Title: Picking up the Pieces Chapter 2
Author: Dawn
Summary: Spike finds something to live for when he thinks that there is nothing left. S/D friendship
Spoilers: Set after "As You Were". AU after that.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I'm not making any money on this cause boy could I use it. It all belongs to Joss. Song lyrics belong to Avril Lavigne and were used without permission.
Distribution: Anywhere as long as you let me know so I can visit.
Feedback: It keeps me singing.
Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for me to update this. Real life stepped in and reared its ugly head. This is dedicated to all of you who wrote and asked when I was going to finish this story. Thank you for reading the first part and thinking is was good enough for a second one.
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Spike bolted up in his bed when he heard the front door slam. He looked around completely disoriented trying to figure out where he was and what the noise was coming from the other side of the door. He ran shaking fingers through his blond hair and took an unneeded breath. Suddenly the bedroom door swung open and a very irate Summers stomped in and through herself on the bed face down at his feet.
"God, I hate her!" Came the muffled outburst.
"I mean, she promised and everything and then at the last minute she says she can't take me so I can't go! I told everybody I'd be there and HE'S gonna be there and I won't be and my life is over do you hear me! Over!" She had at least turned her face out of the sheet so he could understand what she was saying.
"Dawn, calm down and tell me what the hell you're babbling about. I just woke up so take it slow if you don't mind, bit." Dawn sat up in a huff and crossed her arms like a two-year-old. She was even pouting. It was adorable, sometimes.
"Buffy promised she'd take me and my friends to the Bronze Friday night. One of our favorite bands is playing and Kevin is gonna be there. I don't know why I can't go without her. I'm fifteen for Pete's sake. Buffy didn't have Mom with her when she went clubbing at my age. It's discrimination and I hate it! Now all my friends are mad at me and my life is over!" She whined. She suddenly stopped and started to blush.
"Spike."
"Yeah, luv."
"Do you own pajamas?"
"Not last time I checked." With a squeal Dawn jumped off the bed and ran out of the room slamming the door behind her. Spike chuckled and threw the covers off. He padded naked into the bathroom for a shower.
When he emerged from the bedroom a few minutes later Dawn was parked on the couch with a bag of chips.
"Bit, you shouldn't be eating that junk. I can get us some food."
"Now you sound like somebody else I know." She said rolling up the bag and meeting him in the kitchen. She laid the chips on the counter and sat on the barstool.
"Sorry about busting into your room like that. Living in a house full of girls I forget that you're."
"A guy?" He supplied for her.
"Yeah." She ducked her head.
"It's okay. I probably shouldn't go starkers when I know you might be dropping in. Besides, I usually don't sleep this late. Did you go home first?" He asked, the incident forgotten.
"Nope. Came straight here. And yes, I called Buffy and left a message." She said quickly before he could ask. Spike pulled out a frozen pizza and turned the oven on.
"So," he started, leaning against the counter and tilting his head to regard her, "about this thing on Friday."
"Yeah, I can't go. Not if Buffy doesn't go. She won't let me out of the house without a babysitter. It's embarrassing."
"She's just worried about you, Nibblet. After all the Glory stuff.."
"I know that. But that's over! Glory's gone and nobody wants me dead anymore!"
"Um, I beg to differ, sweet bit. You're still the Slayer's kid sister. Every demon and bad thing in this town would love to do the honors." Dawn's eyes went big.
"They would?"
"Well of course. It's what I would have done. Kill the Slayer's sister and then while she's wallowing in grief she let's her guard down and BAM! dead Slayer." She jumped as he smacked the counter to emphasize his point.
"Wow. I hadn't thought about that." She quiet for a minute and then turned to him.
"So how come you didn't?" He looked at her confused.
"How come I didn't what?"
"Kill me to hurt Buffy."
The oven light went off and Spike moved to put the pizza in. He stood bracing himself with one had on each side of the stove. Why hadn't he? Why hadn't he gone after the Slayer's kid sister?
