[Reviews - 230]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 2468 times

- Text Size +




Reunions / Part 8

********************

When early morning came and the older kids started moving around, Willow got together with the slayers. Vi had gotten an accurate count of the number of kids that were living in the warehouse with Spike. There were fourteen that were ten and under, nine were nineteen and over and eighteen were in between, of various ages. Everyone older than ten was expected to help with the guarding and the fighting when necessary. The younger boys and girls, between eleven and fourteen were mainly used as lookouts and runners, most of the time.

Sara had found out that the number of kids in the warehouse varied a lot from time to time. Sometimes due to casualties, most of the time due to Spike finding safe places for some of the kids to go live. Right now they had more kids with them than was usual. One of the older girls had told Sara that Spike was working on a deal to get some of the younger kids adopted and moved to other states. That’s when it hit Willow that all of these kids were orphans. Orphans that Spike had brought in from the streets. Orphans that Spike was trying to protect.

Willow knew they were going to have to leave soon, the sun would be up in an hour or so. But she wanted to talk to Spike first. She wanted to tell him she was coming back again tonight. While the slayers were gathering up their weapons she walked over to Spikes little room. She hesitated for a few moments, then drew back the blanket that acted as a door and stuck her head inside. Spike was laying in his bed with the girl snuggled up against him with one arm wrapped around her in a protective manner. Willow was just about to make a noise when Spikes eyes snapped open and stared at her. Willow backed out of the doorway and let the blanket drop. A minute later Spike came out of the little room and led her away from the doorway.

When they were away from the little room, Spike turned to her and with a frown on his face and said “You didn’t have to say good-by. The kids would have seen you out!”

At first Willow was hurt by Spikes coldness, she had thought that after their talking last night he had been a little warmer feeling toward her. Then it came to her that he was probably upset with himself ‘for’ talking to her and was trying to put distance between them again. Willow wasn’t going to let that happened and smiled at him with her biggest most friendly smile. “I just wanted you to know that we’ll be coming back again tonight.”

Spike continued to frown and said to her “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. Three nights in a row is just asking to be followed. We can’t afford that kind of security breach.”

Willow looked at Spike closely. She believed that part of what he was saying was just an excuse to keep her away, but at the same time she could see that there was a real concern. The only way Spike and his kids could stay safe was by keeping their location secret. Willow looked at Spike and said in a serious tone of voice that grabbed his attention. “Spike, the last thing I want to do is put you or any of these kids in danger. But I’m coming back. I assure you one hundred percent that I won’t endanger you or these kids. I will use every bit of my powers to make sure there isn’t anyone or anything within a mile of this place that can do you any harm before I come here. If I can’t, I won’t come, that’s a promise. And besides, we have more things for the kids that we didn’t bring last night.”

Spike stood there studying her for a long time, turning over in his mind his reluctance to have to see her again and relive old pains and her obvious attempt to bribe him with a promise of more things for his kids. The needs of the kids won out, “What kind of things” he asked, as he bent his head forward, tilted it a little to one side and stared up at her from under his brows?

Willow, having no idea how to answer that question because she really didn’t have anything else to bring to the kids, ‘yet’, smiled at him and answered “It’s a surprise!”

Spike knew immediately that Willow wasn’t telling the truth, that she didn’t have anything more for the kids, ‘yet’. But he decided to let it pass. He knew she would bring something and that the kids could use anything she brought. They had so little, and they needed so much, and never a one complained about it. He couldn’t stand the idea of depriving them of even a little spot of something to make their lives a little better, happier. Spike looked off to one side, not wanting to confront Willow with her ‘little white lie‘. Instead he asked, “Just how ‘good’ are these ‘powers’ of yours anyway?”

Willow smiled at him, puffed up with pride. “I saved a country once” she said proudly. When Spike turned back to her with his brows bunched together in a look of confusion and doubt at her words, she sighed and said “Well, a little one, anyway.”

Spikes lips slipped unconsciously into a grin of amusement and replied “You’ll have to tell me about that sometime.” He then turned and walked over to the big steel door, unlocked it and slid it to one side. Willow took that as her signal to leave and gathering up her slayers followed Spike, and the half dozen boys and girls that followed him, back to the warehouse and her car.

******************

As soon as they were away from the warehouse safely, Willow started talking. “Were going to be doing more shopping today. You guys got a better look around the place last night than I did, start thinking about things you think Spike and the kids can use. I’ve got some ideas myself. When we get back to the hotel will write up a list. Sara, I want you to take the car back to the rental place when it opens and get something bigger. One of those SUV thingies with lots of room.”

Sara was driving the car and laughed, glancing over at Willow she said “SUV thingies?”

