Title: Hidden in my Veins
Author: Green
Pairing: S/B
Rating: PG-13 so far, R eventually
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon is the creative genius behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I merely write my own fiction using his source material as a jumping off point. All of the words are my own; the characters, mythos, and rich history come from Whedon's amazing imagination.
Feedback: Yes, please please please!! It always helps me to know my work is appreciated. beingagreenmother@yahoo.com
Distribution: Please ask for permission to archive
Summary: (Post-Chosen) As they journey across America, the Scoobies are called to help a Slayer in trouble; Buffy and Spike find each other -- somewhere.
Author's Note: Thank you to Zyre for beta reading, and to everyone at LJ for encouraging me in this. It *reallyreally* means a lot.
***
Chapter One:
///He feels the heat of her silk skin sliding against his, and her thin fingers bestow soft caresses on his chest. She's lying beside him, facing him, a look of wonder on her face as she touches him. He's whole. Real. Tight muscles are corded under his skin where her fingers dance, and he's tangible, and alive and wholly present in this moment with her. She shifts and straddles his form, rising above him, her hair a veil that falls on either side of his face as she leans down closer.
"Did we win, then?" he asks, looking up at her, his beautiful, bright shining girl.
"Thanks to you," she smiles, then ducks her head down to his. Her forehead presses against his and her lips whisper against his mouth. "You saved the world. A lot," she teases, and her tongue darts out to caress his lips.
"I missed the taste of you," he murmurs, savoring the honey of her saliva.
"I miss you, too."
He senses something wrong with her words and looks deep into her eyes, which shimmer and swim with an underlying *something* that he just can't grasp.
"How did we do it?" he asks after a moment.
She smiles and kisses him again, and his senses are overwhelmed with her scent, a heavy perfume of desire and surrender. There's the tiniest hint of despair beneath it all, and he wraps his arms around her and brings her closer, absorbs her essence into himself with a deep, reaching breath.
"I don't remember," he says, speaking into the slender crook of her neck.
"Shhh," she says. "It's all over. It doesn't matter."
He moves and holds her away from him, searching her face for some hint of the truth. "What happened, Buffy?" he asks, gazing intently.
Her small teeth worry her bottom lip, and she looks like a little girl who's lost the world. She swallows. "We're together."
"Are we?" He loosens his hold on her skinny arms, amazed at how fragile she is, like thin spun glass. He thinks she can shatter against him so easily, can break into fragmented shards and cover his body like drops of rain.
"I was strong," she says, and nuzzles back against his body like a kitten, curling to cover his chest. She's warm, like she's been standing in the sunshine for ages. He can smell precious rays of light embedded in strands of gold-spun hair. "I was everything I was supposed to be," she murmurs. Her lips begin to tease his neck, and her tongue darts out to taste his skin. She's intoxicated with his nearness. "You're real, aren't you?" she asks, threads of desperation in her voice.
"I'm as real as you are," he assures her. He kisses her tenderly, his lips soft against hers as he explores the shape of her lips. To Spike, her mouth is the very definition of joy.
Suddenly she sits up, fear apparent on her face. Her body begins to tremble with dread. She keeps her eyes on his face, drinking in the sight of him as if there will be no other chance. She draws in a breath, but it's shaky and it hitches.
"What's wrong?" Spike asks, and dread caresses him like a lover.
"They're calling me," she says, and leans down. She closes her eyes as tightly as she can, staving off the tears that burn behind her lids. She kisses him again, and he can taste her sorrow and goodbye.
"Don't leave," he asks against her mouth, careful not to beg, but she hears his pleading beneath the layers of seduction.
"God, I don't want to," she says, begging him to understand. She presses closer to him and threads her fingers through the soft blond curls of his hair. "I wish I could stay here forever. I wish..."
And suddenly she's gone, vanished, and he's alone. There's no trace of her anywhere, not even her scent hovering in the air.///
***
"Buffy, come on, wake up. We're here."
