Title: Closing Ranks part 1
Author: Magrat
Spoilers: As before
Ratings: PG: 13

Closing Ranks part 1

“Hey Dawnie, I thought you had changed your mind for a moment” said Tara as she watched Dawn bustle towards her.

“Are you sure you don’t mind don’t mind having her?” asked Buffy.

“Of course not, we’ll have fun,” said Tara smiling.

“Will I learn to do spells and stuff” said Dawn excitement shinning in her eyes.

“No” said Tara sharper than she meant, “It will be about meditation, healing and learning about Wicca as a religion but there will be no spells.”

Both Dawn and Buffy looked stunned for a moment but quickly recovered knowing the blonde had far from recovered from her break up with Willow.

“T-that sounds really cool” said Dawn putting an arm round Tara’s shoulder. “I’m so looking forward to spend time with you. Hey the bus is here”

The two older girls watched smiling as Dawn grabbed the rucksacks and stood in the line with the bags.

“I mean it you know. I hope she won’t be too much of a problem for you” said Buffy

“She’ll be fine,” said Tara “and I’m umm sure you and Willow could do with some time to yourselves”

“Tara…”

“Buffy please don’t, I don’t want to think about her right now, I just want go, enjoy the retreat and have some quality time with Dawn” said Tara hugging Buffy and then following her young companion onto the camp’s site beat up old bus.

Buffy waved and watched the bus depart a small part of her sad that she didn’t seem to have the closeness with Dawn that Tara had but a bigger part of her glad that her sister would always have Tara to care for her.


*********************************


“Now listen to me, if you meet someone in town you’re not sure of just don’t invite them in,” said the motel owner to Sandra and James.

The two agents gawped openly at guy who was showing them their rooms

“Don’t invite them in?” asked James.

“Well it’s probably okay if you see them during the day but if it’s at night…”

“Oh,” said Sandra. “I get it. No nighttime guests in our rooms, you don’t have to worry about that we are here strictly on business.”

The manager walked away shaking his head “That is not what I meant at all”

“This is one strange place,” said James.

Sandra looked round the room “ I don’t know seems like ever other crappy motel room we’ve stayed in”

“I suppose so and a t least I’m next door just in case you decide to invite anyone back to your room” said James grinning at his partner as they enter her room and close the door. “What’s next on the agenda?”

“I thought tomorrow morning we would rouse Ms Maclay from her dorm and see what she has to say for herself” said Sandra.

“Isn’t she the victim rather than any sort of perpetrator?” asked James

“Yes, but I think she knows a lot of what’s gone. Anyway James have a goodnight’s sleep and remember don’t invite anyone in” said Sandra giving her partner a wicked grin.

***************************

The two agents stood outside Tara’s dorm room banging the door. Eventually the student from the next room poked his head out. “Are you looking for Tara?” he asked.


“Yes we are” said James. “Have you any idea where she is?”

“I don’t think she came home last night. I’d check her friend Buffy’s house or if The Magic Box is open, she could be there.” Said the student.

“Thanks for your help” said Sandra as the two FBI agents turned and walked away.

***************************

“The Magic Box?” asked James as he opened the rental car’s door.

“Interesting,” said Sandra flicking through her notes as she got into the passenger seat. “It belongs to Xander Harris’s fiancé Anya Jenkins and on the night when that intern took his tumble Ms Jenkins was admitted to Sunnydale General with head injuries and a suspected broken ankle. Tara was also re-admitted because somehow her plaster had managed to come off her hand and it was on that visit that it was also noticed that Miss Maclay had had her sanity back.”

“So we go and shake them up at the magic shop and sees what drops out,” said James.

“Sounds like a plan” said Sandra.

**************************

“Enjoy” said Anya desperately trying to get rid of the customer who had made a small purchase but had been bombarding her with questions over books that could be ordered in by the shop. While she had been serving the customer two official looking people had walked in and they were making her feel nervous. Her initial thought was that they were probably from The Watchers Council. She eyed them over the customers shoulder; they were both smartly dressed in suits. One male one female

Anya watched anxiously as the male of the duo approached her. He was tall in his late thirties with short, clipped, sandy coloured hair.

“Anya Jenkins?” he inquired.

“Yes, who wants to know?” asked Anya feeling uneasy by the fact he knew her name.

The younger female approached. She looked in her late twenties, a striking black woman with hair in neat short dreadlocks pulled off an angular face. She walked with a cat like grace and Anya felt more threatened by the woman because she could see the intelligence in her serious brown eyes.

“Hello, Ms Jenkins. We are from the F.B.I. my name is agent special Sandra Davidson and this is my partner agent special James Rowland,” said Sandra. “We’d like to ask you a few questions”

“F.B.I?” asked Anya almost choking on her words. “You know I’m only a junior partner in the shop and my SENIOR partner is overseas.”

