She stormed towards the crypt. This time she would force him to leave. Which part of leave town – leave the planet didn’t he understand? The last straw had been Dawn admitting that she’d been hanging out with Spike again, against Buffy’s express wishes.

Buffy grasped the stake more firmly, but knew that she wouldn’t use it against the neutered vampire. Then she became aware of the sound of muffled screams emanating from Spike’s home. She kicked the door open, ready now to plunge the stake into his undead heart to stop him torturing whoever, whatever… She slid to a halt at the sight before her. Spike, his back arched, was writhing on the floor, the screams coming from his throat. Towering over him was a huge demon, chanting and throwing some dust from an ornate box, over the agonised vampire.

Buffy launched herself at the demon, raining punches and kicks at its body taking it by surprise. They fought long and hard, but finally Buffy managed to overpower it and break its neck. Buffy ran over to the still writhing vampire, his screams now just husky groans, and laid her hand on his shoulder. At her touch, his body sagged and he stopped making that awful sound.

“Spike, Spike can you hear me?”

He tried to speak, but no sound came from his throat, he looked up at her trying to make her understand. Buffy immediately saw what the problem was,

“What’ve you got in your refrigerator apart from booze, I wonder?”

She ran over to it, and was not surprised to find it stuffed with bottles. Then she saw a pack of blood, picked it up, took it over to him, tore it open and poured it down his throat. He swallowed convulsively and started to choke. She lifted him up by his shoulders, leaned him against her knees, and began patting his back. He relaxed against her and opened his eyes.

“Speak to me. Who the hell was that Spike?”

“Dunno. Woke up. Pain.” He croaked inarticulately.

“Come on, get up.” She pulled him and he rose immediately.

Oh wow, she thought, how come I didn’t notice he was naked before. Well you were a busy little slayer, fighting demons and consoling vampires, she told herself.

“I, uh, think we’d better get some clothes on you.”

She went over and picked up his trademark black shirt and jeans and held them out to him, trying to ignore his nakedness. He made no move to take them, but his face was creased with, what? Embarrassment? No it was fear and panic.

“Come on Spike, get dressed!” She snapped at him. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he snatched the clothes from her hands and pulled them on.

“What’s going on?” She said. He made no reply, but looked at her pleadingly. “What’s the matter with you, speak to me!”

A torrent of words fell from his lips, “I’d love to speak to you, but I can’t seem to, until you soddin’ well tell me to. I can’t move unless you tell me to, I don’t know what the bleeding hell is going on, and I want it to stop!”

“Oh yeah,” she said sceptically, this had to be one of his tricks, “if that was the case I’d be able to say to you – stand on one leg.” Immediately he was balancing on one leg. “Then I could say to you – hop up and down.” He began hopping, his expression of cold fury making her giggle. “Then I’d say – make like a dog.” When he began barking, it wiped the grin off her face. “OK, this is now wigging me out – stop it!”

He stopped and glared at her. “So, if you’re not doing this to piss me off, what’s happening here?”

When he didn’t answer, she said “Oh for goodness sake, speak to me!”

“Don’t you get it you bleedin’ stupid bint, I’ve been mojoed!”

“Are you forgetting that you are in my power, fangface?” She smiled evilly at him and was gratified by the look of apprehension he shot her.

“Well, yeah, but I know you won’t take advantage of me will you? Or perhaps that’s what you want - me as your sex slave?” He waggled his eyebrows at her suggestively and smirked.

“Oh, shut up Spike.” His mouth closed with an audible snap. “Mmmm, I think I’m going to enjoy this.” He closed his eyes and swallowed hard, and she gave him an amused look. “Now, shall we stop calling Buffy nasty names and talk about who did this to you and why?” When he looked at her with an agonised expression, she realised that he really couldn’t talk without her permission. “This is getting to be really annoying, talk to me Spike.”

“I don’t know who – I’ve never seen a demon like that before, and I can’t think why. I’ve got a lot of enemies now I’ve been killing vamps and demons, but I don’t know of any that have the kind of power to use magic like that.”

“Oh, that’s very helpful. I wonder if I just left, would you get back to normal – whatever normal is for you?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know what the spell was, or what it’s for – why don’t you try it?”

Without another word, she marched out of the door. She had got about thirty feet away, when his screams rent the air again. When she dashed back in, he was writhing on the floor and didn’t stop until she touched him. “Well, so much for that theory” Then it hit her. “Oh no! This means that I’ve got you hanging around me for the foreseeable future! What did I do to deserve this?

Buffy watched conflicting emotions flash over his face, and realised, that however much she hated and despised him, she felt sorry for him too. Hey, Buffy, you must be getting soft in your old age she thought wryly. Well you wouldn’t like it if your positions were reversed would you, she asked herself. Oh no, don’t even think it – Spike would really take advantage. And the sort of things he would make her do made her shudder.

“Come on,” she said abruptly, “lets go to the Magic Box, we’ve got to get Willow on the case. She’s the nearest we’ve got to an expert on magic and maybe Giles will know what the demon was. I don’t want you hanging around me any longer than you have to.”

“Uh, only Red eh?” he said pleadingly.

“Well no, I think we need Giles to look into the demon aspect. Come on.” She knew that he wouldn’t want Xander to know about his helplessness, and looked forward to the confrontation.

He silently followed her as she made her way to the store, and she, despite herself, missed the barbed remarks and innuendo that were always a part of being with him.

“Giles, crack open the books, we need research.” She said brightly as she swung through the door, grinning at the Scoobies grouped round a table.

“Good evening to you too Buffy.” Giles said wryly, and then caught sight of the vampire entering behind her. “What is HE doing here?” He marched up to Spike, drew him up by his lapels and shouted at him “I thought I made it quite plain last time you were here, that you are not welcome in my shop!”

“What last time? When was he here?”

Giles still holding Spike and glaring at him said “I didn’t want to bother you with it, it was after, you know…”

“You mean when he chained me up and threatened to kill me?” She said sweetly, turning to add her glare to Giles’.

Spike had the deer caught in the headlights expression on his face.

Xander said, “Yeah Buff, why did you bring fangbreath here, are we going to have a stake spectacular? And why is he not saying anything, have you ripped out his tongue?”

“Xander!” Willow said rolling her eyes, “although I must admit this is the longest time he’s kept quiet since I’ve known him.”

Buffy couldn’t keep it up any longer and collapsed into giggles. They all looked at her as if she was out of her mind. “Let him go Giles, he is completely defenceless.” And proceeded to tell them the whole story.

When she finished, they all swung round to stare at the vampire and he glared back, desperately hoping for the ground to open and swallow him up. Stake me, please stake me, he begged her in his mind.

“Oh, wow Buff, will it work for me too? Let me try, let me try, pleeeeese.” Xander had walked round the immobile vampire a couple of times. “Hop up and down.” He commanded, and was disappointed when Spike remained still. “I wanted to do the Terminator 2 thing.”

“Already done it.” Buffy said, but when she saw the expression of anguish on the vampire’s face she didn’t elaborate. “Well come on people, let’s get researching. Giles, can you look up the demon in your, uh, demony books? And Willow, what about the spell, do you know of any that work like this?”

“You said that the demon was throwing some dust at Spike from a box? Giles asked. “Do you have the box with you?”

Buffy slapped her forehead. “After all that happened, I didn’t think of it.”

“Well, I think it might be important, could you go back and get it?”

“Uh, I can’t go more than thirty feet from him before the pain starts again – worst luck. Xander, maybe you and Anya can go and get it for me?”

They all knew that it was a ploy to get Xander away from Spike, but he grinned good-naturedly and said OK. Buffy wandered over to Willow, bent over her casually and murmured, “I didn’t think I’d ever feel sorry for that evil, irritating, obnoxious vampire, but I do. Will, he can’t do anything without my say-so, and then if I tell him to talk, he can’t move & if I tell him to move, he can’t talk. It’s driving us both crazy!”

Willow frowned in thought, and then said, “Have you tried telling him to do both things in the same sentence?”

“Worth a try.”

Buffy walked over to the still immobile vampire and said “Spike, saywhatyouwantanddowhatyouwant”. His body relaxed and he slouched over to a chair and slumped down in it, putting his head in his hands.

“Have you any idea how humiliating and bloody demeaning this is?” he muttered looking up at her with fury in his eyes.

“Well, it hasn’t been a walk in the park for me either”. She said crossly.

“Sod off!” he snarled, leant back in his chair and closed his eyes.

She went back and sat next to Willow, going through the motions of studying a book.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The tension that had been slowly building in the room was broken by the return of Xander and his ex-demon girlfriend. “Found it!” Xander was tossing a rather ornate carved wooden box in his hand. Anya smiled at everyone, “Sorry it took so long, but being in the evil vampire’s den was a turn on and we had a …”

Xander smiled nervously and said “Ahn, what’ve we said about telling private stuff to everyone?”

“Well, we didn’t go the whole way, although I don’t know why, it was quite cosy in that crypt.”

“OK, OK, I think we should stop right there, I’ll talk to you about this tonight.”

Anya gave a squeal of delight and clapped her hands, “Ooh can we do the ”I’ve-been-a-naughty-girl-and-must-be-punished-game?””

Xander rolled his eyes, but was saved from further embarrassment by Giles abruptly asking to see the box. The Watcher and Willow seemed fascinated by the hieroglyphics on its lid, and Buffy left them to it. She wandered over to Spike and said “I’m going to do some training; I guess you had better come in there with me.”

He got to his feet without comment, and followed her into the training room, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. After a few moments, Buffy forgot he was there, and put her whole mind into what she was doing. Spike watched her, and grudgingly admitted to himself that she was a superb athlete. He had seen her fight and had fought her before of course, but this was more like a dance, almost like ballet, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. The feelings that he had been sublimating all evening came to the fore – she was magnificent, he loved her with all his heart, and she was as far away as ever. Suddenly, he couldn’t watch her any more, and he went to the sofa, lay down on it and closed his eyes.

__________________________________


“Spike, we need to go now, I must have a shower.” Her face loomed over him and he had an almost overpowering urge to pull her into his arms and kiss her, but instead he sighed, got up and followed her back into the store. “Guys, any progress?” Both Giles and Willow shook their heads.

“Buffy, can you remember any of the words of the spell?” Willow asked.

“He was being all noisy vamp, I couldn’t hear anything over his screams.” Buffy answered. “Can you remember any Spike?”

“I was a bit bloody preoccupied myself at the time.” He said sarcastically

“Well, he – whoever he was – must have wanted total control over you, and Buffy interrupted him at the crucial moment, that much is clear. We have to consider whether he was doing this for himself, or whether he was employed by someone else.” Giles frowned. “Are you sure that you can’t think of anyone that could be behind this? I know that there must be many people who hold a grudge, perhaps someone who has connections with witches or mages or…”

“Don’t you think I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of someone?” Spike shouted; his rage and terror almost overcoming him.

Buffy surprised them all, not least herself, when she leaned over towards him, patted his arm and said softly, “Come on, let’s go home. Maybe when you’ve had more time you’ll think of something.”

He smiled at her gratefully. “Yeah, sorry, I’m a bit – you know.”

“Wow”, thought Willow, she didn’t think she could stand too many more shocks –“that was Spike apologising!”

She watched them leave, Spike walking just behind Buffy’s left shoulder, and turned to Giles with raised brows. He was looking back at her with the same expression of amazement.

“Buffy was nice to Spike! She had better not make a habit of it, he’ll take advantage of her given any opportunity.”

“Oh, I think she is more than a match for him, especially at the moment.” With that they both went back to the research.


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A/N

What do you think? Want some more?

In a cave, not far from Sunnydale, a group of demons were summoned.
A tall commanding figure in a long black cloak said in a deceptively soft voice, “Where is the vampire?”

Everyone in the cave flinched and tried to look anywhere but in his eyes. The figure spoke again. “I asked a question.” He smiled coldly, and they shrank back, shuddering. He was exceptionally ugly, his skin pebbled and grey, but he was obviously the most powerful person there.

One braver than the others said, in a quavering voice, “Egris failed my lord. He was interrupted at the end of the enchantment and someone else claimed the vampire.”

“Someone else?”

“Yes my lord Savos, a, a woman. She is believed to be the Slayer.”

The black-cloaked being hissed his fury. “Believed to be? This is not what you were employed to do. I expect this situation to be resolved – I will not be kept waiting. You have a day to correct this matter.” With that, Savos swung round, his cloak flaring, and left the room.

The feeling of relief in the room was palpable. The demons began to argue about who’s fault it was. “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is.” One of them shouted, “we will all be punished if we don’t do something about it.” Their panic began to subside as they planned their next move.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Buffy and Spike reached her home, she sailed straight in and was half way up the stairs, before she realised that he’d not followed her. She ran back down again, remembering the dis-invite spell and was just in time to see him continually crashing into the barrier; just before she reached him, he collapsed to the floor.

“Oh, this is getting really old!” She grumped. “Come in Spike – dowhatyouwantandsaywhatyouwant!”

“Look slayer, I’m the injured party here, how about cutting me some sodding slack.” He looked at her with fury, as he regained his feet.

“Listen you – I’m *this* close to making you stake yourself. Shut up and sit down!” Buffy groaned, as he obeyed her immediately. “Oh, hell, this is gonna take some getting used to.” She was really going to have to watch every word she said to him, it would be so easy to say something casually like “go stake yourself” and he’d be dust before she could stop him. Evil as he was, annoying as he was, he didn’t deserve a death like that. She sighed, gave him the remote and putting on the TV, fled upstairs to have a nice long, hot shower. Letting the hot water soak away her tiredness, she had a leisurely shower using the new stuff her mom had bought her and, humming softly under her breath, dried her hair. After she had dressed, she felt a whole lot better, until she remembered the demon waiting downstairs.


He was sitting motionless on the sofa exactly where she’d left him still holding the remote in his hand.

“You any closer to thinking of who might’ve done this to you?” Buffy asked curiously, sitting next to him. “’Cos, I, for one, would like to wring their neck! This is gonna put a real crimp in my style.” She continued, complaining under her breath about how she was going to explain being accompanied by a skinny, badly-dressed, bleached blonde vampire, to the people she met.

She glanced round at him and flinched when she saw the hatred in his eyes at his enforced silence. Again, that strange feeling of sympathy for him rose in her mind. “Yeah, okay, it’s probably a smidgeon worse for you, with the not being able to speak or move without my say-so thing.” He looked as if he was about to explode. “All right, just try not to piss me off all the time and I’ll do the saywhatyouwantanddowhatyouwantSpike thing.”

Spike gasped and obviously choked back a sarcastic remark, jumped to his feet and started to pace up and down. He swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice, “About bloody ti…..” He glanced at her and changed his mind. Grimacing and grinding his teeth he said carefully, “How about we go out and kill something – anything?”

She was about to remind him that she’d just showered, but one look at his pleading face, she nodded and, after writing a note for her mom, they headed out on patrol.


_______________________________________


Spike fought with manic glee, taking out his frustration and rage on several unfortunate demons and when they’d encountered a large group of vampires, he had actually laughed as he’d massacred them. Watching him, Buffy was struck by his fighting style. He looked as though he was dancing around them, his body moving in a powerful but balletic way. She had kept back and only interfered when it looked as though he was in trouble, she knew that he needed this and didn’t begrudge him the distraction.

Buffy wanted to call it a day long before Spike was ready. He insisted on patrolling all the cemeteries and wanted to re-patrol some. Buffy drew the line at that and a few hours later; they made their way back to Revello Drive. Weary, dishevelled and hungry, Buffy lead the way up the path to her door, grumbling softly under her breath. It had been hard, not talking to each other, but they had agreed that if she said nothing to him and he kept his sarcastic and suggestive remarks to himself, then the spell wouldn’t be invoked.

