"This is it," C.J said, leading Donna through D.C's cemetery.

Donna stepped carefully around graves and plot marks. Half of her was aware that this was a sacred place. And the other half was waiting for the vampires. She had begged the night off from Josh and the President had ordered C.J out of the office after the last briefing. They had had maybe an hour and a half to prepare for the patrol.

"The vampires will be drawn to us, because we're Slayers," C.J was explaining.

"That's nice to know," Donna murmured, hefting her stake in her hand. There wasn't really enough weight in a stake to heft it, which did nothing to help her gathering fear.

"Normally they keep a low profile. The population in D.C is pretty stable, people here are suspicious enough on their own. Of course they also like places where there is a lot of magic, or some sort of power source."

"Power?" Donna asked.

She tried to listen to C.J and look around all the tombstones and send out her instincts to sense the vampires coming. She noticed C.J several times over the half hour they wandered and it seemed that the often tightly wound press secretary was slowly coming to enjoy herself.

"They like the Hellmouth, where the last Slayer was. And Las Vegas has a lot of magic because of all the gambling. There are other places as well, Cleveland, somewhere in the Franconia-Swiss mountains in Germany, the starting point of the Great Wall carried a lot of power for a long time."

"Is this useful information?" Donna asked, spinning around to look behind her.

"No," C.J said. "I used to know them all."

C.J led the way down the next path and stopped by a grave.

"Here," she said.

"Why here?" Donna asked.

This didn't look any different to any other part of the cemetery. It didn't feel any different. She flexed her hand around the stake.

"Don't you feel something?" C.J asked. "My calves are tingling."

"No, I don–" Donna started.

Then she realised what her hands were doing and looked at them. She flexed each in turn, they moved as well as always, but it felt that they were cramped.

She was going to ask if that's what it was supposed to be like when the ground moved between her feet. She leaped backwards, but C.J didn't move. Donna watched as an old man pulled himself out of the ground and turned to face her. She raised her stake as he took a step forward.

C.J pushed him with her left hand and jumped backwards. The vampire stood still a moment, facing them both off. He lunged at Donna, who blocked one attack, before C.J backhanded it with her stake. Donna looked up in time to see the dust fall to the ground.

The women were allowed half a moment's breather before three more vampires appeared out of the shadows. Donna looked from the vampires to C.J

"Sense Slayers do they?" she asked.

"Yeah," C.J said. She hadn't taken her eyes off their three assailants. She waved Donna to keep her eyes on them.

"Slayers?" one of the vampires echoed.

There was no mistaking the sexual connotations he put into the phrase. C.J swallowed and Donna took a step back, raising the stake.

"Sunnydale's free?" the second one asked. The gloating tone was rich from his beefy frame.

C.J rushed him. She was not going to let any of them leave now.

The third one rushed Donna as the tableau broke. The leader stood back, studying the women's moves and waiting to take over a fight. Donna had missed her first swipe with the stake. The vampire was shorter than her, and of a lighter build. But he was much surer of himself than she was.

He grabbed her around the waist, pinning her arms between them. Donna tried to push through his grip. A moment of trying and she switched tactics. Josh had commented more than once on her ability to jump topics so quickly. She was able to dig her arm into his body and slid her hand free. A quick jab and he began to turn to dust. She leapt back to keep her balance.

Before she had fully regained composure the boss ran at her from behind. She moved quickly to stake him without putting her body in the way, only to discover that she didn't have a stake anymore.

"C.J!"

C.J pulled her stake out of the beefy vampire before he finally dusted. She wasn't quite as out of practice as she had thought. She turned in time to see Donna make a reasonable attempt to flip the last one over her shoulder. She was half way there when C.J threw her stake. It buried itself though the heart from behind. The vamp disappeared and Donna's momentum threw her to the ground.

She lay there, panting for a moment.

When she looked up C.J was still standing watching where the vampire had been. She looked thrilled. She looked comfortable standing in the middle of Washington's cemetery, in high heels, covered in grass stains and holding a dusty, pointy piece of wood.

Despite her current state, Donna began to feel pretty good about herself too.

She caught C.J's eye and they both grinned.

"Is it always like this?" Donna asked.

"Mostly," C.J said.

She pulled Donna to her feet.

"We had two days to prepare from an all out attack once. It was… worse… than the election. We had to be so quiet while we were waiting. Me, Miles, this nasty vampire. Miles and he had somehow worked something out. They hated each other, I don't know what made it personal, but they got together to stop this demon from bringing his whole clan to the earth for a picnic. Two days of full on preparation, I missed school, but the fight only lasted about half an hour."

"What happened?" Donna asked.

"We won, and the nasty vamp ran off," C.J said.

Donna looked at her, asking for more details.

"I can't tell you more," C.J shrugged, "you try to describe the fight we just had. It's why football teams need coaches and video cameras. Sometimes your Watcher will come and comment on your style. And in training."

"Toby in a cemetery," Donna murmured, shaking her head.