CHAPTER FIVE: TRAINING DAY
That Saturday came faster than expected. Caden had been banned from patrol until the planned training session on that Saturday, in which she and Wesley would be taking a little road trip out to the middle of nowhere. School had been dull and easy. People still gave Caden odd looks at her usual monotonous color scheme, but the looks had been getting fewer and fewer. She had managed to avoid Willow and Xande, with the exception of Xander's recurring glares in classes.
The school week came and went, and on Saturday at six am, Caden left the building in sweatpants and a t-shirt and got into her Watcher's car, half asleep.
"I am soo tired." She groaned as Wesley started up the car. "Can we please stop for coffee?"
Wesley gave her an irritable look that told her that he was not a morning person either.
"Tea?" She asked hopefully. He sighed and handed her a coffee cup from his cupholder. She smiled gratefully.
"Ah. One more thing we need." She reached into her sweatshirt and took out a CD case. She put the CD in the stereo, and pressed play, cranking up the volume. Loud, screaming music of Lamb of God's Black Label came screaming through the car.
"For God's sake, Caden turn that horrible noise off!"
"What?" She shouted back.
"Turn it off!"
"Huh?" She smiled, moving her head to the music.
"TURN THE BLOODY MUSIC OFF!"
~*~
An hour and a half of intense drumming and heavy bass later, Wesley stopped the car in front of a big forest. Caden looked at him oddly.
"Don't sit here, girl, get out of the bloody car." He was still sore for the Lamb of God incident. Caden rolled her eyes and did as he said.
"What are we doing here?" Caden asked her watcher, looking around in wonder.
"You already know." Wesley replied, throwing her a long stick from the trunk of his car and moving to tie a blindfold around her eyes. "When you hear me leave, walk into the woods. You'll know what to do. If you pass the first test, they will instruct you the rest of the way. If not, I'll return for you and we'll work on something else."
"How Karate Kid is this?"
"Shut up. They're coming." Caden sensed her watcher leave as he started up his car again.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
He had already left.
Caden stood there, twirling the stick in her hands, waiting for something to happen. What the fuck was going on, she wondered. She sighed.
"Okay, whatever the hell you are that's gonna come at me you might as well just do it because I'm the- Ow!"
Something sharp was hurled right into Caden's left shoulder. She winced and pulled what felt like a knife out of her shoulder as she heard whatever had thrown it move from right in front of her to her right. Caden quieted her breathing and tried to sense where the thing was. She heard a twig snap and immediately and expertly threw the dagger. She heard a loud "Bloody hell" and ran towards it with the stick.
Her own was met immediately with her opponent's. She tried to make a stab with her stick that was blocked by the man's. Quickly she made several more stabs, and she ducked when her opponent took a swing at her with his stick, and then jumped almost immediately after when he made a move for her feet. She took a few bad swings, what with the blindfold still tightly bound around her eyes, but she felt the opponent advance as she blocked his moves, backing up. She felt a sudden change in temperature as they battled further into the woods and out of the streaming rays of sunlight. Caden blocked a move that her opponent attempted to make by twisting the stick over and behind her back, and quickly turning and using all her might to stab her opponent with the blunt ended stick. She heard him moan and fall over. She jabbed at him a few times, and swung a final whack right into what she thought was his face before lifting her blindfold.
It was an ordinary guy. An ordinary guy laying on the ground in a tremendous amount of pain. Her final swing had sounded like it had broken something, his jaw or nose. It looked that way too.
"You okay?" Caden asked quietly. The man coughed and sat up.
"You're the Slayer, all right." He coughed as Caden helped him up.
"So, uh, I don't know. What am I doing here? Why'd you just attack me? What the hell was I blindfolded for?"
"It was a test. From the Watchers Council, set up by your watcher. Mr. Wyndham-Price, I believe?" The man was young, British, and strong by the looks of it. He was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of loose, baggy jeans. He couldn't have been older than twenty seven. He had deep green eyes that went nicely with his olive complexion and his scruffy looking light brown hair that was sticking up in random directions. Not like Angelus', though. He had a muscular body, she could tell that from his tight shirt, which had a hole in it, from which had spilled a fair amount of blood from the knife she'd thrown at him. Angelus wore tight shirts, too, but they were usually black. She pushed thoughts of Angelus out of her mind in order to talk to the young man.
"Uh, yeah. Who the hell are you?" Caden asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"Uh, I'm Garron Thomas. I'll be your guide for today. If I can walk that is." He smiled at her, extending his hand. Caden looked at it suspiciously, and finally took it with some hesitation. She quickly pulled her hand away after his breifly clasped her own. He smiled again. He had quite a nice smile. "What's the matter, Slayer? Don't you trust me?"
"Considering that you just threw a knife into my shoulder and tried to beat me down with a stick, I'd say not." He raised a dark eyebrow at her, smiling wryly.
