Buffy looked at Spike. He looked tense and uncomfortable. "Spike, why don't
you go let everyone at home know we survived?"
"Not leavin' you and Red here alone, pet. Especially since I don't know what's gonna happen to either of you. Her being questioned for Rack, you wanted for Amy as soon as they recognize you." He took her hand and kissed her palm.
"Spike, morning's coming. You have to get out of here. Soon. Please, go get someone else without the big sunlight allergy. I need you to watch my sister. I don't know whether we're going to get out of here anytime soon and I'd rather have you outside to plan a jailbreak if they recognize me or if Willow isn't released."
He stood up, bringing her with him. Then he smiled and kissed her. "Not leavin' you. Bite size would stake me if I abandoned you to the tender mercies of Sunnyhell's finest."
She leaned her head on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. No witnesses if she could help it. "Spike, I need you to get Tara's dagger. I couldn't do it, only someone with your skills can. I'm more a break down the door girl than a breaking and entering type. Please."
"I don't like it; but I can see the sense. No murder weapon, no body, not much of a case. Take care of yourself, luv. Watch over Red, she's...something inside her...isn't...right since she stabbed Rack. I'll see you later." He held her loosely for a moment, running his hands gently up and down her back. Then he went for the door. Since he wasn't handcuffed or otherwise marked as property of the Sunnydale police, they let him out without a problem.
When she was sure he'd left, Buffy went up to the desk. "Excuse me, I heard you were looking for me. Buffy Summers, wanted for questioning about Amy Madison's death?"
The harried-looking desk sergeant looked up from the notepad he was writing on and said "I'll call you back" into the telephone. He looked at her, looked at something on his desk and said "wait right there." Then he picked up the phone again and spoke into it. A couple of minutes later a police officer came and touched her elbow.
"Buffy Summers?" She nodded. "If you'll come with me please?" She led him lead her further into the police station. "I'm sergeant Paul Flutie. This tiny cubicle is my section of the world. Have a seat while I get all the relevant paperwork in order." She nodded and sat down in the hardest chair it had ever been her misfortune to encounter. She looked over at him as he got a pen and notebook out and opened up a file folder with Amy's name on it. "Now, let's start with where you knew Amy from."
"She and I went to high school together. We were almost on the cheerleading squad together."
"Were you aware that she had just returned home after having been missing since 1998?"
Silently hoping that Amy's ghost would forgive her, Buffy started with the almost truths. "I knew she had some kind of addiction problem. I wasn't surprised when she disappeared. I had seen her around occasionally, but not like we were friends or anything."
"How did you happen to be the one who took her into the hospital the night she died?"
"I was at a diner and she wandered in. She looked dazed and strung out. I was planning on visiting a friend in the hospital anyways, so I dragged her along. I didn't stick around because Willow was beaten up pretty badly and I really didn't know Amy that well."
"Willow? That's the name of your beaten up friend?"
"Yes, Willow Rosenberg. I'm not sure if she filed charges against the guy who did it. She just got out of the hospital. She's somewhere in here right now for questioning."
"For this case? I don't think so. I'm on this case. I'd know if someone was being questionned about it." He sounded a little arrogant about this, like he was expecting to catch her in a lie.
"No, for something else." At his 'I'm listening, but really don't believe you' look, she continued. "Tonight, the riot at the Bronze."
"I see." He looked back at the notes he had been taking. "You said Amy was dazed?"
"Yeah, she looked pretty bad. Not beat up bad, just...you know...not home upstairs, confused bad. I thought she was on something and forgot to eat for a week."
"Why didn't you check on her later?"
Feeling bad for how this was going to make her sound, Buffy did her self- serving bitch routine. "Hey, she wasn't my friend. I just did a loser a favor, I didn't want to pay the bills or anything."
"Why did you run when the police asked you to stop?"
"I thought they were security, come to talk to me about paying up. I don't have anything right now except a lot of bills. My mom died last year after a long hospital stay, I have a kid sister to raise, my house burned down, my housemate just got beaten up. I wasn't about to face another ugly money situation."
