~Star Mouse
"Boarding school?" Spike repeated, disbelieving. "You can't be serious!"
Giles rubbed his forehead. "I really think we should look into it."
Spike just stared. This was--no. This couldn't be-- Eagh...! Gotta get out---
He stuttered up from his chair.
"I'm going to the library," he managed, making a break for the door.
Rupert blinked at the apparently random declaration, and glanced at his watch.
"You have an hour and a half before you're due." His forhead wrinkled slightly.
Spike cast around for a lie. He had to get out--
"I, ah, got a project. Jenny said she'd help," he lied quickly.
Anything. He would really do homework if he had to. Leave? Not bloody likely. He just had to get out of here.
His father pushed himself off the counter and picked his keys off the wall.
"I'll accompany you. We can discuss this on the way."
He walked past Spike on his way out.
Spike hung his head.
Jenny scanned the page. It was in a long dead version of German, before they'd gotten it right. But she was pretty sure there was something relevant buried there.
Buffy read her own book, across the table. That one was in Latin.
Jenny shouted, rather loudly. Buffy's head shot up.
The brunette librarianess ran a finger down the line. She nodded slowly as she reread.
"Yeah, this is definitely it... Come see."
Buffy stood and stalked over.
The effect was kind of wasted without the duster. She'd abandoned the heavy leather coat earlier, and it was slung across a chair back.
She leaned in over Jenny's shoulder, to read, and got a good view of the door as it burst open, spewing Spike.
"Get the hell away from her, you bitch!"
She barely had time to register the red, white, and black blur before she had been
body~slammed into the bookshelf behind her.
"What the--!" Jenny jumped back. "Spike?"
The Slayer grunted as Elizabeth squirmed against the shelving, seeking escape. He braced his body against her and held out a hand to his Watcher.
"Stake, Jenny, and be bleedin' quick about it; my Da's comin'."
Jenny shook her hands. "Don't stake her! I just found the text!"
Spike was just able to see the beautific smile Buffy flashed him before there was a British curse from behind.
"Spike, what's the meaning of this?"
The blonde Slayer shot around to face his disgruntled father, keeping a tight grip on Buffy's wrist behind him. It made him queasy to turn his back on a vampire, but-- this was his da!
Rupert Giles had one hand on hip, still advancing.
"--You take off like a juggernaught down the hall, slam the door in my face, and now you're meeting your girlfriend when you tell me you're studying?"
"I--. Ah--" Spike panicked. What was with this week?
"He didn't know I'd be here, Mr. Giles," came a soft voice from behind.
Spike half~turned, incredulous at how contrite Elizabeth the Black appeared to be.
The Vampiress continued, her tone quite at odds with the savage way she jerked her wrist out of Spike's grasp.
She brought her hands in front of her, clasping her fingers together, picking at her nails like she was nervous.
"After you-- found out. Spike, he *sniff, abbreviated hair flip* ....broke up with me."
She abandoned her pose to cross her arms in front of her, for all the world looking alone and heart~broken. Spike's look of suspicion gradually turned to bemused shock.
"He said he felt bad, about going behind your back like that. I came here to see if maybe we could work it out." She trailed off, eyes at the floor.
There were stares from Watcher, Slayer, and Da.
Before Spike could figure out if he really wanted to refute such a good cover~story, his father spoke.
"I apologize. I didn't realize--. Well," He removed his glasses, and started polishing them.
"I don't agree with you're secrecy, but now that that's gone--." He seemed distinctly uncomfortable. "I never said you couldn't ...go out."
Spike blinked. What on earth..?
Giles looked squarely at his son. "Is this why you were being so resistant to boarding school? I don't mean to be a tyrant, Spike. I just want what's best for you..."
As Giles continued with the standard 'I'll try to lighten up and meet you in the middle' speech, Jenny mouthed 'boarding school?'
Spike gave an imperceptible, 'don't ask' shake of his head, watching Elizabeth the Black out of the corner of his eye.
Buffy smiled at him. "Well," she said quietly, under Giles' speech, "looks like we've got paternal permission. Wanna kiss?"
"Well, I--" Spike stopped, narrowed his eyes, leaned away. "What the hell--?"
Buffy smiled wider. "Kidding. I can smell you're garlic breath from here. That's no fun."
Spike swore under his breath. Jenny concentrated on Giles' monologue, apparently waiting for the punchline, so she could laugh.
"...so I will try to stop meddling so much in your affairs, so long as you're honest, and let me in on what you're doing."
She sighed. Finally. And nudged Spike.
The blonde jerked. "Huh? What? Oh. Righ, da. Thanks. And boarding school...?"
"Can wait. If you think we can work things out here, then I'd like to help you try."
"He will. I'll help," Jenny replied, before Spike could say something stupid.
Buffy gave the room a 'my work here is done' nod, and flounced back over to the table. She grabbed up the last book Jenny had been reading.
"Ms. Calendar? Thanks for the book." She sent Rupert a grateful smile fitting of a reinstated girlfriend, and exited.
Spike stared after her. He got another prompting nudge from Jenny.
She held out the black duster.
He grabbed it.
