After a few moments Buffy had herself under control and let her hand drop away from the stake. She walked over to where the last vampire had died and picked the sack up off the ground. "What do you think they were after" she asked?
"Fuck it. Who cares" Spike said angrily as he turned away from her and walked off into the dark.
Buffy stood there watching Spike walk away and realized what she had just done. As she lost sight of him in the dark a tear ran from one of her eyes and down the side of her face.
*********
(Friday)
When Willow and Tara came downstairs and entered the kitchen they saw Buffy with her head down on top of a book on the kitchen table, sound asleep. Her jacket was hanging on the back of a chair with fresh grass stains on it and an old burlap sack was laying on the floor at her feet. There were also a dozen or more artifacts laying on the table in front of her.
Willow walked quietly over to Buffy and touched her lightly on the shoulder. Buffy jumped with startlement. When Buffys eyes focused she saw Willow and Tara standing in front of her. "Oh God, what time is it" Buffy yawned out sleepily?
"A little after seven" Tara told her.
"What are you doing" Willow asked?
"Dawn! Dawns got to go to school. I've got to get her breakfast ready" Buffy stuttered out.
As Buffy started to stand up Willow pushed her back down into her chair. "Don't worry about Dawn" Willow said, "Tara and I will take care of breakfast. You stay where you are, you look exhausted."
Buffy sagged back into her chair with a groan. "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to fall asleep. God I hate research, I can never find anything" Buffy mumbled out to them.
"Just sit" Willow said to her sternly, but when Buffy looked up Willow smiled at her.
For the next 10 minutes Willow and Tara moved around the kitchen making coffee and setting things up for breakfast. Before they were finished Dawn had come downstairs and was staring at the mess on the table. "What is this stuff?" Dawn asked as she fingered some of the items.
"Loot from a crypt" Buffy said as she yawned again.
"What, your robbing graves" Dawn exclaimed excitedly.
"No, of course not. I stopped a bunch of grave robbers" Buffy said as another yawn made her open her mouth so wide her jaw popped. She sat there shaking her head to clear it and rubbing her jaw.
"Here, drink this" Willow said as she set a big mug of coffee down in front of Buffy. "Were never going to get the story out of you if you don't wake up."
Buffy spooned three large spoons of sugar into the coffee and added a large amount of milk. When it was the way she liked it she lifted the mug to her lips and took a big gulp. When the caffeine and sugar hit her system she felt better and sighed. "Thank you Wil, that's a lot better" she said in a tone of voice that showed she was more awake.
For the next ten minutes Buffy explained briefly about the vampires and demons breaking into the MacPherson crypt and how with the help of Spike they had stopped them from getting away with the loot they were after from the crypt. She told them what Spike had said about the MacPherson family having been supporters of the old Mayor and how she was afraid to leave the loot behind. She had been up all night trying to find some kind of information that described some of the artifacts so that she could understand why the vampires and demons had wanted them so badly.
The first person to speak was Dawn. "You saw Spike? How is he? I haven't seen him in weeks, is he okay? Did he get hurt? Why hasn't he been coming over? Did you ask him where he's been? Is he mad at me?" Dawn asked in a rush of words.
Buffy was stunned by the flood of questions about Spike. She realized suddenly how close Dawn had grown to Spike over the past year and how much she must have missed him when he stopped coming around the house. She also realized that she was the reason that Spike hadn't been coming to the house to see Dawn.
"He was fine, Dawn" Buffy told her in a gentle tone of voice. "We didn't have time to talk much, we were kind of busy killing the bad guy's and saving the loot. He didn't stay around when it was over." Buffy felt bad about lying to Dawn but didn't know how to tell her the truth that Spike wasn't coming around because of her. Dawn sighed and nodded her head in acceptance.
"Okay" Willow chimed in, "about the loot, did you find anything in the books?"
Buffy shook her head "Not in the ones we have here. I thought I would look through the ones at the Magic Shop, or maybe call Giles and see if he has any ideas. I'm kinda worried guys, those vamps went to a lot of trouble to get this stuff, there has to be a reason. What if this stuff has some kind of magical properties or could be used to open the Hellmouth or something? If the MacPherson family knew the Mayor, who knows what kinda stuff they might have been involved with in the past. I don't think I want to go giving this stuff back to them without knowing it's safe."
"Darn toot'n" Willow said. "This looks like a job for the Scoobies. We should go into full research mode. Burn the midnight oil. Get on the Net. Cast spells." As Willow talked her voice became more and more excited and a big smile spread across her face as ideas raced across her mind.
As Willow was mentioning the Scoobies, Xander came in through the backdoor. "Did someone say Scoobies? What? We got something going on?" he asked. When he got to the kitchen table he picked up a large silver cross that had red and green stones the size of nickels set in it. "Are these things real" he asked.
