A/N: I've edited the previous chapter to correct a mistake I made. I somehow thought that it had been Dr Gregory's head that had been found in the actual episode, not his headless body. So, I've edited the previous chapter to have Dr. Gregory's and the owner of the house's bodies fall out of that closet. Sorry for the mistake.
Chapter Nine: Little Witches Pt 3
The Bronze was hopping. A local band called Dingo's Ate My Baby was playing and they were actually fairly good. The gang, minus Bill, had had tentative plans to meet here tonight, but Willow had never showed. Buffy had tried to call her earlier and ask her to invite Amy, but there hadbeen no answer at Willows. Buffy had also invited Tara, but the shy girl had begged off, leaving Buffy feeling like a third wheel hanging with Xander and Cordelia. She had to smile as she watched them together, good naturedly bickering. Despite years of animosity between then, they were actually very cute together. It was pretty clear niether of them were willing to call themselves a couple yet, but Buffy was pretty sure it was coming.
The three friends decided to take a break as the song changed, and walked to the table they'd been sitting at. On the way they ran into Harmony Kendall and some of the former Cordettes.
"Cordelia," said Harmony, looking disdainfully at Buffy and Xander. "it's nice to see you're well on the path to downward mobility with your new freak force buddies!"
"Harmony," said Cordy, rolling her eyes. "I didn't even think you KNEW phrases like "downard mobility". I'm impressed." She looked at the other girls. "Be honest, which one of you coached her?" Buffy and Xander laughed, as did one or two of Harmony's cronies. Harmony glared at them, then scoffed and walked away.
"it's nice to have that razor sharp tongue on our side," said Buffy as the three sat down.
"Pfft." said Cordelia. "I went EASY on her for old times sake" She looekd over and watched Harmony give the lead singer a little wave. "Oh please. Like Devon is REALLY going to start dating her again!"
"Harmony dated the singer?" asked Xander.
Cordy rolled her eyes. "Bill is friends with the band," she said. "Especially Oz." She indicated the short guitar player with the serene expression and reddish hair. "He plays guitar and would have joined the band but his football playing got in the way. Anyway, Harmony had a major crush on Devon and begged me to have Bill set them up. they dated a short tiem, then Devon broke it offbecause Harmony was "too shallow". Which is really ironic if you know Devon." Buffy noticed Xander bristle a bit at the mention of Bill. Cordy apparently did too. "You know that's ancient history, right?" she said softly.
Xander grinnd sheepishly. "Yeah," he said.
Buffy smiled and suddenly looked up. There, by the entrance, she saw Darla. They made eye contact, and Darla smiled at her, and casually walked outside. The band then started playing a slow song. "Hey you guys," Buffy said. "Three's a crowd, so, I'm just gonna hit it. Maybe actually do soem homework tonight."
Xander smirked as Buffy started tol gather her thigns. Both he and Cordy had seen Darla. "Ok, Buff," he said. "Be careful and we'll see you tomorrow."
Buffy said her goodnights and left. Cordelia shook her head. "What is the deal with those two?"she asked. She had missed most of the interaction between Buffy and Darla, but had seen just enough togetthe idea there was SOMETHING going on.
Xander chuckled. "I've been meaning to ask Bill about that," he said. "I'd say there is a little bit of crushing going on there.." He held out his hand. "May I have this dance, Milady?"
Cordy grinned and took his hand. "I would be delighted, kind Sir," she said. the walked out to the dance floor, all thoguths of blonde slayers and equally blonde mystery women going out of their heads.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Buffy found Darla waiting outside for her. Buffy's breath caught as she took in the sigt. Darla looked stunning in a greay sweater, black slacks and a black leather jacket. "Hi, Slayer," she said, clearly eying Buffy up and down.
"Hi youself," said Buffy, blushing a little. "I haven't seen you for a few days."
"I've been trying to gve you some space while you thought about what it is you want," said Darla straightforwardly. "But, I thought tonight, I'd make sure you got home safely." the two started walking in the direction of Buffy's street.
"Wow, my own bodyguard," teased Buffy. "it's kinda cute that you think I NEED one."
