Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the ones that I created like Mercedes and Audrey.
CHAPTER 29-LATE NIGHTS IN ROME
Buffy remained motionless as the Immortal got up out of bed and walked to his bathroom. She wasn't quite sure exactly how it had happened but after trekking around Rome most of the night with Kennedy she had intended to just check in with him and make sure that they still had a date for the following Monday. Hours later she found herself lying naked in his bed with the blankets wrapped tightly around her body as she lay on her stomach watching the minutes tick by on the clock on the nightstand. The search with Kennedy had given them nothing, other than the knowledge that when she was on Mercedes could hit almost every club in town, starting at some even before the sun had set. She had intended to call Giles and ask him if Willow and Dawn had returned but having sex with the Immortal had gotten in the way. Usually on their nights together she would feel almost refreshed afterwards, glad to be with a man that could walk out in the sunlight and not burn up, a man that had a heartbeat. But at the moment she felt empty inside, almost as if she had betrayed someone by having sex with her boyfriend. At the climax of their lovemaking she remembered almost making the ultimate mistake, screaming out the name of a former lover. She had started to scream out his name but somehow caught herself just in time and ended up mumbling out a low sound that reminded her of a tire going flat by losing all of the air.
She couldn't remember how they had gone from speaking quietly in his office to a night together in his bedroom, her memory from shortly after having walked into his office until now was oddly a bit fuzzy. She started to sit up before she heard the sound of her cell phone vibrating. Frantically she slid off the edge of the bed, flinging her blouse and pants back behind her before she found the phone. Giles was on the other end and explained to her that Willow and Dawn had yet to come back and neither had called in. He said that Xander was ready to visit every one of Willow's contacts but Buffy jumped the gun and said that she'd do it. It was a few hours before sunrise when Buffy hurriedly threw her clothes back on and raced out of the room. The Immortal would walk back in moments later to find himself alone.
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Helay there comfortably on the rug in front of the fire. Faith had initially been surprised when she had walked out of the bathroom a few hours earlier to find Wesley lying on some blankets on top of the rug. He had used the fluffier sheets and the comforter to pad the ground beneath him and as she approached he had seemed to be in the thick of sifting through the large book that Spike had stolen from the Immortal days before.
"I thought you said that you couldn't translate that without the other book," Faith asked softly with a bored look on her face as she sat down on the side of the bed and for the first time noticed just how high up the bed was as her tiptoes barely touched the floor.
"Not anything important, but what I can translate could still prove very valuable," Wesley replied with a very determined look on his face as he leaned over a bit and studied a particular passage very closely.
"Looking for a needle in a haystack then," Faith shot back with a bit of sarcasm in her voice as she leaned over and snatched the bottle of lotion from off of the nightstand.
"Something like that, I may not be able to translate this book fully however there are several glyphs in this book that I could have sworn that I saw during our imprisonment," Wesley replied with a nervous shrug of his shoulders as he turned back to watch Faith begin to rub some of the lotion onto her legs.
"Yeah…there were a few weird looking marks down there," Faith mumbled back with a very deep in thought expression on her face as she thought back to their being held captive while she continued to apply the lotion to her legs before moving on to moisturize other parts of her body.
"Exactly, we were obviously below ground…but what I don't understand," Wesley started to say back with a concerned look of uncertainty on his face as Faith snapped the cap closed on the lotion bottle and slid off the edge of the bed, relieving herself of her towel as she did so.
"That dungeon didn't look like it was part of the building, like they had built that building on top of something that was already there," Faith added with an eerily nervous frown on her face as she walked over, opened the top drawer in the dresser, and took out the first matching pair of panties and bra that she found.
"Building a newer building on top of the foundation of a much older one isn't anything new, most major city's all over the world do it, New York, Paris, Moscow, London," Wesley said softly with a slight attempt at shrugging his shoulders before he moved just a bit to much and hissed in pain. Faith had just pulled her panties on and clasped her bra on when she reacted, quickly rushing to his side.
