Chapter Five:The Message



“Hey lil’ Bit.”



Dawn scrambled to shut the door behind her, pressing her back against it with her eyes still wide in disbelief. “Spike, what the hell are you doing in Buffy’s room?”



Spike sat up and threw his legs over the side of the bed, ready to boot if need be. “I…uhhh…was just…waiting for Big Sis. Uhh…you know, to talk shop,” he lied badly, irritated at how he had once been really gifted in the art of deception. Stupid soul.



“Talk to Buffy? At 7:15 in the morning and in her bed?” Dawn plainly doubted, giving him the patented brassed-off Summer’s look.



“Yeah,” Spike replied, wishing she would just accept his piss-poor excuse of an explanation.



“You know what Spike? You wanna lie to me, that’s fine. I guess I was stupid to think that things would ever go back to the way they were before,” Dawn venomously spouted, turning her back to him abruptly to leave.



“Nibblet, wait!” Spike called out, which made Dawn stop in her tracks. “I did stay here last night.”



She spun around at his words, her face in complete confusion at what he was admitting. Naturally, she blurted out the first thing that popped into her head. “You and Buffy are doing the nasty again, aren’t you?” she asked, clearly disappointed in both him and her presently absent sister.



“No, Bit. I swear. It was just sleeping.”



“So you and Buffy just spent the entire night, alone and in her bed innocently sleeping?” Dawn reiterated, still not fully convinced



“Yeah, we did,” a voice called from behind her, making her jump in surprise.



Dawn turned to see a freshly showered and robe donning Buffy. Dawn must have been so thrown by Spike’s admission that she hadn’t noticed her sister open the door and sneak right up to her. “Buffy, what’s going on?”



Walking past Dawn and into her room, Buffy gave the vamp the same reassuring smile she’d been giving him the past few days. “Spike’s here because I didn’t want him sleeping in the basement.”



Dawn stared at Spike, then glanced at Buffy and then turned back again to the peculiarly quiet vampire. As she inspected their appearances, looking for validation to Buffy’s claim, Dawn noticed that the two of them simply remained in awkward silence, keeping their gazes away from her scrutiny. Being a teenager herself, Dawn recognized the blushing we’ve-so-been-caught looks both her sister and Spike were wearing. She wasn’t sure whether to roll her eyes at them or to let go one of her trademark squeals. “So, are you guys like back together?”



“No.”



“Maybe.”



Their responses came out simultaneously; surprisingly it had been Buffy who had voiced the ‘maybe’, not Spike.



The room became suddenly very quiet as the vampire stared up at Buffy, in pure amazement.



Seeing as how Spike appeared to have been suddenly struck with an unexpected fit of catatonia, Buffy took it upon herself to explain things to her sister. “We don’t know Dawn. It’s…”



Yet, before she could get out all the details, Dawn cut her off. “Complicated,” she finished, having heard that phrase a billion times in the past year alone. “But there’s a chance right?”



Buffy nodded as Spike still remained mute.



A loud “Eeeee” permeated through the silence and Buffy found herself almost tackled to the ground by her little sister. “This is sooo cool,” she giggled. Then out of nowhere, Dawn broke from her gleeful merriment to kick her sister in the shin.



“Owww. Hey!” Buffy yelped.



“It’s about time you two legitimately hook up! There was enough angst coming from the two of you this past year to suffocate a roomful of Potentials,” she joked, pulling away from her sister and heading toward Spike, who was still staring into space. Dawn snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Earth to Spike!”



Awakening from his stupor, Spike stared up at Dawn as though he had forgotten she had been there all along. Sitting down next to him, Dawn took his hand and squeezed it. “I knew it was only a matter of time,” she whispered. “But do anything to her and I’ll make good on my waking up on fire promise.”



Spike simply nodded at her half-serious threat.



“Ummm…If we’re done here and if you guys don’t mind, I kinda need to get ready for work,” Buffy mentioned quietly.



“Sure thing, pet. We’ll just get out of your hair. Let’s go Nibblet,” Spike said, quickly pulling on his boots and duster.



Dawn followed him out of the room, walking through the hallway and down the stairs in silence. Spike had noted that Buffy hadn’t told Dawn to keep what she had seen to herself. Hell, she hadn’t even tried to cover it up.



Once in the kitchen and opening the fridge, Spike poured himself a cup of blood and popped it into the microwave. Maybe he wasn’t going to have to wait too long for her to tell everyone about them. He smiled. There was now a ‘them’.









Ten minutes later, Buffy walked into the kitchen as primped, polished and styled as ever, in a professional quasi guidance councilor sort of way. She poured herself a cup of coffee and headed out to the backyard where the girls had started their training session. Quickly saying a few hellos and giving Kennedy a couple of key instructions, she went back inside, calling out to Dawn to hurry her butt up before Xander arrived to pick them up. Too wrapped up in the pre-work routine, an unexpected voice caught her by surprise.



“You didn’t have anything to eat, pet,” Spike said, stationed at his spot, leaning against the door frame.



“God Spike! You scared me. You know, Angel used to lurk,” she said, giggling.



“I do not lurk! And what is it with you Summer’s women comparing me to Tall, Dark and Forehead?”



Buffy giggled some more. “I can get breakfast at school. No need to worry about me,” she said walking toward the front door, giving him a peck on the cheek as she passed him by. She could have sworn she saw him blush, even if it only lasted for a millisecond.



“I’ll see you after work,” the Slayer said as her farewell.



Spike smiled, watching as Buffy met up with Dawn at the front door and stepped out at the sound of Xander’s horn.



“I am no better than the poofter,” Spike declared, thankful that no one was around to hear him.





********





The day had been uneventful. Buffy had had barely any students come in to see her and the ones that did had to be directed to other school personnel who were better suited to help them with their predicaments. It seemed as though students at Sunnydale High had little need of guidance that day. A little nagging voice at the back of Buffy’s mind told her it was most likely the calm before the storm but she pushed it away. Man, was she ever bored. Finally, to Buffy’s content, when the last bell of the day had rung she had nearly knocked over three students as she dashed out of the office.



Opening the front door, Buffy was strangely pleased to find the house in its usual busy chaos. The girls were training in smaller groups, alternating between Kennedy and Anya, giving the former better one-on-one instructions and allowing the latter time to inform them on basic demonology. Just like Buffy had instructed.



She spotted Willow and Xander at the dining room table, decked with laptop, books and donuts. “You guys started without me? Not that I’m really complaining; you know, research not really being my forte and all.”



“Hey Buffy! I got home from classes early today,” Willow explained, never taking her eyes off the computer screen.



Xander smiled. “Did you know being the boss means you can take the afternoon off? Who knew?”



“Thanks. I really appreciate it,” Buffy said, taking a seat next to Willow. “Any luck?”



“A whole lotta nada,” Xander answered, slamming his book shut. “It’s hard to find anything on the First cuz, you know, predates the whole written word thing.”



“Willow?”



“Sorry Buffy. I’ve checked out my usual hunting grounds and nothing on the First or even on the creation of the Slayer.”



“Great,” Buffy said, deflated.



“Hey, c’mon Buffster. We’re not giving up just yet,” Xander reassured.



“Yeah. We’ve just skimmed the surface,” Willow added.



“Alright. But I guess I’ll check on the girls,” she said, making her way upstairs.



After changing into one of her comfy black track suits, Buffy peeked into Dawn’s room to find her sister buried in homework.



“Hey Dawnie. How was school?”



Dawn pounded her biology textbook with her fist and glanced up at her sister. “Just peachy. Stupid Krebs Cycle.”



“Science blues?” Buffy asked upon seeing the frustration marring her sister’s brow.



“Majorly,” Dawn affirmed, but quickly dropped her school woes to focus on more pressing matters. “So, you see Spike yet? Being away from him all day must have been tough,” she teased.



“No, not yet. I just got in,” Buffy admonished.



“Funny, I would have figured you’d have made a b-line for the basement the moment you got home,” Dawn commented.



“He’s probably sleeping anyway. You know, daytime equals vamp nap time,” Buffy said.



“But he’s not asleep,” Dawn added.



“Oh? And how would you know that?” Buffy asked, crossing her arms.



“Can’t you hear it?” Dawn answered, gesturing to her open bed room window that overlooked the backyard.



Perking her ears to any possible noise, Buffy could hear commands coming from outside. Well, that wasn’t anything new. It was only when she heard a familiar baritone voice that her eyes grew wide with shock. “What the…? That dope’s gonna get himself killed!” Buffy shouted as she bolted out of Dawn’s room. What was Spike thinking, being outside in the daylight? She sprinted into the kitchen, threw the back door open and nearly slammed into the moronic risk taking vampire.



Ignoring Buffy’s not so elegant entrance, Spike called out another order as he paced the shaded back porch. “Punch block combo!”



Buffy watched as the girls did the maneuver. They appeared to be improving. She looked over at Kennedy who was surprisingly writing down notes. Then she heard Spike again. “Alright ducks! Much better this time ‘round! Molly, good follow through, but block higher! Amy, don’t drop your shoulder! Kristen, feet wider apart! Okay now, one more time! Punch block combo!”



Buffy couldn’t believe her eyes. Here was Spike, Slayer of Slayers, actually training girls who might never even be called. She knew that he knew she was there, but he didn’t take his eyes off the group as they performed the same maneuver. Kennedy made her way over to Spike and whispered something to him which made him nod in agreement. When the girls completed the combo, they stood there in attentive stances, awaiting his evaluation, and hopeful for his approval. Buffy still couldn’t believe this was actually happening. How did he manage to get them to focus like that? What had he done that her rousing speeches hadn’t? At that point she didn’t really care since it was working.



Turning his back to the group, Spike gave Buffy a dazzling yet humble smile that only she was permitted to see, as to not diminish his newly established air of authority. “What do you think, luv?”