Neither of them noticed that they were being followed, so intent were they on their own thoughts, until it was too late. Out of nowhere, it seemed to them, a large group of demons attacked. They fought desperately and managed to take a lot of the demons out, but tired as they were, it was not enough. The last thing Buffy registered was Spike’s agonised scream, as he was pulled away from her.

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A/N

Thanks for the feedback – you guys rock THANK YOU! You are the people that inspire the writing.

Groaning, Buffy woke; finding herself sitting slumped over, her wrists held at shoulder level, chained to a wall. She was in a small chamber with grim, dank, stone walls, the small grille in the door opposite her the only source of light. She struggled and heaved on the chains, but they were too strong to break. Suddenly the memory of how she was captured made her look around – no sign of Spike. She remembered the screams she’d heard before the darkness had claimed her and she had to assume that he was now under the control of someone, or something, else.

She pictured him earlier in the evening when he was fighting, completely engrossed in the task at hand. He was, she conceded, really good on the eye and a magnificent brawler. And for the first time, she allowed herself to wonder what it would be like to have him with her when she patrolled. Someone to guard her back and take some of the responsibility. Huh! What was she thinking – responsibility and Spike in the same sentence, did not compute. Then the same thought as before echoed through her mind - now he was under the control of someone else.

Cold fury filled her and she again struggled fiercely to snap the chains, but after a few minutes had to admit defeat. Buffy leaned back against the wall and tried to remember the details of their capture. Who was the target of this kidnap? What did they (whoever they were) expect to gain from this? Despite herself, she was worried about the vampire. The control spell wasn’t likely to be for his benefit, what would they make him do? If he was under the control of his enemy, there was no knowing what would happen to him.

She hauled herself to her feet, trying again to break the chains using all her bodyweight – but it was useless. As time went by and nothing happened, Buffy began shouting. “Hey! Whoever you are – get these damned chains off me!” Buffy shook her head in despair and then stiffened as she heard sounds echoing down the passageway.

First there was yelling and then, strangely, wailing. A single, female voice.



__________________________________


Savos smiled as he looked upon the woman he loved. At least he assumed it was love, the feeling wasn’t something he was accustomed to – his one life-long love affaire had been with himself. But he found that all he wanted to do was to please her, give her anything that she desired.

He had been born over three centuries before, one of the privileged few, into an enormously rich banking family in Venice. His father, who had ignored him as a child, recognised a sharp mind in his ugly teenaged son and had trained him in the family business. And, although people flinched away from his ugliness, they had still gathered around him like vultures, hoping for handouts. He had been pathetically grateful at the time for any attention, not then understanding their motives.

One night, after a long day of poring over the account books, although being warned by his father not to, Savos walked home alone. He became slowly aware that he was being followed and was attacked only a few yards away from his home. Niccolo, the vampire that had bitten him, decided he would make a better vamp than meal, and he was lucky that Niccolo had taken the time to show him how to survive. He took to the life quite naturally, taking revenge on his so-called friends and enemies alike.

He, of course, had killed his sire eventually, once Niccolo had shown him everything he could. Savos, over the years, used the family’s wealth wisely and he was now probably the richest being on the planet. But also, probably, the loneliest. But now, he had found another person that he wanted to share his life with.

She was the only being he had encountered who was totally unafraid of him, which, at first, had filled him with rage. Then as she danced around smiling at his anger and he registered her beauty, he began to soften towards her, stopping his creatures from attacking and destroying her. He supposed that, at first, it was the novelty that attracted him towards her, but it was more than that now – she was like a drug – he couldn’t get enough. She seemed not to see his ugliness, or if she did, it made no difference. Of course, he’d had women before, but they’d either been hard-faced bitches only interested in his money and power; or soft, stupid women, only interested in his money and power. This one was different, she obviously had no idea who or what he was and he had had to do all the running. When she had shown the ability for second sight, he was totally won over.

He found that he liked making her smile and would actually spend money on things to give her. Dresses, jewellery – he showered her with anything he thought would please her. She spoke of her life before she met him and he gradually came up with a scheme to give her a unique gift that only he could supply.

“I have something for you my love.” He smiled again, as she clapped her hands together with excitement. “The cost was great, but I would give anything for your pleasure.” He wondered whether she knew how fortunate she was – he had never given anything like this away before. But of course she didn’t - she was oblivious – accepting his generosity as if it were her right.

“What is it? What is it?” She was charming in her enthusiasm.

He motioned to one of his servants, who in turn gestured to another beyond the open door.

She stared at the figure that entered. “Spike, it’s my Spike!” Drusilla ran up to the vampire and pulled him into her arms. When he made no response, she cried, “What’s wrong with him, there’s something wrong with him – he’s like a statue – he won’t move!” She began to wail.



_____________________________________



A/N Thanks again for the lovely, lovely feedback – it really inspires me.

“Buffy didn’t get home last night and she’s still missing.” Giles’ voice was somber.

“I knew it! That bleached blood sucker has done something to her!” Xander leaped to his feet and began to pace the Magic shop floor. “It was all a trick to get her on her own.”

“Xander, calm down. If it was just a ruse, don’t you think he’d have attacked her earlier – before they got here yesterday?” Giles said impatiently. “I think it was probably the originator of the enchantment that has taken them, we just have to find out who that is.”

“How do we do that?” asked Willow tearfully. “Oh! Oh! We gotta do a location spell.” She started to search the shelves behind them for the ingredients.

“Yes, good idea.” Giles said. “I was actually going to suggest that myself.”


___________________________________


When the situation had been explained and the control passed to her, Drusilla was ecstatic. She had Spike follow her to her room and sit on the floor with her dollies. She found that he was “posable” and spent a long time arranging and re-arranging them all in a circle, giving them invisible tea to drink. When she accidentally stabbed him with a teaspoon, Spike’s impotent glare just made her giggle.

They had been together for over a century and Spike had sometimes allowed himself to be persuaded to play with her (only when they were alone), but he had soon become frustrated with her obsession with Miss Edith and had stormed off. He only wished he could now – he had never seen her quite so sack o’hammers. After a time though, she became bored with the game.

“I have a special room you can take him to.” Suggested Savos, “I use it to help me relax. It contains all sorts of things; knives, whips, chains and more exotic torture implements, I’m sure you’ll find something to amuse you.”

Drusilla eagerly agreed and ordered Spike to follow Savos to the room. The blond vampire tried in vain to free himself from the enchantment, but was forced to obey.

It was a novelty not having to use the chains, Drusilla could make Spike stand just so and he would be unable to move. She began to eagerly strip off his clothes and reduce his back to pulp, telling him he was a “bad dog” for choosing the Slayer over her. For the first time, he was glad that he couldn’t make a sound – he didn’t want to give Savos the satisfaction.

The only problem was that, after a while, he kept toppling over and Drusilla would have to wait for him to recover. She used this time to carve beautiful patterns on his white skin with a dagger, pulling back every now and again to admire her handiwork. She fed him just enough blood to enable him to stand and then she would start to “play” again The insane vampire spent many happy hours, humming and giggling to herself. But, after a while, she again became bored and tearful.

Savos, watching from his seat in the corner, saw her unhappiness. He rose and left the room, returning a few minutes later.

“Why won’t he talk to me?” Drusilla wailed. “He always used to call me his black princess and now he just glares at me.”

“You have to tell him to talk to you.”

Drusilla swung round when she heard the new voice to see that Savos had brought someone else into the room. “The Slayer! You brought me the Slayer – is it my birthday?” Her happy mood returned and she danced over to where the young woman in chains was being held by two burly vampires. “Ooooh, I know just what to do now!” She went over to a table filled with knives and other, stranger, objects and picked up a tazer.

Buffy was transfixed with horror at the sight of Spike sprawled in a pool of his own blood, his chest covered with deep slashes. He looked back at her with equal horror in his eyes. Something made her say to him, “It’s okay Spike, we’ll get through this somehow.”

“We’ll have no interference from you.” Savos snarled, as he took a piece of cloth from his pocket and tied it tightly round her mouth.

“Come along, you bad dog. Mummy’s got a good game to play. We’ll just get all the players ready.” Drusilla thrust the tazer into Buffy’s body and she convulsed into unconsciousness.


_________________________________

Buffy gradually woke, looked round, and recognized that she was in the lower part of Spike’s crypt, tied to a pillar. Spike stood opposite her, just about keeping upright and Drusilla stood between them. It was a re-creation of the incident of a few weeks previously, when Spike vowed his undying love for the Slayer and threatened to dust Dru; only they were all shifted around.

“Now, my William, we’re going to play *my* game, by *my* rules and that nasty Slayer won’t confuse you anymore.” She handed him a stake. “There, my black knight, you must kill the slayer for me.”

Spike, a prisoner in his own flesh, his mind screaming, watched his traitorous hand grasp the stake, as he staggered towards Buffy, closely followed by his ex-paramour.

Buffy’s eyes widened as she struggled with the knots that tied her to the column. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to get free in time to stop him, but it didn’t stop her trying.

Savos smiled as he shuffled nearer – he didn’t want to miss a second of this. It was the best entertainment he’d had for years.

“That’s it Spike, stab her through the heart for mummy!”

Spike drew back his arm and plunged the stake downwards – spinning as he did so – and thrust it into Drusilla’s heart. She looked at him with astonishment and sadness for a second and then she was dust.

Savos gave an inarticulate cry and threw himself at Spike, knocking him to the floor. Buffy gave one last heave and managed to free one of her hands. She grabbed Savos and tossed him as hard as she could at the wall. He bounced off and collapsed in an unmoving heap. “Oh, sorry, was that too much interference for you?” Buffy snarled as she pulled off the gag.

As she struggled with the rest of her bonds, she looked worriedly at the blonde vampire. He was now on his knees, rocking backwards and forwards whispering, “Oh, love, I’m sorry – I’m so sorry.” Over and over again.

There was a crash overhead as the crypt door was pushed open. “Oh great, it’s ugly mug’s troops coming to find out what’s happened to him.” Buffy redoubled her efforts to untangle herself from the rope.

There was another crash, as someone fell through the opening behind her.

“It’s okay Buffy, Xan-man to the rescue. Where are all the big bads – let me at ‘em! Ah, here’s one.” Scrambling to his feet, he strode over to Spike and yanked him upright. He pulled a stake from his pocket and snarled “This is overdue.”

“No! Xander, he’s not the one who did this!” Buffy freed herself at last and tugged the stake from the young man’s hand. “He’s the one who saved me.”

Giles and Willow, who had followed Xander downstairs, actually using the ladder, gaped at her.

“He saved you?” Willow asked her voice filled with disbelief.

Buffy explained what had happened and their disbelief became more profound.

“But how did he do it?” Giles asked. “He shouldn’t have been able to stop himself from obeying Drusilla’s order.”

“Well, I figured that you somehow managed to work out what the spell was, and broke it.” Buffy looked at them. “You mean you didn’t?”

“No, we just used a location spell and decided on a rescue mission. I just can’t work out how he managed to do what he did.” They all looked towards Spike, who was back on his knees, rocking back and forth, tearing at his hair.

“Not just how he did it, but why he did it.” Buffy whispered.


_______________________________



TBC


A/N So much feedback – I love it!!

Giles stared at the blonde vampire with avid interest. Spike was looking sightlessly at the far wall, his face blank. He was still crouched near the small heap of dust which was all that was left of Drusilla, but he was now immobile, his hands lying lax in his lap. The Watcher noticed that the vampire had clumps of hair tangled in his fingers, which he had pulled out during his initial reaction to Dru’s demise. How had he been able to deviate from his instructions, whilst under the power of the spell? Was his reaction afterwards part of the Sire/Childe bond? Or perhaps it was the separation from his mate. If so, his killing of Drusilla was even more difficult to understand – this needed research. Perhaps after he had interrogated Spike, he could write a paper on it - the Council would be extremely interested in finding out more about these creatures. “Buffy, I don’t think we should leave him here.” He said casually, “If you like, I can put him up at my place and perhaps find out ….”

“Take him home! No, no, I vote with the leaving him here.” Xander interrupted. “He’ll be okay – he’s a vampire with all that self-healy thing.”

“Xander! We can’t just leave him here, look at him, he’s all hurt and upset.”

“Willow, you’re too soft-hearted. Remember what he was like the last time he was a house-guest.” Xander shuddered theatrically. “I don’t want to go through that again.”

Buffy heard them arguing in the background, but all her attention was on Spike. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. The way he acted after he had dusted Drusilla, she found she wanted – no, needed - to help the vampire. He had, after all, sacrificed everything for her. She’d been down that road herself, having to kill her lover to save the world. Spike had killed his love to save her – but why? He had no soul, it was beyond her understanding.

Making a snap decision, she said in an uncompromising voice. “He’s coming home with me.” And when they all chimed in with objections she glared at them, accepting no arguments. “First though, I have some unfinished business.”

She motioned to Xander to throw her his stake, marched over to the unconscious Savos, still lying where she had thrown him, and plunged it into his heart. “There, how’s that for interference!”

Moving over to where Spike knelt, she gently lifted him to his feet, but then had to catch him as he stumbled and almost fell.
_______________________________________

They managed to half drag, half lift Spike to the upper level of the crypt and Buffy sent Xander to bring his car as near to the entrance as possible.

Trying not to jostle him too much, the Scoobies loaded Spike into Xander’s car and Buffy made sure he drove slowly and carefully to Revello Drive.

“You sure it’ll be acceptable to your mother and Dawn to take him into your home?” Giles asked anxiously. “I could still take him to my apartment – I promise I won’t chain him up in the bath this time.”

“We’ll be okay Giles, but I’d appreciate some help in patching him up.”

“Buffy! Oh, my baby. You’re all right.” Joyce opened the door and hugged her daughter tightly. “I was so worried when you didn’t get home last night.”

“Yeah, mom, I’m okay – but Spike’s not. He got injured helping to protect me.” As she hoped, her mother’s maternal instincts were deflected to the blonde vampire. Joyce took charge, commanding the two men take Spike up to the bathroom and clean him up, while she searched out some bandages.

Giles shivered when he saw the extent of the vampire’s injuries. There didn’t seem to be a square inch of his body that wasn’t burned, bruised or cut. Some of the wounds were disturbingly deep – he certainly wouldn’t have survived had he been human. Even Xander was silenced; as he helped the Watcher peel off what was left of Spike’s clothes. They decided to clean his wounds in the bathtub; his flesh was slick with blood. The water immediately became pink when they lowered his body into it.

“What’s wrong with him? Is he still under the spell? I’ve never seen him so quiet.” Xander said uneasily. “He’s giving me the wiggins.”

Giles shrugged. “I don’t know – the spell should have been broken once he, um, did what he did.” The watcher avoided saying Drusilla’s name; he was uncertain what effect it would have on Spike. “I’m sure he’ll perk up when we get some blood into him.”

Xander winced when he saw two of Spike’s fingers were bent at an unnatural angle. “No wonder he gave her a one way ticket to stakesville” he said, trying to fight off an overwhelming feeling of sympathy, which he knew the vampire would hate if he were in his right mind.


_________________________________________________

Later, his chest and hand bandaged, Spike was supported back downstairs. It had been decided that it would be best if he stayed in the basement and Buffy got an old camp bed set up for him. After he was settled, Giles took Buffy to one side.

“I think it would be best if you restrained him until we know how he is going to react, when he recovers.”

