Xander left for LA after having spent a lovely time with the ‘Scoobies’. Dawn all excited about reading history at university, Willow, well she was always the same, bright full of fun, great company - well apart from the time she nearly ended the world! And Buffy - watching her with Joy was just amazing. Andrew seemed to be turning into a Giles mini me but was a great asset to have. Giles had fussed over Joy like the honorary grandfather he was.
“Yes,” thought Xander as he sat on the plane, “It’s been a good day.”
He’d been glad to get the call to go to LA as he’d started to feel he was ready to join up with the Scoobies again, his grief at losing Anya finally fading to the point that he could remember her with happiness and tenderness, not with guilt and pain.
“Wonder what I’ll find when I get there?” he mused.
LA had been pretty quiet lately. He hoped it wasn’t something trying to establish a hold on the place.
When the plane landed he walked through to find a short mousy haired guy holding a card bearing his name. Xander found this a bit amusing since, although he wouldn’t know who was waiting for him, he was pretty hard to miss himself with the patch over his left eye. He walked up to the man, and looked down on him, being at least a foot taller than him.
“Hi, I’m Xander Harris.” he said, extending a hand.
“Carl Steigers, pleased to meet you,” came the reply.
They shook hands and Carl led the way to his car. The journey to the Watchers Council office took about forty five minutes, during which time Carl avoided saying anything about why Xander was there, just chatting about inane subjects like the weather, how the football team was getting on and so on. Xander found this to be slightly bizarre but perhaps he wanted to give the details when he wasn’t having to concentrate on his driving.
“Yeah, perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing,” thought Xander, after Carl swerved violently from one lane to another.
Once at the office Xander was taken to a room that had three people waiting in it.
“These are my colleagues - Jane Pitts, Robert Gibson and Toby Parker,” said Carl, “This is Xander Harris.”
Introductions out of the way the five of them sat at the table to discuss the problem at hand.
In the beginning they weren’t telling Xander anything he hadn’t heard from Giles and Andrew but he let them tell it uninterruptedly as he’d found it best that way. Questions can come later.
Xander found it interesting that the attacks on demons had given way to attacks on humans, although the local watchers were still talking as if they were two separate problems. He felt it more likely due to an escalation of one entity in its aim to find whatever it is that it wants. When demons couldn’t give it its answers it ventured on to humans. But what the hell did it want? No clues were available as no survivors had been found.
Xander took the case notes back to his hotel room with him to study at his leisure. He’d barely been there an hour when Carl phoned.
“I’m on my way to pick you up. There’s been another attack but this time she’s still alive!”
“This is probably the breakthrough we’ve needed,” thought Xander as he waited.
Ooooooooooooo
Dawn had volunteered to baby-sit so that Buffy and Willow could go to a West End show. It was the first time Buffy was leaving Joy behind since she’d been born. She went over everything with Dawn so many times that in the end Dawn practically threw her big sister out of the door!
“Go! Enjoy! We’ll be fine!” said Dawn, closing the door behind her. “Phew! Getting rid of your Mommy was tough,” she said to Joy, “Now shall we party or sleep? Sleep it is then.” She chuckled as she saw Joy was already fast asleep.
Oooooooooooo
Spike put down the phone. Buffy had just called letting him know what they’d been up to that day and that she and Willow were going to see a musical. He was glad Buffy was having a good time and knew Dawn would take good care of Joy. He was missing them both like mad but he’d be there with them the day after tomorrow. He couldn’t wait!
He was smiling as he went out of the door heading for the pub and another game of dominoes with Ned. He liked chatting to the old man although he had to be careful when Ned started talking about World War II as, although Spike had been around then, he couldn’t let it slip to Ned!
Ooooooooooooo
Xander and the other council members couldn’t get to see the injured woman until the next day as she’d been unconscious when she was brought in. There was no ID on her so they couldn’t even check into her background to see if anything came to light. Obviously the police were trying to talk to her too but the Watchers Council’s scary connections to seemingly every official department meant that Xander and Carl were given permission to see her once she was awake.
They walked into the Grant Memorial Hospital and made their way to the desk to find out which room the victim was in. Xander, letting Carl do the talking, was lost in his own thoughts. The last time he’d been in a hospital was after Caleb had ruined his left eye so he wasn’t exactly enjoying that trip down memory lane. He wasn’t really listening to Carl and the nurse but suddenly something got his attention.
“Say again!” he said, “What did you say her name was?”
“Helen Green,” replied the nurse. “She’s a nurse over at St David’s across town.”
“Oh my God!” cried Xander.
“What’s wrong?” asked Carl.
“I know her. She was a …er….friend’s girlfriend. Oh man, this can’t be a coincidence,” Xander replied. “Quickly, where’s she at?”
Carl led the way to the room the nurse had indicated. She opened the door and they went in. The light was dim but both men came to a halt as they saw her. Her face was badly battered, both eyes black and swollen almost completely shut, a delicate line of sutures closing a wound on her cheek. She also had a cast on her right arm, which was broken.
Xander moved towards the bed.
“Helen, do you remember me? It’s Xander, we met in London,” he said gently.
