Livin' Life in the Fastlane

Disclaimer

I own NOTHING (except for the plot*smile*)! Anything in this story that falls under existing copyrights belongs to their respective owners.

A/N
Okay now I know the last chapter was total crap so I wrote the next one much faster to forget the trash I wrote the chapter before. ;) So again we’re going on with the plot and look straight forward to the finish line. You wanna see a really cool Giles? R & R, let me know if it’s better this time.
Hugs to all!

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Previously on Livin’ Life in the Fastlane:

Spike confesses his dark past to Buffy and why the two snipers where in the desert. She kind of forgives him for the greater good he does for her but “punishes” him for not telling her earlier.

Chapter 18: Going Down in Flames

Buffy woke to the smell of fresh coffee. She stretched lazily on the couch on which the greatest sex ever happened the night before. In her half sleep she recognized something missing from the night before. Her still foggy brain needed a few blinks to recognize that Spike wasn’t lying next to her anymore.

She slowly rose into a sitting position securing the blanket around her naked form. She found a tablet in front of her on the small coffee table. A steaming cup of coffee and a sandwich stood on it accompanied by a flower in a small vase, a candle and a note.

*Oh my God, I have the bestest boyfriend ever* she thought while she picked up the small letter from Spike. It said:

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Good morning luv,

Do you feel as good as I do this morning?

I left you some breakfast, as I woke up early
and wouldn’t want to disturb you. I hope the
coffee is still hot. Do you
know that look even more eatable when
you’re asleep?

Anyway, as much as I would like to tell you
about the naughty thoughts running through
my head right now I just wanted to tell you
that I went out to get my car. I also took
your keys to the garage. Why don’t you go
to the hospital and check on Xander and meet
me back at the garage later. Perhaps we can
think about some of my naughty thoughts
together…

Always, Spike

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Buffy had to smile at the sweetness that was her boyfriend. She took the plate with the sandwich and the cup full of still hot coffee from the tablet and settled back on the couch. Suddenly a shudder ran down her spine as she thought about Spike’s proposition for the rest of the day. Hmm, naughty thoughts…

*Bad Buffy,* her brain called in *you need to focus on the matters at hand. Not on fornicating your boyfriend into the next millennium…*

“What, now you want to be the voice of reason? If I remember right you were the one who wrote ‘Take him’ on the back of my eyelids” Buffy entered the discussion with herself.

*Yeah, and what?* her mind countered * You were the one telling me to be reasonable. Now what? Am I the bad one of us both because I do what you want?*

“You know what, shut up. I don’t want to talk to you anymore. Stupid brain.”

*Yeah, yeah whatever the mistress orders…cow*

“Shut up” Buffy yelled at nobody but herself and abandoned her breakfast to take a shower. She was a little bit stressed. After the amazing evening she had spent with Spike it was hard for her to return to the dark and cold world she was living in. A world where nothing ever would go without a price. And now the price was the lives of her sister and her best friend. She was just glad that the horror would be over in three days. Either way she would be free from her past and from Angel. She could start to build up her life again with a beautiful man by her side and all her loved ones safe and secured. At that image Buffy could smile again, and silently apologised to her brain while she stepped back out from the shower and went to get dressed.

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Uptown L.A., The Book’s Resort

Spike entered his father’s book store and went to search for his old man. He had called earlier to be sure to get his car back. After thoroughly searching the shop the cellar and his own flat he came up empty. He returned to the front door and found it locked.

“Funny, since when does my good old father close his shop on weekdays?” Spike wondered and strolled over to the counter where the old and rusty cash register stood. He found a small note attached to it and pulled it up to read it.

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Dear William,

I am sorry that I am not around to return your keys
In person, but I had to run a few errands this
morning so you see why the shop is closed.

You will find your car in the old warehouse I still own
down by the docks. I have the keys to the warehouse
attached to yours for the car.

Have a good day, perhaps we will meet up later,

Rupert

P.S.: You will have to refill your car. It was just too
much driving around with it.

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“That little weasel…” Spike muttered under his breath while he fetched his duster and left the shop for the docks. It would take him a good while to get down to the docks by feet.

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The Hospital, Xander’s room

“So let me get this straight” Xander’s voice had a confused notion “your boyfriend, the Bleached Wonder who is my buddy, is an ex-CIA agent that knows people who can hit that coin around your neck from so far away that you couldn’t see them?” Xander eyed the shiny piece of metal hanging around Buffy’s neck.

“That’s right, at least that’s what he told me” she answered.

“Okay, now I’m scared. I have a buddy that will execute me the first time I am standing on his feet” Xander joked.

“You know he wouldn’t do such a thing silly, although I think if you make one more joke about him being scared of your “vengeance” he just might” Buffy smiled in return.

“Yeah, yeah, take it out on the wounded and injured ones…” Xander replied.

“Well yeah about that and after you know about the deal we made with Angel, you think you are up again in three days? I need someone to take away Dawn and Willow and I hoped you could do so, if you are ready to face him again so soon that is” Buffy asked.

“Absolutely Buffy. I have a few things to tell our favourite broody dickhead” Xander answered.

“Thank you Xander, but you won’t be telling anything, you will just be there to pick up Willow and Dawn and then leave for the safe house we still have to get” Buffy interrupted Xander’s high time.

“But I had one or two really good insults that I wanted to through at his too big head…” Xander whined.

“I am not Willow Xander, but I’ll try my best. You see that resolve face? Either you stay away from Angel or you won’t be game. I don’t want you to get injured again…” Buffy’s voice was stern but held concern for her life-long friend.

