Chapter Two
Seven hours straight in a car will drive people insane. No matter how tight knit a group is. Xander took I-5 most of the way there. Stopping once to unload bladders and stock-up on even more junk food. The insanity began when Anya started going over a list of possible wedding songs. She popped a mixed tape into the cassette player and the gang had to endure an entire hour of the sappiest love songs. Willow finally got so fed up that she threw Dawn's book at the radio.
"Hey!" Dawn and Anya exclaimed.
"Sorry," Willow mumbled. "But there's only so much 'I honestly love you's' I can take."
Tara hid a smile and Dawn retrieved her book. Xander ejected the tape, tossing it to Willow who threw it out the window. "Xander!" Anya shouted. "What'd you do that for?"
"For your sake, sweetie. And out sanity," He replied. She crossed her arms and pouted.
At the rest stop, a lizard scared Tara when it popped out of the sink. Spike whined about not being able to go outside for a smoke, which irritated Buffy, who called him "Marlboro Breath" and told him if he ever wanted to touch her again he'd think twice about lighting up a cigarette. This sparked him to take out his pack and lighter, lighting a cigarette in the car just to spite her. She grabbed the cigarette out of his mouth and the lighter out of his hand and ran. Spike made to go after her but was deterred by the sunlight. Dawn dumped all the suitcases out, spilling the clothes on the ground while searching for the cheese puffs she had packed. Anya and Willow argued about the mixed tape and Xander hid. And they still had four hours to go.
On the road again, everyone seemed to mellow. Anya let everyone else decide on a radio station. Dawn fell asleep after finishing the bag of junk food she finally found under her seat. Tara and Willow talked quietly. Buffy toyed with Spike's lighter. He teased her from under his blanket.
"There's enough room under this blanket for both of us, love," he said.
"Get bent Spike," She told him.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" She rolled her eyes at him. He smirked. "C'mon love. A little under the blanket action. Make this car ride real interesting,"
She smiled even though she didn't mean to, "Shut up, Spike." When no one was looking she ducked under the blanket with him.
By the time they finally got there it was almost six. The sun hadn't yet set and the view was awesome.
"Wow," Dawn breathed. "This is beautiful."
The cabin was a two-story, hideaway bungalow. Stairs ran up from the walkway to the top story porch. There was a huge deck that looked out onto a lake. Sunlight filtered through the Dogwood, cedar, and pine trees that surrounded it as the sun set behind the cabin. Everyone looked at it with smiles.
"Uh, not to interrupt the moment, but you all are gonna need a dustpan soon," Spike said.
"Oh, right!" Buffy ran up the stairs to the front door with Spike on her heels. They grabbed their suitcases and walked inside.
"It smells good, like pine sol," Willow said making Tara giggle.
"Yeah, the lady I talked to said it was all made from log and pine," Xander said.
They toured the large cabin. It had all the conveniences of home. There was a fireplace, a refrigerator, a microwave, toaster, a dishwasher, a Mr. Coffee, some really pretty dishes, cookware, Cable TV and a VCR, and a washer and dryer. There wasn't a telephone, but there a small town about thirty miles away.
"Hey, there's a grill," Xander said. "We can catch fish from the lake and grill 'em."
"This place is great, Willow. Good idea," Buffy hugged the redhead.
"Thanks," Willow smiled. "There's only three bedrooms. Three of us will have to share a room."
"Or someone could sleep in the living room," Tara said.
"Well, obviously Xander and I get our own room. This is like our pre-honeymoon. We get to have lots of sex," Anya said.
"Anya!" Xander exclaimed.
Buffy raised her eyebrows and Dawn giggled. "That's fine," Buffy said.
"I want to share with Willow and Tara," Dawn said.
"Well, uh Dawnie..." Willow said "Th-There's two big b-beds in one of the r-rooms," Tara stuttered. "We can alternate." Willow gave her a small smile.
"Guess that means you and I'll be shacking up, eh pet?" Spike said slipping his arm around her shoulders.
She ducked out from under him. "No way!" She said, helplessly looking at Dawn, Willow and Tara.
"I'm not sharing a room with Spike," Dawn said. "No offense, Spike."
"None taken, bit," he said.
"Then you can sleep on the couch," Buffy said.
"Can't. The drapes aren't thick enough to block Mr. Sunshine's harmful rays," he replied clearly amused by Buffy's reluctance to room with him.
"It won't be that bad, Buff," Xander said. "It's not like he has a chance."
Yeah, right, Buffy thought. "Fine," she threw her bag at Spike. "But you're sleeping on the floor."
"You made sure there was no phone?" Warren asked Andrew. They watched the gang go into the cabin.
"Yep. No phones. And I hooked up the camera in the smoke detector and refrigerator," Andrew said.
"An you slashed their tires?" He asked Jonathan.
"Yeah," Jonathan said. He slashed all four tires, except the spare and left a fix-a-flat in the toolbox. Warren didn't know.
"Perfect," Warren said peering through his binoculars. "This is gonna be one wild vacation for the slayer."
