Chapter 39- Cats and Rats and Birds… Oh fuck!
I pick up the rats and Buffy’s yellin’ at me.
“They probably have diseases, Faith! Don’t touch them!”
I look into their faces and I can almost see the smirk on Rona’s rat face.
“You got any diseases, Bone?”
“Bone?” B says confused.
“How about you, Vi? Slept with any questionable people lately?”
“Vi?”
“B, I think I know why Rona, Vi and the Scoobs disappeared.”
“You…you don’t think…” She looks really confused then points at a rat. “Willow!!”
“Exactly.” I nod at her.”
“Help me off this chair!” I go over and turn around in front of her so she can use my back to help her get off the chair safely.
Aunt Dee and Jules are still on the bed lookin’ like we’re both nuts.
“What’s goin’ on, Faith?”
“Willow must have set a protection spell, if there were any mortal danger the person would be turned into a rat, or possibly another animal.”
Aunt Dee slaps her forehead. “Jesus! Magic! What the fuck, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s about right.” I nod. “You can get down off the bed now. These rats aren’t gonna hurt you.” I look at them. “Will ya?”
Jules gets down and comes over to me. Aunt Dee looks like she’s not budgin’.
“Can I hold one?”
“Sure, Jules, just don’t drop her or nothin’. I’m not exactly sure which one is which, but I got a feelin’ this one in my right hand is Rona.”
“How can you tell?” Buffy asks.
“It’s a look in the eyes.”
I hold it up to her and she sorta shies back but looks in the rat’s eyes.
“Yeah, I see what you mean, it narrowed its rat eyes at me.”
I chuckle, “Be good Bone, or else we ain’t gettin’ ya outta there.”
“Faith, come in, Faith.”
“Help me Obi Wan, you’re my only hope!”
“Shut up, Faith! I’m not Leia, Buffy’s Leia!
“Yeah right, and I bet you think you’re Han.” I laugh.
“Yeah, what of it?”
“Dude, I’m Han, you’re Luke at best! That’s actually bein’ generous.”
“Can you two not do this stupid comparison with Star Trek competition thing, now?” Buffy sounds annoyed.
“Dude,” I laugh and look at Buffy. “You’re lucky one of these rats isn’t Andrew, he would have used his rat teeth to gnaw you a new one. Or something.”
“Dude?” She narrows her eyes at me.
“Uh, sorry, B.”
“Better, but we’ll talk about that later.”
Satsu chuckles.
Shit, I’m in trouble, better get down to business.
“So, anyway, what’s up, Satsu?”
“We’ve rounded up everything we could find, we’re headed back to the meeting place, everything ok there?”
“Yeah, we think we’ve got Rona and Vi.”
“Rats, right?”
“We’re hopin’, otherwise we’re carryin’ around unwashed vermin for nothin’.”
Buffy backs away even further and kinda gives a half wave to the rats as a consolation for her bein’ weirded out by everything.
“Is everyone coming with you back to HQ?”
I look around and Buffy’s noddin’, Jules is too, but Aunt Dee looks like she’s gonna freak out any minute.
“Um, I don’t think everyone, we’ll see you in a few though.”
“Good, be careful.”
“You too.”
I teleport Aunt Dee outta there first and go back with her to the safe house for a little bit to make sure she’s ok. She makes a b-line for the toilet, ‘cause she’s still not used to the teleportin’ thing. I think Jules takes it so well ‘cause it’s like a rollercoaster kinda feelin’, she’ll probably want me to do that with all her friends and shit.
I’m surprised at how good I’m gettin’ with some of the spells Will taught me. I used to be all resistive, but after last year, when she and I almost died in the Middle East, because she was unconscious and I couldn’t teleport us outta there, I decided to let her teach me.
She says my inner peace has changed a whole heck of a lot for the better, especially since I’ve been with Buffy and I’m a good student ‘cause I learn quick and can be patient. I know, me patient, who’da thunk it?
It doesn’t hurt that I know Latin pretty well, too. She was surprised as hell when I translated a spell from Latin into English, at first she thought Giles had somehow given me the answers but when I wrote a smutty poem in Latin right in front her she blushed, then squealed and made me read some stuff and translate for like an hour. I think if we hadn’t bonded in the desert, like really bonded, the Latin woulda done it. She’s a sucker for it.
