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Chapter 24: "Exit"

Authors Note: I know I probably upset some of you with the last few chapters with Spike's wandering ways. Just stick with me.....good things will come.

"Patience is a virtue."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Good morning," Joyce greeted Buffy as she came into the kitchen. "I made your favorite....pancakes."

Buffy groaned. "Uh, no thanks. I'm not very hungry."

"Buffy, you need to eat," Joyce said, pouring more batter onto the pan. "After all, you are eating for two."

"Don't remind me," Buffy told her, placing her hand over her stomach.

"Come on, sit," her mother ordered, setting a plate on the table.

Buffy crossed over to the table, pausing momentarily when she passed the basement door. She had to force herself to continue on across the room and not bolt out of the kitchen like her life depended on it. She didn't like the thought of being this close to Spike, even though a solid wooden door separated them.

Joyce noticed as her daughter's demeanor changed after passing by the basement door.

"Honey, are you okay?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Buffy picked up the fork lying beside her plate and started to stab at the fluffy, golden pancakes stacked high on the plate.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she muttered. "Never better."

"Buffy, either you start talking or I will march down those basement steps and ask Spike myself."

Buffy's head shot up and the fork clattered onto the plate. "How did you know it involved Spike?"

"When you passed by the basement door your face got very pale," she explained. "Honey, you looked like you were going to be sick."

"He's just being a jerk.'

"All men are jerks," Joyce joked, trying hard to lighten her daughter's dreary mood.

Buffy didn't laugh. Instead she resumed the task of playing with her food.

"Giles says to keep him around because we need his help. But, does he help? No, all he does is mess things up. Make my life a living hell."

"Buffy, what happened?"

Buffy sighed deeply, this time placing her fork down on the plate.

"Sorry Mom, but I'm really not hungry," she confessed, getting up from the chair. "Plus, I really want to get out of here before his 'royal pain in the ass' wakes up."

"Doesn't he usually sleep during the day?"

"Yes, but I'm not taking any chances today."

Buffy moved around the counter and kissed her mom on the cheek.

"Bye, Mom."

"Call me if you're going to be home late."

Buffy nodded her head in reply before hurrying out the kitchen door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

"Buffy, what's bothering you?" a concerned Willow asked her friend once they were both alone.

After leaving her house, Buffy had spent most of the day with Willow. The whole afternoon consisted of doing girlie stuff, shopping, gossiping, all things to rid her mind of the way she was feeling about what happened with Spike.

Last night Buffy realized two things. First, that she wasn't mad at Spike, or angry for that matter. She had no right to be, they weren't a couple, they weren't in love, the times they had spent together, in bed, were about lust, need and fulfilling a desire they couldn't find anywhere else at the moment. So, she realized she was angry at herself. Angry that she had succumbed to the need and want building inside her since Spike came back to Sunnydale. Secondly, she realized that this incident was a good wake up call for her. Now was the time for her to focus on her life, her real life. The one that involved her friends, her mother, her slaying duties, and most importantly, Angel. And that's exactly what she planned to do.

"Buffy?"

Buffy heard Willow's voice calling her name and slowly returned from her thoughts.

"Where did Xander go?" she asked once she noticed he wasn't sitting at the table with them.

"Cordy finally showed up and now they're dancing," Willow answered, motioning with her head to the dance floor. "What are you thinking about?"

"Angel," Buffy replied with a soft sigh.

Willow smiled. "Happy, fluffy thoughts?"

Buffy nodded her head.

"Angel's been wonderful this whole time. Always there for you to lean on, " Willow began to ramble, while playing with the straw in her drink. "I mean, I could only imagine how hard this all is for him. The love of his unlife carrying the child of his grandchilde. And, then when that Ramone guy said that Spike had been chosen over him. That must've been so painful for him to hear."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed impassively.

"What's up?" an out of breath Xander asked when he saw the look on Buffy's face.

Cordelia appeared behind him and noticed Buffy.

"Great," she moaned, taking a seat next to Willow. "Listen, I don't want to ruin this little gloomy attitude you've adopted for yourself as of late, but I for one came here to have fun, not sulk."

"Cordy."

"No, she's right," Buffy agreed. "I'm tired of sulking too. From now on its 'fun' Buffy, not 'gloomy, broody, depressed' Buffy."

"Well, before you change into the 'fun' Buffy mode can I ask a quick question?" Xander inquired.

"Sure, just as long as it doesn't have to do with the baby, Spike, or Angel's friend."

Xander laughed nervously. "Um....well, it actually has to do with all three of those."

"Oh brother," Cordelia groaned, rolling her eyes.

"Go ahead, Xander."

"I was just curious if you told Spike what Ramone said yesterday?"

"We were just talking about that," Willow spoke up. "I was just saying how hard it must be for Angel that Spike was chosen instead of him."

"I wonder why?" Cordelia mumbled.

"What?"

"Obviously there's more to this whole thing then what that friend of Angels told us."

"Wow, honey, your brain does work after school hours." Xander quipped dryly.

"Shut up, Xander."

"No, Cordy's right. It does seem strange that the Powers would pick two people who hate each other so much to produce a child together," Willow stated.

