Fight, Fight, Fight!

Description: A Buffy/Spike stand alone fic.

Disclaimer: The characters from Buffy are not mine, sadly. They belong to the good people at Fox, the WB, UPN and of course the God of all things Buffy, Joss Whedon.

Spoilers: For season six, through Gone.

Feedback: Yes Please! But no requests for a sequel please.

Rated: PG-13

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Buffy was in the kitchen slathering her turkey sandwich with extra mayo when she felt her slayer senses begin to tingle. She rolled her eyes. "I know you're there. Honestly, you're not even trying anymore. What's the matter, never heard of knocking peroxide brain?"

"The door was open so I-"

To Buffy's surprise the voice was not that of Spike's, but rather that of a different creature of the night. She turned around. "Angel what are you doing here?"

"It's good too see you too Buffy."

She realized that her words had sounded harsh. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little surprised that's all. I thought you were Spike. Of course it's good to see you."

"Spike?"

"He has a tendency to lurk, just like you in fact. I guess lurking is a vampire thing. Wow, you look great." Buffy instantly gave herself a mental kick in the head. He looked great? Of course he looked great! It wasn't like he aged or anything. Not like her.

"You too. I like the hair."

Buffy glowed. "Thanks. Pardon me for asking again, but what are you doing here? It's the apocalypse, isn't it? We've had waaay too much time between apocalypses lately."

Angel gave a slight smile. "No, no apocalypse. Not yet anyway. There's something that I needed to tell you in person."

"Oh." Buffy had no idea what he could possibly have to say. Since he had left, they had only chatted briefly on the phone about demons, the end of the world and that sort of thing. And then there had been her mothers funeral … Buffy forced the thought of his kisses out of her mind.

"I have a son."

That was the last thing she ever would have suspected. She tried not to wig. "What do you mean 'a son'? Did you sire another vampire or …"

"No, a human son. It was a miracle, a part of a great prophesy."

That stung. A child was the one thing she had always known they could never have together. "And the mother?"

"Darla. She sacrificed herself to bring it to life."

"Does that mean you and Darla … never mind I don't want to know." Buffy scolded herself. She had no right to judge him. Not after what, or rather who she was doing.

"What happened between us was a mistake. It just happened to be a mistake that ended well. Are you angry?"

"No." Buffy had no right to be. He didn't owe her anything. She had no reason to feel insanely jealous.

"I'm glad. The other reason I came was that I wanted to ask a favor of you. If anything should happen to me, I wanted you to take care of him."

"Me?" Her resentment melted away and was replaced with a deep sense of honor. "Of course I would."

"I knew I could count on you." He gave her a hug. She hugged him back. It was nice to feel his arms around her, yet strange at the same time. They had both changed so much those last few years. It was almost like holding a stranger. A familiar stranger. "How are you?" he asked her, genuinely concerned.

"Me? I'm fine. Never better. I'm absolutely," Buffy found that she couldn't lie to her once lover, "miserable. I just feel so different lately. Nothing's as easy as it used to be. I'm all messed up inside."

"Dying will do that to you."

"And there are other things, complicated things." Buffy took a deep breath. "There's something I need to tell you about too. It's not something I'm proud of, and I *know* you're not going to like it. I've been…"

Buffy was interrupted by a knock on the door. She decided to put her confession on hold long enough to answer it. It was Spike.

"Look Buffy, we need to talk," he told her, his tone serious.

"This really isn't a good time." Buffy felt panic rising within her. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, she chanted in her mind, don't let Angel find out this way.

"It's never a good time with you. Bloody hell woman, we need to work this out. I'm not going to let you just walk all over me and …"

"Spike?" Angel appeared in the doorway.

Captain Peroxide froze. Buffy could see the pain in his eyes. "It would appear I *did* catch you at a bad time, didn't I?"

"You have no idea," Buffy replied.

