Who, What, Why, Where, When?

CHAPTER 20

Willow and Xander were sitting at the dining table when Giles and Buffy returned from their lunchtime training session. Willow had been hunting through various web sites containing information on missing people while Xander had been trawling through local newspapers for incidents concerning missing dogs.

"Any luck?" Buffy asked as Giles placed a kiss on Willow's head on his way to the fridge.

"None at all" Xander grumbled and stood up to stretch. "We've been at this for two days, if there was anything to find we would have found it by now"

Willow sighed and flexed her neck muscles. "We'll pull a late shift tonight and give it one final push"

Giles returned from the kitchen and threw a bottle of water at Buffy. "Oh no you won’t" he said and took a drink from his own bottle. "Xander needs a night off and I have some other areas of research I want you to concentrate on"

Willow looked at him in surprise. "OK, what's the new idea?" she asked.

Buffy finished her water and tossed the empottlottle back at Giles. "Please don't explain just yet, Xander and I were just leaving" she laughed and grabbed Xander's jacket.

"We were?" Xander asked then realised that he was being given an early pass and quickly followed Buffy out of the door. "We were!" they heard him say as he pulled the door shut behind him.

"What on earth was that all about?" Willow asked as she turned in her chair to look at Giles. He was leaning against the counter and smiling at her, a lascivious look on his face. "What are you and Buffy up to now?" she laughed and stood to kiss him.

He sighed as he released her lips. "I suppose I should be devastated that you've forgotten our anniversary"

"Anniversary?" she giggled. Her brow furrowed as she frantically tried to work out what he was talking about.

He pushed away from the counter and took her hand, guiding her towards the stairs. "I'm supposed to be the one predisposed to amnesia, not you" he growled.


Once in the bedroom he hugged her and she wriggled in his arms. "I guess I'll just have to find some way to force you to tell me?"

He stood back from her embrace and began removing his clothes. She sat back on the bed to enjoy the display as he removed his shirt first then his slacks. Before he put the trousers on the chair he removed a small package from the back pocket. Willow lay on the bed, watching him remove the rest of his clothes. "You really should be getting undressed, you're already in enough trouble you know!" he mumbled as he headed for the bathroom.

She stood up and quickly undressed. "God I love it when we play guidance teacher and naughty pupil" she laughed and followed him into the bathroom. "You're taking a bubble bath?" she asked incredulously

"No, I'm not but you are" he smiled at her and pulled her into a long, lingering kiss. When he released her he placed the small package into her hand. "Happy anniversary darling" he whispered and kissed her again.

She pulled back from him and smiled a little uncertainly. Opening the small envelope she let a fine gold necklace fall into the palm of her hand. She held it up and saw a small golden key hanging from it. Completely bewildered, but entranced, she looked back into his eyes.

He sighed and turned her round to fasten the necklace for her, fumbling a little with the sticking plaster on his right h He He kissed her neck and rubbed his left hand over her stomach. "One week ago you moved in with me and made me the happiest person in the world. I gave you a key to the apartment and you already had the key to my heart so now you have the complete set" he whispered in her ear. He felt her sink into his arms as she leaned against him. "And now I'm going to treat you to a few anniversary surprises, starting with a bubble bath"

She turned in his arms and he could see tears running down her face. "You've done it again" she sighed and wiped some of the tears from her cheeks. "I now, officially, have the most incredible, handsome, sexy, adorable, caring, loving, sexy man in my life" she kissed him for several minutes and only pulled away when he had to stop the water running into the bath.

He turned back to her and grinned. "You said sexy twice" he laughed as he lifted her up and placed her, gently, into the bath.

She pulled him to her mouth again and continued the interrupted kiss. "I'm going to have to invent another word then because you are the equivalent of a dozen sexy-s in the same sentence"


The next few minutes were taken up with finding the soap as it disappeared beneath the bubbles several times.

Eventually, with more bubbles on the floor than in the bath, she grinned at him. "I'm really sorry I forgot oue wee week anniversary but it just feels like we've been together for so much longer"

"I know what you mean" he sighed as he stood up to dry himself off. "I can't tell you what a relief it was when you agreed to live here, I couldn't have faced a night without you by my side" He gave her his hand to help her from the bath and proceeded to dry her off.

