Buffy was awaked by hot and hungry hands touching her, smoothing her skin, cupping her breasts. Moaning she arched, trying to get closer to the heat that flooded her.
A sexy chuckle met her efforts and she opened her eyes. His face hovered over hers with a wicked grin, "Good morning, my love." He said before bracing his arms on either side of her and plunging into her heat.
They moved together gently, moaning and whispering each other's name until they went over that shining edge together. Methos moaned against Buffy's neck, lifted his head and laughed softly. She had fallen back to sleep.
Methos dragged himself reluctantly out of bed, pulling the covers over Buffy, gently giving her a kiss. He went and took a shower, had gotten dressed and was drinking a cup of coffee, looking out the windows when he thought her heard Buffy call his name.
"No no no, Methos! Please, don't leave me!" She cried out, thrashing on the bed. "Please, please." She cried heartbrokenly while Methos stood there in shock before dashing over and wrapping her in his arms. "Shh, I'm here Buffy. I'll never leave you." He said over and over and she fought him in her sleep.
Just a suddenly she went limp and opened her eyes. "Methos." And she wrapped her arms around his waist and cried. He held her until she calmed down.
She sat up and wiped her eyes, "Whew, what a nightmare."
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked gently, rubbing her back soothingly and she leaned against him with a sigh. "Not yet, let me get a handle on it first." He nodded and she kissed him and hopped out of bed. "I'm going for a run to the dojo." Methos says nothing to this. He knows it's Buffy coping mechanism when she wants to think something through. He mentally resolved to call Giles as soon as she leaves.
Kissing her as she goes out the door he watches her run full speed down the street, then he immediately grabs his cell phone.
"Angel Investigations, we help the hopeless."
Methos sighed, 'Shit.' "Angel, it's Adam."
Angel rubbed his eyes, "Hello Adam, what can I do for you?"
"Buffy had a violent nightmare, screaming, crying and the like." Methos said evenly and he heard Angel sigh.
"Sometimes Slayers dream of the future. Listen, Giles isn't here but I'll have him call you. He can explain it better than I. If she keeps having the same dream, treat it as a portent and plan accordingly." Angel said and scribbled a note to Giles.
"Thank you Angel. I hope she doesn't dream it again." Methos hung up, staring at the phone before laying it down.
Buffy worked out with single minded determination, trying not to see Methos laying dead in her arms. She stopped suddenly as she thought of something and dashed into Mac's office.
"Mac, can I talk to you?"
He looked up at her strained face, got up and shut the office door.
"Do I have to take Methos' head to make it right?" He asked compassionately. Buffy laughed, then cried.
Duncan walked around and wrapped her in his arms and let her cry it out. When she had finished he gave her the box of kleenex.
"Tell me what it is, and if it's within my power I'll fix it." He regarded his friend seriously and she nodded.
" As a slayer I sometimes dream of the future. Most of the time I don't get the full story and have to fumble through it before the meaning comes clear. This morning I dreamt that Methos was dying in my arms and I couldn't fix it." her tortured eyes fixed on his, "But he still had his head, so he wasn't dead. Right?"
Duncan knew that he had one chance to do this thing right. He knelt in front of her and took her hands in his, "Lass, unless they've taken his head, he'll be around to plague us for 5,000 more years."
Buffy laughed and threw her arms around him, "Mac, you're the best."
"And dinna forget it." he patted her back with a smile.
Methos had catalogues of homes spread all over the antique French country table he had bought Buffy. The apartment was just too small to have him add the things from his long life. He had almost made the curator at the London museum wet his pants when Methos had donated a lot of his ancient artifacts, but he still had tons of his personal things in storage.
The door opened and he was relieved to see his Buffy, the shadows gone from her eyes. He stood and crossed to her, giving her a kiss. "Hello Sweet."
"Hi", she smiled brightly. She had showered and changed at the dojo and now chucked her gym bag with the dirty things into the laundry room. As she walked by she got a good look at the table.
"Going to invest in real estate?" She asked and he shrugged. Buffy looked through the houses and picked up a picture of a huge house and cocked her head.
"Methos, I don't do windows."
"Yes love." He replied.
"I don't like servants."
"Oh." he said lamely and realized that she had probably figured out what he was doing. He shuffled guiltily, then looked up to see humor dancing in her eyes.
"Is my apartment too small?" she asked.
"Really it is love. I have a mansion full of things that I have stored." He said apologetically.
Buffy smiled, "I'm sorry. I didn't think about all of your stuff." She stood thoughtfully on one leg like a flamingo, and Methos smothered a smile.
"Umm, what about a big loft space, like Mac's?" She said thoughtfully and Methos considered it for a moment.
"Could work. Large spaces, lots of wall space, wooden floors with my rugs in storage. Yeah, it could work. But it will have to bigger and better than Duncan's." he said haughtily and was rewarded by Buffy's giggles.
There was a knock at the door and Methos gathered up all of the real estate stuff and tossed it into the garbage. Buffy answered and saw Joe Dawson.
"Must be sooner rather than later Watcher." Methos smiled. Buffy kissed Joe on the cheek and let him in. Joe smiled and limped over to one of the chairs and sat with a grunt. He took a long look at Buffy who was in hip hugger shorts, a belly shirt and a pony tail. She looked all of 18. He then looked at Methos, "Much of an age difference old man?" he asked ironically.
"Age doesn't matter Joe, trust me." Methos said with a fond look at his lover.
"Do you want anything to drink Joe?" Buffy asked. "We have beer," she shot a look at her lover who chuckled, "Ice tea, Tab and oj."
Joe shook his gray head, "No thanks Buffy. Maybe later."
Buffy cocked her head at the watcher, and visibly decided to ask a question, "If you don't think it's too rude Joe, how did you lose your legs?"
