Disclaimer: Not mine, not mine. Whedon and Sorkin's only.
Summary: The First Daughter is missing, California's collapsing, the Slayers are having dreams, the First Family is falling apart in the mix... and CJ broke her favorite mug. Can the Sunnydale crew keep the Bartlet administration afloat?
A/N: Mmmmm, Order of the Phoenix... if you haven't read it (and can appreciate the anger inherent in being a teenager), go get it! Hm. What do Order of the Phoenix and Office of the President have in common? Both appear in my notes as "OotP". Good thing I can tell the difference, or I'd have been screwed on my test... Right, I doubt any of you want to hear me ramble. Go on and enjoy!
Chapter Three — Things that Go Bite in the Night
"Miss Summers, we're about to land."
Mr. Seaborn shook her awake, and she was pulled out of a vision of their quarry, tied up in a dark room and surrounded by a dozen vampires. It was dark outside the plane, too, as the frame shuddered under windsheer. "Thanks, Mr. Seaborn. Did you enjoy talking to Kennedy?"
He smiled. "She's very nice, but she had some bad news for you. The championship was cancelled. She said you'd have a message on your answering machine, if it weren't at the bottom of a crater."
Championship? Buffy rubbed her eyes. Oh, that. "Damn. We came all this way for nothing?"
"That, and every hotel from here to New York is filled with tourists trying to get home and travelers locked out of D.C. Josh's apartment is actually in Alexandria — in Virginia - so we'll have to bypass the whole of the District to get there. It sounds like everything's a mess." Mr. Seaborn plastered on his politician grin. "Don't worry. If Josh can't deal with five extra residents, I can call in a few favors from Will Bailey. The guy owes me a job."
"So they only closed down Washington D.C.? Couldn't the kidnappers have made it to Alexandria?" The plane shook as they landed and started taxing.
Mr. Seaborn winced. "Yeah. They could've. Listen, asking whoever picks us up about the kidnapping probably won't be the best of ideas. You could talk about... karate. Or being a councilor. Or... whatever."
"Shopping," Buffy said brightly. "Willow, Xander, and I were going to go shopping today. Yesterday. I don't know what day it is. There's only one problem — the mall is with my answering machine."
"Right." He paused. "Um... politics?"
"Didn't really vote for you. I forgot to register." Buffy gave her best dumb blonde' grin.
Mr. Seaborn snorted. "I figured. After all, you couldn't have — Sunnydale wasn't in the same district as I ran in. Well... do you play poker?"
"Andrew taught everybody to play Dungeons and Dragons the other night. And I happen to be a master at crazy eights."
"Baseball?"
Buffy beamed. This was actually fun. "Broke a window with one."
"Nagging mothers?"
"My mother's grave is with the mall and my answering machine."
The politician grew silent at that, until the captain came over the intercom. "I've got some bad news, folks. The FBI is shutting down the airport due to a federally mandated expansion of the search area for the President's daughter who, I'm told, disappeared early this morning. No planes will be leaving until further notice. If you're supposed to find a connecting flight..."
"Guess I'm stuck with you," Buffy said, ignoring the rest of the message.
Mr. Seaborn nodded slowly. "They'll find her. They have to."
They wouldn't find her, Buffy mused, and thought back on her vision of the girl in the dark room. No, the FBI wouldn't have a clue — but she would.
+
"They're shutting the airport down," Will panted, jogging up. "They got in just in time."
CJ nodded, watching people start to trickle out of the gate, all with angry looks on their faces. "It's a good thing we can't get elected again. The people don't look happy with all this."
"At least we didn't shut down a freeway in Orange County again," Will observed. He seemed to take Sam's defeat as his fault. It wasn't, but CJ didn't care enough to correct him. "Speaking of freeways... you saw the backup once we managed to bully our way out of D.C. How are we going to get back?"
"We're not. We're headed to Josh's. It'll be back roads the whole way." She glanced at her watch. "It's two a.m., Will, there won't be another soul on the road. We'll be fine. If Danny's van stays in one piece."
Will muttered something under his breath. Whatever it was, CJ agreed with him. Danny's van turned out to be well-worn': rusted through at several points and possesses of brakes that made a funny noise every few uses. She had plans to leave several nasty surprises for the reporter, as payback for the Shareef story looming on the horizon.
And then Sam came through the gate, followed by a petite blonde, a redhead, a brunette, a slightly Hispanic-looking girl, and an older, distinguished-looking gentleman. Sam was hugging her in an instant, and she didn't restrain her strength while giving him a squeeze back, which was probably her first mistake. "CJ — air," he wheezed, and she backed off quickly.
