Teacher's Pet
Buffy was sat beside in class and Willow, Caitlin and Xander were sat on the table next to hers, Caitlin was doodling on her work whilst Willow was writing down everything the teacher, Dr. Gregory said, Buffy was taking some notes but not to the extent that Willow was and Xander day dreaming. The class was dark because Dr. Gregory was giving a slideshow on bugs. Buffy turned her head and noticed Xander, "Xander you're drooling" she whispered but she didn't get a response "Xander!" she said a little louder. Xander shook his head and looked at Buffy to see what she wanted and Buffy indicated the corner of her mouth "You've got a little..." she trailed off and he understood what she meant so he wiped the drool from his face.
"Their ancestors were here long before we were, their progeny will be here long after we are gone, the simple and ubiquitous ant," Dr. Gregory finished speaking and shut of the projector so he would have the attention of the students and no the projection, he turned the lights on and walked up the aisle between the tables to pick on one of the students. "Now, If you read the homework you should know the two ways that ants communicate," he looked around and stopped by Xander who thought the teacher was going to ask him but he spun and leant on it to face Buffy,
"Miss Summers."
Caitlin looked up thinking he was speaking to her but saw his back to her and smirked over at her sister. Buffy hadn't done the homework so she was put on the spot and noticed everyone was looking at her "Ways that ants communicate," she made it sound like she was trying to remember. The teacher nodded his head and made a sound of agreement, "With other ants" she clarified trying to stall for time to think.
Dr. Gregory prompted her "From the homework," he could see she was struggling to come up with something, "Ants are communicating..." he started her off almost feeling sorry for her.
Buffy saw Caitlin indicating for her attention, "Um, uh, uh..." she was still stalling until Caitlin showed her what she needed to know, Caitlin stroked Willow's back and the redhead tensed slightly, Caitlin was indicating 'touch' and Buffy said what it showed "Touch..." Dr. Gregory nodded. Buffy looked at Caitlin again, "And, um..." Caitlin was sniffing Willow trying to indicate 'smell' but she got confused "B.O.?" Willow looked offended when Buffy said that but the blonde was confused.
Most of the students laughed at what she had said but Caitlin looked frustrated with Buffy, one of the students spoke up and made more students laugh, "That would be 'touch' and 'smell'. Miss Summers, Is there anything else Miss Summers would like to tell you?"
"No sir I'm good," Caitlin responded easily not in the slightest bit embarrassed she was caught helping her sister out, some of the class chuckled slightly at the interaction but then bell rang and the students started to pack up their stuff.
"Alright, chapters six through eight by tomorrow, people," he stood himself up but kept his focus on Buffy, "Can I see you for a moment?" Buffy nodded silently hoping she wasn't in any trouble.
Caitlin, Xander and Willow walked out of class, "see you two ladies at lunch" Xander said as he walked off to his next class. Willow and Caitlin had theirs together, English literature so they made their way over to the class.
"Think she'll be in trouble?" Willow asked as she took her seat at the front of the class and Caitlin sat next to her. They pretty much sat next to each other in all of their classes because the teachers wanted them to be at the front away from distracting teenagers who would rather waste their lesson time messing around.
The young teenager stopped for a second to think, "I doubt it, he seems like a pretty cool teacher." Which was true because he seemed like the only teacher to give Buffy a chance because of her record and she wasn't stupid she knew the teachers blamed Buffy for her being expelled from Hemery as well.
~GU:CM~
Caitlin was holding Willow's hand as her, Willow and Buffy entered Bronze. Xander was quick to descend on them, "Babes!" they all turned around to see Xander coming at them with his arms wide open and grabbed all three of them in a hug.
"Why are you hugging us like this?" Caitlin questioned as she wiggled trying to break out of his arms feeling slightly uncomfortable.
Buffy backed up her sister's question with one of her own, "What are you doing?" she wasn't entirely comfortable in that position either but wasn't trying to break out as she didn't want to hurt him.
"Work with me here. Blayne had the nerve to question my manliness, I'm just gonna give him a visual," Xander explained to the two blondes hoping to score masculinity points as well as popularity points for getting them to think he was seeing the two new girls.
"Ugh fine," Caitlin said as she grabbed the back of Xander's neck and brought him down for a big showing off passionate kiss hoping it would indeed score him some big points. Buffy and Willow looked on with wide eyes and dropped jaws at Caitlin's behaviour, eventually the 14 year old pulled back and looked up at the 16 year old male, "don't expect me to do that again" Xander could only nod. After his brain started again he looked back at Blayne, gave him a 'thumbs up' and put his arm back around Willow and Caitlin. The two boys seemed really impressed that Xander had pulled the two new girls.
"I don't believe it," Buffy said in a distracted voice and she started to head over to a corner of the bronze, Caitlin noticed who she had spotted and started to frown.
Xander thought she was referring to the guts questioning his manliness, "I know, and after all my conquests" He turned back and saw Buffy heading off and saw who she was walking towards, "Who's that?" he asked no one in particular.
Seeing Caitlin wasn't going to answer Willow spoke up, "That must be Angel! I think?" and from them look on Caitlin's face she would say her guess would be right; the young teenager didn't seem to like Angel all that much.
"That weird guy that warned her about all the vampires?" Xander asked just to clarify; Caitlin tilted her head to look at him and could practically see jealousy in his eyes.
"That's him, I'll bet you" Willow was confident in her assessment from the description Buffy had given them and to the annoyed look on Caitlin's face.
"Yeah that's him," Caitlin sighed as she walked off to the bar to get some drinks in because honestly she didn't want to see Angel something about him sent chills down her back so she didn't really trust him.
Xander didn't pay too much attention to Caitlin going off because he was still eyeing Angel up "Well, he's buff! She never said anything about him being buff!" Angel was quiet muscular and his outfit showed it off rather well.
"You think he's buff?" Willow asked as she looked Angel over and could see where Xander was coming from, she saw Caitlin handing some money over to the bar keeper and wanted to go help bring the drinks to a table.
Xander nodded, "He's a very attractive man! How come *that* never came up?" he asked as he looked at Willow who just shrugged maybe Buffy didn't want them to know she had a little crush on the mysterious male. He looked back just in time to see Angel draping his jacket over Buffy, "Oh, right! Give her your jacket. It's a balmy night, no one needs to be trading clothing out there!" the jealousy was really showing through and he didn't even notice when Willow disappeared from his side.
Willow stood beside Caitlin to wait for the drinks "Xander's freaking out," she felt sorry for her friend but she couldn't help him with his crush with Buffy especially if Caitlin had kissed him that way and he was still following Buffy. Willow felt a spike of jealousy go through her at remembering the kiss but shock it off as she grabbed two of the four drinks whilst Caitlin got the other two.
Caitlin headed for a table leaving Xander to fume over Angel in the middle of the room "Well he does have a major crush on Buff but it won't go anywhere so he'll have to get used to it Wills," she shrugged not really knowing what to say it wasn't exactly the first time it had happened and probably wouldn't be the last because all Halliwell's were extremely attractive and well built. Caitlin looked out onto the dance floor, "You wanna dance?" she asked Willow.
Chewing on her nails Willow watched Xander stomp over to their table and moodily start on his drink "Okay," she squeaked out to the question and placed her hand in Caitlin's.
Arriving on the dance floor Caitlin placed Willow in front of her and placed one hand on Willows hips and kept the her hand in Willows and started to get her into a rhythm as she had noticed that Willow seemed to struggle finding a rhythm but once she got going she was pretty good at it.
Angel had gone so Buffy went over to where she had seen Willow and Caitlin sit earlier and joined Xander in watching Caitlin laugh with Willow on the dance floor, it was their second song and they seemed to be in sync with each other but then Caitlin was a professional dancer so going along with the slightly older girl wasn't too difficult. "What did Angel want?" the brown haired male asked without taking his eyes from the other two girls.
"Warning me about a Fork guy or some kind of demon anyways," she replied as she put her drink down but continued to watch her sister smiling and her face slipped into a sad smile missing her sister's carefree attitude.
"What's dangerous about a guy with a fork?" Xander looked at Buffy with a confusion showing, didn't sound too dangerous to him unless the fork was to eat brains or eyes then that was on the scale of gross and wrong.
Buffy looked at Xander like he had lost his mind "Not a guy with a fork, a Fork Guy, Claw that looks like a fork or something," Xander made an 'ah' sound to show he got it and as Buffy turned to look back at Willow and Caitlin messing around on the dance floor, Xander slipped into a daydream involving him and Buffy making out in the library. It was good to be a male with two hot blonde friends, suddenly his fantasy changed to Caitlin pinning Willow to the wall and... "Xander!" Xander shook his head and saw Willow and Caitlin in front of him smirking, "having fun?" Buffy asked sounding amused; he shot her a confused look as if to say 'what are you talking about?' "You've been drooling for the past hour" Buffy explained and Xander blushed causing all three girls to laugh at him, maybe it wasn't so good to have all female friends after all a male would of asked what he was daydreaming about.
~GU:CM~
Buffy and Giles walk towards the school discussing what Angel had told her the night before at the Bronze, "That's all he said? Fork Guy?" Giles turned the apple slightly in his hand in through, the information wasn't very useful but a warning was warning and so they could now be on the lookout for a demon with a fork like hand or claw.
Buffy nodded "That's all Cryptic Guy said: Fork Guy," she had to say it wasn't much and Mr cryptic wasn't willing to make this easy for her or he could not have known what it was that attacked him, that was more likely.
"I think there are too many 'guys' in your life," Giles laughed at his little joke but Buffy didn't look the slightest bit amused, They eventually met Willow who was sat on a bench reading a book before Giles continued, "I'll see what I can find out" he couldn't send the Slayer out to fight a demon without knowing what they were "...God, every day here is the same," Giles complained as he looked up at the sky.
"Bright, sunny, beautiful; however can we escape this torment?" A voice from behind them joked and they saw Caitlin walk up to them and smiled at Giles, who shot her a look for her sarcasm, Willow smiled at her and Caitlin smiled back. Buffy sat down and pulled Caitlin down to fit next to her, she hadn't seen her sister before then as Caitlin had to go off early to get in some swimming before school as she had dance after.
