Title: When it's over
Author: Jenna Love
Spoilers:
Rating: PG 13 for language and mild violence
Disclaimers: All Buffy characters belong to Joss Whedon. However the storyline, minus a few spoilers from certain episodes of BTVS belongs to me. .
Author's notes: I know my writing isn't as good as most fiction writers out there, but I enjoy what I write and I hope that even though it doesn't live up to certain standards that you will like it as well.
The door to the magic shop slammed behind them as Buffy and Spike ran inside and barricaded the door with a bookshelf.
"What's going on?" Wesley Asked. "I'm guessing you ran into an army of demons."
"Nope, just two. But, they were stronger than anything I've ever gone up against. I don't understand what happened out there, but it was like Spike and I were completely defenseless."
"Hey! I was not defenseless." Spike opposed.
"Well what ever you were it's obvious that we need to rethink our course of action."
Angel walked forward and put his and on Buffy's arm. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine. But, we've got to find a way to beat this thing because if Gramgore is half as strong as those two demons outside my house were then we're in trouble. I don't know if I can handle all of this Angel."
The bell above the shop door rang out and all their eyes went to it. "Good Lord. Is this what happens to the books in my absence?"
"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed, running across the room and throwing her arms around her former watcher. "What are you doing here?"
Giles smiled and accepted her affectionate gesture. "Wesley called me and told me you were in dire need of my expertise."
"I didn't feel as if I was qualified enough to help by myself." Wesley added.
"Well I'm mega glad you're here. Giles, these things are different and I don't know how to handle them."
"Yes, well considering the head demon is Gramgore I'd say that's to be expected. He is a very devious demon and isn't likely to give in without one hell of a fight."
Buffy's eyes widened. "Giles, England has done your vocabulary some good."
Giles grinned. "Well I don't have to be all nice and proper anymore. Besides things in England aren't exactly calm and serene. You'd be surprised how many demons there are."
"This is all good and fascinating, but don't you think we ought to figure out what the plan is?" Spike asked, looking around him at all of the eyes staring in his direction. "What? Like you weren't thinking the same thing."
"Ordinarily this would never come out of my mouth, but I think Spike is right." Angel said, throwing Buffy a book he'd just been reading. "Read that. It goes into more detail about what exactly is supposed to happen. It's the last page."
Buffy frowned and turned the pages of the book. She read silently and with each paragraph her heart sped up and she found it hard to continue breathing normally. "Breath pet oxygen is kind of important you know.well to you." Spike said, worriedly touching her shoulder. "What does it say?"
"It says.Oh my god.Angel there's no way this could be true. Not Dawn."
"Buffy these people know what there talking about. The oracles aren't usually wrong when it comes to mystical prophecies."
"What does it say?"
Ignoring Spike's question Buffy continued her conversation with Angel. "But, she's gone through so much since the 'I'm the key' thing."
"Hello! Want to let us in on your little secret?" Spike's irritation was beginning to shine through. Plus the fact that Buffy was conversing with Angel and Angel only made a big impact.
"Buffy, it doesn't have to be this way. We just need to get to Dawn and fast."
"OH bloodyhell!" Spike yanked the book out of Buffy's hand and began to read out loud. "The slayer is and always has been an obstacle to all demons through out time. Her strength is a mystery and has never been matched. Her time will however come in the next millenium. There will come a single demon with the power to deceive her every sense. There her sibling will finish the prophecy and seal the fate of the slayer." Spike looked up from the book and glanced at Buffy. "Where is dawn?"
A loud crash sounded as a huge rock landed at Buffy's feet. A piece of paper was attached to it and she knew exactly what the note would say. It was more cliché than anything that had happened so far. "Oh please.couldn't they find an original way of informing me that they have my sister?" She knelt down and tore the note off the rock. "Dear Slayer, we have your sister. You know what we want. Come alone and come soon.Ok guess I know what's next in our not so complete plan."
"Buffy, you can't go there alone. It's suicide." Giles said worriedly.
"Giles is right. You can do this alone." Angel's attempt to support Giles wasn't even given chance before Buffy shot it down.
"This is my sister we're talking about. My BLOOD. Do you think I'm just going to sit here reading books while they do God knows what to her? I'm sorry, but I'm just not in the mood to sit on my ass while my sister gets tortured."
"Buffy."
"I'll go with her." Spike said interrupting Giles. All eyes turned towards him and the earnest look on his face shocked them all. "Look, I'm a demon so they wouldn't think anything if I showed up before or after the slayer. If you don't want her to be alone then let me go and help her out."
