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Reunions / Part 19

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The flight from London to Los Angeles was ten hours. With delays in landing, debarkation, security checks, collecting luggage, arranging transportation and the drive to the hotel, it was nearly 10:00AM before they got there. Giles had called Robin as soon as they landed and rooms had already been arranged. Once they had signed in, Giles led Buffy and the three ladies from the Coven into the elevator and went up to the sixth floor and the Presidential Suite. He left the slayers and Andrew in the lobby to sort out who was going to stay where and to move the luggage up to the rooms.

***

Buffy had been completely drained, emotionally, by both her reaction to learning that Spike was alive and the uncertain knowledge that he may have found someone else to love and might not love her anymore. The more she ran this thought through her mind and the fact that he had never tried to contact her in eight years was tearing her heart apart.

For months she had grieved over his death, but had tried to restart her life, thinking that he would want her to do that. The greatest part of her grief was due to knowing that she had never been honest with Spike about her feelings for him. She’d never been honest with herself about her feelings either, not until the last moment, when it was to late. Spike had died to save the world and destroy the Hellmouth, and when she had finally told him that she loved him, he didn’t believe her.

Part of her grief was also due to her unwarranted anger and distrust of Angel. Angel had given her the amulet that had allowed Spike to be her Champion. The amulet had also been the cause of Spikes death. When Angel brought the amulet to Buffy he said he had every intention of wearing and using it himself. But Buffy had told him no, that she wanted him to leave and be ready to defend the world if she failed to defeat the First. Buffy had given the amulet to Spike herself, so that “He” could be her “Champion“. Being her Champion had killed Spike.

Learning a few months later, in the middle of her grief, that Angel had taken over running Wolfram & Hart had crystallized a train of thought in Buffy’s mind. Angel had made a pact of some kind with the minions of evil. When he brought the amulet to Buffy he had never intended to wear it himself, he knew about Spike and knew that Buffy would give the amulet to him to wear. He knew that the amulet would kill Spike and that is why he had given it to her.

With these thoughts in the forefront of her thinking she had made the decision that Angel had joined the forces of evil for some unknown reason and that he and his people could no longer be trusted. She had made the decision to cut herself and the newly reforming Council off from Angel. She had even reinforced that distrust when she had sent Andrew and twelve slayers to L.A. to take the psychotic slayer Dana away from him, and from Wolfram & Hart. She had convinced herself that Angel and his people at Wolfram & Hart would use a captive slayer to do evil things. She’d been very specific with Andrew that he should tell Angel that they weren’t on the same side anymore and that he wasn’t trusted by either Buffy or the Council.

It was this cutting herself off from Angel and from what was happening at Wolfram & Hart that had prevented her from learning that Spike had come back and was in Los Angeles with Angel. When news came down from the Coven that a great mystical battle was about to occur in L.A. between powerful forces, Buffy’s only concern was whether or not it would be an apocalypse. When the Coven assured her that the battle wasn’t going to be an apocalypse but a rebalancing of forces, she refused to become involved.

It was only when the battle was imminent that the Coven had been able to discern that the battle would be between the forces of ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’. It was then that she learned that Angel and his people were involved. Still not trusting Angel she hadn’t taken any steps to help him. It was only on the day of the battle itself that, feeling upset and distracted, she had said something to the ‘Immortal’. The ‘Immortal’ had become angry that Buffy wasn’t paying her full attention to him and had said that he already knew about the pending battle and that Angel and Spike would finally get what they deserved. Hearing that Spike was alive and with Angel had upset Buffy even more. This led to the ‘Immortal’ stating that he had known about Spike being alive for many months and had never told her because it was time she stopped acting like a child and that she should come back to his bed immediately.

