Chapter 15

"Master Gregor?" A minion stood at his office door, a thick packet in one hand.

"What is it?" Gregor responded gruffly.

"A courier dropped off an envelope." The other vampire approached, holding it out to him.

Gregor took it and waved the minion out of the office before opening the envelope. He'd hired a photographer to surveil the Hyperion, since he'd had no luck getting close. Hopefully it was paying off.

The pictures were better than he could have imagined. William playing video games, sleeping in the sun, and doing therapy on his injured legs. Gregor held up a photo of William and a brunette woman smoking on the roof, the former vampire in a wheelchair. The woman's face wasn't clear, but he had suspicions. It could be Drusilla, there was definitely a resemblance. Then again, Gregor and Antonia had seen Dru in Peru two years ago with her Chaos demon. She'd been adamant that Spike had given her up for the forces of light, and they were never, ever getting back together.

The photos of Angelus were…Sad. He was mostly alone, the photos often captured him staring into space. A few showed visitors to his room, and in one he was out in the courtyard, evidently deep in conversation with two other men. Only one photo featured any of the teenagers Gregor had seen the prior week; the boy visiting his room, lounging on the bed, then looking at some drawings. He wondered who the boy was, what his significance was to Angelus. Something else to research, along with the woman who looked like Drusilla.

The last few photos in the packet were of Angelus and William up on the roof, smoking and talking. He assumed they were talking, anyway. William's eyes were focused on his cigarette, glaring at Angelus, looking out over the hills. Angelus was either focused on William or looking off into the middle distance as in many of the other photos.

Gregor sat back to have a good think, dropping the photos to his desk. So, they were definitely both alive now, seeing them in the sun and interacting with Slayers cinched that. And the photographs gave him information he could use. Once he figured out who they cared about, he could take them away.

Gregor turned to Antonia's portrait. "Soon, my beloved. Soon I'll be ready to avenge you."

"What time does their flight get in again?" Willow looked across the table at Buffy, who was anxiously fiddling with the napkin in her lap, her lunch abandoned.

They were at a pub two streets over from the hotel, their new spot. As they learned who the players at the Council were and gathered resources for their confrontation with Giles, they'd been here a lot. It was close to where they were staying, but far enough from the Council Research Library and the old Headquarters building that it didn't have a following among the Watchers, so they got to work and socialize undisturbed.

Penny, Tom, and William were due in this afternoon, following Chet and Amber's arrival two days ago. Wednesday they were meeting with Giles, and regardless of how that meeting turned out, the real work of their trip began after that.

"4:00 pm," Willow responded. "Everyone's staying at our hotel, so they'll meet us there."

Buffy groaned and tugged on her napkin again. "I'm reaching the end of my rope, Willow. I need to know that Giles is okay. Dawn's blowing off my phone calls. I miss Will. How I'm supposed to keep it together another three days, I have no idea."

"Hey, lady, you were the one who kept saying after that party that we needed to know more about what Giles had been doing and what we wanted done…"

"And I'm right." Buffy sighed. "I just…I know something is wrong with Giles. Like, I feel it in my spidey-sense. I rushed to England thinking we'd march into Headquarters and zap him back into being good Giles, and by the time Spike got here everything would be great and I could indulge in some shopping and tourism while he got his ID straightened out."

Willow nodded and reached for Buffy's hand. "And instead you ended up with office politics, a cast of shady characters who could be weaving spells around Giles, Wesley's dad had a cyborg doppelgänger who belonged to an international arms dealing ring…"

Buffy squeezed her friend's fingers. "So not the weirdest thing I've heard about lately. It seems like every day there's a security breach, or some neglected problem or weird demon thing, and I'm just so stressed…"

"Well, at least you'll be able to get some nice de-stressing in once Spike gets here." Willow wiggled her eyebrows , then frowned. "Oh, or are you guys not at that point yet?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "We could be at that point, if he weren't injured. As it is it took multiple awkward conversations for us to agree on trying to share a hotel room." She extracted her hand from Willow's and took a sip of her water. "I guess I should be thankful we're talking to one another like adults without arguing. That's gotta be good, right?"

Willow smiled and picked up a chip. "Yeah, I think all these phone calls did you guys some real good. You can't hit one another over the phone."

"Hey, we didn't hit one another at all while I was in LA!" Buffy declared indignantly.

"Oh, you mean during the three days in the past 14 months you've been in the same room? One of which Spike was unconscious for? I've spent more time with your boyfriend than you have this year, Buffy." Willow popped the chip into her mouth and chewed meditatively before continuing. "I think it's been for the best, though. You know? He was right about staying in LA. He needed to learn who he was on his own, not in a relationship. It'll help your relationship in the long run."

