Inspired by the Fic Buyer Beware by Just Sue that you can find here: http://redeem.dark-solace.org/.

AN The title and the quote beneath are from the Don McLean song.

Prologue

~I feel like a spinning top or a dreidel
The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle
You just slow down~

Buffy barged into The Alibi Room for the third night in a row. It was Thursday, Dawn had been missing for two days, and while there was little hope of Buffy shaking anything new out of Sunnydale's shadier residents, she had no other leads to work on.

The Slayer had not been so alone since her first day at Sunnydale High. Willow was still 'recovering' and unreachable at some coven in England. She'd called Giles of course, but her Watcher had decided he could be of more use exploring the Watchers Council's vast information network and he'd not flown back to California or, as yet, turned up anything useful. Even the once steadfast Xander was working a contract in LA and Buffy was reluctant to call him back. They'd never healed the rifts in their friendship caused by Anya and Spike and Willow, or those caused by her own resurrection, and she knew when he'd been offered a lucrative out of town job he'd been glad to go.

And Spike, of course, was nowhere to be found. Not that Buffy regretted that, but at least there would have been someone at her side who shared her concern and would drop everything at her say-so.

This left Anya. Buffy wasn't sure about her Scooby status - newly re-recruited vengeance demons didn't generally want to be white hats - but Anya had been the only one to offer real and practical assistance so far, even if it was only helping file a missing persons report and occasionally showing her own brand of pragmatic comfort.

And Buffy was really scared. She just couldn't be the brains of the operation. She and Anya added together didn't make one half of Giles, and it had been two whole days without the tiniest scrap of a hint of a lead. The only thing keeping the Slayer upright was the failed locator spell Giles had tried; if someone was expending magical energy to keep her sister hidden then at least she wasn't dead in a ditch somewhere.

It was a couple of hours before dawn when Buffy decided to head for home to see if Giles had called her back. The Slayer vaulted over a fence to take a shortcut through a backyard; when she cleared Revello Drive she could see a light on in the front window and started running.

A freshly showered Dawn met her at the door in a white towelling dressing gown. Buffy had to stop and pinch herself.

"There you are," said Dawn. "I was worried. Giles has left, like, a dozen messages to call him and there's no food in the house that doesn't have mould on it."

Buffy stared, open mouthed. "We can order pizza," she said faintly.

She ran up the front steps and caught her sister round the waist. "Where the hell have you been?"

The teenager extricated herself from a Slayer strength hug. "I was kidnapped by slave traders," she said nonchalantly. "Then I escaped, had to find my own way home from LA. You haven't been answering the phone all night."

More helpless gaping on the part of Buffy, she grabbed the girl by the shoulders and gave her a shake. "Dawn! You can't be serious!"

"It's true!" said the teen indignantly. "And you totally owe Anya $80 for the cab. I had to go to the Magic Box; it’s lucky Anya hadn't teleported to Brazil or something."

Still, the Slayer just stared. "Well I was in a seedy part of town," Dawn rattled on, "and it's not like I had busfare-"

"You were kidnapped by slave traders?" Buffy repeated stupidly.

"I think they were after demons really, but apparently I set off the supernatural sensors still, must be some keyness thing. And they chained me up with a load of, like, hideous demons - that bit was quite scary... And I was going to be auctioned off, so it's lucky Spike was there or I might have been thousands of miles away before I escaped. Think what the cab fare would be like from Florida."

"Spike?"

"Is there an echo in here? Spike helped me to escape, but he was being really weird, kept pretending he didn't know who I was and he wouldn't talk or anything. He said he couldn't leave, or he could have stolen a car or something. And I don't think the pizza place will deliver this late, so I'm going to make popcorn. That doesn't go mouldy, right?"

Dawn squeezed past her bemused sister into the kitchen. "And you should call Giles," she called back over her shoulder. "It can't be four o'clock in the morning this time, because it's four o'clock in the morning here."

"Slave traders?" The girl paused in the pursuit of munchies to roll her eyes at her sister.

"Yeees."

"Spike?"

"Jeez. Is your brain not working tonight? Lucky I didn't wait for you to come rescue me, huh?"

Just that second the phone in the hall started ringing; the Slayer picked it up automatically, though her eyes followed her sister as she opened the microwave.

"Hello?"