"Wesley, are you okay," Faith asked with a very worried look on her face and tone to her voice as she knelt down beside Wesley and laid one hand on his upper back while placing the other on top of the book.
"Five by five," Wesley lied back with a sarcastic grin on his face before he coughed violently for a few seconds.
"I'm going to get Will, just stay there and don't," Faith started to declare with a very serious look on her face as she jumped to her feet, after casting a scared glance towards Wesley, before she got to the door before he found the energy to speak.
"No Faith, I don't need Willow, I just got a little to animated," Wesley stated with a tired and pained tone to his voice as he slowly took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down.
"You sure, you don't need anything," Faith asked with an unconvinced light in her eyes as she stared straight at him from the doorway with her right hand on the doorknob.
"I'll be fine with a little rest, though I could use something to drink," Wesley replied with a slight nod of his head before he relaxed enough to smile, something that got Faith to let out a still scared but relieved sigh as she let her hand slide off of the doorknob.
"I think there was still something left over in the mini fridge," Faith said with a calmer but still concerned look on her face as she walked away from the doorway and back towards the bed before she knelt down beside one of the nightstands and opened the door to the small refrigerator.
"Anything," Wesley asked softly with an interested look on his face before the fire made an odd noise and he turned back to make sure that nothing was wrong with it.
"Just a couple of bottles of champagne, guess it's better than nothing," Faith answered softly with a bored shrug of her shoulders before she pulled the largest bottle of champagne out of the refrigerator, shut the door, and then set about uncorking it.
"Just remember that we can't drink all of it as Angel wanted to have a meeting early tomorrow…later on this morning," Wesley informed Faith with a serious look on his face before he set the book back down onto the floor and turned a couple of the pages.
"He can wait, lord knows that he's made everyone else wait plenty of times, besides…we have work to do," Faith joked back with a devilish pout on her face and glint in her eyes as she finally succeeded in popping the cork before she did her best to not spill anything onto the floor.
"We do," Wesley asked with an uncertain look on his face as he cocked an eyebrow up and tried to think what Faith could be thinking.
"Sure…look I know I'm not playing with a full deck up here," Faith said with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face as she tapped her left temple with the mouth of the bottle of champagne before she then went on. "I'm not as smart as you and never will be, but given all of the crazy shit that we've seen and is bound to happen because of Angel's plan maybe it'd be a good idea for you to teach me some of those symbols, it might come in handy," Faith added with a serious look on her face as she made her way back over to Wesley, sat down cross legged on the floor beside him, and then handed him the bottle of champagne as she pulled the large book onto her lap.
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"You own all of this," Connor asked with a surprised and a bit awestruck look on his face as he walked into the kitchen of the main apartment and saw Gwen sitting at the table helping herself to some ice cream.
"Yep," Gwen softly replied, more to tired to argue, as she slowly nodded her head and then slipped the spoon back into her mouth and sucked off the ice cream.
"Wow," Connor mumbled back with a surprised and awkward smile on his face as he pulled a chair out and sat down across the table from Gwen.
"You can say that again kid, not bad for a girl whose parents dumped her with strangers and never looked back," Gwen joked back at first with a proud grin of confidence on her face before Connor could have sworn that he heard a bit of sadness in her voice.
"Doesn't anyone come from a normal home, you know…mom, dad, a family that loves them," Dawn mumbled out with an unhappy pout on her face as she shuffled into the kitchen, squinting at the light above the table, the only one in the room that was on. As she got closer to the table Connor saw that she was tightly clutching a stuffed pig to her chest and trying not to yawn.
"Not anymore kid," Gwen joked back with a grimly amused half smirk on her face before she took another bite of ice cream.
"Can't sleep," Connor asked softly with a concerned look on his face as he looked up from the table at Dawn as she pulled out a chair and sat down.
"How'd ya guess," Dawn quipped back with a tired look on her face as she eyed the ice cream hungrily.
"Because you're awake at three in the morning," Connor replied with an impish grin on his face as he got up from his seat at the table and then got some ice cream for himself and Dawn.