"Well, Slayer, considering you had the advantage of super powers and that you threw the same knife back at me, causing a wound which will take a much longer time to heal than yours will, I'd say that we're about even."
"Stop calling me Slayer. It's my job, not an identity."
"A contrér, it is your job, destiny and identity. You just need to accept it and know how to use your powers. Which is what I am here to do today."
"I have a name, you know." Caden replied. Garron laughed.
"I have no doubt that you do. I really don't care. I'm just getting paid for this. C'mon, this way. We have lots to do today. We can talk on the way to the first challenge." Caden started to follow him into the woods.
"Wasn't that just the first challenge? And why isn't my real watcher doing this?"
"Because your real watcher's probably a ninny who doesn't know how to climb, run, jump, spot, all the things you need to do for this that I do know how to do. So shut up and let's get this going."
"I resent that." Caden replied, stopping in front of him and looking daringly into his cold, green eyes.
"Let me repeat myself, Slayer. I don't care," Garron was no longer smiling at her. "Here's the deal. I've been hired to put you through a series of tests, challenges, that will help train you in battle. I don't care what you do with them or if you live or die. All I have to do is make sure you do them, submit my assesment to your watcher at the end of the day, and make sure you come back alive and a better fighter than when you first arrived here. In order to do these you are going to need to trust me, and be able to fall back on me."
"I can't when you don't want to be doing this. It makes me feel like you're making some big exception for me, like there are better things out there you could be doing. But I'm trying to save the fucking world, so shut the hell up and do your job or I'll make up some bullshit assesment to give Wes and wait till he comes to pick me up after I kill your ass. So shut the hell up and start treating me like the human being I am, or I'll beat your ass down."
Garron punched Caden's face. Her head whipped to the side from the unexpected blow, and she looked at him, usually calm pale blue eyes flaming with dark hatred for this man who thought he was better than she was. Caden swung back, and Garron ducked the punch. She swung twice more, as he ducked. She kicked him hard and fast in the shin, grabbed his shoulder and punched him twice in the nose. She let go as he staggered backwards.
"Bloody hell, Slayer!"
"Bloody hell yourself. Who the fuck do you think you are hitting me like that?"
"You're going to do things my way, Slayer. If you just cooperate and we get this done fast you can go back to your precious, perfect little home with your wonderful family, get yourself dressed up all nice and go out with your perfect friends and boyfriend. But first we need to work."
"You don't know the first thing about me or my family and friends."
"Oh really? My previous assumption not accurate?" Garron asked in sarcastic disbelief.
"Yeah. Mom's in rehab, Dad's god-knows-where, probably dead by now, got no sibs, no friends, and no boyfriend. People are too fucking scared of me to get within twenty feet of me, much less hang out with me. I'm smart but my teachers fail me anyway because they don't like me or my attitude in classes. I'm an athlete but my records of violence prevent me from participating in any organized sports. Anywhere. So that possibility of making friends is out the window. I have nothing but this slaying gig, which isn't even going so good for me, considering I have one of history's most feared vamps practically stalking me and telling me he wants to make me 'his' whatever the hell that means, a watcher who doesn't know shit about his job, and a 'guide' like you who I want to fucking kill. And it's early and I was prevented from listening to one of my favorite cds on the way over here, so I'm pretty pissed."
"Well, what can I do to make you happier?" Garron asked irritably.
"You could at least ask me what my name is."
"Caden Andrews. Sixteen years old, used to attend Mountainview High School, now relocated to Sunnydale High School, approximately five foot six inches, broken home, lives alone, has a history of unneccessary violence and antisocial behaviour. Intrests in music, mainly what the media calls death metal, as well as track and field, terrified of the film Carrie, clowns, Barney the big purple dinasour and Care Bears. Favourite kind food is Italian, but favourite food is sushi. Favourite beverage Cherry Coke, chews Extra brand Wintermint sugarless gum, favorite colours black and red-"
"Okay. You know all there is to know."
"No, I don't." Garron smiled at her again.
"Yeah, you don't. Let's just get this thing going then."
"All right, then."
~*~
"Too high for you, Slayer?" Garron called from the ground below. Caden didn't look down.
"No. What am I supposed to do again?" She called from the platform.
"You jump through the air from the platform and attempt to grab hold of the trapeze." Garron shouted back.
"What if I can't grab it?"
"You do it again."
"You're not going to just let me drop, are you?" Caden asked nervously.
"Just trust me, Caden. Let's go. Jump on three. One, two, three."
Caden jumped, flying through the air, and grabbed a hold of the trapeze bar.
"Good. Now that you've got it, try to propel your body to swing through the air around the bar, and jump onto the top of the bar, and grab a hold of the wooden beam above you. Then pull yourself up to that beam so you stand up, walk across it, onto the next platform, where I'll climb up and help you with the next bit. You understand?"
