Part 1
Spike paced in the living room of the mansion, waiting for Angel to arrive from L.A. “Why the stupid poof never sold the place, I’ll never know. Probably sentimental value or something equally ridiculous. Where is he? It’s been two hours, he should be here by now. What part of ‘it’s life or death’ didn’t he understand? Maybe he got lost. That would be the kind of thing he’d do, just to annoy me. Bloody poof.” Pushing an empty beer bottle out of his path, Spike continued calling his Sire every derogatory name he could think of as he paced, getting it all out of his system now, before Angel showed up.
“Wow… I’ve never heard some of those before. Maybe we should contact those people who put out ‘Word of the Day’ calendars and have them make one up for you.”
”Cordelia? Where’s Angel?” Spike ignored the crossbow she had pointed at him and watched the door behind her.
”Parking the car or something. He told me to wait outside, but you know me… so what’s with the new ‘Do’? And can I say ‘ick’? What happened to this place?”
He looked around the room, as if seeing it for the first time. The furniture was gone or destroyed, leaving only rubbish and the remains of what looked like several parties. ”Teenagers. And messy one’s at that.” He returned his attention to Cordelia. “Put that thing away before you have an accident. I can’t hurt you even if I wanted to.”
”Yeah, Angel said you’d fed him some line about not being able to bite anymore. Not that I believe you.”
”It’s not a line, it’s true… look we don’t have time for this.” Spike started to move towards the door, intent on finding Angel.
”Stop right there, Spike.” Cordelia raised the crossbow higher, finger tightening on the trigger.
”Will you please stop this crap?” An annoyed Spike knocked the weapon out of her hands, sending it skittering across the floor. It was only luck that the crossbow didn’t fire its bolt. “I’m not going to hurt you! I can’t hurt you without my brain feeling like it’s going to explode! I don’t care if you believe me or not, but it’s the truth. I’ll give you all the sad and sordid details later, but NOT NOW.”
Before Spike could move past the trembling Cordelia to go outside, Angel walked through the door on the other side of the room. He’d obviously intended to surprise Spike. “So you were telling the truth? That’s a new one for you, Spike.”
Spike gritted his teeth and turned to face his Sire. ”Can we trade insults later? We have to find Willow.”
”So you said on the phone. But I’m not going anywhere or looking for anyone until you tell me everything.” Angel motioned for Cordelia to join him on the other side of the room, away from Spike.
”Angel…” Spike whined impatiently.
“You can’t blame me can you? The last time I saw you, you were having me tortured. And the time before that, you kidnapped my friends and threatened their lives and the time before that…. well, you get the point. Doesn’t exactly inspire trust, does it? Now sit down over there and start at the beginning. Like why you think you can’t bite people anymore and move on up to why you think I’m going to help you do anything except turn to dust.”
With a growl of frustration, Spike stomped over to the fireplace and sat down on the edge. Giving Angel a final glare, Spike began telling him everything that had happened since he’d returned to Sunnydale.
************
”Where is Willow being held?” Angel frowned in concentration. By the time Spike had finished his explanation, Angel believed him. The story was too complex for Spike to have made it up. He had also heard the rumors of demons and vampires disappearing, and some organized group being behind it, but it being the military was new. “Do you know what they want with her?”
”You believe me then? You’ll help me get her back?”
”I believe your not lying about *everything* and I’ll try to help find Willow, yes. Now, where is she being held?” Angel picked up his coat from the floor where he’d discarded it an hour before.
Spike stood and once again began to pace. Now that Angel had agreed to help he was anxious to go. “I don’t know. I looked for her as soon as I heard the message from Buffy. That was about seven. I went to her dorm room, the library, her mum’s house, I tracked down that Tara person that the Slayer said she was studying with, but no one was in her room, I went back to “The Dungeon” and sniffed around the piano bar a bit. She’s nowhere. I didn’t want to go into the piano bar looking for her. They saw me there with her, but that hidden room … If that’s who has her, that’s probably where she’s being kept.”
”What do you mean ‘if’ that’s who has her? Is there someone else that might want Willow?”
”HOW SHOULD I KNOW? If I knew who took her and where she is, I wouldn’t have called you!” Spike took out a cigarette and lit it angrily, but his voice was calmer when he continued. “ There is always someone trying to get to the Slayer, maybe it’s them. I’m not exactly welcome in the demon circles anymore, so I don’t hear the rumors and plots like I used to. Or…” There was one other possibility that he did not even want to consider.
”Or someone could have taken her to get to you.” Cordelia’s quiet voice floated across the room from where she was sitting, propped up against the wall.
