Summary: Dawn and Spike go after the book.

Disclaimer: Even if Joss were to start selling off Spike and Buffy, I still wouldn’t be able to own them.

Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from ‘Inca Mummy Girl’ Thanks and hugs to Bloodytearsoflife for the beta.

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Chapter 9: Burn

Reluctantly, Dawn followed Spike through the sewers towards the high school. He was a vamp on a mission and she was bored, and way beyond hung over.

“Summers girls are so not meant to drink,” she moaned, catching Spike’s attention.

“You were the one that drank a whole bottle of Kahlua, pet,” he responded turning a corner.

“That probably explains why I’m in the sewers, with a vampire, in the middle of the day, walking towards the high school which contains my…the Slayer, her watcher, and various other non vampire friendly people.”

“And a fun book,” Spike added.

“Fun for you maybe. Not for Buffy, not for me, ‘cause…Look at my shoes! And so not fun for Angel. Though, it might be fun to see him get all sick looking when you hang him from the church rafters. Can I watch?” Dawn asked hopefully.

Spike stopped walking and turned around to face the girl he’d suddenly and magically cared about. “I think I’m a little bit disturbed that you want to see the Slayer’s boy toy hung from the rafters of a church, Bit.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding me? I’ve done so much worse in my day. Older than dirt remember? I had an evil phase.”

Spike snorted out a laugh. “What? Did you shoplift some lipstick?”

“Well, yes, but that’s in a couple of years. I’m talking about world altering evil. Not world ending evil, ‘cause well that would be far too evil for even me.”

“World altering evil?” he asked with a quirk of his eyebrow. “How’d that go for you?” He resumed his trek towards the school.

“It went okay… I guess.”

“You don’t sound too happy about it.”

“It worked out, but a slayer got in the way, and she dusted my boyfriend.”

“You had a vamp for a boyfriend?” Spike questioned, glancing back at her.

“Yep,” Dawn sighed. “Had a couple vamps as significant others actually. Once you’ve had vampire, you don’t go back. Well, I didn‘t anyway.”

Spike stopped, poised at the basement sewer entrance of the high school, and turned to look at his partner in crime once again. Leaning against the door, he gave Dawn a clear once over.

“You don’t look like the vamp fetish kind.”

“Yes well, my body piercing and blue hair days are long behind me. Are we going to go in or are we going to stand here all day?”

“Don’t reckon that the sSlayer and her watcher are going to be happy to see me walk into their party.”

“No, but lucky for you, they have a mummy to deal with.”

“Maybe I can eat that git that’s broken your heart?”

“No! I want Xander alive. He’s going to get over the mummy and come back to me. Of course, then he’s going to fall for Cordelia. Then he’ll come back to me again. Then there will be Anya. Oh, I don’t even know if I’m going to be around for that long,” Dawn mumbled with a frown.

“Not going to pretend I understand…Ready?” Spike asked his hand on the door.

Dawn nodded., speaking up again as they walked through the door. “You know, there might be people that don’t even remember you from the other night.”

“The Slayer will though, and so will her little gang of do gooders.”

Dawn smiled brightly at Spike. “Yep, now, just remember this was your idea and I, the older, wiser one of the two of us, I wanted to stay at home.”

“Duly noted, pet,” he remarked as he opened the door and walked into the basement.

The school basement wasn’t really very remarkable, cement walls, dusty collections of old broken desks, chairs, and overhead projectors. Unless, of course, you noticed the large crack in the floor and the thing that looked like a brain that lived in it.

Dawn and Spike stopped to look at the brain like creature.

“I thought Buffy said it was bigger,” Dawn commented, leaving Spike to wonder what she meant.

“What is it?” the vampire asked.

“A Buh…Don’t remember, it starts with a B. I was eleven.”

“You remember you were eleven? That’s helpful.”

“Are you going to help me kill it or not?” she countered back, raising her hands to her hips.

“Right,” he said before casting a look around him for something useful to grab hold of. A look of recognition passed over his face and he strode into a dark corner for a moment, remerging with a bucket of something.

“What’s that?” Dawn asked trying to make out the letters that had been smudged off the side of the bucket.

“Fetal pigs,” Spike answered as he ripped the top off the sealed container and dumped the whole contents into the crack in the floor.

“Ewww,” Dawn commented, quickly plugging her nose.

As the liquid and pigs dripped down into the crack the Buh…something started to screech, the preserving goo burning as it made contact. When the screeches subsided, Dawn peered down into the hole, her nose still plugged.

“Do you think that worked?”

“Only one way to make sure,” Spike said with a smile, handing her a book of matches that he had dug out of his pocket.

Dawn took the matches and lit the whole book before turning to her accomplice. “Won’t the whole school burn down?”

“What do you care?” he asked.

With a shrug, Dawn threw in the book of matches.

“Let’s go find the book before the fire department shows up.”

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“I smell like formaldehyde,” Dawn whined as they walked the halls towards the library.

“Stop your whining,” Spike ordered, “The beastie is dead and we’ve got maybe five minutes before the smoke detector goes off. No jail can hold me, but you on the other hand, who smells very preserved…”

“Okay, I get it, go!” said Dawn, pushing Spike ahead of her.

Unfortunately, Dawn expected Spike to keep walking. He stopped short, causing Dawn to collide with his back.

“Why did you…” Dawn was cut off by Spike’s hand across her mouth.

Her eyes wide, and annoyed, Dawn tried to understand the motions Spike was making.

