SECTION 4 - ELSEWHERE

I love the time and in between
The calm inside me
In the space where I can breathe
I believe there is a distance I have wandered
To touch upon the years of
Reaching out and reaching in
Holding out and holding in

I believe
This is heaven to no one else but me
And I'll defend it
As long as I can be
Left here to linger in silence
If I choose to
Would you try to understand?
 

(Sarah McLachlan, Album - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
Thanks also to Emma for suggesting this way back
when I started FTE, even if it did take me three
months to follow through.
Hope she's still reading.
 

Chapter 4.12

Buffy replaced the phone in its cradle and turned to Tara and Bee. "Sounds like Clem is getting stuck with the clean up from last night. Lily is going to take me. I have to meet her at her place."

"I'll drop you off," Bee volunteered before Buffy had a chance to consider how to get there.

Buffy continued with barely a glance to acknowledge Bee's offer of help. "After that I'm not sure how far it is. How long have we got to find him before he's due at this Maple place?"

Tara lifted her bare wrist and looked uncomfortable. "I don't know exactly. We wasted a chunk of time when we thought he was sealed in, and I think Dawn was with him for a while after the call before... well. Then, with all the phone calls... Not long."

"We better-." Buffy looked up as Wes pushed through the front door.

"He's gone. Paid his bill this morning and left. Either he spotted Willow following him last night or he just wasn't taking any chances on being tracked down once he showed his hand. We managed to bribe the manager into letting us check through his room before the cleaning crew went in, but other than a taste for expensive aftershave there's not much we could tell you. They couldn't even come up with a better description of his car than silver."

"Where's Giles?"

"Em... there were some books lying on the path as we were coming in...."

Bee looked over at Buffy. "Time we were both at my place, anyway. I'll pick the books up later and skip the lecture."

She strode toward the front door and Buffy was swift to follow, but just as they reached it Giles appeared in the doorway, Bee's books cradled protectively in his hands and Bee had to brush past him to get out of the house, her breasts rubbing against his arm as she turned sideways. Giles, however, was not to be stopped.

"Buffy, why on earth were these books lying in the middle of your yard? Some of the pages have been creased and there are even grass stains on two of them."

Before Buffy could say anything Bee yanked her after her, calling back towards the house as she stomped to her car and started it up. "Ever so sorry that someone screaming seemed more important than a pile of leather and paper. Tell you what, since you prefer them to actual beings with feelings and emotions why don't you go ahead and help Tara with her research while we find Spike? And if the nice Rupert gets back before I do, assure him that I will leave him in your dubious care no longer than is necessary. Better still, leave him with Tara and, you, stay as far away from him as possible."

The classic car roared into life, and Bee pulled out with more speed than finesse, her driving reminiscent of Grace Kelly's in the film 'To Catch a Thief', which had been responsible for a great deal of that particular model's cult appeal.

Giles looked on, stunned into silence once more until Tara tugged on his sleeve. "Come on, Giles. There's not much else we can do at the moment. We might as well do as she says."

Giles sighed. "An excellent idea in theory, but in practice, I must admit that I don't even recognise the languages that most of these books are written in and those I do recognise I'm not exactly fluent in."

"Oh!" One word conveyed the Wiccan's disappointment. "Maybe you can look over the notes I made from the council database, then and see-."

The phone rang, yet again, and Wes who was nearest to it was the one to answer. "Summers residence. Wes speaking. How may I help?"

"Wesley Wyndam Pryce? No, I don't think you can help me. You've betrayed the Council's mission just as much as the necrophiliac slut you choose to associate with."

"I may no longer be either naive enough or paid enough to follow blindly Quentin Travers' political agenda, but I assure you that neither Buffy nor I are the ones who have lost our moral direction."

"Lies." Robin listened to the First as it stood at his shoulder, wearing his mother's face. "He associates with demons. He calls them friend and does their bidding. He's abandoned the mission I died trying to protect."

"You're lying. My mother lived and died according to her mission in life. You betray everything that she and the Council stand for. First you beg the Council to spare Angelus' life, then you become his lackey and when he had enough of you, you come to whore yourself out to his grandchilde and that degenerate bitch of his. Watchers are supposed to aid slayers when they hunt vampires, not hump them. Or maybe she thinks if she rakes enough scratches in his back she'll claw out his heart or if she rides him fast enough and hard enough he'll burn up in her filthy cu-."

"Enough!" Wes spoke loudly but with a chilly authority. "I don't care who you are, or what happened in the past to turn you into the obviously bitter and depraved individual you would seem to be today. I don't even care that Spike is responsible for your mother's death. I won't listen to any more of your twisted ramblings. Buffy lives by her mission, just as your mother did. She isn't hung up on the letter of that old piece of propaganda that watchers have been ramming down the throats of their charges for centuries. She doesn't kill for the sake of killing... but where demons threaten the community, she is there and she does not stint in her duty. The fact that she has brought Spike onside is a far greater victory for the forces of light than if she had merely dusted him. It is you, in your hunger for a pointless revenge, who would rob us of a warrior both fearsome in his own right and invaluable as the slayer's ally. You distract her from her calling by threatening her mate. You allow evil breathing space. You would break both her heart and her will to continue the fight, even though she's the only slayer since to rival your mother's longevity and success. Or is that the real reason for your actions?"

"She doesn't even deserve the title slayer," Robin argued spurred on by the figure at his side. "...But my fight is not with her, unless she chooses to make it so and if she does, then she sentences herself. I will have revenge for my mother, one way or another, though since your slayer of slayers has now failed to make it to his rendezvous, I may have to settle for simply causing his painful and lingering death rather than seeing it. If he lasts that long, have him make another try tomorrow, same time, same place. In the meantime, why don't you check out w w w dot painful dash vampire dash death dot org? Since your undead friend or is that master? ...didn't make it in time to see his little playmate in person, you'll just have to make do."

Wood terminated the call from the cloned cell phone and switched it off. He flicked through the cameras he had positioned around the network of sewers and other tunnels that made up Sunnydale's underground. Most of them had the green tint of low-light footage, but one was in normal colour. It showed a female vampire lying on the bed in a basic but homey looking room. Half the room looked like your average studio apartment except for the absence of windows. The other half, which looked as if it could be separated off by a rich burgundy floor to ceiling curtain, held a variety of paraphernalia and magazines that made it obvious what trade the vampiress plied when she wasn't bleeding out from her ears, eyes and mouth and running a temperature so high that the chill air of the underground room seemed to steam around her. Her body was one massive reddish bruise and her face was contorted in a rictus of pain that made it hard to believe that she'd once been a beauty queen, despite the pictorial evidence on the walls. Robin gave a satisfied smile and then flicked through the other feeds until he came to the one that showed his adversary slumped on the tunnel floor.

"You can't really wait until tomorrow," his mother told him. "It needs to be done today."

"I know that. The construction crew would make life slightly inconvenient but I don't see any harm in letting his whore and the turncoats stew for a while."

"That's my boy. Now, switch back to the other channel. We don't want to miss the best bit. You know once the bleeding starts there isn't long to go."

"May I?" Wes gestured to where Tara sat in front of Spike's computer.

"Sure." She stepped aside to make room for the former watcher. "What did he say?"

"Nothing worthy of being repeated, other than the fact that he claims that Spike failed to make the appointed rendezvous. He also seems to think that that will force us into waiting for another game of cat and mouse tomorrow but I'm afraid I don't believe he has any intention whatsoever of telling Spike what the cure is. He also provided a... somewhat... macabre... web... address." As he finished speaking Wes hit the return key, bringing up the site's main page. He clicked the mouse over the link saying enter and found himself looking at the same video feed that Robin Wood and the First Evil were currently watching.

"What is this?" Tara looked over his shoulder.

"If the clock on the wall is anything to go by, I would say that it's a live video feed. I think it's where Spike was supposed to go, a demonstration of what he's likely to face if he doesn't play along."

