The Cost of Giles

Ch 9 – Willow Comes Clean

Xander had just let Tara off in front of the house, when he saw Spike in the open doorway. He was blowing smoke outside from the cigarette in his hand. Xander put the car in park and left the vehicle, jogging up toward him. Tara had patted the vampire on the shoulder as she passed and was now somewhere within the house. When Xander reached the porch, he saw that the vampire looked even more pale than usual, with some bluish bruising under his eyes.

"Xan? Not hurt?"

"Nah. Shaken up a bit. How's the house?"

"No damages from what I can find. And I looked carefully."

"Okay. Let me know if something crops up… have you heard from Wills?"

"Only Dawn."

"You look like hell, Spike."

"Yeah… I'm just gonna finish this and then bed back down for a few hours. I was hopin' Dawn would get her butt back here before then."

"The Buffybot is with her. She'll be fine. Speaking of which, we need to have a talk about her later… as a group."

"She not doing her schoolwork? 'Cause I'll bust her little ass, if you want."

Xander gave him a chuckle, "No. There's been no more nasty-grams from the school, as far as I know. Tara seems to think she's doing what we need her to. This is about her week off coming up."

"She's not going to visit Air-head and Peaches."

"Spike," Xander sighed. "You know she wants this pretty badly. And if she does manage to pass 9th grade, she deserves a little something to encourage her."

"We'll buy her a cake. She's not leaving my sight."

"Spike… (this really isn't your call)… we'll talk about it later, when the gang's together."

"You all can 'talk about it' as much as you want," Spike warned, sounding surly, "But she's not going anywhere without me, and she isn't going to L.A. It's full to the brink with drug users, whores, gangs… and that's just the damned human element. Noway."

Xander sighed and gave him a peck on the lips. "I gotta go find Willow. I'll see you later, get back to sleep."

"Be careful out there," Spike threw out as he left, still sounding just as surly.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Willow walked down the street, ducking into doorways to get a few seconds of respite from the heat overhead. It had taken her twenty-five minutes to escape the mild needling and passive-aggressiveness of her Rabbi. Now she turned her cell phone back on and heard its beep telling her she had at least one message.

She'd expected as much, of course. The gang would be calling to make sure she was okay.

If only I could be, she sighed. Until Buffy was rescued, there would be no 'okay' for her.

The message came from Xander, but she first called the house and spoke to Tara. She was relieved with the news that Giles and Dawn had already checked in. The quake hadn't been a bad one, but there were all sorts of ways to end up hurt. After telling Tara she'd be home in time for dinner and that she loved her, she turned her attention to dialing Xander.

He was driving back to the apartment, only minutes away when the call came through.

"Hey, Wills… you're safe?"

"Fine. A-and you… nothing cut or broken," she said as jokingly as she could manage, under her current strain.

"I'm on my way to check on the homestead, but I'm fine. Dawn and Giles weren't hurt, either."

"Yeah, I checked in with Tara. She told me. So…, guess I'll see you later."

"Hold on," Xan said quickly, before she could disconnect. "I was hoping you'd come over to my place. We need to talk."

Something in his tone of voice put Willow off, but she didn't know why. "Uh… w-well, I'm kind of busy."

"I bet. Look… Will… Tara and me had lunch. She told me."

"T-told you what?"

"Buffy. Come over."

There was several breaths of silence except for back ground traffic noises and Xander wondered where she was at… and what she'd been up to. Tara wasn't the paranoid kind and if she was worried about what Willow might try, then that was enough for him to be concerned as well.

Of course, Hyena's own feelings were surely a part of that. Just the vague notion of the Slayer being back 'in charge' was enough to send her hackles up.

Not now, he sighed at her harshly. Let's focus on Willow.

"I-I guess. I was going to tell you, Xan. I just… I wanted to wait until I had some good news."

"Yeah… well, I'm angry you didn't tell me, but we'll deal with that later. Right now, I just want to find out what you know, or think that you know and what you intend to do about it."

"Have you guys told Giles," she asked worriedly.

"No. And Tara and I agreed that we shouldn't bring this up in front of him. At least, not right now."

"Oh, well, I'm so glad that the two of you have been so chummy and 'agreeing', then! Anything else the two of you have 'agreed on' and want to tell me?"

"Hey! Don't get that attitude with me, Wills. You should have been the one to tell me you thought Buffy might be in pain! That she could be…! Why didn't you tell me?!"

He heard Willow take a deep breath and sigh before she responded. "I didn't want you to stop sleeping, like I have Xan. I'm sorry. Really."

"Yeah. It's okay. But I need to hear from you what's going on. Come over?"

"Yeah… I'll be there in about a half hour."

"Where are you, I'll swing by and grab you."

"It's okay… I need the walk to clear my head a little. I'll see you soon," she said and disconnected.

