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What a Mother Wouldn't Do	By : QueenB Category: -Buffy the Vampire Slayer > Het - Male/Female > Buffy/Giles Views: 5213 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
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- 11
“I’m waiting,” Giles said softly. The quiet voice did nothing to offset the hostile gleam in his eyes or the threat of the double crossbow aimed with unwavering steadiness at the demon’s chest.
“I’m telling you I don’t know anything more about her!” Clem yelled. “What I told you is all I got. I swear!”
Xander flexed his fists and glared. “Don’t you know it’s not polite to swear in front of ladies?”
A lambent glow floated around Willow’s fingers. “Don’t worry about me, Xander. I’ve heard worse and done worse than a little swearing.” A grim witchy smile was aimed in the wrinkled demon’s direction. “I wonder how hard it would be to flay a demon. Maybe taking off wrinkly, icky skin like yours would need a little more effort.”
What was wrong with these humans? Having dismissed their earlier conversation from his mind, Clem had been enjoying a quiet night in front of the TV. Without warning the door to the crypt had flown open and all of Buffy’s friends and family had burst in, looking decidedly unfriendly and bearing several dangerous weapons. Even little Dawnie was sporting a sword and eyeing Clem like she wanted to shish kabob him with it.
“Look, why are you folks acting like this? I’ve always been friendly, haven’t I? I’ve babysat Dawn and helped you whenever you wanted information. Anya, tell ‘em! I’m not the enemy here!”
“Clem, I used to be a vengeance demon, remember? You’re not getting any sympathy from me when a woman’s in danger, that’s for sure.” Her eyes narrowed. “Especially if a male’s involved.”
“But you’re not into vengeance any more! And, anyway, you always saved the vengeance stuff for human males.” His beady eyes focused on her worriedly. “Didn’t you?”
She flipped her hand. “Halfrek always used to tell me I should diversify my vengeance. Who says it’s just for humans any more?”
“You know, it’s no wonder Spike left town if this was the way you guys treated--”
An arrow flew through the air and embedded itself in the soft backseat of the chair Clem was seated on. The demon gulped and shrank into silence.
“My wife and the child she’s carrying are missing. So you’ll forgive me if I’m completely indifferent both to your present wellbeing and Spike’s past suffering.”
The menace in Giles’s tone deepened. “You know more about the Green Lady than you’re telling. We were nearly made the victims of a magical trap, a detail you failed to mention in your summary of the Green Lady and her abilities.”
“I told you, she’s a mystery even to the demon world. I gave you all I know!”
“If your memory needs jogging, I’ll be perfectly willing to have Xander hold you down while I beat the information out of you. Or perhaps we can have Willow do something of a…magical nature to your body.”
“Yeah, she could iron out those wrinkles for you,” Dawn muttered.
“Hey, kiddo, don’t be like that. I like you, I like your sister. She’s gone to bat for me a few times when I’ve needed help from Mr. Teeth. Trust me, if I knew anything about the Green One, I’d tell you. All I know is she hangs out in the oak forests of Scotland. That’s it, I sw--” Xander grunted. “It’s the truth. I mean it.”
Dawn rested the point of her sword on the crypt floor. Holding it upright got tiring after a while. “There’s got to be more on her. You said she’s an elder demon.”
His head bobbed on his shoulders. “R-right. You got it.”
“So why does she look like she does?” Willow mused.
“Like what?” Xander asked. “Don’t forget. Some of us never saw Ms. I-Like-My-Babies-Raw-and-Tender.”
“She was pretty. I mean in a totally skanky way. But she looked really human. How did she feel when you were kissing her, Giles?”
“You were kissing her? And you’re here trying to track down your woman? You humans don’t know how to behave, do you?” Clem smirked until Giles raised the crossbow again.
“That’s quite beside the point. What I believe we’re trying to ascertain is why a demon of her supposed age looks and acts like a human female. Most older demons like Kakistos and the Master have discernibly demonic features that make it impossible for them to pass as human.”
“Let’s not forget she feels like a human female, too, G-Man. I mean, she had to be a good kisser otherwise you’d be wigging instead of blushing.”
Giles smothered the urge to snap at Xander while Willow tried to sort out the puzzle. “Maybe her looks are a kind of glamour, something to help her move in the human world.”
“But Clem claims that she keeps to herself. She avoids demons and casts a spell over humans so that they forget having seen her. I doubt many humans come in contact with her,” Giles replied, waving the crossbow again at the demon. Clem cringed in the armchair as he tried to make himself a smaller target.
“Especially if she’s creeping into people’s houses at night to get to their kids like a demented version of Peter Pan,” Dawn added.
“Maybe her appearance is a symbol of the anxiety of human mothers. That would explain why that Margie woman sensed her in the house and Buffy remembered her when you and Willow had forgotten. She’s beautiful like the miracle of childbearing but she poses a threat to the newborn like the world outside the womb. Heck, even today women still die in childbirth,” Anya observed. “What?” she snapped when the others stared at her. “I can be insightful too, you know.”
“Anya has a point. It’s been well documented in the past how demons can sometimes take on the shape and function of human fears. Like Gachnar’s ability to use human terror to enable his entry into our world, for example,” Giles mused. He chose to overlook Anya’s statement about death in childbirth. He was anxious enough about his beloved wife as it was.
“Don’t forget those fake kids that demon used as a cover when MOO tried to burn me, Buffy and Amy at the stake,” Willow added.
“You were being burnt by cows? Were they mutant, demonic bovines or what?”
“NO, Anya. Mothers Opposed to the Occult. For once all the folks in Sunnydale smartened up about the naughty evil afoot. They just picked the wrong targets.”
“Really? And they were trying to burn you?” Anya clucked her tongue. “You Americans don’t know anything about history. Witches weren’t burnt in the colonies; they were hung. The practice of burning witches was strictly a European custom.”
“Gee, I’ll be sure to point that out to them the next time I’m the target of an angry mob,” the redhead replied sarcastically.
Anya sighed. “Wow, a good old-fashioned witch burning. That takes me back.”
“Happy, fun memories aside, you’re saying Green Gal is here because the good folks of Sunnydale somehow brought her here?” Xander asked.
“I believe that may be the case, Xander.”
“But wait a minute. That Seversen guy brought the forest from Scotland. So he’s the one who’s responsible for her being here. Right?” Dawn looked around at the others.