Caden nodded, too afraid that she was going to let go and fall to say anything. She started to swing her body back and forth on the bar to get momentum, and when she felt ready, let go of the bar and flew up just in time to grab a hold of the beam. She pulled herself up on top of the beam, straddling it, and then standing shakily.
"Good, Caden. Now walk across the beam, using all your balance. Understand?"
Caden nodded again, and quickly, on her toes, ran across the beam with perfect balance and leapt onto the next platform. Garron climbed up the staples built into the huge tree about sixty feet in the air, and stepped onto the platform. He took off the grapple hook that connected his harness to Caden's.
"How was that?" He asked her, breathing a little bit faster now that he'd climbed up a tree.
"Good." Caden replied, nervousness gone now that she was on a solid platform.
"Excellent. You performed a lot better than your watcher made it out to sound like you would." Garron smiled, eyes dancing as he punched Caden's shoulder lightly.
"Well, Wes expects the worst of everyone. That way he's never disappointed."
"A true Englishman. Now, you see that rope right up there?" Garron pointed to a thick rope that was tied from this tree to one a ways away tightly. It was high enough that she would have to climb up some staples to get there.
"Yeah. Lemme guess, you want me to climb up those staples, grab a hold of the rope and monkey myself across?"
"Basically." Garron grinned. "Why, you scared?" He asked, looking into the girl's pale blue eyes. He had to say, she was quite attractive, even if she was an outspoken, rebellious American who was way too young for him to even consider dating.
"Like you said, I'm scared of clowns and Care Bears. Not a high ropes course."
"Right, then. Here, let me hook this onto your belt." A bungee cord that Garron had carried up with him got hooked onto Caden's harness. He tightly tied the rope to the tree, triple knotting it. At Caden's fear filled eyes when she eyed the rope at the tree, he smiled and assured her, "Don't worry, Slayer. I've done this enough times to know how to tie a rope to a tree. Up you go. I'll spot you on the ground. Wait until I tell you."
Garron climbed back down, and gave Caden the go ahead. He didn't tell her that he was timing it.
Caden climbed up the staples quickly, until she got to where the rope was tied. She grabbed a hold of it with both of her hands, protected from rope burns with hand wraps, and she used all her upper arm strength to carry her quickly over the rope. She tried to stay focused on the tree ahead of her, not the distance of the ground below. One arm slipped about halfway through, and Caden thought for sure she was done for.
"C'mon then, grab a hold of it again!" Garron shouted at her.
"Bastard," Caden muttered, and finished up the task as she finally stepped onto the platform.
~*~
Five more high ropes course challenges and an hour later, (it would have been faster, but Caden fell once and had to start all over again with the trapeze) Caden and Garron sat down on the solid ground to rest.
"How did that go, then?" Garron asked as Caden reached the ground from her jump.
"Fine, but what was with having to start all over? That's bullshit if you ask me."
"Well, think about it this way, Slayer," Garron began, unhooking the grapple from the harness, "If you fall from that high in your real life, in battles, if you survive, then you will have to get all the way back up there to chase your opponent or do whatever it was you were doing, unless you just die then and there and don't even get a chance to climb back up and begin all over." Garron smiled. He was learning to tolerate this Slayer, perhaps even beginning to like her. Caden did not seem amused at this statement.
"You're funny," she replied, taking off her helmet and putting it on top of a fallen log. She pulled her now messy hair out of its ponytail, smoothed her hands through her soft, brown hair, and pulled it back into a lower one so it wouldn't get as messed up. "What next?"
"Combat lessons."
~*~
After several rounds of blindfolded dueling with the sticks on top of the high beam, several rounds of battling with various weapons over a grand terrain of scenery, and learning new combat moves and block techniques, Garron announced that they were done for the day.
"Already?" Caden asked, checking her Timex. "It's five 'o clock."
"Your point being? We finished all the designated training for the day." The two started to head out of the woods, and they came to the road.
"Oh. Well, should I call Wesley? From where? How the hell am I getting back to town?"
"Give your Watcher a call." Garron said, tossing Caden a cell phone from his pocket.
Caden dialed Wesley's number by heart, and waited.
"Hello?" The voice came on the other end.
"Hey Wes, it's me. Garron says we're done. Can you come get me?"
"Er, all right. I'll put down my vital research on Angelus and his weaknesses and come pick you up from a place an hour away from Sunnydale."
"Don't get on me bout this. It was your brilliant idea!"
Wesley sighed. Caden thought she could hear him rubbing his forehead in a stressed out like motion on the other end.
"All right. I'll come and get you. I need to get petrol first, it all ran out on bringing you down there."
"Like I said, not my problem. Just get here. Soon, preferably."
"You're welcome, Caden." Wesley snapped and hung up. Caden shrugged, pressed end on the phone, and handed it back to Garron.
"He's on his way." She informed him.
"Do you need me to wait with you?"
"No." Caden said, sitting down on a boulder.
