Chapter Seven
The Campaign Trail
"Jesus, Buff, I know the last few weeks of signature gathering has been miserable, but are you sure that was a good idea?" Willow asked as she started her car and hurriedly navigated out of the college football stadium parking lot.
"What?" Buffy asked innocently as she undid the knot securing the tied midriff of her short-sleeved, white shirt. A black bra strap was visible on one shoulder, and when Buffy caught Willow eyeing the undergarment, she hastily pulled her t-shirt higher. She slipped off her platform sandals, taking care not to hike her short leather skirt indecently high, threw the heels in the backseat of Willow's car, then pulled on more sensible espadrilles. "All those young men were here for football tryouts, they're all over eighteen, and they all live in Moonridge." Buffy checked each item off on her fingers one by one. "That means they're eligible to nominate me to run for mayor." She smiled with glee as she counted the signature sheets she'd acquired in the stadium. Her blonde hair had been curled, a better term might have been teased, in a manner befitting an extravagant night on the town.
"I'm surprised the coaches didn't ask you to leave," Willow said as she pulled onto the main road and headed back towards the Spirit Square.
"Oh, they did," Buffy replied. "I told them that the practice was open to the public and that I was just going to keep standing there, right in front of all the players, until the tryout was over and I had a chance to talk to the entire team about nominating me for mayor."
"What did they do?"
Buffy's proudly smiled. "The coaches decided it would be faster to just have all the players sign my forms right then and there so that I could leave." She tucked the signature pages neatly away into a binder. "Including today's count, I'm now definitely over a thousand." She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes for a moment. "Going door to door was bad, holding a placard at the mall was even worse, and today …" she cracked one eye and glanced at Willow … "was actually quite the ego boost. College boys love their cougars."
They both giggled.
"I just hope nobody took any photos," Willow remarked.
Buffy grimaced. "I don't know, maybe I could use the publicity." A thought occurred to her. "Speaking of which, we should have everything ready to make my nomination official next month. How are the campaign sites coming?"
"SEO is fully calibrated for launch, and we've got targeted, but affordable, ads that will roll out on day one," she said confidently. "We're ready."
"I assume all that's good?" Buffy asked in a confused tone.
"It's good," Willow said with a nod. "What's not good is I can't make heads or tails of what Wilkins has done with his websites."
"No luck, huh?"
Willow shook her head. "Nope. I know there are spells there, big ones, but he's buried and encoded them so deep that trying to find them without magical assistance is proving impossible." Willow gripped the steering wheel in frustration. "If only Giles was better with computers, or I could cast just one simple interpretative spell."
"Willow," Buffy said evenly. "Don't even think about it. We'll figure it out another way."
"I get it," Willow muttered.
In an attempt to change the subject, Buffy went back to complaining about election realities. "I can't believe how long we've been delayed because I need people to put physical pen on physical paper. It's the twenty-first century, let them email or tweet their support."
Willow decided not to bother pointing out the flaws in Buffy's e-nomination plan.
"Think about how fast the signature-gathering might have gone if you'd started out by taking your top off," Willow mused aloud.
"Hey!" Buffy protested as she lightly slapped Willow's arm. "A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do."
"Oh, I get it," Willow said. "I mean, as much as I've enjoyed our daily John Hancock scavenger hunts, Oz needs my help at the store, and I could use a break from driving."
"Oh no," Buffy exclaimed. "Will, you should have said something!" She glanced down at Willow's stomach in concern.
"Don't do that," Willow admonished Buffy. "The baby hasn't completely taken me over biologically … yet."
"Any … symptoms?" Buffy asked.
"Maybe a bit of back pain," Willow said, "and I've been horny all the time. Don't tell Oz, though, he thinks its him."
Buffy turned a delightful shade of pink. "Jesus, Will, a little less detail is fine." She paused a moment. "But good for you … and Oz, too, I guess." Buffy recalled something she had meant to ask Willow earlier. "Speaking of Oz, mind if I ask you a question?"
"Anything."
Buffy struggled for a moment to find the words. "Does it ever seem like Oz misses the wolf?"
Willow immediately shook her head. "No, absolutely not. One time, soon after you broke the Shard, I woke up and found Oz trembling in bed. At first, I thought he was scared or hurt, but that wasn't it."
"What was it?"
"He told me he was trying to keep from crying with relief. He said it was a full moon, and for the first time in what felt like forever he didn't have to worry about losing control and hurting me. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever heard." Buffy remained silent while Willow sighed happily. "And then he kissed me, and we had the most incredibly erotic session of …"
"Will!" Buffy yelped.
"Oh, sorry." Willow apologized. "Oz is doing fine, is the point, but how has Angel been? I would figure with the curse gone, and you two finally being able to throw out all those obnoxious trinkets and wards, he'd be the happiest guy alive."
Buffy shook her head. "I don't think it's his change that bothers him, it's mine. He seems … sad for me." She snorted in irritation. "He won't stop worrying about me. Angel is constantly with the 'Where will you be, is it public, should I go with you,' comments. It never stops, and if anything, it's getting worse."
"Are you sure it's only Angel who's upset you're no longer a slayer?" Willow suggested gently. "Maybe you're trying to suppress how you really feel, and Angel displaying how he feels is triggering for you because you can't deal with his trauma without finally admitting your own. Except you aren't ready to confront it."
