Kate hits it off with Buffy and completely rubs Spike the wrong way. In LA, Connor publicly humiliates a girl, seriously distressing Angel and causing him to look at Connor's friends in a whole new light.
Giles elects to answer Buffy's question on Kate's behalf. "You see Buffy, Kate's been my liaison to the authorities. One might say that she's been our Queen of Damage Control."
"Huh?," Buffy responds. Kate explains.
"Minors taken away from their parents. In some cases out of their country. Many of them never being able to return. To an outsider, that looks very suspicious. To say nothing of the girls who keep turning up at the local morgue. Out-of-towners who were obviously murdered, all of whom could be connected to you. And if the cops or the F.B.I. ever started asking you questions, you wouldn't be able to give them any satisfactory answers. It's my job to ensure that they never even think of asking you these questions."
"And why are you so eager to help us out?," Spike asks suspiciously. "What's in it for you?"
"For one thing, I'm not helping you out. Rupert, who is this?"
"The name's Spike," the peeved vampire tells Kate. He doesn't like her attitude.
"Spike what?"
"Just Spike."
Kate chuckles. "One of those one-named prima donnas. I'm all-too-familiar with your type."
"I doubt that, love." Kate gives Spike a don't-you-ever-call-me-that-ever-again glare.
"Rupert, is he one of your assistants from England?" Spike can barely suppress his outrage. These two have really gotten off on the wrong foot. Giles holds back his laughter and struggles to explain Spike's identity.
"Spike is, er, one of Buffy's helpers. He's a fighter."
"Really," Kate remarks with a dismissive chuckle or two. Buffy can tell Spike's about to explode. "He doesn't look like much of a fighter to me."
Spike wants to pounce on this insolent stranger and give her a little bite in the neck, just to teach her respect. "You think you could take me?"
"Actually, yeah. I do," she responds. Kate gives Spike a cocky smile, which, to his surprise, turns him on slightly.
"Okay then. Why don't you have a go at me?"
Buffy decides that now is the time to get between these two. "Spike's a, Spike's a, well, the thing is, Spike's a vampire. With a soul." Now she starts rambling. "I take it you know about vampires, since you know about Slayers. It only makes sense that you would. But he's a good vampire."
"A vampire with soul? Him?" Kate nearly doubles over with laughter. This is too much for her. Spike growls. Buffy, who's standing to Spike's left, puts her right hand on his chest and tries to calm him down. She doesn't have to say anything to get her message across.
"You're right," Spike tells Buffy. "She can't help it if she's bloody ignorant."
This stops Kate's laughter in its tracks. She smirks, and pauses for a few seconds before responding. The moment's too rich of an opportunity for her to blow. Her comeback needs to be perfect. "I'm sorry. Spike. The thing is, Spike, I knew there was a vampire with a soul residing somewhere in Southern California. But everyone told me that he was tall, dark and handsome. You're 0 for 3." Her gratuitous repetition of Spike's name was perhaps a way for Kate to reiterate the fact that Spike is most definitely not Angel.
Giles, who stands to Kate's left and faces Spike, bites the inside of his lower lip to keep from laughing. He wishes Andrew had been there to film Kate's magnificent diss for posterity. Spike can see that Giles is struggling to keep from laughing. Now he wants to slug Giles, in addition to biting Kate. He didn't think she could do anything to make him more angry. Then she had to bring Angel up. Buffy could not be feeling any more uncomfortable than she does right now. Kate can tell that she's struck a nerve. She assumes it's because of Spike's vanity, and the fact that she said he wasn't handsome. Not because these people know Angel. Perhaps that's what she wants to believe, because Kate doesn't want to discuss her time in LA. Though neither of them know it, Buffy and Kate have entered into a conspiracy of silence regarding Angel.
The four of them hear the door open. Xander, Willow, Kennedy, Anya and Andrew emerge. Buffy breathes a sigh of relief. The new arrivals can change the subject for her. "What did we miss?," Xander asks, causing Buffy to scowl.
"Nothing, really. I mean that. Zilch. Nada," she rambles.
"I'll tell you later," Giles says as an aside to Xander. "Kate, these are Buffy's human friends."
"Currently human," Anya clarifies. "But not always." This only serves to further puzzle Kate. "So how does an attractive young woman like yourself get close to Giles?" Kate appreciates the compliment and ignores the insinuation.
"I'm with the state police."
"Kate's been keeping the cops out of our hair," Buffy explains. "And the F.B.I. Or was that just for effect?"
"I wish," Giles concedes. Andrew, who at first was frightened by the knowledge that she was a cop (he's still technically a fugitive), is now greatly intrigued. He starts looking at Kate a whole new way.
