beyond4
Beyond Death's Gifts

by Phoenixstitch 5/22/2001

Part 4




Part 4

"You got your key, Little Bit?" Spike asked as they neared her house.

It had taken longer than either had thought to get there, and the sun was beating down unmercifully on the bright orange tarp that covered him. He was already feeling the sun´s deadly effects, draining his energy, weakening him even further than he already was, but he forced himself to keep moving so he could get her to safety. She was the one that counted not him. He could not rest until she was taken care of and safe. He owed Buffy that and much more. He had never felt so exposed as he did now and ducking down in the sewers was no an option because of the young girl that was with him. It was too dangerous for her. Too many of his fellows and the other nasties of Sunnydale used the tunnels underneath the town during the daylight hours to get around town, and he was in no shape to protect her, or even himself from anything that might want to make a snack out her.

Dawn shook her head. "No, lost it somewhere…I think when Glory grabbed me at the gas station," she replied, embarrassed. "I think the spare´s gone too, and Buffy had the only other one," she sighed.

"Well, it looks like we´re going to have to do some breaking and entering, I guess. Back door. It´ll be easier to fix than the front and a lot less noticeable to your neighbors," he said as they walked up the sidewalk then veered around the side to go to the backyard.

It took just a couple of seconds for Spike jerk the storm door open then ram his fist through the glass panel of the back door and unlock the door so they could enter. Luckily this side of the house was in deep shade so he could leave the bulky tarp on the porch. He opened the door and let her enter first. Their feet crunched loudly on the broken glass in the stillness of the house. He would get that cleaned up as soon as he got her settled, he told himself. They made it as far as the kitchen stools before they collasped heavily on them. But then Dawn bounded up quickly to close the still open kitchen blinds before the sun could reach her companion.

"Thanks," he told her wearily. "You don´t think there might be a spot of blood around, do you?" he asked hopefully.

Dawn shook her head. "Nope. Not something Buffy´s been buying," she said worriedly, knowing he needed blood to not only survive, but to help heal his injuries. She went over to the refrigerator and started looking through it to see if they had any meat type things. "The closest thing with blood in it is maybe some chicken livers we were going to have for a meal. Would that help?" she asked.

He gave her a wan grin. "Yeah, that´ll help. Hope Giles thinks to pick me something up from Willie´s or the hospital," he added.

"Cold or warm?´ she asked as she took the container out of the frig and looked at him about ready to fall off his chair.

"Warm, just pop in the microwave for a minute or so," he said tiredly, and she did. "Your sis got a first aid kit around here?" he asked while they waited.

"Upstairs. I´ll go get it as soon as this is done," she answered, watching the container go round and round on the center carousel as it heated the livers. A least she could do this, take care of them both. Doing things, well almost normal things, was helping with the numbness, and unreality of her life she was feeling right now.

"It´s done," she said as the bell rang. "Do you want me to put it anything like a bowl or somethin´?´ she asked unsure what to do next.

"What it´s in will be fine, Nibblet. Just go find that kit, and a bunch on towels," he told her taking the towel wrapped container from her. "Then when you get back, just leave them. and you go back up, and take a shower so you can get all the blood off you, and we can doctor your wounds right," Spike added. The scent of her blood now that they were in an enclosed space was getting to him. He knew the chicken´s blood wasn´t going to do much more than take the edge off his hunger, but it was better than nothing.

Dawn looked down at herself. She had forgotten about the cuts on her stomach. They hurt a little, but then her whole body hurt so she had just ignored them in her haste to get them both to safety. The dried blood was probably driving her friend nuts. "Yeah, you´re right. Better to be clean when we bandage them," she said understanding. "I´ll go get the stuff. I´ll be right back," she said leaving him. She also knew he did want her to see him vamp out as he drank the blood and gross or scare her.

Of the two, she was in decidedly better shape. Spike was a mess with blood on his face, hands, and she knew he had gotten stabbed by Doc as well. By the way he had been limping and holding his side as well as breathing hard, she suspected he also had some broken ribs and broken bones. She knew a little on how to deal with those kinds of things from helping Buffy. Their mom would have freaked if she had really known how banged up Buffy used to come home and how she had helped her tape up her injuries.

