Fic: Daybreak Postponed (1/12)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: Daybreak Postponed (1/12)
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: All characters in this part belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy -- etc etc as in part (0/12). Some ideas have been borrowed for elsewhere to illuminate this story: they did once belong to Other Companies (and still do, I imagine), but since they are by way of being generic concepts, Idon't think anything's awry.
SUMMARY: Buffy has a dream, which unfolds
ARCHIVING:: All enquiries welcomed
SPOILERS: None 
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All nice feedback welcome. 


DAYBREAK HAS BEEN POSTPONED

By Soren Nyrond

Part One - A Portent



"Hi, Buffy - how's things ?"

Merrick crouched down beside Buffy's bed as he went on: "You really ought to get plenty sleep - there's big danger coming up. Watch the eight-forty-five, the eight-forty-five. A Hellmouth is bad - imagine what aHellgate would be like. Still, so far you're three-and-one. Sleep well -you need it."

 

"Eight-forty-five ?"

"I waited till then, and watched the morning news," Buffy replied to Giles: "There was nothing obvious, so Willow and I came over."

Willow was already intent on her lap-top, running up Giles' telephone bill with Internet checks on events of the morning nation-wide.

"And it was your first Watcher ?" Giles pressed.

"Yes - look, Giles, I was there when he . died. I'm not likelyto forget him."

"All right, yes - well, we know your dreams . "

"Can come true ?" Buffy challenged. "Yes - we know, Giles. But you're the Watcher, the one with all the journals and books: can't you work out what it means ?"

"Well, I'd try but . " Giles slipped off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose before he turned away, and his eye was caught bythe screen display on Willow's laptop: the figures '0845' in pastel violeton a pearl-blue background.

He turned back to Buffy, something in his eyes now alight.

"How many times did Merrick mention eight-forty-five ?"

"Twice," Buffy said: "Yes, twice: he repeated it, so that I'd remember."

"Perhaps not - Willow, I need to use the telephone."

"Okay," Willow said: "I'll disconnect."

Giles almost writhed in impatience as Willow closed her connected to the Internet, and then pounced on the telephone and began to punch ina number.

"I have no idea," Buffy said to Willow's unspoken question.

"It's overseas," Willow whispered back - "too many digits for aStateside code."

"I - I could have worked that out," Buffy admitted. Willow grinned and they exchanged a quick kiss.

 

Giles listened to the telephone, and then shook the instrument a couple of times. He listened again and then replaced the receiver, only to pick it up and dial again.

Buffy and Willow took the opportunity to exchange a couple morekisses, a hug or two, and a covert mutual caress.

Finally Giles dialled a third number - this one apparently answered, although he kept his voice too low for the girls (had they not by nowprogressed into that nirvanic state where each touch simply made them moreeager to give pleasure as well as receive it) to hear.

Finally, when his voice became raised and agitated (as much as Giles ever did become agitated), they heard him say "This is an emergency -Is there no-one -- . No-one at all - I see."

 

"What's up, Giles ?" Buffy asked, straightening her clothing.

"Yes, Giles," Willow added, trying to will her nipples into flaccidity, "have you found out what Buffy's dream meant ?"

Then they saw the expression on his face, and sobered up, totally. The only times they had seen Rupert Giles look like that had been the times he'd been sure that the Slayer was certain to die. And, if it was that serious .

"In England, the Watcher's Council has certain . arrangements,"he said, half-apologetically. "Access to certain libraries; a degree of official over­looking, and of anonymity. Part of it includes a telephone number - a series of them, actually - anyway, none of them are answering - none at all."

"But I thought you'd left the Council," Buffy said, with a trace of petulance.

"I have - but they wouldn't lock me out of the Argus System," Giles replied: "Not while there was a chance I might have something to report."

"This is bad, isn't it, Giles ?" Willow said, choking back the worry in her voice.

"It may well presage - "

Whatever he had been about to say (and Buffy Summers would haveliked fore-warning of it, so that she knew what 'presage' meant) went unsaid, as the front door was thrust open (Buffy hadn't latched it properly) and Xander Harris fell in.

Anya followed him in, effortlessly picking him up by the scruffof his neck and dropping him onto the couch.

"You might have hurt me," she said, with a slight acid edge to her tongue, "I might have tripped."

"I'm sorry," Giles said, with exaggerated politeness: "Did I miss something ? Did you knock ?"

"We wondered if there was anything . "

"I have a slight . female problem and Casanova here was gettingbored and restless," Anya said. "Now, Casanova - there was a challenge: when I wasn't using him to get revenge on someone's husband, I always seemedto be making his life hell getting revenge for someone's wife. And there were the three nuns in Cassano - well, one was a Mother Superior . well, for a couple of days, anyway . oh, please carry on," she finished, airily.

Giles glared at the two of them - he might have been about to rejoinder on his own account, before Willow's voice interrupted him.

 

"Giles - is this relevant at all ?"

She had reconnected her laptop to the telephone and was now looking at a news report from the BBC's online service. The screen showed a map of the British Isles, with areas marked in red and a sickly violet-blue.

"What is that ?" Buffy asked.

"According to them," Willow said, indicating the screen, "a chunk of England doesn't exist any more."