CHAPTER EIGHT

/I We have no past we won't reach back
Keep with me forward all through the night
And once we start the meter clicks
And it goes running all through the night
Until it ends there is no end

All Through the Night- Cyndi Lauper /I

Buffy couldn't sleep. It was rare that the sun woke her up but between her normal post-slaying restlessness, which had no outlet last night, and her worry about Willow, sleep was elusive. Connor's head injury had taken an apparent toll on him and he was sleeping heavier than Buffy had ever known him to do. She tried not to think about the things Connor had revealed to the group the day before. Still, there had been a deep sadness in his voice, not only for his lost lover but also for their child. It was obvious to her that he wanted children but probably had come to the conclusion waiting was better or was it the guilt that she saw in his eyes? The overwhelming guilt put her in mind of another lover, the one who left because he couldn't give her normal things like children. Ironic since most of the things he thought he couldn't give her were things she didn't want in the first place.

Buffy sighed, dragging herself back from the edge of depression. She needed to do something if she couldn't sleep. She didn't feel like exercising and the dew would still be on the ground so she ruled out sitting in the garden. If she was the first one up, she might be expected to make breakfast and it would be better for everyone if she stuck to assisting people with talent like Concetta. Frozen waffles were more Buffy's style.

She saw Connor's laptop sitting on the dresser with a sheath of papers next to it. Debating her options of more research, flipping through the channels of the living room TV to try and find stuff in English, making breakfast, or checking Connor's home work, she opted for the last one. She could at least lounge in bed and do that. She figured he wouldn't mind. He was always asking for people to read it over and tell him if it made sense.

She slid out of bed, retrieved the papers then climb back into the soft nest of sheets. Connor merely murmured, rolling onto his side, facing away from her. His shoulder blades knifed at his skin like angel's wings trying to bud. He needed to eat several of Concetta's scrumptious meals, Buffy decided.

She settled against the pillows and was happy to find she wasn't killing time with one of his history papers, not her favorite subject. It was a short story. Buffy had been shocked to find she truly liked her English and literature courses and had been depressed when she had to drop out to take care of her mother and sister. Connor's story was about a boy growing up in a hell dimension. She glanced over at her slumbering lover. It read so much like a biography she could almost imagine it had happened. What would life be like in a place like that? Suddenly, Sunnydale looked bright and happy.

Next to her, Connor stirred. He rolled onto his back and groggily ran a hand over his face. His hand jerked back like he'd been burned as he encountered the wound on his forehead.

"Morning." She smiled down at him. "How's the head?"

"Better than yesterday." Connor didn't appear to be in any hurry to get up. "Still hurts though."

"I bet."

His baby blues flicked over to the papers she held. "What are you doing?"

"Checking to see if you've been a good boy and did your homework or a bad one who needs punishing." She grinned. "Seems you've been good."

"Remind me to not do my homework next time." Connor smirked, rolling over to kiss the bare skin of her belly where it peeked through the silky hem of her two piece nightie.

"You are already bad enough." She patted him on the shoulder. "We should get moving. I was hoping to be lazy and snag one of Concetta's breakfasts but I don't hear her up yet. You didn't eat much after getting hurt so you must be starving."

"I am." Connor hitched himself up and nibbled her neck.

"I'm not breakfast," Buffy said as his tongue laved over the bite mark scars Angel had left on her neck. Too many of her boyfriends would have literally considered her breakfast.

Connor sat back, licking his lips. "I disagree."

"I thought your head hurt." Buffy reached over and stroked his soft hair.

"I'm pretty sure diverting blood from my head will help immensely," he said, sliding a hand into her silk panties. He kissed her inner thigh and Buffy didn't protest any further.

Buffy helped Concetta with the breakfast as Connor sat down at the table, his head unbandaged. The enormous gash had healed to a puckered red line across his pale flesh. He ate fast and went back to the living room. Buffy grimaced, listening to the CD he was playing again as his fingers clicked over the keyboard. He had a strange and limited range of music CDs with him; the angry boy montage and the stuff he had on now, opera and classical music. She rather hated the opera.

"Again with this, Connor? I'm going to hide this CD," she warned, going into the living room, which was deserted except for Connor and Giles. The music had probably scared them off.

"Amici is good, helps me think," he protested.

"It's quite pleasant," Giles put in, looking up from his thick tome.

"If Giles is voting for it, it has to go." Buffy put her hands on Connor's shoulders, massaging them.

He leaned into it like a cat. "Giles has excellent musical taste. His classic rock collection is awesome."

"Connor, the way you keep buttering up Giles, I'm going to start thinking you're using me to get to him." Buffy laughed.

