Chapter Six – A Picnic at Hampstead
“This is me, making with the spylife.” Buffy said with a grin. “Black beanie and everything.”
“Yeah,” Raj’s voice came over the earpiece. “Don’t go 00 on us just yet, you still don’t understand radio silent until the go signal.”
“Spoilsport.” Buffy replied with a scowl. “You could come out here and wait in the bushes for the signal to dodge the armed guards and break into a secret torture porn emporium.”
“If I did I would wear sensible trainers and not clomp around in those boots.”
“Don’t you criticize my footwear! I’ve been doing this since I was fifteen.”
“You going to come over here, Summers? I’m shaking in my soundless and comfortable reeboks.”
“Oi, gadget, Slayer, would you two stop buzzing in my ear for your pointless bloody back and forth?” Spike’s voice came out as a low hiss. “I’m trying to listen to heart beats. S’bad enough with the bloody ear piece hummin’ like a bloody flowerchild.”
“Now children let’s try and pretend we’re a team here?” Wes’s voice sounded over the ear pieces, clearly trying to hide the chuckle.
Spike was prowling the perimeter, while Buffy checked to make sure the entrance was only manned by the two guards. The relative ease in the implementation of Wesley’s plan put Buffy on instant alert, if this package they had talked about was so precious why were only a few guards taking care of it? Wes had countered that this was a top-secret stop before bringing whatever it was to the main facility in Newcastle-which was why they had to hit it here before it was moved to the UK.
“I wouldn’t ask you to go back there.” he had said.
To her eternal shame Buffy was relieved when he had said that. Much as she wanted to be able to smash her way back into the place that had kept her on a metal slab doing experiments on her body, the thought of going anywhere near that place made her insides turn cold and her stomach drop to her feet. Wesley had looked at her with her with all the pity he valiantly tried to hide. Another Buffy, the Buffy he knew, probably would have knocked that pity right off of his face; instead she had just ignored it. Now she was waiting in the bushes while Spike cased the joint.
“I can hear 10 distinct heartbeats, maybe 12.” Spike’s voice buzzed over the comms.
“Right.” Wesley replied, his voice held a small tremor of worry.
“More than you expected? Getting’ in position now. Gimme a mo.”
“Not really. But I had hoped there would be less. Is that manageable?”
“Slayer?”
Buffy nodded before realizing they couldn’t see her. “Should be okay. God speaking over these things is weird. Cool. But weird. It’s hard not to feel initiative-y.”
Spike sighed. “Slayer, stop your yapping and take out the guard so I can get in there.”
Muttering under her breath about ungrateful vampires Buffy made her way to the guard. She had been gunning for a fight from the second Wesley said he had come up with the plan, but he had insisted that the less time she took the better. So with a roll of her eyes so the boys knew she did not approve of this plan she tapped the shoulder of the guard and as he was looking around knocked him out cold. Sure, it was simple and clean and efficient, it was also boring. Weren’t spy plans supposed to be exciting?
“All set” she said simply, taking her place in front of the doors. “Open sesame.”
She didn’t hear Raj type anything down but the door swung open in front of her. The slayer mumbled a thank you she raised her foot to step over the threshold and was thrown 10 feet back. Spike was at her side in a second. Just as alarms started blaring.
“So much for easy.” She accepted his hand and pulled herself up.
He hovered over her until he was sure she was okay—she was complaining which was a good sign. He turned his attention back to the building. Trying to see if there was any outward sign of enchantment.
“Initiative with a little hocus pocus at their disposal—bloody buggering fuck. Oxford, get down here. We’re going to need to work this out.”
“What do I do?”
“You Run.” Spike said. “You’re going to draw them away from here.”
“Them?”
Spike jerked towards to entrance of the facility just as he hid behind the heavy door several guards turned the corner. Buffy took off like a shot.
