Disclaimer: Blah blah blah. Not my characters, but my story, where I get to mess around with them.
E-mail: sadcharades@breakout.nu
Note: It's after the "Crush" episode. That's about it.
The door slammed. Buffy stood there, her arms crossed, her expression so cold not even fire could melt it. She glared at the distorted vampire through the bent glass of her door daring him to knock or do anything about it. Then she promptly turned on her heel and briskly went up the stairs. She quickly shed her jacket and climbed into her bed, trying to put this whole day behind her. She thought for a moment about the cattle prod and chains and shuddered, then proceeded to try and sleep, wishing for perhaps some pleasant dreams.
"I'm, uh, going out." Dawn shrugged her shoulders. One of her feet was already out the back door when Buffy stopped and glared at her.
"It's Saturday. You don't have school." Buffy shifted her weight. "Where are you going?"
Dawn sighed. "To a friends. I'll be back in a couple hours."
"A couple? Huh, so, which friend is this?"
"Sp..Sarah..yeah."
"Sarah? I've never heard of her."
"Just let me go, Buffy. I've made new friends, after all!"
Dawn shut the door behind her and took a deep breath. She set out immediately in the direction of Spike's crypt.
"Spike!" she yelled and knocked on the door.
"Why the hell are you knocking? Can't you just bloody well knock down the *hiccup* door?"
"I'm not my sister. I don't have supernatural powers." Dawn yelled back.
"Oh. 'Tis you. Come in..WAIT! Lemme...ouch, oh!, move.."
Dawn cringed and pushed the door in. Spike lay on the floor, disheveled and obviously drunk.
"Oi, Nibblet. Didn't really think it'd be your bitch of a sister."
Dawn raised her eyebrows. "Oh? Something else happen last night? I was asleep when she came in and she wasn't in a great mood this evening. So your talk didn't go as you planned, I presume."
"I screwed up. Everything. Stupid Spike, stupid Spike.."
He then proceeded to bang himself on the head with the empty bottle.
"Ack," Dawn rushed over and grabbed it away from him.
"So..what'd you do anyway?"
"Chained 'er up. Let Dru zap 'er. Forced her to...Bloody hell, I'm not telling you about this!"
"You chained her up? Who's Dru?"
"No, I didn't, it was just, okay I did. I ha to clelar my mind, and I couldn't, with both of 'em women running around, so..it's a long story. I'm just so sorry. Tell your sister I'm so *hiccup* sorry."
Dawn squinted at him and shook her head. He was drunk.
"Speaking of stories," she pressed on. "The end of that one you were telling me yesterday..I thought about that. You lied. Just so you wouldn't make Buffy mad. That's pathetic."
Spike groaned and slumped down even further.
"So? What happened?"
"Oh..piss off."
Dawn chuckled.
"So it was true? I thought he was just incredibly drunk and rambling." Dawn muttered to herself when Buffy told her accounts of the previous night.
"What?!" Buffy exclaimed. "He told you? When?"
"Umm..when he called me from his telephone. Alright. When I went out this morning."
"You still went out even though I specifically told you not to visit him?"
"Buffy," Joyce hushed her daughter. "Please, Dawn, stay away from him. You heard what he did to your sister."
"But he said he was sorry! He was just confused. He said if Dru wasn't there, he wouldn't have.."
Buffy shook her head.
"I'm going out."
One, two, three, four vampires dusted.
"Can I have a little more?" Buffy mumbled and rolled her eyes.
She stopped suddenly, and turned around. She lifted her head and was staring into two large, nonsensical eyes.
"Ahh, Drusilla. I almost forgot about you. I guess I do owe you a dusting for those murders on the train. You did just get here last night, didn't you?"
Drusilla smiled wickedly and plunged toward Buffy. Punches flew, kicks collided with bodies. Grunts and screams sounded throughout the air, as well as Drusilla's insane ramblings. And Buffy listened. The fight dragged out, and Buffy was getting tired of it. She wasn't bruised or cut or battered particularly badly, but she was running out of breath.
"You ruined him," Drusilla snarled and pounced upon Buffy.
"Believe me, I didn't want to," Buffy choked out. "Not like that, anyway."
Why was this vampiress getting to her so? Drusilla pinned her and started to beat her into the ground. Buffy was in a position to keep Drusilla away from her neck, but her punches were barely keeping Drusilla from smothering her.
And she started to panic. And panic causes confusion and weakness. And Buffy's panic caused neon snakes to slither past her glazy, darkened sight.
She still thrashed and kicked and hit violently, and could hear Drusilla's short shrieks of anger.
The blackness got thicker. Buffy squeezed her eyes.
And then Drusilla's weight was gone and Buffy was sneezing.
She groaned and lay there for a few minutes. Slowly she opened her eyes and sat up.
Spike was staring straight at her. No, not at her, at the air above her body. There was a dropped stake between her spread legs.
"Spike.." Buffy began softly.
He looked up, startled by the noise.
"Buffy, are you okay?" he breathed. He offered her a hand. She took it and slowly stumbled up. She looked into his concerned eyes and then quickly looked down at her feet.
"Yes.." she replied shakily.
Spike nodded and turned around and grasped at the nearest tree.
"It was Drusilla," he whispered. "I killed my Dru."
Buffy looked at him and began to realize the meaning of what the vampire had done for her.
He turned to face Buffy.
"But all I could see was you. I saw your terrified face nd I could hear your horrible yells, and that's all that mattered to me. There was a vampire on top of you, and all it was to me was a dark evil form trying to kill you. In the end, all I can ever see is you. Always."
He shook his head, trying to explain it to himself. Then he looked at her, daring her to answer him and half scared to find out what the answer would be.
Slowly, Buffy took out the concealed stake she'd been hiding under her jacket. She placed it in Spike's hand.
"This is for you. This is the stake I was going to kill you with, but I can't do it. I could never do it. So take it and do whatever you want with it, because I can't use it against you."
They looked straight into each others eyes and Buffy walked up to the vampire and embraced him into a gently hug.
Spike sighed, and rested his weary head, along with his weary feelings and mind, on her shoulder and gently she kissed his cheek.
"Thank you," he replied and stepped back from her. "I love you, no matter what."
"I know you do. Thank you for your love."
She smiled at him and went home.
(And in a totally unbelivable and even more unreal world, he would follow her.)