FF: Wanted, a Werewolf 4/8 - B/W/T - R

["carrkjar" <carrkjar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Wanted: A Werewolf and a Superman
Part 4
Red Moon Rising, Book III

Author: Frau Hunter Ash 
Copyright © 2002 by Hunter Ash. All Rights Reserved.
Email: carrkjar@xxxxxxxxx Feedback welcome!!
Homepage Addy: http://www.hunterash.com/ 

Disclaimers: The characters and show all belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, 
Mutant Enemy, Kuzui, and God only knows who else. The storyline, 
however, is the sole property of the author. This story cannot be 
sold or used for profit in any way. Copies of this story may be made 
for private use only and must include all disclaimers and copyright 
notices.

F/F romance: the story assumes a loving and sexual relationship 
between people of the same gender and may even include 3 at the same 
time <G>. If this offends or is illegal for you, then please leave.  
Come back when you are older, have an open mind, moved, or changed 
your laws. 

Spoilers: the series starts at Red Moon Rising and twists off from 
there.

Summary: Willow is missing after waking up after a full moon covered 
in blood and there's two bodies. Buffy and Tara are going insane 
looking for her and dealing with the latest threat to Sunnydale, 
Adam. 

Rating: R for serious character injury.

Author's Note: Pairings: B/W/T, G/J, X/Anya

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"It's been two weeks, Giles!" Buffy shouted, breaking another board 
between his hands. The Watcher barely pulled back in time to avoid 
the pieces smacking him in the nose or glasses.

"I know but Agent Mulder hasn't learned anything new," he 
repeated. "Wherever Willow disappeared to, she's done a good job of 
it. Rather surprising, actually."

"Why? I managed," Buffy frowned, turning her anger and frustration 
into a punching routine against the punching bag.

"You took a job that paid under the table and dealt in a neighborhood 
of runaways, I'm not sure Willow took that route," Giles commented, 
watching his Slayer work out.

"Meaning she's smarter and probably has a nice computer job somewhere 
with a new ID," Buffy said sarcastically.

"Well, yes, probably," Giles agreed.

"Can't she be traced through a new ID? They take your prints now for 
a driver's license," Buffy asked.

"Not if the ID is fake, which it probably is."

"No sign of her. Nothing!" Buffy growled and smacked the punching 
bag again.

"Yes," Giles said softly. "We have another week and a half before 
the full moon. I suggest for now that we concentrate on the cyborg 
problem."

"This sucks, Giles," Buffy grumbled. "I should be looking for 
Willow, not playing soldier against some tin plated demon."

"He's not a demon, Buffy," Giles said impatiently. "And you're not 
playing `soldier,' you're being the Slayer. You're doing your job."

"Oh right, my job," Buffy said bitterly. "That thing that takes 
precedence over my life, even if it means losing one of my soul 
mates."

"Buffy," Giles began, his face expressing his hurt.

"No, Giles," Buffy snapped, verbally shrugging off his 
concern. "Just let me practice alone for awhile, okay? Go do some 
planning with the Gang about Adam or something."

"Alright," Giles agreed reluctantly, not sure how to help his 
Slayer's emotional pain.

Buffy continued whacking the punching bag until she heard the door to 
the kitchen click shut. Then the Slayer turned into a run across the 
floor, through a series of gymnastic moves that put her up against a 
wooden wall they used to practice climbing.

With a shout of anger, Buffy began punching the wall as hard as she 
could, letting all of her frustration, anger and pain flow through 
her hands until the boards gave in under her assault and cracked.

Buffy fell to her knees sobbing, cradling her bruised and bloody 
hands.

"Willow."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Carson felt the familiar figure next to him twitch in her sleep and 
heard her moan. He figured she must be really caught in a nightmare 
to be able to wake him up out of a sleep during the day. <"Not a 
morning person" did not even begin to cover his sleeping habits,> he 
thought with a smile.  

The vampire rolled over and gently shook Willow.

"Hey, Scarlet," he said softly, using his pet nickname for the red-
haired witch.

Willow frowned in her sleep and mumbled in protest.

"You awake enough?" he asked, slightly grumpy himself.

Willow nodded and curled up around the stuffed fox he had brought 
home for her one night. As her breathing evened out the vampire 
drifted back into sleep.

