There's a minor warning here about child abuse, but it's not too intense. Just thought I'd let you know. Please review!
Chapter 22 - The Rescue
“Do you think they might be out of town?” Buffy asked Spike twenty minutes later as they were standing outside the door of Lily’s house. They had knocked more than five times and there still was no answer.
Spike shook his head with a deep frown on his face. “I don’t think so. She would’ve said something about it.”
“But maybe they decided to go this morning,” Buffy tried, not really believing herself, “maybe they had to leave in such a hurry that they…” Buffy trailed off when her eyes landed on the car that was parked a few yards away from them. Spike followed her gaze and nodded.
“They’re home all right.”
“Just because the car is standing here doesn’t mean that they really are home. They could’ve gone shopping. Walked,” she clarified before shaking her head. “Oh, I don’t know.”
Spike’s eyes searched for a sign that they might be home, maybe a shining lamp… An open window? But he saw nothing. The curtains were drawn and there wasn’t a chance they could see what was going on inside. He let out a sigh and had to admit that this wasn’t going anywhere.
“What do you say about coming back later?” He asked Buffy. She nodded but couldn’t resist one more knock on the door.
“We could come back in an hour or – “
“I’m coming, I’m coming! God, what’s your problem…”
Buffy and Spike froze and quickly glanced at each other before the door was flung open by Mr. Simmons himself. Buffy wrinkled her nose at the smell of alcohol coming from him and took in his clothing. He was dressed in a pair of old worn pyjama pants and a shirt with small yellow spots on it which Buffy thought must be from spilled bear. By the way he was clinging to the door, she was sure this man was not sober. His eyes looked red and fiery but softened a bit when he saw the couple standing in front of him.
“Oh, hello. I’m sorry about that. I was asleep and there’s been some bloody salesmen here over and over again, thought you were them,” he smiled.
“Mr. Simmons,” Spike started, a frown settling on his face. “You do know that it’s almost three o’clock, don’t you?”
The man’s eyes suddenly changed back to the previous angry once and Buffy couldn’t help but take a small step back.
“Does that matter to you?”
“The reason why we’re here is that Lily wasn’t at practice today, we just wanted to make sure she was all right,” Spike said with a fake smile on his face and looked around the room as if expecting to see her standing there. The man went silent for a few seconds before answering.
“She is not feeling well.”
“Her teacher, Willow Rosenberg, also called me to let me know that she wasn’t at the meeting they were having. She was wondering why Lily wasn’t there.”
Mr. Simmons scoffed. “It’s her summer break, she shouldn’t have to go to school.”
“Well, this meeting was obligatory and Lily usually comes to these. She’s been trying to call but there was no answer. We just wanted to make sure she is okay.”
“She is. I’d let you in but she’s sleeping right now so that’s not a good idea. Come back another day.” He tried to close the door but Spike was quickly putting a hand on the door frame to prevent it from being closed. He glared at Spike.
“I said; come back another day. Lily is asleep.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Simmons, but somehow I’m guessing that’s not the truth.”
Buffy saw how the older man’s face changed again. Was that fear in his eyes? She didn’t have time to tell before it was gone and the anger was back, his cheeks started to take a shade of red as if he was straining to the very point of exhaustion.
“How dare you…”
“If Lily is sick, as you say, then why are you sitting in front of the tv with a bear?” Spike let out before Mr. Simmons had a chance to object. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it quickly and turned his head towards the living room. The flashes from the TV danced on the floor and Buffy saw how he clenched his jaw. “Shouldn’t you be checking your daughter?”
“You cannot tell me what to do,” he snapped. “If I want to watch some TV, I will and if I want to have an early drink I bloody well will do that, too.”
Spike raised his eyebrows and once again let his eyes glance past his shoulder into the living room where they could see not one but five empty bottles of beer and also a half empty bottle of vodka standing on the floor.
“You call that one early drink?”
Mr. Simmons averted his eyes from Spike, but the anger didn’t cease. “It’s none of your damn business what I drink!”
“It is, when I think something is wrong with one of my students!” Spike clarified his voice dangerously steady. The man scoffed in response.
“Why in hell do you care about that little brat? She’s nothing but a pain in the ass, I’ll tell you.”
Mr. Simmons regretted the words right after they left his mouth when he saw Spike’s eyes narrow and he lunched forward and grabbed the man by the lapels of his shabby shirt. “Why do I keep thinking that Lily is not feeling that well?”
“Let go of me,” Mr. Simmons breathed out, obviously in fear but also in anger at being told what to do by a much younger man. “Get out of my house before I’ll call the police!”
“I’d like to see you try,” Spike almost smirked. “What do you think they’d say when they find your sick daughter in the house and her obviously very drunk father?”
Mr. Simmons tried to get out of Spike’s grip but he only grabbed him harder and pushed him inside the hallway into one of the walls. Lily’s father let out a yelp when his back hit the wall with a thud. “What the hell are you doing?” He screamed at him and once again tried to wrestle out of Spike’s hands. “Let go of me!”
