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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hmm. Spike for the first time. And he walks! Yays. And also... what on earth has happened to Jonathon?
Joyce had stayed up late the night before, finishing a project for the gallery, so Buffy had been unable to sneak out to go look for Angelus to gather information. She was anxious, and had been unable to get to sleep until the time that she usually would have got home after patrol. It was then she decided that fretting was futile now, as she’d have been home anyway, and finally managed to fall into a dreamful sleep.

She woke up the next morning to Dawn sitting on the edge of the bed, a thoughtful and worried look on her face.

“Buffy? Do you think you’ll find him?”

Buffy sat up, already wishing that her younger sister knew nothing about the second life she led. It was harsh for Dawn that she had to keep it a secret as well. Their mother was a worry-wart who fussed over them whenever they got sick, and Dawn knew that she would want to know. However, ever since they had sent her to that institution, Dawn had kept her mouth shut about the truth, and Buffy would never be able to show the depth of the gratitude she had for that.

“I don’t know, Dawnie. I really hope so. I was going to try to find him last night, but Mom stayed awake to long. I’m worried, because he’s a pretty good friend of my, but I’m going to see what I can do. I’ll go take a look around the cinema after school and see what I can find, because that’s where he told his Mom he was heading out to Saturday afternoon, which as when he went missing, then I’ll go see if I can find Angelus.”

“’Kay.” Dawn looked fidgety before she leant over and gave Buffy a hug. “Be careful?”

“I always am.” Buffy forced a smile as she pulled back, before using her chin to indicate the door, which Dawn took to mean ‘now get out before we get too soppy’, smiling back and leaving Buffy alone to get dressed.

***

“Giles, I think Angelus has done something to Jonathon. Nobody’s seen him since Saturday, and he would have turned up by now if he’s just dead.”

The librarian looked up at Buffy, taking his glasses from his face as he looked away from the book she’d been reading. He frowned and nodded.

“If he’s completely disappeared, then it’s probably Angelus who has taken him, yes. There are no other large players in town that may require the kidnapping of human boys, although for what purpose anyone would take Jonathon, I don’t know.”

“His Mom said that he was headed down to the cinema Saturday Afternoon, which was when she last saw him, so I’m gonna head down there, see what I can scrounge up. Sound like a plan?”

“Yes, it does. See if the clerk remembers whether he turned up or not. If not, you’ll have to check all along his route to the cinema, which could take a rather long time.”

“Yeh, I really hope he did turn up. It’ll make finding him a lot easier.” Buffy gave a nod. “Ok, I’ll be off then.” At that, she turned and left, heading out towards the cinema.

***

Buffy waited, leaning against the wall of the cinema, watching as the line queuing up to get into the next show dwindled down to nothing. She finally got up and head over to the booth, hands grasping the sill as she leant forwards, smiling at the clerk.

“Hey, I’m looking for a guy named Jonathon. He went missing Saturday afternoon, and his Mom said this was where he was headed. Were you working and if you were, he’s really short, 16 years old, brown hair and eyes, bit of a geek so would have been wearing jeans, maybe a baggy t-shirt?”

The clerk, whose name was Mark according to his nametag, nodded, frowning. “Yeh, I know Jonathon, he comes here a lot. He usually gets here a bit early so we can have a chat on my afternoon break. I was off work after his film finished last week though, so I don’t know if he came out though. You’re welcome to go in and ask though. Everyone knows him. They can tell you if they saw him leave.” The poor guy did look worried, contemplated Buffy. Maybe these were Jonathon’s friends, why he had never worried about being considered a geeky freak at school. Because he had people who liked him anyways. She nodded, smiling at him, tapping the sill before turning slightly and heading inside.

Yet again, she had to wait until the queue disappeared, so she walked towards the toilets, looking around to make sure no one was looking before she darted into the guy’s restrooms. It was entirely possible that he’d been taken while in the toilets, so there could be something in there.

It was clean in there. Cleaner than Buffy had been lead to believe men’s restrooms were. People always made out that they were really grotty, but it seemed just as nice as the one for women, even if the sight of the urinals made her wrinkle her nose. Turning away, as there was nothing over there that caught her eye, she made her way towards the stalls, opening the first one and looking inside. Nothing. She pushed open the second, that was empty as well. Pushing open the third and final door she frowned, spotting a wallet on the top of the cistern. Stepping into the cubicle, she picked it up and flicked it open. Jonathon. This was definitely where he went missing. She turned to leave the cubicle when she heard the door open. She quickly made sure the door was shut, which it as, then hopped up onto the toilet seat, hiding her feet.

