Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Katy, Michelle, and Morgan.
Author's Note: Just wondering what you reviewers think, should I hook up Jamie and Willow or wait to see how the deal with Kennedy, Rhett, and Scarlet pans out? And should I hook Xander, Andrew, and David up with any of the single ladies in the house? Should I write a story with Kennedy and her girls or just leave them as a side story?
CHAPTER 42-HIGH TENSION
"Here," Michelle said with a nervous look on her face as she handed a very anxious Katy a cup of hot chocolate.
"Thanks," Katy said coldly with a very firm and serious set to her jaw before she took a small sip and was forced to admit to herself that she was glad that the other slayer had brought it out to her.
"Don't worry, everything will work out fine and they'll be back here before you know it," Michelle said softly in such a voice that it seemed more like she was trying to convince herself of that fact that anyone else.
"I wish that I could believe you," Katy said back with a hint of softness and worry in her voice as she shivered a bit as a cold wind blew through the area.
"You like him don't you," Michelle said with a telling snicker and grin on her face as she crossed her arms and looked up at the much taller slayer.
"What…no, well okay yeah…I do, but I know that I don't have a chance against her so I'll just have to find someone new," Katy said with at first a surprised and stunned look on her face before she couldn't keep the act up and so she relented and admitted that she had missed the boat.
"They do seem to really be in love…don't they," Michelle said with a dreamlike smile on her face as she let her mind begin to wander.
"Whatever…look did you have some other reason for coming out here than to give me some hot chocolate," Katy said with a slightly disgruntled expression on her face as she leaned a bit more on her pole axe before taking another sip of her hot chocolate.
"Not really…though I don't want to get roped into playing any games with David and Andrew, those two are weird," Michelle said with an uninterested look on her face as she hunched up her shoulders and looked back in the direction of the living room.
"Tell me about it, I caught Andrew trying to take a peek at me yesterday while I took a shower, the little perv," Katy said with an uncomfortable and unhappy scowl on her face as she remembered being in the middle of her shower when she had heard the door to her bathroom make a noise. She had shut it firmly then and later found a bit of Andrew's favorite candy lying scattered across her floor when she was done, leaving little doubt what had happened.
"I thought he was gay," Michelle questioned with a confused look on her face as she turned back around to face Katy and tilted her head up.
"Me to…though I'm guessing that he's the definition of a spineless follower, all he needs is someone powerful to lead, and whoever that it, man or woman, he crushes on," Katy agreed with a humorous smile on her face as she leaned back up against one of the columns and stared out at the night sky, hopeful that it would not be the last one that she would ever see.
"I think that you have to add beauty to that, I've seen him follow Faith around a bit and I almost caught him drooling over Jaime a couple of days ago," Michelle said with a bit of a disgusted look on her face as the thought occurred to her to wonder if he had thought of doing that with her.
"We have got to get new friends," Katy said with a gross feeling in the pit of her stomach before she shook off the bad feelings, though part of that was to try and keep warm.
"You can say that again, hanging around with Angel and Spike is not the best way for a slayer to lead a long and happy life," Xander said with a serious and almost mocking tone to his voice as he stepped out of the mansion and up to Katy and Michelle.
"Neither is palling around with a guy that turns his back on his friends thinking he knows what's best for everyone and God forbid if any of them might have a problem with that," Katy stated back with a very thinly veiled threat in the tone of her voice as she gazed at the former carpenter coldly while Michelle was much more hospitable.
"Now what is that supposed to mean," Xander demanded with an angry scowl on his face as he glared at Katy with his one good eye.
"It means that I'd rather spend my time with two centuries old vampires that just happen to have souls than to spend it with a human being who couldn't be bothered to help those that he had once counted as friends," Katy spat back with now an almost furious glare in her eyes as Michelle timidly stepped in between the two, hoping and praying that a fight wouldn't break out, mostly because she knew full well that Xander would definitely be on the losing end.
"You know, you've got a lot of nerve for someone that looks like she just stepped out of one of Andrew's comic books," Xander said with an intentionally mocking smile on his face as he took a half step back and awaited Katy's response.
"What…was that supposed to hurt my feelings somehow, because as odd as this sounds I'll take that as a compliment, now why don't you be a good little blind believer and go back inside before my patience runs out and I get the urge to ram my fist so far down your," Katy said at first with an almost impish and impressed smile on her face before she clenched her fists tightly and made sure that Xander knew full well that she was leveling a threat his way.
"That's enough you two cut it out, the last thing that we need is for us to turn on each other," Willow exclaimed with a very commanding and firm tone of voice as she stood in the open doorway with a blanket wrapped tightly around her and Jamie peering over her shoulder, shuddering slightly at the cool breeze that blew in around the witch.
