29: Clandestine Meetings

"Joshua Lyman's office?"

There was a brief silence at the other end of the phone, and then a hesistant voice said "Donna?"

"Hello?" she asked, puzzled. Who would be calling her at work?

"Um, hi. It's me, Willow. From Sunnydale?"

"Oh! Of course. Are you - wait, how did you get this number?" She was pretty damn sure a direct line to the top of the White House hierarchy wasn't something you could pick out of a phone book.

There was another brief silence, then Willow said a little sheepishly "Um, I kinda hacked it..."

"Okay." Donna decided the less she knew about the details of that, the better. "Have you got something about the spell?" she asked, feeling a knot of tension begin to build in her stomach.

"Maybe. I mean yes, yes, I think so. Um... if we come up to DC, is there somewhere we can meet?"

Donna thought for a moment. She could hardly invite an eclectic group of teenagers into the heart of the White House. Most of their habitual meeting-places were out, for the same reason. The senior staff might get away with talking about vampires in the corner of a quiet cafe-bar, but add half a dozen decidedly non political types to the mix, and people would sit up and take notice.

Suddenly she remembered the little place she and Josh had stopped for coffee last night. The group of them would be a crowd in there, but it was out-of-the-way enough to avoid reporters and curious politicians.

She gave Willow directions. "How soon can you be here?"

"Um; we're driving there - Spike can't get on a plane. Plus, you know, we're all broke. We're currently in the middle of - well, we'll find out when Xander stops sitting on the map. I guess we'll be there sometime late tomorrow... can you meet us then?"

Donna glanced at Josh's schedule. It couldn't be called 'light' by any stretch of the imagination, but it was no worse than usual. "Well, it's a Saturday, so I guess we could be out by nine or ten - if we're lucky."

"Wow, you do even worse hours than slayerette duty," Willow observed.

"Tell me about it."


"I feel like I'm plotting to overthrow the government," Josh complained, as they drove towards the coffee shop. The five of them had split into four separate cars for the occasion, and were taking roundabout routes in hope of avoiding undue attention. Two or three of them might hop out together for drinks, but when five high-level staffers gathered in secret, reporters and Republicans both started sniffing.

"Josh, you are the government."

"Yeah, but I'm playing both sides against the middle."

"Who's in the middle?"

"I'm not sure. Hopefully, Republicans."

When they arrived, there were two unfamiliar cars parked outside; a flashy red sports car and a Jeep. They entered to find the place crowded with slayerettes.

The dark-haired boy, Xander, was sitting with his back to the door and saying "-I think they're not coming. I think they've chickened out and they're not gonna come and help us. And I think..." - the sudden silence must have registered - "...they're standing right behind me," he finished.

"Good call," agreed Josh, dropping casually into the nearest chair.

"You're kinda late," spoke up Dawn faintly accusingly.

"I had to go kick some senators about school vouchers," Josh explained with a shrug. "We've all been pretty busy. The rest of the US government will be here shortly."

Sam was the first to arrive; Donna was amused to see how all the girls' eyes lit up at the sight of him. Both Tara and Xander got suddenly possessive of their girlfriends, whilst Sam was, as usual, oblivious.

"Hey, everybody, I'm Sam Seaborn and- ooh, hey, what's that?" He got immediately sidetracked by the ridiculously over-the-top ice-cream sundaes Xander and Dawn were eating.

"It's a choco-mint-fudge-banana-whip-sundae," Xander told him.

"I want one!" he said immediately, and made a beeline for the nearest waitress. Josh smirked.

"You'll have to excuse him. He didn't have time for a life when he was at law school."

CJ came in next. Unlike behind-the-scene workers like Sam and Josh, she was a more immediately recognisable face. "Hey, you're the White House TV lady!" said Xander.

"The Press Secretary, Xander," Willow supplied.

"Yeah, that too."

Giles, old-fashioned English gentleman that he was, stood up to shake hands with her. "Rupert Giles. Very pleased to meet you."

"Likewise," said CJ, perhaps a little more enthusiastically than normal. For a change, he was actually a good few inches taller than her; and, Donna couldn't help noticing, extremely handsome in a distinguished sort of a way.

She had barely sat down when Toby followed her in. He grabbed a chair impatiently and sat down. "Right. What have you got for us?"