Poof!

The last vamp of the night disappeared into a cloud of lovely dust.

"Finally," Buffy muttered under her breath. She had slipped up twice and now was left with a stab wound in both her right leg and her stomach. She was not exactly having fun today.

The walk home was quiet, as always, and the Slayer took in the lovely view of Sunnydale at night. It was pretty relieving after the recent fight. Until she felt a hand on her arm.

"Not in the mood tonight," she sighed, swinging her arm behind her. The blow knocked her attacker pretty far, but he was quick to get up.

Whoever this stupid vamp is, Buffy thought, he should not have decided to mess with me.

But before she could get a good kick in the stupid demon, he already had her in headlock. Reaching his open mouth towards her neck, he took a bite and started drinking.

Slayer instincts kicking in, Buffy knew she had to do something. Even though pain surged through almost every part of her body, she managed to pull out her stake and stab blindly behind her. Finally she felt the jaws of that vamp release as it disappeared.

With a groan, Buffy stumbled out of the alley she'd been dragged into and nearly fell over in the process.

"Guess home's a little too...far..." she gasped, trying to get a hold of herself. To her distaste, her mind calculated the only place that she could get to before dying: Spike's crypt. As if she wasn't already disgusted at the discovery of his "undying love" for her, Buffy never really had a soft spot for the guy. But even he was looking pretty good right now, considering the circumstances.

When she finally reached the graveyard, she was glad to see that the lights were glowing through the barely visible windows of the old place. Buffy stumbled over to the door and banged on it as loudly as she could.

"Don't have time to let you watch your bloody game, Clem!" the voice from inside shouted.

"Not Clem!" Buffy shouted back.

Silence.

Then rapid footsteps.

The door swung open to reveal the blonde vamp, whose face went from smug smile to extreme concern.

"What happened?" he asked, already bending down the help the slayer up.

"Long night," Buffy replied tiredly. "Look, can you just fix me up and let me outta here?"

Spike nodded, and helped her into his crypt and onto the couch. She winced as he laid her down, trying to sneak a caress of her hair in the process.

"You alright?" he asked gently.

"What do you think?" the Slayer spat back fiercely. Her voice softened. "Sorry; it just hurts a lot."

"What happened?"

Buffy thought for a moment. She wasn't sure whether or not to tell him the truth. She knew he'd see the bite on her neck, and there was no way she could make up some story about it and hope he believed it.

"Bad fight is all," she replied. "I'll be fine."

The vampire didn't reply. He just started inspecting the wound in her stomach. Buffy felt a shiver go through her body when she felt his hand lifting her shirt. She could tell he was being careful to lift it only enough to see her wound, but she still felt uncomfortable. He started cleaning it with the end of his shirt, but then he stopped.

"Be right back," he said quietly. "Need some things to clean this up."

The tall figure disappeared into the entrance to the basement (was it a basement?). Tired and still bleeding pretty steadily, Buffy waited as patiently as she could for Spike to reappear. She was about to yell for him when he finally jumped out of the little rabbit hole in the floor. She was starting to feel pretty dizzy at this point, and she wasn't really having the time of her life. But it looked like Spike had a good amount of proper bandaging with him, so she should be out of here in no time.

"This will almost definitely sting," he said softly. He pressed a wet cloth to the stomach wound. Whatever was on it, it did definitely sting. Buffy winced in pain as the burning filled her entire body. She felt the pain subside temporarily, but realized it has just moved to her leg. She figured she should probably tell him about the bite, otherwise she would end up losing a lot more blood than she already had. She didn't want any hospital crap. She just wanted to go home.

"There's something else," the Slayer said, trying to keep her best tough voice on. She pointed to the spot on the right side of her neck where the teeth marks were.

"Bloody hell," Spike said, raising his voice more this time. "You need to go to the hospital."

"No!" Buffy shouted. Then seeing him cringe at the sudden outburst, she said a little quieter, "No. I don't want them worrying about me. My friends. Dawn."

Spike only nodded to her. She guessed he didn't know what to say. He pressed the cloth to her neck and the searing pain started up again. But it didn't last long that time, maybe because the opening was smaller, so she relaxed a bit more. Now he was bandaging her, and the bleeding had stopped. But it was too late. She passed out.

Hazel eyes popped out from under the smudgy eyelids as Buffy took in her surroundings. She was in the same place as the night before (thank God), but now there was a blanket over her and some water and potato chips on an unstable table next to her. She pushed herself into a sitting position, forgetting her injury momentarily (it was really hard to forget after the feeling of scabs everywhere opening up starts to pulse through you). She almost cried out, but thankfully she didn't. Unfortunately, she saw dark, fresh red seeping through the bandages. Oh great, Buffy thought. Now I'm stuck here. She wanted so desperately to jump up and run out as fast as she could, but she knew that if she moved at all, any blood left in her system would just be gone. Now, come to think of it, though, she was thirsty. And hungry. And nauseous. And she really had to pee. And, not that she was thinking about that too, but she didn't see Spike anywhere. There was no way she was going to get up, and she couldn't just yell for his help. This entire situation was just a disaster. Maybe he was behind her and she just couldn't see. She craned her neck and turned around as much as she could without hurting the neck injury. Platinum blonde curls were peeking out from a blanket where a heap of Spike lay sleeping against the sarcophagus. He didn't seem so snarky and full of overall evil while sleeping; it seemed. He actually looked more peaceful. It was almost to Buffy as if he were a totally different person.

Silence.

Then the blanket fell off the leather duster as the vampire realized who was awake.