It's All About Power (Unfinished)

[z]

Yes it is to be great you have to alienate idiots

[Spuffy]

I understand why they're mad though. You have read chapter 14, haven't you?

[Spuffy]

Chapter 15


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Dawn dropped her head down into the pillow next to Buffy’s head as she sobbed. Her sister was dead. She couldn’t believe it. Her sister was dead and it was Giles, someone they thought they could trust with their lives. But apparently that was wrong.

Spike stood there, not knowing if he could even move as he stared down at Buffy’s body. The woman he loved, the woman he’d do anything for, was now dead. Again. He closed his eyes and spun around to the watcher, vamping out in the process.

Giles had began to stand up while this was happening, rubbing his neck. When he saw Spike turned toward him, his eyes grew wide and he began to inch his way towards the door.

Spike let out a low, guttural growl and stepped towards Giles, glaring at him as he did so. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Giles gulped and stopped his movement towards the door. “Now... Spike, if we could only talk about this...”

“Talk? You want to talk?” He laughed and moved closer to Giles, keeping his eyes on him the entire time. “Let me fill you in on my version of talking.”

The watcher made a rush towards the door but Spike rolled his eyes, grabbed his arm, and threw him back into the wall.

“I thought you wanted to talk?” He spoke while moving towards Giles once more then lifting him from his spot on the floor, he wasn’t even fighting back. He threw him again, causing him to hit the door of the room and knock it closed.

Giles groaned and began to slowly get to his feet. “Spike...” But his response was a growl. Mr. Nice Guy was officially dead. “Spike please...” For that he received an uppercut to the chin and a swift kick to the abdomen.

“Spike please, what? Please listen? What are you going to say? “Oh it was the best for her...” Spike mocked then kneed the watcher in the gut. His hands gripped the mans shoulders strongly as he pulled him down to his knee once more. “I killed her for her own good... It’s better this way.” You sicken me you son of a bitch.” He tossed Giles across the room once more and stalked towards him. Giles started to crawl backwards and Spike only laughed.

“Stop it!” Dawn cried out to them. She didn’t want this, not right now. “Stop fighting!” No, she wasn’t happy at Giles, and somewhere inside hoped Spike would kill him, but she still didn’t want it right now.

“You stay out of this, bit.” Spike growled back at her. “He deserves everything he’s getting.”

“Spike!”

“I said stay out of it!” He shot a glare back at her then turned to the watcher again. He had managed to get up and over to the door of the room while Spike was moving away.

“Quick old man, aren’t you?” Spike asked as he began to go after him. Giles quickly threw the door opened and backed out into the hall.

“No use in running, Rupert. I’m gonna kill you, just like you killed Buffy. Well, my way will be a lot more painful.”

Giles held his hands out in front of him, motioning for Spike to stop. “Spike, just wait. Let’s talk about this... I can explain...

“Don’t want your explanations. I want you to pay.” As Giles began to step backwards again Spike rushed forward, tackling the man to the floor. He started throwing random punches at Giles face and didn’t even stop when he heard someone coming up the stairs.

“Giles!” Christine called out. “Janine, Samantha! Come her!” The other two slayers came running up the stairs after her. They had all gone down to the basement to stay safe from the storm in case there was a tornado, and to get some training in after Dawn and Spike left.

They had started down the hall towards Spike when Dawn rushed out of her room. “Go back downstairs!” She ordered them. “Now! We’ll settle this ourselves.”

“He’ll kill him!” Christine shot back, but Dawn remained adamant.

“All three of you go downstairs right now. Spike will not kill him!”

“Yes I will!” Spike interrupted then threw another punch at Giles face. Christine raised an eyebrow and glared at Dawn after getting this proof to her own assumptions of the situation..

“He will not, now go!” Dawn ordered once more and pointed towards the stairs.

The three girls stood there a moment, considering just going against Dawn. They were slayers and they could take her if she tried to fight. But Dawn did know Spike well, and if she said Spike wouldn’t kill Giles, they should trust her, even if he seemed to be about to kill Giles.

“I think you should go, slayers.” Spike glanced up at them, still in vamp face, and rather pissed off.

The girls saw the look on his face and nodded slowly, then filed down the stairs to the first floor and eventually went back down into the basement.

Dawn took in a deep breath and wiped some tears that were still on her cheek then looked to Spike and Giles. “Spike... stop it. Please!”

Spike glanced back at Dawn, his hands on Giles shoulders as he held him down to the floor. “He killed your sister and you want me to be nice to him? He killed her! He deserves to be killed himself!”

“Spike...” Giles voice was quiet. His lip was bleeding as well as his nose and bruises were showing all over his face.

“Buffy wouldn’t want you to kill him!” Dawn pointed out to him but Spike only scoffed.

“Buffy wouldn’t have wanted him to kill her either. She trusted him, and look what he did to her Dawn! You go on in there and look at her!”

Dawn put her head in her hands and slid down to a seat on the floor up against the wall. Everything was wrong. She didn’t want any of this to happen. Maybe she shouldn’t have told Spike about Buffy, then he wouldn’t be here right now, and maybe Giles wouldn’t have injected whatever it was into Buffy that killed her. It felt like this was all her fault.

Spike watched Dawn another moment before turning back to Giles. He glared down at him, pulling back a fist to prepare for another hit. “Got any final words?”

“I didn’t...” He swallowed, he was finding it hard to get words out. “...want to kill her...”

“Sure you didn’t. And I don’t want to kill you.” Spike rolled his eyes and threw a punch at the watcher’s cheek, knocking his head to the side.

Dawn was sitting there, sobbing into her hands. She could hear every hit Spike landed on Giles’ face. Every groan, gasp, or whimper that came from Giles’ mouth. Every growl, snide remark, or evil laugh that came from Spike. That’s why it surprised her when she didn’t hear anyone come back upstairs. She felt a hand on her shoulder, it was a comforting gesture and she took a moment to look up to who it was. Her eyes grew wide as she realized this wasn’t someone from downstairs, and the person just smiled softly at her and nodded towards Spike and Giles. Dawn nodded back and then watch her walk up behind Spike.

Spike was about to hit Giles, again, when someone grabbed him from behind and pulled him off, throwing him into the wall. At first he thought it was Dawn, and growled as he began to get to his feet.

“Thought I told you to stay out of this, bit.” He finally looked up to see who had thrown him and found he couldn’t stand. He fell back to his spot on the floor and stared up at the woman. “Buffy?”

“The one and only.” Buffy said and crossed her arms. “Now do you think you can stop being so damn stubborn and let Giles get a word in edgewise? I’m kinda thinking the whole dead thing has an explanation.”

“Uh... yeah...” Spike just continued to look up at her, a confused expression on his face. He looked to Dawn, then to Giles, and finally back to Buffy. “Wait... you know you were dead?”

Buffy shrugged slightly. “Yeah... well, not so much “was” dead, as “still” dead.”

“What?” Both Dawn and Spike questioned at the same time, Giles didn’t speak though and just slowly inched himself to the wall and sat up.

“I kinda noticed, I uh... don’t have a pulse...”

Dawn and Spike exchanged glances then cast their gaze at Giles, who winced slightly as he adjusted himself against the wall.

“I told you to let me explain...”

