Watchers Council

Chapter 16

“I g you you knew what you were talking about after all” Buffy leaned in closer to him so that nobody else heard her. “Today has been a success and the dinner went well”

“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone that ygreegreed with me” he assured her solemnly and sipped at his glass of wine. “Perhaps you could do something about the lack of dancing?” he asked and gestured with his glass towards the empty dancefloor.

“I know just the person” she grinned and looked up to find Xander. “Xan, old buddy, you got your dancing shoes on?” she asked as she sidled up behind him.

“Two left feet at your service” he smiled back at her and excused himself from a group of young men. “To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asked as they started to dance at the edge of the empty space.

“Giles wanted to encourage the rest of them and I think a demonstration from us will have them flocking” she put her hands on his shoulders, pulling him a little closer. “Of course, he didn’t say what kind of dance he wanted” she raised her eyebrows to see if Xander wanted to play.

“I’ve never really recovered from the last dirty dance but I’m game if you are” he shrugged and rested his hands on her hips. They swayed gently to the slow, sultry music and it only took a few minutes before they were joined by more couples. “I think our work here is done” he said sadly and led her back towards her table.

*****

Giles watched them for a few minutes before heading towards the bar. “Ms Sinclair” he smiled as he met her halfway. “I was just coming to find you” he admitted.

“Please, call me Kate” she smiled at him. “Did you need me for something?” she asked with just a hint of hope in her tone.

“No, nothing really” he admitted. “I just wanto sto share a glass of wine with you to celebrate a successful day” he motioned to the barman to give him two glasses of wine. “To closer working relationships” he toasted her and saw her eyes widen for a second before she sipped her drink.

“I would like that very much” she said. “You have a very interesting setup here Mr Giles” she suggested.

“Please call me Rupert” he sipped his wine. “Interesting?” he asked and avoided eye contact.

“Yes, I have a feeling that your unique approach to education may be of some interest to our faculty, perhaps we could arrange a meeting some time next week to discuss future events?” she kept the tone light but he knew she had her suspicions.

“May I suggest lunch at a local restaurant?” he swallowed a little nervously and finally made eye contact with her again. “Purely for business, of course”

“Of course” she said solemnly before smiling at him. “To working more closely together in the future” she toasted him and smiled a little more widely.

“Miss Sinclair?” a young man was standing by her side, looking a little nervous. “I’m sorry to interrupt but could I have a moment?” he asked and nodded to Giles.

“Of course” she turned to Giles and handed him her glass.

He watched her walk off with the young man and realised he was staring when Willow coughed to get his attention. “Willow?” he asked and stared at the two glasses in his hand before putting them both down on a nearby table.

“Not in front of the children” she suggested and nodded her head towards the corridor. Once they had left the noise of the main hall she led him towards an empty side room. “I’m sorry to interrupt your meeting” she smiled. “But I think we may have a problem” she became serious and took a deep breath. “I’ve been speaking to Laurie and she thinks one of the boys may have been taking something”

“Taking something?” he shook his head to clear the remaining noise from the music and leaned against a desk. “Alcohol?”

“No, she saw one of the swimmers taking some sort of medication earlier today” she folded her hands in her lap as she sat down in a chair.

“Surely it was something prescribed?” Giles suggested but knew that Willow would already have checked out the story to that extent before bringing it to him. “Did she see what he was taking?”

“Nope but she watched his performance in the pool and talked to the girls swimming against him and they seem to think they didn’t have to try very hard to lose to him” Willow looked a little confused at the concept but continued. “I asked around and he was a mediocre swimmer in their team until about three months ago when he suddenly improved dramatically”

“Damn and blast” Giles took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “Have you checked his locker?” he asked and looked at his watch.

“I wasn’t sure we should do anything about it, after all he isn’t a student here and it’s not as if we are that bothered that we lost” she shrugged. “But I think you may want to drop some heavy hints to the people at his school to check into it”

“Do me a favour” he stood up abruptly. “Take Buffy and check out his locker, I’d rather have an idea of what he was taking before I start throwing accusations around” he walked towards the door. “Can you point him out to me before you go and make sure Laurie and the others keep this quiet for the time being”

“Sure” she nodded and surreptitiously scanned the room when they walked back in. “He’s the one standing nearest the fire exit, with the blonde hair” she told him telepathically. “I’ll see you later” she said in a loud voice and headed towards the door. Buffy suddenly looked up from her table and looked around before following Willow from the room.

