TITLE: Late
AUTHOR: clarrie
DISCLAIMER: Obviously don't own Giles, Wesley, Buffy, Anya and the Scooby gang. Alice Boston and others are mine, most of the info about watchers and the watchers council was made up by me and is based on my interpretation of it as an institution.
All witchy stuff made up by me and bares little resemblance to say, Wicca or any of the other old faiths.
Lines taken from 'The Angel and the jerk' by Billy Joe Armstrong and Penelope Housten.
RATING: about a 12 or PG13, younger readers may be grossed out by the suggestion that old people may, possibly, once, have had sex.
SPOILERS: mild up to mid season 3, but as if faith and the mayor had not existed and Anya and Xander had got together earlier. Does include Wesley character though.
At the time of story Oz had ginger hair.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Americans, kindly note that I used the word (ick pah) 'soccer' instead of football. So don't say I never do anything for you.


'That's the third one this morning.' Greg Morgan, Sunnydale High's long suffering guidance counsellor watched as Mindi Cientanni left his office. 'It's such a waste.'
'I blame the parents,' He paused. 'And rap music.' He turned to Miss Wintermann, his middle- aged secretary. 'In fact I'm pretty sure that rap music is to blame for most of the problems I see in here.' He picked up his mug and turned to the coffee-pot. 'All those 'Bitches' and 'Hos', what kind of thing is that doing to a girl's self confidence?' He poured. 'No wonder they hook up with the first … Miss Wintermann?'
He watched as she ran tearfully down the hall. 'My, I never knew she was so sensitive.'


'Busy night at the Bronze girls?' Xander smiled at the pallid slayer and her queasy looking companions.
'Kind of…' Buffy looked sideways at Cordelia and Willow. 'Dull.' She sat down heavily at the table. 'I feel…Yuck.'
'Mm.' Willow pushed her hair away from her face. 'I didn't think we drunk?'
'So this is a sugar hangover?' Xander sat back in his chair. 'Yeah, and me and Angel are leaving in spring to start a new life in Haiti,' He paused. 'Running a surf shack.'
He shifted uncomfortably in the silence.
'That was sarcasm.'
Buffy grunted and rested her head on the table. 'Well duh.'
'We kind of got that Xander.' Willow smiled as Oz brought her a glass of water. 'Oh, water. See, isn't my werewolf boyfriend just the best?'
'Hmm.'
'So,' Oz looked around him. 'No Giles?'
Buffy blinked, 'No? Um…No Giles, no.'
'No Alice either,' Willow peered around. 'Or Wesley.'
'Wow.' Buffy lifted her head. 'It's almost like America in here.'
'Ooh.' Willow looked down at the book in front of her. 'Another note.' She put her hand to her mouth as Buffy looked at her in concern. 'Oh, no, see, Post it!' She waved the small square of yellow paper. 'Read pages 224 to 253. Giles.' She examined the writing more closely. 'He's gone to make a patrol of the woods.'
'Gone Killin' Xander picked up the note. 'Oh will you look at this. 'I suggest that Buffy make at least a cursory sweep of the woodland area herself.' How do you fit that on a Post it?'
Buffy groaned and pulled herself to her feet. 'Oh well, Just call me…'


'Buffy?' Xander stared at the unconscious slayer at his feet. 'Buffy are you ok?'
'Hmm?' Buffy rubbed her forehead and frowned up at him. 'What? Where?'
'You fainted.' Willow bent next to her. 'One minute you were standing there, the next, boom.' She frowned. 'This isn't another Watcher's Council thing is it?'
'Yeah,' Xander grinned. 'You haven't been accepting sweets from strange men with British accents again have you?' His grin faded. 'Great, now I have Buffy barf on my shoes.'
Willow turned green.


Anya marched furiously towards Sunnydale High.
'I am a calm, rational woman.' Anya murmured fiercely to herself as she approached the school building. 'I will not resort to violence.'


Willow turned the faucet on and splashed the cold water across her face. She gasped in shock as someone grabbed her from behind and placed their hand over her mouth.
'OK net girl.' Hissed Cordelia, releasing her grip. 'There is like, no universe where you would be my first choice, but I am so not doing this on my own.'
Willow stared at Cordelia, her eyes wide in alarm. 'Kay.'


