Chapter 49
Niblet was a lot tougher than Spike had previously given her credit for; he was seriously starting to think that she’d gotten some of Buffy’s Slayerness. Dawn had, after all, been made from her. She’d been right scary that night when, after they’d explained things to Rupes—which in itself had taken a great deal of convincing given both the late hour and just who he was—the Watcher had immediately gone for the nearest wooden object. Which just so happened to be the leg of a chair.
Dawn had jumped between them then, stopping Rupes from causing the vampire any bodily harm. Then the girl had proceeded to explain to the man why he needed to just stop acting so damn stubborn and do this for her sister. She—and he had asked her about this later and found out she’d made it up on the spot—pointed out that if Buffy was feeling what Spike felt, then killing him might somehow in turn kill Buffy.
Giles hadn’t been sure he agreed with Dawn’s reasoning, but he also didn’t disagree with it enough to try and disprove it.
So now, two and a half days later, Red, the Whelp, the Watcher, and Dawn were researching together—Anyanka deciding to do her own research far away from her ex—while he and Buffy thought things through at the hospital. Over the last two days, the pair of them had made just over forty phone calls trying to find Riley. Then last night, Buffy had remembered a card Riley had given her before he had left—a card with an emergency contact number on it.
Not caring to ever get in touch with him again after the way he had left her, she of course had no idea what she’d done with the card, only knowing that she had in fact, kept it. So, Spike had spent the previous night scouring through her bedroom in hopes of finding the small business card.
It had taken him until nine o’clock that morning—just three hours previous—to find it hidden away inside of one of Buffy’s Shakespeare books from high school, Hamlet to be exact.
Now, here they were, Buffy staring at the card and Spike hoping that this would pan out for them.
Finally, twenty minutes later, Buffy was ready to call; Spike dialed the number and handed her the phone.
“Donovan’s Flowers, how may we help you?”
“Dono—Oh! Is this one of those secret undercover, pretend we’re a flower shop when we’re really an undercover government operation? Or…are you actually just a florist?”
“Did you need something from us today, ma’am?” The way the woman asked the question, Buffy couldn’t tell if it was a hint that she was on the right track with the secret-ops suspicion or if the woman was merely trying to placate the crazy lady she was sure she was talking to.
“Sorry, no, just looking for Riley Finn. If he does come by there, though,” she threw in, “could you tell him Buffy Summers needs him and it’s an emergency?”
“Have a good day, ma’am,” the woman said tersely before hanging up the phone.
“So we just wait?” Spike wondered aloud.
“I guess so—if he hasn’t called back by tomorrow night, we’ll move onto Plan B,” she stated firmly.
”Plan B?”
“Give me until tomorrow night and I’ll have one.”
“Remind me again why we are unleashing a dangerous monster upon the public.”
“Yeah, what G-Man said.”
“Half of me wishes Buffy were here because she’s way better with the quippy than I am,” Dawn told them, sounding completely frustrated, “but the other half of me is glad she doesn’t have to see you three being such morons.”
“Hey now, Dawnster, just something inquiring minds want to know,” Xander defended himself.
“How about: ‘so my sister doesn’t die’? Does that work for you?”
“Of course we don’t want anything to happen to Buffy, Dawnie,” Willow promised. “We’re just worried about taking Spike’s chip out…what about when he goes back to killing people?”
“’When,’ Red? I don’t even warrant an ‘if’ after all I’ve done?”
“Your memory seems to be…failing you. Have you forgotten all of the decades you spent killing people? A few weeks does not forgive that.”
“Never said it did, Rupes. Just saying I’m not going back to it. Few weeks can mean a lot—oh! I get it.”
“Get what?” Giles did not like the self satisfied smirk on Spike’s face.
“You want a few weeks not to be an indicator of anything for me because then it’s not for you lot either. But if I can prove myself over just a matter of weeks, what’s that say about you three and what you’ve done to the Slayer. Am I right?”
“That is nonsense, Spike.’
“Yeah,” Willow agreed, “Buffy knows we were acting with her best interests at heart.”
“And Anyanka’s?”
”What’s Anya have to do with anything?” Xander asked.
“Seems you’re the ones with the failing memories; how you treated Demon Girl’s got a lot to do with things.”
“And anyway,” Dawn jumped in, “you couldn’t have been acting ‘with her best interests at heart’ because maybe it’s just me being younger, but I don’t exactly how Buffy being dead would have been in her best interests.”
“I don’t think you understand—“
“Oh save it, Giles. I understand perfectly but right now’s not the time to be arguing. We’re going in here to find information on Spike’s chip so we can find someone to take it out, right?”
“While I am quite against it, yes that is what we are doing.”
“Then how about we all shut up and do that? Buffy’s not here to say not to so none of your arguing’s going to get any of us anywhere. Buffy wants us to find information on Spike’s chip so we can get it out and that’s what we’re going to do. Got it?”
“Dawnie, we—“
“Got it?” Dawn asked again, this time her voice holding a more commanding edge.
“It’s not like we’ll find anything anyway, so yeah, we got it,” Xander replied.
“You all done yapping? Right then, let’s get going.” Spike slung an arm around Dawn’s shoulders in a silent show, he hoped, of gratitude.
TBC……….
I forgot to thank whoever added me as their favorite author--so, thank you to everyone who has :D
a/n: I *should* be able to update next week (but it'll be on the 12th if I do)--but after that...I'm not sure about the 20th and the 27th because I'll be in London for my birthday! (hey, be happy for me?) I will try to get the chapters in my email though in case I can swing getting somewhere with internet or sending them to someone to update for me (Panta_rei who normally does my holiday updating for me, is going to be in London with me, so she can't do it)
But I will be somewhat back for the 3rd and will do my darndest (if that's how you spell it) to get you an update then....either that or you get four when I get home on the 9th (at least I think it's the 9th I get home...)
Anyhow, updates might be a bit off...I hope theyre not, but they might be.
Oh, also, it's my puppy's birthday today, so Happy Birthday to my puppy :-D
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