CUT TO: SOMEWHERE, CALIFORNIA
(The camera is focused on a single tree that is growing next to the road, a couple birds chirping from inside the branches. Suddenly, they fly away, startled. We hear the roar of an engine seconds before a blur of red flashes before the camera. It’s a car, and the camera follows a red convertible as it speeds down an empty highway, closing in on it to show SPIKE and the woman who picked him up)
WOMAN: (conversationally, in a Southern lilt) So…what were doing in the middle of a crater, shirt torn and wearing that…butt ugly thing around your neck?
SPIKE: (glancing down at the amulet) Savin’ the world. (He looks over at her) You?
WOMAN: (looking slightly surprised) Well, I wasn’t wearing that thing, and I’m in much prettier clothes than you, but other than that…I was there to see why the world wasn’t ending. (she glances at him) Suppose I got you to thank for that?
SPIKE: (softly, turning to stare at the passing scenery) You can thank Buffy.
(the woman turns her head to look at him for a few seconds before turning her attention back to the road. Her hands flex over the steering wheel and her brow furrows)
WOMAN: Buffy?
(Spike swallows, and we flash back to him and Buffy in the crumbling school)
Buffy: (whispered) Please…you can’t…I love you…
(Spike closes his eyes and sighs. The images flash again, and it shows the ring, nestled in it’s little black box, sparkling)
SPIKE: (to the woman) Yeah…(looks over at her) She and I…well, I loved her and she loved me. Not much to it.
WOMAN: (thoughtfully) Buffy… (she looks at him) She wouldn’t happen to know a guy named…Angel, would she?
(There’s no response for a few seconds before Spike turns his head to look at her. She shrugs)
SPIKE: What the bloody-
---
CUT TO: YELLOW SCHOOL BUS—DAY
(We see Buffy sitting in the back, tears rolling slowly down her face. One hand is hidden from hour view, but the other is hanging by her side and off the seat, clenched around something and we see blood dripping down her fingers, slipping to the floor. She has multiple gauzes wrapped around her head and one wrapped around her middle from where the Uber-Vamp stabbed her)
DAWN O.S.: -hell? What are you doing?
(it switches to Buffy POV, showing Dawn standing there, arms akimbo, and eyebrow raised.)
BUFFY O.S: (softly) W-What?
DAWN: (sternly) Whatever the hell you’re doing to your hand, stop it. (She reaches forward and grabs Buffy’s hand, pulling it into the line of camera) It’s all…bloody. (she peels apart Buffy’s hand, who tries to yank it back. Dawn glares, and the hand is pulled open, revealing the thing that had been stabbing Buffy’s hand) A…a ring?
(the camera switches out of Buffy POV, showing Buffy trying to get the ring back from Dawn, who’s holding the bloodied object to the light)
BUFFY: (loudly, crying out) G-Give it back! It’s mine!
(Dawn looks at her, startled. She slowly hands the ring back and it’s immediately snatched out of her hand and into Buffy’s, who curls into the fetal position and rocks back and forth. Dawn backs away and walks towards the front of the bus to where Giles is, and we see that Willow, Xander, Wood and Faith aren’t there.)
DAWN: (as she sits down with a thump) Okay…
---
CUT TO: HOSPITAL
(We see the hospital which they had pulled into a few hours before, Giles, Buffy and Dawn having already left. We see Xander and Willow in a few of the chairs, fast asleep and leaning on each other. The camera pans over and shows Faith, also sitting on one of the chairs and looking worried. The camera follows her gaze, leading up to a set of double doors that read EMERGENCY ROOM. The camera pushes through, entering a room where it shows Wood, being operated on)
FATIH O.S: I hope he’s alright…
---
CUT TO: THE RED CONVERTIBLE
(We see that the car is parked in front of a diner whose neon lights read Sunset Diner. The camera moves inside, showing us the only customers inside. Spike and the woman are sitting in a booth, drinking some water)
SPIKE: (trying to understand) Let me get this straight…your name is Fred Burkle, and you work with Angelus-
WOMAN/FRED: Angel. Angelus…it brings up bad memories.
SPIKE: (ignoring her) You work with Angelus, fighting the good fight while inside an evil law firm? (sits back) Huh. Not exactly the type of profession I’d’ve thought you’d have, but we’re all prone to mistakes.
FRED: Yeah…so, you and Buffy, huh?
SPIKE: Yeah…me and Buffy.
SPIKE VO: Buffy, you need to get out, love. Get out, now!
BUFFY VO: (tearfully) N-No…you can still make it out! Spike, please!
(we see Spike’s hand tighten around his glass, and a few splinters appear in it)
SPIKE VO: Buffy, listen to me: I love you. I love you so much, but you need to get out, pet! You need to live!
BUFFY VO: (whispered) Please…you can’t…I love you
(The camera closes in on Spike’s hand, wrapped around his glass, as it begins to shake. Suddenly, it shatters, and he shakily unfurls his hand.)
SPIKE: Me and Buffy…
---
CUT TO: WILLOW AND XANDER, IN A CAR
WILLOW: (shakily) So…An-Anya didn’t…
XANDER: (whispered) She didn’t. Kennedy?
WILLOW: No.
(Xander nods, still staring straight out the window. Switches to Willow POV, and her gaze follows a sign that reads: LOS ANGELES, 5 MILES)
WILLOW O.S: Buffy isn’t going to like this. Not one bit.
---
CUT TO: YELLOW SCHOOL BUS
(We see Buffy, staring out the window of the bus and still crying, the ring now clean and sparkling on her finger. It switches to her POV and we see a sign that reads YOU ARE NOW ENTERING CARMEL BY THE SEA, ENOY YOUR VISIT!)
TBC…
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