Where They Went

by Lucy Johnson

Disclaimer: Buffy, Spike, and Drusilla belong to Joss Whedon, I'm just borrowing them for this story.

Note: This contains spoilers from Becoming part 2, you've been warned.

Part One

Buffy knew where she had to go, what had happened over the last days solved that, but how long she would have to stay away from everything, even herself it felt like, she did not have the slightest idea. All she knew was this, she couldn’t go to her family, she could not stay in California, after all, she was wanted by the police, so it was pretty clear where this bus would have to lead, Mexico.

It wasn’t the most glamorous place in town, that was for sure, but Buffy just didn’t have the money, or could be able to take the risk, to stay at a conventional motel. The place was out of the way though and with the car she had found by the side of the road, once she had disposed of the body found in the trunk of course, it would be a great place to lie low for awhile,or at least until she could find some more money, or a…(gulp) job.

She pulled up to the front office and kicked the front car door wide open,(did I mention the car was just a tad old too?) Walking up the front step to a pink colored building she frowned. < Have I really sunk this low? > The girl thought. Opening a slightly bent screen door Buffy walked into a musty greenish colored room, a small reception desk with a slanting wall of key hooks behind it was to right, while to her left a door with only one hinge remaining led to a long out of order restroom. Walking up to the desk Buffy was startled to find a middle aged woman jump up from behind the counter.

"Um, I’d like a room." Buffy asked, uncertain if the woman even spoke English.

"$3.50 a night, $20 a week." The woman said, then promptly held out her hand to receive money. With slight hesitation Buffy gave the woman $20. Without a word the woman grabbed a set of keys from on one of the hooks, held them out in her hand, and pointed out the door with the other. Buffy took no hesitation this time and snatched the keys up, then hustled out the door shaking her head.

< Friendly much > she thought to herself.

*Room 022* read the keys that Buffy had been given. It didn’t take long for Buffy to find her room from the parking lot, she parked her car, although not very well, next to the strangest thing. A classic black car, maybe an early sixties model, with the windows blackened.

< And I thought Giles had it bad. > Buffy gave one last smirk before her thoughts once again turned to that of the people she had left behind, thoughts of regret, yet quickly removed when she opened the room door.

The bed was strangely clean, a great difference from the old TV, that could show it’s age by the blue screen and the dusty channel knobs. Letting herself flip down on the bed she sighed, what was she going to do? Yet as soon as that question came up, she knew exactly what to do, just cry.

* * *

Unfortunately, the couple in room 023 wasn’t doing much better, it was just a wonder the place had thick walls. Otherwise, this chapter would be over with pretty quickly.

Spike had been watching the free HBO for a couple of hours now, him and Drusilla had gotten to this dump around 9 that night, the trip had been just terrible, Dru would wake up them go into spasms then go back to sleep, about an hour later the whole process would start all over again, each time freaking the hell out of Spike and causing the car to swerve off the road temporarily while he tried to get his act together. It was especially annoying during the 5 o’clock traffic.

All of a sudden a scream came from his love. The vampress woke up with a jerk and then realized she was on a bed. Confusion was deeply imbedded in her eyes.

"Angel? Where, what happened, where is he…" Drusilla asked frantically when realization suddenly struck her. She jumped up from the bed and ran, heading for the door. He’s hurt, got to get to him…" She screamed scratching at the door.

"Dru, does it look like we’re in hell? It didn’t work love, he’s dead." Spike said in his usual sarcastic, yet somehow caring tone of speak.

"You," Dru shrieked out while turning to him, "You killed my Angel, You killed my Angel!" The crazed vampire ran toward him with full intention of ripping his limbs off. Spike just cringed as he punched his love in the face, knocking her to the ground, yet not be undone Drusilla used her left foot to trip Spike and land him on the floor knee first.

With the sudden surge of pain Spike let his instincs momentarily take over and used his fists to knock Drusilla cold.

"Ouw... that’s going to need some serious ice,"Spike groaned, both commenting on his and Dru’s new injuries.

* * *

Buffy still lay on her bed, slowly getting over her long crying spell. Thinking of what might of happened to all that mascara she had put on the night before, she decided to take a look in the mirror, just to see how bad her eyes must have looked. Getting up from the bed she noticed that her throat was in some major need of water. Walking over to the sink she grabbed a paper cup and turned on the faucet, feeling the water with her finger she noticed it was surprising warm.

"Hmm, wonder where the ice machines are…"

* * *

Spike closed the door quietly to his room, Dru was sleeping, although it was only 3am, early for the undead, he had knocked her out, which could have been reason for it. He didn’t even want any blood tonight, just a nice pack of ice over his right knee, that would be nice.