Dawn found the kit and grabbed up a bunch of towels, and a couple of washrags too. She also got Spike a clean t-shirt. It was green. She wasn´t sure whether it had belonged to her Dad, Riley, Xander, or Angel but he needed to change his shirt as his was pretty far gone. When she got back to the kitchen she found Spike standing. He had taken his duster off, and was taking off his boots. He was wincing in pain as he eased the Doc Martin off one of his feet, and took off his sock to look at his broken ankle and foot.

"That looks really bad," she commented as she set the kit and towels down on the counter then went over to the cabinets to get a large bowl and filled it with warm water.

"Yeah, it´s not too good. Had it worse. Sure be okay in a couple of days, but I need to take it easy on it until it mends back. You go on and get cleaned up while I deal with all of this," he said looking at her.

"Sure you don´t want any help? I used to help Buffy when she got hurt so Mom wouldn´t know," Dawn volunteered.

"Maybe, I´ll let you help me tape up my ribs. But I need you not to be so smelling of blood when you do it, got it?" he told her gently.

"Got it," she sighed, understanding that she was driving him nuts. "Okay, I´ll be back in a little while," she told him, and he nodded in relief as she left and went back upstairs.

Taking a towel and washrag he went over to the sink and stripped off his shirt then began washing off his face and hands then gingerly began working down his body, gritting his teeth at how sore he was. The white wash cloth had become quickly stained with blood. The knife wound that Doc had given him was still oozing pretty heavily and hurt more than it should. It was not closing up as it should have by now after a couple of hours time. He was healing more and more slowly these days, which was not good. He had begun to notice that after Glory had tortured him. Injuries which should have been healed overnight were taking days sometimes a week to recover from. He suspected it had something to do with his fight with the Ghora demon, and her sinking his teeth into his side. He hadn´t been really right since then. He was feeling weaker, and weaker physically, and his strength and reflexes weren´t much better than the whelp´s anymore. He thought the boy suspected something was up as he had been guarding his back when they had been fighting, especially when they had confronted Doc. Xander had saved his ass, and they both knew it, but wisely the kid hadn´t commented on it to anyone else, especially Buffy. He would need Dawn´s help on bandaging this up.

Then there was the whole needing to catch a breath all the time. That was really starting to bother him. He had actually been getting winded when he exerted himself too much. A couple of times he felt like his heart was beating—but that couldn´t be his heart was long dead and stilled—wasn´t it? Maybe it was time he 'fessed up to Giles about the run in with the Ghora, and see what was wrong with him—maybe he would be able to find something out in those books of his. As it was, the whole thing that was happening to his once invulnerable body was scaring him. This was not bloody normal for any vampire, and he knew it didn´t have a damn thing to do with the chip, or lack of real blood in his diet. And that was the other thing—his increased craving, and need for human food. Sure he had been eating food off, and on since he had been turned because he liked it, but now he 'needed´ it. He had had to put the livers back in, and cook them a bit. They had been just too raw for him to handle. When before he would have enjoyed their rawness, he couldn´t without gagging and getting sick of his stomach, which was another thing he shouldn´t be able to be either.

He was beginning to wonder if he was slowly turning human. He had never heard of such a thing happening, but giving that the Ghora eggs were used in restoration spells maybe the bite, and blood of one on undead flesh could be doing something to him, making him change? That would be a laugh. Him a bloody human again? It would be about par for the course for his life. Not that he would reject the idea entirely now. He was damn near there as it was being neutered, and unable to be a proper vamp any more. But then if he was human he´d be useless, no more strength, healing, reflexes. Though being able to go anywhere any time of the bloody day, and people accepting him, not afraid of him would be nice.

It would also be easier for him to be able to take care of Dawn. That was going to be a big mess now with both her mom and sis gone. What the hell were they going to do about her? He knew Buffy´s father had never surfaced for Joyce´s funeral or anything else. Was the poor kid going to have to go into foster care? Was Giles going to be able to take care of her? Would he want to? He had heard Giles tell Buffy that Dawn had to die and he was going to blame the girl for being alive instead of dying when she was supposed to. Giles had looked upon Buffy as a daughter. Spike didn´t think the Watcher felt the same about Dawn, and that worried him. When it came down to it he was really the only one that did love the child, and understood her. The others may say they did, but it was only because of Buffy, and not because of Dawn herself that they cared. He knew that they all were going object to his taking care of girl, but he had made a promise to Buffy, and he was going to keep it no matter what they said, or tried to do to him to make him stay out of her life.

