stakeout chapter 10

Gates of Heaven Cemetery

Sunnydale, Ca,

October 10, 1998

Saturday, 11:45 PM

Gabriel Martin was sweating under his mask, and it was not because of the heat.

The balaclava mask that the Stakeout deputies used on patrol were normally worn by SWAT Team members. Looking like a stocking cap, with one quick jerk the mask could be pulled down over someone's face, leaving only a narrow gap for the eyes. SWAT wore the Nomex masks on raids to protect their faces against flash burns from stun grenades. Stakeout wore the masks to conceal their identities, which was why Gabriel had his mask down at the moment.

Stakeout Team Blue had been sweeping through Gates of Heaven Cemetery on routine patrol when Scott Kelly had heard noises through his parabolic mike's earphones. More than one person was walking toward them, the faint crackle of leaves the only warning. Scott threw his hand in the air and gave the 'enemy approaching' signal, and Gabriel had immediately responded with the 'take cover' hand signal. Scott was now crouched behind a oak tree ten yards away on Gabriel's right side still scanning with his mike, while Tim Harris was kneeling eight yards away behind a monument on his left, shotgun at low ready position.

Gabriel had his silenced MP-5 PDW pointed at the ground behind the vault he was hiding behind, selector switch on safe and finger outside the trigger guard. He had only the short 10 round concealment magazine inserted in the compact automatic weapon, but loading a full sized 30 round mag would make too much noise, since the oncoming visitors were only a few yards away from them now.

Breathing shallowly through his mouth, Gabriel was starting to make out what the two figures ahead of were saying now.

"You've got to be kidding me, B, you're telling me you don't have a stud to use and abuse in this place?"

"I.. I don't believe you Faith, is that all you think about, slaying and sex? I don't need a guy to take care of me."

"Oh, really? Don't tell me you don't get the same itch I do after a good slay, either you take care of it yourself or you have someone do it for you. Unless you're not into guys..."

"No... NO! I'm not gay, I just don't go throwing myself at guys like..."

"Like I do? Don't sweat it, B, I don't hide what I do. If I didn't get my freak on, I'd probably pop inside a week. To each her own."

Gabriel's hands had tightened on his weapon before consciously relaxing them. The two Stakeout teams had run across the Slayer out in the field before, and the drill had always been the same - stay out of sight and move away after the girl had passed. This was the first time that she had ever been so close to them, and now they had the new Slayer to worry about.

"So you wanna go to the Bronze after this? Have to get rid of all this excess energy. If I can't fight, I might as well dance it away."

"Sure, just have to stop by the library and check in with Giles..."

"Hell no! What are you going to tell him, 'Hey G-Man, we slayed two vamps and we're going to the Bronze to try and get our brains screwed out by some hottie?"

"One, we are *not* going so we can get with some *hottie*, and two, if I don't check in with Giles, the next time I see him he'll sit me down, start polishing his glasses and lecture me about my duties as a Slayer and how my personal life should not interfere with it. It's a great speech, Faith, I usually fall asleep about halfway into it."

"Make you a deal then, B. We find a phone and call the report in Watcher Man, and then we go to the Bronze. There's a pay phone there, even."

"Deal. Just have to finish this section of the cemetery and we'll be done."

Gabriel saw the shorter girl turn and more off to the left of where she had been walking - right toward Scott's position. There was no way that the girl would miss him and there was no way that Scott could get out of her way without being seen.

Just as Gabriel realized what was about to happen, there was a loud clinking sound to his left. Slowly turning his head, Gabriel could see that Tim Harris was throwing rocks into the headstones behind the two Slayers, creating a distraction.

"Back me up, B." Drawing a stake from her waistband, the taller Slayer cautiously moved toward the sound, the shorter Slayer facing the other way to make sure no one snuck up in them.

Moving slowly, Scott low crawled away from his position once he was out of the line of sight of the two Slayers. Seeing that Scott was safely moving away, Gabriel moved his head behind the vault and gestured for Scott to keep falling back.