Buffy looked at the cross and could see that the stones looked like rubies and emeralds. "I don't know" she said, "but if they are that things worth a million bucks."
Xander looked at her with his eyes wide and set the cross back down. "Who'd you rob" he asked with a grin?
"I didn't rob anyone, I stopped some vamps from robbing a crypt" she said with exasperation showing in her tone of voice.
"If you stopped them, how come you got the treasure" he asked her, but he was still grinning.
Willow touched his arm to quiet him, "I'll explain it later" she told him. Xander nodded his head in agreement.
"Look Buffy" Willow said, "we could help you with this. Tara and I are good at research, and Dawn and Xander could help too. Even Anya could help, who knows she might know what some of these things are." Saying this Willow picked up a small wooden box that didn't seem to have anyway of being opened and started looking at it from all angles.
"Thanks Wil, I appreciate the offer, but you and Tara have classes today and Xander has to go to work and Dawn has to go to school and Anya is busy at the Magic Shop. Even I have to go to work pretty soon" Buffy said to all of them. "What I need to do is take all this stuff and lock it up in Giles safe at the Magic Shop. If you want we could do research tonight, or tomorrow?"
Willow looked over at Tara who nodded her head. "Tonight's good, as soon as we get out of classes will come straight to the Magic Shop" she said to Buffy.
"I'll come there right after school" Dawn said excitedly, "I can help too."
"Count me in" Xander said, "I don't know how much help I'll be with the research stuff, but I can always go out for pizza and tell funny jokes."
Buffy smiled at Xander and then at the rest of them. "Okay, but guys, remember, this is a secrete. We don't want anyone finding out that we have this stuff." Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
"Okay Dawnster" Xander said to Dawn, "let's get you to school and me to work." Dawn picked up her book bag, waved goodby to everyone and followed Xander out the backdoor to his car. No one noticed that she had picked up one of the smaller artifacts and put it in her pocket.
As soon as Dawn left Buffy got up and told Willow and Tara she was going to go take a shower. Willow and Tara sat down at the table and started looking through the artifacts, trying to figure out what they were. When she came back downstairs a half hour later they had the artifacts sorted into two piles.
"What's this" she asked pointing at the piles.
"This stuff is old Buffy" Willow explained, "like maybe hundreds of years old. Some of it looks like religious stuff, you know, crosses and icons and stuff like that. The rest we don't know what it is, at least not yet. We just sorted it out thinking it might help when we start with the research later today. And Buffy, Tara thinks those stones on that cross might be real."
Buffy's eyes widened. "God, I just thought it had to be glass or something. If they are real this stuff really is worth a fortune."
Buffy left the kitchen and came back in a few minutes with two big towels and a pillow case. She spread the towels out then laid the artifacts on the towels. She then rolled the towels up so that the artifacts were inside the towels. The only thing she couldn't roll up in the towels was the cross, it was to big. She put the rolled up towels and the cross in the pillow case and rolled the case up into a nice tight bundle. She got some string out of a drawer and tied the bundle up. She then put the bundle into a paper bag and rolled the top shut.
"There, that should do it" Buffy said with a smile, "no one could tell what's in the bag, no way!"
********
Buffy drove to work because she didn't want to carry the bag out in the open. When she got to the Magic Shop she opened the safe and locked the bag inside of it. For the rest of the day she worked with Anya taking care of the customers. Whenever there was any slack time she browsed through some of the books looking for pictures or descriptions of some of the artifacts. Once she thought she found a picture of the cross, but when she read the description it described the cross in the picture as being three feet tall. She put the book to one side just in case there was something in it that described a cross half that size that looked the same.
Dawn got out of school at 3:00 and arrived at the Magic Shop at 3:30. Buffy told her to do any homework she had and get it out of the way just in case they had to spend the whole weekend doing research and she wouldn't have time later. Dawn was excited about being included in the research and didn't argue with her about it.
Willows last class ended at 3:00 but she waited for Tara to get out of her last class at 4:00, they arrived at the shop at 4:30. Buffy showed them the few books that she had set aside to start the research. She showed them the picture in the one book that looked like the cross they had and then showed them the description. Willow started going through the book to see if she could find any reference to a cross that looked the same but was half the size. Tara started going through a book on religious icons to see if she could find anything that matched what was in the safe.
Anya hadn't asked any questions about the bag that Buffy put in the safe or about the time she had spent that day looking through books, but when everyone started showing up at the shop before closing time she asked Buffy what was going on. Buffy told her that they were going to be doing some research at the shop tonight and that was why everyone was gathering there.
