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Chapter 12

The forkful of cherry cheesecake was about to pass Spike's lips when he suddenly dropped it on the table. Harmony looked at him, marking how he was shaking as if having a seizure.

"Spike?" she asked, concerned,"What's the matter?" In a flash he was on his feet and running through the restaurant, pushing any one who was in his way careening into other patrons or tables. Out in the street people screamed when they saw the pale man with the monster's face come roaring into the night. Cars slammed on their breaks, tires screeching to a halt when he leapt in front of them in an effort to get across to the woman wandering in a daze.

Spike scooped Buffy up into his arms and rolled them away seconds before she was demolished by a pickup truck. The pair rolled over the sidewalk's concrete until they were halted by hitting the wall of a building. When the dust settled, Spike was finally able to get his wits about him and try to figure out what the hell had just happened. With the two of them still sprawled on the ground, Spike gathered the Slayer up in his arms to check she was alright. She looked up at him with a sweet smile on her face, but that was the only thing about her he recognized. Her eyes were vibrating with emotion, her skin flushed and her body tense and stressed.

"Buffy? Love, what's going on? Why did you..." Suddenly she grabbed his face and mashed her mouth upon his, pushing her tongue inside to wrap around his for a fierce, deep kiss. When he finally pulled away, she was panting, growling lustfully and grasping at him,"Buffy, bloody hell, pet, calm down...tell me what's happening?!"

"Spike, I need you!"

"I'm right here, love, but I don't understand."

"I won't let her have you, I won't let her take you from me!"

"What on earth are you going on about?" By now Harmony had come over from the restaurant, along with many others, and Anya had finally made it to the scene also. Buffy scrambled to her feet and lunged at the other women, but fortunately Spike reacted quickly and grabbed her about the waist, restraining her against him.

"I'll kill you! If either of you come near him I'll kill you!!"

"Fuck, Buffy calm down!" She continued to struggled with him and Spike was barely able to match her adrenaline fueled strength.

"She's delirious, Spike," Anya tried to explain,"I think there's something really wrong, she has a super high fever. I think I should go get Rupert and you should take her to the hospital." Spike nodded, Buffy's still worming in his grasp. When she let out a whimpering cry that seemed to be one of pain, he eased up, trying to hug her to him.

"Just knock her head against the wall, Spikey," Harmony suggested with a sneer,"It might improve her face."

"Not helping, Harm!" Spike shot back, he then focused back on Buffy. She started to fight with him again, but she was weakening. Unsure of how to subdue her without causing more of a scene, he pressed her back to the wall, holding her hands above her head holding her there by settling his weight on her against the bricks. He tried to cajole her with brushing his lips over her face, murmuring in her ear that he was there and wasn't going to leave her. But through all his efforts, something had taken hold of the Slayer and moments later it had her in a hysteria.

"Spike...don't do this, please. Please no, no!!" she wailed, trying to get away from him,"Don't hurt me!"

"Shhh, love, I won't hurt you, I'm just trying to help." Turning on a dime, she was enraged and got the better of him, kicking out his knee and laying him flat on the sidewalk. She was upon him, throwing fist after fist down upon his face.

"You bastard! How could you do that to me? I told you NO!!" He didn't once strike back, only holding his arms up to guard his face and fend off her blows,"You said you'd never hurt me, you promised you'd never leave me!" Without warning the fighting stopped and Buffy fell heavy upon him. Spike moved quickly, urgently, to turn himself over and tend to his fiancé. She was out cold, her breathing nothing more than a faint wheeze that labored her lungs, her body feeling as if it were on fire.

"Buffy?! Oh god, Buffy? Please love, answer me!" He cradled her limp body in his arms, slapping at her face to try to rouse her,"Will somebody call a bloody ambulance!!" He had begun to panic at her lack of response, coupled with the seeming severity of her illness. Her breath caught in her throat, and then ceased altogether.

***

Spike didn't remember what had occurred between the time the paramedics had arrived on scene and the moment when Giles sat down next to him in the waiting room and placed a comforting hand on his back."I've ruined your suit, Rupert," Spike said, still staring at the same mark on the floor he had been for past half an hour.

"It's just a suit," the Watcher replied. Anya was there now too, sitting on the vampire's other side, holding on to his arm,"Tell me what happened. Anya's told me everything that occurred when she and Buffy were together." Spike tried to speak, but found he hand no words and merely wrung his trembling hands.

"She...she..."

"She was delirious," Anya provided,"She had a high fever..."

"She wasn't herself, talked, talked in nonsense, was having flashbacks to...to bad times in the p...past...then she just....nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"She passed out, she was barely breathing...then she stopped...I don't know what happened after that...people, lights...I..." He fell silent, going into himself, body shaking with pent up emotional, soul in torment and demon desperate to break into a rage."W...Willow and Dawn...they're at the movies...they should be here."

"I'll call them," Anya volunteered, moving away and getting out her cell phone. Seconds later the ER doctor who had attended to Buffy emerged from behind the closed doors of the trauma room. Giles nudged Spike to attention and the vampire was there in an instant.

"I need to see her!" he begged.

"Just a moment, Mr....?" the doctor questioned.

"It's Spike, just tell me how Buffy is?!"

"She's alive, for one." Spike choked on a cry, grabbing on to Giles for a hug of mutual relief,"Her lungs were full of fluids, she nearly drowned. As it stands we have her on a ventilator as she's no longer able to breathe on her own. She's listed as critical with an irregular heartbeat, dramatic fever and very low blood pressure. Normally these signs were indicate a severe case of pneumonia, except for one thing....."

"What is it?"

"Her temperate, it's 112°."

"Is that very high?"

"Mr. Spike, any human being with a temperature that high should be dead."





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