The Job

“So did it work out?” Phoebe asked eagerly from the bar stool she was perched on.

Piper set down the phone and sighed. “Yes, they said that can be here by five to set up.”

“See, I told you everything would work out.” Phoebe grinned at her sister, glad to see her advice had paid off yet again.

“Well, I don’t know about that. I have an unknown band opening on a Saturday night. I already have one waitress out with the flu, and every one of my back-ups I’ve tried to call has something better to do tonight. And, to top it all off, the valve on the air tank is acting up, so we may be looking at flat sodas until the guy can take a look at it on Monday.”

“On the up side, we haven’t had any visits from demons in almost a week.” Paige offered, taking a sip from her bottle of Perrier.

“Oh great, now you’ve jinxed us.” Piper sighed. “Business is crazy and you had to bring up the demons.”

“No, it’s not a jinx.” Phoebe offered, even though she tended to agree with her older sister. “And the important thing is, at least you’ll have a band here. Sure, it may not be who you had originally booked, but it’s something. It would have been worse if that manager hadn’t called you before hand to tell you the band’s plane had been delayed in Spain. At least you have a back-up plan.”

“I know. I just had been looking forward to having Wilco here.” Piper pouted as she wiped off the bar.

“I know, sweetie.”

“And that still leaves me down one waitress.”

“Well, I’ve got nothing going on tonight, so I could help out.” Paige offered. “If you need it...”

“Do you have any waitressing experience?”

“Ha, do I have any waitressing experience.” Paige rolled her eyes as she thought about all the temp jobs she had been doing lately. “Actually, not really. Oh, but I could bus tables, and refill drinks, or whatever, and you wouldn’t have to pay me or anything.”

“Great. You’re hired.”

“So what’s the name of the band we’re going to be hearing tonight?”

“Dingoes Ate My Baby.” Piper replied.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Paige smirked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Hey, I thought it was kind of catchy.” Phoebe offered.

“Dingoes Ate My Baby? You think that’s catchy? Where did you even hear of them?”

“Yes, Phoebe, where did you hear of them?” Piper turned to her sister. She hoped someone at the Bay Mirror had recommended the band, but somehow she doubted it; their manager’s phone number was definitely not local.

“Okay, now don’t take this wrong, but actually, I heard about them from Cole.”

“Cole?” Paige stared at her sister, dumbfoundedly.

“This wouldn’t happen to be a demonic band, would it? Because, I’m not exactly wanting to deal with a band in limbo right now.”

“No, nothing like that. Cole’s law firm had several clients in Sunnydale, and he had to go there for meetings sometimes. He saw this band at one of the clubs there and thought they were pretty good, so he picked up their business card.”

“And passed it on to you?” Paige stared at Phoebe oddly. “I don’t know, does that sound like a set-up to anyone else?”

“He knew Piper hired bands for the club, and he was trying to make nice. Not everything he did was evil, you know.” Phoebe tried not to sound as forlorn as she always got when Cole’s name turned up, but it still broke her sisters’ hearts to hear her.

“I know, honey.” Piper patted her sister on her shoulder.

“Well, I guess we’ll finally get a chance to see what kind of music Cole liked to listen to.” Paige tried to offer cheerfully.

“And it better be good. I don’t hire just anyone here at P3.” Piper teased.

“Trust me, everything will work out.”

“And there you go with the jinxing again.”

“Sorry.”


~*~


The knock on the front door woke Rube up from his nap. “Hold your horses, I’m on my way.” He called out as he stretched. He briefly considered going back to bed, but a second knock reminded him that he had business to attend to. Slipping on his bathrobe as he walked across the living room, he reached the door right before a third set of knocks. “Roxy.”

“Good morning to you, too. Mind telling me why we’re meeting here?” His fellow reaper did not look amused.

“Mason had a problem with his reap so I had to meet with everyone else earlier this morning. I figured rather than waking you up for waffles, I’d let you sleep in.” Roxy arched her brow at that. “Your reap isn’t until this afternoon anyway.”

“You didn’t want to wake me up? That’s the only reason you wanted to meet at your place instead of Der Waffle Haus?” Roxy looked faintly disappointed, but quickly let her cynical mask fall back into place.

“Well, I’m waiting for a message.”

“A message. Like this one on your door?”

“Nah, that’s the one I left when I got in.”

“What’s the deal with D. Osbourne- R.” Roxy read aloud. “What the heck does that mean? Who’s D. Osbourne?”

“Mason’s reap. It’s a mess.”

“Oh?”

“Mason got the soul; the kid died. Then the kid came back to life, and Mason couldn’t get the soul back in.”

“That’s weird.”

“Oh wait, it gets better.”

“I can’t see how.”

“The body, without the soul, got in a van, and is now on its way to Sunnydale, California.”

“That’s not good. I thought without a soul, the body can’t last long.”

“True.” Rube agreed. “It makes no sense.”

“Maybe the kid is going to die in his sleep on the way to Sunnydale, and this was the only chance for a reaper to get close? Mysterious ways, and all that,” Roxy reasoned.

“Well that’s a better explanation than what the kid says.”

“Oh?”

“The kid is saying the soul couldn’t go back in because he’s really a werewolf, and the wolf is now taking over the body even without a full moon.”

“That’s insane.”

“Yup.” Rube couldn’t argue with that. “Still, it would account for why the soul isn’t moving on.

“So could the fact that the soul is delusional. I mean, come on, werewolves? He’s got to be delusional. Maybe Mason was just having a hard time convincing him to walk into the lights when he sees swirley lights everywhere.”

“I don’t think the kid is crazy. I mean, about the werewolf thing, yeah, of course. But, he didn’t seem like the crazy type.”

“You say this was Mason’s reap, not George’s?”

“Yeah, it should have been clean.”

“Oh well, nothing you can do about it now.” Roxy sighed. “So, what’s on my schedule for today?”

“Let me get my planner.” Rube muttered and headed towards his desk.

As he messed with the papers, Roxy peeled off the post-it from the front door. “Hey Rube, did you write anything else on this note on your door?”

“No, that’s it.” Rube said, returning to the doorway. “Why?”

“Well, under your message it says ‘Oops!’”

“Oops?”

“Yeah, oops. I take it that isn’t your writing?”

“Oops?”

“Oops.”

“Oh dear.”

~*~
A/N: First off, thanks to giulina for catching my slip in the last chapter. I've fixed it now. :)
As you can see, this story has gone off in a sort of new direction. I tried really hard not to add in the extra-crossover because I think multiple-crosses can get confusing, but alas, my muse insisted. I hope it won't discourage too many of you from sticking with the story.