Act 4
Fade In:
Int.
Watchers Council – Robin’s Office – Evening
Two Hours Before the Battle of the Turnpike
“I – no, we do not consider ourselves a terrorist organization.” Robin rolled his eyes and switched which ear he was listening to the phone receiver with. He sat at his desk, clicking through Outlook with his free hand. “We’re not vigilantes, either. We have the full support of local…yes, sir, I’m aware…well, I’m sorry you feel that way. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me…yes, I will. Goodbye.”
He sighed and set the phone down in its cradle. He ran a hand over his bald head in exasperation before noticing Faith standing in his doorway. She struck a casually sultry pose, leaning on one hand high up the doorframe.
“Hello,” he said in surprise.
“I take it the phone tag ain’t turnin’ up much?”
“No.” Robin nodded shortly. “The Senate’s even worse than the House. Senator Brown says hi, by the way.”
“Hello, Senator Brown,” Faith said with a grin. She stepped languidly into the room, eyed by Robin every inch of the way, then kicked the door closed with the back of her heel.
“And to what, may I ask, do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”
“Well…” Faith sat on the corner of his desk and leaned towards him. “I was thinking, what with the whole Congress situation, that you might not have a desk much longer. Which means we only have a limited time left to…” She ran a hand slowly across the wood. “…test it out.”
“Faith, I–” Robin began. She twisted the corner of her lip juuuust right. “Hell with it.”
He leaned forward and kissed Faith, hard and long. She fumbled at his shirt buttons, but he suddenly pushed her away. “Wait.”
Carefully, Robin picked up his computer monitor and put it on the floor next to the tower. When he straightened up again, Faith grinned predatorily and swept a hand across the remaining items on his desk, causing a clatter as they fell.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council — Willow and Rowena’s Apartment – Same Time
Rowena sat alone on her couch, lights dim. Over her shoulder, the twins were finally resting quietly in their crib, their stars and moons mobile tinkling overhead. Rowena looked very, very tired. Her eyes drifted over to a picture propped up on the end table; it was of her and Willow, each with a baby in their arms. After a moment, she reached over and picked it up. She ran an index finger over Willow’s face.
Rowena’s cell rang from the kitchen table. With a tired sigh, she willed herself to her feet. She walked over to the kitchen and flicked on the light switch, then picked up her phone after several rings.
“Allister.”
“Rowena, glad I caught you,” Grace’s voice answered. “We’ve got a, um…developing situation down here at Command.”
Rowena pinched the bridge of her nose and hesitated for a moment. “Did you call Faith?” she finally said. “It’s her night on-call.”
“I tried,” Grace replied. “Nobody seems to know where she is.”
Rowena blinked a few times. “Okay. I’ll be down when I can.” She pressed “End,” then made a beeline for the crib where Jen was starting to sound a bit fussy.
“Shhhhh…”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Robin’s Office – Moments Later
Faith yelled long and loud, vowels and consonants bouncing incoherently off one another. The desk shook violently.
“Faith…” Robin gasped, but she took very little notice. Her eyes were closed, her sinewy spine in smooth motion. She bit her lip and tossed her neck back.
“Faith!” Robin tried again, this time louder and angrier. Faith’s head snapped forward, her eyes open. The desk creaked at the sudden halt.
“Dammit, Ace. What?”
Robin inclined his head toward the door, and Faith’s eyes followed. Rowena was standing in the open doorway, arms crossed. Her face was a quiet mask.
Everything was silent. Faith made no immediate move to cover herself.
“Hey,” she said finally.
“You are on-call tonight,” Rowena pointed out. “Is that right?”
Faith’s eyes flicked downward. “Yeah, I know.”
“Good then.” Rowena turned to leave, but spared a single glance over her shoulder. “There’s a situation, so get your ass down to Command. You might want to put some pants on it first.”
Then she closed the door behind her, leaving Robin and Faith staring in her wake.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Robin’s Office – Moments Later
Awkward silence reigned as Robin and Faith put their clothes back on. He refastened his belt, while Faith slowly buttoned up her shirt. They weren’t looking at each other.
“So, what was that about?” Robin asked eventually.
“Oh, you know,” Faith said without looking up. “Blondie’s still got her panties wedged up her–”
“I meant you,” Robin clarified, walking over towards Faith. “You’re acting…if you need to talk to me, you can.”
Faith brushed him off. “I just needed a good lay. That’s par for the course for me, right loverboy?”