Xander was just pulling into his parking lot then. After parking, he didn't move to exit the car… he just sat listening to the shut off engine tick and worrying at his lower lip.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Twenty minutes later, now inside, he heard the knock at the door. After calling out for whomever to come in… a bad policy in Sunnydale, which he realized after the fact, he met Willow at the entrance to the apartment.

In his outstretched hand, he held a bottle of beer which she took with a grateful sigh. He one armed hugged her, his other hand holding a second bottle for himself.

Embracing her, he took a moment to smell her strawberry-scented hair and swallowed the lump in his throat. He'd thought that Buffy's dying was as bad as bad could get. But, then there came Dawn's brush with undeadness, and now when he thought he'd reached the worst of the worst, there was this new disaster.

It'll never really stop, will it?

And although he hadn't really been asking anyone, Hyena responded, No. There are some battles that have been going on since before you were born and will continue after all of us are gone. But, it's an important and valuable fight.

Pulling away from Willow without acknowledging Hyena's observation, he studied her face. She was wan, tired looking… not at all the Willow that he had known and he felt a little guilty for not noticing before now.

"So…," she started after they'd sat down on the couch with each taking some silent sips of their beers.

"So."

"Okay. First, I apologize again for not telling you, Xan. I only wanted to protect you… until I can get to Buffy there didn't seem any reason to get anyone else upset. Tara shouldn't have told you, yet."

"I appreciate the thought, Wills, really. But aren't you the one who called Buffy out on keeping secrets? This is a Scooby problem. But more, you know how much I loved her. If she's not at rest, then I owe it to her to find a way to help."

"You're right. It was a bad call. But, I don't see what you can do at this point, honestly. This isn't buying a few herbs and doing a chant… we're talking some major mojo. And I can't even do that much without something called the 'Urn of Osiris', which seems to be even more rare than a vampire with a soul."

"Well, what about the Council? I mean, not that I want to go to them for anything… the farther away they stay from the rest of us, the better. But still, they have resources that the Buffybot or Giles can call on… although I'm totally on board with Tara in not bringing this to Giles right now, if we don't have to."

Willow sighed, "It's no good. At least, not according to their databases; I can't tell you how many lists I've been through and they don't have it."

"We could bring Angel in? He may have contacts, and no matter how big of a butthole he can be, he'd move Heaven and Hell to help her."

"I thought about it. But, I'm afraid he'll go to Wes and that could lead back to Giles - or the Council - which would be the same thing. Especially, when you consider that we already know that they send 'observers' to keep any eye on him."

"There is that," he agreed.

They sat silently, finishing their beers. Xander tried to think of something that Willow may not have… which he could admit seemed unlikely. Willow was simply sitting next to him, obviously depressed.

"Anya!" Xander's exclamation caused her to jump a little.

"Anya," she asked, doubtfully.

"Come on, Wills. I know you guys can't seem to see eye to eye, but she's coming up on eleven-hundred and thirty years old… you can't tell me that she might not know a thing or two about this Urn deal."

"I…I should have thought of that, damn it," she said. "B-but do we know where she is?"

"As a matter of fact, I've just gotten a call from her. She's in San Fran… I can get a hold of her and have her reach out. And, I can trust her not to tell Giles."

"O-okay. Yeah, that's a good idea, Xan. I better get home… I promised Tara I wouldn't be too much longer."

"Okay. Listen, we need a Scooby meeting really soon… maybe later tonight? I need support arguing with Spike that Dawn should be allowed to visit Cordy when her classes are through. It'll help if you and Tara could come up with something to mask her 'Key-ness' for a bit. Just a long weekend…."

"We'll look into it," she said, before nearly throwing herself into his arms. "Xan? I'm glad you know. I-It's been so hard… trying to do this on my own."

When she pulled back from him, he could see tears shimmering in her eyes.

"Buffy's strong. She'll be okay… she's a survivor, even if she's dead."

"I hope so," she sighed. "Because right now…, it's the only thing that's keeping me from losing it."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Five minutes after Willow left, Xander took a deep breath and dialed the number that Anya had just given him that day.

I can't help but notice after giving her a lecture on secrets, you didn't mention Oz, Hyena unhelpfully pointed out.

Yeah… well….

Coward, she Hyena-laughed.

Damn shootin'. That's something that Tara can deal with.

On the other end, a voice he didn't recognize answered. One of the new witches Anya was helping, obviously.

"Halliwells. This is Paige."

"Uh… h-hi. Sorry to call like this, but Anya gave me this number?"

"Oh, sure. She's actually right here, hold on a sec…."

"Hello," he recognized Anya's voice.

"Hey, Anya."

"Xander? Wow, I wasn't expecting to hear from you this soon! Did you talk to Giles, already?"

"Not yet… are you free to talk, Ahn. I've got a monster of a favor to ask."

"Hold on a minute," she said, questioningly. Nearly a minute later she added, "Okay. What's going on? You sound strange."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

End Ch 9