Taking the Initiative
by Rainne
Part Two
[reviews]
Dakota was sitting at her desk rubbing her temples. "Nicki... what am I going to do with you?"
Nicki Roland was sitting across the desk from her, slumped in her chair and looking thoroughly abashed. "I —"
Dakota waved her hand. "Don't say anything. Please, Nicki... please don't say anything."
Nicki slumped even farther down in her chair, glanced out the window at some of her fellow Partner trainees, who were outside having an archery lesson, and sighed. I'm in for it this time, she mentally chastised herself. They're gonna send me back for sure now. Back to Council Bluffs. Probably back to the Hendersons. She shuddered.
Dakota sighed as well. "Nicki... do you not like it here?"
Nicki's head shot up. "No, Miss Dakota! I love it here!"
"You don't act like it. Every time I turn around, you're into something that causes incredible havoc. If it wasn't dangerous, I would just put you on kitchen duty like all the other times, and have done with it. But Nicki, you've broken the cardinal rule of the Academy. What am I supposed to do about that?"
Nicki felt her eyes sting, threatening to tear. No, wuss, don't cry. Don't you dare cry. She shrugged glumly and looked down at her lap, but not quickly enough for Dakota to miss the sudden shine in her eyes.
"Nicki... do you want me to send you back?"
Nicki's head shot back up again, and now the tears did fall. "Oh, God, Miss Dakota, please, please don't send me back. Please don't. Please. I'll do anything. I swear. Anything. Please don't send me back."
Dakota could see the stark terror on the child's face and wondered what was so bad at the foster home she'd come from. From stories she'd had from other Partner trainees they'd brought in, it could have been anything from having to share a bed with four other foster kids and never having enough to eat all the way up through severe mental, physical and sexual torture. It was a sad fact that the United States foster care system often took children from bad situations and put them in worse. She firmed her own mental conviction that no Partner trainee, no matter how badly behaved, would be returned to the States in the unlikely event of expulsion.
Unlikely. Yeah, right. Tell yourself another one, Walsh. This kid has got to shape up or ship out. You can't keep putting up with this. She's moved from mischievous to dangerous. She shook her head. "I won't, Nicki. I won't send you back. But something's got to happen here. I can't have you breaking the rules like this... I mean, this is flagrant. It's only been a month since the chaos here with Willow and Rothschear. I know you haven't forgotten it; you were instrumental in ending it. But here, just a month later, I walk into the book tower, a place where all students are forbidden to go, and what do I find? You. Nicki, those books are dangerous. And you know that. What possessed you? No, never mind, don't answer that." She bit off the rest of what she had intended to say. "Look, I've got to go talk to Faith. I can't make this decision alone. You stay here. I'll send someone in with some lunch for you, since you missed it."
Nicki nodded miserably and returned her attention to the archery lesson out the window.
A few minutes later, her best friend Nicole Roland slipped into the room, carrying a tray full of lunch for Nicki. "Are they gonna kick you out?" Nicole asked in a whisper.
Nicki shook her head miserably. "I don't think so. I don't know what they're gonna do. But Miss Dakota said she wouldn't make me go back there, so I guess it'll be okay."
Nicole squeezed her friend's shoulder in empathy before slipping back out of the office again, leaving the smaller girl alone with a lunch that she didn't really want.
---
"We've got to do something, but I don't know what."
"I have an idea."
Dakota raised her eyes. "Really? Please, share."
"Let's ask Giles." Faith grinned. "He knows everything. Hell, maybe we can even con him into taking the little brat for a while."
Dakota laughed. "It's worth a shot. God knows time apart would do wonders for her and Nicole. Nicole needs some time to study without being constantly distracted by Nicki and her 'scathingly brilliant' ideas."
Faith mentally calculated the time difference and decided that it would be all right to go ahead and call; a bit early in California, perhaps, but still within reasonable important-call hours. She lifted the phone and dialed.