“Giles” Dawn stood at his side as he tried to ignore the sense of dread that was settling in his stomach. “Ms Sinclair has asked if you could meet her in the car park” she grinned.

He looked completely stunned and waited for a few moments before shaking his head. “Did she say what it was about?” he asked.

“She said it was a delicate matter and she’d prefer to speak to you in private” Dawn winked. “I think she wants to make a move on you” she grinned again.

“Oh dear lord” he mumbled under his breath. “Can you wait here and tell Willow where to find me when she gets back?” he asked and headed towards the car park without waiting for an answer. Dawn stared after him in shock.

He strode across the main entrance hall and nodded to a couple of staff members who were just coming back inside. Once the door had closed behind him he waited for a moment or two to let his eyes adjust to the darkness before heading towards the two school buses. “Ms Sinclair?” he said as he saw her leaning against the door of one of them.

“I’d like to hear you call me Kate, just once” she turned to smile at him but her eyes looked tired and she was a little less erect than before.

“Kate” he said softly and walked past her to stand between the two buses. “Tell me what’s wrong” he advised and glanced over her shoulder to make sure he could still see the entrance.

She sighed and folded her arms across her chest, shivering a little. “I’m afraid I have some bad news” she admitted. “One of our students has just informed me that one of our competitors may have been under the influence of a performance enhancing agent when he took part in today’s events”

“I know” he said quietly.

“I’m sorry to have to break this to you but..” she paused as she registered what he had just said. “You know? But how could you know, I only just found out myself five minutes ago” she took a step away from him.

“One of our students saw him taking something this morning” he shrugged. “Two of my staff are checking his locker right now and we’ll know what he was taking before long”

“You’re checking his locker?” she asked quickly. “I don’t think you’ve really got any right to check through his personal belongings..” she started but he didn’t let her finish.

“Ms Sinclair” he said sharply without raising his voice. “If this young man has brought illegal substances into my school then the least of his worries will be an illegal bag search” he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. “If he is innocent then I will personally apologise for our presumptive behaviour but I’m afraid we operate a zero tolerance policy on this kind of thing here”

“I’m sorry” she said quietly and leaned back against the bus. “We had some trouble several years ago but we thought we had eradicated it, this has come as an extremely unwelcome surprise” she admitted.

“I’m sure it’s an isolated incident” he moved closer to her and started to take his jacket off. “Please, you’re shivering” he said as he placed it around her shoulders. “You don’t have to worry about this getting out, we know how to be discrete and our only concern is getting some help for the boy before he is too deeply involved”

“The other students think it is just a recent development” she shrugged and a part of her mind remembered the feel of his fingers on her shoulder as he put his jacket on her.

“Giles?” he realised Willow was standing at the entrance but talking to him telepathically. He shook his head, he’d never really get used to it. “Sorry, but is it OK for me to interrupt?” she asked and he heard a faint giggle trailing off as she withdrew from his mind and started across the car park.

“Here comes Willow, she will have the results of the search” he turned to face her. “What did you find?”

“Nothing too bad” she shrugged and held out two bottles of tablets. “I checked with Dr Crow and he said they are medium dose steroids” she handed the bottles to the older woman. “He did say that they may cause an increase in his aggressive reactions to being quizzed” she said quietly. “Buffy has gone to keep an eye on him and a couple of the other girls are briefed in case he realises something is happening”

“Thank you, would you mind keeping everyone calm and in position while we decide what to do?” he asked and watched as she walked back across the car park.

“Buffy?” the older woman finally turned to stare at him. “Ms Summers is no match for Brian even if he wasn’t on these” she said in disgust and thrust them into the pocket of his jacket.

“Buffy is more than capable of taking care of herself” he reassured her before taking a further step away from her and folding his arms across his chest. “What do you want to do?” he asked and watched her reaction.

“Ideally I’d like someone to explain to these boys that winning at all costs is never worth it” she sighed. “However, more realistically I suspect I’ll just report your findings to the Superintendent and he’ll contact the parents who will inevitably hush everything up and pay for a new scholarship” she scowled and then looked up to find him smiling at her. “I’m sorry, am I being very cynical?” she asked.

