Title:Same time, different place
Author: Mell
E-mail: hos_angel@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: I own nothing, joss is god
Summary:
Authors note: I'm very bad at writing long stories, mostly I give up after the second chapter or so, but I decided to give it one more try, and hopefully it will turn out okay. And also, the translation of the Swedish words will be written in Italics.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: I really felt like writing a story set in Sweden, 'cus that's my home country. And I know that I might not have the best plot here to give enough reason for them to go to Sweden, but I just REALLY wanted them to go there, so you'll just have to live with it. (Or not read the story at all, but that is one option that I hope not to many will choose!)
Chapter 1. - The news
The meeting had been decided in the last minute, and everyone was sleepy after being woken at 4 in the morning. Or, everyone but Spike that was, since his sleeping hours normally didn't take place at the same time as the others.
Giles was pacing back and forth, watched by the six people he'd called forty minutes earlier and asked to come and meet him a.s.a.p. And they where all worried about what he had to say.
When the former watcher finally stopped he had six pairs of eyes fixated on him, watching him impatiently.
"We have a situation," he said calmly.
Spike made one of his famous smirks and laughed quietly.
"When don't we?" he said sarcastically, gaining some annoyed looks, and some amused ones.
"This is serious, Spike." Giles said harshly, and the blond vampire decided that this was not the time to make jokes. Pleased to see that Spike had taken his warning seriously, Giles continued. "I got a phone-call from the council earlier this morning, and I got some worrying news. It seems like we'll have to do a small business trip to the north of Europe."
A chorus of questions came all at ones, but Giles quickly raised his hand to make them understand that he wasn't finished.
"It seems like another hellmouth has opened, and it is in bad need of a slayer. Hopefully we will be able to close it quickly and return home, or else." he let that hang there, and then he looked at Buffy, motioning her to speak.
At first she just sat there quietly, not sure what to say. But then she took a deep breath and looked back at Giles.
"I can't. It's not that I don't want to help, but I can't just leave Sunnydale like that. Dawn has school, and I've finally gotten a job that I like. You have to understand that!"
Giles sat down beside her and laid a reassuring arm around her shoulders.
"I wish I could tell you that it's okay, that you can stay. But I can't. There are too many lives at stake here. If you don't go, the whole universe could be sucked into hell, and you're the only one that can stop it."
She was just about to protest when she felt a hand on hers, and looked into a pair off beautiful blue eyes.
"It's okay luv, we will all come with you, and we'll sort this out in no time."
She sighed and dragged her warm hand out of his cold one.
"Spike, even if I do go, you can't come with me."
He looked at her with hurt stricken eyes, and he took a step away from her.
"So you still don't trust me? I can't really blame you, but I just thought."
"No!" she said quickly, regretting the fact that she'd said it in such a way that he'd misunderstood. "I do trust you. But you haven't been exactly. stable lately, and I don't think it's such a good time for you to be going on a long trip. And more, how could you come with me? It's not like you can go in a plane like the rest of us?"
Spike nodded and walked back to his seat. He wasn't planing on staying here by himself if she decided to leave after all, but this was neither the time nor the place to have that discussion. His thoughts where suddenly interrupted by the voice of Xander Harris.
"You TRUST him? I hope you're kidding, Buff. He tried to rape you, for god's sake!"
Buffy looked at him pleadingly, and after a short staring match between them he gave up and looked away angrily.
"Can we get back to business?" Giles asked impatiently, suddenly remember why he had liked the quiet in England so much.
Buffy and Xander looked at him apologetically, and nodded.
"All of you won't have to come, the most important thing is that Buffy comes with me, and then it would be good if I had some other volunteers."
Slowly hands where starting to rise, and after a moment all hands but Spike's where raised. Giles looked quizzically at the vampire.
Spike shrugged.
"The Slayer obviously don't want me there, so I guess I'll have to stay here in ol' Sunny-d."
Giles thought about it for a moment, before returning his attention to the vampire.
