All's Well

Buffy wrapped her numb fingers around a mug of chamomile tea. The others stood around her, giving her time,
giving her space, while she waited for the tea to steep into the steaming water. She had just finished telling them
the whole skinny about her experience on the roof. The story left them all with word loss.

Except for Andrew, who always had something to say.

“Maybe you were possessed,” he suggested.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Giles said sharply. “Of course Buffy wasn’t possessed.”

Dawn nodded. “We can eliminate The First as a possibility. Giles has never been dead.” She looked over her
shoulder at Giles. “You still haven’t, right?”

“No,” Giles answered.

“It could be something very simple,” Xander said quietly.

“It is never simple with us,” William said.

“This time it could be,” Xander countered.

Buffy stared down into her cup as the honey gold chamomile leeched into the water like the swirls of a whirlpool in
slow motion. “Maybe I was sleepwalking,” she said.

Giles frowned, considering. With a shrug, he said, “I suppose it is possible.”

“Yeah,” Dawn said. “Maybe it’s stress-induced sleepwalking, due to pregnancy.”

“Do pregnant women sleepwalk?” Andrew asked.

“We could find out,” Dawn said. She gestured to Andrew’s laptop. “Run a Google search. I’m sure we can learn
something…”

Dawn scooted her chair next to Andrew’s and both dived headfirst into a Google quest.

Buffy gripped her mug tighter in her fingers. “I really don’t remember getting out of bed,” she said. Her voice
sounded so tired, Giles reached out to stroke her hair. When he did, Buffy flinched away. It was slight, but they
all saw her do it.

When she looked up from her tea, she had tears in her eyes. “It was so real,” she said. It was her way of
apologizing to Giles. “You were…”

Giles became flustered and stammery. “I would never,” he said. “Buffy, I won’t judge you.”

Buffy covered her mouth with steepled fingers. She knew it, of course, but hearing him say it out loud helped to
calm her.

“Ah-ha!” Andrew shouted. So much for tranquil Buffy. Dawn elbowed him in the ribs.

Dawn read from the website Andrew had pulled up on screen: “According to a sleep study conducted by the
Keesler Medical Center, incidents of somnambulism increase in women who are pregnant.” She scanned the page,
eyes darting back and forth over the text. “And, oh… especially in cases in which the expectant mother has
experienced anxiety or stress. Which, I think you qualify.”

“So, see,” Xander said. “Simple somnambulism, Buff. Nothing serious.”

Buffy drew a deep breath and offered them a shaky smile. “I’ll be fine,” she said.

“Yeah,” William seconded. “All’s well, right?”

She picked up her spoon and stirred her tea. Nothing but good old fashioned sleepwalking, she thought. But still,
she couldn’t feel safe. How could she tell them that? That even with them crowded around her like a squadron of
guardian angels, she – the Slayer – felt unsafe.



“You know,” Nighna said. “You should consider visiting the Cotswolds sometime. When you’re not bent on
descending into the Underworld.”

Faith panned her eyes to Nighna and set them to glare. “Yo, why are you talkin’ to me?” she asked.

Nighna pursed her full lips. “In polite society, we make small talk,” she said. On her shoulder, Clarisse ruffled her
feathers as if in agreement.

“Well, we ain’t in polite society, Buttercup,” Faith said, bowing up to her.

Lorne swerved in. “Hey, hey, now,” he said. “Let’s not… claw each other’s eyes out.”

Lorne looked from Faith to Nighna. He could read their body language like a Dan Brown novel. Folded arms, rigid
posture, flashing eyes. He chuckled uneasily. He knew both women weren’t the kind you wanted to tangle with in
any sense of the word. The mere thought of them having a throw down chilled his already cool Pylean blood.

They had been hiking west of Tewkesbury Abbey for 45 minutes now. He knew they were cranky and gloomified. All
he had to do was deliver them safely to the door of the Deeper Well; afterward he had a bubbly bath and a copy of
The Da Vinci Code with his name on it.

Willow caught up to Lorne. “I’m beginning to see why I couldn’t find this place in my astral projections,” she said.
“There’s a lot of townage nearby.”        

“It’s weird, huh,” Faith said, but didn’t finish.

Nighna sniffed a tiny laugh.

Lorne intervened again. “Um, what’s that?”

“The entrance to this Deeper Well place is so close to all this… holy Jesus stuff,” Faith said, gesturing to the
abbey perched on the hilltop behind them.

