"The Subtle Notes In-Between"
A Post NFA fic later chapters are very NC17 be
warned!!
In which Buffy hears of Angel and Spike's
confrontation in the alley against the minions of
the Senior Partners and decides to go and get her
vampire and take him back to Rome with her (Spike of
course cos a Spuffy girl here!) After this seriously
AU and very much for the Spuffiers at heart. There
is Angel bashing and some really big surprises.
Italics = Thoughts
Chapter 1
Life was short.
Especially if you were a Slayer.
Well, any Slayer but her. She had friends who seemed
determined to drag her kicking and screaming back to
life-- either by CPR or magicks.
Life was brutal, especially if you were a Slayer.
Life was harsh, especially if you were a Slayer.
Life was cruel, especially it you were a Slayer.
Life was ironic, especially if you were Buffy Anne
Summers - the First Slayer. The one that all the
newbies had been drawn from by Willow’s
spell-casting that fateful day in the Hellmouth.
When she had lost him, when he had denied her love.
This was all she could think as she stared down at
his slumped form.
The normally bright blond hair was now daubed with
various different colours of blood. His beautiful
high cheekbones mashed beyond recognition. A flicker
of pure fury vied for a place in her heart alongside
the elation that he was back, the despair that he
hadn't come to her, the betrayal that he had stayed
with Angel and fought with him and not sought her
out.
Almost like a rainbow, she thought irreverently, the
situation too serious for any kind of silliness.
Buffy squatted next to Spike's still form and ran
her fingers through his curly hair, her sharp eyes
missing nothing. The coat was new. She’d known the
other on a visceral level-- the small tear in the
collar that he had never fixed. It was one her own
fingers had created as she had tugged him round to
face her so she could kiss him one night when they
had been patrolling. He had teased her about it and
refused to mend it-- he had called it a precious
memory.
Always the romantic, her vampire. A small smile
tickled at the corners of her mouth. The worn
patches on the elbows were all gone. No, she knew
it, this was a replacement coat. Buffy wondered what
had happened to his original duster. Her hazel eyes
took note of the blood pouring from the deep cut on
his cheekbone and her full mouth firmed in anger.
She was wasting time bemoaning the loss of his coat
when her Spike was hurt and in danger. Now wasn't
the time. Now was a time to stand your ground
against the demon hoards. Stand over fallen lovers
and their friends and fight tooth and nail against
the hordes of darkness.
She had thought it was all over - that their final
song had been sung in the collapsing Hellmouth. She
had left him to burn, with a fumbled attempt of
declaring her feelings, only to be rebuffed by him.
Spike had hurt her with his rejection of her
heartfelt words. Stupid vampire! She stood and
straddled his body, ready to fight. All around her
she could hear her girls fighting against the
throngs of demons that W & H had decided to send to
the apocalyptic party Angel had rashly decided to
throw in downtown LA.
Buffy didn't spare a glance for her former, who was
still fighting a rather large lizardytype thing.
‘So not a dragon!’ She'd seen dragons in Italy
and they where HUGE and more often than not,
friendly. Paolo had taken her to meet some of the
gorgeous beasts; he'd saved a nest of Dragons a
while back and was now an honorary member of the
clan of Draco-Imperialise.
Buffy grinned at the thought of Paolo, or as he was
known to all and sundry The Immortal. He had been a
surprise. All she'd ever heard about him in the
nightclubs in Rome was, 'Ohhh he's so sexy and such
a great lover!' Buffy had been positive he'd make a
pass at her the moment they met. But instead, he'd
taken her hand and looked deep into her eyes, smiled
and then nodded.
The first words out of his mouth had been sooo not
what she'd thought he'd say. "Finally, a friend I
can rely on." And that had been it. The two of them
had been inseparable from that moment on. With Paolo
there was no ‘if you're my friend, then what do I
get out of the situation? If we become buddies, then
do we move from school geek to friend of a Slayer
and help hinder ‘save the day’? Well save the day
sometimes, but most of the time get in the way and
make it worse. Even better, be the cause of the next
apocalypse. Or even better again, become moral judge
and jury on her life.’
Buffy dodged the meaty fist that swung at her and
slammed a stake through the vamp that had attacked
her . She could hear Dawn's voice and see her little
sister's patented eyeroll. 'Wow, bitter much
Buffy.'
As Buffy fought, her mind was on the surprising
events of the past year. The last year in Rome with
Dawn, Andrew and Paolo had been a revelation, the
four of them becoming a close unit of friends and
family. So unlike anything else she had ever
experienced.
Her relationship with Dawn had never been better,
and Dawn had blossomed in Rome. Going to school and
graduating with high honours and was now starting at
the American university in Rome. Buffy had been so
proud of her baby sister. She, Andrew and Paolo had
stood, cheered and applauded as they watched the
tall girl graduate. She knew that Spike would be
pissed he'd missed so much of Dawnie's life.
Andrew was still a nerd, but he was rapidly becoming
a good guy. Once he had realised that being a
Watcher wasn't for him, and he had stopped with the
tweed wearing and answering to Giles, he had become
a friend. It also helped that he had finally fallen
in love and the love was reciprocated.
Giles and the others had been conspicuous in their
absence at Dawn's big day. But then again, since
leaving the ruins of Sunnydale they had barely been
in touch with each other.
Xander had disappeared the first night and had never
been heard of again. They had all been staying in a
cheap motel that night recovering from the battle
and Buffy had heard a noise. She remembered going to
the door of her and Dawn's room and watching Xander
walk away without a backward glance. She had known
instinctively not to try and stop him. Her
Xander-shaped friend had done enough... lost enough,
an eye and then the love of his life, Anya. It was
time to let him go and hope that one day he'd come
and find her and they could find a common ground
again. When the others-- in particular Willow-- had
found his bed unslept in and Xander gone, it had
been chaos. And it was also the beginning of the
end.
