Previously:
Buffy sees a kitty cat sitting in the hallway outside her cell.
'I must be going crazy,' Buffy thought. She dropped Spike's hoary socks in the sink with a splash and turned off the tap, then she wiped her hands on the pants of her pale blue scrubs. The feline glided through the glass and began to purr. Buffy walked over to the delusion in a half crouch because she had an irrational fear of scaring it away.
"Good insanity kitty, nice insanity kitty," Buffy said, as she smothered one of the nervous giggles that bubbled from her mouth.
When she'd first been institutionalized, just after she'd told her parents about her calling, Buffy had not broken with reality and seen apparitions. Maybe her current psychosis was from the stress of not being able to help Spike or perhaps it was the pain of losing Angel. Or it was possible she'd never left that place and her whole life in Sunnydale was some elaborate fantasy.
Buffy knelt on the shiny, tiled floor in front of the cat. When Buffy brushed her fingers along the creature's sleek forehead, the animal popped like a smoke-filled bubble. Bereft, she looked up and saw Xander smiling at her through the glass. Giles and Eddie were right behind him. Buffy started rocking forward and back in an attempt to hold her hopes in check as Giles fiddled with the card lock. When the door opened, she sprung to her bare feet. Buffy was about to hug Xander until their eyes met and she remembered they were yet far, far, from home.
Instead, Eddie and Xander took her upper arms. She wobbled, more from sheer intensity of feeling than anything else. To the casual observer looking down from above, though, she appeared to be struggling. The four of them walked down the corridor, passing by restless demons glaring out from their aquarium-like cages.
"We have to find Spike," Buffy said, softly.
"There is very little time, Buffy," Giles said without turning to face her.
"Two minutes at most," Eddie said. It was then Buffy noticed her new friend was wearing an earpiece. Xander was silent at her right, and she knew if worse came to worse, he would be on her side. Xander wouldn't let the others abandon Spike.
"I won't leave until I know what happened to him," Buffy said.
Giles sighed.
"Perhaps another spell, done quickly—"
They were nearing the end of the hallway when Riley stepped in front of them. He was holding his gun across his black armor-clad chest.
"I know where he is. I can take you to Spike," Riley said.
Buffy and the others froze. She searched Riley's round, wide-set eyes. There was a sincere quality to his voice and his open expression. Then again, he always sounded so deadly earnest.
"You deserve more than a candy bar," Riley said, a smile deepening the lines in his cheeks.
There was no time to analyze; Buffy decided to move on instinct.
"Show me where he is," she said.
The men held their protests and followed as the soldier led them to an examination room in one of the hallways shooting off from the main atrium. The boy guarding the door looked at Finn quizzically. Before either could speak, Eddie stepped forward and dropped a glass cylinder on the floor while whispering a few lines in a language that might have been Latin. The guard became completely immobile and Buffy shoved him aside like a potted plant.
She threw the door open and found Doctor Oliver sitting on a stool beside the table where Spike was lying. Spike appeared to be asleep and his nude body was covered in bandages. His face looked like it had been spared most of the violence. In fact, his flesh had a pink, just-fed flush which was the closest vampire pallor could come to being considered healthy.
"Oh shit," Oliver mumbled.
The middle-aged man, who was garbed in a blood-soaked lab coat, stood up and advanced on them. Buffy ran at Oliver and he tried to stop her by extending his arms, but Buffy caught his wrist. She twisted until his cheek was kissing the floor.
"I can't let you take him," Oliver said.
"That's alright. You're not letting me do anything," Buffy said. She held her right hand up in the air and looked from one man in her company to the next. "Handcuffs."
Xander shook his head as though casting off a fog and then unlooped a set of shackles from his belt. He tossed the cuffs to Buffy and in a flash of silver she'd snapped them onto Dr. Oliver's wrists. She dropped her captor and he bellyflopped at her feet, landing with a slap that had to sting. Then Buffy was at Spike's side, easing him from the surgical table. Xander darted to the corner of the room and picked up Spike's crumpled, leather coat. Together, he and Buffy eased the limp vampire into the duster while Giles, Riley and Eddie watched in silence.
Eddie touched the device attached to his ear.
"We have to go. Now," Eddie said.
