Sunnydale Wholesale Beauty Supply----the end.
     
     
What? You guys thought I'd kill her off? I'm not Joss


Sunny came to, listening to the reassuring sound of her uncle in a
rant. "Most people, seeing their niece unconscious with a stake
in her hand would jump to unseemly conclusions," she heard him
say. The door must be closed, because he was sounding kind of
muffled, and she recognized the feel of the green couch under her
hand. One hand, because Meena was holding her other hand,
listening intently.

"But I want to know why she was trying to kill you, trying so hard
that she forgot about the sanctuary spell."

"Angelus is gone," Brooks said.

Meena's hand tightened its grip.

"You do it?" Jack asked.

"I didn't stop it," Brooks said. "Why should I have? To please her?
He was in my way, he was all she could see."

"And she showed you what she thought about that, didn't she? Did
you come here to tell her---no, you didn't."

Meena and Sunny sat as still as anything, listening.

Jack's voice was odd: not angry, not pleased, either. "You thought
she'd try to stop it."

"Slayer took him out," Brooks voice came again. "First light. Spike
set him up, told me to watch Angelus' pet--that would be Sunny. I
would have, anyway. I love her, Jack."

"She doesn't love you," Jack said, unemotionally. "You don't have
good luck with my family."

"No one has luck with your family, Jack. Me and my sister and
Meena and you---and twenty years later, it's me and her, and what the
fuck does it all mean?"

"It means that---fuck, Brooks. You're a vampire. Find a vampire girl.
I'm sending Sunny to India, so don't think she's going rebound. Yeah.
If you don't want to fry, then go stay in the basement until dark, but
get away from my niece."

After a moment, Jack opened the door. "Is that what you wanted me
to say?" he asked, mild as the summer breeze.

"Pretty much," Sunny said, her head aching from not crying.

"So you're not going to school?"

He was going for lightening the mood, but Sunny just shook her head
and ran upstairs. "Oh, Jack," she heard Meena say.

She had totally forgotten Brooks.


Of course, she cried. She couldn't stop, and her eyes were swollen,
before Meena came in and said, "I'm going to give you a sleep
blessing."

Sunny said, "He was Angel when she killed him. He had his soul
back, Meena, and she killed him." Her voice broke.

Meena had been looking at her in an abstract, sort of aura-looking
way, but she focused then. "His soul back? Buffy told you that?"

Sunny tried to think. "He was himself, and a hole opened up---"

"Portal," Meena muttered. "Go on, what else did she say?"

"She stabbed him or something. Buffy said his blood made her
remember about me, and she knew I'd get her out of town." She
swabbed her face with the corner of her bedsheet. "Portal?"

"He's not dead, then," Meena said. "Stabbing a vampire and sending
him to a hell dimension isn't---oof---" Sunny flung herself at Meena
and hugged the breath out of her. "It's not as though he's okay, I
won't lie to you." Meena shook her head. "But if my uncle will help
you, you may be able to---" She put her finger to her lips.

"Your uncle in India?" Sunny said, one hand on her aching forehead.
"Will he help me?

"You'll have to find out," Meena said. "So, I thought that you could
go early, and I think Jack wants you away from Brooks, so you could
go with my mother and me next month."

Sunny didn't have to say anything. Meena knew she agreed. She was
ready to go tonight.


She didn't expect to see Brooks lurking on the fire escape, as soon as
it was dusk. She come out to get a can of Dr. Pepper out of the
refrigerator, and had had that creepy vampy feeling at the base of her
skull. "I don't have anything to say to you," Sunny said, turning all
colors of the rainbow with rage.

Brooks pressed his palms against the mystic barrier, not knowing, of
course, that Angelus had done the same thing. "I don't understand,
Sunny. He's--was a fucking killer. If you had a protection spell going,
you'd already be yourself again---"

"Myself!" she barked.

"---and if you were possessed, she would have left you---"

The mystical barrier only kept him out; she flung her unopened can
of soda at him through it, and he caught it, gaping at her.

"I'm me," she raged. "And I---I---knew his soul wasn't gone, and he
couldn't help it, he didn't ask for his soul to be yanked out of him and
the blood of the innocent is on their heads, they should have just
killed him---"

"He doesn't love you and I do," Brooks said simply.

"You're too fucking late," Sunny said. "I belong to him." And she
actually believed it for the ten seconds she said it.

Brooks looked pole-axed. Sunny decided to stop bandying words and
closed the French doors and drew the curtains. Then she went
downstairs to the noise and light of the barbershop.

Jack didn't pause in what he was doing---trimming the orange fur of
a demon she didn't know---but his expression did lighten a bit when
he saw her. She came over and began sweeping up.

"You look pretty good for someone who just lost the love of her
life," he murmured.

Sunny bent her head over the broom, thinking about that. So many
ways to answer that, and she didn't want him to find out what she
now planned to do in India. Meena definitely didn't want Jack to
know that stuff. And the love of her life would be the one that loved
you back, surely?

The truest answer came to her, and she raised her head and smiled at
her uncle.

"Nah," she said. "I still have him."

-30-


Thanks for readin', y'all!

[info]bisi did these pretty illustrations---one of which, of course is of
Oz, but the others are of "SWBS", here:
http://groups.msn.com/bisisscribble/shoebox.msnw