Well, there was a question. He thought back to the first time he'd supposedly seen the bit. The monks had placed it in his memory that he'd first laid eyes on her the night Buffy had invited him into her home to come up with a plan to take out Angelus. He'd been sitting uncomfortably in the living room with Joyce when he'd looked up to see a pair of huge blue eyes starring at him from in between the banister rails on the stairs. He hadn't even realized the Slayer had a younger sister. He'd been in a feisty mood and had shown her a little fang thinking she would squeal and run upstairs. He'd nearly choked when she'd stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared up the stairs as if he'd insulted her. He'd been intrigued. That had to be the reason.
He continued to reminisce. The second time he's seen her he'd come back to Sunnydale to kill Buffy to get Dru back. He'd gone to see Joyce knowing she would listen to his ranting and while he'd been gripping his cup of hot chocolate and pouring out his unbeating heart the same pair of blue eyes had suddenly been starring at him from the doorway. The more he talked the closer she had moved towards him until she was sitting on the stool next to him. She had been so tiny at the time. A skinny little thing, all arms and legs, with braids in her dark hair. The funny thing was that even at that moment he remembered thinking she didn't look a thing like Buffy or Joyce.
What struck him the most though was that she hadn't been the least bit afraid of him. Not at any point had she shown any fear of the fact that a blood-sucking vampire was sitting in her home with only her and her mother. But the clincher, the moment when she'd sneaked into his heart, is when Buffy had come in ready to stake him for being in her home, the bit had defended him. She had pulled Buffy off of him and stood directly between the two of them. Eyes blazing she had told her big sister to leave him alone.
Now, he had been rather drunk so that's probably why he'd felt tears well up in his eyes. No one had ever stood up for him before. No one had ever stepped between him and anything that had caused him pain in his entire existence, human or vampire.
"Spike?" Her voice pulled him back into the present. He turned and met those same blue eyes.
"I don't know. I don't know why I didn't kill you. There was just.something about you. Something I didn't want this world to be without." There was a moment of awkward silence and then Spike cleared his throat.
"Anyway, what I was gonna say was that I could take you." Dawn's face lit up and again with the squealing. She jumped off the stool and threw her arms around the vampire's neck squeezing till he thought his eyes would pop out of the sockets.
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the best! I have to go call Janice." She was about to run away from him when he grabbed her arm.
"Hold on. I said I'd take you. I didn't say Buffy would let me. You need to talk to big sis first. If she says it's okay then I'll tag along and sit in a nice dark corner so nobody knows I'm your sitter."
"Please, Spike, you don't have to sit in the corner. You're the coolest person I know. You could hang with us and help me make Kevin jealous."
"You have a wicked mind, bit. That's one of the things I like about you." He smirked and Dawn ran to the phone to call Buffy at work.
Buffy was practically laying down on the front counter half asleep when Sophie told her she had a phone call. She walked to the break room and picked up the phone to an already talking sister who was babbling so fast she couldn't make out a word.
"Dawn, calm down and start over. I have no idea what you're saying."
"Spike said that since you have to work Friday he would take me and my friends to the Bronze and watch out for me. He'll walk me home afterwards I guess or bring me on the bike, and before you even ask, yes he makes me wear a helmet which I hate." Buffy smiled at the thought of Spike simply forcing the helmet on a protesting Dawn's head.
"Where are you now?" Buffy asked her little sister.
"I'm at Spike's."
"Oh." She refused to admit how much it hurt that her sister would rather be at the home of a vampire than with her. She also wouldn't admit how much it hurt that she hadn't seen him or talked to him and had no way of contacting him. Well, it was her own doing. She'd just have to suck it up.
"I guess it's okay.." She got no farther before Dawn was screaming thanks in her ear and then the line went dead. Buffy held the phone for several minutes before she realized what she was doing. She brushed the tears caused by loneliness out of her eyes and hung up.
