FOOLS FOR LIFE:

CHAPTER 35: THE CHAIN OF COMMAND

Clem had waited inside for a while, for the Shark to return. They'd been arguing over a specific set of kittens he had included in his deposit. He wasn't as bad in debt as Spike but then again he was getting deeper and deeper in there. Spike didn't have Clem's problem that he couldn't resist eating his winnings!

Just as he was thinking about having one from the box on the ground as a little snack, he heard voices outside getting louder. And he was sure he knew one of them very well.

He got up from the table and walked outside. The Shark's bodyguards eyed him a bit but they knew he was there already. He looked out in the street and sure enough, there was Spike, duking it out with a bunch of vampires from the nearby Suck Palace.

Clem walked up to the Shark as he stood with folded arms, enjoying the show. "Uhm what's going on here?" he asked.

"Ah, Mr. Clement, it looks like our mutual friend, Mr. Spike over there, had a bit of a problem. We're just keeping an eye on his 'package' here." With that, he nudged to the ground where Buffy was lying, still unconscious. "Buffy??" Clem said, his eyes widening, as much as was possible in his case.

'What is he doing now?' he thought, looking at her still form, shaking his head. Then his attention was drawn to the sound of Spike slamming a vamp's head into a parked car door.

"I've known a lot of vampires but Mr. Spike here seems to be a particularly intense one," the Shark remarked.

"Yeah," Clem nodded. "But it's good he can release his energies like this you know? Like I was telling a friend of his the other day, during one of Spike's bar fights actually, it's better to let it all out, than have it all bottle up inside."

The Shark nodded. "A man should have his hobbies."

Spike dusted another vamp and turned to kick one that was rushing him in the stomach.

"..To release the tensions, you know," the Shark added.

"Hm-hm" Clem agreed.

As Spike dusted his fourth vampire, the rest of them turned tail and ran. "That's right, you bunch of poofs!" Spike grunted. He didn't mind them running. He'd wasted enough time on that lot as it was.

He turned around and saw Clem waving at him. "Hey mate, what are you doing here?"

"Oh just another installment, paying off the old poker debt, you know how it is," Clem shrugged.

"TRYING to pay off your debt, Mr. Clement. I am not accepting those particular kittens, as I said," the Shark interrupted.

"Ah, so you're the 'negotiations' he was talking about," Spike smiled, "Trying to pass off another batch of street cats as a pure-breed are ya?"

"Indeed he is," the Shark muttered brushing some dust off his sleeve.

"I'm telling you...!" Clem started.

"Anyway, hate to break this up, but I have to go." Spike said as he bent down to pick Buffy up.

"Ah yeah, Spike what are you doing?" Clem said, shaking his head. "I know you two were having problems but, kidnapping her in chains? I've seen that sort of thing before and I'm telling you: it never improves a relationship!"

"Nothing like that mate, and I really gotta run." ." He nodded to the mobster-demon, "Shark, thanks for the assist."

The demon nodded back, "Mr. Spike. Always a pleasure watching you work. And my offer of last week still stands, if you ever change your mind about joining my security team...."

"Don't hire him boss! He kills our kind!" one of the bodyguards remarked.

"What are you complaining about, when I tell you to, YOU kill your kind! At the drop of a hat," the Shark replied

The vampire shrugged, "Yeah, but...that's professionally. With him it's for fun!"

"Like I said, man's gotta have a hobby," the Shark waved him away and turned back to Spike. "I pay well, not just in kittens if need be."

"Still no, thanks. Never been one to hold down a job. And your bunch always did look a little poofy to me." He grinned and started to walk down the street with Buffy in his arms, ignoring the snarls from the employed vamps.

Clem followed him in a hasty pace. Spike glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "Uhm, weren't you in the middle of some talks back there?"

"Yeah, yeah I was. But uh, well I thought I'd give you a hand, you now, and......"

"And if you just leave the kittens, you know he'll keep them anyway and you can say he accepted them after all?" Spike said, raising one eyebrow.

Clem shrugged and smiled uneasily. "...something like that. But I was going to see Halfrek myself, so I may as well join you. I mean, I assume that's where you're going....."

Spike looked up at him. "Halfrek? So I'm right, she's around."

"Oh you don't know? Yeah she's in the motel at the end of the street. She dropped by and told me about the whole mess. That curse thing. She needed a friendly ear you know?" He fiddled with his floppy ears. "And I got plenty of that. Poor girl, she reminds me of my niece.....well, with tighter skin of course. She asked me to drop by for some coffee before she's off."

Then he looked at Buffy. "Well, I gotta say, she seems sort of alright though. Figured she'd be looking more like you by now. Or something"

"Yeah well kinda glad she doesn't, but she's gotten some of my trademarks," Spike muttered. 'Before she's off,' he thought to himself, musing over Clem's words. 'Looks like I was cutting it close. If Halfrek had been gone I'm not sure what I'd done.'

