Categories > TV > Angel > Never Will You Be Alone
Never Will You Be Alone
Chapter Two-Liability
"Ow..." Dawn whimpered as she sat up. When she had jumped into the portal, it had felt like her whole body was being zapped by a hundred bolts of lightening. She had thought it was killing her. Instead of killing her, the portal had dropped her into a frightening forest. Her heart beat raced as she stood. 'I don't like this!' She exclaimed mentally. 'I have to figure out where I am!' Panic began to rise as she tromped through the forest. A small fire caught her eye as she stepped over a log. Against her better judgement, she headed toward it.
Stephen Holtz had just set up camp for the night as a twig snapped behind him.
"Um..exc-!" A surprised gasp came from the night as Stephen grabbed the small, delicate wrist of the interuder and slammed the decidedly female interuder to the ground. "Ow..." Came a low whisper. Stephen's eyes widened as a pair of wide green eyes stared back up at him. His body held her pinned. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you..." She apologized.
"Who are you?" He asked, still wary to let her up despite her fragile frame. His hands held a tight grip on her hands and his legs were suppressing movement from her lower half. His entire body was laid against hers.
"Dawn Summers." 'His eyes seemed to tell a story,' Dawn realized. She could read the pain and suffering in his brown eyes and felt a shock to realize that she not only wanted to remove it, but place something lighter in them instead. A silence fell over them as they stared at one another. 'His body language even more so.' "What are you doing out here?" She had wanted to ask him just what had happened to cause his eyes to be so guarded, to make his eyes fill with so much pain.
"What are you?" Stephen returned.
"I don't know..." Dawn whispered. Stephen stared into her green eyes as he attempted to figure out what she meant by it.
"What do you mean?" He demanded. 'Has she lost her memory?' He wondered. A curious look came to her eyes as she stared up at him.
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." She whispered.
"Try me," Stephen answered. As he leaned forward, his grip on her hands became worse. She didn't flinch until his wrists brushed her own. At her hiss, he glanced above them. Burns circled her wrists in the form of a cuff. His eyes widened at their severity. Stephen eased his pressure and lifted his wrists up from hers. He looked back down at her. "I'm waiting.."
Never Will You Be Alone
Spike pulled Buffy up from the cool metal flooring of the bloodied structure. She didn't fight him. Her eyes never left the spot where the portal that had moments before been suspended in air even as he lifted her into his arms and carried her down the stairs.
"She would have fallen down here, if she were dead right?" Willow asked Giles softly. Her own eyes were filling rapidly with tears. Tara was already crying into her shoulder while Anya was sobbing into Xander's broader shoulder.
"I don't know..." Giles answered with a thick swallow.
Never Will You Be Alone
Stephen lifted his body off of hers as she finished her story. He wasn't sure if he fully believed her but if what she said was true, then he needed to tend to her. The smell of her blood would attract larger and more dangerous predators than him. As he lifted off, she sat up.
"Where is here?" She asked, looking around.
"Welcome to Quor'Toth, also known as hell," Stephen drawled as he stood up and dusted himself off. He extended his hand to her. "Come on, we've got to get you cleaned off.." Stephen was once more struck at her willingness to comply with him as she placed her smaller hand in his. "There's an unpolluted creek here somewhere..."
Dawn stared at his broad back as he pulled her along behind him. He seemed to be moving slowly and making as little sound as possible. Dawn tried to match his steps with her own. Every now and then, he would glare at her as she snapped a twig or crunched a leaf. He stopped as she tripped over a root and turned to her. Dawn stepped back in slight fear. She suppressed a squeal as she swept her into his arms.
"Demons here can tunnel underneath the ground," he explained. "The slightest stumble or snap can and will alert them." Dawn blushed in embarrassment as his brown eyes bore into her green.
"Sorry..." she whispered. Stephen suppressed a sigh.
"It's okay." Stephen assured before he started walking again. He could hear her racing heart beat and smell the blood in her veins as it runs through them at an accelerated rate. Worried that he might have hurt her, Stephen looked down at her. He was shocked to see her staring up at him. "What?" He whispered. A small blush formed on her cheeks.