"I know. I just miss him so much. And in such weird ways. Sometimes I desperately want him to be there so I can get help demonstrating a kick to my student slayers. Or, I can't sleep and I want him to read to me. Or Dawn's acting weird and I wish he could tell me why." Buffy sighed and picked at what was left of her cottage pie. "And if I'm horny it's about ten times worse, because then I want to punch him for not being there."

"OH." Willow's eyes got big. "Wait, is that why you used to hit him so much? Because you couldn't…"

Buffy felt her face turning bright red. "Sorry, Wills. You probably didn't need to know that. It took me a really long time to realize that was part of it. It's not the kind of thing you want to admit, or know about yourself, you know?"

Willow tilted her head. "What, that you had lusty thoughts for someone you were supposed to be fighting, or that once you could have stopped fighting with him so much you kept at it to keep the lusty thoughts at bay?"

"Both, pretty much." Buffy sighed. "Neither of us was in any way prepared to be attracted to one another, or to have to work together. We were definitely not on track to fall in love. Even after we started to get used to the idea, we've messed things up over and over again. But, now that we're here…Now that we've worked through hating one another and depression and guilt and every other thing…I feel like no one knows me better, and I hope that means we have a real shot at a relationship where we don't argue about towels on the floor and have it devolve into punching. But I don't know if it does. And part of me doesn't care as long as he stays, you know? Another part of me knows I don't need to be in a romantic relationship with him, he's still always going to be there for me, and its okay if we can't make it work." Buffy frowned. "This conversation just got, like, really heavy. We should've ordered cider."

"My turn to buy a round." Willow declared, popping up from her seat and heading for the bar.

Buffy rolled her eyes at herself. "Great work, Summers. Drag poor Willow halfway around the world to help you with your drama, then freak her out over lunch, why not?" She picked at her food a little more, more for something to do than anything else.

While Buffy was waiting for Willow to return, trying to figure out what she should say, Andrew and Amber came into the pub. They saw Willow first, and Buffy watched Andrew perk up and make a beeline for the witch. Amber looked around the pub and headed for Buffy as soon as she spotted her.

"Hey, girlie." Amber nudged Buffy to slide further into the booth. "Why do you look like you're about to see the dentist?"

Buffy smiled tensely, still feeling the tension of her conversation with Willow. "Oh, I got all emotional and dropped a load of heavy crap on Willow, and I'm sitting here while she buys me a drink wondering if I should apologize or just continue word-vomiting all over her."

Amber blinked at Buffy. "So, did I just save your ass from having to deal with a thing you don't want to, or are we interrupting a conversation you all need to have. Because I can drag Andrew's scrawny rear back out of here with me if I need to."

"No, I think we're good for now. I mean, Willow and I have things we need to say to one another, but they don't need to be said now." Buffy shoved another mouthful of food in, and tossed the fork back into her dish. "How is it that I usually eat like a horse, but in England I can never seem to finish a plate of food?"

"The food here's too damn heavy and not interesting enough to be worth the stomachache." Amber quipped. "I made Andrew stop so I could get a curry for the train. No way was I eating pub food two meals today." Buffy snorted a laugh. "Atmosphere's nice, though. Dart boards, big booths. Could use some music."

"With our luck, the owner's into bagpipes." Buffy snarked, earning a grimace from the older woman. "I'm just happy there's a ramp at the door and the booths aren't raised, you know? I never thought about it until now, but London's a wheelchair accessibility nightmare."

Amber got a distant look on her face. "Yeah, you two won't be able to come visit us until he's walking pretty well. We have three stories and no elevator. Tiny stairs, too. Narrow."

"There are perks to living in a hotel, I suppose." Buffy shrugged. "He can get around the Hyperion well in a wheelchair. And he says it's big enough that he isn't going as stir crazy now that he can get out of bed." She nudged Amber. "You can come visit us again."

"Oh, we will, but not right away. Now we've got one junior Slayer around, I imagine someone'll want to send us another one, or one will roll up on our doorstep like Jacinda did." Amber shook her head. "I'm still horrified that she found us so easy. Thank the maker Nick is excited about planning new patrols and shepherding her around."

"I'm just impressed Vi got up the nerve to talk to a stranger on the train." Buffy smiled, relaxing into the new subject. "You should have seen her when she first got to Sunnydale, she was a total scaredy-cat. And now she's chatting up strangers on the New York City Subway and doing off-the-cuff recruiting to get lone girls to Watchers."

"Okay, here we go!" Willow appeared at Amber's elbow, her hands stretched around three pint glasses. "Two ciders and an IPA!"

"You're my hero, Wills." Buffy grabbed a glass while Amber reached for the one that was noticeably darker and cloudier. "Guys, clink me!"

"I think you mean, cheers." Willow chuckled and tapped Buffy's glass with hers.

Amber followed suit, and Buffy was about to drink when she noticed something missing. "Where's Andrew?" She craned her neck until she spotted him at the end of the bar, a mobile phone to his ear.

