Author's Notes: One story ends, another begins.

Disclaimer: Buffy, Veronica, plot: Joss, Rob, me.

X X X X X

And this, of course, is why I had Sheila handy. Lacking a taser or superhuman powers, and not wanting to get Backup in trouble, I had to have someone blocking the door.

Xander said, "Move it."

In response Sheila crossed her arms and leaned back against the door.

"I said –"

"I heard what you said the first time," Sheila said. "And the answer is no." And from the expression on her face you could tell it would take a bulldozer, or a Slayer, to move Sheila when she didn't want to be moved.

Xander looked around the room. "No balcony," I said. "And if you break a window and try to climb out I think even Deputy Lamb would be willing to arrest you." I dragged him back towards my bedroom and shut the door. I'd tell Sheila what I could, later, but I didn't want her hearing it now.

"I have to –"

"Have to what?" I asked. "Run at full speed towards the Echolls house, kick the door down, and beat the hell out of Aaron Echolls?"

He nodded vigorously. "See," he said, "That's kind of what you do with bad guys."

"Okay. And when you explain to the nice men in the blue uniforms why you attacked the world-famous movie star, what will you say?"

"That he killed Lilly Kane."

"Oh, really? Where's your proof?" He gestured towards the VCR. "That's not proof," I said. "That's reason for suspicion. It wouldn't even get you an indictment in most courts, much less a conviction. Honestly, the police would be more likely to think of it as reason for you or Logan to kill her."

"Huh?"

"Think," I said. "Your ex-girlfriend is sleeping with another man. In a murderous rage, you –"

He held up a hand. "Okay, I get it," he said. "So what do I do?"

"The hardest thing," I said. "Nothing."

"Nothing –" he said angrily.

"Nothing. My father is working on building a case to both prove that the man who confessed didn't do it, and that Aaron Echolls did. Even I'm not doing much more than theorizing. I'm the expert on investigating when it comes to most other people in Sunnydale. When it comes to my father, I'm a rank –" I resisted the temptation to add the word "arrogant" – "amateur. I'm letting him handle it." For the most part. Xander didn't need to know that I'd found the tapes.

"So you expect me to pretend this never happened?" he asked.

"No. I'm expecting you not to ruin the chance to bring down the son of a bitch who murdered Lilly. No talking, and no doing either."

"And I expect Sheila will come in here and punch me in the nuts repeatedly unless I agree?"

"She would if I asked," I said. "But I'm not going to ask. I'm going to ask you to agree because, honestly, if you think about it, it's the right thing to do. Would you rather have a moment of fleeting revenge followed by public humiliation, or the chance to put him away for a long time?"

Xander started to answer, stopped, and then said, "The second one. Dammit."

The moment of crisis seemed to have passed. "You realize I took a major gamble trusting you," I said.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why trust me? After the grief I've given you --"

"Because I think that by and large --" The Lie exempted, and if I had my way, the situation leading to that would never come up -- "You're an honorable person. All the crap you've given me, you've never come even close to trying to get me in trouble. You've been vicious, you've been insulting, you've been a smartass. But you've never tried to have me arrested, or even to get me in trouble with Snyder."

"Well," he said, "There are enemies and there are enemies." For a second, he smiled slightly.

For a second.

"I was never your enemy," I said.

"I certainly gave you enough provocation."

"No," I said, "You didn't."

We left the bedroom and walked out to the living room. "Okay, Sheila," I said, "I think he's no longer going to do something really stupid." After a second I said, "At least not more than ordinarily stupid."

He glared at me for a second and then said, "One thing, though Manh-- Veronica. If what you're doing fails --"

"We'll work on plan B if plan A fails. But, since my father's doing it? I don't expect it fail."

Gently, he said, "Who's sheriff now?" A point that hit home. But he didn't seem to be doing it to try to be cruel.

As he walked towards the door, Sheila stepped out of the way. But when he opened it and tried to step outside, Sheila grabbed his arm and said, "I don't know what you talked about. But if you go back on your word -- remember what I used to be like and think about it."

When, five seconds later, Sheila let go of him, Xander left without saying anything else.

After Xander left, I asked Sheila, "You sure you don't mind me not telling you what this is about?"

""'scool," she said. "You bought yourself a shitload of leeway way back when you saved me from that British guy. 'sides, I trust you. If you thought I needed to know, you'd tell me."

A completely unrelated thought crossed my head. "Now that you bring it up: If there's a screaming emergency involving vampires or other supernatural/demon-type creatures: go tell Mr. Giles."

"The librarian?"

"Yeah. He knows a lot about it and he knows how to get in touch with people who can do something about it. But, like I told Xander, this is a secret. You're the first person in Sunnydale I've told." I didn't feel like I could give away Buffy's double identity, but I did want someone else to know who to turn to if and when the shit hit the fan. I'm not assuming that what we saw on television is all that happened. "And only go if it's an actual emergency. A mass attack or something like that. If they ask you how you know --

"Don't need to worry, manhunter," she said. "I'll tell 'em I ain't stupid. 'cause I'm not. If most people around here want to be blind, that's on them. I'll just say I know what I've seen, and I figured Mr. Giles was the one to go to 'cause, you know, he has all of those weird old books lying around in that cage."

I was impressed. "Not bad."

Sheila laughed. "I like people to think I'm as stupid as I act," she said.

X X X X X

Fortunately, Sheila didn't need to carry through on her threat. As near as I could tell, Xander didn't tell anyone, the Echolls house experienced no mysterious break-ins I was aware of, and there were no stories in the paper about Aaron Echolls fighting off mysterious attackers.

