Huh. Never heard that before. I think we just call them bar shots.

at least I won't lose it if it put it here.

Five o'clock in the morning. The towns along the highway were appealing to the outdoorsmen and women who were headed into Los Padres National Forest. It wasn't one of the busier parks, so the kitsch-level wasn't quite as horrible as it was around Yosemite or Yellowstone. The sky to the east had lightened to the point that it was possible to tell the mountains from the darkness, and Giles felt a creeping nervousness that said it was time to turn over the wheel and get under cover.

Just ahead was a gas station with attached restaurant and store. Several cars were parked in front even at this early hour. A quick check of the gas gague showed it was time to stop.

Giles glanced into the driver's mirror. Buffy was still behind him, but her head rested on the railing and her eyes were closed. "Buffy," he said softly.

She sat up straight. "I'm awake, Mom." She blinked, looked around, then turned to check the interior of the bus and its occupants.

"I'm pulling in up ahead," Giles said. "We need more petrol, and the rest of you need a break."

Buffy stretched with audible popping sounds. "Oh, yeah." She looked out the front window as Giles turned the bus into the parking lot. "Starting to get light."

"Yes." He knew he sounded abrupt but felt he was justified.

The bump of the wheels going over the small rise into the parking lot jostled the sleepers. Groans and noises of "Huh?" soon followed. Giles found a parking spot in the RV section of the lot.

Xander blinked hard as he peered out the windows. "Where are we?"

"On our way into the Los Padres National Forest," Giles answered. "Just about time to switch drivers, too."

"Coffee," Xander blinked. "Food, hot food. Bathroom. Not in that order."

"I'm sure the diner will have everything you need."

Xander reached over the seat in front of him to shake Anya's shoulder. "Come on, honey, time to get up."

"Uh uh," she muttered, curling in tighter on herself. "Have good day at work, love you, night night."

Fighting a smile, he wobbled to his feet and went around to convince her to get up.

Willow leaned over and kissed Tara's forehead. "Good morning, sunshine," she whispered.

Tara blinked for several seconds, staring at Willow in what looked like confusion, then she smiled and relaxed. "Green rocks with speckles."

"Is that a good thing?" She helped Tara sit up. Tara whimpered when she tried to use her damaged hand for balance. "Oh, yeah, that probably hurts, let me get you something." She reached under the seat for her bag of herbal remedies.

"Potty," Tara whimpered.

Willow sat up fast. "What was that?"

"Potty."

"Do you need to go potty?"

Tara thought a moment, then nodded once.

"You said potty. And meant it." Willow grinned at the others. "She said potty!" The others stared at her. "Which may not be as exciting for the rest of you as it is for me."

Buffy smiled. "It's OK, Will. We're all still asleep." She went over to Dawn and her mother. "Hey, sleepyheads. How do you feel?"

Dawn was sitting up, but her eyes were closed. As Buffy watched, her head began tilting forward, then jerked up. Joyce rolled over painfully and tried to sit up. Buffy took her arm and helped, reminding herself that Slayer strength was not always appropriate. Joyce got her legs over the edge of the seat and considered standing up.

"I think I'm going to need that darned walker," she sighed.

"Right," Buffy said. "I'll go get it." She turned and found it at her side, held by Spike, who had appeared with more than the usual vampire stealthiness. "Um--thanks."

"No problem." Spike retreated back up the aisle, leaving room for muddled humans to get to their feet.

Joyce unfolded the walker, then frowned at how awkward it would be to maneuver on the bus. "This isn't going to work."

"I'll help you off, Mom. Dawn, wake up, we're going to get some breakfast."

"Sleep," Dawn muttered, still with her eyes closed.

"Food."

Xander came down the aisle, guiding a wearily blinking Anya in front of him. "Do we have time for a real breakfast? Sitting down with pancakes and sausage and orange juice?"

"Probably--" Buffy glanced at Giles and saw him look out the windows to the east, a disturbed look on his face. "Do we?"

"If you don't dawdle."

"Dawdle? Over food?" Xander said. "I may not wait for the waitress to put it on the table."

Buffy and Xander got Joyce down the steps and leaning on her walker, then the group headed for the restaurant. The humans did, at least. Spike was already lighting up a cigarette as he climbed down the steps, and Giles got out to pace.

"What's got you so wound up?" Spike asked.

"Oh, not much. Sunrise is in an hour, and they're off having a leisurely meal." Giles glared at the eastern horizon.

"Relax, mate. We'll be on our way soon enough. Besides, I've rigged up a nice dark crypt under the seats in back."

"Lovely. Hiding under the seats. How dignified."

