I own nothing. Joss owns everything. All hail Joss. I apologize to anyone and everyone for any infringements on copyrights, feelings, personal space, etc. I didn't mean it, honest!
***
Buffy walked back into the Los Angeles bus station. She had gotten off the bus from Sunnydale an hour earlier, and had gone to her dad's house. But there were cop cars parked out front, so she'd gone back to the bus station. Another half-hour and she'd be bound for Seattle.
There had been little blips on the news and in the newspapers about the incidents in Sunnydale High's library. Giles had made up a fairly good story about a gang attacking their study group when Buffy had gone out for snacks. The whole gang was sticking to the story. Even Cordelia. Giles had identified Kendra's body as a visiting foreign exchange student, and he and Xander had been heavily interrogated, as the only conscious witnesses. Buffy had felt bad for awhile about leaving them to deal with all this, but it was more important that she got away. Far away.
Sitting on a bench in the station, she noticed a young man walk in, ticket in hand. He looked strikingly familiar. When he looked at her, and she saw the disbelief cross his face, she knew.
"Pike?" she asked, barely believing who she was seeing.
"Buffy!" he cried. Then they were locked in a tight hug. When she pulled back, he saw her tear-stained face and puffy eyes.
"You look like crap, Buff," he said jokingly. "What are you doing back in LA?" Buffy sighed and began to relate the last two years of her life to her former boyfriend.
* * *
Spike sped up the California coast on PCH. He was making fairly good time, despite having to stop during the day. Drusilla had been upset when she woke up, but he had managed to calm her down with a new dress and one for Miss Edith. She had stopped throwing tantrums and wasn't speaking to him now. He knew it would only be a matter of a few days before she forgot about Angel. Then he and Dru would be wreaking their old havoc.
"You'll like it up north, ducks," he said to her. "Northerners' blood is thicker." He caught the grin on her face before she remembered she was mad at him and frowned.
Spike just smiled at her. She might have been loony tunes, but he lover her. She was his princess. His black goddess. A pair like them would fit nicely in liberal, arty Seattle.
* * *
Xander and Cordelia burst into the library, giggling madly, interrupting Giles' peaceful moment away from shelving books. The startled librarian spilled his tea down his shirt. After shooting a dirty look at the teens (who were now laughing even harder), he went into his office to mop up his soiled shirt.
Cordelia and Xander managed to calm down just as Willow rolled in, Oz pushing her wheelchair. Giles came out of his office as they all sat around the table.
"Any word from Buffy?" Willow asked Giles. He sighed and shook his head. Those were the first words he heard from Willow each morning now. It broke his heart each time he had to tell her no and watch her face fall, as it did now.
"What about Angel?" Oz asked quietly, ignoring Xander's snort and glare. Giles fiddled with a book that was sitting on the table.
"No, there's been no sign of him or Spike and Drusilla. Vampire activity in general seems to have stopped."
"So that's a plus in the big minus sign of life," Xander put in.
"Yes, yes, for now," Giles said.
"For now?" Willow asked hesitantly.
"Well, traditionally a ceasing of activity means that something even bigger is coming. The calm before the storm, if you will."
"So the vamps are lying low and preparing for Bloodstock?"
"Ah, yes, I suppose you could say that."
"And Buffy's MIA. Fabulous," Cordelia grumbled.
"What do we do now?" Oz brought the conversation back to the problem at hand. "How do we stop them?" Giles cleared his throat.
"We can't count on Buffy returning anytime soon. And since the world isn't in hell, we can assume Angel is, soul or no. Right now, we have no help from the supernatural."
"5 measly humans against an army of demons. Fun." Xander sighed. Oz coughed.
"Oh, sorry. 4 measly humans and a werewolf against an army of demons. Still not very fun." The bell rang, interrupting their little meeting. Oz rose and kissed Willow.
"Devon wants us to practice this period in the auditorium." He looked up at Xander. "Can someone tale Willow to French?"
"I will. Her class is near mine," Cordelia said. Everyone looked at her, surprised. Xander opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
"What? I can be nice. Sometimes."
* * *
Pike had been a better listener than Buffy had expected. Even when she talked about how Angel's soul had been restored, he had just listened calmly, and comforted her when the memories brought tears to her eyes. They had almost missed their bus.
