Disclaimer: We all know the truth. None of these characters are mine, and if I were making money off of them, I could quit my job and go write on a beach somewhere.
Chapter 6: Home Again
Author's Notes: Wherein Spike and Buffy find what who they're looking for, and Wesley reaches his goal.
“I'll be fine./I'll be waiting patiently,/'till you see the signs/and come running to my open arms./Will you realize?/Do we have to wait till our worlds collide?/Open up your eyes./You carry back the time./Don't say you want me./Don't say you need me./Don't say you love me,/It's understood./Don't say you're happy,/happy without me./I know you can't be,/'cause it's no good.” ~Chevelle, “It’s No Good”
Wesley was beginning to get worried. They had opened two portals now with no success. It was impossible to tell where in Quortoth the door was opening, and therefore impossible to tell if it was close to Spike and Buffy.
If he was wrong about this, too—if he hurt more people through his ineptitude—
“They’ll be fine,” Tara said quietly, bringing him a cup of tea.
Wesley thanked her with a smile. “You should try to sleep.”
“So should you.”
They had already sent Dawn home with Xander and Anya, with promises to call them as soon as there had been a change. Willow had finally gone home an hour before, realizing that they both had the magic well under control.
“I can’t.”
“I know.”
Wesley stared down into the pale liquid. “What is this?”
“It’s herbal,” she replied. “It’s supposed to refresh the mind.”
The taste was slightly astringent, but not unpleasant for all of that. It was certainly a refreshing taste, although not something he usually drank. “Do you think we should continue to open the portal every two hours?” he asked.
“At least for the next day,” Tara said. “After that, we could probably space it out more.”
“I can’t help but wonder if I’ve done the right thing,” Wesley murmured.
Tara put a hand on her wrist. “You’re trying. I think that’s all you can do.”
“The others didn’t seem to agree.”
Tara was silent for a moment. “What was the last thing you had to forgive them for?”
Wesley frowned, unsure of where she was going with that question. “Angel firing all of us, among other things. We let him back in.”
“But it took time.”
“Yes, but we allowed him the opportunity.” It seemed terribly unfair to Wesley, that although Angel had screwed up so badly, they had given him a chance to make things right. He had been out in the cold without that option.
Tara glanced over at him. “You could stay.”
“What would I do?” he asked idly.
She smiled. “Anything you want to. It’s not like you’ve got a job to go back to, right?”
“That’s true enough.”
“What did you do in L.A.?” she asked. “Besides fight demons, I mean.”
“I was a private investigator,” Wesley replied, beginning to get a glimmer of an idea. “I still have my license, in fact.”
“You could do that here,” Tara pointed out. “Plus, I don’t know, collections agent, or something. Anything, really.”
“What would you like to do when you’re done with university?” Wesley asked, suddenly curious. He knew next to nothing about the woman sitting next to him, even though they were partners in this endeavor.
She thought about it for a moment. “I want to help people. I just don’t know how yet.”
“I’m sure you’ll be very successful at it.”
Tara smiled shyly, and Wesley thought that staying in Sunnydale might be an option after all.
~~~~~
“This is it,” Spike said in a low voice.
Buffy looked at the clearing; it appeared as though someone had been there for a while, long enough to make themselves at home. “Do you think we’re too late?”
“Long as he’s still alive, we’re not too late.”
The sun was beginning to drop; Spike had been right about finding Holtz the next day, but they’d had to detour around a swamp, which had cost them some time. “Look!”
A man came out of the cave at one side of the clearing, followed by a toddler. “How old do you think he is now?” Spike whispered.
“Two?” Buffy guessed. “If that.”
She watched as the man turned. They could hear his words across the clearing. “Stephen! Get back inside!” His tone was sharp, and he followed his reprimand with a slap to the child’s face. The blow knocked the baby down, but he didn’t cry. Instead, he rose and obediently went back inside.
“Bloody hell. He’s not gentle with the tyke, is he?” Spike asked.
Buffy was taken aback by the anger in the vampire’s eyes. She hadn’t expected Spike to show much concern for Angel’s son. “How are we going to do this? It’s starting to get dark.”
