Jason Barnett- Okay, I'm not sure I'm entirely knowledgable enough on this particular front to comment on the abilities of the Sunnydale police, but if you're referring to how they successfully arrested Andrew and Jonathon then I would have to reason that the Sunnydale PD are very good at solving natural crime, but when it smells of anything slightly supernatural they tend to turn a blind eye. I don't know whether that covers your exclamative. As for the human killing, the zoo keeper was thrown into hyena pit almost accidentally, as a defence on Buffy's part (the same as with the coach in 'Go Fish') as for the mercenaries in season three...I have to admit I'm not sure who you're talking about there, but if I assume you mean the germans in Homecoming then...well, they technically killed each other and since they were in something entitled 'Slayerfest' that officially signs them up for the possibility of being Slayed. (Or is it slew...?)
Zigpal- Claps and a cheek kiss? You spoil me! And I'm very glad you're intrigued, very glad...it's always the intent after all! haha. And as for the 100 comment...I'm at about 65-70 now...whether this is an improvement or not, I'll let you know. hehe. Thanks for the review.
Rabidreject- Ooh, I love it when you awesome me. hehe. And don't worry all becomes (semi) clear in this chapter. And ooh, you checked the site then? Hehe. I admit, I geeked in a terribly childish way when I saw graphicy goodness. And now, I have bloggage on there as well apparently so...well, I'll be writing and ranting. haha. Thanks for the rewiew.
A/N: Okay, still ill hence the earlier update for...llness means time off. Time off means anytime I'm not uber ill...I give into this. Just posted 'Revelations' on Tuesday on the Cocorific site...man, I re-wrote it a lot longer than intended. The First Date scene for Joyce and Rupert is sooooo much longer this time and I really extended the dialogue and the thoughts etc. It was so much fun. My only (admittedly slightly cheesy) explanation for that is that after writing this for several months I feel I know the two characters so much better than when I started, I'm much more comfortable with them now. It sounds ridiculous but in a weird way when I write something for one of them now I find myself sometimes saying 'no, he/she wouldn't say that. he/she would more likely say this...yeah, that's right'. So it's fun re-writing the earlier chapters with all this knowledge addability. teehee. Okay, egocentric rant over (ooh did I tell you Mona (FF challenge person...thingy...bob...director person...) has adding a blog onto the site I told you about? She's giving me oppurtunity to blog. With all this bed rest I've been doomed to lately...I may go a little nuts telling you and the rest of the world about my life. Whoops. Hopefully, I'll refrain from overshare.)
Anyhoo, on with the show.
The front door slammed shut as someone left the house at the early hours of seven am on a Saturday.
"She's gone looking for those three again," Joyce mumbled, still half-asleep in bed.
"She is persistent," Giles agreed, sounding just as sleepy. It had been over two weeks since they had discovered the camera and Buffy still had yet to actually find the pests. "Willow believes she has found their actual most recent location though," He added, "So maybe today she will find them, hopefully"
"Maybe..." Joyce mumbled sounding incredibly sleepy and Giles frowned.
"Joyce, are you actually awake?" He asked, wondering whether she was just asleep and answering with reflexive responses.
"No," She replied, not opening her eyes, "Not officially. It is seven o clock in the morning and I didn't fall completely to sleep until four thanks to your lovely daughter tossing and turning all night long. So, in conclusion, no, I'm not awake"
"Maybe you'd like breakfast..." Giles said, spooning against her and putting his arm around her, "in bed..."
"No," She said firmly, "When I wake up I intend to get up. Another day spending all my time being forced to stay in bed will kill me"
"For someone supposed to be asleep, you're talking an awful lot," He pointed out softly.
"Stop prompting me to talk then..." She replied quietly, evidently falling back into slumber land with ease. That is until Dawn started knocking on the bedroom door.
"Mom? Mom?"
Joyce sighed in resignation before replying.
"What? Honey, what are you doing up so early?"
"Buffy woke me up," Dawn replied through the door, "But erm...I can't open the kitchen door- that cat's there again"
"What?" Being half-asleep was causing Joyce to become very, very confused by what Dawn was telling her, "What cat?"