It looked like he was buying her answers. "I'll need information on you in case I have any follow-up questions." She gave him particulars and was finally allowed to leave.
She looked around the lobby of the police station, still no Willow. She went up to the desk. "Excuse me, is Willow Rosenberg still back there somewhere? I'm her friend and I was just wondering how long things were going to take." The officer behind the desk looked up at her.
"She left in an ambulance about ten minutes ago. I think she was unconscious." His last few words were spoken to a swinging door as Buffy bolted outside. Home was closer than the hospital, so she headed that way.
As she burst into the condo, she noticed several things. Tara and Xander weren't anywhere in sight. Dawn was hovering over something on the couch, looking a little scared. Anya had the first aid kit in her hands as she approached whomever Dawn was hovering over. Dawn looked up at her, "Buffy, help him please."
As Buffy approached the couch, she could see a familiar blond head as Spike struggled to sit up. "Hello, cutie. I would've brought you a present, but they took it from me."
"Spike, what happened? Did you get caught getting back the dagger?" He shook his head and almost fell sideways.
"Gotta remember not to do that again. No I got it just fine. Then I met up with some old mates of mine and they took it from me. Wasn't without a fight, but they were mostly human. I gotta get that kitten problem sorted out pretty soon. It's getting so a gent can't walk the streets anymore without getting bothered." She walked in closer to assess the damage. He was beaten up, but she had done worse to him on occasion. She started treating his wounds. Damage wasn't too bad except the bump on his temple. "Are you applying for Giles' old job?" At everyone's look of confusion at the seeming non sequitur, she clarified. "I mean, he was always the one getting hit in the head."
Then something occurred to her. "Somebody please tell me Xander and Tara didn't go to get her dagger back."
Anya spoke up. "No. Xander drove Tara to the hospital. Willow was at the police station and passed out. She's in a coma and they can't wake her up. Where were you when this happened? Spike said you were at the police station waiting for her. How did you not notice that Willow left there in an ambulance?"
Buffy looked down. She hadn't planned on telling Spike what she had done the minute she sent him away, but she couldn't exactly hide it now. "I was in another room clearing up the 'wanted for questioning about Amy' mess. I didn't want to have to dodge police the rest of my life and I knew Willow would be answering questions for a while."
Spike put a hand under her chin and brought her head up so she was looking at him. "Not nice to lie to me, Slayer. We'll be talking about this later on."
"I didn't lie, Spike. I just didn't tell you everything. You knew I was there, so I wasn't disappearing or anything," she said defensively. He just cocked an eyebrow at her. "I just hate waiting." He tilted his head and released her chin. She looked back at the floor. "I didn't want to make another trip into the police station. I thought they'd be so busy with the Bronze situation that they'd let me go pretty fast. Besides, if I told them about the house burning down and mentioned I was on my way to visit a badly beaten up Willow when I found Amy. I thought it would make them go a little easier on her. Okay, so, do we all go to the hospital or wait for news?" They all looked at each other, unwilling to make a decision.
Finally, Dawn spoke up. "I really hate to say this, but maybe we should wait. I mean, they're expecting us here and Tara isn't gonna leave Willow's side--so it's not like we could just go in and visit her anyhow. Besides, Spike is hurt, Buffy is tired and Anya and I aren't fighters. If we went, we could get jumped on the way and then what? World of bad is my guess."
"Dawn, I never thought I'd say this to you before you were thirty, but good thinking. It's nice to see that my planning skills have rubbed off on you."
Dawn looked at her sister. "Yeah, right. I learned to plan from Spike. Not from Ms 'Get 'em? That was your plan?' You don't plan anything. If I ever wanted to learn improv or how to make the best of a bad situation, you'd be the first person I'd come to. Planning? No way. Spike or Tara. Unless it was financial planning, then it would be Anya."
Buffy looked a little hurt. "I planned the raid on Rack at the Bronze. I didn't do too badly."
