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5: Hostile 17
"Okay, can I just quote Spike here: 'What the bloody hell'?!" Buffy just stared at Graham then Willow and back again. "This is all classified, you understand that, don't you?" Graham worriedly asked the girls. "You don't have to say anything if it could get you into trouble." Willow told him and went over to her bed and sat down wishing Buffy would sit down too, but she had started to pace between the door and the windows looking very troubled. Willow and Graham sat like two cats in front of a tennis game on TV watching her for a while not really wanting to disturb her thoughts. After thinking about what she just learned, turning it over and over in her head and coming close to wear out the carpet Buffy finally stopped and sat down on her bed opposite to Willow. "You're right, it's not your story to tell." Buffy told Graham. "And I won't tell him I know about you guys." She smiled at the obvious relieve on his face. "But there are other things we can talk about." Willow said. "Yes it is, Graham, how come you know about slayers and stuff?" Buffy looked at him curious. Graham cringed, suddenly very uncomfortable and the two girls exchanged a look of concern. He was quiet for a long moment before he finally seemed to have decided to tell them his story. However, what came out was just a very short statement: "I knew a slayer once." They waited for him to continue, but when that didn't happen the girls didn't really know what to say. Of course, any slayer somebody had known - except Buffy and Faith that was - was now dead. "Oh, I'm so sorry." Willow said. Both girls felt really sorry for him and a bit guilty for hoping that the slayer he'd known hadn't been his girlfriend. If she had been, this guy was far from ready to go into a new relationship yet. The defeated look in Willow's eyes told Buffy her friend had come to the same, depressing conclusion. "If you don't mind, maybe you could tell me about you instead? Are there more people that know about your 'sacred duty'?" Graham's question brought the girls back to the present and they started to tell him about the 'Scoobies', actually made him laugh a few times. "You know you would make a great Scooby." Willow said and looked at him expectantly. She probably didn't have a chance with him the way she had hoped for just moments ago, but she still wanted to get to know him, especially now after they found out he knew about vampires and stuff. It surely was more to him than just the 'studly college guy surrounded by beautiful girls' she used to see him as. "You mean you would take me in?" Graham asked surprised, but couldn't hide the hope in his voice. Walking around on his own to dust a vampire the occasional night wasn't really that satisfying, maybe working with a slayer once again could be what he needed. Not to mention the opportunity to work with Willow, to get to know her without being interrupted by irrelevant people. "See it like this, soldier boy, we could use all the help we could get and considering the way you fought those vamps tonight, you have my vote." Buffy smiled at him. "We have to know one thing though." Willow started, a little unsure how she was going to put this. "Do you think every demon and vampire is evil, just by default?" Graham watched her a minute before answer. "What? Spike sought you out after he'd escaped and become aware of the fact that he couldn't feed anymore?" Willow just drew in a deep breath not knowing how to answer that without having Graham running away and not wanting to have anything to do with her again, but she didn't have to worry; this fabulous guy just cocked an eyebrow at her and smiled. "I figured as much." "You guys actually ask your lab rats for their name?" Buffy was actually more surprised by this than by the fact that Graham really had figured out they had Spike. "No. To the others he is Hostile 17, I just happen to have met him before and that's part of a story I will tell you another time, but I can tell you I wouldn't stake him if I met him."
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