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Author's Chapter Notes:
Life as always has got in the way so I won’t explain, but I am aware the longer I leave this story the less people will bother with it, so rather than make excuses I want you to know I hope the ones of you that are still reading know how much I value you and this Chapter is for you! Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year, and hope everyone has a lovely Valentine’s day tomorrow, I’ve just been told the plan for mine by my fiancé and am super excited, sorry this Chapter isn’t more fluffy or valentine’s friendly!



She couldn’t breathe, there was a weight on her chest that made it hard to suck in enough air, she took breaths, but they felt redundant and painful. She stepped forward, trying to steady herself, catching the last of her tears with her jacket sleeve.

“Can I help you?” the redheaded clerk said. It was clearly a practiced and empty gesture she gave every time the bell of the door sounded, initially she had no more care for Buffy than a motion sensor, but when she looked up her face dropped.

“Yeah, I…can you tell me where the nearest police station is?” Buffy asked.

The clerk looked a little taken aback as Buffy’s story seemed to unfold a little more; she’d taken her for upset and now apparently she was also in trouble too. On one hand although she wasn’t the most thoughtful person it would take a lot not to feel for someone so clearly shaken, on the other hand her job restricted her from getting too involved, she’d pretty much seen and heard everything you could imagine working at a motel, and she was meant to ignore it. With that in mind she settled for simply answering the question, “Erm, it’s about 5 blocks away.”

Buffy nodded.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” was all Buffy could manage in reply, “Can you point me in the right direction?”

The clerk did and Buffy headed out following what she’d been told.

She walked with heavy steps, it took a lot of effort for her to put one foot in front of the other. Her pace was slow until her mind caught up with the situation. Until then Buffy had felt catatonic, as if she’d woke from a dream and wasn’t sure that this was all real, which wasn’t a million miles from the truth. She moved slow, she thought slow, as if she was wading through water, but suddenly the sea parted. She was heading to talk to Spike, to ask him why he’d done what he’d done, to face what was to come next, but what she hadn’t considered was that it might not be too late to stop him.

Her pace picked up a little with every new thought that sprang up in her head. She didn’t know what time he’d left her because she’d been asleep, and she hadn’t thought to ask anyone at the hotel if they’d seen him go; she’d presumed he’d left during the night, but what if he hadn’t?

Her steps quickened again. Even if he had left a while ago he could still be waiting to speak to someone. Unless he walked in and announced his crime in front of the entire station at the top of his lungs he’d probably have to wait his turn like everyone else, but given his flare for the dramatic she couldn’t rule the first scenario out either.

She was jogging now, both feet off the ground, a few minutes later and it was a run, she was breaking a sweat and her shoulder bag was defiantly swinging around at her side as she moved, knocking into her hard on occasion.

When she reached the station she paused at the front door, knowing she needed a minute. The run had dried all her tears up and cleared her head, but she had to collect herself even more before she did this. After a couple of staggered breaths she knew the minute was over and she pulled on one side of the heavy double glass doors. Entering she took a few minutes to take in the layout of the building, but spotting what she assumed was the front desk she headed for it with determination.

The policeman there seemed friendly enough, though at first he was flicking through some papers rather than noticing her he eventually asked her what he could do for her.

“I’m here because my boyfriend is very stupid.” she said bluntly, both the words ‘boyfriend’ and ‘stupid’ slipped out easily from her mouth. “I just want to know if he’s been in, his name’s Spike Pratt.”

The officer’s eyebrows furrowed, but Buffy couldn’t tell if he was confused at what a girl like her was doing asking after Spike, meaning he had already come in and confessed, or if he was simply confused at her dishevelled appearance. She’d gotten hot whilst running and haphazardly unbuttoned her coat at the top, middle and bottom, but missed a few buttons in between. She was breathing heavily and her cheeks were flushed. Not to mention that although her hair was technically still up in a ponytail it was barely holding on by a few strands, and the rest were every which way around her face. In short she looked as if she’d been mugged. So maybe it was ironic she came in here asking after a thief looking to everyone as if she’d just been running away from one.

After a while Buffy became impatient, “Has he?”

The officer’s face changed immediately to a stoney professional expression, immovable, “I’m sorry, but we can’t release that kind of information.”

