Title: Drive
Name: Joy
Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com
"Well, if it isn't the man of the hour?" Lorn quipped. "I told you all you had to do was believe and you'd see your girls again."
"You, however, didn't tell me I was going to have both my legs broken," Spike said with raised eyebrow at the green man.
"Didn't know the form, you know that," the host responded.
"Be glad nothing worse happened. I think Dawn would have tried to kick your ass," the blond vampire said as he leaned on the crutches and Tara heavily.
"She did," was the general response from the room.
"Shortly before she decked Gunn," Lorn nodded at the young man.
"I would pay to see that interaction," Spike said greatly amused. "Peaches, tell me you have a video recorder in that room?"
"Sadly no… Though it would've been a great blackmailing device later on," the older vampire answered.
Both Dawn and Gunn looked tortured. "Alright enough picking on the kids," Tara said quite motherly. "You need to sit," she informed Spike.
"Yes, ma'am," he responded.
"We're going to need someone to drive Spike's car back to Sunnydale who's willing to be bused back to LA," Tara continued.
"Why can't Buffy drive?" Gunn asked. Everyone in the room but Fred and Lorn looked at him like he was nuts.
"Buffy and cars…not mixy things," Dawn quoted her sister. "I'll be able to drive before she will… Buffy's also really bad with school gyms. She's blown up three."
"Two," Buffy countered.
"You blew up the second one again when you blew up the high school."
"You blew up your high school?" Gunn asked completely confused.
"Hey! Angel helped! Besides, I was saving the world from evil… But keep it in mind when dating my sister… I make things go boom!" Buffy reacted.
"Violence is just imbedded in the Summers women, huh?" the young man asked.
"You have no idea," both vampires said at once.
"Back to the car situation," Tara steered the conversation back.
"I'll do it," Gunn offered.
"I'll ride with him," Dawn said immediately after.
"NO!" Buffy and Spike both yelled.
"Okay… Lets try that one again," the blond witch said. "Buffy, come here." When the slayer had walked over Tara began again, "Gunn will be visiting sooner or later. This is a perfect time to get him into the habit of abiding by your rules on your turf," she said quietly. "Plus then Gunn can be there to help you get better and not be constantly with Dawn."
Buffy and Spike looked at each other. "What do you think pet?"
"She's got a point… We'll have a pretty full house though."
"Actually…I won't be staying with you," Tara informed the confused slayer. "Because things are the way they are with Willow, it's for the best." Tara's mind projected to Buffy, "You have to respect his space if you want him back…"
The slayer nodded slightly. "Okay… Gunn will stay in your room on the cot and can help out for a few days till your legs are completely healed."
The women parted so Spike could come into Gunn's view, "Angel, we're going to borrow your boy for a few days."
Dawn had a big smile on her face though Gunn was carefully watching Angel. Wesley tilted his head; "We can spare him for a few days… Send him back no worse for wear though."
"He can patrol with me only if he wants to… Personally I think my sister will be more distracting," Buffy commented.
"Ground rules… You are visiting to help with my recovery," Spike smirked, "Therefore, you are staying with me…not Dawn. GOT IT!"
"Got it," both Dawn and Gunn replied.
"I'll head home to pick up some clothes," Gunn stated.
"Can I see where you live?" Dawn asked.
"NO!" Buffy and Spike yelled.
"Another supervised visit," Gunn said squeezing Dawn's hand as he headed toward the door.
Suddenly he stopped, turned around and went to Angel. Angel looked at him confusedly just before Gunn hit him upside the head. "This is all your fault," the young man said.
"What did I do?" Angel asked incredulously to the leaving form of Gunn.
"Her," the young man responded as he left the building. Dawn, Buffy and Spike merely glared at Angel with folded arms.
"Hey now… None of that," the older vampire responded. "Ancient history remember?" he said slightly nervous.
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Can I at least ride in the car with him? One of you can ride with us," she pled.
Spike sighed. "I wish we had that read thoughts thing for these sorts of situations," he said to Buffy.
All she could do was smile and breathe deeply letting the warm glow of contentment spread through her. "Tara, why don't you chat with Dawn for a while so Spike and I can talk this through?" the slayer asked. Tara nodded as she and Dawn gave the couple some space. "Honestly it might be good to let them have a few hours of talk time. Maybe they'll find out they don't have that much in common or the age difference is too big."
"So we should let them ride by themselves?"
"Yeah… I think so."
"You sure you don't just want
to keep an eye on me?" he asked. 'What the hell did I say that for?' he
thought.
Buffy blushed slightly but had a little smile as well. "The keeping an eye on you thing is part of it too."
Spike listened to Buffy's heart race and breathing pick up. He took a couple of her fingers in hand and said, "Thanks luv."
Buffy did her best to blink back grateful tears. "I… I'll go load up the car," she whispered moving away from him. She turned back around for a moment and said, "These are the moments I wish we could read each others thoughts." Then she was gone from his side. Spike sat on the couch blinking rapidly trying to figure out what just happened.
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In less then an hour the cars were packed and ready to leave with the notable exception of Gunn. His car slid back into the back parking lot and he entered the Hyperion again. "Alright I am back and ready… Thanks for the time off Wesley… Don't have too many visions while I'm gone Cordy… Hope the club is in full swing Lorn… Fred don't study too much and go out in the daytime too… And Angel, every time Buffy or Spike over reacts I will curse your name… Bye all," was Gunn's farewell speech to his co-workers.
Angel smirked while everyone else hugged. He walked up to the young warrior he worked with. "Just remember…I didn't date Buffy until she was sixteen," he mocked.