"I do agree with Buffy's reasons for not wanting you to come, and I could even come up with some of my own, but I have to admit that you're skills could come in handy. Both in fighting and in other matters. I know that you have some knowledge in foreign languages, and do you by any chance speak Swedish? And the plane problem I'm sure we can work out in some way."
Spike seemed to think about it very hard, like it was a matter of life and death, but soon he smiled widely.
"Självklart, polarn. (Of course, mate). Haven't spoken it in a while, but give me a day or two in that beautiful country and I'm sure it'll come back to me." His smile grew even wider. "So Buff, you agree with me tagging along?"
Buffy sighed and looked another way when she answered.
"All right. But any sign that you go all loony again, and I will lock you up in a box and send you're ass back to the states."
Spike smirked and for a moment he looked just like the Spike she'd known only six months ago, all self-confident and always with a comment in hand.
"Me, crazy? We're you gotten that idea from, pet? I've been sane for at least. two weeks."
This made the Slayers little sister Dawn crack up in a heap of giggles in the sofa, and her laughter was contagious. Soon only Giles weren't laughing his guts out.
"Please," Giles pleaded. "Can we discuss this seriously? I'm happy that you all seem to be in a good mood, and that may be the last time for a while now, but this is important, lifesaving issues."
"Yeah, right. Sorry," Willow said softly, but still with a smile on her face. "So who will finance this little trip of ours? I bet the council won't do it."
Giles got a thoughtful look on his face before answering.
"Actually, they will pay for it all. I was quite surprised myself when they told me."
Willow looked at him in surprise. A moment later she thought of something.
"Hey, you said they were going to pay for everything. Does that include luxury hotel rooms with Jacuzzis and 24-7 room service?" A dreamy smile appeared in her face at that possibility.
Giles sighed.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Willow, but with 'everything' I meant airplane tickets and small, ordinary hotel rooms."
Low disappointed grumbles spread in the room and no one was looking forward to the trip. After a while Spike stood up, breaking the silence that had been going on for what felt like hours.
"I'm sorry to say that I have to leave now," he said. "But some of us have a small tendency to catch on fire when being exposed to sunlight, so I guess I should be going home now."
The others nodded in response and said quick good-byes. Spike's departure Xander felt like it was okay for him to leave also. But he felt that a small comment about how much he disliked having a vampire with them to Europe, even though he now possessed a soul.
"Is it just me, or is Spike strangely unaffected by the whole having a soul thing?"
Buffy stared at him in disbelief.
"Unaffected? Where were you only two weeks ago during the whole 'Spike talking to Spike and Spike and Spike and all the other people living in Spike's head' thing?"
Xander rolled his eyes at her, but realized that particular comment wasn't really going to change the minds of all of those that obviously had totally bought Spike's act.
"All right, you got me there. But he doesn't exactly go around showing remorse for all of those he's killed during the last century."
Now it was Buffy's turn to roll her eyes. Xander could be so daft sometimes.
"No, maybe not in public. He's always been very big on the whole idea of people seeing him as dangerous and tough. I don't think he wants to change that, probably because that's the only way he knows hot to act. But I do believe that he regrets what he's done, and the fact that he came back to help us out, knowing that we might just stake him on sight, shows that. And I'm actually happy he is back, 'cus he is a real good help on patrol, and also, he's been a good friend since he got his saneness back."
She stopped as she heard the noise of someone in the door. She turned around and saw Spike standing there, and she could see clearly on his face that he'd heard everything she had said.
"Um, I forgot my cigarettes," he explained quietly, obviously not sure what to think about what he had just heard the love of his unlife say about him. "And then I'll be leaving again," he added, not at all being the self assure big bad that Buffy was used seeing him as.
"Yeah, why wont you just do that?" said Xander harshly.
Spike just nodded, and the lack of a more angry response ticked Xander off even more.
"What's up, Spike? You're voice isn't working? Or have you finally realized that the shit you say with it isn't worth hearing?"
Willow, Buffy, Dawn, Anya and Giles all looked shocked at Xander.
"Xander, you're such a bully!" Anya proclaimed, obviously not very unhappy about being able to say something bad about her former fiancé.
