A Trunk Full of Trouble

A/N: That you so much for all the reviews. It was fun writing the spin the bottle, and I was glad to hear it went over so well. Also, many have said how fun the story has been. Yay!!! That was the idea.
Also, big thanks to Megan for beta-ing this chapter.

Chapter 5


“Spike…Spike!”

Spike could hear someone calling him, but much needed sleep muffled his hearing even more.

“Spike!”

Ok, the slapping against the side of his head was hard to ignore. Slapping? Hey, now!! Spike cracked his eyes open to look into the face of a large, brunette man dressed in all black hovering over him.

“Hello.” The voice was deep and well modulated. “I presume you are Spike.”

All Spike could muster was a grunt in agreement. Review. He knew that at dusk, he had reluctantly left the Starlight Motel and driven to his house nearby. He knew that once there, he had called Xander and arranged a rendezvous later that night at the Lost Pines Lodge, and he knew that he had set an alarm clock for midnight and went to sleep for a bit. God, he hateat aat alarm clock, but this new bugger of a visitor was a far site worse.

The man ?no, Spike thought, this was a vampire? moved around the sofa to make himself at home in one of Spike’s rs. rs. “You might be wondering who I am.”

“Might?” Spike swung his legs and sat up on the sofa he had been sleeping on. “That would be the bleeding understatement of the century, mate.”

“I’m Angel.” He moved around, testing the feel of the chair, and finally spoke again after he had given the chair his approval. “Think of me as Buffy’s guardian angel.”

“I’ll think of you as a sodding bastard who broke into my house. Besides I didn’t know angels frowned so much.” Angel. He had heard a little about this vampire that helped slayers from Buffy, and he added that information to a lot of rumors in the demon world to know that he was fucked. “Oh, bullocks. Let’s just get this straight. I didn’t kidnap Buffy or molest her.” But he couldn’t deny the wet dream about Buffy that this Angel just interrupted, but no way he’d cop to that wrap. That would just be between him and his pecker.

Angel slowly shook his head. “Now that’s something I don’t know but will find out.”

“Just ask her, and feel free to not say hello from me.” Well, wasn’t that eloquent, Lord Byron!

“You can count on me asking Buffy many things about your time together when I finally see her.” The brunette vampire stared at him for a moment, not blinking, before abruptly standing up, picking up Spike’s bag of money along with him.

Now Spike was truly nervous. “Look, mate, I will make it easy for you. I’ll tell you where she is, and you can go collect her. She spent last night at the Starlight Motel about twenty miles east of here, and she was going to spend the day there, also.” Spike brushed his hands against each other. “Glad we got that settled. Now, leave my bag and bugger off.”

“No, you are going to come with me to find her.” He walked over to the front door and put his hand on the knob. “The bag comes as insurance of your cooperation.”

If he had to admit it, one half of Spike ?the top half- had been happy to be done with the whole kidnapping fiasco. The other half where his privates resided looked forward to seeing the blonde beauty again. Accordingly, he refused to acknowledge the feelings he was having above his waist in anticipation of seeing the girl. Must be why they are called nuts because the person must be nuts to want to see that girl called ‘trouble’ again.

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Spike was sitting in Angel’s car, fuming. The car should be filling up with smoke considering how much was coming out of his ears. The only saving grace was that that the motel was close to his house. Spike thanked the heavens for that, but then turned around and cursed them because of the wanker sitting next to him. It was like he was made of dark granite. Angel asked the directions and then turned to stone with his arms and hands the only moving parts, which were of course used to drive. And Angel talked even less. To be exact, he didn’t talk at all. For a person as vocal as Spike, this guy was giving him the creeps, leaving Spike seriously considering talking to the ash tray or head rest soon.

With his hand resting on the door, he thumped his thumb until he couldn’t stand the silence or the sound he was making anymore. “Look, I’ve cooperated. I told you where Buffy is. Just give me my bag out of the trunk, and I can go my merry ole way. I’ll even happily walk back to my house.”

Angel quickly glanced at Spike. “I like my plan better. You get your bag of money just before Buffy drives off with me.”

“What if she won’t go?” Spike thought about that she-devil and laughed at the thought of Angel trying to get her to do something she didn’t want to do.

Angel was smug. He knew Buffy could be a handful, but he was the authority figure here, and she would do as he said. “Oh, she’ll go.”

Spike smirked. Ok, this was getting better and better. “This is Buffy we are talking about, ya know, don’t ya? A petite blonde, impulsive, very unpredictable, and strong willed?”

The granite cracked just enough to allow a hint of a smile on Angel’s face. “That was a fair assessment of her. However, this time, she has caused a great deal of trouble. The ransom was retrieved, but the police are now involved since they think you kidnapped her. That’s a problem, a messy problem considering we try to keep the slayers academy off the radar. Thus enter me and my job, bringing her back and cleaning up any mess her stunt caused.”

