Fourth chapter, good deal more Spike in this one, as well as in the following two chapters that I'd already had written.

Chapter Four - Timing

It had been a while since I'd actually spent a full day at school, and even then the class here and there hadn't been the most common occurrence. It had been a weird couple of days, Oz was gone, Willow was devastated, and I don't know...watching one of your best friends kill something that doesn't immediately turn into a pile of dust...it's unsettling. It felt all too human a death for a monster. I wonder how I would die, big bang of golden light? Poof of glitter? Collapse into a puddle of goo? Would it be just as human as Veruca's?

I had almost made it through the day, wandering through the long rows of beige painted metal from trailer to trailer. Just one more class, English. God I hoped Dylan wasn't there, it would be nice if we sat across the room from each other, but instead we were smack dab in the middle of the overcrowded class practically pressed up against each other. I hadn't seen him since I stood him up, and then he stood me up. Right now I wasn't particularly in the mood to see anyone, much less the guy that I had spent over a week with in a state of unspoken, unseen, awkwardness.

I had taken my sweet time on my way to the English trailer, slipping through the door with maybe a minute before the bell was going to ring. Most of the seats were already occupied, and I practically had to perform Swan Lake to get to my desk. No Dylan, at least there was no Dylan. I pulled out all of my things, and the small amount of homework I had actually made up, as opposed to the large stack sitting on my bed at home. Just this last class, and I was done.

The bell rang, and just as I thought as I was safe to spend my last fifty minutes in hell peacefully. Dylan sat down. I tried not to look at him, and keep my eyes on the teacher instead, but I kept catching myself trying to get a glimpse out of my peripheral vision.

"Hey," he whispered, shooting a look at the teacher to make sure she wasn't paying attention, "Can I talk to you? After class."

"Yeah," I said, not quite meeting his gaze.

The class seemed to drag on and on after that. I wasn't focusing so much as I was absentmindedly tapping my pencil to the beat of the butterflies in my stomach. I was expecting him to ignore me, I was expecting to pretend to ignore him while I internally tried not to explode. I was not expecting him to want to talk. I almost dreaded the bell ringing, stupid Dylan, that was supposed to be the highlight of my day.

After what seemed like hours we were dismissed, the teacher yelling last minute instructions over the clatter of chairs and zipping backpacks. Dylan waited politely beside me while I packed up, and wove precariously through the cramped desks right along with me.

"So, I wanted to talk to you," he said once we were outside the trailer, "You've been kind of hard to find lately."

"I'm sorry. About our date, there was an emergency my friend was drunk. I needed to keep her from doing something stupid, I wanted to tell you, but she was running off and you were in the bathroom" I rambled, fiddling with the straps on my backpack, "And there's been some stuff going on the past couple days, so I haven't been able to make it to school. But you aren't innocent either! I waited at The Bronze for hours, and you didn't show up!"

His brow furrowed, "I was there, I looked for you."

"What time did you get there?" I asked, there was a sinking feeling forming in my stomach.

"Nine." This was Giles' fault.

"I'm sorry, something came up, I thought you weren't coming -" I started.

"No, no it's fine," he smiles, "Maybe we could do something this weekend?"

Oh thank God, he didn't hate me, "I'm going to a party tomorrow night, we're trying to cheer up a friend, but you're more than welcome to come with."

"Yeah, yeah that sounds fun. Where is it?" He asked.

"It's on the UCS campus, um Lowell House I think," I said, I really hoped I got the name right, if we ended up going to different parties I think I would just sit down and cry.

"A frat party?" Oh gosh, I should have known Foie Gras boy wouldn't want to hang with drunk college lunk heads. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to hang out with drunk college lunk heads.

"Yeah, I have a lot of friends in college," I said, "I'm kind of obligated to go, but if you would rather not, maybe if you're not busy sunday?"

"No, the party sounds great." He grinned, the dimples on his cheeks were showing again.

Should I wear a dress? Or just stick with jeans and a nice shirt or something? I stared at the two outfits I had laid out on the bed, it was like they were staring right back at me. I didn't want to be the girl with the holes in her pants again, but it was just a frat party. It was seven thirty, I was supposed to meet him in less than an hour. Alright, I just needed to choose something, and go. Dressy? Casual?

