Buffy sat in the darkened corner, waiting. Her first reaction after learning Giles had kept Spike’s return a secret had been to call him and demand an explanation. Said demands coming in the form of extremely angry yelling. And boy daddy, she’d tried.

But as it usually happened nowadays, Buffy couldn’t get Giles on the phone. Giles didn’t want to talk to her. Oh, the irony. Apparently, Giles didn’t want anyone communicating with her directly. She’d stewed in growing anger for hours after the other Buffy had left, finding no outlet to vent her rage.

After the third hour had passed, she’d realized she was glad that Giles hadn’t been ‘available to take her call’. She already knew what Giles would say to her. She could hear his voice in her head saying that he’d done it for her own good. That knowing Spike was alive would only upset her. That there was no future with a souled vampire and he wanted more for her than an unhealthy attachment to a member of the undead. He’d excuse his own sketchy behavior and somehow make her the guilty party for failing to live up to his expectations. The Giles in her head was seriously pissing her off.

No. She was done talking. She was done with excuses and false truths. And that’s all Giles would give her now. He’d try to placate her and when that didn’t work, he’d guilt trip her by reminding her that her duty was to her Slayers first and foremost. Like she didn’t already know that. Like devoting every second of her life for over the past year and a half wasn’t enough proof that she understood her priorities. Buffy understood sacrifice. She sacrificed her life everyday for the mission. For the girls she’d made into Slayers. Every day she paid the price.

The price hadn't felt so high before in a long time. What if he hadn't survived? Was that why he hadn’t written again? Her world would be just cruel enough to bring him back to her only for her to discover she'd already lost him again. Stupid world.

No, she was glad that Giles hadn’t wanted to talk to her because it made her realize what she had to do. It was time to take action and she knew just where to start.

Voices laughing from down the hall carried through the closed hotel room door. Buffy tensed in anticipation. The door opened after several failed drunken attempts to slide in the key. Andrew stumbled into his room, already half-undressed with his dress shirt pulled out of his slacks, his tie loosened and hanging askew. When he threw his jacket on the floor and started slipping out of his shoes, Buffy decided it was time to put a halt to this very unwanted strip show.

“Andrew,” Buffy drawled menacingly as she clicked on the lamp next to the chair she lounged in.

“Sweet bejeesus!” Andrew tripped over his shoes, falling back into the dresser behind him. “Ow!” Banging his head, he flailed about caught in his half untied shoes as he fell to the floor. Rolling over onto his back, he turned his head to find Buffy watching him with one eyebrow raised. “Oh. Hey, Buffy. How is our fair Roma treating the Slayer Generalissimo?”

“Have a good time tonight, Andrew?” Buffy’s voice held a dark undercurrent beneath her saccharine sweet tone.

Fumbling into a sitting position only to trip over his shoes again, Andrew’s face was flushed from his night out carousing. “Heh. You know what they say about Slayers – all work and no play leads to extremely grumpy Slayers. And extreme grumpiness leads to the Dark side.”

Andrew’s face screwed up quizzically. “Or it makes you a dwarf in service to a beautiful princess forced to abandon her home because of an evil queen who’s desperately hoping that her Prince Charming will restore her with True Love’s kiss.” Andrew rested his chin on his fist, continuing to ramble in his tipsy state. “Don’t you miss Disney back in the day when they did their old school animation? It truly was a Golden Age.”

Andrew’s gaze unfocused as his imagination carried him away. Buffy’s silence coupled with her calculating stare brought him crashing back to reality. He looked at her uncertainly, crawling up to sit on the bed and face her.

“You like stories, don’t you Andrew?” Buffy’s gaze was intense and unblinking, her mouth firm.

“Sure, who doesn’t?” Andrew started fiddling with his cufflinks and accidentally knocked one off his sleeve. He lurched forward, trying to catch it but it fell to the floor at Buffy’s feet. She leaned down to pick it up, examining the silver design in the shape of a light saber. She quirked her left eyebrow and looked back at Andrew with a half-smile. Andrew returned her smile ingratiatingly. Buffy’s upper lip curled to bare her teeth. Andrew bit his lip and gulped audibly.

Buffy held the cufflink up in front of her, tilting her head to look at it more closely. “I’ve never been a huge fan of mysteries myself. I always go for the romance, action and humor - the Princess Bride-effect. But I think I’m finally starting to see the attraction.” Buffy’s hard smile accompanied her musing tone. “Mysteries are about that moment when you just get it. Everything makes sense and you realize how it all fits. See, I had all these puzzle pieces laid out before me and I didn’t even realize that when I put them together – they told a story. Can you guess what it was?”

Andrew’s eyes widened and he pursed his lips, shaking his head. He looked at the silver cufflink being casually tossed from Buffy’s right hand to her left and back again. She occasionally paused to roll it between her index finger and thumb.