“Loverboy?” Robin asked pointedly. “I’m not your play toy, Faith.”
“Well, I didn’t notice you running away, so don’t—”
“Enough B.S.,” Robin sighed. “Really, what’s going on?”
Faith took a few steps away, then turned suddenly to look at him.
“What if we just got married anyway?”
Robin raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“I know we said that we’d wait until Ro and Will could be married, here in Ohio, I mean, but our little protest doesn’t look like it’s working. Do you wanna get married, Ace?” Faith’s voice was plaintive.
“Someday.” Robin took a few steps forward and put hands on Faith’s shoulders. “But I don’t want to rush you into anything, and I don’t think you should rush yourself, either.”
“I’m not rushing, I just…This is weird, isn’t it?”
“What’s weird?” Robin asked.
Faith turned away again. “Maybe we should, I dunno, use our influence to get the law repealed.”
“The Defense of Marriage Act?” Robin ventured, now thoroughly confused.
“Yeah, that one.”
Robin sighed. “In case you haven’t noticed, baby, we don’t have a lot of influence to go around right now.”
“Right…” Faith took a deep breath and looked back over her shoulder. “See ya later, then?”
Robin nodded once. “Yeah.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Command Center – Minutes Later
Rowena spoke into a headset. “You follow them, find out where they’re going, but do not engage. Do you understand?”
The room around her was relatively small, but full. Grace was in another corner speaking to another team. One wall had a large video screen showing a map of Cleveland, marked up intermittently with telestrator-type illustrations. Smaller video monitors, some running security footage, clustered in another corner.
“That’s what we’ve been doing,” Kennedy told her over the radio.
“Good then, keep doing that.”
Kennedy sighed. “Ten-four. Kennedy out.” The channel went dead.
Rowena pulled off her headset, set it down on the shelf in front of her and used her feet to push her chair back on its wheels. She nearly ran over Faith.
The two women looked at each other for a moment. Grace spared the two of them a glance.
“Faith,” Grace called. “Glad you could make it.”
After looking at Rowena for a moment longer, Faith turned to Grace. “What’s up?”
“Demons, lots of ’em,” Grace answered, as Faith walked in her direction and Rowena quietly pulled her chair back towards its spot. “A team spotted them a few minutes ago…They’re walking in one’s and two’s, but they’re all headed the same direction.”
“Which is where?” Faith asked.
Grace got to her feet and walked over to the big map screen. “South,” she answered, drawing an arrow with her finger. “Or South by Southeast, maybe.”
“Toward the Turnpike?” Faith ventured.
“That’s one theory,” Grace nodded. “Jackson is researching possible reasons why. Rowena just talked to Kennedy. She gave her orders to follow, not engage.”
Faith’s nose wrinkled. “Really?”
“Yep,” Rowena tossed over her shoulder without looking up.
Faith shrugged. “Okay,” she said skeptically. She pulled out her own chair and sat down.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Hallway – Later that Evening
Rowena leaned down to take a drink from a shiny metal water fountain. She closed her eyes and let the stream run through her mouth.
“Ro?”
She came up licking her lips. “It always tastes rusty.”
Buffy stood behind her, hair mussed and eyes tired. “It is Lake Erie water. Do you have a moment?” It was more of a plea than a request.
Rowena tried out a comforting smile. “Yeah.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Library – Moments Later
Rowena and Buffy were far back in the stacks. The place was quiet, though a fluorescent light buzzed as it flickered a few aisles over. The two women spoke in quiet tones befitting the library.
Buffy sighed and moved her bangs out of her eyes. “You’ve been here longer than I have – I mean, at an actual Council. I thought maybe…maybe you’d see something I’m missing.”
Rowena hunched her shoulders, trying her best to make herself look very small. “We’re doing everything we can. I was hoping Sanger or someone like her might step in, but…that’s a call to the angels. Who knows when they’ll listen.”
“Sanger yelled at me earlier,” Buffy said. “She thinks this is somehow our fault.”
“She was here?” Rowena sounded surprised.
“Still is, far as I know,” Buffy shrugged. “But she’s not how we’re gonna win this.” She hesitated. “Rowena, what if…what if we don’t win this?”
“Then we don’t.” Rowena’s throat sounded raspy.
