Of Those Chosen: The Twins - 11
So I finally got the last scene to work for me. I wrote the thing so many different ways, I think I wrote twelve pages for just that two-page scene.
I promise, I will do my best to write chapter twelve as quickly as possible without affecting the quality of the chapter. Promise.
Previous chapters think that Garden State is the best low-budget movie to come out in quite a while.
Chapter Eleven
A Walk-On Part in the War
The Circle of the Black Thorn. Giles recognized the name, although he knew little about them. It was a secret society, after all.
A group of powerful underworld players. Dangerous and sophisticated. Now, apparently, dead. Just like Angel.
Giles poured another glass of scotch. The fourth, maybe fifth. Didn't matter. He still heard his words echoing through his head:
"Lie to them, Andrew."
:#:
Some things worked out well, at least. The crazed Slayer, Dana, was safe in a hospital with Council connections. Wolfram & Hart -- and the greater demonic community at large -- never learned how disorganized they were in Cleveland, how they couldn't find any of the new Slayers, how almost everything from the moment of Sunnydale's collapse had gone awry from what they'd planned.
He lied to Angel's team, and he lied to his team. Neither Xander nor Robin had any idea of Dana's existence. Only Andrew knew, and Giles had frightened him into silence with a simple threat: "If you tell, no one will believe you over me."
But now. Angel was dead, Spike was dead, and Wesley was dead. Fred, the girl he never met but refused to help, and the fallen god who inhabited her body, dead. Charles Gunn and the former host, Lorne. More names to add to the long list of those fallen due to his poor choices.
The Circle was gone. But was the price one worth paying? Giles wondered.
And as he wondered, he drank.
:#:
A knock at his door interrupted his night.
Katharine opened the door and slipped inside. She never opened doors completely; rather, she opened them only as wide as was necessary to squeeze inside, almost as if she was sneaking in, and then closed it behind her.
She looked at him for a moment. "Are you drunk?"
Giles picked up his glasses from his desk and slipped them on. "No. What can I do for you?"
Katharine raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. The look reminded Giles of someone -- again, the girl always reminded him of someone -- but he couldn't place who.
"I..." he said.
"...am not drunk enough?" Katharine offered.
He nodded. "Quite."
"It's cool. I didn't know any of those people, but you know the song: whatever gets you through the night is all right." Giles gave her a tight grin, but said nothing. She pursed her lips and added, "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you."
"I talked to Buffy and Dawn some yesterday, after the thing with Aud," she said. Her words came out quickly, rushed together. "I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for my sister and me. I asked them what you missed most from home, what possession you lost and haven't gotten replaced yet and missed, and they--"
She opened the door again and reached into the hallway. She grabbed a black case and brought it into the room, rushed it over to Giles' desk where she laid it and opened the latches.
"They said you were a musician, lost your albums and your instruments..." Katharine trailed off as Giles opened the case and pulled out an Ibanez acoustic guitar. He rolled his chair back and slid forward to the edge of the seat, balanced the guitar on his thigh and strummed. A full, clear E-chord.
He looked up at Katharine. She said, "I tuned it for you this afternoon after I bought it. It's not custom or anything, I didn't have that much money, but it's a nice model. Makes a good sound, but it's not so showy that you're afraid to play it."
"It's wonderful." He strummed a few more chords, picked a few notes. "Do you play?"
"No," she said. "Dad did. Collects them."
"I see. This is wonderful, thank you, Katharine."
"Play something."
"Oh, good Lord, I haven't played in ages."
Giles picked a few notes, strummed a few chords, and began to play. Come All Ye, originally by Fairport Convention; the song was for a woman’s voice, but with a few minor changes he made the song his.
Come all ye rolling minstrels
And together we will try
To rouse the spirit of the earth
And move the rolling sky
He looked up at Katharine and saw confusion in her eyes. He had no idea what she expected him to play, but obviously this wasn’t it. He stopped the song, placed the guitar back in the case and closed it. “Perhaps this should wait. It’s late, and you have a big day tomorrow.”