[Spuffy]

Chapter 16


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Spike stood in the corner of the room looking over at the three of them. Giles was in a half sitting position on the bed and Dawn was sitting down on the end of the bed cross-legged next to Buffy who sat right on the corner.

No one had spoken as they took Giles to his room. It wasn’t that there wasn’t anything to say, more like there wasn’t anything to say at that particular time. They were waiting for Giles to get comfortable and in a little less pain before making him explain anything. Spike had even gone down and gotten an ice pack for him, he felt obligated to do it after beating the man senseless.

Giles held the ice pack in his lap, every now and then putting it up to his face to ease the pain from the punches. He had looked over at Spike a few times, but didn’t really look angry with him. But Spike still didn’t feel comfortable so he stood in the corner and just kept his distance.

“I hate to break this wonderfully odd silence...” Buffy began. “But I’d really like to know why it is that I have no pulse, yet I’m here to tell the tale. I don’t think I’m a zombie or vampire, so that just leaves “confused.”

Giles nodded slowly and once more placed the ice pack in his lap. “I tried to explain things earlier to Spike...” He looked his way a moment before turning back to Buffy. “But I got a little held up.”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that...” Spike spoke up. “Anger management’s never been a good friend of mine...” He saw Buffy smile slightly as he said that and dared to take a step closer to the bed where the others were.

“I understand, Spike. I had just... killed the woman you love, so obviously you were going to be angry, and we all know what you’re like when you’re angry.”

“He’s more of a hit first, ask questions later guy.” Dawn commented with a smile matching the one on Buffy’s face. Spike shook his head, holding back his own smile. Why were they smiling? They should be more worried about what’s going on, not that he didn’t like the lack of tension in the room.

“That’s our Spike.” Buffy added her own comment to the mix then looked from Spike to Giles. “So about that explanation...”

“Ah, yes. I’ll get to that now.” Giles paused a moment and lifted the ice pack up to his head one more time, and as he did that Spike walked over to the desk in the room and pulled the chair out from under it. He took it over to the side of the bed and spun it around then sat down on it with his arms crossed over the back of the chair as he leaned forward on it.

Giles took his ice pack away from his head and then laid it off to the side before he got to his explanation. “I believe I should start from the beginning.” Everyone nodded and he continued. “When Buffy first went into the coma from the ritual that those demons did, I told you, Dawn, that I was going to help and do what I could to figure things out, but I wasn’t really finding much of anything. Everything was a dead end. Well, one day I ran into a doctor who used to work for the Council back before I had even met Buffy, so it was awhile back. I remembered he specialized in creating medicines and drugs for those who have diseases or conditions brought on in a mystical manner.

“After meeting him I asked if he had anything for a coma, but he said he didn’t that he’d never been asked to make anything for that situation. I then proceeded to offering him some God awful amount of money to make such a drug for Buffy but he said he’d do it for free, I was relieved then, I can tell you that.

“About a month after that he had developed the drug and sent it to me. I kept it hidden because I didn’t want you to find out about it unless I was sure I was going to use it. You see, he had told me there were two possible outcomes of it. Either Buffy would die, or it would take effect and bring her out of the coma, temporarily.”

“Temporarily?” All three of the others spoke the question at the same time but Giles just shook his head.

“Let me continue...” Once more they nodded so he went on.

“I wasn’t completely certain I wanted to take that chance since there was only a fifty percent chance that it would work as it was supposed to, but when you told Spike about Buffy and mentioned how I hadn’t been doing my part to help her, I thought it might be time to use it.

“I contacted the doctor again just last night and was speaking to him about it. He knew the odds of the situation and kept asking if I was sure I wanted to do it. He also told me he also created a drug to reverse the effects of the original one, an anti-dote of sorts. If she had died from the drug then there was a chance that if I were to inject the anti-dote into her system it would reverse the drug and bring her back to life. It would also work if she were to wake up and we wanted her to go back into the coma.

“I braved the storm this morning and left, as you noticed, and went to meet the doctor and get the anti-dote in case I’d need it. I talked with him for awhile about the possible side effects of the drug and the chances that the anti-dote would work and then came back here to find you...” He nodded towards Dawn. “And Spike had gone to find me. I didn’t mean to alarm you like that, sorry.”

Dawn shook her head. “It’s alright.”

Giles simply nodded before continuing. “I let myself dry off after I came home and then waited awhile, drawing the courage to do what I was about to do, and I had just finished injecting the drug when you two came back. You can fill in the blanks from there.” He paused and looked at Buffy, seeing she still had a confused expression on her face.

“The drug, as I said before, only has temporary effects. It could last anywhere from hours or weeks. It’s never been used before, Buffy being the first to ever receive it, so we have no way of knowing how long it would last.

“Buffy doesn’t have a pulse, but she isn’t exactly dead. The drug shuts down her bodily systems, other than brain function or movement of course, most of the things that require energy, since that’s what the demons took from her. Then it turns the energy she does have left into a temporary life source, making her alive, yet not alive at the same time. If the drug were to wear off, since it is only temporary, it would simply return her back to her comatose condition, without harming her in any way.”

“If it’s only temporary why’d you do it?” Buffy asked after there were a few moments of silence in the room. “I know you all wanted me back but if it was only temporary, what’s really the point? Were you just going to keep injecting me with it every time it wore off?”

“Honestly, Buffy, at the time I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I was just looking for a way to bring you back, but now that it’s worked I’ve thought a little about it and maybe this would be the best. If we have you fighting once more we could defeat the Triatekah and possibly get your power back from them then you’d be returned back to your normal self and there’d be no need to worry about the coma since your energy would have been returned to you.”

“So let me get this straight. I was in a coma, I’m now dead but not dead, the man who I always thought of as a father figured “killed” me, and the demonic whatstheirnames who started all of this are still around?”

“That, um, pretty much sums it up, yes.” Giles nodded.

“Okay then. So when do we get started on kicking their asses and reaping my vengeance on them for almost killing me?” She looked around at everyone. She’d been out too long. She really wanted to kick some demon butt. Especially those demons.

“It should probably be sometime soon.” Dawn stated and looked over to Spike, then to Buffy and Giles. “Spike and I were at their demon headquarters earlier today and, well, they’re short two demons and they need more power if they’re going to do their apocalypse thing. They’re kinda weak now so it might be a good time to strike. And plus with the drug thing being temporary, the sooner the better, right?”

“I don’t think we should be going there again so soon. They might be expecting us to come back or something, it wouldn’t be smart.” Spike told her. “They also could have moved to some other building since we know where they are.”

“Wow, Spike’s gotten all smart in his old age.” Buffy had a look of surprise and approval on her face as she smiled over at him.

“What can I say, time and a soul can do that to a man.” Spike replied, then smirked. “Just part of the package now.”

“So Spike is a packaged deal?”

“It’s all or nothing, babe.”

“Does all include...”

Buffy was cut off as Giles cleared his throat.

“Sorry, Giles. I’ve been asleep for months. Gotta have myself a little fun.” She laughed then tried to get back to serious mode.

Spike was almost grinning from ear to ear but followed Buffy’s lead and went back to serious.

“Yes, well, I believe Spike may be right about not going back just yet. We should do some more research on the Triatekah, find out anything else we can about them. Maybe Buffy could fill us in on something. Did they tell you anything before they er... performed their ritual on you?”

“Nothing you guys don’t already know. It was all “You’re gonna die. We’re gonna take you’re power and end the world” yada yada yada... Nothing too special.”

