Chapter
6.06
Wednesday, May 15th, 2002
For long seconds two pairs of blue eyes bored
into each other with a palpable intensity.
"And if I prefer to think that you and yours
are responsible for this?" Brandon's father asked.
"Then that would be another reason for us to
clean up our own mess, wouldn't it? But, seeing as you're unlikely
to find any of us carrying a gun, at least one loaded with anything
other than tranqs, I don't see how you can lay the blame on us,
soldier boy." The last two words were spat out with a disgust
that was obvious to all in the room. "We're not the ones using
a sixteen-year-old kid to spy on people. What'd you do? Have a
debriefing session after every date?"
"You don't know me, so I'll let that one slip,
this once, but rest assured any attachment my son formed for the
girl has nothing to do with me. I'd have been more than happy
if he'd never met her, especially given the outcome."
"Spike, this isn't helping, and if you get any
louder that cop outside is going to come in to see what's going
on." Buffy gently touched Spike's arm at the elbow.
Spike half-turned toward her. "Alright, pet.
I'll shut up, soon as Rambo here tells us whether he'll accept
our help or not."
The taller man sighed. "Like you said, I don't
have a lot of choice. This doesn't mean I trust you, or that I
ever want my kid near any of you again. It just means that I'm
backed into a corner."
"There you go, Red. There's your go-ahead. At
least now we don't have to punch him out."
Mr Michaels' forehead creased into a frown. "You
said it was my choice whether they did anything or not."
Spike gave a lupine grin. "I lied."
Half an hour later, the quartet exited the building
leaving Brandon and his father in their hospital room. Willow
had used her magic to remove the bullet and repair the damage
to Brandon's chest. However, as for the concussion, blood-loss
and the drugs in his system, his body would have to recover in
its own time with whatever help the doctors could offer. His father
had grudgingly taken Buffy's cell number and promised to call
if Brandon had any useful information when he woke up.
"I guess one of us best ring Glinda and
see if she's come up with anything."
"I'll do it," Willow volunteered.
She pulled a phone from her bag and rang the
number for the magic shop. Anya answered, of course, but quickly
handed the receiver over to Tara when she realised that it wasn't
a potential customer.
"It's Willow. Doesn't she realise that's
a business line?"
"Are you really expecting customers to ring
at this time of night?" Xander asked.
"Well, sometimes overseas customers leave
orders on the answering machine, since they can't be like normal
people and get up when we get up and go to sleep when we do."
"How inconsiderate of them," Xander
remarked. "You really should discuss it with Giles. Just
explain to him that all these international time zones are kind
of inconvenient and that you think they should be abolished with
everyone adopting LA time as standard. I'm sure he'll think it's
a marvellous idea."
"You think I can't tell when you're being
facetious?"
"You never used to be able to."
"Yes, well maybe I know you better than
you think. You are my husband, aren't you?"
"According to the state of Nevada, and the
funny thing... considering your former career, not actually scared
and more kinda somewhere between contented and smug about the
whole marital deal. Come here and gimme some sugar, sweet-lips?"
"So you're glad we got married, even though
you originally ran away in panic at the very idea?"
"Very glad, and I'll be ecstatic when you
put down that order pad and come kiss me."
"Tara's kind of busy keeping up with her
spell. Maybe we should go take a nap in the training room."
Anya replied, as she raised her lips from the requested kiss.
"Ahn?"
"Well. We did it the last time Dawn was
kidnapped. What's the big difference now?"
"The difference would be that you've just
announced to everyone in the room what we're about to do."
"Piffle. Tara's too busy trying to explain
her train theory to be paying any attention, and it's not like
we can help with the spell, and once they get closer and she's
trying to do two at once, she's going to be even busier."
Anya drew her not-really-resisting husband by the hand into the
training room. "If you really want, I'll wear that sticky
metal prosthetic above my eye and put my hair up."
Tara looked up as the training room door closed
behind the couple. "And tell the guys, if they're planning
to stock up on weapons before you leave town, I suggest you swing
by Revello."
"I thought we'd just get a couple of bits
and pieces from the training room," Buffy countered when
Willow passed on the message.
