Chapter Eight
“Well, Agent Finn?” Maggie Walsh tapped her foot and waited for Riley to tell her what he’d learned about Buffy.
“I’m sure she’s not a demon. Although…I can’t say I don’t think there’s something going on with her. I just can’t put my finger on what it is.”
“She’s scary as hell,” Graham put in. “That’s what it is.”
Maggie looked at him with astonishment and not a little dismay.
“You are afraid of this girl?”
“Well, not most of the time,” he squirmed and looked to his friends for help. “But when she stepped in last night…there was just something about her…”
“Her friend, Xander, said she’s really good at defusing situations. Maybe that’s how she does it. By sounding scary.” Riley was reaching for explanations, knowing that no one was buying it.
“Tell me about her friends, and the family you met.”
“Not much to tell. Her uncle seems nice enough. Very English, very bookish. Her cousin’s kind of a younger version of the uncle. Neither one looks like he could fight his way out of a paper bag. Whatever Buffy has going for her, it certainly isn’t genetic.”
“Got that right!” Forrest and Graham exchanged high fives, remembering how frightened her cousin had been. Conveniently forgotten were the black eye and bruised hand, both courtesy of the wimpy cousin.
“Her friends are okay. Willow, you know from class. She’s a brain. Very conscientious, not really very outgoing. Xander’s kind of a…I don’t know. I think he and Willow are childhood friends or something. His girl friend is a little strange. Comes out with the oddest things sometimes. They’re always shushing her. That’s about it.”
“Nothing demonic or strange about them?”
“Nope, just regular old people. Oh, the cousin has one hell of a grip when he shakes hands…”
“Stronger than yours?” Maggie’s voice indicated her sudden interest.
“Hard to say. He was giving me a run for my money when he stopped and apologized. Don’t know where it would have gone from there. There’s no way he’s a fighter, though. He’s afraid of his own shadow. Just wants to sit around reading poetry.”
“Things are not always what they seem, Agent Finn. You, of all people, should know that.” Maggie paused to think, then said with an air of decision, “All right, I’ll give you the rest of the week to learn what you can about this girl while we try to obtain information about this mythical ‘Slayer’. We’ll meet again on Friday and decide on a course of action then.
“And, gentlemen? I haven’t forgotten that Hostile Seventeen is still out there somewhere, nor that Ms. Summers is the reason he got away the second time. I want this situation rectified, soon.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” they chorused as they left her office.
“Where do you think we should start looking for the hostile?” Forrest asked as they walked back to the elevator that would carry them back up to Lowell House.
“I think we should begin with her uncle. She seems to spend a lot of time there. Maybe we can get him to tell us something. Or that wimpy cousin of hers. I doubt he’d stand up to an interrogation.”
“I think we’d better be damn sure we know what we’re looking for, before we start harassing her family,” Graham said mildly. “I’ve got a feeling she wouldn’t like it very much, and I’m not sure I want to see her get mad again.”
“Come on, guys. You’re talking about Buffy like she was six feet tall and had big teeth and claws. She’s an athletic little girl, with martial arts training who caught us by surprise. That’s all.” Riley shook his head at his men.
“Tell you what. I’ll ask her to come in and spar with us. Give us a chance to really size her up and see how good she is.”
“I’m not sparring with some woman that only comes up to my belt buckle!”
“Fine, I’ll spar with her. It shouldn’t take long to prove she’s just a human girl who got lucky.”
************
“You want me to what?” Buffy put her hands on her hips and glared at her watcher indignantly.
“I want you to take Sp-William shopping for some clothes. My things are too large for him and if he’s going to continue to pretend to be your cousin, he is going to need more than one shirt and one pair of pants.”
“If Buffy doesn’t want to go, she doesn’t have to,” the vampire said quietly from his place in the big chair. “I’m perfectly capable of buying my own clothes.”
“I am not sending out a vampire who may, or may not, be permanently harmless, to roam through the Sunnydale Mall without someone to watch him.”
