Title: Over The Next Horizon (9/?)
Author: Karen
Email: karen@klewis91.fsnet.co.uk
Disclaimer: Not mine and never will be. Just the story I'm afraid.
Feedback: Yes please.
Pairing: A/C, W/S, Fr/Gu,
Timeline: After season six
Archiving: If you want it take it just tell me where it ends up.
Synopsis: Three months after Angel has been rescued from the deep, Cordy
has floated back down and Spike has been souled; Cordelia, Willow and Fred
are faced with a difficult choice. The lives of the people they love or
life in exile. Guess which one they choose?
Rating: Overall an R I think?
Spoilers: None that I'm aware of.
Summary: Humour, Angst, Romance and lots of bloody bits of other people's
bodies if Spike gets his way. (Let's face it he will. Who could refuse
that man anything?)
Dedications: Jen, for her usual outstanding job with the betaing, Mel, Wic, Lady, TW, Scribe and Danel. Spike's Angels RULE! The rest of the unruly mob on-line who have all been very sweet and supportive. Thanks guys. Special mention to Ina who appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. Come back we miss you!
A/N: Lindsey, Connor and the others will be in the next ep. They're having a few problems at the moment but assure me all will be sorted by the next time they're needed.
Part 9.
Cordelia kept her foot pressed to the gas and her eyes firmly on the road. They had been driving for an hour and they had only just started to calm down. Fred sat huddled on the back seat, eyes fixed to the road behind them alert to any signs of a tail and Willow sat beside Cordelia trying to make sense of the map in her hands. She gave an impatient huff of breath and threw the map to the floor
"I think we're out of state but I can't be sure."
Cordelia nodded
"Where to now? We need to get under cover soon."
Willow shrugged and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ears
"Not another motel that's for sure. Way too easy to trace."
She glanced behind her at Fred
"What about you Fred, any preferences?"
The dark haired girl spoke without taking her eyes from the road
"I think we ought to pull off the road and into the trees. They won't be expecting that and might drive on by until sunup. When sun rise hits we can double back and head in the opposite direction."
Cordelia nodded approvingly
"Good idea. We'll have at least twelve hours on them by tomorrow night."
She stared ahead of her and saw a dirt road in the headlights of the truck. She glanced into her rear views and, satisfied no one was behind, her swung the vehicle onto the narrow strip and killed her speed, not keen on taking the bottom off the truck on the uneven surface. They followed the track in silence for nearly ten minutes and then it opened out suddenly into a clearing and there before them was a log cabin. Willow blinked
"Jeepers! Someone must live down here."
Cordelia scanned the area and shook her head
"I don't think so. It looks pretty wrecked."
Fred stared around as the others leaned forward and had to agree with Cordelia. Even discounting the state of the road leading to the cabin, the grass around it was growing wild and weeds and creepers flowed unchecked over the house and its windows. There was an air of neglect and desolation about the place and she shivered suddenly.
"Let's go back up the trail and drive on for a while. There might be somewhere better." Cordelia gave a short laugh
"Can I draw your attention to us being on the lam? We're going to spend the night in the woods in our car. If there's a chance we can do it stretched out on a level surface I'm taking it. I don't care how Hansel and Gretally the place looks."
Willow gave a nervous giggle
"'Cos we both know how well that worked out last time."
Cordelia paused in jumping from the truck and glared over her shoulder at her friend
"Shut up, Willow."
Willow grinned and then opened her own door
"Cm'on Fred. Cordy's right, it's not like we have a lot of options right now."
Fred looked out of the windows once again and then opened her door as she saw the other two march confidently up to the cabin and begin peering in the windows
"Hey! Wait up y'all. Don't leave me here."
She jumped out of the truck and almost stumbled as the wild grass caught and pulled at her legs. She caught herself on the car door and then her eyes went wide
"Hey, y'all met Hansel and Gretal? When did that happen? And why is it a bad thing?"
She slammed the car door and made her way through the grass to her friends
"Why are two kids from a fairy story bad news? Guys?"
Angel handed over a wad of cash to the mechanic and nodded his thanks and then headed back to where Spike and Gunn stood sorting through the trunk of the car. Spike held up a long thin object and looked at it appraisingly
"What do you think? Will this drop her before she has time to put the whammy on us?"
Gunn rolled his eyes and snatched the tranquilliser gun out of the smaller man's hands
"We are not shooting Cordelia." "The hell we're not! That little bint has the power to stop us in our tracks anytime we get too close and I am not going to spend the rest of my nights in stop/start mode."
Gunn scowled and opened his mouth to reply but Angel interrupted him before he could speak "Spike's right. We need to take them down and keep them down and the only way to do it is to take out Cordelia. She's the wild card."
He took the gun from his outraged friend and turned it in his hands reflectively
"Besides she shot me. Spike, are you sure Willow can't use magic?"
Spike raised an eyebrow
"I don't think the Slayer'll be right happy if you shoot her best mate, Peaches."
Angel looked calmly into his old hunting partner's eyes
"That's not what I asked. No, Buffy won't be happy if I shoot Willow but she'll be a lot less happy if I let her disappear without a trace or I just send her back Willow's body. Now, can she use magic?"
Spike stared at the floor for a moment and then said slowly
"She can't channel it but she got right good towards the end there and there's nothing stopping her telling one of the others what to do."
Angel nodded
"Cordelia goes down first and if Willow even looks like she might be coaching Fred in a spell shoot her. I don't want them giving us the slip again."
Spike stared grimly into Angel's eyes and nodded and then both vampires turned to look at Gunn. He thought of Fred's white face as they drove away and her frantic arms when she launched herself at him in her hotel room. He nodded and Angel gave a small grin and drawled in an exaggerated hillbilly accent
"Then let's go hunt us some women."
Cordelia sat back on her heels and gave a small cheer as the paper in the grate finally caught and the flames began to lick against the wood piled on top. She held her hands out, grateful for the small amount of heat and shivered as she remembered Angel's face back at the motel. In all the time she had known him he had never, ever, spoken to her or treated her that way. Since their enforced parting over the summer they had trodden carefully around each other and had yet to raise the subject of their feelings. She admitted she still wanted and loved him and although she had caught him watching her with impenetrable eyes on occasion, she truly believed that he was resigned to leaving their romantic issues unresolved. She closed her eyes and his face rose up before her, twisted with anger and passion as it had been earlier and she rubbed her wrists where he had gripped her.
