Chapter III - Las Vegas: The Sins of Sin City

They ignored the strip and went down Cheyenne road finally stopping at the Suncoast Hotel. Buffy looked up at it. A decent place, perhaps not as glitzy as she would've liked, but at least she wasn't getting some old nookie drive in motel.

It was nice inside, just the kind of thing she was expecting of Las Vegas, scantily clad waitresses prancing around and old people up from Florida pulling absently at the slot machines that dinged in front of them.

She and Spike spent all of five minutes at the front desk and the bell hop lead them upstairs to one of the double rooms with a gorgeous view of the Las Vegas strip.

Buffy walked around the room, what the Suncoast was charging seemed a little too cheap for what it was. Of course, Spike had pulled his fangs and ridges on the unfortunate girl manning the front desk and she said they could stay for as long as they wanted with no charge.

She practically threw all the money she had at him when he said thank you.

"S'wrong with it?" he asked suddenly, as if reading her mind.

Buffy shrugged.

"I don't know." she said. "I thought we were going to stay in the Luxor or something."

Spike arched an eyebrow.

"You are a strange girl, slayer." he said. "Kill off vampires and yet you want to go sleep in a big imitation of a tomb."

She froze.

"Don't call me that." she said sadly. "I can't be the slayer anymore." she whirled around and faced him. "I thought that was the whole point of this? To leave behind who we were."

Spike opened a window and lit a cigarette.

"No, you left to leave behind who you are." he said. "I just left."

"I'm not the only in running away mode."

His eyebrows shot up.

"Running away?" he asked. "Who said anything about running away?"

"I thought that was what we were doing?" she said. "Running away leaving all of it behind us."

Spike peered at her thoughtfully. He waited for her to mull everything over in her mind then shook his head.

"Well, yeah." he paused. "But that doesn't make us any less of who we are?"

Buffy looked at him strangely.

"Someone's obviously been spending too much time with his crazy girlfriend of the ex variety." she said. "Because you are so not making sense."

He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"We didn't leave who we were back in Sunnydale, we left our habits and our friends and our families." he said wearily. All of this was so obvious to him, why didn't she get it? "But we didn't leave us. We are still-you know what? Why the bloody hell are we talking about this?" Buffy recoiled from the sudden change in conversation. "We're in sin city, lets go be bloody sinful." he paused, remembering present company and grimaced. "And I use that term lightly."

"No, I want to talk about this." Buffy replied crossing her arms stubbornly. "This is a completely non-character. I'm the slayer-or I was- it's just not like me to make with the running-thing."

"Except that you did it." Spike put in matter of factly. "I didn't make you come with me, slayer. You wanted to leave. For once, you didn't want to fight. I get it. Now, can we stop sitting around and discussing things and get one with out bloody lives and un-lives? I'm bored and I can't even kill people."

She sighed exaggeratedly as he strode ahead of her. She followed after him muttering disgruntled under her breath.

"Oh, you are suffering." she snapped sarcastically. "I can't even kill the one thing in the world I want to kill."

Spike stopped abruptly and turned to her; she did not anticipate his sudden movement and slammed right into him. She was about to fall but somehow managed to steady herself. She looked up at him ready to reprimand him for stopping so suddenly when she caught his liquid blue eyes.

"You want to kill me?"

His voice was wounded, it almost sounded hurt.

Buffy was at a loss at what to say. She did want to kill him, but not when he asked like that. It never really hit her that he might actually be hurt rather than angry at her trying to kill him.

He smirked after she hesitated.

"You humans." he said shaking his head as he turned on his boot heel and continued down the twisting corridor. "You just make it all too easy."

Buffy glared at him with a new fervor.

"What was that for?" she demanded.

Spike pressed the down button.

"That was a lesson, slayer." he said smugly. "Demons aren't just there to be killed, you know? You had your little merry band of Scoobies back in Sunnyhell and you turned your back on them. You're out in the real world now, slayer, different game, different rules and all you've got is me. So learn to live with me, love, because it's going to be a while."