Buffy grinned. “I think that if you ever scare me like that again, I’ll push you out into the sun!”



“‘m alright. Once afternoon hits, backyard’s pretty shady,” Spike reasoned. “But putting aside my presently non-dusty nature, care to share what you think?”



Sobering a little, Buffy walked length of the back porch with Spike at her side, both inspecting the girls. In a clear voice, one above normal volume to ensure that all the Potentials heard her she announced, “Well done! They seem to be improving. Need more work though. Nowhere near where I want them to be.” Turning back to Spike, Buffy asked him in a whisper, “How long have you guys been at it?”



“At least three hours with this group. ‘bout three hours with the other group before the switch over,” Spike answered back quietly.



“They’re pretty synchronized and that’s great, but you know what real fighting is like. A demon’s not just gonna stand there the whole time while you try to pummel him. They’re gonna need more experience. So tomorrow I wanna start sparing sessions with them; you, me and maybe Kennedy. Knocking them on their asses just might be what they need,” Buffy said, in deep thought. “Let them break until nightfall, and then we’ll take the more ready few for patrol.”



“So what, take the kiddies to the good ole cemetery?” Spike inquired.



“For tonight. And I want to get them started on proper weapons training. We’ll have to fit that somewhere in the training schedule,” she replied, allowing herself to rightfully fall into her role as leader.



“Sure thing, Slayer,” Spike said as he turned towards the still waiting group of girls. “Okay, break time kids! Meet back here at dusk! Some of you lucky few‘ll be joinin’ us for patrol tonight!” And with that, the girls relaxed and trudged silently into the house.



When the last girl had ventured through the back door, Kennedy approached the now more casual vampire and Slayer. “Here are the notes, and I wrote down a few suggestions along with them. So if I’m done here, I’d like to go see Willow,” the senior Potential said as she handed Spike the notepad.



Spike simply nodded, indicating she had his approval to go. Reading through the notepad, Spike didn’t see the once again astonished look on Buffy’s face. “Spike, how the hell did you get Kennedy to play secretary?” she asked.



“Was kinda easy, actually. Just pointed out a few things, is all,” he stated, still flipping through the papers.



“And those few things would be?”



“Well,” Spike began, flapping the notepad shut. “I simply told the bint that she was gettin’ a lil’ too big for her britches.”



“Oh God, Spike, you didn’t get into the whole death wish thing, did you?” Buffy asked, jumping to conclusions.



“No, but I did say that her whole cocksure mini-slayer routine was gonna do her in. And I should know; killed two of ‘em didn’t I? Told her as much. Also pointed out to her that she wasn’t even technically chosen yet. Kept her gob shut since,” he explained, giving Buffy a smirk that was reminiscent of the old Spike.



“So what started all of this?” she asked.



“Wasn’t doin’ much else, pet. Couldn’t sleep so I figured I could at least help out,” he replied, eyes trailing off to look at the expanse of the backyard.



“You do a lot more than you realize,” she stated.



“If you say so, but this keeps me busy,” he countered, hoping she wasn’t going to tell him to back off.



“We better plan out the patrol. I want every girl coming with us to get equal attention and practice,” she added, heading toward the door.



“Buffy?” Spike said, praying he wasn’t making a mistake by saying what he was about to say.



“Yeah?” Catching a glimpse of him, Buffy turned back around to face the vampire. In the short amount of time she had looked away, Spike appeared to have suddenly transformed into someone she rarely saw. The bad-ass-second-in-command persona had crumbled away, leaving behind a very confused and vulnerable man standing before her.



“Spike, what is it?”



“This morning, luv. What you said to Nibblet. Did you mean it?” he asked, the hope so clearly visible in his ice blue eyes.



“About us being together?” Spike nodded at her question. Buffy sighed. “When I said there was a chance…” Buffy reflected on her response to Dawn’s earlier question.



“’S alright if you didn’t mean it. Spendin’ the night together ‘probly jumbled your senses, ya know? Maybe you weren’t thinkin’ straight and at the time ya thought it was the right thing, but it’s okay if you changed your mind. Me bein’ there might have made you wanna say yes, so I would understand if you really didn’t. And…” Spike rambled, only to be cut short by Buffy.



“I meant it, Spike.”



“So what now, luv?” he asked.



Buffy made her way over to him, taking his hand in hers. She really didn’t know what she was doing, stopping herself from thinking and allowing heart guide her for once. Locking her gaze with his, she slowly leaned in until their lips were nearly touching. Buffy slowly lifted her free hand and with a feathery touch, outlined the contours of his cheek, eventually cupping it tenderly in her palm.



“You sure this is what you want, Buffy?” Spike’s voice croaked with fear and need, feeling as though he would go insane if she didn’t bridge the gap.



It was then that she pressed her lips against his. It was a gentle and sweet caress, unlike the harsh, selfish embraces they had shared in the past. At first Spike was still a little stunned by her unexpected move, but quickly drew into her kiss. It had been so long since he had tasted her but he had never forgotten how sweet she actually was and how warm she felt in his arms. More than the fighting, more than the shagging, this was what he missed the most. Kissing his slayer.



Buffy eventually drew up enough courage to draw her tongue across his lower lip, seeking permission to enter. Spike eagerly allowed her to explore him, and in doing so, was rewarded with a thankful moan. Her tongue slid against his slowly and teasingly, but this time without the usual battle for dominance that had always tainted their past embraces. The pace of the kiss was slow, neither one of them wishing it to end. Grudgingly pulling away to breathe, Buffy looked up into his eyes, now nearly black with desire, and lovingly stroked his cheek with her thumb.



“I’m sure,” Buffy said before resting her head against his chest. Spike instinctively wrapped his arms around her, drawing her closer to him.



That’s when he spotted over her shoulder the back door wide open with Xander and Willow standing in the doorway, eyes widened in shock. Spike loosened his grip on Buffy. He didn’t know how much they had seen but he knew now that there was no going back.



“Luv,” Spike whispered into her ear, “you might want to turn around.”



Buffy instantly tensed the moment she realized what Spike was implying. In painstakingly slow motion she pivoted around out of Spike’s embrace, to find her two best friends staring at her.



“Buffy, what’s going on?” Willow asked. Buffy glanced back at Spike, who seemed to be anxiously awaiting her decision.



“I guess there are some things I have to let you guys in on,” Buffy admitted nervously.



“You might wanna start with explaining what the hell you’re doing with Captain Peroxide…again?!” Xander asked.



Buffy really wasn’t surprised at Xander’s bewilderment. If anything she had expected a far worse reaction. “Spike and I are…together,” Buffy stated carefully.



“Buffy, are you sure this doesn’t have anything to do with you being a little demony? Ooo, maybe it’s that demon heart stuff. Maybe it’s attracted to Spike’s demon and you’re misreading it as feelings,” Willow said, sounding like the unsure girl Buffy had known in high school.



“I know it’s not. Coming back out of that dimension made me realize…”



“What?” Xander interjected. “That you love him? Give us a break, Buffy! You know this,” he said waving his hand at Buffy and Spike, “isn’t love. Am I the only one who remembers what happened the last time you two decided to be ‘together’?”



“No, you’re not,” Buffy replied, getting annoyed. “And this is nothing like last year. God, Xander, you walk in on us the moment after I tell Spike I want a relationship and what? Just naturally assume that I’m reverting back to old habits. That I haven’t learned anything since last year? Give me a little credit, alright?” Buffy took a calming breath before she continued. “I have no idea where this thing with Spike’s gonna go, but I have to try. I want to try,” she finished.



“So you guys aren’t sleeping together?” Willow asked sheepishly.



“NO!” Buffy and Spike simultaneously responded.



Willow seemed to be put at ease by the news but Xander appeared to still be a little bitter. “Xander, I didn’t tell you guys because Spike and I are still figuring things out,” Buffy tried to explain as she walked toward her friends.



Defeated, Xander’s shoulders sagged in reluctant acceptance. “I just don’t wanna see you hurt, Buff,” his once infuriated tone now turned to one of concern.



“I won’t. We’re not repeating the past and I want to keep it that way.”



Xander only nodded as he gave Buffy a hug. “I guess I owe Andrew twenty bucks then,” Xander stated as they pulled away from one another.



“Huh?”



“We had this silly bet going. I put twenty on Wood and he put twenty on Spike. Ergo, I’m out of twenty bucks.”



“You guys are now betting on my love life?” Buffy said as she pretended being outraged, smacking Xander lightly on the arm.



“Well, it was that or bet on how many times Anya uses the word orgasm in one day. You’d be surprised, it’s still pretty high,” Xander replied chuckling.



“So, what was so urgent that you guys had to interrupt us?” Buffy asked still smiling, but quickly frowned when she saw the look on her friends’ faces.



“I kinda have to show you,” the witch admitted. “I found it on the net.”



Buffy and Spike quickly followed her friends into the dinning room where Willow had set up her computer. Buffy gazed at the screen. It wasn’t the usual type of web page one encounters when surfing the net. It didn’t have any pretty pictures, ads or, hell, it didn’t even have any colour; just black lettering on stark white background. She noticed a notebook with a translation written out in pen beside the laptop. Buffy read it ahead of Willow’s explanation and knew that it was their first real breakthrough, even though its vague words petrified her.



“There’s this message. There’s no name or links to find out who posted it. It doesn’t even have a home page. I think there’s some definite magic involved because it’s like this thing came out of thin air. And before you ask, I tried to use a few spells to trace it but they’ve all come up short,” Willow said as she sat in the chair in font of the computer. “The message itself could be a warning, or an answer to a question. It’s kinda cryptic, which with our experience is never good.”



“Well, what does it say?” Spike asked, not liking the way things were progressing.



“It’s in a rare Sumerian dialect. Lucky for us Giles left behind one of his books on uncommon ancient languages. Anyway, it says ‘She and spirits will unite, but in slumber they will remain. Only to be awakened when her lifeless blood kills the Tainted One. Its power initiated by the wielding. The source will find its end.”



