Thirteen Steps -8- The Package
by Valyssia
Home
[reviews]
The summer had drifted away into fall and life for Buffy and Willow had taken on a routine. The chaos of the previous spring seemed to have lifted, neither of them was sorry to see it go. It had been a very long time since life had really normaled up for either of them.
A few missions a week with the team...bit of weirdness here and there. Otherwise...all of the good... Last mission was a large nest of vamps. Willow insisted she come. Clueless, but I let her... I mean why not? How many vamps have we killed over the years?
Funny as hell... Willow walked up to the door; right past us...opened it...poked her nose inside. I was wigged, but that passed when every vamp in the place caught fire. She turned, on her heel, and walked back to me wearing this wicked grin. Short trip...think she's got that one figured...no rain this time. And they call me the vampire slayer?
Anyway...the time was put to good use. As promised Giles contracted a home to be built for us, it's nearly complete. Happiness was a rare thing and Buffy found herself wary of becoming complacent in it.
The training with the girls was moving on just as well. Ten of them can almost take me down now. Pretty impressive considering...of course I have to hold back for fear I might cause serious breakage, Buffy mused as she stood in their clearing, holding Willow's hand, regarding the new house.
"I can't believe it's nearly done," Willow remarked, looking the front of the house. "It's beautiful...almost modern, but with the same feel as the castle."
Buffy smiled pensively before she spoke. "Yeah well...sure took 'em long enough. You'd think they were constructing Fort Knox. Did you see how many concrete trucks they came in with? Jeeze...Giles got all kinda serious about makin' sure we're safe. I don't think I wanna see the bill. I'm gonna feel somethin' like a princess in an ivory tower, once we move in."
Willow answered in a matter-of-fact tone, "Yeah...well after all that drama I expect he's just worried. It's not like it's without reason. I mean even before those twilight guys you had doubles floating around. We sorta all knew there'd be troubles."
"Ya know I didn't even notice that drop off... It's sorta nifty that they built the house over it. Bet the view's gonna be wicked cool, and from a defensive standpoint...well it just doesn't get much easier than...three sides of the main house are hanging over a hill. Sorta simples things up." Buffy walked over to inspect the massive steel and concrete footings that held the foundation of their home aloft.
"Yeah... I think the men here now are doing security, in fact. Maybe we should say somethin' to them? Actually, I'd like a look inside. Think we can sneak in?" Willow grinned as she walked around to the stone patio that separated the driveway from the front of the house.
"Don't see why not... I mean it's our house after all, right?" Buffy replied with a shrug, following the witch.
Willow made her way to the door, knocking as she responded, "Yeah... It's just sorta weird. I mean, I watched the same as you...with the building, but I've still not really been inside and it's almost done. I looked at the sample books and pointed. That was about it. If you hate something, I'm sorry."
"No expectations here. Sure it'll be wonderful... Sort of feel weird that I left it to you and Giles, though. I should've been way more involved. Anyway, Giles says it'll be done by the end of the week. It's Thursday now. Bit late to go all Dolores Umbridge on the project. Suspect they'll be delivering the furnishings tomorrow...at least I got the idea when we talked," Buffy said with a shrug.
A technician came to the door, extending a cheery greeting, "Ahhh... Yes... I'm glad you both are here. I need to take your prints and give you some basic instructions on how to program the security system. Very good, do come in."
"Oh...Kay..." Buffy replied, entering the door. She found herself standing in a square stone foyer with two arched openings, containing thick clear doors, which separated the entry from the remainder of the home. Buffy tapped the material; same stuff that box of Faith's was made of.
"Miss Summers, if you would just stand very still right here in the entry. This system works with a retinal print. I'll need you to remove your contacts. You'll have to assign a nine-digit code to the keypad right here, and then it will take your print. No one can enter without his or her code and print. We'll do the same for you Miss Rosenburg," the technician said in a pleasant voice.
"Wow! I guess Giles was pretty serious. I think the idea is that you enter and lock the main door behind you. Then you enter your code...should keep anyone from slipping in," Willow remarked, inspecting the console.
"They aren't contacts...just how I am...sorry... Nine digits? ...And I'm supposed to remember this? You'll be letting me in, right Wills?" Buffy looked at the console and rolled her eyes. I should've figured...they had to take something simple and make it difficult.
