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Willow sat on the cement bench, staring off into space, her peanut butter sandwich slowly hardening into inedibility in the warm spring sun. She'd been looking forward to this morning for days. During one of her nightly forays through the school's unprotected computer systems she'd stumbled across a list of new students. She'd been fascinated by one name in particular - 'Buffy Summers'. And it wasn't just that she was joining the sophomore class mid-year.
There had been something fluffy, almost cheerleaderish about the name. It brought to mind pom-poms and B teen movies. She'd always had a thing for cheerleaders, those paragons of high school sexuality, though she would never admit to it. She'd spent days wondering what this new girl would be like. Would she be another Cordelia? A cruel, spoiled ice queen? Or something different?
Her day had begun in its usual fashion. Her mother had dropped her off in front of the school on her way to the airport, headed for yet another conference and leaving her at the mercy of her father's cooking and his attempts at father-daughter bonding for the next few days. She'd been in too much of a hurry to grace Willow with one of her usual attempts to bolster her daughter's self-image, sparing her one of her mother's 'I'm proud of my gay daughter' speeches. For which Willow was very grateful.
Tearing off a small piece of crust, she sighed before popping it into her mouth. It was great that, after a decidedly rocky start, her parents had accepted her decision to come out. She knew just how lucky she was. But the constant gay pride speeches and their other attempts to be very supportive were over-compensation, in Willow's opinion. She just wanted to be treated like she was normal. Or at least as normal as it was possible to be as a teenage lesbian in a conservative college town like Sunnydale.
By the time the morning bell had rung, it had become clear that she wasn't the only student who'd found out about this new student. Before being distracted by one of Xander's juvenile antics, she'd already heard at least a dozen rumors to explain the girl's appearance in Sunnydale, each one more outlandish than the last. And she wasn't sure but she thought she might have caught a brief glimpse through the crowds of a cute, small, blonde girl entering the school.
The rest of her morning had quickly careened downhill from that point. Somehow, in what she could only take as a bad omen, the new girl had ended up being sucked into the orbit of her childhood nemesis, Cordelia Chase. And any chance she might have had to make a good first impression to this new infusion of blonde cuteness into Sunnydale High had been thoroughly destroyed by Cordelia's cruel remarks about her clothes and sexuality when she'd had an unfortunate encounter with them between classes.
When she'd made the decision to come out the year before, she'd approached it like she did everything else in her life, slowly and methodically. Researching the subject as much as possible before doing anything, long before taking that terrifying step, she'd gone to a lot of trouble to appear as non-threatening as possible to her peers. She'd had no wish to become the freshman class's token target for gay bashing. But she hadn't wanted to hide who she really was. It was bad enough that most saw her as one of the resident class nerds.
And, in her opinion, the easiest way to avoid that had been to appear as normal as possible and try not to shove her presence in everyone's faces. So, instead of following in the footsteps of the few angry and marginalized lesbians who stuck out among the upper classmen at Sunnydale High, she'd taken her cues on how to dress from her mother, a very intelligent, if sometimes distant, woman who'd managed to infiltrate and prosper in the rarified male dominated field of psychology. And she liked to think that she'd mostly succeeded. Her coming out at a Sunnydale Gay Pride parade had resulted in a nine day wonder but when she didn't behave any differently than she had for years she was left alone by most of her classmates.
The small exception had been Cordelia and her sheep, and their male entourage. Which hadn't been all that surprising. Cordelia had made it her mission in life since grade school to make Willow's life as difficult as possible. If she tried really hard, she could remember in great detail the events that had started it all. Shaking her head in remembered anguish, Willow tried to put that out of her head and think of other things.
She regretted not having had a quick retort ready for Cordelia that morning. The new girl had looked at her with what she assumed was pity. Willow wasn't sure if it was directed at her clothes or the bitter verbal abuse spewing forth from Cordelia's mouth. But either way, being the subject of pity was not something she was interested in.
Before Cordelia could really attack her she'd shrugged it off and tossed a quick grimace in the girl's direction. The girl had given her a confused look at her acceptance of Cordelia's harsh words and Willow was sure she'd felt her eyes on her as she made her escape down the hall to her locker.
And that was it, as far as Willow was concerned. She was sure the girl would become just another member of Cordelia's 'court', something she couldn't even hope to compete with. She morosely took another bite of dried sandwich and continued to stare blindly at nothing.
Grabbing her lunch out of her locker, Buffy sighed and followed several other students similarly armed out into the sun in search of a place to eat. She couldn't wait for the day to end. On top of the nightmares that had disturbed her sleep since they'd moved to Sunnydale the week before, she hadn't appreciated the lecture her mother had given her that morning in the presence of her little sister. Dawn was already upset with her over the move and losing her friends. Buffy didn't think she needed any additional ammunition in her quest to make her older sister's life miserable as payback.
And then there was the school librarian. She wasn't quite sure what his thing really was. She wasn't expecting to have an old looking book about vampires shoved in her face on her first day at her new school. Avoiding him whenever possible was now on her list of very important things to do. Sunnydale was her chance to get away from vampires and some English guy wearing tweed, no matter how hot he seemed, wasn't going to ruin things for her.
Once in the Quad, the other students scattered to places unknown, leaving Buffy standing there in the bright sun. She looked around in search of somewhere she could eat her lunch and process the morning's events. From the smirk on her sister's face when their mother had handed over her lunch Buffy was sure there was a surprise or two of the Dawn sort waiting for her in the paper bag. If she were lucky it would at least be edible, but from prior experience with her sister's lunch experiments she didn't have much faith in that happening.
Squinting against the bright light, her eyes came to rest on a small figure sitting alone on a bench in the sun. It seemed like a prime spot for lunchtime basking and she wondered why there was no one else there. Stepping close enough to identify the bench's occupant, she froze for a moment in indecision. It was the redhead from that morning; the one Cordelia had gone out of her way to attack when she'd been showing Buffy how to get to the library. She'd found out later that morning that she was one of the students on the tutor list she'd been given by the office along with her class schedule. She'd been only marginally surprised at the coincidence. Too many things had happened to her in the last year for her to believe in them.
At one time she'd been intimately familiar with Cordelia's type. In fact, she was sure that if she were still the same person she'd been the year before she could have challenged Cordelia for her position among the school's socially elite and won. And people smart enough to be tutors would have definitely been on her own loser list back when she'd made every effort to be as shallow as Cordelia appeared to be.
None of the names on the tutor list had jumped out at her when she'd first looked at it that morning. Several of her new teachers had enthusiastically recommended Willow Rosenberg when she'd made an effort to ask their opinion. She really hadn't wanted to attract their attention so early on, beyond just being another new student, but attending classes had been so low on her list of priorities those last few months at Hemery that she'd felt very lost in her new classes and she'd been compelled to ask for help, if only to show her mother that she was at least trying.
Looking at the other girl for a moment, she figured, after Cordelia's behavior, that it would require some heavy groveling on her part to get any help. But, she thought, taking a deep breath, if I can fight skanky vampires I can certainly ask a cute nerd for help catching up with my classes so Mom won't ground me. Squaring her shoulders, she headed towards the bench.
Willow noticed her standing there almost immediately but pretended to be oblivious to her presence. Ignoring her even as she sat down at the other end of the bench, placing her lunch bag delicately between them. After their brief morning encounter she couldn't think of any reason that the other girl would join her on the bench. At least not any reason that would be in her favor, she grumbled to herself in her head. She was careful to not show any awareness that she knew the other girl was watching her. She'd taken more than enough Cordy-abuse for the day. Maybe if she ignored the girl she would go away?
The situation seemed ready to go on forever, but glancing at her watch between random bites of apple, Willow was surprised to see that it had been only five minutes since the other girl had appeared. She sighed resignedly, put her apple down, and looked over at the girl.
"I'm not moving," Willow told her in her most emotionless voice.
"Huh?" Looking up from her own lunch, the other girl glanced over at her in surprise.
"I'm eating my lunch," Willow told her. "I'm not moving," she repeated.
"I see that," the girl answered, looking very puzzled, an expression Willow reluctantly conceded to herself verged on overdoing the cuteness. "Why would you move?"
"You're hanging out with Cordelia," Willow told her, as if that explained everything anyone needed to know. At her continued confusion, Willow added "She's not going to be too happy you're sitting so close to the 'nerdy lesbo stalker'" Repeating one of Cordelia's favorite insults, Willow was rather proud of her ability to mimic Cordelia's snarky tone, though her usual audience consisted of Amy, Xander, and Jesse.
"I thought she was just being mean!" The girl gave Willow a wide-eyed look.
"She was just being Cordelia," Willow corrected, shaking her head and grimacing at the apple core she now held. "Just enough truth so you can't argue with the rest of it."
"So, which part is true?" the girl asked, taking something sandwich-like out of her lunch bag and examining it with a doubtful expression. "Kind of looking for some nerdiness here. The stalker thing is kind of icky, though I guess some people might like that over-inflated bimbo brunette look Cordelia has going for her. Five minutes with her was enough for me." She shrugged dismissively.
Willow stared at her blankly for a moment. This was certainly not how she'd expected the conversation to go. This girl seemed a bit strange, even for Sunnydale. "Umm..."
"You aren't a nerd, are you," she commented dryly. Willow thought the girl looked vaguely disappointed at the thought. "Was kind of hoping for some help catching up with my classes. You are Willow Rosenberg, aren't you?" She asked.
"Yes," Willow acknowledged. She raised an eyebrow at the other girl.
"Oh. Sorry." She held out her free hand. "I'm Buffy Summers. Everyone says you're the person to see about the tutoring thing," she added with a small smile.
"Oh!" Willow was surprised at the warmth of her smile and cautiously relaxed before smiling back at her. This was something she could certainly help with. "Sure. If you need some help with your classes, I can do that."
"Great!" Buffy answered, squirming in an apparent attempt to make herself more comfortable on the bench.
Willow watched her curiously for a moment before asking, "When did you want to get together?"
"Would tomorrow after school be too soon?" Buffy asked, as she started to take hesitant bites from her sandwich.
Willow's answer was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Xander and Jesse, excited about something. When she'd finally deciphered what they were trying to tell her, about some dead guy in the girls locker room, she noticed Buffy had managed to slip away. Not that she blamed her. They could be a bit much when they got going.
Unfortunately Willow hadn't been able to confirm their study session for the next day. Looking around, she thought she spotted Buffy headed towards the gym but she couldn't be sure because an annoyed looking Cordelia and her sheep were blocking her view.
"Wasn't that new girl here?" Xander asked her suddenly, waving his arms around.
"She was," Willow told him, shaking her head before reaching into her bag for the rest of her lunch.
"So, are you going to introduce me..." Receiving a glare from Jesse, Xander quickly corrected himself. "I mean us... to her?"
"Kind of hard to do that when she isn't here," Willow muttered to herself before answering loudly. "Okay... the next time I see her and you are around, I'll introduce you."
"Great!" Xander said, seemingly unaware of the small glare she was sending his way. Shaking her head in frustration, she gave up and put the remaining uneaten pieces of her lunch away. Mumbling a quick goodbye, she got up and headed to her first afternoon class ahead of the bell.
Buffy picked at her dinner. She hadn't been very hungry lately but tried to eat enough every night to avoid attracting her mother's attention. Her mother had become obsessed with getting her gallery off the ground since they'd moved to Sunnydale and didn't have a lot of time to spend cooking. But, although she wasn't the best cook, she was good at making Buffy's favorites, so it wasn't too onerous a task. But that wasn't enough to take her mind off of her day.
Even though it had been interrupted, the high point had been her brief conversation with Willow at lunch. There had been something about the redhead that had Buffy hoping they could become friends. If she'd even talk with her again after she'd snuck away from those annoying boys. She thought Willow might have called them Jesse and Xander but she wasn't too sure about that. She hadn't stuck around to be introduced once she'd figured out what they were saying. Stupid boys, Buffy muttered under her breath, still annoyed at them.
"Buffy?" Her mother interrupted her thoughts.
Buffy looked up guiltily. "Yes?"
"Is everything okay?"
"Yes. Why?" She asked, before hastily scooping up a few cheese covered noodles and putting them in her mouth. Her mother just shook her head in reply and Buffy sank back into her thoughts.
Things had definitely gone downhill after lunch. She knew enough about being a slayer to know that it would be impossible to avoid the occasional vampire. But she'd really hoped to get through at least her first week in Sunnydale without encountering any. She'd even gone so far as to stay in at night and not explore the town.
