A/N: It recently dawned on me that this fic tweaks the timeline of the series just a bit. In the timeline of my fic, Spike has already professed his love for Buffy and even ordered the Buffybot (but not received it yet), but Joyce is still alive and hasn't had her operation yet. It's been so long since season five aired, I'd be surprised if anyone really noticed, but I figured I'd say something anyway.
Ok, on to the chapter…and it is one doozy of a chapter…my longest yet!
Dawn sagged against the wall of her bedroom, a relieved look on her face. Alone at last. Double-checking that her door was locked, Dawn picked up a pen and began to write in her journal.
Buffy was in major cling mode today. I mean, yeah, it was cool that she didn't totally flip over me spending the night with Spike...I mean, spending the night in the crypt, not with Spike in the having sex with him sort of way... but she just wouldn't leave my side all afternoon. I barely made it through eating ice cream. Every time I took a bite, I just kept imagining Spike's little metaphor. Only he would compare oral sex with eating ice cream...can we say oral fixation? He has such a nice mouth though. He has a nice everything. Arrgh! He's so distracting. No wonder Buffy was getting worried...I guess I can't blame her though. I mean, one second I'm staring off into space, letting my ice cream melt, and the next I inhale my ice cream cone as fast as possible. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking about him. I don't know if I will ever be able to look at ice cream the same way again.
I was hoping after ice cream we would just go home, but oh no. Buffy wanted to talk. She kept asking me about Spike. I told her we were just friends, but I know she didn't buy that. I finally got her to shut up when I reminded her of how close she and Spike seemed the other day and maybe it was her who was denying feelings for a certain bleached-blonde vampire. She sputtered and swore that she had absolutely no feelings for Spike other than loathing. You should have seen the shade of purple she turned when I patted her on the arm and said suuure.' Talk of Spike was thus ended. Man, I am getting good.
After that lovely set of awkward moments, we chilled at the Magic Box for a bit before going home. Once we got there, mom wanted to do the bonding thing too. For the second night in a row she cooked a huge meal, although it was just her, me, and Buffy tonight. I hope she's not overdoing herself. I mean, I don't want her to get sick because of me. She's going back to the hospital for another check-up tomorrow. So far she's been able to stay home, but I've noticed her getting weirder and weirder. She keeps forgetting stuff and her head hurts all the time. I don't know what I will do if she's really sick. I'm so glad I have Spike to lean on. If it weren't for Spike, I don't think I could deal with everything that's going on. I've been crushing on him for ages, but things have changed. It's more than that now. I think I'm falling in love with him...
Dawn set her journal down with a sigh. She really did have it bad. Even though she'd just seen Spike the night before, Dawn still missed him. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in his cold arms and stay there all night, but she knew that she needed to sleep in her own bed tonight no matter how much it pained her. She was half afraid her sister might place her under house arrest if she snuck out again. She was just thinking of getting ready for bed when she heard a pounding on her door.
"What the hell do you want?" Spike shouted in the general direction of his door. His immediate goal was to go out and kill something, and he didn't fancy any company. He would have made an exception for Dawn, of course, but he could sense that it wasn't her. He desperately hoped that it wasn't one of the bloody Slayer's friends. He just didn't have it in him to be nice to them tonight.
"Bout time you lot learned to knock," Spike said with a growl as he opened the door. It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't actually the Slayer come to harass him again. It was her robotic facsimile, along with a pale, geeky boy…her creator, Warren.
"Hey, Spike...you seem awfully busy here's your robot bye!" Warren rambled before quickly turning and attempting to run away from the irate vampire.
Spike grabbed the retreating figure by the back of the neck. "Not leaving so soon are we? Some blokes might call that impolite. Oh, you'd like to come in and sit down? How wonderful." Spike threw Warren onto his couch. He looked in horror at the robotic copy of Buffy standing before him before quickly bringing it inside, praying to anything that could hear him that no one had seen it.
"Ooh Spike, you're so big and strong. I just love it when you get rough with me!" the Buffybot crooned.
"Sit down, will you!" Spike yelled at the clinging robot. The Buffybot slid down Spike's body and sat at his feet. She leaned back on her arms and spread her legs wide. "Take me now, you big, scary man!"
"Turn her off! For God's sake, turn the thing off," Spike yelled in horror.