Xander got off work at 5:00 and was there at 5:40. He had stopped at a pizza place and had three large pizzas with him when he came through the door. The Magic Shop usually stayed open until 6:00 on Fridays, but Buffy locked the doors, drew the shades and turned off the outside sign as soon as Xander got there. She then went to the safe and got the bag out of it and brought it to the big work table where the rest of them were sitting and where they would be doing their research.
Everyone stopped what they were doing long enough to eat some pizza then got back into their research. Buffy got the towels and the cross out of the pillow case and unrolled the towels so that they could all see the artifacts. She got a rag out of the storage closet and some liquid cleaner they used on the counters and asked Xander to clean up some of the artifacts that were dirty and tarnished. Anya looked over the artifacts as Xander was cleaning them but didn't recognize anything until she turned over one of the five sided metal disks he had just finished. She told Buffy and the others that she didn't know what the disk was, but she recognized the writing. It was some kind of runic writing from ancient norther Europe. She told them she had seen it before and it was usually used to write Druidic spells and incantations. She didn't recognize any of the other writings on the backs of the other three disks. Buffy was puzzled, she could have sworn there were five disks this morning?
Dawn didn't know what to look for in the books so Tara would give her certain books and tell her to look for pictures and descriptions that might match some of the artifacts on the table. Buffy was going through the books too, but hadn't been able to find anything either. When it started getting close to 9:00 she went into the backroom of the shop and changed into a dark blue jogging suit and running shoes. She got some wooden stakes out of a cabinet and tucked them in her waist band. When she came back to the front of the shop she told the gang that she was going to make a fast patrol and be back in a little while to help out some more. No one objected to her leaving, they all knew how much she hated doing research.
********
As soon as Buffy hit the night air she felt better. Doing research was the one thing she just wasn't cut out to do. It wasn't that she wasn't smart enough, the problem was that she got bored with it to easily and her mind would wander. If she concentrated she could keep her focus, but if she let her concentration slip just a little her mind would wander off and she couldn't remember what she had been reading. Buffy was made for action and fighting, research was the opposite of everything she was trained to be.
Since she was already in town she decided to check out the back alleys and empty buildings in the area. Vampires liked to nest in empty buildings and warehouses and they did a lot of their moving around the town in alleys and the sewers. She got lucky, or the vampire was stupid, because she caught a vamp just as he was coming out of an old warehouse and not paying attention. She cornered him and killed him easily. She decided that she should check out the warehouse to see if there were any other vampires inside. She didn't find any more vamps inside but told herself to remember the place so she could check it out again later tonight or tomorrow night.
Once she had checked out the alleys and empty buildings she walked on to the closest cemetery. She didn't find anything happening in the cemetery and moved on again. She was walking through an area near the railroad tracks when she heard some noise in a stand of trees. She entered the trees quietly, not making any noise when she saw two demons fighting. She watched the fight for a few minutes, but since there weren't any humans being attacked she decided to let them settle their own problems and backed away from the fight and left the stand of trees.
It was getting close to 11:00 so she headed back in the direction of the Magic Shop. As she was walking past a commercial butcher shop she noticed someone hanging out near a backdoor. When she moved closer she saw that it was Spike. She stopped and watched him for a few minutes. She was just about to leave when the backdoor opened and a man came out with a package. She saw Spike give him some money and turn to leave with the package. Spike was walking in her direction so she waited until he got close and stepped out of the shadows so he could see her. When Spike saw Buffy he stopped and started to turn but realized that the only way out of the ally was to go past her or make a four block detour. He approached her slowly and stopped several feet away from her.
"Need something Slayer?" Spike asked in a clipped tone of voice.
"Yes. I didn't do it last night when I should have so I want to do it tonight" Buffy said to him in a quiet tone of voice. "I wanted to say 'Thank You'. I also wanted to tell you that I told Dawn and the others about last night and Dawn asked how you were doing. I haven't told any of them about our 'problems' with each other and she asked if you were mad at her. She misses talking to you."
"Yeah, I miss the niblet too" Spike said without any rancor.
"It's okay if you want to see her, when I'm not at home, if you want to" Buffy said in a hesitant tone of voice.
"Yeah, I'd like that, when you aren't at home" Spike replied with the clipped tone back in his voice.
Buffy nodded her head and turned to walk away. "We did a good thing last night, didn't we?" Spike said hurriedly.
Buffy looked back at him and nodded her head, "Yes, we did a good thing Spike" and continued walking out of the ally and down the street.
Spike watched her walk away until she turned a corner then headed home to his crypt with his packages of blood.
*******
When Buffy got back to the Magic Shop it was almost 11:30 and Dawn was looking very sleepy. She checked with everyone and no one had found anything yet that would be of help to them. Buffy suggested that they call it a night and come back the next day to try again. She gathered up all the artifacts and put them back into the safe and locked it up. They turned out the lights and locked up the door behind them. Xander and Anya drove away in Xanders car and the rest of them got into Buffys car and she drove them home.
