Chapter Seven: Not Love
July 18, 2001
"What time is it?" Willow asked Tara as she nervously straightened the books on the shelves in the Summers house. Tara looked up at the pendulum clock mounted on the wall closest to the front door.
"Nearly seven. Xander and Anya should be bringing Dawn home from dinner soon." Tara replied as she sprayed the glass cleaner on the television set. She began to wipe the screen with the paper towel. "Shouldn't Spike be here by now?"
"Sundown is much later this time of the year. The sun won't even set for another thirty minutes, at least." Giles answered from his seat on the couch. "Will you two stop? You're acting very - British. It's very disturbing."
Willow snatched her hand back from the bookcase and gave Giles a guilty smile. Tara stood and fiddled with the damp paper towel in her hand.
Giles nodded. "Yes, that's better."
"Who locked the bloody door?" Spike's muffled scream startled everyone. Willow cast a wild look at Giles.
"Oops." She yelped, running for the front door. She grabbed the handle and yanked the door in, Spike barreled through, nearly taking her down. He tossed the flame ridden blanket on the hardwood floor and began to jump on it.
"Fire! Fire!" he yelled.
"Aquae Appirate!" Willow commanded, flinging her hand wide. A small storm cloud appeared above the flaming blanket and began to rain on the fire. When the flames were doused, the cloud dissipated.
"Hey! Watch the leather!" Spike barked, swiping at the droplets of moisture collecting on the sleeve of his jacket. He stood up in surprise. "When did you learn how to do that?"
Willow smiled and clapped her hands. "A few weeks ago, I've been practicing calling the four elements. Been hoping for a chance to use it in action."
Spike cast her a dark look. "Glad to oblige. Would you mind shutting the door before I set the bloody house on fire?"
Willow jumped back and quickly pulled the door shut.
"I don't see why all this is necessary. Dawn's not a kid. She can handle the robot just fine." He said testily as he shook out his jacket. "I think we're overreacting here."
"She lost her mother and sister in the space of two months. And this is going to be a pretty drastic change for her. She needs our support." Willow replied.
Spike shook his head and declined comment.
Tara and Giles stood in the archway to the living room. Tara looked at Willow. "You never told me you could do that." She said, pointing at the sodden blanket on the floor.
Willow shrugged and waved her hands dismissively. "No big. Let's get this cleaned up. Xander and Anya are bringing Dawn back soon."
"Where's - ?" Spike let the question hang.
"In the kitchen." Tara answered as they picked up the sodden blanket. Willow and Giles went upstairs to get a few towels. Together, Spike and Tara dumped the blanket in the sink. Spike turned around and grabbed a handful of paper towels.
"I've had this jacket for over twenty years and not once have I ever got it wet." He complained, swiping at the damp leather.
"Spike, it's the middle of summer. Why are you wearing a jacket?" Tara asked.
"All part of the image, baby. I'm bad. Remember?"
Tara rolled her eyes. "Not really, I met you after the chip was implanted. Oh, I found a proper tea strainer for you, by the way It's at the Magic Shop - remind me to give it to you next Scooby meeting."
"Thanks, love," Spike said as he dried his hands. Tara smiled and headed back to the living room. Spike noticed the bot sitting at the kitchen table. She had half a dozen peeled bananas in front of her and was staring intently at the seventh held in her hands, halfway peeled. She completely ignored him.
Spike went into the living room. "What did you do to the bot?" he asked.
"Oh, just put a repeating loop in her system. She has a task to complete - peel all the bananas at the rate of one per fifteen minutes. When the program is complete, she is to come to me." At Spike's questioning gaze, Willow continued. "It was just to keep her out of our hair for a few hours, and shutting her down seemed so creepy."
"Right," Spike said as he removed his jacket.
The front door opened again and Dawn entered the house, quickly followed by Anya and Xander.
"Hey, what's this? Intervention?" she asked the assembled group. When no one smiled she took a step back. "If you're wondering why the front hall is all wet and full of towels, I didn't do it." She swore.
"Dawn, sit down. We have something to share with you." Tara escorted Dawn to the couch and sat down next to her.
Tara looked up at the group, wondering who should be the one to tell her. Willow stepped forward and knelt before Dawn.
"Dawnie, do you remember that robot we used to trick Glory?" she asked.
Dawn's brows furrowed. "Yeah? What about it?"
"Well, after that, I sorta salvaged all the parts." Willow continued slowly.
