thismaz | Bewitched, Chapter 14

Happy 4th July to everybody in the US.

Title: Bewitched, Chapter 14
Pairing: S/X. I promise it will get back there... eventually.
Rating: This chapter PG-13
Summary: When Valentine's Day arrives, Dru dips her finger in the brew and gives it a stir.
Word Count: 1,785
Betaed by

sparrow2000 and DJ, for which, many thanks. Thanks also to Sparrow for her help, conflabbing on plot twists and forms.
Comments: Are greatly appreciated, loved and cherished.
Disclaimer: here.
Note: This chapter follows canon fairly closely, in parts, so I have drawn upon the episode script, courtesy of http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/
Prologue here, with a link to the other chapters, or you can find the whole thing, in reverse order, in tags, or in the correct order, in memories. There's a menu of links on the right hand side of my main journal page.

Chapter 14

From his position, flat on his back and half hidden behind a tombstone, Xander watched Buffy knock down two vampires at once, while demanding they listen to her lecture. She fought with a grim determination that reassured him she was serious when she said that she was through waiting. He just hoped that her resolve didn't crash and burn when she finally faced Angelus, himself.

He'd had his doubts at times, during the past few weeks. Immediately after the incident in the mall, when she'd possibly castrated Angelus, but certainly hadn't killed him (and Xander wasn't ever going to admit that he knew about that because he'd been hiding in the stacks with Cordy when she reported to Giles) Xander hadn't cared much. Back then, Angelus was just another vampire, like every other vampire they'd faced (except that Xander disliked him personally, before he turned evil-er). Even during the incident with the sketched portraits and the dead fish, when Angelus taunted them and danced out of reach whenever Buffy got near, even then he was more of a nuisance than a serious threat. Xander had known that once Buffy got her head around the fact that her boyfriend was gone, she would snap him like a twig. Stupidly, incomprehensibly, Xander had believed that they were immune. Too many weeks and months of fighting big evil and coming through unscathed had lulled him into a false sense of security. They'd faced down the Master and Buffy had lived to beat him; how could any villain be worse than that? But then Angelus had killed Ms Calendar and Xander's delusions had been ripped away.

Sitting up, Xander rubbed at the back of his head. "I had that guy under control," he groaned, as Buffy helped him to his feet, "until he resorted to fisticuffs." He made a show of straightening the kinks out of his neck and did a silent count. "That's what... five vampires in three nights?"

"Yeah, I think so." Buffy grinned, obviously still high on adrenaline. "You know, you don't have to patrol with me," she said.

"Hey," he objected. "After a month of house arrest and being baby sat? I'm loving every single tombstone I get thrown into." He looked down at her. "Anyway," he added, half serious, "someone has to get your back."

Buffy smiled her appreciation of the sentiment as she made a show of wiping dead leaves from his shoulders and back. "I just want it over," she admitted.

Finished with his grooming, she turned on the spot and scanned the graveyard. "Looks like that's it for tonight." With a sigh, she picked up the stake Xander had dropped early in the fight and handed it to him. "We'd better go. I haven't even started studying for finals yet."

He trailed behind her, towards the gates. "Finals!" he groused, "You had to remind me? Why didn't you just let me die?"

*****

Classes were almost over and Xander knew that his grades were pretty much decided, so he wasn't making a big effort to attend the last few timetabled sessions. It was, he figured, impossible to cram a whole year's learning into a couple of days, so why bother? Buffy had a better excuse than his apathy - she had a murdering monster to hunt down, but that didn't diminish the pleasure Xander got from having company in his absenteeism. As long as they stayed out of Willow's sight, they were safe. It was necessary; Willow was quite capable of dragging them both into class with her, in spite of any protests they might make. Thankfully, she seemed to be fully occupied in herding Oz.

In spite of which, they waited until the hallways had emptied before making their way to the library. Giles would be expecting Buffy to check in, as early as possible. He'd mentioned, only the day before, that she seemed to be encountering more than her normal quota of vampires on her regular patrols. Reporting the continuation of that pattern had to be more important than memorising the periodic table.

It was a surprise, therefore, to find the library empty. Xander stuck his head around the office door, but even Giles' teapot was cold.

Returning to where Buffy waited, he shrugged and she pulled a face. "If he's not here," she said, "does that mean we have to go to class?"

"Buffster!" Xander was shocked by the suggestion. "If we did that, we'd interrupt the study session for everyone else. Mr Franks would have to stop what he was doing to bawl us out. Then there would be more time lost, while he decided whether to send us to Principal Snyder, or not. Not to mention the need to recap the intro..."

Buffy's face broke into a grin as his reasoning wound down. "So by staying here, we're actually doing the rest of the class a favour?"

