With a Little Help

Sorry, Sorry. I did say Tuesday for this chapter, but now it is Thursday. Well, they both begin with a T, don’t they? Ok, no throwing any rotten fruit….. Ah, hell, it’s Friday, isn’t it? I’ll understand if you should throw something at me. But the plot lot is building some new layers!! Expect more twists and turns to send this story down some unexpected paths. Enjoy!!!!

Chapter 9, The Second Step

No one in the front part of the Magic Box spoke as the door closed behind Buffy and Riley, maybe because no one knew what to say. However, after a few moments, the voices in the back room rose to the point that they could be heard through the wall, not distinct words but the tones and volume were very telling. Uncomfortable listening in on someone else’s disagreement, Giles decided chit chat was called for. “Err…uh…Xander, how are you faring without Anya?”

Xander smiled. “Great. When that cat’s away, this mouse doesn’t stray.”

“Oh, really, whelp?” Spike asked. “What if that cat played? What would the mouse say then?”

“Yeah, Mickey?” Dawn said with a proud grin. “Get it…Mickey Mouse?”

When no one laughed, Tara leaned over and patted Dawn’s hand. “We get it, Dawnie. It was a very funny joke.”

Despite the joke, Xander started to sputter defensively. “I trust Anya. I am worryless and suspicionless.”

Willow joined in the ‘What If’ game. “What if she kissed someone? Would that be ok with you?”

Xander shook his head. “No, beside she wouldn’t.”

“What if she just flirted with some guy?” Dawn asked.

Judging from the red color of his face, Xander was now starting to go beyond defensive on to flustered. “That would be ok if…No! No flirtage, kissage, or bump and grind-age.”

“What if…” Dawn never got to finish her question.

Xander was saved from answering any more questions when the door of the workout room flew open and slammed against the wall. With fury pouring from every pore, Riley stormed out of the workout room and straight out the front door, without a word to anyone. Giles cringed as the shop’s fragile front door received the same harsh treatment as the sturdier workout room door.

As when he entered the Magic Box, Riley flew through the room and out the front door. And as before, no one was quite sure what to say, until Giles broke the stunned silence with a very British, “My word.”

However, the fact that Buffy did not come out of the workout room was even more worrisome. After a minute or two and several exchanged glances between the various Scoobies, Willow got up and went to check on Buffy. Dawn finally couldn’t stand it either and went to peer in the door.

When everyone could hear the hushed voices of Willow and Buffy, the other Scoobies went back to talking amongst themselves in an effort to give Willow and Buffy some privacy.

Spike, though, did not join in the conversation this time, not that they would have made any effort to include him anyway, which was fine with him. In fact, he was particularly pleased that they were ignoring him at that moment.

When Riley had made his grand exit and Buffy didn’t follow, he was probably the only one in the shop that was pleased about it. Thrilled, actually. He wasn’t exactly sure what had been said back in the workout room, but that wasn’t for lack of trying. However, between the fact that the people in the same room with him were all yapping, and that he that couldn’t resist ribbing Xander himself, he didn’t catch much of the unhappy couple’s conversation in the back. Even though he only picked up tones of their voices and a word or two occasionally, Spike had figured out that they were fighting, that Riley was furious and that Buffy was using a more subdued tone.

So when Riley left, Spike was torn. He was happy to see Riley leave and even happier that the slayer did not chase after the straight-laced git. This is a definite sign that their relationship was going south. But the down side was when Buffy did not return to the front of the shop, and that made him worry. So now Spike sat on the counter, wishing he was in Willow’s place, but he just didn’t want to show that much of his hand to the Scoobies this early into the game.

Willow found Buffy expressionless, sitting on the mats, starring off into space. “Buffy...are you ok?” When Buffy didn’t respond, Willow crossed the room and sat down next to her. “Buffy, honey, what happened with Riley?”

“I went out the other night instead of patrolling. I had told Riley that I was training with Giles, so that he couldn’t come with me like he wanted to, and Riley found out.”

As Buffy and Willow talked, Multok and Shel conferred at the back of the workout room. Multok was shaking his head from side to side, looking at Shel with a confounded expression on his round, blue face. “When I helped her boyfriend find out about Buffy’s and Spike’s little excursion, I didn’t think Riley would make the confrontation quite so public or so hostile.” Bemused, he looked back at Buffy. “I just wanted to break them up, that’s all.”

“Uh, but you did that, and now she is so sad. I wish we could have found a different way to split Buffy and her boyfriend up.”

“Me, too, Shel, but no use crying over spilt milk. Why don’t you go over and try to comfort her, and I’ll go check on Spike. He doesn’t strike me as the patient type.”

Thousands of questions raced through Willow’s mind as she tried to comfort her friend. The dilemma was that she didn’t know which of her questions to ask first or which one should be left unasked. Yet, her curiosity soon won out. “Buffy, did you go out alone?”

Buffy glanced at her friend before looking down at the mat again, guilt clearly written on her face. “No, I was with someone else.”

“A ‘he’ or a ‘she’ type someone else?”

“A ‘he,’ but it wasn’t a date,” Buffy hastened to add. “It was a favor. See, I was his designated driver. Totally platonic. He is just a…” She had no idea what to call Spike. And ex-mortal enemy turned ally, or how about a vampire that makes her insides melt when he gives her one of his sensuous smiles. Buffy opted to just not finish her sentence.

Instead, she dropped a different bombshell. “Willow, Riley didn’t break up with me. I broke up with him. I was going to tell Riley before we even had this mega-showy blow up.” Buffy gave a weak chuckle at Willow’s astonished expression. “It just isn’t right, is it? I thought if I am having…uh… touchy-feely thoughts about another man, I shouldn’t string Riley along. But Will, that’s the problem.”