"Good point," Dawn softly said back softly as she blushed more than she had originally intended to and took the spoon that Connor handed to her.
"So what are you going to tell your sister today, she won't buy the you staying with one of Willow's contacts again," Gwen asked without a bit of sarcasm or joking in her voice as she stuck her spoon back into her ice cream.
"Beats me…it's to early to think that hard," Dawn grumbled back with an unhappy pout on her face before she took her first bite of ice cream.
"You're right about that, but maybe you should go back…at least for a little bit, a few hours or so, get what you need, maybe figure out where they're hiding the book that Wesley needs to finish translating the one that we already have," Gwen said with a nervous shrug of her shoulders before she scooped the last bit of ice cream up out of the container and into her mouth.
"Buffy would see through that, she," Dawn started to say with an awkward expression on her face before Gwen cut back in.
"Hasn't your sister ever thought about changing her name…I mean…Buffy, come on, it sounds more like a stripper than a slayer," Gwen asked with a curious glint in her eyes as a bit of sarcasm fell back into her words.
"That doesn't really come up much to be honest," Dawn slowly mumbled with a nervous and slightly disturbed look on her face before she took a big bite of ice cream.
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"I am going to kill her Giles, for real this time," Buffy fumed with a very upset scowl on her face as she paced angrily back and forth just in front of Giles' desk.
"Calm down Buffy, we don't know that anything's wrong yet," Giles offered up with a nervous but hopefully calming tone to his voice as he slowly rose from his chair and did his best to calm the nervous slayer.
"They've been gone for over a day, Dawn said that they were staying the night with one of Willow's contacts, that was yesterday, they should have been back hours ago, or at least called," Buffy quickly replied with a very serious look on her face as she momentarily stopped pacing to glare at Giles and seem as if she was about to wing her cell phone at him.
"You know Willow Buff, you know how she can get so wrapped up in something that she," Xander started to admit with a nervous look on his face before Kennedy spoke up.
"Willow wouldn't just forget to check in, something's going on, maybe they found Angel, or that group that you guys met, the guy that said that he was Angel's son," Kennedy interjected with a very thoughtful pout on her face as she sat on the far side of the room keeping her distance from Xander.
"She would have called if she had found them," Buffy said with a very certain look on her face as she lowered her arm and slid her cell phone back into her pockets.
"Are you sure about that Buffy, if she believed whatever story they fed her, she wouldn't come back until she was sure that she knew what was really going on, who she could trust," Robin explained with an eerily calm look on his face as he stood at the window staring out of it. The entire time that he spoke he never once looked back into the room.
"Is there something that you know that you're not telling us here mister son of a slayer, for better or worse Willow does what is right," Xander offered up with a very concerned look on his face as he turned in his chair to face Robin at the window.
"But what about Dawn, if Willow was tracking something down surely then she wouldn't need Dawn's help, would she," Giles asked with a confused look on his face as he began to look through the open files on his desk.
"No…not unless Dawn manage to talk her into letting her tag along, in an effort to prove herself," Buffy replied with a nervous look on her face as she slowly sat down in the chair beside Xander's.
"Just what we needed, the other Summers sister to try and prove something," Robin mumbled out softly under his breath as he shook his head and turned away from the window. "So where do we stand on finding Mercedes," Robin asked clearly with an interested look on his face as he slowly walked back towards Giles' desk.
"Unfortunately we're still at square one, other than finding out that she loved to party we know very little about her, but sorry to say she's not our only problem at the moment, besides looking for her and Angel there is the problem of a certain pink haired slayer that we are suddenly unable to find any trace of, Rhona and Vi tried have had no luck in their searches so far and I doubt that will change anytime soon," Giles answered softly with a worried sigh as he took of his glasses and then set them down on the desk in front of him.
"We should probably forget about this Audrey for now, she's not important," Robin replied with a slightly haughty expression on his face as he lightly rested his hands on the backs of Buffy and Xander's chairs.
"How can you be so sure, the old council abandoned her before in her moment of need, I will not repeat their mistakes, finding Mercedes is our top priority however doing what we can to help Audrey is also very important," Giles said back with an unconvinced look on his face as he seemed hesitant to focus on only one course of action.