*****
Prasad’s father had kept a townhouse in a suburban part of London. He had left Raj the key as soon as he smelled something fishy.It was pretty large, not imposing, just another in a row of suburban dwellings. It reminded Buffy of the bits she had passed on her way into London the first time rows of smaller houses all in dark stone surrounded by hedges. Spike had gone a round about way of it so despite his breakneck speed and nausea inducing turns it had still taken them nearly an hour to arrive.
The house was warm but not quite inviting. It looked like it had been furnished by someone’s grandmother. There were tea cozies and knitted things spread out on every visible surface standing at odds with all of Raj’s computer equipment and the trappings of a planning central hub. There were fast food wrappers strewn about and papers everywhere. Every available surface was covered with books and calendars and schedules. There was a huge piece of paper tacked up on one of the further walls with her name and the little information they could gather. Spike’s name was just SPIKE under WILLIAM THE BLOODY. Next to it had been a map of Germany with a date and time encircled, the writing next to it simply stated THE PACKAGE.
Raj sped to his computer. He said something unintelligible about what he was doing but it seemed important.
“Err, Can I get you anything?” Wesley said, clearly the gentleman in him was fighting to get out. “We don’t really have anything but if you want I can nip out for a tea or something.”
Spike smirked and strode passed him to pick up a half empty bottle of Whiskey. “This’ll do.”
He took a swig and held it out to Buffy who shook her head. Alcohol and slayers remained on the list of things that don’t go together. Wesley however took his own swig from the bottle.
“Well," he said with a smirk. "the family resemblance is quite remarkable.”
Spike had been poking about the bits and bobs covering the old fashioned dining set and the coffee table. His head shot up in response.
“Oi! What family resemblance?”
At Buffy’s warning look Wes raised his hands in surrender.
“Just drink choice is all.”
Spike walked up to Wesley, slowly, every step reminding the former watcher that he was dealing with an Aurelian Master vampire. He got right up in Wesley’s face and studied him carefully. The watcher did his very best not to balk, but heartbeats don’t lie and Wesley’s sounded like a machinegun.
Buffy, who realized what Spike was doing almost immediately, rolled her eyes. Wesley’s gaze cut to the newly brunette slayer and Spike smirked. He sniffed and curled his tongue against his teeth, amused at his ability to inspire fear.
“How is ol’ Grandpappy?”
Wesley sighed; he took another swig of his whiskey and collapsed into a chair. “Devastated.” He said simply. “We were just returning from a parallel dimension when we heard Buffy had died. Now he’s on a retreat in Sri Lanka.”
Spike arched en eyebrow. “Sri Lanka?”
“A monastery there.” Wes supplied.
Buffy frowned and examined a small shepherdess statue very closely. “I guess it was too much to hope for that maybe he came to Sunnydale to help guard the hellmouth.”
"Course not." Spike said with a derisive snort. "Not when the ponce has feelings to sort though."
Wes frowned. It felt disloyal to agree with Spike's assessment of Angel, but he didn't disagree with him per se.
“He thought you were dead Buffy, they all did. Do.” He said. “When Giles heard a new slayer had been called he was devastated. He was muttering something about old glory days.”
“Glory days?” The porcelain figurine Buffy was toying with was forgotten in an instant.
Wesley shrugged trying to remember the conversation as best he could but it had not made very much sense to him. “Something about you being the only one who had glory or possibly glory only had you and now she had nothing? I don’t know. I remember your banter being difficult to understand when I was in Sunnydale, but Giles must truly have gone native in his days of leisure.”
That seemed to placate Buffy, she regarded the comment with studied disinterest.
Spike considered her carefully for a minute. He saw the immediate change in her demeanor. He knew her well enough now to note that something about that comment was important. He filed it away to discuss with her later. Possibly much later. He knew he was treading on dangerous ground here. Someone from home could either make her feel better, empowered maybe, or it could make her fly apart at the seams. The vampire could tell by her racing heartbeat and the nonchalance with which she asked her questions that she was trying with all her might not to alert either of them that anything was the matter.
But as loaded as that question was, the one the slayer asked next made both men pause. Spike stepped closer to the slayer his whole body tense; it looked like the falling apart option was going to win out.
