Little Bitty Puzzle Pieces

By PJzallday

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Spike sat up in bed, holding the linens in his lap. "What is it, luv?" he asked as Buffy bustled around the room collecting her clothes.

Her brow knitted, without pausing to look at him, Buffy replied, "It's Giles."

"And?" Spike prodded, unconcerned, settling back onto the pillows.

"Nobody's seen him in days."

"Hardly anyone's seen us in days either." He grinned mischievously, pushing the tip of his tongue against the back of his teeth as he stretched lithely.

Deeply focused, the Slayer ignored his flirtation. "He's coming here. I just know it. He's coming."

Arching a brow, Spike went to speak, "Well, gimme a few minutes and you could be-"

"Give it a rest." Shaking her head, Buffy pleaded, "Give me a rest."

He frowned.

"Spike…" She clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth then huffed out a heavy frustrated breath. "You said it yourself," she began as she turned to the mirror to fix her hair, "we've hardly been out of this room in days. It's not fair of me to leave that bunch to Faith and the others. They've been really… understanding so far, but this was my plan. I have to-"

"Buffy?" Spike said simply, stopping her mid-sentence.

With her fingers entangled in the decorative elastic with which she was tying up her hair, she briefly glanced over her shoulder and brushed him off, "Spike, this is my job and-"

"I know that," he assured. "I've always known." And that was true: he'd always accepted that the Slayer was a part of her.

Noting the seriousness of his tone, Buffy turned to look at him then realized that his expression had completely changed.

Gone was the devilish grin and lusty leer. Sitting on the bed, with sad eyes and furrowed brow, he looked to her. "Buffy… I should be going home."

"Home?"

"Back to Santa Barbara," he explained. "You don't really need me here."

Buffy couldn't believe what she was hearing. Spike, with whom she'd spent the vast majority of her time since they'd reunited days earlier, planned to leave. Indefinitely. Maybe forever. "How can you… How can you say that?" She was troubled by the prospect. "How can you even think of leaving now? I thought you loved me."

"God Buffy," he sighed. "My loving you has nothing to do with this." Then he chuckled, "Who 'm I kidding? Of course it does." He turned to her. "I'm a distraction. Long as I stay here, you're off your game. I'm in the way." She tried to speak, but he wasn't done saying his piece. "I'm just a regular guy — don't have any special powers or what all. I can't keep up with you… you Slayers anymore," he covered, embarrassed. "And considering what some o' that lot have been up to, I don't think I want to have anything more to do with 'em anyway."

"But that's how you can help: showing them what's right. And it doesn't matter whether you can 'keep up'. Look at Fred. You'd think she'd be a nervous wreck around this bunch, but she knows she can hold her own with a taser. And Xander," Buffy noted. "Xander spent years fighting with us. He was just a 'regular guy' but he wanted to help. And he did!" she insisted.

"Guess that's true enough," Spike conceded, less than thrilled with being reduced to the likes of Xander Harris. But Spike's physical failings weren't the real issue.

Softening, she added, "Besides, some of the greatest things you've done didn't need super-strength. Just by being close, you helped me."

Hearing that choked him up but his head was still a jumble of questions. "Buffy, tell me the truth," he finally managed the courage to say. "Would you 'ave been happier if Angel was the Shanshu vampire — if he was human and I was de-"

"Don't say it!" she shot back. "Why would you say that?"

"Why?" he repeated as if the answer was obvious. "Buffy-"

"Yes, it's true: I loved Angel," she declared without hesitation. "And yes, I sort of fell apart when he died. But my feelings for Angel have nothing to do with how I feel about you. Not then, or now."

He rolled his eyes.

Buffy wasn't getting through to Spike and his glibness was aggravating. "What do you want from me?" she demanded. "Do you want me to tell you that I ended it with Angel before he got killed? I did!" Her eyes were filling with angry tears. "Do you think I didn't mourn you? Is that what you want to hear? That I cried myself to sleep at night because I thought you were dead? I did!" she confessed. "I did for months. How could you doubt that? You were such an important part of my life. Because of you, I still have a life. We all do!"

"Well, that's not exactly what I wanted to hear," he mumbled, "but thanks for sayin' it."

"…but thanks for sayin' it." Suddenly, she was struck in the chest by the echo of his reply months earlier when she'd told him she loved him.

"Oh god… Spike, I'm sorry," said Buffy quickly, as tears came to her eyes. Sometimes actions aren't enough and words really need to be spoken. Threading her fingers through one of his hands, she cupped his cheek in her other palm. "Look at me," she insisted. "Spike, I love you. I love you now; I loved you back then. Angel didn't change that." She knew she'd be risking hurting him, but she wanted to be completely honest. "Just like you could never make me stop loving Angel. I love you both. For different reasons; in different ways. I can't explain it but I do." She pursed her lips, nervously. "And Spike, I don't want you to go."

Blinking back the sting of tears in his eyes, Spike cocked his head. "You'll let me think on this a bit?" he asked.

"Of course." She nodded with a weak smile.

"But in the meantime, you'd best get downstairs and do whatever it is you were goin' to do about Giles," he suggested. As Buffy opened the door to the hall, he assured her, "I'll be here."

***

"So you can't find him either?" Buffy asked Willow.

"Obviously he hasn't called me," the witch said, "and I haven't been able to turn anything up with locator spells."

Dawn poked her head into the office. "So what does that mean?"

"Well, there are three main possibilities. One, he's… um… dead; no life force would… ah… make him harder to find," Willow explained uneasily.

"OK," Buffy acknowledged with an indifferent shrug, convinced that was an unlikelihood.

"Two, he's in an alternate dimension."