"We could give the job of helping Audrey to Andrew, it doesn't look to dangerous, and he has been wanting more responsibility ever since that fight at the club," Xander offered up with an optimistic expression on his face, though it was more of pushing a pressing problem off on someone else idea rather than fully believing that it was a good idea.
"Vi probably wouldn't have a problem with that," Kennedy joked with a grimly amused smirk on her face as she glowered at mostly being left out of the conversation.
"Even though he is not my first choice to handle this assignment it is the best that we can do on such short notice and with things as they are he's the only one that we can spare," Giles said softly with a very concerned and discouraged tone to his voice as he took out a notepad and began to draft instructions for Andrew to follow.
"What about the thing that killed all of those new slayers, should we be worried about it coming back," Kennedy offered up with a nervous look on her face as he sat up straight and looked to Giles.
"Illyria has not been seen or heard from since that day, presumably she…it, has decided to lay low, if not already left town," Giles answered with a slightly unsure look on his face as he glanced up briefly from his writing.
"Not our top priority," Buffy mumbled out softly with a guilty look in her eyes as she suddenly became very interested in the collar of her blouse.
"But what are we supposed to do if that changes, she made us look like fools the last time we bumped into her," Xander asked with an impatient and scared look on his face as he sat up straight in his chair and turned to Buffy.
"Only because we didn't know anything about her, we thought that it was Fred, now we know different," Buffy started to answer with a nervous look on her face before Robin jumped in.
"But that still doesn't answer the question Buffy, whether we like it or not this Illyria is a force to be reckoned with, and her unpredictability only makes her that much more dangerous," Robin interjected with a very serious look on his face before Kennedy walked over behind him.
"You guys can talk all you want, I'm going to find Mercedes," Kennedy announced with a very clear and determined look on her face before she turned and started towards the door.
"Wait a minute, you can't go all by yourself," Buffy snapped out quickly with a confused tone to her voice as she leapt up out of the chair and turned to face Kennedy.
"Hitting all of her haunts was a good idea, but we screwed up, you were with me, I can find her faster on my own," Kennedy calmly replied with a nervous look in her eyes though confidant tone to her voice before she flung the door open and hurried out the room.
END OF CHAPTER 29
Author's Notes: Gwen is a hard one to write. As to Groo and what the vampires could smell, they can smell lust and all of that and they could tell what's going on a few doors down just by the smell, Groo left because it was late and Kate wanted him to come with her. This chapter starts out in a bad place, I didn't want to have Buffy and the Immortal have sex again but decided that it was inevitable, although in this chapter that's not why she went to see him and in the middle of it she almost screams out Spike's name. Afterwards she's not happy about having slept with him and finds any excuse to get the heck out of there as fast as she can. The Wes and Faith bits beside the fire are partially due to the fact that by firelight Faith(Well okay Eliza to) would look absolutely gorgeous with that sparse amount, or no amount at all, of clothing on. Though I threw a curveball in there and had Wes and Faith just talk and then Wesley try to teach Faith to be able to recognize and decipher a few of the symbols, showing that she wants to change and doesn't want to be the same old Faith for the rest of her life. The ice cream bit was a kind of short bit of talking between characters as they're not sure what their roles are and just kind of a bit of bonding, not a lot but just a little, notice Dawn's stuffed pig to, Mr. Gordo nod. The last bit has Buffy, Giles, Xander, Kennedy, and Robin talking in Giles office and Buffy being mad about Dawn and Willow not being back yet. They discuss their current to do list and their current threats, with Illyria coming to the top of that list as no one has a clue what she'll do, where as with Angel and the others their moves can at least be hoped to be anticipated, Illyria is the unknown element here. Then Kennedy decides to go find Mercedes on her own, since they're close she thinks that she'll have a better time of it than anyone else from the council, Buffy objects obviously but like her Kennedy blows her off and leaves anyway. As always thanks for reading and hope that you liked it. Reviews are appreciated.