The room was dead silent when Willow finished reading the prophetic message. They all remained speechless, unsure if they truly understood what they had just heard. It was Xander who first voiced a bit of confusion. “So, uh, is it just me, or did anybody else pick up on a ‘Buffy’s gonna die’ vibe?”



“We don’t know that. You know how these things are. They’re never really what they seem,” Willow stated.



“Let’s hope not. I’m getting really tired of dying,” Buffy joked receiving grim faces as her only response.



“Okay, let’s go through it logically. Obviously the spirits gotta be that demon mist that possessed Buffy. And it kinda explains why you don’t feel any different because it still got to be awakened,” Willow deduced.



“With my lifeless blood,” Buffy added.



“How does that work? I mean, how can it be awoken and be useful if Buffy’s not of the living?” Xander asked, deeply concerned.



“I’m not of the living and I’m still useful,” Spike said, not liking where this line of discussion was headed.



“Oh my god, do you think that the only way to unleash the power is for Buffy to be turned?” Willow asked.



Xander suddenly jumped out of his seat, glaring furiously at Spike. “I knew you’d be the end of her. I knew keeping you around was going to get us all killed. And now, there’s this mystic message telling us I was right all along!” Xander spouted, walking up to the vampire. “Pat yourself on the back, Spike. You might actually bag yourself your third slayer.”



“Xander!” Willow reprimanded, shocked at his insensitivity to the situation.



“Step off, whelp. I might play nice but don’t got the chip any more to stop me,” Spike warned, refusing to be intimated.



“Xander,” Buffy called to her best friend. Seeing the desperation in her face, the brunette stepped away and sat himself back down, his eyes never leaving the notorious William the Bloody.



“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Buffy said. “What I wanna know is who the hell is this ‘Tainted One’?”



“And it says you’re gonna wield something. That’s probably important too. A weapon maybe?” Willow wondered.



“Not to mention the ending of ‘the source’. But the source of what? The source of my powers?” Buffy said.



“Maybe it’s the source of evil, luv. Ya know, the First?” Spike guessed.



“I hope so,” Buffy responded. “This is so much worse than one of my slayer dreams.”



“So we just keep at it then?” Willow asked feeling a little disheartened.



“Don’t really have a choice, but I have a feeling its not gonna do us any good. Like every good cryptic prophecy, this one’s not gonna make any sense until it’s too late,” Buffy replied. “I better go and prep for patrol.”



Spike watched as the slayer left the room, in obvious need to distract herself, but leaving him in the unfortunate presence of her two best friends.



“You’d think I’d actually hurt her like that? Turn her into something she’s worked so hard to fight against?” Spike asked, sensing Xander’s gaze boring into the back of his head.



“Yes, I do. You might have a soul, Spike, but you haven’t proven yourself trustworthy,” Xander stated. “Not to mention the fact that the trigger’s still active and you weren’t so against turning people when you were under the First’s thumb.”



Pivoting around, Spike’s eyes narrowed when they met Xander’s. “Listen, you git. Get it through that thick skull of yours. I’d never hurt her. Rather be burned to a cinder than to see her cry. Get that, whelp? I. Love. Her.”



“You had a funny way of showing it when you tried to rape her. Or did you think we’d just forget all about that?”



Spike turned his back on Xander, ready to follow after Buffy. “No,” he answered. “Why should you? I know I haven’t.” With that said, the vampire made his way into the hallway.



“Xander,” Willow said, sounding as though she was about to scold him.



“Look, Will. I know we’re supposed to support Buffy in whatever makes her happy, and I know I seemed like I was okay with it, but I’m not. Knowing what that message says, how can I possibly root for them? She’s putting herself in danger every time she’s near him. I wish I could drop my suspicions about him, but I just can’t,” Xander prattled on.



“You finished?” Willow asked slightly annoyed.



“What’s with the hostility, Will?” Xander inquired, seeing Willow’s flustered expression. “Just stop being a goober-head and come look at this for a second,” the witch ordered.



Xander scooted his chair closer to the redhead so that he could actually see what she was talking about. He peered over at the translation written in the notebook, his gaze focusing on the area of the paper where Willow was rapidly tapping her index finger. “Well, what is it?”



Before answering Xander’s question, Willow searched Giles’s text, frantically flipping through pages as she followed her hunch. Upon finding the page she had been looking for, the witch quickly glanced at her notebook, checking and double checking her translation. With sudden comprehension of what she had just discovered, Willow let out a sheepish squeak. “Ooops.”



“Ooops? What ooops? Ooops is never good, Will. What are we ooopsing?”



“I think I might have accidentally made a little booboo in my haste to translate the message,” she explained.



“So, what did you misinterpret?”



“I…I don’t think it’s Buffy’s lifeless blood that kills the Tainted One.”



“Why do you say that?” Xander prodded.



“See this word here,” Willow said as she pointed to the computer screen. “I thought it meant ‘blood’, but it actually means ‘life’. The two words are kinda really similar so I mixed them up and when I fixed it, it totally changed the context of that part the message.”



“Out with it, Willow,” Xander said impatiently.



Taking a deep breath, the witch continued. “It’s not ‘her lifeless blood’ but ‘the lifeless life’ that kills the Tainted One.”



“What does that mean? It makes everything sound a hell of a lot more cryptic,” Xander commented.



“Think about it Xander? Who do we know who’s lifeless yet living?”



Xander paused to think. “No! You must have made another mistake. There’s no way.”



“No, I didn’t. Spike’s not gonna hurt Buffy, he’s going to help her.”



 

Chapter Six: Dealing With It

Patrol had been a remote success. No one got hurt and the Potentials were actually using the skills they had been taught. Buffy had decided to take the girls who had had the most training, namely Kennedy, Molly, Amanda, Vi and Rona. With the exception of Amanda, it had been these few girls who Buffy and Spike had earlier taken out on a slayerette fieldtrip to the various demon haunts of Sunnydale. Buffy remembered that night with a bit of self-deprecation, remembering the not-so-graceful demonstration she and Spike had put on for the Potentials in the cemetery after the girls had been unsuccessful in facing off against the vampire. Unintentionally pouncing on Spike while he had still been healing from being tortured by the First, and the somewhat inappropriate ‘so do we like make out wif’ ‘em?’ remark Molly had made after Buffy had instinctively shoved her hands under the vampire’s shirt hadn’t been the only faux-pas of that night.

Sure, discovering that Amanda was the Sunnydale Potential and managing to give the girls a fair amount of field experience had been major bonuses, but there had still been some setbacks. The problem lay in the simplest fact that the girls were growing dangerously accustomed to working with a safety net. Spike’s mock attacks had been just that, mocks. Even if the girls had been scared of him, deep down they must have known Spike would never actually hurt them. And when Buffy had locked them up in the crypt with that newly risen vamp, she knew the girls would be okay because the odds had been on their side. The slayer realized that as long as she was around to hold their hands, they were never going to be completely ready for what lay ahead. So this time around, things had gone a little differently.

Buffy gave each girl only a stake and placed them in front of a freshly dug grave, making them wait for the vampire to arise. Just like she had done for Dawn during the summer, the Slayer would simply stand by and watch. But that was all she did. None of the other girls could help and Buffy would only intervene if the Potential’s life was in danger. It was up to them and them alone to kill the vampire.

Buffy didn’t expect anything extraordinary. They were amateurs and it was their first real patrol. Hell, she had even missed the heart on her first try and she was the Slayer. Yet, the girls had left her astonished. The fact that they had used their newly acquired skills gave her further hope that they weren’t completely doomed. Kennedy’s form had been flawless, which was to be expected but what had really floored Buffy was that the brash overtly self-assured attitude was gone, replaced instead with a humble ‘thank you’ for any compliment sent her way. The other four girls had also dusted their vamps, and apart from Vi’s not so graceful and fearful squeals, they had done a pretty good job of it too.

As the gang made their way back to the house from Restfield, the girls chatted about their one-on-one’s with the vampires, bubbling over with excitement and still reeling from the adrenaline rush that patrolling always brought on. Spike and Buffy remained a few paces back observing the group and even chuckling at some of the remarks the girls made. No words, however, were exchanged between the two of them, a residual silence that had passed over from patrol. It wasn’t until they had reached the front porch with all the girls safely inside the house that Buffy finally spoke.

“So, what do you think? And I mean what do you really think? They’re inside so you won’t hurt any of their feelings,” Buffy asked, leaning against the brick wall opposite to Spike, who was himself leaning against a column.

“They did good considerin’ a few weeks ago they were a bunch of scared girls without a chance in hell,” Spike replied.

“And now? Where do you think they stand?”

“Still a bunch of scared girls, but with a slightly better chance in hell. Even still, it’s some sort of an improvement,” Spike said, trying to sound optimistic.

“‘Slightly better’ is better than nothing,” Buffy shrugged. “But the scared part, that’ll stick around for a while, even if any of them become slayers.”

Spike’s casual and relaxed countenance disappeared at her words. With tense hesitation, he turned his cerulean gaze to the ground, knowing that what he was about to bring up was in no doubt going to upset Buffy. “Pet,” I know we haven’t talked ‘bout the little prophecy Red found today, but…” Spike began, nodding his bowed head, as though he were agreeing with some unspoken truth.

“There’s nothing to bring up,” the Slayer cut off, dismissing the issue with a wave of the hand. Spike’s head shot up, taken aback by her uncharacteristic cavalier attitude. “Just another message that confuses more than it helps,” Buffy quickly stated, refusing to look the vampire in the eyes.

“Buffy, what Willow was alluding to, ‘bout you possibly…and my involvement…” Spike pushed, interrupted again by an exasperated Buffy.