“Haven’t hurt anybody yet, Watcher. And I got to mingle with all sorts of plump, blood-filled bodies the other night at the Bronze.”
“You also almost got yourself re-captured and/or beat up,” Buffy said with a sigh. “Okay, I guess we can do this. We’ll hit the mall tonight. Find clothes for the vampire.”
She gave William a sideways look and said with an evil grin, “This could actually be a lot of fun…”
“Hey! Don’t get any ideas there, Missy. You might get to hold my leash, but you are NOT picking out clothes for me. I’ll stake myself before I let you dress me.”
(Now, if you want to undress me, pet, that’s a different story.)
He gave her a most un-William-like leer and she tossed her head and turned away with a sniff.
“Let’s go, William. I have things to do later tonight.”
“That right, Slayer?” he asked as they walked out the door with a wave to the Watcher. “Gonna let Capt’n Cardboard find his way to second base, are you?”
He was careful to keep any trace of real worry or fear from reaching her, but she shot him a suspicious look all the same.
“He’s a nice guy, Spike. Don’t blame Riley for his what his obnoxious friends did.”
“Are you starting to have feelings for that pillock, Slayer? Have you forgotten that he’s been lying to you since you met him? That HE knows somethin’ about what you are and you know nothin’ about him except that he wears dark clothes and prowls around in the dark pickin’ on innocent vampires?”
“I’m lying too, Spike. I haven’t admitted to him that I’m anything more than a martial arts expert – or told him that I know it was him the other night. OR,” she cocked her head at the scowling vampire, “that my ‘cousin’, William is actually the vampire he was trying to recapture.”
“Yeah, well, you’re lyin’ for a good reason,” he grumbled, brushing his hand against hers as they walked down the street. When she didn’t pull away, he moved closer and they finished their walk to the mall touching briefly with every step.
They wandered around the men’s department of the first store, arguing about what they should and shouldn’t buy.
“Okay,” Buffy agreed with exasperation, “you can buy a pair of jeans, but they have to be blue ones – no black. And no tight tee shirts. Here, this will look good on you.” She held a light blue button down shirt up under his chin, admiring the way it brought out the blue in his eyes.
“Think it’ll look good, do you?” He took the shirt and held it at arm’s length. “Guess I’ll have to take your word for it, luv. ‘S not like I can see myself in the mirror, is it?”
Sunnydale being what it was, none of the clerks in the store commented on the fact that the cute little guy in glasses never tried anything on or looked in the mirror. They just smiled and agreed with the pretty girl helping him pick things out that he needed a little color in his wardrobe.
When Buffy thought they had got enough “nancy-boy wear” as Spike called it, to get through the next week or so, they walked though the mall looking into windows. Spike kept Buffy giggling with his comments on the people passing by. He would try to guess what they were thinking and kept trying to get her to stop them and ask if he was right.
When a rowdy group of boys walked by, ogling Buffy and commenting on her body parts, he began to growl and she had to grab his hand and pull him away.
“Okay, okay. We both know what they were thinking. But, growling? So not a William thing to do.”
“William wouldn’t like them talkin’ about you like that either, pet,” he said with a glare back over his shoulder.
“Maybe not, but he wouldn’t GROWL. You’ve got to be more careful when we’re out in public. More William, less Spike.”
As Buffy spoke, she stopped in front of the Victoria’s Secret store to admire the display. She felt William step up behind her and he rested his hands lightly on her shoulders as he growled softly.
“What did I just tell you?” she turned around and glared at him. “William would NOT be growling at everything!”
“Trust me, love, standin’ here in front of this window with you? William would be growling – you jus’ wouldn’t have been able to hear him like you can me. He’d be embarrassed, but he’d be growlin’.”
The truth of what he was saying was evident in his heated gaze that went from her angry face down to her suddenly hard nipples and damp crotch and back up again. He licked his lips as he scented her arousal and felt her leaning toward him. Before he could capture the lips so near his, he was jostled by a passing shopper and the moment was lost.