“Perhaps. But Mr. Seversen doesn’t believe in such things and it’s doubtful whether the Green Lady was preying on babies back in Scotland. Otherwise he would have mentioned it when Willow and I questioned him as to whether he’d noted anything unusual in their acquisition.”
“So she became just a legend and rumor in Scotland because, what, people there stopped believing in her?” Xander asked. “That makes a sense that’s not. The folks in Sunnydale don’t believe in vampires either but the undead population is alive and jumping. Well, unalive and jumping us, anyway.”
“They may not consciously believe in such creatures, Xander. But the denizens of Sunnydale don’t deny the presence of otherworldly beings. They simply repress what they know to be true. Remember, this town has over forty churches on its grounds. So at some unconscious level they know and believe in werewolves, vampires, wiccans…”
“Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my,” Xander finished.
Giles paced up and down, the excitement of this new idea momentarily overriding worry about his precious Buffy. “The collective unconscious of the human mind is a strange and wondrous thing. Couple it with the power of the Hellmouth and we’re talking about a force that has the ability to summon monsters, reshape reality and wield its powers on an unsuspecting public. Don’t forget how perceiving Marcie as invisible caused her to disappear from sight,” he reminded them.
“Then the Green Lady may have gotten to Buffy because Buffy’s been all scared since she knew she was pregnant.”
“Buffy’s been frightened during her pregnancy? I knew she was experiencing some anxiety but I didn’t know she was actually afraid. What has she been telling you, Dawn?” Giles asked.
“Nothing special. Just worries about living on the Hellmouth. Scared to stay, too worried about what’ll happen if she leaves. Worried about the baby’s future if she dies, scared that you may take off and leave her if Council business comes up. That sort of thing. No big.”
“Goodness. I had no idea she felt that way. Why didn’t she say anything to me?”
Dawn shrugged, uneasy under Giles’s searching look. “She kept on putting it down to Pregnant Lady hormones swinging out of control so she told me not to say anything to you.”
Clem had been keeping his mouth shut during this whole exchange. Their attention seemed to have removed itself from him and that was the way he wanted to keep it. He eased himself carefully out of the chair, cringing when his butt caused a small squeak as it rubbed against the fabric.
Instantly, Giles’s crossbow swung up and pointed unerringly in his direction. “I don’t advise you to try it. I seated you in that chair for a reason. Every movement produces a loud noise. I’ll hear you if you so much as scratch yourself.”
“And I’m hoping he doesn’t because it is supreme-o nasty watching him dig through those flaps,” Dawn said.
“Oh, like watching you pick your nose when you think no one’s watching is better,” Clem groused. “Look, you guys seemed to have figured things out pretty well by yourselves. You don’t need me and I can’t help you.”
Xander leaned over the chair and brought his face close to Clem’s. “You can lead us back through the forest. I’m pretty certain whatever Fear Factor scenario is set up there won’t have any effect on you. Am I right?”
“Fear Factor? What are you talking about?”
“When we tried looking for Her Greenness, we got all these vibes sending us at each other’s throats,” Dawn told him.
“Yeah, it was a total killing field scene and we were nearly the victims,” Willow said. “You might have warned us about that before we went skipping off like little Red Riding Hoods going to grandma’s house.”
“You folks are way off. The Green Lady doesn’t make humans scared of her. It’s just the opposite. She usually attacks while people are sleeping and her shtick is to keep humans comatose and peaceful so she can drain the life out of their spawn. She wouldn’t want people to be wetting themselves in fear. That just doesn’t make any sense.”
Clem appeared to be sincere. “So what was it we were feeling in the forest? There was something there. That skinned baby didn’t come from nowhere,” Anya observed.
Clem’s forehead wrinkled even more, making it seem as if his head were about to collapse in on itself. “Skinned? Okay, that’s definitely not the Green Lady’s m.o. She drains babies of blood. No skin peeling from her. That sounds more like the work of Black Annis.”
“Black Annis? Good Lord, I’ve heard of her,” Giles muttered.
“Me too. Nasty demon. Halfrek hated her with a passion. She used to hang out in Scotland, too, as I recall,” Anya mused.
Xander raised his hand. “Uh, hello? Clueless in the room. Mind filling us in on this Black Annie character?”
“Black Annis is a hideous, huge hag of a creature. She lives inside an enormous hollowed-out tree in the middle of an oak forest. She prefers the--skins of her victims rather than the blood,” Giles answered.
“Great. Another skin peeler comes to Sunnydale. What, did I start some sort of trend?” Willow asked.
“So Mr. Seversen brought two demonic women over the waves with him? Man, those people at Customs just aren’t trying any more!”
“Xander, shut up. This isn’t funny.” Dawn turned to Giles. “D-do you think this Black Annis has Buffy?”
“It’s not a likely possibility. Since Buffy didn’t join us there, she couldn’t have seized her. Black Annis, by all accounts, is forced by her height and monstrous appearance to remain hidden from human view within the forest.”
“So how did Black Annis get her baby victim?” Anya asked. “She can’t go into houses like the Green Lady. According to the legends she prefers older children because they’re the ones most likely to wander off and go running into forests where she can snatch them up. Babies aren’t exactly known for their motor skills.”
“Maybe they’re working together,” Clem ventured. He shrugged when they stared at him again. “It was just a suggestion.”
“No, I think you may have something,” Giles mused. “If these two demonic women did arrive together from Scotland to Sunnydale, then it’s conceivable they might have combined their forces. Stranger alliances have happened.”
“Yeah, let’s not forget Leather Boy teaming up with the Big Blue to rid the world of humanity. And what kind of dumb idea was that anyway? Didn’t Angelus think about what would happen to bloodsuckers without human kibble to nosh on?”
Giles ignored Xander to focus on the problem at hand. “So Black Annis is hiding in the forest, possibly with the Green Lady, and using fear to avoid human scrutiny. It makes sense. Many people in the past would have tried hunting her there in order to retrieve their lost children. Black Annis would be far more likely to use fear to scotch the plans of her human enemies.”
“Why not just burn down the forest and get her that way? Wouldn’t that make more sense than hunting her?” Dawn asked.
“They probably clung to the hope that their children were still alive somehow. They wouldn’t have wanted to burn their own offspring if they thought they could retrieve them safely.”
“Could we burn her out now? The only house close by is that condo and that’s mostly brick, steel and concrete. If I chain down the winds, I should be able to keep the flames under control,” Willow added.
“No, let’s not forget what Clem just told us. It may be that Black Annis and the Green Lady have formed a partnership. If that’s the case, then they may well have Buffy with them.”
