Chapter 6
The last several days had been spent trying urgently to get Buffy to respond to them, trying to convince her that she was indeed at her house, and that this was not all an elaborate dream. Unfortunately, none of them had been successful. When she was awake, she spent most of the time cowering in her room, babbling incoherently and fighting fiercely if they came anywhere near her. When she slept, she thrashed and screamed. She only had a few moments of semi-lucidity, when she thought she was pleasantly dreaming of them all.
It was in these moments that they managed to get her to eat. They had also taken advantage of those moments to get Buffy to drink an anti-toxin to two of the demons that had tortured her. A third anti-toxin had been made into a skin gel by Willow, and Buffy’s dangerously high fever was finally subsiding. They had hoped that as the toxins were counteracted perhaps she would become more coherent, but that hadn’t occurred yet. Even in her lucid moments they were unable to get Buffy to dress or bathe. She’d deemed it unnecessary, telling them she wanted to spend every moment of the dream enjoying being with them.
Every afternoon they continued to have a Scooby meeting to review the day, the potential’s training, and brainstorm about The First. But mostly, they tried to find some way of reaching Buffy. They had finally even resorted to calling Angel in an effort to find someone or some place that could help her.
“So, what did Angel’s gang have to say?” Xander asked, looking hopefully at Willow.
“According to Wesley, they are kind of facing their own apocalypse,” Willow answered, looking around at the gathered group. “He said that he knew of a couple of people that might be able to help Buffy, but with everything going on down there, anyone who can leave LA, has.”
“So, we’re back to where we started?” Dawn asked hesitantly.
“It would seem so,” Giles answered, absently playing with his glasses.
“So, now what do we do?” Xander piped up again. “I mean, we can’t just leave her like she is. Can we?”
“What is it going to take to get you people to see?” Spike growled. “Buffy is lost. She isn’t coming back from this!”
“So what do you propose, Spike?” Giles bit out. “I suppose you think we should cut our losses and fight The First without her? Just forget her altogether?”
“No,” Spike quietly answered, worrying the bridge of his nose, his face the picture of frustration. “I don’t think we should forget her and I *know* we won’t win this big Armageddon thing without her. But she won’t be any use to us in a fight. We can’t even hardly get her out of her room for Christ sake.”
“Unless she’s wondering around looking for Spike so she can curl up with him,” Xander bitterly mumbled.
“Xander!” Anya chastised.
“Well, it’s true!” Xander retorted.
“Xander, much as it pains me to say, Spike seems to be Buffy’s greatest source of comfort at the moment,” Giles said.
“And, it’s the only time that she seems to sleep quietly,” Dawn pointed out.
“Well, he did take care of his insane vampire girlfriend for over a hundred years. So I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. Right, Spike?” Anya asked.
Spike just seemed to ignore them as he watched his fingers draw patterns on the table. If he were truthful, he would have to admit that it pained him just as much as the others that Buffy sought him out. Holding her again, knowing that she would probably never come back to them, was probably the hardest thing he had ever done. Even taking care of Drusilla hadn’t been so rough. Granted, she had her moments, he had even had to tranquilize her a few times. But, most of the time she would at least allow others to take care of her, or to help her care for herself. And he hadn’t really known what she was like before Angelus got to her.
Most of the time, Buffy wouldn’t even allow any of them to get anywhere near her. She’d tear into them each time they tried. She’d told all the potentials that she would save them… by killing them. She would shout at Xander about dogs and to get his bone somewhere else. Dawn apparently still had her key glow about her, as Buffy always rambled about it until Dawn would leave in tears. She was down right cruel to Willow about craving power and the dragging her out of heaven debacle. She told Anya that she was a ruthless killer, which Anya really didn’t seem to mind too much, and she seemed completely convinced that Giles was The First. Worst of all, to Spike, she wouldn’t throw any barbs at him. She would just give him the most betrayed and hurt look he had ever seen and break down into fits of hysterical crying until eventually Willow would have to magically sedate her again.
“Spike? Hello? Earth to Spike, come in Spike?” Willow called, finally breaking him out of his thoughts.
“Hmm? Oh, right, been there done that. Bought the bloody t-shirt,” Spike bitterly replied. “Look, as fun as it is to be reminded that we can’t do a damn thing for her, I think I’ll go get the mini-slayers and actually do something so at least we all go down swinging,” Spike said as he stood up.
“Spike, if you know we’re going to lose, why are you driving the girl’s so hard?” Willow asked curiously.
“Because it’s what she would have wanted,” Spike stated quietly, before he left the room.
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