Happy Development
by Whedonist
Rescue Who?
[reviews]
Disclaimer: See Priors
A/N: For a few reasons, some out of laziness and other's steming from there not being enough hours in the day, this comes bit late. Sorry =0/ I'll try harder...
Chapter 14 — Rescue Who?
Xander and Mal watched as a golf cart drove up and stopped in front of the building they were idling by. A hurried looking man in a white dress shirt, black tie and khaki pants hopped out of the cart and walked in to where Willow and Buffy were sitting.
Willow stood and smiled when the person she assumed was here to see them came rushing through the door. He walked up to the witch and extended his hand, "Hi, I'm Henry Shadric."
Willow pumped the man's hand and returned the greeting, "Hi Dr. Rosenbaum this is my assistant Beth Sommer."
He nodded to Buffy, "Nice to meet you. I'm sorry about keeping you guys here, but when I saw that the order was being picked up I needed to come see you two. If you don't mind, come with me please." He turned and walked out of the door expecting the two young women to follow.
Willow and Buffy traded glances and shrugged. Whatever was going to happen they would find a way out of it. Willow opened up a telepathic link between her, Buffy and Xander.
Xand, I'm not sure what's going on, but you guys need to bolt as soon as we drive away.
I'm not leaving you and Buffy behind. Xander's voice rang through both girls' heads.
Xander, we aren't giving you the choice. They need that wiring and if we can provide some type of distraction then get moving. Will and I will be okay.
Buffy's tone was firm even in Xander's head. He watched as his friends follow Tie Man to the golf cart and climbed aboard. Buffy shot him a look over her shoulder that he read loud and clear. It was the patented "I'm the Slayer so you just do what I say look" Fine, but I'm coming back if I don't here anything from you in a half hour.
Just go Xand. Willow closed the connection off and watched as the storage facilities flew buy.
Henry parked the golf cart next to a long row of carts outside the main offices. He motioned for the girl's to follow him and he set a quick pace to a set of key carded doors. Swiping his badge over a panel next to the right door it slid open and he ushered the girls inside a large office building. Everything was a sterile white and the shoes Buffy and Willow wore clicked as they tried to keep up with the man leading them to who knew where. He quickly mumbled a greeting to a security guard stationed to the left of a set of elevators. As the cab doors opened, he let the girls go first then stepped inside right before they slid closed.
Willow marveled at the sterility of the place, it was like walking into some space age hospital. All burnished steel and white. The only thing missing from the place was the nice, disgusting antiseptic smell that she associated with every medical facility she had ever been in. The witch took a look at the man next to her, he was definitely high strung, but other than that she couldn't seem to get a proper read off of him. Her nervousness increased ten fold by his silence.
The elevator finally stopped at the 7th floor. Buffy and Willow followed Henry down the hall and stopped when they saw the door they were going into, the plate next to it read: NSA, DOD, NASA Research Division.
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Xander pulled away from the building as soon as the cart rounded the corner. He cast a glance over at Mal and saw the worried expression. "It's okay. Wills and Buffy have gotten out of tougher spots than this."
"When we goin' for some rescuing?" Mal licked his lips and set his jaw looking over to where his new friends disappeared to.
"I wouldn't do that just yet. I gave them a half hour. If we don't hear anything then we can do all the rescuing and the guns a'blazin' bit needed." Xander smiled to himself, "Do you guys do the guns a'blazin' bit?"
"I don't know if that's what you would call it, but on occasion we do aim to misbehave. 'Course I'm not sure we've ever done something like this before. The closest we came was a job we pulled on a Core Planet's hospital. Had to learn all this medical speak. Made the head hurt."
Xander snorted, "Kind of like when Willow gets talking about her computers."
"Or when Kaylee starts talkin' about engine bits. Girl's a damn genius when it comes to mechanical whoseawhatzitz but I swear by the hair on my chinny chin chin she don't know when to quiet down." The captain let a small smile tug the corner of his mouth up. He sure did love when Kaylee rambled on some. Made him all fuzzy inside.
"So is it just a girl thing then or do you think perhaps it's the mark of a genius brain at work?" The ex-glorified brick layer joked.
"'Tween you and me I'm thinkin' it might be a girl thing, but if THEY ever ask, we're gonna stick with the genius story."
They laughed a little together easing some of the tension and made their way to pick up Jayne and Zo'. They had thought it would be easier to drop them off at a small shopping plaza right next to the facility. Mal kept the smirk from his face as he hopped out of the cab and walked over to where his two crew members were sitting.
Zo' looked up, "We're missing two people."
"Seems to be the case Zo'. Xander said we wait. So we're going to wait."
"What the hell did the two girls get themselves into? And should grenades have been brought?" Jayne interrupted.
Mal just shook his head, "No grenades are not necessary, not this time at least. I'm thinkin' we should come up with some sort of plan though."
Xander sidled up next to Mal and sat back listening to the three concoct a feasible rescue operation.
"How about we just run the damn gates over and take the place by force. Always did love a good raid. Get quality violence like that." Jayne smiled wistfully.
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Faith jumped when her pocket started vibrating then remembered that she had her cell. She looked at the caller ID and saw Xander's name, "Yo'"
"Who are you Tony Soprano?" Xander snickered.
"I'm hotter than him and besides X, I know for damn sure I got better moves. What gives? Are you guys coming back this way?" Faith looked over and nodded to the questions being asked by River and Inara.
