Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em, I just play.

Author’s note: Beta’d by BTL. No firing for you!


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Chapter 18: The Interrogation

Buffy sat on the edge of Dawn’s hotel bed, watching her sister sleep. If this had been the first time Buffy had to face the fact that Dawn was growing up perhaps she’d have greater trepidation, but as it was, Dawn, in her eyes, was an adult. Which was probably why she and Spike had disagreed on Graham. Dawn was still Spike’s Nibblet.

Buffy walked out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind her. All the rooms on this floor of the hotel were occupied by one Scooby or another. She’d had difficulty convincing Xander to go back to his room. He wanted to be active and useful after sitting around for so long. She didn’t blame him.

The sun was going to rise soon, making it normal vampire sleepy time. Of course, the two vampires in the hotel were acclimatized to living with humans. Buffy pushed open the door to her own room, to see her mate spread out, fully clothed on the bed.

Buffy shut the door and walked towards the bed, shedding clothes as she went. With all the problems they’d had it the last couple of days, Spike hadn’t been front and center in her mind.

And she felt bad about that. He deserved better. He’d had to deal with Angel while she recovered from the blood transfusion, watcher her sleep, watched her worry, and had been a fantastic second in command.

He always had her back.

Buffy crawled into bed wearing nothing but her engagement ring, cuddling against her mate and gave his neck a tender nibble before succumbing to her weariness.
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“There’s a naked slayer in my bed,” purred Spike, waking her from a semi peaceful sleep.

“A naked slayer with all her teeth. Got a problem with that, vampire?” she asked stretching.

“No, not at all, pet,” he whispered touching her bare rib cage.

“Good,” she whispered back, reaching for his strong arms. “I’m sorry.”

“For what, luv?”

“Since all this started, since we got here, I’ve been focused on Dawn. Dawn and Graham.”

“The Bit’s got her own set of troubles.”

“It’s not an excuse. I haven’t been paying attention to you. It must be difficult being in the same space as Angel again.”

“Not as dramatic as all that, luv,” he smiled.

“No?” she pursued the topic. “Last time we saw him there was the whole challenge on the claim and the naked fighting on our lawn.”

“Won that,” he said proudly.

Buffy smiled, recalling the event in her mind. “Yes, you did.” She planted a kiss on his cheek and snuggled closer to him.

“There’s not been much time to renew our mutual loathing, pet,” he continued. “The racket the whelp and the cheerleader make whenever they are in the same room…bloody painful is what it is.”

“I just hope we won’t be here much longer,” Buffy added. “It feels awkward. Whatever Graham knows we have to know.”

“Best get on with it then,” he responded, sitting up and stretching.
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Dressed, and hand in hand, the engaged and mated couple headed down the stairs to find the lobby filled with Scoobies, eating various breakfast foods.

“Oh, I smell coffee!” Buffy exclaimed, practically drooling.

“There’s blood in the fridge for you, Spike,” called Cordelia from somewhere in the lobby.

The couple headed to the kitchen, finding Dawn at the prep table, a glass of OJ in her hand and a spell book in front of her.

“Feeling better?” Buffy asked her sister as she headed towards the coffee pot, pressing a kiss to Dawn’s forehead in passing.

“Marginally,” noted the Key. “Willow told me that you held off on doing the truth spell on Graham last night. Thanks.”

“I thought you’d want to be there,” Buffy admitted. “I had to convince Xander that we had to wait for you.”

“Absolutely. How would Xander feel if we did a truth spell on Anya, or Cordelia?” asked Dawn.

“He said he’d want to be far, far away.”

“Oh.”

Spike pulled a mug of blood out of the fridge, sniffed it, and put into the nearby microwave. “You sure you want this spell done, Bit?”

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” Dawn answered.
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Buffy followed her sister into the basement of the Hyperion, in the long line of Scoobies and AI crew that wanted to see the truth spell in action.

“Does there need to be so many people here?” asked Tara tentatively, afraid of making anyone upset.

“You are right, Tara,” Buffy noted, looking around at the gang assembled. “Cordelia, Xander, Fred, Gunn, Angel, Andrew, you don’t need to be here.”

“I never get to do anything,” Andrew whined as he trudged back up the stairs and out of the basement.

“This is my hotel,” Angel muttered, following the nerd up after a pointed look from Buffy, the others trailing after him.

