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Chapter 4
Written by Bloodshedbaby
Beta'd by Spikeslovebite

4
Any other day, any other scenario, the panic and fear flooding the crypt above him would have been relished and enjoyed. Tonight however, it just filled him with a smoldering rage and Spike was barely able to keep his demon caged.

With a stealthiness inherent of his predatory make-up, Spike effortlessly ascended the ladder to the top level.

There, he found Xander, Willow, Anya...and Dawn huddled in a tight circle, backs rigid with anxiety and distress as they talked amongst themselves.

'What could have happened to her?' he heard Dawn cry, and his gut clenched. The 'bit had been in on it, this thoughtless resurrection. Then his mind flashed to Dawn's botched attempt at summoning her mum back to life, and he realized he shouldn't be too surprised. This time, however, she had help. And not just a well-meaning, but misguided vamp to escort her through the magicks, but at least one witch who knew the consequences of calling on the power needed for such a spell. a 1000 year old vengeance demon who should have known better... and, well, an idiot, Spike decided, not for the first time. No surprise with the lack of brains with that sod.

There was still an underlying current of power sweeping the air, potent and heady that set Spike's teeth instantly on edge.

"Don't you lot ever bleedin' knock?" he growled, stalking purposefully towards them.

"Eep!" Dawn swung around, eyes wide, and Spike could hear the sudden escalation of multiple heartbeats as their involuntary 'fight or flight' adrenaline response kicked in "You so totally scared me!"

Spike kept a hard mask in place as he took in the dilated, dark eyes of his l'il bit and Red, the final nail now pounded in the proverbial coffin. He didn't want to believe that Dawn had been involved in pulling Buffy from heaven, but he had the evidence right before him. She reeked of it. The whelp and his bird looked a little off, but nowhere in the same league.

"What do you want?" Spike tried to keep the anger out of his voice.

"What's the matter, Spike?" Dawn asked, frowning. "Hostile much?"

Spike ignored her as he kept his stare pinned on Willow. "Uh...." Willow stuttered, now unsure how to begin and dreading the vampire's reaction. "Have you, uh, been patrolling tonight?"

"Nope," Spike lied.

"Oh." Disappointment overflowed in the quietly spoken word. "So, uh... y-you haven't run into anything...unusual, then?"

"Like what?" Spike arched one scarred brow in unfriendly question.

"Like... uh....," Willow glanced helplessly at Dawn.

"Like... Buffy?" Dawn cautiously asked, fearing the wrath about to be unleashed but needing the reassurance that their attempts had been successful; the hopeless despair upon seeing the decimated gravesite still fresh in her mind.

"What did you do, Dawn?" The question was asked with such quiet lethalness that Dawn unconsciously took a step back. There had never been an occasion that she could remember where she had feared Spike, but she had never seen this cold detachment pointed in her direction before, and a small voice inside of her suddenly questioned if she had allowed Willow to do the right thing.

"Me? Nothing!" Dawn squeaked, looking helplessly at willow.

"Red?"

Willow found herself flinching back in fear before remembering the chip, the fact that Spike was actually a vampire suddenly becoming obvious once more, having been ignored or forgotten as time went on.

Confident in his inability to do them harm, Willow stuck her chin out in petulant defiance. "We did a spell."

"Are you bloody insane?" Spike growled, his eyes hardening.

"Hey back off," Xander suddenly injected, his own hostility towards Spike clearly evident on his face. "Nobody asked you"

Spike crossed his arms over his chest and took a deep calming breath. "That's right, nobody did ask me. Wonder why this is, eh? Been around a while, know some things." He directed his hostile stare back and forth between Willow and Dawn. "So, why don't you tell me exactly what you're doing here, standing in my crypt for then, eh? You obviously need me for something, or you wouldn't have burst in like you did."

"They did a spell to bring Buffy back, only now they can't find her and they don't know what they brought back." The explanation was suddenly spilled by Anya, who had stood in aggravated silence next to Xander. She was tired and just wanted to go home.

Spike's mouth tightened into a grim line as he fought off his demon's rage. "Any reason particular reason why you felt the need to mess with the natural order of things?"

Willow's jaw dropped. "She went to HELL, Spike. As in, place of eternal torment?"

"And what makes you so certain of that, eh?"

The vehemence which Spike posed that question should have clued Willow into the fact that he knew more than he was letting on, but her mind was too drained and too frazzled to notice. She tried to worked frantically around that question. "I uh... did a multi-dimension locator spell," she quickly supplied, hoping she sounded convincing..

"Spike, my sister was in hell," Dawn's voice cracked as tears tried to take hold. "We had to do something! Don't you understand? I couldn't let my sister stay in..."

Spike's heart constricted at the pool of tears in Dawn's eyes. He understood her reasons for wanting her sis back; had held her enough nights while her salty tears had soaked his shirt in pure misery to know that Dawn's life without Buffy was its own private hell. But he had a feeling that Red's reasons were a bit more selfish.

"So... you did a locator spell? And it said she was in hell?" Spike's eyes never left Willow's face as he watched her fidget.

"Um... yeah."

"Come on, the Worthless Wonder doesn't know anything. We're wasting time here," Xander announced, turning to face the door.

"Do you know anything Spike?" Dawn's eyes were pleading.

