gen_storyteller

Title: Business as usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Characters belong to ME except for Agnes Pringle who belongs to me alone.
Summary: The continuing story of Agnes Pringle, English spinster, tea-room owner, Spike's friend and very reluctant vampire.

This short little piece was written as a Christmas present for one of Aggie's Army!

Chapter 34
The trouble with knickers...


….the trouble with knickers, Agnes thought crossly, was that they didn’t make them properly any more. She stared balefully at the rows and rows of items in front of her in the biggest store the Sunnydale Mall could offer.
Every colour and pattern under the sun – well, that was perhaps an unfortunate remark, but even under a nice cold moon they would have been useless as far as she was concerned.
Agnes was quite aware that she had to move with the times; that she couldn’t settle into middle-aged ways. Young Dawn Summers had been telling her that for ages. She had, in a moment of revolution, thrown out her suspender belts and purchased tights – although sometimes the contortions needed to make them sit properly on your limbs hardly seemed worth the effort.
Now the time had come when her Marks & Spencer’s best white cotton knit knickers could no longer be called decent. Sadly worn out and destined to be used as dusters – they were rather on the old-fashioned side. But they were comfortable! That was the main thing.
The vampire picked up a bright red piece of string which was apparently a “thong”. She couldn’t at first imagine how you actually wore that, then she realised and knew her face was going as red as the material she hastily put down again.
‘Very appealing to gentlemen, I expect!’ Agnes thought, because although unmarried, she had Lived. The fact that no man, living or demon, had actually ever seen her underwear, didn’t cross her mind as she fingered some very pretty pink panties with kittens printed on them. Sweet to look at, but to wear?
Agnes shook her head and moved further down the counter. The shop was mercifully empty this late at night; they would be closing soon and she had to hurry back to the tea shop to open up for her first customers. She squared her shoulders, the light of battle in her eyes; somewhere in this store there must be a pair of white cotton knickers that would cover the majority of her rear.
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Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Me except Agnes Pringle who is all mine
Summary: Spike mentions the charming lady vampire who runs a tearoom in the garbage dump. So meet Agnes Pringle, English spinster and very reluctant vampire. As Spike's friend, all Agnes wanted was a quiet life. But that is one thing she cannot have. Especially as we have reached Season Six and the demon gang has just trashed Sunnydale!


Business as Usual

Chapter 32
Not Human


The demon invasion of Sunnydale had swept through the town like an evil disease, terrifying, destroying, killing everything in its path. But eventually a strange silence fell outside the Willow Tree Tearooms and owner, Agnes Pringle, wiped away the tears of self-pity that had overwhelmed her.

Gingerly, she stood up, wincing at the ache in her legs and realised she was still griping her best rolling-pin, her weapon of choice. Moving the chair she’d pushed under the door handle to stop any more demons coming into the Tearooms, she opened the door and peered out.

The town looked as if the end of the world had happened. Fires flickered, smoke drifted through the air, burglar alarms were screaming and somewhere – a long way away – she could hear a police siren. But the demon gang had gone. Something had changed, too, something was different and Agnes suddenly realised that the weird metal tower that had dominated the skyline since Glory’s days had vanished.

More worrying to her - there was no sign of Dawn or Spike. The Sunnydale streets were empty, but Agnes caught sight of various furtive movements as residents began to appear in doorways and windows, checking the damage, wondering if it was safe to come out.
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Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ME except Agnes.
The story so Far: In The Replacement, Season 5, Spike refers to "the charming lady who runs a teashop in the local garbage dump". So meet Agnes Pringle, English spinster and very reluctant vampire. At the moment, Agnes has opened a Tearooms in Sunnydale High Street, with the money inherited from her ex boyfriend, Richard Wilkins III. Buffy has died, Dawn is working as a part time waitress in the tearooms and she and Spike are planning to deliver home made food round Sunnydale on Spike's new motorbike. Yes, Season 6 has arrived!



Chapter 31

Everything Changes


Agnes Pringle didn’t believe in second sight, visions or out of body experiences. Well, in a way she’d been out of her real body for a long time, so perhaps the last didn’t count. A lot of her old acquaintances back in England had been interested in Spiritualism and Agnes had even accompanied them one evening to a séance in the home of a Mrs Bachelor.

