Fic: The Island (3b/?) (B/W) Still PG

Disclaimers in 3-a

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Buffy stood watching the young people for a few minutes. Even when she was in high school at Sunnydale she was never one for crowds. Not that the 10 students and two professors could be considered a crowd ? it was still more people than she was used to being around.

She noticed the way the kids interacted. The area had all the trappings of a party, just none of the feel. A cloud of grief hung heavily over the people. 'Nothing I'm not used to. I've had so much practice dealing with grief, with losing someone; you would think that I'd get better at it.'

When the kids around the grills thinned a bit, she walked over to the table that had baby wipes, rubbing alcohol, paper plates, bottled water, and warm beer on it lined up in a row. There was no silverware and Buffy saw that people were eating with their fingers. Understanding the concept, Buffy cleaned her hands with the baby wipes, then rinsed them with the alcohol, after a few seconds her hands were dry enough to pick up a plate and she started grabbing the food.

She briefly thought about trying to avoid Willow but when Clare smiled at her again, she figured that she should join them. ?It?s just Willow! You can go over there and talk to Willow.? She tried to give herself a pep talk but the redhead's silence in the plane this morning still stung.

"I mean it Willow; it?s an unnecessary risk that you don?t have to take?." Buffy heard Clare say as she walked up to the table and sat down. "Hi Buffy. I?m just trying to talk some sense into this woman?s thick skull." Clare told the Slayer as she sat next to her at the picnic table. Buffy looked across at Willow wondering if the redhead was going to acknowledge her or not.

"Hi Buffy ?." Willow said finally, she looked away slowly picking at her meal. Some kind of fish the Slayer thought. Everything on the grills was unrecognizable to Buffy so she had gone by smell.

"I?m glad that you could join us," the Hacker continued. It seemed like she was forcing the words out.

"Willow, all I?m asking is three days? Just three days and you can leave from Charleston with full tanks and fully stocked." Clare said into the silence, leaning forward toward the redhead.

Buffy noticed that Willow appeared relieved not to have to talk or hold a conversation with the Slayer. ?I guess she?ll never be able forgive me. I know it was a lot to hope for, that somehow we could be friends again.?

"Clare, you know it'll be at least 5 days to a week if we do that. A day to pack up The Belle Star, two days to truck her down there, another day to launch her, and yet another day to recalibrate the instruments. I just don?t think we have that kind of time." Now it was Willow?s turn to lean toward the director of the school.

?How does Willow get away with telling her boss what she?s going to do?? Buffy thought.

"I just ? I don?t want anything to happen to you, too." Clare said turning away and wiping at her eyes. "You know they call this section of coastline "the Graveyard of the Atlantic" for a reason." Buffy watched as Willow's features softened and the redhead reached across the table to hold Clare?s hand.

"Listen, Clare, there are at least a dozen other places called "the Graveyard of the Atlantic." I know what I?m doing ?." Then Willow looked up into Buffy?s eyes, and gave the Slayer a tentative smile. "We know what we're doing and Buffy is very good at her job, nothing will happen to me."

Buffy couldn?t stop the surge of hope she felt as Willow?s bright eyes looked into hers. Then the moment was lost when Willow pulled back into herself, releasing the Director?s hand.

"I know I can get Belle out of the Sound, then we can make a dash under full sail to Bermuda. We can be fully stocked inside two days and out at sea hunting Hurricane Paul ? if Paul turns into a hurricane?. After Natalie decided to head towards Texas." Willow told Clare confidently.

But Buffy could tell by the way Willow?s cheeks were turning red that she was lying about something. 'The reason she asked for a Slayer was to hunt vampires not hurricanes ? so was that what Willow was worried about?'

Buffy thought's were interrupted by a fresh-faced teenager as he ran up to the table out of the darkness. Sweat sticking his bright red hair together in clumps.

"Dr. Rosenberg, we finally have the uplink to NOAA back online and you are going to want to see this, you too, Dr. Gidwitz!" He said, standing at the edge of the table, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, holding what looked like a laptop in his hands. He smiled shyly at Willow.

Buffy recognized the look the young man was giving the redhead?complete and total adoration?oh, yea, he had a major crush on her. ?No, he's head over heels in love with her. Well, who could blame him??

"Thanks, Bob," Willow smiled at him and Buffy could see real affection in her gaze, as Willow stood and offered him her seat. As the boy placed the computer down on the table and climbed over the bench, Buffy noticed the lack of the boots from Hell.

?"Dr. Rosenberg?" He must be one of her students.? The Slayer thought. ?Still if he risked snakes and whatnot to dash over here from wherever this uplink was located, something must be wrong.?

"I knew that you wanted to know what Paul was doing right away so when I got the latest Geo-stats and numbers I ran Dr. Gidwitz?s program." Bob continued, never taking his eyes off of Willow. As his computer booted, with the extra light from the machine, Buffy could see that the boy?s face was unnaturally white, instead of being flush from the run. The Slayer in her would think Vampire, but again, her spider sense didn?t go off.

Buffy vaguely wondered why Clare didn?t get up to go look over the boy's shoulder, like Willow was doing, until Bob hit a few keys and the backside of the laptop lit up, too. The computer was doubled screened, something that Buffy had seen advertised on TV, just not in person.

A map of the Atlantic appeared with a not very impressive group of clouds somewhere down near something called D.R. ?DR? Tthe Dominican Republic??

"This is a Geo-stat enhanced water vapor image." Clare explained to Buffy. "We use several different images, along with other data, to come up with estimates of strength and location of the storms until a hunter aircraft can actually fly through it." The Director continued. "I wrote this software with funding from NOAA and commercial interests to predict strength, development, and movement of storms up to two weeks. It?s not used by NOAA yet, because we're still testing it. So far, in two years, it?s worked."