"Buffy, you led the raid on Rack at the Bronze. At plan assemblage you do great. It's kinda like slayage on a grand scale. You're a natural born leader. I mean, you've led the Scoobies to the Hellmouth and gotten them back. You can get more out of a group than anyone else Giles had ever seen. You know what to do or say to inspire them to think their hardest. Leadership, A+ but planning is a B- or a C+."
Mollified, Buffy started to exhibit her allegedly famous leadership skills. "Anya, you can have my bed. Dawn will show you where it is when she goes upstairs to hers. I'll stay down here on the couch with Spike." Dawn looked at her. "I promise, no funny noises down here--we'll probably argue for a little bit, but then Spike and I are going right to sleep." Anya and Dawn started bustling around, getting ready for bed.
Spike took her hand, preventing her from leaving. At his inquiring gaze and muttered "argue?" she looked away, embarrassed.
"I thought you would yell at me for lying to you."
"Not gonna do it again, are you?" She slowly shook her head. "Then I'm not yelling. It was a pretty good idea, waiting for a big distraction like that before talkin' to the police about Amy. I'd say your planning skills are improving." He smiled at her. "Must've picked it up from me."
There was a knock on the door. Buffy charged over to answer it. "Xander, how is she?" Anya came running over and gave him a big hug.
"She's fine. They couldn't figure out at the hospital why she passed out or why she couldn't wake up. No head damage or anything. Tara thinks it's the rest of the payback for that spell. She was originally supposed to be out for a lot longer than she was. They're keeping her for observation and Tara's staying with her. Well, Tara and the police. I think that cop thinks she's faking it since there's nothing medically wrong with her."
"So, do you want to stay here or go back home?"
"Are you kidding? I want details. Lots of details. I missed out, and I need my vicarious action."
Buffy and Spike gave many details. By the end of the telling, it was almost morning. "Xander, why don't you and Anya sleep here. Dawn can show you where. You're way too tired to drive home." Too sleepy to argue, they headed upstairs. She changed clothes and spooned with Spike on the couch. "Spike, remind me to change the sheets. I don't even want to think about what they're doing upstairs." She could feel the rumble of his laughter as she drifted off to sleep.
"Not leavin' you and Red here alone, pet. Especially since I don't know what's gonna happen to either of you. Her being questioned for Rack, you wanted for Amy as soon as they recognize you." He took her hand and kissed her palm.
"Spike, morning's coming. You have to get out of here. Soon. Please, go get someone else without the big sunlight allergy. I need you to watch my sister. I don't know whether we're going to get out of here anytime soon and I'd rather have you outside to plan a jailbreak if they recognize me or if Willow isn't released."
He stood up, bringing her with him. Then he smiled and kissed her. "Not leavin' you. Bite size would stake me if I abandoned you to the tender mercies of Sunnyhell's finest."
She leaned her head on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. No witnesses if she could help it. "Spike, I need you to get Tara's dagger. I couldn't do it, only someone with your skills can. I'm more a break down the door girl than a breaking and entering type. Please."
"I don't like it; but I can see the sense. No murder weapon, no body, not much of a case. Take care of yourself, luv. Watch over Red, she's...something inside her...isn't...right since she stabbed Rack. I'll see you later." He held her loosely for a moment, running his hands gently up and down her back. Then he went for the door. Since he wasn't handcuffed or otherwise marked as property of the Sunnydale police, they let him out without a problem.
When she was sure he'd left, Buffy went up to the desk. "Excuse me, I heard you were looking for me. Buffy Summers, wanted for questioning about Amy Madison's death?"
The harried-looking desk sergeant looked up from the notepad he was writing on and said "I'll call you back" into the telephone. He looked at her, looked at something on his desk and said "wait right there." Then he picked up the phone again and spoke into it. A couple of minutes later a police officer came and touched her elbow.
"Buffy Summers?" She nodded. "If you'll come with me please?" She led him lead her further into the police station. "I'm sergeant Paul Flutie. This tiny cubicle is my section of the world. Have a seat while I get all the relevant paperwork in order." She nodded and sat down in the hardest chair it had ever been her misfortune to encounter. She looked over at him as he got a pen and notebook out and opened up a file folder with Amy's name on it. "Now, let's start with where you knew Amy from."
