Fic: Darkness I Live In (Buffy/Dean) Chapter Five

[blue_icy_rose]

Title: Darkness I Live In
Rating: R
Pairing: Buffy/Dean
Summary: After a demon attack, Buffy wakes up with no memories except her name and begins to travel with Dean and Sam. While on the road, Buffy and Dean grow closer. Post Chosen. (I so suck at summaries, lol.)
Disclaimer: I don't own any of them. Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon and the Winchesters belong to Eric Kripke. (Lucky bastards.) All the dialogue in Buffy's memory flashes are from various episodes. The title of the story was inspired by Mary Lou Von Meter's poem, Heart of Darkness. Banner made by the awesome Mel. ^_^
Author's Note: This is my response to chosenfire's Memories Forgotten challenge at Route 66. If you'd like to see the requirements for the challenge, go here. You can also find this at Twisting the Hellmouth. This new chapter was written for tamingthemuse (prompt: rusting). Enjoy and feedback's always welcome!




Banner by avamclean


Previous Chapters


“We can’t do anything about the spirit until we know who he is and we can’t do research until the library opens anyway.” Dean held the handgun out to Buffy. “So, we’ll train instead.”

Buffy took the gun and tested the weight in her hand, nodding. Just as she had done with the crossbow, Buffy thought back on how Dean had held the gun and lifted it, lining up the shot before pulling the trigger. She jerked at the sound causing the shot to go wide of the target.

“Damn it,” she muttered. She closed her eyes and adjusted her grip, tightening it as she moved the gun to the side.

“Open your eyes,” Dean said when she still hadn’t opened them. “You won’t know if you’ve lined the shot up if your eyes are closed.”

She took another deep breath and opened her eyes, frowning at the way the shot looked. She aimed the gun further to the left and braced herself, pulling the trigger again. The shot went wide again, though this time it was definitely closer to the target.

Letting out a breath, she rolled her shoulders and once more, moved the gun over. She braced herself again and pulled the trigger.

Dean stared at the bullet hole, directly over his and shook his head. “Shit,” he said. He turned to her. “Try it again. Let’s see if you can get it twice in a row.”

Buffy glanced at him and nodded. “Okay.” She turned back to the target and aimed it before pulling the trigger, no hesitation visible in her movements this time.

“Wow,” Sam said from where he was standing. Dean shot him a look that clearly said ‘I told you so’ and nodded in agreement. Sam didn’t reply as he turned towards the target and made the decision to add that to his research.

Dean looked from the target to Buffy, a considering look in his eye. “Okay, let’s try something else.” He glanced around them, searching the ground until he spotted an old can that looked like it had started rusting years ago rather than months as the date on the front suggested. He grinned and picked it up, already walking over so that he could set in on the fencepost. “Smaller target.” He turned back to Buffy and then headed back towards her and Sam. “Try hitting that.”

Buffy looked at the small can and bit her lip. Slowly, she raised the gun and took aim. Just as she pulled the trigger, she instinctively jerked her arm and watched as the shot went wide.

“What’s the frown for?” Dean asked. “So you didn’t hit it. No big deal.”

“I thought I would.” Buffy let out a breath, wondering what would make her deliberately miss and wondering why she wasn’t saying anything.

“Hey, it was just something I thought would be worth trying. You just started shooting guns today. Honestly? I’m kind of surprised you did so good on the first try.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be,” Sam said. When they turned to look at him, he smiled. “She kicked your ass shooting a crossbow.”

“Shut up, Sam.”

Sam snickered and looked at his watch. “We’ve got enough time for breakfast before the library opens if we leave now.”

Buffy’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, breakfast!”

Dean nodded. “Woman after my own heart.” He raised an eyebrow at Sam. “Surprised that you’re the one that suggested it though.”

Sam shrugged. “I’m hungry,” was all he said. Dean stared at him for another moment before nodding.

“Okay, then.” He grinned. “Let’s eat.”

~*~*~

Buffy sighed as she scanned another old newspaper. “Anything?”

“Nope.” Dean shook his head. “Not a thing. Sam?” He rolled his eyes when there was no response and tossed one of his pens at his brother’s head. “Sam!”

Sam blinked and looked up, scowling. “What was that for?”

“Find anything?”

He frowned. “No. Thought I had but death pattern doesn’t fit.” He let out a breath. “Maybe we’re dealing with a poltergeist.”

Dean leaned back in his seat. “Could be, what with the flying furniture and all but it’s pretty unusual for them to be so aggressive.”

“But they do kill sometimes.” Sam tapped his pen against the table. “We can try a cleansing, maybe a banishing spell. See if it works.”

“And then what? See if anyone else dies?” Dean shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

“The signs fit, Dean.”

He sighed, tilting his head back. “Fine. Fine, we’ll give it a shot. Then we wait a day and go back, see if it attacks us again. If it does, we figure out who the hell it is and salt and burn the son of a bitch.”

“We’re going to need some ash, betony, camphor for banishing. Clove for binding and compelling. Hyssop for protection and some lavender as well since that’s good for both protection and cleansing.” Already, Sam was writing down each herb down, making a list.

Buffy stared at Sam as he went off for the next few minutes, muttering about what they’d need to get and what they’d have to do. She blinked and then turned to Dean. She didn’t do anything but raise both her eyebrows in question. Dean smirked in response.

“He’s a geek,” Dean said, the affection in his voice clear. Buffy laughed softly as Sam paused long enough to shoot a glare in Dean’s direction. “Sam, hand over the list of herbs. We’ll go get it while you figure out what spell would be the best to use.”

