Faster is better, yes? lol Enjoy! R&R
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Mark had called Willow up
earlier in the day to see if she'd be interested in going somewhere
other than the Life after her appointment with her client. She had
said yes, of course, so here he was setting up his projector in the
living room of the loft.
Willow had mentioned on more than one occasion that she wanted to see 'Today 4 U', and Mark figured this would be a perfect opportunity. He'd managed to convince Roger to stay down at Mimi's for the night (of course, convincing him wasn't exactly hard.)
Mark had hoped that inviting Willow back up to the loft wouldn't seem to forward, but she seemed alright with it when he asked her. He plugged the projector in and hoped that the power wouldn't go out while Willow was here. He looked around the room. He had cleaned up a bit and put a clean (albeit clean-ish) sheet over the duct tape ridden couch.
He was satisfied with the way the loft looked. It wasn't immaculate, but he figured the loft didn't really have the potential to be that clean, so he just went with what he had.
Mark grabbed his bag and bike and headed to the Life.
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Willow paused a minute in her typing to cover a yawn and take a sip from her coffee. There was a sudden uprising in deaths by strange neck wounds in the area and she was doing what she could to research it. She had been up all night working on this. A couple of the girls were out patrolling and Faith was trying to get information from the local demon haunts. Willow's job was to see if anything from past news articles might indicate the reason for the increase in vampire activity.
What was interesting was that she couldn't find anything. Nothing. Nada. There was no supporting evidence that said there had been any kind of vampire activity ever in the history of New York. Now, seeing as how she knew for a fact that vampires had been in New York in the past, she found it odd. Nikki Wood had been stationed here in the 70's and would never have been if there wasn't a significant undead population. Normally, vampiric activity would be documented, usually with one or more of the typical "logical" reasons. But there were no "Man stabbed by barbeque fork" or "Woman suffers neck rupture".
Willow couldn't find a single thing that sounded like it might be some kind of vampire attack. It just didn't make sense.
"Hey." She heard a familiar voice behind her. She quickly, casually closed her laptop and turned to greet Mark.
"Hey Mark." she smiled. She wasn't sure why she agreed to hang out with him tonight, what with everything that was going on, but when he asked she just couldn't bring herself to say no. She enjoyed spending time with the filmmaker. She gestured for him to join her.
"Coffee, huh?"
"Ugh. Yeah. Long night last night." Willow detested coffee, but when the after-effects of her meeting with Celine started to wear off, she defintely needed the caffiene.
"I suppose, running a school can be pretty tough." Mark said. She smiled at his ignorance.
"You don't know the half of it."
"Ready to go? There are a couple places I wanted to take you before we headed to the loft."
"Yeah. Just let me pack up my computer and we can be off." Willow grabbed her laptop and shoved it in her bag and took one last drink of her coffee. She reached into her pocket and threw a couple of bills onto the table. Suddenly the door of the café flew open. Faith entered, looking a little out of breath sporting a cut on her arm and Willow's heart sank.
"Hey Red. Sorry to interupt your little tryst, but I gotta talk to you."
"What's up?" Willow asked, hoping futilely it wouldn't be what she knew it was.
"New developments." Faith said. Willow looked at Mark, who looked utterly confused.
"I'll be right back. We can leave in a minute." Mark nodded, the look of disconcert still covering his features as he sat in the booth that Willow had just exited. Willow followed Faith outside.
"What happened?" Willow asked, indicating Faith's wound.
"Difficulties negotiating information. Handled him though."
"What did you find out?" Willow asked anxiously.
"According to my sources, a gang of vampires sets up shop in the east village every couple decades or so. Last time they were here was when Robin's mom was posted here."
"What did you find out about the gang?"
"Just that they're big, they're ruthless, and the police let them do whatever they want, so long as they stay in the east village, feeding on the homeless. Sounds like they've been doing it for the last hundred years or so."
"Just how big?"
"Couldn't get an exact number, but large. Over 50 vamps maybe."
"Do we know where they stay during the day?"
Faith shook her head. "They don't stay in the same place twice, so it's hard to get a location pinpointed. That's where you come in."
Willow glanced at the door of the café and sighed. Her date would have to wait. "Alright. Let me just go say goodbye to Mark."
Faith waited outside as Willow walked back through the café door. Mark stood up when he saw her and Willow figured it was written all over her face that she was about to cancel, because Mark's face fell.
"Is Faith okay?" Mark asked.
"What? Oh, yeah, the cut. Yeah. She's fine. Look, Mark, I really hate to do this but I'm going to have to take a raincheck. There are some things that I really need to take care of at the school."
Mark sighed and nodded. "Another time then."
"I'm really sorry. I was looking forward to spending time with you and seeing your documentary."
"I know. Go. Attend to your students. This can wait." Mark said, sounding defeated and understanding at the same time.
"I'll call you when I can. I promise." Willow smiled and received a small one back.
She turned to leave, stopped and turned back, giving Mark a goodbye kiss, before finally leaving with a smile on her face.