“Are you joking?” she huffed sharply, she didn’t know if it was the situation or the adrenaline pumping around her body that made her brave enough to talk to a policeman that way, but his expression didn’t change, he seemed to have seen it all and wasn’t offended by her tone.

“I’m sorry,” she back tracked, “but as you can probably see I’ve run all the way here to see this guy, and not only won’t you tell me if he’s here, but you can’t even tell me if he’s been here?”

The officer sighed, “If you’re a family member and this person has been taken into custody you’ll be informed, if he’s here being questioned or talking to an officer he will be kept completely anonymous, and the only people I can tell he’s here are the onsight detective and the next desk sergeant who relieves me.”

Buffy tried again, “Look this guy, he’s coming to do something really dumb, I cannot stress how dumb, but he shouldn’t be doing it. He thinks it’s his only option, and I need to stop him ruining his entire life, and mine. I’m not just wasting your time, this is really important.”

The officer was about to roll off his previous statement again, like a broken record that he often played to these kinds of people, but when he looked at her he honestly didn’t see a time waster. For once he saw sincerity, and it was a rare thing to see in his line of work; it almost made him want to give in, but he just couldn’t do it. “Look miss, I’m sorry. I can take your name and a number, and if at the end of the day the detective on duty thinks it would be in his interest to call you you might hear from us. I can’t do anything more.”

There was silence for a long time, but neither retreated from their position physically or conversationally, until Buffy made her next decision.

“Well my name is Miss Summers, but you won’t need to ring me up, I’ll just wait.” Buffy said, moving towards the waiting room behind her.

“Miss Summers,” he shouted so she would turn back to him, “this isn’t a time issue. You can wait, but waiting won’t change the fact that I can’t tell you anything, no one can.”

“I’m going to wait.” she said firmly.

The officer leaned over the desk to her slightly, “It won’t make a difference.”

She didn’t know if she was reading too much into it, but she sensed he wasn’t just being general, which although it put a tight knot in her stomach it also made her decision to stay even easier. “I don’t have anything else I’d rather do than be here for him.” she said flatly. Then she turned, walked to the back wall, and took the furthest seat facing the desk. From there she could see the front desk where everyone signed in and out, the corridors behind, all the movement that went on in the lower floor and the doors to the detectives’ offices. If no one would tell her what was going on, she’d stay here and figure it out herself.


* * * * *

Spike had been sat in this same room for hours, there was a clock behind him, but he didn’t see the point in turning around to look at it. He was here for as long as it took, and he was going to stay and see it though until the end no matter what.

The first officer he saw was an older man, glasses, he sounded like he had a bit of an English accent, which would have put him at ease if it weren’t for what he was here to do.

“Look if I do this there’s not just me to think about.” Spike had said to him, “I’ll confess to the robbery and the kidnapping officially. I’ll tell you how Angel’s involved and then I’ll tell you whatever you want to know about him. I probably know something about everything when it comes to him…but there’s someone caught up in this and before I do anything you have to promise me they’ll be safe.”

“I can assure you if you make a deal with us we aren’t going to take any chances with your safety, Spike,” Officer Giles said sincerely, “or that of others if what you’re going to say puts innocent people in danger.”

“I want full witness protection.” Spike said firmly.

Giles was a bit bowled over that he had the nerve to demand anything, but he wasn’t alien to criminals getting power hungry in this kind of situation, it was best to set them straight on what they could and couldn’t have from the beginning, “Of course we’ll arrange a new identity for you once you’ve completed your sentence, if the Witness Protection Program agrees to it.”

Spike sensed what he was implying with that, “Not for me, for them.” he clarified.

Giles paused, unsure of how to continue for a minute, “…Right.”

“Look if you’ll give it to me give it to me as well, god knows I probably won’t last long without it. But I have to know she’s safe first, and if I’m locked up somewhere and I can’t protect her I want her to be untraceable…Otherwise I’ll take my chance in court, and you can leave all the files you have on Angel open and unsolved. She has to be safe or there’s no deal.”

Giles sat down and took off his glasses, “I’m sorry…who is it that has to be safe?”

“Buffy Summers.”

The name rang a bell, but it took a few seconds for it to register, “The girl you kidnapped?”