"Oh, look. She forgot this. Thing. Coat she wears. I'll just, yeah, go, uh, give it back to her." He ran out of the library, leather flapping.
Giles turned back to Jenny, and sent her a knowing smile. Which was really ironic, when you think about it. He sighed, just like a parent.
"Hormones!"
Spike burst back out of the library doors, checked both sides of the hallway, and ran down the left.
"Elizabeth!"
The retreating vampire stopped, turned. "Spike, darling!"
He had been right-- without the coat; way better. Leather became her. Bad Spike!
He slowed and approached at a walk. "What were you doing in there?"
She gripped the book one~handed, putting the other to her hip. Leather~clad, slim--Bad Spike!
"Saving your sorry ass. You're welcome, by the way. You're lucky you're not grounded 'til Judgement Day."
Spike shook his head. Mainly to clear it, but also to illustrate the point.
"Yeah, sure, but why?"
The vampire shrugged.
"Your Watcher helped me. I may need her help again." Buffy shifted, bringing her weight to both feet. "If I got her Slayer sent away, that probably wouldn't happen."
Spike's brows knit. "And when you don't need her anymore? You, what, kill her? Me? My friends? Set up shop and kill us all?"
Elizabeth tossed her hair. "No. I'm in town for one reason. When I'm done, I'll leave. In the meantime, you don't need to worry about your precious Librarian, or your friends."
"Just everyone else."
"Yeah, well." She shrugged again.
Spike flung an arm out in front of him. "No! I won't bloody well wait for you to go on a killing spree. You die."
He took a step forward. She held out a hand.
"No. You can't kill me. I know too much. My childer are expecting me, and if they find out what happened to me, they will go on a killing spree you wouldn't believe." She straightened, and her voice took on a less frantic tone when she realized he wasn't actually reaching for a stake.
"Plus, you need me."
"For what? Bamboozling my da? Screwing my life right over?"
"Saving the world."
With that, she backed into the doorway set in the wall, labelled 'basement access' and disappeared.
"'I know too much, my kids would kill you, and I have to save the world now?'"
"Basically."
Angel did a quick eyebrow shrug as he processed the information.
"That's a new one."
"And pretty creative, as pleas for life go," Faith added.
Willow sighed. "And she didn't even notice she'd forgotten this gorgeous coat?"
Spike looked around behind him, where Willow was wearing the duster, waving her arms to examine the fit.
"Oi! Get that thing off! You've no idea where it's been. 'S probably got blood all on it."
Willow rolled her eyes. "Leather doesn't stay this nice if you don't clean it, idiot. You wear leather all the time. Surely you clean it occasionally."
Spike sunk back into his chair.
Angel looked back up at Willow. "All the same, modelling the fiend's clothing might not be the most constructive thing you could be doing."
Willow dropped her arms and wandered over to the library table.
"So what do you want me to do? It's not like you can send me back to 3rd period. You're in my class. And it's not like you're doing anything constructive."
Faith perked up. "We are." She gestured to the books piled on the table top in front of them. "We're getting down with the researching."
Willow tried to read one of the books upside down. "Researching what?"
"Elizabeth the Black and Friends."
"-And Friends?"
"Yeah." Angel twisted the book to read better. "According to these, she didn't do all her Scourging alone. There were... Three others. All Masters."
Spike blinked. "Huh? Why haven't we heard about this before?"
Angel gestured with his hands. "You know that thing, where you run out of shelving, so you push the books back and build another layer in front...?"
Spike sighed.
Angel shrugged. "Anyway, there were three others. They split up around 1930; looks like one of 'em got a Yoko."
Willow leaned in. "Woah! He's hot!"
Faith nearly tipped her chair in her rush for the book. She stared at the photo and whistled softly.
"Way hot," she agreed.
Spike looked back and forth. "We are talking about blood~sucking murderers here, right?"
There was a second of silence.
Both girls leaned slightly away from the book.
Angel peered at the crusty monochrome photo that had engaged their attention.
"Yeah, that's one of 'um. Here'r the other two." He flipped the page out, revealing a further three photos within the fold~out.
All four teenagers leaned in to look.
One was obviously Elizabeth. The other three--
Angel pointed.
"'Anya von Knacht, Wesley Wyndom~Price, and, uh, just, 'Dawn.'"
Hope everyone like the "New Scourges." It took a while, but no one
mentioned Wesley, and I kinda giggle when I think about him decked out Gothish,
'cause he really could be way hot if he lost the wet hair thing and got a leather coat or
something and stopped acting like a woman. Those three were the least vampirish
ones I could think of. The characters least in touch with their inner darkness. Well,
Anya, yeah, but she's just so perky...
Tell me what you think. So I know. If there are other characters you want me to mess
with, tell me. Cause I won't think of it on my own, and it will be your fault the fic sucks.
You'll be relieved to hear that this is no longer an aimless, rambling fic. It has purpose,
drive, and conviction.
I know exactly what I'm doing, and I'm not stopping now. Updates going slow,
obviously, but I'm still grinding them out. I updated "Irony Becomes Her," so you can
check that out, if you haven't. It's very good. Ha!
Sorry.
~Star Mouse.
