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Chapter 10

As soon as they walked into the apartment, Xander flopped down on the couch. He was getting really tired of this whole Spike thing. They hadn’t gotten anywhere or discovered anything, and Giles was as clueless as he was. He was honestly starting to think that they were the wrong people to deal with this situation. They needed to call Buffy. The question was, would Giles want to follow through with his earlier decision to call her? Xander wasn’t sure. Giles had never been a member of the We-love-Spike-club. Well, it wasn’t like he had a membership card either, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Buffy needed to be here. He looked over at Giles and sighed. They hadn’t talked much in the car on the way back from Williams’, so now was as good a time as any for him to broach the subject.

“So what did you think, Giles? Was it Spike?”

Giles sat up a little straighter in the chair across from the couch and took off his glasses. He was at a loss. “Well, Xander, I think that you were right. It is Spike, or whatever is left of Spike.”

“So where do we go from here?”

With a sigh, that was almost a groan, Giles forced out an answer. “I honestly don’t know. William obviously isn’t going to help, and I fear that anything we may do will be met with suspicion and hostility.”

Xander nodded emphatically. “We should be calling Buffy now, yes?”

“Yes, I know. As much as I don’t like it, I know. Maybe she will be able to help him without seeming too transparent.” He reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone. He set it on the coffee table and simply stared at it. Once he called Buffy, there was no turning back. She would come for Spike, just as she always had. Everything that he had hoped for her future would be ignored. Spike would be brought back into the fold, and oddly enough, he was alright with that.

Giles picked up the phone and dialed Buffy's number.

"So, how does it feel to be a one-month college girl?" Buffy flopped onto Dawn's bed and grabbed her pillow, then looked up at her expectantly.

Dawn arched an eyebrow, "Like you can't remember?"

"Nope. Besides, it’s like I’m giving you the mom experience! Mom's never remember what college was like."

"Whatever floats your boat, weirdo."

Buffy just smiled back at her and proceeded to snuggle deeper into the pillows. Dawn finished unpacking her bag and continued to taunt her.

"So if you’re acting out the mom role, why aren't you doing my laundry and folding my clothes? Better yet, where is my home-cooked meal?"

Suppressing a frantic look, Buffy hopped off the bed and grabbed the phone book, "Hey! How about Chinese food? You can get that spicy shrimp stuff you like!"

Dawn just rolled her eyes. She loved her sister, but sometimes all you could do was shake your head at her. Definitely a weirdo.

"Sure, but I'm in the mood for orange chicken. And get a double order!"

"Like I'd forget, Miss Piggy."

"Says the lady who ate 3 hamburgers, 2 order of fries, and a shake?"

"What?!? I was hungry! I hadn't eaten since I left England, and you know how airplane food is. Besides, eating a hamburger in California, kind of poetic, don't you think?"

"Only you would think it was poetic. So before you start espousing the virtues and beauty of ground up cow meat, order our food."

"Okay, okay!" Buffy walked over to desk and dug the phone book out from under a stack of Cosmo’sShe started flipping through the pages, when a tinny, high pitched rendition of "God Save the Queen" filled the room.

"Oh, it’s Giles! I wonder why he's calling?"

"Probably because you’re supposed to be on Council business instead of being a bum in my dorm room, and what the crap is playing on your phone?"

"It’s the British national anthem, and Giles is British, so I figured it matched. Oh, and Giles knows that I’m with you this week. I don’t have anything to do that’s work-related until Monday."

"Yay, us! But shouldn't you answer the phone?"

"Oh, yeah." Buffy opened her phone and happily answered. "Hey, Giles! How's my favorite watcher doing?"

Dawn sat on her bed and watched as Buffy talked on the phone. She was glad that her sister was happy. Buffy had seemed so lost that year after Sunnydale, but finally she had ditched The Immortal, and decided to start doing something with her life. For a while there, Dawn had wondered if Buffy’s life was going to consist entirely of buying shoes, club-hopping in Rome, and dating Eurotrash. Personally, she thought that Buffy had just been trying to escape the pain from the death of a certain vampire. It had taken the destruction of Wolfram and Hart and the death of Angel to get her on the right track. She had been shocked into action, and reminded of her calling. Angel had known what was right, and somehow his sacrifice had pushed her into action. Now she was working for Giles and the Council by helping the new slayers come to terms with their calling and getting them situated and acclimatized. It agreed with her. Dawn smiled indulgently at Buffy, as she wondered if there had been some mistake and she was really the older sister. She was startled out of her thoughts by Buffy. Her voice had gotten suddenly shrill.