“What can you tell us about the ritual itself? We only know what we’ve read but it hasn’t given us that much information.”

Buffy shrugged and closed her eyes, envisioning that moment in her mind. “There were two pentagrams on the floor, one large on and a smaller one. They strapped me to the floor in the middle of the large one and the demons, all except for the leader guy sat around it chanting. That was annoying. There was a painted line connecting the pentagrams and the leader was standing on the smaller one as they chanted. They stood up around the edge of the circle and held candles as they kept chanting... It was really loud chanting. I was glowing, it felt like I was being burnt to death, the pain was unbearable and my wrists were bleeding from my struggles against the straps... and the pentagrams were glowing too... the light seemed to be traveling from me to the demons, mostly to the head one. I thought I was going to die...” She opened her eyes and took in a deep breath. “That’s all I know about it... What happened.”

Hearing about Buffy’s final moments before the coma made Spike want to go rip off those demon’s heads. Making her suffer like that wasn’t exactly on his list of good things. Maybe he’d go set them on fire, see how they liked the feeling.

“If we knew what it was they were chanting I would suggest possibly doing the same ritual they did, but to empower you. I don’t think it would be as painful for you that way since you would be on the receiving end of the power. It’d more than likely give you a rush, a high of sorts.” Giles explained.

“Don’t they have drugs for that sort of thing?” Spike joked but noticed the look from the watcher and backed down. “Alright, I was just saying...”

Dawn had laughed a little at the drug comment then looked to Giles. “You should really make more with the funny Giles. It lightens things up a lot.”

“Well, I’ll “make more with the funny” at an appropriate time.”

“What’s so inappropriate about now?” Buffy questioned. “You just said I could get a high from getting my power back. I’d say it was joke time. Besides, I need some jokes about now.”

“I suggest you all go joke then, out of my room, I need my rest.” Giles made shooing movements with his hands but he was slightly smiling in the whole time, indicating he wanted them out more so they could have their time together than for him to get rested up.

“Fine, so pushy... sheesh.” Buffy got off the bed and stood, Dawn following after her. Spike stood from his chair and took it back over to where he got it before being the first one to exit the room. Dawn and Buffy followed suit and exited the room after him, both casting little waves Giles’ way before Buffy closed the door after they’d left.

Spike, Dawn, and Buffy all stood silent in the hallway and Buffy began to look the place over. She just realized this was the place that was in her dream so one of the questions that had been bothering her for a bit finally came out.

“Where are we? I know this isn’t Rome... at least this isn’t where we were living in Rome.”

“Oh, we’re back in California. We’ve been here for a little while, Spike being here was just a lucky thing.” Dawn answered.

“It’s always lucky to run into me.” Spike said. “Unless of course you’re on my bad side, then you’re just in trouble.”

“Who else is here?” Buffy asked and started down the hall. She walked over to the room she had remembered seeing the girls and Andrew playing Monopoly in during her dream.

“Three other slayers. Janine, Christine, and Samantha.” Dawn answered once again. “They’re downstairs right now if you want to meet them. They’ve heard lots about you. Probably would be all honored and stuff to finally meet the Great Buffy.”

“The Great Buffy?” Buffy questioned, raising an eyebrow, then laughing a little. “That’s a title I could get used to. “Oh Great Buffy, how can we help you today? Oh Great Buffy teach us the ways of the slayer.”

“I see she’s completely back to normal. Such a shame...” Spike said, sarcasm evident in his voice. Buffy just rolled her eyes at him.

“Buffy, do you want anything to eat or drink or something?” Dawn asked her. “Or maybe you just want to go train in the basement to get back into shape after all of that lying down...”

Buffy looked at her, a slight pout on her face. “I’m out of shape?” She looked down at herself. She thought she looked fine, but she had been a sleep for three months. It was possible she was rusty.

“You’re fine Buffy, don’t listen to the Nibblet. Doesn’t know what she’s talking ‘bout half the time.” He smirked at the younger summers and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“I do too know what I’m talking about. I just meant you haven’t done much for awhile and might want to... get used to it again.”

“I know, Spike just insists on sticking up for me.” Buffy replied.

“Hey, if you’d rather I just stood by and let people say you’re out of shape, then I’ll do just that.”

“I’d rather that you just stay Spike.”

“That I can do.” Spike responded with a nod.

“Good.”

“Okay, now that you two have gotten that settled, you didn’t answer my question. Food or drink? Anything?” Dawn asked her once more.

“I’m fine. Remarkably not hungry. Maybe that has to do something with the drug and the shutting down of my functions or whatever... Maybe I’ll never be hungry again. That would be weird and I’d end up way to an anorexic looking.”

“We’d just force feed you, pet.” Spike grinned at her.

“So nice that you care.”

“Isn’t it though?”

“You know, I feel that you two need some alone time seeing as I sorta get left out of the conversation.” Dawn spoke up again. “I’ll go hang out with the girls downstairs and you two can go be Buffy and Spike.”

“You don’t have to go, Dawnie.” Buffy told her. “You’re my sister...”

“Exactly. We’re sisters. We’ll get our special sister time sometime. Right now, you need to be with Spike for a little while.” She then proceeded to grabbing both Spike’s arm and Buffy’s arm and pulling them down the hallway to Buffy’s room. Once inside she let go of them and smiled proudly. “There. Talk. Have fun. Do whatever it is you two do. But if you end up doing like... you know, make sure the door is locked. I so don’t want to walk in on that.”

Buffy shook her head, blushing slightly and pushing a lock of hair back behind her ear. She stepped forward and pulled her sister into a hug. “See ya later, and I promise. The door will be locked if anything like that happens.”

“Good!” Dawn said, relieved once she pulled back from the hug. She waved at the both of them then walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

“So...” Buffy said, walking over and sitting down on the end of the bed. Things had gone smoothly with Dawn around, now she didn’t really know what to say or do.

“So...” Spike repeated what she had just said and sat down on the bed as well, about a foot away from her. He didn’t have a clue what to say either.

[Spuffy]

Chapter 17


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The two of them sat on the bed next to each other, neither knew exactly what to say. It had been two years since the last time they had seen each other, three months since the last time Buffy had even been able to do anything. Their last words to each other had been her proclamation of love and then his contradiction to it.

That would make for great conversation.

Buffy adjusted herself slightly on the bed, trying to see if there was a more comfortable position. She turned a bit so that she was facing Spike better.

“I never took you to be the speechless type.” She said with a small smile on her face. Spike smiled back.

“I’m not normally. Just didn’t know what to say to you...” He replied. It was true, he was never usually at such a loss for words, but things were just different now.

“It’s been awhile...” Her eyes were wider for a second as she said it but returned back to normal. She looked down at the bed before looking back up to Spike. “How’d the whole coming back from the dead thing work for you?”

He knew they’d get to that subject sooner or later. He just didn’t know if he wanted it to be sooner or later. Seemed it was sooner though, so he’d have to deal with it.

“You know me. Never been easy to get rid of...” He smirked and saw her smile a bit before deciding to answer her question. “It was good. I mean, I wasn’t dead anymore so that was a plus. There were hard times too... Was a ghost for a bit, couldn’t really do much of anything. Had to work with Angel. I had a bit of fun tormenting him as usual.”