"You rebuilt her?" Dawn gasped. "What?" she looked around the room. "Why would you do that?" she whispered brokenly.
"To keep you here with us." Tara said gently.
"But, I thought that's why we covered up her.you know." Dawn was unwilling to say the word. "So they'd think she was still here. Why do we need the robot?"
"Dawn, you'll be going back to school soon, and Buffy would be expected to attend parent/teacher functions. This seemed like the best way to convince the school authorities that everything was normal." Anya explained patiently.
It was a little more harsh than the group intended, but coming from Anya's mouth, it may as well have had fuzzy kittens and rainbow ribbons attached.
Dawn closed her mouth and held back the tears. What Anya said made sense. She couldn't keep up the normal charade for long. Parent/Teacher conferences were scheduled once a month. Buffy's absence would be noticed. She nodded her head. "I understand." She said quietly.
This was not the reaction the group was expecting, but it was a welcome relief. "We don't want you to think we're playing a cruel joke. This is just about keeping you here." Xander said. He sat down next to Dawn on the sofa. "We know Buffy is gone and we can't bring her back. This isn't an attempt to do that. You understand that, right?"
Xander looked up and caught Willow shooting daggers at him with her eyes. The glance went unnoticed by Dawn, but Spike was afforded the full interplay. He frowned a bit. What was that all about?
"I understand." Dawn repeated. "I don't want to leave you guys. I don't want to go live with my father and his secretary in Spain." She looked at each person in turn. "Buffy wouldn't have wanted that. I understand why we need the robot. I know it's going to be weird. I mean, I'm not exactly going to be trading knock-knock jokes with her or anything." She stood. "You're worried that I'll start treating her like Buffy and hoping she'll take her place, right?" she took a few steps and turned again. "You thought I wouldn't understand and would freak out and start crying? Geez.overreact much?" she laughed.
"Told ya so." Spike sing songed. Willow threw him a murderous glare and gazed at the clock. Buffybot would be coming online in five minutes.
"She's in the kitchen, Dawn." Willow explained about the subroutine she programmed. The group slowly moved into the kitchen, letting Dawn lead the way. They hung back a bit as she approached the figure seated at the kitchen table.
"Wow." Dawn said when she saw the bot peeling the last banana. "Buffybot on drugs!" she laughed. Internally, she was quaking with fear. The Buffybot looked exactly like Buffy. Down to the very last strand of hair. She leaned closer and inspected the bot's face. Same eyelashes. Same flecks of brown in her green eyes. Same nose with the dimple on the end. Dawn heard a faint whir and confirmation beep. Suddenly, Buffybot's eyes focused on Dawn's face.
Her face split in a huge, sunshiny smile. "Dawnie!" she said happily, holding her arms out for a hug. Spike fumed and cast an accusing stare at Willow. Willow widened her eyes in surprise - she was just as shocked as he was. They all turned to watch Dawn's reaction.
Dawn gasped in surprise and froze, staring at the robot that wore her sister's face. The bot waited patiently for Dawn to make up her mind. "Buffybot," she said finally. "Welcome back." She tentatively reached out and embraced the bot. Buffybot smiled and tightened her embrace. Dawn pulled back and stepped away.
"So, what do we do with her?" she asked.
"Let's discuss that in the living room." Willow said, leading the Buffybot by the arm.
***
Present Day
"Wow." Buffy marveled. "My kid sister acting all grown up."
"Yeah, she did real well - course, it was exactly how we planned it, except for me almost catching fire and the bloody bot reaching for a hug." Spike marveled. Looking back on the memory, that was really his first clue as to what the others were planning. Xander's babbling about not trying to bring Buffy back was staring him straight in the face the whole time. No wonder Willow looked ready to murder him.
"You and Dawn had a plan?" Buffy's voice reflected incredulity. "You told her about the robot beforehand?" she asked.
"Yeah, I knew she'd want it that way." Spike stood up and reached down to help Buffy to a standing position. He held onto her hand a moment longer than necessary, then reluctantly let her go. He wasn't going to go down the whipping boy path again.
Buffy looked up into his eyes. "How did you know that?" she asked, she had been thinking the same thing.
"Because I know you, Buffy. That's exactly how you would want it. You can't stand to cause pain to your friends and neither can she. How would you feel if all of us came crashing down upon you at once? Scratch that, you already know how you feel. You've been there. I knew that's what would happen to Dawn if we all came at her at once with the news of the robot. I told her in private and she let everything out. She threw things around. She screamed and raged and then she cried. She got it all out without hurting her friends, and she was able to act like the bot didn't bother her." Spike paused and let his words hang in the air. He stared off into the darkness.