Spike nodded his head slowly and flicked his half-smoked cigarette away. “Yeah.”
“Why would… “ Before Angel could finish asking the question, Cordelia stood up and walked over to the two vampires, placing her hand on Angel’s arm.
”Remember… he said he can hurt demons. They want to hurt him back. They know she’s important to him.” Both men were staring at her. “What? I pay attention sometimes.” She waived her hand in dismissal. “But it doesn’t sound like that is who has Willow. The message she gave Buffy to pass on was from your little excursion to “Tommy’s Rendezvous”, right?” At Spike’s nod, she smiled. “See? Perfectly logical. And the girl you were following looks something like this Tara person that Willow was studying with?” Spike’s eyes were growing bigger by the minute, but he nodded again. “And instead of simply saying ‘bye-bye Tara, got to go talk to my friend’, Willow finds it necessary to give Buffy a cryptic message in front of Tara. So it’s clear that Tara is involved or Willow wouldn’t have given Buffy that message.”
”I think *you* should be working for *her*, Angel.” Spike said, impressed.
”That’s what I keep telling him. Well, we better motor and see what Giles has found out.” Cordelia picked up her purse and slung it over her shoulder.
”Ummm…. can’t do that.” Spike moved further away from Angel, just to be safe.
”Why not? Do you mean to tell me that we are the only three that know Willow is missing?” At Spike’s nod, Angel started across the room to knock him silly. Only Cordelia’s hand on his arm and the slight shake of her head, stopped him.
”Why Spike?” Cordelia had known that Spike wasn’t telling everything, including minimizing his feelings for Willow, but she had hoped that what ever he was hiding was not important.
”Because the Slayer would stake me for getting Willow into this mess. Right after Giles beat the hell out of me.”
Cordelia cocked her head and studied him for a moment. Her time in L.A. had significantly improved her skills in reading people. “But that’s not all, is it? You might as well spill it, Spike. You said yourself that we’re in kind of a hurry.”
”Because the Slayer is shagging one of those soldier boys.” At Angel’s blank stare, Spike elaborated. “If I tell Giles, he tells the Slayer who tells her piece of ass who tells the very people who probably have Willow.”
”Yeah, I think he gets it. Thank you, Mr. Sensitive.” Cordelia rolled her eyes. “So if we can’t go to Giles, where do we start?”
”That’s why I called you.” Spike ground out. “You lot are the investigator types and Angelus is one of the sneakiest people I know… when he’s not thinking with his dick, that is.”
“That’s enough, Spike. We start at ‘Tommy’s Rendezvous’. How long until Buffy or Giles will notice Willow missing?” Angel had come out of his daze and was back to business. He pushed his hurt, anger and disappointment to the side for now. He didn’t want to judge Buffy until he had more information, but it was hard not to.
Spike let his body relax once it appeared Angel wasn’t going to tear into him. “I think I can cover for her until tomorrow evening. But not much more beyond that. The Slay.. Buffy has been… distracted lately, but she’ll definitely notice that Willow isn’t in class. They know I’ve been spending time with her, so I can tell Giles that Willow’s parents called and asked her to spend the day out with them. She’s missed classes before when her parents decide to drop in for the day, so it should work.”
Angel nodded his head. “Alright. Cordelia, how do you feel about a little undercover work?”
”Ewww.. with him?” Cordelia jerked her head in Spike’s direction.
Angel suppressed a smile. “No, I mean like acting, not literally under covers.”
”Oh.. I knew that.” Cordelia said quickly. “Sure, what do you want me to do? Hey! Is that why your hair is all blue, Spike?”
”It’s not ‘blue’, it’s ‘Raven’s Wing Black’, said so right on the box. And yes, that’s why Willow dyed it. Someone told me I stood out too much with my hair bleached, which was the point. It’s a good disguise, don’t you think?” Spike paused and then asked, “It doesn’t really look that bad, does it?”
Cordelia looked him over with a critical eye. “It’s a good disguise. If I hadn’t heard you talking, it would have taken me a few minutes to recognize you. That hair color makes your eyes stand out more, but it totally washes out your skin tone.. not that you have much anyway, but I would have gone with a medium to dark brown. The clothes are okay, but those boots must go.”
Cordelia paused to take breath and Angel broke in. “Sable.. with gold highlights.”
”What? Sable what? Coat, wrap, what?” Cordelia felt like she’d missed something.
”The real color of his hair. Look, that’s not important and I don’t think he really wanted a fashion critique, Cordy. He’s just very vain and wants to make sure he doesn’t look really stupid.”
