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Reunions / Part 7

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With everyone inside safely and the door locked, all of the kids were more relaxed and were talking to each other in various degrees of animation. Spike, who was standing next to Willow with his arm still wrapped around Vi’s shoulder, let out a deep sigh of relief and Willow could see by the way his shoulders relaxed that some of the tension eased away. Willow walked up to him and unzipping her magic bag, reached inside and withdrew a bottle of brandy, then held it out to Spike so that he could read the label.

“Bloody Hell” Spike said as he released his hold on Vi’s shoulder and reached out tentatively for the bottle. He stared at Willow with a look of awe.

Willow was very pleased with his reaction and said to him with a big grin on her face “Unless you’ve changed even more that I can believe is possible, I kind of figured you might like that a little better than the soda pop we brought for the kids.”

“Bloody Hell” was all Spike could say as he held the bottle in his hands reading the label, studying it to make sure it was what he thought it was.

While Spike was preoccupied with the bottle of brandy, Vi backed away from standing next to him and joined the other three slayers. Willow gave a slight nod of her head to Vi and the four girls set their weapons down near a wall and went to join the kids gathered around the stacks of pizza and cases of soda. After helping themselves they sat down on the floor with the kids and started talking to them. They didn’t ask any questions, they just joined in on the conversation about which kind of pizza each person thought was the best.

Willow looked around the area, checking things out and noticed the little blonde girl standing about ten feet away. She was holding a small plate in both of her hands with a piece of pizza on it and a bottle of soda was sitting on the floor next to her. Neither one had been touched, she was staring at Spike as if waiting for something.

Willow walked over and squatting down in front of her gave Joy her biggest most friendly smile. “Aren’t you hungry, Sweetie? It’s really good!” Willow said quietly.

The girl looked down at the pizza on her plate and Willow saw her little tongue peek out from between her lips as she licked them in anticipation, but then she looked up at Spike as if waiting for him to tell her it was okay. Willow decided to take the situation into her own hands and picking up the soda bottle with one hand as she scooped up the little girl with her other arm, being careful not to make her drop her plate, and carried her over to the big cushion that Spike had sat on the night before by one of the walls. She then urged the little girl to sit down and start eating. The girl sat down on the cushion with the plate in her lap, but still looked over to Spike instead of eating.

Spike, coming back to this world after studying the brandy bottle, glanced around quickly. When he saw the girl sitting with Willow, but looking over at him instead of eating, a look of chagrin spread across his face. He immediately walked over to her and kneeling down in front of her said “I’m sorry Luv. I didn’t mean to get distracted.”

Joy smiled at him and stood up and stepped a little to one side. Spike set the bottle of brandy down next to the cushion and then sat down on it and leaned back against the wall. Joy moved in front of him and Spike helped her to sit in his lap. Once she was safely in his lap she immediately started eating her piece of pizza. Spike, with his arms wrapped around her and his head bent next to hers, started whispering in one of her ears and making little coo sounds between kisses to her ear and cheek. Joy sat there leaning back into Spikes embrace and between bites of pizza made little cooing sounds of her own. At one point Spike reached out and picked up the bottle of soda and offered a sip of it to her. When the pizza was almost gone, with his head still bent next to hers, he looked up at Willow. Willow took the hint and jumping up ran over to the stacks of pizza boxes. Most of the pizza was gone by now but there was still some left so she grabbed up a big slice of cheese pizza and carried it back over to Spike and Joy. When Willow offered the pizza to the little girl she leaned to the side a little and turned her head to stare up at Spike. When he nodded his head and then kissed her on the nose, a smile spread across her face and she held out her plate for Willow to put the pizza on it.

A sense of sadness and joy washed across Willow in waves as she watched Spike and the girl together. Seeing the love between them filled her with joy and at the same time sadness. Joy because it was so very obvious that the two of them loved each other deeply and sadness because Buffy wasn’t here to share this moment with them. No one but Willow, Dawn and Giles, knew how terribly hard the past seven years had been for Buffy. No one else knew how hard the three of them had to fight to keep Buffy alive in this world.

When the pizza was finished, Joy laid back in Spikes arms and went to sleep. Spike sat there holding her until he was sure she was sleeping deeply, then with an ease of fluid motion he stood up with her in his arms and carried her to the little room they shared. In a few moments he had tucked her into bed, kissed her good night, and come back out into the larger room. Willow had sat with them the entire time and had never said a word or imposed herself into their interaction with each other. She saw Spike standing at the doorway to his little room glancing over at her and saw him take a deep breath, then start walking toward her.

As Spike walked toward her Willow saw him pull a pack of cigarettes out of his pants pocket and light one up. She realized then that it was the first cigarette she had seen Spike smoke in the past two nights. When he got over to her he flopped down on the cushion, reached out and picked up the bottle of brandy and twisted the cap off. He then sat back with his legs drawn up and spread, he took a pull off the bottle and then a deep drag off the cigarette, and with the cigarette in one hand and the bottle in the other, his forearms resting on his knees, he stared at Willow as he exhaled slowly.

