Title: Family: Forward to LA

Author: victoriamartynne

Rating: R

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Spoilers: None, I think!

Summary: Imagine if Connor had never been taken by Wesley, Xander and Anya had never split up and Angel had told Cordelia how he felt. Sequel to Family: Back to Sunnydale. The Scoobies visit the Fang Gang.

Buffy dropped the axe. "Spike, take him outside and stay there. Fire can kill you, I can handle this."

Spike looked at her for a moment and then nodded. He began to pick Angel up but stopped and went across to the slayer. He kissed her hard for a moment and then let her go. He picked Angel up and flung him over his shoulder.

"Be careful." He warned Buffy and then left.

"Why did you.?" Xander asked and made a swishing movement with his hand.

"Cordelia made me promise to get him out of here." Buffy replied. "Gunn, can you help me? Wes, Giles, Xander, go outside."

"Buffy, you can't possibly do this on your own." Giles argued.

"I have no choice. Cordelia, Lorne and tow innocent children are trapped upstairs; it is my job to save them." She said and trotted to the stairs. "Now, go!"

She turned again. "Gunn, I need you to clear the way for me with the fire extinguishers. Make me a path and I'll get through."

"How are you gonna get back?" He asked and followed her up the stairs, picking up the extinguisher from next to the weapons cabinet.

"There'll be extinguishers on the fourth floor, right?"

He nodded. "Then I'll use them. Hurry up!" She ordered.

They could feel the heat on the second floor. Reaching the third floor, it began to get very hot. Rounding the corner on the stairs they could see the flames licking up the wall and across the floor.

Gunn moved in front of Buffy in order to put out some of the flames. They moved up towards the stairs to the fourth floor. All of the first few steps were covered in fire as well as the walls and ceiling.

"Gunn, when I've gone I want you to get out of here." She ordered and wrapped her sweater around her hair and over her mouth and nose. "Go outside to the others and make sure Angel can't come in here. I don't care if you have to chain him to a lamp post, don't let him in here, he'll be killed. Keep Spike out there too."

Gunn nodded. "You be careful and get Barbie and the others out safe."

She nodded and smiled, although he couldn't see it because of the sweater. "Let's go!"

Gunn pointed the extinguisher at the base of the fire and let in do its job. Her cleared a path across the floor and then got rid of the flames on the ceiling. She touched his arm in thanks and then ran through the flames up the stairs.

Pulling the pieces of wood and metal off the door was harder than she thought. She began hitting it as hard as she could with the axe she'd brought until the door could be seen.

"Stand back!" She shouted, in case someone was behind it.

The door was only thin and the wood broke easily under the blade of the axe. When there was a hole big enough for her to see through she stopped and looked in. she could see half of Cordelia's face.

"What's happening?" She asked, anxiously.

"The fire's covered all of the third floor. It's going to be tough getting out but with the extinguishers we might manage it."

"What extinguishers?" Cordelia asked. "Did you bring one up with you?"

Buffy's heart seemed to stop. "There are no extinguishers up here?"

The look on Cordelia's face said it all. She cursed. "Look, I need to get you out of here. How is Lorne? And the children?"

"I'm fine peanut." Lorne called through the door. "And the babies are sleeping."

"Stand back!" Buffy ordered again and began to break through a bigger hole in the door.

Outside, Spike and Xander were chaining a half awake Angel to his car.

Anya and Willow were huddled together nearby looking at the red and orange dancing patterns in the windows of the third floor. Fred was shivering and Gunn wrapped his arms around her for comfort. Wes and Giles were conferring by the car, wondering where on earth the fire department was.

They were all startled when the windows on the third floor shattered, sending glass sprinkling over them and the road. They all looked up, most of them bleeding, and wondered how Buffy was getting on.

Buffy jumped as she heard the glass breaking.

"What was that?" Cordelia shouted through the ever growing hole in the door.

"I think the windows went on the third floor." She paused to talk but then carried on making a hole until it was big enough to climb through. "Come on!"

Lorne climbed through first, with Connor and then Cordelia followed, with a crying Ashleigh in her arms. Buffy helped her climb through the hole and then climbed through it herself into the room to grab blankets and towels to cover themselves with.

She ran the taps in the bath in the bathroom. She jumped as she felt Cordelia's hand touch her arm. "Honestly, how bad is it?"

Buffy looked at her for a moment. "It's bad. We need all the wet towels and blankets we can get to cover ourselves so we don't get burnt. With no extinguishers we'll need to go through the flames. You'll need to wrap Ashleigh and Connor completely in the blankets. They won't like it but they'll get burnt otherwise."

"And Angel?" Cordelia asked and began to soak some towels and blankets herself.

"He's chained up to his car." Buffy smirked. "I think he'll be mad when he wakes up and finds out that I hit his with the end of his axe!"

Cordelia smiled. "He'll get over it."

They finished soaking the blankets and went back to the broken door. They climbed through one by one and came back to Lorne, who was looking at the flames from a safe distance with Connor and Ashleigh in his arms. "I think we have a problem."

Buffy and Cordelia looked to where he was looking and saw that part of the staircase had fallen away, leaving a gaping hole that they would have to jump across.

The flames still licked at the walls and ceiling leaving a small gap as to which they would have to jump through to get out.

The only problem was, the drop in between the gap was about fifteen feet with a bed of flames at the bottom.