"Look what I found, B." Faith's voice carried over to Gabriel, causing him to stop in mid-motion, thinking that the Slayers had seen them after all.

"What are you doing here?!?!" Buffy Summer's voice was angry as she stormed over toward the other Slayer and the sheepish figure standing beside her.

"Would you believe that I was just in the neighborhood, Buff?" Gabriel turned to face the new male voice.

"Like hell, Xander. You were following us, weren't you?"

"Uh... um... no???" Xander Harris replied weakly.

Buffy got up in Xander's face, hands on her hips, her whole posture radiating anger. "So what are you doing in a graveyard at midnight, huh? Just taking a stroll?"

"Hey, I got my gear with me, I'm OK. I've slayed vampires before."

"Not by yourself, Xander. And not in a cemetery at night!" Buffy's voice was getting louder.

"I've staked vamps alone. And I can take care of myself." Xander's voice was going from defensive to angry.

"Even if you do, you shouldn't be out here late at night, you could get yourself killed. And what were you doing following us???"

Gabriel snuck a look around the vault, catching a quick glimpse of the angry look on Buffy's face, the embarrassed look on Xander's, and the amused look on Faith's. Moving back, the magazine of his weapon scraped lightly against the stone side, causing him to freeze in place.

"How many times have I told you that you shouldn't be patrolling, Xander? You don't have the strength or the training to go one on one with vampires."

"I did pretty well that night I saved *your* ass, Buffy. Strength and training didn't do much for you then." Xander's angry retort was followed by silence, and as Gabriel was edging around to sneak another look, he suddenly flew backwards, the punch to his chest not registering until he fell to the ground two yards back.

"We got company here!!!" Faith shouted to the others, jumping forward toward Gabriel after throwing the punch that knocked him back and caused his MP-5 to fall from his hands.

Instinctively, Gabriel tried to move away from the oncoming Slayer but saw that it would not do any good. Instead he waited until the last second and kicked out hard, his boot connecting with the girl's ankle, causing her to cry out and stagger back a couple steps. That gave him just enough time to stand so he could be tackled by Faith and knocked to the ground again.

"What the fuck are you?" Faith snarled as she punched him hard in the stomach twice. Gabriel's armor vest absorbed most of the force, but the wind was still driven out of his lungs, leaving him gasping on his back, the Slayer straddling him.

Just as Faith was reaching up toward his mask, she was suddenly knocked back and off of him. The quick shape of Scott Kelly was about to reach down toward the Slayer when Xander Harris slammed into him, knocking him away from the dark haired girl. Xander advanced toward Scott as Faith pulled a stake out and started toward Gabriel again.

Gabriel was scrabbling backwards again when suddenly something happened that caused everyone to stop where they were. As a bright light flashed on them, they was the distinctive *chunk-chuck* sound of a shotgun being pumped.

The three teens turned to look, but all they could see behind the brilliant light was the shape of a man aiming a shotgun at them.

After a long moment, Gabriel stood, and not turning his back toward them, started to move away from the three teens. A moment later, Scott did the same. Once they were standing behind Tim and his shotgun, they started to move away from the Slayers and the boy. As soon as they were a decent distance away, Tim turned off the tactical light on his shotgun and they started to run away toward the street.

Once the three spectral shapes faded into the darkness, the three teens looked at each other, confusion and a little fear on all their faces.

Sunnydale High School Library

Sunnydale, CA

October 11, 1998

Saturday, 12:30 AM

Rupert Giles was polishing his glasses with a silk handkerchief as he considered what he had been told. The three teenagers were sitting quietly in front of him, their alternating stories finally completed.

"You are not able to identify these beings as vampires or demons?" Giles looked toward Buffy as he put his glasses back on.

"It happened too fast. Twenty seconds, tops." Buffy looked unhappy as she spoke.

Faith shook her head. "I punched my guy solid in the chest two times and he got back up, nothing human can take that kind of hit without major damage."

"What did it feel like when you hit him?" The two Slayers and the Watcher looked surprised at the question from Xander.

