One


William ‘Spike’ Giles walked across the UC Sunnydale campus, heading toward one of the tables in the quad where his two new, and currently only, friends were sitting. He had met Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg earlier that week, during his first day in town. They had made it their job to show him around the campus and tell him the what’s and how’s of the school. He had immediately taken a liking to the pair, and had spent the past couple of days getting to know his new home town with their help. As he approached the table, Willow spotted him and waved.

“Hey Red. Whelp.” Spike joined them at the table and chuckled as Xander frowned at his nick name.

“Hi Spike.” Willow smiled at him before taking a bite of her sandwich. “How was History?”

“You know, dates and names, same ol’ same ol’.” Spike grabbed a couple of fries from Xander’s tray.

“Hey!” Xander gave Spike an offended look. Spike just smirked at him.

“So, what’s on the agenda for tonight?” Spike asked. It was Friday night, and his first weekend in Sunnydale.

“Well, the only place worth going to is the Bronze.” Xander answered, stuffing what was left of his fries into his mouth. “It’s a club, they don’t have an age limit, but it’s cool. They have food, drinks, music and live bands every Friday.”

“Sounds like fun.” Spike nodded.

“Yeah, we thought we’d...” Spike shut Willow’s voice out as his eyes lingered on a girl walking across the lawn about fifty feet away. She had semi long, blonde hair and was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt with UCS on it. He couldn’t see the color of her eyes, but he could bet anything they were green. ‘God, she’s beautiful’ he thought.

“Who’s that?” He asked out loud. Willow followed his eyes, and sighed before she answered.

“That’s Buffy.”

*****

Buffy Summers walked across the quad and continued over the lawn toward the parking lot, her eyes firmly fixed on the ground in front of her feet. She was supposed to have met Riley by his car five minutes ago to go to lunch.

“You’re late.” Buffy looked up at Riley’s voice, and met her boyfriend’s eyes.

“I know, I’m sorry, Mr Fredericks kept us a little late...” She mumbled, knowing her excuses would get her nowhere.

“Let’s go.” Riley put an arm around her in a seemingly loving and protective gesture, but Buffy winced as he dug his fingers into her side where she was pretty sure a couple of her ribs were broken.

*****

Spike watched as the girl, Buffy, was joined by a guy, tall, bulky looking. He saw them exchanging a few words before the guy put his arm around Buffy and led her toward the parking lot.

“And that would be Riley.” Spike noticed the contempt in Xander’s voice and raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Boyfriend.” Willow explained.

“I’m guessing there’s more to the story than that?” Spike assumed, waiting for an explanation.

“Buffy moved here our sophomore year of high school.” Xander started. “Her parents had just gotten divorced and her mom had been offered a job at the Sunnydale Art Gallery, so she packed up Buffy and Dawnie and came here.”

“Dawnie?” Spike asked.

“Her sister.” Willow took over the explanation. “She asked me to tutor her, cause her mom had been complaining about her grades back in LA, that’s where they lived before. That’s how we became friends. Through high school, it was basically the three of us. Then, when we started college, me and Buffy became room mates. She was so happy to get out of the house, her sister was driving her crazy.” Willow smiled at the memory and Xander laughed.

“Remember when Dawnie was spying on Buffy on one of her dates? She was so furious.” The two friends laughed together for a little while, before seeing the questioning look on Spike’s face.

“Sorry.” Willow gave him an apologetic smile before continuing her story. “Anyway, a couple of weeks after we started classes here, she met Riley. They started dating, and were really in love. A few months later, right after Christmas, Buffy’s mom died. Buffy’s dad decided that Dawnie should come live with him in Miami, and Buffy moved back into her old house. Riley went with her.” Spike could hear the pain evident in the red head’s voice. Xander seemed to have noticed too, because he took.

“After her mom’s funeral, Buffy closed herself off, from everyone. Except Riley.” The hatred Xander felt for the other man was obvious. “She stopped calling, didn’t talk to us in school, sometimes she wouldn’t even say hi when we met her in the hallway or out here. And every time she did talk to us, she kept looking over her shoulder all the time, like she thought someone was watching her. When she’d see Riley, she would practically run from us.”

“Like she was afraid of him...” Willow thought out loud.

“You think he’s hurting her or something?” Spike asked, his voice full of loathing. Willow shook her head.

“No. I don’t think Riley would do that.” She sighed. “But I really don’t like him.”

