Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: I'm writing some of these, as I've come up with ideas that I honestly don't know what I'll be doing when the Ultimate series gets that far. In the meantime, these won't go away from my brain unless I do something with them. Warning: It may be a standalone it may be spoilers for something later; only time will tell.
Rating: 15 probably… mainly for language.
Setting: Season 3 - I think you'll recognise when.
What The Hell(mouth) Happened?? - Chapter 28
Closing Time.
The Bronze.
"Well..." Scott began as they left the Bronze and all made their way over to the parked cars. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, Cordelia."
"Sure... three more days of school." She added grinning. "Then my parents are taking me to New York for Christmas."
"New York..?" Jesse asked, dragging Willow along as he caught up in order to join in the conversation.
"To see my uncle..." She explained. "We do it every year... he's a big judge in the city. We spend Christmas day with him, all the family go... it's nice to see snow on Christmas."
Jesse thought about it. "I don't think I've ever done that."
"Well..." Willow smiled, "I don't think California is known for it's White Christmases."
"Aren't you Jewish..?" Jesse asked rhetorically. "I didn't think you were allowed to wish for a White Christmas."
Cordelia and Scott smiled at the teasing.
"I'll be at your house." Willow countered. "So I'll be wishing for whatever everyone else in the house does."
"I haven't even asked you yet." He said with a fake sneer, "You'll have to be extra-specially nice to me or you can enjoy Christmas at your own non-festive house."
"Your mom already did... and I accepted. So ner." She finished lamely.
"I have to go to my gran's on Christmas." Scott commented.
"Anywhere nice..?" Cordelia asked. "Oooh... does she live in Europe... I bet Christmas in Europe is really snowy."
"Some parts of Europe are always snowy." Willow commented, shaking her head.
"She lives in Oxnard." Scott answered.
"Have you ever been..?" Cordelia asked.
"Oxnard?" Jesse answered confused.
"No... Europe." Cordelia cleared up the confusion. "Why would I care if you'd been to Oxnard..?" Then glancing towards Scott and then back to Jesse, she quickly corrected her mistake. "Unless you have family there too..?"
"No." Willow replied. "I went to Canada once."
"And that's like Europe how..?" Cordelia wondered aloud.
"It had snow." Willow replied in a quiet tone.
"I went to the Alps last Summer." Cordelia informed them. "Now that was a skiiing holiday."
Jesse leaned over to Willow. "I thought this Cordelia was supposed to be less snobby." He whispered causing her to giggle. "Oh god save me from the Chase family skiing stor..."
He was interrupted by a scream in the background.
Immediately tensing up, he glanced first to Willow, then at Cordelia, and as one all three of them turned to see the trailing group.
"What was that?" Scott asked curious, not noticing the change in body language of the others.
The other group were about twenty feet behind, and had all obviously heard it as well.
Buffy was the first to react, patting her coat to check she had a weapon handy on her, she was about to run off in the direction of the scream beginning to utter her first command. "Fai..." She began.
Xander grabbed her arm, pulling her close to him. "Faith, did you hear that, Faith..?" he stated, while Buffy stared accusingly into his eyes.
He met her gaze, then rolled his eyes left, gesturing for her to turn in that direction. She quickly did so and looked to the couple next to them. Faith had also gone straight into a fight or flight mode, but was hampered by still linking arms with Pete. Who had now removed his other hand from his jeans pocket, allowing him to better defend the girl with him.
The two Slayers made eye contact and a silent question was asked. 'What do we do about Pete?'
Luckily, Pete was oblivious to the three pairs of eyes glancing in his direction. "Shouldn't we go investigate..?" He asked seriously. "There are eight of us... maybe we can scare whoever it is off."
By this time the others had joined them, Jesse being the first to speak. "I think it came from over by the old abandoned cinema." He stated, also glancing at the two new members of their little gang.
"You can't be sure of that." Xander quickly replied.
Both Faith and Buffy staring directly at him, trying to silently confirm Jesse's estimate.
"We should probably split up." Xander continued on, ignoring the others. "I'll go with Jesse and see if he's right."
"Me too." Both Buffy and Willow added immediately.
Faith sighed, realising she'd been sidelined. "So us four'll go that way." She said pointing in the opposite direction, towards a random alley. "See if it came from over there."
