“And what’s odd about these pictures,” Lois continued on, “Is that they’re all taken in the cemetery.”
Oh boy.
“How did you come across those pictures anyway?” Clark asked.
Lois grinned sheepishly, “I have my ways.”
Clark raised a brow. “Care to share at all?”
“Not really,” Lois said and glanced out the window. “Ooh, Clark, stop, it’s right there.”
Clark slammed on the brakes in front of the brown split level, causing them both to lurch forward into the dash.
“Clark, I’d prefer not to have to go home due to a concussion,” Lois admonished him.
“Sorry, Lois.”
“Just. . . park.”
Parking the car in front of Buffy’s house, he surveyed the house. Lights were on. Just wonderful.
Heading up to the door with Lois leading the way, naturally, Clark held his breath.
“She’s twenty –one. What could Superman possibly see in her?” Lois muttered as she rang the doorbell.
“What’s that, Lois?” Clark asked, his heart lurching in joy at Lois’ obvious jealousy. She had to still love him after all!
“Nothing,” Lois said, shaking her head, just as Anya flung the door open.
This should be good, Clark thought.
Anya stared at them. “Buffy! I think the Jehovah Witness’ are at your door!” she finally called over her shoulder.
Buffy came storming over, “What?”
Lois smiled tightly, “We’re not the Jehovah Witness. We’re reporters.”
Buffy gave her a funny look. “Reporters. What do you want with me?”
“That all depends,” Lois said smoothly.
“On?” Buffy prompted.
“What you’re doing with Superman.”
“I’m not doing anything with him,” Buffy replied quickly. She stared at the brunette before her. She was pretty; beautiful even, her wavy chestnut hair that matched her chestnut eyes perfectly. Her gaze drifted to the man next to her, standing tall and somewhat awkwardly. He had dark brown hair that fell a bit in front of his piercing blue eyes that were hid behind his big glasses. Buffy found herself staring at his eyes, mesmerized by them. There was something quite familiar about them.
She blushed when she realized what was so familiar about them – they were quite similar to Spike’s. Although Spike’s were more crystal blue, and this man’s eyes was more of a deep ocean blue.
Okay, maybe she checked him out a little if she could even describe his eye color in detail. Simply sad.
“I saw your picture with him, Miss Summers.”
“Y-you did?”
“I did. I just want to know why.”
Buffy narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, “Who are you?”
“Lois Lane from the Daily Planet, and this is Clark Kent.”
Buffy’s eyes bugged, “You’re Lois Lane?”
Lois narrowed her eyes this time, “Yes. You know me?”
“Well. . . . not really.”
“Seems like you do with the reaction you just had.”
“I don’t,” Buffy said forcefully. “I just heard about your attack.”
Lois studied her. “How?”
“I uh, read it online and . . . and I was attacked not too long ago. So that’s probably what you saw. Me being saved by Superman from a big, bad vampire.”
Clark had to stifle a laugh. Spike was right; Buffy was horrible at lying.
“So you read my article on the attack?”
Buffy nodded. “I did. I wanted to . . . relate to someone, you know? Superman had mentioned in passing that I wasn’t the only one.”
“Oh, he had had he?”
Buffy swallowed, “That’s right. So I looked it up. Found you and . . . I wasn’t alone.”
“What do we have here?”
Clark froze. Spike. Turning, he found, sure enough, Spike coming up the walkway. He eyed Lois and then Clark. “What’s this about? Jehovah Witness?”
“Spike, this is Lois Lane and Clark Kent. From the Daily Planet. You remember how we read that article after I was attacked?” Buffy informed him.
Spike cleared his throat, “That right? Right! I mean, yes, I remember that. What are you doing here in Sunnyhell?”
Lois smirked, “Sunnyhell?”
Spike grinned, unrepentantly. “Well. . . yeah. Surely, you must have figured that out by now.”
Lois chuckled, “I have, actually.”
Spike smiled at her and held out his hand. “Welcome to Sunnyhell. What can we do for you?”
“I’m here to find out about why Superman has been seen hanging around Sunnydale and Miss Summers. She says that she was attacked by a vampire, same as I was. Though, I’ve seen quite a few pictures of Miss Summers with Superman. They all could not have been during the same night, and not all during your, ahem, rescue.”
Clark was cringing. How he managed to ever forget that Lois was a regular Jessica Fletcher, always seemed to escape him. She picked up on everything!
“Well, see, we’ve sort of started a, uh. . . group,” Buffy said.
Lois was not amused, that much was clear. “Oh? What kind of group?”
Buffy winced and looked at Spike pleadingly.
“Well, you see Lois, my girlfriend means the world to me,” Spike drawled and stepped up on the porch, drawing an arm around Buffy’s shoulders. “And I’m willing to do anything to make sure my girl here is never hurt again—“
“Or anyone else in this town,” Buffy chirped.
“Right. So, we’ve formed a group to fight vampires.”
Lois stared at them. “You’ve started a group to fight vampires.”
Spike smirked and waved a finger at her, “Now Miss Lane. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you didn’t believe me.”
Lois cleared her throat and crossed her arms. “What is this group called?”
“Slayer.”
Lois snorted, “Of course it is.”
“Hey!” Buffy said indignantly. “There is nothing wrong with that title, you know. It’s strong and incredibly old, handed down from generation after generation of—“ Off Lois’ raised brow, Buffy finished weakly, “Other groups that . . . slayed vampires.”
Spike pressed a kiss to her temple, chuckling. “So you don’t mind my calling you Slayer anymore then?”
Clark grinned inwardly. Spike was going to get it later when they were alone. Buffy didn’t let Spike get away with much, and this – him calling Buffy his girlfriend and now with the PDA – yep, Spike was going to get a tongue lashing. Or a beating.
“Are you pulling my leg with this?” Lois demanded.
Buffy shook her head, “No.”
Sighing, Lois nodded, “All right. Do you mind if I interview you then?”
Buffy bit her lip. “Yes. It’s secret.”
“Secret? Why?”
“Because can you imagine the trouble we’d get into with the vampire community if they read we were on the case to find out why they could now walk in the daylight? If they knew we were out to obliterate them? It’d put us in danger along with our loved ones. If you don’t mind, we’d prefer you kept us out of it.”
Lois seemed to be processing what she was told. “All right. How about this? If you let me at least stay and help solve the case with you, I won’t breathe a word as to who you are. Just let me write some kind of story – withholding names and location of course. I just. . . I just really want to help. I think the people deserve to know what they’re up against. Do you consider yourselves to be vampire experts?”
Buffy and Spike exchanged grins. “You could say that,” Spike said softly.
“Do we have a deal?”
Buffy looked down at her. “No names?”
“No names.”
“No location?”
“No location.”
“No getting involved? Just observing?”
“Just observing.”
Buffy jutted out her hand. “Fine. You can stay.”
Shaking their deal, Clark sighed heavily and caught Spike eyeing him with interest. Oh yes, this was going to be fun indeed.