Till the End of Time: Chapter Eight
Chapter Eight
“Hey,” Vicki said softly when Mike picked up the phone.
“Hey. I didn’t expect to hear from you.”
“I wanted to say hi.”
“Is that the sound of crashing waves I hear?”
Vicki grinned and stared down at the water from her blanket. “It is.”
“Catching some rays huh?”
“Might as well, right?”
“How are things going?”
What a loaded question. “Fine. Things are fine. Sitting on a gorgeous white-sanded beach in California, what could be more perfect than that?”
“Henry?”
“He’s…Henry. Look, Mike, I wanted to call and apologize.”
Silence, then, “For?”
“For the other day when I accused you of smothering me and not letting me be me.”
“You feeling all right?”
Vicki sighed heavily. That was the thing with apologizing if not done often-people had a tendency to think something was wrong when you did do it. “I’m fine, I just…I gave you a hard time and I can understand how from your end the whole thing looks.”
“The whole thing being…?”
“Namely the cases I solve and my relationship with Henry. Not that there is a relationship, but,” she shook her head and let out an aggravated sigh, “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, Vick, I know what you mean,” Mike said softly.
“I don’t mean to shut you out, I just know how you feel about what I do and who I do it with.”
“Vicki…”
“Again, you know what I mean.”
“I admit that it’s all just a little…bizarre to me. I don’t get all of it, mostly because well, you know how my mind works. I don’t normally go for all that hocus pocus, believing in demons, vampires and ghosts. I thought all those things just belonged in the movies, the by product of someone’s imagination. It’s a lot for me to wrap my mind around and the speculative part of me rejects it before accepting it.”
“I understand. I find I’m the same way at times. Then I remember all the things I have seen so far.”
“I guess my not believing they’re real is more my not wanting them to be real. If those things can exist and have no rules and laws like we do, then how do you stop it? How do you fight it?”
“Exactly. I’m still grappling with that and trying the best I can to do it.”
“With Henry’s help.”
“Yeah, but he’s not…he’s my partner, just like you were. That’s all.”
“Partner in work only, right?”
“Right.”
“So…you want to tell me about this case? Is there more to it than just a missing girl?”
“Yeah…how’d you know?”
“I’m not stupid, Vicki.”
She chuckled lightly, nervously. “I know.”
“You want to tell me about it now? Maybe I can do something to help, even from over here.”
“Sure. Here’s the story…”
********
Henry stopped pacing long enough to rap on the door connecting to Vicki’s suite once more. “Where the bloody hell is she?” he muttered to himself, about ready to howl his rage. He’d woken, showered, and went to get her so they could meet the Slayer at her home on time. That was almost two hours ago.
Where was she?!
********
Knocking on the Slayer’s-Buffy’s- door, Vicki felt a twinge of guilt. Maybe she should have at least left Henry a note or at least answered her phone the past dozen times he’d tried to call. He was no doubt worried. Good. Let him worry. He can go find some more fun for himself.
The door swung open and a redhead about her height stood before her. She smiled brightly at Vicki before extending her hand. “Hi! I’m Willow, you must be Vicki.”
Vicki took the proffered hand and shook it firmly. “I am. Hi, Willow.”
“Come in, come in. Xander, Spike and Buffy are here already. You already know Spike and Buffy, obviously, so let me introduce you to Xander.”
“Sure thing.”
“Hey, Vicki, you found it okay?” Buffy asked, coming into the living room where Vicki was shaking Xander’s hand.
“Yup, I found it fine. I asked for directions.” Looking around the room, she took it all in. “So, this is where the Vampire Slayer lives. It’s nice.”
Buffy smiled, “Thanks. Willow, my sister Dawn - who is at a friend’s house - and I live here. My mom died last year and I kept the house.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your mom,” Vicki said softly.
“Thanks. So, where’s Henry?”
“Maybe he figured he’d be of no use to us and decided to let the real investigator’s do their job,” Spike said coming into the room, duster flapping behind him. He nodded to Vicki, “’Ello, pet.”
Vicki warmed at his greeting and smiled, “Hi, Spike.”
“Another evil undead, huh? Feeling some competition there, Spike?” Xander chimed in.
“What are you even doing here, whelp? I thought once you left Anya at the aisle it was confirmed you weren’t a man.”
Vicki snapped her mouth shut, eyes widening. That was not something she’d expected at all. Xander jumped and charged at Spike and Buffy placed herself between them and gave Spike a stern look.
“Spike,” she said gravely, “That’s enough. I mean it.”
“He started it!” Spike exclaimed and Vicki had to bite back a giggle.
Buffy turned to a seething Xander. “You too, Xander. We don’t need this, okay? Besides, we have a guest. She might decide she doesn’t want our help at this rate.”
“Takes more than some squabbling like that to scare me off, trust me,” Vicki assured Buffy.
“Where is Henry?” Buffy asked.
“He’s um, out, I think. I don’t know.”
Buffy studied her speculatively and Spike narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “You have a spat?” he asked.
Vicki met Spike’s eyes. “You could say that,” she said firmly, hoping she was sending the message that she didn’t want to get into it.
“Fair enough. Right, so let’s get down to business, Slayer.”
Message apparently received. Spike, Vicki was learning, was quite intuitive. Buffy too from the way she went with it and asked no further questions.
“Okay, so I filled everyone in,” Buffy began, “And I’m thinking we should start with Willy’s.”
“Willy’s?”
“Well, it used to be Willy’s,” Buffy said slowly. She looked over at Spike, “It’ll always be Willy’s to me.”
Spike smiled at her and focused on Vicki, “It’s a bar that the ruffians drink at.”
“Ruffians being?”
“Local vampires and demons,” Willow supplied.
Vicki’s mouth formed an ‘O’ before any actual sound came out. “Oh.”
“Don’t worry, pet. They won’t bother you, not with the Slayer there,” Spike assured her. “’Sides, we got a Wicca and myself here.”
“You know I’m not doing the magic, Spike,” Willow said, annoyed.
“If you needed to, you could.”
“That’s a very large ‘if’.”
“Wicca?” Vicki asked, thoroughly confused.
Willow looked at her sympathetically. “Sorry. You’re new and you’re lost. I’ll explain on the way.”
“Don’t freak her out, Willow!” Buffy warned.
“I won’t,” Willow said indignantly. “Would you rather Spike tell the story?”
“No!” exclaimed Xander and Buffy.
Muttering to himself, Spike headed for the door and whipped out a pack of cigarettes. “Get your weapons. I’m having a smoke,” he said before slamming the door shut.
“Weapons?” Vicki chirped, feeling very much like a parrot.
Xander, standing next to what appeared to be a chest, opened it and extracted a crossbow. “Weapons,” he stated, grinning. “What’s your preference?”
“Gun,” Vicki stated, eyes the crossbow warily.
“Gun isn’t going to do much,” Buffy told her, “You’re a hatchet sort of girl, I can tell.” Reaching into the chest she extracted a hatchet. “Trust me, if some demon gets a little too friendly, chopping his head off is a fool proof way to stop him in his tracks.”
Vicki felt faint; this she was definitely not prepared for. And here she’d thought she’d seen a lot in her short time dabbling with the supernatural world. Buffy handed her the hatchet and smiled. “Don’t worry. You probably won’t need it, but it never hurts to be prepared.”
“This is a lot to take in,” Vicki admitted.
“Now worries, we’ll break you in.”
Suddenly, Vicki was wishing she’d waited for Henry to join her. Even when she was in over her head, he had a way of making her feel as though she weren’t in over her head.
What had she just gotten herself into?