Eight Hours to Midnight - VM/BtVS Crossover
Title: Eight Hours to Midnight
Setting: Post-Chosen (7x22) for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Post episode 2x22 for Veronica Mars. Roughly one year after the events of Three Hours to Sunrise.
Rating: 13+. Mild violence, mild profanity.
Summary: Wallace is about to cheat on Veronica and follow a different petite, sassy blonde into trouble.
Author's Notes: First off, a shout-out to all my peepz who follow both of these fandoms. Special thanks to my beta and hetero-platonic life mate sadiekate, who's always keepin' it real, and to my brother, who doesn't always keep it real but does a far cry better than I do.
This is a sequel to Three Hours to Sunrise, which was written in May of 2005, which was so long ago it's likely you don't remember it. You don't really need to read it to understand what's going on here, but at the same time, it wouldn't hurt.
--
It all began in much the same fashion as several of his previous near-death experiences. Wallace's mom came into his room and said, "Wallace, there's some uppity blond girl at the front door asking for you."
The main difference was, Veronica was already in his room with him.
She gasped and turned a hurt look toward him. "Wallace Fennell -- are you cheating on me?"
"Excuse me?" Wallace's mom said.
"In the finding another uppity blond friend sense," Veronica explained quickly. "Not in the dating sense. Not that there would be anything wrong with dating your son, he's great, except for that whole thing where his mom is dating my dad, but--"
"Veronica," Wallace said.
"Sorry."
Wallace's mom smiled. "It's okay. Don't forget about the girl at the door, Wallace," she said, and left the room.
"You know they're just groupies," Wallace said. "In it for the fame and the bling. They're not real friends, like you."
"Oh, you shameless flatterer. Keep going. Tell me more about how wonderful I am."
Wallace laughed and hopped up from his computer. "Come on, let's go see who it is."
Veronica looked at her watch, then groaned and rolled off Wallace's bed. "Actually, I have to go. I have work at four, and it's a quarter 'til."
They walked to the front door together. The girl on the front porch was older, in her mid-twenties or so, but was still very petite and attractive. She was sharply dressed in nice, expensive-looking clothes.
Veronica glanced over at Wallace and smirked, a look Wallace knew meant he was about to get it. Bad.
Veronica slammed the front door open, stared at the girl for a moment, then spun back to Wallace. "You jerk! Who is this, the next girl on your list? Do you just cycle them through, all blond and beautiful, one after the other to wait on you hand and foot? Is that your ploy?" She grabbed Wallace's shirt and yanked him close, but then sighed and let him go. "Damn your rogue charm and rakish good looks, I just can't be mad at you, Wallace. I hope you enjoy her, but remember: I was here before you were an international sex symbol, and I'll be here for you long after she's moved on to the next flavor of the month."
She fluttered her eyelashes, then flounced past the girl on the porch, who watched Veronica with a grin. "Oh, I like her," the girl said softly.
Veronica drove off to work, and Wallace turned back to the girl on the porch.
"I take it you're Wallace?" she said.
"Yeah. Can I help you?"
"I hope so." She held out her hand, and Wallace shook it. "I'm Buffy Summers. Faith said you knew what was the what around here."
Wallace's blood ran cold, and he felt his stomach drop.
Faith.
He remembered that crazy morning the past fall perfectly, even almost a year later. He still had nightmares, sometimes as often as several a month, about that room with all the vampires sucking on strung-out junkies.
Earlier in the summer, when Veronica told him the whole story behind the bus crash and its aftermath, she was surprised by how calmly he took it. He was supportive, of course, but after learning about vampires, demons, and "gang members on PCP," it was hard to be shocked by human atrocities.
"Are you -- Are you like Faith?" Wallace asked. Buffy nodded. "I don't know what I can do to help you. I mean, I've read every Blade and Hellblazer book there is, and I watched that stupid Van Helsing movie so many times Veronica bought it for me, but--"
Buffy held up a hand and laughed. "No, I appreciate it, but all I need is a guide around town, that's it. I don't want you anywhere near a fight."
It wasn't really much of a choice, Wallace thought. "I'm in."
Buffy smiled. "Thank you."
"Yeah, sure. Lemme go tell my mom--" Wallace shrugged. "Something. Come on in."
Buffy followed him into the kitchen, where Wallace's mother sat at the table with a book.
"Hey, Moms, this is Buffy, she's a grad assistant for the basketball team," Wallace said. "She does physical therapy and training."
Mrs. Fennell stood up and shook Buffy's hand. "Nice to meet you, Buffy."
"Likewise."
"Buffy's gonna give me a run-down of our conditioning program and the gym and everything," Wallace said. "After that, a bunch of the guys on the team are gonna go get dinner and hang out some tonight."
"Okay. Stay out of trouble, all right?"
