The front door of the small two story house on Revello drive opens and closes with a creak. Buffy, Riley and Sam return to the Summer’s house after an awkward meeting and killing of the suvolte demon. Following some questioning and disappointing looks from Dawn they are getting down to business and settle into the living room where Xander and Willow greet them.
“So… What brings you back to town after you left suddenly with no word?” Dawn says pointedly to the soldier and his wife.
“Sam and I have been tracking a Suvolte demon through Central America. Killing machine. Nearly mature.”
“Yeah, three months old and growing fast,” Sam adds in.
“These things start to kill the minute they're hatched. And leave a real clear trail.”
“Yeah. Just follow the villages with nothing in them but body parts.”
“Uh ... Dawn, are you sure you wanna be around hearing all this?”
“Oh, come on, Finn, she looks all grown-up to me… That is, if it's all right with you,” Sam says setting her gaze on Buffy.
“Uh, sure, yeah, it's fine,” Buffy says a little surprised. It had been a while since she even thought of protecting Dawn from the things they talk about in scooby meetings.
Buffy zones out a little as Riley and Sam talk about the Suvolte demon and its eggs. She can hear the excitement in their voices as they speak, and something about every word each of them says just annoys her. Buffy adds in a few comments as the conversation goes on, but now it's starting to get off topic as Xander’s enthusiasm over his engagement leads to questions about Riley and Sam’s wedding. Something Buffy surely does not want to hear about.
Buffy’s eyes direct themselves to the floor and when Willow notices Buffy’s discomfort she makes snide faces at Sam. Riley and Sam sweetly smile at Xander over their wedding discussion and then turn back to Buffy. Willow instantly makes an innocent face pretending that she wasn’t at all giving Sam the evil eye for Buffy’s sake.
“So, demon eggs. Any timetable on when they're gonna hatch?” Buffy asks wanting to get the conversation back on track.
“Hatching's not the problem,” Riley says.
“We think they're gonna be sold on the black market,” Sam says, “There are some foreign military powers that would love to have their own Suvolte. You could never train it, but drop it on an urban population...”
“And it cleanses the area.”
“Is that a nice way of saying it kills people?” Dawn asks.
“Lots of 'em. Money's been exchanged. There's a dealer in town, calls himself the, The Doctor…”Sam says, but then is cut off by the sound of the screen door opening and smashing back into its frame.
The noise is heard through the house and all heads turn in the direction of the kitchen. Buffy’s eyes go wide while Riley and Xander go on red alert standing up. They hear someone moving around in the kitchen and then all faces glance back at Buffy for a moment.
“What was that?” Riley asks.
“Stay here, I’ll go look,” Buffy says almost excited for the distraction.
Buffy stands up and walks through the French doors in the living room. Slowly she moves closer to the entrance to the dining room fully expecting something to attack her. Then, just as she’s about to walk through the doorway she runs smack into Spike coming from the dining room. They’re both startled and each takes a deep breath of surprise.
“Spike.”
“Slayer.”
“What are you do…”
“Spike,” Riley says from behind Buffy.
Buffy turns around to see Riley and Xander standing behind her. They are glaring with judgmental and discouraging eyes with which they seem to be attempting to burn a hole through Spike with. Then Buffy turns back to the vampire before her, she can see the sarcastic smirk creep onto his face and Buffy knows a snide remark is building up inside him at that very moment. Spike brushes past Buffy and gets right into Riley’s face.
“And here I thought we’d run you out of town mate.”
“What are you doing here Spike?”
“I should ask you the same question… Last time I saw you, if memory serves, you were getting the juice sucked out of you by some undead ladies of very questionable reputation.”
Sam comes up behind Riley and puts her hand on his shoulder. Riley continues to glare down Spike. Neither is backing down and Buffy is starting to get annoyed with the show of testosterone. She steps closer to them so that she’s looking at the two of them face off.
