Thanks as always to Tam for her great beta work, without her this chapter would not be as great as it it. Really, trust me!
Day 7
When Buffy awoke, she immediately sensed something was different. Oh, she was still sleeping in a torture device called a chair. Her whole body still ached. The very familiar smell of the bus terminal was there, but now there was another smell. An enticing smell. A divine smell. A caffeine-y goodness smell.
Yay, Spike. Good monster.
She kept her eyes closed as the aroma got stronger. The now familiar tingles gave her peace and comfort. She grinned.
“Bloody typical woman. I suppose you want me to drink it for you, too.” Spike teased the smiling blond.
She grinned and snatched the cup from his outstretched hand. “Nope, I can handle that all by myself, thank you very much.” She moaned as the hot liquid rushed down her throat, warming all the way down to her belly. “Oh, that’s good! Where were you the first half a dozen times I woke up like this?”
“I was in my nice cozy bed plotting mayhem and destruction.” He grinned as she raised her eyebrow at him over the Styrofoam container. “Well, you asked, luv.”
“Yeah, well, less with the evil and more with the plotting…of non-evil-y things.”
“Whatever you say, Slayer. You know what the greatest thing about this mess is? Every time you spend money you wake up the next morning and it’s all right back in your pocket. It’s like you never spent it at all. Much better than hustling people for it.”
“Spike, if you want to work with the team, then its cold turkey for you, mister. No more evil. That includes any and all illegal activity- petty theft and scamming included. We’ll just have to find you a night job or something to help pay for the blood, cigarettes, and booze.”
“A night job? Are you off your bloody rocker?” He stood up and bowed to her mockingly. “Hello, my name is William the Bloody and I’ll be your waiter tonight,” he said in a nasally whine. He flung his pouty self back into his chair and folded his arms mulishly. “I don’t think so, Slayer.”
“Maybe you can get a job as a night guard or a bouncer at a demon bar or something. Anything would be better than Xander and his extensive collection of name-tags and hair nets. We’ll figure it out after this is over.” She stood and walked to the nearest trash container to throw her empty cup away.
“We will, huh?” Spike asked. He followed as she moved to the back of the building where the sewer access was located.
“Well, yeah. We’re the good guys. We tend to stick together. If you’re joining the gang, then that includes you, too. No matter how much Xander cries,” Buffy laughed as she dropped down through the uncovered hole.
“Bleedin’ hell. If someone had told me I could make Harris cry, I would have changed side’s months ago,” he yelled before jumping down and running to catch up with her giggling shadow.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike paused at the basement stairs of the Magic Box, making Buffy bump into his back.
“What’s with the halt-y?” she asked. And then she felt it. The sharp tingling on her neck that reminded her of the presence of his dream bite. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach and filled with confusion. She could see that Spike was as fidgety and tense as she was. He was acting as though he didn’t want to go into the store. It hit her then, the knowledge of what she was feeling.
It was him.
She was still experiencing his emotions, his fears. She’d tried to convince herself that it was only slayer’s intuition. Then she reasoned that it was just Spike. The vampire wore his feelings so expressively that it had allowed her to tap into his sincerity the day before. The realization that she was actually feeling them just as she would her own emotions was overwhelming.
The slayer sat down heavily on the crate behind her, unsure if her legs would support her any longer. Her mind was racing frantically with the implications. What is happening to us?
“Why don’t you want to go in, Spike?” she asked. Glancing up to catch his eye, she found herself beginning to wonder if she was having a panic attack. Something like the kind Willow would get before a big test.
“What? What are you talking about?” He began to pat his duster for cigarettes, turning away from her when he got one lit.
“Don’t play dumb with me, Spike. I can feel it in an oh-my-god-I’m-feeling-his-emotions kind of way. Just tell me what the problem is so we can make this stop. It’s making me nauseous,” she informed him with a sour look. Buffy didn’t even think she felt her own emotions as strong as she was feeling the vampires at the moment.
“Why didn’t you mention this before?”