Tara overheard Buffy's comment and was quick
to bring the redhead up to date. "Anya and Xander are in
the training room. I think she was planning on making it up to
him for missing his Seven of Nine special."
"Anya and Xander— Nope, I can't even act
surprised. We'll go by Revello. Talk again in a bit," Willow
confirmed. "Added bonus: while you guys sort out the weapons,
I get to put on a pair of trousers instead of this skirt. So not
fun on the back of a motorbike."
"If we're arming up, we need to swing past
my place as well," Spike added.
"What? You think I don't have enough weapons
of mass destruction to go 'round?" Buffy asked.
"No, but I did have the general impression
you would rather I made use of the tranq gun than one of your
nice axes."
"Good point. How many darts do we have left
with that thing?"
"About four, I think, but it's better than
nothing."
"Okay, we've got that and one taser. I guess
you get that, Wes. Other than that, it's going to have to be magic
and hand-to-hand. I suppose I could take a crossbow; it's always
a deterrent and I can aim to wound."
"You can use the tranq gun?" Wesley
asked the vampire.
"Well, uh. I never actually fired it, but
I didn't get a migraine when I pointed it at someone, so I'm guessin'
it'll be okay. Haven't had the ammo to spare or a volunteer to
test the theory any further." Spike's answer was, strictly
speaking, true and neatly skirted around the issue of the chip's
removal, but he still looked vaguely uncomfortable in the deception.
"We'll go by yours on our way out of town.
It's kind of on the way. I still don't know if we should take
the car rather than the bike. How're we going to get Dawn back
when we find her if we take the bikes?"
"Need the manoeuvrability, love. 'Sides,
you and the Bit don't hardly make a full-sized passenger 'tween
the pair of you. We'll get by."
Sam was already dressed in civvies, since her
mission had involved operating in populated areas. When she got
back to Lowell house all she had to do was leave Riley a note
to say she'd been called back out, grab some scrubs and claim
another vehicle from the pool. All with the added bonus that if
Riley did hurry back in hopes of joining her in her bath he was
going to be disappointed.
The slayer and her little friends thought they
were so great. Then, why had it never even occurred to them to
wonder where Riley's Jeep had come from, considering that the
couple had been airlifted in and out? And they never gave a thought
to who was going to be around to pick it up when they left. Just
because the faces they knew had been rotated out, they had thought
the Initiative was gone. True, the base had been stripped at one
point, but a change in government can lead to all sorts of decisions
being reversed.
Sam was only sorry that she'd missed out on her
chance to have a part in the Initiative when it was operating
at full scale. It was so seldom she got to make use of her medical
training these days. Tonight was an exception, though. Once she
made it to the containment facility, she would get answer the
riddle, "What is the difference was between a mystical key
and a normal teenaged girl?" She couldn't kill her. No one
knew what would happen to the energy contained by her human form
if she died. It was an unacceptable risk. That didn't mean the
girl wouldn't wish she were dead before the night was over.
By the time they left her for her sister to find,
she would provide her sister and her ridiculous hangers-on with
quite the object lesson. Between that and losing the vampire,
the slayer would learn better than to interfere in business that
was none of her concern.
"Alpha One, this is Alpha Two. We have two
motorbikes approaching from the centre of town. One looks like
the couple from earlier but the other could be the target. Make
that confirmed. Hostile 17 is incoming," Graham advised Riley
from his rooftop vantage point.
"Okay, people. First clear shot on the heart
that you get, take it," Riley ordered.
"Wait, sir. There's a passenger on the vehicle
with him. It's hard to tell with the helmet on, but I think it's
the slayer, sir."
"Belay, that last order. Wait until the
vehicle is stationary. Do not endanger any civilians. We're only
looking to take out the vampire. Repeat, target is blond male,
approximately five foot ten. All other subjects to be treated
as civilians."
Wes pulled his bike over onto the path leading
up to the house and stopped just short of the steps up onto the
front porch. Spike drew to a halt just to his rear. Buffy hopped
off from behind him, and as Spike backed the bike up onto its
stand before getting off, three arrows were loosed with well-practised
precision from their respective bows.
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