It had been almost a month now, since Buffy had returned from the grave.

She was finding it hard to cope with life. She had been brought back by Willow & Tara, and had found her friends wanting Buffy to be the same old strong, fast, clever and fierce slayer she had been before. But she was different now, and nobody seemed to understand except Spike, her least favorite person. She found herself trusting him and spending a lot of time with him. He was helping her patrol and also helped by looking after Dawn. But no matter how much Spike helped she still couldn’t deal with all the strain and stress of being a mother to Dawn, and she felt herself trying too hard. Life was tough.

Every one seemed to notice how Buffy was quiet and distant, and they just didn’t understand why. Dawn was always upset at how her sister had changed, and everyone was always reassuring her that they were there for her, but she didn’t need them, she didn’t know what she needed.

That night as Buffy, Xander, Anya, Willow, Tara and Dawn sat eating dinner, Buffy’s mind traveled off to heaven, the beautiful place she had once been. She was so at peace there, no troubles and no worries. They had all thought that they saved Buffy, they all thought that she had been in Hell, they didn’t know the truth. Nobody knew where she had been, except Spike, she had told them that she was in Hell, to spare their feelings. And Spike had been there for her, she told him about heaven, he comforted her and she felt safe and loved with him. Spike told no one the truth, Buffy would never forgive him.

“Hey Buffy” Xander yelled, “Where are you, off on another planet.”

Buffy didn’t even hear.

“Buffy”

This time she heard and quickly turned to see everyone staring at her,

“What?” she asked confused.

“You haven’t even touched your dinner, what’s up?” Xander asked curiously.

“I guess I’m not hungry” she said as she pushed her plate away.

They were all quiet.

“I think I’m gonna go for a walk.”

Buffy got up and walked to the door,

“Hey want some company?” Xander’s heart ached when he saw Buffy like this.

“No, I think I just want to be alone.” Buffy walked out the house leaving them all just sitting there.

Buffy walked for a while, just wondering. Until she found herself walking to a place she often went to before patrolling. Spike’s door was open so she let herself in.

“Spike?” She yelled, and with getting no response, she tried again, “Spike?”

A loud thud came from downstairs that made her jump.

“Who’s there?” asked a suspicious voice.

Buffy giggled, sometimes Spike was so dumb,

“It’s me,” she yelled.

“Buffy? Come down.”

Buffy walked to the ladder and climbed down. She got a tingly feeling when she saw him putting on his shirt, ‘he was so muscular, but not too muscular like those huge body builders.’ She got a big fright when she realized that this was Spike she was thinking about and quickly pushed the thought out of her mind.

He turned and smiled at her, ‘and it took her breath away, lately she seemed so attracted to Spike, well since she came back. Buffy was scared of her feelings, life was complicated now. It was easier when she could hate Spike and beat him up, now she felt differently about him, she thought of him as a friend and maybe even more.’

“I was going patrolling and wondered if you wanted to come?” She asked quietly.

He smiled again, ‘God she was beautiful, he could never explain how much he loved her.’

He always loved the fact that she could come to him, and that he could help her. He was surprised when he became her friend, thrilled. He never expected anything more.

“Sure, just be a minute.”

She sat down on his couch, and dust flew up. She waved her hand around in front of her face, she hated getting dust in her eyes.

“Don’t you even dust or at least sit on this couch occasionally?”

He looked insulted,

“Well bloody hell don’t sit there then, and anyway it’s not my fault that this is a dusty old crypt which happens to be situated underground.” He said sharply.

She just glared at him. And then they both burst out laughing, this was the first time that day she had smiled, let alone laughed. He was so funny sometimes, even when he was a jerk.

Spike put on his long leather jacket,

“Come on then, lots of nasties to turn into dust”

Buffy got up and followed Spike up the ladder and toward the door. The crypt looked better now, homier.

It was a quiet night, no vampires and no evil monsters. They strode along in silence.

The grass was wet, and so was the pathway, it had just finished raining so the cloud were scattered around the sky. It was a beautiful night. Suddenly Spike got this feeling that they were being watched, not from afar but from to close for comfort. Spike always had a sixth sense for this stuff.

Suddenly a huge creature leapt out of the shadows and flew towards Buffy, quick as a flash Spike grabbed Buffy and flung her out the way. She landed on the grass with a thump. The huge beast landed on Spike and Spike fell to the floor with a thud. This was no vampire, but a huge wolf-like creature, with long fangs, which had attached themselves to his arm. He struggled with the creature and thew it into a tree trunk. Spike got up and ran towards Buffy who was still a little shocked. The beast jumped up and ran towards Spike and attached itself to his leg. He yelled out in pain as the creature’s teeth tore into his flesh. It then threw him onto the ground and started to snap at his face. Its teeth were dripping saliva and he could see some blood on the tips, and its breath was revolting. Just then a sword came down and severed its head off. Spike looked to see Buffy standing with the sword in her hand.