Friday morning came way to slow for Dawn and she was dreading talking to her sister about what she wanted to do after the Bronze that night. She got up without having to be coerced and got her shower. She appeared in the kitchen dressed and ready to go with plenty of time to spare. Buffy just starred at her from across the bar.
"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my sister?" She commented. It usually took thirty minutes just to get the girl out of bed and into the shower. Getting her downstairs for breakfast was a whole other fight.
"I'm just excited about tonight. I barely slept. And I thought how unfair it was of me to lounge in bed and make you get all upset before work trying to get me to school."
"Uh-huh. What do you want?" Buffy knew the drill. She'd done it to her mom a hundred times.
"I should have known I couldn't get past you. You're the queen."
"Yes, and as reigning champ I demand to know what the display of maturity is going to cost me."
"How about a night in the house all by yourself with no me to disturb you. You could have friends over and watch R rated movies that you won't let me see or you could drink alcohol." Dawn suggested.
"Yeah, cause we all know how well that goes for me. And where would you be while I'm having all this alcohol?"
"Well, I was just thinking that there was no point in coming all the way home after the Bronze and since I'm gonna be with Spike anyway I thought maybe I could just spend the night at his place?" It was stated as a question and Buffy's heart dropped to her toes.
"Did Spike suggest this little sleep over?"
"What? No. It was my idea but he said it was okay if you were all right with it. We're gonna paint my room tomorrow." Buffy suddenly forgot the thought path she had been on and jumped to a new one.
"Your what?" She breathed.
"My room. He's got a two-bedroom and he said the guestroom was mine since I'm the only person who ever comes over. He says I can do whatever I want as long as it's not too extreme. Buffy, are you okay? You look a little sick."
Buffy grabbed hold of the counter and took deep breaths. She felt lightheaded. He was making a room for her. He must plan on her staying there a lot. Well, isn't this what she wanted? Help with her wayward sister and time to get her life back, without him in it? So why did she feel like she'd been punched in the stomach? Cause he was making room for Dawn and he was completely shutting her out.
She wanted to yell NO you can't stay with Spike and you can't have a room at his house and you can't be the only thing that he cares about and you can't take my place! Instead she took on more cleansing breath and stood up straight.
"Sounds fine to me. What time will you be home tomorrow?" She knew what this feeling was now. She felt like a divorced parent. The implications of that were too much to think about so she blocked it from her mind. Dawn was practically bouncing in her seat.
"Whenever you say. But I could be home by five. It'll take us a while to paint and Spike doesn't get up till around one or so." Buffy remembered but didn't say anything.
"Ok, sounds good. Have fun." Dawn face was practically splitting she was smiling so big. She kissed Buffy on the cheek and ran to grab her backpack and overnight bag she had stashed on the stairs and was out the door and on her way to school.
Dawn went straight to Spike's after school and nearly chatted his ear off about Kevin. The vampire swore he was gonna kill the kid the minute he laid eyes on him headache be damned.
Thank God he didn't have to pick up any of her even chattier friends and it was just him and the bit taking his bike to the Bronze.
When they finally got there he made good on his promise. He grabbed a beer and sat in a shadowed corner watching the girls pretend not to notice the boys and vice versa. One of the blokes finally got the balls to ask one the girls to dance and it broke the ice. Man how things really hadn't changed in a hundred years. He sipped slowly on his beer seeing as how it was the only one he was allowing himself tonight since he was driving and had Dawn with him and watched the crowd.
A flash of red caught his eye and he was surprised to see Willow walking towards him. She was clutching her own drink and she slipped onto the stool next to him. She didn't say anything for a while, she just sat and took tiny sips of her drink.
"Man, I miss high school. Things were so much simpler then. Crush on Xander, best friends with Buffy, and you trying to kill us all. Those were the good old days," she mumbled sadly laying her head down on the table. She'd obviously been here a while and had gotten a head start on the drinking.
"Things change, Red. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not. But it always changes." She lifted her head to peer intensely at him. She pointed an accusing finger at him.
