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Reunions / Part 12

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When Spike heard Dawn say that Buffy had meant it when she told him that she loved him, and that she still did, his whole body tightened up and he started to become agitated. He tried to push Dawn out of his lap, he wanted to get away from her. Dawn held on to Spike and he became even more upset. It was only when his daughter touched the side of his face and made a little cooing sound that he stopped trying to get away, but he was still agitated. The little girl looked over at Willow and made a long cooing sound.

Willows eyes got big, then she jumped up from the floor and ran over to Spikes little room and went inside. A few seconds later she came out of the room with the bottle of brandy she had given to him and a pack of cigarettes. She quickly came back over to Spike and handed them to him. Spike looked at Willow and then at his daughter. Willow seeing his look, said quietly “She told me to get them. She said you needed them.” Spike looked at Willow, but didn’t say anything. Willow concentrated her powers and threw her thoughts at Spike *Inside my head*. Spike looked a Willow again and just nodded.

Dawn let herself slip out of Spikes lap, but knelt down next to him, facing him. Little Joy stood next to Spike with her hand on his shoulder. Willow was kneeling in front of Spike, preventing him from moving forward off of the cushion he was sitting on. No one knew what to say next. Dawn had heard Willow say that little Joy had told her to get the brandy and cigarettes and understood immediately that she was talking about telepathy. Willow was the only person that Dawn had ever met who was capable of opening her own mind and the minds of others so that they could hear each others thoughts. To hear that Joy could also do this was a bit of a shock, but at the same time made sense of how she and Spike could talk to each other with dove coos and half heard whispers. They had been talking to each other telepathically.

Spike was looking out past Willow at the slayers and at all of the kids that were standing around them. He was afraid to say anything to Willow out of fear that the others might hear what he was saying. He looked over at Joy and smiled at her. She suddenly started cooing again and Willow seemed to be understanding what she was saying.

“Oh, Oh, the ice cream” Willow blurted out loud. “The ice cream is melting.” Willow said as she turned to Vi.

Vi was one of the ‘Inner Circle’ and knew about Willows ability to open her mind to the thoughts of others and how it was a secret, and reacted immediately. She rushed away from the group over to the tubs of ice cream they had brought as a treat for all the kids. The other slayers joined her and they called the kids, both the youngest and the older ones over to get their share. A couple of the older ones were reluctant to leave at first, but after a look from Spike they went over to join the others.

Spike continued to sit, not saying anything. He was holding the bottle of brandy Willow had given him in one hand and his cigarettes in the other. He looked over at Joy and said, “You don’t really like it when I do this, are you sure it’s okay with you.”

Joy made a long string of cooing and clicking sounds, then gave Spike a big smile. She let go of Spikes shoulder and then walking around in back of Willow she walked up to Dawn. She put her hand on Dawns shoulder as she smiled at her. She then raised one hand and pinched her nose and tugged on Dawn to urge her to back up. Dawn got the message and backed up several feet to sit on the floor. Joy then positioned herself and sat down in Dawns lap. Dawn wrapped her arms around the girl and gave her a kiss on top of her head. Willow also got the idea and backed up to give Spike some space.

Spike let a long sigh of relief out and dug his lighter out of his pocket and lit up a cigarette. He took a long deep drag off of the cigarette, held it for several seconds and then let the smoke out slowly. Dawn had never smoked a cigarette in her life and didn’t think they smelled very good and had never dated anyone who did smoke, but watching Spike smoke had always given her pleasure. She didn’t understand why, but it had always been that way, from the first time she met him. Her mom had been the same way, she had never objected to Spike smoking in the house and had even bought him an ashtray to use when he was at the house.

Buffy had been the only one to object to Spikes smoking in the house, but Dawn had figured out right away that most of her objection was really due to Buffy not wanting to seem to approve of anything Spike did back then. Buffy had always been like that with Spike, never making more than a token protest to the things he did, unless someone else was with them, then everything became a big deal. Buffy had admitted this to Dawn years ago during one of their many long talks about Spike. Dawn wondered if Spike could even comprehend the changes that had taken place in Buffy over the years since his presumed death. Which brought everything back into a sharp urgent focus.

“We haven’t told Buffy your alive yet, Spike” Dawn said without any preamble. “We had to find out if you still had your soul first, and some other things.”

Spike looked over at Dawn but didn’t say anything at first. He opened the bottle of brandy and took a large swallow, then set the bottle down in front of himself. “What was going to happen if I had lost my soul, Pet? Was Red here going to cast a spell and force it back into me?”

Willow leaned forward from where she was sitting and picked up the bottle of brandy and took a mouth full. She swallowed it down with only a small gasp for air. “That was one of the plans” Willow said as she took a deep breath. “That’s not bad” she said before taking a second smaller sip and then setting the bottle down in front of Spike.

“What was plan two, if the first one didn’t work?” Spike asked calmly as he took another drag off of his cigarette.

