PART THREE

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It was late by the time that Dawn opened the door to her temporary home in Ipswich. The hotel was one of the nicest that Dawn had ever stayed in – something which left her alternately delighted and despairing. On the one hand, it was nice to stay somewhere clean and comfortable, with expensive looking décor and a pristine bathroom. It was absolutely wonderful to stay somewhere with a breakfast menu that did not leave her feeling as if she had been eating cardboard for a week.

Unfortunately, such luxury did not come cheap. Dawn had been reluctant to admit it but she knew that soon she would have to find somewhere else to stay. Her choices in Ipswich were limited, however. There were two other small, family run hotels like the one she was staying in, but the similarity also extended to the prices. There was a motel on the edge of time but, after spending one night there when she had first arrived, Dawn was reluctant to repeat the experience. There was definitely something not right about either the motel itself or the land that it stood on. She did not need any special senses to be able to divine as much. As a consequence she was being forced to look for somewhere to rent. It was proving to be surprisingly difficult, even with a decent salary and the job security that working at Spencer provided.

Dawn counted herself fortunate that the family who owned the hotel she was staying at happened to have a daughter who went to Spencer. She suspected that the matriarch of the family – a formable woman called Regina Townsend – had decided, for some reason that Dawn had yet to determine, that having the assistant librarian staying at their particular establishment was a good thing. At first Dawn had worried that the woman would not be impressed with the strange hours that she was forced to keep, but she had proved surprisingly willing to turn a blind eye to them. More than that, she had even turned a blind eye when Dawn’s promised help had finally arrived.

Faith had arrived early one morning – before Dawn had even managed to drag herself out of bed. Indeed, she had arrived before anyone at the hotel had managed to drag themselves out of bed. The front doorbell had sounded a little before half past five in the morning, and when the door had opened Faith had been stood on the other side looking cold and bedraggled.

She had caught a bus to Ipswich, but it had gotten in far earlier than she had expected, and she had been caught in the rain while trying to find the address that Buffy had relayed to her. A rather startled looking Mr Townsend had sent his similarly startled looking daughter upstairs to rouse their guest. Dawn had spent the next twenty-four hours apologising whenever she had seen either Mr or Mrs Townsend – something that she had doubly felt the need to do after it had become apparent that Faith was planning on sharing Dawn’s accommodation rather than finding some for herself. Dawn had been more than a little irritated by the turn of events – she felt as if she was back living in Sunnydale, fighting with a bunch of trainee slayers every morning when she needed to get in the bathroom. The one consolation was that because Faith was spending most of her time tracking the vampire that had escaped the derelict house a few days before they were on different time tables. Faith would sleep away the day while Dawn was at work, and Dawn could sleep while Faith was out hunting.

If she had been concerned about how the Townsends’ would react to her irregular hours, Faith’s worried her even more. As yet, however, nothing had been said. Dawn was sincerely hoping that Faith managed to slay the vampire and move on before it became an issue. She was reasonably certain that – considering the fact that they had a teenage daughter – the Townsends’ would prefer for their guests to keep regular hours. Actually, Dawn suspected that the other guests would prefer it as well.

Faith was already dressed and ready for patrol as Dawn entered the room. She was grinning as she looked up from checking her bootlaces, but when she saw the younger woman’s face her expression became more serious – almost businesslike. It took Dawn a moment to realise that Faith had spoken.

“Hmm?” she asked, wondering at her distraction. She had still been thinking about the events back at the school, but she had not realised that she had been quite so consumed by them. Of course considering the fact that she had just spent the last hour or so busily closing up the library, examining the pool, and avoiding Reid, perhaps it should not be that much of a surprise.

“You’ve got that look.”

“What look?”

“That look that says you’ve done something bad.”

“I have not!” Dawn protested. At the sceptical look on Faith’s face, she added, “Honest!”

“You sure?”

“Yes. Geez, Faith.”

The slayer straightened her back and raised her eyebrows. “There’s definitely something up.”

Dawn pursed her lips and then nodded shortly. She thought for a moment before speaking. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Sleeping.”

