Chapter 46: Lie to Me Part 2

It was Ford's second day at school.

Willow was getting a drink at the water fountain. "Will!" Buffy called as she, Ford and Dawn approached. "What's up?"

Willow jerked ramrod straight, choking slightly as she squeaked, "Nothing."

Dawn said, "Do you want to hang? We're cafeteria bound."

Willow's eyes skittered right, left. She said, in a jerking, stilted tone, "I'm going to work in the computer lab. On school work that I have. So, I cannot hang just now." She glanced at Ford. "Hi, Ford."

"Morning," Ford replied in her friendly way.

Dawn and Buffy glanced at each other and then eyed their best friend. "Okay, Will. Fess up," Dawn said.

Willow had that headlight/deer thing going. "What?"

"Are you drinking coffee again?" Buffy asked in her best mom voice. "Because we talked about this."

Willow burst out in a peal of semi-maniacal laughter. As if she needed to elaborate, she explained to Ford, "It makes me jumpy." Then to Dawn, Buffy and Ford, she said, "I have to go. Away." And off she fled.

Ford said, "Nice girl."

"There aren't two of those in the world," Dawn said, chuckling.

Then Giles walked up. He looked at Ford, then at Dawn and Buffy, and said, "Dawn, Buffy. Ms. Calendar and I are going . . . somewhere . . . tonight. She's given me the number of her beeper thingy in case you need me for"—again he glanced at Ford—"study help. Suddenly."

Buffy lowered her voice and leaned toward her Watcher. "He knows, Giles."

Giles was clearly taken aback. "What?"

Buffy was actually enjoying this. "Ford knows I'm the Slayer."

"I know," Ford put in.

"Oh. Very good. Buffy." Giles smiled politely at Ford as he began to pull Dawn and Buffy aside, saying "excuse me," to Ford. He stood a distance away with the sisters, whispering anxiously, "You two aren't by any chance betraying your secret identities just to impress ah, cute girls, are you?"

Buffy smiled. "Neither I or Dawn told her. She knew."

"According to Buffy he said he found out before we got expelled from Hemery," added Dawn.

"Okay. Right, then." He considered a moment. Call him Careful Man. "Just remember, if you two—"

"Go," Buffy and Dawn urged him.

"Experience this thing called fun. I'll try not to have a crisis," Buffy added.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Call it a grand tour of the metropolis by night.

"And on your right, once again, the beautiful campus," Buffy said. "I think you've now seen pretty much everything there is to see in Sunnydale."

Ford said slowly, "Well, it's really—"

"Feel free to say, 'dull,'" said Dawn.

"Okay." Ford nodded. "Dull's good." She added, "Or maybe not so dull. Is that more vampires?"

Then Dawn and Buffy saw them: three vampires, sneaking toward the administration building.

Buffy nodded. "Must be the weather."

Dawn reached into her backpack and pulled out some supplies out of her pocket: a cross for Ford and a stake for herself and Buffy. To the sisters' surprise, she pulled a beginner-class stake of her own from her pocket.

"Stick close to us," Buffy told Ford.

Together they snuck toward the building, up the stairs, and toward a darkened corner. Buffy scanned left, Dawn scanned right. There were no vampires to be seen.

"Maybe they were just passing through," Ford suggested.

Buffy turned around to answer Ford. "I don't think so."

Then a blond female vampire raced up behind Buffy. Buffy punched the vamp in the forehead with her knee, then threw her into a forward roll. The girl vampire lay stunned, but a two more, much bigger, vampires flung themselves at Buffy and Dawn and took the sisters up and over the balcony railing.

They landed on the grass and Buffy and Dawn began to whale on them: a kick to the face, a few good hard punches, and a plain, vanilla staking.

The blond lay on her back, an actual vampire. Ford bent over her with the cross, pinning her to the ground. Bizarre. Incredible.

Wonderful.

She held the stake against the vampire's chest and said in a rush, "You've got one chance to live. Tell me what I want to know, and I'll let you go."

The bigger vamps probably made a bigger dust pile. Who knew? Anyway, having an elsewhere to be,

Dawn and Buffy huffed it up the stairs and found Ford, all alone.

Dawn said, "Where's the other one?"

Ford was breathing hard, winded. "I killed her." He coughed. Coughed harder. "I killed her and she just turned to dust. It was amazing."

Dawn and Buffy looked at Ford with new respect.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Down at the Sunset Grill. . . make that Club.

Paige orbed in with Willow as Willow continued to reveal her lack of revelations.

"The only thing I could track down was this address. The Sunset Club. I still didn't find anything incriminating."