“Amen to that.” Xander added, looking after the car that pulled out of the college parking lot, Buffy in the front seat next to Riley.

*****

Buffy looked through the windshield, keeping her eyes on the road. She didn’t say anything, wanting to let Riley calm down. Not that he would. They pulled into the parking lot of the diner where they always had lunch, and Riley turned off the engine.

“What were you doing?” Buffy heard the hardly concealed rage in his voice.

“I told you, Mr Fredericks kept us a little late, he...” She almost cried out in pain as Riley grabbed her arm and turned her to face him, his face only inches from her own.

“Don’t. Lie. To. Me.” He emphasized every word with a squeeze to her upper arm, where he knew she still had a painful bruise. Tears formed in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall.

“I’m not.” She whispered through the pain. Somehow, he seemed to finally believe her because he let go of her arm and sat back in his seat, running his hand over his face.

“I’m sorry, baby. You know I love you, right?” He pleaded with her. “I’ll never, ever hurt you again, I promise.” He pulled her into a hug, and she let him, knowing that, whatever he said, it would happen again. It always did.

*****

Spike walked into his last class of the day, English. He was about to sit down in one of the seats near the back of the auditorium when his eyes locked on a certain blonde in one of the front seats. Buffy. He smiled a little and made his way over to her.

“This seat taken?” He asked, one eyebrow raised, questioning. She looked up at him, and he could see what he thought was fear in her eyes for a split moment.

“Um, no, not really, but...”

“Good.” He interrupted her and sat down, dropping his books on the fold-up table.

Buffy observed his actions, desperately trying to figure out a way to get him to leave. If Riley saw him sitting next to her... she tried to shrug the thought off. Riley hadn’t been inside the college since he graduated almost a year and a half ago. Why would he come in today? She was pulled out of her line of thoughts by Willow, who had sat down on Buffy’s other side.

“Hey Buffy.” Willow smiled at her former best friend. Buffy smiled back.

“Hey Wils.” She said, using Willow’s old nick name.

“I see you’ve met Spike.” At Buffy’s confused look, Willow explained. “This is Spike. Buffy, Spike, Spike, Buffy.” She introduced.

“Hi.” Buffy gave Spike a little smile. He returned it.

“It’s nice to meet you. Red and the Whelp’s been telling me all about you.”

“Red? Whelp?” Buffy said in a questioning tone.

“My little nick names for Willow and Xander.” Spike explained.

“Oh.”

“Spike’s new in town. He’s from England and got a scholarship to come here.” Willow interjected.

“Well, I had actually figured out the English part.” Buffy giggled and Willow smiled at the sight of her friend laughing. She hadn’t seen it in a long time. They quieted down as the professor entered the room, starting the lecture.

*****

A couple of weeks later, Buffy, Willow and Spike had gotten into a pleasant routine. They had English together three times a week, and spent a couple of hours every Monday and Thursday studying in the college library together. Buffy and Willow were quickly becoming best friends again, and Spike was getting more and more interested in Buffy. Knowing that she had a boyfriend, however, he hadn’t done anything about it. He was grateful to just have her as a friend.

As the trio walked out of the classroom after their class one Friday in December, Willow looped her arm with Buffy. Buffy smiled at her friend’s action. It felt just like old times.

She was abruptly pulled back to reality as they walked down the steps outside the English department and she spotted Riley a few feet away, leaning against a tree, his eyes fixed upon her. He always came to meet her after her last class. How could she have forgotten? She quickly said goodbye to Willow and Spike and went to meet her boyfriend. She put on a fake smile, hoping that he hadn’t seen her talking to Spike. But of course he had.

“Who’s that?” Riley asked as he grabbed her arm and lead her toward his car.

“You know Willow, Riley. She used to be my best friend before...” Buffy was cut off as Riley pushed her up against his car, not caring who saw.

“You know damn well that I’m not talking about your little friend.” He said in a threatening voice. “Who’s the guy?”

“Riley, people are looking.” Buffy pleaded, desperately trying to hold the tears that threatened to surface back.

Riley looked around and noticed the little group of people that were staring at them. He let Buffy go and opened the car door.

“Fine. Get in. We’ll finish this at home.”

*****

Willow and Spike had been watching Riley’s outburst from a distance. Spike clenched his hands as he saw Riley practically throw Buffy against the car. Only Willow holding him back kept him from attacking the guy right there. He didn’t even know Buffy and still he felt a sudden need to protect her.

