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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hope you enjoy it. My chapters are getting longer. Yay! I want them to be good. Please review. Thanks!
~Duchess
Chapter 6 – The City of Angels Awaits

Rome, Italy

Angel and Spike walked into a club and went straight for the bar. They had heard that this was the place where the Immortal hung out and where he would probably be with Buffy tonight. Spike did the talking with the pretty bartender and found out that the pair was dancing on the floor. Before he could head out to talk to Buffy first Angel left him with the demon head they were carrying to avert some demon war. Spike sighed and took a shot from the bar before he left the bar and the demon head without a second’s thought about it. All he could think about at the moment was Buffy.

Angel couldn’t get out to where they were on the dance floor. Spike caught a glimpse of the girl and got this wrenching feeling in his gut. Was that really Buffy? Could she really be with the Immortal? It looked just like her, but he didn’t want to believe that she would be with him if she was in right mind. So she had to be under a spell or his thrall or something, right?

Then Spike suddenly bumped into the tall poof and Angel turned around to face him. “You were supposed to be watching the head.” He sounded aggravated and glanced back to where Buffy was dancing with the Immortal, only to see that they weren’t there anymore. “Fuck me,” he said angrily.

“No,” Spike smirked.

Angel looked at him, fuming. “They left Spike. Together. Buffy and the Immortal.”

“Oh, fuck,” Spike agreed. They both hated this. They walked back to the bar dejectedly, both forgetting momentarily about the head. When they looked up they were standing a few feet from the bar. The head wasn’t there any longer. They spun and faced the door of the club. There was some little demon carrying the head away with him.


Flying from London to Paris

The next evening Buffy boarded a plane back to Rome. She’d be stopping in Paris in the middle of the night and she would stay there with Vi. They would fly the rest of the way to Rome the next day. Buffy had spoken to Giles some more during the day in London and she felt better about going to LA. Giles did understand, and more than anything he just wanted Buffy to be happy.

Buffy flipped through another magazine and then took out a book that Giles had given her on vampires coming back from the dead and all the possibilities therein. The book was up to date with all the latest cases, which was to say it had Angel in there a few other vampires who had risen again, including Darla. It didn’t just have stories of real vampires coming back, but had the chances of a vampire dying and where they’d go and how or if they could come back form such and such place. She flipped through the pages for maybe an hour before she finally closed it and fell asleep thinking about LA and Spike again.

A little while later the plane landed in Paris. She got off the plane and caught a cab to the address where Vi was living. Buffy knocked on the door and chatted with Vi for a bit, before finally saying, “I’m really tired. It’s good to see you, but I need to get a few hours in before we catch our flight to Rome later.”

“Of course, I totally understand,” Vi said cheerily.

She showed her to the pull out couch that was available in her small French apartment and went to bed herself.


Los Angeles

Spike settled into his seat on the plane as it made its descent back into LA. It was broad daylight in Los Angeles at the moment, but all he could think about was Buffy. He and Angel hadn’t said much about it, but he knew they were both feeling rather strange about the whole thing. On the plus side they had averted the sodding demon war. Yet, there was a weight on his shoulders because of Buffy. ‘What if I had just come out and told her I was alive again?’ he thought.

They landed and went back to the W&H offices. They were greeted by their coworkers with congratulations about a job well done. Shrugging off the congratulations they slunk into Angel’s office. Spike sunk into the couch and Angel stood at the window.

“I think she’s right,” Angel finally spoke.

“’bout what, mate?”

“Moving on. If she can do it…if she has done it…so should we.” His voice was soft and faraway.

“Yeah…” Spike thought about it, but didn’t like the idea.


Rome, Italy

Buffy showed Vi to the slayers’ house. They walked in and were greeted by some of the other slayers living there. Buffy spoke to one named Katie. “Can you show Vi where she’ll be staying?”

Then to all of the slayers a few minutes later, “Vi will be around to help you all with your training.” Buffy smiled at Vi. “She’s a good slayer. She’s been through a lot, so I want you all to trust her and follow her lead. Okay?” They all agreed. “I’ll be gone for a while. I’ll be in LA, but if anything comes up I’ll have a number where someone can reach me.”