When they got home everyone headed for bed. Buffy was in her room and had started to undress when she made the decision she couldn't put it off any longer. She left her room and went to Dawns room and knocked on the door. When Dawn opened the door Buffy stood there for several moments before she spoke.
"I saw Spike tonight. I told him that you missed seeing him. He said to tell you that he would stop by soon."
"Thanks Buffy" Dawn said with a smile. As Buffy started to turn away Dawn said "Buffy, why don't you like Spike anymore? You know he's in love with you, don't you?"
"I know Dawnie" she relied sadly, "I know."
**********
(Saturday)
They all got up early in the morning, everyone wanted to get back to the research. Dawn walked around yawning, trying to wake up. She normally didn't stay up so late and when she did occasionally on weekends she would usually sleep in late. Buffy allowed her to have some coffee, half coffee and half milk, with lots of sugar. That seemed to help her wake up. Buffy made her eat some cereal too.
They drove to the Magic Shop, Anya was already there and had the shop open for business. Xander had just finished making a large pot of coffee and was pouring himself a mug of it. There was a big box of donuts sitting on the work table. Dawn headed straight for the donuts and helped herself to a big chocolate donut with chocolate icing and chocolate sprinkles. After her first bite she was all smiles. Buffy got the artifacts out of the safe and set them on the table. Tara and Willow poured themselves some coffee and sat down at the table and started going through the books again, looking for something they might have missed the night before.
"Guy's" Buffy said to all of them "I know this is going to be inconvenient, but I really think we need to move this little party into the back room." As she pointed at the bag of artifacts she continued "we can't let anyone see this stuff and we have to have it out so we can study it."
No one argued with her and they all got up and started carrying stacks of books into the back room. Dawn picked up the box of donuts and carried it to the back room first. Anya stayed in the front of the shop minding to business while the rest of them got back into their research. As the morning moved on they would each go back to the front of the shop for coffee or a new book as they needed it.
As they roamed in and out of the back room carrying books a little old lady asked Anya what was going on. Anya told her in a whisper that they were casting spells using dark magic and that she shouldn't go near the back room because they might turn her into a frog or a monster or something. The woman got all excited and rushed over to her two friends that had come to the shop with her and whispered the information to them. They all got excited about the idea of real magic being used at the Magic Shop and they each ended up buying magic charms that were suppose to protect people from being turned into frogs and several books, candles, crystals and packs of protective herbs.
Anya was very pleased with the sale because between the three women they had spent almost four hundred dollars. When she told the others what she had done Buffy started to frown, but Dawn started laughing uncontrollably and the others couldn't hold it in either and started laughing too. Buffy smiled at her friends as she realized that they had needed something just like this to break the frustration they had been feeling over their lack of success in their research so far.
As Buffy sat with a book in her lap looking for clues about the artifacts she glanced at the clock on the wall. She tried to figure what time it must be in London. She had wanted to call Giles all day to see if he had any suggestions for their research but she knew that he was meeting with the full Counsel of Watchers today. She knew that this meeting was important to him, and to her too. Giles needed to impress the Counsel with his work as her Watcher and the research he had been doing on the activities around the Hellmouth. He also needed to be able to convince them that they needed to provide Buffy with a source of income so that she could continue to support herself and Dawn without interfering with her Slayer duties.
It was late in the afternoon when Dawn, of all people, found something in one of the books that had already been gone through by both Willow and Tara. She took the book to Tara and showed her what she had found. Tara showed it to Willow and they both read over the text again several times.
"Damn! Damn! Damn!" Willow said in a pique of frustration. When Buffy looked in her direction Willow said "I'm so stupid, I know I read that passage yesterday and it slipped right past me. Damn! Damn! Damn!"
What's up Wil" Buffy asked?
"Just a clue, that's all. A big clue. And I missed it!" she said in an exasperated tone of voice.
"So did I Sweetie" Tara said to her in a soothing tone of voice as she reached out and touched Willows hand.
"I know, I know" Willow said with the frustration still in her voice. "But Dawnie didn't miss it!" When Willow looked up from the book she saw the look of hurt in Dawns eyes. "Oh no Dawnie" Willow said hurriedly, "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at me. Big research Wicca read right over this stuff yesterday and didn't see it. I'm not mad at you honey, honest!"
"Okay, okay, but what did you miss?" Buffy said with her own frustration leaking out as she moved behind Willow to look over her shoulder to look at the book she was holding.