"Really," Giles commented on Caitlin's supposed joke and turned to leave just in time to spot Xander "Good morning," he carried on walking away from the young teenagers who he swore were going to be the death of him
The teenaged male responded to the morning before turning to the girls still sat on the bench, "Guess what I just heard in the office? No Dr. Gregory today. Ergo, those of us who blew off our science homework aren't as dumb as we look," He reached down and flipped Willow's book closed and she had to stop it from sliding off of her lap then shot Xander a dirty look
"What happened, is he sick?" concern for her favourite teacher showing through as Buffy asked.
Xander shook his head "They didn't say anything about sick, something about missing," Xander didn't seem too bothered by the news it was almost common to happen in their town.
"He's missing?" Caitlin asked sounding worried; she guessed that something had happened to Dr. Gregory because he didn't seem like the type to slack off or run away.
"Well, let me think. Um, the cheerleaders were modelling their new short skirts, that kinda got... Yeah! Yeah, they said missing" he said suddenly straightening up trying not to seem like a pervert even though he completely was, he caught the girls exchanging looks "Which is bad?" he didn't seem to be following their chain of thought
"If something's wrong, yeah!" Buffy spoke up again, he was the only teacher that actually liked her and if he was missing then something must have happened to him.
Willow decided to finally add something "He's one of the only teachers that doesn't think Buffy's a felon."
"I'm really sorry, I'm sure he'll..." Xander started but something caught his eye and as he looked up he saw a new teacher walking towards them "I, uh, huh...Uh, huh... huh..." all three girls look to see what's got his brain short circuit.
"Eww," Caitlin said as she caught sight of the teacher, now Caitlin liked women but not the kind that applied too much make up to have themselves noticed and she was completely fake.
"Eww?" Buffy asked well aware that her sister preferred the same sex, she didn't really know what her sister's type was because she was too busy trying not to let her old friends find out so they wouldn't terrorise her sister but they had anyways and it led to...
Caitlin interrupted Buffy's thoughts as she responded to Buffy's question, "Yeah eww she is just so not my type and that make up is caked on, only hormonal idiots like that one there," she pointed to Xander "Would think she is a sex bomb."
Willow focused on Caitlin, "you like girls?" she didn't sound disgusted just curios so Caitlin gave her a nod "Cool," Willow responded before focusing back on Miss fake as Caitlin had mentally dubbed her.
Xander saw the new teacher walking towards him in slow motion and he took in all of her features, she came right up to Xander, who just stared at her "Could you help me?" Caitlin coughed when the perfume hit her nose and turned her head towards Buffy and saw Buffy scrunching her nose up as well as her senses were far better than Caitlin's own.
"Uuuuuuhhhhhh... Yes!" Xander answered finally and seemed not to realise he was making an ass of himself.
Willow and Buffy gave each other an amused look, Caitlin put her head on her sisters shoulder trying to get away from the smell and Buffy put her head on her sisters inhaling her mint scent instead of the over powerful perfume of the teacher.
"I'm looking for Science... 109," she looked up the class and room so the young male would be able to help her find it.
"Oh! It's, um..." Xander started to look around showing the girls that his brain was still short circuiting and he had forgotten the way to the class, "I go there every day!" Xander smiled at her to try and buy time for him to remember, the teacher laughed finding what he had said funny. Finally giving up trying to remember on his own Xander turned to the girls pleadingly "Oh, God, where is it?" but they decided to play with him and shrug showing that they didn't know.
A dark haired teenager came up to introduce himself to the teacher "Hi! Blayne Mall. I'm going there right now. It's not far from the varsity field where I took All-City last year," all girls dug Varsity players so he smiled smugly knowing she was going to go with him.
"Oh! Thank you, Blayne!" the teacher replied so her and Blayne left for the class leaving Xander following them with his eyes looking longingly at the teacher.
The now despondent male turned to face his friends "It's funny how the Earth never opens up and swallows you when you want it to," The girls nodded their heads and gave each other a smile.
Caitlin finally removed her head from Buffy's shoulder and stood up taking a large breath "Fresh air, precious fresh air how I've missed thee," she said and she got a confused look from Willow and Xander but a chuckle from Buffy, "God how can one woman wear so much perfume I was choking on fumes!" she exclaimed. Buffy and Willow got up and started walking towards lesson, Buffy could understand what Caitlin was talking about but Willow had luckily been too far away to get too much of the perfume mix with her air supply. Xander gave Caitlin a curious look before following the other two with Caitlin right behind him.
The foursome walked into class with Xander and Caitlin arguing over how lots of makeup was pretty, Willow was next to Buffy just listening to Xander's very lame arguments. Willow saw Buffy lean down and pick something up "What's wrong?" she asked seeing Buffy's frown as she stood back up.
"Dr. Gregory dropped his glasses... Why wouldn't he pick them up?" she asked as she set the glasses on the lab table and gave the teacher a strange glance as she walked to her stool, something about the new teacher gave her the wiggins and that was never a good thing.
The teacher turned to face the class and got a good look at everyone, her attention mostly focused on the boys so Caitlin rolled her eyes and got some plain paper out of her bag so she could sketch throughout the lesson. Willow leant over to Caitlin slightly to see what she was doing; Xander had her attention solely on the new teacher. "My name is Natalie French, and I will be substituting for Dr. Gregory,"
"Do you know when he's coming back?" Buffy asked wanting her favourite teacher to be back soon but something deep inside of her was telling her that he wasn't coming back ever.
"No, I don't, um," Miss French looked down at the rooster for the class "Buffy, they just call and tell me where they want me," she explained with a bright smile like it didn't matter. Caitlin looked over at her sister and noticed the sad frown on her face, Buffy felt eyes on her so she looked over and met Caitlin's gaze and gave her a small smile trying to show she was alright.
"I'll tell you where I want you," Blayne whispers in a low voice but not low enough and most of the class hear. Caitlin made a face of disgust at the thought of having Miss French anywhere near her.
"You really don't like women like that do you?" Willow was genuinely curious at Caitlin's sexuality, she could admit that Caitlin was very attractive and she assumed that males fell at her feet.
Caitlin smirked at the question and shook her head "No I don't," she didn't elaborate because where she wasn't ashamed of her sexuality she didn't go around advertising it either. She didn't want everyone to know because of what happened last time a bunch of narrow minded teenagers found out.
Miss French smiled at Blain "Yes, His notes tell me you were right in the middle of insect life." She picked up a mantis mounted in a clear plastic box, "The praying mantis is a fascinating creature forced to live alone, who can tell me why? Buffy?" Miss French put the mantis back down onto the table.
Buffy looked at the bug before turning her attention to the teacher "Well, the words 'bug-ugly' kinda spring to mind," Caitlin grinned at her sisters remark and most of the class had to muffle their laughter.
Miss French looked annoyed with Buffy's response "There is nothing ugly about these unique creatures, the reason they live alone is because they're cannibals!"
"Eww!" Buffy remarked full of disgust at the thought of being a cannibal. She wasn't the only one who looked disgusted because everyone in class looked disgusted as well.
"Oh, well, it's hardly their fault! It's the way nature designed them: noble, solitary and prolific. Over 1800 species worldwide, and in nearly all of them the female is larger *and* more aggressive than the male," her smile was quiet scary as she seemed pleased with the topic they were on. "The California Mantis lays her eggs, and then finds a mate..." She looked at Xander who stared right back at her "...to fertilize them. Once he's played his part, she covers the eggs in a protective sack and attaches it to a leaf or twig out of danger. Now, if she's done her job correctly, in a few months she'll have several hundred offspring," She made her way back to the front of the class and put down her notebook, "You know, we should make some model egg sacks for the science fair, who would like to help me do that after school?" All the boys raised their hands, desperate to help the new hot teacher "Good!" she seemed pleased with so many willing volunteers.
"Is it me or does she seem way too interested in this bug?" Caitlin whispered to Willow as Miss French picked out Blayne to help her. Willow nodded having come to the same conclusion but then she was a science teacher it was her job to be interested in the subject.
~GU:CM~
"Hot dog surprise, be still my heart," Buffy said as all four of them were lining up for the cafeteria food. Caitlin was pulling various faces, she was more expressive with her face than her words so Willow was usually always looking at her face or that was what she was going to tell people if they asked.
"Call me old-fashioned, I don't want any more surprises in my hot dogs" Willow commented from her place behind Buffy in the queue
Caitlin had brought her own lunch because she knew that high school food was mysterious and disgusting, "I think I'll eat the lunch I made at home." Buffy pouted because Caitlin had offered to make her lunch the night before but she had declined saying she would get something at school.
Xander hadn't being paying attention to what the girls had been discussing "I wonder what she sees in me? It's probably the quiet good looks coupled with a certain smoky magnetism." Willow raised her eyebrows at him and Caitlin was wondering why he was so delusional. Willow turned to Buffy and they smiled at how love struck teenager seemed. "Miss French," Xander said her name dreamily and his eyes glazed over even more. "You three are probably a little young to understand what an older woman would see in a younger man."
"Oh, I understand," Buffy said as if she was going to be nice to him and actually agree with him but Caitlin could see a gleam in her eye and knew what was coming and she smiled.
Xander nodded believing she truly did understand "Good!"
Buffy smirked as the male walked straight into her trap "The younger man is too dumb to wonder why an older woman can't find someone her own age, and too desperate to care about the surgical improvements!" the older girl sounded very serious and was good enough to pull Xander from his x-rated day dreams to look at her
Xander seemed taken aback by Buffy's obvious knowledge of older women "What surgical improvements?" he asked as her surveyed the three females in front of him, Caitlin gives him a sympathetic look and slyly points upwards signalling towards her face trying to say she had her face worked on.
Willow turned to face Buffy giving her an understanding look; she looked to be able to tease Xander with the two sisters "Well, he is young."
Buffy shook her head feinting disappointment "And so terribly innocent!"
"Hey, those that can, do. Those that can't *laugh* at those who... can do" Xander finished lamely whilst now thinking of what Miss French could really look like, for all he really knew she was in her 50's or 60's.
Blayne came up next to Xander, getting lots of food obviously stocking up for something he was going to be doing later "Gotta carb up for my one-on-one with Miss French today. When's yours? Oh, right, tomorrow. You came in second, I came in first. Guess that's what they call natural selection." Blayne left but not before Caitlin grunted in disgust and looked away, Buffy let out a breathless chuckle at how typical males were.
"Guess it's what they call a rehearsal!" Xander said to the girls about Blayne spending time with Miss French, "Rehearsal..." laughed lamely at his own joke and the girls smiled because Xander was so far into Miss French that he couldn't see clearly.