“Well, if you had lost your soul and were leading a pack of vampires, and there wasn’t any other choice, we were all going to die” Willow replied just as calmly. “You, me, the slayers and everyone else within a thousand yards of ground zero.”

“We were all going to die” Spike repeated. “Does Giles still hate me that much that he would send you in here to die just to get rid of me?”

“No, actually he doesn’t hate you at all, but we would both be willing to die to prevent Buffy from finding out you were alive and had lost your soul. We both know what she would have done if she found out and we couldn’t let that happen.”

“And just what would have happened if she found out?” Spike asked coldly. “Would she have got on a big silver bird and flown here from Rome to stake me personally?”

“No” Dawn said harshly as she leaned forward and grabbed the bottle of brandy and took three long swallows. “She would have got on a big silver bird in London and flown here to let you kill her. That’s what she would have done.”

Dawns words shocked Spike speechless for a full minute or more. He couldn’t find any words to say and reached toward Dawn and took the bottle from her hand and took a long pull off of it. “That doesn’t make any sense” Spike finally got out. “Why would any of you think that I would kill Buffy, with or without a soul?”

“Because you don’t have a chip anymore, maybe?” Willow said quietly as she reached out her hand for the brandy. Spike let her have it and she took a swallow.

“You do know that chip didn’t have any effect on me after Buffy came back from heaven, don’t you?” Spike asked both Willow and Dawn. “If I had wanted her dead, or anything else, I could have done it almost anytime before I got my soul back.”

“But you loved her then.” Dawn said as she reached for the bottle in Willows hand. After taking a large swallow, she continued “We don’t know how you feel about her now. Even with a soul, you still might want her dead.”

“Bit” Spike protested “you know that’s not true. I‘d rather stake myself first.”

Dawn took another swallow of the brandy and passed the bottle back to Spike. “Then why didn’t you ever call her and let her know you were alive?”

Spike took the bottle and upending it chugged down all that remained in the bottle. He sat there in silence for a minute while he lit up another cigarette. He then looked Willow and then Dawn in the eyes. “Because she was happy” Spike said with a pain filled voice. “I couldn’t come walking back into her life, messing it up again. I saw her in Rome and she was happier than I’d ever seen her. She was dancing and full of life, I couldn’t mess that up, not again. It was like Andrew said, she was getting on with her life, without me.”

“Spike, when did you talk to Andrew, about Buffy getting on with her life?” Dawn asked cautiously.

“What?” Spike asked, confused by the question. “Well here, in L.A., when Buffy sent him to pick up that crazy slayer girl, Dana, I think her name was. He told me about Buffy living in Rome and how she was building a new life and making new friends.”

“If you were here then, why didn’t Andrew or any of the slayers mention seeing you” Willow asked as she checked the empty bottle that Spike had set down on the floor. When she was certain it was empty she shrugged her ‘magic bag’ off her shoulders and pulling it around into her lap she unzipped it and reaching inside pulled out two more bottles of the same kind of brandy. She tried to break the seal for a few moments, then handed the bottle to Spike to open. Once he had the bottle open she reached out and took it from his hand and took a big swallow from it, then handed the bottle to Dawn.

“Well, after Andrew told me about Buffy making a new life for herself, I asked him not to tell her that he’d seen me. Not that I really thought the little bugger would do it, but he did promise. As far as the slayers you sent to pick up the girl, I didn’t see any of them. I was getting my hands put back on at the time.”

“Getting your hands put back on” Dawn said in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“The girl, Dana. I told you she was crazy, right. Well she’d hurt some people and I went after her thinking she was some kind of demon or something. I didn’t know she was a slayer or crazy. Anyway, she kicked my ass, shot me full of drugs and cut off both my hands. Lucky for me Angel had some doctors that worked for him that were able to put them back on just like new.” Spike explained as he took the brandy bottle from Dawn and took a couple of deep swallow. He then handed the bottle back to Willow.

Willow took the bottle from Spike and took a big swallow, then handed it to Dawn. “Okay, but when did you see Buffy, dancing, in Rome?” she asked with a slightly slurred voice.

“When Angel and me went to Rome to pick up the head” he told her as he waited for Dawn to finish taking a drink and hand the bottle to him. Once he took a couple of swallows of brandy he continued. “Me and Angel, we didn’t trust each other to go to Rome alone. We both kind of figured the other would try to go see Buffy. So we ended up both going together. But once we got there we started arguing and we both went to see her together. But she wasn’t there, Andrew was. That’s when he told us that Buffy was dating that bloody ass the ‘Immortal‘, and was in love with him. We didn’t believe him of course and went looking for her. We caught up with them in a night club somewhere and saw her dancing.” Spike looked at Dawn with a look of overwhelming sadness in his eyes. “God, we saw her dancing Dawn, and she looked so happy, so full of life. She was glowing, do you know what I mean. Then Angel and me got into a fight and someone stole the head and we had to chase after it and we got into another fight and ended up having to pay a big ransom to get it back, but we got double crossed and then that bloody ‘Immortal’ rescued the head and sent it to us and we just took it and left. We both figured it out that Buffy was better off without us messing up her life. She was happy, and that’s what we both wanted for her anyway, so we just left.” Spike took another long drink of brandy and handed the bottle to Willow.