“It wasn’t like I really knew it was happening,” she defended herself. “I just thought it was slayers intuition or being in tune with you or something. I didn’t know it was like some freaky mind meld thing.” She bridled at his raised eyebrow. “Don’t look at me like that, I’ve seen X-Files, you know!” she spat crossly.
“When did this start?”
“You know how I said I had that dream with the bitey?” She looked everywhere but at those incredulous blue eyes. “Ever since then, I’ve been getting these feelings. Your feelings, as a matter of fact.”
“Bloody hell, why didn’t you say something yesterday while I was pouring my guts out? You just sat there and didn’t tell me? “
“You said it yourself that me trusting you would be harder.” She cringed at his hurt expression. “Look, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but it’s not something a slayer should run around shouting from the rooftops. ‘Hey I got bit by a dreamy vampire and now I’m feeling his emotions, isn’t that neat?’ And I didn’t want you to block them. It was kind of nice knowing you were being sincere, even if I didn’t know a hundred percent that it was you I was feeling. There was just a sense of rightness. It’s not like this has ever happened to me before, so I have nothing to compare it to. It felt nice and it helped a lot with the trusting.”
“So, you think I’m dreamy, huh?” He grinned, stuffing his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels like a little boy. His smile of satisfaction shot straight to her vitals. Suppressing an all-over shiver, Buffy opted for sarcasm as a form of defense.
“Please. It figures that’s the one thing you picked up on out of that whole speech. I’m already nauseated, let’s not make it worse. And let’s not forget we were talking about you, not me. So spill, what’s the what?”
“Ugh! First I get this bleeding chip, and then I have to rely on the bloody slayer and her little gang for help, now we’ve got this crazy day loop from hell. Could my unlife get any more pathetic?”
“Stop whining. You’re just stalling, and it won’t work. Now, tell me what the deal is so we can hopefully get something accomplished today. I didn’t check on Forrest yesterday, and as much as I know he’s alive and kicking right now, I can’t live with knowing he may or may not get killed every day that I don’t stop it, even if he just pisses me off in the extreme.”
Spike sighed with resignation as he plopped down next to the slayer. “It’s just that…God, I sound like a ponce. It’s just that this is the first time I’ve been back here since the kidnapping of Red and the Whelp. The whole place is just bringing back bad memories of the breakup with Dru. My not being demon enough for her and then getting this bloody chip; it’s like I’m not a demon at all.”
His head dipped low as he tried to get control over his emotions, not wanting her to have to deal with any of his residual resentment for the soldiers who had taken his pride and his very nature away from him.
“Wow, throw in a teen pregnancy and you could go on Springer. It could be called ‘My Sire is a Crazy Ho Bag and the Demons Who’ve Slept with Her.’ Do you think this bite-y thing is affecting you, too? Because I’ve never heard you this depressed before.” It was all she could do to keep her hands to herself when all she wanted to do was rub his back and tell him everything was going to be okay.
“It could be part of it, I guess, but I’ve gotten pretty good at not showing a lot of emotion around others. Dru was always pretty unstable and the least little thing could set her off.” He looked over when his companion gave a snort.
“Good at hiding your emotions? Spike, your’re one of the most emotional and expressive…er…vampire’s I know. If you thought you were good at it, it was only because Dru let you think you were.”
“Thanks, Slayer, another illusion shattered.” He tried not to smirk as he watched her struggle to come up with something to comfort him in his imaginary grief, but couldn’t hold it for long.
Buffy stopped her fish impression when she noticed his sly grin. “You are such an ass,” she hissed heatedly. Stupid vampire making me feel all sorry for him, she thought as she shoved him hard.