No, definitely not resigned to letting sleeping dogs lie. The way he had looked earlier he was not only prepared to wake the sleepy dogs up but kick them round the yard and turn the hose on them too. She shivered again and stood up, carefully schooling her face into a bright smile as she turned to face the two girls huddled together on the sagging, dusty sofa
"Well, we aren't going to freeze at least. How's everybody doing?"
Willow smiled at her and flicked concerned eyes towards Fred who sat staring blankly at the floor
"We're good."
Cordelia stared at the dark haired girl for a moment and then said gently
"Fred, honey, are you ok?"
Fred raised sad eyes to the seer and said quietly
"I told Charles I didn't love him."
She raised her fingers to her mouth and nervously began to chew on her nails, a habit Cordelia was sure that she had stopped not long after they brought her back from Pylea
"I threw that dust at him, knocked him out, tied him up and then I told him I didn't love him. What have I done, y'all?"
Cordelia crossed to her quickly and dropped to her knees, taking the smaller woman's hands in hers
"You did what you had to. We all did. Fred, look at me."
She waited until two black pools of misery stared at her and then said firmly
"If you hadn't done what you did, then Gunn's life would have been in danger, it's as simple as that. I know its tough, but it's better that he's alive and hurting than lying dead somewhere."
She took a deep steadying breath
"I said things to Angel tonight that I didn't want to because I have to keep him safe. We just have to trust that when we finally beat this thing and we go home they love us enough to listen to our side of things before judging our choices and us. Ok?"
Fred nodded and straightened bolstered by Cordelia's calmly confident words. She smiled a little shakily but Cordy could see the renewed resolve in her limpid eyes
"Ok. We're Scoobies right? We don't get beaten, we do the beatin'!"
Cordelia laughed and hugged her friends to her tightly
"Damn straight. Now I think we should see if we have anything worth eating with us then crash and try to get some sleep."
Willow nodded and crossed to where they dumped their bags and began to open them one by one
"Good plan, Cordy. I'll take first watch. Just in case."
Two hours later and all was silent in the small cabin and Willow stared out into the night and thought of home. It was coming up to the busiest time of the night for slayage and she wondered how Buffy was doing with the ranks of the Scoobies so severely depleted. With both herself and Spike on the road that only left Xander, Anya, Giles and Dawn to back Buffy up on the hellmouth and she shivered as she thought of the dangers her friends could be facing without her. She glanced around the small room behind her taking in the remnants of the broken furniture and the cracked and dusty walls and floor and her two friends huddled together on the floor for warmth on a pile of discoloured tarpaulins. The fading light of Cordelia's fire sent flickering shadows racing around the room and she felt a bittersweet pang as she thought of a hundred nights spent with Tara just watching a fire dance for them in the grate. She turned to the window again and turned her face to the heavens briefly
Goodnight love.
She shivered as a breeze blew through the window and she pulled her light jacket more tightly around her and then yelled out and fell off the sill as a huge shadow reared up before her. The effect on Cordelia and Fred was dramatic. They bolted upright screaming in surprise and then scrambled up as Willow rolled to her feet and scurried to stand with them. Cordelia's mouth fell open as she watched Gunn drop lightly through the window
"Good evening ladies."
She wasted no more time on surprise and instead spun Willow and Fred 'round and pushed them before her heading for the back door. All three ground to a halt at the sight of Angel moving swiftly to block the doorway all but filling it with his large frame. He folded his arms and fixed his eyes on Cordelia a grim smile playing around his lips.
"Shit!"
Cordelia glanced at Fred as the previously shy scientist spat the curse and raised a surprised eyebrow
Well, well. Pollyanna's all grown up
Her eyes fell on the warped wooden wall running along the back of the house and she took a firm grip on each girl's arm
I'm about to do something really, really dumb or really, really smart. God I hope it's smart.
She took a deep breath and ran at the wall, pulling Willow and Fred with her. They realised her intent inches before they hit and all three turned and threw themselves backwards into the rotten wood.
Gunn blinked in surprise and then lit out after them as they crashed through the wall. As he burst through the hole and saw them scramble to their feet he remembered to yell loudly
"Angel, Spike you're invited. Just in case."
Cordelia gulped in the cool night air and pushed to her feet, dragging Willow and Fred up with her. She took off towards the trees and then faltered just for a moment as Spike stepped out in front of her and raised one of Angel's tranq guns, she grinned as she remembered his chip and lengthened her stride again.
Willow watched as Cordelia ran at full speed towards Spike and her eyes widened in horror as he pointed a gun at her. She had forgotten to tell them about the chip and Cordelia thought he was bluffing! She opened her mouth to shout a warning and then screamed in horror as Spike fired with an evil grin. Fred crashed into her as she froze, memories of the day Tara died flooding over her, immobilising her feet and mind. Fred was no less horrified as she watched Cordelia drop like a stone but she retained the presence of mind to start moving again. She grabbed hold of Willow's sleeve
"Come on!"
She pulled Willow after her and fled into the trees ignoring Gunn's angry shout
"Fred stop! Just stop right there!"
Fred's breath started to hitch as she heard crashing behind her and she knew that with a vampire's enhanced night vision they wouldn't last long. She stopped and faced Willow
"If we stay together they'll get us. Run Willow!"
She pushed the red head and Willow stumbled and then whispered
"They shot Cordy."
Fred shoved her again
"Run!"
Not daring to waste another second, she plunged into the trees hoping Willow could get it together enough to follow her example. Her mind raced as fast as her feet as she plunged through the woodland and she started to list and examine the facts as she had been taught.
They had drugged Cordy, so they had at least one of them. She didn't think they would dare to leave her unattended so drew the conclusion someone, most likely Angel, had stayed behind to guard her. That left Spike and Gunn. Gunn would come after her himself if he could. So, assuming Willow hadn't been caught already all she had to worry about was an ordinary human tracking her. An ordinary city boy human at that. She smiled grimly as she pushed her way through the scrub and trees, all she had to do was stay ahead of them until daybreak and then Spike and Angel were as good as helpless and she was fairly sure she could come up with a way to secure Gunn. She ran on into the night whispering Cordelia's words from earlier in the night
"Whatever I have to do, Whatever I have to do."