“He actually put up with it?” She asked, a surprised expression on her face.

“Amazingly, yes. I even got to beat him up. That was fun.” He grinned proudly and she shook her head.

“Sounds like you two became best buds.”A hidden bit of sarcasm sounded in her voice.

“Bloody hell no.”

Both of them shared a laugh before things got more serious again and Buffy went back on topic. “So... after the ghost thing...”

Spike nodded then began again. “Well, when I wasn’t a ghost obviously I wanted to go be with you... but I just didn’t know how to do it... I was needed here and I didn’t want to just pop up in your life unexpected. Didn’t know how you’d react. When I found out you were seeing the Immortal I just decided I’d put off letting you know even longer. I thought you were happy so I didn’t want to ruin that.”

“I would have been happier if you had came back into my life unexpectedly.” Buffy spoke honestly. “The Immortal: Big ego freak. I wasn’t happy with him. It was all some plan thing. Get close to him, figure out his big evil plan, then stop him.”

“Dawn told me about that. I knew something had to be wrong with that relationship. Always knew the Immortal had a way of getting ladies, just couldn’t really picture you with him. Until I actually saw the two of you dancing...”

“We went dancing... a lot. It was kinda nice at times though. I almost felt normal. But that’ll never happen. I’m the slayer. Buffy Summers, Original Vampire Slayer to be exact.”

“I wouldn’t want you to be normal, Buffy. That wouldn’t be you.”

“So are you saying it’s good to be a freak?”

“Of course.” He chuckled and a grin began to form on his face.

“Good, because the glow from that hair of your’s definitely isn’t normal...” She shook her head.

“Oy! Don’t be talking ‘bout the hair!” They both laughed and some of the tension seemed to leave the room, making a bit more comfortable.

“So I heard you all but hunted me down after you heard I was back, what’s stopping the punches now?” He questioned her with a tilt of his head.

“Well, I just figured, I spent three months in a coma and this whole awake thing is only temporary. Could be anywhere from hours to weeks, as Giles said, so, if it’s hours I don’t really want to spend that time arguing or fighting. Especially not with you.”

“That’s understandable. Glad I’m off the hook.” Spike said then Buffy rolled her eyes at him and adjusted herself on the bed again. She was now sitting cross-legged facing him.

“No one said you’re off the hook. When I’m back permanently you’re gonna have to deal with some of my anger issues.”

“Oh, I’m scared.” Spike put on a face of mock horror and put a hand over his heart. “I’m shaking!”

“You better be. I could take you down.”

“Like to see you try.”

“You would?”

“More than anything...” A knowing grin came across his lips. “Well, almost anything...”

“You better be glad I can take your sexual suggestions and not get all upset. Or else you’d have one ticked off slayer on your hands.”

“Don’t tempt me, love.”

“I don’t plan too.” She smirked at him, just as he would have to her. She then began to smile. “I like this.” She said softly.

“Me too...” Spike turned a little on the bed so he was a bit closer to her. “I’m glad you’re back... It hurt so much to see you lying there... Didn’t know if I’d ever get to talk to you again.”

“I’m glad I’m back too... even if it’s only temporary. Getting to see Giles, and Dawn, and you... I had dreams where I saw everyone, you were even there too, but it wasn’t real, I knew that. Most of my dreams just kept telling me that I was missing everything, and I was.” She moved back over so she was sitting next to him on the side of the bed, looking down at the floor. “I could hear you when I was sleeping. What you said about trying to get me better. That gave me hope. I was just happy to hear your voice. I could even see you and Dawn sitting on this bed with me... Of course it was part of the dream, but I could see it.”

“I knew you heard me...” He spoke somewhat softly. “Declaring my undying love wouldn’t have been as effective if you hadn’t.”

“That’s true... I heard all of it. First I must say, you’re a total softy for someone who’s supposed to be all badass.” She nudged him with her shoulder then smiled. “Then I’d like to say, thank you.”

“No need to thank me.” Spike shook his head and lifted a hand to touch the side of her cheek gently. “I love you, and it’ll always be that way.”

Buffy had felt her eyes as they began to water. God she had missed him. Two years and now here he was. Two years without Spike and now she hoped she’d never have to go without him for even a day, an hour, a minute, a second!

She smiled at him as she leaned over and put her arms around him, his automatically wrapping around her. She felt at home again, safe, loved. Overall, just any good feeling you could think of. This was where she was meant to be.

Spike held her to him, not ever wanting to let her go again. She was in his arms and that’s all that mattered to him. The woman he loved was there and he was never going to let a thing happen to her ever again.

They stayed like that for a little bit. They didn’t want to let each other go but then again, they knew they couldn’t exactly stay like that forever, as appealing as that would be.

As they slowly pulled apart, but stayed close, Buffy’s eyes opened just as slowly. She had closed them during the hug and a tear had found it’s way down her cheek. Spike had simply looked at her comfortingly, lovingly, and wiped the tear away with his thumb.

They looked into each other’s eyes, as if searching for something. But they knew what they were looking for, looking at. Their souls. They could see them in each other perfectly. It was almost like the last time they had seen each other, only without the collapsing rock around them.

Before Spike had even noticed it, they had both leaned in a little closer, eyes closed once more. His lips lightly brushed against hers before deepening the kiss ever so slightly. Her arms had found their way up around his neck and a few of her fingers were interlaced through his hair, while his hands had found their place on her back, keeping them both locked together.

Moments passed as they were there together, and finally she had to pull back for air. She took a deep breath and the two of them sat there with their foreheads pressed together. Spike even seemed to be breathing somewhat deeply even though he didn’t really need to.

Buffy pulled her head back to look at him, looking straight into his eyes. She took another breath and everything seemed so clear to her.

“I love you...” Her voice was barely above a whisper but he heard each syllable clearly.

The last time she had told him that, he didn’t believe her, but after Dawn had told him that Buffy had meant it, and after seeing her as she said it right now, he knew she did.

“I love you too.” He replied simply and a look of relief and happiness washed over Buffy’s face and he couldn’t help but smile at her. She had been worried about his response, he could tell.

“Oh thank God...” She said with a sigh of relief and leaned her forehead up against his once again.

[Spuffy]

Title change to the story, as you may have noticed. I just went through and edited all of the posts so they had the new title. haha. i need a life!

[Spuffy]

I almost couldn't write this chapter... I was laughing at my own stupidity, but I wrote it, so enjoy! There is some nice Spuffy in it. hehehehe...

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Chapter 18


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Dawn had gone downstairs to talk to the other girls just as she said she would. She stayed down there a bit and explained everything that happened upstairs, and made sure to tell them that Spike didn’t kill Giles and she added a nice “I told you so” in at one point.

After that she left the slayers to their training and whatever else they wanted to do down there then headed back up to her room. She finally realized she was still pretty soaked from that storm earlier and got a different pair of clothes then went to the bathroom, changed and dried off. She had tried to dry her hair with the hair dryer but for some reason it wasn’t working so she had to towel her hair dry.

She took the towel with her into her bedroom and grabbed the laptop off the desk in there. She took it to the bed with her, where she laid down on her stomach and had it in front of her.

Giles had bought the laptop in case they needed to do some research that his books weren’t good for and he didn’t see what the point of a larger computer would be if they moved around looking for slayers all the time. They’d have to hook it up and unhook it a lot. Since Dawn had shown an interest in it when he got it, he practically gave it to her. He liked to remind her that it was, in fact, still his and he didn’t want it cluttered up with “teenage stuff” so she gave him that much.

