Summary: Life may go on, but when you live in Sunnydale it is never boring. Even over the summer.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from either show. If you recognize it, it ain't mine.
Warnings: Mangled timlines, mention of same sex couples and situations, (No smut ever, I promise) May/December romance, swearing and violence. This is a mostly cannon up to Shadow for Supernatural and Blood Ties for Buffy.
Hank Summers wanted the confrontation with his ex-wife over as soon as possible.
Which is why he was in Sunnydale at such an ungodly hour. A quick, private
conversation and a simple round of sign here and here and here and it would all be over.
He frowned when he pulled up in front of his ex-wife's house. In front of him was an old
car. It was in good condition, but it definitely wasn't a classic. Who would want to own
such an ugly thing, much less deal with the upkeep? In the driveway was Joyce's SUV.
He parked his red convertible beside it and taking his briefcase; walked to the door.
"Yes?" A man Hank had never seen before answered the door. He supposed this was the
man who owned that horrid old car. And he was English to boot. "Mr. Summers, what
on earth are you doing here?" Giles stared at Hank Summers in shock. He hadn't seen
Buffy's father in years, although technically he'd never met the man. That had been the
result of one of Buffy's nightmares coming to life. That entire experience had made him
rather wary of the man.
"I'm here to see Joyce. Is she here?" Hank said self-importantly. This was obviously
Joyce's boyfriend. It was also obvious she couldn't handle a real man if she was dating
this wimp. Giles silently stepped back from the front door. While it was daylight and
Hank Summers wasn't a vampire, that didn't mean the man did not have ill intent towards
the ladies of the house. If he harbored such ill intent the wards would deal with him. He
was only somewhat relived to see that the man was able to walk through the front door.
He still had to worry about what the man wanted.
Hank was surprised by what he found in the living room. There were young people
laying about all over the place, wrapped up in blankets and sleeping bags. Joyce herself
was wrapped up too and had, of all things, some kind of ugly handkerchief/turban
wrapped around her head. He'd known for years that the woman was turning into a
frump, but really! He didn't see Buffy with the other kids, but he knew two of them were
friends of hers. The rest he didn't know. It seemed that he had interrupted a slumber
party. Well, it was just one more reason Joyce was an unfit to be a parent. Buffy was
much to young to be having sleep overs with boys!
"Joyce." Hank walked up to the couch, ignoring the others in the room.
"Hank." Joyce acknowledged. What could he possibly want? Neither noticed the heads
shooting up all over the room, and the sleepy looks completely disappearing from
everyone's faces. Dean and Sam shot each other a quick look.
Dean: 'that him?'
Sam: 'yeah'
Dean stood up and moved silently to where he calculated a punch to the jaw would move
Hank. Sam was beside him a moment later. He knew what his brother was thinking.
This guy was such a jerk that there was no way he could not end up eating a knuckle
sandwich from someone and when he did, they would be waiting to deal with him.
Giles smirked at Dean and Sam behind Hank's head. Apparently they were solidly on the
side of the Summers ladies and were ready to take action at the slightest provocation
Hank should give. That was as it should be. He glanced around the room at the others.
Dawn was backing away from Hank, and trying to make herself inconspicuous. Xander
and Willow had also stood up and the expressions on their faces did not bode well for one
Hank Summers. He signaled to Tara for her to take Willow out of the room. When Tara
tugged on Willow's sleeve, Willow tried to plead silently with Giles. He frowned and
shook his head firmly. Although Willow had depleted herself of most of her store of
magical energy the night before, she still had enough to be dangerous to Hank if she lost
her temper. And the Winchester boys were not the only ones expecting trouble.
"The land finally sold. I need your signature." Hank handed Joyce a folder out of his
briefcase and a pen. Joyce sighed. The land; it was the last thing that was still in both of
their names. That was something she could deal with. Preferably before Buffy and John
got back from washing his truck. It had been covered with Hectalik gore and John hadn't
wanted it to ruin the paint job. Buffy had been the only one who still had enough energy
to help him and it seemed that there was some subtle and not so subtle matchmaking
going on from the kids reactions. She was signing her name on the last line when the
front door opened.
"Wasn't as bad as this Rawhead and Bloodybones the boys and I took care of about eight
years ago. I thought we'd never get the Impala clean." John said as he followed Buffy
into the house.
"I don't do cars. Me and driving are unmixy things. Giles says it's because I'm too busy
watching for vampires and other demons." Buffy said looking over her shoulder at John
as they walked into the living room. "You have to be careful with demon guts though,
cause they just cling. Vampires, they dust most of the time and that you can just wash
right off if you have the right stuff. I mean it can be hard to wash out of clothes and hair
but a good detergent or shampoo will get the dust right out. But demon guts are the
worst!"