Spike and Gunn hit the spot where the girls had separated seconds after Willow forced herself to move. Spike gripped the taller man's arm to still him as he sniffed the air and then said
"They've separated. Your girlie's heading that way."
He gestured east and then nodded in the other direction
"Mine went this way."
Gunn nodded briefly and ran into the darkness, quickly disappearing from sight. Spike sniffed the air again and grinned to himself. Slipping silently between the trees, he moved quickly after Willow's scent.
Angel stared down at the girl on the grass and bent to pull the drugged dart from her arm. He threw it to the ground and gently slipped his arms under her shoulders and knees and lifted her high against his, chest cradling her like a child. He frowned as he walked back into the house, uneasy at the dramatic loss of weight that became apparent as he held her close. Cordy had always been slim but never what you would call skinny but now he could feel her ribs pushing into his and the sharp edge of her hip digging into his palm.
He stooped to lay her on the broken-down sofa and then took off his leather jacket and laid it over her, making sure all her limbs were tucked securely under the heavy coat. His hand came up slowly and he drew a finger lightly over the contours of her face. As the light from the fire jumped and flickered he cupped her face and rubbed his thumb gently over her slightly slack lips. His eyes were liquid with emotion as he bent down and brushed his lips over the skin his thumb had gently caressed moments before and then he straightened and bent to tend the fire in preparation for the return of his friends and their prizes.
Gunn walked slowly through the woods scanning all around him for any sign of his wayward girlfriend. His chest still felt tight with hurt and annoyance at the way she had run from him all night, not least because she had drugged him and then hit him with a truck to make her point. He had calmed down enough where he could consider listening rationally to her explanation before beating the living crap out of her and/or sinking down on his bended knees and begging for a second chance. Whatever worked, he wasn't picky. He spun as he heard a twig snap behind him and strained to see through the gloom
"Fred? Is that you?"
He waited a beat and then said softly
"Cm'on baby, you know I ain't gonna hurt you. Come on out now and let's get back to the others. Cordy'll be waking up soon and she's gonna be real mad if you ain't there."
Nothing but the sounds of the woods at night greeted his words and he edged towards the general direction of the noise all the while talking in a low, soothing voice
"Fred, honey, come out. I just want to make sure that you're ok so I can tell your mom and dad. They're worried about you, baby."
He spun again as he heard a muffled noise come from behind him and his eyes narrowed
"Oh I get it, you're playin' me right? You think that five years roughing it in a demon dimension makes you Davy Crockett or something?"
He stood with his back straight and slowly turned in a circle to glare piercingly all around him
"This is the last chance you get before I go postal on you. Come out here now and I will listen to what you have to say. If you make me hunt you down, well, let's just say it ain't gonna be pretty."
He waited as one minute ticked by and then two and then shrugged
"Ok, Fred have it your way."
He walked in long easy strides through the trees and gradually picked up his pace to a graceful run, muttering to himself
"You better be all that and a bit more, Crockett Jr, cos' it's getting serious now."
Willow slipped silently through the trees blessing Buffy for six long years on patrols with nothing but the moon and stars to see by. She used all her Sunnydale skills as she moved, keeping to the shadows and avoiding brushing against anything with a strong perfume that could lead Spike to her. She stopped and stared up at the sky trying to sight a familiar constellation to give her some bearings and then her nose twitched as a very familiar smell drifted under it. She whipped round to see Spike standing not two yards from her smoking a cigarette and giving her a smug grin
"Hello pet."
Willow's reflexes kicked in to overdrive before her brain had assimilated the situation and she swiftly bent and grabbed a thick, and above all pointy, stick from the ground and held it loosely at her side
"One move Spike and you'll be blowing in the wind."
The grin slowly disappeared from Spike's face and he straightened and threw his cigarette to one side neglecting to stomp it out. Willow's eyes followed it and she frowned in disapproval
Hello? Evil, big bad remember? You're, what, shocked and disappointed?
He narrowed his eyes at the slender red head
"Red, you don't want to do this."
Willow raised her eyebrows at his warning tone and spat
"Spike, you've no idea just how much I want to do this." "Red we're here to help you. Now just calm the fuck down and give me that soddin' stick before someone gets hurt." "Here to help my ass! You shot Cordelia!"
Spike cursed as he heard the tremble in her voice and belatedly remembered that she had witnessed her lover shot to death only a few months before. He spread his hands wide in a conciliatory gesture and took one step forward into a beam of moonlight
"Love, if I hadn't done that she would have bollocksed up our little ambush and we weren't going to let you skip on us again for another round of hide the hotties. She's not hurt. She'll wake up in a few having had a nice kip and then she can tell Peaches all about it and we can get it all fixed and take you home."
Willow had a sudden mental image of Tom the cat after Jerry the mouse had lit a candle under his rear end and the steam poring out of his ears as he combusted from the pressure. She realised it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that she would soon be following his example. The absolute nerve of the undead sonofabitch! What was she? Three? Spike watched her eyes flash and narrow and felt a sliver of unease run through him. Unpracticing or not she was still a pretty powerful witch and from the looks of things he had just pissed her off mightily
"Come on Red no need to get all up on your dignity. We just want you where we can keep an eye on you."
Shut up, shut up, shut up!
His inner Spike was battening down the hatches and screaming the place down in an effort to get the suicidal one in control of the mouth to shut up. He privately wondered that she could still see at all, her eyes had narrowed that much
"I. Am. Not. A. Child." "I know love but you obviously have some major league shit happening here and we want to help."
Willow took a deep breath and then another just for the hell of it, unaware of Spike's eyes flicking in appreciation to the swelling of her breasts at the movement "Is it totally beyond your comprehension that maybe, just maybe, we don't want to come back? That we might actually want something different than endlessly saving the world night after night?"
Spike stifled a smirk at her words and said in a low serious voice
"Red, I'm dead not stupid. The Slayer and Peaches may have a destiny an' all but you and Princess Perfect have a mission. There's no way I'm going to buy you walking away from everything you've done these last years because you suddenly have a yen for a chinless wonder and a white fence."
He cocked his head to one side and said appraisingly
"You've got something inside of you that has to save the world and kill all the nasties. All the moonlight flit says to me is that you've got a big one in your sights and for some reason you don't want the rest of the Scoobs pissin' on your parade."