“And if they’ve got Buffy stashed somewhere else, then we track the Big Black Bitca down and force her to squeal like a pig. I’m all for it.” Xander hefted his axe. “Let’s lock and load, people.”
Clem grinned feebly. “Well, sounds like you guys have got a great plan. Now if you’ll let me get back to my show--”
“Oh no,” Giles said. That deceptively soft tone had returned to his voice. Willow wondered how such a quiet voice could sound so menacing. Giles could be way creepier than she ever was even with her blackened eyes.
“Aw, come on! You’ve got your answer and you’ve got more weapons than a martial arts film! Whaddaya need me for?”
“As previously stated, Black Annis is cloaking herself with terror. She may use that again. That’s where you come in. You shall lead us through the forest until we find her. If you attempt to betray or abandon us, I will bring you down and Willow will peel you like a grape,” Giles said. The light conversational tone made him sound as if he was discussing what foods to pack for a picnic.
Clem shivered. “Okay, that sounded like a threat.”
“It is.”
“Look, Black Annis is HUGE! From what I hear, she’s the size of a ten-story building and tougher than a tank. How’re you gonna take down something like that?”
“We turned Mayor Wilkins into snake meat. We can deal.” Xander twirled the axe for emphasis.
Clem peered at them. “I heard about that. That was you guys?”
“Well, us and several crates of explosives,” Xander clarified.
“Well, I hope you packed your dynamite kit. Black Annis and the Green Lady are bad news. I don’t want to mess with them. You don’t want to mess with them! Trust me on this. Even demons who only eat children can be dangerous to adults.”
“Hey, the G-Man here went up against Lurconis.”
The demon snorted with contempt. “Oh, please. Lurconis was trapped underground. He was kinda limited in mobility. He had to have humans bring him his sacrifices, for pete’s sake. He was a bit of a joke, if you ask me.”
“We didn’t, Pruneface. We’re asking you to take us to this Black Angus.”
“Black Annis, Xander,” Giles corrected absently. “I believe Black Anguses are cows.”
“Whatever. Get moving, Clementine. You can bring your Nachos if you’re feeling hungry.”
“Oh no. He’s not bringing that trash into my car,” Giles protested.
“And he’s not riding with us, Xander. I don’t want to be rolling around in fast food snack crumbs that next time we decide to have sex in the car.”
“Spike was right. How the hell you people ever manage to fight demons is beyond me. You’re seriously lacking in organizational sk--”
“SHUT UP!!” they all chorused.
“You’re riding with us,” Dawn stated. “You can forget the chips.”
As they left, Giles murmured to Xander, “About what he said about packing dynamite…”
“Say no more, G-Man. I’ve got the keys to the latest construction site. I think we’ve got a few spare explosives lying around.”
“Capital.” Giles raised his voice. “We’re making a little detour, people.”
Dawn stopped and looked at both men. “What? No, we can’t! Buffy’s in trouble. We can’t afford to waste any time!”
“What’re we getting anyway?” Anya demanded.
A Ripperish grin settled over Giles’s face. “Leverage.”
__________
The Slayer smiled in her sleep. The mild heat was comforting. And that silken voice was crooning in a language she couldn’t place yet seemed vaguely familiar. It sounded like a lullaby, like it was her mother. The thought was a sweet one and Buffy drew closer to it even as she sank further into that enveloping warmth.
The singing drew nearer. A soft hand propped up her head and a hard rim was pressed to her lips. Buffy wrinkled her nose. The stuff smelled off and, anyway, she was too comfortable as she was and didn’t want to move. She tried to bat away the offending smell. But her hands wouldn’t move. This worried her in some dim corner of her mind and she struggled to wake.
“Sssssh. Relax. Don’t worry, darling. Everything’s being taken care of. Just drink this. You’ll feel better.”
Her lips parted automatically and a sweet liquid flowed over her tongue. She gulped it down and then nearly gagged on the bitter aftertaste. Ugh, what was this stuff? It tasted a little like one of Giles’s teas that he was always making her try.
Giles…
The singing returned, now with an odd urgency in it as if it was trying to push her down into the darkness. Buffy began to thrash about, battling the urge to remain asleep. The song grew louder but she used thoughts of Giles to pull herself towards the light. Her eyelids lifted themselves with difficulty and Buffy met an amused pair of dark eyes.
“My, aren’t you the strong-willed one? Lucky for me I didn’t try hypnotizing you the way I did with your fiancé.” She lifted up the small pouch dangling on a chain between her breasts. “Sleeping powder. The way to go if you’re taking down feisty fighters like yourself.”
“Who…?” Buffy’s eyes flitted over the woman. She was wearing a lovely, quite expensive looking green dress. Was that Laura Ashley? “Oh, it’s you. Moss Gal.”
The amused smile vanished. “That’s Green Lady, ignorant human. But you can call me Ms. Icqueen.”
“I’m calling you dead meat when I catch you.” Buffy tried to move. But her hands were immobile. Looking up to her hands, she saw that her wrists were handcuffed, the chain linking them wrapped around a sturdy rod in a headboard. The whole thing looked to be made of a strong, unyielding metal. Tugging harder at it, Buffy found she was unable to budge it in the slightest.
“Don’t bother, my dear. After that encounter in the alley, I realized I was dealing with a stronger-than-average female and bought the chains just for you. The bed is an acquisition I bought out of town in a quaint little shop that specializes in erotic furniture. It’s quite sturdy so you can forget about breaking it.”
“You sleep in a bed? I thought maybe you just hunkered down on dead grass in a cave somewhere.” Taking the chance to look around, Buffy saw she was in what appeared to be an elegantly decorated room. The furnishing were obviously costly and in good taste. In fact, it reminded Buffy a lot of Glory’s old digs. There was a fireplace with an actual fire lit in it, bathing the room in a soft, fiery glow.
An ornate cradle with two suitcases propped against it stood in one corner. There was no sound coming from it but Buffy was certain by the protective way the Green Lady hovered near it that her child was within.
Ms. Icqueen snorted. “Not all supernatural creatures like bedding down in dank hovels or slimy pits. Some of us have come to covet the things of the human world.”
“Like porn on the Internet or Gummy Bears?” Buffy asked. She tugged at the bands again. Nothing. She tried shifting her weight to get a better purchase. But her legs wouldn’t budge either. Buffy lifted her head to scan her body but it was impossible to get a good view over her distended belly. Flexing her legs, she could feel tight bands around her ankles. Attempts to move them produced no more result than her tries at freeing her hands and Buffy felt a chill tendril of fear work over her.
