Buffy not mine. Bunny, mine.

Chapter two

"And you have no idea what was taken?" Giles asked Buffy as he paced the room of his apartment. Buffy was sitting on the edge of the couch watching him move, trying not to get dizzy.

"No. It was a dark and what ever he took was in a box," she said, wondering if he would wear a hole in the rug because of the pacing. He stopped and removed his glasses, cleaning them.

"I haven't been able to get in contact with my friend yet either to find out. Though it'll take him a while to figure it out… the room was a mess when they left it and they brought a lot of items for the exhibit."

Buffy nodded absently. A shadow behind Giles flickered, catching her eye. Focusing on the shadow it felt as if the temperature of the room was rising and the air grew drier- dustier. As if she were in a desert. The shadow slipped away from the darkness, moving like a stalking lioness. Moving, it took the form of the first Slayer. Buffy held her breath in surprise. She watched as the first Slayer circled her with narrowed eyes, as if the ghost was measuring her, deciding if she was a friend or foe.

"It comes." The ghost said in a rough husky voice that sounded like the winds scouring the dead plains of a desert.

"What is?" Buffy asked, her voice seeming like an insignificant ripple. Still cat like the ghost cocked her head.

"It is… that which came before… mistake, insane, searching. It comes." The first Slayer said. She crouched down low and her head jerked suddenly as if she heard something coming. With one last look at Buffy the shadow vanished.

"Buffy?" Giles asked. Buffy blinked and shook her head. "Are you all right? You just spaced out there."

"Yeah... I'm fine. I think." She bit her lip thoughtfully, wishing that the first Slayer could have been less cryptic. "I just had a vision… I think."

Giles looked surprised, "A vision? Of what?"

"The first Slayer. She was delivering a warning… that something was coming." She said, running the message over in her mind, "A mistake… something that came before."

"Before what?"

Buffy looked up at him with a sardonic grin, "I wish I knew." She sighed and shook her head. "Wouldn't it be nice if these mystic type visions were clearer?"

"It would indeed, however they aren't. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see if anything else shows up."

"Yeah. Until then, I'm going to go get some sleep, and then check out the crime scene to see if I can find anything when the museum closes."

Giles nodded absently, obviously pondering this new bit of information. He walked over to the bookshelf and ran his fingers lightly over the titles of the books. Grinning to herself, Buffy walked out to find her bed and some sleep.

The second time Buffy went to the museum, she went in legally, buying a ticket. She hung around, examining the exhibits, finding some to actually be quite interesting. Like the exhibit on weapons used by Native Americans from the area. She lingered by the cases in that hall studying each of them. Eventually she snuck into the closed exhibit. The police had left already and the caretakers appeared to be on break.

Behind large sheets of plastic and yellow "Crime Scene" ribbons the Hall looked much as she had seen it last night: a confusion of boxes and packaging. Two men, perhaps a little older than Buffy, were going through the boxes. One of them held a clipboard and pen and muttered the words "check" every so often as his partner held something up from the box he was searching. Casually she walked over to them and leaned up against one of the boxes. It took a minute, but the one holding the clipboard, eventually looked up and noticed her.

"Can I help you?" he asked, a trace of some English accent in his voice, putting down his clipboard. He was gawky and thin, with black hair that fell over his face and mud brown eyes. There was a stippling of stubble on his chin that gave hint of his age being past puberty, though it seemed like his body never got the hint. His friend was better proportioned with a round face and light curly brown hair with bright green eyes. He was clean-shaven and looked healthier and older than the other.

Buffy batted her eyelashes, a little flirting never hurt, "I was wondering what you were doing. It looked so very interesting," she purred. The two men exchanged a look between them. The black haired one shrugged.

"Inventory," the brown haired man said with the same accent. "It's very important. Doctor Flixcon needs it done before the exhibit opens in two days."

"Doctor Flixcon? Doctor Phillip Flixcon? Ooh he must be the one Giles was meeting today for lunch."