Katharine nodded. "Right." She moved back to the door and put her hand on the knob. "Training. Important stuff."
"Actually, I'm starting you and Audrey on a patrol rotation," Giles said. Katharine leaned back against the closed door. "You will have two nights on, one night off -- just like the others -- but you will switch from group to group, although your off days will be with the same Watcher, it couldn't be avoided."
"Who did we draw?"
Giles pulled a sheet of paper from underneath the guitar case. "Audrey will stay in on the nights Buffy, Helen, and Chao-Ahn stay in," he said. "You will be with Faith, Janet, and Rona."
Katharine nodded slowly. "So I get Harris, and Aud gets you."
"Yes. Each of you will patrol four times with each group. It will take eighteen days. We will use this time to determine which Watcher you are best suited for."
Giles stopped, pursed his lips. He reached out to the glass of Scotch, but paused and then removed his glasses. He looked down at the desk as he said, "If you wish to leave, these next two weeks are the time to go. I, for one, would certainly not find such a choice amiss. Many hard decisions come with this life. Decisions where, to do what you believe to be right, you are forced to lie to someone. Someone you stood beside, fought against an apocalypse with. And not even because you believed him evil; rather, the possibility is simply too great to tell the truth. You refuse to help one of his people, and she dies, or you..." He sighed and shook his head. "It is a hard life. Many would choose to avoid it. Most would, I dare say."
Katharine bit her bottom lip as she thought. "Audrey's an idealist, you know. Idealistic and a romantic, in the Victorian sense of the word. Always has been. She's in love with the idea of a calling to fight to save the world.”
“And what of yourself?” Giles asked.
“Me?” Katharine stepped forward, away from the door, and slowly approached Giles’ desk as she talked. “I’m a cynic and a realist. I don’t believe anyone ever finds real peace, Rupert, just a false glimpse they expand into their life of illusion. I believe that you have to find joy where you can, when you can,” -- she leaned over his desk and looked intently at him -- “and hold on to it and do the best you can with it.”
She leaned over him and looked down at him. He realized her look now, just like her look earlier, was not one of confusion. He stood, and now he looked down at her. Her dark hair surrounded her face, and she looked up at him with dark eyes through dark lashes. Her lips parted slightly, barely, and he reached forward and she lifted up a bit and it hit him that she reminded him of Jenny.
“Oh, God!” He stumbled back into his chair and sat down, hard. Katharine jumped back, startled by the sudden movement.
“Rupert, are you okay?” she said.
“Yes, I’m fine,” he snapped. He shook his head and tried to regain his equilibrium. “I’m sorry, I--“ He took a deep breath. “I apologize. That was out of line, and it will not occur again.”
Katharine looked at him for a second, then turned around and hurried to the door. She paused, though, her hand on the doorknob, and said, “It's okay, Rupert. But think about this: I'm going to care about you, no matter what. If we do or if we don't, I'm still going to want you. It doesn't change how we feel, if we act on it or don't."
Giles said nothing, and after a moment Katharine opened the door and left.
:#:
Robin always put on a pair of pajama pants and a sleeveless undershirt for bed. Faith called them "wife-beaters," but he hated that, regardless of their marital state or even the plausibility of him living through an attempt at beating her. It was just the principle of it; not every woman was a Slayer. Faith didn't care about all that. She just thought it was funny he insisted on wearing clothes to bed when he knew that she was going to take them off.
Which, of course, was the whole point of wearing them.
He also tended to go to sleep before she did. This often resulted in many an exciting way to wake up -- which, again, was a major reason to go to sleep first. Not the only reason, though; he just couldn't stay awake as late as Faith. Slayer energy and nocturnal instincts added to Faith's night-owl personality left her with about four hours of sleep a night, which was plenty for her but not nearly enough for him.
This night, though, waking up wasn't nearly as fun. Faith came in and flopped down onto her side of the bed melodramatically, covered her face with her hands, and started banging the back of her head into her pillow.
Robin watched her for a moment. "I think you've slayed the pillow."