“What are you doing iapart/i from sleeping?”

Faith shrugged. “Not much, I guess. This place is kind of dead. I don’t know how you’ve managed to stand it as long as you have.”

Dawn opened her mouth to protest. There was plenty to do in Ipswich. Well, maybe not plenty, but she certainly had not been bored since her arrival. Of course she was not a slayer, with a slayer’s energy reserves.

She shook her head slightly to dislodge the thought. “Well, since you’re not up to anything I don’t suppose you could do me a favour, could you?”

“What?” There was definite suspicion in Faith’s voice as she spoke.

“Could you come up to the school with me tomorrow morning and take a look at something? I want to get your take on it.”

Faith perked up slightly. “Something supernatural something?” she asked.

Dawn shrugged her shoulders. She honestly did not know.

---

Reid was rapidly becoming sick of the sight white paint, plastic chairs, and hospital beds. While they were hardly desirable things to see at the best of times, recently they had come to signal nothing short of disaster.

He frowned, not for the first time wondering what on earth had possessed him when he had agreed to follow Caleb to the hospital. It was not as if he would be any help, after all. So far all they had done was stand around waiting for the doctor to tell them that they could see Sarah.

It had been a long wait.

He sighed, disgruntled, and shuffled his feet before extending his legs. Caleb shot him an irritated look from the other side of the corridor where he was leaning against the wall. Tension was clearly evident in his stance. The look that he gave Reid indicated that he should shut up or ship out. Unfortunately, although he was inclined to do the latter, he had a distinct impression that it would be a bad idea.

Instead, he slumped a little on his plastic chair and dug around in his pocket until he came across his cell phone. His expression became slightly dejected as he studied the blank screen. A part of him – a hopeful part – had thought that there might be a message, or even a missed call. From the time recorded, however, the last call was the one that he had received from Dawn when she rung to ask whether he could get in contact with Caleb. He had thought that she might try to get in contact with them – with him – again since she had not been present when they had arrived at the school. Sarah had already been gone by that point, much to Caleb’s frustration. Reid had half wondered if Dawn might have decided to accompany her to the hospital.

Maybe the reason that he had not put up more of a fight when Caleb had insisted on them all going on to the hospital was not so mysterious after all.

Sarah’s doctor was a short, sturdy looking woman with close cut brown hair. As she emerged from the hospital room, she looked more than a little surprised to find two teenage boys waiting outside. There would have been more of them, if Pogue had not gone with Kate to gather together some things for Sarah, and Tyler had not been left with the task of having a look around the pool. It had been easy to detect the flicker of residual power lingering in the air at the school.

The doctor glanced between the two of them before eventually turning to Caleb, the most visibly anxious of the two. “Not too long. She needs to rest.”

Caleb nodded in reply, but his eyes had already strayed beyond the doctor to the half open door. The doctor looked towards Reid who grinned at her before pushing himself into a standing position.

Sarah was propped up by a mountain of pillows, leaning back against them with her eyes closed. As the door opened again, she turned her head to one side, opened them, and smiled at the sight of her boyfriend. Reid stood back, and waited while they greeted each other. It was some time before Caleb pulled away and Sarah leaned around him to smile at Reid. She gave a little wave indicating that he should move closer. He did so reluctantly.

“I don’t remember very much,” she said. Noting their surprised expressions, she added, “That’s what you were going to ask me about, right?”

Reid snorted, and swiftly moved to perch on the end of the bed. Caleb’s face was an odd mixture of sheepishness and astonishment. “What do you remember?”

Sarah paused for a second, and then said, “I was going for a swim – I wanted to try and relax a bit. I’ve been a bit stressed with work recently.”

Caleb nodded, and reached out to stroke her hair. There was a sympathetic expression on his face.

“There was no one about when I got down there. I went into the changing rooms, changed, came out and got straight in the water.” She frowned. “I don’t really remember much after that – just coming around on the side of the pool.”

“What? You don’t remember anything at all?” Reid asked.

