John parked his truck beside the warehouse that the Scooby Gang was converting. There

was already a line of demons with demon kids waiting in the alley to get into the

warehouse to deposit their Hectalik. "I know I'm probably the last person you want to

talk to about this. But with my brainiac and our brainiac getting together and talking this

to death, Sam's going to need an actual quote if you can give me one. Neither one will

accept because as an answer. Or a 'it wasn't that bad'. They'll want to know exactly how

bad it was."

"Dawn's probably wondering if the monks tamed it down for her." Buffy let out a rush of

air and ran her hand through her hair. "You're right. There is no way Dawn won't obsess

about it until she gets an answer. What Hank actually said, and do remember that he

didn't know I could hear, was "She's turning into a little trouble making tramp and it's all

your fault. You just aren't disciplining her enough. Who knows what those little creeps

she's dating are getting her into." Buffy reached into her pocket and started pulling her

hair into a pony tail. It was definitely time to do some slaying. The way she was feeling

now, beating the crap out of something was the only way to cheer herself up.

John nodded, his own ire at Hank Summers starting to cool. He'd see what Sam turned

up before making his decision though. There was no way Sam wouldn't thoroughly check

the man out, it might turn out he needed a little 'disciplining' after all. He loaded up with

his own weapons and followed Buffy into the warehouse. It was filled top to bottom with

old commercial freezers and little demons running around all over the place. John

assumed they were playing although he had no real idea what they might be doing. He

saw what looked like a blue woman with short spikes growing out of her head trying to

coral about four (or was if five?) youngsters. She reminded him of Doyle, and what he

had glimpsed when the half demon had sneezed. As he recalled, Dawn had said Braken

demons were a pretty harmless bunch, rather like laid back humans. You got your radical

every now and then, but they were more like Doyle than a 'lets kill everything in sight'

type. As Buffy talked to Willow, who was telling her about the setup, John observed that

Clem had been right. Most of these demons were mothers with children, some of them

very small. And they were going to demon killers for help in getting food and nesting

materiel for their young. He shook his head. The more he saw here in Sunnydale, the

more his world tipped on it's axis.

Dean wandered over and stood beside his dad. "This is freaking me out." he said calmly.

"We actually had a fight over some demoness talking too long with Anya and holding up

the line. That's the worst thing to happen so far. I'm surrounded by demons and none of

them are trying to kill me. It's just too freaky Dad."

"When your little sister told me that her mother was the current Vampire Slayer, her best

friend was a Jewish Witch, and her other best friend was a demon magnet, I freaked.

After that she laughed at me and told me that the weird meter in Sunnydale was topped

out. I'm beginning to understand what she was talking about. They need an entirely new

meter to measure the weird in this town."

Dean snorted. His dad hadn't seen anything yet. The demon grocery store was on his top

five list. "Giles has set up patrol routes around Sunnydale. Both of us are going to be

paired off so we won't go hog wild on the demons or let something go that's against the

rules around here. It's our sink or swim test I think. I managed to get you with Buffy for

patrol. The two of you will be covering the west side here. He said that Buffy is going to

want to make sure that we don't have demons picking on other demons over this whole

thing." Dean shook his head, this was really starting to get to him. Stopping demons

from picking on other demons?

"Makes sense." John replied, ignoring the look Dean shot him. "You want all of them

focused on taking out the Hectalik, rather than each other. Think of it as controlling

looters. You don't mind them looting, you just want them to loot what you want them to

rather than fight over the loot amongst themselves. There is going to be plenty of these

things for all of them. And the more they take and bring here, the fewer we have to fight

later." John gave Dean a measuring look.

Dean had seen that look before. It was an 'Are you going to figure this out yet or do I

need to lead you a little further' from his lessons in hunting tactics. Dean nodded to show

that he had understood his father and went back to giving his dad the patrol information.

"I'm teamed up with Xander for the East, Spike is patrolling the North, and Giles is going

to do the South himself. Apparently being Buffy's Watcher carries some clout around

here. Be prepared for a long haul Dad. Giles figures it should take about a week before

the swarm gets close enough to endanger the hellmouth, but there is already a lot of

demons coming in here to set up an account. Hopefully it really will make a difference

later on." Dean smirked and handed John a small package. Then he walked off to join

Xander who was heading out for patrol. Thus getting away from his dad before said

package was opened. Let the teasing commence, he thought.