Mr. Simmons, who really was a bigger man than Spike, would if he had been in a much different state been able to push him away. But not being near sober made Spike take the advantage of the situation. As much as Mr. Simmons struggled he was not able to get himself free from the blonde man.
“Buffy,” Spike called out, not letting his eyes leave the struggling man in front of him, “go and check upstairs if Lily is there.”
“She’s sleeping!” Mr. Simmons cried out. “Don’t you dare wake her up!”
Buffy, who had been standing at the entrance all the time in shock shook out of it and ignored the threatening calls from the owner of the house as she made her way up the stairs. Her legs were shaking, she felt like she was breaking into someone’s house and technically – she did. But this was necessary, she knew it.
It was a pretty small house but that didn’t mean she knew were Lily could be, she didn’t even know if Spike was right. What would happen if it turned out that they’d been wrong all the way? Mr. Simmons would never forget it.
Fear filled her as she walked down the corridors of doors. She checked the bathroom that looked more like a room filled with garbage. The stank made Buffy quickly close the door and she continued to check the other rooms.
What she presumed was the oldest Simmons’s room looked like hell and she didn’t feel a lot better when she saw the numerous bottles of alcohol and a mysterious needle lying on the table beside the bed.
With a sharp intake of breath, she closed the door and let her eyes wander around the corridor. One door left. This one had to be Lily’s. Suddenly Buffy felt all her courage run away from her and all she wanted was to flee, flee from what might meet her eyes behind that door. But the worry for the poor little girl made her think differently. She gulped and walked over to the door. Carefully she reached for the doorknob and slowly opened it.
The room was black and it took her eyes a few seconds to get used to the dark surroundings. She made out a few furniture but no Lily. She traced the wall to find the light switch, still looking around the room in a search for the girl.
“Lily?” She whispered softly, so quiet she barley heard herself speak.
There was no response.
Buffy felt her hope fade and where the hell was that damn lamp? Angrily smashing her hand against the wall she almost jumped when she heard a little voice.
“Please, don’t…”
Buffy barley dared to breath. It sure was Lily’s voice and it sounded terrified.
“I-I promise I w-won’t…” She continued and Buffy tried to make out where the sound came from. Desperate to find the light switch she searched with both her hands over the wall.
“Lily?” She said again, higher this time.
“Please, Dad, I won’t…”
“Lily!” Buffy said sharper to let her know it wasn’t her dad. “It’s me. Buffy.”
Nothing but Buffy’s hands searching the wall was heard from the room before Lily let out a heart aching sob. “Buffy?”
“There!” Buffy cried out when she finally found the switcher, but the triumph of finding it didn’t last long – as soon as her eyes found the figure in front of her, she gasped and put her hands over her mouth. The sight made her want to cry.
Lily was placed on the bed, her head turned towards her with heavy eyelids. Her left cheekbone had taken a shade of purple, her lower lip was split and her right eye was covered in a bruise, the color similar to the one on her cheek.
Buffy slowly moved forwards, fearing that this was not all. The young girl tried to sit up in the bed but flinched and made a face of agony. Buffy quickly put a hand up to stop her. “Don’t, lie still, Lily. We will get you some help,” she told her softly and sat down on the floor in front of her. Lily relaxed a bit and let her head rest on the pillow as a single tear rolled down her bruised cheek.
Buffy gulped and carefully let a hand touch her hair. She felt her heart clench when the wounded girl flinched. “It will be okay, honey. We’ll get you out of here.”
“We?” Lily whispered softly, her voice cracking with emotion.
“Spike is here too,” she told her and that made her remember. “I’ll get him upstairs and then I will be back in here, okay?”
Lily barley nodded and closed her eyes. Buffy backed out of the room and called out for him. “Spike! Spike get up here!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Downstairs, Spike whipped his head around towards the stairs when he heard Buffy’s obviously scared voice calling for him. He clenched his jaw and turned his eyes back to the man in front of him.
“I take it she’s not all right,” he whispered although the menacing tone in his voice was still there. Mr. Simmons swallowed, trying to back into the wall, away from Spike.
“Spike!” Buffy’s cry was higher and more panicked this time. He glanced at the stair again, and back to Lily’s father. He was torn from beating this man to death and running to Lily. Buffy’s call was convincing enough and he let go of the man with a final glare.
“You will bloody well stay here,” he threatened but he knew that as soon as he was up the stairs Mr. Simmons would be out of that door. Right now though, he couldn’t care less. He’d find him and hunt him down for hurting Lily later. He ran up the stairs and got the second most scaring experience of his life when he saw Lily’s crumpled form on the bed.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I'm so happy for all the awesome response I get for this story! Thank you so much! I really hope you'll stay with me until the end. I have to other stories I'm thinking of posting here; one's already written and I just started with the other one. But I do want to finish Twisted Fate before I post another fic here. Hope that's okat with you :)
As always, a great thanks to Chriss for betaing the story and to everyone who reads and reviews!
As always, a great thanks to Chriss for betaing the story and to everyone who reads and reviews!