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Author's note: I just realized I forgot about Oz so while I don't know if Willow and Oz were already involved when Angel released his soul in this version they'd gotten up to smiling and stuttering at each other when ever they "just happened" to meet at school or the Bronze but hadn't gotten past that yet. Oz is a werewolf but (so far at least) has been good about locking himself in so he can't harm anyone so the Scoobies don't know anything about it yet.
Chapter Six: First Spoor
Hook based his name on a large meat hook he carried around to threaten people with. Since he was an idiot he usually fumbled any time he actually tried to use it on one occasion punching through his hand and the victim's heart when he was supposed to be torturing a Polgara demon for information. As a result while he called himself Hook or The Hook behind his back he was more often called dropped hook, Roberto's fool or simply the idiot.
Hook's idiocy was shown in his choice of lairs. Although the crypt he'd chosen was large and impressive and actually had electricity to it, originally intended to power a row of fake candles no vampire occupied it before Hook for several reasons. The crypt was on a slight rise with an east facing door and was almost fifty yards from the nearest tunnel exit. This meant that as soon as the sun was above the horizon the entrance would be in direct sunlight and that if someone opened the door there was no way to escape.
Hook discovered why this could be a problem when the heavy metal door to the crypt slammed open, breaking the simple latch he'd installed to keep it closed. With a scream of pain he rolled his bed off the stone bier in the center of the crypt and hid behind it covering his head with the mattress as the small shadow provided by the bier was to shallow for his entire body to huddle behind.
"who the hell are you?" "Don't you know who I am? I'm hook." So saying Hook stuck his meat hook out over the bier as proof. "I work for Jaws, if you even try to hurt me he'll see you regret it."
"I don't care about Jaws, or Paws, or whatever the demon you work for calls himself." Buffy snarled grabbing the bier with both hands and with straining muscles pulled it over on it's side, stealing the shadow Hook was cowering in. Screaming in pain again hook clutched the thin mattress to cover as much of his body as he could and scurried to the corner of the crypt behind the door, smoke rising from every piece of exposed skin. "What I do care about is what you can tell me about Spike or Angelous.
"What the fuck do you want to know about the Slayer's boy-toy for?" Hook asked in amazement. "He might have been something once but now the fool's nothing more then a AHH!" Hook's monologue was cut short by a kick in the face.
"Don't you dare talk about Angel that way!" Buffy screamed continuing to kick the vampire wherever she could reach him as he rolled into a fetal position and tried to protect itself. "Angel's a great person and better then a million of you or your pitiful Jaws could ever be and..." Buffy felt someone grab her from behind and immediately spun around, leading with a fist level with her head and swung with enough force to smash through a brick wall.
Even though Xander had ducked as soon as he saw Buffy start to spin around he just barely managed to duck under the blow. "It's me Buffy, no need to kill." He exclaimed"
Buffy stopped her follow up punch and glared at Xander breathing hard. "why'd you stop me? He's a vamp and I..."
"And you're the vampire slayer." Xander finished for her "but that's not why you were beating him. You were beating the vampire because he called your names." Xander told her. "You need to keep control of yourself. More importantly this vampire has information we need and you can't kill him until he told us what we want. Okay?"
"Okay" Buffy mumbled.
"Buffy, perhaps you and Jenny could go outside while Xander helps me question this vampire. Perhaps if he's uncooperative you can beat him up some more." Giles suggested
"Wait a minute Rupert. I won't go outside like a little lady while yo..."
"Jenny could you please go outside with Buffy?" Giles interrupted her with a slight emphasis on 'with' and a glance at the nearly hyperventilating Slayer.
"Oh. Of course" Jenny replied after a slight pause realizing why Rupert asked her and Buffy to step outside. Buffy was clearly too upset to do anything but interfere but by the same token shouldn't be alone to brood when she was so upset so someone had to go with her and try to calm her down. A task for which Jenny was best suited among the three of them.,
"Wait a minute I'll go get something to tie him up first" Xander offered, leaving the crypt.
"Doesn't matter who stays or goes I'm not telling you squat." Hook told them. You're going to kill me anyway so why should I help you? The way I see it anyone who's doing something you're against is doing something I want to happen." The Vampire stated.
