For Good or Bad, The Memories Remain.

Chapter 10

Disclaimer- I don't still own Buffy and crew, I just use them in my writing, just for fun, never for profit "Cause that's wrong!"

Spoilers- mid 4th season then everything takes a left turn off the charted path

Rating- May get to R eventually

She set the teacup down on the coffee table and stared at the watcher across from her. Part of her wanted nothing more than to leap over the table and kill him just for general principals but that would be unfair since he was one of the rare watchers that truly connected with his young charge. She prompted him to continue in his dissertation on the local history and hazards they had faced and fought. She was more than a little intrigued by the whole Angel affair. After a while he seemed to lose some of his stiffness, he seemed to temporarily forget who she was in their ongoing discussion of prophesy and such. They spoke about the inherent nature of the Hellmouth and all that it brought to town, along with a base comparison between Sunnydale's tourist attraction with some of the other known Hellmouths, most notably Cleveland and a rather ancient one in the Carpathian Mountains. He also pointed out that he had resigned from the Watchers rather than do harm to Buffy. This was a bit of a surprise to her but a pleasant one. The discussion went long into the afternoon and into early evening, the soft glow of the oil lamp more than making up for the lack of electricity. She realized she actually liked this watcher. That made it a bit bittersweet that she still would have to kill him.

The only warning Buffy had was the smell of wet dog. The noise of the rain and crashes of thunder stole away any sounds she might have heard. The flashes of lightning messed with her night vision, but the smell of wet dog gave her a few brief seconds warning before they arrived. All Xander saw was Buffy stop and put her hand on the hilt of the sword knife thing, when a dark mass raced into view a few feet from Buffy. She drew the blade and pivoted at the same time, her sword a blur of blackened steel. To say Xander was startled by the dog's head landing at his feet would be a severe understatement. The body's momentum carried it past the trio and slid on the lawn in a crumpled, tumbling mass.

"There may be more, they tend to use them in pairs. Here, take this" Buffy says, tossing Xander the shovel.

"Oh, yeah! Real great plan. It's dark and raining like hell, and I'm supposed to hit vicious attack dogs with a two foot shovel! OK, can there be another plan, because I'm not liking this one!"

Tara felt really out of her element. Research, spells and the like were more her cup of tea, not creeping around in cemeteries fighting attack dogs in the rain. She was dwelling on this when two more dogs attacked.

They came from the front, fast and silent. Xander in his highly paranoid state saw them almost as fast as Buffy did. They were too far apart for Buffy to engage both of them. Buffy stopped hers almost as dramatically as the first one Xander got a good piece of his but it made its way past him and slammed into Tara. Buffy heard the unmistakable sound of bone crushing even over Tara's scream. She hurried to rescue Tara, stabbing deep into the dog, hoping to destroy enough vitals to drop it before it succeeded in eviscerating Tara.

"Xander! Keep an eye out, there should be one more! Use the shovel like an ax!"

"What am I, Paul Bunyon?!"

Tara lay on the ground, the butchered dog on top of her. Buffy could see from the zig zag shape of her arm and the bright red blood pouring out of the wounds that she needed help soon. Buffy was able to drag the dog off of Tara so she could do a better survey of the damage. She didn't realize she was talking out loud during her scan of Tara's wounds.

"Shattered left Radius and Ulna, proximal to the elbow, multiple deep lacerations, compound fractures, exposed bone ends, arterial bleeding, and shock most definitely." She looked up to Xander "You've got to keep an eye out for that fourth dog, I need to do some stuff here" She stripped off her sweater, followed by her silk tank top. She then used the tank top to create a pressure dressing on Tara's wounded arm to control the bleeding. Tara wavered in and out of consciousness, sure she was hallucinating. She couldn't understand any other reason for why she would have this vision of a half nude Buffy leaning over her, not that she was complaining of the view. Buffy, having completed her bandaging sat back and put her sweater back on, the wool knit feeling a bit rough on her wet bare skin. "I'm going to end up with chaffed nipples for sure" she muttered to herself.

The rain had let up just a bit, letting them see a bit farther into the cemetery.

"Buffy, do you see that over there?"

Buffy turned to where Xander was pointing. A body lay on the ground, its head roughly separated from its normal place.

"Xander, I need you to take Tara to Giles. I need you to do this right now, no questions. She needs help and I need to find Willow." Buffy barked, a sharp tone in her voice that Xander wasn't used to hearing form her.

"Sure Buff, I'll just scoop her up, and trot on down the road. What's gotten into you? "

"I don't have time to argue, I need you and Tara out of here. Now!" Buffy exclaimed, her eyes focused in the distance, her blade in her hand. A low growl could be heard in the distance , along with guttural mutterings.

To Be Continued

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