Chapter IV - Pheonix: Passports and Air Planes

"I look weird in my picture."

Spike rolled his eyes. Damn this bird was being finicky, if it wasn't one thing that bothered her, it was another. At first she didn't like her new name, Elizabeth Anne Sumner, even after he pointed out that it was only one name away from her real name, Elizabeth Anne Summers. After that it was the places she had been to, Doyle had had it stamped with a few false destinations. She had protested that she would never go to Texas and that everyone was way too tall there. Right now it was the picture.

"You look no weirder than usual, pet."

Buffy glared at him.

"I can't believe I'm stuck in a red eye with you for ten hours." she said crossing her arms in front of her chest. She even hard the nerve to pout. "I should have bought another magazine or something. You know, so that I won't have to talk to you or anything because that would just be-weird. No good there. Big ew-"

it was after this that he just completely tuned her out, deciding to just let himself think of the ways that he wanted to kill her. This lasted him through the short waiting period and the boarding onto the plane, and even when they were ushered to their seats.

"-you know I wonder why you decided to take the window seat of whatchamacalit? The end? The big head? The oh! Yeah the bulkhead. The bulkhead. See, Angel told me-I mean-I thought that vamps couldn't go on airplanes because there was no real way to escape the sunlight." she paused to take a breath. "So if figured we would be going on a boat or in a car or something like that, I really didn't think that we would be in an airplane."

He had finally snapped out of his thoughts and back to reality to find the slayer still yammering on about something or other. He stared at her, had she been talking all this time?

"I like the window seat." Spike interrupted midway through her meaningless chatter. "It means that I control the only window around-its staying closed-and we took a night time flight."

That made her pause and think for a second before going off on another long ramble.

"Oh really?" she asked. "So are we like following the night by going back time zones or are just stuck in night-mode, because you know I really don't get those things, why can't the whole world just be one world time you know? I wonder what its like on those show with different planets, like Star Wars or star trek-not that I watch them or anything-just do all the planets there have only one time?"

She was babbling again, and going into utter nonsense. It made him wonder just what was bothering her so much. He was sure that she was worried about something, or at least something was on her mind because, in his hundred year experience with vampires-or sometimes humans he found that usually when people babbled they were scared, or worried and did not want to admit it.

"Slayer, are you afraid of airplanes?"

This question made Buffy stop cold.

"Afraid?" she asked after a few seconds of composure, even now her voice was abnormally high. "Me? Of airplanes? Naahh!" she made an obvious dismissive gesture with her hand accompanied by a raspberry sound.

Spike just arched a scarred eye brow and shot her a disbelieving look. After a few second of this, Buffy relented.

"Well, not so much scared as never been on." she said. "So it's a little-freaky, yeah that's the word. Perfect wordage. Freaky."

"What's the difference?" he asked.

Buffy looked indignant.

"Well that is of the obvious." she said heatedly. "Scared has a whole lot to do with fear, no freaked has something to so with-ahh! Are we moving? We're moving. Oh God, forward motion."

She immediately forgot that he was even there, squeezed her eyes shut and physically willed herself to calm down.

Spike openly gaped, this was the impossible-to-kill Slayer of Sunnydale, and this was the little blonde who had defeated Angelus. Here she was sitting next to William the bloody on an airplane, eyes closed and muttering the same mantra under her breath,

"Everything is going to be fine." she breathed. "Everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine."

"Slayer-"

"WHAT?"

Spike sighed, grabbing both her shoulder and turning her to him.

"Would you shut your bloody gob and relax?" he hissed. "People travel in air planes every sodding day!"

"And airplanes fall out of the sky every 'sodding' day." she replied with out hesitation. Then she paused, forgetting for a few seconds what was going on. "Just what does 'sodding' mean anyway?"

Spike ignored her something that only served to make her pout even more.

Abruptly, the plane finished taxi-ing and jetted down the strip at over three hundred miles an hour to achieve lift off, this time Spike had to physically clamp his hand over Buffy's mouth to keep her from screaming. She struggled against him, trying futilely to break his vice like grip on her. Spike stayed out of harms way but leaned down next to her ear.

"Slayer," he whispered. "Slayer, listen to me."

She shook her head stubbornly.

"slayer." he hissed again. She finally stopped struggling and he dropped his hand. "More than half of these planes falling from the sky sod happens in the first five minutes."

"How is this supposed to make me feel better?" demanded Buffy who was glad she could finally voice her opinions, it had only occurred to her too late to bite his hand. She made up for this by trying forcefully to push Spike away.

It didn't work.

"It would if you would listen for once in your life, pet." he continued he tightened his grip even more. She finally ceased stopped and sat still, she did not, however, forget to glare at him for good measure. "Now, as soon as that fasten-seat belt sign blinks off, you have absolutely nothing to worry your little empty head about."

Buffy nodded and relaxed for a full half-a-second before realizing just what Spike had said and shoving him so hard he knocked against the side of the plane. The vampire of course, found this infinitely amusing and was laughing his head off.

"Spike!" she snapped. "I cannot believe you I am so going to-"

The light dinged off.

Her head snapped up immediately, and her face colored with relief.

Spike just shook his head and smirked, maybe now he would have some peace and quiet and he did... for a little too long. Buffy had fallen asleep, and she was leaning against his shoulder.

Bugger.

At first he thought of shaking her off, after all, this was his personal space that she was intruding on, but after a moment's deliberation he decided against it. This did not at all mean that he was beginning to harbor a soft-spot of the slayer, not at all. He just had no wish to spend the rest of the flight listening to her yammer on about something or other. Maybe this way he would get some sleep of his own.