"Nothing, it's just...you sort of look like someone my sister dated..." She explained. He blinked and attempted to figure out her body's reactions to him.
"Did you like him?" Stephen asked as he looked ahead again. He stepped over a branch and landed lightly on the wet ground as Dawn shook her head. Her heart beat was threatening to alert others of their presence. 'I'll keep her talking, only to calm her down...'
"Not like that," she whispered. Even though she said that, her heartbeat pounded still.
"Then why does your heart race a mile per minute?" Stephen asked in the same low tone. Her blush became worse at his words.
"Well, it's just...this is awkward," she whispered, "I've just met you and you're carrying me to a creek to bathe like it's the most natural thing in the world. Just how many women have stumbled on your camp, mister?" Her last sentence had a teasing light that Stephen enjoyed briefly.
"None." Stephen answered as he manuvered them through the brush lining.
"Really?!" Dawn exclaimed. A small laugh escaped him.
"Why is that so surprising?" Stephen asked, glancing down at her. Silently, he took note of her heart pounding harder.
"Well, it's just that...um..." Stephen raised an eyebrow at her. Her heart seemed to race just a little faster. "You're cute." Stephen almost stumbled at her admission. He glanced down at her in surprise. "Well, better than cute actually...you're what-" A small smile came to his face as he found off a chuckle.
"We're here," he said, interrupting what he was sure to be an embarrassing rant about his looks. He set her on her feet.
"Ah...thanks..." She seemed more nervous than before as she picked at the ruined cloth of the dark dress she had on. Stephen stilled her hands, afraid that she would rip open one of her freshly scabbed cuts. She glanced up at him with wide eyes.
"I won't peek..." He promised. She blushed and glanced over at the river.
"That's not what I'm worried about..." She looked back at him, "you don't think there are snakes in the water, do you?" Stephen's amusement threatened to burst from him in roaring laughter, but he smothered it down to a small chuckle.
"You're stuck with me, someone you just met, in a strange dimension filled with demons that eat humans for lunch and you're worried about snakes?" He chuckled. Dawn stared up at him with a soft smile on her face. His laughter cut short as he stared at that gentle smile. He suppressed the urge to reach out and touch the corners of it just to make sure it was real. No one had smiled at him like that before, like he was someone. 'I want her to keep smiling at me like that...'
"Okay, okay," she sighed, "I get your point, but if I get bit and die, I'm coming back to haunt you."
"I'll be waiting," Stephen teased light heartedly as he turned around. Though he could not see her, he knew she was blushing as the sounds of cloth rustling against skin reached his ears.
"Is there a reason you have to stand there..." She whispered as she stepped into the cold water. "Ah!" She hissed. "You'd think in hell the water would be a little hotter..." Stephen fought off a small chuckle at her exclaimation.
"Demon's tend to prefer women over men for their meals..." He left the reason hanging, but by the skip of her heart beat he knew she understood.
"Thank you..." Stephen's eyes widened at her quiet thanks. "For protecting me and not throwing me back out into the woods..."
"You're welcome..." Stephen whispered. His mind reeling about the woman bathing behind him. 'How can she be so trusting?' He wondered. 'I bet she needed constant protection where she was...' He could practically see all of the trouble she had given her friends and family behind his eyelids. Getting kidnapped by this Glory must have just been the icing on the cake. 'I guess that job's now up to me...' His eyes widened slightly at his mental monolouge. In Quor'Toth, it was every man for himself. It would be dangerous for him to take on the protection of someone else when he, himself, had to struggle to survive. It seemed that the attempts to end his life doubled everyday. 'She would a liability...' He thought as he heard an embarrassed cough.
"Um..." She whispered. "We forgot about one thing..." The water splashed gently as she stepped up from it.
"What?" Stephen asked, not turning around.
"I have no clothes...even if I washed this," he knew that she was holding up the tattered dress, "I would still need something to wear until it dried..." Stephen was no stranger to the ways of women. Demons and vampires alike sought to seduce their intended mates just the same as a human woman, but somehow with this girl, Stephen doubted seduction was her angle. The fear and shyness in her voice told him all he needed to know.
'A very innocent liability...' Stephen thought in amusement as he slipped his own shirt over his head and tossed it back to her.
