Nightlife:
No one had seen Spike make his way into Buffy’s room when she was having her daymare, but now just moments before sunset Xander notices him exit. Xander had been moving from the dining room into the living room but when he heard Buffy’s door open and close he stopped in the entryway and now watches Spike make his way down the stairs. The blonde vampire catches Xander’s stare and notices that his mouth has fallen open.
“Spike, what the hell were you doing in her room?” Xander asks accusingly.
“Oh not now Harris.”
“Just because she wanted you to… to do what you did, that doesn’t mean that you can use your vampire mind control tricks on her too.” Xander steps up into Spike’s face.
“Oh please, you are so out of line… you have no sodding clue what you’re talking about you git.”
Willow then walks into the entrance way where Spike and Xander are starring each other down.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Willow says in an annoyed tone.
“Buffy, had a bad dream.” Spike replies flatly without taking his eyes off Xander.
“He was in her room… and how would you know she had a bad dream anyway?”
“Xander calm down okay.” Willow says.
“I know she had a bad dream because I’m her sire… I just… I can sense things like that, and trust me if that girl didn’t want me in her room…” Xander scoffs cutting off Spike’s sentence.
“Right, she wanted you there.”
“Look Harris, I don’t need…”
“Hey!” Willow yells and both men turn to face her. “Stop it now. Xander, living room, Spike basement,” neither moves. “Now,” Willow then says and with just a moments hesitation they depart.
--
Willow sits down next to a slightly fuming Xander in the living room. She wonders how long she’ll have to play peace maker before Xander realizes that Buffy and Spike have something between them that he can’t do anything about. Willow doesn’t really like the idea of Spike being in Buffy’s room anymore then Xander does, but she does understand that Spike is the only one here right now that can help her through what she’s dealing with. He’s the only one who’s been through it himself. When things got bad for her with magic the year before going to England and having people around her who understood the addiction helped her through it and Willow knows that Buffy needs Spike for that same reason.
“You know, I really hate that guy sometimes,” Xander says as Willow sits beside him.
“Xander.” Willow’s voice is soft.
“What don’t tell me you’re taking his side now?”
“No, Xander, there are no sides to take… look, I just think that this whole thing with Buffy is affecting Spike just like it is the rest of us, remember how upset he was when she first told us what she wanted to do.”
“Yeah, right, except now that it’s done with he has her to stalk and obsess over for the rest of eternity.”
“Xander.”
“No, just stop okay.” Xander stands up and starts to walk off.
“Hey, I’m not defending him, but you need to lighten up.”
“I need to lighten up?” Xander spins back to face Willow.
“He’s the only one who understands what she’s going through… you may not like it but she needs him right now.”
Xander is silent. His lips form into a thin line and then he stalks off to the dining room. Willow lets out a deep breath. She’s not sure what to do in this situation, she wants what’s best for Buffy but she also knows that Buffy hasn’t made the best decisions concerning Spike in the past. At the same time however, Willow does believe that Spike has changed and that they’ve both learned from their mistakes in the past. She just hopes that she’s right in thinking that her and Spike should be on good terms with each other.
--
Buffy’s eyes flutter open. She had slept through the rest of the day peacefully without anymore dreams to plague her, and she knows that the rest she got was because of the man she had slept beside, the man who kept her nightmares at bay, and so she’s surprised to wake up alone. Buffy sits upright in bed and glances around the room in search of Spike, and even though her room is pitch black she still manages to see that he’s not there. Buffy gets out of bed and gets dressed.
--
Slowly Buffy makes her way down the stairs. The house is quieter then usual, but still there is plenty for her to hear; breathing in the next room, thrumming heartbeats, girls talking in the backyard, and various other meaningless sounds of the house squeaking and the wind blowing. Buffy turns the corner moving through the French doors into the living room where Willow and Dawn wait.
“Buffy, you’re up.” Dawn says.
“Oh, uh the girls are outside warming up with Xander and Anya.” Willow says thinking that Buffy is wondering where they were.
“I know. I can hear them… I’m gonna take them out for a patrol.”
“Right yeah,” Dawn says with disappointment. She had wanted some time to spend with her sister.
“When I get back though we can hang for a little bit okay.” Dawn’s face lights up.
“Okay.”
Buffy walks past Giles and Andrew researching at the dining table casting them smiles along the way. She moves through the kitchen to the back door where she can hear Xander mumbling something discouraging about Spike in a whispered voice to Anya. Then Buffy stops. She looks at the basement door and thinks for a moment of going down to talk to Spike, but she isn’t sure what she would say. She wants to know why he left before she woke, but the words of how to phrase it escape her. Buffy isn’t exactly sure why it bothers her that he left, all she knows it that it does. She turns toward the back door then and walks out into the night.
--
Buffy's patrol with the potentials went on just as it had when Buffy had been human. This time, however, she felt less nervous about taking the slayerettes into the open- less worried. Buffy knew this time that she was strong enough to protect them if she needed to. In the cemetery the potentials ganged up on two newly risen vampires and Buffy had watched as they took them both down. She had full control of her face having eaten before they left and the night moved on without a hitch. Now Buffy leads the way with a group of excited teenage girls who talk amongst themselves over their latest victory as they near the door to the Summer’s residence.
