For RKF22, shadow, RAGAnne, momnesia, and Nyx-Arae!
Chapter 11
"Still wakin' up there, Buff?" Willow asked, eyes big and mouth crooked.
Buffy propped her head up with her hand, the other curled around her second steaming cardboard cup of coffee with five packets of sugar and a peppermint flavor shot. "Waking up implies sleep happened."
"Oh. Long night patrolling?"
"Ughn." Buffy's hand gave up. Her face fell directly on the table.
"Poor, sleep-deprived Buffy brain." Willow patted Buffy on the head. "Lots of vamps? Or did you run into army dweebs?"
Buffy forced herself to sit most of the way up. She gulped down as much coffee as she could before she was rendered unable to breath. "Riley, weird Initiative stuff, pent-upy-ness because no patrolling action, and then weird Spike stuff."
"Spike stuff?"
Willow licked some whipped cream from the top of her drink. Buffy wasn't convinced that a drink even lived underneath. Maybe that should be the next thing she ordered. Ooh, with chocolate drizzle! Bad Buffy, she scolded herself. Focus.
"I went to see if he could confirm army guy stuff and his place was wrecked. So was he." Buffy hesitated, staring over at the Espresso Pump's chalkboard with types of drinks listed. The black with the yellow and pink words against it... "I think I went off the deep end, maybe a little."
Willow's eyes shifted. "Were you the one who wrecked his place?"
Buffy shook her head. "No." She waved her free hand. "See, that would be less of the wiggy. I made sure that he was alright."
"Oh, well, that's not so bad."
"We had an actual conversation. About feelings."
"I mean, I guess that could..." Willow shrugged her shoulders. Even she hadn't been sure where she was attempting to go with that sentence.
"Wills. We—"
"What?" Willow raised in her seat a little, full-on apocalypse panic face going.
Buffy cringed. Willow loved her, nothing could change that... she was pretty sure. Hell, she was in an actual relationship with Angel and Willow had been with her every step of the way. It wasn't like creature of the night boyfriends were foreign to Wills, either. Hello, good ol' fuzzy Oz? But Buffy had so much trouble just saying the words. At least it'd be better than Xander's reaction, right?
Had to be.
Xander could never know.
"Spike kissed me."
"I—oh."
"And I kinda kissed him back."
"I, um, huh. So what does that..."
"Well, I'm not setting up the white picket." Buffy downed the rest of her drink, some of the pepperminty-ness invading her nose until she felt like she'd just inhaled liquid candy. "It's Spike, you know?"
Willow stirred her drink, glancing over her shoulder. "Tara likes him."
"Yeah. What is with that?"
"Dunno. It's weird, right? But your mom likes him, too. I guess he has a certain kinda charm if he hasn't tried to, you know, kill you?"
Buffy thought of Spike helping her on patrol, coming to Christmas Eve and acting decent, the way he hadn't thrown what she'd said that morning back in her face and humiliated her. But he'd humiliated her before, with Parker, when he had the Gem of Amara. Sure, that'd been months ago, and pre-soul, she guessed. "What is with that soul stuff anyway?"
"Anya gave me the name of the guy he might've gone to. Apparently you can battle for your soul. There are, like, these trials and no one really knows what they are unless they've done it. But Buffy..." Willow shook her head, eyebrows and nose scrunching up into her research face. "It would've taken at least weeks if not months for the trials alone, plus travel time to Africa? And he was at Giles' the whole time..."
"So you think he doesn't have a soul?" Buffy wished that she hadn't sounded—that she hadn't been—so disappointed by the possibility. But it made the most sense, right?
"No, Tara's a very smart witch," Wills said with a proud little smile. "I think her spell worked. I just... There must be something else going on here, but I got nothin'. Do you... Do you want him to have a soul?"
"Sure, I'd like to think that I haven't been leaving a homicidal monster free on the streets."