Willow showed Buffy the three paragraphs of text and explained them to her. The text talked about a pentagram with pentagonal disks being placed at the cardinal points. It mentioned a wooden box that could not be opened and a cross of fire and earth. The third paragraph said the artifacts were used a thousand years ago in a spell of binding. The author of the text stated he didn't know what had been bound, but the artifacts were reported to be very powerful so it had to be assumed that what ever was bound must have been very powerful itself.
"Okay, now explain it again, in english" Buffy said with an awry grin on her face.
"Okay, you know what a pentagram is, five pointed star, used in a lot of spells and incantations, especially dark magic" she said as she looked up at Buffy. Buffy nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Okay, the cross of fire and earth, rubies are sometimes called fire stones and emeralds are sometimes called earth stones. Next, the box that can't be opened. I was looking at that little wooden box yesterday morning and I noticed then that there didn't seem to be anyway to open it. I wondered about it at the time, but forgot about it later. And last, the five sided disks that are placed on the cardinal points, the points of the star. The thing is we only have four disk, not five. When I read this last night it slipped right past me, I didn't catch it!"
"You know something Wil" Buffy said with a frown on her face, "when I first dumped all this stuff on the kitchen table yesterday I thought I remembered five disks, but when I rolled everything up in the towels there were only four so I thought I had made a mistake."
Buffy sat down next to Willow and read through the text again. The frown on her face deepened as she thought things through. "Wil, can these things disappear on their own? I mean if their magical or something, can they just vanish or become invisible or something?"
Willow looked over at Tara for a moment then back to Buffy. "I don't know, maybe. I don't have enough information about what they are or what they are suppose to do to say for sure."
"I don't like this guys" Buffy said, still frowning. "If there were five of them when I brought them home, what happened to the fifth one?"
No one had paid any attention when Dawn had gotten up from the table during Willows explanation and moved over to where the last of the donuts were sitting. She had her back to them and they didn't see the worried look on her face.
When Buffy said "Dawn!" loudly, Dawn spun around and stammered out "What?" "Don't eat anymore of those donuts. I'll order in some real food in a little bit and I don't want you to ruin your appetite." Dawn sighed with relief and as casually as possible wandered out of the back room to the front of the Magic Shop.
********
A half hour before closing time Buffy called a Chinese restaurant that delivered and placed an order. As soon as the food was delivered she locked up the front door, turned out the open sign outside and pulled the shades closed. The rest of the group had been carrying the artifacts and all the books they had moved to the back room during the day back to the big work table up front. Buffy spread the food out on one end of the table and let everyone help themselves to whatever they wanted. When everyone was finished she cleaned up the mess and they all went back to work looking for more clues about the remaining artifacts.
Buffy had been sitting in a chair going through the books for two more hours when she felt an overwhelming need to get up and stretch. As she stood up she looked around the room and noticed that Xander and Anya were sitting on the floor near one of the book cases up front whispering to each other and occasionally kissing. Dawn was standing at the front door peeking through the blinds watching traffic as it drove past. Willow and Tara were sitting next to each other reading, but they both looked tired. Buffy knew that she was tired, they had been at the shop for almost twelve hours now.
"Enough" she said loud enough to get everyone's attention. "Were all tire and I for one can't look at another book without going crazy and ripping it to shreds." She smiled when she said this, but she knew she wasn't far from telling the truth. "We need to get out of here and try again tomorrow. We all need a break."
"I know what I need" Xander said to the group. "I need some fun. Why don't we go to the Bronze for a little while?" Anya was standing next to him smiling and nodding her head in agreement.
Buffy looked over at Dawn with a look of indecision in her eyes. Dawn had turned around and was looking at Buffy hopefully. Xander walked up to Buffy and said to her quietly. "You know we were her age when we first started going there, remember? She'll be with us, she won't get into any trouble. She needs a little fun too."
Buffy still didn't know what to do and looked at Willow and Tara. Tara looked over at Willow then looked back at Buffy and nodded her head. "We'll keep an eye on her, promise."
"Yeah" Willow said as she set the book she was holding down with a thump. "We need some fun around here and I need to dance with my Sweetie!" She reached over with one hand and took Taras hand into hers and gave it a squeeze.
"Okay, fun it is" Buffy said with a smile. She then looked at Dawn and said, "You stay with us, no dancing with the older guys and if you even think about going outside without one of us with you I'll ground you for life!"
Dawn was bouncing up and down on her toes and had a big smile on her face. "I promise, I promise, I promise" she said in a rising voice of excitement.
Buffy gathered up the artifacts and locked them up in the safe. They left the books out on the table, they would need them again in the morning. Everyone took turns going to the bathroom before they left and found their jackets and sweaters. When everyone was ready they locked up the shop for the night and they all got into their cars and drove to the Bronze.