"Buffy, sleep mode," Warren ordered. With a slight exhale of air, the robot leaned back on the ground, looking more dead than asleep, its legs still spread wide in a mockery of eroticism.
"Wh…what's wrong? I did everything you wanted. Even all the...special programming. Please let me go," Warren whined.
Spike looked down at the prone form of the Buffybot. He couldn't help his body's reaction. Physically, he was more than willing to do what the robot had asked. His arousal was proof of that. But mentally, he couldn't imagine himself sleeping with Buffy. Not anymore.
"Well see, things change they do. I've decided that I don't want a sexbot anymore. Man's gotta have his dignity and all."
Warren got up to leave, running towards the door, and Spike grabbed him again. "Not thinking about leaving are we?" Spike said. His eyes flashed yellow as he dragged Warren back into the crypt. "Not nice of you to not let me finish. You see, I'm a reasonable man, and I appreciate all the hard work you've gone through. I've decided I'll keep the robotic wench...with a few slight modifications. How's about we change the programming on our new toy? What's the time frame on a little bitty programming overhaul? A few hours you say, that's wonderful!"
"A few hours!" Warren exclaimed. "Programming is a delicate thing. You haven't even told me what you want changed yet. You can't expect me to do this all in one night!" Warren struggled to get away, but he was too afraid of Spike to actually fight back in earnest.
"Sit down," Spike said, accentuating his words with a shove. "All comfy, are we? Good...now take notes." With that, Spike began to list his new specifications for the robot.
Dawn violently swung open her door and yelled, "what the hell do you want?"
Buffy stepped back in shock. "Well, I was going to ask if anything was wrong, since you were going to bed so early and all, but I guess you just answered that little question. Now, 'fess up... what is going on? I want to help."
Dawn stepped aside and let Buffy pass, a confused look on her face. "I...I'm sorry Buffy. I don't know what came over me. When I heard you knocking on the door, I suddenly got so angry, like the last thing in the world I wanted to see was you or your bloody sidekicks."
Buffy raised her eyebrows, "My bloody sidekicks'? Care to tell me where that came from?"
"Umm...watching too much British television lately? You know how much I love that BBC America channel," Dawn laughed nervously.
"Dawn, I really think it's about time we talked about your sick obsession with Spike. I know I'm the big, bad sister and you don't want to talk to me about anything, but I'm concerned about your feelings for Spike. Two nights in a row, you've slept in a crypt for goodness sake. And now you're imitating him. That's so of the not healthy."
Dawn shoved Buffy hard, causing her to fall back into a sitting position on the bed. "Sit down!" Dawn yelled. "You're just jealous. Spike will never sleep with you. NEVER! You are repulsive to him now."
Dawn turned and spoke to what seemed to be nobody. "Turn her off! How do you turn it off?" Dawn screamed before collapsing onto the floor, sobbing in frustration at her lack of control over her own words and actions.
Buffy was confused and more than a bit worried. "Dawn, honey...you have to talk to me. You're acting crazy, and I think I know why. What I did the other night was wrong. I should never have come on to Spike like that. I just wanted to show you that he isn't who you think he is, but in the process I ended up being the bad guy. But you have to believe me...I never wanted to hurt you. Please... tell me what's going on. Tell me how to fix things between us."
Buffy stroked Dawn's hair as she cried. "Buffy," Dawn cried," I think there's something wrong with me. It's like I'm feeling things that are totally foreign. Thoughts that aren't my thoughts…emotions that aren't my emotions. I can't control it."
Buffy helped Dawn off the floor and they both sat down on the edge of the bed. "Sweetie, you are growing up, and as if that isn't hard enough, you have to deal with all kinds of things of the supernaturally wacky. Of course you are going to be feeling a lot of strange emotions, and they may seem like they are foreign, but we all go through them."
"You don't understand, Buffy. Something is really wrong."
"Then why don't you talk to me about it. I'm more than willing to listen. Here, I'll even close the door. Nothing you say leaves this room. I'm certain whatever you're feeling is perfectly normal." Buffy got up and shut the door, and as she turned around, Dawn grabbed her arm and threw her across the room.
"Not thinking about leaving so soon, are we?" Dawn growled as her eyes glowed yellow.
