Spoilers: None really.
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Stargate, Supernatural or Buffy.
Authors Note: These are all set in the Search and Rescue ‘verse at various times (see timeline note below) so it won’t make sense if you haven’t read the series. Fic two is written solely for my beta Zephyrrs, who shares my Elliott love. The fic won’t quite have the impact I’m after unless you’ve seen the Stargate season 5 episodes Proving Ground and Summit Part 1 & 2.
Timeline Note: All fics are written in chronological and takes place at the follow times:
Ficlet one: Days after Graduation (pre series).
Ficlet Two: After Brave New World.
Ficlet three: Between Instinct and Heroics.
Ficlets Four and Five: During Heroics.
~ A Hunter ~
There were times when John Winchester didn’t think he took good enough care of his boys.
He loved them more than he loved anything, but there was a part of him that knew exposing them to the life they were leading was wrong. They were both almost grown men now, Dean was practically a Hunter in his own right while Sammy was well on his way. But that didn’t mean he was completely okay with the things they had seen because of him.
In fact, there were things he wouldn’t expose his sons to, places where he would never allow them to set foot.
Sunnydale, California was one of them.
It was a town most Hunters avoided. More of them had died here in the last twenty years than in an other place in America. Unfortunately for them, the sheer number of demons, vampires and other being that lived in this town, the Hunters usually became the hunted. The only reason why John was here was because this was too big to ignore.
He had to see for himself what happened here, to make sure that it wasn’t going to spread.
After looking around, he knew it was over.
Not just for the demon, but for the town… and the redhead he had found.
When he had first seen her, he thought she was a ghost. There didn’t seem to be any life in her at all. She just laid there, unmoving, next to the chalk outline on the concrete, dressed completely black. Her broken eyes just stared through him, not really seeing him or anything.
He had tried talking to her, to get her to move, but she didn’t respond. She just stared at him with that look… a look John recognised. He had seen it in his own eyes after he lost Mary.
She was completely lost, consumed by pain and grief.
John wondered if offering her words of comfort would snap her out of it, reach her.
But there were no words to offer.
John knew it never got better.
~ A Crush ~
US Air Force Cadet John Elliott felt like a fool.
It was stupid and if his fellow cadets – or worse, his best friend – knew that he had a stupid high school crush on a first year cadet, he would never hear the end of it. Oh, he wouldn’t be the first person to fall for someone at the Academy. In fact, a couple of his friends had done just that. The reason he would spend his last year being constantly reminded of it, was because every time it had happened Elliott had made his feelings clear on the matter.
Which, of course, meant that it had to happen to him.
God, he was an idiot. Everything he said to his friends was true. It was stupid and dangerous. Pursuing an attraction of any kind only led to pain – either pain of separation or the pain of explaining to their parents why they had been kicked out of the Academy.
Still, that didn’t stop his heart from pounding every time they passed in the hall.
Maybe that was why he liked her. She was effectively unattainable. Or, maybe, it was because she seemed so… focused. The few times he had seen her, she had the same type of focus he saw in himself.
She didn’t see anything but the Air Force.
Nothing else existed for her. He liked that. It was the kind of focus he would like directed at him. Although, that would mean she would actually have to know he was alive. Which, unsurprisingly, she didn’t.
He never had much luck in high school, he seriously doubted he’d have better – or any – luck here.
He sighed and silently called himself an idiot for the millionth time.
“You know, Elliott, one of these days you’re going to have to tell me who she is.”
Elliott silently groaned at the familiar voice. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bullshit,” his best friend said, dropping down onto the chair beside him. “You’ve got that tortured love-sick look on your face. I’ve been seeing it for months.”
Kill me now. “You’re imagining things.”
“Like hell I am, come on ‘fess up. Who is she?”
“No one.”
“Is she in our year?”
“No.”
“Do I know her?”
“No.”
“Is she hot?”
He hesitated, then instantly regretted it. “No.”
