Happy Development
by Whedonist
Slayers With Wings
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Disclaimer: Joss's, ME's, not mine...
A/N: If I were awake enough perhaps I'd ramble more, but as it is I'm gonna pass out shortly and just wanted to thank G-man...sick and all he still managed to help out... ;0)
Chapter 9 - Slayers With Wings
The week had been long and hard for all involved in taking apart the ship. Kaylee spent the time directing supernaturally strong girls wielding pulleys and ropes while Xander manned a crane. Buffy and Willow had to take the time travelers shopping for clothes that would not stand out in a crowd. Most of them had opted for jeans and t-shirts except for River who stuck to dresses with River wearing the combat boots Kaylee had given her when they first met. Everyone was now at the airport getting ready to board the cargo plane Giles had organized.
"So G-man, where'd you find this monster?" Xander hooked a thumb in the direction of the massive plane.
"Xander, I've asked you numerous times to not call me that." Giles looked over his glasses at Xander and sighed. "As for the plane, well, I happen to know an old school friend who runs cargo for various governments and he was kind enough to not ask questions when I called for his services."
Buffy stepped over to her ex-watcher and Xander, "So we are landing this where?"
Xander draped an arm over her shoulders and smiled, "No landing Buff. We are dropping it over a predetermined spot via parachute."
"Ookaayy, but where do we land to go where we need to?" Buffy asked.
Xander smiled and shook his head, "Buffy, Buffy, Buffy, we are not landing. We are parachuting down with the spaceship."
"HUH?" Buffy's eyes grew wide and she looked back and forth between Giles and Xander.
Giles removed his glasses and said, "We can't land the plane at the airport. So we had to devise an alternate plan. The lot of you will be riding down with the crates." He couldn't help the smirk that turned the corners of his mouth up.
Buffy paled, sputtered and then shook her head no. "Not gonna happen. What if the chutes fail to open? Or, or what if we fall off? Didn't think about that didja?"
"Yeah, Buff we did. Don't worry about it okay." Xander smiled and his eye twinkled in the moonlight. "We've got rigs for everyone. The landing may be kinda rough, but we figured that once you've lived on top of a hellmouth jumping out of a plane would be easy."
Buffy paled further, "Did we all miss the big header I took off the tower a while back? Have we forgotten the Buffy doesn't jump off of really high things rule?"
Xander winked at Giles and steered her towards the loading bay, "No, I didn't forget, but I promise Will and I will be right there with you. I've got it all taken care of." Xander hugged her and walked her into the plane where everyone had already been seated. He secured himself as did Buffy then signaled the pilot they were ready for take off. Resting his head against the wall, he went through the plan one more time with Buffy. "We've got two planes. The first is us. We have the main body of the ship packed up in a crate large enough to fit the population of San Diego in. With the rigging we have in place, we climb up on top, strap ourselves on, the doors open and we drop out. Will and River did the calculations so that the 'chutes are big enough and we don't plummet to the ground and die. All is good." He leaned his head back and cast a quick glance at Buffy. Sometimes freaking her out was worth it he thought to himself.
An hour or so had passed with idle chit chat among everyone; the blonde slayer was having a not so good time of it thinking about the upcoming jump. Twitching on the uncomfortable bench seating, she smiled over at Willow. The redhead wasn't too fond of flying, but seemed to be holding up pretty good. The slayer reached out and grabbed her hand and rested her head on Willow's shoulder drifting off to sleep.
Inara had spent a good two hours talking with Kaylee and Simon when she looked over to see Willow being used as a human pillow. Excusing herself from the couple she walked over to the witch. "Comfortable?" asked Inara as she sat on the non-occupied side of the redhead.
Willow nodded her head yes, "Surprisingly enough, yes. Not really one with the flying. Buffy usually keeps me calm though. A few months back we had to fly to Rome and usually I just take a few Tylenol PM and pass out to avoid the anxiousness, but Buffy flew with and it wasn't bad. She kept me entertained the whole way."
