5865/The Librarian: A Little Time Out for Coffee

The Librarian: A Little Time Out for Coffee
Date of Scene:	28 November 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Willow and Sam meet for coffee to discuss the search for the book and some other more embarassing topics.
Cast of Characters:	Sam Winchester, Willow Rosenberg
Tinyplot:	The Librarian

---

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam had taken the Cricket out of town for a few weeks on a case. It had been alright, but slow, so very slow, so when Sam got back to the city he had to admit he missed the bustle of the place, the crowds, even the stink.

"Don't tell me I'm becoming a city boy," Sam mutters to himself as he pushes into Mercutios. He could hear Dean's teasing already.

He orders a coffee, black, one sugar, and a little pastry for himself before taking a seat and waiting.

After getting settled he'd sent a text to Willow to meet up for coffee. He figured he needed to catch up with the local goings on and she'd be better company than his grumpy angel slash roomie.

Grabbing a book from his messenger bag, his journal of various spells and wards, he flips through it idly.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow breezes in - late, of course. It's an almost perpetual state for the flustered young woman, who looks about the room for Sam, almost as if she's hoping that somehow, some way, she's beat him here. "C'mon, c'mon, make him be one of those.. please.. please.. please.. oh sugar cubes."

Willow heaves a sigh as she spots the young man at a table, already set up with coffee, biscotti, and books. Two out of three of her favourite things (she wasn't sure about biscotti yet).

"I know, I know," she apologizes as she makes her way to the table, dropping her book bag there, and pulls her laptop out to boot up while she retrieves her own goodies from the counter. "But I thought if I walked I could use the bus fare on treats, and there was this detour - who digs up sidewalks in the middle of winter anyway? Okay, fine, it's not the middle of winter, but it's cold enough to be, and I couldn't find my boots. I think I left them at home, so maybe a weekend trip back to pick them up, but anyway, I got lost."

And she had. Willow's cheeks pinken, as she fails to add she wasn't /that/ lost and she'd have been here on time if she'd not stopped to browse in that second hand book store (she'd actually set out an hour early in purpose, after all!). Of course, she kind of loses that advantage by blurting, "I found this book you should see, though."

It's all mysterious and the like, as she flits away to grab coffee (and the requisite biscotti - Italo insisted!) before returning to their table and settling down.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam looks up when hurricane Willow blows through the door. He smiles, chuckling softly and shaking his head. "Hey, Will," he greets as she stops by the table for a moment to drop things off beforfe she vanishes leaving that tidbit behind.

A book? He wonders if it was one of /those/ books for the span it takes her to grab her coffee and come back in.

By then he's processed the rest and says, "Got lost huh? No worries, and seriously, if you're scrimping on bus fare, I can probably help you guys out, I mean, I'm doing alright and we're on the same side and all." But then he gets to the main event.

"So, is one of the parts of /the/ book or are we talking about something else here?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow sits herself down and begins to unload her things, chattering all the while. "Well, a little bit lost. More like not really lost, unless you count lost in the stacks. Fiiine, I was looking at books. I mean, there really was a detour. Then there was this little book store I'd never seen before. It was like it hadn't existed.. and wait, what?"

She stops, books in hand, poised over her laptop, which is open and ready to log in, and blinks at Sam in indignation, "We're not charity cases! I have bus money. Just.. we are not charity cases."

Totally throwing Buffy under that bus with herself.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam chuckles warmly again when the story expands to include a book store, because of course it does. "Find the book you were talking about there? Or just browse?" he asks her good naturedly taking a sip of his coffee. "And if it's any good, let me know the address."

Yeah, so Sam was a nerd too. This was well established.

"It's not charity it's mutual support. We're hunters, we look out for each other. I'd hate for the world to end because the Slayer and her pals couldn't find the right change. He pulls out his wallet and then finds his transit card. "Here, take this at least, it's valid to the end of the month."

He's hoping a little bit of charity might fly where a bigger gesture might not.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
On the one hand, Willow does not want to be a charity case. On the other... free transit card! Well, not quite free. And.. there's the small matter of the legitimacy of taking someone *else's* card as your own.

"I don't know," she says, reaching for the card and letting her fingers play along the sturdy plastic of the thing. "That's kind of like stealing, isn't it?"