“Ha! I knew it!” he cried triumphantly. “She’s hot! I knew she had to be hot! Come on, man, spill!”
Elliott laughed. “Grogan, if there was a girl I was interested in – which there isn’t – do you really think I would tell you who she is?”
No, it was a secret he would take to his grave.
~ A Dangerous Enemy ~
“He’s here.”
Faith closed her eyes and swore. “You should have let me slay him when I had the chance, Fang.”
Angel sighed, his eyes fixed firmly on the figure lurking in the shadows – only a few feet from where Cordy, Giles and a rather nervous Willow stood. It figured that this would happened. Willow’s first ‘night on the town’ since she came back into their lives. God, it was just his luck, wasn’t it?
It made him grateful that he had gone a little overboard on making Willow’s night out as event free as possible.
Littered throughout the bar were almost two dozen of Gunn’s men. All of them armed, watching, and ready to stop anything before it started. Angel was armed as well, two stakes were carefully concealed in sheathes on his arms and under his duster was a short sword. Faith and Cordy had taken great pleasure in making fun of his overprotective nature, but he doubted they were laughing now.
Not with death standing a few feet from Willow.
He sighed again. “I didn’t think he would come back.” Angel didn’t think anyone would be that stupid but, apparently, he was wrong. “Has she seen him?”
Faith shook her head. “Red’s too busy trying not to look shit scared. She probably won’t see him until he’s right on her… So much for military training.”
“She’s not going to see him,” Angel growled.
“You do know he’s going to go after her, don’t you? He hasn’t taken his eyes off her all night” the Slayer said. “If he’s been stalking you again, he’ll know what she means to you.”
Angel had no doubt he knew exactly what Willow meant to him.
Damn it! “I’ll take care of this.”
“Like the last time? Or for real?”
“I told Spike if he stepped in my town again, I’d kill him.”
Angel was going to keep his word.
~ A True Love ~
Tara had always wondered what her ‘one true love’ would be like. A part of her never really believed it would ever happen. Oh, she wanted it to happen. She liked the thought of one person affecting her life so strongly. Someone who, after moments of meeting, imbedded themselves in her heart. She just didn’t think she had that kind of luck.
Which was why Tara hadn’t been at all prepared for the day when it actually did.
She wanted to be wrong. She wanted it be just a stupid crush, nothing more than that. But it wasn’t. Tara knew she had met her ‘one’ the moment she saw Willow…
And she was nothing like she imagined.
For one, Willow didn’t even see her that way. In fact, the only way Willow saw her was with fear and disgust. Never in any of Tara’s fantasies did the ‘one’ hate witches with such passion it was frightening.
Tara wished her heart would realise how wrong Willow was for her.
This wasn’t what she wanted to feel. Falling for someone straight – so utterly military – was only going to lead to pain.
Tara just couldn’t seem to stop it.
~ An Old Friend ~
When he made the choice to stay in this realm, he had no idea how much it would hurt.
He doubted it would have made a difference in his choice, of course, but still… this was a kind of pain he never imagined existing.
It wasn’t so much the whole ‘I’m dead and I’m watching my friends live out their lives’ type of thing that was so painful. No, it was the ‘I’m watching my best friend self-destruct and there is nothing I can do about it’ that was killing him.
Xander had chosen to stay behind because of her. As soon as he had realised what happened, when he realised he was dead, he knew Willow would be dead as well. Maybe not physically, but in every other way. He hated that he’d been right and he hated even more seeing the choices she made.
There were so many times when he’d wanted to strangle her, slap her, or hug her until they both couldn’t breathe (well, until she couldn’t breathe – he didn’t have that problem anymore).
Watching from the sideline sucked.
Not being able to help sucked even more.
God, what he would give for her to see him. Just for one second – one millionth of a second. If she did, then she would know she wasn’t alone, that he would never leave her. She would know what happened at Graduation wasn’t her fault and that he, Buffy, and Oz were all right.
Maybe then they could both have some peace.