By this time all of the pizza was eaten and most of the kids had gone to their beds. Some of the older ones were sitting off in a corner with the four slayers talking quietly. All but a few of the candles had been put out and the dimness of the lighting made it hard to see. Except for Spike. With his enhanced vampire sight he could see clearly into every corner of the room and if he concentrated he could hear every whisper being spoken. He took another long drag off his cigarette and as he let the smoke out slowly he stared at Willow intensely.

Finally he spoke, quietly, “Alright pet, what’s it all about? Why are you here?”

“Were here for you Spike” Willow said with the intensity of her emotions bleeding through to her voice. “We thought you were dead!”

A lopsided grin spread across his lips as he took another short pull off the bottle of brandy. “I am, always was.”

“Oh Goddess Spike” Willow said as a tear ran down her cheek. “We searched for you, honestly we did. We had fifty slayers and the whole Coven looking for you. Buffy tore the city apart looking for you.”

At the mention of Buffy’s name Spike seemed to tense up again and took another drag off his cigarette. He took another small sip of the brandy and then finding the cap resealed the bottle and set it down on the floor to one side.

“Don’t want to use it all up at one time” he said, indicating the brandy with a glance directed toward the bottle. “Haven’t had a sip of that kind of heaven for a long time.”

“I, I remembered that you use to like Giles brandy, back in Sunnydale. So I bought the best one the store had to sell” Willow said quietly. She realized that Spike had taken the conversation away from the search for him, and Buffy. She felt she had better just let the conversation go wherever and see what happened.

“Ol Rupert never had anything as fine as this” Spike said as he reached out and lightly touched the bottle. “To cheap for the really good stuff. That little beauty must ‘a cost a pretty?”

“Oh, I don’t know? Was $200 to much?” Willow asked with all sincerity “I don’t drink so I don’t know what brandy cost. I thought it was all expensive like that. Giles use to say it was his most expensive vise and the one he couldn’t live without.”

A smile broke out on Spikes lips and he chuckled. “Yeah, I can hear him say’n that. If you ever want to see something funny buy him a bottle of this” Spike indicated the bottle of brandy. “He’ll either have a heart attack from rapture or kiss your feet in gratitude.”

“No, no heart attacks” Willow said quickly, but with a grin “But kissing feet, not so bad.”

For the next two hours they talked. Spike was reluctant at first and avoided any conversation that involved or could lead to talk about Buffy. He told her a little about the final battle and the injuries he’d suffered that put him out of the fight. In a way that was casual and terrible at the same time he described the fight. How Wesley had been killed earlier and Charlie had joined them just before the fight, half gutted and already dieing. Charlie had taken a few demons out before one of them got him though, that‘s what was important, he went down fighting. The rest of the fight had been Angel, Spike and Illyria against what seemed like a whole army of demons.

He told her they had held up real well against the first and second waves. He told how Illyria had actually led the way while Angle and he had guarded her flanks. He marveled at the way she had just stepped into the charging demons and without any weapons punched her fists through their bodies and ripped them apart with her bare hands, no matter how many wounds she took. He described how Angel had moved off to one side of the fight to try to kill a dragon while he and Illyria had beat back wave after wave of demon warriors. He told her that he had suffered a number of stabs and slashes, nothing to serious, until one demon with a broad sword got through his guard and nearly chopped his left arm off. He’d killed the demon, but the injury was serious and hampered his ability to fight.

He told her how the demons fell back and sent two demon giants to the front against him and Illyria. How in the fighting they got separated and couldn’t protect each other. How one of the giants had used a shield to smash Spike against a wall, crushing his chest and breaking his back. How he laid there waiting for the giant to finish him off and told her how Illyria had used a manhole cover like a discus and had thrown it with such force that it cut the giants head off. How she had finally picked up a broad sword and had killed the other giant and a dozen other demons before she fell back to see if he was still alive.

He got quiet then, while he got out his cigarettes and lit one up. He picked up the bottle of brandy and taking the cap off took a big sip, then capped and set it back down. When he started talking again his voice was cold and distant. He described how Illyria had dragged him by his coat over to the sewer where she had pulled up the manhole cover and had dumped him through the hole into the sewage water below. How that was the last he knew of the battle. How hours later, he didn’t know how many, he woke up to find a young man, Tyron, who turned out to be a friend of Charlie’s and knew who and what Spike was, dragging him through the sewers and eventually to safety.

Spike stopped talking and sat there for a couple of minutes staring off into space. He then got to his feet quickly, bent over picking up the brandy. He looked at Willow for a few moments and said, “Get some sleep pet, it’s past my bedtime.” Obviously understanding the incongruity of that statement he continued. “Joy gets a little restless this time of morning. She sleeps better if I’m with her.” Spike shrugged his shoulders and walked to his room and to Joy.

Willow sat there for a long time thinking about Spike and the girl and all the other still unanswered questions she still needed the answers to.

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