Seeing the dead guy in the girl's locker room had put an end to that hope. And that Giles guy, who'd claimed to be her new watcher, hadn't done much to help. Even though she'd told him that she was retired, he'd grilled her about what she'd seen when she'd investigated the locker room, as if doubting her competence.
Throw in an encounter with Cordelia at the end of the day that was sure to have her reputation in shreds before Monday and things couldn't possibly get much worse.
"Buffy?" Her mother interrupted her thoughts again.
"Yes, Mom?" She looked up from her plate to see her mother looking at her with some concern.
"Did you find anyone to help you catch up with your classes?"
"And is it a cute boy?" Dawn asked hopefully.
Buffy frowned at her sister's comment; only answering with silent prodding from her mother. "Cute? I guess. If you're into that sort of thing. A boy? No."
Dawn wrinkled her nose at the vague answer but Buffy had no interest in expanding on the subject. Her sister's voyeuristic interest in her life might be considered normal sisterly behavior by her mother but that didn't mean she had to help her out. Her sister might not agree but her life wasn't a soap put on for her benefit.
"Mom? I'm done. Can I go now?" Buffy asked, trying to sound mature.
"Me too!" Dawn echoed.
Her mother gave her plate a quick glance before agreeing. "Okay. Are you still going to that club tonight?"
"Yes."
"Okay. Don't stay out too late, you still have school tomorrow."
Buffy grimaced at the reminder but nodded in agreement. "Okay Mom!" She picked up her plate and took it into the kitchen. When she finally made it to her room Dawn was already sitting on her bed, waiting for her.
"Out!" Buffy told her.
"No!" Dawn pouted. Not having any desire to have an audience while she changed, Buffy pushed her resisting sister towards the door.
"Mom? I accidentally locked Dawn in the attic and lost the key! You don't mind, do you? We can slip her food under the door!" She shouted before shoving her sputtering sister out of her room. "Go away!" She hissed at her.
"I want to watch," she whined, trying to get back into Buffy's bedroom.
"No," Buffy told her firmly before shutting the door in her face. She wondered if any other slayer had ever had to deal with a pest like her sister.
The heavy beat of drums drew her into the club. Stopping just inside the entrance, Buffy instinctively scanned the darkened room for exits and any potential threats. Feeling a slight twinge in the pit of her stomach, she knew there was at least one vampire somewhere nearby. Looking through the smoke in the dim light nothing stood out among the teens gathered in the club. It was possible that the creature she'd avoided in the alley on her way to the club had followed her here. If so, she was quite willing to get rid of a blood sucking stalker.
Looking towards the bar, Buffy noticed the phenomenon she'd seen at lunch once more in action. For some reason, there was a large clear area around the small table Willow Rosenberg was sitting at. She must be really lonely, Buffy thought to herself, stopping at the bar for a drink before heading in her direction, telling herself that it was in her own best interest to check up on Willow and make sure she was okay.
An unhappy nerd was very unlikely to be much help with the tutoring she needed, she thought. And besides that, Willow just seemed to give off a comforting friend vibe that attracted Buffy. It had been a long time since she'd had someone her own age to really talk to. Burning down a school building tended to have a negative affect on the number of people willing to be friends. Or at least the ones she was willing to associate with.
Willow picked at the small bowl of very salty nuts. She'd grabbed them off of the bar while waiting for the bartender to bring over her 'Virgin Mary' and now she knew why the bowl had been full. She'd been carefully nursing her drink for an hour in the hope that Xander or Jesse would show up like they'd promised. It had been a strangely stressful day and she felt the need to unwind.
Willow suppressed the urge to do something dangerously out of character, like drinking something actually alcoholic or dancing in public. She wasn't sure what she really wanted to do but she'd even settle for listening to Xander and Jesse crudely dissect Cordelia's sheep as they paraded around the club dispensing their 'blessings' to the fashion impaired.
She almost jumped off of her stool when she felt something pressing into her right shoulder. Turning around, she say a small, delicate hand resting lightly on her shoulder, the point where it touched her bare neck tingling slightly. Following the hand up the attached arm to its owner, Willow stared in surprise as Buffy, with a nod in her direction, hopped onto the seat next to hers and placed her glass on the table.
"Hey!" Buffy said, apparently noticing Willow's expression.
"Hey," Willow mumbled in response. She tried to not stare at the cute blonde, tilting her head down and hoping her hair covered her face enough to hide her blush when Buffy winked at her.
"This seat isn't taken, is it?" she asked.
"No," Willow told her, sighing. "I was sort of expecting Jesse and Xander to show up. But they must have better things to do," she mumbled, hoping her disappointment wasn't as obvious as it felt.
"Those were the guys at lunch?" Buffy asked.
Willow nodded glumly. "We usually hang out together."
"So, they left you to fend for yourself?" Buffy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"They have a hard time being seen with the class lesbian. Sometimes," Willow told her morosely. "That whole teenage boy sexual insecurity thing is hitting them really hard right now." She frowned in thought for a moment. "They're afraid of the competition. At least that's what all the books say."
"Oh." Buffy was silent for a few minutes. Taking a sip of her dark drink, she grimaced in annoyance.
"What's wrong?" Willow asked tentatively.
Buffy shrugged before giving her a half grin. "The bartender seems to be immune to the power of my blondness" she grumbled good-naturedly. "Diet Coke I can get at home for free." She gave Willow a look and asked her, the amusement evident in her voice, "He's not gay is he?"
"And I would know this how?" Willow asked, confused.
"Umm..." Buffy shrugged again and Willow could almost see the wheels turning in her head. "Can't you pick one of 'your people' out in a crowd?"
"My people?" Willow's voice squeaking in surprise, not sure how to take the comment. If it had been Cordelia she would have known how she was supposed to react, but Buffy was the one who'd sought her out, and not just once.
"Yeah!" Buffy winked at her and Willow relaxed, only realizing at that point that she'd been tensed to run away. "Don't gay people give off some sort of 'gay vibe'?"
Willow groaned, taking a big sip of her own drink and thinking for a minute before answering. This was not a conversation she'd expected to have nor was she prepared for it. She tried to put her answer in terms the slightly ditzy acting blonde could hopefully understand. "If you saw a bunch of girls standing in a hallway... could you pick out the cheerleaders?"
"Sure!" Buffy answered, a puzzled look on her face.
"And how do you do that?" Willow prompted gently.
"They dress like cheerleaders?" Buffy told her before taking another sip.
Putting her elbows on the table, Willow covered her face in her hands and sighed. She ran through the things she knew about Buffy in her mind, wondering if getting to know her was going to be worth the effort.
"Hey!" She felt small hands gently prying hers away from her face. She opened her eyes to find herself staring into the concerned hazel eyes of her companion. "You were supposed to laugh at that."
"Funny and I are somewhat acquainted, Buffy," she told her, shaking her head at the blonde. "That wasn't even in the same room."
"Will you still tutor me anyway?" Buffy gave her what she assumed was meant to be a pleading look, though the slight twinkle in her eyes ruined the effect.
"As long as you stop trying to be funny," Willow told her, shaking a finger at her in mock annoyance.
"Promise." Buffy grinned at her. "I won't attempt to dazzle you with my wit. I'll save it for those who really deserve it."
Willow frowned, wondering for a second about the menacing tone she thought she heard in Buffy's voice, before going back to her drink.
They'd been idly chatting for a while, Willow telling her about some of Xander's more memorable escapades and giving her opinions about some of the Sunnydale High teachers, when Buffy became aware of a feeling at the back of her neck as if someone or something was watching her. Looking around, she spied a familiar face looking down at her from the dim upper level of the club.
"Damn it," she muttered, putting down her drink.
"What's up?" Willow asked.
"I need to go talk to someone for a minute," Buffy told her. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back before you have a chance to find someone funnier to talk to."
"Okay..." Willow answered hesitantly, obviously not impressed at this new example of Buffy's sense of humor. Buffy smiled encouragingly at her and squeezed her free hand before hopping off of her stool. Not in the mood for a confrontation so early in the evening, she slid through the crowds, avoiding several vampires she detected on her way towards the stairs she'd spied when she'd entered the club.
"Do they teach you how to blend in like this at Watcher school?" She asked in amusement when she reached the place where Giles was standing. In the library he'd looked cute, if a bit old. Here, on the balcony looking out at the dance floor he looked very out of place. "Any vampire that sees you is going to know you aren't one of us."
"You need to understand how serious this is," he told her, ignoring her comments. "And if I have to destroy my ability to enjoy music by hearing this noise in order to do it I will."
"I do take it seriously," Buffy protested. "I'm talking to you aren't I? When I could be doing something much more fun."
"Can you tell me how many vampires are in this building?" He asked bluntly. "You should have sensed them the moment you walked in the door."
"Who do I look like?" She grumbled. "Spiderman?"
"You need to be better than Spiderman," he told her. She stared at him, slightly shocked that he'd even understood her comment. Merrick had completely missed any of her pop culture references. Not that she would admit it but she wouldn't have been familiar with such things herself if Dawn hadn't gone through a superhero phase the previous summer.
She decided to humor him for a minute. With an extravagant gesture, she leaned over the railing and looked out at the teeming mass of teens, dancing as if their lives depended on it, in search of vampires. "There's one!" She pointed at one of the vampires she'd spotted earlier on her way up the stairs.
Not seeing any others that she hadn't already spotted, she happened to look down and, almost directly below where they were standing, she could see Willow, obviously uncomfortable, shying away from some creature dressed in ragged black leather and goth makeup that was leaning very closely into her space.
"Crap!" She muttered.
"Did you see another vampire?" Giles asked hopefully. She gave him a disdainful look.
"You mean besides the three out there?" She pointed out the other two to him and shook her head. "I'll be back. Don't get bit."
She hurried down the steps and back to where she'd left Willow.
"Aren't there any puppies you can frighten?" Buffy asked the strange girl, sliding casually between her and Willow. There was so little room that Buffy found herself squashed up against Willow to avoid touching the other girl. She could feel Willow shaking; she couldn't tell if it was from fright or anger. She reached behind, and grabbing Willow's arm, pulled it around her own waist in a possessive manner, raising an eyebrow disdainfully at the girl she was facing.
When the other girl looked like she was going to object to Buffy's interference in whatever plans she might have had for Willow, Buffy glared at her in warning. Using a combination of the look she'd perfected back in her haughty Hemery days and one she'd developed to scare her nosy sister, Buffy aggressively stepped into the girl's space. She visibly wilted under Buffy's glare before slinking off into the crowded club.
Still holding onto Willow's hand, Buffy quickly turned around. "You did want to be rescued, didn't you?" She asked nervously. "She seemed a bit too butchy for you."
"Yes." Willow pulled her hand away, blushing in what Buffy assumed was embarrassment at needing to be rescued. "I'm not really into the whole monosyllabic communication thing."
"Huh?" Buffy stared at her, not quite sure what she'd meant.
"I do like girls," Willow told her.
Buffy could sense some frustration in the way she said it. "I kinda got that," she replied, looking for her drink on the table for a moment before giving up with a disappointed sigh. She hadn't really wanted the thing anyway.
"But I kind of like them to be able to talk, using real words and not just grunt," She grimaced. "And I'm not so much into the goth look." She vaguely waved at her own clothes.
"Guess I'll need to tone down the blondness around you then," Buffy told her blandly. "If you still want to tutor me after I've interfered in your social life." She frowned, wondering what she'd said to make Willow blush even more. "Who scares away the trashy types normally?"
"Scares them away?" Willow gave her a confused look.
"You know..." she nodded her head in the direction of the departed example of bad taste, wisely refraining from further comments.
"Oh!" Willow looked up from her drink. "Xander usually does that. He has this whole anti-tough girl magnetism going for him." She smirked at some inner thought. "Actually, it seems to scare away any girl he likes."
Poor guy, Buffy thought, trying not to laugh. "You'll have to introduce us." She giggled. "Assuming he's cute."
"Why?" Willow looked puzzled.
"To see if I'm immune to his charms also."
"Okay..." Willow gave her another strange look.
"Why yes..." Buffy gave her a mock serious look. "I am blonde, and damn proud of it." She tilted her head to the side and looked at Willow "But I prefer to be called quirkily cute, not clueless and strange."
"Oh." Willow frowned again, and Buffy hoped she hadn't come on too strongly. "You'll probably like Xander. He was one of the guys at lunch. The shorter, louder one."