"Are you... Are you sure it's not more than that? 'Cause I'd understand, if it was." Willow concentrated on her whipped cream cup. "Sometimes things just happen that way, you know? You meet someone and these feelings, and then, just outta nowhere, something you didn't expect, but it's still nice and..."
"Lady, I am cuttin' you off," Buffy said, sliding Willow's cup toward herself. "I think you're having a sugar high malfunction."
"Hey! I was trying to help!" Willow pouted until Buffy handed the cup back. "Yay!"
"And about Spike, a whole world of no." Buffy kept her eyes to the table. "I mean, it's Spike, right?"
"Well, whatever the case, you've got my support, Buff," Willow assured her. "Unless you try to take my sugar from me again. 'Cause I will curse you. Chanting, candles, the whole nine yards."
xxxxx
"Children, do stop fighting."
"But Willow won't let me help!"
"Anya, you are a thousand years old. Could you please stop—"
"I need my space! If you want me to crack this in the next century. It's a very delicate—"
"Xander!"
"What? Everyone's right!"
"M... Maybe we should..."
Spike missed heaven. No bickerin' Scoobies. Sure, there was also no booze, no brawls, and no blood. Maybe it was an even enough trade. He knocked on the watcher's front door, then stuck his hands in the pockets of his duster, rolling on the balls of his feet. They might stake him once he was finally forced to let them in on the fact that the Dark Slayer had left town without being turned over to the proper authorities. He hoped he'd given her enough of a head start to escape his Slayer's wrath. Just when it barely began to occur to him that Buffy might've told them about his slip-up in the crypt, the door opened. Rupert wasn't even wearing his glasses and looked about to throttle the nearest creature.
"Oh, excellent. This should make things better," Giles griped, stepping aside. "Spike always adds a true sense of maturity to the conversation."
"Would you close the door? It's freezing!" Demon Girl yelped.
Spike stalked inside, doing as she asked. He looked around the room, trying to assess the situation. Red sat at her laptop at Giles' desk, her lover-wicca next to her with an arm 'round her shoulder. Anya was tossing about books and papers on the same desk. The boy had some kind of a weapon, something that Spike vaguely recognized from the army blokes.
Buffy curled to one end of the couch, a map of the UC Sunnydale campus in front of her. She'd marked off a couple of places with red squiggles. The Slayer turned it around, looking at it upside-down, giving herself a different perspective. Spike crouched next to her side of the couch, looking it over. Lowell was marked, and the spot where she'd found him outside her dorm, where he'd come back from 2003.
"Want a hand there, pet?"
She murmured something non-committal. If she didn't hit him, he thought he might be alright sticking at her side. He tried to remember where the tunnels and caves were, but it was difficult. The whole bloody thing looked the same. Maybe if they did a patrol on campus he could pick up on a scent or... something. He remembered Adam's rotted human/demon flesh creating an extremely distinct odor. Once they were near the doors into the underground structure, he could probably suss out where Adam was from there.
"Why is he here? Again? Hey, Peroxide Boy! No one wants you here. Shoo!"
"Xander, do cease," Giles said, sinking into the other side of the couch.
Spike stood, turning to the girls. "Anything yet on how to get in, Red?"
"Not really. Maybe there's a way in the Lowell house, but I dunno how we're going to get in there without being detected." She chewed on her lower lip.
"Maybe... maybe if they have a party? We could pretend we're there for..." Tara's head sunk lower the longer she spoke until she just trailed off.
"Blond witch's got a good idea there," Spike agreed. For the first time since he'd arrived, they looked directly at him. Tara gasped. "What?"
Anya looked around the room, patiently waiting for someone to speak. "Fine," she groaned. "What the hell happened to your face?"
"Oh, that. Uh, got attacked in m'crypt." Spike rubbed his jaw, still sore. Girl had some real power. "It'll be better in a day or two."
"Did Buffy do that to you?" Anya continued. "Because the only thing that I can think of that can make that kind of lasting damage on such an old vampire... is... well, a Slayer." She glared at everyone else in the room, who was staring at her. For once, Spike wished to God the girl wasn't so honest all the time.