"But how? I mean did he ambush some vampire and force feed her the poison instead of just staking her just so he could make his little film or are there vampires dying all round town because they chose to buy animal blood rather than attack humans?"

"I don't know if we'll ever know, but I think perhaps we should let Buffy know the current state of play."

"I can call her on my cell," Tara offered.

"Wouldn't it be cheaper to use the land-line?" Wes asked.

"Free minutes," the witch pointed out, turning to the elder watcher. "...But Giles is going to need the land-line in any case to call... Everard Howarth." She read the name from the sheet of paper she took from her pocket. "He says you were right. That the Council is looking into appropriate action and that he was anxious for you to get in touch so that he could find out how you knew. He also said that you would know where to get in touch with him and that Wes's father apparently hasn't broadcast the fact that he's in Sunnydale."

Wes's attention seemed to focus on an imaginary speck of dirt on his jeans as he made his shame-faced reply. "That would be at least partly because he was unaware that I had relocated from LA."

"Oops. Sorry, Wes. But what does all this mean, Giles?"

"The Council has confirmed what Buffy and Spike saw in their vision the other night. The First Evil has begun what would appear to be a war on the slayer line."

"So if that's the plan, why's it taking time out to play with Spike's head?" Tara asked. "You would think it would be kinda busy."

Giles removed his glasses and rubbed at them with the bottom of his shirt. "That is another piece of the puzzle that I suggest we work on after we discover a cure."

"Back there, you said after we find Spike."

"Well, it's not like I'm in a great rush to share table space with that watcher friend of yours and I'm not totally incapable when it comes to looking after myself. I'm stronger than I look and if, as I suspect Rupie has followed him, then..." she leaned over and pulled open the glove compartment, pulling out what looked like a PDA. "...This might prove useful."

"I don't think we're going to find Robin Wood in your contacts list." Buffy tried again. "Look, I'm the last person to judge anyone for being short and female, but I'm already taking Lily, who isn't really a combatant, and those shoes aren't really what you need for a good old fashioned sewer hunt. Trust me. I know this.

I also know that by all accounts there's stuff that you could read as easily as your morning newspaper that grown watchers would struggle with. I can find Spike without your help, but the answer as to what to do with him after that could be in your books and no one is more familiar with them than you. Of course, if your palmtop has a map of the sewers..."

"No such luck. Rupie isn't normally that keen on getting dirty. Just standard GPS, same as you can get in a newer car except it shows you how to get to Rupert instead of some destination you type in."

"Huh? I never heard of anything like that."

"Well, dad helped out with miniaturising the bits that go on his collar. Not all that diamante is actually diamante."

"So, it would show us what's above us and where the cat is. Or where his collar is. No offence, but I've never known a cat to be much for following a relative stranger." Buffy took the device from Bee and replaced it in the glove box.

"Rupert isn't a typical cat."

"Which makes it all the more likely that he'll find his way home on his own."

"At least take the tracker with you. It's not like it can do any harm."

Buffy screwed up her face and left the unit where it was. "It's too Initiative-y. Look, if you don't hear from us in the next hour you can give it to Wes and he can come look for everyone, but for now, please, just see what you can find in your books."

Bee gave a grim-faced nod, obviously not relishing the prospect. Nevertheless, it wasn't as if Lily wouldn't be able to pick up the vampire's scent as soon as they crossed paths or as if Buffy didn't have her own unique bond with him. When the car stopped in front of Lily's apartment, Buffy climbed out and then bent over to say thank you one more time. "I know you want to do the wade in and help thing, but brains are going to help more than brawn - and don't tell Giles I said that. I know sitting reading can be the boring end of the job and I tend to let others get on with it whenever I can get away with it, but you have skills in that department that I'm never going to have-."

"It's okay. I get it, Buffy. Lily's waiting for you. Go find him."

Bee knocked gently a couple of times before letting herself back into the house on Revello. When she saw Giles pacing the living room, phone in hand, she abruptly turned toward the dining room.

She could hear Tara discussing her research of this morning with Wesley. "These symptoms suggest that one, but there's no mention of the vomiting and the progression of the other symptoms seems to be slower than the database would suggest... but the database talks about the bruising spreading out from the poisoned wound, so I'm wondering if perhaps the vomiting and the slower progression are because it's been ingested rather than going straight into the blood stream or maybe... see, this one causes vomiting, but not the bruising or the fever so maybe it's a combination of both or maybe it's something that isn't even in the database."

The witch's voice seemed distant, however, the words not making any sort of unified sense as Bee's attention was riveted to the computer screen. "Stella?" She turned to Wesley. "What is that? Why are you watching it?"

"You know her?" Wes asked.

"Yes, now I asked you what the hell this is." Bee's eyes betrayed her fear, darting back and forth between Wes and the computer screen and when Giles moved towards her she began to sidle away from the door, getting a solid wall at her back so that she wouldn't find herself trapped between the two watchers.

"Bee, I know this looks suspicious, but it's not our doing." Wes kept his voice as level and calm as possible. "Do you really think we could have fooled Lily last night if we were planning something like this?"

"There are drugs. I'm not stupid or I suppose I am for thinking that watchers could ever change."

"Bee, if you know her, maybe you know where she is. Maybe if we get to her we can help her. You have to believe that we didn't do this. Bee?"

Bee stared at the screen in horror as first one then two small licks of flame appeared on Stella's body and in seconds the bed was an inferno, clouds of dark smoke obscuring the camera's view. A few seconds later the feed changed. The room was as it had always been. The clock on the wall had jumped back ten minutes and Stella was lying there once more, her bedroom intact.

"Bee, I-."

The small woman was startled by Giles voice next to her. She grabbed the nearest thing to hand, a small framed print from the wall at her back, and smashed him over the head with it before darting toward the front door.

Chapter 4.13

Giles dusted the pieces of broken glass from his hair as Wes dashed after Bee, hoping to stop her before she left the house. Tara's eyes glazed over in concentration and she raised a hand, gesturing at the air in front of her. Heavy bolts fell into place with a series of loud clicks just as Bee's hand came to rest on the door handle. Wes placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, trying once more to reassure her, even as she looked around for another means of escape, but Wes was now between her and the door into the living room.

"We aren't the ones who set that up. The man who poisoned Spike called again. He told us to look up the web address. It was his way of letting us know what will happen to Spike if we can't find a cure. If you want to, you can leave now but given the fact neither I nor Giles are likely to find what we need in those books of yours half as quickly as you would, I think Spike would have a far better chance, if you stay... please."

Bee's eyes became slightly less wild as she considered his words, but her indecision was still obvious. "If I can go, why's the door locked?"

Tara reversed her earlier hand gesture and walked into the hall. "It's open now. I just didn't want you to rush off in some sort of panic. We wouldn't hold you against your wishes. How about we go through to the kitchen and I make us some camomile tea and you can tell me about Stella while Wes takes Giles upstairs and cleans up those cuts?"

Bee's eyes were drawn to where Giles leaned against the doorpost, dabbing at a cut near his hairline with what had recently been a pristine, white, cotton handkerchief. Like all head injuries, the amount of blood seeping from it seemed disproportionate to the size of the wound.

"Oh god! I'm so sorry. It... I saw Stella and the rest was pure 'fight or flight'."

"Or in this case both." Giles gave a dry smile. "Find Spike's cure and we'll call it even. It wouldn't be California if someone didn't hit me over the head. At least, this time I'm still conscious."

"Come on," Tara almost whispered, taking Bee by the arm and leading her toward the kitchen, trusting Wes to see to getting Giles patched up.

"Did you know Stella well?" she probed gently, ushering Bee to a seat at the counter while she put the kettle on.

"Barely at all, if I'm honest. We have maybe a couple of friends in common. Lily takes-... took Rosa there for her haircuts. It doesn't make it any easier to watch a person go up in smoke. It's really strange what you remember, I mean she looked so feminine but she was way into football. Steelers fan. I can remember being at the same Superbowl party the year they won. It must be nearly ten years ago now..." Bee's words petered out. She was obviously having problems reconciling the past with the footage she had just seen.

