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Chapter 6
“We danced in graveyards with vampires till dawn
We laughed in the faces of kings, never afraid to burn”
-Tori Amos
“Are you sure about this?” Spike asked, looking up at Buffy from his position on the table.
She reached out and clasped his hand tightly. “I’m sure,” she replied as another seizure came over Spike. His body shook so hard that the table began to vibrate, and he arched his back off the metal. Buffy tried to pry his hand off hers so that she could hold him down, but his grip was locked, his nails digging into her skin. His screams bounced off the walls of the room sending waves of agony into Buffy’s heart.
Spike finally collapsed back against the table, his eyes rolled back, a line of drool hanging out of his mouth.
“Spike?” Buffy asked, softly as she wiped his face clean with a towel. “Are you with me?”
“’tsch gonna take morsh then that…to get ride of the…big…bad,” he mumbled, his eyes still closed. “Getting worse…can’t…focus.”
“Sssh, it’ll be okay. The doctor is on his way.”
“You…sure, luv? Can’t…fathom Captain Cardboard wanting to…to help…m-me.” Spike turned his head to where her voice was coming from.
Buffy stroked the top of his head. “I talked to Riley, and he…he doesn’t like it-you and me, I mean-but he accepts it. He said ‘if it makes you happy being with the moron, then who am I to interfere.’ So, see it will all be okay.”
“Believe that when IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”
Buffy grabbed Spike’s shoulders and held the top part of his body down. She heard his boots squeaking against the metal as his legs flailed against the table. She bit her lip. The seizures were getting longer. Where was that doctor?
“B-Buffy? Buffy!”
“I’m here. Sshhh, I’m here,” Buffy choked back the tears that were struggling to run down her face.
“T-tell me-tell me a-about o-our w-wedding plans ‘cause we’re getting m-married, right?”
“Yeah Spike, we’re getting married a month from now, remember?” The tears were making their way down her face.
“A r-real wedding, right? With you in a w-white dress and me in a tux…” his eyes were unfocused as they sought hers.
“That’s right, and Giles is gonna give me away. Oh, and Dawn is going to be my maid of honor and Clem is gonna be your best man. Xander is going to build us a wooden archway thing and then Tara and Willow are going to cover everything in roses…it’s going to be beautiful,” she whispered.
“We have to l-leave for S-sunnydale soon.”
“Yep, we’re going back to Sunnydale as soon as you recover. We’ll get married and then we’ll head off back to Europe where we’ll return to our lives of sitting in cafes drinking cocoa and stopping mini-apocalypses.”
“Ms. Summers?” The door opened and a doctor entered, reading a file as he walked in.
“Yes, that’s me,” Buffy answered.
“I’m Doctor Furter, I was sent here by Officer Finn. I understand you are having difficulties with a government regulated modification chip?” The doctor looked over at Spike.
“Yes, the chip-it keeps firing electricity into his brain.”
“Are you sure that it’s a random firing and that the subject is not thinking of harming people? You perhaps?”
“What? NO!” Buffy walked up to Doctor Furter. “Listen here,” she paused to look at the first name on his badge. “Frank. Spike would never, ever hurt me or anyone else. So don’t you suggest that again.”
“And you’re sure you wouldn’t like a replacement chip instead?” he asked, trying not to flinch as Buffy poked him in the chest.
“I.Want.That.Chip.Out.Of.My.Fiance. Do you understand me?” she asked.
“Yes ma’am. Officer Finn requested that I ask those questions before performing the surgery.”
“I’m sure he did,” Buffy answered dryly.
“We’ll begin prepping the su-er,patient for surgery,” the doctor nodded to several other medical personal that were waiting behind the door. “You can wait in the lobby, Miss. We’ll let you know when the surgery is done.”
“No, I’ll wait right here,” Buffy said crossing her arms over her chest.
“But, Miss, you can’t be in an operating-“the doctor started.
“I said, I’ll.Wait.Right.Here.”
“Best…let her do it, doc. Right stubborn bint when she…wants to be. ‘Ts why…I love her,” Spike mumbled.
“Fine, fine, you can stay, but stay out of the way while we work,” Dr. Furter conceded.
XXX
“OW! What the-“
“Xander, your elbow is in my side.”
“Where are we? Why aren’t we in the house?” Xander asked, helping Anya to a standing position. The two of them were in the middle of Spike and Buffy’s yard.
“I don’t know. Right when I went to put us in the living room, something forced us out,” Anya answered. “Look the front door is open, let’s just go in.”
The two walked up to the front door, and Anya started to walk in.
“Ow!” She cried as she bounced off an invisible barrier and back into Xander. She put her hand against the barrier, testing it. “Oh, this isn’t good.”
“What? What isn’t good?” Xander asked.