Spike snorted and mumbled, “Look who’s talking.” He was surprised that Angel remembered the color his hair. It had been almost a century since he’d seen it, after all. “If you’re both finished assessing my ‘look’, can we get on with rescuing Willow? I got her in to this and I want to get her out.”
Angel nodded. “Spike, I want you to show us where this piano bar is, then go home. Cordy and I will go in and take a look around, see what we can find out. Unless Willow is sitting there having a drink, we probably won’t be able to get her out tonight. But we can at least learn the layout.”
”I’m not going home without Willow.”
”The only thing you will accomplish if you come with us is warn those people that we’re on to them. They don’t know me or Cordy, so we can wander around without arousing suspicion. We’re going to check into a motel nearby and be ‘from out of town, just having a drink’. You have to be at Giles’ to cover for Willow.”
”So we’re not going to go get her until tomorrow night?” Spike sounded on the edge of panic.
”No.. if we find out where she is, we go in during the day… tomorrow. If they know about vampires, they will assume they are safe from them during the day and only take precautions against human intruders.”
”But you won’t go get her without me, right?”
”No, I’m going to need your help if they are anywhere near as well armed as you describe.”
”All right, then. Let’s go. And I’ll drive.”
”In your dreams, Spike. Feel lucky that I don’t make you ride in the trunk…….”
******************
((Why didn’t Buffy turn out the light before she went to bed?)) Willow opened her eyes and blinked in the harsh light. She turned her head to ask Buffy why she was wasting electricity, but Buffy wasn’t there. And neither was Buffy’s bed…. or her desk… or.. anything that should be there.
“What the hell?” Willow sat up and winced at the pain in her head. She closed her eyes and lay back down until the room stopped spinning behind her eyelids. Carefully, she opened them again.
((Overhead light, too bright. Hospital chair. Hospital bed. Bare walls. Hospital?)) She looked over her head at the wall. ((No monitors or buttons or charts or… hospital stuff. So not the hospital.)) Sitting up slowly, Willow swung her legs over the side of the bed. The room stayed mercifully still, so she scooted forward, placing her feet on the floor and tried to stand. ((So far, so good. A little dizzy.. but not bad.))
”I see that you’re finally awake.”
Willow’s turned her head towards the door too quickly and moaned at the pain it caused in her head. Closing her eyes, she clutched the edge of the bed and again waited for the room to stop spinning. “What did you do to me?”
”Don’t worry, nothing permanent. Just a little something in your coffee to make you sleep. I may have put a little too much in, though. I never was good at guessing people’s weight.”
”I don’t understand what’s going on, Tara.” Willow felt a little better and took a few steps forward towards the older version of Tara where she leaned against the frame of the open door. “Except you aren’t really Tara, are you?”
“As a matter of fact, I am the real Tara. The nineteen-year-old girl you know is the illusion. Glamours are very useful, aren’t they?”
Willow was shaking her head in denial. “No, I would have felt it if you were using a glamour. I was with you for hours at a time and it never once slipped. That takes a lot of power… power you don’t….”
”Don’t I? How do you know for sure? Is there some kind of ‘battery tester’ for power? I have control and I’m careful. Not something anyone would ever say of you or several others in this town. How you’ve all escaped detection until now is a mystery to me.”
”Is this where I’m supposed to ask ‘detection by whom’?” Willow took a few more experimental steps towards the door and Tara, strangely, didn’t object. “I just want to know where I am, why I’m here and why you went to the trouble of disguising yourself as a college student to get close to me.”
”That explanation could take quite a while, Willow. Why don’t you go sit on the bed where you’ll be more comfortable?” Tara straightened and came fully into the room, shutting the door behind her. “I don’t want to have to call the guard to convince you how useless it is to try to leave before we’re ready for you to leave.”
”You’re going to let me go?” Willow’s surprise was obvious.
”Yes, eventually, when we are done with you… if you cooperate, that is. But do you really want your explanation in bits and pieces like this?”
”Just tell me this one thing and then you can start at the beginning. Are my friends safe? You’re not planning on…”
”We already have Buffy where we want her and you were the only other one we were really interested in, so the rest of you little group is safe… for now.” Tara went back to the door and opened it a little, speaking to someone in the hall. When she was done, she closed the door and came back to sit in the only chair in the room. “I ordered some food for both of us. It will help your head and I’m starved.”
Willow sighed in temporary defeat and eased herself back up on the bed. She needed to know what was going on and it appeared the only way she was going to find out was to wait for Tara to tell her. “All right, I’m listening.”