“Spike, why are you here?” Buffy questions and Spike steps back. He brushes past Riley purposely bumping shoulders and walks into the living room where Dawn greets him with a smile. Buffy follows him with her arms crossed and Xander and Riley walk back into the living room but neither sits down. Spike pulls out a cigarette and is about to light it when he gets a disapproving glance from Dawn. He puts the cigarette back in its box and back in his pocket along side his lighter.
“What do you know about suvolte eggs?” Spike asks the group before him.
“He’s the doctor,” Sam says.
“How do you know about the doctor?” Spike asks.
“Where are they?”
“Wait a second now, I’m not the doctor.”
“Where are the eggs Spike?” Riley says taking a step toward the vampire.
“I’m holding them for a friend.”
“Alright, that’s enough. No more games Spike,” Buffy says stepping in to end the bickering.
“I’m not bloody playing games… I have a friend who I’m in a bit of debt to, thirty kittens to be exact…”
“Kittens?” Dawn questions with a squeaky tone to her voice.
“Yeah… and to clear my debt I’m holding the eggs for him.”
“And just why should we believe you Spike?” Xander says.
“I came here to tell you about them, remember that? I don’t think I’d be looking for your help if I were lying… now I’ve heard these things can do some considerable damage, so the question is what do we do about them?”
“Spike has a point,” Willow says and Spike shoots her a smile thankful for someone to be standing up for him.
“Alright Spike, so where are the eggs and who is the doctor?” Buffy says in her all business voice.
“Eggs are at the crypt and the doc is an old poker buddy of mine.”
“We need to get to those eggs right away,” Sam says.
“Alright, let’s go then,” Buffy says.
--
Buffy and Spike sit in the back of Riley’s SUV while Riley drives and Sam sits in the passenger seat, the four of them headed in the direction of Spike’s crypt. As Riley drives he gives a displeased look into his rearview mirror staring where Spike’s reflection should be. Sam notices his extreme emotions and can feel the discomfort in the air. Spike glances at Buffy, she has an uncomfortable look across her face, he doesn’t like seeing her upset but knows sometimes she makes it impossible for anyone to make her feel good.
“I still don’t see why he had to come?” Riley asks.
“We are going to my crypt need I remind you.”
“It’s not like you need to be there for us to remove the eggs.”
“Don’t forget Finn, he is the only one who knows what the doctor looks like,” Sam adds hoping to diffuse the situation.
“Right… kind of convenient,” Riley says in an accusing tone.
“The doctor isn’t Spike, Riley… it just doesn’t make any sense, he’s just… Spike,” Buffy says in a huff trying to disperse some of her ex’s discomfort.
“Right… deadly, amoral… opportunistic, or have you forgotten?”
“I’m not the sodding doctor.”
“Can we just drop this, retrieving the eggs is the most important thing,” Sam says hoping to end the conversation for good.
The SUV falls silent. Buffy takes a deep breath and glances at Spike then stares down at her fingernails. For the rest of the ride they travel speechlessly through the night. Everyone is tense and uneasiness floats thick through the air.
--
The door to Spike’s crypt flies open with force and smashes against the cement wall with a loud clamor. Riley walks in with his gun raised and a sullen look across his face, his posture is all business. The crypt glows with the dim light from white candles that are spread around the room creating shadows that dance across the walls. Riley looks around then walks deeper into the tomb followed by Spike and then Buffy and Sam.
“Hey! Watch it mate, I don’t fancy needing to get another door anytime soon,” Spike says annoyed by Riley’s intrusion into his home.
“Where are they?” Riley asks.
“Down below.”
Riley walks across the room to where the cement cover to the lower level is. He looks around as if speculating that something will jump out at him, Buffy rolls her eyes at how every move he makes seems to be part of some tactical strategy and watches as Riley cautiously drags the cover to the side. From below there is a soft light radiating from a few lamps that Spike has illegally wired up. Their illumination makes the ladder to the lower level visible. Riley glances down below then looks back up at Spike.
“You first.”
“Oh please, you have got to be kidding me… right, cause I’ve rigged up my own home on the off chance that captain cardboard would fly back from nowhere so I could best him.”
“It doesn’t have to be intended for me for there to be a trap set up here.”