"We... well, we wondered if maybe she had been poisoned the same way as Spike, or if maybe this guy Wood had chosen her specifically, as an example for some reason... like say if Spike knew her."

"Probably, so far as I know there isn't anyone else in town cutting hair for the reflection-free, but they weren't close, I don't think. Clem or Lily might know better. As to the other, she probably got caught the same way Spike did. I'm not saying she didn't hunt, but she's been around too long to have been making a habit of it with a slayer in town."

"Spike got a haircut yesterday after we went to sort out the wedding outfits. He told Buffy she couldn't go with him because he wasn't having her stake the only hairdresser in town that wouldn't freak because he didn't have a reflection."

"I guess that tells us why she's the one on film, then. If he's keeping tabs on Spike... and I guess her having the video set up there for the vamps would make life easier for him. Chances are she was got same way Spike was, but if she hadn't been, your guy would like as not have helped her along anyway."

"Do you know where the film was made?"

"Judging by the hairdressing stuff, it'd be her place. There's a dam outside of town. There used to be a hydro plant there, but after the 'quake in '78 they decided that it wasn't safe. They had to drop the water level and they filled the top two levels of the dam with rebar and concrete to reinforce it. The power plant is gone, but the dam still acts as a reservoir. From above ground it's sealed up tight, but from what I hear there are tunnels that lead straight from there to the middle of town. Stella's supposed to use some of the rooms on the lower levels."

The kettle boiled and Tara turned her attention to sorting out a range of mugs, teabags, milk and sugar. "You feel up to doing some research while you drink this or do you want to stay here and have some time to pull yourself together a bit?"

"I think if it means I don't have to see anyone else that I know go up in flames I can hack the research." Bee pushed her way to her feet and picked up two of the four mugs before heading for the dining room.

* * * * *

"Be careful, will you?" Giles protested as Wes used a pair of tweezers to pull a sliver of glass from his scalp.

"That's the last. They're all pretty superficial from what I can tell. That one at the front could do with taping up. The rest will probably be okay to heal up on their own once we put a bit of iodine on."

"Well, get on with it then, man. That damned woman. I should have known she was nothing but trouble the minute I saw her."

"Really?" Wes drawled raising an eyebrow. "I must say, I found her quite charming. Perhaps you have some irrational dislike for pretty, well-educated, intelligent women."

"When they cast me in the starring role of their persecution complex, I consider it to be a very rational dislike."

"And yet, when you were talking to her last night I would have bet my shirt that you were attracted to her..."

"That does nothing to change the fact that the woman is pathologically insane, violent and far too young for me, not to mention the fact that I have a very intelligent, attractive and discerning young lady who means a great deal to me, waiting back in England."

"This is just a flying visit, then?"

"That depends on the opposition, I suppose, but once The First is dealt with, there should be no more reason for me to stay. Buffy no longer needs a father figure."

"That doesn't mean that there isn't a place for you here if you chose to stay."

"There's a place for me in England, too."

* * * * *

"Do another sweep, baby. We gotta stay on the ball." The First gave Robin the same dazzling smile he remembered so well from his brief childhood.

"Sure," he answered as he began flicking through from camera to camera, pausing when one of the feeds showed Lily leading Buffy through the maze of tunnels below Sunnydale's streets.

"They're too close. Way too close." Robin wasn't sure whether the words were his own thoughts or whether the approximation of his mother had placed them straight into his head. It didn't matter because she was right. Unless he did something soon, the bitch was going to spoil all his fun. So much for letting the demon come to on his own. He was going to have to go fetch him. He checked the relative location of the two cameras, planning his route so that he would get to the vampire and spirit him away, hopefully just in the nick of time. He took out a package about the size of a pack of cigarettes from a drawer of the desk his computer sat on and pushed it into the back pocket of his jeans. If the slayer was searching for her fucktoy in the sewers, then it was time he got him back above ground. The race was on.

"Wait a minute, honey. There's one more thing you gotta do for mommy before you go..."

* * * * *

Giles took the phone from Tara's hand with an expression of distaste. "You took longer than I expected, Quentin. Did Everard have problems getting through? Or did you have to get the board in for a discussion before you had the nerve to phone?"

"Everard said that you refused to discuss how you knew about Istanbul with anyone other than myself."

"That is because I believe you and you alone are responsible for the fact that that particular source of information may soon no longer be available to us."

"And if I said I had no idea to what you are referring?"

"I would say you are a bloody liar." Giles veneer of chilly anger slipped. "You forget that I know how you work. I know that it takes your sort of political maneuvering to put a headmaster with no teaching qualifications whatsoever into a high school on the hellmouth."

"Ye-es, well, I don't recall you having any teaching qualifications when you were placed there either."

"I was, however, amply qualified for the position which I held. From here, the only qualification that Robin Wood appears to have is his willingness to act as your assassin."

"You used to believe in our mission, Rupert."

"I still do. I simply disagree with your implementation of it. What did you supply him with?"

"I may not have had this discussion with you directly, but I believe young Wesley passed on the Council's view when it comes to saving vampires."

"I suggest you reconsider that policy if you want access to our information source. Otherwise, William's contacts may not be so helpful in future."

"I'm sure Ms Summers would be able to persuade any contacts the vampire might have to cooperate, Rupert."

"And I'm sure that now you've as good as implicated yourself in Spike's attempted murder that Ms Summers will have no incentive to do any such thing," Giles informed his former boss.

"However far Ms Summers may have slipped from the ideal, I doubt that she will allow the slaughter of innocents simply to satisfy a vindictive streak."

"Spike may not be innocent but having him on our side certainly means that more innocents get a chance to live. If you're prepared to ignore that, why should Buffy be any different? I believe it's time you had a rethink regarding your policy on saving vampires and if you don't wish the hellmouth to get out of control I suggest you arrange it so that Buffy doesn't feel compelled to relocate her family out of the area in order that her sister can attend a less hostile school. Until you do, I think that there is little point continuing this discussion further. Good day, Quentin."

Rupert replaced the handset in its cradle. "Let's just wait and see how much Quentin is prepared to gamble."

Bee looked up from the book she was currently comparing with Tara's notes, giving Giles an apologetic smile. "I guess I need to apologise for calling you a council lackey now, as well.

If it helps, this text describes a poison known in Recendist, at least, as 'The Harbinger of Second Death'. It seems to be identical in every respect to what is described in Tara's notes as 'The Killer of the Dead', except my text makes clear reference to how to prepare it and the effects both when it's ingested and when it contaminates the bloodstream directly. Tara says you've had experience with it before, so if it had been missing entirely from the database you would presumably have noticed. My guess is that they just took out the references to what happened if you swallowed it and hoped you wouldn't catch on. All of which, I gather, leaves you with a bigger problem..."

"Marvellous!" Giles sank into one of the dining room chairs and dropped his glasses onto the table in front of him. "Absolutely, bloody marvellous! Well, we all know what Buffy is going to say to that." The Englishman's tone betrayed that he thought the news was anything but. "Would anybody care to tell me how this day could get any worse?"

"Em, guys, you know that painful vampire death site? They're not showing that loop of tape any more." Tara sounded nervous. "It's a bit grainy, and it's that green low-light type thing... but it looks like Spike... I think. It's kinda hard to tell."

* * * * *

Lily somehow managed to speed up even further, despite the fact that Buffy was already pleasantly surprised by the grandmother's bustling pace. "I think wind carry William's smell. We close."

"How can you smell him? We're in a sewer. Are you sure?"

"I sure and this no sewer, this storm drain. If sewer no could smell him." The old demon paused suddenly and Buffy almost ran into her. She peered at a far distant junction before pointing at what looked like a heap of rags or perhaps an abandoned carcass lying half in half out of a side tunnel. "I think maybe that is William."