"To late," Katy grumbled angrily under her breath as she looked away and pulled her pole axe away from the wall, hoping to make a more than impressive show of force.
"It's not me Will, it's little miss vampire snack wannabe, she still thinks that she can trust Angel and Spike," Xander said with a slightly arrogant tone to his voice as he took a step back until he was nearly shoulder to shoulder with Willow and crossed his arms.
"That's because she can Xander, Angel and Spike have been telling us the truth since the beginning, and no neither one is evil, Giles is the one that lied to us about Angel being trustworthy, or did you forget about Whistler's visits," Willow stated with a very nervous and chilly look on her face as her heart began to beat much faster, though partially due to Jamie's close proximity.
"But he could have been," Xander started to say with a surprised and slightly embarrassed look on his face as he whirled around to face Willow and Jamie before Jamie cut in.
"Why don't you quit now and save what's left of your dignity Xander, you can't win this fight…not like this," Jamie interjected with a firm but not angry tone to her voice as she lightly brushed Willow aside, jumping slightly at the touch.
"You know, I'm getting pretty sick and tired of you always hanging around acting like you know all of us, just because you were possessed by some centuries old demon doesn't give you the right to," Xander started to snap back with an angry and frustrated tone to his voice, surprising Willow with his actions, as he turned around on Jamie and started to raise his hand to point forcefully at her before she surprised everyone and grabbed Xander by the neck, grimacing as she lifted him up off of the ground.
"Oh my," Michelle shouted with a scared and very surprised look on her face as she took a fearful step back as Katy started to ready her poleaxe even though she was hesitant to actually use it.
"Let her go, Jamie, let her go," Willow pleaded at first with a worried tone to her voice and look on her face before her eyes began to slightly cloud over with darkness as she laid a hand on Jamie's forearm, hoping to make her drop Xander if nothing else. Her anxiety was soon replaced with relief as Jamie looked over at her, and after a second or two of staring deeply into each other's eyes Jamie let go of Xander and looked away.
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"Well this should be fun," Gwen stated with her usual confidant if not smug tone of voice, as she calmly pulled her gloves on, though Groo and Connor could tell that she wasn't entirely sure that she'd live through the night and was trying not to let it show.
"I do not like this, are the authorities that we will be battling not our friends, our allies," Groo said with a confused and unsure look on his face as he turned away from looking at Gwen and back to Connor.
"Under normal circumstances yes Groo they'd be our friends, however tonight their getting into the act can only hurt our chances, so we have to do something…anything, to draw and then keep them here as long as we can," Connor replied with a very serious and somewhat scared look on his face as he knew what he had to do but not the slightest idea of exactly how to go about it.
"So what are we going to do, blow something up, rob a bank," Morgan asked with a deep in thought expression on her face as she fully zipped her jacket up and looked around, her breath easily visible in the cool night air.
"Nothing that drastic, with all of the security cameras we'd have to leave the country immediately if we tried something like that, besides we don't want to hurt anyone, just keep everyone looking our way," Connor replied with an anxious expression on his face as the group continued to walk towards a small plaza that was filled with people and lined with pubs.
"You two kids do whatever you want, Groo and I are going to get a drink," Gwen said with a frustrated and bored look on her face as she shook her head before she started to walk towards one of the pubs.
"But I do not require refreshment, why am I," Groo started to say with a confused look on his face before Gwen scowled heavily, grabbed his arm, and yanked him away and towards the pub.
"Those two are something else, I don't see why he stays with her with the way that she treats him," Morgan interjected with a concerned for a friend tone to her voice as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself and laid her head on Connor's shoulder.
"I think it's more that Gwen is a very lonely woman, and so far Groo is the only guy that hasn't run for cover after meeting and getting to know her, I guess you could say that she's using him to feel normal, to feel wanted," Connor replied with a deep and nervous breath as he watched the two adults head towards the pub, with everyone seeming to be able to sense Gwen's anger and getting out of her way like the Red Sea parting for the Israelites.
"I've always wanted to be naughty, now I can be as bad as I wanna be," Morgan said with an odd smirk on her face as she lifted her head off of Connor's shoulder and looked him in the eye.
"What do you mean," Connor asked with an unsure and slightly worried look on his face as he pulled away from Morgan just enough to get a good look at her face.
"You'll see, come on," Morgan said with a wide grin and a snicker as she took his hand in hers and pulled him along towards the center of the square.