The two weeks hadn't been bad, he reflected. Willow had proven more 
than adept at surviving; surprising him and herself. She had quickly 
gotten false IDs for both of them and illegally sold her parents 
car. That money had been spent on securing a studio apartment in a 
miserable part of town.

By magick, theft, barter, and creative inventiveness, furniture had 
been acquired. Typical of a studio apartment, some of the furniture 
consisted of plastic milk crates and boards but the bed was queen 
sized and comfortable. Heavy black material covered the windows and 
a curtain blocked off any light that might come in from the front 
door opening but that wasn't out of place in the neighborhood of 
college students, struggling musicians, junkies and slackers.  

Within days, the hacker had a job with a group of fellow hackers and 
computer geeks putting together computers for clients and hacking 
into and testing programs. Willow figured most of the computers they 
took in were stolen but it didn't matter to her. The guys paid well, 
respected her skills, didn't ask for identification and didn't ask 
questions about her past.  

Within a week, Carson had a job as a bouncer at a Goth bar, his pale 
skin fitting in quite well with the wanna-be vampires.

Carson figured it hadn't been a bad move to hook up with the red-
haired witch. The girls at the club were fascinated with his fangs 
and more than willing to have sex with the handsome "vampire," 
especially when he could use his fangs, Carson just made sure not to 
let them see his `game' face. <The girls never missed the blood and 
enjoyed the sex immensely, everyone got what they wanted,> he 
reflected.

One of his first purchases had been a strong set of shackles, thick 
chains and industrial locks.

Willow had looked at the silver items with a clenched jaw and didn't 
say a word but nodded her thanks.

The computer geeks weren't surprised when she worked most of the 
night and slept most of the day. Almost all of them kept the same 
strange schedule and the main workshop was out of a rented warehouse, 
so no one noticed the odd hours.  

"Buffy," the red-head mumbled.

"Things are looking good here, Red," Carson mumbled. "But you still 
should have stayed with your girlfriends."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Joyce frowned and looked over at the clock on her nightstand and her 
frown deepened. What had awakened her at 2:25 in the morning? She 
sat up on her bed and grabbed for her robe when a thump sounded again 
on the stairs.

Alarmed, Joyce moved quickly to her door and rushed down the hall, 
switching on the light.

Buffy, leaning heavily on the banister, blinked in the sudden glare.

"Buffy?" Joyce questioned.

The Slayer looked like she had been in a car wreck. Joyce knew she 
would never get used to Buffy coming home battered and bruised but 
this was one of the worst. She rushed down the stairs to wrap an arm 
under Buffy's and began helping her daughter up the stairs.

"What happened?"

"Buffy?" Tara's voice greeted them from the top of the stairs, her 
voice cracking at the sight of the Slayer.

"I'll live," Buffy said, trying to reassure her mother and her love.

Tara and Joyce helped Buffy move slowly down the hall to her room and 
onto her bed. Buffy winced as she sat down on the bed and Joyce 
helped her out of her jacket.  

"Oh Buffy," her mother said, her voice cracking.

The Slayer's left eye was swollen shut, her nose had been bleeding, 
and her arms were covered with bruises. Joyce also noticed that 
Buffy was holding her right arm close to her body and gently raised 
Buffy's t-shirt. Both Joyce and Tara winced at the sight of the 
massive bruises along the Slayer's ribs.

"I found Adam," Buffy announced with a slight smile, trying to joke.

"Looks like he found you," Tara countered, bending down to unlace 
Buffy's Doc Martin boots.

"Well, I have to admit that it didn't exactly go well," Buffy said 
softly.  

"Do we need to take you to the hospital?" Joyce asked.

"No, Mom, really," Buffy assured her. "I'll be all better by 
morning, only a few bruises by then. Right now I need a shower and 
some sleep."

"I don't think you can stand up long enough for a shower," Joyce 
commented and caught a look between Tara and her daughter. "All 
right, good idea."

"What?" Buffy asked innocently.

"Tara helping you with a shower, of course," Joyce said 
calmly. "Just make it a quick one, you both have school tomorrow."

Buffy's eyes widened and Tara blushed a bright red.

"Mom!"

"You sure you don't need a doctor?" Joyce asked again, ignoring 
Buffy's protests.