She lifted the top up and pushed the button to turn it on. Once it was on she adjusted the angle of the screen a little so she could see it more clearly then waited for everything to load up. It loaded and she clicked the internet icon then went straight for the first demonic site she could think of.

“Okay, computer, let’s see what you have about the Triatekah...” She said aloud as she typed it into the search engine on the demon site. No one had really looked up anything on the computer yet. Giles had looked through all of his books, and insisted that if the information about the ritual and everything wasn’t there it wouldn’t be anywhere else. Dawn had argued otherwise but never really took it upon herself to do anything but think about researching it. Now that she thought about it, that kind of went against her “do anything to help her sister” policy. But she was doing it now, so that’s what mattered.

Dawn looked at the screen and saw that a few links had come up about the Triatekah. She let out a rather enthusiastic, yet quiet, “Yes!” then clicked on one of the links.

The page it went to wasn’t much help. It just had a few statements from people who encountered the demons. One even claimed to have “lived through the ritualistic experience and was now a better person for it.”

She shook her head then clicked back and tried the second link. The page there was a little better, more professional than the last. There was detailed information about the Triatekah, but nothing they didn’t already know.

The third site she went to seemed even better than the second one, and there were hints towards the rituals the group performed. It told that over history every attempt of theirs to end human life on Earth had failed either by them not having enough power or by someone stopping them and she wondered why they hadn’t given up by now. Apparently they were very persistent demons.

She read on about how there wasn’t too much special about the demons, until they had a powerful source of energy, that is. After they would receive the power it would be altered to give them powers such as energy strikes, which would be like shooting lightning out of your hand, energy balls, and other things like that. Over time and after trying their rituals for the apocalypse they would eventually become drained of these powers and that’s why they’d need to use a new sacrifice every so often. Occasionally members would get killed and their powers would pass down to the next members of the group who joined in their position.

“This is all just wonderful, but what do they do in the power ritual?” Dawn questioned, though she wasn’t really expecting the computer to answer her.

She scrolled down a little and saw a sketched drawing of the group but that didn’t help much. She went back to the original site and tried a few more links but got nothing. This site was normally the best demonic one to go to.

Dawn sighed then an idea came to mind. Maybe the ritual they did wasn’t just special to them. Maybe it was something basically any demon or magical person could do. It amazed her she hadn’t thought of that before.

So she went on to search for rituals and spells that had to do with taking power from a living source. She came across a few but none of them seemed to be the way Buffy described her experience as being, so she discarded them.

She sat there for hours going through sites, sites, and more sites and was about to give up and just call it a night when the word “pentagram” caught her eye. She pursued the topic a bit longer and found that finally she had found the right thing. She mentally gave herself a pat on the back and read more into the subject.

“Maybe if I like... can find someway to get the demons strapped down and into the big circle, without the risk of them escaping... We could do the ritual and give Buffy all her power back! I’d just have to figure out how to do that...” She scrolled down a little further and as she read something her eyes widened.

“Or maybe I won’t...”

She jumped up from bed and grabbed a pencil and a notebook and started writing what she saw on the screen down on it. It had taken her all night but now there was a plan.

Once she had everything down she got up, carrying the notebook with her, and exited her bedroom. She walked over to Giles’s room and saw the door was opened slightly so, didn’t knock, thinking he’d still be up. She opened the door farther and stuck her head in.

“Giles, I...” But she then noticed he was down and out, completely asleep there. “Okay then...” She hadn’t really realized it was as late as it was now. She knew it had taken awhile searching for stuff on there, but not that long.

“Buffy and Spike it is then.” Dawn nodded and shut Giles’s door before heading to Buffy’s room. She tried the door knob first, just to see if it was locked or not, and it wasn’t so she opened it a little. She looked inside but quickly shut the door behind her, and stepped away.

“Do they not know the meaning of “lock the door?” I really didn’t need to see that...” She shuddered slightly, then shrugged it off. At least they were having fun, well, what they may have considered to be fun. And, hey, they didn’t really know how long that temporarily awake thing would last so it was understandable that they’d take full advantage of the situation. That and the fact that they loved each other, of course.

She looked up at the wall and saw the clock there and her eyes widened in shock/surprise. “And they’re STILL at it?” She didn’t really know when they had started, but it was about 1a.m. now so they had to be busy for awhile.

“I’m so gonna get them back for not locking that door...” Dawn laughed a little then went back to her room. She turned off the laptop then put it back on the desk before lying back down on the bed. She had turned off the ceiling light but left a small bedside lamp on as she read over the stuff she had written down. She had taken it upon herself to memorize every word on that page. No one was available right now for her to tell about this so, she figured, why not just do it all herself. Prove she was able to defeat those Triatekah guys and let Buffy have her awake time and not have to worry about the demons. Dawn could get them and they could do the spell for Buffy and everyone would be happy.

“Yep. Sounds like a plan to me.” She nodded and went back to memorizing the page in front of her.


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Spike and Buffy had looked over at the door as they thought they heard it open, but by the time they had looked it was shut so they just shrugged it off. Spike was looking down at Buffy, panting. He was still surprised this had all happened. He was in heaven right now, that was for sure.

He finally rolled over and collapsed next to her on the bed. She was looking over at him, grinning from ear to ear.

“I know you’ve been out... for three months, but you’ve gotta give a guy... a chance to rest up...” He was still panting a bit which wasn’t exactly needed seeing as he was a vampire but it was all reflex.

Buffy giggled quite happily, still grinning. “Oh what, you can’t keep up? Did I wear poor Spikey out?” She said that last part in a bit of a baby voice, then laughed.

“No... I’m not wore out, could go all night if I wanted to!” He defended and looked around for a clock. He saw the time and looked over at her and smirked. “And I already did.”

“Yes you did. I’m very proud of you.” She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead then snuggled over to him. His arm wrapped around her as she laid her head down on his chest. “That was fun...” She said with another girlish giggle.

“More than fun, love.” Spike stated, gently rubbing her shoulder as they laid there. “It was bloody fantastic.”

“Bloody fantastic it is then.” She looked up at him and saw the look he gave as she said the word “bloody” and just rolled her eyes as she put her head back down. “Hey, I can say it too if I want.”

“Course you can.” Spike nodded. “Steal any of my words that you want, just don’t take the accent too or you’ve crossed the line. The accent is my thing. Makes the ladies go wild.”

“You better not be making any ladies go wild, except for me. Or I’ll have to go all slayer on them and you.”

“Jealous?” Spike arched an eyebrow and tilted his head to look down at her.

“Hell yes.”

He chuckled and put his head back into it’s original position. “No worries, Buffy. You’re the only one for me. Always will be.”

“Good.” Buffy said, sounding rather happy with the answer. “Cause the same goes for me about you.”

“Good to hear. Now what do you say to taking a nice... nap? Or just resting our eyes?”

“Thought you said you weren’t worn out?” She looked up at him, smirking.

“Oh, I’m not. Just a suggestion is all. Thought you might be a bit tired...”

“I’m on very awake overdrive.” She replied. “Nothing could make me tired about now.”

“I can tell...” He placed a kiss on the top of her forehead and she snuggled up to him a bit more.