“I think you are perfectly correct in your assumptions” he agreed. “It’s just a shame that there isn’t some way we could teach the boy a lesson without having to involve the school or his parents” he stared at the ground. “Sometimes a harsh lesson learned is more character building than being bailed out by your parents again”

“I agree but I don’t think they’ll let us erect stocks in front of the school” she smiled and took a step closer to him.

“Perhaps I could suggest something a little more appropriate?” he looked up and met her eyes.

*****

“This will never work” Willow shook her head and glanced over her shoulder to the group of young men who were laughing in the corner of the room. “The techniques were developed for use on slayers, not idiot school boys” she turned in frustration back towards Buffy. “And I don’t think Dawn should be the bait”

“He think’s he’s god’s gift, there is no way he won’t believe it’s for real” Dawn said disgustedly and put her hand out to get Willow’s attention. “He’s been hitting on me all night and I know you are going to be with me every step of the way” she reassured her.

“And you’ll have four slayers right behind you” Buffy reminded her younger sister. “So no heroics” she said for the third time in five minutes.

Dawn sighed and turned to find Giles coming towards them. “Please tell me I can get out of here” she begged him.

“Ms Sinclair is talking to a couple of her students at the moment, they’ll be ready to go in five minutes” he looked between the three girls. “Is everything OK?” he asked and noted Willow’s concern. “Is there anything we’ve missed?” he asked her.

“I just don’t feel right about messing with his mind like this” she admitted. “This is some pretty serious magic and I’m not sure that’s the best way forward, for him or me”

Dawn was listening to her but watching the young blonde boy. She tapped Willow’s arm and nodded her head towards him as he sidled up to make a move on Alex. Several of the young slayers had realised his intentions and were moving to protect her as unobtrusively as possible.

Willow held her breath as he put his arm round Alex’s shoulders and made a supposedly funny remark. She saw Alex’s grimace and caught her eye just before the other girls arrived and broke up the not so cosy scene. “On the other hand we shouldn’t rule out flaying as an option” she said quietly and saw Buffy flinch as she made eye contact with her. “Let’s go” she marched across the hall and Buffy only had time to blow out a deep breath before following her.

“Would you care to dance Mr Giles?” she asked nervously and he wished that the invitation hadn’t been part of the plan but for real.

“Of course Kate, but please call me Rupert” he grinned and took her hand to lead her to the dancefloor. “We really need to pretend we could be here for some time” he murmured into her ear as she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Didn’t I mention that I teach drama in my spare time?” she asked and let one hand wander down from his waist to his hip. “I’m a great believer in method acting” she whispered as she raised her head to kiss his neck.

“Remind me to get tickets for your next performance” he said and pulled her closer to him.

“Let’s go” Dawn muttered to the three male students who were standing agog at the display from their Principle. “Guys” she turned round and waited for them to roll their tongues back in before she walked away from them smiling. Two of the boys caught up with her and one put his arm nervously round her waist. “This has to be convincing” she reminded him and dropped a quick kiss on his cheek. She rolled her eyes as he almost jumped out of his skin. They were a few steps away from their quarry when she winked at one of the slayers who was keeping him company. “Hey Laurie” she grinned at her. “We were going to head to the pool for a midnight swim, want to come with?” she pulled her supposed beau even closer and snuggled against him.

“You game?” Laurie turned to Brian and saw him eyeing up Dawn. She suppressed an instant jolt of jealousy and smiled when she saw him nod in agreement. “What about Mr Giles and the others?” Laurie asked in apparent concern.

“He’s busy” Dawn nodded her head towards the two dancers who were apparently oblivious to everything around them. “The teachers are in the TV lounge playing cards and Willow and Buffy have sneaked off to check out something in the computer lab” she shrugged.

“Cool, you’ve got the keys?” Laurie asked and reminded herself to question Dawn later about just how seriously Giles was taking his part.

“Boss man’s right hand woman” Dawn reminded everyone as she dangled a large set of keys from her finger. “Let’s get out of here” she grinned wickedly and led a small group of them towards the pool. Dawn glanced over her shoulder as she opened the door to the pool complex. She saw Brian grinning at her and was relieved that Laurie and the others were close at hand. “You won your race today, didn’t you?” she lagged behind the others as they headed towards the changing rooms.