The technician chuckled softly to himself as he glanced back at Buffy doing a double take. Not contacts, right... Interesting...
"Pick two birthdays, and crop the number in a good spot... It's no big," Willow offered, looking a bit amused.
Buffy stood and pondered for a moment, then began to type at the keypad.
The machine emitted a light and the technician said, "Now you Miss Rosenburg."
Buffy's eyes glazed over. Yeah...go figure this just had to be hard. She leaned against the wall, looking out into the main part of the house. Bone plaster walls and wood floors again, a lot like my room in the castle. Well the floors do give you a bit of spring when you step off. Should be able to just sort of bounce into the loft if I want. That'll be cool...fun even... If I can get through the damned door...
The whole house looks like mostly one open room. I thought it was a neat idea. Gives it a real airy feeling and walls are sorta optional if your not sharing with twenty girls or worse. Like the spiral staircase, much...might make getting things into the loft a pain, but there're enough slayerettes...no big...con 'em into helpin'. That window on the back wall is massive. Wonder how far that extends?
Willow stepped in front of the console and typed away.
"Right... So now if you want to add access for another person, you simply use your code to activate the console, followed by the sequence of ten numbers you'll enter next," the technician said as he gestured for one of them to step up to the console.
Motioning for Willow to handle it, Buffy leaned against the wall looking bored. "There's no way I'll remember all that. I might be able to handle the dishwasher, but this?"
Stepping forward, Willow typed in ten additional numbers at a pace that made Buffy dizzy. She whispered the words to open their thoughts. It's Pi calculated to the tenth digit if you ever need it. Bit predictable but...you can look it up on the Internet if... She broke the connection knowing that Buffy's brain would get all rumbley with details.
The Slayer and rolled her eyes and smirked.
"There are motion sensors and pressure pads all over the house. If anyone finds a way in, without your permission a warning will sound at the castle. You may also turn on the sensors while you sleep. They're set so you will not trip them if you move to use the facilities or deactivate the alarm. You'll find a keypad on the second floor like this one to activate them," the technician said in a genial voice as he ushered the ladies inside.
Pushing the secondary door open, Buffy walked through taking in the room. Wow...the window does cover the whole back wall...both floors...very cool. There were few windows anywhere else in the house. Evenly spaced down the living room walls, they were small, and looked more like really tall arrow slots, covering almost the entire distance of the wall, floor to second story ceiling.
The kitchen was in the back corner of the lower floor, directly below the bedroom. It was tiled in white ceramic with deep gray and black flecked granite counters and white cabinets. The only break between the living area and the kitchen was a breakfast bar and a few black metal beams that supported the loft. There was an area off the right wall of the kitchen that was obviously a utility closet and pantry, directly below the bath.
The one furnishing that was in place was a massive, modular video panel on the front wall, lower floor between the entry and the arch that led to Buffy's training room. Looking up Buffy took in the dark wooden beams that made up the cathedral ceiling. She scanned down from the ceiling, looking up into the loft. The floor looked to be covered in a rich dark blue/ gray thick shag carpet. Willow must have thought it matched my eyes. Heavy, dark drapes hung partially closed over the window. Funny they added those, but I'm glad they did. Would've been a pain to hang. More of a pain to sleep without them...
On the left wall of the living area was fireplace that looked like a large replica of the one in Buffy's room at the castle.
"I told Giles how much you loved my fireplace...look Wills." Buffy pointed.
"Oh that's lovely," Willow replied with a warm grin. "Wow! This is pretty... I like the fact that it's so open... Nice idea honey," Willow remarked sounding very impressed.
Buffy smirked as she spoke, "I just suggested that 'cause I knew how much Xander loved fixing walls. That and well...no walls, makes it a lot harder to hide, if you're up to no good. Plus...bonus...it gives me a lot of space to...well...you get the idea... Anyway, with just you and me livin' here, there's no huge need."
"Yeah... Giles told me that the exterior walls are like the castle, roughly 16-inch thick, solid block. The glass is bulletproof, and you can't see through it from the outside. Pretty nifty... I think the window actually extends to the bathroom area upstairs. Not sure about that. Let's go look," Willow said wearing a similar smirk, dragging Buffy up the spiral stairs.
The two took a quick look around the large empty bedroom loft. It curved to meet the front wing of the house, allowing access from the upper floor. They poked their heads in the bathroom door. They found that the entry was split by a water closet arrangement for the commode; with privacy door and small pedestal sink to the right of the entry.
