Stake. Stake. Stake. Ooh, holy water. Stake. Stake. Where the hell was that double edged axe? Buffy shoved her hair back in exasperation. At last weapons count she owned at least three axes. So of course just when she needed one she couldn't find any of them. It wasn't like a stake was going to work against a Golgothra demon, she really needed that axe. Buffy paused hefting up a heavy broadsword and examining it critically. It might work, she mused, if I put enough force behind it and angled it upwards and…
"Buffy!" Willow's yell shocked Buffy out of her reverie and she was instantly on her feet prepared to kick some ass if that was what was needed of her. "Phone." Oh. Buffy relaxed, crouching to put the sword back in it's rightful place amid the jumble of weaponry. She took the stairs to the simple house, that she shared with Willow and Xander, two at a time landing at the bottom to face her red-headed friend who was holding out the cordless phone with a grin on her face. "It's Dawn." Willow informed her cheerfully. Buffy's own face lit up with a grin as she took the phone, tucking it between shoulder and ear as she walked into the lounge to collapse on a over-stuffed sofa.
"Dawnie! Hey! How's it going?" Buffy exclaimed happily into the phone just excited to hear from her little sister. "Class okay?"
Dawn breathed a sigh of relief, happy that her sister was choosing a safer topic to start. "Class is great. I even went to a couple last week."
"Dawn." Buffy reprimanded affectionately, noting the undertone of Dawn's voice that promised something less amusing to listen to. "What's up?"
Dawn took a deep breath before launching into her perfectly pre-planned speech. "Well, I was walking home with my new boyfriend yesterday…" she started before Buffy interrupted with a scandalized;
"New boyfriend? Who is he? Why haven't I heard of him? Has he got a criminal record?" Buffy could practically hear Dawn's eye-roll.
"Buffy! You're totally ruining my pre-planned speech. He comes later! Anyway, we were walking home and we were attacked by this mugger…"
"Oh my God! Are you okay? Dawn you should have rang…"
"Buffy! Jeez, calm down! So, we were attacked and the guy was human so I tried to hit him and he kind of knocked me out," Dawn heard Buffy's quick indrawn breath and launched into the rest of the speech; "and when I came to Jake had knocked him out."
"And you're okay?" Dawn smiled to herself over her sister's worry whilst vehemently insisting she was fine. "And Jake's your new boyfriend?"
"Uh-huh." replied Dawn, chewing her bottom lip as she was reminded of the reason she'd called in the first place.
"Well, he sounds like a good kid. Can take care of himself and my sometimes mentally challenged little sister."
"Well, you see that's the problem." It was Buffy's turn to roll her eyes.
"What is it a Summers thing to look for the flaw in every guy?"
"No," disagreed Dawn, "it's a Summers thing to pick guys that may not be entirely human." Dawn practically heard Buffy's slayer senses replace her sisterly ones as she told her about Jake's amazing fist-fight.
"But you've seen him in sunlight?" Buffy asked as Dawn quickly answered in the affirmative. "That rules out a vampire then. Why don't you ask Angel to see if he can look into it?" Buffy asked, wondering why Dawn hadn't gone straight to them while at the same time happy that her sister still asked her the 'boy stuff'. Even if it was weird supernatural 'boy stuff'.
"Good idea." replied Dawn. "Though I can't get there till tomorrow." she added remembering the history assignment she had to do.
"Okay, I'll call them for you and they can get started on researching or whatever." answered Buffy even while Dawn was weighing which was more important; her history assignment or her potentially evil boyfriend. "I need to ask them about this new demon anyway and their demon resources are way more up to date than ours. I swear Giles nearly had an aneurysm when he saw the amount of dusty old reference books he could get his hands on. Don't worry Dawnie we'll work out what's up. But maybe you should stay away from him…"
"No!" interjected Dawn hurriedly, the idea of not getting to see Jake bothering her more than she liked to admit particularly with the fact that he may actually be evil added to the relationship. "He's never actually hurt me and for all we know he might become suspicious if I start ignoring him." she reasoned. "And we still don't know if anything is actually up." she pointed out as an afterthought.
"Well, all right." Buffy conceded dubiously. "You just be careful, okay?"
"Of course." Dawn replied already wondering whether it would be safer to stay away from Jake or more dangerous to do the exact same thing.
Buffy put the phone down in front of her, her brow wrinkled in consternation. As she was continuing her detailed observation of the phone, Xander strolled through the lounge to plonk himself down directly in front of her. Hungrily munching his too full sandwich he watched Buffy curiously for a moment, waiting to see if she'd acknowledge his presence. "Hey Buff." he ventured. She didn't move from her contemplation of the phone, one hand cradling her chin.
"Uh-huh." she responded absentmindedly.
"You want some of my sandwich?"
"Uh-huh." Xander didn't bother tearing her a piece off, she obviously had no idea what she'd just agreed to.
"You want go for a beer with the vamps who live in that crypt with the big snake on it?"
"Uh-huh."
