Giles' Apartment
The entire Scoobie gang met at the former Watcher's apartment. Buffy stood in front of the room with her back to the front door explaining exactly what had happened at the Initiative and Professor Walsh's plan to 'dispose' the Vampire Slayer.
The front door of the apartment flew open. Graham entered without invite. His eyes were pinkish, wide, and wild. Buffy spun around to him just as his arms wrapped around her. He held her tightly against his body and kissed her shoulder burying his nose into her hair. "I'm so sorry." Graham's voice was muffled against her shoulder. "I didn't know… I didn't know… "
"I know. I'm okay." Buffy reassured him holding him tightly.
He drew his head back holding her face into his hands checking her for injury. There was nothing marking her beautiful face. "I am so sorry, Buffy. I knew somethin' wasn't right when I got there—I should've known."
"It's not your fault." Buffy ran a hand down his cheek finding his skin clammy under her palm. Her eyes darted around his face and noticed that his usual tan complexion was unusually pale, almost yellowy-white. His magnificent blue eyes were red with dark tired circles around them. "Graham…?"
Graham cut her off and kissed her forehead feeling relief until the sight of platinum hair caught his attention. Graham narrowed his eyes over the vampire sitting on the stairs. "You," Graham removed himself from Buffy's arms slowly moving towards Spike. "You're the vampire. The one from the graveyard. The one we've been searchin' for all around town. Hostile 17." Graham's voice was jagged with irritation.
"No, I'm just a friend of Xander's—" Spike rolled his eyes dropping the pathetic Texan accent. "Bugger it, I'm your guy."
Wearing a mask of anger and disbelief, Graham spun back around glaring at Buffy. "You let him go but you knew this was the vampire?"
Buffy shook her head needing to explain herself, "It's not like that."
"Then what its like?" Graham suddenly yelled surprising the room. His body started shivering, beads of sweat dropped over his forehead.
"Graham," Buffy said his name softly with concern, "are you okay?"
"Is it hot in here?" He folded his arms over his chest as if he were freezing but the sweat down his face told them otherwise. "Are you sure you're okay?" Graham suddenly asked with genuine concern.
"Ye-yeah, I'm fine." Her eyes went to his scratching hands. "How about you? You're looking a little…Do you want to sit?" Buffy gestured to a chair that Xander was sitting in. Xander jumped to his feet and pushed the chairs towards the ill man.
Graham looked at the chair trying to figure out the blurry shape then shook his head backing away towards the door.
"Graham?" Buffy said his name softly as his eyes wildly darted around the room. Cold sweat stained the green T-shirt he wore. "What's wrong? Talk to me."
Graham squeezed his eyes closed trying to focus on her voice. He opened his eyes to see a million Buffy's staring at him with worry. His jaw clenched suddenly feeling a wave of nausea. He stepped back hitting his back against the door as Buffy slowly came closer to him. She reached out her hand to touch his face when he slapped her hand away. "Stay away from me!" Graham growled and violently shoved her away.
Buffy stumbled backwards catching her footing. She looked at her boyfriend with surprise when she noticed his hypnotising blue eyes were blackened. "Graham—" Graham ran out of the apartment leaving the gang baffled with confusion and concern.
"Uh, what the hell just happened?" Xander looked at Buffy then to Giles.
"I have no idea." Buffy hugged her arms around herself.
Following Morning
Harris' House
Xander's Basement
Roadrunner dropped an anvil on the Coyote's head then took off through the desert. Buffy, Willow, and Anya stared at the cartoon with blank eyes. They watched the Coyote hop away like a dizzy accordion.
"That would never happen." Buffy frowned scrunching her nose with confusion.
"Well, no, Buf, that's why they call them cartoons and not documentaries." Willow gave her a sarcastic smirk.
"What do you think is wrong with Graham?" Anya suddenly asked. After getting to know the ex-demon in only a few short months, it didn't take an Einstein to know that Anya was as blunt as they came. Just when they thought Cordelia didn't have a filter…
Anya turned her head to Buffy and continued, "You said he was nowhere to be found when you last searched for him."
Buffy looked away from the eyes watching her. She hated what was happening to Graham, mostly because she had no idea what was happening to him. The last time she saw him at Giles', he was a wreck and no one had any answers. But something inside the Vampire Slayer told her that this was the Initiative's doing.
