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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: Don't own Buffy the vampire Slayer or the characters of any of the Slayerettes. (Probably a good thing too.) I don't own the song either.
Buffy called after her, "Was I going near him?" but Cordelia ignored her. Buffy shrugged and headed off on another pass through the dance.
(Back out on the dance floor.)
"A k-kiss can be d-deadlier if you mean it," Batman said to Catwoman, who just looked at him in confusion. "A kiss can be..." he started to repeat, then finished off with, "Oh, forget it. Did you ever even s-see the movie?"
Faith, who had been bored and just waiting for the song to finish, felt an uncertain realization get ready to form in the back of her mind. Sure, this guy was a dweeb, but he wasn't just a dweeb. There was a peculiar intensity about him, a darkness, almost as if... "Vampire," she whispered aloud in disbelief, caught off guard.
The Batman turned to face her, shock on his face. "Slayer!" They looked into each other's eyes for a second, caught in tableau, and then Batman shoved Faith away and down to the floor. As Faith landed on her back, her hand reached to her hip for the stake... that she wasn't packing right now, since it didn't match the costume. It didn't seem to matter anyways, since Batman was no longer in evidence - he must have turned and disappeared into the crowd as she was falling.
"Just great." Faith sprung to her feet and looked around for Jonny, but he was already rushing up to her.
"What the hell happened?" he asked.
(Over in the seating area.)
"These guys are good," Jonny muttered aloud to Faith and Buffy, who they had met up with. "I looked right into that dweeb's face and didn't see a trace of what he really was. I knew they were expert with disguises and impersonations, but I never really appreciated what that meant."
"Are you sure that he was a member of the brotherhood?" Buffy asked him.
"Yeah, I recognize him well enough now," Jonny said. "'Bob' - the electronics engineering specialist."
"Is that really his name?" Faith asked disbelievingly.
"It's the only one he uses..." Jonny replied absently.
"Willow!" Buffy called out. Sure enough, Willow and Xander were sitting together at a table for two just ahead.
"Hi, Bufuffy!" Xander called out.
"Hey, it'sh all of you," Willow replied, a sloppy smile on her face.
Buffy's face fell in concern. "Hey, are you guys okay?" she hissed as she ran up to the table.
"We're fine, aren't we honey," Willow said, reaching out to slap Xander on the shoulder. Buffy looked from one of them to the other in disbelief.
Jonny reached out, took Willow's glass, which still had about an inch of dark liquid in it, (Xander's was empty,) and gave a clinical sniff. "Captain Morgan," he announced in a whisper. "Now how did that get in there?"
"Rum?" Buffy asessed disbelievingly. "When I told you to find a way to relax, that was so not what I meant, Will."
"I know!" Willow replied hotly. "The waiter... did it without asking." She bent Buffy's head down towards her for a conspiratirial confession. "We didn't want to get him in trouble," she admitted.
"Well, now you're in trouble," Buffy said. "At least you didn't have more than one each, right? Did either of you even remember that you're Slayerettes on-call tonight?"
A frown flashed to Xander's face. "Why? Is there trouble?"
"We've had a vampire sighting," Buffy confirmed. "But they're not attacking or anything, which just makes me more nervous. We need to find them! Now!!"
Xander and Willow struggled clumsily to their feet. "We're okay, Buffy," Willow said uncertainly. "Oh, hey, there's Oz!" she called out as she caught sight of the stage. "Oz!" Willow sniffed a few times sadly.
"Okay, well, we're trying something a little different tonight," the lead singer, Devon, was saying. "Our lead guitarist, the incomparable Oz, wanted to sing a very special song. So, take cover." Devon waited a beat, and then added, "I'm just kidding."
Willow pushed through the crowd to get closer to the stage as the band re-arranged themselves. Xander and Buffy followed as Faith and Jonny headed off the other way. Soon, Oz was sitting down with the center mike brought down close to his head, and another microphone aimed at the acoustic guitar on his lap. Willow and the others came to a stop close to the front of the crowd around the stage. Oz cued the drummer in, and began singing with just the drumbeat and his own guitar for accompaniment:
Where I used to have a heart,
Feels like a mile-wide ditch,
I got a hole inside,
The doctor just can't stitch
Gone without a trace,
You left a hollow place.There's not a stone to mar,
Where I used to have a heart.
Oz's singing voice was throaty and rich, if not even as well-trained by practice as Devon's. With an idle wave of his hand he signalled the keyboard and bass players to join in:
There were times when I would hold you
Feel the poundin' in my chest,
And now I'm just as empty
As the canyon way out west.
Oh, that's how deep I loved you,
And babe I love ya still
To the bottom of this space I'll never fill
None of Buffy, Willow, or Xander was moving, but tears started to run from Willow's eyes, down her cheeks, along her neck, and onto the black leather of her suit. Neither Buffy nor Xander noticed them yet.
Where I used to have a heart,
Feels like a mile-wide ditch,
I got a hole inside,
The doctor just can't stitch
Gone without a trace,
You left a hollow place.
There's not a stone to mar,
Where I used to have a heart.(Instruments more softly,)
I guess I'll learn to live with
A different kind of pain.
I'm suffrin' from a sickness
That I cannot give a name.
It's such a strange sensation,
I've never felt before.
Missing you has cut me to the core.
At this point, Willow turned abruptly and ran away from the stage. Buffy tried to follow, but the crowds that had parted in surprise for the first girl would not let a second disrupt their position so easily. Xander went the other way.
"Where I used to have a..." That was as far as Oz got in his vocal debut at the Bronze, because Xander vaulted up onto the stage and punched him solidly in the jaw, knocking the chair over and sending Oz's best acoustic flying across the stage. Xander looked down at Oz's surprised face as he lay on the ground and shook his head.
"How could you do that to her? Everyone said you were the senshitive one, the caring one. How could you go and upshet her like that?" Xander called out.
Oz opened his mouth to begin a reply, but in the hush that had spread through the Bronze after Xander's attack, as almost everyone waited to see what happened next, Willow's voice carried easily to the whole club from near the front door. "Hey - why's thish door locked??"
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