Chapter 22
Lillian felt for Buffy. It was the girl’s destiny to face hard choices, yet she was so young. “You would be dust, child,” she told Billy Fordham. “She would have buried you and staked you when you rose.”
He went straight to the blood supply on the bar. “If not for you.”
“If not for me.”
“Why? You don’t know me.”
“No. I know what your death did to Buffy. Perhaps letting your betrayal play out was unfortunate, but there are only so many things that can be changed. Your death was destiny either way.” Not that the boy understood what he was in the middle of.
“Vampires don’t have cancer, right?”
She smiled a little. “Not that I’m aware of.”
He finished another full glass. “What now?”
“That depends on you. Personally, I think you should finish your education.”
“Go back to high school? Are you serious?”
“Why wouldn’t I be? Mr. Fordham, your lifespan has been greatly increased. Wouldn’t it be in your best interests to be educated enough to earn a living?”
“Vampires don’t need jobs. They take what they want.”
“And are hunted for it. The Slayer isn’t the only hunter you have to worry about, Mr. Fordham. You will be useful, or you will be dust. These are your only choices.”
He lifted his chin and stood tall. “I’m powerful now. You can’t make me do anything I don’t want to.”
Lillian sighed and gestured with her right hand. Ford clutched his head and doubled over, fell to his knees and curled into a ball, screaming and writhing in pain. When he vomited the blood he’d just swallowed moments before, she released him from his torment.
“The tumor would have made you feel like this and worse. Don’t make me remind you again. Do we have an understanding, Mr. Fordham?”
He panted on the floor. “I’ll be good.”
“Excellent. You will need to find accommodations. Buffy said this place won’t be vacant long.”
Feeling she’d sufficiently warned the boy, she left for home. Magic was taxing when she didn’t call on the others for support.
****
“Two Slayers! TWO! It isn’t natural!” Spike paced the warehouse main floor. “It isn’t fair!”
“Spike… I don’t like her. Make her go away.”
“I’ve been tryin’ to since we got here, love.”
“It isn’t right…someone’s spoiled the party.” Drusilla moaned and drifted away to the bedroom.
Still in too much of a temper, Spike didn’t follow. He needed a good bit of destruction and the blasted sun was keeping him caged. At least the days were shorter at this time of year or he’d be bloody barmy by the time he got outside.
Could rip a few minions’ heads off…only a few of them had been useful of late.
****
Buffy and Willow sat on a bench under a tree.
“I’m on a beach, but not one of those American beaches, one of those island beaches where the water’s too blue, and I’m laying on my towel, and it’s just before sunset, and Gavin Rossdale’s massaging my feet!” Buffy said.
“Oh, that’s good! Uh, I’m in Florence, Italy; I’ve rented a scooter that’s parked outside, and I’m in a little restaurant eating ziti, and there are no more tables left, so they have to seat this guy with me, and it’s John Cusack!”
“Ooo! Very impressive. You have such an eye for detail.”
“’Cause with the ziti!”
“What are you two up to?” Xander asked.
“Just having a quick game of anywhere but here,” Buffy said.
“Ooohhh. Amy Yip at the waterslide park.”
“You never come up with anything new,” Willow said.
“I’m just not fickle like you two, okay? I’m constant in my affections. Amy Yip at the waterslide park!”
“Do you think Giles ever played anywhere but here when he was in school?”
They saw him approach.
“Giles lived for school. He’s actually still bitter that there are only twelve grades,” Xander said.
“He probably sat in math class thinking, ‘There should be more math. This could be mathier.’”
“C’mon, you don’t thing he ever got restless as a kid?” Willow asked.
“Are you kidding? His diapers were tweed,” Buffy said. Xander laughed. “Giles!”
“Oh! There you are.”
“Hey, morning. Say, is that tweed?” Buffy asked.
“What? Oh, uh, yes. Um, no, uh, look, tonight is very important, um…” He went inside.
“Now, that’s a surprise.”
They followed Giles to the library.
“So, what’s on tap tonight that’s so important? Uprising, prophesied ritual, preordained death fest?”
“Ah, the old standards,” Xander quipped.
“Um, a medical transport is delivering the monthly supply of blood to the hospital.”
Buffy stopped at the locker she and Kendra shared now. “Vampire Meals on Wheels.”
“Not on my watch,” Kendra said.
“Uh, we’ll meet outside the hospital at 8:30 sharp. I’ll bring the weaponry,” Giles said. “Don’t be late.”
“Morning, England,” Jenny said.
“Oh, hello, Ms., uh, uh, uh, Jenny.”
“Feel the passion!” Willow said.
“Mm-hmm.”
“Willow…”
“Coughing, not speaking.”
“We still on for tomorrow?” Jenny asked Willow.” She smiled and nodded.
“What’s tomorrow?”
“I’m reviewing some computer basics for the couple of students who’ve fallen behind. Willow’s helping out for extra credit.”