There was a second, sliding door that led into the bathing area. A massive square spa tub, shower combination with clear, folding glass doors, was set against the corner formed by the water closet. A double sink vanity sat along the wall the split the bedroom and bath, with a laundry chute at the end furthest from the window. The wall behind the vanity was mirrored; floor to ceiling and indeed the entire rear wall of the room was a huge window.
"Oh my, Will... I think this is the largest bathroom I've ever seen. Maybe it's just the window and the mirror that make me feel that way. Its gonna be weird getting used to. No one can see in, right?" Buffy reflected, walking up to the window and looking out at the valley below. "Wow! Look at the view."
"No, you can't see through it or so I was told. And yes, this is really nifty. I wasn't sure about the mosaic, tile but now I see it...very nice...and I think that tub will fit the two of us pretty comfortably. It's like a small hot tub... I can't wait..." Willow replied as a wicked grin overtook her features.
"Well let's go see the rest of the place. I'm hungry...had no clue it'd take us half an hour just to get in the door. Any luck that'll improve," Buffy offered with another smirk as she pulled her witch, out the door, down the stairs, toward the archway that led to the training room.
"Oh my...look at this... They made all of my stuff outta steel and it's bolted to the floor. Guess Giles didn't want me running up the account buying new goodies every week," Buffy said as she flipped up, landing in a handstand on a padded pommel horse. "It's not like I really need to train much...but its hella fun..." She sprung off with her hands and flipping twice in the air landed seven meters away in front of the Wing Chun dummy. "Look it's even articulated," she commented moving into a set, causing the dummy to shudder violently on its pivot point.
"Ummm... Buffy..." Willow looked nervous as she pointed over her shoulder.
"Oh hi," Buffy chirped, grinning sheepishly at the men who'd begun to cluster in the archway.
"Olympic Team," Willow lied badly, knowing that the Slayer had been moving faster than humanly possible.
"Oh...Kay... Before I get us burned at the stake, maybe we should go check out your room," Buffy said, looking guilty.
Moving to meet the Slayer, Willow noted in a voice just above a whisper, "Maybe... It's not bad enough you have eyes like no other person I've ever seen, but gets a bit hard to excuse them as contacts when you do that. Bet that retinal scan's interesting. I think I might wanna see that eventually." She headed for the spiral staircase in the corner of the room.
"I'll be good... For now," Buffy replied, blushing
Willow crested the top of the stairs, looking elated.
There was a second large corner fireplace up here and the start of what looked to Buffy to be research hell covered all four walls, floor to ceiling. Bookshelf, after bookshelf, after...Jeeze! The only breaks in the nerve-wracking number of musty volumes were for the stair well, entry arch, fireplace, and a glass door that appeared to provide access to a deck. There was already a heavy looking, rich hardwood desk with a new Apple Mac Pro and 23" cinema display setup on it near the stair well. The only other piece of furniture in the room was a large wooden table, with six comfy looking chairs around it that conjured images of hours mind numbing work for the Slayer.
"Nice room, Will...think I just died and went to hell..." Buffy quipped with a mock shudder.
Smirking, Willow walked past the many shelves, running her fingers lovingly over the spines of the books. "Oh hush... You got your training room. It's my turn."
"I'm just having nightmarish flashbacks of Krispy Kreme at 2am," Buffy mockingly taunted the witch with a false grimace and a giggle.
Willow shook her head and followed the Slayer out onto the large deck.
They passed through another secured entrance, which was only slightly less elaborate than the front door, but seemed to work with the same access code and scan. There was a huge tree that the deck wrapped around at the front corner.
Taking a deep breath of the afternoon air, Buffy commented, "Nice tree... We should go get some lunch. Let's pass through the garage and see how many hoops we have to jump through there."
"Sounds like a plan to me... Yeah...I wouldn't let them cut that. They worked around it instead..." Willow keyed in her access code and holding still for the scan, to open the door.
The couple made their way down the stairs in Willow's library and into the training room. Buffy looked at the garage wall for the first time. There was another stone arch with glass doors like the foyer. She looked through the doors, there looked to be a bay and a half of space. Just enough room for Bernadine and to open the doors on...the car... Hope they don't expect me to drive that thing. Still hate cars.