Faith stopped banging her head, removed her hands, and glared at him. "Do I look like a patient person to you?"
Robin considered that for a moment. "Can I take the Fifth Amendment on that?"
Faith tried hard not to, but she couldn't stop a smile.
"What's bothering you?" Robin asked.
Faith groaned. "Audrey," she said. "God. I told the girl I'd help her out, she could ask questions, right? Well, girl won't shut up." Faith raised her voice to a high squeek -- or at least as close as her throaty voice could come. "'Faith, how did the spell work again?' 'Faith, how did you become a Slayer?' ''Faith, how did the spell work again?' 'Faith, blah blah blah!'"
Robin chuckled. "She repeats herself?"
"All the time, yo. It's driving me crazy."
"It must be hard for her," he said. "I mean, her memory is all messed up, who knows what sticks and what doesn't. I can't even begin to imagine how confusing it must be to live like that.
Faith sighed. "It's crazy. Girl's a natural with the Slay, you've seen that. She busts out moves I've never heard of before. But she just can't hold on to the simplest answers."
"You're all she has to hold on to, Faith; you're the only person who's told her it's okay to be confused."
"I know, but I ain't no saint, you know? I'm the wrong person for this."
"I disagree. You're the perfect person for this. You've been lost, and you've found your way back." Faith looked at him, and he smiled. "You might not see it, Faith, but the past year we've spent together, I have. You're more than you think, more than you know. And if you refuse to see it, well, I'll make sure you do."
Faith blushed and looked away. Robin had mellowed out a lot since the stab wound that almost killed him; she had no idea how to handle someone as supportive as he turned out to be for her. So far, she hadn't screwed things up, which amazed her. They fought, and fairly often, but just as often he had her back and complimented her far more than she thought she deserved.
"The important thing is that she's a Slayer," Robin continued. "She's only alive because of that, and she's only that because of us, because of what we did. We're honor-bound to help her."
Faith laughed. "God, you sound like some knightly sap, all 'honor-bound' and stuff."
Robin laughed, too. "You mean I'm nightly sapped by you, I think."
Faith groaned even as she laughed. "Oh, no, not bad puns, yo."
She rolled over on top of him and tickled him, just at the bottom of his ribs. Robin squirmed and tried to get her off of him, but (predictably) she was too strong for him.
Faith stopped when Robin came close to hyperventilating.
She sat on top of him, straddling his stomach and holding his wrists against the bed, one on each side. Her hair fell all across her face, and some of the ends hit his chest and face as she leaned forward to hold his wrists. They both gasped for air.
"Still wanna be dropping puns?" Faith teased.
Robin shook his head. "I adore you."
Faith flinched, but she kept her smile. She let go of his wrists, leaned back, and said, "You better not be about to use the l-word."
"No, no. Not at all. I'm just basking in hotness and complimenting the sun."
Faith's smile widened, and she leaned forward onto him. "Okay, now you are so getting sapped tonight, Mr. Wood."
:#:
Audrey patrolled the east side of the cemetery with Faith and Xander. Janet and Rona patrolled together on the west side. They kept an eye on one another through the trees and gravestones and crypts in between.
"The newspaper had a little blurb about disturbances here at the cemetery," Xander explained to her as the patrolled. "Graves disturbed, 'suspicious characters' walking around at night, that sort of thing. So, read between the lines: vampires."
Audrey really liked Xander. He took the time to explain things to her, but not in a condescending way; rather, he seemed to know when something came up which might confuse her and then simply explained. He never singled her out or made her feel slow or stupid or forgetful. He always seemed vaguely guilty when he explained things to her, even though he was as kind and understanding as she could possibly imagine someone being.
"Most people, if they see a vamp, they ain't gonna believe that's what they saw," Faith said. "They're gonna... what do you call it?"
"Rationalize," Xander said.
"Yeah, rationalize," Faith said. "Thanks. They're gonna rationalize it, like, 'No, that couldn't be a vampire, vampires don't exist!' type thing, you know?"
Audrey nodded. "Yeah."