“Not hurting her, huh?” He turned to Willow as she pulled him away from the scene. He could see pain and anger in the girl’s eyes.

“I was hoping he wasn’t.”

Two


Riley didn’t say a word during the ride home. Buffy kept her eyes on her hands, trying to prepare herself mentally for what she knew was coming. When Riley had turned off the car, he got out and went into the house, leaving Buffy to follow. She stopped outside the front door for a moment, inhaling deeply before she entered the house. When she was inside, Riley slammed the door shut behind her.

“Who is he?” He demanded, staring at her with wild eyes.

“He’s just a friend of Willow’s, I didn’t even talk to him, I promise.” Buffy tried to plead, but to no use. Riley threw her against the wall and pinned her to it. He grabbed a handful of her hair and twisted it painfully. He had found many ways to hurt her without it being visible. Buffy had to bite her lip not to scream out loud.

“Don’t lie to me, you little whore. You thought I wouldn’t notice, is that it?” He asked, his face less than an inch from hers.

“No, please, I didn’t talk to him, I was just talking to Willow and he was there, I haven’t even met him before, please.” Buffy couldn’t keep the tears in anymore and let them run freely down her cheeks. It didn’t affect Riley, however.

“How come I don’t believe you?” He said as he used one of his hands to hold Buffy’s hands above her head and the other to unbutton her jeans. Buffy tried to get away from his intruding hand, but he twisted her wrists so she couldn’t think about anything but the pain. “You don’t think I’d know if you’ve been with someone else?” He pulled her jeans down along with her underwear. “Let’s find out.”

Buffy couldn’t help but scream as pain ripped through her lower body when he violently pushed into her. Riley quickly covered her mouth with the hand that was now free.

“Shut up, bitch.” He half whispered as he sped up his pace, not noticing, or maybe just not caring, that blood was slowly trickling down Buffy’s inner thighs. Buffy closed her eyes, wishing the pain away like she had gotten so used to. But this time it didn’t work.

*****

Spike walked into the club known as the Bronze, looking around for Willow and Xander. He found them at a small table in a corner, obviously deep in conversation, and made his way over to them. They both looked up as he sat down.

“Hey, what’s with the serious faces?” He asked, taking a sip from Willow’s coke.

“I was just telling Xander about Riley.” Willow said, and Spike nodded, showing that he knew what she was talking about.

“We need to do something.” Xander announced, leaning back in his chair.

“Maybe we should go to the police?” Willow suggested, but Spike shook his head.

“You should probably talk to her first, see what she has to say.” He said. “It may not have been as bad as it looked.” Of course, he knew that wasn’t true. He had been around abused women before, and something about Buffy was setting off alarm bells in his head.

Willow nodded, agreeing with him.

“I’ll talk to her on Monday. We have Psych together first period.”

“Great.” Xander said. “Now let’s have fun.” Nobody attempted to move, and they spent the next couple of hours sitting at the table, talking.

*****

“Hey, Buffy, wait up.” Willow called after Buffy, who was practically running down the corridor. At Willow’s voice she stopped and turned. Willow caught up with her, panting slightly.

“Hey. Can we talk for a moment?” She asked, trying to catch her breath. Buffy looked around the almost abandoned hallway.

“OK. But my next class starts in fifteen minutes.” She agreed, a little reluctant.

“This won’t take long.” Willow promised, leading the way into an empty classroom. She leaned against the desk, and Buffy did the same next to her.

“The other day, after English, you know?” Willow started. “Spike and I kinda... we saw what Riley did. In the parking lot.”

“What do you mean?” Buffy asked, a questioning look on her face.

“Well, he practically threw you against the car.” Willow said.

“No, he didn’t. Nothing happened. Everything’s fine, OK?” Buffy said quickly and left the room before Willow could follow.

*****

“Hey guys.” Willow greeted as she joined Xander and Spike at a table in the cafeteria.

“Hey Wils. How’d the talk go?” Xander asked, handing Willow his apple.

“She denied anything was wrong.” Willow responded.

“That’s good, right?” Xander said. “So what’s with the long face?”

“She was obviously lying. She wouldn’t even look at me, and then she stormed off before I could say anything.” Willow gave Xander a scared look. “I’m really worried, Xan.”

Xander leaned across the table and squeezed Willow’s hand.

“We’ll think of something, don’t we always?” He said with a small smile. Spike decided it was time to cut in.

“I think the police might be our only option.” He said, looking at his two friends. “If you guys wanna help Buffy, you have to get her away from Riley. The police could get a restraining order so he wouldn’t be allowed to come near her.”