"Wear this until it dries..." He commanded lightly. Cloth was once again slid across skin while Stephen turned to his thoughts. 'I could teach her how to fight...'
"Okay," she called gently, "you can turn around now.." Stephen turned. His eyes widened at the sight that greeted him. Since he was a good feet taller than her, the shirt only came to her mid thigh. The front 'V' dipped to give him a teasing view of the tops of her breasts.
'Dawn Summers, a complete stranger, should not look so good in my clothing,' he decided.
"It will do," he hoped that she didn't notice the breathlessness as he spoke, "until your dress dries." He extended his arms. "Let's head back to camp.." Dawn nodded and clutched the soaked dress to her as he lifted her in his arms. Dawn looked away from his face and toward the tree covering. A fiery blush graced her cheeks as her hand gripped his naked shoulder.
As Stephen walked through the forest with the small girl in his arms, he fought to reign in his newly unleashed horomones. His betraying mind kept wandered to how good her thighs felt against his hands and how smooth they were.
"I'm going to have to teach you how to fight if you insist on staying with me..." He whispered to her as he walked back to camp. "We'll start early in the morning..." Stephen looked down at her expecting an answer.
"'kay..." She murmured, her breath washed across his chest. Stephen suppressed a shiver of delight at the feel. Her breathing was becoming slower. Her heart beat was evening out. She was falling asleep. 'In my arms...' Stephen thought, once more wondering how she could be so trusting.
A small moan of protest escaped her lips as he set her down on the pallet he had made before she had stumbled upon his campsite. Her hands clutched at his shoulders before she yanked him down to her. His brown eyes were wide as her arms wrapped around his waist in a death grip.
"Warm..." she whispered. A warm blush rose to Stephen's cheeks as she arched closer to him. A content sigh escaped her lips while his cheeks got more red. A shiver rippled through her as the wind blew. Stephen bit into his lip and reached down to pull the cover over them.
The warmth radiating from her body was cantagious. Soon, he too was falling into a light sleep. He could still feel the rumbles underneath the earth as the demons moved about searching for prey. He could still hear every sound of the forest. Despite the comfort of sleep, he was alert.
Chapter Two-Liability
"Ow..." Dawn whimpered as she sat up. When she had jumped into the portal, it had felt like her whole body was being zapped by a hundred bolts of lightening. She had thought it was killing her. Instead of killing her, the portal had dropped her into a frightening forest. Her heart beat raced as she stood. 'I don't like this!' She exclaimed mentally. 'I have to figure out where I am!' Panic began to rise as she tromped through the forest. A small fire caught her eye as she stepped over a log. Against her better judgement, she headed toward it.
Stephen Holtz had just set up camp for the night as a twig snapped behind him.
"Um..exc-!" A surprised gasp came from the night as Stephen grabbed the small, delicate wrist of the interuder and slammed the decidedly female interuder to the ground. "Ow..." Came a low whisper. Stephen's eyes widened as a pair of wide green eyes stared back up at him. His body held her pinned. "Didn't mean to sneak up on you..." She apologized.
"Who are you?" He asked, still wary to let her up despite her fragile frame. His hands held a tight grip on her hands and his legs were suppressing movement from her lower half. His entire body was laid against hers.
"Dawn Summers." 'His eyes seemed to tell a story,' Dawn realized. She could read the pain and suffering in his brown eyes and felt a shock to realize that she not only wanted to remove it, but place something lighter in them instead. A silence fell over them as they stared at one another. 'His body language even more so.' "What are you doing out here?" She had wanted to ask him just what had happened to cause his eyes to be so guarded, to make his eyes fill with so much pain.
"What are you?" Stephen returned.
"I don't know..." Dawn whispered. Stephen stared into her green eyes as he attempted to figure out what she meant by it.
"What do you mean?" He demanded. 'Has she lost her memory?' He wondered. A curious look came to her eyes as she stared up at him.
"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." She whispered.
"Try me," Stephen answered. As he leaned forward, his grip on her hands became worse. She didn't flinch until his wrists brushed her own. At her hiss, he glanced above them. Burns circled her wrists in the form of a cuff. His eyes widened at their severity. Stephen eased his pressure and lifted his wrists up from hers. He looked back down at her. "I'm waiting.."