Buffy leaned into the shelves, which creaked in protest. She visibly deflated, shaking her head. “I’m supposed to be the big leader here, the general. I can draw up battle plans, I can punch monsters, but this…I feel helpless. They can just take away everything everyone has been doing for the past five years…”
“No, they can’t,” Rowena said, suddenly and tightly.
Buffy sighed. “But…they’ll throw us out. They’ll sic the army on us.”
Rowena gestured wildly. “These walls aren’t the Watchers Council! We are the Watchers Council. You and me and Xander and Kennedy and Andrew and everyone else who believes. They’re going to have to kill every single one of us, because as long as one person is alive who believes in the idea that it is possible to make a difference without selling your soul, the Council will survive.” She was visibly breathing hard.
“Wow.” Buffy blinked in surprise, standing up straight again. “That was a lot better than my speeches.” She swallowed. “But, the thing is…we have to keep people believing. And what happens when they start taking us away one by one? We’re not a very squeaky clean bunch. I mean, they’ve already…started…” She trailed off, noticing Rowena gritting her teeth.
“You can say Willow’s name,” Rowena said. “Speaking of which, have you seen her yet?”
Buffy shook her head. “I just…I can’t. Sure, throw any twenty -foot demon in front of me and I’m fine, but…I’m not strong enough to deal with it. I’ll break down, and Willow doesn’t need that now. It’s the same reason I never talked to her when she went to England with Giles after her Dark Magic meltdown. I hate seeing her in pain. And I hate not being able to do a damn thing to fix it and make it better.”
Rowena said nothing at first. “Maybe that’s the key to everything,” Rowena said.
“What?” Buffy asked.
“Planning – so we find a way to fix things.” Rowena turned around and walked away down the aisle. Buffy silently watched her go.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Command Center – Night
When Rowena walked back into the Command Center, she found activity buzzing. Four people were shouting at Faith at once. A large woman with glasses and an eastern European accent was typing furiously into a laptop while she spoke to someone in the field.
“Put pressure on the wound,” the woman explained into her headset, “and you’re also going to need some peanut butter. Do not ask what it is for.”
Faith put her hands up to the group assailing her. “I don’t have anything else right now, okay. If we figure this out, I’ll tell you. Right now, my priority is having them catch up to these dumbasses and wipe them out. After that we can deal with the rest, okay?”
Rowena ran toward the group. “What happened? Why didn’t you page me?”
“I’m the one on call,” Faith said with a shrug. “You were busy.”
Rowena sighed. She turned to Grace, who was standing at the map of Cleveland making notes on new team locations.
“Kennedy charged in at the Turnpike without asking and stopped some kind of raid on the military,” Grace explained. “They got some codes.”
Rowena pinched the bridge of her nose. “Codes?”
“We don’t know what they are,” Faith said. “Except we got them from the military, so, obviously.”
“Please tell me Kennedy was on the same side as the soldiers,” Rowena said.
“Yeah,” Faith said, “but she said some general guy was dead, so…”
“I feel so much better,” Rowena remarked.
“Chunky peanut butter won’t work,” said the woman at the laptop. “You need the creamy.”
“Peanut butter?” Rowena called over to her.
“Kranjac’s Harpy Demon attack over on Superior Avenue,” the woman called back.
“Oh.” Rowena thought about this. “Okay, right. Good. Tell Kennedy to get back here with the codes.”
“Actually,” Grace butted in. “She’s talking to Mia in Beachwood. Also, Faith told Kennedy to chase the demons.”
“Really,” Rowena deadpanned. She turned slowly to Faith and raised an eyebrow. The other bystanders filtered to the sides of the room, talking on cell phones and radios.
“You have the peanut butter? Okay, this might sting a little, but I need you to…”
“This is our chance,” Faith explained. “We have them on the run. We can wipe them out. We can send a message.”
Rowena made an exasperated noise in her throat. “What message? Faith, you’ve been in the same meetings I have. You should know that’s not how terrorist organizations work. There’s cells. This is one cell. It’s probably not even the only cell in Cleveland. She might kill some demons, sure…but I’d give even odds they’re walking into a trap. And for what, Faith? We need to figure out what just happened. We need a plan.”
“We can’t keep waiting!” Faith shot back. Everyone was watching them now. “Every time we try and figure out the VOH, it doesn’t work. I’m sick of it. It’s why we are where we are. We need to stop playing chicken and just kill the hell out of them. All of them. You got a problem with that?”
Rowena licked her lips and looked down at the floor. Grace shrugged.
