Disclaimer: STANDARD WAIVER: You guys know the drill. The BTVS characters and their story lines from the show don't belong to me. The only characters I've invented Máire and her mother. The rest are the product of someone else's fertile imagination.
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Buffy Summers sighed as she strolled leisurely through the cemetary. Another night on patrol with no vampires in sight, and the slayer was bored. "It must the the third night this week," she thought to herself. She was beginning to wonder if she had actually driven all of the vampires out of Sunnydale. "No," she laughed, "because then Giles would go all snakey and have to throw me a retirement party or something". She shook her head and looked around a bit, then continued walking through the cemetary, juggling a couple of stakes back and forth. Even Angelus wasn't trying to make her miserable tonight.
A short, sharp, piercing scream disrupted Buffy's thoughts. Buffy instantly assumed her fighting stance, stake in hand. She turned in the direction that the scream had come from, but she couldn't see anything. It was a clear moonlit night, but there was nothing around her. She listened, but didn't hear any movement. "Someone is watching me," she thought. Very slowly, she began walking towards the centre of the cemetary, never relaxing from her attack-ready posture. Buffy approached a large, low gravestone. She thought she could hear breathing, but wasn't sure if it was just her own heart pounding from the thrill of possibly staking a vamp. There had to be someone near the cemetary who was being attacked.
Suddenly, a woman rose up from behind the gravestone. In an instant, Buffy kicked out and hit the woman in the stomach, knocking her to the ground. She jumped over the tombstone and landed with one foot on the ground and one on her victim's chest. Buffy smiled to herself. "This gets easier every night. You vamps really aren't much of a challenge anymore, you know" she said. She raised her right hand to deliver the final blow with her stake.
"Wha-what?" said the woman, as Buffy drew back. Then she yelled, "NO! Please! Don't hurt me! Please! I'm sorry if I scared you--"
Buffy stopped. Something didn't feel right. This woman was young, and dressed in the latest fashions. She didn't have her game face on. Buffy looked down again, one eyebrow arched, focusing on the woman's neck. A large cross with an intricate weaved pattern was hanging from a chain around the woman's neck. She looked to her left and saw the woman's backpack on the ground, along with a notebook. She looked at the tombstone. A piece of sketch paper was attached to the grave with masking tape. The woman had been rubbing charcoal on the paper to reproduce the pattern on the gravestone. The designs looked similar to the cross around the woman's neck. Buffy broke the silence first, as she lowered her stake. "Who are you?"
"My - my name is Máire. Máire Kinsella. I didn't mean to frighten you. Can I get up now, or are you going to stab me with your stake?"
"Sorry." Buffy said, as she bent over to help Máire sit up. "It's just that there's these vamp-- there's this *gang* of kids that's been hanging around in the graveyard, terrorizing people. I thought you were one of them."
"So you were going to indulge in a little vigilante justice, yeah?" Buffy cought the slight lilt in Máire's voice.
"Vigi-- You're not from around here, are you?" Buffy asked.
"No, I'm not. I'm from Belfast. I've only been in California for about three weeks." Máire replied.
"What are you doing in the Sunnydale Cemetary in the middle of the night?"
"If you must know, I'm working on a sort of family tree. This here dead guy is a, er, relative of mine, and I wanted to make a tracing of his grave." Máire began to gather up her notebook, pens, and charcoals. She very carefully removed the sketch paper from the gravestone. "I just finished it, and then you came along. I admit, it'snot the greatest place to be in the middle of the night, but I've been looking for Mr. Flannery here," Máire gestured to the grave, "for quite some time, and now that I've found him I was eager to get on with my work."
"I heard you scream." Buffy said suspiciously, remembering what had drawn her attention to Máire in the first place.
"I thought it was you. I mean, I didn't know who it was, but I heard a scream and then you appeared, so I assumed it was you." Máire looked puzzled. "Maybe it was just a car squealing its tires?" She looked at Buffy and shrugged her shoulders.
