Don Sample
2006-07-09 19:09:59 UTC
Part XIX
Buffy and Dawn were waiting for them at the arrivals gate of the
Cleveland airport. Xander ran to gather them both into his arms for a
huge hug, which they returned with enough strength to threaten cracking
some ribs. "God, it's been way too long!"
"It has," said Buffy, as she released him. She turned her attention to
Faith. She got a hug too, but not nearly as strong as the one she'd
given Xander. "How have you been?"
"I've been good, B. How about you guys?"
"We've been alright. Getting better, now that we're getting the gang
back together. Giles is already here, and Willow and Kennedy are due in
tomorrow."
"We're doing the whole big reunion party thing on the weekend," said
Dawn.
"So, how did you like Rome?" asked Faith. "Did you get yourself some
nice Italian stud?" Xander saw Dawn blush. "Oh, you did! Come on, you
can tell me all about him while we go get our bags!" They went off
toward the baggage carousel together, leaving Buffy with Xander.
"So, what happened in L.A.?" asked Buffy. "Your emails were notably
lacking with the details. How bad was it, really?"
"It was bad." Xander looked around to make sure that there was no one
close enough to overhear him. "Wesley was dead before we got there," he
said quietly. "Gunn was wounded badly; he'd lost a lot of blood before
we arrived. We got him to a hospital; he's still in critical condition."
"What about our girls?" asked Buffy.
"No serious injuries. Rona managed to break her arm again."
"And Angel's okay?"
"Nothing he couldn't heal from. He didn't want to fly, so he's driving
here...should arrive in a couple of days, if he doesn't chicken out."
"Why would he chicken out?"
"He wasn't really forthcoming, but I'm pretty sure that the whole mess
was his fault."
"Xander--"
"No. This isn't me blaming Angel because I don't like Angel. And I
don't think it's Angel taking the blame because he likes to brood and
take the blame for everything, even more than you do. I didn't get the
whole story from him, but the bits I did get... He really managed to
screw things up, and not just with Wolfram and Hart, and Black Thorn.
Spike..."
"What's Spike got to do with this?" asked Buffy. "He's been dead for
nearly a year. You can't go blaming him for this."
"That's the thing. Apparently he hasn't been dead for nearly a year."
"What?"
"He turned up in L.A. a couple of weeks after Sunnydale was destroyed,"
said Xander. "He's been hanging out with Angel ever since."
"He's alive?"
"No." Xander shook his head. "I'm sorry Buff, but he didn't make it. He
was killed protecting Gunn, after he went down."
Xander watched the emotions play across Buffy's face. Grief, anger,
puzzlement... "How could he not have told us?"
"I don't know, but Andrew knew about it."
"He did! I'm gonna strangle that little..."
Faith and Dawn were back. Dawn was carrying Xander's suitcase, and Faith
had her own, plus their weapons bag. "You've told her?" asked Faith.
"I've hit most of the main points," said Xander.
"Did you get to the Smurfette?" asked Faith.
"What are you talking about?" asked Dawn.
---
Buffy climbed up onto the elevated platform that had been set up at one
end of their gymnasium. There was something beside her, more than twice
as tall as she was, that was covered by a deep blue sheet. She tapped
the cordless microphone she was holding a couple of times. "Is this
thing working?"
"Yes!" called out half a dozen of the people in the room.
"Alright, well, it's been a year now since the destruction of Sunnydale,
and it's been a year since most of you have had to listen to me make a
speech."
"Can we make it two years?" called someone, whom Buffy couldn't identify
for sure, but she thought that it sounded like Dawn.
"I promise, that this one's going to be short. I don't really have a
whole lot to say." Buffy looked out across the gym. Nearly everyone who
had survived Sunnydale was here, as well as several of the new Slayers,
and Watchers that they'd recruited. "It's good to see that everyone
could make it. It's been a big year for us, finding all the new Slayers,
and rebuilding the Watchers. I wanted to thank all of you for your hard
work. We've made a good start, but there's still a lot of work to do,
but today, it's time to take a look back to commemorate our losses.