"Well c'mon, Spike," Buffy said, tossing the map on the overloaded coffee table. "You promised me you'd tell us when you came tonight."
"He prom... Buffster, when did you see him?"
"On patrol," she said, not turning to the boy.
Spike hadn't missed the gentle way she reminded him of his promise, and he guessed no one else had, either. "Slayer."
"Spike."
He huffed, throwing his head back. "No, the... The psycho Slayer. She came by and I took a few good smacks to the gob, a'right?"
"Faith's awake?" Buffy demanded, panic in her voice.
"Faith?" Red snapped out of her seat, backing away from the computer. "No, no, no. I mean, that's not good. She doesn't like me. And..." Willow stared, wide-eyed, at the witch on her left. Spike suspected he might be the only one who knew why, out of all of them, Red was most worried about her girl. Prolly 'cause no one had realized Tara was her girl yet.
"It's okay. I'm sure you could, um, distract her with Tinkerbell lights and run. If... if you saw her," Tara said with a warm smile and a subtle hand on her back.
"Spike, do you know where she might've gone next?" Giles asked.
"Mom." Buffy jumped to her feet. "Oh God. What if she went... If she thought I was... I spoke to Mom after the Espresso Pump, but..."
"I'll call her immediately," the watcher said, picking up the phone and dialing.
Buffy reached for her winter togs on the back of the couch, but he stilled her hand with his own.
"Shh, s'alright, love. I took care of it."
"What? Spike what do you..." Her eyes hardened over, chin sticking out as she raised to her full height and, it seemed, then some. "Did you kill her?" she asked, only loud enough that he could hear.
"No, alright?"
"Hello, Joyce?" they heard Giles say into the phone.
"See? She didn't bother you, your mum, your mates all day. Trust me, the girl was out for blood. I talked to her a bit, we got pissed, and then she decided it was best if she left town and found a Hellmouth of her own."
Buffy stared him straight in the eye, thinking it over. "If even one person..."
"I told her I'd kill her myself. Soul or no soul."
Buffy looked around, seeming to only just notice that everyone was watching them. "Fine. Faith's in the wind. Great. One less thing to worry about." She flopped back into her spot on the couch.
"So Spike," Wills said, tentatively breaking the silence as she sat back at her computer. "Any more info on Adam you'd like to share with me? I mean, us?"
The watcher hung up the phone and re-entered the room.
"Yeah. Uh, part real boy, part demon bits, part computer. Think big science experiment."
"So he'd likely be on the news if he were spotted. This is good news, right?" Anya nodded, chipper. "There have been no Frankenstein monsters on the news yet. I know, because Xander and I like to watch it after—"
"Ahn, for the love of God!"
"What? It drowns out the sounds of his parents' drunken arguments."
"And now that that is burned into my cranium forever..." Giles sighed.
"And you said the tech hack was new, right?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah. Didn't expect that." Spike guessed things had started changing already. Probably not enough to keep Buffy alive yet, or to keep Red from going power mad, but it was definitely a start. Things bein' set in motion and all that.
"That explains the second firewall here," Red muttered. "But it's sloppy. Overconfident. I can crack it once I figure the government encryption out."
"Spike," Rupert said, sitting on a barstool. "I think what Buffy was implying was that the choice of phrasing was... at best, odd. You can understand why we'd be... concerned... about trusting you for information, yes?"
"You never change," Spike said, shaking his head. "Even when I've got a soul, you... Just come out and say it, Rupes, and let's get it all out on the table."
"Fine." Giles' eyes darkened as he put his glasses back on and stared at Spike across the room. "I don't trust you. You haven't been entirely forthcoming, and if you want to be a part of this, then we need—"
Spike giggled. "Honest? Alright." He turned to Buffy. "How 'bout you, Slayer? Think I mean your lot harm, do you?"
Her eyes lowered, for a moment. Enough to tell him. She wouldn't say it in front of her friends, but some part of her trusted him. "Why did you get your soul, Spike?"