Angel stepped forward shaking his head. "There's no way I'm going to trust you to take care of her. If you go I go. I'm just as much a demon."
"That's a bunch of bull Angel and you know it. Your soul screams out to an evil spirit. There's no way you could pass for a demon. Besides I can handle it temporarily."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh Bugger do I have to think of everything?" Spike exasperatedly threw his hands up in the air to show his growing annoyance with the group of people. "The note only says for her to come alone. It doesn't say anything about anyone coming afterwards."
"Good Lord. He's right." Giles stated, shuffling his feet in embarrassment. "I'm must be extremely rusty if an impotent vampire can pick up on something so simple and I'm completely clueless."
"Oh he's not impotent." Buffy started to say until she realized he meant Spike's chip. "Nevermind."
Spike bowed his head so no one could see the grin he had on his face. For a moment there was an awkward silence that no one wanted to be the first to break so Buffy stood up. "If we're going to do this then let's pack up and go."
Spike nodded his head in agreement. "I'm ready when you are."
"Buffy, I really think you should re-think the whole Spike thing. I don't trust him." Angel whispered just loud enough for Buffy to hear.
"Angel, you haven't been here in a while so you really don't know what's been going on." He voice was growing louder as she continued. "So I really don't think you're in any place to tell me what you THINK. Now because I care about you I'll let it go, but there's one thing you need to get straight. Spike is one of us now. I know it took me a long time to finally come to that conclusion, but now I have and I have to say I don't know what we'd do with out him.
"He's protected Dawn and the rest of our friends without even caring what happened to himself in the process. I trust him completely and I would appreciate it if while you're here you do the same thing. Do you think you can handle that?"
Angel was unprepared for her sudden leap to Spike's defense. At another point in their lives they would have been on the same page when it came to Spike. The page that said, "Spike is an evil vampire who has tortured and killed too many people to count that needs to be killed." But that time had passed and he missed too much to understand where her sudden need to defend him came from.
"Fine. It's your sister who's life is on the line and if you're willing to put all on the line for one majorly crazed vampire then so be it." Angel walked off angrily and Buffy felt something tug at her heart and she suddenly felt tons of remorse and guilt.
"He'll be ok luv. It just takes a bit of getting used to. He's known me for a hundred and twenty sum odd years more than you and all that time I was nothing, but evil. It's the only way he's ever known me."
"I know you're right Spike.I really don't know why I got so upset."
"Well." Spike started giving her a cocky grin.
"Don't start with me. It has nothing to do with these feelings you insist I have for you." Buffy huffed and made her way to Giles who was busy examining the weapons Spike and Buffy had retrieved from her house. She sat down and laid her head on his shoulder willing herself not to let the tears welling up in her eyes run down her cheeks. Nothing needed to be said between them. Giles understood her and even when he didn't he accepted her and moved on.
There wasn't anyone in the room that could make her feel the way Giles did. When he father had decided to stay away for reasons unknown to her, Giles had been there and become the father figure she'd needed. Even when he left to go to England, not matter how much she had fussed, she knew that he still loved her and that it was mostly for her own benefit.
"Buffy!" Xander called, breaking her out of her daze.
"Huh?"
"Anya, tell her."
"There's a possibility that Dawn might just be a way out of this entire mess. No one has talked about the fact that even though Glory was killed and even though Dawn is no longer needed as her key, that doesn't mean that she isn't the key to something else. I think we've all just assumed that because the portal was closed when you jumped into it, that it was all over and no harm would ever come to dawn because of the whole key thing.
"When in fact, Dawn has never changed. Her blood still has the same effect and it could open another portal. I'm thinking that the only reason these demons kidnapped her and told us about it is because they don't know the true power that Dawn possesses. If we make that fact known to them then maybe, just maybe it'll buy us enough time to come up with another plan."
Buffy raised her eyebrows and looked deep in thought. "So let me get this right. You think that we should let the demons have my sister just long enough for them to open a hell dimension, so that we can have just a little bit more time to come up with a plan to close it again?"
"Buffy, it's just an idea. Don't get all huffy towards her." Xander said, protectively putting his arm around his fiancée.
Buffy massaged her temples and closed her eyes. "I know. I just keep jumping on everybody today. I'm sorry Anya I know you're just trying to help, but I can't just sacrifice my sister like that."
"Buffy, I think you should really think about Anya's idea. Maybe not the whole thing, but she has several points that could work towards out advantage." Giles offered gently smiling in her direction.