“OK, so we’ll talk to the police.” Willow agreed. “But I don’t understand why she would lie to me. She’s my best friend.”

“I don’t know, Red.” Spike sighed. “I don’t know.”

*****

Buffy walked toward the UCS parking lot to meet Riley for lunch. They had barely talked all weekend, he had been avoiding her as much as he could.

When she approached his car, he got out of the drivers seat and went around to her side. She could see the regret in his eyes that she had gotten as used to as the pain.

“I’m sorry, baby.” He put his arms around her and pulled her close to him. “I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you. You know that, right?” Buffy nodded quietly. He held her close a little longer before he placed a kiss on her forehead and opened the passenger door for her. With a smile he walked around the car.

“Let’s go to lunch.”

*****

Willow walked out of the Sunnydale police station, anger practically fuming from her. Spike and Xander were waiting outside. At the sight of Willow, Spike crushed the cigarette he had been smoking under his boot and went to meet her.

“What happened, Red?” He asked, even if he knew what she was going to say.

“What’s wrong with our society, huh? Could somebody tell me that?” Willow threw her arms in the air in a resigned gesture. Xander put an arm around Willow’s shoulder, trying to calm her down.

“What did they say?” He asked.

“They told me that if we didn’t have any real proof that something was going on, they couldn’t do anything. Unless she reports him.” Willow sighed. “So we’re back to square one.”

“I’ll try to talk to her.” Spike said, squeezing Willow’s hand. “Maybe I can get through to her.”

*****

Spike was sitting in the cafeteria, waiting for Buffy to show up. He had managed to get her schedule from one of the secretaries in the principals office, and knew she had a half hour break in a couple of minutes. He was skipping history to be here, but didn’t care. This was more important.

He saw Buffy enter the room, and waved her over. She smiled and walked toward him.

“Hey, don’t you have class?” She asked as she sat down next to him.

“Kind of.” He answered, smiling at her. “I just needed to talk to you.” At his words, Buffy frowned.

“Willow didn’t send you, did she? Cause I told her that nothing happened...”

“You can quit the lie, love. You don’t fool me.” He said, carefully observing her expression.

“I’m not trying to fool anyone.” She tried to sound convincing, but he wasn’t buying it.

“You’re trying to tell me that your boyfriend isn’t beating you up whenever he feels like it?” Spike saw pain in her eyes for a brief moment before she got control over her feelings.

“Of course he’s not.” She didn’t look at him as she spoke.

“Wanna try that one more time?” He suggested in a mocking tone, trying to get a reaction from her. He hadn’t expected the reaction he got.

Buffy looked up at him, tears in her eyes.

“Please, stay out of this.” She whispered before getting up to leave. He grabbed her arm, and heard her gasp. He loosened his grip and turned her to face him, as he slowly rolled her sleeve up to reveal a greenish bruise that covered all of her upper arm.

“You call this not hurting you?” He asked in an angry voice. She gave him a pleading look.

“Please, Spike, just... don’t, OK?” She sat back down and buried her face in her hands. He carefully put an arm around her shoulder, afraid that he might be hurting her.

“You can talk to me, Buffy, it’s OK. I just want to help you.” At his last words, she laughed almost hysterically.

“You can’t help me. No one can.” She said in a low voice.

“You know what? You’re right. I can’t help you.” He saw her confused look at his change of attitude. “You have to help yourself.”

“You don’t know what it’s like.” She whispered, her eyes firmly fixed on the floor in front of her.

“No, I don’t.” He sighed. “But I know where it will end.” She looked up at him. “My sister was killed by her boyfriend three years ago.” He explained, still feeling the pain as if it had happened yesterday. “He had been hitting her for years, and we didn’t know anything.”

“I’m sorry.” He heard her say and turned to look at her, desperation in his eyes.

“Leave. I’ll help you, anything you need. Please, I can’t go through losing someone I love again.” He saw her eyes widen at his words. “I’m sorry, I didn’t...”

“It’s OK. I know you didn’t mean it.” She said in a sarcastic voice.

“Of course I meant it.” He said, trying to get eye contact with her, but she refused. “I do love you, I just didn’t mean to spring it on you like that.” He could see tears in her eyes again.

“No, you don’t. You can’t.” He barely heard her, but understood.

“Why, because he says you’re not worth it? You are.” He said, desperate to make her believe him.

