Thanks to Tam for her endless patience with my scratchings.
Chapter 4 ~ Killed By Death (some snippets of dialogue taken from epi)
“Fancy seeing you here, pet,” Spike drawled, leaning casually against the door frame of the doctor’s office.
The blond groaned as the redhead gave a started yelp and moved slightly behind the slayer. Willow knew about the truce, but it didn’t mean she still didn’t feel tense around the vampire, especially with her friend being less than one hundred percent.
In fact, the truce with the aforementioned vampire was just about all her friend had talked about the last few days. Buffy went on and on about the spell gone wrong, how he teased her mercilessly, and about how confused she was by his request for the ceasefire and how it would affect the coming battle. If Willow didn’t know better, she would think her friend was crushing on her mortal enemy turned accomplice.
“I don’t have time for this right now, Spike. You want to banter and do the ‘lets make Buffy blush’ thing, you might want to pick sometime when I’m not already red from fever, because you know you’ll just be disappointed when you can’t tell the difference.”
“How do you know I won’t be able to tell the difference? Your blushes are very distinctive, pet, and pretty to boot.” The vampire cocked his head to one side and smirked at the definite rise in temperature he could sense in his target.
As the contrary couple began to banter back and forth, Willow tuned them out and continued to search the paperwork containing the physician’s research. She could tell that they were both enjoying the exchange. Thinking back to the night Buffy first met the devilishly handsome vampire- emphasis on the devilish- she remembered how her friend had complained about how sad it was that someone so hot had to be undead. Looking back now and adding in the almost wistful comments of the previous days had the redhead hoping that her friend wasn’t falling for another vampire. She tuned back into their conversation in time to hear Buffy ask how he knew she was at the hospital.
“I went by the library. Giles and the beauty queen said you were here.” He grinned at her pouting expression at the mention of the other girl.
“Hey, guys. I think I have something!”
They both turned to look at the redhead when she gave an excited squeak. The slayer released a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Sherlock Rosenberg.”
“Okay, this makes sense. Dr. Backer was trying to inoculate the kids with a controlled dosage of the same virus they already had.” At the confused looks on the faces both blonds she added, “Oh, raising their temperatures to burn the fever out of them.”
“Would that work?” Buffy looked back and forth between her two companions.
Pointing at the paper in front of her, Willow answered, “According to this it was starting to. So he really was trying to help the kids.”
“Until that thing stopped him.” Before the vampire could ask her what was going on, she was on the phone, calling the watcher and arguing with the prom queen. From the sound of the conversation, it wasn’t good. He grew even more concerned when Buffy appeared to daze off in the middle of the exchange, seeming to pale right before his eyes.
When the slayer hung up the phone, she turned back to him once again before getting a determined look on her face and clambering out of bed. She stormed out of the room, only to be brought up short in the hallway when Spike caught her arm.
“You’re going to have to fill me in, Slayer. Seems like I’m missing some back story here. What thing stopped who?” The vampire was confused and irritated. Not only had the slayer ended up in the hospital while they should have been plotting Angelus’ demise, but it seemed she had landed herself right smack in the middle of another dangerous situation. What was it with these people? Couldn’t they keep their asses out of trouble for one soddin’ day?
“There’s something here- something killing sick children- and it got the doctor that had apparently found a cure to get him out of the way. I have to do something.”
“What you have to do is get back in bed and get well. We have an evil vampire to take down, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember,” she snarled. “As a matter of fact, he stopped by for a surprise visit earlier. He even brought flowers. Sweet, huh?” Once again Buffy tried to step around the vampire only to have him tighten his grip. “Let me go, Spike,” she ground out through gritted teeth.
“What, so you can go get yourself killed? Are you just trying to get out of fighting Angelus? Think if something else takes you out, then you don’t have to face the poof in a fight to the death?”
In spite of her weakness, her fist flew toward his nose, only to be caught in his hand and held loosely. “Bastard, you know that’s not it. I can’t sit back and watch these kids die while I can do something about it. I think this thing might have killed my cousin,” she finished in a whisper.
Spike held her hand firmly as she renewed her struggles for freedom. He looked over her shoulder at her young friend and pushed the wriggling slayer into her arms. “Take her back to her room and don’t leave her.”
“What? Spike I told you--” Her frustration was growing to the point that tears threatened to fall. Couldn’t he see how important this was to her?
“And I told you, now do as I bloody say. I’ll hunt your beastie.” He still held her hand in his even though she had stopped fighting him.
Confusion clouded her fever-bright eyes as she searched his face for answers. “Why? Why would you do that?”
“I told you; I need you in this fight.” The way he ducked his head seemed almost bashful.
“And the real reason?” she asked softly.
“Would you believe me if I said I like you and don’t want to see you killed?” She would have sworn that if vampires could blush he would have, but then his gaze turned cocky once again and the moment was lost. “Although seeing you all weak and kitten-y is kinda turning me on. Especially with your ass hangin’ out the back of that gown.”
Buffy squeaked and slapped her hands over her rear end. Finding it properly covered by her robe, she snorted disbelievingly. “You’re insane. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“It might’ve come up once or twice.” He grinned brightly, reaching up to push back her rumpled bangs. If his hand lingered for a shade too long on her flushed skin, neither cared to mention it.
She was touched that he wanted to kill this demon, maybe not for the children, but for her. At the thought of the kids still in danger, she turned serious once more. “He’s invisible, you can’t see him.”
“Maybe a human can’t see him, but demons can usually see other demons, and if not, I should still be able to sense him,” he assured her.
She nodded weakly, suddenly exhausted from her efforts. “If you’re sure. This isn’t part of our deal. You don’t have to do this, you know.”
