Two: REVELATIONS
Buffy gasped, "Spike?!"
"Buffy," he responded, well aware of the direction the conversation was headed.
"Do you see..." She hesitated, staring at the mirror.
"Yep. There you are," he teased, nodding at the glass.
With eyes and mouth wide, Buffy couldn't turn her gaze from the reflection. What IS this? she wondered. She'd had plenty of experience talking to Angel and to Spike while near a mirror or window, and facing the illusion that she was talking to herself. But there he was; there was Spike, his penetrating eyes staring back at her.
His hand on her arm, Spike turned Buffy to face him, settling her back tenderly to lean on the edge of the counter.
She clutched his hand; held it; discovered it was warm. "What happened to you, Spike? Where have you been?" Her tone expressed both her confusion and fascination.
Pulling her toward him and encircling her with his arms, he gave a little squeeze then released her and stepped back. "Let's go downstairs, warm up some wings and pour ourselves a couple of stiff drinks."
"I suppose you won't be needing the blood from the freezer, huh?" she joked, a little uncertainly.
He huffed. "Nope. Seem to have lost the taste for it," he countered with a smirk as he headed for the hall.
"I'll be just a moment," Buffy said, closing the door.
Returning to the sink, she splashed some water on her face and dried it on a towel. All those weeks thinking of him, dreaming of him when he was away... Finally she'd begun to put him out of her mind and now... Alive? I don't know how, but Spike is alive. Never in all the time they'd been together or in the months since he'd left did the notion of him being alive occur to her. Does this solve problems? Does it cause more? New ones? Where do we go from here? She heard music cue up in her head --- "Where do we go from here?" Great, now I'm hearing singing in my head --- reflecting on that fitting question and another pivotal moment in her past with Spike, following the musical demon evil.
Buffy took a deep breath, opened the door and headed downstairs.
Turning to the living room, she found Spike outstretched on the couch, asleep and the unopened take-out bag on the coffee table. Talk about weird, she noted, Spike asleep in the middle of the night.
Reaching for the blanket draped over the arm of the couch, she initially thought to simply cover him. It then occurred to her that Dawn could come home and find him there. She wasn't sure any of them were ready for that little reunion, so Buffy instead gave Spike a nudge and helped him sit. She slung one of his arms over her shoulders. "Why don't you lie down in Willow's room," Buffy suggested pulling them both to standing. "You can get a good night's sleep in there. We'll talk more in the morning."
After helping him down to settle on the bed, Buffy turned to go. Pausing at the door, she heard him breathe deeply. "Good night... love," she whispered, closing the door behind her. Then she went downstairs for something to drink, grabbing the bag from the coffee table and taking it to the kitchen.
------- o -------
"Buffy?!" A door slammed. "Buffy, where are you? You home?"
Dawn. What's she doing here? "In the kitchen," Buffy called back realizing the sun was up and she'd apparently fallen asleep at the table.
"Late night?" Dawn inquired, nodding at last night's Slayer-wear.
Not exactly sure where to start, Buffy responded, "Yeah... ah... I ran into... er... something unexpected. Kept me busy most of the night. What are you doing here so early? I thought you'd be up all night with Janice then the two of you would sleep until noon."
"Yeah, that was the plan, but her mom's screaming this morning woke us up. Looks like Sunnydale's latest evil is on the rise," Dawn suggested casually.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, surprised by her sister's offhanded remark.
"Well, I guess Janice's mom was going out to her car early this morning and discovered huge cobwebs covering a bunch of houses on the street. No spider anywhere we could see though."
Pondering her next move, Buffy was about to propose a trip to the Magic Box to do some research when she heard the sound of footsteps above them.
"Hey," Dawn exclaimed excitedly, heading towards the stairs. "Is that Willow? When did she get back?"
"Dawn, wait!" the older Summers cautioned. "It's not Willow."
Walking back to the kitchen, Dawn looked at her with a suspicious expression. "Well if it's not Willow then who's upstairs?"
The feet overhead hadn't left Willow's room and seemed instead to just be pacing back and forth.
"Dawn, sit down," Buffy instructed, motioning to a chair next to hers at the table as she made her way to the fridge. "I need some juice. Do you want some?" she asked, reaching for a second glass.
"Yeah. Thanks," her sister nodded, growing more unsure of what was going on.
Buffy set the juice down on the table and carefully eased herself back onto her chair, hoping that if she did it slowly enough she might have time to figure out what to say next. "Well... ah..." Buffy's eyes darted around as if searching for something before settling on the table in front of them. "I'm not sure of a lot of the details myself, but. ah. last night on patrol, I ran into-"
"Little Bit."
Buffy hadn't even noticed that the pacing over-head had stopped, but Spike now stood in the doorway from the hall.
"Spike!" the girl screeched, leaping to her feet then rushing him with a huge hug. Just as he was closing his arms to return her embrace, Dawn pulled away and hit him.
"What is with you bloody Summers women and your fleeting affections?" he questioned with an uneasy eyebrow raised at Buffy.
"Where have you been?" Dawn demanded.
An anguished look washed over Spike's face.
"You could have let me know you were OK. I was worried, and Buffy..." she trailed off. "Hey... What happened last night? You guys back together?" Dawn asked, quickly changing gears.