"It was a year ago today that Willow cast her spell to create all the
Slayers, and a year ago today we went into battle against the First. We
won, but it wasn't without a cost.
"The National Park Service is going to be creating a Sunnydale National
Monument, around the crater. They're still arguing about what they
think happened there, but we do have some friends in high places, who
know the truth. They know what we did, and they know what it cost, and
we've arranged for there to be a memorial...not just to the people who
died that day, but to all of the Slayers, and those who have fought at
our sides."
Buffy reached out and grabbed the rope that was dangling beside her. She
tugged it, pulling away the sheet that had been covering the twelve foot
tall monolith on the platform with her.
"They saved the world, a lot," she said, repeating the words carved at
the top of the obelisk. "There are countless names that should be up
here: Kendra, Jenny, Tara, Nikki, and thousands of Slayers back through
history whose names have been forgotten, but we had to pick a place to
start, and we picked the battle against the First, one year ago, and
placed the names of those who fell upon this stone: Amanda, Anya, Cathy,
Delores, Heidi, Neela, Oksana, Quanshae, Silvia, Valerie, and William.
"Some friends of ours have fallen in the last year, and their names are
here too: Cordelia, Fred, Wesley...there was some debate over whether
or not to put Spike up a second time, but Xander said that if we were
going to do that, he wanted my name up there twice already too." A
slight ripple of nervous laughter went through her audience.
"There's still a lot of blank space on this stone, and, eventually--not
too quickly, I hope--all our names will be added to it. We expect that
it will take a thousand years to fill it. What happens then...well that
will be up to our descendants. I'm still getting used to the idea of
thinking more than a few weeks ahead. I think I can leave planning for
the fourth millennium up to someone else.
"For the next year or so, this monument is going to be staying here, in
our Akron campus. But we're going to be moving it to Sunnydale, once
they've got the National Monument there ready to open to the public. I
hope that we won't have added any new names to it, before then."
Buffy raised the glass of champagne that was in her hand. "Right now,
I'm here to propose a toast: To our departed friends!"
"To our departed friends!" came back the response from nearly a hundred
voices.
Buffy took a sip from her glass. "Alright, well, enough of the morbid
stuff. Anya would kick our asses if we spent too much time moping about
her. This is supposed to be a party! So let's party!"
---
Buffy looked around the room at her friends. Everyone here was a
survivor of Sunnydale. Dawn, Giles, Willow and Xander had been with her
from the beginning. Faith and Kennedy had been picked up along the way.
They had all had a bit too much to drink tonight, as they remembered the
ones who hadn't survived.
"So, what next?" asked Xander.
"I've promised to show Dawn the world, so we're heading out next week,"
said Buffy. "Asia needs a lot of work. Caridad and Chao Ahn have made a
good start there, but there's still a lot to be done."
"Mao's 'Cultural Revolution' managed to kill nearly all of the Watchers
in China," said Giles. "The oldest Watcher tradition in the history of
the world was brushed away in a fit of ideology. It is somewhat ironic
that as a result, the First only managed to identify a few of the
Potentials living there. Half of the new Slayers are Chinese, but we
have only managed to contact a few of the new Slayers living in that
region. Operating in China is still difficult."
"So they're going to get a couple of American tourists," said Dawn.
"Determined to see the 'Real China.' Go all the places that regular
tourists don't see."
"And the Chinese government is just going to allow this?" asked Xander.
"Riley's arranged for a /National Geographic/ photographer to come along
with us," said Buffy. "We'll do a story: 'Backpacking Around China' or
something like that. Nothing that the Chinese can object to."
"You're going to be appearing in /National Geographic/?" asked Xander.
"We'll try to keep the pictures to be of the scenery," said Dawn.
---
The taxi dropped them at the iron gates to WCI's Akron campus. Jack
paid the driver, after they had gotten their bags out of the trunk, and
Cassie had pressed the button on the intercom to announce their arrival.
