"Hurry up!" Dawn insisted. "He's here."
"You want me to hurry up or you want it done right?" Spike snarled back as he used one hand to turn Dawn's head back towards him and hold it steady, while in the other he held a felt-tip style eyeliner. "Look up."
As he swept the pen under her right eye, leaving a thin line of pale iridescent blue, Faith's voice echoed up the stairs. "Spike, phone. Angel."
"Tell him there's only me, Buff, Bit an' the mutt comin' an' we weren't plannin' on takin' the mutt to the restaurant."
He'd just moved on to Dawn's other eye when Faith shouted again. "He says that's not why he called. He says he needs to speak to you." Spike frowned at the interruption to his concentration.
"Tell him I'll ring him back, unless... Buffy? You want to go speak to him?" Spike asked his fiancée, who was posing in front of Dawn's mirror, holding up the teenager's prom dress in front of her.
Her lower lip dropped into a pout. "But I've gotta help with her dress."
"Play with her dress more like, an' you won't be doin' anything till I've finished with her make-up, an' since I'll be vacatin' the room before she takes her robe off, I'll can swap with you then. So... bugger off an' see what Grandpa wants like a good girl."
"Buffy," Dawn interrupted. "If you don't go, my eyeballs are going to dry out from all the looking up while I wait for him to finish."
He managed to complete Dawn's eye shadow and mascara before Buffy came back into the room holding the handset.
"He wants to know if you know anything about breaking into places with hi-tech security," she said.
"Ye-ah... when you bust into places with hi-tech security, alarms go off," Spike replied, as he applied a tiny hint of blusher, before moving on to pick up a brush to outline Dawn's lips in a pale almost neutral pink.
"So, you don't know anything about planning how to break into one of these places without setting all the alarms off?"
"I'd lay odds I know at least as much as Mr Straight an' Narrow... Blot." He passed Dawn a folded tissue and waited for her to finish before he applied a second and final coat of lipstick. As he did so, he relayed a question via Buffy. "We talkin' about goin' after his bird or after that horseshoe whatchamicallit?"
"He says the axis and I say why?"
"'Cause the security on summat as is expected to raise thirty-three million is gonna be more than the security on some bint, even if she does have a direct hook-up to The Powers That Want to Screw With Our Lives." Spike took the handset from Buffy, nodding at Dawn as he did so. "All yours. Time I went an' intimidated her date."
"Like you don't, anyway?" Dawn shouted after him as he left the room.
"Talk to me, Peaches." Spike paced at the top of the stairs. Brandon cared about Dawn, he knew, but there were times when the boy was just a bit too much of an upright citizen for Spike to trust him completely. Spike listened as his grandsire explained how Fred had managed to track down the photographer who had taken the pictures for the auction house brochure. Some judicious breaking and entering had revealed the location where the shoot had taken place and Fred had then been able to find the shipping company which had delivered it there. If it had been moved again since, then it had been done without the benefit of the same heavy security. Angel had a meeting tonight with a snitch from the firm that installed the alarm system at the location where it was being held. By tomorrow morning he would have the plans. If at all possible, Angel wanted to be ready to move tomorrow night.
"We'll be there early tomorrow. Normally, we'd pile in the car an' drive down tonight, but seein' as how Bitty's been waitin' for weeks to be the belle of the ball, if I didn't let her have her night out, we'd like as not end up with her decidin' to share with me an' Buffy every night, instead of just when she has nightmares."
"That happen often?"
"Every other night, give or take a couple, since the thing with Sam. Either us or Glinda."
"Will she be okay on her own at the hotel if everyone else is involved tomorrow night?"
"She'll have the mutt for company, an' to be honest, I'd as soon Buffy had as little part in this as possible, so... What about our little cuckoo in the nest? Want us to bring her? So far as I know she's more of a smash an' grab type than stealth girl, but..."
