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Part 2
"So who's this guy again? And why are we believing everything he says?" Xander asked, as always skeptical. Buffy rolled her eyes.
"His name's Brian Westing and we're accepting what he says because it makes sense and he can back it up. Willow researched him on the Net and he's telling the truth. She also looked up half-vampires and they're also true. They were in one of the Watcher journals too, only they didn't know they were half human, they just thought they were some kind of mutant vampires," Buffy explained.
Xander still didn't look convinced, but Cordelia elbowed him when he began to open his mouth. Xander and Cordelia were visiting from their Los Angeles home. They always came at this time of year—they said it was to distract Willow so she wouldn't be too hard on her students during finals, but they all knew it was so they could be around for Buffy. Late May and June—especially the beginning—was always the hardest for Buffy. In five years, they had never failed to be there on the Anniversary. Oz was going to arrive the two days later, on the thirty-first, taking a vacation from touring with his band.
They had gathered in the library, just like old times . . . well, mostly. The doors had automatic openers so Willow could get in and out without any trouble, and all the stairs had been replaced with ramps so she could get around the whole library. Though the school had been redone a few years before, Giles had refused to have the library changed, so the old, dark feel still presided.
The people gathered there were different too. Willow . . . well, the differences in her were mostly obvious since Spike had left her paralyzed from the waist down. She was a teacher now, though, not a student, and she had cut her long hair above her shoulders. Her disability had changed her inside as well as out and her friends knew that she was less optimistic (though still more so than most of them), and a lot older.
Xander and Cordelia stuck a lot closer together than they ever had before, even in their senior year. In fact, Cordy was at the moment perched on her fiancée's lap, and every so often they would exchange quick kisses when they thought no one was looking. Xander had gone through two years of college and then dropped out, realizing it wasn't his field. He'd moved back to Sunnydale for two years while Cordelia finished, and then proposed the day she graduated. Though annoyed that he wasn't doing likewise, she had gleefully accepted and they had moved to L.A. where she was doing very well in her film/business career, and he was happily hunting down supernatural phenomenon (while taking time off his blossoming stand-up comic routine which, he insisted, he only did because Cordelia made him. His friends knew better).
Giles was just the same as ever . . . mostly. Maybe he had gotten slightly more stuffy over the years, but it was a slight change and easily ignored. He was also a little better at tolerating Buffy's foibles, but that was a slight change as well and just as easily missed.
And then there was Buffy. She had changed a lot, though outwardly she was still the small, perky girl (though not a teenager anymore) that she had always been. Her friends knew she was different though—anyone who had known her before would know she was different. Before Angel. Or rather, before Angelus. And that horrible, ghastly mistake. Except it hadn't been a mistake. She had done the right thing, only, if she'd waited just a moment she wouldn't have had to do it at all.
Buffy hadn't gone to college. Giles had absolutely forbid it, and for once, Buffy had agreed. More studying was not her idea of fun, even though seeing her friends all going off to pursue their lives had been extremely depressing. Not that they'd gone far—well, most of them anyway. Cordelia had gone to Yale, which was far, but she flew back to visit her parents and Xander all the time (try every few weeks) and she called a lot too. Xander had gone to Berkeley, which was not far, and he came back every weekend at the very least. Even though Willow had been offered a scholarship to Stanford she had refused to go, instead getting her teaching credentials at the local community college and then getting a job at Sunnydale High. So Willow hadn't really left at all—still, in high school, they'd all been right there, and now they all had different lives. Except Buffy.
Which was when she came up with the idea for classes. The first year, five people took her hand to hand combat classes, but the next year the size had doubled, and then tripled and so on until she now had four classes a week, with about twenty students in each. One of them was basic self-defense. It helped her feel better that at least some of the people of Sunnydale knew how to take care of themselves if set upon by vampires. Or muggers . . . though Buffy wasn't responsible for protecting from those.
She'd moved out of her mom's house after high school, into her own apartment, but she went over about once a week for dinner and talking. Joyce had gotten married again the year before to a really nice guy that Buffy liked a lot, and who wasn't, luckily, a robot. Or a vampire. Or a zombie, or anything else. She'd had him thoroughly checked out, and had eyed him suspiciously for weeks (even in the sunlight) before finally relaxing and admitting that maybe he was good for her mom. Joyce had certainly become less strict. Though that could be the fact that she had no actual authority over Buffy anymore.
Yes, Buffy had changed. They all had.
So there they were, everyone except for Oz. Discussing a stranger. A very strange stranger. One who LIKED doing what they'd all been regarding as a sacred duty they'd like to get rid of for the last six years. On the one hand, someone like that seemed too good to be true . . . but on the other hand, it seemed like he was true, and that was good . . . almost too good to be true. *What am I doing?* Buffy asked herself silently. *Am I TRYING to tie my mind into knots?*
"What does this mean? That is, what COULD it mean?" Willow asked.
"Yeah, vampires that can be outside in the daytime could be a definite downer," Buffy commented. Giles looked troubled.
"It depends on whether this is . . . is an isolated incident. If these three were all there were . . ." he trailed off.
"But if there are more, we could be in trouble. There goes the anyone you see in sunlight is fine rule," Cordelia said in an annoyed tone.
