Shutting his eyes tightly, he tried to recall the events of the night before. Everything was a blur, thanks to the massive amounts of scotch he had consumed and he saw only flashes of the night, surrounded by large gaps of hazy nothingness. Over the past several weeks, he’d had been spending far too much time in bars and clubs, drowning his sorrow in one bottle after another of liquor since he the night he’d found not only the woman his heart, and body, ached for, but found out that the ogre that had run into him in the hallway that night was Buffy’s fiancé. At some point during the previous night, he had apparently ventured out of his flat in search of companionship and the curvy blonde on the bed next to him was proof that he’d found it. Spike cautiously opened one eye and peeked at the woman who had now crawled under the blankets with him and was gazing at him intently. Spike had no idea who she was, though there was something vaguely familiar about her. Considering himself lucky since she wasn’t hard on the eyes, Spike ignored her pout, rolled over and went back to sleep,
Somewhere over the Midwest, flying over one of the many states she’d heard of but couldn’t point out on a map, Buffy was fast asleep and snoring lightly, when her peaceful slumber was suddenly disrupted by a bout of turbulence. Stretching her arms above her head, she yawned and looked around the plane to find that she was the only one that had been awakened by the sudden rattling throughout the plane. Not that she blamed them, since Serenity had been on tour for a little over two months and everyone was utterly exhausted from the nonstop excitement. While Buffy was overjoyed at the response the band was receiving from both the fans and the press, she had to admit that she was already itching for a break. June was rapidly approaching and she was eager for Dawn’s summer visit to arrive. She had never imagined that seeing her pest of a kid sister would make her smile, but now that Dawn lived so far away, Buffy missed her dearly and couldn’t wait to spend some quality time with her.
Her mother, Giles and Dawn had flown to Manhattan to see the band perform a couple of weeks ago, on the weekend of Buffy’s twenty-fifth birthday. Their visit had been a complete surprise and she didn’t know they were there until she saw her family and Riley on the front row. After the show, everyone had gone out to eat to celebrate Buffy’s birthday, but had had to turn in almost immediately afterwards since it was so late.
After reluctantly saying goodnight to her family, Buffy had returned to her hotel room with Riley for some much needed private time so that they could discuss their relationship; something Buffy had been agonizing over since she’d left him to go on tour. It was there, in their hotel room, that Riley had fallen to his knees and wrapped his arms around Buffy’s waist and pleaded for another chance. Tears had ran down his face as he admitted that he was terrified of losing her and had not meant to treat her so badly, that he had let his jealousy over her sudden success eat away at him until he had snapped and taken out his own feelings of inadequacy on her. As the early morning light had slowly filtered through the curtains, Buffy had felt her walls crumble as she forgave him once again.
Since then, Buffy had come to the difficult decision that while she wanted to be with Riley, she felt that they needed to postpone the wedding for a few months until she truly believed they had worked through all of their unresolved issues. She had thought about telling him over the phone on several occasions, but felt that her decision was something he at least deserved to be told in person. She had no doubt in her mind that Riley was going to be upset by her decision and her resolve had faltered for a moment when she worried about how he was going to react to the news.
Now, as her plane grew closer to arriving in another airport in another state that wasn’t home, the nerves in her stomach grew from tiny little butterflies to condors simply from thinking about the issues between herself and Riley; fluttering in her stomach so violently that she felt nauseous. Sighing, Buffy leaned back in her seat and stared out the window and wondered when had everything gotten so difficult.
The end of May came and went, bringing with it the month of June and signaling the end of the tour as well as the arrival of Dawn. Conveniently, Buffy’s plane was scheduled to land in Los Angeles one hour after her sister’s flight from England. She quickly loaded a cart with her luggage and set off to meet her little sister at their prearranged destination near the coffee bar.
Buffy spotted her lanky kid sister lounging across two chairs reading a thick novel and sipping on a latte, and wondered just when her baby sister had grown into a young woman. However, no matter how old she got, Dawn would forever bury her nose in a book and let the world around her slip away. She was so engrossed in the book in her hands, that Dawn never noticed her sister creep up behind her. With catlike reflexes, Buffy leaned around Dawn and deftly snatched the book from her unsuspecting sister’s hands. Dawn shrieked and jumped from her seat, somehow managing to only slosh the coffee in her hand, instead of spilling it completely.
