CHAPTER TEN

We are chasing the moon
Just running wild and free
We are following through
Every dream, and every need
The Corrs - So Young

Chumbawamba's 'Tubthumping' poured out of the Summers' residence loud enough that they could feel the beat reverberating in their chests. "I ask you, does that sound like studying?" Buffy waved at her house as she piled out of Angel's cramped car. Shoving eight people into it made the spacious GTX seem crowded. Giles and Wesley shoved their glasses up in an unconscious concerted motion that made Buffy smile. Maybe it was some kind of Watcher Training, Proper Mannerisms 101. She'd have to ask Ceara. She doubted the men would confess to it.

"Not unless studying has changed since I was a boy," Wesley sniffed.

"I remember this kind of studying," Giles said, a soft smile touching his lips. "Only it was Pink Floyd and Hendrix and not whatever this noise is."

Buffy's pale eyebrows came together, picking up on what she thought he meant, given what she knew of his past. "We can't have any of that sort of studying." She stormed into the house. The kids were in the living room dancing to the throbbing beat, including the trouble-making David and Aidan. She shut the CD player down and the teens stopped mid-gyration. It'd be comical if she wasn't furious at her sister. "Done with that paper already, Dawn?" Buffy asked, managing to keep the irritation out of her voice.

Dawn gave her a sheepish look, hiding behind her long swag of hair. "No, we're taking a study break." It was more question than statement of fact.

"Well, I think it's over. You need to get back to work," Buffy said, then half-turned, hearing her friends coming into the room. "And so do I."

Dawn looked aggravated at the sudden invasion of her house but knew there was nothing to be done for it. She understood Buffy had her work and she hadn't given her sister much reason to trust her lately with her skipping school and stealing things. But it was hard to see Buffy as a surrogate mother. It was so unfair then she looked over at Aidan and realized she didn't have a corner on unfair. He lived his whole life deprived of his father, a man who Dawn had come to see as a dad herself. "Yeah, you're right. We got a lot of good stuff researched. Now we just have to do the writing."

"Good. Maybe Willow can check it over when you get it done," Buffy said, hoping she sounded encouraging and not demanding.

Dawn made a face but nodded. She herded her friends upstairs. David spared Buffy a hostile look. Buffy knew she'd need to talk to Dawn about this friend of hers but now was not the time.

Aidan paused on the stairs. "My picture albums came. We can look at them when I'm done helping Dawn. Gram sent along some crime scene photo packets, too. Tell Mum that if you see her before I do. And something came for Mum from Aunt Neema. Don't know what, looks like a video tape mailer."

"I'll let her know and I'll be looking forward to seeing the albums," Giles said, with a warm smile.

Aidan beamed, bounding up the stairs.

"Albums?" Buffy raised her eyebrows.

Giles ducked his head shyly, plucking off his glasses for another unnecessary cleaning. "Photos and some videos. I was hoping you wouldn't mind if we borrowed your VCR. You could watch if you didn't feel it would be too boring."

Buffy rested her hand on his shoulder. "If you don't think we'd be intruding."

"Aidan rather seems to like an audience." Giles popped his glasses back on and cleared his throat. "Maybe we should get back into it." He nodded toward the stacks of books they had dragged along. Only a few minutes passed when voices floated up from the basement.

"I can't believe you found a way into this house through the basement."

"Jealous?"

"I ought to just kill you now."

"You've been saying that for the last a hundred years."

Buffy, feeling her patience flittering away, went over and flung open the door. She stared down at the bickering vampires. "You two either get up here and help quietly, since my sister has friends here or you can go back out the way you snuck in."

Both men looked suitably abashed.

"We're here to help," Angel said, with a sheepish look. He seemed decidedly embarrassed at getting caught arguing childishly with Spike. Spike's expression mirrored his grandsire's.

"Good." Buffy turned back to her friends. "Tara, could you draw the curtains so they can come up."

Tara popped up and blocked out the sun for them and the vampires settled into what was otherwise a homey scene if one ignored all the arcane texts scattered about.

Wesley shoved a book at Angel. "Here's the sigil and the demon it goes with."

Spike stood on tiptoe to peer over Angel's shoulder. "Ugly sucker."