"I'm against the Slayer beating you senseless before staking you because you said something about Angel. Does that mean you want her to beat you senseless and then stake you?" Jenny asked in an overly sweet voice.
The Vampire was still thinking of how to answer that when Xander came back with several lengths of chain and a large padlock. "See if you can break the chain Buffy. If you can't there's no way this wimpy vampire will.
"Wimpy?!" Hook snarled "I'll show you wimpy." He started to lunge up out of his corner but helled in pain as soon as his hand reentered the sunlight and began to burn."
"Yup. Wimpy. Too scared of the sun to come out of your corner even when you know it's the only chance you'll get to do something to us." Xander taunted the vampire
"It's okay Xander." Buffy said handing back the padlock and chains. "I can't break them. But we don't need to tie him up. I'll get him to tell us what he knows.
"I don't think that's a good idea Buffy" Giles responded. You're too emotional right now to safely question a vampire without killing it. I think it would be better if Xander and I handled the questioning."
"No! I'm the slayer. It's my job!" Buffy Shouted.
"It's because you are the Slayer that I think it better that it would be better if did not participate in this interrogation." Giles replied, removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's is Xander and my relative weakness which insures that the interrogation won't be cut short by excessive damage or premature demise of the subject" Giles said folding his glasses and placing them in his shirt pocket.
"What does that mean?" The Slayer demanded.
"What he means Buffy is that they can't beat the vampire unconscious as easily as you can so there's less danger of them loosing their temper and hurting the vampire so badly it can't talk." Jenny answered. "Now why don't we get this vampire tied up and go sit outside.
"Okay" Buffy sighed, resigned to leaving the interrogation to Giles and Xander she quickly tied up the Vampire, hooking the ends of the chains together behind his back with the padlock and closing it with a loud click. If Giles noticed Buffy was hitting the vampire more then was needed to keep him from attacking or that she'd drawn his arms and legs behind him so tightly the vampire was nearly bent over backwards he chose to say nothing about the matter.
Once the vampire was tied up securely Buffy left the crypt to on a bench a dozen feet with Jenny. A couple of minutes later an anguished scream, of pain and shock came from the crypt. Instantly Buffy was on her feet and rushing to the crypt. But when she opened the door to the crypt Xander and Giles were both fine and the vampire was lying on the floor, moaning in pain.
"We're fine Buffy."Giles told her as she opened the door. "Perhaps it would be better if you and Jenny waited in the car?"
"you sure you're okay?" Buffy hesitated
"Yes. Every thing's fine" Xander assured her
Closing the door Buffy leaned against the crypt's wall where her superior hearing could tell if Xander or Giles were in trouble. Every minute or so another scream issued from inside the crypt until after nearly an hour Xander emerged stumbling from the crypt carrying the chains they'd used to chain the vampire.
Xander stumbled to the nearby rose bushes and began throwing up.
"You okay Xander?"Buffy asked following him
Xander made no reply beyond heaving again. Jenny reached out to calm Xander but had her hand smacked away before she could touch him.
Noticing Giles who followed Xander out of the crypt Jenny called him "Giles can you help here? What happened to Xander?
Staring straight ahead Giles in a strained tone "I don't think that's a good idea. He'll be fine, he's just upset" Not waiting to see how she took that Giles kept walking towards the parking lot
Looking back and forth between Xander and Giles for a minute Jenny felt torn until Buffy gave her a gentle shove. "I'll take care of Xander. You go see what's wrong with Mr. Grouchy Brit." Hesitating for a bit longer Jenny finally rushed after Giles.
Jenny caught up with Giles and began walking silently beside him, offering an sympathetic ear and shoulder if he needed them. Giles gave no sign he noticed her beside him as he walked to the car and unlocked it. He then got in the passenger seat and took a sealed bottle of scotch from the glove compartment. Only after opening the bottle and taking two large gulps did Giles look up at Jenny.
"I knew it would be bad, you know. That's why I didn't want you or Buffy there" Taking another gulp from bottle Giles took a deep breath "I just didn't think It would be that bad." Staring down at his hands he whispered "I thought I knew. I thought I could do anything I had to without flinching. It was only a vampire. I kept telling myself that over and over but the screams don't sound any different, the smells are the same. It was horrible" He said shuttering.
