A few minutes later, Buffy was in the passenger seat of Spike’s Desoto. Her bags had been placed in the back seat of his car next to his small bag, which Buffy figured was filled with his typical black clothing. The sandwiches and blood had been packed into a cooler he had kept in the back of his car and they had made one stop at 24-hour gas station to collect ice to keep the items cool.
As they continued their journey, neither said a word and it was driving Buffy crazy. She didn’t like the quiet. Sure, before she had enjoyed it and looked forward to it but she found sitting next to a quiet Spike was making her long for conversation. If she couldn’t have a conversation she needed music to fill the air before she found herself analyzing the situation at hand and possibly end up running away from Spike. After pausing for a moment, she glanced at Spike pleadingly, “Do you have any music or something to stop the quiet?”
Spike peeked in her direction noticing her uneasiness and how desperate she looked and although he figured it was due to the fact she didn’t want to think, he still took pity on her replying, “I have a few tapes in the glove compartment. I doubt you like any but take your pick.”
Buffy eagerly flipped through the collection of about 30 tapes and picked out Elvis. She found herself smiling at Spike and exclaimed, “Elvis is an all time classic.”
Spike smirked at her bragging for a moment, “I met him once you know.”
Buffy looked curiously at him and replied in amazement “You did?”
Spike nodded still smirking as he continued to brag, “Yep. He was in Vegas once when Dru and I were there. He signed in one of my journals. They are in the trunk though. My guess it was around 1967 or so.”
Buffy settled back in her seat as memories filled her head of happier times when she stated, “My mom loved Elvis. She still listens to him while cleaning the house. She said I had to learn to appreciate the classics and Elvis was a classic. His music isn’t that bad. Don’t ever tell her but I sort of enjoy it.”
She hummed along to the music that was blaring through the stereo. She couldn’t say she was happy, nor even content but she was satisfied right now. She suddenly realized she had no idea where Spike was taking her as she sat up on her seat looking around at the road trying to see anything other than black, “Spike, um, where are we going?”
Spike was quiet for a moment lost in thought as a street sign was spotted in front of him, “How about Patterson, California?” He said pointing to the sign, informing her, “That’s about 4 hours from Los Angeles and about the same from Sunnyhell.”
Buffy nodded feeling satisfied with the reply, “What’s there?”
Spike shrugged as he admitted, running his hand through his hair glancing in her direction to see how she felt about it, “Never been there. But we will see soon enough.”
Buffy nodded as a yawn overcame her, “I know I should keep you company but I’m so tired. Do you mind if I sleep?”
Spike smiled over at her glancing her way for a second, “Don’t mind at all. I slept all day, and you worked hard. Plus it’s 12, probably past your bed time lately.”
Buffy yawned again as she wiggled to get comfortable, “Will you wake me if you get tired?”
Spike didn’t respond to her question and instead replied, “Eat something first pet.”
Buffy didn’t think to question him and instead reached behind the back seat getting their sandwiches. She unwrapped Spike’s and handed it to him and unwrapped hers and took a bite frowning, “They are better warmer.”
Spike shrugged answering, “It’s fine.”
Buffy didn’t realize how hungry she was until she was just holding an empty wrapper in her hand. She reached over and took Spike’s wrapper from his hand and crumbled them up together and put them back into the cooler. She glanced at him worried about his well being as she questioned, “Spike, do you need some blood? I noticed all four are still in there.”
Spike frowned not sure what to say. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings but he didn’t want to lie to her either. He finally decided to just tell the truth, “I’ve never drank pig’s blood.”
Buffy frowned and he wondered what was going on in her mind and then she spoke up, “When we get to that new town, we’ll find the closest hospital, if that’s ok with you. I’d rather you not kill people.”
Spike nodded figuring that was the case. She wouldn’t even let him kill the policeman that was about to arrest her in Sunnyhell. He couldn’t see that changing any time soon, if ever. She was a goody-two shoes being the Slayer and all. She could hardly be expected to lower her values for a killer. He decided bagging it wouldn’t be so bad as long as they found a place that had a microwave. He could just heat it up to the right temperature and add some Weetabix and perhaps burba weed or even cinnamon or vanilla. He sighed knowing why vanilla came to his mind. He glanced over at Buffy who looked very uncomfortable with how she was sleeping. He reached behind the back of his seat pulling up the blanket to the front that they had taken from her old apartment and covered her up and smiled as she leaned over towards his direction and rested her head on his shoulder. She snuggled up closer to him then and he let out a deep breath.
He hadn’t thought of Dru in the last few hours and that hadn’t changed. All he was thinking about was the Slayer. ‘Was that a good thing? Can I really be falling in love with a Slayer? I’m William the Bloody, who slays bloody slayers not falls in love with them'.
He frowned as he passed someone on the road realizing he was in trouble, ‘I, William the Bloody, the Big Bad Vampire, William Pratt…’ He gasped, ‘I haven’t called myself that in ages, well since pretty much I was turned. I’m turning into a bloody ponce.’
He sighed and decided to focus on the music before he made more of a bloody fool of himself. Elvis was singing away so he started humming away, careful not to move too much as to wake Buffy. They still had another three hours of the car ride to go.
Spike and Buffy arrived in Patterson a few hours later with the sun shining bright as Spike had missed the sunrise by just a few minutes. Spike trying to be nice and left Buffy asleep in the car while he rushed into the hotel with a blanket over his head looking like a complete poof. He checked into the hotel, getting a room with a queen size bed. He had covered his head with the blanket they had thankfully brought, rushing Buffy into hotel room where he slipped her into the bed.
He was getting mighty hungry but didn’t want to cause trouble. Sure he had just eaten a sandwich a mere three hours ago but nothing quenched his thirst besides blood. He was used to a person or two a night. Now he was going on 32 hours without anything other than a sandwich. He sighed and tried to get comfortable by pulling off his shirt, belt and then removed his boots. He hesitated for a moment while removing his socks and decided to just deal with the consequences and removed his pants as well. He wasn’t used to sleeping with clothes on. He did it out of respect last night but now he was in a bed. He crawled into the bed listening to his stomach growl. He closed his eyes hoping to fall asleep despite the hunger. If he could just make it through the day, Buffy said they could stop at a hospital tonight. Just one day, another 12 hours, surely he could handle that.