Buffy went over to get some utensils and as she walked back Cordelia came in through the exit and bumped into her, "Excuse you!" she said snobbishly and caught Caitlin's attention. Caitlin started to go over to Cordelia to give her a piece of her mind but Willow caught her wrist and noticed the tense muscles but never let her go. Cordelia went behind the counter, showing a piece of paper to the cafeteria workers "Medically prescribed lunch, my doctor ships it daily... I'll only be here as long as I can hold my breath," she walked over to the refrigerator and screamed as she saw what was inside. Buffy, Caitlin and Willow ran to see what was wrong, Cordelia backed away from the fridge talking hysterically to anyone who could hear her "His head! His head! Oh, my God, where's his head?"
The girls arrived to see what was inside, Buffy stared in disbelief at the headless body stuffed into the fridge, and Xander was close behind and had to look away when he saw the contents. Willow looked squeamish and she started to pale so Caitlin turned her into her shoulder so she could look away from the body. Caitlin leant closer to look at the name on the body, the name on the lab coat read "Dr. Gregory" she whispered and looked to her sister.
Buffy turned from the body towards the others, "we should go now" she said tearfully as she started to head away from the fridge. Xander looked at Caitlin and she nodded her head in Buffy's direction trying to get him to follow Buffy, Xander nodded and started after the older blonde and Caitlin was quick to follow as she turned Willow again and led her from the cafeteria.
~GU:CM~
The foursome arrived in the library and Giles came out of his office to see Buffy crying and the others very sad faces, "God lord what's happened?" he asked sounding concerned.
Buffy and Willow walked over and sat on the steps whilst Xander stood by the table and Caitlin sat on the counter, "we found out why Dr Gregory isn't here" Caitlin said to his question but couldn't find it in her to elaborate she really liked his as well because he never bored her.
"Oh and why is he not here?" Giles had noticed his absence in the teacher lounge and had found out he hadn't turned up but he didn't know him well enough to make assumptions.
"He lost his head" Willow murmured and to Giles it seemed as if she was trying to make a joke, the adult took his glasses off and cleaned them.
"Literally," Xander made a slice motion across his neck showing Giles that they weren't trying to make a joke and that their teacher had been beheaded.
Giles walked over to the counter and poured a glass of water, he brought it over to Buffy who had stopped crying. "Here, drink this" Giles said as he handed the glass of water over to Buffy who wasn't really paying attention
Buffy idly took the glass from Giles and took a sip "No, thank you," her words contradicted her actions but it was understandable
Xander walked up behind Giles "I've never seen..." Giles looked back at Xander knowing what the younger male was going to say but let. "I mean, I've never seen anything like... That was new," Xander continued sounding and looking shaken up by the events that had transpired
"Who would wanna hurt Dr. Gregory?" Willow asked sounding very upset, sure she knew about death but she'd never expected to witness like that.
"Uh, he didn't have any enemies on the staff that I'm aware of, he was a civilized man. I liked him," Giles stated as he looked over the three teenagers in front of him. He glanced and looked over to Caitlin who was led on the counter with one leg bent at the knee, she didn't seem to be faring so well because her body was tense, he would speak to her soon if she didn't speak up.
"So did I," Buffy had truly liked him because he hadn't treated her and her sister any differently because of their records, unlike her sister she wasn't a genius so the teacher didn't forget her record like they did Caitlin.
Willow looked up at Giles eyes filled with sadness and determination "Well, we're gonna find out who did this. We'll find them and we'll stop them," she sounded so confident of her abilities and it was a nice improvement for Giles as Willow was usually so shy.
"Count on it," Buffy matched her determination and sadness with a little anger as well.
"What do we know?" Giles asked not wanting them to get a head of themselves and get the wrong person or expose themselves, well expose himself and Buffy
"Oh, not a lot, um..." Buffy tried to compose herself so she sniffed and wiped a tear from her nose "He was killed here on campus" Buffy finished because that was all they knew as they had only just found the body
"I'm guessing the last day we saw him" Caitlin said from where she was led, she didn't look at any of them because she was actually starting to tear up for Dr. Gregory's death and what his death was making her remember in vivid detail.
They all turned to the young teenager, "How do you work that out?" Giles asked and from his angle he could see the tears starting to work their way out of her eyes and wondered if the teacher's death was finally getting to her.
Caitlin shrugged and covered her eyes with her arm so she could cry and not get asked if she was alright, "He didn't change his clothing" her voice was surprisingly steady.
Everyone was silent for a while thinking on that fact and the possibility that it was someone who attended school or worked there but Xander eventually spoke up "This is a question that no one particularly wants to hear, but... where did they put his head?" the brunette shuddered as he finished his question because he didn't want to open up a closet and have the head throw itself at him.
Willow paled even more having the same thoughts as Xander and it wasn't a pretty image, "Good point, I *didn't* wanna hear that," she said as she looked down trying to expel the image.
"Angel!" Buffy got up as she said the mysterious man's name loudly "He warned me that something was coming," she took another sip of water as she walked over to the counter where she put the glass down and affectionately started to rub her sisters stomach hoping to draw her out of the shell she had put herself in.
Giles remembered the conversation he had with Buffy that morning before Caitlin had come "Yes. Yes he did, didn't he? I wish I knew what he meant, I've been trying to gather more information about the Master, our, uh, local vampire king. There was one oblique reference to a, a, a vampire who displeased the Master and cut his hand off in penance," Giles had been researching most of the day because the group in front of him seemed to be the only ones who came to the library and it was mainly Willow and Caitlin from them as well as they came during free period.
"Cut off his hand and replaced it with a fork?" Buffy questioned needing to know if that was the guy she was looking for because if he was then the vampire was going to be old and experienced.
Giles shook his head, "I don't know what he replaced it with" he admitted as it was very vague references.
"So, why would he come after a teacher?" Xander couldn't really see the link between a punished vampire and a science teacher.
Giles nodded "I'm not certain he did; there was an incident two nights ago..." he paused as he walked over to the counter, picked up a newspaper and stood beside Buffy so he could see if Caitlin was responding to Buffy. "...uh, involving a homeless person in Weatherly Park, He was practically shredded, but, uh, nothing like Dr. Gregory" Giles continued as he skim read the article again.
Buffy looked at the paper as she continued with her ministrations "Fork Guy doesn't do heads," she commented before focusing back on Caitlin who removed the arm from her face to look at the others, you couldn't really tell she had been crying unless you were close enough to notice the slight redness around her eyes.
"Not historically," Giles responded as he locked eyes with Caitlin who met them without hostility like she usually did.
"And Dr. Gregory's blood wasn't drained" Caitlin added as an afterthought a vampire was bound to drain the blood from their victims bodies.
The male teenager looked slightly panicked as he spoke up next "So there's something else out there? Besides Silverware man? Oh, this is fun, we're on Monster Island," his voice was a mix between sarcasm and panic.
"We're on a Hellmouth," Caitlin said as an explanation twinged with a little bit of 'duh' in her voice "It's a centre of mystical convergence," she knew what a Hellmouth was, some part of her could faintly feel it.
"Guess it's the same thing," Buffy said as she looked at Xander seeing if he had caught the tone of her sister's voice but he seemed to be none the wiser which she was glad for because Caitlin wasn't in a good mood and it would be bad if her mood escalated past what it already was.
"Well, unpleasant things do gravitate here, it's true, but, uh, we don't know there's anything besides this chap, He's still our likely suspect," they had no other suspect so he was as good as any at the moment.
Buffy turned from Caitlin needing to get some information and maybe be deceitful about it "Where was that guy killed? Weatherly Park?" she asked as she wanted to avenge her teacher's death.
Giles advanced toward the slayer, "Buffy I know you're upset, but, uh, this is no time to go hunting, not until we know more," when he saw the look on Buffy's face he added "please promise me you won't do anything rash?" they didn't know anything about the vampire so until they did she needed to not go after him in case he was more powerful then they assumed.
"Cross my heart," Buffy answered. Caitlin snorted at her sister's answer and jumped off of the counter and quickly stalked out of the library, it was Buffy's fault she was in the mood she had worked herself into. Buffy ran a hand through her hair knowing what her sister was so moody for.
"Is Caitlin alright?" Giles asked he had never seen Caitlin be so moody with Buffy or lash out at her sister so this behaviour seemed strange to the older man.
Buffy looked to where her sister had exited and shrugged not really knowing if she was alright, "Haven't a clue but the sister radar is hitting warning section, so I think she's flipping at me."
~GU:CM~
Buffy walked with Dawn into the house and headed straight for Caitlin's room hoping that she was there but as she entered the room she saw most of her sister's belongings on the floor and knew that Caitlin had taken her frustrations out on her things by throwing them on the floor. Buffy sighed as she heard Dawn enter the room, "What did you do this time?" Dawn asked already knowing that it was Buffy who had pissed Caitlin off because Prue wasn't around.
"I don't know," she answered honestly as she headed out of the room and Dawn followed because both of them knew Caitlin wouldn't want them to clean up her mess. Buffy entered her room and slumped onto her bed, Dawn sat beside Buffy waiting for her to explain what had happened, "we found one of the teachers stuffed into a fridge and Caitlin became really quiet and she even cried then she just started acting really off and then she ran."
"JD," was all Dawn said as she stood up and made her way to her room to get on with her school work. Buffy watched Dawn leave and understanding filled her face; of course it was JD her sister had found him dead. The slayer stood up and went downstairs to get a snack, her sister had blamed her for JD's death and still did so it did explain Caitlin's mood. She just wished that Caitlin would talk to her about it and she remembered how Caitlin had decided to go and spend a few weeks at the manor two weeks after the incident, when she came back she had been jumpy and refused to let people touch her. Buffy put her head down and sighed now knowing what was going to happen between her and Caitlin anymore. She sat like that for a while not knowing how long but she looked up when she felt eyes on her, she looked up and her eyes met the identical ones of her sister.