I know if she didn’t have Kennedy that time we helped Angel out, she and Fred woulda gotten busy. It was like the spells and Latin and shit were foreplay for ‘em. I kinda get it now.
But Willow’s loyal, and wouldn’t’ve done that. She’s a good girl, and I’m gonna bring my good girl home.
Aunt Dee’s been yarkin’ this whole time, when she’s done I get her a cool cloth and she thanks me gratefully. Then looks at me like she’s gonna kick me in the shin.
“Why didn’t you tell me that could happen?” She points at the toilet.
“I did, but you were so busy backin’ up Buffy against me that I guess you didn’t hear all that.”
“I’m sorry, Faith. I thought it would be nice to help out.”
“And I appreciate that, Dee, I do. I don’t want people to think that I’m gonna keep Buffy out of everything, but she needs to listen to her body right now. She’s peein’ like every two minutes, and who knows when the morning sickness is gonna come back.”
“Well if you want me to, I’ll start tellin’ her she needs to ease off.”
“That would be nice, but I don’t want her feelin’ ganged up on, we’ll let her decide and then if it might put her in harm’s way, maybe you can gently suggest somethin’ different. She listened to Gee Gee that way, maybe she’ll listen to you, too.”
“Ok, you’ve got my support. I don’t like to think of her gettin’ hurt, especially now that she looks five months pregnant.”
“You saw that, too, huh?”
“Could that sped up pregnancy be hurtin’ her?”
“I dunno, we’re gonna have to get a doc to check her out soon. I was thinkin’ maybe of usin’ that doc Rona knew, they were around the corner from here. They don’t know about slayers, but we could tell them she was a scared single mother who doesn’t have a doc yet.”
“Don’t do too much lyin’, it’s bad karma.”
“Don’t I know it. But like I said, we really can’t go tellin’ the truth all the time, people would panic.”
“You’re right. And you’re spendin’ way too much time with me right now, you better get back.”
I laugh.
“The rats’ll be there when I get back. I just wanted to make sure you were ok, with everything.”
“Yeah, don’t worry about me, although I might start peein’ the bed now that I know there are vampires and demons that roam at night. Jim’ll think I’m havin’ night sweats or somethin’, he’s a dummy.”
I chuckle, “He’s a good guy though, a really good guy.”
She sighs happily, “I know, I’m stuck with one of the good ones.” She pokes me in the side, “Like the woman you married, huh? One of the good ones.”
That makes me smile. ‘Cause she is the fuckin’ best. She just needs to listen to me a little bit more. Heh.
“Ok, Dee, I’m gonna go down stairs and make sure everyone’s ok here, then I’m gonna head out.”
“Alright, honey. Are you comin’ back later?”
“Of course, I’m gonna bring Buffy and Jules back.”
“Ok then, see you later. Give me a hug, I’m gonna take a shower. I feel skeevy.” She makes a face that cracks me up.
“You’re a nut.” I hug her before I go. “See ya later.”
I go downstairs and Leah, Kara and Ashley are sleepin’ on a couple futons in the livin’ room. Joey’s in his crib and I can see that he’s awake. He’s just kinda on his back lookin’ around and singin’ to himself. God he’s so fuckin’ cute. He notices the movement in the room even though I was bein’ super stealthy and he stands up. He’s rockin’ around on his little chubby legs and he puts an arm out to me, I guess that means he wants me to pick him up.
“Hey little man,” I whisper. “What’re you doin’ up? It’s way past your bed time.”
“Wet!” He says.
Damn, I look around at the sleepin’ bitches. Not one of ‘em are gonna rescue me. Figures.
That’s ok, I’m tough, I can do this. It’s been a while and I’ve never really changed a boy’s diaper so this should be interestin’.
“Wet!” He says again, louder this time.
“Shhhh, you gotta be quiet, you don’t wanna wake your Moms and your Auntie, now do ya?” He smiles at me with his four teeth showin’. “Nah, they’d be all grumpy and upset,” I lower my voice to a whisper. “Like the bitches they are.” I take him into the front room where they’ve got a changin’ table set up.
