He spotted her standing near the drums with the other band members and was momentarily stunned by the fact that he had finally found her. After only a brief moment of hesitation, Spike mustered up his courage and headed in her direction; only to be pushed rudely aside by a hulk of a man. Stumbling backwards into wall, he quickly regained his balance and prepared for a fight that he was sure was waiting for him. However, what he witnessed instead of a fight sent a searing pain through his heart and his blood to bubble and boil with anger. His stomach twisted in knots as he watched Buffy stand on the tips of her toes and reach upwards in to the waiting embrace of the man who had almost knocked Spike over.
Seething with barely controlled anger and a heart full of regret, Spike fled from the room.
Bright and early the next morning, entirely too soon after the sun had risen, Buffy was rudely awakened by the shrill sound of the telephone screaming at her from across the room. Groggily, she rolled out of bed and stumbled like the sleep deprived zombie that she felt like to the dresser where the telephone was currently located. Grumbling her hello in to the phone, she was greeted by a too awake and far too perky Lorne, who proclaimed to have ‘major important news’ and followed up the conversation by strict instructions to get her ‘sweet little behind’ to his office pronto. Despite the lack of sleep, having only gotten home from the performance a measly five hours before the wakeup call, Buffy managed to shower, get dressed and make it out the front door within half an hour.
Afterward the meeting with Lorne and the band, Buffy was stunned, to say the least. Never in a million years had she expected to receive such amazing news! Bursting with excitement, she hurried to the car and headed home, eager to fill Riley in on Lorne’s fantastic news. She drove like a madwoman, only slightly crazier than the way she normally drove, and managed to make it back across town to her new home in record time. Seeing the new house when she pulled into the driveway was still a bit of a shock since she yet to fully adjust to the fact that she and Riley had purchased and moved into a new house only two weeks ago. Buffy slammed the shifter into park, scrambled out of the car and sprinted up the steps to burst through the front door. “Riley!” She shrieked, excitedly, bouncing around the foyer.
“What’s wrong? Are you ok?” Riley asked with worry written across his face as he lumbered down the stairs.
“You will so never guess what just happened to me today!” Buffy exclaimed, barely taking a breath between her words. Of course, she was so excited that she didn’t give her fiancé a chance to guess; eagerly continuing with her good news. “Lorne booked us for a three month tour! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? I’ve only been out of California a few times and now I get to go on a freaking tour around the world. Isn’t it totally amazing?!” She shrieked loudly, jumping up and down around Riley like a child on an invisible pogo stick; never noticing the unhappy expression on his face.
“When do you leave?” Riley managed to ask with a controlled voice, trying not to let any emotion show. Having his fiancé go on out on tour was the last thing he wanted, or honestly expected, to actually happen. While he thought that Buffy’s band was fairly decent, he honestly believed that her music ‘career’ would fizzle out after a while, which would allow her to focus on being a homemaker like his mother was for their family; what a woman was supposed to do for her man. He was ready to get married, settle down and start having children, and having his fiancé prancing around the world doing who knows what without him there to supervise certainly didn’t play in to his future plans.
“That’s what’s even crazier than finding out about the tour! We leave next Thursday! Our first show is in Dallas on Friday night. Oh my gawd! I have no idea how I am going to get things ready that quickly! I have too many details to take care of!” It was then Buffy noticed the expression marring Riley’s face. “What’s the matter?” She placed her small hand on his arm, only to have it brushed away angrily. Confused, Buffy crossed her arms across her chest in a protective manner and quietly asked, “Aren’t you happy for me?”
“Don’t act like you have no idea what Friday night is!” Riley spit out, his voice raising to just below a shout. “As usual, your career is more important than mine!” Exasperated, he threw his hands up which caused Buffy to flinch in fear, although it had been months since his anger had caused him to lash out at her.
“What did I do wrong this time, exactly?” Buffy asked cautiously, after following Riley into the kitchen as he stalked away from her. While he was clearly upset with her for some reason, Buffy couldn’t figure out as to what she had actually done this time to deserve his anger. She stood in the archway to the kitchen and crossed her arms over her chest and waited for Riley to calm down long enough to answer her question.
“I don’t know why I’m surprised that you forgot about my awards ceremony Friday night. It’s obvious that you are entirely too important to belittle yourself by attending the banquet with me.” Riley exploded, his face flushed an angry red as his temper continued to rise.
“Riley, honey, please calm down.” Buffy pleaded, finally lowering her arms and crossing the room to where Riley was pacing back and forth across the floor. “You’re frightening me. I didn’t forget about you, I swear. I’m just really excited right now. I’m sorry the show is the same day as your ceremony, but I have to be there. I can’t pass this opportunity up, you understand that, right?” She slowly stepped towards him, placing her hand on his chest in hopes that she could get him calm down. Relief spread through her when she saw him release the breath he had been holding inside.
“You’re right, I’m sorry.” Riley finally admitted, although anger still coursed through his veins. He just knew that his fellow actors were going to be sitting at the table with their partners, sipping champagne and judging him for being there alone; for not being able to control his fiancé and make sure that she made him a priority over her career.