"She and I went to high school together. We were almost on the cheerleading squad together."
"Were you aware that she had just returned home after having been missing since 1998?"
Silently hoping that Amy's ghost would forgive her, Buffy started with the almost truths. "I knew she had some kind of addiction problem. I wasn't surprised when she disappeared. I had seen her around occasionally, but not like we were friends or anything."
"How did you happen to be the one who took her into the hospital the night she died?"
"I was at a diner and she wandered in. She looked dazed and strung out. I was planning on visiting a friend in the hospital anyways, so I dragged her along. I didn't stick around because Willow was beaten up pretty badly and I really didn't know Amy that well."
"Willow? That's the name of your beaten up friend?"
"Yes, Willow Rosenberg. I'm not sure if she filed charges against the guy who did it. She just got out of the hospital. She's somewhere in here right now for questioning."
"For this case? I don't think so. I'm on this case. I'd know if someone was being questionned about it." He sounded a little arrogant about this, like he was expecting to catch her in a lie.
"No, for something else." At his 'I'm listening, but really don't believe you' look, she continued. "Tonight, the riot at the Bronze."
"I see." He looked back at the notes he had been taking. "You said Amy was dazed?"
"Yeah, she looked pretty bad. Not beat up bad, just...you know...not home upstairs, confused bad. I thought she was on something and forgot to eat for a week."
"Why didn't you check on her later?"
Feeling bad for how this was going to make her sound, Buffy did her self- serving bitch routine. "Hey, she wasn't my friend. I just did a loser a favor, I didn't want to pay the bills or anything."
"Why did you run when the police asked you to stop?"
"I thought they were security, come to talk to me about paying up. I don't have anything right now except a lot of bills. My mom died last year after a long hospital stay, I have a kid sister to raise, my house burned down, my housemate just got beaten up. I wasn't about to face another ugly money situation."
It looked like he was buying her answers. "I'll need information on you in case I have any follow-up questions." She gave him particulars and was finally allowed to leave.
She looked around the lobby of the police station, still no Willow. She went up to the desk. "Excuse me, is Willow Rosenberg still back there somewhere? I'm her friend and I was just wondering how long things were going to take." The officer behind the desk looked up at her.
"She left in an ambulance about ten minutes ago. I think she was unconscious." His last few words were spoken to a swinging door as Buffy bolted outside. Home was closer than the hospital, so she headed that way.
As she burst into the condo, she noticed several things. Tara and Xander weren't anywhere in sight. Dawn was hovering over something on the couch, looking a little scared. Anya had the first aid kit in her hands as she approached whomever Dawn was hovering over. Dawn looked up at her, "Buffy, help him please."
As Buffy approached the couch, she could see a familiar blond head as Spike struggled to sit up. "Hello, cutie. I would've brought you a present, but they took it from me."
"Spike, what happened? Did you get caught getting back the dagger?" He shook his head and almost fell sideways.
"Gotta remember not to do that again. No I got it just fine. Then I met up with some old mates of mine and they took it from me. Wasn't without a fight, but they were mostly human. I gotta get that kitten problem sorted out pretty soon. It's getting so a gent can't walk the streets anymore without getting bothered." She walked in closer to assess the damage. He was beaten up, but she had done worse to him on occasion. She started treating his wounds. Damage wasn't too bad except the bump on his temple. "Are you applying for Giles' old job?" At everyone's look of confusion at the seeming non sequitur, she clarified. "I mean, he was always the one getting hit in the head."
Then something occurred to her. "Somebody please tell me Xander and Tara didn't go to get her dagger back."
Anya spoke up. "No. Xander drove Tara to the hospital. Willow was at the police station and passed out. She's in a coma and they can't wake her up. Where were you when this happened? Spike said you were at the police station waiting for her. How did you not notice that Willow left there in an ambulance?"