"There's been a cat prowling our garden for the past week," Giles explained to Joyce quietly, "He keeps trying to get into the house"
It then became so very clear to Joyce why Dawn was suddenly telling her this information now.
"We're not keeping him as a pet, Dawn" She told her and there was a moment of silence in response before an 'awww, why not?', "Because." was Joyce's answer.
"But I'd look after him," Dawn pleaded but her Mother was adamant.
"No, Dawn. I love cats as much as anyone...but it's too dangerous here for pets- not to mention what happened to Tara and Willow's kitten"
"I didn't mean to leave the crossbow lying around!" Dawn exclaimed in defense, "and-"
"Dawn," Giles cut into his stepdaughters ramblings, "It's relatively early. If we're going to discuss this matter at all, it will be at a more reasonable hour, okay?"
"Fine," Dawn grumbled in acceptance of the compromise before the couple heard the teenager return to her room.
"You do know you've just given her hope for 'yes'," Joyce told him, "Which is never gonna happen"
"Well, would you prefer that she remained at the door, firing arguments at you?" Giles replied and Joyce couldn't help but agree, however she did so silently, "You are meant to be remaining relaxed and calm and unbothered..." He told her quietly, trailing kisses along the back of her neck that while they didn't send the shivers that she normally got in response (which she had stopped having the past month or so. Just plain stopped...which was frustrating to say the least for both parties) they were warm and calming and...oh, she was drifting back off to sleep again.
"S'nice..." She mumble, eyes closed once again, prompting Rupert to laugh quietly at her.
"Just a perfectly relaxing day..." He told her.
"Oh my God, Buffy, what happened?" Joyce exclaimed in shock when she saw Buffy come back home holding a load of papers and looking a little worse for wear with a massive slice of a tear in her leather jacket. She went to get up to go over to her daughter, but due to the fact she was meant to be getting as much rest as possible, Giles put a firm yet gentle hand on Joyce's shoulder that forced her back into her seat before she'd even had a chance to stand up fully.
"Found the Trio," Buffy told them, "Or rather found their little booby trap." She held up the arm that wore the ripped sleeve, "All over with the slicey and dicey. I did get these though," She dropped the pile of papers on the coffee table
"So you found where they were then?" Giles asked, picking up a few papers, shuffling through them for a closer look.
"Yeah, found the Nerd Lair, but they must have known...they left in a hurry though. Their van was gone but everything else was still there...and well, with buzz saws there's nothing to go back for- so my guess? They left in a hurry for something real important if they didn't care about their Obi Wans"
"Well, hopefully this should all be helpful," Giles said, gesturing at the papers.
"Yeah," Buffy agreed, "Maybe something will tell us where they're heading...or what they're planning or..." She trailed off as she saw Giles pick up a book and half of the text drop back to the table, leaving only half pages in Giles' hand.
"This may take quite some time," He estimated.
"Maybe we should call the others," Buffy suggested, looking at all the shredded texts with a grimace. She shuffled through the remaining books and found the majority to be of the sliced and diced variety, "like right now"
"I used to be a vicious killer," Spike grumbled as tried to fix one of the more ripped apart books that Buffy had collected, "Everyone feared me, shivered at my name. Now I'm trying to fix a book back together to help a Slayer defeat a trio of pathetic nerds. How the mighty have fallen" the vampire sighed sadly in his seat at the dining room table, before looking over at Buffy, "I hope you realize what you've done to me love"
"Moving on," Buffy said abruptly, in a slightly higher tone than usual so eager was she to change the subject, "Anya- you got anything there?"
The ex-demon held up several pieces of paper she had cellotaped together.
"I think theses may be blueprints" She told Buffy, squinting at the line drawings on the papers.
"Well that's good," Buffy said, trying to be as positive as possible "That's progress...but blueprints for what?"
"That we have yet to discover," Xander informed her, "It's like a jigsaw really...all we need is a blue piece with a squiggly gray line and we're set"
"Or hey- disk answers," Willow contributed as the laptop bleeped in response to a few clickyness taps of her computer whispering hands on the keys..
"The blueprints are on here," Tara explained and almost everyone gathered around the computer screen for a closer look.
"Well, this certainly clears a lot of things up for us," Giles commented.
