wanted to hold her in my arms forever and make all the pain go away.”
Gavin looked at her with patient eyes, gently prodding, “Can you tell me what happened?”
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What’s going on out there?
Oh my goddess…those kids! What happened to them?
That girl has so much blood on her! Is she bleeding or is it the little boy she’s carrying?
We have to get them inside! I need to get Xander out here!
The blood…that boy has bite marks on his neck…it’s all his. So much.
It think I’m gonna be sick…everything’s red.
Will I ever stop seeing red?
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Willow’s ears perked up at the sound of voice she knew better than her own. She jumped up, rushing towards the sound shouting, “Tara! Tara, where are you baby?”
Gavin and Anya followed as Willow roughly parted the crowd to get to her blonde lover. Reaching out, she grasped a soot stained hand and crashed into the gurney her girlfriend was resting on.
Willow peppered Tara’s hand with kisses crying, “Oh goddess, Tara! Are you okay? I can’t believe I didn’t go into that store with you! We should’ve just kept on going to the Magic Box and none of this would’ve ever happened! I’m so, so sorry baby!”
Tara pulled Willow’s hand to heart replying, “It’s okay, Sweetie. I’m here! See, just a little banged up. Nothing some bandages and chicken soup can’t fix.”
Willow brushed locks of slightly crispy blonde hair away from Tara’s face lovingly before asking, “Baby who got you out of the fire? Where’s Aly? Is she okay?”
Tara coughed hard, heaving as much black smoke out of her lungs as possible before responding quietly, “I don’t know where Aly is, Wil. I haven’t seen her all day; you know she went to work early this morning. Is she with Anya at the Magic Box?”
Willow looked horrified pestering, “Then who pulled you out of the fire?”
Tara choked out between coughs, “I don’t know. It was a strong woman with dark hair wearing a black tank top. That’s all I saw before the boards starting falling from the ceiling and the smoke was too strong to see through. It sort of looked like Aly but it wasn’t her, she was too short to be Aly.”
Willow gave Tara a despairing look explaining, “Aly went after you into the fire! I thought she was the one who pulled you out. If she didn’t save you, that means she’s still in there! What are we going to do?”
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I can’t think…Goddess it’s so hot…
I can’t feel my fingers…I keep trying to touch them and I can’t feel it.
Who is that? She looks familiar… Her aura is dark and painful…
She’s picking me up…wow, she’s really strong.
The beams from the ceiling…they’re falling! Oh goddess…
Someone is over there.
They’re…
Trapped.
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Tara relayed, “I saw someone in the fire. One of the ceiling beams fell down and I think it trapped them. It might’ve been Aly. I couldn’t tell! It was too dusty…”
Willow looked down at Tara with pure fear in her eyes and registered that Tara had just fallen unconscious. She flagged down a young EMT and barked orders at him for a good five minutes before Tara was loaded into an ambulance and they were ready to head to the hospital.
The young EMT asked, “Ma’am, are you coming with us? We need to leave now to make sure we get her there safely.”
Willow nodded at him before turning back to Anya and Gavin ordering, “Stay with the ambulances until everyone is out of the fire. We have to find her. We WILL find her.”
Gavin grimaced, “We’ll stay Willow. I won’t leave until I find her. Go.”
Willow jumped into the ambulance just as the doors were closing and the sirens flipped on. The truck sped away towards Sunnydale Memorial as the remaining firemen and emergency techs tried to get people out of or away from the fire.
Anya asked Gavin, “Are we just going to stay here all night? What if they never find her?” She rubbed her hands together, slightly chilly in the autumn air even though the fire still blazed.
Gavin responded, “I’ll stay here as long as it takes. I know she would do the same for me.” He turned to Anya continuing, “Too much has happened to her for me to abandon her now.”
Anya asked for the first time, “Hey, strangely handsome man, what’s your name?” She shuffled a little in place to keep herself warm as the fire began dying down a little.
Gavin responded, eyes fixated on the dancing flames, “I’m Gavin. Gavin Merimer.”
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Son of a bitch…
Note to self: upon seeing a falling ceiling beam, run. Upon seeing a falling ceiling beam on fire, run faster.
It feels like someone peeled all the skin off my arm and stapled it to my forehead.
Well that was a really gross analogy. Way to go Al.
What? Honestly, my arm is in an agonizing amount of pain and my head is throbbing! That’s the only logical explanation.
I’m having a conversation with myself inside my head. Not a good sign.
I should probably try to open my eyes now. I hear shouting and that’s never a good sign.
Eyes? Will you open for me? Eyes? Come on…
Shit. I’m blind. I hit my head and I’m totally blind. I’ll never see again.
And I didn’t even get to see Gavin with his shirt off yet!
God damn…I hate my life.
Wait. Eyes! Light! Burning, excruciatingly painful bright light!