“Giles, he’s as weak as a day old kitten!” Buffy smiled at her Watcher’s caution. “I could stop him in my sleep.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about; it’s Dawn and your mother. We don’t know what effect the spell has had on him and until we do, I think it’s better to err on the side of caution.”

Buffy reluctantly agreed, so Willow and Xander made a return journey to collect some blood and chains from Spike’s crypt.

__________________________________


The vampire had shown no reaction when the manacles were fastened on his wrists and still less reaction when a mug full of blood was put to his lips. He just lay silent and still, staring sightlessly at the ceiling.

“Come on Spike, drink up.” Buffy tipped the mug until the liquid inside touched his mouth. “Yum, yum, it’ll help you heal up.” His mouth stayed stubbornly closed and the blood ran down the sides of his face and on to the pillow. “Oh yuk! Now look at the mess you’ve made.”

She might as well have talked to herself. Grumbling under her breath, Buffy cleaned him up as well as she could and then stormed up the stairs to throw the blood down the sink.

“Let me try, I’ll bet I can make him drink.” Dawn had returned from her school trip and was furious that she’d missed all the excitement.

“No! Dawn, I don’t want you anywhere near the basement.” Buffy exclaimed.

“He wouldn’t hurt me – I’m his friend.”

“What have I told you – vampires don’t have friends. He’s a vicious, bloodthirsty, soulless killer. The only thing that stopped him attacking you was the chip. You are not to go see him.” Buffy’s eyes flashed dangerously and Dawn knew when to concede defeat.

“It’s not fair.” She muttered, tossing her hair back. “Anyway, how’s he going to heal if he doesn’t feed? Someone will have to persuade him – or we’ll have a pile of dust to clean up.” With that, she flounced off up the stairs to her room

Buffy had been thinking the same thing, how were they going to deal with this? She had always been in the business of stopping vampires eating, not encouraging them to feed. She was sure there was nothing in any of the books they had about the subject. She sighed, “I bet no other Slayer has had this problem.”

____________________________________

Later, Buffy lay in bed trying to sleep. She was still wired from the events of the day and she tossed and turned for a long time. At last, just as she was dropping off, she heard shouting and then an eerie keening sound. Jumping up, she was just reaching for her wrap, when Dawn came running in.

“What’s that noise? Buffy, what’s that noise?”

“I don’t know, Dawn, I’ll go and investigate. Go back to bed, I’ll deal with it.” She hugged her trembling sister and went down the stairs.

The sound was coming from the basement, but just as she reached the door, it ceased. She opened the door and crept down the stairs. There was a sound like muffled sobbing, but as she reached the bottom, it stopped. She moved over to the bed, where the vampire lay as still and quiet as before. The only difference she could see was that his eyes were closed and there were wet streaks on his face. Had he been weeping? It was the only explanation. Who knew that soulless vampires could cry?

“Spike?” She said uncertainly, “Um, is there anything I can do to help? Would you like some food now?” He made no sign that he’d heard her. Was he asleep? Unconscious? What with the no breathing and no heartbeat, it was impossible to tell. She stood shifting from foot to foot, undecided. “Well, if you need anything, just call for me. The shouting and screaming was wigging Dawn out.” He still lay as unmoving as a statue. “Okay, I’m going back to bed now.” She sounded weak and stupid to her own ears – way to go Buffy – very slayerlike.

She fled upstairs her mind a whirl of thoughts, questions and emotions.


____________________________________________

TBC

_______________________________________________

“Don’t you think it’s time to put Spike out of his misery?” Giles asked quietly. They had just finished another training session in the back room of the Magic Box.

“No! We can’t just treat him as if he’s a dog at the end of his useful life.” Buffy felt revulsion at the very idea. “He may not be human, but he’s not an animal either.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Giles said with asperity. “Willow has ascertained that he is no longer under the control of any spell; he seems to have decided to starve himself to death, would helping him be so wrong?”

Buffy sighed. “Sorry, I can’t talk about this now.”

It was all she could think about though. In the last three days, the vampire had visibly weakened, his skin was now almost translucent and his wounds weren’t healing. He hadn’t moved or spoken in all that time. He didn’t look as though he would last another day.

Wearily she pushed open her front door and made her way to the kitchen. Ice cream that’s what she needed, maybe its sugary goodness would help raise her spirits.

She stopped when she heard the sound of voices. No, it was one voice, Dawn’s voice and it was coming from the basement. Buffy opened the door and crept down the stairs.

“…………and then Janice said that Mason, you know the boy from the school football team that she’s been flirting with? She said that Mason …….”

“Dawn! What are you doing here?”

The young girl yelped and leaped to her feet. “Oh Buffy, you scared me to death!”

“I told you not to go near the basement – and yet here you are.” Buffy said angrily. “Why are you talking to an unconscious vampire?”

“It’s like he’s in a coma. They say that coma victims can still hear what’s said to them. So I thought I’d tell Spike all about my day.” Dawn said defiantly.

“You think he’s interested in what you do? Dawn, he’s a vampire – why would he be?”

“I told you before – he’s my friend and he always used to listen to me.”

“When did you talk to him? Have you been hanging out with him again?” Buffy said furiously. “Look Dawn, I don’t know why he pretended to be interested in you, but he’s not your friend.”

“He is too! He helped me break into the Magic Shop – it was so cool, he picked the lock and everything!” She suddenly realised what she’d said and covered her mouth guiltily.

Buffy spoke deceptively quietly, “When did he do that?”

“It was when you were all secret having about me being the key and nobody took any notice of what I was feeling. Spike never treats me like a child, he takes me seriously. He said that he’d protect me – and I wasn’t to tell you…..” Her voice faltered.

Buffy’s face softened. “I’m sorry Dawn; I was trying to protect you too. Maybe I should have told you, but I didn’t know how. Please come to me if you have questions - don’t involve Spike. I think I might have told you this before – he’s a vampire.” She smiled sadly, the urge to protect her sister uppermost in her mind.

“I know that you think it’s cool to hang with him, but it’s too dangerous.” She held her hand up when Dawn looked as though she was about to argue. Listen, you know vampires don’t feel pain in the same way as humans? Well, they don’t feel love or affection in the same way either.”

They were both so deep in their conversation, that neither of them noticed the vampire’s eyes snap open.


______________________________________


Spike was caught in a nightmarish loop. He kept reliving the moment he killed Drusilla. He saw his hand holding the stake plunge towards her breast, and then the expression on her face as she dusted. Over and over and over again. It was the same expression he’d seen on his mother’s face, when he’d had to stake her too. He’d never been able to come to terms with that – he’d always blocked it out of his mind. Now it was as if a wall had been torn down, and all he could think of was his mother’s and his lover’s last seconds of unlife. He had threatened to kill Dru before, but never thought that he’d actually have to. Now he had murdered his dark princess, but the alternative was unthinkable too. His mind sheared away from what he’d seen in the Slayers face. He thought that maybe he’d been dusted too and this was hell, the pain of his wounds was nothing compared to the pain of his thoughts.

After the terrible event at his crypt, he had felt his body being moved as if it belonged to someone else. He had a vague recollection of voices, but nothing could penetrate the anguish in his mind – until he’d heard someone yammering on non-stop, for what seemed like hours. At first it didn’t register, but after a while he took comfort in the sound and the words started to have meaning for him. It was the Bit, his little Bit. Wait – since when had she become “his” Bit, he thought in dismay. He found that in his mind she was now more to him than “Buffy’s-sister” and he realised at the same moment that Joyce was more than “Buffy’s-mum”. When had this happened? Humans should be prey, not in his heart and part of his family. His thoughts were interrupted by a new voice, an angry and upset voice – Buffy. He was almost plunged back into the endless vortex of despair at the sound. But then she started talking about him.

He opened his eyes and stared at her. She hadn’t noticed, she was too deep in her explanation of how he couldn’t love, couldn’t care about people. The thing was, she was right, or she should be. But he seemed to be wired differently from other vamps – he’d certainly never met another who could, and did, love like him. For him love was all. He’d been in love with Dru for over a century. He’d known that she didn’t love him in the same way, but it hadn’t mattered. Loving someone meant that he belonged, that he had a place somewhere and someone to look after and treasure. Now that person was Buffy. He couldn’t help it, the feeling had taken him totally by surprise – suddenly there it was – a bleeding master vampire in love with his mortal enemy.

He must have made a sound, because both females swung round and goggled at him. The youngest recovering first gave a squeal and launched herself at him. Spike grunted in pain as she hugged his broken ribs.

“Oh, sorry, sorry!” Dawn pulled back quickly. “It’s just so good to see you awake!”

He looked beyond her to where the Slayer was standing, her arms wrapped round herself. She was looking at him with an expression he couldn’t read



TBC

Thanks again for your wonderful reviews guys!!

Buffy stared at Spike and he stared back, as her sister babbled on about how pleased she was that he was awake. Not able to tear her eyes away, Buffy said,

“Dawn, why don’t you go and get him some blood.”

Dawn sprang up happily and clattered noisily up the stairs. “Won’t be long!”

Buffy was astonished that Dawn hadn’t seen what she’d seen. Spike’s appearance was totally different. It was if he had been pared down, his superficial shell gone and all that was left was what he’d been protecting, hiding from everyone. He looked frightened, shy and uncertain – as if one wrong word from her would be enough to shatter him into tiny pieces. That couldn’t be! This was Spike, the nasty, evil, untrustworthy vampire that she loathed. She found herself looking at him, as if she had never seen him before.

Swallowing hard, she moved towards the vampire, noting the tiny flinch that he couldn’t disguise. He’s scared of me, she suddenly thought with amazement – why would that be? It’s not as if she was the one who’d tortured him. The questions that had tormented her for the last three days seemed to be lodged in her throat. Instead a banal phrase came to her lips. “You feeling better?”

His eyes widened and he tried to raise his bandaged hand. When he was brought short by the chain, he at last looked away from her and down to his wrist, with a frown.

“Um, I – er, we didn’t know what you’d be like when you woke up.”

She saw his face harden, but he nodded as if he accepted their caution. His continuing silence unnerved her – this was the being who loved the sound of his own voice. The silence stretched unbearably.

She heard the sound of the door opening and her sister’s voice with relief.

“Sorry it took me so long, but I phoned mom and gave her the good news. She’s been really worried about you Spike.” She approached the vampire and grinned down at him. Buffy saw his face soften again, but this time he was looking at Dawn.

“Here, I warmed it in the microwave; I hope it’s all right.” She made to give it to him. When she saw that he couldn’t raise his hand, Dawn rounded on her sister and demanded that the chains be removed. “Come on Buffy, you can see that he won’t hurt me.”

Torn, Buffy battled inwardly against her Slayer senses that needed the vampire immobilized and made safe. She slowly put her hand in her pocket, withdrew the key and handed it to Dawn.

Even with his hands free, they found that he wasn’t strong enough to hold the mug. Buffy gently eased him up to a semi-sitting position and Dawn held the mug to his lips. He just sipped, where Buffy was expecting him to gulp, as if he were drinking just to please them. She saw a muscle in his jaw twitch as he gritted his teeth with the effort of swallowing. He stopped before the mug was half empty and turned his head away.

“Oh, that’s okay. Mom says eat “little and often” when we’ve been sick.” Dawn said brightly. “I’ll get some more for you in a couple more hours.”

“Thanks Bit.” His voice was soft and ragged, and it looked as if it caused him enormous effort just to breathe in enough to speak. Of course, Buffy thought, his ribs are broken; it’s much easier for him *not* to breathe.

“Come on Dawn, he needs more rest now.” Buffy said as she slowly lowered him back down. “We’ll check up on him later.”

________________________________________________


Spike watched them as they went up the stairs and relaxed for the first time since he had come back to awareness. When Buffy had asked if he felt okay, he was sure it was a feverish dream. When he’d tried to reach out to her, the chain preventing the movement brought him back to reality. Of course she didn’t really care about how he felt, she’d spent enough time showing and telling him of her disgust and revulsion countless times before. The vampire had been relieved when Dawn had broken the uneasy silence.

Then the Slayer had confused him anew when she’d handled him so gently, lifting him up so that he could feed. He’d taken a few sips of the revolting muck to keep Dawn happy, and it had taken all his self control not to throw it back up.

Something else occurred to Spike. Dawn said that Joyce was worried about him; the vampire felt a warm glow suffuse him at the thought. Summers women – yeah, gotta love ‘em.

Feeling better, he tried to make himself comfortable enough for sleep.


A couple of hours later, Joyce came home to find Dawn happily chatting on the phone and Buffy flicking through the TV programs without even looking at the screen.

She smiled at them as she hung up her coat. “So Spike woke up.”

“It was me you know.” Dawn said proudly, putting down the receiver. “I figured out that he was, like, in a coma – so I talked to him and he woke up!”

“Yeah, he probably came to – just to shut you up.” Buffy smirked.

Dawn poked her tongue out. “Huh! Left to you he’d probably ‘ve starved to death.”

This was too near what Buffy had been thinking herself. She had to admit to being worried that he would never wake up and she’d never know the answer to her questions. How had he fought the spell and why? Trying to take her mind off it, she stalked into the kitchen and rooted around in the refrigerator. “It’s about time he had another feed, I suppose.” Buffy said evenly. “The sooner he’s well, the sooner he can move out.”

Joyce and Dawn exchanged a look. “Why don’t I take it down, Buffy? You can start peeling the potatoes.” Joyce took the container of blood from her daughter’s hands and, ignoring Buffy’s objections, poured some into a mug and warmed it in the microwave.

“Uh, mom. I think I’d better go with you – for protection. Dawn can start on the dinner.” Buffy grinned at her sister’s open-mouthed, indignant expression.

“You left us with him when Glory was on the prowl, how come we need protecting now?” Dawn protested.

“Dawn honey, you did a real good job getting Spike to wake up. I promise you can take him some, um, food, before you go to bed.” Joyce smiled, while behind her mom’s back, Buffy rolled her eyes. They were competing now over who would feed the vampire – what the hell was happening here?

________________________

Buffy shook Spike until he opened his eyes. “Come on, here’s some more food for you.” She raised him as she had before and Joyce put the mug to his lips. He seemed bewildered for a moment and then sipped at the blood. He drank more this time, but still turned his head away before the cup was empty.

Looking up at the older woman he frowned. “You not well again Joyce?” His voice was not much more than a whisper.

Buffy gazed at him in surprise. “You know mom’s been ill. She’s better now.”

“Have you seen the doc lately?” He ignored the slayer and spoke directly to Joyce.

“No Spike, not for a few weeks.”

“Go and see ‘im – get yourself checked out.”

Holding up her hand to stop Buffy’s impatient reply, Joyce looked him in the eye and could only see sincerity in his gaze. “What do you see?” She asked quietly.

“Not so much see, as sense.” Spike paused to swallow the lump that seemed to be permanently present in his throat. “Vampire here, I know what a normal blood flow is like Joyce. Yours is blocked somewhere.” He gestured towards her head and then flopped back exhausted.

Mother and daughter stared at each other.



_______________________________________

TBC

You reviewers rock!!

____________________________________

Spike watched helplessly, as Joyce and Buffy exchanged a look of slowly dawning horror. Buffy took a deep breath and went into Slayer-mode. Escorting her mom upstairs, she asked her to pack an overnight bag and then took on the dreaded job of telling her sister the news. All three hugged one another until the cab came to take them to the hospital. At the last minute, Buffy remembered Spike, and called Willow. Her friend was on a field trip and couldn’t be reached, so in desperation the Slayer called Xander.