"Clears what up?" Joyce asked, walking into the room.
"Joyce, what are you doing downstairs?" Rupert asked, going over to her in concern, "You're meant to be getting as much as rest as possible. In bed"
"I can get up for a drink if I wish, I'm not a child," Joyce protested, shrugging Rupert's hand off her shoulder in annoyance, "And I'm fed up of you and Buffy making me keep going to bed. I can walk about perfectly fine, that's not going to do anything"
"The doctor said for you-"
"To rest as much as I can, I know," She nodded, "But I can rest downstairs can't I?" Rupert seemed reluctant, "Please, I want to be down here. It's...lonely up there. I feel isolated" She looked dangerously emotional as she said this so Rupert immediately hurried to agree with what she was requesting.
"Okay, okay," He told her, leading her over to a seat at the dining room table, "But please- I don't want you researching any of this or...anything? Okay? I don't want you doing anything that could cause undue stress"
"I don't know whether to consider all that sweet or annoying," She told him honestly as she sat down, but Giles was prevented answering when Spike started sniffing the air in a rather cat-like way.
"Spike?" Giles prompted as everyone at the table looked at the bleached blond vampire oddly.
"Your blood..." Spike said to Joyce, puzzlement in his voice, "Smells...different. Warmer" At this comment Joyce looked nervously to Giles, thinking right there and then that she now considered his over-caring sweet and no longer annoying. Aware that the room had become deathly quiet, Spike pulled away from Joyce, resuming his normal couldn't-care-less temperament, "Sorry about that. Just thought..." They all continued to look at him, "I am still a vampire, remember?" He prompted in exasperation.
"You were saying what Will?" Buffy asked, desperate for a change in topic and everyone listened to the redhead, relieved to have something else to focus on besides the painfully obvious reminder that Spike was indeed a bloodsucking fiend. If a little out of the business.
"I think I've found one of their data CDs," She explained, "It's filled with encrypted blueprints, schematics..."
"To what exactly?" Giles asked, wanting to have a look at the screen himself but besides having a strong feeling he wouldn't understand the encrypted maps anyway, he also didn't feel comfortable leaving Joyce's side. So what if she considered him ridiculously overprotective? The Doctor had told him at their last appointment that he should keep an eye on her and look after her as much as possible, keeping her in a stress free bubble as it were, and that's what he fully intended to do. No matter how much his lately unpredictable wife kept trying to defy him for no other apparent reason than simple boredom.
"I don't know," Willow admitted, "Their designations have been stripped"
"Maybe we can cross-reference them with the county clerk's office..." Tara suggested.
"We won't be able to do that till tomorrow," Buffy sighed, "And we need to find these jerks as soon as..." She stopped looking at the screen and stood up straight, practically entering pacey-slayer-think mode as she considered what their best options were, "Okay, do the county clerk office thingy tomorrow...that'll hopefully reveal a lot...but Xander? Anya? Check out any haunts the geeksome might be heading at. If something big is gonna do down they maybe feeling pretty full of themselves, celebratory- so check local bars. But also check the dingy spots. Quiet places, caves maybe? Anywhere they maybe trying to work some last minute magic mojo. Maybe you'll get lucky. I'll patrol everywhere else, beat up some demons- see if they know anything."
"I'm for that, Slayer," Spike told her, standing up but she shook her head.
"No, Spike. You're not coming with me," She told him. When she was with him, alone, particularly in a dark place- as was most common at night time- things got confusing. Her feelings for him and what she wanted from him. She couldn't deal with that confusion right now. She needed a clear head, "You...can check demon bars. Or something. But you're not coming with me"
Joyce was the only one in the group at the dining room table that noticed Spike's hurt expression.
It was much later on into the night, Dawn was back from having tea at Janice's and was now tucked in bed, but Buffy had yet to return from her patrol. Giles was still trying to decipher the many severed texts everybody had been looking at all day and so he had been too distracted to notice Joyce had gotten up off the sofa and headed into the kitchen to get a drink herself. It was as she was reaching for a glass tumbler that she felt a twinge that caused her to stop. Nothing lethal she knew, no more than Braxton Hicks, but that didn't make it any less painful though they were considerably mild.