Buffy nodded. "And the other?"
"That was Jesse. He has a Cordelia fixation but other than that he's usually pretty stable," Willow told her. "For a guy anyway."
"Okay." She suddenly remembered she'd promised Giles she'd be back. Looking around, she caught a quick glimpse of him still standing where she'd left him. Sighing, she looked at Willow.
"I've got to go check on something again," she said, reluctantly getting up again.
"Oh..." She could hear Willow's disappointment clearly in her voice and made a quick decision.
"And since you obviously aren't safe here by yourself..." She waved away Willow's protests. "You can come with." She grinned at Willow. She wished she'd thought of this earlier. Giles wouldn't be able to go all watchery on her if Willow was there. She grabbed her hand and, still ignoring her protests, pulled her out of her seat. "Have you got anything better to do?"
"No... but what if Xander shows up?" She protested weakly.
"Do you always sit around waiting for him?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Yes... sometimes," Willow admitted.
"Well, this time you won't be." She headed towards the stairs. "He'll probably think you went home." She paused for a moment, a foot on the first step, and grinned back down at Willow. "And tonight... tonight you're spending an evening hanging out in the land of blondness." Buffy shuddered internally. She really needed to burn off some energy. That was laying it on a bit thick, even for her. But she really didn't want to leave the one friend she thought she'd made alone when vampires were prowling about. Even if it made her seem kind of ditzy.
"Come on. I know just the place. You can keep an eye out for Xander, just in case he does show up. And you can point out anyone else you think I should know about." She pulled Willow along in her wake, stopping when they reached Giles. She shook her head at Willow's obvious surprise at seeing him there and winking at her, made a quick motion for her to be quiet.
"Hey Giles!" Buffy spoke loudly over the music. She grinned when he jumped, pulling his attention away from whatever he was engrossed in.
"I see you've found something to read." She shook her head at the piece of paper he was holding in his hand. "How'd you manage that here? The Bronze? This is the first time I've been here and even I know it's not exactly a library." She grinned at his obvious annoyance. "You've met Willow, haven't you?"
"Miss Rosenberg? Umm... Yes." He gave her an inscrutable look.
"She's waiting for a couple friends. I thought she would be safer up here. She can look for her friends from over there." She waved at the railing and started pulling Willow towards it.
"Hello Mr.Giles," Willow mumbled as they passed him. Noticing her confused look, Buffy turned to Willow. "I'm helping him with some research for extra credit." At Willow's disbelieving look, she shrugged. "It wasn't my idea."
"Nor mine..." Giles muttered.
"What kind of research?" Willow asked, looking back and forth between them, Buffy could almost see the wheels in her head turning as she tried to figure out why the new librarian could possibly need any help from Buffy.
Buffy looked around desperately for inspiration, her eyes falling on the band on the small stage below. "Music!"
"Music?"
"Yes. Music." Buffy waved at Giles to expand on it. From her brief exposure to him so far she figured he could use enough large words to fool even Willow.
"Y..yes..." He stuttered, removing his glasses and studiously cleaning them. "A publishing company..."
"In LA," Buffy threw in, cringing internally at Giles' affronted expression at her interruption.
"In LA," he repeated, "offered to update the library's collection of modern music."
"And he needed somebody who's actually listened to music since that Prince guy." Buffy winked mischieviously at Willow. "Cause, our Giles?", she patted his arm in a faux patronizing manner, "He thinks they stopped making music twenty years ago."
She giggled once more at his expression before joining Willow by the railing. "Do you see them?" She asked.
"There's Jesse!" Willow told her, pointing him out. "Cordelia must have just shot him down. Again." She shook her head with a laugh.
"I thought you didn't like her?" Buffy asked, puzzled at her amused tone.
"Oh, we're enemies from way back," Willow confirmed. "But Jesse should know better. He grew up with her too. But he's been following her around for weeks like a sad puppy." She snorted, leaning over further and looking at the dancers. "He just doesn't get that she isn't going to do more than laugh at him."
"Oh." Boyfriend dynamics she understood. But she'd never had any close guy friends like Willow appeared to have in Xander and Jesse and didn't quite know how to react to what she was hearing about them.
"Xander and I have a bet going. He doesn't think Jesse will ever get it. I give him till the end of the year." She looked at Buffy in the dim light. "We'll see."
Buffy shook her head. Willow's relationship with her friends seemed a little strange.
Willow looked back at the crowds below them. "He's gone!" She looked around for a few minutes. "He doesn't usually give up so soon. I wonder where he went."
Buffy looked around also and noticed one of the people giving off vampire vibes earlier was also missing. She hoped Jesse's disappearance at the same time was just a coincidence.
"Damn," She muttered under her breath, coming to a quick decision. "Hey Giles?"
"Yes?"
"I think I've changed my mind about that other thing," she told him, hoping he would catch her meaning.
"Other thing?" He gave her a puzzled look for a second "Oh. That."
She turned to Willow "Duty calls." She grimaced. "I'll be right back." She reached over and squeezed her hand where it was resting on the railing. She quickly headed towards the stairs. Before going down the steps, she turned back and told Giles, "Keep an eye on Willow."
"What?" Willow watched, a confused expression on her face.
"Quite right," Giles answered.
Not quite sure what was really going on, Willow turned towards him. "Mr. Giles?" she asked curiously.
"Yes?" He'd pulled the piece of paper back out of a pocket and was attempting to read it in the dim light.
"Why are you really here?"
"Buffy is helping me research popular music," he told her nervously, repeating their earlier excuse.
"Sure she is." She gave him a skeptical look. She was about to say something more when he muttered something that sounded very rude and British under his breath before shoving the slip of paper back into a pocket. Noticing him looking out at the dance floor, she looked in the same direction and was surprised to see Buffy leaving the Bronze. But that wasn't the part that appeared to have caught his attention. He seemed to be focusing on a strangely dressed man who was following her out.
She was even more startled when he headed towards the steps. "Where are you going?" She demanded, not really wanting to be left alone.
"Buffy... umm... I'll be right back," he told her. Ordering to stay there before rushing down the stairs.
Looking back over the railing, Willow watched wide-eyed as he exited the Bronze through the same door Buffy had used just a minute before.
"What's going on?" She grumbled, her mind quickly going over everything she'd seen and heard since Buffy had sat down next to her earlier. Unable to draw any reasonable explanation to the obvious mystery from the little information she had, Willow decided to follow them and headed down the steps towards the same exit intent on finding out what was going on.
Willow stumbled out into the cold night air, anxiously looking for any sign of Buffy or Mr. Giles. Just down the block she could see Xander. Sighing in relief she hurried over to him. Not really seeing her, he was staring down the street, an odd look on his face.
"Xander!" She said loudly, pulling on his shirt to get his attention after what seemed like an eternity of being ignored.
"What?" He turned around and looked at her in surprise.
"Did you see Buffy Summers go by here?" she asked hopefully.
"No," he answered, shaking his head at something.
"How about the new librarian?" she asked desperately, not expecting him to be able to answer that question either.
"Yes. He was looking for her too," he said, waving in the direction he'd been looking before she'd interrupted him. "He went that way. Why?"
Letting go of his shirt, Willow started walking quickly in the direction he'd indicated. "Something's up," she told him over her shoulder. "Something weird is going on between them."
"Why are you interested?" He asked, catching up to her. "Is it because she's a cute blonde cheerleader?" He leered at her.
"Xander!" She said indignantly before admitting, "I don't really know. She says the oddest things but she is cute." She blushed when he laughed at her answer but kept walking.
"That is one strange girl," Xander told her as they continued down the street.
"Strange? What do you mean?" She didn't think he'd even talked to her yet.
"I think she's in some kind of secret cult." He punctuated his statement by jumping up and grabbing a handful of leaves from a low branch they were passing under.
"Huh? Why?" She asked, swatting away the small wadded up bits of leaf he was throwing at her. "And stop that!" she told him, giving him a push.
"I saw her in the library, talking with that English librarian guy." He waved in the direction they were going.
"And that makes her a member of a cult? Maybe she likes books?" She asked him even though she thought it was very unlikely, from what she'd seen so far, that Buffy would ever go into a library on her own. And then it dawned on her what he'd just said. "Hey! I go to the library."
"Have you seen the books he brought with him?" Xander asked her, as if it proved his point.
"Books?" She glared at him. "I didn't know you knew how to open anything that didn't have Batman or Daredevil on the cover."
"Does the librarian talk with you about strange things?" He asked, ignoring her jibe and stepping in front of her and blocking her way for a moment to give her a disturbing look
"What kinds of things?" She asked.
Before answering her he looked around in an exaggerated attempt to make sure no one was listening to them. "Vampires? Monsters? Strange things happening?"
"No..." She wondered what he'd actually heard. They were both too old to believe in things like vampires and monsters.
"See!" He said triumphantly. "Cult! She's in a cult! Probably something satanic. I bet they sacrifice puppies and kittens!" She thought he seemed a bit too enthusiastic about the idea. "Wait till I tell Jesse! We've got our own horror movie right here in Sunnydale."
Willow groaned. That was all she needed. The Jesse and Xander show in full conspiracy mode. She was about to turn around and head home when a strange sound drew her attention. It seemed to be coming from one of Sunnydale's many cemeteries just as they were passing it. Curious, she stopped at the small side gate.
"Willow?" Xander asked, watching nervously as she pushed it open and stepped in.
"Yeah?" She answered, not really paying any attention to him.
"Where are you going?" She could hear the slight hint of fear in his voice.
"I think I see something." She started walking towards several figures she could see in the distance, the moonlight glinting off of the head of the shorter one in the way she imagined it would do if that were Buffy.
"I'm not sure this is a good idea," He mumbled, following her.
"Shh..." She quieted him sternly without turning around. "I think that's Buffy."
They were too far away to see what was going on but Willow took off running, Xander close behind, when one of the taller figures slumped to the ground and another just seemed to disappear. Something seemed to happen between the two remaining figures still standing. One of them ran away before Willow reached them, yelling something unintelligible as it disappeared deeper into the cemetery.
"Buffy!" Willow shouted as she and Xander reached the middle of the cemetery to find Buffy bending down and shaking someone lying on the ground. She ignored them while she helped the person sit up, and guided them over to a tombstone. Willow gasped when she saw it was a disheveled Mr. Giles. Grabbing her arm, Xander pointed out a second person lying motionless on the ground.
With Giles now propped up against a tombstone rubbing his head, Buffy slipped the stake she'd taken out of his jacket into a pocket before turning to Willow and the person that, from their brief encounter at lunch, she assumed was Xander. She'd seen them headed her way seconds earlier but had been too busy dealing with the vampires intent on feeding on their victims to do anything to stop them.
"Hey guys!" She said as cheerfully as she could manage under the circumstances, as she quickly checked the person she'd been rescuing before Giles got himself knocked out trying to help her. She groaned when she realized it was Cordelia Chase. Fortunately, she didn't seem to be hurt, just in shock.
"Buffy? What's going on?" Willow's surprise was very visible on her face in the moonlit cemetery.
"Explanations can wait?" Buffy told them hurriedly after making sure Cordelia wasn't hurt. "We should get out of here before they come back." She looked at them. "Can one of you help me with Cordelia?" Seeing Willow cringe, she redirected her request to Xander. "Xander?"
"Before who comes back?" Xander asked, as he reluctantly grabbed the moaning Cordelia's left arm and helped Buffy get her to her feet.
"The, uh, gang members that were trying to kidnap Cordelia," she continued quickly, hoping to prevent further questions by her answer with a question of her own. "Willow?"
"Yes?" She visibly started, dragging her attention back from wherever it had gone.
Buffy dismissed the odd expression that crossed Willow's face at seeing Cordelia draped over her shoulder, while Xander just barely kept both of them erect, as a trick of the light. "Can you help me get Giles home?"
Willow nodded, and squatting down, tried to help Giles to his feet.
"I'm quite fine, thank you," He told her, pushing her away and shakily standing on his own. She gave him a concerned look as she stood back up. She tried to grab his arm to help him but he shook her hand off with a frowned.
Buffy shook her head in annoyance. He was just like Merrick. She wondered if all watchers were like that. He needed to be the one in charge. But, after Merrick, stubborn old men she could deal with. "Giles, if you don't let her help I'll knock you out myself and then I'll drag you home!"
