Buffy smiled, “I’m sure Will, I’m just going to take a quick patrol around the campus grounds and call it a night.”
“Are you sure you should patrol…without Spike?” Willow asked concerned.
“Willow, I’m still the Slayer. I don’t need Spike holding my hand every time I patrol.” Buffy’s eyes widened “not that there is any…hand holding…because…ew. I wouldn’t want to…ever.”
Willow suppressed a giggle, “right, no Spike hand holding. Gotcha.”
Buffy watched her friends walking away silently chiding herself for babbling over something so ridiculous. Holding Spike’s hand, she huffed, bet they are all cold and rough…strong and…what am I saying?
She was so preoccupied she didn’t notice the figure in front of her until she ran right into him. She looked up and gasped “Parker! I have been trying to get in touch with you for weeks!”
Parker inwardly groaned, “Buffy…it’s…a…nice to see you. I’ve been really busy.”
“Well, we really need to talk,” Buffy rolled her eyes, not sure who she was more annoyed with, Parker or herself..
“Look, Buffy, I really don’t see what there is to talk about. We had a great time, but we‘ve been over this.”
“Parker, there is something I need to tell you” Buffy took another deep breath. “I’m pregnant”
Parkers turned white, his eyes widening in realization. “Y-you’re what?”
“I’m pregnant and it’s yours,” Buffy answered quietly.
“W-well, how you do you know it’s mine? I mean it was just one time…” he spat defensively.
“How can you ask that? I haven’t been with anyone else.” Buffy narrowed her eyes.
“Well…you certainly weren’t a virgin when we were together. Look, Buffy, if you think this is going to somehow make me want to date you…”
Buffy snapped, grabbing Parker by the collar, lifting him off of the ground. She quickly dropped him when she heard the gasps behind her.
Parker’s eyes widened, his mouth opened and closed for a long moment unable to form words. He put his hands up almost tripping as he quickly backed away “I…I can’t deal with this right now.”
Buffy sighed in defeat as she watched him disappear down the path that lead towards the school. Tears of anger and frustration rolled down her cheeks, she’d never felt so alone.. In her despair and Parker’s haste to get away, neither of them noticed the shadowy figures following him into the woods.
Buffy lay on the bed ignoring the knocking on the door. When it appeared they were not going to give up, she sighed, slowly climbing off of the bed, straightening her hair as she opened the door.
“Riley, listen, this isn’t a good time,” she mumbled as she started to close the door.
Riley stopped the door with his hand “Buffy, please just hear me out.”
She shrugged moving back to allow him entrance to her room. “Riley, I’m really…”
Riley took Buffy by the shoulders, “I handled things badly the other night. I was so caught up in the finding out you were the slayer that when you told me you were pregnant I just…”
“Riley, it’s fine. I don’t expect anything from you. This isn’t your responsibility.” Buffy said softly looking down at the ground.
“Buffy, I know we haven’t known each other long, but I do care about you. I want to be there, to take care of you….and the baby.”
Closing her eyes Buffy knew that accepting his offer would be wrong, but she didn’t want to be alone.
“Riley, this isn’t your responsibility,” she said once again, in a small voice.
“Let me be here for you, Buffy.”
After a long pause, she nodded, not able to meet his eyes. She knew she was being weak, but couldn’t bring herself to care. Riley breathed out a sigh of relief wrapping his arms around her, both surprised as well as apprehensive that she had so readily accepted his offer.
The rest of the semester went by quickly. Buffy settled into a routine. During the day, she divided her time between classes and picnics in the park with Riley. At sunset, she would make her way to her mother’s where she would usually find Spike and her mother talking in the kitchen over tea or hot chocolate. She couldn’t help but feel a stab of jealousy at the closeness they seemed to share.
Even though they still constantly seemed to butt heads, she’d adjusted to patrolling with Spike. She couldn’t help but be silently impressed by his grace and speed. Fighting side by side, they learned each other’s every move and became an unstoppable team.
Dusting the last fledgling, Spike turned toward the out of breath slayer. “Getting a little slow there. Goldilocks,” he smirked.
Buffy snorted, returning his smile, “slow? I dusted three before you even got to the first one.”
“What can I say, I like to play with them a bit first,” Spike shrugged with a boyish smile.
Buffy couldn’t help but chuckle, “yeah well next time a little less play and a little more action.”
Spike tucked his tongue behind taking a step towards her. “What’s the matter love, soldier boy can’t keep up?”
Buffy furrowed her brow before realizing the innuendo; she blushed and turned quickly away. “No. I mean yes. I mean…just stop being a pig, Spike.”
Spike moved again in front of her, running bringing his hand up, running a single finger down her bare arm “Come on pet, you can’t tell me ole white bread could satisfy a girl like you.”
Buffy narrowed her eyes pulling away, “a girl like me? You don’t even know me Spike. You never will.”
Spike watched as she walked out of the cemetery. He kicked a nearby headstone watching it tumble to the ground. He wasn’t sure which he was more pissed off about. The fact that his big mouth had angered Buffy or that it even mattered to him that he did.
When the semester finally ended, Buffy moved home, as she had promised her mother. She had been dreading the move, mostly because, until now, she’d been able to keep her arrangement with Spike a secret from Riley. She knew she had to tell him before he found out on his own. It was a conversation she wasn’t looking forward to.
Buffy was nervous and distracted during patrol, she was supposed to meet Riley at the Bronze tonight. She was planning to tell him about her arrangement with Spike.
They came upon a group of fledglings and quickly fell into their usual routine. Buffy was just staking the last vamp when she heard Spike scream her name; she turned just in time to see a large horned demon barreling towards her. She froze. At the last moment before the demon impaled her, she was roughly shoved to the ground. She watched in horror as the demon’s large horn tore into Spike’s shoulder. Jumping to her feet, she grabbed her dagger from her boot and began to furiously stab at the fleshy back of the beast.
Finally, the demon fell to the ground, dragging Spike down with him. Buffy moved towards him grasping the horn and carefully removing it from the vampires shoulder.
Spike winced as the slayer attempted to pull him to his feet. “Give us a minute, love” he forced a smile.
Buffy chewed on her lip “Spike, I need to get you out of here. You’re losing too much blood.’
Spike chuckled, “wasn’t mine anyway.”
“Stop doing that! You’re hurt!”
He looked up touched at the genuine concern in her eyes. He nodded allowing her to help him to his feet and towards Revello drive.
When they arrived back at her house, she quickly took him to the kitchen and went to work attending to his wounds. She instructed her frantic mother to heat up some pig’s blood as she cleaned and bandaged his mangled shoulder. The women were so busy they didn’t hear the knock at the back door.
“What’s going on here?”