"Don't worry, Veronica's at work all night. I'll be fine." His mom glared at him, and Wallace grinned. She was a good mom. And, despite Buffy's desire to keep him from any violence, Wallace knew that stuff often found you anyway. That moment could be the last time he saw her. Before he thought more about it, he kissed his mother on the cheek and said, "Love you."
His mom's eyes narrowed. "You okay?" Too much time with the Mars family had turned her into a shrewd, suspicious woman, Wallace thought.
Wallace leaned close and whispered, "Don't look surprised! Ladies love a man who's good to his momma."
His mom rolled her eyes, and Wallace could tell she was fighting off laughter. "Love you, too, Wallace," she said. "Have a good time tonight. Buffy, it was a pleasure to meet you."
Buffy and Wallace said their goodbyes and left. Buffy was quiet until they got into her car. She put the keys into the ignition, but instead of starting the car she reached out and put her hand on Wallace's arm.
"Wallace," she said in a husky, sexy voice. "You know, I just love a man who's good to his momma."
Wallace glared at her. "Are all Slayers smart asses, or is it just the ones that I meet?"
Buffy laughed and started the car. "Sorry. With a few exceptions, it seems to be a world-wide thing."
:#:
After they arrived at the hotel, and after Buffy coaxed a traumatized Wallace out of the car, he demanded the car's keys. Buffy protested, but he was adamant -- there was no way he was going anywhere with her if she drove.
"No one ever lets me drive," Buffy pouted.
"That's because you're scary," Wallace said. "Wait, do you even have a license?"
Buffy studiously ignored further accusations of that sort. She silently led the way up to their hotel room.
Once inside, Buffy said, "We can talk freely in here. I've set up wards that keep the uninvited out and prohibit eavesdropping."
"Damn, that sounds handy."
"No kidding." Buffy tossed Wallace a bottled water and flopped onto one of the two beds. Wallace sat down on the other one. "Okay, here's the sitch:
"I'm up in San Diego visiting another Slayer there and we go to hit a small nest of vamps, except our info's all wrong. There's a lot more of them than we could handle alone. I got out, but the other Slayer -- she didn't make it." Wallace winced. Buffy barely paused when she mentioned the other Slayer, but he could tell she was upset over the death. "We still took out a good number of the vamps out, though. They took off right afterward, a few days ago, and I tracked them here. Now I just need to find exactly where they are, call in the cavalry, and we'll take them out."
Wallace nodded. "Lemme guess. You need docks, slums, those kinds of places?"
Buffy nodded. "Exactly."
Wallace stood up. "Well, let's go cruising, then."
:#:
Four hours later, they pulled into a diner parking lot, frustrated and hungry.
"Does every single low-life in this town know you?" Buffy asked. The first few times, she found the "replacement blonde" jokes amusing. After a while, though, it got old. And it kept coming for hours after that.
"Nah, they all know Veronica," Wallace said. "They just know who I am 'cause I'm her friend."
Buffy nodded. "God, this is going to take forever. I can't look too hard, because if they see me, it'll scare them away again."
"There's nothing else you can look for? Orpheus ring or something?"
Buffy shrugged. "They're not into Orpheus. There's just the usuals: spike in missing persons in an area, noticeable lack of homeless or other street dwellers -- you know, all the things that cops should notice but never seem to do anything about."
His options were limited: Weevil was in jail; he didn't know anyone in the police department; he wasn't about to call his father in Chicago; he really didn't want to get Keith or Veronica involved. "I don't know. I'm pretty familiar with the Sheriff's office database -- yeah, don't ask -- but I don't have any way to get into it."
"Do you think you could find a part into the network there?"
It took Wallace a moment to figure out what she was talking about. "You mean a port?"
"Whatever."
"I can't -- but I know someone who can."
Buffy looked wary. "Will he ask questions?"
"She," Wallace said. "And, nah, Veronica's got her used to doing weird stuff and not asking much about it. If we pay her, she'll be fine."
:#:
They arrived at Mac's house just before nine o'clock. She answered the door herself.
"Hey, Wallace, Veron--" She paused. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else. I'm Mac."
Buffy smiled and shook Mac's hand. "It's okay. I've gotten that one a lot today. I'm Buffy."
Mac stood aside and gestured with a hand. "Well, come on in. What's up?"
"We were wondering if you were on the job tonight, essentially," Wallace said.
"On the job, Wallace?" Mac said. "You make it sound like I'm a prostitute, or a cop."
"My bad. How about: you feel like getting freaky with the keyboard tonight?"
Mac opened the door to her room and let Wallace and Buffy enter first. "You're regressing," she said. "Now I sound like a webcam model or something."
"That's worse than prostitute?" Buffy asked.
"Yes," Mac said.
