Chapter 47: New Happenings


Buffy's house, Wednesday 6:30 am

Buffy woke up feeling refreshed until she remembered about Spike being so hurt he could barely focus on the claim. She got up and showered quickly in order to beat Dawn and then wandered downstairs to make breakfast. She was honestly tired of omelets but she knew pancakes she would burn or make a mess. The waffle maker was hopeless. She sighed as she threw in the omelet and watched it cook. She quickly put together both lunches finishing just in time to flip the omelet before it turned too brown to eat.

She couldn't do anything more than sense Spike was asleep but that was ok because she figured the more sleep he got, the better he would feel. She yawned as she flipped the omelets onto a plate just in time for Dawn to come into the room. Dawn spoke loudly, "You went to bed early last night. You didn't even do much homework! I wonder how patrol went for Xander and Anya."

Just then the door opened and Xander came into the room followed by Freddie, "Patrol went great."

Dawn raised her eyebrow at Xander and then motioned towards Freddie. Freddie shrugged seeing the gesture, "You have odd friends that talk about things that you think I don't notice. Buffy can hear her boyfriend in her head and they can talk without really talking not to mention how pale Spike is and how he drinks blood. Anya rambles about vengeance and granting wishes all the time. Clem looks like he has major skin issues that aren't human and Buffy patrols for demons and vampires every night."

He glanced around the table at Buffy and Dawn's wide-eyed expressions and Xander's opened mouth. Dawn frowned deciding she didn't like that Freddie had figured out so much, "Freddie, don't tell anyone ok? Everyone thinks I'm enough of a freak and I don't need anymore hassle at school and this town in general likes to keep weird things to themselves and pretend they didn't really happen."

Freddie put his hands up in the air as like a mock surrender, "I wouldn't dream of it. Besides who would believe me? No one I can tell you but someday I'd like to hear the whole story instead of pieces I hear."

Dawn glanced towards Buffy who had no idea what to say. The only solid boyfriends she had were Angel, Riley and Spike. Angel who was a vampire tortured after a lifetime of killing. Riley was a solider that liked to torture demons so already knew of their existence and Spike was a demon himself. Xander sighed as he opened the fridge grabbing an apple that he started to munch on out of nervousness. Freddie sensed the tension in the room and said, "Hey. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

Buffy spoke up this time, "Nah it's ok. Just been a while since we have let anyone new in our circle. Tara was the last person who found out and that's been two years ago and she was a witch already so demons weren't that far of a stretch for her not to mention how her family believed she was part demon."

Freddie nodded as he watched Dawn scarf down her breakfast as though she were starving. Then she finished up her juice quickly even though it was early to go to school. Apparently she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible so she turned around grabbing Xander by the arm carrying her backpack by her hands not even bothering to do anything but toss Freddie her lunch, she ran out of the door.

Buffy sat with her half finished omelet and started laughing. She couldn't help herself. The look on Dawn's face had been priceless. Dawn's guy was smarter than they gave him credit for. She finished eating her omelet and grabbed her lunch and school bag and headed to school to get some studying in before her 8 am class.


In a stone hut in Africa, Wednesday 10 pm (African time, noon Sunnydale)

Spike woke up feeling horrible. He hadn't eaten in about 3 days now but he didn't want to take the time to hunt anything so instead took the piece of cooked meat that was offered to him by a villager and he crawled into his jeep determined to beat the voices. He sensed Buffy and sent 'Morning luv' to her noticing how weak his voice sounded.

Buffy was worried as she munched on her sandwich wishing he were closer. She let out a sigh as she felt the claim become too weak for a few minutes until it returned, 'Spike you're weak. Can't you take a break and feed?'

Spike mumbled something back that didn't even sound as though he was talking to her. It sounded like he said, 'Leave me alone' but she knew enough to know it wasn't to her. It was probably to some village native person. She tried again determined to help, 'Spike can't you drink from an African animal? There's giraffes, rhinos, elephants, gazelles and even zebras over there. I bet they taste really good.'

Spike didn't reply again and Buffy sighed, 'I love you.'

There was a few minutes of emptiness in the claim before he replied, 'I love you too baby. I'll be busy most of the day….'

