[Reviews - 450]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 2863 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
Cissi is still on vacation so she couldn't post this. I am her wonderful (ego expanding here) Beta. Lol. I had a hard day at work but I'm going to post this for all of you since I know Cissi would not want her wonderful readers to go with out an update for to long. So show her your love and review. Let her know what a wonderful author she is. Who knows it might help her to write the next chapter faster. Hint, hint. wink wink
Chapter 16.

“Come on, I’ll help you sit down on the couch,” Buffy encouraged Spike as she opened the door to his apartment, still with Buffy’s arm wrapped around his waist for support which Spike still refused that he needed.

“I can walk, Buffy,” Spike said, and grinned at the stubborn glare he got from Buffy.

“You’re just like your father,” Buffy mumbled under her breath.

“Hey!” Spike refused, his eyebrows furrowed together and Buffy gave him a meaning look.

“You are. I mean, when I helped Giles home that day he said the exact same thing, only, he gave up much easier than you.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m much more stubborn than him so deal with it or let me walk by myself.”

Buffy sighed as they reached the living room. “Spike, you weren’t able to stand on your legs at the beach. Just shut up and sit down.”

Spike smiled only to feel the cut on his lip hurt and he flinched. “Your wish is my command.” He let out a deep sigh when he landed on the couch, leaning against the back of it. “But I do have to say it was really nice to sit down again.”

Buffy crossed her arms over her chest and jutted out her chin with a superior smirk. “Told you. Now, where do you keep the first aid kit?”

Spike started to protest. “There’s no need to – “

“First aid kit, Spike!” She growled, giving him a serious look while tapping her foot against the wooden floor and Spike shook his head.

“ – or when you put it that way, sure, go get ‘em. They’re in the bathroom locker.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?” Buffy grinned and gave him a flirty wink before disappearing out from the room, leaving Spike to his own thoughts. He scoffed in amusement and relaxed in the couch with his eyes closed. Come to think of it, he was pretty happy Buffy had followed him. Sure, he had his car and he could drive even though his leg hurt like hell, but just knowing that Buffy cared that much that she didn’t want to leave him made him warm.

His thoughts wandered back to a few minutes earlier at the beach and the words Hank Summers had said.

That is real love.

He remembered the panic that spread through him when her father had said it, afraid that she would freak out. But she hadn’t. She had smiled. The picture of her beautiful face lighting up into an angel’s smile made him smile and ignore the pain in his lip. She hadn’t said no. Okay, sure, that didn’t mean that she loved him, of course she didn’t. That was too early, they had only known each other for a week. Though, Spike could admit that he felt something for her. What that was, he didn’t know yet but he hoped he would find out soon enough. All he knew was that he hadn’t felt like this since Drusilla, not even with all those girls that he had met after their tragic end.

Of course, none of them had really meant something, he realized. They had been there, and he wanted to hurt Drusilla as much as she had hurt him.

“Although, that didn’t work, did it, mate?” He mumbled to himself.

Drusilla obviously felt nothing for him, the few times they had met she had only laughed at his sad attempts to make her jealous. He only earned a reputation of being the town’s man slut.

Spike remembered the day he had gone into the new pub, Wicca, nearly one year ago with only one thought in mind - getting seriously pissed. Tara had been the one to serve him and she noticed something was off, even though she didn’t knew him. He wasn’t all that happy that she tried to get him to talk at first, but she’s good, Tara. He ended up spending the whole day at the pub and also meeting Willow. They offered him a job which he took. Both of them were good friends of his and through them Spike got to know his band mates too. The two women had only brought him good and they respected him for the one he was.

So did Buffy. She didn’t seem to care about his fucked up past. She was still there, wasn’t she?

Spike smiled and leant his head to the side to rest.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
“Medical supplies, where are you?” Buffy mumbled, moving and lifting things in the medical cabinet to find what she was looking for. That was not an easy task, she realized. “Come on, where is it? Ah!”

Buffy brought it out of the locker but her triumph smile disappeared as her cheeks turned red. “Not,” she mumbled and put the pack of condoms back in the locker. She traveled over the next shelf of things and finally found what she was looking for.

Carefully she climbed down from the toilet seat she had used to reach up to the cabinet and walked out of the bathroom. She entered the living room a few seconds later and stopped when she saw Spike apparently sleeping form, a smile formed on her lips.

