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Author's Chapter Notes:
I am sorry yet again, but I've recently found out I will be losing my job, I've been worried and looking for anything to tide me over through christmas and help pay for my college course so I can see that through until next summer, but no joy. My muse hasn't surfaced for a while, but I've managed to soldier on and give you an update so I hope you appreciate I'm trying my best in difficult times.



“I’ve been over and over this.” Buffy said exasperated, her body ached, her eyes were heavy. She’d seen more of this police station than she had her apartment since she’d got back, and it was physically draining her.

“We’ll go over it again and again until you tell us what we need to know.” Agent Adams said coldly.

“Are you allowed to speak to me like that?” she asked, “I’ve told you I don’t want to press charges, I came to you because the bank manager told you I was abducted and I wanted the police to know I was fine.” Buffy rose out of her seat, “I came to stop your missing person’s investigation, nothing more.”

“It’s not as simple as that Miss Summers;” Agent Adams said getting uncomfortably close to her, “like it or not your friend was more than an abductor, he robbed a bank and shot a civilian!”

“That’s it, I’m leaving.” Buffy said through clenched teeth.

Agent Finn grabbed her arm gently near the door. He was different from his partner, she could tell, but his kind gentle eyes did nothing to quell her anger.

“He’ll behave if you stay, I promise.” he whispered.

Buffy turned back towards the other Agent, “I don’t see why we even need to do this.” she sighed, “You have the bank manager’s statement, and mine.”

Adams said nothing.

Agent Finn drew her attention back. “You were the only one to actually spend time with them. Please Miss Summers.”

She sighed again, hoping if she stayed a little longer they would get tired and send her home. She’d had her electricity and phone cut off whilst she’d been away and she hadn’t even had time to reconnect them yet, all she did was sleep, eat, and come here it seemed.

Eventually she nodded, and walked back around to her seat at the table. She said nothing for a long time, but silence wasn’t uncomfortable for her, it was actually quite welcome. It seemed all people wanted her to do these days was talk, and it was tiresome.

“I apologise Miss Summers.” Agent Adams said. “I just need to ask these questions, and my superiors need answers. Sometimes the pressure of the job makes me lose my temper in here.”

Buffy knew he was more desperate than sorry so it could have been believable that he needed his ‘answers’, but she also knew he was talking shit; he ran this investigation. His superiors didn’t care whether they got the right guy for this, just as long as the case was closed. This man had a personal vendetta he wanted exercising, and he expected her to help. She’d drawn that much from their regular meetings.

She rolled her eyes to show she didn’t believe him, and after that he knew a soft approach wouldn’t work.

“I don’t understand you Miss Summers, but I will.” he said, his tone changing immediately. “I have a gut feeling normally about people, and my gut’s usually right. I know you’re protecting them, and I could guess why, but I don’t know yet.”

Buffy said nothing.

Agent Adams put his palms flat on the table and leant forward, trying hard to appear intimidating, but never crossing the line into her space.

“I’m going to have you in this room everyday until I understand you. It could be in 3weeks, 4months, 2days, or 5minutes, but I won’t give up.”

“You can’t do that,” said Buffy, “I haven’t done anything wrong, and you can’t keep bringing me here against my will if I refuse to press charges, all I am is a witness and you can’t harass witnesses like that.”

“Are you just a witness, Miss Summers? Are you just a victim as you lead us to believe,” Agent Adams pressed, “or are you their accomplice?”

Buffy was outraged, “I was kidnapped!”

“Were you? How many kidnap victims protect their kidnappers?”

Buffy was speechless, she couldn’t believe anyone would stoop this low, but she also didn’t have an answer for him.

“You could be in on the whole thing, the robbery, the assault on the bank manager, you could be an award winning actress for all I know, and have us all fooled. How many little innocent college girls run with criminals?” he started to raise his voice, “If I charged you with aiding and abetting alone I could keep you here for 24hours straight, and let me tell you, every second of it would be in here with me.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

Agent Finn tried to speak, but Agent Adams put his left hand out in protest and it silenced him. “Give us a name, Miss Summers.”

Buffy’s head hurt, she was confused, concentrating on not giving in, but at the same time trying to process what this man was saying to her. Could they really do that? Would she go to jail for something she didn’t do? She knew she wasn’t ready to give up on Spike, and she would never turn him in, but did that mean going to jail for him? Was she ready to go that far? To go to prison? For the crimes he committed, they committed? For Angel?

“Angel.” she said suddenly.