"Buffy! I've been trying to get hold of you all night. Whatever was blocking our locating spell has been lifted, the coven got a bead on Dawn about two hours ago. She's a few miles out from Sunnydale. Now that you're home we can repeat the spell-"

"She's here, Giles."

"Oh? That's good. So the crisis is over?"

"I think so," said Buffy, with uncharacteristic uncertainty. "There were slave traders," she added vaguely. "Can I call you back tomorrow?"


Chapter One

~Round and around this world you go
Spinning through the lives of the people you know
We all slow down~

The sun was well over the horizon by the time Buffy had any real idea what was going on. It took hours to drag all the details from a chattery and unsubdued Dawn; they painted a disturbing picture but Buffy was too relieved and sleep deprived to dwell on it. Even Dawn had exhausted herself by the time they turned in, and both sisters slept soundly till afternoon, when they were awakened by the door bell.

It was an unhealthily perky Anya, who despite lecturing Dawn on the stupidity of being kidnapped, repeatedly, and the diseconomies of long taxi rides, made herself at home in the kitchen with groceries and a percolator.
A still sleepy Buffy escaped with a mug of fresh coffee and hid in the living room before Anya could get started on the importance of good housekeeping lecture, and Dawn hastily followed.

"I know they're demons," she started out of nowhere, flopping onto the sofa beside Buffy. "And I guess it makes it easier for you if people are rounding them up - less to kill and all that. But... That place was really horrible, Buffy. You could hear screaming, like, all the time. And everyone was so scared, even the vampires shuffled round like they were terrified. And they had this weird processing room, I don't know what they did but I'm thinking I'm really glad I wasn't processed."

The Slayer took a deep breath, not at all liking the hopeful look on her sister's face. The thought that an unofficial Initiative might have set up in California was unnerving to say the least but then interdemon behaviour was hardly her concern, neither was it her job to police humans. "This might be a little big for us, Dawn. Not apocalypse big, but this is organised crime. And you may have noticed, we're a little thin on Scoobies."

"But you can't ignore it, right? I mean they got me, who knows who else they think doesn't count as human? Maybe Giles could help? Or Angel?"

"Maybe we could let the police handle this one?"

"Because cops and magic and demons, that always works out well."

Buffy sighed. "I know. We'll see what we can do, but I don't think charging off to break up a slave ring sounds like a good idea. I've already been shot once this year."

"Did Spike really try to rape you?"

Buffy blinked. "Where did that come from?" she asked guardedly.

"Well he's still there, he said he couldn't leave. So did he?"

"Dawn..."

"I know," snapped the teen. "It's complicated, and I have to respect your privacy, and I'm not old enough to understand. But... He looked like a famine victim. If you'd just beaten the crap out of one."

"He tried to rape me," Buffy said slowly, "But..."

"But?" prompted Dawn tenaciously. Her sister, not known for her cowardice, had chickened out of this conversation and indeed managed to avoid it for the whole summer. Buffy hadn't found the stomach for destroying Dawn's faith in her first evil crush by giving her a black and white account of what had happened that evening but neither did she want to try and justify his behaviour. So she had taken the safe line that what had happened was between her and Spike, and as he was gone it really didn't matter. Of course that had left Xander as the teen's only source of information but it did mean Buffy didn't have to try and explain a relationship she hadn't understood herself to a girl not old enough to understand that right and wrong were often grey areas.

"But... See that's not really a statement you can add a 'but' to. Rape is one of these unequivocal things. Unless it's 'but he was under the influence of evil demon venom and it was totally out of his control' and it wasn't. Maybe I could use 'and yet...'"

"Buffy!"

The elder sister shrugged apologetically. "You know what Spike is like. He doesn't think beyond the next second, maybe giving him aims and objectives is over crediting his intelligence. He's just an evil vampire, and a totally stupid guy, and I shouldn't have forgotten that long enough for... for things to get to the point they did."

"So he's just an evil vampire? Does that mean we're leaving him there?"

"Spike is plenty big enough to look after himself," Buffy hedged. "And you said he wasn't chained up, maybe he's working for them?"

"You didn't see him, Buffy. And the chip, remember? I'm sure some of those bastards were human, they could be doing anything to him and he wouldn't even be able to fight. Does he really deserve to be tortured?"

