Chapter 12 - Questions and Answers
“So, what’s the what?” Buffy asked, walking back into the hotel and dragging
a very reluctant Spike with her.
“Buffy?” Cordelia asked, taking a step closer to her.
“Yeah,” Buffy said softly. “It’s me, Cordy.”
“Oh my God,” Cordy cried before hugging the younger girl. “So, you remember
everything?”
“Not everything,” Buffy admitted. “I remember the most important stuff, and
the rest is like…flashes, I guess. Extra puzzle pieces that are thrown in
for my benefit. Now, my question for you all is…why am I back?”
Buffy looked at each person in the room with an expectant face. When no one
answered, she continued. “Come on, guys, I know it’s a prophecy, so tell me
what I’m up against.”
“We don’t know,” Angel said softly, clasping his hands in front of him.
“We’re working on it, Buffy, but we just don’t know much of anything right now.”
“But it’s soon?” Buffy asked, trying to keep the tremor out of her voice.
“Sooner rather than later,” Fred replied, hating herself for being the bearer of bad
news.
“Okay…well…hey, whatever this thing is, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Buffy
said with more confidence than she felt.
She felt the tension leave her body as Spike gently took her hand in his and
gave it a light squeeze, a move that did not go unnoticed by the entire
room.
“So, you two are….?” Connor asked, jealousy tingeing his voice.
“Friends,” Spike supplied with a brief nod, causing Buffy to look at him in
confusion.
“Excuse us,” Buffy said with a falsely sweet smile as she pulled Spike
toward the office, shutting the door behind them. “Friends?” she asked with
a hurt expression.
“What did you want me to say, Buffy? That you hated me in a former life and
all of a sudden developed feelings for me overnight?”
“Not overnight,” Buffy said, shaking her head. “They started earlier than
that. A LOT earlier, Spike.”
“When?” he asked, hating himself for the insecurity in his tone.
“When you didn’t give us up to Glory,” Buffy said softly. “You let her
torture you, but you never even thought about giving her Dawn.”
“How do you know? What if I almost did?” Spike asked. “What if I came so
close to telling her that if you hadn’t shown up when you did, I would have
given her everything?”
Buffy stayed silent for a moment. She knew he was just trying to get a rise
out of her, and she wasn’t about to let that happen. “So that’s why you
told me that you’d let Glory kill you first?”
“I…I was just trying to get a reaction out of you.”
“You didn’t even know it was me, Spike,” Buffy said with a smile as he
tilted his head to look at her.
“I thought you said you were only getting flashes,” Spike said in confusion.
“I told you I remember the most important things,” Buffy said softly as she
took a step closer to him. “And our first kiss…our first real kiss, with no
magical influences, definitely qualifies as important to me.”
Spike took an unneeded breath as she came to stand in front of him, her
hands resting lightly on his stomach as she looked up at him with those
expressive green eyes.
“Buffy, this feels strange,” Spike whispered as his hands brushed the hair
away from her shoulders.
“Why?” Buffy asked softly. “Because I’ve changed? I thought you would have
liked it,” she said with a pout.
“I do, it’s just…” Spike trailed off at the incredible urge to kiss her.
“You’re scared I’m going to change my mind,” Buffy said softly.
Spike noticed she wasn't asking him- she was simply commenting.
“Buffy,” he whispered, avoiding her eyes as his hands traced up and down her
arms. “I know you remember some of the things you said to me…but when you
remember some of the things I’ve done to you…”
“Like trying to kill me?” Buffy asked. “Like…kidnapping my friends?
Assembling The Judge? Threatening the Initiative doctor instead of helping
Riley?”
Spike growled at the mention of the other man.
“I also remember you helping me save the world when Angelus was free,” Buffy
continued, wrapping her arms around his waist and propping her chin against
his chest. “I remember you helping when you didn’t have to, just because
you wanted to. And I know you kept your promise to look after Dawn until
the end of the world.”
“I had to,” he replied in a voice that was choked with emotion. “I couldn’t
save her, and you had to-“
“Shhh,” Buffy whispered, placing a finger over his lips. “You did your
best, Spike. Deep down, I knew what I had to do. It wasn’t your fight, it
was mine.”
“It should have been mine,” he murmured.
Buffy felt Spike’s arms go around her in a tight hold before his lips met
hers. She could feel the desperation in his punishing kiss. He needed
reassurance, and Buffy wasn’t about to let go. Her arms wrapped around his
neck as her lips parted, moaning as his tongue began to tangle with hers.
Pulling away after a minute. Buffy panted for air as Spike trailed his
fingertips over any exposed skin that he could find.
“Why me, Buffy?”
“What?”
