Many apologies for the long lag time since the last update. Also for the as yet unanswered reviews. You’re all quite lovely and your comments are most definitely appreciated. Lots of overtime at work, combined with recently discovered health issues, have taken priority in the last few weeks, but I hope to be caught up on overdue replies by the end of this weekend.
In the meantime, to make it up to you, I offer two chapters for the price of one!
Also, I’m thrilled to pieces that Marking Time has been nominated for the current Round 18 of the Love’s Last Glimpse Awards: Best WIP, Angst, Future Fic, and Crossover. And totally blown away to be nominated as Best Author. Boggles the mind. Really. Thank you, whoever you are. I’m touched beyond words.
Now, for those who need it, a quick recap of the story to date: Buffy gets a mysterious summons from Giles that takes her to his estate in England. There, she finds Spike who, along with Illyria, was teleported out of the NFA alley in the midst of the big battle. Only hitch is, he’s in an unexplained comatose state and not responding to the gang’s attempts to rouse him.
Spike, meanwhile, finds himself trapped in a strange void and on the receiving end of a very cryptic message from a mysterious being.
Back in England, Buffy finally figures out the quickest way to wake Spike up. (Any guesses as to what that would be? Heh.) But Spike’s a little pissed off that Buffy put her life at risk to do it, and Buffy’s pissed that he’s pissed. So…surprise, surprise…they’re not really talking to each other the way they should be.
So here we go! On with the next installment of this maddening little roller coaster ride known as Spuffy. Again, really hope you like…
CHAPTER NINE
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Spike had endured some fairly tense Scooby gatherings during his time in Sunnydale, but this one surpassed them all. Buffy had gone out of her way to choose a place at the opposite end of the table from where he sat, which suited him just fine. The further away she was, the better for his peace of mind. Not that he was in any danger of attacking her; he had more self-control than that. Still, the exquisite taste of her lingered in his mind like a siren’s call and he needed time to distance himself. He needed a clear head and judgment that wasn’t clouded by Buffy’s close proximity.
He was still furious that she’d taken such a chance with her life. It shouldn’t have surprised him, though. Buffy had always been willing to put it all on the line, especially for the people she cared about. She would have done…hell, she had done…whatever it took to save him.
He wondered if Buffy had given any thought to how devastating it would have been for him had she traded her life for his. Especially if, however unwittingly, he had been the one to kill her.
He’d never thought she could do anything he wouldn’t forgive. Now, he wasn’t so sure.
The conspicuous distance between them hadn’t gone unnoticed. Spike had caught Xander stealing not-so-furtive looks at the two of them, while Giles eyed him with steely speculation. Even Blue had seemed to pick up on the unspoken tension. He’d spent the first ten minutes interrupting her just to keep her from commenting on it. Luckily, she’d finally caught on, abandoning the attempt in favor of quiet glowering.
Halfway through the meal, at the request of Rupert, Spike gave them a brief account of his stay in the void, the mysterious being he’d encountered there, and his sudden return to consciousness. It was the same carefully edited version he’d shared with the Watcher after he’d shown up at Spike’s door and presented him with a black button-down shirt to wear. There was no love lost between them, but Spike knew if anyone could puzzle out what had happened and why, it would be Rupert.
“A prophecy. Great. Like we haven’t had enough of those.” Xander shook his head. “So, any idea what she was talking about…or would that be too easy?”
Spike shrugged. “With those mystical types, who knows? Could’ve just been havin’ me on.” Spearing a forkful of pot roast, he crammed it into his mouth. As he chewed, he could feel Illyria’s laser-beam gaze burning a hole through him but didn’t look up.
“I seriously doubt it.” Giles frowned. “It would seem a rather elaborate hoax and for what purpose?”
Xander leaned forward, waving his fork to punctuate his words. “Maybe whatever that thing was just didn’t want Spike to leave. Must get pretty lonely in a place like that. Not knowing any better, it probably took a shine to what it saw as a hunk of manly goodness and wanted him to stick around. So it tried to use that tired old prophecy line to keep him there.”