"I'm fine," he repeated, glaring at her. "You need to be ready. The vampires will be back," he added groggily. Buffy groaned when she saw the astounded looks on the faces of Willow and Xander. She could see any hopes of having a secret identity disappearing as they stood there.
"Willow, ignore Mr. Grumpy. I think they grow them that way where he's from," she told her.
"Okay." Willow hesitantly grabbed his arm again and guided him towards the exit, ignoring his continued protests.
"Xander?" she looked questioningly him. "Do you know where Cordelia lives? We should get her home."
"Sure. It isn't far from here," He told her as they followed Willow and Giles towards the gate, Cordelia just aware enough of her surroundings to put one foot in front of the other so they weren't completely carrying her.
They'd reached the gate when their progress was stopped by a small group of vampires blocking their way.
"Xander?" She looked around Cordelia at his frightened face. "Can you hang onto Cordelia while I deal with this? It shouldn't take more than a minute. Thanks," she told him with a lot more confidence than she was feeling. Without waiting for an answer, she let go of Cordelia and quickly stepped around Giles and Willow to confront the vampires that were growling at them.
"Where are you going little girl?" the largest vampire asked menacingly as it towered over her.
"Who are you calling little?" Buffy asked, screwing up her face at the smell wafting to her on the small breeze that had sprung up. "Ew... I think you need a breath mint." Before it could respond she'd shoved the small, thin stake she'd taken from Giles minutes earlier through its heart, nearly dropping it in surprise at how easily it went in. "Never mind." She grinned at the remaining vampires through the cloud of resulting dust. "Who's next?"
Not giving them any time to think, she attacked, destroying two more vampires without much effort. Although one had escaped, blurting out a horrified "Slayer!" before running away, Buffy was surprised at how quickly she was able to dust the rest them, even after her surprise attack had killed their leader.
Her attention split between keeping Mr. Giles from toppling over and watching Buffy confronting the scary creatures preventing them from leaving the cemetery, Willow was taken by surprise when something ran into her and knocked her off her feet. Mr. Giles proceeded to fall on top of her, pinning her to the ground. When she managed to gain enough leverage to roll him over and off of her legs, all of the creatures were gone and all she could see was a swirling cloud of dust surrounding Buffy.
"What happened?" She asked breathlessly, getting to her feet before helping Buffy get Mr. Giles back on his feet. "What were those things?"
"What things?" Buffy asked innocently, tilting her head at an angle.
Willow looked at her. She looked at Giles and Xander. And back at Buffy. She shook her head. "I'm not blind Buffy."
"Yeah, Buff!" Xander added.
Willow cringed mentally, anticipating Buffy's reaction to his comment. She hadn't spent a lot of time with Buffy yet, but anyone could tell that she didn't appreciate how he'd shortened her name. Anyone except Xander. She sighed. "Xander?"
"Yes, Willow?" He winked at her.
"Never mind."
"We really need to get you guys home," Buffy reminded them.
"Okay," Willow agreed. "But you still owe us an explanation."
"Giles can do that tomorrow," Buffy volunteered, batting her eyes at him.
"What? Why?" Giles spouted. "No!" he added.
"Yes, Mr. He Who Blabs Secrets in public. You get to explain tonight to Xander and Willow," Buffy told him with a grin as she returned to Cordelia's side to help Xander. "You're supposed to be the expert. Or I can do it for you? If you don't mind them getting my unique view of the whole thing."
"No," Giles protested. "Bossy slayers," he grumbled under his breath.
Willow could hear Buffy laugh behind them as they headed toward Cordelia's house. She wondered how Buffy had heard his answer. She'd just barely understood it herself and she was inches from him.
Getting everyone home safely wasn't as difficult as Buffy had imagined it would be. By the time they'd reached Cordelia's house she'd recovered enough to let herself in.
"Not even a thank you?" Xander asked, staring at the door she'd shut in their face.
"Don't be surprised if she doesn't remember this in the morning," Buffy told him as they walked back down the long drive to where Willow and Giles were waiting for them.
"Why?" he asked, kicking at a stone and looking back at Cordelia's house.
"It happens." Buffy shrugged. She'd never really thought about such things, she'd just been grateful for it.
"Huh?" He looked at her and then at Giles and Willow.
"The human mind is very complex," Giles began, as they headed down the street, no longer needing any assistance to walk. "But it is very good at ignoring things it doesn't understand. Or things that don't make sense. Her subconscious will try to protect her by sublimating tonight as something else."
"Huh?" Xander repeated.
Willow took pity on him and attempted to put it in words he would understand. "She'll think it was a dream. A nightmare or something. So don't bother asking her about it tomorrow."
"Oh. Why didn't you say that!" Xander looked accusingly at Giles.
"Watchers like the big words," Buffy told him. "Makes them feel all important." She grinned at the now familiar disgruntled look on Giles' face. She was going to have so much fun with him. She could hear Willow suppressing a giggle.
It wasn't as late as she'd thought it would be when she finally reached home, after making sure Willow, Xander, and Giles were safely home themselves. Just barely past curfew. From the dining room, her mother just gave her a stern look and tapped her watch before shaking her head and pointing towards the stairs and her bedroom. Buffy winced and hung up her jacket before heading to her room.
She wasn't too surprised to find her sister asleep on her bed, one arm wrapped tightly around Mr. Gordo, the small stuffed pig that had been Buffy's most prized possession since she was her sister's age. Dawn had been doing that several times a week for the last year, even more often since their parent's divorce. While she wasn't too thrilled at Dawn's tendency to follow her around like a lost puppy, and she found some of her actions to be downright creepy for a ten year old, Buffy rarely complained to her mother about it. Dawn had been the only one to accept her claims of vampires at face value, unlike her parents who'd been a little too quick to throw her at a psychiatrist.
She quietly changed into her pajamas, covering up Dawn before sliding into bed herself. Wrapping her arms around her sister, Buffy fell asleep wondering what the next day would be like.
She woke to a shrill, high pitched buzzing sound. Swinging her free arm around in a wide arc without bothering to open her eyes, Buffy tried to stop the noise, not quite ready to start what she was sure was going to be another 'crappy' day. After the third attempt, she succeeded in knocking her alarm under her bed, turning it off in the process. The sudden silence was followed by a small giggle. Opening her eyes as she sat up, Buffy looked over to see her sister sitting in her window, chin on her knees, watching her intently.
"Why do you do that?" Buffy grumbled, rolling out of bed in a single fluid motion she was sure looked a lot cooler than it felt. Glaring at her sister, she grabbed her bathrobe from its hook on her door.
"Do what?" Dawn asked, smirking as if she already knew the answer.
"Watch me all the time," Buffy complained.
"Someone has to," Dawn told her seriously. "Some day you're going to do something that'll make you famous and I'm going to write a book and make a movie about it and make millions!" she declared, waving a pencil in Buffy's direction.
"So watching me get dressed...?" Buffy asked.
"Is very important," Dawn told her haughtily, writing something on a small pad of paper. "No one will ever believe what you're really like in the morning if I don't record it."
"Well, not today!" Buffy announced, pointing at the door. "Out!"
"But Buffy!" Dawn whined.
"Out!" Buffy repeated.
By third period Buffy was beginning to get tired of the strange looks and the overwhelming feeling she had that people were whispering about her behind her back. She'd thought her first day at Sunnydale was stressful enough, with everyone wondering why she'd transferred there so late in the year and all the wild rumors she was sure were floating around. But today was starting to feel much worse. From the little she'd overheard, she'd obviously been seen with Willow at the Bronze by several very creative and vindictive gossips.
Somehow that friendly gesture had been turned into even more outlandish rumors than she'd thought possible about Hemery and why she'd transferred. She wouldn't be surprised if Cordelia had helped things along. She'd gotten the impression that Willow was a very private person and couldn't even begin to imagine how she was feeling about the rumors.
Grabbing her lunch from her locker, Buffy headed for the quietest place she could imagine, the library. While spending time in the vicinity of Giles wasn't at the top of her list of things to do before her hair needed to be re-dyed, it certainly beat having to ignore everyone while attempting to eat her lunch in public. Hopefully she would have it to herself. She really wasn't ready to be grilled by Willow about the night before if Giles managed to avoid her himself.
That hope was dashed when, as soon as she walked into the library, she was bombarded with questions by an excited Xander. From his position next to Willow at one of the large library tables, he asked her, "Is it true?" as she approached them.
"Is what true?" she asked, keeping her voice calm although she thought she had a good idea what he was going to say.
"Did you get expelled from Hemery because your girlfriend was in a rival gang and you burned down the school gym when she broke up with you?"
"Huh?" Buffy stared at him in faux horror. "Where'd you hear that?"
"It's what everyone is saying," Xander said sheepishly.
Buffy noticed that Willow was now staring at her like she was some exotic exhibit, too unusual even for Sunnydale. "No. It isn't true," She told them. "I've never had a girlfriend. Nor do I plan on becoming a lesbian." Noticing Willow's expression changing, she added quickly "No offense, but I'm really not gay."
"No. Of course not," She heard Willow mutter under her breath. Buffy raised an eyebrow in surprise, causing Willow to blush faintly. Not sure if she'd heard disappointment in her voice or not, Buffy shrugged before continuing.
"Is Giles here?" She asked in her best 'happy' voice, in an attempt to change the topic from herself.
"He had to go to the office for a few minutes," Willow told her.
"Good," Buffy said, pulling her lunch out. "Wouldn't want to give the librarian guy a heart attack by being seen eating one of my sister's lunch delicacies in his temple of books."
Xander grinned at her comment and followed her example while Willow just shook her head before taking her own lunch out of her book-bag.
Giles entered the library in a slight huff. He'd just spent the last ten minutes reassuring Principal Flutie, for the third time in a week, that he would keep the school's precious students away from the more luridly illustrated ancient manuscripts he'd brought with him from London. As if he would actually allow anyone near them in the first place. He wasn't an amateur. He'd placed protection spells on them to discourage any stray students from touching the books as soon as he'd unpacked them.
Looking around, he noticed Buffy, Willow, and Xander sitting at one of the larger tables, eating their lunch and chatting about the things he assumed teenagers chatted about now-a-days. Nodding briefly to them in acknowledgment of their presence, he went into his office to make himself a calming cup of tea.
"That research project you guys talked about last night wasn't real, was it?" Willow asked Buffy and Mr. Giles when he finally joined them, steaming cup in hand. "Because, as excuses go, that was kind of lame. Even Xander can think of better ones than that."
"Hey!" Xander gasped in pretend shock. "I have no idea what you're talking about... but no one has better excuses than I do!"
"Like that one last week?" Willow asked, trying to not giggle.
"Which one?" Xander asked.
"The one where you didn't get your science homework done because you'd been kidnapped by aliens?" She giggled again. There were times when he really frustrated her, but they were more than made up for by his ability to make her laugh when she really needed it.
"Oh! That one. But it could have been true!" He sputtered. "If vampires are real, why not little grey men."
"You mean like in that show you like watching with Jesse?" She gave him what her few friends called her patented stern look, guaranteed to make even the most clueless male quake in fear. "Wormfood something?"
"Wormhole X-treme!" Xander corrected her, shaking his head in mock offense, only slightly bowed by her expression. "It was the best."
"It only lasted one episode," Willow muttered under her breath, but not quite low enough to escape Xander's attention.
"Six! There were six episodes," Xander protested.
"It was bad science!" Willow grumbled half heartedly. "Stupid people traveling all over the universe using wormholes. Doing stupid things." She was never going to admit that she'd recognized one of the technical consultants as a colleague of her one cool relative. She pretended to ignore the amused look on Buffy's face and Giles' baffled expression. "And Jesse never did explain how he got those other episodes that no one else seems to have ever heard of. It was probably something illegal."
Xander slumped in his seat, glaring at her. She stuck her tongue out at him in response.
"Are we done?" Giles asked dryly.
Willow looked over at him, embarrassed, while Xander sunk further into his seat.
"I don't know, this is just getting interesting." Buffy giggled. "What other Xander secrets can you tell us, Willow? We can blackmail him only so much with that bit of evidence of geekdom." Willow groaned and banged her head against the library table.
"I know some stuff about Willow," Xander countered.
"No you don't!" Willow told him, staring at him as firmly as possible, ready to bring out the big guns, her resolve face.
"Ouch! Not that look," Xander pleaded. "Okay, I won't say anything about your cheerleader thing."
"Xander! I don't have a cheerleader 'thing'!" Willow looked at him in horror, before sneaking a glance at Buffy to see her reaction.