Instead, Buffy had immediately left the ‘Immortals’ home and had caught the first taxi she could find and went immediately to the airport. Without a change of cloths, with nothing but her purse, her passport and a credit card she arrived at the airport and bought a ticket on the first available plane. Just as she was starting to board the plane the ‘Immortal’ had arrived and tried to prevent her from getting on the plane. He had said a number of things about her being a foolish child, but he would be willing to forgive her. When he wouldn’t let go of her, she broke his arm in two places. He had then screamed at her that it was already to late for her to get to her dead lovers, they would both be finished forever long before she could get to them. In a calm rage Buffy had shattered the ‘Immortals’ knee and then kicked him between the legs. She’d left him lying on the ground puking as she boarded the plane.

Taking the first plane available had been a mistake. If she had waited a few hours she could have caught an International flight directly to L.A.. The plane she caught took her to New York where she had to wait several hours for a flight to L.A.. That flight wasn’t a direct flight either and had stopped in Chicago and Denver before going on to L.A.. Each stop had delayed her arrival more and more. By the time she got to Los Angeles it was the middle of the afternoon, the day after the battle had occurred. When she got to Wolfram & Hart the building was destroyed beyond repair and the authorities were claiming that the collapse of the building had been due to some kind of freakish subsidence that occurred during a heavy rain storm during the night.

Buffy had tried to search the rubble until she was forced to leave by the police and a security force that claimed to have been sent by the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart. Buffy then went to the old hotel where Angel had once lived, but it was empty. After that she started roaming the streets looking for any sign of a battle that had occurred between mystical force. Finally realizing that she had no idea how to find such a place she had reluctantly called Giles in London and told him where she was and what had happened.

Giles and Dawn had arrived in L.A. the next morning, Faith and Robin arrived that evening, Willow and Kennedy arrived at midnight. Other slayers from around the world were coming in daily. On the day after her arrival Willow broke into the L.A. Police computer and found a report that a Charles Gunn had been found dead in an alley, the address was given, it also listed his home address.

Buffy, Dawn and a dozen slayers searched the alley and the surrounding area, but found no clues or any other bodies. Giles, Faith and Robin searched Charles apartment and found little information except for the address of Wesley Windam-Pryce. They went to Wesley’s apartment and besides a large number of books and manuscripts they found a note pad with an address for Spike. Giles called Buffy and gave her the address. By the time Giles and the others arrived at Spikes apartment Buffy and Dawn were already there and Buffy had kicked the door in and was searching the place.

Buffy couldn’t help but to compare the apartment to the crypt Spike had lived in at Sunnydale. The crypt had been a packrats nest of a thousand things that Spike had dragged into it because they had attracted his attention for the moment. But it had matched Spikes personality and in many ways it had been a ‘comfy’ kind of place. The apartment was bare of anything that showed that someone was actually living there. It was sterile, like a crypt was suppose to be, lifeless.

In one drawer she found two pair of black jeans, a half dozen t-shirts and two long sleeved shirts, one with blood on it. There was nothing else in the other drawers and the closet was empty. The kitchen had one bottle of beer in the refrigerator and five empties in the trash. Buffy took everything that was Spikes, including the one bottle of beer, and was ready to leave when Dawn opened the little drawer on the night stand next to the bed. Inside was a small battered spiral notebook with writing on most of the pages and dozens of small scraps of paper stuffed in between the notebook pages. As Buffy looked through the pages she realized that what she was reading was poetry. Some of the poems were obviously years old, but some of the scraps of paper contained things that were newer.

There was also a ring. Buffy recognized it immediately. It was the same ring with the skull head on it that Spike had given to her as an engagement ring when they were under the influence of a spell that Willow had cast years before. Buffy had stood there looking at the ring for several minutes before she slipped it on the third finger of her left hand. When she closed the door as she left Spikes apartment she had every worldly possession he owned in one paper bag.

On the sixth day of Buffy’s search a call was relayed to Giles from London, the caller was Angel. When he explained that he was badly injured, and hiding in the southern tip of Baja Mexico, Giles, Faith and Robin went after him. Buffy had refused to go when she learned that Spike wasn’t with him. She continued to search, talking to people on the street, showing them the one and only picture she had of Spike. Other slayers and former members of the old Council kept arriving to help her with her search and they spread out through the whole city. But it took several more days before members of the Coven started to arrive.

