Quentin Travers was furious. How could that wimp Wesley Pryce manage to remove the

slayer from the prison with his lawyer right there! He paced the confines of his hotel

room. The retrieval team had tracked down Pryce to his workplace and his place of

residence. The man worked for a private detective who had his office in a hotel of all

places. It was fitting that the only employment the man could find was as a secretary to a

sordid divorce snoop. After his distinct failure with two! slayers, he shouldn't be

involved with the war at all. How had he known where the slayer was, much less have

convinced the Warden to release her into his custody? It had taken the council almost a

year to find her after she escaped. True, they had expected her to travel much farther than

LA, but that was beside the point.

Travers thoughts were interrupted by the return of the retrieval team. They looked

wrecked. "My Good God, Man!" Travers said in shock. "What happened to you?" The

eight man team looked at him with disgust. They were glad only Sampsom had to deal

with the puffed up little prick. Sampsom wished with all his heart he could deal with

anyone else, but Travers was the one who was paying them. And it was his job to deal

with the clients.

"That P.I. Pryce works for owns the damned hotel. He pays the local Tommy boys to

watch it and he's got the local bobbies in his pocket too. The one thing we did find out is

that Pryce isn't there and he's not expected back for a while." He took an ice pack one of

the men handed to him and held it to his jaw. "Is there anywhere else he would go with

the girl?" How he managed to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, he didn't know. Travers

couldn't find a way to pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel.

He was starting to wonder if any of the intel Travers had given them for this job was

accurate.

He ran his thoughts over the information they had. Faith was a slayer. That much was

true. He'd talked to one of the men who'd tried to capture her before. There had been

some confusion with the last team sent in to do the job. He hadn't been able to straighten

those reports out so he'd filed the entire thing under cluster fuck and gone from there.

Travers had said she'd gone rogue and was killing humans for a demon. He'd have

Preacher check with the prison and find out what she was in there for and more

importantly, for how long. If it was longer than the few weeks at most that Travers had

said, then most of his information was most likely to be a fucking fantasy. It didn't

change the job that much. They were being paid by the day to catch this girl. It didn't

matter to him what Travers did with her afterwards. The man's attitude he could put up

with as it was something that was common among men who hired mercs. He just hated

working for men who couldn't find their ass with both hands and a flashlight.

"Pryce wasn't her only visitor." Preacher spoke up from where he had his laptop opened

on the table. He hadn't gotten the nickname for preaching the word of god, but for

constantly preaching about preparedness. Weapons, med supplies, information, if he

thought they needed it he went after it with a single minded determination that the others

found down right scary. The only thing that scared Preacher was getting caught with his

pants down. "She also had visits from a Liam Angel, that's the P.I., Rupert Giles, who is

currently out of the country but expected back shortly, and a Dr. Nancy Butelong, who

lives in Sunnydale, California. That is the entire list of outside contacts."

"Well, Mr. Travers? Do you wish to continue?" Personally Sampsom hoped like hell

Travers gave this one up as a bad job. He didn't want to go anywhere near Sunnydale or

Rupert Giles. He'd known the man in his street days, and wouldn't cross him if he could

help it. He knew the man had gone straight years ago, but like himself, he also knew it

wouldn't take much to let the street kid back out again. Just a couple of pokes to the right

button. Unfortunately he knew the look on Travers face all to well. He was obsessed

with getting this girl. Somehow he didn't think this would end up being the start of a long

contract like he'd hoped.

"Of course we're going to continue!" How could the man even think about doing

otherwise? There was no way to return the slayer to her rightful place as the Watcher

Council's property without getting rid of that blasted Faith. The other one wasn't really

their problem anymore. She'd be dead soon enough and she'd passed the line on already.

No, it was Faith that was the important one. Get rid of her and the war could go back to

what it was supposed to be.

"Then we go to Sunnydale." Sampsom said. And hope like hell Ripper isn't home yet, he

thought.

