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The distance they traveled was again in silence, not that Buffy minded. Her head was still pounding and trying to make sense of this crazy day. Never had they averted an apocalypse so simply. Was it possible that things could be done just like that? And if so what did they need her for? If they could take care of things so easily surely they could have taken care of Glory and Adam and the Mayor and Angelus and the Master? She could see the need for her to take care of the nerd trio and for Xander to have dealt with Willow but what did they need with a girl with super powers when they could just flick their fingers and right the universe.

It was too big a question for her to wrap her mind around. Still all things considered she couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and regret that they had taken care of the First this way.

Spike held the door open that led into the school basement. It was eerily quiet seeing as though the place had been abandoned for almost two weeks now. Nothing like a coming apocalypse to make school go out of session. She stepped through the door and made her way to the hidden room that contained the seal. Her boots thumped on the cool ground echoing in the empty darkness.

One more task to complete and then she was going to have to start thinking about the consequences of last night. It was not a thought that she wanted to dwell on. Yet it was one that needed serious answers before tomorrow. She wasn't one to plan or anything but going off without thinking was seriously not going to work this time.

Luckily for her they had reached the seal and she could push the thoughts away to the back of her mind.

"Now what pet?" He had been stealing glances at her the whole time she had noticed, like he was trying to figure out what was going on in her mind.

"Well from what Whistler told me we need to sit on the seal facing each other." As she spoke she walked over the top of the seal she had to push down the shudder of revulsion she felt for this thing. She turned and sat with her legs crossed watching him move in front of her and mirror her position.

"Okay now we have to hold hands while I say the words on this sheet." She dug out the sheet of crumpled paper that Whistler had handed her. It was in a language she had no knowledge of and he had worked on the pronunciation with her before she had walked to see Spike.

"That's it?" His eyebrow had shot up at the easiness of the notion.

"I know. But that's all that he told me." She looked on as he shrugged his shoulders.

She placed the paper on the seal before her and reached out her hands to his. She felt his cooler hands close over hers and looked into his eyes giving him a small unsure smile. The look of wonder in his eyes caught her off guard for a moment before she let herself focus on the task at hand. This last final job duty for today.

She chanted softly letting the words pour from her lips in an easy cadence. There was no thinking as she felt the energy surrounding them hum softly to life, making the hair on her arms stand straight up. As she continued it grew in intensity the slight hum changing into an active buzzing in her ears. It was hard to control the shiver that ran down her spine as she felt the power run through her hands, traveling between herself and Spike. Not stopping she glanced back into his eyes watching as he felt the same power flow through him. It never stopped to amaze her how expressive those eyes could be.

The air was starting to sizzle with electricity around them and she knew that the incantation was almost over. She was glad this was getting to her and she knew it. She had never felt anything like this before and it was starting to get a little creepy. Almost like she wasn't fully in control of her own body and was just a vessel for whatever force they were calling on to clamp this gate to hell shut.

It was because of this that neither noticed the other presence down there in the basement with them or how it had known that they were performing a ritual that would make sure it was the last of its kind in this existence.

As the final words of the incantation passed her lips she gasped as a piece of metal appeared in the front of Spike's chest. Their hands separated as he groaned, looked down at his chest and fell forward. Standing behind him was an Uber Vamp.

Buffy reached hurriedly for the scythe knowing she had laid it close by. This was not good. It was on her in a minute not letting her hand grasp her only weapon. She pulled her feet up and knocked it back off of her, scrambling again to grab the scythe. The Turok-han wasn't so accommodating though and kicked her away sending her sprawling against a cold wall. Straightening she let the anger she felt fuel her.

She came at it with her fists using her rage for the blows to strike hard and true. It reeled back from the constant assault but managed to strike her in the face. She recovered quickly using her foot to send the thing as far back as possible. The opening allowed her to finally grab the scythe and she felt comforted by feeling its cool weight in her hands. She didn't feel the tiny smile that found its way to her lips at the prospect of killing the last of these horrible ugly creatures.

