Light grew into darkness as his consciousness faded away. His last ounces of strength were oozing out onto the concrete floor where puddles of blood had already formed. He did not want to add to it further. Spike was lying flat on top of a stone coffin, which was cold and extremely uncomfortable. He kept thinking to himself that he did not want to be lying there but unfortunately for him that was the way that things had to be.
There was no chance of him being able to move easily in his current condition. The vampire was thankful that he had been able to drift to sleep in the knowledge that Buffy knew the truth about his feelings for her and her sister Dawn. The soft kiss that had touched his lips only half an hour earlier had sealed that understanding and bond between them. Both sides of earthly existence both dead and undead had somehow managed to learn something from today and they bore the images of what the costs were to gain this information. Spike's torture wounds and Buffy's ignorance intertwined to form a memory. He thought to himself that the robot was much less comforting than the real thing. Spike held onto this thought as he tried to lift his head up from his makeshift sleeping apparatus, if it could be called so. Again, the pitiful attempt was unsuccessful resulting in him bashing his head hard upon the casket finalizing the job that Glory wanted to do and causing a death like sleep.
Buffy arrived home at Revello Drive feeling embarrassed; the costume was totally wrong. She looked at the mechanical representation of herself like a reflection. She could have sworn that the thing's boobs were bigger than hers were. She wondered if Spike had ever asked the thing to play strip poker. Dawn's comments about it being something for Spike to play checkers with were to say the least, not as inaccurate or childish as they once had been. Buffy had images of the robot pole dancing naked along the beams of Mr. Platinum's crypt, while he stuffed kittens into its breasts. They drowned in the F cups and squirmed and then they had sex. Men are such horny bastards, but at least if you want Frigid Fridays, you could always give Angel a call and pop down to LA. Angel Investigations never got much work on Friday for some reason. Surely, Warren and the gang could have made a better model. "I bet Madame Tussard would have done better," she thought to herself. Then again she could never understand Spike's intentions. Maybe the thing was just a make do after all?
The slayer suddenly forgot why she had returned home. She was about to remember when Giles entered the living room from the kitchen. "Buffy, what happened? Please don't tell me that there's dust," he inquired with intent on discovering the full story about Buffy's journey to Spike's crypt.
Buffy turned around to answer "He didn't tell glory about Dawn. I guess I owe that Johnny Rotten look-alike big." A wave of guilt passed over her as she realized the enormity at what her enemy had done for her and the sacrifice that he had made.
Giles looked at her expectantly. "Don't you think that you should tend to him. He looked rather immobilized when I brought him back to his-" he paused, "erm, mess earlier and he was in quite a mess himself."
Buffy could see that Giles was trying his best to hide his tears. "Giles bring me some bandages and herbs and ointments well anything you can find and tell Dawn to prepare the guest room" She rushed her words.
Giles smiled in the affirmative and made his way out of the house towards the Magic Box to get his supplies.
"I'm going to see him" Buffy looked at herself, "But first I've got to get out of these clothes. Oh and Giles? Bring me a stake just in case."
Giles looked rather shocked but realized that precaution was better than potential death even though there wasn't any chance of Spike doing anything with half his chest torn apart and partial blindness. His catalogue of injuries would make a great training tool for potential watchers. He was surprised that anyone, even an immortal , would be able to put up with so much pain.
Buffy ran upstairs to her bedroom making sure that noone could see her. Through the windows she saw someone pass by. She closed the curtains in a hurry, wondering what to wear. The doors to the wardrobe were opened and a hundred different outfits were spread upon the bed. Eventually, she settled upon a cream jumper and brown trousers. Buffy put her coat on, grabbed a handful of warm blankets from the bottom drawer, and headed to the living room to wait for Gile's return.
Giles arrived twenty minutes later with a box full of goodies for Spike. Buffy took the box of first aid supplies and said "Thanks Giles, you're not such a bookworm after all" and left the house and ran to the cemetery where the crypt was.
The door to the crypt was damaged and covered in blood. Xander and Giles had struggled to get the vampire back to his home where they had dumped him onto the Sarchogus. The slayer observed the surroundings and stepped back in shock at the amount of red fluid on the floor and on the crimson object on top of the stone in the centre of the room. She realized that red thing was Spike. "Oh my God! How could I leave you like this?"