Buffy came awake, blinking away the tears. Her dream faded so quickly that she wasn't even able to grasp a fraying edge of it. She lifted her head and saw Xander, who was looking at her sympathetically.
"You okay, Buff?"
Her chest ached and her throat felt closed. She took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded. "Ship shape. Or, you know, as shippy as I can be right now." She tried to smile, but her lips only moved a little.
Xander reached a hand down and touched her shoulder. "It'll get better, you know."
She swallowed. "You sure about that?"
He smiled ruefully. "God, I hope so."
She felt the tears sting her eyes again, so she turned away and busied herself by straightening her rumpled clothes. When she felt a little more in control of her emotions, she looked around. It was night, and she was surprised to see she and Xander were the only ones left occupying the bus. She remembered dropping off the injured Rona and three other Slayers with Angel and Company the day before in Los Angeles, but they still had Vi and Kennedy left with them. Vi had been uneasy about staying with a vampire, (she still had nightmares about Spike, despite her new Slayer confidence) and Kennedy hadn't wanted to leave Willow. None of them were anywhere to be seen now, though.
"The others already bailed out," he explained. "I guess they wanted to see the lights."
"Lights?" she asked, confused. "Where are we?"
"Rachel, Nevada," he answered with a grin. "Andrew got all the girls curious about UFO sightings."
"Huh?" she said, confused.
"Come on, Buff, Rachel Nevada! You know, UFOs, aliens, Area 51..."
"I thought that was Roswell." She wrinkled her forehead.
"I'm impressed by your knowledge of geekdom, oh Chosen One. But no, Roswell, New Mexico's where the UFO crashed in 1947."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Oh gimme a break, Xander. You don't really believe that, do you?"
"The evidence is just too overwhelming for it *not* to be true. There were these hermetically sealed coffins ordered from the airbase, and eye witnesses that saw wreckage with strange markings..."
Buffy began to laugh. "And you know all this how?"
Xander blushed. "I, uh, Andrew's been talking about it nonstop since we crossed the state line."
"Mmm hmm," she said as she nodded, clearly amused. "But we're not in Roswell. Where are we again?"
"Rachel. The closest town to Area 51. They say those lights over there are from the complex."
"And, refresh my memory here, Area 51 is what, exactly?"
"Secret military installation."
"Oh, great," she said. "Like we haven't had enough of those."
***
"You should have seen it, B," Faith said, leaning against the bus the next morning. "This guy had his whole bar set up with these alien pictures and little dolls. This Rachel's a small little shit hole of a town; I guess they're just milking the UFO thing for all it's worth."
Andrew and Xander had joined them a few minutes before, bearing coffee, juice and breakfast pastries. "It's the UFO sighting capital of the world," Andrew said.
Buffy scanned the dirt lot for the others. She saw Robin Wood walking stiffly towards them. He had decided to stay with the group instead of recuperating with Rona in LA, and had healed remarkably fast, considering his wounds. Willow and Kennedy walked towards them from further in the distance, and Dawn and Vi were exiting their motel room on the far side of the lot. Everyone but Buffy had spent the night at the cheap motel, grabbing showers and resting up. Buffy hadn't slept since they stopped, and had stayed on the bus. She hadn't showered either, and was now regretting the decision not leave the bus. She had wanted to be alone, though, to grieve in private.
"I'll tell you what it is, it's a great stinking bomb of a town, and I can't wait to get the hell outta here," Faith said.
"I don't know, Faith," Robin said, coming up to her. "It seemed sort of nice. Quaint, even."
Faith turned with a sarcastic smirk. "I don't do 'quaint'." A thought hit her, and she looked at Buffy. "Hey, B, can we go to Vegas?"
Buffy looked at her skeptically.
"I got you a map, Xander," Andrew said. The map was unfolded and he was pointing. "See, here we are ... Ra-chel," he said it as if he were teaching someone to read. "There's Extraterrestrial Highway, or 'State Road 357', if you want to be pedestrian. We just follow this road down to Interstate 93 and ride 'til we hit Sin City."
