Drifting Through

TITLE:	Drifting Through (1/1)
AUTHOR:	-Andy- ( see2go4me@yahoo.com )
RATING:	PG
STATUS:	Posted
DISCLAIMER:	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:	Buffy, Amanda, Seacover, Snow
SPOILERS:	All seasons of BtVS. Highlander (Post season 4)
DISTRIBUTION:	TtH and my blog fanfic pages. Anyone else, e-mail me please.

It was a cold winter evening in Seacover when Joe first noticed her in his bar. She would show up in the evening, just after sunset; sit quietly by herself at a corner table facing the stage and steadily drink something she seemed to have picked randomly from the top shelf. The only times he noticed any expression on her face were in the late evenings when he took his accustomed perch on stage and played his guitar. When he finished she would leave, always alone.

After the second week she occasionally requested that he play a certain song. When he did she would spend the entire time with a slight smile on her face. But she never said anything else. And no one ever joined her.

Brushing the snow off of her jacket and shaking her head before it could start to melt, Amanda walked jauntily into Joe's bar. Taking her favorite seat at the bar and looking around for something to occupy her time, she nodded to a few of the regulars she recognized, wondering how many of them were Watchers. The bar was distinctly immortal free at the moment. And it probably would remain so for the foreseeable future. But that didn't mean anything now that the bar had become well known among a select group of watchers as an immortal hangout.

Both Methos and Mac were still in Paris where Mac was working his way through another one of his 'White Knight complex' induced rescue missions. If it fell apart on him like so many others did she didn't want to be around to help clean up. Methos was there with him, let him be useful for once, there were better uses for someone with her skills she thought, a pout gracing her face at the thought of spending the upcoming Christmas alone.

She glanced around curiously at the other patrons as Joe finished playing and made his way over to the bar to greet her. Something about the small blonde woman limping towards the door caught her attention for a moment. There was something vaguely familiar about the way she moved. Something she almost remembered. Shaking her head ast the stray thought, Amanda absently returned Joe's greeting as she watched her leave.

Quirking an eye at him, "Who is she?" she asked the normally observant watcher.

"Couldn't tell you. She's been coming in for a couple weeks." Joe told her, frowning in thought. "She's not a Watcher and she doesn't show up in any of our records, so if she's immortal she's new or very good at hiding."

"She's not. Immortal that is." Amanda admitted. "I'm sure there's something familiar about her but that isn't it. It'll come to me." Shrugging, she turned back towards the bar to request her favorite drink, putting her mind to other things.

For the third night in a row Amanda surreptitiously watched the small blonde. Curiosity finally getting the better of her, she decided to follow as she watched her leave minutes after Joe had finished his last set of the night. Quickly finishing her own drink, she threw on her jacket and followed her out the door, waving to Joe as she passed him on his way to the bar.

If it wasn't for the snow the blonde would have been impossible to follow, even for the experienced immortal. She just barely caught a glimpse of her as she entered one of the more upscale hotels Seacover had to offer. Deciding that she'd seen enough for the night, Amanda pulled her coat tighter. Head down in a futile attempt to keep the snow out of her face, Amanda turned to go back to Joe's and the warm drink she was sure she could convince him to make for her.

Her progress was stopped abruptly when she ran into something that felt like a wall in the blowing snow. Raising her eyes from the ground, she found herself looking into the cold eyes of the woman she'd been tailing a few minutes earlier.

"Was there a reason you were following me?" the woman asked, looking her up and down in what Amanda thought was definitely a predatory manner, causing her to shiver from more than the cold.

"Why would I be following you?" Amanda asked with her most charming smile, the one that had gotten her into uncounted royal bedrooms and out of more prisons than she could really remember. Knowing somehow that she was in a lot of danger, Amanda looked for an escape. Although she towered over the other woman by at least a foot, she still felt oddly vulnerable.

"I don't know." she growled at Amanda, her eyes flashing in the dim light. "Otherwise I wouldn't have asked." She stepped forward until they were almost touching, forcing Amanda to bend her neck to be able to look her in the face.

"I was curious." Amanda admitted under her steely gaze. "Isn't that allowed?"

"If you were human." the woman told her with a glare. "Maybe."