“Why not the poofter?” he asked, gesturing toward the lobby.
”Angel,” Buffy corrected with a smile. “We weren’t meant to last,” Buffy replied after a moment as she, glanced at the door that separated them from the rest of the group before turning her eyes back to his. “You never left me…even when you hated me, you couldn’t stay away.”
“I’ll never leave you,” he whispered, brushing his lips against hers again.
He would never get enough of her.
“Ummm…guys?”
Both turned when they heard Cordelia calling them from the next room. Buffy
frowned at the nervous tone in her voice. Cordelia may be a lot of things,
but nervous was not usually on the list.
With trepidation, Buffy clasped Spike’s hand in hers as they walked back
into the lobby.
“Yeah, Cordy?”
Angel spoke up instead. “Buffy…I think we deciphered the prophecy.”
“And from the look on your face, I’m guessing it won’t be fluffy bunnies
that I’ll be facing,” Buffy said nervously.
“No,” Angel said. “It won’t.”
“So, what’s the prophecy say?” Buffy asked, her voice filled with anxiety as
she sat down, holding Spike’s hand in a death grip- something that did not
go unnoticed by Angel.
“From what we’ve deciphered,” Wesley began. “It says: The Slayer will be
reborn to confront the cause of her death.”
“What?” Buffy asked in disbelief. “But it was me…I was the reason I died.
I was the one to call the shots, no one forced me to jump.”
“Not necessarily to confront what took your life, but more accurately, the
one who caused you to make that decision.”
“That could be any number of things,” Spike said in confusion. “It could be
the monks, Doc, even Dawn, or…”
“Glory,” Buffy murmured, her eyes trained on the ground as they became
unfocused. “I’ll have to face Glory.”
“You don’t know that,” Spike said softly, kneeling in front of her. “Glory
doesn’t exist anymore. Ben was killed.”
“And that doesn’t sound a little strange to you, that you have to kill a
human in order to kill a Hell-God?” Buffy asked, standing up to start
pacing, letting her anger mask the slight tinge of panic she was
beginning to feel. “That’s not the way it works, and all of you know it.
The weak die and the strong prevail- that’s the way of the world.”
“And you’re the strong one, luv,” Spike whispered, coming up to stand behind
her.
“I think it’s time to get the Scoobies together,” Cordelia spoke up.
Buffy’s eyes widened. She wanted to see her friends…her family, more than
anything in the world, but what would they say?
“I don’t know Cordy,” Buffy said, shaking her head. “They all have their
own lives. I can’t ask them to come back and fight after so long.”
“You won’t,” Cordy said, already walking toward the phone. “I will. A
quick phone call to Willow and Tara, and they can assemble the whole gang.
And hey, you’d get to see Dawn.”
“NO!”
Everyone turned at Buffy’s outburst. “I don’t want her anywhere near this!”
“Buffy,” Angel began gently. “She’s not the Key anymore. She doesn’t open
anything. Her blood is as normal as yours.”
“I don’t care,” Buffy replied, looking around the room. “If this thing is
Glory, I don’t want my sister anywhere around it. She may not open
anything, but that wouldn’t stop the Hellbitch from exacting a little
revenge for not getting what she wanted the first time around.” She paused
before turning to face Wesley and Fred. “How much time do we have?”
“A few weeks…at the most.”
“Weeks?” Buffy asked in disbelief before turning panic-stricken eyes to
Spike and Angel. “I’m not ready,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m not
even as strong as I was when I was this age…the first time around. I faced
Glory after training with Giles for months, and even then, I had that Troll
hammer thingy.”
“Buffy…relax,” Angel said in a soothing tone.
“You’ll be ready, luv.”
Buffy turned grateful eyes to Spike, her chin trembling slightly at all the
emotions coursing through her.
“This is quite a lot of information to absorb,” Wesley said. “You should
probably get some rest, Buffy. We can work on this tomorrow.”
Buffy nodded, turning toward the stairs and slowly climbing them. She felt
like she finally got her life back, only to be stripped of it yet again.
Pausing outside of her bedroom door, she turned and was surprised that Spike
hadn’t followed her.
* * * * *
“What’s it say?” Spike asked, turning glowing eyes to Wesley.
“I’ve already told you, Spike.”
“Is she going to die?” he asked with fear in his voice.
“That part's unclear.”
“Well, clear the bloody thing up!”
“Spike,” Angel said softly, using the voice he rarely used with his
Grandchilde. The authoritative, yet warm tone that reminded him of their
blood link. “She won’t die if we can help it, you know that. We’ll do everything we can…”
Spike closed his eyes, wishing there was more he could do. “Everything
wasn’t enough last time,” he whispered.
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