"Yeah!" Dawn said in agreement, although not as enthusiastically as the vengeance demon.
The others where also starting to cut in to the argument about what Xander where, when Spike interrupted them.
"Look, I don't want to cause any more trouble. So I'm just going to leave now. And Buffy," he stopped to take a deep breath before looking her into the eyes, "Thank you."
Seconds later he was gone, and left where a Slayer, a Key, a vengeance demon, a witch, a watcher and a very pissed of guy looking in the direction that he had disappeared.
~*~
She couldn't believe how much packing she would have to do, and the fact that she didn't know how long she'd be gone wasn't helping. All of her clothes where spread out on every available place in the room, and she didn't know what of it she'd need. From what she'd heard, they were going to Sweden. That's a country in the north of Europe where it snows all of the time, and it's incredibly cold, or so she'd heard. As cold as 20 degrees during the coldest days. She would have to ask Giles later if that was really true, because if it was, she'd have to by some warmer clothes, right away.
"Buffy! I need some help here!" Dawn yelled from downstairs.
Buffy sighed and walked down to her sister. She could use a pause from the packing anyway.
"What's up, Dawn?"
Her little sister where just on her way to drop a very heavy, and very expensive vase on the not at all soft floor.
"It's a little heavy," Dawn said matter-of-factly, and as she did so, her grip loosened even more.
Buffy rushed up and took the vase in a firm grip. When she was sure it was standing on solid ground she returned her attention to her sister.
"What were you doing?"
Dawn gave her an innocent look and shrugged.
"I was just hiding away everything that looks expensive, 'cus you know, we might be away for a long time, and it wouldn't be very fun to come back all of our stuff being gone."
Buffy looked at her little sister closely, trying to determine if that was really all.
"Dawn, if there is something wrong, I hope you know that you can always talk to me about it."
Dawn gave her a sweet smile and gave her sister a hug.
"I know that, silly. And there is nothing wrong. It's just that." she stopped, not sure how to continue, because she really didn't want to give Buffy more to think about. "I'm not sure this trip will be that fun, that's all."
Buffy sighed and gave her sister a hug back. This was really the last thing she wanted for Dawn, now that their lives where finally pretty much problem free, or at least as much it could be for a Slayer and a mystical Key living on the Hellmouth.
"You know that if there was any way that you could stay here, I would fix it, right?" she said softly.
"I know," Dawn said and sat down on the sofa. "And I really don't want to be left behind. I can think about this as an adventure, and a well-needed brake from school."
Buffy looked at her in disbelief.
"You seriously thought I would let you skip out on school like that? No way! I've talked to the principal, I said there was a family emergency and that we have to leave for a while, and that you would study at home. Willow's going to help you, so don't worry about that."
Dawn had a disappointed expression on her face, but didn't protest. 'This went much better then I thought it would,' Buffy thought happily.
"So, is it really as cold in Sweden as I heard Xander say?" Dawn finally asked, still looking a little sullen.
Thankful for the change of subject Buffy sat down next to her sister.
"I don't know, we'll have to ask Giles later. He said he would come over her sometime today."
"Ask me what?" they heard a man with an English accent saying from the doorway.
"Oh, hi Giles!" Dawn said enthusiastically. "We where just talking about Sweden. Where in Sweden is the Hellmouth?"
Looking very delighted at being asked to teach the teenager something, Giles sat down on the chair opposite to the sofa.
"The Hellmouth is located in the northern parts near the coast, and..." he was interrupted by Buffy's voice.
"Northern parts?" she shrieked. "Isn't it like, unbelievingly cold there? Xander said it could be as cold as 20 there!"
Giles looked at the two sisters amused.
"Actually, it can be as cold as -20." They stared at him. "But don't worry, mostly it's around 20, as Xander said. I wonder how he knew that. And that really isn't very cold, you will get used to it quickly."
"No way!" Dawn shrieked.
"You got to be kidding me!" yelled Buffy.
'This is going to be a long trip', Giles thought tiredly.