"No, let her pick up the slack on the patrol side of things. If they catch her going after that thing on top of two murder raps, they'll just throw away the key. I'll have rooms ready for you at the hotel for when you get here. Faith said you're not bringing the witch?"
"She's busy studying. She's got her end of year exams. Won't be done till Wednesday. You think we might need the hocus-pocus?"
"Considering the auction house deals in black market mystical items..."
"Well, I can think of one alternative, seein' as how Rupert's back in Blighty an' if Red so much as tried anythin' like this she'd likely kill herself, but you'd have to be prepared to do some fence mendin'."
"Wesley. Kidnapped. My. Son."
"Wesley did what we all do. He took the information that he had available to him and he made a choice. As your friend, he decided that you would rather your son was safe than anything else, even if the danger he had to take the boy away from was you. What happened after he took him wasn't his fault... An' the only thing that won't let you see that is that damn Irish pride of yours. I'd like to think that if Buffy was out of the picture an' he believed I was goin' to hurt Bitty, for whatever reason, that he'd do the same for her. It makes me happier knowin' that there's someone around who's prepared to make the hard choices, even if it means leaving behind every friend he's got... or losin' them when they're too small-minded to even put themselves in his shoes."
"It's not that simple, Spike."
"No? Well, it is this simple. We might need someone who can handle the mojo. Even if we don't need him for the magic, the Watcher can handle himself and that's never a bad thing, not to mention he's not exactly short on the old grey matter. Without Wes the chances of pullin' this off go down. That means the chances of you gettin' the cheerleader back go down, too. So, does she mean more to you an' your crew than some stupid idea you're all carryin' round that what he did was designed to hurt you rather than to safeguard yours and Darla's hellspawn?"
"Would you not refer to my son as hellspawn?"
"Well, last I knew that was the general term for a demon sprog."
"That's... Just don't, Spike."
"Or what? Look, come morning, we'll be there. By all means take a while to think it through an' discuss it with Othello an' Desdemona but I sincerely suggest that you get off your high horse an' ring Wes before his dates arrive. So far as I know, his cell's not one of the new ones Buffy bought so it's probably the same one as he had when he worked with you, or I can give you his home number."
"I'll think about it."
Spike looked up as Buffy came out onto the landing, followed closely by Dawn. "You do that. See you in the a.m.!" Spike ended the call and turned his full attention to the ocean-hued vision in front of him.
Even Dawn's nerves couldn't do anything to make her look less than perfect. "You need an arm to lean on goin' down the stairs, pet?"
"And I was hoping you were going to carry me," the teenager teased as she wrapped her arm around his.
Spike taunted the boy mercilessly. "Yeah, so, she's gorgeous? Runs in the family. Now, either shut your mouth or use it to tell her somethin' nice, an' give her that corsage before you drop the damn thing."
Brandon blushed and passed the flower in its clear plastic box to Dawn before stuttering a greeting. "Y-y-you were right about the dress. It is something else."
Spike rolled his eyes and drew the boy off to one side. "Look, I know your brain is parked in neutral, or at least it better be, because if you're thinking anything you shouldn't be thinking about a fifteen year old girl, you'll have her big sister to deal with... before or after me, but don't kids these days get the concept of romance? You're supposed to help her put it on, an' it's her you're meant to compliment, not the bloody frock.
This thing finishes at one. Even allowing for a queue getting out of the parking lot, I expect you back here at one thirty latest. An' if I hear that you were anything other than a perfect gentleman..." Just for a second, unseen by the congregated women in the room, Spike let his eyes flash yellow.
"Now, try again!"
He spun the boy around to face Dawn, whose nervous fingers were fumbling to open the box the corsage came in, and sent him on his way with a gentle push.
He moved over to where Buffy watched the drama from one side, smiling as her arm slid around his waist even before his own wrapped around her shoulders. She tilted her head back to kiss his cheek. "I hope you scared him good," she whispered, "'cause that really is the killer dress."
"An' a Summers' woman inside it."