Xander conferred noiselessly with Buffy, reading her large, glistening eyes the way only close friends could. Then he hoisted Spike over his shoulder as gently as possible. Riley went out first and nodded them each out of the room, with Buffy bringing up the rear. They left Dr. Oliver straining against his bonds on the floor.
"She'll kill you all," Lloyd said as the door slammed shut.
Buffy and the others ran down the corridor, then went single file through the vast, empty atrium. She wondered where all of the other soldiers were, but figured since Willow wasn't among the band of rescuers, her magical friend was creating an epic diversion. Buffy was trying to concentrate on potential threats but her eyes kept traveling to Spike's face. His head was lolling just above the small of Xander's back. Her vampire was oblivious and serene in his thick sleep.
Giles guided them into an area Buffy had never seen before. Her watcher opened a door and entered. The rest followed suit. Inside the room, which had few pieces of furniture aside from a glass desk and three black chairs, was a screen of television monitors alive with images of soldiers running in the same direction through the hallways. They swarmed like black ants past the cages of captives.
Behind the televisions was an elevator embedded in the white wall. Giles scanned a key card dangling from his neck and the silver doors opened. He strode inside, then Eddie went in, helping Xander with his burden. Buffy stepped into a small pocket of space amid the group before she noticed Riley hadn't moved.
"Come with us," she said, positioning her body to keep the doors to keep them from shutting.
"I can't," Riley said.
She nodded.
"Thank you," she said.
His mouth was open, on the verge of responding, when Professor Walsh walked into the room. Maggie was leveling a gun at Buffy's head. Before Buffy could react to what was happening, Riley stepped between them. Buffy heard the gun rather than saw it fire. The report of the weapon was so loud in the tiny office it left a high-pitched ringing in its wake. Something hot splashed Buffy's face and Riley's throat was torn away. Then he staggered into her arms, shoving them both backward into the crowded elevator. Buffy looked over the soldier's shoulder to see Maggie's stricken face. The professor's lips were tracing Riley's name. The silver doors met, blotting out the scene with a hard line. Buffy looked at the chalky, lifeless face of the man in her arms.
Riley's blood was filling up the elevator like water gushing from a busted pipe, making the floor slippery. Buffy started sliding until she was steadied by a pair of warm hands on her back.
"What's, what?" Buffy asked.
Giles was holding her and she could hear his voice dimly through the buzzing. She didn't know what the others were doing, but she felt them hovering close.
"Riley is dead. She must have hit a major artery, Buffy."
"We have to carry him with us Giles. He died saving us, we can't leave him here."
"Buffy, we can only take one," Giles said.
His words left her with a sense of resignation. Leaving Spike was an impossibility. By the time the doors opened again, revealing a bright, orange room with vaulted ceilings, Buffy was ankle deep in Riley's blood. The pool of gore flowed out, staining the yellow carpet in a grotesque cascade that spilled all the way to the vending machines on the opposite wall. Buffy held Riley's body up as the others ran past, until they were the only two left. Reverently, she set his body down in the bottom of the elevator and fled, following the red footprints Xander, Eddie and Giles made on their way out of the building. She burst outside into the night.
They were on Sunnydale University Campus, just outside the Student Center. She'd suspected they were close, but she had no idea the demon gulag was concealed beneath the place where she'd had her freshman orientation seminar. They stomped fleetly over the pavement and then tore up clods of earth as they tramped across the grass. The world jangled by her eyes in bright streaks of light skittering through the dark.
Eddie and Giles stopped ahead of them, near a clump of bushes before the two seemed to vanish. Buffy looked quizzically at Xander who was struggling to keep pace next to her while carrying Spike.
"Tunnels. I thought it would be smart to try and lose them. Plus if the soldiers use dogs to find us, the water will throw off the scent."
"That's awesome."
"Army guy training," he said with a goofy smile and a self-deprecating shrug that made Spike bounce.
They made it to the cluster of brush which concealed the open manhole. Buffy went down the ladder first, then reached her arms out so she could take Spike. Xander lowered the dead weight into Buffy's embrace.
"I can carry Spike the rest of the way. Just don't tell him I did it when he wakes up," Buffy said as she delicately draped the vampire over her shoulder. Xander slid down the ladder like a fireman then landed before her with a splash.