“Make sure he’s fed Xander, please. We don’t know when we’ll be back.”

Xander promised to call round after work, apologising that he couldn’t come to support them as he had a very important project that must be finished that day.

When they got to the hospital, the time went by in a heart-churning blur. It took ages to convince the doctors to take Joyce seriously - she couldn’t say that a vampire had told her there was something wrong. In the end, desperate to get someone to believe her, Joyce fabricated symptoms and they reluctantly gave her some tests.

After a seemingly endless wait, Dr Isaacs came bustling back and immediately admitted Joyce to the hospital. They learned that if she hadn’t approached them, she would have been dead in a matter of days, if not hours. Put on drugs immediately, she was told that she’d have to stay in hospital for rest and observation for a couple of days, but she should make a complete recovery.

Tired though they were, Buffy and Dawn were exultant, hugging and kissing each other and their mother. Then they noticed that Joyce looked exhausted

“Mom, why don’t you get some rest? Dawn and I will be just outside.” Buffy smiled at their mother.

“Buffy, I think you and Dawn ought to go home. I’ll be fine here – I’m so tired, I think I’ll go straight off to sleep now, so I’ll be more awake for your visit tomorrow.” Joyce spoke softly but firmly.

Secretly, both girls were relieved not to have to spend any more time in the hospital than necessary, they promised to be back in the morning.

______________________________

“Oh, hi – how’s your mom?” Xander greeted them sleepily at their front door. He’d decided to wait for their return from the hospital and had fallen asleep on the couch.

“She’s gonna be fine.” Buffy grinned at him. Which lead to another round of hugs. “How’s Spike?”

“Oh, he’s gone.” Xander said casually.

“Gone? Gone where?”

“I knew you wouldn’t want him hanging around. He’s been mooching off you for too long now, so when I took him some food I told him to clear out before you got back.”

“You said what?” Buffy asked faintly.
____________________________

Fuelled by his rage, Spike made it half way to his crypt, the rest of the way he had to use his sheer obstinacy and bloody mindedness. He staggered through the door, fell down the steps and sprawled in a heap on the floor. He curled up; wrapping his arms round his chest and pulling his knees up under his chin. Never, in an unlife that spanned over a hundred and twenty years, had he felt so wretched. He longed for oblivion and strived to fall into the fugue state he’d achieved after he’d dusted Dru. It wasn’t to be – unconsciousness eluded him. Okay then, there was another way. Crawling on his hands and knees, he made his way to where he had hidden his stash of booze.

He’d managed to “liberate” three bottles of whiskey a few days before and, grimly, he opened the first one and gulped down most of its contents. Getting up, he lurched over to his arm chair to finish it off.

He took his time over the second, as the events of the last couple of days replayed themselves over again. What could he have done differently? He’d made his choice and now he’d have to unlive with it. The Crypt was the last place he wanted to be – the scene of the worst events of his existence – but where else was there? As soon as he was feeling stronger, he’d look for a new place. Or not. Perhaps this was as good a time as any to take a walk in the sun. He knew that he’d never be able to go down into the lower floor, he couldn’t even think about it without a surge of pain lancing through him. He groaned in despair, Dru oh Dru, my dark princess.

Bloody Buffy Summers! She’d somehow got into his system like a sodding virus – no make that a plague! Couldn’t even throw him out herself, she got Harris to do it. Harris of all people! Oh, how the bloody carpenter had enjoyed the job too. Mind you, it was as well that it hadn’t been Buffy that had evicted him; he probably would’ve made a right prat of himself; pleading and such like. As it was, he was crying like a sodding poofter, he could feel the scalding tears flowing down his cheeks.

Spike stared at the bottle. Somehow it was empty, so he tossed it to one side, not even noticing the crash as it smashed into the wall. He groped around and found the third bottle. He wondered if it would be enough.

______________________________________________

Buffy approached the crypt reluctantly, thinking that the last time she was there; it was as a prisoner facing death by stake. She took a deep breath and opened the door cautiously. The room was dark, lit only by the flickering blue light of Spike’s ancient TV. He was sprawled in his ratty armchair, swigging from a bottle. Buffy stalked over until she was standing between the vampire and his television.

“Oooooh it’s the Slayer - I’m all overcome with terror!” He struggled to his feet and lurched towards her. “What’re *you* doing here – sod off!”

“You’re drunk.” Buffy said in disgust.

“Yeah, and you’re stupid. But at least *I’ll* be sober in the morning.” He giggled hysterically at his own feeble joke.

“Spike, sit down.” Buffy tried to keep calm in the face of his antagonism.

“Make me!” He leered at her, curling his tongue behind his teeth.

Buffy plucked the bottle from his hand, grabbed hold of the front of his shirt, and pushed him down into the chair. She was appalled by his appearance – how had he managed to get all the way to his crypt in this state?

“Hey!” The vampire made to get up again, but gave up as a bad job. “You gotta nerve, ordering me about in my own…”

“I came here to thank you.” Buffy interrupted.

“Wha’?” Spike stared at her in astonishment, his eyes wide.

“I came here to say thank you – and sorry.”

“Bloody hell!

“Mom’s going to be okay – thanks to you.”

He paused as he took this in, then his still bruised and swollen face broke into a grin. “Joyce’s going to be all right? Yesss!” He clambered to his feet, reaching for the whiskey bottle.

“No, Spike, I think you’ve had enough. You won’t be able to make the walk back.”

“Mind your own bloody business, it’s mine and I’ll…….. what do you mean walk back?” His head tilted to one side as he stood swaying, his hand still outstretched.

“You’re coming home with me.”

“Oh yeah? What makes you think I want to go there again? You can stuff that idea. Your pity’s worse than your contempt.”

She tried to reason with him. “I’d pity anyone with the same injuries. You need looking after.”

“Who’s gonna do that – you? ‘Cos you did such a good job before.” He sneered.

“Spike, don’t be so pig-headed. You can’t stay here and where else would you go?”

He opened his mouth to make another sarcastic remark, but the room started to spin and he staggered and would have fallen, but two small, strong hands caught him.

Buffy hoisted him up, put his arm over her shoulder and said evenly. “I rest my case.”



__________________________________


A/N Many, many thanks again for all your encouraging feedback. I hated Joyce dying (although it lead to one of the most wonderful, moving episode of the series) so I thought I’d play around and keep her alive – Spike seemed to be the logical reason for her seeking medical attention.

Xander huffed impatiently and began tapping his fingers on the steering wheel in front of him. He had been astounded at Buffy’s reaction to his statement that he’d told the vampire to get out of her house. Then Buffy had stalked out, leaving him in the clutches of her younger sister, who had wasted no time in telling him what she thought of him. Dawn regaled him with the story that Spike had saved their mother’s life. What crap! As if a soulless, evil vampire would care if a human lived or died. He’d just got lucky, that was all.

She seemed completely won over by Spike’s actions. So, the vampire had dusted his skanky ho – so what? Said skanky ho had been torturing him for hours, anybody would have done the same. The fact that he’d saved Buffy was just a by-product, surely.

Xander admitted to himself that he’d been shocked by the injuries that the vampire had sustained – but he’d got that vampire healy thing going, hadn’t he? It had to be said that Spike hadn’t looked any better when Xander given him his meal tonight, but that was probably part of some plan to get the Slayer to keep him around.

The look that Buffy had given him, just before she left, jolted him. That and the constant nagging from her sister.

“Xander, Buffy can’t manage to get him here before sunrise without help. We have to go and pick them up.”

He’d reluctantly loaded Dawn into his car and driven to the cemetery. He glared at the crypt’s door again, why was it taking so long? Surely all she had to do was to grab him and haul him out of there?

When they finally appeared, Spike looked so out of it, Xander felt a stab of pity for him, which lasted as long as it took to load the vampire into the car.

“Evil dead taken to bathing in alcohol?” Xander grimaced and made a show of flapping his hand in front of his face.

“No, I think most of it ended up inside of him.” Buffy said resignedly. “Come on, let’s get him home – he can sleep it off there.”

_____________________________________

Bugger! It must have been some bender, Spike thought, when the vice-like pain in his head registered. Hold on, though, his body seemed to be beat up too. A bit of rough and tumble followed by an extreme consumption of alcohol – sounded a perfect night. The vampire groaned and attempted to open his eyes. When the spinning and the bleariness had more or less cleared, he stared in confusion. What the hell? All he could see was the top of the Slayer’s head. She was half sitting on a chair and half lying on the bed next to him, her breathing slightly snuffly. He grinned, and then suddenly the events of the last couple of nights came slamming into his memory, like bullets from a machine gun.

Bloody hell! He’d dusted Dru. Would he ever be able to come to terms with it? He groaned again, louder this time, and the Slayer sat up suddenly, looking confused and extremely embarrassed.

“Spike!” she yelped.

“Yeah, I know. Been Spike for a long time now.”

She shot him an annoyed look, but was secretly relieved that he’d gone for sarcasm and not innuendo.

“I, uh, fell asleep.” She said weakly. Then, before he could reply, she ran up the stairs. “I’ll go get you something to eat.”

He watched her in amazement. The last conversation he’d had with her was a bit hazy, but he was sure it hadn’t been friendly. What had happened to the ol’ “kick the Spike” attitude that he was used to, and knew how to deal with? He shook his head in bafflement; he never knew what she’d do next. Mind you, that was all part of her charm.

Buffy seemed all business when she came back, she handed him his blood and retreated to the other side of the room while he drank. He watched her over the rim of the cup, trying to gauge her mood.

______________________

Buffy had managed to get Spike down the stairs and into his bed without too much trouble. She had even managed to force some blood down him. But then she found that she couldn’t just leave him there, something made her pull up a chair and watch over him.

Buffy’s mind was conflicted. The “slayer” part of her wanted to shove Mr Pointy into this monster’s chest. Evil, soulless vampire! her mind was shrilling. She was after all, his only natural enemy and it was what she was made for. The other “human” side wanted to get to know him better, find out why and how he had done what he had done. The result was inner turmoil.

She sighed and leaned back, studying him – really looking at him – for the first time. Oh, she’d seen him loads of times before, of course, but now she registered him in a completely new way. He was hot! How had she not noticed that before? Perhaps it was because when he slept, the hard faced killer look dropped away and left this vulnerable, good-looking man in its stead. If an ordinary guy had done what he had done, Buffy thought, she would be on her knees thanking him

Meaning to only stay for a short while, she must have dropped off to sleep. It had been a shock to see him looking at her from only a few inches away, and she’d retreated as fast as she could.

By the time she’d warmed the blood and taken it back down to him, she was a little calmer. But she thought that staying on the other side of the room was the better option – maybe he wouldn’t hear her wild heart beat from over there.

There was an awkward pause.

“I’m going to visit mom this morning.” Buffy blurted, just to fill the void.

“Give her my best.” Spike smiled at her.

“Um, we – Dawn and me – will visit her again tonight. Want to come?”

The expression on his face was almost comical in its astonishment. “You want me to come?”

“I’m sure mom would like to thank you and I know Dawn wants you to come with.” Buffy said casually, leaving out what she wanted.

Without waiting for his reply, she took the cup and left the room rapidly. Spike gazed after her, shaking his head in bemusement.


______________________________________



The Summers girls hugged and kissed their mother, while the vampire stood uncertainly outside the door.

“I didn’t think you needed an invite, in a public place like this.” Joyce smiled over at him.

He looked down and shuffled his feet. “Uh, no, invite not *needed*…..”

Joyce’s smile broadened and she raised her hand to beckon him over, “well then, what’re you waiting for?”

Spike grinned and, stepping into the room, caught her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “Looking a whole lot better, luv.”

“Thanks to you.” Joyce said softly.

He ducked his head again, “ah, ‘s nothing.”

“You’re looking better, too.” Joyce scanned his still bruised, but less battered face.

“Yeah, your two girls are looking after me good.” He said awkwardly, not used to this family-style interaction.

Taking pity on him, Buffy changed the subject and soon Spike was talking to Joyce and Dawn about the antics of some characters in a soap they enjoyed.

Buffy watched them from her vantage point at the end of her mother’s bed. Her sister, mom and this strange vampire. She was having to keep reminding herself that he *was* a vampire. It was so much easier to think of him as a man. A man who had done so much for them in the past few days.

She looked at him more closely, he seemed different somehow. Then she realised what it was. He was (well for Spike anyway) subdued and sad looking. He must be missing Dru so much and the knowledge of what he had done must be eating into him. She knew what that was like – she’d killed Angel. She remembered her reaction; she had run away and tried to live another life. Her thoughts were interrupted by Dr Isaacs who put his head round the door.

“Mrs Summers, you’ve progressed really well, and if you keep up the meds, you should be okay to go home in the morning.” He smiled as Dawn squealed, jumped up and hugged her mom, closely followed by Buffy, who was grinning hugely.

Spike watched enviously. Well, all good things must come to an end – he was sure that they wouldn’t want him there when Joyce came home.

“Right then, I’ll start looking for a new place tonight.” He muttered and then quailed as three pairs of female eyes swung to look at him.

Joyce and Dawn spoke together,
“Oh, no Spike you can’t leave…..”

“I won’t hear of it…..”

But it was Buffy’s voice he heard.

“Do you want to go? We could fix the basement up, you know, get you a TV and things.”

He felt a warm glow fill his chest and he swallowed a large lump that appeared to be blocking his throat.



________________________________




A/N Aww! I wanted to give Spike a break (not too mushy was it?) There are some bad times acoming, so he’d better make the most of it.

________________________________________________________________


The next few days were a time of major upheaval and adjustment for Spike. True to their words, the Summers women helped him move his stuff into their basement. It already held an old, but working TV and he insisted on having the armchair from his crypt. He helped them move all their stored items over to one corner and then board up the small windows.

“Sorry, we’ll have to still come down here to do laundry.” Joyce said worriedly.

Spike shrugged, “Won’t worry me luv. I’ll just have to make sure I’m decent.” He gave her a token smirk, but patted her arm reassuringly at the same time.

He also had to adjust to family life – which for a former blood-sucking, evil being was not easy. At first, when Dawn hugged him, he froze and had no idea how to react. The last time he had been that close to a young, human female, was when he’d pursued and eaten her. The pulse of her blood and the scent of her body was torture at such a close range. After the chip, he had made sure not to get that close to humans. So, he taught himself to identify all these females as “family” and then it became easier. After a while, he either patted her back awkwardly or returned the hug briefly.

Joyce made sure that he was included in conversation, which he found hard at first. It was so easy just to give flip or sarcastic replies, but he hated the hastily covered hurt or surprise in their expressions. He found that he had to listen hard and think hard about his responses, not easy when the last normal family exchanges he’d had, were over 120 years before. The frozen silence that followed Dawn’s cry of “Bloody Hell!” made him reconsider his language in the house. But over the next couple of days, he found it easier and easier.

The only one who kept her distance, both literally and figuratively, was Buffy. Wherever he was – she wasn’t. During the day, when both girls were at school and Joyce was at work, it wasn’t so obvious. But Buffy missed quite a few dinners, because she had to “train” or she said there was a Scooby meeting at the Magic Box. He took to going out every night hunting demons on his own, trying to let out his frustration and confusion on them.

On the forth consecutive evening, when Buffy said that she’d pick up something to eat on her way to the store, Spike watched her retreating back miserably. He’d killed his previous love for this woman, who would never love him back. The irony of the situation weighed heavily.

“Hey, penny for ‘em.” Dawn grinned at him. “Wanna help me with my homework?”

