Chapter 7-Sunday Brunch
"Buffy!!" Dawn yelled from the foot of the stairs. "Getting later!"
"Mmmrrrghhhhh," her big sister grumbled as she buried her head under a pillow.
Little sis waited another thirty seconds, actually counting off the time as she watched the second-hand go around the clock. Still, no response.
"Fine! I'll just go up and drag you out of bed then," Dawn muttered as she stormed up the stairs.
An impish grin crossed her lips as she reached for the doorknob, payback time!
Buffy's bedroom door flew open and Dawn began to chirp loudly, "Rise and shine, oh sister of mine!"
The teen moved quickly to the window and jerked the curtains open.
"Wouldja look at that day!?!" she exclaimed in a syrupy singsong voice. "Out of bed, sleepy head!"
"Shut up, Dawn," Buffy warned from under the pillow.
"Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey!" Dawn crowed defiantly. She plopped on the edge of the bed and bounced while she sang, "Good morning to you! Good morning to yooouuuu! Good mor-ning, dear Bu..." A large feather pillow came crashing down on her head, effectively ending her song.
"You are going to DIE!" Buffy avowed as she wielded her puffy weapon again.
Dawn squealed and jumped off the bed with the pillow-armed slayer in hot pursuit. In seconds, Dawn was pinned under Buffy, who had abandoned the pillow in favor of another deadly weapon, the dreaded 'tickle monster'.
"AAAHHH!" Dawn screamed. "No fair! You have super powers!"
"Which is why," tickle, pinch. "You should NEVER," poke, tickle, poke. "Try that stunt," prod, tickle. "Again!"
Buffy jumped to her feet and offered her sister a hand up. Stubbornly, Dawn refused and scrambled upright on her own. Now, getting a good look at her elder sister, the teenager smirked.
"You look like shit."
"Dawn! Watch your language, young la…" Buffy lectured and then glanced at the mirror. "Oh, gawd!! I really do!" she acknowledged, trying to smooth her frazzled hair.
Dawn rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Whatever…Maybe you should do something about it, like now, 'cause people are going to be here in, I dunno, FIFTEEN MINUTES!!"
"Oh, Shit!" Buffy frantically cursed and then noticed the smug look on Dawn's face. "Don't even say it, little girl. I'm going to take a shower."
"Hypocrite!" Dawn called after Buffy as she went into the bathroom.
Buffy turned and smiled sweetly. "Fuck you, very much," she uttered politely, feeling very Spike-ish at the moment, and then she shut the door.
Everyone but Spike had arrived when Buffy emerged from upstairs, looking fresh and clean, but still feeling tired.
"We brought bagels!" Xander announced proudly when she walked into the room.
"And juice, we also brought juice," Anya reminded her fiancée.
"Ooh…Sunday brunch, how nice! Is there coffee? Buffy must have coffee!"
"Tara's making it," Willow informed her.
Buffy nodded and took a seat next to Xander on the couch, "So, how'd it go this morning at the hospital, Will?"
"Mrmm," Willow gurgled, trying to swallow her juice and speak at the same time. "We didn't go. Spike did it by himself."
"He did?" Buffy asked surprised. "Did it work? I mean, are the babies okay and everything?"
"Apparently," Willow shrugged. "He wasn't exactly forthcoming when he called. Kinda more along the lines of 'grrrr…it's done'."
"Oh…So where is he? It's 10:15 already. He is coming, right?" Buffy wondered aloud.
"He said he'd be here," Tara answered, carrying a tray of coffee from the kitchen and placing it on the table. Buffy reached quickly and grabbed herself a cup of the steaming hot beverage.
"He probably wanted to make a grand 'help me! I'm on fire!' entrance," Xander joked.
Everyone gave him odd looks.
"Or not…I guess I could have picked him up," the dark haired young man realized.
"Picked who up? If I wanted anythin' from you, Harris, I'd be sure to ask," Spike broke in the conversation from the entrance to the living room.
They all turned to see the vampire, who casually tucked in his shirt as he entered the room.
"Hey! Where'd you come from?" Xander demanded.
Ignoring the young man's query, Spike strolled in and examined the spread on the table. "What? No jelly donuts?" he complained. He snatched a cup of coffee and took a chair near Dawn. "Mornin', Nibblet," he grinned. Dawn beamed back at him.
"Uh, Spike? Where did you come from?" Buffy repeated the question more pointedly.
"Oh, right. I was in the basement. Figured I'd save m'self the Sunday mornin' stroll," he explained to her. "Would've phoned, but I didn't want to wake you," he added with a wink.
"You were in our basement? And you just…oh never mind!" she shook her head exasperated. Buffy didn't want to start arguing with Spike, not after her promise to Willow.
"Maybe we should get to work," Tara proposed.
"Well, we knew their names from the report that Crypt King over there dug up," Xander began as he reached in his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Research is not my thing, but I can look up an address in the phone book with the best of them!"
"Oh! And I drew the little skull next to their name," Anya added gleefully.
"Good. Thanks guys. So we know who they are and where they live, but how are we going to get in? Spike needs an invite," Buffy reasoned with her friends. "And I don't want you to do it alone this time, okay?"
"Yeah…well, this morning I saw an opportunity and took it, was all. Today is different, innit?"
"It really is," Buffy agreed. "We need to get in as soon as possible, which brings up the whole daylight issue for Spike. Then we have to get the family together as a unit, so we're not hunting them down one by one sprinkling them with sleeping dust."
"Yeah, that might not go over too big," Xander concurred.
"And what if the kids lose too much blood? I mean, they might need to go to the hospital," Buffy fretted out loud, remembering the time she had been hospitalized after Angel bit her.
"I doubt it'll come to that, love," Spike reassured her. "Barely took any at all from the babes before the bloody chip went off. Though you might want to think of somethin' to explain why they've suddenly got bite marks on their necks."
Tara raised her hand and waved it excitedly. "Oh! I have a healing balm that would work. It's cool; it acts like an invisible bandage, and it stops the bleeding. They'll never notice a thing…except their necks might be a little sore."
The slayer looked at the blond witch gratefully. "That's great, Tara. I'm so worried about freaking those kids out, the less any of them realize, the better."
"Couldn't we get the twins out of the house somehow?" Dawn asked struggling for an answer.
"I kinda doubt the parents will be letting those two out of their sight any time soon. Even if we got them outside, we'd have to go someplace where the sun…isn't…which would also add kidnapping to the list," Willow pointed out.
"What if we just say we saw what happened at the mall and want to check up on the twins?" Buffy suggested.
"Oh…that'll work," Spike commented sarcastically.
Buffy furrowed her brow perplexed. "Why? What's wrong with that idea?"
"Nothin'…it's just, what's next? ''ello, we were mighty worried…so would you mind formin' into a litt'l group so we can be sure you're alright?' Doesn't quite work now, does it?"
"No, I guess not…Argghh! This shouldn't be so complicated!" Buffy ranted then put her forehead to her palms. "It's depressing."
Spike felt a twinge of pain at seeing his slayer get upset. He hadn't planned on saying anything during the meeting; 'let the scoobies figure it out themselves' he had thought. After all, he knew his part of the plan already. But he always seemed to be the one to point out the obvious holes in their logic, and it simply wasn't in his nature to keep silent. Bloody hell! Do I have to do all the thinkin' for 'em, too?
Growling out a deep breath, Spike stood up and accepted yet another unwanted duty for the sake of Buffy's happiness.
"Chin up, pet. I've got an idea," he declared triumphantly. Spike picked up the page from the phone book that Xander had left on the coffee table. "Now, which of you has a decent camera?"
End Chapter 7
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