The gates swung open as the driver got back into the cab, and drove away.
Jack picked up two of the bags--only one of which was his--while Cassie
grabbed the third, lightest one. "You're supposed to be the super-strong
one here," he grumbled as they set out through the long, early evening
shadows up the driveway toward the WCI building.
"Yes, but I'm undercover," said Cassie. "You have to pretend to be a
gentleman."
"I *am* a gentleman!" said Jack. "Congress said so!"
"You're not an officer anymore Jack."
"I've got an honourable discharge. It's so classified that almost no
one outside the President and the Joint Chiefs can see it, but it still
leaves me a gentleman."
"If you say so."
"You're going to argue with Congress, the President, and the Joint
Chiefs?"
"I'm still Canadian, Jack. Until Parliament rules on it, I'm taking it
under advisement."
They had reached the entrance to the main WCI building, and Cassie
conceded to hold the door open for Jack, since she was the one who had a
hand free. She followed him through the door into the lobby.
"Wow! Nice place!" said Jack.
Cassie looked around. "Yeah, it cleaned up real nice!" The scaffolding
and plaster dust from a year ago was gone. In its place was a lot of
golden yellow marble. The floor and the walls were covered with it. In
the centre of the lobby was a reception desk that seemed to have been
carved from a solid block of it. Behind the desk was a smiling girl.
"Hi! You must be Cassie and Jack! I'm Mandy! Sorry you had to take a
taxi, but everyone got caught up in a minor emergency."
"What sort of emergency?" asked Jack.
"Oh, nothing to worry about," said Mandy. "Just some L.A. transplants
trying to set up shop near the new Hellmouth. We thought that we would
show them the error of their ways with a show of excessive force. We
couldn't spare anyone to come pick you up. Just a sec." She picked up
the phone on the desk, and dialled an extension number. "Andrew, get
down here. They're here." She smiled at them. "Andrew will be here in a
couple of minutes to show you to your rooms. In the meantime..." She
opened a drawer and pulled out a couple of plastic cards. "...these are
your ID cards. Don't lose them. You need them to open the doors to your
rooms, and any of the other restricted areas that you're allowed in."
"Where aren't we allowed?" asked Jack.
"The restricted section of the library, the armoury, private quarters,
stuff like that," said Mandy. She pulled a box out of the drawer that
had an assortment of chains, and clips and things. "Here, you can take
one of these to hold your card. Don't lose it."
Jack and Cassie both picked out badge reels that they could clip to
their belts. They had both just finished attaching their cards, when
they heard the chime of an elevator arriving, and the doors behind the
reception desk slid open.
Mandy glanced back to see who had arrived. A young man, about twenty
years old, with blond hair, was stepping out of the elevator. "Hi
Andrew! Cassie and Jack are here." She turned back. "This is Andrew
Wells. He's in charge of the housing arrangements."
"Hi Andrew!" said Cassie.
Andrew held up his hand in a Vulcan salute. "Greetings Slayer! Live long
and prosper!"
"Uh, right," said Cassie.
Jack looked at Mandy, and saw her shrug. "Just go with it; you get used
to him after a while," she stage whispered to him.
Jack saw Andrew frown at her.
"Andrew's in charge of housing," said Mandy, in a normal voice. "He'll
show you to your rooms, and then give you the nickel tour of the place."
---
The residential section took up one wing of the building. Two floors
were set aside for the Slayers, divided up into four bedroom suites. The
bedrooms were small, but comfortable. They each had a window that looked
out over the WCI grounds, and a single bed, and a desk. Each suite had a
shared common room, kitchenette, and bathroom. The suite that Cassie was
placed in only had one other girl staying in it, at the moment. They
didn't get to meet her, since she was out with one of the teams doing
the sweep around the Hellmouth.
Jack was put on a different floor. This one had a greater variety of
accommodations on it, much of it taken up by the permanent residents.