Darla rolled her eyes. "I just meant see for myself you got home safely, smart ass," she said. "I know full well you can take care of yourself."
Buffy smiled as they walked along. "It's sweet of you to worry," she said. She shivered a little.
"You cold?" asked Darla.
"A little," said Buffy. She was herself only wearing slacks and a tank top. "It was warm earlier, so I dressed appropriately. I wasn't expecting the temperature to drop."
"here," said Darla. She took off her jacket and held it out. Buffy blushed a little as she slid her arms into it."
"Thank you," she said, looking into Darla's eyes. "You definately get gallantry points."
"It looks better on you anyway," said Darla, looking into Buffy's eyes. Both seemed frozen in time. They actually moved towards each other, slowly, almost tentatively, leaning in towards each other...
"Slayer!" came a gravelly voice from nearby. They both jumped and looekd over to see a large vampire with long dark hair and wild eyes. But, that was not his most striking feature. Where his right hand should be were three long, metal claws. He looked at Darla. "And YOU! The Master will reward me greatly for killing you both.
Unaware of Darla's vampiric nature, Buffy shoved her behind herself. "Wow. Great timing," she said, assuming a fighting stance. She indicated hsi claw. "What? They were out of hooks?"
Claw, which was the name Buffy had given him in her head, just snarled and lunged at her, swiping with his claw. Buffy ducked underneath, and stood up straight, bringing an uppercut up into his jaw, knocking him back. He snarled and charged back at her, again, swiping with his claw. Buffy blocked, catching hsi arm, and Darla punched him in the face. He ripped his arm from Buffy's grip and swiped the claw at Darla, who duicked, and Buffy kicked him in the ribs,making him grunt in pain.
The fight continued that way, Claw would swipe at one of them, who would duck, and the other would hit him. It quickly became apparent that Claw was a one trick pony, relying on his strength and his claw in a fight. He WAS strong though, and tough. Darla's punches and kicks didn't seem to really be fazing him, but she was doing a good job of distracting him so Buffy could deliver more punishing blows. Finally, Buffy caught his clawed arm an d landed three really hard punches in a row to his face, stunning him. She flipped him over onto his back and Darla pulled out a stake from the waistband of her pants and drove it home, making the vamp explode into dust.
The two girls stood there, clearly catching their breath. "Wow," said Buffy. "You have better moves than I thought you did."
"Yeah, well, you need to learn to fight if you're going to take vampires on," said Darla. She looked at Buffy mischeivously. "Glad you like watching my moves." Buffy blushed as the two continued their walk towards Buffy's house. The tingly feeling Buffy usually got in her tummy when Darla was around was REALLy tingling right now. Buffy blushed again as she realized watching Darla fight had aroused her.
The two walked the rest of the way to Buffy's house in companionable silence. When they got there, Buffy was surprised to see they were holding hands. somehow, she'd completely missed the linking up.
"This is your stop," said Darla, releasing her hand. She turned and gave Buffy a light kiss on the cheek, like she had done the first night she'd walked Buffy home. "Sweet dreams Slayer. And I hope you made the cheer team."
"Night," said Buffy shyly. "And thank you. Wait! How did you know about that?"
Darla turned and looked at her. "I talked to Bill before he went over to that teachers house," she said, grinning mischeivously. "And for the record, he's right. I'd LOVE to see you in that outfit." She laughed at Buffy's expression and left.
Buffy shook her head and watched Darla leave. "I am so going to kill that asshole," she muttered as she walked inside.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
"She was a giant preying mantis?" asked Cordelia as she, Xander, Buffy Bill and Giles had their morning briefing in the library. Willow was mysteriously absent. None of them had heard from her since tyrouts the day before.
"Yeah," said Bill. "She killed the old man who owned that house, and Dr. Gregory, and ate their heads! And she would have done the same to me. I've never been so glad to be a half demon.".
Then, of course, Bill and I spent half the night dismembering and disposing of her," added Giles with a yawn.
