A/N: Thank you to my beta Tametiger!

Chapter 4:

Slayer Training

Deftly, Sam's fingers spun the dial of the combination lock that secured his locker. Although it was only his second day at this school, Sam already had his combination memorized. ("God Sammy- Why do you have to be such a dork? We'll move in a few weeks and then it will be a new school, a new locker and a new combination. Just leave it unlocked, then you won't have to memorize anything!" his inner Dean chastised him.).

When the lock opened, Sam pulled out a notebook and pen. With a quick glance at his schedule, he noted the room number of his next class and smiled when he recognized it as the room that was across from the Library. After he closed his locker door (and made sure it was locked), Sam turned to walk to his next class.

A recent growth spurt had made it easy to see over the heads of the students in front of him and spot a certain petite blonde that had bent down to get a sip at the water fountain. Next to her, a girl with long, straight red hair leaned against the wall while she spoke to Buffy.

Buffy laughed at something the redhead said which caused her to begin to cough. A short (well relatively short, compared to Sam) dark-haired guy walked over to her and pounded helpfully on her back. Buffy tilted her head slightly to look at the guy and she smiled at him.

Eyes on the trio of teens, Sam slowed his steps and wondered how they fit together. Was the guy Buffy's boyfriend? The group, with Buffy in the middle, one arm around each friend's waist, turned down the corridor. He tried to make friends at every school but every friendship was new and he envied the level of camaraderie Buffy obviously shared with her friends.

What was it like to have a friend for longer than a few months?

Sam and his family had always moved on before he got to close and, no matter how many times he falsely promised the friends he left behind, he knew he would not keep in touch.

Winchester Rule number three. "We are not here to make friends". Once the job was done, they didn't stick around for backslaps, beer and barbecue's, they just quietly packed their gear and got the hell out of Dodge. Twice, Sam rebelled and made an exception, but he felt guilty afterward, as if he had committed a felony.

Although he tracked the back of Buffy's head as she walked down the hall, his attention was pulled away when he heard a commotion and saw a freshman getting shoved into a locker by a husky guy in a denim jacket. As Sam lengthened his stride, he saw Buffy walk toward the denim-clad agitator and grab his arm, which produced a belligerent protest from the bully.

From the way she stood toe-to-toe with the guy, not in the least intimidated by his insults, Sam was fairly confident that Buffy had the guy under control. Instead, Sam focused on the freshman, a pudgy youth with sandy blonde hair who was losing the battle with puberty and suffered a recent acne breakout. The young teen's school supplies had been knocked to the ground and, as no one had stepped forward to assist the red-faced kid, Sam bent down to help pick up the scattered items.

"Thanks." The kid muttered quietly while avoiding eye contact.

Sam empathized. Before hitting a major growth spurt a few years before, he had often been targeted by bullies. He understood that if he tried to talk to the kid now, he would only make him feel worse. As the kid edged away, Sam glanced to a nearby student and asked if he knew the kid's name.

"That's Andrew." A voice beside him volunteered, she had obviously overheard his question.

"Do you know what class he is going to?" Sam asked. He looked at the girl and recognized her as the red headed girl with Buffy.

"P.E., I think," she gave a quick shy smile then added "he had his gym bag with him."

Sam thanked her. Aware of another set of eyes watching him, he looked over the girl's head and locked eyes with Buffy. With one hand, she firmly gripped the bully's arm against the locker and ignored his ineffectual struggle to escape her grip as well as the string of insults he spat at her. The sight was a little ridiculous; Buffy was dwarfed by the tyrant who looked as if he played left tackle, the scene was eliciting snickers and snarky comments – not all of them were directed at Andrew.

"…I swear I'm gonna…" The guy blustered and flushed at the smirks on the faces of his peers.

Buffy looked away from Sam and turned to the bully.

"You're gonna what, Larry?" she asked softly. There was a subtle shift in her posture and whereas before she exuded annoyance, now she emanated danger. Wide-eyed, sweat visibly started to pool on Larry's forehead.

Larry stopped talking and in response, Buffy released his arm and told him to leave. Red-faced, shaken and obviously embarrassed, Larry left.

As if a switch had been flipped, Buffy's aura of danger vanished. Casually, she propped one hip on the locker and they shared a small smile. A lock of hair escaped the small silver barrette that pinned her hair away from her face and Sam resisted the urge to tuck it behind her ear. Buffy's eyes moved away from his and he realized that the red-haired girl was speaking.

"…was nice of you to help Andrew. I'm Willow, this is Xander." She pointed to the dark haired boy. "and this is-"

"Buffy." Sam said.

Buffy looked at him. "Hi Sam."

