Disclaimer: I blame Kennedy on Joss.

Author’s note: Expertly beta’d by the fab BTL
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Chapter 3: Another Victim

Niki wailed as the bright sun of the LA day hit her. Buffy lowered her sunglasses, scanning the crowd for her father and Valery, who had agreed to pick them up at the airport. Behind her and safely in the shadows Spike held Ricky’s hand. The sun was a long time from setting, but Buffy didn’t want to waste a single second tracking down this monster. She had people to see, and things to slay.

At long last her father’s sedan pulled up in front of the arrivals area and Hank Summers got out, the look of confusion at seeing his daughter holding a baby that clearly was not hers.

“Where’s Ariel and Cat?” asked Hank. “You said you were bringing kids, I thought you meant yours.”

A perfectly coifed Valery stepped from the passenger side of the car, distain dripping from every pore.

Ignoring her stepmother, Buffy opened the back door of the car and smiled at the car seats that she’d asked her father to pick up for her. Niki safely strapped in, Buffy turned to Ricky hiding in the shadows with Spike and called out to him.

“Ricky, come see your Aunty B, it’s time to get you in the car sweetie.” With no little prodding from Spike, the toddler made his way slowly to the car and Buffy’s waiting arms. Picking him up, she turned towards her father. “They are Faith’s. Faith is dead,” she stated plainly.

Her father’s smug look fell.

“I’m here to track down her killer.”

“And you expect us to baby sit for you? While you run all over town hunting some demon?” asked Valery rather loudly.

Buffy bent down into the car once again, strapping in Ricky, before shutting the door and turning to her stepmother.

“That’s exactly what I expect you do to, Val,” Buffy sneered, stepping into her personal space.

“Hank!” Valery protested.

“Get in the car Valery,” said Hank wearily opening his own door and getting in.

From what Buffy had gathered from her father’s phone calls over the last few weeks, before this whole thing happened, their marriage was going south. Buffy couldn’t say that she was sorry for it at all. With a smile she turned towards the shadows and blew a kiss to her husband before getting into the car with the rest of her family.

As the car pulled away she waved forlornly at Spike who was going to make his way to the Hyperion via the sewers and therefore not have to endure Valery for the settling in of the children at the Summers house.

Those kids, they were her family now.
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“There are wards up all over the Watcher’s Council,” explained Dawn over the phone. “I’m sure Giles will take the necessary precautions.”

“And what about you?” Buffy asked, twirling the phone cord between her fingers.

“Willow’s popped in and put up a few spells that will make my dorm room safe. She’s done the same to her flat and Oz’s house. Can you believe he found a werewolf commune in Cambridge?”

“Ya, it’s shocking. Dawn I don’t think you are taking this seriously!” Buffy continued. “It killed Faith.”

“I know,” sighed Dawn. “And it’s not like I haven’t had this conversation with both Giles and Xander. I think Xander was worse. He wanted to blow off Council stuff and stay here with me when he got back in the country.”

There was a pause between the sisters.

“Are they divorced yet?” asked Dawn cheerfully, referring to her father and stepmother.

“No, sadly,” muttered Buffy.

As Buffy hung up the phone she felt that Dawn hadn’t told her everything. Since Dawn had moved to England, pursuing higher education at Oxford, the distance between the sisters seemed bigger than just the miles separating them.

In the newly reconstructed Summers house, Hank Summers was cooing over the two babies, Ricky playing with blocks on the living room carpet and Niki sleeping soundly in a new basinet. Her dad would take care of them. These two kiddies weren’t hunting demons on a regular basis; they were safe enough for the time being.

“I’ve got to go,” Buffy explained. “I’ll be back before sunrise. You have my cell phone number if anything goes wrong?”

Her father nodded. “I hope you find whatever killed Faith...”

“Thanks Dad.”
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Buffy caught up with Spike at Angel’s hotel. The LA gang was just as she remembered them, righteous and full of hope. Except Kennedy that is. Buffy couldn’t understand just how any of them put up with her. Except that she had money. Maybe that was why they kept her around.

“I’ve received the details from Giles,” noted Wesley. “It will be coming here, sooner or later. We don’t know how it attacks, just that it leaves no mark.”

Around him the LA gang were absorbing the info he dished out, while around the room, not paying attention to anything or anyone, Drusilla danced about.

“Except you forgot that after it kills it leaves a funky food smell behind,” interjected Buffy, walking through the hotel door.

