Part Three


"Buffy, I feel like i'm going to throw up!" Dawn told Buffy.

"Well, maybe if you haden't eated all that junk food..."

"I know, I know, but that doesn't help me now." she said, rubbing her stomach.

It was daylight, and Buffy was driving. Dawn was next to her complaining about a stomach ache, while Spike in the back seat, blankets up around the windows, sound asleep. She stopped at a red light, and turned around to look at him. She smiled down at him. He looked so peacful while he slept. Besides for the fact that he wasn't breathing, anyone that looked at him would have no clue what he was, or all the nastly things he had done in the past. She didn't know why he was helping them, but she was greatful for it. He said he did it out of love for her, but that was impossible. Sure, he cared about her, he'd proved that many times, but love? She didn't think demons without a soul even could love. Sure, she knew demons could feel lust, anger, pride, even loyalty, but not love. Never love. And, although Spike did act differently that most vampires, he was still a soulless demon. A creature of the night. And she couldn't get involved with another vampire. Not again. She didn't think her heart could take it.

She yawned and looked at the clock. She's only been driving for a couple of hours, but she hadn't gotten much sleep last night. She would fall asleep, have horrible nightmares, wake up, talk to spike, and then repeat it all over again. Buffy looked at her sister, who was still rubbing her stomach and moaning. She sighed, and pulled into a Holiday Inn and parked the car.

Dawn looked up, and stopped moaning long enough to squeel. "Ooh! We're staying at a hotel?? We haven't done that in ages. The last time we...oh," Dawn said. "That didn't happen. I forgot."

"Dawn, as long as we remember."

Dawn cut her off. "Buffy, don't. It's ok. I'm excepting it now. It's getting easier." But even as Dawn said it, Buffy could see traces of tears in her eyes.

Buffy felt for her little sister. It couldn't be easy knowing that everything you've ever thought in the past was a lie. She took her younger sisters hand. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, the only times i've ever been to a hotel was with you. So, i guess that makes us hotel virgins."

Dawn looked up at her sisters smiling face and couldn't help but smile back. To tell the truth, Buffy didn't want to stop. They should keep moving. Glory could find them any minute. She winced. Thinking of Glory made her think of her friends. The ones she left behind. That fact alone weighed heavy on her shoulders.

**I hope they're ok. I wonder what they're doing. I wonder if they're..** She shook her head. **Of Course they're fine. Glory wanted Dawn, not them. Now that we're gone, she won't bother them.** But even as she said it her mind flashed to the past week when Glory had Spike. Another time he had pulled through for them. Risking his own life to save theirs. But Spike was a vampire, so he healed quickly from Glory torturing him. She knew her friends wouldn't have that. Glory would stop at nothing to find out whee they were. She hoped Willow protected them. She was the only one who could.

Spike's moan brought her out of her thoughts. Her and Dawn looked back at him.

"Should we wake him up?" Dawn asked. "Maybe he's having a nightmare."

"Uh, oh God, uh, Buffy, oh!" Spike moaned, his hips slightly rocking forward.

Buffy turned bright read while her sister laughed. "Dawn, go inside the hotel and ask if there are any rooms open." Dawn giggled. "Now, Dawn."

"Alright, alright. I'll leave you two alone." She snickered, and jumped out of the car, heading for the hotel lobby. Just as Dawn got inside, there was a loud moan from the backseat.

"Ooh, Buffy. Feels so good. Gonna, oh!" Spike's body spasmed, and if possible, Buffy's face turned 5 shades redder. She reached out to touch his shoulder, shaking him hard. "Spike! Wake up!"

He groaned, and his eyes opened. He looked up at her, and smiled, his hand reaching up to cup her face. "Uh, Spike?"

He drew his hand back, remembering where he was. "Sorry. Why are we stopped?" He gasped, and sat up quickly. "Where's Dawn?"

"Um, she's in the hotel."

"Hotel?" He questioned, looking around.