"Oh-kay," Buffy said. She shrugged. "I need to hire you. My friend needs to hack something local, but we don't want to waste time looking for the server. Wallace says you're on a first-name basis with every network for fifty miles."
Mac grinned. "You're going to pay me to locate a server?" She shrugged and sat down at her laptop. "Sure thing."
Buffy counted off five twenty-dollar bills and handed them to Mac. "Neptune County Sheriff's Office."
Mac's eyebrows rose, but she took the money and swung around in her chair to face the computer. Buffy pulled out her cell phone and made a call while Mac typed.
After a few minutes, Mac said, "Okay, I got it." She stood up and let Wallace sit down at the computer. Once she was in, Buffy's hacker would port the database to Mac's computer screen so he could dig for information. "You're going to be a while, though. Sheriff's Office just got all new security. It's pretty tight."
"We're in," Wallace said.
"What?" Mac screeched.
Buffy moved behind Wallace and looked over his shoulder. "Okay, look for missing persons, pets, lack of homeless--"
"Girl, I got it, just let me work," Wallace said.
"What the -- how are you in?" Mac said. She sat down on the bed and stared at her laptop. "That's not possible. I mean, it's really not possible."
"Got anything yet?" Buffy asked.
"Will you chill?" Wallace snapped. "I'm trying!"
"Maybe he wrote this security program," Mac said. "Put in a back door."
"She's a she," Buffy told Mac. Her voice had a note of pride in it. "And there's no back door. Willow's just the best."
"Got it," Wallace said. "But it's not a dock or slum or whatever -- they're pretty near the '09ers, actually. Not a lot of places to hide there. There's an old, abandoned church being remodeled there, that's about it."
Buffy froze. "An abandoned church?" she whispered.
"Yeah," Wallace said. "Old catholic church they're just starting to fix up."
"It's impossible," Mac muttered to herself.
"Mac, let it go," Wallace said to Mac.
Buffy stared at the wall for a moment, then stiffened. "Oh, God, it's tonight!" she said, and bolted out of the room. Wallace jumped up from the computer chair and followed her.
Mac moved over to her computer, where the Sheriff's Office interface was still on the display. "How did she do that?" she said.
The screen went blank, and then a message appeared:Find me, and we'll talk.
Mac's eyes narrowed. "Oh, momma, it's on," she said, and started typing.
:#:
Wallace caught up to Buffy at the car. "Buffy, what's going on?"
Buffy held out her hand. "Keys."
"What?"
"You're out. We're done. Give me the keys and get your friend to drive you home."
"What? You can't--"
"Watch me."
Wallace shook his head. "No, I mean, you can't do that because you don't even know where you're going."
Buffy didn't flinch. "Tell me."
"Buffy, look, I don't know what's going on--"
"It just got too dangerous," Buffy interrupted. "If you come, I can't keep you safe. So tell me how to get to the church and then go home."
"What are you talking about? We found them. Just call in the cavalry like you said before."
"I can't!" Buffy screamed. She moved right up into Wallace's face and lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "I screwed up, okay? I took off on my own, there's no backup waiting, they don't even know where I am. The vamps are doing the ritual tonight, at midnight, and the closest Slayer's three hours away. I don't have time to wait for her, and I don't have time to argue with you. I have to stop them myself, and I have to do it now! So stop holding me up."
"How many vamps?" Wallace asked.
Buffy stared at him for a moment. "Thirteen."
"That's suicide."
She didn't flinch. "Keys. Directions. Now."
Wallace shook his head. "I'll drive you there and drop you off." Buffy started to argue, but Wallace cut her off. "I'm not stupid, I'm not going to fight them. But I can set up across the street or something and watch, or go create a diversion for you, or something. If nothing else, I can tell your people what happened, whether you succeeded or not."
"If I don't succeed, they'll know," Buffy said softly, to herself. She sighed, then said, "Fine, you drive. But if I think you're going to do anything other than stay out of the way, don't think I'll hesitate to knock you out and hide you in a dumpster."
:#:
Buffy called the Council and directed them to Neptune, post-haste. Wallace didn't understand much of what she talked about, something about creating and opening a hell mouth or something. The way Buffy sounded -- quietly terrified -- told him enough.
She hung up her cell, and after that they rode in silence all the way to the church. Buffy stared out the passenger window at nothing, and Wallace had to nudge her in the shoulder when the church came into view.
"Just drive past it, normal speed," Buffy said.
"Where do you want me to drop you?"
"Nowhere, yet," Buffy said. "Let's just park a few blocks down. I'm going to wait until eleven-thirty, see if maybe one of the Slayers can make it in time."
Wallace nodded. He pulled over to the curb three blocks past the church, so that it was still visible from the rear windshield, and turned off the car.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Wallace said, "Buffy. You okay?"