“Can we not? Things are crazy enough already. Getting all freaked about it isn’t going to help anyone. Who knows? Maybe this mystery message is completely bogus and it’s just the First messing with us,” she replied, urgently reaching for any reason to disregard the issue.

“You’re dodgin’,” Spike commented.

“I am not. I don’t think it’s worth getting all upset over, is all,” Buffy defended.

“Oh really? Then you mind tellin’ me why the hell your hands are shaking?”

Buffy was about to tell him she didn’t know what he was talking about until she glanced down at said hands. Noticing that they were trembling, she instantly drew them to her chest. “It’s from patrolling. You know the ever infamous rush I get?”

“Denial, pet. Not a river in Egypt.”

“What are you my shrink?”

“…”

“Don’t answer that.”

“Just sayin’, for someone who’s so sure about the unimportance of that lil’ cryptic note Red found on the web, you seem real edgy,” Spike quipped.

“Am not!”

“You know you are pet,” Spike said, growing a little solemn. “I thought we were past this?”

“Past what?”

“Lying to each other.”

“I’m not lying,” she stated, but seeing Spike’s unconvinced face made Buffy groan in surrender. “Fine, I’m a liar. A big fat horrible liar. Are you happy now?” she unwillingly admitted, clearly deflated by the fact that she was actually going to have to talk about this with him.

“You know you don’t have to keep it all together when you’re ‘round me. The brave face you put on for them doesn’t work with me. I know you Buffy. This thing has got you more scared than you’re willin’ to admit. And rightly it should. I’m even bloody petrified.”

Buffy looked at him a little skeptical. “You didn’t really seem that scared when you were nearly ripping Xander a new one,” Buffy pointed out, not sounding upset but being matter of fact.

“I should have. Throwing his mouth off like that ‘bout you. A good thrashing is what the whelp needs, and not even you can convince me otherwise,” Spike scowled but realized he was getting off track. “You’re wrong ya know. I was terrified from the moment Red read us that stupid bulletin from hell. Just didn’t want to loose face in front of the Glorified Brick Layer.”

“That’s just great. You wanna be scared, go right ahead. And while you’re quivering in your boots, I’ll be using my time to actually do something productive in our fight against the First,” she sardonically admonished, subconsciously trying to get him so mad that he’d forget what they were arguing about.

“God, why can’t you just admit it? Not too long ago you were so frightened that you were about ready to give up, ‘bout to throw in the proverbial towel. Now, you’re refusin’ to even acknowledge the possibility that that fucking prophecy might actually be true!” Spike vented, throwing his arms up dramatically in the air when she didn’t respond. “What is going on, Buffy?”

The Slayer stared at her boots for a good while, knowing that her misleadingly composed demeanor would instantly crack if she glanced up at those all knowing azure eyes. “If I admit it, then it might actually happen. I don’t wanna die again, Spike,” she mumbled; her voice tight with fear and vulnerability.

Spike watched as Buffy finally let down the stone walls she had put up since they had discovered the prophecy. He had known she was avoiding the topic and he had known she was frightened. More importantly however, Spike knew that Buffy needed to admit to it before any of them could deal with the impending doom foretold by the anonymous web posting.

Walking over towards her, Spike took Buffy’s still shaking hands into one of his own while he lifted her chin so that he could gaze into those pools of emerald that generally shone with such life. The single tear that trickled down her cheek broke his unbeating heart. He wiped it away, wishing to be rid of any evidence of Buffy’s unhappiness.

“When you left the room this afternoon, Xander and I had a few words. Told him I would never deliberately hurt you and that I’d do anything to keep you from gettin’ hurt,” he frankly started to explain, making sure she didn’t misunderstand what he was saying.

“Spike, I know…”

“No, wait luv, lemme finish,” Spike continued. “Even though I said it and I meant it, deep down I don’t even know if I can keep that promise. With our not so stellar record of being good for each other and with the First being all trigger happy, I don’t know if I can promise anything. The thought of you bein’ takin’ away from me again is excruciating enough as it is, I can’t even bear the thought that I’d…” he choked, not wanting to finish the sentence.

Spike cleared his throat. “Maybe I should leave. It’s probably best. You got Red, and maybe you could give Peaches a call. He’d be here in no time if you needed him. I could go and you could be safe.”

Buffy averted her eyes from his gaze, making Spike believe her silence was an indication that she felt as he did. “I’ll leave tomorrow at dusk,” he added.

The Slayer still said nothing, an indiscernible expression on her face. Spike nodded, the grip he had on Buffy’s trembling hand loosening as he took a step back. As he pulled away, he was surprised to find Buffy still holding onto him, refusing to let go. Spike stared at their clasped hands, his eyes following up from them to Buffy’s face. If it was possible she looked even more terrified.

“Do you love me?”

“What?”

“Just answer me. Do you love me?”

“Of course I love you, you crazy bint.”

“Then that’s all that matters,” Buffy said, tugging him back toward her.

“What about the prophecy?” Spike asked, as Buffy slowly placed her hands on his shoulders.

“I remember another prophecy we encountered a few years back that also proclaimed my untimely end. And here I am, still living,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. Making sure he saw the sincerity in her eyes, Buffy continued. “I don’t care what that message says. It could literally say ‘Spike kills Buffy’ and I still wouldn’t believe it. They’re just words. I said that I believed in you and I meant it.”

“When did this lil’ epiphany happen? Two seconds ago you were scared for your life and now you’re tellin’ me you don’t care what the bloody hell the message says? Gotta say, you get over things real quick,” Spike stated, enjoying the intimacy Buffy was bestowing on him.

“Don’t get me wrong. You were right. I was freaked and the prophecy thing did throw me off for like a second but that doesn’t change how I feel about us. About you.”

“And how exactly do you feel, pet?”

Almost as though the god’s were working against the vampire, the front door swung open, revealing a very distraught Andrew.

“Buffy, Xander won’t pay me the twenty bucks he owes me,” he whined, at first oblivious to what he had interrupted. Snapping out of his bout of ignorance and seeing Spike and the Slayer in such an uncompromising position, the boy pulled out his video camera. “Hold that pose. This will be great for my segment I’m doing on you guys. I’m calling it ‘Buffy and Spike: Enemies Turned Lovers’.”

“If you press record, I swear to God I’ll smash that camera over your head,” Buffy warned from within Spike’s embrace, sending the newfound filmmaker a searing glare that looked as though it could potentially boil the geek from the inside out.

Andrew gulped and slowly lowered the video camera.

Groaning, Buffy grudgingly slipped out from Spike’s arms. “We’ll talk about this later,” she whispered to him. Spike nodded and followed after Buffy as she grabbed hold of Andrew by the collar and dragged him into the house. After ordering the ex-Trio member to go anywhere else that she wasn’t, Buffy spotted Willow and Xander waiting for her in the living room.

“Buffy,” Willow said calmly. “We need to tell you something,” she added, her voice strong and confident, devoid of its usual meekness.

Upon seeing Willow’s stern face, Buffy became instantly worried. “Uh oh. Please don’t tell me you found another anonymous posting cuz I just don’t know how much crypticness I can take in one day,” Buffy said as she made her way over to them, dispiritedly flopping down on one of the room’s sofa chairs.

“No. It’s not like that. There’s just still the one.”

“Oh. Good,” Buffy exhaled in relief, feeling the reassuring squeeze from Spike’s hand that had somehow settled on her shoulder.

“But what I have to talk to you about is kinda on the one we found today. Let me just say first of all that I’m really sorry Buffy. I hope I didn’t mess things up for the two of you,” the redhead rambled nervously, the old Willow coming through in full force.

“Willow, whoa! You wanna let us in on what’s going on?”

“I made a mistake in the translation,” the redhead squeaked out.

“Just let me know one thing, the new prophecy- better or worse?” Buffy asked.

“Depends on how you look at it,” Xander remarked, breaking his bout of silence.

“Don’t listen to him. It’s definitely better. Here look,” Willow said handing Buffy the notebook.

The Slayer scanned the page, searching for any differences between the new version and the last. Discovering the changes, she asked, “Lifeless life? What does that mean?”

Buffy suddenly felt Spike’s hand squeeze her shoulder again. “Read it out loud for us pet.”

“She and spirits will unite, but in slumber they will remain. Only to be awakened when the lifeless life kills the Tainted One. Its power initiated by the wielding. The source will find its end,” Buffy read out loud, feeling Spike’s grip gradually loosen as she finished.

“What the heck is a ‘lifeless life’?” she asked.

“You should know Buffy,” Xander answered. “You are dating one.”

Buffy instantly turned around to look at Spike. “So Spike kills the Tainted guy?” she asked, her gaze never leaving the vampire.

“That’s what it says,” Willow replied. “And for certain this time. Have I mentioned how sorry I am for messing up?”

Buffy turned away from Spike, who appeared relieved by the news, to speak to her best friend. “You did. It’s okay, Will. Now that we know what it really says, we can move on with our lives,” Buffy reasoned, peering down at her watch. “Wow, it’s late. I think I better get to bed.”

“I second that. Ancient translations really hurt Willow’s brain,” the witch stated before she made her way to the stairs. “Goodnight.”

“Night, Will. I better get going too,” Xander said, picking up his jacket and car keys. As he headed toward the front door, Buffy called out to him. “Xander, wait.”

Upon seeing Xander stop and face her, Buffy turned to Spike. “I’ll be just be a minute. Go on up. I’ll be right there,” she instructed before planting a quick peck on his lips.

“Don’t keep me waitin’ long,” the vampire replied, giving Buffy another much deeper kiss than the one she’d given him, knowing that Xander was watching them. Leaving her slightly breathless, Spike marched up the stairs, giving the two friends some much needed quality time.

“Xander…” Buffy started.

“Buffy, I know I shouldn’t have said some of the things I said. And believe me, right now, I’m suffering from major foot in mouth disease.”