Buffy pushed past her in an instant, her legs swiftly eating up the tunnel between her and the figure on the ground, though without the advantage of Lily's nightvision Buffy had to get far closer before she could make out any detail.

Lily called after the slayer as she ran. "Be careful. Could be trap."

Buffy ran heedlessly forward. The armies of hell could be waiting in that side tunnel and she wouldn't care.

"Spike!" Her voice echoed up and down the tunnels over and over and the scarecrow figure seemed to try to move raising his face from the muddy water at the bottom of the tunnel.

"Buffy?" His voice sounded weak and only the tunnel's amplifying accoustics allowed her to hear at all. His next words chilled her to the bone. "Goodbye, love."

If it was possible, Buffy ran even faster as she saw his head slump forward once more but the tunnel seemed to stretch ahead of her for miles and Spike was still so far away. Even as the first flames appeared on his hand he reached out toward her, and Buffy told herself that he couldn't burn, not while he was lying in two inches of water. He couldn't burn.

And still he did.

Tara watched the figure on the screen as it reached out to one side. A single tear trickled down her cheek as the vampire's lips moved to form his fiancée's name. The picture was indistinct but nothing could disguise the look Spike reserved for one woman alone, not even the amber glow of his demon eyes or the combination of muck, blood and old rainwater that streaked his features.

"He knew." The thought slipped from her lips. "He knew." The first flames appeared on his hand and the low-light camera swiftly whited out so that those at the house on Revello were not subjected to the sight of the fire consuming the flesh from Spike's body or his bones turning to dust that was already indistinguishable from the silt in the bottom of the storm drain by the time Buffy reached the spot where he had lain. They watched a silent movie that only caught a fraction of the show. They couldn't hear how Buffy cried out a massive, "no," to the world or how she swore at Spike, even as he burned, for not somehow resisting harder and holding out till she could get there, for insisting she take the orbs but most of all for daring to leave her alone when their time together had so barely started. When the screen cleared all they saw was Buffy kneeling on the floor of the tunnel, trying to scoop up handfuls of debris from the bottom of what was in effect a very shallow stream only to have it slip through her fingers. The screen went dark and they knew that their enemy thought he had got his point across.

* * * * *

"What did you mean? When you said that he knew..." Giles' voice was as soft and comforting as a velvet wrap as he placed a tumbler of Wes's brandy into Tara's shaking hands.

"H-he knew what the cure was. I thought he was rambling, generalising, but h-he knew. He said we h-had to send Dawn away because his demon knew that her blood would heal him, just the s-same as B-Buffy's... and it was only when I s-saw that look on his face that I realised... he knew... and he chose to die rather than to hurt either of them.

For years, everyone except Dawn and Joyce just used him and we said he didn't... he couldn't love her. We treated him like his feelings didn't matter, like they were less real than ours... like he couldn't be hurt but if he..."

"...But if he could care enough to make that choice, then every petty cruelty that we visited upon him more than likely made its mark on his..."

Bee raised sad eyes to the grey-haired watcher. Her grief mingled with her disappointment that even with the greatest of all possible proof he still couldn't bring himself to say the word. "...On his soul," she finished for him.

* * * * *

Minutes passed in silence as the quartet perched on the edges of their respective seats, each of them cradling a glass in their hands from which they took occasional sips.

Finally, Tara spoke again. "What about Dawnie? Do we get her to come back? Do we tell her? Do we wait for Buffy to get back? I mean she was supposed to be getting as far away as she could, but somehow I don't think she would stray too far."

"How about I try Lily's phone and see where they're going?" Bee suggested. "Lily might take Buffy back to her place or they might be coming here."

"Or Buffy might be looking to find Robin Wood and get some payback," Giles added. "She had a shock and it hit her hard... but Buffy is incredibly resilient and she has a particularly vindictive streak towards anyone who targets the men in her life. She's quite capable of setting her grief to one side until she has exacted vengeance.

More to the point, convincing as the footage was, we are dealing with at least one enemy who specialises in mind games and illusion and added to that we have no real way given the poor quality of the footage to tell if it has been digitally altered somehow. The last thing we want to do is tell Dawn that Spike has gone, only for him to then walk in through the door like the proverbial bad penny."

"But if there's a chance he might be alive and if what he said was true, isn't that all the more reason to get her back here?" Bee asked.

"He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't risk hurting either of them. Not so long as there was the smallest bit of him still in control," Tara offered.

"And Buffy would never let Dawn put herself in that sort of danger," Giles added.

Bee shook her head. "You're all just making difficulties where there needn't be any. I assume if Spike somehow knows that Dawn's blood is the same as Buffy's that they're both the same group?"

"Well, yes, they're both AB+, but I don't see..."

"You don't have to. Tara, why don't you call Dawn? Be honest. Tell her that Spike sneaked out and Buffy went out to look for him. Tell her what the poison is and that you think her blood may be at least partially as effective as Buffy's. Let her make her own choice about it. She's not a child... Then, when she gets here, you can explain about the web site face to face."

Tara nodded and picked up the cordless phone from where Giles had left it on the coffee table.

Bee made her way through to the entrance hall, picking up one of the spare phones and tossing it to Wes. "It didn't look like Spike made time to pack, but you never know. His phone might have been in his coat pocket. It's worth a try. If you hear it ring rather than getting a message to say it's switched off or whatever, try to rule out him having left it in the house somewhere. When you've done that, go over to your place and wait for a visitor. If Spike really is gone, the last thing Buffy is going to want when she comes home, is to find a house full of strangers. I'll follow when I'm finished with my own calls."

"No instructions for me?" Giles asked dryly.

Bee gave him a half-smile. "You can stand around and look pretty... or if you prefer, you can contact the people Buffy will want around her on the off chance that the worst does turn out to be true."

She picked up another phone from the hall table and, to the puzzlement of the others, wandered out the front door, getting into the passenger side of her car and apparently rummaging through the glove compartment, all the while pinning the phone in place between her ear and a shoulder. Soon she had a lit cigarette in her mouth and seemed to be talking around it, at the same time holding something in her right hand and hitting it with her left.

"That has to be the most peculiar woman I've ever met. Look pretty, indeed," Giles muttered to himself as he turned away from the window and tried to get hold of Anya using the last of the spare phones.

* * * * *

"Oh!" Anya's delicately boned face seemed to somehow crumple and she caught her lower lip under her upper teeth to still its trembling.

"We don't know anything for sure, Anya." Giles tried to comfort her, wondering how the vampire seemed to have the affection of all the women in their circle while at the same time inspiring quite the opposite in the male of the species. "It's entirely possible that it was a ruse on the part of either Robin Wood or The First or not inconceivably both. They may have wanted to halt our research or distract Buffy. However, if it does turn out that the worst has happened, then Buffy and Dawn will need their friends around them. Please tell Xander that I trust him to realise this is an opportunity for him to rise above any pettiness and do whatever may need to be done in order to comfort his friends."

"You mean no gloating, right?" Anya asked, the couple's earlier conversation fresh in her mind.

"I mean no gloating and if Buffy or Dawn feel that they or Spike are still due any apologies then I suggest that Xander be prepared to give them, otherwise his presence may be less than constructive... How is Xander faring this morning after his misadventure last night?"

Anya looked over to the still firmly closed bedroom door. "Nauseous... and less than constructive."

* * * * *

Lily physically ached to rush forward and comfort the grieving girl but something here was not right. The light produced by Spike's immolation had revealed something which shouldn't have been there. She kept her distance and reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a roll of fruit flavoured chews that she kept there for Rosa. She unwrapped several of the sweets, popping them into her mouth one after the other and chewing on them until they made a pliable, sticky mess only to then delicately remove the resulting ball from her mouth. Next, with a move she hoped was swift enough to fool anyone watching, she reached up from under and behind the camera that had been attached just above average head height on the wall of the storm drain and used the glob of confectionery to obscure the lens.