John looked at the package and sighed. He knew it had started. Neither one of the boys

would be able to resist teasing their old man over his situation. But he knew it was

because they trusted him to do right by both Buffy and Dawn. Well, he was going to do

his best, but it wasn't like he'd ever asked a girl to marry him before, no matter what they

boys thought. Mary had been the one to ask him, he had just been smart enough to say

yes. He took a deep breath and opened the package. Inside was a little note card saying

'after patrol slayer care kit', a fake motel room key, a fake gift certificate for an all you can

eat dinner and a box of condoms. He was going to kill Dean. At least he hadn't given

this to Buffy. He shuddered to think how that would have gone over. He shoved the

thing into his pocket and reminded himself to get rid of the evidence as soon as possible.

Buffy walked up to him and said. "Well, it looks like it's you and me for the west side

patrol. Want to get started?"

"Lead on." John said and waved her ahead of him. On the way out he slipped Dean's

'care kit' into the trash. He really didn't want to take the chance of Buffy finding out what

was in it.

As he followed Buffy through the alleys and around the warehouses, he cursed that they

hadn't at least gotten to patrol a park area or something. This was a lousy place to be

trying to have this conversation, but if he didn't do it now, he'd never get up the guts.

"Buffy,"

"Hmmmm?" Buffy said as she wandered down the alley. She knew there was something

on John's mind. He was way to nervous. It couldn't be that they were looking for trouble,

was it that they were helping demons instead of killing them? She hadn't though he had

trouble with Clem, but he'd been silent and behind her when she was talking to him. And

this was the first time they'd been alone since they got up this morning.

"When I was with Dawn in LA,"

"Are you going to tell me about the hellhounds?" Buffy turned around and backed John

into the wall of the alley. "I don't remember much but I do remember her saying

something about hellhounds when she put me to bed."

John cursed to himself. He was in for it now. He'd seen that look in Mary's eyes before.

This was not the time for that discussion, but he'd have to admit it now. Otherwise he

was going to be dead in about five seconds, ten if he was lucky. "No, that was about two

days after you sent Dawn to me. I was in the middle of a hunt and couldn't stop."

"So you took her with you!" Buffy yelled at the top of her lungs.

"She was never in any danger."

"You took her hunting hellhounds!" Buffy picked him up and shook him. "What were

you thinking! Willow sent her to you for protection!"

"She didn't get near them until they were dead!" Buffy stopped shaking John. She looked

at him closely. He was telling the truth.

"You left her behind?" she growled.

"No! I knew where they were going to be because I dreamed it. I set up an ambush.

They never got near us. Dawn never left my side until we got here. I used a sniper rifle

and blessed silver bullets on the hellhounds. Dawn did help me clean up the carcasses

though." He hoped she wouldn't kill him for that. Maybe he should have left instructions

for Sam to take custody of Dawn after all.

"You dreamed it." Buffy said flatly. "Like Sam does?" John nodded. She slowly put

him down. "Dawn didn't go near them?"

"Only after they were all dead. There was a pack of six of them. Dawn did cut their

heads off though. Then we burned the carcasses." Maybe he would get out of this alive.

Buffy stood there, hands still wrapped in the folds of his shirt. The look on her face was

ice cold. This was what Willow had meant, he realized. There was nothing more

dangerous in the world than a mother whose child was in danger. And Buffy's maternal

instincts were very strong indeed.

Slowly Buffy began to relax. "She cut their heads off?" John nodded. He thought he'd

wait a while before telling her just how enthusiastic Dawn had been about the whole

thing. "They were already dead?" He nodded again. They had been mostly dead. They

couldn't move or regenerate with the silver in their hearts. "Anything else?"

"I bought you a wedding ring if you want it?" Once the words were out of his mouth he

could have kicked himself. That was the last thing he should have said. He could see the

fire in her eyes, which had just started to cool down, blaze up again. Buffy very

deliberately let go of him and began to stalk off. He cautiously followed her and saw her

walk up to a large group of people. They were vampires. They were all dust within ten

seconds. Oh, he had really pissed her off this time. He watched her for the next several

hours, practically floating through anything that got in her path and didn't get out of the

way. He didn't know what her criteria for letting something go and destroying others was,

but he recognized at least three different kinds of demons he himself had taken days to

hunt and kill going down under Buffy's fists, feet and rarely weapons in a matter of

seconds. It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Too bad it was him she was

pissed at. Finally Buffy turned to him and flatly told him to go back to the house. He

resisted the urge to salute and instead gave a short bow one of his marine buddies had

practiced with John when he learned he was being sent to Japan. He then turned and left.

Well, he thought, at least I made it out in one piece, and she didn't say no.