Summers House, Sunnydale, February 2003 (Tuesday Fandom Time)

[brat_inslayage]

She'd been looking forward to this field trip, like, a couple of weeks ago. Well, sort of; Kennedy and camping had never really gotten along, and they'd be tenting it in the desert this time, so there wouldn't even be the relatively plush amenities that the Fandom cabins had. Plus going on a vision quest to meet the spirit of the First Slayer wasn't her idea of a really fulfilling experience. But bonding time with "her" girls, plus some more insight on the whole Slayer-y gig? Wasn't all that long ago that it would have beaten the hell out of sitting around the house waiting to figure out what their next move should be.

It was kind of hard to be enthusiastic about that now, since her current rooming situation made not thinking about the complications impossible, which made everything more and more awkward, to the point that she couldn't buckle down and freaking think half the time. So that was stupid, and it made her annoyed at herself, which led to some seriously stupid screwups during training.

So never mind the field trip; she had her own mission. Personal thing, yeah, but what good was she going to be if she couldn't get focused?

Giles	"Kennedy, would you mind running these bags to the car, please?" Giles asked in between trips out to the driveway. There was some sort of squabble going on over who would be occupying the middle seat, so naturally he was doing everything in his power to avoid being in range.
Kennedy	She did mind, but she'd do it anyway. She felt pretty sorry for Giles being stuck in that car. "Yeah, sure," she said-- quietly, even. No smartassery or anything, just her reaching for the bags. "Hey, after this run, can I talk to you for a second?"
Giles	No smartassery? Oh, Kennedy. Like Giles couldn't tell you were up to something. ...Suddenly he had a craving for some very strong tea. "Certainly," he replied anyway, albeit with perhaps a bit of doubt in his tone. But, you know. Bags first.
Kennedy	Hey, she was off her game, Giles, okay? She had good reason. She wasn't faking a cold for stupid reasons or anything. "After I get these loaded," Kennedy finished for him. She hauled the bags out to the car, which took a few minutes and some yelling before she came back into the house shaking her head. "Rona and Amanda were trying to convince Andrew that you said he could go if he rode in the trunk. You're welcome, by the way."
Giles	"Oh, blast," Giles muttered, peering around the top of the couch to see if the view out the window confirmed that horror story. Sure enough, it did. "You don't think he'll actually...?" Well. This was Andrew they were talking about, after all. "Blast," Giles repeated, deciding to just look away before Rona could try to pick Andrew up and shove him in the trunk or something else that would require his intervention. "All right. Well. What's on your mind?"
Kennedy	Some of the girls had caught him trying to make road trip mix tapes the other day, so good luck with that, Giles. Although Kennedy was pretty sure none of them wanted to spend a long drive with Andrew along, so even if they did shove him in the trunk they'd likely let him out again. Anyway. She leaned against the doorframe and looked at him squarely. "I'm sorta... going to sit this trip out, Giles. There's a thing I really need to do."
Giles	Giles regarded Kennedy critically. It wasn't that he didn't trust her judgment, it was just that... okay, he didn't trust her judgment in the slightest. Sorry, Kennedy. "A thing," he repeated, sounding skeptical.
Kennedy	And it was a good thing this was all in the narrative, otherwise she'd have a nice long rambling complaint about how she hadn't exactly gotten a lot of chances to prove she had good judgment, which was an argument that could be easily countered, which... "A thing," Kennedy repeated. "Just found out Fandom did the time-wacky to me in a messed-up kind of way, so I'm a little, um..." Okay, it'd been a little less recent than that, but details She shrugged and waved one hand beside her head. "You probably don't want me doing the mystical hokey-pokey--" thanks for that description, Buffy-- "right now."
Giles	Hmm. Well, that merited a bit more attention. "Is it -- would you care to discuss it?" he asked, softening a little.
Kennedy	Kennedy didn't really care to discuss it, not really, or at least not with just anyone, but hell if she was going to sneak around about this. She just didn't have to be super-specific, right? "Kinda just found out someone who's super important to me is gone," was what she settled for, diffidently. "I didn't know-- I always thought she was younger than me, and now everything's kinda depressing." She bit her lip. "Also I have a headache. The metaphorical kind. So yeah, this is me, really not with the focus at all."
Giles	Giles winced sympathetically as he processed that, then frowned. "You're saying you knew someone who was here?" he checked. "And she..." Oh. Oh. But -- it couldn't be... could it? And so the brain-breaky started to set in.
Kennedy	"Let's not make a huge thing of it," Kennedy protested halfheartedly, even though she could if she were inclined to. "I just need some time-- and relative privacy-- to process this, and I'm not getting that at campfire night." Or, you know, in this house in general on a daily non-camping-trip basis.
Giles	"I understand," Giles said, nodding. "Take your time. I'll have Molly take notes for you."
Kennedy	Molly would take notes; she'd been Note-Taking Girl ever since Annabelle died, like she'd decided it was a mantle of supreme importance and someone needed to take it up. Kennedy thought it was kind of sweet, actually, which was why she didn't roll her eyes. "Might want to make sure she doesn't forget her notebook, then," she suggested, chucking a thumb toward the fireplace mantel. (Or maybe it was Vi's? She was into note-taking too, but that just went to show how off her game Kennedy was.) Because Giles, who had picked up plenty enough things since he'd been here, was under no suspicion of being incorporeal, so what point was there in suggesting someone else should pick it up? She paused. "In the spirit of not making a huge thing, could you maybe not tell the girls why I'm skipping out?" Because wow, nobody in this house needed that brand of teen-girl gossip.
Giles	"Of course," Giles promised. "I'll just mention the, ah -- headache, did you say? -- and leave it at that." A pause. "I'm sorry. For your loss." Did that still work when it was the loss of someone who she'd never met in this incarnation? Yeah, probably.
Kennedy	"Headache's good," Kennedy agreed with a faint smile. And-- it wasn't the same, but still close enough to suck, like she'd told Xander, so... Kennedy gave him a look that said she appreciated the sentiment, but this was trending toward making-a-thing-of-it. "Yeah... thanks, Giles."
Giles	"Of course," he said, reaching out with a totally corporeal hand to try to pat her shoulder. Then he picked up the notebook and started for the doorway, checking once before he left, "And you'll be all right? I think Willow's upstairs, if you'd like to talk, or..."
Kennedy	Kennedy accepted the pat on the shoulder with a slightly sheepish smile. Nope. No First Evil hanging around in here. "I think there's a thing I need to take care of before I do that, but yeah. I'll be okay."

[[nfi/nfb/ooc-okay as per usual; some discussion of past npc death. preplayed with the spectacular wesleynotponcy as notagoodwatcher. 1 of 2 today, and yes, i am overhauling "the killer in me" rather a bit. rather. this is pretty much all made up for the purpose of saying this is not gonna go as in canon, though a couple of canon bits from the episode were the basis for it.]]