But whatever the woman had planned, she obviously didn’t mean to kill Buffy, at least not right away. The Slayer decided to play for time. “Nice place you’ve got here. What’d you pay in, shiny stones?”
“It’s surprisingly inexpensive given its location. Housing in Sunnydale is very cheap and I’ve put a little away for a very long time. I didn’t just rob homes of their offspring, you know.”
“So you’re a naughty little thief and a cradle robber. Where’d you steal the Gucci bags?”
“They’re not Gucci. They’re the tanned skins of human children an--associate of mine tossed away.” The amusement returned to the dark eyes. “Are all Slayers so curious or is it just you?”
“You know I’m a Slayer? Then you know you’re in deep trouble, lady. Oh, wait. Lady is just an honorary title, isn’t it?”
“I am millennia old and have heard of the Slayer although I was fortunate never to encounter one. But, as to your Slayer status, I only became aware of that very recently. I did some snooping about you after you dispatched those vampires. Then tonight I heard your fiancé in the forest talking about you. That’s when I knew for sure. After that, I just had to have you.” The dulcet tone became greedy and ruby dark eyes swept over her prone figure.
“Have me? Like on a date? Sorry, Ms. Ick Queer, I don’t swing that way. Why don’t you look up my friend Willow? She’d be real happy to see you.” And then I hope she rips the skin off your bones, you bitch.
The otherworldly creature tapped her lips with a well-manicured fingernail. “Would that be the redhead I saw in the magic store? She’s a powerful one. I could sense it just from being in the room with her. Thanks for the recommendation, darling. But, I think I’ll avoid her, if it’s all the same to you.”
“You won’t be avoiding her for long once she finds out I’m missing. She’ll be after your sorry ass, maybe throw the furniture around just to bust up the place a little.” Buffy shifted on the bed again. She noticed a slick crinkliness underneath her butt whenever she moved and tilted her head to get a glimpse of what was under her. Her butt was resting not on soft sheets but on a cloth made of plastic material like something from a hospital. “What the hell is going on? Are you into some weird kind of kink?”
“Oh, that’s just part of the preparations I’ve made.” She turned to the cradle and lifted a small bundle out of it. Bringing it to the bed, she turned it so Buffy could see.
A child, for want of a better word, lay in her arms. Even from her limited viewpoint, Buffy could tell something was wrong with it. The skin seemed to bulge and ripple in places as if the child were nothing more than an overstuffed Beany Baby. The shifting firelight made the eyes shadowy and uncertain. But tiny pinpoints of red seemed to flicker in the hollow sockets. When it opened its mouth, Buffy saw a jaw empty of teeth and gaping wider than any baby should have been able to manage. “Ugh. I’m taking it that’s Gruesome stuffed with his latest feeding.”
“My Murtaugh. I know he looks loathsome to you. But he’s my child and I think he’s lovely.” The baby was graced with a tender smile as she rocked him. “The Hellmouth has proved very bounteous in providing both fodder and strength for my boy. Thanks to its power, blood offerings last a lot longer with him than in Scotland. In the old days I had to go hunting for him every three or four days. Here, he needs a blood infusion only every two months or so.”
She rocked from side to side, stroking the baby all the while. “It was horrible there this last century. Some of the locals, the older folk, believed in me still. But the younger ones couldn’t care less. There were days when I felt myself fading away, crumbling at the edges, just like my son.
“When I’d heard they were going to uproot the forest, I was terrified beyond belief. Humans have been steadily pushing us back ever since you crawled out of the primordial slime. And now my home was going to go the way of the dinosaur.”
“And you with it, I’m betting.”
“Quite so. But then I was brought to the Hellmouth.” Her eyes lit up, the reddened glow from the fire reflected in their depths. “Here there is power to spare. But, if I’d known there was a Slayer here, I would have left sooner.”
“So the $60,000 question is what do you want with me? You know I’m going to stop you sooner or later. Why not just kill me?” A spasm gripped her and Buffy caught her breath in surprise. That hadn’t felt right, nothing like her usual kicks from her baby.
The infernal glow returned to those dark eyes and the Green Lady leaned closer. “Are you feeling all right, Slayer? What’s the matter? Little Junior acting up?” Ms. Icqueen purred.
“I’m just fine. Worry about your own little blood sausage.”
“Oh, I am. That drink I gave you earlier was an abortifacient.” At Buffy’s blank look, she clarified, “A drug that induces abortion of a fetus.”
Fear gripped her. “What?! No, you can’t--I’m too far along!”
“I know. If this had been done at three weeks or sooner, there would have been some discomfort and you would have expelled nothing more than a bloody discharge in the sheets or the toilet. After that, you would have been fine. You might even be able to have more children.”
Another ripple of pain seized her belly and Buffy gasped. The Green Lady continued as if nothing had happened although she never shifted her eyes from the Slayer’s recumbent form.
“Now, however, this will be more of a premature birth. Your baby will survive--at least long enough for me to bleed it. I’m not so certain you will. Still, Slayers are renowned for their strength. You may survive the process.”
Buffy glared at her in hatred. “Why?” she gritted out. “This isn’t what you do. You steal newborns. You’re not proactive like this!”
The Green Lady frowned. “I’m not quite sure what that word means. But if you’re suggesting that I don’t normally go after full grown women and take their babies while still in utero, you’re quite right. For my own safety and that of my child, I’ve preferred…stealthier means in the past. But desperate times call for desperate measures.”
She pulled up a chair close to the bed. In a conversational tone she said, “Your little gang of friends are snooping about in my forest as we speak. They won’t find me, evidently because they’re as limited in their thinking about demons as you are. In fact, they’re in for a nasty surprise once they find what they’re looking for.”
She let out a tinkling laugh. “I have my friends, too, Slayer. She and I have worked out a nice symbiotic arrangement. As a bonus, she takes out anyone who goes snooping after me. She’ll deal with your friends, providing me with ample time for your baby to be born.”
The woman leaned closer, her eyes like glittering rubies in the light. “You see, I believe that if the blood from ordinary babies gives my Murtaugh strength, then the blood of a Slayer’s child will hold him for quite a while--long enough for the two of us to vanish from this place.”
“You’re leaving? Awww, and we were getting to be such good friends,” Buffy snarked.