He felt her before he heard her come into the kitchen. He was still standing in front the sink trying to get the knife cut to stop bleeding without much luck. He heard her gasp of surprise as she took in his injuries. "I take it it´s pretty bad?" he asked causally turning around to take in her towel wrapped hair, and clean clothes of t-shirt and loose pants.

"God, how you can be still standing and walking around?" she asked, her eyes big as she took in the wound on his stomach.

"Comes from bad living. I´ve had worse. Glory comes to mind, recently. It´ll heal," he tried to reassure her. "Is the one of the back still bleeding as bad as the front one?´ he asked, turning and rinsing out the already bloody wash cloth again and put it back against the cut again.

"Yeah, it´s pretty bad," she said coming over to him to look closer at it. "Doc really did a number on you. Think the blade might have been magical or something and that´s why you´re still bleeding?´ she asked wetting the towel and wiping the cut and his lower back clean.

"Maybe, dunno. Something like this needs stitches to make it close. Can you do it?" he asked, eyeing her.

Dawn shrugged a little scared. "I don´t know. Never had to do it for Buffy. Last time she was hurt that bad Riley did it," she said apologizing remembering when Buffy had gotten a stake in her stomach months ago. "But I can try if you want me to. Giles and the others may not get here for a while and your bleeding is not a good thing."

"I go along with that, Nibblet. Okay, I´ll talk you through it," he agreed, knowing that the others wouldn´t be here for hours at least and his wound could wait. "Go over to the kit and see if there is a needle and thread in there," he told her as she went over and looked through the kit.

"Found it," she told him holding it up as he came over to where she was. He took another towel and laid it on the table counter then leaned over on his stomach and laid so she could reach him better.

"We´ll do the back one first. Clean off the wound real good then take one of those alcohol packets and open it and wipe the area down. Then cut off a good length of the thread and thread the bloody needle. Now, this is going to be the hard part, you´re going to have to pinch the skin together, and then start sewing it together. Doesn´t have to be fancy, just so it´ll close together," Spike told her, turning his head to look at her and seeing how pale she had become. "It´ll be okay, Nibblet. You can´t hurt me any more than I´ve already been hurt, okay?" he reassured the nervous teenager.

"If you´re sure?" she said nervously looking at the pale expanse of his naked back. She had never touched a guy before alive or dead and now she was going to sew him up?

"Look, pet, if I could reach it I´d do it myself. Just do it," he told her, knowing how difficult it was for her.

"Okay," she gulped nervously and did as he told her, surprised that his skin wasn´t as cold as she thought it was going to be after all. She knew her jabbing him with a needle was hurting him as she could feel him tremble as he controlled himself by clenching his fists, and gritted his teeth. She sewed up the three inch hole as tight as she could, not thinking she was sewing flesh not cloth together. When she was done she cleaned the blood off again and put some ointment on it before putting a gauze bandage and taping it. "All done," she announced. She was still shaking a little from what she had just did but she was also proud that she had did it and hadn´t fainted or grossed out too much.

"Good. You did good, pet," he said with a heavy sigh. "Now comes the one on the front. Just do it the same way," he said, turning over, and laying down gently on his back his muscled arms over his eyes.

Dawn gulped very nervously now. His back had been one thing, but she was having a very hard time dealing with his sculpted chest and stomach. God, had Buffy ever seen him without his shirt like this? No guy should look this good like some sort of movie star, or a real god. None of the boys at school looked like Spike did either. But this was Spike who was and always would be in love with her sister and she was way too young for Spike. He was way off limits. He was a friend. The older brother she had never had. She had to do this for him. Calming herself, she made herself focus on the job, not the man in front of her as she stepped between his legs and began cleaning his stomach wound which seemed to be worse than the one on his back had been.

"Spike, are you sure you don´t need to go to a hospital? This doesn´t look too good," she commented, seeing his guts poking through once she had cleaned the blood off again. And the area felt hot to her touch. "I thought you were all dead and everything and cold. It feels like you´re warm. Why are you warm? She asked unsure what to do now and a bit frightened.

"What do you mean I´m warm? Shouldn´t be. Not possible," he told her, raising his head to look at her.