"Did you not just hear me say I don't know? How am I supposed to judge him? If he was human he'd have earned himself the chair a thousand times over but by soulless vampire standards he was Francis of Assisi. I don't suppose vampires deserve anything, I don't stake them because they've got it coming, I stake them to keep people safe."

Dawn digested that for a whole five seconds. "He could help, he must have insider information on the slave ring, right? He could help us take them down."

"Help us do the thing that we were just deciding was a bad idea? And you can just bury that 'us'. Your contact with demon slave traders is well and truly over. Spike isn't worth risking you for. Not for a second."

"Help you, then."

"You're just not going to let this one go, are you? I can't care, Dawn, these are the things I kill and I just can't care about their welfare. It makes my job too hard."

"You do though, don't you? You care that Spike's there? A tiny bit?"

Buffy gave her sister an irritated look that answered the younger girl's question. "I'm really trying not to."

"Me too. I hated him all summer for you, I was doing really well. Is it wrong to care about the guy who tried to rape your sister?"

Buffy shrugged. "Probably. It's not like you really get to choose. What he did to me was inexcusable but here I am making excuses for him. This is all your fault," she added with a pout. "If you could only have gone a whole season without being kidnapped I'd never have had to think about Spike ever again."

********

Anya breezed in with a plate of sandwiches. "I don't know how you two survive when I'm not here. There's nothing in your fridge that isn't out of date; I had to use powdered milk." She sat down on the armchair and leaned forward expectantly. "So, do you have any rescue plans yet?"

"She's already been rescued," Buffy protested weakly, but like everything else, Anya dealt with her misdirection directly.

"Spike," she clarified, as if Buffy hadn't perfectly understood her meaning the first time. "Have you got a plan to rescue Spike from the evil demon kidnapping slave traders?"

Buffy felt trapped. Dawn and Anya ganging up on her from one side and her own conscience trying to stop her wriggling out the back door.

If the Slayer was entirely honest with herself, she was kind of glad that Spike had tried to rape her. Not at the time of course, when it was all hurt and horror and disbelief. But afterwards, when the dust had settled on Willow's moment of madness, and it became apparent the vampire had left town for good. Then, a few bruises and broken trust seemed a fair trade off for a Spike-free Sunnydale and while she'd not been able to wish the vampire as much harm as she felt appropriate, she certainly had no wish to hear of him ever again.

But the hearing part was already done; it was too late to close her ears to his plight. And judging from the determined expressions of her companions, already too late to avoid planning harebrained rescue attempts. The Slayer knew she had no defence and would let herself be talked into whatever the two girls were planning, because it didn't seem right to leave the vampire in the clutches of the same people he'd freed her sister from. And really, a theoretical rescue she could do, but she worried that Spike would see it as an open invitation back into her life.

"You do want to rescue him?" the vengeance demon asked sharply, interrupting Buffy's thoughts.

"Not really," the Slayer admitted.

"I see." Anya's tone was icy. "So we demons still aren't worth anything to you? I suppose if it's me that disappears next you'll all just shrug and say 'oh well, she was a demon and hasn't earned the same emancipation as a real American citizen,' and leave me to a fate worse than death?"

Out of the corner of her eye Buffy could see her sister stifle a giggle at Anya's sudden righteous indignation. "You disappear all the time," she pointed out. "How would we know that you'd been kidnapped?"

"You know Spike's been kidnapped."

"Well yeah. If we knew you'd been kidnapped we'd come and rescue you, okay?"

"It's because he slept with me, isn't it? Because you know, you have no more right to be jealous than Xander does, you dumped him and-"

"Not jealous!" Buffy squeaked. "You do know he tried to rape me, right?"

"Really? Xander mentioned it but I assumed he was exaggerating."

"Not so much."

"Oh." For a second the vengeance demon deflated, blink and you would have missed it. "Do you want to wish vengeance on him?"

Buffy opened her mouth to answer, thought better of it and narrowed her eyes at the vengeance demon. Just sometimes she suspected Anya could be subtle. "Are you trying to reverse psychology me?"

"No. A vengeance demon has a duty to offer in such clear cut circumstances. He probably does deserve it, you'd have to be pretty stupid to try and rape the Slayer. I mean, you could just cross your legs and he'd be stumped, right? Unless he'd drugged you. Did he drug you?"