"It's those pretty blue eyes and the cupid mouth and that look he gives," Connor said, and Giles glared at him, pinched mouthed.

"You mean that look?" Buffy smiled at her Watcher.

Connor uttered a dreamy sigh. "That's the one."

Buffy ruffled his hair. "You're a strange, wee man."

"This I know. I assumed it was the reason you liked me." He grinned, leaning back against her.

"That's one of them." She pointed at the computer. "More homework?"

"Just futzing around with my paper," he said. "Before I turn it in today."

"When do you leave?" Her eyes flicked to the wound on his head, giving it a dubious look.

"Soon. I'll have to put gauze over that," he said, reading her mind. "Or I'll be answering questions all day. Is there anything you need me to do while I'm out?"

"I don't think so," Buffy said.

"Connor, why don't you meet us at the church?" Giles glanced over at him. "I think we need to keep it under scrutiny."

"Of course. I'll see you there." He took Buffy's hand. "Want to give me a hand bandaging my forehead back up?"

"Of course," Buffy said, almost envious that he looked so happy to be going to class. She was jealous that he was more successful in balancing school and slaying and wished she could escape the gloom that hung over the house for an hour or two herself. When he was gone, she did hide his opera CD for her sanity's sake.

"This sitting and waiting sucks," Faith said as they kept the church under surveillance with scoped out equipment.

"I'm just shocked Andrew actually has a use." Connor waved his night scope binoculars that Andrew and Xander had procured.

"Connor," Buffy scolded. "Speaking of which, one of us should go over there with Xander and Andrew." She nodded to the other side of the church.

"Willow and Concetta are with them," Faith said dismissively.

"And it shouldn't be me," Connor said, an annoyed look on his face. "I'm tempted to snap Andrew's neck and tell you something got him."

"Connor!" Buffy's voice was sterner this time.

"You don't hear all the things he says about me, Buffy," Connor replied unapologetically. "At least the jury's still out on Xander. I think he might not hate me."

"I'll go over with them." Faith started walking. "I can't sit still any longer."

"Hunters need to have patience, Faith," Connor said.

"Yeah, I'll work on that." Faith rolled her eyes.

"Hang on," Buffy said then picked up her walkie talkie. "Xander, I see the priest doing something at the font. Get moving toward the church but don't go in. Guard the door and have Concetta ready to pick off anything that makes a run for it. Just send in Willow in case we need magical back up." Buffy nodded at Faith and Connor who started moving without being told.

"You hate waiting," Connor whispered. " I hate magic."

"Prepare to hate then," Buffy said as they got to the church. "You go to the basement door, Connor, in case those things head to the crypt. Faith and I can handle one old priest."

Connor canted off, parking himself right in the doorway, half in and half out of the building. Buffy waved Faith in first. The priest, chanting over the baptismal font, reminded Buffy of Caleb in his all black and crisp white collar. Dark green smoke roiled out of the font with a stench that left Buffy gagging.

"I don't think so," Faith said, knocking the font over just a little too late.

Out of the slime that spilled over the tiled floor, things shimmered and grew. Andrew nearly fell over Willow back peddling away; so much for listening to orders. Buffy knew Andrew had been convinced of his own abilities to help in this situation. And as fast as Andrew was rethinking his decision and moving away from the slime, Willow moved forward with a dark-eyed look. Buffy grabbed the priest, yanking Father Gabrielle behind her. Willow eyed her with a cold fury that made Buffy shiver.

"You can't stop me, the cleansing has to be done!" Gabrielle ranted, shoving at Buffy.

"So you summon up murderous demons and set them loose to kill whoever they feel like?" Buffy whirled on him.

"There are no innocents," he snapped back.

"Tell that to them." Faith pointed to the three new Soul-eaters born out of the sludge.

Father Gabrielle's face was almost rapturous. "Run my children, hunt well!"

Two of them skittered towards the side door to the sacristy as if sensing three Slayers were far more than they wanted to handle. The third charged toward Willow and Andrew. Willow barked out a spell and the thing was frozen in its tracks. Buffy beheaded it easily. One of the others tagged Faith and Buffy barely had time to yank the Slayer away from the thing's touch before it was too late. Faith shuddered, gasping. The one that touched her feinted at Andrew, giving its companion time to grab Father Gabrielle, lifting the shocked and protesting man up, carting him along. Buffy didn't know if the things merely didn't want to lose a soul to eat or if they felt some kind of unholy allegiance to the priest.