"I'll be okay, Mom," Buffy said, a little more calmly. "I've got to 
see Giles in the morning before school."

"New developments?" Tara asked as she and Joyce helped the Slayer to 
her feet.

"Yeah, I ran into one of the Initiative commandos, they're hunting 
Adam as well," Buffy said. "He said that demons and vampires are 
flocking to Adam and they can't get near the place. The Initiative 
has only a skeleton crew since we destroyed the Center."

"We needed to destroy it," Tara frowned.

"Total agreement," Buffy agreed as her mom and Tara helped her sit in 
the bathroom while Tara started the shower. "Now if we can find Will 
and convince her that they aren't a threat to get her home!"

"We will, Buffy," Tara said firmly.

"I'll be gone to Los Angeles for a couple of days to oversee the 
shipment of a new show at the gallery, I could cancel if you need me 
here," Joyce commented.

"No, Mom," Buffy shook her head. "It's probably better if you're out 
of town. Riley knows who I am and Adam could come after any of you to 
get to me."

"I wonder why he hasn't?" Tara said thoughtfully, helping Buffy stand 
up.

"Well, I will see you girls in a couple of days then," Joyce said, 
hugging Tara and then Buffy. "I love you."

"Love you too, Mom," Buffy smiled.

Tara waited until Joyce shut the bathroom door and turned the Slayer 
around to unhook Buffy's bra. 

"I think we should go over and wake Giles up after the shower, Buffy."

"What's up, Tara?" Buffy asked, leaning with one hand on Tara's 
shoulder to work her way out of her jeans. "It's freezing out there 
this time of night and I'm really hurting here."

"Something you said," Tara said, pulling Buffy's underwear down and 
steering the Slayer towards the shower.

"What? About coming after my mom?" Buffy tried not to moan with the 
mixture of pain and relief as the warm water hit her aching body.  

Tara quickly undressed and crawled into the shower behind her lover.

"Yes, it doesn't make sense that he hasn't," Tara commented.  

"Well, I'm grateful that he hasn't," Buffy muttered, leaning one hand 
against the shower wall and letting Tara clean her tired body. <Her 
mom shouldn't have worried,> Buffy thought, <she was too tired and 
hurt to think of sex, even with Tara's naked body right behind her.>  
She frowned, realizing she had missed what Tara was saying.

"Huh?"

"We need to prepare for that possibility, Buffy," Tara 
repeated. "This Adam thing is computer based in his logic, right?"

"That's what Giles and Mulder tell us," Buffy agreed.

"Then logically, he might plan on attacking your friends and family 
to throw you off your game."

"Just like Angel did," Buffy said, suddenly thoughtful. "He taunted 
all of us to keep me off balance. Let's go see Giles."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Willow glanced up at the clock and stretched. The program she was 
working on was being difficult and she was getting frustrated.  

Tulsa looked up from his pliers and motherboard with a grin.  

"That one's a bitch, isn't it?" he asked, brushing his greasy hair 
out of his eyes.

"Yeah, I know it's in one of the lines of code, I just can't find it 
yet," Willow answered. "Where's Rusty?"

"Oh, he went on a Taco Bell run. You had your headphones on and was 
looking very intense so he's bringing you back two supreme burritos 
and an ice tea."

"Cool," Willow smiled and stood up from her table to walk and glance 
over the other geek's shoulder. "That circuit is totally fried, it 
won't hold the connection."

"Yeah, I know," Tulsa drawled. "But the dude that's buying this one 
is a real jerk and ripped us off two months ago. It'll hold together 
for about four days and then totally short circuit everything."

"Oh you are so evil!" Willow grinned.  

"Yeah, total Darkside stuff!" Tulsa agreed with a laugh. "Find a 
girlfriend yet?"

"Right, when am I going to find a girlfriend?" Willow tried to laugh 
but it was unconvincing. "I'm here every night and sleep all day, 
doesn't exactly make a lively social calendar, you know?"

"Yeah, that's why most of the computers we get in here have so much 
porn downloaded they've crashed their systems," Tulsa grinned.

"If I see one more manipulated picture of Brittany Spears, I'm going 
to scream," Willow agreed.

"Not your type?" Rusty teased as he opened the door, his arms filled 
with Taco Bell bags.