She said nothing to him after that, but followed when he lead her out into the hall and into the elevator, she figured this was what he meant when he said 'go be bloody sinful'. She was surprised when he led her down to the lobby and completely by passed all the black jack tables and slot machines, striding purposefully towards the exit. He stopped next to the big glass and brass doors and tilted it open.

Buffy peered at him curiously when he did this. Just what was he doing? Was he trying to see if the sun was out or something? She would help him; it was eight o'clock at night. It wasn't. That was odd, though, because Buffy knew that vampire's had built in sun detectors

Maybe he was scanning for demons or something.

"Spike?" she asked curiously. "What do you think you're doing? If there are any demons or anything out there, let me give you a tip, they hardly use the front door, and opening it isn't going to help us if they just happened to break tradition."

He had been looking out at the cool night ahead of them, mulling everything over in his head, all the plans, everything they would need. that was at least until the bloody slayer had jolted him out of his thoughts and was staring at him pointedly, with her hands on her hips as if she was waiting for an explanation. An explanation for what? What was it she thought she was playing at?

"What was that, slayer?"

She glanced at him holding the door.

He was obviously too distracted to catch her meaning because he just clenched his jaw and said,

"Never mind. Would you just bloody go though so we can get on to my contact?"

It hit her only after she complied with his wishes. She realized what he had been doing. He had been holding the door open. For her. Like some gentleman or something.

Okay, that was weird.

Unlike her, he didn't pay it any mind, seeming not to have even noticed it. He kept right on walking, ignoring the valet who had brought his car around and got in. she decided not to make a big deal out of it and just let it go. Maybe she was becoming so neurotic even the smallest of things was upsetting her.

"Where is this guy exactly?" asked Buffy as she slid into the passenger side.

"He'll meet us at the Sphere." Spike answered gruffly.

Buffy was silent for a moment, as if wondering where that was. And seeing as how the last time that she was even in Las Vegas was easily five years ago it was not surprising that she drew a blank.

"Where is that?"

Spike pulled out of the driveway and looked at her strangely.

"Why're you so bloody interested?" he asked.

The blonde shrugged.

"I don't know." she said. Her voice was still nonchalant but it now held an edge of steel to it, she was sure that he noticed that. No matter what he said she was still the slayer and she did like not being in control of the situating. "I guess I just don't like the whole blind-trust deal. Right now, you know everything and I'm following along blindly. I don't like being helpless girl."

He very nearly laughed when she said helpless. Sure they were in an absurd situation, he was a master vampire and she was slayer and they were currently driving down the Las Vegas strip with nothing but their word and some misplaced empathy keeping them together, but still, nothing was as laughable as a slayer saying that she was defenseless.

"Then you don't have to worry now, do you, pet?" Spike asked.

Buffy narrowed her eyes.

"Spike-"

"Slayer, do you think that I would be stupid enough to go through all of this trouble just to kill you off in the end?"

"Do I really have answer that question?" she asked sweetly.

Spike let out a sigh of frustration.

"I'm helping you with this slayer, so I can take you with me."

"And why are you even doing that?" she demanded heatedly, finally giving voice to one of the million questions currently going though her head. "Drusilla's of the gone variety, remember? YOU made sure that she brought 'dust in the wind' to a whole new level."

Spike growled and turned to her so violently that she very nearly recoiled, this was after all Spike, and he was a master vampire-one of the strongest she had ever fought. After a moment though, he seemed to steady himself fought the yellow in his eyes back down to calm cerulean. He took a deep breath.

"I made a promise." he said his voice was tight and it sounded forced. "And I don't easily break those." he paused. "Now let me make this clear. You are with me because I promised to take you. That does not mean that I suddenly like you, or that I am planning to start up a whole new bloody Scooby gang."

Buffy crossed her arms and glared.

"Double that and you have how I feel."