Buffy punched in her access code, sighed as the soft light hit her eyes the double doors slid back into either side of the arch. "Looks like I could fit Bernadine through here if you'll let me bring her in the house. Very cool...that..." She walked up to the candy red Mini Cooper. There was a pair of sealed envelopes under the wiper blade on the driver's side.
She pulled the one the said 'Buffy' in Giles neat script, passing Willow the one marked with her name. Opening it she fished out a letter and her mouth dropped open.
"Will did yours say something about...money...like a real live salary for doing what we already do?" Buffy asked, looking completely dumbstruck.
"Mine says that the car is for me as a token for years of service...sorta like Bernadine... The house is ours anytime we want to sign the papers for the same. He called it almost nine years of back pay with interest." Willow smirked and stifled a small snicker. "He continues to say that he loves us both and after discussing it with the other 'Watchers' they all agree that we should be put on the payroll. It looks like between the two of us we'll be making around 230,000 British Pounds a year. Taxes are gonna be hell."
"Wow! Well that seriously changes a couple of things... No more asking... Did you see the number of digits in this check?" Buffy replied, openly eyeing the small piece of paper suspiciously.
Giving the Slayer an amused grin, Willow opened the car door. "Yeah... Well, Mr. Giles and I had a talk about this. I told him that we'd prefer to live autonomous of the remainder of the Slayer enterprise and asked him how hard that would be. His answer in short, was that the council had enough investments abroad to cover anything we might need and just to name it...from there it was all about the negotiating. The check is for six months worth of retro-pay."
"Six months? This is more money than I would have made in...well lotsa years at the Double Meat Palace...at least ten... Whatda ya mean, negotiating? I'm afraid to ask what your first offer was. Don't tell me... I don't want to know," Buffy finished in a firm voice, still looking at the check as though she might be waiting for it to do something scary.
Willow smiled sweetly, climbing into the car and lowering the windows, she said in a soft voice, "Dear I managed to convince Giles that we all deserved our own lives. Face it...what we do is way more dangerous than being some stupid crab fisherman...deadliest catch, my ass... We deserve to live well. Giles agreed...and poof, just like magick..."
Buffy leaned into the open window to listen, snickering softly.
"All the key people are now all payroll employees too. The interest from our offshore accounts alone, more than covers all of our salaries. We setup a corporation from the old Watcher's Council Trust to make it all legal on paper. The Watchers Council was actually older than The Free Masons so they had money stashed all over. I'm still not convinced we've found it all. To the rest of the world we're a research firm. We do have some legit business on that end, so..."
"Xander's home's on the other side of the castle, by the lake. He'll be moving in this weekend too. Now get in, so I can drive you into town," Willow concluded, punching the button to open the automatic garage door.
"You're amazing...you know that?" Buffy said, smiling softly. Walking around the car, she slid in and closed the door. She took a black pager-like device Willow was handing her. The Slayer looked questioningly at the witch as she started the car.
"I'm not bad... The device I gave you is so you can open the garage door when you're out on Bernadine. It'll only work for you. I enchanted it to respond to your aura," Willow replied as she put the car in reverse and backed out into the small cul-de-sac in front of the house.
Buffy asked, eyeing the witch suspiciously, "So you knew about this how long...? Wait...hold up...when did you learn to drive?"
Smiling sweetly, Willow spoke in an amused voice, "I was gone for a year... You think I spent the entire time sitting on my hands? You must not know me at all." She finished by offering Buffy her British driver's license from the console.
"Oh...Kay... Food then?" Buffy inquired, simply resigning herself to just go with whatever news happened to roll off the presses next.
"Then we go to the bank. I opened joint accounts, both savings and checking... All you have to do is sign the papers. If that's okay...you're welcome to keep your own. I just thought it would simplify things if I did the bookkeeping. Shopping after that... We have this huge house with nothing in it but books and a computer. We need to fix that. The truck will be here tomorrow with all the appliances, but we still need a bed at least. That floor would be hell on my back in time," Willow responded as she put the car in first gear and tore off out of the drive, gracefully shifting to second.
Buffy propped her elbow on the windowsill of the car; cupping her head in her hand, she stared at the witch. "You know...you drive worse than I ride." She reached up to fasten her seat belt. Yeah...I'm happy...wonder what it'll be this time?