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Thoroughly ensconced in the land of dreams, Buffy was not the one to be rudely awakened by the shrill ringing of the telephone at such an early hour; the sun having only woken for the day barely an hour earlier. Mumbling a sleep roughened hello into the phone, he was coherent enough to understand that the person on the other end was asking for Buffy. When he finally managed to wake her and thrust the phone towards her, only to roll over to no doubt return to sleep without bothering to tell her who was on the other end, she groggily murmured, “Hello? Buffy speaking.”

“Good morning, Ms. Summers, this is Assistant District Attorney Mitchell. I am sorry to bother you at such an early hour, but I do have news regarding your case. Are you free to talk now?”

“Um, yes, I am,” she answered as she struggled to clear the sleep fog that was still present. Pulling herself into a seated position, back pressed against the cushioned headboard, she asked, “Case? I thought that had been settled? Riley changed his plea not a week ago to guilty, did he not? I thought my part was done until the sentencing.”

“Yes, well, that was very well the case until his attorney's stepped in and demanded a psychological evaluation and fouled everything up.” The ADA paused momentarily, no doubt to read through the papers on his desk in front of him, judging by the sound of paper being rustled about. Murmuring, he said, “Give me just a moment to read this once more to make sure I have my facts correct.”

Before he could find what it was he was looking for exactly, Buffy crawled out of bed and pulled on the silk robe tossed over the back of a nearby chair with shaky hands. Going to trial was the very last thing she wanted to do, because doing so meant having to relive every horrible second of that night in front of a jury, not to mention the fact that her little sister would have to do the same. They would both be dissected by Riley's defense team and while she might be strong enough, brave enough to do so herself, Buffy had no desire to put Dawn through the torment. Without waiting for the attorney to locate whatever it was he was searching for, Buffy demanded answers, “What went wrong, Mr. Mitchell?”

Rubbing at her eyes with her free hand, she wiped away the vestiges of sleep and the tears of anger and frustration that had sprang up while she waited for an answer. Pacing around the bedroom, the lush carpet warm and comfortable to her bare feet, she met the worried cerulean gaze of Spike, who was now sitting quite literally on the edge of the bed; his nudity less distracting than it should have been under different circumstances. Walking over to him, she took a tiny bit of comfort at the feel of his arm around her body and listened with as much patience as she could as the attorney filled her in on how everything went wrong.

“As you know, Mr. Finn contacted our office without speaking with his attorney's first and started the ball rolling with changing his plea to guilty. After his defense team at Wolfram and Hart got wind of the motion change, they managed to get a judge to order a psychiatric evaluation, by stating that he was not only mentally unfit to change the motion, much less stand trial due to extensive drug use and violent behavior that they believed to be tied to a mental defect and not the narcotic use,” Mr. Mitchell explained, pausing long enough to mutter to someone in his office before returning to the conversation. “Upon examination, the doctor assigned to the case by the courts found that he does, in fact, have a previously undiagnosed chemical imbalance in his brain that can cause rage problems basically and therefore, the judge assigned to your case accepted the defense's plea of not guilty due to mental instability or non compos mentis, which in layman's terms, means while he is guilty of the assault on you and your sister, he cannot be legally held accountable due to his altered mental status at the time of the incident.

Ms. Summers, I am truly sorry that you and your sister are going to have to go to trial for this case, but there is a sliver of hope in regards to the ruling in regards to his mental state. It means that while he was not sane at the time of the assault, he is more than competent to stand trial now. It means that if we can prove that he knew full well what he was doing was wrong and that he is guilty, we can go for a longer sentencing period.”

When the attorney stopped speaking and the full weight of the news sank in, Buffy's head was spinning as she sank down onto the bed beside Spike, whose expression had gone from concerned to full tilt worried the longer the conversation carried on. Holding on to his hand for support, Buffy thought about one point the attorney had mentioned and asked, “I'm sorry, Mr. Mitchell, but this is kind of hard to take in all at once. Did you say extensive drug use? Riley didn't use drugs, I would have noticed, wouldn't I?”

“Family and friends are some times oblivious to the fact, either by choice or ignorance to the behaviors, but yes, Riley not only admitted to us, but to the doctor that he used drugs almost daily for the past year. Plus, a blood test was administered after he was arrested, for DNA purposes, and I have the results, which show that he had a large dose of both cocaine and steroids in his system at the time of the test. He had a second test done during his psychological evaluation, to substantiate his attorney's motion that they contributed to his diminished mental state at the time of the assault. It was also noted that in conjunction to the drugs that he continues to use, he consumes quite a large amount of alcohol on a daily basis.” Mr. Mitchell paused yet again to say something else to the person in the room with him, before continuing, “Anyway, we can go over anything else as the trial date approaches. I will need you and your sister to come down to the office closer to the start date to go over your statements and prep you both for trial.”

“Sure, that won't be a problem,” Buffy muttered, barely listening to the attorney as thoughts raced through her busy mind. How could she have been so oblivious to Riley's drug and alcohol abuse? Sure, she had been on the road a lot before the assault, but what about before then? Had he only fallen so far down the pit of despair when she had left him behind for the tour? Was she more to blame than she had thought? Shaking away the darkness of her thoughts, adamantly refusing to believe that she nor her little sister had done anything to deserve the beatings they had endured at Riley's hands and asked, “When do you think the trial will start?”

“I'd say if everything goes smoothly from here on out and Mr. Finn and his team don't throw any more kinks in the system, we should be looking at six to eight weeks maybe? Possibly the start of September, but that's just a guess on my part. I will, of course, keep in touch and if anything changes you will be the first to know.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. I appreciate you taking the time to go over all of this with me,” Buffy replied almost mechanically as the tears she did not want to shed stung behind her closed lids. Taking a deep breath, she hung up the phone after saying goodbye and let them flow, despite the hatred she felt for doing so. She was more than tired of crying over Riley Finn and what he had taken from her, but the feel of Spike's arms closing around her body reminded Buffy of what he had unknowingly granted her. If her relationship with Riley had not fallen apart, she would not have found Spike again and it was that tiny thought that had a smile spreading in spite of the tears that continued to stream down her cheeks.

“You want to tell me about it, love?” Spike asked as he pulled her into his lap and started to meticulously wipe away the moisture of her tears. “I gather that was the attorney handling your case?”

Nodding, she lifted her hands to his and took hold of them as she leaned forward to press a kiss to his lips. Pulling back, Buffy looked into his worry filled gaze and said, “Regardless of what happened, I hope you know that I'm glad it led me to you.”

“I am, too,” Spike said slowly, his voice more than cautious at her revelation that had to sound odd, given the timing of her saying it after the phone call. “What's this about, love? You going somewhere? Leaving me already?”

“Of course not! Don't even think that, Spike,” Buffy chastised as she added another kiss to his lips, this one a bit longer than the last. She wanted the moments with him to last longer and the time spent worrying about Riley and the pending case to take up less of her mind, but until they were both settled, Buffy had no doubt that her mind would be consumed by her ex and the trial. Extracting herself from his lap, Buffy crawled back to her sleeping spot and motioned for Spike to join her beneath the covers. Maybe, just maybe, after she explained what her attorney had said, they could go back to sleep soon.

And they did, go back to sleep once she told him how things had changed with the case. Snuggled against Spike, his chest pressed against her bare back, because of course he had divested her of the silken robe for them to try to go back to sleep, Buffy smiled in spite of the upsetting phone call. She smiled, because she had not lied to Spike about her feelings about finding their way back to one another. Buffy smiled, because Spike had brought her happiness in spite of the turmoil and pain that Riley had caused her.





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