Putting both arms around him Jenny pulled him into a hug "It's okay Rupert. We'll find out where Spike is some other way."
"But we found that." Giles said looking up in surprise. "I'm just sorry we couldn't continue. It could have told us so much more if had kept on. But we couldn't. If it wasn't for Xander I doubt we'd have gotten even that much."
"Rupert Giles!" Genny scolded him shaking his shoulder with her hands. "You stop that this instant! You got what we needed. If you were the kind of person who could torture anyone" She emphasized the last word with a particularly violent shake "Even a soulless vampire simply because it was convenient then I wouldn't have anything to do with you."
"What? B...b...but I...we...we didn't"
"Shh" Jenny silenced him with a finger on his lips. "You went as far as was needed to get what you had to get and then you stopped and I love you for stopping even more then I do for continuing."
"Oh." Giles sat silently for a minute then turned and kissed Jenny "I love you Jenny Calender, I love you Jenny Kalendesh. Whatever happens I'll love you" Rupert said breathlessly.
"I love you too Rupert Giles, whatever happens to us or the world I'll love you" Jenny replied and they joined in a deep kiss. "Mmm, that's nice" Jenny spoke after what seemed like an eternity " but we really should go see how Xander's doing." She continued regrettably
"No need" Buffy's voice interrupted them. We're here.
Looking up Rupert and Jenny saw Xander and Buffy standing a dozen feet away "Just how long have you been standing there?" Giles demanded harshly
"Um, we didn't know how to interrupt you politely and then ...well you know" Buffy tried to explain.
"Yes, we understand Buffy." Jenny assured her, blushing. "Well, we should get going" she added standing up "It's probably better if we catch them during daylight."
"Yes, quite. Giles said straightening up. Giles began to put the bottle of scotch back in the glove compartment then hesitated a moment and turned to Xander "Would you like a gulp to rinse out your mouth" He asked gesturing with the bottle.
"No" Xander replied with a shutter. "I don't intend to follow my parents."
Rupert Giles nodded understandingly "Very well. We should get going." Then turning to Jenny "Jenny dear, could you drive. I don't think I should drive just yet"
"Sure darling" Jenny replied getting into the driver seat and accepting the keys from him as Buffy and Xander got in the back seat. "Where to"
"The docks. Spike's been holed up in the old 'Pacific foods' warehouse" Giles replied.
With that they set off. "What kind of building is this warehouse?" Giles asked trying to recall the building.
"Standard big boring docks Warehouse" Buffy answered "You know Big loading area in back with those truck sized metal doors, offices in front with a normal entrance from the street." She added.
"There's usually also a second floor but I wouldn't bet on the floor holding up if you tried walking on it" Xander offered. "Too bad we can't go in from the loading dock"
"Why would the loading docks be so much better?" Jenny wondered
"For one thing the sewer access is almost always near the loading door" Giles explained "so we might be able to cut off that escape route. For another the loading doors face west and it's already past noon so if we could open the loading doors the sun would flood in and do half our work for us."
"Also that open area in front of the doors is great for fighting. No room for some sneaky vamp to catch you from behind. Too bad they always weld the big doors shut when the warehouse is abandoned." Buffy added before grinning and turning to Giles "Now aren't you sorry you didn't get that cool 4x4 like I said you should? If you'd gotten it instead of fixing this pile of junk again" She said gesturing at the car they were in" You could have crashed through those pesky doors no problem."
"Buffy there isn't room to rush the doors there so I doubt anything short of a tank could crash through them. Besides all you mentioned when you were trying to get me to buy it was how cool it looked and the great sound system it had. Nothing about the ability to crash through doors" Giles said giving cool a sneering tone. "Besides" He added "While right now being able to crash doors seems like a good idea I don't think I want any car you'd have access to to have that ability"
"Giles?" Xander offered hesitantly. "You think you could pull those doors off. If you had a tow truck I mean."
"Possibly. Although I've never driven a truck but Where would you get one?"
"My father has one. With any luck he's out and he'll be too drunk to notice it's gone" Xander replied.