”I had hoped you’d be reasonable about this.” Tara shifted getting comfortable as was possible in the hard chair. “Let’s see.. the beginning. You undoubtedly know that the Initiative is a section of the military.” At Willow’s nod, she smiled. “Knew Buffy couldn’t keep from telling anyone. Anyway, we are a ‘clandestine’ military operation, authorized by the government but not known to the general public……”
******************
“Well, that was an absolute disaster.” Cordelia flung her purse onto the bed and flopped down next to it. “Next time you want me to play ‘drunken slut’ and squirm around on top of a piano, I’m charging you by the hour, buster. And just look at the run I got in my favorite pair of pantyhose.” She held out her leg and pointed, rolling her eyes when, as usual, Angel ignored her pain.
”I think it went well. I got to see what I needed and I don’t think anyone was suspicious of us. You did good.” Angel shut the door behind him and looked around the room for the first time. “There’s only one bed.”
”And they say you’re not observant.” Cordelia shrugged and leaned back on the bed. “There was only one bed when we checked in, why should it be different now?”
”I didn’t notice before, sorry.” He moved further into the room and removed his blazer. “You can use the shower first, I want to write down what I found and make a few sketches while it’s fresh in my mind.” After shifting Cordelia’s five bags to get to the one bag he’d brought, Angel fished out a notebook and pencil.
He sat down at the small table and began to write. After several minutes he realized he hadn’t heard the shower turn on. He glanced over his shoulder to see Cordy still sitting on the bed staring at him. “What?”
”Are you going to tell me what you found or am I going to have to wait for the movie to come out?”
”Oh, um…. Spike was right about the people there being ‘off’. Little things, but noticeable. While you were being the distraction, I slipped down the hall and found the code box for the hidden door. It will be difficult, but I think we can get in that way.” He turned back towards the table and began to sketch the layout of the building. “Maybe Willow can …” He stopped sketching once he realized what he’d been about to say.
”Willow can what?” Cordy scooted to the side of the bed and stood up, stretching. It had been a long night and she was more than ready for bed.
“I was going to say that maybe Willow could get the builder’s blueprints off the web for that place so we could see what’s been changed. I keep forgetting.”
Cordelia stopped her search for suitable ‘vamp in the room’ nightwear. “I never thought I’d say this, but I really hope nothing happens to her. I mean, we weren’t friends or anything.. really.. and then after that whole Xander thing… but I kinda miss her sometimes. I kinda miss all of them sometimes. Which is weird since I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of here after grad.” She pulled a pair of lightweight of sweatpants and a t-shirt out of one of her bulging bags. “Are you going to call the no-longer-blonde-wonder and tell him sitch?”
”No, he’s going to call here in about two hours. Even with the late hours Giles keeps sometimes, by four in the morning he should be in bed. I didn’t want him to call at all, told him just to get over here by eight, but he said he couldn’t wait that long.” He once more bent his head over his task, a slight smile on his face. “Spike never was one to wait for anything. I was sort of surprised he wasn’t here when we got back.”
”Well, I’m glad he’s not here. I still don’t trust him. And it’s so Twilight Zone to see him that freaked about anyone, let alone a human. You know him way better than I do, but don’t you find it a little strange?” She pulled out her overnight case and unzipped it, looking for her bathroom things.
”Not really. He can become pretty single minded when something or someone catches his interest.” He put down his pencil and stared blankly at the tiny window. “But you’re wrong. *I* don’t know him well at all.”
”But…”
”Angelus knows him, not me. I have Angelus’ memories of him, old and new, but…. We haven’t exactly sat down and had a father and son, ‘so what have you been up to for the past century’ chat since he showed up in Sunnydale. We’ve both been a little busy, so it never really came up.”
“Not even…”
”No, especially not then. I was more interested in reminding him just who belonged to whom, not *talking* to him.”
”Okay, I think we’ve reached the ‘Things About Vampires You Never Knew and Never Wanted to Ask’ category. And I’m going to take a pass.” Cordelia filled her arms with her bathroom necessaries, heading for the shower. “I’ll save you some hot water, Angel.”
Angel blinked once, returning to the present, and glanced towards the bathroom. “And at least one dry towel, okay?” He heard the water in the sink turn on and shrugged. “I suppose I shouldn’t get my hopes up about the towel.”
Knowing that Cordelia would be in the bathroom for an extended period of time, Angel quickly completed his notes and sketches and brought them with him to the bed. He punched the ON button on the bolted down remote control and flipped until he reached a station playing old movies, muting the sound. Kicking off his shoes, he propped himself up against the headboard, and tried not to think about what would happen if they failed to get to Willow in time.