The two men looked at her in surprise. "You know Doctor Flixcon?" the black haired one asked.

"I know about him. Giles was all giddy about seeing him again." She shrugged as if it wasn't that important.

"Rupert Giles?"

"Yup that's him. He's a good friend of mine, used to be the librarian at my school."

Again the men shared a look, "Well, he did say he was meeting Giles today," said the one with the clipboard somewhat hushed to his partner, though Buffy could hear it easily, "And he did mention something about a girl."

"I dunno."

"Yeah but what about-" he began but was silenced with a look. Frowning he looked over at Buffy, "I'm Alec, this is Corry. We're doctor Flixcon's assistants. Are you," his face scrunched in thought as he tried to recall something, "Buffy?"

Buffy looked shocked, it wasn't faked, "You know about me?"

Corry shrugged, "The doctor mentioned that Giles had a friend named Buffy who would be interested in seeing some of the exhibit." He shrugged again, "Didn't say why though, or if he did I wasn't paying attention."

"Well I do like weapons, and Giles said that there were a lot of weapons in it."

"That's unusual," Alec said. "A woman with a weapon fetish."

"Well there's a first for everything," She said. "So can I see some weapons?" Corry and Alec exchanged looks. They seemed to do that a lot.

"The exhibit doesn't open until the weekend." Alec said.

"And we still haven't finished the inventory." Corry shrugged apologetically. "But if you can get doctor Flixcon's permission, then we'd be happy to show you anything you'd like." Buffy pouted and fluttered her eyelashes again. Neither of them seemed interested.

"Well, couldn't you tell me about the exhibit and the weapons?" she asked. Alec glanced at his watch and then down at the clipboard.

"Give us… two hours and come back. We'll be on our lunch break. We can talk all you want about the exhibit then," he said. She smiled a dazzling smile at him, full cheerleader blond smile. He returned it with a wan smile of his own. Corry just rolled his eyes.

"Thanks," she said, far more perkily than she felt, before walking off. The two of them returned to their inventory task. Turning a corner she paused before peeking around it to watch. It was really rather dull. Find something; check it off. Find another thing; check it off. If these two were behind the theft they certainly weren't showing it. After about ten minutes she wandered off to find a place with good cell phone reception.

When she found reception, she dialed up Giles. The phone rang and rang before the answering machine picked up.

"Giles, Hi, it's Buffy. I'm checking out the museum so far nadda. But I'm going to be talking to the doctor's assistants at lunch; maybe they know something. They're acting like there wasn't a theft… which maybe suspicious or they just don't want to alarm anyone. I'm going to talk to Willow, see if she can help me find anything about the exhibit after lunch. Talk to you later." She hung up just as Corry came around the corner holding his own cell phone looking for reception. He had his head down and it didn't look like he saw her.

She sidestepped him as he focused on his phone. Stopping in nearly the same place that she did, he dialed a number. Pacing as he waited for the party on the other line to pick up, he muttered, "Come on… come on…" On one of his pacing circuits he noticed Buffy standing there, watching him and gave her a little wave. She returned it and turned to walk away, just as he let out a cry of triumph. She paused and leaned up against the wall to watch, "Dr. Flixcon!… yes… yes… No, Alec's watching…yes, that's why I called you…. No I haven't called the police yet…. But…. Yes, it was…" After a long pause, he sighed and said, "Yes sir. I'll see you then." With a grimace he hung up the phone and stuck it back in his pocket. Seeing that she was still there, he said, "You might as well come along if you're still interested. It seems we're done with inventory now."

Alec seemed rather delighted at being done with inventory. He unceremoniously dropped his clipboard and grabbing Corry's hand announced "Lunch time!" as he pulled his fellow towards the cafeteria. Buffy followed.

Watching the two of them playfully interact as they stood in the cafeteria line, the way they poked and joked with each other, something dawned on Buffy. She finally realized why neither of them had responded to her advances.

They were gay.

Which was really too bad, because they were cute too.

Next: Lunch and the Vorpal sword of pointiness!