[Reviews - 147]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 2948 times

- Text Size +




Chapter 35

Buffy kept humming and stroking his forehead as his eyes flickered between gold and blue. Slowly, his shaking subsided and he began to purr. Her gentle ministrations brought him a sense of peace. Calming him. As he focused on the compassionate blond beauty that showed him no fear, the demon lost his heart and his bravado.

Lifting suddenly shy blue eyes to meet sparkling hazel ones, Spike whispered his thanks as he lifted his hand to gently brush his knuckles over her cheek.

“Better?” Joan asked hesitantly, still wrapped in the safe arms of her own love.

“Am now,” Spike answered her, his eyes never leaving Buffy’s. He felt overwhelmed by emotions that were so strong that he could have sworn they were tangible. She was so generous in her caring that he felt blessed to be in her presence. He had never felt like this before. All other loves paled in comparison to the tiny slip of a girl that he knew without a doubt he would gladly dust for. He would do anything it took to be worthy of her. He would earn her love. Then he would worship her body and teach her the true meaning of pleasure. His imagination showed him images as his body reacted to her closeness.

“Sixteen, mate,” William gently reminded his younger self in amusement, knowing without a doubt that anything worth having was worth both waiting and fighting for.

“Bugger!”

~*~*~

“Have you told me everything about the time travel and changes to the time line?” Xander asked once the basement group had returned and the topic had been decided on.

Giles looked at his notes. “Ah, yes. I was to tell you that ‘time is not linear’.”

“Oh, man. Not good,” Xander muttered with concern. His mind jumped from one scenario to the next. Each different scene giving him more problems that the last. He was starting to feel the pressure of being chosen for this. Self doubt crept in. This was so important and he was terrified that he would fail.

Standing abruptly, the agitated boy began to pace, desperately trying to come up with something to help.

“Xan,” Joan tried to capture his attention. “Calm down. You can do this. Just talk to us.”

“No offence, Buff…um Joan, but it’s geek speak. Not so mix-y with Buffy speak.” He gave the older slayer a lopsided smile.

“Okay, then how about this. How can they both exist in the same time? Don’t you like dissolve or something?” Dawn barrelled in with the question that had plagued her. She was terrified that both versions of her sister and her best friend were going to disintegrate in front of her.

Xander looked at her blankly for a few seconds, trying to work out what she was asking. When he made the connection, he clarified first. “You mean the saying ‘the same matter can't occupy the same space’?”

Dawn nodded, afraid to speak.

“They’re not the same,” Xander calmly informed the frightened girl. At her shocked expression, Xander continued. “Willow could probably explain it better, but basically every cell in your body is replaced every couple of years. That Buffy,” he pointed at Joan, “is completely different from our Buffy. She’s also heaps older, so there is no way that they could be considered the same matter. And Spike is totally different from the fancy fairy…”

“Oi!” William exclaimed indignantly.

“Oh, I like you,” Spike told Xander with a grin.

“Be happy that he didn’t call you an angel, dear. Then we’d have to stake you on principle,” Joyce playfully teased the pure vampire.

“I have an idea,” Xander tentatively offered. The joking was fine, but he needed to take some of the pressure off himself. “I can’t do this off the top of my head. I need to discuss it with someone else who understands. That way we can sort it out together. If I invited a couple of guys I know to a meeting in the library and gave them this scenario as a solvable problem, between the three of us we should be able to come up with something. Is that okay?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Joan smiled at the boy.

~*~*~

Walking home with William and Spike gave Joan the chance to replay the sweet scene she had just witnessed and remembered, giving her the odd sensation of being the young girl it happened to and being the older girl that watched it happen. She could see it from two very different perspectives. She could be both Buffys. While young Buffy watched a very shy vampire and thought ‘what a cutie’, older Buffy would think ‘he would be so pissed if he knew I called him a cutie’. It was truly a weird experience.

Joan could easily see that while Spike had fallen for Buffy hook, line, and sinker; Buffy was far more cautious with her heart. She had seen the looks the two had been giving each other throughout the meeting, but it was Spike’s whispered ‘good night’ as he leaned slowly in to kiss the blond teenager on the cheek that had Joan’s heart racing in synchronistic beat to Buffy’s.