~*~ TBC
Author: Mell
E-mail: hos_angel@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: I own nothing, joss is god
Summary:
Authors note: I'm very bad at writing long stories, mostly I give up after the second chapter or so, but I decided to give it one more try, and hopefully it will turn out okay. And also, the translation of the Swedish words will be written in Italics.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: I really felt like writing a story set in Sweden, 'cus that's my home country. And I know that I might not have the best plot here to give enough reason for them to go to Sweden, but I just REALLY wanted them to go there, so you'll just have to live with it. (Or not read the story at all, but that is one option that I hope not to many will choose!)
Chapter 1. - The news
The meeting had been decided in the last minute, and everyone was sleepy after being woken at 4 in the morning. Or, everyone but Spike that was, since his sleeping hours normally didn't take place at the same time as the others.
Giles was pacing back and forth, watched by the six people he'd called forty minutes earlier and asked to come and meet him a.s.a.p. And they where all worried about what he had to say.
When the former watcher finally stopped he had six pairs of eyes fixated on him, watching him impatiently.
"We have a situation," he said calmly.
Spike made one of his famous smirks and laughed quietly.
"When don't we?" he said sarcastically, gaining some annoyed looks, and some amused ones.
"This is serious, Spike." Giles said harshly, and the blond vampire decided that this was not the time to make jokes. Pleased to see that Spike had taken his warning seriously, Giles continued. "I got a phone-call from the council earlier this morning, and I got some worrying news. It seems like we'll have to do a small business trip to the north of Europe."
A chorus of questions came all at ones, but Giles quickly raised his hand to make them understand that he wasn't finished.
"It seems like another hellmouth has opened, and it is in bad need of a slayer. Hopefully we will be able to close it quickly and return home, or else." he let that hang there, and then he looked at Buffy, motioning her to speak.
At first she just sat there quietly, not sure what to say. But then she took a deep breath and looked back at Giles.
"I can't. It's not that I don't want to help, but I can't just leave Sunnydale like that. Dawn has school, and I've finally gotten a job that I like. You have to understand that!"
Giles sat down beside her and laid a reassuring arm around her shoulders.
"I wish I could tell you that it's okay, that you can stay. But I can't. There are too many lives at stake here. If you don't go, the whole universe could be sucked into hell, and you're the only one that can stop it."
She was just about to protest when she felt a hand on hers, and looked into a pair off beautiful blue eyes.
"It's okay luv, we will all come with you, and we'll sort this out in no time."
She sighed and dragged her warm hand out of his cold one.
"Spike, even if I do go, you can't come with me."
He looked at her with hurt stricken eyes, and he took a step away from her.
"So you still don't trust me? I can't really blame you, but I just thought."
"No!" she said quickly, regretting the fact that she'd said it in such a way that he'd misunderstood. "I do trust you. But you haven't been exactly. stable lately, and I don't think it's such a good time for you to be going on a long trip. And more, how could you come with me? It's not like you can go in a plane like the rest of us?"
Spike nodded and walked back to his seat. He wasn't planing on staying here by himself if she decided to leave after all, but this was neither the time nor the place to have that discussion. His thoughts where suddenly interrupted by the voice of Xander Harris.
"You TRUST him? I hope you're kidding, Buff. He tried to rape you, for god's sake!"
Buffy looked at him pleadingly, and after a short staring match between them he gave up and looked away angrily.
"Can we get back to business?" Giles asked impatiently, suddenly remember why he had liked the quiet in England so much.
Buffy and Xander looked at him apologetically, and nodded.
"All of you won't have to come, the most important thing is that Buffy comes with me, and then it would be good if I had some other volunteers."
Slowly hands where starting to rise, and after a moment all hands but Spike's where raised. Giles looked quizzically at the vampire.
Spike shrugged.
"The Slayer obviously don't want me there, so I guess I'll have to stay here in ol' Sunny-d."
Giles thought about it for a moment, before returning his attention to the vampire.