It had taken all of Giles persuasion to get the members of the Coven to come to Los Angeles. They didn’t like to travel very much to begin with and coming to a foreign country to look for a vampire wasn’t something they wanted to do, even if the vampire did have a soul. Once there were enough of the women from the Coven present they started casting spells to search for Spike and any others that might have survived. It was only due to the castings that they were finally able to find Wesley’s body in the mansion of a dead demon wizard.

By this time Giles had come back to Los Angeles with information from Angel. When they found him he had confirmed the deaths of Wesley and Charles and the body of Fred/Illyria had been found in a barn in Baja where she had taken Angel before dying herself. Angel had told Giles that he hadn’t seen Spike die, but the likelihood of him surviving the battle in the alley was very small. When they recovered Illyria in the barn, the SUV she had been driving was loaded with papers, money, gold, books and a message from Wesley stating that he had asked Illyria to try to save Angel if at all possible if the battle seemed to be lost. Illyria had fulfilled Wesley’s last wish before dying herself from massive wounds.

Buffy had still refused to give up the search and it was only after a full month of searching that she finally agreed to end the search if the full Coven and Willow would do one more casting spell to search for him. They all met in the alley where the final battle had taken place and the women of the Coven cast the spell. Buffy provided them with the shirt that had belonged to Spike that had his blood on it. The only thing the spell was able to confirm was that Spike had been in the alley and that some of his blood was on a wall in the alley. There wasn’t any indication from the spell to show that Spike had ever left the alley.

Excepting Spikes death at last Buffy ordered everyone out of the city. She hadn’t been very rational and had voiced her hatred of the city and what it had done to Spike, Angel and the other people that had worked with Angel. No one was willing to argue with Buffy, they all wanted to get her away from L.A. and back to London. They all assumed that eventually she would relent and allow slayers and watchers to come back to L.A.. But for seven years she hadn’t forgiven the city and had not allowed any slayers or watchers to return. Now seven years later Buffy was back in L.A. again.

***

When Buffy entered the Presidential Suite with Giles and the ladies from the Coven, she knew that something was wrong. First because Robin was the one answering the door and second because Willow didn’t rush up to her for a hug. Buffy hadn’t seen Willow for several months, so Willow hanging back was not a good sign. Faith did come up and give Buffy a hug but there wasn’t any of her usual banter, again, not a good sign.

Giles was the first to speak to the group. “Where’s Dawn?” he asked looking around the room. From the looks on Willow, Faith and Robins faces he could tell that he had just asked a question that was at the core of their unusual behavior since he and Buffy entered the room.

“Uh, sh.. she’s not here” Willow stammered out hesitantly.

“Yes, that’s quite apparent” Giles replied as he raise one eyebrow in inquiry. “Would you care to expand upon that and tell us where she is?”

“She’s with Spike” Faith blurted out, then hesitating herself, finished with “she stayed behind, …. to talk to him.”

Buffy hadn’t said a word since entering the room but she could tell that something had happened that the others didn’t want to have to tell her or Giles. She was standing in front of a couch and sat down abruptly, her legs couldn’t hold her up any longer. “Tell me” was all she could get out in a tight raspy voice.

“Uh, see, … we kind of had an argument with her last night … about some stuff. Dawn got mad …… and then she got drunk … and … then she got angry … and started crying” Willow said apprehensively. “Then Spike got mad at us … for making Dawn cry …… and … he kicked us out of his place. He put her in his bed and told us to leave” she finished lamely.

Buffy sat there not truly understanding what Willow had just said. Only fragments had registered with her mind *argument* *stuff* * Dawn angry* * drunk* *crying* *Spike angry* *kicked out* *in his bed* *told us to leave* *???* “I don’t understand? What stuff? How did she get drunk? Spike kicked you out?” Buffy said with a puzzled look on her face. “I don’t understand?”

“Maybe you should start at the beginning Willow” Giles said calmly as he sat down next to Buffy and put his hand on her shoulder to keep her calm and focused. “Why don’t you start from the last time we talked and fill in all the blanks so were all up to date on what has been happening.”

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