"I don't think Vegas is the best 'family vacation fun spot' for the girls. Dawn and Vi are still kids. They'll be jaded fast enough as it is, no sense hurrying the process along." Buffy said tiredly.
"Oooh, did I hear someone say 'Vegas'?" Willow said as she bounded up, hand and hand in with Kennedy. She was definitely in a more buoyant mood than the day before. Obviously, a good night's rest was all she needed to recharge. Although the satisfied look on Kennedy's face gave away the fact that *resting* hadn't been the only thing on the night's agenda.
Buffy rolled her eyes at Willow's enthusiasm. "We can't..."
"Oh, come on, Buffy," Xander said. "Vegas is kid friendly nowadays. Haven't you seen the tourism ads on TV? Kiddy rides and lollipops. I'm sure there's plenty they could do. You wouldn't let them go to Disneyland."
"That was an insane idea."
"No more insane than Giles thinking we'd want to go to Cleveland," Faith muttered. "Come on, B, they need a little R&R. Give them something to think about other than ..." she looked around and lowered her voice, "Anya and the others ... the girls. They're really taking Amanda kicking it pretty hard."
Faith's words were crass, but Buffy knew her well enough to hear the underlying hurt.
Buffy turned to Willow. "Did you get a hold of the coven last night, like you wanted?"
"Yeah, I talked to Althenea. She was all happy and relieved and stuff about the battle, so I let her gush for a while. But then she said ..." she trailed off.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"I didn't want to tell you right away. I mean, we can't do anything about it yet."
"Willow," Buffy said slowly, "what did Althenea say?"
"She ... she has visions sometimes, did I tell you?"
"You've ... mentioned it," Buffy said, unsure.
"Well, after all the gushing about the world save-age, she mentioned she had one."
"A vision?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah. She said it wasn't really clear, and kind of abstract ..."
"Willow!" Buffy said, exasperated. "Just tell me what she said."
"Okay, I'm telling, I'm telling!" Willow said defensively. "She finally told me she had a vision of a Slayer in trouble, but since there are Slayers all over the world now, she had no idea at first how to narrow it down. She thinks she's found a tracking spell, but it will take her some time to research it a little. She'll send it to me when she gets it all worked out."
"A Slayer in trouble?" Xander asked. He turned his head up to the sky and shouted, "Hey, can't we just rest a while here? Would it kill you to give us a little downtime?"
Dawn and Vi straggled up to the bus. "Who're you talking to?" Dawn asked, puzzled.
Xander shrugged. "I dunno, exactly. The whole freaking Universe, I guess. It's not like anyone's ever come down and told us who we're working for. We just keep going along, one thing after another coming up, things we have to fix, or set right, or defeat, and you know what? Just once I'd like some Higher Power to say, 'Hey, good job.' "
"It's just like you're Scott Bakula," Andrew agreed. "Only less starship captain and more heroic scientist. Without the scientist part." He pouted at the others' blank looks.
"Quantum Leap," Xander said, explaining, and was rewarded by Andrew's beaming smile.
"Hey, you know Sci-Fi's gonna make a new Quantum Leap movie? I see spinoff written all over it," Andrew told him confidentially.
"Scott Bakula's got a couple of years left on his Enterprise contract, I doubt he'll be able to produce a new series," Xander said. "Oooh, but maybe Bellisario could take the reins..."
Buffy ignored them. "I kind of agree with Xander. On the downtime, I mean. You know, come to think of it, our summers are usually pretty quiet." She sighed heavily. "How long does she think it will take, to track down the Slayer?" she asked Willow.
"She didn't know. A few days, at least."
"Well, I guess we've got some free time then. We can go to Vegas," she frowned at Dawn's eager look, "but you will be supervised the entire time. I don't want you girls getting caught up with mafia culture or ... or ... prostitution."