Garron sat down on a stump next to Caden's boulder.
"Is this yes no business backwards in England or something?"
"No."
"Now does that no mean no, or does that no mean yes?"
"Yes. No. I don't know. Shut up, Slayer, you confuse me."
~*~
Wesley and Caden spent the ride home in silence after Caden debreifed him on what she had done that day in her special training session with Garron. As they drove into Sunnydale, Wesley spoke up.
"What do you think of Mr. Thomas, Caden?"
"Who?"
"Mr. Thomas."
"Oh, Garron. He's all right. Better at fighting than you are, that's for sure." She smiled. Wesley didn't smile back. "You okay, Wes?"
"Caden, what would you think of Mr. Th- Garron, working with you on a more regular basis?"
Caden sighed. "What are you getting at, Wes? Just spit it out."
"The Council has asked me to take Garron under my wing, as a sort of apprentice Watcher. He's supposed to have excellent Watcher potential, and they thought it would be useful, especially under the circumstances, that you have as much help as possible when you need it. And seeing as I am more of a book-type guy, as you like to say, and Garron is a little more handy in the battlefield, the Council has decided to have him help us out. Is that all right?"
"Yeah, I guess." Caden shrugged. Great, she thought, now he's going to keep making all sorts of remarks about Slayerdom and ignorant Americans and crap. "Hey, you want me to patrol tonight?"
"It isn't necessary, considering that you worked all day and are probably tired. Why don't you go try to see if you can find some friends, or something?" Wesley suggested, hoping she wouldn't be hanging around his place like she had all week, eating all the food in his refrigerator and drinking all the raspberry tea and listening to that bloody awful noise she called music that rang throughout the entire house especially when he was trying to do something productive like research or-
"I think I'll hang out at home. Maybe go out and pick up some food. I won twenty bucks off of Garron today."
"You stole from your new watcher?" Wesley asked, shocked.
"No. He paid me. We made a bet that I couldn't beat him three times on blindfolded high-beam battle with sticks. Now I don't have to eat all your food." Caden grinned.
"Thank god."
"Oh, but when I run out again I'll be back over. You get paid for this watcher crap, right Wes?"
"Uh, yes."
"Well, how come I don't? I don't even get a choice. If they're going to take away that right they should at least fork over some dough. I mean a hungry Slayer is an unhappy Slayer." Caden ranted as Wesley pulled up to her building.
"Come by my place tomorrow and we'll discuss strategies with Garron as to how we're going to get this Angelus thing over and done with."
"'Kay. Later, gator." Caden said as she got out of the car.
~*~
Angelus watched her get out of her watcher's car and wave goodbye. Even from this distance he could smell her blood, the scent had been on his mind since he'd seen her last on Tuesday. He had watched her, at her watcher's house, hanging around, working. She spent a lot of time on schoolwork for a young Slayer. She also spent a lot of time eating her watcher's food. That was one thing he couldn't get: humans and food. He'd liked alcohol when he was alive, couldn't get enough of it. But food he'd never really been too fond of. He wondered how someone so slim could eat that much.
He'd also seen her in her apartment. The entire thing was bare, not very well lived in. No food at all, no marks of her living there except clothes thrown in a general corner and a messy bed. He had actually entered once. He was surprised that he could. Caden was living there, but since the apartment belonged to a general organization the watchers council, he could come in. He did not intend to do anything to harm her... yet. He was content with just watching for now. He loved to watch her sleep. She looked so much more peaceful, and younger. She usually looked so much older when she was out and about, with her heavy dark eye makeup and black clothing. But when she was asleep, and she had washed off all the makeup, taken off all the heavy black and silver rings and cuffs, she looked like a little angel. He smiled at the irony of that thought. An angel who cuts herself, kills vampires and treats people like shit.
He would watch her again tonight. He wasn't sure what was so different about this one than the others. His soul had loved Buffy, but his demon had wanted to rip her to shreds. With this one, she got down to his very core. This wasn't just obsession. This was love. And it would last for all eternity. Like she would.
AN: OK, this one was longer like I said. Since my stories usually kinda take their own turn and I as the author lose authority with them, stuff that I planned to have happen in this chapter is gonna happen in the next one... I promise. Stuff will happen. Review or I'm comin to your house. Yeah thats right bitch, I know where you live. ::gears up chainsaw::
CHAPTER SIX PREVIEW "What's with you and your obsession with the bloody Slayer? I thought you were past this, Captain Forehead." Spike muttered to Angelus. "Shut up, Blondie. This isn't obsession." Angelus replied, pacing back and forth, unable to get the image of Caden's face after he'd kissed her out of his mind. "She'll never go for a ponce like you. And you got the last two. It's my turn. Sides, all you two are gonna do is go through a whole Bonnie and Clyde phase. I'm just gonna kill the bint."
AN2: See? Stuff will happen. And Spike is just plain awesome.