Caitlin had come to the house for her to get ready for dance seeing as she had calmed down from earlier and was ready to see Buffy again, she didn't know how long she would blame Buffy but she was working through it. The dancer walked through the kitchen intent on going out of the back door because going out the back gate would be quicker, as soon as she stepped into the kitchen she saw Buffy sat with her head down. Caitlin stared at Buffy noticing that she was slumped in defeat and she suddenly felt bad for taking it out on her sister, the older blonde had suffered with guilt for JD's death ever since it happened. If only Buffy knew what had happened just before the young man's death. Once she linked eyes with her sister she could see the tiredness and defeat in her sister's eyes, she couldn't bring herself to tell her sister that she forgave her and didn't want to show it because her best friend had been killed and it was Buffy's fault, her emotions were all over the place and it was time to go. The younger blonde turned and left the kitchen without a single word to Buffy which was so unlike Caitlin. Buffy stared at the back door contemplating what it meant that her sister wasn't talking to her again and she obviously didn't want her near her, "Buffy!" the oldest child jumped at the sound of her mother's voice.
"When did you get in?" Buffy asked and then looked at the clock noticing she had been sat in the kitchen for close to an hour and her mother was meant to be home and probably had been for a few minutes.
Joyce looked concerned the house was quiet and her eldest was sat staring at back door when she walked in, "Buffy what's wrong?" she asked getting straight to the point usually it was Caitlin that sat and stared into space whilst Buffy talked to her constantly to keep her in the present.
The Slayer dropped her head to the table with a thump "something happened at school today and Caitlin started thinking about JD and she's all with the blamey and the ignorey attitude and I'm worried," Buffy admitted as she lifted her head up and watched her mother's face pale.
"JD?" Joyce asked to clear it up and Buffy nodded, Joyce grabbed her keys and headed to her purse pulling out some money and putting it by the phone "Order some Pizza for all of us and if Caitlin and I aren't back by the time it gets here start without us."
Buffy watched her mother rush out of the house after Caitlin and blinked slowly "That was strange," she muttered to herself, their mother usually left Caitlin to calm down on her own if she left the house and she had never run after her like that.
~GU:CM~
Caitlin walked into the library and scuffing her feet on the floor, her head was down and she was wearing headphones over her flat tongued baseball cap. Giles saw her as soon as she entered the library and put his book down on the counter, he watched as she jumped up onto the counter and led down much as she had yesterday. He didn't say much and not just because she had her music in, he had observed her behaviour and had a sense of when to leave her alone so instead he handed her a harmless book written in Latin. Giles knew all four of the teenagers schedules off by heart and had seen some of Caitlin's Latin and was impressed, "Thanks Giles...Buffy went out last night."
Giles nodded his head even though she wasn't looking at him. The two sat alone in silence for almost twenty minutes before Giles went off the make a cup of tea and soon after he returned Buffy came walking in through the library doors and sighed when she noticed Caitlin led on the desk bobbing her head away to music. Giles looked up from the book he was reading "You went hunting last night."
Buffy shot Caitlin a look who pointedly ignored her, she sighed but approached her sister anyways knowing it was stupid for her to be annoyed with Caitlin when she was only looking out for her safety "Yes," Buffy said simply as she ran a hand over Caitlin's stomach showing her she wasn't angry even if Caitlin was still pissed at her.
Giles walked into his office wanting to have the conversation away from Caitlin in case Buffy got annoyed that her little sister had ratted her out. Buffy seemed to know what he was doing and followed behind him. "When you assured me you wouldn't," he took a sip from his mug as he watched for any negative reaction from Buffy. He had been observing the two sisters and had come to a firmer understanding that when one sister was feeling down they would lean on the other and try to get through the situation, with Caitlin being annoyed with Buffy he wasn't sure what was going to happen as it was the first time he had seen it.
Buffy rolled her eyes but didn't outwardly react "Yes, I lied, I'm a bad person, let's move on," she knew getting upset would be useless as they were just looking out for her but it was her job to kill these demons before they hurt someone else and so she needed to be out there patrolling for said demons.
Giles turned away from her to look in his filling cabinet "Did you see someone with a fork?" he couldn't give her too much stick because it was her job he just hated how blasé she was about it sometimes.
"More like a jumbo claw," Buffy corrected she couldn't believe they had been calling it a fork all this time when in no terms was it a fork, forks were small but this thing was massive
Giles turned to face her and subtly looked her over for injures and almost sighed in relief when he didn't see any "Oh. Well, uh, at least you're not hurt," he said acting with practised indifference.
"And I saw something else, something much more interesting than your average run-of-the-mill killer vampire" Buffy continued not noticing his indifferent behaviour and even if she did she had bigger problems than her strange Watcher.
"Oh?" that certainly caught his attention especially if it was stranger than a demon with a massive claw.
"Do you know Miss French, the teacher that's subbing for Dr. Gregory?" Buffy asked without really answering his enquiring tone, she wasn't going to until she knew if he knew the teacher so she didn't have to back track to explain her reasoning.
Giles smiled thinking about the nice substitute teacher "Yes, Yes, she's lovely," he saw Buffy looking at him and he went on to explain "In a, a common, extremely well proportioned way," Giles finished lamely as he started to put some files away.
Buffy nodded knowing that every male seemed to be taken with the new teacher and no one seemed to miss Dr. Gregory "Well, I'm chasing Claw Guy last night, and Miss Well Proportioned is heading home. The Claw Guy takes one look at her and runs screaming for cover,"
The Watcher turned to face Buffy completely and his face filled with confusion "He what? Ran away?" the confusion in his voice matched that on his face, he couldn't think of a logical explanation.
"He was petrified," Buffy added to clear up what she had meant about him running away. Giles blinked "Of Miss French?" his confusion was clear and his need for clarification didn't help Buffy as she needed answers.
Buffy nodded "Uh-huh! So I'm an undead monster that can shave with my hand... How many things am I afraid of?" she asked fearing the worst, demons really didn't run away from other demons unless they were far higher on the food chain or if they were dangerous to them and usually then it could take a while for their flight instincts to over run their fight instincts.
"Not many," Giles confessed a demon with a large claw for a hand would be dangerous to most of the demon community because it would be easy to behead others "And not substitute teachers, as a rule" he said still trying to figure out what Buffy had told him.
"So what's her deal?" Buffy know knew why she had got a weird feeling about the teacher but she had just put it down to looking overly fake but know she was rethinking her assessment.
Giles had to stop himself from shrugging because he knew it wouldn't help and Buffy might call him out on it "I think perhaps it would be a good idea if we kept an eye on her."
Buffy nodded slowly and turned to head off "Then I better get to class," she left the office not waiting to hear if Giles had anything to say. She got back into the main library and noticed Caitlin hadn't stuck around and Buffy swore under her breath, she had wanted to talk to Caitlin but it seemed like Caitlin was still avoiding her.
She left the library and quickly headed to her class trying not to be late, she rushed down the stairs and into the hall her class was in but she doesn't get too far before Principal Flutie stopped her, "You were there. You saw Dr. Gregory, didn't you?" he rushed out and Buffy nodded knowing she couldn't get out of it but she was going to try but before she could open her mouth he cut in, "were you with your sister when Dr. Gregory was found de...found, let's not say dead! Or decapitated, or decomposing, I'd stay away from D-words altogether. But you witnessed the event, so this way, please." Buffy was about to pull out of his grasp to explain how she was late for biology but he didn't let her get a word in again, "I got your sister earlier and she was uncooperative and when I put her in with the counsellor she tried to get out so I had to lock the door."
Buffy stopped in her tracks and Principle Flutie followed soon after, "you put her in with a Counsellor without permission... did you read her file!" Buffy exclaimed and the principle drew back and looked confused, he had only obviously read the bits he wanted to and not the warning their mother had asked to be placed in the file. The blonde started again and hoped she could get to her sister before she did something she would regret, "Caitlin can't be left with a Counsellor without us knowing and *especially* not in a locked room!" Buffy shouted. They arrived at the Counsellor's office and she heard her sister's uneven breathing, she looked at Principle Flutie with a glare and waited for him to unlock the door and as soon as it was unlocked she opened the door almost wrenching it off of the hinges and quickly made her way over to Caitlin and brought her in a hug.
"Excuse me miss but I was having a session with Miss Summers," the Counsellor replied but quickly flinched back when Buffy sent her a glare.
Buffy knelt down beside her sister but turned to the other two in the room; "well if you want to have a session with her either myself or my mother needs to be present" Buffy explained and grabbed a chair so she could be next to her sister to calm both of their nerves.
"I do not, I had a session with your sister last week and neither you nor your mother were present," the Counsellor shot back not liking the teenagers attitude one bit and was glad she had caught her out.
Buffy shook her head and frowned "no but you had a list of things you could not ask Caitlin about that the Head of department gave you because he had cleared it with my mother and I hope you like the warning you got for asking some of them." The Counsellor spluttered at being shown up in front of the Principle and the fact that the teenager knew about the questions meant that Caitlin had spoken to her sister and clearly told her about what she had said about her family.
The talk with the Counsellor had been pointless in the sisters eyes because with both of them together the Counsellor didn't seem to really ask if they were okay just explained stress and nightmares, Buffy wasn't really paying attention because she was listening to what Cordelia was saying in the next room and was utterly confused and surmised Cordelia liked attention and to hear herself speak. Buffy dragged Caitlin to class and she explained what was going on so the both of them ran and when they got to the door they looked in through the door window, "Oh, great, a pop quiz," Buffy muttered and Caitlin's lip twitched with a slight smile.
Both sisters watched as Miss French suddenly straightened up and turned her head 180 degrees so she was looking at the door, both blondes eyes widened and threw themselves away from the door against the wall. "Did ya see that?" Caitlin asked and Buffy nodded eyes still wide and she bounced in excitement "that was so cool," she whispered to her sister and then noticed Buffy raising and eyebrow at her so she forced herself to calm down "also very of the non-human variety," the young teenager added sounding very serious.
"I think we'll wait here for the others, I so don't want to go in there," Buffy crossed her arms and settled in for a wait it was nearing the end of the class anyways and she knew she wouldn't have to wait long but it also meant awkward waiting time with Caitlin if she went back to ignoring her.
Caitlin seemed to know which direction Buffy thoughts had taken so she nudged her lightly and when her big sister turned her head to look at her "are you missing the lesson because of the non-human teacher or the test?" Caitlin asked teasingly and Buffy smirked and shrugged. They waited in silence for a few more minutes before Caitlin spoke up again, "Buffy about yesterday I..." Caitlin didn't get to finish as Buffy grabbed her hand and squeezed it slightly showing that she was forgiven for ignoring her.