She was quiet for so long, Wallace thought she wouldn't answer, but she finally said, "When I was sixteen, I was the only Slayer alive. I was told I would die, according to a prophecy." Her voice was so soft, Wallace could barely hear her. "And I did. My friend did CPR to bring me back, but still. I was so scared when I first heard that prophecy. The anticipation, it was terrible. I just remember being sixteen, and being so scared." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "And now, I'm twenty-five, and I've died twice, and I'm just still so scared."
"Yeah," Wallace said. "I know. Hell, I consider it a moral victory that I haven't shit my drawers yet."
Buffy snorted -- a loud, indelicate sound. Her hands shot up to cover her face, and she turned bright red. Wallace burst out laughing, and she slapped him on the shoulder before she, too, started to laugh.
"Girl, I did not think such a tiny thing like you could make a sound like that," Wallace said.
"Yeah?" Buffy said. She grinned. "Well, I happen to also be a champion burper."
"Oh, it's so on."
:#:
They had a burping contest, which Buffy won. They moved on to armpit farts, popping joints, double-jointed tricks, and eighties dance moves.
Eleven-thirty came, and the phone never rang. Buffy called Watcher headquarters, and they told her that Faith, the closest Slayer, was still over twenty minutes away.
"Okay," Buffy said. "I'm passing the phone off to Wallace Fennell, the guy Faith met last fall. He's the contact now. I'm going in."
She hung up and handed Wallace the phone. "Keep this on you and stay here. When Faith gets here, send her in. I'm not going to try to kill them all, just to stop the ritual."
Wallace nodded. "Good luck, Buffy."
"Thanks."
:#:
The next twenty minutes were the longest of Wallace's life.
:#:
He stared at the church intently, but three blocks away in the dark was entirely too far to make anything out. When the phone rang, he almost lost his moral victory.
"Junior!" Faith greeted him. He could hear an engine roaring in the background. "I'm coming up on the exit -- where to?"
Wallace directed Faith to the church. He could hear the squeal of tires with every turn, and wondered how it was she avoided getting pulled over by the cops. She cut him off when she saw the church. "I'm gonna park a few blocks away and run in," she said. "Get ready to come pick us up -- you'll know when."
She hung up, and Wallace waited. Nothing happened for a few minutes, but then he noticed a flicker of fire in one of the windows.
Wallace started the car.
The fire grew quickly, so Wallace raced over to the church. He stopped across the street and saw Faith carrying Buffy from the blaze.
"Faith!" he yelled. She looked over and saw the car. She limped over, and Wallace jumped out and helped her load Buffy, unconscious, into the back seat. They got into the front, and Wallace drove off as quickly as he could.
"Drop me off at my car, and I'll follow you to the hotel," Faith said. Wallace nodded.
:#:
Faith and Wallace got Buffy up into the hotel room with little difficulty. They laid her out on one of the beds, and Wallace sat on the other while Faith took a shower and changed out of her bloody and soot-stained clothes.
Faith came back out ten minutes later. "Any change?" she asked.
Wallace shook his head. "Nah, she's still out," he said. "You sure she's gonna be okay?"
Faith nodded and flopped onto the bed beside Wallace. "Yeah, she's fine. They busted her up pretty good, but we heal fast, and she's tough. She'll be fine."
"What about you? Are you okay?"
Faith laughed. "Me? Hell, Junior, I walked out. No problems at all."
Wallace rolled his eyes. "You're crazy, you know that?"
"Wiser minds than you said that a long time ago," Faith agreed cheerfully.
They sat together in silence for a while, Faith stretched out on the bed beside him, Buffy stretched out on the other bed across from him. Wallace wasn't small, but he wasn't the biggest guy, either, and both Slayers were significantly smaller than him. It was weird, to have such power in such small, attractive packages. A strange world they lived in, he thought, and even stranger that he was somehow now a part of it.
Buffy suddenly sat up in bed, her eyes wide. Faith was there in a flash, before Wallace even fully processed the situation. "B, it's cool, we're safe, back in the hotel," Faith reassured Buffy.
Buffy groaned and lay down onto the bed. "Ugh. Did we--"
Faith shrugged. "Maybe. I got him in the middle of his ritual. Who knows what that means."
"Damn. Willow."
Faith looked at Wallace, who shrugged. "Huh?"
"Will told me. If the ritual is stopped in progress, the Hellmouth opens, then snaps back shut on itself," Buffy said. She sounded groggy, but her voice got noticeably stronger as she spoke. "So it's there, but closed. Like how Sunnydale's was."
Faith swore. "Another Sunnydale?"
"Yeah. Lovely, huh?"
"Damn." Faith shook her head, then looked back over at Wallace. "Well, Junior, I guess you're gonna see a whole lot more of us, now."