That Saturday came faster than expected. Caden had been banned from patrol until the planned training session on that Saturday, in which she and Wesley would be taking a little road trip out to the middle of nowhere. School had been dull and easy. People still gave Caden odd looks at her usual monotonous color scheme, but the looks had been getting fewer and fewer. She had managed to avoid Willow and Xande, with the exception of Xander's recurring glares in classes.
The school week came and went, and on Saturday at six am, Caden left the building in sweatpants and a t-shirt and got into her Watcher's car, half asleep.
"I am soo tired." She groaned as Wesley started up the car. "Can we please stop for coffee?"
Wesley gave her an irritable look that told her that he was not a morning person either.
"Tea?" She asked hopefully. He sighed and handed her a coffee cup from his cupholder. She smiled gratefully.
"Ah. One more thing we need." She reached into her sweatshirt and took out a CD case. She put the CD in the stereo, and pressed play, cranking up the volume. Loud, screaming music of Lamb of God's Black Label came screaming through the car.
"For God's sake, Caden turn that horrible noise off!"
"What?" She shouted back.
"Turn it off!"
"Huh?" She smiled, moving her head to the music.
"TURN THE BLOODY MUSIC OFF!"
~*~
An hour and a half of intense drumming and heavy bass later, Wesley stopped the car in front of a big forest. Caden looked at him oddly.
"Don't sit here, girl, get out of the bloody car." He was still sore for the Lamb of God incident. Caden rolled her eyes and did as he said.
"What are we doing here?" Caden asked her watcher, looking around in wonder.
"You already know." Wesley replied, throwing her a long stick from the trunk of his car and moving to tie a blindfold around her eyes. "When you hear me leave, walk into the woods. You'll know what to do. If you pass the first test, they will instruct you the rest of the way. If not, I'll return for you and we'll work on something else."
"How Karate Kid is this?"
"Shut up. They're coming." Caden sensed her watcher leave as he started up his car again.
"Wait! Where are you going?"
He had already left.
Caden stood there, twirling the stick in her hands, waiting for something to happen. What the fuck was going on, she wondered. She sighed.
"Okay, whatever the hell you are that's gonna come at me you might as well just do it because I'm the- Ow!"
Something sharp was hurled right into Caden's left shoulder. She winced and pulled what felt like a knife out of her shoulder as she heard whatever had thrown it move from right in front of her to her right. Caden quieted her breathing and tried to sense where the thing was. She heard a twig snap and immediately and expertly threw the dagger. She heard a loud "Bloody hell" and ran towards it with the stick.
Her own was met immediately with her opponent's. She tried to make a stab with her stick that was blocked by the man's. Quickly she made several more stabs, and she ducked when her opponent took a swing at her with his stick, and then jumped almost immediately after when he made a move for her feet. She took a few bad swings, what with the blindfold still tightly bound around her eyes, but she felt the opponent advance as she blocked his moves, backing up. She felt a sudden change in temperature as they battled further into the woods and out of the streaming rays of sunlight. Caden blocked a move that her opponent attempted to make by twisting the stick over and behind her back, and quickly turning and using all her might to stab her opponent with the blunt ended stick. She heard him moan and fall over. She jabbed at him a few times, and swung a final whack right into what she thought was his face before lifting her blindfold.
It was an ordinary guy. An ordinary guy laying on the ground in a tremendous amount of pain. Her final swing had sounded like it had broken something, his jaw or nose. It looked that way too.
"You okay?" Caden asked quietly. The man coughed and sat up.
"You're the Slayer, all right." He coughed as Caden helped him up.
"So, uh, I don't know. What am I doing here? Why'd you just attack me? What the hell was I blindfolded for?"
"It was a test. From the Watchers Council, set up by your watcher. Mr. Wyndham-Price, I believe?" The man was young, British, and strong by the looks of it. He was wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of loose, baggy jeans. He couldn't have been older than twenty seven. He had deep green eyes that went nicely with his olive complexion and his scruffy looking light brown hair that was sticking up in random directions. Not like Angelus', though. He had a muscular body, she could tell that from his tight shirt, which had a hole in it, from which had spilled a fair amount of blood from the knife she'd thrown at him. Angelus wore tight shirts, too, but they were usually black. She pushed thoughts of Angelus out of her mind in order to talk to the young man.
"Uh, yeah. Who the hell are you?" Caden asked, folding her arms across her chest.
"Uh, I'm Garron Thomas. I'll be your guide for today. If I can walk that is." He smiled at her, extending his hand. Caden looked at it suspiciously, and finally took it with some hesitation. She quickly pulled her hand away after his breifly clasped her own. He smiled again. He had quite a nice smile. "What's the matter, Slayer? Don't you trust me?"
"Considering that you just threw a knife into my shoulder and tried to beat me down with a stick, I'd say not." He raised a dark eyebrow at her, smiling wryly.