Maybe it noticed the threat of that smile or maybe it recognized the weapon in her hand, something surely set it off when she heard it issue a terrible yell that sounded more like a scream. It raced forward charging her its quick feet eating up the distance between them. She spun quickly to the side and shoved the wooden stake into its chest drinking in the look of surprise on its undead face before it exploded in a cloud of dust.

She wiped the dust off of her hands as she looked back towards the seal. Looking at Spike's still bleeding form a metal rod sticking out of his back, she dropped the scythe and ran to his side. Touching his face gently she stared at the thing protruding from his body.

It wasn't all metal she noticed. It looked like the handle of a dust broom only the end of which held a metal casing that held the broom on. The rest of the handle was wood she realized.

"Spike can you hear me?" Her hand was gently stroking his face.

He didn't stir and he didn't make a sound. Buffy looked at the blood that was pooling on the seal under him. Remembering how the seal had reacted to blood before she gently began to pull him off of it and onto the dirt floor. Panting from the effort of moving him without doing more harm she once again kneeled beside his still form.

"Spike. I need to go get some supplies before I pull this thing out of you. I need you to lie still. Don't move okay?" She didn't really know if he could hear her but she felt it necessary to explain it to him anyway.

She scampered to her feet running at full speed through the basement and into the school proper. She turned and ran into the nurse’s office quickly pulling open drawers and cabinets. Grabbing gauze and adhesive tape she turned and ran back the way she had come horrible images of the wood in his back shifting closer to his heart.

Though only a few minutes had passed she felt like it had been hours and was in a near panic as she gazed at his still unconscious body. She fought the feeling down knowing that she needed to hurry and eliminate the threat the handle was causing.

Kneeling again she touched his shoulder gently.

"Spike I have to pull this thing out. It's probably gonna hurt a lot. I'm sorry." Satisfied she wrapped her hand around the wood and swiftly pulled straight up not wanting to give the wood a chance to do any further damage. Satisfied when it came free and her vampire was still there she threw the thing away from her. She cursed as she tried to take his duster off knowing that he would be pissed seeing as it had a gaping hole in it now. Finally freeing the garment she tossed it aside and easily ripped the shirt off his body. The hole in his back was horrible even though the blood that was pooling around it blocked most of her view. She packed the gauze against it tightly using the tape to hold it in place.

Done with the wound on his back she eased him over gently trying to do the same work on his chest. She stared at the hole that was glaring at her. It was right over his heart. A few more inches of that handle embedding itself into him and he surely would have dusted.

The thought made her shudder even as she packed his other wound with more gauze. With the last piece of tape securely in place she gave herself a moment to let what happened sink in.

Dear God she had almost lost him. Strangely the thought only reinforced what she had begun to think since that morning. She wasn't ready for him not to be a part of her life. There was a time when that thought would have been her undoing, when she would have thought she had finally let herself sink into madness. But now it was the truth. He was the one person in her life she suddenly couldn't be without. The one person who cared for her unconditionally and she knew that without it she would be lost.

She backed herself against a wall and cradled his head in her lap. Stroking his hair softly she thought about what she would need to do now.

His stillness was getting to her. It was difficult to see the very active and animated vamp lying as still as death. It wasn't like him at all. And she worried that his wounds were still bleeding when his rapid healing should have started them at least clotting. She thought back to the last time he had fed and was amazed when she couldn't think of anytime since she had left the morning after the first slaughter by Caleb. That had been almost three days ago. She seriously doubted he had found the time or the opportunity to feed while he was at the mission. That wasn't good he needed to feed in order to heal. And right now he was losing a huge quantity of his borrowed blood.

She carefully thought over the options available to her. She could run for the butchers but it would take at least an hour and she had no money with her. The hospital was also a no go considering how much they had beefed up the security around the blood stores. There was really only one other option. She sighed; it wasn't like she hadn't done it before. This wouldn't be the first time she had saved a vampire she cared about by letting him drink from her. She seriously wondered if there wasn't another person on the planet who had been bitten by so many vampires and still lived. She probably held some kind of record.

