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Chapter 14


Buffy slowly shook her head as her eyes tried to focus. Looking around,
she saw that she was in a heavily wooded area, propped up against a tree.
As she tried to move her arms, she quickly realized they were tied behind
her back. Trying to open her mouth to yell for help, she realized that it, too, had something tied in it to gag her.

“Well, there she is.”

Buffy turned her wide eyes to face Riley Finn, and immediately, hatred
seemed to fill her body.

“I didn’t mean to knock you out, but it was just a little tap. You were
only out for about a minute, which really served to help me out since I
didn’t have to deal with your temper while I tied you up.”

‘He really is insane,’ she thought as he circled her.

“You know,” he continued. “I would have thought you’d learned your
lesson after the last time. I mean, at first, I thought I was too rough on
you, but at least I was kind enough to give you a little treat to remember our
time together.”

Buffy visibly had to stop herself from heaving as she felt her stomach
revolt against his words.

“It wasn’t quite as good as when we were together, but I’ll give you
points for effort. You know, maybe your new guy just isn’t the man that I am.”

This time, Buffy didn’t stop the gag that overtook her.

“You know, I could let you talk, but I have to tell you, if you scream...” He pulled out a sharp hunting knife. “...I’ll be forced to silence you.”

Buffy gulped as he drew closer to her, discreetly trying to work on untying her hands. As he drew nearer to her, she shrank away from his touch as the knife got closer to her face.

“Stop moving, we wouldn’t want an accident, now would we?” he asked as
he removed the gag. Buffy worked her jaw, trying to get the soreness out
of it before fixing him with a cold glare.

“You really are psychotic, you know that?”

“Now, Buff, name-calling isn’t nice. You wouldn’t want me to lose my temper
and go find my daughter and take her away somewhere, would you?”

“You son of a bitch,” she ground out between clenched teeth. “You are
NOT her father. Angel is, and you were his friend. What would he say if he
could see you now?”

“Oh, I think he’d be proud with how I watched out for his family. More
so than your actor who’s been using you.”

“Caitlyn’s happier with Spike than she ever was with you, so don’t try
and play the doting father act. It’s not becoming to you, Riley.”

This seemed to anger him as she watched his hand grip the knife a little tighter.

“You little bitch. You think you’re a good mother? Get knocked up at 17 and
can’t even keep the father of your child alive? Yeah, I know you blame
yourself for Angel’s death, and guess what? I do, too. But guess what?
It wasn’t you. I feel comfortable telling you this since you won’t be
alive much longer- you remember when I left for a while a few years ago?”

Buffy raised an eyebrow. “To tell you the truth, Riley, I couldn’t have cared
less about you, so my answer is no. I don’t remember you at all.”

Riley drew back and backhanded Buffy for her insolence. Taking a deep
breath, she smiled against the pain and turned back to stare him in the
eye.

“You know, I think I’m going to miss that about you the most, Buff. The way
that no matter how much you’re punished, you always manage to put on a
brave face.”

Buffy didn’t say anything as she felt a give in the ropes and began
speeding up her attempts at freeing herself.

“You see, Angel always had everything I wanted. Growing up, he had all
the better toys, all the better clothes, and the older we got, all the better
girlfriends,” he said, looking at Buffy. “I began to resent him for that,
and after a while, I just got fed up, so I left town. Didn’t really know why
at the time- just up and left. Eventually, I realized what was wrong with my
own life. It wasn’t me, it was him. So I started discreetly asking around.
Anyway, to make a long story short, Angel’s accident was no accident that
night.”

Buffy froze as she looked up into Riley’s wild eyes.

“Yeah, you see, I had this guy, and he was more than happy to help me.
Plowed into your fiancée’s car, going about 60 miles an hour, and left
the scene. Didn’t you ever wonder why they never caught the guy, Buff?
Why they just ruled it out as a drunk driver and shut the case?”

Buffy felt the tears pooling in her eyes as she tried to comprehend what he
was telling her.

“After that, it was easy to find myself a place in your life. The grieving
lover who needed a father for her daughter. It was perfect. I gave you a
few months so it wouldn’t look intentional and then found myself calmly
imbedded in your life. The only problem with this little scenario, Buffy,
was that you never fully embraced me. You never loved me the way I
loved you. Too busy grieving over your poor boyfriend to give me much of a
thought. Eventually, I just got fed up with you, and by the time you
told me I couldn’t be Caitlyn’s father, well, let’s just say you got everything you
ever deserved.”

Buffy cringed at the sound of his voice. Her mind rapidly recalling all of
the beatings that she had to deal with, and she felt anger fill her.

“So, Riley, what you’re telling me is you’re a pathetic nobody, who couldn’t
even get a girlfriend, so he felt it easier to pay to have his best friend
killed and then worm into the lives of a grieving family? Yeah, you’re a real man.”

