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Chapter Eleven

Buffy was up early, in spite of only having a few hours of sleep. Spike had been true to his word and the only dreams she had about him were her own, difficult-to-suppress, memories of how he felt pressed against her. She drifted off to sleep dreaming she was curled up next to his cool body and had to smother a pang of disappointment when she woke up alone. She dressed and went downstairs quickly, taking her mother into the bathroom and running the water to drown out their voices.

To her immense surprise, there were no voices to drown out. Neither she, nor her mother, was capable of making a sound. After several frustrating minutes, she grabbed a tablet and wrote down what she needed to say.

Joyce’s face darkened as Buffy gave her a capsule version of the night’s events and explained that everything they might say, if they could speak, was probably being recorded.

“Of course, that doesn’t seem to be a issue just now,” she wrote with an angry slash. She scribbled some more words and shoved the tablet at her mother.

“It’s going to be okay, Mom. As soon as I get Giles and Willow here, we’ll find them and take them down. But you’re going to have to be careful how you talk to Spike until then. I don’t want them to find out William is the vampire they’ve been looking for.”

Grabbing the table from Buffy, her mother wrote furiously, “All right, Buffy. But please do not bring that soldier back here. I don’t know that I am that good an actress – and right now I want to take a baseball bat to him.”

“Whoa, Mom! And Spike thinks I’m violent!” Buffy laughed at her mother’s embarrassment and hugged her.

As soon as Joyce had left for work, Buffy hastened to the other side of town and Giles’ apartment. Just before she reached his door, she remembered why they’d had to go to her house last night and decided she really didn’t want to find her Watcher in bed with his guest. She paced around the parking lot, frustrated with her choices. On the one hand, she obviously couldn’t make a phone call, but on the other, knocking on the door seemed unnecessarily embarrassing for all of them.

Her dilemma was solved when the door opened and her fully dressed Watcher peered out. He saw Buffy and immediately gestured for her to come in. Once inside the apartment, they frantically scribbled back and forth. The morning news, which was done in closed captions, told about several people being found dead with their hearts ripped out. Giles had already put Olivia to work doing research, and as Willow and Xander and Anya arrived, the full Scoobie machine was at work on identifying the problem.

Looking over Willow’s shoulder, Buffy spotted a drawing of a figure that looked very much like the ugly man she and William had seen the night before. She pointed at the picture, gesturing to her eyes until Willow finally said, “You’ve seen one of these?”

Buffy nodded vigorously and scribbled, “Last night.”

Another hour of research, and they had their answers as to both the missing hearts and the missing voices. Buffy nodded her head when Giles wrote that she had to locate the box with the missing voices and open it before any more Sunnydale citizens lost their hearts.

Armed with the knowledge of what was needed to disrupt the Gentlemen’s quest for more hearts, she headed back to Revello Drive, the entire crew including Olivia following along. She showed them the cameras, and sensors, pointing out the hiding places as they approached her front yard.

While Anya and Xander took Olivia into the house, Giles and Willow bent down to look at one of the sensors. After studying it for a minute, Willow plucked a wire from the back and picked it up triumphantly. Buffy looked at the recording device and carefully stepped on the microphone pointed at her front door, crushing it beneath her feet.

When Willow stared at her, indicating she could have disconnected it also, Buffy shrugged and wrote, “Low tech solution to high tech problem.”

Giles shook his head and they entered the house, leaving the camera running until they could decide what to do about it. Willow and Buffy went out to the back yard and dismantled the camera, recorder and sensors they found there. A close inspection of the rest of the yard revealed one more camera, two more recorders, duly smashed by Buffy’s feet, and another sensor.

They went back in the kitchen door to find William having a mug of warm pig’s blood for breakfast and looking much too rested to suit Buffy. And much too cute. He was wearing the new blue button-down shirt and jeans. With his soft curls falling over his forehead and his startling blue eyes peering out from under them, he looked adorable.

She sincerely hoped she hadn’t been projecting when she had that thought, but William gave no sign that he’d heard her refer to him as adorable. Instead, he tilted his head at her and asked, (What’s with the mass laryngitis, pet?)

(I’ll fill you in later. Let’s just say you and I are going hunting ugly people after all.)

He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t pursue it when he noticed Willow giving them a funny look. He gave her his best, most innocent “William” smile and she relaxed and went back to examining the sensors they’d brought in.

Spike took his mug of blood into the living room and sat down to watch the news with Olivia, leaving the Scoobies to watch Willow as she dismantled the sensor. It occurred to him that Giles might very well have not told her he was a vampire, so he made sure to act as bewildered and confused as William would undoubtedly have been at all the weird happenings around him.