He knew it was a rhetorical question. He’d tried to politely refuse, and then not so politely refuse before, but she’d got skin like a rhinoceros and wouldn’t take no for an answer. Sighing, he made his way to the dining room and sat next to her.

“What is it tonight, Bit? English, history, geography?” He saw the expression on her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Oh no! I’ve left my textbook at school. I can’t do my homework without.” Her face crumpled. “Mr Morgan’s got it in for me, if I don’t get the essay to him tomorrow, he’ll send me to detention. I’ve gotta go and get it.”

She sprang to her feet.

“Hey! Not so fast Nibblet. You can’t go trolling off to school – you don’t know what sort of nastys you might find.” Spike said firmly.

“Then you’ll have to come with.”



__________________________________



Still muttering under his breath about sodding, headstrong, manipulative teenagers, Spike stood over Dawn as she rummaged through her locker. She’d even managed to persuade him to loan her his beloved duster, when she’d felt the cold. He was going soft – soft in the head.

“Ah, there it is.” As her beaming face emerged, they both heard a noise behind them.

Swinging round, Spike saw a group of demons approaching. “Run!” he yelled at Dawn as he sped to intercept them. The next few minutes he fought furiously, but there were too many and he kept getting distracted when one or two of them tried to approach Dawn, who was trying to escape. At last, he went down, dizzy from the blows. When they hauled him to his feet, they twisted his arms behind his back and tied them roughly.

One of the demons said, “Careful with him, Glory will want the Key intact.”

Spike struggled uselessly, “Key? Who’s a Key? I’m not a Key.”

“Then it must be the girl.” The demon moved towards Dawn who was struggling and trying to twist away from the hands that were holding her.

“No! You’re right – it’s me.” Spike was desperately contradicting himself, when he was blinded by a sudden extreme white and green flash of light. Then Spike heard screams and smelled burning, before he too, was screaming as his upper arms were burned almost to the bone where the demons were holding him. A blast of energy threw him into a wall and he thankfully lost consciousness.



_________________________________________



Buffy sighed as she let herself in the front door. She was home earlier tonight, because she couldn’t stand the constant sniping from Xander, “Explain to me again why exactly you have got blood-breath staying at your house”. He was worried about her; she knew that and her own conflicted feelings towards the vampire, made explanations so much harder. Then there was Giles, with his disapproving – no disappointed - looks. The last straw had been Willow, who was trying so hard to understand, that it grated on Buffy’s nerves. She’d told them that she’d got a headache and fled.

Joyce had gone to visit one of her cousins in San Diego for a few days rest, and in her absence, the girls had been eating take-aways. Buffy wandered into the kitchen, to see if Dawn had left her any pizza. She saw a note pinned to the fridge door. SPIKE AND ME GONE TO SCHOOL TO PICK UP A BOOK – BACK SOON – DAWN.

A jolt ran through her. How long ago had they left? It must have been at least an hour ago. Damn that vampire, didn’t he know any better than to let Dawn wander about in the dark, when Glory was still a threat? When she found them she vowed she’d kill him – deader!

Buffy set off towards the school at a dead run. When she arrived, the smell of burning led her straight to the corridor that held the school lockers. She skidded to a halt and gaped in amazement. It looked as if someone had held a small war there – the floor was covered in heaps of smoking ashes. She spotted her sister and ran over to her.

“Dawn! Oh my god, Dawn!” She lifted Dawn’s head gently and her sister gave a small moan.

“What happened?”

“I was hoping you’d tell *me* that.” Buffy said softly.

Then Dawn’s eyes widened, “Spike! Where’s Spike – they were taking him!”

“What? Who were taking, huh?” Buffy said incoherently.

A low groan came from behind them and Buffy swung round defensively. She saw the vampire on the floor, surrounded by small piles of ashes. Spike groaned again and tried to sit up. The Slayer moved quickly to his side, crouched down and leaned his body against her. He looked around dazedly, his eyes blank, and then his face creased with concern,

“Dawn. Bit, you okay?”

“She seems to be fine. What happened here?”

Buffy grasped Spike’s upper arm, intending to untie his bonds and was unprepared for his yell of pain. She looked down and saw that his arm was charred, black and raw.

“Tell me, what the hell happened?” In her fright, she spoke more harshly than she’d intended.

“Dunno, Slayer – there were nasty, scabby demons trying to take us to that Glory bint. Then zap! Blinding light – got thrown against the wall and I guess I hit my noggin. Bleedin’ feels like it.” He groaned again as she wrestled with the knots binding his hands behind his back.

“Blinding light? And then?” Buffy at last managed to loose his bonds and he moaned as he moved his arms forward.

“Emphasis on blinding, Slayer. Can’t see a buggering thing.” He moved carefully, trying not to jar the burns on his arms and put his hands to his eyes.

Dawn crouched down at his side, scared to touch him, not wanting to add to his hurt. “Spike, I’m so sorry!”

He removed his hands and looked puzzled. “Sorry? What for Bit?”

“If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have got hurt like this.”

“Pfft! This is nothing luv, been a lot worse than this. Anyway – not your fault.”

“Come on, we need to get out of here, in case there are more of these demons about. Spike can you walk?” Buffy touched his arm gently.

“Yeah, luv, I’ll be okay. You’ll have to lead the way though.”

With Buffy and Dawn on either side of him, he managed to make his way back to the house without too much difficulty. They sat him on the sofa, while Buffy got the first aid box and Dawn heated him some blood.

When he was bandaged and fed, Dawn cuddled up to him and he tentatively put his arm round her.

“I’ll be okay Platelet – vampire healing an’ all. You need to get your rest; maybe Buffy’ll write you a note for tomorrow. You know, demons set fire to your homework, or something.” He gave a grin in her direction.

“Yeah, all right. See you tomorrow.” Suddenly feeling exhausted, Dawn bent, kissed his forehead and went upstairs.

When he heard her bedroom door close, he slumped forward and put his head in his hands. “Bloody hell - we need to get her out of here. It’s not gonna take long for that Glory bint to work out who is the key – and if tonight is anything to go by, I’m bloody useless to protect her.”

Buffy felt her throat tighten, as she heard the bitterness in his voice. “She got through it okay.”

“Yeah, no thanks to me.” He laughed humourlessly, “Can’t hunt, can’t bite and now can’t see.”

The only thing Buffy could think of was the threat to her sister, she was deeply frightened and didn’t have time for this.

“Have you quite finished?” She said harshly. “Or do you have any more self pity you want to share?”

She flinched back as he surged to his feet, snarling. “I’ll go take my self pity somewhere else shall I?”

“Oh, shut up Spike – we need planning, not dramatics. Tell me what you *did* see; maybe we can work out what happened.”

He sighed, knowing that he wouldn’t have made more than a hundred yards from the house in his state. He fumbled around until he found the sofa, sank back down, and started to recount all he could remember of the events.

“So, you think whatever caused this bright light, also caused the demons to go pouf?”

“It must have been. The two holding my arms must have gone up in flames and that’s why I got burned.” He sighed again. “Doesn’t get us very far, does it?”

“It could be a whole new big bad. We need to call a Scoobie meeting – right now.” Buffy said grimly.


_____________________________


TBC. Woohoo!! You’ve sent me over a hundred reviews – you people rock!!

________________________________________________

While she was waiting for the Scoobies to arrive, Buffy paced up and down the room. She glanced over to where Spike was sprawled on the sofa, one arm raised to cover his eyes, and suddenly felt awful. So frightened at Dawn’s narrow escape from Glory’s minions, she’d yelled at him for having self pity. But who wouldn’t have felt sorry for themselves having lost their sight? Some of the defensive barrier she had built around her heart melted.

“Um, any improvement?” She asked.

Spike was so deep in thought, that he hardly heard her. Why, oh why had he come to sodding Sunnyhell anyway? If he hadn’t *met* the bleedin’ slayer, he wouldn’t be in this mess and he wouldn’t have killed his dark princess. Buffy was only going to tolerate him at best and at worst, loathe him. Spike could feel terror clawing at the back of his mind, would this blindness be permanent? His eyes felt as though they were filled with hot sand. How the hell was he going to survive in this world? He became aware that Buffy had taken a seat next to him and was holding his wrist.

“What?” He asked vaguely.

“Is there any improvement, you know, with your eyes?”

He lowered his arm and cautiously forced his eyes open. “Can’t see a bloody thing.”

“I’m sorry Spike.” Buffy said simply, stroking her thumb up and down his wrist, trying to comfort him.

He turned his head slowly in her direction and gaped sightlessly at her. “Bloody hell, someone’s replaced the Slayer while I wasn’t looking.”

“Yeah, I know. Not good at the tea and sympathy thing, but you got hurt trying to protect Dawn – that makes a full set of Summers girls you’ve saved, or tried to save, now. I’m grateful, really I am.” She looked at his normally bright blue eyes, which were now swollen and blood-shot and, again, felt herself warming to him.

For once, Spike was speechless. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times and he took a breath but then had to sigh it out, when he couldn’t get his brain in gear.

He heard the smile in Buffy’s voice as she said, “Mmm, I’ll have to thank you again – it seems the only sure way to get you to shut up for any length of time.”

Still without coherent thought, Spike was almost grateful to hear a knock on the front door.

“I’d better bugger off then.” He got to his feet, only to be pushed back down again.

“You’re going nowhere mister. They’ll want to hear what happened.”

“Not from me they won’t.” He said stubbornly.

“Anyway,” she said, not listening to him, “we’ll need your insight.”

He was back to gaping again. This woman would never cease to amaze and surprise him. Was she actually inviting him to one of her exclusive Scoobie meetings? Did he want to be involved? Bloody right he did – if it meant that he’d be sitting next to her and listening to her singing his praises. Well, perhaps not exactly singing, probably more like muttering…. He realised that there were other people in the room now – the Watcher, Red and Harris by their scent – wait, yes also Red’s girlfriend, watsername. He tried to concentrate, which was difficult because when the Slayer sat back down next to him, she grasped his wrist again and her thumb was stroking him comfortingly. She seemed to realise this at the same time, because her fingers were withdrawn and he felt a chill where her warmth had been.

__________________________________


“So, how does Glory know the key is a person?” Giles asked.

“Dunno Watcher, all I know is that they thought it was me.” Spike said sullenly, he’d started to lose his temper after the third time of telling them his story and now was having trouble keeping a lid on his rage and fear.

“So you told them it was Dawn.” Xander sneered.

“No.” Spike said with exaggerated patience. “I told them it wasn’t me and then they thought it might be Dawn. But then I told them it *was* me.”

“We only have his word about what happened. Why don’t we go get Dawn and ask her?” Xander appealed to them.

“You leave the Bit alone, you wanker!” Spike snarled, getting to his feet.

“Or what? You’ll shake your white stick at me?” Xander realised that the vampire was growling low in his chest, and he felt a wash of fear. Everyone was looking at him strangely. “What? Come on people, have you forgotten what he is? We’ll never get the truth out of him.”

“I think we all know what he is Xander. He’s the one who saved my life, my mother’s life and got blinded trying to save my sister.” Buffy’s voice gave him a chill down his spine and, if he was honest, Xander was glad to have a reason to back down. Spike, even in this state, was looking worryingly savage.

Giles’ voice was calm, “I think we could all do with a break. There isn’t much more we can do tonight. I’ll go and research my books to see if there is any mention of a demon who immolates his victims. I suggest everyone else gets some rest and we’ll meet up again tomorrow.”

There was a chorus of agreement and the tension in the room cleared a little. Spike sank back down – bloody hell he was up and down like a bleedin’ yo-yo.

When Xander finally left, Spike was feeling calmer.

“Ah, this might help.”

Spike felt something being put in his hand.

“What’s this, Watcher?”

“Eye drops. When Buffy told me what had happened, I remembered I still had these from when Willow’s spell went wrong.”

Spike blinked painfully, was that sympathy in the Watcher’s voice? Wonders would never cease.

Then it was Tara’s turn to surprise him.

“If you’d lie down, I’ll put them in for you if you like.” It was almost too much, the emotions he had been fighting all this time nearly spilled over. He was letting these humans get too close. But then, what choice did he have? He realised he was totally in their power, but also that he trusted them. *Trusted them? What was the world coming to*? He lay down obediently and felt the soothing fluid cool his burning eyes.

“Ta luv.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll put them on the table here.” She pulled his hand forward to show him where the bottle was.

He suddenly realised that this must be what it was like to have a friend and the ever-present lump in his throat threatened to choke him.

Giles and the two witches left shortly afterwards and Spike relaxed a little. All this interaction with the humans had exhausted him. He hated the fact that he couldn’t see their reactions, only judge them by the inflections in their voices.

________________________________________


Buffy warmed some blood for him and, when he had finished hit, helped him to the basement door.

“’m all right Slayer, can find my own way.”

“Spike, don’t be so stubborn. Let me do this, it’ll make me feel better.” Buffy felt a bit ashamed of using his feelings for her to make him do as she wished, but it was all in a good cause.

He allowed her to help him down the stairs, without any more objections. After she had settled him down on to the bed, she hesitated. She wondered whether this would be a good time to ask him about the why and how he had saved her. His normally piercing blue eyes, that made her feel he could see right into her soul, were disabled and it was a freeing sensation.

“I’m sorry about what Xander said. He’s such an idiot at times, but he’s only trying to protect me.”

Spike was silent, where was this going?

“Spike, I know you have feelings for me and Dawn and mom, was that why you saved me?”

He sighed and leaned back against the wall. “So you admit that I can have feelings do you?”

“Okay, I deserved that. But everything that I’ve read and heard tells me that Vampires are unthinking, savage, killing machines. It wasn’t so long ago that you were trying your best to kill me.”

He gave his trademark smirk. “Oh, if I’d been serious, you’d’ve been dead long ago.” Then he sat forward leaning his arms across his legs. “Buffy, what I said in my crypt a couple of weeks ago is still true. I love you and I couldn’t let anything hurt you or yours. I told you that I’d kill Dru for you, I just didn’t think I’d have to.” He gave a painful chuckle.

Buffy looked at this creature that at best she should loathe and her heart melted. She bent down and kissed his forehead, hearing his gasp of surprise.

“I think I’ve said this before, but thank you. You have been a good friend to this family – I hope you’ll let us help you now. If you need anything, just shout.” And with that she left.

Spike was stunned. Had she called him her friend? Well, that was a beginning. A smile slowly spread across his face as he settled down to sleep.


________________________________

TBC

___________________________

Spike woke and stretched, hissing at the sudden pain of the barely healed burns on his arms. He was steeling himself to open his eyes, and cursing himself for being a cowardly prat, when he heard a noise. Then he tried to open them and found that they seemed to be gummed shut.

“Who’s there?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew. “Dawn?”

“Spike.”

“What’s wrong? Some nasties‘ve had another go?” He sounded so worried that Dawn rushed to put his mind at rest.

“No, no nothing like that. I, I wanted to see if you were okay.”

“There’s more to it than that, little Bit. Come on, spill.”

Even without being able to see her, he could still see straight through her, she marvelled.

“I, I’m *so* sorry that you got hurt.”

“We’ve sung this tune before Platelet; I’ll be okay, no worries.”

“But you’re *not* okay.” She said with a barely suppressed sob. “You can’t see and you got burned and…..”

“All right.” He said sharply. “Let’s play the blame game. I shouldn’t have let you persuade me to take you to the school. I should have fought better. I should have fought harder to protect you.”

“Okay, okay, I get I get it.” She said quickly and he could detect a smile in her voice. She paused for a long time and, just as he was thinking she wouldn’t say any more, she said seriously. “I haven’t told anyone this, but when Buffy was with mom at the hospital, I sneaked off and went to the psychiatric ward.”

