Soul Sacrifice

Chapter 5 – Planes, Feigns and Telephone Calls

"Well Love, this is my stop." Spike said, stopping a few hundred feet from the Summers' house. "Any closer and Buffy will know I'm here. Probably come out accusing me of killing her baby sister and she'll be trying to steal my shoes and all the like," Spike babbled on to himself more so than to Dawn. Dawn just looked up at him with a small, secretive smile.

"You didn't have to walk me home, you know. I got to your place just fine." Dawn said. She was trying to sound brave and grown up, but Spike could hear the appreciation in her voice.

"Oh, I know you'd be just fine on your own, Pet, but this is more for me, you know? Don't want to be having to worry 'bout you all night long. It's just my…"

"Nocturnal maternal instincts?" Dawn supplied.

Spike snorted. "Well I guess so. God, am I becoming a poof or what?"

"Well I think you're sweet." And with that, Dawn reached up and kissed Spike on the cheek. He looked a little surprised. Dawn just grinned. "Thank you… For walking me home, and for talking to me about the Buffy thing, and everything else. It's the best talk we've really had… The best talk I've had with anyone, since Buffy came back, you know?"

"Yeah Bit, me too." Then, a little uncomfortable with all the displaying of affection, "Look, now you get along inside. Big Sis is probably throwing her eighteenth conniption fit by now."

"Oh, and I SO want to be present for that." Dawn quipped.

"Now be nice and go get along then. I'll watch and make sure nothing nasty jumps out gets you…" Then, "Remember what we talked about?"

"Yeah," Dawn said, "See if I can stay in my room a while before she notices I'm home… If I tell her about our plan at all, it's gotta be after midnight… Brush my teeth before bed. I get it."

"Alright then, off with you then." He said, lightly pushing her back.

"Bye Spike! And goodluck." Dawn said, turning and waving one last time before jogging to her house. Spike watched her until she was safe inside her bedroom window, then he turned, and made his way back to his crypt. Lots to do. Lots to do.

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Buffy opened the front door and stepped into her living room for the fourth time that night. She'd been alternating between making calls and searching the town all night. She was about to make another call when her eye was suddenly drawn to the flicker of the red light on her answering machine.

"Two messages, huh? Well let's see what we've got. One of these puppies better be from Dawn. Living Dawn… Not night of the living dead Dawn." She hit play.

"Margaret? Hey Baby… It's your little turbo squid… Thought you could trick me with a different answering machine voice… But nope, I'm smarter than that… And really turned on… How about we get together and make sweet, hot, monkey-"

"Message erased." Buffy winced, finger poised to hit the delete button again, if Turbo Squid decided to leave an encore message.

"Buffy Summers?" This was a voice that sounded vaguely familiar, but Buffy couldn't place it. Well… At least they dialed the right number. "This is Ryan Elliot, general manager of the Doublemeat Palace. I just called to say that I've been receiving numerous complaints about both your attitude while working, and your style of cooking. Something about your not squeezing your chicken patties with enough vigor. In either case, we think it would be best if you did not come into work tomorrow, or ever. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Good luck and have a very double meat, double sweet day."

Buffy just stared blankly at her machine. "They… fired… me…" She said slowly. Then, realization sinking in, "They fired me?! Those sick double cow, chicken, goat eating freaks fired me?!"

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An hour earlier, in the nerd cave…

Andrew hung up the phone. "So, how was I?"

"Great. You sound like you were born to manage fast food. Maybe you should look into that." Jonathan said, pouting on a beanbag chair, but they ignored him, as always.

"You were good. Now the Slayer won't show up to work and will be fired. Either that or, she'll call up Ryan Elliot and give him a piece of her mind. Either way, I think we're good."

"Yeah, and then what, Brainiac, when she's kicking our asses even more, because she doesn't have a job to eat up half her time?" Jonathan complained at Warren. Jonathan was getting pretty tired of this whole thing.

"Well then we commence our-"

"Evil plan, that will never work, as usual, and get your asses kicked, as usual." Spike finished from the doorway. Then he walked towards them. "But this time, I don't much care for you bugging the slayer again. Makes her moody."

"Well… uh… What are you going to do to us?" Andrew stuttered, subconsciously stepping backwards.

"He's not going to do anything." Warren said, trying to assure Andrew, though, he didn't sound too confident. "How did you even find us? Get in here?"

"Doesn't matter much. All that matters now is that you pests are going to join me on a little trip to the airport, where I'm going to stuff you all into luggage and have you sent to three corners of the earth. Four, if any of you don't cooperate." Spike finished.

Warren opened his mouth as if to say something, but Spike put a stop to it. "You, magic shrimpy boy," He said, shaking a hand in Jonathan's direction. "Can you do anything to make these two shut up? And make them not wiggle around so much? If you do, I'll send you to Hawaii, and I'll let you have a bathroom break before I send you off. Can't say the same for these other two."

Once again, Warren opened his mouth to say something, but Jonathan was the one that interrupted him this time, with a grin and a, "Gladly."

And with that, and a flick of Jonathan's wrist, Spike happily led the silent trio out the door.

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Author's note: This chapter's short… Because it wasn't even supposed to exist, but I started typing, and it just magically appeared… So… yeah!

Oh, and another thing. I just wanted to thank everyone for their great reviews! I appreciate them a lot. They give me warm fuzzies and such. :D