Spike snorted.

"Yeah, whatever." he said as he pulled up into the drive way in front of the sphere. He got out, handed the keys to the valet, flashed his fangs and glared when the presumptuous boy waited for his tip. He didn't think twice before opening the door for Buffy and heading in.

It was a short drive before they stopped at yet another of Las Vegas's many hotels.

the crossed the lobby and the casino, both of them ignored the rather familiar dinging sounds from the slot machines and the occasional shout from a lucky winner or anguished loser.

It came as no surprise when Spike passed all the restaurants and coffee shops and went straight for the bar, ordering a beer for himself and a diet coke for Buffy. He handed her drink before she even had time to ask him how he knew what she wanted. She caught him sliding into a stool next to a black haired man who was nursing a scotch and took the stool next to him.

"Doyle." Spike said conversationally to the man he was next to. "Good to see you."

'Doyle' turned to them and smiled.

"Hello again, Spike." he said. "Always a pleasure to hear from you." he stopped and smiled good naturedly. "Whenever you aren't trying to kill me, that is." it was then that he noticed Buffy. "Ah and who is this? I don't seem to remember you blowing around town with a bird this good looking and I should know" he paused and smiled, as if laughing at his own joke. "I'm good with faces."

Buffy smiled. Whoever Doyle was he wasn't what she was expecting from one of Spike's contacts, she had expected a thug not a loveable geek. He kind of reminded her of Xander. At least, he was little more charming, if a little less tasteful.

"I'm Buffy."

"Doyle."

"Picked her up at Sunnydale." Spike supplied.

At this Doyle looked interested.

"The ol' hellmouth, eh?" he asked, shook his head. "Did they slayer get a good bite out of you? I heard she's a tough one." after saying this he quickly back pedaled casting a nervous glance at Spike. Worried that he may have made him seem less of a bad-ass. "'course, not as tough as ol' Spike here, he's killed himself two o' them, you know?"

Buffy looked at him incredulously and then glanced at Spike. He was very obviously trying to talk him up. Just who was this Doyle person and how did he fit into everything?

"yeah." she said. "I know."

Doyle looked content.

"Do you now?" he winked and Spike, obviously thinking he had done his friend good.

"Yes, she does, mate," Spike bit out playfully slapping Doyle upside of the head. "Because she's the bloody slayer."

Doyle stared at him in disbelief for a moment.

"What?" he said after a while. "Are you out of your mind, man?"

"Can I answer that?" Buffy interrupted.

Spike glared at her.

"Look, Doyle," he continued after a while. "I'll fill you in on everything later, for now, the slayer's going to need new some identification, passport, birth certificate and the like. Think you can handle it, mate?"

He handed Doyle a wad of bills. The man didn't count the money, merely pocketed it.

"O'course."

"Good."

With that, he got up. Buffy followed suit, the meeting had run a lot shorter than she had though it would. She hurried ahead, making some off hand comment about being in the hotel gift shop.

"Same time same place then?" asked Doyle. "Two days from now?"

Spike nodded.

"Very well." he cast a glance around to make sure the slayer was out of earshot when he turned back to his Irish contact.

"Listen, mate." he said, taking a piece of paper out of his pocket he held it up so Doyle could see it. "Got a long term for you."

Doyle's interest was piqued, his smile widened.

"What is it?"

Spike smirked.

"An elusive little bauble." he said. "Something I've worked my arse off to find for the last half a century or so." he handed Doyle the paper. "Find it for me, will you? Then e-mail me that you have it. I'll send you an address, mail it there wrapped in birthday gift wrapper. Sorry bout the cloak and dagger, this... this is bloody priceless."

By now Doyle figured that Spike was finished with his speech and was about to turn around when Spike grabbed him by the lapels and whispered to him dangerously.

"And if I hear about this from any other source," his eyes flashed yellow. "Then I know who leaked the information."

Doyle swallowed and nodded.

"I'll see what I can do."