“Yeah, I’m pretty fast” he shrugged as if trying to be modest.

“Let’s hope that swimming’s all you’re fast at” she winked at him and licked her lips.

“What about the others?” he asked.

“They’re just kids” she shrugged and pulled him towards the far end of the pool hall. “They actually want to go for a midnight swim” she laughed and opened the door to the plantroom. “Wait here for me, I’ll be two minutes” she kissed her finger before touching his lips.

*****

Willow put her hand on Buffy’s arm to warn her to be quiet. She could feel the worry about Dawn coming off Buffy in waves and tried to block it out as she concentrated on the plan. When Buffy looked round at her she nodded her head and the slayer went into action. “You lousy, cheating piece of scum” Buffy stepped out from behind some pipes and squared up to him as the door banged shut. “Do you honestly think my sister is interested in some dope head?” she shook her head and slowly removed her jacket, folding it neatly before flexing her shoulders.

“Nothing happened” he backed away from her automatically before remembering that he was a strong young man facing a diminutive blonde woman. “Hey, she led me on” he clenched his fists, the anger starting to build within him.

“Wrong answer” Buffy said quietly and folded her arms. “Do you have any idea what that stuff will do to you?” she asked and saw him look around in confusion, he was expecting a fight about his intentions with her sister and was getting a drug lecture instead. “It will mess with your body but it’s your mind you should be more worried about”

“Listen, I can handle it, you don’t need to worry about me” he was getting braver by the minute.

“Wrong answer” Buffy said again and waited for Willow to start her mojo.

“Look, I didn’t know she was your sister but you’d better get out of my way or I’ll..” he never finished the threat as the screaming suddenly engulfed him from nowhere. Buffy watched in apparent unconcern as he dropped to his knees and held his head. “Make it stop” he begged her but she just examined her fingernails.

“I warned you” she said mildly and a tiny part of his mind tried to work out how he could hear her while the hordes of people inside his head continued to scream in agony.

Willow was sweating as she leaned against the pipes. She closed her eyes and murmured a few words under her breath before hearing him scream out for help.

He had fallen onto his back and crab walked till he was huddled against the wall. The giant insect like creature was coming straight for him and he put his hands over his ears again to try to block out the high pitched screeching. “Help me” he shouted at Buffy but she yawned as if bored and tapped her foot impatiently.

“He’ll be fine” Dawn reassured the three male students who were frightened to death by the noises coming from behind the door. “He isn’t being attacked, he just thinks he is” she explained.

“He seems positively convinced” the oldest of the boys suggested and flinched as Brian screamed.

“It’s an intervention technique that we’ve used before” Laurie explained a little further, using the cover story that Giles had suggested. “Some psychologists in England discovered that the conversion of the negative effects of the specific addiction into mythical monsters seemed to have a more lasting effect in the eventual removal of the addiction” She had regurgitated his words exactly and only hoped that they made more sense to the boys than they had to her.

“He thinks the Drug Boogie Man is attacking him” Dawn distilled it.

“And this works?” one of the others asked incredulously.

Buffy was watching him closely and getting very worried, Willow had been really pissed when he’d tried his luck with Alex and she wasn’t sure that they should have gone ahead with the plan under those circumstances. “I thought you were some kind of superman?” she taunted the boy, keen to move to the next stage of the plan. “If the drugs make you such a big strong boy why are you so scared of a little bug?” as she said this she stamped down hard with her left foot and the she-mantis disappeared.

He gulped in oxygen as the monster and the noise it had been making disappeared in a flash. “What the hell was that?” he finally managed to gasp.

“It was a tiny bug to anyone without fried brain cells” Buffy shrugged and cocked her head to look at him. “You getting the message yet?” she asked quietly, desperately hoping that he would say yes.

“What did you do to me?” he suddenly stood up and came towards her, his anger short circuiting any remaining self control.

“Wrong answer” she growled as she side stepped his rush. She looked towards where she knew Willow was hiding and was sure she heard the groan from her friend. She was about to call the entire thing off and simply knock some sense into him the old fashioned way when he suddenly swore and hid behind the furnace.