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Faith stealthily crossed the street, pressed herself up against the building and then made her way silently towards Lindsey and Lilah. She had flipped the blade of her knife around so that the point traveled up her arm stopping just short of her elbow, concealed well enough by her coat so that a stray beam of light wouldn't reflect off of the metal blade and betray her movements. Believing themselves to be completely safe their seemed to be few guards protecting their walk to their cars. High above on the rooftop Wesley stood at the ready; already taking aim at every one of the forms that had left the building. What he hadn't told Faith when she had slipped away was that he had brought along a little bit of reinforcements if his bullets and her daring weren't enough to keep Wolfram and Hart where they were until Angel was ready for them.
"We should keep moving," Lilah said with an unhappy scowl on her face as she looked around at the people milling about on the streets around them with scorn.
"Relax Lilah, we're already dead, what could anyone possibly hope to do to us," Lindsey chided her with a bored and supremely confidant grin on his face as he adjusted his coat and buttoned up the last button.
"Out in the open not a care in the world, all the ducks lining up in a row," Drusilla said with her usual singsong tone of voice, as she seemed to glide out of the building with her feet never touching the ground.
"What's that supposed to mean, why can't you make sense once in a while," Lilah snapped with a frustrated expression on her face as she rolled her eyes and turned away, exasperated on how slowly their plans were progressing.
"Bad woman expecting havoc and pain, not liking the custard, no…not at all," Drusilla replied in response as she swayed back and forth before she twirled around and stared up at the night sky. Lindsey started to silence an overly sarcastic comment from Lilah but then the two instead shared a look that led to their both not having a clue what Drusilla meant. Both were so consumed by trying to figure out what Drusilla was saying that they didn't notice Faith sneaking up on them, or that she had slid the knife out of her sleeve and was ready to strike. However Faith was so confident in her abilities that she had forgotten to check out a dark corner, one that hid a vampire that made up part of the ring of outermost security. Faith was just about to strike out at Lindsey when a shot rang out in the night, slamming through the head of the vampire that was sneaking up on Faith and just barely grazing her shoulder. She hissed in pain as she collected herself quickly enough to drop down and roll into the alley just before Lindsey and Lilah could whip around and look in her direction. She quickly checked her shoulder and was relieved to discover that the bullet had done little more than rip through her shirt and coat, leaving only a small line of blood on her shoulder. The wound would be fully healed before the night was over. There was little to no anger directed at Wesley, as she knew that she had him to thank for still being alive, as she probably wouldn't have noticed the vampire behind her until it was to late.
"Get inside sir," One of the guards shouted in alarm as he drew his gun and started to usher Lilah and Lindsey back into the building, with Drusilla staring oddly up at where the bullet had come from.
"Not without her," Lindsey snapped back with a furious scowl on his face as he threw the guard away from him and made an effort to get to Drusilla.
"Let go of me you stupid," Lilah started to growl with an angry sneer on her face before a shot tore through her wrist. Lilah's scream of pain broke Lindsey out of his focus solely on Drusilla as he whirled around to see how badly she was hurt. The change in direction was all that Faith needed as she leapt out of the darkness and landed a kick to his stomach before shattering his nose with her knee.
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"That them," Buffy asked with a tense tone to her voice before she sniffled again and almost fearfully looked over at Spike. Since her breakdown in the alley she found it almost impossible to fully regain her composure with Spike by her side. It was beginning to dawn on her just how much she had hurt him by dating The Immortal and she worried that he would never get over it, but with their actions of the past few days she found herself having hope that everything would work out for the better in the end. Now if only she could really make herself believe that she'd be all set.
"Looks like it, now all we have to do is get their attention while not getting ourselves caught, should be fun," Spike whispered back with the usual overly confidant tone to his voice as Buffy knew that whether he was facing two enemies or two thousand he'd do his very best to keep the same tone and body language when facing them, never letting on if fear entered into the equation.
"You need help, you know that right," Buffy whispered back with a sarcastic tone to her voice as she thought about smacking him upside the head but decided against it.
"Yeah, and I'm willing to bet that you'll be the one to give it to me the moment that we get through this," Spike whispered back with a randy look in his eyes that Buffy missed at first before her brain connected the dots and she couldn't help but smile the first smile that Spike had seen on her face in nearly an hour.
"You're a pig Spike," Buffy shot back with what she hoped was a scolding look on her face, though in hindsight it probably only furthered Spike's daring.
"Oink, oink," Spike said with a very sly grin on his face as he reached out and laid a hand on Buffy's bare arm, surprised and worried to find that she was shaking.
"I'm okay, really," Buffy said with a nervous smile on her face as she set her sword down and then laid that hand over the one that Spike had laid on her arm, soon pulling it off of her arm and holding it tightly.
"Hold that thought while I go introduce myself," Spike said with a supportive look in his eyes as he squeezed Buffy's hand back before he pulled away from Buffy and walked out into the open to get the night started.
END OF CHAPTER 42