Spike didn’t flinch at the label, but he also didn’t answer him directly. “If Angel finds out she’s alive he’ll hunt her down. She’s the one I want in protective custody. If I hadn’t turned myself in, even if I’d have left town Angel might have still tracked her down, this bloody town’s so small he could have run into her on the street for Christ’s sake, you never know. I thought about giving her some of my money, to make a new start somewhere else, but she still wasn’t guaranteed safety. This is the only way.” he sighed putting his head in his hands for a second, eventually coming back up to meet the other man’s eyes, “I’ll give you Angel, and you promise to make her safe.”

Giles was stunned, he thought Spike would have his demands, be unmoving, or put his foot down to get something for his time, but he hadn’t expected it all to come down to the girl. He reflected for a moment on what he’d heard of her refusal to give evidence on her kidnappers, but that had been before his time on the case so he hadn’t looked into it yet.

“I’ll be a while,” Giles said, not knowing what else to say, “there are lots of people to call and I’ll have to draft up a deal.”

“I can wait.” Spike said.

He nodded, got up and left the room.

Spike ran his hands through his hair. What had he just done? Whatever it was, there was no going back now.

Later that day, after leaving Spike to sit and stew over his decision, interrupted only occasionally by different cops coming in to take various statements from him, Giles came back with everything he had to sign.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked just as Spike was about to put pen to paper.

“I don’t think you should be asking me that.” he said with a smile. He respected the fact that this cop certainly had to have balls to give him an out like that when the whole case was on the line.

Giles would have smiled, but it wasn’t in his nature to smile at people on Spike’s side of the desk, “Maybe not, but I’m asking anyway.”

“Of course I don’t want to do this.” Spike said bluntly, “But it’s the only way to keep her safe.” he said the next part in a whisper, “Its better this way.”

Giles heard, and the look on his face, the almost silent whisper, and the feeling behind the words told him there was more to this story than there seemed on the surface.

After he’d signed Spike sat back, his face heavy with what he’d just done.

There were a million things to say to someone like Spike at this point, but none that mattered, so Giles simply took the papers from him and left, telling the officer outside to take him to a cell. He was on his way back to his office, passing the front desk when he saw a woman out of the corner of his eye that made him double take. It was late, and although she looked tired she didn’t look much of anything else so he doubted she was in trouble. He knew there were officers free and no one was being interviewed, so what was she still doing sat there? He took a step back until he was next to the desk sergeant. “Who is that girl?”

“Erm, her name’s Miss Summers. She came in asking for that bank robber, I told her I couldn’t tell her if he was here or not, since then she’s just been sat there waiting.”

Giles paused, “Give me 5minutes and then send her to my office.”


* * * * *

When Buffy entered the office she wasn’t sure what to expect, she saw a man standing near the desk who looked her way when she came in.

“Miss Summers, please take a seat.” he said to her calmly, holding his hand out.

Buffy looked around for a second. The room was too neat, too ordered, and she felt awkward just being there, like even the smallest movement would put something out of place and upset him, but she eventually sat down because he had told her to.

“My name is Officer Giles,” the man said, “but you can call me Giles.” His tone was warm. He smiled and then walked to sit on the seat next to her rather than the one behind his desk.

With that Buffy realised her initial judgement of him was wrong, he wasn’t uptight at all, and she wasn’t in trouble, at least not yet.

After a few unsettling minutes where neither of them said a thing eventually Giles spoke up, “I know why you’re here, Miss Summers. You’ve come to see Spike, is that right?”

Buffy nodded.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you see him right now. I wish I could, but he isn’t allowed visitors.”

Buffy was fed up of hitting a brick wall in this place, it seemed they could pass her around, but no one could let her get to Spike. Maybe at least this Officer Giles could give her the answers she wanted.

“I just want to know what’s going on,” she said, “and I know everything’s complicated, but I’m a part of what’s going on; a really important part actually, and I just wish everyone would stop pushing me around.”

“I don’t mean to push you around, Miss Summers.” Giles said, “If it’s worth anything what Spike is doing is very brave. He’s thinking of you, and he’s also helping us catch a very dangerous man.”

Buffy squinted, not fully understanding, “What do you mean?”

“He’s going to provide evidence against Angel, not only for the robbery, but on a few of our cases.”

“I…” Buffy didn’t know what to say, “He shouldn’t do that, Angel will…”

“We’ll make sure he’s safe.” Giles interrupted. “It’s a deal, his sentence will be reduced and he’ll have police protection during all the trials.”