"You feel warm to me and I can see your guts, or a least it looks like guts-- all gray, and pink, and icky," she told him.

"What? No, you got to be wrong, pet. I don´t have guts anymore. Least I didn´t have guts the last time I got cut there," he replied worriedly, trying to stay calm himself. He reached down and felt what she was seeing. "What the bloody hell?" he exclaimed in shock. "I got bleeding guts? No---this is too bloody weird."

"What do you want me to do?´ she asked, standing back a little watching his confused, and frightened expressions. She was having trouble dealing with what he had just told her too. Both of them were trying not to panic, or think what his having guts again meant.

"I don´t know. Wish the bloody Watcher was here, or Willow. They´d maybe have an idea what was happening, or what to do. But I don´t think leaving it open is an option. Let´s just go ahead, and get me sewed up. Just be a bit more careful about I,t and try not to nick anything," Spike told her , his voice very shaky now as he laid back down on the counter

"If you´re sure?´ Dawn asked, afraid now of hurting him.

"Yeah, about as sure as I am about anything right now," he told her bracing himself, and wishing he had a drink to handle the pain he was feeling. He clenched his fists together, and gritted his teeth as he felt each stab of the needle into his flesh. That was also a new thing—this awareness of pain. Sure there was always some feeling but it was usual dull, distant, and dealable—this was sharp, and immediate like somehow dead flesh was now alive again. He began to be more scared than he already was.

Dawn gritted her teeth, and sewed up his wound which was larger than the one in back because Doc had deliberately twisted the blade, and then Spike had fought him before he could pull it out. She was also a lot more careful doing this one than the other. She put a large amount of ointment on before she put the bandages and tape on. "Finished. Any more that need doing?" she asked, standing back as he sat up carefully.

"See any other damage?" he asked. "I´d look myself, but mirrors, and I don´t get along too well," tried to smile, and found that hurt too.

Dawn looked him over. "Just some cuts on your face, bunch of bruises, and you still got blood in your hair," she told him.

He limped over to the sink, and ducked his head under the faucet, using some dish soap to wash his hair.

"I could have gotten you some shampoo," she told him, shaking her head, and handing him a towel to dry it with.

"Nay, this is fine. At least it´s clean now," he added as he sat down so she could put ointment, and Band-Aids on his cuts. "How are your cuts?´ he asked when she finished.

"All gone mostly. They all have healed up, not bleeding at all. Just scratches now. I guess I heal like Buffy," she said, trying not to sound too cheerful, or say her sister´s name, or think about her yet. She lifted her shirt enough to show him she wasn´t lying.

Spike just shook his head. She was all healed. He was the one that wasn´t healing. It was like their roles had shifted somehow. Did she have Buffy´s other abilities too now? He had once called her 'Bitty Buffy´ was she more like her sister than any of them had suspected? Was she still 'the Key" too, or had that gone away when Glory had died and the portal had closed.

"It´s okay, pet, you can say her name. How are you holding up?" he asked, her seriously.

She shrugged, sitting down on the stool next to him as he put on the shirt she had found for him. "I feel numb mostly. Feeling like this is a dream, more than what happened when Mom died. I want to cry, but I can´t—not yet. And hungry. I didn´t eat when Glory´s minions tried to feed me a couple of times. I thought why bother. I´m going to die any way, should I eat. You hungry?" she asked.

He thought about a minute. "Yeah, I am and not for blood either. Damn near couldn´t get the chicken blood down earlier. Got any of that hot chocolate around?" he asked.

She smiled. "Yeah, still got some. I´ll make you some and see if there´s anything to cook quick," she told him going to the cabinets to look while he wrapped up his ankle, worried a little at it swelling and being warm to his touch. It felt broken or crushed, but he wasn´t going to leave her to go get it looked at. If it was still bad tonight after someone showed up he might try to have a doctor look at it. But how was he going to explain having no medical records or any that he hadn´t been alive for over a hundred plus years.

He was definitely going to have to talk to the Watcher, and the Witch about these changes his body was deciding to do. Gathering up all the dirty towels, and medical stuff, he cleaned off the counter. He knew where the laundry room was from previous explorations so he threw the dirty towels in the washer, while his mangled shirt was dumped in the trash with the rest of the trash.