“Maybe we should have done it last night,” offered Willow, setting down her supplies for the spell. “Less people.”

There was a sigh from Molly before she stepped closer to her friend and gave Dawn a hug. “I don’t need to be here, I’ll go upstairs.”

Dawn nodded gratefully at her friend, though she would have been okay if Molly had stuck around. As Molly ascended the stairs, Dawn knelt in front of her sleeping ex boyfriend, letting him loose from the chains.

Of the people that remained, Spike knew he wasn’t needed, but there was no way he was going to leave, he wanted answers, and he had his Nibblet’s honour to defend.

The witches started setting up for the spell, as the watchers looked on and Anya tried to wait patiently for something to do. Buffy cast a glance at her mate by the wall and gave him a smile. She knew exactly what he was thinking. With deliberate steps, she positioned herself against his side, carefully wrapping her arms around his torso. Buffy pressed a soft kiss to his cheek.

“Promise me, whatever he says, whatever he’s done, they’ve done, you won’t go psycho? You won’t tear his head off his body and drink from his brain stem?” she asked softly, so the others wouldn’t hear.

“What makes you think that’s what I was thinking’?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“’Cause I have an extra special glimpse into the mind of William the bloody,” she answered. “You’ll be okay?”

“Don’t rightly know, pet. She’s my nibblet.”

“You aren’t ready for her to be a grown up yet,” she finished his thought for him, to which Spike wouldn’t answer.

“Buffy?” called Willow. “We’re ready.”

Giving Spike another kiss, Buffy left her mate along the wall and joined the witches for the spell. Before her, Dawn was trying to wake up Graham.

“It’s time to get up sleepy head,” Dawn whispered in his ear, an action Buffy thought extremely intimate.

“Can’t you just poke him to wake him up?” asked Amy slightly impatient.

The soldier moaned, in protest of being woken up. Dawn shook her head and stood.

“He doesn’t wake up that way.” With a sigh, Dawn put her hands on her hips and stared down at Graham. “It’s 0600 hours soldier!” Dawn shouted loudly, startling Tara.

In less than a second Graham was on his feet.

“Good, now we can start,” muttered Willow.

“Can we have warning the next time you do that?” Tara asked turning her attention to the supplies in front of her, Dawn giving her an apologetic smile.

As Amy, Willow, and Tara started to chant, Graham cast his eyes on Dawn, begging explanation.

“They’re working a spell,” Dawn explained, touching his bare shoulder tenderly. “It’s a truth spell. It won’t hurt you.”

Buffy watched the soldier’s eyes. He had steeled himself against torture,; his training had made him expect that. Spells terrified him. If he was in less control of himself, Buffy half expected him to be clinging to Dawn’s leg. He was doing remarkably well.

The spell cast, Tara, Amy, and Willow gathered up what they could and headed back upstairs; they had done their part.

The interrogation team stepped closer, bringing chairs with them. Wesley, Giles, and Nate set their chairs down in front of the soldier with a clang.

“Dawn, if you could move away,” started Wesley.

Dawn took a few steps away from Graham, her eyes locked with his. Buffy stepped closer to her sister, as Dawn leaned on the wall closest to Graham.

“We shall begin,” continued Wesley. “What part of the US government are you affiliated with?”

“The Army,” the prisoner answered automatically.

“Not the Initiative?” asked Giles.

“You know as well as I do that the Initiative is defunct,” Graham spat back.

“What interest does the Army have with Sunnydale?” asked Nate.

“Energy.”

“What kind of energy?” continued Nate.

“Don’t know,” the soldier responded. “It’s hard to track. There’s a theory, that it’s demons that emits this energy.”

“What have you done to prove this theory?” asked Giles, his eyes casting a worried look at Dawn.

Graham followed the watcher’s eyes for a moment, a look of confusion on his face. “We’ve been capturing demons that we think are giving off this energy.”

“Demons you think are giving off the energy?” asked Wesley. “You don’t know?”

“The only way the energy was detected in the first place was with a highly classified sensor system out of area 51,” Graham added. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. I’m not even supposed to know.”

“You are telling us ‘cause of the spell Graham,” added Buffy.

“Getting back to the topic at hand?” offered Nate looking over at Buffy. “You can’t detect the energy?”

Graham shook his head. “It was detected all over the country, different from all other types of detectable energy. Can I get some clothes? It‘s cold down here.”

