Subject: [BA_Gutter] Fic: Follow the Yellow Brick Road 1/? PG-13 Spike-Dawn friendship Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 18:51:58 -0400 From: Andrea P A/N: In this story I explore the Spike-Dawn friendship dynamic. I feel that it is an integral part of the Spuffy dynamic. Although Buffy does not appear in person, she does figure in the telling. Also appearing are members of the Angel gang. I'm new at writing them, so please feel free to tell me your opinion. A/N 2: A BIG thank you to Toby for taking time from her busy schedule of alpaca wrangling and yodeling to help polish this story. Thank you!! Title: Follow the Yellow Brick Road Author: kindred Disclaimer: These characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and a vast pantheon of notable others. Rating: PG-13 Feedback: If you would be so kind Summary/Spoilers: General S5 AtS spoilers, nothing really specific. Dawn arrives in L.A. and visits Wolfram and Hart to see Spike and mend some fences. 1. Dawn Summers stood at the curb outside the forbidding buildings of Wolfram and Hart and looked at their imposing silhouettes. "So that's the house that evil built," she whispered to herself. It had been incredibly easy to ditch Vi and her contingent of the young, the lethal and the PMS-ing. Deceptively easy. A stateside trip to check out the training regimen Robin had established in Cleveland coincided with the 'So You're Thinking Seriously of Stanford' introductory weekend. Buffy was feeling generous, confident in her slayers and in dire need to some down time without Dawn. So a little schedule do-si-doing ensued and presto change-o Dawn Summers was in the land of her birth--appearance... solidification? Whatever. Dawn was in the good old U.S. of A. From Stanford it was only a matter of misdirection. For all the clueless vibes Vi gave off as a potential, she was a total professional as a slayer. Except, that is, if she was confronted by something tall, tanned and testosteroned. Vi was a closet skank and the prospect of some up close and personal interaction with this guy she met, Brick somebody, was too tempting to ignore. Vi embraced the geological while Dawn high-tailed it the Wolfram and Hart. There were words to be said and issues to be dealt with and if Buffy was too much of a baby to do it, damn it, Dawn would. She pushed through the revolving front doors with ease and met a shining expanse of marble flooring. There was a bank of elevators behind a long electronics laden counter. Several scanning frames stood in succession for prospective visitors to walk through. Dawn walked slowly to the counter. "Yes, Miss?" "Um, yeah, hi. Good morning." Dawn was momentarily thrown. Wasn't she supposed to meet up with something with three heads? Wasn't that what guarded the gates of hell? And as this was Hell Incorporated, shouldn't there be something slobbery and vicious here too? Two human security personnel sat behind a bank of television monitor screens. Dawn could not see the supernatural security personnel who were hidden behind a force field that looked, for all intents and purposes, like a smooth marble wall. If she had known that, she may have had second thoughts. Technically, Dawn did have other worldly origins and interestingly enough, Buffy and Giles never thought to investigate further past the whole 'her blood opens up doors to other dimensions' deal. Dawn thought that was reason enough to deny Giles his pension. Mr. Dots his I's and Crosses his T's was a tad negligent in that regard. "Do you have an appointment?" A bored looking black woman in her fifties with the most crisply ironed uniform Dawn had ever seen spoke in a slow cadence. "I want to see Spike. Is he here?" "Do you have an appointment?" "Tell him Dawn Summers is here to--" She couldn't say 'kick his ass' because technically that was impossible and who was she kidding? Ass kicking was so Buffy and the hairy arm pit squad. It was quite frightening to be forced to live with girls who had such different ideas of personal hygiene. "Morning, Miss Burkle." Dawn looked up as a pretty young woman with a friendly smile greeted the male security officer behind the counter. "Morning Todd, how's Francie and the kids?" Winifred Burkle had a frightening amount of memory storage which she always used in friendly and beneficial ways. Front door security did a job as important as hers or Angel's. It