"Yeah, I guess so," Buffy said, not convinced. "Well, come on, if you're done I'll walk you out of here. This is no place to be hanging out at night by youself. Oh my God, I sound like my mother!"
Máire laughed. "Well, I'll agree to let you walk me out of here if you tell me your name."
"I'm Buffy." Buffy held out her hand to help Máire stand up. Máire rubbed her stomach where Buffy had kicked her. "Buffy, You sure know how to belt a girl. Very well, let's get outta here. This place is starting to give me the wiggins."
Buffy smiled at Máire's comment. They walked out of the cemetary together. Buffy didn't notice the pile of ashes lying on the ground just behind the next row of tombstones. She didn't notice as Máire glanced backwards over her shoulder to the grove of trees just beyond the place where she and Buffy had first met.
* * *
Angelus watched Buffy and her new companion walk out of the cemetary. He had been walking towards the Bronze in the hopes of picking up a midnight snack when he heard a woman's fearful scream in the cemetary. He saw Buffy moving towards the scream, but before she could locate its origin, he had already moved through the cemetary quickly and quietly and watched as Máire stopped screaming. One of Spike's gang, Rufus, was attacking Máire. He had grabbed her violently and then released her just as quickly as her cross seared his chest. Wasting no time, Máire regained her composure. She turned towards Rufus and lunged at him, jabbing her pencil into his chest. He immediately disintegrated into a pile of ashes. "That's what you get for ordering fast food, Rufus," Angelus thought to himself. He watched intently as Buffy approached Máire and attacked her, and listened to their exchange.
As the two women left the cemetary, Angelus wondered how another woman, not the slayer, could have attacked Rufus with such determination and such deadly accuracy. Angelus smiled. He would have fun tormenting and killing this new arrival, whoever she was. Perhaps this was another slayer, sent to help Buffy like Kendra was sent when the order of Taraka came to town. Whoever she was, Angelus would dispose of her quickly, and make sure that Buffy knew the outcome, so that he could continue torturing Buffy again.
* * *
Buffy and Máire walked towards Buffy's house. "I could just take a taxi from here, I'll be fine now", Máire said. Buffy kept walking. Máire thought about leaving, then decided to follow the petite blonde away from the cemetary and hopefully to a place that would be safer.
"You should come to my house. You can get a cab from there if you want." Buffy pointed in the direction of her home. "So, are there like lots of Kinsellas in California? I did a family tree once in biology class, but I flunked the assignment."
"Yes, there's Kinsellas all over the place. Most of them are probably not related to me though. Kinsella is really an adopted name for me. Why did you flunk your assignment?"
"Well, I told the teacher that my tree had been chopped down when my parents got divorced. Are you adopted?"
Máire laughed at Buffy's summary of her family history. "I'm not adopted, but my parents weren't married when I was born, so my tree doesn't look so good either. But I have managed to trace my roots back quite a ways. In fact, teenage pregnancy seems to be the trend in my family all the way back to the 1700's. That's as far back as I've been able to get. The records get pretty murky before that time."
"Wow," Buffy said, "that must have taken a long time. How long have you been working on this?"
"Feels like centuries," Máire said, then quickly, she added, "but- I mean of course it hasn't really been that long." She looked at Buffy. "The churches, they had good records of marriages, baptisms, that sort of thing. The Irish Catholic Church kept pretty good stock of it's followers. All the better to collect the tithe!"
"If you want to know research, you should meet my friend Giles. He's nutty about that kind of stuff. A book geek to the nth degree. Swear to God."
"Are you talking about Rupert Giles?" Máire asked, surprised.
"Yeah. Do you know him or something?" It was Buffy's turn to look puzzled.
"Well, if it's the same chap, he used to work at the British Museum in antiquities. I apprenticed there one summer when I was taking my art history degree in university. I just graduated last year, and I thought I would spend this year working on this project so I could truly experience the life of the starving student before trying to find a real job." Máire saw the look in Buffy's eyes when she mentioned the British Museum. "Is it the same fellow? Attractive in a rakish sort of way, fond of tweed?"
