Part 9

Willow opened the door to find two tall men that she had never seen before standing there.

"Hi can I help you?" Willow asked an eyebrow raised.

"Hi my name is Ethan Rayne and this is my partner Riley Finn and we are from the Sunnydale PD I know its late but we were wondering if we could take a few minutes of your time."

"Umm sure" Willow said not moving to invite them in you never could be too careful around Sunnydale at night.

"Well Ma'am I'm as I'm sure you've seen on the news there has been a rash of killings by the same person and while we at the Sunnydale PD are doing everything we can this guy seems to always be one step ahead of us…" Riley said as Ethan smiles at the read head in front of them "So our boss asked us to go around the neighborhoods closest to the crimes themselves and warn the residents and inform them of Safety in numbers."

Willow nods as the other one Ethan started to talk something threw her off about Riley he seemed like he was hiding something but what she had no clue maybe he's gay she thought to herself.

"So if you have to go anywhere by yourself please be aware of your surroundings have a cell phone with you maybe buy some pepper spray but other wise please safety in numbers groups of 3 or more are safer…" Ethan said

Willow smiles and nods looking past the officers standing on the porch William and Buffy were on their way she could see them coming up the street.

"Thank you for your time Ma'am and please don't hesitate to call us if you need anything or see or hear anything suspicious" Riley said as he handed the girl a card with a direct line to him and Ethan then he and Ethan turned and walked down the side walk.

"I'm sorry" Buffy said as she and William walked down the street.

"For what?" William asked looking over at Buffy.

"That I couldn't find the hide out…" Buffy said as William squeezed her hand.

"Buffy we found where you ran out of the woods, you probably ran in circles or zigzagged around you were disoriented." William said as he stopped and faced her one hand going up to cup her cheek.

"I'm a vampire I'm not supposed to be disoriented." Buffy said.

"Buffy don't be so hard on yourself ok. We will find this guys hide out and we will free those girls…."

"I should have saved them when I had the chance but I was so damn concerned with myself, I truly am soulless" Buffy said interrupting William looking away from him.

"Hey now stop that shit Buffy anyone of us would have done the same thing you did in that situation." William said forcing Buffy to look up at him.

"I should have…"

"Buffy I said stop it." William said as he gave her a soft smile "I'm going to call Willow and let her know that we are on our way home."

"I wonder who that is?" Buffy asked as she and William rounded the corner seeing two men standing on the front stoop talking to Willow. William looks around the car parked in front of his house was an under cover cop car.

"Under cover cops…" William said pointing to the car. Will looked up seeing the two men walking down towards them both had forced smiles on their faces.

Ethan looked up and forced a smile and nodded at the two not feeling like going through the entire 'safety in numbers' speech again. "'ello" he said as he continued to walk.

Riley smiled "Ma'am" he said as they walked past them and to the car.

Buffy stopped dead and turned William stopped as well and looked at her "Buffy, what's wrong?"

That smell Buffy knew it and that voice, she looked over at William "I, I don't know he just seemed." Buffy shook her head and smiled "never mind. Lets just. Get inside"

--

"Why were the cops here?" William asked as he took his coat off and hung it up doing the same for Buffy smiling when she thanked him and kissed him on the cheek.

Tara smiled seeing Buffy she motioned for her to follow her, Buffy smiled whispered I love you to William before she followed Tara in the kitchen.

"Wanted to inform us of the rash of murders, and give us a card and tell us about safety in numbers." Willow said as she sat down on the sofa in the livingroom.

William sort of laughed then sat on the sofa next to his friend. "well it is a good point, I mean this guy isn't a demon"

Willow looked over at him "yeah, I see your point, but we are witches…"

"you and Tara are, Xander's not… though he is going after women"

"Xander's hot he may change his mind you know…" Will laughed

"Yeah you know Xander is a hot piece of ass…" he said joking

"Woah switching teams on me now?" Buffy said walking into the room with Tara behind her.

"Never" Will said as he pulled Buffy onto his lap and kissed her cheek. Tara sat down next to Willow and she flicked on the TV, a few hours later Will and Buffy stood and headed up stairs.

Once in his bedroom Buffy sat on his bed and pulled her boots off and started to relax William walked over to the window and sighed looking out at the moon it was full normally he'd go out and patrol again, but Buffy was here and he wasn't going to leave her alone. He didn't want to. He tunred to look at her.

"Ok. It's been a few days." Buffy raised an eyebrow and William continued "why did you run out when Dru said she was leaving?" he asked as he sat down on the bed across from her.

Buffy sighed and ran her hand through her hair "Look, William, I don't want to get into this, its just stupid and really not worth re-hashing"

"Well obviously its something and I want to know about it…."

"Will, look I said I didn't bloody well want to talk about it…."

"Buffy damnit tell me, Please" Will asked begging his eyes pleading.

Buffy looked up at him then away "when I was first turned. Drusilla wasn't there for me, she was stuck up her sires arse, and I don't know if you know this or not but Darla, doesn't like me so I didn't have a lot of support or respect, and well that's a lie I had support I also had Protection, Darla may have hated me but she took care of her family and let me tell you we were one dysfunctional family. After a few centuries, Dru and Darla got tired of me always being their and one day after I killed a young girl and I had the slayer after me I woke up one night and they were gone, three nights later, I almost died. I needed Dru I needed her help I needed my sire and she abandoned me."

"But this is, different she had to go home to LA fight a big bad. She'll be back." William said softly touching her cheek

"I know its different, ok I know but it doesn't feel different, I still feel like she's abandoned me, that wasn't the first time and that wasn't and will not be the last, that's just one example of how she isn't here for me when I need her" Buffy said as she stood and walked towards the door.

"Buffy" William stood and went to grab her arm. She turned

"look I need some air, I'm going to go for a walk." Buffy said softly

"not alone you aren't."

"Look, William I swear I'll be fine, I'm not going to go that far ok?" Buffy walked forward and kissed his cheek.

"Buffy I don't want you to go out there alone, not after what happened" William said as he held onto her hand tightly

"if I'm not back in 10 minutes, come look for me, ok?" William reluctantly let go of her hand. Buffy grabbed her boots and slipped then on then headed out of the house.

Buffy didn't lie she didn't go far she sat out on the back porch of the house she looked up shocked to see Giles walk out from the side she raised an eyebrow "William is up stairs"

"I'm not here to see him, I'm here to see you." He said as he sat down next to her, Buffy had an idea that this wouldn't turn out great.