Vi blushed scarlet.
"I don't think Scott Bakula would go for that," Andrew mused. He was rewarded with seven sets of puzzled eyes. "About Bellisario, I mean, not prostitution. Not that I think Scott Bakula likes prostitutes."
Faith smacked him playfully on the back of the head. "Shut up, you big geek," she said, her mouth quirking.
"Has Giles come back yet?" Dawn asked, peering into the bus.
"Not yet. He was pretty worn out," Xander said. He secretly thought the Watcher had spent the night celebrating yet another averted apocalypse at the bottom of a Scotch bottle, but he wasn't about to say so.
"I think I'll go see if I can find Giles," Buffy said. "If he hasn't left his room yet, maybe I can grab a shower."
Dawn leaned and sniffed delicately, then comically took a large step back. "Yeah, good idea, Sis."
Buffy glared at her for a moment, then turned to Xander. "What room is he in?"
"12."
"Thanks," she said, then walked towards the small motel.
Giles only grunted, bleary-eyed, when she asked him for use of his bathroom, then went about trying wake up fully.
Buffy almost ran to the bathroom. She was suddenly feeling crusted with dirt, and could feel the sour wetness in her underarms. Inside, she happily shed her clothes and started a hot shower.
After Buffy was clean, she looked sadly at the only clothes she had to put on again. She should have asked Fred for something while they had been in LA, she admonished herself, but she hadn't been thinking of it. She picked up her jeans and shook them, trying to at least rid them of the dust. She heard a plink on the tile floor of the tiny bathroom and looked down, wondering what had fallen out of her pocket.
She got on her hands and knees and searched until she spied something shiny behind the toilet. She reached out and picked it up. She looked down into her hand and laughed, tears coming to her eyes.
She was holding the ugly silver skull ring Spike had given her during their brief "engagement". She had no idea how he had known she kept it in her jewelry box, or when he had slipped it into her pocket, but she was grateful for this small reminder. She chose to believe he had put it there intending to surprise her later, after the dust had settled and they had a chance to breathe again. She refused to think he had known what would happen, or that he hadn't expected to get out of the hellmouth alive. She placed the ring on her finger for a moment and smiled at the memory of Willow's spell. They had been so happy, even if it hadn't been real. She unclasped her necklace, took off Spike's ring and threaded it through her chain.
Giles knocked on the door. "Andrew brought a clean shirt for you. I'm setting it by the door."
Relieved that she wouldn't have to dress in the same shirt she had been wearing for two days, Buffy called, "Thank you."
"I have to go get some aspirin and coffee. I'll meet you back at the bus, Buffy."
"Okay."
She waited until she heard Giles leave the motel room, she opened the door and picked up the shirt. She scowled for a minute, then decided an embarrassing shirt was better than a ripe one.
Dressed in a loose white tee that sported a grayish, black-eyed alien, and the words, 'I believe', her cotton panties, turned inside out, *I've really got to stop at the next Target and buy a new pack* and her dirty, rumpled jeans, she walked back to the bus.
Giles was only a few steps ahead, and he winced when Dawn called out, "Are we ready to go now?"
The road stretched out for mile upon deserted mile in front of them. Buffy sat back as Robin drove, separating herself from the group. She reached into the collar of her shirt and pulled out the long chain. Absently, she toyed with the ring.
Away from her, the others chattered about Las Vegas and casinos and neon lights. Xander mentioned he had heard of brothels in the desert, and Vi sputtered and babbled. Dawn and Andrew talked about some demon language, and Willow and Kennedy whispered into each other's ears.
Buffy stared at the desert flying by outide the window, and tightened her hold on Spike's ring. She still felt there, in her left hand, the tingle of the flames that rose as she had told him, finally, how she felt. She gripped the ring tightly in her hand, closed her eyes, and tried not to think that Spike had died, believing she wasn't really in love with him at all.
