Chapter 12
Buffy’s leg was aching, and Spike was beginning to flag, his steps weary, but all of a sudden Buffy said,
“I can smell the smoke!”
Spike turned and smiled at her
“Nearly there pet!”
Two minutes later the smell of smoke was really strong, and Spike yelled out,
“HELL-OOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Buffy did the same, and Angel woke with a start, scrambling out of his hammock, everybody else was sound asleep.
“HELLO?” Angel yelled back
Spike grinned and said to Buffy,
“Never thought I’d be so pleased to hear Peaches in all my existence!”
“Everybody, quick, there here – there back, Gunn, wake up – Giles, GILES!”
“Huh, wha- oh!” Giles woke and groggily swung his legs over the side of the hammock
“HELLO – HELLO?” Angel called again, peering into the half-light, and he saw the vines shake and Buffy and Spike stepped through
“BUFFY! Oh gods, Buffy – I’ve been SO worried about you!” Buffy found herself squashed to Angel’s chest in a bear-hug. Angel looked down, and saw the fresh bite-mark on her neck, suddenly held her away from him by the shoulders and then marched up to Spike
“You BLOODY ANIMAL! I can’t believe – my god – there’ just no words to describe you! – I ought to, in fact I think I WILL knock your block off - how COULD you bite her when she has a gunshot wound and had already lost pints of blood!
“Hey, HEY!” Spike held his arms up to cover his face from the blows that rained down, then Angel suddenly saw Spike’s stump instead of his hand.
“ANGEL!” Angel was suddenly aware that he was, 1. On the ground, 2. Had a pain in his jaw, and 3. Was in actual fact, seeing stars, with Buffy glaring daggers at him
“How DARE you! When you don’t even know the circumstances! And, and what gives you the right to – to say what goes on between a husband and wife, hmm?”
Gunn sauntered over, offered a hand to Angel, but he stood without help, and rubbed his jaw, looking rueful.
“You know mate, Buffy has a point! You can’t leave well alone, can you?”
He watched as Giles hesitantly stood in front of Buffy, wondering whether to hug her or not, as it happened, she solved the problem and gently pressed her cheek to Giles’ own for a few seconds.
“Buffy it’s so good to…I wish I’d never…I’m SO sorry that I…will you ever forgive me?”
Giles took off his glasses and began a swift agitated polish of the lenses.
Wesley came over to Spike, and looked at his stump
“Buffy was shot, and you, snakebite, right? – And you couldn’t feed?” Spike just nodded
“As we thought, well that’s how Cordelia saw it; so you just lopped it off? Well, well no worries old man, Fred will sort you out when we get back to LA, you’ll be as right as nine-pence in no time”
“Fred, who’s he?”
“Fred isn’t a he, she’s a she, and a very nice she too, she’s our science girl – you DID bring the hand with you?”
“Course I did, it’s in my rucksack”
“Good…well, like I say, don’t worry, she’ll sort it all out for you!”
“Thanks” Spike mumbled walking over to his wife.
“That leg of yours pet, needs seeing to, it could be infected”
“Yes I know, Giles said as soon as we get back to HQ, he’ll get the doc to have a look at it for me”
“Spike, how are you?”
“I’m okay, tired, starving, but I’ll last!”
Giles nodded, noticing his stump
“Oh god, you cut it off?”
“Had to, to feed, I needed the energy – no other alternative. Buffy was going to try a tourniquet, but there was a chance that some of the venom, you know, could have got in my bloodstream!” Giles nodded
“Hello, hello, anybody there, hello – somebody answer me”
Everybody looked over to Cordelia, who was trying to get the radio to work
“Press the button in on the side…yeah, that’s it” Giles said
“Hello, it’s us, somebody speak to me – hello”
“HQ to base-camp 1 receiving you, what can we do for you, over?”
“You can come and get us, ALL of us, they’re back – and we’ll need a medical team”
She released the button to hear what was said, but nobody replied
“Hello – did you hear me?”