She doesn't thrust the thing back at him yet. It's almost as if she can't, even if she might want to. The hypnotic lull of the idea of free transit for the rest of the week is just so tempting. In her mind, she can hear Buffy telling her it's no big, deal. And worse, John's voice declaring the transit authority to all be shysters and what difference does it make - they'd gotten their money, hadn't they? If she wasn't using the card, Sam would be. Now Sam wouldn't be. Ethical problem solved, right?

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam opens his mouth to say, 'if it helps I didn't pay for it' but he's known Willow long enough not to. Instead he changes tact, "It's all fine Willow, I bought the thing before I got my car, don't need it right now. Might as well use the money or it'll go to waste."

Yes, his argument is so very much like what she imagined John's would be.

"And so, what about this book? You're killing me with the anticipation," he complains good naturedly. "Also, these pastry," he says picking up the one he'd bought. "So good. Going to need to bring some home to Cas."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow flips the card about in her fingers, biting at her lower lip the whole while. "I guess?" After all, he did have a point there. If she didn't use it, the card would just be going to waste, right? Never mind the fact that he'd used the card before giving it to her, and had probably used its full value, making all her trips on the thing ever so slightly sullied, and quite possibly stolen...

Yeah, it was probably a good thing Sam didn't mention he hadn't paid for the thing himself...

"It's only for a few more days, anyway," Willow murmurs, still frowning. But she pockets the thing anyway, and contemplates whether or not she could actually afford a card of her own next month. She almost felt obligated to buy one now, to make up for the possible shortfall (and questionable nature) of this card. That, and it was going to be snowy, slushy, and cold. She might not enjoy walking in that as much as she'd emjoyed the months up until now... It would make the budget a little tighter in other areas. Then again, she could take up tutoring, couldn't she? Her first term marks totally justified that.

"Cas? He's your angel friend, huh?" Not that she'd seen him. "And the book I found, it talks about ancient manuscripts, and other books. About ways they used to hide them from government officials and the like. It looks like it confirms my suspicions that maybe the book we're looking for isn't a book anymore."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Exactly," Sam says with a firm nod. "Besides you do good, the card will help you do good, that makes it all good, right?"

He knew Dean had used the same argument with him when he found out about the credit card scams dad used to run. It was all for a good cause, who cared if a few big companies didn't get paid. Right?

"And yeah, that's him. You should meet him sometime, he's sort of grumpy, but his heart is in the right place...." he makes a face. "I assume... no right, host. Anyhow he's a good guy. Just don't tell him I said that."

Then he circles back to the talk of books. "Wait, our book isn't a book any more? What's it doing now? Propping up some wizard's bed?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Maybe if we don't talk so much about the card?" Willow scrunches up her face. If she doesnt' think about it, it's easier to pretend it's okay. Less time for moral and ethical arguments to rear their ugly heads and demand equal time in this conversation.

"And not really?" Willow sorts through the pile of books now resting on her laptop keyboard, and sets most of them aside. One, she hands over to Sam. "The thing is, the book wasn't a book to begin with, right? It was a bunch of writings that were gathered together. Most of the 'books' at the library at Alexandria were scrolls. I mean, they were books for the time, I guess, but they were scrolls. Someone took the ones we're looking for and gathered them together into sections, and someone else gathered them together into a book and bound it. I think after your friends at the Covenant got ahold of them, it was broken back up again. This book talks about how that was done with a lot of ancient texts that they didn't want reappropriated or confiscated at borders. Or how they'd send them overseas or to other places disguised as other things to get around the laws. I mean, some of it isn't as old as the book we're looking for, but it had to start somewhere, right?"

Sam Winchester has posed:
"What card?" Sam says innocently.

Then Sam listens, grabbing a pen to scribble a few notes in his own notebook.

"So, basically what you're saying is the book has been more than broken up, but it's been transformed, not magically, but through mundane means to look like anything but it is? So it they can be moved without running into problems?" he asks.

"That's pretty clever actually, would have spun my wheels for weeks looking for books when it could be a candlestick or a table leg or something. Heh. Am I on the right page here?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow considers Sam's conjecture. "What I'm saying is it *could* have been hidden by mundane means - like backing a painting, or being used as a piece of paper for another piece of writing. But I am betting it most definitely was broken down into the original sheaves, if not further, to the individual parchments."

She nods, though. He's gotten the gist of it.