***
TBC
Author: Green
Pairing: S/B
Rating: PG-13 so far, R eventually
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon is the creative genius behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I merely write my own fiction using his source material as a jumping off point. All of the words are my own; the characters, mythos, and rich history come from Whedon's amazing imagination.
Feedback: Yes, please please please!! It always helps me to know my work is appreciated. beingagreenmother@yahoo.com
Distribution: Please ask for permission to archive
Summary: (Post-Chosen) As they journey across America, the Scoobies are called to help a Slayer in trouble; Buffy and Spike find each other -- somewhere.
Author's Note: Thank you to Zyre for beta reading, and to everyone at LJ for encouraging me in this. It *reallyreally* means a lot.
***
Chapter One:
///He feels the heat of her silk skin sliding against his, and her thin fingers bestow soft caresses on his chest. She's lying beside him, facing him, a look of wonder on her face as she touches him. He's whole. Real. Tight muscles are corded under his skin where her fingers dance, and he's tangible, and alive and wholly present in this moment with her. She shifts and straddles his form, rising above him, her hair a veil that falls on either side of his face as she leans down closer.
"Did we win, then?" he asks, looking up at her, his beautiful, bright shining girl.
"Thanks to you," she smiles, then ducks her head down to his. Her forehead presses against his and her lips whisper against his mouth. "You saved the world. A lot," she teases, and her tongue darts out to caress his lips.
"I missed the taste of you," he murmurs, savoring the honey of her saliva.
"I miss you, too."
He senses something wrong with her words and looks deep into her eyes, which shimmer and swim with an underlying *something* that he just can't grasp.
"How did we do it?" he asks after a moment.
She smiles and kisses him again, and his senses are overwhelmed with her scent, a heavy perfume of desire and surrender. There's the tiniest hint of despair beneath it all, and he wraps his arms around her and brings her closer, absorbs her essence into himself with a deep, reaching breath.
"I don't remember," he says, speaking into the slender crook of her neck.
"Shhh," she says. "It's all over. It doesn't matter."
He moves and holds her away from him, searching her face for some hint of the truth. "What happened, Buffy?" he asks, gazing intently.
Her small teeth worry her bottom lip, and she looks like a little girl who's lost the world. She swallows. "We're together."
"Are we?" He loosens his hold on her skinny arms, amazed at how fragile she is, like thin spun glass. He thinks she can shatter against him so easily, can break into fragmented shards and cover his body like drops of rain.
"I was strong," she says, and nuzzles back against his body like a kitten, curling to cover his chest. She's warm, like she's been standing in the sunshine for ages. He can smell precious rays of light embedded in strands of gold-spun hair. "I was everything I was supposed to be," she murmurs. Her lips begin to tease his neck, and her tongue darts out to taste his skin. She's intoxicated with his nearness. "You're real, aren't you?" she asks, threads of desperation in her voice.
"I'm as real as you are," he assures her. He kisses her tenderly, his lips soft against hers as he explores the shape of her lips. To Spike, her mouth is the very definition of joy.
Suddenly she sits up, fear apparent on her face. Her body begins to tremble with dread. She keeps her eyes on his face, drinking in the sight of him as if there will be no other chance. She draws in a breath, but it's shaky and it hitches.
"What's wrong?" Spike asks, and dread caresses him like a lover.
"They're calling me," she says, and leans down. She closes her eyes as tightly as she can, staving off the tears that burn behind her lids. She kisses him again, and he can taste her sorrow and goodbye.
"Don't leave," he asks against her mouth, careful not to beg, but she hears his pleading beneath the layers of seduction.
"God, I don't want to," she says, begging him to understand. She presses closer to him and threads her fingers through the soft blond curls of his hair. "I wish I could stay here forever. I wish..."
And suddenly she's gone, vanished, and he's alone. There's no trace of her anywhere, not even her scent hovering in the air.///
***
"Buffy, come on, wake up. We're here."
