Title: In the Bleak Midwinter
Author: Hils
Email: ImmortalBeloved2000@yahoo.co.uk
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Takes place after All The Way and before Once More with Feeling
Dedication: To Taramisu from your Secret Spike and to Meredith for writing the fic that inspired this :o)
Summary: Sunnydale is hit by a freak cold spell

Buffy shivered from underneath her three sweaters and reached over to turn the heat up, only to find that it was already up to full temperature. This was crazy, here she was in the middle of California and there was a raging blizzard outside. It never snowed; well apart from that time the Powers made it snow to save Angel. But there was no reason for it to be happening again. Naturally the weathermen had no reasonable explanation; they just called it a freak storm. But she knew better, it came from living on a hellmouth.

Dawn came downstairs and cuddled up with her sister, the shared body warmth making the cold slightly more bearable.

"Is everyone else ok?" Dawn asked as she rubbed her hands together.

Buffy nodded, she'd managed to get hold of the others before the phone lines had gone down. Xander and Anya were safe at their apartment, Willow and Tara were stuck at the college but they were ok and Giles was safe at home.

"What do you think is causing this?" Dawn asked, trying to keep the conversation going. She found that if she talked it kept her mind off how cold it was.

"Giles is looking through his books but since he can't call to tell us what he found I really don't know."

Dawn snuggled closer to her sister. "Well, at least you don't have to worry about Slaying when the weather's like this. I can't imagine the vamps will be up to much."

Buffy nodded. "Even if they were, there's not going to be any people out there for them to feed on. It's a pity they don't feel the cold, it would thin down the numbers if a few of them froze."

Dawn laughed softly and then shook her head. "Actually, I bet they can freeze. We learnt in science that anything can freeze if the temperature gets cold enough."

Buffy smiled and ruffled her sister's hair. "Look at you, Brainy Summers. Well, that's good then, less work for me once the weather fixes itself."

Dawn's face suddenly fell and she looked at Buffy worriedly. "Do you think Spike's ok?"

A frown marred Buffy's features. She'd forgotten about him.

"I'm sure he's fine." She tried to reassure. "He'll be in his crypt out of the snow."

Dawn jumped up, starting to panic. "But what if he's not. What if he got caught outside? A-and even if he didn't it's really cold in his crypt. What if he's freezing?"

Buffy followed her sister with her eyes as she paced up and down. "Dawn, I don't think there's anything we can do for him. Look, I've known Spike for a while now. He's a survivor; he won't let something like a bit of cold keep him down. Trust me."

As Dawn turned to face her sister Buffy was amazed to see that there were tears in her eyes. "I don't want to lose him, Buffy. He took care of me while you were gone. I don't want to feel like that again."

Buffy was lost for words, it had never occurred to her just how close Dawn and Spike had become over the few months she'd been dead. The gang had told her that they'd spent a lot of time together, but she hadn't realised that Dawn thought of Spike almost like a brother. Suddenly it became important that they saved him, or at least made sure he was ok.

She grabbed her warmest coat and wrapped herself up as warmly as possible. "Ok, I'll go over to his crypt and check on him. I won't be long."

Dawn smiled with relief. "Thank you. Be careful."

Buffy smiled back. "You know me. Always careful."

Opening the door she hurried outside, trying to keep the house as warm as possible.

The icy wind blew straight into Buffy's face as she made her way to Spike's crypt, taking her breath away. She'd never known cold like it before. The snow came up to her knees, making it difficult to walk, but still she ploughed forward. Somehow Dawn's worries seemed to have passed over to her and she found herself increasingly worried for Spike's safety. She just hoped that their fears were for nothing.

As she entered the crypt she was horrified to find this it was barely warmer inside than it was outside. The only noticeable difference was that there was no snow on the ground.

"Spike?" She called, her breath forming a cloudy mist as she spoke.

When there was no answer she made her way over to the trapdoor and climbed down to the lower part of the crypt. It was in total darkness, the candles standing unlit all around her.

"Spike?" She called again, trying to let her eyes adjust to the darkness. Finally she made out a figure lying huddled beneath the covers on his bed. Hurrying over she pulled the covers back and shook him gently.

Instantly she recoiled in shock. His whole body was stiff and his flesh was like ice. Dawn had been right, he was freezing.

"Spike?" She called urgently; "Can you hear me?"

Still no answer.

Buffy knew that she had to get him warm soon or there was a chance he wasn't going to make it, assuming she wasn't too late already of course.

Pushing that thought to the back of her mind she wrapped Spike's sheets around him to try and ward off any further cold and picked him up. Fortunately the fact that he was frozen seemed to make him weigh less and despite the fact that he was frozen in an awkward position she was able to carry him with relative ease.

Bracing herself she carried him up the ladder and made her way back out into the cold

Dawn's head shot up as Buffy burst through the door with a bundle in her arms.

"Spike?" She asked, a slight tremble in her voice as Buffy set him down on the couch. For the first time the Slayer got a proper look at him and it didn't look good. His skin was a blue/grey colour and his hair was encrusted with ice. His eyes, half-open, stared ahead blankly. He looked like a corpse, one that wasn't undead.

"Dawn, get some blankets. We need to get him warm." Buffy instructed as she made her way into the kitchen. They didn't have any blood handy but she could certainly fix him something warm to drink

As the kettle boiled she went to check on Spike and found Dawn busy wrapping him with the blankets.

"Is he going to be ok?" She asked fearfully, not looking up from her task.

"I don't know." Buffy replied honestly. "But we'll do all we can to help him, I promise."