"When did you get so smart?" He chuckled quietly and settled back against the wall.
"I've always been brilliant. You lot just never took the time to notice." She seemed to accept that and went back to watching the crowd. It was then that she noticed Dawn.
"Hey, isn't that Dawnie?"
"Yeah. She's here with her mates." Willow looked concerned.
"Does Buffy know she's here alone?"
"She's not alone, Red, she's with me. I'm her sitter tonight." The witch's eyes grew large at that admission.
"Buffy let you bring Dawn to the Bronze?"
"Yeah, miracles never cease." He muttered sarcastically.
"Wow. Big step Buffy. So Buffy's home alone tonight? That's weird. She didn't say anything to me. Figured if she had a Friday night without Dawnie she'd want to hang out with her pals you know? Wonder what she's doing?"
Little did anyone know that said Slayer was in the balcony watching the whole thing. She'd gotten off work and come straight here. And what she never would have admitted to anyone was that she was here to catch sight of a certain blonde vampire and not keep an eye on her fifteen-year- old sister.
She could see Willow talking to him in the corner and she couldn't help but wonder what he was telling her. Would he be mean enough to tell one of her best friends about them? She hoped not.
She saw Dawn approach from the corner of her eye and drag Spike to the dance floor. The DJ chose a slow song and Dawn forced Spike's arms around her waist and wrapped her own around his neck. She could see him sigh heavily and give in. He laid his strikingly blonde head against her much darker one and swayed with her to the music. He didn't have to lean far. Dawn was just under his chin. The girl was gonna be six feet tall before she stopped growing Buffy could swear it.
Isn't anyone trying to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home?
It's a damn cold night,
Trying to figure out this life.
Won't you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new?
I don't know who you are
But I'm, I'm with you.
Buffy felt hot tears splash onto the back of her hand and looked down surprised. She quickly swiped the tears off her suddenly cold cheeks and fled. Spike, who'd known she was there the whole time, saw her shove her way out the door. He said nothing.
Author: Dawn
Summary: Spike finds something to live for when he thinks that there is nothing left. S/D friendship
Spoilers: Set after "As You Were". AU after that.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I'm not making any money on this cause boy could I use it. It all belongs to Joss. Song lyrics belong to Avril Lavigne and were used without permission.
Distribution: Anywhere as long as you let me know so I can visit.
Feedback: It keeps me singing.
Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for me to update this. Real life stepped in and reared its ugly head. This is dedicated to all of you who wrote and asked when I was going to finish this story. Thank you for reading the first part and thinking is was good enough for a second one.
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Spike bolted up in his bed when he heard the front door slam. He looked around completely disoriented trying to figure out where he was and what the noise was coming from the other side of the door. He ran shaking fingers through his blond hair and took an unneeded breath. Suddenly the bedroom door swung open and a very irate Summers stomped in and through herself on the bed face down at his feet.
"God, I hate her!" Came the muffled outburst.
"I mean, she promised and everything and then at the last minute she says she can't take me so I can't go! I told everybody I'd be there and HE'S gonna be there and I won't be and my life is over do you hear me! Over!" She had at least turned her face out of the sheet so he could understand what she was saying.
"Dawn, calm down and tell me what the hell you're babbling about. I just woke up so take it slow if you don't mind, bit." Dawn sat up in a huff and crossed her arms like a two-year-old. She was even pouting. It was adorable, sometimes.
"Buffy promised she'd take me and my friends to the Bronze Friday night. One of our favorite bands is playing and Kevin is gonna be there. I don't know why I can't go without her. I'm fifteen for Pete's sake. Buffy didn't have Mom with her when she went clubbing at my age. It's discrimination and I hate it! Now all my friends are mad at me and my life is over!" She whined. She suddenly stopped and started to blush.
"Spike."
"Yeah, luv."
"Do you own pajamas?"
"Not last time I checked." With a squeal Dawn jumped off the bed and ran out of the room slamming the door behind her. Spike chuckled and threw the covers off. He padded naked into the bathroom for a shower.
