By Heather Martin

Spoilers- Set during and after Smashed. I borrowed a few lines from Wrecked as well. Has spoilers up to that point. Goes AU after that

Summary- B/S T/W A/X Something goes funky with Spike and Buffy after their coupling in the abandoned house. Meanwhile, a demon and a mysterious girl come to Sunnydale from the future.

Chapter One- Paradox

Buffy leapt at Spike and they both flew back toward the staircase. He grabbed her, pinning her against the stairs. He let out a chuckle. Buffy hated the sound. She punched him, and he reciprocated the move. His fist hit her face hard. It should have burned, but it didn’t.

Spike lifted her up so that he could look in her face. His expression was full of amusement.

Smirking, the vampire said, “I wasn’t planning on hurting you . . . Much.”

“You haven’t even come close to hurting me!” she threw back.

Please, hurt me, Buffy silently begged. She was desperate to feel. Feel anything. Since returning to earth, all she’d been was numb. Pain, joy, sadness . . . they had all vanished. She was a void of nothing.

“Afraid to give me the chance?” Spike retorted.

Disgusted, Buffy broke his hold. She tossed him against the feeble wall. The impact of his body made an indent. The wall split, cracking. The slayer gripped Spike, slamming him against it.

“You afraid I’m gonna-?” Spike started to say.

The sentence was interrupted by Buffy smashing her mouth against his. He returned the kiss with passion. Buffy took her hand and slammed it into the crumbling wall, creating another whole.

The pair stumbled away from the wall, still in a lip-lock. The bleach-blonde slammed his slayer into another section of the wall. The cracks widened, spreading up above them.

Buffy shoved Spike away, toward another wall. She came at him again, resuming the kissing. His hands lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She reached down between them, groping for her target. She found it. Her fingers unbuttoned his jeans and then took hold of the zipper. She yanked him free.

Buffy rose, and then impaled herself. He filled her, joining their bodies together. And for the first time in what seemed like forever . . . Buffy could feel.

They both stared at each other in shock. Buffy was amazed. This dead thing had the ability to make her feel alive. How ironic.

She began to move up and down. Her rhythm was slow, savoring every plunge. She let out a tiny grunt of pleasure.

Their faces moved in to kiss. Spike turned them around, pushing Buffy back against the wall. She reached up and grabbed the wall to steady herself.

The chandelier fell from the ceiling. It crashed to the floor. The abandoned house disintegrated around the vampire and slayer as they united. The floorboards broke apart.

Spike and Buffy continued on, not caring about the atmosphere around them. Buffy mewed and gasped from the intensity of their mating. Spike nuzzled his head against her breast.

Buffy leaned forward, embracing Spike. They tumbled backwards, the floor giving away beneath them. They landed with a thud, a cloud of debris floating around them.

Buffy quickened her pace. Things became blurry and all she was aware of was the friction.

A cold hand brushed her cheek. Then it came up and ran through her hair.

“Oh God, Buffy, I love you so much,” Spike murmured.

She should have slapped him. She should have scrambled off him. This wasn’t supposed to be about affection. This was about harsh emotion. Yet, she was too far gone to care.

The waves hit her and she cried out. Vaguely, in the background, she could hear Spike shout out as well. When she calmed, however, he was still making noise. She gazed down at him, noting how his eyes rolled back in his head. The sound he made wasn’t from pleasure, but rather from agony.

“Spike?” Buffy asked, not in concern, but in confusion. What was going on?

The slayer lifted herself off him. She crawled away quickly. She watched in horror as he convulsed. Finally, the shakes slowed to tiny twitches, and then ceased altogether. Spike lay there, panting.

The bleached-blonde turned his head to meet her eyes. They stared at each other in alarm.

Spike rose up, getting to his knees. He gasped for air, filling his lungs fully with the substance. He took his hand and placed it over his heart. Then his blue eyes shot to Buffy again. The orbs were full of fright and puzzlement.

“What did you do to me?” Spike demanded.

Buffy got to her feet. She fixed her leather skirt, smoothing it down.

“What I did!?” she exclaimed.

Spike took another gulp of air. “I’m breathing, slayer,” he informed.

She gaped, a loss for words.

“Now I’m going to ask again, ‘What did you do to me?’ ”

Anger could be seen on her face. “Why do you automatically think I did this to you?”

He laughed manically. “I was all right before all this. Now my lungs are working and my heart seems to want to beat.” He said all this accusingly.

“Hello, this little thing we did was a mutual act. If screwing each other made you alive, then we’re both to blame,” Buffy defended.

“I can’t be alive,” Spike mumbled.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Because dead people breath and have a pulse,” she replied with sarcasm.

Spike stood up. He zipped up his pants and fastened his belt. He took a foot and kicked some of the rubble with fury.

“Arrrrr! Bloody hell!” Spike screamed. He shifted to Buffy. “I don’t want to be a weak human. Change me back!”

“Let me just wave my wand and reverse it,” Buffy spat.

“If what we did did this, then maybe . . . If we again . . . It could right . . .”

Buffy’s green eyes widened. “No! This is the end of this freak show. Never again will I touch you, Spike.”

Giving her an unconvinced look, Spike said, “Right.”

Buffy shook her head. She spun around, prepared to leave.

“And what, you’re just going to leave me here!?”

She stopped, looking back. “I left Dawn alone.” Then she continued walking away.

Spike rushed over. He locked his arms around her shoulders, keeping her in place. She could feel hot air hit the side of her face.

“You aren’t leaving. I won’t let you,” the former-vampire said.

She shoved him off her. She was surprised at how easy it was. Maybe he really was a full-blown human now.

She faced him. “You aren’t my problem.”

Spike’s expression changed. It showed pleading-ness.

“Please, Buffy,” Spike begged. “Help me.”

Buffy softened. “What do you want me to do?”

“Get the scoobies together. Find out what happened. I need to know if this is permanent or not.”

Silence fell over them. Finally, Buffy answered.

“Fine. We’ll do research. On one condition.”

“What’s that, luv?”

She looked him directly in the eyes. “You are not going to mention a word of what went on here. I swear to God if you do, I will kill you vamp or not.”

“What if what happened here is related to my humanness?”

“Don’t say a word to my friends! That is the deal, take it or leave it.”

Hesitantly he nodded.

“Okay, come on,” Buffy commanded. “We need to get moving. Unless you want to test your skin’s reaction to ultraviolet rays.”

Spike clenched his jaw, but followed the slayer willingly.

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What do you guys think? Please let me know. This plot is going to get really cool. At least, I think it is.