Well everyone needs a better day [I'm trying to find a better day]

[whattingawhat]

["You never could resist the temptation of making a dramatic entrance, could you?"]

Willow thatwas_nifty is used with permission. The Angel referred to is still_brooding and is done so with permission. Giles and Xander are the ones in my head and not binding to anyone

“You never could resist the temptation of making a dramatic entrance, could you, Buff?” Xander asks from where he sits, half-sprawled across a couch. Willow is sitting next to him, back bowed over her laptop. She looks up at Buffy and despite the purpose in their meeting, she smiled and waved.

“What can I say? I’ve got an explosive personality,” Buffy quips with a shrug. A slow grin spreads across Xander’s face and he’s up off the couch, tugging Willow with him. Buffy is enveloped in a hug. She gives as good as she gets and its several seconds before anyone pulls away. They part to reveal Giles, standing at a desk. There’s a soft smile on his face and Buffy is the one to go to him. The hug is brief because Giles is English and old. At least this is Buffy’s opinion on the matter.



“You look tired,” he tells her and she shrugs.

“So do you,” she responds. He chuckles a little and inclines his head. He searches for a book and pulls it over to the edge of his desk.

“I’ve been talking to realtors for the land in Scotland. We’ll list it as historical property and we should get a great deal of money for it.” Giles is all business because that’s what he knows how to do. “Someone will invariably end up selling tickets to tourists along with some tale about a medieval battle that left the castle in ruins.”

“Wacky tourists, they’ll believe anything,” Xander quips. He bounces up on the balls of his feet once and then back down. “The quality of junk food in London is rotten. Luckily I travel with a full supply of Twinkies, cupcakes and raspberry zingers.”

“Yes, there is that,” Giles responds drily, the corners of his mouth teasing at a smile.

“So I was thinking…small cells of slayers. Instead of one big conglomerate. Yes I know what that means, it’s like Wal-Mart,” Buffy says, the last directed at Giles. “Except you know instead of low prices, we stake vampires for free.”

“Better deal. We should come up with a nifty name,” Willow chimes in, barely looking up from where she’s gone back to tapping on the laptop.

“Something much cooler than Dumbledore’s Army,” Xander adds. He rummages in a bag, pulling out a bag of Doritos and a box of Twinkies as if he’s discovered world peace. And it was something tangible like chips and snack cakes.

“Right because I’m not liking the sound of Buffy’s Army either,” Buffy quips. She looks over at Giles and he’s pondering the idea, glasses off his nose and handkerchief out, furiously polishing them.

“I assume we would send watchers with the cells of slayers?” Giles asks as he sets the glasses on his nose, righting them with great care.

Buffy nods. “There’s a house in Searchlight, Nevada. They’ve done essentially what I’d like to do, or what we’ve inadvertently done in New York. Ideally, two to three slayers per watcher, which I know we’re low on. We might send some of the more seasoned slayers with some of the girls we’re just now finding. Particularly if they’re younger.”

Giles nods and she can see the idea clicking through his brain as he turns it, twists it and examines every facet. “That could work quite well. And it would prevent whoever is doing this from dealing such drastic hits to us.”

“Yeah…that’s sort of the idea,” Buffy nods. “Danny suggested it when we were talking to Angel.” She is working into a suggestion and she’s pretty aware that she’s not hiding it well. “And speaking of which, Angel has that huge hotel and no one staying in it but him. I kind of told him I’d send him some slayers. He’s more than qualified to be a watcher.”

“Buffy…” Giles starts. The glasses are off his nose and back in his hand.

“So this isn’t about finding a solution, this is about lining up slayer buffets,” Xander injects. He doesn’t back down when Buffy shoots him a look that should wither but then Xander’s never really had any sense of self-preservation.

“Angel is good. He and I aren’t seeing each other and he doesn’t have a team that’s going to come up with some half cocked idea of how it would be nice of them to let Angelus out for a stretch,” Buffy tells him. Every word is annunciated to the point that they seem to pop with emphasis. She looks to Giles, eyes pleading. “He wants to help, Giles. He’s alone and he’s struggling to put LA back in order. He can protect them and he can train them. You and I both know that part of the reason I’m alive is because I had him to help me when I was younger.”

“Nice, just shaft the friend that saved you,” Xander snaps and Buffy looks over her shoulder at him. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she’s clearly in this fight for the long haul.

“No one is being shafted, Xander. You’re a watcher in your own right and if you’re ready for it, I’ll send you your own slayers. This isn’t about you. It’s about Angel.”
“Isn’t it always,” Xander continues to grouse and Buffy closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. She pinchs the bridge of her nose and looks back up at Xander.

“I’m not doing this. We’ve got slayers dead and we need to regroup, figure out how to keep this from happening again. You don’t have to be all yay on the Buffy train but the train is going forward anyway.” Her words are short, filled with frustration and pointed. She knows it but she’s too tired to try and soften it up. There’s too much yet to be done and arguing is only going to slow things up.

“Okay, I’m in the database,” Willow announces. There’s a tremble of excitement and awe in her voice. That kind of pride she gets when she knows she’s done something right and she wasn’t sure she could.

“Database? S’plainy?” Buffy says, blinking at her. She’s glad for the diversion and she wonders if Willow saved it for just when things got so tense it threatened to crush them.