"She?s being modest Buffy," Willow said without taking her eyes off the screen or the numbers that Bob was now typing into the computer. "This program will revolutionize hurricane prediction; once it?s widely accepted, Clare should win a Nobel Prize."

"I wouldn?t say that, but hopefully it will help to save lives." Clare said earnestly.

"Ready for the first run," Bob told the two doctors as the rest of students meandered over to the table.

The images on the screen began to move. The not very impressive clump of clouds became less impressive as the program ran. Three times Bob ran the program and the clump of clouds did the same thing each time. Buffy really didn?t know what all the numbers meant, but one thing she did understand was that the hurricane, Paul, scooted across Florida and then sat in the Gulf of Mexico doing nothing.

?Slacker hurricane,? Buffy thought wondering what this would do to the plans to leave tomorrow. Now Willow would have to admit that they weren?t hunting a storm but were hunting vampires.

Clare let out a relieved sigh looking at Willow. "Well, now you have no reason to leave until the Sound clears out a little and the channels can be remarked." The Director told the redhead. But there was something in the way that Willow stood up straighter and her resolve face started forming ?.

?Willow knows something that she?s not telling us. She?s going to insist that we leave as planned ?.?

Bob looked up from the display with a frightened _expression_ and Buffy remembered how white he looked a few minutes ago. He had been deathly afraid, as in his life flashing before him afraid?.

"No, y?all are wrong." He realized what he said when the two professors turned their gaze on him. He cringed but didn?t back down. "I-I knew Dr. Rosenberg ? You see I ran ?." The poor boy?s hands were shaking again and the other students gathered around the table were looking at anything except the scene unfolding before them.

Except for Donna. Buffy noticed that she was watching the scene intently ? as if she had expected it.

"Please just watch." Bob asked and everyone watched the computer screens. Only this time the image was focused on a wave of clouds coming off of Africa. The day and times were clearly stamped at the bottom of the image so Buffy could tell that the cloud wave had left Africa two weeks ago and was now just north of South America.

Then the wave started to change, it first turned into a ball, then it turned into a bright red circle. Whereas Paul had been intent on hitting every land mass it could, this hurricane lithely danced around them. When the now black image of the hurricane suddenly turned north and started to parallel the Florida coast, Buffy felt a thick tension begin to fill the air.

A line of clouds sweeping out of the plains states seemed to turn the new hurricane east; away from the coast and Buffy thought that everyone started breathing again. But then lazy Paul, all but forgotten in the Gulf of Mexico, neatly jumped across Florida ? and disappeared into the new hurricane, causing the new storm to double in size and it formed a perfect black donut.

"No, that can?t happen." Clare said in awe. The storm, still heading slightly northeast missed North Carolina by a hair?s breadth ?.

"Wow, I thought we were in the bull's eye," Buffy heard from behind her.

"That one ? I wouldn?t want to be ?." The rest was lost on Buffy because when she looked up from the screen she saw that Donna was staring at her. The girl immediately glanced back down.

When the new hurricane was even with the North Carolina coast, it suddenly made a left turn and plowed directly into the Outer Banks and just stopped ?.

There was a stunned pause and then everyone started to speak at once.

Only as soon as Clare stood up, everyone quieted. Buffy was amazed at how the Director commanded respect. Even Willow was watching her intently. ?She didn?t have to shout or call for attention, she just stood up ? so different from the way I have to do things.'

"Willow, you and Eileen rework Bob?s numbers. Use the back-up generator from the experiments, if you run out of battery power." Willow and another girl left, without a word or comment.

When Bob started to protest, Clare raised her hand to quiet him. "Bob, you?ve been up for 48 hours straight and you know that everything has to be supported or no one will believe it." The young teen accepted Clare?s words at face value and simply nodded his head.

"Donna, send a copy of the data to NOAA and see what they think." The girl nodded but didn?t leave.

"BH, you call Durham and get everyone back here tonight. Tell them to bring their own water and food." An older woman separated herself from the crowd and moved to her task.

"Campbel, you are in charge of the experiments, Kim stock the Belle with everything she can carry, we won?t be needing it? and the data Willow can gather will be huge. The rest of you start tying down and boarding up. We have 10 days before the "big one" hits." With that all the students left except for Donna.

?I can?t help but admire her leadership. I just wish I could lead like her. Calm, in control, and she didn?t make Bob feel bad about having them check behind him. No speeches, no false praise, they all know what they are facing and they trust her.? Buffy thought to herself.

Clare sighed, rubbing her eyes as her shoulders drooped and all the charismatic leadership qualities that Buffy admired flowed out of the woman.

?So this weighs on her liked it does me. She said she dreams of the kids on the boat. What will her dreams be about now? Closer to mine I bet.? Buffy stood, thinking that she was forgotten.

"What dummy in the National Hurricane Center thought it was smart to name a storm Oya?" Clare asked Buffy or the air, the Slayer couldn?t tell which.

"Oya?" Buffy repeated.

Clare turned towards the Slayer. "I don?t care if you think it?s impossible or not to have this many named storms in a year, you just do not name them after a Goddess!"

"Dr Gidwitz! We need to ask you ?." A voice shouted from the other side of the building.

"Coming!" Clare gave Buffy a tight smile, straightened her shoulders, and took off at a trot.

"Sure, I?ll just stand here ?." Buffy said after her.

"Oya," Buffy heard Donna behind her. "An African warrior Goddess that would send hurricanes after people that pissed her off." Donna looked pointedly towards the filthy Sound.

TBC

Next part I get them on the boat! I promise!

Bright Blessings,

Ivy

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