I: Jinxed Us

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and CSI: NY belongs to CBS. The University of Saint Margaret belongs to me and all subsequent characters you don’t recognize.

Timeline: Set after Season 3 of Buffy. Set before Season 3 of CSI: NY

A/N: AU for Buffy and most certainly AU for CSI: NY. There are references, see if you can get them!

Happy Reading!
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Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg slowly meandered across the surprisingly quiet quad of University of Saint Margaret, the U of SM for short. After defeating Mayor Wilkins and surviving their graduation they, Oz and Xander had all received acceptance letters from the U of SM.

None of them had applied, Xander hadn’t applied anywhere, but here they were at the University of Saint Margaret.

Buffy was quite happy. She had the Scooby Gang with her and Giles was keeping an eye on the Hellmouth with the help of Wesley. There was no Faith to worry about, the Council had found her and was keeping the comatose Slayer in a well guarded facility. Thing hadn’t been this good in a real long time.

“When are we meeting Oz and Xander at the White Knight Café?” Willow asked, breaking into her best friend’s thoughts.

Glancing at her watch before answering, Buffy said, “At five. We’ve got three hours. What should we do? We’ve collected our books, unpacked most of our luggage, set up most of our dorm and we’re done with freshman orientation. We could go check out some of the shops I saw, while we were driving in.”

“I think you shopped enough before we left,” Willow teased, affectionately bumping a hip against Buffy.

“There can never be enough shopping. Any-ways, I got a call from mom this morning, seems her mother had hidden away a bank account and some other artifacts and left everything to me and mom. Money is not a problem with dad suddenly deciding he wants to be more of a father-like and pay for college. I still can’t believe it, he’s suddenly so…”

“Caring,” Willow supplied.

“Yeah, I won…”

Unfortunately, Buffy didn’t get to finish her sentence because both she and Willow suddenly tripped over something. With a yelp, both girls landed in some sort of liquid that was congealing.

Carefully, pushing herself to her feet, so she didn’t fall, Buffy grabbed Willow and hauled her up and away from whatever they had just tripped over.

“A body,” Buffy said, unhappily. “A body on campus. Didn’t their brochure claim quiet, low crime and all that other good, non-violent stuff that’s not usually found in New York City?”

Stepping closer to the body and avoiding the blood as much as she could, Buffy reached out and checked for a pulse.

“Dead and I can’t see any vamp bites or anything. Hey! It might just be a plain old murder!” Buffy cried, a sunny smile brightening her face, but it quickly fell away. “And I’m a bad person for saying that.”

Smiling in understanding, Willow studied the body and the area around it. Buffy was probably right and this was a plain old murder. New York City was one of the most magically and demonically dull and dead places in the world.

The victim was a girl about their age with light brown hair and pale green eyes. She was wearing a lacy white robe stained with blood and from the way it was laying on her, Willow knew that the girl had nothing on underneath.

A gold necklace lay broken on the ground beside her. Willow thought it resembled a tower rising out of a top hat.

“We better call the police. You’ve got your cell?” Buffy asked, interrupting Willow’s perusal of the area and body.

“Yeah,” Willow responded.

*******
Four hours later, Buffy and Willow were still waiting in the quad. However, now it wasn’t so peaceful; flashing sirens and hurrying cops of all sorts were going back and forth. Doing whatever it is that cops did.

A detective with bright blue eyes, that eerily reminded Buffy of her mother’s eyes, had told them to stay put and that some crime scene investigator would want to speak with them before they were allowed to leave.

Oz and Xander flanked the girls, Oz had taken up a protective stance by Willow and Xander had settled himself beside Buffy. Willow had called them; after Buffy had finished with 911.

“Odd,” Xander said, as he watched the happenings before them.

“What’s odd?” Oz asked.

“Seeing cops…actually do cop things. Sunnydale PD was well, you guys know,” Xander finished lamely.

“We know,” Willow agreed.

Buffy and Oz nodded in agreement with Willow and Xander. Buffy could tell that Oz and Xander were antsy to go because neither she nor Willow could say anything before the cops had arrived. And since New York City or its cops didn’t have amazing blindness to all things magical and demon-y, they couldn’t risk speaking of anything. No point in drawing anymore attention to themselves.

