Chapter 14
Buffy opened her eyes to stare right into Spike’s. She blushed as the night before came back to her.
“Good morning, pet. I was starting to think that you would sleep the whole day away,” he told her.
“How long have you been watching me?”
Spike shrugged. “I guess for about an hour now. You looked so peaceful; it was hard to wake you.”
Buffy smiled, but it quickly faded when she remembered why she came to his house in the first place. “I should probably get home.”
He groaned. “I really don’t want to take you back there.”
“I really don’t want to go back there, but I don’t really have a choice.”
Spike rubbed her back in soothing circles. “I wish I could take you away from everything,” he whispered, pressing kisses to her neck.
Buffy giggled. “Stop, that tickles.”
He shook his head. “I don’t get to hear you laugh often enough. I have no intention of stopping.”
Buffy laughed louder when he started to suck on her neck. “My dad would kill me if I came home with a hickey.”
Spike pulled away to look at her flushed face. “That’s a good point; I’ll just have to mark you somewhere else then.”
She gasped in surprise when he lifted up the shirt she was wearing and planted kisses on her belly.
“There isn’t any part of you that’s not delicious.”
Buffy ran her fingers through his hair and shut her eyes in pure bliss, which was soon brought to an abrupt halt when his bedroom door burst open.
“Bloody hell, how many times have I told you to knock first?”
Dawn held up her hands in surrender. “Sorry, I just thought you would like to know that Mom and Dad will be home soon.”
He nodded. “Thanks for the warning, you can get out now.”
Dawn grinned and gave Buffy a little wave, then walked away.
Buffy felt a bit embarrassed to be caught by his sister, but decided to bring something else up that she had been thinking about. “How come you have an accent and Dawn doesn’t? You were born in England, right?”
Spike nodded again and had a feeling she was bound to wonder about that. “Yes, but we only lived there until we were about five-years-old. When we moved here, Dawn eventually just got rid of the accent to try and blend in more. I didn’t care about blending in and decided to stick with it.”
Buffy smiled. “That’s good to know, I couldn’t imagine you without the accent.”
Spike returned her smile, placing a soft kiss to her lips. “I’m with you there. I suppose we should get going now.”
She agreed, even though leaving was the last thing she wanted to do. “I guess it’s time to face the music. If I never see you again…”
He pressed his finger to her lips before she could finish the sentence. “You will, I’ll see to that. Who knows? Your father might decide to come around and get a clue. It’s that bitch of a step-mother that I’m more worried about. I think I would like to meet her one of these days. And If I’m going to be in your life, I should probably meet the old man, too. I want them to know how serious I am about you.”
“You’re serious about me?”
A smile lit up his features. “Haven’t you figured that out by now? Come on, let’s get you home.”
Buffy nodded and got out of bed, finding her now dry clothes to change back into.
Spike turned his back to give her some privacy. He would never forget the delectable sight of her in his shirt.
* * * * *
Buffy entered her house and was surprised to find the downstairs empty. She suddenly had a very bad feeling and quietly walked up the stairs. When she reached the top, she heard voices coming from her father’s room. Buffy wasn’t normally a nosy person, but she just knew they were talking about her again. She moved closer to the door, so she could hear them better.
“I just don’t know what to do with her anymore. She has a psychological breakdown in Los Angeles and tries to commit suicide, she steals money from me, and now she runs out of the house late at night and doesn’t even come back? God knows where she stayed all night, or who she was with.”
Addie placed a comforting hand on her husband’s arm. “I’m sorry Buffy is giving you such a hard time, honey. She’s a teenager; they always go through rebellious stages. Now you understand that sending her to Switzerland is the best thing, don’t you? There’s nothing more we can do to help her.”
Hank nodded. “I know it’s the right thing. I just wish there was some other way to help that doesn’t involve sending my daughter so far away. She hates me for taking her to that institution. I was trying so hard to gain back Buffy’s trust after leaving her and Joyce, but I’ll never forget the look of betrayal on her face when I dropped her off at the clinic. It took her weeks to speak to me again after she got out of there. I thought things would get better once we moved here. That we were making some progress, but everything just seems to be falling apart.”
Buffy stepped away after hearing enough, wiping her eyes of the tears that she didn’t even realize were there. She walked to her room and softly closed the door, leaning her head against it and letting more tears leak from her eyes.
* * * * *
She walked with a heavy heart over to her locker the next day. The conversation with her father once he realized she was home was not something that she ever cared to relive. Buffy let out a squeal when someone suddenly grabbed her around the waist. She turned and slapped him on the chest.
“Spike, you scared the crap out of me.”
He grinned. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. So, how did things go yesterday?”
Buffy shook her head. “Very badly, I came home to find them having another conversation about me and when I got a chance to talk to my father, it didn’t go so well. I’ll be lucky if I’m ever allowed to leave the house again.”
“I’m sorry about that, love. I’m sure everything is bound to look up, you can’t lose hope.”
She nodded. “I’m working on it. I have to get to class, so I guess I’ll see you at lunch.”
Spike nodded as well and watched her walk away, feeling his heart go out to the girl that he was easily falling in love with.