"Well, I'm not sure what rakish means, but tweed sure sounds like Giles' m.o. I can introduce him to you tomorrow if you want. Just come to Sunnydale High at around noon, and I can reunite the two of you." Buffy stopped on the sidewalk. "This is my house. Come on inside and I'll call you a cab."
Máire noticed the ring on Buffy's hand as Buffy reached for the doorknob. "Oh, you have a claddagh. So your heart must belong to someone?" She pointed at the ring, with it's heart pointed towards Buffy.
"Oh, uh, yeah, well a friend gave it to me, uh, as a birthday present, but, um, we had a fight, and we don't hang out together anymore. I guess I just put it on by mistake." She looked at Máire and flustered, she said "must have just grabbed it out of the jewellery box, I guess. Oops." Buffy quickly removed the ring and shoved it in her pocket.
Máire indicated her own hand. "My mother gave this to me. She's no longer alive, but I still love her and since she is in my heart I wear my claddagh to show everyone that my heart is for the person who gave me the ring. But I wear my ring on my middle finger. You wear yours on your fourth finger. You should only wear a claddagh on that finger if your heart belongs to someone that you are in love with." Máire smiled and chided Buffy, "otherwise you'll send out the wrong signals!"
"Yeah, um, well, let's see about that cab." Buffy pushed her way past Máire into the house. "You can come see me tomorrow and I'll show you where Giles is."
"Awh, c'mon lover. Aren't you going to introduce me to your new friend?" Buffy whirled around. Angelus stood there, smiling sardonically at Máire and Buffy. He was partially in the shadows, but Buffy could make out his comely features. She felt a pang deep inside her. Angelus had broken the slayer's heart, and even though she had accepted that her Angel was gone, it was very painful to see him looking the same as the man she loved and possessed by the demon she hated.
"Get lost, Angel. You know you can't come in, so leave us alone." Buffy turned to pull Máire into the house and tried to shut the door, but Máire was actually walking towards Angel. She put out her hand, as if to introduce herself to him.
"Máire, no! Don't go near him! He'll kill you!" Buffy ran out onto the porch and put herself between Angelus and Máire. Angel let out a low rumbling growl, and vamped out as Buffy watched. He lunged forward with preternatural speed and punched Buffy in the face. She fell to the ground, and got up as quickly as possible. Angelus had moved forwards towards Máire, and Máire was rooted to the ground. "Get into the house!" Buffy yelled, as she ran forward. She kicked Angelus in the back of the knees. He staggered and fell forwards. Buffy jumped over him and assumed a ready position. Máire was still standing firm, looking at Angelus and Buffy as if she was just a casual observer. Angel got up with him game face on and snarled. Buffy gave him two quick kicks to the stomach, and punched him. He staggered backwards. Buffy turned to Máire. "Go inside! Please! He's going to do some serious damage here!" As she turned back towards Angelus, he punched her hard across the side of the face. Buffy fell to the ground, dazed. She looked up to see Angel closing in on Máire. She reached into her bag and pulled out a stake. Although she knew she had to save Máire, Buffy wanted more than anything for Angelus to stop so that she wouldn't have to deliver the fatal blow. Part of her was doubtful that she could do it, even after Angelus had killed Ms. Calendar and tormented her for so long. As she staggered towards Angelus, she shook her head and tried to regain her senses. She could hear Máire talking, but it didn't sound like English. Buffy shook her head again. She drew back her hand to plunge the stake into Angelus' back. Máire was touching Angelus' arm very tenderly and talking to Angelus as if she knew him intimately.
Just as Buffy was about to deliver the fatal blow, Angelus reached out to Máire, caressed her cheek and said, "You are protected." Then he turned and left. Buffy stood there, ready to strike, with a look of complete shock on her face. She turned to look at Máire.
"Alright then, let's see about getting me that taxi, yeah?"
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