“I wasn’t going to pick a fight and I wasn’t expecting an apology,” Buffy explained. “I just don’t want us being angry with each other.”

Xander could see how much he had actually hurt Buffy. It was a rare occasion when she opened up enough to let him in. So seeing her like that told him he must have really screwed up. “I’m not mad at you,” he said.

“Then what was with the silent treatment in there?” Buffy asked, pointing to the living room.

“Okay, I am mad but not at you.”

“And Spike?”

“Only a little,” he admitted.

“So if you’re not mad at me and only marginally peeved at Spike, what has got you so moody?”

“I’m mad at myself, Buffy.”

“What? Why?” the Slayer inquired, uncertain as to what her friend was referring to.

“About what I said to you. I’m mad at the fact that I might actually ruin our friendship because I can’t get over my stupid fear.”

“What fear?” Buffy asked, becoming concerned.

“That you’ll end up dead and there was nothing I could do to stop it,” he answered, his voice weak.

“Xander…”

“And I know that technically you already died. But the whole time you were gone was worst time of my life. I hated feeling like we failed you somehow. That’s why I agreed, why we all agreed to help Willow bring you back. We thought we were doing the right thing,” he explained.

“I know you did,” Buffy said, trying to put him at ease.

“And then you came back and the thought of seeing you die again…” He paused. “And then when Willow read that prophecy, I guess I just snapped. I’m really sorry, Buffy.”

“It’s okay, Xander. I understand. I’m kind of just relieved that we’re not angry with each other,” Buffy told him, giving him a hug. “And you know you’re one of the reasons why I’m still around, don’t you?”

“What are you talking about?” he asked, pulling away.

“You’re worried that I might die and you wouldn’t have been able to do anything to stop it, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, if I remember correctly, there was this one time, when I was fighting this really ugly vamp and I almost drowned…”

“The Master,” Xander interjected.

“Uh huh. As I recall, you were able to do something about it and you saved my life.”

Xander gave Buffy another hug. “Thanks.”

“Hey, what are friends for?” she responded, squeezing him back tenderly.

Once Buffy waved goodbye to the man she’d been best friends with since her first day at Sunnydale High, she bolted up the stairs. Opening her bedroom door, she found Spike staring at some of the pictures on her dresser. “Did the whelp apologize?” he asked, knowing she was staring at him.

“Yeah, he did.”

“Good,” Spike replied, placing the photo of Buffy and her two friends back down in its original spot. “Didn’t want to beat it out of him.”

“Thanks for being so civil.”

“Took all the will power I had in me to not wring his neck,” Spike exclaimed, gesturing a faux strangle to emphasize his point.

“I know,” Buffy smiled, walking up to him. “Can we go to bed now?” she asked, pouting.

“Pet, you know what that lip does to me,” Spike half-heartedly scolded.

“Yup,” she giggled. “Now get to bed.”

Slipping out of his duster and unlacing his boots, the vampire did as he was told and jumped onto the bed. “Happy?”

“Very,” she answered as she kicked off her own stylish yet affordable boots.

Before Buffy could even ask, Spike turned his back to her so that she could change into her pajamas. Suppressing a groan, he waited patiently until he felt Buffy’s side of the bed sink in. Lying down beside her, Spike drew Buffy into his arms as she pulled the covers over them.

“Can we stay like this forever?” Buffy asked, snuggling into the vampire’s chest.

“Won’t get any opposition from me, luv.”

“Hmmm…”

“Buffy?”

“Yeah?”

“You never did tell me how you felt.”

“About?”

“Us. Me,” Spike said quietly.

“Oh.”

“You said that we’d talk ‘bout it later since the boy wonder interrupted us.”

“That I did.”

“Well, it’s later.”

“That it is.”

“Luv, if you don’t wanna talk about this, we can just go to sleep. That’s fine with me.”

“No. I think that this is too important to put off.”

“Alright.”

Exhaling, Buffy pulled herself off of Spike and rolled onto her side so that she could talk to him face to face. “I know, Spike, that you love me. I won’t deny that fact anymore. And as easy as it is for you to know it and say it, I wish that were the case for me. It’s no secret that Buffy Summer’s has severe emotional issues. You of all people should know how messed up I am.” She stopped to calm herself. “Being the Slayer, coming back from the dead, loosing my mom are just some of the numerous reasons why it’s hard for me to let anyone in. Not to mention the fact that all the men in my life have left me at one point in time or another,” she paused in reflection. “Sorry, correction. All but one.”

“The whelp,” Spike filled in the blank.

“The guy who’s got no superpowers or combat training or any extensive demon book smarts is the one that sticks around. Xander’s never left. It’s partly why I couldn’t let him leave here tonight without making sure everything was alright between us. I can’t have him leave me,” Buffy explained, her voice choking with emotion.

“Pet…”

“I can’t have you leave me either, Spike. When you weren’t here last summer, I hated you so much, but God how I missed you. And I know why you left and I’m so grateful for what you went through for me, but it still hurt because you were just another person I had managed to drive away,” Buffy sniffled, wiping away a tear. “Tonight, when you told me you were gonna leave, all I could think about was how I wasn’t ready for you not to be here. I need you Spike.”

“You know I would never intentionally leave you, pet. Thought I was doing what was best,” he commented as he stroked her cheek lovingly.

“I know you were, but you can’t leave me.”

“I won’t. Gotta prophecy to fulfill now,” he joked and kissed her softly on the lips. Slowly allowing Spike to pull her back into his arms, Buffy nestled against him. “I can wait until you’re ready,” he whispered.

“I want to say it but…”

“It’s alright, luv. Now go to sleep. School day tomorrow.”

Buffy groaned into Spike’s shoulder at the thought of having to wake up in another five hours. The room grew quiet suddenly as the two of them began to fall asleep. Yet, before the vampire could slip into sweet repose, he was brought back by Buffy’s voice.

“What was that, luv?”

“Were you actually serious about having me call up Angel to help us out if you ever left?”

“Total lapse of sanity. Don’t know what I was thinkin’. Why, you’re not considerin’ ringin’ him up, are you?” Spike asked, sounding apprehensive.

“Naw, already got one souled vampire to deal with.”

“Thank God.”

“Plus, he would’ve probably self-combusted the second he found out about us,” she added.

“I’ll go get the phone.”

 

Chapter Seven: Reflection

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Buffy drummed her pencil against her desk, taking her boredom out on the small writing utensil. An exasperated huffed breath sent her blonde bangs flying. Friday afternoons were always the worst. No students had come in to see her because they were too busy counting down the minutes until the bell rang for their weekends to begin. Buffy couldn’t really blame them, though. She wanted to get the hell out of there as much as they did. Buffy sighed. She still had half an hour to kill, so tapping away at her desk was her only option to remain somewhat sane.

The quiet nature of that afternoon mirrored the theme of Buffy’s past week. In a short amount of time, she had already developed a routine for herself. She’d wake up every morning in Spike’s arms, fight the girls for bathroom privileges, race to work, advise teenagers on issues that she sometimes thought she had no right giving advice on, come home to help Spike train the SITs, go out for a patrol, go back home to crawl into bed and back into Spike’s arms. Yup, the past week had been uneventful, even a little mundane. Well except for the one day when the students had gone all wonky, the activated Evil Seal in the school basement had turned the high school into Hellmouth ground zero. But like all the dilemmas that seemed to occur every Tuesdays, she had dealt with it. A few remorseful tears from Andrew had closed the seal and cured the school of all residual evil that had been emanating from that hot spot. But other than that, Buffy would’ve considered the past week to be pretty much excitement free.

Andrew’s incessant videotaping had even diminished a bit, too. Buffy had agreed to let him record Spike’s sessions with the Potentials, since some of the girls had voiced that it actually helped with their training. She had also allowed him to videotape what he wanted so long as he didn’t get in the way. Buffy would catch him now and again, but he’d either run away or begrudgingly turn off the camera. At first she thought the whole videotaping thing was annoying and a total waste of energy, but now that she had time to think about it, it wasn’t such a terrible idea. If they did defeat the First, it would be nice to have something to look back on.

Buffy abruptly stopped tapping her pencil. Andrew’s videos were probably the only proof she had of Spike. There were no pictures or mementos that she’d collected over the years she’d known him. Actually that wasn’t true. She had kept a few things. That skull ring from when they had been ‘engaged’, a blue silk shirt of his that she had snatched and put on after one of their numerous rendezvous last year, and the silver lighter that had somehow ended back up in her possession were the only few things she had to prove that she had ever known Spike. Buffy made a mental note to pull out her camera when she got home, take a few pictures when Spike wasn’t looking. She needed at least one picture of him. Maybe she’d put it in a pretty frame and place it on her desk, so she could look at him everyday. He was her boyfriend after all.

Buffy couldn’t help but smile at the thought. If someone had told her last year that she’d truly fall for Spike, she would have directed them to the nearest insane asylum. But here she was, thinking of him as her boyfriend, which was a major milestone all of its own. Things hadn’t ended so well with her last vampire boyfriend. Yet, she knew Spike wasn’t Angel in more ways than one. Buffy chuckled at the memory from earlier that week when she had to pry the telephone from Spike’s hands just to stop him from calling Angel. He had wanted to tell her ex about them, to rub it in his face. Buffy didn’t know what it was about those two but one day she was going to stick them in a room and let them wrestle it out. Her eyes widened in excitement as she giggled. There could be some kind of oil involved…

Buffy’s eyes absentmindedly scanned the room until they landed on Principal Wood’s office door. After the whole Seal of Danzalthar debacle, she noticed some seriously weird vibes coming from the demon hunting principal. The past week, Robin had been distant and a bit of a recluse. Buffy had interpreted it as him dealing with the reality of what lay beneath the foundation of his school. Getting possessed by the seal when he had stood upon it and witnessing how easily the high school had fallen apart at the hands of the First was probably like an awakening sledge hammer to the head. She hoped that he wasn’t too completely overwhelmed, but she understood how it could take a while for the gravity of what was happening to settle in. ‘He better get out of this little funk soon,’ she reflected, nibbling on the end of her pencil, her hazel eyes still glued to the closed office door ‘before it’s too late.’

