Chapter 14

"Oh yeah," Xander said clapping his hands together a wide grin on his face. "Last day before Christmas vacation. My kinda school day."

"It'll be so nice to have some time off," Buffy agreed leaning against the lockers, relishing the cool feel of the metal beneath her bare shoulder. "What've you got planned for Christmas Break Wills?"

"Being Jewish," Willow said with a tilt of her head. "Remember people, we don't all worship Santa."

Buffy grinned and shook her head. "I just meant you know, any fun plans, not necessarily Christmas plans."

"Oh," Willow sighed. "No not really, my parents aren't coming home until New Year so I'm pretty much doing my own thing. Whatever that is."

"The Dingos got any gigs?" Xander asked Oz.

"A few. We'll be at The Bronze twice next week and Devon thinks he's scored us a gig in L.A." he paused and looked at Willow, "I'm not sure me leaving town right now is such a good idea though."

She looked confused. "Why not?"

Oz didn't answer right away he just examined Willow closely. She looked all Willow-like today with her hair in braids, a multicoloured striped top, jeans and her yellow smiley face backpack and there was no rising of his hackles; that didn't mean that Oz trusted what he saw. It was Willow, the girl he loved, and Oz was taking no chances with her safety.

"Well," he said at last. "I thought we'd need all hands on deck to figure out this problem with you and Spike."

"Oh," Willow's lips turned down at the corners. "That."

"You know what," Xander clapped his hands again. "Let's not talk about the evil undead right now. Let's just bask in the glow of the last day of school."

Buffy nodded. "Good plan."

"I've been known to have them."

"Oh yeah? When?" Buffy teased.

"I seem to recall an ugly ancient guy sitting in judgement on us all."

"Your right," Buffy held up her hands in a sigh of surrender. "You really pulled it outta the bag with the Judge, Xan."

"It was pretty inspired," Oz said.

"You want a man with the plan, it's the Xan-Man."

"Could you be any lamer?" Cordelia sniffed as she came up beside Buffy.

"Admit it, Cordelia, your just jealous 'cos I have all the good ideas and not you," Xander said taking her hand and lacing his fingers through hers.

"Yes," she said patiently, "That's exactly what it is, Xander."

"So, class?" Willow suggested, the corridor was beginning to thin out as students headed to the first class of the day.

"Lets do it," Buffy said. "Just a few hours to get through and then we're outta here."

"Anyone know what Faith's up to over the holidays?" Oz wondered.

"Probably hanging out in some sleazy bar doing some skanky stuff," Cordelia wrinkled her nose. "I on the other hand will be skiing. Did I tell you, Oz?"

"You may have mentioned it." Oz replied. "Did she say anything to you yesterday?" he looked to Willow.

Willow shook her head. "I was sleeping for most of the day, I wasn't exactly chatty girl. We should make more of an effort with her, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah we should," Buffy agreed. "I've already had the lecture off my mom about that. She wants to invite her to spend Christmas Eve with us."

"That should be nice," Willow gave her friend an encouraging smile.

Buffy did not appear to be encouraged by it. "I guess."

"We could invite her to The Bronze," Oz suggested. "She did spend all day yesterday looking after Willow."

"Definitely gets points for that," Buffy squeezed Willow's arm. "Okay, let's do it. As soon as we figure out this bizarro problem with Angel we'll Bronze it and I'll bring Faith along."

A sense of annoyance needled the back of Willow's mind. It would never cease to amaze her how Buffy could conveniently forget all about any other problem when it suited her. It was always Angel. Only twenty four hours ago Buffy had been hell bent on solving the Spike/ soul problem but now it appeared that she and Spike could take a back seat to Angel and his dreams.

Willow glowered. Maybe she would let Buffy do all the research and all the reading and the cross referencing and the patrolling and the mooning about over Angel and see how well she did without her.

XxX

Willow's dark thoughts about Buffy had disintegrated by the time lunch rolled around and she had forgotten all about her friend's comments on Angel.

