Reveal
by DawnBTVS
Chapter 27
[reviews]
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Mutant Enemy, Fox, Joss, etc.
Rating: PG-13 (think Buffy show for violence/subject matter/language)
Time Frame: December, 2nd Week.
Pairings: G/J, B/W, X/W
A/N: Enjoy.
Willow stood before Jenny, softly biting her lip with both hands clasped together in front of her. Jenny stared at the redhead, ducking her head before offering up a small smile. "I hope you being quiet doesn't become a common occurrence. It's rare when a student can challenge my intellect, although it is disconcerting... but fun too of course." Jenny leaned forward, resting her forearms on her desk over the spread of papers. "What're you mulling?"
Willow shuffled nervously on her feet. "I'm sorry," she whispered, looking quite guilt stricken.
"It's okay, Willow. Things were tense and the audience participation wasn't our wisest method," Jenny replied. Willow nodded her head but didn't look relieved. "We'll take a break until winter vacation's over but I need your help on something. Research only, no incantations necessary. Want to hear it?"
"Okay," Willow said, eyes flashing ever so briefly.
"Well, you know how we've located The Cadryn and their location on the bluff overlooking the town?" Jenny asked. At Willow's nod of confirmation, Jenny continued, "Giles won't say anything, but we're still struggling with meanings on the pendants. A friend of mine recently sent me several portable document formats dealing with historical creatures in the Russian region."
Willow leaned forward, unclasping her hands. "How big?"
"Big. All of them are over two hundred pages and there's about six in total. My friend is one of the few experts in demonology that I think knows anything and everything. Don't tell Giles that," Jenny remarked, winking at the redhead. Willow smiled softly. "I was thinking I could print them out and over break, you can highlight anything important?"
"Great. Not like I have any other plans for Christmas. Xander is with Wendy and Buffy's doing things with her Mom so I... get to be alone, drinking eggnog, and listening to the neighbors' children sing carols at my front door," Willow concluded with a sad smile.
Jenny's eyes flicked over Willow's shoulders. "I suspect things might be a little different. There's somebody here who tends to have more of an interest in you than I." Willow turned around, surprised to see a sheepish Buffy at the door, giving a half hearted wave. "I'm surprised you knew the way, Buffy."
Buffy placed a foot inside, sliding her other foot in. "While most classrooms invoke anti-Buffy charms, they seem to be barrier resistant when Willow's around. Am I interrupting?"
"No. I'll catch you later, Willow."
Willow nodded her head and cautiously walked towards the blonde, both girls keeping eye contact, but a slight bit of tension still in the air. Buffy let Willow lead them into the hallway. The blonde kept back a couple feet, the two walking to a secluded area beside the water fountain that still hadn't been fixed. "Hi," Buffy greeted, wrinkling her eyebrow almost immediately at the repeated form of greeting.
"Does Giles need us?"
Buffy shook her head. "No, we're good on the supernatural front for now." Buffy paused, watching Willow glance at the fountain before flickering her attention back. "I wanted to call you last night."
"Why didn't you?" Willow arched an eyebrow at Buffy, curious.
"We weren't exactly motoring our mouths on the walk home. How'd you sleep?"
Willow chuckled. "Awful. One long, never ending nightmare. You?"
Buffy rested a hand on Willow's arm, silently relieved that the redhead didn't pull away, although the brief flicker of surprise was still there in Willow's eyes. "I didn't. Between wanting to call you and aftermath on Mom talk that I derailed, any sleep was pointless. I pretty much just patrolled."
"Are you okay?" Willow furrowed her eyebrows, inspecting Buffy for any external injuries. Buffy pulled her hand away from Willow's shoulder. Willow shivered slightly but tried to hide it by wrapping her arms around her stomach.
"Fine. I was wondering... with your parents being gone. Well, Mom invited us to a showing at her gallery and I was kinda hoping it'd be cool if you spent the week with us." At Willow's arched eyebrow, Buffy hastily continued, "I respect that you're big with the Jewish but it'd be nice to be with you for Christmas," Buffy finished, a slight blush tingeing her cheeks.
Buffy stepped back, eyeing the redhead with nervous anticipation. Willow gave a small shrug. "I think I have a spot open on my calendar. And I have always wanted to see what fills up your mother's gallery. You always tell me how she's having some new exhibit but we've never been."
"Really?" Buffy asked, a smile in place. "Uh, I mean, great," Buffy amended, trying to play off her surprise at the redhead accepting the offer. "You could help with the tree picking out and later decorating... unless it doesn't jibe with your religion in which case you can just observe or-or make hot chocolate. I mean... not like I want you at home instead or alone," Buffy stammered, trying to not further embarrass herself and doing a poor job at recovery.
Willow smirked for a half second, before being replaced with a more serious expression. "Don't worry. I may be a hardcore practitioner in some countries but I'm my faith, not the other way around. Besides," Willow added, a growing smile appearing. "It could be fun seeing you hoist that tree onto the car roof."
"Sorry, Will. The boy scouts tend to load the trees on. Although I think most of them are gone, actually." Buffy wrinkled her eyebrows in thought. "I haven't seen any banners up lately promoting a s'more get together so maybe you'll get your joy."
Willow gestured with her hand. "I have a class in about ten minutes. Let me grab my bag and you can... escort?"
Buffy nodded her head. Willow quickly shuffled back into the computer lab to retrieve her backpack while Buffy glanced around, watching students milling about although a couple gave her a cold stare upon passing. Both were girls. The guys who did bother to look at her would be full of fear. Evidently slamming a leering guy against a locker got around. "Ready?" Buffy asked, taking in the reappearance of Willow at her side.