"What a gift for understatement you have," Angel said, shouldering Spike out of the way. "Do we have a working plan for dealing with him?"

"Not as of yet. We're trying to get a lead on the humans helping him since it's safe to say that Chatha isn't here yet," Giles said, reaching for his notebook.

"The van was stolen and abandoned so it led us nowhere," Willow added sadly.

"We've checked all the various magic shops here and all the way up to L.A. to see if we could find someone buying the spell ingredients and get a line on who they might be, Tara said, carefully avoiding looking directly at Angel. She couldn't help being shy around him. There were simply too many strangers in the house for her to be comfortable.

"With no luck," Angel guessed, trying to look as unintimidating as he could.

"None. Some of the items could be grown at home, which they might have done," Wesley said, handing Angel a copy of the list of spell ingredients. "They didn't just wake up one day and decide to try this. It took planning."

"They could have purchased what they needed months ago. We might not be able to track them down that way," Tara added, feeling a little bolder, especially with the encouraging squeeze Willow gave her hand.

"We're doing everything we can, though," Willow said.

"It's not enough," Buffy huffed then winced, looking over at the two lovers. Tara had pulled into her shell but her girlfriend just glared. Blowing a wisp of hair out of her eyes, Buffy said apologetically, "I'm sorry, I'm not angry with you two. I'm just angry on principle."

"Understandable. We all are," Wesley said and when she shot him a hot look he paused then realized he wasn't likely to ever win Buffy's approval so he forged ahead anyhow. "We've done all we can. We're still looking. We haven't given up."

"Wesley's right. We will stop them. I mean, we always do, right?" Cordelia asked, the cheerleader in her surfacing. "How many apocalypses have you averted?"

"Too many. I just want to stop this one without losing anyone else," Buffy growled.

"You can't save them all, Buffy," Angel said cautiously. "You'll go insane trying. You're only one human being, a very special one but just one all the same."

"Listen to him. There is no fairness to any of this. There are demons all over the world. All we have to do to insure ourselves a relatively hassle free life is to avoid wherever the Slayer calls home. Ditto for other do-gooders. It's really rather easy." Spike shrugged. "I thought the Slayer was a boogey-woman Angelus and Darla had made up to keep me in line until they made her sound like so much fun to kill I had to try it. You can't cure all the evil in the world, Buffy. There's simply too much of it."

Angel and Wes both looked shocked at hearing those words coming out of Spike's mouth.

"This is not the whole world, Spike. It's my corner of it and I don't want any more deaths on my watch," she shot back, taking out her rage on a couch pillow, stopping short of ripping it.

"We're doing our best, Buffy," Giles said softly, feeling terribly ineffectual.

Before she could answer, someone knocked on the door. She got to her feet, dragging over to answer it. Xander and Willow both settled back, having started for the door as well. She let Ceara in. The older woman gave her a curious look.

"Has something else happened?" Ceara asked, moving past her into the living room.

"No, but we're no closer to finding any answers," Buffy replied moodily.

"Sorry, I wish I could be of more help." Ceara stopped for a moment looking for a place to sit but nothing was available other than the floor.

"It would be good if you could just talk directly to the dead and get answers," Buffy said testily as a ruckus started upstairs. "But I know it doesn't work that way."

"I wish it would. I have a room back home, my office where I have put up the crime scene photos the police have given me. I hang up the victim's pictures when I can't get a lead on them. I quit counting how many I had posted up after I reached a hundred," Ceara said, looking at the ceiling and wondered at all the noise percolating through it. "I wish this gift was more accurate, believe me. There are a lot of families who would get some closure if I could just make ghosts talk to me on demand."

"Speaking of crime scene photos, I think some more of them came together with some tapes Aidan sent for. Neema sent you something as well," Giles said, also staring at the ceiling. "What are they doing up there?"

"Sounds like a fight," Ceara said, heading for the stairs, the momma bear surfacing in her.

"I'll handle this," Buffy said, cutting in front of her. This was her house, her sister, her problem. She had to prove she could deal with day-to-day life, if only to herself.

Ceara waved her on. "We'll both deal with it since I hear my son yelling."