< Nice car > He thought to himself, admiring the black, old Cadillac with a trail of blood leading out from a jammed open trunk, that sat beside his old piece of junk. < See we’ve got my kind of people here, wonder if they have some Aspirin, could sure use some >. Hopping down the sidewalk toward the end of the line of motel rooms Spike took one of those rare moments and thought about his life. Spike pondered in one of those rare spontaneous thoughts, which he really needed to have more often if you ask me, but that’s only my opinion, back to the story…

The weary vampire finally reached the ice machine, only to find out it didn’t take dollars. After slamming his head several times on the machine, which was only adding to that bruises of his that Dru had given him, he finally came to his senses and started to look through his pockets for quarters.

At the same time Buffy came slumping out of her door, falling more asleep with every other step she took. The only thing keeping her from hitting the pavement being the need for a nice cold glass, or paper cup in this instance, of ice water.

In fact, both these two were too busy either looking for quarters or falling asleep, they didn’t even notice each standing two feet apart. It wasn’t until Buffy even realized the machine required actual money that the two turned to look at one another.

"Hey mister, you wouldn’t happen to…oh hell," Buffy was a little too out of it to jump back or anything, but she knew it was him, the hair just gave it all away.

"Buffy?"

"Spike." Ok, the two just basically stood there, not really wanting to have to leave, after all, both really had ice on their minds. Two simple people, in need of ice, a battle between good, evil, and the ice machine, on the next Jerry Springer… sorry, really, my mind’s wondering again, I swear, I’ll stick to the story. Now where was I?

"Buffy."

"Spike."

"Buffy."

"Spike."

"I did leave the country," Spike thought he should mention.

"True."

"Didn’t expect you here though."

"Well where did you expect me Spike?"

"Sunnydale, killing other vampires, saving the world, the usual."

"Me too, but I, I needed space…" A really long, silence fell over the two.

"So… have any quarters?" Spike asked.

"No," Buffy responded, "Shouldn't we be doing that thing."

"What? Oh, that fighting business. I think so, but I've got to get back to the room, maybe tomorrow night."

Buffy just yawned, "Yeah, tomorrow..."

The two just walked back to their rooms, suddenly luke warm water and a soft pillow were looking pretty good to both of them. Unfortunately it just would never work out like that.

Spike opened the door to find the room empty and the bed all screwed up, of course the window was open and all the desert dust had blown in. He sighed, he knew exactly what would happen. In five seconds Buffy would open her door, sigh herself, and yell for him to get the bloody hell over to her room and get his girlfriend out of it or someone would turn to dust.

Five seconds later Buffy opened the door to her room and sighed.

"Spike! Get the hell over to my room and get your girlfriend out of it before someone is going to turn to dust." Buffy yelled from about, oh, 15 feet away.

"Hmm," Spike mumbled before once again knocking out his precious girl once again, "I’ve really got to stop doing that."

Soon, Buffy was all ready for bed, safe in her room, and really disturbed by the events of that day. Her maybe one true love had been killed, by herself; she had decided to leave her mom and friends, there was that weird guy on the bus that kept asked about , she had to have luke warm water instead of cold, and now there was someone knocking on her door after she had just gotten in bed.

"Buffy?"

"Who is it?!" Buffy yelled from bed.

"It’s me, Spike." Came the voice from the door.

"Oh god, just a second," Buffy hobbled out of her bed and got the locks off the door, then, not wasting anymore time…

*12 o’clock! First day without school! Yippy!! Summa is here, I guess I’m a Freshman now, yippy.*

…she fell back on the bed and got back under those comfy covers.

"I was just kind of curious of to what happened between you and Angel during that sword fight, because from what I saw, Angel had you licked." Spike said as he opened the door and stepped inside her room. Buffy gave the same harsh look as she did when he talked about the Kendra, but then broke down into tears. Seeing this Spike took no time in wasting as he sat down on the bed beside the young Slayer and tried to comfort her. He didn’t exactly know why he was doing this, it was almost as if some outside force was controlling him, almost like someone would write out a character’s role in a story or fan-fiction.

"Don’t, he…" Buffy tried helplessly to spill the words out, but she knew it wouldn’t be successful.

"Shhh, presh, sorry, I didn’t mean for it to be that hard, you don’t have to answer." Spike said in a comforting tone as he rocked her back and forth in an effort to calm her.

"Why are you being so kind?" Buffy asked lightly, in an attempt to lighten up the conversation.

"I have no idea, I think Dru’s not the only one who’s gone mad thanks to Angel," With that Buffy almost smiled for a second, but not before gushing those tears out again.