Nobody had ‘come through’ to Agnes from The Other Side, which her friends blamed on her inability to relax and let Things Happen. Agnes had to admit that she had been so appalled at the quality of the biscuits Mrs Bachelor had served with their cups of tea and her own extreme reluctance to speak to her departed mother – who would only have found fault with her – that she had found relaxing difficult. And the only time in her life she had relaxed and let Things Happen, she’d ended up a vampire, so she’d always looked upon that as something to be avoided where necessary.

No, Agnes – a baptized and confirmed member of the Church of England, she had a handwritten card from the Bishop of Winchester to prove it – believed in God and Heaven and found that was quite enough. Even after her unfortunate experience in Hollywood all those years ago, she was convinced He would look out for her because It Hadn’t Been Her Fault!So why, on this particular evening, did she feel that something dreadful was about to happen?
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Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG at the moment
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ME except Agnes Pringle who is all mine.
Story so far: In Season 5, The Replacement, Spike mentions the charming lady who runs a tea stall in the local garbage dump. So meet Miss Agnes Pringle, English spinster and very reluctant vampire. Agnes and Spike are friends which makes her life difficult. We have reached the time between Seasons 5 and 6. Agnes has opened a proper tea-room in Sunnydale, close to The Magic Box with money left her by her admirer, Richard Wilkins III.
Dawn - who knows Agnes is a vampire - is working there as a part-time waitress, Andrew is learning to cook and Clem is 'helping'. But life is just about to get very difficult for our favourite cake baker and sides are beginning to be chosen.


Chapter 29 Changing Sides


“So, will you baby-sit for us tonight? Please?”

Agnes looked up from her mixing-bowl and sighed. It was hard to say no to Shona, especially when she was wearing her pleading expression. But she was so busy at the moment and it really wasn’t convenient.

“You know how fond the kids are of you and Mike and me never get a chance to go out together without them. It’s too dangerous to leave them on their own all night.”

Agnes added more butter to her pastry and rubbed the mixture through her cold fingers. The Pattersons were one of a very few whole vampire families living in Sunnydale. They’d arrived, as so many others had done, to watch the last apocalypse: then, sadly for them, because they had promised the kids such a good time, the Slayer had defeated Glory. The majority of the apocalypse tourists had left but the Patterson were among those who had found a nice cave, moved in and stayed.

“I suppose I can ask Clem to look after the Willow Tree for the first couple of hours,” Agnes said, cross with herself for giving in so easily. “But you must be home by three a.m. It gets so busy in here around then and Clem, sweet as he is, is a soft touch for a hard luck story and I find most of my cakes have been given away.”

Shona smiled with relief. “Oh yes, we’ll be home by three, I promise! We just want to have a little time together. You know!”

Agnes busied herself with rolling out her pastry and pretended she hadn’t heard. But she was well aware that four vampires living in one cave didn’t leave a lot of room for privacy, especially when two of them were aged ten and eight.

It was obviously extremely rare that a whole family was turned, rose and stayed together. Couples, yes, but not the children. When they were killed – and Agnes could find no good reason for any vampire to do that; after all there were always people around whose death wouldn’t be mourned! – they were rarely turned. In the case of the Pattersons, whatever vampire had been responsible had obviously gone through their house, feeding and turning each of them, one after the other. Their families had buried them in the same grave and so they’d had no problem finding each other – afterwards.
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Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG only for language
The story so far: In The Replacement, Spike mentions the charming lady who runs a tearoom in the garbage dump. Meet Miss Agnes Pringle, English spinster and very reluctant vampire. Agnes only wants a quiet life. Unfortunately, being Spike's friend denies her that wish. At the moment we have reached Season 6. Agnes - with the fortune she inherited from her ex boyfriend, The Mayor, has opened a proper tearoom in Sunnydale. Spike is grieving for Buffy, Dawn is working as a waitress part-time and Agnes is becoming aware that someone is stalking her.




Business As Usual

Chapter 28 - The Power of Cake


Two nights later, Agnes Pringle decided that enough was enough! It was time to take a stand. This was the third night running that the hairs on the back of her neck had wriggled and she’d realised an Unturned was hiding somewhere in the Willow Tree Tearoom. Sometimes she could feel its gaze on her downstairs while she was cooking, sometimes it was when the demons and vamps were enjoying their food.

She’d tried to spot the stupid human – in fact she was seriously worried that it might be someone who was mentally disturbed, because really, who would be silly enough to linger when there were several serial-killers of various types sitting in close proximity? But so far she’d been unable to find the intruder.

