Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.

SECTION 4 - ANGELS AND DEMONS

Angels and demons and screaming saints
You're all normal and they're insane
They stand alone in the fallout rain
You're all hung up on little pains
Yea Yea (everyone's hung up)


(The Tourists)


Chapter 4.08
Wednesday, June 12th, 2002


"So when do we do this take back the marbles thing?" Xander asked almost casually as he affixed the drywall that Buffy and Spike held in place.

"We don't," Buffy announced. "The point of giving you those things in the first place was to try to prevent you getting hurt. We're not going to let you go into that sort of danger."

"What's the danger? It's not like we're stealing the things. We're taking them back," Xander protested.

Spike raised an imperfect eyebrow and tilted his head on one side to look at the man. "An' what if these demons have got some superstition about anyone other than the proper guardians touchin' their holiest of holies? Think your brand new missus is gonna approve?"

Anya answered the question herself, from her seat on the stairs. "No, she isn't. I want you here with me, Xander, not dead in some cave miles underground."

"But, Ahn-."

"Demon bint's right. We don't want any more people involved in this than need be an' you don't need to be. Given a choice, I'd go with me, the junior watcher an' Bee. Thing is I don't know if the watcher can keep up that trance thing the way the good witch could."

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Buffy's coy look had Xander backing away from his position between the two.

"I don't think so. This little detour is a luxury. Anyone as goes has to be expendable, an' you, sugar lips, are anything but."

"That is such a crock of macho bullshit!" Buffy sputtered, almost dropping her grip on the board she held, to close on the vampire. It wasn't anger that filled her eyes, though, but concern.

"Doesn't make it less true," the vampire countered, his voice firm but soft.

"Please , will you two stop even pretending to fight," Anya interrupted. "You're both so damn glowy, it's just ridiculous. Do you really think that there's anyone in the room who doesn't know that you've spent all afternoon since we left giving each other orgasms until you've overdosed on happy hormones?"

"There was actually someone in the room trying very hard not to acknowledge the fact," Xander told her.

Spike sighed and lowered his head so he looked at his future wife through a veil of dark lashes. "Bitlet needs you , love. If anything happens down there, then you've at least got a chance of sortin' out the whole thing with Quentin an' his buddies. The good guys can't afford to lose a slayer. That gives you leverage. Without you, they'd stake me soon as look at me.

I can see better in the dark than you can. If there's a rockfall, it's not like I'm gonna suffocate. If any of the caves are flooded, which is more than possible at that depth, then I don't need to worry about breathin' or hypothermia and we can't both go, 'cause that way, if there is trouble, then no one up here will know."

Buffy shook her head. "The fight thing only works when we're close together. I haven't picked up on a single fight you've been in this past couple of weeks."

"You haven't picked up on any of the fights I've been in because I've been concentratin' on makin' sure you didn't, pet. Didn't want you worryin' about me when your head was already chock full of other things."

"You've been thinking about this way too much." Buffy didn't so much concede the argument as put it on hold until she had a chance to think her way around the problem.

Somehow, without either of them being aware of having moved, she was wrapped in his arms, cool hands reassuringly stroking her hair and arm as she rested her cheek against his chest.

"I don't want you to go without me," she whispered so quietly against his neck that human ears would have been oblivious, even if Xander wasn't preoccupied with trying to affix the drywall more firmly before it fell under its own weight from the support framework he had built.

Spike's sotto voce reply was likewise ignored. "I know, love, but we can't always have everything we want."

---

"Thank you." Buffy slid her hand into his as they stepped off the porch.

"Wasn't aware I'd done anything, pet."

"You played nice with Xander... and you talked him out of tagging along on your pot-holing expedition."

"But into patrolling with you if we don't make it back by nightfall."

"That's not a 'but'. That's an 'and'."

"If you say so, sunshine." Without even a break in his stride, Spike pressed his lips against her temple, dropping her hand so that he could wrap his arm around her shoulders. Buffy's hand wriggled its way under Spike's battered leather until her thumb found a belt loop at the far side of his waist and the vampire shortened his stride to perfectly match Buffy's more petite legs. All the minute adjustments simply fell seamlessly into place, not like when she used to date Riley or even to a lesser extent Angel with their awkward half steps designed to let her catch up and the tension in their muscles from taking steps they found unnaturally short. To Buffy it was simply one more sign that she was where she belonged.

---

Thursday, June 13th, 2002



Sarah knew she shouldn't have been out on her own. They were supposed to have a buddy system. No one went out anywhere without their "buddy", at least not since last week, not after what had happened to Kennedy. Sarah had simply reached breaking point. She'd been unable to cope with the hideous pretend accent of her so called "buddy" any longer. She might not be a "Southern pansy" born and bred. She had only been found by her watcher, Robson, and brought from Cumbria to London three months earlier, but she was willing to bet that, even in London's East End, no one really spoke like that unless they were auditioning for Mary Poppins or My Fair Lady. She had listened to her chatter on until she thought her head would burst and finally she had sneaked out for some peace and quiet and to smoke a cigarette in blissful solitude without any of the watchers giving her disapproving looks. It hadn't even been dark, then.

