Krissy sat across the street at the Expresso Pump, watching the bleached blonde that sat outside the bench by himself. He seemed deep in thought.
“He is.”
Krissy reached for her cup of coffee, taking a sip before looking at her new company. Unwanted company.
“Whistler.”
“Good work on Warren, but-“
“But, there’s a bigger job that I have to do? Yes, I know the routine at this point.” Krissy placed the mug down, looking back across the street. “Let me guess; my mission, if I choose to accept it, it to baby sit the special vampire?”
“Got it in one. How do you do it?” Whistler asked sarcastically.
“A life. And better style than you.” She retorted, standing up and leaving the demon at the table, by himself. She stood in front of the coffee shop for a moment, studying the vampire. Then, she sighed and walked down the block.
As she neared the bench, she made a decision, taking the seat next to him and looking around. “Nice night, isn’t it?”
“You could say that.” He said shortly, and she quickly got the impression that he didn’t want to talk. Not to her, or anyone else for that matter.
She held out her hand anyway. “I’m Krissy.”
He looked at her warily for a moment before taking it in a simple handshake. “Spike.”
The moment their hands touched, she felt a spark of blue energy. She could see what he saw, feel what he felt. And she knew what his sire had done. Why he was so lost. He pulled away and she lost it.
“Nice to meet you.” She sat back and said nothing else to him for the duration of the hour.
That didn’t matter, because he eventually gave her a much edited version of what happened, not knowing that she already knew the full details. The fact that he was telling her, a complete stranger, anything was a surprise in itself.
“A piece of advice,” she said, standing as she did, “tell her. Tell her about what she did.”
The she walked away.
Buffy closed the door to the house behind her and watched Spike continue up the stairs. Buffy was utterly lost. There was something going on with him, but she didn’t know what. She did know that it was tearing them apart, slowly but surely.
Dawn came out of the kitchen, giving her a look of sympathy. Spike wasn’t really talking to her either lately. Ever since the incident with Warren.
She held up the pizza box in her hand. “Willow and Tara bought pizza. Want some?”
“Um,” Buffy turned from the stairs when he was no longer visible. “Yeah.”
They went into the kitchen and Buffy sat at the counter, staring at the patterns on the countertop and tracing them.
Dawn sighed. “Usually when you say you want something, you eat it.”
“I’m sorry, Dawn. It’s just…” Buffy paused, looking at the ceiling.
“It’s Spike. I get that. The lack of Spike being Spike-like.” Dawn said. “It has something to do with Drusilla. He’s been like that for…what two, three months. He’s being worse than you were.”
The doorbell rang before the slayer could respond and she went to answer it.
The female had her hair in a bun and was looking down at her clipboard. “Hi, I’m Krissy and I’m doing a peti…” she trailed off when she saw Buffy. “Slayer.”
Spike closed the door to his room behind him and leaned against it. He couldn’t do this anymore. Pretend nothing was wrong. Maybe that was what let him tell Krissy, a total stranger, a version of what happened. But she knew…and he knew she knew because, for some reason, he’d seen her talking to the Scoobies.
He didn’t understand this. Half of it. Any of it. It was all mumble-jumbled and he was ending up confused, with the feeling that he was chasing his own tail.
He walked towards the window and climbed out, only to sit on the roof just outside. Funny thing was that he knew the only thing he was doing was “floating by.” Each day came and he just went along with it. He was starting to think that maybe this was how Buffy felt. And there was only one person to blame.
What did you do to me, Dru? He thought, pushing himself off the roof and landing on the ground safely. He left the yard through the back gate, thinking a walk might do something.
“So…you know Whistler and that’s all you can tell me?” Buffy asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Krissy said. “But that isn’t the reason I came here. I came here because-“
“You have something dire to tell me?” Buffy raised an eyebrow in question.
“Well, there’s that…and I’m doing this petition to take to City Hall…um…it’s against going out on Halloween. For the obvious Hell mouth-involving reasons.”
Buffy gave her a disbelieving look when Krissy held up the petition with fifty signatures.
Then she signed her name and handed it back. “One thing out of the way,” she gave Krissy a serious look. “What’s the other?”
“Spike.” Krissy replied, putting the clipboard in her bag.
“What about him?”
“Whatever Drusilla did...it may be doing more harm than good.” The dimension specialist relented to say; she was only watching as Buffy suddenly stood and began pacing the living room floor in front of her. The slayer whipped to face her.
“How…how much more harm than good?”
“It might end up killing him.”
Spike came inside at near dawn. He was careful as he went up the stairs because, lately, it was starting to feel like he was living with a parent instead of his…whatever the hell Buffy happened to be, and Dawn.
He’d swung by a bar, won a few hands, had a few drinks. He then took a walk around the town, trying to think. About what he was actually doing, what he’d done since the Drusilla/Kita incident. That he’d done nothing. Didn’t even pretend he was okay. Hide. And maybe he needed to do that. Pretend.
That in mind, he went upstairs to his room and entered, finding Buffy and that girl he met earlier in his room, the former on his bed and the latter in a chair nearby. He had a feeling his plan was shot to hell.
“Spike, we need to talk.” Buffy said.
“Talk?” he glanced at Krissy and turned back to Buffy. “About what?”
“I noticed a month ago. That we somehow…that we lost what we-that you weren’t the same…and Krissy told me it was because of Drusilla. I need to know what she did.”