I grabbed the dress and held it up in the mirror, the black material made me look even paler than I was. Which for living in California, was pretty damn pale. I sighed and dropped it to the ground and grabbed the pants instead.

I was nearly out the door when the phone rang, it was seven fifty, I didn't want to be late. My track record with timing and this guy was already awful. Stalking over to the phone I picked it up.

"Hello," I said flatly.

"Marley? Hi, sweetie, how are you?" Joyce, I hadn't had a call from her in days.

"Hi! I'm doing fine, great, how are you?" I asked, my tone a bit more chipper.

"I'm doing okay, I'm ready to come home though," she said, she sounded sleepy.

"Well, you've only got a couple more months."

"Oh don't remind me." She laughed, "How are you doing on food? Do you have everything you need?"

"I ran out of the food you made." She laughed, "It was really good." It had been good, I had run out of it nearly two weeks ago now. I was living off of canned ravioli… I probably should go out to the store at some point. Ravioli was suiting me just fine though, ravioli and cheese puffs.

"That was supposed to last you till I got back," she said.

"Well it almost made it." Almost.

"Have you been remembering to shop then?" She asked.

"Yep," I lied, "I was just about to go out for a bit, I can pick up some stuff on the way back."

"Alright, be careful. Call me tomorrow, I need some errands run"

"I will."

I was going to be late if I didn't hurry, but if I ran I would get sweaty, and my make-up would smudge, and then it would be the pink underwear all over again. I was nearly to campus, maybe ten minutes from Lowell House, and I wouldn't doubt that Dylan was already there. He had a bad habit of being punctual.

Things had been quiet since everything had happened with Oz, I'm sure there were vamps out, but I wasn't hearing much about them. I assume Buffy was just taking care of it on her own for the most part. Which was fine, I hadn't been in much of a mood for demons lately...which I guess means I wasn't in the mood for myself? I'm certain the party would help; dancing, Dylan, drinking when Buffy wasn't looking. The last frat party I had gone to didn't go over so well, you know, hell house and all that, but I had a good feeling about this one.

Damn it, I really was going to be late. I was supposed to be there in a couple minutes, there was a shortcut, but it went through the trails instead of the paved paths. Did I want to risk it? They weren't all that well lit, I could end up coming out with holes in my pants...again. I glanced down at my watch, yeah it was worth, I didn't want him thinking I stood him up for a third time. I turned down the little path, and started to wave my hands in front of me. I didn't want to get a face full of spider today, thank you very much.

I couldn't have gotten a useful demonic power? Like night vision, super speed, the ability to teleport? No, I just fucking exploded every once in a while. It was cool, only mildly inconvenient. I forgot how dark the dark was, I was practically blind and just praying I didn't hit a tree or something. I knew the shortcut pretty well, so I was almost certain I had taken the right turn. It wouldn't be long before I made it to Lowell House.

I was making such a racket, blindly stumbling through the woods, I almost didn't notice the sound of a somewhat smaller racket moving steadily behind me. Almost. I knew this was a mistake, I'd lived in Sunnydale for three years now, you'd have thought I would have learned not to walk in the woods alone at night. I tried to ignore the quickening thud of my heart, and walked faster. If I could just make it to the path I would be within screaming distance of a slayer. I was half speed walking half jogging now, if I tripped over a root I was so screwed.

I could hear it breathing, stupid, stupid, Marley. You knew better than this. I broke through the undergrowth into a clearing. This was not where I wanted to be, this was not concrete lit by streetlamps. This was grass, and trees, and really dim moonlight, and a - shit! The demon broke through the tree line, I couldn't see details, but huge ass mother fucker would probably be the most accurate description I could give.

It hadn't been running that fast before had it? The thing moved rather gracefully for a demon of its size and stature, and now it was moving rather gracefully right at me, and then it bowled right past me. Well, that was a surprise. What the hell would something that size be running from? I decided that it might be in my best interest to run too, I took off after the demon, it probably had a better idea of where this thing was coming from.

