Chapter 13.
The visit to the zoo was a complete success. The grazing kangaroos fascinated Adanar and he was struck silent as they hopped about effortlessly, propped themselves on their muscular tails and joeys climbed in and out of their mothers pouches. After almost half an hour of kangaroo watching Dawn insisted they go to the platypus pond and his reaction provided them with a moment of pure joy. He stared at the odd looking little creatures in disbelief before suddenly doubling over with infectious laughter. Wiping the tears from his eyes and catching his breath finally, he shook his head, pointed to the animals backward facing webbed feet and the wide beak that appeared to be artificial and announced,
"That cannot be real! Why, look at it; it's made from left over bits and pieces of other animals! Nothing that strange can possibly exist in any universe, dimension or world. It is just so … totally absurd. How could it survive in the wild? No, I just cannot believe in it."
"Who said 'seeing is believing', huh? What's he going to say when we tell him that the koalas are always stoned off their faces from eating gum leaves?"
Buffy asked Dawn as Willow and Giles tried to explain to Adanar that he would not be allowed to hold a platypus and examine it himself. They moved on to the koala enclosure and Adanar was shaking his head in disbelief at whatever Willow was telling him. Giles and Willow started laughing as the Ganaru launched into a lengthy speech.
Dawn smiled fondly at her friend as she watched the trio from the bench she and Buffy occupied, just out of earshot of the others.
"They seem to be getting on alright. Adanar likes having someone he can talk magic with, I couldn't answer all his questions. Is Spike still all stand-offish and doing the 'so-over-the-Slayer' routine?"
Buffy nodded,
"I really hurt his feelings by not trusting him. He's got a right to be angry after being the only one not to lose confidence in me back in Sunnydale."
"Why, what happened?"
Dawn knew from Giles' computer journal but only Spike and Adanar knew she'd hacked into Giles' computer. And she wanted to see how Buffy had felt about being pushed aside for Faith; a concept hard for her to fathom.
"Oh, I didn't listen to Giles and got some of the girls killed and Xander lost his eye because of it. They all decided that maybe Faith should take over; she knew their names at least. Spike found me and said all the right things and turned me around. They had a point; I hadn't got to know the girls because I knew some of them were going to get killed. I shut them out, I shut everybody out. The way I always do. I couldn't blame them for preferring Faith, or for liking her as much as they did."
Buffy admitted.
Dawn could feel how deeply the incident had shaken her sister up. She remembered how Buffy had closed herself off immediately after their mother's death and funeral until Dawn herself had thought, and accused her of being, cold and uncaring. Now she reached for Buffy's hand and gave it a squeeze, saying sympathetically,
"They weren't the ones with all the responsibility, were they? I bet Faith didn't handle it all that well?It sure looks a lot easier than it is. I found it terrifying just helping Adanar stay alive long enough for him to become a fighter; if he'd died I would have blamed myself. And I did that not wanting to get close in case he died stuff too. I'd soo rather be a follower than a leader any day. Way easier on the nervous system."
Buffy smiled,
"Thanks, Dawnie. I'm gonna enjoy you being a not-so-little sister. Nice having someone to make the 'there, there' sounds like mom did. Come on, it looks like Will wants to introduce Adanar to our next-of-kin. She was rapt you asked her to come with us."
As they joined the others Dawn lowered her voice,
"Yeah well you know me, never one to hold a grudge. Except for my poor Malibu Barbie going missing! I know you only said you lost it because mom told you it was a mean thing to do. Hey, you guys tell him that we share ninety eight percent of our genes with monkeys?"
The Ganaru studied the chimps before pointing to one in particular and telling Giles,
"That young one who grabbed the food and is running away while making all the noise does bear enough of a resemblance to Dawn for me to see that humans and monkeys are of the one family. Why, the time she ran through …"
"You tell the cactus forest story and I'll toss you to the lions when we get to them! And don't think for a minute I'm joking!"
Dawn threatened. Adanar merely smiled and gave the others a look that promised that there would come a day when they would hear the tale and why Dawn didn't want it told.
Hours later Buffy wrinkled her nose in disgust and muttered,
"What a stink! We could have followed our own noses and tracked them down. Not even the Komodo dragons smelled this bad!"
She and Spike were perched precariously twenty five feet above street level on the narrow parapet of a warehouse roof. Directly across from them was another warehouse, the lair of the slavers. Dawn was a shadow on that roof; vaguely seen as she moved from one skylight to a second, peering down into the building's interior. Spike hissed a warning and dropped into a crouch back behind the knee high brickwork. Buffy moved as fast as the vampire and they were lost in the shadows as a small door in the slavers hideout opened, spilling a rectangle of yellow light into the alley below. Three figures exited the building and the light disappeared with the closing of the door.