Both sisters looked up as the bell rang and hoped that the class was let out quickly so they could get Willow and go to the Library, they didn't wait long as the class was let out fairly quickly and Willow was one of the last ones out of class so when the sisters dragged her away it didn't make much of a scene. Willow looked between both sisters "Where are we going?" she asked as she was being dragged.
"Library something strange is going on," Caitlin responded but didn't really explain. The young teen had left the library soon after Buffy had arrived and then was cornered by the Principle and then saw her substitute teacher turn her neck 180 degrees, she herself wasn't really sure what was going on so to explain would be hard.
Buffy took up where Caitlin left the response "Miss French did something strange with her neck," she hoped that would do for now because she was on a hurry to get to Giles and report to him about her new findings.
"Oh-oh did she do that strange thing when the neck clicks be-because that really grosses me out or maybe she over extended her neck like a crane..." Caitlin placed a hand over Willow's mouth to stop her from babbling and the redhead gave her a grateful look. All three girls entered the library and saw Giles at the table he was clearly researching and not just reading by his stiff posture.
"No, I'm not saying she craned her neck. We are talking full-on Exorcist twist," Buffy clarified now that they were in the library.
Willow pulled a face that clearly stated disgust and horror as she imagined what Buffy had just told her "Ouch!" she stated looking like she wanted to grab her neck but was restraining herself.
"Which reminds me how come Blayne, who worked with her one-on-one yesterday, isn't here today?" Caitlin asked as she looked confused, Blayne may be a jock but he never missed lessons because he didn't want to get kicked off the team so him not being in was confusing.
"Inquiring minds wanna know" Willow responded not really answering the question because she didn't know but she felt like she had to acknowledge Caitlin's question to show she had been heard.
Buffy shrugged not knowing either and she turned to look at Giles "Any luck?" Willow sat down in front of the PC and began a search for anything related to what Buffy had told her on their way to school and the crazy twisting head of their teacher.
"Um, I've not found any creature as yet that strikes terror in a vampire's heart," Giles responded feeling frustrated because he couldn't find anything useful and his curiosity to what Miss French was, was overwhelming and he knew he had to find out.
"Try looking under things that can turn their heads all the way around," Buffy tried to be helpful as she watched Caitlin walking off into the stacks and wondered what she was doing.
Giles looked bewildered by Buffy's statement "Nothing human can do that," he stated and wasn't sure if she was messing with him and being sarcastic or being serious.
Caitlin's voice flooded from the stacks as she tried to help Giles along "No, nothing human there are some insects that can." Buffy's eyes light up at Caitlin trying to defend her from Giles's slightly belittling way of speaking to her.
"Oh my god Cait you're a genius!" Buffy exclaimed suddenly catching Caitlin's train of thought, the teacher had seemed a little too into her bugs and had been offended with what she had said yesterday.
Caitlin smirked as she flicked through the books on bugs as she heard what her sister said and she couldn't help but reply cockily "I know."
"Modest too," Buffy added under her breath and she looked at Giles "Whatever she is, I'm gonna be ready for her," She turned and hopped up the stairs to the stacks to try and find Caitlin.
Giles took off his glasses not sure how to take what Caitlin and Buffy had just said "What are you going to do?" Giles asked wanting to be in the picture again.
Buffy turned to answer him "My homework," she said simply as she continued up into the stacks. Willow looked up at her and smiled thinking that Buffy was actually going to be doing homework whilst everyone else did research and then Willow continued her search. Buffy came running back looking a little lost as she couldn't find Caitlin as her sister had hid wanting to tease Buffy "Where are the books on bugs?"
"What's the matter Buffy can't find me?" Caitlin teased from where she had snuck up behind Buffy, Buffy yelped and spun around making Caitlin laugh hard "I always get you," she got out between laughs.
"Yeah yeah laugh it up," the older sister grumbled good heartedly liking that Caitlin was in a good mood. Giles watched on in shock, he hadn't seen Caitlin either and a quick glance at Willow confirmed that she hadn't seen or heard her either but what was most impressive about it was that Buffy hadn't heard her sister approach with her enhanced senses. Buffy saw Giles's look "What's up Giles?"
"I'm surprised Caitlin snuck up on you," he didn't want to tell her that she wasn't supposed to because with Caitlin in a good mood Buffy would do her job better but it did trouble him slightly that Caitlin could get around with making next to nothing amount of noise, Giles also thought about the upper hand this could give them in a fight.
Caitlin had sobered up at that point and grabbed Buffy's hand "C'mon jumpy let me show you where the books are, you really should learn I mean you spend most of your school time in this room," Caitlin lectured as both of the disappeared from Giles's view.
Buffy came out of the stacks with a book about 10 minutes later "Dig this 'The praying mantis can rotate its head 180 degrees while waiting for its next meal to walk by'," she slammed the book with a loud "Ha!" but she was only met with silence "Well, c'mon, guys. Ha!" she was stocked that she had figured it out on her own, albeit a little help from her younger sister but she found that passage on her own so yay go her.
"Well, Miss French is sort of big for a bug?" Willow asked trying not to hurt Buffy's feelings
"And she is, by and large, woman shaped," Giles added to back the young redhead up because he was finding it hard to believe as well.
Buffy could see where they were coming from but she knew she was right so she made her way down to them and the book was still in her grasp "Okay Factoid 1: Only the praying mantis can rotate its head like that, Factoid 2: A pretty whacked-out vampire is scared to death of her Factoid 3: Her fashion sense screams predator," Buffy finished.
"It's the shoulder pads," Willow agreed with a small nod and then she jumped out of her skin when she heard a voice from beside her.
"Ergh and the perfume," Caitlin had snuck to sit next to Willow and was highly amused when the hacker and Watcher jumped out of their skins from her voice as they hadn't seen her approach. Caitlin pulled a face when she remembered the smell of the perfume and how much Miss French had put on, "no one should wear that much perfume ever but it would attract attention from the opposite sex."
Buffy was highly amused that Caitlin had got Willow and Giles with her ninja act as well as her so she wasn't feeling so bad about her little sister making her jump now "Exactly."
Giles looked thoughtful obviously trying to fit the pieces into Buffy's reasoning "If you're right, then she'd have to be a shape shifter or a perception distorter. On a helpful note, I had a chum at Oxford, Carlyle, advanced degrees in entomology mythology,"
"Entoma-who?" Buffy asked clearly not knowing what entomology was, she was aware of what mythology was because nearly all Halliwell's were fluent in Greek Mythology and she could get by easily with the subject.
"Bugs and fairy tales," Caitlin said as she looked over Willow's shoulder to see what she was doing and had a clear interest in computers, maybe she should get Willow to get her up to speed with programming and hacking.
Buffy huffed not liking the fact Caitlin had said about fairy tales because she knew her sister knew what they were and just for that she wasn't going to thank her for explaining what entomology was "I knew that."
Giles nodded absently at what Caitlin had said and wasn't the least bit surprised that she had known what it was "If I recall correctly, poor old Carlyle, just before he went mad, claimed there was some beast..." Giles was interrupted before he could finish his sentence.
The computer beeping was what interrupted the librarian, Caitlin and Willow focused intently on the screen and the blonde just huh'd whilst Willow called to Buffy "Buffy, 911! Blayne's mom called the school. He never came home last night."
Giles turned to face Willow "The boy who worked with Miss French yesterday?" Giles asked
"Yeah! If Miss French is responsible for..." Willow trailed off and her eyes widened realising who was with her "Xander's supposed to be helping her right now! He's got a crush on a giant insect!" Willow's voice had raised an octave showing her panic about Xander being alone with Miss French.
Buffy saw this and tried to calm her down before she got into full babble mode "Okay, don't panic, I'll warn him but I need you to hack onto the coroner's office for me," Giles looked weary about looking into coroner's reports because he knew they weren't open for the public.
"Well, what are we looking for?" Willow asked already bringing the internet up to link onto the coroner's office; she loved doing this because it tested her skills as well as made her feel like she was needed.
"Autopsy on Dr. Gregory, I've been trying to figures out these marks that I saw on his corpse... I'm thinking they were teeth and, uh, these cuddlies?" Buffy opened the book to the right page and pointed to the picture of the Mantis so Willow could get a general idea of what she was looking for "Should definitely be brushing after every meal," Willow nodded and got on with it whilst Caitlin took the book out of Buffy's hands to have a read of all the boring facts as Buffy dubbed them. Buffy didn't say anything to Caitlin letting her get on with her own thing, she focused on Giles "And you were saying something about a beast?" she recalled what he had general been saying but wasn't good with the details.
"Oh, uh, yeah, I just need to make one transatlantic telephone call," he got up and started to head to his office but the things with the coroners was bugging him so he stopped and turned to look at the three girls "Um, this computer invasion that Willow's performing on the coroner's office, one, one assumes it is entirely legal?"
Willow, Caitlin and Buffy answer simultaneously. Willow said "Entirely!" whilst Buffy replied with "Of course!" and Caitlin smiled at him "Absolutely!"
"Right wasn't here, didn't see it, couldn't have stopped you," Giles remarked as he turned to go back to his office, he could tell just from their responses it wasn't a legal search.
"Good idea," Buffy smiled and said to him. Buffy headed towards the doors leaving Caitlin to read the book to see if she had missed anything and for Willow to search Dr. Gregory's body for strange teeth marks.
With a sigh Caitlin shut the book and placed it on the table, leaning back she looked at Willow and just watched her work. Willow could feel Caitlin's eyes on her but didn't stop what she was doing because she wanted to know what Caitlin was up to, the blonde led her head on the back of the chair and continued to watch Willow working, eventually it got to Willow so she looked over at Caitlin "what?" she asked with a small smile.
Caitlin shrugged and smiled gently at Willow "I just like the look of concentration on your face when you get to work," she shrugged again making it look like it didn't mean anything.
"Really?" Willow asked in a high pitch voice, she was nervous and flattered because no-one had told her anything like that before.
Caitlin nodded and leant forward until her nose almost touched Willow's, she didn't move any further but she saw Willow's eyes dart to her lips more than once "yes really," she whispered and watched as Willow's lips opened slightly at the sensation of Caitlin's breath brushing against her lips. She wasn't teasing Willow as such more like testing her reactions to what she was doing, Caitlin leant back a little and brought her hands up, she ran her thumbs over Willow eyebrows "you're eyebrows draw together." Caitlin moved her thumbs to the corner of Willows mouth "you pout too," she did nothing else and eventually moved her hands away, Willow watched as Caitlin leant back further and she got an expression between disbelief and amusement at her own actions. Willow giggled and went back to work trying not to make the face; Caitlin looked up at the ceiling and started counting the imperfections it had. They sat in silence until Buffy walked back in looking dejected "where's Xander?" Caitlin asked as she continued to look up.