One thing that was bothering him was that there had been no calls since they had arrived. He knew that the Watcher was busy dealing with Buffy, Xander had taken Anya to the hospital, but the two witches were supposed to go to the shop then come here. Why hadn´t anyone called to see if they had made it back to the house? He looked at the phone and the message light wasn´t blinking so there had been no calls. Spike wasn´t sure to be worried or not yet.

"Hey, Nibblet, think I should call the shop to see if anyone is there?" he asked coming back in the kitchen.

"Yeah, maybe. Willow, or Giles should have called by now, don´t you think?"

"I´m thinking that too. What´s the number at the shop?" he asked picking up the phone in the kitchen. She gave it to him and he dialed. It rang four times and he was about to give up when it was picked up finally.

"Giles, is that you? You got to hurry…oh goddess, she sees me….no, no…," Tara hysterical voice cried on the other end of the phone freaking Spike out.

"What the bloody hell? Is that you Blondie? What the hell is going on now? Where´s Red?" he asked worriedly, as Dawn looked at him stopping what she was doing taking their dinners out of the microwave.

"Is that you Spike? It´s Willow—she´s gone all demony on me. Her eyes are all black, and she´s floating above the floor, and there just so much energy….She wants to hurt me, do something to me…I can feel her, and I don´t know what to do to stop her. I´m hiding…she hasn´t found me yet. Mr. Giles is supposed to be coming," Tara told him in rush.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, not sure what to tell the witch. Even if he was there he wouldn´t be any help. Willow could toss any of them around with just a gesture or a word now. No wonder the other girl was scared. He´s be too in her shoes. "What happened? How she´d get like that?" he had to ask.

"I dunno. She was crying over Buffy, and failing her, and then just suddenly something took over her or something. Next I knew her eyes went all black, and then there was this big wind storm around her. All I could do was hide, and call Mr. Giles. I just hope she either snaps out of it, or Mr. Giles can figure out something," she told him trying to stay calm.

"He´s good about that," he told her trying to help her stay calm. "Where is she now?" he asked.

"She was here, and about to grab me. I closed my eyes, and now I don´t see her, and it´s gotten all quiet now," she said worriedly.

"Can you take a peek, and see where she´s at?" he asked, keeping his voice steady, and calm for the frightened woman on the other end.

"I´ll try," the scared young woman replied, setting the phone down, and getting up slowly to look around, and look over the counter. The shop was empty. Willow had left. The front door hung loosely on it´s hinges wide open. Of her friend there was no sign. She grabbed up the phone, "Spike, she´s gone. The door is open, so I think she´s left, gone somewhere," she told him, her voice still shaky from her terrifying experience on top of what she had just been through earlier that day with Glory.

"Any idea of where she might have gone, or be up to?" he asked, trying to sort out what was up with Willow himself.

"I really don´t know. All I know is that she was upset about Buffy. I hope she´s not going to try to bring her back," she told him.

"Well, she might if she thought she could somehow. Where´s Giles? When I called you thought I was him. Was he coming there to the shop?" Spike asked her, his mind racing with all kinds of dire possibilities of Willow could, or couldn´t do with the power she had been showing recently.

"I think so. He was at the hospital with Xander a little while ago, and I asked him to come do something with Willow," she said. She looked up and saw Giles and Xander come in through the busted door looking around in shock. "Wait, they just came in. Let me see if they want to talk to you," she said as she put the phone down, and rapidly explained what had happened to the two men while Spike waited.

Dawn brought over his hot chocolate, and he took it gratefully from her as he tried to hear what was being said.

"Spike, are you and Dawn all right?" Giles asked over the phone finally.

"Pretty much. Got ourselves cleaned up, and fixed up. Now she´s eating. What´s the deal with Willow?" he asked.

"Good, the child needs to eat. As to Willow, I have no idea, really. The shop is pretty torn up. I had no idea she had this much power. It´s very disturbing," the Watcher told him surveying the damage to the store and merchandise. Xander walked past him with a tool box, and began working on the door, so it could be shut again while Tara tried to start picking some of the mess up from the floor..

"Then you haven´t been paying attention. What she did at the gas station to keep those knights out was impressive. Scared me to know she could do stuff like that. I´ve never seen anyone, demon, or human with that kind of sheer bloody power. Did blondie tell you she´s afraid that Red might try to bring Buffy back?" Spike warned him.

