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Chapter Five

32 days later

A month had passed since she had last seen him and now, July’s heat wave hung heavy as she sat in class, trying to pay attention to the test in front of her. The only sounds in the heat-drenched, sweaty classroom was the scratching of pencils on paper, pages fluttering as somebody turned it, and a fly buzzing around the room.

14. How much energy is produced by the Kreb Cycle?… She stared at the question. It was easy, but her mind was somewhere else. She hadn’t heard from Spike ever since the night that he had took her on the balcony and she was worried. Part of her was hurt that he would just forget her, but the other part of her thought that maybe something had happened to him. If something had happened, how would she know?

She wasn’t sure. Sighing, she made up her mind to visit his house at the other ends of the woods when she got home.

15. Explain the function of NADH.

………

His cabin was a little bit bigger than hers and seemed to glare at her threateningly through her windshield as she slowed to a stop. The tires crunched over dead leaves and branches that littered the driveway. Their property looked deserted and uncared for.

Buffy held a breath, cut the engine, and stepped out of the car. The sun was beginning to set and with it, the heat withdrew and she breathed in a cool breath of night air. She took in the smell of leaves being burnt somewhere in the distance and closed her eyes to savor the scent. It was one of the things she loved about these woods.

After calming herself down considerably, she walked towards the house and up the porch. The steps creaked and felt like they were going to cave in at her weight. Buffy carefully made her way towards the door and raised her hand, hesitated for a brief moment, then brought it down to rap at the door three times, sharply.

Ten minutes later, she was still standing there.

Finally, she turned around to leave.

……….

57 days later

A voice whispered in the dark.

“William…”

Where was it coming from? What was it doing there? He felt like he was in a horror story. His heart raced and he could feel the blood pumping past his ears.

“William… wake up…” The whisper was distant and he wondered who it was. There was a face… he could almost see it if he squinted hard enough. No… he didn’t really want to wake up.

“Come on, William, you’re done,” The voice was getting louder and louder. When he strained his ears, he heard some other voices in the background. Something beeping, something scratching, female voices talking to each other, a male voice…

His eyes slowly opened and he saw Dr. Giles’s beaming face above his. What was going on?

He suddenly remembered.

Surgery…

“Well, William,” Dr. Giles began, smiling, “Everything has gone smoothly, just as I predicted.”

His immediate response was to touch his face, but for some reason, he couldn’t move his arms. The doctor realized what he was trying to do and shook his head.

“You’re tied down for the moment, William,” He explained, “Safety measures. We’ll unstrap you in a few minutes.” He paused and looked down at his notepad. “Okay, son. Now, the skin on your left side is actually grown from grafts of a donor and it took very well to your body which means it was successful. However, it is still relatively new and to protect it, we have to ask you to wear the mask that is currently on your face for the next five hours. Do not over-exhaust yourself, do not do anything to irritate it, do not – “

Spike drowned him out and tried to grasp the fact that he… had a new face.

He had a new face. Bloody… fucking… hell, he slowly smiled.

………

7 hours later

He was in the hotel bathroom and the door was locked. His sister was somewhere in the other room, waiting anxiously for him to come out.

“Hurry it up, William!” She called, excited, “I want to see!”

Spike ignored her shrilly voice and stared at the figure in the mirror. There was something eerily scary about the white mask over his entire black-clad body. He didn’t even recognize himself; it was a stranger’s eyes that looked back at him from the two eyeholes.

Slowly, he moved his hands and watched as the hands in the mirror reached to grasp the two ends of the mask at his face. His pulse was racing and he felt the shiver of anticipation as he slid his thumbs under the hard, plastic material.

Slowly, he pulled the mask away from his face, cringing as some of his skin clung to it as if he were pealing off tape. It took him a few minutes to get the horrible white plastic face fully off of his skin and when it finally came loose, he held it a few inches away, still looking through the eyeholes at the man in the mirror.

He held a breath, closed his eyes, then put the mask down on the bathroom table. It slipped from his fingers and dropped down with a clang.

Should he open his eyes? What would he see? Who would he see?

“Come on! It’s taking you forever!”

Spike grit his teeth and his eyes opened.

………

The person he saw in the mirror was… completely flawless. He leaned forward, not fully believing what was before his eyes. The skin that replaced the ugly, gnarled scars was soft and perfect. Delicate.

The only spot that was less than beautiful was a small mark on the side of his left eyebrow. He was unable to re-grow his facial hair, so they had left that section alone. And he really didn’t care.