"Like what?"
"Well, if you tell them that Dawn's the key that will get their mind off things and they will be more likely to miss intruders that might slip into the factory. Therefore if they are too busy trying to come up with the ritual we can get in and stop them before they open the gateway."
"But Giles, what about the prophecy? What if this is what is supposed to happen and it leads to all of our deaths?"
"Buffy, worrying about that is absolutely normal, but every single decision we make could be taking us to that tragic ending. We can't spend so much time worrying about what could happen, we can fight this thing and I think there's a chance we could win."
"This is so confusing. I just don't see how this has anything to do with what we've all been discussing. Oh SREW IT ALL! Let's just do it. We're damned if we don't save dawn and we're damned if we do."
Willow put her hand on her outraged friend's arm. "Buffy that's not true. We can do this. I know I wasn't very optimistic earlier, but I was being childish. I know that we can save the world again. It's what we're meant to do. Who needs some prophecy telling us out future? Why don't we forget about it and make our way up as we go along?"
"We're all with you Buffy. We're not going to leave you alone and there's no way we're going to let you give up when we know that you can do it." Xander added, getting a chorus of agreement from the rest of the group including Gunn even though he didn't really know her.
"Well I'm glad you all think so highly of me. I wish I could feel as confident, but I'm just not sure of anything anymore." She rubbed her arms up and down in a nervous manner. It wasn't everyday that Buffy showed any sort of insecurity in front of her friends. "All I know is that I can't just sit here and do nothing. If we're going to try this plan then lets do it because I don't if I can take standing still for very long."
Buffy left them worried and confused. "I've never seen Buffy this way before. It's kind of unnerving." Xander said, sitting back down at the table.
Spike, unwilling to let them analyze Buffy's seemingly weak moment stepped forward. "Why is it that you all expect her to be so strong all the time? I know the damn slayer, but she's also a twenty-year-old woman who really has never had a chance to be weak. Can't you just allow her that? Just this once. Let her be normal for a bit."
"But Spike, Buffy's not normal. She never has been and she never will be. We can't pretend she's something she's not." Xander replied.
"Why the hell not?" Spike said angrily, before looking at the people in front of him who was supposed to be Buffy's friends. It was completely an outrage to him because of they way they were unwilling to give Buffy what she needed the most. "Argh! Just leave her be and maybe that'll be enough for her. I can't believe you call yourself her friends. You nothing, but selfish.I can't even think of a name for you." He angrily made his leave slamming the door behind him as he went.
"Ok what crawled up his."
"Oh shut up Xander! He's absolutely right." Giles proclaimed. " I don't know how to change the situation, but."
Their voices faded out as Buffy shut the door to the basement. She sat down on one of the steps and took deep breaths to calm herself. They counted on her for so much and she was so afraid that she would let them down. What also scared her was the fact that she could no longer hide her feelings from them. For so long she had been able to cloak her sadness and complete misery only letting it out when she was with one person.
That one person who had just stood up for her in front of all her friends even though she had constantly put him down whenever the opportunity arose. She was constantly fighting the urges that rose up inside her whenever he was near her. The urges that she had only allowed to come through one time.
They'd demolished the entire house and she couldn't help but smile at the thought of what they'd done together. Not all of it had been destructive. It had also been beautiful and he'd been so easy with her. He had treated her like she was a delicate doll who would break if he moved her the wrong way.
"What are you smiling at luv?" Spike's smooth voice traveled up the stairs.
"I.I uh.I didn't know you were down here. I thought you left."
" So you were listening then." He said, kneeling down and taking a seat on the floor below her. He looked up and she could see his feelings for her so evidently. "I came through the backway. I didn't want to go back inside and embarrass my self any more in front of them."
"It embarrasses you to take up for me?"
"Well no." If Buffy hadn't known better, she would have thought he was blushing. "I'll always take up for you, but I looked so dumb running out of there."
Buffy made her way down the stairs and knelt down in front of him. "I don't think you looked dumb at all. In fact I appreciate you so much right now it's not even funny. You're the only one who understands what I'm feeling right now and the only one who is willing to give me even a moment of normalcy."
"Are you ok?"
Buffy laughed softly and nodded her head. "Considering everything I'm fine.now." She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lips. "Thank you." She said, before leaving him dazed on the floor and heading upstairs. As soon as she caught site of the others standing around doing nothing she sighed. "Ok guys! I'm ready to go. We're going to save Dawn and the rest of the world.using Anya's idea."
"Buffy are you sure?" Giles asked, tilting his head and trying to understand what she was thinking.