The creature shrugged. “Make jokes if you must. But we’re pulling up stakes--no pun intended--and hitting the road. Thanks to you and your friends and that vampire attack the other night, I’ve decided that this place is just a little too hot for us.”
Buffy frowned. “How did those vampires get you anyway? I thought you were supposed to be this all-powerful, supernatural thing-y or other.”
“I have evaded capture and sight all these long, lonely millennia because I can make my body insubstantial and drift through even the tiniest crack in the most impenetrable fortress. The only time I become solid enough to be vulnerable to attack is when I’m carrying my child after he’s got a recent infusion of blood. Other than that, I’m as thin as the air and no human or demon can touch me.
“Another reason to leave this wretched hole. The Hellmouth may be a nice place to visit. But it’s no place to raise children.”
There was another agonized flare, longer this time, and Buffy bit her lip. Determined not to give this particular bloodsucker the satisfaction of seeing her pain, she gritted out, “You’re not going to take my baby.”
“I don’t want your baby. Just its blood.”
“Over my dead body, you bitch.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” The Green Lady stood up as if the conversation bored her. “Just lay back and relax, Slayer. Not that you have any choice in the matter. It should all be over soon.” She cast a lingering glance around her home. “You know, I’m really going to miss this place. I’ve come to think of it as home. You know how difficult it is to find decent housing with working fireplaces?”
Buffy couldn’t speak. The spasms were coming faster and stronger now and she had to save her strength to come up with a plan.
Things didn’t look good. She was trapped and her struggles were producing no effect. Her friends were also in danger if this monster’s word were to be believed. What the hell could she do?
She thought of Willow. The wiccan was clever and powerful. Ms. Icqueen had guessed as much and had probably taken precautions against being scryed for; Willow hadn’t had any luck in that department. But maybe there was another way to grab the redhead’s attention.
Praying that this would work, Buffy closed her eyes against the increasing ache from her abdomen and concentrated.
__________
The others stood before the enormous tree. It was the biggest one Giles had ever seen and he’d taken a trip to see the petrified sequoias of California once. It was a third as wide as a city block and seemed to stretch up for miles. How Mr. Seversen had managed to transport it across the ocean was a mystery.
Xander stared up into the branches disappearing into the darkness. “The bigger they are, the more equipment you need. Don’t worry, folks. I’m all on it.”
“You people are crazed. You can’t fight her. Since I’m the only one to see the insanity, I’ll be going now,” Clem babbled.
“Xander…”
“Don’t rush me, G-Man. There’s a lot of ground to cover.” He moved quickly, laying the various loads about the tree. “You know, we should all run to a safe distance before we set this stuff off.”
“And what would be a safe distance?” Willow murmured uneasily.
“Cleveland.”
“Whhhhhooooo darrrrres?” The words were sibilant whispers and seemed to come from everywhere at once. The air vibrated and all the Scoobies tensed as one.
“That would be us,” Xander answered since no one else seemed inclined to talk. Clem took advantage of their distraction to take off through the trees.
“Hey! Get your wrinkly butt back here, Chicken Little!” Xander yelled.
“Forget him, Xander. He’s done as requested. We don’t truly need him any longer.”
“I know, but still you’d think a demon would show more gumption. That guy is seriously lacking in gump. Forest gump.” Xander grinned at his own joke while the others grimaced.
Then the ground shook ever so slightly. Then there was another vibration and they all rocked back on their heels. Giles lifted his sword and waited.
Abruptly the side of the tree seemed to shift and then gaped open. A dim wavering light was cast upon the small group as if a fire were lit deep from within the bowels of the tree. A smell of rotting meat roiled from the entrance and almost all of them gagged from the stench.
Dawn wiped her streaming eyes. “Ewww! Did something die?”
“Ugh! What is that?” Willow gasped.
“Oh god. It’s the Bog of Eternal Stench,” Xander heaved.
Anya sniffed. “Hmmm. It’s probably from the cured human children skins. It also smells like human blood and feces. Maybe entrails too. I can’t be sure at this distance.”
Any further commentary was cut off as a shambling figure stepped into the light. Black Annis stood in the entry and stared down at them from her enormous height.
Clem had exaggerated her stature somewhat. She looked closer to three stories high rather than the previously stated ten. But, even so, she was impressive enough to make Xander mutter, “I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
“Huuuumans. Litttttttle huuuuumans.” She peered closer. “Nooo children.” She was obviously disappointed. “Oh, well, beggarsssss can’t be choooooosssssers.” She stretched down for them and they all lifted their weapons.
The next moment the hag’s reaching hand banged up against the invisible barrier Willow had set. She stretched her fingers and then pressed her whole weight against it. When no impression was made against the unseen wall around her, she hissed furiously and began banging her clublike fists into it.
“Forget it, lady. You’re stuck here. No getting out of that force field for you. We can keep you pinned down like a butterfly as long as we want--long enough for the authorities to catch hold of your filthy ass,” Dawn yelled.
“I ammmm eternallll, leeeetttle girl. No forcccccce of man can dessssstroy meeee,” the eldritch crone rasped.
“Maybe not. But I’m betting a little fire power could do some damage to that hut of yours,” Xander replied.
“Ignis!” At Willow’s spoken word, the tree trunk suddenly ignited. Flames licked up the trunk, reaching towards the lower branches.
The monster screeched in fear at seeing her home alight on the outside and battered at the flames with her hands until they went out. She glared hatefully at them. “What doooo you want?” she spat.
“You have a friend of ours in there. She’s small, about yea high,” Anya held her hand near her own head. “Fake blond and with a swollen stomach. We want her back.”
The giantess laughed, the sound like a rumbling of stones crashing down a mountain made of sandpaper. “The Sssssslayer? Noooo, fooolissssshhh humans. I have her not. Sssshe is captured by the Green.”
“The Green Lady has her? And she’s not with you? Where is she then?” Giles demanded.
That awful laugh resounded. “Wouldn’t you like to knoooow? Even with the wiitcccch’s power, it will taaake aaages for my treeeee to burn. Your Ssssslayer will be dead by then!”
The iron returned to his voice. “Tell me, you loathsome hag, or suffer the consequences.”
“And you will forcccce me how?”
“We have mighty weapons at our command. Much has changed since the olden days when you were a terror in Scotland and mankind trembled at the mention of your name. We wouldn’t come here unless we had the ways and means of bringing you down.”
The crone laughed again. “Aaaarogant words and preeeetty ssssspeeeeeches. I am not afraid of the likessss of yoooooou.”
Then the redhead swayed. “Gillles.”