*********
(Sunday)
When Buffy pulled into the driveway it was a little after midnight. They had all had a good time at the Bronze, Dawn most of all. They had danced together as a group most of the time, but Xander had danced a slow dance with Dawn once. Xander and Anya had drank a couple of beers but the rest of them had stayed with soda. Buffy had made Dawn drink a fruit punch because she didn't want her to get wired up on caffeine. Not that it had mattered, Dawn had been wired on excitement. This was the first time she had been allowed to go to the Bronze and she had seen several older boys and girls there that she knew from school. She had told them all that her status points had gone up big time with the older kids.
Buffy had enjoyed seeing Dawn have so much fun. That's one of the things they really need more of around the house. More fun! Buffy smiled sadly to herself as she watched Dawn go up the stairs to bed. Willow and Tara were right behind her on the stairs, but stopped to see what Buffy was going to do. She told them she was going to check the house and be up in a few minutes. They continued up the stairs and entered their bedroom.
Buffy went around the house and checked the windows and doors. She searched the kitchen floor carefully to see if she could find the missing disk but couldn't find it anywhere. When she got to the backdoor she opened it and stepped outside. She sat down on the steps and looked up at the stars for a little while. She started to get up and go inside when she noticed something in the grass. It took a moment to recognize that it was a cigarette butt. It had to be Spikes, he was the only one she knew who smoked. She reached down and picked it up and held it in her hand. He must have come by looking for Dawn she thought to herself. She lifted the butt to her nose and sniffed it. She could tell that it was still fresh, it still smelled of smoke and not just stale tobacco. She was sorry Dawn had missed him. She then admitted to herself reluctantly that she was sorry she had missed him too. She threw the butt back out into the grass and went back into the house to go to bed.
*********
Buffy slept till almost 9:00 before she woke up. She got out of bed and went to the bathroom and washed her face, then went back to her bedroom and got dressed in old comfortable jeans and a big floppy sweatshirt that she had bought when she first started going to school at Sunnydale University. As she looked at herself in the mirror the thought crossed her mind that it seemed like centuries since she had bought the sweatshirt. So much had happened since then, Riley, Mom dying, Glory, Dawn, the Key, her dying, being brought back to life. So much. She sighed sadly as she left her bedroom.
When she entered the kitchen she saw that Dawn was already up and eating cereal at the kitchen table. There was a pot of coffee already made, Dawn must have done it. She hoped it was drinkable. She poured the coffee into a big mug and added three spoons of sugar and milk. She tasted it and it wasn't bad. In fact it tasted better than when she made it. She sat down at the table and holding the mug in both hands slowly took little sips enjoying the flavor.
When Willow and Tara entered the kitchen they both smiled at Buffy but headed straight for the coffee pot and poured themselves big mugs full. When Willow took her first sip her eyes opened wide. "Hey, this is good, real good!" she said.
"Thank Dawn, she made it" she replied.
Dawn turned to Willow and smiled. "Mom showed me how to make it" she said. Dawn realized what she had said and jerked her head toward Buffy to see if she had upset her.
Buffy sat there with the mug in her hands and smiled at Dawn. "I'm glad she showed you. I never could make it as good as she use to make it."
When Dawn got up from the table with her cereal bowl she dropped her spoon. When she bent over to pick it up she said "Hey, look at this!" She then laid the missing disk on the table.
Buffys eyes got wide as she looked at the disk. As she picked it up to look at it closer she said "I searched the whole floor last night and it wasn't there then."
Willow looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Maybe it can turn itself invisible after all."
********
When they got to the Magic Shop they didn't see Xanders car parked out front. Buffy parked her car and unlocked the door to let the rest of them enter. Everything was where they had left it the night before. Once she had the lights on she unlocked the safe and got the artifacts out. Once she had them spread out on the table she took the missing disk from her pocket and set it down with the other four disks. By request, Dawn was making the coffee. The coffee was made and they were all sitting at the table drinking some when Xander and Anya arrived. When he came through the door he had a big box of donuts with him as usual. As Buffy smiled at him fondly, the thought went through her mind that he really was 'The Donutman'. What surprised her was that he just set the box down without a comment and came over to sit next to her.
"I picked up some news at the Donut Shop" he said to her with a serious look on his face. "There were some policemen there and I heard them talking." Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were listening to him closely. "They were talking about a crypt being broken into at the Westfield cemetery. They were talking about how upset the family was and how they were offering a big reward for information about who broke into it. One of the officers was saying that he could retire on that much money."
"Anything else" Buffy asked?
"Yeah. I heard them talking about finding sledge hammers and pry bars laying on the ground and what looked like blood on the grass. They didn't say anything about finding dead demon bodies."
"And" Buffy prompted?
"One of them mentioned finding some crossbow arrows and a wooden stake" Xander finished.
"This is bad Buffy" Willow said with a note of alarm in her voice. "Crossbow arrows and wooden stakes point straight at you."