“Wesley, Do you-Have you-- maybe heard anything about my mom?”
Wesley’s posture was more relaxed. He smiled at her kindly, glad to be able to give her at least this little bit of good news. “It was touch and go for a while but she managed to pull through. Last I heard of it she was in remission.”
That managed to get a rise out of her. There were tears in her eyes when she smiled.
“When was that?”
“Just a few weeks ago. She and your sister have gone to see your aunt in Chicago.” Wes said. “Giles keeps me abreast of the goings on in Sunnydale—you know just in case. They’ve also dealt with a potential apocalypse. But since the slayer was the key the threat went to Cleveland to find the new slayer. It was a ruse that I fell for also when I got the call from Raj I thought I was coming after a new slayer or Faith maybe, I didn’t dream that if was you I was coming here to see. I’m so very sorry. I would have tried to find out more to tell you if I had.”
Buffy glanced around the room and did her best to push down the pang of homesickness that just knifed through her. This place reminded her so much of Giles’s apartment whenever they needed a research central. Even the tea and the smell of old books and paper made her want to curl up into a ball pre-slayer-Buffy-style and just wallow in the misery and unfairness of everything. Even Wesley’s voice made her feel like any minute Xander and Willow would burst through the door rattling on about a new spell or a zany new plan to get rich and she would be home again.
“So” she said fighting to keep her voice level. “Your plan.” She walked over to far wall that held the paper with all the details on it. “Gimme the skinny.”
The plan consisted of Raj using his previous ins and knowledge of their protocols to hack their system, and the Buffy and Spike fighting their way into the middle of the complex where Genesis was holding the mysterious package, while Wesley would handle anything mystical that might arise. There wasn't anything at Newcastle, but Wes was worried they may have learned from that mistake. Wes and Raj apparently had someone on the inside who he trusted that had given him the lay of the land. Buffy hadn’t asked Wes where he had gotten travel papers for them, but he had produced them from under a pile of old leather bound books.
“So you really have no idea what this package-thingy is?”
The former watcher shook his head.
“We have a few theories,” Wesley said. “But nothing concrete, I’m afraid. I was thinking that its something very mystical in nature. The noise on the scanners had a lot to do with other dimensions. I’ve had some experience to that regard. I’m thinking that they have some sort of talisman or key to get through to another dimension, to pursue god knows what.” he grinned. “We intend to steal it. Which is why we had to rush the timeline. They’re moving it.”
Spike nodded sagely, Buffy looked at him like he had grown a second head.
“Okay so this just occurred to me. You went from Princess Margaret to Mission Impossible!” she said. “I guess LA has been good to you then?”
Wesley managed a sheepish grin remembering his time with Buffy in Sunnydale. Not the best years of his life, he had to admit.
“It’s something about the lack of weather.” He acknowledged. “and the occasional demon rampage.”
“And the demon-fighting with Angel, anything like Sunnydale?” Buffy question was innocent but it held a slight tinge of a challenge.
Spike immediately looked up from his poking around and glanced at the watcher to see if he would rise to the bait.
“It’s different at some points.” Wes replied eyeing the slayer a little suspiciously. She had seemed so fragile not minutes ago and now he was unsure what she was going to do next. For a second he wondered how Spike did it. “I have come to enjoy it though. It’s fulfilling.”
“Any apocalypses under your belt yet?”
“Several mystical prophesies, we’re trying something a little more personal.”
“So a no on the apocalypses then?” Buffy teased, she cracked a sly smile and all the men in the room relaxed visibly. Each one unsure if she would start a fight or have a good cry, neither were good options. “Even Spike’s averted one of those.”
“Oi! Two! Don’t tell me that Adam guy would not have wreaked some apocalyptic havoc.”
“Oh we have done our own share of havoc,” Wesley countered with an answering smile. “But let’s not get me started on foreign dimensions-”
“Wow!” Raj cut in. “I’m going to go ahead and interrupt possibly the strangest pissing contest in ever. Much as the two of you want o compare apocalyptic scrap books or whatever. We do have a lot of work to do. I’m starting to hear a lot of noise on the channels and I am trying to make sure they haven’t found my in.”