"So if we see something in the paper that seems off, we check it out," Xander said.
Audrey smiled. "Makes sense." She got caught up staring at Xander's face -- on his blind side, so he didn't notice -- until Faith noticed and smirked her way. Audrey blushed and looked away.
She knew her sister liked Giles. It made sense. Katharine had a weakness for older guys, and a weakness for really intelligent guys, and a weakness for guys with accents, and a weakness for musicians. Audrey was just impressed her sister actually managed to complete sentences when Giles was around.
She didn't have any memories of boyfriends before her accident, although Katharine told her that she went on a date with a boy the Friday beforehand. He never came to the hospital to see her, though.
Now, she thought Xander was about as perfect as a boy could get. He was kind, and generous, and brave, and really sweet to her all the time, and he already knew about vampires and Slayers and her brain damage and so she didn't have to hide anything from him. But he never seemed interested in her, at least not outside of a professional interest he shared with all the other Slayers, and there was a vague sadness around him she knew nothing about -- was that a girl? He always flinched whenever someone called her "Aud," and always used her full name, never the nickname. She was too embarrassed to ask anyone else. Surely he wouldn't want anything to do with some brain-damaged Slayer. Who would?
:#:
They met up with Janet and Rona on the north side of the cemetery.
"We got nothing," Rona said.
"No newbs, no disturbed ground, not a thing," Janet added.
"Same here," Xander said.
"Are you sure this is the right cemetery?" Audrey asked.
"Yeah, we called them up earlier," Faith said. "I pretended to be someone who had a family plot here, ranted some. This is definitely the place in the article."
They all looked around for a moment, thinking, trying to figure out what happened.
"Where's the security?" Xander asked quietly.
Faith swore. "They just had an article in the paper about this place and how things were messed up here," she said. "And they didn’t hire security or something?"
"Let's get out of here," Xander said. "Quick."
He took three steps before a rock flew out of the shadows and struck his forehead right at the hairline.
Xander dropped to his knees. Audrey started to move to him, but then vampires swarmed around them from every direction, and her reflexes took over.
-:-
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I promise, I will do my best to write chapter twelve as quickly as possible without affecting the quality of the chapter. Promise.
Previous chapters think that Garden State is the best low-budget movie to come out in quite a while.
Chapter Eleven
A Walk-On Part in the War
The Circle of the Black Thorn. Giles recognized the name, although he knew little about them. It was a secret society, after all.
A group of powerful underworld players. Dangerous and sophisticated. Now, apparently, dead. Just like Angel.
Giles poured another glass of scotch. The fourth, maybe fifth. Didn't matter. He still heard his words echoing through his head:
"Lie to them, Andrew."
:#:
Some things worked out well, at least. The crazed Slayer, Dana, was safe in a hospital with Council connections. Wolfram & Hart -- and the greater demonic community at large -- never learned how disorganized they were in Cleveland, how they couldn't find any of the new Slayers, how almost everything from the moment of Sunnydale's collapse had gone awry from what they'd planned.
He lied to Angel's team, and he lied to his team. Neither Xander nor Robin had any idea of Dana's existence. Only Andrew knew, and Giles had frightened him into silence with a simple threat: "If you tell, no one will believe you over me."
But now. Angel was dead, Spike was dead, and Wesley was dead. Fred, the girl he never met but refused to help, and the fallen god who inhabited her body, dead. Charles Gunn and the former host, Lorne. More names to add to the long list of those fallen due to his poor choices.
The Circle was gone. But was the price one worth paying? Giles wondered.
And as he wondered, he drank.
:#:
A knock at his door interrupted his night.
Katharine opened the door and slipped inside. She never opened doors completely; rather, she opened them only as wide as was necessary to squeeze inside, almost as if she was sneaking in, and then closed it behind her.
She looked at him for a moment. "Are you drunk?"
Giles picked up his glasses from his desk and slipped them on. "No. What can I do for you?"
Katharine raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. The look reminded Giles of someone -- again, the girl always reminded him of someone -- but he couldn't place who.