She was sitting comfortably on Oz's lap at a table by the window the sun warm on the back of her neck and spilling on to Buffy's hair turning it golden in the light. Xander was having a rather gross conversation with Oz about how many fries he could fit in his mouth at one time while Buffy chatted on about French class. Cordelia was still in the lunch line with Harmony beside her, she had a bored look on her face and Willow giggled to herself.

"School food," Buffy glared at her plate of lasagne. "I'm so not going to miss this."

"It's not the tastiest treat," Willow agreed breaking off the top of her banana. "Oh look, it's Giles."

Buffy turned and saw Giles falling into step with Cordelia and cross the canteen to their table. "Hey, Giles."

Cordelia took a seat next to Xander. "So, what's with the dire face, Giles?"

"Yeah G-Man, how can you be all doom and gloom when it's the last day of school?" Xander tutted and shook his head in mock disgust.

"I take it not one of you have seen the paper today?" Giles took the newspaper from under his arm and smoothed it flat in the centre of the table. He tapped the front page. "Six women were killed last night. The police are refusing to comment on it but somehow this reporter got wind of the story overnight and here it is on the front page."

"Six!" Cordelia exclaimed her forkful of salad half way to her mouth.

"Vamps?" Xander looked to Giles for confirmation.

Buffy sat up straighter. "Some sort of ritual?"

"Are we sure it's a hellmouth thing?" Oz turned the paper around so that he could scan the article.

"God I hope so," Buffy cracked her knuckles.

"I don't know," Giles admitted. "There isn't an awful lot to go on in the paper. Willow, do you think you could perhaps find something on the computer?"

"No problem, I'll pull up the police files and the coroner's data base and see what they have to say."

Giles gave her a grateful look. "Wonderful. I don't know where we'd be without you."

It would do no harm, Giles thought, to remind Willow just how important she was to him and to Buffy. If Willow could really see how they valued her help, if she didn't feel as though they were taking advantage of her kind nature then maybe it would assist in curbing Spike's influence over her and keep her on the right path.

Willow beamed her cheeks pinking at the praise and she looked to Giles the way she always looked; like Willow. Nice, kind, dependable Willow with never a bad word to say about anyone. But no matter how much he tried not to, Giles could still feel that ray of sunshine dipping behind a dark cloud.

Buffy, Oz and Willow accompanied Giles back to the library leaving Xander to stay with Cordelia until she finished her lunch. Willow immediately went behind the counter and fired up the computer, it always made her smile that Giles never switched it on unless he absolutely had to.

Leaning against the counter and dropping her bag at her feet Buffy asked, "Are there any obvious links between the women?"

"Not really," Giles said tossing the paper on the counter. "All different ages, not much on their backgrounds at this juncture. The only thing that connects them at the moment is their hair."

Eyebrows lifting in surprise Oz said, "Their hair?"

"All red heads," Giles said.

"So what does that mean?" Buffy's fingers played along the edge of the newspaper. "Is someone or something sacrificing red heads for some sort of ritual?"

Willow paled. "I hope not."

"No-one's getting you," Buffy said firmly.

"Definitely not," Oz agreed. "Would hair colour even matter in a ritual? I've heard of virgin sacrifices but never red head sacrifices."

"Bit risky too," Buffy said thoughtfully. "I mean, you see a woman on the street with red hair but you don't know that's her actual hair colour. Not everyone's natural like our Wills."

Willow smiled and touched a hand to one of her braids. The police department really should take better precautions with their security system, she clicked her tongue against her teeth, it was ridiculously easy to breach it.

"I'm not positive that it's a ritual sacrifice," Giles said. "With a ritual sacrifice the sacrifice is at the place of the ritual."

"Like an altar?" Oz asked.

"Precisely; or pouring the sacrificial blood upon a pentagram drawn on the floor, or drinking the blood at a certain stage in the ritual. Sacrifices aren't generally left scattered all over town."

"The bodies weren't all together?"

Giles shook his head. "No, Buffy, they were found where they fell."

"Vamp's then?" she suggested a frown on her face. "Should we be expecting some newly risen pains in my ass or what?"

"I don't know," Giles sighed. "We'll have to see what Willow uncovers."

Willow sat back after scanning the coroner's data base. "I'd say vampires. Unidentified bite radius on the neck and body drained of blood."