“Loud and clear base-camp, was waiting for you to say over, over”
“Over, over? Oh I see sorry, over”
“There will be somebody with you within the hour, over”
“Tell them to be quick about it, coz it’s raining AGAIN!” Gunn yelled.
Cordelia put the radio down, and the camp suddenly became a hive of activity, Buffy and Spike sat on a groundsheet under a tarpaulin to save getting wet while the others packed up the things.
*****************
They reached HQ and both the hero’s were taken to the medical ward, where Spike had his stump washed and dressed, and Buffy got her wound cleaned and had an anti-biotic shot to be on the safe-side. Twenty minutes later, they were in Riley’s office, he was sitting behind his desk listening to Spike rant…………
“Typical!” he paced the floor, while Buffy sat.
“Bloody typical of you double-crossing, yellow-bellied, poor excuse of an out fit you really are- not even sending a search party!”
“Like I told the others, it was out of my hands, the colonel said –“
“The colonel said, the colonel said! Well I’ll tell you what you can tell your bloody colonel when you see him again, you can tell him next time he wants any bloody dirty work doing, to look else where, coz neither the slayer or me will be willing to risk anything like this again, that’s what you can tell him!”
“He thought you were dead!” Was Riley’s feeble excuse
“I was dead, I AM dead! That’s not the point! He obviously doesn’t know what the special circumstances are with us, why has nobody told him?”
“It wouldn’t have made any difference…he’d have only then said, well, if two ‘super-beings’ like that are lost – then what chance does anybody else stand, and he STILL wouldn’t have sanctioned a search party – so you see-“
“NO! – YOU see! This is the last time Finn! I MEAN it! No more calling on Buffy because you know her powers or you think she owes you something, I won’t have my wife put in any more danger by you or any other bunch of prats who do nothing more than sit behind poncey desks making life or death decisions about everybody else – do you understand me?”
“Well, yes, but knowing Buffy as I do, I know that she’s her own woman, and I imagine that she doesn’t appreciate you dictating to me what she will or will not do in the future”
Spike looked at Buffy, who was looking at her bandaged leg, she held her hand out to Spike, stood and said,
“Riley, you like to THINK you know me, but you don’t know me at all – EVERYTHING that Spike just said, I agree with 100% - find yourself some other suckers, coz these two have had MORE than enough – shall we go babe?”
Spike grinned and held open the door for his wife and they both left. Riley dropped his pen on his jotter thinking just how much Buffy had changed…
********************
Following day, back in LA, Wolfram and Hart
Spike was sitting on a medical trolley, Buffy next to him. On a large medical tray, Fred had Spike’s hand hooked up to all sorts of tubes and wires, it was back to the right colour and size, ready for reattaching.
“I got what venom out I could just by squeezing at first, then I used a special vacuum-pump, then I’ve run two lines of anti-venom through, that’s when the colour came back and the swelling went down, and just to be safe, I’ve run two pints of blood through it and flushed it away, now, I’ll give you a shot of anti-venom, and then I can start to reattach it, okay?”
Fred smiled at them, and they both beamed back at her.
“So pet, what’s a nice girl like you doing working for a wanker like Angel?”
Fred giggled and told them all about Lorne and his home-planet Pylea, and the ‘hot-spot’ vortex they came through and brought her back.
“This is going to take a while, are you sure you don’t want to be knocked out – it’s seems strange having the patient awake!”
“I’m fine – fascinated in fact!”
“Baby, mind if I go to talk to Cordelia, I’ll come back later”
“Sure babe, you go” Buffy gave Spike a kiss and left.
“So, gonna tell me who floats your boat here? – I know Wesley spoke of you in glowing terms yesterday” Spike teased
Fred went all shades of red and giggled
“Wes – no! He’s…he’s just a friend!”
“That’s how the best relationships start pet – being friends!”
“Now sit still…this bit is delicate, I’m sewing together nerve endings…”
Fred studied what she was doing under the big electro-microscope that magnified everything X 50 so she could see easily.
