Disclaimer: All of the characters are Joss Whedon’s. All the reviewers rock my world! Thanks so much!
 
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Destroying Entropy – Chapter 4
 
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“Where’s Buffy?” Dawn asked when they saw Buffy’s empty room. The bed looked slept in, but then sometimes Buffy was a bit lackadaisical about bedmaking, so that didn’t mean much.
 
“Are we sure she came home last night?” asked Tara. Tara looked at Willow. They had spent much of the night having extremely satisfying make-up sex and then had slept like logs. “Did you hear her?”
 
Willow frowned. “I don’t really remember. But since her door was closed, I assumed she was in there.”
 
“But, if she didn’t come home, what happened to her?” Dawn narrowed her eyes at Xander, who backed away slightly. Fierceness seemed to be an inborn Summers trait. “Buffy’s not here. You’re the last person who saw her.”
 
Xander raised his hands in surrender and said, “Guys, it’s me, remember? I wouldn’t hurt Buffy, you know that!”
 
“Xander, was Buffy drunk when she left your place last night?” Willow asked. “Maybe she got hurt or something.”
 
Dawn’s eyes grew wide. “You don’t think… Could some demon or vampire have…?” Dawn was suddenly very, very worried about her sister.
 
Tara went over and hugged Dawn. “Hey, take it easy. Buffy’s the Slayer. I’m sure she’s alright.” She turned to Xander. “What can you tell us? When did she leave your place?”
 
Xander squirmed a bit. He didn’t precisely know, having passed out himself at some point. “We drank a lot. We were both pretty wasted. I… well… I kissed her,” he admitted, blushing slightly.
 
“You did what?” said Dawn suspiciously. That nagging seed of doubt that Spike had planted was growing again. “That’s all? What did she have to say about that?”
 
“It’s all kinda blurry,” Xander said, truthfully. Tara noticed that his aura was flickering, as if he was telling half truths. “I know when I woke up she was gone. I don’t precisely remember what all went on. I passed out at some point.” Tara narrowed her eyes at Xander, doubting him. “What?” he cried. “How could I have done anything? She’s the Slayer for God’s sake! If she had any issues with me I’d be in intensive care by now!”
 
“We’ve got to go find her,” Dawn said. “We need to make sure she’s ok. We can worry about what happened later.” She looked at Xander, who swallowed, but managed to meet her gaze…mostly.
 
“Dawn, you know that Xander wouldn’t hurt Buffy!” Willow said, jumping to Xander’s defense. “We’ve all been friends since high school!”
 
“Look, let’s just go see if we can find her, ok?” Tara said. “Where might she be?’
 
“I was just at Spike’s and she wasn’t there,” offered Dawn.
 
“Why don’t you and Dawn check at the Magic Box,” Willow said to Tara. It was probably best to keep Xander and Anya away from each other at present. “Xander and I can check out the Doublemeat Palace. Maybe she just went straight to work or something. We can come back here after we’re done.”
 
“Someone should check the police station, see if anyone… found her.” said Tara.
 
“We can do that,” said Xander. Tara gave him one more doubtful look, then they all turned to go.
 
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“Is Xander lying?” Dawn asked Tara after they had parted from the others. They were walking toward downtown Sunnydale and the Magic Box.
 
Tara hesitated. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “I don’t think he’s telling the whole truth.”
 
“Could Spike be making it up?”
 
“Well, I guess it’s possible. Remember that whole thing with Adam a few years back? He managed to get everyone at each other’s throats, from what I hear.”
 
“I guess,” Dawn said. It saddened her to think that Spike would resort to lying to make Xander look bad. “He doesn’t usually lie to me, though.”
 
“He’s pretty angry too,” Tara said. “I guess if you’re angry, and you have no soul, you might not think twice about getting back at someone that way. Especially if you can’t hit him or anything.”
 
“What do you think happened between Buffy and Xander last night?”
 
Tara shook her head. “Probably more than Xander is saying, but less than Spike thinks. But we really won’t know until we find Buffy.”
 
By this time they had arrived at the Magic Box and went in. Anya was examining a skull with a camera poking out of the eye. “I found the camera,” she said dully. “I’d like to find the creeps who put it there and curse them to Tierra del Fuego and back.”
 
“How… how are you doing?” Tara asked gently. Dawn squirmed a bit uneasily. She wished she could bleach the image of Spike and Anya on the table from her brain. She really, really didn’t want to imagine that every time she came into the Magic Box for the rest of her days.
 
“Oh, just peachy,” said Anya sarcastically. “I mean, it’s just so much fun having your ex get all possessive and homicidal about a meaningless fling after he left you at the altar. Because you know, he has so much high ground to stand on there.”
 