Angel was oblivious to the tension between them, or if he wasn't he hid it well. "You're someone I was hoping to never have to run into again."

"The feeling is mutual, mate," Spike told his grandsire. "I should go."

Buffy actually felt bad for the blond vamp. "Spike-"

"I'll go. Sorry to have interrupted-" he couldn't bring himself to finish the sentence. Instead, he disappeared into the night.

"That was strange. Did Spike just apologize?" Angel shook his head. "I warned him about the dangers of feeding off of substance abusers."

"He doesn't kill humans anymore, remember? He's got that chip in his head."

"Oh that's right." Angel couldn't have sounded less interested. "Anyway, you were saying?"

Spike's visit had deflated her courage. "It was nothing. Forget it."

"It wasn't nothing, otherwise you wouldn't be so upset." He thought about it. "Why are you so upset? Is it Connor?"

"Who?"

"My son."

"No, it's not that. It's…" Buffy broke down crying.

Angel collected her in his arms once more. "Shhh… It's ok. Let it out."

"I don't want you to hate me."

"I could never hate you," he reassured her.

"I'm … involved with someone."

Angel laughed. "That's all? I never asked you to wait for me. I'll admit I wasn't thrilled about your last boyfriend, but I want you to be happy. I mean, it's not as if you're seeing Spike or something."

Buffy was silent. Her silence lasted a moment too long.

"That was a joke Buffy," Angel told her. He looked at her a bit closer. "It isn't Spike, is it?" Her face fell, confirming his worst fears. "It's Spike?!!! Are you insane?"

"Probably," she admitted.

"What exactly do you mean by *involved*? You're not sleeping with him, are you? You're sleeping with him!"

"I thought you wanted to see me happy," Buffy interjected.

"I do, but can you honestly tell me that Spike makes you happy? Are you in love with him?"

"I don't know. I'm confused. I don't know what I feel anymore."

"You have to break it off. Now. He's a vicious killer, Buffy. You have to know that if he ever got the chance he would turn on you."

"That's not true," Buffy said, defending Spike for one of the first times in her life. "He's had chances."

"And he's come very close to succeeding, sever al times. I seem to recall you've had chances to kill him and failing. He's strong as you are Buffy, and the next time he might not fail."

Buffy was offended, but she wisely decided to omit the fact that Spike's chip was no longer working on her. Angel was reacting badly enough as it was. "I can take care of myself. Besides, he LOVES me. I mean, he never tried to kill Drusilla." Her mind flashed to visions of Spike holding a stake up to a chained Dru's chest, offering to kill her for Buffy. "Oh, except for that one time."

"I can't be the only one who's against this. What did the others say when they found out?"

"They um, they don't know," Buffy admitted.

"I can only guess as to why," he muttered sarcastically.

"I shouldn't have told you either. Angel, it's good to see you again and I think it's great that you have a son, but I think you had better go now. I'll talk to you later, when you've had a chance to cool down."

Angel bid her farewell, leaving her alone to burst into tears once more.

* * *

Angel walked through the graveyard, positively furious. Spike, of all the filthy and disgusting things, was manhandling *his* girl. No, not his girl anymore, especially since he was falling for Cordelia. Still, he really hated that guy.

In the midst of his fuming, he forgot to look where he was going, and bumping into the very vampire he least wanted to see.

"I'm warning you Spike, you don't want to get in my way," Angel growled.

"Touchy, touchy," Spike scolded. "I hardly think you're in the position to be dishing out warnings."

Angel pushed him hard up against a tree. "Stay away from her. I mean it!"

A sly smile slowly spread across Spike's lips. "She told you. Oh, this is delightful."

"Don't think I don't know what you're up to."

"Same thing you used to be up to. Although you couldn't really handle it more than once, could you?"

Angel shoved him again. "The only thing keeping me from killing you right now is that it would bring me so much joy that I'd be afraid of Angelus cropping up."