Buffy, Xander and Oz sat around the main table in the library. Buffy sipped delicately at her glass of water.
Xander looked up at his companions. 'So should we look?'
'What?'
Xander flipped the note over his hands. 'I have in my hands a piece of paper.' He placed the list face done under his palm.' A list of every man, in the last 10 weeks who…'
'Ew, no, oh Xander no.' Buffy pulled a face. 'Gross out.'
'Oh you lie Buffy Summers.' Xander wafted the notepaper in front of her face. 'You lie like a cheap watch.'
'Uh, Xander?' Oz addressed his friend who was by now standing over Buffy on the opposite side of the table. 'Privacy? As in gross invasion of?'
'Read me.' Whined Xander, speaking as the voice of the list. 'Oh why won't anybody read me?'
'I can't… It's not…'
'Read me Buffy. If you don't Cordelia will…'
'Argh!' Buffy groaned in frustration. 'OK, if it just makes you shut up!'
Xander grinned. 'Yeah, I'm sure that's the only reason Buffy.'
Buffy frowned. 'Just the first few names. If it'll keep you quiet.'
Xander cleared his throat. 'And the first name on the list is…' He turned the paper over. 'Tan tan tarah… Robert…' Xander turned pale.
'Robert what?' Buffy tried to peer over his shoulder. 'Robert who? Just Robert? Tell me, I'm the slayer, It could be slay relevant.' She rested her hands on her hips. 'I'm Buffy the vampire slayer and I demand to know.'
'Oh God, that's it. I'm blind.' Xander whined. 'It has literally sent me blind.'
Oz placed the list back onto the table. 'Robert Snyder.'


'That's it.' Cordelia stared into Willow's cupped palms. 'We're going to be on Jerry Springer.'
Willow stared dazed into the distance. 'I- I should tell Oz first I think.' Willow bit her lip. 'Oh dear.'


'Are you OK Xander?' Buffy placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. 'I mean, look.' She said cheerfully. 'All these other names are ok,' She frowned, 'There's not an awful lot of surnames but it's still of the good - see?' She ran her finger down the list. 'David Mitchell, He runs the auto repair store down on… Mr Stirgiss, that's a little ew but still of the… Greg Deacon and Michael Hister and Chuck Norris and… Chuck Norris?'
'It's possible that he was lying.'
Buffy spun in the direction of Alice's voice. 'We… Uh… We were just, um… Sorry?'
'Is Mr Giles here?' Alice stared beyond the group into the empty librarian's office. 'I still have to discuss some aspects of Mr Whyndam- Price's Observance with him.'
'Nope, um, No, no he's not here. He said he was going to make a patrol of the woods.' Buffy shrugged. 'Sorry.'
Alice clicked her tongue and pulled her handbag back onto her shoulder. 'Well, tell him I was here.' She turned and left.
'There.' Remarked Oz. 'Goes one sad little Watcher.'