Yet, she couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t just the affects of the Seal that were playing with his mood. After she had dragged Andrew out of the basement, Buffy had noticed some sort of nonverbal macho exchange going on between Spike and Wood. It was after that night that even she couldn’t deny that there were serious tensions between those two. She hadn’t brought up the issue to either of them, but she suspected something bad must have happened to set them against each other. Buffy wanted to believe it was some sort of jealousy thing, but as much as her vanity wished it were so, she knew it wasn’t the case. Spike knew she was his and she’d only gone on one date with Wood that had amounted to little more than a fun night out. There was something else that she didn’t know about. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Robin’s mother was a Slayer, one who had died at the hands of a vampire. Perhaps because of that he had some kind of innate distrust of Spike. Wood’s feelings made sense to Buffy, and so did Spike’s. You don’t get in Spike’s face unless you want him to rip you a new one. With the exception of her, and possibly even Dawn, Spike didn’t take shit from anyone. ‘Especially,’ Buffy inwardly noted, ‘from a guy who had been zeroing in on his girl.’

Buffy looked up at the clock; a little over five minutes had dragged by. She dejectedly glanced over the door again. She had considered telling Wood about her and Spike, but she wasn’t sure how to bring it up in casual conversation. Buffy didn’t want to keep any secrets from him, especially when she needed as many people fighting on her side as possible, but his recent bout of emotional isolation and his blatant dislike of her vampire boyfriend were making it all the much harder for her to get with the truth telling. Every time Spike unintentionally came up in any of their conversations, an intense flash of anger would pass over Robin’s eyes, which was then nearly instantly replaced with a mask of somber disposition. All Buffy could do was give Wood a little time, but the clock was literally ticking and she was going to have to tell him sometime soon.

There was also one last person she had to inform. Giles. The thought made hyperactive butterflies spontaneously form in her stomach. When she had had Spike’s chip removed, Giles had nearly burst a blood vessel. He had warned her about getting close to the vampire and had said that he didn’t like the idea of how they depended too much on one another. Basically, in not so many words, Giles had told her he would disapprove of any relationship she had with Spike, romantic and nonromantic alike. At the time she hadn’t given his warnings much thought but now his words replayed in her mind, making her worry all the more. Giles was gonna flip and she so didn’t have the energy to fight him on it. She didn’t want to waste the precious time they might possibly have left debating on the issue of who she chose to date.

As much as she had enjoyed the unconventional and rare period of calmness in her life, the week had been a little too quiet. Though they were still in full research mode, there had been no new developments in the demon mist possession/prophecy department. It also made Buffy anxious that the First hadn’t reared its ugly head in a while. Being the all knowing pain in the ass that it was, it should be aware of the change in her relationship with Spike. The First could have easily triggered Spike when Buffy had been asleep with him in her bed. There were so many instances when it could have used him to get to her. But it hadn’t. The First also had to know about the prophecy. It had said it wasn’t Spike’s time yet. Maybe the First hadn’t messed with Spike because it wanted him to kill the Tainted One. Buffy suddenly panicked. What if the Tainted One was really someone fighting on their side? What if Spike killing him was a bad thing? Logic and confusion immediately sunk in. If that were true, why would he be called the Tainted One? Buffy clutched the side of her head, feeling a headache about to come on from all the neurotic thinking she was doing.

She gazed up at the clock again, still another twenty minutes to go. Buffy blankly stared at her computer, watching the minutes crawl by at the bottom right corner of the screen. After two minutes had passed, she yawned loudly and looked around for something else to do. Grabbing hold of her trusty pencil, she started to doodle a little on the multicolored notepad on her desk, making little hearts with stakes through them. Buffy was busily killing time when Principal Wood’s office door opened.

“Buffy?” he called out in an attempt to get her attention.

Buffy’s head shot up; she though he’d caught her slacking off. The casual smile on his face told her otherwise. Buffy intently looked over Wood, and smiled back when she realized that not only had he no clue how much of an unproductive afternoon she’d had but that he seemed to have gotten out of his moody slump. “What’s up?” she asked cheerfully.

“I was actually going to ask you that,” Wood good-humouredly stated, walking over to her desk. Peering down at what she was doing, he chuckled. “I guess it’s been kinda slow today, huh?”

Buffy groaned, dramatically slouching in her seat. “The slowest.”

“Go, on. Get out of here,” he gestured with the flick of his head.

Buffy however shook her hers. “I still got fifteen minutes, I can stick around for a while longer,” she unenthusiastically rationalized, feeling like it was the polite thing to do.

Wood shrugged indifferently. “If that’s what you want…”

Buffy suddenly jumped up out of her seat. “Well, if you insist,” she said quickly as she grabbed her purse before he could take back the offer. “See you Monday, boss.” Buffy waved a goodbye as she bolted out of the school, leaving a slightly bewildered Robin to only chuckle at her antics. Buffy might be polite but she wasn’t stupid. Throwing the school’s main doors open, she took a deep breath of fresh air. ‘Ah, freedom.’


********


Buffy strolled down Revello Drive, enjoying the afternoon California sun. As she neared her house, she saw a small group of Potentials heading her way. Fearing the worst, Buffy frantically sprinted to them. They looked ragged; sweating and very much out of breath. Then she noticed how uniform their running was, which made her stop and stand to watch them make their way down the street. The moment the group passed by her, some saying a few wheezing hellos, Buffy knew that they were jogging. She turned to watch them round the street corner as they went around the block. Determinedly getting back on track on her way home, she waved at another group that ran by her. ‘Why were the SITs running around town? Better yet, why weren’t they training?’

Opening the front door, she walked into an empty and quiet house. Now Buffy definitely knew something was wrong. “Dawn? Spike?” she yelled as she marched through the front hall, looking for anyone to explain to her what the hell was going on.

“In here pet,” she heard Spike’s calm voice coming from the living room. Following it, she stepped into the unusually dark room, noticing that the thick curtains had been drawn over the large window. What she saw puzzled her, yet strangely enough it also made her want to laugh out loud.

There was Spike, sitting in the middle of the big comfy couch, his feet carelessly propped up on the coffee table, with a mug of warmed blood in one hand and a newspaper in the other. All that was missing were a pair of reading glasses on the tip of his nose to make the scene complete. Buffy giggled as she sat down beside him. “Don’t you look comfy?”

Spike lowered the newspaper he’d been holding up to his lap, shifting his body to look at Buffy. “Just takin’ a lil’ break, is all,” he replied, a wide grin on his face. His sapphire eyes sparkled at the sound of Buffy’s laughter; it was so rare, he could never get enough of it.

“So what’s with the Slayer Marathon outside?” she inquired, comfortably settling against his side.

“Sent them out for a bit of a run. Little endurance training never hurt nobody,” he indifferently answered as he finished his cup of O neg.

“That’s easy for you to say. Some of them looked like they were about to plotz,” Buffy remarked, taking his empty mug and placing it on the new coffee table.

“No point in teachin ‘em fightin’ skills if they can’t last longer than ten minutes in an actual fight,” he stood firm, knowing he was right.

Buffy’s hand trailed up his muscled arm to the back of his neck, lovingly running her fingers through the short hairs she found there. “I know Spike, but you have to remember that those girls aren’t us. They don’t have my slayer strength or your vampire stamina,” she softly argued.

Spike tried not to purr like a kitten as she continued to play with his hair. “Gonna rag on the stamina now, pet?” he asked, doing that curling tongue thing against the back of his teeth that always made Buffy secretly weak in the knees.

Shaking off his attempt to distract her with his talented tongue, Buffy smacked the back of his head. “No. Just don’t push them too hard, okay? I don’t need a house load of exhausted Potentials on my hands,” she cautioned sternly, crossing her arms to emphasize her point.

“Alright, pet,” Spike caved, rubbing the back of his sore skull. “Another two laps and I’ll call them in.”

“Good,” she huffily stated. Buffy then suddenly realized that no one was watching the girls. Sure, they were in broad daylight but you could never be too safe. “Spike, you sent them out there without any supervision? What if something happens?” she fretfully wondered as she moved to get off the couch.

Before she could make a run for the front door, Spike grabbed her arm and pulled her into his lap. She halfheartedly struggled against his hold, eventually melding herself against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “I sent the whelp out with ‘em. Figured he could use a few laps,” he whispered into her ear.

Buffy let out a sigh of relief. At least having Xander out there meant someone was keeping an eye on the SITs. She peered up at the smug look Spike was giving her. “Well, don’t you have everything taken cared of?” she indignantly remarked, jutting out her bottom lip in a pathetic sneer.

Spike chuckled at the adorable display. “Look at that lip,” he said as he lowered his mouth to hers. “Gonna get it.”

Buffy pushed against his chest, dodging his every move. “Ewww. Spike, you got blood breath,” she whined girlishly as he relentlessly tried to kiss her.

“C’mon, luv. You didn’t even give me a kiss hello,” Spike complained as he flipped them so that he was on top of her.

Buffy shook her head vigorously, keeping her mouth tightly shut.

“Okay, but you asked for it,” Spike warned before he started to tickle her.

“Spike, stop it,” she panted between fits of laughter. “Please,” she squealed out a giggle.

“Not until I get a kiss,” he refused, continuing in his mission to make Buffy pee her pants.

“Fine! I surrender,” she grudgingly conceded, wrapping her arms around Spike’s neck.

Spike smirked. “Knew you’d see things my way,” he commented as he plundered her mouth with his.