"Guys!" Buffy interrupted to Willow's intense relief. "I think Giles is right. I think we've done enough of that."
"Of course I'm bloody right," Giles muttered. Buffy grinned at him cheekily.
Giles sighed, removing his glasses and methodically cleaning them with the soft cloth he kept in a pocket for just that purpose. Readjusting them nervously, he looked at the three teenagers. The Council was willing to give him only so much independence with this slayer. It had been a close call when they'd discovered Merrick's death. He was sure that if he hadn't pulled a few strings and traded in a few favors the arrogant bastards at the Council would have been all set to rush in and take her away from her family. No matter what the consequences would have been.
Merrick's Watcher diaries certainly hadn't inspired any confidence within the Council for this untrained American slayer. He was sure that the only reason he'd been assigned as her watcher had been the expectation that she wouldn't last a year on the vampire overrun West Coast. And some of them probably hoped she would get him killed in the process.
Watching her chatting with her new friends, he wasn't sure how long he could keep the Council from interfering if she insisted on having a normal life. Especially if she involved other people with her sacred duty. The only thing in her favor was that the Council tended to leave the current slayer and her watcher alone until her eighteenth birthday, assuming she survived that long. He only had two years to prepare her for the barbaric tests used by the Council to weed out the lucky from the truly talented slayers, while making sure she survived everything Fate threw at her before then. He was already working to secure permission to tell her about the tests so he could prepare her much better for them but didn't really expect it to happen.
"Well?" She interrupted his meandering thoughts. "You promised to explain it to them."
Taking a sip from his cup, he grimaced at the cold tea. Clearing his throat, he began "This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise..."
"Huh?" Xander mumbled in disbelief when he'd finished. Willow just frowned in thought.
"Miss Summers." He gestured towards Buffy. At her glare he corrected himself, "Buffy... is the 'Chosen One'. She has been chosen to hunt vampires and other evil non-human creatures. Don't get in her way. She's been trained by experts to do this. You'll get hurt." He looked at Willow and Xander as he spoke trying to impress upon them the seriousness of what he was saying. "And don't tell anyone."
"I see you left the important bits out," Buffy grumbled. "Like, I have no choice in this. And I'm a huge supernatural weirdness magnet. Evil things think I'm their favorite flavor."
Noticing Willow's shocked expression, he frowned at Buffy. "I didn't believe they needed to know anything more. Especially that."
"Who's the slayer?" She asked him rhetorically. "They should know how dangerous it is to hang out with me."
"Slayer? One of those things.. vampires?" Willow looked at him for confirmation before continuing. "I think one of those vampires last night yelled that."
"That would be me," Buffy admitted with a grimace. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." She gave Giles a questioning look.
Giles shook his head but gestured for Buffy to continue. He knew he would have to talk with her later about involving them in Council business so quickly. But that would have to wait until he could talk to her privately.
"My mom doesn't know," She continued. "My parents didn't believe me when I tried to tell them. They thought I made the whole thing up. It didn't go over well. Padded rooms, straight jackets, drugs, that kind of thing."
Willow gave her a horrified look. "Buffy!"
"So no mentioning this stuff around the rents?" Xander asked.
"You aren't likely to meet my father any time soon," Buffy mumbled. "But yeah. No mentioning vampires around my Mom or sister."
Giles sighed. That explained her reluctance to continue slaying. Another thing to blame the Council for. They'd obviously seriously mismanaged this slayer after Merrick's death. And hadn't bothered to inform him of any of it. They were lucky she was still as sane as she appeared.
"Giles?" She interrupted his thoughts again. "You're doing that zoning thing again."
"Oh. Yes." He coughed, slightly embarrassed. "I was just thinking about yesterday's messenger."
"Messenger?" Buffy frowned.
"I was given a note last night at the Bronze. It mentioned something about an event called the Harvest." Giles frowned. "I'm not familiar with it but the messenger wanted to make sure the Slayer knew about it."
"I'm guessing it doesn't involve hay-rides and dunking for apples," Buffy said.
Any further discussion was interrupted by the bell and Buffy, Willow and Xander scrambling to put their things away.
"Giles? Guys!" Buffy turned to Willow and Xander after grabbing her book-bag. "Can we continue this after school?"
"Sure," They both answered. Giles raised an eyebrow at her request.
"Kinda a bad thing to miss a class the first week at a new school," She told him on her way to the double doors.
"They even frown on the rest of us missing classes," Willow told her, grabbing her own bag and following Buffy out into the hall.
"I think it's a plot by Principal Flutie, myself," Xander added as he hurried to catch up. "So they can do things while we're in class."
"What kinds of things...?" Buffy's voice faded as they disappeared down the hall.
Giles shook his head as he watched them leave, amazed at their resilience after the activities of the night before.
Buffy threw her bag on the table, narrowly missing a stack of old looking books in front of Willow, startling her in the process.
"Hey! You're here!" She blurted out, her gaze encompassing both Willow and Xander.
"Where else would I be?" Willow asked, a surprised look crossing her face. Xander simply shrugged which Buffy took to mean 'Why not?' in Xander-speak.
"Somewhere that isn't here? Pretending the world is still normal and that you don't know me? Kind of like Cordelia?" She grimaced, thinking about an encounter with Cordelia she'd endured that afternoon between classes. "No offense intended!" she added in response to Willow's offended look.
"None taken," Willow told her. "I had a Cordelia drive-by this morning myself. She's in top form today."
"Must be that brush with death," Xander volunteered from his perch on the reference desk. "Gets the snark flowing extra strong."
Willow shook her head. "I couldn't not be here. After last night? Pretending isn't an option. I want to help."
"I just do whatever Willow tells me to," Xander told Buffy.
"Is Giles around?" Buffy asked them. "I need to give my mom a call so she doesn't call out the cavalry to drag me home so she can ground me."
"Here!" Willow pulled a small cell phone out of her bag. Buffy looked at her in surprise as she took it. "You know how to use one? Right?"
"Yeah! Thanks!" She walked back in the stacks, looking for some privacy for her call.
"Xander?" she asked after returning the phone.
"Yeah?" He looked up from the comic book he was reading.
"Did your friend Jesse make it to school today?" She asked.
"No." He looked at her, clearly puzzled. "Why?"
"I think I saw him walking out of the Bronze last night with someone who might have been a vampire," She told him. "I couldn't find him, and I ended up rescuing Cordelia instead."
"Oh..." He mumbled, turning pale. "Does that mean he's a vampire now?"
She noticed Willow staring at her in horror and tried to reassure them. "I don't know. He might be okay." She looked at both of them. "But you guys need to be careful until we can be sure. Don't invite him in at night if you see him."
"Why?" Xander asked.
"They can't come in unless you invite them," Buffy told them. "So don't."
"How do we stop him if he is a vampire now?" Willow asked faintly.
"And how do we turn him back?" Xander asked.
"You don't," Giles told them, joining them at the table. "If your friend has been turned into a vampire, that isn't your friend anymore."
"What do you mean?" Willow asked.
"Once a vampire, always a vampire," Buffy told them. "If a vampire drains all of your blood and they force you to drink their blood... it isn't you anymore."
"The vampire kills anyone it drains the blood from," Giles added. "And once someone is dead, they can infect their body with a demon."
"Is that what 'a demon form possessed' means in your speech?" Willow asked.
"Yes, exactly," Giles replied. Buffy smiled at the look of approval he was giving Willow. She'd been worried that he would do everything he could to discourage her new friends from spending time with her.
"How do we defend ourselves?" Xander asked.
"It's actually simple stuff," Buffy told him. "Don't forget the no-invite rule. Never invite anyone into your home after dark. Keep a cross on you at all times. It can't stop them but it might slow them down long enough for you to get away."
"What about other things like a Star of David?" Willow asked. "My father isn't going to be happy if I start wearing crosses."
Buffy looked at Giles for help. "I'm not sure."
"It's a religious symbol. It should work but I've never had an opportunity to try it," He told her reluctantly.
"How do we fight them?" Xander asked.
"You don't," Giles reminded them. Buffy just shook her head and mouthed 'later' to them from behind him.
"So what's the plan then?" Willow asked.
"Plan?" Giles looked at her, mystified.
"What do you want us to do?" Xander asked.
"Do you really want to help?" Buffy asked them.
"Yes." They both nodded their heads.
"Buffy!" Giles protested. "They shouldn't become involved."
"They became involved as soon as they saw me dust those vampires when they helped me with you and Cordelia," Buffy told him firmly. "It's a little late to stop them now."
"Darn right!" Willow blurted out. She cringed at Xander's reaction to her enthusiasm. She just knew he was going to say something stupid to protect her and tried to stop him. "Xander! You can't stop me from helping them!"
"It's dangerous!" He yelled at her. "This isn't some science experiment!" He closed his eyes for a moment, running his hands through his hair. "One of my best friends is missing because of these things. I don't want to lose the other."
"He'll show up," Willow told him with a hopeful expression.
"Well, I don't want either of you to get hurt," Buffy interrupted. "But I'm sure there's a way you can help us out without that happening."
"How?" Willow asked eagerly.
"Yes, how," Giles asked her curiously.
"Well... I don't know!" Buffy muttered. "I may be cute, but I'm just the muscle around here."
Willow stifled a giggle, blushing when Buffy winked at her.
Giles gave the three of them an intense look. "Right. It's simple really. Buffy, if you could look around town and see if there is any suspicious activity. Vampires aren't subtle. If something is happening they should be easy to spot."
"Uh, Giles," Buffy interjected. "I've only been in Sunnydale for a couple weeks. I haven't had time to really learn my way around yet."
"Okay," He looked at Xander. "You've lived here for several years?"
"Born and bred," Xander told him proudly. "I know the town like the back of my hand."
"Good." He turned back to Buffy. "Xander can show you around," He told her.
"Okay," She agreed reluctantly, taking a stick of gum out of a pocket. Before sticking it in her mouth she looked at Xander and told him firmly, "You can be tour guy but no heroics."
"What about me?" Willow asked, slightly jealous that Xander was going somewhere with Buffy.
Giles frowned in thought for a moment before telling her. "We need to know how to stop this Harvest. I have a feeling we don't have that long. You can help me here."
"Okay." She smiled at him.
"Great!" Buffy jumped off of the counter. "We'll be back in an hour or two." She strode out of the library, Xander at her heals.
"She was in a hurry to get out of here," Willow grumbled.
"Understandable," Giles told her.
"What do you mean?"
"She's the Slayer."
"That isn't an answer," Willow told him. "She's the slayer. That's like saying the sky is blue. It doesn't tell me why she was in a hurry to leave."
"It takes years of training to understand how a slayer thinks," Giles told her haughtily. "We don't really have time for me to explain."
"Okay." She sighed in frustration. "But when this is over..." She shook her head. "We are so going to have a long chat."
Giles looked at her like she'd said the moon was made of cheese.
"Yes we are," She told him, gracing him with the same expression she'd used earlier on Xander. "If we're going to help her out we need to know how the whole slayer thing really works. And not just your corny speech."
They settled into a deceptively casual pace as they left the library.
"You do that pretty good," Buffy told him.
"Do what?" He gave her a wide eyed innocent look. She could detect a slight twinkle in his eyes as if he already knew what she was talking about. She was sure that, in his own way, Xander was just as perceptive as Willow. They must make a fearsome duo, she thought.
"Harmless but goofy." She shook her head at him, pausing at the entrance to the school to make sure the coast was clear. "But you aren't, are you." It was a statement, not a question.
"I'm just me," He objected. "And Will would never let me get away with not being me."
"Okay." She laughed at his innocent seeming expression. "I can't imagine her being so controlling. She seems kinda shy."
"She's definitely someone you want on your side," He told her. "If you're on her side - she'll do everything she can to make sure you survive, even if she has to get out and help push."
"Huh." Buffy gave him a close look.
He grinned at her. "You haven't seen anything until you've seen her stare down Larry when he gets out of control."
"I can't imagine her getting that butchy," Buffy said. She'd met Larry the day before and couldn't picture Willow stopping him from doing anything he really wanted to do. "Even with the whole lesbian thing."
"Don't let her hear you say that," Xander warned her. "She hates it when anyone calls her that word."
"Got it. Thanks." She wondered for a moment why Willow hadn't said something the night before. She stopped briefly at the top of the front school steps. Squinting against the late evening sun, she started towards home as quickly as possible, Xander by her side, having quickly adjusted his usual sedentary stride to her quick pace.