“It isn’t so strange, when you consider the history of this place,” Nighna said. “Religious leaders are drawn to
places of great power. Doesn’t always matter the power’s source.”

“Like Stonehenge,” Connor said. He cleared his throat and stretched his long legs. “Are we there yet?”

Lorne stopped, taking a moment to get his bearings. He’d managed to get this far on his demon perception. Now
he felt like the needle in a compass at the center of the North Pole. He sensed the pull of the Well from all
directions, which meant they were very, very close.

Oz and Anjelica brought up the rear of the group. They stood together, waiting for Lorne’s lead.

“Feeling the tug?” Oz nudged.

Lorne shook his head. “We’re close.”

Anjelica peered into the thickening twilight around them. “Spike said we can expect a welcoming committee,” she
said.

“That was then,” Lorne told her. “Before the Well went dry. Now, it’s anyone’s guess. We could have a troop of
hula girls singing ‘It’s A Small World After All.’”

“Guys,” Faith said. “I hear something.”

She pointed to a place in the darkness, marked only by a copse of scrubby trees. After a moment of strained
searching, the fuzzed outline of a robed figure appeared.

Faith’s hand went immediately to the dagger she wore on her hip.

“Andrew was right,” Nighna mused. “They always wear robes.”

“Shhh,” Lorne said. “Stand ready, Nines. We have no idea…”

“Lorne?” the figure said. It was woman’s voice, and for a moment Lorne couldn’t place it.

But Connor could. He strode forward, meeting the figure halfway across the grassy path. They both stopped, a
yard apart. With surprising speed, Connor gripped the girl by her shoulders and spun her into an arm lock. She
screamed as he ripped the cowl from her head, revealing Eve underneath.

Connor shoved her to the ground between him and Lorne. Eve skinned her palms on the stony ground and cursed.
Before she could bound up and strike back, Lorne casually stepped forward and placed his size 14 boots on the
hem of her robe. The others, too dumbstruck to react, simply stood by to watch.

“Hey, Evy,” Lorne said. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Eve swept her hair from her eyes with her bruised hands. “I could ask the same,” she spat.

Connor gripped the cowl from behind, tightening it around her throat. His face twisted into an expression akin to
rage.

“Connor,” Willow whispered.

“You can’t ask anything,” Connor growled. “We ask. You talk.”

Eve’s green eyes glinted in the failing light of the meadow. “Look who’s got a bit of daddy in him after all,” she
said. Connor cinched the fabric so tight it bit into her windpipe.

“That’s enough, Cons,” Lorne said.

But Eve continued to smile. “You’re looking for the Deeper Well,” she said.

“Maybe we’re out for a moonlit hike,” Oz said.

Eve shook her head. “Doubtful. Connor here is out for blood, and the rest of you have teamed up to help him find
it. But believe me,” she said. “You aren’t gonna find it here.”

Connor gave the robe another twist. Eve made a strangled sound and fell back a few inches to relieve the
pressure.

“Why is that?” Connor bit out. “And why are you here?”

“She’s the guardian,” Faith said. “That right?”

Eve nodded. “Set here by the Senior Partners. A punishment of sorts, for my helping Lindsey…” She flicked her
eyes to Lorne’s. Their gazes locked for a handful of seconds, and Lorne was the one to look away. “So now I
guard the Deeper Well,” Eve went on. “Guess someone has to.”

Lorne took a step back, releasing her. Connor reluctantly followed his lead. Eve got to her feet, making a show of
dusting grass bits and dirt from her robe. Once she was on her feet, Willow stepped forward.

“Look, Eve,” she said. “Bygones being what they are, we really need to get down the Well. We have to find…”

“Oh, I know what you need to find,” Eve said. “The Senior Partners know it, too. You can bet Thellian won’t get
far.”

“Hey, hold up. What?” Lorne asked.

“The Senior Partners want Thellian just as much as you do,” Eve said. “He was working with Angel to bring them
down, and from what I hear they did some real damage…”

“She’s lying,” Oz cut in. “I can smell it.”

Faith grinned. “Always nice to have a werewolf around,” she said.

Eve blinked. The smile ran away from her face.

Lorne pressed his lips together. Connor looked ready to snap Eve’s neck. Nighna stepped forward to stand side
by side with Willow.

“Look,” Nighna said. “Lorne and I are demons, Sugar. You know what that means?”