"Shh, shhh," Spike whispered to her, this time taking off his shoes and climbing under the covers, rapping his arms around the girl.

*Don’t worry, I’m staying in the limits here peoples*

"Just hold me, just until I fall asleep?" Buffy asked, still with tears in her eyes.

"Of course presh, the whole night." Spike reassured her gently, kissing her on the cheek. Soon after they both fell asleep together. I tell you, a real hallmark moment.

****

Ever so slowly she opened her eyes, not remembering quite where she was Buffy looked around her until the motel room began to jog her memory of yesterday, the most helpful object being that of a twenty- something looking guy with bleached hair laying right next to her.

The girl just moaned and laid back down. She hadn’t even been drinking either. Then bigger thoughts of regret crossed her mind.

< Should I have left Sunnydale? Should I have killed Angel? > All of these questioned soon became answered by remembering her duty and the experience with Snyder and her mother.

Then more, um, interesting questions started to pop up, such as < Why they hell did I just go to sleep in the same bed as Spike?! > or < Where did I put those quarters? > Any ways, she had a much harder time figuring those problems out, but not before that other guy woke up.

"Um, I’m going to act like that didn’t happen," Spike said while jumping out of bed, and casually started looking for his shoes.

"Yeah, yeah that’s a good idea." Buffy replied in a kind of off set tone. Then she started to get up and politely open the door, for a man that was just leaving, that was until she realized it was 11:00am and the sun was going to cause a fairly big problem for the both of them. She quickly shut the door and turned around to face her enemy, again.

"We have a problem." She promptly stated.

"What," Spike asked, then looked at the small crack in between the windows, "Oh, yeah, that would be a problem." He said, answering his own question, then decided to recline back in one of the comfy chairs next to the TV. After several brief searches through the pile of Buffy’s junk on the coffee table he found the TV Guide and remote, then switched on the TV, thanking god it wasn’t in black and white, and turned it to channel 13, where Jerry Springer was on.

Buffy just stood by the door in awe, who did he think he was any ways?

"Excuse me? What do you think you’re doing?! This is kinda my room, in fact, I think I’m just going to go around the whole motel, and claim it all as Slayer territory!" Buffy exclaimed.

"Cool down presh, I’ll be gone in about 10 hours, then you won’t ever have to see me," < and I won’t ever have to see you > Spike replied.

"Oh, that’s just great, I’ll cool down, and then what? Oh wait, I know," Buffy got that look in her eyes again, "I’ll just check up on our friend Dru, maybe she wants to join the party, I’m sure she could make it, it’s just 15 feet in broad daylight, that’s not enough to kill a vampire, or is it?" This little remark, or should I say threat was enough to get Spike’s attention.

"Ok, I’m listening, now what is it you want me to do presh?" Spike asked, feeling a little threatened by her latest comment.

"First of all, stop with the freakin’ presh name, second you could get out of my way! So, in the closet, now." Buffy explained, pointing to the closet door.

"Now hold on a bloody minute! The closet?"

"Dru," Buffy quickly reminded.

"To the closet I go," Spike responded in an enthusiastic voice, after all, anything for his pet, which was still Dru at this time in my story.

"And don’t expect to get any blood for along time mister!" Buffy added on, did I mention she was in the mood for a little yelling too?

So, then Buffy slammed the closet door and was on her way, her way being the shower, actually, she had to pause for a second, thinking about that one scene from "Psycho" the movie, so she leaned the back of a chair on the doorknob to the closet. Just. In. Case. Walking in to the bathroom Buffy found two kinds of small towels hanging from those bent chrome hangers that was about to fall of the wall. Without anymore hesitation she closed the door and used both locks. Just. In. Case.

* * *

Skipping ahead, let’s say, about the part where she’s still in the bathroom, but has a towel around her and her hair all rapped up in those cute little buns and contemplating what she’ll find when she opens the door.

< Well, think worst scenario, he could be out of the closet and standing right outside this door, just waiting for her to open it so he could sink his fangs into my neck. > That scenario being pretty bad the teen decided to grab that pen from under the cabinet, just in case. I was a little tired of using those periods, k?

Buffy then opened the door, slowly, to the main room, pen raised at all times. Well, the good news was that Spike wasn’t just behind the door waiting to strike, he was however, in that same chair watching the rest of Jerry. Hearing the noise from the door opening he turned around to face Buffy.

"Well, someone took long enough, hat was that? An hour in the tub?" Spike said jokingly from his chair.

"Actually, I take showers." Buffy replied, getting annoyed that he got out of the closet on his own.

"Shower eh? There was a great scene from "Psycho," that’s not why you put a chair on my doorknob was it?" Spike laughed.