Spike watched as the group sauntered towards the street and asked,
"Are we gonna follow them or wait for Bit? They don't look like they're carrying weapons."
Buffy chewed her lip as she watched them turn a corner.
"If Dawn hurry's back we'll still be able to see where they're going. If they're out looking for captives, I'd like to know. Where is she?"
"On her way back; that outfit isn't bad camouflage. I'd have a hard time seeing her if I didn't know her whereabouts."
Buffy could see her sister now, beckoning for them to meet her down at ground level. As they crossed the roof to the fire escape they had climbed, she asked Spike abruptly,
"Are you planning on giving me the cold shoulder forever? I'm sorry we didn't trust you guys and left you to fight on your own. But Angel .. "
"It's got nothing to do with the bloody poof, Buffy! He might deserve a sodding Academy Award for acting 'going evil' but I thought you'd trust me. I thought I'd bloody well earned that much at least! Even Dawn gave us the benefit of the doubt and she had every right to think I should be stomped to a paste before being dusted. For all she knew I was just an evil, soulless, blood sucking would be rapist. But you .. Arhh, just forget it, okay? It's over and done with."
He dropped the last few feet to the pavement and stalked ahead, forcing Buffy to catch up to him at a jog. She grabbed his arm and he stopped, turning to glare at her icily.
She released her grip and lowered her voice,
"You did earn my trust, more than earned it when you were the only one in Sunnydale to have any confidence in me. I am sorry Spike, I let you down badly, I know. Just .. I hope maybe one day you'll forgive me?"
She sighed as he shrugged, gave a non-committal grunt and turned to ask Dawn,
"Get what you need? What about the buggers who just left then? Do we follow them or what?"
Dawn glanced from the angry blond vamp to her sister's suspiciously tear bright eyes. Dusting her hands on her muddy brown tunic of Badri leather she answered slowly,
"They're out on the town, not on a hunt. Hadretz is back and Strega isn't happy about the waste of time apparently. He wants to start taking captives the night after next. It's gonna be a moonless night and they're planning a blitz type operation; just grab a half dozen demons, open a portal sometime before sunrise and split."
Spike muttered something incomprehensible and Buffy studiously avoided looking in his direction. Dawn frowned and demanded to know,
"Are you two having one of your stupid spats? Why don't you just beat the crap out of each other or screw each other silly and get it out of your systems before we have to deal with this lot? Because I didn't make it all the way back just to get killed because you guys don't have your minds on the job at hand, okay?"
"That's so not fair Dawnie, you know we never go into a fight without leaving our baggage behind!"
Buffy glared at her sister as Spike added his objections,
"Yeah Dawn, we've survived because we can put our differences aside when we have to. So you just make sure whatever plan you come up with means we all get to walk away from this because I've tried thedisembodied ghost thing and on the whole it's a pain in the ass!"
Buffy caught Dawn's eye and they giggled while Spike glared at them both. Dawn asked her sister,
"Don't you just wish you'd been a fly on the wall when he turned up to haunt Angel?"
"And nothing Angel could do to get rid of him!"
The two young women laughed as the trio walked back to where they'd left Angel's car.
Slightly mollified the blond vamp told them gleefully,
"I even got to follow him to his penthouse! Didn't that make the poncy git lose it; you should have heard the bugger whine! It was the only fun part of the whole deal though; fading in and out and seeing the fires of hell getting closer wasn't too cheerful. Fred, bless her heart, tried … Yeah well, Fred was a friend. One of the best, poor love."
They fell silent until Spike had the car headed towards Dawn's place. Spike sounded diffident as he asked Buffy,
"I was sorry to hear that Anya didn't make it. Must have been hard on the boy? He wouldn't want to hear it from me, but I was sorry for him and all. The demon was one of a kind."
Buffy nodded.
"He doesn't leave Africa unless he has to; he really likes it there. When he's not on the trail of Slayers he puts his building smarts to good use. He just finished helping the locals build a school and medical clinic somewhere in Ethiopia. He doesn't know you're back yet Dawnie; sometimes it's hard to get in contact with him but he just might pay you a visit when he finds out."
By the time they pulled into the driveway, they had almost regained a somewhat friendly footing. Dawn followed them into the house, smiling to herself and hoping things would remain like this; until the slavers had been dealt with anyway.