"Just because she's female doesn't mean I'm automatically attracted 
to her. You guys aren't turned on by every single woman you see in a 
bathing suit, are you?"

Both guys looked at each other and then back to the female hacker.

"Yes," both of them answered and Willow threw her hands up in 
frustration.  

"Males!" she complained with a laugh, reaching for food, trying not 
to think about Buffy and Tara.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Giles?" Buffy called as she cautiously pushed the battered door open 
more. Tara stood back once they arrived at the Watcher's home and 
found the door kicked in and could see no movement inside the condo.

"Giles?" Buffy shouted. She held the shotgun in a ready position as 
she walked into the living room cautiously.

"Buffy," anyone else but Willow or Buffy would have missed it.  

Buffy was across the room in a flash and switched on the light to the 
hallway and stopped, stunned for a moment.

Giles had been beaten, worse than when Angelus had tortured him and 
he had been tied to the banister of the stairs. Buffy whimpered.  
The Englishman was hanging by his wrists, his shirt had been ripped 
off him and someone had beaten him from behind, focusing on the lower 
back. What really worried the Slayer was the puncture wound in the 
Watcher's back that was still bleeding freely.

"Tara! Call 911!" Buffy shouted and ran up the stairs, grabbing one 
of the knives from the many displays of weapons on the walls.

"Buffy," Giles whispered. 

"It's okay, I'm here," Buffy said softly as she waited for Tara.

A moment later the witch came around the corner and gasped. 

"Get over behind him and lower him down when I cut these ropes," 
Buffy instructed and Tara moved behind the wounded man. Buffy 
quickly cut through the ropes holding him in the air. Tara managed 
to catch and lower him to the floor without too much tripping. She 
helped turn him over onto his stomach as he moaned in pain.

Buffy grabbed the first aid kit from the den area and ripped it open 
impatiently. She tossed a large gauze pad to Tara and the witch 
placed it over the puncture wound and pressed down hard, despite 
Giles' moan of pain.

"He wanted me to bleed to death," Giles whispered. "Didn't think 
you'd be here so soon."

"Tara thought he might attack my family or friends," Buffy explained.

"Good thinking, actually," Giles praised and then cried out with the 
pain. "I'm having some problems with my legs."

"Giles?" Buffy said softly, thankful for the sound of sirens in the 
distance.

"Hurts," he admitted, closing his eyes. "He wants you alone, then 
he'll make more like himself."

"He won't get that chance," Buffy growled.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Xander and Anya found Buffy pacing restlessly and Tara sitting on a 
hospital waiting room sofa, hugging herself and looking worried.

"How is he?" Xander demanded as Buffy quickly hugged him. "I'm 
sorry," he whispered. "About earlier, what I said about Willow."

"I know," Buffy whispered back and turned to hug Anya.

"They won't tell us anything yet," Tara complained.  

"The paramedics said he lost a lot of blood," Buffy added, sitting 
next to Tara.

"Okay, who is like totally pissed off at this point and getting 
damned tired of this wanna-be Terminator?" Xander growled.

"I'll second that," Buffy muttered.

"What about Willow? She is needed; can't we find her yet?" Anya 
questioned.

"We can try again," Tara suggested.

"I'm game, everything feels off without her," Buffy agreed and 
reached out to hold Tara's hand. Together they closed their eyes.

///Willow!/// both of them called.

Willow frowned over the computer she was looking on, her body jerking 
slightly.

"You okay, Robin?" Rusty called from across the room, glancing up 
from the computer he was rebuilding.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Willow snapped. "Sorry, just a little tired, I 
guess."

"You've been working like crazy on that damned program," he commented 
and yelped as he was shocked when he touched the case. "Goddamn 
piece of?"

"Rusty," Willow grinned.

///Willow! 911, please!/// Buffy and Tara's voice echoed in her head.

Willow shook her hair out of her eyes and turned up the stereo, 
trying to drown out the voices of her lovers with the sounds of Nine 
Inch Nails.  

///It's Giles!/// the voice shouted at her.

//No, I'm too dangerous!// she shouted back mentally and slammed her 
shields down tighter.

"Damnit!" Buffy muttered, slamming her fist against her leg. "She's 
blocking us!"

"Any word from Agent Mulder?" Xander asked.

"No, nothing," Tara answered, leaning against Buffy's shoulder.

