Whatever You Say
by TutorGurl
Chapter 16
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"What did you just say?" Buffy demanded, praying that she had heard the cheerleader wrong. If what she had said was true, thing were about to get very terrible right about now. This is just the worst possible thing that could be happening now. Cordy looked over at her from her position on the floor beside Willow's bed.
"I said it was Spike," she paused, taking a deep breath. "And Angel." Cordy saw the gut wrenching pain flash in Buffy's eyes and she bowed her head. Faith watched the interaction between the two. Deciding it would be easier to deal with the brunette right now, she turned her attention to Cordy.
"What are you talking about?" she asked. "What did they do?" Cordelia looked up at the dark slayer for a moment before looking at the bed where Willow had been.
"They took her," she repeated in dismay. She was cursing herself for failing at her one job. All she had to do was sit there and watch Willow. What was so damn hard about that? It should have been something that even she couldn't mess up. She tore her gaze away from the bed to look at Faith again. "She was sleeping, Willow was, and I was just sitting there. All of a sudden they came bursting through the door."
"How did they get in?" Faith questioned. She looked over at Buffy. "Don't they have to have an invitation or something?" She turned back to Cordy. "Did you invite them in?"
"The welcome mat," Buffy answered before Cordy had a chance to answer the question. "Will's mom bought it last month. I meant to ask Giles if it was safe. I completely forgot." It was obvious to the other two people in the room that Buffy was blaming herself for this.
"I guess you don't have to anymore," Cordy snapped. "I say that every vamp in Sunnydale has an open invitation to your sweetie's house now." Faith decided to chance the course of conversation before the two of them started to fight.
"So they just charged in a took her?" Faith questioned, drawing the cheerleader's attention away from the blonde. Buffy still glared at her, but waited for her answer. Cordy thought back to when it happened and shook her head.
"No," she answered. "They were taking their time, like they knew that Buffy wasn't here. At first I thought they were all talk, Spike can be that way, but then Angel grabbed me by the wrist." She held up her hand to show them the bruise that was forming. "He threw me on the floor."
"Then what did they do?" Faith questioned. "Did you see what they did to Red?" Cordy shook her head again.
"I must have hit my head or something," she guessed. "I don't remember anything after that." She closed her eyes and tried to think hard. She could hear the footsteps. Feel the floor vibrating as the men stomped around the room. Her eyes shot open. "Crying. I remember hearing Willow crying. I couldn't tell if she was still asleep of not." She looked over at Buffy. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Buffy assured her. "It's not you fault. There was nothing you could do without getting yourself killed." She laid a hand on the taller girl's shoulder, trying to convey that she meant it. Faith was glad that they weren't throwing blame around.
"So what's the plan of action here?" Faith asked. "Where do you think they took her, B? You know the both of them better then the rest of us do." Buffy thought about it. She closed her eyes to see if she could try to sense Willow anywhere near. Nothing. That only made Buffy even more frustrated.
"If it were just Spike, I'd say he had her in the factory," she began. "But if Angel's in on this, then they'll be playing it smart. He's not that stupid." She made a mental list of all the place Angel usually went and crossed them off the list of possible places they would be. "He wouldn't be at the mansion, the factory or his old apartment. Those are all too obvious."
"But what if he knows you would think that?" Cordy asked. "He knows you won't look there so that's were they are." Buffy shook her head.
"He doesn't play those kinds of mind games," she tells her. "It's too risky. He'll be hiding in a new place. I know it." Faith nodded in agreement.
"Shouldn't we be calling G-Man right about now?" she suggested. "Get the Scooby Gang together? Well, what's let of it anyway." She looked around the room realizing that is was it. "Okay, the Scooby Gang is together," she declared. "Don't you think we should head over to Research Central? See what good ol' Ripper has to say about this."