The two began walking, a silence filling the air between them, much like the walk home. Willow would glance at Buffy but divert her eyes when Buffy returned the glance while the blonde opened her mouth, closing it rather than blurting whatever was on her mind. The fear. "Buffy. About the... at the library I wasn't going to hurt you. I had complete control despite the fuzzy fog but you were always safe." Willow glanced at Buffy, holding the blonde's eyes with her own.
"I couldn't tell, Will. What you did to Amy was natural," Buffy commented, grimacing at Willow's pained look. "Look, this is hard for you but it's hard for me too. I — We need to talk because I can't let things just fester. Not this."
Willow tensed slightly at Buffy's comforting hand on her shoulder but began to relax slightly. "It's like being under the fingers of a puppeteer." Willow exhaled. Her voice shaky as she continued. "In some way, when I whammed Amy, I could feel it. Natural with my non recollection of the spell itself but I told you it was like a breathless fairy whispering into my ear."
"You did," Buffy confirmed softly.
"This time though, there was dual whispering. Like one beside each ear but that same kind of lulling to sleep timber to the voice or voices. Even when I threw Faith," Willow hissed, her fingers clenching briefly at the name, "I was aware of what was going on. A two way mirror but I could see through both sides simultaneously," Willow finished, staring at Buffy's perplexed expression with her own somber one.
"I don't like this. Are you positive you didn't enact some whispering demon thing while reading through Amy's spell books? She's not exactly the most virtuous witch and I told you, blood's thicker than water."
Willow instantly shook her head, furrowing an eyebrow as she weighed the thought in her mind while trying to absolve Amy of any major blame. "No. I only scribbled a few for personal reasons but I mostly skimmed the rest." Willow suddenly frowned before glancing at Buffy in alarm. "I tend to silently mouth when reading words. Could that have been enough?"
Buffy's eyes widened in similar alarm as this new idea hit her. "Is there anyway to I don't know, trace a spell backwards? Like if you did mouth something bad, could there be a way to um, unrecite it or whatever?"
"I don't think so," Willow answered. She shook her head and frowned, "Unless there's a possible spell to find out if another spell was set off by my non-vocalizing but the odds of that could be low and me being around spells..."
Buffy nodded her head, offering a reassuring smile as she took Willow's hand with both of hers. Both felt the steady heat moving from hands up through arms. "I'll talk with Jenny and Giles while you're in class. Is Jenny free?"
"What about your class?"
"I have a free but I'll definitely give you the upswing if I learn anything before gym class starts. Okay?" Buffy asked, stepping aside as a couple students maneuvered past her and Willow to enter the classroom.
Willow glanced over her shoulder, before turning to face Buffy. "Alright. She's free too but you might have a small window. This is her normal coffee time," Willow confided, quickly hugging Buffy before breaking away. Willow flashed a brief closed lipped smile before disappearing into the line of other students entering the room while Buffy sighed, before turning and marching towards the computer class she had just been walking from.
~~~BTVS~~~
Faith swiveled again in the wooden chair, scowling as the telephone cord tangled around her like a boa constrictor wrapping around an unsuspecting trainer's neck. Faith pressed the phone to her ear, her eyes occasionally flickering to the television where the muted news station was showing an image of a fire's flames flashing upwards from a building. "You keep navigating me through channels, Quentin, and I might think you didn't care about me," Faith groused.
Although the voice was muffled, it was still loud of to be made over the phone and Faith winced. "My directions for you were to watch Rupert's Slayer, not spend time racking up phone bills messaging me with the smallest of news. That's what paper and pen are for."
Faith's look darkened and the brunette clenched her teeth. "I don't seem to remember you being blasted off your feet," she snarled.
"I warned you she was dangerous, Faith." The voice was back to being calm, the hint of any annoyance gone.
"Yeah," Faith responded, the bitter note still there. "Would've been nice if your seers warned me."
Quentin chuckled, causing Faith to spin in reverse, disentangling the phone cord from around her body. "How is Rupert?"
"You care?" Faith asked, arching an eyebrow. At Quentin's stern sigh, Faith rolled her eyes. "He isn't thrilled with the way Red's magic training is going. I get the vibe that if it were up to him, and if Ms. Witchy Powers looked to him at all rather than the computer teacher, he'd discontinue things."
"She doesn't respect him," Quentin mused aloud.
"She respects him, Q. It's just that it's hard to keep respect when you exude fear towards the same subject," Faith informed, a smirk appearing on her face. "Gonna send me a Christmas present for being a naughty girl, Santa?"
"Find something a bit more pertinent, Faith, and we'll see."
Faith narrowed her eyes. "Pertinent? This, in my idea of mission spy infiltration, is pertinent," Faith sniped. "If you didn't want my opinion than why didn't you just send a stupid potential from that list of yours?"
"You really need to ask?" Quentin inquired. Faith shook her head, knowing Quentin couldn't see.
"You owe me, Quentin."
"Yes," Quentin agreed. "You'll get your present soon, Faith."
With an audible click, the phone hung up. Faith slammed the phone back into the cradle, glowering at the television screen. She grabbed the remote, flipping it off, but glancing around her hotel room. Two open books were splayed on her bed, both containing a bookmark to maintain where she was. Only one line was highlighted as Faith bent over the book to her left. "Boudica Harrell went missing in 1983. Her last known appearance was in Coggeshall, although rumors continue about appearances in countries including Germany and Spain as recent as 1995." Faith stood back up, glancing at the closed door. "Always gotta be witches and warlocks," she muttered as she stomped towards the door, disappearing into the daylight.
TBC