Willow stared back at him and wondered not for the first time how he knew her so well. He had done everything bar give her the name of the demon to be destroyed and stated it as calmly as he would ask for a pint of blood. She took another deep breath
"Spike, go home. I don't want to stake you but I will if it means you finally getting the message."
Spike nodded and his body relaxed into a defensive stance hands curled loosely at his side
"Come on then, Red. Fight me and let's get this over with. I'll go easy on you."
Willow's lip curled
"I won't."
Fred half stood, half crouched on a thick branch half way up a tree and watched Gunn examining the ground beneath her. She was amazingly impressed that he'd kept on her tail this long considering she'd stayed one step ahead of the best hunters on Pylea all those years and was hastily re- evaluating the ease with which she expected to ditch him. He stood slowly and then stared all around him and then just when she thought she had him fooled he tilted his head back and looked straight at her. She held her breath and resisted the urge to shut her eyes hoping against hope he would miss her amongst the leaves
"Fred, come down I'm done chasing you."
She exhaled slowly and swallowed
"Fred, I ain't gonna tell you again. Get down here."
She saw his face clearly in the moonlight as the clouds shifted and she redoubled her grip on the tree. No way was she going down there to face that. Gunn sighed impatiently and made for the tree, boosting himself into the lower branches with none of the trouble that Fred had ten minutes earlier. She scrambled upwards, casting anxious looks over her shoulder as his furious face came closer and made for the branches that looked too slender to bear his weight
"Fred!"
Gunn closed his mouth and counted to ten, aware that bellowing like a wounded bull wasn't the best way to convince her to stop climbing and come down. He tried again
"Fred, whatever it is it can't be that bad. Talk to me. dammit!"
Fred screamed as he lost his grip for a moment and dangled fifteen feet above the woodland floor and then he swung back into the tree and found his footing again
"Fred, someone's gonna get seriously hurt. Come down and talk to me and then if you still want me to go I will."
Fred paused and looked down at him. Sensing an opening, Gunn suppressed a surge of triumph and said in as non threatening tone as he could manage under the circumstances
"Fred, I only ever lied to you that one time. I promise if you come down I will listen to what you have to say and then I will go if you still want me too. I promise." "What about Angel and your other friend? They won't go. I'm not stupid, Charles."
Gunn wisely kept his opinions on that subject to himself and nodded firmly
"Yes they will if I explain to them. We'll go and we won't bother you anymore I promise. Cm'on Fred what are we gonna do? Play hide and go seek all night?"
He laughed shortly and then stared beseechingly up into the tree
"I swear Fred, I'll go and you won't hear from me again, just let me talk to you for five minutes."
He held his breath and just when he was resigning himself to climbing all the way up the goddamn tree, she said quietly
"Alright. You climb down and I'll follow but just five minutes and then y'all have to leave."
Gunn felt a surge of triumph and nodded
"Ok baby, whatever you say."
He began to ease his way back down the tree scowling as she added
"And don't call me baby."
Back on the ground he watched as she climbed down and then dropped onto the floor before him. She raised a hand and pushed back a strand of hair from her face eyeing him warily
"Ok Charles, talk. But remember your promise."
He grinned
"Well Fred, that's the thing about promises. They're made to be broken."
She cried out as he leapt forward wrapping his arms around her and pinning hers to her side, casually ignoring her frantically kicking feet
"You promised! You swore you'd leave."
He cuffed her hands behind her back in one of his and raised her face to snarl
"I lied. You trust too easily, Fred. People will say anything to get what they want."
His heart twisted inside of him as her eyes turned dark with betrayal and she spat bitterly
"I won't make that mistake again." "Fred."
She looked away and said accusingly
"I trusted you."
He went taut with anger and his fingers convulsed around her wrists making her yelp in surprise
"Yeah? Well, right back at you. I didn't see it being a problem for you when you took off without a word and spelled me into lullaby land earlier."
He shook his head and shoved her back only to bend and heave her over his shoulder grabbing one flailing arm and bringing it around his neck so she was held securely in an unbreakable fireman's grip. Fred twisted and screamed, frantically pounding on his solid back with her one free hand and kicking her legs but Gunn only shifted her higher and set off through the trees
"I'd save your energy, Fred. You're going to need it."
Spike dodged and moved behind Willow as she rushed him again. He had to admit she was proving to be a lot more capable than he thought. Having worked alongside the Slayer for six years had evidently paid off in spades.
He leaned backwards as her fist shot out and swore in surprise as she hooked one small foot around his ankle and overbalanced him sending him onto his ass. He yelled as without pausing she followed him down and brought the stake towards him in a smooth arc. He rolled to the side and sprang up saying indignantly
"Hey, watch it!"
Willow rolled and swiftly got to her feet poised to strike again
"Ok Red, you've made your point. Very Xena. Now drop the soddin' stake and stop pissing about."
Willow grinned mirthlessly
"What's the matter, Spike? Bitten off more than you can chew? Again."
Spike scowled
"You're good, witch, I'll give you that, but you're no Slayer. Give it up before I get bored and you end up getting hurt."
Willow snorted
"I don't think so, Spike."
Spike rolled his eyes and struck, darting behind her once again and twisting her arm up her back with one hand and wrenching her head to the side with the other. She cried out in anger as he scraped along her exposed artery with blunt teeth
"Bet on it love. Now be a good girl and come along quietly."
Willow twisted in his grip and Spike gritted his teeth as her butt rubbed across the front of his worn denims causing a sudden unwelcome swelling. He swore and shoved her away to land on her hands and knees before him
Brilliant, mate, just brilliant. That's not at all tempting is it?
Willow shoved herself upright and completely disregarded the fact she'd lost her stake to run blindly at him. Spike stepped neatly to the side only to realise too late that he was nearly flush against a tree. He winced as she ran head first into the trunk and, with a loud crack, collapsed to the ground.
"Willow? Are you alright pet?"
He sniffed the air and caught the faintest hint of copper
"Oh for fuck's sake!"
He rolled her over carefully and didn't need his vampire senses to tell him she was deeply unconscious. A large purple knot was swelling above her right eye as he watched and a trickle of blood ran down the side of her face, disappearing into her hairline. He sighed and reached out a cautious hand to stroke her strawberry hair strangely amused at the fact he was upset at the sight of her lying there so helpless when at one time in his life he would have been convinced of the existence of Santa Claus to have such a tasty bite spread before him.
