Chapter IV - After the Facility
Somewhere:
"Is that a light?" Buffy demanded of Spike. They had been running for hours none stop and now she was exhausted. She squinted in the dim; it was the wee hours of the morning.
Spike nodded, looking up knowing that the sun would rise soon.
"I think it is slayer." he replied. "Must be an inn of some sort." and not a moment too soon, as well. He added in his head.
Buffy, too tired to even make one witty comment just trudged ahead, not at all heeding the fact that she was wearing doctor's pajamas and Spike was only wearing jeans and his duster.
It was a strange sight for the people of Worsheter, a little town north east of London. They were a right sturdy crew, the lot of them, farmers, simple folk. and quite a few of the villagers were just having breakfast as usual when suddenly, in burst a woman in doctor's pajamas and a pale man with a long black coat and black pants.
"Uhm, we're looking for a place to stay the night?" the young woman asked, then checked herself. "Well, the rest of it anyway."
Her voice made all the villagers turn back to their tea, ah; she was an American, that explains it.
Chucky, the bar tender and the owner of the 'Surly Goat' tavern and bed and breakfast, grunted.
"Yeah, we have space." he said, then turned to what was presumably the kitchen space. "Bessie!"
A squat woman came out of the kitchen, stopping for a moment to smile at the assembled parties enjoying their tea and bread. She was Bess, Chucky's wife and essentially the one in charge in every thing but name.
"Hello, there." she said. "Will you be needing a room?"
Spike nodded.
She grinned.
"But," Buffy spoke up. "We can't really pay you, I mean we only have-"
Spike rolled his eyes.
"Ten pounds." he cut in the middle of her statement.
Bess smiled at them
"That's more than enough for one night." she said. "Just one room?"
Spike smiled and nodded, ignoring wholly the nudge and the glare coming from Buffy.
"Yes, only one."
Bess nodded as if she understood, she thought they were a couple of youngsters who were off on some backpacking adventure, and deciding to have 'romantic' wedding in England.
"Well, follow me then." she lead them up the stairs to a smallish room with a large bed, dresser, armoire and a bathroom. "Here you go, its not much but its a warm bed for the night. You pay when you leave."
Again it was Spike who replied. He was already surveying the room, it was plain, but good enough, and he was pleased to note that there were curtains, enough to keep most of the English sunlight from streaming in, if he was lucky it may even rain.
"Thank you."
Bess smiled and backed out of the room.
As soon as she was out of hearing range, Buffy exploded.
"ONE ROOM?" she demanded.
"Well, what did you expect, Slayer?" he demanded. "the intern only had a couple of hundred pounds in the wallet I nicked, we're lucky to have even that. And we need to stretch those pounds for as long as they can last, not spend them on luxuries."
Buffy glared at him.
"You've been down this road before, making with the scourge of Europe-thing. You had no money then, where you find the funds?"
Spike smirked.
"D'you really want to be asking that, slayer?" he inquired mischievously.
Buffy pouted.
"So what do we do now?" she asked deciding to change the topic.
Spike cocked an eyebrow.
"What? No plan?" he asked. "Aren't you the mighty slayer?"
Buffy scowled.
"Well, I'm sorry, they didn't exactly have this scenario in health you know?" she snapped. "they did have the I-had-sex-with-my-boyfriend-and-am-now-pregnant scenario but not the i-was-captured-by-a-witch-doctor-who-has-decided-to-take-the-term-literally-and-escaped-and-am-now-fleeing-for-my-life-with-a-quasi-evil-vampire although I can't imagine why, so many girls now a days seem to be having the same plight."
"Now, now, Slayer, no need to be sarcastic about it." Spike said.
Buffy punched him, right out punched him.
"I have EVERY need to be sarcastic about it!" she snapped.
Spike didn't retaliate.
Well, he didn't hit her anyway.
In a second, Buffy was up against the wall, Spike was holding her wrists to her chest, he had even locked her legs, she could not hit him, and his weight was pressing down on her, she found she could not throw him off.
"Well, slayer, you may not know what to do, but I do," he said. "First of all, we cannot go back to Sunnyhell."
She was about to protest, but Spike cut her off.
"If we go we could be endangering your friends, this doctor doesn't seem like the type to be stopped that easily." he said, Buffy frowned and muttered: 'easily?' Spike snorted. "You had better bloody believe it slayer, we got lucky. Go back and we may not be so lucky"
He paused for effect.
"And it would be your fault, Slayer." he added. Buffy looked down. Spike let her go, walking off the other side of the room, producing a cigarette and a lighter from ether, she didn't even ask where he had gotten them. He lit the cigarette and took a long drawl. "We have to work from here, and use what we have, and right now, all you have is me."
Somewhere else, Near TARA in Ireland:
Dr. Lewis frowned as the Drs. George Wilkins and Mina Welles chant and add the contents into the pot. Dr. Lewis didn't feel like the powerful, doctor/scientist she used to. Now she didn't have the margin for mistakes she once did. Forced to rent out a room near Tara in Ireland to carry on with her plan. Now she needed to succeed or she would die.
Her only lead was this potion she had found and she had found it when she was running on pure caffeine at 3 o' clock in the morning. She was pressed for time and she sincerely hoped she had gotten it right. For all their sakes.
She could hear the two doctors arguing. Her nervousness grew. She would have done this her self but she had no magic. She just couldn't and now they were after her waiting for results. She had to make sure the slayer would not slip through her fingers yet again. it is a shame that that was exactly what Buffy Summers was famous for.
Suddenly a gigantic explosion
George frowned.
"Was that supposed to do that?" he asked turning to Mina.
Uncharacteristically, she shrugged.
They both turned to Dr. Lewis. She looked puzzled for a second but then smiled.
"Good work, Dr, Wilkins and Dr. Welles."
"So we did good?" George asked again.
"Yes, Dr. Wilkins, yes. Now the slayer can't move half as fast as she would like to."