Dawn and Tara didn’t quite know what to say. Finally, Dawn brought up the reason for your visit. “Anya, Buffy didn’t come home last night. Or at least, we don’t know if she did. We were wondering if you had seen her today.”
 
Anya shook her head. “I haven’t seen her since she went off last night. She didn’t say where she was going.”
 
Tara swallowed, wondering if she should say anything. Then she said tentatively, “She went over to Xander’s after she left here. I guess they got drunk together.”
 
Anya rolled her eyes. “Oh, that must have been rich. Buffy can’t hold her liquor to save her life, and Xander is a mean drunk, just like his father. Sometimes I wonder if him leaving me at the altar was really that bad.”
 
“You don’t mean that!” Dawn protested. She still harbored hope that Xander and Anya would patch things up. She was still rattled by the repeated relationship crackups that seemed to surround her wherever she went. Her parents, Buffy and Angel, Buffy and Riley, Tara and Willow, Xander and Anya – she was beginning to wonder if anyone ever stayed together anymore.
 
“Maybe I don’t,” sighed Anya. “I’m just sick and tired of the whole thing. I haven’t seen Buffy, but if I do I’ll tell her you’re worried, ok?”
 
Dawn’s face fell a bit. “Ok. Just please keep an eye out for her?” she pleaded.
 
“I will,” replied Anya a little less harshly. Tara and Dawn said their goodbyes and left. “Where to now?” asked Dawn.
 
“I’m not sure,” Tara replied. Worried, they continued wandering downtown.
 
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Willow and Xander made their way toward the Doublemeat palace. Xander seemed on edge, which puzzled Willow. There is no way Xander could have hurt Buffy. He just doesn’t have it in him. And he’s right, Buffy could always stop him. So why does he seem so evasive? Finally she could stand it no longer. “Hey, Xander, what’s with the stony face?” she asked finally.
 
“I’m fine,” Xander protested. “Just a bit hungover, that’s all.”
 
“Want to tell me what happened?” Willow said.
 
Xander walked in silence for a few more minutes. Not 100% sure what happened, actually. Finally he said, “She came over to see how I was. We started drinking. She told me all about her… thing with Spike.”
 
“Was she really… you know… with him?” Willow asked. She still had a hard time believing that Buffy had been sleeping with Spike of all people.
 
“She told me the whole sordid story,” Xander replied. “I guess it really got started after the whole singing thing.”
 
“But… why didn’t she tell us?” Willow wondered.
 
Xander shrugged. “I guess she was a lot more depressed than we picked up on. She wasn’t exactly being very talky about a lot of stuff at the time.”
 
Willow mulled that over guiltily. Between the magic issues and missing Tara, she hadn’t paid very close attention to Buffy in a while. She found it hard it believe that an entire torrid affair could have occurred right under her nose, but apparently it had. Trying to avoid her own guilt, she asked, “What else happened last night?”
 
“Like I said, we got really drunk. I kissed her. Bad idea. But I don’t know when she left. I passed out at some point.” Xander’s conscience niggled at him. I really hope I can get Buffy to understand that whatever happened was an accident. Images of Buffy with a hurt look on her face flashed on the edges of his memory, but he pushed them aside. Need to lay off the booze. Xander was grateful to see that they had reached the Doublemeat Palace. “Here we are.” He held the door for Willow.
 
The restaurant was only mildly busy, so they reached the counter quickly. “Welcome to Doublemeat Palace, can I take your order?” said the overly cheerful young man behind the counter.
 
“Actually, we were looking for Buffy Summers. Is she here?” Willow asked.
 
The kid frowned. “No. She didn’t show up for work today, and the manager is really irritated. If she doesn’t call or something she may find herself out of a job.”
 
Willow grew even more concerned. “She didn’t even call?”
 
“Nope. She should have been here half an hour ago. She’s never been this late, but like I said, the manager is in a mood today, so she’s in trouble.”
 
“Thanks anyway,” Willow said as she and Xander left. Outside she turned worried eyes toward Xander. “Where could she be?” Xander didn’t answer right away. Could she be avoiding me? But then why wouldn’t she go home? Was she really that drunk? Willow stared at him. “Earth to Xander?”
 
“Sorry, still a bit out of it,” he muttered. “Maybe we should go to the police station and see if they know anything.”
 
When they got to the police station, they were surprised to see Dawn and Tara heading down the block toward them with the same destination in mind. “She wasn’t at work?” Dawn asked.
 
Willow shook her head. “I’m guessing you guys struck out at the Magic Box too.”
 
“Anya hadn’t seen her,” said Tara, noticing the slight wince from Xander at the mention of his ex-fiancé’s name. Xander had really dug himself a hole, and seemed unable to figure out how he ended up at the bottom of it.
 