He slipped an arm under her, raising her slowly, and then hesitantly dipped his head and brushed a tentative kiss over her forehead. He inhaled and breathed in the essence of Willow. Innocence, goodness, natural magic and just a hint of strawberries. He brushed his lips over her again and then slipped his other arm under her knees and lifted her. He moved quickly back towards the cabin, frowning uneasily down at the girl in his arms.
End part 9.
Dedications: Jen, for her usual outstanding job with the betaing, Mel, Wic, Lady, TW, Scribe and Danel. Spike's Angels RULE! The rest of the unruly mob on-line who have all been very sweet and supportive. Thanks guys. Special mention to Ina who appears to have dropped off the face of the earth. Come back we miss you!
A/N: Lindsey, Connor and the others will be in the next ep. They're having a few problems at the moment but assure me all will be sorted by the next time they're needed.
Part 9.
Cordelia kept her foot pressed to the gas and her eyes firmly on the road. They had been driving for an hour and they had only just started to calm down. Fred sat huddled on the back seat, eyes fixed to the road behind them alert to any signs of a tail and Willow sat beside Cordelia trying to make sense of the map in her hands. She gave an impatient huff of breath and threw the map to the floor
"I think we're out of state but I can't be sure."
Cordelia nodded
"Where to now? We need to get under cover soon."
Willow shrugged and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ears
"Not another motel that's for sure. Way too easy to trace."
She glanced behind her at Fred
"What about you Fred, any preferences?"
The dark haired girl spoke without taking her eyes from the road
"I think we ought to pull off the road and into the trees. They won't be expecting that and might drive on by until sunup. When sun rise hits we can double back and head in the opposite direction."
Cordelia nodded approvingly
"Good idea. We'll have at least twelve hours on them by tomorrow night."
She stared ahead of her and saw a dirt road in the headlights of the truck. She glanced into her rear views and, satisfied no one was behind, her swung the vehicle onto the narrow strip and killed her speed, not keen on taking the bottom off the truck on the uneven surface. They followed the track in silence for nearly ten minutes and then it opened out suddenly into a clearing and there before them was a log cabin. Willow blinked
"Jeepers! Someone must live down here."
Cordelia scanned the area and shook her head
"I don't think so. It looks pretty wrecked."
Fred stared around as the others leaned forward and had to agree with Cordelia. Even discounting the state of the road leading to the cabin, the grass around it was growing wild and weeds and creepers flowed unchecked over the house and its windows. There was an air of neglect and desolation about the place and she shivered suddenly.
"Let's go back up the trail and drive on for a while. There might be somewhere better." Cordelia gave a short laugh
"Can I draw your attention to us being on the lam? We're going to spend the night in the woods in our car. If there's a chance we can do it stretched out on a level surface I'm taking it. I don't care how Hansel and Gretally the place looks."
Willow gave a nervous giggle
"'Cos we both know how well that worked out last time."
Cordelia paused in jumping from the truck and glared over her shoulder at her friend
"Shut up, Willow."
Willow grinned and then opened her own door
"Cm'on Fred. Cordy's right, it's not like we have a lot of options right now."
Fred looked out of the windows once again and then opened her door as she saw the other two march confidently up to the cabin and begin peering in the windows
"Hey! Wait up y'all. Don't leave me here."
She jumped out of the truck and almost stumbled as the wild grass caught and pulled at her legs. She caught herself on the car door and then her eyes went wide
"Hey, y'all met Hansel and Gretal? When did that happen? And why is it a bad thing?"
She slammed the car door and made her way through the grass to her friends
"Why are two kids from a fairy story bad news? Guys?"
Angel handed over a wad of cash to the mechanic and nodded his thanks and then headed back to where Spike and Gunn stood sorting through the trunk of the car. Spike held up a long thin object and looked at it appraisingly
"What do you think? Will this drop her before she has time to put the whammy on us?"
Gunn rolled his eyes and snatched the tranquilliser gun out of the smaller man's hands
"We are not shooting Cordelia." "The hell we're not! That little bint has the power to stop us in our tracks anytime we get too close and I am not going to spend the rest of my nights in stop/start mode."
Gunn scowled and opened his mouth to reply but Angel interrupted him before he could speak "Spike's right. We need to take them down and keep them down and the only way to do it is to take out Cordelia. She's the wild card."
He took the gun from his outraged friend and turned it in his hands reflectively
"Besides she shot me. Spike, are you sure Willow can't use magic?"
Spike raised an eyebrow
"I don't think the Slayer'll be right happy if you shoot her best mate, Peaches."
Angel looked calmly into his old hunting partner's eyes
"That's not what I asked. No, Buffy won't be happy if I shoot Willow but she'll be a lot less happy if I let her disappear without a trace or I just send her back Willow's body. Now, can she use magic?"
Spike stared at the floor for a moment and then said slowly
"She can't channel it but she got right good towards the end there and there's nothing stopping her telling one of the others what to do."
Angel nodded
"Cordelia goes down first and if Willow even looks like she might be coaching Fred in a spell shoot her. I don't want them giving us the slip again."
Spike stared grimly into Angel's eyes and nodded and then both vampires turned to look at Gunn. He thought of Fred's white face as they drove away and her frantic arms when she launched herself at him in her hotel room. He nodded and Angel gave a small grin and drawled in an exaggerated hillbilly accent
"Then let's go hunt us some women."
Cordelia sat back on her heels and gave a small cheer as the paper in the grate finally caught and the flames began to lick against the wood piled on top. She held her hands out, grateful for the small amount of heat and shivered as she remembered Angel's face back at the motel. In all the time she had known him he had never, ever, spoken to her or treated her that way. Since their enforced parting over the summer they had trodden carefully around each other and had yet to raise the subject of their feelings. She admitted she still wanted and loved him and although she had caught him watching her with impenetrable eyes on occasion, she truly believed that he was resigned to leaving their romantic issues unresolved. She closed her eyes and his face rose up before her, twisted with anger and passion as it had been earlier and she rubbed her wrists where he had gripped her.
No, definitely not resigned to letting sleeping dogs lie. The way he had looked earlier he was not only prepared to wake the sleepy dogs up but kick them round the yard and turn the hose on them too. She shivered again and stood up, carefully schooling her face into a bright smile as she turned to face the two girls huddled together on the sagging, dusty sofa
"Well, we aren't going to freeze at least. How's everybody doing?"
