Chapter 13
As Spike walked in the hotel room he gave a nod to Gunn, letting him know it was okay to leave. Heading for the bedroom, Spike slowly opened the door and checked on Buffy. Seeing her laying on the bed, he turned to head back to the couch for the night.
“Spike?”
Spike turned to at the softly spoken word, but she spoke before he could. “Will you stay with me?”
“I’m here, luv.”
“No…I mean, just hold me tonight.”
Spike nodded in understanding and led her back to bed. Slowly, so as not to
startle her, Spike took off his shoes and shirt before lying down on the bed. Buffy immediately curled up into him.
“Is this okay?” he asked.
Buffy nodded. “Much better. You make me feel safe just being close by.”
Spike gently ran his fingers through her silky hair as she traced erratic patterns on his chest.
“You’re not going back to work are you, luv?”
“No, I’ve got my friend Anya running everything. She pretty much
figured out what happened and told me to take as long as I needed.”
“That’s good,” he said as they lapsed into another comfortable silence.
“Thank you for staying with me, Spike,” she said a minute later.
“Wouldn’t dream of being anywhere else, Buffy.”
Softly kissing her forehead, they both drifted off to sleep, content in each other’s arms.
* * * * *
The next morning, Buffy was feeling more like her old self. She went
about her usual activities of preparing for the day, trying to avoid the huge
mirror in the bathroom. When she finally looked in it, she realized she was
starting to recognize the woman again. Right after the rape, Buffy felt like it wasn’t even her who was living in her own body. Now, as some of the bruises began to fade to a harsh yellow and the swelling had receded, Buffy was slowly looking like she used to.
“This won’t happen again,” she said softly to the mirror.
“Glad to hear that, luv.”
Buffy spun around to the doorway and saw Spike leaning against it,
watching her, before continuing. “Although, I heard you gave Mr. Finn a good
thrashing yourself.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t take getting raped lightly.”
Spike had to suppress a smile at the strong tone of her voice. If it wasn’t
for the dire circumstances, he would thoroughly enjoy this side of Buffy.
“The carnival’s in town. I thought maybe we’d take Caitlyn tonight, if
you’re feeling up to it.”
Buffy nodded. “Yeah, I want to put this past me, and I miss Caity.”
“Okay. I’ve got to call my agent and rearrange a few things, and then I
thought we could grab some breakfast. Do you want to order in?”
Buffy looked at her reflection for a long time before turning back from
Spike. “I think that would be best. I’ll spend the day getting better.”
Spike walked over and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be finished with my work in no time, pet.”
“I’m not keeping you from anything, am I?”
Spike turned back to her with a smile. “No, nothing important.”
“Spike,” she said with a warning tone. “You can’t drop everything to stay
here with me. You have a job. A job which pays a lot of money, and you
shouldn’t miss it.”
“Buffy,” he said soothingly. “I’m not missing work. Just some interviews
and press junkets. You are more important than some reporters. I’m already
taking some time off until the beginning of next year. I need a break, so
don’t worry about what I might be missing.”
Buffy nodded with a heavy sigh as Spike turned and headed out the door.
* * * * *
Later that night, Buffy dressed in her favorite jeans and a black
V-neck fleece sweater. She applied some foundation over the fading bruises
and a heavy lip gloss to cover her split lip. When she was finished, Buffy
stared at her reflection. She was wearing more make-up than she usually did,
but it didn’t appear to be caked on, so she gave a shrug and ran a brush through
her already smooth hair. She was starting to feel better, though she
refused to talk to a counselor. Just telling the police officers the details had been painful, but she felt better letting someone else know.
Spike stood in the doorway, watching Buffy, as she finished putting on
her shoes. She did look better. He knew the darkest bruises were layered
on her body, but her face didn’t look nearly as bad. Since the make-up she was
wearing was covering the worst of it, Buffy looked almost like her old self.
He knew going out at night would camouflage her injuries even more.
