Spikes and Xander stood stunned for a moment while Josh and Derek ran outside. Xander glared at Spikes for a moment before running after them. He was back within a minute, still glaring.
“Well they’re gone, and the cops are on their way,” Xander growled, messing up the hair on top of his head as he ran his hair down, “Why couldn’t you wait to have a self realization at least until the job was over?”
“How does that even make sense, Xander?” Spikes barked, throwing her hands into the air, “I know I fucked up, but what are we going to do?”
“At least you admit it,” He scoffed under his breath. He took in a deep breath of hair, his hand gripped a square shape in his pocket, “I don’t even have time for a smoke to think. So for now, we run. We’ll run to our usual halfway point and then try to form a plan from there.”
Spikes nodded and ran outside of the house with Xander close on her heels. They had started to run into the forest area around the house, and already they could see flashing red and blue lights approaching.
“Gotta love how quick their response time is for rich people,” Xander growled and lowered himself.
“We can’t run Xander. They’ll see us,” Spikes’s heart was racing. She stared at the approaching lights and ducked behind a bush.
Xander sighed heavily and reached his hand out for hers. He smiled softly as she slowly moved closer, “We're going to get out of this, but I need you to stick by and trust me. You know I have your back.”
She took his hand and he squeezed it for a moment. He motioned for her to follow beside him as he quickly darted behind bushes. They had almost gotten over a hill when an officer began shouting.
Xander glared at the voice over his shoulder and took off running with Spikes close behind. Spikes ran as fast as she could, but even they couldn’t outrun cars.
“We have to get away from the roads,” Xander called out to her as he turned towards the trees. She nodded and followed behind him. He moved as quickly as he could, keeping out of the sight of the roads. Spikes could still see the red and blue flashes. Spikes sighed with relief when she noticed the flashes of light has drastically faded as they reached the edge of the city. Xander grabbed Spikes’s hand and ran as fast as they could through the city streets and into an alley.
Spikes fell to her knees, breathing heavily while Xander tried to move the dumpster enough for both of them to hide behind it. Spikes winced with pain as she moved further into the corner of the ally. Her muscles were aching and she was having trouble catching her breath. She looked up at Xander who leaned against the dumpster breathing heavily. They held their breath as they heard sirens approaching. Xander crouched down beside Spikes as they watched a figure enter the alleyway.
“Found you,” Spikes yelped at the sound of Josh’s voice behind her. He grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her to the end of the alley lit by a street lamp where Derek had stood as a distraction.
“Fuck off, Josh,” Spikes screamed as she tried to run back into the cover of the dark alley. Josh went to shove her again but Xander tackled him to the ground, shoving his face into the concrete. He looked up as a cop car pulled up. Derek had vanished and within seconds the officer had Spikes pinned against the hood of the car.
Xander stood up and hesitantly took a step forward. Spikes shook her head softly, evading the officer’s notice and Xander slipped back into the shadows.
“You have the right to remain silent,” Spikes stopped listening as the continued on. She didn’t struggle as she was shoved roughly into the back of the cop car. She just sat quietly and wondered if she had actually made the right decision.
…
“You already have me in a cell, why the hell am I in cuffs too?” Spikes barked at the officer locking up her cell.
“You’ve been deemed a significant threat for whatever reason,” He looked young, his sad eyes glanced her over once before he turned and walked down the hall. She growled and kicked the bench inside the cell before sitting on top of it.
For a moment she tried to struggle against the metal cuffs clanking against her wrists but they didn’t budge. So she waited, though she wasn’t quite sure what she was waiting for. Court? A ? Freedom? Death even?
She heard screaming down the hall, what sounded like a shrill female voice. Spikes rolled her eyes and leaned back against the cell wall. She sighed, and wondered if maybe this was all that was left for her. Stone walls, and a caged door was no way to live though, but neither was the way she had lived before now.
“I didn’t want this… I never wanted this,” Spikes muttered softly. She didn’t care if there were people around, she didn’t care if anyone heard, or if anyone saw the tear slip from her eye. “I didn’t want to grow up on the streets. I didn’t want to watch my brother die, or have my only family after him abandon me. I didn’t choose this. I don’t want this!”
Spikes’s shout reverberated off of the walls and echoed in her ears. Words spoken into an empty empty cell, without anyone to listen.
“Sounds to me like it’s time for you to come home,” Spikes’s head shot up at the sound of her voice. Soft and warm contrast to the cell she sat in. She stood beside an officer unlocking the cell door, her sapphire blue eyes filled with laughter as she crossed her arms over her chest.
Spikes could feel tears rush to her eyes as she stared into Katherine’s, “I don’t understand.”
“There’s nothing to understand, Spikes,” Katherine almost laughed. She reached out her hand towards Spikes, “The door is open. You just have to walk through it.”
The officer raised an eyebrow at the two girls, but continued on and stepped into the cell and removed the handcuffs from Spikes’s wrists. Spikes rubbed her wrists as she stood up and walked towards the open cell door.
“Why?” Spikes stopped before stepping out of the cell.
Katherine rolled her eyes, a smile on the corner of her lips, “Because we’re friends, Stupid. It’s what friends do.”
Spikes stepped forward and wrapped her arm’s around Katherine’s shoulders. Her shoulders heaved as she tried to keep herself from crying, tried to keep herself from squeezing the cat too tightly.
Katherine wrapped her arm’s around Spikes, chuckling slightly as she pulled away, “Alright you big sap. Let’s go home.”
Spikes nodded and followed behind Katherine as she trotted down the hall and made their way outside where a cab was ready and waiting for them.
“Kitty, I can never thank you for this,” Spikes stood outside the cab, “I can never repay you for this. You just stopped me from possibly spending my whole life in that cell.”
“Well if it were a life sentence they’d move you to an actual prison, instead of just in holding,” Kitty shrugged her shoulders. She still grinned despite Spikes’s glare.
“You didn’t have to get me out,” Spikes sighed and took a step away from the car.
“I didn’t have to make arrangements for an interior decorator to visit the house next saturday either, and yet it’s already been done,” Kitty sauntered past Spikes and sat down in the cab, “So can we please go home now? It’s like two in the morning.”
“Home?” Spikes questioned. She hesitantly stepped into the cab, the door slamming shut behind her.
“You’re not back to that dingy apartment Spikes,” Katherine grinned, and gave the driver the address back to her house.
“Are you asking me to live with you?”
“I’m basically ordering you to,” Katherine leaned back in her seat. She stretched her arms over her head, eyes fixated on the car’s ceiling. “You’ll always have a comfortable place to sleep, food, and a roof over your head and you don’t have to pay any bills. I just figured that… being alone really sucks, and since we’re both alone maybe we should stick together.”
Spikes rubbed away the tears pooling in her eyes. The smallest of smiles rest across her lips and she reached over and grabbed Katherine’s hand, “Thank you, Kitty.”
“Don’t thank me. It’s what friends do,” Katherine squeezed her hand as the cab pulled to a stop. “ And Trust me, you will not be thanking me when you see what the room you’re staying in for now looks like.”
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