"So what's first, hero girl!" He asked.
"I need to get some things at home," She told him, shaking her head at his comment. Heroes were other people, not her. "And then you can show me what's what in Sunnydale," she added.
"Okay." He just grinned at her. "So... have you been in Sunnydale long enough to get a boyfriend?"
"That's a bit personal, isn't it?" She gave him a discouraging look.
"Yes. But you didn't answer my question." He continued grinning at her cementing her opinion that he was one of those people happily oblivious to personal boundaries.
"No," she told him. "And I'm not looking," She told him firmly, stopping at a crosswalk to wait for traffic to clear.
"Oh." He stood there, hands in his pockets. She could feel his eyes appraising her more thoroughly than he had earlier. "You aren't doing the 'Willow thing' are you?"
"No," she answered with no hesitation. "I'm not. Not that I have anything against that," She quickly qualified. "I'm just not interested in the whole relationship thing right now."
"How about friends?" He asked, giving her a puppy dog look that she was sure he'd spent a lot of time practicing.
"I thought we were already doing that?" She asked, grabbing his shirt and dragging him after her across the street.
"We are? I don't need five forms of ID and a reference from Father Guido Sarducci?" He asked. "You can't even stand next to Cordelia without that."
She stopped moving forward, and stared at him. "You are a strange person!"
"Says the blonde former cheerleader who has a librarian for a sensei." Xander smirked.
"What did you call him?" She asked, confused.
"Giles is your Obi-wan." He shrugged as if what he'd said was irrefutable.
"Where did you get that idea from?" Buffy glared at him. "I barely know him."
"And Luke knew Obi-wan for less than a week before Vader killed him on the Death Star," He told her smugly. "You guys just click. Even Willow can see it."
"How does Willow put up with you?" She wondered, shaking her head.
"Willow is cool with the wonder that is me." He smiled as she rolled her eyes. "I've known her since kindergarten."
Shaking her head, she just laughed and they continued to her house.
"Why don't you stay out here?" Buffy told him. "It's safer that way."
"Dogs?" He asked nervously.
She shook her head. "No. Mother and nosy little sister."
"I'll just sit here then, if it's okay with you." He sat down on the top porch step. "You go do whatever." He waved her towards the door.
"I'll be right back." She laughed and bounded up the steps past him and into the house.
He sat there, staring out at the yard and street, absorbing the quiet and still present late afternoon heat in the deserted neighborhood.
"Are you going to be her boyfriend?" A little girl's voice asked him from somewhere nearby.
Looking around, he spotted a tiny brunette sitting in a rocking chair deep in the shadows of the porch, gazing intently at him.
"No. We're just plain old friends," Xander told her.
The small girl uncurled herself from her seat, reminded Xander of the delicate movements of a tiny kitten. "I think she needs a boyfriend," she said, coming over to sit next to him on the steps, making him feel like a giant.
"Why?" He looked down at her, wondering what she was thinking that had caused her to ask him that question. His only exposure to little girls had been with Willow, Amy, and Cordelia when he'd been that age himself. And he didn't think they had been typical, even then.
"So he can bribe me so I won't tell Mom when Buffy gets home late or skips school to be with him." She gazed up at him hopefully.
He pulled out his pockets, revealing only lint. "Sorry. I don't have anything to bribe you with, so it wouldn't work anyway," He told her wryly. "But it's creative. It would probably work." He shrugged. "If I were her boyfriend." She grinned at him delightedly.
"She's not corrupting you?" Buffy stepped out of the house and across the porch to where Xander waited.
"Not yet." He gave Buffy's sister a sly wink, causing her to giggle.
"Good." He noticed the exasperated glare Buffy aimed in her sister's direction and didn't elaborate. "Let's get going." And after whispering in her sister's ear and pushing her towards the door, she took the stairs off of the porch two at a time, Xander following her at a slower pace.
"She's cute," Xander told her as they headed up the street, towards the center of town.
"Dawn's ten," Buffy told him, shaking her head. "The cuteness thing goes away pretty quickly if you have to live with her."
"Oh... Willow was cute when she was ten also," He offered up seemingly randomly. "And when she was five," He mused quietly.
"No brothers or sisters?" Buffy asked, glancing at him curiously.
"No. Just a Willow." He grinned. "Sort of like having a bossy sister without the whole living together."
She was silent for several minutes as they walked towards downtown. Looking around, she was surprised at the number of houses. "I thought this was a small town? There seem to be a lot of houses," Buffy murmured.
"It feels small," He told her. "If you're someone like Cordelia." He shrugged. "But Sunnydale is almost a city. There are a couple other high schools across town. And Willow's father teaches at Crestwood College." He grinned. "You got lucky. You could have ended up at Grant or Fonderin and missed out on the real Sunnydale high school experience. Everyone knows everyone else there. That helps make it feel small."
She nodded in response. "You must like it here," She marveled, never having felt connected to anything larger than her parents home.
"It's home." He shrugged. "Harrises have been here since the beginning."
"Well, that was a bust," Buffy muttered. "A distinct lack of anything unusually vampirish. We might as well head back to the library and see if Giles and Willow have discovered anything."
"That demon bar we passed wasn't unusual?" Xander asked.
"Willy's? Nah." Buffy stepped up her pace. "Not in California. Merrick used to say there was something that attracted demons to the state. Most bigger towns have a bar that allows demons in. LA has a couple. Or so I've heard. Not that he ever let me go in one..." she grumbled. "Seemed to think I would get hurt."
"Merrick?" Xander asked curiously.
"My last watcher guy. He taught me everything I know about vampires." She shook her head. "He got between me and a vampire. The vampire killed him."
"Oh." Xander reached over and squeezed her shoulder.
She gave him a slight, somber grin in recognition of his attempt to comfort her. "And a fun time was not had. Ended up burning down my high school gym to get rid of the vampires." She nodded at his sudden realization. "Yup. That part would be true. Got rid of a vampire by throwing a burning building at it. The school board was not impressed, hence the move here. Not that I could tell them about the vampires."
"Oh," He muttered again.
"A lot of large warehouses around here," Buffy commented,looking around in surprise.
"Lots of businesses think Sunnydale is the perfect spot. Willow says it has something to do with having a couple colleges, the docks, and the airport. Everything a company could want in a tiny package. But they never seem to last," Xander told her. "They build the big factory or warehouse and leave."
"Isn't that the Bronze?" She pointed towards the far end of the street.
"Yup." He looked around. "Main street is over there." He pointed over his shoulder.
Feeling a strange yet familiar feeling growing in her stomach, Buffy pulled Xander into a nearby alley. "Shh..." She put a hand over his mouth to stop his protests at the sudden move. "Vampires."
Hiding in the shadows at the edge of the alley, they watched a group of vampires strolling down the street in the direction of the Bronze, a large one leading the way.
"Xander?" Buffy removed her hand. "I need you to get to Giles and warn him. Tell him we have our suspicious behavior. They don't usually travel in large groups like that. And they seemed a bit too happy with themselves. I think they're up to something."
"What are you going to do?" He asked nervously.
"I don't know. Something Giles will probably think is stupid." She looked at him, hoping her fear wasn't showing on her face. "Go!" She waited until he was headed towards the library before leaving the alley herself. "Hope they're just passing through. So don't want to get killed tonight. That wouldn't make a good impression on the new friends," She mumbled to herself as she cautiously followed them.
Xander hurried out of the alley, a quick glance towards the other end showing that Buffy was already gone.
The brief moment of distraction was just enough. He completely missed the small girl standing on the sidewalk just past the alley. Until he ran over her, sending them both into a heap on the sidewalk.
"Where are you going?" Dawn squeaked. "Why aren't you with Buffy?"
He stared up at Buffy's sister."What are you doing out here!"
"I wanted to see what you guys were doing," She told him, bouncing back to her feet and watching him get back up. "I know you're up to something!"
"It's not safe out here tonight!" He told her.
"Well, duh!" She told him disdainfully, kicking at the cement. "I saw the vampires too!"
"Does Buffy know you know about vampires?" Xander asked. He shook his head before she could answer. "Never mind. It doesn't matter. I need to get to the library, and then I'm taking you home!"
"What's at the library?" Dawn asked him.
"Help." He grabbed her arm and started walking as quickly as he could with her in tow. He was tempted to just pick her up and run for it, but he didn't think she would appreciate the gesture.
Bursting into the library, Dawn at his heels, Xander skidded to a stop in front of the counter. Willow and Giles looked up in surprise at their noisy entrance.
"Giles! We have problems! Big problems!" He told them loudly, breathing heavily.
"Xander? I didn't know you liked them that young?" Willow asked with a smirk, eyeing the small girl who was gazing at them and the library curiously.
"Geeze, Willow!" Xander grumbled, noticing the big grin that appeared on Dawn's face when she heard Willow's comment. "Don't give her any ideas. Buffy's going to be angry enough about this without your help."
"Buffy?" Willow looked at the small girl, obviously puzzled.
"Xander?" Giles asked, frowning at him. "What is Buffy's sister doing here?"
"Her sister?" Willow looked at the girl again, only seeing a slight resemblance to the missing blonde. "I won't ask how you know that. Now." She said to Giles, eyeing him suspiciously.
"She was following us," Xander told them. "Buffy doesn't know. I thought it would be safer for her here than wandering around out there until we can get her home." He waved vaguely at the windows.
"What's the problem?" Giles asked. "And where is Buffy?"
"Vampires. Lots of them. Headed to the Bronze!" He leaned against the checkout counter, still trying to catch his breath. Looking around he pointed at a chair at a book free corner of the large table Willow and Giles were using. "Sit!" He gruffly told Dawn. "Buffy is checking it out," He told them, "but she thinks she might need some help."
"Xander!" Willow squeaked, trying to point at Dawn without being obvious. "Ixnay on the ampirevay alktay!"
"Huh?" Xander looked at her in confusion.
"She means the vampires," Dawn told him, giggling. "There were at least ten," she told them. At their disbelieving looks, "Hey! I'm not blind. I saw them too," she added. She looked eagerly at the books in front of her on the table. "Do you guys help her with the monster hunting? That's so cool! Can I help too?"
Giles groaned in frustration. "No!"
"She's my sister!" Dawn protested.
"It isn't allowed," Giles told her gently. Willow looked at him in surprise at his sudden change in tone.
"Dawn, it's too dangerous," Xander added.
"Guys!" Willow interrupted before they could say more. "Speaking of danger... what about Buffy? Shouldn't we be helping her?"
"And Buffy's sister?" Giles asked, frowning over at Dawn.
"We can drop her off at home on the way to the Bronze," Xander told them.
"Giles?" Willow asked. "You said your books say this Harvest thing is 'the night of the crescent moon, the first past the solstice' ?"
"Yes?" Giles looked at her.
"Isn't that tonight?" She waved a small book. "According to this almanac anyway."
"Damn," He muttered. "You said there were vampires headed towards the Bronze?" He looked at Xander.
"Yes..."
"We need to get there now," Giles muttered, going into his office. "She's going to need our help."
"What about Dawn?" Xander asked, watching him grab several things out of a drawer. "Are we still taking her home?"
"We don't have time," Giles announced after looking at his watch. "She'll have to stay in the library."
"I want to come!" Dawn protested.
"Is it any safer for her here by herself?" Willow asked. "Do vampires have to be invited to come in here?"
"No..." Giles answered reluctantly. "It's a public place."
"I'll stay in the car," Dawn promised, staring wide-eyed at the things Giles was putting on the table.
Willow nodded at the small girl before turning back to the sputtering Giles and a pale Xander. "Looks like she's coming with us. Unless you have a better idea?"
Giles shook his head resignedly.
"I didn't think so," Willow said, getting out of her chair as he stuffed the items into a large pouch and headed to the door.
"Who gets to deal with Buffy if she gets hurt?" Xander asked, eyeing Willow nervously.
"Xander, she'll be safer in the car than we'll be helping Buffy," Willow told him. "If she gets angry you can blame me."
"Great!" He agreed, a little too enthusiastically for her taste, before following them out to Giles car.
She stayed as far back as possible as she followed the vampires towards the Bronze, wondering, somewhat illogically, what a group of vampires was called. A flock? A herd? A pack? Merrick had occasionally referred to vampire nests but nests didn't move. She shook her head at the thought. Merrick hadn't had time to teach her how to deal with more than one vampire at a time. He'd constantly stressed the solitary nature of her destiny. The slayer wasn't meant to face armies of walking evil. She knew that the night before she'd been very lucky. The only other time she'd had to fight a large number of vampires she'd trapped them in the school gym and set fire to it. And even that had been a very close call.