"God, I'm sorry — it's been the most awful day. I don't know what's happened to me. I broke a door, and a zipper, and my favorite mug, and — I'm having dreams about Zoey, Sam. I'm scared stiff." She grabbed Sam's shoulders, and he held her tightly.
Over Sam's shoulder, she watched the blonde and the redhead exchanging significant looks. "Hey, there, Claudia Jean. Zoey's gonna be okay. Now let's go see Josh."
Will appeared far too chipper as they headed down the concourse. "Alright, Sam, who are all these people you've picked up? I don't know if Danny's van can handle them."
Sam raised an eyebrow at CJ. "Danny's...?" He trailed off as CJ rolled her eyes and gave a shrug of helplessness. "Right. Whatever. Alright, this is Lindsay Simon, she's the one who was supposed to be participating in the karate competition," he began, gesturing to the brunette. The redhead and the dark-haired women were next. "Willow Rosenberg and Kennedy de Vega, who were supposed to chaperone a much larger group of girls. That's Rupert Giles, the school librarian."
"Please, call me Giles," he put in, in a thick British accent which reminded CJ of Lord Marbury.
"What, Rupert isn't good enough for you?" she couldn't help but crack.
He favored her with an incredibly sexy smile. "If you'd grown up with a given name of Rupert, you'd go by your last name, as well." Danny Concannon, eat your heart out, CJ mused. She grinned back.
"And this is Buffy Summers. She runs the martial arts program," Sam finished.
"We're taking the back roads," Will put in. "We've got Danny Concannon's -"
Sam frowned and smacked Will's shoulder. "I know. You said that earlier."
Will was firmly fixated on Buffy Summers, who appeared oblivious. CJ smelled blackmail opportunities in the future; especially when Will blushed a deep scarlet. "Oh. Sorry, forgot."
+
"Midnight on the night when the moon reaches its fullest. It can't be done tonight," the first vampire said. "Why didn't we take her later?"
"You read the newspaper. She was going to France. It had to be done now. The Hellmouth in Sunnydale is closed — a new one must be opened!" an uglier vamp replied. "It's a good thing our maidens don't have to be virginal anymore."
Zoey curled tighter under their gaze. She was shaking and sweating, likely under the influence of yet another drug. "Are you sure she's the right one?" the first vampire asked. "She looks scrawny. How can she be powerful enough?"
"She's a daughter of a line of witches. Too bad they're Catholic. Repressed, the whole lot of them."
+
The van was sputtering, rather loudly. Will winced, glancing at CJ, who was asleep in the passenger seat. If he broke Danny's van, he was going to be in trouble. Hesitantly, he reached over and shook her shoulder, causing her to let out a loud shriek and swipe at his hand.
Yeah, that would bruise.
Before he accidentally rolled the van over, he pulled to the side of the road and shut the van off. "CJ, we're outside of Bethesda. I think. I don't know the town names. I don't think the van's going to make it."
"I dreamed a bunch of Satan worshippers were going to sacrifice Zoey to open a portal to hell," CJ said.
That started a whispered discussion in the back of the van, inaudible due to Sam's snoring. Will leaned over and peered at CJ. "Are you alright? Isn't this the second dream about Satan worshippers killing Zoey in twenty-four hours?"
"Eighteen hours. I think. I'm sorry. I'm groggy." She was rubbing at her eyes. "It's only 3:30 am. What's wrong with the van?"
"That noise the brakes make? It's worse. And every time I go past 45, it makes this funny noise. Sort of.. kathunk, but it gets repeated a bunch." Though he tried saying it with complete seriousness, the late hour sent Will into a snort of laughter. "I sound like a Meineke commercial."
CJ sighed. "Think we can make it to a gas station?" Will nodded and started the car. Or, tried to start the car — it made a hideous screech before dying completely.
That was enough to wake Sam — that, or Ms. De Vega's elbow in his ribs. "Wh- Will, what did you do?"
"He broke Danny's car," CJ said softly, belying the spark of anger Will caught in her eyes. He cringed. "Will, how far are we from a gas station?"
"Few miles back... past the cemetery," Will muttered, trying to sink into his seat. "And I don't know if it was open. I wasn't paying attention, but it looked kinda dark." Will could've sworn he heard the blonde, Buffy, mutter "not another cemetery" from the back, but he wasn't sure.
CJ opened the door. "Alright, everybody out. Leave whatever luggage you can't carry. We'll be back for this thing with a tow truck." Before Will could breathe a sigh of relief, she snagged his arm. "And I think I'll just leave Danny to deal with you."