Agnes was pretty certain that the basement door that led into the maze of tunnels that ran underneath the whole of Sunnydale was how her stalker was getting in and out of the tearoom. And every time she came close to him – or her, of course, because Agnes had learnt to be politically correct recently – vanished back into the tunnels.
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Title: Business As Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ME except for Agnes who is mine.
Summary: In The Replacement, Season 5, Spike mentions the charming lady who runs a tearoom in the local garbage dump. Meet Agnes Pringle, English Spinster and very reluctant vampire. All Agnes wants is a quiet life, but as Spike's friend, that is unlikely to happen.
At the moment, Buffy has died, Spike is grieving, the Scoobies are planning something, Agnes has spent some of her inheritance from her lover, the Mayor on opening a proper teashop in Sunnydale and Dawn is helping out as a part time waitress....


Chapter 26 The Visitor


A quarter moon was glimmering just about the treetops as Agnes Pringle picked her way along he paths of the cemetery, heading for the furthest part where the woods reached almost to the graves themselves.

Dried leaves scuttered across the gravel walkway. It was odd how there were always dead leaves in graveyards. Agnes sometimes wondered if they were the souls of those departed, rushing around together, having fun.

She liked graveyards; she always had, even when she had been one of the great Unturned. Back home in England, the little church she’d attended on the outskirts of Winchester – sometimes going to the Cathedral itself had seemed a little overwhelming and she never had quite the right hat - had stood in the midst of a lovely graveyard. Her dear parents were buried there, both their names engraved on one stone.

Devoted Husband and Devoted Wife. Although Agnes was not entirely sure those words were completely accurate. Her mother had never done anything that her husband had asked her to do. Mrs Pringle had ruled the roost for as long as Agnes could recall.

It was sad to think she would never join them in their eternal rest, although she had paid for the space in advance and had even made sure there would be room for her name on the headstone when the time came. Agnes Kathleen Pringle, Devoted Daughter. That was what she had wanted because that was what she had been. She’d never had a chance to be “Much Loved Mother of…” or “Dearly Missed Grandmother”. But Devoted Daughter was still a good title to be remembered by.

A reluctant smile twitched across her solemn face. “Agnes Kathleen Pringle, Vampire of this Parish” wouldn’t have looked right at all.
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Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine except for Agnes Pringle.
Summary: In The Replacement (Season 5) Spike mentions the charming lady who runs a tea shop in the local garbage dump. Meet Agnes Pringle, English spinster and reluctant vampire. All Agnes wants is a quiet life, but as Spike's friend, that is unlikely. After Buffy's death, Agnes has decided to give up her dream of going home to stand by Spike and Dawn. She has decided to use some of her legacy from her ex-lover, Richard Wilkins III, to leave the garbage dump and open a tea-shop in Sunnydale.



Business as Usual

Chapter 24 Just like home

Agnes Pringle, English spinster, reluctant vampire and now proud owner and manager of the Olde English Willow-Tree Tea Shoppe, Sunnydale, USA, stood and surveyed her domain.

Tears – she hadn’t realised she could still cry – trickled down her cheeks. It was all so beautiful! She could have almost been standing in her own little shop back home in Winchester. There were thick blue and white flowered curtains at the windows – double lined to keep out the sunlight - dark oak tables and chairs with neat royal blue cushion pads, little blue vases with flowers in each – which she realised she would have to remove after tonight because the Ostvxysch demons had a bad habit of eating them. The vases, not the flowers, of course, because they were by nature vegetarians, so much that they also slaughtered all carnivores they came across - which made seating arrangements after midnight extremely complicated.

She had wondered about having a “non-person-eating” zone at one side of the shop, but it really would be difficult to police.
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For all members of Aggie's Army, here is another chapter.
Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to ME except Agnes who is all mine.
Summary: Agnes Pringle is the English spinster lady and reluctant vampire who runs the teashop in the garbage dump - referred to by Spike in The Replacement. Being Spike's friend means she does not get the quiet life she longs for. Things keep happening! At the moment she has discovered she has inherited a fortune from her ex boyfriend, Richard Wilkins III but has decided to stay in Sunnydale to stand by Spike in his grief because Buffy has jumped from Glory's tower. Spike has asked Agnes to go with him to see Buffy's body one last time before she is buried.




