Chapter Three:
As Buffy approached the coffee shop where she had agreed to meet Riley, she took a mental deep breath and tried to push all the images of a sexy blond vampire out of her brain.
“OK,” I she chided herself mentally. “This is Riley. The fact that he’s one of the commandos doesn’t change the fact that he’s a nice guy and he likes you. Just explain how important it is that you know what’s going on…..”
She fixed a perky smile on her face and entered the shop. She spotted Riley and felt a twinge of guilt as his face lit up at her approach. He got up and hugged her briefly, then pulled out her chair for her and sat back down.
“Well,” she said.
“Yes, well,” he replied. “ I guess we have some talking to do.”
“Yes, I suppose we do,” she said carefully. “Where do you want to start?”
“Can we start with why you let that vampire get away last night?”
Buffy’s eyes got wide and she cringed with guilt until she remembered that he had been spying on her. “Well, we could. But that would lead to questions about why you chose to hide and spy on me instead of leaving. And I really don’t think you want to go there just yet.” She finished, her expression changing from “caught” to combative.
“I was worried about you,” he mumbled. “I thought you might need help…”
“Riley, I’ve tried and tried to explain to you what I do. I rarely need help – and certainly not for one vamp.”
“And yet, it got away. And you obviously didn’t catch it since my men spotted it later that night leaving campus.”
Buffy’s heart raced with anxiety as she said, “They saw him? Did they…? Is he….?”
Riley looked at her strangely as he replied slowly, “No, they couldn’t catch it. It seems to be a little smarter than the usual run of vampires around Sunnydale.”
Giddy with relief, Buffy blurted out, “Yeah, Spike’s a master vampire. One of the few left. You don’t get to be that old without learning a thing or …..” her voice trailed off as she saw Riley looking at her with horror.
“Spike? It has a name?” he stammered. “And you know it?”
“He has a couple of names – and yes, I know him. He’s been to Sunnydale before.”
“Why didn’t you kill him then?”
“Oh, I tried, believe me! But we’re very evenly matched, Spike and I, neither one of us was ever able to kill the other. And then we, just……”
“Just?”
“We stopped trying to. We made a truce. He left Sunnydale and I went back to my usual slayage.” Buffy hoped she wasn’t as flushed as she felt as memories of how and why they stopped trying to kill each other raced through her mind.
Riley just looked at her dumbstruck until he finally said, “So, he’s harder to kill than the average vamp – even for a Slayer.”
(Did I detect a bit of condescension in his tone?)
“Interesting. I guess we’ll need to be careful when we bring him in.”
“Bring him in? Bring him in where?” She tried to keep her voice even and unconcerned sounding, but her heart was racing at the implications. “I think it’s time you shared with me, don’t you?”
Riley sighed, then agreed, “I don’t have authorization to do this, but…..”
Buffy smiled at him. “I am the Slayer, Riley. Surely it’s OK to let me know what’s going on with the demons in my town?”
“You know, Buffy, most of us had never heard of you before a few weeks ago. And those that had thought the Slayer was a myth. Something to frighten baby vampires with.”
“Well, here I am – all un-mythy and in the flesh. So share.”
He shook his head saying, “I hope I don’t regret this.” He then proceeded to fill her in on the Initiative and its mission to destroy demons and vampires.
When he stopped, Buffy studied him for a minute, then asked, “So why capture them then? Why not just kill them?”
He looked uncomfortable for a minute, then admitted, “There’s some….experimentation going on, I think. The labs are looking for ways to control them – put them to use maybe….”
“Use? What use could a demon be?”
“Well, they’re very powerful, and deadly, and, if they could be controlled –“
“Weapons,” Buffy said flatly. “You want to use them for weapons.” She got up to leave, spinning away from the table.
Buffy!” Riley grabbed her arm, “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. But why do you care? They’re just animals….”
Buffy just looked at him. “Is that why you want Spike?” she asked grimly.
“Well, yeah, we have this new technology we want to try, but we need a strong vampire for the experiment. He’d be perfect.”
“Do not touch him, Riley! He is not an animal to be experimented on.”
“He’s a vampire, Buffy. A dangerous one. You said so yourself. You should be happy to have him neutralized.”
“No one touches Spike except me. I decide if he gets ‘neutralized’ or not.
She looked pointedly at his hand on her arm. “I’m leaving now, Riley.”
“Buffy, don’t leave like this. We need to talk more.” His large hand was still clutching her arm. He was confident she couldn’t leave until he let go and he smiled at her and said, “I’m not letting you leave yet.”
She stared at him in astonishment. “You haven’t listened to a thing I’ve said, have you?” she asked incredulously. “About anything?”