Spike shook his head. “Far as I can see, we’ve got two choices. We can move off a ways, where the bastard won’t smell the smoke, an’ wait until morning. Or, we can move in now, incapacitate him, an’ stay the night in the cave.”
“Do you think we’re going to have to go back to where we came in?”
“I’d bet on it,” Spike replied. “I haven’t seen any other portals.”
Buffy nodded slowly. “I think we go in tonight.”
“How are we doin’ this?”
He was asking about how they were going to handle Holtz, and it was a fair question. Buffy didn’t want to kill him; he was human, even if he wasn’t a very nice one. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure how badly Connor would take it if they kept him tied up in the cave all night.
“What do you think would happen if we left him outside all night?” she finally asked.
“He’d be dead by morning.” Spike looked at her in the eyes. “If you take him out, I’ll take care of him.”
Buffy chewed her lip, considering their options. She didn’t like any of them. “What if we pretended to be friends?” she suggested. “He wouldn’t have to know that you’re a vampire. We could tell him that we got sent here by accident.”
“He didn’t live this long by being stupid,” Spike objected. “He’d spot me for a vampire right quick, an’ he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot both of us.”
Buffy really didn’t want to make this decision, but she’d become a little more pragmatic over the years. They couldn’t bring Holtz back with them; Wesley had told them what he’d done to enable himself to track Angel across the centuries. Leaving him here alive was also problematic; there was still the possibility that he would find a way back to L.A. and would do the same thing all over again.
And any man who would kidnap a child and order someone’s throat cut probably didn’t deserve a lot of consideration.
Holtz was re-entering the clearing, and Buffy knew they didn’t have time for her to think it over any further. “Okay. I take him out, and you make sure he can’t get back to the camp.”
“Knock him out good,” Spike warned. “Otherwise, we could have our hands full before morning. Give me a minute, then make your move.”
He took off, crashing through the underbrush, making as much noise as possible. Holtz immediately put an arrow to his bowstring, moving away from the mouth of the cave. Spike kept crashing, leading the man away from the cave and their true quarry.
She began making her way through the brush, trying not to make any noise. Buffy picked up a rock from the ground as she got closer and then, as soon as she was in the clear, she began to run. Holtz turned at the last possible second, and he might have been able to get a shot off, even at close range, but Spike hit him from behind. He howled with pain the next moment, but Buffy ignored him to follow the blow with one of her own, rock in hand.
Holtz collapsed like a ton of bricks, and Buffy swallowed. Spike was still clutching his head, so she was the one who had to check to make sure he wasn’t dead.
His pulse was there, but it was weak, and Buffy knew that he probably wouldn’t make it without medical attention—which he wasn’t going to get.
“I’ll take care of it,” Spike said quietly, his voice roughened by pain.
She nodded tersely. “Thanks. For stepping in.”
“Sure thing.”
Buffy turned back to the cave, not wanting to watch Spike cart the body off. She approached the opening warily, knowing that the little boy would probably be frightened by the sight of strangers. She hoped that he hadn’t seen or heard the altercation, but that was probably too much to ask for.
“Hello? Connor?” She entered the cave, pausing to allow her eyes to adjust to the dim light. “It’s okay; I won’t hurt you. I’m a friend of your dad’s.”
She could just make out the baby crouched in a corner of the cave, looking at her with wide, blue eyes, obscured slightly by dark blond hair. He was silent, and Buffy wondered how on earth she was going to get through to him. She hadn’t been around many small children, and this had to be a traumatic experience. To be snatched from his father, then taken from the only parent he he’d known—Buffy could only hope that he didn’t remember any of this when he grew up.
“I brought something for you,” she said, crouching down so that she was at eye level. Slowly, so as not to startle the boy, she pulled off her backpack and reached inside. He was probably too old for most of the baby food she’d brought, but he could still eat it. Her hand found the plush toy Tara had included; the teddy bear was bright blue, and very soft.