Buffy snorted. "Unidentified bite radius. Guess I'd better hit the morgue tonight, huh?"

"Best to be safe," Giles said. "I'm not sure what significance the hair colour has, if any, but six women in one night is concerning, especially if they rise."

"I'll drop in as soon as it gets dark."

"Do you want some help?" Oz offered.

"Maybe you better have some back up, Buffy. Just in case."

"If you say so, Giles. Sure, Oz, that would be great."

Giles frowned. "I was thinking more along the lines of Faith. No offence, Oz."

Oz shook his head. "None taken."

Buffy's smile was strained, she didn't see why she, Oz and Xander couldn't go, they'd faced worse in their time and they were all still standing. She was trying to get on board with Faith but it was difficult having another Slayer around. Besides, apart from the Slayer thing she and Faith had nothing in common; they weren't two people who would naturally choose to spend time together.

"It's nearly time for class," Willow said getting up. "I'll look again later and see if there's any other statements or reports I can find in the police files."

"What about the newspaper?" Oz suggested. "If you could get into their system there might be something there."

"That's a good idea," Willow said. "I'll check there later too. I never really think to look at their site, we always know more than they do."

"That's because you and Giles are better investigators."

Willow smiled. "Thanks, Buff. Has a ring to it, doesn't it, Giles and Rosenberg Investigations."

"You could totally fight crime," Buffy said grinning when Giles lips pursed. "In tights," she added her grin deepening.

Giles sighed and rolled his eyes at their laughter and went to tidy some books away.

"That's really more of superhero thing," Oz said, "But he could make it work."

"Oh definitely," Buffy agreed.

They continued to debate the merits of Giles in tights as they left the library and Giles smiled to himself, it was always nice to see them behaving like every day regular teenagers without the stress of impending doom on their shoulders.

XxX

Squatting on her haunches before the TV Faith scowled and gave it a vicious thump, stupid thing was all static. She barely glanced at the door when the knock came. "Yeah?"

Willow pushed open the door and eyed the irate Slayer who continued to thump the life out of the TV set. "Everything alright?"

"I told you this thing was crappy," Faith muttered hitting the off switch and standing up. "What's up?"

"Nothing really," Willow said glancing around the little room. She had rather hoped that the rooms would be better than the outside of the motel suggested; she had been wrong. "I um, I like your lights."

Faith glanced at the string of red Christmas lights she had strung along the wall. "'Tis the season and everything."

"Hum," Willow shrugged. "Jewish, so…."

Faith nodded, "Gotcha." She waited but Willow said nothing more no matter how hard she stared at her. "Something on your mind?"

"Oh, well, I… um, well, I was sort of hoping that maybe, you could help me out with something."

"What sort of something?" A week ago Faith would have been mystified as to what Little Miss Good Girl could possibly want her help with, now though she was curious as to what Willow had in mind that perfect Buffy wasn't first on the list of helpers.

"I'm heading to the mall and I thought that… well I hoped that you'd come with me."

Faith's eyebrows shot up. "The mall? What for? I mean, why me?"

"Well," Willow stepped further into the room her fingers picking absently at some colourful fluff on her equally colourful sweater. "Do you remember the other day when you asked if I was changing my look? Well, I decided that I should. Change my look I mean. Like I said, everything I own is fuzzy." She glared at the sweater. "Like this."

"So where do I come in?" Faith dug her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. "I'm not exactly Fashion Queen, you know."

Willow let out a long breath. "The obvious person to ask would be Cordelia but I don't want to wear what Cordelia says is in style and what Cordelia thinks is best. Besides she'd treat me like a living breathing Barbie doll."

"Yeah, she probably would. What about B? Isn't the girl bonding and girly shopping more B's thing?"

Willow folded her arms across her chest. "I don't want to look like a mini Buffy. She's tried making me change my look before and she doesn't listen to what I like and what I don't."

Although Willow had to admit that if it weren't for Buffy's insistence she wouldn't have had that Halloween outfit and Spike wouldn't have taken her to Willy's.

"You're not the height of fashion like Cordelia or tiny skirts like Buffy. You're more…. Normal," Willow said after a pause. "Comfortable and normal and not bright and fluffy. I just…."