"Well, Slayer, considering you had the advantage of super powers and that you threw the same knife back at me, causing a wound which will take a much longer time to heal than yours will, I'd say that we're about even."
"Stop calling me Slayer. It's my job, not an identity."
"A contrér, it is your job, destiny and identity. You just need to accept it and know how to use your powers. Which is what I am here to do today."
"I have a name, you know." Caden replied. Garron laughed.
"I have no doubt that you do. I really don't care. I'm just getting paid for this. C'mon, this way. We have lots to do today. We can talk on the way to the first challenge." Caden started to follow him into the woods.
"Wasn't that just the first challenge? And why isn't my real watcher doing this?"
"Because your real watcher's probably a ninny who doesn't know how to climb, run, jump, spot, all the things you need to do for this that I do know how to do. So shut up and let's get this going."
"I resent that." Caden replied, stopping in front of him and looking daringly into his cold, green eyes.
"Let me repeat myself, Slayer. I don't care," Garron was no longer smiling at her. "Here's the deal. I've been hired to put you through a series of tests, challenges, that will help train you in battle. I don't care what you do with them or if you live or die. All I have to do is make sure you do them, submit my assesment to your watcher at the end of the day, and make sure you come back alive and a better fighter than when you first arrived here. In order to do these you are going to need to trust me, and be able to fall back on me."
"I can't when you don't want to be doing this. It makes me feel like you're making some big exception for me, like there are better things out there you could be doing. But I'm trying to save the fucking world, so shut the hell up and do your job or I'll make up some bullshit assesment to give Wes and wait till he comes to pick me up after I kill your ass. So shut the hell up and start treating me like the human being I am, or I'll beat your ass down."
Garron punched Caden's face. Her head whipped to the side from the unexpected blow, and she looked at him, usually calm pale blue eyes flaming with dark hatred for this man who thought he was better than she was. Caden swung back, and Garron ducked the punch. She swung twice more, as he ducked. She kicked him hard and fast in the shin, grabbed his shoulder and punched him twice in the nose. She let go as he staggered backwards.
"Bloody hell, Slayer!"
"Bloody hell yourself. Who the fuck do you think you are hitting me like that?"
"You're going to do things my way, Slayer. If you just cooperate and we get this done fast you can go back to your precious, perfect little home with your wonderful family, get yourself dressed up all nice and go out with your perfect friends and boyfriend. But first we need to work."
"You don't know the first thing about me or my family and friends."
"Oh really? My previous assumption not accurate?" Garron asked in sarcastic disbelief.
"Yeah. Mom's in rehab, Dad's god-knows-where, probably dead by now, got no sibs, no friends, and no boyfriend. People are too fucking scared of me to get within twenty feet of me, much less hang out with me. I'm smart but my teachers fail me anyway because they don't like me or my attitude in classes. I'm an athlete but my records of violence prevent me from participating in any organized sports. Anywhere. So that possibility of making friends is out the window. I have nothing but this slaying gig, which isn't even going so good for me, considering I have one of history's most feared vamps practically stalking me and telling me he wants to make me 'his' whatever the hell that means, a watcher who doesn't know shit about his job, and a 'guide' like you who I want to fucking kill. And it's early and I was prevented from listening to one of my favorite cds on the way over here, so I'm pretty pissed."
"Well, what can I do to make you happier?" Garron asked irritably.
"You could at least ask me what my name is."
"Caden Andrews. Sixteen years old, used to attend Mountainview High School, now relocated to Sunnydale High School, approximately five foot six inches, broken home, lives alone, has a history of unneccessary violence and antisocial behaviour. Intrests in music, mainly what the media calls death metal, as well as track and field, terrified of the film Carrie, clowns, Barney the big purple dinasour and Care Bears. Favourite kind food is Italian, but favourite food is sushi. Favourite beverage Cherry Coke, chews Extra brand Wintermint sugarless gum, favorite colours black and red-"
"Okay. You know all there is to know."
"No, I don't." Garron smiled at her again.
"Yeah, you don't. Let's just get this thing going then."
"All right, then."
~*~
"Too high for you, Slayer?" Garron called from the ground below. Caden didn't look down.
"No. What am I supposed to do again?" She called from the platform.
"You jump through the air from the platform and attempt to grab hold of the trapeze." Garron shouted back.
"What if I can't grab it?"
"You do it again."
"You're not going to just let me drop, are you?" Caden asked nervously.
"Just trust me, Caden. Let's go. Jump on three. One, two, three."
Caden jumped, flying through the air, and grabbed a hold of the trapeze bar.
"Good. Now that you've got it, try to propel your body to swing through the air around the bar, and jump onto the top of the bar, and grab a hold of the wooden beam above you. Then pull yourself up to that beam so you stand up, walk across it, onto the next platform, where I'll climb up and help you with the next bit. You understand?"
