Coming Through

Chapter Eleven – Wow… Expensive

The burger, fries, and soda she bought at the Double Meat Palace took almost ten dollars of her meager supply of cash. She frowned at the sullen clerk, wearing the requisite goofy hat, then carried her tray to a table in the corner and set it down with a thud. She lifted the small burger and picked up a limp fry then frowned even deeper at the offending food. 'When did stuff get so expensive? This same meal was barely five dollars when I worked here. Stupid portal.'

She walked to the condiment bar and got a few packets of ketchup and a straw then walked back over to her table and dropped into the chair. She glanced over at the counter and thanked whoever might be listening for the high employee turnover rate in the fast food industry. 'At least nobody recognized me. I shouldn't have come here, but I thought it would be the cheapest place in town. It used to be.'

She tore open her ketchup packets and squeezed out the red paste onto her tray, then dipped a fry into it and stuffed it into her mouth. She was staring blankly out the window as she worked her way through her tasteless burger when she was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of her name.

"…Summers?"

She turned to see a small, dark-haired woman standing next to her table, "Sorry… what?"

"Aren't you Buffy Summers?"

She put down her burger and wiped her mouth with her napkin, "Uh… yeah. I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are."

The girl smiled and held out her hand. "I'm Alyson Tanner. I was two years behind you at Sunnydale High."

Buffy offered her a weak smile and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you… uh… again, Alyson."

Alyson sat down in the chair opposite Buffy and propped her elbows on the table. "So, are you finally moving back? You just dropped off the map about ten years ago. A lot of us wondered where you went."

Buffy frowned, "Oh, um… I've just been… uh… traveling, but no, I'm not moving back. I'm just visiting. I'm leaving again tomorrow." 'Because I have a vampire living in what used to be my house that doesn't want me around.'

"Oh. Well, that sounds like fun and it sure agrees with you. You look exactly the same! If I didn't know better, I'd swear you haven't aged a day in ten years!"

Buffy smiled. 'Benefits of hanging out in a demon dimension, Alyson. I wouldn't recommend it, though. Really screws with your life.' "Thanks. You look great too."

Someone called to Alyson from the counter and she turned and waved at them then turned back to Buffy. "Well, it was nice seeing you again. Don't stay away so long this time!"

Buffy shook her hand again and then patted her awkwardly on the back when Alyson bent down and squeezed Buffy in a quick hug. "I won't. I'll be back soon. Nice talking to you."

Alyson waved at her then took a bag of food from a young man next to the counter and they walked out of the restaurant, holding hands and laughing. The young man opened the door of a sporty little red car, then bent down and gently kissed Alyson before he helped her into the seat. Buffy sighed. 'Well, this day just keeps getting better and better. Now I've got to watch people being all lovey dovey and couply while I'm trying not to think about… a certain bleach blond vampire who will not be named.' She poked angrily at her cold burger then took a long drink of her soda. She picked up the burger and looked at it then dropped it on the tray and stood up, suddenly not hungry anymore. She carried the tray to the trash and dumped the contents then walked slowly out of the restaurant, sipping at her soda.

She walked around to the back of the building and dug her bag out of the bushes she'd hid it in, then settled the strap and started walking across town toward the oldest cemetery in Sunnydale. 'Nobody should bother me there. They don't bury anyone there anymore, so there shouldn't be any baby vamps to deal with, and hopefully he doesn't patrol there.'

She was crossing a quiet, tree-lined street, lost in thought, when she stopped suddenly and almost dropped her cup of soda in shock. 'Dawn's older than me now. My baby sister is older than me.' She rolled her eyes skyward and heaved a giant sigh. 'Well, isn't that just the cherry on top of the shit sundae that is my life? The man I love doesn't love me anymore, my friends have forgotten all about me, and now I'm the younger sister.'

She stood in the middle of the street, not moving for a long time, then suddenly turned and started walking quickly back the way she'd come. 'I need to talk to my Mom.'

XX

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XX

The door at the top of the stairs opened and Willow poked her head in. "Tara?" She saw Spike and Tara sitting on the stairs, wrapped in each other's arms, and rushed down the steps. She stopped behind them and gasped when she saw the burned skin on Spike's arm. The shirt sleeve on the arm he had wrapped over Tara's shoulders had pulled up, exposing several inches of charred flesh. "Spike! What happened to your arm?" Tara looked up with her tear-stained face and Willow gasped again. "Baby? You all right?" Tara and Spike scooted over so Willow could sit next to her girlfriend. Willow wrapped her arms around both of them and whispered, "What's going on?"

Spike sighed and said in a quiet voice, "You're not gonna buy that nothing's wrong, are you, Red?"

She lifted her head away from Tara's shoulder and shook it, "No."

"And you won't let me try to sort it before I tell you what's going on, will you?"

Willow shook her head again, "No. Make with the spillage, Spike."

