Title: Roadside
Author: Joy
Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com
"Spike? Spike…Talk to me!" Dawn yelled at Spike's prone body. She quickly scrambled from the ground and ran to the still shaking car. Hands searching frantically for the cellular phone Lorn had given them earlier. Dawn smashed the redial button and went back to Spike's body.
"Magic Box?"
"Buffy!" Dawn screamed. "He's dead… He's dead. We're on the side of the road and he's dead. He promised he would always be there," she wept.
Buffy listened to her sister's terrified raving. "Dawn…Who's dead?"
"Spike…Who else? Why does everyone die Buffy?"
Buffy was silent for a few seconds with round eyes. All of the Scoobies had gathered that evening at the store for their weekly meeting. Everyone was paying attention to the conversation being had, holding their breath. Tara immediately went to Buffy's side when the word Dead came up. She squeezed Buffy's hand to bring her back to reality.
"Dawn…is there still a body?" were the words she choked out in a complete daze.
"Yes…" Dawn said absolutely terrified. "He's not dust."
"Dawnie, listen to me. As longer as his body is still whole, there's a good chance he'll be fine," Buffy said calmly.
"You don't understand. When he fell from the tower he was conscious in less then a minute. He's not conscious. He's not responding to his name. There's so much blood from his head," the teen said holding the vampire's hand on the side of the road.
"Dawn…Are you in the car?"
"No… We had a flat and were changing it and this guy swerved into us. Spike threw me to the ground to protect me from the car. His legs look like they're broken."
Buffy gulped and held Tara's hand harder. "Pick Spike up and put him in the car… You can't be that far out of LA since you called not to long ago."
Dawn got frustrated. "So what? You want me to leave him here and hitch back to LA? I'm not leaving him."
"No… I'll just get Angel to come pick you and Spike up and bring you back to the Hyperion until Tara and I can get there. I'm sure someone from his office can take care of the Desoto," Buffy said practically. Anya turned to Xander for his cell phone. She found Angel's number and dialed going into the next room.
"He's still bleeding," Dawn cried.
"It's okay baby… Put the phone in your pocket and get Spike in the car then put on the hazard lights." Buffy heard the muffled sound of slight grunting and rustling of fabric.
"He looks so dead Buffy. He looks like mom."
Buffy let tears fall from her eyes. "Dawn…find a t-shirt or something that you can wipe Spike's head with, then hold it to his head to stop the bleeding."
Anya came out of the training room with the phone at her ear. "Buffy," she said quietly. "Angel knows the road Spike was taking, he just needs to know if there are any markers by the side of the road."
"Dawnie… Anya has Angel on the phone. Look around and tell me if there are any signs to let us know where you are," Buffy said calmly.
Dawn looked outside the window of the car. "There's a marker that says 132 a little in front of us and a billboard for Hooters at exit 45A."
Buffy took her mouth away from the phone, "132 marker near a sign for Hooters, exit 45A."
Anya relayed the information to Angel. "Now I don't want to know why a man with your particular condition would know where the Hooters turn off is, but that is a different story," she chastised. "Just be sure to get someone who can fix a flat too." Buffy looked at the ex-demon expectantly. "Angel and a guy named Gun are on their way. I myself am worried about a man with the name of a weapon but it's not my place to criticize," she said as she hung up the phone.
"Dawnie, Angel and Gun are on their way to get you both okay?" Buffy said soothingly. "Anya's worried because the one man is named after a weapon," she said trying to lighten the mood.
"His first name is Charles. His last name is Gunn, G-U-N-N," Dawn informed her sister holding a piece of cloth to Spike's head.
"I'll tell Anya… Are you hurt Dawn?" Buffy asked.
"I hit my head but it's stopped bleeding."
"Dawn, is there any blood in the car you can try to rouse Spike with?"