"No! And you know what? I don't really care to continue this conversation. If you can come up with a plan that doesn't involve me getting killed, or probably killed, then I'll go and rescue Spike, okay?"

"Well first things first," said the demon positively. "You can phone Angel, it's his city and he really should know what's going on in it."

Anya held out the phone impatiently. With a sigh Buffy caved, took the receiver and under Anya's watchful eye started dialling.

********

Buffy was circumspect with Angel on the phone, managing to omit any mention of Spike and she hung up with a vaguely uneasy feeling that he'd been just as reticent with her.

"He hasn't heard anything," she relayed to Dawn and Anya, "But he said he'd look in to it. Is there any way that's going to be enough for the two of you?"

"It's not a rescue plan," said Anya pointedly.

"Why can't you just teleport in and rescue him?" snapped Buffy, "You want him safe so much."

"Because I couldn't teleport him out, and besides if they have lots of different demons held there they'd probably have guards to stop anything teleporting out. I'd be stuck. Giles said there was something blocking his locator spell, remember? They might have a shield around the whole building. You'll just have to go to LA. Dawn can draw you a map of where she escaped from."

"And how is that a plan that involves me probably not being killed? Do you think they're just going to hand him over, decide they've seen the error of their slave trading ways?"

"There is one other way," Dawn suggested. "If they're selling slaves, you don't need to rescue him at all, you could just buy him."

"Don't think the budget will run to a vampire," answered Buffy dryly. "We're still at the generic cereal stage."

"You could just pretend to buy him," put in Anya, as if talking to a child. "Then, when he's all neatly bagged for you, you could kill them all."

The Slayer fought down the urge to strangle the vengeance demon. "I could kill an entire cadre of Mafia demons? And humans? With guns?"

Anya shrugged, as if the mechanics of the fight were hardly a concern. "Well run then. Shoplifting must run in the family." She didn't seem to notice the death glare this earned her from the Slayer. "You could always just leave, if there were too many of them. Then we could come up with a better plan."

"And you're okay with that?" Buffy asked her sister. "Me risking life and limb to rescue the guy you've been busy hating all summer?"

"You risk life and limb every day," answered Dawn blithely. "And he saved you from having to risk life and limb to rescue me. Anyway," she added primly, "We're not rescuing him. We're gathering valuable information in order to break an evil demon trading ring that kidnapped me."

********

The rest of the afternoon was a tidal wave of Anya that Buffy tried her hardest to let wash over her head. She also tried to disapprove, but nothing was coming. Anya, after all, had no particular reason for helping anyone but in her own way she'd turned out for Dawn and it was easy to see how, from her point of view, Spike deserved no less consideration. The fact that it was Buffy's life Anya was proposing to risk was just... Anya. And for just Anya she was being very good. Hadn't even mentioned the taxi fare that she knew the Slayer couldn't repay, had even offered to lend Buffy her car though she'd seen her drive. Buffy couldn't even mind that the offer had been more of a command and came with a lengthy explanation of insurance and part trade-ins that left Buffy with the uncomfortable knowledge that Anya would gain financially if she and the borrowed automobile perished.

And in an entirely clean, non kinky way it was kinda nice to be ordered around. Have someone else take the responsibility. Buffy was in no way rushing off to rescue her evil former lover, she was just succumbing to peer pressure. So Buffy only grumbled half heartedly as Anya and Dawn studied maps and made plans, it was only when they announced themselves finished that she made any real objection.

"Tonight? I have to go tonight? But it's already tonight!"

Anya patted Buffy on the back, in a way she imagined was comforting. "Just think of poor Spike being tortured."

The Slayer gave the vengeance demon another death glare. "Think of poor Spike when I get hold of him," she said darkly, but Anya was already handing her coat to her.

"Tell me again why you aren't doing this?"

"I can't come," said Anya bluntly. "I've wasted far too much time doing good, I'll fall behind with my vengeance quota."

Buffy, as usual, closed her ears to such unwelcome details and merely nodded.
"And Dawn is staying with me. Have you not been listening the last two hours?"

"Umm..."

"You have the map, right? Just think of this as recon."

"Right now?"

Anya was literally pushing Buffy out of the door, and she let her because... well she didn't know why.

"I miss Giles. He'd tell me rescuing Spike is a stupid idea."