Spike sighed again and nodded toward the top of the stairs, "Let's go upstairs, yeah? Might as well tell the lot of you at once, since the bloody cat's out of the bloody bag. Don't fancy explainin' it half a dozen times."

Xander and Anya looked up in surprise as the three of them walked slowly into the dining room, one still crying, one trying not to, and one confused. Xander bolted to his feet and helped Tara into a chair as Spike pulled out the chair next to her for Willow. "What's going on? What happened to Tara?"

Spike dropped into his chair and propped his elbows on the table, then winced and dropped his hands to his lap. "Better sit down, Harris. Where's the Watcher?"

Xander walked back to his chair and sat down, "He's got the flu or something. He called earlier to tell me not to pick him up for dinner. Said he's been praying to the porcelain god all night."

Spike's eyebrow shot up, "Rupert said that? Rupert Giles?"

Xander chuckled then looked guiltily at Tara and stammered, "Uh… no. He said that he's been regurgitating nourishment or something. You know the G-man. I just boiled it down to what he meant. What's going on?"

Tara handed Spike the note and smiled weakly at him then nodded at the others, "Tell them, Spike."

Spike sighed as he folded the note and laid it on his plate, "All right. I've somethin' to tell you, and I know how you lot get, so just let me say my piece with no interruptions, yeah?" Everyone nodded and Spike ran his hands through his hair. "This mornin' after I got back from patrol, I had a visitor show up in my basement. It was Buffy." Mouths started opening and he held up his hand. "Just let me finish. Please."

Everyone stared at him with wide eyes as he continued, "The night she disappeared, she went through a G'vark demon portal. Time moves a lot slower in their dimension and she was there long enough to kill a pile of 'em. A few hours for her has been a decade for us. After she came back through the portal, she came home and found me in her basement. Scared me so bad that if my heart actually beat it would've stopped. We talked a bit, then ate, and talked a bit more. She knows how long she's been gone, and I told her all about you lot and what you're doin' now. We slept for a bit, then she woke me up and we had a bit of a row, and she scarpered while I was makin' dinner." He picked up the note and handed it to Willow. "She left this."

Willow opened the note and started reading. Tears were pouring down her face when she handed the note across the table to Anya, then turned to Tara and pulled her into a fierce hug. Xander leaned close to Anya and they read it together. Anya was openly sobbing when she handed it back to Spike, and Xander had a strained expression on his face and kept blinking and swallowing. Anya leaned into him, wrapping her arms around him, and whispered, "It's ok, Xander. You can let it go." He buried his face in her neck as his shoulders shook with silent sobs.

Spike looked around the table at the four sniffling and sobbing humans and smiled sadly, barely keeping his own tears at bay. "Do I know how to throw a dinner party, or don't I?"

Tara looked up at him with a watery smile and wiped her face, "We should find her. We could do a locator spell."

Xander lifted his face from Anya's neck, unmindful of the tears streaking down it, "Should we call Dawn? What about Giles and Dead Boy?"

Spike shook his head, "Let's hold off on that for a bit, yeah? Till we find her? She didn't even want me to tell you lot that she was back, and I was gonna try to honor that, for a while at least, but Glinda here found me out."

Anya looked up at him as she wiped her face, "How? Did she do something witchy?"

Spike chuckled and pulled up a sleeve, "No. She bumped my arm."

Xander's eyes got huge, "Geez, Bleach Boy! What the hell happened? Did Buffy do that to you?"

Spike shook his head, "No. Buffy didn't do anythin' to me. I almost dusted my own stupid git self. Ran right out the front door soon as I read that note. Didn't even notice the bleedin' sun was still up 'til I was almost to the street."

Xander chuckled, "Guess you forgot about that tunnel my guys dug for you out of the basement too."

Spike grinned, "Yeah. My only thought was findin' Buffy, and out the front door was the most direct way to do that."

Willow stood up and pulled Tara up beside her, "We'll get the stuff ready for a locator spell. How long ago did she leave?"

Spike's brow furrowed in concentration, "Little over two hours now. There's no buses or trains out of town today, so unless she hitched, she should still be close."

Xander wiped his face with his sleeve as he stood up, "If she hitched, she could be almost to LA by now. She might be heading for Dead Boy's place. I've got a map of California at my office. I'll go get it."

Willow and Tara followed him toward the front door and Tara called over her shoulder, "We'll be back in a little while, Spike. We have to go to the shop."

Anya called out, "Make sure to write down everything you take! For inventory!"

Spike smirked at her as he stood, "Don't worry, pet. I'll pay for the supplies." Anya nodded at him as if she expected nothing less then picked up her glass and filled it with lemonade from the pitcher in the middle of the table. Spike followed Xander and the witches to the front door to see them out, "Thanks. All of you. It means a lot."

Tara stopped then turned around and twined his fingers with hers, squeezing gently. "We'll find her, Spike."