He stopped in his tracks and I swear his jaw nearly hit the floor as he spun around back towards me.
"Pardon!?!" He exclaims. "What did you just say?!?" The desperate sounding shock in his voice was enough to give me a small set of feels.
"Yeah... I sort of just teleported to where she's at and that would be on the way to LA." I explain. "I should go tell Angel..." I start. "And give captain forehead the headstart?!?" He scoffs before grabbing my wrist and pulling me towards the door. "Come on pet, take me to her. Lets go lay out the welcome mat!"
After Spike practically dragged me out the back door, we hopped into his black lightning desoto. The garage door began to open and I saw a few rays of the setting sun peek under the door as it began to rise.
"Spike, what about the blinds?!?" I remind him with a slight panic. In his rush to find Buffy, he must have forgotten to cover the windows to protect himself from the sun. He used to cover all the glass, leaving only a small cigar boxed size square cut out for him to see the road through.
"Oh, haven't had those in months!" He tell me, revving at the engine like he usually does. "I had this baby decked out with Wolfram and Harts special sun proof glass."
"Cool." I prop my feet up onto the dash. "So, where to?" He asks as we pull out of the parking lot. Oh, that's right, I'm supposed to take him to Buffy.
"Umm, I don't really know." I answer. "Oh come on little bit." He scoffs in disbelief. "I thought you knew everything?"
"Well I am the walking encyclopedia of weird." I think aloud. I leaned back and rested my head against the cool leather of the seat, closing my eyes. I tried to think back... Ever since I sighed up for this traveler gig, I've always been able to get to where I'm needed to be. That, or trouble always seems to find me. Then it hits me...
"Let me drive." I turn towards him and say. "What?!?" He exclaims stopping the car completely and swiveling himself toward me. "Drive my car?!? Why? Just exactly how old are you little bit?" He scrutinizes.
"I'm 17." I sit up straight and say matter of factly. "And I do have my license. I just left it my other universe." I laugh. "Look, I honestly don't know the way there. But usually, whatever way I take, is the way there." I explain, thinking back to how I walked randomly for hours through New York City to coincidently walk straight to the warehouse that I first encountered the turtles in. "Also, when I have a hunch, The Traveler is ALWAYS right."
"Well someone certainly rides a high horse. Does the traveler always refer to herself in the third person?" He chuckled. "That depends on if your going to let the travel drive you to the slayer or not?"
"You must be a few crumpets short somewhere love." He shakes his head. "Fine... But we will have to switch seats from in here. It's still to bright outside for me to open a door." He gives in. Luckily the cab of his car had a lot of leg room so it wasn't very hard for me to shuffle around him, just a bit awkward. Once seated I notice there isn't a seat belt, but then I guess death by car accident isn't one of the things an undead, bleach blonde, vampire would have to worry about. I shift into drive and pull out onto the busy street ahead.
"I'm a dimensional crossing alien who's practically a peeping Tom into your personal life, and after all that its the fact that I refer to my alter ego in the third person is what makes you think I'm a weirdo?" I laugh.
"In this business I meet all sorts. Nothing really shocks me anymore." He shrugs in disregard.
At the first light we reach I make a left turn. Then at the next a right one. Then a left, then another right. "Hold up Traveler... Do you even have a plan here or are you just going left right left right like a twat?"
"You can call me Roxanne you know..." I answer, not taking my eyes off the wheel. "No I don't have a plan, I'm just winging it. But I do my best work when it's improv." I laugh slightly but he doesn't seem amused. Lorne would have gotten the joke, Lorne would have laughed.
He sits in silence, scoffing with his arms crossed as I continue in this left right pattern. The sun disappears into the desert and I turn on the headlights. We were no longer in the busy downtown area, but the old factory district. "Roxanne I think..." He starts but I cut him off... "Spike, look!" Up ahead, parked rather randomly was a school bus. But not just any school bus, this bus had 'Sunnydale High' printed onto its side.
"I don't believe this... It actually worked. Why didn't you just tell me to go left right left right?!?" He asks in awe.
"Because it wouldn't have worked. Trust me." I reply.
I pull up behind the bus. "So what are you going to say to Buffy?" I ask. "Truthfully, I have no idea, but I think I'll take a page from your book and just wing it because that has proven to work so well tonight."
I look at the bus. It's empty, we step out of the car and he sniffs the air. "I can smell her." He says excitedly and the the look on his face just warms my heart. "And the other scoobies...." He continues. "Wait.... There is someone else... Something else...."
I inhale, and Oddly enough I can smell it too.
"Something bad."
