Getting Ahead of Myself
by sailor80
Twenty-six
[reviews]
"You want to go with me tonight?" Buffy asked Willow across the dishwasher.
"I don't know," Willow said hesitantly. "Dawn," she began.
"Mom and Faith can watch her," Buffy interrupted.
"Did you check with them?"
"Yeah," Buffy admitted. When Willow raised an eyebrow, she continued, "Earlier. They said no problem. Mom said she'd love to, and Faith said, and I quote, 'five by five, B'."
"Okay," Willow agreed.
"And maybe a little Bronzing after?"
"Maybe." Willow smiled. "I point out, though, that regular people go on dates."
"We're not regular people. And Xander and Anya will save us a table."
"Been planning this long?" Willow asked.
Buffy laughed. "Busted."
Willow smiled at her and closed the dishwasher. "I'll change while you finish up in here."
"Deal."
Thirty-five minutes later, Buffy and Willow left. An hour and a half later, in the third cemetery of the night, Willow put her hand on Buffy's arm and said, "I smell smoke."
Buffy stopped and sniffed the air. "Me, too."
They walked upwind cautiously. The cemetery was bordered by woods on the side farthest from the road. Smoke was visible by the time they reached the low stone wall that marked the graveyard boundary. Buffy wanted to check it out, but Willow held her back.
"Will," Buffy protested.
"We'll all come back tomorrow," Willow insisted. "You saw what they did to Faith."
Buffy tried one more time. "What if they take off?"
"Where else would they go? L.A.? You know weird stuff gravitates here."
"All right," Buffy gave in. They walked toward the center of the cemetery, but she looked over her shoulder several times.
"What?" Willow asked after the third time.
"We're being followed."
"I miss patrols when we actually staked vampires."
Buffy snorted and grabbed Willow's hand. "You're not the only one." Buffy raised Willow's hand and kissed it. "When I count to three," she added in a lower voice, "go stand by that crypt."
"Got it."
"One, two, three." Buffy released Willow's hand and they separated. Buffy spun around and sprinted in the direction they had come. A few seconds later, Willow heard a tremendous clatter. Within a minute, that noise grew louder and closer.
Buffy came into sight, an ambulating suit of armor in front of her. Willow heard Buffy's voice, followed by muffled responses. Buffy stopped in front of Willow and forced the metal clad captive to its knees. "Take off the helmet," Buffy instructed.
Willow did, carefully. She examined his face. He was clean-shaven and his hair was short. There was a circular tattoo on his forehead, and Willow memorized it before saying, "Buffy, he's human."
"What's your name?" Buffy demanded. When she didn't get an answer, she forced his arm further up his back. "If you want, I can just pull this," she said, putting extra pressure on his shoulder, elbow and wrist, "off and beat it out of you."
"Roland," he grunted, and she reduced the force on his arm.
"And you're following us through a cemetery why?"
"Orders."
"From who?" When he didn't answer, Buffy told Willow, "Take his sword and that knife."
"No," Roland protested, but stopped with a groan when Buffy reasserted her hold on him.
Willow unfastened the leather belt that held the scabbards for his sword and knife. She tossed it a few feet away without examining the weapons. Buffy forced him to his feet. "Here's the deal, Roland. You tell whoever told you to follow us that it's not nice to chase girls around in the dark. If he wants to talk to me, we'll be right here at 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise, you need to pack up and head out. Got it?"
"Yes."
Buffy released him with a shove. He stumbled, but didn't fall. He turned, and Buffy threw him his helmet. "We'll give your weapons back tomorrow."
Roland caught the helmet easily. He stood and watched them leave the cemetery with his blades slung over Buffy's shoulder.
Buffy took Willow's hand again. "That was weird."
"Uh huh," Willow answered distractedly.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"I saw that mark before. The one on his forehead."
"He had a mark on his forehead?"
"A tattoo," Willow said. "I've seen it somewhere. Maybe in one of Giles' books."
"Crap," Buffy answered. "It couldn't just be overzealous re-enactors on vacation or something. No, it has to be hellmouth crazies," she complained.
"What did you expect?"
"I thought we'd stake some vampires, catch the band at the Bronze, make out a little when we got home," Buffy said.
Willow laughed. "Next time, you should post our plans at Willy's so the demons will cooperate."
"Ha ha."