"Ok, maybe I was wrong," Buffy squeaked. "Glowing eyes are definitely not of the normal!" Buffy gripped Dawn's shoulders and shook her. "Dawn...are you in there? Can you hear me?"
"I...I'm here Buffy. I'm just not feeling quite like myself today," she said woozily before she fainted.
"Oh my God," Buffy exclaimed. "Giles...I need Giles. He'll know what to do."
Spike staggered a bit and held his head as he swayed. "Bloody hell," he muttered as he ceased his pacing and sat down on Warren's couch. He was definitely regretting his decision to come over here and have the sexbot reprogrammed. This was taking far too long, and he couldn't seem to control his urges to strangle the annoying programmer. Thanks to the fancy knick knack in his brain, his murderous thoughts were giving him quite the headache.
"Spike...are you ok?" Warren asked nervously. "You're not hungry are you, because I've got sour blood. Totally unappetizing. Not at all good for whetting an appetite. Yup, eating me would be bad. I'd never finish the robot that way either."
"Would you please shut up, you bloody ponce?" Spike growled as he regained his composure. "I'm not going to eat you. I've just got this bloody computer chip in my skull. Gives me headaches sometimes." Spike tensed as he realized he probably shouldn't have divulged that little tidbit of information.
"Wait, you're like…a vampire cyborg?" Warren asked, his fear suddenly replaced with morbid curiosity.
"Sorry to disappoint. I know robots get you all hot and bothered, but I am a full-fledged, demon-possessed vampire. One who will rip out your soddin' throat if you don't finish my toy in the very near future. I just happen to have a government chip inside my bleedin' skull. I conned some government doctor to give it to me. Told him I wouldn't eat his children if he did. The thing was supposed to make me smarter, help me win my battles and such, but it gives me the worst headaches," Spike spun the false tale with ease, trying to cover up the slip he had made by mentioning the chip to Warren.
"Wow, what I wouldn't give to get a look at that," Warren practically drooled. "It must be really high tech."
Spike laughed derisively at Warren. "Yeah right, like you'd know enough to get it out. You're just a second rate programmer, you are, not a brain surgeon. You just work on fixin' up miss dolly all nice and neat now."
Warren grumbled to himself as he closed the Buffybot back up, the reprogramming complete. Luckily for him, it had been more of an addition of a supplemental hard drive with extra information than a true programming overhaul, so it had taken much less time than he originally feared.
"If you wanted the robot to receive medical programming so you could get the chip out, it won't work. The stuff you asked for is so she could take care of a patient, not actually do surgery. Anyway, you have to know a lot about human physiology to make a robot just like a human. I used to go to med school before I got into computers. If you give me a chance, I bet I could get that chip out no problem. I'll do it if you let me keep it once I'm done. I would love to get my hands on some government technology like that."
"Pasty-faced little boy like you fancies himself a doctor. My luck, you'd probably paralyze me," Spike snorted in feigned disgust.
"I'm telling you, I can do it. A vampire like you can't afford to look weak by getting headaches all the time. Signs of weakness are bad, aren't they? I wouldn't trust myself with a human, but you're a vampire. They heal up quickly, right? C'mon, give me a chance. A friend of mine deals with patients of the...unhuman...kind. His lab is not too far from here. Give me a few hours and we'll both be better off. You're new toy can even assist."
Spike pretended to be thinking it over, but inside his demon was rejoicing. FREEDOM, it screamed. Spike was grudgingly impressed with the cowardly boy. Who would have thought he wasn't totally oblivious to the unnatural side of Sunnydale? "Ok, kid. I'll give you a chance. No more headaches for me...a sweet piece of new-age fancy tin for you. Let's go."
Buffy panted as she kicked on Giles' door. "Giles! Giles...let me in. You have to be here! Open the door!"
Giles raced down the stairs and opened the door. He stepped aside, not actually inviting them in on the slight chance something unspeakable had happened and they had been turned. Buffy allayed his fears by darting inside, carrying Dawn.
"Good Lord, Buffy. What happened? Is that your mother's car parked halfway on my lawn? You could have been killed, driving that way!"