“Hey, there’s her motel. Turn in here.” Giddy with relief, Spike pointed out the direction. At the moment, he didn’t care if Buffy’s mess was toxic waste; he wanted his money back.

The first place they checked was the room, but Buffy had surprisingly checked out. Then they walked over to the diner next door and found her sitting in a booth looking out a large window. When Angel sat down opposite her, Spike didn’t follow suit. Unable to contain his nervous energy, he stayed standing by the counter, content to watch for the moment.

To tell the truth, Angel was more than a little relieved to see her safe, but didn’t want to show it under the circumstances.

“Buffy.”

“Angel.” She never took her eyes off the scene outside the window.


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Spike couldn’t hear what they were saying due to the noise in the diner, but he could tell that Buffy was doing what she did best, being obstinate. And judging by the tick in the muscles of his jaw, Angel was doing a good job of being aggravated. Well, wasn’t like he didn’t warn the brooding ponce. Now looking at the pair together made Spike wonder. They made a striking couple, making him wonder if there wasn’t something more than slayer/vampire between them. That little bit of jealousy that he just felt got kicked to the curb. What thel wal was he thinking? He had to get away from Buffy before he was spouting sonnets or some such rubbish.

“Look mate,” Spike gained Angel’s attention. “I don’t want to interrupt, but I fulfilled my end of the bloody bargain. If you will give me my bag, I will get out of your hair.” ‘That stands on end.’ Spike added to himself.

“No. I won’t open the trunk to get your bag until she is in the passenger seat. Now go back over to the counter and wait.” Dismissing Spike out of hand, Angel turned back to Buffy. “Buffy, you must come back now.”

“Must? MUST? I don’t ‘must’ do anything. In fact, I don’t even have to be a slayer. Hell, I don’t even have the skills anyway.”

Angel counted to five before continuing. “Regardless of your faulty logic, you will eventually be a slayer, and you must come back now. We have a mess to clean up with the police.”

“Really.” Buffy’s voice dripped sarcasm. “I just saw a newscast about it.”

“So you can see why. We will need blondie over there to provide us a scapegoat.”

That got the biggest reaction out of Buffy so far. “Oh no, you don’t! He didn’t kidnap me.”

“Not the point.” Angel shrugged a shoulder. “Which is...that he will help cover up the slayers academy.”

“But…but he would dust in their custody.”

“That’s the police’s little mystery to solve after we give him over. When he burns to a crisp in the sunlight, the officers in charge will just be accused of taking PCP that day. Who cares what is said as long as we are through with the police?”

“You can’t. No way…you can’t do that.” Buffy floundered for more reasons to save Spike. Why, she didn’t know, but she did know that she had to save him.

“I can, and I will.”

Buffy thought for a minute, and in typical rash fashion, she took the knife and fork, made a cross and held it against Angel’s skin, burning it into Angle’s hand. “Look,” she yelled so that the whole diner would hear her, “he’s a vampire. Help me.”

Angel was taken so off guard at the pain and mad at Buffy that he accidentally slipped into his demon visage. As a result, he had a whole restaurant focused on him. And they started catching on.

“A vampire. We need a stake.”

“Here, I’m eating a stake.” A guy in the back yelled.

“No, stupid. A wooden stake.”

Smash. Someone broke their chair and voila, four stakes.

Buffy turned, grabbed hold of Spike, trietried to run for the door.

Spike immediately balked. They didn’t know he was a vamp, and he had to have that bag. “Hey, there, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Yes, you are.” Buffy kept pulling, and contrary to his words, she was glad he was complying, reluctantly, but he was.

“You can bet your sweet arse that I’m not. Your mate over there has my money, and I bloody well want it back.”

She jerked him so hard that he fell, and she dragged him a few yards on the smooth floor of the diner until he could get to his feet again. Pulling hard, he freed himself from her grasp. “Okay, I’ll go to his car but…I. Am. Not. Going. Anywhere. With. You.”

“You have to…”

“I don’t have to do anything but get my bleeding money back from your overgrown boyfriend in there.”

Buffy was horrified that he would say that. For some reason, she couldn’t stand the thought Spike being confused that way. “He’s not my boyfriend. I don’t have…”

They could here glass shatter behind them, and could see Angel come flying out of a window. After brushing himself off, he started walking towards them.

“You’ve got to come with me…” Buffy started tugging on Spike’s hand again.

“Are you deaf, you dozy chit? No!!”

“Look, density boy, he is going to make you the scapegoat of all of this.” She started pulling him again.

Now she had his full attention. “A scapegoat?!”