“The military keeps a database with all the serial numbers of every missile and bomb made. It’s so they can track them. No one wants a lost missile or nuclear bomb.”

“Go Will, but don’t they frown upon people doing that?” Xander asks. Giles is very busily searching through books and pretending not to hear any of this. He likes to claim ignorance when Willow manages to pull something like this off.

“Yeah but I’ve rerouted everything so it looks like I’m coming from some tiny coffee shop in Switzerland that I visited a couple of months ago. And if they manage to get past that, I’ve put a magic filter on it. It’ll appear to go nowhere at all,” Willow tells him as her fingers fly across keys. “Right now I’m looking for missiles that are missing.”

“You magiced the internet?” Buffy asks, surprise tracking across her face before it settles into something like mischief. “I know there are things I want you to do and people I want you to torment with that.”

Willow looks up from the laptop and grins at Buffy. “Magic isn’t to be used for amusement purposes. It’s like a coven rule. And also, a Willow doesn’t go all magic addict-y rule.”

“Oh…well in that case,” Buffy concedes brightly. “So what are you finding out?”

“Eeeeep. There are more missing missiles then they probably want us to know about?” Willow looks up, her face furrowed in a ‘oh that’s bad’ expression.

“See if the Roswell UFO is catalogued in there,” Xander says. “Maybe they have alien missiles from that ship. Maybe it was an alien missile. It was greenish.”

Willow looks up at him and shakes her head. “Sometimes they are. It’s just the light and the way it reflects…not an alien missile.”

“That myth was debunked many years ago,” Giles informs Xander.

“So you don’t believe in aliens, G-man?”

“Yeah, Giles. Vampires, demons and bogeymen oh my but no aliens?” Buffy prods.

“Any extraterrestrial beings are more than likely inter-dimensional demons or something that managed to break through to our world. Aliens are-“ Giles starts.

“Got it Giles,” Buffy interrupts and looks back to Willow. “Anything we can do to help?”

Willow shakes her head. “Tomorrow I’ll take Xander with me and we’re going to teleport to Scotland. I want to see if there’s anything in the ruins that will help me out. Right now, I’m saving some of these serial numbers where the location is questionable. The bomb came from somewhere. We’ll find out where.”

Buffy nods. “Just find out who. I’ll take it from there. Where’s your Idaho slayer?” she asks Willow, changing topics at lightening speed.

“Hotel. Or wandering around London. I told her to be careful. She’s handling everything pretty well. You know as well as can be expected. I haven’t taken her slaying yet though,” Willow says as she finishes up with the laptop and closes it, setting it on the table.

“I can take her one night if you want,” Buffy offers. It’s not really on her list of top things to do in London but she’s all slack taking up girl at the moment. Besides, there’s a good chance she’s going to want to kick someone’s ass while she’s here. It’ll be cathartic.

“Yeah, that would be good. Her name is Olivia. She’s sweet. Eighteen and she was so glad to get out of Idaho. It was this tiny, tiny town.”

“Speaking of people here and not here,” Xander says as if it’s a natural segue and maybe it is. “Where’s the boyfriend, Buff? We are going to meet him, right?”
Buffy sticks her tongue out at Xander and a smile spreads over her face. “Yeah, you’re going to meet him. He’s hoteling it or touristing it or something. He’s pretty self sufficient but thought maybe some space giving with all the planning we have to do today would be in order. Maybe dinner tonight? And a pub?”

“Pubs are good,” Willows agrees. “And dinner. Oooh it’ll be like a Scoobie night out. Plus one. We should have a Scooby induction ceremony. Like a fraternity without the hazing.” She glances to Buffy who’s giving her ‘are you kidding’ look. “Or…you know…maybe not. But boyfriend meeting is good either way.”

Buffy changes topics again because while she doesn’t have any problem talking about Danny, she’d rather get some work done so she can tourist with him. London is proving to be nicer this time around even if it hasn’t stopped raining since their plane landed. “Okay guys, slayer cells. Yay?” She doesn’t offer a neigh because in her mind it’s really not up for discussion. She feels better when they’re all on board.

“Yay,” Willow agrees. “We’ve just got to make sure they get trained.”

Buffy nods. “Yeah and I was thinking about that. We could rotate them. Send some to me, some to Xander, some to Angel, Giles etc...people who can really train them and then we send them to their spots. I don’t really have the room to keep anyone so I’d need girls who are capable of staying on their own in a hotel. Or…I’d need someone to be house mother-y.” She looks up at Willow when she says this because there’s an idea that’s been ticking in her brain since Kennedy died. “I wouldn’t want to put a bunch of girls in one spot again but…three or four at a time. Give them some basics and move them on. New York City is nice and it’s got me. What do you think Will?”

Willow is looking at her with big eyes. “Y-you mean me? Be house mother-y and live in New York City?”

Buffy nods, giving her an encouraging smile. “It’s really nothing that you weren’t already doing in Scotland and I know you have to travel a lot finding the others but there’s Dawn and Oz and me all to check in on them. They’d be anything but alone there. And you’d be anything but alone.”

“You know I went to New York City once. I really kinda loved it,” Willow says and that’s the sum of the conversation, decision and all. Buffy nods and glances around the room. There’s more work to be done and its work she’s not looking forward to but they have a plan now and they’re working together. She hates to say it, because she knows a great big shadow is going to come sooner or later, most likely sooner, but the future is looking bright.