Xander stared at her, the word 'vamps' normally made her go so GI Jane it would take him ten minutes to convince her he was kidding. "Cool. I'll go get the beer and pork rinds and then you know what? I'll go pick up some drugs from that fried out hobo on the corner…"
"Dawn's dating an evil guy." Buffy's sudden speech froze Xander mid-sentence, slightly annoying him as he'd just been getting on a roll. "I mean we don't know that he's evil. But we're pretty sure he has super strength so who knows what that could mean? I mean…" Xander raised a hand to stop her babble.
"You mean Dawn's dating a guy who only might be evil?" Xander cocked his head at her. "Do I need to bring up the dating resumes of the Scooby Gang? Really, Buff, they practically read like a who's-who's of the demon underworld." Buffy smiled wryly, acknowledging the truth of that statement.
"It's just that ever since we got rid of the Hellmouth I was kind of hoping things could be, you know, normal. Instead I still get my little sister dating demons," she noticed Xander's look. "Okay, a maybe demon."
"Buffy," Xander started not unkindly, "We may have changed the setting of all the weirdness and added a few more fighters against it but we still live in the same world, with the same weirdness and the same demon-y dates." He rested a hand on top of hers before standing; "I'm guessing you were about to ring Angel?" Buffy nodded tiredly. "Then you best get to it." Buffy picked up the phone, resting her thumb over the speed-dial number for Angel Investigations, and watched him go with an oddly proud smile on her face.
"Hello, Angel Investigations." Came Cordelia's cheerful voice over the phone. Buffy patiently waited for the rest of the spiel. "We help the helpless, how can we help you?"
"Hey Cordy!"
"Buffy!" Cordy actually sounded happy to hear from her something that made Buffy smile when she recalled the girl in high school. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly eliciting a laugh from Buffy.
"Can't I just call to say hi?"
"Uh-huh." replied Cordelia sprawled over a leather chair in the large employee lounge catching some of the sun's rays through the floor to ceiling windows, "and I'd be caught dead in last season's lipstick colours."
"Well there is this thing with a Golgothra demon…"
"Research?" interrupted Cordelia, glancing through one of the many doors to the room into Wesley's office. "I'll get Wes."
"No!" cried Buffy, "actually my most pressing concern is Dawn's new boyfriend."
Cordelia felt as though her stomach had just plummeted to her new three-hundred dollar shoes. "Why?" she asked, her voice much smaller than she liked. "What's happened?" She noticed Wes was looking at her oddly through the open door and she mouthed 'Connor'. He was instantly on his feet ready to run through the door and wrest the phone from her grasp and save her any pain. She quickly mouthed 'Buffy' to stop him doing any of these things and he relaxed slightly, though still stayed stood up.
"Have you met him?" Buffy asked sounding slightly put-out. Cordelia guessed that she'd only just learned about Dawn's new love interest. Cordy leaned forward over the polished mahogany tables, putting her forehead in her hand.
"Buffy, how much do you know about Angel's son, Connor?" Cordelia asked.
"So, Jake is Connor?" Buffy sounded sceptical even after everything Cordelia had told her.
"If not, Darla had twins." Cordelia glanced up and saw Wesley gesturing frantically at her. She stood moving to the side slightly to get a better view.
"But what about…" Buffy started.
"Wait," interrupted Cordelia "I think Wes is trying to tell me something." Cordy cocked her head, analysing Wesley's action wherein he was hastily drawing his hand across his throat. "Decapitation?"
"Who's getting decapitated?" Buffy asked worriedly from the other end of the phone. "Does this have something to do with Jake or Connor or whatever the hell his name is?"
"No." said Cordelia, still watching Wesley who was becoming more persistent. "No, I don't think it has anything to do with Connor. I really don't know why he just doesn't walk over here."
"Cordy, what the hell is going on?" If there was one thing the slayer was not good at it, it was being out of the loop.
"I think he wants me to chop something up. Damn, Wes could you have picked a day that I wasn't wearing new open-toed sandals? Oh wait. He's doing something new. Sort of flapping his arms around. What the hell is that supposed to be? Something to do with a plane? Ooh, maybe I'm going somewhere!"
"Last time I checked planes didn't flap their wings."
"Oh. I guess it could be a bird. Maybe it's like that Hitchcock film and he's trying to warn me that a big flock of birds are on their way to peck my eyes out. Yup, it's a bird."
"Actually, I think it's supposed to be an angel." Cordelia span round at the voice, finding the imposing figure of her black-clad boss positioned directly behind her.
"Angel." she breathed, the phone dropping from suddenly nerveless hands.
"So how's my son doing?" he asked conversationally, only the tightness of his jaw and the way that his arms were crossed defensively in front of him illustrating just how angry he was.
"Angel." Cordelia started, reaching down to grab the phone. "I didn't know how…I could barely…" she stuttered out. She reached for the table for support, her entire body seeming to lilt towards it. Angel seemed to respond to that, his normally strong-willed friend looking as though she could barely support her own weight, and he strode forward, taking the phone off her, quickly telling Buffy he would call her back.
"Cordelia." he said softly, stepping towards her and raising her chin with his hand. All the anger seemed to have drained from his body giving him a frailty that those that didn't know him well would never have recognised. His words now were soft and filled with pain and hope. "How's my son doing?"