Agent Finn didn’t miss a beat, “O’Connor?” he asked confused.

“I don’t know,” Buffy said shaking her head. “The other men just called him Angel.”

Agent Adams paused for a second, if it was true it would be a prestigious collar, he’d surely get a promotion and lots of recognition. So would the entire department if they had actually found a witness who was willing to tie the O’Connor kid to any crime on any level. If they could keep her safe until the trial and she actually testified, it would be the case of his life. He stood upright and walked the length of the room and back. It just didn’t feel right; the name Angel wasn’t the one he wanted.

Before Agent Finn could speak again Agent Adams had jumped in. “This is bullshit. If Angel O’Connor had abducted you, and you were the only thing linking his name, his face to this robbery, you wouldn’t be sat here. One phone call to his father and we’d have never found you.”

Buffy shuddered at the thought.

Adams had been convinced she was lying about Angel being involved, but in her wince he’d seen recognition. He was still sure that she wouldn’t be alive to tell the story if Angel had been the one hiding her away, but she knew something of him, and he had some part in this. Instead of being glad of having one suspect, his greedy nature came out, he wanted all the names and now he had one he wasn’t going to stop until he got them all.

“Agent Finn,” Adams said after a moment, “Will you step outside with me?”

Agent Finn looked confused for a second, but he gave the other Agent some room to pass him and followed him as he left.

Buffy heard them talking outside, but their voices were muffled so she couldn’t make out what they were saying; it made her nervous. She didn’t think they had bought the Angel thing, but why else would they need to have a private conference? She knew enough of Agent Adams to be wary of him, something was going on. She didn’t know whether it was to do with her, or Angel, or even Spike, but he knew something, she’d given something away.

She was so confused, and the longer she waited the more confused she became. She saw one of them leave, pass the door and down the corridor before she lost sight of him, the glass on the door was misted so she couldn’t be sure which one, but her heart dropped a little because the build of the man looked more like Agent Finn than Agent Adams, and she hated the thought of being left alone with the other.

Luckily 10minutes later he came back, yet still no one entered the room. They stood having an exchange to the side of the door; just so she could see. Not only did they exchange words, but something they passed to one another. Then whatever it was was tucked firmly into a jacket, and both men came back inside to her.

She waited for an apology, but none came.

“I’ve seen this before,” Agent Adams said aggressively, as if she had annoyed him even though they’d been separated, “I’ve seen you before.”

“What do you mean?” Buffy asked bewildered.

“Stockholm Syndrome.”

Buffy had heard the term.

“Just because he didn’t hurt you, you know that doesn’t mean he cares about you, right? That’s what Stockholm syndrome is Miss Summers; a misguided attachment to your kidnapper, a belief that if they don’t hurt you, it’s because they like you.”

Buffy took a deep breath, “I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, but again I don’t know what you’re talking about. What does this have to do with anything?”

“It has to do with everything.” he said plainly, “Everything you’re not telling us, and why. You’ve tricked yourself into believing this man is a good man, that he never hurt you because he was never capable of hurting you. It’s all a lie Miss Summers, he could have hurt you, he has killed before, and he will kill again.” He paused, “And I know this because I know exactly who kidnapped you.”

Buffy’s eyes shot up in panic. Even if he was bluffing, she couldn’t help that initial fear, that shot in her heart that she might have given Spike up to him already.

Agent Adams smiled, her expression made him even more confident. “I know enough about Angel and his friends to work it out, but even if I’m wrong about who it is, I know I’m right about the why now. You have feelings for this man.”

He placed a photo down on the table.

“You’re living in a fantasy you know.”

He pointed towards the picture, as if she hadn’t been staring since he put it down, in reality she couldn’t take her eyes off it. In front of her was a crime scene photo. A man in a pool of blood, his face looked like raw meat, he was lifeless, brutalised.

“He beat this man to death you know?”

“Who did?” she stuttered.

“He did.”

The way he said it, she just knew he meant Spike. He laid another photo in front of her.

“And this man.”

Then another.

“And this one. Your boyfriend, or whoever you’ve talked yourself into believing he is; he killed them with his bare hands, and these are only the ones we’ve linked him to so far. Did he tell you about his past, about doing this?!”

She placed her finger on the photos and slid them violently away from her to the other side of the table, she looked at the floor.

His tone softened, but it was anything other than comforting, “Do you know what some experts say about Stockholm Syndrome? They say the captives are like children, they imprint on the closest adult in control so that they can survive. It’s an instinct, it can’t be helped. They align themselves with the kidnapper and it makes them feel safer, so they can be calm and collected and are more likely to get out alive and undamaged psychologically. It’s about survival.”