“What’s so important about what she did?”
“Oh, I don’t know; I think maybe it has something to do with the fact that you’re not being yourself and that it might end up killing you. So, help me here, because the thought of you dying right now? Kinda scary.”
Krissy turned to look out the window, still not understanding why her presence was needed for this. It’s not like she was a dear, concerned friend of the family. Hell, she wasn’t even an acquaintance.
“Buffy, what are you talking about?”
It hit her in that moment that she was trying to make herself disappear. She turned to look at the blonde couple and stood. “Heaven.” They looked at her. “It was almost heaven, wasn’t it? Or as close as you’d get, in any case.”
“That isn’t-“ Spike started, only for Krissy to cut him off again.
“Being with Drusilla and Kita was almost heaven. Not knowing what really happened, not having the burden if memories. Just living day to day, like before when everything was just simple. And even if you hate the memory games, when they came back-the memories-things got worse. Again.”
Krissy’s words left a stunned silence for the trio. She didn’t even know where they had come from. But, from the look on Spike’s face, every word was the truth.
And Buffy saw that too. She saw that every single thing Krissy had suggested was true. But, she had to make sure. There would be no jumping to conclusions this time.
“Is that true, Spike? Is that true?”
Of course Spike left after that, dropping into the sewers just before the sun rose in the sky. Krissy and Buffy looked at each other for a moment before Krissy spoke.
“That went well.”
Later, at the Magic Box, Buffy introduced the woman to Willow and Tara, and re-introduced her to Xander and Anya. Anya then asked whether her spell worked, which, of course, it did.
“Yes. A job done, another started.” Krissy commented.
“Who do you work for?” Willow asked curiously.
“Doesn’t really matter. What matters is what might be coming,” Krissy said. Then she looked at the back door seconds before Spike walked through.
“Great. Just…bloody…great,” he muttered, turning to leave at the sight of Buffy and Krissy.
Krissy gave Buffy a look. After al, it was her boyfriend not Krissy’s. Hers to deal with, talk to, help out. Krissy was only here because she had to be. Nothing else.
Buffy got the hint a jumped up out her seat. “Spike, wait!” He turned to look back at her. “We need to talk.”
“What’s there to talk about?”
Buffy was about to answer before she remembered their audience. “In the back.”
He left the room and she followed him inside. He gave her a look and she had this feeling she wouldn’t like what came out of his mouth. “What’s this about?”
She was right. She didn’t like it.
“This is about you not talking to me. This is about you keeping everything inside and not at least telling me how you feel,” Buffy said, her voice rising.
“Not everyone’s interested in a dead ear, Buffy.”
“What happened to you, to-to us, me and you?” If Buffy could, she’d stake Kita all over again. Without her, Drusilla wouldn’t have attempted retrieving Spike. And they’d be okay. With the…the poetry, and the semi-romantic walk through the cemetery, and the fun of staking a vampire and falling into him despite her ability to keep her balance, plus any kisses that resulted from that.
“Thought we were back to normal.”
“Back to normal?” Buffy echoed questioningly. “What’s normal? I’m the slayer, you’re a vampire, my sister’s a key, my best friend’s a gay witch, the other’s married to an ex-vengeance demon and I live on the hell mouth!”
“Normal. As in before you came in with the speech about shouting from rooftops.”
“When I said I love you? Suddenly you don’t believe me?”
“Didn’t say that.” Spike said. That was exactly why he thought having a conversation was a bad idea. She didn’t understand where he was coming from; he didn’t care how right Krissy was or wasn’t.
“Really? Then what are you saying, ‘cause it sounds a whole lot like that.” Buffy retorted.
“I’m saying-“
There was a crashing sound in the front, effectively ending their conversation. They raced into the store, only to be horrified at what they saw. Krissy was being choked by some robed figure on the reading table. Anya hid behind the counter as Xander was tackled by another. Willow threw defensive spells just as another figure tossed Tara across the room and into a shelf.
Buffy automatically raced into action as Spike was knocked off his feet by a figure. Just as he was met with the feeling of his back meeting the floor and a pained scream in his ears, he was suddenly back in the training room, facing off against Buffy.
“It sounds a whole lot like that,” Buffy was saying.
“I’m saying-” Spike paused as the moment came. He had this déjà vu feeling just as the sound of a loud crash met their ears.
It was almost as if things were happening in slow motion. Krissy was being choked on the table, as before. Anya was still hiding behind the counter. Xander was flying onto his back, trying to fight his own attacker. Willow threw minor spells at the figures as Tara flew across the room. Spike was knocked on his back as Buffy yanked the attacker of Krissy, letting her slump to the floor tiredly.
The same scream from before sounded in his ears. Only this time he knew it was Willow. She raced over to where Tara lay in the pile of items and a broken bookshelf. This time, there was nothing to say. Willow didn’t have to say anything. Her eyes, the anger radiating off her, the grief said it all. As did Tara’s neck bent at an unnatural angle.
Tara was dead.
A/N: What did Krissy mean when she called Spike “the special vampire?” Is Krissy right about Spike missing the illusion Kita had given him? What evil force sent its minions after the Scoobies?
On another note, I’ve become a bit more dedicated to this plot, so chapters will become longer and more involved. Very much more involved.