"It is clever, isn't it? It isn't just books they did it to. They apparently hid a lot of things that way - made them look like other things. And yeah, exactly like that." Which reminds her, they're also looking for other objects, too. "I'm really kind of hoping we don't have to figure out what everything was hidden as, you know? I'm guessing the book was the big thing, though. There were a lot of times when any writing was suspect by the Church, and if what you told me was correct, this book would likely have been a really big blinking light for being taken if the Church had found it."

Neglecting the fact that the Covenant had found it despite that fact. But then again, they'd also sent it into hiding again, too.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam frowns, taking a bite of his pastry, "When you say they 'could' be hidden by mundane means, they might not be? As in they might have hidden them with magic?"

The pastry is put down as he considers them being broken down by sheaves or even further.

"Definite pain in the ass if it's into parchments, but hopefully they were lazy enough to stick to sheaves," which was a pain in the ass in its own right. "Hmm, but the good news is that the parts of the book call to each other right? Or was that the ritual objects?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"No," Willow murmurs. "I've exhausted that avenue. They're not hidden by magical means. At least not that I can tell. I mean, I guess someone with magic might /have/ them, but they're hidden more mundanely." At least she thinks so. "What I mean is they could be hidden, like.."

She searches around and reaches for her napkin. "Like, this could be a bit of the book, right? Or that painting on the wall could be a bit of it. Or, it could just be sheaves of papers looking like old parchment - not disguised, just hidden the way you'd hide any bit of old paper, by looking old and uninteresting among other old uninteresting papers."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Well that's good news," Sam says about it not being magical. That was /always/ a plus.

"So what you're saying is they're buried in my first year notes on torts?" Sam jokes in regards to uninteresting papers. There is a faint smile and a sip of coffee after.

"So, that still leaves us with just about anywhere as the area we need to search. I guess if we dug up more on this Covenant it might give us more on likely places they'd hide things. Basically, know your frenemy. Willing to bet a whole month's transit card it'll be in churches."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"I'm saying that they could be? And there's the whole bit about them wanting to be together, too. I know it's weird, but I don't think I found this book by accident, you know? I was banging my head against what to do next, and voila! There was that book store. I mean, it's really weird."

But Willow had run across weirder things.

"I was thinking that same thing, I mean, what do we actually know about this Covenant? And how weird is it that they show up just when we're looking for this stuff, all handy dandy helpful and chock full of being protectors of the whole mess? Seems to me they're responsible for it all."

Sam's idea that the bits are hidden in churches seems a likely bet. "so, if they're in churches, I get a transit card?" Hopefully.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam frowns, "So, then your theory is that the books want to be together, goes beyond just some magical link tying them all together, but it'll manipulate events to make it happen?"

He lets out a breath. "That's some serious mojo if so, like big time," he glances over his shoulder and then back to Willow. "Even if it does help us out, that's some scary s-" he begins but finishes with. "Stuff. If we weren't 100 percent on board with removing this thing, I'd say that's more than enough reason now."

"Next to nothing a tiny bit from research, and a whole lot from a old lady that lives under a church who didn't site sources," Sam says with a frown. "That's the problem with secret societies, they're secret. I've put in calls to some friends, but, I'm not holding my breath."

He chews on his lip as he thinks. "There's got to be other info on these guys."

"And no, if it's in a church you give me one," he says, still half-lost in thought.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow exhales softly, because when Sam puts it that way, it does sound just a titch ridiculous. "I think so? I can't find any other explanation. The more I look for information, or the bits, the more these co-incidences happen. It's.. well, maybe it's just random chance." Even if the math of the matter would suggest otherwise. And she should know. She ran the numbers. Twice.

She does politely wait till Sam rights himself over the nearly swearing matter, and tries very hard not to smile too smugly at his correcting of himself.

There's still the matter of the secret society (tm) though. "Yeah, that one I'm not making headway on. I mean, I haven't looked a lot, but so far not a lot of info. Maybe that's not really their name. Do you remember, did she call them anything else, that lady you talked to? The one at the Church?" Yeah, Wills had heard the story from Buffy.

She does look more than a bit crestfallen at the bet, though. "I can't bet that. I don't think you're wrong." It was church, or old antique store on her list, and besides, he already had a car. She couldn't afford to be buying *two* transit passes, let alone one.

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Mostly joking," Sam says of the bet he knew money was tight.

"Oh I am not saying it's wrong, just like insanely powerful, but given all the work to keep these things apart, I am not ruling out crazy powerful as an option," Sam explains.

