Duty Or Destiny - (11) Escaping the Flames
By Tasha

Chapter Summary: Giles races to find the church that the ritual would have taken place at. His fears of being too late are realized when he comes upon the burning church. Will Spike and Buffy make it out alive? Was Spike crippled again when he covered Buffy with his body as the organ fell? What will her friends, mother, and Watcher say if they survive and she wants to take Spike home with her?

Author's Note: Well going to the James Marsters and Friends convention helped to respark the muse. I met some wonderful people there, and some of them turned out to be people who read my fiction. I can't tell you guys how much it tickled me the first time I said that I wrote Revenge For Love and had people know what story I was talking about. You guys were great. Thank you for helping to respark my muse. This chapter is dedicated to Margaret, Margaret (yes, I meant to put in two Margaret's. They know who they are), Kim, Vicki, Holly, Rebecca, and Jessi (from the convention). Thank you all for helping to revive the muse.

Author's Note #2: Yes, I realize that I used the name Levinson in this story. He will end up being a relation to Jonathan Levinson, my favorite of the geek trio.

Disclaimer: All characters originally created by Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy belong to them by all rights. I just sneak them out of the vaults to play with them whenever I can. I do not make any money off of this. I have only the satisfaction that others enjoy the creativity and storylines that I come up with for our heroes, heroines, and villains.

'Single' quote marks surround thoughts in this story. "Regular" quotes are around spoken words.

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Giles turned the corner onto Main Street. "How many bloody churches are there in this town?" He swerved to miss a black cat crossing the road. "As if I need any more bad luck," He muttered to himself.

"Please let me be in time. Please let me be in time," Giles chanted the mantra softly to himself. He was already afraid that he was too late, and Angelus was unleashed on an unsuspecting Buffy.

"Dear Lord," Giles gasped. He stepped on the gas and then screeched to a halt in front of the realization of his fears.

Red and orange flames licked the horizon at the corner of Main and 20th Street. Smoke billowed out of the church's bell tower and into the night. Predators and scavengers of the night hovered on the fringes of the shadows, watching and waiting to see what they could glean from the carnage.

Giles clutched the doorframe tightly as he got out of the car. He pulled himself up to his full height on shaky legs. 'I hope Buffy isn't still in there,' He thought to himself.

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Coughing and choking noises echoed off the fallen church organ pipes. The vibrations from the coughs bounced off the pipes and caused them to ring. A small blond body tried to push the heavy weight off her chest in order to breathe more easily.

To her horror, Buffy realized the dead weight on her chest was Spike's body. She tried to shake him awake, but he wouldn't respond. "Spike! Spike, please!" She yelled into his ears over the roaring of the inferno. 'I have to get us out of here before he dusts and I choke to death.' She turned her head from side to side in an attempt to find a way out of the pile they were buried under.

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Giles watched in horror as each minute another part of the old church caved in or broke apart. The Sunnydale fire department had arrived, but they'd already given up any hope of saving the building. Still they kept their water hoses running to keep it all from burning down.

Several of Spike's minions lurked at the back of the church cemetery. They were far away enough to avoid the flames, but they were close enough to search for any sign of their Master.

Spike's minions, those who were told to wait out back until he came out from the ritual, were confused. Drusilla the Mad, as they liked to call her, had run past them before the building was completely engulfed. Instead of Spike being on her arm, they swore she was kissing Angel, the Cursed One. What would make Drusilla turn against her caretaker? Was it because of another one of her mad fits, or was it more?

The eyes of the vampires in the cemetery and Giles' eyes in the front of the church were trained on all exits. Giles prayed that his Slayer, the girl he looked upon as his surrogate daughter, made it out alive. He hoped her vampire was able to keep her safe.

"Preposterous," Giles huffed. 'A vampire keeping a Slayer safe, especially William the Bloody, is an insane thought. I knew that he couldn't be trusted. Now she is going to die because of him.' Even as his thoughts kicked him at the idea, his heart continued to pray for Buffy's safety.

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"Come on, baby. We can't stay here." Buffy wrapped her arm around Spike's waist. She pulled Spike's dead weight with her as she scooted along the floor. The heat of the flames was starting to push past the barrier of pipes from the organ that fell on them. So far the pipes had protected them from direct contact with the flames. Even though they were safe from the flames, she was not safe from being asphyxiated.

Spike groaned in pain. His body shifted in Buffy's arms, and the wetness of his room temperature blood coated her skin. He remained unconscious and unable to help the woman he'd protected from the brunt of the church's destruction.