Giles let out a startled gasp. "Ohh dear God, no, she hadn´t yet. If Willow is that upset it is well within the range of possibility. But I have no clue how to stop her if she tries to," Giles told him truthfully.

Dawn had heard him tell Giles that Willow was going to try, and bring Buffy back. She looked scared and hopeful all at the same time. "Spike, you gotta take me there to the hospital where Buffy is," she told him going over to where he was still listening to Giles.

He turned to her, shaking his head. "No, we´re staying put. Giles wants us to stay put. Red is out of control, and he doesn´t know what to do with her either, or how to stop her," he told her firmly.

Dawn glared back at him angrily, shaking her head. "I´m going. I don´t care what either you, or him says. You´re not in charge of me. If there´s a chance that Buffy can be brought back then I´m all for it. I 'need´ to be there," she told him her eyes flashing fire. "You can´t stop me. I´m going," she said and before he could react she had flung open the back door, and ran out. He stood there numbly holding the phone, feeling like he had failed all over again to keep his promise to keep Dawn safe.

"Ohh bloody hell," Spike cursed, then turned his attention back to Giles on the phone. "Watcher, Lil´ Bit just ran out the friggin´ door. I couldn´t even catch her. Looks like she´s heading to the soddin´ hospital. My sentiments exactly," he told him listening to Giles curse.

"Spike, I´ll send Xander to pick you up in his car. I´ll take Tara, and head back to the hospital. We´ll try to keep an eye out for Dawn on the way. Hopefully, we can get Willow to snap out of whatever has happened to her before she does anything.," he told the vampire.

"Got it. I´ll be waiting. Good luck," he told the man, and hung up.

While he waited for Xander he put his boots back on, then retrieved the orange tarp from the back porch. He cleaned up the glass from the floor from earlier. Then put Dawn´s plate, and cup in the sink, and took a few bites out of the meatball dinner she had made him before he dumped it in the trash, and went into the living room to wait on Xander.

It didn´t seem like they were going to get a break, not with Willow going all super witch on them, and Dawn freaking. Part of him was hoping that the witch could somehow pull if off, and bring Buffy back, but not if she came back all zombie, or worse. That was his greatest fear that the Buffy they knew, and loved would not come back--that something else would in her place.

He never did ask Dawn what had happened when she did the spell to bring her Mum back. Since he had seen no evidence of Joyce around he figured she had decided not to do it after all. He hadn´t stuck around that night to find out because he had to go home, and patch himself up from fighting the Ghora. The beast had got him good, and proper and taken a good hunk out of his side. The wound had been all mucked up with the beast´s saliva, and blood. He had cleaned it the best he could and taped it up before he had passed out. He made meant to go back and check on Lil´ Bit but he hadn´t been able to get out for days afterward. Since Dawn hadn´t been coming around he figured that she had begun to accept her Mum´s death, and had let the whole idea of her mom coming back go.

He didn´t want to get up hope that Buffy could be restored. Already he had begun to accept Buffy´s death. He had seen Buffy´s body fall to the ground, and knew she was gone. He had cried at the construction site, but he wasn´t going to allow himself the luxury of letting his grief overtake him right now. He needed to keep a clear, level head about him, and deal with the present, whatever was going to happen next. His not being able to run after Dawn, and the limitations of his unlife were getting to him. he still didn´t know what to make of what his body was doing. Something was happening to him, but he didn´t dare hope that he was becoming human again. It was too unbelievable.

A loud knocking on the front door jarred him out of his thoughts. Carefully he opened it to see Xander. "Didn´t take you long," Spike said grabbing up his tarp, and putting it over himself.

"Giles said to hurry. Though I´m not sure why he wanted you to come," Xander said, looking over the vampire with weary disgust.

"I don´t know either. We´ll find out I guess," he said closing the door, leaving it unlocked until they could find a key. They walked to the car with Spike getting in the back seat. "How´s your girlfriend doing?" Spike asked to cut the deadly silence in the car as they sped across town.

"They´ll let her come home tomorrow. She´s got a broken ankle and some cuts. Not too bad considering a wall fell on her. But the best news is that she´s pregnant. I´m going to be a father," Xander told him, bracing himself for some sort of caustic remark from the vampire.

