At the top of the tower Dawn is screaming, as Doc approaches her. Soon cutting a thin slash through the material of the ceremonial dress and her skin, to which Dawn cries out and sobs in pain.
“Shallow cuts…shallow cuts…” Doc says as Dawn is crying, then making another cut, which makes Dawn cry out again.
“Let the blood…flow…free,” Doc says not really to anyone as Dawns blood drips over her toes.
“Dawn,” Buffy says, finally reaching the top of the tower.
“Buffy!” Dawn gasps in pain, when she sees her sister standing there. Doc whirls around as Buffy strides forward,
“This should be interesting.”
But Buffy doesn’t even pause; she just walks right past him, giving him a push over the edge as she goes by, heading to Dawn. Where she is crying.
“Buffy, it hurts,” Dawn whimpers.
“I got it. Come here. You’re gunna be okay.” Buffy replies as a few drops of Dawn’s blood drip over the edge, meeting something in midair, and a small circle of light appears and growing quickly. Buffy leads the limping Dawn across the platform to the tower entrance. Then Dawn stops and turns to Buffy,
“Go,” Buffy insisted
“Buffy it’s started” Buffy turns to see the portal growing ever larger. Down below, Spike starts to make his way up the stairs.
“Blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing, it will never stop,” Buffy stares at Dawn in anguish. Tearfully Dawn states,
“You know you have to let me. It has to have the blood.” Buffy gets a realization look on her face. She turns to the portal slowly. As Spike sees the scene play out before him, he realizes Buffy’s conclusion, as does Dawn. Before Buffy could do anything, Dawn pushes her aside and heads for the portal. As Buffy staggers near the edge Spike catches her just in time for them to see Dawn throw herself into the portal. Spike turns to look at Buffy. Buffy looks aghast, puts her hand to her mouth as she realizes what just happened. Spike quickly puts his arms around her, as she stares in shock past his shoulder. As Buffy and Spike make their way downstairs the rest of the group made their way around Dawn’s dead body. After what seemed like hours, Spike finally broke the silence,
“Buffy, luv, I’m gonna get going the sun will be up soon,” Buffy turned to Spike with tears in her eyes,
“Take me home.” Spike just looked at her and gave her a nod. And without looking at anyone else they headed out of the construction site. As the two blondes made their way to 1630 Revello Drive, Spike noticed Buffy starting to nod off as they walked. So he came to the conclusion of carrying her the rest of the way. With much to his surprise she didn’t pull away, she didn’t even say a word. She just fell asleep in his arms. Once back at the house, Spike carried Buffy up to her room. Inside her room Spike laid Buffy’s sleeping figure onto the bed. As Spike made his way to the bedroom door he heard Buffy whisper,
“Stay with me.” Spike turns slowly to face her and nods. Leaning down to take off his boots, then making his way back over to the bed and climbs in next to her and wraps his arms around her.
Spike had woken up early the next morning and was content on just watching the sleeping slayer next to him. But after a while the fact that he was covered in blood started to get to him so he gently shook the sleeping slayer next to him. As she awoke she turned her head to face her awaker.
“Sorry to bother you, luv, but would you mind if I used your shower?”
“Yes.” He just stared at her blankly. Shaking her head slightly,
“Oh, I mean yes you can use it. Go ahead.” Then snuggling closer into her pillow.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
After showering, Spike walks back into Buffy’s room wearing nothing but a towel. Buffy now fully awake stares wide-eyed at the half-naked vamp before her.
“See anything you like, ducks?”
“Not yet,” Jokingly Buffy said.
Spike slowly moved his hands to the tucked part of the towel all-the-while smirking at Buffy.
“Don’t you…”
But it was too late he already pulled the towel away from his body revealing his naked-self.
Buffy quickly pulled her hands to her eyes,
“Oh God, I didn’t see anything. Nothing at all. When I count to three, I’ll wake up and none of the would…”
“So you dreamin’ about me pet?”
“You wish and would you please cover yourself up.”
“Fine, but my clothes are covered in blood. Do you have anything I can borrow?”
She sat there and thought about her options for a second, then getting up off the bed and walked to her closet. After rummaging through it for a while, jokingly she pulled out a short pink dress. After staring at it for a while and figuring it would be something that would make Buffy laugh he grabbed the dress and headed out the door saying,
“Back in a minute luv.”
Buffy knew he was kidding, she figured he’d go in the bathroom and put on his pants even if they were bloody. Well, that was until she saw him enter her room, where he was in fact wearing the short pink dress. To which her only though for some odd reason just happened to be,
“You are wearing underwear under that, aren’t you?” She questioned, mouth half gapped open at the funny sight before her. And as his reply Spike just tilted his head to the side and raised his eyebrow at her with an amused expression on his face. Even though he was the one in the short pink dress,
“Not really. You wouldn’t happen to have any I could borrow now would ya?” Laughing at that and the thought of him wearing her underwear under that dress, she walked over to her dresser draw and pulled out two thongs, turning towards Spike she asked,
“Lace or silk?”
Author's Chapter Notes:
If you haven’t seen The Gift you might be a little confused at first.