“Here we go, Joey.” I lay him down on the table and reach into the side pocket to get out a diaper. I pull it out and look it over, seems simple enough. Tabs on the sides of the back part of the diaper to fasten it to the front. Pretty freakin’ awesome.
Wait, the tab…fuck! I fuckin’ pulled too hard and ripped it, and part of the diaper ripped, too. Shit!
They have others though, so this one can be tossed.
“Just a little mishap, buddy, no ‘cause for alarm.”
He’s still grinnin’ at me, lookin’ kinda curiously, probably thinkin’ I suck at this. And he’d be right. ‘Cause I just fucked up another diaper.
Shit, they’re gonna kill me. Third time’s a charm though, right?
Wrong.
Goddamn it!! How hard can this be? Apparently harder than I can handle. Joey’s got a smirk on his face, he knows what’s goin’ on. I’ll bet Buffy taught him that smirk, ‘cause I never use that smirk.
The smart-assed one. Nope, not me.
Five fuckin’ diapers later and I’ve finally got it to where it’s not gonna open again, or be so loose that he might as well not be wearin’ one.
“Ok, Joey, that ordeal’s over. Now I guess we get you back to bed, huh?”
His face is beet red and he looks like he’s pushin’ somethin’ out. What the fuck?!
Oh no! NO!
“You’re not doin’ what I think you’re doin’ are you?! You’d do that Faithy, dude?!”
Yeah he would, ‘cause I’m smellin’ it, and it’s a pure vegetable smellin’ present of doom.
“Faith, did he need his diaper changed?” Kara comes up behind me.
“Uh, yeah, he made a stinky. Can you handle it? I gotta get back to Buffy and Jules.”
“Sure,” She looks over at the changin’ table. “Were you trying to change it?”
“Well, I did change it, he’s wearin’ a fresh one, and then he decided to mess this one now, too.”
She laughs. “He likes you. A lot.”
I look at her like she told me to use the diaper as a face mask. “How do you figure?”
“He does that to make you stay with him longer. I think he senses you have to go, and it’s weird, ‘cause usually babies don’t remember people, ya know? Outta sight outta mind, right?”
I nod.
“But he’s kinda always lookin’ around for you. Not to say that he shouldn’t but it’s really curious.”
“Damn, he’s somethin’, huh?”
“He is.” She gives him a kiss on the head and he squeals.
“I’ll have to spend some more time with him, give you and Leah a break a little; he and I spent some quality time together before my coma.”
Kara looks upset all of a sudden.
“What’s the matter?”
“Be careful, ok? Nobody wants to relieve the coma months.”
“Believe me neither do I.”
She smiles at me, and reaches out for Joey.
“So you’ll babysit for us sometimes?”
“Of course, we’ll dance a bit, eat some good grub and I can learn how to change a diaper before Buffy sees how bad I am at it and she leaves me.”
Kara laughs again, “She’s not gonna leave you, Faith. You guys are great together.”
“We do, ok, I guess.”
That earns me a light slap on my arm. “You better get going, she’s probably wondering where you are.”
“Yeah, I’ll see you guys later.” I give Joey a kiss on the head and go to leave, Kara stops me and kisses my cheek.
“Thanks.”
“No, thank you, Faith.”
“For what?”
“For doing what you’re doing, for making people happy.”
I shrug. “I made them upset enough over the years, I figure it’s time I do the opposite.”
“Well, they certainly appreciate it, Leah’s been so happy lately, she’s got her ‘big sister’ back.”
Heh. Big sister. That sounds pretty good.
“I’m glad to be back.”
“Ok, good, now get out.”
I crack up, she’s funny and I’m so glad she’s in our family.
“Tell Uncle Jim, Leah and Ash we’ll be back later today.”
“I will.”
I go into the kitchen and teleport back into the hotel room.
“Everything ok, Faith?” Buffy comes over to me and hugs me. Jules is still playin’ with the rats. God I hope they’re really Rona and Vi or else she’s gonna kill me.
“Yeah, B. I had to slay a few diapers, but I won.”
She laughs. “You had problems changing Joey, huh?”
“Yeah, man, I gotta practice or else we’re gonna go through a lot of diapers.”
“You’ll get the hang of it. I have faith in you.”
