Disclaimers, etc, see part one.
Into the Breach.
* * * * *
I wonder how many of these types of knots I've passed on my life. And Philip's had a fair few girl friends. We see him four or five times a year, on the birthdays we can both make it too, and he seems to have a new girlfriend every time.
"Xander, mate. This is my girlfriend, Sally."
Sally was tall, well-built, pretty, with long brown hair and pale blue eyes. She looked a little like Dawn, which put me off for a moment. Although she looked older than Dawn would be.
"Sally, this is Angie's husband, Xander," he introduced me.
Sally offered her hand. When I shook it her grip was strong, and firm; not something I had expected from the way she looked.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Xander," she said.
As the afternoon progressed I learnt only two things about her. She spoke with a strange evenness and she selected her words a shade too precisely.
I managed to get her own long enough to ask her if she was a robot.
She looked puzzled. "No, I am not a robot," she said.
She wasn't as good as April or Ted, but she was still pretty good. And she would relay my suspicions to Philip. I chuckled.
"Good. I wouldn't want to make a mistake. How long have you known Philip?"
"Oh, it seems like forever. He has always been so nice to me. And he understands me. I don't think I could ever leave him. We have been through so much together in such a short time."
At the time when it seemed that Sunnydale was slowly infiltrating my life in Harrisburg the last thing I needed was a robot with minor mind skimming abilities. Unless the problems I had with running away were beginning to surface as clichés.
Faith had left me a short message saying they'd found the werewolf. They were taking him back to his home and the local coven. I had no one in the area to defer to.
I sidled over to Philip not long before tea should be ready. I nodded over to Sally.
"She's good. Where did you get her?"
He looked at me. It was one of the looks Trevor used to give me before Caroline was born.
"We met in Berlin. American tourists abroad." He chuckled with charming self-deprecation.
"I like her. She's good. How much did she cost?" I asked.
Philip face darkened. I hadn't fought anyone in way too long; the thought of being beaten to a pulp by my brother-in-law was appealing. He raised his fist in threat and I caught it. I was struck by the fear that he didn't know she was a robot. But the fear in his eyes outweighed the anger.
"Did you make her yourself? Because that's impressive," I said. I was impressed.
He didn't relax at all.
"It is illegal for any person to construct, create, or have responsibility for a robot which does not know or acknowledge that it's a robot," I told him.
He paled at my tone of voice, which was appropriately deep and menacing. He looked at my eye and shivered. I still don't know why people find a one eyed glare so much more threatening that a two-eyed glare.
We would have continued our quite war, but Trevor rang the doorbell. Caroline rushed to the door. Her father's arrival meant we could have tea.
"Hey, sweetie, can I come in?" he asked.
My blood ran cold. I reached immediately for our bags. We were, thankfully, not far from the couch beside which they had been placed. Giles would be proud of that sentence. I heard Lizzie say, "don't say it Caro," before Caroline said, "of course, daddy, you can come in" in the sweet, confused way children have.
Lizzie ran straight back into the living area before Caro had finished. I pushed a stake into her hand pushed her towards the bedroom hallway.
Caroline screamed and ran straight after Lizzie.
"Monsters, monsters," she yelled at us.
Beatrice followed her, hoping to calm her down. Arthur followed Beatrice, to be the other half of her side of the conversation.
I was simply glad that Caro had escaped the vampire. The part of me that wasn't preparing for the fight or its aftermath sighed. Michelle, of course, went to see what was happening. I grabbed two stakes in each hand, handing one to Philip.
"Is Sally strong?" I demanded.
He nodded weakly.
Trevor made it to the living room before Michelle made it to the entryway. He was in game face. She didn't know what to do. But she did take a step back.
"Waiting so patiently here for me?" he asked her. His voice was sweet in that creepy way.
He sidled up to her. I knew if I intervened he would think it was in her interests. Well, it would have been. But letting a vampire think you had been having an affair with the woman who had been his wife was not a wise move.
Philip gestured to Sally, and she came over to him with a bright ready-to-help smile. I gave her one of my stakes.
"Put this through Trevor's heart," I said softly.
She looked puzzled. At least she'd been built to not kill.
"Exactly that," Philip said.
It didn't help.
"WC so ordered. Written in yellow crayon," I whispered out of the side of my mouth. I prayed.
She nodded and gripped the stake.
I don't know how Willow had ended up on that committee. I could understand her being consulted on the magic clauses. She was the obvious choice to make sure that the clauses didn't discriminate or unfairly persecute people. But every piece of equipment that could be bought to be put into a robot responded to orders written in yellow crayon.
"See if you can just hold him still first," I said.
Trevor had grabbed Michelle by the arm. She was still half a step away from him. But she had stopped struggling.
"Angie, Sarah, Kyle, Beck, get to the bedrooms now," I shouted. "Go with Nana."
Kyle and Beck fled. They were under ten. Angie looked at me, startled. She looked back at Trevor's disfigured face and yellow eyes and swallowed. She looked sad the moment she knew what she was looking at. Sarah had come to the same conclusion, without understanding any of the consequences. She took her mother's hand and dragged her to the bedrooms after the others.