“No guesses? I’ll give you a hint. The first piece in the puzzle - LA.” She raised her eyebrows expectantly while Andrew’s face looked baffled. “Not enough? How about this one – Angel. Still not enough? Dana.” Buffy paused again before continuing, jaw clenched. “Still don’t get it? I’ll give you a big one – vampire with a soul.” She sat back in the chair, watching Andrew start to squirm while she fiddled with the cufflink. She smiled tightly. “That’s better. Now is there something you want to tell me, Andrew?”

Andrew laughed awkwardly. “Well as you’ve heard, my quest to the city of Angels led me to the evil citadel of the Wolf, Ram and Hart where I found myself facing many a harrowing experience. Little did I know that Angel the Vampyre would so boldly challenge my right to guardianship of the crazed Slayer, Dana.” Andrew waved his finger. “Oh, but the Dark One had underestimated his opponent. In the end, the side of Slayerly righteousness won the day…or night since it was dark out. And Angel the Vampyre was sent back to his evil fortress impotent and empty-handed.”

Andrew smiled like a child expecting a cookie for a job well done. Buffy stared at him, silent. “Erm, though no blows were exchanged it truly was a battle to the death. By glaring. Oh yes, we had a death glare-off royale! For the brooding great one was no match for Andrew, the greatest watcher in all the lan – ”

Buffy slammed her fist against the table next to her, leaning forward with gritted teeth. “No more lying to me, Andrew. Not to me.” She leaned forward and held the light saber cufflink between her index finger and thumb, pushing down until the metal was a flattened mess. She tossed it into Andrew’s lap. “Understand?”

“So you wanna talk about…” Andrew’s voice trailed off.

“Spike’s alive. Or he was - ” Buffy’s voice caught in her throat. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists tightly. Head bent down, she opened her eyes to glare at Andrew. “Spike came back. And you’re going to tell me everything you know.”

“Right-y-oh, boss.” Andrew’s voice cracked, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple.

Buffy nodded stiffly, satisfaction coloring her face. “Good. ‘Cause I’m done playing your games.” She leaned forward, the fire in her eyes holding Andrew in rapt attention. “It’s time you started playing mine.”



******


Rome Airport

Andrew rapped his fingers against the ticket counter, his entire body humming with nervous energy. The ticket sales agent paused in entering his travel information to glance at him strangely. He smiled in a creepily reassuring way and she widened her eyes behind her glasses, typing faster in order to get the bizarre man away from her post. “Two tickets to Glasgow. Would you like a window or an aisle seat?”

“Window.” The petite, blonde woman standing next to the peculiar American answered automatically. “Please.” She added as an afterthought, looking uncertainly at her male companion.

The saleslady nodded and entered in the information. “Two tickets for Andrew Wells and…” She looked up at the pair when they failed to answer immediately.

The blonde woman flashed her perfect teeth in a big smile and handed over her ID for verification. “Buffy. Buffy Summers.”

“Buffy?” The saleslady barely suppressed a smirk, printing out the two boarding passes and handing them over to the man with the obnoxious manners.

Andrew grabbed the tickets from the saleslady’s hand and mock saluted. “Mille grazie, ticket lady. Ciao ciao!”

The pair turned and slowly worked their way towards the boarding gate in silence. Thirty minutes later, they took a seat by the gate and waited. Andrew remained jittery, glancing over his shoulder every few minutes and scanning the crowds. “Buffy.” His mouth quirked after saying her name.

“Hmmm…” she answered absentmindedly, lost in thought.

“It’s gonna work out. I can tell. It’s gonna work out great.” Andrew’s chipper voice rose above the general din of the airport boarding area as he rocked back and forth in his seat.

She looked at him skeptically. “That’d be loads more convincing if you weren’t acting like a kid who forgot to take his Adderall.” She took a deep breath as the flight attendant called all the passengers to prepare to board their flight. “I guess it’s time to face the music.”

Andrew nodded. “Showtime.”

They walked towards the gate, slowly moving forward in line as the group boarded the plane. A blonde woman in sunglasses and a dark overcoat watched their progress from across the room. She stood like a silent statue, her arms crossed over her chest. When the attendant finally closed the boarding gate, the woman walked to the window to watch the plane depart, staring as it taxied along the runway and prepared for takeoff. Her breath caught as the plane began to move forward, faster and faster, until it was airborne. She watched it rise into the sky, her heart in her throat, hazel eyes wide behind the tinted glasses. The plane finally disappeared from sight over the horizon and she let out a deep sigh. A smile slowly spread across her face.

A woman’s voice over the PA system announced, “Now boarding international flight 1630 to Los Angeles…"


******



A/N Feedback me and spread the happy.