The smug look gets a finger pointed at her. "Shush."

When she mentions the other name for the Covenant. He scrunches his nose, thinking, then shakes his head. "No. Just Covenant. I can ask Cas though, he might have more info than he's told us so far. He runs on angel time." he explains.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow shrugs then. "I don't know what to say. Maybe it's not the right time for the information to be found? If the thing is really playing around with probability and such, I guess I'll find what I need when I need to find it."

Oddly, she seems okay with that.

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Seems sort of passive, I mean trusting that the info will fall in our laps at the right time," Sam says with a frown. "I'm going to push on with research and see where that takes me."

He pauses almost cursing again, "Of course with this predestination stuff, that might be what I am supposed to do..."

A hand is pushed through his shaggy hair. "Either way, going to do that, there has to be an answer to this mystery somewhere."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"I didn't mean I'd stop," Willow protests. "I just meant everything about this seems to be nothing, nothing, then suddenly all the things. I just am expecting it to look like that, but I will admit I haven't used more arcane means to look them up yet." And as she says it, she couldn't actually say why she hasn't - other than she's been busy researching all the things as well as keeping up with her classwork, and her magical studies, and, you know, having something of a social life.

"It is kind of interesting that this book your friend is looking for suddenly isn't just a book, but a bunch of things, anda secret society. Does he have any more information, maybe? Stuff he's not telling you?" Her experience with angels is nil pretty much. Oother fantastical beings, sure. Angels? Still lacking a firm experience base in them.

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Ah, good," Sam says about Willow not stopping. "And yeah I get what you mean, ordinary things just seem to turn into leads. Or lead to allies, case in point how we met."

He's still frowning though. The idea something might be toying with his life to set events in motion made his skin crawl. The memory of Yellow Eyes and his plan for Sam was still too fresh to be entriely comfortable with the thought.

"He could," Sam says of Cas. "He tends to dole things out in his own time and in his own way. I'll hit him up for more info, see if he can give us anything more on well, anything."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Oh, he's one of those, huh?" Again, not that she had experience with angels, but she did have experience with those who thought they knew more than the average bear (tm) about things and tended to dole things out on a need to know basis, where they were the ones who determined how much you needed to know, and when. It was, to put it bluntly, often annoying, and clear communication from the outset without all the secrecy, could avert so many problems.

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Pretty much. Who's your 'angel'?" Sam asks Willow taking a sip of coffee. "My literal angel sort of spills things when it occurs to him we don't know it. Like, what you didn't know you needed a nail from the coffin of a martyr'd saint to kill that demon?, coupled with the most devistating, 'are you an idiot' stare," he shakes his head. "Still like I said, he's alright, plus he saved my life, so, I can take a couple of those stares for that."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Giles," Willow answers without hesitation. "He's our Watcher. Well, was. I'm not sure where he's gone off to, but he left John in charge in his absense. John doles things out, too, but he's a little freer with information. Mostly the stuff you don't want to hear. I think he self-censors around me a lot. I don't know why everyone treats me like I'll melt."

It wasn't so much like she'd melt, but like they were afraid, sometimes, and she couldn't figure out why.

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Giles, oh right the guy who owned the place we met, right," Sam says, he'd never met the man but he'd heard about him. "And that figures with what I've heard about John Constantine."

As for self-censoring. "It's not really that you'd melt, one, you're way too nice, and two, you're sort of scary when you're scolding people... while at the same time some how cute too? It's disconcerting."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow blinks at Sam, like he's speaking a foreign language.

"I'm cute when I'm scolding people?" It suddenly occurs to her, first that this means people aren't taking her serious (totally disregarding he also said she's scary when she scolds) and, secondly, that she's not sure if this is some sort of pickup line or not.

Her state of confusion has her blushing. And as a red, with freckles, it's about as not-pretty a sight as you might imagine, which might make it all the more adorable.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam chuckles at the blushing. "What? It's true?" which so doesn't help the whole is he flirting or not thing. He's not though, but he's clueless enough not to notice that might be what she's thinking.

