Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine. All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, FOX, UPN, and WB.
Feedback: Are you nuts. YES I want FEEDBACK! I've been tired and in pain for a couple weeks so. FEED ME!
Author's Note: The song used in this story is Don't. Let's Start by Common Rotation from their The Big Fear album. Ever since I got the CD the song has be stuck in my head. so I figured I'd better do something with it.. and since I needed to write something for KallieRose. well. Here it is. Now the lyrics . well I haven't found them posted anywhere before. So I sat and listed to it over and over and HOPEFULLY got them right <there is one part I'm not sure about but . oh well.> Oh and I'm altering one little line . cause it works better. The original line 'That you're my precious little girl' and I'm changing it to 'That I'm you're precious little girl' it works better. and it's how I sing it when I'm singing along. The whole song is at the bottom and joy of joys last time I looked you could download an mp3 of the song at www.commonrotation.com <http://www.commonrotation.com/> <I think that's the address.>
Thanks To NightQueen and Midnight for the Beta!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Willow sat on the couch, the radio playing in the background. She must have found the 'Willow, this is your life and it sucks' station. She'd just been told in no uncertain terms, that she was not worth his time. She had been dating a guy, Tad, from her Trigonometry class. Everything had been going well, or so she thought. She snorted as a song came on the radio, it was a song she liked. It was pretty and okay, so a guy sang it, she'd just change the words that didn't fit.
With tears flowing down her cheeks, she began to sing and realized just how sad this song could be.
Don't Don't Don't Let's start
This is the worst part
To believe for all the world
That I'm your precious little girl
Well Don't Don't Don't Let's start
I've got a weak heart
I don't get around and well you get around
She snorted, yeah he did. Willow had made some chocolate chip cookies because he mentioned missing homemade ones. Wanting to surprise him, she brought some to his dorm. He had told her he had to study for a history exam and would be in his room all night. When she saw his roommate in the common area of the dorm, he told her to go on in. So she had. As she opened the door and . had her heart shattered into a million pieces . again. She must have huge sign over her head that said, 'Please date me and then make sure I walk in on you having sex with someone else.' Tad got off the bed leaving the blonde, who looked a lot like Buffy in many ways, asking him who the scrawny redhead was. Then the most painful thing that could have happened, happened, "She's nobody. Just some nothing that's not even worth the space she takes up."
Willow didn't really remember much. She vaguely heard the plate of cookies she had been holding clattering to the floor. The next thing she remembered was finding herself in her parent's house, in the dark, with the radio playing.
She snorted to herself as she heard a part of the song, that could so be about the Scoobies, and her specifically.
D world destruction
O over an overture
N do I need
Apostrophe T need this torture
No, she didn't need this torture, but she got it in spades each and
every time. The phone rang and she glared at it, fresh tears welling up
in her eyes. Why do people always call when you really don't want to talk
to anyone? The answering machine picked up. 'This is the Rosenburg residence.
We can't come to the phone right now. Please leave a message after the
beep.' The beep sounded extremely loud to her and then Buffy's voice
filled the room.
"Willow? Are you there? We're getting worried. Giles is polishing a hole in his glasses and he's already sent Spike, Xander and Anya out to look for you. Please pick up." She went silent for a few seconds, "Wills, it's been hours since anyone's seen you. Please be okay." Then she hung up.
Willow looked at the clock glowing on the VCR; it had been hours and she hadn't even noticed.
Well no on this world ever gets what they want
No on this world ever GETS what they want
That's why I don't wanna live in this world
anymore
No I don't wanna live in this world
She turned toward the radio and tilted her head. Did she want to live in this world? She closed her eyes and her head fell back against the cushion of the couch. It hurt so much. In this very moment, she wasn't sure. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the front door rattled in its frame as something pounded against it.
Willow rose and eased toward the table by the door where she hid a couple of stakes and some holy water.
"Bloody hell, Red! I smell you in there! Open the sodding door!" Spike's accented voice bellowed as the door shook again from the blows he rained down upon it.
"Stop before you shatter the door," Willow called as she scrubbed at her face and began to disengage the locks. She cautiously opened the door and peeked out. Spike stood on her porch, his duster swirling around him in the slight wind. He looked . worried. His brow creased as he peered through the crack at her.
"Let me in." It wasn't a request, but a statement.
"Just go away," she whispered.
"Willow," Spike called, "please?"
She couldn't believe what she just heard. Spike said the 'p' word. She opened the door, "Come in." He swaggered into the living room looking around.
"The Watcher and Slutty are going crazy trying to find you," he told her as his cerulean eyes fell on her. "The moron is certain something has gobbled you up." He stared at her, head tilted to the side, "And I'm thinking, in way, he's right. And if you tell anyone or anything I said that I'll rip your head off. Chip or no chip." He warned.
"She called," the redhead replied, not even bothering to chastise the vampire.
"So, you've talked to Bitchy?"
"Buffy, she corrected automatically, "And no, I said she called." She pointed to the answering machine with its blinking light.
"Don't wanna talk to the chit." He stated with a nod of his blonde head.
"I want to be alone."
"Want in one hand and piss in another, see which one fills up first."
