TheyDotheWalk

Part 5 of the Summer Vacation Series

Disclaimer: Riley Finn and the situations connected to �Buffy the Vampire Slayer� are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, the WB network, and (apparently) Evil Fox. No connection or ownership by the author is suggested or implied.

Author�s Note: The darksiders may want to skip this one. Instead of indulging my most sadistic fantasies (which, I can assure you, are not merely dark, but pitch black) I channeled the spirit of W.P. Kinsella and wrote something even the sweetest GLR can enjoy (greeneyes, I�m looking in your direction.) And while there really is a Quad City (Iowa) River Bandits baseball team, and they really do play Kane County this week, I made up the players and stats. I took a guess on the price of beer, too.

Archive- Sure, but email me and let me know where it�s going.

Feedback- Absolutely.

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I�ve never had a way with women, but the hills of Iowa make me wish that I could,
And I�ve never found a way to say I love you, but if the chance came by, oh, I would,
But way back where I come from, we never mean to bother,
We don�t like to make our passions other people�s concern,
And we walk in the world of safe people, and at night we walk into our houses and burn.
-�Iowa (Traveling III)� by Dar Williams (from her album, �Mortal City�)

Riley stuck the shovel into the hard earth, pushed it down with his foot, and turned the dirt over. Then he stepped back and did it again. And again. He�d been at it since early that morning, preparing the soil to be planted with the tomato seedlings from his mother�s greenhouse.

His father had a tiller which would have done it in a fraction of the time, but Riley needed the physical exertion, needed to work his body till his back and arms ached and his skin was slick with honest sweat. To work until he stopped thinking about the past fifteen months.

�Riley!� His father�s tone of voice behind him implied he�d repeated his son�s name at least once, probably several times, and Riley halted suddenly and turned towards him.

�You okay, son, you seem a million miles away.�

�I�m sorry, sir,� Riley said. �I just have some things on my mind.�

�Well, your mother has lunch waiting,� Mr. Finn said, then his eyes flickered down to Riley�s bare chest. Riley saw his father�s face change, his eyes cloud as he noticed the livid scar still healing on his breast. Riley turned from his father and drove the shovel once again into the earth.

�I�ll be in as soon as I get cleaned up,� he said.

- - - - - - - - - -

Mrs. Finn set a large glass of milk in front of her son, then gave him a plate full of sandwiches. She and her husband began to eat, but Riley just picked, taking only a bite. His parents exchanged a worried glance.

�You know, your father was going to catch the River Bandits game tonight,� his mother said.

�The Kane County Cougars are in town,� his father added.

Riley looked at them as though waking from a dream.

�Thought we might make it a boys� night out,� said Mr. Finn.

�Okay,� Riley said.

- - - - - - - - - -

Minor league baseball was one of the simple pleasures Rile had missed in Sunnydale, and now it seemed the only thing capable of touching his funk. Riley followed his father through the passageway to the grandstand, and the scent of freshly mown grass blew into his face. Riley lifted his head, transported for a moment to his childhood.

The two men took their seats in the bleachers, first-base side. Riley remembered reading a story in high school about a man whose daughter had married a guy who preferred the third-base side. The author had described it as �marrying outside the faith.�

�This shortstop,� his father said, �he�s doing real well. And he can really hustle. Ahh,� he waved his hand. �They�ll probably send him to the show before the playoffs. It�s always that way.� He cupped his hands to his mouth. �C�mon, Pepe, let�s get a hit!�

Riley glanced around the park. �I�m gonna go get a beer,� he said. �Do you want one?�

Mr. Finn turned in momentary surprise, then smiled. �Still shocks me to hear you say that,� he remarked fondly. �Sure. Get me a light. You need money?�

�I got it,� Riley said.

At the beer stand, Riley looked around while he waited in line. He remembered coming to games as a kid at a stadium that was little more than a dirt lot with bleachers. Now they had a kids� batting cage and frozen yogurt.

But parking was still free and Bud was still a dollar, so that was okay.

Riley returned to his father, and listened distractedly as he described each of the young players in the line-up. Towards the end of the third inning, there was a bit of a lull in the action. Riley�s father turned towards him.

�Any plans now that the army thing�s done with,� he said casually.

Riley�s heart made the slightest jump. When he�d told his parents he was coming home for a few weeks, asked if he could, actually, he�d given them no information except to say he�d been discharged. It was sudden, and his parents weren�t stupid, but they were private, and they understood their son would tell them in his own time.

�I�m not sure,� Riley said, his voice uncharacteristically soft. �I thought I might go back to school. I was stationed near one of the California state schools. I have to check, but I think I was a resident long enough, I can get the state resident rate for tuition..�

�Which school?� Mr. Finn asked.

Riley remembered he hadn�t been able to tell his parents anything about the Initiative, including where he had been stationed. �U.C. Sunnydale,� he said. �It�s one of the smaller branches.�

�Good program?�

�Respectable,� Riley admitted. �It�s no U.C.L.A., but it�s no U.C. Santa Barbara, either.�

�Well, that�ll make your mother happy, anyway,� Mr. Finn said.

They fell again into silence, and the game went on.