“Nice one, B.” I point to the fact that she’s hangin’ back about ten feet from Jules who’s holding the rats. “Are you feelin’ a little ‘faithless’ in the rats theory?”
“I’m just being cautious. What happens if they have some sort of tick that gets on me and I get Lyme disease? Do you want that?”
“No, of course not, I was just makin’ a stupid joke. Forgive me, oh wondrous one.”
“Thin line, Faith.”
“Got it, B.” I change the subject as I get ready to teleport us all back to makeshift HQ. “You ladies ready to jet?”
“Yep!” Says Jules all excitedly. She holds on to me and Buffy gets on the other side.
“Let’s go, babes.”
“Satsu, help me!” Andrea’s yellin’ as we get back to HQ.
“Hey, guys!” Jazz says. “Who’s this?”
“Jazz, I’d like you to meet my cousin, Julia. Julia, this is one of the best slayers you’ll ever meet, but you gotta forgot you met her, ok?”
“Uhhh, ok…”
“Yeah, I don’t exist.” Jazz winks.
“What’s up with Andrea?”
“The bird shit on her head. Oops, sorry Julia, I meant pooped.”
“Don’t clean up your language on this one’s account.” I indicate to Jules with my thumb, “Some of the stuff that comes out of her mouth would make even you blush.”
“I’ll bet, especially if her cousin is any indication.”
“Hey, B. No! Stay away from the cats.” Buffy was goin’ over to ‘em.
“Why?”
“Toxoplasmosis.”
“Toxowhatsis?”
Heh. “Plasmosis. It’s somethin’ cats can give you that ain’t good for the baby.”
She jumps back from the cats, “How about I stay away from animals all together?”
“I can be an animal sometimes,” I wink.
“Hey! Kids in the room!” Jules says like the smartass she is.
Buffy just chuckles and shakes her head.
“Ok, whatta we got here?”
“Rats, we’ve got a lotta rats.” Jazz says.
“Is that all of them from the building?”
“Are you serious? It’s New York, we’d be there for days trying to get all the rats,” She indicates to the boxes of rats they brought back. “These weren’t running away from us, and we noticed they were huddled around the cats, and the cats weren’t trying to eat them.”
“Makes sense.” I nod, “And the bird?”
“She’s flying around here somewhere, I guess she’s trying to keep away from Andrea, heh, bird poop.”
I shove her. “You’re such a kid sometimes.”
“Look who’s talking.” Buffy throws her two cents into it.
I better just do what I need to, don’t need to be gettin’ into a fight right now. I gotta concentrate.
I guess what I need to do is change the bird back first.
Fuck, I need Willow’s spell book. Damn, it’s sittin’ in a pile of rubble back at the academy.
Wait, she told me she had a backup in a file in her house, I should get my ass over there now and get it.
“I’m gonna head over to Will’s for a minute.”
“Wait, why?” B says, she sounds a little upset.
“I have to find the spell that turns ‘em back.”
“Is it the de-rat spell she used on Amy?”
“No, actually it might be the one she had Dawn finish the translation on, you remember that time last year when you wanted to kill me with one of Giles’ compendiums?”
“Vaguely.”
“Yeah, right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You always conveniently forget when you try to kill me.”
“No, it’s just that the make up sex afterwards is so hot that the other stuff gets foggy.”
I laugh, and Satsu looks over and narrows her eyes at me.
Yeah, that’s right, the sex is so hot her brain gets foggy. And you’ll never get to try to do that to her again.
I’d be bitter too.
I pull Buffy to me and give her a sweet kiss.
“Hey! Kids in the room!” My smartassed cousin yells again.
“And adults!” Jazz says with a laugh.
We pull outta the kiss and Buffy’s all blushy, I can tell she’s horny. Damn! Pregnancy hormones, they’re runnin’ buck wild.
No time for that now, which really sucks, but I’ve got stuff to do. The hot stuff will have to wait.
“Ok, ladies, I’ll be right back.”
“Be careful.”
“Keep the voice and visual comm. on, ok?”
“Ai, Ai, boss.” I wink at Satsu.
“I’ll keep your girl warm for ya.” She winks back. “OW!”
HA!! Buffy kicked her shin.
“Sorry,” Satsu’s all meek now. “Be careful, Faith.” She mumbles.