“Well why don’t you just stick your head down there and see for yourself… if something bites it off I guess you were right.”
“Stop it! Both of you… I’ll go down first,” Buffy says ending the show of bravado.
“Buffy…” Riley pleads.
Buffy turns to Riley and gives him a look that says ‘don’t question me’. He shuts up and stands down. Buffy slowly moves down the ladder and Spike follows giving Riley a smug look just before he descends. Sam also has an annoyed stare to share with the soldier before she follows Spike below.
--
Buffy’s feet disturb the dusty sediment that lines the floor of the crypt sending a small cloud of dirt up to swarm around her shoes. As she looks out at the lower level of the crypt she sees about a dozen beach ball size, grey, scaly eggs covered in a bright yellow goo. Buffy didn’t know what to expect, but this sure wasn’t it. Spike comes down the ladder behind her and once his feet hit the ground Buffy turns to face him giving him a look of bewilderment. Then Sam and Riley enter the lower quarters of the crypt behind them as well.
“Good, they haven’t hatched yet,” Sam says.
“You didn’t keep them frozen?… we have to hurry,” Riley says.
“Hurry with what?” Buffy questions.
“Here,” Riley says as he tosses Buffy a silver cylinder shaped object.
“Put the end up to the egg and hit the button, it’ll freeze them,” Sam says as she puts her silver freezing cylinder up to one of the eggs and hits the button making the egg freeze over and turn white with frost. Sam pulls the silver cylinder away to find that the end of it is now covered in yellow slime. Buffy makes an ‘ew’ face as she watches the yellow slime drip to the floor. Sam then moves on to the next egg while Buffy and Riley do the same with the eggs as Spike looks on.
“Hey what about me? Don’t I get a neat little egg freezer?” Spike asks mostly just with the intent to annoy Riley.
“Sorry Spike, all out,” Riley says a little sarcastically.
“Yeah, I bet.”
Spike rests up against the wall and pulls out his smokes. He lights a cigarette as he watches Buffy bend over and freeze eggs. His eyes roam over her curves and Riley notices him watching her. Then Sam notices Riley’s protective face over Spike watching Buffy, however, no one says anything. Spike leans away from the wall and drops what’s left of his cigarette to the ground smashing it with his boot as the last of the eggs are frozen.
“Right, so we’re done here then?” Spike asks.
“Yeah, we just need to carry these out to the SUV,” Sam says.
--
Buffy picks up the last egg. Its frozen shell makes her hands cold but she doesn’t care. She turns around and walks toward the ladder. Just as Buffy is about to take the last egg up to the SUV Spike steps in front of her, it’s just the two of them down below. Riley and Sam have both carried eggs up to the SUV and Spike wants to take advantage of this opportunity. Buffy gives Spike an annoyed look as he gets in her way, but he doesn’t budge.
“So what’s with soldier boy showing up all of a sudden?”
“Sam and him have been tracking that suvolte demon thing across the country and it lead them here.”
“Right, and he just needed to look up his old flame for help?”
“What are you jealous?” Buffy questions as she moves past Spike to the exit and starts to climb up the ladder.
Spike walks up beside the ladder and she stops climbing. He’s looking up at her now and while somewhere deep… deep inside her thinks it’s cute that he’s jealous she doesn’t let anything show in her emotions beside annoyance. Spike looks at her and knows she’s right about him being jealous, not that he’d ever admit it. He thinks for a moment about saying something snide to prove to her that he was not at all jealous and even runs through a few sentences in his head; but then he sees something in her eyes. There’s hurt there, sure she hides it well, but Spike knows its there.
“Must be hard to see your ex prattling around with someone new… but Buffy… that bird’s got nothing on you. Soldier boy doesn’t know what he missed out on.”
Buffy had been expecting a comment far more sarcastic and smiles at Spike’s kind words. Sure Spike could be annoying and vulgar, but every now and then he did something that really made her feel good. Every now and then he did something sweet, something honest and what meant the most about those small things was that he did them completely selflessly and without any self serving motive. Buffy continues up the ladder.
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