Willow looked at Buffy and Sam, her already large brown eyes widened in surprise as she focused on Sam again.

"Oh. OH! Tall!" She squeaked then she pointed at him. "You are tall" then she giggled.

Bemused, Sam stared at Willow.

"C'mon Will. What have I told you about too much coffee in the morning?" Xander put his arm around Willow's shoulders. They were walking away, when Xander looked back at Buffy. "Buff?" he said, questioningly.

"Be right there." Buffy told him. Again Sam wondered if he was Buffy's boyfriend.

Buffy gazed at Sam speculatively. Sam sighed.

"How many more questions did you think of?" he asked her.

"Only three. Oh..no..four!" she replied.

"Okay, but you have to answer my questions too."

"Deal!" Buffy said to Sam.

"Do you want to talk after school?"

"I have training with Giles."

"Training? Slayer training?" Sam tried to keep his voice calm.

A small smile played at the corner of Buffy's mouth, "Yes. Why, do you wanna watch?"

Once again, Sam wished he was his brother. Dean had comebacks that made girls – Sam stopped that thought. Buffy probably had a boyfriend-if not that Xander guy, then some other guy. No way was a girl like her single.

Aware of her gaze, Sam just gave her a nod. The warning bell sounded throughout the halls and the kids around them picked up the pace to get to their classes.

"We should…" he said, reluctant to say goodbye.

"Yeah." She agreed and he could not stop the slow smile when neither of them moved. They both looked away and Sam cleared his throat.

"I gotta go…"

They both faced each other and took a few, hesitant steps backward.

"Me too. The joys of numbers await…" she said. Sam chuckled first, then Buffy's chuckle chimed in. "See you later Sam."

They both turned away but after a few steps, he looked back and grinned when he caught Buffy doing the same. Pink tinged her cheeks and she flashed a self-conscious smile.

Sam continued down the hall and mentally calculated the minutes to the end of school.

Buffy joined Willow and Xander. As they walked to class, Buffy barely paid attention to the snappy banter of her two friends. Instead, her thoughts were about Sam

Sam arrived in the class as the final bell rang through the school, glad when he spied a vacant seat and a familiar face.

Oz doodled in a notebook and greeted at Sam as he sat down.

"Hey Sam." He said.

"Hi Oz." Sam cocked his head to get a view of the papers in front of Oz. "That's a good drawing." He pointed to Oz's doodle of Marvin the Martian.

"Thanks." Oz looked down at his drawing and nodded, satisfied. "I dabble."

In the front of the room, the teacher stood up.

"All right everyone. Today, we continue our section on American Poets." she instructed. Everyone pulled a text out of their book bags and when she noticed that Sam lacked a book, the teacher brought a text over to him.

She placed it on his desk and said, "I am Ms. Calendar, you must be Sam Winchester, I heard that you were going to be in my class. I am not the usual English teacher, I am just filling in until they can fill this position."

Sam opened his book.

Ms. Calendar walked to the front of the room.

"Today's first poem is by e. e. cummings – one of the greatest American poets. Who would like to begin to read the first poem on the page? Oz? Just the first two lines please."

Oz started reading the poem.

"somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience, your eyes have their silence:"

Your eyes have their silence.

The line kept repeating in his mind and immediately he had an image of a pair of expressive green eyes on a heart shaped face. For the first time, Sam hardly paid attention as the kids in the class read and discussed the lines of the poem. Luckily, the teacher had not called upon him and, for that, Sam was grateful. He hated to be caught unprepared. When the bell rang to signal the end of class, Sam made a mental note to study the poem that night.

After class, Sam stood and stretched. Oz stood up and looked hopefully at Sam. "Do you sing?"

Sam shook his head.

"That's too bad," his tone was regretful "the band I am in is playing our first gig - more of a practice really since we are not getting paid. Steve Simmons is having a party and we found out our singer, Boyd, has mono. So now we need a singer."

"What's your band's name?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. That's another thing – we don't have a name yet either."

"So, to sum things up - Your nameless band is having a practice/gig on Saturday and you need to find a singer?"

"Well, when you put it like that…" Oz said.

"You could go all 'Art of Noise' and do mostly instrumental stuff." Sam suggested.

"I think we could do a little 'Peter Gunn'," Oz named the band's most famous song and nodded as he considered the idea "but then there is the other thing..."

"Other thing?" Sam prompted.

"Yeah, we kinda suck." Oz said with a grin that showed Sam he wasn't bothered by his declaration. "The upside is we suck less than we did three practices ago."

Helplessly, Sam laughed and Oz chuckled.

"Dude, I am so there! Tell me how I can get to Steve's."

Oz gave him directions.

