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Chapter 14

Xander threw the door to the crypt open and the sound echoed. Lit candles covered surfaces here and there, and the little group wandered around looking for their quarry.

Riley called out, “Buffy?”

No answer. Giles reached down and grabbed the lid to the trapdoor and threw it open as well. One by one, they climbed the ladder down and waited, adjusting their eyes to the darkness. “Do you think they uh, you know?” Xander whispered to Willow.

“I don’t know.” She sounded more worried than anything else. Walking forward, she called out, “Buffy? Are you down here?”

They heard scrambling and walked further in, weapons drawn, just in case. Finally, an answer came. “I’m here Willow. What are all of you doing here?”

A Zippo was flicked on offering a small amount of light. On the bed sat, fully clothed, Buffy and Spike. The bed was mussed, pillows and sheets were all over, but other than that, and a dark shadow on her face, nothing seemed out of place.

Tension was dreadful; you could feel it in the air, cut it with a knife. Spike got up and started lighting candles. The group came over and stood before her. Giles spoke first. “We came, Buffy, because you are under a terrible spell, a residual of the seeing truth that you had earlier. We came with the antidote.” He held up a bottle before her weakly.

Willow held her hand up. “No, Giles, wait. You’re all under a spell, or we, or whatever. I mean, when Xander and I were sucked into the dimensional portal thingy we saw a lot of things. Ethan Rayne is controlling you from the prison that the Initiative has him in. He’s feeding you fake prophecies, making all of us turn on Buffy.” She paused.

Buffy’s mouth gaped open. “You believed a prophecy you got from Ethan of all people?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “That is so unlike you, Giles.”

Giles sputtered and stuttered, his eyes searching the room for the words he wanted to say, and in the end, he just started cleaning his glasses. “I’m sorry,” he said inaudibly and with a lot of remorse.

Willow grabbed the bottle out of his possession and held it up in front of him. “This would kill Buff. And then where would you be, huh Mister?”

Xander all the while nodded slowly.

Riley sighed looking heavenward. “I just want to understand this. Buffy really likes spending time with the Bleached Undead here, and apparently really hates me now. And, we almost killed her with that potion we conjured up earlier? We’re the bad guys?” He leaned back on the stand next to the bed.

Xander smiled regretfully, “Unfortunately, Soldier Boy, yeah.”

Spike crawled back in the bed, behind Buffy. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in the crook of her neck. “Do you hear that, pet? You like me…” His breath on her neck was driving her nuts. She smiled and made a happy noise.

She heard Giles muttering, “How could I have been so blind?”

Buffy slinked out of Spike’s grasp and went to her Watcher. “It’s okay, Giles. I understand now, everything was all crazy, and I get it.”

He looked at her pointedly, “But Spike?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean he’s evil, even though he’s been known to help every so often, or when it suits his purpose. You cannot tell me you have actual feelings for him?” He raised his hands to accent the point.

“Feelings? Yes. Where they’re going? I don’t know. All I know is that been the only person that has been there for me throughout this whole ordeal. That’s important to me. When everyone else has to leave and let me figure things out for myself and not tell me the whole truth, and he’s the one person who will care enough to tell me all the truth, then yeah, I want to spend time with him.” She took a deep breath. “Can we not do this right now?”

Xander smiled, “Yeah, Buffy, we’ll let you alone for now. How about we all meet at Giles’ in the morning?”

Everyone murmured their agreements and slowly they all left.

She jumped when she felt Spike’s hand on her shoulder. He wagged his eyebrows at her. “How about another toss or two?”

She smiled. “Well, since you had to twist my arm…”

They fell to the bed laughing.



Joyce was in the kitchen, sitting on a bar stool at the island when she walked in the backdoor. “Long night?”

Buffy nodded. “I had a coup to kill me by my best friends, unbeknownst to them. All in all, it was quite the night.” She rolled her shoulders as she looked in the fridge for something to eat. “Do we have any of those little frozen toaster strudels?”

“Yep, top shelf.” Joyce got up and emptied the coffee cup she’d been drinking from into the sink and rinsed it out. “I have to go the gallery today for a few hours. I’ll be back by 10.”

Buffy turned away from the counter where she had been toasting her breakfast. “You aren’t supposed to go back for a while I thought.”

“Just bookwork dear, I promise.” She stopped for a minute. “By the way, yesterday, some flowers came for you when I was out. There by the front door.”

Curious, Buffy smiled and bounced toward the front of the house.