Buffy and Xander sat dismally around the main table, Oz had been gone some minutes now and they began to wonder exactly what it was that Willow had so urgently wanted to talk to him about.
'I can't believe how P.O 'ed Giles is about this whole Bakmahab thing.' Buffy frowned. 'I mean, sure, it's a little embarrassing, but, I mean, you had much more embarrassing thoughts when I was on that whole demon mind reading trip.'
'Gee thanks Buff.'
'Yeah, um, that sentence came out wrong, sorry.'
Xander began to thread a pencil over and under his fingers. 'It's because she had so much badness to choose from.'
'Guh?'
'Kinda like.' He flipped the pencil into the air and caught it between the palms of his hands. 'Kinda like if someone, lets call her 'Fluffy' would rather be with the real old, if traditionally good looking, ex boyfriend who tried to kill us all - and will, by the way, turn evil again the moment they get squelchy - than her trusted, funny - if not conventionally good looking - friend. Who has - although he doesn't like to stress the point - helped save the world on at least…'
'Xander I get it.' Interrupted Buffy. 'Squelchy?'
They turned as Oz and Willow slunk back into the library. Xander stared at the pale faced musician. 'Oz, man are you alright? You look terrible.'
'I, uh, yeah.' Oz sat next to Xander and shook his head. 'I, uh, just need, I think, yeah.'
'ALEXANDER HARRIS!' Anya stood in the doorway of the library. 'ALEXANDER HARRIS SHOW YOURSELF!'
Cordelia slunk in behind her. 'Hi Anya, are you here to see,…' She paused. 'Well I can see you're shaking with anger again so I'll just...…' She sat next to Willow and exchanged a conspiratorial glance with the nervous looking redhead.
'Anya honey?' Xander's voice wavered. 'You looking to beat Giles again? 'Cause he's not...'
'DON'T YOU ANYA HONEY ME!' Anya slammed a medical dictionary down onto the tabletop. 'Ooh you are so lucky I don't have my powers any more!'
'Anya?' Xander stared at Anya in fear and confusion.
'Read pages 121 to 123.' Xander took the book onto his lap.
'I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS, I HAVE BARELY GOT USED TO THIS… THIS SILLY LITTLE BODY AND NOW I'M GOING TO HAVE TO PUT UP WITH…'
'Oh dear God.' Xander's eyes widened. 'I-I…' He straightened his shirt collar. 'Anya, I… No wait.' He knelt down on one knee. 'In the Harris family tradition, I would like to…'
'HAH!' Cordelia snorted, looking up from the book which Xander had recently held. 'I smell demons, ' She stood with her hands on her hips. 'I smell Hellmouth ookiness…' She glared at Willow. 'I smell a spell.'
Buffy turned green.


'All of them you say?' Giles frowned. 'Why didn't you tell me sooner?'
'Well we would have, only you'd kind of chosen this morning to play Conan the librarian up in the woods.' Xander paused. 'Plus we had to spend quite a lot of time cleaning up after Buffy decided to reintroduce the world to everything she'd eaten for the last six months.'
'Yes,' Giles opened the book in front of him, 'that would be an unfortunate side affect of her Slayer immune system I suppose.'
'Guh?' Buffy looked up from her bucket. 'Pretty sucky side affect.'
'It, um, that is morning sickness.' He flipped through the pages of the ancient book. 'Is usually a-a result of the immune system going temporarily into overdrive during the early months of -of…'
'Super immune system, super overdrive.' Buffy moaned and pulled her hair away from her face. 'Well that's a Slayer power I could pretty much do without.'
'I, um,' Giles looked up from his book, 'I was always led to believe that dry toast was of some help,' He gripped his glasses in his teeth as he began to sift through some loose manuscripts, 'Or possibly a cracker.' He stared at an illustration on the manuscript. 'Did any of you by any chance come across this recently?'
Buffy stared at the drawing of a demon something between a catfish and a cockroach, except forty foot tall and on fire. 'I think we would have mentioned it.'


'I, I can't find…' Giles slammed the book shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. 'There doesn't seem to be any…' He looked across to the library steps where the Buffy and the others were gathered. 'I suppose it couldn't just be…' Angel glared at him.
'Giles? Squelch veto?' Buffy drew herself up against Angel's side. 'Remember?'
'Squelch veto?' Giles blinked, 'Oh! Oh… ' He shook his head. 'Why do I get the impression that that particular term was coined by Mr Harris?'
'Get off of my hair!' Anya glared at Xander who was affectionately stroking her head. 'Spell or no spell, you are not touching any part of my body any time soon mister.'
'HAIR!' The group jumped in alarm as Giles leapt towards the shelves and began to urgently rifle through a decaying volume.
'Buffy, Anya, um, Cordelia, try to think now, have any people with whom you were unfamiliar brushed or run their fingers through your hair. Perhaps in a crowded place, an elevator or a bus?'
'Bus people!' Willow started awake suddenly. 'Oh,' She leant her head back on Oz's shoulder. 'I thought maybe it was a dream.' She frowned. 'The part about Cordelia and Giles running a house of pancakes was a dream though, right?'
'Um, quite.' Giles muttered as he turned the pages of his dusty and cracking tome. 'At least until I get my syrup licence... Aha!' He placed his finger in the centre of the page. 'Do you recognise this?'


