"Hey…hey, come on. Wake up!"
Spike nudged her shoulder and she sprang to life. Her arm shot up impulsively, slipping the tip of his nose.
"Ow! Bloody hell!" he cursed, rubbing his injured face.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to-…oh. It's you. Um…" she faded away.
"Don't worry about it. Let's go." He grabbed her wrist and pulled her up.
"No! I'm not gonna be kidnapped, damn it! Help! Somebody help me!" she began to screech across the parking lot. "Help! He's-…"
He was about to silence her physically when Spike heard a strange click-like sound come from her head. Her voice instantly stopped and her eyes slowly closed.
He could see she was going to fall. Leaning forward, he caught her just as her legs gave out.
She slumped in his grip and he stood still for a moment, wondering what exactly happened and how he was going to get to the terminal, 200 yards away, with a hundred pounds of dead weight in his arms.
Twin lights shining on the ground interrupted his train of thought, and he looked up with relief at the shuttle bus that ran the lengths of the endless perking lots.
It screamed to a halt next to them and the doors swung open with a lethal-sounding snap, revealing a warm, dimly lit interior with a rather pudgy driver who raised his eyebrow at the girl's limp body in Spike's hands.
"Uh, poor thing's a narcoleptic. Just conks out every now and again," he explained quickly. Easing her body up the stairs, he propped it up in a corner chair. "Ups-a-daisy," he muttered as she slid down a bit and he had to lift her up to keep her form falling on the dirty floor. The strap of her silver dress fell down, and his gingerly replaced it with a quick flick of the wrist and a slight blush.
The shuttle pulled away and the lighting flickered, then went out. As they turned a corner, the girl's head fell over and rested against Spike's jacketed shoulder. He considered tilting it back up again, but realized that would look suspicious to the other shuttle goers. They might think the two weren't there together, and after the whole "narcolepsy" thing and his fixing her dress, he couldn't afford them suspecting him of being a rapist or anything sick like that.
Calm down Spike old boy. It's all for the cause, and if you bring her back with bruises, it'll be worse than not bringing her back at all…
………………………
As the shuttle creaked to a halt in front of the airport entrance, Brynn's eyes fluttered open, and she brought her head up, he warm cheek sticking for a moment to the man's leather jacket.
He bent down quickly and whispered in her ear.
"Listen, you're getting on that plane one way or another. If you cooperate, no one will get hurt. I'm not going to hurt you, but there's plenty of people around I'd take out just to get you to California.
"Now, are you gonna do this the easy way or are you gonna do this the hard, painful way?"
Brynn looked around. No one would believe her if she claimed he was some kind of monster.
She sighed hopelessly and stood up when he did. They exited the shuttle and made it through security, and they had almost reached their gate when a voice called through the crowd.
"Brynn! Brynn Marner!"
She turned around, the man halting in his tracks to catch her arm lest she run.
A heavyset woman appeared out of the masses and gave Brynn a hug.
"Hi, Mrs. Levanstein," Brynn responded blankly.
"Well, aren't you the cutest little thing in your little dancing dress? What are you doing here? I thought you were at the dance with my son!"
The man gave a little smirk and chuckle and Brynn elbowed him in the gut to get him to stop. He winced and growled a bit, low enough so that the older woman didn't hear it but it was just audible enough to spook Brynn into what a few years of acting lessons had taught her.
"Oh, Brad? Um…he took me home already."
"I see. So what are you doing here?"
Brynn hesitated, and the man cleared his throat to urge her to say something.
"This is…Brian. He's my cousin. We're…meeting my grandparents here. They're arriving from…" She looked around at nearby gates and came up with a few likely names of cities. "Las Vegas! They're coming home from vacation," she finished, breathing quickly.
"Well ain't that just the cutest thing? Well, say hello to them for me. Nice meeting you, Brian!" she said to the man.
He nodded with a curt smile to her departing back and pulled Brynn towards the gate.
"Nice cover," he said, smugly.
"Go to hell," she replied.