“Works in theory, I guess,” Grace offered.
“In theory,” Rowena said quietly. She turned to Faith. “Did you at least ask Kennedy for the codes she found so someone here can write them down?”
“Okay, do not worry,” the woman in the glasses was saying. “That is completely normal…”
“And have you called Amira’s team in for backup?” Rowena continued.
“I was getting to that,” Faith replied defensively.
“Planning,” Rowena muttered.
“What?” Faith asked, annoyed.
“Nothing,” Rowena replied. “You’ll do what you want, so what’s the point?”
Faith snatched up the radio. “Ken, do you copy?”
“Go ahead,” she replied.
“Got a pen?” Faith asked Rowena. “Blondie wants the friggin’ codes,” she told Ken. She then turned to Rowena again and asked, “Happy?”
“Delighted, Bitch,” Rowena replied and took the radio from Faith. Everyone came to a stand-still as Faith’s fingers on her right hand clenched and unclenched into a fist. “Go ahead, Ken,” Rowena told the slayer, ignoring Faith.
Faith left the room.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Cafeteria – Night
The cafeteria was wide and empty, Faith’s heels clicking as she walked across its floor. She came to glowing, buzzing vending machine in the far corner and stopped. A huge picture of a soda can surrounded by ice glowed on its front.
Faith ran a hand through her hair, looking tired.
“Need caffeine.”
She pressed one of the buttons on the machine. Nothing happened. She pressed it again. Still nothing.
“It’s out of Mountain Dew. I think the deliveryman might have quit.”
Faith did a double take and noticed Dawn unfolding herself from a nearby chair, her face shrouded in darkness.
“You scared me,” Faith said. “What are you doing here?”
Dawn bit her lip and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m…trying to remember. I was waiting for something. I’m not sure for what. You know what I’ve figured out?”
“What?” Faith asked.
“Time is weird when it doesn’t end. It twists all in circles on you. It’s kinda like a dance, but I haven’t figured out the steps yet. You know what I mean?”
“Not exactly,” Faith admitted. She collapsed into a chair across from Dawn. “Not ending isn’t really my problem.”
“I don’t know,” Dawn said. “You’re not exactly at the top of the ‘likely-to-die-tomorrow’ list anymore, are you? You don’t go out on patrol anymore, and, in a relative blink of an eye,you won’t have your powers anymore. You’ll have survived it. Slayers never used to survive, you know.”
“‘Cept for Gabby,” Faith noted. “Maybe you’re right. I dunno.” She leaned forward, resting her head in her hands. “Ro’s mad at me for being here, and I’m not even sure why I’m here, y’know? Everyone expects me to step up and run the show. It’s like I’m the big, expensive free agent they just traded the star player for, and there’s no way I can ever live up to that. The team’s going down the tubes, and the fans are leaving and…I took the sports thing about as far as it was gonna go, but the point is, this is all gonna be my fault. All of it.”
“You know,” Dawn said, after a moment’s silence, “a lot of people don’t get this whole punishment concept. They think living forever would be cool. But not you.” Faith looked up at Dawn, who was shaking her head. “You’re different.”
“Yeah, I’m special.”
Fade To:
Int.
Watchers Council – Command Center – Night
Faith slipped in over Grace’s shoulder, taking a seat next to her. The Command Center was quieter, but there were still just as many people there. It was a thick tension, anticipation.
“A-Team has a visual on the demons,” Grace told her. “I’ve got Kennedy on the line, but she’s operating under battlefield conditions…”
Faith took a look out of the corner of her eye, not really listening to Grace. Rowena was in the far corner, berating a young watcher about something or other.
“Give me Amira,” Faith said suddenly.
Grace nodded, then reached across Faith and picked up another headset, which she handed over. Faith fit the headset around her ears.
“Omega Team, this is Control,” Faith said. “How’s it look?”
“We are almost in position, Commander Lehane,” came Amira’s voice.
Faith opened her mouth, hesitated. “You don’t need to call me that,” she said.
“Old habits,” Amira told her. “I apologize.”
“Hey,” Faith said. “I wanted to ask you…what’s your backup plan?” Grace shot her a surprised look. “I don’t mean to bring up bad memories, but…I didn’t think you had somewhere to go.”
“We all move on, do we not?” Amira asked. “I have received offers, I admit. I have not told you of all of them. There is a small private security firm in Switzerland, they have called me looking for a slayer. What do you think?”