'Erstkinder.' Giles held the book up for the group to view. 'Germanic subset of demons, their name is, ahaha, quite a clever pun.' Giles registered their blank stares, 'On the German for only child… It's the same as for maiden's child.' He cleared his throat. 'Well, I said clever, not funny.'
'Erstkinder!' Anya spat. 'Of course. Why didn't I recognise them?'
'As I understand it they would have been disguised, taken on human form as it were.' He pointed out the writing on the page. 'The Erstkinder propagate by stroking the hair of prideful maids,' He read, 'In time these maids give birth to Erstkinder, the original Erstkinder draws strength from these offspring, and in turn from any offspring they produce.'
'Prideful?' Willow whimpered.
Giles rubbed his eyes wearily. 'It's probable that was added in order to give a reason that certain girls were chosen whilst others were left untouched. Rural mythmakers tend to like an element of supernatural justice in their demons.'
'So.' Buffy rubbed her hands together. 'How do we teach these things that a nice girl just doesn't propagate on the first date?'
'Decapitate the leader.' Giles took his sword from under the desk and passed it to Buffy. He paused and took his sports bag of weapons from his office. He fumbled through it for a moment. 'You may want to take this as well.'
'Thanks.' Buffy smiled and took the bottle of Pepto-Bismol.


'Here demon, demon, demon.' Buffy cooed swinging the sword through the undergrowth. 'Here, spawn of Hell, Momma's got a brand new sword she wants you to see.'
'Somehow I don't think that's going to bring them running.' Xander stumbled behind her with the sports bag of weapons. 'Hell, it's got me spooked and I'm on your side.'
Willow leant on Oz's arm. 'Xander. Give Buffy some room.'
Xander slowed his pace until he was beside Angel. They stalked through the darkness, pushing aside the vegetation as Buffy stormed through in front of them.
'Haiiiiiiii ! Oh…' Buffy paused in front of a tree stump. 'I thought maybe it was the Erstkinder.'


'He wasn't in all day,' Xander muttered to Angel, 'You don't think maybe we…'
'You don't run away.' Angel scowled. 'You don't run away from problems.'
'But it wasn't his problem…' Xander trotted to keep up with Angel as he strode through the woods. 'Really. We just played on the fact that…' Xander stared at the back of Angel's head as the vampire increased his pace dissmissively. 'Yeah, well, Like I need your approval Dead-boy. What's wrong? Pity a bit too human for you? Oh yeah, wouldn't want a little thing like sympathy to get in the way of that icy vampire logic.'
'Xander.' Willow placed a hand on her friend's arm.
Xander glowered. 'He just…' He broke off a twig and threw it to the floor. 'It's that whole 'Never apologise never explain' thing. Like, now he has a soul everything he does has to be from the purest motives.' He peeled the bark from a twig and began to unconsciously fashion it into a miniature stake. 'You'd think that he would be all in favour of forgiveness.'
'Whoa.' Oz stared at the matchstick-like scrap of wood in Xander's hand. 'Vampire gophers?'


'Anya?' Giles looked up from his books. 'Would you like to go home?'
'Hmm?' Anya lifted her head from the table and blinked sleepily at her surroundings. 'I'm in the library? Why am I in the library?'
'You were assisting me in my research.' Giles shut his book. 'Would you like me to drive you home?'
Anya frowned. 'No, no. I can walk, maybe walk off this headache.' She peered inside her bag.
'You have protection?'
'Uh, yeah.' She gestured with her stake and phial of Holy water. 'I have um…' Anya stared at Giles. 'Do you say that to Buffy in public a lot?'


'So what was the problem with Angel?' Willow walked in between Oz and Xander, following the sound of Buffy as she called out terrible oaths to Erstkinder and demons on general.
'The problem with Angel?'
'What got you so hot under the collar?' Willow frowned. 'Or should I not know?'
Xander shook his head. 'It was stupid. Lame. I mean even Wesley doesn't…'
'Wesley?' Cordelia interrupted. 'Where's Wesley?' She pouted. 'I bet if Wesley was here we would have found that - that - 'thing' by now.'
'On the other hand.' Xander sighed. 'Our plan did have some under appreciated points.'


