Getting Pumped (Part 2)
Kaz
*******
Between Movement
and Disruption
comes a perfect moment
when all things sing together---
sky, sea, sand, earth, blood.
Their song is called Flowering
***********
The tyres squealed in protest as Buffy floored the gas pedal out of the
gas station, and headed straight for the Interstate on-ramp.
"Take it easy. Getting a ticket would take up allot of our precious
time together"said Spike as he twisted round in his seat so that he could
watch her while she drove. Casually he leaned his back against the
passenger door and reached into his pocket for the ever present
cigarette pack.
The woman glared at him. "One, don't tell me how to drive and two, don't
smoke in my car and three, we don't have any *precious* time to spend
together."
The man smiled at her and continued to go about lighting his cigarette.
"I see you are getting over your previous 'bad mood' nicely."
"Did you hear me Spike! I said no smoking in here."
"Sue me"was his distracted reply as he turned to survey the direction
they were taking.
"I don't need to sue you, how about I just kill you!"the woman snarled.
Spike glanced back at her. "That is always an option. But before we get
into that discussion, can I suggest that you take the surface roads rather
than the Interstate."
"You seem to be having a hearing problem tonight Spike. I said not to
comment on my driving."
The blond man glanced at her and shot her a crooked grin before settling
back against the door. "OK, its your funeral. It is Friday rush hour and the
Interstate is going to be solid."
The woman slammed her hands against the wheel and the car veered
sharply before she managed to regain control. Her head swinging wildly
between looking at the road and looking at the aggravating man lounging
beside her, she let loose.
"OK, Spike, OK. So lets see if I have managed to get this straight.
Tonight you are an expert on dating etiquette, gas pumping, perfume,
evening wear, driving, and now you are also an expert on traffic patterns.
GIVE ME A BREAK. Hello and Welcome to the Twentieth Century. That
is what we have car radios for. Traffic reports, helicopters, police reports
all
filter through this little mechanism here"she screeched as she gestured
wildly at the car stereo.
"Fine"he said with a broad smile. "Take the Interstate."
"Fine. I will!!"she said, entering the on ramp at a rapid rate of knots.
"Buffy"
"What now?"
"Did anyone ever tell you that you are especially beautiful when you
are mad?"
"What!" Momentarily her attention was distracted from the road by
his unexpected statement.
Spike, however, was watching the road. "WATCH IT"he yelled suddenly.
Buffy's eyes swung straight ahead and were meet with the glare of hundreds
of red tail lights all at a dead stop. Without pause for thought, Buffy stood
on
the brakes and then spent the next couple of seconds concentrating on
preventing the car from going into a skid.
It was close, but her car came to rest a few inches from the back bumper of
the car stopped directly ahead of her.
"Whew. That was close"she mumbled to herself, as she smiled
apologetically at the wild eyes of the people in the car ahead, who had
turned in their seats at the sound of her screeching tyres. "Sorry"she
mouthed to them, before turning to look at Spike.
But Spike was not on the seat beside her! He had been sitting sideways
when she slammed on the brakes, and the sudden deceleration had
effectively slid him off his seat and into the footwell of the car. There
he sat on the floor, still clutching his cigarette. His head was bent
downward and he was shaking it in slow disbelief.
"Spike? You OK?"Buffy said, with a look on her face which said quite
plainly....oh shit, I have gone and done it now.
Slowly he raised his eyes to meet hers. His lips were pursed in exasperation
and the look worked to highlight his prominent cheek bones.
He didn't say a word. He just glared at her. Buffy tried. She really tried,
but she couldn't do it. The sight of his large frame crunched into the
footwell of her tiny car was just too much. It started with a slight
twitching
at the corners of her mouth and quickly expanded into a full faced grin.
Laughter bubbled up and exploded into the silence.
"I'm glad you find this amusing"he drawled at her.
"I....I....I'm sorry. Really I am. Honest"she giggled.
