|
TITLE: Lullaby for Lost
AUTHOR: Ragna (WritingGoddess@...; SpikeGrrl1@...)
RATING: PG, so far.
CLASSIFICATION: Mentions of Graham/Other.
SUMMARY: Xander and Graham have to help Xander's cousin/Graham's ex. But it's
a lot more than a simple stalking...
SPOILERS: Set sort of in the future.
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I
write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me
know.
PREVIOUS PARTS/ARCHIVED AT: http://www.envy.nu/allthepain/index.html
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If
you do, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kazui Sandollar, FOX and the WB own it or
them. Various friends of mine are holding characters hostage. You may see
them by appointment only. The places mentioned are actual places in
Oceanside, CA.
FEEDBACK: Sorry I'm not home right now I'm walking in the spiderwebs so leave
a message and I'll call you back...in other words, I want it. Don't care if
it's onlist or not, but I prefer offlist since I have quite a few lists on No
Mail.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Answer to a challenge at YGTS? Life's finally settling down
enough to where I can start this fic.
~*~*~
Xander pulled into the beachfront apartment. Danielle was in trouble, so he
was going to help. He glanced to the silent passenger next to him. "We're
here."
Graham was staring at the large waves on the other side of the asphalt.
Occasionally another car drove along the Strand, but there was a clear view
of the sunset and the huge waves barreling in the distance. The Oceanside
pier was up north, hovering in the background, which meant they were
southside.
Graham had never wanted to come back here.
"Triple overhead," he muttered.
Xander stared at Graham. "Why does she want you here anyway? How do you know
her?"
Graham finally looked at Xander, for the first time in the four hour drive
south. "She's out there."
"Out where?"
"Surfing." Graham pointed further into the driveway. "Her wax is out, and her
surfboard's not here. She's using the five nine, I bet. It's not big enough,
but she'll make it work."
Xander looked at Graham. "How do you know Dani?"
"Xander?" A female voice cut off any chance at reply Graham might have had.
Both men turned to see a young woman with long black hair and eyes exactly
like Xander's run across the blacktop street as fast as she could while
carrying a surfboard slightly shorter than her. "Graham?"
"Dani," Graham said, a small smile flitting across his face. "You changed."
"You did too." She smiled. "You were right...five nine. Seven broke a week or
so ago." She leaned her stick up against the wall and started to peel off her
wetsuit, revealing a bikini clad female body, soft curves and tanned skin,
with a blue rhinestone navel piercing. That was new to Graham, who had seen
every inch of that body in the past.
"Like it? Got it done at Sins on Skin..." She smiled at her cousin. "Don't
tell Mom, Xander. She still thinks of me as her little baby."
"Won't spill a word," Xander said, smiling. "Why'd you want us here?"
She looked from Xander to Graham, her eyes lingering. "He's back. He left
flowers. Black roses. And another doll."
Xander looked at Graham, something clicking. "You...you were the boyfriend,
when it happened last time. The one who...?"
Graham nodded. "Yeah. I thought I'd got him. I mean, he appeared...and..."
Graham looked at Dani. "Any chance it's not him?"
"No, it's him. Same handwriting, same arrangement, same everything." She
looked at them, her smile finally being revealed as the fake cover it had
been when her frown came to the surface. "Look, I don't want to go inside
right now. And I'm kind of hungry."
"Colima's?" Graham suggested.
"Sure."
***
The three of them walked the short distance up the Strand to Pier View,
passing the coffeehouse, the strip club, the adult bookstore and the record
store. It was the clash of two different worlds that made Oceanside such an
interesting place, in Dani's opinion. The blend of old and new, even more so
now that the city built the Regal movie theater and still wanted to get rid
of the old Amphitheater right on the beach.
Graham didn't care. He'd left it behind when Uncle Sam called, going to
Sunnydale. He never thought he'd be back anywhere near the base where he had
trained in Special Ops or the town where he and Dani had lived together those
years ago.
But he was back because of a plaintive request from Dani. Headstrong Dani...
The cook brought their orders; Dani's rolled tacos, Graham's fish burrito and
Xander's carne asada taco and carne asada burrito. Dani looked at the two
men, then around the crowd gathered at the popular restaurant. "He left the
roses, the note...the doll..."
"Start from the beginning, Dani," Xander said.
"Okay. A few years ago, this freaky guy started following me around at my
meets. He'd always be waiting around, just...there. And he always had a
flower for me, no matter how I finished. At first, I was flattered."
She looked down at the shorts she'd pulled on before they started walking,
finding a loose thread to play with. "Then I met Graham, after he'd come up
here to Camp Pendleton for training. The guy still showed up with flowers,
and even asked me out on a date. I told him no, I was seeing someone. I
thought he'd taken it okay."
She looked at her food now. "Graham came to the next meet. Lot's of big names
there...Slater, Machado, Knox...he'd gotten leave and went with me to Hawaii.
The guy was there. Before, he'd only come to local meets. And then he showed
up there. Anyway, I started to freak a bit because he was everywhere Graham
and I were."
"On the last day, the morning of the finals, I went outside to go take a
morning surf. I saw a box there that said "To Danielle Harris" in scrawled
handwriting. I opened up the box to find dead roses, a dozen of them. There
was also a Barbie with long dark hair and a swimsuit." She paused, taking a
sip of her drink. "The eyes were cut out, the stomach was slashed, the
breasts were cut off...there was a noose around her neck."
She looked at Graham, who nodded. She started to eat while she spoke. "We
went to the police in Hawaii, but there wasn't anything we could do. Dani
stayed out of the competition that day; almost lost her deal with Quicksilver
because of it until they found out why. They got her an alarm system for her
apartment, and security at every meet."
"They're good to me," Dani said softly.
"Anyway, I did some digging, found out about the guy. His name is Scott
Captra. He'd been arrested for various things before including stalking, but
nobody pressed charges."
"Things got better after that," Dani said. "Security was good, if there was
anything going on I didn't know. I thought he'd given up. Graham and I...we
started to make plans." She looked at Xander only, avoiding Graham's eyes.
"And then, one night, we came home, and he was there. He was in my apartment.
He shot Graham in the leg, and..." She shuddered. "We managed to get the gun
away from him and hold him until the police came. We pressed every charge
against him that we could. And he was sent to jail."
"Where we thought he'd be staying," Graham added.
"And we both moved on with our lives," Dani said. "I'd almost forgotten about
him until last week. That's when I found the same type of box, this time with
black roses. and then there was another mutilated doll...and a note. It said
'I'm back.' That was all it said."
The men looked at each other for a moment, Xander beginning to say something,
when Dani screamed, "There he is! He's over there!" The two men whipped their
heads around and saw nothing, just tourists coming out of the California Surf
Museum.
"Dani," Xander said gently, "maybe we should take you to home."
Dani nodded, numbly standing up, leaving behind four and a half rolled tacos
and an almost full drink.
|
SpikeGrrl1@...
SpikeGrrl1@...
 Send Email
|
Having problems with message search?
Fill out this form to ensure your group is one of the first to be migrated to the new message search system.