Before either woman could go upstairs, David thundered down them with Dawn, Jane, Bethany, April, and Aidan right behind him.

"I'm out of here," David snarled.

"David, you can't go. This is a group project. You can't just stick it to us," Dawn argued, trying to pull David to a stop. He yanked away so roughly Buffy had to refrain from pounding on him for hurting her sister.

"Is he going to change his mind?" David stabbed a finger at Aidan.

"I'm not writing this paper for you," Aidan shot back, slinging his hair over his shoulders.

David shrugged. "I'm gone." He headed straight out the door.

"David!" Dawn cried as the door slammed. She whirled on Aidan. "Now what?"

Aidan shrugged. "You just do your section and forget about him."

"Dawn, did you ask Aidan to write your homework assignment?" Buffy asked, her cheeks going fiery. Dawn's girlfriends rushed back up the stairs, seeing Buffy's wrath.

Aidan noted the girls' reactions and weighted them against Buffy's anger. Given his upbringing, it took more than a little female fire to frighten him. "No, she didn't. Neither did her friends, just David. I don't mind helping but I won't cheat."

"What am I going to tell Mrs. Palermo?" Dawn stomped her foot. "David was supposed to do the economics section."

"We could write a letter for you, Dawn," Ceara said, placatingly. "You have a room full of witnesses, outside of your sister, as to what David did. We can call the principle if need be. Stuff like this happens and if your teacher knows what David tried to do, she won't penalize your group for it."

"What if she does?" Dawn fretted, twisting her long hair around a fist.

"Then she'll deal with me," Buffy said, happy to prove herself. She was grateful for Ceara's suggestion though. "I can be irate PTA mom-like."

"Okay." Dawn sounded unconvinced. She looked first to Willow and Tara and then Buffy for support then turned back to Aidan. "Aidan, are you still going to help us?"

He shook his head, causing a flurry of raven hair to flutter about. "I've done all I can. You have to write it."

"Can you read it while we write? To make sure we got it right and it looks good. You said you like to write. You know what's right and wrong," Dawn said, smiling encouragingly.

Aidan shrugged. "I guess I can do that unless Mum's ready to go." He didn't look the least bit ready himself.

"No, go help them," Ceara said and the two teens went back upstairs.

"That's it for that David person," Buffy said, sagging onto the couch. "She's not seeing him again." She sighed then added. "I'm so not looking forward to that fight."

"You have to do what you think right, Buffy. Like I said, you can't always be their friend. That's what gets kids into juvie hall, caretakers who won't draw boundaries for them. I used to be that bad kid until Neema helped me," Ceara said then nodded at the books. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Willow stretched. "I was hoping for a little break." She glanced over at Buffy who nodded.

"I'll make some tea," Buffy said.

"No, I'll get it," Giles said, getting up. He looked desperate for a chance of escape.

"Roo, where's that package from, Neema?" Ceara asked. "That could be a good brain break."

"Roo? Anyone else thinking little kangas?" Xander laughed.

"Please, don't call me that." Giles glared him into submission. He turned that glare on Ceara but she just beamed. "I think the box is there by the TV."

As he went into the kitchen, Ceara opened the box and took out the tape. She wrinkled her nose. "It says here, 'Don't let the boy see.' What did Neema send me?" Ceara turned the tape over in her hand, gazing at it curiously.

"Only one way to find out," Buffy said, fishing the remote off the table. She turned the TV on and Xander and Spike fought for the remote. Xander won, clutching the remote with the usual male possessiveness.

Ceara slipped the tape into the deck then settled on the floor, her back to the arm of the couch. The tape was a bit jumpy and old but it showed a pub more used to the quiet drinking type that had been overrun with young people. They were squashed onto its small dance floor, gyrating to Madonna's 'Like a Virgin.'

"Oh God! Pause this!" Ceara demanded and when Xander complied she asked, "Remember this, Wes?"

He peered at it, shoving his glasses back up. "No, I can't say I do."

"No surprise there, as drunk you as got that night. Let me give you back story here." Ceara grinned like a cat with a mouthful of canary. "This was Coriann's eighteenth birthday party. She was another Potential. All the girls on the dance floor were Potentials except for the one girl in glasses. She was a Watcher-in-training, as were the three guys out there with us. If you check out that beanpole in the far left, you'll recognize him."