“That doesn’t do us much good. We are trying not to die from this thing!” spat Kennedy turning to face Buffy.

All eyes looked up at the Slayer who sauntered up to Spike’s side and took his hand.

“Mrs. Graves!” cooed Drusilla, finally noticing that Buffy had arrived. “Come to do away with the pretty monster, hunters he eats. This one’ll get caught in his teeth,” noted the mad vampire indicating Kennedy with scratching motions.

The LA gang obviously had gotten used to ignoring Dru. Buffy couldn’t do the same thing though. She waved at her husband’s sire with her free hand.

“Kiddies all settled in, love?” the bleach blond vampire asked his wife.

Buffy nodded. “Dawn called too, she says hi.”

“That’s nice,” said Wesley with a smile. “How is our little Oxford undergrad?”

“Latin bores her and she’s still mad that they won’t let her in the Aramaic course reserved for upper classmen.”

“It’s a tough course,” offered Wesley.

“Can we get back to the thing that’s going to kill us?” asked Kennedy, an edge of hysteria in her voice.

“Little hunter’s tea party is nearly over. The cakes aren’t quite right. Someone forgot the sugar in the baking,” observed Dru.

“What the hell does that mean?” shouted Kennedy exasperated.
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Nothing was accomplished by the time the sun was about to rise. Buffy was incredibly tired, and dragged Spike back to her parents’ house. There was no way she was staying under the same roof as Angel and Kennedy again. Not if she could help it anyway.

The Summers house was asleep, quiet and normal. Buffy found that the room designated as hers was made up for her and Spike, the curtains pulled tight. Niki slept away soundly in the corner. She tip toed out to Dawn’s room to find Ricky curled around a new stuffed dog, obviously a present from her dad.

Shedding her clothes, Buffy crawled into bed, Spike following close behind. They snuggled close to each other and fell into a dreamless sleep.

It lasted until the phone rang.

With a groan, Buffy reached for her cell phone. “What?”

“Buffy?” asked Kennedy’s voice on the other end. The former potential seemed out of breath and worried, which got Buffy’s attention. “It attacks in the day time. I just saw it. It, it attacked me. But I was with Lorne. It’s afraid of other demons.”

“’K, stay with Lorne. Tell the others, keep with a demon, vampire, someone demony. Spike and I’ll be back to the Hyperion in an hour.” Buffy flipped closed her phone and rolled on top of her mate.

“Time to get up sleepyhead,” she whispered.

“We got three hours of sleep Buffy!” he groaned.

“You can rest when this thing is dead.”
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“I am not going to be bait!” screamed Kennedy.

Dru clapped happily in the background, enjoying the joke. Buffy would have clapped too, but she thought maybe Kennedy would run off into the daylight and then their bait would be gone.

“But it wants you, Kennedy. Who better to help us kill it?” asked Angel, holding one of Dru‘s dolls. He had been trying to distract Dru from antagonizing Kennedy.

Kennedy glared back at the vampire she grudgingly took orders from.

“If you are its next target then it stands to reason that we would have more success using you as bait than someone else,” reasoned Wesley.

Buffy looked around the lobby of the Hyperion and the very sleepy faces that were gathered around. Fred yawned, trying to stay awake. They’d been awake all night, and now to have Kennedy attacked on her way home...it was just too much.

“The way I look at it,” started Buffy, “is that it’s going to come after you anyway, whether you are willing bait or not. Let’s at least try to save you?”

“Maybe she wants to join Faith in the great beyond,” added Spike. “You two were chummy back in Sunnyhell.”

“Was not!” declared Kennedy.

“Good, then it’s settled,” said Fred with a clap of her hands, as if she was trying to keep herself awake. “Kennedy is bait, Buffy, Spike, and Angel will follow. Everyone else not being hunted today...to bed!”

“See, I knew there was a reason I liked you,” noted Wesley.
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“You keep out of the sunshine!” Buffy ordered her husband as they walked down the shadowed alley following Kennedy at a distance. “Kennedy isn’t worth you getting dusted,” she whispered.

With a smile on both of their faces, Spike and Buffy turned towards Angel to see if he’d heard that comment. Buffy knew enough about vampires to realise that he probably had. He wasn’t giving any signs of caring though. Spike moved the axe he was carrying from his left hand to his right, sniffing the air. His mouth opened to say something but he was cut off.