“Well, I guess we should go see if the police found her,” said Xander uncomfortably. They all trooped in and went up to the officer at the desk.
 
“May I help you?” he asked.
 
The Scoobies looked at each other for a moment, then Dawn spoke up. “My sister didn’t come home last night, and we were wondering if something happened to her.”
 
“Can you give me a name and a description?”
 
“Her name is Buffy Summers. She’s about five foot two, blonde hair, green eyes.”
 
“Just a moment,” said the officer. He pulled up the previous evening’s arrests and incidents on the computer. “I’m sorry, miss, there were no incidents last night involving anyone of your sister’s description. Would you like to file a missing person report?”
 
Dawn looked doubtful. “N… no. At least, not yet. If she’s still missing later I’ll come back.”
 
The officer shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He turned back to his paperwork and the Scoobies turned to go.
 
“Now what?” said Willow when they got outside.
 
“Maybe we should go back home,” said Dawn. “She might be there already.” They all agreed and headed back to Revello Drive in silence. Dawn was becoming more and more anxious. Buffy had stayed out all night before, but Spike’s words troubled her deeply. Tara was still very suspicious of Xander and his evasiveness. Willow could see that Xander was extremely agitated, but was at a loss for why. Xander, on his part, was trying his hardest not to think too deeply about the previous evening. He wasn’t sure he really wanted to clearly remember what had happened.
 
Dawn burst into the house and called, “Buffy? Are you home?”
 
“There’s a message on the machine,” said Tara. She pressed the button and they all heard, “Hi, it’s me. I won’t be home for a few days. I’m ok, I just… need to be alone.” Buffy’s voice sounded flat and tired, like it had when she first came back from the grave. They had just missed the call by about fifteen minutes or so.
 
“Well at least we know she’s ok,” said Willow, feeling much more relieved.
 
“Yeah, but where could she have gone?” Dawn asked. “She sounded really… exhausted or something. And why would she need to go away for a few days?” Dawn looked accusingly at Xander.
 
“Dawn, I swear, I didn’t do anything to her! You’ve got to believe me!” Xander protested. Dawn said nothing, but just frowned and stalked into the living room. She turned on the TV and curled up in front of some cartoons, glancing at the door from time to time. The others made a late lunch, utterly failed to get Dawn to join them, and continued discussing the situation. They were torn between the idea that ‘Buffy is the Slayer and can take care of herself’ and the fear that ‘Buffy might need our help so we should find her’. The conversation went round and round for ages, but seemed to get nowhere.
 
“I hate to suggest this,” interrupted Tara at last. “But maybe we should do a locator spell. Just to put Dawn’s mind at ease.”
 
“Could you? Please?” Dawn begged as she bounded into the room, having eavesdropped on the whole conversation.
 
Willow locked eyes with Tara and saw the permission and trust in her eyes. “Ok,” she agreed. “Let me get the stuff together.”
 
Fifteen minutes later a map of Sunnydale was spread out on the dining table surrounded by candles and herbs. Willow chanted the spell, causing a small point of light to appear. It hovered over the map and then came to rest – on Restfield Cemetery.
 
“Restfield? That’s where Spike’s crypt is!” exclaimed Dawn. “But she wasn’t there this morning!”
 
“Are you sure?” said Xander, seizing on the opportunity to deflect attention from himself. “How do we know he didn’t tell you something to get you to leave? He’s got that whole downstairs area to hide stuff in.”
 
Tara rebuked him. “He’s in love with Buffy. He wouldn’t hurt her.”
 
“He’s a vampire, for God’s sake!” Xander cried. “He could be having another round of ‘chain Buffy up so she’ll go out with me’ for all we know. She could have been making that call under duress. He could have grabbed her last night while she was drunk. We need to go find her!” The fury at the sight of Spike screwing Anya, which had started to fade a bit, was back in full swing. His brain desperately looked for someone to pin all this on, someone who wasn’t him.
 
Tara spoke up. “Xander, did it occur to you that maybe she might have gone there voluntarily? I mean, she and Spike had a relationship. She might have wanted to talk stuff out with him.”
 
“But then why would Spike be telling Dawn that I attacked Buffy last night?” Xander said. He once more found himself working very hard not to avoid Dawn and Tara’s eyes. He ended up focusing on Willow, his long standing ally in all things.
 
Willow tried to defuse things a bit. “We just need to make sure we’re not jumping to any conclusions, ok?” She gathered up the spell materials. “Why don’t we just clean this up then go over there, calmly.” She looked pointedly at Xander. “And then perhaps we’ll have some answers. Alright?”
 
“Fine,” snapped Xander. As the others got their things together he quietly slipped one of Buffy’s extra stakes into his pocket. Any chance I get, Fangboy is history, he vowed.
 
TBC