“Ampata, listen to me. Nobody's gonna hurt you. I won't let them,” came Xander’s voice from around the corner.

The corner that was between them and the library.

Dawn rolled her eyes, trying to appear annoyed, rather than jealous. ‘Cause really, oh she was jealous.

“Your investigation is dangerous. I do not want that. Just normal life!” answered back the mummy girl.

There was a pause, and Dawn was ready to step out of their hiding spot, but Spike held her fast.

“Is she okay?” came another voice, Willow’s.

“Wigged. I'm tryin' to convince her that our lives aren't just danger and peril around here,” Xander answered.

“You should take her to the dance,” suggested the witch.

Yes, please take her to the dance so that she can get all smoochie with you and this whole thing can be over, Dawn thought at Xander.

“That's a good idea! We'll all go!” Xander answered Willow.

“No, I mean just you,” Willow explained.

“But you were psyched! And your costume!”

“I'll see you there,” Willow concluded, not at all enthusiastic.

“You know what, Willow? You're my best friend,” added Xander.

“I know.”

They waited for what seemed like an eternity before moving out from behind the corner and towards the library. Dawn swore she could smell smoke.

Spike and Dawn looked through the porthole windows of the library doors, then ducked their heads at the same time.

“There is no way we can avoid Buffy and Giles,” Dawn noted.

“No, I’ll just wait here and you go get the book,” Spike suggested.

“Hey, we could have done that without setting the school on fire or smelling like a dissection gone wrong, and hence the guilty. You couldn‘t have found something else to kill it?”

He gave her a look. “You said you were bored.”

“True. Be funner if you came in with me. Question though. Still feeling like snaking on Buffy’s neck?” Dawn asked, staring Spike straight in the eyes.

Spike looked like he was thinking hard for a second. “Bollocks, you’ve ruined me. What the bloody hell is Dru going to say now?”

“Probably something about sunshine. Don’t worry about it Spike, you don’t ever kill her anyway. The Immortal throws her off the Eiffel Tower.”

“The Immortal git?”

Dawn gave a nod before scrunching up her face at the bad smell she was currently enjoying. “Can we get this over with, please? Soon flamey death will be here for all of us.”

Dawn pushed open the doors to the library.

“Dance plans. Cancelled plans,” Buffy was saying as she glimpsed the two beings walking into the library. “Spike plans.” Buffy picked up a nearby stake, holding it at the ready.

“Flattered pet, you cancelled your plans for me?” he teased with a smirk. “And here I thought you had problems with a mummy, stealing Dawn’s boy and all.”

“Are you friends with Spike now?” Buffy asked Dawn.

“Been friends with Spike for a while now. He baby sat me, I threatened to set him on fire, he died, he died again, he killed me, it really cements the relationship.”

“What?”

“Ya, again with the stuff you aren’t ready to know,” Dawn said, then steered the conversation to a new topic. “We need a book.”

“I beg your pardon?” asked Giles.

“Book? Made of paper, has words. More specifically words about how to cure a sick vampire,” Dawn explained. “There’s no chance you are going to trust me after this are you?”

“No, not one,” Buffy answered.

“Figured.”

Dawn opened her mouth to say something else but was cut off by the fire alarm. “Also, the school is kinda on fire, maybe I should have told you that first.”

“Might have put the feeling of good will out there,” Spike noted. “Book?”

“Do you intend to keep us here until we are consumed by the fire?” Giles asked. “You may not die in the fire, Dawn, but William the Bloody will.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “As if I’m going to let Spike die. Hello! Cheapest babysitter in the world.”

“Oy!”

“You worked for beer, and access to cable TV, Spike.”

“Right,” Spike agreed with a frown.

“God, my life is so weird,” Buffy commented. “You aren’t here to kill me?” she asked Spike.

“No.”

“You gonna kill Giles?” Buffy asked.

“Buffy!” Giles warned.

“Just asking, I need a reason to stake him. He just told me no bitey. That’s gotta count for something.”

Dawn elbowed Spike in the ribs. “See, smart girl, I’m all proud.”

“Ya, can we get the bleedin’ book? That alarm is really giving me a headache.”

“Sure,” noted Buffy putting her stake away. “You just go find it. I’ll be exiting the building in accordance with all those fire escape plans and stuff.”

“Buffy!”

“Come on, Giles, time’s a wastin’.”

Buffy grabbed her watcher’s hand and pulled him from the library. In an instant, Spike was over the check out desk and flinging books left, right, and centre. Calmly, Dawn walked over to one Giles’ office and pulled the book she wanted from the pile on his desk.

“Got it, let’s go,” Dawn ordered.

Spike looked up from his task and growled. “If you knew where it was why didn’t you bleedin’ say so?”

“’Cause it’s fun this way, and you made me get up when I had a hangover.”

With a roll of his eyes, Spike jumped back over the circulation desk and stood before the Key, each looking at their intended escape route.

“You know that she blocked the door when they left, right?” Dawn mentioned.

“Heard her move the coke machine,” he answered.

“Alternate exit needed.”

“I don’t fancy jumping into the sunshine, the window is out.”

“Fair enough, there’s a back entrance through the stacks,” Dawn offered. “Angel uses it all the time. In the dark though. It’s still sunny out there.”

“Sewer grate nearby?”

“Presumably. You want me to go out first, pry off the grate, and wait for you to come out on fire?” she asked.

“Sounds like the best option at the moment.”

“Then give me the book, I didn’t go through all this trouble for the book to go up in smoke.”

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Tbc…