"Now you're getting it." He looked around. "Think we could sneak a look at a few of the restricted books?"

"You had better not try," said a voice behind him and Giles walked past, shrugging off his coat and detouring to the table to dump his briefcase before making his way to his office.

Xander turned to Buffy who gave him her best innocent expression. "Did you know he was there?" he whispered.

Buffy smiled.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Giles called. The sound of teaspoons against mugs and the clatter of the kettle being put on punctuated his words. "I've been to the museum," he explained, returning to the main room with his Watcher notebook. "How was patrol last night?"

While Giles brewed tea and made notes, Buffy reported on their patrol and by the time he brought three mugs out to the table and sat down with them, she was done. "So what's at the museum?" she asked.

Giles looked up from jotting down the tally, or whatever he did when Buffy reported back and listed her slays. "What's that? Oh, um, it seems that some construction workers dug up a rather large artefact, outside town. Dr Perren, the curator, didn't know what it was and called me in to advise."

Xander gave a low whistle. "Way to go, Giles. You're famous. I promise, we'll never take your book learning for granted again."

Giles closed his notebook. "Thank you, Xander, for your vote of confidence. I feel much better appreciated."

"So could you? Advise?" Buffy interrupted, having apparently slipped right back into paranoid slayer mode. "What was it?"

"I don't know." Giles rubbed at his forehead. "I've made some sketches. There's an inscription that I want to translate, but I needed my books." He took a sip of his tea. "I did, at least, extract a promise that they wouldn't open it, until I had done so."

"Open it?"

"Yes." Giles looked around, dragged his briefcase across the table, towards him, and peered inside. He pulled out a handful of loose sheets of paper and a large photograph, spread them out and sorted them into some order, with the photo on top. If that was a picture of the artefact, it looked like a large block of dirt encrusted rock, to Xander.

Giles had sat back in his chair and was taking another sip of tea, when he froze. Placing the mug down, he reached into his jacket pocket and produced a magnifying glass which he used to peer closely at one corner of the picture. With the flat of his other hand he fanned out the papers, pulled one sheet out from the middle and set it down on top. The sketch on it looked like nothing so much as a poached egg on a bed of spaghetti, but it seemed to mean something to Giles.

"What is it?" Buffy asked.

Giles didn't reply.

Buffy pushed her chair back and got up. "Giles?" she asked.

He glanced up. "Oh, um, yes." He frowned. "Nothing to worry about," he said. "I think... Don't you have classes you should be at?"

"Um..."

It was clear that Giles had stopped listening. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid this will have to wait until I..." He stood up and went over to the book cage, where he scanned the shelves. "Very good. So I'll see you later then," he said over his shoulder. "Thank you for stopping by to report."

Buffy and Xander exchanged a look and gathered up their bags, abandoning their half drunk tea. "We've lost him," Xander observed. "He's going to be no good for explanations for at least another hour."

Nodding her agreement Buffy said, "Yeah. We'll come back later when he's worked it all out." She sighed. "I guess that means it's Mr Franks," she said, "unless you can make me a better offer?"

*****

Dru made her stately way down the steps from the back garden gate and Spike looked up over the top of his newspaper to admire her. "Nice walk, pet?" he asked.

She pulled a face "I met an old man. Didn't like him," she said, adding with a wicked smile, "He got stuck in my teeth."

Spike had laid the newspaper down on his knee when she reached him and he saw her notice it. She came to a halt and started to sway, her sinuous snake-charmer dance. "But then the Moon started whispering to me..." she breathed. Straightening up she closed her eyes and turned her face to the sky. "All sorts of dreadful things."

Angelus appeared from behind him and walked over to Dru. "What did it say?" he asked.

Jolted out of his admiration of Dru's act, Spike sneered, "Oh, look who's awake."

Angelus ignored him. "What did the Moon tell you?" he asked again, placing his hands on Dru's shoulders and pulling her close. More mind games. He wasted so much time in proving points that Spike didn't need to learn and didn't care about. "Did you have a vision?" Angelus asked. "Is something coming?"

Dru leant back and undulated against his body. "Oh, yeah. Something terrible. Psst, psst, psst, psst, psst, psst..."

"Where?"

"At the museum. A tomb... with a surprise inside."

"You can see all that in your head?"

Angelus sounded impressed, so it was a pleasure to burst his bubble. "No, you ninny. She read it in the morning paper," Spike said, holding it out with the headline uppermost and giving it a small shake.

Angelus released Dru, took the paper from him and glanced at it.

Dru crept closer and peered around Angeulus's shoulder at the photo Spike had been studying. "That's what's been whispering to me," she said.

Angelus smiled as he read beyond the headline. "Oh, yeah," he breathed.

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