She was just moving forward to take Buffy in her arms when the girl looked up. First a look of hope appeared in her eyes and then a huge smile brightened her tear-stained face. "It wasn't him." Her voice was full of absolute certainty. "I mean it looked like him and I can even still smell his aftershave and it had me fooled for a minute or two but he said I would know if he died and it just doesn't feel like he's gone and the pains, kinda spread a bit since this morning but not enough for him to have gone woof..." Buffy used her hands to mimic the flames that had appeared to consume Spike almost instantaneously. "And Rogue was so not leaving him alone, not to mention he made a promise."

"Is good but someone, they watch the tunnels." She pointed to the disabled camera. "And I no think it City Engineers."

"So we keep going until we find him and we don't stop again for anything unless it physically makes us."

"You go on. This is Maple, just make straight line. 1570 maybe mile that way. I no keep up with young girl, but I no be so far behind if-." Lily paused as the sound of a dog barking echoed its way from somewhere up ahead and Buffy took to her heels.

Every time she came to an intersection, Buffy would pause just for a moment or two to check that the sound came from neither right nor left before continuing on. The animal sounded frantic and Buffy feared that The First's little stunt might have delayed her just that bit too long, so that whatever events were being played out up ahead would already be concluded by the time she got there. She cursed herself for not reaching inward earlier to find the truth through their bond, but the fact of the matter was that she had simply been so devastated by the scene that had played out before her eyes that she hadn't been able to function on any sort of level.

The tunnel's echoes and the splashing of the water beneath her feet as she ran, all made it nearly impossible to judge just how far away the dog was but Buffy just ran as hard as she could, hoping against hope that she would arrive in time to make a difference. Then, abruptly, the barking stopped.

She wanted to run even faster, but without the sound to guide her she had to be even more careful when she checked every offshoot to the main tunnel looking for the smallest sign that someone had passed that way. Long minutes later, when she did find it, it seemed almost blinding. A spear of daylight probed its way into the tunnel from high above, its rays illuminating Rogue's limp body at the ladder's base while Rupert licked blood from the fur at the side of the dog's head. As she approached, Rogue struggled to her feet with an obvious effort, whimpering and despite her injuries, looking guilty, as if she felt she had failed.

Buffy hunkered down, scratching the dog behind her ear on the uninjured side of her head before checking the wound. The cut was little more than a graze, but any open wound was bad news in this sort of environment and a large area around it seemed to be tender to the touch. "Shh, honey, it's not your fault. You've been a brave girl. I'll call your Uncle Giles and he'll bring the DeSoto and take you to the nice veterinarian who we'll probably have to pay in cash because it will look too damn suspicious to claim on a two day old insurance policy. Just stay here while I climb up there 'cause I don't think I'll get a signal this far underground." She bent over and stroked Rupert, too, trying to settle the animals so they would wait for her to come back. The cat stood from his previous seated position revealing a small cellophane wrapper. Buffy picked it up and read the writing on it. A thermal blanket. Whatever Wood was planning, at least it didn't involve Spike getting a suntan, just yet.

A/N: As my beta rightly pointed out there has been no direct mention so far about pet insurance but I figure either from affiliated advertising when Dawn was picking out things for Rogue on the petstore web site or on prompting from their 'Now you own a puppy book' they would have fixed some up.

Bee took one last draw on her cigarette before she tossed the lipstick stained butt into the street and made her way back into the house. Tara was still on the phone to Dawn but Giles had already finished his calls and replaced the phone he had used back on the hall table and Wes was coming back downstairs as she opened the front door.

He shook his head. "It's ringing, but there's no reply and if it's in the house it's been muted."

The woman shrugged. "It was worth a try... and it's another pointer in favour of that web site being a pile of horse crap. How did you get on?" She turned to Giles.

"I've told Willow what's happening and she's going to stay by the phone so she can come over if Buffy asks for her, but otherwise considering the situation with Tara and Dawn she'll stay where she is. Anya's coming over and she says if he promises to "act civilised" she'll bring Xander. Other than Dawn, I think everyone else she'd want is already here. And you?" Giles raised an eyebrow in Bee's direction, trying to regain some control of the situation.

"Well, I couldn't get through to either Lily or Buffy's phones. I doubt they'd switch them off, so that makes me think that they're too deep to be any use. All of which means, I could use a car larger than a two seater and one of you strapping men to come with me. The other one gets to wait for Wes's guest, who by the way is a demon, so if anyone has any problems with that..." She raised an eyebrow of her own in retaliation.

"Are we allowed to ask what it is that whoever goes with you will be doing?" Giles queried.

"We're going to go find my cat."

Giles' jaw dropped a fraction of an inch. "At a time like this?"

Bee took on a teasing tone. "There is a time factor involved. He's going to miss his lunch if we don't find him soon."

Wes interrupted at this point, his intuition telling him that there was more to this than Bee was letting on. "My car's sitting in the drive across the road. Why don't you go wait in the passenger seat while Giles and I sort out the division of labour?" Wes passed her his car keys.

* * * * *

Wes climbed into the car's driving seat. "So where are we going?"

Bee had already memorised the address. She didn't bother looking at the device she held in her hand but Wes had already noticed the little blip on the screen's streetplan and guessed its significance. "Riverside Industrial Park. Area 3."

Wes reversed the car out of the drive and set off at a pace that would only just avoid the attention of the average Sunnydale traffic cop. "And the guest who is going to be arriving at my house?"

Bee made a grimace. "He's the brother of my date for tomorrow night, apparently."

"Well, I hope Spike gets the opportunity to tell you how grateful he'll undoubtedly be, but it still doesn't let me in on why he's there."

Bee sighed before she replied. "He's my GP."

Wes frowned. "You choose to visit a demon doctor?"

"Not so much choose..." Wes gave her a sideways glance before returning his attention to the road and had to slam on the brakes to avoid driving into the back of a slow-moving child on his bicycle.

"I could demonstrate, but then you'd probably hit the next kid. Is this going to be an issue?"

"N-no, no issue, just a surprise, though the linguistic skills and your defensiveness regarding the council all make rather more sense now.

I shan't pry, and if you want, I won't even mention it to the others unless it becomes relevant."

Bee shrugged. "It's no state secret. I'm pretty certain Spike knows, anyway. Vampires tend to be able to spot the scent thing.

Swap parent gender and I'm pretty much in the same position as Rosa except I can pass for human, kind of like a vengeance demon. My parents choose to live in mom's dimension but dad was brought up in Laurel Canyon and you can tell your friend that if he's talking chronological age, mine is probably much the same as his, though subjectively I might have just a little catching up to do... and I also have excellent hearing if I concentrate, say if I want to know if someone's really forgiven me for being an ass or if they're just being polite," she added with a grin.

Comprehension suddenly dawned for Wes as to why they needed the demon doctor. "You're going to get him to transfuse Buffy and Dawn!"

"You watcher types might not be quite so slow as I'd heard, after all," she teased. "Of course, after you draw the first couple of pints from each they'll need to be transfused before they can give any more or there's a risk of them going into shock and from then on in, the blood they donate will become progressively diluted, but as long as Spike doesn't feed directly there's practically no risk to either of them, so unless Spike really wants to be the martyr and I'm thinking not on that one, he's got no reason to object."

"It seems rather as if we were all making a major drama out of a minor difficulty. We didn't even think about alternatives to Spike feeding from them."

"Well, it tends to hinge on knowing a medic who can understand why you're drawing blood out of them just to transfuse it straight back in and let's face it, a human doctor is not going to understand... so I guess you guys have got an excuse." With what had seemed to be a vast stumbling block now removed, Wes couldn't help but find Bee's grin infectious. "And if he hadn't left his cell in the house but it hasn't gone dusty..."

"Then the situation in general looks a lot less bleak than it did an hour or so ago," Wes finished for her.

