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Chapter 7 – Office Romance


Buffy didn’t leave her apartment for several nights. She and Dawn had sold their house on Revello and put the money in a savings account. Dawn had insisted Buffy keep the money, knowing she would need something to fall back on in the years to come. When Buffy had moved back to Sunnydale, she found a comfortable home in Giles’ old complex.

Knowing she was being a coward by not going out and facing Spike, she just couldn’t work up the courage to see him. She knew that no one knew she was back in town, and therefore, didn’t know her address to get in touch with her. The only people who had her phone number were Dawn and the old gang.

Buffy didn’t hold it against Spike for trying to hurt her- she knew she’d hurt his feelings when she blew him off before anything started. Avoiding him because she didn’t want to get close seemed like the easiest plan. Still angry that he had read the Watcher Diaries, even though she would have told him whatever he wanted to know, she also knew that she would have done the same thing if she’d been in his position. Hell, she had done it when she wanted to see the type of girls Angel used to like.

A mass of contradictory statements were flying through her mind, and Buffy felt as if she was being pulled in a million directions. She thought about leaving town, sparing herself the heartache before it had a chance to manifest, but knew that it wouldn’t help anything.

For every situation Buffy thought of, she always came back to the fact that she had told Spike, Wesley, and Gunn that she would be helping out with slaying. Standing up from her spot on the couch, she pulled on a thick white turtleneck and her favorite pair of jeans. Substituting moisturizer and lip gloss for her make-up, Buffy grabbed two stakes. Stashing one in the side of her boot and another in the waistband of her jeans, she headed out.

Just because she told Spike she would help him patrol didn’t mean she had to be with him when she made the rounds. Deciding to make a quick pass through the cemeteries and head home, Buffy could at least feel useful, since she hadn’t done anything productive in three days. Passing through the first cemetery, she came across a demon and made quick work of it.

As Buffy passed through another cemetery, she could hear voices up ahead. Slowing her pace, she waited silently as the two figures came into view. Relaxing her stance when she saw Gunn and his girlfriend, she started to move in the opposite direction.

“Buffy! Hey, wait up!”

With a sigh, she slowly turned around to face the couple jogging toward her.

“Damn, girl. Where’ve you been? Spike’s been worried about you,” Gunn said. “Oh, by the way, this is Fred. Fred, this is Buffy.”

“Hi! It’s nice to meet you,” the girl said with a bright smile.

“You, too,” Buffy responded with false cheerfulness.

“So, where’ve you been?” he asked again.

“Oh…around,” she said vaguely, avoiding their eyes as she busied herself with flipping her stake over in her hands as if she was checking it’s sharpness.

“Well, Spike’s here somewhere. Told us to go on ahead while he finished off a new vamp.”

Swallowing as she raised her eyes to his, Buffy slowly nodded, staying silent.

Frowning a little, Gunn noticed the difference in her compared to the other night. He had gotten the full story from Spike. Actually, he got it without asking about her. This girl was all Spike could talk about the last few days, which Gunn found refreshing compared to Cecily.

“You okay, Buff?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Just not really feeling like myself lately, that’s all.”

“Well, you should definitely wait for Spike,” Fred spoke up. “He thought something had happened to you.”

“Yeah,” Buffy said quietly. “I’ve gotta finish my sweep, so…um…just tell him I’ll see him later, okay?”

“Sure,” Gunn said skeptically as Buffy quickly walked away. He knew that Spike had some kind of argument with the other Slayer, but he didn’t know the details. He and Fred stayed where they were as they waited for Spike to catch up to them. A few minutes later, they saw him rounding the corner of a crypt.

“Hey, Spike! You just missed your girl,” he called out to him.

“My girl?” Spike asked in confusion.

“Yeah,” Fred said. “Buffy just came by, said to tell you she’d see you later.”

“Buffy was here?” he asked, his voice took on a slightly frantic edge. “Which way did she go?”

Gunn and Fred didn’t say a word. They simply pointed in the right direction and smiled when Spike took off in a full run.

* * * * *

Buffy was easily dispatching a group of three vampires when she felt Spike approach. Connecting a high kick to one of the vamps, she spun and thrust her stake into the one advancing on her from behind. Never slowing down, she turned as the dust settled and slammed the stake into another dead heart. Hearing the fighting over her shoulder, she turned to see Spike finishing off the third vampire and turning to face her as she tucked her stake back in her waistband.

“Long time no see, love,” he said nonchalantly.

“Just a few days.”

“Hiding from me?”

Glaring at him as she stared into his infuriatingly striking eyes, Buffy spun on her heel, making her way out of the cemetery when she felt Spike following.

“Oh, come on, Slayer, you can’t still be mad at me.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Not mad at you. Just ignoring you.”

“Buffy, don’t act like this. I thought we were getting along, before I shoved my foot in my mouth.”