“It’s not about the shop” said James.

“Oh good,” said Anya. “Fire away then because I’m an ordinary, upstanding, patriotic American with nothing to hide.”

Sandra laid her head to one side finding the woman’s way of talking very strange. “We want to ask you about one of your patrons and I believe a close friend of yours a Miss Tara Maclay.”

“T-Tara has something happened to her because she is going to be my matron of honour. Is she okay? She wasn’t in an accident with Dawn? I better call Buffy” said Anya getting more and more agitated.

“Ma’am nothing had happened to Miss Maclay, as far as we know, we are looking into the incidents of last year when she was attacked,” said James.

Anya stared at the two agents taken aback by the line of questioning “I don’t understand?”

“We’d like to know what happened to her?” asked Sandra.

“Ben, he attacked her” said Anya feeling panicked

“That’s the official story” said James. “Do you know how she got back to normal?”

“No I…it most have been a miracle?” asked Anya hopefully.

The two agents exchanged looks “Did it not seem odd to you that only Miss Maclay went back to normal?” asked Sandra.

“To be honest, I didn’t care. It’s a fault of mine; I’ve been told I’m self-centred. It was one of worst things I ever had to go through. I helped Willow look after her,” said Anya with a shudder. “My best friend was like a cabbage; do you know what that’s like? So I’m sorry if it offends you but I don’t care about the rest. I was just happy to have Tara back.”

“You received some injuries about the same time as the intern died, the guy who hurt your best friend?” said James leaving the question in the air.

“I tripped and fell,” said Anya defensively. “I don’t understand, are you trying to accuse me of something and I don’t understand why you are interested in Tara; she was a victim. She has done nothing wrong.”

“I’m sorry we are just trying to get a picture of what happened. We are not convinced that the local police had the full facts,” said James watching closely for any reaction from the shopkeeper. He got it as she made a sharp intake of breath “Also where did you say Miss Maclay has gone to; with Dawn I think you said”

“I didn’t” said Anya “But there’s no mystery. They’ve gone to a Wiccan retreat for the weekend”

“Okay thank you Miss Jenkins. We’ll be in touch,” said James.

Sandra walked after her partner quietly seething wondering why her partner had given away the reason behind their investigation before they had a chance to interview Tara. As they exited the shop she couldn’t contain her anger. “What the hell did you say that for Jim? I thought we weren’t going to reveal to much…”

“Do you want a coffee?” asked James giving her a sweet smile and walked across the road to the Espresso Pump.

Sandra hurried after him totally infuriated “Have you gone insane?” she hissed through gritted teeth.

“Two cappuccinos please, do you want anything to eat?” he said turning to his partner.

“No” said Sandra.

“Okay, nothing for the lady but I’d like some pancakes and bacon please” said James pleasantly to the waitress before making towards a table with a good view of The Magic Box.

“Jim what’s going on?” asked Sandra.

“I thought we would just sit here and get a good view of the fireworks,” said James.

“Fireworks?” questioned Sandra and as on cue Xander Harris’s car pulled up outside the shop and the young man practically sprinted into the shop.

“I wonder how long it will take for the others to turn up?” asked James softly. “I think we should take a step back until Miss Maclay arrives back from her nice weekend and just watch the rest of the group. We’ve managed to rattle them and the more they’re rattled the more we will get…oh here comes Miss Summers moving at a pretty good clip just to prove my point. I think we’ve got a few things we can clarify at the hospital and with the local police for the time being and here is Miss Rosenberg, seems like we have a full set.”

*********************

“Okay we are all here” said Buffy. “Spill Anya what is so important because I had to lie to the Doublemeat and say that Dawn was taken ill.”

“I’ve just had a visit from the F.B.I,” said Anya.

“F.B.I why? Has Giles got stuff that he shouldn’t…”

“They want to know about Tara,” said Anya.

“Tara?” asked Willow looking interested at last.

“Not just Tara they are investigating Ben’s death and why Tara was the only person to get her sanity back” said Anya. “And they now about us. They suggested that I had something to do with Ben’s death because I was a friend of Tara’s.”

“Did they ask about Dawn?” asked Buffy.

“No” said Anya. Although they know about Tara being away with Dawn.”

“How?” asked Buffy angrily.

“I may have inadvertently told them” said Anya shamefaced. “Buffy what do we do? This could be serious if they work out we were all there when Ben died.”

“Right” said Buffy. “We have to stick together, get all our stories straight. When Tara gets home she’ll have to move back into our house.”

“I’ll move into my parents house” said Willow. “It’ll make things easier.”

“”No Will, we have to be together on this. We have to stick together. As long as we are strong nothing can happen to us” said Buffy mentally crossing her fingers but feeling happy to have an excuse to look to after everyone.

TBC

These five words in my head scream "are we having fun yet?" Chad Kroeger