"You’re in Vegas? Why? Is something wrong with Xander?"

Dawn got off the bed and went and stood by the desk. Buffy let out a breath, so she assumed that nothing was wrong with Xander, but then all of the color drained out of Buffy’s face and her voice got very quiet.

"What do you mean he's alive?"

Dawn quickly pulled out the chair from under the desk and gently pushed Buffy into it. She looked like she was going to faint. It kind of reminded her of when Mom had gotten sick. All shaky and pale.

"Okay. I'll be there as soon as I can. Don't argue with me, I said I'll be there. Yes, I have both addresses. I'll see you soon." And with that she closed the phone and stared at it.

"Buffy? Are you okay? What happened? Are Xander and Giles okay?"

Buffy slowly looked up at her and started to cry. Dawn quickly moved into hug her sister. After a few minutes of tears and hiccups, Buffy pulled away from her and told her what Giles had said.

"He's alive."

"Well, duh. Giles was the one on the phone, but I don't see how that warranted tears?"

"No, it's Spike. He's alive."

Dawn was dumbfounded, "You mean he survived Sunnydale?"

"No, apparently he was brought back to life, worked with Angel, died again, and is now human and working for Xander."

"What?! How?! Why didn't he come find us?"

"I don't know. I didn't let Giles finish. He tried to tell me to wait a few days to go down to Vegas, and I got mad. I forgot to ask him."

"I'm going with you."

"You can't, Dawnie, you have school."

"Screw school! It's Spike!”

"I’d love for you to be there, but you have midterms. Besides, I need to go and find out what is going on before I bring you into it.”

Dawn tried not to pout. Buffy was right, there really wasn’t any way she could go down there and still pass all of her classes. Sometimes she really hated having a life. Back in the good old days, she could have skipped school with no problem. Partly because school would’ve been cancelled due to the impending apocalypse, but who was paying attention? "Okay, but you have to promise me that you’ll call me as soon as you see him.”

“I promise.”

Dawn reached down and gave Buffy a fierce hug. She looked awful. It was like her whole world had just stopped without letting her know ahead of time. That’s it! She was carsick, or world sick. Maybe whiplash.

“Buffy, why don't you take a nap? I'll call the airlines and book a flight for you. You can leave in the morning."

She shook her head. There was no way she could wait. Spike was alive, she needed to see him. "No, you don't need to do that, and I really don't think I can sleep. I should leave as soon as possible."

"Nonsense! You’re tired, and if I know how your life works, I’m willing to bet that soap opera drama awaits you, so now it’s time for me to play the mom." Dawn pushed her back onto the bed. Buffy reluctantly stretched out.

"Bully."

"You know it."

Fifteen minutes later, Dawn had booked a flight and a rental car. She looked over at Buffy and smiled at her sleeping sister. She knew that Buffy had been exhausted. Dawn looked closer and noticed that Buffy was drooling onto her pillow. . . gross. Sometimes she surprised herself at how tolerant she was. Careful not to wake Buffy up, Dawn opened up her desk drawer. She reached deep inside the drawer, searching for something. Finally locating the elusive article she pulled it out. It was a picture of Spike. It was the only one she had of him, and somehow it had found its way in her bag before the battle with the First. It had been during the summer of no-Buffy. Bored, she had started fiddling with an old Polaroid camera she had found down in the basement. Spike had been dozing on the chair by the TV, and for once didn’t hear her coming up next to him. Before he could do anything, she had snapped the picture and run quickly up the stairs to her room. He had chased her, but she had successfully hid the picture before he could find it. Unfortunately for her, she had paid for her sin with a massive tickle attack by Spike. She had been laughing so hard, if Spike hadn’t stopped when he had, she would have peed her pants. Smiling at the memory, she let her fingers touch his face. Everything had been so bad those last few years in Sunnydale, but she had never wanted their relationship to end the way it had.

She couldn’t believe that Spike was alive. She almost didn’t want to believe it. There was no way. It must be a mistake or something. But if Giles had actually called Buffy in on it, they must be certain. Damn midterms. Buffy was going to need support, not to mention she had never gotten closure with her bleached buddy. With a sigh she grabbed her European History book and flipped it open. She had a killer test in a few days and now was as good a time as any to start studying. She opened it up, but couldn’t focus on the words on the page. Looking over at her sister, she wondered what Buffy had done in a past life to deserve all the crap she had to deal with. Dawn sighed. It was only going to get worse, before it got better. That’s just the way the Summer’s girl’s lives went.





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