"We are having a band meeting tonight and I am going to make sure we name ourselves," Oz said, as they were walking out of class, "I just wish we could meet somewhere other than my Aunt Alice's; her garage is perfect, but she records movies from HBO and then watches them after she gets home from work. Sometimes, we have to wait until she is finished watching her movie before she lets us practice," Oz shrugged "but it's a space where we can practice, so I can't complain too much."

"Good luck, Dude." Sam and Oz went off in separate directions.

When Buffy walked into the Library after her last class of the day, she wasn't surprised to find Sam seated at one of the tables, a text book held in one hand and a pen in the other as he alternately read a passage then wrote something onto the paper in front of him.

She walked over to the table about to dump her text books on it when she glanced at the clock and noted that she had about half an hour before she would need to get ready for training. Giles always liked to wait until the school was mostly empty and, typically, she would use this time to chatter with Willow or Xander, however, today both of her friends were otherwise occupied.

She realized that she was happy that only Sam would be here to watch her train with Giles.

She pulled out her math book, slid into the chair across from Sam and began to work through her homework assignment.

The longer she sat at the table across from Sam, the more she felt her body begin to relax. The two students sat quietly, the only sounds were the scratching of pencils on paper, the flipping of pages and the occasional shout of laughter from the halls as they slowly emptied.

From his office, Giles smiled at the rare sight of a relaxed Buffy seated at the table. Normally, when she worked on her homework, she alternately chattered, sighed, fidgeted and grumbled about the tasks. Yet today, she was still, focused and relaxed.

Her Math assignment complete, she moved on to her US history assignment: "Create a sound argument for gun rights". She was all for Second Amendment rights, as long as they pertained to bearing arms in the forms of stakes, axes, staves and bows. However, this assignment pertained specifically to guns and she struggled with this assignment - she disliked guns, thought they were ugly and lacked…style.

If she wanted something she could just point and shoot with, then she would much rather use something with more panache…like the crossbow.

Dutifully, she listed the pros and cons of her argument. When she was finished, she chewed the bottom of her lip unhappy with the quality of her work. She lacked both inspiration and motivation, a sure indication that she would not do well in this assignment.

As Giles walked into the room, she hid a smile at the sight he presented; he looked like he had created a new sport that was a combination of football, hockey and baseball. He had padded his arms and legs, carried large thick gloves similar to baseball gloves over his forearm and completed his ensemble with a goalie mask that perched on the top of his head. In his hands, he carried two thick books.

It was her signal to pack up.

She closed her books and stacked them. While she moved, she began to tilt her head from side to side, the first of many exercises she used to stretch her muscles.

Sam looked up from his books and watched as Buffy began to stretch her arms. One hand pushed the elbow of an outstretched arm towards her chest as she went into a cage along a wall in the library and, when she walked back out carrying a black duffel bag.

"I'm going to get changed, Giles, I'll be right back." She walked out the library doors.

Giles put the books and gloves on the table. First he opened one book then pushed the other toward Sam. Intrigued, Sam opened the book and read the first few words that were written on the inside cover. It was an address. Uncertainly, he looked up at Giles, his face asking a silent question. Giles nodded.

"You can borrow any of my books for as long as you want. If you haven't finished and it is time for you to leave, take any books with you. When you are finished, then you can just mail it back to me."

Sam looked down at the book and nodded.

"Thank you," he said, "I will return it as soon as I am finished with it." It wouldn't be breaking his father's rule exactly, he thought to himself and immediately felt guilty. He made a vow to make sure he read the book as soon as possible.

"Keep it for as long as you want, Sam. I just thought it would answer some questions you had. My father gave this to me, when I was your age. I was not to begin my formal Watcher training for several more years, but my father was anxious to share his legacy with me. This is my journal from the training I had with him."

Buffy strode back into the Library and slide her bag across the polished floor into the big metal cage; she sported the same outfit of sweat pants and tank top that Sam remembered from his first meeting with her. Starting with her head, she systematically stretched every major muscle group in her body and, as she did her final stretch, Giles walked and stood in front of Buffy. Giles lowered his goalie mask over his face while she stood still while she waited for a signal from the Watcher.

Alert, Sam closed the book on the table and sat up, his eyes on the Watcher and Slayer.

Giles looked at Buffy and spoke, "No weapons today, just a simple exercise in combat."

Abruptly, he shoved the Slayer backwards. One of his feet had hooked behind hers, but instead of falling, she rolled backwards into a handstand and flipped onto her feet.

"So it is one of those fights where you don't fair?" Buffy chuckled.

"Correct. You can never assume one will fight fair, Buffy." Giles picked up a staff and swung it behind his back.

"So, you can use weapons, but I can't?"

