Chapter Nineteen
The sun was dropping down behind the nearby buildings when Spike and Buffy took a last look around the house, preparing to leave and spend the evening waiting for the portal to open again. While Spike went through his desk, making sure he hadn’t left any future-altering information behind, Buffy went back upstairs to look around. She was dressed in her usual nighttime outfit of boy’s trousers and a boy’s shirt; her own clothes stuffed into a rucksack that Spike had found for her.
On a whim, she grabbed her nightgown and stuffed it into the sack with her skirt and blouse. She ran her hands over a few of her favorite dresses, sighing as she left them hanging in the closet. She also placed the box in which her diamonds would be stored into the pack, knowing she wouldn’t be wearing them after she got home.
After one last, lingering kiss at the front door, the two predators slipped out into the night to find their way back to their own time and place. Spike pulled the door shut behind him, waiting until he heard the lock click into place before joining Buffy on the front lawn. With one last look at the house in which she’d been a spoiled and well-loved rich man’s wife, if for such a short time, Buffy squared her shoulders and walked off in the direction of the portal, rucksack slung over her shoulder and cap pulled down to hide her blond locks and feminine features.
They quickly reached the general area in which they had been deposited the night they arrived and spent several minutes arguing about the exact location of the portal.
“It was right here,” Buffy insisted, kicking at a pile of horse manure. “I’m sure this was it. There’s the bush that the message was caught on last night. See?”
“Just because the bloody piece of paper was blown over to a bush, doesn’t mean that’s where it came in. When we sent it back, it was right over here.” Spike stood in the middle of the street, pointing to the ground for emphasis.
Buffy opened her mouth to argue, then suddenly stiffened and reached for the stake in her back pocket. She crouched, extending her senses, trying to identify the direction from which the vampire presence was strongest. She turned slowly, straightening up, but continuing to hold her stake as Drusilla stepped out of the shadows.
“Where is he?” She ignored the Slayer and spoke directly to Spike. “Where is my William?”
“I told you Dru. If it’s anything to do with us, he’ll be back here when we’re gone. Don’t know exactly when that will be.”
“I’ll wait,” she said quietly, moving back into the shadows.
“Oh great,” Buffy grumbled. “Not only do I have to stand around in the middle of a street all night, I have to do it with Miss Looney Tunes watching me.”
“She’s just waiting for her Spike to come back, Slayer. Ease up.”
“Ease up? Tell me something, William.” Her voice dragged his name out in anger, “How many children is she going to eat between now and our time because I’m leaving her unstaked? How many, huh?”
“I don’t know, pet, but they’re already dead, so all you’d be doing here is mucking up the whole thing. Who knows what kind of world we’d go back to if you changed something that major.”
“I know,” she admitted with a sigh. “It’s just really hard not to do what my Slayer side is screaming at me I should be doing.”
After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Spike said quietly, “I’m going to go talk to her for a minute – are you alright with that?”
Buffy waved her hand airily. “Go ahead. No sense in both of us being bored. Just don’t go too far away in case we have to jump.”
“Don’t worry, love. Not letting you out of my sight.”
Buffy rolled her eyes as he walked toward the shadows in which his insane ex was hiding, wondering what he could possibly have to talk to her about. She tried to smother the pang of jealousy she felt when he didn’t even look back, but strode eagerly toward the woman he’d loved for over a hundred years.
(I guess that’s a positive thing to know. That he can love somebody for over 100 years – and still care about them even after they dump him for a slimy demon. Of course the chance that I’ll be around 100 years from now is somewhere between slim and none, so I guess that’s not a worry for either one of us...)
While Buffy stood impatiently tapping her foot on the curb, Spike made his way into the shadow where Dru was pacing anxiously.
“You might as well relax, Princess,” he said soothingly. “We don’t know what time it’s going to happen. Could be a long wait.”
She cocked her head at him, seemingly sane again for a few moments.
“What could have happened to my William to turn him into the Slayer’s doggie? And what kind of a slayer wants a vampire in her bed?”
“I’m not your average vampire, pet. And that,” he nodded in Buffy’s direction, “is definitely not your average slayer. You’d do well to remember that,” he added as she made a face.
“Daddy is going to be so angry with you.” She changed the subject abruptly. “I will have to tell him I punished you severely for leaving us or he will discipline us both.”
“Yeah, your precious ‘daddy’ always was big with the discipline,” he snarled. “One of his more endearing traits.”
Spike reached in the pocket of his duster and pulled out one of his few remaining cigarettes. He took his time lighting it with a match, rather than the Zippo in his pocket, and blowing the smoke into the air.