He did not seem to be in as bad a way when she had first seen him disguised as the Buffy-Bot. It was then when she had discovered his true form, the monster was not a monster anymore; he was almost human. She looked at Spike's face. It was covered in heavy, black bruises and his head bore a large gash just above his eyebrow scar. She thought that he would have many more scars to show after he had eventually healed and not even a doctor would be able to estimate how long that could take, perhaps a month even. Buffy made a list of wounds in her mind as she scanned from the top of his head to the bottom of his torso.
Open bleeding cut on the forehead, heavy bruising and swelling to the left eye, no way can he see through that, the right isn't much better. Cuts to both cheeks and under each eyelid, a busted lip and the nose is not faring well either. Minor bruising to the neck. A massive hole on one side of the chest, looks like someone's fingers have been poked through it, Major burns, three stokes by a sword or knife, hot poker wounds. In addition, that was just what she could see through Spike's torn T-shirt; she would need to remove his clothes to look at his back and legs.
Buffy moved in closer towards Spike, she ran her fingers through his hair as she tried to rouse him. "Spike, Spike, wake up I need to get you out of here", he did not stir, he was totally out cold. She continued to soothe his head by rubbing it then moved her hands away, it was comforting, but disgusting, full of goo and he smelt of putrid, congelealed blood and possible infection. A warm bath was what he needed, but Spike had not connected water to his Crypt yet so she would need to take him home. He was too heavy for her to lift alone though so she would need help. Xander and Anya were nowhere to be seen and Giles she guessed was helping Dawn, so she rang Willows number on her cell phone and asked her to assist with getting Spike back to Revello Drive, The witch said she would be there as soon as she could and hung up.
Buffy could not believe that anyone could have done this to Spike. He had done a lot of evil in his time, but even that did not merit this kind of treatment. Why couldn't she see the good that was inside of him? All she could do was to make him feel as comfortable as possible. How long had it been since Spike had eaten? It must have been quite a while since he was paler than usual and looked thin, Glory had drained him of any nourishment that he had inside of him, so she could tell that the first thing he'd need would be extensive feeding. The more blood inside the body, the faster it would heal. Buffy thought about offering Spike some of her own, but then she remembered that maybe this was not such a good idea since he was trying to wean himself off human blood and this might make him want to kill again. The chip in his head, which sent shocks through his brain anytime he tried to attack humans, would not be able to stop him, especially if since he has the strength to survive the beatings of a God.
She rolled up one of the blankets she had brought with her and placed it under Spike's head; she noticed a slight smile upon his face, which must have meant something, must have been telling him that he was now in safe hands. She kissed his cheek and made her way down to the lower level of the Crypt to see what she could find lying around to take back with her to her home. She noticed a bed in the corner, which looked of reasonable comfort. The slayer wondered why Angel's Grand sired was not stretched out upon it and not on the cold stone upstairs, then she realized that he was in no position to move. Buffy continued to walk through the room and saw a fridge and a microwave, "So he does have electricity" she murmured as she opened the fridge door and pulled out the last bag of pig's blood. "I'm going to need more," she thought whilst closing the door and making a tear in the bag so, that she could pour it into a cup. When she had done this, she placed the cup into the microwave for a minute and a half, she repeated this until the bag was empty and she had three cups full of liquid. Buffy knew that she did not have any blood at home so she would need to make another phone call; everyone else was occupied with something so she reached again for her cell phone and called Tara at college.
Tara answered the call. "Hello" she said. "
"Tara, don't ask questions but I need you to go to the butcher's shop and get me twenty quarts of blood and hurry" was the reply at the other end of the phone. "But Buffy" She answered, recognizing the voice, "That's a lot of money and I'll get a few stares, what's this for?" Buffy was angry, "Don't care what people think, that's your business, I need you to do this, desperately, I'll pay you back, In fact I'll need, more blood, come to my house, and be quick, Make up some story to get out of class, go" Tara was confused, "Well, I have a free period now, my lecture finished a while ago, Buffy you sound frightened and pretty muddled, are you okay? What's wrong?" The response to this was, " I said no question's just go, please, go" Buffy put the phone down on Tara as the witch decided that she'd better do as the slayer said or else she'd be looking at the PMT version of Buffy when they next met.