"Right..." Pete agreed forcefully, bending down to pick up a loose half brick. "Stay behind me." He instructed Faith as he led the way.
Cordelia quickly put her hands on Faith's shoulders and tried to ease the tension. "It'll be okay." She said soothingly. "It's probably just some kids messing around or something."
"Still..." Scott added, stepping in front of the girls. "Better to be safe than sorry."
Pete and Scott led the way down the deserted alley, neither knowing that the most danger they were in was coming from the enraged Slayer who hadn't taken kindly to being treated like a little girl.
Cordelia doing her best to keep the other girl's temper in check.
As soon as they had entered the alley and gone completely out of the sight, the other four picked up their pace into a run. Heading down an alley the led directly for the old cinema.
"Everyone packing..?" Buffy asked as they all ran at Willow's pace. The responses came in the form of two nods and Jesse waving his stake up to be seen.
"Right." She added as they reached the other end of the alley, watching as it opened up into a street that was full of disused buildings. "Must be somewhere around here." She commented as they all began to scan the local area for any signs of a struggle.
"Can't see anything." Jesse commented.
"I'm guessing the van's got something to do with it, but we can't see any owner." Willow added.
"It's parked in front of that old building." Xander commented. "Any bets..?"
"Let's go in and see." Buffy commented striding across the road, the others drawing weapons as they followed.
They'd just got to the door when a woman burst out with shredded overalls on. Jesse tried to catch her, but she ran directly into the side of the parked van.
"Run!!" She shouted at them, "They're crazy," she said, darting round to the opposite side of the van, attempting to unlock the door. Struggling with the keys she glanced up and saw two figures leaving the building she dropped the keys as she automatically began screaming again.
The first vampire ran out knocking Jesse to the ground, the vampire smiled as he saw the person he'd knocked over wasn't the one he was sent to capture. Extra people meant extra meals. He inhaled deeply smelling the fear coming off... the woman screaming. Confused he sniffed again, looking around at the others he noticed that they all were pumping adrenalin but none were running away and none of the others actually seemed scared of him. "Brave little souls, aren't you..? Foolish but brave." He leered at the thin redhead bending down to the fallen boy.
Hearing the sound of his friend attacking the short blonde girl, he leaned towards the couple climbing to their feet and went "Boo." as he changed into his vampire visage. Neither of the two in front of him seemed surprised. Turning to check on his friend, his eyes widened as he saw his fellow vampire sailing into the wall. "Slayer!!" He spat as he made to join the fight.
Only to find himself kicked from the side by the lad who was now standing. "Killing the Slayer's friends would definitely earn me respect." He commented, smirking as they raised weapons in front if them ready to defend.
The redhead looked at him and smiled. "You should probably learn to count them first."
"What..?" The vampire responded just as he felt the wood pierce his back and he quickly dissolved into dust.
Xander smiled at his friends. "Killed by Math... who'd a thought it."
The three friends turned to watch Buffy stake her opponent, before dusting herself off and walking round to the frightened woman.
"It's okay... they're gone now." She reassured, gently placing a hand on one of her shoulders.
Jesse knelt to pick up the keys, unlocking her door and offering the keys back he opened it, gesturing for her to get in. "It's probably best not to take jobs in certain neighbourhoods once it's dark ma'am," He explained. "There's a gang problem that Sunnydale doesn't admit to."
"They were monsters!" The woman stated confidently, "Their faces!"
"It's okay... they've gone now." Willow replied, patting her gently on the arm. "You're just a little shook up..."
"Did you get him..?" The woman asked, "The one who said I wasn't a meal... whatever that meant..."
"Got both of them." Buffy replied.
"Two..?" The woman asked, fear returning at their nods. "There were... I dunno... more. The short one sai..."
"Short one?" Xander asked, getting that sinking feeling. Turning towards the others, "You think Jonathan's going for the older woman look now?"
"Don't know." Buffy replied. "This short one... did he have short brown hair? And a kind of loser type look..?"
"He knew my name." The woman repeated. "I walked in, and he said 'Hello Maria. Stephen sends his regards.' How did he know my name..?"
"I don't know." Buffy repeated again, then with a puzzled look on her face. "Who is Stephen..?"
"I don't know any Stephen's..." Maria turned to her, growing more excited with each sentence. "You think it was a mistake..? That they're not really after me..?" She paused, seemingly weighing up her own question. "But they knew my name..." She concluded defeatedly.