Principal Wood had a private apartment on this floor, and another suite
belonged to Faith and Xander. There were other two bedroom suites that
were occupied by some of the more senior Slayers, or held available to
accommodate visitors from around the world. Jack also learned that all
the single guys were housed on this floor. He found that he would be
sharing a suite with Andrew and another guy, similar the ones set up for
the Slayers on the lower floors.
Jack's new roommate, Tim Hall, was very happy to meet him. Even more so
when he learned that Jack had only seen the /Star Wars/ movies once, the
only /Star Trek/ he'd seen much of was the original series, and that
he'd rather watch sports on TV than anything else (with the exception of
/The Simpsons./) "Thank God!" he said. "I was afraid I'd be stuck with
no one but Andrew to talk with all summer!"
Jack gave Tim an uncertain smile. He wasn't sure what to make of him, or
of the attitude that he had seen exhibited toward Andrew. Okay, Andrew
came across as a complete geek--actually 'geek' was much too mild a
term--but the open mocking of him that Jack had seen so far couldn't be
good for morale. The little exposure that he'd had to Andrew so far
reminded Jack of the worst aspects of Rodney McKay and Jay Felger rolled
together into one person. But McKay and Felger did have their moments
of brilliance which made up for the more irritating aspects of their
personalities. Jack could only hope that there was something similarly
worthwhile buried deep inside Andrew. Jack was determined to give him a
fair shake.
Andrew took them for a quick tour of the rest of the facility after Jack
and Cassie had dumped their bags in their rooms. He showed them the
cafeteria, where meals were served four times a day. Breakfast, lunch
and dinner were provided by an outside catering company, with a
do-it-yourself buffet at midnight. Since the catering company wasn't in
on the whole "vampires and demons are real" part of the story, Andrew
told them that discussion of such things in the cafeteria was frowned
upon--that and discussions of demon slime weren't the best sort of
mealtime conversation. There was a large laundry room where everyone
could take care of their own clothes washing, and Andrew assured them
that there were lots of experts available on the topic of how to best
remove various sorts of demon ichor from delicate fabrics.
---
Jack met with Robin Wood in his office early the next morning. "Early"
being a relative term: their meeting was at ten o'clock. One thing that
Jack had learned was that there was almost nothing scheduled for
non-Slayers before noon. This was because it wasn't uncommon for people
to be awake all night. Slayers might be able to get by on less than
four hours of sleep, but everyone else needed more.
It was quickly apparent to Jack why everyone called him "Principal
Wood." It was more than the simple fact that the Akron campus was being
set up as the primary Slayer training facility. Wood carried an air of
authority about him that in a strange way reminded him of General
Hammond. Maybe it was the bald head. He couldn't think of anything else
that the pair had in common. Wood was taller, slimmer, and half of
General Hammond's age, but he carried himself with the same aura of calm
authority.
Jack sat in a chair on the opposite side of the desk from Wood, trying
not to feel like an errant boy summoned to the Principal's office. He
had to remind himself that he was at least fifteen years older than the
man on the other side of the desk.
"I'd like to welcome you here to Akron, Mr. O'Neill."
"I'm glad to be here, Mr. Wood," said Jack.
Wood looked over the papers on his desk. "Faith has given you a very
positive recommendation, but Faith has some blind spots. There is one
thing that I want to make very clear to you."
"What's that, Sir?" asked Jack.
"You are a teenage boy, and we have a large number of teenage girls
living in this establishment."
"Ya know, I think that occurred to Faith."
Wood's lips quirked into a smile. "Yes, it would. Let's say that we
have different priorities. There is one thing that I want to make very
clear: while the age of consent in Ohio might be sixteen, as far as
we're concerned it's eighteen."
Jack nodded. "Yes, Sir. I understand, and I assure you, I'm not--"
"Mr. O'Neill, that is all that we are going to say on that topic," said
Wood. "Now, about your class schedule, we thought that we'd start with
Basic Demonology, followed by Introduction to Magic..."