When the phone call was in progress, Buffy was struggling up a ladder to the upper level of Spike's crypt with a cup of blood and a phone in one hand, she was moaning at Tara whilst trying to avoid spilling red goop onto her jumper. She eventually got up towards the injured guy and settled the cup down onto the coffin lid as she ended the conversation and switched off the phone. She then descended the ladder and brought the other two cups of blood back up with her placing them down beside the third. Buffy looked at Spike and saw that he was coming round. She was glad; this meant she did not have to throw a bucket of water on him although at least it would have cleaned the blood up a bit.
Spike's head was spinning round and he could not tell where he was. All he could hear was a familiar voice asking him to drink something as a cup was placed in between his lips. The movement of the china against them was painful and it was difficult to open his mouth because it was so swollen, but somehow he managed to feel soothing, warm delicious liquid move down his throat. Some of it dribbled down his chin and he spluttered the rest out as suddenly the liquid touched a sensitive part if his inner body and it burned like hell. He felt comforting arms cradle him back to his senses as he writhed in pain and a cool, wet cloth washing away the stuff he'd spit out upon himself. He felt like a baby, but a part of him enjoyed it. He could not move very easily anyway, so he did not have a choice. Spike managed to get some more of the liquid down him then saw three empty cups through the eye that did not look like Puff Daddy, black and swollen and before he could realize who was caring for him he gave them a grateful look and drifted back into unconsciousness.
Buffy was glad that Spike had drunk all the blood, even if half of it was brought back up again, she had to accept that this was another top that was ruined as Spike had spewed all over it. She wasn't sure if he'd known the full extent at what he'd done, it, would take ages to clean up what he knew as a house now he'd added to the mess on the floor. For now though, she concentrated on getting Spike's face cleaned up before she moved him and she needed something to do, whist waiting for Willow who could be a while yet.
She opened up the first aid kit and grabbed another clean cloth and some antiseptic wipes from the box. She poured some lukewarm bottled water that she had used to wet the other cloth she had used to clean Spike when he was drinking blood over the new cloth. She placed it over Spike's most injured eye and bathed it until most of the blood had gone, she then did this for the rest of his facial wounds, he already looked slightly better than before. Buffy put the cloth away, used the antiseptic wipes to finish cleaning the facial cuts, and then rubbed an alcoholic solution over them. "Right now there's just the bandaging to do" Buffy thought to herself with pleasure in the fact that she was doing something to help the vampire that had helped her sister. She put gauze and surgical tape over the large cuts on his forehead and plasters underneath his eyelids to prevent further bleeding and then put antiseptic cream over his mouth. She wrapped a bandage around his head and got a cotton wool patch ready. His eye was the main thing that needed taking care of. Spike seemed to be in agony from it and looked as if it was about to burst. She rummaged in the box of supplies for something to help keep the swelling down and she saw that Giles had really thought about what to put in it, she had everything that she could possibly need neatly placed inside the container ready to use. Giles was always dependable in an emergency. She saw that there was a hot compress in there and so she lifted it out and placed it over the injured eye. Spike's agonized face was beginning to soften as soon as she wrapped it in place with further bandages like an eye patch.
Willow entered the cemetery carrying a bottle of potion with her in a shoulder bag; she stumbled into the crypt where she saw Buffy trying to lift Spike. Buffy looked at her in annoyance. "Where have you been? I've been waiting ages". Willow was disappointed with herself "I tried to get here sooner but I was stopped by some drifter asking for change and then his piccolo playing friend asked me to dance with him for money" Buffy knew who Willow was talking about, the flute playing man, he was a piccolo man by day and a gigolo man by night, "Couldn't you just toss him a quarter and be done with it?" A voice said in the background.
Spike awoke somewhat dreamily and heard voices but saw nothing, he was practically blind. "Who's there, that you Red?" He asked. "Hey" Buffy said, "Stay quiet or you'll be hurting again?" Spike knew that voice but still could not register who it was, his mind was malfunctioning. "Whoever you are, thanks," he whispered with difficulty using the last of his energy whilst Buffy placed his head back onto the rolled up blanket, "Stay still" She beckoned. Willow moved in closer where she admired the job that Buffy had done on his face, "He's in pretty bad shape" She exclaimed, "What are we going to do with him?", Buffy replied, "Let's get him to mine as quickly as possible or else he'll stink the place out" Willow couldn't help laughing at the bandage over Spike's face, "He looks like Pudsey bear." She said, "They had a fund raiser at the Bronze for Children in Need, you know that British Charity, it's a good cause, they help kids and stuff" Buffy laughed but then her expression turned to one of seriousness, "That's not funny Will, I need you to help now, Spike".