The demon hadn't gotten very far before I was catching up to it, we were about to head back into the trees. I couldn't run this fast when I couldn't see...did demons give piggy back rides? I mean, I was a demon too, there's got to be some sort of supernatural solidarity there or something. I risked glancing back, there were several dark figures - human sized from the looks of it - spread across the field and coming at us. They didn't look too imposing, but if gigantor was scared I was going to trust him.

Apparently looking back had been a bad idea, because suddenly my feet were caught up in each other, and I was heading towards the ground, and the demon's feet were getting caught up on me. We tumbled to the dirt, I couldn't breath, this guy had to be at least three hundred pounds, and a lot of it was on my chest. Before either of us had a chance to move a shock ripped through me. If I hadn't had the paper weight from satan on me I would have convulsed and screamed, everything in my body felt like it was twisting around needles.

I could hear voices now, human ones. It wasn't dark anymore, everything was bathed in a soft golden light. It was pretty, like summer mornings with stars. The demon was rolled away, but the pressure didn't leave, I still couldn't move a thing.

"Cooper, make sure the civvy is okay." The voice sounded faint.

A face entered my field of vision, "Sir! I don't think it's a civilian, come look at its eyes!"

I couldn't see the others, but I could hear their footsteps, boots surrounded my head. They were just little dark smudges on the edge; like in elementary school when you tried to outline a picture of the sun with a black crayon, but when you tried to color it yellow it bled in and made it all ugly.

"Bag it."

I groaned and closed my eyes tighter, it was too bright. It couldn't be morning yet, just a few more minutes. That's all I needed, a few more minutes of sleep. I must have had a terrible night's sleep last night, I felt stiff everywhere, even my bed felt like a board. At least there weren't any birds chirping, just a couple people screaming...wait. I must have been one massive bruise, my whole body protested as I dragged myself into a sitting position. Where the hell was I?

The whole place was white. White walls, white floors, bright white fluorescent lights. I was in some sort of cell, I think. It was a piss poor excuse for a cell at that - maybe excluding the exceptional flooring materials - no bed, no toilet, not even a blanket or a pillow. It was cold too, the halter top wasn't really cutting it.

"You know," a familiar british accent drawled, "I was wondering when someone would put the little bird in its cage. It's about time."

Slowly I turned to look through the glass of my cell, and into the one across from mine. How? What did I do to deserve this? Spike had a smug little smile on his face, lips pressed tightly together. His prison was just as sparse as mine, separated by two panes of glass and six feet of pristine white hallway. Must be hellishly strong glass if Spike hadn't broken through it yet.

"What is this made of?" I asked standing and slowly reaching out to touch it, I yelped and leaped back. I had been hoping not to be electrocuted again today, or was it tomorrow now? Spike burst into laughter, the sound echoing off the walls.

"Oh come on," I glared, "Like that didn't get you too?"

"It was just funnier when you got it, love," he said, watching me with the same fucking smirk.

"So where are we?" I asked, it sounded like he'd been here longer than I had been.

"Dunno, I thought this was some scoobie deal," he said, looking around at what was visible from his cell.

Now it was my turn to laugh, "You thought a highschool student, two college kids, the weiner shack guy, and an unemployed librarian could afford this?" God how stupid was he?

"You could have gotten funding," he sounded a bit sheepish now. I scoffed, in three years of fighting demons I don't think I'd heard anything more absurd. Even if the council was rich, they were sure stingy with their money. My laughter died down and I sighed.

"So how are we getting out?" I asked.

"We?" He looked incredulous, "What do you mean we? When I get out of here, I'm leaving you to rot. See how long it takes the canary to croak."

"You're an asshole you know that?"

"Oh I'm sorry, did you think we were going to have tea and biscuits? I'm evil, bitch!" I glared at him, and opened my mouth to shoot back a response that I suddenly realized wasn't there. God I wished I could punch him, just rip that stupid grin right off his face. Not knowing what to say I turned away and sat down facing the wall instead.

I had moved to the corner, face pressed against the wall trying to ignore Spike. Now that I had had time to come to I was starting to sort out my aches and pains. I think I preferred being groggy. My head hurt, my neck hurt, my back felt like it had been dragged across a bed of nails, there was a sharp twinge in my stomach every time I shifted. I'm not sure how much time had passed, it could have been hours since I'd woken up, but they hadn't provided the courtesy of a clock. Instead they stole my watch, it was my nice one too, a birthday gift from Joyce.

