Chapter 9
Buffy walked into the house after hanging with Faith at the Bronze for a few hours. It was a dead night, so she decided to leave earlier than planned. Buffy entered the living room and stopped suddenly at the sight of Spike sitting with Anne and Giles, all with what looked to be worried expressions on their faces. She moved further into the room.
“What’s going on?”
Anne patted her son on the back as she stood up, knowing how hard this must be for him. “Honey, I think it’s time that we had a talk.”
Buffy glanced back and forth between them, confused about why they would need to talk. The guilty look on Spike’s face made everything a bit more clear. “I can’t believe this. You told them? How could you do that? I trusted you.”
Spike saw the betrayal on her face and would give anything to take it away, but knew that he had to be strong about this. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I didn’t know what else to do. You need help, Buffy. I can’t do this alone anymore.”
“Well, it’s nice to know that I’m such a burden to you. Why don’t you just throw me out in the streets if I’m too much trouble?” she spat, the second part more to the adults than him.
Giles decided to speak up. “We all love you, Buffy. William did the right thing by coming to us. We only want what is best for you.”
Buffy threw her hands up in the air. “I’m not listening to this. I wish everyone would just stop telling me what’s best for me. I’m the only one that gets to decide that. I don’t need an intervention.” She headed for the stairs, glancing back at Spike one more time. “I really hate you for this.”
He watched with a heavy heart as she walked away, feeling the tears start to cloud his vision.
Anne wrapped her arms around him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “It will be all right, darling. She’ll come around.”
Spike wasn’t as convinced. “And what if she doesn’t? The way she looked at me, it feels like someone just ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it.”
Giles took his glasses off to clean them. “We know you care for her, son.”
Spike shook his head, not letting his father finish. “This goes way beyond caring, Dad.” He stood up and moved away from them. “You don’t know how hard it is to love someone that hates you. That look on her face will stay with me forever. Nothing I do will ever change that,” with that said, he left the living room.
Anne gasped at her son’s confession. She got up to go after him, only to be stopped by her husband’s hand.
“Let him go, dear. There’s nothing more we can do right now, just give them time. They are both good kids. I’m sure they’ll work this out on their own.”
Anne just nodded and really prayed that he was right.
* * * * *
Buffy was furious when she came up to her room and saw bars on the window. They must have gotten that done when she was at school. God, it felt like she was a prisoner in her own home. She had to get out of there. Buffy heard her door creak open and immediately knew it was him.
“Get out; I have nothing to say to you.”
Spike never was one to do as he was told and stepped into her room, closing the door behind him. “Maybe I have something to say, then. When are you going to stop acting like such a brat?”
Buffy turned around in shock, that being the last thing she expected for him to say. “Excuse me?”
Spike knew there would be no backing down now. “You heard me. You know that I didn’t do this to hurt you, Buffy. You’re all I bloody care about, but you won’t see it. You’ve gotten it in your head that I’m out to get you or something. God forbid that I actually do something to help you.”
She glared at him. “And I told you that I didn’t need your help.”
He rolled his eyes. “Right, so that’s not you yelling out my name at night when you have one of your bad dreams? That’s not you asking me to stay to help you sleep afterwards? You know, I haven’t had a good night’s rest in weeks because I’ve been too busy worrying about you, but do I ever complain? No, because looking after you is more important to me. Keeping you safe is the only thing that matters.”
Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. “I never asked for you to keep me safe. I’m a big girl, Spike. I’m sick of everyone treating me like a little kid. Yes, my parents were murdered in front of me, but I’m not helpless because of it. The nightmares aren’t a big deal; everyone has to deal with them at some point. I know it’s only a matter of time before they go away. Again, I never asked for you to come into my room every night. If I was calling out your name, well, I obviously didn’t realize I was doing it. You could still ignore me.”
“Yeah, like I could really ignore that. You want to know why everyone treats you like a child, Buffy? That’s because you constantly act like one. Going out and doing God knows what with Faith, bringing blokes back here that you hardly even know? Sneaking out of the house? That doesn’t sound like anything a grown up would do,” he explained.
“Well, maybe I would act more like a grown up if I had any freedom here. You had them put the bars on my window, didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “It was for your own good. You could break your bloody neck climbing down that tree.”
Buffy groaned in irritation. “For the last time, you don’t get to decide what’s for my own good. It’s my fucking life and I’ll do whatever I want with it. You don’t own me.”
Spike took a step closer. “Don’t use that fucking language with me,” he practically growled.
That got a laugh out of her. “Oh, you’re allowed to use it, but I’m not? How the fuck is that fair?”
“I’m warning you, Buffy.”
She laughed harder. “What are you gonna do? Hit me? Come on, Spike. I dare you.”
He clenched his fists at his side. “Don’t tempt me.”
Buffy raised her head in defiance. “You wouldn’t do anything to me and you know it. You don’t have the guts. You’re nothing but a pathetic Mama’s boy. Ever since we were little, you were this annoying geek that would follow me around everywhere. You wouldn’t have any friends right now if it wasn’t for me. You would still be the same loser that would lock himself in his room every night to write lame poetry. Yeah, I know all about that.”
He tried not to show how much her words hurt, instead letting his anger take over. “And I suppose being someone that would whore herself around is so much better? As Parker tells it, you would spread your legs for anyone. I’m surprised you even resisted Angel, he seems to be just your type.” Spike never saw it coming, until he felt the sting on his cheek. He rubbed the spot where she hit him, looking into her now wet eyes. “Buffy…” he started, but didn’t get a chance to continue.
“I want you to get out,” she said harshly. “You stay the hell away from me. I don’t want anything else to do with you.”
Spike wasn’t about to leave now. Not when he caused her pain, it was the last thing he ever wanted to do. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, you did. It’s nice to know what you really think of me. That you think I’m a slut just like everyone else.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that, you just pissed me off. We have to stop doing this to each other, Buffy. I didn’t mean what I said. You have to believe that. We always say things we don’t mean when angered. I never wanted to hurt you.”
Buffy kept backing away from him, right into her nightstand and knocking the picture over that was there. She glanced down at the fallen frame, picking it up to notice that the glass was shattered. She stared at the broken image of her parents. It was then that the floodgates seemed to open. Buffy could tell herself that she was okay as much as she wanted, but the truth was that the loss of her parents caused her to put up a wall around her heart. If she didn’t let anyone in, then she wouldn’t get hurt when they left her. Buffy didn’t even realize she was doing that with Spike, but it all was beginning to make sense now. She placed the picture back on her nightstand and wiped at her eyes, gazing at his concerned face. “I think I’m ready to talk to someone now.”
Spike gave her a small smile. It was a start.
[Reviews - 262]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 4000 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +