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I'm working real hard to get this all done and posted before I have to go out of town at the end of the month, so check often and leave your thoughts on reviews. They really do help me see if I've left bits out that need explanation.
Chapter 30: Rude awakening

“Hey guys wake up.” Warren’s voice was jarring. “Come on lazy heads, wake up. You’ll want to see this.”

“What? What is it?”

“Is the house on fire?”

“No you nitwits. I just thought you might like to see the greatest thing since the Spike and Anya show. Live. That’s all. You can go back to bed, if you’re not interested, Andrew. And Jonathan. I forgot you don’t like to spy.”

“Oh, oh! Are they finally gonna do it?” Andrew was as excited as a child on Christmas morning. Then a thought occurred to him, “I thought that you said that they went to sleep in different bedrooms?”

“You two are so sick it isn’t even funny. If Spike knew what you two were up to…”

“But he’s not gonna find out, is he Jonathan? Or things could go very badly for you. Maybe I’ll give you a little dose of that powder I whipped up and see what happens? Could be really entertaining. What do you think? Or I could tell Spike about certain other of your nocturnal activities. Do you think he’d be pleased to hear about that?”

“That…that was you, Warren. Not me. I didn’t do anything.”

“Exactly. And that makes you an accessory.”

“But, you, you couldn’t prove it. Not without them knowing it was you all along. You couldn’t…”

“I think you’d be very surprised to learn just what I can do if I put my mind to it, Jonathan. But you’re not gonna find out, because you’re never gonna tell, are you?” It was frightening how quickly Warren could turn from a mild mannered friend to menacing evil scientist.

“Ah, no,” Jonathan was quick to agree. “I’ll never tell. You can count on me, Warren.”

“Good. Cause if I ever do wind up in jail, you can bet your sweet ass that you’ll both be right there beside me. Understood?”

“Yes. No problem.”

“Andrew?”

“Hey, don’t look at me. I didn’t threaten to rat you out. It was all him, Warren.”

“Good. Now come on into the other room. I think you’re gonna like what’s happening.”

“You never answered my question. Are Buffy and Spike finally gonna do it? Cause it’s like really early in the morning, and yesterday or last night would have been so much easier for all of us to enjoy.” Andrew could find the strangest things to whine about.

“No. They’re not gonna do it. I told you that already. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“Well, if they’re not gonna screw, what’d you wake us up for?” Andrew was not a happy camper, like a child promised dessert, only to find that he had to eat his Brussels sprouts first.

“This is gonna be the next best thing. Buffy’s gonna chew Spike up and spit him out. She met Dawn.”

“Really? Oh my gosh, Spike’s in trouble now - sparks are gonna fly. What’d Dawn tell her?”

“You know Dawn, she’s almost as bad as Anya. Dawn told her the whole story.”

“Well then,” said Jonathan reasonably. “Then Buffy shouldn’t be mad, because Spike didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I don’t think Buffy feels that way. She looked hopping mad to me.”

“Okay, okay. Turn up the sound. I want to hear what she says.”

On the screen, Buffy and Dawn stood at the foot of Spike’s bed; a very irate man stared back at them. Obviously they’d already missed some of the fireworks. But it wasn’t over.

Spike was obviously of the same opinion as Jonathan. That he’d done nothing wrong. It looked like Dawn was siding with Spike. But Buffy wasn’t taking no for an answer.

“Pack your things, Dawn. You’re not staying here another night. This is sick.”

“Why won’t you believe us, Buffy? We’ve both told you that absolutely nothing is going on. Okay, so my friend Janice and I sometimes spy on Spike when he’s in the pool, and we might have snuck into his room once or twice to see if we could catch a glimpse of him in the shower, but that’s it. There’s no need to be so upset.”

“Listen to reason, pet. The girl’s happy here and I’m happy to have her here. What’s the harm if her Mum thinks things are different between us? In a few months we’ll have the girls’ school all sorted out and she’ll be off with Janice and her mates, and Glory none the wiser.”

“What?” Dawn was mad now too. “Spike, you didn’t tell me that you were planning to send me away. What if I don’t want to go?”

“Oh, you’ll want to go all right. I was arranging for Janice to receive a scholarship – full tuition, plus room and board. If even half of the things you’ve said are true, her parents would jump at the chance to be rid of her, and shut of those fancy tuition bills. And I know Janice’d be none too sad to see the back of them either. Once she was living on campus, you’d be begging me to send you, Bit. I agree with Buffy, this isn’t the right place for you to grow up. You’d do well there, Bit. Learn to be a proper lady.”

“I don’t need to learn anything, Spike. And I don’t want to leave you here all alone. You hate to be alone. And you’d miss me. I know you would.”

“Yeah, well, that’s where Buffy and I agree. It’s not about what I want, it’s about what’s best for you. And what’s best is for you to live a normal life surrounded by other girls your own age. Not shut up here in a gilded cage with a man old enough to be your father.”