“Bloody bint. Tasted like crap. Shoulda known she would. No one who looks that much like the slayer would taste anything like her. And she just had to go and bleed all over me. Bloody typical.”

Buffy’s eye’s widened. She knew that voice. And he was definitely walking. She stayed silent. She wasn’t prepped for this. Her Mom expected her to be home by dark tonight, so she hadn’t bothered to bring a stake, and she didn’t want to be fighting close quarters with Spike. Hopefully, he’d be distracted enough by whoever’s blood was covering him.

The sounds of a tap being turned on, and Spike grabbing paper towels from the dispenser to clean himself with filtered through to her ears. Sounded like he was covered in the stuff from the amount of towels he was tugging out. She bit her lip, using the meditation techniques Giles had shown her to try to slow her heartbeat down, slowing her breathing while she was at it.

“I may be a bloody vampire, but that doesn’t mean I want my duster covered in blood. Bugger. I don’t have time for another meal. Gotta get back before the poof realises I’m gone. Stupid bloody bint!” Buffy had to hold back a giggle as she heard him slam his fist into the concrete wall, swearing. Sounded like he was frustrated about being in that chair, and that he was pretending that he couldn’t walk, for what reason, she didn’t know. However, this meant that Spike wouldn’t be going out tonight, so if she did want to go see him at the factory, she’d be prepared for a walking Spike. She frowned, something occurring to her. How was he here? It was still light outside.

She came back to herself as she heard the door close on him as he left and got down from the toilet top, following after him, watching him from behind the door as he crossed to what looked like basement access with a no entry sign, which Spike ignored. Tunnel access. She smiled. Trust Spike to ignore the time of day and go out anyway. Shaking her head, she snuck out of the restroom and over to the concessions stand which now had no queue in sight.

“Can I help you?” Buffy looked up from where she’d been debating whether to buy some peanut-butter cups, to look at the brunette girl across the counter.

“Yeh, I’m asking for information about Jonathon? According to the guy out front, he comes on a Saturday and you guys all know him?”

“Yeh, we know Jonathon. What about him?”

“He went missing Saturday afternoon. Mark said that he wasn’t here when the film finished because he got off early, though he didn’t say why. I was wondering if you saw Jonathon leaving.”

The girl, Jessica, frowned, turning her head to look at a red head guy down the way.

“Hey, Thom, did you see Jon leaving on Saturday? I don’t remember.”

“No. I didn’t.” He shook his head as he walked over, looking worried. “I don’t know why. We usually say goodbye, but I don’t recall seeing him.”

“That’s not good. Which screen was he in?” Thom pointed over at the third screen.

“Over there. You think you’ll find anything?” Buffy looked over, eyes flickering from the door to the screen, to the basement door, which was feet away. This wasn’t looking promising.

“I don’t know, but I can look.”

“You don’t look like you’re a cop, you know.” Buffy turned her head to look at Thom to find him studying her closely. She smiled and shrugged, turning to walk towards the screen, calling back over her shoulder,

“I never said I was.”

***

Buffy entered the screen. It wasn’t in use at the moment, and an elderly gentleman seemed to be sweeping up popcorn down near the front. He looked up at her for a little while, before seeming to mentally shrug before looking back down at the floor. She smiled to herself, and began walking between the seats, looking for any clues.

She was part way down the second row from the back when something caught her eye. The seats were already red, so she might have easily missed it, but there was definately blood. Not a lot of it, but it was on the back of the seat, as though someone was bleeding from their head. Maybe Jonathon. Head wound to knock him out maybe?

She made her way back out to the front lobby, back to the concessions stand.

“Hey guys, how many people were in there on Saturday?”

“Not many. It was the last night it was showing, so pretty much everyone who wanted to see it already had.” Jess shrugged. “He always waits for that kind of crowd before he sees a film. He likes the quiet.”

“Where does he usually sit?” Buffy looked at Thom when he replied.

“At the back, second row, near to the aisle so he can get up to use the toilet. He usually needs to go.” Buffy nodded. That linked. He’d probably gotten up to use the restroom, forgotten his wallet, gone back, and gotten himself smacked over the head.

They now had reason to worry.

“Why? Did you find something?” Jess looked worried.

“Nothing to bother you with.” Buffy looked down at the counter, through the glass, then back up, looking a little sheepish. “Can I get some p-b cups?”


Chapter End Notes:
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