was polite and proper to remember their names and include them in the whole team perspective. Besides, Fred knew that none of the top guns knew these people's names. Charles had great verbal skills and could talk to anyone, but he wouldn't know Todd or Jeanette, who was talking with a gangly teen, from a splat of demon entrails on the wall. Fred blinked that unpleasant image from her mind. Why were all her metaphors ripe with demon guts nowadays? It was puzzling. She still liked nice things, girly things, non-demon guts things. The teenage stranger looked a little desperate. Time for good old fashioned southern charm. "Is there something I can help with?" She asked both Jeanette behind the counter and the frantic faced teen. "Do you know Spike?" Dawn turned toward the stranger and spoke. "This person doesn't have an appointment, Miss Burkle." "You know Spike?" Fred's eyes lit up. There was a story there. "Sign her in under my name, Jeanette. She'll be my guest this morning." Fred turned to Dawn and introduced herself with a smile as sincere as Dawn had ever seen. "Hi. I'm Fred." Fred did not sound like the name of an evil doer. Dawn thought for a moment. She knew of a Fred. Willow's friend. One of Angel's gang. "I'm Dawn Summers. Are you by any chance the Fred who knows Willow Rosenberg?" Fred's smile widened to frightening proportions. "Gol-ly. Dawn. I've heard about you. Welcome to L.A. You've certainly had a long journey, haven't you? Would you like something to eat or drink? They do great smoothies in the cafeteria." Suddenly these two were fast friends. Dawn remembered all the things Willow had said about Fred's sweet disposition. Plus Fred didn't freak out and get all 'you're the slayer's sister', so that was good, very good. And she said 'Gol-ly' like it was an entire sentence. Dawn liked Fred straight off. "Um, okay." Dawn was feeling a bit dry in the throat. "First we gotta step through the looking glass," Fred marched through the framed scanners. It was an odd thing to say. Through the looking glass. Dawn hesitated. Checking for weapons she could understand, but the other two? This was the headquarters for the other side after all, the bad guys. Maybe something in that rickety looking frame would recognize her key-ness. "Just walk on through Dawn, we'll get you a proper badge, a beverage and then you and I will track down Spike. How's that sound?" Dawn smiled with trepidation and stepped through. The first two frames registered nothing but the third frame burped faintly. That was the only word Dawn could think of. She made a security pass through burp. Then the weirdest thing happened. The wall behind the security counter wrinkled and a tall feathered being stepped out. It looked mostly humanoid, but the beak deal was wigging Dawn out something fierce. "Um...um..." Dawn backed away as the beak thing approached. Fred Burkle looked annoyed. "I swear, the maintenance department is going to get a memo from me. That one burped at me yesterday." "W-what is it?" Dawn stared at the beaked creature. "It scans for mystical energy signatures. We scan for weapons and glamors, demonic signatures and magical essences. Don't fret Dawn, it's been on the blink all week. X!arq'lz here just needs to sniff you. It won't take a minute." Dawn stood deathly still as the beak thing sniffed her. "Morning X!arq'lz, how's it going, dude?" Fred offered even the weird bird guy-- er, thing her southern California-esque charms. "I'm just awesome, Fred. How about you, girlfriend?" Dawn stood stock still beside the imposing bird thing . "This one's clean, um, human." Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. Human. Okay now she knew for sure. If the bastion of all that's bad can't sniff out her other worldliness, then it was definitely dormant. "I'm awesome as well, X!arq. You look terrific, are you using something new? Your feathers are to die for shiny these days." The creature did something that resembled a curtsy and chatted at breakneck speed about feather maintenance and the lack of available cute demons lately. Dawn suddenly had a flash of Andrew in a feather boa for some strange reason. "Okay, X!arq. See ya later." "Toodles, babe. Maybe I'll see you at karaoke night?" Fred smiled in non-committal manner. At the elevators she waved as X!arq'lz merged back into the magicked barrier. Fred leaned closely toward Dawn and whispered. "That