Hi! Early delivery for y'all! I had a burst of inspiration and managed to write the new chapter fairly quickly, so I thought I should upload it before I go back to class (the 7th) and therefore have less time to write. I should also be studying right now, but I seriously have no drive for it. Guess I'll have to watch Legally Blonde for some motivation, then.
Also, I'm thrilled to announce that we reached 26.000 views this week! Thanks to everyone who added a little number to the counter, you can't imagine just how happy it makes me.
Enjoy!
Lee out.
Sounds of an argument greeted the eldest Summers girls as they made their way downstairs, apparently coming from the kitchen.
"She can." They heard Angel say, like he was trying hard not to raise his voice.
"She can't." Two voices answered back, both Dawn and Spike speaking much louder than Angel.
"I'm telling you she can." Angel insisted.
"And we're telling you she can't! Come on, you think I wouldn't know that about my own sister?" Dawn shot back, slamming her mug of chocolate down on the counter as Ally and Buffy entered the kitchen.
"Apparently you don't." The dark haired vampire grumbled before taking a big gulp from his mug of blood.
"Oh, here you are, Alls." Dawn brightened when she saw them standing on the doorway, observing the scene of Angel sitting on one side of the counter, Spike and Dawn on the other, glaring at the former. "Angel says you can play the guitar. We say you can't."
Her ex sighed and shook his head before looking at her and nodding toward the other pair. "Tell them you can."
"Not really." She shrugged, moving closer to sit on the empty spot next to Angel.
"Lindsey said the first time he saw you was playing a guitar on campus, surrounded by some hippies, while he was working with some client there." He frowned, most probably thinking Lindsey had lied to him.
Ally almost scoffed at how close he sounded to Spike when he mentioned Lindsey. Guess he still didn't like the lawyer. Those two would never get along. "Yeah, he saw me play Hotel California, and they weren't hippies, they were Art students." She explained as she grabbed a glass of juice. At seeing Dawn and Spike pout because they thought Angel had proved them wrong, she spoke again. "But that's the only thing I can play. Don't even ask me to play the scale. It took me six months to learn Hotel California and it was only because I memorized the order and position of the fingers."
"So you can play." The eldest vampire repeated once again.
Ally shook her head. "No. I can memorize almost anything, but I'm practically useless with a guitar."
"Take that, Ponce." Spike leaned back smugly, sharing a high five with Dawn.
"Why Hotel California?" Buffy asked as she leaned on the counter beside the teen, being careful not to look at Angel too much. She wasn't exactly comfortable having him in her kitchen, sitting beside his ex, who happened to be her sister.
"It was my dad's favourite song. I wanted to play if for him on his birthday, so Riley and Graham got a friend of theirs to teach me." She smiled into her glass at the memories. She had to call them sometime soon, she'd only spoken to Graham twice while she was back home.
"Those two really have a soft spot for you, Alls." Dawn laughed, trying to prevent Ally from thinking about her dad right then. Dawn would bet her sister never got to play the guitar for him.
"Of course they do. I'm adorable." She smirked, making the rest of the people smile, even Angel, slight as it was.
But then, his head shot up, eyes narrowing. "Riley? Buffy's ex?" He glanced at the blonde for a moment, catching her eyes before averting his.
"Yeah. I met him when I was thirteen, when I was in the military base. Now, are you two done?" Ally glanced from one vampire to the other, both avoiding looking at each other. "I'll take that as a yes. Come on, hun, we're going patrolling. See you later, baby, Buff. Don't go to bed too late, Dawnie." She stood from her seat and moved over to the other side of the counter, planting a kiss on both Spike and Dawn's temples, patting Buffy's back and grabbing a stake from a drawer –hey, Slayers' home. "You'll see. I can kick your ass now." She taunted the dark haired vampire with a smirk, knowing it would make him hurry up some more.
"We'll see." He shot back, following behind her and out of the house.
The moon was the only light in the graveyard as the former couple strolled through, looking for anything undead or demonic. Ally had tried to retell most of what had happened to her since she'd left L.A., but it was a lot and she knew he wouldn't like some of the things, like Lindsey coming to Sunnydale, the AllyBot, Spike being the Doctor, or her fights with Buffy. He didn't need to know about those things, anyway. They were lucky no vampire seemed to be out, maybe due to Buffy's earlier patrol, giving them plenty of time to talk.
"So you're not coming back." Angel summed up when she was more or less done talking about the last couple of weeks, the worm-demon, and Spike's situation.
"No. I might visit, but I'm not leaving my sisters or my boyfriend, my friends, my family. Even less while there's so few of us. We used to be more. Then Joyce died. Giles left. And when I left… Xander and Anya broke up, she went back to being a vengeance demon, Tara died, Willow went mad with grief, Spike got his soul… I still can't understand how things got this bad. I can't leave them. To be honest, I need them more than they need me." The corners of her lips lifted in a gesture more similar to a grimace than a smile.
"I don't think that's true." Angel differed, watching her intently.
She laughed bitterly, the sound echoing through the empty graveyard. "I know it is. If I lost them, any of them… I don't think I'd have a reason to live. It's not the slaying that keeps me going, as I thought before… It's them. Nothing terrifies me more than losing them. When I came back and Dawn told me Spike was gone… I think I was in a stupor yet, until I found him. Had it been longer…" She shook her head, trying hard not to think about it. "I need them. When I was dead… they could still live. With time, they would have gotten over it. It would've been harder for Spike… but he would have been okay in the end. I can't. I can't lose more people. I can't lose those three."