"I didn't know what to do Giles. I couldn't let Mom find out, so I borrowed the car without telling her. She has enough to worry about, what with going to the hospital tomorrow and all. But Dawn, she started acting all funny and collapsed. She...she was acting like Spike, growling and being all vamp-like…glowing eyes and all. Then she fainted. You don't think she's a vampire do you?" Buffy asked, worry clouding her judgment.
"Well, I can't say for certain what's wrong, but I can guarantee you she's not a vampire. The pulse, warm skin and lack of you bouncing out the door when you ran in gives me evidence of that. Now please, tell me everything that happened."
"Dawn and I were talking and she started acting all...well...Spike-like. She called you and the gang my bloody sidekicks' and when I got up to close the door so mom wouldn't hear us talking, she growled at me and her eyes glowed yellow. She tried to tell me something was wrong, and I didn't understand. Then it was like she couldn't take it anymore and she collapsed. I ran here as fast as I could. You were the only one I could think to turn to."
"I'm touched that you feel you can turn to me, really I am, but honestly Buffy. You wouldn't have done Dawn any favors if you had crashed the car on the way here. You must learn to exercise some restraint, no matter how desperate the situation."
"My little sister is channeling a vampire, Giles! Obeying traffic laws isn't the first thing that pops to mind. Now help her!" Buffy cried. "Please..." she added softly.
Giles took Dawn and carefully set her down on the couch. Shaking her gently, he said "Dawn, dear. Can you hear me?"
Dawn sat bolt upright and screamed. "My head...my head!" she moaned before laying back down, tossing and turning on the couch.
Giles backed away from Dawn and spoke quietly to Buffy. "If she really is channeling Spike, as you suggest, he may have just tried to harm a living thing. Perhaps the wisest course of action would be to find Spike and bring him back here for observation."
"I don't want that monster anywhere near my sister. She's obsessed with him, and I'm afraid of what he will do to her. Even if he can't hurt her, he can do other things. I mean, he is a functioning man after all, if you get my drift."
"And here I thought he was quite keen on taking you as a lover, not your sister," Giles said sourly, the idea of it making him shudder slightly in disgust.
"Things change," Buffy said evasively, not wanting to fill him in on how Spike had rejected her advances the other day. "I think he's finally clued in to the fact that he'll never have me, and he's switched to vengeance mode. What better way to hurt me than to go after my sister? Even if Spike can't kill, he could still get his jollies from corrupting an innocent."
"But that doesn't explain why Dawn would be channeling Spike's behavior. Are you certain that this isn't just her way of getting attention? You are the Slayer after all, and she does tend to be left out of most of what you do. Perhaps she wants a bit of the limelight herself."
"Are we forgetting the part where her eyes glowed yellow? That is not normal little-girl-acting-out behavior. Something is seriously wrong, Giles."
"So very little is known about the nature of the Key. It was certainly never intended that the Key should fall in love. Perhaps these are the side-effects of her unique nature."
"Whoa...hold on a second. Where did you get the idea that Dawn is in love with Spike? That is so not true!"
"Well, as much as we all disapprove, Dawn has managed to spend quite a bit of her free time with Spike. And yesterday afternoon when you brought her back to the Magic Box, I noticed her drawing the words Spike and Dawn' in bubble letters inside of a heart on the back of a notebook. Now I may be an old fuddy-duddy whom you think is out of touch with life as you know it, but isn't that commonly a young teenager's way of signaling feelings for someone?"
"Ewww! How could you let her do that? That's just...eww!"
"Well, Buffy. I don't feel it is my place to reprimand Dawn for what she feels. I know what it's like to have feelings for someone whom others may deem inappropriate."
Shuffling uncomfortably at Buffy's raised eyebrow, Giles pulled at his collar and quickly looked away. "Ahem...yes, well... I was young once too. So long as her affection for Spike is nothing more than a schoolgirl's crush, I will not attempt to alter her feelings. Lord knows trying to meddle didn't do any good with you and Angel…made the situation worse, if I do recall. Perhaps if left to run their course, these feelings will go away on their own. But know this…if I ever thought Spike would do anything to hurt her…let's just say his death would be a slow, painful inevitability."
As they talked, Dawn had quieted down. She was no longer clasping her forehead, and her eyes had taken on a dreamy, glazed-over look. Noticing her calm, Buffy and Giles rushed to her side.
"Dawn, honey, are you ok?" Buffy asked worriedly.