"I'm surprised Spike's still here," Xander said. "Being the evil undead that he is I was sure he would hightail it out of here once he found out he knocked up the Slayer."

"Xander," Willow chastised.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like...."

"That's okay. I know what you meant."

Silence fell over the group. Each of them wondering what to talk about that didn't revolve around Buffy's current situation.

Xander was about to break the unbearable silence until he caught sight of someone.

"Speak of the devil....literally."

All three girls turned their gaze in the direction Xander's was focused.

"What's he doing here?" Xander asked, his eye following Spike as he moved across the
floor. "Shouldn't he be hiding, making himself scarce?"

"I think I have an idea what he's doing here," Buffy muttered, sliding out of her high seat. "I'll be right back."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike knew who was behind him before she even spoke.

"Come to find another girl to take to bed?"

Slowly Spike turned to face Buffy, who was waiting with her arms crossed.

"Well, if it isn't the Ice Princess," he sneered, letting his gaze roam down her body before looking her in the eyes. "Finally come out of your castle I see."

"So, which one do you have your eyes on?" she asked, ignoring his remark. She surveyed the area around them. "How about that one over there. She looks like the type to spread 'em. No questions asked."

Spike didn't bother turning in the direction she was looking. Instead, he moved closer until his face was beside hers and whispered, "Why are you so bothered that I was with someone else?"

Buffy jerked her head away. "What bothers me is how sick I feel knowing what I let you do to me."

Spike smirked. "As I recall you begged me for it."

Buffy cringed at his words. He was right. At much as it pained her to admit it, there had been moments when she wanted it. God, how insane she had been.

"Not every time," she shot back, which Spike laughed at.

Spike peeled his eyes away from her and peered into the crowd of people.

"Why don't you go rejoin your mates," he suggested, gesturing with a nod of his head towards the area where they were sitting. "Don't feel like a lecture from you right now."

"I didn't come over here just for that."

"Oh?"

"I want you gone."

Spikes brows furrowed. He angled his body so he could hear better what she was about to say.

"Tonight is the last night you will be in my house. After that I only want to see or hear from you when it concerns the baby."

Spikes brows were now arched, amused by what she was telling him.

"You've ruined my life for the last time," she said , her mind racing with facts she wanted to throw in his face but didnt. Like how her life literally was hell since he came back. And, how sleeping with him was the icing on the cake for her to declare herself legally insane. "I need to get you as far away from me as possible so it won't happen again. It can't happen again."

"And, if it does?"

"It won't," she stated firmly.

"Plan to get your jollies somewhere else?"

"You're sick," she said in disgust. "Unlike you I don't need sex."

Spike advanced on her, forcing her against a nearby wall. "You may be able to go without it, but how long can you go without it from me?"

Buffy squirmed against the wall. She didn't like being this close to him, their bodies almost touching, it made things too tempting.

"Vain mu..."

Spike halted her sentence with his mouth covering hers. Buffy tried to pull away, but her head only bumped hard against the wall, keeping her mouth connected to his. She lifted her hands to his chest, hoping to push him away so she could remove herself from the trap he had her in, but they ended up clutching at his shirt, pulling him flush against her.

Spike trailed his hand up her side, resting it against the side of her breast. The palm of his hand slowly started to move over her breast, passing over the nipple and stopping on the other side until his whole hand covered the soft globe. He squeezed, hard.

Buffy broke the kiss and looked over to where she knew Willow and Xander were. She'd just realized they could probably see her and Spike. She tried hard to focus her eyes, but Spike's cool lips moving over her neck was a big distraction.

"Spike, stop."

"They can't see us," he spoke against her neck, the feel of his voice on her skin sending chills down her back. "Watching Red's guy....on stage."

Buffy let her gaze move to the stage. Sure enough, Oz and his band were just beginning their set. She briefly wondered how Spike knew what she was thinking, and how he knew that Oz was onstage, but once again, the feel of his mouth stopped her from caring.

"What were you saying about me at your house?" he asked, lifting his head up to look at her.

Buffy shook her head. "I don't remember."

"Good," he said, pulling away from her. "Because I'm already gone."

"What?" she asked, still in a daze from their short kiss.

"I already left your house. Found a crypt to my liking and moved in there."

It was then that Buffy realized why he had kissed her like that. It was all a test. A test to see if everything she had said really held true. And, she had failed miserably.

"Pig."

"A pig you can't seem to resist," he taunted.

"Spike!"

Buffy heard someone call his name, but didn't take her eyes off him. Spike heard it as well, but he too remained staring at her. It wasn't until a girl flung herself at him that they both snapped out of their glares.

Buffy watched, sickened by the sight in front of her. The girl wrapping her arms around Spike, draping her body all over him. What a ho-biscuit.

"I have been looking all over for you," the girl told him, not noticing that his eyes were focused behind her. "I went to the bathroom and when I came out you were gone. Where did you go?"

Spike rolled his eyes discreetly. "Ran into someone I knew."

The girl turned to see who he had been talking to.

Buffy froze when she saw the girl's face and recognized who she was.

"Buffy?" the girl said, recognition dawning on her face as well. "Buffy Summers?"

Buffy stared at the girl for what seemed like an eternity before her voice appeared.

"V....Vanessa?"

TBC..............................




"If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. "
--Unknown





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