Spike smirked and peered at the numbers on the screen. “M’ glad you can make heads or tails of this stuff, boy-wonder. Knew this whole thing was going to explode years ago. Tried to learn a thing or two about them but it just wasn’t in the cards.”
Raj looked embarrassed for a moment and then turned his attention back to what he was doing.
Wesley smiled proudly at Raj. He had known the younger man since he was a boy himself and Ravi had been around the house more often than not. Ravi was always kinder to Wesley than Roger ever was, it was Ravi Wesley told when he was first assigned to a slayer. When Raj had come to him years later as Wes was rising in ranks through the council, he had tried to convince Wes that the council needed to modernize, but that didn’t go over too well with the higher ups. And to Wes’s eternal shame he had not backed his friend in favor of trying to impress his own joke of a father. So when he got the call from his old friend he didn’t hesitate to jump on the first flight to Heathrow he could find. Ravi had been a mentor and Wes had already let Raj down once.
Raj had put his full concentration on his monitors for a few minutes but when he looked up everyone was standing as still as they could. He shook his head.
“You don’t have to stop breathing.” He said rolling his eyes. “it’s not like they can hear you.” Both men straightened shrugging off the impulse to be as silent as possible. Spike harrumphed and took a swig off the whiskey. Buffy rolled her eyes. “These two blokes I expected to be dinosaurs but I thought they taught you about this in school, Buffy.”
The slayer shrugged, “Computer class was the one class Giles didn’t get all lecture-y about missing.”
“Watchers.” Raj said dismissively. "One of my professors at the academy actually advocated getting rid of the electricity in the dorms so we could get a better feel for the people who wrote the books he taught. Some bollocks about learning to read by candlelight."
Buffy grinned, remembering for the first time that Raj was about the same age as her. "Tell me about it." she said. "Giles would have definitely tried to make me do that if I wasn't so enthusiastic about fire."
That fire comment made Raj pause for a second. "And to think Rupert Giles was know for being the great innovator and rebel."
He chuckled at Buffy's incredulous look. But the slayer quickly mulled the information over."I guess that is right, I have seen him rocking the jeans once or twice."
That made Raj laugh. "You should have seen the look my dad gave me when I suggested he try a pair of those." Raj said. "I'll probably try agai-" He stopped and looked embarrassed. The room suddenly got very quiet. It was pretty clear that he hadn't meant to talk so offhandedly. His father was gone, he just hand to remember that all over again. Buffy frowned and reached out to touch him. But Wes shook his head and she backed off.
“Look I’ve got to concentrate on this for a while." Raj said snapping himself out of his momentary stupor. "I’ve got a lot of coding to do and Simon just sent me some intel I have to de-crypt. Wes, why don’t you show Spike and Buffy their rooms?”
Wes nodded and jerked his head towards the stair case. Upstairs was also a little musty and old-fashioned. There were a few rooms branching off from the main hallway. After explaining the final door was the bathroom, Wes gestured to the two doorways on the right.
“These are for you.” He said. “We knew we were going to find a slayer and a vampire, originally we were just going to chain up the vamp somewhere,” Spike glowered at him, and Wesley momentarily braced for some sort of outburst, but the vampire said nothing. “but under the circumstances it seems a little er-rude. So I’ll take the couch downstairs.”
Spike froze. Wesley was offering to say on the couch to allow him to have a good night's sleep. And he was thinking nothing of it. He had moved on to tell Buffy about the large tub in the bathroom down the hall.
“You don’t have to do that, watcher.”
“I haven’t been on the run for weeks. I can handle a crick in my neck for a night.” Wes replied waving Spike's concern aside.
Spike considered him carefully. He had heard stories from Giles about the “other watcher” thus far Wesley Wyndham-Pryce was not measuring up to be the nancy-boy Giles made him out to be. Spike nodded, unsure how to handle this level of civility from a scooby. Buffy on the other hand shook her head violently.
