"Xander." Giles called, as Xander prepared to leave the Summers' home with Anya. Not wanting to wait around, Anya made her way out of the house to wait in the car as Xander turned back to Giles and waited for him to continue talking. "Before you go home I was wondering if you could stop some place first." Giles told him. Xander nodded.
"Sure, where's that?" He asked.
"Well I was hoping you could stop by Spike's crypt." Giles told him, and Xander frowned.
"I really don't wanna deal with captain peroxide right now, Giles." He told him slightly angry.
"I know. Believe me, none of us do. However until Willow gets the robot working again I was thinking we might need somebody to patrol in Buffy's place. Temporarily of course." Giles explained. Xander shook his head.
"No! Spike of all people.." Xander paused "of all things" he corrected himself, saying 'things' with a hint of disgust in his voice "Is not going to replace Buffy! Not in anything. We can patrol. Willow, Tara, Anya, you and me." Xander told him, getting angrier with each word.
"Spike is a vampire. He might be a little more equipped to fight then we are." Giles informed him. Xander rolled his eyes about to protest again but Giles continued before he could "Spike isn't going to replace Buffy" Giles assured Xander.
"Nobody can replace Buffy." Xander stated quietly. Giles nodded in agreement.
"However, for the time being, under the circumstances, he could possibly be of some use." Giles told him. Xander sighed, deciding not to argue about it. Giles seemed pretty adamant on this decision, and he did have a point, after all. Nodding his head in defeat, Xander agreed and left the Summers' home.
Spike was pacing back and forth in his now trashed crypt. He had decided that the most logical way to deal with Buffy's death would be by throwing every inanimate object he could find, across the room. He jumped, slightly startled by the sound of somebody opening the door to his crypt. He glanced over to the doorway to see Xander walking in.
"What do you want?" He asked harshly, stopping his pacing to glare at him. Xander looked around the crypt, noticing the giant mess and numerous broken objects. He raised his eyebrows and looked back at Spike.
"Redecorating?" He asked sarcastically. Spike rolled his eyes, losing his patience.
"What do you want?" He asked again, just as harshly but slower this time. Xander sighed, and decided to get straight to the point of his visit.
"Well, Willow is gonna try to fix the Buffybot, to patrol and stuff since Buffy can't...." Xander trailed off at the look of anger Spike shot his way at the mention of Buffy being gone. "Uh...Well, Giles thought that until then, you could take over patrolling for a while." Xander paused, waiting for Spike to respond. When he didn't Xander decided to continue. "It's just that you're a vampire and strong..."
"Why are you putting the bot back together?" Spike asked, suddenly. "Are you trying to replace her?" He asked angrily. "Just put some batteries in the thing and pretend that Buffy never died? Pretend that, that robot is her?" He asked, yelling now. Xander took a few steps back from Spike, figuring he wouldn't let the chip in his head stop him right now if he wanted to get violent.
"We're not trying to replace her." Xander told him. Spike just shook his head in anger.
"Get out." He demanded, turning away from him.
"Think about it." Xander told him.
"Get out!" Spike yelled at the top of his lungs. Xander turned to leave but turned back to look at Spike before leaving.
"You know Buffy wanted you to come with us because she thought you would be useful in helping protect Dawn from Glory. For some reason beyond anything I could understand she thought you could be useful in helping save the world. Me? I don't think you're useful for anything. But you claim to love her. The least you could do is prove that one of the last things she thought before she died wasn't wrong." Xander told Spike angrily before leaving, slamming the crypt door behind him. Spike felt tears prick his eyes, half in grief for Buffy and half from anger towards Xander. Letting out an angry groan he lifted up his already broken television set and threw it across the room with all his strength, causing it to smash against the wall into several pieces.
"I'm counting on you to protect her"
"Til the end of the world. Even if that happens to be tonight."
Spike awoke from his sleep, suddenly. He had only been asleep for about ten minutes. His conversation with Buffy just kept replaying in his head. Her inviting him back into her house, him promising to protect Dawn. He scoffed at himself. Some job he did protecting Dawn. If he had tried harder then Buffy wouldn't have... He couldn't even bring himself to think it. To say the word even in his head. To admit to himself that she was gone. That she was dead. If he had just gotten Dawn off of that tower when he was up there, Buffy would still be alive. Wanting to get his mind off of her, Spike decided to go out and patrol after all. Figuring maybe killing something would make him feel better, as it always did.
Sorry I took so long to get this chapter up. I'll try to be quicker. Anyway review please. =)