Keeping her eye on Angel, Buffy kept tug. “. “Yes, already. Come on.”

Spike had been headed for Angel’s trunk where his bag was sitting when his dilemma was fully illuminated, but then he grabbed her hand and started pulling her along at a run. Luckily, Angel was overconfident and doing his granite imitation again and was only walking.

At first, Angel didn’t believe that Buffy would run away from him, but when her actions proved that his belief was ill-founded, he gave more serious chase. He found himself facing a railroad track with a train in the distance. His stone facade crumbled.

“Damnit, Buffy…” Angel didn’t need his sense of smell to track them any further. The train must have been a timely getaway for Buffy and Spike, and they were now traveling away at a good pace. The pair were together and on the loose again. Absolutely not a good combination.

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Angel’s conclusion was spot on. They had spotted the train and picked up the pace. Being a vampire had come in handy, enabling Spike to get to the back of the train and jump on. When the end of the train passed Buffy, Spike pulled her up. While still airborne, he brought Buffy forward so that she latched onto a metal ladder with Spike behind her. Instead of moving to give her room, Spike wrapped his body around hers protectively, and that was how they rode. Neither complaining, but neither willing to admit how much comfort they ved ved from the other.

Knowing that Angel would follow the train, the fugitive pair quickly jumped back off the train while it was still moving near a twenty-four hour operational manufacturing plant. Spike took her with him in the jump and absorbed the brunt of the fall for her. Buffy smiled to herself. His gentlemanly gesture didn’t go unnoticed.

Next they lost themselves in the employee parking lot. Convenient place for a car thief. Spike and Buffy crouched down beside a royal blue, Ford truck. “Ok, pet, I’m going to jump start that green Taurus over there. Knock on the side of this truck if you see anyone coming.”

Once Spike was in the Taurus, Buffy got bored waiting. No shock there. She looked around and then in the truck. Idiot owner, but she was looking at a gift from above. She ran over to the Taurus.

“Spike…” She cringed when his head flew up from wherewas was lying and smashed into the steering wheel. “Ow, sorry for scaring you. I bet hitting your head like that hurt.” Buffy tried to hide her grin under Spike’s glare. “The keys of the truck we were standing next to are in it. I’ll go get it. Jump in when I drive by.”

“Amateur one, car thief zero.” Spike said to himself as he jumped into the truck.

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“Watch the road!” Spike’s eyes were wide watching the head lights approaching them, coming straight on.

“I am.”

With teeth gritted, the vampire tried not to throw her out of the window. At least it was different than strangling, which was still an option. “If you were, the people coming our way would not be swerving away, would they, pet?”

“I bet the police stop us.” Buffy looked back over her shoulder.

Spike shrugged a shoulder. “Just drive like you own the car.”

She rolled her eyes. “But I don’t. Geez.”

“Grrrrrhhh.” Spike watched her instead of the road for a minute. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

“What?” That, Buffy wasn’t expecting.

Spike looked her up and down again, and liked what he saw. “You heard me.”

“No.”

“Why not? I mean, a pretty girl like you, or is it because you will be a slayer?”

Buffy’s head snapped around to look at him, trying to assess his expression. “You think I’m pretty?”

“Watch the road!” Now he was approaching the throw-her-out-the-window idea again. “Yeah, you’re pretty, especially without all that make-up you had on before. Haven’t you looked in the mirror?”

“Back at you on the make-up comment, bud.” Buffy cherished the compliment for a moment; someone thought she was pretty au natural. “Yes, we can have boyfriends, but it is frowned on since we can’t tell them about the slayer stuff. Besides, I just never found anyone it would be worth the major league hassle. How about you?” She had thought about asking before so this opportunity was too good to be true.

“Nope. I’m not into blokes.”

“Ha, ha, ha. You know I meant girls. Do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.” His voice put a large period at the end of the simple word.

Buffy was looking at this hottie and couldn’t believe her ears. “Why not?”

His answer was simple. “There lwaylways such potential for failure.”

“Failure…potential…what?” Again…hottie…lots of girls…must have relationships, one or two successful, surely.

Spike thought about it for a minute with a far away look in his eyes. There had been attempts over the last century, but all ended the same. “I hate failure.”

“Pathetic Much?” Buffy flashed him a bright smile in the dark truck. “So Mr. Mathematician, what is the percentage of failure?”

He couldn’t completely cover up his own smile now. “Exactly ninety-eight point eight percent failure.”

“Then, professor, there is one point two percent success.” Theatrically ive ive for a moment, she finally told him, “It would be worth it.”

Shocked by her ability to put a better shine on a normally depressing topic, he couldn’t look at her when he answered, so he looked out of the window. “Yes, it would.”

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TBC