Will winced and sunk further into his seat. Just what he needed — an angry reporter watching his every move. However, without complaint, he handed the keys over to CJ and got ready for a long trek.
Buffy, at least, didn't seem annoyed. She was rummaging through her overnight bag and stuffing a few things into her purse. "Sorry about the being stranded bit," Will offered, drawn by the air of command surrounding her.
She favored him with a smile. "Not a problem. Just look out, alright? Cemeteries can be more than creepy."
Before he could respond, CJ grabbed his arm and pulled him aside. "Would you stop hitting on the karate coach and help me figure out where we are?" she hissed.
"It doesn't matter. There's a gas station," Will whined. He was tired, hungry, and he had NOT been hitting on her. He was sick of CJ treating him like a baby — though, really, the whining probably wouldn't help his case on that point. Adding the fact that he felt nervous around the man whose job he'd taken, Will found himself in quite the mood.
He glanced over at the Californians, who were peering into the cemetery as group. Sam trudged over and folded out a map, using it as an excuse to mutter, "They're kind of creepy."
"They seemed interested in your dream, CJ." Will pointed randomly at the map, in case the British man looked over. "Do you think they were really coming here for the karate competition?"
"Miss Summers and Lindsay Simon didn't seem very disappointed when they heard it had been cancelled. And that Giles fellow keeps looking at you, Ceej." Sam shrugged and made a show of folding up the map. "Just be on the lookout, you know?"
CJ grinned. "Well, I've got the amazing Spanky and his sidekick, Lovesick Fool, to protect me."
"Am not," Will muttered. Oh, yeah. That was the way to prove his maturity.
+
"She's one of the Potentials the spell awakened," Willow said shortly. "It's kinda neat. There's sort of a glowy outline around you Slayer-types. I've got my own Slayer nightlight." She grinned over to Kennedy.
"How do we bring it up to her?" Buffy sighed, shaking her head. "Let's just figure out how to find the girl, first. Giles, is D.C. big on vampires?"
He shook his head, took of his glasses, and cleaned them. "I'm afraid not. Though that should make our search easier. Perhaps if someone can distract the politicians, Willow could do a demon locator spell? With the First out of the way..."
Willow and Kennedy exchanged glances, and Willow shrugged. "I could, but we'd have to get them out of the way for a while and snag that map Mr. Seaborn's got."
Giles glanced over at the group. "She must've had a Watcher, when she was of age. Though I suppose this answers our questions about who was Called. Even Potentials past the age of the traditional Slayer line have found their powers. There must be... somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 Slayers on the planet now."
"Ask her, delicately," Buffy directed. "Lindsay, I want you to try to get Mr. Seaborn to show you the map, or something. Feign interest in D.C. He might let you have it. I can distract Mr. Bailey, since he keeps looking at me. Now... can we get away from the cemetery? It's giving me a wiggins."
+
"Well, it's this way," Will called, gesturing across the cemetery. "I turned the corner, so it should be easier if we just cut across." The Californians were exchanging looks. "Or... is that a problem?"
"Nope. Hunky-dory," the redhead — Willow, he was pretty sure — replied.
It was only a few meters to a road into the cemetery, which they followed, with Will in the lead. To his secret delight, he found himself walking next to Miss Summers. "So, how long have you lived in Sunnydale?" That was right. Smooth. Let her talk about herself. It had been ages since he'd had a date — this seemed like foreign territory after writing dozens of speeches for the President.
"I moved there in high school. I graduated in 1999 — I don't know if you'd remember, it made national news, but the school blew up at graduation. That was my school."
Will grinned. "Oh, I remember it. My younger sister — stepsister - went there for a few years; she graduated in '97. Elsie Snuffin?"
Miss Summers chuckled softly. "Oh, yes. No one could forget a name like Elsie Snuffin. The principal died that year."
"Weird things happened there. Everything was blamed on gangs on some drug, but the death rate was just astronomical. If Else hadn't been so close to graduating, Dad wanted to pull her out. He'd just married her mother." Dad and Elsie didn't get along, at first. Nor did Will and Elsie's mother, Deborah, for that matter.
She nodded, glancing over into the field of gravestones. "Lots of weird things. There are far too many graves in Sunnydale."
Will was about to reply when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned — only to find himself face to face with the most hideous creature he'd ever set eyes on. It was man-shaped, slightly taller than Will, and smelled of freshly dug earth. Around its yellow eyes were fleshy ridges, and its teeth were pointed and vicious. Will let out a yelp of surprise before the creature grabbed one of Will's shoulders and took hold of his hair with the other hand. Yanking him closer, the creature sunk his teeth into Will's neck.