“Geez, Buffy,” Dawn grumbled, while using the lone napkin sitting on the bench beside her to wipe up the droplets of coffee on her hand. “Is there a reason you hate my hands and want to burn them off?!”
“I’m sorry, Dawnie, I couldn’t help it! You were like totally in outer space!” Buffy apologized once Dawn was finished wiping off her hand. With a smile on her face, she wrapped her arms around Dawn’s petite frame and enveloped her in a bear hug, while apologizing profusely for not only scaring her, but for causing her to spill her coffee. “I’ll buy you a new coffee if I caused you to spill too much.”
“No, it’s okay. It was only a little bit.” Dawn grudgingly replied, instantly forgiving her older sister since she knew Buffy hadn’t meant any harm. Leaning over, she picked up her carry-on and slung it over her shoulder, before grabbing hold of the handle of her suitcase. Cutting a glance over her shoulder at Buffy, she asked innocently, “Where is everyone else?” Secretly, Dawn only wanted to know the whereabouts of Xander, since she had developed a huge crush on the humorous yet handsome drummer during their trip to New York.
“Oh, they decided to stay behind in Vegas for the weekend after last night’s show.” Buffy explained, as she loaded her sister’s bags onto the cart with hers; completely unaware of the intentions behind Dawn’s question. “Now, let’s get outta here! It’s late and I still need a shower and a very large bowl of the ice cream I pray is waiting for us in the freezer!”
Exhaustion finally caught up with Buffy on the cab ride home, causing her eyelids to droop as she fought to stay awake and listen to Dawn babble about school. It had taken several nudges from her sister to wake Buffy up before they arrived at home. Still groggy, she scooted from the backseat with a loud yawn and paid the cabbie after he dropped their numerous bags in the foyer. After she showed Dawn to the downstairs guest bedroom, Buffy left her sister to unpack and get settled, while she headed upstairs to the master bedroom for a much needed shower and change of clothes.
Halfway up the stairs it hit her that she forgot to remind Riley that she’d be home a day early, with Dawn in tow. Cursing herself quietly for her lack of memory, she eased open the bedroom door and hoped she didn’t wake him up. Quietly, Buffy slipped into the darkened bedroom and began to tiptoe across the thick carpet heading to the bathroom. She’d only made it a couple of steps into her journey when she heard what sounded like Riley moaning, followed by a sensuous, throaty and unmistakably feminine laugh. Buffy stopped in her tracks, spun back towards the door and marched across the carpet she’d just walked over to angrily flip on the overhead lights. She felt sick to her stomach when she saw Riley sprawled across the bed, clad in only blue jeans and boots, with a trashy looking brunette sprawled between his legs; her head bobbing up and down vigorously, despite the sudden flood of light in the bedroom.
“What the fuck!” Riley shouted when the lights came on, blinking his eyes rapidly against the bright light shining down on him from above. With squinty eyes, he finally noticed Buffy glaring at him from the doorway and quickly pushed himself off the bed, causing the whore in his lap to slide to the floor with a thud, while trying to clutch the bedsheet to her exposed chest. “Buffy! Baby, what are you doing here?” With his long stride, Riley crossed the distance between them quickly, while trying to stuff his now flaccid member back in to his open pants.
”Probably because I live here?” Buffy screeched and stepped away from Riley, slapping at his outstretched arms. Shaking her head, she backed up towards the bedroom door and glared at him with disgust marring her beautiful face; tears staining her red cheeks in anger. “You know, I was intending on just pushing back the wedding date, but to Hell with that! We are finished!” With shaking hands, she tore the diamond ring from her left hand and threw it at Riley, hitting him hard in the middle of his bulging chest. Without waiting for a response, she turned and started out the door, only to be yanked backwards by his massive hands, the moment hers reached the gleaming silver doorknob. Yelping from the painful hold he had on her, Buffy struggled against his strength, but failed to wrench her arm from his meaty grasp.