"And all we need now... is Spike." Bee looked down at the GPS screen in her hands. "It says to take a right at the next junction."

* * * * *

"Tara, what's going on? The phone's been busy forever."

"Buffy, where are you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but it looks like Wood got Spike and Rogue's hurt. I think she tried to get in the way. Can you get Giles to bring Spike's car and pick us up? ...and tell Bee her cat's here too."

"Well, Brandon took Spike's car before and Giles is over at Wes's house waiting for someone. Would you settle for Wes and Bee in his car?"

"Sure. We just need to get Rogue to a vet. I'm in the middle of some sort of industrial estate. All these buildings look the same..."

"They left a few minutes ago. Bee seemed to know where she was going. Buffy, we know what the poison is. It's the same one Faith used on Angel. Wes and Bee will fill you in when they get there but Dawn's on her way home. I think the whole tower thing proves your blood is the same and she wants to help."

"Well, she can't. I'm supposed to keep her safe and that idea is not safe."

"Safer than him draining you. Besides, unless we can find Spike kinda moot."

"So make with the location spell, Tabitha."

"Consider it done." Tara replaced the handset with a slight frown, not entirely certain that she could do a location spell that would work on a vampire on her own... but then Giles was only on the far side of the street. She dashed up to her room and found the bag of spell components they had brought back from LA. She added her own cell phone to the bag and pausing only to scribble a quick note and stick it on the front of the fridge, she headed for Wes's new home.

* * * * *

Dawn and Brandon were the first to arrive back. As Tara had anticipated, Dawn had refused to go further than a coffee shop in the next town over. Dawn called out to the empty house, "I'm ho-o-ome." When no one answered she wandered from room to room until she found the note on the refrigerator. Her curiosity temporarily assuaged she pulled a couple of cans of soda from the fridge and passed one to Brandon.

"Tara says she'll only be a few minutes and that Wes and Bee have gone to pick up Buffy and Rogue."

"No word on Spike, then?"

"Nope, but Tara's on the case. She'll whip up a location spell in no time. Then, Buffy can charge off again to find him and give him a good spanking for not staying here like he was supposed to."

Brandon gave her a lascivious smile. "They into that, then?"

"What?" Dawn's eyes widened as she realised what she had said. "No-o-o. Well, at least I don't think so... but then they do seem to kinda get off on sparring together... Tell you what, when Spike's better why don't you ask him and see how long you last before you get a spanking for even thinking anything like that within a 50' radius of me?"

"I think I'll pass on that tempting offer. Don't suppose there's the least possible chance that you're going to actually look at any homework?"

"I could look. There's not the slightest chance I'd be able to concentrate to actually do any, but I could stand about six feet away and point at the stack of books and say 'Oooh, there's my homework.' 'Sides I bet with all this I'm good for another day off tomorrow, especially if I limp a bit."

"Or you could give your sister one less thing to worry about and do your assignments so that you don't need another day off and they don't decide I'm a bad influence and ground you before Friday."

"Like they could stop me going... but I get the point, teacher's pet." Dawn glanced at the books and the computer occupying the dining room table. "Guess if they're using the table in there we'll have to use my room."

"I thought you weren't allowed boys in your room."

"I said they probably wouldn't let us study in my room. They never actually said I couldn't have boys in there. Xander was in Buffy's room all the time when they were younger."

"Buffy dated Xander?"

"Eugh, no. Not that Xander wasn't totally into her, but no. Just come on." Dawn started pulling Brandon toward the stairs, despite his protests.

"It's alright for you. You're not the one he's going to eat."

"You don't think tapping a vein counts?" she teased.

"Not compared with him ripping my throat out."

"I don't think your throat would be his target of choice," Dawn answered as she closed her room door behind them.

* * * * *

It was almost three quarters of an hour later before Buffy and Wes got back, having dropped Lily off at home and left Bee at the veterinarian's with Rogue. Rupert leapt down from Buffy's knee as soon as she opened the car door and strolled straight up to Buffy's front door, looking as much at home as if someone had rolled out his own personal red carpet. "I better go see what's happening. I thought Tara might have called to let us know where he is by now."

Wes eyed the rather battered VW camper occupying half of his drive. "Ditto. I'll round up Giles and Bee's future brother-in-law and meet you over there."

* * * * *

Buffy could sense the tension the second she walked into the living room. Looking round the room, the reason was all too apparent.

"Hi, Anya. Xander, I assume if you're here, you're ready with those apologies for everyone."

"Heyyy! I'm not the bad guy in this. Dawnster's just ticked that we barged in on her smooch session with lover boy before he hit third base and dragged the two of them down here."

"Dawn?" Buffy's query was swamped by Dawn's rebuttal.

"That is so not true. We've been studying and, yeah, maybe we kissed once or twice but even if we'd been stark naked and going at it hammer and tongs he still has no right to set foot in my bedroom without my permission or even knocking. I could have been getting changed or anything."

"No, Dawn, he doesn't." Buffy turned cold eyes on Xander making sure he got the point before returning to her sister. "But, that doesn't get you off the hook so I guess when this business with Spike is settled we're going to have to go through some ground rules with the pair of you. Starting with if no one else is home Brandon is not allowed in your room and if Brandon is in your room the door stays open. Deal?"

"Riley was allowed in your room."

"I was like twenty when I was going out with Riley."

"Nineteen."

"Nineteen and like anything was going to happen with you snooping round? Deal?"

Brandon nudged his girlfriend and she grudgingly conceded the point. "Deal. I thought you were bringing Rogue home?"

"Bee's waiting with her at the vet's until they get the x-rays back. She took a nasty bang on the head. I'm sorry, Dawn. She'll call as soon as there's any news. Now where's Tara? I was hoping she'd be done with the hocus-pocus so I could go get medieval on this Wood guy's ass."

* * * * *

"What the-?" Wes instinctively reached for one of the rapiers he kept in the umbrella stand in the hall as he took in the scene in the living room.

A pile of charred paper, ashes and various spell components were spread around on the parquet flooring along with Giles and Tara's inert forms. A grey-skinned demon in a long trench coat straddled Tara's body and seemed to be pressing something to her face. At Wes's appearance, he gave a whistle of alarm and rapidly stood. He backed away from the girl as he made a series of clicks and tuts, stretching out his right arm and twisting the bottle he held so that the label was facing toward Wes. It didn't matter. He'd already recognised the acrid scent of smelling salts. He returned the sword to its normal place and nodded to the people on the floor. "You understand me?"

The demon nodded.

"They were like this when you found them?"

Another nod.

"How long ago?"

The demon set down the bottle of smelling salts and then held up both hands, six fingers and two thumbs spread before lowering one hand whilst keeping the other raised.

"Twelve minutes... And you haven't been able to bring either round?"

The demon shook his head.

Wes peered at the charred scraps of paper that had once been a map but the entire area for several miles outside the town itself had burned up, and all without leaving a single mark on the wooden floor. It seemed that Giles and Tara had fallen foul of magic gone awry. They could wake up five minutes from now, five days or never and the only thing anyone could do for them was wait.

Wes frowned. "Do what you can to make them comfortable. I'll be back when I can. Help yourself to anything that's in the kitchen. Bee's been held up but she shouldn't be too much longer. Okay?"

The demon nodded again, sagging to his knees when Wes closed the front door behind him.

* * * * *

Robin Wood dashed a bucket of ice-cold water in Spike's face. "Wakey wakey. Rise and shine. It's a beautiful day to die... Well, for you to die, or can you really call it that since you're already dead?"

Spike was weak, but his senses were instantly alert, taking in his surroundings, knowing that his life depended on it. He recognised Wood from his description and he knew too well the coldness that showed in his eyes. Wood would say it was simply that death was Spike's due, but Spike knew that even if he died today Wood would find another excuse. He was feeling what it was like to be god, to have the power of life and death over another being and he was already hooked.