The claim waivered and faded again and Buffy wanted to sit at the table and cry but instead she sat strong and finished her sandwich before opening up her book for English. She hoped Spike would regain enough strength to open the claim but it appeared as though that wasn't happening. She went into the library to work on her homework still hoping but it was apparent it would not be any time soon as she wandered back into the classroom still listening to the silence in her head.

Spike was battling with inner voices. He was so weak and in pain that he barely could even focus on the road with all the screaming in his head. They were telling him he was evil, and he needed to give up and dust going to hell. They told him they were forever tortured and missed their families because of him and that they longed to see him dead and gone. Spike could quiet a voice only to get another to take its place. It seemed hopeless as he sped through the desert trying to get out of there as soon as possible.

Once he hit California by plane, he could feed and that might help. For now, he would just have to hope nothing got in his way and that his trip didn't take 2 weeks like it did last time. He had just about doubled the amount of covered ground this time and weren't having the delays of having to stop and ask for directions from people.

Sometimes translating hadn't been easy and had been time consuming. Plus the difference of the jeep at this part of the journey was helping. Compare an elephant to a jeep and the jeep would win any day. He screamed as another victim came to be loudly talking in his head. He couldn't take it but knew he had to. He deserved to listen to them tell him how worthless he was. He deserved everything he was getting and for Buffy it was worth it. He floored the pedal speeding as fast as he could, hoping to cut off even more days from his travel. So far he had been two days time in one night.


Police Station, Monday 10 am

Buffy knew Spike would be getting up in 2 hours but the claim seemed weaker than ever. Sometimes she would only be able to say a word or two to him before the claim would fail. She wondered if it was because of his state of mind or if it was because he was so weak. She even had some doubts about the whole forever for eternity clause. She had read somewhere that claims fade in time if not renewed. She wondered if that is what was happening to them.

She wished it was strong and that he was home already. Six days of travel might not seem that long especially since it was thirteen last time but he was making great time. She couldn't imagine how but then again she knew nothing about his trip.

She waited patiently for the guard to agree to let her see the trio, which was now a duo. Xander mentioned that no one had seen or heard from Warren and she figured at first he was just healing but now she was worried. She heard the buzz as she had the doors to the prison open leading her to the cell where the two were kept. They looked miserable as they sat on the beds playing cards. Buffy stood up against the bars declaring, "What were your plans with Warren, Andrew? Both of you had those rocket launchers…"

Andrew corrected her quietly, "Jet packs" as Buffy shrugged her shoulders in response. She didn't care what they were; she just wanted to know what Warren was up to. Buffy decided to continue, "Ok jet packs on your backs so where were you supposed to meet up? Is he going to come after me and my friends again?"

Andrew let out a sigh, "Probably…we were supposed to meet in Mexico…he's probably there but I'm sure he will return for me and to kill you."

Buffy sighed so not wanting to deal with it. There was no way she was going to Mexico so she would just have to wait until he returned. She turned to walk away as Jonathan grabbed her arm, "Can you help us? I think we are in big trouble. We summoned a demon before we entered here and it's still loose haunting us and threatening us. Once Warren returns from Mexico, it will be after the three of us. I think for now it followed him but…"

Andrew finished for him, "It's big and bad. We were just trying to rule Sunnydale not really to kill anyone."

Jonathan lifted his eyes to Andrew in disbelief until Andrew admitted, "Well maybe killing was in our agenda but you have to help us."

Buffy rolled her eyes as she held onto the bars, "How am I supposed to help you and more importantly why? You plagued my existence and caused me trouble. Almost killed me and my friends…"

She trailed off as she heard Andrew's reply, "You help Spike and he did worse than we ever did."

Buffy sighed as she felt tears form in her eyes. That was a low down dirty card to pull but Andrew was right, she had forgiven and helped Spike. She promised, "Tell me everything you know about the demon and I'll see what I can do about it. I don't know how to get you out of here but I can at least research about how to kill the demon, deal?"

Both boys nodded eagerly and began to tell their tale. Andrew's tale was longer than Jonathan and Jonathan claimed it was a little embellished. Buffy listened to them both knowing she'd be spending the rest of her day stuck in books researching. As the tale finished, she turned around yelling behind her, "You guys are lucky I believe you…."

With that Buffy disappeared from sight leaving the two scared guys alone in their cells.