Xander and Cordelia turned to Buffy, who couldn't hide her shock. Angel glanced up slowly and into the mirror. Eric had no reflection. In the mirror, it appeared that the car was driving itself with no one in the front seats.
"Pull over, please. I'm not feeling very well." Buffy lied.
Eric did as asked.
Buffy quickly reached for the door handle but the doors were locked thanks to an automatic lock on Eric's side. The Slayer narrowed her eyes. "You really don't want to do that."
Eric laughed evilly. "Why not? I want to do it, actually. I'm hungry!"
Angel put on his game face and growled softly.
"What the hell--" Eric began.
While Eric was distracted with Angel, Buffy reached into her coat pocket and grabbed the stake that she always kept there. She drove it through the leather seat. The stake pierced Eric's heart, causing him to turn to dust.
"So much for me being the only vampire out here," Angel mentioned after a moment of silence. "And so much for your theory, Cordelia," he added as he slid into the driver's seat.
"That has got to be the most unlucky vampire in vamp history." Xander pointed out. "The vampire was moronic enough to pick up a hitchhiking Slayer! I mean, come on!"
Angel turned the ignition and got back onto the road.
"What are you doing?" Xander asked quickly, unsure of what the vampire's plan was.
"I'm driving us to town. We'll ditch the car a mile outside of the town and then we'll walk the rest of the way."
Buffy gave a slight nod as though to say that was a good idea.
******
A mile outside of the town they ditched the car, making it appear to whoever found it that it had abandoned. After all, there were no signs of violence---well, except for the hole in the seat--- and there would be no one to report it missing.
The quartet walked through the rain to the town. Once they got to the 24 hour gas and service station, they sent a tow truck to get the Winnebago.
About an hour later, Giles and Willow were brought to the gas station, along with the Winnebago. There they found sleeping Xander and sleeping Cordelia sitting beside one another on a bench and Angel holding a sleeping Buffy on another bench. The four would-be hitchhikers were all still soaking wet from the rain, but at least they had succeeded in getting help and staying alive.
Giles spoke as he and Willow approached the vampire. "Anything interesting happen out there?"
Angel couldn't keep a smile from spreading across his face. "No, besides the fact we decided to hitchhike and were picked up by a vampire on his way to Sunnydale." Angel enjoyed the looks on the faces of both Willow and Giles.
"What are the odds?" the Watcher asked.
Angel merely shrugged his shoulder while he stroked Buffy's hair away from her face as she slept.
Giles continued. "You all had better get out of those wet clothes. You'll all catch your death--" He took heed of Angel's amused expression. "Present company excluded, of course."
"Of course."
******
Within half an hour, the tire was fixed and the Winnie was again ready to go. Angel, Willow and Giles woke the others, who merely changed clothes and went to bed. Soon, the exhausted watcher and hacker went to sleep as well, leaving Angel awake to drive the Winnebago.
At around 2:00 AM, Angel was still driving and listening to "The Wall" by Pink Floyd on a Walkman so he wouldn't disturb those sleeping. Suddenly Buffy came down from the overhead bed and sat in the passenger's seat.
"What are you doing awake?" Angel asked, glancing over at her.
Truthfully, Buffy was rather tired, but she forced herself to stay awake. "I wanted to keep you company."
Angel smiled slightly. "Go back to sleep, Honey. You look exhausted."
Buffy gave a slight nod as she curled up in the seat. Within five minutes, she was asleep beside her driving Angel.
******
At six in the morning, just before the sun came up, Angel pulled over to the side of the road and woke Giles so he could take over the driving duties. Angel carried the sleeping Buffy from the passenger's seat to the overhead bed and laid her down gently. He laid down beside her. Exhausted since he hadn't gotten much sleep the day before, he was asleep within ten minutes.
About two hours later, Buffy was awoken by a loud sneeze. She groaned softly and checked on Angel. She was glad he was still fast asleep beside her since she didn't want him to be waken like she had been.