Stopping in the shadows a block from the Bronze, she watched the vampires roughly drag the bouncer and the teens hanging out near the door into the building. Frowning, she noticed that they'd left someone guarding the entrance. That wasn't a good sign. They obviously didn't want to be disturbed before they finished whatever they had planned. And there were probably a couple at the back entrance she'd seen earlier. Shaking slightly as she felt the rush of adrenaline she experienced just before a fight, Buffy wondered if they knew there was a slayer in town. And if they even cared.
She knew enough about vampires to know that only an experienced one, possibly a master, would have thought of something like guarding the doors. She'd been extremely lucky when she'd faced that master in LA. If he hadn't been over-confident in his ability to kill slayers she would have certainly died. She winced at the thought. It was looking more and more like now was a bad time to have moved to Sunnydale.
According to Xander, the Bronze was the only dance club for teens in town. And if it was anything like it had been the last time she was there, it was packed almost to the roof with people her age. She couldn't burn the place down, like she had at Hemery, without killing half the teenagers in Sunnydale. She really needed a plan of some sort. Which wasn't her strong point. And she didn't have time to waste waiting for someone used to planning these things, like Giles. Whatever she did, it had to happen really soon. Probably before he showed up.
Making her way carefully around the old warehouse containing the Bronze, Buffy was relieved to see only one vampire guarding the back door. She also noticed there were several fire-escapes that didn't seem to be guarded. She wasn't really sure which was the best way in. If she were lucky she could take care of the two on the outside without anyone inside noticing.
But if she snuck inside, and didn't take care of them it could end badly. If Xander was able to get to Giles and they came to help, they could get hurt. And once inside, she couldn't just open the doors to let people escape while she fought the vampires in there. They would run right into one of the vampires.
A number of other options went quickly through her head, each discarded as quickly as she thought of it. She kept coming back to her original idea. She had to get inside. The vampires outside had to go. It was that simple. Maybe she could surprise them? The smarter vampires would probably be inside doing whatever. She headed back around to the front of the Bronze, carefully keeping to the shadows.
She hadn't been expecting an Einstein but Buffy was very surprised at how easily she had fooled the vampire at the main entrance with her valley girl act. It had been distracted long enough for her to stake it without a fight. Unfortunately, the door it had been guarding had been locked from the inside and had looked too thick and heavy for her to break down with her bare hands. Which left either the back door or the fire escapes she'd seen earlier as her best bets for getting inside.
Watching the vampire at the back door from the shadows cast by a pile of wooden crates, Buffy briefly wondered why a vampire would bother smoking. She'd seen how flammable they could be. One little bit of hot ash in the wrong spot and poof, just a pile of dust. She was sure there was a reason but that was another thing, beyond the basics of vampire killing that Merrick hadn't had a chance to teach her.
She shrugged, dismissing the thought from her head. She would have plenty of time, if she survived, to think about all of the things she didn't know about the destiny that had been forced on her that would be useful in a fight. And from the appalled looks he'd been giving her earlier, she was sure Giles was just dying to tell her all sorts of other things she didn't really want to know about being a vampire slayer.
She watched the glowing cigarette for a few more seconds. It wasn't helping her get inside. But it did provide her with a good idea of where the vampire was standing. She changed her grip on her stake. It had been a while since she'd spent any time throwing them from this kind of distance. She'd have only the one chance.
She crept closer, hoping it wouldn't smell or hear her. She was able to get close enough to make out the face of the vampire. She grimaced when she recognized it. It was probably a good thing she'd sent Xander back to get Giles. Staking the thing that looked like his friend where he could see it happen wouldn't have gone over well. She wasn't sure if she would be able to tell him about it later. But it did give her an idea.
"Jesse!" She shouted, as she strolled out into the light. As the vampire stared at her in obvious confusion, wondering who she was, she was able to get close enough that she couldn't possibly miss. Not waiting for it to recognize her, she threw the stake as hard as possible, following it with her fist as quickly as she could, just in case it missed.
The heavy thud, as it embedded itself in the vampire's chest, was followed by an almost gentle whisper as the vampire turned into a cloud of dust just as she reached it. Quickly retreating, Buffy just barely managed to avoid breathing in any of the dust. "Nasty," she muttered to herself, trying not to think about how toxic vampire dust probably was. Or what it was doing to her hair.
Turning back to the door, she found it was also locked from the inside. "Damn!" she whined under her breath. It looked like she was definitely going to have to go in by one of the fire escapes.
Darla watched from the shadows, just barely controlling her anger, for now. He'd been her new toy. To replace the one the Gypsies had stolen from her. The one thing she could call her own. Something to take with her from the Hellmouth when the Master's plan failed. Drusilla had warned her, in her own way, the last time she'd seen her, of her vision that the Master would not be allowed to open the Hellmouth. All she had to do was survive long enough and she would be free to take her new boy away with her. And survival? That was something she was good at. She'd survived for centuries away from the Master and she could do it again.
But the slayer had ruined it. She could feel the anger boiling through her blood. And a slayer she must be. Darla had seen her kill several of the Master's minions the night before and had been suspicious, though she hadn't told the Master. The way she'd almost casually killed her new one tonight proved it. She would get her revenge later, if the slayer survived the night. And if she survived telling the Master that a slayer had interfered with his plans a suitable revenge would take time to put in motion.
She waited to see what the slayer would do next, stepping back further from the slayer, deeper into the shadows when it seemed like the slayer had noticed her. Darla knew she wasn't strong enough to challenge a slayer by herself. Even if she looked almost toy like in the glare of the street lights. But she had to be careful. Luke was already suspicious of her participation in the Harvest.
As Buffy stepped back from the door the faint whisper of a familiar sensation across her senses drew her attention to the deep shadows nearby. It was almost like a vampire was somewhere behind her. An old one. But that didn't make much sense. Vampires were killing machines. They existed for the blood and violence. One wouldn't be just watching her. Especially after she dusted the door guards. She turned slowly, trying to look into the shadows but she couldn't see anything. Before she could get a clear direction it was gone.
Listening carefully, she started to hear faint screams coming from inside the Bronze. It had been less than five minutes since she'd dusted the guard at the front. Time was obviously running out for the people inside. If there was another vampire somewhere nearby it could wait, she decided. The people trapped inside were more important than a stray that she could chase later.
She hurried around to the closest fire escape. Jumping up, she grabbed the lower rung of the rusty ladder several feet above her head. She smiled smugly to herself at the easy with which she was able to pull herself up onto the bottom landing. There was no glass in the window next to it, leading into the Bronze. Buffy pulled out her spare stake before cautiously crawling through the opening. She found herself in a dark and musty smelling room with the dimly lit outline of a doorway at its far end.
The screams of terrified teenagers grew louder as she reached the door. Rising above it was a deep gravely voice. She couldn't make out what it was saying but something about it sent unpleasant shivers down her spine. It was like listening to liquid evil.
The door opened out onto a walkway at the back of the Bronze. The front seemed very far away. Buffy wasn't sure how she was going to get there from where she was. Except for several large beams that spanned the entire building, there didn't seem to be any connection between the walkway she was standing on and the front. She hadn't realized it was so big when she'd been there the night before. Looking down, she saw why. The open upper floor took up almost the entire length of the warehouse. From the walkway she could see down into a number of rooms, including the restrooms. She winced as she realized that they weren't as private as they appeared and vowed to only use them in an emergency.
She climbed over the railing and gingerly walked down the largest beam towards the front of the Bronze, only stopping briefly in the middle to try and find the vampires below her. She stopped after she'd counted ten of them, mostly near the doors and the stage. There wasn't any way she could think of that this would end well. A very large vampire with a strange symbol on his face was pacing back and forth on the stage and ranting away like a mad priest. He seemed to be the one in charge. She grimaced at the bodies on the stage, hoping she hadn't known them. It had been bad at Hemery. She'd known most of the students who'd died.
Reaching the front walkway, the one she'd dragged Willow up to the night before, she stared in bemusement as the next victim was dragged up onto the stage. Her tentative plan, to sneak down and open the front door so people could escape before she dealt with the vampires, wasn't going to work. Not unless she wanted Cordelia's blood on her hands. She wondered briefly if Cordelia would remember being saved from vampires this time.
Looking for the quickest way down to the stage, before Cordelia stopped screaming, she turned around when she heard a low growl directly behind her. An emaciated vampire was running in her direction from the stairs. Looking quickly over her shoulder, Buffy braced herself against the railing. At the moment the vampire reached her, and before it could do more than breath on her, she threw out the hand holding her stake, hitting it with as much force as possible in its heart. Without pausing, in a continuous motion she grabbed one of its' arms with her free hand and used its momentum against it, pulling it up and over her shoulder. She just barely managed to pull her stake out as it tumbled over the railing behind her.
It turned to dust with a faint 'poof' just before it could hit the edge of the dance floor below. The shocked sounds from the nearby teenagers drew the attention of the closest vampires, some instinct causing them to look up at her in surprise. She could feel the evil radiating from the large vampire on the stage that had been about to take a bite out of Cordelia as it looked in her direction.
Suppressing a shudder and taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Buffy yelled down in her best perky, airhead voice. "I'm sorry! I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
Before it could say anything, Buffy jumped over the railing, landing loudly, her boots echoing in the sudden silence. Perched precariously on a table near the edge of the dance floor, she gave the master vampire her best intimidating frown.
"Are you sure you want that one?" She taunted it. "You don't know where she's been. All those antibiotics can't possibly be good for you."
The vampire threw Cordelia out into the crowd in response and walked to the edge of the stage. "You dare interfere?" It growled at her. "You shall be next." It motioned to several smaller vampires. "Bring her here."
Buffy barely had a chance to see that Cordelia was now standing in a frightened huddle with several other Sunnydale cheerleaders before the vampires reached her.
Jumping off of the table, she knocked down the closest vampire with a swift kick before colliding with the other one. As they both hit the ground she stabbed it with her stake. Feeling the other one coming up behind her, she turned as quickly as possible, and sweeping its feet out from underneath it, she pounced on it as it landed, once more making good use of her stake.
Getting back to her feet, she looked at the older vampire. "I guess they don't make them like they used to," She quipped, dodging to one side and staking a third vampire as it clumsily reached for her. "You might want to ask for a refund."
"Bring her here!" It ordered again. "Our Master shall be pleased."
The empty space in front of the stage quickly deteriorated into a mad scramble as four large vampires attempted to capture Buffy. Ducking and kicking and punching, she fought her way to the stage, stake in hand. She'd managed to stake two more of them, more by luck than skill, when her stake was knocked from her hand and exhausted by the sustained effort, she found herself quickly overwhelmed by the remaining vampires and dragged onto the stage.
"Yes, I can feel the power in your blood," It crowed.
"And I can smell your bad breath.", she retorted.
Looking for some way to escape, Buffy stomped down as hard as she could on the feet of the vampires holding her and wrenched herself free. Before they could grab her again she dove suicidally at the vampire in front of her, hoping she could drive it off of the stage and closer to something she could use to kill it.
She was able to get in what she thought were several good punches, though they didn't seem to affect the vampire, before it knocked her across the stage and into a pile of things covered with a tarp. Before she could get back to her feet under her own power a large hand reached down and lifted her up by her throat.
With her left hand, Buffy reached desperately behind her back for something, anything that would get her out of the clutches of the rather large vampire long enough to catch her breath. Oxygen was becoming a serious issue and she could feel herself starting to panic as her vision started to go fuzzy around the edges.
It held her at arms length several feet above the stage floor, too far away for her short legs to reach, no matter how hard she twisted her body and swung them. She could feel her back pressing against something hard and round in the pile as she tried to pry the large, cold hand away from her neck with her other hand.
Her lungs almost at the bursting point, her questing hand came across something long and slightly pointed. She quickly wrapped her hand around it, her sensitive fingers telling her it was something wooden. Swinging her free hand back around to her front, Buffy instinctively launched the long object straight towards the heart of the vampire that was slowly choking her. It stared at her in shock and reached for the drumstick now sticking out of its chest. With one last desperate kick, she sent it the rest of the way through the vampire's heart. Gripping her throat until it had completely turned to dust, the vampire dropped Buffy in a heap on the floor before engulfing her in its dusty remains.
