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Wordsmith
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Monday afternoon, he picked up Dawn and they drove to the store. United front. He had told her the Watchers were coming, and that the whole Key thing was going to remain a secret. They had their stories straight. Spike had come up with some pretty inventive lies, and Willow had pretty much analyzed the angles to death. But in the end, Xander had pointed out that it was easiest to give them what they wanted. And since the Watchers wanted to believe that the Slayer did all the work, and that they were all there at the whim of Buffy's eccentricity, then they would just play along. Buffy had never told anyone what the Key was, and had taken that information with her to the grave.
"I thought they were the good guys. " Dawn was biting her nails, while Xander parallel parked across the street from the store.
"Most of them are, honey, but there are too many of them. We can't control who they tell or where they archive the information." Xander put the car in park, but made no move to get out. He wanted to be sure Dawn was okay before heading into the shop. They might not be there yet, but he remembered how quickly they had taken over the place last time, and they didn't have Buffy to fling swords anymore if they got out of line. "You're going to be all right with this?" Dawn's eyes seemed to take up her whole face, but she nodded. "Hey, you're a Summers. If they give you any trouble, hit them over the head with an axe."
"Huh?" Well, that was better - she had the 'Xander is so goofy' look instead of the 'I'm about to be sacrificed, again' look.
"When things get back to normal, ask Spike about the night he met Joyce."
Xander said, tugging on her hair. Later, when the Watchers arrived, Giles was
behind the counter. Dawn and the witches were at the research table surrounded
by spell books and a trig text. Spike lounged on the metal stairs, as close
as he could get to Dawn without hovering. Xander was above him sitting on the
floor of the balcony. Apparently cleaning weapons; but if he just happened to
have a couple loaded crossbows in easy reach that was all well and good. There
were only four of them. The old bossy guy, who had threatened Giles; the nervous,
nearly impaled, interrupting-Buffy guy; the lady Watcher, who was so not working
the Scully look - if that was what she was going for, it was hard to tell -
and the new guy, tall, blond, seemed to be embracing the European hit-man style
rather than the fanatical, stuffy British academia look. There was no telling
how it would have gone down if the Watchers had stayed true to form and started
asking questions. But the Scully wannabe had to gasp out, "William the
Bloody!" Xander couldn't tell if she was going to ask for his autograph
or pull out a stake and he didn't care, not when he saw the hit man pull out
a water pistol.
"Drop it now." Xander didn't even remember picking up the crossbow.
*Damn, Buffy was better with this, if I miss...* The gun went flying one way.
The guy went flying another. *Oh, of course, Willow and Tara had their hands
clasped under the table.* Spike had moved forward and was standing in front
of Dawn in game face, growling at all and sundry. Dawn clutched at Spike's bicep.
"Guys." She looked to Willow, and then to Giles. "Why don't we...?"
She pulled harder on Spike's arm, until he tuned to glare at her. She giggled.
He dropped his game face and laughed at her, or maybe at the cowering Watchers.
Dawn had told Xander about that moment on the top of the tower, just before
Doc tossed Spike over the edge. Dawn said the creature had said that there was
no smell of a soul about Spike, but that after she met his eyes at that moment,
she would never be afraid of him again. "Why don't we," she looked
up at Xander, he could see her in his peripheral vision, but he hadn't lowered
the crossbow, "order pizza?"
The British are not known for their reverence of pizza, but it broke the tension. They might have ended up sitting around, feeding the Watchers the 'we know nothing line' if at that moment the door hadn't opened and Laura hadn't entered. She stopped by hit-man guy and kind of nudged him with the toe of her boot. "Hey, General." Another nudge, "Human?"
"Ah, yeah. What's up." Xander kept the crossbow and picked up a small helm axe, and descended the stairs. This was not a place Laura would come so near dark.
"Monster. Oh, hey, Willow." She rocked back and forth on the heels of her well-worn riding boots.
"What kind?" Xander recaptured her attention.
"Dragon. Can we blow it up?" Xander blinked. *She really thinks I know what to do with a dragon? Geeze, you explode one giant snake into ground meat and suddenly you're the Dragonslayer. This isn't even funny.*
"Where is it?" he asked while Giles pulled out a large book. Spike had headed back to the training room and dragged Dawn with him, probably to get more weapons. Tara and Willow were huddled in a conference. The Watchers just watched. Like this was some play, or maybe they thought the gang was trying to get one over on them.
"Out near the paddock by White Cross Beach. You know, where they rent horses. Kel's keeping and[an not and] eye on it." She walked over to Giles and looked over his shoulder. "That's not it. It has four legs, and it has bigger wings, and Kel said it's not a reptile and that we should have at least two hours before it moves."
"There are no dragons." The lady Watcher said, as if that would make it so.
"Who's Kel? And what makes her think we have some time?" Willow asked.
"Kel's a he, and that thing killed four horses. It's fast but I doubt it will be able to fly right away once it finishes eating all that." Laura was beginning to show interest in the sharp shiny objects Giles kept away from the public. "Ooh, do you have an Ivanhoe, one not more than thirty pounds in weight?"
"There are no dragons." *Useful piece of knowledge,[change , to ; ] ignoring Watchers pisses them off.*
"I saw one." Dawn said, coming out of the back room. Spike was hovering close but he didn't silence her. "I saw one the night Buffy died." Dawn looked at Giles when she said it, and her eyes watered but no tears dropped.
"Will, ideas?" Xander was hoping for a 'this is wonderful, now I can try out that dragon banishing spell'. Instead she gave him the 'It took you all this time to figure out smart chick were hot?' look.
"Giles, do we still have the rocket launcher?"
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