“You’ll get clothes when we are done,” Giles said coolly. “Why did you come to Sunnydale?”

“There was a massive build up of this new form of energy at Sunnydale. I was assigned here ‘cause I have experience at this locale.”

“How many demons have you captured?” asked Wesley.

“Fifty maybe. The facility only had about twenty left before Dawn…” he trailed off, looking at the teen.

“Why was there only twenty?” asked Nate. “Did you kill these demons?”

Graham shook his head. “Our orders were to capture and bring them to area 51, intact.” The ones we have aren’t giving off the energy we were looking for anymore. Some just disappear.”

Giles nodded his head in understanding.

“Was your involvement with Miss Summers a plan to get information?” asked Wesley.

Dawn looked over at Wesley with a glare before fixing her eyes on the subject of interrogation, waiting for an answer.

“No. It didn’t start out that way,” Graham answered.

“Start….out that way?” hiccupped Dawn, a low growl coming from the corner.

“No!” he declared, his eyes focusing on her, half covered by shadows. “I only considered it after a phone call I had from Riley. Dawn, I was never after information from you. Never.”

“What was the reason for the attack on the Summers’ residence?” continued Nate.

“My superiors. They knew about Buffy all along. She’s got a file. Someone decided it was a good idea to bring her in. For questioning. That’s all. My orders were to secure the slayer.”

“That’s all?” asked Buffy sceptically.

“Once we got onto Revello Drive, one of the techs detected the energy coming from the house.”

“You were trying to capture the slayer and anyone that had this energy you were seeking?” asked Wesley for clarification.

“Just the demons.”

“That’s comforting,” piped up Anya. “They don’t even know what they are looking for. We know more than they do!”

“That much is clear,” added Giles, supporting Anya’s outburst.

“They can’t hold the demons they capture. The ones they have probably were taken in mistake. They don’t have the ability to teleport or dimension hop!”

“Dimension hop?” asked Graham. “Is that what we did?” he asked turning to Dawn.

“I think we had best discuss this away from our guest,” added Nate, standing up. He knew enough about Anya’s loose lips to know that any discussion that was going to happen was going to undermine their position.

“That is probably the best idea,” agreed Wesley.

The group made to leave and go upstairs, but Dawn didn’t budge.

“I’m not leaving him alone with you Dawnie,” whispered Buffy. “Spike won’t either.”

“You don’t know that he’ll hurt me,” stated Dawn. “I don’t think he will.”

“It’s not hurting you. It’s him getting away. You’ve damaged yourself enough trying to get him all kidnapped.”

“I’m not leaving him down here anymore,” Dawn protested. “And I want to talk to him myself. Alone.”

“No,” Spike’s voice sounded throughout the basement.

Dawn turned around to face the vampire. There was no way he was going to budge on this one.

Dawn thought fast. “If Buffy stays with me, would that be okay?”

Buffy cast a glance at her mate with hopeful eyes.

“Fine,” Spike spat, not happy about not being able to stay. “I’ll go get the bloody wanker some clothes. Seen far too much of the whelp.”

“Thanks,” Dawn whispered.

Spike, Anya, and the watchers headed upstairs. Buffy went back to her wall, careful to stay out of the shadows, she wanted to make sure that Graham knew she was there.

“What would you have done if you were ordered to capture me?” Dawn asked him.

There was a pained look on his face for a moment.

“Oh my god, you’d do it, wouldn’t you? Take me in!” exclaimed Dawn.

“I didn’t even consider it until I was standing on your front lawn. I hoped that it wasn’t you,” he answered.

“Hope is something I have very little left, Graham,” sighed Dawn. “I thought you were more…”

“Like Riley,” he answered for her. “You wanted me to defy my orders like he did.”

“No, I believed you when you said you weren’t after me. I’m so stupid.”

“You aren’t a demon Dawn!” Graham muttered at her. “You aren’t bad, you can’t be evil.”

Dawn didn’t answer back, stunned into silence for a moment, her eyes focused on the floor. It was as if she believed she was a demon.

“She’s not a demon,” answered Buffy when Dawn didn’t. Moving forward, Buffy stood in front of her sister and forced the teen to look her in the eyes. “Dawn, you aren’t a demon. You are so much more powerful than any demon. You aren’t evil. You’re energy. Glowly, green, beautiful energy.”
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Tbc…