"It's good that you have someone like that. From all that you've told me, you, Buffy and Xander seem as close as friends could be."
"We are. Although," Willow dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "Xand's been very General-ly lately and not so much with the bonding. Buffy's been making up for it."
Inara just smiled and then looked at the napping blonde one more time before turning her head and looking at Mal talking with Kaylee. She looked around a bit more and found River and Faith in a deep conversation and Zo' had taken to talking to Xander. Looking at her family, she shrugged off the un-ease and turned back to Willow.
"Wills?" Buffy's groggy voice asked.
"Yeah Buff?" Willow turned her head and whispered in the blonde's hair. From their positioning, Willow still held a firm grip on the slayer's hand and the blonde's head was nestled neatly in the crook of Willow's arm.
"We there yet?" Buffy blinked and sat up rubbing at her eyes.
"Nope. I think we've got another hour or so."
"Oh," Buffy looked around and then her gaze settled on the companion to her left. "Hi Inara."
"Hi Buffy. Nice nap?"
Buffy blushed a bit and then looked at Willow, "One of the best. Thanks." She took a quick look around and asked, "Am I the only one that's wigging because of the impending jump?"
Willow shot a confused look to the blonde, "Jump?"
"Xander said that we are going to be parachuting down with Serenity."
Willow broke out into a grin and started laughing. Trying to get through the fit of laughter, she was able to choke out, "I can't believe he told you that. We talked about it, but no, no jumping for us. We dump the ship and then land at an abandoned airfield about 10 miles from there."
Buffy's eyes narrowed and she sprang up, "Xander!"
The man's head whipped round and he knew the jig was up. Holding up his hands in surrender, he watched an annoyed slayer stomp in his direction.
The entire team reached their destination a few hours later. Buffy had only threatened her friend while Willow watched on amused and amazed that Xander could have been so dumb. The watcher they had met up with, Tami, had readied the place for their arrival. The slayers she had with her, Nicole and Joanna, were pretty nice girls and helped the crew get settled in. They were currently pairing off rooms and the two young slayers couldn't help but be mildly awe struck that they had the original Sunnydale gang staying with them.
After getting the rest of the slayers settled, Tami left the rooming situation for Xander to organize. The house, if it could be called that, had a total of 14 bedrooms and sat in 10 acres of land. The slayers there were in charge of patrolling the town the house sat on, the outskirts of said town and another 50 mile radius on top of that. Xander, Buffy, Willow, Faith, Carrie, and the remaining crew were in the east wing finishing off room assignments.
Mal poked his head in a room and nodded, "I found my space." He smiled back at the rest of the group.
"Sir, I think I'll take that single if they still got it." Zo' said. She had put up with bunking with Mal for their stay in Cleveland, but her need for personal space far outweighed her concern for the other's sleeping arrangements. One more night of hearing the captain snore and she was certain that she would, at the very least, strangle him. For a time she could handle it, but now that they were able to rearrange everyone, she was going to get some alone time if she had to kill someone to do so.
Mal looked at her hurt, "Zo', why don't you love me?"
Inara smacked Mal in the chest and looked to Zo' smiling.
Faith being the most vocal of the bunch looked between Mal and Zo' and asked, "You two have a fight?"
"Ah, no can't say we have Faith." Mal let out slightly confused.
"Oh, we just thought that since you two were an item, the sleeping arrangements would be a bit different."
Zo' covered her mouth with her hand and Mal turned a funny red color. The brunette slayer looked at their reactions and smiled.
"So you two aren't doin' the horizontal cha-cha?"
Inara spoke before anyone had a chance to. "No they most certainly are not. Why don't we do it this way, Mal, you and Jayne take this room. Zo' you take the single. River and I can take the one next door and Simon and Kaylee can have the room opposite Zo'."
River smiled but shook her head no, "I've got my room with Faith. You and Carrie I think were rooming together."