The remaining vampires stared at her in shock before racing for the exits, quickly followed by the surviving Bronze patrons.
"Well, that was a bit anti-climactic," Buffy grumbled, once her heart had slowed down after the narrow escape. Climbing to her feet, she brushed the remains of several vampires from her clothes and shook her hair, sending an additional cloud of dust into the air.
Giles parked his car in an alley Xander pointed out to him a block from the Bronze.
"Stay here! With the windows closed," Xander told Dawn. "And keep your head down." She nodded, watching them climb out of the car and head towards the Bronze.
Before they could reach the door, it burst open and a large crowd of frightened teenagers poured out into the night.
"Wait here," Giles told them with a look that allowed no arguing before fighting his way through the crowd into the Bronze. Ignoring his order, Willow and Xander followed closely behind him.
Looking around, it appeared empty to Willow, until she caught sight of the small figure sitting on the edge of the stage. "Are you okay?" she asked anxiously as they approached.
"Yeah," Buffy mumbled, tiredly sliding off of her perch on the edge of the stage onto her feet. "No more vampire hostages."
"Did you get them all?" Xander asked, kicking at a pile of dust.
"No," She told him with a grimace. "A couple of them got away. Out the back." She waved towards the other end of the Bronze. "They weren't in any hurry to stay once I took care of their boss."
"You'll have to hunt them down this weekend," Giles told her, drawing a frown from Willow. "They can't be allowed to tell anyone there's a slayer in Sunnydale. It's too dangerous."
"Can we discuss that later?" Buffy asked. "I really don't want to be here when the police show up. They tend to react badly to dead people." She waved towards the bodies slumped at the back of the stage. Xander and Willow both turned pale when they saw what she was pointing to.
"Yes, of course," Giles exclaimed, quickly motioning them towards the exit.
She let her exhaustion overtake her once they reached Giles' car. Leaning against it she watched them for a minute as they calmed down from the earlier excitement. "Cordelia had another close call tonight," She told them, shaking her head. "Can I charge her next time?" She asked Giles hopefully. "She's kind of high maintenance."
"Maybe you can use her as bait for the ones that escaped!" Xander suggested. Willow giggled nervously at the idea, not sure if she should be finding something like that funny.
Giles frowned at the strange look that quickly crossed Buffy's face at Xander's comment. "That wouldn't be appropriate," he told him.
"One can dream," Xander retorted.
Before he could reply, Buffy noticed the occupant of Giles' car. "What's she doing here?" she asked, shocked. She narrowed her eyes when she noticed Giles and Willow looking quickly at Xander. "You brought my little sister?" She stared at Xander in disbelief. "Here?"
"Buffy! She was following us," He told her. "What was I supposed to do with her?"
"Take her home?" Buffy suggested.
"There wasn't time to take her home!" He protested. "I had to get to Giles! And she would have just followed us back here anyway!"
She looked at the others, hoping for some clue, some idea of how to deal with his revelation. She could tell Giles wasn't happy with the situation but thought he would save his displeasure for when he had her alone. She sighed in resignation. "Okay. But next time... don't bring her along." She looked down at her curious sister, who was watching them through the now open window. "What did you think you were doing?" She asked in her best imitation of Mom-voice.
"I wanted to watch you fighting vampires!" Dawn told her eagerly.
"What vampires?" Buffy asked. She caved in, recognizing the expression on her sister's face. Dawn could be very stubborn when she knew she was right. "You know better than that. You aren't even supposed to know about them."
"Buffy!" Dawn whined. "I'm not going to forget."
"And what if Mom finds out you were wandering around this late at night? She'll ground you until next summer." When it looked like Dawn wasn't taking the threat seriously, she added, "And if you accidentally say the 'V' word? We'll both be in trouble. You know what she thinks about that."
"I'm not a kid!" Dawn protested. "I would never do that."
Buffy shook her head. "I need to get her home," she told the others, opening the door and pulling a subdued Dawn out of the car.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning," Giles told her. "We can talk about tonight."
"But it's a Saturday!" Buffy protested.
"And we need to spend the day getting her caught up on her classes," Willow added, trying to be helpful.
"Yeah!" Buffy agreed, giving Willow a wink in thanks.
"You can do that after we talk," Giles told her firmly. "You can use the library."
"When?" Buffy asked. "After lunch?" She added hopefully.
"10 o'clock," He corrected her. "In the morning."
"Okay. If I don't get grounded," She grumbled, before leaving, Dawn in tow.
Buffy dropped down onto the grass and leaned against the tree next to Willow. "Hey!" She waved around her at Xander, who was sitting on her other side. "Am I too early?" she asked.
"Yeah. Another ten minutes," Willow told her, looking at her watch. "They don't open the doors until 10:00 on Saturdays."
"Some people, who shall remain nameless, got here thirty minutes ago," Xander grumbled tiredly. "I think they want to prove they are better than the rest of us patriarchal drones."
"You learn well, young Jedi," Willow replied mockingly. "The patriarchy shall be defeated."
"I'm impressed," Buffy told her with a grin. "You have him using big words."
"Hey!" Xander protested.
"Yup." Willow winked at her.
Buffy leaned across Willow and patted him on the shoulder. "There, there. It'll be okay. You'll forget them eventually." Feeling a slight shudder from Willow as she sat back up, Buffy looked at her curiously for a moment.
"Why are we here?" Xander asked. "Again?"
"You can go home if you want to," Buffy told him. "Giles just wants to know about last night. Neither of you needs to be here. Unless you really want to watch him get huffy."
"Huffy? Why would he get huffy?" Willow asked.
"Well..." before she could continue, Buffy noticed Xander was about to say something. "You want to tell her, Xander?"
"Me?" He looked at her innocently.
"Yes, you," Buffy waved for him to go ahead.
"You didn't notice?" He asked Willow. When she shook her head he sighed. "He was unhappy about Dawn knowing about Buffy being the slayer. I don't think he's too happy that you and I know about Buffy either."
"Tough!" Willow muttered. "He'll just have to live with it. And it isn't Buffy's fault her sister followed you guys last night. It's sort of cute actually." She turned to Buffy. "She couldn't stop asking questions all the way to the Bronze."
"He also probably isn't too happy that I didn't wait for you guys to show up before going into the Bronze," Buffy added morosely.
"Why not?" Xander asked curiously.
Buffy shrugged. "It's a whole Watcher thing. They like to be the ones to make the big decisions."
"And I'm not going home!" Willow spouted.
"Huh?" Buffy stared at her, wondering what she was talking about.
"You said we could leave. Nuh-uh!" Willow shook her head briskly. "We still have to get started with the studying. I can't help you if I don't know what you don't know. And the library is the best place for that."
"We can't do that at your house?" Buffy asked her hopefully. "My house is out. Mom wanted me to babysit. I only got out of it because she doesn't want me to fail my classes."
"No. My dad is home. He might want to do the father-daughter-girlfriend bonding thing." Willow swatted Xander at his unsuccessful attempt to not laugh.
"Girlfriend?" Buffy squeaked.
"Yeah." Xander laughed. "Her parents are a bit over-supportive of the whole lesbian thing. They think any girl friends Willow has over, for any reason, are 'girlfriend' material."
Willow shrugged as if unable to really explain her parents. "Xander and Jesse are the only friends I have left who are brave enough to come over."
"Ouch," Buffy said, reaching over and, without thinking, giving her a quick hug. "Sounds kind of embarrassing."
"Yup," Willow murmured sadly.
"You know, I get the whole Obi-Wan thing," Xander mused several minutes later. "He was really quick to get out the stakes and holy water last night. But calling him a 'Watcher' makes it sound like he's one of those Highlander guys."
"Highlander?" Buffy asked confused. She looked at Willow for an explanation.
"TV show. Guys running around chopping each other's heads off with swords," Willow told her, glaring at Xander. "They have these people called watchers who secretly follow them around and write down everything they do."
"It's a cool show!" Xander protested, stung by her obvious displeasure. "And we only did it once."
"Sounds kind of creepy," Buffy said, sensing a story there. "But that isn't Giles' job. He's more like a coach." She thought for a moment, trying to think of a good example. "Ice skaters have personal coaches. Slayers have Watchers."
"And he knows a lot of things," Willow added excitedly. "He has all of those ancient books. And he knows all sorts of languages. We might not have helped with the vampires last night but we were ready to!"
Before Buffy could add anything, they noticed Giles standing on the school steps silently watching them. "I think that's for us," She told them, climbing to her feet, bending down to brush bits of grass and stone from her jeans. She wasn't able to stop the faint blush that resulted from the sound of two quickly in-drawn breaths but she managed to not turn back and look at her companions, instead walking quickly across the street towards Giles.
Giles watched her fidget out of the corner of one eye as he wrote everything she'd told him in his working journal. He could tell she was looking for the slightest excuse to leave. She seemed to have an excess of nervous energy, even for a slayer. "We need to discuss a regular training schedule," He told her. "And you need to work on your endurance."
"Huh?" She looked at him for a moment before her attention returned to Willow and Xander, who were at a table out in the library laughing about something.
"From what you told me, the vampires themselves weren't your real problem. You were more than a match for them until you ran out of energy."
"I kinda know that," She grumbled. "I was there."
"There seem to be an unusually large amount of vampires in the area," He said. "From Merrick's journals..."
"You have his journals?" She interrupted. "Can I see them?" She asked hopefully.
"Not here. They're in the Council archives in London." He watched her enthusiasm deflate at his answer and wondered what she expected to find in them. He'd found them rather dry and impersonal. "If you wish I can request a copy be sent here."
"Thanks!" She perked up visibly.
"As I was about to say," He continued. "Merrick's training seemed to focus on single combat. I have the feeling you need to know how to deal with larger packs of vampires. A more long term strategy. And the sooner the better."
"You're the watcher," Buffy told him. "Whatever you think I need that I don't already know."
"Buffy, learning is a constant process, even for a slayer. There will always be something you will need to know," He told her firmly.
"Whatever," She grumbled, causing him to sigh. "So... when are you going to yell at me?"
"Yell? Why would I yell at you?" He asked in surprise.
"I can think of half a dozen different things that went wrong last night," She told him. "And we're not even talking about Dawn, Willow, and Xander knowing about the slayer thing. Merrick would go ballistic if I even walked too fast in public."
"I'm not Merrick," He told her. "While I'm not happy that you have involved Willow and Xander in your life, I'm not angry with you."
"And Dawn?" Buffy asked.
"Children see more than they are given credit for," He told her. "Living at home it was inevitable she would find out."
"And?"
"I'm not sure what else you want me to say. It's going to make your job harder, and the Council won't be pleased when they find out."
"No surprise there," Buffy muttered. "Are you going to tell them?"
"No." He kept his answer simple. Now wasn't the time to upset her by telling her what the Council's most likely reaction to finding out about her friends would be.
"Is there anything else?" She asked quietly, picking up on his seriousness.
"Yes." He pulled out a book he'd found earlier that morning. Opening it to a page he'd marked, he placed it in front of her. "Does that look familiar?" He pointed to the symbol on the forehead of the central figure.
"Yeah." She looked closer. "The vampire that was in charge of last nights little party had that on his face."
"And he referred to his 'Master' ?"
"Yes." She looked at him curiously. "Why?"
"The Harvest is apparently a ceremony where a vampire called the 'Vessel' is able to gain power from the blood of its' victims and share it with another vampire."
"So... we have a more powerful vampire out there somewhere?" She asked. "Is it going to try that Harvest thing again?"
"No. Fortunately it'll be a long time, a number of decades, before the ceremony can be done again. And hopefully we can deal with this 'Master' vampire before that happens," He told her.
"Do you have any idea who this 'Master' is?" Buffy asked. "Is it some famous vampire?"
"I don't know yet," He admitted. "There are a few clues but nothing solid."
"Let me know when you find out," Buffy said. "I need to spend some time with the studying thing. According to Xander, Willow isn't someone you want to piss off."
Raising an eyebrow, he turned to look over at Willow in surprise.
"No, I don't see it either," She told him giggling. "But you never know. No one takes me seriously because I'm too short and blonde. You wouldn't believe the things I can get away with." She winked at him before getting up and leaving his office to join Willow and Xander.
Shaking his head, Giles stared in bemusement at the three teenagers for a moment before closing the door to his office. He wasn't sure who to feel sorry for the most. Himself, the Council, or any vampires who wandered into Sunnydale.