"Can't we track him in alternate dimensions?" inquired Buffy.

"We could," Willow began with a nod before tipping her head to one side and hesitantly elaborating, "if we knew which one he was in. But he didn't… leave a forwarding address. Fred and Wesley are seeing what they can find through Wolfram and Hart, but there are hundreds of possible dimensions, so it's going to take a while."

Buffy grumbled, "Well, that's hopeless."

"So what's behind door number three, Willow?" asked Dawn, trying to sound optimistic.

"He could be using a cloaking spell."

Buffy raised a brow. "You mean like on Star Trek?"

"Those weren't spells," Dawn replied. "They were- Not helping. Right. Um… But if he's using a cloaking spell that really can't be goo-"

Both Willow and Buffy looked at Dawn with pursed lips.

"Right." Quickly the youngest woman waved a finger back and forth between the other two. "You… ah… already figured that part out. Any ideas what he's planning?"

"I don't have time for this!" Buffy complained. "I can't keep worrying about Giles when there are all these Slayers. We're supposed to be on the same side."

"Buffy…" Willow's eyes widened as an idea blossomed in her head. "What if this was the First's plan all along?"

The Slayer grimaced, not comprehending.

"Huh?" grunted Dawn.

"We're fighting each other again," the red-head noted. "But it's not just us. Remember, the First wanted to raise an army. But unleashing demons? Sure, there'd be a lot of human deaths, but eventually humanity would unite against them. So what if the Turok Han were only a ploy to force your hand?"

"Meaning?"

"What if the First wanted us to release the power? To make the Slayers its army."

Buffy went pale.

"You've said before that there's darkness in the power. With Faith, we saw how easily the power could go wrong," the witch stared, stunned by her own speculation. "The First had lots of opportunity before the spell to kill more of the Potentials but didn't. Yet almost all of the people who knew how to train them — to teach them to control their power — were murdered. How many of the girls who turned up in Sunnydale escaped after seeing their Watchers killed?"

"No…" Buffy shook her head. "This can't be…"

"And look at what's happening now: all around the world, Slayers are terrorizing their communities. But not everyone knows that they're Slayers, so people are afraid of everyone. We've got humans fighting humans, and fear and paranoia growing everyday!"

"Oh god," Buffy groaned. "We have to find Giles; I need to know what he's doing. Will, if he's using a cloaking device, is there anything we can do to turn it off?"

Willow worried her lip. "Well, we could-"

"- just check the lobby," Dawn interjected before turning away with an artificially bright smile. "Hey Giles, what brings you here?" Leaning back to throw her voice into the office, she added, "With these… interesting looking... people."

"I'm here to see how things are coming along," Giles replied. After he motioned for his companions to stay on the landing, Giles casually wandered through the clusters of women chatting and flipping through magazines, being careful not to get tripped up by the little girls playing tag.

Shaken, Buffy and Willow staggered out of the office.

At the site of her former mentor, Buffy's animosity returned. "Hello Giles," she said harshly.

"Ah Willow," the man greeted with a smile before turning to the Slayer. "Buffy."

"What are you really doing here, Giles? And who are these guys?" she asked of the four new-comers who stood stiffly overlooking the lower lobby area. They dressed differently: one appeared in a suit like Giles might have worn years earlier, another wore a long dark hooded robe, the third had a snug black turtle-neck sweater, a large gold amulet and loose slacks, the last wore jeans with holes in the knees and an enormous belt-buckle. At first glance, there appeared to be no commonality in the group, but looking deeper, Buffy could see something in their eyes. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew the situation had grown more immediately dire.

"Buffy, I think we need to discuss this plan of yours," Giles stated.

"What is there to discuss?" she countered. "Looks like you've already decided what to do."

Crossing his arms, the man assumed a judgemental position, shifting his weight to lean on one foot. "Your plan isn't going to work."

"You haven't given it a chance! The Council," she stressed bitterly, with her hands on her hips, "agreed to give me six weeks to gather and teach the Slayers. I've hardly had half that time."

"Ah yes, and I see you've been spending your time wisely," the Council's Chief Director sneered coolly. "Asleep in your dead lover's arms," he added as he turned to meet Spike, who'd appeared on the stairs from the second floor.

Buffy was taken aback; that's what the First had said to her. "He's not dead," Buffy choked out.

But Giles wasn't listening. "You just couldn't stay away, could you?" he railed at Spike. "I don't know how you managed to survive, but why the bleedin' hell couldn't you leave bloody well enough alone?!"

Briskly, Buffy crossed between Giles and the stairs. "Leave him out of this!"

"Gladly." Giles scowled at Spike. "I trust you'll leave us to our business then."

Spike shook his head at the irony.

"For god's sake Giles! Spike saved the world! What more do you want from him?!"

"Spike closed a hellmouth, but this world hasn't been 'saved'," he corrected. "The only way to minimize the damage you caused by unleashing these Slayers is to have the Council reclaim the power," Giles stated bluntly, "and to do it soon."

"You never intended to give this plan a chance," Buffy accused. "You just figured that if I rounded these girls up that would kill two birds with one stone: keep me off your trail and get a bunch of Slayers together in one place so that you could steal our power."

Gasps ricocheted through the growing crowd.

"And Giles…" Willow lowered her voice, "that could mean killing the Slayers or losing control of the power completely."

Panic was growing: in Buffy and in the other Slayers.

"P'rhaps you're-"

"I can't believe I fell for it!" raved Buffy. "We're helpless in here because of the anti-violence spell. The others can't even get out! Dammit!" She stamped her foot and growled, "I wish I'd never found that damned scythe!"

With wide black eyes and a deep hollow voice, Willow uttered, "Done."

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