“You are so not old enough to be my father, Spike. Even Janice thinks you’re hot, and she doesn’t even like Johnny Depp.”

“That’s as may be, Bit. But Buffy’s right. You don’t belong here.” He turned his eyes to Buffy. “But does she have to go so soon? Just hold off a mo’, and everything will sort itself out.”

“No, Spike. Dawn is leaving today. Now. With me. I’ll talk to some people about it, and maybe we won’t have to get social services involved. But this ends here, Spike. You can’t just pretend that she’s your daughter when she’s not. I mean, if you don’t mind paying to send her to that fancy school, I am sure that no one would object. But she can’t stay here with you. Not even one more night. Call us a cab. We’ll meet it out in front.” Undaunted, Buffy grabbed Dawn’s hand and started towards the door.

“Fine. Have it your way then,” Spike called after their retreating backs. “But you’ll find the Nibblet is not the easiest roommate in the world. And if you take her with you now, don’t think you’ll be able to send her back to me once you’ve had your fill of her. You want her; she’s yours. But she’s your problem now. Not mine.”

Buffy looked at Dawn with new fear in her eyes. She had almost set Spike’s kitchen on fire when Buffy had found her. Maybe life with Dawn wasn’t going to be quite as simple as she thought it would be.

“Hey, why’s everyone looking at me? I’m the innocent pawn in all this.” Dawn was putting on her innocent act, and it was quite convincing. “Just this once I can say with total honesty, I didn’t do anything.”

~*~

Back in the control room, Jonathan was mad, “Well, that was disappointing.”

“Thanks for waking us up for nothing, Warren.” Andrew whined. “If we weren’t gonna get to see some booty, I at least hoped we’d see some fist action. Although it was kinda cool to see them all standing around in their jammies. Buffy looked hot wearing nothing but Spike’s shirt. And Spike had no shirt on at all. Did you see his abdominal muscles? I’d so kill to look like that.”

“Please. And don’t mention Spike shirtless again. Just the thought of it makes me ill. But I gotta admit, Buffy was pretty hot, even if we didn’t get to see a lot. Still, I’m not sure it was worth the early wake up, Warren. We could have waited and watched it on tape at a decent hour.”

“That so? You think it was disappointing?”

Andrew and Jonathan both nodded. “Well, then. Tell me what you think of this then.”

Warren rewound the tape, then pressed play.

Andrew let out a short ‘eep’ while Jonathan merely gasped. There was Buffy, cool as day, happily photographing the contents of Spike’s safe.

“I think I’ll wait until they leave to bring this up to the boss man. You want to see fireworks? Just wait.”

Mesmerized, the trio watched as Buffy carefully put back the contents of Spike’s safe, so that it looked like it had never been disturbed.

As they watched, something was niggling in the back of Jonathan’s brain. “Warren?”

“What is it now, shit-for-brains?”

“Warren, you knew this was on the tape, didn’t you? I mean, before you showed us, you knew it was there, right?”

“So?” He had been awoken when the keypad to Spike’s workroom had alerted him that it was being tampered with.

“So, if you watched her do it, shouldn’t you have said something earlier? You should have woken Spike and let him deal with it. Called the police in. Something.”

“I wanted to wait and see what she’d do,” he shrugged. “Plus then she never would have met Dawn if I’d done things that way.”

“But it’s what you should have done, Warren. I mean, if you were awake and just watched everything go down, won’t Spike be mad?”

“Who says he’s gonna know? I usually check the tapes for activity around seven. I’ll wait until seven thirty and then go up to the big house with a copy for the man. I can’t wait to see his reaction. He’s gonna explode. But right now you creeps need to get out of here. I got something I gotta do.”

Without further protest, Andrew and Jonathan went back to their own rooms. But Jonathan couldn’t help but wonder, what was it that Warren needed to do that was more important than taking this information to their boss?

As he snuck back towards the control room, he could hear Warren’s side of a conversation. He was obviously on his cell phone.

“Yes, sir. She’s just leaving now. I knew you’d want to know.” A pause.

“I don’t know.” Another long pause.

“No, Buffy Summers. You might be able to get more info than I can. I just got her on tape taking pictures of documents that were in Spike’s safe. No, I haven’t had a chance to tell him yet. I wanted to let you know of developments. Thank you. No problem. I’ll be in touch should anything else happen. Oh, and by the way, she’s still untouched. They haven’t slept together. Got it on tape, from her own mouth, so I’m pretty sure its true.”

Jonathan quickly ducked back around the corner before Warren could catch him eavesdropping. Who had Warren been talking to? As far as he knew, there was no one in the world Warren called ‘sir.’ And just who exactly had they been talking about? Buffy and Dawn, obviously, but which one? And why?





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