�I should tell you,� Riley said finally. �There�s this girl.�

His father turned his attention back to him. �Is it serious?�

�I�m not sure yet,� Riley said. �I mean I� She�s a great girl. Really pretty. And smart. I� I do love her, and she loves me, but the relationship was intense��

�You don�t have to beat around the bush, son,� Mr. Finn said gently. �I was young myself once.�

Riley actually felt his neck flush with a moment of embarrassment. �We shared a lot, Dad,� he said. �Not just� that. We sort of went through some really bad stuff together. I need to figure out if that isn�t shading my feelings. Making me see something that isn�t there.�

They paused, watching as one of the Quad City batters made it all the way to third before the visitors tagged him out.

�What kind of bad stuff?� Mr. Finn asked.

Riley was quiet for a long minute.

�If you can�t tell me�� his dad said finally.

�No sir, I really can�t,� Riley said.

�Tell me more about this girl, then.�

�Well, she�s a lot younger than me,� Riley said. �But she�s� powerful. She seems older. She�s lived a lot.�

Mr. Finn took a sip of his beer and turned to the game. So did Riley.

�I guess every guy says that,� Riley said.

�Sometimes it�s true,� his father said.

�In other ways, though, she�s so young,� Riley continued, then chuckled. �And very Southern California. Some of the stuff she wears. Mom would have a stroke.�

�She anxious to settle down,� Mr. Finn asked.

Riley was amused by the question. �Absolutely not,� he said.

�Then you have time, Riley,� his father said. �Take your time. Go to school, if that�s what you want. If it�s meant to be� it�ll be.�

Riley nodded. Trust his dad to know what to say, he thought.

�You hungry?� Mr. Finn said suddenly. �See if you see a hot-dog guy.�

And the subject of Buffy fell by the wayside.

When they returned home, they didn�t quite make it inside, instead sitting on the porch, watching as the stars continued their slow march across the vault of the sky. Mrs. Finn brought them iced tea, but Riley had already re-assumed the deliberate rhythms of farm life. It was dark. Time for quiet.

He identified the constellations in his mind. He had learned them at a very young age, sitting on his father�s lap on this very porch. Hercules. Virgo. Ursa Major. Draco the Dragon. He hadn�t been able to see them in California. He�d been too busy hunting monsters to look.

�Dad,� he said softly.

�Yes, son.� The same as when he was a boy. Strong. Reassuring.

�I need to tell you some things� about what happened to me.�

His father didn�t reply, and the expectant silence hung in the air.

�I was given the honorable discharge in exchange for my silence about the project I was assigned to,� Riley began formally. �It came very close to going the other way.�

�Staying on?� his father asked.

�Court-martial,� Riley said, and there was silence again, more tense now.

�The project. The Initiative. It was formed to stop a deadly threat,� he went on. �We called them Hostile Sub-Terrestrials. HSTs.� His voice lowered. �They were monsters, Dad. Right out of the Garnett drive-in. Demons. Vampires. Werewolves. I almost shot a college student who�d somehow turned into this beast.�

His voice broke, and he took a swallow of tea before going on.

�I thought when we captured them, the scientists were studying them to find out how to kill them. Like the exterminator who studies insects. They weren�t. They were using them. Using parts of them to make new creatures, ones they could control.�

He drank more tea, but even now his voice lowered to a raspy whisper.

�But they couldn�t control him. He turned on them. On all of us. My girl, the one I told you about, she defeated him. By magic, Dad. I know this all sounds crazy but I swear to God� Do you remember Forrest? We graduated special forces together? He died, and then they made him this� thing, and I had to kill him. Again.� Riley lowered his head into his hands. �I�m not telling this well.�

He felt his father�s hand on his shoulder. �It�s okay,� he said. �Get it out.�

�And they did it to me, too,� Riley said. �Put this chip in my chest to control me. Make me do what they wanted, against my will. I�� His voice broke again, and he choked back a sob as the pain he had struggled to control during his debriefing broke through.

�I� I cut it out of my chest,� he said. �With a piece of broken glass. Somehow, I was able to block the pain. Maybe it was the drugs, or they did something else to me, or the chip itself, but I took it out�� He could no longer speak. Dry sobs forced themselves out of his throat as he finally let go.

Riley�s father put his arms around his son, letting his grief and confusion work through him, until his shoulders stopped shaking and he slumped, spent, his head in his hands.

�I�m sorry, son,� Mr. Finn said. �I honestly cannot imagine having to kill someone I cared about, and I�ll be frank, I don�t entirely understand everything you�ve told me.� Riley started to speak, but his father cut him off. �It doesn�t matter, anyway. You can tell me later, maybe a lot later. I got the important stuff.�

�Thanks, Dad,� Riley whispered.

�I�m proud of you, son,� his father said solemnly.

A slow sob went through Riley, the last of it, gone, and he sat up and looked his father in the eye. �I� I don�t know if I should have told you. It�s classified��

�Riley, I don�t even intend to tell your mother about this,� Mr. Finn said, �let alone call the newspapers. This was between men. Now let�s go in.�

�In a minute,� Riley said, and his father left him alone. He looked at the stars again. Some things were constant. He was glad of the reminder.

Part 6 - A Mystery Guest: Part of the Solution
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