"I..." he said.
"...am not drunk enough?" Katharine offered.
He nodded. "Quite."
"It's cool. I didn't know any of those people, but you know the song: whatever gets you through the night is all right." Giles gave her a tight grin, but said nothing. She pursed her lips and added, "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thank you."
"I talked to Buffy and Dawn some yesterday, after the thing with Aud," she said. Her words came out quickly, rushed together. "I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for my sister and me. I asked them what you missed most from home, what possession you lost and haven't gotten replaced yet and missed, and they--"
She opened the door again and reached into the hallway. She grabbed a black case and brought it into the room, rushed it over to Giles' desk where she laid it and opened the latches.
"They said you were a musician, lost your albums and your instruments..." Katharine trailed off as Giles opened the case and pulled out an Ibanez acoustic guitar. He rolled his chair back and slid forward to the edge of the seat, balanced the guitar on his thigh and strummed. A full, clear E-chord.
He looked up at Katharine. She said, "I tuned it for you this afternoon after I bought it. It's not custom or anything, I didn't have that much money, but it's a nice model. Makes a good sound, but it's not so showy that you're afraid to play it."
"It's wonderful." He strummed a few more chords, picked a few notes. "Do you play?"
"No," she said. "Dad did. Collects them."
"I see. This is wonderful, thank you, Katharine."
"Play something."
"Oh, good Lord, I haven't played in ages."
Giles picked a few notes, strummed a few chords, and began to play. Come All Ye, originally by Fairport Convention; the song was for a woman’s voice, but with a few minor changes he made the song his.
Come all ye rolling minstrels
And together we will try
To rouse the spirit of the earth
And move the rolling sky
He looked up at Katharine and saw confusion in her eyes. He had no idea what she expected him to play, but obviously this wasn’t it. He stopped the song, placed the guitar back in the case and closed it. “Perhaps this should wait. It’s late, and you have a big day tomorrow.”
Katharine nodded. "Right." She moved back to the door and put her hand on the knob. "Training. Important stuff."
"Actually, I'm starting you and Audrey on a patrol rotation," Giles said. Katharine leaned back against the closed door. "You will have two nights on, one night off -- just like the others -- but you will switch from group to group, although your off days will be with the same Watcher, it couldn't be avoided."
"Who did we draw?"
Giles pulled a sheet of paper from underneath the guitar case. "Audrey will stay in on the nights Buffy, Helen, and Chao-Ahn stay in," he said. "You will be with Faith, Janet, and Rona."
Katharine nodded slowly. "So I get Harris, and Aud gets you."
"Yes. Each of you will patrol four times with each group. It will take eighteen days. We will use this time to determine which Watcher you are best suited for."
Giles stopped, pursed his lips. He reached out to the glass of Scotch, but paused and then removed his glasses. He looked down at the desk as he said, "If you wish to leave, these next two weeks are the time to go. I, for one, would certainly not find such a choice amiss. Many hard decisions come with this life. Decisions where, to do what you believe to be right, you are forced to lie to someone. Someone you stood beside, fought against an apocalypse with. And not even because you believed him evil; rather, the possibility is simply too great to tell the truth. You refuse to help one of his people, and she dies, or you..." He sighed and shook his head. "It is a hard life. Many would choose to avoid it. Most would, I dare say."
Katharine bit her bottom lip as she thought. "Audrey's an idealist, you know. Idealistic and a romantic, in the Victorian sense of the word. Always has been. She's in love with the idea of a calling to fight to save the world.”
“And what of yourself?” Giles asked.
“Me?” Katharine stepped forward, away from the door, and slowly approached Giles’ desk as she talked. “I’m a cynic and a realist. I don’t believe anyone ever finds real peace, Rupert, just a false glimpse they expand into their life of illusion. I believe that you have to find joy where you can, when you can,” -- she leaned over his desk and looked intently at him -- “and hold on to it and do the best you can with it.”