“Those poor shlubs have to attend school on Saturday!”
“Nine A.M. okay with you, Xander?”
“Got a bit of shlub on your shoe there,” Buffy said.
“Heh, heh.”
“Well, Cordelia’s gonna meet us.”
“Ooo, gang, did ya hear that? A bonus day of class plus Cordelia! Mix in a little rectal surgery, and it's my best day ever!”
“Walk me to class?” Jenny asked Giles.
“Pleasure.” They walked off.
“Look at them.”
“A twosome of cuteness.”
“Can’t you just imagine them getting together?”
****
“Oh! Thank you so much for loaning me the Forrester book. It's wonderful!” Jenny said.
“Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it!”
“Yeah, it was so romantic, so evocative.”
“That edition was my father's. I, I, I must've read it... twenty times.”
“Yeah, y'know how you have to, to dog-ear your favorite pages so you can go back to them?”
“Uh, uh, uh, what?”
“Well, I mean, I-I practically had to fold back every single page. So finally I just, I just started underlining all the pages I really wanted to discuss.”
“U-u-underlined...?”
“But then, of course, I spilled coffee all over it, I can't even read it...”
“It's a first edition!”
“I'm lying, Rupert. The book's fine. I just love to see you squirm.”
“Yes, well, I, uh... trust I gave good... squirm.”
“Did anyone ever tell you you're kind of a fuddy-duddy?”
“Nobody ever seems to tell me anything else.”
“Did anyone ever tell you you're kind of a sexy fuddy-duddy?”
“Well, no. Actually that, that part usually gets left out. I c-can't imagine why.”
“This weekend.”
“Would you like to go out?”
“Mm, no, I think I'd like to stay in.”
They drew together for a kiss. The bell rang. They touched lips, but broke it off when students began pouring into the halls.
“Uh, this Saturday, then.”
“Saturday night. I'll see if I can make you squirm.”
They looked at each other for a moment before Giles headed off to his library.
He found a detective and two officers there.
“Rupert Giles?”
“Yes?”
“Detective Winslow. You’re gonna have to come with me.”
“Why?”
“There was a homicide on campus last night. The victim had no identification, but he was carrying this slip of paper with your name and address on it.” He held up the slip in a plastic bag.
Giles set down his briefcase. “My name?”
“Well, evil just compounds evil, doesn't it? First I'm sentenced to a computer tutorial on Saturday, now I have to read some computer book... There are books on computers? Isn't the point of computers to replace books?”
“Cordelia, I’m a little busy right now.”
She turned to the police officer. “Oh! Great! Can you help me with a ticket? It’s totally bogus. It was a one-way street. I was going one way.”
“Cordelia!” Giles snapped.
“What? Why does everyone always yell my name? I'm not deaf! And I can take a hint. What's the hint?”
“To come back later.”
“Yeah, when you’ve visited decaf land,” she muttered, and left.
“Where do you want me to go?” he asked the detective.
****
The coroner opened one of the body storage doors and pulled out a drawer. “Have you had your breakfast?”
“No,” Giles said.
“That was probably a good idea.”
He pulled back the sheet to reveal Phillip. He was bruised all over, with the darkest ones on his throat.
“Do you know him?” the detective asked.
“Yes. Yes. I-I mean, I did. His name’s Phillip Henry. He was a friend of mine in London. I…I haven’t spoken to him in twenty years.”
“Can you think of any reason why he might’ve wanted to contact you?”
“No.”
There was a tattoo on Phillip’s right arm near the inside of his elbow. “Do you know what that is? The tattoo.”
“No. No, I don’t.”
****
Kendra waited at the hospital ER entrance. She walked to a pay phone to try calling Mr. Giles, but stopped when the blood van pulled up. The driver got out with a clipboard while two ER doctors came out to meet him.
“Hey, fellas.”
“Hey,” one doctor said.
She watched them go to the back of the van and take out an insulated container. They started back with the driver, and he got back in the van.
“Since when do doctors take deliveries?”
The van backed out of the spot and the doctors waved. “See ya.” The van drove off.
A car engine started and a pair of headlights came on. An old convertible pulled up into the light. The doctors set the chest down. One of them opened the lid, took out a bag of blood, and began sucking on it.
The driver of the car got out. “Hey! No sampling the product!”
The doctor vampire hissed, but put the bag back down and dropped the lid closed. Kendra ran to attack. She kicked the first doctor vampire down, then the second, and did a roundhouse kick to the driver's face. The first one got up, and she tried kicking him again, but he grabbed her leg and threw her on the hood of the car. She scissor-kicked him in the neck. He staggered away and fell. A fourth vampire ran up as she got up and took out a stake. She turned to attack him.
“Angelus!”
“Look out!” He jumped up onto the hood and leapt off to tackle the driver vampire coming at her from behind.
Angel punched him in the face, but he stayed up. The second vampire jumped up on the hood and swung at Kendra.