"I do agree with Buffy's reasons for not wanting you to come, and I could even come up with some of my own, but I have to admit that you're skills could come in handy. Both in fighting and in other matters. I know that you have some knowledge in foreign languages, and do you by any chance speak Swedish? And the plane problem I'm sure we can work out in some way."
Spike seemed to think about it very hard, like it was a matter of life and death, but soon he smiled widely.
"Självklart, polarn. (Of course, mate). Haven't spoken it in a while, but give me a day or two in that beautiful country and I'm sure it'll come back to me." His smile grew even wider. "So Buff, you agree with me tagging along?"
Buffy sighed and looked another way when she answered.
"All right. But any sign that you go all loony again, and I will lock you up in a box and send you're ass back to the states."
Spike smirked and for a moment he looked just like the Spike she'd known only six months ago, all self-confident and always with a comment in hand.
"Me, crazy? We're you gotten that idea from, pet? I've been sane for at least. two weeks."
This made the Slayers little sister Dawn crack up in a heap of giggles in the sofa, and her laughter was contagious. Soon only Giles weren't laughing his guts out.
"Please," Giles pleaded. "Can we discuss this seriously? I'm happy that you all seem to be in a good mood, and that may be the last time for a while now, but this is important, lifesaving issues."
"Yeah, right. Sorry," Willow said softly, but still with a smile on her face. "So who will finance this little trip of ours? I bet the council won't do it."
Giles got a thoughtful look on his face before answering.
"Actually, they will pay for it all. I was quite surprised myself when they told me."
Willow looked at him in surprise. A moment later she thought of something.
"Hey, you said they were going to pay for everything. Does that include luxury hotel rooms with Jacuzzis and 24-7 room service?" A dreamy smile appeared in her face at that possibility.
Giles sighed.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Willow, but with 'everything' I meant airplane tickets and small, ordinary hotel rooms."
Low disappointed grumbles spread in the room and no one was looking forward to the trip. After a while Spike stood up, breaking the silence that had been going on for what felt like hours.
"I'm sorry to say that I have to leave now," he said. "But some of us have a small tendency to catch on fire when being exposed to sunlight, so I guess I should be going home now."
The others nodded in response and said quick good-byes. Spike's departure Xander felt like it was okay for him to leave also. But he felt that a small comment about how much he disliked having a vampire with them to Europe, even though he now possessed a soul.
"Is it just me, or is Spike strangely unaffected by the whole having a soul thing?"
Buffy stared at him in disbelief.
"Unaffected? Where were you only two weeks ago during the whole 'Spike talking to Spike and Spike and Spike and all the other people living in Spike's head' thing?"
Xander rolled his eyes at her, but realized that particular comment wasn't really going to change the minds of all of those that obviously had totally bought Spike's act.
"All right, you got me there. But he doesn't exactly go around showing remorse for all of those he's killed during the last century."
Now it was Buffy's turn to roll her eyes. Xander could be so daft sometimes.
"No, maybe not in public. He's always been very big on the whole idea of people seeing him as dangerous and tough. I don't think he wants to change that, probably because that's the only way he knows hot to act. But I do believe that he regrets what he's done, and the fact that he came back to help us out, knowing that we might just stake him on sight, shows that. And I'm actually happy he is back, 'cus he is a real good help on patrol, and also, he's been a good friend since he got his saneness back."
She stopped as she heard the noise of someone in the door. She turned around and saw Spike standing there, and she could see clearly on his face that he'd heard everything she had said.
"Um, I forgot my cigarettes," he explained quietly, obviously not sure what to think about what he had just heard the love of his unlife say about him. "And then I'll be leaving again," he added, not at all being the self assure big bad that Buffy was used seeing him as.
"Yeah, why wont you just do that?" said Xander harshly.
Spike just nodded, and the lack of a more angry response ticked Xander off even more.
"What's up, Spike? You're voice isn't working? Or have you finally realized that the shit you say with it isn't worth hearing?"
Willow, Buffy, Dawn, Anya and Giles all looked shocked at Xander.
"Xander, you're such a bully!" Anya proclaimed, obviously not very unhappy about being able to say something bad about her former fiancé.