"That's what I thought" Xander added with concern in his voice.
"Not for the police" Buffy said, "their clueless. But it 'will' mean something to others."
"What are you going to do" Dawn asked?
"It's time to call Giles" Buffy said reluctantly. "Missing treasure, missing dead demons and big rewards for information means trouble, big trouble. We need some help with this, were getting in over our heads."
No one disagreed with her on that point. Buffy went to the phone behind the shop counter and dialed the long overseas number for where Giles was staying in London. The phone rang five times before a woman answered the phone. Buffy asked for Giles and it took a few minutes for him to come to the phone. When he did, the first thing he did was to ask if she was alright. It sent a warm feeling through her that the first thing he would ask was if she was okay.
She explained to him about the crypt being broken into and the treasure she had taken. She explained what Spike had said about the MacPherson family and her concern that the artifacts could be dangerous. She also told him about the big reward and how finding crossbow arrows and stakes pointed a finger straight at her in some quarters. Giles agreed that wasn't a good thing. She told him that the whole gang had been doing research for the past several days trying to find out something about the artifacts. She called Willow over to the phone and had her tell him everything they had found out so far. Willow also mentioned that one of the disks seemed to be able to make itself invisible.
This puzzled Giles greatly, he had never heard of that happening before. He told her to describe all of the artifacts to him slowly so he could take notes. He would pass the information on to the Counsel, they had a far vaster library of knowledge to search through than he did in Sunnydale. While Willow gave detailed descriptions of each of the artifacts as Buffy brought them to her the rest of the Scoobies listened closely. It took almost an hour for Willow to describe everything to Giles satisfaction. When she was done she gave the phone back to Buffy.
Giles told Buffy that he had some books in his apartment that might be helpful with their research. He told her that they were in a locked box under his bed and that Dawn knew where the key was hidden. Buffys eyes widened at this information but didn't comment on it. Giles also suggested that Willow and Tara try a spell of concealment on the artifacts, if they thought they could handle it on their own. He told her that one of the books in the box under his bed had a spell that should work if they had the right ingredients. They should take any supplies they needed from the shop. Buffy told him that she would talk to them about it. Giles told her to call him anytime if she needed anymore help and that he would call immediately if he came up with any information. The last thing he said to her was to 'Be Careful'.
When Buffy hung up the phone she told them all what Giles had said to her. She told Willow about the hidden books and the spell of concealment that was in one of them. Willows eyes got wide with excitement about the spell book. When she asked Buffy how they were going to get into Giles apartment to get the books or get the books out of the box, Buffy told them Dawn would take care of that part of the problem. When everyone started looking at Dawn for an explanation all she would say was that Giles trusted her with certain information.
Xander volunteered to take Dawn to Giles apartment and to bring the box of books back to the Magic Shop. Buffy agreed, but was still puzzled that Dawn knew where a key was to Giles apartment that no one else knew about and that she knew where he hid the key to the box of books. Xander and Dawn left immediately. It took a little over a half hour for them to make the round trip. When they returned it took both of them to carry the box from the car into the shop. As soon as Buffy saw how heavy the box was she lent a hand to carry it to the work table. Once they set the box down Dawn pulled a key out of her pocket and unlocked the padlock on the box.
Willow and Tara started sorting through the books right away. A number of them were spell books that dealt with the dark arts of magic. Others were very old reference books that were irreplaceable and explained why Giles didn't keep them at the Magic Shop. Some of them were written in languages that none of them could read. Tara found a very small one that seemed to be written in the same runic writing that was on one of the disks. As they searched through the books Buffy found another book written in a writing that matched one of the other disks. Xander found a book that had a hand drawn picture in it of one of the artifacts from the 'unknown what it is' pile. A half hour later he found a second picture.
Willow was going through the spell books looking for the spell of concealment spell that Giles had mentioned. As she browsed through the spell books looking for it her eyes kept getting wider and wider at the other spells she was coming across. It took her an hour to find the one she wanted and an other hour for her and Tara to work out the details of the spell and the list of ingredients they would need to preform the spell. With Anya's help Tara started going through the shop gathering all of the ingredients they would need. Willow continued to go through the spell books greedily searching for other spells.
For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening they continued their research. Almost by accident Willow found a long passage in one of the spell books that matched the writing on one of the other disks. So far they had found samples of writing that matched three of the disks and hand drawn pictures of two of the unknown artifacts in books they couldn't read.
Buffy decided that they had sufficient information to warrant calling Giles again. She dialed the number and waited while the phone rang nine or ten times before the same woman as before answered the phone. When Buffy asked for Giles she was told he wasn't available at the moment but would be given a message to return the call. Thirty-four minutes later the phone rang and Buffy picked it up on the first ring.