"Yeh, right"he said taking a puff of his cigarette.
A few minutes passed while Buffy tried to regain control. The
laughter didn't seem to want to stop. It had been so long since she had
truly laughed, and it felt great to let loose! Eventually she regained a
semblance of control and motioned for him to get back up on
the seat.
Spike ignored the gesture and continued to puff on his cigarette.
"OK Spike, you can get up now."said Buffy, finally able to manage speech
again.
"Nope"
Buffy's smile began to turn back to its former glare. 'OK, what was he
playing at now?' she thought to herself.
"Why not?"
"Because, Slayer, I am stuck."
For a minute Buffy didn't believe her ears. Then her eyes traveled his
large frame and saw how his lower body was jammed securely into
the small space. As she looked, her face began its former twitching
and the laughter threatened to take hold once more.
"Oh, this is priceless. Truly priceless. Wait a minute, I know I have
one of those disposable cameras in this car somewhere. This has to
be a Kodak moment."she said as her eyes traveled the car interior
quickly.
"Slayer, you DO NOT want to do that. Anyway, you can't take a
Vampire's picture."said Spike from his cramped position on the floor.
"Look, why don't you just get out of the car and come round and open
the door for me"he suggested.
Buffy nodded her head at his suggestion, but instead of getting out of
the car, she sat back and contemplated the standstill traffic jam ahead
of her.
"Buffy?"said Spike questioningly.
Buffy glanced down at him. "Why should I help you out. You are
quite safe down there, and you are definitely unable to accompany
me as my date tonight. Seems like my problems have been solved."
"Buffy...."growled Spike warningly.
"OK, OK, I'm going"she said as she smilingly reached for the door
handle. Quickly she skirted round the car to the passenger side. She
was aware that she had immediately become the center of attention for
all the traffic jammers. There she was in 'the little black number, high
heels, and lace gloves in the middle of an Interstate traffic jam. An
interesting spectacle for all.
Wanting to get out of the limelight as quickly as possible, she
reached the passenger door, and quickly wrenched it open without
thinking. Deprived of his back support and unable to keep his balance in
his cramped position, Spike's upper body jackknifed out of the car
door and his head hit the Slayer directly in the stomach, sending her
crashing to the ground beneath him.
For a second they both just lay there. Finally Buffy opened her eyes
and found herself staring at the sky. Spike too had a good view of the stars.
He was laying with his back and head firmly against the Slayer's prone body.
"Get *off* me"Buffy hissed as her eyes traveled quickly to the surrounding
cars. As was to be expected, all eyes were firmly fixed on them.
"Love to Slayer, but I have one small problem."
"What now?"
"My legs are still stuck in the car, I can't move."
"You are kidding, aren't you?"said Buffy in disbelief.
Spike didn't answer, but Buffy became aware of a subtle shaking of his
body.
"Spike?"she probed questioningly.
The shaking became harder and Buffy pushed at his back worriedly.
Then the sound reached her ears. He was laughing! Laughing! Could
you credit it. Here they both lay, stuck in the middle of an interstate
traffic
jam with a hundred pairs of eyes watching them. 'Kill him. She would have
to kill him,' she seethed to herself.
"Spike."
"Spike, stop it!"
"Spike, we have to get up from here."
"OK Slayer, what do you suggest"he finally managed to reply.
"You try to pull yourself upward by grabbing onto the car door and I'll
slide out from beneath you."
"But I kinda like you beneath me."he replied.
"Now is not the time for games Spike!"the Slayer hissed. "Pull yourself
up, or else!"
"OK, if you insist"he agreed, as he reached out and grabbed the car door.
Easily, he pulled himself up so that the Slayer could slid out. With a quick
movement, Buffy pushed herself free and sat up beside him. As soon as
she was clear, Spike lowered himself back to the ground and glanced over
at her.