"You alright?" A voice asked and she turned around to see Spike stood there, near the doorway, looking for lack of a better description,awkward.
"Spike," She sighed in relief, having been momentarily panicked about who was in the kitchen, "You're still here? I thought Buffy wanted you to go to the demon bars." She paused a moment in thought, as something came to her that oddly enough had never occurred to her before, "We have demon bars?"
"That's Buffy innit?" He questioned in a way that required no answer, "Always sending me from place to another. Back and forth"
"She's just..."
"Using me," Spike said before Joyce could choose her own word, "Don't worry, I know the facts. I know what they are."
"No, Spike," Joyce shook her head, "She does care about you. A lot. Just..." She sighed, "Just not in the way you'd like her to"
"And she never will, will she?" He asked, in a way that suggested that thought was only just reaching him, and Joyce shook her head sadly 'no'.
"I'm afraid not," She told him.
"I guess it's the case for any guy she gets with though innit? Sadly enough" He said, "I mean it doesn't help she thinks I'm a soulless, evil vampire...which I am"
"You haven't been evil for a long time Spike," Joyce told him, "Not matter how much you try to play up to the contrary"
"Either way..." Spike sighed, "Peaches will always be her ideal man"
"Peaches?" Joyce frowned, wondering who the hell 'peaches' was.
"You know? Angel." He explained, "Vampire also. Very brooding. Caveman brow. Stupid hair. Got a soul..." Suddenly Spike seemed lost in his own thoughts, "Yeah...got the whole tortured soul thing annhe? S'what she goes for..."
"Spike?" Joyce prompted worriedly after Spike fell into silence for a good few minutes.
"Sorry," He apologized, abruptly snapping out of it, "Just thinking to meself. Well, I'd best get to those demon bars. Wouldn't look too good, not to at least check em out would it?" He headed back to the kitchen door, but before he left, he turned to look at Joyce, "You know, Rupes got the right idea you know? Tryin' to make you rest. Your blood's not quite right Joyce, I know he's a pain in the arse in the know-it-all brigade but... you'd do well to listen to him."
"Thanks..." Joyce was slightly confused by the deep sincerity of which Spike said this, "I will..."
"Right," Spike nodded, opening the door and walking outside, "See you around Joyce," He said as he closed the door after him and it wouldn't be till much, much later that Joyce realized how truly final Spike's words were.
"Come on Xander, the geeks aren't here," Anya complained as she and her husband looked around another in a long line of Sunnydale bars. "They're off plotting another of their little pathetic 'evil' schemes. If they're gonna be anywhere else they'll be partying with Comic Book Guy, not Sunnydale's mild elite"
"You're probably right," Xander sighed, "Let's just go back, tell Buffy we came up nothing"
Just as the two were about to leave the bar there was a commotion to their far right and a moment later a tall, muscular guy went flying through the air, over the central pool table. Looking in the direction the guy had flown from, Anya and Xander saw Warren there with a twisted grin on his face.
"Or Buffy could have been right on the money,"Xander added.
Warren walked over to the bar, pure confidence and arrogance in his step.
"Don't worry about the tab ladies," He grinned, slamming down on the cash register so the till opened involuntarily, spilling over with dollar bills, "It's on Daddy tonight" As he started removing cash from the register, not caring of how he was in sight of everyone, one of the women sat at the bar started crying with fright and Warren turned to her, causing her to flinch, "Aw, don't worry baby." Warren told her, running a bill softly over her arm, "Daddy's gonna give you some too..."
"See now," Xander said loudly, interrupting Warren's little rampage as he walked over, Anya behind him supportively, "I think it's the 'Daddy' part that's throwing her, coz incest? Not that sexy...So why don't we leave the ladies to their impending nausea and move the freak show outside?"
"I don't know...I kinda like it staying in here," Warren applied with an almost predatory grin, "Bigger audience for when I kick your ass and start comforting your girl"
"You stay away from Anya," Xander warned, but Warren completely ignored him, focusing his entire attention on Anya.
"What'd ya say baby? How'd you like to spend some time with a real man?"
"You're not even a real boy," Anya scoffed in complete and utter distaste and Warren's expression darkened considerably. He headed towards Anya in complete fury, but Xander intercepted him.