Buffy held the stuffed animal out, wondering if he’d respond. After a few moments, he moved toward her slightly. When she maintained her position, Connor took a few more steps towards her. Although she was certain he wasn’t more than two years old, he moved with the grace of a much older child.
Of course, the fact that both of his parents were vampires probably had something to do with that.
Connor closed the distance between them, his eyes fixed solemnly on her face. When he didn’t reach out for the animal, Buffy tickled him with it on his bare stomach. The unfamiliar sensation startled a giggle out of him, but he backed off a second later, fear entering his eyes.
“It’s okay,” Buffy said gently. “I promise. No one is ever going to hurt you again.”
He looked toward the mouth of the cave as Spike entered. Buffy opened her mouth to tell the vampire to move slowly, but he dropped to his knees immediately. “Hey there, moppet,” Spike said. “Got anythin’ to say to your Uncle Spike?”
Buffy blinked as she realized that technically Spike and Connor were probably related—in some really, really weird way. “I don’t think he even knows how to laugh, Spike,” she said quietly.
“Doesn’t surprise me,” he said, keeping his tone pleasant. “Holtz didn’t strike me as the fun type.”
“Are we spending the night here?”
“Think we’d better. It’s goin’ to take us at least a day to make it back to the portal site.” Spike moved forward a little bit, coming to sit next to her. “You know, why don’t you pull out the food. The mite’s probably hungry.”
Buffy pulled the box of animal crackers out of her backpack and opened them, popping one in her mouth. “Here,” she said, holding one out to Spike.
“No, thanks.”
“It’s not for you, it’s for him,” Buffy replied in a low voice. “If he sees us both eating them, he may be more willing to do the same.”
Spike shrugged and took it. “Tastes like cardboard,” he complained.
“Not to me,” she said. “And not to Connor.” She held out a cracker to the little boy, the teddy bear in her lap. “Come on, Connor. Are you hungry?”
He didn’t reply, but he did approach them with a grubby hand held out. When Buffy gave him the cracker, Connor took a cautious bite, and his eyes lit up. He finished the cracker, then eyed the box next to Buffy hopefully, although he made no moves toward it.
“Do you want another cracker?” she asked, reaching into the box again.
Connor nodded, taking yet another step. He wore nothing but a crude loincloth, and he was filthy, although Buffy knew she wasn’t doing much better. “Do you want the bear?”
She held out both the bear and the cracker, and after a moment’s indecision, Connor seized both, clutching the stuffed animal to his chest and crunching the cracker with glee.
“How long do you think we have before he starts freakin’ out about Holtz?” Spike asked.
Buffy shook her head. “I don’t know. Hopefully, he’ll go to sleep, and we can get him out of here quickly tomorrow.”
“Tara said she put somethin’ in the bag that would help him sleep,” Spike said.
Buffy dug through the pack, finding a small bottle. The neatly-written instructions on the side indicated that she should use four drops every eight hours. “I feel bad drugging him.”
“Might not have a choice tomorrow,” Spike pointed out. “But that’s tomorrow. I’ll take first watch again.” He rose slowly. “We’ll need more wood to keep the fire goin’ tonight.”
Buffy nodded, then handed Connor another cracker. “What do you think, buddy? Can you keep me company?”
Connor was still focused on the latest cracker; Buffy hoped that was all she needed to keep him busy.
~~~~~
It was Wesley’s turn to open the portal. He hated continually asking Dawn to shed her blood, no matter how small the amount. The teen needed sleep, no doubt about it, but they couldn’t do without her. This was the sixth portal they’d opened, and after this, they would have to start leaving longer intervals.
Wesley ignored the eyes of the others as best he could as he spoke the words of the spell over the blood-smeared quartz. Once again, he could feel the wind hit his face, smell the sulfur in the air, all familiar by now. They had learned over the course of the last half-day that the portal could only be kept open for five minutes at a time.
His heart sunk as three minutes passed with no sign of Buffy or Spike, and Wesley began to fear that they had lost the two of them. Suddenly, a black clad figure crashed through the portal, dropping and rolling on the ground, and Buffy wasn’t far behind.
“Buffy!” Dawn called from the side of the training room. “Are you okay?”