“I’m just having at you, Slayer, trying to lighten the mood and all that. Calm down. The truth is, this was the place of one of my last truly wicked acts. Well, you saw what it was like here the night we fought those vamps with Peaches. I was too busy after that chasing after Dru to do too much in the way of evil. Hell I barely ate for months. Then, I came back here and began searching for the gem, worked like a dog digging the soddin’ thing out. I had to have Harmony bring in bagged blood because I was so obsessed with finding it, I rarely left the tunnels. I fought you. You won and sent the gem to the Poof. I hired someone to torture him to find out where it was. When I found out it was destroyed, I came back here and was captured by the soldiers and muzzled.”
“You didn’t feed on anyone the whole time between Brazil and being chipped?”
“Didn’t say there was none, just few and far between. It wasn’t about being evil; it was about just trying to survive. I had more important things to think about…like killing you.” He bumped her shoulder with his, grinning widely to show he was only teasing. Sighing loudly, he continued, “Now, I’m back here and feeling guilty and I don’t bloody well like it. I’m a demon. I’m not supposed to feel guilt. It’s not natural.”
“If you want to wait down here, Jonathan would probably come down to talk to us. I could go check,” she offered as she moved to stand. She could tell by the lack of stomach turning that his anxiety had lessened, though he was still very tense.
“No, luv, I’m fine. It’s just uncomfortable being here and thinking about how much things have changed. A couple of years ago, I was the Big Bad, rollin’ into town set to spread destruction and kill my third slayer. Now here we are discussing our emotions and sharing feelings.”
The vampire’s complexion actually took on a greenish cast. Do vampire’s puke? Buffy thought frantically.
“God, we are just like Springer, minus the throwing of chairs.” Spike groaned in self disgust as he stood up and moved toward the stairs. “So, who is this expert again?”
“Well, he’s not so much an expert as he is a nerd.” She rushed past him and up the stairs before he could question her further.
An hour later, Spike was ready to move onto the brawling part of the talk show that had become his life. After listening to the little geek blab on for what seemed like a lifetime, the need for violence was overwhelming. Buffy had started to throw him glares as he switched between pacing and fidgeting with the books and papers spread out on the table in front of them. It wasn’t his fault that the kid rubbed him the wrong way. During the spell making himself a super hero, the boy had mocked him and his inability to harm humans more than once. Spike remembered his fear of the little twit, the way it had consumed him on a level he hadn’t even felt for the slayer. Thank God it wore off along with the spell. It was sickening now recalling how he had been thrown against a crypt by the puny twerp. Humiliating is what it was.
“So what you’re basically saying- in a very long and drawn out way- is that you think the dreams somehow manifested themselves and created a ‘mystical bite’ and now the slayer and I have some kind of link between us?”
“Um, yes. Here’s the spell, or at least the type of spell that could have been used. It’s an amalgamation spell. It combines two entities into one whole for the purpose of seeking a common goal or knowledge. It also states that for the spell to work, that one would experience a certain awareness of its progress. Buffy said you were both experiencing ‘tingles’ at different times. That could be the ‘awareness’ part. You also said you mostly experience them during bad or stressful situations, so we’ll assume that means the tingles are for events that need changing or alterations. If this spell is tied to the original one, then it could mean that the more things are fixed then the spell might lessen and possibly break when you’ve changed enough things.”
“You sure you’re not a watcher’s kid? You sure have the tedious and boring part down pat,” Spike snarked. “All that’s missin’ is the tweed.”
“Spike, stop it. Don’t mind him, Jonathan. He’s just grouchy from all the repeat-o days. We’d like to buy these two books. Thank you again, you’ve been a big help.”
When Jonathan left the table to ring up the sale, Buffy got a sudden rush of tingles that caused her to spin around. Scanning the room, she noticed that the blond vampire was doing the same. A dark haired boy walked into the store and headed straight for the counter. The two young men talked briefly before the newcomer looked around the room and then exited once again.
“Spike,” Buffy hissed. “Did you see that guy? I’ve seen him before. I can’t place him, but he’s very familiar and that funny feeling just got a whole lot stronger when he walked into the store. I got them with Jonathan before. Do you think he’s one of the things we need to fix?”