At their incredulous stares, he shrugged. “Or not.”
“I don’t see what the big mystery is.” Buffy sounded irritated. “It was obviously a bad guy who knew we were close to saving Spike and was trying to stop us. One less champion in the world and all that. We won, it lost, end of story.”
Giles looked skeptical. “It would be nice if it were that simple, Buffy, but I hardly think—”
“The Shanshu!”
Spike flinched at the excited Texas twang. Turning, he found “Fred” sitting where Illyria had been. Even though he’d heard about her ability to change, experiencing it firsthand was more than a little disconcerting. The others looked openly shell-shocked, except for Buffy, who sat stone-faced and seemingly unimpressed.
“Fred” smiled at Spike. “It has to be the Shanshu, right? I mean, what else could it be?”
Xander held up his hand. “Excuse me, but…what the hey?!”
Buffy spoke up, voice flat. “It’s okay Xander. Apparently, Illyria can look and sound like Fred whenever she feels like it. I found out earlier this week. I would’ve mentioned it, but I thought you already knew. Sorry.”
“You thought? Don’t think. That’s bad, okay? Very, very bad!”
Giles gave Buffy a reproving look. “Allow me to echo Xander’s sentiment. Assumptions of that nature can be…problematic. Having established that, however, perhaps we can get back to the subject at hand? Which, I believe, has just taken a rather interesting turn.” He arched an eyebrow at Fred. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“There’s nothin’ to elaborate on,” Spike said sourly. Though he’d once pursued it doggedly, he now felt perversely reluctant to give the idea any credence. “Blue’s just blowin’ steam. The prophecy wasn’t mine.”
“We can’t know that for sure,” Fred/Illyria insisted. “When Angel was the only vampire with a soul, okay. But then you came along. You gave your life to save the world, and you didn’t stop there! All the lives you saved in LA…all the sacrifices you made. You saved me, you saved Charles, you saved Angel. You didn’t have to do any of that. You didn’t have to follow Angel into that alley, but you did. You didn’t expect to survive, but you went anyway. To make a difference. To give Evil a big ol’ punch in the eye just because it was the right thing to do. You deserve it, too, Spike…just as much as Angel.”
Snorting, he shook his head, but his traitorous gaze sought out Buffy. Brow furrowed, she was staring hard at the faux Fred.
“Deserve what?” she asked. “And what has this got to do with Angel?”
Right. Angel. Count on that to get her attention. Well, bugger it. He might as well get it over with and rip off the plaster with one savage yank.
“You wanna know? Fine. Few years back, a prophecy turned up talkin’ about the vampire with a soul. Said he’d help a bunch of people, save the world, and then, if he ate all his veggies, washed behind his ears, and didn’t talk back to his mum, he’d get to go to Disneyland and be a real boy again.”
Xander frowned. “Disneyland? There’s a prophecy about Disneyland?”
“No, the prophecy doesn’t say anything about Disneyland,” Fred/Illyria assured him. “Spike’s just being…Spike. Basically, it says that after the vampire with a soul has helped enough people, he’ll be in a big apocalyptic battle and then he’ll become human again. You know, like a reward? Everybody thought it was talking about Angel, but then Spike showed up and…” She shrugged, flashing them a brilliant smile.
Spike scowled. “It is about Angel.”
“That’s not what you were saying before.”
“Well, obviously I was wrong. Hello! Still a vampire.”
“So? That only means it hasn’t happened yet. Who knows? A hundred years from now, you could be lopping off the head of a Balgoth demon and right in the middle of the big battle…poof! You’re human. Or, well…most likely after the big battle since turning human when you’re taking on a hoard of demons single-handed might be a little inconvenient. I mean, what would be the point? Kind of a waste of a good Shanshu if you get skewered right off the bat.”
Leaning over, she playfully poked him in the arm, so like Fred that he couldn’t help but smile in fond remembrance until he caught himself. He glanced self-consciously around the table. Giles appeared thoughtful, Xander looked confused, and Buffy…well, he couldn’t tell what Buffy was thinking anymore. Somewhere along the line, he’d misplaced his ability to read her. He looked down at his plate.