"Mmmm...better now," Dawn muttered happily.
Not knowing quite what to do, Buffy chose to sit vigil by her side rather than hunt down Spike. As Buffy worried over her sister, Giles began researching to find anything more about the Key.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!" Spike screamed in pain. "You bloody, soddin' son of a whore!" He grabbed Warren and pulled him close to his face, fangs elongated and demon very much visible. "Vampire's feel pain too, you ponce! Local anesthetic...NOW!"
Spike moaned as he waited for Warren to find the painkillers. He should have known better than to trust a human, but he was sick of not being able to hunt and kill. Finding out that Warren could do more than build robots had been an accidental stroke of good fortune. But that didn't change the fact that he had just had a doctor's saw cut into his forehead with no anesthetic.
"I'm so sorry. Please don't kill me! It...it was a misunderstanding. When you refused to let me put you under, I thought that meant you wouldn't need painkillers." Warren quickly took a needle and began injecting an anesthetic into the area where he would be operating. "Don't worry...there won't be any more mistakes. I promise," he simpered.
Like hell he'd let the git put him under, Spike seethed internally. That was a surefire way to become a pile of dust in the trash bin. He had no illusions that the cowardly boy wouldn't just stake him once he had the chip extracted if Spike were to let his guard down.
Gradually, a blessed numbness spread through his skull, and Spike calmed considerably as the painkillers took effect. "Better now," he growled, and Warren began to work. It wasn't long until he had found the offending chip. He was deeply grateful that the X-rays had shown it to be near the surface of the frontal lobe, directly under the forehead. Spike had looked ready to murder him when he suggested shaving off his 'beautiful blond locks' as part of the prep for surgery. But given the location, that hadn't been necessary.
"This is amazing," he whispered in awe, his fear forgotten. "Technology like this is supposed to be years into the future. But no wonder it was giving you such headaches. It's in the totally wrong part of the brain for enhancing mental functions. The way they put it in, it almost looks like a behavior modification device."
Spike stiffened, but Warren was oblivious to the discovery he had just made. He continued muttering to himself, more focused on obtaining the chip for himself than anything else. The Buffybot watched and assisted when she could. Warren took the chip out with a satisfied sigh, ogling it for a moment before replacing the small bit of Spike's skull he had removed and gathering the supplies to stitch him back up. However, it soon became apparent that stitches would not be necessary as Spike's skull sealed back together before his very eyes. Soon, there was nothing but an angry red patch of skin where a hole in his head had been just moments earlier. Warren had no doubt that even that mark would be gone within the hour.
"Blood," Spike moaned. "Need blood."
Warren backed away in fear. "Hey man, I did what you said. You promised not to hurt me. A deal's a deal."
Spike growled and pointed. "Cooler..." he groaned. The Buffybot opened up the cooler Spike had instructed her to bring with them. Inside were several bags of blood. She gave two of them to Spike and he savagely ripped them open and slurped them down, one after the other. "Now there's the ticket," Spike murmured in a satisfied tone.
"Good, great. We're done right? I can go?"
"The robot's all ship-shape, yes?"
"Yeah, she's got everything you asked for. I added everything you wanted. She's a regular Doogie Houser. Bye now."
"Yeah, mate. We're through. Have a nice life and all." This time Spike really did let the scared boy run out the door. Normally, it would be his policy to kill any witnesses to his weakness, but he wanted to be absolutely certain things were back to normal before he attempted to kill the git. After all, Warren was the only one who would possibly be willing to fix his problem if things weren't as ship shape as they seemed.
"Shall I take you home, Spike?" the Buffybot asked.
"Lead the way, girly," Spike said with a sigh. Leaning against her for support, he managed to fight his light-headedness and make it back to his crypt.
"I'm bloody knackered," Spike sighed, plopping down on his makeshift bed. "If it's all the same to you, I'm gonna grab forty winks."
"Whatever makes you happy is my desire, Spike. Let's get you out of those clothes. They still have blood on them." Spike was passive as the Buffybot stripped him, too tired to protest much. Once he was completely free of his blood-stained garments, he slipped under the covers.
The robot began rubbing circles over his tired muscles. "My prime directive is to make you happy. I was told that your wish was for me to keep the true Buffy and her family safe, but there are other ways to make someone happy." As she said this, her hands slipped beneath the covers and between his legs.