“There’s a barrier here. We can’t get in.”
“And that means, what?”
“It means that we may already be too late. We’re going to need a witch…a powerful witch. Come on, we need to go see the coven,” Anya said, grabbing Xander’s hand again.
XXX
“Do the bumpies, Daddy!” Madison giggled from her position on Spike’s lap.
Spike complied, shifting into vampire face and making grr noises at his daughter as she clapped and squealed her delight.
“Spike, you are not winding her up before bedtime, are you?” Buffy asked, poking her head into the living room.
“’Course not, luv. Just gonna tell her a bed time story,” Spike answered as he winked at Madison.
“Act it out, Daddy. Act it out!” she demanded.
“Right, you got it. One bedtime story acted out for Princess Madison,” Spike announced as he stood up and sat his daughter down on the couch. He cleared his throat dramatically. “This is the story of how I saved your mum from imminent danger and all that rot.”
Madison giggled. “Daddy, all your stories are how you saved mommy from immme-imme-danger.”
“That’s ‘cause your mum has a tendency to get herself in trouble,” Spike leaned forward to whisper conspiratorially.
“I heard that,” Buffy said, coming into the living room to sit on the couch with her daughter.
“Hey, my story here. You want to be the hero, then you tell the story,” Spike answered.
“What? And steal all your glory? Wouldn’t dream of it,” Buffy said dryly.
“Okay, this is the story of how I saved your mum and your Auntie Dawn from the evil clutches of the shoe demons…oh, and Poof and Aunt Cordy were there too,” Spike said dramatically as Buffy rolled her eyes. “See this one day mum gets a call that says she must rush to Los Angeles immediately,” he paused to imitate a phone conversation featuring a high pitched Buffy and Cordelia. “See there was a great battle happening. A store with normally high priced shoes that no one could afford was having a one day sale, but there was an evil spell on the store and all the ladies who tried on the shoes turned into monsters that were fighting and reeking havoc on the peaceful shoppers. Well, mum and Auntie Dawn jumped into the car and raced to the scene.” Spike did an imitation of a car swerving all over the road.
Buffy rolled her eyes at him again, and Spike gave her a smirk.
“Anyway, so mum and Auntie Dawn pick up Aunt Cordy and rush over to the store. At first, they were holding their own, doing battle against the evil monsters, but then some demon tried to take a pair of expensive shoes from Auntie Dawn and Aunt Cordy went crazy. She and mum started losing the fight.”
“Hey, those were Jimmy Choos at eighty percent off,” Buffy protested.
Spike ignored her. “Luckily, Poof and I knew that the ladies would be in trouble.” He made a trumpet noise and grabbed a sword from behind him as he imitated himself riding into battle. “Soon as we could, we ran into the store and fought the demons off of our girls.” He did an imitation of a battle. “It was tough, losses on both sides, but in the end we were able to save the day. Then I swept your mum off her feet,” he grabbed Buffy off the couch in a newlywed pose and spun her around. “And stole a kiss as we rode off into the night. The end.”
Buffy laughed and kissed her knight on the lips. “My hero,” she said. “Now, it’s bed time for bonzos.”
“Aw, mom. One more story, please,” Madison pleaded.
“No, bed now.”
Madison stomped up the stairs, grumbling half-heartedly leaving her parents alone in the living room.
“We did save the day, you know,” Spike answered.
“Yeah, who could forget you flashing fang at the fifty- five year old trying to snag those black Gucci pumps from me,” Buffy laughed.
“Hey, you wanted those shoes, and nobody messes with my girl,” Spike said as he pressed a kiss to her lips.
“Mmm, come on, put me down. I need to go tuck Madison in.”
“You do that…then I’m gonna come and tuck mummy in,” he arched his eyebrow and curled his tongue behind his teeth.
“Oooh, can’t wait,” Buffy murmured pulling his lips back to hers.
XXX
Angel didn’t remember passing out, but when he opened his eyes he was no longer in the bedroom. Dru had moved both him and Buffy into the living room and cleared all the furniture out of the way. There was a large white circle that took up most of the room, and in the center of the circle was a pile of ashes. Buffy sat across from him, her eyes still glazed as she stared at the ashes.
“Buffy?” His tongue felt like sand. “What’s going on?”
“We have to sacrifice something. Drusilla said so. I told her that I would sacrifice anything to have him back-anything…but you have to sacrifice something too…” Buffy’s eyes locked with his. “Will you? Please? I’ve never asked you for anything, please help me get him back.” Tears spilled down her cheeks as she made her plea.
Angel opened his mouth and closed it again. His brain felt fuzzy. He blinked a couple of times before nodding. “Sure, Buffy, anything you need,” it was his voice but not him answering. Something was very wrong here.
XXX
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