Buffy came awake, blinking away the tears. Her dream faded so quickly that she wasn't even able to grasp a fraying edge of it. She lifted her head and saw Xander, who was looking at her sympathetically.
"You okay, Buff?"
Her chest ached and her throat felt closed. She took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded. "Ship shape. Or, you know, as shippy as I can be right now." She tried to smile, but her lips only moved a little.
Xander reached a hand down and touched her shoulder. "It'll get better, you know."
She swallowed. "You sure about that?"
He smiled ruefully. "God, I hope so."
She felt the tears sting her eyes again, so she turned away and busied herself by straightening her rumpled clothes. When she felt a little more in control of her emotions, she looked around. It was night, and she was surprised to see she and Xander were the only ones left occupying the bus. She remembered dropping off the injured Rona and three other Slayers with Angel and Company the day before in Los Angeles, but they still had Vi and Kennedy left with them. Vi had been uneasy about staying with a vampire, (she still had nightmares about Spike, despite her new Slayer confidence) and Kennedy hadn't wanted to leave Willow. None of them were anywhere to be seen now, though.
"The others already bailed out," he explained. "I guess they wanted to see the lights."
"Lights?" she asked, confused. "Where are we?"
"Rachel, Nevada," he answered with a grin. "Andrew got all the girls curious about UFO sightings."
"Huh?" she said, confused.
"Come on, Buff, Rachel Nevada! You know, UFOs, aliens, Area 51..."
"I thought that was Roswell." She wrinkled her forehead.
"I'm impressed by your knowledge of geekdom, oh Chosen One. But no, Roswell, New Mexico's where the UFO crashed in 1947."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Oh gimme a break, Xander. You don't really believe that, do you?"
"The evidence is just too overwhelming for it *not* to be true. There were these hermetically sealed coffins ordered from the airbase, and eye witnesses that saw wreckage with strange markings..."
Buffy began to laugh. "And you know all this how?"
Xander blushed. "I, uh, Andrew's been talking about it nonstop since we crossed the state line."
"Mmm hmm," she said as she nodded, clearly amused. "But we're not in Roswell. Where are we again?"
"Rachel. The closest town to Area 51. They say those lights over there are from the complex."
"And, refresh my memory here, Area 51 is what, exactly?"
"Secret military installation."
"Oh, great," she said. "Like we haven't had enough of those."
***
"You should have seen it, B," Faith said, leaning against the bus the next morning. "This guy had his whole bar set up with these alien pictures and little dolls. This Rachel's a small little shit hole of a town; I guess they're just milking the UFO thing for all it's worth."
Andrew and Xander had joined them a few minutes before, bearing coffee, juice and breakfast pastries. "It's the UFO sighting capital of the world," Andrew said.
Buffy scanned the dirt lot for the others. She saw Robin Wood walking stiffly towards them. He had decided to stay with the group instead of recuperating with Rona in LA, and had healed remarkably fast, considering his wounds. Willow and Kennedy walked towards them from further in the distance, and Dawn and Vi were exiting their motel room on the far side of the lot. Everyone but Buffy had spent the night at the cheap motel, grabbing showers and resting up. Buffy hadn't slept since they stopped, and had stayed on the bus. She hadn't showered either, and was now regretting the decision not leave the bus. She had wanted to be alone, though, to grieve in private.
"I'll tell you what it is, it's a great stinking bomb of a town, and I can't wait to get the hell outta here," Faith said.
"I don't know, Faith," Robin said, coming up to her. "It seemed sort of nice. Quaint, even."
Faith turned with a sarcastic smirk. "I don't do 'quaint'." A thought hit her, and she looked at Buffy. "Hey, B, can we go to Vegas?"
Buffy looked at her skeptically.
"I got you a map, Xander," Andrew said. The map was unfolded and he was pointing. "See, here we are ... Ra-chel," he said it as if he were teaching someone to read. "There's Extraterrestrial Highway, or 'State Road 357', if you want to be pedestrian. We just follow this road down to Interstate 93 and ride 'til we hit Sin City."