"But Buffy, you laughed and-"
"This is serious,! How are we going to get him out of here without hurting him?"
"Well first we need to see if he has any broken bones. Let's prod him"
Willow and Buffy proceeded to touch Spike's body to see where it hurt, he yelled in pain when Buffy moved her hands around his ribcage and when Willow touched his left leg, "He must have broken his leg and ribs when he fell down the elevator shaft" Described Willow. "We'll need to bind them before we lift them to avoid further damage." Buffy told the redhead next to her that she also wanted to examine the vamp's feet, so the two women removed his boots and socks, which allowed them to see how sore and bruised the bottoms of his feet were. Buffy rolled up the left leg of Spike's black jeans and wrapped a bandage around the left ankle; she would wash the blood off later as she now needed to work quickly. Willow was watching this when she reminded Buffy that his ribs must also be in a bad way since he yelled so much when they were prodding him like a cow. "Right in that case we need to get his shirt off" She realized that getting it off without hurting him would be no easy task, "Willow look in the box and see if you can find me a blade," Willow did as she was commanded and found a scalpel and handed it to Buffy, she also found a pair of small scissors. Willow used them to help Buffy cut Spike's T-shirt away from him, Buffy knew how much Spike liked his clothes, but this one was only fit for the trash anyway since it was so shredded already, so she was sure that her ruining his clothes further was the least of his worries. When they had removed the front part, Buffy lifted an unconscious Spike up into a sitting position whilst Willow cut the material from his back. It was only now that the full realization of Spike's injuries came into Buffy's mind.
There were more burns and four long knife slashes across Spike's back and Willow dropped the scissors she was holding in shock as she cringed at the massive bruises across his ribs. She began to cry, "Buffy, how could this happen, why did he have to go through all this pain, it's not fair", She collapsed onto Spike and hugged his limp body as her tears washed upon his chest.
Buffy was feeling the same and the amount of horror boiling up inside her was immense, she would destroy Glory for what she had done to her friends. "Pull yourself together Willow and let's get this stuffing out of him before he heals into a rag rug" She enforced her statement upon Willow to get her back into action, Pieces of material were still stuck in Spike's back and so they'd need to pluck him like a chicken. "This is really going to hurt, thank the heavens that Spike's out of it or he'd be squirming for sure and would probably bash our lights out," Buffy said to Willow.
Buffy started to pull pieces of material out of Spike's skin, whilst Willow held him in position. The vampire looked as though he was in severe pain, even in his unconscious condition, "I wish I had some ibuprofen," Buffy said to Willow. The witch smiled as she opened her bag to reveal a bottle containing a pink solution. "What is that?" Buffy asked. "It's a potion that should help to keep Spike calm, it contains Lavender, Lemon Balm, Wolfsbane, Sage and some secret ingredients gathered at moonlight that I'm not going to tell, I'm pretty proud of myself" Willow answered with satisfaction. "Huh, what and Huh?" Buffy said, she didn't understand what the ingredients could possibly do that was magical, after all she was the slayer girl and not a Monty Don of the moonlight (Her late mother watched way to many British gardening shows) she preferred to use a stake to dig into vamps, well she did sometimes use shovels. "Now that's just way too much gardening analogy for my liking," Buffy thought. Willow opened the bottle, Buffy took a whiff, "Lavender, no wonder the thing smells like cheap perfume from market day," she said. "Well on my budget you can't be too Chanel" Willow answered, "Anyway Tara loves Lavender it gets her all woozy just the way I like her before we". "Stop right there Will" Interrupted Buffy "and lets get this stuff down him."
Buffy grabbed a funnel from the first aid box. "Giles has certainly prepared the box well, it's like he's psychic or something, maybe he should have his own psychic program on TV, or even his own cable channel" Buffy reminded herself of the Psychic channel that she'd somehow discovered a few days before, where members of the public phone in to get tarot readings "What a con," She thought, "Real psychics don't go on television, if I want a psychic, just look in the Watcher's yellow pages, plenty of spookiness in there" Buffy came to her senses and poured the potion down Spike's throat through the funnel. There did not seem even one percent of a chance that he would be able to drink it himself as he was completely out cold. The agony on Spike's face subsided gradually as the potion began to take effect almost instantaneously.
