REDEMPTION
Chapter 4: ‘Hostage?’
The gang of bank robbers, and Buffy, rode for what seemed like hours and hours. As if to confirm this notion, Buffy’s well shaped little bottom felt near raw with wear. In fact, if felt like it had before, after one of Papa’s well meted out tannings, from her childhood that is. Especially the time Buffy had burnt down the barn, accidentally of course and…
‘Wait a minute! Why the heck isn’t there a posse following us?’ She asked herself for the first time since William had snatched her up from in front of the Osbourne home.
It finally dawned on her, ‘because they’ve got you as a hostage, you dolt,’ she chided herself. ‘Sheriff Wilkens is one of Papa’s best friends and he’s not going to have anyone shoot at a bunch of desperados. Especially, when Hank Summers’ daughter is with them!'
William, to his credit, had not said a word since he had swept Buffy up from the street and deposited her in front of him on his horse. To return the favor, Buffy kept silent and gave no voice to her mounting anger and frustration stewing inside of her.
Not that it mattered much. When this band of wild ones finally stopped and took a rest? Buffy Summers intended on giving William ‘Galvaston’ if that really was his name, a piece of her very intelligent mind.
‘I hope the eventual posse from Redemption blows every one of these nasty brutes to hell in a hand basket!’ Buffy bit her bottom lip to kip from saying her wish out loud.
It did not help matters that Buffy was wearing a rather lovely little pale blue silk dress. She had chosen it, special, that very morning. Just in case she ‘did’ get to Redemption and happen to run into William. Before William and his cousin left on their supposed business.
‘Some business he had, out of town,’ Buffy snorted resentfully. ‘Outlaw business!’
Buffy was more then disgusted with herself, for her false vanity and pride. If she had not wanted to impress William, she would never have worn such a frilly dress into town. On a Saturday no less and to take council with her minister.
‘Waste of time,’ she chided herself again. ‘William, these second thoughts about Caleb and me. Everything was all messed up now, that was for sure.’ Buffy tried to fight the treacherous tears that now slipped down her flushed cheeks.
Suddenly, all of the young riders, and the older one, seemed to slow up and come to a stop. All at once they ceased their escape and halted in a heavy thicket of pine trees. In bluffs it seemed. Buffy couldn’t be sure as she had not paid attention, for a while as to where, exactly, they were going.
“We’ve lost them,” Rupert Giles stated the obvious. “If they ever followed us in the first place, eh?”
“I think they never left Redemption, really,” Angel interjected smugly. “Good thing I encouraged your son to take a hostage, and such a pretty one too, huh?” This Angel smirked at both Buffy and William, knowingly.
Buffy blushed when the entire group of outlaws laughed loudly, all of them except William that is. She realized that her first suspicions had to have been true; Sheriff Wilkens and any posse would hold back at least for a while. Now, because of herself, she had become the wild card of sorts in this whole mess.
‘Papa must have…’ Buffy left the thought unfinished when William slipped off of his horse and held his arms up to her.
“Get down,” Spike ordered the little angel, gruffly. He held up his long arms to her, hoping she would slide down into them. Of course, she didn’t.
Instead, Buffy Summers slid off of Midnight, quite abruptly and landed on her own two booted feet. Right down in front of Spike.
After shooting him a look to kill, Buffy strode past Spike and the others, never looking at any of them. She began to pace back and forth, a scant ten yards or so from Ford, who merely watched her with a look of amusement.
Finally, Buffy stopped her pacing and glared at all of them, Ford in particular. “What are you looking at?” She hissed with venom.
“A beautiful, angry girl,” Ford responded with a sly chuckle.
“Drop dead!” Buffy spat at the dark haired young man, then glared at Spike angrily.
“Wow, Spike,” Ford laughed merrily, “your girl has lots of fire in her!”
“I am not ‘his’ girl!” Buffy growled in a menacing tone. “I am engaged to Caleb Montgomery, of the Indiana Montgomerys I might add. He’s a fine, upstanding man and…”
“A complete ponce,” Spike interjected as he stalked over to Buffy and placed himself right in front of her.