“That’s just it, Spike,” she said, whirling around to face him. “We were getting along a little too well. I’ve had two office romances. Two, Spike, and let me tell you, they never work out!”

“Buffy, you’re not even giving it a shot…and what do you mean two?”

“Didn’t do as much research as you thought. And why should I give it a shot?” she asked, throwing her arms in the air. “You have a girlfriend, so why don’t you run along and spend time with your little princess?”

“You know what? Maybe I will, Slayer,” he said angrily. “Maybe I should spend time with someone who has a beating heart.”

Shaking her head while a smile played on her lips she replied, “Oh, I never said she had a heart, Spike. But who am I to tell you who to date?”

Gritting his teeth and looking up into the cool night sky as Buffy turned and walked away, Spike took a deep breath. “Bloody hell,” he muttered as he chased after her. “Buffy, wait! Don’t do this, pet. I’m sorry, okay? I said it. I am sorry. Come on, Slayer, I like patrolling with you. Don’t get all mad because we both have quick tempers.”

Turning to look at the man in front of her, Buffy contemplated him for a moment before nodding. “Okay, we patrol…but, that’s it, buddy,” she said, poking a finger into his chest.

Biting his lip, Spike raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me. You’re the one who can’t keep her hands off me,” he said with a smile, looking down at her hand.

Nearly growling as she threw her hands up in the air. “You are infuriating, you know that?”

“That’s part of my charm,” he replied, hopping up onto a headstone.

“If that’s your charm, I actually feel sorry for your girlfriend,” she said with a slight smile.

“Hey!” Spike cried indignantly. “I resent that!”

“I didn’t ask,” Buffy said, raising an eyebrow at him.

“And she says I’m the infuriating one,” he muttered under his breath. Buffy laughed as she heard it.

“Just for the record, Spike, I have excellent hearing,” she said as she sauntered off.

Watching appreciatively as her hips swayed back and forth, he hopped down from his seat and set off after her.

After a few minutes of walking in a comfortable silence, Buffy finally spoke. “Seriously, Spike, what do you see in that woman?”

“Cecily? Well…we’ve been together for years. Ever since I moved here actually.”

“Do you love her?” she asked, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

“I used to,” he said softly. “I haven’t felt that way in a long time.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well…if you have to question your love for somebody, doesn’t that mean there’s something lacking? If you fantasize about spending time with another woman, no matter what form that time is spent, rather than fantasizing about your girlfriend, I think that creates a problem.”

Ducking her head to hide the flush in her cheeks, Spike smiled when he noticed the gesture. “She’s stuck with me. She knows I’m the Slayer, and she accepts it, for the most part. Not a lot of people can handle this line of work.”

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. “I know.”

“So what about you?”

“What about me…what?”

“I got some of the story of what went on between you and the poofter-”

“Angel,” Buffy corrected with a smile.

“Right. Anyway, what happened there?”

Staying quiet for a minute, thinking about her response, Buffy took a deep breath. “I loved him. We…advanced our relationship, he turned evil, I killed him, he came back.”

“I got more details than that from reading up on it, Goldilocks,” Spike said with a raised eyebrow. “What about after?”

”Not much to tell. We realized we couldn’t be together, and he left town.”

“Do you still love him?”

“Always…but I’m not in love with him anymore. He’s like a member of the family. I care about him like I care about my sister.”

“You’d die for him.”

It was more of a statement than a question. Buffy knew he was thinking of when she protected Dawn and sacrificed herself to save her.

“I nearly did,” she said softly as the events of her healing Angel flashed through her mind. “I’d do it again, but there isn’t a lot I wouldn’t do these days.”

Spike looked at Buffy perplexed. “What’s that supposed to mean, Slayer?”

Taking a deep, unneeded breath, Buffy replied, “It means that I would protect someone I care about…no matter what the price.”

“You’re looking for a way out.”

“What?”

“You have a death wish.”

“I wouldn’t call it that,” Buffy said, beginning to get irritated.

“Then what would you bloody call it?” he asked as his voice began raising in volume.

“Why are you getting so mad at me? You don’t even know me!”

“I know enough, Buffy. I know you don’t want to be in this world-”

“No! That’s where you’re wrong, Spike. I don’t mind being in this world…I just don’t want to be alone in this world. Because that’s what it comes down to, Spike. I’ll always be alone. No matter what, no matter how many people I save, inevitably someday, they’ll be gone. But not me,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ll still be here.”

Feeling a strange mix of anger and sadness flood through him, he tilted his head to look at her for a moment, narrowing his eyes. “So why not end it?” he asked, the anger winning out.

Buffy’s eyes snapped up to his. “Because I may be a lot of things, but I’m not a coward.”

Thinking about her answer for a moment, Spike nodded, suddenly getting a new sense of respect for the woman in front of him. “You’re anything but that, love.”





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