Never Will You Be Alone
Spike pulled Buffy up from the cool metal flooring of the bloodied structure. She didn't fight him. Her eyes never left the spot where the portal that had moments before been suspended in air even as he lifted her into his arms and carried her down the stairs.
"She would have fallen down here, if she were dead right?" Willow asked Giles softly. Her own eyes were filling rapidly with tears. Tara was already crying into her shoulder while Anya was sobbing into Xander's broader shoulder.
"I don't know..." Giles answered with a thick swallow.
Never Will You Be Alone
Stephen lifted his body off of hers as she finished her story. He wasn't sure if he fully believed her but if what she said was true, then he needed to tend to her. The smell of her blood would attract larger and more dangerous predators than him. As he lifted off, she sat up.
"Where is here?" She asked, looking around.
"Welcome to Quor'Toth, also known as hell," Stephen drawled as he stood up and dusted himself off. He extended his hand to her. "Come on, we've got to get you cleaned off.." Stephen was once more struck at her willingness to comply with him as she placed her smaller hand in his. "There's an unpolluted creek here somewhere..."
Dawn stared at his broad back as he pulled her along behind him. He seemed to be moving slowly and making as little sound as possible. Dawn tried to match his steps with her own. Every now and then, he would glare at her as she snapped a twig or crunched a leaf. He stopped as she tripped over a root and turned to her. Dawn stepped back in slight fear. She suppressed a squeal as she swept her into his arms.
"Demons here can tunnel underneath the ground," he explained. "The slightest stumble or snap can and will alert them." Dawn blushed in embarrassment as his brown eyes bore into her green.
"Sorry..." she whispered. Stephen suppressed a sigh.
"It's okay." Stephen assured before he started walking again. He could hear her racing heart beat and smell the blood in her veins as it runs through them at an accelerated rate. Worried that he might have hurt her, Stephen looked down at her. He was shocked to see her staring up at him. "What?" He whispered. A small blush formed on her cheeks.
"Nothing, it's just...you sort of look like someone my sister dated..." She explained. He blinked and attempted to figure out her body's reactions to him.
"Did you like him?" Stephen asked as he looked ahead again. He stepped over a branch and landed lightly on the wet ground as Dawn shook her head. Her heart beat was threatening to alert others of their presence. 'I'll keep her talking, only to calm her down...'
"Not like that," she whispered. Even though she said that, her heartbeat pounded still.
"Then why does your heart race a mile per minute?" Stephen asked in the same low tone. Her blush became worse at his words.
"Well, it's just...this is awkward," she whispered, "I've just met you and you're carrying me to a creek to bathe like it's the most natural thing in the world. Just how many women have stumbled on your camp, mister?" Her last sentence had a teasing light that Stephen enjoyed briefly.
"None." Stephen answered as he manuvered them through the brush lining.
"Really?!" Dawn exclaimed. A small laugh escaped him.
"Why is that so surprising?" Stephen asked, glancing down at her. Silently, he took note of her heart pounding harder.
"Well, it's just that...um..." Stephen raised an eyebrow at her. Her heart seemed to race just a little faster. "You're cute." Stephen almost stumbled at her admission. He glanced down at her in surprise. "Well, better than cute actually...you're what-" A small smile came to his face as he found off a chuckle.
"We're here," he said, interrupting what he was sure to be an embarrassing rant about his looks. He set her on her feet.
"Ah...thanks..." She seemed more nervous than before as she picked at the ruined cloth of the dark dress she had on. Stephen stilled her hands, afraid that she would rip open one of her freshly scabbed cuts. She glanced up at him with wide eyes.
"I won't peek..." He promised. She blushed and glanced over at the river.
"That's not what I'm worried about..." She looked back at him, "you don't think there are snakes in the water, do you?" Stephen's amusement threatened to burst from him in roaring laughter, but he smothered it down to a small chuckle.
"You're stuck with me, someone you just met, in a strange dimension filled with demons that eat humans for lunch and you're worried about snakes?" He chuckled. Dawn stared up at him with a soft smile on her face. His laughter cut short as he stared at that gentle smile. He suppressed the urge to reach out and touch the corners of it just to make sure it was real. No one had smiled at him like that before, like he was someone. 'I want her to keep smiling at me like that...'
