New Beginnings

New Beginnings

Part 6

"Can I help you, sir?"

Xander froze for a brief moment, forced to choose between his fight or flight response, and using his dazzling intellect to dance him out of this situation. He was clearly ready to choose the former when the scrub-clad woman continued.

"Oh. Thanks, um," she looked down at the name tag attached to his stolen...er, borrowed lab jacket, "Alberto. We needed some more supplies. I was just about to call you." She swiftly turned and busied herself with her hospital responsibilities while Xander breathed a large sigh of relief. He faintly wondered how irritated she would be to return and find the stock room even more naked than before 'Alberto' had arrived.

Xander covertly slung the bag across his shoulder and made a bee line for Giles' car.

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"Here I come to save the day!" Xander sang on his way into Giles' apartment. Had the inhabitant of this place understood the reference to a vintage cartoon, he may have actually smiled. As it stood, Giles bore a stern look of contemplation, which Xander knew from experience would not leave until Buffy was settled into her own body.

"I hope I got all the right stuff. I never knew there were so many different kinds of needles, all in different colored packages."

The older man grabbed the bag and rifled through it, instinctively fearing that the boy had failed to produce the correct items. To his surprise and relief, they were all there. "Good work, Xander. Now, let's get to work."

His hands were unsteady with the strange equipment, but he certainly seemed to know what he was doing. Before long, there were 5 sets of tubing, each with a bag of IV solution at the top, hanging on anything and everything in the living room. "You actually know what to do with all that stuff?"

"Of course."

"You are just a Watcher right? You told us about your Ripper days, but I don't remember you getting a medical degree at any point."

Obviously annoyed, the Watcher responded, "Relax. She can't get any worse, right?"

Just as Xander was about to say something terribly witty, yet liable to earn him a smack in the head, Willow and Tara waltzed in the door.

"Were you able to alter it?"

"I think so." Tara gave Willow a dirty look and amended the red-head's statement.

"Yes, Mr. Giles. It's good."

Xander's wondered about the happiness clause, wanting to ask if that was hopefully still in place, but decided to forego the question. As much as he loved Anya, he still had a soft spot for Buffy. It stung every time she was intimate with a man. All he knew was that it shouldn't feel that way, but it just did.

"This is wonderful news. Now all we need is Buffy and we can begin." No one wanted to volunteer to call the Summers' house. It was a bit freaky to see their beloved Slayer's body lying on the floor and knowing they would be speaking to the annoying vampire's voice on the other end of the phone. The situation felt like a surrealistic dream.

"Oh, for pity sake. I'll call him...I mean her." Giles' escaped to the back room to make the call.

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Buffy was the first to awaken to the incessant ringing in Spike's ear. "Hello?"

"We need you here, at my place. We've come up with a solution to your predicament and are ready to proceed. Please get here quickly." Buffy assured him they would.

"Spike. We gotta go...now."

"I'm sleepin'. Go 'way."

Buffy responded with a kindness unusual for her, "I know you're used to sleeping during the day. God knows you need it. But they've found a way to get me out of you and we have to get there quick."

"Quickly."

"Since when were you an English teacher?"

"English professor, bad poet, same thing."

"Yeah, 'cuz your own language is right out of Webster's."

"Are we going or not?" It wasn't like the vampire to shy away from their verbal sparring. Buffy chalked it up to sleep deprivation and agreed to move on.

Spike gathered up his boots from around the room, and slowly tied them. "Did I mention that we're sort of in a hurry?"

"Yeah, I heard that, ducks." Once the shoes were on, he sauntered around the room searching for his duster.

"Come on, Spike. You can pick it up later."

"Right. Just let me do one thing first." Once again, Spike wandered around the room, this time into the bathroom. He slowly bent down, lifted the small pig out of the toilet and proceeded to wash it off in the sink.

"What are you doing?"

"Washing off Mr. Gordon. What does it look like?"

"It's Mr. Gordo and it really looks like you're stalling. What's the deal? I thought you couldn't wait to get me out of your head."

He stopped drying off the stuffed animal, and simply hung his head. "What ever gave you that idea?"

"Well, maybe it was the last few hours of irritation and arguing, but I can't be sure." She tried to smile, but couldn't get his face to budge.

"I'm going to miss this, luv. I mean, you've only been here for a short while, but I kind of liked getting to know you better." 'I'm sounding like a fruit loop. Why can't I just shut up and leave with her?'

"You don't sound like a…what was that? Fruit loop? I…" She dusted a few of her hairs off of his pants. "I learned a lot about you. A lot of stuff I wouldn't have the old fashioned way, you know?"

"Yeah."

The faucet dripped behind them. A bird called to its mate outside the window.

"You're not going back to…" She caught herself, uncertain how much to share with him and also unsure of how much he already knew.

"To what?!" He had assumed she was about to make some reference to his lifestyle. After all, isn't that what it always came down to?

"Your crypt."

The rest of the sentence stunned him stupid.

"You know, big ugly stone building in the middle of the cemetery? Has a sarcophagus in the center and a basement with a Buffy-shrine in it?" He felt the comfort she reflected. Her tone did not hold the hatred and fear it once had. She was actually playing with him…like he had seen her do with Red, Riley Fish, the Watcher and that Xander guy.

"Why?"

"It's so…lonely there. Wouldn't you rather be around people or something?" Suddenly, the idea struck her as ludicrous. Spike, the vampire who once referred to humans as 'happy meals with legs', choosing to live with humans for company. What was she thinking?

"Depends on who I'd have to put up with. I don't find too many people tolerable. That's why I live alone."

Buffy dropped her joking attitude completely. "No, you live alone because you didn't fit in anywhere. Now you do."

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"Is she coming or what?"

Perhaps she and Spike are arguing again."

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Rather than discuss the issue of belonging, he simply accepted it. "Where would you have me live? I don't have any cash. I don't make a wonderful roommate. Just ask Angelus. I like my music loud and I'm a night person. And who wants to get up in the morning, pour themselves a glass of orange juice only to get a Bloody Mary?"

"Stay with me. Stay with us."

Once, again, he was stunned stupid. His face dropped, showing his utter disbelief of the words he had just heard.

To Be Continued...