She wriggled under his ministrations with the towel.arpearpe that diem, that's what I always say. Particularly when you live on a hellmouth and a man you've lusted after finally gets around to asking you to live with him"

"Finally?" he said as he stood in front of her and finished drying himself off. "I asked you to move in three days after we finally realised how we feltut eut each other" he spluttered. "I don't know how the haste could have been any more indecent" he finished and turned her round to look at her in the mirror. "Besides you're only here on probation you know, I may decide I don’t like living with you after all" his eyebrows raised in a question as he finished.

She stared at his reflection in mock seriousness. "Are you suggesting that you would take advantage of a young maiden and then throw her out into the streets after you've had your wicked way with her?"

"I'm fairly sure I'll get tired of you after fifty or sixty years" he nodded over her shoulder. "I might have to trade you in for a younger model at that stage"

She sighed and leaned back against his chest. "I'll just have to spend the next fifty or sixty years persuading you that I'm worth all of the stresses atraitrains"

He pulled her more tightly against him. "I'll hold you to that and much more" he said and smiled at her reflection.

She stood looking into the mirror at the necklace hanging round her neck and sighed. "Thank you Rupert, it is the most beautiful present I've ever received from anyone"

He kissed her shoulder and neck before pulling her against his now obvious erection. "So where have you hidden my present?" he smiled at her.

She looked crestfallen then a smile crept over her face.


Two hours later Willow woke up and stretched. She took a moment to remember why she was in bed when it was still light outside then glanced over at the chair. His trousers and shirt were missing and she quicgot got up and threw on some clothes. A yawn overtook her as she headed downstairs, where a delicious smell wafted from the kitchen.

He smiled at her from the kitchen. "Give me a second" he muttered as he finished returning a large dish to the oven. By the time he had changed the temperature and turned round she was standing behind him. "Did you have a nice nap?" he asked and bent down to kiss her.

"Mmmm" she murmured. "Very refreshing, what is that fabulous smell?" she asked.

"Special anniversary dinner" he smiled. "Can you light the candles for me?"

"I really don’t deserve all this, you know" she suggested from the dining table. "I should be doing something for you, after all, you let me move in with you" She was concentrating on the candles and didn't hear him coming up behind her.

"Let's not argue over who deserves what and don’t ever think you don’t do anything for me" he kissed her and led her to the sofa. "Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes so we have plenty of time to discuss a system of reward and recognition"

After a leisurely dinner and two glasses of wine Willow was lying out on the sofa with a dreamy look on her face.

Giles put a mug of coffee on the table for her and sat in the armchair, smiling at her. "Don't you dare fall asleep again" he murmured quietly.

"Not going to, just resting my eyes" she answered and grinned at him. She opened one eye and looked at the mug then sat up and took a sip. "Are you trying to sober me up before you take advantage of me again?" she asked with a mock serious look on her face. "Because that is not the action of the dastardly English bounder in any of the books I've read"

He laughed as he put his own mug down. "I was your librarian for five years and I never knew you read such libidinous texts, where on earth did you get them from?"

"It's amazing what you can download from the web these days" she smiled at him.


He shook his head. "And I thoughu weu were illegally hacking into private files for the good guys"

She took another sip of her coffee. "I was doing that as well but even cyber trespassing needs to be livened up occasionally"

"Talking of which" he suggested as he stood up and placed her laptop in front of her. "I was partly serious when I told Buffy that I needed some other research done tonight" he looked a little embarrassed. "It should only take you a couple of hours and then we can finish the anniversary celebrations"

She stared at him for a moment then shook her head. "Buffy will never believe that I spent tonight researching"

He sat beside her and put his hand on her thigh. "Buffy doesn’t need to know what you spent tonight doing" he suggested as he put his glasses on and watched her log onto the system.

"She obviously had a good idea of what you were planning, if the speed she left here at is any indication" she looked at him as she waited for the internet to connect.

He looked a little sheepishly at her and returned his attention to the screen. "Well she withwith me when I picked up the necklace and I had to explain some things to her" he risked a look back at her face and saw the shake of her head that indicated her disbelief. "She is very persuasive you know" he added and sighed.

"What are we looking for?" Willow asked as her fingers were poised over the keyboard.

After one hour and fifteen minutes she had found the title deeds and followed the trail to the death notice in an obscure newspaper from another state. They both sat back and considered the information. "It never occurred to me how strange it was that a demon who habitually worked with vampires would choose a sawmill to stage his big attack" she finally admitted.