Sarah hesitated, still frowning.

“What is it?” Caleb pressed gently.

“Well, I… You’re going to think I’m crazy.”

“Of course we won’t,” he reassured her quickly.

Sarah looked sceptical. “You haven’t even heard what I have to say yet so don’t make any promises.”

Caleb smiled lazily. “Okay. I promise not to make any promises.”

Reid rolled his eyes. For a moment, he mentally tried to weigh which was worse – watching Pogue and Kate slobber all over each other, or watching the pair in front of him. It was a tough call.

After hesitating again for a moment, Sarah said, “I sort of remember being pulled under. I mean, I sort of remember disappearing under the water, but not why it happened. I mean, it’s not like a remember someone grabbing me or anything like that. It’s more of a… an impression than anything else.” Her hands formed fists. “It’s so frustrating! There’s nothing there. It’s like there’s this big black hole in my mind. I don’t remember a single thing. Do you think that I some kind of amnesia or something? I mean, don’t people suffer from that when they go through traumatic events. The paramedics said that one of the security guards pulled me out of the water. If he hadn’t been there then…”

She trailed off and Caleb immediately reached out to cover her hand with his.

“You’re okay now,” he said firmly, leaving no room for argument. When he turned to look at Reid, the expression that he shot in his direction was a determined one. The sight of it prompted the blond to lift his eyebrows in a silent question.

Before Caleb could make any sort of reply there was a knock at the door. It opened to reveal an anxious looking Kate, and Pogue standing behind her. On seeing her best friend Sarah made a pleased little sound and the other girl immediately strode forwards, covering the distance between the door and the bed in no time. In one hand she was carrying a familiar looking bag that appeared to be bulging at the seams.

As the two girls greeted each other, Caleb gestured towards the door, indicating that Reid should follow him as he moved to join Pogue in the corridor. His serious expression had not faded in the least.

“Sarah okay?” the newly arrived Son asked as they did so, glancing in the direction of the room.

“She is now.”

“You’re still worried though.”

Caleb nodded and then proceeded to quietly explain what they had learned. By the time that he was done Pogue was mimicking his friend’s expression. Reid stared at both of them, wondering what he was missing. Apparently they were able to see something in Sarah’s tale that he had not been able to. He almost felt like he had a bout of amnesia as well.

“It couldn’t be,” Pogue said.

“It could. The timing would be right.”

“Yeah but he wouldn’t risk it again, surely.”

“I don’t suppose you feel like not talking in code,” Reid griped, growing frustrated.

Caleb and Pogue exchanged looks. “Chase,” the latter said. “He’s saying that it was Chase.”

The blood drained from Reid’s face as he looked between the two of them, half hoping that one or the other would admit to joking. He shifted his weight uneasily from one foot to the other as he waited. The silence that followed Pogue’s revelation continued to draw out, however, and he was forced to accept that they were indeed being serious.

Reaching up he swiped a hand back through his hair. The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Pogue’s ascension was only days away. Surely that would prove to be enough of a temptation to entice Chase out of whatever hiding place he had crawled into after Caleb had defeated him. He almost shivered as he remembered the power-lust that had crawled through the ousted Son’s eyes. They should have known that there was something off about him right from the beginning.

“If he’s after Pogue then why would be attack Sarah?” he asked.

“He hates me,” Caleb replied. “He hates us all, but he hates me the most because of what happened out at the barn.” With a shake of his head, he added, “You didn’t see him then. It was almost like he was getting off on the fight – on hurting me.”

Reid’s jaw tightened. There was still something off about the theory. The feeling niggled at him, remaining irritatingly out of reach.

“Maybe he wants Caleb distracted so that he can have a clean run at me,” Pogue suggested persuasively. “You’ve got to admit he would have been pretty out of it if Sarah had actually died.”

“So what are we going to do about it?” Reid asked.

Caleb fixed him with hard eyes. “We’re going to find out where the hell he is, and then we’re going stop him once and for all,” he vowed. “I won’t have him hurting anyone else ever again.”