“And when I think about insults and everything I think Spike made it very clear to Angel what you think about him…” she added with a smile.

“Yeah? Tell me again, what did he say…”

She told the events from the night before again and they laughed about Spike’s intimidating actions towards Angel again before Buffy excused herself to leave for her garage.

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Buffy Summers Racing, a little later

Buffy arrived at her own garage a short time later and found it still locked. She wondered where Spike might be and went around the building to fetch the hidden key from its recent place. They changed the hiding place every now and then in case anybody would notice one of them fetching it.

As she opened the front gate to the building she saw Spike coming around the corner in his black Skyline. She opened up all the way and Spike drove his car directly in. As he exited his black beauty Buffy saw that Spike was angry about something.

“Hey baby” she greeted him with a smile and gave him a peck to the lips “what took you so long?”

“First of all I had to fetch my car from the bleeding other side of that damn town by feet and then the sleazy little weasel formerly known as my father had the decency to drive it around until the gas tank was completely empty. So I had to take the bloody reserve canister and walk to the next gas station to get it refuelled. I swear by everything that’s high and mighty to me when I get my hands on him…” Spike ranted, his voice could be heard through the entire building.

“You will thank him to no end, because he not only hid your car, but also ensured, that if somebody would find it he couldn’t take it without a truck to pull” Buffy interrupted him laughing.

“Whatever” Spike calmed down “there will be a few things he will have to listen to when we meet the next time.”

“You finished?” Buffy asked, an amused smile still playing over her lips.

“I haven’t even begun, but it seems that there are matters at hand that are more important” Spike answered.

“Yeah, for example we need to upgrade your car and we still haven’t got the backup ride for Xander, Dawn and Willow. We also still need the safe house” Buffy told him.

“Why upgrade my car? Don’t you think it has enough power?” Spike suddenly was concerned for his baby.

“No Spike, against Angel it can never be fast enough. We can still take about 200hp more out of it. If we’re going down, we’re going down in flames. Don’t think Angel won’t customize my car to his likings and I know what that means” she answered.

“You think you will get yours back after the race?” Spike asked.

“I don’t know, but I know that I won’t give him a chance to win with MY car” Buffy was determined.

“Okay, baby” Spike took her into his arms “what about the backup ride? Which one of the three should we take?”

“We can’t take anyone of them” Buffy answered flatly to his chest “Angel took the keys to every single one, I checked it.”

“So? We will take the reserve keys…”

“No Spike, we can’t” she interrupted “you see our cars have a special security system imported from Europe as has yours. There’s only one special key to each car. If we lose one of them we have to call the producer of the system and get a new one mailed. It takes about a week to get them. So you see we are at a loss of a backup car…” Buffy explained the situation to her lover.

“Well, I think I could help out with that situation…” a British voice that wasn’t Spike spoke up form behind them.

They turned around and found Giles smiling at them.

“You…” Spike growled and tried to move in the direction of his father.

“Spike…” Buffy held him tight to her “be nice and do what I told you earlier.”

“The hell I will, he shouldn’t drive around for fun, he just had to hide the damn car…” Spike returned to the ranting from a few minutes ago.

“Spike” Buffy’s voice was sugary sweet “if you don’t play nice there will be no more couching with me…” she gave him a small wink as she spoke the word couching.

“You wanted to say son…” Giles smiled at the mix of emotion displayed on his son’s face.

“Thank you for taking good care for my ride old man” Spike growled slightly annoyed.

“It was my pleasure” the elder Giles emphasized the word ‘my’ with a small glint in his eye.

“You said you could help us Mr. Giles” Buffy interrupted the funny staring contest between the two men.

“Please Buffy, just call me Giles, everyone does so” he smiled at her “and yeah I am here to offer my help. William told me that you kind of needed a fast backup car and I think I have what you need.”

“Please tell me you won’t offer us your shabby old garage keeper we all know and hate…” Spike smirked at his father.

“I think you will be surprised William…” Giles copied his son’s smirk and motioned for both of them to follow him outside the garage.

Once outside Buffy and Spike stood agape in front of a beautiful Toyota Supra.

“Bloody Hell” Spike exclaimed “where did you get that ride Da’?” he asked.

“Well I bought it” Giles answered still smiling.

“You… you bought a car for us so we can bring my sister and my friend away from the danger?” Buffy asked.

“Well not exactly” Giles took his glasses from his nose and polished them “I hoped we could make a deal. You see, as I was having so much fun driving around in William’s car and I recognized how much special understanding you got in upgrading those cars I thought perhaps I could offer you a deal. I would lend you the car for the upcoming events and you would tune it a little bit for me, if you agree. And I can tell you, the ladies definitely love…”

“Okay stop it right there” Spike interrupted his father’s daydream “I don’t need the image of you cruising down the strip flirting with girls…”

That got him a sharp jab to his side from Buffy who mouthed the words “Be nice” to him.

“You know that it only has two seats? We need three…” Spike couldn’t befriend himself with the image of his father owning a racing car.

“I am sorry” Giles was suddenly a bit disappointed “I only new from the two ladies…”

“It will definitely do” Buffy interrupted the conversation “and for the offer you made, I think you got yourself a deal. Although we can just start after the race with Angel is over. If it that’s okay with you I would be glad to take care of your car” Buffy offered her hand to Giles.

He shook it and the smile returned to his face. Spike returned to the garage and his car muttering something along the lines of “responsibilities towards normal people driving around in this town” and “stupid midlife crisis”, Buffy and Giles following him chattering lightly about the possibilities of tuning with the Supra.

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To be continued…

Upcoming: Chapter 19: Race Against the Clock