-:-
THE END
Setting: Post-Chosen (7x22) for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Post episode 2x22 for Veronica Mars. Roughly one year after the events of Three Hours to Sunrise.
Rating: 13+. Mild violence, mild profanity.
Summary: Wallace is about to cheat on Veronica and follow a different petite, sassy blonde into trouble.
Author's Notes: First off, a shout-out to all my peepz who follow both of these fandoms. Special thanks to my beta and hetero-platonic life mate sadiekate, who's always keepin' it real, and to my brother, who doesn't always keep it real but does a far cry better than I do.
This is a sequel to Three Hours to Sunrise, which was written in May of 2005, which was so long ago it's likely you don't remember it. You don't really need to read it to understand what's going on here, but at the same time, it wouldn't hurt.
--
It all began in much the same fashion as several of his previous near-death experiences. Wallace's mom came into his room and said, "Wallace, there's some uppity blond girl at the front door asking for you."
The main difference was, Veronica was already in his room with him.
She gasped and turned a hurt look toward him. "Wallace Fennell -- are you cheating on me?"
"Excuse me?" Wallace's mom said.
"In the finding another uppity blond friend sense," Veronica explained quickly. "Not in the dating sense. Not that there would be anything wrong with dating your son, he's great, except for that whole thing where his mom is dating my dad, but--"
"Veronica," Wallace said.
"Sorry."
Wallace's mom smiled. "It's okay. Don't forget about the girl at the door, Wallace," she said, and left the room.
"You know they're just groupies," Wallace said. "In it for the fame and the bling. They're not real friends, like you."
"Oh, you shameless flatterer. Keep going. Tell me more about how wonderful I am."
Wallace laughed and hopped up from his computer. "Come on, let's go see who it is."
Veronica looked at her watch, then groaned and rolled off Wallace's bed. "Actually, I have to go. I have work at four, and it's a quarter 'til."
They walked to the front door together. The girl on the front porch was older, in her mid-twenties or so, but was still very petite and attractive. She was sharply dressed in nice, expensive-looking clothes.
Veronica glanced over at Wallace and smirked, a look Wallace knew meant he was about to get it. Bad.
Veronica slammed the front door open, stared at the girl for a moment, then spun back to Wallace. "You jerk! Who is this, the next girl on your list? Do you just cycle them through, all blond and beautiful, one after the other to wait on you hand and foot? Is that your ploy?" She grabbed Wallace's shirt and yanked him close, but then sighed and let him go. "Damn your rogue charm and rakish good looks, I just can't be mad at you, Wallace. I hope you enjoy her, but remember: I was here before you were an international sex symbol, and I'll be here for you long after she's moved on to the next flavor of the month."
She fluttered her eyelashes, then flounced past the girl on the porch, who watched Veronica with a grin. "Oh, I like her," the girl said softly.
Veronica drove off to work, and Wallace turned back to the girl on the porch.
"I take it you're Wallace?" she said.
"Yeah. Can I help you?"
"I hope so." She held out her hand, and Wallace shook it. "I'm Buffy Summers. Faith said you knew what was the what around here."
Wallace's blood ran cold, and he felt his stomach drop.
Faith.
He remembered that crazy morning the past fall perfectly, even almost a year later. He still had nightmares, sometimes as often as several a month, about that room with all the vampires sucking on strung-out junkies.
Earlier in the summer, when Veronica told him the whole story behind the bus crash and its aftermath, she was surprised by how calmly he took it. He was supportive, of course, but after learning about vampires, demons, and "gang members on PCP," it was hard to be shocked by human atrocities.
"Are you -- Are you like Faith?" Wallace asked. Buffy nodded. "I don't know what I can do to help you. I mean, I've read every Blade and Hellblazer book there is, and I watched that stupid Van Helsing movie so many times Veronica bought it for me, but--"
Buffy held up a hand and laughed. "No, I appreciate it, but all I need is a guide around town, that's it. I don't want you anywhere near a fight."
It wasn't really much of a choice, Wallace thought. "I'm in."
Buffy smiled. "Thank you."
"Yeah, sure. Lemme go tell my mom--" Wallace shrugged. "Something. Come on in."
Buffy followed him into the kitchen, where Wallace's mother sat at the table with a book.
"Hey, Moms, this is Buffy, she's a grad assistant for the basketball team," Wallace said. "She does physical therapy and training."
Mrs. Fennell stood up and shook Buffy's hand. "Nice to meet you, Buffy."
"Likewise."
"Buffy's gonna give me a run-down of our conditioning program and the gym and everything," Wallace said. "After that, a bunch of the guys on the team are gonna go get dinner and hang out some tonight."
"Okay. Stay out of trouble, all right?"
