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Chapter 15- Surprises

Battle weary and drained the two vampires strode into Angel’s office in a silent fury. They had been led on a wild goose chase that had both fit to be tied.

Gunn didn’t know which one he felt sorrier for, Angel or Spike. His whole mission since joining Angel had been ridding the world of bad guys and helping Angel to finally reach his atonement and regain his humanity, and now things weren’t so clear and he knew it had to due to the mojo the doc had put in his head. It blurred the lines, or at least tried to between right and wrong. Some of it must have been wearing off because lately he found himself forgetting little things that last week he would have been able to rattle off without a second thought, like all the stipulations on the Treatise of the Granglucksmit clan. Now he could remember sections but no longer could he recall the full thing verbatim. He was going to have to see that doctor about getting another surge of the mojo before the whole thing wore off for good.

Gunn was finally at a position of power in his life, power that he had never dreamed and in his own right was a liason to the Senior Partners, he didn’t want to risk ruining eerything, not right now. He had come too far to not see this through.

Having turned down Spike’s request of a drink and stared at his former boss in astonishment. Gunn was astonished at the fact that Spike beat Angel and for the shansu that Angel had been working so hard toward for the past few years. What happened to have caused this chain of events. This was some information that could be of use to him later if he could attain it in a way that made it look innocent.

“So what happened man, you two come back like you had just been through ten rounds with a Terminator T-9000, and that Spike was the one that beat you to the cup, something’s going on man.”

Gunn leaned it close to Angel so that he could absorb the full details of Spike and Angel’s foray into the desert. There was something about the way that he was acting that Angel couldn’t quite put his finger on just yet. The thought popped out of his mind as soon as it got there. After all he was talking about Gunn, who had been with him since almost the beginning.

“Nothing, we fought, Spike got to the cup first. It was odd, I had never seen him like that in all the years we fought side by side. There was such determination, he wanted it like nothing I’d ever seen before. He wanted it more than I did, end of story.” Angel folded his hands behind his head feeling his body heal from the inside out as he stared out the window and at a bustling city below. Spike had finally convinced him that there was something wrong with Buffy and since the Angel Investigation’s team helped the helpless that is what they would be doing tonight.

Dawn had called the office an hour earlier, Buffy still had not shown up and it was past midnight. The whole team including Wesley who had just returned from his sojourn in England were meeting in this very spot in 30 minutes to start the search. The firms’s psychics were on the job also trying to locate Buffy through magic and Angel didn’t doubt that they would soon be able to find her. Angel didn’t know wether to be angry at her for pulling this kind of stunt to make them all worry, or to be worried that she had been gone so long with no contact with anyone since this morning. He had a feeling that one way or the other he was liable to wring her damn neck.

At the Hyperion Dawn was in a tizzy with worry. It just wasn’t like Buffy to do something like this. She knew that her sister had been pretty out of it lately, especially with the nightmares that she didn’t think any one knew about. Dawn knew, of course Dawn watched and listened when no one else did, she saw things and heard things that people missed all because she tended to live in the shadows.

Spike had taught her how to be observant to everything around her. He had told Dawn that just because she didn’t have any special powers and wasn’t a demon that she couldn’t learn to use all of her senses, he had taught her how to trail demons and how to stay out of sight doing it. She had gotten so good that on more than one ocassion she was able to sneak up on her teacher when Spike had least expected it. The summer they had spent together had meant a lot to her. It had been nice to have someone look after her that was never going to die, at least in the regular way.

Going into her sister’s room she trained her eye like Spike had taught her, not only looking for anything that was out of place, but looking for the things that looked just a little too perfect.

Looking at Buffy’s made bed she did the usual sweep of looking under the pillows and the mattresses, even getting down on her hands and knees to look underneath. Going through dresser drawers were her next chore.

Most of the clothes Buffy had brought were folded neatly and placed inside, unlike Dawn who was living out of her suitcase. She stopped when she came to the drawer Buffy had placed her underwear in, the drawer was a mess, almost as if someone had gone through it looking for something. She doubted anyone had been in the room beside Buffy which made her wonder why her sister would have made this mess. If Buffy was picky about one thing it was her underwear, especially since her sister paid the earth for little scraps of nothing.
Dawn finished looking through the room and came up with nothing. She had just decided to look through her sister’s suitcases when she heard her name shouted from downstairs. The way the hotel was set up, the acoustics were awesome and it someone shouted loud enough from downstairs, Dawn who was on the third floor could actually hear it, especially since all the doors were open.

The strangest thing occured to her though, it almost sounded like Spike. Man her mind must be really playing tricks on her, it was probably just Angel coming to get her for the meeting. She was standing to get up from the bottom of the closet when she stumbled over a loose board and knocked over Buffy’s carry on. From inside tumbled out Buffy’s diary, this one wasn’t like the one that Dawn remembered peaking at, this one was brand new. Picking it up she heard her name called again, and again if it didn’t sound like Spike, only this time it was coming from the stairs up to the floor.

“Probably Wesley, Angel said that he was going to be back for the meeting.” Dawn used what to her was the obvious reason for the definate English accent that came with the shout.

Leaving the room she went next door and got her purse, checked her lipstick and left the room. Opening Buffy’s diary she started scanning through it figuring she could meet Wesley at the stairwell. With one hand holding the book open and her other on the door knob, she paid no attention to what was right in front of her face until the door was wretched from her grasp and she dropped the book on the floor a badly caricture of Angel flying out of it.

“Damn, it.” She muttered when bending to pick up the picture the contents of her purse spilled on the floor and proceeded to scatter in all directions.

“Bloody hell.” Bending to her jean clad knees Dawn started picking up the contents, shoving them back in haphazardly.

“What have I told you about watching your language.” The sound of his voice sent shivers down her spine and made her bring her face up sharply. Her eyes met with the worn scuffs of his Doc Martens and traveled up his black jeans, seeing the leather flapping around his calves she shot straight up and stared eye to eye with the person she had cried every night for.

“Hello nibblet.” His eyes twinkled mischieviously and his smile screamed scarcasm as he looked into Dawn’s wide blue eyes seeing her shock echoing in them.





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