“Uh, icky smelly demon!“ shouted Kennedy ahead of them.

No longer was there any time for Buffy to think about how much Angel lacked caring for Kennedy, she sprang into action, letting the two vampires follow behind her. Around a corner and directly in a patch of sunlight, the demon, brown, smelly, and large was circling Kennedy. It meant that Buffy wasn’t going to have any help fighting this thing.

Buffy leapt between the two, kicking away the demon’s long arms from Kennedy and bringing out a dagger from its sheath around her calf.

“Watch out for its fingers!” shouted Angel from the shadows.

Buffy’s eyes took in the tentacle like fingers and realised that they had little suckers on them. That was probably how it killed. She didn’t want to take the chance. Another kick and a swipe with the dagger and Buffy realised that she needed a longer weapon.

She kicked the demon in the gut one last time before jogging over to her mate and taking the axe he still held in his hand and pecking him on the cheek for his assistance.

Buffy turned back to the demon, only to see Kennedy decide to take it out by herself.

“Kennedy! No!” yelled Angel from the safety of the shadows.

But it was too late, the demon had wrapped its tentacle like fingers around Kennedy’s head. Buffy raised the axe and sliced the demon’s head clean off. Kennedy crumpled to the ground along with the headless body.

“Kennedy?” asked Angel, pacing at the edge of the shadows.

Buffy crept closer to the former potential and felt for a pulse. She was dead.
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“Are you sure that there aren’t more of them?” asked Fred, grimacing at the head Buffy had carried back to the hotel.

“I guess we’ll find out,” noted Buffy. “But right now, I’m going to sleep the sleep of the victorious.”

“You want to crash here for the rest of the day?” asked Angel looking through an address book, not really looking at Buffy or Spike.

Buffy looked at Spike for a moment before nodding her head in agreement. “I could use some shut eye before getting the third degree from the evil step thing.”

“Mrs. Graves has a bird pecking at her brain. Peck, peck, peck,” came Dru’s voice from the office.

“And apparently I have to talk to Dru too,” noted Buffy with a sigh. “Can I sleep first? Please?” she begged the vampiress.

“You may!” giggled Drusilla, scurrying away up the stairs.
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It was one in the afternoon when Buffy finally woke up from her mid day nap. As much as she hated to sleep in her clothes, she had been far too tired to care. Now, wrinkled and in desperate need of a toothbrush, Buffy made her way downstairs to find Dru.

She’d learned over the year and a half since her wedding, that Dru, though, mad and completely incomprehensible was a nice person. In a sick demented vampire way. The years confined to the inside of the Hyperion, spells protecting every human that walked through the door, had mellowed her a bit.

But she was still loony.

“Mrs Graves is here to have tea,” expressed Dru to the dolls that were surrounding the little table and chairs she had set up in the lobby of the hotel. “Behave you lot or there will be no songs!” Dru picked up one of the dolls and offered Buffy its chair.

Tentatively, Buffy sat down on the child’s chair, wondering just what Dru had to say to her this time. The last words of wisdom that Dru had imparted to her had involved tea and a monkey.

“Mrs. Graves wants to know when to buy the paddling pool. She always wants to know about the fishies. Shall we tell her?” asked Dru of her dolls.

Buffy could almost picture the dolls nodding back at the dark haired vampire. Dru clapped her hands and turned to look at Buffy at long last.

“Mrs. Graves,” Dru started seriously. “Tea holds the key. The key is the tea.” Dru looked into Buffy’s eyes as if begging that she understood. “The fishies, they swim in the sea until you drink the tea. My boy wants a monkey but he’ll be disappointed. My poor Spike.”

This wasn’t shaping up to be any different from the other conversations Dru had had with her.

There was a slam of a door upstairs and Spike came stomping down the stairs with a glower on his face.

“We’re leaving,” he exclaimed, not happy in the slightest.

“What happened?” Buffy asked, standing up from the tiny chair, looking questioningly at her husband.

“There’s no need to get all mad about it!” came Anya’s voice behind him. “I’m mad enough about it for the both of us.”

“Anya?” asked Buffy confused. “What the hell is going on?”

“Tell her!” Spike ordered Anya.

“Dawn and Xander were having smoochies in the board room. I walked in there minding my own business, actually I was retrieving a file Rupert had left in there. And there they were all with the smacking noises.”

Buffy’s hand went to her mouth in surprise. “Dawn...and Xander?”
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tbc...