"Have you called your Mom?" Anya asked.

"Yeah, I got her on her cell phone. She's on her way home," Buffy 
said wearily. "All we can do is wait."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Willow slammed the door shut and threw her backpack onto the sofa.  
Carson walked out of the bathroom, toweling his hair dry.

"Good hunting tonight?" Willow snapped, taking in his flushed 
appearance and contented expression.

"Is it your time of the month or are we close to a full moon?" he 
snapped back. "What bug crawled in and infected your systems?"

"Sorry, Car," Willow said softly and threw herself down on the 
sofa. "I?there's a program that's giving me problems."

"There's more than that," he commented as he slipped on a t-shirt and 
lay down on the bed in his boxers, ready for bed as the sun began to 
rise.

"Someone from home tried to contact me," she admitted.

"Did you answer them?"

"No, I can't go back, you know that," she growled.

"I don't know that!" he snapped back. "They love you and that's 
damned rare. They'll take care of your wolf side and whatever that 
power you have can be used to help them."

"Help them what, Carson?" she demanded. "Kill others like you?"

"I thought we agreed, there aren't any like me," he grinned, 
revealing his fangs. "Don't tell me you're beginning to be 
sympathetic for vampires? Haven't you figured out some of the vampire 
thing?"

"What about it? When you die the demon takes over and your soul is 
lost," Willow frowned, taking off her army fatigue jacket and 
slipping out of her combat boots. Next the baggy jeans were tossed 
aside and she crawled into the bed with the vampire. She momentarily 
reflected that even her wardrobe had changed in the last couple of 
weeks. Instead of the bright, cheery clothing she favored, now she 
was wearing dark and baggy clothing, looking very much like the 
computer geeks and skaters she was hanging with.

"You know, good thing you're gay and I'm a gentleman," Carson 
growled. "You are incredibly sexy and don't even know it do you?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Willow smiled, wrapping her arm around her 
stuffed fox. "You also know I'd fry you if you tried anything."

"Well, there is that," he grinned. "Now, about the soul thing. It's 
true that the soul is set aside and the blood lust hits, leaving very 
little of the original morality left. There's a lot of the basic 
personality left though. Especially over time, the vampire becomes 
more like their old self the longer they live."

"You mean Spike was a jerk in his human life?" Willow asked.

"Yeah, he was also a decent guy at times, comes through in the 
vampire," Carson explained.

Willow frowned, deep in thought.

"You told me about seeing your vampire double, right?" Carson 
questioned.

"Yeah, she was totally evil though," Willow protested. "I'm not 
evil, except for the werewolf thing and I don't remember what I do as 
a werewolf?so I'm not sure that counts as being evil. It is evil but 
I don't know that I'm being evil?"

"Willow!" 

"Sorry," Willow grinned.

"She was also very sexual with both genders and went for females 
first, right?"

"Like eeewww, she wanted to be sexual with me!" Willow exclaimed.  

"Oh that would be way kinky," Carson agreed. "Would that be 
considered masturbation?"

Willow blushed a deep red and smacked the vampire on the ribs.

"Well, seeing her got me to look at some things about myself," Willow 
admitted.

"Same thing, your vampire double, if she lives for a few hundred 
years, might be more like you are now," he grinned.

"Were you totally evil when you changed?" she asked.

"For a while," he admitted. "Took about fifty years before I started 
wanting more than just the hunt."

Willow's frown deepened.

"Do you know Angel or Angelus?"

"Yeah, about a 100 years ago," Carson mumbled, beginning to get 
sleepy with the coming daylight.

"You know about the soul and curse thing, right?"

"Yeah, tortured soul, redeeming himself, all that," Carson mumbled.

"Well, a couple of years ago he reverted back to Angelus and he was 
like totally evil, I mean really really bad," Willow explained. "He 
went out of his way to torture and torment Buffy and the rest of us, 
he delighted in torturing Giles, really hurting him."

"Yeah, I heard horror stories of Angelus when he was evil," Carson 
agreed.

"Well, does that mean he was evil in human life?" she asked.

"He was a bastard, from what I heard," he muttered. "He like to 
party, didn't want to work, kinda cruel and arrogant, he loved the 
women, a real love `em and leave `em type."

"So why is he different now with a soul?"