When he emerged from the bedroom a few minutes later Dawn was parked on the couch with a bag of chips.
"Bit, you shouldn't be eating that junk. I can get us some food."
"Now you sound like somebody else I know." She said rolling up the bag and meeting him in the kitchen. She laid the chips on the counter and sat on the barstool.
"Sorry about busting into your room like that. Living in a house full of girls I forget that you're."
"A guy?" He supplied for her.
"Yeah." She ducked her head.
"It's okay. I probably shouldn't go starkers when I know you might be dropping in. Besides, I usually don't sleep this late. Did you go home first?" He asked, the incident forgotten.
"Nope. Came straight here. And yes, I called Buffy and left a message." She said quickly before he could ask. Spike pulled out a frozen pizza and turned the oven on.
"So," he started, leaning against the counter and tilting his head to regard her, "about this thing on Friday."
"Yeah, I can't go. Not if Buffy doesn't go. She won't let me out of the house without a babysitter. It's embarrassing."
"She's just worried about you, Nibblet. After all the Glory stuff.."
"I know that. But that's over! Glory's gone and nobody wants me dead anymore!"
"Um, I beg to differ, sweet bit. You're still the Slayer's kid sister. Every demon and bad thing in this town would love to do the honors." Dawn's eyes went big.
"They would?"
"Well of course. It's what I would have done. Kill the Slayer's sister and then while she's wallowing in grief she let's her guard down and BAM! dead Slayer." She jumped as he smacked the counter to emphasize his point.
"Wow. I hadn't thought about that." She quiet for a minute and then turned to him.
"So how come you didn't?" He looked at her confused.
"How come I didn't what?"
"Kill me to hurt Buffy."
The oven light went off and Spike moved to put the pizza in. He stood bracing himself with one had on each side of the stove. Why hadn't he? Why hadn't he gone after the Slayer's kid sister?
Well, there was a question. He thought back to the first time he'd supposedly seen the bit. The monks had placed it in his memory that he'd first laid eyes on her the night Buffy had invited him into her home to come up with a plan to take out Angelus. He'd been sitting uncomfortably in the living room with Joyce when he'd looked up to see a pair of huge blue eyes starring at him from in between the banister rails on the stairs. He hadn't even realized the Slayer had a younger sister. He'd been in a feisty mood and had shown her a little fang thinking she would squeal and run upstairs. He'd nearly choked when she'd stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared up the stairs as if he'd insulted her. He'd been intrigued. That had to be the reason.
He continued to reminisce. The second time he's seen her he'd come back to Sunnydale to kill Buffy to get Dru back. He'd gone to see Joyce knowing she would listen to his ranting and while he'd been gripping his cup of hot chocolate and pouring out his unbeating heart the same pair of blue eyes had suddenly been starring at him from the doorway. The more he talked the closer she had moved towards him until she was sitting on the stool next to him. She had been so tiny at the time. A skinny little thing, all arms and legs, with braids in her dark hair. The funny thing was that even at that moment he remembered thinking she didn't look a thing like Buffy or Joyce.
What struck him the most though was that she hadn't been the least bit afraid of him. Not at any point had she shown any fear of the fact that a blood-sucking vampire was sitting in her home with only her and her mother. But the clincher, the moment when she'd sneaked into his heart, is when Buffy had come in ready to stake him for being in her home, the bit had defended him. She had pulled Buffy off of him and stood directly between the two of them. Eyes blazing she had told her big sister to leave him alone.
Now, he had been rather drunk so that's probably why he'd felt tears well up in his eyes. No one had ever stood up for him before. No one had ever stepped between him and anything that had caused him pain in his entire existence, human or vampire.
"Spike?" Her voice pulled him back into the present. He turned and met those same blue eyes.
"I don't know. I don't know why I didn't kill you. There was just.something about you. Something I didn't want this world to be without." There was a moment of awkward silence and then Spike cleared his throat.
