Author's note: reveiws make me happy, so keep them coming, I'm trying to work more on my grammar, but i CAN be sloppy sometimes so please, forgive me for any minor mistakes you encounter.

Chapter II - Route 101: Are We There Yet?

They had been on the highway for about four hours now. Four hours that had gone by in relative silence. Buffy brooded about the event of the last few months. Knowing she had lost Angel long before she had killed him. She was devastated that it had to come to this, but not so much from having to kill her true love as she had expected. She was more upset over how her mother had taken it and the betrayal of her friends. They had given him his soul back, and they didn't even tell her. Not that it mattered much; she had to do what she did.

She had to kill him.

Enough.

No more Angel-centric thoughts. Angel was of the past.

She chanced a look at Spike.

His jaw was set and his face blank but she could see from the stormy look in his eye that similar thoughts were rushing though his head. A few second of inward debating left her deciding not to question him, after all, he did the same for her. They were not friends; just because they were both devastated by what happened didn't mean that they were suddenly soul mates. A pause. Well, not that they could be soul mates anyway, Spike was devoid of soul. And yet he empathized with her. She knew he had only allowed her to come along because he didn't want to be alone, and she was grateful, she didn't want to be alone either.

Still, she wondered what went on under all that bleach.

"Where are we going?"

Her voice jolted Spike out of his own thoughts.

"Las Vegas." he said simply, his eyes focused on the long stretch of desert highway in front of him.

She waited for an explanation, staring at him expectantly. It was about a minute before she realized that she was not going to get one.

"Why?"

Spike exhaled slowly.

"Because I have a contact there than can give us some new passports." he said.

"But why?" she asked, she rummaged around in her purse for a few seconds and then produced a small blue booklet. "I brought mine."

This time Spike looked at her disbelievingly.

"Thought you might say that." he said. "Sodding bint. see, I was under the impression that you wanted to get away, slayer." she was about to speak up but he quickly added, "use that thing and I grantee you the council will find you, catch you and then have you pinned as a rogue slayer and shop you off to 'rehabilitation' in less time than it takes for me to drain your blood."

Her eyes narrowed at the mention of blood drainage, but she assented. She didn't bother to ask what a rogue slayer was, the name was really rather self explanatory. She did wonder how Spike knew all of this, though.

"You pick these things up." he replied vaguely when she asked him.

She understood that she would have to be content with that because she was getting no other answer.

"All this talk of making with the rule breaking rouge-ness or whatever, reminds me, we have should set some ground rules," she said. "Its looks like we may be together for quite a while."

He turned to her.

"Who says so?" he asked.

Buffy frowned.

"Oh," she said, her eyes wide, for a moment there she had thought that everything was going to be fine. She had no idea how to strike it up on her own and rather hoped that Spike would help her. Oh to what lengths she had fallen. Spike would help HER? "Well, I though that-"

Spike chuckled and shook his head.

"Called a joke, slayer." he said.

She was unamused.

"Jokes, usually big with the funniness, Spike."

The vampire shrugged nonchalantly.

"I thought it was funny."

Buffy stuck her tongue out at him.

"Just for that," she said. "I get to make the first rule."

He arched a scared eyebrow but said nothing, waiting for her to continue, wanting to see what she would come up with.

Buffy smiled triumphantly.

"No killing."

"fine." he said.

She stared at him.

"You're just going to agree to that?" she asked. This was much easier than she though.

"Well, I figured that you would say that." he said. "I can just take a little and I'll be fine."

"Spike, you misunderstand me." she said. "I meant that I don't want you hurting people." a pause and a grimace. "Not that you care what I want. But still, not on my watch."

Spike looked incredulous.

"Bollocks." he said dismissively. "How am I supposed to get a decent meal?"

"There's the butcher," she said beginning to tick off the possibilities on her fingers. She didn't want to mention taking the donated blood because that meant that some sick person would not be able to get to it, but then she rationalized, butter a few sick people than a lot of dead people. "The hospital, the blood bank... the possibilities are endless."

Spike stared at her hard and then shrugged.

"Fine. But you're heating it up." he said.

Buffy nodded.

"Deal."

"Right, then." he said. "I'll make the next one."

She nodded for him to continue.

"No slaying."

"What?"

"You heard me." he said. "You want to leave behind the vampire, Luv, and then I left the slayer back in Sunnydale. None of this 'I'll stake you' or 'throw you out into the sunlight' bollocks every time you aren't winning an argument or are feeling just a little bloody prissy."

Buffy's mouth dropped open.

"That's not fair!"

He shook his head.

"I don't kill, you don't slay." he said. "Sounds fair to me."

Buffy crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.

"I can't just not slay things!" she pouted. "People are going to die. Wait a second, why am I even arguing with you, I have a stake, I can make you agree."

"Doesn't work that way, Luv." he said smugly, when she turned to him, about to open her mouth to talk about fairness, he preceded her. "Think about it, you'll be getting by on whose dosh here?"

She shut her mouth, paused to think about it and then smiled sweetly.

"All the people that you stole it from."

He rolled his eyes.

"You slayers and your stereotypes." he said. "So bloody typical."

A pause, it was obvious that Buffy was not going to give in. Spike sighed.

"Fine," he said. "Compromise, a couple of days in a month we can go out and get a spot of violence- against vampires and demons for you and against evil rapists who prey on helpless little ladies for me, deal?"

"fine." she said rolling her eyes. She didn't need him, she could make it out on her own and she didn't want him. She did, however, need the company and she did want to see the world. He was the easiest choice. "A couple of days a week, a little patrol, a little fighting. No killing on your part."

He nodded.

"Unless the bloke's about to forefully takesomething some bird won't give or kill someone?" he added hopefully.

She considered this for a moment.

"Alright."

"Well, that's settled."

The drove in silence a little while longer.

"Are we there yet?"

He frowned and shook his head.

She nodded and waited in silence.

He was just about to immerse himself in his thoughts, pleasantly surprised that the slayer could keep her gob shut for longer than five seconds when she interrupted him. In the worst way possible.

"Are we there yet?"

"no." he repeated.

By the time the slayer got to her fifth 'are we there yet' Spike brought the car to a screeching halt. It was a good thing that there was no traffic on the road or else that stoppage would have caused a moderately sized pile up.

He turned to her, blue eyes stormy.

Buffy smiled warily, but scooted away all the same.

"No we are not bloody there yet and if you continue to pester me in such a fashion I will deposit you on the side of the road and have you hitch hike your way to neverland." he paused. "Are we clear?"

Buffy nodded and rolled her eyes.

"Party pooper." she said. "Spoil my fun."

He put a cigarette between his lips, not caring that the windows were up.

"That's what I'm here for."