Chapter 31
“Just lay back and relax. You’ll forget all about Spike when I’m done with you. He was never man enough for you, anyway.”
Buffy had a retort on the tip of her tongue, but held it back. She was relieved when he turned away from her and decided to use that to her advantage. She gulped at the sound of him lowering the zipper on his pants and knew that she had to think of something fast. Buffy looked to her side and smiled when she spotted the pipe lying there. It was a good thing that Ben wasn’t smart enough to tie her up. She reached over and grabbed it, taking a deep breath and slamming it down on Ben’s skull.
He groaned and fell to the ground.
Buffy instantly stood up, but he grabbed her foot before she could get away.
“You’ll pay for that, you little bitch!” he spat.
Buffy knew that she didn’t hit him hard enough and kicked out with all of her strength. She got him right in the face and didn’t hesitate before she took off running to the back of the warehouse.
Ben gave a chilling laugh. “You won’t be able to get far. The doors are all bound shut. You’ll only be able to open them from the outside. There’s nowhere for you to go.”
Buffy tried opening the back door and realized that he was right. “There has to be another way out of here.” She heard Ben throwing stuff around to try and find her, so she hid behind a bunch of boxes that she spotted. It wouldn’t be long until he found her and she would be ready for him. She peeked out from the top of the box when she couldn’t hear him anymore. Buffy was about to scream when she felt a hand clap over her mouth, but a soothing voice in her ear stopped her.
“It’s okay, love. It’s just me.”
Buffy felt tears of relief fall from her eyes now at the sound of Spike’s voice, figuring that he must have snuck in from the back door. She attacked him in a hug once he removed his hand, but tried to keep her voice down. “I knew you would find me. He’s crazy, Spike. He’s trying to turn me into Elizabeth and take me away from you.”
Spike kissed the crown of her head. “You’re safe now, Buffy. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Come out, little girl. You can’t hide from me forever.”
Spike felt her body shake at Ben’s voice and held her tighter. “I want you to stay here. I’ll deal with him.”
Buffy shook her head and pulled away to look at him. “He’s too dangerous; I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Spike pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “I’ll be fine. I’m only worried about your safety right now. I have a feeling help will be arriving soon.”
“Well, what do we have here?”
Spike cursed himself for being careless when Ben made his presence known. He wrapped his arms tighter around Buffy and stared the man down. “I’m getting her out of here.”
Ben glared at him. “She belongs to me. I won’t let you take her away.”
“I don’t think you have much of a choice, Benny.”
He saw red at that name. “I hate being called that! I’ll kill you!”
Spike shoved Buffy away when Ben came at him.
The crazed man knocked him down and started to choke him. “You will never be good enough for her!”
Spike kicked him off and grabbed his fists. He tried to use the rope that he found to tie his wrists together, but Ben wasn’t making it all that easy.
Buffy stood up and knew that she had to so something. She saw that Ben was struggling to get away from Spike and without putting much thought into her actions; she punched him hard in the face.
Spike was stunned for a moment, but then realized it was enough to stop his movements. He tied Ben’s wrists together as tight as he could, making sure the bloke couldn’t get out of the rope. He stood up and smiled at Ben still trying to get away, but that just wouldn’t do. Spike kicked him in the head with all the strength that he possessed, satisfied when Ben finally fell unconscious. He didn’t hesitate before wrapping his arms around Buffy. “It’s all over now, love.”
“I was so scared.”
He nodded and never wanted to let her go. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life when I found out that you were taken, but I’m so proud of the way you handled yourself.”
Buffy laughed through her tears and held her hand up. “That really hurt.”
Spike had to laugh in return that she was finally safe and placed a kiss to her knuckles. “We’ll get some ice for it.”
Buffy’s response was cut off when a couple of police officers burst into the warehouse, guns at the ready.
Spike silently thanked Tara and pointed to the unconscious man on the floor. “He’s the one you want.”
They untied Ben and slapped the handcuffs on him, taking him out of there and into one of the cop cars. The officer in the lead turned to Spike. “We’ll need you both to come down to the station for questioning about what happened here.”
Spike nodded as he ran his hands down Buffy’s back. He then helped her out of the warehouse, never wanting to see that place again.
* * * * *
Buffy and Spike were resting together on the couch once they returned from the police station later that night.
Spike couldn’t stop touching her and he never wanted to let her out of his sight again.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired,” she stated after a moment of silence.
He had to agree. “Yeah, I’m with you there, but at least Ben will be locked up now. Maybe they’ll send him back to that mental institution, they never should have let him out.”
Buffy looked up at him. “Ben was in a mental institution?”
Spike raised his eyebrows. “Are you actually surprised by that?”
She shook her head. “I’m really not, it explains so much.”
“Yeah, your sister wrote about him in her journal. She really didn’t have that much love for the guy. He was fine when she first met him, but then she started to get scared of him. I just don’t understand why she never told me about him.”
Buffy shrugged. “Lizzie probably didn’t want you to worry. She probably figured that she would never see him again after he got sent away, so there was no point telling you.”
Spike could see that she was trying to keep her eyes open. “I think someone should be in bed.” He stood and picked her up, carrying her up the stairs.
Buffy let out a sigh and rested her head against his shoulder.
He gently placed her down on the bed once he made it into their room.
“Thanks for saving me,” she told him sleepily.
Spike smiled and lay down beside her. “You don’t have to thank me for that. I would have never let anything happen to you.”
She smiled as well and closed her eyes. “I know.”
Spike kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her. It wasn’t long before he fell into a much needed sleep.