Blushing furiously, Buffy started walking again, pulling him away from the lingerie store, only to find that the next store, based on the things in the window, might as well have been called, “Spike’s store.” The window was done almost completely in black and red and contained various leather articles of clothing as well as an assortment of spandex tops.
He pulled Buffy into the store and held a leather mini skirt up to her as he turned her around to look at herself in the mirror.
“It’s you, pet. This skirt and one of those stretchy tops…you’d turn William into a wild animal.”
“Why am I thinking that isn’t such a stretch for him?” she laughed, pushing the skirt away. “And it isn’t William that wants me to dress like that…he’d be ashamed to be seen with me in that outfit.”
“You wouldn’t have to wear it out in public, Slayer…”
“No! We are not using the money Giles gave me to buy things for me to wear just for you.”
“Would you wear it if I paid for it, Slayer?” He wiggled his eyebrows at her hopefully and gave her his sexiest smile.
Before she could answer him, he suddenly dropped the leering look he’d been giving her and, grabbing her hand, he pulled her out of the store quickly. Buffy was just opening her mouth to ask him if he’d lost his mind, when William was tugging her away from the store, head down and mortified expression on his face.
“Good lord, Buffy!” he said in a close imitation of Giles at his most incensed. “Mother would throw me out of the house if I brought one of those spouse-abuser shirts home to wear! How could you even think about taking me into that kind of store?”
Buffy was torn between picturing Spike’s ripped body in a tight wife-beater, and wondering what the hell had gotten into him all of a sudden. Then she felt the hand on her arm as Riley said, “Buffy! Imagine running into you here. What are you doing?”
Shooting Spike a grateful look, she covered smoothly, and only slightly dishonestly, “ Oh, I just took William out to see a shopping mall and maybe pick up some more California-friendly clothes. Tweed coats and heavy sweaters aren’t all that useful here in Sunnydale.”
“I suppose that’s true.” He turned to the embarrassed looking young man. “So, William. What do you think of our local mall? Bet there’s nothing like this back in England, huh?”
“Quite so, quite so. Buffy is showing me many strange and wonderful things here in her city. I’m quite exhausted from all the sight seeing.”
“Well, why don’t I give you two a ride back then? You can rest at your uncle’s and I’ll take Buffy back to the dorm.”
Since neither one of them could think quickly enough to offer a good excuse why not, they soon found themselves back in the SUV and heading for the Watcher’s apartment complex.
Riley pulled up near the door and waited for William to get out, frowning slightly when Buffy reached for her door also.
“I said I’d take you back to the dorm, Buffy. I thought we might stop and have a drink or some ice cream on the way.” He looked hurt and disappointed and Buffy sighed.
“I have to check in with Giles first, Riley. Be sure he knows I brought William home safely and with his credit rating still intact.”
“Fine,” he said, opening his own door. “I’ll just come in with you and then we’ll leave from here.” As they walked toward the door, he commented lightly, “I’m just amazed that everyone keeps expecting you to keep William safe. It’s like they think you have…oh, I don’t know….super powers or something.”
“Hee, hee,” Buffy laughed weakly. “What a silly idea, Riley. It’s just that he’s new to the city and not very…adventuresome.”
“I’m actually quite cowardly when Buffy isn’t around,” William volunteered eagerly. “She brings out the explorer in me.”
Riley rolled his eyes at that amazing remark and held the door open for them. Only to be met by a very surprised Giles and an attractive woman with café–au-lait skin.
“Buffy! W-william. I wasn’t expecting you back so soon. This…this is Olivia. An old friend. She just popped in and we were…catching up.”
“Uncle Rupert, you old dog, you,” William snarked as he walked into the living room with his packages.
Giles shot him a dirty look and then turned to Buffy.
“I, ah, I’ve been trying to, ah, resolve the…sleeping arrangements…and I…um…I spoke to your mother, Buffy.”
“My mom? What for? Do you want Olivia to stay there? I’m sure it’s okay.”
(Don’t believe it’s the bird he’s trying to get rid of, love.) She could feel the amusement in Spike’s voice, even as she saw him turn away to hide his smile.