"Kidnapping's one of their prime domains," Kate explains.
"Giles never kidnapped anyone," Willow argues.
"No," Anya retorts with her usual glibness. "He's just the mysterious, middle-aged man who took young girls away from their parents for reasons they can't quite comprehend. For all they know, he's the one killing their daughters."
"That about sums it up," Kate adds. She likes Anya's directness.
"So what do you really do?," Xander asks, immediately realizing that came out wrong. "What I mean is, obviously that's not your main job. What do you do when you're not helping out Giles?"
"Same sort of work. I go around the state and handle the threats to public safety that the local authorities aren't prepared to deal with." Andrew's eyes grow huge, like saucers. He begins to hyperventilate.
"You're in charge of the X-Files. The ones in California." Kate gives Andrew a sour look. She long ago grew sick of the Scully comparisons. Andrew's already too far gone in his Scully fantasy world to notice her disapproval. His ears hear the ethereal five-note theme. His eyes see "The Truth Is Out There" hovering behind her like a levitating neon sign. Xander's trying his best to resist the same impulse. Kennedy and Willow are checking Kate out with their gaydar — perhaps out of wishful thinking.
"You mean you're a professional demon fighter?," Spike asks with obvious doubt in his voice.
"Sometimes. I've staked more than a few vampires in my time," she replies with playful menace. Xander and Willow are both turned on by Kate's threatening of Spike. "But not that many more. My slaying abilities are naturally limited," she adds with a smirk. Kate never refers to it as "slaying." She's only doing so now because of her company. "Lucky for me, wherever there are demons, there's at least one demon fighter." She can tell that her audience is hanging on her every word, which she likes. Kate's never had such a curious and receptive audience. "The way it works is, when there are mysterious deaths somewhere, I show up to investigate. If I'm lucky, the monster's already dead. If not, I find out what it is and round up as large a force as I think I need to take it down. Then I tell the local authorities if there are any humans to punish. If not, I just tell them the problem's solved, end of story. They're almost always too grateful and confused to ask questions."
"It's your job to conceal the truth?," Anya asks. Giles thinks this is rude. But Kate doesn't mind.
"Yes," she replies with a smile. Anya can tell Kate likes her. She makes the mistake of thinking that Kate's flirting with her. Willow's feeling a little jealous.
"We do the same thing," she volunteers. "For more than six years. We help Buffy save the world and make sure no one knows what almost happened."
"I know," Kate replies. Now that Willow's caught Kate's eye, Willow starts unconsciously flirting with the fetching visitor. "That's why I've never come here. I don't go where I'm not needed." Buffy interprets this to mean that Kate's never been to Los Angeles, which confirms in her mind that Kate's never met Angel.
"Clearly we need you now," Xander remarks, trying too hard to be cute and coming across as a tad desperate. "Or, at least you think we need you."
"Actually, it's Mayor Santos who needs me." Willow and Xander immediately read this the wrong way, until they realize that interpretation is insulting to Giles. "The police are trained to handle civilians. Deal with their questions and complaints. The army isn't. And it's best if the officer in charge actually knows what happened. And what's still happening."
Xander thinks over her last sentence. "Does that mean you're keeping the town clear until we're done fighting the First?"
"Stella believed that dozens of bulldozers moving the wreckage and thousands of people sifting through it for their belongings would get in the way. I trust her judgement. She's the one who introduced me to Giles and suggested I help him out."
"That's impossible," Giles counters. "I met you at three months before I met Estella."
"Maybe introduced was the wrong word. But she did point me in your direction."
"Shouldn't you be manning the barricades right now?," Spike wonders. "Keeping the mob in check? Why the little field trip behind the lines?" Kate knows he's trying to insinuate (in his unsubtle way) that she doesn't belong. And she knows he's right.
"Stella wanted me to check on you people, and see how you were holding up. She's been too busy trying to help out displaced residents. She also wanted me to tell you, Rupert, that she'll try to swing by late tomorrow afternoon. And she hopes you understand why she hasn't been more in touch." Willow and Xander think it's cute that Kate's doing the equivalent of passing Giles a note from his girlfriend. Buffy just finds it gross to be reminded that Giles has a girlfriend.
"Of course," Giles responds. "I've been quite busy myself."
"Nice meeting all of you," Kate says. Then she looks at Spike in particular. "Well, most of you." He sneers back at her, thinks of flipping her the bird, but decides against it.
"Great meeting you, too," Xander responds.
