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Chapter Eight

Spike offered to drive Buffy and Dawn to the hospital that evening, so they finished eating and waited patiently for the sun to go down. As soon as it was getting to be dusk, the vampire appeared at the door and took the keys to the SUV from Buffy.

The Slayer stuck out her lower lip and groused at him, “Contrary to what you and my mother think, I am perfectly capable of driving her car.” Over her head Dawn and Spike exchanged eyerolls as they walked to the vehicle.

“Uh, Buffy? Mom was pretty clear about not wanting to have to fix any more dents in car.”

“That last one was NOT my fault!”

She stuck her lower lip out even further, tempting Spike to shock Dawn by taking it in his teeth and sucking on it. Instead, he leaned over to whisper in her ear that if she didn’t stop pouting, he was going to bite her lip off.

“I am not pouting!” she insisted. “I’m just saying, I got my license and everything and everybody still acts like I can’t drive a car. It’s not fair.”

“You still can’t drive a car,” her sister said primly as she climbed into the back seat.

Spike laughed at Buffy’s half-hearted swat at her sister and ran around to hold the door for her on the passenger side. Tossing her head and ignoring the weirdness of having Spike hold a car door for her, she got into the front seat and turned around to stick her tongue out at Dawn. Spike slid into the driver’s seat and immediately began punching buttons on the radio until he came to something he liked.

The short ride to the hospital was a welcome respite from the drama and worry of the past week. Buffy and Spike squabbled over which radio stations to play, Dawn disagreed with both of them and they arrived at the hospital laughing and flushed.

When Spike walked into the waiting area with Dawn and Buffy, not one of the Scoobies batted an eye. Even Xander didn’t bother to say anything derogatory. It was apparent that Giles had filled them in on Riley’s evening activities and they all looked at Buffy uncomfortably, not sure what to say. Finally, Willow stepped up and put her hand sympathetically on Buffy’s arm.

“Riley’s a poop head, Buffy. Are you okay?”

“I will be,” her friend answered wryly. “Kinda getting used to the whole ‘poop head’ boyfriend thing.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Spike clench his jaw, and she shot him an apologetic look. As soon as she got a chance she sidled over to him and whispered, “You can be my boy friend, and take a chance on turning into a poop head, or not . You decide.”

She moved away quickly, blushing at her own impulsive words, so missed the look of absolute wonder on his face as he stared after her. The vampire was frozen in place and wordless for so long that Xander finally asked him, “Hey, bloodsucker. Are you still with us?”

“Was jus’ thinkin’, Whelp. Not somethin’ you’re overly familiar with, I know.”

“Well I sure don’t expect to see it from you. Nothing good can come of it, I’m sure.”

Mutual insults taken care of, the two settled down away from the chattering women who, in a show of support for Buffy, were busy trashing everything male.

When they were finally allowed in to see Joyce, only immediate family was allowed into the room, so the others had to settle for peering in the door and waving. It was obvious that Joyce was not aware of much going on around her and the Scoobies soon left, telling Buffy they would come back the next day when her mom was awake.

Once the large group was gone, Spike slipped unnoticed into the room and stood quietly behind Buffy’s chair as she held her mother’s unresponsive hand and talked to her softly. When he heard a small quaver in her voice as she talked about not worrying about the gallery, he touched her gently on the shoulder. Forgetting Dawn was in the room, Buffy reached up and gave his hand a grateful squeeze, then looked up to see her sister staring at them with eyes like saucers.

While Buffy went brain dead with dismay, Spike winked at Dawn and leaned down to kiss Buffy on the cheek. Instead of the shock and horror Buffy expected to see on her sister’s face, there was just delight and just a slight flash of jealousy before Dawn squealed and said, “You two? How totally cool!”

“Think it probably isn’t something to be spreading around right now, Nibblet, Let’s jus’ keep it in the family for a while, okay?”

Dawn looked disappointed that she couldn’t run out and tell her friends that her sister was dating a vampire, but managed to get a grip on her enthusiasm and agreed to keep it quiet.

“So, does this mean you two are going to be having sex in Buffy’s room while Mom’s in the hospital? Cause the walls are kinda thin and hearing that could scar me for life...”

“Dawn!” Buffy was scarlet from head to toe and went from glaring at her sister to frantic glances at her mother. She sincerely hoped Joyce was unable to hear anything going on around her.

“What? It’s not like I don’t know what it is, you know. And Spike is, like, really hot and he loves you, so—“

Dawn! Stop. Now!” Buffy’s glare had gone from embarrassed to just really angry Slayer and her sister finally stopped her excited questions for the time being.

Spike was laughing so hard he could hardly stand up and Buffy included him in her glare as she got to her feet and prepared to leave. She threw a half-hearted punch at his head, but her lips were quirking as she resisted the urge to smile and him and her equally amused sister.

“We’ll just see how funny this is to you two when it turns out Mom was awake and heard everything you said,” she grumbled as they headed for the door. “And I WILL be reminding her it wasn’t me who brought up the subject of sex.”

As they left the room, none of them noticed the small smile that touched the mouth of the sedated woman on the bed, but she drifted back to sleep comfortable that her daughters were being well cared for.





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