"I said stay from her," He reminded Warren and Anya wore a look of pure pride over Xander's defenderyness.
"Funny how little that does," Warren replied, before going to head for Anya again. Xander slugged him without warning but the head of the Nerdly Three didn't even twitch while Xander was almost crippled by the pain in his hand. He and Anya could only look on at Warren in confused and silent shock.
"You hit like a girl," Warren told him simply with a smile as he grabbed Xander's hand and twisted it around effortlessly.
"Oh my god! Xander!" Anya gasped, "Stop that!" She hit Warren on the offending arm repeatedly but it did nothing.
"Hey," Andrew said, stepping forward to defend Warren, "Don't do that" Anya pushed the blond weasel aside with very little effort but he lost his balance and went toppling into one of the nearby bar stools causing a near domino effect throughout the establishment.
"I hit like a girl?" Xander asked Warren, speaking through the pain, "Well at least I know how to get one"
If it could be viewed possible, Warren's expression darkened even further before he grabbed Xander by his shirt front and tossed him across the room as if he were no more than a paper doll.
"Xander!" Anya exclaimed, going to run after him, but Warren grabbed her arm tightly, pulling her towards him. "Get off me!"
"C'mon sugar, enjoy the attention of a real man," He purred, but Anya just looked completely and utterly disgusted. She tugged and tugged against him but his grip was Slayer strong and she couldn't break free, so she did the only thing she could think of. She spat at him. He recoiled in shock, which quickly turned to Anger. "You'll pay for that, you little bitch"
He went to strike her in fatal way, and Xander struggled to get up, to help her, but he was too badly injured by the fall. However, Warren was stopped mid-swing by a hand on his arm. Jonathon's arm.
"Warren, we have to go," He said calmly, but there was a touch of plea to his voice. Warren glared at him and he quickly released his arm.
"We go when I'm ready"
"Hey, your call," Jonathon said, backing up a little while pointing at his watch to indicate what time it was to Warren, "But we're gonna miss that thing that you wanted to do tonight if we don't go now. That's all I'm saying"
"Guess, it's your lucky day," Warren said, shoving Anya away in the direction of the now (barely) standing Xander.
"We're just gonna leave them?!" Andrew asked in panic as he followed after Warren at an urgent pace, "What if they sic the Slayer on us?!"
Warren just shrugged as the three of them reached the exit.
"Bring her on"
"Banks...armored car routes...corporate vaults..." Buffy murmured as she, Giles and Dawn, Joyce having being permitted to rest downstairs but officially forbidden from contributing in anyway to research, looked through all the papers they had manages to tape back together whole. "This is definitely big"
"And Oceans Elevensy," Dawn added.
"Well, if what we've gathered from all this is correct then this the one they'll uh 'hit' tonight," Giles said, passing Buffy the appropriate information on one particular vault.
At that moment the front door open and in walked, or rather stumbled, Anya and Xander who looked a little worse for wear.
"Xander, Anya, what happened?" Joyce asked in major worry and concern, motherly instincts instantly telling her to get up and see to them, but Giles in some recently developed reflex automatically put a hand on her shoulder, gently pushing her back into her seat on the sofa. She didn't argue with him, but he received an annoyed glare for his troubles.
"We found Warren," Anya told her, leading Xander into the living room so he could sit down, "He threw Xander across the room without so much as breaking a sweat"
"What?" Buffy frowned, "How?"
"Who knows?" Xander shrugged then winced as the action caused him pain, "All I know is Warren's gone mighty mouse. Emphasis on the might"
"Buffy, if this is true..." Giles said, when Xander cut him.
"Oh believe me it's true. And tomorrow I'll have the bruises to prove it"
"Well then," Giles acknowledged Xander's addage, "Buffy you will have to be careful when you come across these three tonight"
"If Warren's truly gone Hercules on us then that means one thing," Buffy said, standing up completely in Slayer mode, "That I don't have to hold back"
The next day was all the much brighter after Buffy's defeat of Warren and the other members of the Trio. Okay, so Warren was still on the loose, but he was just one pathetic guy and the other two were in jail for attempted robbery. Joyce liked it when things worked out like this, it was usually followed by a period of intense calm and normalcy that fitted so much into everything that Joyce wanted from life, and she felt Buffy also wanted that very same thing. Buffy always complained about wanting a normal life and in these brief periods of respite, Buffy got that small chance.