(What? What do you mean? You mean he wants you to… But why? Then he’d be alone here with…oh! Oh my! Ewwww!)
“Um, er, actually, I had hoped that your mother would be willing to give William a place to stay for the night. And she has graciously agreed, although she requested that you accompany him – just for the, um…fun of it,” he finished lamely.
Riley’s disappointment was palpable, but he cheered himself with the thought that meeting Buffy’s mother would add another piece to the puzzle that was Buffy Summers.
“I’d be happy to drive you there, Buffy – William. I’d like to meet your mother, anyway, Buffy.”
“Uh, okay, sure, that would be…great…I guess.” She gave Giles a look, clearly asking if he’d filled her mother in on what was going on. He gave her a brief nod and began shepherding them to the door.
“Well, good. That’s settled then. I’ll see you all tomorrow sometime. Nice to see you again, Riley. “ He practically shoved them out the door.
“Well, that was just…” Buffy was at a loss for words. She’d not seen Giles express any interest in a woman since Jenny Calendar had met her death at the hands of Angelus, and to be practically thrown out of the apartment so that he could be alone with one she’d never heard of or met was throwing her for a loop.
Spike’s obvious amusement at her distress and surprise was becoming irritating. He made no attempt to hide his internal laughter, even though he was outwardly very controlled. Finally, Buffy could take it no longer and she blurted out, “Stop it!”
Riley turned to her in surprise. “Stop what?” he asked in genuine confusion.
“Uh…I…uh…I thought I saw something run in front of the car,” she explained weakly. “I guess it was nothing, though, cause, you know, no bump in the night…”
Shaking his head at more inexplicable behavior from her, Riley turned onto the road to Buffy’s mother’s neighborhood. They drove in apparent silence for a while as Riley allowed Buffy to remain lost in thought. He would have been less accommodating if he’d known that he was the subject of her thoughts. Hers and William’s.
(Spike? He never asked me where Mom lives. He still hasn’t asked me for directions or an address. He’s just going there.)
(Noticed that, pet. Kinda makes you wonder what else the wanker knows that he shouldn’t, doesn’t it?)
As they pulled up in the driveway of the house on Revello Drive, Spike began to worry about getting into the house. Hoping Joyce would have enough sense to ask him in, he slowly followed Buffy and Riley up the sidewalk. When she notice how slowly he was walking, Buffy turned around and said, “Come on, William. You know Mom is anxious to see you.”
(Is she gonna be anxious enough to remember I need an invite? Cause I don’t feature having soldier boy watchin’ me bounce off the barrier.)
(What barrier?)
(Vampire? Ringin’ any bells here, Slayer?)
(Oh, THAT barrier. Doesn’t exist. I never took you off the guest list.)
With that blithe remark, Buffy opened the front door and held it for William and Riley, ushering them in with a flourish. Before Spike could get over the fact that the Slayer had never done a dis-invite spell for him, her mother was hugging him and cooing over the “handsome man” he’d turned in to since she’d last seen him.
When William and Joyce had finishing pretending to be long lost relatives, rather than a barely acquainted vampire and mother of the Slayer, Riley was introduced as someone from Sunnydale University that Buffy seeing. If he was disappointed at not being introduced as a boy friend, he hid it well, shaking Joyce’s hand and complementing her on the décor of the house.
It wasn’t long before Riley became uncomfortable with his clearly unnecessary presence at what he assumed was a family reunion and he finally excused himself for the evening. Telling Buffy he’d see her in class the next day, he shook hands with Joyce and flipped a wave at William as he went out the door. He lingered for a minute in the doorway, apparently hoping Buffy would step out onto the porch with him for a kiss, but when she didn’t, he gave up with a sigh and left.
He was half-way back to the base before he realized what he’d done. (Shit! I never once asked her where her mother lived. Just went right there. And she never asked me how I knew where it was. I wonder why?)
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Looks like posting two chapters at a time isn't going to work out, so we'll have to do this the hard way.