CHAPTER ELEVEN

The Ageless Battle



As it turned out, Buffy didn't discuss her slayer quest in depth with anyone other then Spike for quite some time. Once again he served as her confidant. But she started carrying the eagle feather as a talisman and she tried to make some first steps toward responsibility by getting a paying job. She told all the Scoobies individually that she needed them to divide up slayer duties with her so that she could concentrate on trying to make money.

Xander and Anya patrolled with Spike when Buffy worked nights. Willow tried to center herself around school and computer investigations. Tara looked in on Dawn and made sure things were going all right there.

One night when Spike came to pick up Xander and his fiancee for patrol, he found only Xander waiting. "So what's up, Harris?" Spike asked. "The little lady has some wedding issues to work out?"

Xander ignored this verbal jab. In comparison to the things he'd been hearing from Anya's demon friends in the last few days, anything Spike could say sounded like a compliment. "She's busy visiting with a vengeance demon friend of hers. It's the second to come visiting in as many days." Xander brought down the metal grill over the entrance to the shop with as much force as he could muster, filling the street with the clang of falling metal. "The first one tried to psychoanalyze our relationship. The one from today goes by the name of Agatha and she's belittling the size of the wedding. She thinks we should have a bigger hall and more bridesmaids and so on and so on. And Anya is listening to her! I thought we had everything settled."

Spike gave a small laugh as he followed the other man toward the cemetery. "Harris," I've lived for over a hundred bleedin' years and I still don't get women. Even when you do what they say they want, it's never enough." He was talking about Buffy of course. And how he had turned himself inside out to serve as an adjunct to the Scoobies without ever getting any credit from her.

"Yeah," Xander agreed, sticking his hands deeply into his empty pockets. "I thought I was giving Anya pretty much everything she wanted with this wedding. But as soon as one of her old demon friends drops by and says something, it's not good enough for her anymore."

"You turn yourself inside out and backward for them. But do they see that? No! Do you even get a bleedin' nod of approval? Not bloody likely. They still act like you're not good enough for them."

"That's it exactly! That other demon friend of Anya's who came yesterday basically said I wasn't good enough for her. To tell the truth, I'm not too happy about these two vengeance demons being her bridesmaids. I mean they're not the kind of people you want at a wedding. They make the whole thing feel shotgunny. Like, do it our way or prepare for the big vengeance thing."

"You afraid they won't like the flowers and will take vengeance on you by turning you into a frog or something?" Spike asked.

"Or maybe talk Anya into becoming a vengeance demon again."

"That's what you're really afraid of, isn't it Harris?" Spike tapped a cigarette out of the pack in his jacket.

"Or maybe I'm afraid that this is what our married life will be like, with various old demon friends of hers appearing periodically on the doorstep, discussing our life and what a failure I am."

"You know," Spike said, lighting his cigarette, "I don't blame you for not wanting the vengeance demons at your little shindig. But if you wanted a nice quiet human wife with no past, you woulda picked one. Like the rest of the Scoobies, you're drawn to the wild side. Maybe if Buffy hadn't come along you all would've turned out bleedin' normal. But you got caught up in saving the world. Look at you, you're in construction, right? Bet all your mates from work are sittin' home cozy in front of their tellies right now with their boring wives and equally boring kids. While here you are after a hard day's work, walking around with a chipped vamp looking for baddies in the local graveyard."

They stopped talking as a couple of vamps leapt out at them from behind some bushes. Spike dusted the more aggressive of the two while Xander kept the other one busy. Xander's construction work had helped him become physically stronger. He couldn't handle the vamp as well as Spike. But he'd certainly gone past the days when he could barely keep from getting bitten. After Spike staked the second vamp, they continued on toward the cemetery.

"Lost my smoke," Spike said, pulling out another cigarette. "Anyway, what I'm saying is, you're obviously attracted to Anya as she is or you would have ditched her long ago. Sure, she aggravates you sometimes and you want to bleedin' strangle her. But the truth is, you couldn't live without her. So, why fight it? Give her what you can. And tell her no when things are just bleedin' impossible."

"That's easier said then done."

"Tell me about it." Spike let out a long plume of smoke.

By the time Xander got home, Anya's friend Agatha had gone. But she'd left behind several written notes for Anya to discuss with him.

"Agatha really thinks we need a bigger hall," Anya began, hovering over Xander as he took off his jacket and slipped off his shoes. "I think she's right. The one we ordered will never handle the ice sculpture and the band."

"Band? I thought you wanted a DJ?"

"Oh, no. Agatha says that's far too tacky. We'll need at least a six or seven piece band."

"And ice sculptures? Why do we need ice sculptures? Of what?"

"Swans."

"Swans?"

"Yes, they'll stand at the center of the table with the paté and cold consommé."

Xander closed his eyes and tried to control his tongue. "And how much extra is all this going to cost?"

"Oh, don't worry. It'll only be a few thousand . . . maybe ten. And Agatha reminded me of a few more friends that I should invite."

"More demons?"

"Of course. I met a lot of people during the last thousand years. True, I've grown apart from most of them. But this is really a big day and I want to show you off to everyone." She patted him on the shoulder, more as if he were a dog then a fiancé.

Well, he thought, at least she still wanted to show him off. Her old demon friends hadn't convinced her to dump him yet. "Look. I'll see if I can get the money. But I'm not promising anything. Construction tends to slow down over the winter. It might pick up again in early spring. We'll just have to wait and see."

Anya's lips came up into a pout, but she didn't say anything. She just headed toward the bedroom and closed the door after her.