“You can go to sleep though. I’ll just lie here. I like it here.” She reached down and grabbed the blanket, pulling it up a little more over them. She then returned her hand to it’s spot on his stomach.

“Glad you like it there because you’re not leaving my side again. You got that?”

“Sounds good to me.” Buffy smiled up at him, and he leaned down. They shared a kiss then a short moment of just smiling at each other, before he laid his head back and finally decided to rest.

They had never really been together like this before. The last time they had ever really been close like this it was before he had a soul. That was quite awhile ago. This time it was different though. It was more about love than lust, and the fact that she was lying there with him made him all that much more sure.

[Spuffy]

I just re-read that. ha.

[JamesMFan]

What's with the name change?

[Spuffy]

When I first thought of the title I was braindead, so I thought I'd make a title that made more sense with the story. haha Besides, the ending was going to be the Something Unexpected but I'm not sure if I'm going with that or not.

[Spuffy]

Chapter 19


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Dawn was reading her notebook and apparently had fallen asleep because the next thing she knew it was morning and Giles was up and knocking on the doors. How he managed to be up and doing his normal morning routine after being beaten up by Spike was beyond her. But he was Giles, one old British man she may never understand. Not that she had any others to compare him too, well, a few from the council but that was about it.

There was finally a loud knock at her own door and she sighed. She didn’t answer for a moment, seeing if he’d give up but then he said something about getting up now or he’d throw away all of the junk food she had bought the other night and she then hopped out of bed.

“Yeah, yeah... I’m coming!” She grabbed her notebook off the bed and read over it quickly before shoving it under her pillow. That would be important for later.

She walked over to her dresser and picked up her hair brush that was lying on top of it and quickly ran it through her hair until she figured it was presentable, then left her room and headed downstairs. She was surprised to see Giles doing his normal newspaper reading and tea drinking while seated at the table alone with the three slayers. She raised an eyebrow curiously and crossed her arms as she walked over to the table. He still had the bruises and busted lip but other than that he seemed perfectly normal.

“Giles, last time I saw you, you needed rest after being pummeled into the floor by Spike. Now you’re all...” She motioned inarticulately not really finding the correct word.

He sat his newspaper down on the table and the slayers continued with their breakfast, looking up every now and then at them as they listened to the conversation.

“Well, after my rest last night... I’m feeling a bit better. That and the painkillers seemed to help a lot.” There was a slight smile on his face as he mentioned the painkillers.

“Ah, I see. The wonders of modern medicine.” She walked around the table and snagged a piece of toast from Samantha. The girl protested a moment then realized she had four other pieces of toast and some eggs she had made herself and figured she’d do just fine with one less piece. Dawn had smiled at her and took a bite of the toast. She didn’t really feel like making anything right now so pre-made stuff was always good.

She found her seat at the table and continued to nibble at her toast as Giles picked his newspaper back up and began to read once more.


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Buffy had been awake the entire night, and still wasn’t even close to being tired now. That drug that Giles had given her to bring her out of the coma must have put an end to sleep altogether. Not that she was complaining. She had liked lying there with Spike, glancing up to watch him sleep every now and then. It was nice.

Now she just needed to wait for him to wake up. She looked around to see what time it was and knew from past experiences in Rome that this about the time Giles would be going around to wake everyone up. She hadn’t expected him to actually do it, though, considering what had happened the night before.

He didn’t knock on her door though, but she did hear him knocking on the others. So she got up, reluctantly of course, and got off the bed. She pouted slightly as she looked at Spike who was still lying there asleep. She didn’t know if was just because he was a vampire and used to sleeping during the day or because she had worn him out a lot last night.

With the thought of that a grin spread across her face.

She picked up the clothes off the floor and set them off to the side in a corner of the room, folding them first to be neat, then walked over to the dresser and looked in it in hopes that all of her clothes would be in it. Luckily they were.

She dug through until she found an outfit she thought would be good for the day. A nice pair of boot-cut, dark-blue jeans that were faded just the right way and a black v-neck top with short sleeves that were kinda lacy. Now all she needed were some shoes.

Buffy looked around the room, trying to figure out where they would have put her shoes for her. “Okay, if I were taking care of a person in a coma, where would I put their shoes?” She questioned herself. She looked down at herself and figured it would be kind of hard to look for shoes while keeping her newly found clothes in her hand so she walked back over the dresser, sat the clothes down.

“Dress first, ask questions later.” She told herself before dressing and resuming her search. She figured they wouldn’t be in the dresser because who puts shoes in a dresser? She walked over to the small closet in the room and looked inside. She noticed that most of her more dressy outfits were hanging up in there as opposed to her more every day and patrol ones that were in the dresser.

“Smart people.” She commented then looked down at the floor to see all of her shoes sitting there as if just waiting for her. “Very smart people.”

She just sat down on the floor and started to figure out what pair she wanted to wear today. Three months without shoes, so obviously this seemed like a big choice now. What shoes to wear for the first time in what felt like forever?

She lifted up a pair of normal black shoes she’d probably wear patrolling, then a pair of nice sneakers, comfortable and there was good maneuverability there. She then reached further into the closet and pulled out a boot that belonged to a pair of boots that had been affectionately called “hooker boots” by Dawn one time.

“I think you should go with those ones.” She heard a suggestion from behind her, then turned to see Spike sitting up on the bed. “Then put on something slinky and walk around in it for a bit.” He waggled his eyebrows and she simply rolled her eyes.

“Uh huh. You would suggest something like that, wouldn’t you?” She turned back to the closet and grabbed a different boot, a less “hooker-y” boot than the other.

“Can’t blame a man for tryin’, can ya?”

“Guess not.” She replied with a smile as she turned back around, holding up the other boot. “How’s this one look?”

“You really asking me that? See, now, Buffy, I love you and all that, but I never want to help you pick out clothes...” He teased. “Especially if it’s at a store and involves me carrying many bags and waiting hours as you try on things.”

“It’s not clothes, it’s shoes... and these boots it is then.” Buffy nodded to herself as she decided it and grabbed the boot’s mate. They looked good with her outfit anyway, so that was always a big plus. She put them on and did the little zipper on the side then stood up.

“And who told you I would take hours to shop and all that?” She asked while returning the shoes she had taken out of the closet to their respective spots then shutting the door.

“No one.” Spike shrugged. “Just women in general tend to take a long time to shop.”

“And you base this conclusion upon...?”

He paused and thought a moment before shrugging again. “The telly.”

“Oh yes, and you can believe everything you see on T.V.” She crossed her arms and tilted her head at him. “Stereotyping women just because it’s what those big shot television writers like to do, doesn’t mean you’re supposed to.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I just need a woman to help me mend my evil, stereotyping ways.” He suggested.

“You may just have something there.” Buffy concluded from his statement then made her way over to the bed, sitting down on the side of it. He scooted over to her a little and she smiled.

“But, for the record, Buffy? Lots of hours spent shopping.” She nodded.

“Knew it.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have. You should have considered that I’d be one of those people who walk in, just grab something they like, pay, and leave. But, nope. You went all stereotype-y on me. Typical male.”

Spike chuckled, grinning and leaned over as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. “What’re you gonna do about it?”

“Hmm...” She turned slightly in his arms and made like she was just about to kiss him before shoving him backwards and quickly getting to her feet. She grinned at him and laughed.

