~*~
Chapter 6
~*~


Clearing customs in Rome was a breeze since Dawn had mastered the local lingo. Spike was proud of his Little Bit. She had a rare gift for languages and a
good head on her shoulders for dealing with people.

Spike told Dawn all about the exuberant and lavishly endowed CEO of the evil law firm and his plan to charm his way into her private areas. "Yeah, for your sake, I hope you mean her file cabinets, ‘cause Buffy doesn’t do jealous without leaving bodies behind", Dawn warned.

"I’ll do what I have to do, Bit. Think you may be expectin’ your big sis to care more than she does about what I get up to, though. Too busy makin’ cookies for Angel from what I heard, unless she DID serve ‘em up to the bloody Immortal."

"You DO know that I haven’t got any idea what any of that meant, don’t you? Never mind. We’ll concentrate on getting Buffy back and then work on your weirdness and her cooking, if that’s even what you meant." Dawn shook her head in confusion.

Dawn couldn’t understand why Spike seemed to have lost his confidence where Buffy was concerned. She determined it would all work out, even if it took her locking the two of them in a room together until they worked out all the insecurities and misunderstandings they’d erected as a wall to hide their feelings for each other. Spike was the only creature on the planet who could match Buffy for stubbornness and insecurity. They could try the patience of a saint!

"Spike, maybe it would be better if you stay at a hotel for tonight. I want to have that talk with Andrew and don’t want him tipped off that you’re here. If he is guilty of anything, he’ll head for the nearest border before I can even grab the duct tape. You can have Buffy’s room tomorrow night. There’s a small hotel around the corner from our apartment that will be perfect for you tonight. I’ll drop in after I grill my roommate; unless I need to use some muscle, then I’ll call. What am I saying? I have enough muscle to handle Andrew! Why don’t you catch a nap? If you’re going to be Charm Boy to the Italian sex bomb you’ll need all the rest you can get!"

Spike laughed at Dawn’s description of Ilona and agreed. "You’ve got a point there, Niblet. Good thing a vampire doesn’t need to breathe ‘cause a fella
could suffocate on those knockers of hers with just a careless hug! Pair of potentially lethal 45s she’s got there." He ducked as Dawn aimed her playful slap
to the back of his head. "What is it with you Summers women always hittin’ me? Buffy usually keeps it to the nose, but you go for any target!"

Spike was beaming as he said it. He had never expected to have a return to the easy affection he had once shared and always treasured with Buffy’s little sister. It was an unexpected blessing.

Dawn headed for her home as soon as they got Spike checked in to a small hotel for the night. The clerk had smirked at the two and winked at Spike making gestures that made it clear that he thought the two were planning to use the room for an illicit night of passion. Dawn was oblivious, but Spike was livid.