Without missing a beat, Buffy pulled back her right arm, made a fist and punched Spike right in his nose. To her credit, she did cause the blond outlaw to fall back a bit, in shock.
“What the bloody hell was that for?” Spike roared in pain as he felt his nose to see the damage to it. He glared at the spitfire little blond in front of him.
“For taking me hostage!” Buffy screamed right up into his handsome face. Her face was hot with anger and she felt a horrible headache coming on. “For putting me in danger; stealing me away from my home, family and my fiancé!”
Buffy conveniently forgot, momentarily, that she had every intention of breaking off her engagement to Caleb. In fact, she was supposed to be telling Caleb, this very afternoon, that she no long wished to marry him.
‘Maybe this hostage thing isn’t such a bad idea,’ Buffy reasoned. ‘At least I get out of facing Caleb and…what am I thinking!’
A tall, older man sauntered up to Buffy and stopped right in front of her. She noticed that he had the kindest, warmest blue eyes and realized that this must be William’s father, no doubt about that.
“My son felt it necessary to ‘take’ you Miss Summers,” the older man said in a British, genteel voice. “Although even if we had not of needed a hostage, I’ve a feeling Spike would have considered snatching you up anyway.”
Even though this ‘gentlemen’ smiled warmly at Buffy, she couldn’t help but shudder in fear. Then, it dawned on her, finally…
“Oh my, you are the Crawford Gang, are you not?” She asked the older man, but glared at William instead. “Angel Crawford?” She directed her fiery green eyes at the tall dark man, William’s cousin? “And you,” she hissed as she strode right up to the blond William once again. “You ‘are’ Spike Giles and he’s your father, isn’t he?”
Spike tore his blue eyes from Buffy’s angry green ones and focused on his booted feet. He could only nod, slowly, to confirm her suspicions.
“Oh Lord,” Buffy gasped. “Why would you take a hostage?” She suddenly asked, suspiciously.
“Because that stupid fuck over there,” Angel hissed as he pointed at another tall, fair haired young man, “he went and shot the sheriff! We’re not going to hang for a law man’s murder and since you were outside, right in view, well? I told my little cousin here to just take you. He wanted you anyway so…”
“You shot Uncle Richard?” Buffy yelped loudly in a high pitched voice and began to cry. “That ‘law man’ as you so coldly put it, is my father’s best friend!” She began to cry, uncontrollably and threw herself down onto the nearest large rock she could find.
“Oh bloody hell,” Spike hissed loudly as he hurried to comfort his Buffy.
“Oh fuck!” Angel spat, exasperated already with the whole situation.
“Angel! William!” Mr. Giles roared, “Apologize to Miss Summers, this instant. For your rough, crude language in front of her.”
Angel cursed, under his breath, but apologized softly, “I am sorry Miss Summers. For my crude language.”
Buffy stopped wailing, for a second, to give the tall dark haired man a wide-eyed gaze. Her chin still quivered from unwept tears, however.
Spike kneeled down, in front of Buffy and took both her tiny hands in his, gently. He gazed deeply into her wet, bright green eyes and whispered, “I am so very sorry, Buffy luv. For my crude language and about your Da’s friend.”
Before she could respond, Buffy burst out in a new torrent of tears and buried her face into William’s shirt covered chest. She began to sob again, even when William wrapped his long arms about her.
‘Meanwhile…back in Redemption’
“What do you mean they took my daughter hostage?” Hank Summers was bellowing at, of all people, Willow Rosenberg.
“We ran out, into the street,” Willow whispered, still in shock from earlier that day. “Buffy and me, we went outside when we heard the bank was being robbed. Buffy, she made me go back inside when we saw the robbers coming towards us, on their horses and all. She…”
Willow choked out the last sentence then began to weep softly. Daniel Osbourne took his wife in his arms and glared at both Hank Summers and Caleb Montgomery, who had now joined them in their home.
“I think you need to go find Buffy,” Daniel spat impatiently. “Quit hanging around here and grilling my wife,” the short man hissed defensively. “It’s not Willow’s fault that Buffy was taken. Who knew who these guys really were, Hank. Mitch? Scott? What are you going to do about this?”
