“Angel?”
“Buffy?” Hearing him say her name again was strange, she
realised she still had a part of her that loved him, well she thought if it
hasn’t gone by now it will never go and this isn’t the time for thinking about
it.
“I need a favour. My dad has taken Dawn, I think, I need
you to go check on her make sure she’s okay. Tell her that we’re all working on
how to get to her home. Tell her that I promise she will come home. Also, don’t
tell her this part, follow my dad get any sort of evidence you can, pictures
tapped phone conversations anything that will prove him an unfit father that
would me in court case for custody.”
“Buffy?”
“Please.”
“Okay but I wouldn’t be able to g into a court.”
“Get Wesley or Cordelia to do it, actually make it Wesley. Posh British guy.”
“Sure.” Buffy heard crying and was snapped back to reality
from her reverie.
“Oh you’re with a client sorry, I’ll go bye.” She hung up
feeling more unsettled than she had before calling him. She felt amazingly
claustrophobic. Her friends all sat in the lounge discussing the best approach
to getting Dawn back. She grabbed her coat and left.
“Buffy? Should someone go after her?”
“No, give her a little time and space to get her head round
things.”
The footsteps started again. She knew this was no threat,
human in origin. It had been following her for a few days and was now so ready
to pick a fight at a time when no vamps were biting. So this lucky stalker
would pay. She whirled round and the man looked like a deer caught in
headlights. The man looked about 40 at the least.
“Why have you been following me for the past week?”
“I.” Slow realisation came to her.
“You were at my mom’s funeral.” The man only nodded. Buffy
looked at her eyes demanding answers and fast.
“It’s not the first time you’ve met me but you obviously
don’t remember, why would you? You were barely 3 at the time and only 3 and a ½
when it happened.” Curiosity getting the best of her and with her patience,
what little was left, wearing down fast she felt the urge to smack the man’s head
into a wall if her didn’t hurry. He obviously noticed because he continued.
“Your mother came to her home town when she was having
problems in her marriage, we met up again you see we were high school
sweethearts.”
“You’ve got the wrong person, my mom met my dad in high
school.” Buffy turned about to walk away.
“At the prom, I know. Your mom hadn’t always lived in LA.
She moved there sophomore year. We she came back she was unhappy with married
life and I hadn’t found Miss Right yet and we had a brief fling. She returned
about 4 months later, when her pregnancy started to show. She had a girl, seems
she was fond of them. She left the baby with me, I sent her pictures and wrote
to her. She was feeling extremely guilty and gave into your father and their bad
patch ended because he got his own way. They had Dawn. Then things went wrong
again but for good that time.”
“Yeah right. If that had happened then why didn’t she go to
you when her marriage broke up?”
“Because by then I’d found someone else. Haillie was barely
2 when I met my wife. She was brilliant with Haillie and I loved her. We got
married when Haillie was 3. Lisa loves Haillie like a daughter. But someone
mentioned something to Haillie shortly before your mother’s death and she
demanded the truth. It has changed her, she loves Lisa no less, but she wants
to met the rest of her family of course she wasn’t ready to face you all
especially at such a time as your mother’s funeral. She wants you and your
sister to attend her graduation.”
“I my mom she it’s I don’t know. See with my mom gone my
dad has gone insane and taken my sister away from me so I’m having enough
trouble right now without dealing with a sister who is 18 and who I’ve never
met. So no we won’t be there. Tell her if she wants to meet us so badly that
she should make the effort cos I have no desire to complicate my life more by
meeting her.” Buffy turned more confused than ever and walked away. The man
stared after her unbelieving that the daughter of Joyce could be so cruel.
Buffy couldn’t handle much more. She had lost dawn and feared that would be
forever. She deeply wished that her friends hadn’t brought her back to face all
this heartache. How could she survive knowing that the only sister she had ever
known was gone while someone, someplace she had a sibling she’d never even met.
2 sisters that she hadn’t known about really since Dawn was only placed in her
life a year ago but had been in her memories for 14 years. She had a real live
blood sister.