“I’ll be back.” I say in my best Arnold voice. I hear chuckles fade as I teleport into Will’s place.
Damn, this place has been ransacked, none of her valuables look taken, all the statues and stuff are still here. The front door is closed and doesn’t look forced, so they probably jimmied the lock or had a key. Probably got it through ‘Kennedy’. Must’ve known how to get through the mystical barriers, too, ‘cause I don’t feel anything witchy.
I get to her wall where there’s a picture of two faeries flying around a Sorceress who’s walking alone down a path of her own.
I had that painted for Will for her birthday last year. She loved it. It wasn’t a coincidence that the faeries were painted as a blonde and a brunette. It was to symbolize that though she may walk alone at times, she’s never without her people.
It’s really beautiful and done in that style like one of those Italian paintings with the women’s boobies hangin’ out.
Under the painting is a statue on a stand, it’s something else I got her, for Chanukah, this one is one of those Italian ladies with her boobies hangin’ out. Buffy said I have a problem. Will loved it though. I touch it and think a few words and suddenly the wall shifts and what I want is right where it should be. Only me, B and Giles knows about this area, and of course Willow. I suggested it to Will, since things have gotten pretty dicey in the past couple of years. It’s just a simple cabinet for storing papers and things, it’s fireproof and witched up. I think some more words and the lock pops open.
Sweet, I was worried I’d get the words all wrong. Haven’t had a need to use them before.
I get out the spell folder and look over the documents, I really wish Will or Giles were here for this, I suck at figuring this stuff out. I know Will has a de-ratting spell here somewhere. I hope it works on birds and cats, too. ‘Cause I have a hunch that Giles and Dawnie are the cats. Don’t ask me how, like I said, it’s a look in the eyes. Kinda like when B knew Giles was that demon thingy. She told me all about that, ‘cause we were talking about how she convinced him that she was her when we did the body swap. Fuck, I hate thinkin’ about things like that. The stupid things I did.
“Faith, how come we have no visual?”
Satsu’s voice makes me jump a little, I was so caught up in my thoughts, I forgot she was still in my ear.
“Will’s spell on this room makes it so no one can take video if they manage to breach the spells.”
“She’s one smart girl.”
“You said it.”
I continue lookin’ through the spells and come across one I recognize from last year. This is the one Dawnie helped Will translate, ‘cause she was tryin’ to figure out the last few lines.
“On second, thought, not that smart,” I continue readin’.
“Huh?”
“But still pretty genius. Satsu, call in one of the Shaman we have on retainer, we’re gonna need some help.”
“Are you coming back here now?” B asks, I know she’s worried.
“Well, I wanna just take a little look around, this place looks like it was broken into.”
Buffy gasps, “No!”
“Yeah, but they weren’t after valuables, probably after what I’ve got in my hand.”
To make sure they took any protection off so more people would die. Must have not found what they were looking for, or thought that they knew better than Will. They thought wrong, but then again so did she. Dawn’s words from that day come back to me.
“Change the ad to an id and I’d say you were in business.”
Oh, I’m gonna let Dawnie have it! Still, it worked so I shouldn’t be too mad, I just hope this Shaman can do somethin’ to help us get ‘em back.
“So how long do you think you’ll be?” Buffy tries to sound nonchalant as she asks but I can tell she’s really worried.
“Not long, I’m just gonna do a visual of the rooms.”
“Do you need help?”
“Nope, I got it, thanks though.”
“Ok…”
Heh, she’s not gonna let it go. I take what I need and lock everything back up.
“Jazz, Andrea.”
“Yeah?”
“What’s up?”
“I need you guys to teleport here, I’ll show you what I need done. I’ll come back there and get the spell reversal thing goin’.”
I can almost hear Buffy’s sigh of relief. Damnit, what’s she gonna do when I have to go on missions and leave her and the little one home? ‘Cause, yeah, she’s gonna be the mom. Heh.
“Ok, we’ll be right there.”
“I’ll be glad to get away from the shitty bird here.” Andrea says.
That makes everyone laugh.
“I thank you for giving me the honor of working with you, dark one.” Damn, these Shaman are kinda spooky.
“Uh, you can call me Faith. Callin’ me dark one reminds me of what Andrew does all the time, with the speeches about the dark side and that stuff.”