Spike opened his mouth to reply when a voice behind him spoke.

"You left me in my coffin."

The shocked gasps echoed in the stone crypt.

"Buffy?" Dawn, Willow and Xander reverently whispered, while Anya remained silent, studying the figure before her.

Spike turned slowly to see Buffy's head peeking through the hole in the stone floor. He held his hand out to her in silent question and his heart leapt into his throat when she emerged slowly up the ladder and slipped her warm, hand into his.

"Oh my god!! Buffy!!!" Dawn cried, moving forward to hug her sister, not daring to believe that it was really her and not the BuffyBot, which Dawn knew was still tucked away in the basement of the Magic Shop after a few failed attempts to have it assume Buffy's rightful place as Slayer of the Hellmouth.

Buffy held up one hand in quiet rebuke to halt her sister's rush, face closing off to the hurt look that settled on Dawn's face. "You left me in my coffin." Buffy repeated softly, refusing to yield to the temptation to sweep Dawn into a crushing hug. The knowledge that her sister was involved in what Buffy considered the ultimate betrayal was excruciating.

Dawn sent a betrayed look in Willow's direction, her bottom lip quivering, and her eyes wide with horrified realization. "Willow? What did we do?"

Willow's haunted look matched Dawn's as denial sprung immediately from her lips. "Dawnie, I swear I didn't know..."

Tormented yet hopeful blue eyes turned back to Buffy. "Oh my god... Buffy..." A reverent look crossed Dawn's face. "Is it really you?"

With a solemn nod, Buffy confirmed her newly resurrected status, her hand almost crushing Spike's with the strength of her frantic grip.

"We did it," Xander stated with awe, still buzzing on the power from the spell.

"Yeah... you really did it," Buffy whispered quietly, her voice hitching with simmering emotion. Tears once again flooded her eyes and she looked at Spike helplessly, more than willing to place herself in his capable hands where she knew she would find solace from this harsh reality.

Without missing a beat, Spike gathered her close; Buffy's cheek instinctively seeking comfort against the hard contours of his chest as her arms wrapped around his waist.

"Hello! Comforting male hero type standing right here!" Xander complained, taking a step forward to remove Buffy from Spike's grip, finding himself more than a little irked by Buffy's ungrateful behavior. It's not as if it had been the picnics of all picnics evoking whatever goddess Willow had decided to have her witchy way with. Gratitude would have been nice. Falling into his arms even nicer, but hey, he wasn't selfish.

The low dangerous growl that emanated from Spike at Xander's move startled the intruders, and they all stared aghast at the game faced vampire before them, his sharp teeth bared and yellow eyes narrowed with warning.

"Spike...?" Dawn whispered, confused by this conflicting behavior. The fact that Buffy didn't react to the danger being posed was puzzling, and once more Dawn felt a tinge of fear being in Spike's presence.

Game face retreated back into the sharp angles that made up Spike's face and he turned his attention back to Buffy, burrowing his nose into her hair, the damp scent of earth still clinging to the golden strands.

Xander rounded on Willow. "You didn't tell us that this spell was going to make her crave the dead! It was just supposed to bring that what was dead to life!!"

"I didn't know!" Willow cried, all self assuredness gone now, the insecure teenager re-emerging in its place.

Anya continued to watch the couple, noting the tender way Spike ran his hand along the back of her head, the low rumbling purr vibrating from his chest- and most telling- was the way Buffy accepted each tender caress from this particular vampire. Her anguish becoming less palpable as Spike slowly soothed her. Something was niggling at Anya, some important font of knowledge that explained the behavior she was witnessing.

The overly-protective vampire. The purring. The way Buffy instinctively sought his comfort. It came to her suddenly, and she blamed her addled brain for being so long on the uptake.

She had just turned to tell Xander her suspicions when her man in question suddenly tensed, his body bristling with rage.

"You son of a bitch," Xander bit out, his hand going to his back pocket to retrieve the stake housed there.

"Xander!" Anya called out, trying to get his attention. 'Really, Xander could be so dense sometimes', she thought with fond irritation.

If Spike heard Xander's outburst he paid no heed, the blonde in his arms his sole focus, turning her so that she was shielded from their prying eyes. He knew instinctively that Buffy needed a few moments to get herself pulled together again.

Xander, whose sense of outrage had escalated beyond anything he was capable of dealing with, stepped forward in hurried determination to relieve Buffy of her most current problem. Spike. The bleached bastard vampire. The one who would soon be a pile a dust. Hey, then maybe Buffy might show them a scrap of gratitude.

Xander reached the entwined pair and lifted his stake in preparation to rid the world of Spike once and for all. He set his teeth and brought the stake down in a swift, hard arc, aiming between the shoulder blades.


A hair’s breadth from his target, Xander’s wrist was caught in a vice-like grip and twisted viciously. The stake clattered to the floor and a ragged scream tore from his lips as he dropped to his knees in front of an extremely pissed off Buffy

"No one touches Spike," she ground out, her eyes now glittering with a ferocity the likes of which Xander had never seen. At least not directed towards him. Well, much, he amended quickly.

"But Buffy," Xander griped from his crumpled state on the hard floor of the crypt while glaring at the vampire in question, "that bloodsucking bastard bit you when you were big with the vulnerable. Can't you see how wrong that is?"
tbc....

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