Paige stated the obvious. "She leaves no paper trail, no records. That's incriminating enough."

The walked up to a particularly rundown building with a setting sun painted on a sign above the door. Paige knocked on the wide metal door. A little window slid open. Paige said, "We're friends of Ford's."

The head bobbed. The window slid shut.

The door opened.

It was some kind of underground Goth club, as spare as the Bronze, but weird and cold with blue neon lighting. Also, candles. Lots of them, in candlesticks and in candelabra. Probably a fire code violation right there. Everybody was wearing black corsets and lacy, ruffly things, and had dyed their hair ultra-black. They wore makeup that made them look as if they were all dying of tuberculosis. A fetching look. If you were Dr. Kevorkian.

As they stood on the balcony, Willow said anxiously, "Boy, we blend right in."

"Let's look around," Paige said. "You check out downstairs."

Willow started down the stairs as Paige made her way around the balcony.

From above them on the balcony, Paige checked out the scene. Willow took the last step off the metal stairs, to be greeted by a dude standing in front of a coffin.

Willow noticed the theme as she looked around. Everyone was dressed as a movie version of a vampire.

A Wonderbra vampirette stood before Willow with a fetching smile of welcome on her ruby-red lips. She said, "You are a newbie. I can tell."

"Oh, no," Willow said brightly. "I come here all the time."

Vampirella looked tolerant. "Don't be ashamed. It's cool that you're open to it. We welcome anyone who's interested in the Lonely Ones."

"The Lonely Ones?" Willow repeated.

"Vampires," Paige said behind Willow. She had seen what Willow had; this was a vampire worshiping cult. "It's time to go, Will."

"Nice meeting you . . ." Willow called over her should as she followed Paige.

Once outside Paige took Willow's hand and they orbed out and back to Willow's house.

"Something's up with Ford," Willow said, "You were right about that."

"In the morning I will reveal all," said Paige. "Thank you for your help, Willow."

"You're welcome," said Willow. "Paige can I ask something? It's not about Ford or Buffy and Dawn. It's about me. I've been kind of dabbling in magic. Do you think I could be your charge too?"

"I already considered you and Xander along with Buffy, Dawn and Joyce my charges," said Paige. "I would be happy to help you learn."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

It was getting pretty late by the time Dawn, Buffy, Giles, and Jenny swept into the library.

Buffy said, "Sorry to beep you guys in the middle of stuff, but this did seem a bit weird."

"No, you did the right thing," Giles assured her. "Absolutely."

Ms. Calendar cocked her head at him and drawled, "You hated it that much?"

"No!" he said quickly. "But vampires on campus . . . it can have implications, very grave—"

Ms. Calendar pressed, "You could have said something."

Up against the wall, British Watcher . . .

"Honestly," he said sincerely, "I've always been interested in monster trucks. I swear."

Neither Dawn or Buffy could believe it. "You took him to monster trucks?" Dawn asked.

Ms. Calendar shrugged. "I thought it would be a change."

Giles nodded. "It was a change."

"We could have just left," Ms. Calendar pointed out.

"What? And miss the nitro-burning funny cars?" Giles acted very sincere. "Couldn't have that."

"Okay," Buffy interrupted, "could we get back on the vampire tip? These guys were here with a purpose."

"Yes. And we must ascertain what that purpose is," Giles agreed, settling down to business as he led the way to the study table.

"Where's your friend?" Ms. Calendar asked Buffy and Dawn.

"We sent her home," Dawn replied.

"Good," Giles said. "The less she's mixed up in this, the safer she'll be."

Bragging on Ford's behalf, Buffy announced, "Well, she did bag a vamp his first time out. You gotta give her credit for that . . ." She picked a photo up off the table. "Who's this?"

"She's called Drusilla," Giles informed the sisters. "A sometime paramour of Spike's. She was killed by an angry mob in Prague."

Just then a blond vampire bounded out of his office with a thick old book in her hands. She pushed Giles into Buffy. They both tumbled to the floor. Then she leaped first on the table and then to the balcony, disappearing into the stacks. Dawn and Buffy stared after her as Giles got up.

"You guys okay?" Ms. Calendar asked.

"A book!" Giles cried with indignation. "It took one of my books."

Ms. Calendar said wryly. "Well, at least someone in this school is reading."

More bad implications. Buffy glanced at Dawn and said, "He said he killed it." The sisters looked in the direction the vampire had fled. "That's the vampire Ford said he killed."

"He lied?" Giles asked Buffy and Dawn. "Why?"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Joyce had another late night at the gallery. Dawn was sitting at the counter as she watched Buffy making cocoa for the two of them, when blue and white orbing lights appeared and solidified into Paige.