“No, a world of no, Wes.” She said. “You are going to need your rest too. for tomorrow. Besides Spike is all grr and I don’t want him out of my sight.”
Her words hit Spike in the gut. How could she? They had been fighting together for weeks, healing together slowly and of course the second someone from Sunnyhell pokes their head around the corner she’s all quick to shove him away and point fingers. Spike was unable to quell the wounded look he shot her, but it disappeared when she saw how wide her eyes were. Wide and scared and Buffy was trying valiantly to play it off. She wasn’t trying to imply she didn’t trust him. Not to him anyway. She was trying to ensure that both of them would get a good night’s sleep.
"He'll stay with me."
Wesley’s eyes cut from the vampire to the slayer. There was definitely some sort of non-verbal communication going on. He was glad that Raj had called him, there is no way they would ever have been able to trust him if he had found them on his own. It was only his ties to the Scooby gang that had allowed the former blond pair to let down their guard. And it seems they had not let it down too far.
“Right, of course,” Spike said with what he intended to sound like a resigned sigh. "ensuring the safety of kids and little puppies. I know the drill." He nodded at her to confirm he understood. She relaxed measurably. “You go on ahead and take that bath, pet. I promise not to kill any watchers while you’re not around.”
Buffy did not need to be told twice. She flashed Wesley a bright smile and bolted down the hall toward the bathroom.
“There should be towels and things.” Wesley called after her, and then he turned to Spike and said. “Working with Cordelia has been quite an insight into how women cope with trauma.”
Spike heard her sigh of pleasure as she found some pharmacy store bubble bath Wesley had had the foresight to purchase.
"I'm surprised she wasn't on the first plane home." Wes said.
“Yeah, well I convinced her that was a great plan for getting her little scooby gang killed. S’why she hasn’t made contact with her mum, her watcher, kid sister. I know how these people operate. They found her once if she shows up there they will use her family as leverage against us." He seemed to notice that he had included himself in that circle and was quick to add: "Her. Against her. I don’t really care one way or another.” He said.
Wesley nodded though he didn't believe the vampire. It was clear something hand changed between Buffy and Spike. He wasn't sure what it was.
“What did they do to you over there, Spike?”
The vampire’s put upon swagger, which had been a permanent fixture since Wesley had known him vanished in an instant. The cockiness, oddly, was a little disarming; it made Spike seem more human. But right now Spike’s more brutal side, the one he heard about came right up to the fore front. There was no mistaking who and what he was even though he did nothing, just stood in the hall, his entire demeanor changed.
“It’s not something I really want to get into.”
Wes was a little unsure whether to push, but in the end couldn't resist.
“Because their name does hint at-”
“I know what the name means, watcher.”
“I’m not a watcher.”
The steel in Wesley’s voice got Spike’s attention. He smirked at little bit. No, not all nancy-boy. This one had stones.
“Know what the name means. Been thinking about it since you said something.” He said. “I had thought they were just torturin’ me. Seeing what makes a vampire go tick tock. But it’s clearly something else.”
“So what was your plan? Before we found you?”
“Figured we would run for a bit and then when we couldn’t stand it anymore come in guns bloody blazing. Your plan is better.”
They stood in almost companionable silence for a moment.
“I could use a drink.” Wesley said gesturing to the room he had been using while he was in London. “Any interest?”
“Thought you’d never ask, Oxford.”
They sat in Wesley’s room and Wes put out rocks glasses for them.
“So.” The watcher began awkwardly. “Have you spoken to Buffy about it?”
He wasn’t sure why he said that. He half expected Spike to pounce, clearly the vampire was considering it. But he held his ground, Spike wouldn’t do anything to him with Buffy just a few rooms away and this was important. He was a little surprised when Spike actually answered him.
“Oxford, the slayer, if she’s good at anything, its denial. Denial and slaying things. If I force her to think about something that she banished from that pretty head of hers, I could be on the receiving end of the latter part of those talents. The things we’ve been through, well, M’ not going to rehash any of those things unless I’m sure they live up to their name. Or if I’m sure they don’t.”