“What are you planning to tell him, Dru? About where William’s been and what he’s been doing?”
She waved her hand around vaguely. “I’ll just tell him, and grandmother, that you wanted to take your time killing the little blond girl and that I’ve punished you for allowing her to take you away from us. It will be alright.”
“He knows she’s a slayer, pet. He watched her in action.”
“He’ll forget about all that,” she said confidently. “He will think you were just using her to fool some more of those nasty people you used to care about. I’ll tell him how you ripped and tore, and drank until you were sick and they were all gone. And he won’t remember that the little girl was a slayer.”
She spoke with such confidence that Spike was seized with a sudden suspicion.
“You’re going to thrall him? You’re going to take your precious ‘daddy’s” memories and twist them?”
The brunette vampire ignored his question, just humming and twirling to music only she could hear. After a few seconds of watching her spinning and humming, he shrugged and walked back toward the street.
“So,” Buffy couldn’t keep the jealous edge out of her voice as he approached, “how are things in la-la land?”
“They’ll be better when we’re out of here. I hope I’m right and that her Spike is back in Sunnyhell waiting to be switched for me, although I don’t know why I wouldn’t remember something like tha--.”
“How is that something to hope for?” she asked, her voice rising. “You were a stone cold killer! No chip, no Buffy. What’s going to keep you-him from killing everybody?”
“Dunno, love, but obviously something has or we wouldn’t be standing here waitin’ to catch the next bus that glows and hums. Speaking of which....”
Buffy whirled in the direction he was facing and saw the telltale green glow of the portal beginning to show. They watched closely as it gradually enlarged until the opening was big enough for them to step into.
“Alright then, Slayer, this is it. Vacation fun is over.”
Buffy reached for his hand, only to find it already linking to hers just as when they came through the first time. He gave her a wink and squeezed her hand, then stepped toward the open space pulling her with him. They stepped through together, moving into each other’s arms for a final kiss before they felt themselves being pulled away.
The transition from the dark London street to an equally dark metal room was as sudden as before, but his time they both landed off balance and fell to the floor. Spike twisted so as to land on the bottom with Buffy sprawled over him.
“Thought you wanted to break the news gently, pet,” he teased as the door flew open and all the Scoobies and Riley peered in at them lying on the floor. He felt Buffy’s body stiffen when Riley shouted, “Buffy! Are you alright? What are you doing on top of Spike? Do you want me to throw you a stake?”
With a sigh and an apologetic smile, she pushed herself off the vampire and stood up.
“I don’t need a stake, Riley. We just fell when we landed and Spike caught me. I’m fine. We’re BOTH fine,” she added for emphasis.
Spike kipped to his feet, grabbed the rope Giles tossed down to them, and handed it to Buffy. She took it from him, taking the time to look into his eyes and begin, “Spike, I...it might...”
“Whenever you’re ready, love,” he said, reading her mind. “I’ll wait. Not patiently, mind you, but I’ll wait.”
She gave him a grateful smile and pulled herself up the rope, quickly tossing it back down to him before Riley could get any ideas about shutting the door on Spike. Using the rope only for leverage, he was up and out the door, standing beside Buffy in one leap. He edged away from the door and stood off to the side while Buffy was engulfed in welcoming hugs from her Watcher and friends. He smiled indulgently until Riley picked Buffy up in an extended hug, which he tried to accompany with a kiss that she was able to dodge smoothly. The sight of the big man holding the woman he’d finally admitted to loving brought yellow flashes to his eyes and he felt his gums itch as his fangs tried to let down.
“Now is not the time,” came a quiet, but very firm voice beside him and he whirled to stare at the watcher in surprise. Their eyes met for several seconds before Spike nodded abruptly and shook off his demon.
“Soon as all the welcome back hoopla is over, we need to talk,” Spike said. “She was havin’ Slayer dreams the whole time we were gone.”
Giles nodded and gestured toward the table they’d been using for research.
“We might as well do it now, while we’re all here. If she’s been having them this whole time, It must be urgent.”
“Oh, it’s urgent alright, Watcher. You can count on it.”
Buffy was in the middle of an animated conversation with Willow and Tara about her experiences in nineteenth century London and theirs with fledgling Spike, when Giles interrupted to suggest they sit down so that she could fill them in on the whole experience. He emphasized “whole” and Buffy shot Spike a look before realizing he was talking about her dreams. She blushed when Spike leered at her, clearly guessing where her mind had gone at first.
“Let’s start with the dreams, Buffy. What were they about?”