"But really Spike, what are you doing? You know Halfrek can't lift the curse, and from the was you chained Buffy up I'd say she's not here because she thinks it's such a great idea...."

"Yeah well, gotta do what you gotta do," Spike shrugged. "And I know Halfrek can't lift the curse. Not the idea here."

They'd come to the motel, dark and kind of skuzzy. Some demons were hanging outside, eyeing them but looking away as soon as Spike looked back. "You know what room she's in?" he asked Clem.

"Yeah, it's number eleven. Let me get some coffee first, I'll be right up."

Spike nodded and walked up the outside stairs to the first floor and past several doors until he hit eleven. He adjusted Buffy in his arms to reach out and knock. The door creaked open. "Clem? Is that you ...William??" Halfrek opened the door wider. She looked at him with surprise which only deepened when she saw the unconscious Buffy in his arms.

"Clem's getting coffee. Can I come in luv? Took me all night to get here, it's almost dawn. And me and the Slayer here are neither of us too tolerant of that."

** **

"WHERE IS SHE!?" Xander yelled out.

It was Willow who'd gotten up earlier, went to check on Buffy and found her bed where she clearly had not slept in. Half her wardrobe was out on it, but no Buffy. She had woken the others and now things were restless with everyone trying to figure what had happened. Especially Xander had a hard time with it.

"We should go find her! Who knows what happened to her! Maybe she changed more during the night? She wouldn't just leave without telling us! One of us should have stayed with her."

Willow put her hands on his shoulders. "Xander relax, I'm sure she's fine."

Xander looked at her gently. "No, Will, you're not sure of that at all."

Willow smiled a smile that could only pass between people who had known each other for as long as they had. "No, I guess I'm not. But I choose to think so. Now calm down so we can start with the figuring out."

"Uhm...." Tara said, walking in the door after she'd driven around the surrounding blocks just to do a quick nearby search, "I don't know....but under the tree there's a whole bunch of fresh cigarette butts. I'm thinking maybe she went patrolling with Spike again?"

At those words, Xander's hair stood on end. "Or maybe she didn't! Maybe he kidnapped her!"

"Xander she's Buffy, not some helpless damsel. There's just too many options, for all we know she did change more and went to sleep in Spike's crypt because she thinks it's her home now," Willow said.

"Which still leaves her with Spike," Xander muttered, "which is still a bad idea."

"Well, we'll have to check it out. And wherever she is, let's hope she's indoors," Tara added. Both Xander and Willow looked at her. "Oh god you're right, she can't stand sunlight anymore!"

"But she knows that. Either Buffy herself, after what happened yesterday, or Spike's personality, if it has gotten more dominant....either way she's most likely pretty aware of it. Right?" Tara added to ease both their fears. They nodded uncertainly.

Then she turned to Dawn who had sat at the kitchen table throughout all this without saying a word. "Don't worry Dawnie, we'll find her."

Dawn didn't answer, just kept her straight face and slightly nodded. Tara was about to turn away when she spotted it. Something in the teenage girl's face. She wasn't worried, not like they were anyway. She knew something. And Tara could think of only one reason why she would want to stay quiet about it. "Dawnie....? Did you... Did Spike come back last night?"

Dawn's eyes blinked and her face tried to straighten even further, the way peoples faces do, especially children, when they try too hard to betray nothing. And wind up betraying everything.

Tara knelt down with her. "Dawn, it's okay, but if you saw anything....we need to know."

Willow and Xander were staring at Dawn as well now. She looked back at all of them and mumbled softly. "At least he's doing SOMETHING..."

** **

Spike looked at Buffy lying on the motel room bed. He'd taken off his duster and gently put it over her. She should be waking soon. And would most likely not be happy. But if all went well.....

"Spike what do you want from me?" Halfrek said, her arms lightly folded while she eyed Buffy with some unease. "I told you...I'm under a decree..I can't help you."

"I know," he answered, never taking his eyes off Buffy. "Which is why I'm here. It's all not that complicated really. The Scoobies will probably start thinking in this direction themselves sooner or later. Except 'later' may not be good enough, and I'm not willing to chance it."

He sighed. "I'm a simple guy, going for the quickest solution. I know you can't do anything, and it's out of your hands, so now I'm moving higher up." He looked at Halfrek whose eyes were widening as she realized what he was saying.

"I'll take it up with your boss D'Hoffryn from here."

Halfrek drew breath to say something as disbelief and fear filled her face, but nothing came out. Spike stayed as he was, calm and casual, seemingly oblivious to her reaction.

"So, if you could just give him a call then......."

** ** TBC!