"It'll be okay." Willow laid a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Graham's just… confused that's all."
"I don't know." Buffy shook her head wearily. "Seems like things could get heavier. I mean, his world is falling apart. You guys were there. He totally freaked out and bailed without a trace."
"And after all that you went through with Angel… " Anya felt a sorry for the young blonde. Having this new found perspective on the human world, especially when it involved a selfless person, it was sad to see someone like that having to work so hard to find happiness. "You should get a boring boyfriend like Xander. But you can't have Xander." Anya glared.
"That was the idea. Graham was supposed to be Mister Joe Guy. We were supposed to do dumb stuff like hold hands through the daises going 'tra la la'."
Willow pouted, sticking out her bottom lip, "Poor Buffy. Your life resists all things average. But I can't really see Graham going, 'tra la la'. He's much too manly for that kind of thing."
"Oh, for sure," Buffy smiled at the image of Graham skipping through the daisies as awkwardly as possible.
"So dump him." Anya blatantly suggested. "But you can't have Xander."
"I'll try to remember that." Buffy smirked for a moment the sighed heavily. "Anyway, it's too late. I'm already at the, 'I hurt when he hurts', 'I smile when he smiles' stage." Buffy rested her head back against the pillows.
"I hate that part." Anya frowned feeling that emotion of sympathy for the young Slayer.
"So, I just have to make it work." Buffy said with an air of determination.
"I bet you will." Willow nodded her head.
"No, no bet. I will make it work." Buffy said with determination. She sat up a bit straighter feeling a serge of confidence run through her veins.
Xander's stomping feet from the steps turned the girl's attention. He fumbled as he moved around the pull out bed to the square box tv. He turned the dial to the news channel.
"Sunnydale is still reeling from a new crime. A source in the Coroner's Office tells us that the boy was stabbed by what looks like some kind of large skewer. The killer is still at large." The news anchor reported.
Xander turned off the tv facing Buffy and the two other girls sitting in bed with her.
Buffy knew exactly the demon who was responsible for the death. She stood up from the bed and be gan to pace back and forth. "The Polgara demon had a skewer in its arm. That was the one Maggie especially wanted us to bring back alive." Buffy thought back to the demon back at the cemetery a few nights before. "I'm going to the crime scene and see what I can find out." Buffy stood straight and powerful like a true General. "You guys research the Polgara demon—I want to know where it is. And when I can find it. I'm going to make him pay for taking that kids life. I'll make him die in ways he can't even imagine." Her primeval expression soured with realisation as she glanced down at her attire. "That… probably would have sounded more commanding if I wasn't wearing my Yummy-Sushi pyjamas." Buffy frowned.
Woods Near Restfield Cemetery
There was no one left at the crime scene as two medical examiners rolled a black bag on a stretcher into an ambulance.
Buffy stood on the top of a hill close enough to hear what was being said and far enough not to be noticed.
A dark shadow casted over the Vampire Slayer blocking the beaming sunlight. Buffy turned to her shadow and gasped surprise of who stood behind her. "Graham?"
"Walsh is dead." He said plainly. There was nothing behind his voice; not one ounce of emotion. His blue eyes were dark and completely blood-shot. They darted left to right, up and down wildly until they focused on her. "I was half expectin' you to be jumpin' up and down with happiness—goin' ding dong, the bitch is gone." He smirked seemingly unaware of the sweat dripping down his face.
Buffy's eyes widened offended by his morbid accusation. She pierced her lips angrily holding an almost lethal glare. "Happy? How can you say that to me? Of course I'm not happy. What happened? Who killed her?"
Graham stood straight lifting his chin up slightly, "That's classified."
"Classified?" Buffy fought the urge to roll her eyes. "The Polgara. It got her—then it escaped. Didn't it?" She quickly pieced Professor Walsh's and the child's murder together. Buffy looked at Graham knowing she was right by the way his expression darkened. "I'm going to find it." She vowed to him. "And destroy it. Then you'll stop asking how 'happy' all this death makes me." Buffy pushed past him only to have his hand catching her arm stopping her movements.
"I'm goin' with you."
Buffy looked up at him up and down for a moment. She knew that expression he wore. It was determination and pure stubbornness. There was no use in telling him anything otherwise. "Fine. But we have to move fast."