“You don’t think she deserves to know?”
Spike sighed.
“I’m no going to rip your throat out because she seems to like you but you haven’t the foggiest what it was like there. S’one thing to read about it, bein’ there, that’s a whole nother game of cricket. I’ve been tortured before. She hasn’t. She’s barely holdin’ it together, I’m not going to force her to think about it unless there’s a bloody good reason and that’s the last of it. You bring this up with her and I’ll drink from your brain stem, chip or no chip.”
“Chip?”
Spike made a vague gesture with his whiskey glass.
“Microchip in my head goes off every time I hurt a human.” He shrugged. He expected Wesley to press for details but the watcher just grimaced and took a drink of his whiskey. They sat in companionable silence for a little while both men lost in their thoughts.
At first Wesley was inclined to take any opportunity to dust the vamp but he had given them no opening until Buffy’s arrival. Once Buffy was around it was imminently clear that dusting Spike would accomplish nothing more than being beaten to a pulp and removing Buffy’s lifeline. That was if he could dust Spike. Angel rarely spoke about his time as part of the group known as the Whirlwind. The Scourge of Europe, but Wes knew about Spike from studying up on the archives.
“I’ve heard of you , Spike.”
“As’ve I, Oxford.”
His wicked grin disclosed everything he didn’t say. Sunnydale was not something Wesley was proud of.
“Nothing flattering I trust?”
The vampire chuckled and shook his head.
“Not at that.” He acknowledged lifting his glass to Wesley’s poncey reputation. “You rattled Rupes right proper, though. After you blew through the hellmouth he got a lot less—” he paused searching for the word. “tweedy”
“I think I was an unflattering reflection.” Wesley said wryly taking a sip of his drink. “From what I’ve heard about you, you’re the slayer or slayers and yet here I find you doing everything but. So I suppose you can’t trust everything you hear.”
Spike’s smirked. He didn’t bother to refute anything his drinking companion said but Wesley was eyeing him carefully. When blue eyes met hazel the watcher raised a challenging eyebrow. The vampire burst out laughing.
“You know what, mate?” He said. “I think we’re going to get on just fine.”
*****
Buffy had spent the last two hours sitting on her bed and making a huge effort not to pick up a phone and call her mother. She could hear Spike and Wesley talking in the room next to her but she refused to be weak and stupid. She wanted to go and not be sitting here in her room alone. The stupid room was doing that annoying thing where the lack of noise was making stupid echoing drone-y sounds.
No. No she was not going into that room to feel like an idiot no matter how panicky being alone made her feel. She was a warrior, dammit and she was not going to let that stupid place take that away from her. So she sat on her bed on her hands and did her best not to think about it. It was a losing battle from the start and just when Buffy felt like she couldn’t take it anymore, she reached for the suds and headed down the hall for a good soak. Spike’s flat had been tiny and while there was a shower and showers were great, there was no tub. Whoever trained Wes to find things like this was clearly an angel sent by whoever it was up there than ran things. Then again it was probably Cordy.
It had been so long since Buffy had last had a good bath like this. She could hear some of the other stuff happening in the house and for a little while she tried to block everything out, but she found that hearing the muffled voices was oddly comforting. It reminded her that there were people around, people who would look out for her. Possibly. Frowning she did her best to keep her thoughts from going dark places and facility places, even happy places made her ache to call her mother and make her way back to home and normal life. Well, as normal as her life ever was.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat soaking in the tub. But focusing on the heat of the water put her in some sort of zen mode. It felt good. Really good actually to not think about anything. She knew Wesley was there too. And then there was Raj. She didn’t really know him but Wes vouched for him. They were all nearby and none of them wanted to kill her. And Spike was here. Spike was down the hall and if she made a peep, if she called out he would be in there in a second. She didn't know why she trusted that, but she did.