Groaning once again, she climbed down from the overhead bed and found Cordelia sitting with a box of tissues in her hand and a blanket wrapped around her.
"Now I'm sick. I can't believe this!" Cordelia whined. "I bet you it was that stupid rain last night." She sneezed again, waking up Xander and Willow as well.
Drowsy (and wanting to stay healthy herself) Buffy groaned yet again. "Giles, stop for cold medicine."
The Watcher nodded in the driver's seat. "The next town is ten miles from here."
"I can't last that long!" Cordelia said mid-sneeze. Buffy rolled her eyes and shook her head, but Cordelia continued whining. "Xander, could you bring me another pillow?" she asked, bating her eyes at him.
The boy did as he was asked (told), mostly so she wouldn't have anything else to whine and complain about.
"Atttchoo! Stupid cold. Stupid rain!"
"Actually, the rain didn't give you the cold. Germs did." Giles corrected.
This got a cold glare from Cordelia. "Thank you, Bill Nye. Your compassion is truly overwhelming!"
"How about some compassion for the vampire up here!?" Angel shouted from the overhead bed. All eyes turned to the curtain Angel was attempting to sleep behind. "Some of us are trying to sleep here and you insist on yelling!" Angel bellowed in an out-of-character fashion.
"He sounds pi--uh, mad," Willow whispered quietly.
"Well, he only got a few hours of sleep yesterday," Buffy defended. "I bet he's really tired. I'll go deal with it."
The Slayer climbed up to the overhead bed. There she found Angel with a pillow wrapped around his head tightly. It was so tight, in fact, that if he'd been a breathing human, he'd have smothered himself!
Buffy crawled over and put her arm around him as he pulled the pillow away from his head. "I'm going to go crazy from sleep deprivation." Angel said softly as he put his head on her shoulder.
Her eyes lit up suddenly. She reached to her duffel bag that was laying beside their bed and pulled out a Walkman.
Angel waved his hand in an 'away' motion. "I'm not in the mood for dance music."
"It's not dance music. It's whales singing. It's really relaxing." She put the headphones over his ears. He settled back again, putting the pillow behind his head as he listened to the tape. Buffy laid down beside him and put her arm around his chest. She knew the both of them always slept better when they were together and safe.
Within a few minutes Angel was asleep again. Quietly, Buffy climbed down from the bed and found Xander attempting to make Cordelia as comfortable as possible.
"Is Dead Boy asleep?" Xander asked. Buffy gave a small nod as she sat down in a chair. The class clown got a mischievous smile on his face, similar to that of the Grinch before he figured out how to steal Christmas from the Whos in Whoville.
"Don't even think about bothering him," Buffy warned quickly.
"But you know that I so enjoy bothering Dead Boy," Xander replied as he stood up slowly from Cordelia's side.
"Xander, have you ever heard what happens when you wake a slumbering vampire?" Giles asked calmly, only to receive a scoff from a moving-towards-Angel's-bed Xander. "I won't hold Angel responsible if Xander dies up there," Giles finished, shaking his head slowly.
Xander found the vampire asleep with the headphones still over his ears. Angel was laying under a blanket but one bare foot was exposed, inspiring Xander. The boy reached over and tickled Angel's foot. When there was no response, Xander concluded that Angel wasn't ticklish. Then he began roughly poking Angel's shoulder.
Angel's face suddenly changed as his eyes opened. Without notice, he grabbed Xander by the neck, pulling him over into biting range.
Xander, of course, freaked out. "Angel! It's me!"
Angel released Xander as he became fully awake and realized what was going on. Xander rubbed his neck. "You were going to kill me!"
"Haven't you ever heard what happens when you disturb a slumbering vampire?" Angel growled. "We kill whatever wakes us. It's survival instinct...Okay, listen up! The next person that wakes me up is going to find themselves awake all night! Got it?!" Angel shouted sternly.