Ahh! I think I liked it better when I was blind…
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Alyena’s eyes blinked open, bright fluorescent light flooding her senses. She grimaced in pain, blocking out the light with a sore hand.
Once she regained her sight, she looked at her right arm which was steadily throbbing and saw that it was covered in thick, gauzy white bandages up to the elbow. The bandages were secured around her palm, wrapped neatly across its surface.
She examined her other arm, which was peppered with small spots of gauze but seemed intact, and moved on to what else she could see of herself. She felt her way up her neck and face finding only small sore spots until she got to her forehead.
There was a piece of bandage secured carefully to her left temple just under her hairline that left a trace of redness on her fingertips when she touched it. It appeared to still be bleeding so she made a mental note to change the bandage soon.
She tried sitting up and groaned in pain, her head throbbing in blinding protest as a sharp pain in her abdomen brought tears to her eyes. She pulled her shirt upwards a little and recognized more white bandages wrapped around what was obviously at least one, if not more, broken ribs.
Her breath came in jagged, painful gasps as she rested herself against the pillows piled up behind her and looked around. She was obviously in a hospital room, which unnerved her a little, and it appeared someone had been staying with her as there was a bag full of clothes resting in the chair by her bed.
She saw a pull cord next to her bed for the nurses’ station and reached out for it, hoping to find some answers as to what exactly happened. She wanted to know where Willow and Tara were and who was with her in her room, as well as what went down in the building.
A fierce pain in her ribs and a minute later a nurse was in her doorway, fawning all over her. Just as the nurse tried to take her vitals for the third time she croaked out, “Look, I’m sore not lethal! Could you just chill for a sec?”
The nurse responded, “Honey, you’ve been out for two days! We weren’t sure if you would even wake up, let alone be sitting up and talking! You’ve been through quite an ordeal.”
Alyena scratched at her bandages asking hoarsely, “What happened? I remember the fire, a ceiling beam, and then…nothing.”
The nurse sat down on the edge of her bed explaining gently, “You were caught in a burning building. It’s a wonder you survived all that destruction; not many people did. A wooden beam from the ceiling fell on you and trapped your arm underneath it. You got burned up pretty badly.”
She paused, pointing to the bandage on Alyena’s head before continuing, “That laceration was from another beam that fell on top of the first one. It hit you so hard you weren’t moving, even when the beam caught on fire and almost took you with it. If it weren’t for that sweet girl that’s been staying in here with you, you might not have pulled through.”
Alyena perked up at the mention of someone staying with her and asked hurriedly, her voice cracking a little from lack of use, “Who’s been staying with me? I need to find my guardians; they were there at the fire too.”
The nurse patted Alyena’s knee comfortingly responding, “Oh, that little redhead you mean? She comes and visits you every day and spends the rest of the time with another patient. She signed off as your legal guardian so you could have your own room until you woke up.”
Alyena seemed confused asking, “Who’s stuff is in here if Willow only comes to see me for a little bit?”
The nurse furrowed her brow in thought responding, “Oh goodness, I can’t remember her name! It was something pretty like Grace or Hope…”
Alyena locked eyes with the young woman who walked in the door of the room at that moment speaking quietly, “Faith?”
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Willow sat in a chair lightly snoozing next to Tara’s hospital bed when Tara woke up, slightly dazed.
She remembered very little of the past two days as she had been in and out of consciousness throughout the duration. What she did remember was unpleasant and made almost no sense at all.
One thing was for sure, she never wanted to hear anyone talk about pennies or pie ever again.
She looked down at her hand; an IV full of what she was pretty sure was morphine pulsing steadily into her veins. She was hooked up to a few monitors but it seemed that there wasn’t anything life threatening going on at this point.
Her first thought was finding Willow, so she turned to her right to move off the bed before spotting the redhead. She smiled in relief, finding that it hurt because of a bandage secured across her left cheek.
Reaching out as best as she could, she managed to land her hand on Willow’s knee, squeezing it gently to wake the girl. Being the light sleeper that she was, Willow bolted upright and shouted, “Purple peaches are a necessary evil!”
Tara giggled at her girlfriend’s outburst causing Willow to notice her blonde lover was awake and jump excitedly from her chair. After doing a small jig and almost toppling over onto the bed, the redhead exclaimed, “You’re awake! Oh goddess, Tare, I missed you!”
She sat down on the edge of the bed giving Tara a gentle kiss as she tried not to hurt her. Tara crooked a half smile so as not to hurt herself again and responded softly, “Hey, Wil! Are you feeling okay? You look exhausted.”
Willow sighed replying, “I was up late last night checking on Aly and Dawn. Dawn is staying with Xander so I can stay here with you. Aly still hasn’t woken up yet but the doctors feel good about her prospects for when she does.”