Oh god, I'd stood Dylan up again. He'd seemed so chill about it the other day, but I wasn't sure how I was going to explain away this one. Got kidnapped and put in a jail with my fellow demon brethren, yes that would be so convincing. I was tired and hungry, I'm not sure if it was just the passing time or the after effects of getting manhandled by the commandos. All I wanted was a cheeseburger and a nap, cheese burger didn't seem to be an option, so I tried to curl closer to the wall.

I winced as the pain in my stomach came back, fed up I pulled my shirt back, "Fucking hell!" I growled, my stomach had an 'I' shaped set of cuts haphazardly stitched together, "They cut me open! Who the hell does that?"

"I don't know I'd give it a shot, see what's under the hood," Spike said in a voice I could only describe as smarmy, I glared at him, and he returned it with a grin as he licked his lips, "give you a good poke."

"Shut up, Spike." I muttered, leaning my head back against the wall. Had Buffy realized I was gone? Had anyone realized I was gone? I lived alone now, I could've died back at the house and been eaten by neighborhood cats before someone found me. She would try to find me right? Where ever I was...I could be in the middle of Nevada for all I knew.

"What, are you gonna make me?" Spike said and laughed, why couldn't he just leave me alone?

"You know what? Talk to yourself all you want, jackass. I'm taking a nap."

"Whatever you say, Bird." There was a moment of utter perfect silence, nothing but the hum of fluorescent lights; and then he started on a surprisingly long rant of rather vulgar names, implications, and slurs. Lulled me right to sleep.

I dreamt of cheeseburgers. Eating them, putting ketchup on them, pulling the melty cheese right off the wrapper, shoving one down Spike's throat and watching him choke. It felt so real, I could practically smell it. The rich meaty scent of highly processed beef, that was the stuff. I was sad to return to the world of plain white things, and evil things that were nearly as pale. I could still smell that burger though, that perfect perfect burger. Shit I could see that burger, neatly wrapped in the center of the floor. Tempting me with those perfectly curved buns - wait. That was a burger.

I ignored the stiffness in my body in favor of the small tiger in my stomach, and scrambled towards the precious food. Oh it was still warm, the paper crinkled like heavenly wings wrapped around a meat angel. With no hesitation I ripped the wings off and lifted it to my mouth.

"That's been drugged ya know," Spike said from his spot leaning against the wall near the glass. No, I would not let him ruin this for me, I was so hungry. I lifted it towards my mouth again, "Fine, let the good doctors play hacky sack with your kidneys for all I care." He turned to stare at the wall in front of him again. God he was such an ass, I just wanted to throw something at that stupid face of his. Before I could think my hamburger was sailing through the air and sizzling against the glass, blue sparks flying everywhere.

It was like when you were pissed at your mom, and she made dinner as a consolation, but you refused to touch it out of pride. It looked delicious, and you felt mad at yourself and the cookie on the edge of the plate more than anything, but you wouldn't lower yourself to temptation. As much as I wanted it, there was no way I would let Spike sit there and giggle as I crawled on my hands and knees for burnt burger scraps.

This was his fault.

"I thought you said it was drugged." I glowered at him as he picked up the bag of blood that had just dropped from his ceiling, I was still mourning the loss of my burger.

"That's why I'm not eating it," he said, ripping the top off of the plastic.

"Then what the hell are you doing?" I asked. He didn't respond, apparently too busy just pouring it on his face. It was getting everywhere, his clothes, his neck, the floor was going to be stained. I could smell the coppery scent from here.

"Getting out." With that, he rather dramatically collapsed.

If he had been alive I would have thought he was dead. He was rather good at playing unconscious, absolutely perfectly still. He didn't move a muscle, not even when a bunch men in white coats started dragging him onto a gurney. It was a matter of seconds before he was in motion again, yellow eyes, and bumpy face in all their glory. The scientists screamed as they scrambled away, Spike was snarling a vicious grin twisting across his mouth.