“All right, Blue, that’s enough,” he said quietly. “You’ve told them what Fred knew. Now turn back.”
Instantly morphing, Illyria cocked her head. “I have not told them everything. The text was derived from various languages of human and demon origin. The shell was informed it was difficult to translate.”
“Fine. Now you’ve told them. Let’s leave it be.”
“As you wish.”
Xander snorted. “Oh, sure…I get ‘Don’t mock me, human, or splat!’ and he gets ‘As you wish.’ Just tell me, who died and made him the Princess Bride?”
Spike started to give Xander a two-fingered salute but stopped as he spotted the teasing glint in the other’s eye. Not sure what to make of that, he turned the gesture into a quick scratch on the forehead. When he looked up again, he found Buffy staring at him with a strange expression he couldn’t decipher.
Before he could ponder it further, he heard the faint ringing of a telephone. Giles quickly excused himself and went to answer it. Returning a few moments later, the Watcher’s face was grim.
“That was Willow. Due to an unforeseen and apparently extremely rare escalation in trans-dimensional shifts, it seems our window of opportunity for retrieving Angel and Mr. Gunn has narrowed considerably. Once the escalation begins, it will become increasingly difficult to open or maintain a portal of any kind. At its peak, the trans-dimensional walls will be completely impenetrable. Unfortunately, there’s no way to accurately estimate how long it will last.”
“Are you saying we can’t go after Angel?” Xander asked.
“I’m saying that if we are going to attempt this, the portal must be opened immediately. We’ve no time to waste.”
“But what about the gathering of energy? The big mojo the coven needs to do its stuff? Willow said it would take a couple of days but it’s only been a few hours.”
Giles carefully removed his glasses, squinting as he attacked them with a cleaning cloth. “The portal can be opened at less than full strength, but it may drastically affect the time it can remain open…which was already uncertain at best.” Replacing his glasses, he looked at Buffy. “There is another concern. If the portal fails while in transit, those who have not yet made it to the other side will be trapped between inter-dimensional planes, beyond all possible hope of rescue. It’s not a fate to be taken lightly.”
Buffy’s gaze was steady. “Trapped. No rescue. Check. So what say we get this show on the road?”
Xander rose from his chair. “I’m good to go. It’s just too bad Vi’s gonna miss all the fun.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be going, Xander.” Giles approached the table. “Willow also informed me that in order to have the greatest chance of success, it’s necessary to limit the number of people using the portal. Each life form that enters represents an additional drain on the energy field needed to sustain it. Therefore, the rescue party must be a small one.”
“No problem.” Buffy stood up. “One is all we need.”
Spike also found himself on his feet. “Two.”
Buffy’s gaze hardened as her face took on a mulish expression. “Spike—”
“Not alive,” he pointed out. “Won’t be a drain on the field, leastways not as much.”
“You just woke up from a coma.”
“And I’m feelin’ fine now.”
The “thanks to you” hung silently in the air between them. He just couldn’t bring himself to say it, even without an audience. Her mouth tightened.
“I’ve got as much right as you, Buffy. Maybe more. I was there.”
Giles intervened in the budding standoff.
“He’s right, Buffy. You’ll need someone to watch your back. Illyria is strong, but she could conceivably require more energy from the field. That makes Spike the most logical choice.”
Standing motionless, Spike’s gaze locked with Buffy’s as she stared at him in stony silence. Then…
“Fine. Let’s do it. The sooner we find Angel, the happier I’ll be.” Turning on her heel, she marched out the door.
And Spike realized there was more than one way to stake a vampire’s heart.
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TBC in Part 10
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Author's Chapter Notes:
This is currently a WIP written in response to a Spuffy Kinkathon challenge. The story requirements were as follows: The requested kink was hurt/comfort. Three other requests were to show Spike reluctantly biting Buffy, include Dawn and/or Xander in the story, and set it anywhere from Season 5 to Post-NFA.