“I wonder how much longer this will take.” Buffy said to no one in particular.

“Blue-eyes is coming back,” Willow pointed out. “Hopefully he’s coming to tell us, whoever is one his way or that we can leave, if he isn’t.”

Buffy studied the detective as he approached, she could easily see that he was at the end of healing a severe injury. It was in the way he held himself, one arm protectively across the abdomen, the way he looked down at the ground and the careful steps.

“Sorry about the wait. All the investigators are pretty busy. I’ve been given the okay to let you kids go back to your dorms. I just need your information,” the blue-eyed detective explained.

“I’m Buffy Summers and this is Willow Rosenberg, we share a suite in Livingston dorms. Xander and Oz weren’t with us, when we found the body. Will gave them a call after I was done with 911,” Buffy explained.

“Alright, this is my card. I’m Detective Don Flack. Either Detective Mac Taylor or I will speak with you girls. Would you like an escort back to your dorms? I know Livingston is on the other side of Carroll Park,” Flack offered.

“Nah, we’re good. Buffy can defend u…” Xander trailed off and offered the detective a nervous and guilty looking smile. “Buffy’s stronger than she looks. She’s our Buff, buff. Okay, shutting up now.” He finished and firmly shut his mouth, adverting his eyes from the curious look the detective was giving him and the annoyed-amused glances the others were sending his way.

“That’s…great,” Flack said and continued casting curious glances at the college students around him. They had all just developed a guilty air, except for Oz and Buffy, they were cool and serene.

“Um, we’ll be going now. Classes don’t start tell Tuesday and we’re sticking pretty close to campus. Um, see ya,” Buffy finished. Firmly, grabbing Xander’s arm, she began to drag him away with Willow and Oz close behind.

Flack could hear her muttering something like: ‘Good cover Xander. She’s our Buff, buff.’

They were an odd group. And it bothered him that Ms. Summers and Ms. Rosenberg were so cool headed about the fact that they had discovered a body, most girls – most people – were still in shock. But no, they acted like they had seen dead bodies before. Definitely strange.

He would have to tell Mac about these kids, no doubt.

*******
“That necklace that I saw, it’s still bothering me – a tower rising from a top hat. Not something you see everyday…or at all really, but I swear I’ve seen it before,” Willow said, as she flopped down onto her still unmade bed.

“We did see it. In the library, remember you accidentally wandered in the restricted section only meant for professors and visiting scholars. And before you were discovered, you found it in a book about rumors and legends about the university. I saw it on the cover, as the very mean librarian was ripping it out of your hands. He should so take lessons from Giles about how to be a proper librarian,” Buffy said

“How did you see it…oh right, slayer vision. And Giles was not a proper librarian that was his cover remember,” Willow said. “I wonder what it means. Do you think that book has been added to their electronic archive? Even if its restricted – I could hack into…”

“No! Absolutely no hacking into the schools computers,” Buffy commanded. “At least not your first week here, wait awhile before you start doing illegal things. Anyways, the murder wasn’t tied to anything magical or demonic. It’s one of the reasons we all decided to come here, get away from the Hellmouth. ‘Cause let’s face it, after we graduate from college, we’re getting sucked back into that place. Or at least I am. That’s depressing.”

Willow rolled her eyes and tossed Mr. Gordo at Buffy’s head. “Hopefully by the time we graduate, Faith will be recovered and she can take over for you. You can have a normal life or a semi-normal one. And if that doesn’t happen…at least, you had four years away.” She said.

“I’m glad you decided to come with me. It wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t have you, Xander and Oz, but especially you and Xander,” Buffy said. “Crappy aim by the way. You’d think after all these years, you’d be a better shot.”

“I’m glad that I came to. I can still work on being a wicca,” Willow said. “And Buffy, I meant what I said after I was kidnapped and all. I want to fight the good fight with you. And I figured wherever your at, there’ll be a good fight to fight.”

Smiling happily, Buffy bounced from her bed and onto Willow. “I love ya to. And you know what…you’ve totally just jinxed us.”