Buffy looked down. She hadn't planned on telling Spike what she had done the minute she sent him away, but she couldn't exactly hide it now. "I was in another room clearing up the 'wanted for questioning about Amy' mess. I didn't want to have to dodge police the rest of my life and I knew Willow would be answering questions for a while."
Spike put a hand under her chin and brought her head up so she was looking at him. "Not nice to lie to me, Slayer. We'll be talking about this later on."
"I didn't lie, Spike. I just didn't tell you everything. You knew I was there, so I wasn't disappearing or anything," she said defensively. He just cocked an eyebrow at her. "I just hate waiting." He tilted his head and released her chin. She looked back at the floor. "I didn't want to make another trip into the police station. I thought they'd be so busy with the Bronze situation that they'd let me go pretty fast. Besides, if I told them about the house burning down and mentioned I was on my way to visit a badly beaten up Willow when I found Amy. I thought it would make them go a little easier on her. Okay, so, do we all go to the hospital or wait for news?" They all looked at each other, unwilling to make a decision.
Finally, Dawn spoke up. "I really hate to say this, but maybe we should wait. I mean, they're expecting us here and Tara isn't gonna leave Willow's side--so it's not like we could just go in and visit her anyhow. Besides, Spike is hurt, Buffy is tired and Anya and I aren't fighters. If we went, we could get jumped on the way and then what? World of bad is my guess."
"Dawn, I never thought I'd say this to you before you were thirty, but good thinking. It's nice to see that my planning skills have rubbed off on you."
Dawn looked at her sister. "Yeah, right. I learned to plan from Spike. Not from Ms 'Get 'em? That was your plan?' You don't plan anything. If I ever wanted to learn improv or how to make the best of a bad situation, you'd be the first person I'd come to. Planning? No way. Spike or Tara. Unless it was financial planning, then it would be Anya."
Buffy looked a little hurt. "I planned the raid on Rack at the Bronze. I didn't do too badly."
"Buffy, you led the raid on Rack at the Bronze. At plan assemblage you do great. It's kinda like slayage on a grand scale. You're a natural born leader. I mean, you've led the Scoobies to the Hellmouth and gotten them back. You can get more out of a group than anyone else Giles had ever seen. You know what to do or say to inspire them to think their hardest. Leadership, A+ but planning is a B- or a C+."
Mollified, Buffy started to exhibit her allegedly famous leadership skills. "Anya, you can have my bed. Dawn will show you where it is when she goes upstairs to hers. I'll stay down here on the couch with Spike." Dawn looked at her. "I promise, no funny noises down here--we'll probably argue for a little bit, but then Spike and I are going right to sleep." Anya and Dawn started bustling around, getting ready for bed.
Spike took her hand, preventing her from leaving. At his inquiring gaze and muttered "argue?" she looked away, embarrassed.
"I thought you would yell at me for lying to you."
"Not gonna do it again, are you?" She slowly shook her head. "Then I'm not yelling. It was a pretty good idea, waiting for a big distraction like that before talkin' to the police about Amy. I'd say your planning skills are improving." He smiled at her. "Must've picked it up from me."
There was a knock on the door. Buffy charged over to answer it. "Xander, how is she?" Anya came running over and gave him a big hug.
"She's fine. They couldn't figure out at the hospital why she passed out or why she couldn't wake up. No head damage or anything. Tara thinks it's the rest of the payback for that spell. She was originally supposed to be out for a lot longer than she was. They're keeping her for observation and Tara's staying with her. Well, Tara and the police. I think that cop thinks she's faking it since there's nothing medically wrong with her."
"So, do you want to stay here or go back home?"
"Are you kidding? I want details. Lots of details. I missed out, and I need my vicarious action."
Buffy and Spike gave many details. By the end of the telling, it was almost morning. "Xander, why don't you and Anya sleep here. Dawn can show you where. You're way too tired to drive home." Too sleepy to argue, they headed upstairs. She changed clothes and spooned with Spike on the couch. "Spike, remind me to change the sheets. I don't even want to think about what they're doing upstairs." She could feel the rumble of his laughter as she drifted off to sleep.