"Come back anytime you want," Andrew slavishly adds. "It's a shame that it took an apocalypse to bring us together." Giles, Spike, Willow, Kennedy and Xander start walking towards the door. Andrew doesn't move. Anya yanks on his left arm, pulling him along with the rest of them. Buffy stays behind.
"Buffy. Aren't you coming along?," Giles asks.
"I'm just going to, you know, take a quick sweep around. I'll be in soon."
"You want me to come with?," Spike suggests.
"No. That's okay. It's nothing, really." Not quite sure what she's up to, but knowing that it's pointless to argue with her, Spike heads in with the rest. He's the last one through the door, and takes one more look over his shoulder at Buffy before heading underground. Kate sits in the black Jeep she's using to get around. She senses some sort of relationship between Buffy and Spike, but knows better than to pry. She understands how complicated things can be with vampires. Privately, Kate hopes it's nothing serious. She thinks Buffy can definitely do better.
Kate starts the engine, gets on the nearest paved road and drives south. This makes Buffy suspicious. She runs after Kate and quickly catches up with the Jeep. At first, Kate's surprised. Then she remembers the whole Slayer Power thing. She stops to see what Buffy wants. "I thought you were leaving," Buffy tells Kate.
"My boss wants me to take a look around, report back to him."
"Report what? That everything's destroyed? There's nothing to see."
"No harm in finding that out for myself, now is there?" Buffy senses that Kate's trying to turn the suspicion around and point it in Buffy's direction.
"I suppose not. But you've never been here. How could you tell what each pile bricks used to be? Seems to me like they'd send someone who knew the area."
"Local cops are too scared. They don't know what's lurking behind the lines. Naturally, they fear the worst."
"And you don't, because you don't know any better?"
"I know that if a demon wants to hurt people, it goes where the people are. Which isn't here. Also, Stella said they left town the night before. Guess they could sense what was coming."
"Or what had already come," Buffy adds, referring to the demon-hating and super-powerful Nina.
"I'm sure it's not my place to ask, but why are you out all alone? My hunch is that if you were hunting for the bad guys, you'd want backup."
"It's personal."
"Everything's personal to someone."
"You didn't answer my question. How do you know your way around? Especially in the dark."
"I have a road map." Kate holds it up. "Tells me what each block of debris used to be." Buffy takes a look, then hands it back.
"Not bad. That could come in handy even for me. It's dark. There are no landmarks. I know which general direction to go in, but that only gets me to the right neighborhood."
"So you're going somewhere specific. A place where you want to be alone. A grave? I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry. But I know that's where I'd be going."
Buffy waits five seconds before responding. She decides to take a gamble and trust this woman. "Can I get in?"
"Be my guest." Buffy sits in the front passenger seat. "You're right. I was going to try to find my mother's grave. If it's still there."
"My mom died when I was seven." Buffy's longshot hunch that she could connect with Kate appears to be paying off.
"I'm sorry," Buffy reflexively responds.
"Don't be. You had nothing to do with it." Kate had grown sick of the well-meaning but hollow I'm sorrys pretty soon after her mom's funeral. Buffy realizes that Kate's making a dark joke.
"My mom died a little more than two years ago. Obviously, it was nothing like what you went through."
"I'm sure I could say the same about a million bad things that have happened in your life. I still had my dad. He was a cop. That's why I joined the force. I never even imagined myself as anything else."
"Your dad WAS a cop. Is he retired?"
"He was retired. When he was killed by vampires."
"Is that what got you started? As a demon fighter?"
"Never really thought of myself as a demon fighter. But, no. I had already crossed paths with demons. Killed one or two. It wasn't a career choice, or a personal vendetta. I investigated a couple murders where the killers turned out not to be human. You might say I literally stumbled into it."
"So how long ago was the, umm, stumbling?"
"Three-and-a-half years, or so. And once you get tagged with the supernatural label, you can't go back to doing regular cases. Too many wisecracks from the other detectives. By about two years ago, it was either give up being a cop, or make a new niche for myself. Like I said, I never imagined myself as anything other than a cop. It almost defines who I am as a person."
"I know a little about what that can feel like."
"Except that you never had a choice in the matter. I just pretended that I didn't have a choice. And while my job's dangerous, it's a picnic compared to yours. Better than ninety percent of us survive twenty five years and get our pension. You're expected to die in the line of duty."
"Sometimes more than once," Buffy quips. Kate doesn't get it. "Being a cop is one thing. Being a cop who fights demons, that's a whole other kind of dangerous. I know this much: You're lucky." Naturally, Kate's shocked by Buffy's declaration. "You're lucky that you're still alive and in one piece. I know I couldn't do what you do if l lacked my Slayer Skills. Looks like at least one vampire got his teeth into you." Sitting to Kate's right, Buffy can easily see the long, jagged scar that runs down the right side of Kate's neck. She immediately feels embarrassed and tries to cover the scar with her collar.