Buffy looked over to meet her sister's hopeful grin.
"Nibblet. Got back late last night. Big Sis' and I haven't really had a chance to talk," explained Spike in a low voice.
"Oh I get it!" Dawn giggled with a very nudge-nudgy wink-winky expression on her face.
"Dawn!" said Buffy sternly.
Spike continued, "Had a long trip and... ah... lots happened to me since. I was worn out. Fell asleep before Buffy and I could really have it out. She just helped me up to Willow's room and..."
Noting his discomfort, Buffy changed the subject. "So what are we going to do about this giant spider business? Spike, Dawn's been telling me that the street where her friend Janice lives is covered with huge webs," she explained. "Got any ideas?"
"Sounds like Kralliq Spiders. Not likely any real human danger," he stated plainly. "They mostly go for cats, small dogs, and the like. Plus, they don't put up much of a fight against anything much larger. It's the webs that cause the trouble. Can end up completely trapped by 'em. Bloody hard to get rid of. Need a magic sword, spell or some such."
"Hmm... Sword I can handle, but we're a little light on the magic these days; Willow's in England with Giles, and Tara... ah... she was killed." Buffy sighed and locked onto Spike's eyes. "We've got alot to talk about." She paused glancing away. "But for now, we've got to figure out what to do about the spider situation. Give me a few minutes to clean up and change, then we can head to the Magic Box." She brushed by Spike in the doorway, causing him to quiver as she passed then rushed up the stairs.
Dawn sat drinking her juice while Spike hovered in the doorway.
When he heard the bathroom door close and the shower start, he pulled up a chair next to Dawn. "Bit..." He let out a deep breath. "I know that you're probably not very happy with me right about now, and I'm sorry I didn't keep you up on what I've been doing. I want to be able to sit down with you and tell you everything..."
Dawn thumped her glass down on the table, pouting.
Spike took another deep breath, set his hands down on the table and proceeded, "I want to tell you about what's been going on with me, but I need to talk with Buffy first. Please Bit, we've got a lot to resolve and there are some things I really need Buffy to hear from me."
They sat in silence a while, then Dawn got up from the table. "Want some breakfast? I could do some eggs?" she offered with a nervous smile.
"Love some." That wasn't so hard, Spike thought. Seems the Little Bit's growing up.
------- o -------
"You guys ready?" Buffy inquired as she rushed into the kitchen. She pulled a granola bar from the cupboard and gulped down the rest of her juice. "We should get going; the sooner we find a way to get rid of these webs, the sooner we can get back to... more important matters."
Together they headed for the front door. Dawn stopped in the hall.
"Are you coming, Dawn?" Buffy asked, curious as to why the girl had stopped.
"Sure, but... ah... Spike?" Her forehead furrowed. "I mean... Aren't you forgetting something? Sunny California in the daytime: not so good for your complexion."
"Yes, Dawn. One of many things we'll talk about --- when this is over."
------- o -------
Even months later, the Magic Box still showed signs of damage from the Giles-Willow battle in the spring.
After a few awkward moments of pleasantries, Buffy, Spike and Dawn filled Anya in on the latest trouble to strike Sunnydale.
"Well," Anya began, as she pulled a book from the shelf then set it down on the counter. "It sounds like it could be Kralliq Spiders, but... " She flipped through the book, pausing to scan the page. "Ah yes, here it is." Anya shook her head. "The climate conditions are wrong. It's way too cool here in Sunnydale now for Kralliq Spiders. They need much higher temperatures and the humidity is all wrong." She glanced around as if searching the air for an answer. "I suppose you could still try the magic sword routine, but it will take me a while to track one down. Not too practical to keep them in stock in this part of the country, you know," she remarked. "Why don't you go see if you can find the spider in the meantime. It would certainly save time in the clean up if you stopped the thing from making anymore webs."
Grabbing a couple of stakes and daggers, the others headed off to Janice's.
------- o -------
As they approached the street, Buffy, Spike and Dawn heard screams and charged towards them. There, they did indeed discover enormous webs covering the street and there was a small crowd of people running toward them with terrified looks on their faces.
"Looks like we've come to the right place," Buffy declared.
"... or the wrong place!" Dawn countered, seeing the enormous black arachnid racing forward on its great furry legs.
Springing into action, Buffy leaped atop the creature, which was tall as a horse, while Spike pulled Dawn to safety. Lifting a stake preparing to impale one if its many eyes, she felt the beast buck and heard a loud resonating, "Cut!"
Buffy stopped suddenly and peered in the direction of the voice. To her surprise, there was a large group of people gathered around several film cameras, cranes, lighting standards, and other equipment.
"What the hell are you doing?" blared an angry voice though a megaphone.
"Saving Sunnydale..." she squeaked, stake still raised.
"Well, if you're done now, we'd like to get back to work," the guy groused. "OK people. Let's reset the spider. Where's the touch up crew? Bug's going to need some buffing..."
People began to mill about and the "terrified" mob grumbled back for another take.
Embarrassed, Buffy slipped off the mechanized creature into Spike's outstretched arms.
"Looks to me like it's already had a 'Buffing'," he said gleeful smirk.
"Well, one thing that hasn't changed," Buffy retorted, "your annoying sense of humour."