"Awe, now just wait a minute, I ain't sleepin' in the same quarters as this one. He snores." Jayne pouted.
"Jayne Cobb, how can you say things like that about me? I do no such thing." Mal's voice was laced with mock hurt and he barely contained his smile, "'Sides which, I wanna know how you know that I snore. You been gazin' at me all longin' like while I'm asleep?"
Jayne's jaw set and he was about to say something when Xander interrupted. "How about Mal you take the other single and I'll bunk with Jayne."
"How 'bout this Cyclops, you bunk with Cap'n Tight Pants and I'll take your room." Jayne shoved his way though and went to the other single room slamming the door as he went out of sight.
"So..." Faith turned to Willow and Buffy. "Wills you take our blonde princess and have a good night." She waved and winked at Buffy and turned her attention back to the remaining group. "Everyone here is settled then? Good. River, I need to go check on the rest of the girls, you want to come with?"
River nodded then kissed her brother goodnight. The two dark haired girls dropped their bags off in the room and headed off to see the rest of their traveling companions.
Willow and Buffy stepped into the room and were both shocked to see only one bed. Not that either had a problem sharing a bed with each other, but Buffy was more than nervous. The last week in Cleveland had proved to the blonde that Willow, over the course of their friendship, had rubbed off on her more than she would have liked to admit because she was, in her own mind, queen of the spazzes.
"Right or Left?" Willow had looked at the blanched face of her friend and was wondering what was going on with the blonde. "Buffy? Earth to the slayer?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah sure, whatever you want Wills."
Willow's eyebrows rose and she tossed her bag on the floor by the left side of the bed. "Okay Summers, you've been acting kind of weird the past week."
Buffy slumped and set her bag down. "Nothing major, just been thinking."
Willow snorted, "Hmm, this doesn't have anything to do with Giles and your semi-retirement blow out does it?"
"Ah, no not really." She took a glance at her friend and realized that the redhead thought that she was really upset over the way Giles had been leaving her out of the loop on a few major things going on at the school. Not only was the whole shipping her off to New Mexico mildly annoying, but there were a couple of problems within the ranks that Giles had purposefully kept her out of. Sadly enough for the blonde these all played second fiddle to her problems surrounding her best friend. Deciding this was not the conversation she wanted to have, she agreed with the false assumptions. "Yeah, it's just that I can see why we had to move everyone out here for a bit, but couldn't we 'ave I dunno talked about it first."
"Well, it's not so bad. We got a shopping trip out of the deal and we're closer to where we need to be to pick up the wiring for the ship."
Buffy snorted, "Yeah, about that, do you think this is the best shot we have?"
Willow grinned, "I think so. We've all been through the plans more than enough. It'll be fun to say the least. We don't ever get to do stuff like this. Our plans all usually revolve around trying to keep hell from coming to town. This is going to be fun."
"But it's kinda major. Nothing else that we could do besides try and break in to what was it, Lockhead and Marin?"
"Lockheed Martin and no, their Space Division is in Denver. This is probably our best shot unless you want to go and try to break into NASA?"
"How about we stick to Denver." Buffy began unpacking and pulled her usual sleeping gear from her bag. They were both getting ready for bed and Buffy was thankful that she had been able to switch the topic. Willow had changed into babble mode on their plan.
She was to work on securing security clearance for herself, Buffy, Mal, Zo' and Jayne to gain access to the warehouses of the company that held the largest defense contract with the U.S. Government. Once inside, they were supposed to load up a ½ ton roll of the wiring Kaylee needed to finish fixing up their ship. Buffy didn't think they had a snowballs chance in hell of pulling this off, but everyone but her had seemed to think the plan would go off ok. Mal insisting that something like this was no big deal and then launching into a story where they broke into a hospital whose security was tighter than most government buildings. The two girls finished getting ready for bed and soon after drifted off to sleep.