"No problem there. I think it would be vaguely emasculating for both of us if he found out."
They fled in the opposite direction of the University and during their trek, Buffy's worry over Spike only increased. He was incredibly warm and insensate. He was sleeping like her arms were a queen-sized bed or at the least, a fairly good-sized hammock. They surfaced in the alley next to the Magic Box after ten minutes of jogging through the underground labyrinth. Xander's car was parked on the street out in front of the store and they all piled inside. Eddie sat in the front seat while Buffy sandwiched herself between Spike and Giles in the back. Xander started the car and did a u-turn on the quiet street. Buffy glanced at the digital clock on the dashboard. It was two-fifteen in the morning. She wasn't when she'd last known the time.
"How long have we been gone?"
"Nearly three weeks. I feared I'd never see you again," Giles said, his voice sounding like a guitar being strummed. He enfolded her in a proper cuddle, with his head resting on top of hers. Suddenly, Buffy felt like she was safe, even if she wasn't, and the contact made her want to break down. She didn't, though, because she wasn't certain of Spike's safety. Buffy had to make sure he was alright before she indulged in tears.
"Me too."
"Seriously, Buffster, never, ever do that again. From now on we're talking buddy system. Nobody goes anywhere without their buddy," Xander said.
Buffy reached out and ruffled Xander's hair.
"Okay, buddy. Eddie, I can't believe you're here. I mean, I can't really believe any of us are here, but especially you. I've only been gone like a month and now you're a full-fledged member of the gang."
"And no unsightly neck tattoos. It's kind of a win," Eddie said, tossing a rakish smile over the curve of the bucket seat.
"So where are we going?"
The muscles in Xander's neck jumped and his hands tightened on the driver's wheel.
"A safe house. Davinia's apartment, actually. She volunteered to have some protection spells placed upon her home that will render us invisible while we're under her roof," Giles said.
"Wait, you can do that? Why didn't you ever do it to my mom's place, Giles?"
"It's difficult to explain. I believe you'll understand once we arrive."
~*~
Once they got to Dav's place, Buffy understood exactly what Giles meant. To find the flat, he had to recite several indecipherable words over a wooden statue of Demeter. When they got inside, the walls and floor of every room were covered in elaborate, squiggly, black tribal designs. Davinia, who was wearing a pink, terrycloth bathrobe, hurried to meet them at the door while Eddie, Giles and Xander squeaked by the girls. Giles sealed up the apartment and began mumbling incantations. After saying thank you to Dav, Eddie went into the living room and dialed his cell phone. Xander just watched the two women with a wounded expression on his face.
"You're bloody, are you alright?" Davinia asked. She brushed the crown of Buffy's head with her fingertips. Buffy nodded yes and Dav lowered her left hand while her right clutched the halves of her robe to her chest.
"It's not from me. One of the guards who helped us didn't make it," Buffy said, her voice dwindling to a whisper by the end of the sentence.
"Is Spike okay?" Dav asked.
"I don't know," Buffy said.
"We can put him in my bedroom for now. Do you need help carrying him?" Dav stepped closer to them both.
"No. I can do it," Buffy said, propping up her smile as best she could. She'd carried him this far and she didn't want to let him go, even though her arms were starting to quake. Dav tilted her head, studying Buffy.
"Why did they do that to your hair?"
"I don't know that, either."
They went into Dav's bedroom and she helped Buffy lay him out on the bed. Xander lingered by the open door, watching them. When Spike was tucked in beneath the plum-colored comforter, Buffy took Davinia's hand.
"Thank you for all of this—the hideout, the welcome. It's amazing."
"I just wanted to do something to help you. My skills are seriously limited so I thought the least I could do was give up my security deposit."
"That's not true. You're just as important as anybody else and you're my friend. I don't know if I ever told you that. Even if you and Xan break up, which I totally hope never happens, you'll always be my friend."
A grimace flashed across Dav's face.
"We kinda did break up," Davinia said.
Buffy grabbed Dav in a tight hug. The other girl patted her back in what she thought was simply an affectionate manner until Dav said, "I think my rib just cracked."
The Slayer let go with a mortified smile.
"Sorry, just used to snuggling with the undead," Buffy said.