By the time evening was approaching, Willow had managed to incapacitate the sensors so that they could not record Spike’s lack of body temperature, or accurately count the humans present in the house. They carefully replaced them where they’d found them. The cameras were twisted just enough that they pointed to a wall of the house, rather than a door. There was nothing to be done about the microphones Buffy had crushed, but with no one able to speak, they doubted the commandos would be listening anyway.

With nightfall, Buffy and Spike went through the weapon’s chest, taking whatever easily concealed things they could find. Without knowing what to expect from the Gentlemen, they tried to be prepared for anything. As they worked at getting ready to go out, Willow studied them surreptitiously. She was positive they were communicating in some fashion other than with gestures, but she couldn’t imagine what it was or how they would have come to be able to do it.

Leaving the Scoobies at her house with her now home-again mother, Buffy left by the front door, conspicuously waving “good-bye” to William and Joyce. As soon as she was safely away from the house, she stopped and waited while Spike caught up with her.

(What took you so long?)

(Had a little trouble with the whelp wantin’ to follow me up to your room and keep me out. The witch had to step in and show him the tree outside the window before he’d let me set foot in there. The way he watched me, you’da thought I was gonna set fire to it or somethin’.)

Buffy was intrigued by the underlying hurt she could feel as he told her about Xander’s unwillingness to let him near her room. Afraid he would pick up on her thoughts, she pushed her curiosity aside for the time being and concentrated on discussing their plan for the night.

(Okay, we’re going to search through the residential areas because that’s how they got the hearts last night – from people who were sleeping. We’ll save the dorms till last, cause nobody goes to sleep early there. We’re not going to get in the way unless we have to, to save a life. We’ll follow them back to wherever they’re keeping the voices and try to open the box.)

(I got it, pet. The first three times. What are you so nervous about?)

(I’m not nervous. I’m….concerned.)

(About?)

(I know the commandos will be out tonight looking for the same guys we are. What if they see us/you?)

(Well, I could try screaming again, but I guess that won’t work if I’m holding a sword…)

(No.) There was a tone of command in Buffy’s thought. (If we run into them, you leave, or hide, or something. I don’t want them to see you. I don’t want them wondering why William is always with me when I’m out slaying.)

(Not leavin’ you alone, pet) Spike’s determination was palpable.

(You are if I tell you to.) Buffy’s determination was equally strong.

Their inevitable stand-off was interrupted by the arrival of several of the Gentlemen’s helpers. They fought all but one of them to a stand still, finding that the only way to kill them was to cut off their heads. The remaining creature ran off with its awkward, loping gait, arms swinging wildly, and Buffy and Spike in hot pursuit.

They followed him to a clock tower and watched as one of the Gentlemen floated past, carefully holding what appeared to be another heart. Close behind him, was a squad of commandos, led by Riley Finn. Shoving Spike behind a bush and ordering him to (stay here unless I call you), Buffy ran into the tower behind the Gentleman and ahead of Riley.

Ignoring the soldier, except to keep an eye on how he was doing in the fight, Buffy battled her way into the tower and began searching frantically for the voice box. Just as she located it, she was attacked by two of the long-armed creatures at once and pinned down. As she frantically tried to kick them off of her before the advancing Gentleman could take his scalpel to her chest, she gestured toward the box, trying to get Riley to smash it.

In her anxiety to get the box smashed quickly, she hadn’t realized she was projecting her frustration and thoughts until William burst through the door and brought his fist down on the box, releasing all the captured voices. Immediately, Buffy began screaming, not stopping until she ran out of breath and all the Gentlemen had succumbed to exploding heads.

For several seconds, no one moved or said anything. Buffy was struggling to regain her breath, William was hovering over her anxiously, and Riley was looking back and forth between the two as he struggled back to his feet.

“Buffy, we need to talk,” he said unnecessarily.

Spike gave a very un-William-like snort, and she shot him a warning look before turning to face the big commando.

“I suppose we do,” she said tiredly. “But not tonight. I’m tired and I want to go home. I’ll meet you in the coffee shop tomorrow. Is that all right?”

“I thought maybe you could come to Lowell House for coffee. We could talk there with more privacy.”

Buffy studied him for a full minute, trying to assess how much she could trust the man. She could feel Spike behind her, willing her to say “no”, but ignored him as best she could. When she nodded her head in agreement, and told Riley she’d meet him at Lowell House, the vampire stalked out of the tower and disappeared into the night.

“William isn’t walking home on his own, is he?” Riley asked with a grin.

“No, I’m sure he’ll wait for me. I think he just needed to get out of here and away from all the blood and gore.”

“He’s awfully delicate for the cousin of a Slayer, isn’t he?” Riley tried to appear casual as he used her title for the first time.

“He’s a good man,” she said shortly, neither confirming nor denying his implication. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Riley.” She went down the stairs and out into the night, leaving the commando and his team staring after her small form as she walked down the street toward her waiting cousin.





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