Giles paused. "YOU are the weapon Buffy. Never forget that. In every fight, use every resource that is available to you, but always remember, you are a weapon unlike any other." Quickly, Giles tripped her again with his staff.

Sam watched the duo as they worked; Giles used every trick to knock her off of her feet while the blonde Slayer evaded and disarmed her Watcher. After he grabbed another weapon off of a nearby chair, Sam noticed that there were other weapons placed all over the room. Once she disarmed him, he would work his way to another weapon. She made no effort to get a weapon for her own defense.

After fifteen minutes, while Giles' breaths became more audible form the exertion, Sam realized that this was not a workout for the Slayer, instead, it was more of a lesson. As Giles had intended, she fought with no weapon other than her hands and deflected or evaded every blow that Giles dealt. Giles did not hold back, each attempt was made with the full force of his strength.

It did not take long for Sam to realize that the opposite was true with Buffy. He was positive that she held back from Giles. As he watched them attack and defend, Sam wondered what was more difficult for her – an all-out attack or holding back.

After another few minutes, Giles held up his hand. She stopped.

"Water." Giles panted. Tiredly, he waved his hand at her. "Carry on."

Buffy looked around the room. When she spied a staff, she picked it up and looked at Sam, a mischievous smile on her face.

"Bored yet?" she asked Sam as she expertly twirled the staff. Incredulous, Sam looked at her and slowly shook his head.

"Do you trust me?" She asked.

Trust no one… as the Winchester rule echoed through his head Sam realized that, for the first time, he trusted someone outside of his family and Bobby…someone he hardly knew. He nodded.

She walked toward Sam and held out her hand. His palm slowly slid onto hers, her hand felt small and delicate as his fingers clasped around her. Then, it happened. Again.

It's happening again. She thought as she pulled him toward the center of the room. What is that?

"Don't move," she cautioned "if you stay very still, you won't get hurt. Trust me." He nodded. Her palm tingled and reluctantly, she let go and backed away from Sam.

"Are you sure?" she asked him.

For the first time, Sam spoke. "I trust you."

As he slowly drew in a deep breath, she raised the staff and started to spin it. The movement made the air whistle and move around him as it sliced through the air. She spun the staff around her body and it spun faster and faster.

With no warning, she sprinted towards him; the staff raised high and swung towards his head.

It took every Winchester bone and nerve in his body to resist flinching as the staff stopped mere inches from his temple. When she continued, he looked ahead as she moved all around him. She flipped, she rolled and she attacked him with the staff-sometimes from the front, sometimes from the side and a couple of times she attacked from behind but never once did she allow the staff to hit him.

He did not move. When she was in his direct line of vision, he couldn't help but look at her, at the fine sheen of perspiration covered her body. He knew the only time she held back was when she stopped the staff from killing him.

Gradually, she started to slow her attacks. She flipped one last time, landed in front of him, and planted the staff on the floor.

She looked at Sam.

"Thank you for that. I can't do that with Willow or Xander; they trust me, but they wouldn't have the ability to stand still."

Sam relaxed his body and looked at the Slayer. He tried not to think about her body covered was with sweat, how her hand had felt in his earlier or what she would do if he grabbed her and-

Once again Sam stopped his thoughts.

"Can you teach me that?" he asked her.

"I don't think I can teach you that" she gave a small, self-conscious laugh "but I can teach you the basics with the staff."

Sam reached out his hand to her arm. Slowly, his hand slid down to her hand, over her fingers and grasped the staff. They looked at each other, his eyes had the same question that she thought showed in hers. Then he stepped back. He began to spin the staff, easily passing it back and forth between his hands.

"I know the basics."

Buffy grinned again and laughed then tilted her palm face up and beckoned toward him.

"Well, c'mon then." she raised a challenging eyebrow. "Show me what you got, Winchester."

Sam took a breath and hoped he wouldn't embarrass himself.

He didn't bother with a human meat suit this time. He directed his essence below ground, through the tunnels and, because he still needed a body, he pushed into the vampire nearest to The Master.

The Master stood before him, on the other side of the veil and greeted him with a delighted smile, instantly recognizing his unique yellow eyes.

"Old friend…our time is near!" The Master exclaimed jovially.

"The plan is still in effect?" He asked the elder vampire carefully. He was not afraid of him, but he didn't want to listen to the Master go on a whining rant if things were…awry.

"You doubt me, old friend?" The vampire pouted.

He sighed. He decided to be spiteful and put the vampire in his place – he was, after all was said and done, just a vampire.

"Tell me about the Harvest. According to Father's time-line, we are behind schedule." He was rewarded when the Master paled.

I seem to have lost my beta...any volunteers?

Stay Tuned…