"I don't know." Willow answered, gently pushing her into the van. "I think you should go straight home... and don't let anyone into your house. Even if you know them..."
"What were they..?" Maria asked, starting the engine.
"Have you got a piece of paper..?" Willow asked, "And a pen..?" She waited as the woman passed one over to her. "Okay right..." She said, looking at the clipboard her eyes growing wide.
"What..?" Maria asked, staring at the redhead.
"Nothing..." Willow answered as she began writing. "Here is the name and number of a man called Rupert Giles. If you still have questions tomorrow, then call this number and speak to him." She finished as she handed the clipboard back to the woman.
All four stood there as they watched her drive off.
"She was sent here." Willow stated, breaking the silence.
"Well duh... she's an engineer of some kind." Xander commented.
"No..." Willow explained. "The name on the job number... was for a Mister J. Levinson."
"Jonathan's phoning for his food now..?" Jesse asked incredulously. "This is like the vampire version of ordering in..?"
"No." Buffy stated confidently, drifting off as she thought about it some more. "Maria said that they were told not to eat her."
"So... what does that leave..? Turning, sacrifice, bait..?" Xander asked.
"Too many options." Jesse agreed. "We need Giles."
"Well we know what tonight's report is going to be about." Buffy mumbled as they headed back to the cars, to see if the others were still around.
On the rooftop, a quiet figure watched them go.
"Damn you Slayer." Jonathan said, turning to the other two remaining vampires. "That's what happens if you waste time playing with your food. See if you can pick up Miss Locans' scent... find out where she lives. Nothing else." He instructed them, before leaving. Hoping they at least had the common sense to wait for the Slayer and friends to go before attempting to follow the van.
Shortly Afterward.
The Old Master's Lair.
Jonathan strode into the main part of the cavern. One of the many minions present quickly came over to him.
"Mister Trick wants to see you." The minion informed.
"Fine." Jonathan spat, anger visible in his features.
Jonathan continued around to Mister Trick's room, pushing the cover aside as he walked in. "What..?" He shouted.
"Didn't think you were going to make it." Mr Trick replied, eyes briefly glancing over to his companion then flicking immediately back to the ground he was watching intently.
"Didn't think I'd make what..?" Jonathan replied wearily as he pulled up a chair.
"My first real Siring..." Trick responded, enthusiasm apparent in his voice.
"So..?" Jonathan shot back. "I've had a lousy night, the Slayers are putting delays into my plans all the time."
"This might help deal with the Slayers." Trick said, trying to inflict some of his eagerness onto Jonathan.
Jonathan peered at the ground to the mound of earth there. "That..?"
Mr Trick simply smiled back and nodded.
"It's a fucking vampire." Jonathan shouted leaping to his feet, waving his hands in the air as he paced beside the wall. "We have loads of them... they're mainly very stupid... what we need is something to give us an edge..."
"This one knows stuff we don't..." Trick whispered conspiratorially, grinning even more as a pale hand struck it's way out of the ground, fumbling around trying to get a handhold.
"What are you talking about..?" Jonathan asked returning to his chair, watching as the vampire had now managed to get it's shoulders out of ground and was in the process of turning around.
Trick spread his hands out in front of him, gesturing at the fledgling as though that answered everything.
"It's a woman... and not a very attractive one either... if you were desperate there's plenty to go around." Jonathan commented as the woman brushed dirt off her suit.
"Not just any woman." Trick responded.
"Fine, tell me." Jonathan reluctantly agreed, sighing as he sat back in the seat and made himself comfortable.
Trick quickly walked over to him, perching himself on the edge of the desk next to the seat. "What do Slayers have that vampires don't..?" He asked with a glint in his eye.
Jonathan looked lost, opening his arms in surrender he threw out a few obvious answers. "A pulse. A chosen calling. Competent help. Fun..?"
"No, you misunderstand." Trick informed him walking over to turn the female vampire around so that Jonathan could see her face.
"She looks kinda familiar... it's not a teacher is it..? Cos honestly, the Slayers are welcome to have them."
"Close but no cigar." Trick stated, as the female vampire started to look around examining her surroundings. "Let me introduce you. Jonathan, this is Gwendolyn Post... Faith's Watcher."
Jonathan raised both his eyebrows. "Okay... I admit... that is majorly cool."
End chapter twenty eight