His head was leaning on his shoulder, facing the wall. His chest slowly rose and fell in time with his breathing. He looked so cute, so vulnerable. Like a little boy. She carefully slid over the floor to sit down on the table in front of him, putting the medical supplies beside her.

Buffy still couldn’t believe what had happened in less than an hour today. Angel, her father, Spike and Connor… What surprised her the most was that her dad finally took her side, something she never had expected him to do. For all those years, he had done everything but support her. Sure, he had kept his part of the deal with child support but not more than that. He hadn’t even helped when Joyce became sick.

When she started dating Angel, Hank seemed to think she finally had made some progress in her life and yet, he always supported Angel in the end.

In the car on their way to Spike’s apartment he had called her, telling her that Angel and him was leaving in a few hours. He even apologized for their behavior, saying that he realized that Angel had gone too far. That he was glad she stood up to him.

That is real love, he had said and although that wasn’t the thing right now she knew she cared about Spike, more than she could have ever imagined she would. It wasn’t love, they had after all only known each other for such a short time but there was something there. Something she didn’t want to fight but neither to rush. It was supposed to develop in its own pace.

Deciding she should get started and fetch him up, she picked up the bottle of alcohol and poured it over a piece of cloth. Carefully, Buffy moved further out on the table to be able to reach him and warily touched his wounded eyebrow. He flinched and drew in a breath as he woke up.

“Sorry,” Buffy said, moving her hand a little to clean the other part of the cut. “But it has to be done, you know. You don’t want it to get infected.”

Spike nodded. “Did I doze off?”

“Yeah, but only for a few minutes,” Buffy replied, removing her hand to pure more alcohol on the piece of cloth. “It’s understandable, though,” she continued, making eye contact with him. “You’ve had a busy day.”

Spike snorted with a small smile on his lips. “Kind of.”

Buffy studied the wounds on his face and frowned. “You got all of those when you got into the water?”

Spike shrugged. “Most of them, yeah, but some from your ex too.”

She felt the guilt wash over her and she nodded, and glanced down to the floor. “I’m sorry about Angel. He’s… He’s special. But this time he went too far. You didn’t have to be the knight in shining armor, you know.”

“What if I wanted to?”

Buffy smiled at that. “I’m grateful, don’t get me wrong. I just…” She let out a little sigh as she started to clean the cut on his lip. “I just don’t like to see you hurt because of me.”

“Better me than you.”

Buffy glared at him and tried to keep her serious face but failed miserably when Spike put on his best puppy dog pout. “Stop it, I’m serious.”

Spike straightened up wrapped his fingers around her hand, stopping her movements over his lip as he could feel her pulse increase. “It doesn’t matter, luv. I’m just glad that pillock is out of the picture because he seemed like a real creep. What did he want by the way? Except you back, of course,” he added, tilting his head. Buffy scoffed and shook her head in denial.

“He’s unbelievable. You know what he wanted? He wanted me to marry him.”

Spike raised his eyebrow. “Seriously?”

Buffy nodded. “Uhuh. I thought he was joking at first.”

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Spike said, pointing his figure at her. “You were seeing this pillock for almost a year…”

“Yeah…” Buffy answered, warily, wondering where he was going with this. “I was.”

“You broke up with him because you always saw him flirting with other women?”

“Yeah, but – “

“He didn’t… Allow you to break up with him and he seriously thought that you two were still together?”

Buffy nodded, confusion written all over her face.

“He lied to your friend, brought your dad into this to travel across the world to ask you to marry him when he knew you were in a relationship, or,” he stopped, shaking his head, “well, you weren’t but at least he thought so.”

“Uhuh, what are you getting at, Spike?” Buffy frowned.

“What the hell did you see in him?” Spike burst out, trying to keep the accusing tone in his voice when he saw Buffy’s face lit up in confusion.

“I – What? You don’t have any right to ask that,” Buffy gasped, bewildered by this subject. But, when she saw the small smirk tugging at his cheeks she realized he wasn’t really accusing her. She sighed and glanced at the roof, as if she was pondering what to tell him. “What did I see in him… Oh, I know!” She said, clapping her hands together. “He was so damn sexy when I first saw him. I was seriously drooling…”

“Pet…” Spike warned, giving her a bemused look. Buffy laughed.