“Ha. Payback.”

“You’re an evil one, Summers.”

“Learned it all from you.”

“That you did.”

“Aren’t you proud?”

“Quite. Next thing we know you’ll be gettin’ called “Buffy the Bloody” for something or other.”

Buffy scrunched up her nose a little, Spike smiled slightly at that. It was a cute face. “Nah. “Buffy the Bloody” just doesn’t have that certain ring to it. I like Buffy the Vampire Slayer much better.”

“Suit yourself, but “the Bloody” would make you sound so much more bad.”

“Who said I wanted to be bad? I’m the good slayer. Now Faith, you can call her up and ask if she wants to take the name “Faith the Bloody.” See? It even sounds better when you call her that.”

“I wouldn’t want her takin’ over my name.”

“Right. Me neither. Too much like you being married to her and her getting the last name. After all, you are William the Bloody and if she were Faith the Bloody it would be like “Mr. and Mrs. The Bloody and if Faith was Mrs. The Bloody I’d be one ticked off slayer.”

Spike looked down at the bed and shook his head at her ramble. He looked up to her. “Only person I want to be “Mrs. The Bloody” is standing in this room.”

Buffy looked around as if checking for anyone else, she even opened the closet back up to make sure no one was hiding in there then she pointed to herself. “Me?”

“No, the invisible woman hiding over in the other corner.” He replied sarcastically. “Yes you.”

“How sweet, but I thought we established, “Buffy the Bloody” just doesn’t work.” She crossed her arms once more and smirked at him.

“Just can’t win with you can I?”

“Nope. I’ve had years of practice with banter, and I’m the queen. Get me into a match with Xander though, he’ll give me a run for my money. He spent too much time bantering with Cordy way back when.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. May just have to learn a trick or two from the ol’ lackbrain.”

“Still with the name calling? Sheesh. You’d think you’d two would be best buds by now with all that manly bonding through apocalypses and stuff.”

“Exactly what universe are you livin’ in, love?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“My happy little fantasy world where everyone gets along and bunnies and other fluffy little animals run around freely.”

“Sure Anya would have loved that.”

“Oh, she would. See these bunnies aren’t seen by everyone. Just me. Because I’m special and all that.”

“So it’s just a Buffy thing I presume?”

“Definitely.”

“You don’t really have a fantasy world like that, do you?”

She shrugged. “No but I just find it fun to patronize you.”

“Should’ve figured.”

“Yeah, you should’ve.” She nodded.

There was a beat of silence then Buffy walked over to the corner of the room where she had put their clothes from the night before and grabbed Spike’s. She tossed them to him.

“You might want to get dressed. We’re gonna have to leave this room sometime and I don’t know how they’ll all react to your very apparent lack of clothing.”

Spike grinned. “I’m sure none of the girlies would mind.”

Buffy narrowed her eyes at him a moment. “I’m sure they might not, but Giles would and there’s no way I’ll let you out of this room without those clothes on.”

“Bossy.”

“Stubborn.”

“Sass.”

“Bonehead.”

“Tart.”

“Dope.”

“Shirty.”

“You know I still don’t know what that means.” Buffy stopped their little name calling bit to point out that little piece of information.

“No you don’t, but I won.” He was grinning at her.

“Won what?”

“The conversation thing. You said you always win, but I got you to go off topic so, I won.”

“Not fair.”

“Is too.”

“Jerk.”

“Bint.”

“Pig.”

“Div.”

“Dimwit.”

“Saucy little slayer who thinks she can win a namecallin’ match with a vampire who’s been around for well over a hundred years.”

“Well, at least I’m not shirty.”

There was a pause before their laughter filled the room, then as it eventually died down Buffy pointed to the clothes still in his hand.

“Get to dressing, buster.”

“Buster?”

“Oh don’t question my efforts, just do it.”

He sighed and then soon began to dress himself. He slid over to the end of the bed, pulled his pants on, then stood as he fastened his belt. He turned around and grabbed his shirt off the bed and slipped it on.

“Happy?” He asked her, his eyebrow raised.

“Yep. But I was liking the shirtless look, kinda hot, but I don’t need everyone else drooling all over you.”

He was grinning once more that morning as he stalked over to her, almost predatorily. She was backing away just out of reflex alone, but kept her eyes on him. She had backed herself up against the door before she realized she couldn’t go any further.

“No where left to run, pet.” He smirked at her as he moved closer.

And I’d want to run because...? Her mind questioned but she didn’t actually say anything.

Next thing she knew he had his hands on either side of her on the door and was standing right there in front of her. Her head tilted slightly to the side.

“You’re just a tease.”

Spike gave it a moment of consideration before moving forwards just a bit more and meeting her lips with his. Buffy had managed a gasp of air before hand, which was good because she wouldn’t need to automatically pull back for air.

He had begun to inch her back towards the bed, and she had apparently walked a bit since the last time she looked because she didn’t feel the door at all now.

Somehow through all of this she even got turned around, now she felt the bed behind her legs as he backed her up to it, not relenting the kissing at all. Before she knew it she was now lying back on it and he had moved his kissing to the side of her neck.

Then she very, very, reluctantly spoke. “Spike... Just got dressed. We should go downstairs... with the others.”

Spike stopped, resting his head in the crease of her neck. “Do we have to?” He reminded her of a little kid at that moment.

“Yes... Sad as that is.”

“Fine...” He sighed and slowly stood up. He looked down at her as if deciding whether or not to take his chances and persuade her into his way of thinking and just staying in the room for a long, long time. Finally he stepped back some more and she sat then eventually got to her feet.

“That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”

“Hard? Beyond hard, it was. Tearing myself away from you? Bloody idiotic too...”

She laughed silently then stepped over to him and linked her arm around his. “But at least you still love me, right?”

“Course. Nothing’s gonna change that.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead gently before walking them forward and finally through the bedroom door. He had looked back at the door then to her with the look of a hopeful child on his face and she simply shook her head.

“Look who’s finally decided to show up.” Buffy’s sister had spoken once she and Spike had gotten down to the living room. They had apparently missed breakfast during their bantering and kissing session, but there were always leftovers, and it wasn’t like Spike needed the food, so more for her.

“We were...” Buffy looked over to Spike as she tried to figure out the right word. “Busy.” She finally decided upon.

Dawn gave her sister a knowing look, Buffy just replied looking confused, and then looked to Spike. “You two, um, have fun?”

Buffy’s cheeks blushed crimson. So that had been what her sister meant by that look.

“Could say that...” Spike nodded and wrapped an arm around Buffy’s waist.

“I’d say you did... Just remember, lock the door next time.”

The older Summers’ eyes widened and cheeks grew redder. She looked over at Spike who was just grinning his head off.

“Well, well, well. Seems the little bit snuck a peek.” He chuckled.

“I didn’t sneak a peek... I was going to see you two and the door happened to be unlock. Buffy said she’d lock it if you two would...um... have fun...”

“I... I... um... Sort of was...”

“She got preoccupied.” Spike still had that grin on his face as he looked over at her. It was like nothing bothered him.

“So who’s up for breakfast?” Buffy asked quickly changing the topic to something less awkward than her sister walking in on them.

“You missed breakfast, but I’m sure there’s still something out there. I even bought some non-healthy stuff that Giles actually let me keep here for me and the girls.”