Spike scanned the "room" where he found himself. It seemed to be some sort of half-finished basement. The ceiling overhead only seemed to stretch as far as this room, two doors standing open but not offering freedom, just a dusty death. Crude crosses had been nailed to the walls on every side, but in the middle of the room where Wood stood dressed in Spike's duster pushing back the leather sleeves to strap on some home made combination of brass knuckles and wrist brace was the pièce de resistance, the goat-headed pentagram that had featured in his and Buffy's waking nightmare.

Spike pushed his way to his feet, singeing his palm as he made use of the wall behind him for support. "Well look who's all grown up? Wouldn't mum be proud of her little boy takin' down the vamp that killed her? Actually, I think she'd be pretty disgusted. See your mum, she had a bit of class. She knew the gig and she met it head on. She had style. You? You're just hidin' behind a pot of poison same way you hid behind that park bench."

Spike goaded the other man until he charged at him head down, driving him back against the wall and holding him there until smoke rose from his back where the crosses burned into his flesh but that was what the vampire wanted. There was no way he was going to meet the younger man over that seal. Like he'd tried to explain to the Scoobies these things are always about the blood, and sooner or later in this fight they were both going to bleed but if Spike had his way, they wouldn't be doing it anywhere near that thing.

"Where's Buffy?" Wes asked as he made his way into 1630's living room.

"And hello to you, too, Wesley." Xander let his hangover show.

"She's changing into some dry clothes," Dawn informed him. "Couldn't get Miss Stinky to go for the shower though. She said she had to be ready to move as soon as Tara and Giles tell her where she's headed."

"I doubt that there's going to be any rush to action on that account. Tara and Giles are indisposed. I think the location spell had some unexpected side effects. We're on our own. So I guess we're going to have to rely on good old fash-."

"High school construction site. Everyone that's coming, grab a weapon and MOVE!" Buffy flew down the stairs so fast her feet barely made contact with the boards.

"...Or Buffy could come up with a location out of thin air," the Englishman suggested even as he grabbed an axe from Buffy's weapons chest.

"Wh- How?" Xander stammered.

Wes was already pulling the front door open and jogging for his vehicle before Buffy could get there. Anya had decided that she was weapons monitor and was passing out swords and axes to all, though she hesitated briefly before passing a weapon to Dawn. In less than a minute she pressed the last sword into Xander's unresisting hand and pushed him out the door.

Brandon and Dawn were already climbing into the DeSoto and the only evidence that Buffy and Wes had ever been there was the tyre tracks in the middle of the street.

* * * * *

"Not that I want to sound like Xander... but how?" Wes asked as he negotiated the shortest route to the site of the former high school, which considering Buffy used to walk it in less than ten minutes was a pretty short route.

"Wood hasn't realised that when he picks a fight with one of us, he picks a fight with us both. As soon as the adrenalin kicks in I can see what he sees, hear what he thinks. I think with him. He's at a construction site. That pentagram we saw is there. It's got to be the Hellmouth. Spike's trying to keep him away from the thingy. He knows we're coming, but he's weak, the walls are covered in crosses and the only thing he can do is try to keep Wood so mad he forgets what it is he wants to do and keeps pounding on him instead."

"I guess we're crashing the gate then?" Wes put his foot down as they approached the chain link fence, aiming the centre of the car at the point where the gates were held shut by a chain and padlock. "Brace yourself. Maybe we should have taken that extra few seconds for seat belts."

Wes thanked his lucky stars that the chain was the first thing to give and that the car's airbags didn't go off. The two gates swung apart with enough momentum to bounce back, close and then half open again, but by then Wes and Buffy were already making their way along the muddy track to the main structure.

Buffy twisted her head, comparing her view of the sun with Spike's until she could tell which way the vampire was facing. "We're looking for a room at this side of the building. Dirt floor, so it's a fair bet to say basement. The room he's in has a roof. The rooms that way and that way don't." She pointed first to her right and then ahead of the car before Wes pulled to a stop with a handbrake turn. Buffy stepped out of the car to find herself standing next to a gap that at some point would house a window. She pulled herself easily through the high opening before grabbing Wes's hand to help him through. "Neat driving, Wes. Gonna give me some lessons?"

"That, I think, would be an unequivocal no," Wes answered, following Buffy with his axe in hand as she dashed through the skeleton of what would once again be a high school.

* * * * *

"So... what's this really about, then? Is it about the big bad vampire killin' yer mum, 'cause newsflash your mum was never gonna make it to your fifth birthday. We fought. We drew. We fought again and I won." Spike managed to maintain a sneer right to the end and then his lungs, long disused except for talking and drawing in smoke, forced him to cough up mouthfuls of blood while the larger man rained metal reinforced punches on his ribs, and Spike took another couple of blows to the jaw while he kept his face turned into the corner. Buffy and Wes were already in the car.

Not that a couple of punches in the mouth were enough to keep Spike quiet even if almost every sentence was punctuated by him coughing and spitting up blood. "Or are you coming after me because you're still pissed that you just didn't mean enough? After that first time in Central Park, she could've upped stakes and headed for Philadelphia, Jamaica, bloody Brixton even, any number of places where no one would pay her a second glance, where her poor misfit kid could grow up to be normal, to fit in. She could have said she'd done her part, she was going to retire and look after her son. Instead she came after me. That's not my fault. Yer mum was a slayer." On Hadley and heading this way.

"Half of it comes natural and half of it that bloody council brainwashes into 'em if they give 'em that chance. But she believed that claptrap about doing what you can and then the next one takes over. She believed that there was only one way to stop having to look after some accident of a brat whose dad had long jumped ship, if she ever knew who he was. She was sick of wiping your nose all day and then kicking vampire butt all night. Between you and the hunting she couldn't have a proper job, she didn't even have a friend that would look out for you when she did her patrols. You and the slaying were her life but you weren't enough to make her want to live." Two more minutes. Another hundred metal edged punches. Spike gripped the wood at his hand, crushing it until it cracked along the grain as he spoke, but Wood was too far gone to notice an extra plume of smoke, too far gone to do more than pummel Spike's bruised form as the vamp just refused to be silenced.

"She was just waiting for it to be someone good enough as come along that you an' her Crowley would blame whoever did it rather than know the truth. She quit. She gave up. Suicide by vamp. She could've staked me back then... if she'd wanted it enough. I wasn't better than her. I wasn't stronger than her. I wasn't faster than her. I just wanted it more." Spike's agile fingers pried the cross free from the wall, not quite loose enough to fall, but where he could grab it if he needed it.

"She wanted to die, she wanted to know how it felt, this sensation she meted out every day to my kind and more than anything she wanted it to be over... She could have run and taken you with her. Millions of people just get lost every year... but she chose death, just so some poor ginger-headed bint from Anchorage that was still in pig-tails and braces could take over. Your mom might as well have killed the poor bitch herself. Don't think she lasted any longer than the bloody Northern Lights they get up there before there was another chosen one being all chosen." At the gates an' Bob Vila was gonna have a bitch about that given half the chance.

"An' you got stuck, not only with bein' the only black kid on an overprivileged block but with having to explain at every football match and parents day who the pasty-faced English guy was. Bet half the kids you knew assumed he was your real dad but was too ashamed to admit it. How'd that work out for you?

And where was your real daddy? Did she even know? Hell, there was times we were rolling round that train it was more like wrestling than fighting and I swear... you know when a woman's so wet you can smell it?"

Wood stepped back, swinging into a spin-kick that Spike knew would break his neck if he let it make contact. Somehow, Buffy loaned him the strength to make the block. They saw it almost in slow-motion, the way Wood's leg came arcing round, the way Spike reached out, the shattered cross burning deeper into his palm even as Wood's momentum drove the splintered point through the inside of his thigh and out the other side.

"You fucking bastard." Wood dropped to his knees struggling to remove the wood from his leg.

