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And I Still Do (Love You) by slaymesoftly
 
Chapter Eleven
 
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Beta by all4Spike

 

 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

Buffy found herself anxious to be back on Caleb’s trail, so after a quick phone call to assure Joyce that they’d had a wonderful weekend and were safely home, she left Spike pretending to be sleeping and hastened to the Magic Box; where she found Giles in a phone conversation with Wesley.  He waved his hand at her to hold her questions as he nodded as if Wes could see him.

 

“Yes. Yes. I understand. Buffy has just arrived, so I’ll discuss it with her and then get back in touch with you. Will that be all right?”  He frowned. “No. I don’t believe anyone has told him about their wedding, although he obviously could have found out somehow. It wasn’t exactly a secret, just not a public event.” He sighed and pointed at a chair for Buffy to sit in.

 

She made a face, but obediently sat down and tried to concentrate on his end of the conversation. Which turned out to be nearly over.

 

“Yes. We’ll get back to you as soon as we know something, but I think you can assume Buffy and Spike… and perhaps Winston?” He glanced up as Winston pulled up a chair next to Buffy and nodded. “Yes, at a minimum, it will be the three of them. Please suggest to Angel that he be elsewhere.”

 

He hung up and sighed again.

 

“So, what’s up?”

 

“It appears that Caleb has murdered enough young women now that the police are looking for him. However, he seems to have gone underground. His ‘church’ has been shuttered, and he is no longer seeking acolytes.”

 

“At least not human ones,” Buffy grumbled.  “Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a small army of Bringers to hide behind.”

 

“Quite true,” Giles agreed. “Hence the need to send all three of you, just in case.”

 

“Define ‘underground’,” Winston said. “Literally? Or is it just that they can’t find him?”

 

“I’m not sure. Possibly both? The police haven’t been able to locate him, and his attorney, a man from Wolfram and Hart, has managed so far to keep them from legally entering the closed up building.” He frowned. “Wesley seems to think there may be something under the building, more than just the church basement that is indicated on the plans registered with the city.”

 

Spike? Wake up, lazy bones. You need to hear this.

 

On my way, love. I caught a glimpse of your reaction to whatever’s going on there. Be there in a few.

 

“Spike’s on his way,” Buffy said. “As soon as he gets here, we can decided when to leave and who all is going.” She glanced at Giles. “What was all the stuff about Angel? What’s he got to do with anything?”

 

“Wesley seems to think he knows about your wedding. Perhaps by having Wesley followed, or some other means, but it may be a bit uncomfortable around him. Especially for Spike.”

 

“Ohmygod, it’s been almost two years!< I’m still mad at him, but he’s had plenty of time to get over having his stupid, sneaky claim broken.” She shook her head. “We thought he’d finally gotten over it when he stopped sending people to spy on us.”

 

“Apparently he isn’t ‘over it’. Wesley seems to think having Spike there may create such a distraction that nothing will be accomplished.”

 

“Then I guess his knickers are going be twisted up pretty good, because there’s no way I’m not going with Buffy.” Spike’s voice carried from the top of the basement stairs as he emerged into the shop.

 

“What he said,” Buffy agreed. “Maybe we can meet with Wes somewhere Angel isn’t? I really want to find Caleb before he gets all powered up, and I don’t need to be distracted by Angel’s idiocy.”

 

“Much as I hate to cater to my bloody grandsire’s temper tantrums, I could maybe not attend any meetings you have to have with him. I’ll be there to back you up when it comes time, but if you’re just getting information….”

 

“Who are you? And what have you done with Spike?” Buffy’s surprised reaction had both Giles and Winston smothering smiles.

 

“I’m your lawful wedded husband, as well as your mate for life. I can be magnanimous if I need to.”

 

“Well, let’s hope you don’t need to,” Buffy said with a smile. She turned to Winston, asking, “When do you think you can go?”

 

“I have plans for this evening, but I could leave any time tomorrow.”

