“Dawn, get off the phone!” Buffy yelled, “I want to call Xander!”
“Hang on a second, Conner. Buffy, shut up. I’m trying to talk to Conner,” Dawn said.
Buffy ground her teeth together. “You’ve bee on the phone for four hours.”
“I’ll be off soon…relatively.” Buffy sighed in exasperation. She grabbed Spike and a sword and walked out the door.
“I need to kill something,” she said.
“Okay, love,” Spike said, “Anything you want, as long as it’s not me you want to kill.”
~*~
“Maybe we should just make her invisible and throw her in the river,” Jonathan said nervously glancing at Katrina’s dead body.
“That would be good…oh wait…someone broke the invisibility ray,” Warren snapped, “I have a much better plan…one that will put the Slayer out of commission in the process.”
~*~
As they were walking through the cemetery, Buffy suddenly fell to the ground. She was horribly dizzy and odd scenes kept playing over and over in her head. When she saw the demons coming, she got up and tried to punch them. Her fist connected with flesh instead. She watched in horror as a young girl rolled down the hill. She ran after her praying that she wasn’t dead.
“Slayer, wait!” Spike yelled. He snapped the necks of two of the demons and ran after his girlfriend. He found her kneeling by the body of a dead girl.
“I did that,” she whispered, “I guess Faith was right. We’re really alike after all.” Spike knelt down next to her and pulled her into his arms.
“From what I’ve heard about Faith, you are nothing alike,” he said into her hair. She started sobbing.
“How can you love me! I killed someone,” she sobbed.
“No you didn’t,” he said, “The demons messed up the way you saw reality.”
“But I punched her and…”
“She’s been dead for a whole day. I can smell it. Someone tried to make it look like you did it.”
“You’re trying to make me fell better,” she accused, “Stop lying.”
“Have I ever lied to you? Even when we were enemies?” She shook her head. “Then why would I start now. Come on, let’s get you home.” Despite her protests, he scooped her up into his arms. “Once you’re asleep, I’ll go to the police and tell them I found the body. It won’t be connected to either of us.” He kissed her forehead.
“I killed someone,” she whispered.
“Sweetheart, you have denial in reverse. Don’t think about it. You didn’t kill anyone,” he said. Then he began to walk home.
~*~
When Spike came back from the police station, he went straight to their room. He stripped and crawled into bed with Buffy. He gently kissed a trail up her shoulder. “Her name was Katrina,” he whispered, “The doctors confirmed that she had been dead for twenty-four hours and had already begun to decompose.” Buffy suddenly sat up straight.
“Did you say Katrina? As in Warren’s girlfriend? Do you think he killed her because she left him?” Buffy asked. Then she said, “So I couldn’t have done it?”
“No, you couldn’t have,” he said. He paused and then said, “Because of the kind of demons you were exposed to, you may have some frightening dreams tonight. Don’t worry. They’re not real and don’t have anything to do with you.”
“Okay,” Buffy said. She snuggled into his bare chest and fell asleep from emotional exhaustion. Spike stroked his love’s hair. He felt her stiffen as the dreams began. She whimpered and relaxed into his embrace when they took a more peaceful turn. When her breathing had evened out, he allowed himself to fall asleep beside her.
~*~
“When’s Spike’s birthday?” Buffy asked Giles.
“Buffy, why would you want to know that?!” he exclaimed.
“Oh…um…see if kind of forgot to tell you because I figured you wouldn’t approve and I hate when you’re mad at me, but I’mdatingSpike.” She said the last part so fast that the words melted into one.
“Bloody hell,” he said, “Why?”
“I love him,” she said.
“Do the others know?”
“Of course,” she said.
“Well, I can’t say that I approve, but...”
“He loves me, so don’t give me the speech about how demons can’t love. He ahs proven it time and time again. He’s different,” Buffy broke in.
“I was going to say that although I don’t approve, I do believe he loves you.” He could practically hear Buffy’s mouth dropping open “Spike is different. He stayed with his insane Sire for over a hundred years. No one has ever succeeded in putting any other tag on this occurrence. From what I saw and experienced while you were dead, I can come to no other conclusion than love. I don’t want to hurt you’re feelings and I know that you’re an adult, but after the whole Angelus thing, it will take me a while to get used to you dating another vampire.”
“But you will, eventually?”
“As long as Spike does nothing to make me feel otherwise, I believe I can remain civil about the whole thing. Now back to your first question. I believe William’s human birthday was on March 2.”
“Thanks, Giles, I’m sorry that you don’t approve,” Buffy said sadly.
He sighed. He could hear the sadness in her voice. He knew that he was like a surrogate father to her. She certainly was the daughter of his heart. “Are you happy?” he asked.
“Yes, more than I have been since I was called.”
“Then I’m happy. I love you, Buffy. I’ll come and visit soon,” he said.
“Love you, too, Giles. I really miss you.”
“See you soon, bye.”
Buffy hung up the phone and Spike came into the room. “How did the conversation with the Watcher go, pet?” he asked.
“You heard?” she squeaked. If he had this would ruin everything.
“No, that’s why I’ m asking,” he said.
“Oh, he took the news of us dating better than expected,” she said. He smiled at her and his shoulders slumped with relief. “Why were you so nervous about what Giles thought?” she asked.
“If he was totally against it, and got mad or wouldn’t speak to you, I knew that it would break your heart. What a shame that would have been! It would take me months to put it back together.” She smiled at him and they walked downstairs together.
“Have we heard anything else about Warren?” she asked.
“Thankfully, no, but I am going to find a way to kill him when we find him.”
“Why?” she asked, “He’s human.”
“First of all, he tried to pin you with a murder. Second, we just found a camera in a garden gnome outside the house. I hate the idea of someone watching any of my women.”
“You’re women?”
“Yeah, all the Scooby women are mine,” he said, “I’m not letting anything bad happen to Tara or Anya or Willow either.”
“If you have that many women, what do you need me for?” she asked playfully.
“This,” he said. He grabbed her and pulled her flush against him. Then he kissed her deeply.
Dawn watched from the living room. “Yeah, Conner,” she said, “They’re doing it again. Cordelia and Angel, too? They really need to get a room.”
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