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

SECTION 4 - ANGELS AND DEMONS

Any port in a storm is OK
You blow my mind with
All the things you say


(The Tourists)




Chapter 4.14
Thursday, June 13th, 2002


"Spike?" Buffy dashed up the path and into the house, anxious to pass on the news that her instructor had pronounced her ready to take on her driving test. At the expression on Tara's face when the Wiccan emerged from the kitchen, she froze on the spot.

"He's already gone, hasn't he?"

Tara gave a solemn nod. "I guess because Wes was more familiar with the 'spell' this time 'round it didn't take him so long."

"Dawn?"

"Oz took her over in his van with the bigger bits and pieces. I said I would wait here until you got back and we'd take the rest of the stuff in the car."

Buffy's attention was suddenly fixed on a flattened patch on the carpet which was a few shades brighter than the surrounding pile. "She packed the TV?"

Tara gave a half-smile, "She said, if she didn't, Spike would do it when he got back... And to be honest, I figured there was more chance of keeping her where we can keep an eye on her with the TV there."

Buffy sighed deeply. "Guess so. Better go claim some territory before we end up sharing a broom closet with fifteen teenaged girls."

---

"Turok Han are nothing but a myth."

Giles resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, refusing to show any sign of weakness in front of the insolent young pup who confronted him. "In that case, I'm sure you won't mind being nominated as first in line to take one on, should one make an appearance. In the meantime, however, you and your little group of helpers will go through the volumes as the others unpack them and look for references to these mythical creatures so that, equipped with the requisite knowledge, the slayers can avenge your untimely death at the hands of something which doesn't exist."

"I- I-." The young man spluttered his righteous indignation, but Giles had already turned his attention to the next group of watchers.

The smile on the face of the young man who confronted him was filled with wry amusement. "I guess living in California hasn't improved your patience any... Uncle Giles?"

The appellation made Giles take a second look at the Puck-like countenance before him, suddenly equating the self-assured young man with a coltish teenager he hadn't seen in over a decade. "James?"

"One and only."

"R-right, well, no doubt we'll have a chance to catch up later-."

"But for now you've got a job for us..."

"Quite." Giles passed over the copies that Bee had made of the sketches she had done this morning and James kept one and passed the others around the group he seemed to head up. "We believe that this was the weapon used in last night's murder and the fact that it featured prominently in a slayer dream suggests that its use was more than simple happenstance."

James seemed to weigh Giles' words carefully, before commenting. "So this drawing is based on a dream? ...Drawn by someone other than the original dreamer?"

Giles nodded his confirmation.

The younger man turned to those around him. "Okay, you heard the man. Let's hit the books but bear in mind that there may be some level of inaccuracy in either how the dream has been remembered or in how the artist has interpreted the description. Any possible identifications, bring them to me or Mr Giles." As the man steered those under his command toward the growing piles of books, he further subdivided the research, setting some to try to identify what they could from the style of the weapon, trying to tie down its time and place of origin. Others, he set to investigate whether the pattern on the blade was simply that, or if some meaning could be interpreted from it and still others he instructed to find all they could about ritual bloodlettings.

When that group had dispersed, Giles was surprised to find himself face to face with Lydia Chalmers. "And what would you like me to look into?" she asked the older watcher.

"I rather expected that you would be tied up arranging other matters," Giles commented, somewhat flustered.

"I'm good at delegating and I made sure that those to whom I delegated were aware I'd be here if they had any questions."

"In that case, perhaps you can help me find the relevant crates for any information you have on The First."

The blonde shook her head regretfully. "I'm afraid the books on that subject were split over as many different crates as possible, in case of misadventure, but I can have the relevant volumes brought to you as they are found."

Giles sighed. "That would be most helpful."

The woman smiled in return. "Things will settle down once everyone works out where they fit in. In the meantime, I'll see if I can round up someone to make some tea and find enough biscuits for a library full of watchers."