Buffy’s mind was racing, her thoughts stills on the photos. In her heart she didn’t want to believe Spike had done those things, but when he talked about Angel’s father, and the things he’d had to do for him he’d alluded to it all.

“It’s understandable, but it’s not real.”

His voice brought her out of her thoughts and against her better judgement she started to listen to him.

“You were going to die and your mind protected you from the reality you were in. Your emotions were used to defend you; you made yourself think that this man cared for you, because it helped you to stay strong. But he took you away from your home, kept you locked up and maybe he didn’t kill you, but you will never know why he let you go.”

Although his words were confusing, although they were persuasive, he lost her for a moment there, because she was in no doubt why he let her go. She knew why, didn’t she?

“I know you’re thinking you’re different.” Adams continued, “That’s understandable too. It’s too soon, and too much to have your bubble burst, to change your way of thinking. But I will not stop until you give us Sp…” he stopped almost saying the name himself, “until you give us his name, because what you’re doing although understandable; is wrong. This man is on the streets, this criminal, this murderer, because of you.”

Buffy shook her head. He wasn’t those things.

“Some people have been kidnapped, threatened, locked away for months, and they’ve stood up for their captors. One woman even killed herself after her abductor went to prison, she actually felt so guilty giving him up that she couldn’t live with herself. Do you think that’s healthy? Do you think that’s normal?”

“No.”

Agent Adams came around behind her and leaned in to her ear, unlike before he didn’t keep himself in check, he was uncomfortably entering her personal space and he didn’t care, “Why, what’s the difference here, between you and her?”

“I know him.” she said no longer able to keep quiet through his verbal assault.

“Do you? He didn’t hurt you, because he liked you, is that what you think? He’s changed; he’s a good man underneath. I’ve met victims of abuse that are less scared to come forward than you Miss Summers. He hasn’t even laid a finger on you by your accounts and you’ve still let him warp your mind!”

“Enough!” Agent Finn shouted. He walked towards Agent Adams and grabbed his arm to pull him away from Buffy, “If this goes to court and they find out you badgered her this way…”

“They’ll do what?” Agent Adams shouted, “I just want to know where to start! I don’t expect to use this for evidence, so it doesn’t matter how I get it, the name’s just my starting point.”

Buffy picked up the pictures again and brought them closer, she stared down at the face on the table in front of her, and she wished she had the strength, but she felt it slipping away.

“He’s killed so many parts of you, of yourself, but he hasn’t killed you, not yet. Just give us a name!”

“I said that’s enough!” Agent Finn said.

“Tell me, I know who it is, so does Agent Finn, so do you.”

Buffy broke down in tears; she grabbed the photo of the murdered man and looked at it crying. She said nothing, and she hadn’t even realised what she’d done until she heard his voice behind her.

“That’s good enough for me.”

And then the tears wouldn’t stop.


* * * * *

As he handed her her jacket Agent Finn tried to catch her eye, “Those men, they weren’t saints you know.”

“I’m sort of tired of hearing this tale.” she replied weakly.

“Not the men who abducted you,” he faltered for a second, “the men Spike killed.”

“Are you condoning…?”

“Never. I would never condone taking another person’s life, especially not that way, but…” he sighed, “Look Miss Summers, you seem like a bright girl. I don’t know whether my partner’s right about you, but I think you’re a sensible person, a strong person, to go through what you did. I don’t think you should feel bad about giving this man up to us, because he’s a criminal, and he deserves to pay for the crimes he’s committed. But I see there’s something else going on, it’s none of my business, but I don’t ignore it or dismiss it as easily as Agent Adams does. These men were murderers themselves, not one of them cleaner than that and I just think that you should have all the facts; I don’t want you to feel guilty for giving him up, but I don’t want you to feel guilty for feeling guilty either. Everyone has their story. We’re both trying to catch criminals, and we’ll send them to whatever punishment they deserve, but there are two types of police officers, those who ignore the story when it gets in their way and those that don’t.”

His words gave her enough comfort to gather the strength to leave, to start her car and set off driving, but a few blocks later she broke down again. She pulled over to the side of the road, and let the tears come. She wasn’t crying because of the way she had been treated, she wasn’t crying for the horrible things she’d seen. She’d betrayed the man she loved, and she couldn’t feel anything else but that.


* * * * *



Chapter End Notes:
Spike will be in the next Chapter I promise!



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