 

Buffy remembered that the “adults” had their weekly dinner meetings on Monday nights, and sighed at his attempt to avoid saying he was having dinner with her mother. She rolled her eyes at him, earning a sheepish grin.

 

“Okay, well, I probably have some vamps to slay tonight anyway. I guess we’ll handle those, and hope we knock the numbers down enough to be okay if we end up being gone overnight.”

 

“I’m sure it will be fine. Perhaps I will take Abigail and her mother out for some practical lessons.”

 

“You’re going to make them slay?”

 

“Only if it’s feasible. Her mother is quite well-trained, and Abigail is doing very well. She was only lacking in weapons training, so she has advanced quickly. As long as we don’t overreach ourselves, we should be fine.”

 

“Giles! I know you know all kinds of watcherly stuff, but you’re still just regular humans. I think it’s too dangerous.”

 

Winston cleared his throat. “I believe Rupert may have picked up a few tricks from me that would even those odds a good bit.”

 

Buffy stared back and forth between Giles, who was attempting to appear innocent, and Winston, who was trying not to smirk.

 

“You’re teaching him how to set people on fire?” she almost shrieked, while Spike nodded his approval.

 

“Not exactly. But he wouldn’t be as helpless as the average human.”

 

“Huh. And wow. I go away for one little honeymoon weekend, and my watcher turns into a sorcerer.”

 

“He always was,” Winston said. “The Council just tried to convince him otherwise when he used his gifts inappropriately. Rather than take the time to train him, they did what they could to smother those gifts except for what they needed him to have as a watcher. All I’ve done is provide some of the training he should’ve had when he was much younger.”

 

“So,” Buffy said, looking at Giles with different eyes, “Summoning Eaghon wasn’t an accident, huh?”

 

“No,” he said. “It was a mistake. But not an accident. And I’d rather not discuss it,” he said firmly.

 

“Okay then. We’re set. You’re going to call Wes back and tell him all three of us are coming, and that Spike will try to be inconspicuous if Angel’s around.  Might be a good idea to tell him Angel shouldn’t try talking to me, either. I’m no longer thinking big dust bunny, but I’m definitely not past punch in the nose.”

 

XXX

 

By early afternoon the next day, Spike and Wesley were arguing about whose car to take to Los Angeles.

 

“Mine keeps me safe from the sun,” Spike insisted.

 

“You don’t need to be safe from the sun,” Winston said. “And my car is newer, nicer, and has air conditioning.”

 

“Don’t want the great poof, the Bringers, or those wankers at Wolfram and Hart, to know about my lack of sun allergy,” Spike argued. “It’s my secret weapon.”

 

“We’re meeting Wes in a parking garage,” Buffy said, trying to make peace. “You can pretend you were hiding in the back under a blanket, sleeping or something. That can be the story we tell anybody who might be listening.”

 

“Fine,” Spike growled. “But it better be a nice blanket.”

 

Winston laughed and threw a worn quilt at him. “Here. Don’t be such a baby.”

 

“It’s a good thing for you, I know you could set me on fire with your eyes,” Spike grumbled.

 

Buffy ignored them both, knowing that the past few years had given them a firm friendship and admiration for each other’s abilities. She pointed at the back seat for Spike, and climbed into the passenger seat herself. “I called shotgun!” she said, when he glared at her.

 

“You bloody well did not. I have vampire hearing and I would have heard it.”

 

XXX

 

In spite of the rocky start, the trip went quickly, and Spike did actually take a nap for a while. He sat up with his quilt as they pulled into the parking garage Wesley had suggested they meet in.

 

“Are we there yet?”

 

Buffy pointed ahead of them to where Wesley was leaning against a dark car parked back in a corner. Winston pulled into the empty spot beside Wesley, and shut the engine off. All three of them got out, Spike conspicuously tossing the quilt onto the back seat. Wes shook his head at him.