"Don't worry, Veronica's at work all night. I'll be fine." His mom glared at him, and Wallace grinned. She was a good mom. And, despite Buffy's desire to keep him from any violence, Wallace knew that stuff often found you anyway. That moment could be the last time he saw her. Before he thought more about it, he kissed his mother on the cheek and said, "Love you."
His mom's eyes narrowed. "You okay?" Too much time with the Mars family had turned her into a shrewd, suspicious woman, Wallace thought.
Wallace leaned close and whispered, "Don't look surprised! Ladies love a man who's good to his momma."
His mom rolled her eyes, and Wallace could tell she was fighting off laughter. "Love you, too, Wallace," she said. "Have a good time tonight. Buffy, it was a pleasure to meet you."
Buffy and Wallace said their goodbyes and left. Buffy was quiet until they got into her car. She put the keys into the ignition, but instead of starting the car she reached out and put her hand on Wallace's arm.
"Wallace," she said in a husky, sexy voice. "You know, I just love a man who's good to his momma."
Wallace glared at her. "Are all Slayers smart asses, or is it just the ones that I meet?"
Buffy laughed and started the car. "Sorry. With a few exceptions, it seems to be a world-wide thing."
:#:
After they arrived at the hotel, and after Buffy coaxed a traumatized Wallace out of the car, he demanded the car's keys. Buffy protested, but he was adamant -- there was no way he was going anywhere with her if she drove.
"No one ever lets me drive," Buffy pouted.
"That's because you're scary," Wallace said. "Wait, do you even have a license?"
Buffy studiously ignored further accusations of that sort. She silently led the way up to their hotel room.
Once inside, Buffy said, "We can talk freely in here. I've set up wards that keep the uninvited out and prohibit eavesdropping."
"Damn, that sounds handy."
"No kidding." Buffy tossed Wallace a bottled water and flopped onto one of the two beds. Wallace sat down on the other one. "Okay, here's the sitch:
"I'm up in San Diego visiting another Slayer there and we go to hit a small nest of vamps, except our info's all wrong. There's a lot more of them than we could handle alone. I got out, but the other Slayer -- she didn't make it." Wallace winced. Buffy barely paused when she mentioned the other Slayer, but he could tell she was upset over the death. "We still took out a good number of the vamps out, though. They took off right afterward, a few days ago, and I tracked them here. Now I just need to find exactly where they are, call in the cavalry, and we'll take them out."
Wallace nodded. "Lemme guess. You need docks, slums, those kinds of places?"
Buffy nodded. "Exactly."
Wallace stood up. "Well, let's go cruising, then."
:#:
Four hours later, they pulled into a diner parking lot, frustrated and hungry.
"Does every single low-life in this town know you?" Buffy asked. The first few times, she found the "replacement blonde" jokes amusing. After a while, though, it got old. And it kept coming for hours after that.
"Nah, they all know Veronica," Wallace said. "They just know who I am 'cause I'm her friend."
Buffy nodded. "God, this is going to take forever. I can't look too hard, because if they see me, it'll scare them away again."
"There's nothing else you can look for? Orpheus ring or something?"
Buffy shrugged. "They're not into Orpheus. There's just the usuals: spike in missing persons in an area, noticeable lack of homeless or other street dwellers -- you know, all the things that cops should notice but never seem to do anything about."
His options were limited: Weevil was in jail; he didn't know anyone in the police department; he wasn't about to call his father in Chicago; he really didn't want to get Keith or Veronica involved. "I don't know. I'm pretty familiar with the Sheriff's office database -- yeah, don't ask -- but I don't have any way to get into it."
"Do you think you could find a part into the network there?"
It took Wallace a moment to figure out what she was talking about. "You mean a port?"
"Whatever."
"I can't -- but I know someone who can."
Buffy looked wary. "Will he ask questions?"
"She," Wallace said. "And, nah, Veronica's got her used to doing weird stuff and not asking much about it. If we pay her, she'll be fine."
:#:
They arrived at Mac's house just before nine o'clock. She answered the door herself.
"Hey, Wallace, Veron--" She paused. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else. I'm Mac."
Buffy smiled and shook Mac's hand. "It's okay. I've gotten that one a lot today. I'm Buffy."
Mac stood aside and gestured with a hand. "Well, come on in. What's up?"
"We were wondering if you were on the job tonight, essentially," Wallace said.
"On the job, Wallace?" Mac said. "You make it sound like I'm a prostitute, or a cop."
"My bad. How about: you feel like getting freaky with the keyboard tonight?"
Mac opened the door to her room and let Wallace and Buffy enter first. "You're regressing," she said. "Now I sound like a webcam model or something."
"That's worse than prostitute?" Buffy asked.
"Yes," Mac said.