His fingers gradually lifted to the skin, tentatively, as if afraid to break it.

After a few minutes of inspecting his new face, free of the hateful, marred, angry scratches, he swallowed and took a step back, eyes still on the eyes of the mirror man.

Slowly, they both smiled.

………

Two days later

The plane had landed and now, Spike and Cecily were making their way to the baggage claim. Nobody commented at his face, nobody gasped or quickly looked away, nobody noticed. Well, nobody noticed, save a few girls who gave him appreciative glances and suggestive smiles.

He had been sure to throw them his signature smirk and they had giggled to each other, turning their head back to look at him when he passed.

“Spike!” An all too familiar voice called out to him and he turned his head, not believing his ears.

There she was, standing a few yards away from him, closer to him than she had been for what had seemed like forever.

It made him choke up and a slew of conflicting emotions ran through his mind straight to his heart, making him want to fall to the ground.

What was she doing here?

She was still beautiful, smiling at him as if a day hadn’t passed. A familiar shiver ran through his body when she started walking towards him.

But, there was something different about this shiver. It wasn’t the lust, the want, it wasn’t the love. He didn’t have time to figure out what was so different, because she had just stopped three feet in front of him.

“Hello… Drusilla,” he greeted her, softly.

………

“Drusilla!” Cecily grinned and ran to hug the girl. “I’m so glad you were able to make it!” She turned to Spike, who was still staring at Dru, “Sorry, William. I wanted to surprise you!”

He looked at both of them, wordless. Drusilla seemed to be at a loss for words as well. Maybe, he thought bitterly, it’s because she hadn’t so much as looked at me in four years….

“This is certainly a pleasant surprise,” she said, finally. “You look great, William.”

“And you look the same,” he answered, his voice flat. What could he say to her? Did four years really pass? Did she want to be with him again? If she did, would he say ‘yes’? He didn’t have enough time to think.

Cecily noticed the tension between the two of them. She looked from the dark-haired girl to her brother and back. “I told Dru to meet us here, Will,” She tried to brighten them up and laughed, “I told her she’d be surprise!”

“Well, surprise!” Spike threw his hands up and laughed with faux-happiness. “Bloody great surprise I am, right? Yeah. Everybody take a look.”

The two women froze and stared at him with a stricken expression on their face. His voice grew louder, “Let’s play a round of Everybody Poke the Spike, yeah? I’m a fucking zoo animal on fucking display. You know what? That’s bloodygreat. Really. I’m so happy for you now that you don’t have to look at my bloody fucking horrible face anymore.”

The people around him turned to stare and some people tried to step away. A security guard looked like he was about to step in if he went any further and started a disturbance. Spike glanced at all the eyes that were fixated on him and took a deep breath.

“You know what?” He said, evenly, trying to control the monster inside, “Sod this. I’m leaving.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

………

When he was out the doors, Spike heard Drusilla shouting his name. Not bothering to turn around, he stalked down the sidewalk until he felt a hand on his arm.

“What do you want?” He bit out and she pulled back, flinching.

“Spike…” She said, softly, trying to console him, “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean it like that.”

“Mean what like what?”

Drusilla tried again, “We didn’t try to make you out to be a … display. I’m sorry. Your sister called and told me to meet her here. She told me that I wouldn’t be disappointed, so I just came. I had no idea…”

“So you just came here,” his cold eyes regarded hers, “Well it’s great to see you, pet, it really is. A bloke woulda thought you forgot all about him, what with not seeing your precious face in years.”

“I would never forget you,” Drusilla tried to touch his face but he turned away. “You were so distant… ever since the accident.”

“Don’t you dare talk about that bloody… fucking… accident,” he all but growled.

“Spike, please,” She looked like she was about to cry. “It changed my life, but it never changed how I felt about you.”

“Did you even care about me?”

“Of course! And I still do…” She insisted, the tears now spilling over her face. “Please. Let me talk to you.”

“Okay. Talk.” He resisted going to her side and wiping away her tears. There was too much pain between them and having it all thrown back at him was too unsettling.

“Not here,” her voice was soft and pleading, “Let me take you out to dinner. We can go to Panara … remember how we always went there?”

After a moment, he finally nodded and agreed. “Yeah,” he said, softly, “I remember.”

This was a moment that he had dreamt about for years. Him all healed and her running back to him. But for some reason, it wasn’t as settling as his dream was. It didn’t make him happy or relieved or ecstatic. For some reason, he still felt completely and utterly empty.

And he wanted to go see Buffy.





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