"Oh, no! It's that party?" Wesley moaned, burying his face in his hands.

"Is that you, Wes?" Cordy laughed.

"Yes. Have mercy, Ceara," he pleaded.

"Oh, please, that'll happen." Ceara rolled her eyes at him and Wesley wilted. "I'm there in the center."

"You mean the only Indian one with the blue lightning bolt dyed into your hair." Spike smirked.

"Yeah, exactly. Me in a sea of pasty British faces. Anyhow none of us were old enough to be drinking but a few of us had cool Watchers like Neema who were there to supervise. Another Watcher, Farnley Ashbury, was just getting into making video records for the Watcher's files and decided just for a gag to video tape this party," Ceara said. "Go ahead and let it roll."

"How drunk did you get, Wes?" Cordelia asked with malicious glee as Xander hit 'play.'

"Incredibly. I think I was hung over for three days. I remember nothing about that night." His gaunt cheeks flushed.

"Well, aren't you glad there's a record of it to fill that hole?" Angel asked, a wicked glint in his dark eyes. The ex-Watcher eyed him sourly.

"You were a good dancer, Ceara," Buffy said. "But your guys' taste in hair and clothes, could it be worse? I mean, big headbands, slashed shirts and lace overskirts, how Cyndi Lauper of you."

"Yeah, my taste could have been worse. I could have been young with Giles in the Seventies," Ceara shot back and Buffy shuddered, waving her hands frantically to ban the mental image.

"The guy you're dancing with is like Kevin Bacon in 'Footloose' or something," Willow said. "He can move."

"He's currently a Watcher. Believe it or not, there are a few cool ones. His name is Brandon Hennessy," Ceara said.

"Did you like him?" Tara asked, her eyes bright and mischievous.

"Looks like a poofter to me," Spike jeered, reaching for his cigarettes. Angel took them away. The blond vampire growled and Angel snarled back. Buffy silenced both with a look.

Seeing they were done posturing, Ceara said, "He is. I loved him as a dancer but he was sweet on Wes."

"He was not!" Wesley cried, his pale cheeks pinking up.

"I hate to break it to you, Wes, Brandon was hot for you," Ceara replied, "seriously."

"Oh." Wesley frowned. "I was happier not knowing."

"You'll live. Hell, back then, he was about the only flirting you got and you didn't even know it," Ceara said and Wesley looked stricken. "Okay, the lady by the bar is Neema." Ceara pointed as the cameraman panned to the bar.

"The person at the end of the bar looks kinda familiar," Buffy said.

"Forget him. Check out the guy in black jeans and leather coat next to him," Cordelia said, with an appreciative smile.

Buffy nodded. "Nice butt. Do we get to see his face?"

"Who?" Giles asked, coming into the room.

"The guy on the tape," Cordelia answered, pointing.

Giles glanced at the TV and flushed. "Oh, no! No, no, turn that off."

He moved for the VCR. Buffy popped up and caught him. She dragged him down onto the couch. Ceara looked up at him from where she rested against the couch on the floor, her eyes alit with mischief.

"Why wouldn't you want us to see a night of Wesley and Ceara dancing?" Buffy asked.

"Because of that!" Willow stabbed a finger at the TV. "Oh my God! The guy in leather, it's Giles!"

Buffy twisted back to the seat, feeling her face flush. "And I said he had a nice butt." She covered her face with her hands as Giles glared first at her then at Ceara. Buffy tried to ignore Spike's snickers, which ended abruptly as Angel chucked him to the floor. She stopped any retaliation with a simple glower.

"Are you happy now, Ceara?" Giles turned his glare back on her.

"Hey, all Neema said was 'don't show it to the boy.' You don't qualify," Ceara replied. "And the guy who looked familiar, Buffy, is Ethan."

"I was meeting him there as he had a tome the Watchers wanted and he was willing to deal," Giles said distastefully.

"I'm still working on you dressing like Spike, Giles," Buffy said, her eyes dancing.

"Hey! I have a lot more style," Spike protested, rubbing his hands over his leather jacket as he reclaimed his seat.

