I'm going to give you guys a heads up now, so that you're warned in advance: There will be more Angel and you're probably going to hate Buffy for a LITTLE while, but I PROMISE, this is all about the Spuffy!! Have faith and please review :)
Chapter Seven
The euphoria of meeting Angel didn’t even last a full day. By the morning of the next day, she had completely changed her mind. Oh, she thought that Angel was nice enough, but she absolutely refused to do what Faith had subjected Nate to. She was not about to start dating someone and involve them in Nate’s life at this stage. The revolving door was not for her. Course, one discreet date didn’t mean that would happen, but somehow in Buffy’s overactive imagination, it would. Besides, Angel was Nate’s pediatrician. That would be a bit of an awkward.
What she felt toward Angel was gratitude. He doctored Nate, he was there for her first sickness with him. It was perfectly normal that she would find him desirable to date. But it wasn’t real. She couldn’t see herself dating anyone at this point. She was too much of a mess. So, in case she had a moment of weakness when she was feeling sorry for herself and her lack of a life, Buffy flushed Angels phone number down the drain. He was Nate’s pediatrician and that was the end of that. Period.
Spike sat back in his chair, staring at the dart board across the room.
“Boss, can I get out early?” Cordelia asked as she bustled into the room. She looked at the wall that Spike was staring at. She pointed at him, “okay, are you drinking?”
“Yeah. Water.”
Cordelia shook her head. “What’s the matter with you anyway? Are you brooding?”
He glared at her, “I don’t brood. I’m…thinking.”
“About Anya? Or Buffy?”
Spike looked up at Cordelia finally. “Buffy? Why, did she—what’s that look for?”
“The ‘look’ is saying that you’re a doofus.”
“Doofus? I’m a doofus? You do realize that I am your boss, right? I’m thinking you calling your boss a doofus, makes YOU a doofus.”
“You’re a doofus because you just don’t get it. I mean, you really don’t GET it, do you?”
“Do you talk to hear yourself talk or do you actually have a point, Cordelia?”
“I’m not getting involved. Not completely anyway. Let’s just put it this way: Nothing is going to be solved and figured out until you get off your brooding ass and call her. Or see her.”
“Anya or Buffy?”
“Buffy! Are you listening to me at all?”
“Cordelia—“
“Everytime she’s here, she stares at the door like she’s some lost little puppy dog and I swear at any moment she’s going to start whining like one and scratching at the door until you let her in. And you, you sit in here doing the one thing you hate the most: Brooding. So, I ask you: What does it mean when the two most stubborn people in the world are reduced to doing what they hate most?”
“They need to talk?”
“Well, that’s a step in the right direction.”
“So, that’s not the answer to your question?”
“It’s part of it.”
“You’re daft.”
“You’re weird. So?”
“Go home.”
“Thanks!”
Shaking his head, Spike stood and stretched his tired limbs. Then, he walked directly to the front where Buffy was chatting with one of the other waitresses.
“Buffy?” He asked, almost cautiously.
She looked to him, “yes?”
He straightened and met her gaze. “Could I, uh, talk to you for a minute?”
She nodded, “sure thing, boss.”
He winced. He didn’t like her calling him that. He was her Spike, not just her boss. That thought gave him pause. HER Spike? He shrugged. Well, yeah, he was her Spike. And she was his Buffy.
She followed him silently into his office and had her hands demurely clasped behind her back as she walked past him into the room. She stared at the floor and Spike stood there, feeling helpless. He didn’t know how to start.
“I miss you,” he blurted out.
Her head popped up, her eyes wide. “You do?”
He nodded, then sheepishly, “do you miss me at all?”
Buffy answered by flinging herself in his arms, “I do!”
Just when Spike had started to wrap her arms around her to return her hug, she backed off and pointed a finger at him. “I’m so mad at you!”
Spike stared at her, confused and unsure of what to do. “Huh?”
“You haven’t called in over a week!”
“You told me to give you space, that you didn’t need me, remember?”
“Yeah, and somehow that translated into blow me off completely?”
He pointed his finger at her this time, “you could have called too, you know. I was just trying to give you your space and I THOUGHT you’d give ME a call when you wanted to talk to me.”
“It’s not like we had a fight Spike. I gave you some advice on Anya…how is that anyway?”
Spike looked down and frowned. “I never called her.”
“Oh? Why not?”
“I’m not in love with her Buffy. Seems pointless to work something out that I knew wasn’t going anywhere.”
“Good, I’m glad. I don’t think Anya’s good enough for you.”
Spike looked up at her in shock. “I thought you liked Anya.”
“I did until she pissed me off!”
“Buffy, you’re confusing as hell you know that?”
She shrugged, “I try. It’s my job to keep you on your toes. Why am I confusing?”
“You just are,” he shook his head. “How did Anya piss you off, kitten?”
“She made me feel like a homewrecker. Like I broke you guys up. Then I had to go and feel guilty about it, ergo pushing you to call her and make amends.”
“She made you feel guilty? How? What did she say to you?”
Buffy looked at him guiltily. “I’ve said too much already. I don’t want to be catty—“
“Buffy, tell me.”
“No, it’s not important. It’s done now.”
“Elizabeth Anne Summers, would you just tell me?”
