And thanks again to Brat and Caitie, who beta’d this chapter for me. Your help has been invaluable, girls. And if you find any mistakes, it’s because I tend to keep playing with the chapters after I receive them back from them. ;)
Chapter 10
“Woo-hoo!” Spike exclaimed once they’d left the school behind, seeing through the rearview mirror how the gate closed a few seconds after they had gone through it.
Once she heard Spike’s exclamation, Buffy finally opened her eyes, surprised when she saw the dirt road in front of them. “I can’t believe we made it out!” she said smiling brightly and with a relieved sigh, she reclined back on her seat, extending her hand to touch Spike’s arm and caress his hair. She needed to touch him, to make sure this was real and that he wouldn’t disappear before her eyes.
“Me neither, pet,” Spike said gazing adoringly at her, before speeding into the main road. “Are you ready to begin the rest of our lives?”
“With you? Always, baby, always,” Buffy answered.
Honor Council Headquarters
Danica Spencer was talking over the phone when her partner, Rachel Goodday, entered their office carrying several files. She waved at the pretty brunette signaling the waiting chair in front of her desk. Rachel smiled as she sat down putting her files over the desk, half-listening to the blond girl’s conversation as she tried to contain her impatience, she could hardly wait to see Danica’s expression when she told her the results of her most recent investigation.
“A-ha… yes, I understand perfectly… no, don’t worry, you won’t get in any kind of trouble by denouncing this, in fact, I’m quite sure the new Council will be very thankful for this information… yes, I’ll keep in touch and if you find out something else regarding this issue, please don’t hesitate to call us. Yes, you can ask for me or for my partner, Rachel Goodday… right, good day to you, too. Bye.”
“You won’t believe what I have to tell you!” Both women exclaimed exactly at the same time.
“Me first, pretty please,” Danica said, batting her eyelashes coquettishly.
The brunette smiled with a mischievous twinkle in her green eyes and replied teasingly, “You do realize that that only works on men, don’t you?”
“Oh, whatever! Once you listen to what that phone call was about, you’ll be happy I went first anyway,” the blond girl replied good-naturedly. “I think we might have enough to get rid of that little cockroach Snyder for a very, very long time.”
“Oh, yeah? Do tell,” Rachel Goodday said, curious over what Danica had discovered and hoping that it had nothing to do with what she’d discovered in turn.
“Do you remember Snyder? The not-so-friendly-warden from the Oak Ridge Honor Camp?” she clarified after seeing Rachel’s blank look and then waited for her affirmative nod to continue. “Well, it seems he decided to take justice in his own hands. A boy escaped less than a week ago from the camp and Snyder hunted him down and brought him back to the camp chained like he was some kind of animal.”
“Oh, no, that’s awful!” the brunette exclaimed horrified.
“And another boy escaped last night to meet his girlfriend at the local cemetery and Snyder beat him up so badly the boy could hardly stand up when he was taken back to the camp. But that’s not all, this boy, William Taylor, escaped again today – and according to Officer Woods, guess who is running after him?”
“Wait a minute!” Rachel said, looking through her files. “William Taylor, you said?” Danica nodded. “I’ve seen that name somewhere; come on, where are you? Here it is! I knew I had seen the name somewhere.” The blond girl looked confusedly at her partner; Rachel was always so calm and collected, that it was beyond weird to see her so excited. “We received a denounce turned in by this boy’s mother, it appears that there were some irregularities in his process and after investigating a little, I’ve found out that his file is not the only one where there are some irregularities. It seems Quentin Travers might have been running a little side business while he was head of the Council and by what you just told me, I’m willing to bet this guy Snyder was working for him.”
“Side business?”
“Yes, it seems our ex-boss charged a fee to persons with interest in keeping their boys locked in the Honor Camp until they reached their age majority. William’s mother overheard a conversation between her now ex-fiancé and one of his friends, so she became suspicious and began investigating and she finally discovered that her son’s behavior hadn’t really merited him being locked up in the camp. Believe me, once this reaches the new Council’s ears, more than a few heads will roll down. I’ve already talked with the DA and she is on our side and is going to meet us here in a few minutes. Now who is the winner?” Rachel added with a cocky smile.
“Well, I think… you definitely win this one. But don’t get used to this, it won’t happen again!”
Immaculate Heart School
Sister Victoria sat unmoving behind her desk. Even after seeing it happen before her very eyes, she still couldn’t fully grasp what had happened or how it had happened. Surely this had to be a nightmare, there was no way that Elizabeth Summers had escaped with that… juvenile delinquent, was it? And what was she supposed to tell Mr. Summers when he and his wife came to pick up their daughter? ‘Sorry Mr. Summers, but somehow your daughter escaped from the school with the same boy she was found with yesterday?’ She winced as she imagined what his reaction might be to that and then she closed her eyes tightly trying to steel herself to the probable repercussions this mess would surely bring, wishing she could be somewhere else at the moment, anywhere, just not there.