"Yeah, Dawn was getting sick, and i was starting to fall asleep, so i thought maybe we could get a hotel. I figured we could all use the rest. This was the first place I found." Buffy wasn't sure exactly how much money Spike had, so she added, "If there's not enough money, we could always find a cheaper place."

Spike looked at her and smiled. "No, no. I have enough money. I..."He stopped talking and shifted uncomfortably. He frowned, and looked down. His eyes bulged, and he looked at Buffy, who was pretending to look at something outside the car. He covered up the front of his black jeans with his duster. "Um, yeah. You go in and see if there are any free rooms, and I, uh, heh. I'll get the stuff out of the car and um, meet you in there. ok? ok."

Buffy's face, which has lessened in the redness, turned bright red again, at the sight of him trying to cover up without her noticing. She had to admit, an embarressed Spike was a funny sight. She mumbled ok, and hurried out of the car.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Spike watched her go, then looked at his pants and groaned. "Why now? Couldn't you have waited? Bleedin' sun of a..." He made sure noone was looking in the windows, or walking by, and quickly took off his pants, wiping the sticky substance from his legs. He took a clean pair out of the one duffel bag he'd managed to pack, when Buffy came to him, and stuffed the soiled pair in, quickly putting the clean pair on.

He grabbed a couple bags of food, his duffle bad, and 1 out of the five bags the girls brough. He thought about it again, then grabbed the other 4 bags. He didn't know much about girls, much less human girls. He didn't know how much stuff they would need, even if it *was* just over night.

Spike wrapped a blanket around himself, and ran for the hotel. He struggled with the door to the hotel, trying to keep the bags from falling, wondering when exactly they decided to get rid of the automatic doors. He gave Dawn a greatful smile when she opened the door for him.

"Hey Spike. Wow, you were sleeping for a long time. Have any good dreams?" Dawn said, trying not to smile. "You never told me you sleep talked."

Spikes eyes widened, and he thought about Buffy's red face in the car. He thought she was just hot or something. Dawn laughed, and ran back to where Buffy was. Spike knew if it was possible for a vampire to blush, he would be a bleedin' tomato right now. * How bloody humiliating.*

He looked for Buffy and saw her arguing with what looked like a hotel worker.

"But we really need a room. Now!" Buffy was saying.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but we don't alloy people to just rent rooms before six. You need a reservation. If you would like, you can make a reservation, and come back at six. A room will be available then."

"Six?? That's like five hours from now! What are we supposed to do until then??" Buffy shouted.

"I don't know. All I know is that..."

Spike interupted the man. "Is there a problem here?" He asked.

"Yeah. This dweeb here says we can't rent a hotel until six, when we need one now."

"Is that so." He gave the man his best 'Big Bad' look. The man, in return, backed up a couple steps. "Go out to the car and see if I left anything in there. Both of you."

"Spike," Buffy warned.

He gave her his most charming smile. "Don't worry, I'll behave."

Buffy led Dawn out to the car, a smile on her face. She knew what Spike was about to do, and she knew she probably shouldn't let him. But that guy was so rude! He needed to be scared a little. Seeing Spike left nothing they needed in the car, Buffy counted to 30, then went back into the hotel lobby.

Spike was sitting next to their bags, throwing a set of keys up in the air. They walked over to him, and Buffy tried to frown, failing. "Spike? What did you do?"

He gave her an innocent look. "What? That guy suddenly changed his mind. And, he gave us free room service. Wasn't that nice of him?" He grinned at them, and picked up some of the bags. "Come on. You two need to get some sleep. And don't think i'm going to carry all the bags this time. You two can grab some too."

"I'm not tired." Dawn said as she grabbed the smallest bag to carry. "Unlike you two, I slept the whole time. Do they have a pool here? Can we order movies? And we get free room service, right? I wonder what i can order. Did we pack our swim suits? I don't think we did."

Buffy smiled at her younger sister, while her and Spike grabbed the remaining bags.

"I thought you were sick!" Spike exclaimed.

