Chapter 18
Spike was worried when Buffy never showed up at the Bronze. He wondered if she was still at Faith’s house and just lost track of time, so he left the club to find out.
“B took off about an hour ago, said she had some errands to run for your mom.”
Spike raised his eyebrows in confusion, glancing around the brunette’s room. It had been a while since he set foot in there. “I didn’t know anything about that. Are you sure that’s what she said?”
Faith nodded. “Yep, but now that I think about it, she acted kinda strange. She was fine until she saw this picture of mine, then suddenly had an urge to leave.”
“What picture?” he wondered.
Faith sighed and went over to her garbage can, taking out the crumpled up paper that she put in there earlier. She handed it to him. “It’s a picture of my old man. We don’t like to keep any of him around, so I threw it out. Buffy had this weird look on her face when she saw it.”
The guy in the photo looked vaguely familiar to Spike. It only took a second for him to recognize who it was. “Bloody hell, it can’t be.”
“What’s the big deal with this picture?”
Spike turned back to Faith. “This is the bloke that killed Buffy’s parents when she was a child. We ran into him the other day and Buffy’s been out of it ever since.”
Faith needed to sit down, feeling that her legs were about to give out. “You’re sure it’s the same guy?”
Spike put the picture down, knowing this couldn’t be easy for her. “Positive, I better go look for Buffy. She probably just went home.”
Faith grabbed his arm before he could leave. “Did you go to the cops with this?”
He nodded. “We didn’t have much of a choice. Buffy gave them his description; it’s up to them to find him now.”
Faith nodded as well. “Good, that’s good. I hope they fry the bastard,” she said harshly.
Spike sat down beside her on the bed. “It’ll be okay, Faith.”
She stood and moved away from him, throwing her hands in the air. “How the fuck will it be okay? Not only does my loser of a father walk out on us when I was a kid, but now I find out that he was responsible for taking the parents away from my best friend? There is nothing okay about that.” Faith hated to cry, absolutely hated it. She never liked to show such a weakness, but was finding it hard to stop her tears now.
Spike got up and went to her side, wrapping his arms around her as she cried on his shoulder. “He won’t hurt anyone else again, love. Somehow, I’ll see to that.”
* * * * *
“Thank you, officer.” Giles closed the door and headed back into the living room to join the rest of his family.
“What did he say?” Spike wondered.
Giles took his glasses off. “They don’t normally look for a missing person, until they’ve been gone for at least twenty-four hours.”
Spike was outraged. “And that’s it? We just wait here and hope that she comes back? It’s been hours, Dad. Buffy would never be gone for this long. She would have called or something.”
Giles tried to calm his son down. “I convinced them to search for her. With that man on the loose, they’re taking extra precautions. I’m sure Buffy is all right. She’ll come home when she’s ready.”
“But what if she doesn’t? What if she’s really hurt somewhere? I’m going out to look for her.”
Anne shook her head. “I won’t have you go missing, too. I believe that it would be best if we all stayed here. The police will look for Buffy; we won’t be of much help. It’s getting late, I think we should just try and get some sleep.”
Spike didn’t know how he could even think about sleep with Buffy gone, but he just nodded and made his way upstairs. All he could do was pray that she would be okay.
* * * * *
Buffy felt a pounding in her skull once she awoke, trying to get her eyes to adjust and look around at her surroundings. She could only see a lot of boxes and crates, figuring that she must be in some kind of shed or warehouse. She tried to move, but noticed that her hands and feet were tied up.
“I see you’re awake now. I wouldn’t do that, you’ll only hurt yourself.”
Buffy stopped pulling at the rope and glared at the man that decided to grace her with his presence. “Who are you? What do you want with me?”
He smiled. “I’m Dan; we only wanna talk to you. If you cooperate, you won’t get hurt.”
Buffy shuddered, the events of the night coming back to her. “We?” she asked shakily. It was then that another man showed up. She gasped and pulled more at the ropes, trying to get free.
Jake moved closer and kneeled down at her side. “Now, that’s really not necessary. I only want to have a word with you.”
Buffy flinched when he placed his hand on her leg, but remained still after that.
“That’s a good girl. I’m sure you know who I am, just as I know who you are. I like to think I’m a pretty private man, so it would just ruin everything to have the cops on my back. I just wanna keep you quiet, that’s all I care about. So, if you promise not to squeal to the coppers about who I am, then I’ll let you go. It’s as simple as that.”
Buffy raised her chin in defiance. “How do you know that I haven’t already told them?”
He laughed, pulling the gun out of his back pocket and tracing the weapon down her cheek. “Well, then I guess you would have a problem.”
Dan grabbed his arm. “You said it wouldn’t come to that.”
Jake glared at him. “If she already told the police, then all bets are off. They could show up at any minute. We shoot the brat and get the hell out of town. That sounds like a good plan to me.” He turned back to Buffy, pointing the gun in her direction.
Buffy didn’t know what to do, but had to think of something fast. “Wait, I know Faith.”
Jake lowered the gun at that name, his eyes widening.
Buffy figured that was some progress and continued. “She’s your daughter, right? We go to school together; I’m her only real friend. I don’t think she would like it if you killed me.”
Dan had a look of confusion on his face. “What is she talking about, Jake? I didn’t know you had a kid.”
“I don’t, she’s just making shit up to avoid getting a bullet in her brain.”
Buffy shook her head. “You know I’m not making this up. I saw your picture in her house. She…She still thinks about you. It’s bad enough that you walked out on her, but you don’t have to do this. She wouldn’t want you to.”
Jake ran his fingers through his hair. “I can’t handle this right now. I need to think, you watch her. Make sure she doesn’t try anything.”
Dan watched his friend go, then turned back to Buffy. “Well, it looks like we might be here for a while.”
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