Speaking of, Buffy was outside now. Sat in the garden, looking very much alone and sad. Joyce frowned in concern and didn't hesitate in deciding to go outside and see what was the matter.
"Buffy?" She called, walking over and when her daughter looked up at the sound of her name, Joyce saw her eyes were watery and her cheeks glistening. She'd been crying.
"Mom," Buffy said in recognition, hurrying to wipe her tears away even though it was obvious Joyce had already seen them. "I was just..."
"Crying?" Joyce asked softly, taking a seat beside her daughter on the garden bench. "Buffy, what's wrong?"
For a moment it looked as though Buffy wasn't going to say anything, she just stared at the ground, her eyes blank as though she wasn't seeing anything at all, not a strand of grass in front of her. Then she pursed her lips together as though summoning up all her inner bravery before turning to her Mom and opening up completely.
"Spike's gone..."
"What?"
"Spike's gone." Buffy repeated. "I went by his place...before...and Clem was there. He'd left last night...while I was fighting Warren. Saying something about 'nothing being good enough' and something about me...how I'll never accept him"
A very recent memory suddenly came back to Joyce.
"You know? Angel." Spike explained, "Vampire also. Very brooding. Caveman brow. Stupid hair. Got a soul..." Suddenly Spike seemed lost in his own thoughts, "Yeah...got the whole tortured soul thing annhe? S'what she goes for..."
"Why do I do that?" Buffy asked, sounding so very much like a lost child who simply needed her Mother, "Why does everyone run away from me? Why do I keep driving them away? Is there something wrong with me?"
"Of course not sweetie," Joyce told her sincerely, "Of course not. Sometimes these things...just happen..."
"But they keep happening," Buffy said sadly, "Again...and again...and again.."
"Oh sweetheart," Joyce said sympathetically, pulling Buffy into her arms for a well needed hug, giving her the only comfort she could right now and her daughter settled into the hug, drawing strength from it.
As Dawn came into the kitchen for a second bowl of cereal she felt peckish enough to eat, she heard a scratching at the back door. She frowned, knowing the sound was familiar but not quite able to pinpoint it's origin. So, to solve the mystery she simple headed across the kitchen and pulled the back door open. Without a second warning for Dawn to close the door again, the cat that had been hovering in their back garden for the past week or so dashed in, brushing past Dawn's legs, leaving gray cat hairs stuck to her thin, white patterned tights and ran along the dining room.
"No!" Dawn exclaimed, running after the cat, "Bad kitty!"
She chased the feline up the stairs, hoping to corner it at some point so she could scoop it up and put it back outside before her Mom realized and accused Dawn of purposely letting the cat in.
As the cat reached the landing though, it turned right in the direction of her Mom and Giles' room from where Giles' was presently just exiting.
"Giles- cat alert!" Dawn yelled, "Geddit! Geddit!"
"What? Where?" Giles looked around, thoroughly confused, and automatically panicked by Dawn's urgent tone. He saw the cat rush past him, in a gray and white blur, and under the bed and he and Dawn ran over in sync to stand on opposite sides of the bed to try and catch the cat one way or another. The sunlight pouring through one of the windows in the room, the curtains now pulled back, slightly hindered Giles' sight as he tried to spot the feline.
Buffy held onto her Mom tightly, trying to get all the comfort she could from that one simple hug. Of all the demons she faced and no matter how brave she continued to be, Buffy never felt as safe as when she was in her Mother's arms.
"You think that you can just do that to me?!" An angry voice broke into the tender moment and Mother and daughter turned to see Warren stood there at the end of the garden in a complete rage. Buffy automatically stood up, to face Warren but also to stand protectively in front of her Mother. "That I'd let you get away with it?! Think again-" In one swift, too fast-to-be-predicted movement Warren pulled out a gun from an inside pocket and fired. Again. And again. And again. And again.
The only sound besides the cry of gunfire was the smash of one of the bedroom windows being shot through by a stray bullet.