He nodded. "Mmmm, it only occurred to me a couple of days before the battle but I didn't have time to chase it up and I was more concerned with the prophecy itself by then"


She roused herself to save all of the information to disk before shutting down the laptop. "So" she finally said as she turned to face him, one leg beneath her. "We have the owne the the sawmill suddenly behaving strangely about six months before the battle, then disappearing altogether, only to turn up dead in some out of the way town two weeks later"

He nodded and took his glasses off to rub his eyes. "It would appear that the demon inhabited his body and spent some time building his forces before staging the attack on home ground" He stood to organise his thoughts, walking to the kitchen to refresh his drink. "It must have been this host who attacked me and was mortally injured under the logs. We can only surmise that some vampires returned later that night and removed the dead body to inter it as far away from here as they could get during the hours of darkness."

Willow shook her head as he offered her more coffee. "I don’t want to be awake all night" she suggested and grinned at him. "So we now know how he organised the first attack, how does this help us to sort out his next move?"

He yawned and stretched his back gently. "It doesn’t but it is one more piece in the puzzle" he suggested. "Enough for tonight I think, we still have some celebrating to complete". His suggestion was slightly ruined by a huge yawn that shook his frame as he put his coffee mug down.

"That's what you get for all thisakinaking around organising afternoons and evenings of passion" she scolded him. "When was the last time you had an uninterrupted nights sleep?"

"I think I was unconscious in hospital" he admitted sheepishly. "Even before you were actually in my bed I used to lose sleep thinking about you being in my bed"

"Me too" she grinned and kissed him quickly before putting out the lights around the room. "Come on, major league cuddling taking place in the bedroom in two minutes"

He held her hand as they walked upstairs. "You have no idea how many times I wished your research on that bloody laptop would end like this" he murmured as he lifted her hand to his lips.

"You're not the only one" she sighed and quickly removed her clothes before snuggling under the duvet.

He smiled as he slowly climbed in next to her and pulled her close to him. "Do you think that the novelty has worn off?" he asked in a serious tone.


She sighed. "Not a bit, the best part of being in love with someone is just being able to hold them and be with them". He kissed her neck and behind her ear. "Although of course hot and steamy sex is pretty high on the list as well" she suggested as she arched her back against him.

He sighed and pulled away from her. "I really am tired, darling"

She wriggled round to lie on her back and look into his eyes. "Sorry, sometimes my body goes onto autopilot. Let's get some sleep" she smiled at him and reached up to give him a quick kiss.

Just as she drifted off to sleep she heard him murmur against her hair "I really do love you Willow Rosenberg" and she smiled.

Giles woke early the next morning and was a little disconcerted to discover himself alone in bed. He quickly got up and pulled on some jogging pants and a t-shirt before heading downstairs. He found Willow sitting at the table staring at her laptop screen in deep concentration. He noticed a mug sitting next to her and lifted it, the contents were stone cold. "What time did you get up?" he asked and was surprised when she jumped in her seat and squeaked.

"Don't do that" she said as she tried to catch her breath. "Do Watchers get special sneaky guy training?"

He put his arms round her and looked over her shoulder at the screen. "Sorry, but I got concerned when you weren't in bed when I woke up"

Her breathing finally returned to normal, she kissed his cheek in an absent minded way and pointed to the screen. "I woke up in the middle of the night with a thought about the last host and I didn’t want to wake you until I had something concrete to go on"

He lifted her chair and pulled her back from the table before reaching down and kissing her properly. "Good morning darling" he finally said as his kiss left her staring dreamily into his eyes. "Can I get you some breakfast?"
mmmmmmmm" she said as she licked her lips and stood up to hug him. "Perhaps I could start with an English muffin?"

"I would like nothing better but don’t you have early classes this morning?" he suggested and, disentangling himself, headed for the kitchen to make her some tea.


"Blast" she muttered and saved her work before shutting her laptop down.

Her breakfast was ready on the table when she came back downstairs half an hour later, looking slightly pink from her recent shower. He was reading a newspaper and put it down to pour her some tea. "My classes finish at three thirty and I can be home by four" she started as she buttered some toast. "Do you have any plans for this evening?"