"It's nothing. Happened a long time ago." Now that Buffy has her head turned to the left so she can look at Kate, Kate is able to see the even more prominent crescent-shaped scar on the right side of Buffy's neck. "Looks like someone took a chunk out of you, too." Now Buffy's the embarrassed one. She looks straight ahead and leans her head against the door, far away from Kate.
"Occupational hazard," she weakly explains.
"I'm sure you killed him."
"I did. But that was before he bit me." Kate's now too confused to continue on this tangent, which is fortunate for the both of them. "Anyway, I came over here because I saw you were driving south. Which is the same direction I was heading in. And, since you have a map, and I don't, I was wondering if you could give me a lift."
"Which cemetery?"
"Woodlawn."
Kate turns on the car light and looks at the map. "That's easy to get to. Due south for three miles. Turn right. Go west for a half-mile, Gate's on the left."
"Thanks."
"It's nothing." Kate restarts the engine, buts on her high beams and drives off.
"By the way, where do you live?"
"Sacramento. But I spend about half my time on the road. Which is fine with me. I'm not a big fan of the north central valley. More of an LA girl. That's where I grew up."
"Whoa. Me too. Whereabouts?"
"Reseda."
"No kidding! I'm from Sherman Oaks. We grew up like five miles apart." She thinks about this for a few seconds. "Strange how much we have in common. Almost eery."
"We're driving at night to a cemetery in a deserted and destroyed town," Kate points out. "How could that not be eery?," she jokes. However, Buffy didn't see anything spooky about going to graveyards at night. Making friends with the out-of-town cop she met less than fifteen minutes ago — that was spooky.
"All that traveling must put a big crimp in your social life."
"You're assuming there was a social life to crimp. It's always been tough meeting decent people in my line of work. Long before I met my first demon." Who was, ironically, Angel.
"There are more important things in life than dating."
"Like saving the world?," Kate quips.
"That would be one example."
"One that doesn't apply to me."
"You say that like it's your fault," Buffy jokes. "Your job's very important. You save lives. You fight evil."
"I wouldn't that far. You can't fight evil."
"Like hell I can't. I mean, like hell you can't. Because you can."
"You can also attack windmills on horseback. Won't do you any good, though. Evil's inside every human being. You collar one bad guy, someone else is going to take his place. I can't stop crime. All I can do, all anyone can do, is to try to make sure the crooks don't get away with it."
"The rules are a little different when it comes to demons. In the sense that there aren't any."
"Didn't you find that when you killed one vampire, another took his place?"
"And when I killed him, someone else took his place. And on and on like a hundred times over. But that's not the point."
"I know. The point is that, thanks to you, they don't run amok. Vampire kills someone, catches your attention, his nights are numbered."
"Ninety-nine percent of the time. And the other one-percent, well, let's not go into that."
"Demons or criminals, it's the same story. We can't get rid of them. But we can keep them on the defensive. Make sure they understand that they're doomed to lose."
"You told them where they were?," Dawn asks Connor with mild shock and disapproval.
"They just kept asking. And they were worried. What's the problem?" From Dawn's point of view, the primary problem is that the Potentials might not live to see these boys again. But she's not going to say that in the living room, in front of them.
"You didn't tell them what they are? Please tell me you didn't."
"Ya mean the Potential thing? Naw. That didn't come up."
"Well, don't let it."
"Why would it? They're just girls. Nothing special about them yet." As usual, Connor holds a view that is in diametric opposition to Buffy.
"Did you tell them why they're here?"
"Dawn, I know better than that."
"Good to hear." Dawn is pleasantly surprise to find out that Connor has learned to draw a line between the demon-fighting world and the normal (to Connor the alien) world. "Enough about them. How are you?"
"Good. It's great have Eli and Kit and Carlos around. You're not mad at me?"
"For what?"
"For telling."
"Connor, you just wanted to help them. I can't be mad at you for that. Unless you said anything about Slayers or the First Evil."
"I don't care about that stuff." For Connor, demons trying to kill you was a normal part of life that didn't deserve mention. "To me, they're just some girls who live in the same house with the girl I love." Dawn sighs and sits down.
"You're still the sweetest boy in the world."
"Just to you." Connor sighs and sits down on his bed. There's a loud knock at his door. "By the way, Dawn, they're right outside my room. Waiting to talk. So, maybe we could do some more of this after they've, ya know, said hi?"