Damn, he was hot.

~*~*~

After saying goodnight to Joan- well actually he’d snogged the breath out of his slayer- William made his way purposefully back to the watcher’s living room. It was time to teach the younger model a thing or two.

With a nod at Giles, William took his position next to Spike as the watcher stepped to the other side of the younger vampire. Unexpectedly, they grabbed the startled blond firmly under the arms and lifted him. Ignoring his protests, they carried Spike to the couch and dumped him unceremoniously before joining him.

“Spike, m’boy, we need a bit of a chat,” William stated firmly, his voice without rancour.

“Huh?” the confused blond responded inelegantly.

“Angel will be at the meeting at the school tomorrow, Spike. We need to ensure that you remain in control,” Giles gently told him.

William smirked. “Yeah, let the pillock dig his own grave.”

“You must not show aggression, Angel will do that,” Giles counselled. His animosity towards the brunette vampire had grown to such an extent that sanity be damned, he wanted the supercilious egomaniac to pay for his arrogance.

“The last thing we want is for either Buffy to feel sorry for him. Dozy bint’s got a saviour complex.” William acknowledged begrudgingly.

“I’ll control myself,” Spike promised resolutely. His confidence all but disappeared with his next question, “What about Buffy, how do I make sure I don’t bollocks that up?”

William shook his head sadly at a memory from his past. “Never ever tell her that her boobs are too saggy to hold a guys attention. It doesn't work. Just gets her mad.”

Spike widened his eyes in disbelief and Giles looked at the pure vampire in horror.

“Oh, and don’t use chains to get your point across. That really brasses her off.” William was lost in his memories, oblivious to the looks he was receiving. He continued making observations while he moved a finger to each digit of his other hand. “Don’t call her cutie. That one gets you a broken nose.”

“What can I call her?” Spike sarcastically asked his clueless look-alike.

“When I figure it out, I'll let you know,” William muttered miserably before continuing. “Might be best to stick to Slayer or Buffy. Kitten. She likes kitten. Well, I think she likes it; she hasn't hurt me when I've called her that. Oh, yeah! Let her do her own slaying. Getting in her way gets your nose broken. Don’t ever have a robot made in her image. That one will make you wish you could get your nose broken.”

“Is there anything that doesn't get your nose broken?” Spike asked, fascinated. He didn’t know if he should be brassed off or just really turned on by the imagery the other vampire’s words were inspiring.

“Protecting the Bit and Mum's about it.” William chuckled indulgently. God he loved that woman.

“And protecting her?”

“Oh, no! No, mate. That goes under letting her do her own slaying.”

“Let me guess. Broken nose?”

“Bloody right,” William sighed heavily.

Spike grinned at William. “What about snogging?”

“Depends on her mood,” William informed the younger vampire sagely. “Let her do the snogging. You're just the willing slave, mate. Get used to it.”

Giles gasped like a landed fish. “Buffy isn't like that at all.”

“Your Buffy isn't like that, Watcher. She's only sixteen. My Buffy's a full grown woman,” William countered.

“I am aware of that, William, but you need to remember that it is sixteen year old Buffy that Spike wants to impress.” Giles wondered briefly why he was participating in this incredibly bizarre conversation.

William gave the watcher a hard look. “If Spike's lucky, and he treats her right, both Buffys will be better for it, watcher. My slayer’s quit the council, been abandoned by not just one but three men that she cared for, found her mother dead on the couch, and has died twice. That doesn't cover the things that the rest of you lot have done to her over the years.”

“What do you mean, William?” Giles felt compelled to ask.

“I spent the summer taking care of the Niblet, Giles. She told me lots of things. The monks were very thorough with their memories for Dawn,” William informed the curious watcher. “Hyena possession and the way you lot treated Buffy when she came back from her Dad’s, to name just a few. We can’t change those things, but I’ll be twice damned if I let Spike’s Buffy go through some of the other things that my Buffy did. Not gonna happen, Watcher.”





You must login (register) to review.