"Oh-kay," Buffy said. She shrugged. "I need to hire you. My friend needs to hack something local, but we don't want to waste time looking for the server. Wallace says you're on a first-name basis with every network for fifty miles."
Mac grinned. "You're going to pay me to locate a server?" She shrugged and sat down at her laptop. "Sure thing."
Buffy counted off five twenty-dollar bills and handed them to Mac. "Neptune County Sheriff's Office."
Mac's eyebrows rose, but she took the money and swung around in her chair to face the computer. Buffy pulled out her cell phone and made a call while Mac typed.
After a few minutes, Mac said, "Okay, I got it." She stood up and let Wallace sit down at the computer. Once she was in, Buffy's hacker would port the database to Mac's computer screen so he could dig for information. "You're going to be a while, though. Sheriff's Office just got all new security. It's pretty tight."
"We're in," Wallace said.
"What?" Mac screeched.
Buffy moved behind Wallace and looked over his shoulder. "Okay, look for missing persons, pets, lack of homeless--"
"Girl, I got it, just let me work," Wallace said.
"What the -- how are you in?" Mac said. She sat down on the bed and stared at her laptop. "That's not possible. I mean, it's really not possible."
"Got anything yet?" Buffy asked.
"Will you chill?" Wallace snapped. "I'm trying!"
"Maybe he wrote this security program," Mac said. "Put in a back door."
"She's a she," Buffy told Mac. Her voice had a note of pride in it. "And there's no back door. Willow's just the best."
"Got it," Wallace said. "But it's not a dock or slum or whatever -- they're pretty near the '09ers, actually. Not a lot of places to hide there. There's an old, abandoned church being remodeled there, that's about it."
Buffy froze. "An abandoned church?" she whispered.
"Yeah," Wallace said. "Old catholic church they're just starting to fix up."
"It's impossible," Mac muttered to herself.
"Mac, let it go," Wallace said to Mac.
Buffy stared at the wall for a moment, then stiffened. "Oh, God, it's tonight!" she said, and bolted out of the room. Wallace jumped up from the computer chair and followed her.
Mac moved over to her computer, where the Sheriff's Office interface was still on the display. "How did she do that?" she said.
The screen went blank, and then a message appeared:Find me, and we'll talk.
Mac's eyes narrowed. "Oh, momma, it's on," she said, and started typing.
:#:
Wallace caught up to Buffy at the car. "Buffy, what's going on?"
Buffy held out her hand. "Keys."
"What?"
"You're out. We're done. Give me the keys and get your friend to drive you home."
"What? You can't--"
"Watch me."
Wallace shook his head. "No, I mean, you can't do that because you don't even know where you're going."
Buffy didn't flinch. "Tell me."
"Buffy, look, I don't know what's going on--"
"It just got too dangerous," Buffy interrupted. "If you come, I can't keep you safe. So tell me how to get to the church and then go home."
"What are you talking about? We found them. Just call in the cavalry like you said before."
"I can't!" Buffy screamed. She moved right up into Wallace's face and lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "I screwed up, okay? I took off on my own, there's no backup waiting, they don't even know where I am. The vamps are doing the ritual tonight, at midnight, and the closest Slayer's three hours away. I don't have time to wait for her, and I don't have time to argue with you. I have to stop them myself, and I have to do it now! So stop holding me up."
"How many vamps?" Wallace asked.
Buffy stared at him for a moment. "Thirteen."
"That's suicide."
She didn't flinch. "Keys. Directions. Now."
Wallace shook his head. "I'll drive you there and drop you off." Buffy started to argue, but Wallace cut her off. "I'm not stupid, I'm not going to fight them. But I can set up across the street or something and watch, or go create a diversion for you, or something. If nothing else, I can tell your people what happened, whether you succeeded or not."
"If I don't succeed, they'll know," Buffy said softly, to herself. She sighed, then said, "Fine, you drive. But if I think you're going to do anything other than stay out of the way, don't think I'll hesitate to knock you out and hide you in a dumpster."
:#:
Buffy called the Council and directed them to Neptune, post-haste. Wallace didn't understand much of what she talked about, something about creating and opening a hell mouth or something. The way Buffy sounded -- quietly terrified -- told him enough.
She hung up her cell, and after that they rode in silence all the way to the church. Buffy stared out the passenger window at nothing, and Wallace had to nudge her in the shoulder when the church came into view.
"Just drive past it, normal speed," Buffy said.
"Where do you want me to drop you?"
"Nowhere, yet," Buffy said. "Let's just park a few blocks down. I'm going to wait until eleven-thirty, see if maybe one of the Slayers can make it in time."
Wallace nodded. He pulled over to the curb three blocks past the church, so that it was still visible from the rear windshield, and turned off the car.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally, Wallace said, "Buffy. You okay?"