Her eyes widened and Spike fought back a grin. He was pulling out the big guns when he used her full first name like that.
“She told me to tell you that I didn’t need you all the time and that she did. Which, at the time sounded good to me, I mean it made sense, but then I got really mad because it wasn’t as if I ASKED you to come around so much, I mean you could have brought Anya over with you at any time. And I didn’t want you to completely stop coming around, Spike, just didn’t want you to feel as if you had to my savior.
I feel like she used me to make herself look good to you the whole time. Like she didn’t ever really care that I lost Faithy, just wanted to ACT like she cared to get to you and that really hurt my feelings. And I thought that you were just sucking it all up and didn’t see what she was really doing and that made me mad at you too.” Buffy stopped and bit her lip. Then, “I guess I had a lot to say even though I didn’t want to say it. Can you stop looking as if you’re going to hunt her down and shoot her like a dog?”
Spike’s jaw was clenching. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
“I don’t…I didn’t want to cause any problems at first and then I was just angry in general and didn’t want to talk to you…even though I really did. . . I am confusing, aren’t I?”
“Lil’ bit.”
“Well, there you go. Just don’t say anything okay? I mean…are you planning on talking to her at all?”
“Hadn’t really planned on it. I don’t want Anya to be the reason why you and I don’t talk. We’ve been through too much to have Anya break up our friendship, Buffy.”
Buffy sighed, “I know.”
“You should have told me what she said to you.”
“Well, it didn’t really dawn on me until later that she was being a poop head. I thought I was doing the right thing by getting you and Anya to iron out your differences when the whole time she was just manipulating me. Am I that easy to manipulate?”
“Sometimes. You have to be the sweetest person I know, Buffy. You don’t like to think the worst of anyone. Until they cross you, that is.”
“I can’t help it. I live by that whole ‘do unto others’ creedo. Maybe I should stop that. Or modify it. I’ll do unto others before they can do unto me.”
Spike chuckled, “no, don’t change any aspect of yourself, Buffy. That’s what makes you such a great person to know.”
“Awww, thanks Spikey,” and she gave him a great big hug. “I really did miss you.”
“I missed you too. How’s Nate?”
Buffy pulled away and sat down in his armchair. “I had a grand adventure a couple days ago with him. He woke up with a fever of 102 and I had to take him to his pediatrician.”
“Is he all right?”
“He has an ear infection. He’s on meds now. He’s all right. It was scary though. I never had to do that before.”
Spike sat down on his desk facing her. “I wish I could have been there with you,” he told her softly.
“I know, but…it was good that I did that on my own. Now I know I can. I handled it very well if I may say so myself. I had a focus. Get Nate better and I just kept on that.”
Spike smiled, “I’m proud of you. When can I see him? I miss the little tyke.”
Buffy smiled, “anytime you want.”
“I have an idea. You have tomorrow off, right?”
“You’re my boss and you don’t even know when I have off?”
“Buffy--” he began tiredly.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I have tomorrow off.”
“And I put Lorne in charge of things tomorrow. Why don’t we go to the park? Make a day of it?”
“Really? You want to go to the park with Nate and I?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I want to? I suggested it didn’t I?”
“I don’t know, I just figured you’d want to spend the day doing your single guy thing.”
“What’s my single guy thing?”
“Crap, I don’t know.”
Spike laughed, “well, I don’t want to do my ‘single guy thing’, I want to spend the day with you and Nate. He hasn’t seen his Uncle Spike in a while, he might forget me.”
“Never. He loves you.”
“Just like his Auntie Buffy?”
“Yep, just like his Auntie Buffy.”
Buffy was laughing as she watched Nate and Spike slide down the big slide together. It had to be the cutest thing she’d ever seen. Spike just sat with Nate in his lap and down they went, Nate laughing the whole time. Spike had the biggest smile that she hadn’t seen in a long time. She was kicking herself for not bringing her camera. Moments like these definitely needed to be captured on film. And when they got to the end, Nate ran over to Buffy with his arms up, laughing. She picked him up and tossed him lightly in the air, laughing as well.
She set him down and he went directly to Spike, wanting to be picked up. Spike smiled, almost sappily. As her boys—boys? As in plural? She shrugged. Well, yeah. Spike was her boy too. So, as her boys played and ran around the playground, Buffy set out their picnic. When it was ready she called them over to join her. As Nate drank down his juice from his sippy cup on Uncle Spike’s lap, Buffy felt her eyes well up a bit. She tried to discreetly turn away and wipe them away, but Spike caught her. Of course.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, reaching out and grabbing her hand.
She pulled back and shook her head, reaching for a napkin. “Nothing. I was just thinking about Faith…something like this would have been nice for her to do with him.”
Spike nodded as he watched Nate devour his lunch. “He’s a bloody riot,” Spike said fondly and looked over at Buffy. She felt her heart swell. A myriad of emotions were swirling inside her: Peace. Comfort. Contentment. Friendship. Love. It had to be the first time since Faith died that she had felt like that. Hell, it had to be the first time since her mom died that she felt like that.
Locking eyes with Spike, she told him, heartfelt and true: “Thank you.”
Spike stared at her for a long time, a look passing across his features that Buffy couldn’t define. He gave her a quick nod and went back to tending to Nate.
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