Okay, several things can account for the lateness of this update. I had Writer's Block, I got a job, I learned how to play the guitar for Rock Band on hard after three years of being stuck on medium, and I was working on a very time-consuming piece of fanart that I started in February and have had Artist's Block for ever since. It's a picture of Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, and Spike, and if you want to see it, I posted it on my deviantart page, which you can get to via the homepage link on my profile. Now then, the new chapter:
"He did that? Really?" asked Willow, amazed. She and Buffy were sitting cross-legged opposite each other on the latter's bed, and it was about half an hour before nightfall.
"Yeah," said Buffy, beaming brightly—something she had done every time she thought or spoke about her new Watcher since the previous night at the Bronze.
"Wow," said Willow. "H-how did he do it? I mean, I thought there was just the one curse." She looked troubled. "If I'd known there was a way to rewrite it so that it would be permanent, I would have done it."
"I don't think you could have done it, Wil," said Buffy, shaking her head. When Willow looked slightly hurt at these words, she elaborated quickly, "Not that I'm discounting your spell-casting abilities. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have him back at all. It would have been Angelus at that boarding house when those Council guys dumped me there without my strength if you hadn't cursed him again. That would've been all kinds of badness." She frowned. "Or maybe he wouldn't have ever come back from Hell in the first place, since Angelus pretty much deserves to be there—but then one of the vamps Angel fought in the tournament would have been the one in the boarding house instead...."
Willow looked more alarmed at the thought of these alternatives than comforted by the assurance that her spell had indeed been an integral piece of the puzzle, and Buffy shook herself mentally, realizing that she had gotten sidetracked. "But anyway, Wesley said he went all the way to Romania. He had to convince the descendants of the people who cursed Angel the first time to make it permanent. I don't know if anyone but them could have done it, and when was any of us going to have time to go halfway around the world to argue with a bunch of gypsies?"
"But why did he do it?" asked Willow, confused. "There can't be many other Watchers who'd be willing to go to all that trouble for a vampire, even if he did have a soul."
Buffy smiled again. "Yeah, but Wesley's the Watcher who was in charge of Angel while he was in the Council's dungeon. He gave him extra blood and figured out about his soul. He took care of him. He didn't have to, but he did, except that it looks like he didn't think that was enough, so he went to Romania."
"Wow," said Willow again. She paused, looking thoughtful. "That makes him kinda like Angel's Watcher, huh?"
"I guess it does," said Buffy.
"So this is a pretty big relief, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, now you don't have to worry about hiding anything from him, since he's on Angel's side too."
"Oh, yeah. It is really nice."
Willow smiled. "Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly, remembering what she had brought with her. "I have something for you, for patrol."
"Ooh," said Buffy keenly. She watched as Willow twisted awkwardly across the end of the bed to reach her bag, from which she withdrew two small purple pouches. Sitting up again and handing one to Buffy, she then explained that it was a protection spell. A minty-fresh protection spell, more specifically, which she pointed out with no small amount of pride. She was so excited about it that Buffy felt an unpleasant pang of guilt when she told Willow that she shouldn't patrol with her. It wasn't that she was trying to shut Willow out, really, but she'd seen how many vampire cronies Balthazar still had, and she wasn't going to risk her best friend's life just to make her feel more included. Faith turned up right when Buffy was trying to ease gently through this explanation, which completely disrupted the concerned and caring tone she had been so close to setting, and she had little choice but to depart with her fellow Slayer, leaving Willow alone in her room, looking thoroughly abandoned.
[o]
To Buffy's bemusement, Faith had somehow procured a cumbersome compound longbow for patrol, to which she was inexpertly nocking an arrow as they crept through a back alley. "Where did you get that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
"That store," said Faith with a dismissive shrug.
"Did you get a receipt too?"
Faith scowled at her. "What's your problem tonight, B? I thought you got it. The life of a Slayer is very simple. It's want, take, have for you and me, baby. This is payment for the vamps we dust."
"Slaying isn't something we do for a reward, Faith. We kill demons because it's the right thing to do, and we're the only ones who can. Our payment is that the world stays safe for the people we care about."
Faith's scowl became more pronounced. Maybe that was good enough for Buffy, but she didn't have a tightly-knit group of friends or a Watcher who stuck with her even after he was fired or a mom who cared about her or a guy who had literally gone to Hell and back for her. Faith was on the outskirts, looking in at what she didn't have. Part of her ached to reach out and touch it, to be like Buffy so that some part of that friendship and love could be hers too—but that life didn't fit her. No life that came with rules and order and structure fit her, and how dare Buffy chastise her for doing things her way when it was her fault that it was the only way left to her? She was free, and she was having fun, and she had earned it.
She still hadn't thought of a good verbal retort, however, when one of Balthazar's vamp minions jumped down from the building next to them and landed in their path.
