Babysitting Miss Edith - part 4.

"Aren't you glad you untied me?"
"Yes."
Xander smiled affectionately at Dru, she held Miss Edith in her right hand, and drew light circles on the back of his hand with the fingers of her left.
"Miss Edith is sorry for hurting Kitten's nose."
Subconsciously, the human rubbed his nose. Dru had thrown the doll at him when he got back from dropping Dawn back at Buffy's. She was mad at him for leaving her again. His nose had bled for a full ten minutes. She offered to clean it for him - he hadn't realised it would mean her licking his top lip. Not that he'd had a choice. Before he could answer her, she had pounced on him, knocking him onto the sofa and pinning his arms above his head.
"You have blood all down your top, baby."
She looked down at the neckline of her dress and saw the blood that had soaked into it, turning the white dress into a white dress with a pink neckline. She licked her lips,
"Dru, no. You'll make it worse." he said, watching her closely. He was slightly shaken. The blood was his and she had a taste for it now. He hoped to whatever supreme being there may be that the glint in her eyes wasn't hunger.
"Hungry, baby?" Stupid.
He sagged with relief as she shook her head and stopped drawing circles on the back of his hand and began to walked her fingers up his arm and across his shoulders. She seemed to like his shirt. Wierd, but then she was a couple of sandwiches short of picnic - or 'a whole loada pints short of a bloodbank' as Spike had put it.
"Dru, if you're not watching Friday 13th can I sw--"
"Shhhh ........... the air."
".... the air?"
"It sings....."
He panicked slightly. Where was Spike when you needed him? What if the air was singing about something he really didn't want to know? Apocalypses, armageddon, the destruction of all existence full-stop.
"It sings, and every particle says pretty words."
"Words? Pretty words?"
She tilted her head to one side and looked at the outline of his profile against the window.
"Dru .... baby, what did the air sing?"
"Pretty words."
She spoke as if the answer was obvious and that anyone could have known the answer. He bit his lip and frowned slightly,
"What pretty words? .... What did the air sing about?"
"The air's been singing? What did it tell you, pet?"
Dru frowned and covered her ears with her hands,
"So many questions!"
Xander looked at Spike. The vampire stood in the doorway, jacket slung over his shoulder. He didn't like that fact that the demon could waltz into his flat whenever he wanted - once invited, always invited - unless he could twist Willow's arm into revoking the invitation, but Drusilla wouldn't be very happy if he locked out her Childe.
"Come on, ducks, home time."
The vampiress turned to Xander and tapped his forehead,
"It's all in there."
Spike and Harris exchanged glances as she cradled Miss Edith and walked dreamily over to her fledgling. From his seat on the sofa, the human waved goodbye and smiled when Dru blew him a kiss. Sweet. Closing his eyes to the breeze as the door swung shut, Xander rubbed his forehead where Dru tapped him. He frowned in mild confusion,
"It's all in there?" He was almost tempted to call her back to ask what that meant, but he was too tired for another encounter with Miss Edith and her Mummy.
Briefly opening his eyes, he looked at the clock. 1:24am. He'd better get some sleep. He'd promised Giles he would help in the Magic Box in exchange for the Watcher's silence.

He opened his eyes. He was in a big armchair, a bit like the one in Spike's place. Standing up, Xander looked around him - this *was* Spike's place. Not good. If Blondie found he had come for no apparent reason he'd--
"You came." Spinning around, he panicked slightly,
"Dru? Wh--"
"Hush, Kitten. Mummy's here now."
"... that's what I was afraid of - does Spike know I'm here?"
Moving closer, she wrapped one arm around his neck and placed her finger on his lips,
"Shhh."
Reaching up, Xander took hold of her arm and moved it away from his face,
"Why am I here, Dru?"
A dreamy smile played across her lips and she tilted her head to look at him at a different angle.
She tapped his forehead,
"It's all in there."
"So you said. Dru, baby, why am I here?"
Clapping a hand over his mouth, she pulled him closer, placing butterfly kisses down his neck. He tensed, remembering that his neck was now in point-blank range of her fangs. Oh joy. Seizing her by the shoulders, he pushed her away.
"Dru, no."
Pouting disappointedly, she turned away from him and walked arouns to the chair he'd beem sitting in before. Spike sat there now, a wicked glint in his eye. He grinned mischeviously as his Sire walked towards him and sat in his lap. Sleepily, she rested her head on his shoulder as he kissed the top of her head. Neither seemed to notice him anymore and Xander took this as a much-wanted opportunity to do a runner. He turned away and headed towards the door - then Spike screamed in pain. Xander froze and slowly turned around. Dru sat in the armchair alone. A blunt stake in one hand and ashes covering the chair and the floor infront of it. She dusted him. Xander felt an icey lump where he heart should be as she stood up and looked at him, her face emotionless. The lump travelled up to his throat as the vampire's figure morphed into that of Buffy's and she spoke - with Giles' voice.
"By no stretch of the imagination is this 'not that big a deal'."