With that said Buffy left and went back to her apartment. The moment she walked in she could sense that something was off. Someone had been there. Someone who normally wasn’t around. Then she sensed the slightest trace of vampire.

“Andrew!!” Buffy yelled through the apartment.

He came running. “What?!” he asked, unsure of how he’d upset her so soon. “It’s good to have you back Buffy,” he said kindly.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m not fishing for compliments Andrew. I want to know who was here while I was gone.”

“No one special. A couple of your old friends stopped by looking for you. I told them you were out…with a friend.”

“Andrew!” Buffy was beginning to get furious with him quite easily. “Who?!” Then it dawned on her. “Spike.”

Andrew nodded with wide eyes. “How’d you…”

“Spidey senses, remember?” she said, sarcastically. She closed her eyes and went to sit down on the couch. “Someone else too…oh!” Her head went down. “Angel.”

“Umm…”

“Yes,” Buffy said. “I know it was them.” Then she realized the whole ‘out with a friend’ comment. “Andrew?!” She looked up at him seriously. “Who’d you say I was out with?”

He flushed. “The Immortal.”

“What?!”

“Well…we had a decoy set up with him.”

“Oh…but, Spike…he must think…” Buffy gasped. “Was it bad?”

“No, not really.” Andrew tried to make her feel at ease. He didn’t want to piss her off. “They were just in shock, I think…didn’t want to believe that it was really you. But there is good news…” He stopped as he caught her look of surprise.

“Oh?” she folded her arms. “And what could that be?” she stood her ground to listen to what the young watcher had to say.

“Well…” he swallowed hard, “We know the decoy works. Even Angel and Spike didn’t know it was you.” He looked at her seriously, trying to remain calm.

Buffy was ready to hit someone, luckily she reigned in her emotions enough to refrain from hitting Andrew. “Yeah, I guess that is good news,” she said somberly.

She didn’t know what to do or say and Andrew quietly left the room. He wanted to be a safe distance from her right now. Buffy was obviously mad about this turn of events.

While Andrew escaped to some hiding place in the apartment Buffy went to her room and methodically changed into pajamas and crawled into bed. She was sitting up in bed, hugging her knees as she thought about Spike, again.

Buffy kept thinking to herself about Spike being here, in her apartment. She wished she hadn’t gone to London now. She wished she had stayed and seen him. What to do now was the bigger question. At the forefront of her mind was this thing, this lie, that Andrew had told Spike she was with someone else. She wasn’t though. She hadn’t been with anyone for months now, not since she had come to terms with the fact that she still loved Spike. There had been one guy she had dated when she was living in London about a month after the final battle. It was a small fling and they had fun while it lasted, but Buffy never saw it going anywhere. Since she’d been living in Rome she had dated a little, but things had been pretty quiet in the romance department lately. Yet here she was busy in the romance department, just not busy in the way she wanted to be busy. Buffy wanted to be with Spike, not worrying about what he would say when she came to see him or him thinking that she had moved on. ‘Oh no, what if he decided to move on too?’ The thought suddenly crossed her mind and she knew what she was going to have to do.

She reached over and grabbed the phone beside her bed and dialed the number for the airport ticketing office. “Hello. When is the next flight out to Los Angeles, California?” she asked.

“There will be one out tonight at 6 and it will be arriving in Los Angeles tomorrow morning at 8. Will there be anything else, ma’am?”

“Yes, thank you. I’d like to buy a one way ticket to Los Angeles at the time you specified.”

Buffy pulled out her credit card and gave the number to the woman on the telephone. Once that was over she looked over at her clock. 12:00 PM. Buffy grabbed her cell phone and set an alarm to wake her up in a couple hours. That would give her enough time to pack up some things and get to the airport. So, she rolled over and wrapped her blanket around her in hopes that she would be able to get a little sleep.