For the first time in ages, She let herself relax. Even when it was just her and Spike, she could never really uncoil completely. She was constantly holding it together, constantly thinking about being recaptured, constantly worrying about her friends back home, knowing she couldn’t contact them to find out what the fall out of her death could have been like for them.
Much as she didn’t want to be thinking about it, it all came crashing down on her. They thought she was dead. She wanted to be devastated but surprisingly she was relieved. That was a little piece of closure for them and if they were not loose ends then they would not be targeted by those sadists at the facility. Except she didn't have to call it that now. They had a name: The Genesis Project. Buffy shuddered and dunked her head in the almost too hot water. They wouldn’t touch her family, not if they couldn’t hold it over her, not if she was not with them. Her painfully normal mother was of no use to them. And she was in remission which meant she could care for Dawn.
Dawn.
Without Buffy around Glory had no link to her key. She could now have to start from zero and hopefully all her minions would be spread too thin to do any damage. She could have Wesley find out from Giles, she would have to tell him eventually, tell Spike too eventually, but right now she didn’t have to do anything. So for the first time in what felt like a lifetime Buffy let it all go and let her mind wander aimlessly her thoughts flitted around from in consequential things like what she wanted to eat to what she wanted to wear from her limited wardrobe or even what she wanted to watch on the tiny TV she thought she spied behind one of the planning white boards.
She wasn’t sure how long she spent zoning out but it felt like just a few moments before Spike called her down for a pseudo-scoobie meeting.
Ten minutes later Buffy had padded downstairs, façade of Buffy-okayness firmly in place. She wouldn’t fool Spike, but Raj and Wesley seemed to buy it. Once Wes started outlining the plan, the crumbling façade of Buffy-okay-ness stopped crumbling so badly. The last few weeks had been good for her to gain back some slayer strength but it wasn’t until the moment Raj handed her a little piece of silicone to put in her ear did she feel like she could actually put the slayer pieces back together. Even having Wesley there was a welcome reminder of her abilities rather than the straw that broke the back of Buffy’s home-sick containment camel.
Wow. Her analogies were getting really weird; the whirl-wind of the last 24-odd hours was actually getting to her. There was a little too much conjecture in their plan for her liking, but Buffy was accustomed to improvising. They went through blue prints and Raj had spouted something about networking and LAN. Buffy yawned through it, and Spike finally told Wesley to can it and went with her upstairs.
He slid into bed beside her. There were no nightmares that night.
*****
Then there was little time to think as they made arrangements for Germany and before Buffy knew it she was staring down the facility. The adrenaline felt good, amazing actually, she hadn’t been this pumped since she and Spike fled that other place on this time it felt right. Almost good even.
The alarm had been a great big wakeup call though. Their luck had run out.
She could hear Raj in her ear assuring them that it was not a technical alarm. Which left the mystical factor that Wes had hoped would be basic at a temporary holding facility like this one. Spike barked at her to run and she was off.
She registered vaguely the conversation Wes and Spike were having. She could hear the men pursuing her. She wondered why they had gone after her and not taken Spike out, but she didn’t have much energy to expend on waste on thinking like that. Thankfully, evasive maneuvers had been drilled into her feet since day one of slayer training. There were four men after her. She could distinguish each foot pattern.
She switched direction again just as she heard a bang and a little ruffage to her left cracked and fell to the ground. Guns. Great.
She heard Wes giving her directions the gist of which was too lose the tail and meet at the van. The alarm had spooked her but she wasn’t totally panicked. She could hear Spike reassuring her that everyone who had passed him had a heartbeat. Once that had registered she tuned it out completely Buffy spared no other thought than to idly wonder what the range of the comms were.
[Reviews - 185]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 2321 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Hi everyone! I'm so sorry this chapter took so long. I am trying to make it all as detailed as possible as I tend to gloss on action scenes but this chapter and the next few are packed which is why they are taking a while but I'll have the next one up much faster I promise.
But I'm really excited about this one and the next few so stay tuned!
But I'm really excited about this one and the next few so stay tuned!