 

“Do you really think by now I haven’t noticed that you seem to be sun-proof? I’m not sure how you’ve done it…” He sent a quick glance at Winston, who shook his head that it wasn’t something he’d done, then continued, “…but it seems that you are. Who were you expecting to fool with that?”

 

“Whoever needed foolin’,” Spike growled, glaring at Winston as if it was his fault Spike spent the trip napping on the backseat.

 

“Ignore him, Wes. He’s grumpy because he just woke up.” She smiled at Wesley, hoping he would just accept Spike’s ability to be in the sun longer than most vampires, and not pursue the issue.

 

Wesley shook his head, but didn’t ask any more questions. His sigh said he’d added it to those things that Buffy and Spike weren’t going to share with him, and Buffy gave him a sympathetic shrug.

 

“So. What do we know? And how do we know it?”  Spike’s question reminded them that sometimes sources of information about evil weren’t always reliable.

 

“Well, from our contacts in the LAPD, we know that your priest is a strong suspect in the ongoing investigation into the missing or dead girls. And that he has disappeared from sight. His building is locked and shuttered, and so far his lawyers have been able to keep the police from being able to break into it.” He gave a small smile. “However, I’ve been led to believe that they will not be trying terribly hard to prevent any break-ins by vandals….”

 

“I’m kinda surprised there haven’t already been some break-ins. Given the part of town the place is in.…” Spike gave Wes a questioning eyebrow.

 

His response was immediate. “There may have been one. However, the potential burglars in question haven’t been forthcoming about what they found. Saying only that one of their group that was first into the building, never came back out. And that it felt ‘creepy’ to them.” He gave a wry smile. “Needless to say, they did not report this disappearance to the authorities. It’s information Gunn picked up on the street.”

 

“Okay then, so what’s our plan?” Winston smiled at Wes, including him in any decisions.

 

Buffy spoke first. “Get in, find him, slay him, save anybody he’s holding there….”

 

“May I ask what we might be expected to encounter?” Winston asked.

 

Buffy and Spike exchanged glances, but she let him answer. “Bringers, for sure. They’re the minions that do most of the dirty work. Possibly a Turok-han, but we think that’s unlikely. They seem to need a hellmouth. Winnie thinks the one Buffy had to slay to get her scythe had probably been lurking there for centuries as insurance against a slayer coming across their weapon.”

 

“These Bringers, are they bullet-proof?”

 

“Huh. Dammed if I know,” Spike said. “Don’t think the idea of shooting them with anything but a crossbow ever came up. If they aren’t, that’s a bloody important thing to know.” He snickered and nodded at Winston. “Although we all know they aren’t fireproof.”  

 

“How about the Turok-hans?” Wes persisted.

 

Buffy answered that one. “Nope. They’re just as dead as regular vamps, just harder to dust. My scythe is pretty much the only way to stake them, although taking their heads off works too.”

 

“So, we need guns and swords, and Buffy’s scythe,” he added, nodding to the weapon she was already holding. He looked to Winston. “Shall we assume they are not fire-proof?”

 

“I’m assuming so,” Winston said, rolling his shoulders. “I’m actually quite eager to test my theory.”  He looked at Spike. “That is how you closed them into the hellmouth in your time, is it not? With fire?”

 

Spike looked uncomfortable, but nodded. “The fire came from the amulet, that channeled it through my soul somehow. It wasn’t normal fire.”

 

“That’s quite a soul you’ve got,” Wes said in admiration. “It can shoot out cleansing fire?”

 

“It pretty much ‘cleansed’ me,” Spike said as Buffy moved closer to him and took his hand. “Burned me up from the inside out, it did.”

 

Wes frowned. “But… you’re here….”

 

“Amulet brought me back somehow,” Spike said. “It kept my… essence? I dunno. I just know a few months after I thought I’d died to save the world—and Buffy,” he added, lest there was any doubt. “I popped up in the poof’s office when he opened an envelope. Was all ghostly for a while, but then I was solid. Solid enough to be sent back in time to help prevent things from going as bad as they did in our time.”