---

Buffy couldn't say she was exactly impressed with the accommodations that she and Spike had been allocated. However, at least the council hadn't decided to simply add the Scoobies in with either the potentials, who were to share rows of bunk beds in the barracks that had once been a ballroom, or to the marginally more private classrooms that had once been bedrooms that the watchers were now sharing six or eight to a room. Instead, the Sunnydale residents had been allocated rooms under the eaves of the converted mansion in what she was sure would once have been referred to as the servants' quarters.

She and Spike had the room nearest the "back" stairs at one side, with Faith and Dawn sharing the opposite room on the other side of the narrow corridor that ran down the centre of the roof space. Dawn had allocated the room beside Spike and Buffy's to Xander and Anya and the one beside that to Wes. It was yet to be decided whether Marie and her extended family would be joining the others in their tactical consolidation. Bee and Tara were sandwiched between the slayer and the one-time Key on one side and Giles and Oz on the other. There was an empty room on either side and then the remainder of the roof space was one larger room where the TV had already been installed.

Dawn watched her sister's face as Buffy surveyed the tiny space, taking in the doubled over sheet that Dawn had attached to the ceiling joists with thumb tacks so that it diffused the light from the tiny window set flush with the roof tiles and the fact that Dawn had pushed the two low narrow cots side by side instead of one against each side wall. Even though the bottoms of the beds were against the joists that supported the roof, the door still hit the headboard of the one nearest the centre of the room before it was fully open so that they had needed to slide into the room sideways and close the door before they could walk around the beds, and then only barely, and beyond the first few feet into the room it was impossible for even Buffy to stand upright.

"I checked out the basement but there's this old coal boiler down there and I guess people would be coming in and out all the time and they're putting bunk beds in all the bigger rooms, even for the watchers, though I think Travers has a room to himself because he's sort of just put a cot in his office if you see what I mean, and I thought that you and Faith should be nearest the stairs in case of trouble and if Xander and Anya kept you awake with the loud, obnoxious sex then at least you could retaliate and vice versa and I put Bee and Tara together because they seem to get on and neither of them know Faith, not that I really want to share with Faith but if it gets too much I can always go visit you or Tara and I put Wes on his own in case Marie visited and the other rooms are kinda full of crap anyway but if Clem and everyone decide to fort up then we can shift it into the bit where the TV is and it's not like there's much in the way of sunlight so it's pretty okay for Spike-."

"Breathe, Dawnie. It'll do fine." Buffy slid the holdalls that she carried under the edge of the bunks.

"That's good because I think some of the watchers would have peed in their pants if they ended up bunking in with Spike."

Buffy couldn't help the smirk that briefly graced her lips, even though she was sure her mother would have disapproved of her sister's remark. "Come on. Let's go see how Faith is getting on with her 'Slayer Masterclass'... and then, I might just need to borrow your boyfriend for an hour or two."

---

"I don't suppose our friend here can tell us how much further it is in any sort of measurement that we might understand?" Spike asked as Wes chalked another arrow that pointed back the way they had come onto the tunnel wall.

Wes's voice had a slightly nervous tone as he answered the vampire. "I'm, em, fairly certain that it isn't much farther, actually."

"An' what makes you think that?" Spike asked irritably. "You didn't even wait for the great nightlight, here, to translate." Spike wasn't about to admit it, but the glow from Bee's body set off a headache similar to that which some people get from sitting around for too long in areas with fluorescent lighting. After four hours of spiralling downward, the vampire was almost remembering the chip fondly.

It seemed the tunnel must have widened out slightly, as the watcher moved to the right and Bee moved to the left, allowing the vampire to see more than Bee's rear view for the first time in the last ten minutes.

"They do." The watcher nodded toward the demon that pointed a trident at his, thankfully, invulnerable chest, even as its companion recovered from its surprise at seeing Bee, to go down on one knee by her feet, bowing its head before her mercury gaze.