He interrupted, “What the hell for?”

“We met a crazy guy in the corridor when mom was first ill and, when he looked at me, he said “there’s no-one there” and “I know what you are.” It really scared me. I had to know if he was the only one who could see what I really am and maybe that being crazy let him see. I need to know what being the Key means.”

Her voice was so filled with despair that the vampire reached out his arms to her. “Come ‘ere Nibblet.” And when she came to him, he hugged her close – the first time he’d initiated contact.

He could feel her trembling as she continued. “There were at least eight guys there, all strapped down. One of them called me “destroyer”, and another said that the Key is the link – the link must be severed.” She broke down then and sobbed into his chest. “What am I Spike? Am I a destroyer?”

She was astonished as he began to laugh. “Destroyer? No little Bit, you’re as honest, brave and bloody stubborn as big sis, and some day soon you’re gonna be as beautiful. I’m sure Buffy and the gang are working on a plan to keep you safe, even as we speak”

She pulled back and looked at him, this being that she had real trouble thinking of as a vampire. He was still chuckling and she felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her. He always seemed to understand her, had time for her and talked to her as if she were his equal.

“Now, if you could go get me a fresh shirt – this one seems to be covered in snot.” He smiled broadly at her.

“Eew! That’s gross!” She said with a giggle

“Yeah, it is, ‘specially from the inside.”

They both heard a noise at the top of the stairs as Buffy came slowly down.

“Not interrupting anything, am I?” She asked.

“Uh, no Buffy. I was just seeing how Spike was today.” Dawn said hastily. “I’m just going to get him something to eat.” She patted Spike’s arm and ran up the stairs.

“So, how much did you hear pet?” Spike asked.

“How’d you know I heard anything?” Buffy asked innocently.

“I might not be able to see luv, but there’s nothing wrong with my hearing.” He said dryly. “You were up there for some time before Dawn heard you. So what did you hear?”

“Enough.” She said tonelessly.

Spike flinched and tried to think what he’d said to put his little Bit at ease, that had pissed off the Slayer.

Buffy was saddened when she caught his reaction, as if he was expecting her to hit him. But, thinking back, other than trying to ignore him, it was her usual response.

“Why d’ya think I stayed up there?” She said lightly. “You seem to know just what to say to her – I just mess it up.”

His face went from apprehension to dawning hopefulness in the blink of an eye. Buffy smiled, she found that she liked being able to make him feel better. As she looked at him, she wondered at how much he had changed. Had he always been so tender and caring, but had just disguised it with the harsh demeanour of the “big bad”? Or was he now developing such feelings through his love for her? Woah! Love? She searched her mind and discovered that now she really believed he loved her – and as usual such feelings made her defensive.

“I’d better get back to the Scoobies.”

His disappointment was almost tangible. Tiredly rubbing at his eyes, he said, “Yeah, you toddle off now Slayer.”

She made up her mind. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

Puzzled, he wondered what the hell she was up to now. Then he heard whispering and giggling as his two girls came back down the stairs together. Dawn put a mug of blood in his hand and said “drink it while it’s warm.” Apprehensively sipping at his food, he tried to sense what Buffy was up to. He didn’t have to wait long. When he’d finished, the mug was taken from his hand and he was pushed gently down on to the bed. His mind whirling, he gasped as his eyes were bathed gently. He let himself relax, humming with pleasure, as the warm water eased the pain and crustiness away.

“There, why don’t you try opening them now?” Buffy said softly.

He did as he was told and was rewarded by being able to see blurry shapes. He blinked trying to clear his vision, but he could only just distinguish light from dark – but at least it was an improvement from seeing nothing.

“Well?” Buffy asked breathlessly.

*She sounds like she really cares*. Spike blinked again, “No diff luv.” He said matter of factly. He wasn’t quite sure why he didn’t want them to know that there was an improvement, small as it was. What he could see was no bloody use to anyone anyway. It wouldn’t do to raise anyone’s hopes, least of all his own.

“Oh, well, it’s early days yet. Maybe tomorrow.” She sounded so disappointed that he nearly blurted out the truth. “Now, I’ve gotta get back to the Scoobies – they’re having a researcharama up there. Why don’t you come with, we could do with the help.”

Again, he felt a wash of pleasure at being included, but he also still felt exhausted from his recent experiences. “Ta, luv, but I think I’ll get some more shut eye. Maybe the sleeping will help with the healing.”

He heard them both retreat upstairs and the door shut.


_________________________________


When Buffy came into the living room, all conversation stopped. “How is he?” Tara was the first to speak.

“No change.” Buffy sounded really upset and the group exchanged worried glances. Xander opened his mouth to say something, but hastily shut it again when everyone glared at him. He was still feeling a little ashamed of his outburst yesterday – even Anya had been impatient with his attitude.

“I’m afraid that we’ve not been very successful with our research either.” Giles said regretfully. “I’ve searched all my reference books, but have come up with nothing. It would help, of course, if we knew what this demon – or whatever it is – looked like.”

“If it was a big bad, why did it leave Dawn unharmed? All it did was to burn up the demons that were threatening her. Even Spike was only hurt because he was being held by Glory’s minions.”

There was a long silence as everyone stared at Anya. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Giles said in an undertone. He was staggered that none of them had come up with such an obvious theory – in fact the more he thought about it, the more obvious it became. “Maybe we have an ally instead of an enemy….”

“I like the sound of that!” Xander said eagerly “a big not-so-bad. We should team up – if we knew where, or what, it was…..” He tailed off.

Tara noticed that Dawn wasn’t in the room so, unobtrusively, she made her way to the kitchen and found the teen silently crying. She put her arms round Dawn’s shaking shoulders and said softly, “Oh sweetie, what’s wrong?”

“I really thought he’d be better today. It’s all my fault. Spike says it isn’t, but I know it is.” Dawn said, hiccupping. “He’s more hurt than he lets on and it’s all because of me.”

Tara guided Dawn to a chair and then sat down next to her. “D-did you do it deliberately?” She asked seriously.

“What? No!” Dawn was so indignant she forgot to cry. “I’d never want Spike hurt, like he’d never hurt me.”

“D-drama queen m-much?” Tara raised an eyebrow and Dawn slumped down dejectedly. “Give it t-time Dawnie, I’m sure he’ll be back to being the big bad, soon.”

Dawn smiled sheepishly, leaned forward and hugged her friend. “Thanks Tara. It’s just I’m so used to him being all strong and fighty, it’s hard seeing him so weak.”

“Don’t let him hear you s-say that!”

They grinned at one another, imagining his reaction. *Yes*, Dawn thought, *he’ll be back and those demons had better watch out!*


___________________________________

A/N A non-action chapter – unusual for me, I hope it worked.

Dawn grinned as her sister leaned over the cooker and poked dispiritedly at a grey-looking mass in the fry pan.

“It looks so easy when mom does this, her pancakes are always yummy. This just looks disgusting! I really wanted to give you something other than takeaway again.” Buffy said disconsolately. “Stupid cooking, who knew it was so difficult?”

Dawn rubbed her sister’s arm consolingly. “Maybe it’ll taste better than it looks?” She said hopefully.

They both stared at the ever darkening lump, chorused. “Nah!” and giggled, hugging each other.

Switching off the cooker and dumping the offending “pancake” in the trash, Buffy was glad she’d had the idea of having a special time with her sister. Earlier, when she’d heard Dawn talking to Spike, she’d been horrified at the despair in her sister’s voice. She supposed she should have been upset that Dawn was talking to, and asking the advice of, a vampire, but he’d made so much sense that she’d been happy to leave it to him. Again, she marveled that a dead, cold-hearted killer could have so much insight and – well – kindness in him.

Her reverie was interrupted by a loud crash, and her heart constricted, as Glory strolled in and looked round.

“So this is where the Slayer lives. Mmmm, so cute I can’t even stand it. Personally? I need more space, but, uh, this is good for you, it’s, it’s so quaint and…”

“What do you want?” Buffy had moved in front of her sister and crossed her arms, willing herself to be calm.

“The Key. Why else do you think I’d come here? See, I think you know where it is, and that’s a good thing.”

Buffy glared at her, “I’m glad you think so.”

“Well, it’s the only thing keeping you alive right now. Because you may be tiny queen in vampire world, but to me you’re a bug. You should get down on your knees and worship me!” The last words Glory yelled so loud that Dawn thought her eardrums would burst.


___________________________________________


Earlier, after the girls left, Spike had tried to go back to sleep, but it eluded him. Instead, reluctantly, he thought about what had happened in the last few days. The impact of the way he had dusted Drusilla, had lessened in the last day or so, but it still hurt and he supposed it always would. And now, what the hell was he going to do? It had been bad enough that he was toothless, but now he was also sightless. He couldn’t stay here, a charity case, looked after by his erstwhile deadly enemy, like an old worn-out family pet. Dark depression came down and covered him like a heavy blanket.

He was aware that the Scoobies had left, and had tuned out their annoying goodbye chatter. He heard his girls gossiping and giggling and it raised his spirits a little for a while. Maybe it was better he couldn’t see, then he wouldn’t have to put up with the pity in their expressions that would inevitably develop.

No, he made up his mind; he’d leave – quietly – perhaps tonight, when they’d gone to sleep. He knew the way back to his crypt – blindfold, ironically; he’d be able to make it, as long as he didn’t bump into any nasties on the way. What he’d do when he got there, he didn’t think about.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of raised voices upstairs.

__________________________________


Glory ranted on, “You still think it’s neat having Slayer strength. Ooh, big deal! Stronger than humans! Who isn’t? I could crush the life from you as easy as you’d break a nail. But I need the Key.”

Glory seemed to see Dawn for the first time. “Hey, little girl. Come here – I’ll bet you know where my Key is.”

Dawn gasped, and tried to make herself smaller, her heart beating like a drum.

“This is between you and me” Buffy said desperately. “Leave her out of this.”

“No, this is between me and my Key.” Glory sneered. “You just happen to be the thing in the way.”

“Wouldn’t piss the Slayer off, if I were you.” A new voice, cold and hard, startled them all. The three women stared at the dark-clad figure leaning insouciantly against the door frame. Spike sneered at the goddess, his face twisted with hatred.

Glory strode up to him and sniffed loudly. “You have a vampire staying here?” She said contemptuously. “A slayer with her own pet vampire – how deliciously disgusting!” With that she carelessly backhanded Spike, his head snapping back to hit the wall behind him.

He straightened slowly, licking at his cut lip. “Did you hear what happened to your ugly acolytes? I was there when they went up like they were soused in petrol. That was for just *touching* her little sis. She’s very protective of her friends and family.”

“You let this half-breed boyfriend of yours speak for you?” Glory said incredulously.

“He seems to be doing a good job so far.” Buffy smiled mirthlessly, her heart thumping like a trip-hammer. “Anything else you want to say? Only I don’t want the carpet singed. Maybe we should take this outside?”

Glory glared at them in turn. “Just give me my key, you either have it or you know where to find it. You can’t protect your little friends all of the time. I’ll kill them one by one, until you give me what’s mine!”

With that, she stormed out. Buffy ran to the door and slammed it shut. Leaning against it, she glanced over to Spike, who was looking back at her with a stunned expression on his face. Must be concussion, Buffy thought, and then she suddenly realized that he was *looking at her*.

“Spike, you can see?”

“Yeah. The bloody bitch did me a favour. Bam! My head hits the wall and bingo! I have working eye balls.” He was grinning like a maniac, when they both heard a small moan.

Dawn had collapsed where she’d stood, her legs giving way when the she-god had gone. Buffy ran across to her and knelt by her side. Spike came to stand next to them, not knowing what to do to help, shuffling awkwardly from foot to foot. Buffy gently picked her sister up and laid her on the couch.

“It’s all right Dawnie, she’s gone.” The Slayer smoothed her sister’s hair from her face and tried to smile reassuringly.

“What do we do now?” Dawn asked in a shaking voice.

The Key and the vampire looked at the Slayer expectantly. Oh, crap! She was okay with the patrolling and the fighting and the slaying but they wanted *strategy*. “We should get out of here.” She blurted.

Dawn looked at her with surprise. “Run away?”

Buffy made up her mind quickly, “no, not run exactly, but we should get all the Scoobies together, so we can protect each other and Glory can’t pick us off one by one. I’ll ring everyone and get them to meet us at the Magic Box, so that we can plan our next move.” And get some help from Giles, she added silently.

“Strategic withdrawal.” Spike said stoutly and Buffy shot him a grateful look.

Spike sank down next to Dawn and watched the Slayer’s retreating back. “You’re gonna be fine Nibblet, Slayer won’t let anything happen to you. And I’ll do what I can.” The depression, which had lifted when he regained his sight, began to sink back down on him as he remembered the last time he’d tried to protect her.

“Why?” Dawn asked simply.

“What?” Spike had been busy with his thoughts – had he missed something? “What do you mean, why?”

“Why do you care what happens to me? Is it to get to Buffy?” She had been longing to ask the question before, but hadn’t had the nerve.

Spike frowned at her. His first instinct was to tell Dawn what she wanted to hear – that it was all about her. But she deserved better. “Yeah, it was at first.” He said slowly and when he saw tears gather in her eyes he said without thought. “But now it’s because you’re mine.”

Dawn’s eyes widened comically. “Yours?”

“Uh no! I don’t mean in the “I own you” kinda way.” He said hurriedly, “it’s the “I think of you as my little sis” kinda way. You know – family.”

Dawn’s eyes were now like saucers. “Little sister?” she whispered, seemingly unaware of the tears that were now streaming down her face.

“Oh, bloody hell! Don’t cry. I shouldn’t’ve said anything, I’m such a wanker.” How could he think that such a sweet, vulnerable young woman like this would want someone like him as an honorary brother? He must be losing his mind.

He made to get up, but stopped as a small, surprisingly strong hand grasped his wrist.

“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard in a long time, *big brother*.” Dawn grinned at him through her tears.

A feeling of relief washed through him. “Bloody hell, I’m never gonna live that down, now am I?” He murmured, as he grinned foolishly back.

Neither of them heard Buffy re-enter the room. When she saw them sitting closely together sharing a smile, her heart lurched. Had she let the vampire get too close to Dawn? Was he now transferring his affections to her? She felt a strong emotion that she couldn’t identify. Jealousy? They both became aware of her at the same time and Dawn smiled.

“Spike’s been telling me he’s adopted me as his sister.” Her smile broke into a grin.

The expression on Spike’s face was a conflicting mixture of elation and fear, as he waited for the Slayer’s reaction.

“Sister?” Buffy felt the heaviness lift from her shoulders, but kept her voice cold as the vampire squirmed in his seat. But she couldn’t keep it up for long and had to put her hand over her mouth to try and muffle the giggle that erupted. “I hate to think what that makes me!” She said lightly.

“Oh, bugger! There goes my street cred – straight down the toilet.” Spike moaned, struggling to keep the relieved grin from his face. “Listen – this is not to leave this room! If anyone gets to know about the big bad goin’ soft, I’ll know who squealed.” He could hardly believe it; he thought Buffy would throw him out for sure – if not stake him. He looked at them both and knew now that he wouldn’t - couldn’t leave them whatever happened.

“Come on you two. Get your stuff together; we’re meeting the others at the Magic Box in less than an hour.”

_________________________________________




TBC

You wonderful reviewers are really the best!!

Buffy called up the stairs “Get a move on Dawn.” She looked over to where Spike was sorting through the weapons in the chest.