Buffy opens the door and enters the house watching as the girls flutter into the living room. A small smile crosses her face in relief that they’ve made it through another day alive, but also because she feels like they now have a chance of winning.
Buffy walks into the dinning room to see Dawn sitting alone at the table. She’s paging through a book on demonology and seems completely engrossed in her research until Buffy enters. A smile crosses Dawn’s face as Buffy sits down beside her.
“Watcha reading?” Buffy asks.
“I’m just looking for anything we missed… I had a dream while you were… when you were upstairs the other night. I realized that you were right and that this had to happen so I wanted to see if with the new circumstances… if there was anything.”
“Oh.”
“You know you don’t seem any different.” Dawn closes her book.
“I feel different, but yeah, I’m still me.”
“I’m glad.” Buffy and Dawn share a smile. “Buffy, what’s going to happen after, I mean, assuming we all make it through this?” Buffy is silent for a moment as she thinks over Dawn’s question.
“I don’t know… hopefully things will go back to normal and I guess I’ll have to find a job that I can work nights at and… Oh, my job!” Images of her date with Principal Wood as well as his visit to the house flood Buffy’s brain.
“It’s okay Buffy… we called you in. We told him the battle with the First is on hold and that you’d call if anything came up,” It was a lame excuse, Dawn knew it, but she hadn’t been able think of anything better to tell the man at the time. “… and that’s not what I meant… what happens with everyone who’s here now?”
“Like the potentials… I guess they’ll go back home. Giles will probably leave.”
“What about Spike? Will he stay when there’s no reason to be here anymore?”
Buffy is silent for a moment. She knows the only reason Spike came back was because the First led him here and the only reason he stays is because he knows he can lend a hand. However, things are different now. Buffy wonders if anything has changed and then she realizes that she really does hope he stays. Buffy realizes that she wants Spike to be there when things go back to normal.
“I’m not sure Dawnie… that’s up to Spike.”
“Yeah I know, but I mean… the only reason he would go would be because we would want him to right… so if we wanted him to stay he would right?”
“I thought you were mad at Spike?”
“Not anymore… I understand, I mean I don’t understand why he tried to do… what he did to you last year, but I understand that he’s a different person now… that he wouldn’t do that again… I just don’t want him to leave again.” Buffy is silent again for a moment.
“I don’t think I do either.”
--
The stairs creek as Buffy makes her way into the basement. One hanging light bulb is lit below, but without the light from the sun shining through the small windows the room is very dark. However, that’s not at all a problem for Buffy now. She can see every detail of the room as if she were looking into the light of day. Buffy reaches the end of the stairs and turns to face Spike who’s sitting on his cot. His back is flat against the wall and his coat is lying beside him. He smiles at her as she comes into view.
“Slayer.”
“Vampire.”
“Could say the same to you, pet.” Buffy smiles. “What brings you down into the dark and dank tonight?”
“Everyone’s going to bed, but…”
“Right… you’re on my time schedule now.”
“Yup.”
Buffy slowly moves father into the room. Spike watches every step she makes. Then after a moments hesitation she takes a seat next to him on the cot and Spike moves his duster to give her space. Spike turns his head to look at Buffy and she turns to face him, then they both look away.
“So what do you do when everyone else is sleeping?”
“Well, under normal circumstances a vampire doesn’t spend much time with people who sleep at night, but there’s never been anything normal about our circumstance… over time you adjust… sure I get bored sometimes, but it’s not so bad… course there is one thing we could do to help the time fly by.” A smirk crosses Spike’s face.
Buffy stares at Spike with a shocked face. She wasn’t expecting innuendos or sexual references from him just now. Sure they had shared a night together before he turned her, but she thought she had made it obvious what it was about.
“I was referring to having a drink love,” Spike then clarifies as he pulls out a bottle of Jack Daniels from beneath the cot.
“Oh.” Buffy realizes that if her face could flush that it would be bright as a tomato right now. For once she’s glad that there isn’t any blood rushing through her veins to give away her embarrassment.
“I know the other night was just cold comfort… don’t fret bout it. My mind is clear.” For some reason hearing Spike say it like that makes Buffy want to argue with him. Some part of her wants to say that it wasn’t about cold comfort, but then again that’s what she’s been telling herself so she keeps her mouth shut.
“Right, yeah.”
Spike untwists the cap on the bottle, takes a swig and hands the bottle out to Buffy. She stares at it for a moment and thinks over her options. Normally the word ‘no’ would have already spilled from her lips, but Spike is right about one thing. Things that she would normally do don’t apply to her anymore. Buffy grabs the bottle and takes a drink. She realizes that it doesn’t taste as strong as when she was human, but then realizes that that makes sense since anything other then blood tastes bland and flavorless to her now.
“How are you doing?” Spike then asks with sincerity in his voice.
“I’m… adjusting.” Buffy takes another swig and the two of them sit together in a comfortable silence for a while.
[Reviews - 62]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 4517 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +