Out of Hell : a Dean/Buffy storyline's Journal

Do I Know You?
She's only been back from her summer in L.A. for a month, and her Mother still worries about her when she leaves the house. Her Mother can't trust her. And maybe she shouldn't. Buffy told her Mom she was going to study at Willow's. That wasn't the case at all. Buffy couldn't explain things to her friends - not Giles, Xander, or Willow. They'd want to come along. And it could be nothing. So she had hopped a bus and left a note in Willow's science book. Her red-headed best friend would, as usual, do her science homework a day early - meaning she'd see the note tomorrow afternoon. It said not to worry, that she was fine, and that she'd be back.

She knew the note sounded lame, which is why she didn't try to say it over a pay phone at the bus station. This entire thing had started with a note. Or letter, rather. A letter with no return address, with handwriting she didn't recognize. It was a goodbye letter. The saddest part was that at first she couldn't tell who'd written it. This was made more confusing by the fact that it was signed 'Dean - you knew me as Justin.' The letter said where they'd met. And it finally came back to her. She'd met Justin, or Dean, back in L.A. This was just before she became the Slayer. Just- Dean and her and gotten along very well. Very well. Lots of smoochies. For days they would hang out. It was one of her first big crushes. But he took off and didn't meet her one afternoon. It had crushed her. But then her life had started getting very complicated - her parents divorce, being called as a Slayer, moving to Sunnydale. Then her new Watcher, meeting Angel, her new friends - school. He'd been forgotten.

Until now. Until she was holding a letter from him. It worried her. Why was he suddenly saying goodbye? There was nothing casual about it. Even his handwriting seemed to have been written with a hand that was pressing angrily against a pen. Was it possible he was going to kill himself? She had to make sure. Buffy didn't believe in coincidences anymore. And she was in the business of saving people. So she had to find out what was going on.

Without Willow's help, it hadn't been easy to track him down. But she'd done it. And now that she'd taken a bus, and a taxi trip - she was standing outside of a small house in the middle of nowhere-USA. Why would he be here? "Guess I'll just have to ask..." she muttered to herself as she started up towards the door. When she got to the door, she knocked sharply three times. "Hello?"

No one answered. Looking around, she started walking across the yard, around the back of the house - creeping slowly. It was eerie out here.