“Won’t bother with the small stuff. Couple of good axes should hold off Glory’s mates while you tackle the lady herself.” Spike grunted with satisfaction as he hefted a well-balanced axe.

Buffy paused, “We’re not all gonna make it. You know that.”

He looked at her and grinned, “Yeah. Hey, I always knew I’d go down fighting.”

“I’m counting on you. To protect her.” She said sincerely.

Spike swallowed hard. “’Till the end of the world – even if that happens to be tonight.” His voice tight.

Buffy gave him a small smile and started up the stairs.

Spike looked up after her – it was now or never, he’d probably not get another chance - and blurted. “I know you’ll never love me. I know I’m a monster. But you treat me like a man, and that’s….” His throat closed painfully.

She looked down into his eyes, which were gleaming with sincerity, and felt as though he had winded her. She hadn’t got a clue how to respond and said the first thing that came into her head. “I, I’ll just go and see what’s happened to Dawn.” Then fled up the stairs.


_____________________________________________



Buffy, Dawn and Spike were the last to arrive at the Magic Box. The others were grouped around the table at the back. They all stared at the three late-comers in silence, Willow seemed to be trying to smile, but she failed miserably.

“Okay, you’re wigging me out. What’s the what?” Buffy asked briskly.

They all looked away and avoided eye contact.

“Giles?” Buffy said uneasily, “what’s wrong?”

“Um, I think that perhaps Dawn would be better waiting in the back room while we discuss this.” Giles spoke slowly, still avoiding eye contact.

“Oh no – if this is about me and my being all key-like, then I’m staying.” Dawn said firmly.

Buffy drew up chairs for her sister and herself and Spike silently squatted on the stairs leading to the upper level.

“I agree, she’s got a right to know what’s happening.”

“Very well, but this doesn’t make easy listening.” Giles pushed his glasses up his nose and looked down at the book that was on the table in front of him.

“We found a ritual text which mentions the Key. Well, I’m afraid it’s um – well Buffy, I’ve read these things really very carefully and there’s not much margin for error. Glory, um, plans to open a dimensional portal by way of a ritual blood-letting.” He made eye contact for the first time.

Buffy had an awful, nauseous feeling that she knew what he was talking about. “Dawn’s blood.” She whispered, as she heard Dawn’s gasp.

Giles swallowed hard, “Once the blood is shed at a certain time and place – the fabric which separates all realities will be …. ripped apart.” He said in a hollow voice. “Dimensions will pour into one another, with no barriers to stop them. Reality as we know it will be destroyed and chaos will reign on earth. I, I’ve studied the rather complex text, and it looks like the ritual will have to take place within the next 24 hours”

Buffy squared her shoulders. “So – how do we stop it?”

There was another long pause as Giles removed his glasses and began to polish them.

“Giles!”

“The portal will only close once the blood is stopped – that’s what the text says.”

“What the bloody hell does that mean?” Spike jumped up and began pacing up and down.

Buffy went on, “Pretty simple math here. We stop Glory before she can start the ritual. We still have some time, right?”

Anya raised her arm, “can’t we just run away and hide until the ritual time is over?”

“Oh, and what? The god-bitch will just give up and toddle off into the sunset, will she?” Spike snarled sarcastically. “Knowing these ritual things, there’s always another time when it can be done – we have to finish this now!”

“I didn’t think I’d ever hear myself say this, but I think Spike’s right.” Giles said grimly.

__________________________


“And what are we doing here, again? Xander asked, not for the first time.

Buffy was glad that Spike wasn’t in the vicinity – they could do without another full-blown argument at the moment. “If I remember, you said you didn’t care where we went, as long as Spike shut up about it.” (Only he’d used one of his less polite names for the vampire, which she wasn’t going to repeat.)

“Yeah, but that was before I saw this place. It’s a wreck. How are we supposed to sleep here? How do we know that the bleached wonder will keep to the plan?”

Buffy winced – the plan. Now that they were actually in the disused factory, the plan that they’d concocted seemed ridiculous. This was the same place that she and Angel had tracked Spike and Dru to, when they were constructing a huge demon called the Judge. She shivered as she remembered the flight through the sewers and then its conclusion when she and Angel had made love for the first time. When Angel had turned into Angelus. No, she said to herself, history is not going to repeat itself – Spike is not Angelus – he won’t turn against us.

“Hello, Earth to Buffy.”

She became aware that Xander was trying to attract her attention.

“Where should we set up?” He was smiling nervously and she realised that she was glaring at him.

“Sorry Xand, I was miles away.” She said smiling with an effort.

_____________________________________

Glory was incandescent with rage. One of her ugly acolytes was sprawled in a corner, where she had flung him when he’d tried to placate her. His limbs were twisted at grotesque angles.

“Time is running out, you scabby morons! I must have my Key – I will have my Key!”

They all shrank back, not wishing to be the next corpse.

________________________________________________


Spike stalked through the dark streets of Sunnydale intent on his hunt. He had already visited the hospital, the school and the campus. Where were the bloody demons when you wanted them? He decided to swing by the Slayer’s house.

He tried, unsuccessfully, to empty his mind and concentrate on the present. But no – his brain went into overdrive and he realised that for the first time in his unlife he was terrified. Not for himself, but for his girls. Having nothing to do but think about the coming conflict, his imagination had flung up all sorts of scenarios. He knew, intimately, how much damage a human, or more precisely a female human, could sustain, and still remain conscious enough to scream and cry for mercy. He had become an expert, revelling in his “research”, through over a hundred years of hunting. Thinking now of Dawn or Buffy in the same situation, made him want to vomit.

This plan they’d concocted was flawed in so many ways, he knew how easily it could go wrong. He hadn’t got a better one, well he wasn’t exactly known for his planning expertise. But now they were committed and he knew what he had to do.

_____________________________


The door to Glory’s apartment opened and Jinx walked in, rubbing his hands together nervously. “We have something for you, oh magnificent beauteous one.” He gestured behind him and another two demons dragged in a bruised and bloodstained vampire, his hands bound behind his back.

“Why the hell do you think I’d want that?” she said scornfully.

“Mmmf.” Spike tried to talk through his gag.

“He is the Key!” Jinx said proudly.

“Impossible. The Key has to be pure - this is a vampire – vampire equals impure. You can’t even brain-suck a vampire, he’s completely useless.”

“Uh, no, oh radiantly stunning one.” Murk glared at his fellow demon with angry impatience. “He said he knew where the Key was.”

“Oooh! Now that’s different. Take out his gag and let’s hear what he has to say.”

“Bloody hell, what kind of treatment is this!” Spike licked his dry lips. “I’ve come here to do you a sodding favour.”

“And why should I believe anything you say? You’re the Slayer’s pet vampire.”

“Yeah, that’s the bleedin’ problem. That’s how she treats me – like her sodding pet. I thought, once I’d got my feet under the table, I’d be giving her one.”

Glory frowned at him. “Giving her one of what?”

“Bloody hell, you know, giving her a seeing to – shagging her senseless.” He sighed when Glory still looked blank. “I thought I’d be having sex with her.” He enunciated slowly and carefully.

“You looked at home when I last saw you.”

Spike lowered his head and muttered, “Bloody bitch thinks she’s better than me. Beneath her. She said I was beneath her. She wouldn’t touch me – well only to punch me in the nose.” He forced himself to remember that time and looked up and allowed Glory to see the pain and hurt in his eyes.

“So, you’ve come to betray her instead? Why haven’t you just sucked her dry – I’m sure you’ve had plenty of opportunity.” Glory said sceptically.

Spike’s shoulders sagged and he muttered “Soddin’ chip.”

When he explained what that meant, Glory threw back her head and roared with laughter. “Now that *is* funny.”

Spike watched her carefully, “Now, if you were to find a way to get rid of this bit of hardware they’ve shoved up my brain, well, I’d be very grateful.”

Without warning, the hell-god picked him up and threw him across the room on to her bed. He landed awkwardly and groaned as his shoulder dislocated. Before he saw her move, she was straddling him and putting her fingers to his head.

“Mmmm, let’s see what’s inside here.”

He watched her with astonishment, as she placed her fingers on either side of his head. Then all cognizance fled, as she thrust them in and agony lanced through his brain. It was like the chip effect, magnified a hundred times. He felt a disgusting pulling sensation, kept conscious long enough to see her holding a small glittering thing between her fingers, and then passed out.

He came to, feeling someone slapping his face hard. His head felt as though someone had taken off the top of his cranium, squished his brains around and then jammed it back on again.

He opened his eyes, to see Glory grinning at him. “So, you were telling the truth. A small miracle for a vampire. Now, tell me where my Key is.”

“Do better than that, I’ll show you.” He managed to croak.




________________________________


You may recognise some dialogue from the original (acknowledgements to Joss Whedon et al) which I stole (ahem, borrowed), because, well I couldn’t resist, its such good dialogue.

Marianne

___________________________________________

The Scoobies had made themselves as comfortable as they could in the old warehouse. Dawn had fallen into an exhausted sleep, much to Buffy’s relief. Xander and Anya had wandered off up onto a gantry, trying to enjoy a little time of privacy. Willow, Tara and Giles were squatting on some upturned boxes and talking in undertones, glancing every now and again at the Slayer.

Buffy moved restlessly about, checking and re-checking the windows and doors which were now barricaded. Suddenly, she tensed, her Slayer senses detecting a vampire – no, she thought to herself not *a* vampire – Spike. She had no idea when he had become immediately identifiable, but she knew he was there.

Spike swaggered through the only unblocked doorway, his eyes dancing with malicious glee.

“Hello kiddies. Miss me?” He smirked, “Well, don’t fret, I’m back and I’ve brought a big surprise for you.”

He swept his arm towards the door dramatically. His posturing was spoilt a little, when Glory shoved him aside as she stalked in, followed by a group of her minions. Spike gave a manic chuckle as the humans all looked at him with varying expressions of shock and fury.

“Told you, you’d be surprised.” Spike crowed. “The big bad’s got his bloody rocks back – and I’m gonna make you pay for every sodding humiliation you’ve ever heaped on me.”

“Get on with it, vampire – I’ve no time to waste.” Glory snapped “Show me my Key and you can have all the others.”

“You bastard!” Xander yelled.

“Well yeah.” Spike smirked. “All vampires are bastards – comes from only having one sire.”

“SHOW ME MY KEY!”

Spike put his hands over his sensitive ears. “Bloody hell, can’t a bloke have some fun? Un-bunch your knickers.” He caught Glory’s expression and hastily said, “Yeah, well, it’s her,” and pointed to one of the young women.

“At last!” Glory smiled happily as she strode towards the girl. “Come here my dear, you have a destiny to fulfil.”

As soon as the she-god’s feet passed a mark scratched on the floor, all hell broke loose. Spike launched himself at the nearest two demons and another two fell from crossbow bolts, fired from the gantry where Xander and Anya were hanging over the rail.

Guarded by the watcher, the two witches began chanting, Willow holding up the Dagon sphere, while the magic they were weaving concentrated its weakening effect upon Glory. The hell-god swayed and almost lost her balance.

“Why are you fighting me? I’m only collecting what is mine!” She exclaimed.

Buffy smirked as she hefted the troll hammer she’d confiscated from Olaf. “Oh, you haven’t seen fighting yet!” And swung the weapon into Glory’s face.

Spike whooped with uncontained joy. This was what he missed – the battle – fists and fangs in an all out, no holds barred fight. He yelled in sudden pain as a cross bow bolt embedded itself in his shoulder.

“Get down here you pea-brained prats! I’m on your bloody side!” He looked up at the gantry at the shocked faces of the two Scoobies.

“Could’ve fooled me.” Xander muttered. But he and Anya snatched up their axes and raced down the stairs, to fight the demon acolytes face to face.

Grimacing, Spike pulled the bolt from his shoulder and thrust it into the body of the demon he was fighting. “Bloody ‘urts don’t it mate!” he yelled as the demon screamed and looked down with astonishment at his chest.

Between the magic cast by the witches and Buffy’s attack, Glory was wavering. Just as Buffy thought that she might be defeated, the she-god suddenly lunged forward and snatched the Dagon sphere from Willow’s nerveless hands and, with a supreme effort, crushed it.

“Now that was an unfair advantage.” Glory smiled smugly. Buffy swung the troll hammer towards the hell-god’s face again, but this time Glory ducked, and punched the Slayer on the chin. Buffy was flung high up into the air and crashing to the floor, stayed down.

Spike gave a rage-filled roar and threw himself at Glory’s back, using a classic vampire grasp – one arm round her head and the other across her shoulders - and sunk his fangs deep into her throat. Glory yelled in anger and tried to dislodge the vampire prising at his hands and breaking a few of his fingers in the process. He felt nothing but rage at the attack on his slayer, “drain the bitch, drain the bitch,” was his only thought.

Suddenly, the room was filled with a flash of blinding green-white light and the screams of the scabby demons. Spike already had his eyes shut, concentrating on not being thrown off by Glory. As they had planned, the Scoobies threw themselves down and away from the demon acolytes who burst into flames and fell writhing to the floor.

Through the fog of rage and blood lust, Spike felt Glory stagger and suddenly fall. He automatically dropped away, but found that rather than the blood giving him strength and unlife, it was having the opposite effect. Struggling to stay on his feet, he looked towards where Buffy had fallen and saw her shakily walking towards the Bit, who was looking faint and ill. Thankful that they were at least alive, he collapsed bonelessly.

“You okay?” Buffy asked her ashen-faced sister.

“Is it really over? Is Glory dead?” Dawn whispered.

Buffy glanced over to the other humans, who were slowly clambering to their feet. She called to Tara and asked her to look after her sister. “I’ll make sure of it – don’t worry.”

Buffy and Giles walked towards the fallen demon-god, who was lying motionless where she had fallen. They looked down in astonishment; expecting to see a woman, they saw instead a young man, dressed in Glory’s clothes.

“Who’s that?” Giles asked faintly.

“It’s Ben, the doctor. How did he get here, and why is he dressed in Glory’s clothes?” They all looked at one another in consternation.

“Glory must have been inhabiting his body. It’s the only possible explanation.” Giles said slowly.

A groan interrupted them.

“Oh bugger.” Spike’s body was reacting in a most peculiar way. His stomach was clenching and, for the first time in his unlife, was rejecting blood. He coughed and then retched.

“Eeew!” Anya stepped back hastily from the rapidly growing pool of red.

“I’m gonna see your eeew and raise you a yeuch!” Xander said disgustedly.

“I don’t feel well.” Spike groaned piteously. His stomach was going to turn inside out, he was sure of it.

“Was I the only one who thought Spike’d really turned against us?” Xander demanded.

“That was the plan.” Buffy said quietly as she smiled reassuringly at Dawn and Tara who were slowly approaching them. The Slayer crouched down next to the vampire and rubbed his back, as another spasm shook his body.

“The plan? You *planned* to scare us to death?”

“Look, I’m sorry. We thought you’d be much more likely to convince Glory, if you really thought it was happening.”

“*We*!” Xander looked round at the rest of the Scoobies. “Am I the only one who thinks that it’s creepy that you and this *vampire* were the only ones who knew what was going on?”

“It worked, didn’t it?” Buffy said sharply, suddenly tired of the argument. “Now come on, don’t let’s stay here any longer than we have to. Okay?”

“Um, Buffy, what are we going to do about Ben?” Willow asked uncertainly.

Giles straightened from his position next to the young doctor. “We go home and call the police from there. We could call for an ambulance, but I’m afraid we’d be too late for that.”

“He’s dead?” Quavered Dawn.