"He didn't believe she was a giant bug and he left but he left alive which is a big tick in the Xander alive column," Buffy said as she went over to the PC to see what Willow had found.
In the silence they could hear Giles on the phone "I-I understand, Carlyle yes... I-I'll take every precaution. Uh, absolutely, i-i-it sounds exactly like the creature you described. Y-you were right all along about everything. Well, n-no, you weren't right about your mother coming back as a Pekinese, but... uh... Try to rest, old man. Yes... Ta! Bye now!" He hung up and came out of his office to inform them on what he had learnt "Dr. Ferris Carlyle spent years transcribing a lost pre-Germanic language. What he discovered he kept to himself until several teenage boys were murdered in the Cotswolds then he went hunting for it."
"It being..." Buffy trailed off not knowing what to call the thing.
"Uh, he calls her a She-Mantis, this type of creature, the Kleptes-Virgo, or, or virgin-thief, appears in, in many cultures. The Greek sirens, the Celtic sea maidens, who, who tore the living flesh from the bones of, um..." Giles started to ramble on about the information.
Buffy cut Giles off before he could bore them to tears "Giles, while we're young!"
Giles was startled by Buffy's interruptions he was completely into what he had been saying "Uh, well, basically the, uh, the She-Mantis assumes the form of a beautiful woman and then lures innocent virgins back to her nest.
"Virgins? Can't they come up with something original...why is it always virgins?" Caitlin asked as she finally looked down from the ceiling. She always wondered why the bad guys were so cheesily unoriginal.
"Well, Xander's not a, uh... I mean, he's probably..." Buffy stuttered not knowing if Xander was a virgin or not and she didn't know if saying he was or not would be insulting to him. It also wasn't a question she often asked her friends unless the subject was bought up.
Willow shot up from her chair with a worried expression, she knew Xander was a virgin "...gonna die!" Caitlin pushed her chair out of the way so Willow could rush past her to the phone.
"Okay, okay, so this thing is breeding and we need to find it and snuff it, any tips on the snuffing part?" Buffy walked around Giles before facing him as she asked.
Giles could only tell her what he had been told seeing as there was no information he could personally find on the monster "Uh, Carlyle recommends cleaving all body parts with a sharp blade."
"Slice and Dice," Caitlin exclaimed as she stood up mimicking the actions and she finished as she stood next to Buffy with a large grin, "I wanna play with the kendo sticks" she made a pout and looked down feeling upset all of a sudden.
Buffy carefully put her arm around Caitlin's waist; the younger sister put her arm around Buffy and dropped her head on to her sister's shoulder and yawned. "you can train with me next time, we can show Giles how it's really done," she shot Giles a teasing smile liking the outraged look on his face, Caitlin looked at him and saw it to and giggled.
The Watcher huffed at being used for teasing but knowing it got Caitlin back on track might have lessened the blow to his ego "Well, whatever you do, it had better be certain and swift. This beast is extremely dangerous," he decided not to comment on Buffy's comment in case it set them off and he really didn't want to be the brunt of their teasing if it could be avoided.
Buffy didn't seem too bothered by what he was saying "Well, your buddy Carlyle faced it, and he's still around," right now she wanted to stay with Caitlin but she knew it wasn't possible seeing as the she-mantis was still on the loose and needed to be stopped.
Giles could understand why she would believe it would be easy but she did underestimate what they were facing "Yes, in a straitjacket, howling his innards out day and night."
Caitlin pulled a face and stiffened at the mention of straightjackets "Okay, Admiral, way to inspire the troops!" The eldest Summers child didn't like the sound of that and frowned accordingly when she felt Caitlin stiff and tense in her hold.
"Sorry..." Giles muttered and caught the sudden change to in Caitlin's mood and frowned to himself, he had no idea what had set her off. He had read the girls file many times trying to get information on what made her change emotions so quickly, he knew she had Cyclothymia as it was in her file but some of Caitlin's file was sealed to everyone bar the principle and higher ups. The answer to his questions would be in that file, he would ask Willow to hack into it but he didn't want what was in there to affect what Willow thought of the younger girl.
Willow came back to the others panic was written all over her face, she had just gotten off of the phone with Xander's mother and clearly the results weren't good "Xander's not home! He told his mom he was going to his teacher's house to work on a science project, he didn't tell her where."
Caitlin lifted her head off of Buffy's shoulder and focused on Willow "We'll see if we can get her address off the substitute rolls," Willow nodded and the girls set off to find out where the substitute lived
"And you need to record bat sonar, and fast" Buffy said to Giles after the other two had gone off to search for where they had to head out after they had gotten everything.
"Bat sonar, right" Giles nodded absently "What?" he backtracked not understanding what she needed bat sonar for.
Buffy found it funny how she knew something Giles didn't but they were kind of busy for gloating right now "Bats eat them," she explained and lead her Watcher to the stairs in order for him to get what she wanted him to get "The mantis hears sonar, its entire nervous system goes kaplooey."
Giles let himself be led he had processed why but now he didn't understand where he was going to get it "Where am I gonna find the..." he was interrupted by Buffy
"In the vid library? There're no books, but it's dark and musty, you'll feel right at home, go!" she pushed him in the direction slightly and then talked to herself "I guess I'll handle the armoury." She went into the cage and started to arm herself when Willow and Caitlin came back "didja get it?"
"Yeah we got it, so are we going?" Caitlin asked as she looked at the weapons Giles had, she grabbed a dagger and expertly spun it in her hand. She had weapon training with her martial arts so she knew how to handle one and use one, daggers interested her anyway and short swords were her specialty.
The Slayer watched her sister easily spin the dagger around and wondered if anything caught her eye "see anything you like?" Buffy asked as she finished getting what she wanted.
Caitlin shook her head, nothing really appealed to her in the cage so she made her way back over to Willow and leant in towards the redhead until their noses were almost touching again "You're doing it again," she whispered with a teasing tone. Caitlin lifted her hands to smooth over the scrunched brows, Buffy watched her sisters tender movements and wondered if she had a thing for Willow, after this was done she was going to ask her sister.
Willow smiled shyly and her face smoothed out, Caitlin's hands dropped as Giles came back into the room. "I've acquired the sonar."
"Let's go then," Buffy walked out of the cage and followed Willow and Caitlin who were closely walking behind Giles as he led them to his car.
~GU:CM~
The group got out of Giles's car and approach Miss French's house, they were all wondering what they should do because they couldn't exactly barge in there Giles was the first one to speak up "What now, exactly? We can't just kick the door down.
Buffy nodded knowing he was right because that would bring too much attention to themselves and they couldn't risk the police being called "Yeah, that *would* be wrong," she may have agreed but she had a little bit of sarcasm coating her words. She took a look around but decided that kicking the door down would be the best bet because it meant they had the element of surprise, she got ready to kick but the door opened to reveal an old lady.
Caitlin leant over to talk to Willow "Are you sure we got the right address?" she asked quietly, Willow nodded looking bewildered.
The old Lady looked between all of them with a bright smile on her face until she focused on Buffy "Hello, dear! I thought I heard... Are you selling something? Because I'd like to help you out, but... You see, I'm on a fixed income," she sent her an apologetic smile waiting for the girl to say something.
"I'm looking for Miss French," Buffy explained to the old lady what they were all doing there. She knew Caitlin and Willow hadn't gotten the wrong address because they were just too smart to get it wrong.
The old lady smiled and nodded "I'm Miss French." Miss French didn't seem to mind that they were taking up her time unlike most people would have especially how late it was getting.
Buffy said nothing for a few seconds, this was not the substitute they had been having for the last couple of days, a quick glance over her shoulder told her that everyone was in the same state as she was "Natalie French, the substitute biology teacher?" she clarified just to be sure
Miss French laughed happily at hearing what Buffy had said "Goodness, that's me! I taught for over thirty years, I retired in 1972," Buffy's mouth dropped open, Caitlin's eyebrows shot up to her hair line whilst Giles and Willow looked baffled
"I can't believe this! She used Miss French's records to get into the school, she could be anywhere!" Buffy turned to Giles as she spoke completely ignoring the old lady at the door.
Miss French shook her head "No, dear! I'm right here!" she had heard what Buffy said but misinterpreted it and misunderstood what Buffy had been saying. Buffy looked at her and didn't know how to take her, Caitlin didn't want to go closer to her because she wasn't particularly fond of people she didn't know especially old people, she found them to hypocritical, her Doctor had been old. "We're sorry to disturb you Miss French it appears we have the wrong Miss French," Giles said trying to sound apologetic instead of baffled.
Miss French assured them it was alright and then closed the door. The group turned and headed back to the car thinking of what to do next "well that was a bust," Caitlin remarked feeling rather annoyed. Buffy understood her feeling that way and just rubbed her back knowing that commenting on it would probably piss her off.
"What do we do now?" Willow was understandably sounding frustrated as it was her and Caitlin who gotten tricked with the wrong address. It seemed too easy for it to be the right address, nothing was ever as it seemed and she hoped that their mistake didn't cost Xander his life.
"Abject prayer and supplication would spring to mind," Giles responded feeling slightly hopeless because their one lead had gone cold, they had no way of finding Miss French and as such no way of finding Xander.
Buffy was going to give up and was racking her brain for information, she was the one who first suspected the teacher and was going over what she had seen, "I saw her walking past this park with her grocery bags, she lives in this neighbourhood." Of that she was certain but it was deciding where in the neighbourhood.
"I'm gonna start banging on doors," Willow started to head for the next house; it was a plan not a very efficient plan but a plan none the less.
Caitlin quickly gripped Willow's arm to stop her from moving "Wait, you can't just go knocking on random people's door Wills, it's incredibly stupid, you don't know who they are!" Caitlin exclaimed angrily, Willow flinched back from the anger in Caitlin's voice. The blonde released the older girl and turned away from everyone, she gripped her hair as she usually did when she lost control of her emotions.
