“Summers Incorporated, how may I help you?” Dawn leaned against the wall as she carefully recited the greeting while her sister looked on from the kitchen.
“Dawn?”
“Uh-huh, who’s this?” Dawn glared at her sister over the half-wall separating them as she continued to flip through a magazine, not paying attention to the caller.
“This is Eddie…”
“BUFFY! Phone’s for you…it’s your secret lover…” Dawn squealed as the slayer tackled her from behind and grabbed at the phone, hopeful that the client hadn’t heard her sister’s last comment.
“Buffy Summers, what can I help you with?” She leaned against the same wall Dawn had just vacated as the low timbre of a voice she hadn’t heard for awhile came over the line. “Yeah, I can meet you then. Bye Eddie.” With an annoyed look, she placed the phone back on the cradle and turned towards her grown sister. “You could have mentioned it was Eddie on the phone, you know.”
“But I did. Told you it was your secret lover or rather he wasn’t much of a secret and seriously you two couldn’t have kept it down any more. Geez, it was like living with a bunch of gorillas. ‘EDDIE!!! Harder!!!…BUFFY!!! Grunt, grunt. It’s a wonder I got any sleep at all…so what did he want?”
“You know the more you make fun of my relationships, the more fuel I have when you start bringing dates home and he wants to meet…”
“For a little under the sheets boom-boom…rattle the rugs…”
“Eddie’s got six corpses with itty bitty little holes in their necks and needs the help of a slayer. Besides, he knows I’m not over Spike, never was.” Her eyes glazed over slightly as the image of her bleached blonde pesky vampire came to mind.
“Right so while Spike is living it up in L.A with what’s-her-face, you’re going to be looking at dead bodies with your former chess buddy?” Dawn smirked at the reference to the Buffy-bot of days past and couldn’t help noticing the grin on her sister’s face that hadn’t made an appearance in quite awhile.
“Chess buddy? Is that what you thought we were doing? We really need to get you a boyfriend, sister. C’mon, I want you to come with us. See if you can spot anything the great Sunnydale police idiots missed.” Buffy moved to grab her coat and hand Dawn hers as she passed a life-like drawing of Spike in the hallway.
“So you mean like another body left in the middle of the hallway? Or the killer standing outside the building wearing a little sign that says ‘killer, stop me before I stop myself’?”
“Either, neither. Let’s just go, ok? I want to get this over as quickly as possible.” She grabbed the keys to her brand-new Mercedes, a gift from the former Watcher’s Council they knew nothing about, and trudged to the front door, locking it behind them.
1432 Romart Circle, Sunnydale, California…6th of October, 2005
Eddie Taylor stood outside of the apartment building, crime scene, as he waited for the perky little blonde to show up. Andrea had elected to stay inside the building, far away from Jack, and monitor the evidence collection from within. Sitting down on a nearby park bench, he waited and surveyed the area around him. In the normally well-lit neighborhood there were several areas the killer could have stayed, hidden by the shadows. One such area was a broken street lamp with glass shards surrounding it from a car accident that had never been properly cleaned up. Eddie followed the line from the pole to the apartment building and found that it had a close to perfect view of the uppermost rooms and a clear view of the doorman. It could have been where the killer had stayed while waiting for his target. Before he could ponder anymore a sporty little 2-door pulled up alongside him and the Summers sister’s emerged from it.
“Your parking has certainly improved.” Eddie grinned at the pair as the one rolled her eyes and the other looked positively delighted to mock the other.
“Unfortunately her driving has gotten worse. You would think the insurance company would think twice about insuring such a crappy driver on such a nice car.” Dawn looked longingly at the sleek black machine as her sister fumbled with the lock button on her keys.
As Buffy smiled sheepishly from the drivers side of the car, Eddie could feel his heart constrict at the sight of her. Striding over, he kissed the side of her mouth and escorted the sisters past the armed officers and upstairs to where Margaret Adamson’s body still lay under a white sheet.
“How many freaking stairs are there?” Dawn shuffled behind the oblivious couple in front of her as she huffed her way up the thirteen flights of stairs.
“Shouldn’t you be in shape for this after all the times you followed me out on patrol when you were supposed to be doing your homework?” The barely winded slayer looked back at the scowling brunette and laughed.
“I still graduated, didn’t I? And besides, at least I didn’t blow up the school when I left…you always had to have an elaborate exit.”
“Hey, that wasn’t my choice to blow up the school. I blame Mayor Wilkins for that one.”
“You blew up the school? The case that has been bothering the captain for years and you did it? Oh geez, I don’t want to know anymore. Wouldn’t look very good for me to arrest my girlfriend…” Eddie continued to lead them up the stairs towards the top of the building as he shook his head in disbelief.
“At least it wasn’t a rocket launcher that time!”
“You blew something up with a rocket launcher?” Eddie hung his head as he led them through to the apartment.
“Uh-huh, remember I told you after my boyfriend went evil. He tried to take out humanity with the blue guy, The Judge, and I took him out with a rocket launcher that Xander stole from the military…” Buffy continued to ramble much to the disbelief of the officers around them.
“Buffy, I beg you to stop now before one of them arrests you for something…the body is in here.” As they passed officer upon officer, they finally found their way to the back bedroom, which for all it’s yellow tape was still covered in blood. Dawn gasped at the sight of the blood spattered across the back wall as she took in the white-covered form on the bed, still propped up slightly so the tips of the victim’s hair showed beyond the sheet.
“You alright there Dawnie?” Eddie watched the younger sister carefully as the eldest took a deep breath and began surveying the scene.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just wasn’t expecting all the blood I guess. I don’t know, it seems like kind of a waste if it was a vampire that killed her, doesn’t it?”
“Not all vampires are in it for the blood. Some are in it for the kill…makes their blood rush like any other killer. This guy…he’s organized and I think he knew her…didn’t you say you found a music box in the other room?” Buffy turned away from the bed to glance back at Eddie, who was standing in the doorway watching as they looked over the room.
“Yeah, plays a song one of the other guys recognized. ‘Early One Morning’, do you recognize it?” Judging by her sharp intake of breath, he guessed that she did know it and the answer wasn’t going to be pretty.
“Spike.”
[Reviews - 17]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 1837 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Just a reminder: this fic is completed and will be updated regularly for those that want to follow it. I hope you enjoy.
Chapter End Notes:
Reviews would be great