"That tortured soul thing again," Carson growled. "The guilt makes 
him a nice guy and maybe he grew up a little when he got his soul 
back."

"So you were a total nice guy before you died? Is that why you became 
a nice vampire so quickly?" she asked.

"I guess you could say that," Carson grinned with his eyes 
closed. "I was a priest."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Miss Summers?" 

Buffy sat up immediately, blinking.

"Yes?" she answered as the female doctor approached the small group.

Xander, Anya, and Tara all sat up, blinking.

"Mr. Giles is out of surgery and is in stable condition," she 
informed the group.

"Is he okay?" Xander demanded.

"Well, it's too soon to tell the exact effects of the injuries," Dr. 
Karen Wang said slowly. "The puncture would caused massive internal 
bleeding and he's currently in a coma from the blood loss and then 
there's the question of his spinal injury."

"Spine?" Tara asked softly.

"There is a great deal of swelling of the tissue surrounding the 
spinal cord from the beating. The cat scan doesn't show any breakage 
or bulging of the disks but we've ordered a series of MRIs to rule 
that out."

"Giles is paralyzed is what you're saying," Buffy demanded.

"For the moment, we're hoping that when the swelling goes down that 
motor function will return to his lower limbs," Dr. Wang explained.

"If it doesn't?" Xander asked.

"Then we'll try surgery to repair what damage is there," Dr. Wang 
said confidently. "But you must be prepared, there is a chance that 
the spinal cord itself was damaged."

"He'd be paralyzed for life," Tara said softly.

"There is that possibility," Dr. Wang confirmed. "I'm sorry, I need 
to get back. There's nothing any of you can do right now. Why don't 
you go home and get some rest. He may not wake up for hours or even 
days."

"If ever, right?" Xander asked bitterly.

"I really can't predict that," Dr. Wang said cautiously.

Buffy fell into Tara's arms as Xander cursed under his breath.

"I think it's time we take this tin-god out," he growled.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Former High School Librarian Attacked in Own Home" the headline read 
as Willow read the Sunnydale newspaper through the computer. The 
hacker quickly scanned the article and felt a familiar sensation of 
fear running through her system as her heart-rate climbed rapidly.  

The article reported that Rupert Giles, former high-school librarian, 
was attacked in his home by persons unknown and was currently in 
critical condition at the local hospital after undergoing surgery.

Willow, ignoring the glances from Rusty, Tulsa and Skates, got up 
from her table and grabbed the telephone and dialed the number she 
had gotten from her inquiry on the computer.

"I'm calling about the condition of Rupert Giles," she said.

"Are you a relative?" a voice questioned in response.

"Yes, I'm his niece," Willow answered, hoping her fake English accent 
would hold up to a nurse in Sunnydale.

"I'm sorry, let me check," the nurse or desk clerk responded. After 
a moment the voice returned to the phone. "I'm sorry, Miss," the 
voice said. "Mr. Giles is still unconscious but in stable 
condition. His paralysis hasn't improved in the last twenty hours."

"Thank you, very much," Willow mumbled.

"May I take a message for the rest of his family?" the voice asked as 
Willow hung up the phone.

"You okay, Robin?" Skates asked, turning the volume of the latest by 
Staind down.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she muttered and walked out of the office area 
into the large cavernous warehouse. The hacker sat down on a wooden 
crate and slowly rocked back and forth, tears running down her face.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Giles moaned and felt someone stroking his forehead.

"Shhhh, its okay, Rupert," a voice said softly.

The Watcher opened his eyes and smiled at Joyce holding his hand.  

"Hey," he muttered.  

Joyce reached over and held a plastic cup with a straw and let him 
drink several sips of water.

"How bad?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"You're talking and smiling," Joyce pointed out. "The kids are 
outside, they wouldn't leave."

"How bad?" he asked again.  

Joyce sighed. "You lost a lot of blood but the stab wound missed 
vital organs. They removed your spleen, though."

"My legs," Giles whispered. "He meant to cripple me before killing 
me."

"The swelling hasn't gone down," Joyce said. "They don't know, 
Rupert."

"I can't feel my legs," he muttered, closing his eyes slowly.

Joyce stood up to get the doctor and the Scooby Gang.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"Giles?" 