She moved her head slowly so she could look at him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked through lips cut and swollen. “I don’t understand.” A tear rolled down her cheek.
Shh, shh, it’s okay, you’re alright,” soothed Xander, “I’m here to help you, to help to find who did this to you. Are you feeling up to telling me what happened?”
She slightly nodded her head. Xander indicated for Carl to leave them alone. He left without a word, relieved to be out of the room, the sight of the poor girl making him so angry.
“I was walking home from a friend’s house,” she said, words slightly mumbled due to her swollen lips, “when I was grabbed by two men. Well, I thought they were men at first but then they changed, their faces……” she faltered.
“Go on. I’ll believe everything you say, Helen, no matter how weird it seems, I promise,” said Xander.
“Uh, okay, well, these …. things….grabbed me. I struggled but they were so strong…….they pulled me into an alley and started saying they wanted answers and I’d better tell the truth…that’s when their faces changed.” Helen gave a little sob at the memory.
“Did they say who was wanting the answers?” asked Xander gently.
“Not then…..not ‘til after……after they……” she gestured to her face. “I don’t think they knew I heard it as they just threw me to the ground and walked away. They said the Immortal will be pleased. I remembered it as it was so odd.”
Xander’s heart sank as he heard it was the Immortal. Buffy! She must be in danger.
“What questions did they ask you?” he said, keeping his voice calm, belying the panic rising inside.
“Spike, they wanted to know where Spike was!” she started to cry, “And I told them…….I tried not to but it hurt so much. Then they broke my arm….just snapped it like a twig. I thought they’d kill me so I told them.” The words were drowned out by the sobs that wracked her body.
Xander put his arms around her, trying to comfort her.
“Where exactly did you tell them Spike was?” he asked, thinking of Dawn now living in the apartment that Helen and Spike had shared. He wanted to dash off to use the phone but needed the whole story first.
“The……..the cottage, oh, I should have lied but I was so scared.”
“But how did you know about that?”
“Spike wrote me when he and Buffy got together. We’ve exchanged a few letters since. Oh God! What if they hurt Buffy or the baby? What have I done?”
“Helen. It’ll be okay, don’t beat yourself up about it. Anyone would have done the same. They’ve killed others they’ve questioned - you’re lucky.”
“What are they, Xander?”
“Later, Helen. I’ll tell all later but first I’ve got to leave you for a minute of two. I’ll be back and I promise I’ll answer all your questions.”
He hurried from the room and headed out of the hospital so he could use his cell phone.
“C’mon, c’mon, pick up.” he muttered. He looked at his watch - it was seven am so in England it’d be…..he tried to work it out…….about midnight. Wake up! Goddamnit!”
Oooooooooo
Spike had stayed at the pub later than normal and it had to be said that he was more than a little worse for the drink. He was catching the train the next morning to be re-united with his girls and had thought it reason enough for a little celebration! He reeled slightly as the fresh air hit him and turned for home, walking slowly and humming to himself.
Oooooooooooo
Giles answered the phone, glancing over at the clock as he picked it up. He’d only been asleep an hour.
“Hello?” he said blearily.
“Giles, it’s Xander! We’ve got trouble!” he shouted, relieved to have gotten hold of him.
“No need to shout. I’m awake. What’s going on?”
Xander recounted the attack on Helen and how the Immortal was gunning for Spike.
“He’s due here tomorrow, well, later today,” said Giles, “but I’d better warn him just in case. It’s not likely the Immortal can mobilise troops over here that fast, though.”
“Remember she was unconscious for a day, Giles. They’ve got a head start. Thank God Buffy and Joy are with you. Willow’s got that place so well protected no way anyone could get them there.”
“Go and be there for Helen. The poor girl will need it after what she’s been through. I’ll phone Spike,” said Giles
He dialled the cottage’s number. It started to ring….
Oooooooo
Spike was just getting his key out of his pocket when he heard a phone ringing. He pulled out his cell phone and looked at it blankly. That wasn’t ringing, so what was? Oh yeah! The house phone.
“I’m coming,” he muttered as he tried to get the key in the lock.
Suddenly he was slammed into the door, the force of it knocking the breath out of him.
“You’re not going anywhere,” growled a voice behind him.
Spike turned round.
“Oh, bollocks!” he said as he came face to face with two massive vampires, both well over six feet tall and built like bodybuilders.
He turned back to the door - if he could just get it open and get inside……
He was rewarded with a vicious kick to his left leg, right on the site of the injury. He fell to the floor. He lashed out with his right foot as hard as he could, satisfied when he heard a grunt as it connected with one of the vampires. But the scuffle didn’t last long. Two vampires versus one pissed lame human was only going to end one way.
One of the vampires grabbed Spike, pinning his arms to his side, the other punched him ferociously in the stomach. Again Spike fell to the floor, coughing and gasping for breath.
“Right, Spike, you’re coming with us,” said the first vampire, lifting him with effortless ease until he was holding Spike so his face was level with his own, feet dangling inches off the floor.
With that he pulled Spike towards him and bit deep into his neck.
The last thought Spike had before losing consciousness was that the phone was still ringing……………
to be continued...
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