“Don’t know, love. We’ll have to investigate and see what’s going on with those two. The boy doesn’t seem like one to fall in with a bad crowd, reality shifting spell aside, but the taller one seemed a bit shifty. Maybe the geek just needs a nudge in the right direction.” He shrugged, unsure of what the little loser could possibly need help with besides actually getting a life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spike let himself into the same hotel room Buffy had occupied a few days prior and dropped the newly purchased books onto the small table. The plan had been to meet back at the room after she had distracted Forrest and gathered a few more research materials that she claimed they needed. He had stopped on the way and gotten the slayer a large coffee and a few snacks that he knew she favored from his brief stay at the watchers. He had also picked himself up a couple of pints of blood as well as a six pack he knew would be needed before the night was over. The blond would have preferred a fifth of whiskey, but something told him that it wouldn’t amuse his companion in the slightest.
The vampire was halfway through the first book and onto his second beer when the slayer knocked on the door. He didn’t even look up as he carried the book with him to unlatch the flimsy lock. The little blond slipped inside quickly before peering through the curtains to check the parking lot for any followers. Spike finally glanced up, puzzled by her actions. “What are you doing, luv?”
“Just checking. I managed to avoid Riley and I circled through town a couple of times in different directions to throw off Angel. Hopefully, we won’t have any unexpected visitors tonight,” she declared proudly, still peering out the window.
“I think you’ve been spending a little too much time with Jonathan, Sunnydale Man of Mystery, pet. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Where’s the other research you picked up?”
Buffy reached into the small tote bag she carried and produced a video rental case. She held it aloft in one hand and motioned to it gracefully with the other, mimicking a game show hostess extolling the virtues of a prize. “Ta-da. My kind of research,” she proclaimed with a wide grin.
“What the bloody hell is that?” He squinted at the title from across the room but was unable to make it out.
“It’s Groundhog Day. Jonathan reminded me about it the other day. He suggested I rent it since it’s just like what we’re going though, but I hadn’t had a chance till now. I thought tonight would be good since we’re stuck here unless we want to risk running into the testosterone brigade.” At his skeptical look she rolled her eyes and tossed the video onto the rickety table. ‘Look, it can’t hurt anything to just watch it, right? We have nothing better to do, and let me tell you, the cable here? It really sucks.”
“No worries, pet. Got plenty to look at here, though I’m sure we’ll need a break later. We’ll take a look at it then, alright?” he assured her as he held out the second book. He smirked as she cringed before reluctantly accepting the book. Falling back onto the bed she sighed as she flipped to the first page, already bored and staring longingly at the television.
Two hours, thirty five minutes, and eleven seconds.
That’s how long it took the slayer to get on his last nerve. Actually, he’d thought it would have been much sooner between the tapping of the pencil on the table, the loud breathy sighs, and the constant questions. Finally he closed the book he had been trying to read amidst the constant distractions.
“What was the last question, love?” he asked tiredly as he leaned back into the seat and rubbed his eyes.
“What’s it like to have the chip? I don’t mean in the ‘oh I’m so bloody pissed cause I can’t feed on the blimey humans’ kind of way, but it must have been a big adjustment. Was it really hard to give up human blood and do you still crave it like before?”
“First off, luv; don’t ever try to do an imitation of my accent again. Secondly; why do you want to know?”
“Well I’ve always been curious, but it wasn’t like we were sharing buddies. You hated me, I hated you. We had a system going on. I thought with the new working relationship, and you wanting to join the Scoobies, that now would be a good time to ask.”
“I never said I wanted to be called a Scooby. I said I’d play for the white hats and help you battle baddies. Also, I wouldn’t mind hanging out with Rupert now and again.”
“Same difference. You hang with us.” At his horrified look, she rolled her eyes and amended. “Sorta. You come to the meetings, and you fight with us. That makes you one of us. Deal with it. Now answer the question before I make you learn the secret handshake.”