"I've hidden in worse. Me and Dru had to hide under a pile of corpses during World War I--or was it the second one? Well, it was France, and there were lots of corpses." Spike waited for Giles' new appreciation of gory vampire adventure stories to ask for more details--under the guise of old Watcher instincts, of course--but Giles was still staring at the horizon. He moved closer. "This is the closest you've been to the sun yet, isn't it."

Giles nodded silently.

"It won't be light enough to cause damage until the sun's really coming up, though you may feel a bit itchy. That wears off as you get older." He glanced towards the horizon himself. "But, yeah, you can feel it coming. Turns into a macho game, though, how long can you stand to be out in it."

"How close have you come to ..."

"Oh, I've gotten singed lots of times." He took a long drag on his cigarette. "Closest I've ever come to real damage, I was barely five years turned."

Giles finally looked away from the lightening sky. "You misjudged the time?"

"Was saving Angelus' poncy neck. Running up an alley to the carriage as the sun cleared the buildings. Would have finished me except the ponce was just that little bit tougher, he was able to get me into the carriage and get us out of there. I was weeks healing from the burns."

The analytical Watcher had possession now. "How old was he then?"

Spike ran the calculations in his head. "About the same age I am now. Huh. You never think of yourself as being the same age as your father." He shook his head, dismissing the thought. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you're under cover in good time."

Giles nodded, careful not to show how grateful he was for the reassurance. "There is one other thing." He glanced around the parking lot. "I'm getting rather hungry."

Spike glanced toward the restaurant. The Scoobies had been seated at a table next to the window and looked out occasionally. "There's the stuff Red brought from the hospital."

Giles made a noise of disgust. "Back to baby food after having tried steak."

"Stake is what you'll get if Slayer finds out you had an attack of the munchies. Plus there's the whole I'm still supposed to be chipped thing."

Giles walked casually into a shadow of the bus cast by one of the parking lot lights. "They'll be quite a bit, yet. Odds are I could be back before they even notice I'm gone."

"This isn't the Hellmouth, Ripper. Most places in the world, people find a body, they make a lot of fuss. And if someone finds a body with its throat ripped out, even the Scoobies can make the logical leap towards one of the pair of vampires lounging about the area."

"When did you get this cautious? William the Bloody would have strolled over to that mini-van" he nodded at a family vehicle parked at the gas pumps "and drained the lot of them, then offered autographs to the gathered crowd."

Spike paused to smile at the mental picture, then shook himself. "Not with a Slayer sitting down to breakfast next to a window that looks out over the entire parking lot."

"Oh, yes, you would have, you'd have been thrilled at the opportunity for a good fight. Hell, you'd probably have gone after the mini-van in order to get the Slayer into the fight."

Tempting, tempting image. And a lovely way to announce his chip-free status. Positively Wagnerian in drama potential. If only ... "Yeah, I probably would. Except I don't know the area and it's too close to dawn to find a good bolthole, and--and here's the biggie--we've got work to do. You do remember Glory, don't you, Ripper? The slutgod you were going to send Dawn to hell for in order to stop?"

"Bugger," Giles muttered. "And that makes sense, worrying about Glory first, but ..." He looked towards the mini-van, where a toddler was wobbling along on chubby bare feet under the sleepy supervision of his mother.

"Fledges," Spike sighed as quietly as he could. "I never gave Dru this much trouble." Because Dru would have already been over there cooing about the lucious little baby and how adorable he was and how she longed to eat him up. Which was why Angelus kept both Dru and William on a short leash until William became old enough to have something approaching sense.

He went over to Giles and nudged him with his shoulder. "It's a lovely plan, Ripper, but we can't. Not now and not here. When this is all done and we're back in the 'Dale, we'll go out to the truckstop by the freeway and have a spree."

Giles finally sighed deeply and turned away. "We'll have to eat it cold. It's disgusting cold."

"I've got some whiskey to wash it down with."

The family with the mini-van climbed back into their vehicle and drove away, unaware of the predators that watched them leave.

Oooh! Little continuity-gasm. I loved loved that Angelus kidnapping story and now it's popped up here. You are so good, connie.

Because It's WRONG.

Ah damn Plei. I was right, I did read it, and I did enjoy it. (Darn you)

It's so totally pointless and stuff. And yet... I somehow really got into writing it.

BWAH! Creamy Joyce filling?!?!?

I often try to gross sa out.

This one? Actually became something.

It certainly did. I'm still snickering. Oh, and also? Hot. (edit: the story! The story's hot!)

Just posted my Sunday 100. Only got home a little while ago.