All The White Circles (Part 6)
Jennifer
Part Six: Riley
My recovery time doesn't take all that long. And within two weeks I am on my feet and moving around the complex with ease. I haven't been cleared to active duty but I've started working out again and I'm on the road to recovering my physical strength.
I've graduated to the house. I get to sleep in my own bed, listen to my own music, and read my own books. It's not exactly normal but I decide that rocking the boat would only make it flip over. And besides, Buffy visits. She brings chicken soup and lemon bun made by Willow's Wicca group. She turns into an extremely protective mother hen the minute she walks through my door and she becomes hell bent on taking care of me. Of course I make my feeble attempts at declining her help but I secretly enjoy it and she knows it.
We haven't talked about what happened. She hasn't asked and I haven't offered any information. I know she's seen a lot and can take it but I still feel the need to protect her. She shouldn't have to know what they did to me. I know her heart and I know it would hurt her to know that I went through it. And I won't hurt her. I have sworn over and over to myself that I would never hurt her.
Following that promise to myself, I have also avoided asking her about the guy who met her outside my house. It preys on my mind every minute wondering who it could have been and what he was to her. They embraced in a way that few people do. Almost like they share a lifetime of something so special that no one can touch it. And that scares the hell out of me.
There is no ease with us. There is a tension and it's quite obvious that there is something between us but it isn't easy. We trip over each other's words and actions. We hang back, afraid to take it a step further. God, we really did say more to each other when we had no voices. I wonder if I can touch the most intimate places in her heart. I wonder if I'll ever be to her what she's already becoming for me. I know that I can't dwell on it. I know that if I'm not the one, I'm not and we move on. It's the way of the world and I'm no stranger to it. But she's just different.
To keep myself from skulking about too heavily over Buffy, I immerse myself in the research portion of The Initiative. I had, admittedly, fallen behind on my reading while focussing my full concentration on the physical demands of the mission. So with the time I have as inactive and my mind searching for ways to keep itself occupied other than thinking of Buffy, I catch up the several dozen demons the complex is studying at the moment.
I start in ascending order. Meaning I start with the earliest demon we captured and have been studying the longest. I then move on in the order in which they were brought in. Our agents have been doing a bang up job since my "situation" and there have been a dozen new demons since I was taken.
I take their folders with me when I go to check them out. Having never seen the newer subjects, I make it a point to check them out. It takes me only a few days to get to know our new subjects. Sometimes Forrest accompanies me. Sometimes he just hangs out in the weight room and pumps himself even further. It's amazing how much the man works on his body. I know I do it for strength but Forrest, well, that's an entirely different story.
I get down to the last few demons quickly. They're mostly vampires and they're all male. For whatever reason we have a harder time catching female vamps. I think it's because they're the smarter of the species but I could be wrong.
Forrest is with me today and he's recapping for me how each vampire was taken down. He loves the competition of it all whereas I completely see it as a business and my civic duty. Odd how two completely different people can get along so well.
"This one was easy," Forrest says pointing through the glass. One shot of the tazer and OUT!" He lets out a booming yell and then laughs. "Well most of them were easy. Except this one. He wouldn't go quietly or quickly. Took two jolts. I think he's probably one of the older ones."
I look from the file in my hand to the glass encased room in which the vampire is being held. I squint my eyes at him as he moves closer to the glass looking at me. His gaze brands into me and
I feel like he knows me somehow. He then shakes his head and turns his back to me.
Recognition hits me then. This was the man with Buffy outside my house...
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