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Chapter 3:

"Spike?" Buffy's voice echoed through the crypt.

He hurried up the ladder into the crypt's main room, wondering what could have brought Buffy by. As soon as he saw her, he knew it was something bad. She didn't have that composed cocky attitude that meant she was there to interrogate him about the latest evil in town.

"And what brings you to my corner of the cemetery this evening?" he asked.

"She's gone," Buffy said, her voice filled with concern.

"Dawn? Don't worry-"

"No," she shook her head. "Not Dawn, Dru. I was at the Magic Box, and I got home and Dawn was there looking all guilty. I thought maybe she'd stolen and ruined one of my tops again, but I guess she decided to give Dru a second chance–she never quite got over that biting thing–but she dropped her, and Dru was just gone. I've spent the afternoon looking everywhere, but I can't find her. I thought maybe . . . you could sniff her out for me."

The worry and concern in Buffy's voice was obvious. Spike had numerous fantasies where Buffy realized how useful he could be and needed him to save the day, but none of them had included playing bloodhound to her ferret's fox.

Still the last thing he wanted to do was turn her down. The last few weeks they'd almost become something resembling friends. Every few days he'd stop off at her place and keep her company during the day. He tried not to be too obvious about it, and she teased him relentlessly about how he didn't have any demon friends to hang out with, but she didn't make him leave either.

"I'm not a bloodhound, you know?" he said even as he reached for his duster and pulled it on.

"Good, cause I forgot my snausages," was Buffy's retort. Then in a more apologetic tone she added, "Ready?"

He nodded as they headed out the door of the crypt and back towards Revello Drive.

When they got to the house, Buffy started towards the front door, but Spike stopped her and instead circled around to the back.

"What is it?" she asked nervously.

"Yeah, she got out all right," Spike confirmed.

Dru's trail went away from the house towards the bushes that divided the Summers' property from their neighbors.

"This way," he said as he hopped over the small hedge.

"Spike," Buffy hissed at him even as she followed. "What are you doing? Do you have some aversion to sidewalks?"

"No, but ferrets aren't known for taking the straight and narrow. So are you coming or not?"

"Yeah, yeah," she said as she hurried behind him.

The ferret's trail was pretty easy to follow from a sniffing perspective, but much more difficult when you considered all the little places Dru could wriggle through.

As if to emphasize the point, Dru's trail suddenly ended at a broken sewer grate.

As Spike stood there and looked at it, Buffy came up behind him and asked, "She didn't?"

"'Fraid she did," Spike confirmed as he looked around. "This way," he said as he led Buffy to the nearest man-hole cover.

"Crap!" Buffy said as she climbed down the ladder into the sewer behind Spike. "I'm so not in the mood for a sewer outing tonight."

"You want your pet back or not Summers?" Spike asked. He was getting impatient with her attitude; she'd come to him after all. This hadn't been his idea.

"Yes," Buffy said weakly.

"Then follow me," he told her.

He didn't get very far before he heard her call out from behind him. "Hey, slow down. I didn't bring a flashlight."

That's when he realized that he'd automatically vamped so that he could see better in the darkness of the sewer. But behind him Buffy was slowly groping her way through the darkness.

He backtracked to her and took her hand in order to lead her through the darkness.

"Hey!" she protested.

Evidently Spike's sigh of exasperation was enough to stop any further protest.

"Just don't get any ideas," she mumbled as she followed him.

"Yeah, cause holding hands with the Slayer and skipping through the sewers is the stuff my wet dreams are made of," he replied sarcastically.

The truth was though, the moment his hand touched hers a thrill had gone through his body. It was all he could do to not lace his fingers with hers and let his thumb trace little patterns on the back of her hand.

"Ewww," Buffy said. "There will be no more talk of you, me, and wet dreams. Understood?"

When Spike didn't respond, Buffy yanked him to a stop.

"Ow, I'm fond of that arm."

"Understood, Spike?"

"Fine, fine, no more talking about my wet dreams. What about you Slayer. This your idea of a romantic night out?"

"Please, the only romantic thought I've ever had involving you was of me and Angel staking you together. We could, like, kiss through your dust," she giggled even as Spike growled. "Oh, please. We've gone like ten minutes without threatening to kill each other. Someone had to do it."

Spike was glad that in the darkness she couldn't see just how hurt he was by the comment. That didn't keep him from responding with his own comeback.

"Pity your ex doesn't stop by. Be nice to have a white hat around that I could kill."

"Whatever," was Buffy's only reply.

But Spike wasn't paying attention anymore.

"Slayer, what sort of weapons did you bring?"

"Just a stake. Why?" she asked.

"Cause I think I know where Dru went, and I think that first Thort you fought wasn't the only one in town."

Spike led her further into the sewers until they opened up into a cave. Sure enough another silvery Thort demon had made its lair there. Unlike the baby ones that had infested the Summers' home, this one was full grown at seven foot tall, with three vicious looking horns on top of its head.

It also knew they were there.

"Look out," Spike yelled even as he pushed Buffy out of the path of the charging demon.

Buffy rolled smoothly out of the way, coming to her feet facing the demon.

"Think you can keep it distracted? I have a plan" Spike asked.