She smiled at him. "I was. Now i'm all better."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They walked up to their room, and after putting all the stuff away, Dawn stood up. "I'm going to look around. See if there's some cute boys."

Spike cleared his throat. "Ahm. No boys. Your too young."

Dawn rolled her eyes. "Ok, dad." She teased, then grabbed a hotel card and left the two alone.

"Dad?" Spike questioned. "Where the bloody hell did that come from?"

Buffy laughed. "Well, you did kinda sound like our dad. Ya know, if he cared at all." She looked at the two beds, then at Spike. "Um, You can have that bed, me and Dawn will share this one."

Spike shook off the dad comment. "No, that's ok. You and Dawn can have a bed. I'll take the floor. I've slept on worse."

Buffy had a flash back to Angel, saying practically the same thing. *hmm. Perfect gentleman.*

"That's Ok, Spike. Really. Me and Dawn have shared a bed before. It's a big bed. Your 'friend' at the service desk gave us a good room." She laughed again, remembering seeing the mans scared face before going to their room.

"He better have, for the money i paid for it. I remember when you could stop by a hotel, andstay for fifty bucky. Less!"

"And let me guess, then you walked fifty miles to the store, with no shoes, in the snow?" Buffy asked, laughing.

Spike laughed and nodded. "Damn right I did. Those were the good ole days. Ok, enough talking, you need to get some sleep. I'm just going to get some reading done."

Buffy watched in wonder as Spike pulled out a pair of glasses, put them on, and started reading what looked like a trashy romance novel. Buffy giggled, causing Spike to look up at her.

"What?" He said, frowning at her, secretly loving the fact that she was laughing. In his mind,. there was nothing more beautiful that when Buffy laughed.

"You!" She said, trying to calm down. "You wear glasses!"

Spike's hands flew to his face, then he smiled at her. "Yeah. Got a problem with that?"

She stopped laughing and grinned at him. "No. I just never imagined that Spike, William the Bloody, wore glasses. I didn't think Vampires needed them." She looked at his book choice. "And I also never imagined you read romance novels. Didn't think you went for that sort of book. Most guys don't."

"Well, i'm not most guys, am I? Dru got me hooked on them. She used to have me read them to her." He smiled. "Sometimes, we'd re-inact the love scenes." Off Buffy's look, he added, "But you probably don't want to hear about that. Get some sleep."

She sighed and laid down. She felt tired in the car, but now that she was actually laying down, she felt wired. She sat up. "Spike?"

He groaned. "Aren't you asleep yet?"

"For some reason, I'm not tired anymore. Could you.." She blushed and looked down. "Could you maybe read to me? I...I mean, until I fall asleep?"

Spike searched her eyes, and seeing that she wasn't mocking him, he nodded. "Sure thing. Want me to read from over here, or.." He trailed off as Buffy hopped from her bed, and went to lay next to him. She looked a little nervous, and carefully laid her head on his lap. Spike groaned when he felt himself harden. "Uh, that might be a little uncomfortable for you." He grabbed a pillow and put it under her head. "There."

She gave him a greatful smile, then waited for him to start.

He cleared his throat, and turned to the first page in his favorite book. He started to read.

"He moaned as she grabbed him long, thick." Spike's eyes widened when he smelled the faintest hint of arousal. Female. He looked down into Buffy's wide eyes. "Um, right. Now the best part to read if you want to go to sleep. I'll just." He skipped ahead a couple pages, smiling when he remembered *why* this was his favorite book. "Ok, here we go. Laura Emerald was a twenty year old beauty, with bright blonde hair and a slender body. She was loved by everyone, and..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Spike read to Buffy for a little over an hour, stroking her hair, until he heard her breath even out. He stopped reading, looking down at the beauty in front of him. She looked different now, than she did in the car. More peaceful. He hated leaving her, but Dawn had been gone for a long while, and Spike wanted to make sure she was ok.

Spike found her by the pool, talking to a group of boys and girls. He walked up behind her, hearing a boy who looked about nine-teen, day, "Wow. Your really beautiful. How old are you?"