Willow smiled at her and flicked concerned eyes towards Fred who sat staring blankly at the floor
"We're good."
Cordelia stared at the dark haired girl for a moment and then said gently
"Fred, honey, are you ok?"
Fred raised sad eyes to the seer and said quietly
"I told Charles I didn't love him."
She raised her fingers to her mouth and nervously began to chew on her nails, a habit Cordelia was sure that she had stopped not long after they brought her back from Pylea
"I threw that dust at him, knocked him out, tied him up and then I told him I didn't love him. What have I done, y'all?"
Cordelia crossed to her quickly and dropped to her knees, taking the smaller woman's hands in hers
"You did what you had to. We all did. Fred, look at me."
She waited until two black pools of misery stared at her and then said firmly
"If you hadn't done what you did, then Gunn's life would have been in danger, it's as simple as that. I know its tough, but it's better that he's alive and hurting than lying dead somewhere."
She took a deep steadying breath
"I said things to Angel tonight that I didn't want to because I have to keep him safe. We just have to trust that when we finally beat this thing and we go home they love us enough to listen to our side of things before judging our choices and us. Ok?"
Fred nodded and straightened bolstered by Cordelia's calmly confident words. She smiled a little shakily but Cordy could see the renewed resolve in her limpid eyes
"Ok. We're Scoobies right? We don't get beaten, we do the beatin'!"
Cordelia laughed and hugged her friends to her tightly
"Damn straight. Now I think we should see if we have anything worth eating with us then crash and try to get some sleep."
Willow nodded and crossed to where they dumped their bags and began to open them one by one
"Good plan, Cordy. I'll take first watch. Just in case."
Two hours later and all was silent in the small cabin and Willow stared out into the night and thought of home. It was coming up to the busiest time of the night for slayage and she wondered how Buffy was doing with the ranks of the Scoobies so severely depleted. With both herself and Spike on the road that only left Xander, Anya, Giles and Dawn to back Buffy up on the hellmouth and she shivered as she thought of the dangers her friends could be facing without her. She glanced around the small room behind her taking in the remnants of the broken furniture and the cracked and dusty walls and floor and her two friends huddled together on the floor for warmth on a pile of discoloured tarpaulins. The fading light of Cordelia's fire sent flickering shadows racing around the room and she felt a bittersweet pang as she thought of a hundred nights spent with Tara just watching a fire dance for them in the grate. She turned to the window again and turned her face to the heavens briefly
Goodnight love.
She shivered as a breeze blew through the window and she pulled her light jacket more tightly around her and then yelled out and fell off the sill as a huge shadow reared up before her. The effect on Cordelia and Fred was dramatic. They bolted upright screaming in surprise and then scrambled up as Willow rolled to her feet and scurried to stand with them. Cordelia's mouth fell open as she watched Gunn drop lightly through the window
"Good evening ladies."
She wasted no more time on surprise and instead spun Willow and Fred 'round and pushed them before her heading for the back door. All three ground to a halt at the sight of Angel moving swiftly to block the doorway all but filling it with his large frame. He folded his arms and fixed his eyes on Cordelia a grim smile playing around his lips.
"Shit!"
Cordelia glanced at Fred as the previously shy scientist spat the curse and raised a surprised eyebrow
Well, well. Pollyanna's all grown up
Her eyes fell on the warped wooden wall running along the back of the house and she took a firm grip on each girl's arm
I'm about to do something really, really dumb or really, really smart. God I hope it's smart.
She took a deep breath and ran at the wall, pulling Willow and Fred with her. They realised her intent inches before they hit and all three turned and threw themselves backwards into the rotten wood.
Gunn blinked in surprise and then lit out after them as they crashed through the wall. As he burst through the hole and saw them scramble to their feet he remembered to yell loudly
"Angel, Spike you're invited. Just in case."
Cordelia gulped in the cool night air and pushed to her feet, dragging Willow and Fred up with her. She took off towards the trees and then faltered just for a moment as Spike stepped out in front of her and raised one of Angel's tranq guns, she grinned as she remembered his chip and lengthened her stride again.
Willow watched as Cordelia ran at full speed towards Spike and her eyes widened in horror as he pointed a gun at her. She had forgotten to tell them about the chip and Cordelia thought he was bluffing! She opened her mouth to shout a warning and then screamed in horror as Spike fired with an evil grin. Fred crashed into her as she froze, memories of the day Tara died flooding over her, immobilising her feet and mind. Fred was no less horrified as she watched Cordelia drop like a stone but she retained the presence of mind to start moving again. She grabbed hold of Willow's sleeve
"Come on!"
She pulled Willow after her and fled into the trees ignoring Gunn's angry shout
"Fred stop! Just stop right there!"
Fred's breath started to hitch as she heard crashing behind her and she knew that with a vampire's enhanced night vision they wouldn't last long. She stopped and faced Willow
"If we stay together they'll get us. Run Willow!"
She pushed the red head and Willow stumbled and then whispered
"They shot Cordy."
Fred shoved her again
"Run!"
Not daring to waste another second, she plunged into the trees hoping Willow could get it together enough to follow her example. Her mind raced as fast as her feet as she plunged through the woodland and she started to list and examine the facts as she had been taught.
They had drugged Cordy, so they had at least one of them. She didn't think they would dare to leave her unattended so drew the conclusion someone, most likely Angel, had stayed behind to guard her. That left Spike and Gunn. Gunn would come after her himself if he could. So, assuming Willow hadn't been caught already all she had to worry about was an ordinary human tracking her. An ordinary city boy human at that. She smiled grimly as she pushed her way through the scrub and trees, all she had to do was stay ahead of them until daybreak and then Spike and Angel were as good as helpless and she was fairly sure she could come up with a way to secure Gunn. She ran on into the night whispering Cordelia's words from earlier in the night
"Whatever I have to do, Whatever I have to do."
Spike and Gunn hit the spot where the girls had separated seconds after Willow forced herself to move. Spike gripped the taller man's arm to still him as he sniffed the air and then said
"They've separated. Your girlie's heading that way."
He gestured east and then nodded in the other direction
"Mine went this way."
Gunn nodded briefly and ran into the darkness, quickly disappearing from sight. Spike sniffed the air again and grinned to himself. Slipping silently between the trees, he moved quickly after Willow's scent.