Buffy and Dawn were waiting for them at the arrivals gate of the
Cleveland airport. Xander ran to gather them both into his arms for a
huge hug, which they returned with enough strength to threaten cracking
some ribs. "God, it's been way too long!"
"It has," said Buffy, as she released him. She turned her attention to
Faith. She got a hug too, but not nearly as strong as the one she'd
given Xander. "How have you been?"
"I've been good, B. How about you guys?"
"We've been alright. Getting better, now that we're getting the gang
back together. Giles is already here, and Willow and Kennedy are due in
tomorrow."
"We're doing the whole big reunion party thing on the weekend," said
Dawn.
"So, how did you like Rome?" asked Faith. "Did you get yourself some
nice Italian stud?" Xander saw Dawn blush. "Oh, you did! Come on, you
can tell me all about him while we go get our bags!" They went off
toward the baggage carousel together, leaving Buffy with Xander.
"So, what happened in L.A.?" asked Buffy. "Your emails were notably
lacking with the details. How bad was it, really?"
"It was bad." Xander looked around to make sure that there was no one
close enough to overhear him. "Wesley was dead before we got there," he
said quietly. "Gunn was wounded badly; he'd lost a lot of blood before
we arrived. We got him to a hospital; he's still in critical condition."
"What about our girls?" asked Buffy.
"No serious injuries. Rona managed to break her arm again."
"And Angel's okay?"
"Nothing he couldn't heal from. He didn't want to fly, so he's driving
here...should arrive in a couple of days, if he doesn't chicken out."
"Why would he chicken out?"
"He wasn't really forthcoming, but I'm pretty sure that the whole mess
was his fault."
"Xander--"
"No. This isn't me blaming Angel because I don't like Angel. And I
don't think it's Angel taking the blame because he likes to brood and
take the blame for everything, even more than you do. I didn't get the
whole story from him, but the bits I did get... He really managed to
screw things up, and not just with Wolfram and Hart, and Black Thorn.
Spike..."
"What's Spike got to do with this?" asked Buffy. "He's been dead for
nearly a year. You can't go blaming him for this."
"That's the thing. Apparently he hasn't been dead for nearly a year."
"What?"
"He turned up in L.A. a couple of weeks after Sunnydale was destroyed,"
said Xander. "He's been hanging out with Angel ever since."
"He's alive?"
"No." Xander shook his head. "I'm sorry Buff, but he didn't make it. He
was killed protecting Gunn, after he went down."
Xander watched the emotions play across Buffy's face. Grief, anger,
puzzlement... "How could he not have told us?"
"I don't know, but Andrew knew about it."
"He did! I'm gonna strangle that little..."
Faith and Dawn were back. Dawn was carrying Xander's suitcase, and Faith
had her own, plus their weapons bag. "You've told her?" asked Faith.
"I've hit most of the main points," said Xander.
"Did you get to the Smurfette?" asked Faith.
"What are you talking about?" asked Dawn.
---
Buffy climbed up onto the elevated platform that had been set up at one
end of their gymnasium. There was something beside her, more than twice
as tall as she was, that was covered by a deep blue sheet. She tapped
the cordless microphone she was holding a couple of times. "Is this
thing working?"
"Yes!" called out half a dozen of the people in the room.
"Alright, well, it's been a year now since the destruction of Sunnydale,
and it's been a year since most of you have had to listen to me make a
speech."
"Can we make it two years?" called someone, whom Buffy couldn't identify
for sure, but she thought that it sounded like Dawn.
"I promise, that this one's going to be short. I don't really have a
whole lot to say." Buffy looked out across the gym. Nearly everyone who
had survived Sunnydale was here, as well as several of the new Slayers,
and Watchers that they'd recruited. "It's good to see that everyone
could make it. It's been a big year for us, finding all the new Slayers,
and rebuilding the Watchers. I wanted to thank all of you for your hard
work. We've made a good start, but there's still a lot of work to do,
but today, it's time to take a look back to commemorate our losses.
