Faith and Mort had made some decent progress on the section of roof that they were working on, having finished stripping the old shingles and gotten a good start on putting up the new ones and nailing them into place. The sound of a car made them glance over, and Faith felt a bit relieved to see Tanya's dusty blue car5 driving up to the house. "I guess she's got her paper and stuff."
"She's not carrying anything into the house yet." Faith frowned, and gestured towards Tanya. "Does it look like something's got her upset to you?"
"Definitely worried." Mort agreed, and then picked the nail-gun back up. "You go talk to her, and I'll keep working on the roof."
Faith stood up, walking to the overhang beside the portion that only went over the second story and jumped from over the attic to over the second floor, and then walked along that until she could jump to the ground. It was something that she'd never want to try if she wasn't the Slayer, but that super strength was good for a bit more than hitting demons. "Hey, Tanya, what's going on? You look tense."
"Do vampires ever have human minions? Or maybe demons that can look human?" Tanya asked, frowning to herself.
"Not normally. Why?" Faith asked.
"I had to stop in the library, there was a book in my glove-box that had to go back, and there was this guy in the library." She paused, as if trying to gather her thoughts. "He was close to Mort's height, with dark hair and glasses. He was wearing dark clothing that seemed almost normal but… I can't quite explain it better than he didn't quite match. He was looking over the newspapers, and I'm certain that I heard him muttering about demonic activity and something about a Karcer demon."
"Which means..?" Faith probed, already certain that this guy had to know something. It would be too much to assume that he was just some role-playing game wacko who couldn't remember to separate reality from fantasy. But was he working for the dark side, or against it?
"I think, from your descriptions and some of those books we looked through, that the Karcer demon is what interrupted you and Mort's date and threw Lorrie's Watcher into the apple tree." Tanya sighed, and then frowned, turning around to go back towards the car. "And I left everything in the car. I'm too distracted. Help me carry things while I fret?"
"Sure thing." Faith agreed, and pulled out the first bag, filled with bulky packages of coffee. "So, do you want me to head back into town with you to check this guy out? I think there are some types of demon that can pass as human if they're careful, so it's a possibility."
"I think we should get everything inside first." Tanya decided, and then sighed. "I suppose that Lorrie and the boy, what sort of name is Pyro anyhow? I guess they can stay here while we go. It shouldn't take that long to try to determine if the man's a threat, should it?"
"Pyro's Latin for fire, I think. Or maybe that was Greek… I guess he must have decided that he liked it better than whatever name his parents gave him. Some parents can give some pretty miserable names to their kids, you know. I knew someone named Sunshine, and someone else named Gertrude. Some names just… there's a reason they aren't used anymore, you know?" Faith offered.
"I know. I actually knew someone named Puggsley once." Tanya shook her head. "He hated his name, and I couldn't blame him for it. Why don't you let Mort know where I'm taking you, wash your hands, and I'll put these things away. Then we can go back and find out why someone's looking into Karcer demons."
"Sounds good to me." Faith agreed, and made her way back to the roof.
"What's going on with Tanya?" Mort asked, wiping at his forehead with a cloth. "She looked worried."
"She said someone's at the library, and she thinks that he's looking into the weirdness." Faith shrugged, and leaned over to give Mort a kiss. "She want me to go with and try to check out if he's weird human guy or human looking demon."
"There's demons who can do that?" Mort asked, one eyebrow lifting.
"Close enough, one way or another." Faith commented, and rolled her shoulders before glancing back at the car. "I'm going to clean up a bit and go back into town with her to find out. Besides, even if he is human, which he might not be, he could still be trouble."
"Damn right. Before I met you, I would have said especially if he's human, but…" Mort let the words trail away, a shrug indicating that he still found it hard to put the whole demon thing into words. "Be careful."
"Of course." Faith grinned at him, and dropped back to the second floor roof, and then inside through an open window. She just hoped that it would be as easy to be careful as she wanted it to sound.
End part 40.
It didn't take Faith long to get cleaned up, and by then, Tanya had brought everything inside. She could hear Lorrie and Pyro talking about the television, and which of the limited channels would be better to watch. Trying not to snicker, she asked, "Are we ready to go then?"
"I am if you are." Tanya murmured, picking her car keys back up.
"I'm five by five here." Faith smirked, and held out her arms while turning around. "Do the weapons show?"
"No, though I must say that this is the first time I've been asked that before taking someone anywhere with me." Tanya offered a small smile, and headed for the door. "So, I guess we go back and hope that he hasn't vanished while I was away from town."
"Yeah." Faith slid into the car, sighing. There wasn't anything else that she could do right now, and she hated that feeling. Maybe someone would find something on the Door, or about the Mistress Vamp. She'd even be happy for something on hat-vamp. Or a reason why they couldn't just pop Pyro back through the door and have him out from underfoot. But no, all she could do was wait, and Faith hated waiting.
In reality, it was probably only fifteen or twenty minutes before they were pulling into a parking place along the street, just down a bit from the library. The street was lined with the normal assortment of cars and trucks, and one dark motorcycle. Faith raised her eyebrow at that, certain that she hadn't seen it before, and wondering if it was the mystery-guy's ride. He was sounding more interesting already.
"Yes, that motorcycle probably goes with the man in question." Tanya agreed, noticing the direction of Faith's gaze. "Now, last I knew, he was in the library, not the bar or standing here, so shall we go inside?"
"Yeah, let's go." Faith nodded, and stepped towards the library. "Might as well figure out what we can relatively quick."
They stepped into the little library, and Faith had no trouble finding the man Tanya had meant. He was situated at a table, frowning over a stack of newspapers. As soon as she saw him, her jaw dropped, and Faith felt rather stunned. "No way…"
"Faith?" Tanya asked, one hand touching Faith's elbow. 'Is something wrong?"
"That can't be him." Faith shook her head, and looked again. The man still looked exactly the same. Short dark hair, a leather jacket over black jeans, and unmistakably looking just like, "Wesley Wyndham-Price?"
He spun around, the newspaper dropping to the floor with a slithery flutter, and blinked at her. "Faith?"
"Oh boy." Faith muttered. She couldn't believe that this was actually Wesley. He looked so different than he had in Sunnydale. And for that matter, why wasn't he still in Sunnydale, or back in England? He couldn't be the 'something in the works' that Dick had meant, could he?
"So, he's not a demon, then?" Tanya murmured, her voice too low for Wesley to hear.
"No. He's a Watcher. The young one that got sent to Sunnydale, remember? Except…" Faith swallowed, and tried to will the surprise away. "He didn't look like that in Sunnydale."
"Isn't this awkward then?" Tanya commented, with a tight smile. "Shall we go talk about things somewhere else?"
"That… yeah, that would be good, Tanya." Faith agreed, still feeling dazed.
"Where shall we talk then?" Wesley replied, even sounding less uptight than she remembered from Sunnydale.
"Just follow us, we can talk at the park." Tanya decided.
End part 41.