Spike felt queasy, he was lying on a pile of rocks upon the floor, as he felt something splash down him trickling like a stream, it seemed to him that he was starting to drift to what was like another world, the blackness in his head was becoming cloudy and colours swirled around him. He imagined that he was floating from hell towards heaven as feathers surrounded him. Hard stone upon which he lay became a cushion of air and the feathers added to the softness. Something touched him and soothed rather than hurt like previously. The feathers tickled him, it was hilarious, he couldn't prevent himself from laughing even as he saw images of torture and starving children slowly fade from view as the chain's he was wearing lifted and he rose up above, the pain. Had he finally managed to escape from his existence? What were these feelings? He had not known them for so long, how could this be? He had not felt such relaxation ever before, all he found himself able to do was smile and be happy, he tried to break his radiant appearance but could not. He felt something being wrapped around him; it was warm and protective, holding him together. He could not understand what it was but it was a good feeling.
Buffy finished wrapping the bandages around Spike's ribs to hold them in place and to prevent them from stabbing into his organs and flesh. She was struggling to place surgical tape over the bandage however because Spike would not stop performing convulsing movements. "He looks like he's having a fit," Willow observed. "But why's he's laughing?" Buffy confirmed, "In fact he hasn't stopped laughing for a good while now". "Oh I thought we'd be having this little side effect," replied Willow, "The potion creates utter bliss, which may result in something that resembles the effects of laughing gas". Buffy was concerned, "No shit Sherlock, the last thing I wanted was a moving, squirming horny looking Spike" Willow was shocked, "Horny, why horny?", "Well you don't know what Spike's like in be" Buffy was blushing terribly, "Bad Buffy, tch tch" Willow reprimanded. "But hey, if we bind him up pretty good with these blankets that should stop the squirming and worming and erm other stuff, hey he can be like a mummy" Buffy was getting worried at Willows enthusiasm. "Great now, I've not just got a dead guy to carry out and hide from the destructive rays of sunlight, but now a mummified dead guy. Can you please pass me the canopic jars and say hi to Hades for me", Willow corrected Buffy, "Hades is Greek". When she noticed the look on Buffy's face, she knew that she was not in the mood for Q and A and lessons in right and wrong so she decided to remain silent and helped Buffy to lift a badly wounded Spike who was happier than anybody else in between two blankets to make a makeshift shroud. They twisted the blankets heavily around Spike so that he could not move and bound the whole thing with the rest of the surgical tape.
Buffy realized that she needed something else and so she made her way to the lower level of the Crypt. She saw a chair with some rope hidden underneath it, she did not know why it was there, and she thought that maybe he had picked up a few ideas from Xander about how to restrain unwelcome guests as Spike had been tied to Xander's recliner on more than one occasion. She took the rope and wrapped it over her arm as she walked to Spike's wardrobe. She looked at all the clothes he had, loads of Black T-Shirts, black jeans, red, blue and black shirts and a purple one which she didn't think was quite his colour, but then again she'd never seen him wear it, perhaps a Christmas present from a blood relative, vampire of course. There were a few other things and a couple of pairs of shoes, she selected some of his most comfortable looking clothes and put them into a paper bag which was lying around. It was not hard to find as the whole place looked like a rubbish dump. After she had collected, she made her way back up the ladder.
Meanwhile, Willow spread the other two blankets across the floor and with difficulty, managed to lift Spike off the Stone Coffin onto the floor. Buffy arrived with the rope and as Willow held Spike fast to stop him wriggling so much all she and the slayer could hear were faint giggles from under the covers. "Damn that guy is always annoying" Buffy moaned, "Well at least we know he won't die laughing" Joked Willow. Buffy nodded in agreement and signalled for Willow to get ready to hold. "I'm sorry I have to do this Spike" She said him in a soft voice. Buffy started to wrap the entire shroud in the rope and tied it with a professional Sheepshank, strong and firm. Now that Spike couldn't move out of his prison, the two women lifted him onto one of the other blankets on the floor and wrapped him in it and secured it in place with another piece of rope, they then placed him onto of the remaining blanket, which was the largest to form a low swung hammock which they used to raise him from the ground like a stretcher. Buffy held one end and Willow the other as they proceeded to remove Spike from the crypt. Buffy suddenly realized they had left the first aid kit and the bag of clothes behind so she put the clothes in the hammock with Spike. When she realized the box was still heavy she reminded herself to contact Giles when they got Spike into the car so that he could collect it.