“What is it, Willow?”
“It’s Buffy. I can hear her!”
“You can?” He recognized the slightly unfocused stare on her face. “She’s calling to you?”
“She is? I can’t hear anything? Buffy!” Dawn yelled.
Giles shook his head. “No, Willow can hear her telepathically. What is she saying?”
The redhead squinched up her brows and concentrated. “She’s in pain. She--the Green Lady’s got her.” Willow turned a fearful gaze on the former librarian. “She’s gonna take Buffy’s baby.”
“Our child?” The words should have been a shout but they emerged as a tight whisper. “Why?”
“She thinks blood from a Slayer’s baby will make the kid stronger for the trip she’s got planned.” Willow closed her eyes for a moment. “She’s going to leave Sunnydale.” Her eyes flew open. “Tonight!”
“She is? What, is she bored with us already? The tourist trade is really suffering these days.” Xander spoke to the listening crone in front of them. “Do you hear that, Little Orphan Annis? Your partner is leaving you in the ditch!”
“Noooo, that is not true. She would not dare. We had a bargainnnnn!” the crone rasped.
“Sounds to me like she’s re-negotiating the terms of her contract. She’s taking her kid and saying sayonara to this town--and you too. Looks like you’re gonna be on your own. No more Kentucky-fried skinless chickens for you, old gal!” Xander quipped.
“I do not belieeeeeve you. It isssss a trick!”
Willow cocked her head. “Is it a trick that she’s got Buffy in a very expensive room? Ooh, with Chagall prints on the walls and a fireplace lit to keep little Murtaugh warm?”
The hag faltered at this news. There was no way for the little witch to know this unless it came straight from the source. Willow looked up at her. “She’s got her bags all packed and everything. They’re made out of…” She grimaced. “Leftover skins that you rejected.”
The hag screeched, turning her face towards the condo. “You lyiiiing bitch! You promisssssed me! The blood for you, the ssssskins for me. How dare you betray me?!” She hurled herself against the barrier once more, incoherent cries of rage issuing from her.
“She’s in the condo?” Xander asked, amazed.
“Right under our noses, where we’d never think to look for her,” Willow muttered.
“What’s with these things living in castles and apartments? What ever happened to living in crypts and hovels? What, they’re too good to hang out with the rest of us?” Anya groused.
Dawn clutched her sword tighter. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
“What about her?” Xander squinted at the hag. Oblivious to the humans, she hurled herself again and again at the barrier, bellowing at the top of her lungs.
“At this point, we commence with Plan B. We should retreat to a safe distance,” Giles said.
The others ran and Xander pulled the detonator from his pocket. As if suddenly aware of the oddly shaped mounds surrounding her lair, the crone turned back towards them and eyed the detonator curiously. “What doesss that do?”
All the packs of C-4 exploded, smashing both her and part of the massive trunk behind her to smithereens. Chunks of hag meat went flying through the air. Dawn flinched as a wet morsel landed in her hair and gingerly peeled it off.
The tree swayed ominously and then tilted heavily to the side. It didn’t seem as if it would fall; the blast hadn’t been enough to topple it entirely. However, The Scoobies took no chances but ran from the area as fast as they could, toting their various weapons.
“Wills, is the Buffster okay? She’s still alive, isn’t she?” Xander puffed.
The wiccan nodded. “Sure. Sure she is. I can still hear her.”
What no one asked of course was how long she would remain that way.
__________
The Green Lady stood at the window. That blast had sounded awfully close but she couldn’t see what had caused it. The night was still dark and blanketed the forest like a shroud. Nevertheless, she didn’t like it. “What was that? Are your friends getting clever, Slayer?”
“How…would I…know?” Buffy puffed. The contractions were coming closer together, making it difficult to talk. The others had figured out the Green Lady’s general location. But she didn’t know whether they had an exact fix on the mean green.
Trying to distract her, Buffy gasped out, “What I don’t…get is why…you’d bother with…human babies. You’re obviously…Knowledge Lady when it comes to the modern world. Couldn’t you just get your blood from…” A sharp paroxysm choked her off and she whimpered in spite of herself.
“If you’re thinking about blood banks, forget it. They’re too heavily guarded and they have surveillance cameras.”
“I…was…thinking about hospitals, stupid,” Buffy gritted out.
“Oh.” The Green Lady was startled and Buffy caught a sheepish expression before it disappeared. “Actually, neither meet the requirements. I’ve tried animal blood, the blood from newly buried stillborns, vampire leftovers. Nothing worked and the animal blood--” She made a moue. “Let’s just say the one time I tried that as an alternative, it had unfortunate consequences. It was like an allergic reaction.”
“You mean…a rash? Like that…could make Murphy…look any uglier?”
Buffy was treated to a harsh glare. “Murtaugh. Anyway, it has to be baby blood and it has to be fresh from the source.” She looked out the window again and bit her lip. “I can’t wait any longer. Your friends are trying something. I just know it.” She walked briskly to her baby’s crib. Reaching inside, she pulled a long, shiny knife from inside its confines. “I’m so sorry about this, Slayer. But a mother’s job is to provide for her own. I’m sure you understand.”
“Go to…hell!”
“Actually, I’m planning on leaving it.” She walked to the heaving body in the bed. “I’m afraid this is it.”
“No. Tag, you’re it,” came a voice from the doorway. The Scoobies stood there each one with their various weapons pointed unerringly at her, Willow and Giles in the vanguard.
“How did you…?” Willow held up her latest acquisition and Ms. Icqueen’s eyes narrowed. “Ah, a Froebling rock. Very clever.”
“You will get away from my wife right now or I’ll--”
“Don’t be like that, Rupert. Just remember the good times while they lasted.” Ms. Icqueen winked and laughed at him, the blade resting lightly on Buffy’s stomach. Buffy sucked in her breath and tried not to move even though the tremors racking her frame made stillness precarious at best.
The others could see the flesh rippling as the baby inside tried to force its way into the world before its time. Willow flexed her fingers a little and the tip of the knife dug in deeper. “Don’t try it, little witch. I can move very quickly when I have to and I can gut her like a trout before you so much as blink. Try any magic and the baby and your Slayer dies.”
“I hate Mexican standoffs,” Xander groused. “So what do you want, Miss Ice Cream?”
“I see you share the Slayer’s penchant for silly nicknames.”
“Pen what?”