Caden nodded, too afraid that she was going to let go and fall to say anything. She started to swing her body back and forth on the bar to get momentum, and when she felt ready, let go of the bar and flew up just in time to grab a hold of the beam. She pulled herself up on top of the beam, straddling it, and then standing shakily.
"Good, Caden. Now walk across the beam, using all your balance. Understand?"
Caden nodded again, and quickly, on her toes, ran across the beam with perfect balance and leapt onto the next platform. Garron climbed up the staples built into the huge tree about sixty feet in the air, and stepped onto the platform. He took off the grapple hook that connected his harness to Caden's.
"How was that?" He asked her, breathing a little bit faster now that he'd climbed up a tree.
"Good." Caden replied, nervousness gone now that she was on a solid platform.
"Excellent. You performed a lot better than your watcher made it out to sound like you would." Garron smiled, eyes dancing as he punched Caden's shoulder lightly.
"Well, Wes expects the worst of everyone. That way he's never disappointed."
"A true Englishman. Now, you see that rope right up there?" Garron pointed to a thick rope that was tied from this tree to one a ways away tightly. It was high enough that she would have to climb up some staples to get there.
"Yeah. Lemme guess, you want me to climb up those staples, grab a hold of the rope and monkey myself across?"
"Basically." Garron grinned. "Why, you scared?" He asked, looking into the girl's pale blue eyes. He had to say, she was quite attractive, even if she was an outspoken, rebellious American who was way too young for him to even consider dating.
"Like you said, I'm scared of clowns and Care Bears. Not a high ropes course."
"Right, then. Here, let me hook this onto your belt." A bungee cord that Garron had carried up with him got hooked onto Caden's harness. He tightly tied the rope to the tree, triple knotting it. At Caden's fear filled eyes when she eyed the rope at the tree, he smiled and assured her, "Don't worry, Slayer. I've done this enough times to know how to tie a rope to a tree. Up you go. I'll spot you on the ground. Wait until I tell you."
Garron climbed back down, and gave Caden the go ahead. He didn't tell her that he was timing it.
Caden climbed up the staples quickly, until she got to where the rope was tied. She grabbed a hold of it with both of her hands, protected from rope burns with hand wraps, and she used all her upper arm strength to carry her quickly over the rope. She tried to stay focused on the tree ahead of her, not the distance of the ground below. One arm slipped about halfway through, and Caden thought for sure she was done for.
"C'mon then, grab a hold of it again!" Garron shouted at her.
"Bastard," Caden muttered, and finished up the task as she finally stepped onto the platform.
~*~
Five more high ropes course challenges and an hour later, (it would have been faster, but Caden fell once and had to start all over again with the trapeze) Caden and Garron sat down on the solid ground to rest.
"How did that go, then?" Garron asked as Caden reached the ground from her jump.
"Fine, but what was with having to start all over? That's bullshit if you ask me."
"Well, think about it this way, Slayer," Garron began, unhooking the grapple from the harness, "If you fall from that high in your real life, in battles, if you survive, then you will have to get all the way back up there to chase your opponent or do whatever it was you were doing, unless you just die then and there and don't even get a chance to climb back up and begin all over." Garron smiled. He was learning to tolerate this Slayer, perhaps even beginning to like her. Caden did not seem amused at this statement.
"You're funny," she replied, taking off her helmet and putting it on top of a fallen log. She pulled her now messy hair out of its ponytail, smoothed her hands through her soft, brown hair, and pulled it back into a lower one so it wouldn't get as messed up. "What next?"
"Combat lessons."
~*~
After several rounds of blindfolded dueling with the sticks on top of the high beam, several rounds of battling with various weapons over a grand terrain of scenery, and learning new combat moves and block techniques, Garron announced that they were done for the day.
"Already?" Caden asked, checking her Timex. "It's five 'o clock."
"Your point being? We finished all the designated training for the day." The two started to head out of the woods, and they came to the road.
"Oh. Well, should I call Wesley? From where? How the hell am I getting back to town?"
"Give your Watcher a call." Garron said, tossing Caden a cell phone from his pocket.
Caden dialed Wesley's number by heart, and waited.
"Hello?" The voice came on the other end.
"Hey Wes, it's me. Garron says we're done. Can you come get me?"
"Er, all right. I'll put down my vital research on Angelus and his weaknesses and come pick you up from a place an hour away from Sunnydale."
"Don't get on me bout this. It was your brilliant idea!"
Wesley sighed. Caden thought she could hear him rubbing his forehead in a stressed out like motion on the other end.
"All right. I'll come and get you. I need to get petrol first, it all ran out on bringing you down there."
"Like I said, not my problem. Just get here. Soon, preferably."
"You're welcome, Caden." Wesley snapped and hung up. Caden shrugged, pressed end on the phone, and handed it back to Garron.
"He's on his way." She informed him.
"Do you need me to wait with you?"
"No." Caden said, sitting down on a boulder.
