Chapter 29
Spike stood in front of the mirror and brushed a piece of lint off of his tux. Tonight was the Sunnydale High junior and senior prom and he really didn’t feel like going. Especially because when he’d imagined this night, he’d imagined Buffy going with him. Instead he was going stag and playing third wheel to Xander and Cordelia who he was sharing a limo with. And he was going to have to spend the whole night listening to a crap band, drinking non-alcoholic punch and watching Buffy with whoever she’d decided to pick as her replacement date.
It had been a month since she’d dumped him and they hadn’t said two words to each other since, despite the fact that they lived in the same house. It seemed that Buffy was determined to go out of her way to ignore him, as though she really didn’t want to be reminded of their relationship. On the first day back at school, he’d sat down at their usual table without thinking and when she’d walked into the cafeteria, she’d stopped, looked at him and then turned around and walked back out, with Willow in tow. After that he’d seen her several times in the halls but every time she saw him, she seemed to take a detour away from his path.
He knew he should move on – after all she obviously had – but it was so hard. How do you move on from someone when you’re still in love with them? No matter what had happened, his feelings for Buffy wouldn’t go away. At least not just like that. People said time was a healer but he couldn’t help but think: how much time? Each day without her was even harder than the one before. Maybe if he left Sunnydale, it would make things easier, but as luck would have it, he’d accepted the place as UCSD because at the time he’d still been with Buffy, she’d still had her senior year to complete and he’d wanted to be as close to her as possible. Clearly it was gonna be a long road ahead and Spike just hoped he had enough energy to get through it.
Suddenly hearing the opening bars of ‘La Cucaracha’, he moved to his window and pulled back his curtain to see a stretch limousine pulling into his driveway outside, with Xander standing up, poking his head out of the sunroof and waving, and Cordelia trying to pull him back down. Trust the whelp to choose a limo with a novelty horn.
“Oh well,” he sighed, picking up his wallet and slipping it into his back pocket. “Let’s get this over with.”
Buffy was glad that she, Willow and Oz were a little late leaving and that the prom celebrations were in full swing when they arrived. Ever since she’d broken up with Spike, she’d been back to dealing with the whispers and stares and she was getting sick of it. Didn’t her fellow students have anything better to do than gossip about their love life – or lack of one?
In truth she would have preferred not to have come tonight, but Willow refused to accept her excuses. She didn’t have a date and she didn’t want to play gooseberry, she didn’t want to wear the dress she’d bought for Spike and she’d desperately didn’t want to watch him dancing with another girl. Even though she hadn’t seen him around school with anyone else over the last month, she doubted he wasn’t taking advantage of his single status.
She was also scared of seeing him and having him guess about the baby. She knew she was being irrational – she was only eight weeks gone and her slender figure meant she wouldn’t start showing for at least another two months – but she was terrified of how he would react once she eventually told him. Which was why she’d been putting it off for so long.
After stopping at the punch table, she took a seat on the bleachers, while Willow and Oz went off to dance. From her vantage point she caught sight of Spike standing with Xander and Cordelia. She didn’t see any girl on his arm, but that didn’t mean he was dateless. She could be in the bathroom or getting them some more punch. God, she needed to stop thinking about it. Whether or not he was with someone else was none of her business. She’d broken up with him so she had no right to get jealous over whoever he was currently dating.
She felt a twinge in her stomach and groaned. Though her nausea had settled down over the last month, it did creep up on her at the most inopportune moments. Leaving the gym, she headed towards the nearest bathroom, but as she opened the door, she saw a crowd of senior girls occupying it and decided against going in. She could just imagine the gossip that would start flying if they heard her vomiting.
She headed upstairs and luckily found the first floor bathroom on the north corridor unlocked. As always, after throwing up, she felt much better and after rinsing her mouth out, she left and headed back towards the stairs.
“It’s all wrong. He’s badly burnt from the sunshine and the dark won’t satisfy him anymore.”
It was Drusilla’s voice and it was coming from just around the corner by the stairs. Buffy stopped walking and pressed herself against the wall to hear what she was saying.
“Calm down, Dru. Tonight’s the night and the plan’s gonna go off without a hitch. You need to be patient.”
Buffy held her breath. She was talking to Darla, but what were they going on about? What plan?
“Patience is a virtue but I’m not virtuous. I hate to play the waiting game.”
“Well, you have to. Angel’s rules. You had your fun with Buffy, now let him do the rest.”
Drusilla cackled. “Yes, it was so much fun. It was like telling someone that the penny they’d found on the ground isn’t real.”
“The pendant worked its magic – why else would you have had it unless Spike had left it in your bed?” Darla asked mockingly, her giggles echoing Drusilla’s laughter. “Maybe because we drugged him and stole it from him at the party.”
Buffy couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Dru had stolen the pendant and used it to make her believe that Spike had cheated on her so that she’d break up with him. And she’d fallen for it – she’d fallen for it because she was a stupid mistrusting fool and in doing so she’d thrown away the best thing that had ever happened to her. Tears filled her eyes as she choked out a sob.
The girls stopped laughing.
“Someone’s listening,” Darla said.
“Knock, knock, who’s there?” Drusilla added in a sing song voice.
“Time for little girls to be in bed.”
Buffy heard the other voice as Drusilla and Darla came round the corner. She was grabbed from behind and a hand clamped over her mouth. She tried to struggle but her assailant’s grip was too tight.
“You’re not going anywhere, Summers. You’re mine.”
She recognized Angel’s voice and gasped, continuing to struggle. Luckily, she managed to free her elbow and shove it into his stomach, making him loosen his hold enough for her to break free. But Angel was too quick and he grabbed her wrist and flung her against the wall, making her cry out in pain.
“You bitch!” he cried, slapping her across the face so hard that it felt like her eye was gonna explode and as she dropped to her knees, he dragged her up by her hair and pressed his mouth against hers in a hard kiss before throwing her back against the wall.
Through the pain, she glanced up to see Drusilla standing there, her eyes dancing with glee. Darla was nowhere to be seen.
“Ooh, make it hurt, Daddy,” Drusilla cried.
“Get up, bitch!” Angel yelled, as Buffy fell to her knees again and he kicked her several times, his foot landing squarely in her stomach, the pain so intense that Buffy almost blacked out.
Suddenly the assault stopped and through her half open eyes, she saw Angel being pulled off her and go flying into the opposite wall. She saw a flash of bleach blond hair that could only belong to one person. She tried to stand up and she clutched her stomach as the pain ripped through her and she felt something wet dripping down between her legs.
“Oh God…my baby,” she whispered, tears running down her face.
Suddenly, Drusilla was in front of her, grabbing her arm and dragging her towards the top of the stairs.
“The knight can’t save the damsel of there’s no damsel to save,” she said, her eyes manic as they reached the edge of the stairs.
Buffy tried to free herself, but ended up losing her footing. Drusilla used this to her advantage and pushed her. She stumbled, trying and failing to grab the handrail as she fell down the stairs.
At the same moment, Xander, Willow and Oz arrived on the scene. Xander grabbed hold of a hysterically laughing Drusilla, while Willow and Oz rushed to Buffy’s aid. Having rendered Angel unconscious with an uppercut to the nose, Spike joined them, his eyes widening at the blood soaking through Buffy’s dress. The commotion had seemed to draw the other students as they stood around frozen in shock.
“Don’t just stand there!” an abnormally frantic Willow yelled. “Somebody call an ambulance! I think she’s losing her baby!”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to everyone who has reviewed tonight! Your comments have been wonderful. This is the penultimate chapter so just one more to go afterwards. Enjoy...