"No, we were heading home… We didn't bring a cooler." Dawn touched her forehead then reached the bandage on the back of her arm. "Argg…" she grunted as she tore it a violently as possible to hopefully reopen to wounds. She only found she ripped out the fine hairs on her arm. "Damn it!" she cursed softly.
"What? What is it?" Buffy asked scared.
"Nothing," Dawn said insistently knowing her sister was not likely to approve of using her own blood.
Anya looked at Buffy and handed her the phone. "Take it. Call Dawn back and you guys head to Angel's. Just call us when you arrive," she said sympathetically.
Buffy looked at her with big tear filled eyes. "Thank you," she barely whispered.
"Take our car," Xander offered tossing the keys to Tara. "We'll head to our place and wait for you to call." Willow nodded.
"Dawnie… Angel's on his way. Do you know Xander's cell phone number?"
"Yes…"
"I'm going to hang up and you call me on that number. Tara and I are leaving now. We'll meet you at Angel's," Buffy said as calmly as possible.
"Don't leave me!" Dawn cried.
"Ask her the number she's on?" Tara offered.
"Dawnie, do you know the number of the phone you're on?"
"No…"
"Okay then you're going to have to hang up for a second and call us right back. I'm not leaving you. I just thought you'd want me there sooner," Buffy offered.
"Okay," the teen cried.
"It'll only take a second. You can always call back here if you don't get through."
"I'll call you right back."
"Alright."
There was silence in the store for a minute until the cell phone began to ring. "Hey there sweetheart," Tara said simply into the phone. "Sure… here's Buffy." Handing the phone over, the sisters began to talk again. Tara gathered her belongings including herbs for spells if they needed them.
"Take anything you need. No charge," Anya said sincerely.
"Drive safely," Willow offered with a meek smile.
"We'll be waiting to hear," Xander said rocking back and forth on his feet.
Tara eyed him. "This isn't your fault. Wishing him dead for a long time does not mean you're responsible for him getting hurt," she said sternly. "We'll call when we get there and when we know something, in whatever order that comes." Xander nodded and put his arm around Anya. "Buffy," Tara addressed the slayer. "Lets get going." Buffy nodded and they left the store.
The remaining Scoobies looked at one another in awe. "She's not going to make it this time if Spike dies…" Xander said solemnly.
"Neither of them will," Willow answered.
Dawn searched the car for a pocketknife or something to cut her arm with as she stayed on the phone with Buffy. "How ya doing, Dawn?" Buffy asked.
"As well as can be expected when the person you love most in the world is bleeding on you, is unresponsive and at any moment you're afraid a police car will come by and take his body away," the teen responded curtly.
" 'Not well' would have sufficed."
"Sorry… I just don't know what's wrong with him. He shouldn't be out like this. He heals so fast," Dawn countered. "Ouch," she hissed sticking her finger on piece of glass from a broken beer bottle.
"What happened?" Buffy said scared.
"I cut myself."
Just as Dawn was about to put her finger in Spike's mouth, Buffy said, "I know this may sound gross but if you're bleeding, see if he'll suck on the wound."
Relief swept over Dawn as she realized Buffy and she were on the same page. "I was just about to do that." Dawn made the cut a little deeper gritting her teeth and letting the blood well up into a good-sized drop before opening Spike's mouth.
She left her finger in his mouth for a minute before saying, "Nothing's happening… He's not sucking on my finger."
Buffy closed her eyes in dismay as the lights of the highway whizzed by. "It's okay Dawn. We'll think of something."
"It's not okay Buffy… It is not okay… Things haven't been okay since I was made. First mom dies, then you, now Spike. Nothing is okay!" she shouted into the phone crying in the process.
"Dawn," Buffy said shakily, "You had nothing to do with mom dying. If you weren't here, I would be alone… Do you understand? I would have nothing to live for."
"I don't want that Buffy! I don't want to be the thing you live for! I want you to have life that doesn't have Spike or me as the center of it. I want you to live because you want to," Dawn yelled as it suddenly began to rain like tears from heaven. "Live for yourself," she said quietly.