"Yeah, I guess," Buffy stated, none too enthused about seeing Giles right now. She was still very pissed off at her watcher right now, but she was just going to have to suck it up. She knew that they would need Giles' help to find Willow. And finding Willow was on the top of Buffy's to-do list. Right above, holding the redhead and never letting her go. Faith stood up from her kneeling position in front of Cordy.
"I'll go give Giles a shout," Faith said walking to the doorway. "Give him the heads up. Tell him to get the tea brewin'." She left the room and went in search of a phone, leaving Buffy and Cordelia alone.
"Come on, let go," Buffy urged her, grabbing her hand and helping the cheerleader to her feet. Cordy was grateful for the gesture and gave the slayer a thankful smile. They began to exit the room.
"We'll find her, you know?" Cordy told her, hoping Buffy would believe her. Buffy nodded mutely even though she wasn't fully sure she believed her. "You just have to stop blaming yourself."
"She has to be okay, Cordy," Buffy cried. "I can't live without her. She's...she's everything."
"I know," Cordelia replied. She an awkward arm around the shorter girl. "I know." Buffy looked at the hand resting on her shoulder and shiver.
"Please don't do that ever again."
"Oh, thank God," Cordy breathed removing her arm. Buffy, despite herself, had to smirk at the genuine look of fear on the girl's face. She shook her head and they continued their walk to meet Faith in the kitchen.
~~~~BtVS~~~~
"Well, well, well," teased Spike. Willow slowly began to open her eyes. Angel came out from one of the other rooms, with a clean knife in his hand.
"What?"
"The little bit finally decided to grace us with her presence," he explained, pointing to the newly awoken witch. She wasn't fully aware of what was going on around her yet. She didn't recognize the voices and couldn't understand what they were saying. Angel looked over at the redhead who was currently tied up at the hands and hanging form the ceiling, her feet only about twelve inches from the ground. Angel smirked as he approached her.
"Well, hello there, little Willow," he greeted her with false sweetness. He reached up and caressed her face with his course hand. "So good of you to join us."
"Buffy?" she croaked out, surprised at the painful thumping in her head. What the hell was going on? Angel let out an evil laugh.
"Your hero isn't here to save you this time," he told her, roughly pushing her face out of his hand. The sudden movement brought Willow out of her unawareness and she looked around frantically for her girlfriend. Angel smirk and the expression of fear on her face. It wasn't until just then that Willow realized he was there.
"Angelus?" she asked in fear. He opened up his arms in a 'look at me' gesture.
"The one and only," he assured her. Spike let out a cough and Angel looked back at him. "Oh, yeah, and Blondie over there." Willow looked past Angel and say Spike sitting in a chair. Her eyes widened even more.
"Where's Buffy?" Willow demanded, afraid that they had killed her already. The last thing she could remember was Buffy holding her in bed. Which meant that Buffy should be around here somewhere too.
"Trying to find us, no doubt," Spike answered. He lit a cigerette and took a puff. "Calling everyone together, forming a Scooby search party or what not."
"She's not here?"
"Nope, wasn't invited," Spike said, getting up and stalking over to their prisoner. "Or she didn't want to come, not quite too sure 'bout that one. Angel?" Willow tugged on the chains around her wrists, trying to get them loose. Wasn't going to happen.
"Missed the call," he smirked. "Wasn't there so she lost her shot."
"Yeah, isn't it funny how that worked out?" Spike said, teasing her again. "We just happened to grab you at the exact time that Buffy wasn't attached at your hip. Almost like we planned for that to happen or something." Willow narrowed her eyes at him.
"Where was she?" she asked, not believing that Buffy would have left her alone like that. Both vampires smiled at her. Angel stepped closer to her.
"Being distracted," he answered. Willow could hear footsteps coming from the shadowed corner. A figure appeared in the dark. It was man shaped, Willow noted.
"Yeah," he said. Willow recgonized the voice right away. "I hope me getting the crap kicked out of me was enough of a distraction."
~~~~BtVS~~~~
Oh no. What's going to happen to our favourite redhead? Review and you'll find out.