Chapter 11
When the Slayer and her vampire walked into Giles’ apartment, they braced themselves for the condemnation they knew was coming. Buffy had wrapped her cut wrist and was wearing long sleeves, but she knew that was not fooling Giles or Willow. The very fact that Spike was up and bouncing on his toes ready to fight again was a dead giveaway as to how he got better. To the vampire’s great surprise, she took his hand in hers and walked in to face her surrogate father and her friends.
There was silence for several long seconds as the Scoobies read the silent message in front of them. Buffy kept Spike by her side, making no attempt to hide their linked hands, long enough to be sure everyone got the picture. When the expressions of surprise and/or horror had faded to resignation, Spike gave her hand a little squeeze and moved away from her to sprawl in a chair.
“Well then, Rupert. What’s the plan?” He forced the watcher to meet his eyes and read the truth of his feelings there. After several tense seconds, Giles nodded slowly and everyone relaxed.
“We’re just waiting for Riley and his men –“ Everyone flinched as the vampire snarled and went into game face. At a look from Buffy, he forced his demon back and slumped back in the chair. When he was sure that was the end of Spike’s comments, Giles continued, “ When they get here, we’ll decide where and how we want them to start the distraction so that Buffy,” he paused and looked back and forth between his Slayer and her vampire, “and you can get into the lair.”
He leaned back and added, “Although I’m still not sure how you two will be able to kill something that powerful.”
“Think Red can give us a bit of mojo?” The blond cocked his eyebrow in Willow’s direction. “Just enough to get us close to him. I think we can do it from there.”
“I can hide you for a while. Maybe work a cloaking spell like the one Tara did on the demons last month.....but sooner or later he’s going to know you’re there.”
“He’ll know the Slayer’s there – I’m not so sure he’s wired to pick up on a demon’s scent. He’s all about the mechanics and technology. Don’t think he’s ever been up against a master vampire before.”
Buffy was looking at him suspiciously. “What makes you think he won’t see you?”
He grinned at her and shot a look around the room at the other Scoobies. “Jus’ because I don’t use all those gypsy tricks like Drac does, doesn’t mean I can’t, pet. I can be pretty invisible and stealthy if I want to be.”
She looked at him dubiously. “Then why am I still alive? How come I wasn’t Spike-lunch the first time we met?”
He looked at her and ignored the other people in the room. “Because it was all about the fightin’ with you. Not so much the killin’. Wouldn’t have been any fun if I’d snuck up on you, now, would it? Where’s the sport in that?”
He grinned as she turned crimson, remembering their first time together and the fight that preceded it.
Giles cleared his throat, interrupting them. “Yes, well, if we can get past this little trip down memory lane.....”
The knock on the door was a welcome interruption and Anya hastened over to open it. Outside stood Riley Finn and several of his commando buddies. The atmosphere in the room became thick with tension as the soldiers looked at the vampire that had killed two of them, and the vampire glared back at the men who had almost neutered him. Buffy stepped as casually as she could between her lover and her ex-boyfriend, poised to jump if she needed to separate them.
To Spike’s surprise, Willow slipped over to his chair and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. When he blinked up at her, she gave him a small smile and said, “Let’s go talk about that mojo, okay?”
When he saw the pleading look in Buffy’s eyes, he lowered his own gaze and swaggered into the kitchen in the witch’s wake. His vampire hearing allowed him to follow the conversation in the living room while still talking to Willow about how long they would need the spell to last and what it needed to conceal.
Riley gave up any last hope of salvaging his relationship with Buffy when she launched into a discussion of the plan for killing Adam. She was all business and treated him no differently than she did Forrest or Graham. One soldier to another, she laid out their plan and told them what she needed them to do.
If they could launch a serious enough looking decoy attack from the Initiative itself, she and Spike would slip in through the cave entrance and hopefully catch Adam when he had few or no minions around to help him.
“You’re sure the power pack is in the front?” she asked. “I won’t get more than one shot at it, I’m pretty sure.”
“Yes, but I still don’t see.... how are you planning to remove it?” Forrest asked in genuine confusion.
“Spike will hold him while I rip it out of his chest,” the Slayer said calmly as though she pulled internal organs out of things on a regular basis.
A chill went through Riley as he realized that she very likely did exactly that from time to time. For the first time, he really understood the deadly power contained in that small body and got a sense of the darkness behind it. Suddenly it didn’t seem so strange that her slaying partner of choice might be a vampire, or that she might have feelings for what was to him a completely unnatural and evil being.
With a sense of relief, he let go of the last vestiges of his emotional attachment to the small blonde and mentally stepped back to observe and admire her.
When Spike and Willow returned to the living room, there had been a noticeable change in the room’s dynamics and they stopped to study it for a minute. The witch quickly picked up on the different vibes coming from Riley and Buffy and Tara nodded at her to indicate that she read the auras that way too. Much of the tension in the room had dissipated and everyone appeared much more relaxed.
Spike studied the big soldier for a minute and noted that his demon wasn’t picking up any trace of threat to his claim. When Riley met his eyes and nodded slightly, the vampire resisted the urge to smirk at him and simple nodded back before crossing the room to stand beside the Slayer.
Chapter 12
The commandos left to begin their assault on Adam’s lair from within the Initiative complex, and the Scoobies left to assemble near the cave entrance that Spike and Buffy were planning to use. All had agreed that Buffy and Spike would wait until the battle was well underway before approaching the inner caves. The hope was that all or most of the minions would have been drawn off to the fight, leaving Adam alone in front of his computer monitors.
At a signal from Xander, who was holding the walkie-talkie and thoroughly enjoying playing soldier, Willow, Giles, Spike and Buffy entered the caves. As they had hoped, the caves were very lightly guarded. In spite of Adams’ disdain of any human emotions, he was not immune to arrogance himself and clearly felt invulnerable in his lair.