"We need to talk," said Paige.

"What about?" asked Dawn.

"It's about your friend, Ford," Paige said. "She's not what she seems. I had Willow run her down on the computer."

"Willow?" Buffy and Dawn were stung. Willow had invaded their old friend's privacy and not even bothered to tell them?

"Don't take this out on Willow," said Paige. "I was acting as your Whitelighter. Ford brought up too many red flags."

"So as our Whitelighter," Buffy said angrily. "What did you find?"

"First that she's not registered in school," Paige said.

"You're sure," said Dawn. She looked at her sister. "She did say she was registered right?"

"She said she was matriculating," said Buffy. "We just assumed that meant she was registered."

"Under normal circumstances that would have been true as that is essentially what the word means," said Paige. "So, I had Willow dig a little deeper. She found an address. Willow and I went and checked it out."

"I take it what you found was bad?" asked Dawn.

Paige nodded. "The address was for a goth club. Everyone there was dressed as a movie version of a vampire. From a conversation between a girl there and Willow I picked up they idolize vampires. And they actually want to become one."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The next day at school Buffy, Paige and Dawn walked through the crowded school toward Ford.

"Buffy!" Ford cried. "Dawn!"

"Ford," the sisters' said, and tried to smile.

Ford's own smile seemed predatory, calculated. "I had a great time last night," she told the sisters and Paige. Then she chuckled and said, "Well, an interesting one."

Masking her feelings, Buffy replied, "We're glad. Right, Dawn?"

"Right," agreed Dawn.

"Do you want to go out again tonight?" Ford asked.

Buffy looked toward Paige. "Are we doing anything tonight?"

"No," said Paige.

Buffy looked at Dawn who nodded. She turned back to Ford and made herself smile. "We're not busy."

"I sort of had an idea. It's a secret. I kind of want to surprise you both."

"We like surprises," said Dawn.

"Can you meet me here?" he asked as he handed the sisters a piece of paper.

"Sure," Buffy and Dawn agreed.

Ford was pleased. "At nine?"

"At nine," the agreed.

Ford leaned in between Dawn and Buffy and whispered in their ears, "It's going to be fun."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Willow was sitting morosely on the stairway. She said anxiously, "Hey, Buffy, Dawn, Paige. Paige did you, uh …"

"I told them everything," said Paige.

Willow nodded as she looked at the sisters. "I'm sorry we kept stuff from you two."

"It's okay," Buffy and Dawn told her.

"When Paige orbed into my room, she was just really concerned for you both," Willow told the sisters.

"We know," said Dawn as she hugged the redhead.

"Did you find out what Ford is up to?" Willow wondered.

"We will," Buffy replied.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

And here they were, the True Believers. What did Ford make, the thirteenth guest? She went down the stairs of the Sunset Club.

"Chantarelle," she said to the lovely blonde clad all in scarlet and jet. "Is everything ready?"

The nerd formerly known as Marvin bustled up and said, irritated, "Of course it's ready. Hi. I took care of it. I always take care of it."

Chantarelle's eyes lit up. She said, with awe in her voice, "Is it time? Tonight?"

Ford asked her, "Are you nervous?"

"Yes," she admitted. "No." She straightened her shoulders. "I'm ready for the change. Do you really think they'll bless us?"

"I know they will," Ford told her proudly. "Everything's falling into place."

Diego cut in. "What about your friends? Are they coming?"

Ford blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Your friends," Diego filled in. "They came last night. Two girls."

Ford's stomach did a flip. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Diego was irritated and defensive. "I have to do everything around here. Sorry, Mr. Flawless Plan Guy. It slipped my mind."

Chantarelle frowned. "It's going to be all right, isn't it? They're not going to let us down?"

Ford didn't have time for this. "It's going to be fine."

She persisted, "I need them to bless me." Exasperated, Ford repeated, "It's going to be fine."

"No. It's really not," said a voice.

Ford turned. Buffy, Dawn and Paige were coming down the steps.

"That's one of them," said Chanterelle.

Ford's face hardened. He glanced at Diego, and murmured, "It's kind of drafty in here."

Diego sidled off as Buffy drew near.

"We're sorry, Ford," Dawn said airily, as she, Buffy and Paige moved down again. "I just couldn't wait until tonight. I'm rash and impulsive. It's a flaw."

Ford shrugged. "We all have flaws."

"I'm still fuzzy on exactly what yours is," Buffy said as they reached the floor and faced her old friend. "I think it has to do with being a lying scumbag."

"Everybody lies."

"What do you want, Ford? What's this all about?" Dawn asked.