****************
Spike signed the short note telling Giles the story about Willow’s parents and that he would be out the entire day, as a sort of repayment for taking him shopping, and quietly left the apartment. When he had returned from taking Angel and Cordelia to the piano bar, he was surprised, but relieved, to find that Giles was already in bed. He hadn’t been looking forward to trying to hide his agitation from the uncommonly perceptive Watcher.
With nothing to do but wait, something he had never been very good at, Spike had paced the living room, checking the time every few minutes until it seemed that time had started to stand still. He wasn’t supposed to call until four a.m., but the longer he waited the further away four seemed to get. Finally, with an hour and forty-five minutes left of his wait, he couldn’t stand it anymore. He wrote the note to Giles and left, heading towards the motel to wait for Angel and Cordelia to return.
When he reached the motel, he saw that the light was on in the room and felt his stomach unclench a little. If they were back so soon, Angel must have found out what he needed to know without any major problems. Spike knew Angel well enough to know he would still be out there if there if the first plan had failed. He stood in front of the door for a few minutes, trying to decide if knowing all the details was worth having to spend time in a tiny room with two people he really hated. ((But it’s not about details, it’s about Willow.)) He had just lifted his hand to knock when the door swung open.
”Just come in already.” Angel turned away from the door and went back to his former position on the bed.
”Well?” Spike came in and shut the door, leaning back against it.
”Well, what?”
Spike kicked back at the door in frustration. “Tell me what you found out, you …”
Angel held up a hand before Spike could complete his sentence. “Name calling will get you nowhere. Ask nicely and maybe I’ll tell you.”
”I really hate you.”
”Likewise.” Angel turned onto his side, back to Spike, propping his head up with his hand, and gave every appearance of watching the movie playing on the T.V.
“Angel, who are you….oh.” Cordelia came out of the bathroom blotting her hair with a towel. “What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to call.” She didn’t move from where she’d stopped, about foot out of the bathroom.
Spike grunted in response and continued glaring at his Sire’s back.
”Angel? What is he doing here and when is he leaving?”
”He got impatient so he came over to interrogate me and try to convince me that we needed to try for Willow right now instead of waiting until daylight.”
”So why aren’t you telling him what you found out and then telling him to go away?” Cordy looked back and forth between the two vampires with annoyance. “I would *like* to go to bed *sometime* before I’m thirty, if you don’t mind.”
”Because he won’t ask.” Angel never once took his eyes off the T.V.
”Uhhuh.. “ She threw the damp towel behind her into the bathroom, went to sit on the edge of the bed, and started combing her hair. “Well, if you two are going to continue this childish game for very long, could you do it over there?” She waved to the corner of the room where the small table and two chairs were. “I’m going to bed, so do it quietly.”
”I’m comfortable right where I am.” Angel continued to stare at the T.V. He felt the bed move but was still taken by surprise when he felt Cordy’s feet on his back, pushing him over the side of the bed.
“I *said* I was going to bed.” Cordy turned out the light and slipped under the covers, ignoring the strangled sounds coming from the direction of the door as well as what sounded like muttered curses coming from the floor next to the bed.
Biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing, Spike sat himself down in one of the chairs and waited for Angel to get up off the floor. When several minutes passed with no movement from that direction, Spike finally asked, “Are you going to stay down there until it’s time to go?”
There was long pause, before he finally answered. “I was thinking about it.” Angel pushed himself up off the floor and joined Spike at the small table. “Carpet’s kinda nasty, though. And if you say one word about this, so help me, I’ll…”
”Yeah, yeah, whatever. But you have to admit, it was pretty funny.”
“Well.. maybe a little.” Angel conceded. He studied his nails for moment before getting up and going to the bedside table. He picked up his notes and sketches and went back to the table, handing them to Spike. “They don’t open until four this afternoon and the first of the staff don’t arrive until about three. The front door is out since it’s on a well-traveled street and rather sunny. We’ll go in through the back door, which is better anyway since it’s closer to the hidden door. The lock on the back door is no problem, it’s just and key and deadbolt arrangement. No alarm. The electronic lock on the hidden door is more of a problem, but I know where to get the equipment to get through it. It looks like there isn’t enough space for there to be very much of a room behind the door and since you said the place you were held was underground, I’m guessing that’s were this door leads….”
Cordelia shifted on the bed and finally started to drift off to sleep.
The light from the muted T.V. flickered against her closed eyelids and
the reassuring sound of Angel’s voice explaining the plan to Spike caressed
her ears. Her last thought before slipping into dreamland, was of how truly
bizarre her life had become.