Chapter: The Night Before

Agnes Pringle hurried along in Spike’s footsteps as he strode through the dark, empty Sunnydale streets. He seemed oblivious of the fact that he could walk far faster than she could, striding out, an axe balanced across one shoulder of his long black leather coat.

Agnes was clutching a screwdriver. Spike had been uncertain which tool would be the most use for breaking into the Sunnydale Funeral Home where the mortal remains of Buffy Summers were being kept until her burial the following day.

It was a very good job she didn’t need to breathe, Agnes thought, because she would be puffing and panting at having to walk at this speed. Even as a vampire, she certainly wasn’t designed for action, she decided sadly, wishing she could cover the ground with the same easy, cat-like lope her friend used.

Luckily Sunnydale seemed empty; the inhabitants were still at home, recovering from the odd effects the hell god Glory had caused during her brief but terrifying visit to the town.
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Another make up chp, I'm afraid. This is the last one that had gone missing!


Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Me except Agnes who belongs to me
Summary: The life of Agnes Pringle in Sunnydale, English spinster, reluctant vampire and friend of Spike.


Chp. 10 Parenting



It was the scars Agnes noticed first. The second thing she saw was that the young woman really was not wearing warm enough clothes on what was quite a chilly night for southern California. The third she felt - long nails scratching Agnes’ face as the girl held it between her two hands.

“You look just like my Mummy!”

Agnes flared gently into vamp face – just enough so the girl would realise she was speaking to a fellow compatriot – and back again.

She was beginning to wonder what the attraction could be that brought so many English people to Sunnydale. This girl had a definite accent. Small, thin and pale, she looked as if a good meal would do her the world of good. And, if Agnes was completely honest, she also seemed – now what was the word her grandmother used to use – oh yes, fey.

“I’m afraid I am no one’s mother, dear,” she said gently, pushing the sharpened nails away.

The girl seemed to lose interest and wandered around the station waiting-room, trailing her hand across the smeared wooden seats. It left marks. Agnes could smell blood, lots of blood. Perhaps this girl didn’t need a good meal, after all.
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Title: Business as Usual
Author: lilachigh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Me except Agnes who is mine.
Summary: in The Replacement, Spike talks of the charming lady who runs the tearoom in the local garbage dump. Please meet Agnes Pringle, English spinster and reluctant vampire. All Agnes wants is a quiet life, but she is Spike's friend, Glory is about to unleash the apocalypse and she has just been left a legacy by her old lover, Richard Wilkins III.


Chapter 20

No Looking Back

Agnes Pringle snapped shut her shabby black handbag and took a last look round the little room that had been her home for so long. Small and cramped it might be – and the noise from the drinkers in Willy’s Bar was a distinct disadvantage – but she had been happy here.

“Now Agnes, no looking back!” she told herself firmly. “Dear Richard has made it possible for you to continue your journey elsewhere. He wouldn’t want you to be downcast about leaving Sunnydale and going back to England.”

She bent down to check under her bed, wondering whom Willy would find to live here when she had gone. She had paid him an additional three months rent because you never knew what the future held in store. Agnes was quite certain that the cottage in the New Forest area of Hampshire would be lovely. She could see it in her mind’s eye, thatched with blue paint on the window frames and a yellow rose rambling across the front porch.
She sighed and clambered to her feet. Yes, the cottage would be wonderful and she’d been assured that it was set in deep woods, which would make it shaded and dark inside. Absolutely perfect.

But – Agnes had no intention of burning all her bridges until she had settled herself back in England. It had been some considerable time since she’d been there. She was sure life would have moved on and although she was not and never would be American, she had come to enjoy a much freer way of life over here in California. She was worried about fitting into her local vampire community. Did they have a lot of rules and regulations? There was sure to be all sorts of local by-laws that she would have to learn. English village life could be very confusing to an outsider, and by that Agnes meant anyone who hadn’t lived in the village for the past three hundred years.

And then there was the fact that she would be leaving her friends here. All her customers whose likes and dislikes she now knew so well: the demons who couldn’t eat nuts, the ones who enjoyed steak and kidney pudding as long as the steak and kidney were fresh that day and not cooked and the vampires who loved the blood she added to her iced fancies.

Admittedly she didn’t have too many lady friends. That was odd, she mused, as she combed her hair and pinned her hat firmly onto her fluffy curls. Joyce Summers had sadly died, of course, and she’d been a human anyway. The Unturned were difficult at the best of times – you never knew how they were going to react - although Joyce had seemed extremely unprejudiced.
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