She leaned over him and looked down at him. He realized her look now, just like her look earlier, was not one of confusion. He stood, and now he looked down at her. Her dark hair surrounded her face, and she looked up at him with dark eyes through dark lashes. Her lips parted slightly, barely, and he reached forward and she lifted up a bit and it hit him that she reminded him of Jenny.
“Oh, God!” He stumbled back into his chair and sat down, hard. Katharine jumped back, startled by the sudden movement.
“Rupert, are you okay?” she said.
“Yes, I’m fine,” he snapped. He shook his head and tried to regain his equilibrium. “I’m sorry, I--“ He took a deep breath. “I apologize. That was out of line, and it will not occur again.”
Katharine looked at him for a second, then turned around and hurried to the door. She paused, though, her hand on the doorknob, and said, “It's okay, Rupert. But think about this: I'm going to care about you, no matter what. If we do or if we don't, I'm still going to want you. It doesn't change how we feel, if we act on it or don't."
Giles said nothing, and after a moment Katharine opened the door and left.
:#:
Robin always put on a pair of pajama pants and a sleeveless undershirt for bed. Faith called them "wife-beaters," but he hated that, regardless of their marital state or even the plausibility of him living through an attempt at beating her. It was just the principle of it; not every woman was a Slayer. Faith didn't care about all that. She just thought it was funny he insisted on wearing clothes to bed when he knew that she was going to take them off.
Which, of course, was the whole point of wearing them.
He also tended to go to sleep before she did. This often resulted in many an exciting way to wake up -- which, again, was a major reason to go to sleep first. Not the only reason, though; he just couldn't stay awake as late as Faith. Slayer energy and nocturnal instincts added to Faith's night-owl personality left her with about four hours of sleep a night, which was plenty for her but not nearly enough for him.
This night, though, waking up wasn't nearly as fun. Faith came in and flopped down onto her side of the bed melodramatically, covered her face with her hands, and started banging the back of her head into her pillow.
Robin watched her for a moment. "I think you've slayed the pillow."
Faith stopped banging her head, removed her hands, and glared at him. "Do I look like a patient person to you?"
Robin considered that for a moment. "Can I take the Fifth Amendment on that?"
Faith tried hard not to, but she couldn't stop a smile.
"What's bothering you?" Robin asked.
Faith groaned. "Audrey," she said. "God. I told the girl I'd help her out, she could ask questions, right? Well, girl won't shut up." Faith raised her voice to a high squeek -- or at least as close as her throaty voice could come. "'Faith, how did the spell work again?' 'Faith, how did you become a Slayer?' ''Faith, how did the spell work again?' 'Faith, blah blah blah!'"
Robin chuckled. "She repeats herself?"
"All the time, yo. It's driving me crazy."
"It must be hard for her," he said. "I mean, her memory is all messed up, who knows what sticks and what doesn't. I can't even begin to imagine how confusing it must be to live like that.
Faith sighed. "It's crazy. Girl's a natural with the Slay, you've seen that. She busts out moves I've never heard of before. But she just can't hold on to the simplest answers."
"You're all she has to hold on to, Faith; you're the only person who's told her it's okay to be confused."
"I know, but I ain't no saint, you know? I'm the wrong person for this."
"I disagree. You're the perfect person for this. You've been lost, and you've found your way back." Faith looked at him, and he smiled. "You might not see it, Faith, but the past year we've spent together, I have. You're more than you think, more than you know. And if you refuse to see it, well, I'll make sure you do."
Faith blushed and looked away. Robin had mellowed out a lot since the stab wound that almost killed him; she had no idea how to handle someone as supportive as he turned out to be for her. So far, she hadn't screwed things up, which amazed her. They fought, and fairly often, but just as often he had her back and complimented her far more than she thought she deserved.
"The important thing is that she's a Slayer," Robin continued. "She's only alive because of that, and she's only that because of us, because of what we did. We're honor-bound to help her."
Faith laughed. "God, you sound like some knightly sap, all 'honor-bound' and stuff."
Robin laughed, too. "You mean I'm nightly sapped by you, I think."