The Green Lady concentrated on Giles. “She’s young, strong and healthy and I’ll bet she heals fast like all Slayers. She can always have more children.” Ms. Icqueen ran the knifepoint around on Buffy’s abdomen in a lazy circle. “Let me have this child and your Slayer can keep her life.”
Giles had noted the cradle on his way in. Before the Green Lady could move, he darted to the wooden enclosure and lifted the bundle from within it. “You want me to sacrifice my child? For this?” He looked down at the horror he held and grimaced to indicate his distaste.
A muscle bulged in her jaw and her grip on the knife tightened. “Put him down.”
“I think not. Put the knife down now.”
Her hand trembled. A small bead of blood welled up from the knifepoint and Giles’s gaze turned to ice. He cradled the baby and stepped towards the fire. “I understand this child is rather fragile. I wonder whether it could survive a fire bath?”
“I’ll kill her, I swear it!” The melodious voice became a gruesome rasp, the gorgeous features twisting, seeming to fold in on themselves. For a moment, the façade of a beautiful woman flickered as drawn-out hollowed cheeks, scaly skin and blood-red eyes morphed into existence on her face.
The image vanished and she stretched out her hand. The lilting hypnotic voice returned, her voice and face pleading with him. “Rupert, please. You of all people should understand. You’re going to be a father yourself. I am the last of my kind. Murtaugh is my son, my only son, the sole sharer of my flesh and life in this forsaken world. I shall never have another!”
“That’s a relief,” Dawn commented.
“Giles,” Buffy gasped. “She’s solid when she’s…touching the…kid.”
“Silence!” She raked the knife across Buffy’s skin and the Slayer let out a hiss. A line of blood erupted and began trickling down her flesh.
The ex-Watcher was like a figure carved in stone although the look in his eyes promised certain death. “I will give you the child if you step away from my wife.”
She shook her head. “Do you think I’ve survived these lonely millennia by being a fool? Give me my child and I shall leave this place, leave Sunnydale. None of you shall ever see me again in your lifetimes!”
“Very well.” With an abrupt movement, Giles threw the babe towards the ancient monster. She screamed in terror and stepped forward, all else forgotten in her desperate urge to save her child.
The baby was caught in her arms and Giles chanted, “Vincere!” Green fire flew towards the demon, locking her and her child in a binding ring.
The creature was caught immobile. She stared down at the ring, stunned at the ease with which she’d been captured. Then she sneered, “If you think this will hold me--”
Dawn didn’t give her a chance to finish. Lifting her sword, she swung with all her strength at the creature’s neck. The weapon connected.
There was an abrupt silence. Then the Green Lady’s head parted from her shoulders and fell with a thudding sound. The trunk of her body stood swaying for a moment before toppling to the floor.
There was a queer wavering of the light around her figure. Then it seemed to shrink, becoming a misshapen lump on the floor. The fingers were elongated tubes, scales appeared on the skin and the lovely head became bulbous and horned with fangs sprouting from the mouth.
Xander stared at the shrunken figure and the squalling bundle in its arms. “Giles, you kissed that?! You’re a braver man than I am.”
A whimper from the bed drew their attention. “Giles. Please…it hurts.”
Giles stepped over the fallen figure and rushed to Buffy’s side. “Dearest. It’s all right. I’m here.”
“No, it…isn’t. She…gave me…something. The…baby’s coming…I can’t…help me!” The following contraction made her scream in pain.
“Buffy, hang on.” He began tugging at the cuffs. “Did you see where she put the key?”
Willow swayed. Using the Froebling rock had been as draining as she’d feared; if she’d actually had to use magic against the Green Lady, it would have severely taxed her waning strength. But this was something she thought she could manage.
“Step aside, Giles.” Willow’s voice was almost eerily calm as she stretched out her hand towards the bed. A muttered incantation and the chains fell from the Slayer’s wrists and ankles. Immediately Buffy curled into a fetal position as she tried to fend off the pains racking her body.
Giles pulled at her. “Buffy, please. I know it must hurt. But you must stand up so we can get you to the hospital.”
“No…no…time. The baby’s…” Her whole body shuddered and then Giles saw the liquid soaking the sheets. Buffy’s water had broken. She was right. They were out of time.
The others hovered, aghast at what was happening. Forcing down his own panic, Giles spoke as briskly as he could. “Dawn, find the kitchen. Get some hot water boiling and bring a knife with a non-serrated edge. Willow, help me hold her Buffy. Anya, see if you can find some clean towels.”
“Buffy, you should scoot to the edge of the bed and sit up,” Willow urged. “The gravity should help make things easier.”
“Gravity. Gravity…good. Gravity’s my…friend,” Buffy panted.
“Uh, what should I do, G-Man?”
“Well, for one thing, you can remove that.” He waved a hand at the corpse on the floor and the child still held in its arms. He didn’t want Buffy looking at that while they were tending to her.
The brunette Scooby’s head bobbed. “Sure. Sure. Right. Let the woman tend to the birthing and the men to the--body disposal. Gotcha.” He pried the baby from the Green Lady’s stiffening arms and replaced it in the cradle. Then he dragged the cadaver to the spacious living room. “Why couldn’t she just dissolve like vampires do?” he grumbled.
Now they all scurried to their assigned tasks. Willow held on to Buffy’s other hand, muttering a spell to banish pain under her breath. She was still wiped from using the rock but healing spells of this nature were easy and didn’t require too much energy or concentration.
Buffy felt the pain ease and disappear to some distant place. The convulsions continued but now without the underlying agony that accompanied each spasm.
Anya was both fascinated and repulsed by the birthing process. “Wow, that’s a lot of blood. Is she supposed to force out that much liquid? How long is this supposed to take? Do we need to stay here the whole time because it’s going to be light soon and I have to be at the store?”
“Anya, do be quiet and hand me the blasted towels.”
“Well, really! I agree to help out of the kindness of my heart--and nobody told me I was going to have to deliver a baby, something I know nothing about by the way--”
“An.”
She turned towards her lover. “Xander?”
“Shut up and hand Giles the damned towels.”
Anya scowled. But one look at the various tense faces apparently made her think better of whatever she’d planned to say.
__________
To Buffy the whole thing was like an extended dream. She was aware of herself, her friends, her husband and her body only in the vaguest of senses. Without the pain to focus on, she drifted on a cloud, coming back to herself only when her husband whispered in her ear. She pushed and breathed, breathed and pushed, when he told her. Giles knew best; Giles would help her through this.
“Giles, I can see the head!” Dawn yelled.
“Good. Now, Buffy, I need one more solid push from you.”