Willow glared at him, "That's repulsive."
He smirked at her, "Yes, and you're talking to me." The smirk dimmed a bit, "What happened, Red?"
Willow dropped to the couch, "Please Spike, I really don't feel like talking about it."
Spike moved to her side, pulled his duster around his body and sat down. "If you tell me I can kill 'em for you."
The redhead laughed, it was a pain filled, choking sound. "No, sorry. He's all human like."
The vampire's eyes narrowed. "That so?"
A half hour later, Spike had managed to drag, bribe and coerce the entire
painful story out of her, leaving her curled against his side, sobbing.
"Spike's got ya, pet. It's alright," he murmured against her hair. With
a cocky grin, he leaned back and looked down at her. "I could still have
him taken out. Got friends in the demon world, you know. Still the Big
Bad, even
if I've got this bleeding chip in my head."
"No, Spike. I-I just couldn't stand it. I don't want to--" She sighed, she wanted to forget all about *him*.
He nodded, "Just teasing . mostly."
"I'm not nothing. am I, Spike?" she whispered as she buried her face against his shoulder.
"No, Luv, you're about as far from nothing as you could get."
She smiled, "Thank you." Then with a twinkling light in her eyes. "Maybe we could. scare him to death?"
The blonde laughed, "Well, well, wicked witch Willow rears her bloody head."
"I'll fix some hot chocolate and we'll plot."
~~~*~~~
Spike knew the witch wouldn't let him actually scare the bastard to death. He flinched as the chip sent ripples of electricity through his brain, attempting to fry his grey matter for the images that flashed through it. The plotting would help her, and perhaps he could come up with an 'acceptable' form of retribution. The sodding fool would realize exactly what he'd lost, if William the Bloody had any say in the matter.
As the credits to a rather funny chick flick rolled, he glanced at the clock and was surprised to find they had spent hours together. He grinned at the empty cups that had held what seemed to be endless cups of the best hot chocolate with those little marshmallows around. He glanced at the redhead cuddled to his side, sleeping soundly. He hesitated a minute, then slipped out from under her, gently placed her on the couch and brushed her hair back from her face. She smiled and rubbed her cheek against his hand and he stilled. A strange feeling blossomed in his chest. Pulling a blanket off the back of the couch he tucked it around her, and then moved up the stairs, following the scent of Willow to her room.
It looked like the room of a girl barely in high school, not the college girl sleeping downstairs. A lopsided, evil grin crossed his lips as he spied her laptop. A few taps on the keyboard and the screen came to life, to his relief she didn't have it password protected. After a few moments more, he had what he was searching for and backed out of the program he had opened.
He lifted the handset of the phone by the bed and dialed the number he had found.
On the fourth ring, the phone was answered. "This is Tad."
"Tad, I think we need to talk."
"Who is this?"
The blonde smirked, "Someone who wants you dead."
"What is this? Hey, Matt are you doing those stupid accents for a play again?"
"I'm not an actor. You are a bloody fool for hurting her."
"WHO?!"
He could do this all night, "You know who. She's MINE. And you will pay for hurting Willow." As he returned the receiver to the cradle he could hear the ponce beginning to panic. "Pitiful that that's all I can do right now."
"What did you do?" Willow's soft voice asked from the doorway.
Spike cringed and turned to the door and the woman leaning against its frame. "Nothing, luv."
With resolve face firmly in place, she stepped into the room. "Who did you call?" she asked suspiciously.
For an instant he considered telling her a lie, then went with something he rarely used except in dire circumstances. the truth. "The sodding bastard that hurt you."
"Thank god," she breathed dropping to her bed, "I thought you called Buffy or Xander. I really don't want to hear their well meaning advice that really doesn't help."
"I wouldn't do that to you, Pet." He promised, and smiled slightly, "Besides, you're the only one of lot that isn't too annoying."
Grinning, she asked him what he'd said to Tad. She chuckled as he told
her what had transpired on the phone. "He's twitchy most of the time; you
probably gave him a heart attack." She began to laugh loudly, "He's gonna
be jumping at shadows for weeks!! I love it!! Thank you!" She threw herself
across the bed and wrapped her arms around his neck hugging him tightly.
Pulling back, she smiled, "Wanna go watch Dracula 2000? I've got it
on DVD."
"Sounds like a wonderful plan, Red," he smiled, and lifted her in his
arms and headed for the living room. "Then maybe we can think up a few
more ways to torture the git." He grinned evilly as he settled them on
the couch. "I could call Clem and have him pay the bastard a visit. Don't
forget. I'm still a demon. I can have my enemy's eliminated. even if I
can't do it
myself."
"Who could forget you're a demon? And . hello... I'm the smart one. I know you could have us all whacked."
"Whacked? I'm in the mob now?"
Willow laughed as she rolled her eyes, "Killed. okay? Happy?"
"When the movie starts. I might be." He smirked at her as she got up and got the movie started. Maybe, just maybe, this could be what he needed.
Plopping down on the couch beside him, she looked up at him. "Thank you, Spike. I... I needed this."
"Tomorrow, I'll bring the movies," he told her as the opening scene began and they fell into comfortable silence.