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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-05
Words:
1,112
Chapters:
1/1
Kudos:
5
Hits:
1,344

Wanted To

Summary:

RATING: PG
SEQUEL TO: Needed to
CLASSIFICATION: Mentions of Willow/Lindsey.
SUMMARY: Is Cordelia's vision correct, or isn't it?
SPOILERS: Season 1 Angel (especially "To Shansu"), plus direct spoilers for "Becoming," "Gingerbread" and "Dopplegangland" for BtVS.
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.
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 song is Stone Temple Pilots' "Sour Girl" in honor of this awesome rare acoustic MP3 version I found.
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.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Special thanks to Calliope, Gypsy, Faekitty and everyone else who helped me out with my question. This is what I get for missing the season finales...and maybe I should have given him a Swiss Army hand...::eg:: Faekitty would have liked that.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Wanted To
by Ragna

Lindsey couldn't drive up to Sunnydale. He couldn't drive, period. It was awful.

So instead he was on the somewhat comfortable Greyhound, on his way to what Cordelia described as a "one Starbucks town," a phrase she said her ex-boyfriend used. Well, at least it *had* a Starbucks.

He kept trying to get some small amount of sleep, but the person in the seat behind him kept listening to some loud rock music at top volume. He was not a happy camper.

But there was a way to retaliate. He slipped on his own headphones, leaned his chair back as far as it could go into the man's lap, and pressed play on the CD player. Now he just hoped it didn't run out of batteries.

{She turned away, what was she looking at? She was a sour girl the day that she met me
Hey, what are you looking at? She was a happy girl the day that she left me
She turned away what was she looking at? She was a sour girl the day that she met me
Hey, what are you looking at? She was a happy girl when she left me}

There wasn't a particular reason he was listening to this song, he just liked the way it sounded. It calmed him, made him forget about all the tension and anger in his life.

And there was a lot of it.

The only other thing that made him forget was thinking about Willow. He knew she was a witch...maybe she cast a spell on him or something. He wasn't sure, but he just couldn't forget about her.

{What would you do?
What would you do if I followed you?
What would you do if I follow?}

The idiot in the seat behind him kicked, jarring for a moment. Lindsey instinctively stuck his right hand up to give him the finger, only there wasn't a finger to give him. Even now, almost half a year later, he wasn't used to not having a right hand.

Casually, he lifted up his left hand, flipped the guy off, and then continued to attempt at relaxing. He didn't want to get to Sunnydale and scare the living crap out of anyone because he was so utterly angry. There were people there who would help him start to do some good for the first time since college, and he was going to need that help.

{Don't turn away, what are you looking at? He was so happy on the day that he met her
Say, what are you looking at? I was Superman but looks are deceiving
The rollercoaster ride's a lonely one I'd pay a ransom note to stop it from steering
Hey, what are you looking at? She was a teenage girl when she met me}

He was having to relearn how to write with his left hand, a skill which wouldn't be so hard if he'd done it more when he was a kid. He was also having to relearn how to type, how to fold clothes, and as Cordelia had found out, how to lift up a heavy suitcase with a much weaker hand.

Maybe there was some way the group in Sunnydale could help him get it back. By now his actual hand was decayed; there was no way to ever use it again.

He realized the more he thought about stuff like this, the more it depressed him. He didn't want to get to Sunnydale a bawling mess, either.

{What would you do?
What would you do if I followed you?
What would you do if I follow?}

Time for a new line of thoughts...he settled on Willow.

What he knew about her came from Buffy's file. She was the Slayer's best friend and college roommate. Her weaknesses were the Slayer, of course, and various other friends: Alexander Harris, Daniel Osbourne, Rupert Giles. She also, apparently, had a girlfriend at one point, a young woman named Tara. That had been a surprise to Lindsey.

The more banal things in her life included the strange mixture of a Judiastic upbringing and her current Wiccan practices. Her mother, at one point, tried to have her burnt at the stake. Willow seemed to have taken it in stride. She'd also been in a coma after a vampire attack, and at another point in her life met an alternate reality version of herself.

Lindsey's little spies were very thorough in detailing the things that happened to the Slayer and her friends, but it didn't seem that they'd gotten any idea on how alluring Willow was.

{The girl got reasons, they all got reasons
What would you do? What would you do if I followed you?
What would you do if I follow?
What would you do? (What would you do?)
What would you do if I followed you? What would you do if I follow?}

He started to relax again, ignoring the man behind him, who was complaining to anyone who would listen. It was just easier to shut him out and tune into the music. Soon, he'd be in Sunnydale, and his life would be underway again.

Even if he had to rely on someone else...

{Hey, what are you looking at? She was a happy girl the day that she left me
The day that she left me The day that she left me
She was a happy girl the day that she left me
The day that she left me The day that she left me
She was a sour girl the day that she met me}

***

"Need help?"

Lindsey swallowed his pride and nodded. "Yeah, I do."

The young man looked up. "Hey, are you Lindsey McDonald?" Lindsey nodded again, and the young man looked away. "Hey! Will! He's over here!"

Lindsey started to get defensive until he saw a familiar head of red hair. "Hey!" She yelled towards Lindsey, despite the crowd between them. Pushing her way through it, she got to Lindsey with a smile on her face. "Cordelia told us the wrong bus. Xander here was double checking. I wanted to be the one to welcome you to Sunnydale."

Lindsey grinned slightly. "She couldn't wait to get me out of Los Angeles."

"Well," Xander said, "I guess we should get him over to Giles' place, right?"

"I take it I'm going to meet my new coworkers?" Lindsey asked Willow.

"Only if you want to. Come on." Willow spread her arms out. "Welcome to Sunnydale, home of the Hellmouth, the Slayer, the Scooby Gang and now, maybe, you."

"Maybe," Lindsey said, following Willow towards the parking lot. "Maybe."

Notes:

This orphaned work was originally on Pejas WWOMB posted by author Ragna.
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