[o]
As he double-checked his books at the library, Wesley wished that he had thought to ask Angel and Buffy if Mr. Giles could be trusted. Prior to getting everything sorted out with Buffy at the Bronze, she and Mr. Giles had been united in their unwillingness to accommodate him, and they were undoubtedly very close, but that didn't necessarily mean that she had confided in the older Watcher about her relationship with Angel. Mr. Giles's reports to the Council had never betrayed the slightest hint of his knowing anything about it—though, Wesley supposed, that could be because he did know about it and was protecting them from the Council, just as he himself was doing, but he had no way of knowing for sure. He thought Mr. Giles's persistent wariness of him was probably a good sign, but he felt it would be prudent to test the waters more thoroughly.
"I had it from Mr. Travers that Buffy recently completed her Cruciamentum," he said, breaking the silence that had settled between them for well over an hour. Mr. Giles's hands clenched around the book he was reading, but they unclenched again so quickly that Wesley probably wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been watching him so closely for a reaction.
"Yes," Mr. Giles replied stiffly. "And, Mr. Wyndam-Pryce, as you very well know, that would be why you are here. Is it entirely necessary to rub it in?"
Wesley reddened slightly. He hadn't brought it up for that reason at all, and felt mortified at his own lack of tact. "I'm sorry," he said. "I only meant—well, I attended the tournament last autumn, and, frankly, I was quite astonished to hear that anyone, let alone a disabled Slayer, had managed to defeat Angelus." The words were easy to say. After all, it was hard to imagine Angel being bested in a fight after watching him take down Sophia and Erebus.
Mr. Giles had gone rather pale, and his face was very tight as he regarded Wesley, but he didn't speak, so Wesley opened his mouth again cautiously. "What's more, it is my understanding that it was not the first time Buffy faced him."
"No," said Mr. Giles.
"Your report wasn't very detailed on that point," said Wesley, inwardly pleased at the convincing note of suspicious curiosity in his voice.
"And you hoped to get a bonus from Travers by filling in the blanks, did you?" said Mr. Giles with undisguised scorn.
"Certainly not," said Wesley, a little more harshly than he had intended. He thoroughly disliked having to play the part of the Council's stooge and sincerely hoped that he would not have to do so for much longer. "I merely wished to gain a better understanding of my charge, though I already know that she must be exceptional, if you would jeopardize your job for her."
Mr. Giles's hands had once again balled into fists, though he didn't seem to be aware of it. "Exceptional?" he repeated. The word came out somewhere between a derisive laugh and a growl. "If you had seen what that girl has gone through for the past couple of years, you would know how woefully inadequate that term is. For her, I would sacrifice my job and more a hundred times over. Quentin Travers is very fortunate indeed that circumstances of which he was not aware prevented him from carrying out that barbaric test the way he intended."
"What circumstances?" asked Wesley quickly. "That Angelus has a soul?"
Mr. Giles's expression darkened instantly. "What do you know about that?" His gaze intensified as he registered the verb tense Wesley had used. "And how do you know he's alive?"
"I've seen him," said Wesley, starting to smile. "I know everything." Before he saw it coming, Mr. Giles had pinned him to the wall of his office, his forearm pressed hard against his throat.
"How did you find out? Did Travers send you for this? Does he know?" he demanded, his livid face inches from Wesley's.
"What? No! Travers still thinks Angel's dead!" Wesley gasped, shocked by how menacing the other man had become. Mr. Giles eased the pressure on Wesley's windpipe slightly, his eyes narrowed.
"You called him 'Angel'," he observed.
"He's my friend," said Wesley. Mr. Giles glared at him for a few more seconds, before releasing him and stepping back. Wesley coughed and rubbed his throat. "I take it, then, that you're aware of his and Buffy's relationship?" Mr. Giles nodded, his expression still mistrustful and threatening. "I can assure you," he said, coughing again, "that I haven't the slightest intention of informing Mr. Travers of any of this. Angel earned my trust several months ago, and I will not betray it. You, in turn, will not betray Buffy. I believe, Mr. Giles, that makes us allies." He stuck out his hand.
Giles looked at it for a moment, then shook it.
"Now then," said Wesley rather jauntily, "with that settled, I believe we can make much more headway with this Eliminati problem."
"Yes," said Giles, his eyes fixed on a point behind Wesley, the color draining from his face again. "I imagine we will." Wesley spun around to see four Eliminati just outside the office in which they stood.
Huh. I thought I'd be finished with the alternate "Bad Girls" by the end of this chapter, but I guess the conversations between Buffy and Willow, Buffy and Faith, and Wesley and Giles were meatier than I had anticipated. Oh well. The Buffy/Willow one was mostly just to help me get back into the swing of this story, but the Wesley/Giles one was my favorite.