Xander had in a sense been the glue that held them
together. The one who was friend to all and the
anchor of the group. His absence left a gaping hole
that couldn't be filled.
Buffy remembered the fight with Willow, with a
sneering Kennedy in the background. Buffy had been
adamant that the redhead didn't use magic to locate
Xander and to let him be. Reasoning with her that if
indeed he was her bestfriend then she should let him
go, let him heal and when he was ready, Xander would
come back. As someone who had just lost the 'one',
Buffy understood all too well how Xander needed some
time to just be alone and heal.
Willow had tried the wobbly lower lip and then when
Buffy wouldn't cave, had stopped and actually
listened to what she had to say.
Finally she’d nodded and agreed with Buffy. It was
time to let Xander go. The small redhead had ushered
her shrieking and belligerent, newly Slayered
girlfriend out of the room with an apologetic smile.
Buffy had never been happier to see anyone leave the
following week when Willow had taken Kennedy away
and headed for South America. She and Wills still
called each other now and then, but more often than
not, Willow was in contact with Giles.
Buffy's face darkened at the thought of her
erstwhile Watcher who had taken it upon himself to
re-establish the stuffy tweed shirt brigade of
wannabe Slayer bosses. She pulled her drinking face
at the memory of her final call with Giles. They had
never really recovered their relationship, how could
you?
First he'd dumped her and run away to England,
claiming she needed to grow up. Yeah, she did! But
she also needed a watcher, someone with the know-how
to fight the creatures that go bump in the night.
But he'd gone as soon as she'd gotten yanked out of
Heaven, and then when he had come back, he'd been
weird. Then in that final year he'd turned up with
Kennedy and the other two potentials. Buffy stuck
her lower lip out. 'Man, it was all Giles's fault
Kennedy had turned up, he’s the FE!'
Another black mark in his book, one to add to the
massive big black and underlined over and over one
marked in there. It read:' I hooked up with nut job
Robin Wood and tried to kill the guy who in the end
saved the world'. Buffy smiled at the irony of it
all. If Giles and Robin had succeeded and killed
Spike, then the world would have been overrun with
Turok Han and the First Evil would have won.
When they finally went their separate ways, Buffy
had no problems taking the massive monthly salary
Giles offered and moved to Rome with Dawn-- and for
some reason, Andrew decided to follow her. Even
though he played at being a Watcher now and then,
luckily he had recently grown out of it.
Buffy spun around, dodging an axe and then yanked
the same axe from the slimey Chaos demon's hands and
with a back slice, cut her attacker's head off. The
antlered head clattered to the ground as the body
fell backwards. With a jubilant shout, Buffy stepped
back over Spike's body and tossed the axe from hand
to hand. Silently daring the rapidly dwindling
minions of hell to come and get her. Her lips peeled
back in a feral snarl that would've done Spike proud
and she bounced on the balls of her feet, ready for
her next attacker.
In the distance she could see the blue skinned woman
fighting an ork-shaped demon and was batting it
around as if it were a whiffle ball. Angel was still
struggling with the lizard and was unaware that
backup in the form of Paolo and his employees were
here and helping to turn the tide of battle.
Paolo had mentioned the whole chaining up of Angelus
and Spike and screwing Darla and Dru incident, and
yuck! He also told her about the blustering vamps
trying to get into his club and pick a fight, only
to be turned away by the doorman. Buffy grinned at
the sight of two quarters of the Scourge of Europe
being bounced! 'Man, she was gonna bug Spike
about that when they got home!'
Her eyes widened as worry filled her. What if he
didn't want to come home with her? He'd never called
or anything. What if he'd moved on? Buffy's narrowed
as she glared at the blue string bean. 'Was that
his new girl? Ewww, she better not be! If Spike had
touched that weird looking demoness thingy the he
was going to be immersed in sheep dip! Maybe she
should slice and dice her and blame it on the heat
of battle? Nahhh, I can't do that! It wouldn’t be
right!' She chewed her lower lip in anxiety, not
missing a beat as she fought the demon attacking
her. Her confidence in battle not showing the
emotional mess she was in mentally. Buffy tried not
to be jealous of the blue woman fighting stoically,
but she was, she’d been near Spike for the past year
and Buffy ached all over. Spike was hers no one
else’s.
There was a sickening squelchy thud and a severed
arm landed in front of Buffy.
'Huh, guess vamps arms don't dust when they get
chopped off!' Buffy thought irreverently as she
stared in shock at Angel's right arm. Then she
blanched and stared up at the idiot who had started
this fight. Angel was even paler than normal but
still hacking away at the flying lizard with his
remaining arm. Blood poured from the stump soaking
Buffy's upturned face and Spike's body. She squinted
through the red haze and then threw the axe straight
up and into the lizard demon's heart. Killing it
with one blow.
"Uh oh!" Buffy squeaked. The corpse was plummeting
towards them with Angel clinging to its neck. Buffy
reached down, grabbed Spike's limp body and ran as
fast as she could. Leaping over demon corpses and
trying not to slip in the pools of blood that were
mixing together in a psychedelic mess, Buffy ran as
fast as she could with Spike on her back.
There was a squishy splat and then she heard Paulo
yell ‘duck’. Buffy hit the ground and covered
Spike's body with hers.
There was am almighty bang and then a ball of fire
rolled over her back and kept going. Burning
everything in its path. Demons were incinerated--
both alive and dead.
The lizard demon was doing a heck of a clean up job
in its demise.