"I was in 'Nam." He answered.
"Oh, so was my Dad. He was with the 52nd Air Cav."
Joe smiled, "I did some work with them a time or two." Neither one noticed Methos getting that faraway look as the memories of Vietnam and the horrible mess it was flooded his mind.
Buffy turned to say something to Methos and saw the shadows in his eyes.
"Hey, handsome and broody." She said, tapping his nose to get his attention.
"Sorry Love." Methos smiled.
"Uh huh. You were in Vietnam too, weren't you?" She asked quietly, recognizing the same haunted look she had seen on her father's face.
Joe jolted, "Of course you were." He said, realization in his eyes. 'Another note for the Methos Chronicles.'
Methos smiled grimly, "As a medic. Let's change the subject, shall we?" Buffy gave him her. 'We are so going to talk about this later,' look.
Joe struggled to switch gears, "Let's get down to business. Buffy, I left my lap top in my rental car, could you go down and get it for me?" he asked apologetically as he dug for the keys.
Buffy took the offered keys and dashed downstairs, not fooled for a minute. The men wanted to talk.
"What's up Joe?"
"Did you know she was a suspect in a number of juvenile crimes?" the Watcher hissed.
Methos leaned forward, "Joe, this is absolutely to be kept confidential. Not to go into Duncan's chronicle, nor mine, not even Richie's. Ever, understood?"
Joe shook his head and was about to say something when Buffy brought the requested laptop and handed it to him, before jumping into Methos' lap, startling a "oof" out of him, then a kiss.
Joe laughed at them and opened the laptop. "Ok, Duncan has another quickening, whose head did he take?"
Buffy cleared her throat, "Actually the kill was mine, but give it to Duncan. He got the quickening."
"Duncan hasn't told me the whole story yet, but you got some of the quickening too didn't you?" Methos asked her.
"Will someone tell me what happened?" Joe demanded.
Buffy smiled at the man's irritated tone, he reminded her of Giles.
"I was patrolling and was headed back here when I heard the sound of a sword battle. So I pulled my own sword and ran around the corner and saw Mac and the ugly fat guy in a battle."
"Randall." Methos put in and Joe grimaced. "I figured, his watcher lost him, the putz."
"Anyway," Buffy continued, "As I was watching the fat guy was screaming in something that sounded vaguely like pig latin, when he pulled out a 9mm and shot Duncan in the chest."
"What?" both men demanded.
"Hey, still telling this thing. I'll entertain questions at the end of the lecture." Buffy said, eyes narrowed and Joe smiled, "Go ahead."
"Well, I said, 'That doesn't seem fair. Bringing a gun to a sword fight." And I got between the fat guy and Duncan, who I thought was dying, and that I was already too late. I just wanted to scare the fat guy away." Buffy sat for a moment, remembering how sad she had been for the stranger dying behind her. The men watched her quietly.
"So the fat guy starts complaining that interfering was breaking the rules and I said that using a gun didn't? Or something like that. I started to beat him back and he asked me what I was. I said I was a concerned citizen and I didn't want to kill him. He laughed and said, "I'm an immortal, you can't kill me." Well for me that's the code. I can't kill humans but I can kill monsters, so I sliced off his head." Buffy stopped and remembered the body sagging to its knees, it's sword hitting the ground with a discordant clank, then the quickening.
"I stood there for a second, then turned, looking into Mac's eyes, and I think he was going to say something when there was this blue lightening screaming through my body, feeling for my soul, lifting me into the air when suddenly it dropped me like a hot potato and raced for Duncan. Then I passed out."
Joe looked staggered and Methos was gently rubbing Buffy's neck, trying to get her to relax.
"You're not immortal?" Joe asked, for the lack of a better question.
"No, I'm a Slayer. Not the Slayer, understand. There's more that one now. Well actually, there's been more that one for awhile, but that's beside the point. Never mind." Buffy said lamely and Methos chuckled.
"What?" Joe asked, thoroughly lost now.
Buffy heaved a sigh, "I'll make it short. Did you hear about Sunnydale, California, the town that got swallowed by an earthquake?" She waited for Joe's nod. It had been all over the TV. "At 15 I was chosen by that Powers that Be, (sort of like God's personal assistants) to slay Vampires, demons and assorted baddies that made it from hell, through the hellmouth, also known as my high school. On graduation I blew up the high school to kill the mayor who had become a big old snake demon. They rebuilt it last year and an ancient evil known as 'the First' wanted to rule the world. My friend the witch, my Watcher and I figured a way to use a magical scythe to activate all of the wannabe slayers. So now there are dozens of Slayers instead of 'lil ol' me. Mac and Richie have been helping me by being watchers for our Slayers here. We call them "Dooncan's Girrrl's." Buffy suddenly stood, "You want that drink now Joe?"
"Ice tea please." He replied in a kind of daze, trying to absorb everything. Her story explained the police records anyway.
Methos raised an eyebrow at his stunned friend, "She can also feel the immortals and can tell who it is without seeing us." He said quietly and Joe's eyebrows raised in surprise.
Buffy came out, handed an ice tea to Joe, and cold beer to Methos and drank deeply of her Tab. She sat down close to Methos and he wrapped a warm arm around her shoulders. He set his beer down, brushed his free hand over her pony tail and was rewarded by a blinding smile.
Joe sipped his ice tea and watched the two of them together. If he had any doubts from the night that they were in his bar, watching them like this showed him he had been wrong. They were so wrapped up in each other that he knew he had to help them keep it a secret for as long as possible.
"Well, I obviously can't use any of this in the chronicles. And I don't trust anyone in the Watcher's Organization to keep their yap shut and not fuck it up, so we'll keep it between us."
Methos gave a smile to Joe and Buffy let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.
After chatting a bit more Joe left for Duncan and Richie's.