“Non-healthy?” Buffy questioned. “I approve. Will be right back..” She then went off to the kitchen.

Spike watched her go then looked at Dawn. “Don’t you just love her when she’s embarrassed? Hilarious that one...”

“She’s something.” Dawn nodded in agreement and laughed. “You do know that’s majorly awkward though, don’t you?”

Spike shrugged. “I guess... I’ve lived too long for it to matter to me, but I see where she’s comin’ from. Still’s fun to get her riled up, though.”

She smiled. “Well, I’ll go tell Giles you two have finally made an appearance and you can go hang out with my very embarrassed sister in the kitchen.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Yep. See ya.” She smiled at him again before heading off one direction to the basement and him in the opposite to the kitchen.

He still couldn’t seem to get that grin off his face.

[Spuffy]

Chapter 20


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In the kitchen Buffy began to find herself something to eat. Considering it was about lunch time now she decided to get straight to the lunch-type foods. She looked through the cupboards and found a bag of chips, laid them down on the table then headed to the refrigerator. There she got herself out a bottle of water and then reached into the freezer and found a small, microwaveable pizza which she began to heat up just before Spike came in.

“Hey.” She smiled at him and stepped away from the microwave just after putting the pizza in. She crossed her arms as she moved closer. “You didn’t tell Dawn any more about last night, did you?”

A smirk played on his lips. “Now would I ever do such a thing?” His voice had a bit of sarcasm in it.

“Yes.” Buffy rolled her eyes. “I think you would.”

He grinned. “Well, I suppose so... but, no, I didn’t. Didn’t think you needed the extra embarrassment.”

“Good. There are just some things little sisters don’t need to know. Even if they aren’t so much little as young.”

“She’s not that young. Same age as you were when you and Angel...”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Alright, I won’t then.”

“Good.” She said simply then walked over to the kitchen table. She opened the bag of chips she sat out there and popped one into her mouth. Spike came over soon and leaned up against the table.

Buffy looked up and eyed him for a moment. He just seemed to be watching her. She shrugged and went back to eating her chips while she waited for the pizza to finish in the microwave. Every now and then she looked up at Spike and saw that he was still watching her. Once the microwave beeped signaling it was done, she stood, looking back at Spike as she did so, and got it out of the microwave.

As she sat back down with it, she sighed. “What?”

Spike just shook his head and chuckled. “Nothin’.”

“Nothing?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded. “Nothin’. Just watching you. Still a little surprised to see you again.”

Buffy slowly nodded and rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just remember, once this awakeness is all permanent-like, I’ll unleash angry, “Why didn’t you tell me you were alive?” Buffy.”

“Got it.” He mock-saluted her and smirked. “I’ll just have to run away before that happens.”

“You run away and you’ll be in more trouble.” She bit off a piece of pizza and after swallowing drank a little of her water.

“You must like havin’ me around, yeah?” He arched an eyebrow. He already knew the answer, though.

“I don’t think “Duh” is a strong enough word.” She stated.

He smiled slightly. “I like havin’ you around too.” He then grabbed a chair and pulled it over next to her. “I guess I should, after all, can’t actually get rid of you.” He smirked.

“Oh, and like I could get rid of you? Pfft. You’re like a leech.” She smirked right back at him.

“A big badass leech that you don’t seem to mind having in bed with you.” He began to grin yet again, this time a more suggestive, knowing grin.

“You’re an idiot.” Buffy replied, shaking her head and laughing silently before taking another bite of pizza.

“Only because I spend too much time with you, love.”

“Don’t even try it.” She looked up from her food.

“You know it’s true.”

“Is not!”

“Just keep tellin’ yourself that, pet. But you bloody well know it’s true.”

“How about you keep telling yourself that and I’ll keep eating?” She suggested.

“Fine...”

“Thank you.” She gave a proud nod then resumed eating.


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Dawn had done as she said she would and told Giles that Spike and Buffy had finally came downstairs. He had simply nodded to her and kindly suggested she stay with them awhile while he conducted the slayers’ training downstairs, or she could join in. She had refused the offer and told him she’d just hang out with Spike and Buffy as he originally suggested.

Once she had returned upstairs from the basement she walked into the kitchen, spotted Buffy and Spike there and waved cheerfully at them. “Hey.” She spoke as she walked a little further into the room.

“Hey there.” Buffy smiled at her sister and swallowed a drink of water.

Spike nodded to her, much the way Giles had, and she nodded back.

“Just thought I’d come in and see you two for a little bit.” She looked over to Buffy. “I have some pretty fun sisterly bonding stuff planned for us sometime. It involves shopping.”

Buffy perked up slightly and grinned. “Shopping sounds nice. Definitely a must-do for the sisterly bonding experience. I think I need some new clothes anyway.”

Spike rolled his eyes. He wasn’t about to cut in on a shopping conversation.

“Well, apparently they’re going to be having a sale at the mall soon. Everything’s like half-off.”

“It’s like a dream come true, but not a slayer dream because those are usually morbid or bad or something...” She shrugged. “You know what I mean... I’m looking forward to this. Just me and you. Shopping. Oh what havoc we could reap upon those unsuspecting stores.” She laughed.

“It’s really gonna be fun. You have three months to make up for, you know.”

“Of course.” Buffy nodded.”Definitely gonna have to make up for that.”

Dawn smiled at her. “Yep. So, sister day in the future. Good. Now for me to get back to Giles. He wanted me to train with them today. He must have taken some really good painkillers. I mean, he’s training them after Spike turned him into a punching bag.”

“He’s just good that way. Always has been. He’s Giles.” Buffy stated.

“He wasn’t really a punching bag...” Spike interrupted, then sighed once he saw the looks from the two of them. “Fine. He was, but I thought he deserved it. Shouldn’t have been keepin’ stuff from us.”

“We know why you did it, Spike. It’s alright.” Buffy told him. “And, see? Like Dawn said, he’s up and training. He’s obviously fine.”

“Yep. So, I’m off now to get my butt whooped by some slayers.” The younger Summers sister laughed a little. “See ya.”

Buffy had smiled at her and Spike simply nodded, again, and then they returned to their usual programming. Buffy finished off her pizza and Spike wandered the kitchen until he found some brandy that Giles had hidden in a cupboard. There wasn’t any blood so that would have to do, not that he was complaining.

“Want some?” He offered as he found himself a glass and began to pour him some.

Buffy grimaced and shook her head. “Buffy plus alcoholic beverage equals badness.” She explained.

“Suit yourself.” Spike shrugged and walked back over to the table, bottle and cup with him. Just for refills. He’d just pay Giles back for it later if he finished it off, as he figured he would.


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Once she had told Giles she’d be hanging out with Buffy and Spike, and had told those two that she was going to be training with Giles, she quickly went up to her room, pulling her notebook from where she had placed it under her pillow.

She reread it for about the thousandth time and then sat it down, closing her eyes and reciting it word for word in her mind.

It was all memorized. Now, just to put it to use.

She changed quickly from the pajamas she was still wearing and put her hair neatly into a ponytail before grabbing some shoes and putting them on. Next, she was out the window of her room, climbing down to the ground below.

“Time to visit some demons...” She told herself before taking a deep breath and beginning the journey to the old building that housed the Triatekah.

[JamesMFan]

Unfinished? Not okay, man.