Kennedy had been in training with her watcher and all her personal coaches for years. Sarah had overheard some of the French and Belgian potentials talking about her when they thought the others in the room were unable to keep up with their rapid French. They said that she had been training for too long, that she had missed her chance and that was why she hated the current slayers, because she thought they should have died so that she could be "The Chosen One". They said it was practically unheard of for a slayer to be in her twenties when she was called. Sarah didn't know if they were right. At eighteen, she almost hoped they were. Kennedy seemed to regard slayerdom as her birthright, a chance to prove she was more than just an arrogant, spoiled brat even though her assumption that she was the most worthy candidate suggested her to be simply that. Sarah thought, for all but a very elite few, it was most likely a short, hard, lonely one-way ticket to a six-sided wooden box. She did know that when Kennedy had been ambushed by a whole gang of demons, even on her own, she had managed to kill four of them and get away. Sarah had been captured by one man, one man in a battered pick up truck, asking for directions.

---

Patrol was quiet, too quiet, in fact, reminding Buffy of the period when the demons had been deliberately allowing themselves to be captured by The Initiative, while avoiding her grasp. They swung by to visit Lily and Clem, knowing that Marie and Rosa would already be at Wes's for the night and Rosa long tucked up in bed in the spare room.

Lily beamed with joy at seeing the two of them back in each other's company and Spike's good humour restored, but Clem seemed ill at ease as he waited for Ha Nath to visit him when she finished work. The normally cheerful demon seemed depressed about his virtual house arrest and isolation and worried that something would happen to his girl. Lily's mood soon fell to match his once more.

"They won't hunt her down, will they? Not when the girl attacked first?"

Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. They might try but I don't see..."

"They'll just watch Wes... and then they'll follow Marie... and she'll lead them to me... and then they'll find Ha Nath. I kinda wish she hadn't helped. I mean, we were in public. How much could she have hurt me in public? If Ha Nath hadn't got involved-."

"Clem, I blew up a demon with a rocket launcher in the middle of Sunnydale mall once and no one said a peep. That girl could have beaten you to death if your girlfriend hadn't stepped in and I, for one, am glad she was there, but I understand why you're worried about her. If she doesn't show, any time you're meant to be meeting up, I want you to call us. Giles is trying to convince some of the council members to back off but it's going to take time. And if you want to go out somewhere with your girlfriend, I know it's not the same as going out on your own but Spike and I could double with you. I think that would be pretty safe..."

"You would?" Clem's face brightened considerably. "I wanted to take her somewhere nice next Tuesday. I couldn't decide between a meal and bowling. Then I thought maybe we could get a meal at the bowling alley. It's our one month anniversary."

Spike shook his head, not knowing whether to tease his friend for remembering dates like a girl or make some more constructive suggestions as to a rather more romantic evening, but then foursomes weren't exactly romantic to begin with and maybe Clem knew better than he did what his bird would like, so...

---

They avoided the first couple of groups, easily spotting them before the girls and their watchers saw them and skirting around them.

"Isn't it past their curfew by now?" Buffy muttered as they made a second detour. "How am I supposed to stay in shape if they're everywhere doing the slaying for me?"

"I thought we managed a pretty good work out this afternoon..."

Buffy flushed under his gaze. "I suspect we burned off some calories but I don't think I'll be using those moves in a fight any time soon..."

"I'm always up for a sparring session with you, pet."

"Will you stop it?" Buffy asked, changing course once more. "They're everywhere and apart from the whole modesty thing they'd probably decide you were attacking me. Do you really want to die with your pants 'round your ankles?"

The vampire's grin only widened as he contemplated the question.

Before he could speak Buffy cut him off. "And the correct answer to that is 'no', not 'it'd be a hell of a way to go'." As she noticed not only a fourth but also a fifth group of girls plus watchers Buffy decided she had had enough. There was no way they were going to get their order of Chinese food back to the mansion for Faith tonight without any of the council's lackeys spotting them. Dropping the bag, and forsaking the cover of the cemetery's foliage she half-jumped, half-stepped onto a nearby bench, demanding in a voice loud enough to attract the attention of all the groups, "What the bloody hell is going on here?"

Spike's gentle laughter and his whispered, "You can't get away with 'bloody' in that accent, pet," did rather ruin the dramatic effect she had been working for, however, and she was forced to nudge him in the back with the toe of her boot before he stopped smirking. She had managed to get the attention of those around her and the oldest member of one group had moved to intercept her, followed closely by a potential who seemed to think it was her right to hear anything that might be said, a potential whose ponytail bounced as she held her head high and whose right hand was encased in plaster.

"Miss Summers, I presume." Her English was flawless, but the slightest hint of an accent indicated that perhaps Italian was her first language. Spike stepped around behind the woman, who other than giving him a brief, wary glimpse seemed to decide that she was best to let his presence go and concentrate on Buffy. His cold glare stopped Kennedy dead in her tracks at a range where she was still unable to hear what was being said between the slayer and the watcher. As she froze, Spike moved in to circle her like the predator he was, playing the game of intimidation at which he was a master. Buffy would have felt sorry for anyone else.

"You presume right. Now, why don't you tell me what you're all playing at? Any demon worthy of the name would hear your little army way before he walked into the middle of you and isn't it past their bedtimes?"

"One of the girls is missing. We're not patrolling. They're search parties."

"These parties are concentrated where... other than the graveyards?"

"Well, I believe some people went to that club in town just in case there's a more innocent explanation, but mostly we're checking out the demon hotspots."

"What about the actual Hellmouth?"

"We drove past earlier but the construction crews are working overtime. I don't see-."

Buffy was already gone, her vampire on her heels. If she had had the breath to spare she would have laughed at Spike's shouted, "This had better not make us miss the kick off."