“Never leave home without it,” she said with a smile on her face. She held out her hand and pulled Spike up.

“Bloody good thing too.”

Buffy started to pull Spike up and flinched at the pain. Spike takes her arm carefully in his hands.

“Nasty cut luv, hang on a sec.”

Spike reached down and tore a piece off his shirt,

“What are you doing?” Buffy asked quite surprised,

“Well I suppose you want to drip your blood everywhere now huh, especially when a hungry vampire is dressing your wounds?”

“oh well I wouldn’t worry about that vampire, he’s just like a circus lion, all scary on the outside but a little kitten on the outside.”

Spike just laughed. He tied the material around here arm, and then reached down and pulled a safety pin out of the top of his boot.

He smiled up at her,

“Never leave home without it, never know when there might be a damsel in distress.”

She laughed, ‘maybe Spike had changed’ she thought to herself.

Spike gently patted her arm to make sure it was tied on tight enough. He grabbed her hand and led her to a tombstone, and sitting her down on it said,

“You stay here, I’ll be back in a second.”

Spike ran into the darkness, without a word of explanation, Buffy was just about to say something when he disappeared into the shadows. Why she bothered she didn’t know.

A few minutes later the roar of a motorbike’s engine filled the cemetery; she looked up surprisingly to see Spike.

“Need a lift?”

Buffy Stared at him as if he was insane,

“Since when did you get a motorbike?”

He smiled cunningly,

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

Buffy looked at it warily, there was no way she was getting on that thing. Then she saw his pleading eyes, she jumped on and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Spike handed her a black helmet,

“Don’t want anything to happen to that pretty little head of yours now do we?”

Even though she would usually feel petrified on the back of a motorbike, she felt safe and secure. With a hint of excitement.

“Where we going?” She shouted to him over the rev of the engine.

“To the hospital, that cut looks like it may need stitches or a tetanus shot from that big ugly dog, you never know what disease it may have.”

Buffy was surprised at his answer but relieved, her arm was beginning to hurt a bit.

The motorbike sped away swiftly with her on the back, clinging on to Spike.

She was thinking of the old days, the days when they had all despised Spike, the days when he was evil. Angel was good, not by choice but because of a curse for his soul to return, Spike was good because he chose to be, he had no soul but still helped and could even love her. She was so mixed up in emotions and memories. She felt so safe that she gently laid her head upon his shoulder and felt herself slip away into unconsciousness.

Willow and Tara sat on the couch watching TV, Willow was sad, she was slowly but surely loosing her best friend, Buffy. Buffy was so different, she was withdrawn and nobody seemed to be able to get through to her. Willow was surprised that Spike hadn’t come to visit lately, maybe he was over Buffy. Unlikely story. Maybe she would go and see him tomorrow, she knew he went with Buffy when she went on patrol, maybe she said something to him?

Suddenly her trail of thought was lost when the phone rang. Willow jumped up at the thought that something might be wrong, that it was the hospital and that something had happened to Buffy. Luckily it was only Xander asking if Buffy was back yet. It seemed that they were all worried.

Spike was speeding down the road and enjoying the fact that Buffy had her arms around him when suddenly an uneasy feeling came over him. Why had Buffy’s grip loosened and why was her head drooping off her shoulder? Spike pulled over to the side of the road. He turned to look at her,

“Buffy?” she didn’t answer, “Buffy?” still no answer

Spike climbed off the bike carefully not letting her fall off or over. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, “Buffy, speak to me!” Spike started to panic, ‘this couldn’t happen, not again” he looked for a pulse and found one, and she was breathing, Spike sighed a sign of relief. The he noticed how much her wound was bleeding, he got back onto the bike and pulled Buffy onto his lap, so that she wouldn’t fall.

He got to the hospital a minute later, lifting her into her arms he made his way up to the reception,

“You’ve got to help me, please!”

The receptionist saw the blood dripping off her fingertips and onto the floor, and in a second a group of Doctors and Nurses filed into the hallway. Spike lay her carefully onto the hospital bed. The doctors left him standing there, outside the theatre. He felt so lost.

Willow and Tara were still watching TV when the phone rang once again, Willow got up.

“Hello?”