"We do *not* have time for that!" Buffy aided her sister out before something set her off further. The youngest of the group took some deep breaths and turned back around but just looked at the ground, she was calm again but feeling awfully mortified.
Willow decided to ignore Caitlin for now in punishment for how she reacted, she was vaguely aware of a small part of her that knew Caitlin wasn't really at fault "We have to do something!" she wouldn't sit back and do nothing.
"We will and I think I know how to find him, I've just got to find the sewer entrance," Buffy explained no more to the others as she headed for where she saw the Claw guy disappear down when he ran away from the She-Mantis. The others followed her wanting to know what she was doing, Willow shot Caitlin a look as she sighed in annoyance, the redhead assumed she was sighing at the thought of helping Xander when really she was sighing at herself. Buffy quickly arrived at the manhole cover and lifted it off and without speaking to the others she started to climb in "I won't be long," she didn't give them time to reply as she disappeared from view.
"W... Buffy?" Giles called down the hole wondering what his Slayer was up to. Seeing that it was useless to try and get Buffy to come back up Giles turned to see Willow almost glaring at Caitlin, while Caitlin continued to look at the floor. Only Giles and Buffy knew about Caitlin reactions and why they were caused, "Willow" Giles called softly to grasp the girls attention. Willow looked up at Giles and she saw him shaking his head at her whilst glancing at Caitlin, he was telling her not to react.
Willow knew she shouldn't be taking Caitlin's reaction badly because she was smart enough to know something was wrong with Caitlin in general, even if she didn't know what it was exactly, so she knew not to take it all to heart. The slightly older girl went over to Caitlin and placed her hand on her shoulder, Caitlin hadn't been expecting the touch so naturally she jumped at the contact but it was more of a flinch as her muscles tightened up. Both Giles and Willow observed this but didn't comment, Willow quickly moved to where Caitlin could see her and hoped it would relax the girl, and sure enough she relaxed but didn't make any eye contact.
Silence was broken when Buffy hauled herself out of the sewer entrance dragging a reluctant Claw guy with her. Grunting with effort Buffy launched the creature up onto the road a few metres away from her, Willow's eyes widened at the massive amount of strength portrayed "he's gonna help us find She-Mantis," Buffy explained as she heaved the vampire onto his feet and pushed him in the general direction of the She-Mantis. "Come on! Come on, where is she? Which house is it? I know you're afraid of her, I saw you! Come on!" The Claw Guy began to react to Natalie's presence, he struggled against the Slayer's grip but she continued to push him onwards, "Come on, what? What is it? This is her, isn't it, this is her house? This is it! Better than radar!" Buffy rambled feeling very smart for once; she let him go assuming that the vampire was going to run away like he had previously.
Caitlin who had been following noticed the creature cutting his binds with his strange bladed hand "Buffy!" she warned as the creature swung for Buffy. Buffy managed to lean back in time, only to trip and fall backwards over the miniature picket fence running along the walk to the house. Claw Guy jumped to follow but Caitlin was quick to act and jump on his back, Caitlin wrapped her legs securely around the creature's waist and secured her arms around his neck in a chokehold, whilst it wouldn't render him unconscious it made it difficult and uncomfortable for him to move. Buffy saw what Caitlin was doing as she shuffled back from the monster's advances, her back bumped into the small picket fence, She ripped a picket from the fence and thrust it into Claw Guy as he took another swing at her. Caitlin pushed off of the creature thrusting him further into the picket, Claw guy collapsed to the floor dead.
Giles breathed a sigh of relief when he was sure the monster was dead, "do you always do that?" he asked.
Neither sister was sure who he had asked but the both smiled sheepishly and shrugged, Buffy opened her mouth to make a rather snappy comment at him but she was interrupted "HEEEELLLLP! HEEEELLLLP!" they all heard Xander scream from what sounded like the basement.
Buffy rushed around the house until she saw the basement window, lifting her leg she smashed the window open and effortlessly slide into the basement with Caitlin close behind her.
"Uh hey o-over here, hello! In the cage!" Blayne called desperately when he saw the two sisters.
Buffy pulls her bag though the window and turned to the She-Mantis "Let him go!" she demanded. Buffy and Caitlin ran down the stairs and as Buffy set the bag down Willow climbed in the window and she rushed down the stairs to cage to get Blayne out as Caitlin and Buffy picked up the bug spray and proceeded to spray the She-Mantis, the spray started to disorient the huge bug.
Giles finally climbed in the window and rushed to help Willow open the cage, Buffy motioned to Xander as Blayne continued to beg for help "Get them outta here!" Caitlin continued to spray the bug as Buffy got out the tape recorder with the bat sonar and a machete she had picked for the job. Giles undid the leather straps that were holding Xander, Willow had opened the cage but Blayne cowered in the corner waiting until the bug was deadest. The She-Mantis knew she needed to readjust her senses but she didn't get much time as Buffy started to close in on her "Remember Dr. Gregory? You scarfed his head? Yeah, well, he taught me, you do your homework, you learn stuff. Like what happens to your nervous system when you hear this!" she pressed play on the tape but Giles voice came out from the speakers.
"...extremely important to file not simply alphabetically..." the words smoothly came from the speakers not knowing the damage it was causing to the others in the room.
Buffy stared at it in disbelief, she had expected the bat sonar to come out of the speakers, she turned to her Watcher "Giles!"
Giles pointed at the She-Mantis who had regained her bearings "I-it's the wrong side!"
The She-Mantis knocked the tape recorder and machete from Buffy's unsuspecting hands. Giles watched the recorder fly over him, hit the ground and slide under a refrigerator. He scrambled to get it. Caitlin is the next to get knocked as the huge bug swung at her to get the bug spray away from her so she could fully get her senses back. Buffy turned her attention back on the bug. She-Mantis tried to trip Buffy, but she jumped over her claw. Xander picked up Caitlin's discarded cans and came up next to Buffy and sprayed it into the Bugs face. Buffy shook her head as she pushed him away from danger, as Buffy was distracted by Xander the She-Mantis took advantage and knocked her down. Buffy raised herself onto her hands and one leg and with the other does two crouching side kick to big bug's legs to keep her at bay. Giles searched under the refrigerator, he managed to grab it, he turned around and set the recorder right, Buffy grabbed at the machete as she fought the massive bug. Giles quickly held the recorder in front of him and pressed play, the sounds of bat sonar work instantly; it severely hurt and disorient the huge mantis. She flailed her claws around hoping to keep her enemy at bay.
"Bat sonar makes your whole nervous system go to Hell. You can go there with it!" Buffy commented smugly as she slashed at Natalie ferociously and continually with the machete, hacking her to pieces. When she finished she was breathing heavily. Everyone approached the hacked up body and just stared at the carnage.
Giles is the first to speak "Well, I... I'd say it's deceased," he pointed out the obviously for a lack of better things to say, he felt he needed to say something to stop the strange silent staring.
Willow nodded "And dissected," she added feeling the need to add something onto the end, she was making a reference to the Mantis species as they were usually dissected in science class, it was almost ironic that she taught science for a brief stint.
Xander looked to Buffy "You okay?" he asked. He had seen her get knocked down because he had distracted her, Buffy nodded with a brief confirmation that she was, "Just for the record, you were right, I'm an idiot, and God bless you!" Buffy lowered her head; it wasn't like she wanted to be right. Xander turned to the others "And thank you guys, too." Blayne was quick to agree with Xander for the rescue.
"Pleasure..." Giles wasn't quite sure how to react seeing as he had never really rescued anyone before, he was still getting used to the thanks.
"I'm really glad you're okay. It's so unfair how she only went after virgins," Willow almost laughed at the look on Blayne's face. Xander laughed and looked back and forth between the girls trying to decide if they were actually being serious, he focused back on Willow and asked her to explain with a very well placed 'What?' "I mean, here you guys are, doing the right thing, the smart thing, when a lot of other boys your age..."
"Flag down on that play, babe. I am *not*..." Blayne interrupted her with an insulted look marring his face. The cheek of her insinuating that he was a virgin was beyond his comprehension, how dare her.
Giles decided to interrupt him before he went on a rant trying to defend himself even though they all knew he was because the She-Mantis was able to tell that he was "Well, you see, that's the She-Mantis' modus operandi. Uh, she only preys on the pure."
Xander looked resigned knowing he couldn't argue with them seeing as they had researched her "Well, isn't this a perfect ending to a wonderful day!" he exclaimed using heavy sarcasm
Blayne was still reluctant to admit that he was a virgin "My dad's a lawyer. Anyone repeats this to anybody, they're gonna find themselves facing a lawsuit," his voice was really grating on everyone's nerves and especially because he was refusing to believe them.
Caitlin snapped her head in Blayne's direction "Blayne! Shut up! Before I shut you up and put you back in the fucking cage!" Blayne look frightened at Caitlin's rage. Caitlin was already on her last nerve before she got there and now she was furious, it didn't take much to make her like that but it still worried Buffy. Buffy pulled Caitlin to her and wrapped her arms around her little sister's waist to keep her in place. Caitlin could feel Buffy's even breathing and concentrated on it to help her calm down.
The middle girl turned from the youngest and eldest girls in the group, she had been afraid of Caitlin when she snapped but now she was being calmed down she wasn't so scared of her. "I don't think it's bad, I think it's really..." Xander raised the machete up to show Willow and was a silent threat "...sweet! It's certainly nothing I'll ever bring up again," the girl was smart enough to change what she was going to say as to not really offend her childhood friend. Xander turned to the nest and started to attack it.
Whilst the others were watching Xander, Buffy decided to talk to her sister "Baby?" she asked as a prompt for her to say what was wrong. Only problem with Buffy's tactic is that Caitlin had decided to clamp up around the others, she obviously didn't want Blayne to spread rumours about her, Buffy seemed to understand Caitlin's feelings "okay baby, later?" she asked quietly not wanting the others to know as Caitlin didn't want them to, Caitlin jerked out a nod.
Giles had decided to get the others home, "Xander that's quite enough" Xander gradually stopped "now I think it's best if I take Mr Mall home whilst you four go home as well," the four teenagers and watched as Giles turned and headed out of the basement with Blayne following him.
"Guess we better get going," Xander was feeling tired from the day's events and he just wanted to sleep off the fear and embarrassment. Willow glanced at the sisters but followed Xander as she didn't really want to deal with Caitlin, she was still a little annoyed from her outburst earlier.