"Ha! Bleach Boy, Giles is in nearly an identical outfit to your daily wear. Do you even own more than one set of clothes? It's sort of gross," Xander said and Spike half rose, his face shifting.

Buffy stabbed a finger at Spike who settled back down with a petulant sulk on his face.

"It was a long time ago," Giles grumbled, with an equally petulant look.

"Tell me about it. Look at how tall my hair was teased." Ceara pointed to TV where her younger self was heading to the bar wearing a black half-shirt that barely covered her breasts, black leather mini-skirt, fishnets and spike-heel 'witch's' boots.

"What is it with you Slayer types and leather hooker wear?" Cordelia asked with her usual bluntness.

"That's how everyone dressed then," Ceara said. She patted Giles' thigh. "I didn't realize just how much you and Ethan were checking me out back then, Roo."

"You were mostly naked. Should we not have noticed?" he asked, blushing at her touch on his leg.

"You were old. Yes," Buffy said, shooting him a disgusted look.

"I wasn't old," Giles said, his lips pulling into a thin irritated line.

"I didn't think so. And I agreed with Buffy, you had a cute butt. I liked your earring, too. Where did it go?" Ceara bounced up and ticked his ear.

He pinched his pierced lobe self-consciously. "I grew up."

"Hopefully you don't mean 'grew old'," she said and his blue eyes took on a deep hurt. She squeezed his leg again, resting her weight against him.

The tape jumped a bit through amateurish cuts to the girls drinking more, and dancing a lot. Ceara had even lured Giles out to the dance floor for some slow dances. Finally it cut to an outdoor park area where Coriann was busy filling a pipe with tobacco.

"What kind of girls smoke a pipe?" Anya asked, "and why is it of psychedelic glass?"

"Hmmm, anyone thinking that might be wacky tobaccy?" Xander asked, a gleeful look in his dark eyes.

"Hush, would I smoke that?" Ceara asked as her on screen self puffed on the pipe before handing it to Giles.

"Giles, I can't believe you," Buffy said. Her expression was between amused and shocked.

Hearing the kettle screaming, he got up, nearly trampling Ceara. "About bloody time," he mumbled, hurrying off.

"Getting rat-arsed, dancing, smoking dope, all on the first date and you wonder why you two ended up in trouble," Spike said, grinning.

"Oh, I never wondered that. We were both bad," Ceara said with a happy little look in here eye at the remembrance. No one else seemed to believe her declaration, at least about Giles.

On screen, Wesley collapsed and Ceara nudged him with a toe.

"Neema, what's the penalty for killing a Watcher in training?" Ceara asked.

Her Watcher looked at the stone drunk young man. "It's not good."

"Dumping him in the alley it is, then." Ceara came up with a marker out of her purse. "Girls, you know the penalty for passing out first."

The Potentials stripped Wesley and took turns writing all over with him the marker.

"You! You were the one who did that. I scrubbed for days trying to get that off!"
Wesley growled darkly. "How could you?" He tried vainly to ignore the laughter filling the room.

Ceara shrugged. "We were kids. We thought it was funny."

"I can't believe your Watcher let you smoke pot," Buffy said.

"Neema was young in the Sixties. She's always been a big 'legalize pot' advocate," Ceara said, her head snapping up, hearing someone on the stairs. "Xander, turn it off."

He did as the teens came down the stairs. Dawn peered into the living room.

"We don't want to be a pain but could we watch one of the tapes Aidan's grandmother sent? It has stuff on Australia that would help with our paper," Dawn said.

"Okay," Buffy said. "Just give us a second to clean up the coffee table." She nodded at all the arcane books.

Willow and Tara started scooping them up and taking them out of the room. Buffy and Wesley grabbed a few handfuls as well while Ceara stripped the tape out of the VCR. Buffy helped Giles back in with the tea.

Aidan rooted through the box for the right tape. "Thanks. This one has a lot of the flora and fauna on it. Grandmum and Uncle Cailean are zoologists. Plus there's some stuff on vacation spots, like me and Mum surfing. That'll help Jane with her section of the paper."

