Chapter Two
 
“So, this is our way in?” Faith stared dubiously at the three-foot-in-diameter circle swirling in front of them.
 
“That’s the best we can do. You’ll just have to bend way down to get through it.”
Jeannie smiled at them. “On the plus side, we’ve been able to locate the general area that the vampires seem to disappear into, and we can set this up to open in that area.”  She frowned. “If we get lucky, someone will be able to watch through the scrying bowl so you know what to expect on the other side. It’s going to take both Molly and me to keep the portal open for you.”
 
“So we won’t be able to get back out?” Buffy frowned and exchanged looks with Faith.
 
“We can keep the scry bowl open pretty much full-time, and follow you in that.  Give us a signal when you need or want to come out, and we’ll open the portal again.”
 
“Or if we want reinforcements?”
 
“Or that. You’re not taking everyone then?”
 
“Not this time. We need to find out what’s going on, who the bad guys are, how to find them… stuff like that. We’ll take just enough girls with us to make it a bad idea for anything nasty to try to interfere.  When we want the rest of the squads, we’ll give you a signal.”
 
“What kind of signal?”
 
Buffy and Faith snickered and at the same time said, “Help!”  They were still giggling as they went to pick a squad to take with them.
 
“I guess we should come up with something more senior slayerish than ‘help’,” Buffy said with a sigh.
 
“Yeah. We need something we can do without sound, and probably more than one. One for ‘Get us out of here!’, a different one for ‘Send more slayers’.”
 
“And one that means ‘It’s on. Send everybody,” Buffy said. “Too bad none of us speak sign language.”
 
“Abby does.  She’s the deaf girl, remember?”
 
“Former deaf girl. Can’t she hear now?”
 
“Yeah. When she got her powers, she got her ears back too. But she knows sign language. She can teach everybody a few simple signs to use.”
 
“Great idea.  Let’s talk to her before we tell everybody what’s going on.”
 
 
XXXXXXXXX
 
 
“So, that’s the sitch. The portal is small and it can’t stay open, so Faith and I will take a few girls through with us and try to find out what’s going on and what or who we need to kill.  The scry bowl will stay focused on us as much as possible, so you will know what we find.”  Buffy gestured to the embarrassed girl standing next to Faith.
 
“Abby here is going to teach us all enough sign language to be able to communicate if we need to.  Please pay attention – write it down if you need to.”
 
Buffy pulled Abby up beside her. “You’re on, Abs.”
 
Blushing and nodding, Abby took a deep breath and began to speak, signing as she did so. “I hope you can all understand me,” she said as clearly as she could. “I still don’t speak very clearly, but I’m getting better.”
 
Murmurs of “You’re fine. I can understand you.” came from the group of slayers watching her. Only one girl said, “What did she say?” and she was quickly shushed by her neighbors.
 
Abby held up her hands. “If you see anybody in the scry bowl doing this” – she made a very understandable gesture with both hands – “it means they need to come out. Tell Jeannie or Molly right away.”
 
“If they do this” – she made an “okay” gesture with one hand – “It means they’re fine and you should just keep watching.  This” -- she made another very easy to duplicate gesture holding up fingers – “means we need to send more slayers, as many as fingers held up.  And this—” she threw both hands in the air “—means send everybody and bring the weapons.” 
 
She looked around the room. “Does everybody get that? I’m not trying to teach you sign language tonight, just give you some easy to use signs so that no matter who is watching, or who is communicating, everybody knows what is being said.”
 
Buffy stepped back up beside her. “Thanks, Abby. Does anybody have any questions?  I suggest you practice among yourselves for a while. We’ll be going in soon and we’re taking Suzie’s squad with us.  Angela, your squad is on scry bowl duty. Somebody should be monitoring it at all times. The rest of you, make sure the weapons are ready to go, and that you’re fed and rested.”
 
 
XXXXXXXX
 
Buffy and Faith stood watching the portal grow from a tiny hole in the air to the much larger one they’d seen before.
 
“Okay, ladies. With a little luck, we’re going to be stepping out into a relatively safe area, but keep your eyes open.  You’ve all been briefed on what the two vampires we’re looking for look like. Anything that doesn’t look like either one of them is dustable.  The dragon’s an unknown factor. It seemed to be helping them out before, so we’ll treat it as neutral or friendly until we know otherwise. Let’s go.”
 
Buffy bent down and pushed herself through the portal, hitting the ground on the other side and rolling away as another girl came through right behind her. Faith came through last and they all watched as the portal winked out of sight.
 
“Make a note where it was,” Faith said, pointing to the now empty space. “What else is here, and how close.”
 
“Do we have to be here to go back?”
 
“Probably not. But if they can’t open it where we are for some reason… like a horde of demons waiting to go through… then this might be the safest place. We hope not. But if they see us with a group of humans, they’ll probably try to open it right there so we can send them all out. But we don’t know.”
 
The well-trained slayers formed a circle and surveyed their situation. To the left of the spot they’d come through the portal was a dumpster, overflowing with trash. To the right, was the burnt-out hulk of a car. One look inside had them retreating from it.
 
“Gross! There’s a burned up body in there.”
 
“Probably won’t be the worst thing we see here. Just keep together and lets see if we can find where Spike and Angel hide when they aren’t rescuing people.”
 
“There, maybe?”
 
One of the girls pointed at an old building that a first glance seemed deserted. A closer look showed footsteps in the dust of the loading dock facing the alley they were in.  Buffy frowned at the familiar looking building, but Faith headed right for it.
 
“It’s the Hyperion. I’d recognize this old loading dock anywhere. Makes sense they’d be holed up in here.” She jumped up onto the loading dock, only to bounce off an invisible barrier.  “What the fuck?”
 