Buffy had no comment while walking into the closet to change, she just hoped Spike hadn’t gone through her clothes either.

****

"How could he do that!! Marrying her sister was one thing, but then admitting he was a transsexual two years later, ugh!" Buffy yelled, stuffing her mouth with a Grande taco from the local food place down the road a bit.

"Oh, I know. He was on this show about a year ago when he was still a she, and breaking up her girlfriend Tamese, which, to his surprise is sitting in the third row." Spike commented from the chair he had since taken over.

The two had been watching two full hours of a special "Summer Spectacular" of Jerry Springer, and had been thoroughly entertained the whole time. Of course both had tried to forget as much as their past together as possible to get through this day, or at least the parts that involved trying to kill each other, and for Buffy’s sake, as well as the author’s, Angel could never be mentioned.

"Hey," Buffy started to ask, sitting up for a second on the bed, "Do you think Drusilla could possibly be awake by now?"

"We’d hear her through the wall. Which reminds me, how exactly did you get any quiet time during the day?" Spike asked, looking curiously at Buffy. Buffy however didn’t quiet understand the question and shrugged.

"I really haven’t heard anything yet, I thought you guys were being pretty quiet over there. Why?" Buffy answered, confused as ever.

"Oh bloody hell." Spike moaned as he quickly got out of the chair and put his ear to the wall.

"What? What’s wrong?" Buffy’s confusion grew as she wondered what Spike could possibly be doing with his ear up to the wall. Then it hit her.

< Oh my god, oh my god. What do I do, wait, I’ll go check. > Buffy’s thoughts were hectic and worrisome as she begun to realize what Drusilla might be capable of doing if she got found away to get into the car.

"Go, now. I still don’t hear anything. Go!" Spike yelled impatiently at Buffy, suddenly worried he might loose his love, just because of one stupid night with the Slayer. < God, I can’t believe I was that much of a bloody dope! I can’t loose her, she can’t be gone, I swear I’ll kill her if Dru’s left me! > Anger, rage, and other passionate emotions ran through his veins like really fat kids desperately chasing the ice cream truck on a hot summer’s day. (Another sign that the author’s not right in the head)

Meanwhile Buffy had ran out the door and hoped that both cars were still there, thankfully they were, but this also meant she would have to search the other motel room for the psychotic vampire. Slowly Buffy crept around the door and prepared to open it just a crack, there was no reason to burn Dru and have Spike really go overboard.

Slowly, but surely she peeked her head in and looked for a light switch, feeling up and down the side wall she finally felt the plastic switch and flicked it up. The room suddenly filled with yellow light, in it Buffy saw a tarnished bed, an old black and white TV with a screen that was heavily snowed over and a bent over antenna on top. Buffy could see the bathroom door open and she heard a faint sound of water running coming from it. Hesitently she walked through the room and turned to look inside the bathroom, expecting the worst to happen.

Peering to the side of the door she found an overflowing tub, a sink filled of bloody water and Drusilla’s body hanging over the porcelain bath bar, her head dunked into the water, which had obviously been spilling over the top for hours now.

< Christ! And I thought I was depressed! > Buffy grabbed Drusilla’s upper arms and dragged the vampire out of the bathroom and set her down right beside the bed in the main room. Throwing off the bunched covers from the bed Buffy suddenly found herself thankful of that CLEAN bed of hers. Knowing that Spike was probably about to have a breakdown in the next room she decided to try yelling something threw the wall. Vampires had good hearing, right?

***

Buffy was more right then she ever cut on to, Spike was about to have a breakdown in the next room. He had been leaning against the wall ever since Buffy had ran out of the room, praying that his darling was still alright, that she hadn’t done something drastic and ran away. He prayed, the demon, a sick spawn of hell that had ruthlessly killed just for the thrill of taking lives, was praying to a world’s most merciful god, for forgiveness of Dru’s sins, for her safety and happiness, but most importantly for them to be together. He had know idea what he was doing, or even how do it right, it was all he knew though, odd, a demon only knowing to pray.

< God, I’ve never much done anything for you, I don’t expect anything back, just let Dru be all right, just let her be all right, I love her with everything I’ve got, she’s really only a kid, don’t take her away from me, please. > That’s all he could think of, that’s all he could do. Thank god Buffy started to yell then.

It was faint, but Spike heard it, he cried when he heard it. Yet it was the sweetest phrase he could have ever wanted, and he finally collasped in relief at the sound.

"She’s ok! She’s ok!"

I know, I know! I got way to emotional at the end, it’s just that damn radio! All those great songs, and that "Closer" song by NIN, it makes me cry, really.

Comments? Send to Leslie

Get me back to Angel of the Night!

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Get me outta here period!