"I think he wanted to fill Daniel in on our trip to Bath." Amber said.

Buffy whimpered faintly and took a big sip from her glass. "I wanna call my boyfriend."

"Girl, you two have spent more time on the phone since I've been here than I have with my husband." Amber made a face. "Not that this is a problem, we don't really do phones. Just sayin'."

"Hey, why don't you fill us in on the trip while Andrew's busy." Willow interjected, reaching out to pat Buffy's hand again. "You chill, missy. I know you're having the big feelings, but it's only another three hours, and we have a lot of other things to worry about."

"How long 'til we get to the hotel?" Spike grumbled, fiddling with his cell phone though he knew damn well it wouldn't work in England. What if he'd missed a text from Buffy? How would he even know? "When can we get English phones, mate?" he nudged Tommy.

Tommy and Penny exchanged looks. William had been incredibly charming to the flight attendants, and otherwise a miserable person to fly with.

"Thirty minutes or so to yer destination." The cabby interjected from the front seat.

"Oi, thanks, mate!" William smiled, giving up on the phone and shoving it back into his jacket pocket. "I can't wait to see her again, you know? It's been too long."

Since they'd been listening to some version of this soliloquy or another for 13 hours, Tommy mostly tuned it out and flipped through the papers in his briefcase, while Penny made reassuring noises and held Will's hand.

Thankfully the driver was chatty, so William spent the rest of the ride regaling him with the tale of his girlfriend's amazing job in Italy that had forced her to move while he was injured, and him rushing to England because his uncle was sick, and how she'd come to help regardless of work. Penny didn't know if she should be amused or horrified. Up until the tall tale had started, she would've said William couldn't lie for crap.

Extracting the wheelchair from the taxi was easier than getting it in had been by far. The opposite could be said for getting Will out of the car. It took Penny, Tommy, Will and the cabby all offering suggestions before they settled on a strategy, then another five minutes to enact it. By the time Will was in the chair, the cabby was paid, and the luggage and passengers were in the hotel lobby, Willow had stumbled upon them. Literally.

"Buffy and I were talking about emotional stuff, so we got some ciders. And then we got some more." Willow hiccoughed daintily. "Amber and Andrew are still at the pub with her, I wanted to see if you'd arrived."

Spike sighed. It figured that something would happen to interfere with his reunion with Buffy.

"Oh, also." Willow extracted a tiny envelope from her pocket. "Buffy asked me to leave this at the desk for you, but now I can skip that." Spike took the thing, realizing it must hold a key card when he saw the room number on the envelope. "She wanted you to be able to get into your room if you wanna rest, but she didn't want to come back herself once she realized she was tipsy…Or, more tipsy than she intended to be, I guess? Anyway, if you're not tired I can take you over to the pub. Otherwise, go get some rest and Buffy will be back in an hour or so."

He watched Tom and Penny hand their passports to the front desk clerk, who took them off somewhere, and sighed again. He hadn't been able to sleep last night or on the plane…He was truly knackered, but doubted he'd sleep until he'd seen Buffy. William was about to tell Willow to show him to the pub when Buffy flew into the hotel lobby, escorts trailing behind her.

"WILLIAM!" Buffy rushed straight to him and leaned in for a fierce hug, her momentum rolling the chair backwards. Spike couldn't hold it since he'd reached for Buffy to stop her from hopping into his lap. Luckily Amber was right behind, and kept the chair from rolling away. "Oh, Spike, I missed you! How was the flight? How are you feeling?" She straightened. "I wish I could hug you better. Are you tired? Maybe you should lay down and take a nap, then I can cuddle you!" Buffy smiled at him, and though he was annoyed that she was drunk for his arrival, he couldn't help smiling back.

"Nap sounds amazing, luv. Maybe you should get another glass of water or a pop or something before you join me?"

Buffy blinked. "I am still needing hydration. OOOH, we can raid the minibar! There's sodas and stuff in there. I could murder some crisps right now." Buffy turned for the elevator.

"Hey, Buffy." Penny called from the reception desk.

Buffy shrieked and threw herself at Penny and Tom, and Spike chuckled. She was adorably exuberant when she'd been drinking. "I'm so excited to see you guys! Are you tired from your flight? Spike and I are going to take a nap before dinner." She whipped around, "Hey, Amber, can you please fill them in about anything they have questions about, and coordinate when we should meet for dinner and stuff, so I can be with William now?"

"No worries, Buffy. Get some rest. And some more water."

Buffy saluted, and smiled at him again. "Which suitcase is yours? I'll grab it."

Tommy pushed a large green suitcase toward her, and William felt a nudge against the back of his chair urging him in Buffy's direction. He took the wheels and pushed himself after her, silently agreeing that was the direction he needed to go in. By the time Buffy thought to look for him again, he'd almost caught up to her. "All set then, Luv?"

"Yeah, let's get some privacy."