“I need you to make Buffy feel like she’s needed here. She seemed happy spending time with me last night for once and I want to make sure she sticks around. For her to do that, she has to feel like she had a duty here to stay and help. Can you arrange something for her to do?, “Angel said looking directly at Fred.
Fred swallowed hard and thought of something saying, “I think I have just the thing that will give her something to do.”
Fred smiled just as there was a knock at the door.
Buffy entered the room followed by Harmony who said, “Buffy is here boss.”
Angel rolled his eyes and then said to Buffy, “Just the person we were looking for. Fred has a project for you to do. She needs your help.”
Angel had no idea what Fred could possibly have for her to do and instead left Fred lead her out of the office hoping this worked.
If not, he would have Gunn try, and then Wesley and lastly Lorne. Lorne was a loose bullet and he didn’t want Buffy with him actually. Hopefully Fred would help.
Spike sighed wishing for more violence. Sitting on the back of a beastie that didn’t even require much water to live, wasn’t his idea of a good time. He just wanted to scream and fight something even the camel but instead he knew he had a long way to go and only this beastie to get him there.
He took more sips of blood for something to do feeling so antsy. He would so rip Angel’s head off and watch him dust for this. He hoped his next mission was more physical. He closed his eyes rubbing his scar wishing for release.
Buffy found herself absently rubbing her scar and Fred noticed and commented, “Where’d you get that?”
Buffy stopped rubbing it saying, “Sunnydale.”
Fred nodded saying, “Does it still hurt?”
Buffy shook her head saying, “No, it actually helps comfort me.”
Fred nodded saying, “How’d you get it?”
Buffy frowned not sure what to say. She thought about not answering but Fred looked so curious she said, “Fire actually. The last time I saved the world…”
She didn’t know what to say so finally she said, “Spike saved the world in the last battle by wearing an amulet. As it was working, he screamed out my name and of course I went running. We grasped hands as I whispered I love you and our hands caught fire. If he was alive today I’m sure he would have a matching one.”
Fred reached for Buffy’s hand studying it for a minute and said, “Want to learn more about it? It doesn’t look like a normal burn, almost looks magical.”
Buffy shrugged and said, “How would I find out more about it?”
Fred reached getting a little knife and rubbing it over the scar scraping the skin gently and said, “Let’s look!”
Fred took the skin cells placing them on a slide and put them under a microscope and pulled the slide out of a second microscope and rubbed the other hand without the scar with it. She put a different slide and slid them under the microscope. She looked at both and noticed different skins types.
She grinned saying, “Look!” Buffy looked and noticed the skin was different.
Fred was curious but needed to get rid of Buffy to test her theory. She said, “Ok Buffy, I need you to compare two things. It works similar to the skin samples but a little different. We have a demon who is having a baby and claims she mated with someone from her own tribe but we think it was from someone in another tribe. We have 15 DNA samples from each tribe. Your job is to compare the DNA samples. It’s time consuming but easy to do watch.”
Fred hit a few buttons on the computer and Buffy watched as two DNA strains popped up.
Fred pointed to the one on the right saying, “That is the baby’s. the one on the left is the combination of what would come from the mother and father joined. If they match, you tag it with the spacebar. If not you ignore it and keep scrolling down.”
Buffy nodded thinking she can handle that. She sat down in the chair and got straight to work.
Fred knew the computer could do that but didn’t want to let Buffy know that. She was more curious about these skin cells.
Buffy stretched after 3 hours of spending time looking at DNA after DNA, she had found a perfect match. It seems the demon girl was getting it on definitely with the other tribe so that means Angel would have to step in and negotiate the results. Buffy was bored though. Surely there was something in this building more exciting.
She looked at Fred who said, “I’d try to visit Gunn for a while. He might be able to teach you something cool.”
Buffy whispered softly feeling a tad bad, “Does he have a more physical kind of job?”
Fred knew he didn’t but said, “Maybe.” Buffy shrugged hoping for the best as she followed Fred.
Fred had been researching skin cells. She tested Spike’s that they had taken when he was first turned from his ghost self to his non-ghost self. Knowing the scar was on Spike made it easy enough to trace the skin cells on him. The scar was the result of his skin being burnt onto hers and vice versa. Fred didn’t know what that meant but somehow their skins were merged together at that exactly location. It was fascinating if nothing else.
Fred smiled as she went off to find Wesley to tell him what she figured out.
Buffy sat typing up reports for Gunn. God she was so much hating this place. She longed to be able to lie on her bed and just sleep peacefully and not have to type up law reports that said words she didn’t even understand. If she didn’t know better would think it was in a foreign language. She longed for action. She already knew that this wasn’t the place for her. She didn’t belong in an office. She belonged out there fighting the good fight but she only wished she were motivated to do so. Right now she just felt like lying down and dying but knew that wasn’t a possibility.
This place was reminding her of Spike. She could almost close her eyes and sense him walking the same walls she was walking, visiting the same offices she was visiting and it was weird. She just couldn’t shake the feeling he had been here.
She shrugged it off thinking he might have done a surprise visit to Angel after the soul addition to his body. Angel seemed surprised though so she highly doubted that was the case.
She sighed typing up another report. She had two more to go then she was supposed to visit Lorne’s again because they thought she was having so much fun there last night. Singing was ok but it made her miss Spike. When she was on the stage she could almost feel that he had been there too. It was an eerie feeling but she liked the comfort of feeling that he was still surrounding her. God she longed for sleep where he would really feel close.
She sighed and continued typing. The faster she typed, the faster she could go see Lorne and then the faster she could hide away in her bed feeling Spike’s arms around her for the night.
Spike had had it with the camel. He was so thankful it was close to sunrise and that means he was almost at the airport. Why the airport was in the middle of a desert he would never understand. Come to think of it, he didn’t think it was an airport. It was just a flat piece of land with nothing growing so they used it to land airplanes on it.
He drank another sip of his blood noticing he had only one skin left. He was thirsty today. He closed his eyes for a moment wishing for the comfort of Buffy.
For a slight moment he could almost feel her whispering to him, “Save me, Spike.” He felt her breath against his ear as he heard her whisper it again, “Save me from this world Spike and take me with you.” He sighed as he opened his eyes to see the camel had stopped and they were back at the plane.
He could almost kiss his ride home. He took the water skin and downed the rest of it before taking the urn, coins, and vial with him onto the plane making sure had the scrolls. He opened the cooler and pulled out a scotch and downed one bottle thinking there was just not enough on those shots.
He laid back to relax until it was time to sleep.
Buffy closed her eyes for a moment and imagined Spike standing in front of her. She leaned forward to whispering into his ear, “Save me, Spike.” Getting no reply she leaned closer and whispered, “Save me from this world Spike and take me with you.” She felt him sigh and opened her eyes to find herself still sitting in Gunn’s office but at least she had finished typing up his reports. She put them on the pile of done and stood up to tell Angel those two people’s jobs were not for her. She needed something more physical.