She ducked the punch and jabbed him in the chest. The first vampire jumped up on the hood, too, and she knocked him back off with a punch to the face. She punched the second one in the face, and he fell on the hood on his back. She jumped off the car and thrust her stake into the first vampire.
The second one was off the car again and grabbed her by the shirt from behind. She swung around with the stake and got him in the chest.
Angel roundhouse-kicked the driver and sent him spinning into the car. The vampire quickly sat up in the driver's seat and floored it as Angel tried to chase him. The car raced off, leaving Angel and the blood behind.
Kendra opened the lid to check on it. “How did you know about this?”
“It's delivery day. Everybody knows about this.” He checked the chest. “They only ruined one bag.”
She stood up and looked after the car. He kicked the lid back closed.
“Will you make sure the hospital gets the rest?” He nodded. “Thank you. Mr. Giles was supposed to meet me here.”
“Maybe he's late.”
“Mr. Giles? Who counts tardiness as the eighth deadly sin?”
“Right. Go.”
“Find that vampire.” She gave him a final look and hurried off.
****
Kendra walked to Giles’ apartment door and used her key.
“Kendra. I-it’s late. Uh, are you alright?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Yes, I’m fine, fine. Look, I’m, uh, rather busy a-at the moment, so if you could go to your room--”
“Did you forget about the hospital?”
“Oh! Yes, uh, are you alright? W-were you hurt?”
“No. What is wrong?”
“Nothing, nothing, nothing's wrong. I-I'm just in the, uh, middle of something extremely important, and, uh, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to say goodnight now.”
He went upstairs, leaving her confused.
****
“Yes, I'm, I'm sorry to disturb you. It's, uh...
I-I realize it's, uh, five in the morning there, um...
Uh, I-I'm trying to reach Deidre Page. My name is Rupert Giles, uh, uh, she knows me. It's, it's very important.
I'm terribly sorry. I... I-I didn't know. W-when did she, uh, pass away?
Ohhhh. That recently.
Um, yes, yes, um, we were friends when we were young. My condolences.”
He hung up the phone and stared off into space with his fingers to his lips. Taking off his glasses, he reached for his drink. The bottle next to it was almost half empty. He gulped the rest from the glass and set it back down.
Grabbing his pen, he crossed Deidre’s name off of a list of five names: Thomas Sutcliff, Philip Henry, Deidre Page, Ethan Rayne, Rupert Giles.
He got up and went into his bathroom to the sink in front of the mirror, rolled up his sleeves, and on his left arm just above the inside elbow was the same tattoo Phillip had. Reaching into the sink full of water, he cupped his hands and splashed some on his face, then looked up at himself in the mirror.
“So. You're back.”
****
Saturday…
Jenny, Xander, Willow, and Cordelia headed for the computer classroom.
“This isn’t right. School on a Saturday. It throws off my internal clock,” Cordelia said.
“When are we gonna need computers for real life, anyway?”
“Hmm, let’s see. There’s home, school, work, games…” Jenny unlocked the door.
“Y’know, computers are on the way out. I think paper’s gonna make a big comeback,” Xander said.
“And the abacus.”
“Yeah, you know, you don’t see enough abaci.”
Willow, Xander, and Cordelia each took a seat. Cordelia sat next to him.
“Alright, guys. The first thing we’re gonna do is…Kendra!”
Kendra followed Jenny into the room.
“Huh? Did I fall asleep already?”
“Aww, did you miss us?”
“Uh, sit here, Kendra! Demilitarize the zone between me and Cordelia!”
“Yeah, and delouse him while you’re at it.”
“Actually, I wanted to talk to Ms. Calendar for a second.”
“Something wrong?”
“Is there some crisis that requires instant action? Very far from here?”
“It’s Mr. Giles.”
“Well, he’s alright, isn’t he?”
“I don't know. He did not show up when he was supposed to last night, and then, at home, he was acting...not himself. He looked really unwell. I-I think he might have been drinking.”
“He was home alone drinking?”
“But…tea, right?” Willow said.
“Not tea.”
“Yep, yep, I knew this would happen. Nobody can be wound as straight and narrow as Giles without a dark side erupting. My Uncle Rory was the stodgiest taxidermist you've ever met by day. By night, it was booze, whores, and fur flying. Were there whores?”
“He was alone.”
“Give it time.”
“None of you have noticed anything different lately?” Kendra asked.
“No!”
“Not really.”
“You haven’t seen anything weird.”
“Nope.”
“No, he seemed perfectly normal yesterday when I saw him talking to the police,” Cordelia said. Everyone stared at her.
“And you waited until now to tell us?”
“I didn’t think it was important.”
“We understand. It wasn’t about you,” Xander said.
“Well, what were the police talking to him about?” Jenny asked.
“Oh, don’t tell me, I know this one. Um… Something about…a homicide.”
“I’m calling him.” Kendra left to find a phone.
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