AN: Okay. I have several things to clear up/respond to. 1; I changed my settings (after being notified I was only accepting some reviews) so everyone can review. Sorry about that one…. 2; When I wrote ch.15, I was fooling around with font size for the sound effects, making the whole train thing a bit more humorous that it appears here. And 3; The question has been raised where Buffy was living now. I believe earlier in the story I mentioned that the group was living in an apartment complex in Nevada… Kinda forgot to tell you where they went… Anyway, Buffy and Dawn now reside in a small home in Paradise, Nevada (I love the irony…). Alright. Now that that's settled, we can get back to the ever-thickening plot.

Disclaimer: All characters (except the ones spawned by my sick, twisted mind) belong to UPN, Mutant Enemy, and the all-powerful Joss.

Viva Las Vegas

            Buffy stopped on the sidewalk, spinning to view all the neon signs. Bright lights…Big city… She hummed happily as she twirled her skate. The Scoobies had thought it might be a good idea to send Buffy to Las Vegas for the weekend. They were right.

            Now, the thought had occurred to her to gamble and drink and maybe even be involved in some illegal behaviors, but she wanted to start by killing a few roaming vampires. She could tell the minute she set foot on the strip that the creatures of night roamed freely amongst the people. It was just a matter of finding one.

            Her head perked up as she heard someone scream. She bolted around the corner, really to stake whatever evil being crossed her path. She skidded to a halt as she took in the scene. A woman was being held up against the building, trembling. He was holding her lightly by the wrist. Strange, she thought as she approached. "Hey!"

            The man's head whipped around. And it was a man. Her eyebrows shot up. He growled at her, and even from where she stood she could smell the whiskey on his breath. She started to wrinkle her nose. Mid-wrinkle, she saw why the woman was cowering against the wall.

            He had a gun.

            She inhaled sharply, never taking her eyes from the pistol in his hand. He grinned at her, waving it teasingly. He steadied his hand, pointing it at her. "Cum 'ere, gurlie." Slowly, she walked towards him. She started breathing quickly, appearing terrified.

            When Buffy was two feet from the man, she punched him in the face. His gun went off-she barely noticed. She took another step, pushing him to the ground. She winced a little. It felt like she might have stepped on a piece of glass or something. Oh well. She pulled the gun from him, glaring. He looked up at her, stupefied, before standing and running away as fast as his drunken appendages could carry him.

            "Oh my god! Are you o…" The woman's eyes bulged out of her head for a moment. "Oh, god. Okay. I'm going to get you some help, okay? I'm getting help…" She reached into her bag, grabbing the cell phone.

            Buffy frowned. Huh? She looked around, befuddled. She started walking towards the woman. Her frown deepened as she slowly tilted her head down to look at her foot. Oh. She sighed, sitting herself down on the curb to wait for the ambulance. Gotta love Las Vegas…

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            "Hello?"

            "Um, hi Giles."

            "Buffy!" Giles smiled to himself. Dawn, who had been sitting next to him, looked over, interested.

            "Um, I kind of need you to come get me."

            "What?" Giles stood up, walking into the other room. "Buffy, what happened?"

            "Um…I sort of got shot…"

            "What?!?"

            "Well, only in the foot." She explained quickly.

            Giles let his breath out. "Good God. Alright." He rubbed his forehead. "I'll be right over. Where are you?"

            She gave him directions to the hospital she was in. Now, all she had to do was wait for him to show up.

            Wait.

*** "Good lord pet, what did you do to yourself?" Spike stood in the opening of the curtain, forehead wrinkled with concern. He walked over to the bed, looking the girl up and down. She seemed to be okay, save the gigantic cast encasing her lower right leg.

"I got shot." She watched as he got that 'Grr, I'm Going To Kill Whatever Did This To You' look on his face. Nice to know he cared. He reached out, brushing a stray hair from her face. She smiled as his fingers brushed her cheek.***

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            How did that one song go? Ah, yes… "I've been workin' on the railroad…" Spike kicked a stone out of his path. "All the live long day…" He added a little skip to his song. "I've been workin' on the railroad just to pass the time away-ay!"

            He stopped short in his tracks. I do believe you've gone mad, Spike-er-ooh. Well, fine. He'd change his song. "I've got a lov-el-ey bunch of coconuts…de-dul-eey-de…" He wondered what Buffy would do if she could see him now. Probably start laughing. Or run in the opposite direction. Don't bloody blame her.

            He was absolutely famished. Everything looked like food. The tracks looked like licorice sticks. The rocks looked like biscuits. The clouds looked like cotton candy. The berries on that bush looked like-

            At that point in his thought process he noticed the actual existence of food. He rushed over to the bush. There were tons of little red berries, just waiting to be eaten.   He stuffed a few dozen in his mouth. Mmmmmm… He wondered why there were so many. They were pretty good, after all. Bloody miracle those little forest creatures didn't get 'em. He kept eating.

            About a half hour later, Spike slowed his pace. He felt….funny. Cautiously, he walked further. The tracks ahead of him starting swirling. Soon, he was tripping over his own feet. He stumbled away to the bushes, heaving up his 'delicious' lunch.

            Once he'd stopped throwing up, Spike set out to find some real food. As he following his steel path, he looked along the ground for nuts or plants…maybe even a squirrel. Didn't really matter. Anything but those berries. He contemplated over a mushroom. To eat, or not to eat… With a shrug, he popped it into his mouth. And spat it back out. Ick. With a slight shudder, he gave up his foraging expedition.

            As he went around another bend, something caught his eye. Blue tarps tend to do that, you know. Up ahead, where the rails came out towards the water again, there was a row-boat pulled up out of the bay, covered with a blue tarp. It looked as if it had been abandoned there.

            He walked up to it, looking around suspiciously for it's owners. He lifted the tarp, expecting some little furry thing to leap out at him. Instead, he found a piece of paper under a stone. "Hole in boat, use if you must." Kind of a strange note. Oh well. He noticed the hole in the boat's stern. After sizing it up, he tore a bit of his blanket off and secured it in the hole with mud. Satisfied, he drug it to the water.

            He spent a good hour figuring out how to steer his new mode of transportation. It was hard steering with one oar, after all. He pushed himself out into the bay, determined to leave this place once and for all.

***Buffy watched, amused, as Spike tried to steer the boat. She crawled across the boat, sitting down in front of him. He shifted closer, placing the oar in her hands. He wrapped his arms around hers, overlapping his hands on hers as they propelled themselves across the water.***

"Don't worry, Buffy." Spike paddled faster. "I'm coming."