“Willow I’m at the hospital.” It was Spike and she could tell right away that he was panicking.

“What’s wrong, Spike where’s Buffy?”

Spike sighed heavily.

“Don’t be such a twit, where do you think she is? You don’t think I’d be in hospital.”

Willow was alarmed at the amount of strain he had in his voice, his insults weren’t so blunt and harmful.

“We will be there right away.”

“Don’t worry too much it’s not that bad, I just thought I’d let you know.”

And with that he put down the phone. Willow grabbed her coat and her and Tara went off to fetch Xander and Anya.

The Doctor came to Spike,

“Miss Summers will be fine, she just needs some rest and relaxation.”

Spike never felt so happy, well except for when Buffy rose from the dead, but he was ecstatic!

“One other thing, her heart, it beats very slowly, it’s strange really, a normal girl of her age and physical appearance, her heart should beat much faster, even yours does I suppose.”

Spike just laughed, he highly doubted that.

“Oh that’s normal, nothing out of the ordinary.”

Spike began to walk away when the doctor noticed his limp.

“What happened to your leg?”

“My leg, oh my leg, it’s nothing, nothing at all.”

Spike said as convincingly as he could.

The doctor walked up to him and knelt down, lifting Spike’s pant leg as carefully as he could, he examined his leg.

“Well, nothing…I think not. You need stitches right away.”

Spike walked slowly backwards, inching his way towards the door.

“Uh, no, it’s fine.”

The Doctor signaled to a nurse and the nurse shoved him down into a wheelchair,

“Well you could loose your leg and I’m not taking any chances, I don’t want to risk being sued.”

The Nurse pushed a needle into his arm, immediately Spike felt drowsy and fell asleep.

Willow, Tara and Dawn reached Xander’s house a few minutes later. Tara had called on the way there to fill them in on what had happened. Xander and Anya were waiting outside and ran to the car and jumped in behind Willow and Tara.

“What happened, do you have any more news?”

Willow shook her head,

“Spike only called then and that was the last I heard.”

Xander punched the seat in front of him,

“If Spike has done anything to hurt her I swear I’ll….”

Willow cut him off in mid sentence,

“Spike would never do anything to hurt her and you know it.”

Xander considered this,

“Maybe he’s gone bad again.

Anya shook her head,

“Do you honestly think he would take her to the hospital if he had tried something?”

Xander was surprised; even Anya was sticking up for Spike.

They arrived at the hospital and ran inside,

“Excuse me, but a young woman came in with…with, I don’t know what with, her name is Buffy Summers.”

The receptionist smiled at him,

“Of course she came in about an hour ago, she had a severe cut or wound to here upper arm, she just passed out from blood loss, so don’t worry about it. She’s is sleeping but you can go and see her, she’s in room 302.”

Tara thanked her,

“Thank you, but w where is that?”

The nurse explained where it was and they walked quickly along the corridor.

Outside the room they all peered in and were surprised not to see Spike. Buffy was fast asleep and was tossing and turning.

They all walked in slowly,

“Buffy, are you awake?” Dawn asked quietly.

Buffy turned over and opened her eyes,

“Hey”

Dawn embraced Buffy, She was relieved to see that Buffy was ok.

They each in turn gave Buffy a hug, showing how grateful they were for to still be alive.

She looked around carefully at everyone around her,

“Where’s Spike?” she asked looking at each one of them.

Xander clenched his teeth,

“He better not show his face around here for a while, make that forever.”

Buffy stared at him,

“What are you talking about, Spike was the one who saved my life.”

They all stared at her with amazement,

“You mean he didn’t do this to you?” Xander asked shocked.

Buffy giggled,

“Spike, you think Spike did this to me? Spike would never hurt me.”

She began to laugh even louder.

Dawn nodded her head in agreement, She and Spike had gotten very close while Buffy was away. Spike seemed to be the only one who understood her, everyone else was too wrapped around in their own problems to be there for her. If Spike hadn’t been there she would not have survived

Xander looked confused,

“Well what happened then, why are you in here if Spike didn’t do this.”

Buffy began telling them the story about the beast, and Spike throwing her out of the way.

They were all amazed at Spike, he really did care about her.

“Well then why isn’t he here, why did he leave?”
Buffy shrugged, Spike always did things like this, so it didn’t surprise her.

The nurse came in,

“I think you should let her get some rest now.”

They all nodded and hugged her again,

“See you tomorrow, just call when you want picked up.”

Buffy smiled at them as they walked out, she glad to have them as friends. But something else was bothering her, Spike. Where was he?