Authors Note: Look what happens when everyone reviews! Everyone gets a chapter much more quickly, and a LONG chapter at that!!! I'm gonna be gone Wednesday thru Saturday with absolutely no computer acess (my parents live in the dark ages, I mean they just got a DVD player!), but lucky for all of you, I can still write on paper like they used to do in the good old days, which means all you have to wait for is me to type it up. Trust me that's nothing! I hope all my fellow Americans have a terrific Thanksgiving with much by means of turkey coma. I know one thing I'll be thankful for is terrific readers who help me keep writing, cos all my real world friends find my fanfic hobby to be a bit on the wierd. To all my international readers, umm, yeah, have a great Thursday? I promise more Spuffiness, and a face from the very very very far back past in Buffy's life. Will you join me? Will you review to make my life complete?
Giles retrieved Buffy and Spike from the make shift training room.
"This better be good Rupert, cos you can't pay for entertainment like that, and I should know." Spike said.
"I need the two of you to trust me. Giles had taken them out into the lobby, the room was all but abandonded.
"The last time you said something to that effect, it lead to the Robin Wood school of vampire deprogramming and dust pan filling." Buffy objected.
"I'm serious Buffy." The drop in Giles tone let both of them know he wasn't screwing around.
"Fine, out with it then. I'd like to let the ladies return to their training for a bit more."
"You two have to leave L.A. immediately. Tell no one where you are going and do not return until you hear from me."
"What? Why?" Buffy asked.
"Let's just say Angel's life depends on it."
"Oh well, bugger that, I'm not moving a muscle if that's the case."
"I mean you have to leave for the safety of your unborn children. Not the current Angel's life, that is not your concern."
"Giles, where will we go? I mean it's not like everyone we know isn't here. Don't really have many out of town friends. I mean I guess I could see if Riley and Sam are back in Iowa, but I really doubt it."
"We are not shacking up with Mr and Mrs. Captain Cardboard!"
"One of you has to have friends outside of the L.A. area." Giles insisted.
"Well I know some..." Spike started.
"You will so not finish that sentence, ever. No demons, no kitten poker..." Buffy interrupted.
"But what about Clem?"
"Oh My God! Poker! That's it! I know where we can go. Don't worry about it, I've got a plan."
"Say your good byes and get out of here. The sooner you are gone the safer it will be for both of you."
"But what about the battle? I'm thinkin' a slayer and a god might come in handy." Buffy said.
"Yes, but even if the two of you are gone, we have both of those here."
"Faith and Willow, forgot about that." Spike admitted.
"How will you contact us?" Buffy asked.
"Spike and Willow share a connection, I can send word through her to him when it is safe to return." Giles said.
"Um, hate to be Ms. Obvious, but how are we supposed to get away? I don't think the big yellow school bus is covert enough." Buffy asked.
"I had Winifred get a car and some cash for you." Giles handed Spike a set of keys and Buffy an envelope of money. "This should last you until we need you to come back. Leave no trail behind. If you have ot check into a hotel, don't do it under your own name. Do whatever you have to do, just stay hidden." Buffy could detect the tone of worry in Giles voice.
"I'm not too keen on this." Spike said.
"I didn't ask you to be keen, I asked you to get the hell out of town!" Giles blew up at Spike.
"Okay, Okay, sorry Rupert."
"I'm gonna go get my stuff and say good bye to Dawn and the gang." Buffy got up, hugged Giles, and told him she would see him soon. She left.
"So Giles, what's really going on here?" Spike asked Giles once Buffy had left the room.
"If I tell you, you can't utter a word of what I'm about to tell you. I'm only telling you because you are the only person here who will understand the true seriousness of this matter."
"Secret's safe with me, you know that."
"We have to release Angel's soul."
"Which means you have to let Angelus out to play. Oh Christ, you're going to have your hands full."
"Yes, if we don't we can't guarantee that Angel will return."
"I don't want to know what happens if Angel's soul is left where it is do I?"
"No."
"'nuff said. Don't need to hear a spot more. Spent plenty of time with Angelus, don't fancy any more. I'll get Buffy out of town. Her scent trail should fade out within 24 hours, he won't be able to track her after that."
"That was the intention."
"One question."
"What?"
"What happens when Angelus is done with the elves? What ar eyou going to do with him? You know you can't let him loose on society. He'll make short work of all those young new slayers we sent out there, and the time they spend with him will make what he did to you look like Christmas."
"We're working that out now."
"Well, if you need my help with anything, send word thorugh the witch and I'll let you know if I can think of anything. See you later Rupes, take care of them. And remember if anything happens to Dawn, You'll have one pissed off God on your hands."
"I know." Giles said as Spike turned to leave. "Spike? Take care of her."
"You know I will, with every breath in my body, as long as I live she will be safe.
Spike and Buffy were out of the hotel and on the road within an hour.
"Eww I'm all stinky and sticky and ick, I should have showered."
"It's alright love, I don't mind, remember, my vamp smell abilities have been reduced, so as long as I'm not retching..."
"Spike!" Buffy playfully jabbed him in the side.
"One of these days we're going to teach you to drive. I don't fancy bein' your chauffer for the rest of time."
"Aww, but you'd look so cute in one of those monkey suits, with the little hat, and the gloves..."
"Wore a monkey suit the first 26 years of my life, so you'll have to kill me first."
"From the mouths of gods..."
"So, where we headed to pet?"
"Vegas."
"What?"
"Vegas, I have a friend there. Well I hope he's still there. Haven't seen him in over 7 years, but if I know him, he's still there." Buffy said.
