Kaci by AineRose

Chapter Two

Easing herself into the seat, Willow averted everybody’s eyes.

“Will? You okay?” Buffy asked, honestly concerned.

Willow looked at her. “Hm?” she said blankly.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

Willow frowned. “I’m fine. Really. I just…had a dream last night and I didn’t get much sleep after.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Kennedy asked.

“I did. You fell back asleep.” Seeing the guilty look on her girlfriend’s face she hastily added, “But it was okay ‘cause I told you to.”

Kennedy looked guilty still but she brushed it off.

“As I was saying,” Giles broke in. “If we separate into groups of two or three we can successfully cover the city every night. We may be able to let some of you have a few nights off a week if we can organise a schedule…” Giles voice faded out as Willow went back to her thoughts.

“Willow!”

Her head snapped up again. “Yes?” she asked meekly.

“Will you be able to do that for me?”

Willow blinked. The girls were at the weapons cabinet, choosing stakes and swords and preparing for patrol. Buffy, Xander, Dawn, Faith, Giles and Angel were all still sitting at the table, waiting for her response. After a prolonged silence, the girls looked up.

“Uh…”

Giles sighed audibly. “Have you listened to a word I have spoken, Willow?”

“Um, well…Oh, there was a bit about a schedule and, and um slayers?”

Giles massaged his temples. Willow blushed and looked down. Xander patted her hand. “Maybe you should take a rest. It’s not like you to be spacing, especially during one of Giles’ daily lectures,” he said affectionately.

Willow shook her head. “No, no I’m alright.” She looked at Giles. “What do I have to do?”

Giles looked at Buffy and Faith. “You should go now, before it gets dark.”

Buffy nodded and the girls left quickly. Angel stood up, Gunn and Wesley in tow and they went off on their mission…whatever that was. Everyone else stirred to do the same.

“Willow, a word please?” Giles motioned for her.

Xander whistled under his breath. “That’ll teach you for having those dirty, kinky dreams, Will. Don’t worry,” he winked. “You’ll get used to it after a while.”

“Xander!” she swatted at him.

Xander did nothing but dodge and grin roguishly. Standing up, he tipped an imaginary hat and said, “I must be going, my fair lady. There are semi-naked witch-y pictures to be observed.”

Willow stared after him and shook her head. Sometimes that man was so strange…

Giles was still waiting for her in Angel’s office, and Willow hurried over.

Giles shut the large, fusty tome he had picked up, perched himself at the edge of Angel’s desk and fixed her with a pointed look. Willow shifted from foot to foot. How was it that she had become evil, killed people, tried to destroy the world and fought a magic addiction and yet she was still intimidated by authority figures, namely Giles?

Giles features softened and he immediately changed from stuffy watcher to caring father. “I’m worried about you,” he stated.

“I’m fine, really,” she protested. Giles didn’t look so convinced.

“You said you had a dream last night.”

“I did. It’s not a big deal. I don’t understand why everyone is going crazy about it!”

“Willow, calm down.”

“I am calm!” she shouted. She blinked in surprise. “It’s just…everyone expects me to be on top of it, every day, for seven years! I mean, I have a bad dream and suddenly it’s the end of the world?! I’m not Buffy, Giles, or a slayer!”

“But you are connected to them,” Giles said quietly. Willow stared it him. “You think I had a prophetic dream?” she asked, incredulously.

“There is a chance that perhaps-”

“It wasn’t.” Her voice was steady and her chin was raised. Giles recognised it as one step away from her resolve face.

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Willow was beginning to get cranky.

“Do you think I can’t handle a dream by myself? I’m not that dependant on all of you! I’m my own woman, that you very much! I mean, really, I have had dreams before. There’s no need for everyone to go spazzy on me! I didn’t know it was such a big deal. The dream wasn’t even that big, for your information, but now you keep bringing it up and I can’t stop thinking about it and Oz is supposed to stop me from doing this!” she cried. She clapped her hand to her mouth in surprise.

Giles stared at her. He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and began to clean his glasses thoroughly. “Ah.”

“Ah? What does ‘ah’ mean?” She had calmed down by now.

Giles put his glasses back on and stared at her. “‘Ah’ means I didn’t know you still thought about Oz.”

Accepting defeat, Willow sunk into Angel’s chair behind the desk. “See that’s the thing, Giles. I don’t think about him, ever. Except when I saw Devon at the Bronze or when I saw that werewolf pez dispenser in the grocery store. And there is that whole Dingoes being the number one band in the country but…”

“Did you buy it, the werewolf toy?” Giles asked.

Willow nodded and looked down.

“But, apart from that dream we all had where the First Slayer tried to kill us, I haven’t dreamed about Oz since he left. And it was so real, Giles. It was like reliving a memory.” She lapsed into silence. Giles was silent, too.

Finally, he said, “Was it Oz, or the wolf?”

“Oz,” she said firmly.