 

“That sounds like a fascinating story,” Wesley said, his curiosity palpable. Which reminded Spike of Wes’s role in his time travel, and that they hadn’t shared it with him.

 

“I’ll fascinate you some other time,” Spike growled. “Let’s just go get this killer of little girls and take him out of the game.”

 

Wes nodded and gestured to his car. “I suggest we all travel together to prevent attracting too much attention to the site. There’s room to park one car behind the building, but not more than one.”

 

“What about the poof?”

 

Wes gave Spike a long look, then said, “Angel thinks I’m just meeting with Buffy and Winston to show them to the building. He is, I believe, planning to meet us there once the sun is down a bit further.”

 

Winston and Spike exchanged glances, then Winston tossed his keys into the hand Spike was holding out.

 

“I’ll just follow you, then, and stay out of sight until we know what’s what. Buffy can tell me what’s goin’ on and when she needs me.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” Buffy said. She turned a hard eye stare on Wesley. “But when we go in, Spike is coming too. Angel or no Angel.”

 

He nodded. “I assumed he would be. But those few extra minutes to make it clear to Angel that you are not here to talk about your marriage may be enough to keep him from being….”

 

“A wanker?”

 

“A jerk?”

 

“An unnecessary distraction?”

 

Wes tried to smother a smile, but failed. “All of the above, I guess.  Shall we go then?”

 

XXX

 

As soon as Wesley’s car disappeared around the back of the boarded up building that housed Caleb’s “church”, Spike drove past the building and parked on a quiet-looking side street. He locked the car and put Winston’s keys in his pocket, smiling to himself as he thought about the unpleasant surprise he was sure any potential vandal or thief might be in for. “It’s worth hanging about just to watch that,” he said to himself, as he walked to the corner and loitered against the side of a building. From his vantage point, he could see the church building, but not whatever may have been going on behind it. The newly lit street lights were enough that he didn’t feel any need to go into vamp face, but something about his demeanor was discouraging enough that none of human creatures of the night now venturing out felt any need to bother him.

 

When he hadn’t heard anything from Buffy after a good fifteen minutes, he sent her a quietly concerned, Good thing I can tell when you’re not  alright, or I might be getting worried….

 

It took me a while to convince Angel that I’m quite happily married and still pissed off at him for trying to claim me. She sent Spike a mental image of Angel clutching his nose and glaring at her from a safe distance away. I think he’s got it now, though.

 

Spike made no attempt to hide his laughter from her.

 

Okay, Winston says he can feel some weak wards on the building. And Angel says he can hear some sounds, but they’re muffled, like maybe coming from another floor of the building. I guess we’re going in.

 

On my way, love. He took a look back at Winston’s car, smirking when a curious boy abruptly turned and walked away from it.

 

It took only a couple of minutes for him to reach the building and walk around it to the rear. He took his time, listening hard, but not picking up anything he could identify as human or not.  He walked up to Buffy and Winston, pretending not to hear Angel’s surprised growl.

 

“Are we ready, then?” he asked. “I can’t hear anything I can put my finger on, but there’s definitely someone or something inside.”

 

“What are you doing here, Spike?” Angel said, avoiding Buffy but getting closer to Spike. “I’m Buffy’s extra muscle on this mission. You should have stayed in Sunnydale.”

 

Spike shrugged. “It’s boring there. The Slayer goes where the action is.” He waited until Angel had started an angry reply, then went on calmly. “And Buffy is, in case you missed the memo, both my legally married wife and my thoroughly claimed mate for life. She doesn’t go into danger without me.”

 

He waited, ready to fight if he needed to, but mentally reassuring Buffy that he wouldn’t start it. After a long silence, Angel shook his head and backed away.

 

“Not the time or place,” he muttered. “But we will be discussing this.”