Tara asked, confused, “What do you mean Aly hasn’t woken up? What’s wrong? What happened to her?”
Willow hesitated a moment before explaining, “Aly went into the fire after you, remember? She got caught under a ceiling beam and has been out for a couple days. I’ve been really worried about her but the doctor said optimism is the best way to go. She could wake up any minute now and there shouldn’t be any brain damage as far as they can tell.”
Tara put a bandaged hand to her mouth gasping, “Aly! I knew I saw someone get hit by a ceiling beam! I hope she’s okay…I could never forgive myself if she never woke up just because she was trying to help me.”
Willow took Tara’s free hand shushing, “She’ll be okay baby! She’s strong like…like an amazon! Just like you. She’ll pull through. I have faith in her just like I had faith you would come back to me, and look! Here you are!”
Tara smiled, bringing Willow’s hand up to her lips and gently kissing her fingertips. She looked past her redhead seeing a basket full of chocolate roses and an arrangement of other sweets and goodies.
Tara whispered, “Well, hello beautiful!” as she eyed the candy, Willow sliding up next to her on the bed.
Willow replied with a soft kiss, “Hello yourself, sexy!” stroking some rogue blonde strands away from Tara’s face.
Tara joked, “Whatever do you mean? I was talking to the chocolate!” reaching out to snatch a chocolate rose, tickling Willow’s arm.
Willow responded lightheartedly, “I see how it is. You’re picking chocolate over me now? Well I was talking to flowers behind you if you want the truth.”
Tara smiled conspiratorially at Willow before turning her head to look up at the flowers behind her. After a sharp, brief pain in her neck from some kind of wound she couldn’t see, she located the flowers and gave a small half smile.
She brought a hand up to her neck, rubbing the sore muscle tenderly asking, “Who brought me all this stuff? The flowers are beautiful and I’m sure the candy is delicious. I want to properly thank them.”
Willow took over rubbing Tara’s sore neck responding, “Xander and Anya both sent you that basket of candy and Alyena’s friend Gavin sent you the flowers. He stops by every day to see her so he got both of you flowers.”
Tara closed her eyes, enjoying the comfort of the neck rub for a moment before saying, “That was very sweet of him. I’m sure Aly enjoys his company even if she’s not awake to know he’s there.”
Willow nodded silently, her mind wandering off to worry about Alyena once again. Tara sensed her shift in mood, opening her eyes to ask, “What’s wrong darling? Are you worrying about Aly again?”
Willow sighed, replying, “I just wish there was something I could do. I feel responsible for what happened because she’s my responsibility and I let her down. I hope she wakes up soon, but at the same time I’m afraid of how angry she’ll be when she does.”
Tara shushed, wrapping an arm around Willow’s waist, “Sweetie, there was nothing you could’ve done to stop her from going in after me, just like there was nothing you could’ve done to prevent me from going in there in the first place. I think the last thing on her mind when she wakes up will be anger towards you.”
As Willow’s frown started changing into a soft smile, Tara added, “Besides, the first thing she’ll think when she wakes up will probably be ‘Pancakes!’ anyway.”
Willow chuckled good naturedly, “That girl can eat like a Slayer! I have never seen one person consume that many pancakes in one sitting in my entire life, except for the time Buffy went on a breakfast foods binge and ate almost everything in the house!”
Tara laughed, “There’s nothing scarier than a hungry Slayer! Forget demons, vampires, and apocalypses; a hungry Slayer can ravage her way through anything!”
As the two women laughed off their fears, a nurse walked into the room. Smiling at the sight of her coherent patient she greeted, “It’s good to see you up and talking, Miss Maclay! I was beginning to worry about you.”
Tara responded hesitantly, “Forgive me, but I don’t really remember who you are. Would you care to remind me?”
The nurse chuckled, “Not at all, dear! My name is Linda and I’ve been your day nurse since you got here. I’ve also been stopping in every now and then to see your younger sister and deliver updates. That’s actually what I’m here for now.”
Willow sat up, prodding, “Any news on Aly? Is she doing better?”
Linda replied brightly, “Yes, she’s doing much better Miss Rosenberg! She woke up just over twenty minutes ago and is sitting up and talking as well. I thought you might want to go see her now.”
Willow and Tara both grinned simultaneously, “She’s awake?”
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And there you have it! Please read, review, and share with your friends, and feel free to post any theories or thoughts on characters; I love to see how people interpret my writing!
Also, I hope the thoughts/flashbacks are not too confusing. I had them color coded but apparently that does not carry over from Word and I am not talented enough to figure that out on here. Alas.
If it helps at all, only Alyena, Willow, and Tara have thoughts or flashbacks. Willow and Tara both have flashbacks whereas Alyena's are thoughts or hallucinations. If any further clarification is needed, just let me know!
Cheers!
- Bandit