"I'm trying," Buffy responded.
There was silence on the line for a long while. Dawn continued to squeeze her finger, dripping blood into Spike s mouth with little effect that she could see. "Come on Spike…Wake up!" Dawn jostled him. "OWW!" she hissed. Spike's fangs had descended part way down but his face hadn't gone bumpy.
"Now what happened?" Buffy asked.
"He's somewhere in there…His fangs are down enough to cut me but he hasn't gone bumpy," Dawn replied.
"That's good…Massage his Adam's apple. See if you can get him to swallow."
"If it were you, I'd have no problem with the massaging but its me. Massaging Spike in any capacity seems off," the teen answered.
"Okay then push down on his Adam s apple gently?" Buffy said for semantics' sake.
Dawn took her fingers and pushed down gently on the protruding part of his neck and throat. She felt a slight bit of suction on her finger and then release. "I think it worked."
"Any other response?"
"No…"
"Angel will be there soon."
"Yeah…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Angel and Gunn drove quickly through the rain. "I warned him not to leave. I had a bad feeling about this…He's so stubborn," Angel fumed.
"Calm down man… You need to be calm for Dawn okay. You can't be all agitated otherwise I'm driving them back and you're fixing the tire," Gunn challenged him. Angel gave him an incredulous look. "What man? I've seen you psycho… I don't want her to. You will get your act together!"
"SHE has lived me being psycho…" Angel sighed then tilted his head to the side to consider the younger man. "Developed a crush on our future slayer… Fifteen Gunn," he shook his head.
"Shut up!"
"Doesn't seem so impossible for me to have fallen for Buffy, now does it?"
"You don't know what you're talking about," Gunn insisted. "I had a little sister. I know what its like to have to be the voice of reason when everything goes to hell."
"Still doesn't change the way you've been looking at her."
Gunn just gritted his teeth and leaned back heavily in the seat. "She's too young for me."
"Right… The age spread is what six years… There was a two hundred or so year spread between Buffy and I… The heart wants what the heart wants."
The younger man sucked on the inside of his cheek. "Can I drive them home?"
"Yeah… I'll probably want to yell at his unconscious body the whole time," Angel answered. "Almost there…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Buffy," Dawn said nervously. "Someone just pulled up behind us… What if it s the police?"
"It won't be… It's Angel," Buffy said. Under her breath she muttered, "It has to be."
A soft rap on the window by Gunn was met with the grateful eyes of Dawn. "Buffy, it's them. I got to go. I'll call you soon."
"Okay… Dawnie?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"I am so glad you aren't the police," Dawn said hugging Gunn. "And thank you for not being Wesley."
Gunn hugged her back, trying not to take too much enjoyment from an awful situation. "It's okay. We'll move Spike and I'll drive you both back. Angel's going to work on the car."
The vampire soon appeared at the door. "Hey Dawn. I'll have this bucket of bolts back in LA in no time… Want to grab the bags while I get Spike?" Angel said to Gunn.
"I'm carrying Spike," Dawn objected, "and don't fight me on this."
"Yes mame," Gunn replied and got the bags. Angel set to work on the tired as Dawn carried Spike's lifeless body to the other vehicle. "See you soon," he called to Angel.
"Soon… Don't let her bleed herself for him," Angel warned.
"Buffy said I could," Dawn answered from the back seat. "I've been feeding him as best I can," she whispered to Gunn.
"Don t worry," Gunn called to Angel but then winked at Dawn. Once situated in the car Gunn looked in the rearview mirror. Dawn was stroking a nonexistent head. I m never going to get used to seeing that… or not seeing that," he said with a smile getting back on the highway.
Dawn smiled back and snuggled Spike into her side. "You have to be okay," she whispered to him. "Who else am I going to tell about this 'Knight in shining armor' crush I'm developing to?" Gunn's big brown eyes looked on hers for a moment and then looked back at the road. "Oh yeah… You got to wake up."
TBC…