"He looks kinda cute in a tux himself, though," Buffy admitted.
"Have I got competition?" Spike asked gleefully.
"Hey! Mom an' dad, less with the makin' eyes at each other and get in the picture," Faith berated them.
"Not without Glinda." Spike pulled the protesting witch with them. "Just give us one of those sweet smiles of yours for the family album."
"Remember, we'll be patrolling the graveyards nearest the school, just in case, so if you see any vampires or devil dogs or flying monkeys or... whatever, you just give us a call and we'll be right there."
"Yes, Buffy, but you know those things only happen to you, right?"
"And if the limo doesn't take you straight there, you call me."
"Buffy, there is no 'Slayer's little Sisterfest'. Chill. The worst thing that's going to happen is if I spill punch down my dress the minute I get there."
Buffy nodded her head. "Well, if you do, and this Kristin is within a ten foot radius of your elbow at the time..."
"Kirsty... and I know. Call you."
"And don't lose the earrings or the necklace..."
"Yes, Mom."
Buffy's eyes welled up. "She'd be so proud of you. All dressed up."
"And with a date that isn't Faith," Dawn pointed out.
Spike wrapped his arms around Buffy's shoulders and nodded to Brandon. "Better take her an' make a run for it. I'll keep a hold of this one so she can't follow you into the limo."
Buffy's hands reached up to hook over Spike's as she tilted her head back to question her mate. "Are you comparing me to the dog?"
"Nope, just a slightly clingy mother... an' besides it's not like you're the one locked in the basement to stop you drooling on her dress. So, are we actually doing a patrol, or are we just going to find somewhere where we can spy on them all night?"
"It's not spying. We-e-e're just ensuring their welfare. In Sunnydale, these sort of things always seem to attract some sort of demon activity."
"Bit's school isn't in Sunnydale, pet, at least not till next year, if Hard Hat Harris ever finishes building it... Always assuming that you don't want to send her to that nice new Miss Chalmers' School for Gifted Girls that's suddenly decided to open for business."
"Like I'm going to just hand over my sister for Quentin Travers to use as a hostage? Get real. I still can't believe that the Council has owned all these properties around Sunnydale for years and just left them sitting empty, but they can't pay slayers a salary."
"Well, you could say the wannabes are getting scholarships, if you want to look at it like that."
"And Travers is Professor X... I don't think."
"Does that mean I get to be Wolverine?" Spike's mouth twitched briefly into a pout and his left eyebrow went up about a centimetre.
"Nah, you flunk tall and dark."
"As long as I pass on handsome and sexy..." he crooned, tilting his head forward until his lips almost touched Buffy's forehead.
"Yep, you look like you passed when they were giving out handsome and sexy!" Buffy pulled away when Spike's hands began to tickle her as punishment. "That gym could be awash with the demon hordes if you keep distracting me," she pointed out. "All those teenage pheromones... It's like demon Chanel..."
"That's mostly just werewolves." Spike stepped out from under the porch to look at the suspiciously round moon. "Tell me that cousin of Red's Dog Boy doesn't live anywhere near Bit's school."
Buffy simply arched an eyebrow. Spike obviously wasn't aware that the full moon was actually two nights off, but if it meant he was a bit quicker getting ready for their patrol of the school grounds, she wasn't about to let on, at least not before they got where they were going. He picked up his coat from where it was draped over the banister and, finding Buffy's underneath it, held it out for her to put on before donning his own. "Guess I better get the car."
Buffy reached out a hand to stop him. She picked up the keys for his Harley from the hall table, throwing them to him. "The motorcycle's less conspicuous."
"Hello? Like the peroxide freak didn't spell it out simple enough? Don't you want me back?" Cordy paced impatiently as she watched two scenes at once. "Call Wesley, you great big mook," she berated Angel.
"And you lot... You couldn't come to start the planning straight away? You have to do the whole 'Pretty in Pink' routine? It's not like she's running for prom queen or anything..."