“No I’m not. And I have a boyfriend, you can’t just...” He cut her off.

“You think I haven’t tried not to? I’m not the kind of guy that goes after someone else’s girlfriend. That’s why I haven’t said anything before. But I do love you.” He pleaded with her. “If you want me to back off, I will. Look me in the eyes and tell me that you love him and I will never bother you again.” She kept her eyes on the floor. “That’s what I thought.”

“Of course I love him. He’s my boyfriend, and he loves me.” She said in a neutral tone.

“Been practicing that long, have you?” He replied. “He doesn’t love you. If he did, he could never hurt you like he has.” They were both started by the sound of Buffy’s cell phone ringing. She found it in her bag and looked at the display. Standing up to leave, she turned to Spike.

“Please. Just leave it.” She said before walking away.

*****

Buffy waited until she was outside the cafeteria before she answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Miss Summers?” A voice said over the line.

“Yes.” Buffy answered in a nervous voice.

“I’m calling because we got the result of your pregnancy test. Could you come in this afternoon for a consultation with Dr. Carey?”

“OK, what time?” Buffy asked.

“Three thirty, if that is alright with you.”

“That will be fine.” Buffy hung up the phone and put it back in her bag while one thought raced through her mind over and over. ‘Please, don’t let me be pregnant’.

Three


Buffy slowly closed the front door behind her. Because of her doctors appointment, she hadn’t met Riley after her last class. When she had gotten to the parking lot half an hour late, he had been gone and she had walked home. Now she was praying that he had gone out with his friends or something, just as long as he wasn’t home. Her hopes were shattered as she heard noise from the kitchen. She decided to face him right away, before her courage left her and walked into the kitchen.

“Where the hell have you been?” Riley yelled as she entered the room.

“At the doctors.” She replied.

“And why should I believe you?” He asked, anger in his voice.

“Call Student Health, they’ll tell you.” Buffy said, not knowing where the sudden rage inside her came from.

“Fine. What were you doing there?” Riley apparently chose to believe her.

“They got the results from my test, so I had to talk to Dr. Carey.”

“What test? What are you talking about?” Riley questioned. Buffy gave him a bitter-sweet smile.

“I’m pregnant.” She said, enjoying the look of surprise on his face. Then it was replaced with rage.

“You little whore! Who is it?” He grabbed her by the arm and threw her across the room. She moaned in pain as her head hit the kitchen counter. With in seconds, Riley was above her, furiously hitting and kicking her unprotected body.

“You thought you’d get away with it? That I wouldn’t get it? Who have you been screwing behind my back? Is it that bleached freak, or maybe your little friend Xander.” Buffy tried to cover her face with her arms as he kept hitting and kicking her, having lost all self control. Her last thought before everything went black was ‘He’s going to kill me’.

*****

Spike was reluctantly pulled out of a very nice dream by a persistent ringing. Realizing it was the phone, he reached for it on the bedside table.

“Hello?” He mumbled.

“Spike? You have to get here, I don’t know what to do, they won’t tell me anything and I can’t...” Spike cut Willow off in her rambling.

“Red, calm down, I don’t understand a word you’re saying.” He waited for a moment, and then heard Xander’s voice over the line.

“Spike, you should come down here. We’re at Sunnydale Memorial.” Before Xander even told him what had happened, Spike knew.

“Buffy...” His voice was little more than a whisper.

“She was brought in a couple of hours ago. They called her dad who called me since he’s in Miami.” Xander was quiet for a moment. “It doesn’t look good.”

“I’m on my way.” Spike hung up the phone before Xander had a chance to response and threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt before leaving his dorm room.

*****

“Is she OK? Where is she?” Spike ran into the waiting room, and was greeted by a crying Willow who threw her arms around him. He held her close for a few minutes, soothingly stroking her hair. “Shhhh... it’s OK.” He looked at Xander. “Have you heard anything?” Xander shook his head.

“The doctor was here a little while ago, she’s in surgery. He said a cop would come to talk to us in a little while.” As Xander uttered the words, a female police officer came into the waiting room. Spike carefully turned Willow to Xander and walked up to the woman.

“What’s going on?” He demanded to know. The woman indicated the plastic chairs that were against one of the walls, and he followed her lead and sat down. Xander lead Willow to the chair next to Spike’s and they both sat down.

“You’re Miss Summer’s family?” The police asked.

“We’re her friends.” Xander said. “She doesn’t have any family in Sunnydale. Her dad and sister live in Miami.” The officer nodded.