"You aren't like that Crocodile Hunter guy, are you?" Jane asked, batting her eyes at Aidan. "He's cute."

"Nah, we're not that crazy. We catch animals and run a little zoo but we don't play with the wildlife like he does. He's just asking for it," Ceara said.

"I know you Yanks like Irwin but a lot of us in Oz just think he's a drongo," Aidan said, then noticed Buffy and Giles with the tea fixings. "Ooo, tea, may I have some?"

"There should be enough," Giles said as the teens fanned out around the TV on the floor.

This tape highlighted areas of the Outback, Daintree Rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef and the beaches of Perth.

"That really did help," Jane said. "Will you read over my section, Aidan, once I type it?"

"Sure."

"Great White Sharks, box jellyfish, funnel web spiders, king brown snakes, five foot earthworms and my favorite, the bird-eating spider, I think I'm never ever going to Australia," Dawn said, shivering.

"Don't let that scare you. Australia rocks," Aidan protested.

"Your mom dropped you on your head, didn't she?" Spike asked.

"Hey, I caught him on the second bounce," Ceara protested and Aidan stuck his tongue out at her.

"The surfing did look fun," Dawn admitted. "You can really move, Aidan."

He grinned at that.

"You know there is the Snow Ball coming up," Jane said, excitedly.

"Ooo, that's right," Bethany said, bouncing on her knees.

"Would you like to go to the dance with me, Aidan?" Dawn asked before the other girls could.

"Hey, I was going to ask," April said, swatting at Dawn.

"Not fast enough," Dawn said, smiling wickedly.

Aidan practically glowed from all the attention. "Can I, Mum?"

Ceara looked eminently amused. "I don't know. When is it?"

"Next Saturday night," Dawn said. "It's at the Bronze."

Ceara looked over at Buffy who didn't look thrilled. "I'll think about it," she said, making a note to see if Buffy had any intention of letting her wayward sister go.

"Cool. Thanks," Dawn said. "I guess I'd better get typing."

"And we should be going home," Jane said, waving a hand at Bethany and April.

"It's getting dark out," Buffy said, almost wincing at the 'mom' tone in her voice.

"So?" April asked.

"Tell you what, it's nearly dinner. Why don't we call for Chinese and Anya and I can run you girls home before we pick it up," Xander said hurriedly.

"Sure," Bethany said, liking the idea of a ride better than walking blocks through Sunnydale.

"What's everyone want?" Willow picked up the phone and dialing their local favorite.

"Don't ask Angel. He can't ever remember," Cordelia said, looking at the vampire through slotted eyes.

"It's not my fault," he protested. "I don't…like Chinese much." He finished lamely, looking at the unaware teens.

"You can't remember five minutes after we tell you," Ceara said.

"Do I look like an order-taker?" Angel grumbled.

"Hot and sour soup, crab rangoon, and honey chicken or kung pao shrimp depending on your mood, that's what you used to like, Ceara," Giles said, stunned he could dredge that up from his memory.

She laughed. "I'm pretty predictable. Orange chicken, too."

They placed their orders and Xander and Anya returned with them within the half hour during which the occult references had made a reappearance but added nothing to what they already knew.

"Thanks again for helping, Aidan. I know you didn't have to. I mean, I probably wouldn't if I were on vacation and all," Dawn said, picking at her moo goo gai pan.

He stabbed at his sesame beef with his chopsticks. "No problem. Glad I could help."

"I wish I hadn't been stuck with history. It's pretty depressing stuff," Dawn said, flicking a water chestnut to the side of her plate.

"History?" Willow asked. "I never thought of it as depressing."

"Violent," Angel muttered. "It's usually violent."

"You got that right. Dozens of aborigines got chopped up for dog food by the British colonists," Dawn said, her eyes wide and angry.

"Dog food?" Buffy made a queasy face, staring at her schezwan beef. "Why?"

"They didn't consider them to be people." Dawn scowled. "Mrs. Palermo is going to gross out."

"No doubt," Buffy said as Aidan sat his meal down and headed across the living room. He stared into the fireplace. Buffy cocked her head at his mother.

"Oh boy. We have a visitor," Ceara said warily, eyeing the ghost. Buffy and her friends just looked at her in anticipation.