Buffy’s head rolled back and her entire body tensed. With a wet, slurping sound, the baby slid from her and into Dawn’s waiting arms. She immediately wrapped the towel around the baby and wiped tenderly at its body. The baby let out a loud wail and Dawn jogged it, shushing it as best she could. “Anya, you’ve got to cut the cord.”
“Me? Why should I do it? You’re the one holding the baby!”
Dawn’s eyebrows arched up. “You’ve gutted and killed thousands of guys and cutting an umbilical cord makes you nervy? You big wuss!”
“Oh please! Just because I used to be a vengeance demon doesn’t mean I personally did any slicing and dicing myself. I employed magic or summoned beasties. I didn’t go around tearing people apart with my bare hands--usually.” Nevertheless, Anya picked up the knife the Green Lady dropped and began sawing away at the cord, following Giles’s instructions.
She looked down at the baby’s features. “Is something wrong with its face? Why does it look like a prune?”
“Newborns are supposed to look like that, Anya,” Dawn scolded. “She’ll look a lot better once she’s cleaned up.”
“She?” Buffy whispered. She was weary to death but she summoned the strength to reach for her child.
“Congrats, Buffy. It’s a girl.” Dawn laid her in Buffy’s arms and watched as her sister and brother-in-law bent their heads over the new bundle. Buffy tugged at the buttons on her blouse. When Giles saw how badly her hands were shaking, he pushed them gently aside and completed the task for her. A watery smile of gratitude and Buffy lifted the baby to her breast.
“Buffy, lie back. There’s still some fluid we need to get out.” As the Slayer complied, Willow pressed her hand on her stomach. The spell gone, Buffy hissed as more blood and placenta oozed from her body.
Willow scooped up some of the latter, holding it carefully in her hands. “You don’t mind if I hold on to the placenta, do you, Buff? This stuff is really useful in spells--just for protection, of course,” she added.
Buffy waved a weary hand at her. “Sure. Go nuts, Will. What’s a birth without getting a few souvenirs?”
The wiccan hesitated and then carried it to the kitchen to find a proper container for it.
“Uh, Giles?”
Giles lifted his head from contemplating his newborn baby girl. “Yes, Dawn?”
“What are we gonna do about him?” She pointed towards the crib in the corner. The squalls from the demonic baby apparently had exhausted what little strength it had. Now the voice had died down to squawks and whimpers.
The iron returned to his voice. “I truly can’t bring myself to care.”
“Rupert.” Buffy’s voice was still faint but it commanded attention. “I know you hated her. But we can’t just leave him there.”
“Buffy, you can’t really feel any sympathy towards that, that, thing not after what its mother tried to do to you.”
“Totally on board with the mother hate. I would have kicked her butt. You know, if I was standing and could buttkick. But the baby’s innocent. It didn’t ask to be born or to get stuck here or that its mother turn every human baby she could lay her hands on into a blood pastry tube. We can’t just leave it here to starve.”
Giles sighed. His Buffy was the most tender-hearted creature alive. But occasionally her kinder feelings were deeply misplaced. He recalled how he’d had to finish off Ben over a year ago because she wouldn’t bring herself to do such a thing.
“Buffy, there is nothing we can do for the child. It needs blood from human offspring to survive. How do you propose we care for it?”
“I-I don’t know. But there’s got to be something.”
“After millenia of being in this world, it has gotten no bigger or stronger. It cannot fend for itself and we cannot take care of such a child for the rest of our lives and no one else is equipped to deal with such an...unusual set of circumstances.”
He spoke as gently as he could. “One way or another, the child will die. And it is best that it be done quickly so as to spare it needless suffering.”
“Nooo. Giles, please.” Hazel eyes pleaded with him. “Giles, I know she tried to kill me. But she was a mother trying to take care of her kid; I can relate to what she was going through.” She looked at Willow. “Couldn’t you open a dimensional gate thingy and send the kid there?”
“To what dimension? We don’t know where’s the best place to send a baby like that,” Giles pointed out. “And it would still be alone and helpless to fend for itself.”
“And, after using the Froebling, I’m kinda dead on my feet, Buff. I’m gonna have to crash for a few days just to get my energy back. So no opening dimensions for me.” Willow plopped on to the bed beside her friend.
“Guys, I’m thinking we jet before the neighbors get up and see us coming out of the Green Lady’s apartment. Sooner or later, they’re gonna find the body and I’m not keen on explaining to them about demons in SunnyD.” Xander rubbed his hands, grimacing. The Green Lady’s corpse had had a nasty feel to it. It reminded him of the worms from that Bug Guy he’d squished back when they were fighting the Order of Taraka.
“Xander raises a good point. We must leave.”
“Giles, the baby...”
“I will take care of it, Buffy. You needn’t worry on that score.”
She refused to budge. “What are you going to do?”
“Don’t you trust me?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, but...”
“Trust me, then. I will deal with this.”
Buffy was really too tired from her ordeal to argue. She let the others lift her to her feet and made her way out of the apartment on trembling legs.
Giles stared at the body of the Green Lady. He’d removed the fussing child and laid it near the mother’s corpse. The presence of its dead matron seemed to calm the babe; it now lay quiet.
“It’s not a child. It’s a demon. It’s a demon.” He chanted it over and over to himself. Then he extended his hands towards the two bodies and concentrated. Fire similar to his earlier display shot from his fingers and enveloped the two forms. There was a sharp flare of light and then both bodies were reduced to ashes.
The fire had been intense but very brief. The floor hadn’t even been scorched. Finding a broom and dustpan, he carefully swept up every bit of dust. Satisfied that he’d missed nothing, he cast the dusty contents into the toilet and flushed it.
Then he set about briskly rubbing clean everything he and the others might have touched. He stripped the bed of the sheets with their incriminating evidence and chucked them into the fire. He didn’t leave until every last trace had been burnt to a cinder.
He cast one last look about the apartment, the Green Lady’s suitcases in his hands. He couldn’t leave the grisly human skin-covered luggage here to invite questions and burning them in the fireplace would entail more mess and smoke than would be discreet. Once he got the opportunity, he would stash them in an underground crypt and burn them there.
Giles’s gaze was cool and appraising. To the casual observer there was nothing amiss in the apartment. Ms. Icqueen had been planning on leaving anyway; her disappearance would cause neither surprise nor curiosity.
“Just another Sunnydale casualty,” he muttered and flicked off the light.

TBC
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What a Mother Wouldn't Do