"I'm glad she picked you before me," said Xander, shuddering. "I'm just confused as to why you didn't see that there was something weird about her, like when you saw Jesse was a..." His voice trailed off and Cordelia squeezed his arm in sympathy. The Jesse wound was still so fresh for him.
"I have two theories about that," said Giles. "the first being that Bill's "sight" for want of a better term, is not infailable, especially if he is unfamiliar with the type of supernatural creature he is exposed to. Or, it's equally possible the Powers That Be only show him what they feel he needs to see." Buffy nodded distractedly. "Are you all right?" Giles asked.
"I'm ok," said Buffy, her voice a little thick. "I'm just sad about Dr Gregory. He was one of the few teachers here who didn't think I was a delinquent. I actually liked him."
Bill nodded in sympathy. "he was a bit of a hard case when it came to doing your work, but he was a good guy," he said. Then he frowned at the leather jacket Buffy was wearing. It looked familiar, but he was pretty sure he'd never seen her in it. "Is that a new jacket?"
Buffy blushed a little. "it's Darla's," she admitted. I ran into her on the way home from the Bronze last night. It was a little chilly out so she loaned it to me." Suddenly, she sat up straight. "Oh God! With all that was going on with Bill's story from last night, I totally forgot. We got attacked by a vampire last night. Some big guy with a claw in place of his right hand. He was tough but we took him out."
"A claw in place of his right hand?" asked Giles, looking thoughtful as he got up and went to grab a book off of one of the tables.
"NOT what you want when you have a bad case of jock itch!" mumbled Xander to Bill. Alas, he was not quiet enough as Cordelia elbowed him and Buffy gave him a disgusted look. Bill just chuckled as Xander "oof"ed and looked sheepish.
"Does that mean something to you?" asked Buffy as they all got up and followed Giles to the table.
"I think so," said Giles. He started flipping through the book. "I've been reasearching The Master and his known minions," he said. "In the diary of the Watcher of a Slayer in the 1940's, I found a reference to a vampire who was so feircely devoted to the Master, that one time when he displeased the Master, he cut off his own hand in pennance." He layed the open book on the table. "Is this him?" he asked. The boo kshwoed a very accurate artist's representation of the vampire Buffy had staked the night before.
"That's him, in all his ugly glory," answered Buffy.
"Giles," said Bill. "should we be worried about this? Does this mean the master has declared open season on blonde haired Slayers?"
Giles looked thoughtful. "Possibly," he said. "but it's equally possible that this particular vampire went out looking for Buffy on his own to curry favor with the Master. I'm afraid it's not possible to be sure unless Buffy is attacked by more of his known minions."
"Greeeat," said Bill sarcastically. "Always nice to know what we can look forward to."
"We'll just be extra careful," said Buffy, looking at her watch. "oh, Cordy, we need to get going if were going to check the bulletin board in the quad before first hour."
"I was actually just about to say that," said Cordelia as they all stood up. they said their goodbyes to Giles and left.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The quad was crowded with student as Lisa pinned the sheet with the results on the bulletin board. Suddenly, a mass of girls swarmed the bulletin board.
"Ready to march into battle?" Buffy jokingly asked Cordelia, who looked both like she desperately wanted to know the results,, and yet, was worried about loisng a limb.
"I got this," said Xander, gallantly, as he went forward to check the results for them.
Buffy looked over and saw Willow, talking to Tara and Amy. Buffy had walked to school with Tara this morning, but, had had to take leave of her to make her meeting with Giles. She bill and Cordelia walked over to them.
"Hey you guys," she said. The yal lexchanged greetings. "Willow, nobody's heard from you since tryouts yesterday. I was getting worried."
"Sorry about that," said Willow sheepishly"Amy and I got together after school and kinda got caught up in what we were doing." Buffy noticed that Willow and Amy both looked kinda dejected.
Bill took a good look at Willow, Tara and Amy as Buffy made some joke about Willow being grounded next time she forgot to call. He saw the same thing he had seen when he first met Tara, a sort of inner glow, it was faint, but his Sight picked it up. Then, he noticed something else.
Willow and Amy now had the same glow.