Buffy reached the outer wall. Because of the weight of the church organ, the wall was made of brick and mortar instead of all wood. 'It is probably covered with wood on the outside, but that is a chance I'll have to take.' She carefully turned her body so that Spike's body would fall to the side. She cringed at the yelp of pain from his unconscious form.

Buffy reached around the debris for one of the smaller pipes. With a firm grasp she mustered as much strength that she could and slammed the pipe into the brick. Not much gave way, but the hollow pipe reverberated a higher pitched whistle that matched the note it would have previously played. She thrust the pipe against the wall several more times, and she hoped that someone would hear it or she'd break through the wall.

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Giles jumped after another piece of the roof crashed to the ground. He choked back the tears that threatened to fall. He rubbed his eyes and ears. The smoke made his eyes water, and the cacophony of noises around him seemed to cause a ringing in his ears.

"Chief!" One of the firemen yelled out to another man. "I think I hear something." Trained to listen for even the faintest sounds of survivors, he'd picked up on the clanging noises.

One of the firemen broke away from the bunch at the front. He joined the fireman who called out to him. "What do you hear, Levinson?" He tried to sift through the other noises around them and locate what the other fireman heard.

"There!" Jim Levinson hollered after he heard the noise again.

"I heard it too. I need a hose and axes over here," The Chief called out to his men. "We might have a survivor." He shook his head back and forth in amazement.

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Buffy coughed. Her strength was waning. She'd already inhaled a lot of smoke, and the heat was starting to bother her too. "I'm sorry, Giles. Guess we didn't plan for everything," She spoke into the air, even though she knew Giles would never hear the apology.

Buffy rested her head on Spike's shoulder. One of her hands was still clasped in Spike's grip. She lost the battle with consciousness at last. Her last thoughts centered on the fact that at least she wasn't dying alone. She was with someone who loved her.

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Voices chanted, "Left ... Right ... Left ... Right ..." The wall shook four times and pieces of the mortar fell on top of Buffy and Spike's heads. Each command resulted in another blow to the wall. On the fifth swing a basketball-sized hole opened between the inside and outside.

A flashlight beam flickered over Buffy and Spike's unconscious forms. "We've got 2 in here." The light disappeared. The hole in the wall continued to get bigger until it was big enough to reach Buffy.

Two sets of hands reached into the hole. One set pulled Buffy out under her armpits, and the other set pulled Spike out the same way. There was a bit of a problem when they couldn't get Spike and Buffy's hands separated to get them out the hole one at a time. The group of men ended up pulling both unconscious bodies out at the same time instead.

Giles ran around the building in time to see Buffy removed from it. The new source of oxygen from the hole to the outside drew the flames past the fallen pipes into the former sanctuary for the Slayer and her vampire. "Buffy!" Giles yelled.

"Whoa there, Sir. You need to go back to the street." Levinson held Giles by the shoulders.

"You don't understand." Giles fought to get past the fireman. Although he didn't look like it, he was a fairly strong man. "I am responsible for her." He pointed past the fireman to Buffy.

"You know her?"

"Yes. She was ..." Giles tried to think of a good explanation for why Buffy would be at the church at night. "She was doing some research for a school project that I was helping her with. I'm the high school librarian."

"School project?" The worry etched on the older man's features was evidence that he cared for the young woman, no matter her purpose for being at the church. Jim Levinson shook his head back and forth. He knew better than to question the strange happenings around Sunnydale. His nephew Jonathan was always filling him in on what went on at the high school.

"Yes, a bit of history on the local multitude of old and new churches. There are 43 of them to be exact." Giles knew the excuse was a lame one, but it was all he could come up with on such short notice.

"I see." Jim sighed. "Please wait here. They are bringing them back here, away from the fire."

Two stretchers, carrying both unconscious forms, made its way to Giles and Jim's position. The stretcher carriers had a hard time keeping them both balanced because the pair's hands were still locked together. The stretchers wobbled and finally fell to the ground.

Giles rushed to Buffy's side. One of the firemen grabbed the joined hands. He looked up at Giles with a helpless look. "I swear they used superglue on those hands. If I pull any harder, I'm going to tear skin to get them apart."

"Maybe it would be best if ..." Giles wasn't able to finish his sentence before the latest attempt to remove Spike's hand from Buffy's pushed the vampire's game face to the fore. Still unconscious, Giles knew the vampire wasn't a threat, but his snarl was quite convincing that the hands should be left alone.