“And you’re sure it never happened?”

Willow smiled, “Like Oz could ever afford a room like that.”

Giles’ eyes widened. “Oh, oh. Pardon me, Willow, I thought it was a nightmare,” he spluttered.

Willow stared at him in confusion, wondering why he was so uncomfortable all of a sudden. “Oh! No! It wasn’t a sexy dream! It wasn’t a nightmare either. It was just…nice.”

“Nice? How do you mean?”

“Just… nice.”

Giles cleared his throat. “Maybe you should go through the whole dream for me, Willow,” he suggested.

“Um, well, we were in bed, -not doing anything sexy- and then I woke up and Oz was looking at me and then we had a daughter but Xander took her to the carnival and I was babbling in worry and then Oz stopped me by kissing me and we kissed for a while and then he said he loved me and I said I loved him, too and then I woke up.” She took a deep breath.

Giles stared at her. “I didn’t know it was possible to say that many words in one breath.” He paused again. “You have been terribly jumpy around me today, Willow. You’re acting like you’re sixteen again,” he informed her.

“But back to your dream,” he continued. “I believe that there has been so much about Oz and the, er, Dingoes recently that your subconscious is taking in all the facts you know and sending you a message in your sleep as a dream. Perhaps you need to face the problem head-on,” he suggested.

Willow didn’t look convinced. “I don’t know, Giles. That makes sense but…it was so real! Giles, I could taste him! I could smell him! When I woke up my lips were all tingly!”

“That might just be your memory kicking in,” Giles mused. “Perhaps we should get in touch with Oz. I know Angel keeps in contact with him-“

“No!” Willow cut in. “No, that’s a really bad idea! I’ll be fine, Giles. I just need to get some rest.”

Giles still looked doubtful.

“You don’t want to see him?”

“I don’t want to hurt him,” she whispered. “Wolfy Oz is not something that’s gonna get Dingoes a sell-out concert.”

Giles sighed. “I suppose your right.”

“Giles?” Angel was standing at the door, a huge box in his hands. “Sorry to interrupt. We got the stuff.”

“Ah. Of course.”

Angel looked at Willow. “Where should I put this?”

Confused, she looked at Giles.

He motioned to Angel. “Put it over there by the bookcase, if you’d be so kind. I’m sorry, Willow, I got sidetracked. I wonder if perhaps you could do some work for me?”

“Magic stuff?” she asked, feeling apprehensive.

“There will be some magic involved, yes,” he admitted. “But it’s mostly computer and research. I need you to try and track down all the new slayers. After that, I need details on demonic activity here in L.A. sorted out, filed and so on. It will need someone with an expertise of the occult. I, unfortunately, have my hands full with twenty odd Buffy and Faiths and I simply do not have the time to sort through various gibberish in order to find the necessary data.” He looked deeply bitter. “Dawn will be around to assist you, of course. As will Xander, Andrew, Robin, Fred and Gunn.” He paused for a moment. “Do you think you could do that for me? It would be of tremendous assistance and I know how much you like to study those things and its not as if you would be doing it all the time, just when you could and-”

“Giles!” she giggled. “You’re babbling,” she informed him. “Of course I’ll do it for you! When do I start?” she looked around the room excitedly.

“As soon as possible,” Giles said brightly. “Now if you want.”

Willow grinned and pulled her laptop off the desk. She grabbed several books and set to work. Laying her hands on the keyboard, ready to write, she paused. “Maybe I should make a list,” she said sheepishly.

Giles smiled warmly and followed Angel out of the room. “I’ll leave you to work in peace,” he said as he closed the door behind him.

“Angel,” he said quietly. “Can I speak with you?”

Angel obediently followed him to one of the rooms upstairs. “I need to know about Oz,” Giles stated, shutting the door behind him. Angel blinked. “What about him?”

“Just general things. How is he? Did he master the wolf?”

Angel sighed. “You can’t control the wolf, Giles. Oz learnt that. And he’s… okay.”

“Just okay?”

Angel shrugged. “He’s getting better. He,” here Angel paused briefly, as if to tell Giles that this was confidential information. “He still misses Willow. He’s getting better at hiding it but, well, I know the signs.”

Giles nodded. “You do indeed. So, what does he do for the full moon?”

“He can stop the transformation for about two days out of every month, which is good. On the other night he cages himself.”

“Does he stay here?

“He did until recently. He can afford his own cage now, in his huge mansion filled with tens of secret rooms. He stays in one of them.”

“Oh. What do his band mates think about that?”

Angel frowned. “You really don’t talk to him much, do you?”

“Never,” Giles admitted. “But, I mean, don’t they get suspicious if he’s hiding in a hidden room all night?”

Angel shifted from one foot to the other. “They know,” he said, very quietly.

“Pardon?” Giles asked loudly, not believing him.

“He told them.”

“Good Lord,” Giles muttered, removing his glasses and cleaning them on his shirt.

The End (for now)

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