Anya strode into the darkness of the Sunnydale High parking lot. She sniffed the air and paused to rub her temples. The savage pounding of her headache was making cogent thought difficult and she wished that she had taken the time to swallow an aspirin before she had left the library.
'Oh.' She frowned as her heel caught in the grate and parted company with her shoe. 'Great, now my ankle hurts as well. I am, really, really sick of living on a Hellmouth.' She paused. 'And now I'm talking to myself in a school parking lot.' She straightened herself. 'I am a 1200 year old ex demon and I'm spooked by being alone in a school parking lot.'
A marrow freezing shriek echoed around the parking lot and Anya jumped back as a Repercussus leapt from behind her into a nearby windshield. A deep growl boomed in the silence behind her.
'Not alone.'


'Take that you…Oh you icky thing you!' Cordelia stamped ineffectually at the Erstkinder as they crowded together in an attempt to avoid Buffy's blows. Giles sword sliced through the air as Buffy danced between them. 'Which one's the leader Will?'
'Leader?' Willow glanced up from the book as the body of yet another Erstkinder fell at her feet. 'Oh- Right, the leader.' She scoured the pages for information. 'Uh, it, um, it-it,' She bit her lip, 'it doesn't say.'


'Bakmahab.' Anya spat. 'Arknat Inmrolk tavoon machnalith.' The long dead demon language giving vent to her feelings in ways English could not approach.
'Tiny, tiny little Anyaka.' The demonic laughter echoed round the parking lot.
'YOU SMELLY, REVOLTING - STUPID- STUPID. AARGH!' Anya shrieked in frustration. 'YOU DON'T DESERVE POWERS - YOU- YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE A DEMON!' She stamped her foot in rage. 'YOU THINK YOU'RE SCARY?' She yelled. 'I'VE SEEN SCARIER - SCARIER HOBGOBLINS! YEAH, YOU HEARD ME, HOBGOBLINS! THE LITLLE BROWN ONES!'
'Tiny, tiny little Anyaka. Tiny little human Anyaka.' His chest shook as he chuckled deeply. 'Tiny, little Anyaka.' He pinched together his finger and thumb. 'Squash.'
Anya took a step backwards. 'OH, TERRIFIED.' She yelled sarcastically. 'OH YEAH, ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIED.'
Bakmahab's muscles stood out against the night sky as he shook with ugly laughter. 'Squash.' He lowered his arms towards Anya and began to close the gap between the two forces of vengeance.
'REVENGE THIS BAKMAHAB YOU GREAT ORANGE BASTARD!'
'Alice?'

'Maybe it's this one?' Buffy sliced through another unfortunate Erstkinder. 'Nope.' She turned towards the rest of the group. 'Oh well, plenty of sword to go around.'


Anya stepped back as Alice swung the sword in a wild circle around the demon. 'Obsequor!' She dashed back around him. 'Vinculum!'
The Repercussus fell as Alice sliced it clean through. 'And you can piss off too.'


Buffy let her sword fall on the neck of the last remaining Erstkinder. 'Heads up.'
Xander groaned.
'What?' Buffy snapped, wiping the blade of Gile's sword with a handful of grass. 'Like you could think of fifteen different decapitation /sword / pregnancy puns?' She held the sword lightly by the hilt and stood. 'We should be getting back to the library, see how Giles is getting on.'
They turned to leave the clearing.
'You know,' Xander stepped into pace beside Buffy, 'You don't have to make a funny every time you kill something.'
Buffy shrugged. 'It passes the time.'


Alice slammed the sword into Bakmahab's unyielding form. 'Die, damn you!'
Anya sat back on the hood of Gile's car. 'Your Grandmother's sword?'
'Great Aunt Ida's.' Alice span past and thrust the sword back at the demon.
'Hmmm.' Anya began to file her fingernails. 'Victorian lady Watchers and swords. There's a psych paper waiting to be written.'
'Anya dear.' Alice flew past scattering hairpins as she whirled the sword around her. 'A little help would be nice.'