guy can take on Lorne for vocal stamina, but he'll talk your ear off if you give him half a chance." Dawn nodded and the elevator opened. Harmony Kendall stood balancing a mountain of paperwork in her arms. She tilted her head and smiled at Fred. "Hey Fred, still on for lunch today?" Harmony casually glanced at Dawn. Dawn recognized Harmony immediately. Being chained and threatened with death, or at the least extreme annoyance, registered big time with Dawn. Plus, according to Dawn's unerring memory, Harmony was a vampire and therefore evil or potentially evil. She had that particular pasty pallor that was undeniable plus a disturbing wake of some god awful stinky perfume. Yep, definitely still evil. Some people actually needed to breathe in elevators. Harmony's recognition skills were less astute this particular morning. She'd pulled an all-nighter and was still in the trenches looking none the worse for it. No doubt the old skank patrol of Sunnydale High would have deigned her 'supremely bitching' in her satin pumps, mini skirt and tight twin set. The pencils poking out of her hairdo positively screamed, 'caution: busy person!' Her neurons did a relaxed soft shoe as she tried to place this new person and current elevator companion. "I'm still on Harm. I was thinking that new sushi place?" "Yeah, that's good. I don't think the office 'ears' will hear us dishing the dirt from there!" Dawn stared in disbelief at the camaraderie between this seemingly sane human and Harmony, a notoriously unpredictable yet feeble vampire. "Are you the new intern?" Harmony hazarded a glance toward Dawn and spoke the first guess that entered her mind. "It's the freakiest thing. You kinda look like this girl I once kidnapped in Sunnydale, the slayer's dorky sister." Harmony babbled on despite Fred's sudden look of alarm. "Dawn Summers, Harmony. You tried to kill me?" Dawn spoke with sarcastic breathiness as her eyebrows rose on her forehead. Harmony couldn't even remember her potential victims. "R-i-i-ght...Dawnie. Um, sorry about the dorky remark. Evil you know, but my demonic fervor is definitely better focused here at Wolfram and Hart. I'm a demon in the steno pool. Grrr." Harmony smiled quickly, trying to gloss over her faux pas. Angel had spoken to her about her abrasiveness and being less overtly evil. It was a difficult juggle, but Harmony needed the Wolfram and Hart dental plan. Without missing a beat she continued on her mistaken course. "So are you the new intern? That would be so fantastic! Another Sunnydale alum for the team. And I love those jeans. Girl, your legs go on forever!" Dawn looked down at her ordinary jeans. "You got the legs, I got the caboose -- which the guys LOVE by the way, not to mention my shiny Brazil--" "NOT the new intern, Harmony." Fred interrupted quickly. She'd heard more than enough on the wonders of the 'Brazilian' and Imelda, the goddess of nether waxing. Even the memory of those images made Fred woozy. "Yeah? Here to see the boss man? Could you work in something about my skillful application of appropriate small talk when you see Angel? Apparently I need some 'improvement' in that area. I don't see it, myself. But you know, hail to the chief and all that crap." The elevator stopped on Harmony's floor and she stepped out. "Sorry about the trying to kill you thing, Dawn. I was a different demon then. Conflicted, that's what my therapist says." Harmony turned and walked away, emphasizing her wicked wiggle for the passing male employees. "Harmony tried to kill you?" Fred asked quietly. "Well, she did kidnap me and use me as bait. I think she really wanted to kill my sister." "That must have been horrible for you." "Uh-huh. Her crystal knick-knacks were quite disturbing." "The unicorns? Yeah, they're um..." "Disturbing," Dawn nodded and finished Fred's sentence. Fred glanced through the glass walls of Angel's office, visible from the elevator. Spike was usually in there bothering-- er, conferencing with Angel. "Well, we can go to my office and play telephone tag and track down that wayward vampire or we can go to the cafeteria. It's on the thirtieth floor. There's a terrific panorama view of L.A. How's that sound?" "Okay." Fred pressed the cafeteria floor button. The doors closed again and Dawn felt the elevator rise swiftly to their destination. tbc... I know, no Spike yet, but he IS in the building...