"I really don't think you two would understand."

"They don't need to understand. They just need to know," said Paige.

Ford said, "I'm going to be one of them."

"You want to be a vampire," Buffy said.

"I'm going to," Ford said.

"Vampires are kind of picky about who they change," said Dawn, and then it hit her: "You were going to offer them a trade." She was shocked beyond words. Her old friend had been planning Buffy's death or maybe even hers and Buffy's death.

Ford said, "I don't think I want to talk anymore."

Buffy grabbed him and slammed him up against the wall, hand against his throat. "Well, we still feel awfully chatty. You were going to give them me and Dawn or at the very least me. Tonight."

"Yes," Ford said gruffly, her vocal cords constricted by Buffy's grip.

"You had to know they'd figure it out," said Paige.

Ford smiled. "Actually, I was counting on it." She started laughing, then coughing, then wheezing as she grinned at the three of them.

Buffy stepped back, wary, and let Ford go. Ford kept laughing and coughing. "What's supposed to happen tonight?"

"This is so cool! This is just like it played in my head. The part where you ask me what's supposed to happen—it's already happening."

The big door slammed shut. Immediately Buffy, Dawn and Paige raced up the stairs to it. Buffy pulled; she couldn't open it.

There was no doorknob and no other way to open it.

"Let me guess," said Dawn. "We're trapped."

"Yeah," said Buffy as she, Paige and Dawn turned and faced Ford, who was halfway up the stairs, the others grouped around him like some macabre class picture.

"Rigged it up special," Ford told them. "Once it's closed, it can only be opened from the outside. As soon as the sun sets, they'll be coming."

Buffy appealed to him. "Ford, if these people are still around when they get here—"

The guy in the blue cape said, "We'll be changed, all of us."

"We're going to ascend to a new level of consciousness," the blonde bimbo, Chantarelle, explained. "Become like them, like the Lonely Ones."

"This is the end, Buffy, Dawn." Ford's face was set, determined, his smile a mask. "No one gets out of here alive."

"Paige," whispered Buffy.

"We can't risk it, Buffy," Paige whispered back. "It would risk exposure big time."

"We already have that," whispered Dawn.

"Let's let this play out for now," whispered Paige. "Maybe another way will reveal itself so we don't expose that we're witches."

"This is a bomb shelter," Ford said. "I knew I wasn't going to be able to overpower you, Buffy. But this is three feet of solid concrete. Trust me when I say we're here for the long haul."

"At least let the other people go," Buffy said.

"Why are you fighting this?" Chantarelle asked her. "It's what we want."

"It's our chance for immortality," Cape Guy added.

"This is a beautiful day!" Chantarelle went on. "Can't you see that?"

Buffy shot back, "What I can see is that right after the sun goes down, Spike and all of his friends are going to be pigging out at the all-you-can-eat moron bar."

Cape Guy said, "Okay. That's it. I think we should gag her."

Buffy gave him a look possessed only by Slayers. "I think you should try."

Cape Guy persisted, "She's an unbeliever. She taints us."

"We're trying to save you," Buffy insisted. "You're playing in some serious traffic here; do you understand that?"

"You're going to die. And the only hope you have of surviving is to get out of this pit right now and, my God, could you have a dorkier outfit?" added Dawn as Cape Guy looked hurt.

Ford smiled. "I've got to back her up, D. You look like a big ninny."

A little alarm went off. Ford dug into her pocket and pulled out a pager. She smiled triumphantly. "Six twenty-seven," he announced. "Sunset."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy, Paige and Dawn had split up to try and find a way out that hopefully would not risk exposing that they were witches. Buffy was up the stairs, feeling around the knobless door.

Ford said, "Man, you three never give up, do you?"

"No, we don't," Buffy replied.

"That's a good quality in a person. Too many people, they just lay back and take it. But us—"

"Us? We have something in common now?" Dawn said as she walked along the balcony.

"More than you'd think," Ford said.

"Okay, let me explain something to you," Buffy said, whirling on him. "You're what we call the bad guy."

"I guess I am," she said, as if she hadn't thought of that before, but she liked it nonetheless.

Buffy and Dawn looked down at Ford's friends in their ruffles and black lipstick, milling around and wondering what was going to happen next.

"These people aren't going to get changed, are they?" Dawn asked. "The rest of them, they're just fodder."

"Technically, yes. But I'm in. I will become immortal." Ford wasn't even ashamed to say it.

Buffy flared. "I've got a newsflash for you, brain-trust. That's not how it works. You die. And a demon sets up shop in your old house. And it walks and talks and remembers your life, but it's not you."