“Well, they were about...um...vampires,” she started, looking at Riley and wondering how he would react to hearing than Angelus was planning to rape and turn her. She stalled for time, beginning by saying, “But Dru was in them and she’s in South America, and Darla, but she’s dust and-“
“Wolfram and Hart resurrected Darla somehow, and Dru is with her,” Giles said quietly. “Wesley called last night to warn us.”
Buffy and Spike exchanged a frightened look that was not lost on anyone in the room. “Then Peaches’ soul has gone walkabout,” the vampire said without inflection as he turned away from the table with his hands in his pockets.
No one questioned what he said, except Riley who sputtered and insisted there was no way for Spike to know that. Everyone ignored him, looking at Buffy and waiting for the explanation. She sighed and said, “Bring out your notes, Spike.”
Giles took the sheaf of papers that the vampire silently handed him, scanning them quickly. His “Dear Lord,” and the look he shot at Spike told him the Watcher had come to the part where Angelus had abruptly stopped his assault on Buffy. Buffy may not have known the significance of those actions and words, but it was clear that her watcher did. Giles continued reading through the carefully written notes about each dream, glancing at Spike again when he came to another reference to the “protection” Buffy somehow had obtained from the vampire.
He stared hard at Spike and for just a second the Ripper was very visible as he asked, “Did you?”
Spike shook his head “no”, adding, “I haven’t even told her about it.”
He somehow managed to imply that the Watcher had failed in his duties to his Slayer, if she didn’t know what could have stopped a vampire attack that quickly.
The Watcher glared back at him, than said with a sigh, “I just never thought it would be important. It seemed better that she not know that...”
“That the creatures she slays every night could care about each other that much?” Spike challenged the man’s glare with a cold stare of his own, until the watcher dropped his eyes and nodded.
“It seemed best.”
By this time, Buffy was staring back and forth between the two, her irritation obvious and growing.
“Anything you’d like to share with the class?” she huffed, turning her head to glare at Spike. When she turned her head, Giles could see the small, healed marks on her neck and frowned at the vampire again.
Again, Spike shook his head “no”. “Didn’t. Wouldn’t without her permission.”
“But...?” He gestured subtly toward Buffy’s neck, making sure Riley didn’t notice.
“Heat of the moment. Not the same thing at all,” he growled, moving to stand behind Buffy.
“Okay, that’s it with the cryptic! I want to know what you two are talking about and I want to know now!”
Rather than answer her, Giles spoke to an increasingly annoyed Riley. “Riley, I think it best if you move away from the table for a little while. Perhaps you and Xander could go look for more weapons? It appears we may need them soon.”
The big man started to object, but at a pleading look from Buffy, Xander stepped up beside him and said, “Great idea, G-man. Come on, Riley, let’s leave the strategizing to the...the strategizers and go find us some more cool things to blow stuff up with.”
“Please, Riley,” Buffy added. “Giles and I need to talk about my dreams and I would prefer to do it in private.”
The ex-commando glared pointedly at the vampire lounging behind her chair and growled, “And he’s here because...?”
“He’s here because I want him to be here,” Buffy said in a tone that brooked no argument. “He’s a part of this. You’re not.” She winced when she saw the pain flash across her boy friend’s face, but gazed at him steadfastly until he nodded and turned away.
As soon as Xander and Riley were out of sight, Spike moved closer to Buffy’s chair, resting his hands lightly on her shoulders and squeezing reassuringly. She reached up with one hand and touched him lightly, leaving her hand resting on his as she looked back at Giles and waited for his answer.
Giles watched them and heaved a large sigh.
“Shall I assume from your behavior, that while you were gone you two figured out that which has been obvious to the rest of us for some time?”
“Wha-?:
“Bloody hell!”
Buffy tilted her head up to look at the blond vampire. “We were obvious? Why didn’t we know?”
He shrugged and pulled out the chair next to her, sitting down and linking his hand with hers. “Guess we’re a little slow, pet,” he said with a smile.
“Speak for yourself,” she grumbled. “I’m all with the quick knowing, and...”
“Could we get back to Angelus and leave the discussion of your mutual ability to live in denial until later?”
Her watcher’s voice brought them back to the subject at hand and Buffy leaned forward urgently.
“Okay, so if Darla’s back and Dru is with her, then Angel either has or is about to lose his soul. The question is, in my dreams why can’t I move when he’s around? Why am I so afraid of him? And,” she shot a don’t-think-I’ve-forgotten-about-this” look at her Watcher and the vampire, “what is keeping him from killing me and what does it have to do with Spike?”