"After the official introduction, Dawn would come round to my crypt and we'd talk. I'd walk her back home." Spike searched her eyes, desperately hoping she would agree that he did the right thing. Buffy's eyes filled with tears, glistening like two pools of light. "She, like all the other Summers women I've known, has dignity and grace and an overriding need to protect the ones they love. She couldn't bear to hurt Willow's feelings, it was her idea and she was so excited about it. Dawn talked to me about how weird it was for her. How she felt. It was easier for her to have an outlet, and then pretend everything was status quo for the benefit of the group. Made her feel like she had some control over things. Just like you, even though you're too stubborn to admit it."
Buffy stared at Spike for a long moment, then slowly leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. He returned the kiss tentatively at first, afraid she was going to slap him across the face at any second. She broke the kiss after a few seconds and looked into his eyes. "That was remarkably insightful and very disturbing." She whispered up at him. "But not so much disturbing nowadays as it would have been a year ago." She leaned in and for a moment, Spike thought she was going to kiss him again. She swept past him and turned to face the door to the house. "There's gotta be more to the story, though." She said as she turned the doorknob.
Spike reached over and opened the door for her. "What do you mean?" he asked as he followed her into the house.
"Well, you told me how you bonded with Willow and Tara. But what about Giles and Xander?" she asked. "From what you've told me, Giles spent most of his time keeping you and Xander from killing each other. So to speak. If you could actually kill him."
Spike went to the stove and picked up the kettle. "Hot chocolate?" he asked, avoiding Buffy's question. "How's your headache, by the way?"
"On its way back if you don't tell me what I want to know." She told him over her shoulder as she reached for the hot chocolate in the cupboard.
"Oh, Slayer. That would have been so much more convincing if you hadn't kissed me like that just now. In fact," Spike smiled. "You've never kissed me like that."
"Like what?" she asked as she ripped open a packet and poured the powder into a mug.
"Like you felt something, love." He fiddled with the knob on the stove.
"Not love." She said firmly.
He looked at her over his shoulder and grinned at her knowingly. "Not yet."
To be continued!
July 18, 2001
"What time is it?" Willow asked Tara as she nervously straightened the books on the shelves in the Summers house. Tara looked up at the pendulum clock mounted on the wall closest to the front door.
"Nearly seven. Xander and Anya should be bringing Dawn home from dinner soon." Tara replied as she sprayed the glass cleaner on the television set. She began to wipe the screen with the paper towel. "Shouldn't Spike be here by now?"
"Sundown is much later this time of the year. The sun won't even set for another thirty minutes, at least." Giles answered from his seat on the couch. "Will you two stop? You're acting very - British. It's very disturbing."
Willow snatched her hand back from the bookcase and gave Giles a guilty smile. Tara stood and fiddled with the damp paper towel in her hand.
Giles nodded. "Yes, that's better."
"Who locked the bloody door?" Spike's muffled scream startled everyone. Willow cast a wild look at Giles.
"Oops." She yelped, running for the front door. She grabbed the handle and yanked the door in, Spike barreled through, nearly taking her down. He tossed the flame ridden blanket on the hardwood floor and began to jump on it.
"Fire! Fire!" he yelled.
"Aquae Appirate!" Willow commanded, flinging her hand wide. A small storm cloud appeared above the flaming blanket and began to rain on the fire. When the flames were doused, the cloud dissipated.
"Hey! Watch the leather!" Spike barked, swiping at the droplets of moisture collecting on the sleeve of his jacket. He stood up in surprise. "When did you learn how to do that?"
Willow smiled and clapped her hands. "A few weeks ago, I've been practicing calling the four elements. Been hoping for a chance to use it in action."
Spike cast her a dark look. "Glad to oblige. Would you mind shutting the door before I set the bloody house on fire?"
Willow jumped back and quickly pulled the door shut.
"I don't see why all this is necessary. Dawn's not a kid. She can handle the robot just fine." He said testily as he shook out his jacket. "I think we're overreacting here."
"She lost her mother and sister in the space of two months. And this is going to be a pretty drastic change for her. She needs our support." Willow replied.
Spike shook his head and declined comment.
Tara and Giles stood in the archway to the living room. Tara looked at Willow. "You never told me you could do that." She said, pointing at the sodden blanket on the floor.