"Okay, okay," she sighed, "I get your point, but if I get bit and die, I'm coming back to haunt you."
"I'll be waiting," Stephen teased light heartedly as he turned around. Though he could not see her, he knew she was blushing as the sounds of cloth rustling against skin reached his ears.
"Is there a reason you have to stand there..." She whispered as she stepped into the cold water. "Ah!" She hissed. "You'd think in hell the water would be a little hotter..." Stephen fought off a small chuckle at her exclaimation.
"Demon's tend to prefer women over men for their meals..." He left the reason hanging, but by the skip of her heart beat he knew she understood.
"Thank you..." Stephen's eyes widened at her quiet thanks. "For protecting me and not throwing me back out into the woods..."
"You're welcome..." Stephen whispered. His mind reeling about the woman bathing behind him. 'How can she be so trusting?' He wondered. 'I bet she needed constant protection where she was...' He could practically see all of the trouble she had given her friends and family behind his eyelids. Getting kidnapped by this Glory must have just been the icing on the cake. 'I guess that job's now up to me...' His eyes widened slightly at his mental monolouge. In Quor'Toth, it was every man for himself. It would be dangerous for him to take on the protection of someone else when he, himself, had to struggle to survive. It seemed that the attempts to end his life doubled everyday. 'She would a liability...' He thought as he heard an embarrassed cough.
"Um..." She whispered. "We forgot about one thing..." The water splashed gently as she stepped up from it.
"What?" Stephen asked, not turning around.
"I have no clothes...even if I washed this," he knew that she was holding up the tattered dress, "I would still need something to wear until it dried..." Stephen was no stranger to the ways of women. Demons and vampires alike sought to seduce their intended mates just the same as a human woman, but somehow with this girl, Stephen doubted seduction was her angle. The fear and shyness in her voice told him all he needed to know.
'A very innocent liability...' Stephen thought in amusement as he slipped his own shirt over his head and tossed it back to her.
"Wear this until it dries..." He commanded lightly. Cloth was once again slid across skin while Stephen turned to his thoughts. 'I could teach her how to fight...'
"Okay," she called gently, "you can turn around now.." Stephen turned. His eyes widened at the sight that greeted him. Since he was a good feet taller than her, the shirt only came to her mid thigh. The front 'V' dipped to give him a teasing view of the tops of her breasts.
'Dawn Summers, a complete stranger, should not look so good in my clothing,' he decided.
"It will do," he hoped that she didn't notice the breathlessness as he spoke, "until your dress dries." He extended his arms. "Let's head back to camp.." Dawn nodded and clutched the soaked dress to her as he lifted her in his arms. Dawn looked away from his face and toward the tree covering. A fiery blush graced her cheeks as her hand gripped his naked shoulder.
As Stephen walked through the forest with the small girl in his arms, he fought to reign in his newly unleashed horomones. His betraying mind kept wandered to how good her thighs felt against his hands and how smooth they were.
"I'm going to have to teach you how to fight if you insist on staying with me..." He whispered to her as he walked back to camp. "We'll start early in the morning..." Stephen looked down at her expecting an answer.
"'kay..." She murmured, her breath washed across his chest. Stephen suppressed a shiver of delight at the feel. Her breathing was becoming slower. Her heart beat was evening out. She was falling asleep. 'In my arms...' Stephen thought, once more wondering how she could be so trusting.
A small moan of protest escaped her lips as he set her down on the pallet he had made before she had stumbled upon his campsite. Her hands clutched at his shoulders before she yanked him down to her. His brown eyes were wide as her arms wrapped around his waist in a death grip.
"Warm..." she whispered. A warm blush rose to Stephen's cheeks as she arched closer to him. A content sigh escaped her lips while his cheeks got more red. A shiver rippled through her as the wind blew. Stephen bit into his lip and reached down to pull the cover over them.
The warmth radiating from her body was cantagious. Soon, he too was falling into a light sleep. He could still feel the rumbles underneath the earth as the demons moved about searching for prey. He could still hear every sound of the forest. Despite the comfort of sleep, he was alert.
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