Chapter Seven

          "Alright, I understand. Get in touch with me, though, when you find something, okay?"

          Running her fingers through her hair Willow let out a breath, tossing her cell phone onto her bag beside the door. Intel, which had been keeping strict surveillance on Dé'sa, had somehow managed to, well, lose track of him. One minute he showed clear as day on the radar system the next minute he had vanished and it had been close to four hours since their last signal. Willow was starting to worry.

          Dropping down into the plush chair beside her Willow sighed, resting her head in her hands. Hearing the door open she looked up and tried to smile at Drusilla who bent down, picking up Willows cell phone which had started ringing, again, and tossed it to the redhead.

          "Rosenberg."

          "Commander," a woman's voice responded. "You CI Guard Team has just touched down and should be arriving within the hour."

          "Thank you."

          Tucking the small phone into one of the pockets on her belt Willow stood. Moving to her bag she pulled out a manila folder and flipped through the papers until finding what she was searching for.

          "Who was on the phone, red?"

          "Huh?" Dru laughed and repeated the question. "Oh, um, HQ. The Guard squad just landed."

          "Fabulous. They have all the equipment?"

          "That's what I'm going to check," Willow waved the piece of paper she was holding, dialing a number on her phone.

          Spike came in half way through Willow's conversation and she shoed him away when he tried to kiss her. Settling onto the bed, beside Drusilla, the two chatted quietly while Willow spoke, annoyed, to whoever was on the other end of the phone. Things obviously weren't going as planned by the Commander and the leader of the Guard squad – whom Spike and Dru assumed was the person Willow was talking to – was on the receiving end of her frustration and, well, had his ass chewed by the redhead.

          "I don't give a flying shit what Bruckheim told you," Willow was saying. "I told you to bring a dozen bloody tranquilizer guns, not a dozen sodding stun-guns that wouldn't even bite your fragile, spineless ass." Spike and Dru looked at each other, grinning at Willow's use of British swear words. "No, no. Oh, stop whining like a fucking baby and listen to me. Get on the phone to Bruckheim and tell him, yes tellhim to fly over my damn tranq guns along with every other piece of equipment he refused to send with you. What? Oh, hell, never mind you're too much of wanker to give orders anyway. I'll do it myself."

          Willow wanted to scream. She was working with a bunch of idiots. Glancing at Spike and Dru who were still grinning she flopped down between the two, resting her head in Dru's lap. Lacing her finger's through Spike's Willow pressed her lips to his hand softly. Spike smile down at her, kissing her forehead.

          "How are you holding up, love?"

          Willow shrugged. "I don't know if I can do this, Spike."

          "Of course you can," he encouraged.

          "I've dealt with a lot over the years but I just don't know if I can handle them."

          "They were your friends,' Dru said, "once upon a time and as many times as you say you've moved beyond your past I know that you haven't and that's understandable. What they did to you was, was horrible and no one could blame you if you hold this grudge the rest of your life but they're your past, love and the past isn't so easy to forget. Trust me."

          "I think," Willow smiled, "that I liked you better insane. At least you would have given me some half-decent words of advice like, 'kill them all'."

          Spike and Dru laughed. "Oh, don't say such things, pet. Dru was a handful when she was raving."

          "Shut up," Drusilla retorted.

          The CI Guard squad, a 3rd Division Infantry Team, arrived when they were scheduled and reported directly to Willow. Agent Denzure, the squad leader whom Willow had spoken with early, was eyed wearily by the redhead and snapped-to when he was ordered to transport the equipment to base camp – an old, abandoned mansion which, as it turned out, was the same mansion in which Buffy had hidden Angel after he first returned from hell.

          Grumbling, the Scooby's followed Willow's instructions and, after packing a bag, met up at the mansion. Buffy, as expected, was adamant in notwanting to stay there for obvious reasons. Willow, however, was not in the mood and to Buffy, quite frankly, to shut her mouth and do as she was told or find herself quickly chained to the wall. Nor were any of the Sunnydale gang thrilled about having to sleep in cages – which were made of a near-indestructible demon metal – but they simply complained amongst themselves, fearful of Willow's quick temper.

          "I hate this," Buffy whined four days after the CI agents arrival. She sat, quite uncomfortable, in a cold chair wearing a flimsy hospital gown while a not-so-tender-handed woman poked and prodded at her.

          Another of Willow's orders: full, daily check-ups to chart the progress and effects Dé'sa's magic was creating upon the Scooby's both mentally and physically. Blood was drawn and skin samples taken; pupils were dilated and tested for consistency; psychiatric tests were performed and scans, much like an MRI, were administered to track the progression of subconscious deterioration due to spells and curses.

          "I feel like a criminal in prison," Xander muttered to Oz.

          "I feel like an animal locked in a cage," Oz responded.

          "And you acting like children in the corner," Willow noted. Both men started, unaware of her presence behind them. "Breakfast is ready."

          "They hare me," Willow complained to Spike and Drusilla.

          "Maybe," Spike answered her. "But  if they do its misplaced hatred, Wills."

          Willow looked at him skeptically. "How?"

          "What you're doing for them could very well save their lives and if their too proud to see that you have only their best interests at heart then I say screw them all."

          Dru snickered. "Spike, if it were up to you Willow and I would have already screwed the entire world a hundred times over."

          "And possibly," Willow added, "the populations of a few dozen other dimensions."

          "Well," Spike shrugged, "whatever makes my girls happy…"

          "Spike!"