Willow shrugged and waved her hands dismissively. "No big. Let's get this cleaned up. Xander and Anya are bringing Dawn back soon."
"Where's - ?" Spike let the question hang.
"In the kitchen." Tara answered as they picked up the sodden blanket. Willow and Giles went upstairs to get a few towels. Together, Spike and Tara dumped the blanket in the sink. Spike turned around and grabbed a handful of paper towels.
"I've had this jacket for over twenty years and not once have I ever got it wet." He complained, swiping at the damp leather.
"Spike, it's the middle of summer. Why are you wearing a jacket?" Tara asked.
"All part of the image, baby. I'm bad. Remember?"
Tara rolled her eyes. "Not really, I met you after the chip was implanted. Oh, I found a proper tea strainer for you, by the way It's at the Magic Shop - remind me to give it to you next Scooby meeting."
"Thanks, love," Spike said as he dried his hands. Tara smiled and headed back to the living room. Spike noticed the bot sitting at the kitchen table. She had half a dozen peeled bananas in front of her and was staring intently at the seventh held in her hands, halfway peeled. She completely ignored him.
Spike went into the living room. "What did you do to the bot?" he asked.
"Oh, just put a repeating loop in her system. She has a task to complete - peel all the bananas at the rate of one per fifteen minutes. When the program is complete, she is to come to me." At Spike's questioning gaze, Willow continued. "It was just to keep her out of our hair for a few hours, and shutting her down seemed so creepy."
"Right," Spike said as he removed his jacket.
The front door opened again and Dawn entered the house, quickly followed by Anya and Xander.
"Hey, what's this? Intervention?" she asked the assembled group. When no one smiled she took a step back. "If you're wondering why the front hall is all wet and full of towels, I didn't do it." She swore.
"Dawn, sit down. We have something to share with you." Tara escorted Dawn to the couch and sat down next to her.
Tara looked up at the group, wondering who should be the one to tell her. Willow stepped forward and knelt before Dawn.
"Dawnie, do you remember that robot we used to trick Glory?" she asked.
Dawn's brows furrowed. "Yeah? What about it?"
"Well, after that, I sorta salvaged all the parts." Willow continued slowly.
"You rebuilt her?" Dawn gasped. "What?" she looked around the room. "Why would you do that?" she whispered brokenly.
"To keep you here with us." Tara said gently.
"But, I thought that's why we covered up her.you know." Dawn was unwilling to say the word. "So they'd think she was still here. Why do we need the robot?"
"Dawn, you'll be going back to school soon, and Buffy would be expected to attend parent/teacher functions. This seemed like the best way to convince the school authorities that everything was normal." Anya explained patiently.
It was a little more harsh than the group intended, but coming from Anya's mouth, it may as well have had fuzzy kittens and rainbow ribbons attached.
Dawn closed her mouth and held back the tears. What Anya said made sense. She couldn't keep up the normal charade for long. Parent/Teacher conferences were scheduled once a month. Buffy's absence would be noticed. She nodded her head. "I understand." She said quietly.
This was not the reaction the group was expecting, but it was a welcome relief. "We don't want you to think we're playing a cruel joke. This is just about keeping you here." Xander said. He sat down next to Dawn on the sofa. "We know Buffy is gone and we can't bring her back. This isn't an attempt to do that. You understand that, right?"
Xander looked up and caught Willow shooting daggers at him with her eyes. The glance went unnoticed by Dawn, but Spike was afforded the full interplay. He frowned a bit. What was that all about?
"I understand." Dawn repeated. "I don't want to leave you guys. I don't want to go live with my father and his secretary in Spain." She looked at each person in turn. "Buffy wouldn't have wanted that. I understand why we need the robot. I know it's going to be weird. I mean, I'm not exactly going to be trading knock-knock jokes with her or anything." She stood. "You're worried that I'll start treating her like Buffy and hoping she'll take her place, right?" she took a few steps and turned again. "You thought I wouldn't understand and would freak out and start crying? Geez.overreact much?" she laughed.
"Told ya so." Spike sing songed. Willow threw him a murderous glare and gazed at the clock. Buffybot would be coming online in five minutes.
"She's in the kitchen, Dawn." Willow explained about the subroutine she programmed. The group slowly moved into the kitchen, letting Dawn lead the way. They hung back a bit as she approached the figure seated at the kitchen table.