"And now here I am, a fugitive fleeing the state," she finished, dabbing at her dripping mascara with a tissue.
"Sounds like you've had quite the adventure."
"I have." Buffy sniffed and put her tissue away. "Why are you going to Seattle?"
"My parents want to get me out of LA. Ever since the gym burned down and you left, I guess I've been kind of...a handful."
"They should talk to my mom. I can't imgaine you're more of a handful than I am."
"True." Pike shrugged. "But at least you have a legitimate reason for staying out past curfew and hanging out with the undead."
"And burning down gyms," Buffy interjected.
"And burning down gyms. But I don't." She looked at him incredulously.
"Pike, have you been slaying?" He looked away from her.
"Yeah."
"But it's dangerous! Pike, you could have been killed! I-"
"But I wasn't. I just knew I couldn't let anymore of my friends get turned into demons like..." His voice trailed off. Buffy nodded, understanding what it was like to have someone close to you all of a sudden become a demon.
"And since you were gone, I figured somebody had to kill the bastards. No one else believes they exist, so it had to be me." He shrugged again. "It hasn't been too bad."
"So your parents think sending you off alone to another state will make a difference?"
"I have an aunt up there. I'm staying with her. Where are you headed once we get there?"
"I have no idea. I have no idea."
* * *
The sun was starting to rise when Spike broke into the motel room. He shut the door behind him, and lay the already sleeping Drusilla down on the bed. He quickly drew the heavy curtains over the window just as the first rays began to penetrate the darkness.
'That was too close,' he thought. He'd been in such a rush to get out of California, he's almost forgotten about sunrise. But he had managed to make it half way through Oregon. Considering he had been pushing 100 miles per hour all night, he wasn't surprised. As soon as the sun went down, they'd be on the road again.
Spike sat down on the bed next to Drusilla. He brushed her dark hair off her pale face. He pressed his hand to her collarbone.
"You don't need Angel, pet," he told her softly. "You're mine."
* * *
Willow looked up from her spot at the computer terminal when Oz came into the library. She smiled as he hugged her from behind.
"Hey," he said, sitting next to her.
"How was practice?" Oz shrugged.
"We need more. We're working on a couple new songs."
"Cool, are you playing them Friday night?"
"Hopefully." Willow smiled and turned back to the computer as Giles came out of his office, followed by Cordelia, who was whining as usual.
"But whittling stakes makes my hands cramp! And I could break a nail! Isn't there something else I could do?" Giles sighed and leaned lightly on a stack of books.
"You can look through these. Or you can train to fight." Giles had decided that in the absence of the Slayer, he should train the Slayerettes in preparation for whatever vampire attack was imminent. They'd have to be ready.
"Fight?" Cordelia whimpered. Giles just looked at her. She mumbled something and grabbed a book, stalking back to the table. Giles sighed in relief. He wasn't going to train Cordelia unless he absolutely had to. He was sure his nerves couldn't handle both her and Xander, whom had just wandered in.
Xander walked over to the table, muttering something about his math grade, followed by a string of curses directed at the math department. Plopping down next to Cordelia, he spoke to Willow.
"Will, you couldn't hack into the school computer and change my F to a D by any chance, could you?" Willow looked at him disapprovingly.
"Xander..."
"Sorry. Forget I asked." He banged his head on the desk.
"I'll help you study later," Willow offered, trying to help. Xander waved in thanks, face still buried in the high-gloss tabletop. Giles spoke up.
"Now that we're all here, let's begin, shall we?" He handed Oz and Xander each a staff, and placed another stack of books on the table between Willow and Cordelia. It was going to be a long day.
* * *
Not having slept in two days, Buffy fell asleep on Pike's shoulder, grateful to have a friend with her. It was nice that she didn't have to explain herself to him either. He just seemed to understand and he hadn't pressured her to go on when she held something back. As much as she had tried to not look back on her former life, she had to admit that she had missed Pike.
Pike glanced down at the blond head on his shoulder. 'Poor Buffy,' he thought. 'And I thought I'd been through some bad shit lately...' What Buffy had told him was all but unbelievable. After all that, she deserved a vacation.
Sighing, Pike pulled her sleeping form closer to him. He'd missed Buffy Summers more than he cared to admit.
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