Buffy moaned vociferously when she felt Spike’s tongue caress hers and smiled against his lips when he growled possessively. Soon she found herself needing oxygen, reluctantly pulling away from the kiss to gasp for air. Her eyes fluttered open again, gazing up into Spike’s lust filled baby blues. “Was that so bad?” he huskily mumbled.

Buffy groaned stubbornly. “You still have blood breath,” she obstinately retorted.

Before Spike could comment on how unconvincing her bellyaching was, Buffy’s lips were on his again, making him forget what he was about to say. Shrugging, he let the world fade away as he snogged with his Slayer. He never took advantage of these few genuine moments they had together. Who knew how long it would before it was going to be taken away from them? Who really knew how much longer they truly had?


********


On a transatlantic flight from London to Los Angeles, an anxious Englishman cradled his scotch, twirling the amber liquid around in the glass, still very much awake in a plane full of sleeping passengers. Giles’s hands trembled slightly as he took another drink, ignoring the book he had pulled out to read in the sparse light coming from above his seat, staring instead mindlessly out the small double sided window. There were no sites to be seen; only a vast black ocean below, partially hidden by the dark ominous clouds that hung loosely in the night’s sky. Giles couldn’t help but miserably smirk at the foreboding appearance of the outside world. It was actually quite fitting.

He was heading back to Sunnydale, with a few more Potentials in tow and hopefully with the perfect remedy to Spike’s trigger issue. Yet his main purpose for traveling across the pond had been to visit the coven, to see if they perhaps could tell him anything that might help them against the First. What he had discovered was more than what he had bargained for.

Two days ago Althenea had told him of one of her visions. Other than the expected insight that the First was gathering its forces and that a war was surely inevitable, she said Buffy would be consumed by a powerful force but there was one who would be her saving grace. The old yet powerful witch had informed him that a vampire with a soul would have a definitive role in their battle against the First. When the Watcher had asked her which one, she ambiguously responded by saying that she only knew it would be the one that Buffy truly loved. Althenea had also told him to beware of a man in black and to look beyond the exterior, for appearances were always deceiving. Giles had left with more questions than answers but he wouldn’t get anymore out of the coven. So he was stuck with what little information he had.

Fear gnawed at Giles’s insides, making him take another big gulp of his drink. The welcomed burning in his throat and the resulting slack in his regularly tense muscles made it a little easier to unwind, though it didn’t completely wipe away all of his dread. He needed to sleep. Tomorrow he’d be in Sunnydale and he would have to tell Buffy what he’d learned, or more like what he hadn’t learned.

Giles forlornly stared down at his empty glass. Pressing the button for the flight attendant to ask for another scotch, he went back to vacantly staring out the airplane window. The low buzzing noise of the engines and the lulling noises of soft snoring assisted his mind to wander to thoughts of sinister men dressed in black and to the vampires who supposedly loved his Slayer.

A/N:Thnx Darkezza for the super beta job!

 

Chapter Eight: Lies Buffy Told Me

The loud bell rang, as was to be expected at 3 o’clock, sounding the release of all of Sunnydale High’s students from their mundane Monday afternoon classes. It was also the signal of Buffy’s freedom, giving her the cue to run out of the school’s main office like a bat out of hell. Strangely enough however, the quasi, not really qualified guidance counselor remained seated at her desk, staring at the closed wooden door that barred her out of the Principal’s Office.

Last night in the comforting arms of her vampire boyfriend, after spending a long and tiresome day training the Potentials with Spike, Buffy had decided that she would tell Wood about them. She had been debating the issue the whole weekend, but when it came down to it, her newest ally needed to know. Buffy felt she owed him that much. If Wood was going to risk his life to help them against the First, then he should know everything, and not just her current dating status. Wood needed to know about what had happened to her in that alternate dimension, along with the prophecy they had discovered. Buffy had partly omitted certain facts because she hadn’t wanted him to become even more worried about things he had absolutely no control over. To be honest, Buffy had also been still reeling from the whole experience and had wanted to keep thinking about the whole ‘possession’ ordeal to an absolute minimum. But now thanks to Spike, she had dealt with it, or at least felt comfortable enough to talk about it to someone outside her close knit group of friends.

Taking in a deep soothing breath, Buffy pushed herself up from her desk. Taking the first hesitant step toward the Principal’s office, Buffy’s uncertainty began to kick in. ‘What if he totally flips?’ she worried, coming to a complete halt outside his door.

Buffy had no doubt in her mind that the son of a slayer would be against her relationship with a vampire. She knew he disliked the fact that Spike was even fighting on their side. How was Wood going to react when she told him that not only was she dating Spike, but that the vampire was also prophesized to somehow help her against the First? Buffy began to fidget with her hands as her second thoughts augmented her nervousness.

Abruptly stomping her foot, the Slayer growled quietly. ‘Get a grip Buffy! You’ve faced off against a Hell god! You think you could handle telling someone outside of the Scoobies that you’re dating Spike!’

Squaring off her shoulders and raising her head high, Buffy was about to lift her hand to knock on the door when it suddenly swung open, revealing a startled Principal Wood.

“Buffy, you’re still here,” Robin remarked, slightly surprised by her presence. “I would’ve figured you left the second the bell rang.”

“Uh yeah, I actually have to talk to you about something,” she minimally replied. “You know, about my other job.”

Her cryptic response snapped him to full attention, completely understanding its real meaning. Smiling to the few remaining office employees as they waved their goodbyes, Principal Wood quickly ushered Buffy into his office.

“I hope everything is alright,” Wood said as he carefully closed the door.

“Apocalypse status still the same as it was yesterday,” Buffy quipped apprehensively before shrugging her shoulders. “Still pending.”

Robin exhaled, but not completely relieved. They were talking about the apocalypse after all. “So, what’s on your mind?” he asked outright, sitting on his desk as he awaited her news.

Buffy immediately broke out into a pace, anxiously walking back and forth in the limited space of the office. “Okay. So there’s this thing I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Buffy began, twisting her fingers together nervously.

“This sounds serious,” Wood stated, concern marring his brow.

“Yeah, kinda is. Ummm, remember the vision I had when I came out of that portal from that box in your mom’s slayer kit?” she tentatively asked though she already knew the answer.

“Sure. If I recall correctly you said it was like a scene out of the Lord of the Rings, but without the cute little hobbits,” he replied, an amused grin splayed across his lips.

A disgusted look instantaneously came over Buffy’s face. “I did?”

“Uh huh,” he assured.

The Slayer ceased her agitated pacing to look up at the ceiling, incredulously shaking her head. “I really gotta stop letting Andrew pick out the movies for movie night. Next thing you’ll know, I’ll be throwing around Griffindor and Ewok references like it’s completely part of normal human conversation,” Buffy self-deprecatingly remarked.

“Uhhh…Griffin-what?” Wood inquired; clearly unfamiliar with whatever it was she was referring to.

“Uggghhh. Nevermind,” Buffy said with a defeated groan as she rubbed her forehead. “The point I was trying to make was that the vision wasn’t the only thing to come out of my dimension hopping.”

Wood grew alarmed. “You mean something followed you here through the portal?” he asked with wide brown eyes.

The Slayer considered his question carefully. “I guess you could say that,” she replied slowly.

“What was it? Another demon?” he urged her to elaborate, getting the wrong idea of what Buffy was trying to tell him.

“You could say that too,” she answered cautiously.

Wood gave her a perplexed expression, quirking an eyebrow ever so slightly. “Okay, how about I just let you tell me what happened.”

Buffy nodded. “So when I went through the portal, I met the guys responsible for creating the Slayer. To make a long story short, these guys took one part human girl and one part ‘demon spirit’, mixed them together and presto! The First Slayer,” she quirkily explained.

“Demon spirit? The slayer is part demon?!” To say Wood was surprised would’ve been an understatement. His jaw nearly hit the floor at the unexpected news.

“You could look at it that way. The slayer powers that get passed down anyway have demon origins. That’s all we really know,” Buffy continued to enlighten, all the while knowing that her little confession was no way near close to being finished.

“Wow,” Robin uttered, still flabbergasted by the revelation. It made a lot of sense when you sat down and thought about it. How else could one lone girl face off against vampires if her strength didn’t equal, of even excel their own? The implications of this newly divulged information slowly materialized amongst Wood’s chaotic thoughts. Not only did this all mean Buffy was part demon, but that his own mother had been as well. The idea was unsettling, causing his dumbstruck gawk to transform into a disturbed grimace.

Buffy sighed audibly. “Yeah. It’s definitely a wow-worthy bulletin. But there’s more,” she solemnly stated, finally deciding to take a seat in one of the office’s chairs.

“Really? Just how much have you been keeping from me?” Wood wondered, his tone still predominantly stunned, however the tiniest underlying traces of resentment could easily be detected. ‘What else could she possibly tell me? Why was Buffy hiding this from me? Doesn’t she trust me?’

Buffy bowed her head, slightly ashamed with herself. She should have told Robin a lot sooner. He was obviously offended that she hadn’t. “Ummm, well, those shadow guys I was talking about, the ones I met in the other dimension, kinda decided it was time for a little reenactment. They…they…” Buffy struggled to finish the sentence. The whole experience had been very traumatic for her. Maybe she wasn’t as over it as she thought she was.

Wood let out a throaty gasp with a few ‘Oh my God’s swiftly muttered beneath his breath. “They did to you what they did to the First Slayer, didn’t they?” he inquired, the sympathy palpable in his voice.

“Yeah,” Buffy whispered, continuing to gaze down into her lap. “They choked me full of black ‘demon spirit’ mistiness.”

“Ar-are you alright?” Wood asked, his soulful brown eyes remaining transfixed upon her, partly out of concern, but also somewhat out of curiosity.

Buffy snorted lightly. “At first I wasn’t. I was majorly freaked and in total denial, but I got through it thanks to my friends,” she admitted while mentally adding, ‘but mostly thanks to Spike.’

Robin nodded understandingly but he was still plagued by a bunch of questions. “Do you feel any different? And why would they do such a thing? Does it involve the First?”