“You tell her, Spike,” Giles said firmly. “You probably should have explained it as soon as she told you the dream. It may well be important.” His tone made it obvious that he would prefer not to be having this conversation at all.
“Yes, tell me Spike. What do you think you did in my dreams that kept Angelus from killing me?” She looked at him with suspicious eyes. She’d known he knew something about what was going on, but hadn’t realized it might be important until she saw her watcher’s reaction.
Spike squirmed uncomfortably for a minute, releasing her hand to play with his lighter, before looking her in the eye to say quietly, “Apparently I claimed you. That would be the only thing that would make him back off like that when he started to bite you - and that dusting me would remove.”
“Claimed? What do you mean, claimed? Like a piece of luggage?” Buffy’s indignant tone made it clear what she thought of being anyone’s possession, even his.
Giles took up the explanation while the vampire tried very hard to look as though he found the idea more shocking than desirable.
“If Spike was to say the necessary words while biting you, and if you were to give the appropriate acceptance, you would be marked as his...property. No vampire would be permitted to bite you as long as Spike was alive—er, undead. Even the attempt at rape would be out of the question. Angelus’ responses in your dreams indicate that you belonged to Spike.”
“Because he bit me? So Angel – Angelus won’t be able to bite me now?
“He could do it now, pet. Those little nips aren’t claiming bites. If he even noticed them, they wouldn’t stop him.”
Giles looked as though he had a bad taste in his mouth as he spoke slowly. “As unhappy as I am that you have put your teeth on Buffy at all,” he said with another glare at the unconcerned vampire, “I suppose we will have to take into consideration the fact that you could offer her an additional measure of protection if it appears she could need it.”
“So, in my dreams, Angelus stopped because I was marked as yours? That’s why he was so determined to kill you?”
“You’re not as dumb as you look, Slayer,” he said, trying to lighten the mood.
“Shut up, Spike,” she answered automatically, thinking hard for a minute. “Maybe you should do it, then,” she said finally. “I probably wouldn’t freeze if I knew he couldn’t touch me. That’s what we should do then. Here!” she added, tilting her neck at him.
She frowned when Spike almost fell off his chair recoiling from her offered neck. Her watcher’s red face, coughing, and vigorous polishing of his glasses told her she must still be missing important information about claiming.
“What’s the matter with you?” she asked the still shocked vampire. “Don’t you want to claim me?”
When he saw the pain in her eyes that she tried to hide with anger, he moved back to her side quickly and, forgetting about the other people at the table, cupped her cheek with his hand as he said, “Nothing I’d like more, sweetheart. But it’s not something to be taken lightly. There’s a little more to it than your watcher said, and it’s definitely not something we would be doing in front of other people.”
He rolled his eyes at the still blushing older man and the two curious wiccas sitting at the table with them. Buffy blushed herself as she figured out some of what he was not saying, and although she leaned into his palm briefly before sitting up straight again, she nodded her agreement before she turned back to Giles.
“All right. So dis-invites for Angel all around, and Willow will work on the re-ensouling spell in case she gets a chance to use it. Spike and I will patrol every night, looking for any sign of the evil threesome---”
Giles looked at his surrogate daughter with admiration and some concern.
“Buffy, perhaps it would be wise for you to remain indoors where it is safe until we come up with an explanation for the immobility Angelus seemed to inspire in your dreams.”
She glared at the older man. “I am NOT going to hide from him!” she growled. “I’ve already proved to myself that I can scare him more than he scares me, so I know the dreams aren’t a hundred percent prophetic. The best thing I could do is to take it to him, not cower in my room.”
“Proved it how?” Willow asked curiously. “I thought these were just dreams.”
Buffy exchanged a look with Spike, then ducked her head and mumbled, “Lots of things happened while we were gone. It’ll take a while to tell you about all of them.”
“I feel confident that there are some things about which we have no need to know more,” Giles said dryly as Buffy blushed and the vampire smirked at him. “Please spare us.”
“I don’t want to be spared!” Willow whined. “I want to know everything.”
While Spike laughed and Tara whispered in Willow’s ear, Buffy huffed, “I MEANT that Angelus was there, with us, and I acted all scaredy-rabbit like in my dreams.”
“And yet, here you are, so clearly he did not attack you.”
“No, Spike was always there to keep him away. So, you see, that’s not like my dreams either. Cause in the dreams? Spike was always getting beaten, or ripped to shreds, or...”
“Hey!” The vampire’s indignant interruption brought attention back to him and Buffy smiled up at him. She surprised both the vampire and her friends when she stood up and wrapped her arms around him.
“I’m just saying, in my dreams we’re always losing, but in real life, we chased him away.”