“It’s got magical protection? That doesn’t sound like Spike or Angel.”
 
While they stared at the building, searching for some sign that it might contain vampires, they saw the doors begin to open.  All eight slayers fell into fighting stances, stakes or swords at the ready, and waited to see what would emerge from the seemingly empty building.
 
Spike stood there, frozen, staring at Buffy, then shook himself and turned to yell back over his shoulder. “It’s nothing. Just Slayers one and two come to call. And they brought a few friends.”
 
He was shoved aside as Angel opened the door the rest of the way. “What the hell are you—” He halted, staring from Buffy to Faith and back again.
 
“Surprise,” Buffy said cheerfully. “Are we going to be invited in?”
 
“Uh, yeah, of course. You’ll have to be… “ Spike still stood by the door, only his mouth moving. Angel had yet to say anything, blinking slowly as if just waking up.
 
Faith rolled her eyes and walked as close as she could get to the barrier. “Well, is one of you two assholes going to invite us in?  We’re feeling a little exposed out here.”
 
“Oh… sorry. Of course, of course.” Angel stepped back and said, “Come in, Buffy, Faith, umm… other slayers.”
 
Faith leaped onto the loading dock and shook her head. “Suzie, Amy, Sam, Julie, Annie, Grace. Repeat it, idiot.”
 
When Angel had stumbled through all the girls’ names and they had all joined Faith on the platform, Buffy took a last look around, made an OK gesture toward where the portal had been and then jumped up herself.
 
“Ok, lets get inside,” Angel said. “And then you can explain how you got here.”
Angel held the door while Faith led the squad inside and waited for Buffy to join them. When she didn’t follow immediately, Faith shrugged and mouthed “good luck” at Spike as she stepped inside, leaving the door ajar.
 
Buffy was staring at Spike with a combination of disbelief, longing, and fury.  He took a deep breath and said, “I can explain—”
 
“If I let you live that long,” Buffy said, whirling to follow her slayers into the building. 
 
“Right. If you let me live that long.” Spike sighed and followed her in, closing the doors behind him and putting a bar across them.
 
“What’s that for if you have a barrier?”
 
“It’s kind of a reverse barrier. Keeps demons and humans out, but a vamp could walk right through it. We learned that the hard way.”
 
They faced each other again, staring into each other’s eyes until they reached some sort of mutually acceptable conclusion.  Buffy’s lips twitched as Spike’s expression faded into one of the soft smiles he used to give her when no one else was around. Without giving away how affected she was at seeing his emotions so clearly, she turned away, saying, “As soon as we’ve kicked whatever butts need kicking to get this city free, your ass is the next one in line.”
 
“Looking forward to it,” he said, risking a light touch on her back. “I missed you too.”
 
“Hmph!” Buffy twitched, then leaned back into his hand just enough to keep him from pulling away. “That’s kinda what I meant.”
 
“Was hoping it was,” he said, moving close enough to whisper in her ear. “Didn’t think you’d be that brassed off at me if it wasn’t.”
 
She whirled to stare at him, not backing away when that put them face to face, but instead moving closer to hiss at him, “FYI, you asshole, even if I’d been lying when I said I loved you – which I wasn’t, by the way – I still would have grieved for you, just like I did for Anya and all the girls we lost in there. In what universe would it have been okay for you to let me think you were dead too?”
 
He stared into her suddenly damp eyes as long as he could, then dropped his head, saying, almost too softly,  “None.”  He looked down between them for seconds, waiting for her to move away; when she didn’t move, he pulled his gaze back up.
 
“I… I wish I could find a way to tell you how sorry I am, Buffy. I wish I had some excuse that isn’t going to sound like a load of bollox.  But I don’t. I was stupid, and a world-class wanker, and in no way do I deserve your forgiveness or your… affection. I know that.” 
 
Before she could respond, Faith called out, “Hey, can you two make googly-eyes later. You know, like after we figure out what we’re doing here?”
 
With a guilty start, Buffy turned around. “This isn’t over,” she growled, once more the general. Spike remained uncharacteristically silent as he followed her into the hotel kitchen where everyone was standing around.
 
“Sorry, everybody,” she said. “Letting personal stuff get in the way. It won’t happen again.” She felt Spike’s rumbled growl behind her, but ignored it. “So, Angel, what’s the sitch?”
 
Shooting a glare at Spike, he said, “Faith tells me you have a portal that we can send people through.”
 
“We do. Can’t leave it open, but we can open it when we need it. And we have more slayers waiting on the other side.”
 
He nodded. “Right now, the best thing you can do for us is open the portal so we can send all the people we’ve managed to rescue back through it. It’s getting really crowded in here, and it’s hard to keep this many people fed.”
 
“How many people?”
 
Angel looked at Spike who shrugged.
 
“Last time I counted, we had almost 200. That doesn’t include the ones we brought in yesterday, though.”
 
“Whoa! Okay, we’re going to need more than just sign language to set that up. One of you girls is going to have to go back and tell them what’s going on. We need to know the portal will be ready before we take anybody outside, and that it can stay open long enough to get them all through.”
 
Julie raised her hand. “I’ll go. Should I bring more girls back with me?”
 
Buffy shook her head. “Let’s get the people out of here first, and figure out where we need to fight. Maybe bring back some big sheets of paper and some markers so we can communicate a little better? Rather than sending somebody back and forth all the time? Ask Jeannie if she can keep the scrying bowl focused on that loading dock unless we ask her to follow us somewhere. That way, we can leave messages without getting outside the barrier.”
 
“Sounds good, B. I’m going to take Julie back outside. Don’t lock the door on me.”
 
“I’ve got it,” Spike surprised her by saying. He followed Faith and Julie out of the kitchen without looking at Buffy again.