“Kidding. But… Come to think of it I thought he was pretty hot.”

“I wasn’t joking!” Spike exclaimed and Buffy chuckled at his expression but then became serious. She let out a little sigh and rested her elbows against her knees before starting.

“Honestly, I don’t really know what I saw in him,” she said, before shrugging. “Well, except that I actually thought he was pretty good looking.”

If it was possible, Spike raised his eyebrows even more. “That wanker? You don’t know what you’re talking about, Goldilocks.”

Buffy smiled. “Maybe not. But I know who he is now, especially after what the little trick he pulled at the beach. I never thought he’d go as far as this. Though, I did make peace with my dad a little,” she smirked. “I still can’t believe he defended me like that after all those years.”

“Well, it was about time,” Spike said. “I’m glad you’re beginning to work things out. What did he say when he called?”

“That he was gonna contact me when he got back to L.A. he wanted to meet me when I got back. Which reminds me, I should probably call Cordelia before she goes stir crazy.”

Spike chuckled softly and leaned backwards. “You’re probably right. Use my phone if you like.”

“Thanks,” Buffy said, before standing up and glancing down at Spike. “Get some rest, I’ll be right back.”
______________

“Buffy Summers! Oh my friggin’ god! You scared the hell out of me!”

Buffy sighed as she once again had to make some distance between her ear and the phone. “Cordy, please calm down.”

“Oh, you ask me to calm down, huh?” Cordelia ranted and Buffy could practically see her pacing. “I’ve been freaking out here for the last hour! You just hung up when I heard Angel’s voice in the background.”

“Sorry, but I had to,” Buffy replied, sitting down at one of the chairs in the kitchen. “What did he do, Cordy?”

“I told you,” Cordelia said. “He came by a few days ago and asked for your number, convinced me that you two had made it up. He said your cell went dead before he got the number to your house. I didn’t believe him at first, but he seemed so… sure. So, desperate to get a hold of you. Well, I should’ve realized that you hadn’t.”

“We hadn’t. How did you find out by the way? We haven’t spoken on the phone for the past week.”

“I called your mom and talked to Dawnie. She said she talked to you yesterday and that you had no intention of getting back together with Angel at all costs. That’s when I realized that bastard lied and I called you.”

“He… He didn’t do anything to you, did he?” Buffy asked, her voice nervous as she remembered Angel’s words. She’s pretty easy your friend… In many ways…
“No, and I don’t think he would’ve dared to since Doyle was in the living room. How did it go?”

Buffy sighed. “Not good. He’s sick, you know who he brought with him? My dad.”

“What?” Cordy squealed. “Your absent daddy who doesn’t give a shit about you?”

“That would be him. I think he wanted to be sure that I’d say yes to his question…”

“Question?”

“He wanted me to marry him.”

“Don’t tell me you said yes.”

“Hell no,” Buffy frowned. “I mean, a few months ago I would’ve said yes but I’ve seen who he is now. And he got into a fight with Spike too, well… Okay to be honest Spike started it…”

“Spike?” Cordelia questioned. “Who’s Spike?”

“He’s a guy I met here at the bar. We’ve been hanging out for a couple of days.”

“Oh, a hottie huh? So, what have you been up to exactly?” Cordy grinned.

“Cordelia!” Buffy gasped. “He’s a friend.”

“Just a friend?”

“Well… I think so. I mean, he’s really nice and all but we have agreed to let things develop in its own pace. I won’t rush anything. Angel and I just broke up, it’s probably not a good idea to rush into a new relationship right the way.”

“Keep telling yourself that, honey. But I assure you that you will call me in a week and tell me all the saucy details.”

“Cordelia Chase!” Buffy sighed and started to walk out of the kitchen towards the living room. She stopped in the doorway, a smile gracing her features at the sight in front of her. Spike was lying in the sofa, his left arm covering his face and the other hanging down the couch. His chest slowly moved up and down, as it had before when he was sleeping so deep.

“So you’re telling me there isn’t a chance you two are getting together?” Cordy continued in the background and Buffy kept smiling at the scene in front of her.

“Maybe.”





You must login (register) to review.