Spike yelped and jumped up, wincing slightly as the quick movements caused a bolt of pain to shoot through his head. "Hell, what do you think you are doing? Bloody git said he reprogrammed you. I'm gonna kill him!"
"The Creator did reprogram me; he added much knowledge to my original database, but my prime directive is still the same. Make Spike happy. I have many ways of doing that now instead of just one."
Spike put his hands up to keep her away. "You don't understand. Normally, I would fuck the fillings out of a pretty little dish like you, but it would destroy my…my…Dawn if she caught me messin' around with anyone else...especially some freakish clone of her sister."
"Dawn. Sister of Buffy. The Key. Protect at all costs. You love this Dawn?" The Buffybot asked.
"Um, well...I...Hey! I don't have to answer to you!"
"You're tired and sore, Spike. Let me help. Close your eyes," she commanded. "Go ahead, close them." Spike made sure he was still at arms length from the robot before complying. The Buffybot came close to him and whispered in his ear, "I can be Dawn." Suddenly, it was Dawn's voice coming out of the machine instead of Buffy's.
Spike's eyes snapped open. "Bloody Hell! How'd you manage that one?"
"Tsk, tsk Spike. Keep your eyes closed. Doctor's orders." The Buffybot said, still using Dawn's voice. She did a quick search of the room and found Spike's stash of bondage toys. She grabbed a silk scarf and tied it around his eyes. Then she pushed him back down on his bed and climbed on top of him. "I can give you what you want, Spike. I can give you what Dawn is too young to provide." Spike gripped the robot's hips and moaned. It's not like Dawn would ever have to find out.
"My Dawn, how you've grown," he murmured.
Buffy stroked Dawn's hair while Giles continued to research. Suddenly, Dawn's eyes snapped open. "What the hell are you doing?" she yelled, pushing Buffy away. "Stay away from me!" Her voice had taken on a slight English accent as she scrambled frantically to keep Buffy from her.
Giles was by Dawn's side in an instant. "Dawn, my dear. You must calm down. Tell us what's wrong, and we'll do our best to help you."
Dawn's eyes were still wide, but they did not see the two people gazing at her with concern in their eyes. She saw nothing...only felt the mixture of shame, desire and disgust as they warred within her. Then she felt the liquid heat of acceptance as a sharp jolt of pleasure suddenly filled her body. Ghostly hands skimmed her flesh, and a phantom lover seemed to fill her and encase her all at once. "Spike..." she gasped, throwing her head back with a moan.
"Dawn..." Spike groaned, pushing into the cold body above him. He imagined the lithe form of Dawn as he ravaged the willing robot. His fingers would have bruised the hips of any human, his grip was so harsh. But, as pleasurable as this was, deep down, he knew that this was wrong…that this thing could never be his Dawn.
For a second, he tried to pull away, ignoring how his head swam from even that small exertion. "Not real...not real," he murmured.
"I'm as real as you want me to be," the robot replied as she gently pushed Spike back down and continued her ministrations.
"Not real...not real," Dawn cried, her fingers clawing at the edge of the sofa. Her breath was coming in gasps as her body writhed and bucked.
Tears streamed down Dawn's face as she tried to fight the feelings surging inside of her. Giles gripped her shoulders and shook her hard. "Dawn...DAWN! You must come back to us. Dawn!"
"Spike!" Dawn screamed as she sat bolt upright, a high-pitched keening sound emanating from the back of her throat.
"Dawn!" Spike gasped weakly, sickened at his lack of control as he spent himself inside the robot. A long moan escaped his throat as his orgasm shook through him.
Both Dawn and Spike collapsed into unconsciousness as their pleasure subsided, the cumulative experiences of the day too much for either of them. Without a word, the Buffybot removed herself from Spike's grip and covered him tenderly with a blanket. Silently, she went and sat in a corner, awaiting the next time she could find a way to please her new master.
A/N: I hope the bit with the brain surgery seemed believable. I figured that since in the series we never saw Spike with a shaved head or anything, the chip must be in a pretty easy place to access. But I know nothing about surgery, so if it seemed all wrong, I'm sorry.
Oh, and if you like the story, please review! The reviews definitely help keep me going.