The team piled out the door after them. Buffy cursed at how fast they moved. Faith bellowed for Xander and Concetta since Connor was situated at the basement door just one level down from the sacristy door. He was already on the move. The things raced along the street then finally burst through a door half way up the steps of a tan-hued church. Buffy's pack followed them in, Xander pausing to flick on the lights even though they were breaking and entering. Buffy hoped if the police showed up, Concetta could talk them out of trouble.

"Where the hell did they go?" Willow asked, her voice rough and cold.

"This way," Connor said, his nostril's flaring.

Buffy let him take point. She wanted to keep a close eye on Willow, just in case. Connor paused looking at the six iron gates that cordoned off the room. This wasn't the main part of the church, that much Buffy knew but she wasn't sure what it was. There were significant differences in European churches, or at least she thought there were since she never spent much time in American ones. Connor's nose wrinkled.

"Problems?" she asked.

"Smells funky," he said tersely as he cautiously went forward, opening one of the gates.

Connor didn't get far. He stopped, staring up at the ceiling. Buffy followed his gaze, expecting a soul-eater to fall from above. Instead she slowly realized that the molding on the walls and vaulted ceiling wasn't wood or stone but rather human bones arranged in floral patterns. The most intricate patterns were concentrated around the bases of the chandeliers, which were composed of vertebrae and sacral bones.

"Have we stepped through to hell?" Faith asked quietly, her eyes jumpy.

"We're in the ossuary of the chiesa dei cappuccini, la santa marie delle concezione," Concetta offered.

"What?" Andrew asked nervously as he moved away from the bone-adorned wall.

"Our lady of the conception of the capuchins," Connor said. "The monks they named cappuccino after."

"Another drink ruined," Buffy muttered, shuttering at the macabre decorations.

"I've heard of this place," Connor continued, ignoring her. "They used the bones of thousands of monks for centuries to decorate it. I wanted to come see it."

"You really did hit your head hard, kid," Faith said, looking too ready to attack the first thing that moved.

Connor curled his lip at her then pointed down the corridor. He led the way into a room even more bedecked with bone. Andrew let out a cry, jumping back. He pointed frantically to the wall where three robed skeletons stood watch in front of domed mounds of skulls and another one reclined in a niche of bone.

"I think it's safe to say they aren't going to hurt us," Willow said as Connor cast around trying to catch the scent.

"Next time I whine about my job, remind me I could be the person who dusts all of this," Xander said, his solitary eye wide.

Buffy just nodded in silent agreement, wondering how anyone had decided that this would be the way to home decorate. She wondered for a moment if Angel and Spike knew about this place. It would have probably appealed to them in the bad old days.

"And I thought the catacombs were bad," Faith muttered as they pressed on.

"They were worse, no room to move," Connor reminded her. "Getting closer."

"There." Buffy pointed to a figure on the floor under a full skeleton on the wall that held a scythe and a scale. The fallen man's legs splayed unnaturally. "Something tells me Father Gabrielle isn't going to be summoning up any more trouble."

Willow knelt down and took his pulse anyhow. She seemed disgusted that the priest was dead. "That was too easy for all the death he caused."

No one said anything to that. Their eyes scanned for more signs of the soul-eaters. Buffy was beginning to think they had gone back outside, that this was a mere dodge. She had no idea how smart the creatures were then she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. One of the creatures was coming up behind Willow.

"Willow!" she cried and her friend twisted, uttering something in Latin. Buffy watched the soul-eater get slammed into a wall by an invisible force.

The other soul-eater melted out of the shadows and charged them. Connor flipped upwards, his heel connecting with the thing's head, knocking it towards Faith and Buffy. Faith went low as Buffy went high but the thing surprised them. It vaulted over Faith's blade and slapped its hand down into Buffy's cleavage. She gave a strangled gasp as the thing started to draw her forth from her body. Buffy tried to push the demon off of her but she couldn't move. She could see Concetta and Connor were too wrapped up in the other soul-eater to help.

Suddenly the demon trying to eat her soul twisted sideways, back handing someone. She saw Xander, stake in hand, slam up against the wall. He hadn't managed to get the thing to release her but in swatting Xander like an insect the thing left itself open. Faith was there in a heart beat, swinging her sword like she was trying to bat one to the cheap seats. The demon's head flew and Buffy fell onto her butt, panting for breath but soul intact.

Buffy glanced over at the continuing combat in time to see Concetta duck under the reach of the second one. Connor feinted at it, trying to draw its attention away from the less experienced Slayer. It worked a little too well. Connor side stepped, nearly tripping over Andrew who was trying to take a bead on it with his crossbow. Cursing at him, Connor charged the demon as it went for Concetta again and a back swing from the Slayer's sword almost caught him.