“I hate I’m not going to be there to watch you get that award.” Buffy added as she stepped in to the arms he opened up to her. Wrapped in his massive embrace, she blinked away the tears that were stinging in her eyes and hated that once again, Riley had made the situation about him, instead of congratulating her on her big news. What would she have to do to gain his admiration?
While the storm known as Riley’s temper had once again blown over, Buffy couldn’t help but wonder if this was the romance she had dreamed about as a little girl. She didn’t question her love for Riley, but for the first time Buffy was beginning to think that their romance didn’t feel like the beginning of Happily Ever After.
The days passed quickly, a lot faster than Buffy had imagined they would actually, and it seemed like all of the sudden it was Thursday afternoon and time for her to leave. She waited as patiently as possible with the rest of the band for their flight number to be called, although her nerves were threatening to spill over and cause a major breakdown if they didn’t get out of the holding area and on a plane soon. She had planned ahead to ahead and said her goodbyes to Riley at the house, instead of the airport, so that she could avoid any awkward scenes in front of her bandmates. So far, they had only seen the sweet, good old boy version of Riley and she hoped to keep it that way. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a single hour out of her life, their flight was called to begin boarding. Brimming with a combination of nervousness and excitement, Buffy gathered up her carry-on items and followed her band mates towards the terminal.
While she knew that the tour would mean long hours, hard work and very little sleep, Buffy was looking forward to having some alone time. She hadn’t mentioned the scene with Riley to anyone, scared of what they might think of her, but she had every intention of having a serious conversation with herself and deciding whether or not Riley was the person she was destined to spend forever with. In her heart, Buffy knew that he wasn’t her soul mate, but she wasn’t entirely certain that she believed in soul mates at all. What she really wanted was someone who loved her as much as she loved him, someone to come home to and share a bed with, someone who supported her, and someone who made her burn with desire for them. None of which she felt particularly applied to her fiancé at the current moment. Luckily, she had three months to consider her options and make a decision in regards to getting married.
Once on the plane, she found her seat, settled in and looked around fairly small plane. Lorne had surprised them by calling Angel and hiring two of his men for security, saying that he would feel better knowing that his top assets were properly protected while out on the road and not to worry about the money, but Buffy figured that her longtime friend had given Lorne a deal because she knew how much Angel charged for his services. She had briefly met the handsome men while waiting at the gate and decided that upon first impressions she liked both of them instantly and, for the most part, her first impressions were rarely wrong. Wesley was British and was quite attractive in a bookish librarian sort of way and married, a recent newlywed actually. And the other man’s name was Charles, but went by his last name, Gunn. He was quite striking, with ebony skin that reminded Buffy of a luscious bowl of melted chocolate, and towered over her nearly as much as Riley did. His smile, however, was warm and inviting and erased any possibly feelings of alarm she may have harbored. Glancing at them once more, Buffy decided she was in capable enough hands and settled back against the seat, took out her IPOD and got comfortable.
“Man, Wes, I cannot believe we are working this job! I actually got to meet and protect that fine ass Faith! What are the odds?” said Gunn, who had claimed a seat at the rear of the plane with Wesley and Lorne. “Spike would be so jealous right now. You remember how he acted when he saw Buffy. I’ve never seen him so out of it! Fred tried to talk to him several times and he just ignored her. That man ain’t ever ignored Fred. Hell, I thought those two would have ended up together instead of you marrying her.”
Wesley just stared at his rambling coworker, more than used to Gunn’s ability to blather on and on until something else came along and captured his attention. Rolling his eyes, Wesley kept his face turned to face the window and said with a sour tone, “Please do not ever engage me in a conversation regarding anything involving Spike and Fred in any other relationship than the type they have now.” That particular topic had always bothered him, but not enough to act on it. His wife had assured him on more than one occasion of sensing his jealousy that nothing had, nor ever would, happen between her and Spike. “And, yes, he did seem quite enamored with Buffy. Though I gathered the impression that he knew her from somewhere before.”
“Ya know, you could be right about that. Something about how he talked about her did seem different…probably because he wasn’t being all rude and crude with the lewd comments.” Gunn replied after considering Wesley’s comment.
“Who’s this Spike?” Lorne asked when there was a moment of silence between the two men. He listened with an eager ear as Wesley explained that he was an old friend of Angel’s who sometimes works with them. “Captain Peroxide only steps in when the shit hits the fan and he don’t roll out of bed for chump change neither.” Gunn chimed in with a shake of the head and only a fraction of jealousy tinging his words.
“Because of his hair. He bleaches it until it’s nearly completely white, so Angel crowned him with the moniker.” Wesley explained when Lorne questioned the nickname, Captain Peroxide. “I personally don’t understand why anyone would want their hair to look that way, but the ladies seem to fancy it well enough.”
Lorne immediately thought back to the night he saw Buffy run from the women’s bathroom at Caritas, disheveled and obviously upset, and interestingly enough she been followed out of the restroom by a handsome man all in leather with a shock of platinum hair. He had never asked Buffy about what happened that night since she never mentioned it, figuring if Buffy wanted to talk about it she would. But, as he reclined in his seat and sipped his Sea Breeze, Lorne wondered if this Spike was in fact the mystery man from that night.