After tossing and turning for the next half hour Buffy decided she wouldn’t be able to sleep. She threw back the covers and reluctantly got out of her warm bed. Slowly she started moving around her room, ruffling her hair some as she tried to figure out what she was going to take with her to Los Angeles. It was time to start packing, and she still needed to tell Dawn and Andrew that she had moved up her date of departure. Buffy knew that it was something that just had to be done; she didn’t even contemplate the idea of leaving without telling them. That just wasn’t Buffy to leave without saying anything, well, except for when she left home after killing Angel, but that was different. Now she just had to break the news to them and she wasn’t leaving much time for a tearful goodbye or any getting used to the idea of her really going to LA.

An hour later there were two suitcases on the bed, packed and zipped, and her duffel bag with some small stuff for carry-on, and she was in the clothes she would wear to go to the airport. “There,” she said. “I’m finally packed, but not quite ready…” she trailed off looking at her bedroom door. Outside that door were her sister and Andrew, doing any number of things other than thinking about Buffy leaving for LA tonight. Buffy sighed and looked over at her packed bags. Taking a deep breath she said, “Here goes,” and walked out to the living room to talk to her roommates.

She walks out and sees Dawn and Andrew arguing over something on the TV.

“Is not,” Andrew said.

“Is so, way so,” Dawn said.

Buffy walked up to the couch and took another deep breath, steadying her nerves.

“Guys,” Buffy started and they both turned to look at her.

Dawn felt a little startled and in an instant took in Buffy’s appearance. “Buffy…are you going somewhere?” she asked.

Buffy smiled a little, not a thing got past Dawn these days. “Yeah, I am.” Her eyes wandered down and she forced herself to bring them back to look Dawn and Andrew in the face as she said this. “I’m going to LA now. Plans have changed and I need to go sooner than I thought.”

“Oh,” was all Dawn could say.

Andrew kept surprisingly quiet, but he knew he was in part to blame for Buffy leaving earlier than expected.

“When does your flight leave?” Dawn asked quietly.

“In about four hours…so I should get to the airport soon. I just wanted to talk to you two first.”

Dawn looked up at her and put on a brave face. This is what Buffy needed to do and she would stand behind her all the way. “Ok, Buffy.”

“Andrew…do you have anything you want to say to me before I go?” Buffy asked, looking Andrew in the eye.

“Uh…” he fumbled with his words. “I…uh…guess I’m sorry for lying while you were gone.” He looked down.

“Thank you for that Andrew.” Buffy looked at him and glanced over at Dawn again. “Just…I’ll call Giles when I get to LA. If he calls here before I get to LA just let him know that I’ll call him soon.” She smiled. “You sure you two will be alright here, just the two of you?” she asked, felling a little dubious about leaving Dawn with Andrew.

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Yes, Buffy. We’ll be fine. If we have any problems we’ll call you or Giles or one of the many, many slayers living nearby.”

Andrew nodded in agreement.

Buffy relented, “Ok, but call me if anything comes up.”

Buffy went back into her room and grabbed her bags. Then she came back out and gave Andrew a hug and then a big hug for Dawn. Their hug lasted for a couple of minutes. “I’ll call you when I get into my hotel, okay?” she said.

“Yeah,” Dawn nodded.

“I love you,” Buffy said, picking up her bags and turning toward the door. When she looked back before she walked out Dawn said it back.

“I love you too, Buffy.”


Los Angeles

Spike popped open a can of beer and started drinking it down. Beer usually wasn’t his drink of choice, no, that would be liquor and the hard stuff too. Now all he had at the moment was beer. The sun would be going down soon though and he could get something harder. For now he just slouched into his comfortable couch and turned the TV up a little. He’d found the Soap Net channel and was catching up on Passions. It was only when he felt down that he resorted to Passions, these days anyway. In the days of Sunnydale he would watch Passions just to pass the time. Time was passing just fine in LA. The problem was that he needed to get over the love of his life and he wanted to do it soon. The only thing Spike didn’t really think about was that drinking wouldn’t solve his heartache. It would only dull it for a little while.

He finished the six-pack of beer he had and the last bit of the episode of Passions. Then he looked over at the clock. “Sunset. ‘Bout damn time.”

Spike was out the door to find himself something to drink away his little problem.

That problem was Buffy.





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