Willow laughed again and kissed Buffy's cheek without breaking stride.
Everyone, including Dawn and Giles, was in the living room when they returned.
"There goes the rest of the night," Buffy muttered.
Willow squeezed her hand sympathetically. "On the bright side, you can tell them about Roland."
"Who's Roland?" Faith asked first.
"One of the knights you met last night," Willow answered.
Buffy handed the belt to Giles. He looked from it to her questioningly. She shrugged. "Didn't seem like a good idea to let him keep them."
"Start at the beginning, please," Giles asked.
"We were going through the cemetery over on Sequoia and we smelled smoke," Buffy began. "So we followed it to the woods. I was going to check it out, but Will said we should all go together during the day. When we were leaving, I heard him following us, so I introduced myself. We're supposed to meet his boss over there at 4 tomorrow afternoon."
"He was alone?"
"Apparently."
"Fascinating." Giles removed the sword from the leather scabbard. It was in excellent condition, sharp and bright, with engraving running its length on both sides. Just below the hilt was a maker's mark with the year 730AD. He frowned at it while running through his knowledge of history.
Buffy rolled her eyes and went to her mother. Dawn immediately raised her arms toward Buffy. "And what are you still doing up?" Buffy asked her rhetorically.
"Totally forgot the bottle, my bad," Faith said, and got up.
Buffy took Dawn. "I'll get it."
"He had a tattoo," Willow told Giles.
"Oh?"
"I've seen it somewhere before. Willow went to the phone and picked up the pen. She leaned over the table to sketch the design onto the message pad. When she finished, she removed that page and gave it to Giles.
He looked at it for several seconds. "Sorry, I don't recognize it. But we can look for it."
"Tomorrow," Joyce said firmly as Buffy returned from the kitchen. "It's late."
"Of course," Giles said, and got to his feet. "I hadn't realized. Thank you for a lovely evening."
"You're welcome," Joyce answered as she rose from her chair. She walked Giles to the door, where they said good night again. Before heading up to bed, she told the four young women, "Don't be too long."
They answered with a chorus of good nights. Tara and Willow returned to discussing the tattoo design. Faith looked at it and shrugged before turning to Buffy, who was holding Dawn and her bottle. "Why didn't they kick your butt?"
"I don't know." Buffy jiggled the bottle to keep Dawn's attention. "Maybe because it was just him and I snuck up on him."
"Get out."
"Nope. I circled back and got him from behind."
"So they're human?"
"That one was."
"Guess we'll find out about the rest of them tomorrow."
"That's the plan," Buffy agreed. "How was Dawn while we were out?"
"She's no problem."
"I never thought you'd like kids."
"Lotta things you don't know about me," Faith grinned. "Besides, somebody has to teach her important stuff, right Dawnie? High five." Faith presented her hand to the baby, who promptly swiped at it with her own.
"I don't believe it," Buffy laughed. "Show Will."
"Show Will what?" Willow looked up from the paper she and Tara were sharing, on which Willow had again drawn the emblem on the knight's head.
"Check this out. Go ahead."
Faith repeated their routine, and Dawn performed on cue.
"Cute," Willow said, smiling, although her mind was still on the design, and she returned to it immediately. She and Tara continued to dissect the elements of the symbol while Dawn finished her bottle.
Faith took the empty bottle from Buffy and took it to the kitchen. She rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher. She was about to return to the living room when Tara came in. "Ready for bed?" Faith asked.
"Mmm hmm," Tara answered through a stifled yawn.
Faith smiled and flicked off the light over the sink, leaving the first floor dark. She gave her eyes a few seconds to adjust before going to Tara. "C'mon, then," she said, and put her arm around Tara's waist. They crossed the kitchen, and Faith opened the basement door. She went down the stairs first, Tara behind her with one hand on her shoulder.
Upstairs, Buffy put Dawn in her crib and covered her. She stood beside her daughter's bed for a few minutes and watched her sleep. She was still astonished that she and Willow had a daughter together, and a little frightened at how fast she grew. The click of a light switch pulled her from her reverie, and she joined Willow in bed within minutes.
Several blocks away, Giles was deeply engrossed in research. He copied the sword, including the engraving on both sides of the blade, at life size, and ended up with several sheets of paper taped together. He also took rubbings of the blade before turning to his books.