"Yeah!" Dawn said in agreement, although not as enthusiastically as the vengeance demon.
The others where also starting to cut in to the argument about what Xander where, when Spike interrupted them.
"Look, I don't want to cause any more trouble. So I'm just going to leave now. And Buffy," he stopped to take a deep breath before looking her into the eyes, "Thank you."
Seconds later he was gone, and left where a Slayer, a Key, a vengeance demon, a witch, a watcher and a very pissed of guy looking in the direction that he had disappeared.
~*~
She couldn't believe how much packing she would have to do, and the fact that she didn't know how long she'd be gone wasn't helping. All of her clothes where spread out on every available place in the room, and she didn't know what of it she'd need. From what she'd heard, they were going to Sweden. That's a country in the north of Europe where it snows all of the time, and it's incredibly cold, or so she'd heard. As cold as 20 degrees during the coldest days. She would have to ask Giles later if that was really true, because if it was, she'd have to by some warmer clothes, right away.
"Buffy! I need some help here!" Dawn yelled from downstairs.
Buffy sighed and walked down to her sister. She could use a pause from the packing anyway.
"What's up, Dawn?"
Her little sister where just on her way to drop a very heavy, and very expensive vase on the not at all soft floor.
"It's a little heavy," Dawn said matter-of-factly, and as she did so, her grip loosened even more.
Buffy rushed up and took the vase in a firm grip. When she was sure it was standing on solid ground she returned her attention to her sister.
"What were you doing?"
Dawn gave her an innocent look and shrugged.
"I was just hiding away everything that looks expensive, 'cus you know, we might be away for a long time, and it wouldn't be very fun to come back all of our stuff being gone."
Buffy looked at her little sister closely, trying to determine if that was really all.
"Dawn, if there is something wrong, I hope you know that you can always talk to me about it."
Dawn gave her a sweet smile and gave her sister a hug.
"I know that, silly. And there is nothing wrong. It's just that." she stopped, not sure how to continue, because she really didn't want to give Buffy more to think about. "I'm not sure this trip will be that fun, that's all."
Buffy sighed and gave her sister a hug back. This was really the last thing she wanted for Dawn, now that their lives where finally pretty much problem free, or at least as much it could be for a Slayer and a mystical Key living on the Hellmouth.
"You know that if there was any way that you could stay here, I would fix it, right?" she said softly.
"I know," Dawn said and sat down on the sofa. "And I really don't want to be left behind. I can think about this as an adventure, and a well-needed brake from school."
Buffy looked at her in disbelief.
"You seriously thought I would let you skip out on school like that? No way! I've talked to the principal, I said there was a family emergency and that we have to leave for a while, and that you would study at home. Willow's going to help you, so don't worry about that."
Dawn had a disappointed expression on her face, but didn't protest. 'This went much better then I thought it would,' Buffy thought happily.
"So, is it really as cold in Sweden as I heard Xander say?" Dawn finally asked, still looking a little sullen.
Thankful for the change of subject Buffy sat down next to her sister.
"I don't know, we'll have to ask Giles later. He said he would come over her sometime today."
"Ask me what?" they heard a man with an English accent saying from the doorway.
"Oh, hi Giles!" Dawn said enthusiastically. "We where just talking about Sweden. Where in Sweden is the Hellmouth?"
Looking very delighted at being asked to teach the teenager something, Giles sat down on the chair opposite to the sofa.
"The Hellmouth is located in the northern parts near the coast, and..." he was interrupted by Buffy's voice.
"Northern parts?" she shrieked. "Isn't it like, unbelievingly cold there? Xander said it could be as cold as 20 there!"
Giles looked at the two sisters amused.
"Actually, it can be as cold as -20." They stared at him. "But don't worry, mostly it's around 20, as Xander said. I wonder how he knew that. And that really isn't very cold, you will get used to it quickly."
"No way!" Dawn shrieked.
"You got to be kidding me!" yelled Buffy.
'This is going to be a long trip', Giles thought tiredly.
~*~ TBC