Garron sat down on a stump next to Caden's boulder.
"Is this yes no business backwards in England or something?"
"No."
"Now does that no mean no, or does that no mean yes?"
"Yes. No. I don't know. Shut up, Slayer, you confuse me."
~*~
Wesley and Caden spent the ride home in silence after Caden debreifed him on what she had done that day in her special training session with Garron. As they drove into Sunnydale, Wesley spoke up.
"What do you think of Mr. Thomas, Caden?"
"Who?"
"Mr. Thomas."
"Oh, Garron. He's all right. Better at fighting than you are, that's for sure." She smiled. Wesley didn't smile back. "You okay, Wes?"
"Caden, what would you think of Mr. Th- Garron, working with you on a more regular basis?"
Caden sighed. "What are you getting at, Wes? Just spit it out."
"The Council has asked me to take Garron under my wing, as a sort of apprentice Watcher. He's supposed to have excellent Watcher potential, and they thought it would be useful, especially under the circumstances, that you have as much help as possible when you need it. And seeing as I am more of a book-type guy, as you like to say, and Garron is a little more handy in the battlefield, the Council has decided to have him help us out. Is that all right?"
"Yeah, I guess." Caden shrugged. Great, she thought, now he's going to keep making all sorts of remarks about Slayerdom and ignorant Americans and crap. "Hey, you want me to patrol tonight?"
"It isn't necessary, considering that you worked all day and are probably tired. Why don't you go try to see if you can find some friends, or something?" Wesley suggested, hoping she wouldn't be hanging around his place like she had all week, eating all the food in his refrigerator and drinking all the raspberry tea and listening to that bloody awful noise she called music that rang throughout the entire house especially when he was trying to do something productive like research or-
"I think I'll hang out at home. Maybe go out and pick up some food. I won twenty bucks off of Garron today."
"You stole from your new watcher?" Wesley asked, shocked.
"No. He paid me. We made a bet that I couldn't beat him three times on blindfolded high-beam battle with sticks. Now I don't have to eat all your food." Caden grinned.
"Thank god."
"Oh, but when I run out again I'll be back over. You get paid for this watcher crap, right Wes?"
"Uh, yes."
"Well, how come I don't? I don't even get a choice. If they're going to take away that right they should at least fork over some dough. I mean a hungry Slayer is an unhappy Slayer." Caden ranted as Wesley pulled up to her building.
"Come by my place tomorrow and we'll discuss strategies with Garron as to how we're going to get this Angelus thing over and done with."
"'Kay. Later, gator." Caden said as she got out of the car.
~*~
Angelus watched her get out of her watcher's car and wave goodbye. Even from this distance he could smell her blood, the scent had been on his mind since he'd seen her last on Tuesday. He had watched her, at her watcher's house, hanging around, working. She spent a lot of time on schoolwork for a young Slayer. She also spent a lot of time eating her watcher's food. That was one thing he couldn't get: humans and food. He'd liked alcohol when he was alive, couldn't get enough of it. But food he'd never really been too fond of. He wondered how someone so slim could eat that much.
He'd also seen her in her apartment. The entire thing was bare, not very well lived in. No food at all, no marks of her living there except clothes thrown in a general corner and a messy bed. He had actually entered once. He was surprised that he could. Caden was living there, but since the apartment belonged to a general organization the watchers council, he could come in. He did not intend to do anything to harm her... yet. He was content with just watching for now. He loved to watch her sleep. She looked so much more peaceful, and younger. She usually looked so much older when she was out and about, with her heavy dark eye makeup and black clothing. But when she was asleep, and she had washed off all the makeup, taken off all the heavy black and silver rings and cuffs, she looked like a little angel. He smiled at the irony of that thought. An angel who cuts herself, kills vampires and treats people like shit.
He would watch her again tonight. He wasn't sure what was so different about this one than the others. His soul had loved Buffy, but his demon had wanted to rip her to shreds. With this one, she got down to his very core. This wasn't just obsession. This was love. And it would last for all eternity. Like she would.
AN: OK, this one was longer like I said. Since my stories usually kinda take their own turn and I as the author lose authority with them, stuff that I planned to have happen in this chapter is gonna happen in the next one... I promise. Stuff will happen. Review or I'm comin to your house. Yeah thats right bitch, I know where you live. ::gears up chainsaw::
CHAPTER SIX PREVIEW "What's with you and your obsession with the bloody Slayer? I thought you were past this, Captain Forehead." Spike muttered to Angelus. "Shut up, Blondie. This isn't obsession." Angelus replied, pacing back and forth, unable to get the image of Caden's face after he'd kissed her out of his mind. "She'll never go for a ponce like you. And you got the last two. It's my turn. Sides, all you two are gonna do is go through a whole Bonnie and Clyde phase. I'm just gonna kill the bint."
AN2: See? Stuff will happen. And Spike is just plain awesome.