"Agent Mulder?" Giles answered, fumbling with the phone and setting 
the controls of his hospital bed in motion to sit up. "Good to hear 
your voice."

"Even better to hear yours, from what they tell me," Mulder 
responded. "I've got news about Willow. Is anyone else there with 
you?"

Giles looked over at a sleepy Tara, who was sitting up and rubbing 
her eyes. The Watcher smiled, remembering when the Scooby Gang had 
kept a similar vigil next to Willow's bed and then Buffy's to protect 
them. Now they were doing the same for him.

"Yes, Tara is here," Giles said.

"What do the doctors say about you?" Mulder asked.

"They're not sure the paralysis is permanent, I've regained some 
feeling in the feet and one side of the legs," Giles informed the FBI 
agent. "What about Willow?"

Tara was awake and alert instantly at the mention of her lover's name.

"Well, the bite patterns on the victims are from two different 
attackers," Mulder informed the Watcher as Giles held the phone 
slightly away from his ear so Tara could listen. "The bad news is 
that the bite pattern and DNA evidence from the male victim belong to 
Willow. The bite pattern and DNA evidence from the girl aren't in 
the Initiative records."

"No," Tara whimpered and Giles closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Giles," Mulder said sadly. "Scully ran the tests three 
times to be sure. The good news is that we've got a lead on where 
she is."

Giles tried to sit up and winced at the sudden pain. "Where?"

"Los Angeles area," Fox Mulder answered. "I played a hunch and we 
ran traces on any telephone calls coming into the hospital asking 
about you. All but one were either local or England."

"England?" Giles asked with a frown.

"Apparently someone was checking up on you from your homeland," 
Mulder informed him. "The other call was an unidentified female 
claiming to be your niece."

"I don't have a niece," Giles commented.

"I know, that's why we tracked that call closer. It came from the 
Los Angeles area."

"Can't you be more specific?" Giles demanded.

"Normally we could," Mulder agreed. "But whoever this was routed the 
phone through several trunk boxes, the records show the call came 
from the City Morgue."

"Could she be working there?"

"No, city officials are fingerprinted," Mulder answered. "No, the 
call was routed through several locations through the computer lines, 
hell of a hacking job."

"Willow," Giles nodded.

"I would bet on it," Mulder agreed. "She was checking up on you and 
she's in LA."

"Thank you, Agent Mulder," Giles said gratefully. "That gets us 
closer, we might be able to track her now and we have friends in Los 
Angeles."

"I remember," Mulder said. "Good luck and we'll keep looking on this 
end."

Giles clicked off the phone and looked at Tara's face and held out 
his arms. They were closer to Willow now but they also had 
confirmation that the werewolf Willow had killed.

Giles frowned, the mystery of the girl's death was still bothering 
him.

"Hand me my address book, please," he asked Tara. "We need to call 
Los Angeles and then the rest of the group."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Willow yawned and stretched, glancing at the clock. Just enough time 
for coffee and a bite to eat before hitting the computers.  

Carson was sound asleep beside her on the bed. <Sometimes it was 
eerie waking up next to him,> she thought. Without the need to 
breathe, it was very much like waking up next to a corpse. Given 
that he was a vampire and had actually died, Willow figured that's 
exactly what it was like.

<Goddess,> she thought, <weird thoughts today.>  

She tried to shake off the thoughts of Buffy and Tara but couldn't.  
Night before a full moon and she wanted to be with them desperately, 
emotionally and sexually. A cold shower was in order since her only 
other option was sex with a priest turned vampire and a male one at 
that. Not her idea of a romantic encounter.

She pushed her Vespa out the door and headed out for another day of 
work. Another day to ignore the fact that the next night was the 
full moon.

After grabbing something to eat, Willow sat down at her worktable and 
booted up her own laptop, connecting to the phone lines. She quickly 
hit the Internet and accessed the Sunnydale newspaper, just as she 
had every day since learning about Giles.

Willow's trained eyes could read between the lines of many of the 
articles. Having grown up in Sunnydale, it was common to read about 
missing children, disappearances and unexplained `muggings.'

There was only one small article on Giles' release from the hospital 
but Willow sighed with relief. It was enough to tell her he was 
alive and well enough to go home. She knew Buffy and the others 
would protect him. She hadn't dared call the hospital after the 
first time but was depending on the Sunnydale newspaper for 
information.