"Well...Will and Buff got tied up, figuratively not literally, and so the rest of us are cooking up some type of rescue plan. I need you to make sure that everyone's stuff is gathered and we are all checked out and ready to boogie. I'm not real sure, but I think we need to make like a tree and leave when we get Buffy and Willow back."
"I can do that. You need back up?"
"No, but once you get everything square at the hotel, grab a cab and meet us at the rendezvous point we set up."
"Five by five X. We'll see you soon." Faith disconnected and turned her attention to her two friends, "So it seems like we've got a small problem. X and Mal made it out of Lockheed Martin, but Will and B got held up. Come on I'll fill you in on the way over." Faith looked at the bill and threw the money down on the table. She drained her coffee and headed for the door, a worried companion and pilot at her heels.
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Buffy gapped at the size of the room they were in. It was set up like a huge lab and from everything she could see there were at least a dozen work stations set up. Remembering the Initiative, a shiver ran up her spine and she thanked the gods that as far as she could tell no one seemed interested in running experiments on animals, humans, or demons. Computer monitors were everywhere with men and women, equally stressed looking, scattered through out the room. She followed Willow who was following Henry to a set of glass doors towards the back of the room. Her slayer senses were on alert, but everything here seemed on the up and up. Trying to force herself to relax, she walked into what looked like a design room.
"Why don't you two take a seat?" Henry motioned to two chairs situated in front of a bank of computers. "I know this is a bit un-orthodox, but you NASA guys, er, huh, people never come visit us that often and to actually have two of you here could make this job a whole lot easier." Henry rambled on as he continued to pull up design schematics. "Now I know that you may not know exactly what's going on, but I assumed that you were here to pick up wiring for the SR-72. As you know, we've been working on improving the overall design for the test launch scheduled in Fall of 08."
He sucked in a breath and continued, "Now I know it seems a long way off, but the plans your team sent over just didn't add up. The frame material is going to be too unstable. Who exactly do you have for engineers over there anyhow?" He smiled jokingly at the girls.
Willow suppressed the shock and relief after listening to the man ramble on and then took a long solid look at the designs now in front of her. "Not really sure, but sometimes the boys stay up too late and well this happens. Of course it could also be those pesky grad students." She waved a hand at the screen. "What exactly can I do for you?" She glanced at Buffy who was giving her a strange look.
"Well, I was hoping for some input really. I don't mean to keep you too long, but if you could just help me look over some of these calculations and maybe if we put our heads together we can come up with a workable solution." He smiled hopefully.
"Oh," Willow shook her head, "help, you want help? Yeah sure no problem. Beth why don't you call our delivery boys and tell them we'll be along shortly. I'm sure they got a bit worried." She patted Buffy on the shoulder and motioned to the phone sitting on the desk. "Also see if they can gather the rest of our team?"
"What ever you say Doc." A sly smile played at Buffy's lips as she nodded her acceptance of the orders.
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Xander snapped his phone closed, "Okay so do you want the good news or the bad news?"
"Spit it out Cyclops." Said Jayne.
"That was the Buffster. They are ok and not in trouble...yet." Xander waited a beat and continued, "It seems that the Tie Man, whose name is Henry, wanted some input from Dr. Rosenbaum about some design troubles they are having with a NASA project. Willow is currently trying to bluff her way out of the situation."
"Hell, boy that's good news." Mal said relieved.
"It is and it isn't. If Will doesn't get the answers to his questions right we may have to go get them anyhow. If she does then hopefully it will be smooth sailing and we meet them at the rendezvous point."
"So when will we know?" Zo' asked.
"Buff was kinda vague on the detail."
"Waitin' here isn't helping any. Let's meet up with River, Inara and Faith that way we can all be a big happy family. Ya know promote the paranoia and worry together." Mal finalized the plans with nod of his head.
Xander pulled away from the shopping center they were in with a worried glance in his rearview mirror. Sending a small prayer to both Tara and Anya to watch out for his oldest friends he made his way to meet the rest of the group.
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It had taken three hours. Three hours that Buffy sat in the chair and watched Willow run calculation after calculation with the tie guy. She watched as they argued back and forth about how to determine G-force or heat capacity or well, stuff that was way over Buffy's head. So she sat back and played the part of the dutiful secretary. When Willow asked for coffee or water, Henry had given her his pass key and she went to fetch it. They had seemed to come to an agreement on something and Buffy was really hoping that they were finished. She was still nervous as all hell and she wanted to get back to New Mexico.
The blonde did smile as Willow looked over and winked at her. The action caused Buffy to get her mind off her nerves and remember last night and her love for the girl, no the woman, who was keeping up with a guy she thought had to be one of the smartest on the planet. Then again Buffy mused, in all the time she and Willow spent together she seemed to forget that Willow had been The Girl Genius, but with the slaying activities and then the witchy stuff, Buffy seemed to lose sight of that little fact. She made a note to get Willow to finish the degree or a degree in something other than her current classes in the Bad Ass Witch Doctorate Program. She wanted Willow to do something besides be her big gun.
Time dragged and finally after another hour of watching the equivalent of an intellectual tennis match, Willow declared that she was finished. Henry drove them out to the van and couldn't quit thanking Willow for her help. The man had even gone so far as to give Willow his email and cell number so that the next time she was in town they could get together. Buffy had to curb the urge to knock him senseless and just smiled at his polite departure. Halfway to the rendezvous point, the girls broke down in to a fit of laughter. The absurdity of the situation they had just escaped from too much to not cackle over.