Buffy felt ready to die any second. When she'd agreed to help Willow check up on Tara (she still didn't believe it would take more than a visit to either convince Tara's family to let her come back, or to assure Willow that everything was alright) she certainly hadn't expected to have to suffer like this. Anything else – say, fighting an unstoppable demon in a red dress – seemed like a picnic compared to the torture she was being subjected to right now.
She had brought CDs along for the trip, but as it turned out the van didn't have a CD player and the tapes in the glove compartment were perfectly suited to Giles' taste. And as if it wasn't bad enough that he was listening to it, now he was even singing along. Buffy winced and finally blurted out: "Could you STOP that? Please?"
Giles looked at her, a little amused. "You really should be listening to this, you know. Your taste in music could stand some improvement, and unlike most of what you listen to these people actually have talent and play their own instruments."
"This isn't music, Giles, this is the sound old people make when they prepare to mate! Besides, there are... um... Oh! News! Something could be happening that we need to know about. It's important to keep up with current events, you know!" Satisfied with that excuse, Buffy popped the Creedence Clearwater Revival tape out of the stereo and switched to radio.
"...though he was frequently described by movie fans as a 'hack'. Again, our top story: up and coming Hollywood film director Marcus Nispel found brutally murdered. Police will attempt to determine the cause of death as soon as they've been able to find all pieces of him, which so far have turned up in several -"
"Mwaaaaah!" Buffy switched the radio off, disgusted. Why couldn't the news be about something nice every once in a while? "Fine. Listen to your Lynyrd... Zeppelin or whatever."
Giles decided to give her a break. "Did you manage to reach Riley this morning?"
"No, but I left a message for him about where we'd gone and that we'd be back in a couple of days. I hate army hospitals."
"He did have open-heart surgery just a few weeks –"
"Yeah, I know, check-ups are of the good, but still... I don't want them tinkering with him. Besides, it would be nice to have him along. Not that I think we need a trained soldier to scare a couple of farmers if it comes to that, but..." She stopped and sniffed the air. "GOD, what's that smell?"
Within a few seconds, even the ones in the car who didn't have enhanced Slayer senses were rolling up windows, gagging and repeating variations on Buffy's question.
"Slaughterhouse", Anya said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Everyone stared at her. "What? I worked Chicago in the 19th century. The whole town smelled like this. There's probably one... oh, look." She pointed at a huge hangar-like building coming up on the right side of the road, and nudged Dawn to make sure the teenager got some education out of this. "See there? That's where they bring the cows in. Then they use a hammer to beat them to death. It's really quite interesting. We could probably get a guided tour if you want, Dawn. You should wear boots, though, because all the blood and brains –"
Xander noticed Dawn and Willow turning greener in the face by the second and tapped his girlfriend on the shoulder. "Ahn, honey – as fascinating as that is, another time, OK?"
Willow thought she understood why Tara didn't eat meat if she grew up close to a place like that. She almost said so out loud, but realized how Xander would interpret the "not eating meat" part – he couldn't help it, he was a guy – and kept her mouth shut. As she looked ahead, something caught her eye. "Hitch-hiker."
The Slayer looked ahead and nodded. Sure enough, there was a man standing a hundred yards ahead with his thumb out. "Should we pick him up?"
"Ew. He's gonna smell like a slaughterhouse", Dawn objected.
"But he might know where Tara's family lives." No one could argue with Willow's logic here, though there was a creepy undertone of panic to it.
And so they stopped and let the guy aboard. He was in his mid-20s with an attempted beard and piercing blue eyes, dressed for hard work and, yep, reeking of sweat and slaughterhouse. Dawn schooched over as far towards Anya as she could. "Much obliged, folks. Been workin' since Pa dropped me off this mornin', I'm way too tired to walk all the way home. Think y'all could take me there? It's probably a few miles out of your way, but we'd be happy to invite you for dinner by way of compensatin'..."
"That's most generous of you", Giles replied. "Though to tell the truth, we don't know yet how far out of our way it would be. We're looking for a place called Sawyer Farm, you wouldn't happen to know where that is?"
"Sawyer?" The hitch-hiker seemed to think about it. "Sorry, don't ring a bell. What would you folks be wantin' to go there for?"
Willow blurted it out. "My girlfriend is there."
"Your girlfriend?" He did a double take. "Sorry, sugarpie, I don't think we got any of your sort here. Not for long, anyway."
Willow swallowed the insult. "No, she's from around here but moved a couple of years ago. Maybe you know her? Tara Maclay?"
"Tara Maclay?" His face split into a wide and vicious grin. "Know her? You might say that! Ain't a man in this county don't know her, and I do mean biblically – Tara Getlaid, we used to call her. We been wondering where she got to, barn dances just ain't the same since she left..." He turned to the horrified Willow. "Honey, I know you deviants don't care none for morals and family values, but at least have some standards when you sin. You're way too pretty to go to hell over a cumslut like her. Take my advice and go back home to San Fra-" The tyres screeched as Giles stomped on the brakes, causing the hitch-hiker to smash his face into the back of Buffy's seat. "OW! Fuck d'ya do that for?"
"Get out."
The Texan shot Giles an angry glare. "Y'all sure 'bout that? That dinner offer's still standin'..."
Xander reached up from behind and grabbed him by the collar. "Get out before I hang you out the door by your full and manly beard and drag you along for the next ten miles."
Somehow the hitch-hiker managed to look righteous as he stepped out (helped by a little push from Dawn). As Giles peeled away leaving their passenger in a cloud of dust, Willow began weeping uncontrollably, and Xander hugged her. "Will, it'll be OK. What he said about Tara..."
"That was a lie", she sobbed. "But why would he make something like that up..." She looked up at the others, furious and scared that they might have believed him. "You hear that, that was a lie, I know for a FACT she's never, I-I was her first... God, Tara..." She began to cry again.
"Will, of course we know. He just... some people enjoy hurting others. It's got nothing to do with you or Tara." Buffy sincerely wished she would get to hit something soon.
Her sister opened her mouth to ask how Willow could be sure, but the stare from Buffy told her this was one of those things a 14-year-old wasn't supposed to ask. Instead Dawn looked down on the floor and saw something. "Hey, look. He dropped his wallet." She opened it up and her eye caught on the first thing she saw. "Uh, Willow... you said Tara has brothers, right?"
Willow wiped at her eyes and looked at the name on the driver's license Dawn handed her. Donnie Maclay. She clenched her teeth. "Turn around, Giles. Right now."
As Giles did a 180 to head back for Tara's brother, he accidentally brushed against the radio's on/off button and Joey Ramone's voice filled the car.
Sitting here with nothin' to do
Sitting here
thinkin' only of you
But you'll never get out of there
She'll
never get out of there
I don't care, woah, Texas Ch-
Buffy turned it off again. "God, what's with this thing?"
Author's note: Buffy is, of course, wrong. Creedence rocks.