"Actually I was going to meet Fraser for a drink after my appointment with the psychologist this afternoon but I was thinking of putting him off anyway. I'd like to spend as much time as possible on this new lead and try to get a bit more information collated before Angel returns from Los Angeles tomorrow" he sat back in his chair and crossed his legs, sipping his tea. "Did you get any further last night?"

She shook her head. "Not really. I was trying to track down known associates of the sawmill owner and to find out as much about him as I could. I thought that there may be a reason why he was chosen as Bolak's host"

He smiled at her. "I was thinking along those lines myself. I'll do some checking at the Town Hall after I've been to the hospital"

A knock at the door startled them both and Giles sighed when he opened it to find Buffy standing on the doorstep. "Would you like some breakfast?" he asked as he held the door open for her to enter.

"Nope" she smiled and stepped past him. "I was out running and thought I would walk back to campus with Willow"

Willow finished her toast and took a last gulp of her tea. "I'm ready" she smiled at her friend anckedcked up her backpack. "Perhaps we can meet for a coffee after you're finished at the records office?" she suggested as she stood on tiptoe to kiss him quickly.

"Sounds fine, I'll meet you at the Espresso Pump about four" he waved after them and returned to his breakfast.


Angel returned two days later and apologised for the delay in bringing back the information he had gathered. "A li loc local difficulty" he explained. "I left Wesley to tidy up the remnants and got back here as quickly as I could"

"I guess you found something important about our local difficulty then?" asked Xander.

"You could say that" Angel agreed. "Bolak chooses his hosts from members of several demon worshipping organisations". He let the import of this sink in with them all and put several books down on the counter top before removing his jacket. "These secret organisations may worship specific vengeance demons or warrior demons but their adepts are inducted into an inner circle of worship for Bolak himself"

Giles had his glasses in his hand and rubbed his eyes. "I've heard of similar groups, indeed we've shut down a few in our time, but I've never heard of one which supported Bolak"

Angel handed him a tattered cloth backed book. "I've never come across one myself either but I think that's part of their plan" he explained. "They try to avoid all contact with the slayer and her associates until they are ready to support Bolak in his battle plans"

Willow was reading the marked pages over Giles shoulder. "So what you're saying is that they've been planning this for months or years and only decided to strike once they had themselves organised?"

Xander shook his head. "That doesn’t make any sense. They could have attacked the slayer at any time during the last few years and they wait till we're all getting the hang of this?"

Buffy nodded her agreement. "Xander's right, they could have joined forces with the Mayor or the Master and probably achieved their goal years ago. Why wait till now?"

Angel sat down on the edge of the table. "I explained before that Bolak likes the personal touch in his revenge on slayers. He prefers to carefully plan the attack and gather his forces for one, all out battle during which he selects his victim and challenges them personally"

Giles looked up from the book and handed it to Willow. "Angel's right. woulwouldn't have wanted to share the credit with anyone else, even if it meant achieving his ultimate goal a couple of years early"


Everyone sat quietly for several minutes, contemplating the information they now had, before Willow abruptly shut the book she had been reading and stood up. "I'm getting a bit fed up with this demon" she announced. "Can't we just find him and get rid of him once and for all?"

Angel smiled a little. "Easier said than done" he suggested. "I doubt we can hurry him along in his plans"

Buffy also stood and moved next to Willow. "Will's right. I'm fed up playing this game to his rules. Let's start scoring some points ourselves and take the game to him"

Xander raised his hand. "Are we still looking for a dog or are we assuming he's a human being again?" he asked.

Giles nodded. "Good question Xander. I think we have to assume that he has found a human host of some kind after this length of time, however, this information that Angel has provided has considerably reduced the numbers of possible hosts"

Xander looked a little confused. "Run that by me again?" he asked.

Giles started to pace. "If, as Angel suggests, the hosts are taken from a select group of adepts from within specific organisations, then we can track down these organisations and their members until we find the right one"

Xander shook his head. "Gee, do you think that's why their secret organisations?" he asked. "I doubt they'll release their membership list to the first written enquiry with nice penmanship!"

Giles ignored the sarcasm. "That is exactly why we have an expert computer hacker, a top researcher and slayer/vampire combination who can break and enter with the best of them on our team"

Buffy smiled at them all. "I love it when a plan comes together" she suggested and offered Xander a high five.

He returned her gesture without any enthusiasm. "I guess I'll be on the book team and not the breaking and entering team?" he asked plaintively.