"I don't think Vegas is the best 'family vacation fun spot' for the girls. Dawn and Vi are still kids. They'll be jaded fast enough as it is, no sense hurrying the process along." Buffy said tiredly.
"Oooh, did I hear someone say 'Vegas'?" Willow said as she bounded up, hand and hand in with Kennedy. She was definitely in a more buoyant mood than the day before. Obviously, a good night's rest was all she needed to recharge. Although the satisfied look on Kennedy's face gave away the fact that *resting* hadn't been the only thing on the night's agenda.
Buffy rolled her eyes at Willow's enthusiasm. "We can't..."
"Oh, come on, Buffy," Xander said. "Vegas is kid friendly nowadays. Haven't you seen the tourism ads on TV? Kiddy rides and lollipops. I'm sure there's plenty they could do. You wouldn't let them go to Disneyland."
"That was an insane idea."
"No more insane than Giles thinking we'd want to go to Cleveland," Faith muttered. "Come on, B, they need a little R&R. Give them something to think about other than ..." she looked around and lowered her voice, "Anya and the others ... the girls. They're really taking Amanda kicking it pretty hard."
Faith's words were crass, but Buffy knew her well enough to hear the underlying hurt.
Buffy turned to Willow. "Did you get a hold of the coven last night, like you wanted?"
"Yeah, I talked to Althenea. She was all happy and relieved and stuff about the battle, so I let her gush for a while. But then she said ..." she trailed off.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"I didn't want to tell you right away. I mean, we can't do anything about it yet."
"Willow," Buffy said slowly, "what did Althenea say?"
"She ... she has visions sometimes, did I tell you?"
"You've ... mentioned it," Buffy said, unsure.
"Well, after all the gushing about the world save-age, she mentioned she had one."
"A vision?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah. She said it wasn't really clear, and kind of abstract ..."
"Willow!" Buffy said, exasperated. "Just tell me what she said."
"Okay, I'm telling, I'm telling!" Willow said defensively. "She finally told me she had a vision of a Slayer in trouble, but since there are Slayers all over the world now, she had no idea at first how to narrow it down. She thinks she's found a tracking spell, but it will take her some time to research it a little. She'll send it to me when she gets it all worked out."
"A Slayer in trouble?" Xander asked. He turned his head up to the sky and shouted, "Hey, can't we just rest a while here? Would it kill you to give us a little downtime?"
Dawn and Vi straggled up to the bus. "Who're you talking to?" Dawn asked, puzzled.
Xander shrugged. "I dunno, exactly. The whole freaking Universe, I guess. It's not like anyone's ever come down and told us who we're working for. We just keep going along, one thing after another coming up, things we have to fix, or set right, or defeat, and you know what? Just once I'd like some Higher Power to say, 'Hey, good job.' "
"It's just like you're Scott Bakula," Andrew agreed. "Only less starship captain and more heroic scientist. Without the scientist part." He pouted at the others' blank looks.
"Quantum Leap," Xander said, explaining, and was rewarded by Andrew's beaming smile.
"Hey, you know Sci-Fi's gonna make a new Quantum Leap movie? I see spinoff written all over it," Andrew told him confidentially.
"Scott Bakula's got a couple of years left on his Enterprise contract, I doubt he'll be able to produce a new series," Xander said. "Oooh, but maybe Bellisario could take the reins..."
Buffy ignored them. "I kind of agree with Xander. On the downtime, I mean. You know, come to think of it, our summers are usually pretty quiet." She sighed heavily. "How long does she think it will take, to track down the Slayer?" she asked Willow.
"She didn't know. A few days, at least."
"Well, I guess we've got some free time then. We can go to Vegas," she frowned at Dawn's eager look, "but you will be supervised the entire time. I don't want you girls getting caught up with mafia culture or ... or ... prostitution."