"Yeah alright I'll go with you," Faith held up a hand to cut off Willow's rambling, besides, with the TV busted she didn't exactly have anything else to do right now. "Lets face it, your wardrobe is a cry for help."

Willow sighed. "Yeah I guess it is. How come I never realised how bad it was before?"

Faith shrugged as she grabbed her keys and her jacket. "People change, they grow up and their tastes change. Just the way it is."

"Don't let me buy anything fuzzy, okay?"

"Deal."

Faith wasn't particularly a big fan of shopping and luckily for her neither was Willow. They picked a shop, went in, looked around and if something caught Willow's eye she tried it on. There was no lingering around, no looking at every single item in the shop, no oohing and ahhing over the shoes and accessories; it was Faith's kind of shopping.

She found Willow easy enough to be around. Willow didn't pout when Faith gave her honest opinion, she didn't spend ages staring and twisting and scrutinizing herself in the changing room mirrors, if she liked it she bought it, if she didn't she put it back. No muss, no fuss.

"I need a new going out outfit," Willow said after a while swapping the carrier bags from her left to her right hand and flexing her fingers. She was glad Faith was there with her super Slayer strength, it was handy having a Slayer to carry her bags. "I only have the one you saw in a heap on the floor and Spike won't take me to Willy's again if I don't have an appropriate outfit."

"He say that?"

"Not in those words exactly but yeah, pretty much."

Faith grinned. "Got to admit I checked out the outfit on the floor, pretty radical for you, isn't it? Where'd you get it?"

"It was a Halloween costume Buffy picked out for me."

Faith frowned. "B sent you out on Halloween as a hooker?"

Willow was immediately indignant. "No! I was a ghost!" she paused, a horrified look on her face. "Do you think I looked like a… like that in it? Spike didn't say so, he said I… what was it? Oh yeah, that I did very well."

"What does that mean?"

"I asked him if I'd do, you know, if I looked alright to go to Willy's and he said that I did very well. He seemed to like it, the outfit I mean."

Faith grinned. "Yeah, I bet he did."

The response was loaded with meaning and Willow flushed. Turning her head away she made a bee line for the next shop she saw. Faith followed her laughing quietly which just proved to inflame Willow's cheeks even more.

Willing her face to return to normal colour Willow wandered between the racks of clothing stopping to run her fingers over the cool fabric of a blue top, it had pretty little flowers and birds embroidered on it in an oriental pattern.

"What's with you and blue?" Faith asked leaning her elbow on the rack and eyeing the top. "Nearly everything you look at first is blue."

"It reminds me of Spike's eyes." Willow gasped, her eyes growing wide. Had she just said that? She had, she could tell by the way Faith was looking at her. Withdrawing her hand from the top she took a step back from it her hand resting over her suddenly racing heart.

She had no idea where that thought had come from, she hadn't deliberately been looking at blue clothing, she hadn't realised that she had been doing it until Faith had pointed it out.

Confusion, it swamped her and caught her thoughts, twisting them, playing with them, laying them bare for scrutiny when she would prefer not to have to deal with them at all.

"There's a red dress on the wall over there, looks nice," Faith gestured over Willow's shoulder. "Go try it on and then we'll get something to eat, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Dazed, Willow went through the motions of collecting the dress, trying it on, doing a twirl for Faith's approval and finally buying it. The joy had gone out of the afternoon, not that it was all that great to begin with, Willow disliked shopping as much as Faith did, but they'd been getting along well and Willow had been enjoying herself; until the colour blue was mentioned.

They were silent leaving the shop, they were still silent when they found a place to eat and ordered burgers and fries and they remained silent until the food came and Willow desperately launched into an account of the six murdered women.

Faith listened dipping her fries into the blob of ketchup on her plate. It was lucky that she had read the article that morning, keeping up with Willow's rapid pace was a difficult thing to do. The girl hardly paused long enough to chew her food; Faith was positive she just bit into her burger and swallowed.

"So I guess I'll swing by the library tonight and head to the morgue with B."

Willow nodded sipping at her soda.

"You going to the library tonight?"