She was quiet for so long, Wallace thought she wouldn't answer, but she finally said, "When I was sixteen, I was the only Slayer alive. I was told I would die, according to a prophecy." Her voice was so soft, Wallace could barely hear her. "And I did. My friend did CPR to bring me back, but still. I was so scared when I first heard that prophecy. The anticipation, it was terrible. I just remember being sixteen, and being so scared." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "And now, I'm twenty-five, and I've died twice, and I'm just still so scared."
"Yeah," Wallace said. "I know. Hell, I consider it a moral victory that I haven't shit my drawers yet."
Buffy snorted -- a loud, indelicate sound. Her hands shot up to cover her face, and she turned bright red. Wallace burst out laughing, and she slapped him on the shoulder before she, too, started to laugh.
"Girl, I did not think such a tiny thing like you could make a sound like that," Wallace said.
"Yeah?" Buffy said. She grinned. "Well, I happen to also be a champion burper."
"Oh, it's so on."
:#:
They had a burping contest, which Buffy won. They moved on to armpit farts, popping joints, double-jointed tricks, and eighties dance moves.
Eleven-thirty came, and the phone never rang. Buffy called Watcher headquarters, and they told her that Faith, the closest Slayer, was still over twenty minutes away.
"Okay," Buffy said. "I'm passing the phone off to Wallace Fennell, the guy Faith met last fall. He's the contact now. I'm going in."
She hung up and handed Wallace the phone. "Keep this on you and stay here. When Faith gets here, send her in. I'm not going to try to kill them all, just to stop the ritual."
Wallace nodded. "Good luck, Buffy."
"Thanks."
:#:
The next twenty minutes were the longest of Wallace's life.
:#:
He stared at the church intently, but three blocks away in the dark was entirely too far to make anything out. When the phone rang, he almost lost his moral victory.
"Junior!" Faith greeted him. He could hear an engine roaring in the background. "I'm coming up on the exit -- where to?"
Wallace directed Faith to the church. He could hear the squeal of tires with every turn, and wondered how it was she avoided getting pulled over by the cops. She cut him off when she saw the church. "I'm gonna park a few blocks away and run in," she said. "Get ready to come pick us up -- you'll know when."
She hung up, and Wallace waited. Nothing happened for a few minutes, but then he noticed a flicker of fire in one of the windows.
Wallace started the car.
The fire grew quickly, so Wallace raced over to the church. He stopped across the street and saw Faith carrying Buffy from the blaze.
"Faith!" he yelled. She looked over and saw the car. She limped over, and Wallace jumped out and helped her load Buffy, unconscious, into the back seat. They got into the front, and Wallace drove off as quickly as he could.
"Drop me off at my car, and I'll follow you to the hotel," Faith said. Wallace nodded.
:#:
Faith and Wallace got Buffy up into the hotel room with little difficulty. They laid her out on one of the beds, and Wallace sat on the other while Faith took a shower and changed out of her bloody and soot-stained clothes.
Faith came back out ten minutes later. "Any change?" she asked.
Wallace shook his head. "Nah, she's still out," he said. "You sure she's gonna be okay?"
Faith nodded and flopped onto the bed beside Wallace. "Yeah, she's fine. They busted her up pretty good, but we heal fast, and she's tough. She'll be fine."
"What about you? Are you okay?"
Faith laughed. "Me? Hell, Junior, I walked out. No problems at all."
Wallace rolled his eyes. "You're crazy, you know that?"
"Wiser minds than you said that a long time ago," Faith agreed cheerfully.
They sat together in silence for a while, Faith stretched out on the bed beside him, Buffy stretched out on the other bed across from him. Wallace wasn't small, but he wasn't the biggest guy, either, and both Slayers were significantly smaller than him. It was weird, to have such power in such small, attractive packages. A strange world they lived in, he thought, and even stranger that he was somehow now a part of it.
Buffy suddenly sat up in bed, her eyes wide. Faith was there in a flash, before Wallace even fully processed the situation. "B, it's cool, we're safe, back in the hotel," Faith reassured Buffy.
Buffy groaned and lay down onto the bed. "Ugh. Did we--"
Faith shrugged. "Maybe. I got him in the middle of his ritual. Who knows what that means."
"Damn. Willow."
Faith looked at Wallace, who shrugged. "Huh?"
"Will told me. If the ritual is stopped in progress, the Hellmouth opens, then snaps back shut on itself," Buffy said. She sounded groggy, but her voice got noticeably stronger as she spoke. "So it's there, but closed. Like how Sunnydale's was."
Faith swore. "Another Sunnydale?"
"Yeah. Lovely, huh?"
"Damn." Faith shook her head, then looked back over at Wallace. "Well, Junior, I guess you're gonna see a whole lot more of us, now."
-:-
THE END