“Nice clean cut, anyway”
“Yeah, I used a machete – just wham there it was on the end of my arm – then it wasn’t”
“You were brave!”
“Well it was either that, or not existing anymore, AND leaving Buffy to the mercy of the rain-forest too – I couldn’t have my girl perish, not for a bunch of ingrates like the Initiative”
“I couldn’t believe it when Cordy told me they wouldn’t send a search party out for you………”
Two hours later
“There – embroidery was never my forte, but I think that looks neat, even if I do say so myself!” Fred dropped the suture needle into the kidney bowl and put it on the trolley
“Now, it’ll need a pressure bandage to stop swelling but as you don’t have a permanent circulation, I don’t envisage any problems. You can take it off tomorrow – and you can feed as normal – so, how does it feel?”
“Little numb – but great – you’re one terrific lady, do you know that?”
Buffy knocked and entered the medical room to see Fred blushing
She came and stood by Spike automatically holding his hand.
“I was just telling Fred here what a terrific lady she is!”
“Oh yes, all done then I see?” Buffy said smiling
Spike held up his bandaged arm
“Good as new”
“Thankyou Fred” Buffy said
“You’re very welcome!”
Giles knocked and waited for the ‘come in’
“All done then Spike?”
“Yup – we can go as soon as you like”
“What about the stitches Fred, when will they have to come out?”
“Oh don’t worry, I’ve used special melting ones”
“Great – well, thanks again love!” Spike leaned over and kissed her cheek, Fred went red, and Spike teased
“And don’t worry, you’re secret desires are safe with me!”
Fred blushed beet red and Buffy laughed, shook her head and popped Spike gently on his bicep
“Stop teasing her…” When they’d got out of ear/eye shot of the medical lab, Buffy said,
“Well, come on then, who gives her the hots?”
“Can’t tell you, I promised to keep it a secret!”
************************
Standing in the foyer everyone said goodbye
Angel was standing with his arms crossed, brooding. He had a big bluish bruise on his cheek from the previous day when Buffy had hit him, and he hadn’t spoken to Buffy since then. He’d tried to say something to her at dinner, but Buffy just turned her head away and started to talk to Gunn instead.
“Buffy…please don’t go like this”
“Like what?”
“This…us not speaking, I realise now that I reacted badly to a situation that I saw was wrong”
“And?”
“And? – And what?”
“Well if this is an apology, I haven’t heard the word yet”
Angel took a deep breath and said,
“I reacted badly to a situation I couldn’t and didn’t fully comprehend at the time – and I don’t want you to leave with us not being friends”
“Say sorry” Cordelia hissed at him, but Angel chose to ignore her.
“Bye all” Buffy turned and Angel said
“Wait!”
With a sigh, Buffy turned and said,
“Angel…it’s Spike you have to apologise to, not me”
Angel spluttered and uncrossed his arms, jabbing the air
“The day I apologise to HIM – is the day I’ll-“
“Is the day I’ll deign to speak to you, and until then... May I remind you, many MANY moons ago, I allowed you to feed from me to cure you? And I did the same for Spike, different circumstances, granted, but same outcome, it spared his existence.
Now when we first came here, I seem to remember you going ape-shit at Spike for the predicament you found yourself in, eg; being caught dressed up in female attire, and for some unknown reason, you thought it was down to Spike, and Spike said to you, it’s about time you started to take responsibility for your own actions, it’s never YOUR fault is it, it’s always somebody else’s, well not this time Angel, we’ve both had more than enough”
Buffy left behind everybody else, without so much as a backwards glance, Spike didn’t know how he kept the smirk off his face!
Cordelia looked at Angel and said sadly
“All you had to do, was to say sorry – that was all – one little word to Spike, but no, you’d rather blow your friendship with her because of this vendetta you have with Spike – you REALLY ought to learn to grow up Angel” Cordy ran up the stairs, leaving Angel feeling a prize prat…
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