"Look, mate. This LADY is my sis, capice? You need to be keeping your filthy mind and hands as far away from this girl as you possibly can, if you like livin’.
I don’t think you’d like my bad side." He flashed his game face so quickly that the clerk was never able to later say for certain just what he had seen, only
that it had made him need a change of pants.

~~~

"Andrew, you home? I just got back from my visit to Giles and I’ve got presents! Come out, come out, wherever you are", Dawn called out as she entered their
apartment. Since the Immortal had disappeared along with Buffy, Andrew’s social life had come to a grinding halt. Dawn was certain he would be home.

Actually, she chided herself, she should have noticed that the group that had kept Andrew out at the clubs most nights had only started to hang with him after Buffy had begun to date Eduardo. The abrupt end of Andrew’s nightlife clearly pointed to the Immortal’s influence being the source of his popularity. ‘I should have figured that out. I can’t imagine why I never wondered why the little jerk suddenly had gorgeous woman hanging on both arms and a wardrobe James Bond would envy. I mean he’s the same Andrew, for crying out loud! I get the ‘duh’ award for spacing that!’

"Ah, the return of the fair maiden from the cold climes of the north. How’re the slayers and Mr. Giles faring without my presence? What did you bring me? Did you
get the latest X-Men like I asked? They had it here, but it’s in Italian…not the same." Andrew had his eager-ten-year-old face on as he greeted Dawn.

"Yes, doofus, I got your comic book. I even picked up the latest Hellboy, too. As for prezzies, I brought the tapes of the eighth series of Dr. Who that Giles
said you could have, some of those shortbread biscuits you fell in love with in London, and a packet of jelly babies."

Andrew began to leap around the small living room like a rabbit on steroids yelling, "gimme, gimme" and reaching for Dawn’s carry-on eagerly.

As angry as Dawn was to think he had anything to do with Buffy’s disappearance, she couldn’t help but smile at Andrew and feel a slight softening towards him.
He was such a needy child at heart, and she really couldn’t believe he would have deliberately done anything to hurt Buffy. Still, it was likely that he had done something, knowingly or not, to aid Eduardo in some way.

"You’ll get all your goodies after I unpack. Have you had dinner yet? I don’t know if I should be glad or sad that the airline doesn’t serve food anymore, but
I’m starved! Please tell me we have food in the fridge, cause I’m too knackered to hit the shops this late even if I could find one open."

"You said ‘knackered’, sounded just like Sp…. There’s some of that smelly cheese you like and some eggs and mushrooms if you want an omelet, but I haven’t been to the market this week. Um, Dawn, did Mr. Giles have any news from the homeland? I mean, how are all the gang back in the U. S. of A? Anything new for your friendly chronicler of all things slayerly?"

Dawn was glad she was unpacking while she answered. She had never been a good liar and really didn’t want Andrew to catch on to Spike’s near presence. She knew
from the vampire that Andrew knew Spike was back and her slip with a Spikeism might have been enough to set off Andrew’s paranoia.

"Not really anything new. Willow and the coven have a new project for helping in the drought areas of the world this season. They have to figure out the right
balances before they try it, though. Faith says the Hellmouth has been kinda quiet in Cleveland lately. Not really sure why. Giles was all excited about
finding a stash of books that had been part of the Watchers Council and managed to survive the bombing. No new leads on where Buffy is. I think Willow may be
onto a spell to reveal everyone involved in her disappearance soon. She said it will make them glow purple when she casts it." Dawn was glad Andrew couldn’t see her wicked grin at the thought of how the boy would take THAT bit of misinformation.

"Purple?" His voice went up an octave and broke like an eleven year old boy. "Wow. That’s…that’s… um…is she sure it’ll work? I mean, I’ll bet there are lots of things you could…eat…that might cause a person to look purple. You wouldn’t want to falsely accuse someone or anything."

Dawn stood in the doorway with her arms folded across her chest the way Buffy used to do when in her General Buffy mode. She was effectively blocking the only exit from the small kitchen with her body.

"Andrew, I think you need to dip into your mental watchers journal and start spilling to little sister before I have to start getting physical on your Star
Wars collection. I don’t think you sold us out, but you know more than you’ve been telling about The Immortal and Buffy. Time to spit it out before Spike has to pull it out of your brain literally, ‘cause it took all my feminine wiles to keep him from coming home with me tonight."

She could tell from the way Andrew blanched that he had some information he was going to share. She just hoped it was enough to get the ball rolling on the rescue
mission.

"Spill!" She yelled at the clearly terrified Junior Watcher.

"I didn’t do anything wrong. I love you guys, I’d never do anything to hurt any of you. You’re my family, you’re all I’ve got", the boy said softly. He
had begun to cry with the last sentence and Dawn had to steel herself to keep from folding. It was not a play for sympathy but the stark, sad truth. The only
people who had ever cared for the young man were the ones he now feared losing. "I swear I didn’t know."