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, alright?” He stood up and began to move around the room in agitation. He wasn’t so worried about the sharing of the information. Hell, it wasn’t as if he had hid his displeasure from the slayer when he first got the chip. He was more worried about her knowing he would still have the chip removed if given the chance. Even now, with him on the brink of being accepted by the slayer and her group, the chip still made him feel like half of a man. “It wasn’t about the blood or the feeding. Not all of it, anyway. The hard part was dealing with what they took from me.”
“What do you mean? What did they take?” She could feel his anger surge through him, but sensed it wasn’t aimed at her and struggled to tamp it down.
“My whole identity, pet. Who am I, if I’m not William the Bloody? I’ve always lived by my fists and fangs, for as long as I care to remember, anyway. It’s what I was, ya know? I was Dru’s protector and caretaker. I was a Master vampire that others respected and tried to emulate. My name was feared and admired. Slayer of slayers and all that. Now I’m just a bloody joke in the demon world.”
Buffy pushed herself up onto her knees. “That’s so not true!” she insisted. “Vampires still fear you and demons are much tougher to fight than humans, right? They put up more of a challenge. You like challenges.” As weird as it seemed that she was trying to reassure him, he was dangerously close to becoming broody, and that she couldn’t tolerate.
“Thanks, luv.” The vampire actually looked chipper. “Since we’re in the friendly chatting mood, what’s up with you and Captain Cardboard? You two on the fritz or did you just finally get tired of the big hulking caveman act?”
Falling back onto the bed, Buffy sighed dramatically. “I guess if you can be all sharing guy then I can contribute, too. Everything was completely fine until this whole insane day from hell thing. Okay, that’s not completely true. Riley has some jealousy issues and of course there’s the whole all-demons-are-evil thing, which kind of sucks because Anya is jumpy as hell around him.”
“Well, he was in the Initiative, pet. I’m sure they were taught only what they higher ups thought they needed to know. Ignorance is bliss and all that, and let’s face it- your boy has ignorance in bulk.” Spike snickered as the blond threw her head back onto the pillow.
“Ugh, you scared me for a minute. I thought you were going to defend him. I was worried the repeat-o day had finally driven you insane, but here comes the snark and all is right with the world again. Or as right as it can be living the same hellish day over and over.”
“Har har, slayer. Don’t worry your pretty little head about that. The day I defend Captain Oblivious is the day I snog Peaches…and like it.” He said with a shudder.
“Oh.” The word was just a little bit high-pitched and squeaky. “Now, there’s an image.” Her eyes glazed over as she stared at a water stain on the ceiling, unaware of the soft whimpering sounds she was making. Spike and Angel kissing. That mental picture should have brought more disgust than it did. There could be oil involved. Shaking herself out of her very wrong but lusty daze, she blushed as she meet Spike’s amused smirk.
“What’s wrong, luv? You’re lookin’ look a bit flushed.”
“N-nothing! Nothing at all. How about that movie? Yeah, a movie sounds great right about now.” She rushed to the table to grab the video case, letting her hair fall forward to cover her scarlet cheeks.
“Sure, pet. Could do with a break right about now.” He gave a mighty stretch, and Buffy couldn’t help but watch the muscles in his arms and back as they bunched and quivered. His shirt crept up with his motions and she caught a glimpse pale, perfect skin and a line of curly hair that pointed down to…
Gah! Bad Buffy!
Spike was completely oblivious to her ogling him. Done with his posturing, he kicked off his boots and slid back to make himself comfortable on the full size bed. “I think we’ve learned everything we can for today, anyway. We’ll have to start keeping tabs on the neck tinglies, see what sets them off and what stops them. Then we can start working towards breaking this spell.”
He watched as Buffy went about the tasks of adjusting the volume on the television and securing the remote before climbing onto the bed next to him.
“You know Xander would so be having a cow right now if he knew you and I were in a motel room together, right?”
“Well, then, by all means let’s call him up and tell him. What’s the number?” he asked as he reached out to grab the heavy old rotary phone from the nightstand. He yelped loudly as she smacked his hand away from the phone using a good dose of slayer strength.