“Oh I know you’re a little physically enhanced somehow – just like we are,” he revealed. “But, I’m twice your size…”
His confident speech was abruptly interrupted as Buffy flexed her arm and threw him off into the table.
“You’re an idiot, Riley,” she said as she left the shop. “Spike will have you for lunch,” she muttered under her breath.
****************************************************
Once the Scoobies were all assembled and looking at her expectantly, Buffy realized that they weren’t likely to be any more enthused about Spike’s presence than Riley was. She considered the best way to approach the subject. Taking a deep breath, she began, “Guys, Giles, do you remember the other day when I said I wasn’t planning to take on Adam alone?”
Giles looked at her curiously and said, “yes, I remember. I’ve been asking you to clarify it for two days.”
“Well, I’m ready to do that now – but it’s going to take some explaining.”
There was a gasp from Willow, whose eyes were huge as she realized who Buffy was talking about.
Everyone looked at her curiously, then back to Buffy.
“Willow?” Giles asked. “Do you know what Buffy’s talking about?”
“I….I think so….”she said as she looked at Buffy for confirmation. Her blond friend nodded her head briefly, then turned to the rest of the group.
“Ok, guys, I know this is going to be a little hard to understand but I’m asking you to trust me.” She took another deep breath and said as she let it out again, “Spikesgoingtohelplme.”
Giles and Xander looked horrified as they realized what she said. Anya and Tara just looked puzzled, as neither of them had been around when Spike was in Sunnydale before.
Giles looked at her sternly and asked, “Did you just say Spike was going to help you? Spike? As in, William the Bloody? Slayer of slayers?”
“Have you lost your mind?” Xander yelped.
Buffy waited for them to stop babbling, then said quietly, “Did any of you every wonder why Spike disappeared so suddenly two years ago? And why I told you I thought he was gone for good?”
Giles shook his head, “I just assumed he’d decided he wasn’t going to be able to kill you and moved on to somewhere there was no slayer.”
“We were just glad he was gone,” Xander said. “Who cared why?”
“So, Buffy,” Giles asked sternly, “Why did he leave?”
Buffy felt the blood rush to her face as she tried to answer without revealing too much.
“Well, we had a fight – another fight – and he…..he beat me.” Giles blanched and Xander and Willow gasped.
“You aren’t a vampire now, are you?” Anya asked.
“No, of course not,” she snapped.
“And why aren’t you?” Giles asked quietly, looking at her hard.
Hoping her face wasn’t giving her away, Buffy responded with as much of the truth as she could.
“He didn’t kill me right away – he asked me a question. I answered it, and then we….talked. Spike and I.”
“You talked? You carried on a conversation with a vampire that was trying to kill you?” Xander said in shock.
“Actually,” Giles said, taking off his glasses and cleaning them, “that’s not a bad strategy for saving one’s life. I commend your creative thinking. I take it, it worked, then?”
“Yes,” Buffy said shortly, hoping Giles would never figure out exactly how “creative” she had been.
“What did you talk about,” Anya asked brightly.
“We, um, we talked about fighting and about how evenly matched we were, and how much fun it was to fight with each other, and….and after awhile we decided we didn’t really want to kill each other anymore.”
“Must have been one hell of a conversation,” Xander snarked.
Buffy struggled to keep her face impassive and wished for something to hide the color she was sure was flooding it. Giles stared at her thoughtfully, but refrained from pursuing the subject in front of the others.
“So,” he asked slowly. “How does this conversation two years ago result in Spike’s helping you now?”
“He was….worried….about me. That I would meet something too big, that I couldn’t handle alone and he told me to call him if I ever needed help. So I did, and he came.”
“He what? He’s here? Spike’s back in Sunnydale? Why haven’t we seen him?”
“I’ve seen him,” Willow ventured. While Tara and Xander gawked at her, she continued, “ He saved me from a group of vamps last night.”
Disbelief clearly visible on his face, Xander said, “To eat himself, I’ll bet!”
“Um, no. He told Buffy he wouldn’t eat any of us.”
“Humph!” he snorted. “I’ll believe that when I see it!”
At the sound of knocking on the door, Buffy said, “Well, here’s your chance, Xander.” And moved to the door.
The sight of the blond vampire standing in the doorway sent the whole crew of Scoobies retreating to the far end of the room. Spike just laughed and leaned against the door jamb, cigarette dangling from his lips.
“Well, Watcher, are you going to invite me in?” He raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
Giles looked at his Slayer’s anxious face and said, “I hope you know what you’re doing, Buffy.” She nodded her head and said, “Please, Giles.”
“Come in, Spike.” The watcher said clearly, moving closer to the door.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Avoiding doing anything useful by posting another chapter.