17: Unpleasant Surprises

Josh yelped and lashed out blindly as one of the vampires got too close for comfort. He made contact, but only by accident, and he suspected it was more painful for his hand than the creature.

Toby grunted beside him, and there was the solid thud of a stake hitting home. Suddenly he was covered in dust.

"Hey, he killed Kevin!" exclaimed one of the vamps. Josh fought the urge to giggle insanely at the incongruity of a vampire called Kevin. He was caught by surprise as one of the creatures grabbed him from behind, and suddenly there was a sharp pain in the side of his neck.

Instinct brought his backpack up to whack at it. There was a crunch of glass, and suddenly the vampire was howling and reeling backwards. Josh gagged at the hiss like frying bacon and the smell of scorched flesh that accompanied it.

The remaining vampires scrambled away, suddenly worried. "Man, they're packing, like, acid or something!" exclaimed their leader. He sounded vaguely indignant, as if he considered that to be cheating.

"It's holy water, idiot," growled Toby, snatching up one of the undamaged bottles. He seemed more annoyed by the vampires' lack of education than anything else.

The vampires drew back and eyed them warily. Josh fumbled for the crossbow in his bag, and managed to get it pointing the right way. Toby took a step towards him, still holding up the water bottle as if it was a grenade. "Back away," he advised softly. "No sudden movements."

They both backed slowly towards the exit, not taking their eyes of the glowering vamps. Toby kicked the door open behind them, and looked across at Josh. "Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"Run."

They sprinted for the car.

"So, there I was, just woken up in my office, and I discovered I was..." Sam hesitated, on the edge of a blush.

"Suffering from a slight case of nudity?" Buffy supplied with a grin. "I hear you. Happened to me once when I got turned into a rat."

"You got turned into a rat?"

"Yeah. Long story." She frowned. "Well, not. Basically, what happened was, somebody turned me into a rat."

"Okay." Sam was learning to shrug that kind of thing off. "So anyway, there I was. Half dressed, wondering what the hell had just happened to me... Josh came in, and explained the whole werewolf thing, and then he wanted to take a look at the bite." He grimaced. "At which point Cathy and Ginger walked in."

"On you and Josh?" The corners of Buffy's mouth started to turn up in a smirk.

"Yeah." Sam shuddered. "It was a whole semi-nakedness, close proximity, early hour of the morning thing, which, uh... didn't go down so well." Or entirely too well, depending on your point of view.

Buffy giggled, apologised, and giggled again. "Sorry. But that's... that's kind of funny."

"Yeah," he agreed wryly. "Everybody else in the whole universe certainly thought so."

Buffy grinned and patted his shoulder. "Hey, look on the bright side," she advised.

"What bright side would that be, exactly?"

"Well, hey. Josh is really quite cute, you know." He gave her a look, and she bust up laughing again. "Sorry. I shouldn't laugh, it's not like I've never done the whole weird excuses shtick. It's just, you guys... that's so cute!"

"Thanks." But her smile was infectious, and he couldn't help grinning back. It was funny, he supposed. In a 'situations involving absolutely no eye-contact with anyone even peripherally involved' way.

"Thank you," said Buffy, getting her giggles under control. "I needed this," she said sincerely. "Coming back from the dead, it's been... it's been weird."

"Well, you'd think."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But it's all been so... I don't know. Big party, pretty dress, lots of laughs and no stress - this is exactly what I needed."

"Well, don't speak too soon," Sam warned her, as he caught a glimpse across the dance floor. "Roger Tribby's just walked in the room."