Buffy and Willow finally managed to carry Spike out of the cemetery and into the backseat of Buffy's car. Willow sat in the back and rested Spike's head upon her knees. She sensed that the potion was beginning to wear off, as she could not feel any sign of convulsions anymore coming from him. She was glad they had managed to get him into the car as soon as they did as it was beginning to rain heavily. Neither she nor Buffy wanted a sopping wet Spike on their hands, as he needed to be kept warm. Buffy indicated to Willow to get the phone out of her bag as she began to drive back to her house. "Willow call Giles and ask him to bring the first aid kit round to mine," She said. Willow did this and told Buffy that Giles would be round as soon as was conveniently possible.
The Scoobies reached Revello Drive a short time later and got Spike out of the car and laid him on a dry piece of ground, which was hard to find as most of it was covered in puddles. Buffy fumbled for her keys, then unlocked the door, and entered the building. Willow tried to carry Spike inside but found that she could not, something was holding her back. "Don't just stand there, bring him in" Buffy said to Willow. "I can't" she replied, "There's a force field around me, I cast a spell to de-invite all vampires remember". Buffy remembered that she had forgotten to invite Spike in, "I invite you in" she said to him. Willow again tried to enter the house but found she could but Spike was thrust violently out of her arms onto the ground by the force field. "Spike!" Buffy screamed as the shroud landed in the middle of a deep puddle, "I'm so sorry, so very sorry for what I've done to you" Tears streamed down her face as she tried to invite him in but each time failing to get him inside. "He's unconscious, and that mean's he does not comprehend your invite," Explained Willow. "This is just getting from bad to worse Will" Buffy said, "He's not going to wake up in a hurry", "The spell can be reversed, I just can't remember the spell" Willow reassured unconvincingly, "Willow, you have to remember I can't just leave him here or he'll begin to smoke." Buffy screamed and wailed as she hid herself from the rain under the veranda and dragged Spike into the shade for protection as he had started to steam.
The rain continued to lash down as Willow tried desperately to rouse Spike and remember the spell. Spike's blankets were completely covered in water and he was beginning to shiver. "Buffy, he's freezing, I can feel him and see him struggling even under all that stuff" Willow said as wondered whether Spike was going to get sick, she was very worried, then realized that he couldn't, but her concern for him was real. She prayed to Hecate to ease the weather, but to no avail, she did not hear her plea as Willow was too overwhelmed with grief to concentrate upon her desires. Buffy decided that the only thing that she could do was to summon for help, but she did not need to because Giles had arrived with the first aid supplies. "What's wrong Buffy? Why isn't he inside?" Giles asked Buffy. "Giles, the de-invitation spell doesn't want to be removed", "Oh no problem" Giles replied, "Emirate shiraz magmata. Hecate release your hold upon the undead and restore our faith in the beings of that which is unknown that we may discover them, magna detritus fellunt". The entrance to the building glowed green and the force field was removed. "Thanks Giles" Buffy said relieved and she and Willow moved the soaking bundle containing Spike into the kitchen where they laid him on a table.
Giles placed the box he was carrying upon the kitchen worktop and began to assist the ladies in removing the knots from the blankets in order to release Spike. Buffy was surprised at all the determination he was showing when it came to helping a vampire which they loathed only a day before and who betrayed them to Adam not long ago. Giles looked rather macho she thought, she had great admiration for her watcher and she was grateful for everything that he was doing to help her. Willow grabbed two knives from the drawer and handed one to Giles so that he could help her cut the ropes.
Buffy ran into the living room as she saw Dawn was about to enter the kitchen. She shielded Dawn's eyes from the frightful sight which she could be about to see. She thought that seeing Spike in such a bad way was something which she should not be exposed to knowing how much she cared about him. "
Dawn get in the living room," She demanded. Dawn did not understand what the fuss was. She was not a child. "Buffy I was coming to tell you that Tara came round earlier with loads of bags full of blood. She hasn't been turned has she?"
"No Dawn, they're for Spike. Now go upstairs and run a bath quickly" Buffy commanded .
"I want to see him! I have a right after what he did for me!" Dawn emphasized her point but Buffy just stood in her way like an iron gate. "I want to see him!" she repeated.