“Thought you wanted to take this slowly, pet?” he asked softly as he put his arms around her and whispered in her ear.
“They already know. So, they might as well start getting used to us now. Except Riley. I’m going to have to break up with him, and I don’t think it’s fair to do it in front of everybody, so...”
“Got it, pet. Better start now, then,” he said, dropping his hands and stepping away from her.
Buffy blinked at him in surprise, then noticed what he’d already sensed; that Xander and Riley were striding back into the room, arms full of various implements of vampire control. She nodded gratefully and sat back down at the table.
“How did you gather the courage to chase him away then, Buffy?” Giles brought the attention back to the subject at hand. “It may be important that we understand the mechanism.”
“IgotmadatSpike,” she mumbled quickly.
“You what?”
Xander and Riley approached the table in time to hear the question and Xander added his comments.
“She said she got mad at Spike. So what else is new? What difference did that make, Buffy?” he asked, turning to her curiously. “And, by the way, what are we talking about?”
“We’re talking about the fact that in my dreams, I couldn’t move anytime Angelus was around. I was paralyzed with fear. And, the first few times we saw him while we were back in time, the same thing happened. I was all, ‘eek, a vampire!’ girl instead of a slayer.”
“So, getting mad at Captain Peroxide was the cure? Let’s hear it for irritating vampires.” Xander gave Spike a thumbs-up, causing Riley to glare at him angrily.
Buffy rolled her eyes while Spike smirked again and deliberately sat down beside her. Riley stomped to the table and yanked out the chair across from them, dropping into it heavily and planting his elbows on the table. He stared hard at the vampire sitting so close to his girlfriend and asked coldly, “What did he do to make you mad? And why did it help you?”
Buffy got her “deer in the headlights” look again as she remembered what the fight was about. “I...I...don’t...I mean, we...”
“Wasn’t important, GI Joe. Jus’ me shooting off my mouth when I shouldn’t have. Important thing is, she was so mad at me she went right back into her room and knocked the big poof off the roof.”
While Xander and Willow cheered, “Go, Buffy!” and “Way to go, Buffster!” Riley’s eyes narrowed and he said quietly, “Back to HER room? Where, exactly, were you two for the past two weeks?”
While the vampire cursed under his breath, and Buffy continued to look like she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Giles stepped in and answered calmly, “We have yet to get into a discussion of exactly where they were or how they managed. It is of much more importance that we evaluate the potential danger to her now and take steps to correct it.”
Buffy sent him a grateful look, nodding her head and adding, “We need to figure out if the soul is gone yet. And we need to warn Wesley and Cordelia, and the rest of Angel’s friends in LA. If they know about Darla and Dru...”
“I will call Wesley as soon as I get home,” Giles said, standing up. “I suggest we all get some place safe and rest for what may well be a trying time.”
Everyone who was around the last time Angelus made an appearance, shuddered and nodded, while Riley looked at them in confusion.
“What’s the big deal?” he asked angrily. “He’s just another vampire, Buffy.”
“Not to me, he isn’t,” she responded quietly, gathering up her rucksack and preparing to leave with everyone else. She missed the black looks that went across the faces of both her current and soon-to-be ex boyfriends.
The group started toward the exit, everyone more than happy to see the last of the underground lab. Xander and Riley had large backpacks full of the weapons they’d collected and Willow and Tara were walking together when Spike saw Riley reach for Buffy’s hand.
Willow flinched at his snarl and her eyes widened in fear when his face changed briefly. He cocked his head at her and asked with a puzzled face, “What’s the matter, Red? You know I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Right,” she said quickly, glancing at Riley who was holding on to Buffy but staring at them. “Cause you’re all with the chip and stuff, and not about the hurting humans...” Willow babbled, caught between her worry that Riley would figure out the chip was gone and her fear of a chipless Spike.
“Wouldn’t hurt you, or your bird, either way,” he said quietly. “You know that.”
Willow smile at him apologetically. “I know that, Spike. I’m sorry. It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen you go all ‘grrrr’, you know?”
“Better get used to it, pet,” he said, staring at the big man still clinging to Buffy’s reluctant hand.
He forced himself to relax and trust her to handle the situation in her own way, in spite of his demon’s demands that he tear the man’s hand off for daring to touch her. Letting Willow and Tara go ahead of him, he waited for the Watcher and walked out with him, bringing up the rear of the little group.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
My apologies to everyone - I lost track of the chapters and accidentally put up 20 for 19. Here is the real Chapter Nineteen to be followed immediately by Chapter Twenty (which you've already seen) and then today's first posting - Chapter Twenty-one.