The werewolf had jumped from the walkway above to land in front of him, its yellow teeth dripping with saliva. He ducked behind the first cover he could find and prayed that the big scary doggy would eat the blonde woman first and make it all go away. However, the howl that the beast let out before sniffing the air and stalking towards him was more than enough to convince him that it wasn’t his lucky night.

Buffy continued to explain the error of his ways to him in as reasonable a voice as possible while Willow sweated and conjured behind the pipes. He had to endure a polgara demon and a turok han before he finally broke down and swore that he wouldn’t take drugs ever again, even for a headache. Buffy glanced towards Willow as he curled, sobbing, into a ball in the corner and she rhe red head nod towards her before disappearing through the back door. She knocked on the door to the pool three times before heading for the back door herself.

Dawn heard the signal and turned to the others. “He’s going to be pretty messed up but we need to hold this together if it’s going to work” she looked seriously at all of them and waited for their nods before opening the door. “Brian, are you there?” she asked and gulped as she saw him cowering in the corner. “What happened, are you OK?” she rushed to his side and knelt beside him.

“Are they gone?” he sobbed and kept his hands over his eyes.

“There’s nobody here but you and me” Dawn assured him and reached out to touch his hand. “The key got stuck in the door and I tried knocking to get you to unlock it from this side but you suddenly started screaming”

“Your sister was here and then there were all of these weird things” he peered cautiously around the room.

“My sister is with Willowthe the main building and there isn’t anything else” she looked around and nodded to the others as they waited in the doorway. “Perhaps you fell and bumped your head?” she suggested kindly as a couple of the boys helped him to his feet.

“But I was sure” he mumbled as he allowed himself to be led outside and back towards the main building.

Laurie and the other slayers looked solemnly towards Dawn. “It needed to be done” she told them seriously. “Better to have one bad night than a heart attack at his age”

*****

Alex was looking round the room trying to find Willow when she saw Xander heading towards her. “Have you seen Willow?” she asked as he sat down next to her. “Is something wrong?” she asked as she saw his serious face and noticed that all of the young girls who had been sitting near her suddenly dispersed.

“Nothing’s wrong, it’s just that Willow and Buffy had to work tonight and they’re waiting for us in Giles’ice”ice” he stood up and handed her the crutches.

“Work?” Alex asked. “Computer working or demon working?” she whispered as she drew alongside him.

“When has Buffy ever done the computer thing?” he asked her before holding open a door. “They are both fine but I think Willow will need a few day’s rest”

“Xander, stop explaining things to me, please” she suggested as she tried to get up some speed on the crutches.

“Alex, she’s fine” Giles stopped her as she rounded the final corner and headed for his office. “She’s OK, just a little tired” he waited till she had caught her breath before taking his hands off her shoulders. He quickly explained the basics of what they had done and warned her that Ms Sinclair was in his office with the others so they all needed to remember the cover story.

“I’ll be good, please let me see her?” Alex promised him and waited till he had opened the door before slowly moving towards his office. She saw Willow lying out on the sofa in Dawn’s office and swallowed her first and second questions. “What have I told you about working late at the office?” she finally asked in a slightly teary voice as she sat down next to Willow in a chair provided by Buffy.

“Hey, I’m fine, just a little pooped” Willow assured her and squeezed her fingers.

“I had no idea that the intervention would take so much out of you” Ms Sinclair was shredding a Kleenex all over the carpet. “Is it usually this bad when you counsel students?” she looked towards Buffy.

“It’s a very unusual techn” Bu” Buffy nodded and heard Giles cough lightly behind her. “Willow has only just finished the training for it and it takes a little getting used to, but it is very successful in cases like this” she assured the older woman.

“Is Brian OK?” she asked.

“He’ll be fine, he thinks he has concussion but the next few days should see him re-evaluate his situation and I doubt you’ll have any further problems” Giles smiled at her. “Perhaps we should return to the main hall to oversee an orderly departure?” he suggested and took her hand.

“We should probably help them” Xander suggested and nodded to Buffy to come with him.

“That was subtle” Willow smiled up at Alex. “I’m fine, honestly” she reached up to catch the tears that ran down Alex’s face. “Honey, please don’t cry” she begged and felt herself starting to get weepy.