She’d played bad cop, now was the time for good cop. "Andrew, I know you didn’t do anything bad on purpose, but obviously you know something. You have to tell
me anything that might help. Buffy’s life may be in danger. I know you don’t want that on your conscience."

"It all started with the fire. I had only been here in Rome for a couple of weeks and everything was so perfect. I’d just brought Dana back to the bosom of her slayer sisters and faced down Angel. Mr. Giles was so proud of me! I was really ready to start being a watcher to the girls here." His voice had drifted into a whine after the first sentence.

"Concentrate, Andrew. Just the facts, okay?" Dawn had to keep him on track before he spun off into AndrewLand on her and any truth disappeared in the
tornado of spin he’d put on it.

"Okay. Like I said, it started with the fire. After I moved in here, some guy met me on the street while I was shopping for that great bread you guys love so
much. He said the fire was a warning and that I should help this guy’s boss with a project of his. I turned him down, of course! Anyway, he said the fire would
be the beginning of lots of bad things that could happen to me here or the last of my troubles, depending on if I did this guy a favor. He promised that the favor
wouldn’t hurt anybody. He even said it would be a good thing for Buffy. I told him no, of course."

"Then what happened? You obviously changed your mind", Dawn coaxed.

"Remember that case of food poisoning we all had after the Calamari Alfredo I made? I mean I don’t ever want to even hear the words stomach pump again in my life!"

"Andrew, stay on track! Are you saying someone messed with our food?"

"The guy came back and said there are poisons that can kill,too, and that I should be able to see how easy it would be for someone to put some in our food or water
even. I asked him what the favor would be, just out of curiosity, you know. He said it wasn’t anything bad, Dawn. He said his boss thought Buffy was really hot, but she hadn’t paid any attention to him. All they wanted from me was to make sure Buffy went on a date with this guy. He told me that his boss had dated Penelope Cruz and that hot Victoria’s Secret model with the exotic eyes. When he told me who his boss was, I figured he’d be okay. I mean he’s famous, or at least all the people he hangs out with are. It would be like Brad Pitt wanting to meet
Buffy--if he wasn’t already married to Jennifer, that is. I didn’t see any harm. Buffy didn’t have to date him more than once. He promised!"

"You didn’t think it was even a little weird that this guy--this rich, handsome, powerful, guy--had to use fire and poison to get a date?"

"No. Look, Dawn, I don’t have a lot of experience like that. Every guy I’ve ever known had to use magic balls or kidnapping to get the girl", he answered sheepishly. "I guess I did think it was weird, but it was easier to just make sure Buffy met him. I swear that’s all I did."

"So if that’s all you did, why did you suddenly get lucky in the popularity contest? Looks like you got a pay off for something. I want it all, Andrew, every detail, every compromise."

"At first it was like he was just so happy Buffy was dating him that he was being generous. I got some party invitations, was included when some of his friends went to Monte Carlo for a weekend, that kind of thing. Okay, it went to my head a little, but I didn’t get asked to do anything else. Not at first. Later, Eduardo told me I needed to discourage a couple of vampires from Buffy’s past who would be coming into town. I knew he meant Angel and Spike. I also knew that Spike had told me not to tell Buffy he was back, so I didn’t see the harm. If Spike had wanted to be with Buffy, he would have come to Italy after he got his body back, wouldn’t he?"

"Uh uh, buddy, you’re not justifying this that way. I heard from Spike what you told them. You LIED. You let them think Buffy knew that Spike was alive and
that she didn’t want either of them. You knew that Buffy still cried at night thinking about Spike and you made sure they left thinking she didn’t care!"

"Spike’s gonna kill me, isn’t he?" Andrew asked nervously.

"Not right away anyway. You may know more, so you’re safe for now." She saw the look of panic on Andrew’s face and decided to stop with the scare tactics. "No,
Andrew, Spike doesn’t kill for sport any more, remember. He’s a good guy now and even has his soul. I can’t promise he won’t be pissed off and I don’t blame him, but you’re safe. I don’t think I want to be there when he hears all of this from you either."

"You mean I have to tell him? Can’t I just take a field trip to check on my slayer in Milan while you tell him?"

"Nope. Time to be a man, Andrew. Oh, your comics are on the coffee table. I haven’t unpacked the Dr. Who stuff yet."

"Dawn, did I have anything to do with what happened to Buffy?", he asked, his voice making a plea for reassurance.

"Only in the making sure Buffy had the first date kind of way. Look Andrew, it’s pretty clear that they would have found some way to get Buffy into Eduardo’s
dating pool. You were just the weakest link and they used you. What you should have done was tell us. We would have known something was up of the not good variety by the WAY they got you to help." She saw how distraught he was to think he had placed his friend in jeopardy and took pity. "It’ll all work out. Spike’s
here now and he’ll fix it. OH!!!! Don’t tell ANYONE that Spike is here or why, got that?"

"My lips are sealed like a Ziploc storage bag", Andrew promised and made the motions of zipping his mouth.

