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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry I haven't updated this one for a while, and thank you to all who have reviewed and stayed loyal to this story - Spuffy loves you for it.

I will give you fair warning. You might not like this chapter. My beta was shocked at the ending, probably because I skipped quite a few things to get there. BUT, that being said, the next few chapters will kind of do a reverse to see how the end of this chapter was brought about. So flame me if you must, but I promise Spuffy-ness will prevail!

Thanks to Dusty273 (sorry to shock you, truly) and Im_Bloody_English (gonna mow the lawn ;) for making this sound half way descent. I need to buy you gals some new aprons :D

Just so you know, I will be updating pretty regularly from now on (sorry about last month - just too much stuff got in the way). I have two new stories in the works but i was told (in no uncertain terms MOTHER, that I wasn't to post them until I'd at least gotten half way through them (party pooper). So you'll just have to wait :D.
“Buffy…I’m blind.”

Buffy tightened her fists in Spike’s lapels and let the anguish fill her. She nuzzled his cheek with her nose, which was wet with the many tears she was spilling on his behalf. So many thoughts rushed through her head that she had trouble sorting them all out.

Riley did this to Spike…him and that abhorrent Maggie Walsh. Admittedly, Spike was slightly evil before they caught him and caged his demon with a piece of plastic, but this was a cruel and malicious method, even by Slayer standards. Take ‘em quick, no pain. It’s the least the poor creatures deserved.

And to think, she had actually found Riley attractive…in a ‘normal, Iowa corn-fed, still says yes ma’am and no ma’am’ kinda way. The epitome of all Angel had wished for her. Now, it just left her with a disgusting taste in her mouth, one that she wanted to wash away with Spike’s kisses.

“They’re getting ahead of us, Buffy!” Angel yelled up the stairs in an edgy voice.

Before she could disengage herself from Spike’s arms, she was coldly set away from him, by none other than Spike himself. She watched him clench his jaw in frustration as he pointed out the door, indicating that she was to leave, mouthing the word Go.

Feeling dismissed, she eased out of the room, looking back over her shoulder as he felt his way around the room to sit on the bed, cradling his head. She desperately wanted to go back in and help him, but another call from Angel stopped her.

“I’m losing their scent!”

She stamped her foot on the landing in frustration, torn between her duty and heart…once again. I can’t leave him alone! If only there was someone I could trust him with…XANDER! Buffy ran down the stairs to see Xander and Anya playing a card game and snapped her fingers at him.

Xander frowned as he looked at her, clasping her hands together as if pleading. He shrugged his shoulders to indicate he had no idea what in the world she wanted. The dry erase board that was around his neck was suddenly removed as Buffy began writing furiously.

“Go ahead, I’ll catch up with you!” she wrote and quickly showed Angel who nodded and left with Cordy in tow.

She wiped off the board with her elbow and then wrote again, this time showing it to Xander. “I have to go with Angel. Please watch over Spike!”

Xander pointed upstairs with raised eyebrows and Buffy nodded and motioned him to follow her up. Once at the top, Buffy looked into the bedroom to see Spike had not moved, still sitting there staring off into the distance.

“Xander – Spike can’t see anymore,” she scribbled as quietly as possible. “I need you to take care of him…please.”

His eyes widened in shock as he pointed at the vampire on Giles’ bed. Tears filled Buffy’s eyes and she bit her lip. ‘Please?’ she breathed the word.

Hoping he wouldn’t regret it, Xander nodded and made shooing gestures, getting a huge resounding kiss on the lips from a grateful Slayer. He had a goofy grin plastered on his face as he watched Buffy rush out the door to catch up with Angel and hopefully to put an end to the silence.

Xander turned back to quietly observe the Peroxide Wonder. He watched him for a good five minutes and the man had yet to move a muscle. He had to give him credit. Spike was the resilient sort.

And Spike had yet to acknowledge the boy that stood outside the door, wondering why he was here and waiting for him to attack. He knew Buffy was no longer in the house, having gone with Peaches to dispatch those monstrosities that stole everyone’s voice, leaving him at the mercy of those still left in the apartment. He tried not to feel utter despair, but he was practically choking on it and tired to boot.

Before Xander could raise his hand to knock on the door, Spike turned his head in the direction he smelled the Whelp. Xander’s hand froze in mid-air and he gulped, praying he wasn’t about to make a mistake. Buffy so owed him for this.

He walked into the room, turning on a table lamp and standing off to Spike’s left, watching the vamp search endlessly for something to focus on. His eyes had taken on a pink tinged quality, indicating ocular damage of some sort. There was crusted blood around his nose and a bit more matted in the hair surrounding his ears. Xander put his hand over his mouth to muffle the sigh of pity he could feel welling up inside him, even if it was for the bleached menace. The guy looked so beaten down that Xander slowly reached out his hand and gently laid it on Spike’s shoulder, hoping his wrist wasn’t about to be snapped in two.

Spike tensed, waiting for the first blow…but nothing came. Cocking his head to one side, he heard nothing but Xander’s rapid heartbeat. Then he felt the unimaginable…Xander squeezed his shoulder and gave a small pat of sympathy.

He couldn’t help himself at that point as silent tears made their way down his hollowed cheeks and he buried his face in his hands once more. Feeling Xander’s strong arm hook under his left shoulder, he was suddenly hefted into a standing position, causing him to shift off balance. The only thing preventing him from falling was the wide hand across his chest.