"What do you mean? It felt like hitting a brick wall. I thought I broke something after the second time." Faith looked down at her hands, the knuckles red and swollen.

"I mean, did it feel like you were hitting flesh and bone or did you feel something solid?" Xander had a frown on his face, evidently thinking of something in particular.

Faith considered the question. "I didn't feel any give when I hit, that's why I said it felt like hitting a wall."

"There a point to this, Xander?" Buffy was still annoyed at him for following them on patrol.

Xander looked briefly at Buffy then up at Giles. "I think those guys were cops, something like that, Giles."

Faith's and Giles' eyes went wide, as Buffy shook her head. "What makes you believe that, Xander?" Giles inquired.

"These guys had masks on like SWAT cops do. We haven't seen any demons or vamps try to cover their faces, only humans would do that. They were all wearing street clothes, jeans and coats. One of these guys had a submachine gun and another had a shotgun, cops carry those. That's why we had to back off."

Faith nodded. "That guy pumped a shotgun, you can't mistake that sound."

"That guy that Faith hit was probably wearing body armor with a trauma plate in the front, you've seen the kind I'm talking about, Buffy. That's why the guy didn't get hurt.

"So why didn't the other guy shoot? He had the drop on all of us." Buffy still looked unconvinced.

"Because he didn't want to shoot us. They were trying to scare us off." Xander was looking between Giles and Buffy now.

"Again, what makes you believe that, Xander?" Giles was starting to look convinced.

Digging in his shirt pocket, Xander stood and handed something to Giles. "I found that on the ground after those guys took off."

Buffy stood and looked that the green object in Giles' hand. "What's that?

"It's a Remington tactical reduced recoil shotgun shell, they issue them to police officers. The guy with the shotgun already had a round in the chamber when he pumped his gun, that's why I found that shell on the ground. All he had to do to fire was to pull the trigger, but he didn't. He let us go." Xander stated definitively.

"Didn't you tell me that the cops here in Sunnydale had their heads up their butts most of the time, B?" Faith was rubbing the knuckles on her hand.

"They do. The only thing they do is arrest me when they find me involved at some crime scene." Buffy looked over at Giles for confirmation.

"The police here in Sunnydale does tend to be remarkably inept, Faith. They manage not to see what is directly in front of them. That is not to say they would not be a threat to us if we were to cross paths." Giles leaned up against the big table, glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"You're saying that the PD might mess us up if we get too close to them. That doesn't sound like the kind of guys that we ran into. They could have dropped us with that shotgun and no one would have said 'boo' to them about it." Faith stood up and started to pace in a circle. "Do you think that Sunnydale PD would knows about the creepy-crawlies here in the 'dale?"

"There is no way that they couldn't know that there are unusual happenings here in Sunnydale, but would they believe that there are demons and vampires? Probably not." Giles stated with certainty.

"Those guys were loaded for bear and they didn't throw down on us. People don't run around in the graveyard at night with guns for fun. These guys know what's up here." Faith stopped pacing and looked back at Giles. "What are the chances that the PD getting their act together?"

"Not very likely, unless something much bigger than what has been occurring lately has taken place to change their method of operation. This is something that is a cause for great concern." Giles stated, putting his glasses back on.

"If you're talking about having another big deal to worry about, G-Man, I agree. Guns beat stakes hands down." Xander sat back down in his chair.

"Ditto." Buffy said softly, worry plain on her face.

The Old Range Building

SCSD Academy

Sunnydale, CA

October 11, 1998

Saturday, 12:45 AM

Gabriel walked slowly into the range building, his ribs aching from the hits he had taken. The heavy war bag in his hands did not help any, but Gabriel was too proud to ask one of the other deputies for help.

Once they had gotten back to the truck after running from the Slayers, Tim Harris had gotten in behind the wheel and waited until everyone had jumped on board before slamming into gear and driving off toward the Academy.

Gabriel had seen the outward calm on Tim's face, but he had an idea as to how Tim was really feeling. The worse things got, the more calm the former Ranger sergeant appeared to be. Right now Tim was the most calm that Gabriel had ever seen in a stressful situation, and that was beginning to worry him.