Wesley quickly closed the portal to prevent anything else from coming through. He heard Buffy respond, “I’m fine, Dawnie. Hungry, but okay. Spike? Is Connor—”
“Still sleepin’,” Spike replied, standing up with the little boy in his arms. Wesley wouldn’t have recognized the child; he’d aged by a couple of years. All three were filthy, and both Buffy and Spike appeared exhausted.
“How is he?” Wesley asked anxiously.
Buffy exchanged a look with Spike. “He’s fine. He’ll cry for Holtz occasionally, but we just keep telling him that we’re taking him back to his dad.”
“He won’t remember Angel,” Wesley said.
“With any luck, he won’t remember Holtz either,” Spike replied. “Bastard.”
Wesley frowned. “What did you do with him?”
“We left him there,” Buffy said. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing him again.”
Dawn started to usher both Spike and Buffy towards the couch. “Sit. I’ll let Anya know to call for pizza. I put some blood in the fridge here for Spike.”
Wesley didn’t want to take his eyes off of Connor. “What happened? We weren’t sure what to think when you didn’t come back right away.”
“Is Tara alright?” Buffy asked, ignoring his question. “How many times did you have to open the portal?”
“She’s sleeping,” Wesley replied. “And this was number six.”
Buffy sighed. “I was afraid it had been that long. We were there for five days.”
“I see.” He’d suspected that they’d been there for much longer than he and the others had been waiting, if only from their general appearance. “Did everything go as planned?”
“Pretty much,” Buffy replied. “We had to go back to the original location, like we’d suspected might happen. Other than that, Spike sniffed out Holtz and Connor, and we managed okay.”
“But he’s been crying for Holtz?” Wesley asked.
Spike shrugged. “A bit, but not much. I get the feeling that he’s been trained not to cry.”
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Wesley said.
“I didn’t either.” Buffy looked at Connor, who was still in Spike’s arms. “He was a really good sport, though, considering everything he’s been through.”
Wesley nodded, hardly knowing how to feel. Connor was back, and safe, and while he was older than he’d been, it was unlikely that he would ever remember that Holtz had been his foster father.
Wesley had accomplished his goal, but it still didn’t feel quite right.
~~~~~
Tara had come to Buffy’s house as soon as she had called. “I’m not sure what to do now,” the Slayer had admitted. “I did the rescue thing, but I don’t know anything about taking care of a baby.”
Tara had experience, not just from her large extended family, but also her babysitting jobs. It was one of the few things her father had encouraged her to do, probably because he thought that taking care of children was within a woman’s purview.
Looking back, Tara was grateful for her father’s sexism, at least in that instance. It had allowed her to get enough money together to travel to UC Sunnydale, and for the application fees and standardized tests.
“Gonna get you!”
Tara stopped dead in the doorway to the living room. Spike had caught the baby around the waist, and he turned Connor upside down and hung him by his ankles. Far from being frightened, Connor was shrieking and giggling madly as Dawn joined in tickling his stomach.
“It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Buffy asked from behind her in a whisper.
Tara looked at her. “What is?”
“Spike with Connor.”
Tara nodded. “He’s really good with him.”
“He really is.” Buffy smiled. “We couldn’t really play much in Quortoth because it was too dangerous; we couldn’t afford to draw attention to ourselves.”
“You guys seem to be doing fine,” Tara said.
Buffy shook her head. “Every time Connor stops for a minute, he starts crying for Holtz. I’m not sure what to do.”
“The only thing you can do,” Tara replied. “Hold him and tell him that it will be okay.” She wrinkled her nose. “Connor needs a bath, though.”
Buffy nodded. “Tell me about it. Spike said he’d keep an eye on him while I got cleaned up.”
Tara noticed that Buffy’s hair was still wet. “I can help you out, but then I really need to try and catch up on my sleep.”
Buffy nodded and smiled at her. “Thank you so much for doing this, Tara. I know you didn’t have to.”
She looked at the baby. Dawn was making his teddy bear talk, telling him a silly little story while Spike looked on. “No. I think I did.”