'Snff.' Giles snorted the papers away from his face and started suddenly awake. He groaned and pushed his chair away from the table. He reached for his mug and winced as a mouthful of cold milky tea washed down his throat. Gingerly he checked for floating dog ends. He scowled as he remembered the events of the last two days and threw the remainder of his tea down the sink.
'Misser Giles?'
Giles turned at the sound of his name. 'Wesley?'


'You think Giles has worked out how to kill that Baka-'whatever the hell it was called' - Thing?' Cordelia trotted along the corridor of Sunnydale High behind Buffy and Xander. 'Oh- oh, I bet Wesley found out for him, I bet he just looked up in that book and… Do you remember, when he just knew what that oogy grey thing in the…'
'Shut up!' Xander stood firm. 'I do not want to hear about Wesley! I do not want to hear about his glasses, or his hair, or how either of them will help him to defeat any and all demons we meet.'
Cordelia paused.
'Because you know, it makes sense that he'd know because he's like, way younger than Giles and he killed that thing, you know…'


'Wesley?' Giles stared at the unsteady young Watcher.
'Were-where's My Alice.'
Giles glared. 'Mr Whyndam- Price, you will find on that table a list of at least twenty men to whom she has been 'My Alice' of late. I doubt very much that she is 'yours' any more than she is any other poor sod's with a double bed and a mother fixation.'
'Oh- oh- don' you talk like…'
'Wesley you're drunk.'
'Yeah, I-I-I-I'm drunk.' Wesley swayed slightly. ''N 'm a ticking timebomb 'o -'o - of frustration 'n other, um, stuff.' He steadied himself with a hand on the shelves. 'Where is she? 'M going - going - gon' take care…'
Giles sneered at him with undisguised distaste. 'You really don't get it do you? It's not yours you odious little tit. It's not anyone's, 'Your Alice' has finally come a cropper as the result of her unbelievably shallow attitude to…'
Giles was surprised at the strength of Wesley's right hook.


'Anya?' Alice spun the sword over her head and brought it crashing back down on Bakmahab. 'Could you even, just, argh! Die damn you! Possibly tell me how to kill it?'


Giles responded instinctively sending Wesley sprawling with his own punch. 'You've broken my bloody nose!' Giles clasped a white cotton handkerchief to his bloodied nose. 'You stupid little…' Wesley landed another blow.
'Right!' Giles let the handkerchief fall to the floor and pushed up his sleeves. 'That's it - you are getting the beating you deserve.'
The two Watchers circled each other in the dust of the library.
'You - you take it back.'
Giles darted out of the way of Wesley's ill thrown punch and landed his own. Wesley doubled over as the older man's fist ground into his stomach and looped his arm over Giles neck pulling him down to his level.
'GILES!'
Giles glanced up at Buffy's astonished yell and saw Cordelia running across the library.
'GET- THE - HELL - AWAY- FROM- MY -WESLEY!' Cried Cordelia, punctuating with blows to Gile's head and back.
'I-I-I.' The Watchers were separated and Giles scowled as Cordelia fussed over Wesley.
'What was that?' Scolded Buffy. 'Did I walk in on Testosterone hour or something?'
'You had testosterone hour without me?' Buffy and Giles glared at Xander. 'O-kay, just trying a little situation diffusion, but no, I'll leave you with your rage.'
Giles and Wesley stood shamefaced at either end of the library.
'X-Xander,' Giles dabbed at his nose with his by now grubby handkerchief, 'Would you mind driving Wesley home?' He pulled his car keys from his pocket. 'I believe I shall walk.'
Xander's face fell. 'In your car?'
Giles frowned and took a deep breath. 'Just do it.'


'I think, probably, um, decapitation? Or maybe the heart?'
Alice shot a dark glance at Anya before bringing the sword back down on Bakmahab.


Buffy gasped as they entered the parking lot and saw the spectacle before them. Without pausing for thought she lifted Gile's sword above her head and charged at Bakmahab.
'Good shot that man!' Cried Alice as Buffy attacked the other side of Bakmahab. ' Or, um, woman as it were.'
'How do we kill it?'
Alice glared at Anya and Xander.
'What? Oh, um, the heart,' Anya stroked Xander's chest, 'I'm, um, pretty sure that it's the heart.'
'Xander take Anya home as well.' Giles ordered. 'Her presence is…' His words were cut off by the screech of tyres as he watched his car disappear from the parking lot.