Just as Gabriel was beginning to wonder how bad it would be if Tim actually *appeared* stressed, the truck pulled into the parking slot in front of the old range building. Shutting off the engine of the Yukon, Tim got out of the truck and without a word walked into the building, leaving his gear behind. Scott quickly walked in behind him, having received a phone call from Steve Angelo at the range building while they were still en route that got him all excited.

Walking slowly, Gabriel finally dropped his bag by one of the firing lanes of the range when Steve and Scott walked out of the classroom toward him, grim looks on their faces.

"What happened?" Gabriel could see that the news was not going to be good.

"I was monitoring the bugs we had placed in the school library after our team got back from patrol. The two Slayers, the boy and the librarian were there right now and they were talking about you guys." Steve was the first to speak.

"So you know what happened out there tonight." Gabriel's voice was flat as he looked at the two techs.

"From the Slayers' mouths to our ears. And they were talking about how they think that you may be Sunnydale PD." The corner of Steve's mouth twitched up slightly.

"Wonderful," groaned Gabriel. "At least our cover hasn't been completely blown."

"Considering how hard that Slayer hit you, I'm surprised you didn't blow something else." Scott looked down at Gabriel's chest, where his shirt concealed his body armor.

"Tell me about it," Gabriel groused. Tapping himself on the chest and hearing a faint clink, he frowned. "I think the plate is broken."

Scott looked like he was about to say something else when they saw Tim, no expression on his face, come striding out of the classroom they used for storage. What caused everyone's eyes to widen was the hickory night stick he had in his hand.

"Hey Tim, what's up with the..." Steve spoke to Tim but stopped as he walked by them without even acknowledging them.

Turning to follow him, the three deputies watched as Tim walked up to one of the thick support pillars for the building and without a pause swing the night stick with full force at the concrete column.

*CRASH* *CRASH* The sound of the hickory baton smashing into the concrete caused the deputies to flinch, watching Tim as he did a forward strike and immediately reverse it and hit the pillar again from the other direction, the two strikes only a half second apart.

*CRASH* *CRASH* The baton hit the concrete again, causing small fragments of both the night stick and the concrete to come flying free.

*CRASH* *CRACK* After one more swing the baton broke, half of the hard wood stick flying off, leaving only the handle and a couple of inches of hickory in Tim's hand.

Stepping up to one of the firing lanes Tim threw the other half of the baton down range, the piece soaring almost the entire length of the 25 yard range before falling to the floor with a clatter.

Turning back to face the three deputies, Tim flexed his hand, still stinging from the impacts, and one eyebrow raised as if to dare anyone to say anything.

"Feel better now?" Gabriel was pretty sure he knew what had gotten Tim so upset.

"Not really." Tim kept clenching his hand. "I had to aim a loaded shotgun at my nephew tonight, Sergeant. I don't think I'll ever feel better about that."

Gabriel looked from Tim to the deputies from both teams, who had come out at the sounds of the night stick hitting concrete and now had curious looks on their faces.

"It's been a bad night for everyone, Tim." Turning to look at the assembled deputies, Gabriel spoke up. "Steve, set up the tape from the library for me to hear. Everyone else, lock up your gear and go home. We'll do the after-action report tomorrow." Gabriel was disregarding team procedure by putting off the report, but after the triple whammy of fighting the Slayers, having to point weapons at them and then finding out that their cover may have been blown, some slack was understandable.

Once the deputies nodded and wandered off, Gabriel looked back at Tim and saw him looking down at the floor, his shoulders slumped slightly. With a deep breath, Tim stood straight and looked toward his team commander.

"I'll go get my gear from the truck." Tim stated neutrally. Gabriel could see in Tim's eyes that he was slightly ashamed of losing control like he did.

"OK then. See you tomorrow at briefing." Gabriel nodded at Tim and watched him walk toward the parking area before turning and walking to the classroom.

end stakeout chapter 10