“Spike killed him.” Xander said accusingly.

“No, as a matter of fact,” Giles smiled grimly, “I did.”



TBC
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A/N Thanks again for the feedback – that so many of you take the time & trouble to review – is wonderful!!

There was a sudden hush, as everybody gaped at the Watcher. The only sound was the vampire groaning in the background.

“You killed him?” Buffy whispered.

Giles put out his hand towards her, but Buffy took a step back. “I can’t believe you could do that.”

Giles slowly lowered his hand. “Buffy, someone had to – we had no guarantee that Glory was really gone. She could have re-appeared at any time. And, and, well, you are humanity’s champion, I know that you wouldn’t have – couldn’t have done it.”

Buffy shook her head, “Giles, he was human – and an innocent.”

“No!” said Giles sharply. “Not innocent. You can’t expect us to believe that he didn’t know he shared his body with a hell-god. He had to have known.” His voice became quiet. “I was protecting you, your sister and everyone else, the only way I knew how.”

Buffy looked at him silently. She supposed he was right – but to kill a human went against everything she believed in.

Spike’s groan broke the tension, “What the bleedin’ hell is goin’ on? I’m dyin’ here.”

“Already dead, bleach-brain.” Xander replied automatically,

“Oh, stop complaining;” Anya said briskly, “it’s only a touch of food poisoning.”

“Food poisoning?” Xander spluttered, “a vamp with food poisoning!” and burst into laughter.

Willow looked at him disapprovingly, but his laughter was so infectious that she started to giggle, putting her hand over her mouth in an attempt to muffle the sound. Anya and Tara stared at their respective partners for a moment, but the urge to join in the hysterical laughter was too great.

Shivering, the vampire glared up at their laughing faces. A flame of pure hatred burned through him. Why had he bothered to save this sodding group of ingrates? He knew he couldn’t have fallen any lower, both figuratively and literally.

Dawn looked towards Spike and his expression stopped her giggles dead. She crouched down and spoke to him.

“Oh Spike. I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing because it’s really over and Glory won’t be hunting me any more.” She rubbed his arm and smiled softly at him.

He looked from her to the Slayer, who was staring disapprovingly at the others. She caught his look and smiled warmly at him. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and suddenly he knew it was all worth it.

“’s all right Bit.” He managed through gritted teeth. She helped him drag himself away from the already congealing pool of blood. His body was still wracked with spasms and his vision was distorted as if he were peering through the wrong end of a telescope.

He only had a hazy recollection of what happened next or how he got back to Revello Drive. He remembered the whelp saying that he wasn’t going to have a “barfing blood-sucker” in his car. Xander had been firmly overruled by Buffy and, to Spike’s surprise, Giles and they had carefully loaded him into the back of Xander’s car.

______________________

When the group finally arrived, they filed into the living room. No-one wanted to voice the question in all their minds, except Anya, of course.

“Well, what was that blinding flash of light and where did it come from?” She asked crossly. “I only just shut my eyes in time – not all of us have accelerated healing powers you know.”

“It was me, wasn’t it?” Dawn whispered. “I caused all those poor demons to burn to death.” When the euphoria of their narrow escape had died down, all she could see in her mind were the screaming and writhing bodies of the hell-god’s acolytes. It was like a living nightmare.

“Poor demons!” Xander exclaimed. “Said “poor demons” were doing their best to annihilate us.”

Buffy rose from the couch, where she’d been trying to make Spike comfortable and went to her sister. Putting her arms round her trembling figure, she hugged Dawn close.

“You saved us all Dawn. I don’t think we had a chance of beating them without that help.”

“You knew?” Dawn pulled back from her sister’s embrace. “How long have you known?”

“Well I thought a lot about the last time it happened, and it was the only explanation. At least I hoped it was the only explanation – we were relying on you getting all glowy.” She smiled gently at her sister, glad that the trembling seemed to be lessening.

The others grouped round the girls and added their congratulations and thanks and Dawn slowly felt the tension leaving her.

“I’m really tired now.” She yawned widely. “I’m gonna get some shut eye.”

“I’ll come up later, see if you’re okay.” Buffy patted her sister’s arm and Dawn impulsively hugged her tight, before running up the stairs.


________________________________________


After everyone except Giles had left, Buffy looked down at the hollow-eyed vampire, who lay sprawled on her couch. She’d offered to warm some blood for him, but it only made him feel nauseous. In desperation, she got him a glass of water, and he’d managed to keep that down – so far.

“’m a sodding vamp that can’t drink blood – it must be some sort of cosmic joke. Oh, bloody hell!” He fought back another urge to vomit. “Stake me, please!”

“Don’t even joke about it.” Buffy said worriedly. “Anyway, it wasn’t just any blood; it was the blood of a hell god. It would be indigestible to any vamp – not that *any* vamp would’ve done what you’ve done. Did I say thanks?” She knew she was babbling, but how do you console a vampire with food poisoning? Or was it blood poisoning? She really had no idea.

“I’ll go and see if Giles has any ideas. If you need me just shout.” She made her way into the kitchen, where her Watcher was busy making tea. She watched him for a moment and there was an awkward pause. They hadn’t mentioned the death of the hell-god since leaving the factory, neither knowing what to say to the other.

“Giles….”

“Buffy…”

They both spoke at the same time. Giles signaled to her to speak first.

“I know you were right with the, um, Glory-Ben thing, you knew that I could never do it. It couldn’t have been easy for you.”

“Oh, it wasn’t difficult Buffy. I just thought about what that terrible devil god had done to you and Dawn.” He said soberly. “I’d do it again, under the same circumstances.”

They exchanged a smile, both feeling relieved that the other understood.

Buffy sighed. “And then there’s Spike.”

“How is he?” Giles asked.

“Still not good, I don’t know how to help him.” Buffy shrugged helplessly.

“Maybe all he needs is rest. I have never heard of a vampire‘s body rejecting blood – perhaps I should have taken a sample of it from the floor before we left.”

Buffy looked at him with disbelief, “Giles! That’s disgusting!”

“Mmm, what?” He was obviously deep in thought.

“Ugh! You really mean it don’t you. I thought you were putting me on.”

“Well, it’s too late now anyway,” the Watcher sighed. People never did see the importance of research. He decided that maybe he’d better change the subject. “How long are you going to let Spike stay here? After he recovers, of course.”

“I haven’t thought about it really. I’ve been so busy worrying about Dawn and Mom and fighting Glory, I haven’t had time. I think Mom and Dawn would like him to stay forever.” She smiled.

“I don’t think that would be a very good idea Buffy.” When she made to interrupt, he held up his hand. “He really ought to find his own place. You know what he’s like, give him an inch and he’ll take several hundred yards.” Giles smiled humorlessly. “And, I have to say this, what if his chip fails or wears out? What would he do? The most probable action would be that he’d return to type.”

“Giles, he wouldn’t hurt us. I know it.”

“Yes, all right I accept that, but he would be sure to start hunting again and you’d have no choice but to stake him. If you allow him to stay here much longer, it will get more and more difficult to be objective.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Buffy said reluctantly, fighting an instinct to let Spike stay as long as he wanted. “But he must be allowed to recover completely before he moves out.”

A sudden crash from the other room stopped all conversation.

____________________________


Spike lay trying to tune out the voices he could clearly hear from the kitchen. Bloody Watcher ranting on. He’d started to feel marginally better, perhaps he needed to drink more water, although the very thought of it made him shudder. A vampire drinking water! Maybe he’d call Buffy and ask her to get him another glassful. Better still, he’d walk over himself. He had risen shakily to his feet, when the mention of his name made him concentrate on the Slayer’s conversation. He smiled when he heard that Joyce and the Bit would like him to stay and he grinned at Buffy’s defence of him. Then, like a stake to the heart, she agreed to throw him out.

He swayed and fell, catching a small side table and crashing to the floor. The Slayer and Watcher ran to his side and helped him up.

“Perhaps you’d be better off downstairs.” Buffy said worriedly. “I’ll make your bed up.”

Spike allowed them to fuss over him, while his mind tried to assimilate what he’d heard. Buffy couldn’t trust him without his chip – and he no longer had it. What a sodding mess. What the bloody hell was he going to do?


___________________________________



A/N So… what’s Spike gonna do now?

Also, many thanks to you wonderful reviewers! I can’t believe how many of you have taken the trouble to write – almost 200 reviews now!!!

Marianne

________________________________

He sniffed the air appreciatively. A variety of scents wafted his way, but he zoned in on one in particular. The heady mixture of several adolescent girls – he could hear them in the distance, giggling and chatting to each other. He smirked to himself and drifted towards the sound and smell. He spotted them, walking away from the night club, and proceeded to follow. One by one they split off from the group, calling noisily to each other, promising to phone and what all. He chose his prey carefully; she was perfect – just ripe and ready for harvesting. He licked his lips unconsciously as he stalked silently behind her. It was amazing how safe they felt when they were only a few minutes from home – stupid girls.

[“Spike”]

He let her become aware of his presence. It was much more fun that way, the fear that became terror, just made the chase and kill more satisfying. And she ran him a pretty race, he was grinning wolfishly by the time he was ready to pounce. She screamed satisfyingly as he sank his fangs into her ripe flesh and her hot, sweet blood poured down his throat.

[“Spike”]

He frowned as he carelessly tossed the body aside, he could hear someone calling his name. Who the bloody hell?

“Spike!”

He opened his eyes with a snarl. Blood. He could smell blood – and could see a pretty girl leaning over him. He coiled, ready to strike.

___________________________________________________


When Buffy heard some sounds coming from the basement, she was relieved. Spike had been asleep, or unconscious she wasn’t sure which, for hours. Getting a package of blood from the fridge, she warmed it in the microwave and made her way down to the basement.

He must be dreaming, she thought. He was snarling and thrashing about, as if in distress. She called his name a couple of times, but he showed no sign of waking up. Putting the mug of blood down on the floor by the bed, she shook his shoulder and shouted his name.
He woke, starving, ready for the meal which seemed to present itself to him. He reared up and then froze, his astonished gaze locked onto the Slayer’s face. Overcome with horror at what had nearly happened, all he could do was stare at her wide-eyed. He swallowed convulsively and found his voice.

“Bloody hell!”

Grimacing and shaking, he held his bandaged hands up as a signal of surrender.

“Bugger it Slayer, you should know better than wake up a hungry vamp like that.”

Relief flooded her; she had believed for a split second that he was ready to rip her throat out, but of course that was ridiculous; the chip wouldn’t have allowed him to attack her.

She grinned as she leaned over and retrieved the mug, “So, we’re feeling better are we?”

He squinted up at her, shock and fear slowly receding. Bloody hell, she was smiling at him as if nothing had happened. He had nearly gone for her throat and here she was, calmly offering him blood in a cup. Slumping back to lean against the wall, he felt exhaustion overwhelm him. Having lost so much blood, his wounds hadn’t healed at all and it was all he could do to hold his head up.

“Give us a minute, Slayer.” He mumbled, not wanting to show her how weak he felt.

“It’s okay Spike,” she said gently. “Here, let me help you.” She held the mug to his lips.

He swallowed slowly, fearing the return of the cramps in his stomach. Thankfully, he seemed to have got over the effects of Glory’s blood. He asked if he could have more and the Slayer willingly returned to the kitchen to warm some for him.

He used the time to try and get his disordered thoughts together. He hadn’t had time yesterday to think about the removal of the chip and what it would mean to him now. He was free! He was finally free to be a vampire again, to choose what he did, rather than have his decisions forced upon him. He lay back and rested against the wall again, feeling his body start to heal itself.

He sniffed the air, filled with the scent of the Scoobies, who he could hear chattering and laughing upstairs. Bloody hell, he could have any one of them, suck them dry before they knew what had happened. He fantasized about it for a few seconds, but knew that that was all they were – fantasies. He wouldn’t, couldn’t harm Buffy or her family of course, but he now found that in his mind “family” covered all her friends too. Bollocks, he’d have to go further afield then, to people that Buffy didn’t know. The only problem was, how would he identify people that she didn’t know? Off limits would have to include shopkeepers, students, neighbours – bugger it all, probably everyone in Sunnyhell.

He heard her returning, and managed a smirk in her direction to cover the confusion and dismay in his mind.
____________________________________

Buffy persuaded the vampire to join the small celebration party upstairs. He dreaded seeing them all en masse, but couldn’t think of a good enough excuse to stay in the basement.

“Spike, how *lovely* to see you.” Xander said sarcastically. “When’re you moving out?”

“Xan, play nice.” Buffy laughed.

Instead of feeling powerful and confident with his now chipless state, Spike felt frustration and anger. The stupid human still thought he could bully the helpless vampire – Spike longed to show him how wrong he was. Taking a deep, calming breath and giving his best smirk, he raised his eyebrow,

“Inviting me to your place are you? Well Harris, I didn’t realize you swung both ways.”

The Whelp’s reaction was reward enough. He coughed and then choked, going red in the face. Anya patted his back, which only made him cough harder. Anya gave Spike an accusing look.

“Xander is *my* boyfriend and I’m not sharing him with anyone.”

She pulled the now mortified Xander into the kitchen and plied him with water.

The others tried to keep their mirth to themselves; Dawn was doubled over with silent laughter “serves him right” she mouthed to Spike. Even Willow had her hand over her mouth to muffle her giggles.

For the rest of the evening, there was an undeclared truce between the two. Glares were exchanged, but no attacks, verbal or otherwise, were forthcoming. Dawn plonked herself next to Spike on the couch and leaned against him, talking to him softly.

“You saved us again, Spike.” She smiled up at him.

“Nonsense Bit, you were the one that did the saving.” He moved away from her a little, uncomfortably aware of her heartbeat and the blood swishing through her veins. Sublimely oblivious, she moved to lean against him again and reached up to kiss his cheek.

For Spike it was a nightmare – maybe when he’d had time to get used to his new status, he’d be able to relax. But for now, all he could hear was the steady thrum of their hearts, which should have been music to his ears, now it was torture.

As soon as he could, he excused himself and fled back down to the basement, cursing himself for being a “sodding poufy coward”.

What the hell was he going to do?

_____________________


Spike stayed down in the basement all the next day feigning sleep. A couple of times, Dawn had come down to see him but had given up when she failed to “wake” him. In fact, sleep was the furthest from his thoughts, as confusion and bitterness filled his mind. He still couldn’t be a proper vampire, even though the chip was gone – Buffy had taken its place. Maybe he’d have to go far away so he wouldn’t have to face her. But then, what sort of unlife would he have, apart from her? When the long, endless day drew to a close, he quickly donned his duster and crept up the stairs.

“Finally decided to show your face eh?” Buffy’s voice was light and full of laughter. “I, er, I wonder if you’d like to come on patrol with me if you’re feeling better? We could watch each other’s backs.”

Suddenly, the bitterness and confusion melted away and Spike knew what he wanted to do. He’d stay in Sunnyhell – she was right, he should find a place of his own and maybe over time prove to her that he could refrain from hunting and maybe confess to his chipless state. What she was offering was friendship and it would have to be enough for now – it was a hell of a lot more than he’d had before. And who knew – maybe there’d be a chance of something more.


FIN
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A/N

I posted the first version of this on FanFiction (http://www.fanfiction.net/~marianne2 – if you’re interested) and I continued for another few chapters after this one, then the muse packed her bags, buggered off and hasn’t been seen since (this seemed to coincide with my illness (M.E.). I hope that I’ve managed to finish this version to your satisfaction. Many, many thanks to all of you who sent me feedback – I’m deeply grateful to you - every time I read them they give me a real lift.