"Poor Cordy, now you'll have to actually pay attention to who you talk to," Xander teased. She made a face at him, then smiled fondly and he smiled back. They were so cute . . . so cute it was almost annoying sometimes. Only sometimes though—Buffy was glad her friends were happy.
"Getting back to the subject . . ." Buffy said and they looked over at her. "So how do we find out if there are more? My recon missions don't really do well, especially without a partner and no, Xander, you cannot come. Or you, Giles, it's been too long for both of you."
"You could talk to Brian. He seems nice, and from what you said, he can fight," Willow suggested.
"Good idea!" Buffy said, smiling. "Now that that's settled, I suggest Xander does his routine for us." Willow grinned and Xander moaned and began shaking his head.
"It's bad enough doing it in L.A., but you want me to further embarrass myself and lower your opinions of me by making a spectacle of myself here? In our library?" Xander exclaimed.
"Why not? You've done it before," Buffy teased. "Besides, there's nothing you can do that would lower our estimations of you. After all, we KNOW you Xander. Our estimations are already rock bottom." Willow laughed and Cordelia giggled, poking her fiancée in the ribs.
"Come on, get up there," she told him. Xander looked extremely forlorn.
"Why does everyone pick on me?" he asked plaintively. "What did I do?"
"It's because we love you, Xand. And you're so . . . teasable," Buffy said gaily.
"Exactly. You're extremely easy to tease," Cordelia added innocently. "I mean . . . when you are that much of a goof-ball . . ."
"It just sort of comes naturally," Willow finished. "What's not to tease?"
"Giles?" Xander appealed. The Watcher shrugged and Xander sighed.
"Nobody understands me," he said dejectedly. But he was greeted only with laughter.
"So what are we doing?" Brian asked.
"We're going to see if there are any more of those half-vampire things, and if so, how many. Basically, how worried Giles needs to be," Buffy explained. Brian grinned and ran a hand through his dark blond hair.
"I see. And why have I been elected to do this? After all, you just met me. You trust me?" he asked.
"Actually, I'm glad you asked that, because while I do, Xander—remember, you met him, dark hair, bad jokes?—he doesn't entirely. Don't take it personally. It's not about you, I swear. It's just that . . . well, there's been a few rather strange situations, and he just wants to be sure that you're—"
"Not one of the new vampires that can walk in the sunlight?" Brian asked. Buffy nodded.
"Totally understandable. So where's the mirror?" Buffy grinned, and motioned him towards Giles' office.
"Over here," she said, then turned to call towards the broom closet. "Xander, stop making out with Cordelia and get in here!" A moment later a sheepish looking Xander appeared from the closet, Cordelia behind looking extremely annoyed. "Sorry," Buffy apologized, "But I needed to prove to your skeptic of a fiancée here that we don't have another . . . well, you know, on our hands." She avoided saying his name, though she didn't know why. Well, maybe she did. It was the thirtieth of May. Two more days to the anniversary. Besides, she found herself reluctant to let Brian know about Angel. She had much less of an idea why she wanted that, but for some reason she did.
"Here's the mirror—and look, there's me. My goodness, why DID I choose to wear this shirt with these pants?" Brian asked, scrutinizing himself exaggeratedly. Buffy laughed as Xander made his way over, still looking sheepish and a little annoyed.
"See, I told you," she told him as he glanced at Brian's very vivid reflection in the mirror.
"Maybe that's another one of the things that are different about half-vampires," Xander pointed out.
"Xander!" Buffy exclaimed. "Why would he do that? What's the point? And if he WAS by some miraculous chance, a half-vampire, he's almost certainly a good one. I mean, you can't pass on a demon, so some half-vampires must be good natured. Yes, it's probably beat out of them at a young age, but not all half-vampires are inherently evil. Besides, does he LOOK like a vampire to you? I mean, HE looked like a vampire. You have to admit it. Brian is just a normal guy, and it's very rude of you to stand here accusing him of being half vampire!" Buffy exclaimed. "Okay, it's not as rude as calling a certain person Dead Boy, but it's pretty bad! He helped me yesterday, and killed a half-vampire. I have only known one vampire to ever do that, and he was good. At the time, at least." Xander sighed, and eyed Brian.
"I'm just worried about you Buff," he said, not looking away from the other man.
"Okay Xander, do you think I would really repeat my mistake? I mean, I'm not that stupid! Give me a little credit," Buffy said, rolling her eyes.
"Is there something I'm missing here?" Brian asked carefully. " 'Cause I'm really not getting what's going on here." Buffy sighed and turned to him.
"It's a long story," Buffy began.
"I have time," he said, mimicking her from the day before. "Tell."
"A really long story," she continued, ignoring his comment. Their eyes caught and they both started to laugh.
"Am I missing something?" Xander asked behind Buffy.
"Nothing," Buffy said, still smiling. "It was just yesterday . . . anyway. Can't you be satisfied, Xander? I mean, you can't mistrust everyone, forever, simply because there's a slight chance they COULD be a vampire. Believe me, it's not gonna work," Buffy told him.
"I give up!" he exclaimed. "I was TRYING to help, but since no one seems to want—"
"Okay, time to go," Buffy announced, cutting him off, then grinned at his annoyed look and patted his cheek. "Just kidding Xander. What were you saying?" His glare was extremely eloquent, but then, so was her smile.