“Is that the little man you sent to us a few months ago to help with the translations?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t do that again, we beg of you.”
I laugh.
“So, what’s up with the spell, can you swing a reversal?”
“Of course, who would you want to bring back first?”
“The bird, don’t need her shittin’ on anyone else’s head, plus she can help out.”
“Very well.”
He sets to doin’ his thing and it’s pretty awesome. And soon Willow’s hangin’ from the light fixture she was just perched on.
Buffy runs over to hold her up by the feet so she doesn’t fall, and Satsu goes to help get her down.
“Woah! H-hey there!”
Buffy lets go and Satsu holds her in her arms, makin’ sure she can stand before she lets go.
“You got it?”
“Yeah, yep, fine, thanks.”
Will sounds a little flustered, she must have a little girl crush. I’ll have to tease her about it later.
“Glad to have you back, Red!” I go over to her, she and Buffy are busy huggin’ the stuffin’ out of each other.
“Oh, I’m so happy to be back! Gosh, the life of a bird, not so great.”
I chuckle as I pull her into a hug and give her a huge kiss that has Buffy’s eyes narrowed at me.
“What?” I say when we break, Will’s tryin’ to regain her bearin’s. “I thought she was dead, I can give her a kiss.”
B just shakes her head and brings Will in for another hug. She’s happy to have her back too.
“Ok, love festers, you wanna do the rest of the people or what?” Satsu says, all business like.
“Alright Satz, we’ll be good girls, let’s get busy.” I wink at her. Everyone watches as the Shaman starts to work on the cats, one by one. Soon, Dawn’s squealin’ and Giles is thankin’ us for not sendin’ him to the pound.
After all the hugs and love that go around again, we get started on the rats.
Vi and Rona look absolutely starved, Will goes over and does a spell to help ‘em out. Once the docs are brought they start a triage station for people who might be hurt. After a few more minutes, the room is definitely startin’ to get crowded.
“Good thing the school was on a break, huh?” B says. “We’d have no room to move around.”
I pull her to me so no one crushes her by accident. People keep poppin’ up all over the place.
After about five minutes there’s three left, Xander pops up and immediately hugs Willow. Dawn goes over and hugs him, too, and then he comes over to me and B and we share in a group hug also. It feels fuckin’ awesome to be able to have them back again. If I were a girly I’d squeal, but I’ll leave that up to Dawn, Willow, Buffy and Andrew.
Speakin’ of which…
“I guess one of them is Andy, huh?”
“I think Dawn’s got him in her hand.”
“Over here Dawnie, I’ll change him back, put him on the floor.” Will waits until Dawn’s got him on the floor and does the spell reversal.
Nothin’, but now the rat that was on the table in front of her is a full grown Andy.
“What?! Oh!!! EWWWW!!!” Dawn yells. “You mean the one I was carrying around was actually a rat?!?!” She shudders and runs into the bathroom.
Buffy goes to comfort her sister and Jules is doubled over laughin’.
“What’s so funny, Jules?” I narrow my eyes at her. “Wait…you knew the one she was holdin’ was a real rat, huh?”
She’s laughin’ so hard she can’t even speak, so she just nods.
“You’re such a little shit!”
Andrea and Jazz teleport back.
“Speakin’ of a little shit…” Jazz says with a chuckle lookin’ at Willow.
“Oh, oh god! I’m so sorry, I couldn’t help…”
Andrea holds up her hand.
“Please, don’t say another word. Please!”
“Ok…” Will lowers her voice to a whisper. “Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry, nothing that wasn’t cleanable. Although, thanks to you, I hate birds now.”
“Hey, Andrea, quit it.” Satsu says ‘cause she sees Will’s gettin’ upset.
Damn, where’s Kennedy?
“Hey guys, did we get all the rats?”
“No, but we got the ones we thought were most likely to be everyone, you know the ones who weren’t trying to run away.”
“Ok, we’re gonna have to go back to HQ, with the Shaman. Will, Satsu, you comin’?”
“You’re going?” Buffy’s helpin’ a sick lookin’ Dawnie out of the bathroom.
“Yeah, we gotta go see if there’s anyone left. We’re missin’ at least one.”