Spike stilled, gathered his bearings and cautiously raised his right hand to where he thought Xander’s face might be. Finding it, he leaned in and whispered in the boy’s ear. “Why?”

Xander inhaled deeply, slowly letting the breath out. What to tell the idiot that had gotten himself captured, tortured, blinded, and was the best at drinking games? Seeing Buffy’s concern for the vamp had caused him to look at Spike in a different light. But before that, there was the fact that he’d been under a ‘truth’ spell of some sort and was quite buddy-buddy with him, which wigged him out to the extreme…but it also made him wonder. Under a different set of circumstances, would he have been friends with L’Oreal’s Evil Color of the Month?

For once in his life, Xander went with his instincts instead of his preconceived ideas. “Scooby,” he breathed in Spike’s ear.

Spike physically sagged against a surprised Xander, his body wracked with sobs as he clutched the boy’s shoulders. Words paled in comparison to describe the emotions that filled the weary vampire. Glancing around to see if anyone was watching, Xander hesitantly returned the embrace, patting the other man’s back.

After a few gut-wrenching moments, Spike finally stopped his sniffles and rubbed furiously at his eyes, desperate to see anything. Xander stopped him from practically gouging out his eyes, pulling his hands away and leading him towards the door. Then he snapped his fingers to get Anya’s attention, indicating that he needed her help in getting Spike downstairs.

She ran up the steps, but stopped abruptly when she realized Spike was clutching Xander’s arm. Raising a questioning brow, Xander waved his hand in front of his eyes, trying to tell her that Spike couldn’t see.

“I know his face is messed up and it needs a wash,” she wrote on her board and showed it to Xander.

He rolled his eyes and held out his hand for her board. Steadying Spike so that he could write, he wrote what he was trying to tell her. “Spike can’t see. He’s blind – one too many knocks to the head.”

Anya frowned with a small gasp. She immediately went to the opposite side of Spike and pulled his arm over her shoulder, ready to help him down the stairs. The vamp tried to take it back but she refused to let go.

Finally, after much struggling, Spike leaned over and harshly whispered in her ear. “Blind, not crippled!”

She huffed and dropped his arm, crossing her hands over her chest and flouncing back downstairs, leaving a laughing Xander and a cranky vamp standing on the top step. Wanting to get Spike comfortable as soon as possible, Good Lord, I want Spike comfortable? Yup, apocalypse definitely on the horizon, Xander positioned him at the edge of the first step and placed his left hand on the banister for balance. At that point, Xander had to catch up with the vamp as he practically flew down the stairs.

He bumped into his back when Spike stopped suddenly at the bottom, riveted to the spot and staring into the kitchen. Giles stood in the archway, steaming mug in hand, waiting to see if he would approach, watching as the vamp felt along the walls until he reached the edge of the doorway.

Giles finally took Spike’s hand and guided it to the mug, wrapping it around the cup and lead it to his mouth so he wouldn’t spill it while trying to gauge where his mouth was. Once the cup touched his lips, Spike drank greedily, finishing it in no time and holding it out in thin air to be refilled. When all was said and done, he’d drunk five mugs of blood, wanting more but not wanting to push his luck either.

After sitting on the couch, he laid his head back and hoped the blood would heal some of the injuries, though he wasn’t counting on it. He was very uneasy, even after Xander’s declaration, and felt edgy. He estimated that Buffy, Angel, and Cordy had been gone about an hour, fighting against his growing feelings of wanting her near him and Angel gone. The whole mess just exhausted him.

He must have dozed off, because the next thing he felt was a soft kiss on the forehead, but it wasn’t coupled with Buffy’s scent. He reached out blindly trying to grab the person who had woken him up, landing on Tara’s arm, smiling in spite of himself when he finally discerned who it was that had interrupted his sleep.

She patted his hand, pressing another mug of liquid in his grasp and pushed it towards his lips. He frowned with disgust at the smell and tried to refuse it, but she gently coaxed the foul tasting stuff into his mouth. Swallowing with a grimace, he tried to growl at her, making her laugh silently.

It was a few moments before Spike felt the effects of the nasty brew. Light filtered into his lenses, causing his vision to be a dim blur instead of complete darkness and the ache in his head to ease. He blinked his eyes rapidly to see if his sight cleared further, but the clarity remained the same – a dull, fuzzy image. At least he could see light and shadows moving about, and he was grateful for that.

He grabbed Tara’s hand and pulled her close so that he could whisper to her, finding it was unnecessary. “Thank you,” he said in a clear voice, which startled him…and the rest of the group.

“Echo?” Xander yelled to the room and Giles just tsked in response.

“Cordy must have screamed,” Willow observed, looking at everyone in the room with relief.

A collective sigh filtered throughout the apartment as a knock sounded at the door. They all looked at each other, knowing if it were Buffy she would have just barged in. Spike paid no attention until he picked up a scent…a very familiar scent.

“Maybe it’s Angel,” Willow said, answering it before Spike could stop her.

“No!” he roared, trying to scramble over the couch before she opened the door.

But it was too late. Willow lay unconscious on the floor in the foyer, still twitching from the electrical arc that had flowed through her body. In a flash, everyone but Spike had collapsed to the floor, electrodes and wires protruding from their bodies.

“Hello…Hostile 17.”


Chapter End Notes:
What happened with the Gentlemen and how did Riley find Spike?



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