Willow blushed, both at her lack of knowledge about cars and at her use of a ’Buffyism’. But all of the Slayers did it. It had become a game over the years, dropping a ’Buffy Bomb’ into the middle of a conversation. It was the ’inside joke’ that everyone wanted to play. It was one of the glues that held them all together. Willow turned in the seat and looked at the girls in back and said “Yeah, well, you know what I meant.” They all burst into laughter as Willow blushed again. They were a tight team and moments like this just drew them closer together.

*********************

When they got back to the hotel Willow went to the front desk in the lobby to see if there were any messages. There was only one, from Robin asking her to call him. As soon as she got to their rooms she used her cell phone and called him. It was after 6 AM her time, so Robin should be at the school instead of at home. Robin and Faith ran a Martial Arts School in Cleveland, which was a great cover for having a couple dozen girls hanging around all the time practicing their fighting skills. It had also turned out to be a real money maker over the years. Not everyone they trained was a slayer. They had classes for boys and girls, men and women, and believe it or not, Faith taught classes to some of the local police officers. She loved kicking their asses all over the place and getting paid to do it.

Robin answered the phone on the second ring, “Willow Tree Dojo, may we help you?”

That was another thing that had happened over the years, starting up businesses to act as covers for the slayers and making ‘Willow Tree’ part of the name. There were six dojo, three private schools for girls, a dozen or more small delivery companies, a legitimate orphanage that Xander had opened in Africa, a bakery in London and a ‘Willow Tree -American Style Cooking’ restaurant in Rome, plus other places that she couldn’t even remember. When they first started setting up these businesses as covers for the slayers Dawn had wanted to open a Pub in London and call it ‘William the Bloody’, but Buffy had vetoed that idea real fast. She had claimed her reason was that a Pub wasn’t a place that a bunch of young girls could hang out in without problems. But Willow knew the real reason.

Realizing she had wandered off mentally Willow gasped into the phone “Oh, oh, sorry Robin, I kind of spaced out there for a moment.”

Robin Woods chuckled into the phone in his rich deep voice “It’s okay Will, glad you called back. You been getting any sleep lately? You sound tired.”

“Yeah, kind’a tired, just little naps now an then, been kind’a busy the past few days” Willow said as an involuntary yawn stretched her mouth and distorted some of the words. Willow blushed at the phone “Goddess, I’m sorry Robin. I must be tireder than I thought.”

“It’s okay Will” Robin said as he chuckled into the phone again. “Just wanted you to know that some relief is on the way. Giles called in the middle of the night and asked me to send out some of the girls to help you out. He suggested that ‘we’ need to reestablish a presence in L.A. again. Does that mean what I think it does?”

Willow hesitated for a few moments, then replied “It’s him Robin, he still has his soul.”

After a few long moments Robin said quietly “It’s okay Will. I got over my hate for Spike a long time ago. Sure, I thought he was dead, but I’m still over it. Can you tell me anything? Like where he’s been for the past seven years?”

“Right here in L.A. Robin, fighting vampires and rescuing orphan’s off the street”

“Damn, if we’d only known. We shouldn’t have pulled out of that town in the first place. If we’d stayed we would have found him years ago.”

“You know why we left” Willow said quietly.

“Yeah, I know. Buffy hates that city so much she wants the whole place to burn in hell” Robin responded just as quietly.

“Yeah” Willow sighed into the phone. “An apparently Spike’s been beating out the fires all by himself because of it.”

“It’s not your fault Will” Robin said into the phone soothingly. “It wasn’t your decision. Buffy was the one who wrote L.A. off, and Giles backed her on it.”

Willow became immediately defensive, “You know why he did it, and I didn’t say anything either, none of us did.”

“I know Will” Robin said, again in his most soothing tone of voice. “I’m not blaming Buffy or Giles or you or anyone. I didn’t say anything either. It’s just that …. seven years, we shouldn’t have stayed away so long.”

“Yeah. … I know” Willow said in a forlorn voice. “But we did and we can’t change the past. But maybe we can change the future.” Willow started crying and couldn’t stop herself. It took her a couple of minutes to get herself back under control. Robin stayed on the phone quietly, waiting for her. “Robin, you should see him. He’s bitter and angry at the Council and the Slayers, he doesn’t know why he’s been fighting alone. When I told him that Angel is still alive, I think I hurt him even more. Los Angeles was Angel’s city, to protect, and he never came back.”

“Damn, damn, damn” Robin whispered into the phone. “You couldn’t tell him, could you?” Robin asked quietly.

“What, that Angel’s been in a wheelchair for the past seven years? No, I couldn’t.”

*****************





You must login (register) to review.