Where Do We Go From Here?
Chapter 3: Picking Up the Pieces
By: Rogue-Slayer13
Summary: See pervious Chapters
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"This is probably gonna sting a little mate."
"Just do it," replied Gunn through clenched teeth.
Spike slowly poured the whiskey onto Gunn's wound.
"Holy crap!" shouted Gunn.
"I told ya it would sting," said Spike as he dabbed at the excess whiskey.
"You should remain calm while your wound is being cleansed. Tension just makes it hurt more," said Illyeria as she looked over at Gunn from her spot by the door.
"Thanks for the tip." Gunn slowly let out a long shaky breath as the pain from the peroxide began to subside.
"Would you like to know how Wesley is doing?" asked Illyeria as she came to stand next to Spike.
"How is the poor bloke doing?" Spike began to wrap Gunn's wound with gauze.
"The wound he suffered while fighting Vail has been cleansed and covered with gauze. Angel would like to treat it further, but we do not have the resources at this time."
"We'll have to go out and get some supplies," said Gunn.
"This is turning into Sunnyhell all over again."
"What happened in this Sunnyhell?" asked Illyeria.
"The First evil decided to come out and play. All done mate." Spike helped Gunn sit up.
"You mean The First evil started a war?"
"Yeah, probably the biggest one The Scoobies and The Slayer have ever faced. It destroyed the entire town." Spike poured some of the whiskey into a glass and then put the cap back on it.
"I have a feeling that the wolf, ram, and heart will cause an even more disastrous war," replied Illyeria.
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Dawn wrapped the phone cord around her finger as she waited for Willow to answer. Buffy was busy packing what seemed like everything she owned into one suitcase while Andrew paced all over the house, not knowing exactly what to do. Dawn had kind of zoned out and didn't hear Willow when she first picked up the phone.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Oh! Sorry Will, it's me Dawn."
"Hey Dawnie, what's up?"
"Well . . ." Dawn didn't really know how to begin.
"Is something wrong?" asked Willow, a hint of panic in her voice.
"No, nothing's wrong . . . at least I don't think anything's wrong. Buffy wants to know if you can meet us at the airport here in Rome tomorrow."
"Well, Xander's here in town."
"When did he get in?" Dawn glanced over at Andrew who was now rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.
"Last night, he got his eye fixed by a Shaman and wanted to celebrate. Are you sure nothing's wrong? I mean, is Buffy planning on going somewhere or does she just want me to come and visit?" asked a confused Willow.
"Well . . . " Dawn took a deep breath. "Buffy broke up with Ryan and then Andrew told us that Spike's alive and in LA and that he's been alive for a few months now and now Buffy wants us all to go to LA."
"Wow! That's a lot, when did this all happen?"
"Spike and Angel dropped by last week, Buffy broke up with Ryan last night and she wants us to go to LA tomorrow." Dawn looked over her shoulder and into Buffy's room.
"Here hold on, let me talk to Xander." Dawn heard Willow sit the phone down and then heard Xander and Willow talk about something, but she couldn't make out the words. "Okay I'm back, we can catch the midnight flight and be there tomorrow afternoon."
"Great, I'll tell Buffy."
"Do you know how long she's planning on staying?"
"Well, she's packing everything she's got, so I'd say anywhere from a week to a month."
"Okay, well, I guess I better go so we can get ready," said Willow.
"Kay, see ya tomorrow."
"See ya," replied Willow as both women hung up the phone.
"She is coming?" called Buffy.
"Yeah, she and Xander are catching the midnight flight. They'll be here tomorrow afternoon." Dawn headed toward her sisters room with Andrew in tow.
"Why's Xander coming?" asked Buffy as the two entered the room.
"He was visiting with Willow." Dawn went over to get some things out of Buffy's closet.
"Oh, okay," said Buffy as she took the pair of shoes out of Dawn's hand and stuffed them into the suitcase. "Andrew, go online and buy our tickets."
"Okay," said Andrew as he got up and headed for the office.
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"Wesley, is there some sort of cleaning spell that you could whip up?" asked Gunn as he looked around the dusty hotel.
"I could find something to do the actual cleaning," said Wesley as he fixed his glasses. "All we'd have to do would be to take out the things that are in storage."
"Go ahead and do that Wes," said Angel. "We don't have time to waste on dusting. We need this place up and running as soon as possible."
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"I got our tickets," said Andrew as he walked back into Dawn's room where the two sisters where now packing Dawn's stuff.
"Great, what times our flight?" Buffy folded one of Dawn's shirts.
"Four-thirty, Willow and Xander get here at three-thirty that gives us an hour to get their luggage from baggage claim and recheck for the flight to Los Angeles. We have to switch planes in Cleveland and so we'll have about two hours where we'll just get to roam the Cleveland airport."
"Is that the best you could get?" asked Buffy.
"Yeah, I tried to find something quicker, but I couldn't." Andrew took a seat on the edge of Dawn's bed.
"That'll just have to do then," replied Buffy.
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"So, are we all set?" Buffy looked at everyone in the group. "Where's Andrew?"
"I don't know. He was here just a minute ago." Willow looked around the airport.
"Maybe he had to go to the bathroom," suggested Dawn.
Buffy scanned the crowd for Andrew. "I found him."
"Sorry, I had to pee," said Andrew as he came over to the group.
"I told ya that's what it was," said Dawn.
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Spike walked into The Hyperion carrying two huge boxes stacked on top of each other, along with a large duffle bag slung over each shoulder. He carefully sat the boxes down on the newly cleaned lobby desk and then sat the duffle bags on the floor beside it. Since Wesley and Gunn were injured still, they stayed at the hotel cleaning with Lorne while and Angel and Illyeria went to patrol and so Spike got stuck with buying groceries and getting everyone's stuff from their apartments. Gunn, Wesley, and Lorne all handed over their house keys along with Fred's and the key's to Gunn's truck. Wesley wrote down each of their addresses along with brief directions and then gave Spike the money Angel had left for groceries.
"Did you get everything in one trip?" asked Gunn as he came down stairs.
"Yeah, I got clothes for everyone, groceries, weapons, research materials, spell ingredients, toothbrushes and the like, medical stuff, you name it I got it," replied Spike.
"Do you need any help unloading?"
"I could use a hand with the groceries," replied Spike.
"I could get a couple of boxes or something."
"No sir you cannot." Lorne came down stairs along with Wesley. "You're not to lift anything too heavy, doctors orders."
"Fine, I'll just stick to the groceries." Gunn and the others followed Spike outside.
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