“I’m detective Collins, I’m in charge of this case. I need to ask you a few questions about earlier today, just to find out if you know anything of importance, OK?” They all nodded and detective Collins opened the notebook she had in her hand.

“Did you see Miss Summers today?”

“We had English together this morning.” Willow said in a weak voice. “Me and Buffy and Spike.”

“Did you talk to her? Did she seem upset about something?” The detective asked.

“We just talked about the assignments we had in class, nothing else.” Willow sniffled and buried her face against Xander’s shoulder. He put a protective arm around her.

“I talked to her.” Spike said. “She had a break and I waited for her in the cafeteria. I tried to get her to leave Riley, but she refused to admit something was wrong, kept telling me to stay out of it.”

“You suspected something was going on?” Collins asked, a frown on her face. Spike told her about the incident in the parking lot the previous week.

“I talked to her, but she wouldn’t tell me anything.” Willow turned to face the detective, her head still resting on Xander’s shoulder. “Then I talked to the police, but they said they couldn’t do anything.”

“Unless she reports him or there is some kind of evidence, there is nothing we can do.” The detective said.

“Then how come you’re doing something now?” Spike asked in a disbelieving voice.

“There was a report about domestic disturbance from 1628 Revello Drive earlier tonight. A woman called to say that her neighbors were yelling at each other, and that she thought she heard him hitting her. When a patrol arrived at the house, the front door was open and the man...” She looked through her papers. “Mr. Finn was nowhere to be seen. Miss Summers was found in the kitchen, badly beaten.”

“What’s gonna happen now?” Willow asked, drying her tears. “What if she still won’t turn him in? Then what?”

“We have other evidence to go on, we don’t need her to testify. During the search of the house, a box of Polaroid photos were found. Apparently, Miss Summers had been documenting her injuries.” Collins looked up as a doctor entered the room. Quickly she gathered her papers and stood up. “I’ll get this down to the station. We have enough to put out a warrant on Mr Finn at the moment. When Miss Summers regains consciousness, I’ll be back to talk to her.” She smiled at the three friends before leaving the room.

“Doctor? How is she?” Xander asked.

“She’s pulled out of the surgery just fine and I believe she will fully recover. It will, however take some time. We had to operate since her left lung was punctured by a broken rib. She also have fractures on both of her legs as well as her right arm, along with a concussion and several bruises and cuts.” He gave them a sympathetic look. “It also appears that she has been raped. And, unfortunately, she lost the baby.”

They were all surprised by the doctor’s last words.

“She was pregnant?” Willow asked in disbelief. The doctor nodded.

“About thirteen weeks, as far as I could tell. The damage to Miss Summer’s abdomen was too much for the fetus to survive. I’m sorry.”

“Can we see her?” Spike asked, inhaling deeply as he tried to calm down.

“Normally, I would only let family in, but since she doesn’t have any family here at the moment, I will make an exception. She is unconscious after the surgery, and she needs to hear familiar voices. It will help her to wake up on her own.” The doctor led them down a corridor and stopped outside a door.

“I’ll be back to check on her during rounds in the morning. A nurse will be in every two hours during the night.” The doctor walked back down the corridor they had come from.

Willow opened the door and they all went in. Spike stopped right inside the door, afraid of seeing her in the state she was in. Willow and Xander went up to the bed. Willow sat down in one of the chairs and took Buffy’s hand. Xander stood next to her, and Spike could see tears running down his face. Willow looked up and saw Spike standing by the door. She motioned for him to come closer, and he did, sitting down in the chair on the opposite side of the bed. When he was able to bring himself to looking at the girl in the bed, his self-control broke and he let the tears run freely. Xander came over and put a hand on his shoulder.

“She’s gonna be OK, Spike.” He heard Willow whisper and nodded.

“I know.” He managed to get back control. “I just hate seeing her like this.”

“Me too.” Willow agreed. “But we have to be strong, she’s gonna need us. Can you do that?” He nodded again, his eyes fixed on Buffy. He could do that.

*****

Spike was walking past the waiting room a few hours later, he had gone to get coffee to keep awake, when he heard raised voices in the otherwise quiet hospital.

“Would somebody tell me what the hell is going on? Where is my daughter?” Spike heard a man in his late forties yell at one of the night nurses. Recognizing the man from a picture Buffy always carried with her, he approached him.

“Mr Summers?” He asked. The man turned to look at him.

“Who are you?” Mr Summers asked.