“Hey,” Faith replied, “we all need to make a living, right?”
“I hope I do not have to do this,” Amira said, “but, things are as they are.”
“Yeah,” Faith agreed. “Hey, I never said this, but–”
“Whoa!” Grace put a hand to one ear, trying to hear. “Ken, are you there? Ken?” She looked up at Faith. “There’s something wrong. I’m putting this on speaker…” She pressed a few buttons, and the incoherent noises of a fight were audible to the entire room.
“Omega Team, are you there?” Faith asked.
“Yes…” Amira said faintly.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m not–”
The entire room heard gunshots over the radio.
“Marie, watch out!” someone screamed.
“Amira!” Faith shouted. “You need to be up in there five minutes ago!”
There was no reply. A lot of shouting. No one in the Command Center moved. Rowena and Faith locked eyes. Grace tried to adjust the dial on the radio, but it didn’t make things any clearer. Then there were many more gunshots, and they went on for a while. Faith sat back in her chair, her expression blank.
Grace turned to her and spoke softly. “Welcome to Watcherhood.”
Then: “Situation is contained.” It was Amira.
“Any injured?” Grace asked.
“No,” Kennedy’s voice replied. “She’s dead. Marie’s dead.”
More static followed. Faith didn’t move. Rowena walked toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Faith asked without looking up.
“I’m going to tell them,” Rowena said. Then she left.
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Council — Faith and Robin’s Apartment – Later that Night
Faith slammed the front door of the apartment she shared with Robin, kicked her boots off in a single motion, then walked over to the couch and flopped down on it, exhausted. She looked up to see Robin standing over her, arms crossed. He wore a luxurious-looking bathrobe.
“Hello, Faith,” he said.
“Hey,” Faith replied.
Robin tried to sit down on the couch, but had to move Faith’s feet out of the way before he could. After settling in, he said, “I heard that–”
“Yeah.” Faith sat up partway, her head leaning on a large decorative pillow. “I’ve been thinkin’, y’know, and I need you to be absolutely clear on something.”
“Okay.”
“I’m a slayer,” Faith said simply.
Robin’s lips curled upwards. “I was aware of that, you know.”
Faith sighed. “No, I mean…I’m not gonna be something else. I’m not Commander Lehane, or whoever the hell Amira thinks I am. Everyone seems to assume that’s the next thing, but that’s not where my life is gonna end up. I can’t tell where I’m going, but I can sure as hell tell you where I’m not going.”
Robin looked at her, then reached out and ran a hand through her hair. “Okay,” he said softly.
“Really?”
“You don’t have to have your whole life planned out,” he told her. “I’ll be here to help you.”
Faith let him stroke her for a minute in the half-dark. Then she asked, “Do you still want to get married?”
“Someday, sure.”
“Yeah,” Faith agreed, turning her head away and snuggling into the pillow. “Someday.”
Cut To:
Ext.
Slayer Memorial Wall – Day
The polished granite of the Slayer Memorial shone brighter than usual in the summer sun. Buffy squinted against the light, shading her eyes with her hand. The Watchers Council family sat in front of her, most wearing black despite the heat, in folding chairs arranged on the manicured lawn. Several bouquets of colorful flowers had been left at the base of the wall, and above them one block was covered with a blue cloth.
“Chamique, will you do the honors?” Buffy prompted. Chamique pulled a string and the cloth fell away, revealing that the newest panel in the wall was carved with the name “Marie LeBouchard.” Light applause broke out among those present. Buffy clapped as well, before stepping up to the simple podium.
“And now, as is tradition, I would like you all to join me in observing a moment of silence for Marie.”
Denise sat back in her chair, her black dress blowing in the wind. She reached over and grasped the hand of the man next to her, Niven.
Buffy looked over the congregants. They looked tired, older than they were. Giles was in the back, Liz squirming on his lap. Buffy locked eyes with him for a brief moment.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she suddenly announced. Everyone looked up at her, a little startled. Buffy waited a moment before continuing.
“You’re thinking, is this the last one? The last one of us to make this sacrifice? The last moment of silence? The last name on this wall? Is this really all about to end?” She looked around, making eye contact with as many of those present as possible.
“No,” she said. “I’m going to say that to you right now. The Watchers Council will go on. As long as any of us still believes in the same things that everyone whose name has made it up on this wall believed in, the Council will go on. That’s what Marie gave her life for. We owe her everything we can do to keep up this fight. I owe her that, and so do you.”
