The Cure:
Disclaimer: Do I need to state the obvious? I'm not Joss, I'm not Mutant Enemy (although my partner might disagree), I don't know the Kuzuis, and I have ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with Fox and/or WB... and besides, suing me would be like, well, like a Slayer falling in love with a Vampire... you can try and try, but ya ain't gonna get nothin' out of it but pain... (i.e. I'm not making any money from these stories, thus, I have no money -- although I do have a job-- so don't bother suing.)
ANYHOO... the story picks up more or less at the beginning of "Graduation Day, Part 2"... so if you haven't had the pleasure of even seeing a poor internet bootleg of the ep, this is a MAJOR spoiler. Of course, if you haven't seen it, you wouldn't know that until you HAD seen it... but I digress. The rest of the Ep doesn't happen, and it would appear most of Season Three didn't happen, either. No mayor, bare mention of Faith, no Ascension, etc.
Chapter One
Angel smelled fear before he heard the screaming. Then he heard the screaming. He began to sprint down to the end of the block, where he knew there was a break in the privacy hedge that surrounded the Historic Sunnydale Museum. He spotted the woman immediately once he rounded the corner... with two vampires circling her, taunting and growling at her. She fended them off, but just barely, with a small silver cross, obviously ripped form a chain around her neck.
'Good thinking.' Angel thought to himself.
"Well, boys..." he drawled, "Looks like good manners really are out of style. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food?", then he jumped into the fray.
The woman screeched hysterically to see yet another vampire descending upon her, and she swung the cross around to face him... although it appeared by his actions, he might actually be on her side.
Angel squinted with discomfort, trying to avoid the woman and her cross, while simultaneously fighting off the two vampires who had attacked her. He was used to Slaying being a thankless job... besides, he knew his game face was just like every other game face on every other vampire... how was this poor woman to know he was different? He might just be fending off the other two so he could have the tasty snack all to himself...
He realized he might have gotten that close to the mark... when the offending vamps were dust and he turned to check on the almost-victim, the only glimpse of her was her back, running in the opposite direction.
"Hey!" He yelled, and chased after her.
'Probably not the best move,' he thought, 'Doesn't exactly disprove her fears.' But he had to make sure she was okay... He caught up to her without much effort, and reached out to stop her.
"Ma'am, are you o..."
He snatched his hand way, burnt by the cross she flashed at him once again.
'I wish she'd watch where she points that thing...' he thought, gasping aloud and stopping to shake his injured hand.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She yelled, brandishing the cross like a fiery shield. She stopped short when she noticed he had a normal, human face, not the monstrous one she thought she just saw... now he was only a handsome young man who had apparently saved her life. And from the looks of him, had gotten hurt in the process. She was embarrassed.
"I'm sorry... I thought... you... those...creatures..." she stammered, breathless.
"It's okay." Angel said, recovering, "Are you alright?"
He looked the woman over. She appeared to be in her late 30's, conservative and neat without being stuffy... a woman dressed for a day at the office. She had short black hair, and a smooth, sweet face. An attractive lady... and mostly undamaged, beyond the torn sleeve of her maroon cardigan.
She nodded, and Angel could feel that she was beginning to calm.
"I'm fine. Thank you." The woman seemed to swoon a little, and Angel offered his arm for support.
"Hey, easy..." he said.
"I just need to sit down." The woman told him wearily.
Angel hated to see her do it in the street, though.
"The school's nearby. The librarian is a friend of mine. You'll be safe to rest, there."
The woman wondered briefly as she gratefully took Angel's arm, if he was only another psycho killer, tricking her into an easy end after all.
The lights in Giles' office were on, so Angel led the poor woman directly to his door. The Watcher was startled by their arrival, obviously deeply involved in whatever musty volume it was he was reading.
"Uh!" He exclaimed, leaping from his seat, "Oh. Angel, it's you... and..."
Giles looked on the disheveled woman, quaking in Angel's grasp.
"What's happening?" he asked. Giles was unaccustomed to anyone bringing strangers to his office... his sanctuary... most especially on the grounds of the brand new high school, where Buffy and her dear friends had little excuse to go.
"She was attacked." Angel told him, helping the woman ease into a chair.
"Was she..." Giles began.
"No." Angel shook his head, "I got there just in time."
The woman blinked at them both, as though she had only just awakened.
"What... I..." she said.
Giles poured her a glass of water from he carafe on his desk. She accepted it with a quick smile... a smile, he noticed, that was quite warm, for its brevity.
"Are you alright?" He asked her.
The woman admired his kind blue eyes, framed by the most charming glasses...
"I'm fine. Really." She insisted, turning to Angel, "Thank you so much...uh..."
"Angel." he said, offering his hand.
She took it and smiled widely. "What a lovely name. And appropriate... My name is Amanda. Amanda Laidir."
"Rupert Giles", he said, joining the greeting.
"I must thank both of you for your kindness." She turned her smile on Giles, and he felt a little wave of...something?... wash over him. Something that made him feel warm inside. He liked this Ms. Laidir immediately.
"And I've got to ask..." She went on, "Were those really vampires?"
Giles cut the Citroen's engine once in his driveway, and sat for a moment, considering the events of the previous few hours.
Ms. Laidir seemed quite the unflappable woman... she had accepted Giles' brief explanation of the vampire problem in Sunnydale with a great deal of grace and aplomb, as though he had reported they were having a particularly nasty allergy season, rather than telling her how some of the less pleasant denizens of Hell were walking the streets of their quaint suburb.
When he asked if he could get her anything else, she'd asked for tea. Nothing spoke more highly of someone's character, to Giles, than the desire for tea to help ease a stressful situation.
He found that this woman touched him, somehow. This woman, for all appearances, who was normal, before this night.
That could only be an unfavorable distinction, in Giles' estimation.
'It's just as well.' He thought, "I doubt my heart is ready to venture into the realm of romance again anyhow...'
Amanda put her glass of warm milk on the night stand and crawled under the down comforter. She still felt shaky and nervous about what had happened to her that evening, so she snapped on the TV for some comfort noise. Charlie Rose and his guest didn't have anything to say that could distract her from her nagging thoughts...
Vampires. The fact that there were vampires in Sunnydale, and two of them had attacked her, paled in shock value, once one realized that there were vampires at all.
And apparently, vampire hunters. She thought of the attractive young man, her guardian "Angel", and the kindly ('and sexy...' she thought) high school librarian, Mr. Giles.
"How odd." She said to her cat, who climbed up on her lap, demanding attention. The cat didn't seem to think it was odd at all, but only purred contentedly once it began receiving its thorough, though absent-minded, stroking.
Amanda felt as though her entire sense of reality was now making a monumental shift.
"And I'd be willing to bet it only gets worse from here." she complained to the cat. Once one's eyes are opened, it is difficult to prevent them from seeing...
The cat offered nothing but closed eyes and a soft purr by way of opinion.
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