"Yeah, depending on what you and Buffy find at the morgue there might be research to be done."

"So no plans with Spike then?" Faith rolled her eyes when Willow started. "Oh come on, Willow, one of us had to mention him."

"No," she said carefully. "I don't think so. I haven't seen him. I don't make plans with him, he just sort of shows up." Willow felt it was important that Faith know that although she couldn't quite say why.

"And you drop everything and go with him." She said it simply, there was no judgement in her tone that wasn't her style, but she was curious about the relationship between Willow and Spike it seemed to be moving along at breakneck speed. She'd been with him nearly every night this week.

Willow opened her mouth to refute the claim but found that she couldn't. That was exactly what she did. She lied to her friends, she blew off research, she got drunk with a vicious vampire like Spike and she wasn't sorry about it.

"Yes."

Willow didn't elaborate and Faith didn't push it, she wasn't sure that there was much else Willow could tell her right now even if she was so inclined.

"Weird about Angel, huh?"

Faith nodded and took a drink of her soda. It was odd, but she didn't get the feeling that Willow was changing the subject in order to avoid a difficult conversation about Spike. Somehow, and Faith wasn't sure exactly how she knew as she had never really been very good with people; but in spite of everything that was going on, in spite of the fact that so far as she could see Spike was the one very real thing in her life, he still didn't quite exist for Willow beyond the shared soul.

"I hope we can find a way to fix it for him and soon, he's been to hell and back, he needs some peace."

"Giles doesn't see it that way."

Willow's brow furrowed. "Maybe he has a right to feel that way, but, well, Angel's spent a hundred years in hell, doesn't that kinda make it even Stevens?"

Faith shrugged. "No point asking me, I'm no expert on the rights and wrongs of things. If I wanna do something then I'll do it and worry about the consequences later. Maybe."

"Do you like Angel?"

"Don't really know much about him. He's hot, I can tell you that much."

"Attractive," Willow amended.

Lips twisting into a grin Faith leant back in her chair. "Your tastes run to smoking hot, bleached blonde, British vamps, don't they, Red?"

"If I had to make a choice," Willow said slowly. "Then yes, I'd choose Spike."

"You like him. Spike I mean."

"Yes," Willow nodded once. "Yes I like him."

It wasn't a confession, she said it in much the same way she would say she liked Angel or Giles or some random person in her class, but she didn't pick out clothing that matched Angel's eyes or Giles eyes or even her own eyes and Faith simply didn't understand how Willow didn't see that.

"I think Giles is wrong."

Faith blinked in surprise. So far as she could tell there was no such thing as Giles being wrong. "About what?"

"Angel."

"How'd you mean?"

"Buffy sent him to hell with his soul, he's paid the price for what he did. The universe brought him back and there has to be a reason for that. It's not to make him suffer that much I do know, he was suffering quite well in the hell dimension he was trapped in for a century."

"What're you getting at?"

"He's back for a reason, the universe, fate or whatever you want to call it has seen to that. No-one tried to bring him back he just appeared one day. I figure the universe feels he's done his penance and who's Giles to argue with forces strong enough to bring Angel back from a hell dimension? He's back for a reason, I don't know what that reason is, but there is a reason for his return."

"Probably."

"Giles isn't the only one to suffer at Angelus' hands, and just because he has suffered doesn't give him the right to play judge, jury and executioner."

"Maybe not, but I don't think he sees it that way."

"He's wrong," Willow said again, her voice firm and her eyes almost defiant.

"Well, I agree with you. I don't have a clue why he's here, but I think there is a reason that Angel's back." Eyes narrowing thoughtfully, Faith decided to just throw her next comment out there and see what Willow did with it. "He's different to other demons, he's a vamp with a soul, makes him special, unique."

An indignant look crossed Willow's face and a frown creased her forehead. "He's a vampire cursed with a soul and he's not the only one with a soul. Therefore, he's not special or unique."

Right then, now she knew, note to Slayer, don't say anything bad about Spike, don't dismiss Spike and don't insult Spike. Faith had the feeling that whether she realised it or not Willow was very much in Spike's corner and that, Faith just knew, was going to complicate everything.