Once Spike was wrapped up Dawn put some more wood on the fire and between them the two sisters moved the couch so that it was as close as possible without risking burning the house down. To add the final touch they packed as many hot water bottles as they could around the frozen vampire.

Now all they could do was wait.

Half an hour passed and slowly Spike began to show signs of improvement. His stiffened body went limp beneath the blankets and his skin lost its blue colour. However, his eyes had closed and there was no sign of movement from him.

"Is there anything else we can do?" Dawn asked as she ran her fingers through his hair which was now damp where the ice had melted.

"I don't think so." Buffy replied. "Not until he wakes up anyway."

Dawn yawned. "I think I'm going to try and get some sleep. Will you wake me up if there's any change?"

Buffy nodded and her sister made her way up to bed.

She studied the vampire lying beside her.

"When you wake up I'm going to kill you for scaring us like that." She teasingly scolded. The truth was she had been worried about him, and not just for what losing him would do to Dawn. She'd come to look on him as a friend, someone she could trust. He seemed to understand her on a level that none of her friends did. So much so that she trusted him with her deepest secrets and feelings.

Reaching out a hand she gently brushed over his cheek, his flesh was still colder than normal but at least it wasn't frozen.

"You have to pull through this, ok?" She said. "Dawn needs you...I need you."

She wasn't sure what made her do it, but she lowered her head and kissed him gently, ignoring how cold his lips felt against hers.

As she pulled away Spike suddenly gasped and sat bolt upright, looking around with frantic confusion. Then he began to shiver violently.

Instantly Buffy wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, trying to warm him in any way she could.

"It's ok." She soothed gently. "Shh, it's ok."

After a few minutes he seemed to calm a little and pulled back to look at her, still looking disorientated.

"Buffy? How did I get here? What happened?"

Wrapping another blanket around him she told him the short version of the story. That she'd gone to his crypt to make sure he was ok, had found him frozen and had brought him home with her.

He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it gently. "Thank you, I don't think I would have lasted the night without you. I tried to stay warm in the crypt but by the time I realised it wasn't working I could hardly move. What the hell is causing this anyway?"

Buffy shook her head. "We don't know. Giles was in research mode but the phone lines are down so we don't know what's going on."

Spike groaned and lay back down. "If it's not one thing it's another in this bloody town."

With a smile Buffy stood up. "Want some hot chocolate? It'll help warm you up."

Spike nodded. "Sure, that sounds good. I would help but since I can't feel my feet I don't think walking is an option at the moment."

"Take your boots off." Buffy called from the kitchen. "It should help."

Spike did as he was asked and placed one of the hot water bottles over his feet. Sure enough they soon began to warm up and by the time Buffy brought the hot chocolate through he could feel his toes again.

"Feeling better?" Buffy asked as Spike sipped his warm drink. The two of them were now curled up on the couch together, making the most of the fire and the blankets.

Spike nodded and drained the contents of his mug.

Buffy smiled. "Good...I was worried about you."

Spike looked genuinely shocked. "Really?"

"Really." Buffy took a deep breath; suddenly she felt that she had to say this. "And I would have missed you if you hadn't made it. I'm getting kind of used to having you around."

Spike smiled. "Is that right? You should know I'm pretty hard to get rid of."

She couldn't help but laugh as she thought back over all the times she'd actually tried to get rid of him, yet here he was. Somehow they'd gone from being enemies to being friends, and somewhere along the way he'd fallen in love with her. Even after that she'd tried to push him away, but he was just as stubborn as she was and now here they both were. Spike had seen her at her best and at her worst, yet he still loved her. Riley and Angel had both left her for different reasons but that didn't matter, the point was they had left and Spike hadn't. Even when she'd died he'd stayed.

Looking at him she found she no longer saw a vampire, but a man. One who loved her more than anyone else had and one she found herself loving back.

"Spike." She began; not entirely sure how she was going to say this. Finally she came to the conclusion that actions spoke louder than words and she reached over and pulled him into a deep kiss. Spike stiffened for a second before relaxing against her and returning the kiss.

Finally they parted and Spike grinned. "Well, you certainly know how to warm a bloke up, pet."

Buffy smiled and squeezed his hand. "Let's just say I had an epiphany."

Leaning in for another kiss they were distracted by the phone ringing.

"Well, the lines are back up." Buffy announced as she got up to answer it. "Hello?"

"Buffy, it's Giles. I'm not sure what happened but a moment ago the snow stopped and the temperature is rising by the second. It seems that whatever was causing it has stopped. I was just calling to see if you'd been out patrolling and had slain something."

Buffy shook her head before realising he couldn't actually see her. "Nope, I've been here all night. Well.... I went and got Spike from his crypt but I didn't slay anything."

"Spike's with you?" Giles sounded mildly surprised.

"He was freezing, I brought him here to warm up."

"She did a good job too." Spike called with a smirk and Buffy motioned for him to be quiet.

"Well, never mind." Giles said, either not having heard Spike or choosing to ignore him. "The threat appears to be over, whatever the cause was. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Ok, Giles. Bye."

As Buffy sat back down Spike wrapped his arms around her. Now that he finally had her he didn't want to let go.

"What did he want?"

"Storm's over." Buffy replied, enjoying the feeling of his arms around her.

"Now, where were we?" Spike asked, leaning back into her.

"About here I think." Buffy replied just before their lips met.

As Buffy lost herself in Spike's embrace she couldn't help but think that the higher power's had some sort of love for snow. Not only had they used it to save Angel in the past, but it seemed to her that they'd used it again now to help her find her new love. Somehow in her heart she knew that this time they'd got it right.

The End