"I knew it!" Hank burst out. He turned on Joyce, not noticing the effect his outburst had
on Buffy. She had spun around and upon seeing Hank and hearing his tirade against
Joyce taking Buffy out of the mental hospital where she so obviously still belonged; had a
panic attack. At this point several things happened at once. Buffy collapsed and John
caught her. Which in turn prevented him from breaking Hank's jaw. Giles grabbed Hank
by the arm, spinning him around. His right cross across Hank's jaw sent Hank spinning
off into Dean and Sam's arms. They wrestled Hank to the ground and as Dean held him
down, Sam gagged him with the T-shirt Xander handed him.
"Dad, take her upstairs." Dean said into the sudden silence. "Giles, look after Joyce."
He looked around to see who else was in the room. He knew Giles had sent someone out.
"Sam, Dawn's glowing."
"What?" Sam looked around and saw that Dean was right. Dawn was glowing. She was
outlined in a green glow and she was trembling in anger and fear. "Xander hold him
down." Sam quickly moved over to his little sister and let Xander take his place. "Dawn,
calm down. He can't hurt her. We all know the truth." He gave her a little shake.
"Dawn, we're not going to let him do that to her again." Dawn slowly moved her gaze up
to Sam's face. "That's it. Now you have to calm down."
"Yeah, Dawn Patrol." Dean drawled as he forced Hank's head up to where he could see
Dawn. "You don't want to ruin what we have planned for this jerk now do you?" He
flashed a smug grin at his sister, inviting her to get in on the payback.
"Plans?" She asked as the glow around her faded.
"Oh yeah." Sam confirmed. "For one thing, I think it's about time Spike got some really
fresh blood. He did help out with the Hectalik and he really wanted to go out and play in
the swarm instead of watching our backs. Hank should make a nice thank you. What do
you think?" Dawn gave her big brothers a shaky grin. Feed Hank to Spike. That would
be ironic, not that she really thought they would kill him. It would be nice to see Spike
torment Hank for a while though. He could come up with some really interesting ideas.
Too bad Anya had left town already.
John carried Buffy up the stairs and into the bathroom. There had to be, hah! He grabbed
the small paper bag he found under the sink. Back in Buffy's room, he sat on the bed and
held the bag over her mouth and nose as he gently rocked her. Murmuring in her ear
reassurances that she was safe and Hank couldn't hurt her again, he hoped that the boys
could still go through with their tentative plan of rubbing Hank's face in the supernatural
world. Slowly Buffy managed to calm down.
"I can't believe I did that." Buffy crushed the paper bag. What would John think of her
now? "I'm the slayer. I should have been able..."
"Stop." John put his hand over her mouth gently and glared. "Who the hell told you that
being the slayer meant you weren't human anymore? I've been fighting this war for over
twenty two years, and I spent the first eighteen of it with two kids in tow. I've had more
panic attacks than you could shake a stick at. And you're supposed to be immune just
because you're the slayer?" She looked up at him so unsure of herself that John wanted to
rip someone apart. "He hurt you badly and you couldn't fight back. There is nothing
worse than to see something with your own eyes and have everyone think you're crazy. If
it wasn't for Missouri," John just closed his eyes and shook his head as he pulled Buffy
under his chin.
"What does the state of Missouri have to do with anything?" Buffy asked in confusion.
John laughed. "Not the state, my friend Missouri Mosley. She's a psychic and she was
the one to tell me the truth. That I really had seen my wife pinned to the ceiling of
Sammy's nursery. That she really had been on fire and something evil had killed her.
And that my in-laws were sending child services after me to take my boys away from me.
I wasn't sure she was telling the truth, even though she had confirmed what I had seen
with my own eyes. I got ready just in case. Lucky for me I did. I knew who child
services sent out when they took kids away from their parents and they were at Mike's
door less than an hour later. I've been neck deep in the fight ever since. But seeing
something like that can still send me into a panic attack. You wouldn't believe how many
times I've had to deal with CPS over the years. And I still have a panic attack each and
every time. It's one of the main reasons I want to home school Dawn."
"Oh." Buffy said softly. She had never imagined John being scared like that. He'd been
fighting the supernatural for so much longer than she had and not like Giles either. Giles
was book guy. John was let's go kill it guy. "I don't want to go back down stairs." she
confessed.
"You shouldn't. You've been up all night and it was more stressful than usual. Add in the
jerk and a panic attack on top of it and what you need right now is rest. You have
reinforcements now. Let us do our jobs. One of which is to take care of the jerk
downstairs. Sleep now. You aren't alone and none of us will let anything bad happen."
He continued to rock her long after she had fallen asleep.