The November Project - Part 3

TITLE:	The November Project (3/10)
AUTHOR:	-Andy- see2go4me@yahoo.com)
STATUS:	Words: 1,781 .
RATING:	18/R
DISCLAIMER:	This is a derivative work. All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, Panzer/Davis and others. I don't own any of this, just the words gluing my story together.
SUMMARY:	A Third Slayer Tale
SPOILERS:	All seasons of BtVS and Highlander.
DISTRIBUTION:	My blog fanfic pages. TtH eventually. Anyone else, e-mail me please.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:	This is my NaNoWriMo entry. Quantity over quality. Don't expect anything better than a rough draft until the whole thing is done. Then I'll revise it.

It was a bitterly cold March morning. Her hands freezing in the thin gloves she normally wore while riding, Fann shivered as she unlocked her bike. She hadn't made it as far south as she'd originally planned by Christmas and she'd been stuck in Indiana until the roads thawed. As much as she enjoyed the freedom offered by her bike, it wasn't much use once the weather turned cold and snow covered the roads. Her choice had been to either abandon her bike, something she was loath to do, and keep moving cross country by bus or wait for the weather to clear. The urge to travel was not as overpowering as it had been in the beginning so she stayed. It was the longest she'd stopped in a single place since she'd left home.

She'd had plenty of time to think about things while she waited. She hadn't had a real destination in mind, just the desire to eventually make it to the Pacific coast. That was the direction that had gently pulled at her all winter. But there seemed to be no hurry to get there.

She looked up at the sky and grimaced. She'd had enough of Indiana, especially this town. While she'd grown up in a small town, this one was different. The occasional weird event she could handle, but almost every week something major on the weirdness scale had occurred. And after spending so much time in small towns, working for a week or two as a waitress in the occasional diner or restaurant she was ready to try her luck in some place larger, some place hopefully saner, like New Orleans.

She chased the warm weather all the way south, sticking to the inter-state highways the entire way. Travelling towards the Gulf coast in her calm, methodical fashion to avoid attracting attention. Not being much of a country music fan, she didn't stop on her way through Nashville. It was just another exit on the highway where the traffic had more than its' fair share of bad drivers. She reached the Louisiana border exhausted and sore from the long, eight hundred mile ride.

There was something really wrong in New Orleans. Something about the city grated on Fann's nerves. She found a cheap motel near the restaurant district and tried to come down from the trip, to calm down from the buzz of being on the road. She was only partially successful. Lying there in the dark, the dreams came back with a vengeance. But this time they were different. No longer as frightening, she thought they were trying to tell her something but she didn't quite know what.

Even after the long trip she was up early the next day, ready to find a job. She could afford a week or two on the remains of her meager savings from her winter stay in Indiana but after that she would have to dip into her emergency funds. During her five months on the road she'd been lucky and had managed to avoid it so far.

Grabbing a bus schedule and tourist map from the motel office, Fann set out to find a job. A place to stay could wait until she'd decided how long to stay in the area. The first diner she stopped at didn't have any openings. By the fifth she was starting to become frustrated and hungry. After a quick lunch from a street vendor, Fann headed back to her motel.

In serious need of a break, Fann was crossing the street a block from her motel when it happened. A small foreign car of some sort careened around the corner at a very high speed, directly into her path. Even with her quick reflexes there was really no place to go in the split second it took her to react. She instinctively jumped out of the way but the car still managed to knock her into the side of another car parked on the curb.

The pain from the impact caused her to lay there for what seemed like forever, but it couldn't have been more than a minute before she managed to pull herself together and push herself up. She hurt all over, like she was one large bruise, especially her head. In the ten months since the nightmares had begun she'd become stronger but this was the first time she'd actually been hurt. Staggering upright she was surprised to see a large dent in the car where she'd hit it. She must have collided with it pretty hard. From the looks of the car she should have been hurt a lot worse than she thought she'd been.

She leaned back against the car, trying to catch her breath. Feeling for the spot on the back of her head that hurt the most, Fann felt something wet and slightly sticky with her fingers. Pulling them away from her head she was shocked to find her fingers coated with blood. She stayed there for a minute staring at them in horror. Something in her head was telling her that bleeding was a very bad thing. Something instinctual that insisted that she needed to get off the street and take care of it before anyone or anything saw she was hurt.