"A friend I don't know about? Who is she?"
"He, it's a he. He was sort of a proto-Scooby. He was the only non-watcher who knew about the slayage. His name is Pike."
"Sorry love, but Pike isn't a name, it's a fish."
"No, it's his name, and he'll be able to offer us protection, well I mean he can protect himself, so he's one less person to worry about. Plus I have a creeping suspicion that the two of you will get along perfectly." Buffy pulled out her cell phone. "I gotta get his number, cross your fingers, if he isn't there, I don't know where the heck we're gonna go." Buffy dialed 4-1-1, "Las Vegas, Nevada please. Norbert, Norbert Pike."
"His first name is Norbert?"
"Why do you think he'd rather go by the name of a fish?" Buffy asked Spike, "What? Okay thanks." Buffy scribbled down a number and hung up the phone. "I knew it! He's still there!"
"Terrific." Spike could hear in Buffy's voice that she wasn't telling him everything he needed to know about this Pike character. Before he could object she had started dialing his number.
"Yellow" A some what groggy voice said.
"Hi, is Pike there?" Buffy asked.
"You got him."
"Pike, it's Buffy."
"Buffy? As in Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer?"
"That'd be me."
"I thought you were dead."
" I was, twice."
"Word travels fast about the death of a slayer. Apparently rising from the dead is not high on the gossip agenda. Wait, you're not a.."
"Vampire? No, I am very much with the pulse having."
"Phew, didn't want to have to stake another undead friend. So what's up? Seven years, you don't write, you don't call..."
"I need your help. Me and a friend need to hide-out for a while."
"Friend? I'm you're bloody destiny!" Spike said a little too loudly.
"Did you get abducted by Johnny Rotten?"
"Who? Johnny Rotten? No, that's Spike."
"No, I'm Pike, unless I've got a clone out there."
"Not Pike, Spike, with an S."
"What?"
"You could always call him William the bloody, but I hear he prefers to go by 'your radiant magnificence.'" Buffy laughed.
"And don't you forget it!" Spike said looking at her.
"I don't think I want to know, you can explain it when you get here. Youknow I'm good for a place to crash as long as you don't mind the couch and floor."
"You're an absolute life saver."
Spike murmmured under his breath, "if you only knew..."
Buffy wrote down an address and some directions. "Thanks Pike, we should be there in just a couple of hours."
"I expect a full recap."
"I don't think you do, but I'll let you in on the finer points. Later." Buffy hung up the phone.
"Now I know he wasn't just some proto-Scooby, so out with it."
"He was my partner in crime."
"What? You as a criminal? I shudder to think." Spike mocked her.
"Who do you think helped be burn do my old high school's gym after defeating lothos? Like I am capable of that sort of destruct-o-rama on my own."
"I've seen you take down a building." Spike replied with a wicked grin.
"Again, I had help."
"Point. So you took out Lothos? He had it coming if you asked me. Good job."
"You knew Lothos?"
"Ponce owed me 50 pounds and two tabbies."
"Who doesn't owe you money?"
"Hmm... You?"
"But yeah, Pike helped me when I was first called, after Merrick died, we sort of became a vampire fighting duo. After the burning of the gym, we ran off to Vegas. I left him there and went back to L.A., where lucky me, I found out my parents were getting a divorce and I was moving with mom to Sunnydale."
"Merrick?"
"My first watcher."
"You mean Giles was your second watcher?"
"Yeah, and technically Wesley was my third, I mean how many slayers go through that many watchers!" Buffy laughed.
"Why did you never tell me any of this?"
"It really wasn't relevant when I transferred to Sunnydale. I tried to leave my juvenile delinquency behind. I kinda forgot about Pike, until today, when it hit me, he was probably right where I left him. Vegas has a reasonable vamp population, and he likes to help the forces of good whenever he can."
"You and Pike?"
"Were we like together? I guess, it was confusing. I mean I just got called, and all my friends couldn't know. I didn't really have anyone except this really annoying grunged out rock guy who knew my secret, so he was really all I had. It wasn't like Sunnydale where I had Will, and Xander. I didn't have any help except Pike. When he showed up at the spring dance, he was like this knight in shining armor, well not armor, more like leather jacket, but still. He helped me fight the vamps and Lothos, and he wasn't afraid of me. I was afraid of me, I mean I was all of a sudden super strong and super fast and I could pick football players up, but Pike wasn't scared of me. It meant something to me. He was what I needed at the time. It was by no means love, but we were kinda together in a life or death, fighting the forces of evil and making out a bunch afterwards sort of way."
"Terrific."
"No, don't worry, you have nothing to be worried about, Pike is old news, really old news. News so old you line bird cages with it." Buffy scooted across the seat to sit right next to Spike, "You know you were right."
"Of course, but about what would I be right about this time?"
"You are my destiny, I could never leave you, not now, not that I know how important we are. Plus, I love you, and that means something to me."
Spike wrapped his arm around her, and kissed the top of her head. "I know, and I love you, I've always loved you. I think from the first moment I laid my eyes on you I knew it. I couldn't kill you. I had so many chances, but I just couldn't do it. I will love you until the last breath escapes my lips, and even then I'll probably haunt you 'til you follow suit. If anything cos I think it'd be fun to be a ghost, follow you about, move your tea cup that sort of thing. I'll always love you,a nd that is something you can depend on."
Buffy snuggled closer to him, "If I fall asleep wake me up before we get there."
"Of course." Spike gave her a squeeze and continued driving. he felt her relax and then the tell tale breathing pattern let him know she was asleep. He would keep her safe no matter what he had to do.