”Where do you think you’re going? This isn’t over until I say it’s over! You don’t get to leave me!” Gazing intently into her frightened eyes, his hands wrapped around both of her thin arms until Buffy was sure they were going to snap from the force in his grip. His handsome features twisted, and his eyes flashed with anger. “You belong to me.”
Buffy wriggled frantically in his strong embrace, trying to escape, but it was the swift thrust of her knee that connected with his balls that caused him to cry out in pain and loosen his hold on her arms enough that she could escape. Buffy jerked open the bedroom door and stumbled out into the hallway, freedom only a few steps away, but completely out of her grasp. She’d barely taken two steps before Riley’s hand wrapped around her ponytail and roughly pulled her away from the steps she had been so close to descending. With his massive hand holding on to the base of her ponytail, he shoved her face first into the wall, directly in to the decorative mirror he had hung for her only a week before she’d left on tour; sending what shards of glass that hadn’t lodged into her skin flying across the carpet. Warm liquid trickled down Buffy’s face, and she barely recognized that it was her blood as it mixed with her tears, causing her vision to blur further. Before she could regain her balance, Buffy felt Riley slip his hands around her slender neck and tighten his hold, until the scream she wanted to let loose came out as a whisper.
“You can never leave me Buffy! I won’t let you.” Riley screamed inches away from her bleeding face, the scent of alcohol on his hot breath caused her stomach to roil; the concussion eating away at the edge of her consciousness didn’t help the situation. Enraged with anger and despair, he shook her violently as he held onto her throat, tossing her around as easily as one might fling a stuffed doll around. Buffy felt herself drifting away, the pain blossoming in her brain, as the darkness slipped in and took over. Buffy’s vision went black as Dawn stealthily climbed up the stairs with a vase in her hands, had she saw what her little sister was doing she would have screamed at her to run to safety.
With as much strength as she could muster, Dawn slammed the heavy crystal vase into Riley’s temple. He screamed in agony and released his hold on Buffy’s neck and Dawn watched, wide eyed with terror, as her sister’s limp body dropped unceremoniously to the floor. “Buffy!’ She cried out in fear as she rushed forward to help her unconscious sibling. Unfortunately, with her attention on her sister, Dawn momentarily forgot about Riley. She never reached her fallen sister, as her movement toward Buffy was intercepted by an infuriated Riley, his face a mask of rage with blood seeping down his cheek, and she was tossed down the stairs. White hot pain seared through her as she bounced down the wooden stairs like a rag doll, landing on the marble floor with a sharp crack, Dawn laid there unmoving.
Unconcerned for the annoying brat, Riley immediately turned his attentions back to Buffy who was slowly regaining consciousness and was struggling to get up to help Dawn. With a swift kick, his boot connected with her chest and knocked her backwards. The pain in her side was unbearable as Buffy gasped for air through a flood of tears, but sheer determination had her pulling her body back onto her hands and knees so that she could help Dawn.
“Why?” Buffy whimpered, thick blood filled her mouth and she spat it out onto the white carpet beneath her hands. “Why are you doing this, Riley?” The man who crouched beside her was no longer recognizable, his once handsome face now contorted with hatred and fury. She groaned in pain when Riley wrapped his hands around her throat once again and pulled her up off the ground.
“I won’t let you leave me.” Riley whispered menacingly as his meaty hands closed around her bruised neck once more; his breath hot on her face as he pulled her close. “I would rather see you dead than not have you with me, Buffy.”
Buffy finally succumbed to the pain and lack of air, as she slipped back into the darkness, stars floating behind her closed eyes. She never felt the blows that connected with her face and body, the force of Riley’s massive fists pounding away at her flesh, while screaming like a crazed beast, “You’re mine. You can’t leave.”
Downstairs, Dawn crept across the foyer as quietly as possible. Using her uninjured arm, she pressed the panic button on the alarm keypad and prayed that help would arrive before it was too late. She then hurried into the hallway, clutching her broken arm to her body and hobbling from the pain, and huddled in the darkness, trying to hide from the maniac upstairs. Peeking out of her hiding spot when silence filled the air, she saw Riley sprint down the stairs and run out the front door, quickly followed by a scantily clad woman that Dawn did not know. She sighed in relief when she heard a car start and pull from the drive. Hesitantly, Dawn crept from the hallway, slammed the front door and flipped the lock, and ran upstairs to check on Buffy, whom she found lying in a bloodied heap on the top landing. Leaning over her broken sister, Dawn was thankful to see she was still breathing, although the breaths were shallow and shaky. With tears falling from her fear filled eyes, Dawn lay down beside Buffy and waited for help to arrive.