Dav rubbed her sides.
"No problem. So you and Deadly Do Right are an item? That makes so much sense."
"You think?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow at her.
"Definitely. He can back you in a fight and he's funny. Plus he's older than women's suffrage, which you seem to like for some reason."
"Hey, it's not nice to tease the kidnap victim."
"I just wanted to bring back a sense of normalcy," Dav said, smiling at Buffy through the wavy curtain of her long, strawberry-blonde hair. "Why don't you take a shower. I have some clothes that I've been hanging onto in case I lose weight again that will totally fit you."
Davinia didn't wait for an answer. She let go of Buffy's hand and went to her dresser.
"I can't leave him," Buffy said, looking down at Spike's face. He looked cozy as a cat.
"I'll watch over him until you get back," Dav said. She dug through the drawer until she pulled out a pair of black jeans and a hot pink, cashmere sweater that looked about Buffy's size.
"Thank you," Buffy said.
She stood and then took the fashionable bundle from Dav's hands. Buffy tiptoed past Xander, giving him a confused smile. She had no idea why her friend would screw up the best relationship anyone in their circle had ever found, nor did she understand why he'd gone from witty, quipping guy to a broody lurker of Angel-like capabilities. Dav also seemed baffled from the way she avoided Xander's persistent glare.
Buffy stole down the hallway to the bathroom, not wanting to nibble on another heaping portion of awkwardness. She went into the bathroom and secured the door with the little slide lock so she wouldn't be interrupted. Then she stripped off her bloodied clothes. Bare, she stepped into the pale-pink shower painted with columns of runes, then turned on the taps. When the stream hit her face, she let her tears go. Buffy counted on the sound of the warm, steamy water bouncing off the tiles to cover her sobs. She didn't want the other occupants of the apartment to know she wasn't strong.
She ticked off the tally of losses while she tried to scrub herself clean with a cake of blackberry-scented soap.
Riley, the guy she'd thought was a coward, was dead because he'd saved their lives. Until he was bleeding out in her arms she'd never really seen him for what he was—a hero.
Angel died not knowing she still loved him. She'd never get to apologize for the way she reacted when she learned of the blood bond. It wasn't his fault that she'd forced him to bite her. What he'd said at the time was the truth—Angel never wanted to drink her blood. Even if she'd known about the bond, Buffy would have done it anyway.
Spike was with her, but he might never wake up again. Buffy couldn't dwell on that one for long. Spike had to wake up again, that's just the way it had to be.
In addition to their losses, there had been smaller sacrifices in her absence. Xander and Dav had ended. Eddie put his life on the line for her. She had no idea how her mother or Willow were faring. God, her mother must be going crazy.
Buffy sniffled and squirted a dime-sized drop of pearly, cocoanut shampoo into the palm of her hand. It was selfish, but thinking about the stump of her hair brought fresh tears. When she'd finished rinsing, Buffy shut off the water. She dried herself with Dav's fluffy, green towel and then dressed in the borrowed clothes. Her shorn locks were mostly dry by the time she finished tugging on the sweater. She combed her hair, trying to make it seem like there was more there, until she finally gave up.
Buffy left the bathroom and rejoined her friends. They were all standing in a circle speaking over each other in the living room. Giles had his hand on Dav's back—a touch Buffy thought was a bit proprietary and totally un-Gilesy. Eddie was stroking his non-existent goatee and Xander's hands were in full flail.
"How is that even vaguely possible?" Eddie asked.
"If you don't believe me feel his chest—" Dav said.
"It's not that I don't believe you—"
"Why the hell were you feeling his chest?" Xander asked.
"Because it was rising and falling which seemed weird for somebody who isn't supposed to be breathing."
"It might not be a permanent condition, to say nothing of his soul," Giles said.
Buffy folded her arms and worked up a stern look.
"What are we all talking about?"
Four pairs of eyes swiveled to her. Giles took his glasses off.
"Spike seems to be...urm...alive."
Any response she might have been contemplating dried up in her throat.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to the lovely Puddinhead and lovely Sanityfair.
Chapter End Notes:
Please let me know what you think, good or bad. Constructive criticism welcome just as much as effusive praise. Although, let's be honest, effusive praise is pretty great.