"It was a year ago today that Willow cast her spell to create all the
Slayers, and a year ago today we went into battle against the First. We
won, but it wasn't without a cost.
"The National Park Service is going to be creating a Sunnydale National
Monument, around the crater. They're still arguing about what they
think happened there, but we do have some friends in high places, who
know the truth. They know what we did, and they know what it cost, and
we've arranged for there to be a memorial...not just to the people who
died that day, but to all of the Slayers, and those who have fought at
our sides."
Buffy reached out and grabbed the rope that was dangling beside her. She
tugged it, pulling away the sheet that had been covering the twelve foot
tall monolith on the platform with her.
"They saved the world, a lot," she said, repeating the words carved at
the top of the obelisk. "There are countless names that should be up
here: Kendra, Jenny, Tara, Nikki, and thousands of Slayers back through
history whose names have been forgotten, but we had to pick a place to
start, and we picked the battle against the First, one year ago, and
placed the names of those who fell upon this stone: Amanda, Anya, Cathy,
Delores, Heidi, Neela, Oksana, Quanshae, Silvia, Valerie, and William.
"Some friends of ours have fallen in the last year, and their names are
here too: Cordelia, Fred, Wesley...there was some debate over whether
or not to put Spike up a second time, but Xander said that if we were
going to do that, he wanted my name up there twice already too." A
slight ripple of nervous laughter went through her audience.
"There's still a lot of blank space on this stone, and, eventually--not
too quickly, I hope--all our names will be added to it. We expect that
it will take a thousand years to fill it. What happens then...well that
will be up to our descendants. I'm still getting used to the idea of
thinking more than a few weeks ahead. I think I can leave planning for
the fourth millennium up to someone else.
"For the next year or so, this monument is going to be staying here, in
our Akron campus. But we're going to be moving it to Sunnydale, once
they've got the National Monument there ready to open to the public. I
hope that we won't have added any new names to it, before then."
Buffy raised the glass of champagne that was in her hand. "Right now,
I'm here to propose a toast: To our departed friends!"
"To our departed friends!" came back the response from nearly a hundred
voices.
Buffy took a sip from her glass. "Alright, well, enough of the morbid
stuff. Anya would kick our asses if we spent too much time moping about
her. This is supposed to be a party! So let's party!"
---
Buffy looked around the room at her friends. Everyone here was a
survivor of Sunnydale. Dawn, Giles, Willow and Xander had been with her
from the beginning. Faith and Kennedy had been picked up along the way.
They had all had a bit too much to drink tonight, as they remembered the
ones who hadn't survived.
"So, what next?" asked Xander.
"I've promised to show Dawn the world, so we're heading out next week,"
said Buffy. "Asia needs a lot of work. Caridad and Chao Ahn have made a
good start there, but there's still a lot to be done."
"Mao's 'Cultural Revolution' managed to kill nearly all of the Watchers
in China," said Giles. "The oldest Watcher tradition in the history of
the world was brushed away in a fit of ideology. It is somewhat ironic
that as a result, the First only managed to identify a few of the
Potentials living there. Half of the new Slayers are Chinese, but we
have only managed to contact a few of the new Slayers living in that
region. Operating in China is still difficult."
"So they're going to get a couple of American tourists," said Dawn.
"Determined to see the 'Real China.' Go all the places that regular
tourists don't see."
"And the Chinese government is just going to allow this?" asked Xander.
"Riley's arranged for a /National Geographic/ photographer to come along
with us," said Buffy. "We'll do a story: 'Backpacking Around China' or
something like that. Nothing that the Chinese can object to."
"You're going to be appearing in /National Geographic/?" asked Xander.
"We'll try to keep the pictures to be of the scenery," said Dawn.
---
The taxi dropped them at the iron gates to WCI's Akron campus. Jack
paid the driver, after they had gotten their bags out of the trunk, and
Cassie had pressed the button on the intercom to announce their arrival.
The gates swung open as the driver got back into the cab, and drove away.