"I wouldn't be doin' that if I were you." Spike nodded toward the man's hands. "'Round about now, that bit of wood is the only thing that's stopping your entire blood supply from droppin' out through your femoral artery. You pull that out and you're good as dead, so unless that death wish of your mum's is hereditary, I suggest you leave it well alone. An' just to set the record straight, I might not have known my dad any better than you knew yours, but he did have the decency to wed my mum before he kicked the bucket, unlike some."

"You're lying." Wood kept trying to work the cross free.

"Sorry, mate. Was a bit early for photos but I've seen the certificate. Even used to go to the same church when I was a kiddie though I can't say I blame you if you find that hard to believe."

Buffy stepped up behind the man, Wes to her right. "I think he meant about the bleeding to death, Spike, not the bit about your mom and dad being married."

"Well, I thought one warning on that was pretty good of me, considering."

"I do feel that was rather generous," Wes concurred on that point.

"Nice of you to drop in, love. And you brought good company."

"I would have been here sooner, if your directions had been better."

Dawn appeared in the doorway at the far side of the room, Brandon just behind her. "I would just yank the thing right out, personally. I think anyone that would pick on a puppy deserves to bleed to death in the dirt."

"You know, if being human doesn't work out for you, Dawnie, you would make a wonderful vengeance demon." Robin swivelled on his good leg to see Anya in the other doorway, soon to be joined by a panting Xander.

"Now I know that thing wasn't on the plans. And if I haven't made it clear enough before now, when I start work on that basement, bleach boy, you stay away from all the tools and building materials or next time you could hurt someone."

Buffy walked around the wounded man as Xander spoke, slipping an arm around Spike's back and pressing the orbs into Spike's hand. Those in the room who had yet to witness what happened when someone picked up the orbs watched the purple lightning sizzle through the pair in amazement. The mystical electricity seemed to symbolise their scintillating symbiosis. Spike rose to his feet with a new strength, his demon features melting into those of his human counterpart.

"You got this, honey? Or should we take over?" Buffy asked.

Spike turned in toward Buffy, damaged fingers tangling in her hair heedless of the strands sticking to the liquid that seeped from his burns. His lips opened and uncaring of their audience he lowered his head to meet Buffy's own. He tasted her sweetness and her strength, savouring everything that made her precious to him. Finally, lifting his head, he stared Robin Wood in the eye. "I think, for now, this is over. I think, our friend here is going to take his little DIY accident to the hospital and I think when he's been patched up, he's going to hand in his resignation and leave town. I know if I see him in this town again that he will die."

"There's a slight flaw in your plan," Wes pointed out. "So serious a wound may well require days in hospital. I believe by the time he concludes his stay, his resignation will be unnecessary. Mr Giles, I believe, has ensured that much."

"Even better. As to the rest, I assume I was correct?" Spike pinned Wood in place with an angry ultramarine glare.

"I don't owe you anything."

"No, you do, actually." Loosing his hold on Buffy's hand, he grasped the lapel of the coat that Wood still wore and pirouetting around him he swept it from the man's shoulders and wrapped it around his own in one fluid motion.

"That coat belonged to my mother," Wood argued.

"Yeah, funny enough I was aware of that... but I earned the right to wear it and I still wear it now, even though I've had plenty of opportunity to replace it ...because I respect your mother. I respect her as a worthy opponent, in a way that your actions make it obvious you're incapable of understanding. She would be disgusted to have a craven poisoner as her supposed successor. You would make her sick.

Right now..." Spike gave a self-deprecating bark of laughter. "I'm a damn sight closer to carrying on where she left off than you are. I'm not the one that was plannin' on summoning up whatever that oversized Alchemy trinket summons up. Maybe, I'll keep tabs on what you're up to. Maybe, some day, if you ever turn into the man your mother would have wanted you to be, you'll find a little something in your mailbox."

"You can't-."

"I'm done bein' polite." Spike's hand hovered over the cross that impaled Wood's thigh. "Get the hell out of our town. Then, stay the hell out of our town because if you ever come near me or any of my family again the first thing I will worry about is protectin' them an' next time I won't make any allowances for what happened with yer mum 'cause you don't deserve any. An' the same thing goes if I hear about you gettin' your jollies with a repeat of this on some other poor bugger."

Wood snorted. "You won't be doing anything. By the time I get out of hospital you'll be dead. If the poison doesn't run its course one of these guys will finish my job for me. You-."

Wes's cool tones cut across Wood's rant, just as Spike's hand gripped the cross, over the top of Wood's own, briefly twisting it within the wound until Wood screamed. "Spike will not be dying any time soon, neither will Buffy and none of us are going to feel any need for revenge because you haven't backed us into the corner that you think you have." Spike's eyes flew to the watcher's face, hardly daring to hope until Wes gave him an infinitesimal nod to let him know that this was no bluff. "Even if you had, might I suggest that we would be more inclined to lay the blame at your door rather than Spike's, which would make you the one in danger of retribution. However, your information is erroneous. We have the means to cure Spike's poisoning without endangering the life of anyone else. Now, I suggest that you stop whining and leave in the next ten seconds or I might be tempted to pull that cross out myself."

Buffy shifted from Spike's side for the first time, her hand hovering over the kneeling man's head, clearly frustrated by the fact he had no hair to grab until she decided to make do with an ear. She pulled his head back roughly, forcing him to look into her eyes so closely he could make no mistake about whether she meant what she had to say.

"I'm a slayer, Mr Wood, not a killer. As a rule, I let human justice take its course for human crimes. I make one exception to that rule. If someone threatens those people I consider part of my family I will do whatever it takes to keep them safe. Spike is part of that family and if you try to hurt him again I will beat you so far into the ground that they won't bother with the gravediggers, they'll just hold a service and cover you over... and no one here would stop me." Buffy put enough of a swing into releasing her grip that the man fell face-forward into the dirt and lay there. "Xander and Brandon will help you to your car."

Wood finally realised that there was nothing he could do that would gain him an ally. No chinks in the group dynamic that he could exploit. He was alone and just when he needed her, his mother had returned to the grave. He called out to her, as Xander and Brandon each took an arm to escort him, not unsympathetically, from the building to where his car was parked alongside the trailer that was his temporary office.

As Xander helped him into the car the younger man had some words of his own to say. "Spike, he used to be everything you think he is and I never will like the guy. I never will forget the things he's done... but my best friend is in love with the creep and he worships the ground she walks on. He looks out for her and he makes her happier than I've seen her in a long, long time and you should know happy isn't a huge part of the whole slayer gig. For that alone, I have to side with Pierce Brosnan, in there. Maybe, some day, after she's gone, he'll go back to how he was before and if he does, I'll look you up and help you hunt him down myself. Doesn't change the fact that until he does, he sure as hell isn't my friend... but he is family, with everything that goes with that.

Are we clear?"

"I'm all the family my mother had."

"Then, maybe like Spike said you should worry less about how she died and more about the life she wanted you to live." Xander closed the car door and rejoined Brandon before the pair watched the silver car make its way down the track, turning in the direction of the hospital when it reached the gates.

* * * * *

Xander and Brandon headed back down to the basement, only to find the others making their way back upstairs.

"We better go, Xander. Wood might not stick to his part of the bargain about that being a DIY disaster," Buffy told him as she walked upstairs, Spike's arm around her shoulder. "...And we better take care of Captain Gullible, here, before he goes up in a ball of flames, not to mention checking on Tara and Giles."

Xander shook his head. "You guys go ahead. If the police show, I spotted the gate was open and I was checking for intruders. In the meantime, I have the urge to reappropriate some of the concrete we were going to be using tomorrow for the foundations of the science building to make sure that if that thing ever sees the light of day again, then it's a long time coming."

Wes reassessed his former opinion of the construction worker. "Do you need any help with that?"

"Nah, it'd be harder to explain away if anyone else is here. Non-union workers are a big no-no. I've got it covered."

Dawn's eyes met those of her former infatuation. "You're still a jerk," she told him, "and I don't forgive you, yet... but this helps."

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