Shit, I hope she’s ok.
“Ok, be careful.”
“I will.” I go over to her and give her a quick kiss.
“Let’s go.” I say to the others.
We’re back at HQ and the Shaman dude is pullin’ out all the stops. He’s doin’ somethin’ that’s highlightin’ what’s a real rat. So far nothin’ that shows any of ‘em are anything but the real deal.
“Can you do somethin’ that’ll just blanket the place to turn ‘em back into people?”
He looks at me and I can tell he’s surprised he didn’t think of that. Damn, no wonder they needed our help last year.
Will looks at me and smirks and I shrug.
Don’t wanna piss the dude off, he’s helpin’ us avoid a lot of busy work.
As we’re walkin’ down one of the halls in the lower level I can hear a scuffle. Someone’s either tryin’ to get out from under somethin’ or people are scrappin’.
I pick up the pace with Willow hot on my heels, Satsu’s out in front and what she sees when we get to a clearin’ in the rubble makes her stop dead in her tracks.
I wasn’t that close behind her so I don’t collide with her but Will does into me.
“Get Willow out of here!!”
Ken.
“Kennedy!!” Willow yells.
“No, Will, I’ve got this! You go, ok baby?”
“What’s going on?!”
Ken’s got her back to us and I can see someone on the ground at her feet. Blonde hair.
Fuckin’ Laurie. She must have been the one to try and pull the protection spell, but got caught up in it. I bet they left her to die.
I see somethin’ in Laurie’s hands that makes me wanna lose my lunch. It’s got a plunger on it and it’s connected to Kennedy by a wire. Kinda like if she shot her with a taser.
“Satsu, make sure Will gets out safe. I’ll help, Ken. Get the Shaman down here now, though, ok?”
“But Faith.”
“NO WILLOW, GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!”
Shit, I wouldn’t have yelled like that at her, I was gonna just say, ‘Please, I’ll take care of it.’ but Kennedy fuckin’ let her have it.
I think she understands it’s bad, and she lets Satsu lead her out.
Before she leaves completely she turns and back to us, “I love you Kennedy, I’ll see you soon, ok?”
“Yeah, Will, I’ll see you soon, baby. I love you, too. Sorry for yelling.”
“Nah, you needed to tell me what to do, I get it. Be careful.”
“You, too. Babe.”
After they go Ken says in an eerily calm voice, “You too, Faith, just fucking go, ok?”
“Ken…”
“FAITH!! NO! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP, I DON’T NEED ANY SPEECHES OR TEARS.”
“What’s goin’ on?”
“What’s going on is that you’ve got a family now. But do me a favor, will ya? You let them know how much they all meant to me, ok?”
“We’d never forget you, Ken.”
“Don’t let Willow grieve too long, either.” Ken’s voice is much softer now. “She’s been through so much, I can’t stand the thought of her bein’ alone.”
“Ken, maybe the Shaman…”
“Can get blown all to shit with us. Is that what you want? As soon as this wire gets pulled outta my stomach or moved or touched, we’re done for. So, no, the Shaman can’t do shit and you know it. I’ll hold off passing out as long as I can, ‘cause once I do, it’s party time.”
“But Ken, Laurie’s dead, she can’t press the plunger.”
“No, Faith, that’s not it, the trigger for the bomb is in me, I’m the trip wire now. What you can’t see is that my stomach is pretty fucked too, so even if I were to have this pulled out without blowing things up, I’d be dead anyway.”
I notice the area around the front of her feet is pooled with blood, I just thought it was Laurie’s. Ken fucked her up with the sword Buffy brought back from Scotland.
“Now would be a good time to leave, Faith! Get on the phone to the bomb squad and tell them that they’re gonna need to do a containment, ‘cause I’m pretty sure this is juiced with something.”
“I’ll get the Shaman to do a containment spell so that it doesn’t go far. Are you sure…”
“GET THE FUCK OUT NOW!”
I start to run and I hear her say, “I love you, you crazy bitch. Tell Willow my last thoughts were of her.”
As soon as we’re all out of the buildin’ and down the street the what was left of HQ gets blown to bits.
The force of the blast brings us to our knees.
In more ways than just the physical.
I’m not sure how we’re ever gonna be able to get up again.