Jack picked up two of the bags--only one of which was his--while Cassie
grabbed the third, lightest one. "You're supposed to be the super-strong
one here," he grumbled as they set out through the long, early evening
shadows up the driveway toward the WCI building.
"Yes, but I'm undercover," said Cassie. "You have to pretend to be a
gentleman."
"I *am* a gentleman!" said Jack. "Congress said so!"
"You're not an officer anymore Jack."
"I've got an honourable discharge. It's so classified that almost no
one outside the President and the Joint Chiefs can see it, but it still
leaves me a gentleman."
"If you say so."
"You're going to argue with Congress, the President, and the Joint
Chiefs?"
"I'm still Canadian, Jack. Until Parliament rules on it, I'm taking it
under advisement."
They had reached the entrance to the main WCI building, and Cassie
conceded to hold the door open for Jack, since she was the one who had a
hand free. She followed him through the door into the lobby.
"Wow! Nice place!" said Jack.
Cassie looked around. "Yeah, it cleaned up real nice!" The scaffolding
and plaster dust from a year ago was gone. In its place was a lot of
golden yellow marble. The floor and the walls were covered with it. In
the centre of the lobby was a reception desk that seemed to have been
carved from a solid block of it. Behind the desk was a smiling girl.
"Hi! You must be Cassie and Jack! I'm Mandy! Sorry you had to take a
taxi, but everyone got caught up in a minor emergency."
"What sort of emergency?" asked Jack.
"Oh, nothing to worry about," said Mandy. "Just some L.A. transplants
trying to set up shop near the new Hellmouth. We thought that we would
show them the error of their ways with a show of excessive force. We
couldn't spare anyone to come pick you up. Just a sec." She picked up
the phone on the desk, and dialled an extension number. "Andrew, get
down here. They're here." She smiled at them. "Andrew will be here in a
couple of minutes to show you to your rooms. In the meantime..." She
opened a drawer and pulled out a couple of plastic cards. "...these are
your ID cards. Don't lose them. You need them to open the doors to your
rooms, and any of the other restricted areas that you're allowed in."
"Where aren't we allowed?" asked Jack.
"The restricted section of the library, the armoury, private quarters,
stuff like that," said Mandy. She pulled a box out of the drawer that
had an assortment of chains, and clips and things. "Here, you can take
one of these to hold your card. Don't lose it."
Jack and Cassie both picked out badge reels that they could clip to
their belts. They had both just finished attaching their cards, when
they heard the chime of an elevator arriving, and the doors behind the
reception desk slid open.
Mandy glanced back to see who had arrived. A young man, about twenty
years old, with blond hair, was stepping out of the elevator. "Hi
Andrew! Cassie and Jack are here." She turned back. "This is Andrew
Wells. He's in charge of the housing arrangements."
"Hi Andrew!" said Cassie.
Andrew held up his hand in a Vulcan salute. "Greetings Slayer! Live long
and prosper!"
"Uh, right," said Cassie.
Jack looked at Mandy, and saw her shrug. "Just go with it; you get used
to him after a while," she stage whispered to him.
Jack saw Andrew frown at her.
"Andrew's in charge of housing," said Mandy, in a normal voice. "He'll
show you to your rooms, and then give you the nickel tour of the place."
---
The residential section took up one wing of the building. Two floors
were set aside for the Slayers, divided up into four bedroom suites. The
bedrooms were small, but comfortable. They each had a window that looked
out over the WCI grounds, and a single bed, and a desk. Each suite had a
shared common room, kitchenette, and bathroom. The suite that Cassie was
placed in only had one other girl staying in it, at the moment. They
didn't get to meet her, since she was out with one of the teams doing
the sweep around the Hellmouth.
Jack was put on a different floor. This one had a greater variety of
accommodations on it, much of it taken up by the permanent residents.