"Wow." Dawn said when she saw the bot peeling the last banana. "Buffybot on drugs!" she laughed. Internally, she was quaking with fear. The Buffybot looked exactly like Buffy. Down to the very last strand of hair. She leaned closer and inspected the bot's face. Same eyelashes. Same flecks of brown in her green eyes. Same nose with the dimple on the end. Dawn heard a faint whir and confirmation beep. Suddenly, Buffybot's eyes focused on Dawn's face.
Her face split in a huge, sunshiny smile. "Dawnie!" she said happily, holding her arms out for a hug. Spike fumed and cast an accusing stare at Willow. Willow widened her eyes in surprise - she was just as shocked as he was. They all turned to watch Dawn's reaction.
Dawn gasped in surprise and froze, staring at the robot that wore her sister's face. The bot waited patiently for Dawn to make up her mind. "Buffybot," she said finally. "Welcome back." She tentatively reached out and embraced the bot. Buffybot smiled and tightened her embrace. Dawn pulled back and stepped away.
"So, what do we do with her?" she asked.
"Let's discuss that in the living room." Willow said, leading the Buffybot by the arm.
***
Present Day
"Wow." Buffy marveled. "My kid sister acting all grown up."
"Yeah, she did real well - course, it was exactly how we planned it, except for me almost catching fire and the bloody bot reaching for a hug." Spike marveled. Looking back on the memory, that was really his first clue as to what the others were planning. Xander's babbling about not trying to bring Buffy back was staring him straight in the face the whole time. No wonder Willow looked ready to murder him.
"You and Dawn had a plan?" Buffy's voice reflected incredulity. "You told her about the robot beforehand?" she asked.
"Yeah, I knew she'd want it that way." Spike stood up and reached down to help Buffy to a standing position. He held onto her hand a moment longer than necessary, then reluctantly let her go. He wasn't going to go down the whipping boy path again.
Buffy looked up into his eyes. "How did you know that?" she asked, she had been thinking the same thing.
"Because I know you, Buffy. That's exactly how you would want it. You can't stand to cause pain to your friends and neither can she. How would you feel if all of us came crashing down upon you at once? Scratch that, you already know how you feel. You've been there. I knew that's what would happen to Dawn if we all came at her at once with the news of the robot. I told her in private and she let everything out. She threw things around. She screamed and raged and then she cried. She got it all out without hurting her friends, and she was able to act like the bot didn't bother her." Spike paused and let his words hang in the air. He stared off into the darkness.
"After the official introduction, Dawn would come round to my crypt and we'd talk. I'd walk her back home." Spike searched her eyes, desperately hoping she would agree that he did the right thing. Buffy's eyes filled with tears, glistening like two pools of light. "She, like all the other Summers women I've known, has dignity and grace and an overriding need to protect the ones they love. She couldn't bear to hurt Willow's feelings, it was her idea and she was so excited about it. Dawn talked to me about how weird it was for her. How she felt. It was easier for her to have an outlet, and then pretend everything was status quo for the benefit of the group. Made her feel like she had some control over things. Just like you, even though you're too stubborn to admit it."
Buffy stared at Spike for a long moment, then slowly leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips. He returned the kiss tentatively at first, afraid she was going to slap him across the face at any second. She broke the kiss after a few seconds and looked into his eyes. "That was remarkably insightful and very disturbing." She whispered up at him. "But not so much disturbing nowadays as it would have been a year ago." She leaned in and for a moment, Spike thought she was going to kiss him again. She swept past him and turned to face the door to the house. "There's gotta be more to the story, though." She said as she turned the doorknob.
Spike reached over and opened the door for her. "What do you mean?" he asked as he followed her into the house.
"Well, you told me how you bonded with Willow and Tara. But what about Giles and Xander?" she asked. "From what you've told me, Giles spent most of his time keeping you and Xander from killing each other. So to speak. If you could actually kill him."
Spike went to the stove and picked up the kettle. "Hot chocolate?" he asked, avoiding Buffy's question. "How's your headache, by the way?"
"On its way back if you don't tell me what I want to know." She told him over her shoulder as she reached for the hot chocolate in the cupboard.
"Oh, Slayer. That would have been so much more convincing if you hadn't kissed me like that just now. In fact," Spike smiled. "You've never kissed me like that."
"Like what?" she asked as she ripped open a packet and poured the powder into a mug.
"Like you felt something, love." He fiddled with the knob on the stove.
"Not love." She said firmly.
He looked at her over his shoulder and grinned at her knowingly. "Not yet."
To be continued!