Angel stared down at the girl on the grass and bent to pull the drugged dart from her arm. He threw it to the ground and gently slipped his arms under her shoulders and knees and lifted her high against his, chest cradling her like a child. He frowned as he walked back into the house, uneasy at the dramatic loss of weight that became apparent as he held her close. Cordy had always been slim but never what you would call skinny but now he could feel her ribs pushing into his and the sharp edge of her hip digging into his palm.
He stooped to lay her on the broken-down sofa and then took off his leather jacket and laid it over her, making sure all her limbs were tucked securely under the heavy coat. His hand came up slowly and he drew a finger lightly over the contours of her face. As the light from the fire jumped and flickered he cupped her face and rubbed his thumb gently over her slightly slack lips. His eyes were liquid with emotion as he bent down and brushed his lips over the skin his thumb had gently caressed moments before and then he straightened and bent to tend the fire in preparation for the return of his friends and their prizes.
Gunn walked slowly through the woods scanning all around him for any sign of his wayward girlfriend. His chest still felt tight with hurt and annoyance at the way she had run from him all night, not least because she had drugged him and then hit him with a truck to make her point. He had calmed down enough where he could consider listening rationally to her explanation before beating the living crap out of her and/or sinking down on his bended knees and begging for a second chance. Whatever worked, he wasn't picky. He spun as he heard a twig snap behind him and strained to see through the gloom
"Fred? Is that you?"
He waited a beat and then said softly
"Cm'on baby, you know I ain't gonna hurt you. Come on out now and let's get back to the others. Cordy'll be waking up soon and she's gonna be real mad if you ain't there."
Nothing but the sounds of the woods at night greeted his words and he edged towards the general direction of the noise all the while talking in a low, soothing voice
"Fred, honey, come out. I just want to make sure that you're ok so I can tell your mom and dad. They're worried about you, baby."
He spun again as he heard a muffled noise come from behind him and his eyes narrowed
"Oh I get it, you're playin' me right? You think that five years roughing it in a demon dimension makes you Davy Crockett or something?"
He stood with his back straight and slowly turned in a circle to glare piercingly all around him
"This is the last chance you get before I go postal on you. Come out here now and I will listen to what you have to say. If you make me hunt you down, well, let's just say it ain't gonna be pretty."
He waited as one minute ticked by and then two and then shrugged
"Ok, Fred have it your way."
He walked in long easy strides through the trees and gradually picked up his pace to a graceful run, muttering to himself
"You better be all that and a bit more, Crockett Jr, cos' it's getting serious now."
Willow slipped silently through the trees blessing Buffy for six long years on patrols with nothing but the moon and stars to see by. She used all her Sunnydale skills as she moved, keeping to the shadows and avoiding brushing against anything with a strong perfume that could lead Spike to her. She stopped and stared up at the sky trying to sight a familiar constellation to give her some bearings and then her nose twitched as a very familiar smell drifted under it. She whipped round to see Spike standing not two yards from her smoking a cigarette and giving her a smug grin
"Hello pet."
Willow's reflexes kicked in to overdrive before her brain had assimilated the situation and she swiftly bent and grabbed a thick, and above all pointy, stick from the ground and held it loosely at her side
"One move Spike and you'll be blowing in the wind."
The grin slowly disappeared from Spike's face and he straightened and threw his cigarette to one side neglecting to stomp it out. Willow's eyes followed it and she frowned in disapproval
Hello? Evil, big bad remember? You're, what, shocked and disappointed?
He narrowed his eyes at the slender red head
"Red, you don't want to do this."
Willow raised her eyebrows at his warning tone and spat
"Spike, you've no idea just how much I want to do this." "Red we're here to help you. Now just calm the fuck down and give me that soddin' stick before someone gets hurt." "Here to help my ass! You shot Cordelia!"
Spike cursed as he heard the tremble in her voice and belatedly remembered that she had witnessed her lover shot to death only a few months before. He spread his hands wide in a conciliatory gesture and took one step forward into a beam of moonlight
"Love, if I hadn't done that she would have bollocksed up our little ambush and we weren't going to let you skip on us again for another round of hide the hotties. She's not hurt. She'll wake up in a few having had a nice kip and then she can tell Peaches all about it and we can get it all fixed and take you home."
Willow had a sudden mental image of Tom the cat after Jerry the mouse had lit a candle under his rear end and the steam poring out of his ears as he combusted from the pressure. She realised it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that she would soon be following his example. The absolute nerve of the undead sonofabitch! What was she? Three? Spike watched her eyes flash and narrow and felt a sliver of unease run through him. Unpracticing or not she was still a pretty powerful witch and from the looks of things he had just pissed her off mightily
"Come on Red no need to get all up on your dignity. We just want you where we can keep an eye on you."
Shut up, shut up, shut up!
His inner Spike was battening down the hatches and screaming the place down in an effort to get the suicidal one in control of the mouth to shut up. He privately wondered that she could still see at all, her eyes had narrowed that much
"I. Am. Not. A. Child." "I know love but you obviously have some major league shit happening here and we want to help."
Willow took a deep breath and then another just for the hell of it, unaware of Spike's eyes flicking in appreciation to the swelling of her breasts at the movement "Is it totally beyond your comprehension that maybe, just maybe, we don't want to come back? That we might actually want something different than endlessly saving the world night after night?"
Spike stifled a smirk at her words and said in a low serious voice
"Red, I'm dead not stupid. The Slayer and Peaches may have a destiny an' all but you and Princess Perfect have a mission. There's no way I'm going to buy you walking away from everything you've done these last years because you suddenly have a yen for a chinless wonder and a white fence."
He cocked his head to one side and said appraisingly
"You've got something inside of you that has to save the world and kill all the nasties. All the moonlight flit says to me is that you've got a big one in your sights and for some reason you don't want the rest of the Scoobs pissin' on your parade."
Willow stared back at him and wondered not for the first time how he knew her so well. He had done everything bar give her the name of the demon to be destroyed and stated it as calmly as he would ask for a pint of blood. She took another deep breath
"Spike, go home. I don't want to stake you but I will if it means you finally getting the message."
Spike nodded and his body relaxed into a defensive stance hands curled loosely at his side
"Come on then, Red. Fight me and let's get this over with. I'll go easy on you."
Willow's lip curled
"I won't."