Vi blushed scarlet.
"I don't think Scott Bakula would go for that," Andrew mused. He was rewarded with seven sets of puzzled eyes. "About Bellisario, I mean, not prostitution. Not that I think Scott Bakula likes prostitutes."
Faith smacked him playfully on the back of the head. "Shut up, you big geek," she said, her mouth quirking.
"Has Giles come back yet?" Dawn asked, peering into the bus.
"Not yet. He was pretty worn out," Xander said. He secretly thought the Watcher had spent the night celebrating yet another averted apocalypse at the bottom of a Scotch bottle, but he wasn't about to say so.
"I think I'll go see if I can find Giles," Buffy said. "If he hasn't left his room yet, maybe I can grab a shower."
Dawn leaned and sniffed delicately, then comically took a large step back. "Yeah, good idea, Sis."
Buffy glared at her for a moment, then turned to Xander. "What room is he in?"
"12."
"Thanks," she said, then walked towards the small motel.
Giles only grunted, bleary-eyed, when she asked him for use of his bathroom, then went about trying wake up fully.
Buffy almost ran to the bathroom. She was suddenly feeling crusted with dirt, and could feel the sour wetness in her underarms. Inside, she happily shed her clothes and started a hot shower.
After Buffy was clean, she looked sadly at the only clothes she had to put on again. She should have asked Fred for something while they had been in LA, she admonished herself, but she hadn't been thinking of it. She picked up her jeans and shook them, trying to at least rid them of the dust. She heard a plink on the tile floor of the tiny bathroom and looked down, wondering what had fallen out of her pocket.
She got on her hands and knees and searched until she spied something shiny behind the toilet. She reached out and picked it up. She looked down into her hand and laughed, tears coming to her eyes.
She was holding the ugly silver skull ring Spike had given her during their brief "engagement". She had no idea how he had known she kept it in her jewelry box, or when he had slipped it into her pocket, but she was grateful for this small reminder. She chose to believe he had put it there intending to surprise her later, after the dust had settled and they had a chance to breathe again. She refused to think he had known what would happen, or that he hadn't expected to get out of the hellmouth alive. She placed the ring on her finger for a moment and smiled at the memory of Willow's spell. They had been so happy, even if it hadn't been real. She unclasped her necklace, took off Spike's ring and threaded it through her chain.
Giles knocked on the door. "Andrew brought a clean shirt for you. I'm setting it by the door."
Relieved that she wouldn't have to dress in the same shirt she had been wearing for two days, Buffy called, "Thank you."
"I have to go get some aspirin and coffee. I'll meet you back at the bus, Buffy."
"Okay."
She waited until she heard Giles leave the motel room, she opened the door and picked up the shirt. She scowled for a minute, then decided an embarrassing shirt was better than a ripe one.
Dressed in a loose white tee that sported a grayish, black-eyed alien, and the words, 'I believe', her cotton panties, turned inside out, *I've really got to stop at the next Target and buy a new pack* and her dirty, rumpled jeans, she walked back to the bus.
Giles was only a few steps ahead, and he winced when Dawn called out, "Are we ready to go now?"
The road stretched out for mile upon deserted mile in front of them. Buffy sat back as Robin drove, separating herself from the group. She reached into the collar of her shirt and pulled out the long chain. Absently, she toyed with the ring.
Away from her, the others chattered about Las Vegas and casinos and neon lights. Xander mentioned he had heard of brothels in the desert, and Vi sputtered and babbled. Dawn and Andrew talked about some demon language, and Willow and Kennedy whispered into each other's ears.
Buffy stared at the desert flying by outide the window, and tightened her hold on Spike's ring. She still felt there, in her left hand, the tingle of the flames that rose as she had told him, finally, how she felt. She gripped the ring tightly in her hand, closed her eyes, and tried not to think that Spike had died, believing she wasn't really in love with him at all.
***
TBC