Buffy was busy examining the damage. Her hair was wrecked. One heel
had snapped off one elegant shoe and her lace gloves had more holes than
they had originally designed with.
"Now you definitely need to go home and change"he drawled at her.
"YOU should shut up while you are still ahead"she warned.
Quickly she tore both shoes from her feet, and struggled to stand up
while pushing her short dress back into position. Smoothing the hair back
from her eyes she glared down at the man lying half in and half out of her
car.
"OK, enough of this. YOU have made this evening a total disaster.
Things cannot get any worse, so lets get you out and you can take
off and LEAVE ME ALONE."
Spike totally ignored her, instead he said, "The view from down here
is fantastic."
Buffy glanced down at him and found his eyes traveling along the length
of her legs. 'Damn him!' Without thinking she drew back her foot and
aimed a swift kick at his ribs. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that she
had no shoes on. Impact was painful.....for them both.
Spike clutched at his ribs, while Buffy utter a strangled curse and began
hopping around on one leg, while trying to massage her injured foot.
"Serves you right. You really have to get a handle on that temper"
snarled Spike from his prone position on the ground.
"TEMPER. You have the balls to talk about *my* temper. You have
the......."her voice trailed away as she continued to glare at him. Then
she turned her back on him and walked away a few feet while she
physically tried to calm herself.
"OK, we are NOT going to do this, we are NOT going to go there! Just
get him outta of the car and get to the damn event. Lets keep priorities
straight."she counseled herself outloud.
Turning she moved to walk back to the watching Vampire, but before
she could take a step the Heavens opened on her. The thunderstorm that
had been threatening all day, decided that now was the time. Water poured
down and in seconds they were both drenched. Buffy stood stock still and
stared up at the Heavens in disbelief. This wasn't happening. It couldn't be
happening. Her hair was plastered to her face, and her dress
was ruined and plastered to her body.
Lowering her eyes, she glanced at the cars around them. Now their
audience virtually had their noses plastered to the windows of their cars.
Buffy gave them an encompassing glare before stalking over to Spike.
"I should just stake you right now. That way you would turn to dust
and BE GONE from my car."she yelled at him while water dripped off
the end of her nose.
"How about just freeing my legs instead.....and preferably before I drown"
he added as water pelted his upturned face.
"You can't drown, worse luck"muttered the Slayer as she bent over him
and stuck her head into the car to survey his legs. Her position caused
her dress to pull up and left Spike with a beautiful view. Wisely he decided
just to enjoy the view rather than comment on it.
At that moment, he felt the Slayer begin to tug on his legs in an attempt
to untangle them. "Ouch! That hurt."he hissed at one particularly violent
heave from the Slayer. Buffy didn't bother to respond. She just continued
her pushing and pulling. Finally she succeeded. Spike slid from the car and
lay on his back on the asphalt.
Buffy backed out of the car and glared down at him. "Now get in the car,
and this time sit properly in the seat AND put the damn seat belt on."
Spike pushed himself to his feet and adjusted his soaking clothing.
Then he turned his eyes on the dripping Slayer.
"If you had been paying attention to the road this wouldn't have happened
in the first place!"
"Oh yeh, RIGHT, blame it all on me!"seethed the Slayer.
"Well I did tell you not to take the Interstate...."he hissed back.
Buffy held out her hands for silence. "Look, just get in the car and lets
get out of here."
"Doesn't look like we are going anywhere by the looks of this traffic."
"Spike. GET. IN. THE. CAR."
Spike glanced at the woman. Her whole body posture told him that
she was a woman at the end. Definitely not a woman to be messed with
right now. Closing his mouth, he moved back into the car and closed
the door.
For a minute Buffy continued to stand in the road. Then, satisfied
that he was finally back in the car, she moved back round at got in the
drivers seat.
Neither said anything while the water continued to drip off them and pooling
in their seats and at their feet.
Finally, Spike spoke up. "OK, so what do you want to do for fun now?"
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