“My name’s William Giles, I’m a friend of your daughter’s.” Spike said.

“Do you know where she is? Is she OK? What happened?” Spike saw the desperate need in the other man’s eyes for him to say that everything was fine.

“Come on.” He motioned for Mr Summers to follow him down the corridor. “I was just on my way back, got some coffee.” He opened the door to Buffy’s room and let Mr Summers go in first. Spike heard him gasp for air as he saw his daughter in the bed. Xander, who had been half sleeping in one of the chairs, heard him and got up.

“Hey, Mr Summers.” He said in a hushed voice, indicating Willow who was asleep with her head on the bed, still holding Buffy’s hand. Mr Summers slowly walked up to the bed and sat down in the chair next to it.

“What happened? Who did this?” He asked no one in particular. Spike decided to explain.

“The police think she and Riley had a fight. A neighbor reported disturbance, and when the police got there they found her like this.”

“Riley did this?” The other man’s voice was cold. “I accepted him into my home, treated him like the son I never had, and this is what he does?” He stood up and walked towards the door. “Where is he?” Spike put himself between Mr Summers and the door, wanting to calm him down.

“The police are out looking for him. There’s nothing for you to do.”

“Like hell there isn’t. That monster hurt my little girl, and he’s going to pay for it.”

“Daddy?” They both turned their attention to the bed where Buffy had opened her eyes. Spike quickly made his way over to her.

“Hey. How you feeling?” He asked, smiling at her.

“Am I dead?” She asked in a shaky voice that broke Spike’s heart.

“No, baby, you’re not dead. You’re gonna be just fine.”

“I thought he was going to kill me.” She started to cry, and Spike carefully pulled her closer.

“Shh, it’s OK. Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Four

Spike was sitting in one of the chairs next to Buffy’s bed when detective Collins walked into the room. He looked up as he heard the door close.

“I thought you’d like to know that we got him.” Spike felt relief rush through his body at the detective’s words.

“Of course, he hasn’t admitted anything, but it doesn’t matter. We’ve got all we need.” She looked at the other people in the room; Xander and Willow who were asleep on a bed that one of the nurses had been kind enough to bring in and Mr Summers who were sitting in the other chair, his head resting against the wall behind him, snoring lightly. “I’ll be back in the morning.” She said before leaving the room again.

*****

Like she had said, detective Collins came back the following morning. They were all sitting around Buffy’s bed eating an improvised breakfast of machine food when she walked in. As she saw that Buffy was awake she smiled.

“Hello Miss Summers, I was wondering if I could talk to you a little?” Mr Summers stood up and crossed his arms in front of him.

“Can’t this wait? My daughter has been through a lot the past twenty-four hours.”

“It’s OK, dad.” Buffy said. “I want to get this over with.” She looked at the detective.

“Maybe we should do this in private?” Collins suggested, but Buffy shook her head.

“I only want to go through this once.” The detective nodded.

“If it’s OK, I’ll record it. You probably don’t have to testify if we do that.”

“OK. Good.” Buffy sighed in relief.

Collins pulled a chair up next to the bed and placed her tape-recorder on the table next to the bed.

“Interview with Buffy Anne Summers regarding Mr Riley Finn. Present detective Collins, Hank Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Alexander Harris and William Giles.” She turned to Buffy. “Could you tell me about your relationship with Riley?”

“What do you want to know?” Buffy asked.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning, how you met, and just take it from there.” Collins suggested.

“I dropped a book on him.” Buffy smiled sadly at the memory. “Willow and I were in the campus book store, and I was getting a book off the top shelf. I couldn’t reach it and ended up pushing it off the shelf and onto Riley’s head.

We were friends first, but then he asked me out and we started dating. It was great in the beginning, he was really sweet and caring. Then my mom died, and he moved into the house with me. He took care of me when I needed it the most. I cut myself off from everybody, he was the only one left.

A month or so after my mom died, he yelled at me for the first time. He had been waiting for me after class and saw me talking to a guy, I had asked him about the homework, but Riley didn’t believe that. He thought I had been flirting and was furious. I said that nothing happened and promised I wouldn’t talk to the guy again. After that, the verbal abuse just got worse.