"Oh. Sure. That makes sense. Wait a sec. I need to tell them." At first, Amanda, Rona and Madari are very excited. But they quickly realize how thorny the situation is. How do you say "Hi honey, wish I could be there, but I'm fighting for my life and trying to save the world"? Connor opens the door and lets them in. Amanda goes first. Since she had friends and family in Sunnydale, she's had the most experience dealing with (glossing over) these matters.
"Preston?"
"It's Connor. Is that you, Amanda?"
"Yeah. It's me all right. Hi Connor. How are things? How's your dad?" She's trying to be polite. They do know each other, and she did briefly have a crush on him.
"Not evil." Amanda remembers that Connor isn't exactly the sort who excels at casual conversation. Or casual anything.
"Can you put Preston on?"
"Amanda?"
"Hi Preston."
"It's you! This is great. I've missed you."
"Me too. Except I've missed you, instead of me. Kinda hard to miss yourself."
"Where are you?"
"Uh, umm, away. And safe. In an undisclosed location." She laughs nervously.
"With Buffy Summers?"
"Yes. It's a thing. How's Randy taking all this?," she asks about his younger brother, switching the subject.
It's quarter past eleven on Sunday night. About fifty teenagers are milling about in the Hyperion lobby. Since going back to their rooms means being with their parents, the kids try to spend as much time as possible out of their rooms. Connor leans against one of the side pillars supporting the balcony. His arms are folded. He calmy scans the crowd. He's been doing that for the last fifteen minutes. The front door opens. Connor looks to his right. Kirstie and her three friends walk in. She does not look happy. Connor grins. Then he walks over to them, standing in front of the circular couch. He waits for her to come down the stairs. Man, does she look pissed. Connor can hardly contain his glee. He smirks, raises his eyebrows and puts his hands in his pockets. She stops right in front of him, folds her arms and looks very cross.
"I waited for over an hour. Where the hell were you?"
"I'm sorry. Did you really think that I'D go out with YOU?" As he asks this question, Connor raises his voice so everyone in the lobby can hear. The room goes quiet. "I'm sorry if you deluded yourself into thinking I liked you. I could NEVER like you!" Now Kirstie's looking hurt. Like she's about to cry. Connor senses that the mob wants him to go in for the kill. Kirstie has long been the stuck-up super-popular Queen Bee. She'd hurt a lot of people's feelings over the years. Some of are were eager to see how Kirstie reacts to a taste of her own medicine. Right now, she's too stunned to respond. So Connor continues his abuse. "I'm sorry if that's news to you, Kirstie. But I need a girl with a little class." Unbeknownst to Connor, Angel was on the balcony when his son began to gleefully pick apart this young girl. Daddy is not amused.
"Is this some immature little prank?," Kirstie asks, trying not to betray her emotions. "God. Grow up."
"What's wrong, Kirstie? Did I hurt your feelings? Are you gonna cry? How's it feel to know you're the girl everyone's laughing at? Dawn's a diamond. Why would would I ever go out a cubic zirconia like you?" The choice of analogy surprises Angel. It was Elijah's idea. Kit and Eli, who are standing near the back of the lobby, start laughing. It spreads. Soon nearly everyone's exploiting the chance to turn the tables. Kirstie's friends look horrified. This isn't supposed happen to them. Ever. Clearly, they'd entered some bizarro dimension. "Can't always get what you want," Connor says to Kirstie before winking his right eye. She runs off. Her three friends follow. Connor looks up and the ceiling and savors his victory. Angel's standing twenty feet in front of him on the landing before the front door. He's deeply dismayed by the fact that his son gets off on hurting people. Apparently there is more Angelus inside Connor than Angel would like to admit.
Elijah and Kit walk up to Connor. Eli congratulates his best friend and bumps his left fist into Connor's right fist. "Let's get something to eat," Connor suggests. Elijah puts his left arm around Kit's shoulder. She's standing to Connor's right, between the two men. The three of them walk out of the lobby, smiling and laughing, acting like they own the joint. Angel steps to Eli's right and watches them pass by. None of them notice Angel's proximity. The three of them are giving off a strong predatory scent that Angel can easily smell. He blames Eli. Angel's always believed that this boy was a bad influence on Connor. Like any parent, he blames peer pressure for leading his child astray.
NEXT: Angel gets national exposure. Giles gains international acclaim for something he wasn't even a part of. And Nina pops up in Los Angeles, looking to steal something from Wolfram & Hart and pound on the people who killed Mal. She's itching to make Angel and Connor pay.