"Hi, Giles? Faith... Good, how're you? How's everybody?... Yeah? Nho demon?... Never heard of it. Me and Kotie'll hit the books tonight. Speaking of the books, I gotta ask you a question... Yeah, it's one of the kids. Remember Nicki Roland, the one that broke the spell on Red?... yeah, she's a hella good witch, but she just can't stay out of trouble. Kotie caught her in the book tower this afternoon, couple of hours ago, and we're both at the end of our ropes, but Kotie doesn't wanna send the kid back. Kid begged her not to, it's probably worse back home than most anything we could do to her... Giles, she's done the standard punishment round almost non-stop. Kitchen duty, latrine duty, garden duty, extended overnight sentry duty, we've even, God help us, made her stand in the corner. Nothing works... I need a place to send her. She's gonna be an awesome Partner someday but she doesn't take things seriously... Yeah, I totally dig. Do you guys need any manpower help with that?... Okay. Well, what about afterward?... Really? Giles you are the bomb. You call us when it's done and she'll be on the next plane. You're the best, Giles. I mean that. I better go tell the kid. Good luck."
She hung up and grinned. "Hook, line and sinker. As soon as the current apocalypse is over, he'll take her."
Dakota heaved a great sigh, then stood. Leaning across Faith's desk, she laid a hot kiss across her lover's lips. "Thank you, sweetie. So I imagine we confine Miss Roland to quarters for the duration?"
"Hell, no. Assign her to me. As my personal assistant. Twenty-four hours. We'll stick a little bed in that maid's closet off our bedroom and she can sleep in there, so she'll be constantly under surveillance. She needs to understand that this isn't a field trip, it's a punishment. Giles says it'll be a couple of months before everything goes down over there, something about a solar eclipse, so until then, she's going to find out what restriction means."
---
He looked at the younger man in complete disbelief. "Vampires that can walk in the day?"
"Yes, sir."
"Soldier, do you think I've lost my mind? Vampires cannot walk in the daylight. They burn up."
"Permission to speak, sir?"
The older man contemplated the younger briefly. "Granted."
"Sir, respectfully offer that I have witnessed the subject change into vampire face myself, sir. She is definitely a vampire, sir. And she without question walks in the daylight."
"You witnessed this yourself, Finn?"
Riley nodded. "Yes, sir. Miller did, too, sir."
The older man eyeballed the other soldier who stood at attention before him. "Miller?"
"Affirmative, Colonel."
"When was this, Miller?"
"Two days ago, sir. Finn and I were in England following up on a report of hostiles in the Newcastle area, and we ran across the vampire in question while tracking one of the hostiles."
"Describe the vampire."
Graham nodded. "She stood around five feet three inches tall, had dark brown hair and dark eyes. After she changed, of course, she had the standard vampire face and the yellow eyes."
"Any intelligence regarding her identity?"
Riley spoke. "She... sir, she looked like Faith."
The colonel eyeballed Riley. "Faith who, soldier?"
"Uh... I don't know her last name, sir. She was an associate of Buffy Summers."
"Ah, yes, the young woman of your acquaintance when you were stationed in Sunnydale. The reason for your defection from the Initiative in the first place, correct?"
"Yes, sir."
"And would Buffy know where Faith was, and whether Faith was a vampire?"
Riley thought. "She might, sir. Faith was a bit crazy, sir, and Buffy would have a reason to want to know where she was. The problem is, sir, that I don't know if she'd tell me."
"Why not, soldier? True love fall kind of flat, did it?"
Riley's jaw clenched. It was the only outward sign of the fact that the colonel's jibe had hit home. "Well, when we parted it wasn't on the best of terms."
"Call her. Ask her about it. Find out whatever you can find out. Report back to me immediately after the conversation."
"Respectfully, sir, I doubt they'll tell me anything over the telephone. Request permission to go to Sunnydale. It'll be easier for me to get information that way."
The colonel thought about this for a moment. "Good idea, Finn. Take care of it. Dismissed."
Riley saluted sharply, turned, and left the room.
The colonel eyeballed Graham. "Keep an eye on him, Miller," the colonel ordered. "If he shows any signs of reverting to his former... attitudes... I want to be alerted immediately. Understood?"
"Understood, sir."
"Dismissed." The colonel watched Miller leave, then sat down in his chair to look thoughtfully at the one-page report lying on his desk. "Vampires that walk in the day. This could be very useful." Briefly, he fingered the silver eagle on his collar. "Hell, this could mean a star."
---