Angel paused as he stood over Buffy's bed. A torrent of memories flooded into his mind. Of times when Angelus had stood where he was now. A sense of shame at his other self filled him as he remembered the events of earlier that year. He thought of the other times that he had stood like this and sighed heavily. Putting the sealed envelope to his lips he kissed it gently and placed it on the pillow.
Silently he left.


Willow and Giles watched as the two women laid about Bakmahab with their swords.
'Giles? Isn't there a spell or…'
Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. 'You stay here. I'll take a look.'


Bakmahab bowed down under the weight of blows from the Slayer and the angry Watcher. He dropped to the ground as Buffy struck his lower body.
'Hah!' Alice let out a cry of triumph as she saw her chance. 'Right mate, you are down.'
Alice held her sword high above her head and brought it plunging down into Bakmahab's chest. 'When you get to hell, tell 'em Alice Boston sent yeh!' Alice crowed as, driven by her weight, the sword entered to the hilt.
Bakmahab stared up at her as he began to smoulder. 'Who?' He murmured before the flash fire consumed him like potassium in water.


'Wait.' Xander slowed down as he watched the lone figure on the sidewalk. He pulled over to the curb and opened the car door. 'I'm just… I'll be back.' He gave Anya a peck on the cheek and glanced at Wesley spread out and snoring in the back seat. 'Just, um, keep him comfortable.' Anya shrugged and turned her attention to nosing through the various glove compartments and cubby-holes within her reach.
'Angel?' Xander tried to force out a casual questioning tone. 'You want a ride?'
'Leave me be.' Angel continued along his path, 'I don't need a ride.'
Xander stared at the back of the vampires head as he strode away from him. 'You're sure?'
'Go away.'
Xander stood in the darkness. 'You don't run away.' He called after Angel. 'You don't run away from problems.'
Angel paused. 'I'm walking.'


Buffy picked up Alice's sword from the pile of ash on the floor. 'Wow.' She stroked the dark wood inlay along the flat edge. 'So it can kill vampires?'
'Yup.' Alice snatched back the sword and threw it in a wild loop before catching it and tossing it back to Buffy. 'I'll wager you haven't seen it's like before.'
'Wager?'
'Sorry.' Alice grinned apologetically. 'I tend to get a bit 'Zorro' after a sword fight.' She smiled and yawned as Buffy felt the weight of it in her hand. 'You can take it on patrol with you tonight, if you're careful.'
'Cool.'
Alice yawned again and rubbed her forehead as Buffy began to parry and thrust with non-existent enemies along the path out of the Parking lot.
'Alice.' Willow placed a concerned hand on Alice's arm. 'Who?'


Alice sat in the warm darkness of her apartment, she stared at the saucer of ink and water on the footstool in front of her and let out a sigh.
'Blessings be upon this house.'
She started at the voice in the doorway. 'An uncharacteristically melodramatic greeting Rupert.'
'I thought it could do with them.' Giles walked across the room and stood at the kitchen door. 'You've been scrying.'
'No,' Alice rubbed at her eye. 'I've just, oh - Scrying, yes, yes, I've been doing that.'
The sounds of a kettle boiling came from the kitchen.
'Do you…'
'I can't drink it at the moment dear, it makes me heave.'
'Oh.' The sound from the kitchen paused. 'Um, I-I-I. Can you take water?'
'You make me sound like the titanic.' Alice smiled wistfully at the saucer in front of her. 'I don't need a drink thank you.'
'Hah.' Giles stood behind her. 'Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear.' He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. 'Did you…' He gestured at the saucer in front of her.
'Yes.'
'Do you want to…'
'No.'
Giles stood in awkward silence, cradling his tea-cup. 'I thought perhaps you'd like me to talk to…'
'No, thank you, but no.'
Giles paused at the doorway. ' I - well, I'll see you tomorrow.'
Alice watched him leave in silence.