Spike turned and swept out of the room, duster flapping behind him. “Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Slayer,” he threw back over his shoulder. “Get back in bed and drink some fluids or something. You’re looking a bit peaked.”
Buffy glared at his retreating figure before turning to her friend. “See what I mean? He always has to have the last word.”
*****
Spike tracked the foul odor to the children’s ward, his senses telling him that he was on the right trail. Finding all of the bed’s empty was a bit disturbing, especially since he could still feel the presence of their fear and desperation swirling around him. Sniffing the air, he couldn’t find any traces of blood and considered it a good sign.
He caught a glimpse of something moving past the window of the emergency door which led to the basement. He rushed to the door, only to find it locked. Slamming him shoulder into the metal, he hurried forward when he felt it give beneath his powerful shove.
Moving down the stairs, he could smell the stench even stronger in the stale air. He paused at the basement door, hearing several heartbeats thumping away frantically. The strong odor of the demon he was following was the strongest here.
He was close.
He tensed when he heard clumsy footfalls behind him, growling low when one of the slayers pals came barreling down the stairwell behind him. “What are you doing here, whelp?”
“Buffy wanted me to make sure none of the kids became a late night snack.” Xander tried to look calmer and more assured than he really was.
Spike lifted an eyebrow at the younger boy, staring at him intently but not saying a word.
Xander caved. “Okay, okay! ‘I’ wanted to make sure the kids didn’t become a late night snack. Buffy said I was worrying for nothing, but I don’t care if you did make a truce. Once a bloodsucker, always a bloodsucker, I say.”
“Actually, whelp, that’s exactly the way it works. Haven’t made a cure yet that I know of,” the vampire snickered as he turned back to the door and opened it cautiously.
Suddenly a young boy’s scream echoed through the cavernous basement and the blond vampire shot out the doorway in a flash, leaving Xander to try desperately to keep up. He rounded the corner just in time to see Spike in the process of throwing something off a young boy. If the situation weren’t so serious, he would have laughed at the sight of the blond vampire looking as if he was fighting an imaginary opponent.
While the two demons battled just a few feet away, Xander crept in and slipped his arms around Billy, dragging him to relative safely with the other children who were huddled together watching the fight. He was startled he heard Billy ask, “What is he?”
Xander looked up to see that Spike had slipped into game face. He didn’t want to freak out the children any more than they already were, so he bit his tongue before replying, “Don’t worry, he’s a good vampire.”
Across the room, the blond stopped fighting to turn and glare at the teenager. “Oi! You take that back,” he shouted before a sharp punch to the face brought him around to engage his opponent once again.
Xander rolled his eyes, “Okay, maybe ‘good’ was too strong a word. He’s kind of like…Blade? Yeah, Blade! You know, except paler and bleached, but they both have cool coats.”
He finally got tired of hiding with the children and crept out of the sunken hold, grabbing an abandoned tire iron on the way. He was just getting ready to swing, hoping he might be able to get the bleached vampire in the process and make it look like an accident, when Spike grabbed the demons head, tearing it clean off and splattering Xander’s face and clothing with blood and demon guts.
“Okay, I can not say ‘Eww’ too many times to cover this. You just had to rip his head off, didn’t you?” His face contorted with disgust and he tried to wipe the slime from his face, only managing to make it worse.
“Well, yeah. I did.” The vampire smirked as he walked back toward the smiling children. “Come on kiddies, time to get you back to your beds.” He lifted the smallest in his arms and took the hand of one of the others and began to lead them back to the stairs. He rolled his eyes when he saw that the whelp was watching him like a hawk.
A gut covered hawk, he thought and his grin broadened.
*****
Back in Buffy’s room, Spike leaned back in the chair as he finished his tale of the children’s rescue. Willow and Xander were long gone, the red headed witch figuring the stench coming from Xander would be enough to keep most beasties away on the walk home.
“Sounds like you had fun.” The slayer smiled at the animated delight on the vampires face.
“Bloody fantastic, it was. Haven’t had a good rough and tumble for a while now. Have to keep a low profile so I don’t alert Angelus that I’m walking again.”
“Well, I’m glad our little crisis fit neatly into your need for violence.” Her amused expression lessened the harshness of her words.
A knock on the door had both blonds turning in wary anticipation. The excitement of the evening had both blonds still buzzing with expectancy. They relaxed when a nurse poked her head in. “Hey, Buffy, one of the kids from the children’s ward sent something up for you.” She handed the folded paper to the bed-bound slayer and hustled back out the door, blushing shyly as the sexy blond seated next to the bed made eye contact with her.
Buffy opened the paper before folding it once again and holding it out to her companion. “I think this is for you,” she grinned.
Confused, the vampire took the paper and smiled when he looked at the contents. Inside Billy had signed the bottom of a picture showing Spike holding the head of Der Kindestod- which they had found out later was it’s name- with one foot one it’s chest as he grinned triumphantly.
“He’s a bleeding artist, that one is. I’ll have to go home and hang it on the fridge,” the vampire teased, but Buffy could tell he was delighted by the gift.
She was disappointed when he finally stood, indicating that it was time he left. “Angelus will be getting back soon, need to get back into the wheelchair before he does. Don’t want to give the game away now do we?” he said as he made his way to the door.
“No, we don’t want that,” Buffy sighed, wishing she hadn’t told her mother that she wanted to stay another night.
“Don’t worry, kitten. You’ll be out of here tomorrow. We can get back to planning, and just think; you’ll get to ogle more of my manly bits.” He chuckled as he walked out the door. Glancing back he saw the slayer’s bright red face before she grabbed her pillow, slamming it over her face and giving a muffled scream.
Yup, he was still evil.
TBC... |