The men were fumbling with their coat pockets as Spike stalked towards them, shoving the gurney out of the way, all swagger and flair. What a pretentious ass. The smaller one came at him with what appeared to be a syringe, and almost looked surprised when Spike caught his hand. For someone who studied demons, he wasn't particularly educated on the reflexes of vampires. Practically before I could blink the syringe was in the man's neck, and Spike was on the next scientist injecting him with the rest of the liquid. They were out in seconds.

"Still trying to keep the slayer off your back huh?" I asked, standing to move closer to the glass. He looked at me, "You didn't kill them."

"This is Special Ops, love, not Sweeny Todd. I'm trying to get out, not sheer open the throat of every man who ticked me off this week." He growled, and turned to leave.

"Hey! Aren't you going to get me out?" I called, trying not to lean against the glass on instinct.

"Nope!"

"I'm going to escape eventually!" I yelled.

"Oh, and then what? You gonna sick your precious slayer on me?" He laughed.

"You're really thick aren't you?" He tilted his head, looking slightly offended, "You haven't wondered why I'm in here yet?"

He rolled his eyes and grabbed a card off one of the white coats, "You bloody owe me, Bird."

"Noted," I said as the glass slid to the side and I dashed out after him.

I followed behind him as we wove through white hall after white hall, half of them lined with demons and vamps that howled and banged as we ran by, more than a few were blown back when they hit the glass. I had come to the conclusion that he actually had no idea where he was going, sadly neither did I.

"Do we have a plan?" I asked, trying not to sound out of breath.

"Yeah, I have a plan."

"You planning on sharing your plan?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Find an exit," he said, whipping around another corner.

"Oh look out, we've got a real genius right here," I said, a slight pant starting to slip into my voice. He ran really fucking fast.

We rounded yet another corner, only to be faced with four or five of the commando boys. We all stopped, watching each other silently. There was a hallway that broke off between us and them, it was that or turn back. I was all for turning back, but Spike grabbed the halter part of my halter top and yanked me forward. I really had no other choice if I wanted to avoid a somewhat awkward situation. We were running at them full speed, and then I was going a bit faster as he practically threw me towards them.

I twisted about and grabbed his arms, "Oh no you don't you son of a bitch!" I yelled and brought him down with me, before rolling to my feet. The soldier boys were almost on us, so I grabbed Spike by the collar and started running. As much as I would have loved to have left him, my 'secret power' was really fucking useless until they tried to put a bullet in my brain.

Alarms were going off, the lights painting the white walls red; and joy of all joys, a very heavy steel door was closing in front of us. A hand closed over the back of my neck and shoved me down and we slid under just as it slammed shut.

"Move!" Spike yelled, dragging me back to my feet, and we took off again.

When we finally emerged, and I mean emerged right from the ground like...groundhogs, it was dark. Which frankly didn't tell me a lot. It could have been the same night, it could have been days, I had no clue how long they had kept me under. We were on campus though, not far from the quad. We nodded to each other a bit stiffly and went our separate ways. Me to find out what day it was, he was probably going to go eat someone.

Maybe I would be lucky, and the Lowell house would still be having their party, and I could pretend this didn't happen. Maybe, after I found a few ice packs. Maybe I would be really unlucky, and the Lowell house would be having a party, just a different one, because it had been a week. It wasn't far, so it was worth a shot. Trying to ignore the protests of my ill-treated body, I started walking towards the frat houses.

The house was dark, maybe one or two windows had a faint light pouring out, but definitely no partying was occurring. No chance of surprising Dylan by actually showing up for once. I sighed, and turned around, deciding to make the arduous trek to Buffy's dorm. I still felt cold, and the stitches in my abdomen stretched uncomfortably when I walked with too large a stride. At this point I think I was just ready to go home and sleep.

Actually, I think I would just crash with Buffy I decided as I walked into the dorm. Just a few more flights of stairs till I could hijack someone's bed. The halls were mostly dark, I hadn't been able to find a clock yet. Buffy had a clock though, gotta fucking love clocks….I was so tired.

The door was locked. Damn it. I knocked, and waited, knocked a bit harder, waited a bit less. Until a rather sleepy looking Willow appeared in the door.

"Marley!" She squealed and threw her arms around me, I did my best not to hiss in pain, "Where have you been? We've been looking all over for you! You didn't show up the party, and you weren't at the house, or the school, and you don't have friends -" I raised a finger cutting her off.