Sam nodded as he opened a separate book. “Okay. This shouldn’t take long. We should be able to do this tonight.”

“See you in a bit, Sam.”

~*~*~

Buffy walked past the shelves of herbs, looking at each name. She tilted her head, wondering what was going to happen that night.

“Got it all,” Dean said, coming up behind her, holding up a bag. She jumped and spun around causing him to grin. “Sorry.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sure you are.”

His lips twitched in response as he headed towards the door. He glanced back and motioned her through the door first.

“Dean, do you really think it’s a poltergeist?” she asked as they made their way back to the car. He paused.

“I don’t know. Sam’s...he’s got an instinct about these things so it could be. It does have a lot of the same signs. Then again, a lot of the signs point towards spirit. Add in the fact that the last time we faced a poltergeist, the EMF didn’t really go off. It did when we were at this house.” He shook his head. “So yeah, I’m leaning towards a spirit. But a poltergeist can be taken care of more easily than a spirit so we’ll try that first, just to be sure.”

Buffy nodded. “So, we’re hoping for a poltergeist?”

“If you don’t want to do research, yeah.” Dean’s grin faded a bit and he turned to her, becoming serious. “Listen, last time, the poltergeist was pretty pissed when we tried to stop it so it tried to stop us. It’ll probably take all three of us but there’s a serious chance something will go wrong.” He paused. “Besides the knives flying at us.”

She nodded. “I’ll just have to handle it then.”

Dean studied her for a moment. “We better get back. Sam’s probably got the spell ready.” She nodded again and the two of them continued on in silence.

~*~*~

“You sure this is going to work?”

“I’m positive. Look, I know last time the pouches didn’t work—“ Sam cut himself off and let out a breath. “I think they just needed more of a punch, which is what the incantation and candles are for. We’re also using a different combination of ingredients.”

Buffy watched the two with interest. She could tell that there was something more to what had happened last time but it was also very obvious that neither of them wanted to talk about it.

“What do we have to say again?” she asked, hoping to lead them away from the subject. Sam gave her a small smile and nodded in understanding. “Better yet,” she added, “why don’t you just explain it one more time? Just in case.”

“Once we each get to our spots and create the triangle, you’re going to need to find a way to make a hole in the wall. Do that and then you’ll light your candle and say ‘What is dark be filled with light, forever remove evil from this sight.’ After you say that, shove the pouch into the wall and hopefully that’ll do it.”

“That’s it? Really?”

He nodded. “Sometimes the simple is the most powerful.” He looked up at the house. “Let’s do this.”

They entered the house in the same order that they had before. Dean glanced at Buffy and Sam. “Be careful,” he muttered. He gave Sam a pointed look. “I mean it.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Take your own advice.”

Dean snorted, smiled at Buffy one last time, and headed up the stairs. Buffy and Sam didn’t waste any time splitting up and going to their spots. Dean had insisted that he be the one to take the spot up the stairs, saying that that was the hot spot so it was the spot most likely to see some action.

Buffy pulled out the hammer that Dean had given her and slammed into the wall. She paused and frowned when she saw that it had broken straight through the wall, briefly wondering why that hadn’t taken longer. She shrugged and decided not to question her luck as she hit the wall a couple more times to widen the hole.

She’d barely set the candle down when a strong wind began to blow through the room. A side table flew through the air towards her and Buffy didn’t think about it as she kicked out with her leg, eyes widening when the table fell to the side, a small crack in the surface. There was no time to process what had just happened before the table flew at her once more. She dove to the side, wincing when she heard the table hit the wall. Quickly, she moved her body so that it blocked the candle from the wind and pulled out a lighter.

“Come on,” she muttered as she tried to light it a few times. She allowed herself a small grin when she managed to get a flame and keep it long enough to light the candle. Taking a deep breath, she spoke, “What is dark be filled with light, forever remove evil from this sight.” She didn’t wait to see what could possibly be happening before shoving the pouch of herbs into the wall. From the other room she heard Sam swear and above her, she heard a crash. A few moments later, there was a flash of light and she sighed in relief at the shift in the air. She blew out her candle and stood just as Sam walked in.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yup. More flying furniture but I managed to avoid it.” She hesitated. “It worked, didn’t it?”

He tilted his head a bit. “Yeah. It worked. How’d you know?”

She shrugged. “It just...feels different in here now.”

The sound of Dean coming down the stairs caused Sam to turn rather than reply. “Sam?” was all Dean said as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

“I’m fine. It worked.”

“Buffy?” Dean looked over at her.

“Good to go.”

He turned back to Sam. “You sure it worked?”

“Yeah. But just to be sure we should probably check the house before we go.”

“We’ll do a quick check now and come back tomorrow.”

It didn’t take them long to go through the house and soon they were headed back to motel.

“Is anyone else hungry?” Buffy asked suddenly.

“Ever notice how slaying always makes you hungry and horny?”

Buffy’s eyes widened and she sat back, shifting in her seat even as Sam agreed and Dean pointed out a nearby diner. Agreeing that the place looked fine to her, she looked out the window again.

She couldn’t deny that she wasn’t hungry after that but she had no idea what slaying meant. Dean and Sam hadn’t used the word in the couple days she known them. They’d always called it a hunt or a job. But she had studied stones and had had some sort of training and she knew she’d felt it when the poltergeist was gone.

Slaying. She shook her head. Slaying sounded a lot like killing. She closed her eyes briefly, remembering the dream she’d had before.

She wasn’t a killer.

“You killed him.”

She wasn’t.