Something Evil This Way Comes, Part II

Author: Sirius

Pairing: Zoey/Charlie, Willow/Will

Rating: PG

Author's Note: This picks up immediately after Part I.

Willow walked to Charlie's side, and, from that angle, was able to see into the room quite easily.  No sound escaped her, but Charlie looked down to see her eyes glowing a vibrant green. 

"Wills," he whispered, "calm down a bit, ok?"

She nodded, closed her eyes, took a deep breath… and nearly jumped in shock when Charlie rapped sharply on the open door, drawing the attention of the Oval's two occupants.

The younger one took a step toward her, eyes showing his shock at finding her here, of all places.  "Willow."

"Captain Finn."  Her voice was cold.  Here in front of her was a symbol of everything she'd hated about the Initiative, and its "torture first, ask questions later" research policy.  She turned her face from him, choosing to pay attention to the other man in the Oval Office.  "Good evening, Mr. President."

"Miss Rosenberg, Charlie, come in and have a seat.  It seems we need to talk."  Both of the younger individuals nodded, quickly and silently choosing seats.  Willow would have been shaking in fear at her location if she hadn't been focused on glaring at Riley. 

"Charlie," the President began, keeping a watchful eye – so to speak – on the mounting tension between the young woman and the Special Forces Captain.  He'd get to their story soon enough, but first…  "Charlie, how do you and Willow know each other?"

"We met at my cousin's wedding last month, Mr. President.  They work for the same private investigations firm in L.A."

"Part-time, anyway," Willow added.  "Gunn sticks with the investigating, but I do a fair amount of freelance computer programming, too."

"You work for Angel."  The shock on Riley's face was priceless.  "You moved to L.A. and went to work for a hostile?!"

Willow took a deep breath and turned the President.  "May I speak freely, sir?"

"Go right ahead.  Captain Finn certainly seems to think he can; you might as well join him."

"Riley, point one: seeing that you just mentioned Angel in front of the President, and, well… he is the President, I'm presuming that he knows about the Initiative, the Hellmouth, et cetera?"  Riley nodded, but Willow looked to Bartlet to confirm the response.

"With all due respect, sir," and this, she said to the President, "his commanding officer had a few run-ins with delusions of godhood, and I have to wonder how much you actually read that happened to be the truth.  Walsh certainly wouldn't have told you about Adam."

"No," Bartlet responded, "but the Captain did.  I put him in the Initiative to keep an eye on Walsh, Miss Rosenberg.  I didn't trust her, but no one had any proof."

"Unfortunately, he seems to have picked up a few of her attitudes while he was there."

"I am still in the room, Willow," Riley interjected.

"You're also still thinking of Angel as a hostile, Riley.  He has a soul.  He's a Chosen Warrior of the Powers That Be.  Between his cause and a rather major case of Irish Catholic guilt… hey, he doesn't make with the big, bad evil.  Get used to it."

Riley was stunned into silence.  This was the shy, researchy Willow?

Seeing the look on his face, Willow laughed a little.  It was not an unkind laugh… more, gently amused.  "Riley, I may have been all Research Girl in high school, but I'd still been… you know, fighting evil and all that since I was fifteen.  My first boyfriend was a werewolf.  You may remember Oz; you helped catch him and the Initiative wanted to dissect him.  Nice guy, just slightly grumpy for three days of every month, but then… I'm no fun to be around three days out of the month, either, so… not all to the bad.  And then, of course, if you remember that I survived high school, you know there's gotta be some kick-ass stuff in there somewhere.  Pardon the language, Mr. President."

"Oh, go right ahead.  I'm enjoying this little conversation we seem to be having.  And the significance to surviving high school would be…"

"Well, sir, I grew up on the Hellmouth.  People don't tend to… well… live there, very easily, due to several long-standing hazards… things like praying mantis demon-things – one of which ate a science teacher and tried to get together with all the male virgins in her class – she was a substitute teacher.  Then, there's the vampires of course – killed the computer science teacher, among others.  She was a friend, though.  Then… oh, the biggie… the mayor who turned into an evil demon thing and ate the principal – on Graduation Day – and then pretty much made with decimating much of the audience and half the Senior Class.  I've been actively fighting these things, one way or another, since Buffy – the Slayer?"  Bartlet nodded to show that Riley's reports had filled him in on that much.  "Since Buffy came to Sunnydale and kept me from being a walking Happy Meal.  More to me than meets the eye.  'Course, given what the Initiative was trying to do – and the dubious sanity of Dr. Walsh – you might understand why I wasn't too fond of them.  I'm actually being nice to Riley."

"You call this nice?"

"Riley, I'm a witch, remember?  I don't hurt people, but the humiliation… another thing entirely.  Besides, I haven't actually done anything to you, and I won't.  Thus, the nice.  However, even if you were reporting on the Initiative for President Bartlet, you still aided in the capture of innocent individuals, and could be considered an accomplice to several counts of aggravated assault and … what exact heading does torture come under, anyway?  Of course, that's presuming that demons could press charges in a human court, which would be pretty… well, futile." 

The identical looks of shock from the three men made her chuckle.  "What?  I'm not allowed to watch `Matlock' every once in a while?"

TBC…