dragonyphoenix | Fic: Shanshu 10

Title: Missing
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt (Taming the Muse): 441 - Normal
Rating: PG
Summary: Part 10 of Shanshu
Word Count: 972

Millay wanted to speed up as she passed the muted green of the house next to Ash's apartment. It wasn't that the house was ugly, although it was. She didn't think Will should be on his own. Ash didn't have the whole story or even most of it really, which would be why Will wanted her rather than Millay as he worked his head around what Harris had told him. What the hell had that bastard been thinking? She slowed down, double parking in the street outside the four story building. “No place to park. I'll have to drive around.”

“Just drop me off.”

She almost jumped out of her seat when Will spoke. His silence had hung heavily between them ever since he'd agreed to let her drive him to Ash's. “I'm not sure that's a good idea.”

“I'll go up. Promise.” Millay didn't reply. “Look,” he added. “I'll even wave to you from the window so you'll know I made it there safe and sound.”

It was the best she was going to get and she knew it. Hell, she was grateful he hadn't jumped out of the car on the drive over. “Okay.”

He didn't tell her he'd be fine. He didn't say anything else at all. Nor did he look at her. He did stand outside the security door, flanked by red and yellow bricks, until Ash, or someone else, let him in. Millay sat there, with her blinkers going to signal she was double parked, until she saw him waving from Ash's window.

Millay knew she should go home. She'd been up all night and Will would be fine. Ash would keep an eye on him. Something made her stay. She found a parking spot just a block away, over on Carroll Ave., and thought about walking to the lake but couldn't get up the energy to move. She could wait and call after Ash's pills had knocked Will out. But when Will woke up, he'd know she'd filled Ash in. Will might be naive in a lot of ways but you couldn't keep secrets from him. He picked up on them right away. She should have gone up with him, but he hadn't wanted her. He'd been through a shock. She shouldn't add to his troubles. Fine. Coffee she could find. She'd give it an hour and then call Ash. He should be out of it by then and maybe he wouldn't realize she'd been checking up on him. No, he'd definitely figure that out, but maybe by the time he woke up he'd have calmed down enough to be okay with it.

Before getting up to hunt for coffee, Millay took one more look at the tracker's screen. Will's signal was gone. Shit, she should have known she'd lose the signal. Will must have finally figured out the listening device also held a tracker, but why would he have destroyed it if he were still at Ash's?

The heavy thud of the car door slamming shut was nothing next to the pounding in her chest. Taking the sidewalk would mean running past three houses on this street, where the yards were bigger, and even more on Calumet Ave. Without even considering it, Millay cut straight through someone's yard, dashing under the trees and noting in passing that the driveway was empty. The house behind was surrounded by a fence but the one next to that was open. The yard between was so narrow that no sunlight reached down to Millay until she'd passed onto the sidewalk where she had to stop and shield her eyes against the light before crossing the street. She punched at the buzzer. “Come on, come on.”

“Yeah?”

“Ash, it's Millay. Let me in.”

The wooden floor of the hall had been stained a garishly artificial red. Millay dashed for the stairs, taking the purple carpeted steps two at a time until she was at Ash's floor. “Where is he?” In any other home the green not-quite-velvet of the couch and the floral pattern of the chairs would have looked retro but under Ash's care they seemed somehow normal. Millay looked past them to the white and red of the dining area's table and chairs. There was no sign of Will. She dodged around to the bedroom, just barely large enough for a twin bed and dresser. Still no Will.

“Millay.” Ash sounded shocked. Too bad.

“Where'd Will go?”

“He left.”

Millay thought about grabbing Ash and slamming her up against the wall. That probably only worked in movies. “You let him leave?”

“Let come into it. He wanted to leave and he left.”

Fuck, she should never have let Will come up here on his own.

“What's going on?”

“What'd he do with the tracker?”

As Ash blinked, her dark eyes grew wider against her pale skin. “You were tracking him?” She paused for a moment, wringing her hands together. “Are you tracking him now?”

“If I could track him now, I'd know where he was.”

“Are you sure the GPS isn't working?”

Millay handed over the screen and Ash, still now as she held it in both hands, stared down at the empty screen.

“Did he say where he was going?”

“I'm not sure. Something about one of his skater friends maybe?”

Shit, he could be anywhere. Millay took a deep breath. Joan could hook up with the skaters.

“Tell me what's up,” Ash demanded.

“No time. Look, he's in a bad headspace. We need to find him, sooner rather than later.”

Ash leaned into the wall as if searching for support. “I should have know when, well, he wouldn't talk about that guy, the one he'd gone looking for, the one who knew him.”

The one who'd told Will he was a rapist. The one Will had believed.

Fic: Shanshu 10 - Missing

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