Subj: Buffy/DS Crossover Vignette
Date: 5/26/00 12:40:45 AM Central Daylight Time
From: DSRules

Julia Hoffman walked down the hallway of Collinsport General. Barnabas had just been in a near-fatal car wreck. While eloping with Vicki Winters, no less.

{Damn you, Barnabas Collins! Josette DuPres, Maggie Evans, Vicki Winters. You'll fall in love with Liz Stoddard before you'll see me as a woman, won't you? What's wrong with me that you can't love me like I love you?

Then she corrected herself. {What's wrong with me? What's wrong with *him* is what I should be asking! Always chasing after something he can't have! To hell with him and the horse he rode in on!}

"Dr. Hoffman?" The shift nurse asked as Julia passed by her.

She snapped back from her woolgathering almost immediately. "Yes?"

"Are you all right?" Julia was struck by how young the young brunette nurse looked. Much younger than most of the nurses here at Collinsport General.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I am put out with a friend. I wish he was more than a friend, but he'll never see me as anything else." She laughed a short, bitter laugh. "Why don't you go into his room? He'll probably fall instantly in love with you. You're his type."

"His type?"

"Young. What is your name, anyway?" Julia asked. "I don't think I've seen you here before."

"Oh. It's Anya." The nurse responded.

"What an unusual name," Julia mused.

"It's Hebrew," Anya responded.* "I'm just here temporarily. You were short-staffed, and the . . . placement service knew that my talents would be useful here."

"Talents?" Suddenly, Julia noticed the necklace around the nurse's neck. "You should probably take that off," she indicated the necklace.

"Oh, I couldn't." Anya replied vaguely.

Julia wasn't sure if Anya meant that she was afraid of losing it, or if she meant that for some reason, she really *could not* remove the necklace, so the physician elaborated, "It's against regulations. The hospital administrator will have your head if he sees you with such an ornate piece of jewelry."

"Tell me something, Dr. Hoffman," Anya asked. "If you could get back at Barnabas Collins for rebuffing you, would you?"

"Yes," Julia replied in a moment of pique, not noticing that Anya knew Barnabas' name, even though Julia hadn't given it to her, "I would."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1800

Barnabas looked up from his book for a moment, remembering Angelique's final words to him, "I pronounce a curse on you." Often, he'd wondered if she hadn't completed her curse, even if it hadn't been spoken.

He had married Josette in a romantic ceremony that people were still talking about four years later. He loved his children with Josette, Andrew and little Naomi, but their mother was another matter completely. They had nothing in common. He liked to read, she liked to sew, he loved the theater, she lived to shop.

This week had been a case in point. He had wanted to leave the children with his parents and Sarah and go to Boston to see a new production of "Measure for Measure" that was being put on there, but she had insisted that if they were going to get out of 'this dreary, cold town,' as she put it in her petulant French accent, she wanted to go shopping in New York.

As a result, they went nowhere.

Well, next month, there was a performance of "Much Ado About Nothing" in Bangor. Perhaps he'd have more luck convincing her then.

Sometimes, he wondered what his life would have been like if Angelique *had* completed her curse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1967

"Good evening, Mr. Jennings," Julia said as she saw the middle-aged man coming out of his daughter's room.

"Ah, Dr. Hoffman, please, call me Bill." The smile on his face accentuated the lines at the corners of his eyes, but it served only to make him look more handsome.

"Then you must call me Julia."

"How's Amy doing? And be honest with me. I can take it." William Jennings asked.

"Well, she could be doing better, but I predict that she'll be able to come home to you within the next year or so."

"Really? That's wonderful news!" He gave her that astounding smile again. "Say, Julia, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"What?"

"Would you like to go out for coffee together sometime?"

She was so flabbergasted, that she blurted, "Are you asking me out on a date?"

He responded, as he hooked her arm through his, "Why, yes, I think I am. . . "

_______________________

* I looked up the name, and got that it could be Hebrew or Russian, so I chose Hebrew.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.