“What happened?” Alex asked quietly and leaned forward in the chair. “Giles gave me the cliff notes version, tell me what really happened”

Willow watched her for a moment before taking a deep breath and detailing everything that had happened that night, including her anger when the boy had tried to talk to Alex. When she had finished she watched the growing look of bewilderment on Alex’s face. “So you all just decided that scaring the shit out of this young boy was the best way to deal with such a serious problem?” she asked incredulously.

“It wasn’t an easy decision and it’s a technique that we developed only to be used on slayers but we all agreed that it might be the best solution to this problem” she nodded and remembered her own concerns over the appropriateness of what they had planned. “It’s not something any of us undertook lightly, especially me, but I thought it was the best option under the circumstances”

“What circumstances?” Alex asked and sat back in the chair, folding her arms. “He was hitting on me?” she raised her eyebrows. “Remind me never to ask you to come on a photo shoot with me” she mumbled and then closed her eyes and cursed under her breath. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded” she opened her eyes to see an astonished red head staring back at her. “I’m sorry, can we pretend I didn’t just say that?”

“Nope but we can agree to file it for discussion later” Willow suggested mildly. “I’m sorry you don’t understand why we did what we did but it is done now and I really need to get home, so can we finish this later?” she asked and started to stand up.

“Wait a second” Alex asked and carefully stood up from the chair to swivel round and sit down next to Willow on the sofa. “That’s better” she smiled and held her arms out. “I’m glad you’re OK” she sighed and hugged her tightly. They stayed in each other’s arms for a few minutes before Willow raised her head and kissed her, gently at first but quickly moving towards a more specific goal.

“Honey, I thought you said you were tired and wanted to go home?” Alex reminded her as she pushed Willow’s hands away from the buttons of her blouse.

“I am and I do but there’s something I’ve got to do first” Willow was breathing heavily now and her tongue was peeking out of the corner of her mouth as she struggled to open Alex’s blouse. She finally managed to undo three buttons and quickly leaned down to lick the soft flesh revealed as she pushed the top of the blouse open.

“Willow, this is Dawn’s office” Alex whispered fiercely before tilting her head back and taking several deep breaths. “We can’t” she protested weakly.

“You’re right” Willow looked up and started to smile. “Giles’ office door has a lock, much safer” she nodded and jumped up from the sofa, holding her hand out to help Alex stand.

“We are not making out in Rupert’s office” Alex said sternly before grabbing hold of Willow’s hand as she wobbled slightly.

“Alex” Willow faced her seriously. “We are going to have hot, sweaty sex in the next five minutes, either in Giles’ nice, quiet, private office or in the parking lot for everyone to see, I don’t care which” she explained. “Where do you want to go?” she had given Alex five seconds to absorb the information before asking the question.

“Stop wasting time and hand me my crutches” Alex grinned and hobbled behind Willow. “I am probably going to go to hell for this” she suggested as Willow locked both doors and helped Alex to sit down in Giles’ leather chair.

“Might as well make it a good one then” Willow smirked and carefully climbed onto her lap, straddling her. “This might tickle” she whispered in Alex’s ear as she leaned down to kiss and lick her neck and shoulder.

Alex looked down briefly to check if she was still clothed before pouting a little. “Hey, I’m still dressed” she managed before Willow’s tongue made cogent thought impossible. Her hands had automatically moved to Willow’s ass and she pulled her tighter against her body. She was vaguely aware of the small moans coming from Willow as she worked her way down her thigh before finally finding the hem of her skirt. Taking a deep breath to collect her scattered thoughts she ran her hand back up her thigh, this time against the hot skin. “Will, lift up a bit?” she asked and rolled her head against the back of the chair as Willow combined the lift with a move to kiss the other side of neckneck.

Willow felt Alex’s fingers run along the inside of her thigh, gently ruffling the pubic hair as she reached it. Careful not to leave any marks, she smiled and continued kissing her neck for a few moments before returning to her lips.

Alex was in shock, she had expected to meet the normal resistance when she had run her fingers to the top of Willow’s thigh and couldn’t believe it when she found bare flesh instead of underwear. Her brain was trying to process the thought of Willow attending tonight’s function like this but eventually gave up and let muscle memory take over. Her right hand remained where it was, with two fingers gently probing inside her and her thumb occasionally flicking across her clitoris. Alex moved her left hand up to stroke Willow’s breast. “Honey, take your sweater off for me” she ordered and lingered over Willow’s clitoris for a moment to get her attention.