~~~

Spike didn’t kill Andrew, of course. He did, however, pull the boy by his left ear to force him to stop pacing and concentrate on his confession.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Spike,my ears will stick out funny. Let go!"

"They already do stick out funny, just be glad I’m not pullin’ ‘em off. So you said your little bit, we took the bait like the dumb fish we were, and you strolled out with two bimbos for a night on the town and now you want me to believe you meant no harm? What the bloody hell DO you call harm, you pillock? Had to know something wasn’t right. Just my bein’ there after tellin’ you I didn’t want you tellin’ the slayer I was alive should have told you something was up. I really think you need to give some real thought to just what side you’re really on. You’re like tofu--you don’t have any flavor of your own, but suck up whatever’s close. Think you need to take bit of a sabbatical and go home to Daddy Watcher for a refresher on wearin’ the white hat."

"Spike, did you just say ‘sabbatical’?", Dawn said in surprise.

"What? Perfectly good English word. Bit, I’m a hundred twenty some years old, I’ve learned a lot of words in a lot of languages. Don’t get your knickers in a twist when you hear me use ‘em." Spike shook his head and snorted. ‘Wonder what the Bit would think if she saw that diploma of mine. Probably think more than the dates were fake, I s’pose. Guess my ‘Spike, punk of the streets’ attitude’s worked a tad too well’, he thought.

"Yeah, sabbatical. Great idea, Spike. I’ll call Giles now and tell him I’m coming in from the cold for a while. You don’t think he’ll grab my ears, too, do you?", Andrew asked.

"I’ll talk to the Watcher. Explain your interestin’ take on Buffy’s dating habits. Suggest he try to help you figure out how to spot the bad guys when they come up and burn down your house and poison your food. You’d think it’d be obvious, but I guess not. You’re not safe to let loose, much less make judgment
calls." Spike then began to feel a bit sorry for the poor idiot and continued, "You’re not a total write-off. Suppose you just need a bit more training and
growin’ up is all."

Andrew flung his arms around the uncomfortable vampire and sobbed, "Thank you, thank you, Spike. You’re the best friend I ever had. Thank you for not hating me.
I promise I’ll do everything I can to help get Buffy back."

"Hold on there, Junior, just go to watcher school and learn what you need to. Leave the Buffy hunt to me. And keep your yap shut. This whole operation is top
secret, got it?"

"Sure, Spike, whatever you say", Andrew promised.

Now they knew they were on the right track. Buffy’s romance with the Italian love machine had been engineered from the start. Spike found himself feeling more hope than he had in years. Not only would he get Buffy home safely, but maybe, just maybe, she would be happy to see him. Maybe there wouldn’t be a face-to-face suggestion that he ‘just move on’ as he had been secretly fearing since signing on to locate his girl. Unlife was beginning to take an upturn once more.

Tomorrow, it was time to storm the gates of Wolfram & Hart, the Italian edition, and the mighty fortress that was Ilona Costa Bianchi, she of the formidable turrets.