Eve nodded assent.

“If you’re all that stands between us and that gateway, we can tear right through you and still find The Deeper
Well,” Nighna said. Clarisse shrieked suddenly, and Eve tumbled backward, destroying the flimsy illusion of her
composure.

“Fine,” Eve said in a clipped tone. “Have it your way. Follow me.”

Connor, Lorne and Willow fell in behind Eve, taking the gorsy path further into the trees. Faith sidled up to
Nighna and eyed her appraisingly.

“That how you do it in polite society?” Faith asked.

Nighna brushed her fingertips over the delicate plumage on Clarisse’s neck. “She caves too easily,” Nighna said
quietly. She glanced at Oz and Anjelica. “Keep a wary eye. She cannot be trusted.”

Eve led them to the entrance to the Deeper Well. It was a rather common looking door carved into the trunk of a
squat and decrepit oak tree.

“This is it?” Lorne asked. “Seems a bit inauspicious.”

“This it is,” Eve said. She reached for the rough-hewn handle; Nighna saw the others tense around her, expecting
a fight or a spell. But when the door opened, they got only darkness and a whiff of dank earth. Eve stepped away
from the door, and held up her hands. “Bon voyage.”

Willow walked forward to the threshold of the doorway. She pressed her palms together and muttered a brief
incantation. Her hands glowed a faint silvery blue, then faded.

Willow nodded. “It’s safe,” she said. “Or, safe enough for our purposes.”

“Fine,” Connor said. He stepped past Willow and vanished instantly.

Anjelica gasped.

“It’s okay,” Lorne said. “That sometimes happens when you step between worlds.”

Faith went next, followed by Oz and then Nighna. Nighna gripped Lorne’s elbow, and then she was gone. Anjelica
clenched her eyes as she stepped up to the door.

“I feel like I need flue powder or something,” she said.

Willow put her hands on the girl’s shoulders. “You’ll be fine,” she said. “Come on.”

After Willow disappeared beyond the doorway, Lorne turned to Eve.

“This is my stop,” he said.

“You’re not going,” Eve said.

Lorne kicked the bare pathway with the pointed toe of his shoe. “Nah. Hero-ing’s not my line of work any more.”

Eve raised the hood on her robe and adjusted it around her face. “That’s too bad,” she said. She shut the door to
the Deeper Well, then leaned against it.

Lorne left her, feeling a sense of something left unfinished, like he’d forgotten some key item at the grocery
store, but on a global importance scale. As he folded his legs into the front seat of his rented sedan, Lorne
couldn’t help thinking:
What the blazes did Eve mean by that?



As Buffy lay back on the bed, she kept her eyes trained on his.

“What if it happens again?” she asked.

“It won’t,” he answered. He rolled the duvet up to her chin and tucked it firmly around her.

“But what if it does?”

William sat on the edge of the over-stuffed chair by the bed.

“Then I’ll watch over you,” he said. His eyes lit up playfully at the prospect of watching her sleep, and the
probable snoring.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “All night?”

“Course, pet.” He put his hand over her cool forehead and swept her hair back from her face. “All night and the
day besides, if you need it.”

Buffy’s eyes were dropping already. “I might,” she yawned.

Before he knew it, Buffy had fallen asleep.
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.Chapter Index.

Anywhere Out
of This World

Blood, Pressure
The Drawing Board
All's Well
Anywhere Out of
This World
Mourning Sickness
Welcome to Hell
Relative
Matters of Time  
& Fishes
International Calls
Empty as Houses
Lusty Wrong Feelings
Enthralled
Thanksgiving
Seduced
Innocents Lost
Burn
Flashback
Not A Chance In Hell
Empty Rooms
Two Roads Diverged
Starfall
Blindsided
Not Her Own
Outta Here
The Valley of the
Shadow of Death
Comes the Rain
Smoke and Mirrors
Drawn to You
Team Angel
By Fire Reborn
Salvage
Ashes to Ashes
Life Is...
With A Little Help
Appearances Deceiving
Familiarity
Sweetness
Not All Who Wander
That Old Black Magic
For Lorne
Drawn Together
Lost to Sand
Fall of Triumvirate
Parallel Lives
The Lovers
Avenger
Double Cross
Pursuit
Ripper's Girl
Pandemonium
Negative Space
Raveled Threads
Asunder
Human Hands
Singular
Fragmented
Symmetry
Plans
Rogue Squadron
Legends