Fred half stood, half crouched on a thick branch half way up a tree and watched Gunn examining the ground beneath her. She was amazingly impressed that he'd kept on her tail this long considering she'd stayed one step ahead of the best hunters on Pylea all those years and was hastily re- evaluating the ease with which she expected to ditch him. He stood slowly and then stared all around him and then just when she thought she had him fooled he tilted his head back and looked straight at her. She held her breath and resisted the urge to shut her eyes hoping against hope he would miss her amongst the leaves
"Fred, come down I'm done chasing you."
She exhaled slowly and swallowed
"Fred, I ain't gonna tell you again. Get down here."
She saw his face clearly in the moonlight as the clouds shifted and she redoubled her grip on the tree. No way was she going down there to face that. Gunn sighed impatiently and made for the tree, boosting himself into the lower branches with none of the trouble that Fred had ten minutes earlier. She scrambled upwards, casting anxious looks over her shoulder as his furious face came closer and made for the branches that looked too slender to bear his weight
"Fred!"
Gunn closed his mouth and counted to ten, aware that bellowing like a wounded bull wasn't the best way to convince her to stop climbing and come down. He tried again
"Fred, whatever it is it can't be that bad. Talk to me. dammit!"
Fred screamed as he lost his grip for a moment and dangled fifteen feet above the woodland floor and then he swung back into the tree and found his footing again
"Fred, someone's gonna get seriously hurt. Come down and talk to me and then if you still want me to go I will."
Fred paused and looked down at him. Sensing an opening, Gunn suppressed a surge of triumph and said in as non threatening tone as he could manage under the circumstances
"Fred, I only ever lied to you that one time. I promise if you come down I will listen to what you have to say and then I will go if you still want me too. I promise." "What about Angel and your other friend? They won't go. I'm not stupid, Charles."
Gunn wisely kept his opinions on that subject to himself and nodded firmly
"Yes they will if I explain to them. We'll go and we won't bother you anymore I promise. Cm'on Fred what are we gonna do? Play hide and go seek all night?"
He laughed shortly and then stared beseechingly up into the tree
"I swear Fred, I'll go and you won't hear from me again, just let me talk to you for five minutes."
He held his breath and just when he was resigning himself to climbing all the way up the goddamn tree, she said quietly
"Alright. You climb down and I'll follow but just five minutes and then y'all have to leave."
Gunn felt a surge of triumph and nodded
"Ok baby, whatever you say."
He began to ease his way back down the tree scowling as she added
"And don't call me baby."
Back on the ground he watched as she climbed down and then dropped onto the floor before him. She raised a hand and pushed back a strand of hair from her face eyeing him warily
"Ok Charles, talk. But remember your promise."
He grinned
"Well Fred, that's the thing about promises. They're made to be broken."
She cried out as he leapt forward wrapping his arms around her and pinning hers to her side, casually ignoring her frantically kicking feet
"You promised! You swore you'd leave."
He cuffed her hands behind her back in one of his and raised her face to snarl
"I lied. You trust too easily, Fred. People will say anything to get what they want."
His heart twisted inside of him as her eyes turned dark with betrayal and she spat bitterly
"I won't make that mistake again." "Fred."
She looked away and said accusingly
"I trusted you."
He went taut with anger and his fingers convulsed around her wrists making her yelp in surprise
"Yeah? Well, right back at you. I didn't see it being a problem for you when you took off without a word and spelled me into lullaby land earlier."
He shook his head and shoved her back only to bend and heave her over his shoulder grabbing one flailing arm and bringing it around his neck so she was held securely in an unbreakable fireman's grip. Fred twisted and screamed, frantically pounding on his solid back with her one free hand and kicking her legs but Gunn only shifted her higher and set off through the trees
"I'd save your energy, Fred. You're going to need it."
Spike dodged and moved behind Willow as she rushed him again. He had to admit she was proving to be a lot more capable than he thought. Having worked alongside the Slayer for six years had evidently paid off in spades.
He leaned backwards as her fist shot out and swore in surprise as she hooked one small foot around his ankle and overbalanced him sending him onto his ass. He yelled as without pausing she followed him down and brought the stake towards him in a smooth arc. He rolled to the side and sprang up saying indignantly
"Hey, watch it!"
Willow rolled and swiftly got to her feet poised to strike again
"Ok Red, you've made your point. Very Xena. Now drop the soddin' stake and stop pissing about."
Willow grinned mirthlessly
"What's the matter, Spike? Bitten off more than you can chew? Again."
Spike scowled
"You're good, witch, I'll give you that, but you're no Slayer. Give it up before I get bored and you end up getting hurt."
Willow snorted
"I don't think so, Spike."
Spike rolled his eyes and struck, darting behind her once again and twisting her arm up her back with one hand and wrenching her head to the side with the other. She cried out in anger as he scraped along her exposed artery with blunt teeth
"Bet on it love. Now be a good girl and come along quietly."
Willow twisted in his grip and Spike gritted his teeth as her butt rubbed across the front of his worn denims causing a sudden unwelcome swelling. He swore and shoved her away to land on her hands and knees before him
Brilliant, mate, just brilliant. That's not at all tempting is it?
Willow shoved herself upright and completely disregarded the fact she'd lost her stake to run blindly at him. Spike stepped neatly to the side only to realise too late that he was nearly flush against a tree. He winced as she ran head first into the trunk and, with a loud crack, collapsed to the ground.
"Willow? Are you alright pet?"
He sniffed the air and caught the faintest hint of copper
"Oh for fuck's sake!"
He rolled her over carefully and didn't need his vampire senses to tell him she was deeply unconscious. A large purple knot was swelling above her right eye as he watched and a trickle of blood ran down the side of her face, disappearing into her hairline. He sighed and reached out a cautious hand to stroke her strawberry hair strangely amused at the fact he was upset at the sight of her lying there so helpless when at one time in his life he would have been convinced of the existence of Santa Claus to have such a tasty bite spread before him.
He slipped an arm under her, raising her slowly, and then hesitantly dipped his head and brushed a tentative kiss over her forehead. He inhaled and breathed in the essence of Willow. Innocence, goodness, natural magic and just a hint of strawberries. He brushed his lips over her again and then slipped his other arm under her knees and lifted her. He moved quickly back towards the cabin, frowning uneasily down at the girl in his arms.
End part 9.