"Congratulations. I mean it. At least someone has something to look forward to. That mean you and she are going to get hitched?" Spike asked, looking out the window, trying to keep an eye out for Dawn just in case.

"Yeah, soon as we can. I asked her to marry me just before we went into battle with Glory last night. God, has it only been since last night?" he said shaking his head, trying not to let the tired take him over.

"Good for you. I hope the two of you will be happy—I mean it. Buffy would have wanted you two to have some bleedin´ happiness," he told Xander seriously.

"Thanks. We were going to tell everyone, but Anya wanted to wait until after the battle to say anything. Thought it might upset Buffy or something, seeing how sensitive she is on relationships," Xander told him.

Spike nodded. "yeah, I got that finally. I apologize to the lot of you for making it worse by telling her how I felt and hoping there was something there between us. I screwed up royally with Dru, the robot, everything when I just should have kept my trap shut and let her be and work things out in her head after soldier boy left and her Mum died. I finally got it through my thick skull that there wasn´t any way she and I would ever be anything to each other. The best I could hope for was her tolerating me around ,and maybe being friends. And try to be there for her and the Nibblet if they´d let me be," he told Xander.

"Wow, I don´t know what to say. That is quite a change of attitude."

"Had a lot happen recently to make me think, and see how things really were with her. I still love her. That´s never going to change. Now with her gone, I´m just grateful for what time I did have around her. The one we all got to worry about is Dawn. I´m real worried what´s going to happen to her," Spike told him.

"I know, me too, and so Giles. There just hasn´t been time to think about what next."

"Yeah, it doesn´t seem to ever bloody stop. Last night we were all sitting around the shop trying to figure out what to do. It hasn´t even been twenty four hours yet that all of this went down ,and no one, but us knows how bloody close it came to being everyone´s bloody last night forever," Spike stated simply.

"They never do. But I think a few others know now that something went down. Some 'things´ escaped from the portal when it was open. It´s been all over the news to day. They´ve been reporting holes opening up in the road, some real weird beings wandering around, strange buildings appearing, dragons, all kinds of things that didn´t go back when the portal shut. Looks like we still have to do clean up," Xander told him.

"Great, just great. Well, it´s just going to have to bloody wait. I´m still bloody banged up from falling off that soddin´ tower on those bricks. Had a damn knife rammed through me by 'Doc, and it´s still bleeding and not healing. Nibblet said my bloody guts were coming out, and the area was all hot like I have a bloody temperature or infection. She managed to sew me up, but it hurts like hell and doesn´t feel right," Spike complained.

"I thought you didn´t have guts being all undead and all?" Xander questioned, looking back at him.

"Neither did I. Didn´t have any to worry about before. Same way blood about made me puke too."

"Blood? Where you get blood?" Xander asked worriedly.

"Chicken blood—Harris. Nibblet found me some chicken livers. Had to cook the things to get them down, and that never bothered me either before. Something weird is happening to me," he said, finally noticing that his hand had slipped from under the tarp, and was it direct sunlight, and had been for a while. Nothing was happening to it except his skin getting slightly red. He decided not share this discovery until he could test it out more. "Here we are," Spike told him. "Pull up by the morgue. Bet that´s where everyone´s at," he suggested and Xander did finding a parking space as quick as he could.

Around that end of the building hung a huge dark, boiling, cloud crackling with multicolored lightening bolts. They looked at each other worriedly. "This does not look good for our heroes," Xander said grimly as they got out.

"Nope, not good at all," Spike echoed him, feeling the cold wind rip at their clothes. With great effort they fought their way across the parking lot to the entrance where Giles and Tara crouched, huddled next to huge stone planter by the doors.

"I see you made it," Giles greeted as they joined the Watcher.

"Any sign of Dawn?" Spike asked.

"She didn´t come this way, but she could have already gotten in already through one of the other entrances."

Spike nodded accepting that and feeling that the girl was already there anyway. "Okay, so what´s the plan?"

"I´m hoping we can talk Willow down, reach her some way. We can´t fight her magically. She´s too powerful, and none of us want to use weapons against her even if we could," Giles told him bluntly.

"Well let´s do it," Xander agreed and they got up, and forced themselves forward against the hurricane force winds rushing towards them from inside the building.

End part 4



Vickey Brickle-Macky @ vbmacky1@yahoo.com