“Lying low remember? No calling of anyone.” She rolled her eyes as he pouted and began to rub his abused hand.
“I don’t know why we’re hiding out here, anyway. You could knock out the soldier with one punch and I could just stake Peaches. It’s a perfect plan,” Spike grumbled as he reached out to grab his long forgotten beer.
“It’s not hiding. It’s avoiding, and I let you stake Angel yesterday, so stop with the pouting.”
She hit play on the VCR as he settled himself against the pillows, leaving her just enough room to sit beside him shoulder to shoulder. At first she held herself stiffly, but gradually she relaxed and allowed her slight weight to rest against his side.
“Yeah, but it’s not like I get unlimited staking opportunities. I have to get in my licks in now, while I can. It’s purely therapeutic, I swear.” His expression was so earnest that Buffy couldn’t help but giggle.
“Just watch the movie, dead boy, before I tell Angel you want to get your licks in on him.” She smirked unabashedly as he sputtered, struggling for a comeback. Score one for Buffy, she mentally congratulated herself. “By the way, how did you know that I staked Angel? You were in South America at the time, weren’t you?”
“I could feel your anger through the bite. I wasn’t sure that’s what it was at the time, but I had a hunch when I felt the connection disappear between me and the Poof. Just took a lucky guess and figured you had finally snapped, since grandpa seems brings out the best in everyone.”
“What kind of connection?” she asked. Her curiosity was running rampant. Some things just weren’t covered in the Watchers diaries, no matter how thorough they thought they were being.
“There’s a connection between vamps and their families. The farther away you go, the weaker the connection, I felt the great bitch bite the big one, but just barely. If something happened to Dru, I’m sure I’d know it right away. With Peaches, I felt it, but we haven’t been close for nearly a century so it wasn’t as strong as it might have been if there were more of a family-type relationship.”
“Huh, how weird.” Buffy snuggled down onto the bed trying to find a comfortable spot. She finally settled for resting her head on his shoulder and using the pillows to prop up her back.
Spike could feel the heat from the companion’s body run his entire length. He felt an ease with the petite blond that should have been non-existent between a slayer and a vampire and yet it remained.
He tried to shake off the warm fuzzy feelings and concentrate on the opening credits, but the soft body snuggled next to him made it increasingly difficult. He had denied himself the comfort of a woman for far too long, he told himself; a situation he would remedy as soon as this whole nightmare was over. As long as it wasn't Harmony and her soddin' unicorn prattle.
The movie had been running less than an hour before Buffy felt her eyelids begin to droop. The comfort of the bed, coupled with being able to feel like she could finally relax for the first in days, made for one drowsy Buffy. It was nice not having to worry if someone was going to barge in and start with the accusations. What was really ironic was that this was the one day they would actually find something to truly freak over. Hovering between sleep and wakefulness, she snickered softly as she pictured the looks on Angel and Riley’s faces if they found her here with Spike, of all people.
Ignoring his body’s reaction to being draped in warm, sleepy slayer, Spike quietly watched the rest of the movie. He was enjoying the peace and quiet of the night, knowing that tomorrow it would all begin again. They had tons of ground to cover before they could end the spell and get on with their lives. For the first time since being chipped he was actually looking forward to the coming changes.
~~~~~~~~~
The vampire woke with the uncomfortable feeling of something being off. He looked around the room, trying to determine what it was until he figured out that it was the sensation the slayer kept talking about. The sense of falling asleep one place and waking up in another. It was downright spooky.
Now I know why the Slayer is so damned cranky.
He had only experienced it once so far. The night he went to sleep in South America only to wake up back in Sunnyhell. Of course, he had been expecting it. Knowing what was coming; he had let himself relax the night before and allowed himself to forget what was going to happen come morning. He would be best served to try to remember that until the spell wore off. Vertigo was not a pleasant feeling at all.
Spike had just pulled on his jeans when he heard the crypt door crash open upstairs. “Bloody hell. Now what?”
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