"Explain later, sleep first." I said, blinking rather heavily. She nodded and pulled me into her room, Buffy's bed was empty, she must have been out patrolling or something.

It was three thirty. Maybe I'd ask about the day tomorrow.

It was light. God, was it morning already? It felt like I had only been asleep for a few minutes. I forced my eyes open, the windows were still dark. I let my eyes close again, Buffy must be back. I was almost asleep again when that fucking british accent intruded on my nice almost sleep. No! No, he wasn't allowed to fucking do this.

My muscles protested as I dragged myself into a half sitting position so I could glare at him properly, "Spike, for the love of God, not now. I don't care what you want, just come back in a couple hours."

"Not gonna happen, love." Willow was starting to wake up in the other bed.

"Fine, I think Xander installed Doom on Buffy's laptop. Knock yourself out, we can do this when I wake up."

"Alright, I'll let you sleep, Lil' Bird," he said, and I collapsed back into Buffy's bed. That was easier than expected. I closed my eyes, and once again was almost asleep when Willow screamed. Fucking hell. I leapt up, Spike was leaning over her, a hand firmly grasped around each arm, pinning her to the mattress.

"Spike, this is not what I meant!" I rushed over, and tried to drag him off of her. He raised a hand and batted me back, I landed awkwardly against Buffy's bed, causing a sharp pain in my abdomen.

"This doesn't concern you, Bird."

"Oh like hell it doesn't, get off of her," I said.

"Yeah, get off of me." Willow piped up.

"Hush, Red," he growled, "Bird, you owe me."

"I was going to buy you a beer! Not let you eat my friends!" I yelled. He shrugged and lunged forward to bite. I was about to jump at him again when he staggered back, absolutely howling. He tried again, and again, each time with the same result. I made eye contact with Willow, she looked just as pleasantly dumbfounded as I did.

"What the bloody hell did they do to me?" He asked, sitting heavily on Willow's bed.

"Looks like they gave you a poke too, huh Spike?" I grinned, the bastard deserved it.

This guy could complain a lot, my eyes were drooping as we listened to him bemoan his poor pathetic existence. Took him long enough to realize it. Willow seemed slightly more sympathetic, just slightly. I sighed, staring out the window. It was dark still, it was only four o'clock, so it would be for a while. God, I just wanted to go back to sleep, when would he shut up?

"Well, you should probably leave. Sun rises soon, it would be tragic if you got frittered," I said, standing up to show him the door.

"I'm having a crisis!" He said, glaring at me.

"And I'm having a severe case of apathy! Now leave before I -" The lights went out, "Now look what you did!"

"What the hell did I have to do with this?" Spike asked, standing. There was a rush of footsteps outside the door, and the electronic crackling of an intercom.

"Hostiles seventeen and twenty eight have been located, they will be collected and returned to base." My head shot up. Spike and I were looking at each other, and I couldn't quite see details, but I'm certain the 'oh shit' expression was mutual. Before either of us could say a thing, the door burst open and I was knocked to the side.

I didn't even have time to think before there was a bag on my head, and hands grabbing me. I screamed, kicked out, but nothing seemed to work. They had Spike too, I could have heard him cursing from outside. Was Willow okay? They didn't seem to have qualms with humans.

"She could have been infected," a voice said from somewhere beyond the confines of my bag.

"I don't see any bite marks -" Someone else started, but before he could finish the thought there was a bit of a ruckus. Spike must have broken loose, from the shouting, and the defiant british insults. I was thrown to the side when the shooting started, shoulder hitting painfully against the wall. I ripped off my bag only to find an equally difficult to see through fog filling the hallway. I had just wanted to sleep.

It took a moment to find Willow in the fog, and the people who seemed to be kicking at nothing, and the flashing lights. Finally my hand closed around hers.

"Hide?" I asked.

"Hide." She nodded, and we crawled back towards the dorm. There were yells, and the sounds of a good ass kicking coming from outside the room, it was hard to see, but the kicker definitely wasn't Spike. They were starting to retreat, and then they were gone, boots tramping off into the distance.

"Willow?" Buffy's voice called into the room, "Willow are you okay?"

"Yeah," she said, standing up and dragging me with her, "Look who I found."