"Uh, do you need a minute or something?" he asks looking suddenly awkward realizing he's in public here with Willow the Red-Faced Wicca. "Maybe some water? If I offended you..." he wasn't quite sure /what/ was going on but he was pretty sure it was his fault.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
Willow, by now, is in full fluster mode - regardless of Sam's intent, because up until this moment she'd not considered him flirting with her even a possibility, and now that she thought he might be, she was kind of worried this was going to be a problem. "Uh.. No? But you know I'm not interested in you, right? I mean, I liked a guy once. It didn't go so well, and I don't know, I don't think you're my type?"

Okay, she'd not considered what her type was, but there was also the complication that she still didn't know if Buffy was interested or not, and Willow was not going to mess with someone her beste might possibly consider to be date material at some point.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Now it's Sam's turn to enter fluster mode. "What? Whoa? Where did that come from? You like girls, I know you like girls, I think you're cool and all but you're just my friend."

He sifts back through what he said. "Wait, the cute thing?" he asks getting control of himself again. "I meant like how a bunny or a kitten is cute... or well maybe the Bunny from Holy Grail, because yeah, still scary."

He levels with her then, trying to meet her eyes. "But I am totally not hitting on you."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Like a kitten or a bunny, cute" Willow squeaks. "That's.. that's.." she crumples up her napkin and throws it at him. "Mean. Just mean, Sam Winchester." But there's a laugh when he provides an out by means of the Bunny from Holy Grail. "Big gnashy teeth, huh?"

Willow chuckles. "I like both boys and girls. Girls are a lot easier, though. Like I said, it didn't go so well with the last guy I dated. there were... issues."

She says issues like he liked chocolate ice cream and she digs on vanilla.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam laughs as the napkin bounces off his chest. "Can't help it if it's true," he says with a shrug. "But yeah, wasn't coming on to you, you'd know if I was by the five plus minutes of fumbling and putting my foot in my mouth before hand." As for the Holy Grail reference, "Guess, you can call me... Tim?"

"Issues?" Sam asks raising a brow. "Don't have to tell me, but it sounds like a story."

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Fumbling? You mean like how you were with Buffy?" Willow's question comes with a sly little grin. Yeah, she noticed. And she doens't seem bothered by the fact that for all her charms, people seem to like her room mate best.

"And werewolf issues. It was really - well, you know who Buffy is. You can already imagine the troubles that could cause. And there was the time I fell in love with a demon. Yada yada. You know how it is. I don't know. But I'm not really seeing anyone right now."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"What? When was I fumbling with Buffy?" Sam asks, sounding serious when he asks too.

Sam for his part is used to being second fiddle too. At least with the ladies.

When she mentions werewolf issues, Sam blinks. "Really?" he asks, looking sombre. "I am really sorry, if you'd believe it, I had similar issues, it's not easy. I can get why you'd want to take some time off dating after that."

Of course Sam shot his werewolf ex in the heart, he assumes something similarly tragic happened with Willow's beau.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"When weren't you fumbling with Buffy," Willow teases. "It's okay. I won't tell her." Whether she means about the werewolf, or the fumbling, is unclear. "And you know. Things just didn't work out. Not really anyone's fault." Then she smirks at him. "Not even a blink for the demon, huh?"

Sam Winchester has posed:
"I am sure there were moments," Sam says with a chuckle. "And it's your fault, you put that idea in my head."

To be honest Sam had been so aborbed the memories with his own werewolf romance that he'd missed the demon almost entirely. "Wait, you said demon?" he asks snapping out of it. "What happened there?"

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Buffy happened," Willow says quietly. "It's okay. We weren't a good match. And I don't know, looking back there's a whole lot of feeling like how could that have been me, you know?"

It takes her a moment, then she crinkles her nose. "Ewwww. I did not meaan that kind of fumbling."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Sorry," Sam says when he hears the tale. "Is that what happened with the werewolf guy too? Buffy?" he asks quietly.

Then he's blinking againg, "What? No! I didn't mean that kind either. Gross. You've got a dirty mind," he laughs as he shakes his head.

Willow Rosenberg has posed:
"Not so much with Oz, no. But it's one of those sad sort of stories. I'd rather not tonight, if you don't mind?" There's a soft giggle for the rest. "I do not have a dirty mind. But you have to admit that was kind of funny."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Ah," Sam says but doesn't press about Oz. "And no worries, I completely get not wanting to talk about it."

Then he's laughing again, "You definitely do," Sam counters. "But you're right though. Definitely funny."

He drains his cup and looks to Willow. "Refill?" he asks with a nod to the counter as he gets to his feet.