The intercom buzzed and she let out a weary sigh already imagining what Sister Harriet was about to tell her.
“Yes, Sister Harriet?”
“Mr. and Mrs. Summers are here to see you, Sister Victoria.”
“Of course, let them in, please.” Sister Victoria answered, dreading the meeting but knowing that there wasn’t anything she could do to avoid it.
“My daughter what?!” Hank Summers roared.
“If you let me explain…” Sister Victoria tried to interject.
“Explain? Is there anything left to explain? My daughter escaped with a convicted criminal and you let them.”
“Now, wait a minute…”
“No, you wait, Sister. There’s no way to justify what happened with my daughter and mark my words, after we find our daughter, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer and after we’re done with you,” he said with an icy gleam in his eyes. ”You’ll be very lucky if you have a job cleaning the floors in this school; that is if there’s still a school left afterwards. Let’s go, Joyce, we have to find Buffy before something else happens,” he added as he turned to leave the Headmistress’ office, followed closely by his still shell-shocked wife.
“Oh, Hank, our baby!” Joyce cried out as soon as they went out of the office.
Hank took her tenderly into his arms, hugging her tightly to him, trying to provide his wife with some measure of comfort, even if he was crying inside, too. This had to be a nightmare; their darling Buffy couldn’t have done this, this boy must have kidnapped her or something, surely.
“I know, baby, but don’t worry. I promise we’ll find her,” he said as he ran his hands up and down her back. “Come on, let’s go. I have to call the office so they can help us, okay?”
A tearful Joyce nodded and they began walking toward the exit when they heard someone calling after them.
“Mr. and… Mrs. Summers!” a panting redhead called after them. “Please, I… have to t-talk to you…”
“Willow?” Joyce asked. “You’re Buffy’s roommate, aren’t you? I met you the last time we came to visit Buffy.” After Willow nodded, she continued, “Do you know where my daughter is? Please, you’ve got to tell us.”
“I-I really don’t know where she is, Mrs. Summers,” ‘And I’m not sure I’d tell you even if I did,’ she added to herself. “B-but she left you both this note before she left,” she answered, handing them a note.
Hank took the note from her hands and his face paled after he finished reading it, before he handed it to Joyce.
‘Dear Mom and Dad,
When you receive this letter, I won’t be here anymore. I don’t have time to explain, so Willow will do it for me. If you love me, please don’t try to find me. For once in my life I feel like I belong somewhere, to someone. I’m happy, truly happy for the first time in my life, don’t try to take this away from me. I promise I will get in touch with you some day, some way.
Love,
Buffy’
“What does this mean? What do you have to explain us, Willow? Please, we’re dying here. Our little girl is missing and all we know is that she escaped with some kind of criminal,” Joyce pleaded.
“We can’t really talk here,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “Follow me, please; we’ll have a little more privacy in the patio.”
Sharing a look, Buffy’s parents silently followed her daughter’s friend to the patio. Once they reached there, Willow signaled for them to sit on a bench and she began pacing, trying to decide how much she could tell Buffy’s parents about what had happened.
“First of all, Spike’s not a criminal, at least I don’t think he is. I know you must be shocked by what happened, but I also know that Buffy was not happy here, she was not happy to be apart from you. She used to go on and on about how wonderful it would be when she finally came to live to with you two and be a family, especially after you, Mr. Summers, told her you’d think about it. So, you can imagine how crushed she was when Sister Victoria told her that you would send her to yet another boarding school.”
Hank looked guiltily at Joyce, when he heard her surprised gasp and he blushed under her icy stare, lowering his head. “You never told me that! If you had, I would’ve…”
“I-I thought she’d be better off there than at home,” Hank tried to justify.
“Please, we don’t have too much time, someone might come,” Willow said. “As I was saying, she was very sad that you didn’t want her home with you,” Joyce sent Hank another icy glare, which made him slump his shoulders in defeat. “It was then that she met Spike and although they haven’t known each other for long, they fell in love and then they found them together and you were going to take her to that other boarding school, so they escaped together.”
“Do you know where they could be?” Joyce asked.
“Do you know anything at all about this Spike? Anything that might help us find them?” Hank pleaded at the same time.
“Well, that depends. What do you plan to do once you find them?”
“We plan to take our daughter home and love her very much,” Joyce answered, sending a pointed glare to her husband daring him to contradict her.
“And what about Spike? What are your plans for him?” Willow asked, softening her tone.
“You have my promise we will do whatever Buffy wants us to do,” Hank said, surprising his wife and Willow with his prompt and very sincere answer.
“Okay, I’ll tell you all that you’ll need to know.”
tbc