Principal Wood had a private apartment on this floor, and another suite
belonged to Faith and Xander. There were other two bedroom suites that
were occupied by some of the more senior Slayers, or held available to
accommodate visitors from around the world. Jack also learned that all
the single guys were housed on this floor. He found that he would be
sharing a suite with Andrew and another guy, similar the ones set up for
the Slayers on the lower floors.
Jack's new roommate, Tim Hall, was very happy to meet him. Even more so
when he learned that Jack had only seen the /Star Wars/ movies once, the
only /Star Trek/ he'd seen much of was the original series, and that
he'd rather watch sports on TV than anything else (with the exception of
/The Simpsons./) "Thank God!" he said. "I was afraid I'd be stuck with
no one but Andrew to talk with all summer!"
Jack gave Tim an uncertain smile. He wasn't sure what to make of him, or
of the attitude that he had seen exhibited toward Andrew. Okay, Andrew
came across as a complete geek--actually 'geek' was much too mild a
term--but the open mocking of him that Jack had seen so far couldn't be
good for morale. The little exposure that he'd had to Andrew so far
reminded Jack of the worst aspects of Rodney McKay and Jay Felger rolled
together into one person. But McKay and Felger did have their moments
of brilliance which made up for the more irritating aspects of their
personalities. Jack could only hope that there was something similarly
worthwhile buried deep inside Andrew. Jack was determined to give him a
fair shake.
Andrew took them for a quick tour of the rest of the facility after Jack
and Cassie had dumped their bags in their rooms. He showed them the
cafeteria, where meals were served four times a day. Breakfast, lunch
and dinner were provided by an outside catering company, with a
do-it-yourself buffet at midnight. Since the catering company wasn't in
on the whole "vampires and demons are real" part of the story, Andrew
told them that discussion of such things in the cafeteria was frowned
upon--that and discussions of demon slime weren't the best sort of
mealtime conversation. There was a large laundry room where everyone
could take care of their own clothes washing, and Andrew assured them
that there were lots of experts available on the topic of how to best
remove various sorts of demon ichor from delicate fabrics.
---
Jack met with Robin Wood in his office early the next morning. "Early"
being a relative term: their meeting was at ten o'clock. One thing that
Jack had learned was that there was almost nothing scheduled for
non-Slayers before noon. This was because it wasn't uncommon for people
to be awake all night. Slayers might be able to get by on less than
four hours of sleep, but everyone else needed more.
It was quickly apparent to Jack why everyone called him "Principal
Wood." It was more than the simple fact that the Akron campus was being
set up as the primary Slayer training facility. Wood carried an air of
authority about him that in a strange way reminded him of General
Hammond. Maybe it was the bald head. He couldn't think of anything else
that the pair had in common. Wood was taller, slimmer, and half of
General Hammond's age, but he carried himself with the same aura of calm
authority.
Jack sat in a chair on the opposite side of the desk from Wood, trying
not to feel like an errant boy summoned to the Principal's office. He
had to remind himself that he was at least fifteen years older than the
man on the other side of the desk.
"I'd like to welcome you here to Akron, Mr. O'Neill."
"I'm glad to be here, Mr. Wood," said Jack.
Wood looked over the papers on his desk. "Faith has given you a very
positive recommendation, but Faith has some blind spots. There is one
thing that I want to make very clear to you."
"What's that, Sir?" asked Jack.
"You are a teenage boy, and we have a large number of teenage girls
living in this establishment."
"Ya know, I think that occurred to Faith."
Wood's lips quirked into a smile. "Yes, it would. Let's say that we
have different priorities. There is one thing that I want to make very
clear: while the age of consent in Ohio might be sixteen, as far as
we're concerned it's eighteen."
Jack nodded. "Yes, Sir. I understand, and I assure you, I'm not--"
"Mr. O'Neill, that is all that we are going to say on that topic," said
Wood. "Now, about your class schedule, we thought that we'd start with
Basic Demonology, followed by Introduction to Magic..."
--
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>
Quando omni flunkus moritati
Visit the Buffy Body Count at <http://homepage.mac.com/dsample/>