Ford looked away for a moment, then back at the sisters. "It's better than nothing," Ford said.

Buffy and Dawn were shocked. "And your life is nothing?" Dawn asked as Ford laughed bitterly. "Ford, these people don't deserve to die."

"Neither do I!" Ford flung at the sisters. Her voice broke. "But apparently nobody took that into consideration, because I'm still dying."

They blinked.

"I look good, don't I? Let me tell you something. I've got maybe six months left and by then what they bury won't even look like me. It'll be bald and shriveled and it'll smell bad. I'm not going out that way.

Buffy turned away.

"I'm sorry, Buffy. Did I screw up yours and Dawn's righteous anger riff? Does the nest of tumors liquefying my brain kind of spoil the fun?"

"Paige!" called Dawn.

Paige came over to Dawn and Buffy. "What? Did you find a way out?"

"No," said Dawn. "Can you heal, Ford? She's got a tumor, she's dying. That's why she wants to become a vampire."

"Maybe," said Paige. "But even if I did, we still have a problem with Spike. It's one thing to heal Ford, who already knows that Buffy is the Slayer and has kept quiet till now. It's another thing to reveal to everyone here that we're witches. We would have to get them out or its for nothing."

"You're a witch?" said Ford shocked as she looked at Paige who nodded. "And you can heal me?"

"Maybe, there is no guarantee," said Paige. "Technically I'm only supposed to do it when it's an injury received from evil. It would be breaking the rules, not that would it matter much since the people who made the rules think I'm dead."

Ford looked at Paige for a moment. "If you can get them out, would you try?"

"Yes," said Paige.

"All right. So how do we get them out?"

"We wait for Spike," said Buffy. "That said we may have to risk a couple innocents."

A car engine hummed. Tires squealed. They were here.

Paige sighed. "That way the other people know what kind of risk their facing," she, Buffy and Dawn moved down the balcony.

Chantarelle walked up the stairs. The door swung open. Spike, already showing his vampiric visage, stepped in. Others trooped in behind him. He snarled at her and ripped off her red choker. She was terrified of him. "Take them all. Save the Slayer for me!"

As he buried his fangs in her neck, the other vampires charged down the steps and began grabbing others. They savagely bit into their necks, feasting.

And then Buffy, Dawn and Paige saw the girl.

Spike's girl.

Drusilla had come in last. Without hesitation, Buffy ran and grabbed Drusilla, whipped out a stake, and placed it directly over the vampire's heart.

"Spike!" Drusilla cried.

Spike froze. He looked genuinely frightened. He immediately released Chantarelle, who slumped and burst into tears.

"Everybody stop!" Spike yelled.

Everyone did.

"Good idea," Buffy said, keeping the stake firmly pressed against Drusilla's chest. "Now you let everybody out or your girlfriend fits in an ashtray."

"Spike?" Drusilla called anxiously.

"It's going to be all right, baby." He said to his people, "Let them go."

Everyone with the exception of Ford, Paige, Buffy and Dawn flew out of the open door of the Sunset Club like bats out of hell. Cape Guy pushed his way to the front. The last of them stopped to help Chantarelle.

Buffy started toward the door keeping Drusilla close. Paige grabbed Dawn and Ford and orbed out. At the last minute she hurled her down at Spike.

Spike caught his baby as Buffy got to the door and stepped out, slamming it shut behind her.

Spike raced up to the closed door with his men. He looked at it and paused.

"Uh, where's the doorknob?" he asked.

Buffy stepped out to find the Ford's friends escaping into the night and then she orbed out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

When Buffy orbed into her home, she saw Paige's hand glowing and held over Ford.

"If this works," Ford said. "Your secret is safe. I won't tell anyone. I doubt anyone would believe me anyways if I told them that I was healed by a witch."

"This is a one time thing," said Paige. "I am only doing this because you helped in a roundabout way of getting your friends freed. I won't heal you a second time."

"I won't look a gift horse in the mouth," admitted Ford as Paige finished.

"You should be good," said Paige. "I recommend you get out of Sunnydale and never come back."

"I will," said Ford. She smiled at Buffy. "You have an amazing girlfriend. I wish you both the best."

"Thanks," said Buffy as she, Paige and Dawn watched as Ford left. She looked at her sister and Paige and sighed. "It'd be simpler if I could just hate her. I think she wanted me to. I think it made it easier for her to be the villain of the piece. Really, she was just scared."

"She was," agreed Paige. "Believe me I know the feeling."

Author's Note: "Being a family means you are a part of something very wonderful. It means you will love and be loved for the rest of your life." – Lisa Weed