Suddenly a greenish mist covered the soul-eater and it started convulsing then exploded. Buffy stared in shock then glanced back at Willow who stood, arm outstretched, trembling. She didn't even want to know what spell Willow had cast. She wasn't sure she ever wanted to see it again.

Xander put his arm around Willow, gently pulling her arm down. "It's over, Wills," he said softly.

Willow looked at him, her lips quivering. She collapsed against her friend, weeping wordlessly. Xander just wrapped his arms around her and held on tight.

"Is it over?" Concetta asked softly.

"I sure as hell hope so," Faith said then clamped a hand on Connor's shoulder. "So, kid, you coming back here with a camera?"

Connor nodded. "I feel a history project coming on."

"You need therapy," the dark haired Slayer said and Buffy found herself in agreement. How could tourists want to come here? Faith kicked one of the dead soul-eaters. "They don't even have the courtesy to dust."

"I know. Let's get it cleaned up," Connor said. "Andrew, help me pick up the pieces."

"Ewww, I don't want to touch...that." The young man's face screwed up in disgust.

"Whining will tempt me to make you a permanent part of the display," Connor snarled.

"Just help, Andrew," Buffy said wearily. "We all will."

Faith came over and draped an arm casually around Buffy's shoulders. "My thought, put shock collars on those boys. It'll help in the long run."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Don't tempt me." She sighed and started to clean up dead demon debris.

"We'll have to keep an eye on the news reports to be sure that no other soul-eaters are still out there," Giles said, leaning against an olive tree so he could talk to Buffy who was trying to mope in the garden. "We'll never know exactly how many of the bloody things Father Gabrielle summoned."

"Willow insisted on going back to the church. We found his diaries in the priest's house. Concetta is reading them, to see if we can figure out when he started and why...beyond the fact that he was nuts," Buffy said.

"From what we learned, it sounds like he truly did believe we were too corrupt to save." Giles pushed up his glasses, his eyes flicking towards the house. Buffy read a longing look there. He wanted to read the diaries, too. "How is Willow holding up?"

"It got a little scary there," Buffy said, wishing that was a lie. "But, I think the worst is passed. The soul-eaters are dead. Father Gabrielle is dead. There's nothing left to feed the anger."

"Yes, well, that's good. I'll go speak to her." Giles pushed off the tree. "Good job dealing with this, Buffy."

"Thanks," she said, thinking if it had been a good job, Kennedy wouldn't be dead. She watched Giles go inside. A few minutes later Connor came out, a blanket draped over his arm.

He spread it on the grass near the Spanish broom. He sat down then looked over at her. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. A little late for a picnic." She nodded at the blanket.

"Star gazing," he said, lying back. "I like it outside, reminds me of home."

"Los Angeles? You can't see stars there," she said, coming over to sit beside him.

"I never said L.A. was home, just where I live now," Connor corrected her. "It's so beautiful here, but you still can't see all that many stars. Next vacation, I'm going somewhere I can see the night sky."

Buffy laid next to him, putting her head on his bony chest. Connor was not ideal for snuggling. The honey scent of the broom filled her senses. "You actually get vacations?"

"No, but I don't think I'm going to let that stop me any more," he replied, wrapping an arm around her.

Buffy sighed, closing her eyes. "I like that attitude. Maybe I should give it a shot."

"There's more than one Slayer now. I'd say you've earned it. I'm heading for Florence for a few days to see for myself what I'm writing about in my Medici paper and to see the Uffizi gallery. They have some cool themed tours in Florence. Want to come?"

Buffy hitched herself up on one arm, looking down at him. "Gallery? I'd like that. Have I ever told you my mom ran the gallery in Sunnydale? Art's big with the Summers women."

He ran a hand along the curve of her jaw. "I love art. Say you'll come...once the funeral is over and if Willow doesn't need you."

"If Willow doesn't need me, I'd love it." Buffy leaned down, kissing him softly. "Are you really going back to that creepy church with a camera?"

"Sure. Maybe I can freak out my sister with some pictures." He grinned.

"Why do I get the impression I'm going to be saying you're a strange wee man a lot?" Buffy laughed.

"I have no idea." Connor caught her cheeks, pulling her close for a longer kiss.

Buffy decided it didn't matter that Connor would soon be gone from her life. She was going to take Giles' advice and enjoy her summer fling for what it was and for as long as she could. It almost made her feel like a normal girl, a normal girl who was going to Florence on vacation with her not so normal boy of summer.

Author's Note - the chiesa santa marie della concezione is real. If you'd like to have a look head to these urls http/www3.sympatico.ca/tapholov/index.htm And http/