"Anyway, what I was gonna say was that I could take you." Dawn's face lit up and again with the squealing. She jumped off the stool and threw her arms around the vampire's neck squeezing till he thought his eyes would pop out of the sockets.
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! You're the best! I have to go call Janice." She was about to run away from him when he grabbed her arm.
"Hold on. I said I'd take you. I didn't say Buffy would let me. You need to talk to big sis first. If she says it's okay then I'll tag along and sit in a nice dark corner so nobody knows I'm your sitter."
"Please, Spike, you don't have to sit in the corner. You're the coolest person I know. You could hang with us and help me make Kevin jealous."
"You have a wicked mind, bit. That's one of the things I like about you." He smirked and Dawn ran to the phone to call Buffy at work.
Buffy was practically laying down on the front counter half asleep when Sophie told her she had a phone call. She walked to the break room and picked up the phone to an already talking sister who was babbling so fast she couldn't make out a word.
"Dawn, calm down and start over. I have no idea what you're saying."
"Spike said that since you have to work Friday he would take me and my friends to the Bronze and watch out for me. He'll walk me home afterwards I guess or bring me on the bike, and before you even ask, yes he makes me wear a helmet which I hate." Buffy smiled at the thought of Spike simply forcing the helmet on a protesting Dawn's head.
"Where are you now?" Buffy asked her little sister.
"I'm at Spike's."
"Oh." She refused to admit how much it hurt that her sister would rather be at the home of a vampire than with her. She also wouldn't admit how much it hurt that she hadn't seen him or talked to him and had no way of contacting him. Well, it was her own doing. She'd just have to suck it up.
"I guess it's okay.." She got no farther before Dawn was screaming thanks in her ear and then the line went dead. Buffy held the phone for several minutes before she realized what she was doing. She brushed the tears caused by loneliness out of her eyes and hung up.
Friday morning came way to slow for Dawn and she was dreading talking to her sister about what she wanted to do after the Bronze that night. She got up without having to be coerced and got her shower. She appeared in the kitchen dressed and ready to go with plenty of time to spare. Buffy just starred at her from across the bar.
"Okay, who are you and what have you done with my sister?" She commented. It usually took thirty minutes just to get the girl out of bed and into the shower. Getting her downstairs for breakfast was a whole other fight.
"I'm just excited about tonight. I barely slept. And I thought how unfair it was of me to lounge in bed and make you get all upset before work trying to get me to school."
"Uh-huh. What do you want?" Buffy knew the drill. She'd done it to her mom a hundred times.
"I should have known I couldn't get past you. You're the queen."
"Yes, and as reigning champ I demand to know what the display of maturity is going to cost me."
"How about a night in the house all by yourself with no me to disturb you. You could have friends over and watch R rated movies that you won't let me see or you could drink alcohol." Dawn suggested.
"Yeah, cause we all know how well that goes for me. And where would you be while I'm having all this alcohol?"
"Well, I was just thinking that there was no point in coming all the way home after the Bronze and since I'm gonna be with Spike anyway I thought maybe I could just spend the night at his place?" It was stated as a question and Buffy's heart dropped to her toes.
"Did Spike suggest this little sleep over?"
"What? No. It was my idea but he said it was okay if you were all right with it. We're gonna paint my room tomorrow." Buffy suddenly forgot the thought path she had been on and jumped to a new one.
"Your what?" She breathed.
"My room. He's got a two-bedroom and he said the guestroom was mine since I'm the only person who ever comes over. He says I can do whatever I want as long as it's not too extreme. Buffy, are you okay? You look a little sick."
Buffy grabbed hold of the counter and took deep breaths. She felt lightheaded. He was making a room for her. He must plan on her staying there a lot. Well, isn't this what she wanted? Help with her wayward sister and time to get her life back, without him in it? So why did she feel like she'd been punched in the stomach? Cause he was making room for Dawn and he was completely shutting her out.