John and Buffy were grateful that they had established the habit over the last few weeks

of patrolling alone together. With everyone crowding into either the Summers' house or

the Winchester's garage it was impossible to find a moment's privacy. Buffy walked on

John's right side with his arm around her shoulders. That way John had his right hand

free to use his weapons. Of course, this meant that Buffy's right hand was wrapped

around his waist, but she was more than fast enough to make up for that. "You did notice

how Dean jumped in front of Faith when we were talking about the Watchers coming for

her right?" She asked John. John nodded. He just hoped she hadn't noticed them

fighting over the donuts to give their slayers. "Well, I'm thinking we can send some of

the yentaing their way." She waved her fingers in a little pushing motion.

John chuckled and tilted her head up so he could kiss her. "That sounds like a good idea.

I've got a little something I can give him, too." It would serve Dean right to get his own

'care kit'! If it hadn't been for the vampire that Buffy could sense nearby, she would have

made the kiss last longer. As it was, they had to get to work.

As much as she hated to admit it, this was even better than with Angel. Buffy sighed as

she returned to watching for something that needed killing. With Angel she'd been so

hyped up on both teenage and slayer lust that she'd missed vampires she should have

slayed. All of Angel's attention had been on her. Riley she didn't even want to think

about, the man refused to go on patrol with her without backup. Like she wasn't backup

enough for the entire town and had been for years before he showed up! John, well,

somehow he managed to find the balance between the job and paying attention to her.

Plus, he never got grabby. "Dawn wants to go over to a friend's for a sleepover. I've

checked the family out, they aren't demons or vampires. It's summer, so there isn't a lot of

activity. What do you think?"

"When is it?" John wasn't sure about the idea of sleepovers for his daughter. Dean and

Sam hadn't done the sleepover bit, it had been too dangerous. He wasn't sure why it

would be safer here on the hellmouth. Then again, Buffy had checked the family out

already.

"Friday night and Saturday morning. It's a big party and I think I can go as a big

sister/help the parents deal." Buffy knew that John was very wary of Dawn going

anywhere without someone to watch over her. She wasn't much better herself. "Do you

think you and the others can cover patrol for me?"

"That's not a problem. If you're going to be with her, I don't see a problem with the party.

It'll be all girls, right?" John frowned at the thought of boys near his little girl in sleep

wear.

Buffy smiled. She could just see the 'I'm her father and you are not getting near my baby

girl' look cross John's face. She'd bet that he didn't even realize it. Any boy who tried

anything with their daughter was going to be in for a shock! "No, there won't be any

boys. We've also come up with a cover story. When Mom got sick she started going over

paperwork on a just in case the worst happened sorting spree. She wanted everything

taken care of so we wouldn't have to worry. What she found out was that Dawn's

adoption was never finalized. She wasn't legally hers. So she went and looked for Dawn

biological parents and found out that you had never been told about Dawn in the first

place. Her birth mother is dead. You didn't want to break up Dawn's family here, but you

also wanted to be her father. That's why you moved here, and that's where Dawn was for

the two weeks. She was helping you get your stuff together to move here. We started

dating, and that's why she calls me Mom. Because she's determined to get us hitched.

What do you think?"

John nodded. Not only was it a good story that covered all of the questions, it was very

believable what with all of the adoption screwups that had been all over the news in the

last decade or so. People who didn't want to see below the surface would be more than

willing to accept it. It would paint him as a cradle robber, but then he hadn't objected

when the boys used the cover of him being a drunk, either. He could put up with the dirty

looks he was sure to get. If he thought about it, he'd actually earned those. He'd caught

enough flack over the years on other things that one more wouldn't make a difference.

"Go for it. It covers all the bases and it has the advantage of being very realistic. Are you

ready for the fall out of publicly dating a man more than twice your age?"

"Please!" Buffy scoffed. "Angel was more than two hundred! I have no problem with

your age, and if anyone else does, screw them! I've got much more important things to

worry about." John smiled and kissed her again. When he kissed Buffy, all thoughts of

cover stories fled his mind. As was becoming usual, the kiss was perfect. He knew he

should be concentrating on the patrol, but he just couldn't help himself. It had been so

long since he'd had this feeling of contentment. He knew he was going to lose Buffy too,

but maybe this time, he would get to go first.