Buffy lifted her head up to look back at him. “I feel the exact same. And to answer your last two questions, yes it has to do with the First. They said I needed the extra strength if I’m going to go up against it,” she explained, watching his face warily to make sure he comprehended what she was saying. “The weird thing is that this demon power or whatever it is doesn’t get superpowery until some prophecy gets fulfilled.”

“Prophecy?” Just when Wood was beginning to think he had a good grasp on what was going on.

“Umm…yeah…it’s actually the reason I brought all this up. Well sort of,” Buffy replied, deciding to get up out of the chair, resuming her pace of the Principal’s office.

“Well, I don’t think there’s anything else that you could tell me that’ll shock me any more than I already am,” Wood remarked skeptically.

“After I got possessed, Willow found a prophecy that said I would eventually gain these extra powers after Spike kills some baddy so that I can wield some kinda weapon. Or so we think,” Buffy quickly uttered, still roaming around the room.

Wood’s jaw finally hit the floor. “I stand corrected,” he announced. Suddenly what she had actually said slowly sank in, bringing with it the instinctive feelings of hate. Spike. The name alone made him see red. He couldn’t possibly be the hero described in the prophecy. Buffy must have misinterpreted it.

Buffy noticed the angered look distorting Robin’s usually handsome features. “What’s wrong?” she wondered. ‘He can’t be mad yet. I haven’t even gotten to the dating Spike part.’

“Are you certain the prophecy named Spike specifically to help you against the First?” Wood inquired, his voice hoarse as he tried to contain his aversion to the Slayer’s open friendship with the vampire that killed his mother.

“It said precisely that a ‘lifeless life’ would kill some Big Bad. If that ain’t Spike then I don’t know who else it could be,” Buffy retorted, making a valid point.

“But Buffy, how can you possibly believe that a vampire would ever genuinely help out the good guys?” Robin asked, voicing his blatant doubt. ‘Especially a vampire with his past,’ the principal/demon hunter mentally inserted.

“For one thing, that vampire has been fighting on my side for the past three years. He’s even helped me save the world from an apocalypse,” the Slayer rebutted, suddenly becoming very defensive. “Spike’s changed. He’s not evil anymore. He’s loyal and caring, and he does so much and barely gets any recognition for it.”

As Buffy continued to defend Spike, Wood noticed the starry eyed, far away looks she was making, even if only for the slightest second. Growing uncomfortable with what her facial expressions possibly meant Robin shifted restlessly on the desktop as he shook his head. ‘There’s no way. Buffy’s way smarter than that,’ he internally disbelieved.

“Ummm…this isn’t really any of my business but…” he began to hesitate.

‘Oh crap! How’d he figure it out?!’ she inwardly squeaked. ‘I gotta be the one to tell him first. Or else he’s gonna think I wasn’t planning on telling him at all.’

“I’m dating Spike!”

Wood remained utterly gobsmacked. He hadn’t expected her to blurt it out like that. Robin was actually anticipating some form of denial as a response to his almost spoken question. Not a confirmation to actually having a romantic relationship with William the Bloody. He was beyond bewildered. He was beyond upset. There wasn’t a word in the English language to describe how he felt.

“Y-you’re kidding, right?” he stammered out, his face void of any emotion as he stared blankly at the petite blonde in the middle of the room.

Buffy slowly shook her head. “No, I’m not,” she solemnly affirmed.

“Buffy, he’s a vampire. How can you even consider being involved with him?” Wood wondered, gritting his teeth as he tried very hard not to sound condescending.

“Spike has a soul now,” she countered, happy to see that that bit of information had prompted him to thoughtfully pause, even if only for a short moment. Before Robin could respond, Buffy continued. “Spike and I have a history, and it’s totally messed up and more complicated than anyone will ever know. No one truly gets him but me. They’re all bent up on his chip getting removed and the whole trigger being still activated.”

“Chip?”

‘Really not helping out your cause here, Buffy,’ she internally scolded. Sighing loudly as she slumped her shoulders, the Slayer began to explain Spike’s history in Sunnydale. “A military ops group few years back put a behavioral modification microchip in his brain to stop him from hurting people.”

“And it’s gone!?!” Robin asked incredulously.

“It was malfunctioning. It had to be removed or it would have killed him,” Buffy told him, fully aware that she had omitted the fact that she also had had the option to repair the small defective piece of silicon in Spike’s head.

‘Pity,’ Wood thought as he readied to pose another question. “So if it’s gone, how can the trigger still be active?”

Buffy gave a curt nod, admitting that the whole thing was kind of complex. “The trigger’s actually a posthypnotic thing. The First put it in his head. It was... made him... He was killing again,” she reluctantly admitted.

“You mean now he’s killing uncontrollably and you’re still dating him?!” Wood pushed himself off the desk, walking closer to Buffy.

“Spike was, but he’s not anymore. I can’t explain it but the First has just stopped setting him off,” she responded, crossing her arms in a poignant gesture to say that he wasn’t going to get her to change her mind.

Wood couldn’t help but take her up on her silent challenge. “Buffy, how can you have him roam around the house with all those defenseless girls, let alone form some kind of relationship with that monst—”

The Slayer instantly cut him off. “He is not a monster,” she declared sternly. “Was maybe, but the present tense of that word cannot be used to describe Spike. Everything that had happened had been completely out of his control. We’re still trying to figure out a way to get rid of the First’s hold on him.”

Robin sighed at her stubbornness. “Buffy, I know you think you know him…”

“Look,” she interrupted him again, blatantly exasperated. “I thought I should tell you since it’s only fair that you know what you’re getting yourself into. I value your friendship and we need everyone we can get in this fight but I’m only going to say this once. My relationship with Spike is not up for debate and that’s final.”

Wood immediately disregarded her resolute mindset. “Buffy, you don’t know everything he’s done. How can you just turn a blind eye?” he pushed.

Buffy squinted her eyes in aggravation. “Even before the soul, Spike has been fighting by my side. No one knows him, gets him, like I do. I admit I don’t know every single detail of his sordid past, but I do know of the sins he’s committed against me. And those were absolutely kyboshed the second Spike went out and willingly got his soul back. The trigger might still be working but we need him. Besides me, he’s the strongest fighter we have!” she informed Robin, her voice becoming increasingly higher. “The prophecy says he’s gonna do right by us. We need him. I need him. And that’s—”

“He killed my mother.”

The slapping sound of Buffy’s mouth instantly shutting echoed throughout the room. ‘I guess I’m not the only one who can blurt out secrets.’ She eyed Wood wearily. She would have expected a smug smirk plastered on his face but instead he just appeared outright devastated.

“He what?” she whispered softly.

“Spike is the vampire that killed my mother,” Wood reiterated, his mournful gaze locking with Buffy’s.

“Oh my God,” she gasped silently, covering her mouth with her hands. It all made sense now. The unexplainable hostility Robin exhibited whenever Spike was around or even simply mentioned. Buffy had chalked it up to general vampire mistrust and hate since his mother had been killed by one. She would have never guessed in a million years that Spike’s second slayer had been Robin’s mother. ‘Oh my God.’

Wood gently sneered at her reaction. “You still so sure of him now?”

Buffy adamantly shook her head. “He’s not the same vampire that did that.”

“Doesn’t wash blood off his hands though,” Robin quickly shot back.

Buffy didn’t know what else to say. She just remained staring at him, torn between feeling sorry for the man standing before her and threatening to hurt him six ways from Sunday if he even so much as considered touching a single hair on her boyfriend’s platinum head. Buffy also knew that if she said anything else, she might completely sway him from helping her out. As conflicted as she was about Mr. Robin Wood, the Slayer needed him on her side.

Wood didn’t avert his eyes from Buffy’s obstinate gaze. The Slayer was clearly being manipulated by Spike. There was no doubt in his mind. The vampire was a ticking time bomb, and she was too blind sighted by her feelings to come to terms with the consequences of what she was doing.

However, Spike’s involvement in the prophecy was a little too difficult to disregard. Maybe Buffy had made the whole thing up to protect Spike? Wood mentally discounted the notion. He knew that Buffy could never be that deceitful. What if Spike had reformed and was now, dare he say it, truly a champion of good? Robin’s plans for revenge were slowly beginning to quell. Not only did Buffy’s announcement set off his misgivings about the infamous vampire, but the fact that she was dating Spike made Wood think that the small, yet incredibly strong woman before him would probably exact some vengeance of her own if he ever tried to kill her undead boyfriend. Wood hated to admit it, but he was torn.

“So,” Buffy said, deciding to break the uncomfortable silence. “Where’s that leave us now?”

Wood smiled at her frankness. “The First Evil still trying to destroy the world?” he good naturedly asked.

“Yup,” she replied gleefully, her spirits suddenly brightened by his jovial manner.

“Then count me in,” he told her. He wasn’t about to ditch Buffy in her biggest moment of need. It wasn’t to say that his decision was entirely selfless. Allying himself with the Slayer allowed him access to the inner sanctum and her closest confidents, including Spike. What better way to keep an eye on him than to join Buffy. He would know the instant the vampire crossed the line, and Wood would be there, stake in hand.

Satisfied with his response, Buffy walked toward the door, ready to leave. She paused when Robin called after her. “Oh and Buffy? Just don’t leave me in a room alone with him. I can’t make any promises if you do,” he seriously told her as he sat back behind his desk.

Buffy understandingly nodded in silence. She waved goodbye before heading out the door, feeling a wash of relief flow over her as she eagerly scurried out of the hallway, suddenly compelled to see Spike again.

Back in his office, Wood stared at the door Buffy had just exited, their conversation still fresh in his mind. He had meant what he’d said. The moment he found the opportunity to be alone with the vampire; Robin wouldn’t be able to stop himself from avenging his mother. That much he was certain.




TBC
 

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