Willow wanted to cry but felt too tired to even do that. She knew 
Carson had taken the next three nights off from his job so he could 
watch over her during the full moon but she was still worried. It 
was the first full moon since the werewolf had escaped the cell in 
the crypt. She had already killed at least two people, any more and 
Willow knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself.
The hacker smiled when Tulsa and Skates entered the warehouse office 
and headed for their own worktables.

"Hey, Robin," both greeted her.

"Hey, guys."

After a few moments Tulsa got up from his stool and approached his 
fellow hacker. Willow looked up with a smile and then frowned at his 
serious expression.

"What's up, Tulsa?" she asked.

The young hacker pulled a piece of paper out of his trench coat and 
handed it to her. Willow unfolded it and felt her heart skip a beat 
as she looked at her college identification picture under the heading 
of Federal Bureau of Investigations: Wanted.

"That came through on the FAX yesterday," Tulsa explained. "The 
others haven't seen it."

"Wanted for questioning as a material witness in a federal case, 
Willow Rosenberg, age 20, etc," she read softly. "Fox."

"What are you going to do?" Tulsa asked. "Is it a hacking thing?"

"Yeah," Willow lied easily, knowing that hacking would be something 
Tulsa could understand perfectly and he wouldn't understand 
werewolves, vampires and cyborgs.

"They won't recognize you and there's no tracing you here," Tulsa 
pointed out.

"I hope not," Willow said softly.  

"We won't say anything, Robin," Tulsa promised, still sticking to 
Willow's runaway name.

"Thanks, Tulsa," she managed to smile softly.

Willow keyed in a relatively unknown hacker website that routed 
emails to various locations, allowing them to be sent anonymously.  
She began to type.

"Mulder, why are you tracking me? I can't let the Initiative get a 
hold of me again. You know what they did to me. Please let me go. ? 
Willow."

The hacker knew that it would take a couple of hours to route the 
message to Fox Mulder's email and another two hours at least to get a 
response back through the routing system. Willow settled down to 
concentrate on work.

Willow frowned at the program that was still causing her so many 
hassles. She glanced over at Tulsa and Skates and made sure they 
were involved in their own work and spread her hands over the 
computer mainframe. A blue light spread from her hands as she 
concentrated and in a moment the computer screen began flashing and 
the printer several feet away kicked into gear.

Willow blinked, drawing the energy back into herself.

"Hey!" Tulsa grinned at the sound of the printer and got up to check 
the printout. "Score!" he shouted. "She fixed the damned thing!"

"Most excellent, dude!" Skates laughed. "You are the best, Robin!"

"Thanks, guys, I'm not even sure how I did it," she grinned.

"Well, the printout shows it was a damned line error, just like you 
figured," Tulsa said, reading the papers. "I never would have found 
that!"

Willow grinned.  

Satisfied with the results of the program, Willow quickly moved on to 
another problem, one that wasn't as difficult but it passed the time 
until she noticed it was almost 4 a.m. Willow went back to the 
website and checked her email and wasn't surprised to find an email 
from Mulder.

She opened it with a feeling of anticipation and dread.

"Willow, please go home. The Initiative is in total shambles and 
aren't looking for you. I swear it. Professor Walsh is dead and 
Riley is under control of the latest monster in Sunnydale. Professor 
Walsh created a hybrid cyborg/demon/human super soldier and named him 
Adam. He's terrorizing Buffy and the group, he's the one that 
attacked Giles. Go home, they need you. Your friend, always, Mulder."

Willow frowned and shut down her computer, said goodnight to the guys 
and headed to her studio apartment.  

Carson noticed Willow's distraction and kept quiet when she entered 
the apartment. He waited patiently as she absently pulled off her 
boots.

The vampire caught the change of expression and recognized the 
stubborn set to her jaw, he had run across it a couple of times 
before.

"What?" he asked.

"You got everything set for the next three nights?" she asked.

"Yes," he said easily. "That center post of the room will hold you.  
I had a demon friend try it out, he's huge and twice as strong as a 
werewolf and he couldn't even scratch the post or bend the chains."

"Good old Southern California, earthquake and werewolf proof," Willow 
said bitterly. "After the full moon is over, I'm going home."

"Good, about time," he commented.