Listening to every word her best friend said, Willow was still having a hard time following Buffy’s train of thought. “Buffy, I’m not sure I am following you. What exactly is the problem?”

Buffy looked up at Willow with unshed tears in her eyes. “The problem is that I broke up with Riley.”

“But you just said that it was the right thing to do, that it wasn’t fair to Riley. So where’s the prob?”

“That I broke up with him.”

Willow rubbed her temples, trying to massage the headache she could feel coming on. “I’m beginning to think I’m in a foreign country where I can’t understand the language.”

Buffy continued as if Willow hadn’t said a word. “You know how I have been looking for a normal guy for so long. A nice, normal guy, and Riley fit the bill perfectly. Even with him being on the straight and narrow, we still even shared an interest in killing demons. But I don’t want him. So actually there are two problems. I shouldn’t have broken up with him, but I should have.”

“Ok, the Buffy translator is starting to work. You broke up with Riley because he just doesn’t cause sparkage anymore, and Riley was mad because you went out with someone else, even though it was not a romantically inclined evening. Then you broke up with Riley because you are starting to be romantically inclined with the mystery man.”

Satisfied with Willow’s condensed version, Buffy nodded and stood up. “In a nutshell. But the problem now is all the leaves and stuff on the outside of the nutshell.”

Trying to lighten the mood, Willow changed the topic off of Riley and the multiplying problems to the new, yummy guy. “So, who’s this other guy? He must be a really great…uh…friend.”

“Take my word for it, you just don’t want to know.” Looking toward the workout room’s door for the first time, Buffy saw Dawn’s concerned face in the doorway and gave her sister a teary smile. “Let’s go see what Gile’s problem du jour is.”

Spike was relieved to see Buffy reappear, closely followed by Dawn and Willow. However, as she made her way back to the research table, she avoided any eye contact with him.

This was one of those times that Buffy was glad that Giles was British because, after the three girls returned to their seats, her watcher started the meeting as if no interruption had ever occurred. “As all of you are aware, our current priority demons are the Eloquaws. And I think we can all agree that they are quite a serious problem. However, I am afraid that they are attracting a new ...er…threat.”

Xander spoke up, “Keeping in mind that we do live in Sunnydale, home of the homey little Hellmouth, is this a fish-boys on the swim team level of threat or a Mayor-sized threat?”

“Well, I am not sure where this falls on your rather unique scale, Xander, but I would imagine this new threat is closer to Mayor-sized. It appears that the Eloquaw demons attract another demon, the Hungkin demon. You see, the Hungkins happen to find the Eloquaw to be a very desirable delicacy.”

Now Xander was confused. “So Giles, what’s the big deal? These Hunglins eat the Eloquaws, and we kill the Hungkins.”

“Yes, Xander, that works in theory, but it seems, though, these new demons must live inside a host.”

“So these demons happen to watch Stargate SG1?” Hoping to lighten up the mood, Xander looked around at everyone’s blank faces.

Tara was starting to catch on to Giles’ explanation. “Host equals human, right?”

Relieved that someone was taking him seriously, Giles nodded. “Yes. So with the demon in a human, you can see that this new threat will be hard to recognize, let alone kill without killing the human host.”

Hunting and killing a demon was something that caught Buffy’s attention. “So, Giles, how *do* we identify these Hungkin guys?”

“You see, when the Hungkin enters the body, the host is totally unaware. The host does not show any outward signs, but as Hungkin grows, it begins to effect the host’s actions and personality. That’s how I believe we will be able to find these particular demons. We look for people that are unusually combative ggreggressive.”

Her interest showing on her face, Willow chimed in, “Kinda like the person has multiple personalities.”

She received a thankful smile from Giles. “Yes.”

Spike finally spoke up, “So how do we kill these camouflaged buggers.”

He had been so quiet that most had forgotten Spike was in the shop, but not Buffy. She felt his presence as if he was standing at her shoulder, asking the very question she had been thinking.

“Good question, Spike, but I…er…unfortunately don’t have an answer yet. I, of course, am still researching. What I suggest tonight and the following nights until we take care of this current problem, is that Buffy and Spike continue hunting down and killing the Eloquaws. The rest of us can research and try to see how to identify these Hungkins once they are in a host.”

“Since we need to kill all these Elo guys fast,” Xander asked, “how about me and Anya, when she gets back, help Buffy and Spike out. If nothing else we can help them spot the Elo’s or help slice and dice.”

Willow poked Xander in the ribs, “The fact that there wobe abe any books involved helping Buffy wouldn’t have anything to do with your offer, would it?”

“Well, I’ll admit the lack of reading stuffy books in long, dead languages would be a perk.”

Before Buffy could think of a good reason to protest, Giles finished polishing his glasses and made the decision. “Xander, your idea does have some merit. However, I think Anya should help research since she is knowledgeable in the various demons. But I am sure Buffy and Spike could use your help.”

Spike thought he would gag. God knows how many nights spent with the whelp was worth this white hat gig. Well, maybe it was worth being close to the slayer.

Happy that the meeting was winding down, Buffy quickly stood up and announced, “Sounds like a plan, Giles. Meeting adjourned. Come on Dawn, let’s head home.”
TBC

Ok, I am ready to take bets on who you( all of you) think Harmony’s lover is. Who do you think he is? Send me who you think, and I will keep a tally that I will put on the top of the next chapter that should be out Sunday morning.

: ) MadRog
madrog@ev1
www.sunnydale-tales.com