“Oh God” Dawn said angrily, “When I get my hands on Andrew I’m going to wring his bloody fucking neck.”

“Not if I see him first” Willow said in a flat tone of voice. “I’m going to turn him into a rat, then stomp on him till he pops, the little rodent.”

“I don’t understand” Spike said as he took the bottle back from Willow and drained it. “What are you mad at him for, what he’d do?”

“He didn’t tell us you were alive, that’s what he do, did.” Dawn said angrily. “He didn’t tell us you were alive in L.A. and he didn’t tell us you came to Rome. He didn’t tell us anything. He didn’t tell Buffy.”

Spike reached for the other bottle of brandy sitting on the floor and giving it his full concentration pealed off the seal and opened the bottle. After taking a drink he handed the bottle to Willow. “But that’s what I asked him to do, don’t you see. I asked him not to tell Buffy. I wanted her to be happy.”

Willow had barely finished taking a drink from the bottle when Dawn grabbed it from her hand and took a couple of big swallows. “You big jerk” Dawn snapped at Spike. “Why the hell did you do something so stupid?”

“Hold on Bit” Spike said as he started getting angry himself. “It wasn’t stupid to want Buffy to be happy. It still isn’t.”

Dawn took another drink and passed the bottle to Spike. “You big moron. Do you honestly think Buffy has been holding hands with the fucking ‘Immortal’ for the past seven years?”

Spike looked at Dawn through bleary eyes, trying to focus on her face. “Well, hasn’t she? I mean, they was happy and in love, and all that. It just made sense that they would still be together.”

“You idiot” Dawn yelled at Spike as she sat there crying. “Do you know what happened to the bloody fucking ‘Immortal’ when he tried to stop Buffy from getting on the plane to go look for you after she found out you were alive? Buffy, me, Willow, Giles, Faith and Robin, fifty fucking slayers, the whole fucking Coven and a few dozen fucking survivors from the Council flew to L.A. from all around the world to look for you.”

“Guess what happened when the fucking ‘Immortal’ tried to stop Buffy from getting on the plane. Just guess you idiot. She broke his arm, shattered his knee and kicked him in the balls so hard he was pissing blood for a month. You may not be able to kill an immortal but you bloody fucking well can hurt them. Especially when their stupid enough to tell Buffy that they had know you were alive for months and didn’t tell her. Buffy never went back to Rome. Buffy never saw the ‘Immortal’ again. But she sent him a message. She told him that if she ever did see him again she was going to cut his fucking head off and see if he could go on living without it.” As soon as Dawn stopped yelling at Spike her eyes seemed to cross and she passed out, slumping over onto the cushion Spike was sitting on.

Little Joy had slipped out of Dawn’s lap earlier when she started drinking and got a little wobbly. She had moved over to the cushion and had been sitting watching Spike, Willow and Dawn drinking, talking and eventually yelling at each other. When Dawn passed out, Joy scooted across the cushion far enough so that she could lift Dawns head and place it in her lap. She sat there brushing her fingers over the side of Dawns head and face and cooed softly to her.

Spike sat there for a minute or two, looking down at Dawn as she slept. He took another long drink from the brandy bottle and handed it to Willow. He looked at Willow, squinting his eyes to focus on her face. “Is that right? What she said?” Spike asked slowly to get the words out.

“Mostly” Willow said with a slur in her voice. “I think he was pissing blood for longer than a month though, if I remember right.”

Spike sat there grinning at Willow for a couple of minutes until his eyes closed and he fell asleep. Willow set the bottle down on the floor, then reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a little packet. She opened the packet carefully and poured the ingredients on her tongue and swallowed. For about a minute she sat there turning green as her whole body seemed to quiver, then she sat up straight and looked over at Joy and smiled at her. “Their both going to feel really bad in the morning, but they‘ll live.”

Joy smiled back at Willow and let out a string of soft coos.

Willow got up from the floor and signaled to the slayers to come help her with Dawn. They picked Dawn up and carried her over to a pallet and laid her down and covered her with a blanket. Two of the older boys came over and each of them taking Spike under one arm dragged him across the room and inside his little room. Joy followed after them and once Spike was laid out she pulled a blanket up over him and then getting under the blanket too, she wormed her way up next to him. In his sleep Spike wrapped one arm around her and pulled her in close to him where they both felt safe and secure while they slept.

Willow got her phone out of her ‘magic bag’ and dialed Giles phone number. She had a lot to tell him and wanted him to know everything she had learned right away.

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