 

Spike didn’t bother to respond, just shrugged and turned to Winston. “Are we going in the fun way, or are you in charge of it?”

 

Winston laughed. “Sorry to spoil your need to kick down the door, but I think we have a better chance of surprising him if we enter as quietly as possible.”

 

“Relax, honey,” Buffy said to Spike, poking his arm. “I’m sure you’ll get to break something sooner or later.”

 

A glance from Winston was all it took to unlock the padlock holding the rear doors closed, and they all moved to follow him into the silent building. A wave of his hand removed the wards that had made the building so frightening to the only other humans to have entered it, and Buffy followed him in, scythe at the ready. Spike and Angel spread out on either side, using their enhanced hearing and vision to scan the large, dark room. With Wesley behind her, Buffy made her way to the front of the room, where there seemed to be some kind of altar. She was about to step up to it when a sound from beneath it made her freeze. Spike and Angel were already moving, their hearing having picked up the noise just before she did. They flanked her on either side while Winston stood some distance away, but very focused on the altar.  With a loud hiss, it seemed to slide back from where it was positioned, leaving a dark opening with stairs leading down.

 

“Well, this just has ‘trap’ written all over it,” Buffy muttered, glancing at Spike when he snorted. “What? Somebody had to say it, and Xander isn’t here.”

 

“I’m afraid I have agree,” Wesley said. “We have no idea what’s down there.”

 

“Nope, we don’t. But whatever it is, it probably isn’t expecting a slayer, a powerful mage, two master vampires, and an armed demon fighter.” Buffy started forward, motioning Spike to come closer. “C’mon owl eyes. Take a look.”

 

“We can do better than that,” Winston said, peering down into the darkness. He flicked his hand down the stairs, and there was immediately bright light as far as they could see.  Shaking their blind heads, the Bringers that had been poised at the bottom of the staircase, milled around in confusion.

 

“Let’s go, Angelus,” Spike said. “Looks like there’s enough for both of us.” He leapt into space, not touching the stairs as he landed at the bottom and grabbed a Bringer by the neck. With a growl, Angel jumped down after him and began to fight with the creature he’d landed on. Buffy came down the stairs carefully, holding her scythe and looking around for any sign of a Turok-han. She didn’t see any, and trusting in Winston and Wesley to keep watch for her, began to work her way past the tangle of snarling vampires and Bringers toward the area they were obviously protecting.

 

She shuddered a bit when she noticed the dead girl lying at Caleb’s feet, but continued to advance on him.

 

“Hello there, little girl,” he said, eyeing the scythe with nothing but normal curiosity. “Are you the slayer I was promised?”

 

“I’m the slayer you’re going to get,” Buffy said. “If the First promised me to you, I don’t think he meant exactly what you think he did.”

 

Caleb frowned, clearly taken back by both her lack of fear and her knowledge. “Who are you?” he said.

 

“Hi. I’m Buffy. The Vampire Slayer? Ringing any bells?”

 

“You’re not ready for me yet,” he said, too confidently to suit Buffy. “I’m supposed to get to you after I’ve taken care of all the dirty girls here that want to be you someday.”

 

“Well, that’s me. Just never doing exactly what I’m supposed to. You can complain to the Watcher’s Council. They’d be happy to agree with you.”

 

“Watcher’s Council.” He frowned. “I know that name. They’re on my list.” He stared at her in some confusion. “But you aren’t on my list yet. And neither are they,” he said, glaring at the scene in front of him where Spike and Angel were still breaking necks and biting Bringers. Behind them, Wesley was beheading the wounded ones they left in their wake, and Winston was watching avidly, his eyes alight with something Buffy wasn’t sure she wanted to know about. Telling herself he was just looking for Turok-hans, and not really enjoying watching the bloody mayhem in front of him, Buffy turned back to face Caleb.

 

“So, are we going to do this or what?”

 

“You can’t fight me, little girl. It’s not your time.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Kinda the point of this whole trip, if you must know.”

 

 
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