Housekeeping Duties
Buffy was puzzled.
The house where the shadowy government agents had been staying was empty. Abandoned by all traces of life.
From what she had seen of them previously, they had not been planning to leave any time soon. If anything, they had been scouting out Sunnydale for some sort of a larger-scale project. Which wasn't something Buffy wanted to be happening any time soon, needless to say.
She walked through the deserted rooms. The suitcases were gone. But clothes were still hanging in the wardrobes. Toothbrushes were gone. Milk was in the fridge. The television was turned off, but a radio was murmuring quietly to itself in one of the bedrooms. Any paperwork had vanished, along with the computers. But the Sunday newspaper still rested on the kitchen bench, crossword half done. Looking closer, Buffy saw that the words in the grid had no relation to the clues, but managed to somehow fit together anyway.
The entire house was a mix of items taken and items left.
Meaning...? Meaning they left in a hurry, unexpectedly, Buffy answered herself.
Surprised by something? Scared off? She wouldn't have thought the Initiative-types would be the type to scare easy. She had been planning to do some of that scaring herself. But...that apparently hadn't been necessary. The two men had left, and it looked like they weren't coming back.
No, instead they'd vanished in the dead of night, she told herself.
Reaching the front door again, Buffy exited, closing it behind her. She'd come back later with the rest of the gang, go over the place more closely.
Walking down the street, she wondered if maybe someone else had been involved. If maybe someone besides herself had had the idea of getting rid of the agents. Would they have skipped town too? Thinking back, she decided not.
The only person to have left Sunnydale recently, besides those living in the house she had just left, had been a kid at the high school a year or so below Dawn. Someone-or-other O'Neill. And the only oddity he had was an apparent aversion to Xerox machines. Weird, it was true, but it was...highly doubtful...that he was involved with government agencies, shadow or otherwise.
Buffy shrugged. It wasn't a problem. The Initiative-types were gone; and good riddance. There was – for now – nothing more to worry about, not on that front at least.
And even if they ever did come back, well then. Buffy wouldn't hesitate in making sure that they wouldn't be staying for long.
---end---