"Got it!" came the simultaneous answer from Willow, Cordelia, Buffy and Giles.
Still in a daze, Xander nodded and slipped away down from the overhead bed. Once he was within range Buffy smacked Xander upside the head, declaring, "Moron."
In disgust of her friend, Buffy went to console Angel.
"We're out of tissues." Cordelia seemed oblivious to what had just occurred.
Willow shook her head and wrote another letter to Oz, telling the story of Xander's close call with death and of Willow's annoyance with the ill Cordelia.
******
They arrived in the Devil's Tower area at half past five in the afternoon, just beating the sunset. Buffy used her camera to 'capture' the moment so the still slumbering Angel could see what it looked like in the light. Xander lived his dream by whistling the theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind while standing in front of the huge natural wonder.
Cordelia, who was feeling better after they had stopped and bought Day-Quil and Tylenol, kept yelling at Xander every time he whistled or make any reference to the film.
After they had seen the tower, the group climbed back into the Winnebago and drove around in search of a restaurant. They were determined not to relive the fiasco at the Salt Lake City diner, so they chose a five star restaurant.
After Xander's experiences, Buffy was the only one brave enough to wake the sleeping vampire and tell them about the plan.
After getting dressed in the nicest clothes they had brought, the travelers entered the restaurant. They were seated by a window where Devil's Tower could be seen in the distance, lit by the full moon. Hungrily, they placed their orders at a record pace and chatted until the chow arrived, piping hot.
While Buffy and Angel held hands and talked about their plans for romantic walk that evening, Giles and Willow discusses the plan for the trip and Cordelia stared at Xander. The snack food loving guy was building a tower out of the mashed potatoes that had come with his steak dinner.
Cordelia grew concerned, especially when she realized that the mashed potato creation was a model of Devil's Tower. "Stop it, Xander. Damn, you're really scaring me here!" Everyone else at the table looked up to see the slayerette literally playing with his food.
"Xander, you are a world class, first rate moron. Did you know that?" Angel asked shortly.
Xander looked up slowly from his potato structure as the waitress walked over to the group. She looked at Xander for a brief moment before wordlessly taking away some of the empty plates.
Willow made a motion to Xander with her hand and addressed the server. "Bet you've never seen this before."
"You'd be surprised how much we see this," the waitress responded. With a smile, she set the bill down on the table and walked away.
Angel, after taking a deep metaphorical breath, picked up the bill. He groaned softly and put it down again. "I'm going to end up maxing out this credit card by the time this trip is over if we keep this up." Angel pulled out the lovely piece of plastic from his wallet.
"If you had left me to gamble in peace, I'm sure I would have made enough money to pay off all the expenses for this trip," Giles snapped, "But oh, no, you all had to pull me away from the slots-- twice!"
Angel didn't pay him much mind. "By the way, I'm not driving again tonight. I didn't get much sleep today, thanks to a certain 'Child of the Corn' who shall remain nameless. I suggest we find a place to spend the night in." His voice was firm and his arms were crossed over his chest.
"I want to sleep in an actual bed, not the ones in the Winnebago." Cordelia demanded.
Deep down, Buffy and Willow had to agree with Cordelia. The beds weren't all that comfortable and they were looking forward to actual, "real" ones.
"I know," Willow piped up, "We can go to Deadwood South Dakota. I heard it's really cool and it has a lot of shops and things. I can buy Oz a T-shirt there. I bet he'd really like a T-shirt from Deadwood."
Giles fancied that idea. "And I can buy Jenny some Black Hills gold. I'm sure she'd like that."
Buffy and Cordelia, upon sensing the prospect of shopping, both nodded in agreement. Xander, who just thought the name sounded cool, nodded as well.
It was decided that they would drive another hour to the town of Deadwood that lay in the Black Hills of South Dakota. They were all apparently unaware of the fact that the town of Deadwood was full of gambling, slot machines and casinos....or if Giles knew, he was hiding it pretty well.