Caitlin watched them go and struggled in Buffy's grip but the Slayer didn't release her, eventually Caitlin stopped and allowed Buffy to hug her for a little longer "Willow's pissed at me," she declared unhappily.
Buffy looked to where the other two had disappeared and knew they were waiting for them, she gave Caitlin one last squeeze and let her go "that's because she doesn't know what's wrong and you did kind of call her stupid, admittedly her suggestion wasn't the right one but calling it incredibly stupid probably wasn't the smartest thing you've ever done." Heaving out a sigh Caitlin followed her sister without a word, she knew it was true and she knew she'd have to apologise.
~GU:CM~
Buffy sat beside her pouting younger sister whilst they watched 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day' with Dawn, she couldn't suppress the amused grin that was on her face. Caitlin had wanted to watch 'Se7en' but Buffy had quickly shot that down because none of them were actually old enough to watch it. Caitlin and Buffy had seen it with Paige and Phoebe when it had come out, they had snuck the two younger ones in but Buffy didn't want to deal with Dawn's nightmares. "Cait C'mon stop pouting please," Dawn begged as she looked up at Caitlin from where he head rested against the blonde's shoulder. Caitlin stopped pouted but didn't seem any happier, Dawn turned to Buffy for an insight, Buffy shook her head lightly hoping Dawn wouldn't push and luckily the youngest seemed to get the hint. Buffy slipped in behind Caitlin so that all three of them could get comfortable on Caitlin's bed.
"How am I going to make it up to her Buffy?" Caitlin suddenly asked Buffy half way through the film, Buffy paused the film and looked down at Caitlin whilst Dawn looked up at them both in confusion. Caitlin scratched her head feeling frustratingly lost, she didn't really want to tell her new friends that she wasn't legally sane and was Bi-polar, it just didn't sit well with the get to know them stage.
Buffy grabbed Caitlin's hand and stopped her frustrated habit "You really snapped at Willow earlier Cait," it wasn't a question but a statement but Caitlin nodded nonetheless "You called her stupid and she took offence... I'd suggest you apologise and offer an explanation."
Dawn raised her brows in surprise she never expected for Caitlin to call anyone other than their father stupid. "How do you tell your new friends you're Bi-polar?" Caitlin asked she was frowning she couldn't tell if she was annoyed or angry. Buffy shrugged seeing as she didn't have a clue and Dawn looked helpless, both of the sisters had grown up with the knowledge and knew what to expect from Caitlin whereas other didn't know. Caitlin wasn't ashamed at having Cyclothymia but it wasn't exactly a good way to start a conversation, the middle child just waved her hand and looked back at the screen effectively stopping the conversation. She would have to think about it later and come up with something concrete to show she was as sorry as she felt.
~GU:CM~
There was a new science teacher and he was boring everyone "All midterm papers will be exactly six pages long, no more, no less. One third of your grade will be dependent on those papers. No more, no less," the bell rand startling Buffy who had been day dream and Xander who had been sleeping. Everyone started to pack their things to leave, Caitlin turned to Willow and gave her a short smile, they hadn't really spoken since last night but Willow was glad Caitlin was making an effort. Xander put his arms over both of the younger girl's shoulders and led them out of the room with Buffy following them with a soft smile. Buffy saw Dr. Gregory's glasses still on the lab bench where she left them the day before, She picked them up and remembered him and how he had treated her, she turned a little and saw Dr. Gregory's jacket still hanging on the hook on the closet door, with a sad smile she went over to put the glasses in a pocket.
~GU:CM~
Caitlin sat outside the front of the school waiting for Willow to walk out, she hoped she wouldn't take too long because it was her turn to pick up Dawn so she couldn't wait around forever. She knew what she had to do to get Willow to forgive her she had to open up to her, something she hadn't done since she was a lot younger. Willow could see Caitlin waiting for her and knew she had to go over to her so the younger girl could apologise but she was still angry at the blonde, she recognised she shouldn't be upset with Caitlin because something was clearly wrong with her, she just wish she knew what. Caitlin heard someone approaching but didn't look up, she should look up but she couldn't face her. Willow sat down beside the troubled girl but made no move to speak to her "I've considered what to say y'know? I've asked what I should say but the only thing I can think of is I'm sorry," she finally looked up and saw Willow smiling softly at her, what?
The redhead smiled at Caitlin's words, she appreciated the apology and that the fact that Caitlin was trying to open up to her. "I'll accept when I find out why you snapped at me out of the blue," she shouldn't be pushing Caitlin but she just really wanted to know what made the sweet Caitlin turn into the angry and short-tempered Caitlin.
Nodding her head Caitlin stood up and offered her hand to Willow, who took it but made no move to get up "Come with me to get Taz and I'll try to explain it at home," she tried not to sound desperate but she didn't quite succeed. Willow nodded her acceptance to Caitlin, who grinned and pulled the older girl up; she headed in the direction of Dawn's school with Willow's hand firmly within her own.
They remained silent as they walked because neither knew what to say to the other but the silence wasn't awkward, the other found comfort in the other's presence as both had been worrying that their friendship was over before it had even begun after last night's spat. Willow had no idea why she was still holding Caitlin's hand; she just didn't want to let it go which she found strange, she was technically still angry at Caitlin. As those thoughts went through her head Caitlin let go of Willow's hand, the redhead looked to Caitlin almost to ask her why she let go and when she did focus on the blonde she saw that Caitlin was looking toward the school. The older girl turned her gaze to where the younger girl was looking, what she saw kind of surprised her, a girl of about 10 was running towards them but that wasn't what surprised her, the girl was kind of tall and lanky, her hair was dark and she had blue eyes. She didn't really look much like Caitlin or Buffy other than the facial features.
"Cait!" Dawn exclaimed as she rushed towards her older sister and jumped. Caitlin easily caught Dawn and settled her younger sister against her, slightly startled at the public affection the older sister raised her brow. Dawn threw her arms around Caitlin and shrieked in excitement "we did some writing for English last week and my teacher Mr Hickle said that mine was so good he was going to publish it in the school newsletter!" she shouted in excitement, she hadn't taken notice of Willow yet but neither girl could blame her.
Whilst holding Dawn close she dropped a kiss to her forehead with a large smile "that's great Taz congratulations, you gotta phone Grams tonight and tell her," Dawn nodded in excitement knowing what that meant, she was going to get huge praise from all of her family. Dawn caught the sight of someone out of the corner of her eye, she blinked then blushed realising who it was from the description that Caitlin had given her. Caitlin allowed Dawn to get down from her arms and then pulled her over to Willow "Dawn this is Willow Danielle Rosenberg, Willow this is Dawn Summers."
Willow waved shyly at the young girl but Dawn wasn't going to settle for that so she threw her arms around Willow "It is so cool to meet you," she pulled back with a large cheeky beam. Caitlin laughed and grabbed Dawn's bag from the floor and threw it over her shoulder, Dawn turned back to Caitlin "can you help me with my math tonight?" she asked knowing the answer already.
"Of course I will but I've got to talk with Willow first," the older sister responded with a small smile directed at Willow. Willow was a little surprised Caitlin had told Dawn as she was so young but then it was her sister and she lived with her so it was likely she would know what was going on with Caitlin.
The young girls smile slipped off of her face, she was worried about her sister again "can you handle that, I mean last night you were…" she glanced at Willow who was frowning in confusion, Dawn decided being vague would be best "y'know."
The older sister nodded "It's probably better that someone else knows about it just in case I get in trouble Taz," her sister let the frown dissipate from her face but the concern continued to show in her eyes. Caitlin grabbed Willow's hand again and slipped her arm over Dawn's shoulder, she started to lead them back the house.
Willow could see that Caitlin was nervous but couldn't do anything to elevate that worry because she didn't know what was causing the worry. Caitlin finally looked at Willow and opened her mouth just to close it seconds later; she closed her eyes and took a deep breath "I'm not normal," she spoke seriously as she opened her eyes to look at her redheaded friend.
The older girl chuckled at the look on her younger girl's face and the words that accompanied that look "I know that." Caitlin smiled a little but the worry never left her face, Willow reached over and grabbed the blonde's hand "you've got nothing to worry about Caitlin; I'm not going to run off if you tell me."
Looking at their joint hands Caitlin nodded to show she understood, meeting Willow's emerald green eyes again, Caitlin managed to say what was really on her mind "I have a disorder." Willow reacted slightly but not in the way Caitlin expected, the older girl just raised her eyebrow as if to tell her to continue. Caitlin finally smiled a real smile since walking in her room and started to relax, she hadn't exactly had positive reactions when she had told people "I have a type of Bi-polar, Cyclothymia. That's why I snapped at you and why I seem normal one minute and completely different the next. Some days I don't have any episodes and others I can have them more often, my medication does sort of balance me out."
Willow nodded as Caitlin spoke, she was storing the information away so she could look it up later "so sometimes you just snap at people for no reason?" she asked wanting to understand fully. Caitlin pulled a face and shrugged "that wasn't really helpful Caitlin," Willow remarked.
"Generally it does come out of nowhere but other times it can build up and I'll explode for the tinniest of things," Caitlin answered with a shrug not really knowing if she was explaining it right but just saying what she experienced.
"Okay," Willow finally said with a nod. She was telling Caitlin she was okay with being snapped at and that she was forgiven without saying it as Caitlin hadn't technically asked.
Caitlin look a little confused at first but then she clicked and smiled tentatively "Okay?" she asked to be sure. Willow grinned and nodded; Caitlin returned the expression and finally relaxed onto her bed.
~GU:CM~
Caitlin looked at the house she was stood in front of, it wasn't an overly upscale house but she could sense that this house was a home, it was well kept and it even had flowers in the garden. She knew she needed to do this but some small part of her couldn't help feeling like she shouldn't be, it wasn't really her place after all, it wasn't really her business. The other part of her knew she had to because she doubted that anyone else would, doubted Giles would either even though it was sort of his job to do it. Caitlin took in a deep breathe and then let it go slowly, she hoped she wasn't going to be in for a fight, they seemed like they would though and that just made Caitlin want to forget about it all together. The young blonde walked through the cast iron gate and headed up the paving slabs until she was at the front door, she raised her hand and knocked three times. She hadn't waited long before the door opened to reveal who she was here to talk to "Hello Amy, we need to talk," Caitlin greeted with a small and, what she hoped, reassuring smile.
\Silver-Eternal-Dragon/