Buffy explained why she had called him again and described the books that had the writing that matched the disks, including the information that one of the books was a spell book. She next described the book that Xander had found the hand drawn pictures in that matched two of the artifacts. When Giles started saying 'Oh my, Oh my' over and over she became very concerned.
Giles asked to speak to Willow and talked to her for ten minutes. The only words Willow said during the entire conversation were 'Yes' and 'U-huh'. As Giles talked to her Willows eyes became very wide and a look of fear was on her face. When Giles was finished with her she handed the phone back to Buffy.
When Buffy was back on the phone Giles told her that the situation was very serious and that she should do whatever Willow told her to do to conceal the artifacts and his books. He told her that he was going to pass the information she had given him on to the Counsel and would then catch the first plane that was available to return to Sunnydale. He reemphasized that the situation was very dangerous and that they could all be in jeopardy. His last words to her were to be 'Very, Very Careful'.
When Buffy hung up the phone she sat there looking at it for over a minute. Everyone else held their silence. Buffy finally shook off her daze and looked over to Willow who still looked very frightened. "Okay Willow" Buffy said in a strained voice, "Giles said your calling the shots on this one. What do you want us to do?"
Willow sat there for several moments pulling herself together. A very determined look settled on her face as she looked at her friends. "Okay everyone, I'm only going to tell you once, do exactly what I tell you and no argument's. Anya, write a note that the shop is closed for a family emergency and tape it in the window. Then get all the cash out of the safe and keep it with you. Tara get all the ingredients together in a bag and hold on to them. Buffy wrap up the artifacts like you did when you first brought them to the shop the other morning. Dawn, you and Xander collect the books and put them back in the box. Get the one that you found the description of the pentagram and the disks in too. And everyone, get weapons. Willow picked up the spell book that had the spell of concealment in it and started reading the spell again carefully.
When everything was ready and everyone was waiting on her Willow looked up from the spell book. "Okay, Xander take Anya with you and go get enough cloths for both of you to last at least a week. Call your boss and tell him that someone in your family out of town is deathly ill and you are leaving tonight to be with them. When you finish that meet the rest of us at Buffys. Don't waste any time, do you hear me?"
Xander swallowed loudly and nodded his head. He looked around at the rest of his friends and could see that they were as frightened as he was by what Willow had just told him to do. He grabbed Anya by the hand and hurriedly left the Magic Shop.
"Buffy you and Dawn carry the box of books out to your car, Tara and I will carry the rest. And Buffy, if anyone tries to stop us, vampire, demon or human, kill them, don't waste time."
Buffy got a grim look on her face, but didn't argue or say anything. Willow picked up the artifacts and the spell book. Tara was carrying the spell ingredients. Willow turned out the lights and locked the door behind her. They all got into the car and Buffy drove quickly home.
Willow made them carry the books into the house, she didn't want them left in the car. As soon as they got inside she told Tara to gather some cloths for both of them for a week. She told Buffy and Dawn to do the same. Willow went to the phone and called the university and left messages for instructors that both she and Tara would be out of town for a week because of a family emergency. She then called Dawns school and left a message on their machine that Dawn and her sister were leaving town because a family member in another state had a deathly illness and they would be gone all week. By the time she had finished the calls Dawn, Tara and Buffy were coming down the stairs.
When they gathered in front of her she told Tara to go to the kitchen and gather any food together that wouldn't spoil for a few days and pack it up. She told Buffy to gather up some blankets, towels, washcloths, soap and toilet paper. She told Dawn to gather up all the candles, flashlights and batteries she could find. While they were doing this she sat down on the box of books and started reading the spell book again.
When Xander and Anya arrived she told them to help carry all the stuff out to the cars. As Buffy, Tara and Dawn brought the things they had gathered to the living room they all started carrying things to the cars. When everything was loaded except the books, artifacts and spell ingredients they gathered in front of Willow again for her next instructions.
"Alright" Willow said to them in her most serious and determined tone of voice "were almost ready. We've got two hours to get where were going, unload everything and hide the cars. We have to be hidden before midnight so that I can cast the spell at midnight. Let's load up the books and the other stuff now."
Xander helped Buffy carry the box of books back out to her car. Tara had the spell ingredients and Willow had the artifacts and the spell book. Dawn ran ahead to open the car door for Buffy and Xander. Willow locked the door to Buffys house behind her as she left.
With everything packed and ready to go they gathered around Willow again. "Now, I don't want any argument's about this last part! Were going where I say were going and were going to stay there, at least until Giles shows up, maybe longer." Everyone nodded their agreement.
"Okay Wil, we do what you say" Buffy said to her quietly, "but where are we going?"
"Spike's place" Willow said with an evil grin on her face.
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(To Be Continued)