"At least there'd be something *cropping up*. Haven't had much of that in a while, have you Angel?" Spike taunted.

"Are you kidding? I have a son."

"Good for you. The poof finally got some. Although it couldn't have been very good if you're still nobly fighting the forces of darkness."

"That's it. You had this coming!" Angel hissed.

"Why? Because Buffy's finally developed taste in men?"

"She's developed taste alright. Bad taste."

"How would you know? From what I gathered you never really tasted her, except for her blood of course."

"You're disgusting."

Spike had had enough of it. He pushed Angel away. "What I find disgusting is the supposedly loyal boyfriend which runs like a scared puppy with his tail between his legs when the going got rough. Do you have any idea what you put her through? "

"She was scarred before I ever got to her."

"Maybe, but you didn't bloody help at all."

"I loved her."

Spike kicked Angel hard in the chest, sending him flying. "You left her. I'm planning to love her and stay."

Angel picked himself off the ground. "Because you're love is just soooo pure and true. That's why she's rushing out to tell all her little friends about you two." He punched Spike in the jaw.

"Pure is boring. What's the fun in that? Then again I suppose you wouldn't know, Mr. Uninventive." Spike dodged a couple of Angel's blows, only to have his feet kicked out from under him.

Angel attempted to inflict some more damage, but Spike kicked him away, scrambling to his feet.

"You are such an insensitive jerk," Angel spat out.

"That's right. I'm a jerk that's had your ex-flame on her hands and knees begging for more and more." Angel grabbed him by his collar. Spike convinced him to let go by biting him hard on the hand.

"Dammit!" Angel swore. "I should have known you'd fight dirty."

"I'm not the only one who likes it dirty. Buffy loves it when – oh right, you said fight, not f—"

Angel had tackled him again, when the dueling vampires were roughly forced apart by strong hands. They looked up to find themselves faced with a very pissed off slayer.

"Buffy, I can explain," Spike started.

"Save it," she told him. "I can't believe I actually felt bad about tonight!"

"You did?" he asked.

"Shut up." Buffy punched him. "And you," she said to Angel, "is it your policy to beat up all my boyfriends?"

Whoa, she thought, how did that slip out?

"Boyfriend?" Spike asked with a hopeful gleam in his eye.

Angel and Buffy spoke together this time, "Shut up!"

"Look, I was just trying to-" Angel attempted to explain.

"What? Dust Spike?

"Like he could have," Spike muttered under his breath.

"I could take you in a second."

Spike tried to hit Angel again, but was forced back by Buffy. "If either of you tries anything like that again, I will stake them, understood?"

Angel and Spike both muttered reluctant agreements.

"Now shake hands," Buffy ordered.

"You've got to be bloody kidding me!" Spike protested.

"Do it!"

They shook hands.

"Thank you. Now we're not going to have anymore of these little misunderstandings from now on, are we?"

"No," they both answered.

"It was good to see you again Angel," Buffy told him. She gave him a hug. "Have a safe trip back."

"Take care of yourself," Angel whispered in her ear, leaving before he was tempted to take another swing at Spike.

"As for you," Buffy said, turning her attention to Spike, "what am I going to do

with you?"

"I don't suppose a snogging session is the answer you had in mind Luv, is it?"

"Spike-"

"Did you mean it before? About me being your boyfriend?" At seeing her frown he added, "Or should I make that ex-boyfriend?"

"I don't know. Each time I start to think that you aren't so bad you go and do something boneheaded, like this."

"I'm afraid you don't have a problem with vampires there, Pet. You have a problem with men. We're idiots, all of us. and the sooner you figure that out, the better."

"What am I going to do with you?" Buffy repeated.

"What do you want to do with me?" he asked back, his voice dripping with sexual innuendo.

She started to scowl at him, but broke into a laugh instead. She planted a kiss on his lips. "I'm still mad at you, you know."

"But of course," Spike answered, taking her hand and leading her into his lair, "*Girlfriend*."