Gunn smirked back, "Yes, but I didn't stalk her from bushes and roof tops for a year or so before meeting her face to face." Both men nodded at each other and Gunn left the building.
"So what's the plan?" Gunn asked when he reached the Desoto.
"You and LilBit will follow us…alone. Dawn knows the way… You're getting grace here," Spike said from the back of Xander's car. "We've only got a couple hours till sunrise and this car doesn't have blacked out windows."
"Right," the young man said and climbed behind the wheel. Dawn sat next to him in the middle seat rather then shotgun. Gunn smiled at her, "I think he's starting to like me."
"Oh yeah… he likes you," Dawn said sweetly. "I overheard him tell Tara that before we left he thought he wanted someone like you to date me…just younger and closer."
"Well, I guess he'll have to settle for the original rather then a copy."
"Guess so," she agreed and snuggled into his shoulder. He half laughed and put his arm around her the way she wanted him to.
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"They following okay?" Tara asked.
"Yeah… He's got his arm around her though," Spike growled.
"Back off Cujo," Buffy commented. Spike growled some more. The girls just laughed. "Whole point is giving them talking time."
"Well they aren't talking… They're snuggling," he snapped.
"Worse then a biological father," Tara laughed.
"Hey now…I took this position thankfully, but overprotective is part of that package," Spike said simply.
"Position," Buffy chuckled. "Like you ran for office to be Dawn's dad."
"Well, I would have beaten her actual dad, wouldn't I?"
"Yeah…because my father would have decided to forfeit."
Spike was sitting directly behind Buffy's chair. Without thinking he reached out and touched her right arm, "Sorry pet."
Buffy took a shuttered breath, "It's okay. I'm glad she has you." Amazingly enough, Spike kept letting his fingers slide over her skin gently.
Buffy swallowed and instinctively looked in the vanity mirror in front of her on the sun flap. By some miracle her gaze hit Spike's eyes exactly even though there was no reflection in the glass. Spike swallowed and removed his fingers from her skin. "This is going to be a long drive," he thought looking at the hazel eyes in the glass before him.
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"So your blood can open portals to different dimensions?" Gunn asked Dawn as they drove now well into the second half of their trip.
"Well it did. I guess it still could but so far no one has tried a bloodletting other then me so hey, we're good," Dawn said with a small smile.
Gunn looked at the small scare on her arm from before. "I'm going to ask you a personal question…and you don't have to answer… Your sister said something to me about you having cutting yourself before. What was that about?" he said carefully.
"You mean was I suicidal?" she asked. Gunn about swallowed his tongue but managed to nod. She looked at him carefully. "Imagine you find out you're not real, that your family is just your genetic make up, but you were never were born. All your memories were created not experienced. All your friends never met you until one day in September of 2000…" Gunn stole glances at Dawn as she spoke. "I wasn't suicidal. I didn't want to die. I was just trying to understand what I was…if I was real."
"You're sitting right here… You can be held, have conversations, form your own opinions…why wouldn't you be real?" Gunn asked.
"Are those the things that make you real? For me it was I bled… You spend your 'life' around a slayer you learn the importance of blood as a life force. It's what Buffy and I had in common…our blood. Secondly, it was like if I felt it and I wasn't numb I was real…I wasn't dead."
"You thought a lot about this," the young man said holding Dawn a little closer.
"Yeah well…You end up contemplating a lot of things that normal teenagers don't when you find out you're older then time, that to most mentally unstable people you appear to be a big green light, and you don't have a human soul. Things like that…" Gunn shifted a bit. "What?"
"I finally got why you came on the way you did when you first came to LA. I went to shoot Spike and you were all protective… making that comment about him being soulless but not the vampire thing… I didn't know," he said sadly.
"Does that change things?" she asked curiously.
"I don't think so… It just makes me hope that I'm never stupid enough to mention it. I'll need to be careful about my vampire insults, huh?" he said with a smile.
She smirked, "You'll be in the same bout a few Scoobies."
Dawn looked at the car ahead of them. Buffy was bobbing up and down and finally got into the back seat. "What the hell is she doing?"
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"OWWW!!!" Spike was wincing grinding his teeth together. "Cor, Slayer in trying to make it better don't make it worse."
"Not my fault your calf went into muscle spasm," she said coolly. She took a deep breath; "I'm going to roll up the pants leg here okay? Then I'm going to loosen the splint so I can massage the muscle but you'll have to keep still."
Spike leaned back against the passenger side door in the back. He looked at Buffy then braced himself. "Try to make it quick, luv." She nodded.
Buffy rolled the sweats up over the splint, but ran nearly to his groin. When she got above the knee their locked eyes. "You can take it the rest of the way," Buffy whispered as she realized if she were to do it she would be giving him a view straight down her shirt.
Spike finished the rolling the material up as Buffy loosened the knots that held the splint in place. Gently she started to run her hands over his calf muscles. "Show me where it hurts."
"Here," he answered bringing her fingers to a knot and the largest point in the muscle. Buffy nodded as she pushed her fingers into his flesh in a rhythmic pattern. She kept his leg as still as possible while her thumbs did the harder pressing on the knot. Spike tried to stifle the moans of pain and pleasure he felt, not wanting to make the situation confusing. "That feels so good," he said in a husky whispered as the circular motions she was using started to send jolts of pleasure to his groin.
Buffy closed her eyes and breathed deeply a few times before she continued. "It's going to be a long trip," she thought as Spike stared straight into her eyes as she opened them.
TBC…