Spike exhaled slowly. "For you."
"What?" Xander said.
"Pardon?" Giles echoed.
"In the fall of this year, 'bout nine or ten months from now, I realized I loved you. And then... I hurt you, I didn't mean to but I did, and I went to win my soul. To give you what you deserve. I don't know that was even enough." He sucked in his cheeks, daring the watcher or the boy to tell him he was lying about that.
"In fall... Okay, guys. Did my brain just die or did Spike have a stroke?" Xander asked, raising his hand. "Giles, is there some secret Brit-man code here that we're missing?"
"No." Rupert paused, forehead creasing. "Why would they do it?"
"So there is a code!" Xander said, pointing between Spike and Giles. "Aha!"
"No. It's, as a watcher... Spike, why?"
"Giles?" Red sounded all kinds of nervous, her voice shaking.
"The Powers That Be."
"Yes, the bloody Powers That Bugger." Spike scuffed his boot on the floor. "I need to keep a couple of things from happening, that's all."
"A couple of—like what?" Buffy stood, studying his face.
God, she just had to make this more difficult to do, didn't she? Always did. Never was simple with this Slayer. "I don't know how much I'll fuck up if I tell you. I dunno that I was even supposed to tell you what I just did."
"But may... maybe we can help?"
Spike smiled at Tara. "I dunno. There's... Rupes, any idea what I should do here?"
"Do you remember what they told you when they offered you the opportunity?"
"That girl Cordelia—"
"Chase?"
"Cordy?"
"Please, let him finish," Rupert said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Spike?"
"I gotta..." Spike shifted on his boots, keeping his eyes on the watcher so he didn't have to guess what the girl was thinking when she heard it. "Gotta keep the Slayer safe, and Red's magic under control."
"Hey!" Wills said, eyebrows shooting up in indignation. "I don't need controlling. That's... misogynistic!"
"You don't need controllin' yet," Spike grumbled.
"And need I remind you," Buffy added, pointing between herself and Spike, "that as recently as a month ago we were betrothed?"
"Hey, you ate my apology cookies!" Willow shouted. Tara rested a hand on her shoulder, which made Wills jump.
"What does Willow do?" Anya asked, eyes narrowed at Spike. "The Powers don't just send people back for no reason at all. It had to be end of the world bad, right?"
"A couple'a times over, yeah, pet."
"What else is new?" Xander mumbled.
Spike and the Slayer locked eyes. She knew, without him having to say it. She knew that if he was sent to be a warrior at her side, it was because she'd lost a battle she wasn't meant to.
"I didn't ask for this, you know," Spike said. It was loud enough that they could all hear him, but he refused to take his eyes from the Slayer's. "I was in my eternal rest." He shrugged. "Then again, it was pretty boring."
"Hell? Boring?" Xander clucked his tongue, shaking his head. "They just don't make hell dimensions like they used to."
Buffy stood, walking to the other end of the room. The watcher stood as well, approaching her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and whispering to her. He heard the girl sob, then shake her head. No one in the room wanted to look at one another, and then Buffy turned to face Spike again. "Anything else?"
"Nothin' they told me. Stuff that might happen, but I don't want to muck everything up." Spike pleaded with his eyes, prayed this was one of those moments where they just understood each other. And it was. "Things've already started changing, so so long as they keep going this way, it should work. Try not to think about it too much, yeah? You'll get a headache."
"Already there," Xander said, raising his pointer finger.
"Me too," Tara said, holding her hands to her torso.
"Oh. You and I gotta have a chat sometime soon, Glinda," he said, jerking his head toward her.
"I was going to get a blanket from Xander's car while we tried to hack into the government," she said. "If you wanna...?"
Spike nodded. Tara left through the front door. "And Slayer, when I'm back we'll go on that patrol I was promised?"
Buffy stared off, her eyes glazed over and blank, the way they'd been when she'd walked down the stairs and he'd thought she was the bot again. He shook himself and headed out front.