Willow had stopped breathing. She was fairly sure she would remember why she had stopped stimetime soon but was more concerned with getting as much of her tongue as possible into Alex’s mouth. When Alex spoke to her she didn’t register it as anything other than an interruption to the kiss but the nerve endings in her clitoris suddenly provided fireworks behind her closed eyes and she pulled back to gasp for air. “What?” she managed to get out only because of the single syllable.

“Sweater, off, now” Alex held her eyes and went back to drawing gentle circles with her thumb. “That’s better” she smiled dreamily as Willow’s sweater hit the floor and her bra followed immediately afterwards. “Now I can do this as well” she explained and began kissing Willow’s left breast.

Willow grunted and grabbed hold of the back of Giles’ chair, raising herself up a little till Alex could comfortably kiss and lick each breast. “Soon” she managed to get out before closing her eyes and pushing down on Alex’s fingers as they continued to push in and of hef her.

Alex concentrated on co-ordinating the timing of her licks with the movements across Willow’s clitoris, steadily easieasing the pace until Willow was pounding up and down on her fingers. Just before she felt the familiar tightness pull her further inside she had a weird, out of body experience. Suddenly she was finger fucking her girlfriend in a leather chair and watching both of them from above, seeing Willow’s hair fall across her face before she gasped and threw her head back. Just as suddenly she snapped back into her own perspective and remembered what they were doing and where they were. “Quietly” she mumbled as she continued to nibble gently on her nipple.

“!” Willow managed before biting her lip and digging her nails into the leather chair. After a couple of minutes she stopped shuddering and slumped further down into Alex’s lap. “Wow” she whispered and looked up to see Alex staring at her like she had two heads.

“Will, please honey, you need to get off of me” Alex finally pulled herself together enough to realise the discomfort of their position. “And we need to get this place cleaned up and get out of here before…”

“Willow?” Giles tried the door from the corridor into his office.

“Shit” Willow hissed as she jumped off Alex’s lap and started to pull her sweater on. “Shit” she hunted round under his desk to find her bra and had barely managed to help stuff it into Alex’s pocket before the door from Dawn’s office opened and Giles switched on the light.

“Willow, is everything alright?” he asked and looked around.

“Fine” Willow squeaked and Alex saw her catch hold of the edge of the desk to steady herself.

“I just needed to get a comfortable seat away from all of the noise to get my head round everything” Alex suggested, aware of how lame it sounded. “Was it OK that we used your office?” she coughed a little nervously and tried to unobtrusively dry her hand on the leg of her jeans.

“Of course” he nodded and the frown lines deepened on his forehead. “Is everything OK with both of you?” he asked and sat down in a chair across from his desk.

“Fine” Willow said again and wondered how she was managing to remain standing

“We should probably go” Alex suggested and looked round to find her crutches. “You obviously need your office back and I guess the party has wound down”

“I only wanted to drop off this book, can I drive you home?” he asked and pulled the book from his pocket, dropping it on his desk.

“NO” Willow shouted and pushed herself away from the desk.

Alex looked at her incredulously and felt an almost overwhelming urge to giggle. “We can probably manage on our own” she said and coughed to hide the beginnings of a laugh.

“Yeah, just us two, together, on our own” Willow echoed and heard Alex moan under her breath. She glanced down at her but she wouldn’t make eye contact so she looked back up towards Giles.

The penny had finally dropped and he shook his head and grinned at them. “Perhaps I could walk you home” he suggested and saw Alex close her eyes and take several deep breaths. “I’d hate to think of you going home in this state Willow” he looked serenely at her panicked rabbit stare. “I mean, I do remember how..” he paused for just long enough. “Emotional one can be after practising magic”

Willow was now past panic and into full blown nightmare horror. “No emotions here to worry about” she assured him and heard Alex snort behind her. “Totally emotion free even” she kept doggedly on because her brain was telling her that incessant chatter was the answer.

“I think a little fresh air is all that we need” Alex said shakily as her ribs started to ache.

He nodded and held the door open for them as Alex went past him with her eyes on the floor, completely unable to look at him with the twinkle in his eye.