Buffy turned in her seat to stare at Willow in surprise. "What the hell, Will? You take some psychology courses when I wasn't looking?"
"I had a lot of my own trauma to deal with," Willow reminded Buffy. "It took a lot of work before I found a balanced, centered worldview again."
"Oh," Buffy said. "I hadn't thought about that, sorry if I dragged all that ancient history back to the surface."
Willow shook her head. "No, no, it's okay. It happened, I moved on, and things have never been better." She reconsidered her statement. "Except for the past six months bringing calamity after calamity, along with half of our former enemies seemingly coming out of the woodwork."
Buffy laughed in spite of herself. "Will, what would I do without you?"
Willow tapped the wheel in thought. "Maybe Angel does have a point, though," she said.
"About keeping me out of danger?" Buffy asked. "It's not realistic. He knows that."
"Yeah, but Buff, you had a slayer job to do before, and now you don't." She tapped at the wheel again. "Last week, didn't you mention that you pulled something carrying a load of laundry?"
"I got better," Buffy said as she crossed her arms.
"You could try steroids."
Buffy closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. "Now there's a thought. Angel looks like he's in his mid-twenties, my mid-twenties are well in the rearview mirror, and can you imagine if all of a sudden, I was bulging with decidedly unfeminine muscles? He'd be gone for sure."
Willow almost laughed, then she realized Buffy was at least half-serious. "Buffy Summers," she scolded her, "Angel loves you with all his heart. I once had to gather his soul out of the eternal ether, I know he does. You don't have to worry about him having a wandering eye."
"Well, I might not feel this way if every month a new blonde ex of Angel's didn't randomly appear in Moonridge," Buffy said bitterly. "He has a type, doesn't he?"
"Yup," Willow agreed. "Speaking of blond hair, any news from Spike?"
Buffy waved her hands dismissively. "No. I have to say, though, Spike being gone seems to have been good for Little Miss Anyaverse. Giles says she's finally starting to come out of her shell, at least a little."
"She has been quite the crankypants."
"No version of me is a crankypants," Buffy crankily protested.
"Considering you never talk to her," Willow said defensively, "I'm not sure you're qualified to judge her level of crankypantsness."
"I do, too, talk to her!"
Willow tilted her head and fixed Buffy with a questioning look. "Oh, really? Has she ever even seen your and Angel's place?"
"Well, she's never asked," Buffy retorted heatedly.
"Buff, she got yanked out of one dimension and plopped into another. You know what that's like … c'mon, who's the most likely candidate to understand what she's going through? Probably herself. Or yourself. Or … whatever."
Buffy sighed. "It's just …"
"Awkward?" Willow prompted her.
"Yeah."
Willow's forehead creased with concern as a thought occurred to her. "Buffy, the other Buffy, has been patrolling alone this entire month?"
"Faith patrols with her," Buffy indicated. "Or at least Faith stays in the same general vicinity of the patrols. They were a little vague on specifics."
"I'm glad she's not out there alone," Willow said. "And I'm even more glad she isn't taking Giles out anymore."
"Me, too," Buffy agreed. "It'll be easier when the other slayers get here and pitch in."
"Can we trust these new slayers?" Willow asked.
Buffy stared out the side window. "Can we trust them not to want a piece of me, you mean?"
"After Robin Hallett, I have to admit that it's more of a general distrust of any slayers we don't know," Willow replied.
"We don't have a choice," Buffy said with a shrug. "I, along with my other I, need the help."
"Do we know any of the new slayers?"
Buffy dredged up the memory of her conversation with Faith on the topic. "Colleen, who we both know from way back in the bad old Sunnydale days, Dana, who Angel apparently has met, and Jess, who none of us know."
"Colleen, she was there when we battled the Turok-Han, right? I remember her crashing with you."
"I remember Colleen helping to kick me out of my house," Buffy said tersely.
Willow frowned deeply as she steadfastly kept her eyes on the road. "Buffy, you promised."
"Sorry," Buffy apologized as she crossed her arms. "We've talked about it, it's forgiven, I won't bring it up again."
"Thank you," Willow said. A humorous thought occurred to her. "Have fun talking to Xander about the slayers."
"What about them?" Buffy asked.
"Well, for one, he made goo-goo eyes at Colleen the entire time she was in Sunnydale."
Buffy shrugged. "Name one even halfway attractive gal who has ever crossed Xander's path without catching his eye."
Willow and Buffy both laughed. ""Good point. It should be even more interesting to see how Xander reacts to Jess and Dana being kind of an item."
"How 'kind of?'" Buffy asked. "Like, full on sapphic slayer love, or just college level exploration?"
"It's probably like the stories the apocalytes put in forums you have to age verify to access."
"Oooo …" Buffy exclaimed. "Xander had better keep his eyes to himself, or he might lose one again."
"I haven't seen Xander much since he got back from his trip with Emmy."
Buffy realized that she hadn't seen Xander, at all, since his return. "He must be keeping scarce from the office, too."
As Willow pulled into the parking lot of the Spirit Square, she decided to tease Buffy a little. "You know what else Giles could try?" she said lightly.
"What?" Buffy asked as she opened her door and grabbed the folder of papers.
Willow tried to keep her eyes from mischievously twinkling. "Giles could ask Angel to patrol with our newest Buffy. The two of them could spend some quality slaying time together, and Angel could bring her up to speed on your guys' history. What do you think?"
Buffy exited the car and slammed the door closed.
I guess not.