Bill was just trying to puzzle this out when Xander trotted back over, rubbing his chest. "Those girls are vicious!" he said. "one of them punched me in the chest!"
"I'M going to punch you in the chest if you don't tell us what it said!" Cordelia griped at him.
"Sorry," said Xander, then he smiled big. "You all three got in! Amy, you must have done really well, because you got an actual title. "Second Alternate"."
"God, I can't believe this!" said Amy, looking crestfallen, as she stormed off.
"I'll talk to her," said Buffy starting after Amy but Cordelia grabbed her arm.
"Buffy, you can't," she said. "Lisa said yesterday she needed to see the ones that made the team first thing after she posted the results." Buffy nodded as the two went off. Xander just looked confused.
"Xander," said Willow exasperatedly. "The alternates are the girls who DIDN'T make the team."
"Y-yeah," said Tara. "th-they only fill in if s-something happens to one of the o-other girls."
Xander looked disgusted with himself. "for I am Xander," he said. "King of Cretins and all lesser Cretins must bow before me!"
Bill clapped him on the shoulder. "More like Court Jester Of Cretins," he said. He looked Willow and Taras in the eyes. "Don't worry," he said. "I've got this." He went off after Amy.
"I-I better get to class," said Tara. She said bye to Willow and Xander and left. The two shared their first hour, so they started walking there together.
"You ok?" Xander asked as they walked. Most everybody else had already made it to class so, there was nobody else in the halls.
"Yeah," said Willow, a little sadly. "Just, what Amy and I got caught up doing last night? It really didn't work out the way we'd hoped. Didn't work out at all, actually.
Xander, being a typical teenage boy, totally misinterpreted what Willow was saying. Having noticed the sparks between Buffy and Darla, he was wondering if maybe his best friend and Amy had doen a little experimenting. He stopped and turned to face Willow. "Will," he said, earnestly. "You knwo yo ucan tell me anything, right?"
"I know," said Willow, as she tilted her head to look him in the eyes for the first time this morning. "its just that..." She trailed off. Her eyes took on a very brief yellowish glow. As hers stopped glowing, Xanders too glowed, then stopped. The two just stood there, gazing into each others eyes.
"My God," said Xander. "Why have I never noticed before how beautiful your eyes are? I could start writing today, and write every day for the rest of my life and still never finish describing them."
"Xander," said Willow, breahtlessly love and lust in her eyes. "I've been in love with you for years. I can't believe I'm just now brave enough to tell you."
"But you're telling me now," answered Xander, moving closer, his voice barely above a whisper. "And I'm telling you, I love you too. and now that we've found each other, I'm never letting you go."
The two moved in and clsoed their eyes as their lips locked in a fiery, passionate kiss.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
"Amers, wait up," called Bill. amy just kept walking, but he finally caught up to her. "What do those girls know?" he asked. "Besides, you've never cared about cheerleading before."
"You don't understand," said Amy, crying. "My mom MADE me try out. Just like she MADE me lose the weight. She told me I was the daughter of Katherine The Great and I BELONGED on that team. And sher told me i wouldn't like what would happen if I didn't make the team. God, Bill I'm scared of her!" She looekd up, looking into Bill's eyes for the first tiem this morning. "What am I gonna do?" Her eyes breifly flashed with a yellowish glow, then so did Bill's.
"Don't worry," said Bill. "I'll protect you. I'll always protect you!" He looked more deeply into her eyes. "God, I see you almost every day but today, I feel like I'm seeing you for the first time!"
Amy looked back at him. "Every time I see you," she said. "it's like I'm seeing you for the first time. I lvoe you, Bill Doyle. Could yo uever love me?"
Bill took her in his arms. "What do you think?" he asked, then pressed his lips to hers in a fiery, passionate kiss.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
A/N 2: Yes, the dialogue between Xander and Willow then Bill and Amy at the end was INTENTIONALLY lame. I meant for it to sound every bit as bad as it did. Unless of course, it made yo uwant to gouge your eyes out. Self mutilation was NOT my intent.
Up Next. Love makes you do the wacky, top quote Buffy. Well, things get wackier