Buffy thought long and hard, but she still didn’t think this sounded like a good idea, the police couldn’t stop Angel. “Maybe it will change things if you tell him I’m here, can you tell him that? I want him to know.”

“I’ll tell him you’re here.”

His genuineness streamed from every part of him, and it comforted her a little that he would answer her honestly when she asked, “Just tell me when I can see him?”

“I don’t think you’ll be able to see him for a while.” he sighed sadly as her hopeful expression slipped.

“I really need to see him Mr. Giles.” Buffy said desperately, “He’s got things all wrong, and I just need to speak to him before he says anything on the record.”

Giles’ chest ached for her and for what he was going to have to say next, “I’m sorry Miss Summers,” he said shaking his head, “we’ve already made the deal, he’s told us everything and he’s signed a confession. Even if he were to retract it this will still go to trial and that’s still going to go into evidence.”

Suddenly Buffy understood why people compared emotions to a damn bursting, because that’s what it felt like was happening inside of her at that moment. Her eyes burst with tears, her entire being racked with them and her head fell into her hands.

Officer Giles was immediately moved to reach out to her, he pulled his chair forward and he put an arm around her as she sobbed. He could feel the force of her emotions shaking through her body, and all he could wonder was; what had this poor girl been through?

Buffy felt like the floor was crumbling beneath her feet, and she grounded herself in this stranger who was holding her. But all that it meant was that she didn’t fall completely, it didn’t mean she didn’t feel everything still. Her mind raced through the options before them all, and only one thing seemed possible to help him now.

“Can I testify?” she said suddenly, lifting her head up, her eyes glistening with tears and searching Giles’s “Is it too late?”

Giles thought carefully about his answer before he said it, “No it’s not too late, but are you sure you want to put yourself through all that now?”

Buffy took a deep breath and tried to settle herself so that he would take her seriously, “I know I said in my statement that I didn’t want to go through the story, but I want to now. I want to help Spike. I can testify what actually happened, that it was Angel that shot the bank manager, and Angel who threatened my life, and I can stop them pinning everything on Spike and it’ll back up his story and show them it’s the truth.”

Giles considered her for a moment, he’d seen people desperate to back up someone’s story before, and he could usually tell their reasons. He sensed Buffy did want to tell the truth and so she’d be a solid witness, but she was going into it blind. “Miss Summers, what’s going to happen next is going to be hard, whatever part you play in it. As soon as this goes to trail the papers will get wind and I don’t know if we can keep your name out if it. It could go on for months before we see a trail date.”

Buffy nodded that she understood.

“Also when it does go to trial, you have to know that Angel’s father will hire a very ruthless lawyer, he has several in his pocket. They’ll bring into question why it took you so long to say something, and they’ll talk about your relationship with Spike. You won’t be on trial, but they’ll be questioning the validity of your evidence, and it might feel like you are.”

Buffy shook her head, “I’m not scared about that.”

“You should be.” Giles sighed, took off his glasses and knelt in front of her. “If you testify it’ll be worse than not, but after we’ll be able to put you into witness protection, its part of the deal Spike agreed with us anyway. You’ll be as safe as we can make you, but before you decide anything you have to know the kind of people you’ll be dealing with.”

Buffy huffed, “I have first hand experience of what Angel is capable of Mr. Giles.”

“With all due respect Miss Summers, you don’t.”

Buffy thought about that for a long time, it was probably true, she probably hadn’t seen the worst of Angel, but that was because of Spike. “Call me, Buffy.” she said. This man, Giles, was being straight with her, about everything. She hadn’t had anyone do that with her in a long time and she appreciated it, even if it was hard to hear.

“I want to help, Spike.”

“Buffy…”

“No.” she said, “I understand. I know I should think about this, but I also know 100% even if I do I’ll still want to help him…and we haven’t got time to waste…I know you won’t understand this, but I love him.”

Officer Giles put his glasses back on. He didn’t know what to say to that. He stood up and turned around. Despite the good he’d seen in Spike with his selfless affection for Buffy it made him sad to see a bright young girl so enamoured with a criminal heading straight for jail, but he couldn’t argue with those words, few could.

“Come back to see me tomorrow,” he said finally, “We’ll talk again, and if it’s still what you want I’ll help get the process started.”


* * * * *



Chapter End Notes:
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