She wanted to yell NO you can't stay with Spike and you can't have a room at his house and you can't be the only thing that he cares about and you can't take my place! Instead she took on more cleansing breath and stood up straight.
"Sounds fine to me. What time will you be home tomorrow?" She knew what this feeling was now. She felt like a divorced parent. The implications of that were too much to think about so she blocked it from her mind. Dawn was practically bouncing in her seat.
"Whenever you say. But I could be home by five. It'll take us a while to paint and Spike doesn't get up till around one or so." Buffy remembered but didn't say anything.
"Ok, sounds good. Have fun." Dawn face was practically splitting she was smiling so big. She kissed Buffy on the cheek and ran to grab her backpack and overnight bag she had stashed on the stairs and was out the door and on her way to school.
Dawn went straight to Spike's after school and nearly chatted his ear off about Kevin. The vampire swore he was gonna kill the kid the minute he laid eyes on him headache be damned.
Thank God he didn't have to pick up any of her even chattier friends and it was just him and the bit taking his bike to the Bronze.
When they finally got there he made good on his promise. He grabbed a beer and sat in a shadowed corner watching the girls pretend not to notice the boys and vice versa. One of the blokes finally got the balls to ask one the girls to dance and it broke the ice. Man how things really hadn't changed in a hundred years. He sipped slowly on his beer seeing as how it was the only one he was allowing himself tonight since he was driving and had Dawn with him and watched the crowd.
A flash of red caught his eye and he was surprised to see Willow walking towards him. She was clutching her own drink and she slipped onto the stool next to him. She didn't say anything for a while, she just sat and took tiny sips of her drink.
"Man, I miss high school. Things were so much simpler then. Crush on Xander, best friends with Buffy, and you trying to kill us all. Those were the good old days," she mumbled sadly laying her head down on the table. She'd obviously been here a while and had gotten a head start on the drinking.
"Things change, Red. Sometimes for the better and sometimes not. But it always changes." She lifted her head to peer intensely at him. She pointed an accusing finger at him.
"When did you get so smart?" He chuckled quietly and settled back against the wall.
"I've always been brilliant. You lot just never took the time to notice." She seemed to accept that and went back to watching the crowd. It was then that she noticed Dawn.
"Hey, isn't that Dawnie?"
"Yeah. She's here with her mates." Willow looked concerned.
"Does Buffy know she's here alone?"
"She's not alone, Red, she's with me. I'm her sitter tonight." The witch's eyes grew large at that admission.
"Buffy let you bring Dawn to the Bronze?"
"Yeah, miracles never cease." He muttered sarcastically.
"Wow. Big step Buffy. So Buffy's home alone tonight? That's weird. She didn't say anything to me. Figured if she had a Friday night without Dawnie she'd want to hang out with her pals you know? Wonder what she's doing?"
Little did anyone know that said Slayer was in the balcony watching the whole thing. She'd gotten off work and come straight here. And what she never would have admitted to anyone was that she was here to catch sight of a certain blonde vampire and not keep an eye on her fifteen-year- old sister.
She could see Willow talking to him in the corner and she couldn't help but wonder what he was telling her. Would he be mean enough to tell one of her best friends about them? She hoped not.
She saw Dawn approach from the corner of her eye and drag Spike to the dance floor. The DJ chose a slow song and Dawn forced Spike's arms around her waist and wrapped her own around his neck. She could see him sigh heavily and give in. He laid his strikingly blonde head against her much darker one and swayed with her to the music. He didn't have to lean far. Dawn was just under his chin. The girl was gonna be six feet tall before she stopped growing Buffy could swear it.
Isn't anyone trying to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home?
It's a damn cold night,
Trying to figure out this life.
Won't you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new?
I don't know who you are
But I'm, I'm with you.
Buffy felt hot tears splash onto the back of her hand and looked down surprised. She quickly swiped the tears off her suddenly cold cheeks and fled. Spike, who'd known she was there the whole time, saw her shove her way out the door. He said nothing.