Faith groaned even as she laughed. "Oh, no, not bad puns, yo."
She rolled over on top of him and tickled him, just at the bottom of his ribs. Robin squirmed and tried to get her off of him, but (predictably) she was too strong for him.
Faith stopped when Robin came close to hyperventilating.
She sat on top of him, straddling his stomach and holding his wrists against the bed, one on each side. Her hair fell all across her face, and some of the ends hit his chest and face as she leaned forward to hold his wrists. They both gasped for air.
"Still wanna be dropping puns?" Faith teased.
Robin shook his head. "I adore you."
Faith flinched, but she kept her smile. She let go of his wrists, leaned back, and said, "You better not be about to use the l-word."
"No, no. Not at all. I'm just basking in hotness and complimenting the sun."
Faith's smile widened, and she leaned forward onto him. "Okay, now you are so getting sapped tonight, Mr. Wood."
:#:
Audrey patrolled the east side of the cemetery with Faith and Xander. Janet and Rona patrolled together on the west side. They kept an eye on one another through the trees and gravestones and crypts in between.
"The newspaper had a little blurb about disturbances here at the cemetery," Xander explained to her as the patrolled. "Graves disturbed, 'suspicious characters' walking around at night, that sort of thing. So, read between the lines: vampires."
Audrey really liked Xander. He took the time to explain things to her, but not in a condescending way; rather, he seemed to know when something came up which might confuse her and then simply explained. He never singled her out or made her feel slow or stupid or forgetful. He always seemed vaguely guilty when he explained things to her, even though he was as kind and understanding as she could possibly imagine someone being.
"Most people, if they see a vamp, they ain't gonna believe that's what they saw," Faith said. "They're gonna... what do you call it?"
"Rationalize," Xander said.
"Yeah, rationalize," Faith said. "Thanks. They're gonna rationalize it, like, 'No, that couldn't be a vampire, vampires don't exist!' type thing, you know?"
Audrey nodded. "Yeah."
"So if we see something in the paper that seems off, we check it out," Xander said.
Audrey smiled. "Makes sense." She got caught up staring at Xander's face -- on his blind side, so he didn't notice -- until Faith noticed and smirked her way. Audrey blushed and looked away.
She knew her sister liked Giles. It made sense. Katharine had a weakness for older guys, and a weakness for really intelligent guys, and a weakness for guys with accents, and a weakness for musicians. Audrey was just impressed her sister actually managed to complete sentences when Giles was around.
She didn't have any memories of boyfriends before her accident, although Katharine told her that she went on a date with a boy the Friday beforehand. He never came to the hospital to see her, though.
Now, she thought Xander was about as perfect as a boy could get. He was kind, and generous, and brave, and really sweet to her all the time, and he already knew about vampires and Slayers and her brain damage and so she didn't have to hide anything from him. But he never seemed interested in her, at least not outside of a professional interest he shared with all the other Slayers, and there was a vague sadness around him she knew nothing about -- was that a girl? He always flinched whenever someone called her "Aud," and always used her full name, never the nickname. She was too embarrassed to ask anyone else. Surely he wouldn't want anything to do with some brain-damaged Slayer. Who would?
:#:
They met up with Janet and Rona on the north side of the cemetery.
"We got nothing," Rona said.
"No newbs, no disturbed ground, not a thing," Janet added.
"Same here," Xander said.
"Are you sure this is the right cemetery?" Audrey asked.
"Yeah, we called them up earlier," Faith said. "I pretended to be someone who had a family plot here, ranted some. This is definitely the place in the article."
They all looked around for a moment, thinking, trying to figure out what happened.
"Where's the security?" Xander asked quietly.
Faith swore. "They just had an article in the paper about this place and how things were messed up here," she said. "And they didn’t hire security or something?"
"Let's get out of here," Xander said. "Quick."
He took three steps before a rock flew out of the shadows and struck his forehead right at the hairline.
Xander dropped to his knees. Audrey started to move to him, but then vampires swarmed around them from every direction, and her reflexes took over.
-:-
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