Giles was just staring at her. Buffy continued bravely on with her explanation until she just felt so uncomfortable she trailed off.
Giles continued to stare unblinking. The silence was horribly uncomfortable. Willow shifted nervously next to her.
A few more minutes went by and the bell sounded.
The hallway filled with students that kept narrowly avoiding hitting the Watcher and shooting him annoyed glances.
When the hallway was quiet again, Giles started cleaning his glasses.
But let out a relived breath, for a moment she had worried she'd given him a stroke.
“You mean to tell me-“ He broke off and snapped his mouth shut. Those glasses must be really filthy, Buffy thought.
“I just can't believe-“ His mouth snapped shut again. Buffy was actually starting to get tired of this. Her initial guilt had faded already and she really just wanted to move on.
“You've allowed one of the most dangerous adversaries you've ever faced to wander the streets and you haven't even given me the common courtesy of letting me know about it?”
O.K, now she wished he were still doing the fish thing. “Well, it's not like he's out there with the killing and the maiming. He's changed-“
“And that's what I really don't believe! I don't believe you'd fall for such an obvious ploy, especially after Angelus.”
Oh, that was hitting a little to close to home. “I DO believe him! There hasn't been an increase in vamp activity since he showed up in September-“
“SEPTEMBER? He's been here for three months and you haven't even mentioned it?”
Buffy bit her lip, “Well, I've been busy with school and patrolling…” And thinking of ways I'd like to molest the vampire in question. That last bit she decided to keep to herself.
At this point Willow chimed in, “I believe him too, Giles. He's been with Tara and me almost every night and he's with Xander at the beach during the day. He wouldn't ever have any time to go out and eat people.”
“Explain please, how exactly Spike is at the beach with Xander.”
“Oh, they surf and- Oh, you meant how, how. Well, Tara said it was a spell they had done at the Gaia Festival. We're going to go this year, it's this big-“
“I KNOW what the Gaia Festival is, thank you Willow. What kind of spell is this? Have you done any research at all?”
Buffy scuffed her foot and conveniently forgetting about her own disbelief just a short time ago, wondered what the big deal was. So Spike can go out into the sun. That just meant more fun time with the potential boyfriend.
“Um, no. But Tara-“
“And who is this Tara person?” Giles finally put his glasses back on looking fully into research mode.
Willow blinked at him for a few seconds.
Buffy groaned. This was going to be like going back to Genesis to find out what happened last week.
* * *
Spike strolled onto the sand, his mind clear for the first time in days. He'd avoided Buffy successfully and was filling in all his free time with new projects. He was confident that, within time, whenever he thought of his situation he wouldn't feel a core-scorching agony of hopelessness and self-loathing.
Xander was beside him, making conversation and rude jokes and he was about to be where he loved most, the water. Things didn't feel so bad right now. And after the last few days he would take what he could get.
He approached his surfing group where they sat and waved an almost cheerful hello.
And he was promptly greeted with pale, morose faces.
Josh stood up and wiped the sand off his board shorts, “Hey man, you didn't hear?”
Spike got a very bad feeling all of a sudden, like the rug was just swept out from under him. He focused on Josh's dreadlocks and tried to keep his expression steady, “No, I haven't heard a thing. What's going on?”
Josh's dark face pulled tight in a mask of sympathy, “I'd hate to be the one to tell you this. I know you guys were pretty close. They found Julia this morning. That ex-boyfriend of hers- he killed her. He raped her and stabbed her a bunch of times and none of the neighbors heard anything, they caught the guy. I think he's in custody now, any way.”
To Spike, the roar in his head was much louder than the crash of the surf. Prickles of cold ran up and down his arms and legs and along his face.
Xander stepped forward, “Are you O.K, man? You really don't look good.”
Spike could only think a single thing. And he thought it over and over.
This is all my fault.
* * *
Xander managed to half drag a very unresponsive Spike to the Desoto and got into the driver's seat himself. He'd driven it a few times before but right now he was hoping he could manage to get them to the university without wrapping them around a telephone pole.
His hands were shaking as they started the ignition.
God, I knew her, he thought. She would come out with them all the time and he'd developed a bit of a crush on her that Anya was never going to hear about.
She and Spike had went out a few times. They were pretty close.
He glanced over at the vampire in the passenger seat. He really didn't look good.
Xander pressed down a bit more on the gas.
Tara and Willow would know what to do. They always knew what to do.
* * *
Buffy was sitting with Giles on a park bench on campus. Giles had gone to his car and gotten some books he 'just happened to have on hand'. Buffy worried about him sometimes.
Willow and Tara were in class and she had a free period. And everyone knew it so she couldn't get out of research time. Yay.
She saw the Desoto pull up and her heart jumped. When she saw a panicky looking Xander get out of it, though, her heart dropped back down again.
Something was wrong.
When Xander spotted them, he pulled along a catatonic-looking Spike, out of the car and over to the bench.
“Can you watch him while I go get Tara and Willow?” Xander looked shaky and pale, but that was nothing compared to Spike.
“Yeah, what happened?” Buffy go up and took Spike's hand. He didn't even seem to notice.
“Um, that girl Julia, did you ever meet her?” Xander wiped his palms on his pants.
“Sort of.” Buffy flushed, remembering how she knew Julia.
“Um, she died. Er, was killed by her ex-boyfriend. Spike knew her really well. I don't really know what's wrong. I need to find Tara and Willow. Where are they?”
Buffy felt like she'd been kicked in the chest. Mike, she thought, feeling a bit sick. She shook her head to clear it, “They're in Botany, its in the science building just there, on the third floor.”
Xander ran.
* * *
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