She looked down at the podium briefly, then looked back up. “There will never be a last dance.”
Cut To:
Int.
Watchers Coumcil — Willow and Rowena’s Apartment – Same Time
Rowena wasn’t at the Slayer Memorial. She was in her apartment, rocking a baby in her arms, with C-SPAN playing on the TV. The House of Representatives was full on the screen, the members standing to applaud someone or something. Rowena’s sweatshirt hung haphazardly on her shoulders, and she wasn’t bothering to push her bangs out of her eyes.
Someone knocked on her door, and, rather than get up, she called, “Come in!”
Xander entered the apartment, hands in his pockets. “So I guess I’m not the only one who’s been to enough funerals to last me several lifetimes, huh?”
Rowena sighed. “Yeah.”
Xander saw what she was watching, but made no comment. He knelt down in front of her and waved to the baby in her arms. “Hey, little guy!”
“You want him?” Rowena asked.
“Yeah, sure,” Xander said, and he reached out to take Alex when Rowena handed him over. Alex made a cooing sound when Xander tickled his stomach. “Man, you are getting huge!”
“I assume you’re talking to my son,” Rowena said without much mirth.
“Well, if that’s what you want to tell yourself,” Xander replied with a grin. He noticed the evident depression on Rowena’s face. “Look, we’ve been here before. It’ll all work out in the end. Trust me.”
“Yeah,” Rowena nodded. “I trust you.” She turned from him back to the TV, not looking especially inspired or convinced.
Cut To:
Int.
Chamber of U.S. House of Representatives – Same Time
“This is not a partisan issue, or at least it shouldn’t be. It resists categorization as red or blue. It’s a subject I myself know more than a little about.”
Congresswoman Autumn O’Mara cracked a smile, and a smattering of laughs could be heard from the august chamber in which she stood. The ceilings were high and ornate, the packed floor filled with over three hundred representatives, and the even-more-packed galleries above now lacked even standing room. O’Mara stood at a relatively simple wooden podium at the front of the room, below the multi-tiered conglomeration that served as the Speaker’s platform. She sobered quickly.
“The threat posed by demons and other supernatural entities, whether they be individual rogues or organized terrorist organizations, such as the so-called Voice of Hell, is too great to leave to a group with its own, unknown agend, an organization that we as a government, and by extent the people of this nation, have little to no control over.”
She looked out over her colleagues, a nearly imperceptible gold glimmer in her eyes. Her voice rose. “The founders of this country believed, and set forth as early as in the Declaration of Independence, that the first duty of government is to protect the lives and property of its citizens. It is time for us as a body, and as a government, to stop shirking our duties! It is time for us to draw a line in the sand and take back our own destinies. It is time, ladies and gentlemen, to send a message to all Americans that we can and do stand united in the face of unimaginable evil!”
The chamber burst into spontaneous applause, and the Speaker banged her gavel at the breach of decorum. O’Mara waited for the noise to die down. “Madame Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and move for a voice vote on House Bill 4839, the Supernatural Defense Act. Thank you.”
The Speaker’s voice could be heard as O’Mara left the podium and trudged back up the chamber’s central aisle. She stopped only a few times to shake hands with other Representatives.
“A quorum being present, the motion is in order. Do we have a second?”
“Second,” someone called out.
“The motion is moved and seconded. There will now be a voice vote on HB 4839. The clerk will call the roll.”
O’Mara sank into her chair in the back of the chamber. She stared at nothing in particular, resting her chin on one hand. She listened to the officious voice of the clerk as he went about his duties.
“Mr. Abercrombie?”
“Yea.”
“Mr. Abercrombie votes yea. Mr. Ackerman?”
“Yea.”
“Mr. Ackerman votes yea. Mr. Aderholt?”
“No.”
“Mr. Aderholt votes no. Mr. Akin?”
Autumn O’Mara didn’t move as the roll continued.
“Yea.”
“Mr. Akin votes yea. Mr. Alexander?
“Yea.”
BLACK OUT
“Mr. Alexander votes yea. Mr. Allen?”
“Yea.”
“Mr. Allen votes yea. Mr. Altmire?”
“Yea.”
End of Last Tango in Cleveland
Next on Watchers…
Having been shut down by Congress, and with Willow still in prison, the Watchers Council finds itself with very few resources or options. There’s nothing left to do but fight back.