Daniel directed his questions at the two, rather young, inept deputies that were standing next to Hank and Caleb. Sheriff Wilkens was at Doc Samuels place, hanging on for dear life. Or so they had heard.
“We’re getting’ a posse together Daniel,” Mitch spoke up. “But it’s a bit risky, with Miss Summers a hostage and all. Not quite sure how to go about this.” The older deputy glanced at Hank Summers, sheepishly, knowing that the man’s daughter had probably already been ‘spoiled’ in that way and all. Who knew what these desperados might do to a young, gentle lady like Buffy Summers.
“In fact,” Mitch piped up again, anxiously, “we’ve wired Lincoln, called the Marshall there to Redemption. He’ll bring the best posse, good trackers and…”
“Trackers!” Caleb Montgomery bellowed in disbelief. “So you think that these fiends will take my Elizabeth with them? Completely? Where ever it is they’re going?” The tall black-haired man glowered at the two deputies in disgust.
“Well, they took her from her home, right? I don’t expect they have any intentions of releasing her too soon!” Scott retorted abruptly. The younger deputy had never cared much for Caleb Montgomery. It was probably because he, Scott Hope, had coveted Buffy Summers for his own wife.
“No telling what they’ll do to my little angel, Elizabeth,” Caleb opined in a gruff voice. His dark eyes were narrowed into slits. He glared again, but this time at poor Willow.
“Why did they not take you Willow?” Caleb suddenly asked, suspiciously. “You were there, why…”
“Leave Willow alone, Caleb,” Daniel growled menacingly back at the larger man. “Buffy had sent her inside by the time the robbers…”
“They ‘knew’ each other,” Willow interjected with her nervous stutter. All the men present just stared, in open-mouthed confusion at the little red-headed Mrs. Osbourne.
“I, I mean,” she continued nervously, her face bright red. “I mean that Buffy and this Spike fellow? They ‘noticed’ each other, last Sunday at the social and…”
“Are you trying to tell me that my beloved fiancé allowed those brutes to take her with them?” Caleb bellowed again and clenched his fists together. “You’re lying!” He finished with a loud, enraged roar.
Daniel leapt up from his chair, next to Willow’s and got right up into Caleb’s face. “Never call my wife a liar, Montgomery,” he ordered in a threatening voice.
“Daniel, please,” Willow cried as she took his hand in hers. “I did not mean that Buffy allowed herself to be taken Caleb,” she continued quietly. “I just think, feel really, that this Spike means her no real harm. I can’t say why I feel that way, I just do.” Willow blushed bright red to match her red locks.
Buffy had cried all of her tears out, into William’s black shirt of all things. Now, she just sobbed, softly, and sniffed every moment or so against William’s chest.
“It’s okay, luv,” Spike cooed into Buffy’s little ear. He felt like shit, for the robbery; taking her from her home and family; being who he was, in general.
“Your, your men,” Buffy muttered between sniffles, “they didn’t shoot anyone else, did they? Daniel Osbourne, he’s okay, right?”
She pulled back her head and gazed into Spike’s eyes, searching for the truth. William’s relieved look told her that no one else was harmed in the robbery.
“No, kitten,” he replied softly, “was the sheriff only, got shot and all. He was still breathing when we left.” Spike looked over at Graham and shot him a murderous glare.
“We better get going,” Angel mumbled half-heartedly. “They won’t wait forever, to send a posse I mean. Nogales is a long way off and…”
“Right,” Spike nodded, his gaze back on Buffy’s tear-stained face.. “Do you think you can ride again, Princess,” he asked Buffy gently.
“Yes, I suppose,” she replied groggily. All of the upheaval and emotion of past few hours had taken its toll on the young woman.
“William?” Buffy asked in a childish voice, “Where is Nogales?”
A/N: This was a real, real tough chapter to write. I don’t know why, it just was.
For anyone reading this and who are interested, Nogales, Arizona, is town located on the Arizona/Mexico border. The border runs right through the town and to the south, it’s Nogales, Mexico.
This should give readers a hint as to what’s in the gang’s plans for their futures.
Thank you for reading and please review, spufette
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you to readers and reviewers of this tale.
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