"Too young for you." Spike snapped at him, glaring at the boy.

Dawn turned around at him, and frowned. She pulled him away from the pool. "Spike! He was just trying to be nice. You didn't have to yell at him!"

"I know exactly what he was trying to do. Besides, I thought we agreed. No boys."

Dawn snorted. "We didn't agree, you demanded."

Spike gave her his charming smile. "Come on, you know you love me."

Dawn grinned. "Yeah, you wish." She looked back at the pool, then smiled up at him. "Spike, I want to go swimming. Buffy will too. But we didn't bring our bathing suits."

Spike thought for a moment, then looked at her. "Your probably hungry, right?"

He noticed she turned a bit green when he mentioned food. He laughed. "I mean real food, not junk food. You need something to balance out all that junk food you ate."

She brightened up. "Can we get Kentucky Fry? Buffy likes it. We usually get it when we go to hotels. Well, I mean, not that we ever have, ya know, cause i'm not real."

"None of that, lil bit. Brighten up. You want Kentucky Fry, then we'll get Kentucky Fry. You can start the tradition over again. We'll have to wait for a couple of hours, until the sun goes down." Spike watched as Dawn's face fell. She gave him the puppy eyes she was famous for. Spike groaned, and muttered something about whipped vampires and 1000 year old girls bloody eyes. "Um, i think i saw some shops when we first came in. Might have some bathing suits." He got out his wallet, and handed her a fifty, addeding a twenty to be safe. "Get your sis one too. If it's not enough, which it bloody well better be, come back and i'll give you more."

Dawn grinned. Nope, the eyes never failed. "What about you? Should I get you a nice speedo? Maybe in blue?"

"No bloody way. I'm not going swimming. I'll watch."

"But Spike! It'll be more fun with you."

"No i'm not..." She looked at him and he groaned. There were those eyes again. They would be the death of him, he was sure. "Fine. Get me some swimming trunks." He gave her another twenty. "Got that? Trunks, not speedos."

She grinned and threw her arms around him. "Thank-you Spike!" He stiffened, not used to people hugging him, and akwardly put his arms around her, patting her on the back.

"Your welcome Niblet. Now get going before i change my mind. And don't buy any more candy. You've had enough."

"Yeah, yeah." She said, running toawrds the hotel lobby.

"And don't talk to strangers!" He yelled.

He sighed. What had he gotten himself into. *Swimming?* The last time he went swimming was..well he couldn't remember that far back. He hoped he could remember how. He didn't think you could forget, but knowing his luck...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Buffy woke to the smell of food and the sound of laughter. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking around.

"Hey sleepin' beauty. Rise and Shine." Said Spike. He cleared off the table and put three bags on it. Dawn started to tak everything out.

"Where's you guys go?" Buffy asked.

"Um, we went to the store and got a buncha games for tonight, and then stopped by Kenntucky Fried Chicken and got some food."

Buffy's mouth watered at the sight in front of her. Chicken, potatoes, cole slaw, and buscuits. She got of Spike's bed, ignoring Dawn's questioning look when she noticed *what* bed Buffy had gotten off of. She walked over to the table, and sat down, smelling all the food. "Mmm. Smells delicious."

"That it does," said Spike.

"You eat? I mean, actual food." Buffy asked him, curiously.

"Yeah, I eat. Not for nutritional value, It just kinda passes the time."

They all sat down and started eating.

'Oh, anyway Buf, Spike gave me some money and I bought us some bathing suits." Dawn said. She looked at Spike and grinned. "And he even promised that he would go swimming with us."

The Slayer looked at him, and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, I never promised. I said I might." He said

"But Spike!" Dawn said.

"Yeah, Come swimming with us Spike. I think you would look cute in a speedo." she said, her eyes dancing.

Dawn laughed as Spike choked on his chicken. "What is it with you bloody chits thinking about me and speedos? Do I look like I would wear speedos?"

"Yes!" Both girls said at the same time. They all laughed.