Buffy just stood motionless,. She was sorry for Dawn,. "Alright," she sighed. "You can see him later, but spike is naked right now," she lied.
Dawn would not give in and said she had seen naked bodies plenty of times. Buffy was shocked at the fact she had ever seen a naked man, ever. "Have you been seeing boys?" she said.
"What do you think? I'm not a lesbian like Willow," Dawn said, "It's you who's immature, not me. I've not been having sex if that's what you mean but I've seen you and Angel in the nude, oops"
Buffy grew red."Get up stairs Dawn and help me now!"
Dawn ran upstairs afraid that Buffy was going to whoop her backside. She went straight to the bathroom and turned on the taps.
Buffy returned to the kitchen where she saw that Giles and Willow had managed to unravel Spike from his ligatures and blankets. His face was more or less as she had left it, still bandaged, but he was soaking from head to toe and he was shaking with cold.
Giles felt Spike's face, "He's freezing" He said, "We need to get him warmed up before he goes into shock." "
I'm going to give him a warm bath which will make it easier to get him cleared up so that we can see his injuries properly," Buffy told Willow and Giles.
Willow gathered up the wet blankets, dumped them into the sink along with the wet ropes, and went upstairs to get some dry ones to wrap round Spike.
Giles was running his eyes over the patient's wounds. "Buffy, we need to get his Jeans off him, Hold him while I pull", He unclasped Spike's belt and removed it and tugged hard. He managed to get them half way down when Buffy saw that the vampire was going commando, "
Anyone got a leaf?" She asked, but noone answered. Giles ignored her and finished pulling of the remainder of Spike's garments, which was not easy, since Spike was shivering so much. This left him completely open to the elements.
Giles removed his glasses and pretended to wipe steam off them, then placed them back onto his face, he could not help seeing a large cock lying limp on the table in front of him. "Oh my" he exclaimed, "It's so-",
"Big?" Buffy guessed.
"No late" Giles said looking at his watch, "I better get back to the Magic Box, or else the youths will be trying my patience again, I wish you had time to slay hooligans Buffy but I guess I'll leave the Sunnydale Police force to that one". "
Typical old man Giles" Buffy said, "better get yourself a nice cup of hot cocoa brewing and get yourself settled down to watch Dallas reruns, and tell those kids to stay off your lawn" G
iles said "That's enough Buffy, will you be okay?"
"I can handle it, get yourself off home" Buffy replied like a supervisor who cared about the welfare of her subordinates. Giles left as Willow returned with blankets.
Dawn had finished running the bath and still could not face Buffy and so she went into her bedroom to finish her homework that she should have done yesterday. Luck was on her side, because she had managed to feign a sick day off school so that she could help her sister. She also enjoyed faking puking noises and coughing down the phone. She guessed the receptionist on the other end of the phone had bought it. She heard Buffy and Willow carrying a blanket covered Spike up the stairs and an immense amount of groaning.
Willow almost slipped down the stairs a couple of times and had to grab the banister as a reflex action. Buffy grew tired of Willow's weakness and told her to check the temperature of the bath as she summoned her slayer strength and carried Spike unassisted. Willow gave the thumbs up and she helped Buffy lower Spike into the bathtub. "Thanks Will, you've done a lot today, but could you just get the first aid kit and get it ready for me" She asked, "Anything to help you and Dawnie," She said. Buffy was glad she had such a great set of friends that she could depend on and she finished getting Spike settled and she removed his facial bandages. She had forgotten about the bandages around his ribs and ankle before she had placed him into the bath and so she removed those too. The injuries had still not healed. "Better get you fed up some more" she said to Spike. Buffy grabbed a flannel and dipped it into the water and soaped it as she began to wash the blood off Spike's back, The hot water was clearly raising Spike's temperature and the gentle scrubbing Buffy gave Spike's body seemed to relieve his shoulders which must have been aching terribly. She smiled as she saw that the shivering Spike had been doing earlier had completely stopped and he looked relaxed. "I'll take good care of you Spike," She whispered in his ear as she started to bathe the front of his torso. The bath began to turn pink as she finished that section of his body and moved onto his legs, she saw that they were bruised badly, but they had healed slightly. However, Buffy knew that she would need to bandage them again. She grabbed a jug and filled it with water and wet Spike's hair and covered it in Fructis, her favourite shampoo, she rubbed it into lather and felt all the goo begin to crumble away. She rinsed away the shampoo and massaged some scented, extra soft conditioner into his scalp. Carefully she made sure that all the soap had washed away and continued to gently scrub away all the dirt and grime from Spike's body until he was as clean as she could get him. She felt the water was getting cold and so she turned on the hot tap for a while and then left him to soak in the water peacefully while she got some towels out of the cupboard.