Her mother hugged her after she put on a light jacket. “See you in a little while.”

“Bye!”

Buffy reached for the card on the dozen blood red roses. She read it.


Dear Buffy,

I know we talked about it and we’re not supposed to be together, but I’ve been giving it a lot of thought, and I’ve decided that you and I can be together.
Wait, that didn’t come out right. I know you’re the Slayer, and I’m a vamp, but hell, Buffy, I love you. I don’t know when and I don’t know how, but I do. Hell, Dru knew before me, remind me to tell you about that sometime. Anyway, here are some lovely roses, and I hope that you love them as much as I love you.

Spike

p.s. If you want to spar or something later today, come on over, I’ll be waiting for you.

She held the card to her chest and smiled. Heading toward the basement, she made her plans to surprise a certain vampire.



Chapter 15

A man, clothed all in back, flew headfirst into an old tombstone, shattering the top part clean off. A flashy blonde toppled over the headstone in a kind of flip, landing on her feet. Grabbing the man by the collar, she flipped him up, punching him repeatedly in the face, and started to drag him to the nearest crypt. As he near the street lamp, his features morphed into something less than human. Fangs and eyebrows, cursed into something despicable, shone in the new light. Reaching in her waistband, she grabbed a shard of wood and plunged it into the man’s heart and watched as he dissipated into dust.

Wiping her hands together, she walked away. On the other side of the crypt, she bent down to help out a newly conscious friend. Well, not exactly a friend.

“Hey.”

“I almost had him, Buffy.” Spike wiped his mouth, smearing some blood.

“Did he hurt you bad, Spike?” Buffy’s concern would have been more touching if she wasn’t trying not to laugh the whole time. “I mean getting smacked around by an itty bitty vamp, bad for your rep.”

He smiled at her cockily, “Yeah, I know. Care to go home and watch a movie? Think this place is about done for the night.”

She beamed at him, and his heart, if it could beat, would have just stopped, she was that beautiful. “Yeah, let’s go tiger.”

Sliding her hand into his, they headed for the Summers house.


When they got there, they found Joyce in the living room, sitting on the sofa, eating popcorn, and drinking milk. Buffy grimaced. “I don’t care how old I get, that still is about the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my whole life.” She walked over and gave her mom a kiss on the cheek.

Spike followed behind her, and in the house lights, the bruising was looking a lot worse. Blood was smearing from one side of his face to the other, some dripping from a deeper cut. Joyce looked up. “Spike, you’re bleeding. Buffy, go get him cleaned up, he looks horrible.”

Buffy walked into the kitchen and got a towel and wet it for him. Grabbing the first aid kit, always kept at the ready, she walked back into the living room and sat down next to him. Looking up at her mother, she smiled, “How are you feeling tonight, Mom?”

Joyce rubbed her forehead, “I’ve got a headache that won’t quit. I was thinking about taking a pill and going to bed, but something’s mining for gold up there, so I’m now watching a movie.” She smiled at her daughter. “How was patrolling?”

Already setting butterfly bandages on Spike’s face, she looked back at her mom. “Fine, Mom. Spike decided that he was going to take on a whole mess of vamps while I was dealing with a mechanical problem—“

Spike looked over to Joyce, “What she’s saying about a mechanical problem was her stake. She got it caught in between a tombstone and the ground and was trying to pull it out. Finally, after much yelling from me, she grabbed the one out of her pants and flipped over my way. Real peach she is.”

“You love me, Spikey, and you know it.”

Joyce smiled at the playful banter between the two and looked over to the television. All of the sudden a sharp pain pierced her brain, which Buffy noticed right away. Grabbing the phone from behind her, she called 911 immediately. “I need an ambulance, right away. It’s my mom, she’s just got out of brain surgery and she’s having some sort of attack. Someone help us, please!”

Handing the phone to Spike, she grabbed her mom and held her close and she was almost rigid. Tears were coursing down her face as she smoothed her hair. “Hold on, Mom. Hold on.”

The paramedics came in a moment later, placing Joyce on a gurney, and taking her out to the ambulance.

Spike held Buffy, only for a moment, before she grabbed her coat and started out the door. From behind her, came a pulsing blue light and a shrill scream. She turned and watched.

Something was trying to come through what looked like a portal. Wiping her eyes, she waited, ready to take it on and get to the hospital. She wasn’t expecting what was to come.

A moment later Buffy was facing herself.





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