"What?" Amanda sputtered in surprise as she stood there shivering in the snow. "I'm human!"

"You don't feel human to me." the woman announced with conviction. "And I'm never wrong about something like that."

"Well, I am!" Amanda told her huffily, not sure why she was arguing with this madwoman. "What else would I be?"

"Some kind of demon?" She cautiously stepped back several steps and looked at Amanda oddly. "The kind that runs around with a sword in broad daylight?"

"Sword?" Surprised, Amanda just barely managed to keep her face blank. Non-immortals weren't supposed to be able to see through the glamour Cassandra had taught her for hiding her sword in public. "What sword? And it's night time!"

The woman didn't answer. She just shook her head like she was chastizing a small child, and stepping off of the path, disappeared into the dark and snow, leaving Amanda staring after her in shock. Noticing the cold once more she trudged back to Joe's, only pausing to stomp her feet clean at the door before retaking her usual spot at the bar, grumbling about the encounter under her breath.

"Well?" Joe asked her curiously. "Who is she?"

Amanda shook her head. "No idea." She leaned against the bar. "What do you have that's hot?" She stared at the steaming cup of cocoa he brought her while she tried to digest the ramifications of her encounter.

She had no desire to let him know that there was someone, a non-immortal in fact, who could tell that an immortal was different, even if they didn't seem to know how. She didn't think the Watchers really needed to know that kind of information. Having a private life when hordes of trained voyuers attempted to document your every move was hard enough as it was.

She continued to come into Joe's bar after their encounter. Although they didn't speak to each other, there was something about the other woman that intrigued Amanda and pulled her attention towards her every evening. Possibly it was the aura of danger that seemed to surround her. Or maybe it was the feeling she got each night watching her work her way through a bottle of something expensive as if it were water. Or it was the way she moved, even with a limp, with an almost unnatural grace.

In some undefined way she reminded Amanda of the ease and grace with which Duncan moved but in a less hulking manner. While Duncan had learned to move that way through long years of training, she seemed to be far too young to have achieved the development that it implied unless she was born that way. Even Methos, when he dropped his mild mannered scholary mask wasn't as deadly looking as she was when she walked across a room.

Every night for the next week, as Joe played, Amanda watched her from across the bar. There was an inherant stillness to her. Even well into whatever bottle she was currently demolishing it was clear to Amanda that she was very aware of her surroundings and not just whatever song Joe was currently winding his way through.

Christmas Eve wasn't looking very promising. Mac had promised her dinner to celebrate the new year but he was still in Paris at the moment and wouldn't be back for almost another week. She'd been so bored that if Joe hadn't asked her to watch the bar so he could leave early to spend the rest of the evening with family she would have been very close to embarking on a small Christmas crime spree just for the excitement.

The last of the regulars had headed home for the night and she'd just poured herself a large glass of Joe's house wine and put on some overly sentimental holiday music when the door opened. Standing in the door, outlined by swirling snow and darkness was the blonde woman. Amanda looked at her in some surprise. This was the first time she'd seen her in the bar when Joe wasn't playing.

"What brings you here tonight?" Amanda asked her when she approached the bar.

"You mean, instead of spending the holiday with family?" the suddenly talkative woman asked. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Mine's busy right now. Didn't really feel like getting involved in their festivities this year." Amanda lied. "And you?"

She gave Amanda a sober look and sat on the stool next to Amanda. "Work."

"What kind of work?" Amanda asked curiously before taking a drink from her glass, just being friendly and not really caring if she was answered.

She shrugged before answering with a small secretive grin, "I'm waiting for a boat. Something a 1200 year old cat burglar probably doesn't want to get involved in."

Amanda choked on her wine and stared in wide-eyed surprise at the other woman. "What do you mean by that?" she sputtered, putting down her glass and unconsciously leaning away from her.

"I have good sources. I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?" The woman asked rehetorically before holding out her hand. "Hi! I'm Buffy. The Vampire Slayer." She just shook her head at the shock visible on Amanda's face as if surprised by her reaction.

• Not sure where this is really going. I don't know why Buffy is in Seacover around Christmas so I'm sort of stuck. This deserves to be longer to explain it.. Some day I might extend it.

© Copyright 2009 Andy Stoffel. Last update: 7/19/09; 10:56:47 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.