Buffy felt the rope pull free as he stared at her in shock for
disrespecting him in such a way. Buffy quickly lashed out with a strong
kick to his knee and felt a brief sense of satisfaction at the crack and
resounding cry it brought out of him. Jumping to her feet, Buffy tried
to look for any light coming through the thick trees and gasped as she was
tackled to the ground. Rolling over in the leaves, she felt herself pinned
down by the larger man, and the memories of the other night came back to
her as panic seized her body.

“You wanna play again, Buff?” he asked, thrusting the bulge in his
pants against her body.

“That’s it,” she said, lashing out with a hand and clawing at his face.
Riley screamed out in pain as he pulled back to hit her. Buffy quickly
rolled out of his way just as his hand connected with the hard earth.
Rapidly trying to get away from him on her hands and knees, she pushed
herself to her feet as she heard him stand behind her.

“Oh, Buffy,” he said.

She glanced over her shoulder and felt the blinding pain of a knife splitting the skin on her upper arm. Her left hand flew up to the injury as Riley pulled back to thrust the knife into her. Spinning away, she kicked out with her foot and watched as he fell to the ground. Buffy backed away and watched him for a moment. When he didn’t move, she felt herself getting closer to him of her own volition. Nudging him lightly with the toe
of her shoe, she took a step back when he didn’t move. She paused when she saw
the pool of blood, spreading and staining the dry leaves on the ground. Stepping forward, she froze, this time at hearing her name. Still holding her arm, she spun and looked through the shadows of the woods.

“Buffy!”

“I’m here!”

A few seconds later, Spike broke into the small clearing and ran over
to grab her in his arms. “I was so worried.”

“I’m okay,” she whispered, burying her head in his shoulder, enjoying
the warmth he brought her as she melted into his body.

Spike looked over her shoulder and saw Riley lying on the ground.
Slowly pulling Buffy protectively behind him, Spike edged closer to the man
and roughly kicked him over. Buffy gasped as he rolled, seeing the knife
sticking at an angle out of his rib cage. Spike quickly moved to cover her
eyes and led her away before returning and checking his pulse.

“Damn,” he said softly, so Buffy couldn’t hear. “I was almost hoping you
were alive so I could have a go, you pillock.”

Standing, Spike called Gunn, briefly telling him what happened, before
turning and leading Buffy out of the clearing.

* * * * *

When Spike and Buffy emerged from the woods, she saw her mother and
daughter running over to them. Buffy pulled Joyce away and told her what
happened, asking her to take Caitlyn home. Joyce nodded, hugging her daughter,
before taking the little girl by the hand and leading her away. Buffy felt
the shock begin to settle in as Spike slowly rolled up her sleeve to examine her cut.

After a few minutes, Buffy heard sirens in the distance and saw the swarm of
police officers heading toward her.

“Miss Summers?” Buffy turned to face an attractive brunette with a
friendly smile. “I’m Cordelia Chase. I work for the Sunnydale PD and was
wondering if I could ask you a few questions?”

Buffy nodded solemnly and began telling Cordelia everything that had
transpired in the last hour as a medical technician began bandaging
her arm. A few minutes later, the officer was called away to talk to one
of her co-workers before returning.

“Miss Summers, they found the body, and it’s clear that it was self-defense,
so you don’t have to worry about anything, okay?”

Buffy nodded as Cordelia turned to Spike. “Spike Hawthorne, right?”
Spike nodded and shook her hand as she continued. “Tell your friend Charles
Gunn thanks for the call.”

Realization dawned on Spike’s face as he stared at the other woman.
“You’re the friend inside the police department.”

“Yep, that’s me. I’ve been trying to get a solid case against this guy
ever since the first complaint came in.” Turning back to Buffy, she offered
her another smile. “Go home and get some rest. I’ll be in touch if I need
anything else.”

“Thank you,” she said softly.

Cordelia turned to Spike and spoke in a soft voice. “She’s been through
a lot- make sure she’s okay.”

Spike nodded and wrapped an arm around Buffy to lead her to his car.

“I killed him, Spike.”

“I know that, pet.”

“He was going to kill me.”

“I know that, too.”

“He killed Angel.”

Spike stayed silent as she seemed to be absorbing the information for
the first time. Leading her to his car, he helped her in and began the
drive home. Once they were safely in the Summers’ driveway, Spike turned to
face her. “Well, I gotta hand it to you, Goldilocks. You most definitely
know how to take care of yourself.”

Buffy gave him a soft smile and allowed herself to be led into the
house.



A/N Well, there's the chapter most of you have been waiting for. I know a lot of you wanted Spike to come to the rescue, but ultimately Buffy is a strong woman and I wanted to show that. Hope everyone liked it.





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