It was only when Angel ran his fingers through her cheek, drying her tears, that she realized she was crying. The mere thought of it was too much for her, too hard to imagine. She'd lost most of the people she'd loved. Too many people. Their faces appeared in flashes before her. All of them.
"I still miss him, you know." She sniffed, lifting her gaze to meet his. She didn't need to say a name for him to understand.
"I know. He was my friend, and I miss him too. But he wanted you to be happy. Doyle was always trying to make you happy. Not mourning his death over four years later. People die. You can't avoid that. You can only be with them while you can."
"When did you get so wise?" She joked, a true smile finally lighting her face through the tears.
"I'm two hundred and fifty years old." He deadpanned, his thumb removing the last drops from her cheek.
"That doesn't make you wise, just old. And grumpy." The smile turned into a smirk and she resumed the stroll they'd halted as they talked. "I will try to visit you, though. When things are a bit more under control around here."
"You'll always be welcome." He promised, placing his hand on her shoulder. "But don't bring Spike."
"You two are just like children. Centuries old vampires… my ass."
He dropped his hand but kept pace beside her, looking around for any possible threat. "I mean… come on, you could have chosen someone better. He's… Spike. I've known him since his beginning as a vampire. He's not worth your time. He couldn't even keep Dru, serious…"
He was cut off by a well-aimed punch to his jaw, throwing him off balance and making him stumble back. Holding his hand to the sore spot along his jawline, he looked in surprise at the girl glaring at him, feet shoulder width apart and tense stance.
"Drusilla was a crazy bitch who didn't know what she had until she lost it, and neither she, nor you understand what's really inside Spike. You want to tell me what's good for me? You? You don't even know what's good for yourself. I didn't know until I came here. He was the first person I could count on after I left L.A.! You want me to find someone better? There's no one better for me! And if you, or anyone, try to treat him like shit in my presence, you will pay for it." She hissed, breathing deeply before spinning on her heel and stalking away from her ex.
She simply couldn't put up with his shit right then.
"What happened?" Spike asked as she walked down the stairs to the basement, where he was sitting on his new bed-mattress, watching the cracks on the ceiling until he heard her come into the house. Everything was eerily silent since the Nibblet and Goldilocks had gone to bed, probably a couple hours earlier.
"I punched him." She informed him, shrugging, before plopping down on the mattress near his feet and taking her boots off.
"Did he try something?" He growled, inching closer to her possessively.
"No. He started talking shit about you, I punched him. That shut him up." She threw her boots a few feet from the mattress and started shrugging her jacket off.
"That's my girl." He smirked, brushing her hair over her shoulder softly. "Captain Forehead is sure gonna be more careful around you now, love."
"He better." She leaned closer to kiss him once before standing up to take her jeans off, her t-shirt following soon after. "You staying here tonight?" He wondered, his gaze moving across the expanse of skin visible for him.
"Yes. I've missed sleeping beside you." She smiled softly as she kneeled beside him and brushed her lips against his again, his arms soon wrapping around her waist.
"I've dreamt about it." He whispered, enjoying her warm skin underneath his palms and against his own body, surrounding him.
"Just hold me. No need to dream about it anymore."
Morning came with Dawn opening the door to the basement and poking her head inside, looking around until she spotted her sister wrapped in a blanket, under the vampire's arm, nestled against his front. They looked impossibly cute together.
"Alls?" She whispered into the basement, trying not to wake the bleach blond. "Ally?" She tried a bit louder when none of them even stirred. When she got the same response, she sighed and tip toed her way down the stairs and toward the mattress. Kneeling beside her sister's side, she patted Ally's arm until she blinked sleepily. "Come on, Alls, it's morning. We're all leaving in ten minutes. Thought you wouldn't like to find us all gone when you woke up."
"Morning, Dawnie." The junior Slayer murmured as she wiggled away from her vampire, escaping Spike's unconscious attempt to bring her closer to him. "Sorry, I came back late last night. I'll be ready in five."
"You're coming? You don't have to go to the high school basement anymore." The teen frowned, glancing toward Spike, sleeping like the dead.
"I still want to go with you there. I'm used to it by now. I like it." She smiled sloppily and threw the extra blanket at the feet of the mattress around her body, cocooning her until she got to her room and could grab some clothes. "Besides, that way I can control the boys in your school and give anyone looking at you any way I don't like death glares."
"God, no wonder no one gets close to me!" Dawn mock complained, trying to fight off the smile that threatened to overtake her face.
"I love to watch them shrink in fear." Ally smirked, then flinched when the soles of her bare feet touched the cold kitchen floor.
"You're evil." Dawn teased, elbowing her lightly, although she wasn't sure where she'd hit her due to the big curtain the blanket formed around the other brunette.
"Guess that's why I went to Hell." Ally joked, before really stopping to think about it, her smile falling.
Dawn looked at her, shocked, mouth hanging slightly open. Where did that come from? "Ally, you're not…"
The Slayer shook her head, walking a bit more quickly toward the staircase. "Leave it, Dawn. Just forget I said that. Didn't mean to."
"But…"
"Really. Just… leave it." And with that, she got inside the bathroom and locked the door.