He’d tell me how ugly I was, how fat and stupid and how I should thank my lucky start that he put up with me, because no one else would ever want me. Every Friday night, we’d go out with his friends and their girlfriends. Before we left the house, he’d inspect what I was wearing. Every time he said I looked like a whore and made me change into something else, that he’s told me I looked like a whore in just the week before. When we’d get home, he’d start yelling about how I flirted with all his friends, even if I didn’t talk to them, and call me all kinds of names. It was like that for the rest of spring, and then we went o Iowa to visit his parents for the summer. He was a completely different person there. Sweet, attentive, caring. I thought maybe it was going to be OK after all. But then we went back here and school started again, and things went back to the way they had been before the summer.”

Tears were running down her cheeks, but Buffy had to keep going. She knew if she stopped, she would never get it out.

“The hitting didn’t star until Christmas two years ago. I was putting the presents under the tree, and he asked who they were for. I told him I’d gotten presents for Willow and Xander, and that I felt like I had been neglecting them since my mom died. He just slapped me. Out of the blue, right across the cheek. I had a bruise for almost a week after, but that was the only time he hit me where someone could see it. Until now.

He was so upset after. He was crying, saying he hadn’t meant to hurt me and that he would never do it again. I believed him. But of course it did. The smallest things could set him off, so I started watching my back all the time, afraid he’d be mad because of something I did. I didn’t talk to anyone, because that would make him mad. I tried to do everything I could to keep him calm, but it wasn’t enough. Some times he’d make up an excuse, something that never even happened, because he was mad at something else and wanted to take it out on me.

That’s how it’s been for the past two years. Most of the time it would be a week or so between the beatings, but sometimes it was quiet for months, sometimes for only a day or two. I never knew what would cause it, and didn’t know how to stop it.”

“Can you tell me about what happened yesterday?” Collins asked carefully. Buffy nodded.

“A couple of weeks ago I started to suspect that I was pregnant. I went to get a pregnancy test at Student Health, and they called me yesterday asking me to come in to talk to Dr Carey about the results. I missed Riley when he was picking me up, and when I got home he was furious. I told him where I’d been and about the baby. I didn’t know how he’d react, and he went crazy, started yelling about me sleeping with someone behind his back, and that it wasn’t his. The last I remember is lying on the floor in the kitchen.”

Buffy finished her story and Willow squeezed her hand in a supportive gesture. Buffy smiled at her through the tears. Detective Collins turned off the tape-recorder and put it in her bag.

“Thank you. This and the photos should be enough to get a conviction.” She stood up to leave. “You just make sure to get well, OK?” She smiled at all of them before leaving the room.

*****

When the detective had left the room, Buffy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It had taken a lot out of her to talk about the past couple of years. When she opened her eyes again, she met Willow’s, who were filled with tears.

“Why didn’t you talk to us?” The red head asked in a thick voice.

“I don’t know... I guess I was ashamed, because somewhere deep down I knew what he was doing was wrong, and that I shouldn’t have to put up with it. I was afraid that you guys would think I was weak.” Buffy sighed. “And, on some level, I believed him. That I wasn’t worthless, and that no one could ever love me.” She added in a whisper.

“Please don’t believe that, sweetie.” Buffy’s dad took one of her hands in his. “You have a lot of people who care about you. I’m sorry I haven’t been around much, maybe if I had been...” Buffy cut him off.

“No, dad, this is not your fault.” She insisted.

“Maybe you should come with me?” Mr Summers suggested. “Back to Miami, finish college there, with me and Dawnie, get away from here.” Buffy shook her head.

“I can’t run away. If I do, I might never be able to go back. I have to face it.”

“We’ll all be here to help you.” Willow said. “Right?” Xander and Spike nodded.

“We’ll help you get through it.” Xander said, taking Buffy’s other hand. “That’s what friends are for.”


Epilogue

Buffy jumped off the low wall she had been sitting on when she saw Willow, Xander and Spike exit the court hall.

“So?” She asked nervously.

“Guilty on all charges!” Spike announced before he put his arms around Buffy and lifted her into the air. Riley had been charged with attempted murder as well as assault and rape. “15 to 25. We won’t be seeing him anytime soon.”

Buffy felt relief wash through her and put her arms around Spike, returning the hug. They had started dating a couple of weeks ago, and were now officially a couple.

Buffy felt tears form in her eyes as Spike let go of her.

“What’s wrong sweetie?” Willow put her arm around Buffy’s shoulder. “They got him, that’s good.” Buffy nodded, drying her tears.

“I’m just so glad that I have you guys, I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Xander joined the others, looping his arm with Willow and the four started walking towards the parking lot. Spike squeezed Buffy’s hand.

“Let’s never find out.”