“Ready to go, luv?”
“Yeah. Did you call my mom?”
“Yep, she’s going to have Caitlyn ready.”
“Did she want to go?”
“She said she’d meet us there.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
A few minutes later, Spike’s Navigator was pulling into Buffy’s driveway. Spike saw Gunn loading some things into his car and went over to talk to him while Buffy rounded up her daughter.
“Hey, man,” Gunn said, turning to face his friend. “Anything you need me to
do tonight?”
“Actually, that’s why I came over. You’ve been working hard since you
got here, and I think you should have the night off.”
“Hey, sounds good to me.”
“Okay,” Spike said, turning to face the house. “Looks like my girls are ready to go.”
Gunn tried to hide his smile at the possessive quality in Spike’s voice. “Yeah, have fun tonight. You all deserve it.”
* * * * *
Spike was dragged from the parking lot to the fairgrounds by a skipping
little girl who had a death grip on his hand.
“Come on, Uncle Spike, come on!” she said urgently.
Spike laughed at the frantic tone of her voice and turned to see Buffy.
He was met with a bright smile at the display they were making. Once they
had paid the admission and entered the fair, Caitlyn froze. She stood
still for a full minute, taking in the lights and sounds of the area. Spike had
to smile at the look of wonderment on her face before scooping her up and
leading her to the first of many booths.
An hour later, Caitlyn was still going strong as a result of the cotton
candy and frozen lemonade that she had consumed. Buffy was holding on
to the goldfish, teddy bear, and stuffed Winnie the Pooh that Caitlyn and Spike
had won through a few team efforts.
“Uncle Spike, will you take me on the carousel?”
Spike got a panicked look on his face as he glanced at Buffy. “I think
maybe your mommy would rather take you on that one, Little Bit.”
“No, that’s okay, you’re more than welcome to take her,” Buffy said,
trying to suppress a laugh at the horrified expression on his face. Caitlyn
was tugging him toward the ride, and Buffy couldn’t hold back a laugh
anymore as she heard mumbled expressions of “poofters” and “silly spinning
horses.”
Looking around, Buffy searched for an available bench or picnic table to
deposit the prizes while she took a much needed rest. The night was
wearing her out more than she dared to admit. After wandering for a minute,
Buffy found a bench on the edge of the fair, close enough to the carousel to
see when the ride had ended. Sitting her daughter’s treasures on the cold
wood, Buffy gingerly lowered herself to a sitting position.
* * * * *
Spike looked up from his position on one of the benches as a chill ran
down his spine. He had convinced Caitlyn to not make him ride one of the
horses and instead kept an eye on her as she giggled and kicked her legs
playfully against each side of the horse in front of him. Spike spotted Joyce in
the crowd and waved to her as the ride started. Catching his eye, she
smiled in relief at finding them and waved back.
Spike was exploring the grounds, trying to find where Buffy had headed
off to, when his cell phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Spike, it’s Gunn. Listen, I just got some bad news. It seems Finn made
bail earlier today, and nobody knows where he is.”
Spike felt his blood run cold, and he stood up from his seat as he frantically searched the area he last spotted Buffy. He could see Joyce waiting for them at the exit but had no idea where Buffy was.
“Spike? Are you there? Did you hear me?”
“Yeah, mate, I heard you, and I can’t find Buffy.”
“What do you mean you can’t find her?”
“I mean what it sounds like. Caitlyn and I left her standing at the
entrance of a ride, and now I can’t find her,” he said quietly so as not
to alert Caitlyn to his conversation. The ride slowly came to a stop just
as Spike saw it. An empty bench with Caitlyn’s prizes sitting on it.
Without thinking, Spike hung up the phone and grabbed the little girl. As he
ran from the ride, he quickly handed her to her grandmother as he passed a
worried-looking Joyce.
“Spike, what’s going on?”
Spike ignored her and took off for the bench. Quickly scanning the
surrounding area, he didn’t see her anywhere.
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