Grimacing, Fann gently brushed the dirt from her clothes, glad she'd decided to dress casually for once while out job hunting for the day instead of the slightly more refined clothes she normally wore to make herself look older. She was just finishing when she heard the sound of a car backing up. Glancing up towards the sound, Fann saw a tall woman with short blonde hair unfolding herself from the low yellow car that had hit her minutes earlier.

"Are you okay?" She asked Fann, speaking with a faint accent Fann couldn't quite identify.

"Sure. I'm fine." Fann told her. "I get run over every day. No big deal." She stood up completely, steeling herself against the soreness that enveloped her complaining muscles. She rubbed the sore spot on her head before she remembered it really wasn't a good idea. "Yow!" she blurted out in surprise as she pulled her hand away.

The woman walked quickly around her car towards Fann. Fann was too surprised to resist as the woman gently prodded her injury with long, slim fingers. "That isn't too bad. It's already stopped bleeding" She told Fann clinically. "You should probably wash it and put something on it."

"I was just going to. If you'll excuse me..." Fann told her in her politest 'don't mess with me' voice.

"I can give you a ride." the woman offered, apparently not phased by the dismissal. "It's the least I can do. Where are you going?"

Fann looked at her curiously. There was something about this woman that was setting off alarms in her head, making her wary. Her enhanced senses were telling Fann that this woman wasn't what she appeared to be. "Thanks for the generous offer but I'll be fine." she said, firmly refusing.

"Why don't I at least buy you dinner?" the woman suggested.

"It's too early and I don't go to dinner with strangers." Fann told her, assuming that would end it.

"Okay. I'm Amanda." She offered Fann her hand with a wink. "Nice to meet you. And you are?"

Fann stared at her for a moment before answering. "Fann."

"Okay. Now you know me." Amanda told her with a grin. "What about dinner tonight?"

"Umm... No." Fann refused again. "I've got to go. Thanks anyway."

"Okay..." Amanda seemed to think for a moment. Going over to her car, she grabbed something out of it. Turning back to Fann she handed her a small slip of paper. "Here. If you feel like dinner you can reach me at my hotel at six. Meet me in the lobby."

Fann just shook her head at the determined woman, not sure why she was insisting on this. Amanda squeezed her shoulder before turning around and climbing back into her idling car. With a shouted "Don't forget! Six!" she drove off leaving Fann staring at her disappearing car in bemusement for a moment. She pulled herself together and headed to her motel to take care of the wound on her head before getting back out on the street to find a job.

While the afternoon had not led to any definite employment, the disappointing morning had faded from her mind and back in her motel room Fann was now more optimistic that she would find something before the end of the week. She no longer thought she would have to dig into her cash reserves. And as soon as she had a job she could start looking for an apartment.

She could only sit for so long, flipping through the channels on the TV in her room, before boredom forced her out into the street. In the six months since gaining her enhanced senses the only real cure for the restlessness she felt every night was physical activity, usually in the form of long rambling walks late into the night.

Tonight she only partially succumbed to the impulse. While it was still daylight, she found herself wandering down the street the hotel Amanda was staying at. She wasn't quite sure why she was there. It went against the sense of self preservation she'd developed on the road. And except for the offer of a real meal, Fann had no real interest in anything the woman might be able to offer her.

It wasn't the fanciest hotel she'd ever seen. She'd worked in several more ornate examples since running away. But Fann had the distinct impression that it was a very discrete establishment as she found a seat in the lobby out of view of the hotel staff to wait in. This gave her even less of an idea about what this Amanda could want her for.

She sensed her before she saw her. And if she hadn't been looking she might have missed her completely. In the hours since they'd forcibly met Amanda had changed her hair to a much darker color, giving her a softer, less harsh look. She simply nodded at Fann and headed for the door, Fann scrambling to follow.

Fann wasn't blind to the wealth being displayed at the restaurant Amanda drove them to but it was outside her normal experience. She'd spent a lot of time working in eating establishments where they were lucky to meet payroll on a regular basis. A place with a waiting line at the entrance wasn't something she'd ever really contemplated entering, even before her gran died.

• No, this is not anything femslashy... Amanda is not trying to 'pick her up'!
• Fann is pronounced "Fawn" - It's Irish

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