By the time Buffy’s eyes fluttered open the sun was setting, well over a day had passed without any response from the battered young woman; her swollen and bruised eyes filled with tears when the pain from her injuries made itself known. Noticing she was awake, Joyce rushed to her daughter’s bed crying in relief, while Giles excused himself and went to find the doctor to let him know that Buffy was awake. When he returned, Angel and Lorne crept into the room behind the doctor hesitantly, the possibility of getting in trouble by the doctor for their presence in the ICU greatly outweighed by their concern for Buffy.
After she was checked out, Buffy was filled in on the extent of her injuries, a long list that ranged from a severe concussion, two broken ribs, a broken nose and collarbone. Not to mention the numerous bruises around her neck, where Riley had choked her and come astonishingly close to crushing her larynx, and had blackened both of her eyes to the point they were nearly swollen completely shut, and had left several deep lacerations on her face that required stitches. However, it was the broken arm that he had given to her baby sister that upset Buffy the most.
Once the doctor left, Angel and Lorne asked to speak to Buffy privately. Giles reluctantly agreed and ushered Joyce and Dawn from the room, stating that they would head to the cafeteria for a bite to eat. Angel grimly gave Buffy the rundown of what had occurred after she had passed out, letting her know how brave Dawn had been in getting help. He went on to tell her that Riley was still unaccounted for and that he was frightened for her safety. Buffy nodded in agreement, knowing Riley was likely to come back and finish what he’d started, but couldn’t get the words out because her throat was so sore.
“Buffy,” Angel started, tentatively glancing at Lorne, “I know you are going to argue with me, but we have all discussed the situation and have decided that you need around the clock security.” She opened her mouth in protest, not wanting to cause a lot of trouble, as well as extra attention, but was stopped when Angel held up his hand and said, “No arguments, Buffy. Your mother and Rupert agree with us on this. It’s either a bodyguard or going with them back to London. Now, I have already called a close friend of mine that specializes in a more hands on approach who has agreed to take the job…at a discounted rate since he technically still owes me a favor.” Which, Angel thought to himself, was a good thing since he knew Buffy would never be able to afford his normal rate otherwise.
Just because she knew Angel was right, didn’t mean she had to like the situation; having a baby sitter follow her around non-stop wasn’t on her list of fun things to do. “Fine.” Buffy turned her head towards the window and sighed in resignation. She grimaced in pain as a searing jolt shot through her body. “When’s he going to be here?” She asked, hating the hoarse sound of her voice and how weak she sounded.
“I went ahead and called him this morning and lined everything up. You know, he should be here by now,” Angel stated, glancing down at his watch to check the time. He was relieved that Buffy hadn’t put up a fight, although he knew her well enough to know that she wasn’t pleased with the situation. “I’ll just go check and see.” Excusing himself, Angel opened the door and left the room.
Buffy continued to stare blankly out the window; tears shimmered in the slits of her puffy, swollen eyes. The saddened expression on her bruised face made Lorne’s heart break all over again; he felt helpless, at a complete loss of words and for the first time he didn’t know what to do for his friend. Lorne pulled a chair up close to Buffy’s bedside and sat down next to her. Reaching out, he tenderly took hold of her hand and held it lightly in his own, blinking his eyes rapidly to hold back the tears that stung in his eyes and simply sat there in silence, offering whatever comfort he could to Buffy with just his presence.
Nearly half an hour later, Angel reappeared, his large frame filling the doorway and blocking the light flowing in from the hallway. Buffy turned her head as he shifted to the side, stifling the groan of pain that threatened to slip out, as the man standing behind Angel stepped in to the room. She was only vaguely aware of Angel speaking, introducing the man he’d hired to protect her, as she stared in shock at the person walking across the room. Midway through his introduction, Buffy shook her head side to side slowly and cut Angel off, whispering, “It’s you.”
“ ‘Lo, luv.”