Of course, I wasn't just relying on my keen eyesight and the journalistic integrity of the Sunnydale "Monsters definitely not involved" Press. I kept listening in with my handy book-bug at random moments. I was only interested in a couple of things. If they were talking about ordinary training or whatever Buffy killed last night or even that cute guy in chemistry, I pulled out. Their lives, their business, and I'm a detective, not a voyeur.

Three things I listened for: Anything about Lilly Kane; anything about Jana Calderash; or anything about me.

I heard two of the three. If Xander was talking about Lilly Kane, he was doing so under cover of darkness and being very subtle about it. Xander Harris may be many things, but subtle isn't one of them.

The me conversation and the Jana Calderash conversation were, more or less, the same discussion. In the middle of that week, after Buffy returned from an early patrol (and while I was still in the school "working on the student newspaper"), Giles, Jenny Calendar, Buffy and Angel were in the library.

"So, what's the big to-do?" Buffy asked. "We got ourselves an ultra-tough monster of the week this time around?"

"Ms. Calendar," Giles said a bit stiffly, "Has something of import to tell you."

"Of course she does," Buffy said.

"Buffy –" Giles began.

In typical fashion, Buffy breezed right through the warning tone in Giles' voice. "I mean, you never call us in here for something trivial. Something light-hearted."

"Buffy –" Giles said again.

"Why is that?" she asked. "Why can't you ever call me in here and say, 'Oh, nothing big. Just wondering if you wanted part of my turkey sandwich. How's your Mom? But no, it's always about the doom and gloom with you."

"Buffy!"

"Yes?" The Slayer said innocently.

"This is truly serious. Ms. Calendar, the floor is yours."

And then, hesitantly, haltingly, Ms. Calendar explained who she was, and who she was there to watch, and everything she knew about the curse.

Buffy was angry at first, but Giles eventually managed to calm her down. As for Angel, he was a lot calmer. "You say you're looking into it?"

"Yes. It may not be as simple as it seems. Most of the curses my people gave have, for lack of a better term, out clauses. If anyone would know what your out clause is, it would be my uncle, but he's hard to track down--"

"Surely," Giles said, "Using the infernal machine --"

"He's a bigger Luddite than you are, England," Ms. Calendar said. "I'm relying on word of mouth to let him know I want to talk to him. I don't want Angelus to come back any more than you do. In the meantime, don't do anything you haven't done in the last hundred years or so."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down," Angel said.

"No, but it does mean that it's not likely to happen on the spur of the moment," Buffy said. "Which is a mild relief -- unless maybe it was just a time limit?"

Ms. Calendar said, "No. If that was it, Uncle Enyos would have told me."

"So," Buffy said mildly; I could hear the -- well, the dangerous tone in her voice. Whatever she said, it seemed to me it had damn well better be answered honestly -- "Why come forward?"

A period of silence, and then Giles said, "She had a crisis of conscience and came to me about it. After some conversation, we agreed the best thing to do was tell the two of you. Whether you tell Willow and Xander is entirely up to you."

"Don't tell Xander," Angel said. "He already doesn't like me. How much worse is he going to get if he thinks I might suddenly become evil at any moment?"

"If he did, he might have a point --" Giles began.

"I think we're safe for the moment," Ms. Calendar said. "Just be careful."

A few more minutes of conversation, and Buffy and Angel left. I was just about to stop listening in when I heard Giles ask, "So why did you tell me?"

Ms. Calendar sighed. "I was feeling guilty."

"That," Giles said, "Is evasive. And clumsily so."

"I'm not lying."

"I never said you were. But if you're telling me the whole truth, I'm a Polgara demon."

The technopagan said, "It was a crisis of conscience mixed with blackmail."

"Someone blackmailed you into telling me?"

"They said they'd do it themselves if I didn't. It was the excuse I needed. I hated having to spy on you, Rupert. But they warned of dire things to come if I didn't."

"Someone told you the future?"

"Actually, no," Ms. Calendar said. "She was more concerned with the mistakes of the past. She called herself Epimetheus."

"Do you know how I knew to go to Ethan's?" Giles asked. "I received a mysterious phone call from a young woman who said to go there -- and that she had the gift of hindsight."

"Damn close to Epimetheus, in translation."

"Too close to be counted a coincidence," Giles said. "I suspect we're being manipulated."

"Yeah. But is it for our own good or for some sinister higher purpose?" Sadly, I had to admit it was for a sinister higher purpose, though it sure as hell wasn't my sinister higher purpose. My motives were 99 44/100 pure.

I wasn't their enemy either.

I listened to them speculate for a few more minutes -- neither had any idea it was me -- and left.

Something else to keep an eye on. Wonderful.

X X X X X

I'd decided not to meddle with Lie to Me. The next time I got involved in the Buffyverse would be What's My Line. Giles and Ms. Calendar got no close to figuring out who I was, and were still unable to track down Uncle Enyos.

Eventually I supposed I'd have to drop a few hints of my own. I'd have to be a lot more careful than I was the first time, though.

In the meantime, also, Dad managed to trace Amelia DeLongpres, though he hadn't been able to see her. I helped him deal with a case of bizarre thefts at a shopping center that turned out to be a distraction from something someone was doing a few blocks away.

Then, one morning, a stranger hight Billy Fordham wandered into the school.

I went to The Bronze that night and watched the expected awkward meeting play out. Satisfied that things were going as I expected, I went home.

As I was about to enter my apartment building, I felt a tap on the shoulder.

I yanked my holy water pistol out of my bag and spun around.

It was Angel.

"Veronica, right?" he asked. "We met briefly back on Halloween."

"Yeah . . . "

"Angel. Buffy told me you're something of a detective."

"Yeah . . ." I didn't like where this was going.

"Good. I need you to find out everything you can about a man named Billy Fordham."