Buffy easily dispensed with the few vampire and demon guards they met on their way in. When they knew they were just outside the control room, Buffy nodded to Willow and she began the cloaking spell. As soon as Buffy and Spike became invisible, Willow nodded to Giles and they retreated to the outer cave area.
With a quick squeeze to Buffy’s hand, Spike pushed open the door and slid into the lair. He immediately moved up the wall, using small hand holds in the rock to climb up to the ceiling. Buffy made a mental note to remember that some vampires can climb like spiders before she eased into the room after him and hugged the wall.
Adam raised his head suspiciously, and sent his infrared eyes roaming the room. When he got to Buffy, the heat of her body triggered an image on his brain and he smiled to himself. Without letting her know he had seen her, he allowed his gaze to continue to track around the room and up to the ceiling. However, Spike’s lack of body temperature meant that there was no image to pick up and the cyborg’s eyes went right past him.
Adam walked in the general direction of the Slayer, then suddenly reached out and grabbed her by the throat. Lifting her up off the ground, he tilted his head as though he could see what he was holding and asked her, “Did you really think you could beat me, little girl?”
Buffy brought her feet up and kicked out into the monster’s chest, freeing her throat and allowing her to croak out, “Thought crossed my mind, yeah.” She flipped backwards and went into a fighting stance.
Adam shrugged and said, “I don’t have time for this human posturing.” He raised his right arm and prepared to blow her to pieces with his energy cannon. Just as she rolled toward him on the ground to avoid the blast, Spike dropped from the ceiling and pinned Adam’s arms behind him.
“Now, Buffy!” he shouted, knowing that his hold was very tenuous and not likely to last long. Adam registered some surprise at finding another opponent in the room, but quickly recovered and pulled his arms loose, reaching around to grab the vampire. As he threw Spike across the cave and into the wall, Buffy finished her forward roll and popped up in front of him. His arms were in the air over his head, preparing to throw Spike and he could only watch as the Slayer plunged her hand into his chest and pulled out a glowing orb.
Momentum allowed him to complete his toss of the vampire, but before his dismay and astonishment could fully register on his face, he was falling toward the Slayer, crashing to the floor with her under him.
For long seconds it was very quiet in the room, then the blond vampire lifted his head and crawled toward the collapsed cyborg. He could see Buffy’s hair behind her on the rocky floor, but her body was completely hidden by the much larger monster’s inert frame.
“Buffy? Slayer? Talk to me, love. Are you alright?”
Muffled curses from underneath the heavy, partially metal body indicated that she was at least alive. With Spike’s help, she was able to lift the body enough to worm her way out from under it. She lay beside him on the dirt, panting and gingerly touching her ribs where the mechanical monster had fallen on her.
She rolled her head over to look at the equally battered vampire. Blood was seeping from the lump on his head where he’d met the rocky wall of the cave.
“I think we won,” she said with a small smile.
“Yeah, pet. I think we did.” He smiled back at her tenderly.
“Yea us.”
They rested for another few minutes, then Buffy sat up groaning and pulled on his arm.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here and see how everyone else is.”
Spike staggered to his feet and swayed briefly before straightening and offering her his arm.
“At your service, milady.” He smirked at her and tucked her hand in his before leading her out of the now-abandoned room.
************
When everyone had checked in and casualties had been taken care of, the Scoobies decided to head back to Giles’ apartment to relax.
The commandos had done a good job of destroying most of Adam’s minions and those that escaped had appeared to be leaving Sunnydale as quickly as they could. When Riley saw the bleeding, battered Slayer and her vampire, he tried to smother the urge to take Buffy to the nearest hospital and watched instead as they laughed and joked about their injuries.
Spike made gentle fun of the Slayer’s language when he found her pinned under Adam, and she mocked him for his flight across the lair and into the wall. Neither one seemed overly worried about the injuries they clearly had sustained in the short fight and that, more than anything else that he had seen, gave Riley some insight into exactly how different Buffy’s life was from other girls’.
He stared at the compact blond at her side, but when Spike sent him what was clearly the British version of a “fuck off” gesture and Buffy did nothing but shake her head and smile, he turned and marched off after his men. If he hadn’t been sure before, their behavior now made it very clear that not only could he not compete with the vampire; he wasn’t even in the running any more.
Buffy was sitting in Spike’s lap in the crowded car, her head resting on his chest. As they passed the cemetery, Spike spoke suddenly.
“Oi, watcher. Let us off here, mate.”
Buffy raised her head sleepily, saw where they were and dropped it again after agreeing, “Yeah, Giles. We can get off here.”
There was a tense silence in the car as her Watcher met the eyes of the vampire. He looked at Spike steadily and asked, “So, Spike. Now that you’ve given Buffy the help she requested with Adam, I guess you’ll be anxious to get back to.....wherever you were before?”
He held the vampire’s eyes and hoped the message he was sending was coming in loud and clear.
Spike looked back at him steadily and answered with no trace of his usual cockiness, “I guess that’d be up to the Slayer. Don’t think I want to be that far away from her anymore. Just in case she needs me again,” he added for the benefit of the other Scoobies.
“We all want what’s in her best interest, don’t we?” Giles refused to give up the subject.
“Hey! Right here in the car!” Buffy sat up to complain. ”Giles, just drop it. Please”
Her Watcher sighed and remained silent as his surrogate daughter and the vampire who loved her got out of the car. He drove off and left them standing at the gate to the cemetery, holding hands like they had just left a movie.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Only one more chapter and a short epilogue after this, so I think I'll finish posting it tonight. I want to start posting another, longer fic and I don't want to do it until this one is all up.