Willow was arranging the first aid equipment onto the worktop and she cleaned the bloodstained table, spread a clean sheet over the top of it, and placed a pillow at one end. She went upstairs to see how Buffy was doing. She saw that her friend had drained the bathwater and was drying Spike carefully with the towels after lifting him out of the bath and sitting him on the toilet seat. "He looks a lot better," Willow said. When Spike was, dry Buffy and Willow wrapped a towel around his waist and carried the still unconscious vampire downstairs to the kitchen table whilst being careful not to damage his now unsecured ribs and ankle. Buffy gently turned Spike over onto his belly and laid his head down onto the pillow as Willow covered him with a sheet. Suddenly Dawn crept into the kitchen. "Spike! What did they do to him" Dawn almost fainted when she saw the severe bruising and deep cuts. Buffy was about to give her marching orders to her bedroom, when she pulled herself together and tried to be strong. Buffy saw this determination in Dawn's eyes. "I want to help him too" The youngest Summer's sister requested, after he protected me, it is the least I can do. "Right pass me my surgical sewing kit," Buffy said. Dawn handed Buffy the kit and grabbed some alcoholic solution and dabbed at Spike's cuts on his legs, whilst Willow wrapped bandages tightly over Spikes, ribs and ankle like Buffy had done previously. Buffy then sutured the two largest knife wounds closed and placed gauze and tape over the others. The women then turned Spike onto his back, Dawn placed cooling ointment onto the burns on his chest, and Buffy taped and patched up the cuts. Willow put a cotton wool patch smothered in another magical solution that she lifted out of her bag of tricks onto Spike's still swollen eye and bandaged his head so that he looked like Pudsey again. She finished treating his head by placing a plaster over a cut that was still bleeding. Spike's vampire healing would take effect once they had managed to fill his body with blood.
Dawn went to get some blood out of the fridge and warmed several packets in the microwave. Meanwhile, Buffy rubbed baby lotion all over Spike's skin and Willow completely bandaged Spike's torso like a tank top, leaving only his arms free to move. Buffy then signalled to Willow to bring a blanket from the pile in the living room to cover Spike with as he was beginning to feel cold again and his teeth were chattering. "I think he's coming round Will," she said.
Spike opened his good eye, slowly and painfully and like the last time he was awake, he was cold and then felt it go away. Warm liquid was being tipped down his throat again one cup after another and it was at just the right temperature, he felt the warmth inside of him and after many pints of blood had been slowly consumed by him, he was rocked back to sleep by the same cradling arms that had touched him the first time, he could smell them, but he still didn't know who it was.
Buffy knew that Spike had enough nourishment to last him for the time being and focused her attentions on making the naked vampire more comfortable, she could not leave him on a table freezing forever. Willow brought the bag of clothes that Buffy had taken from the crypt and placed the clothes in Buffy's hands. As Dawn was clearing the bloodstained cups away, Willow and Buffy put a pair of comfortable black track pants and a warm black sweatshirt onto Spike. Buffy was considering leaving his top half-unclothed so it would be easier to see how his injuries were healing, but she changed her mind and thought that the main thing was to keep him as warm as possible.
Buffy grasped Spike's shoulders and lifted him into her arms like a child. Spike half-aware of himself now seemed to daydream and was at ease. He was going to make it. With the gentleness and love of a mother, she carried him to her late mother's bedroom and sat him into a chair. She closed the curtains, Dawn had put clean, fresh linen onto the bed, after not all Buffy wanted anyone to sleep in the same sheets her mum had last slept in, and they were sacred. The covers were lifted back ready for someone to get into them. Buffy laid Spike onto the bed and moved his feet over into it. She fluffed up the pillows and rested his head onto them. Making sure, he was comfortable she pulled back the blanket, undersheet, and placed a soft, warm quilt up to his chin. As Spike was being carefully tucked in she kissed him and said "Thank you Spike, I won't ever forget this" and she turned off the light, leaving Spike to drift into a deep, healing sleep.