"Great, that's all we need. One of your plans," Buffy said as she dodged a blow from the demon.

"Trust me," Spike barked at her.

"Fine, whatever. I can keep it busy if you just keep quiet," Buffy responded. "See, there's already a flaw in your plan."

But for once Spike didn't rise to her bait. He understood exactly why she wanted him to be quiet. She couldn't see the Thort demon, but it wasn't smart enough to realize that, so it was making plenty of noise.

Spike had to say he was impressed at how good she was at fighting blind, but he wasn't going to ask her to keep it up for long.

Once the Thort's attention was focused on Buffy, Spike circled around behind it. Then he charged from behind, leaping up and grabbing it by the head. Both he and the demon went crashing to the ground, but it didn't matter. Spike had gotten a good enough grip that he was able to snap the demon's neck.

"Spike? That better have been the demon and not you, cause I'm not carrying you out of here."

"I'm fine. Thanks ever so much for your concern."

"Dru?!" Buffy exclaimed. "Is she here? She didn't get squished did she?"

"Calm down Slayer," Spike didn't have to sniff the air to know that the ferret was here and was also wounded, the scent of blood was too strong. But the tiny rapid heartbeat he heard also told him that Dru was still okay.

He quickly found the crack in the wall where the wounded animal had hidden itself away.

"Come on there," he said as he reached his hand out. "You remember me don't you?" After a moment, Dru limped out of her hiding place and let Spike scoop her up.

"Do you have her?" Buffy asked.

"Yeah, but she's hurt. I'm sure she'll be fine though," he quickly finished.

He moved back to Buffy's side and deposited Dru into Buffy's waiting arms.

"Come on. I think we're pretty close to my crypt," he told Buffy as he led her back into the main part of the sewers.

They weren't too far from another man-hole. As he lifted the cover up, he cursed, "Bugger."

"What is it?" Buffy asked from below him.

"It's raining. Still we'll make better time above ground than trying to work our way through the sewers."

Sure enough, it looked like tonight was going to be Sunnydale's one torrential downpour of the year. By the time Spike had helped Buffy out of the sewer he was already drenched.

He slipped off his duster and wrapped it around Buffy so that she could use it to shield Dru from the worst of the weather.

He kept his arm around Buffy's shoulders as they took off in a run towards the crypt he called home.

As soon as they were inside, Buffy was asking him where he kept his first aid kit. He got it out for her, and she began to examine the tear along Dru's front leg.

"I don't think it's broken, but do you think we should take her to a vet? I mean who knows how much blood she's lost?" Buffy asked Spike as she finished bandaging the ferret.

"I wouldn't worry too much, luv. Her heart beat is as strong as ever, so she can't be that bad off. Probably just knackered from that long run from your house to the demon lair."

Buffy nodded.

"We should get you taken care of now," Spike said.

"I'm fine," Buffy called after him, as he disappeared into the crypt's lower level.

A moment later he reappeared with a red button down shirt of his, and a black skirt that belonged to Harmony.

"You need to get out of those clothes before you freeze," he told her.

"Yeah, like I'm putting on that stuff. And why do you have a skirt anyway?"

"Never mind, just get changed before you completely ruin my couch."

Buffy took the clothes and cleared her throat.

"Oh, yeah," Spike said, as if he'd forgotten that he was looking at her. Reluctantly he turned around as she changed. After a moment he said, "Not like you have anything I haven't seen before, unless there's something about Slayers that isn't common knowledge."

"Maybe I don't want you to see where I hide my stakes. Ever think of that?" she said.

Without thinking he turned to look at her on that one, smirking at her as she turned red at the implication of her last quip.

"Now that I'd like to see," he commented, even as he was disappointed to find that she had dressed quickly so he didn't get to see anything.

"Perv," she replied as she sat back down on the couch.

He moved to sit next to her, not sure of what to do next. They could hear the rain hitting the stone roof of the crypt, and he figured she wasn't likely to go anywhere until the storm was over.

"Do you think that was the last of the demons? We haven't really seen any around the house the last couple days," Buffy said.

"Probably," Spike agreed. "Dru must have gotten the last one at your place and gone looking for more."

"Mom thought so," Buffy said, looking down at the sleeping animal in her arms. "About there not being anymore at home. She thinks maybe we don't need Dru anymore, but. . . It seems kind of mean to just get rid of her. You know, thanks for killing all the demons for us. Don't let your tail get caught in the door on the way out."

"Buffy," Spike said as he put two fingers under her chin, and lifted her face so she was looking him in the eyes. "Even if you did manage to kill every vampire and demon in Sunnydale, no one would ask you to leave."

"I wasn't talking about me, I was talking about Dru," she said defensively.

Spike didn't know why, he didn't know what made him think he could get away with it, but he leaned forward and kissed her.

Startled, Buffy's lips parted slightly, and he ran his tongue around the inside of them, before gently pushing it inside her mouth. She let him in, and he felt her relax slightly as he carefully explored her mouth.

He had no idea how long it lasted. How long she let him kiss her, but just like that she pulled back, and before he could process the fact she was gone, the stone door of the crypt blowing open in the wind.

"Bugger," Spike said as he looked at the empty space she'd left.





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