Knowing there really wasn't any other option she used her foot to drag the scythe closer to where she was sitting. Once it was close enough she reached over his head and picked it up. Using the blade across her wrist she made a single deep cut. Once the blood was trickling from the wound she held her wrist to his mouth.

"Spike I know you're in there, dammit. I need you to drink." She brushed the blood against his lips smearing them red. When he didn't move she used her other hand to part his lips and draw his jaw open a bit. Nodding to herself at her actions she let her blood drip into his mouth watching as it started to pool. Rubbing his throat she coaxed his body into swallowing. She kept repeating the process until her own clotting made the blood stop flowing from her. Picking up the scythe again she reopened the cut being careful not to go any deeper in fear of hitting her vein.

She began to repeat the process over again when he suddenly groaned. Encouraged by this tiny sign of life in his still form she pressed her wrist against his parted lips. This time he responded by sucking weakly at the flowing blood and Buffy let her body relax. If he was feeding he was going to be all right. She stroked his hair absentmindedly grateful to whatever force looked over vampires for helping her with this one. His suckling became stronger and she was startled a bit when his hand came to clamp around her wrist. She said nothing and continued to run her free hand through his hair.

After a few more pulls she watched as his eyelids fluttered and he tried to focus his eyes. His hand flexed against her wrist almost like he was trying to identify where the strange body part had come from. One more pull and she could see the dawning comprehension in his eyes. His hand dropped from her wrist like it was on fire and he turned his head away from the blood that had pretty much stopped flowing.

"Buffy?" His voice was quiet unsure about what had happened.

"You really have to stop getting hurt like this. I'm getting a little tired of saving your ass all the time." She kept her voice light even though she half meant the words she said. He had scared her more than she would like to admit.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"

Okay not quite the response she had been expecting. She looked down into his face trying to figure him out.

"I was trying to help you after you became a Uber Vamp shishkabob. Vampire on a stick is not a good look for you." He was trying to sit up and Buffy was afraid that he would muck up the healing that had started. Using the palm of her hand she pushed his head back down onto her lap.

"By what trying to get me to drink you dry? Have you gone completely daft?"

"First off you needed to feed and seeing as I'm the only source of blood around here, well you know."

"No I don't. Why don't you explain it to me." Was she mistaken or was he pissed? He sure sounded angry.

"Spike. You were losing too much blood and there was no way I was going to make it to any place that had any and get it back to you in time. So I used mine."

"Do you have any idea what kind of danger you put yourself in? My God woman didn't you think about this?"

Now she was angry. She wasn't an idiot dammit.

"I know exactly what I was doing. Don't you think I know what happens when an injured vamp feeds? But what was I supposed to do? Watch you bleed out enough so that you finally dusted? Get up and just leave you here?" She struggled not to suddenly get up and push him off her lap. That wouldn't help matters at all. "It was the only way I knew how to help."

His eyes searched hers he was looking for something but for the life of her she didn't know what.

"Why?"

"What kind of idiotic question is that?" She took a deep breath steadying her frazzled nerves. "Because I've already had everything else in my life taken away and I couldn't lose you too." She had almost whispered the words to him not knowing if she was truly ready to have this discussion with him.

The stunned look on his face gave her a moment to change the subject and she jumped at the chance.

"How do you feel?"

His eyes narrowed. She knew that he had caught on to her diversion but he seemed like he was willing to let it go for now.

"Like I've been run through with a huge pole."

"Smart ass. Do you think you can move?"

He sighed. "Yeah think it will be all right."

"It should be dark outside by now maybe we could head to your old crypt and you can finish healing there."

"I think I can make it that far."

She let him slowly sit up and went to stand in front of him. Reaching for his hand she pulled him slowly to his feet and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. Grabbing him by the belt loop on his jeans she helped him walk out of the basement.





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