19: Out of Time

"We need to do this outside," Toby explained.

"You don't think the Secret Service are gonna notice if we open a great big glowing portal thingie?" Josh demanded.

"Do portals glow?" asked Sam curiously. "I mean, as a rule?"

Buffy nodded. "Generally, yeah. Big, swirly, glowy things, hanging in the air." She frowned. "I've got kind of a bad history with portals. This one better work."

"I think we can, um, make the portal invisible," Giles said. "Of course, that, uh, that carries its own dangers."

"Yeah. I don't think we want anybody accidentally falling in," Sam agreed.

"Yeah." Josh shuddered. "I don't think I'd miss the shrimp, but I could live without being trapped with an angry giant snake."

Sam looked worried. "Are we going to, I don't know, drop the giant snake on the parallel universe White House? Because I don't think parallel universe me would appreciate that very much."

Giles shook his head. "We're not splitting planes of reality, just dimensions. We'll try to open a link to one of the hell dimensions; the Mayor - Tribby - should be quite, uh, at home among the other demons."

"Okay, now I definitely don't want to fall in there," said Josh. "What now?"

"We'll start prepping the ritual," said Toby. "Somebody needs to get Wesley-"

"I'll do that!" Josh volunteered quickly, and dashed towards where he'd last seen Wesley and Donna.

"And the thing about kybarusi demons, you see, is that-"

"Time to go." Josh somewhat rudely thrust between Wesley and Donna and gave them a sharp look.

"Josh!" Donna couldn't quite hide the stab of relief at seeing him back in one piece. Then she frowned. "What happened to your neck?"

"Vampire bite," he answered shortly. He frowned at the pair of them. "In case you were too busy flirting to notice, Tribby's in the room."

Wesley jumped. "I wasn't-" He turned to Donna. "Miss Moss, I assure you, I wasn't trying to-"

"It's okay," she reassured him, giving Josh the evil eye. "Ignore my boss, he just has an assortment of random objects jammed up his ass."

"Hey!"

"Behave, Josh," she ordered him. How did he manage to be simultaneously cute and annoying when he was jealous?

Self-defence mechanism, Donna. Otherwise he would have been kicked out of the nearest window at an very early age.

"We don't have time for this," he said shortly, and turned on his heel.

"Sorry," said Wesley quietly, as they followed him out of the hall.

"Why are you apologising to me?" she asked.

He stuttered. "I, I, I hope I didn't give the wrong impression to your, um, your-"

"Boss?"

"Boss," he accepted with a nod, but the look her gave her said he knew different.

Dammit, dammit, dammit. When did we become an open book? Even on their short acquaintance Wesley was reading the undercurrents between her and Josh, and nice though he was Donna didn't think he was quite the most clued up of individuals.

She wasn't sure how the ins and outs of their complicated relationship had suddenly become obvious, but she was willing to bet it was all Josh's fault.

They assembled outside the building, temporarily sheltered from the eyes of the Secret Service. They were going to have a very limited window to cast this spell, and a lot of explaining to do if anybody caught them in the act.

Toby took charge as he and the other Watchers scrambled to prepare the portal-opening spell. "We have to assume the vampires Tribby left for us aren't the only ones he has at his command."

"You think they can get into the White House?" frowned Josh.

"We might have security," Toby reminded him, "but they're looking for human beings. Vampires can move silently and fast."

"We'll take care of them," shrugged Buffy confidently, glancing at Donna. Donna smiled a little uneasily back. For all that Buffy was a good few years her junior, she was very glad she'd have her along.

Josh also looked concerned. "I should go with you."

She rolled her eyes at him, but fondly. "I think one vampire bite a day is enough for you, Josh."

"You need need to be on the inside, Josh," Toby interrupted before he could protest further. "Sam, CJ, you too. We need you to wait until the last minute, and then get Tribby out here without Leo or the president seeing you do it."

The operative question was of course 'how?', but none of them asked it. They were running out of time, and now their only chance was in doing, not thinking.