"Holy crap!" The fireman jumped back and away from everyone. "What the Hell is that?" He pointed at Spike.

The Chief caught up with his men. He looked down at Spike's face without batting an eyelash. It wasn't the first time he'd seen something like that. He noticed that the older man wasn't moving away in fear. He moved closer to Giles. "Another friend of yours?"

"Not exactly." Giles frowned. He rubbed the flat of his hand over his entire face from forehead to chin. There was no way he could explain away Spike's vampiric guise for anything other than what it was. "But he is her ..." He pondered what to call Spike. "Her boyfriend. They were meeting at the church for some research."

The Chief motioned all of the men to head back to the main part of the fire. He lowered his voice to a level that only Giles could hear. "I'd be willing to bet that you don't want me to take them to the hospital," The experience wise Chief stated.

"That would be correct." Giles exhaled in relief. It was rare that he ran into someone in Sunnydale who didn't have blinders on. Whether or not the fire chief wanted to admit what he saw, he was being reasonable to deal with. "My car is just over there." He pointed to the beaten up old compact.

"They aren't going to fit in that laying down."

"They'll have to. I don't have much other choice to ..."

Buffy coughed. The purer oxygen away from the fire had been drawn into her lungs, and she'd finally recovered enough oxygen to return to consciousness. "Oh God!" She gasped and clutched her aching chest.

"Easy, Buffy. I'm here." Giles reassured his charge.

"Giles? Spike!" Buffy tried to get up to locate the vampire. The tug at the end of her arm turned her attention to their clasped hands. She tried to crawl over to him.

"Buffy, stay still. We have to check you for injuries." Giles put a hand on Buffy's arm to restrain her.

"I'm fine. Spike is the one hurt." Buffy sniffled. She didn't know the extent of his injuries, but she was worried that he hadn't awakened yet.

"You have blood matted in your hair." Giles slowly pushed some of Buffy's hair to the side to try to examine the wound.

The fire chief set a first aid kit on the ground. He crouched down next to Giles and whispered. "I would get them out of here soon, or there are going to be a lot more questions about him." He pointed to Spike.

"Quite right." Giles turned to Buffy. "The bleeding has stopped. Do you think you can stand?"

"Yes, I'm more worried about Spike. He took the brunt of whatever Angelus and the church threw on us." Buffy caressed Spike's face tenderly. She rubbed her fingertips over his pronounced eyebrow ridges. "Why is he in game face? He wasn't when I passed out."

"They tried to break your hands apart. Spike didn't like that." Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. He leaned down to whisper closer to Buffy's ear. "He's probably stayed that way to deal with whatever pain he is currently in. The demon is able to handle more pain than the human side."

"I remember reading something about that in one of your books." Buffy nodded her head in understanding and agreement. She stood up slowly, making sure she was steady enough for the task at hand. "Grab the other end of the stretcher. I have to get him out of here. Then, you and I need to have a chat."

"I was afraid of that when I saw the church burning." Giles lifted the other end of the stretcher. "Thank you for all of your help," He directed his comments to the fire chief.

"Maybe you can explain it to me someday," The Chief spoke softly. "I'm sure it is a very interesting tale to hear."

"Perhaps." Giles wondered if it might not be a good idea to have a few allies in the law enforcement and emergency fields. His training told him that no one should know of his Slayer's calling, but they'd already broken so many Council rules. Having someone like the fire chief could be an asset to them, if used properly.

Buffy and Giles maneuvered Spike into the back seat as carefully as they could. The car wasn't made for all 3 of them, but they didn't have many choices. When Buffy and Giles were both secure in the front seat, Giles asked Buffy, "Where to?"

"Your place. I don't think Mom could handle this kind of news yet." Buffy sighed.

Giles nodded, started the car, put it into gear, and drove away from the lingering devastation the fire was causing.

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The minions who previously remained at the back of the church followed the small car with their eyes. "Now what?" One minion turned to another. "We shouldn't have let them take him."

"He was fully revealed, and they didn't stake him." The other minion said to the first one. "I may not be too bright, but I don't think the Slayer wanted to hurt him."

"That makes no sense at all. It's what she does."

The second minion shrugged. "I think we should head back to the factory and see what Drusilla is up to."

"Master Spike won't be happy if she is there with the Souled One."

"Which is why we are going to go keep an eye on her." The second one smiled a fangy grin. "If we have news for our Master on his return, we will be rewarded for being loyal."

"And if the Mad One has a better offer?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

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(To Be Continued)