"No, but it's time to get some action." Every raised their eyes towards her. "You know fighting demons and stuff. Listen Spike and I are going to take care of our half of the plan, but I need you guys to be clear on what you're supposed to do. I'll send Spike to give a signal when you can come in while I take care of the whole 'dawn is still the key' thing. I want you guys to get Dawn and get out."
"Buffy." Giles' automatic response was to tell her that she couldn't take them all alone, but then he realized that it was something that she had to do for herself if no one else. "Nevermind continue."
"I can't risk you guys being there with me because if you are then I can't protect you and I can't have that on my mind while I'm fighting, it would distract me. Angel." she said turning towards him. "I want you to make sure dawn's in a safe place and then I need you to come back and help me. You're the only one other than Spike that's got enough strength to handle himself."
"Ok. Whatever you want me to do."
Buffy smiled in appreciation. "Ok Spike let's go." Spike, who had arrived back upstairs, nodded his head and after grabbing some weapons they both left to start the beginning of the battle. The battle that would either make or break them all.
Author: Jenna Love
Spoilers:
Rating: PG 13 for language and mild violence
Disclaimers: All Buffy characters belong to Joss Whedon. However the storyline, minus a few spoilers from certain episodes of BTVS belongs to me. .
Author's notes: I know my writing isn't as good as most fiction writers out there, but I enjoy what I write and I hope that even though it doesn't live up to certain standards that you will like it as well.
The door to the magic shop slammed behind them as Buffy and Spike ran inside and barricaded the door with a bookshelf.
"What's going on?" Wesley Asked. "I'm guessing you ran into an army of demons."
"Nope, just two. But, they were stronger than anything I've ever gone up against. I don't understand what happened out there, but it was like Spike and I were completely defenseless."
"Hey! I was not defenseless." Spike opposed.
"Well what ever you were it's obvious that we need to rethink our course of action."
Angel walked forward and put his and on Buffy's arm. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah I'm fine. But, we've got to find a way to beat this thing because if Gramgore is half as strong as those two demons outside my house were then we're in trouble. I don't know if I can handle all of this Angel."
The bell above the shop door rang out and all their eyes went to it. "Good Lord. Is this what happens to the books in my absence?"
"Giles!" Buffy exclaimed, running across the room and throwing her arms around her former watcher. "What are you doing here?"
Giles smiled and accepted her affectionate gesture. "Wesley called me and told me you were in dire need of my expertise."
"I didn't feel as if I was qualified enough to help by myself." Wesley added.
"Well I'm mega glad you're here. Giles, these things are different and I don't know how to handle them."
"Yes, well considering the head demon is Gramgore I'd say that's to be expected. He is a very devious demon and isn't likely to give in without one hell of a fight."
Buffy's eyes widened. "Giles, England has done your vocabulary some good."
Giles grinned. "Well I don't have to be all nice and proper anymore. Besides things in England aren't exactly calm and serene. You'd be surprised how many demons there are."
"This is all good and fascinating, but don't you think we ought to figure out what the plan is?" Spike asked, looking around him at all of the eyes staring in his direction. "What? Like you weren't thinking the same thing."
"Ordinarily this would never come out of my mouth, but I think Spike is right." Angel said, throwing Buffy a book he'd just been reading. "Read that. It goes into more detail about what exactly is supposed to happen. It's the last page."
Buffy frowned and turned the pages of the book. She read silently and with each paragraph her heart sped up and she found it hard to continue breathing normally. "Breath pet oxygen is kind of important you know.well to you." Spike said, worriedly touching her shoulder. "What does it say?"
"It says.Oh my god.Angel there's no way this could be true. Not Dawn."
"Buffy these people know what there talking about. The oracles aren't usually wrong when it comes to mystical prophecies."
"What does it say?"
Ignoring Spike's question Buffy continued her conversation with Angel. "But, she's gone through so much since the 'I'm the key' thing."
"Hello! Want to let us in on your little secret?" Spike's irritation was beginning to shine through. Plus the fact that Buffy was conversing with Angel and Angel only made a big impact.
"Buffy, it doesn't have to be this way. We just need to get to Dawn and fast."
"OH bloodyhell!" Spike yanked the book out of Buffy's hand and began to read out loud. "The slayer is and always has been an obstacle to all demons through out time. Her strength is a mystery and has never been matched. Her time will however come in the next millenium. There will come a single demon with the power to deceive her every sense. There her sibling will finish the prophecy and seal the fate of the slayer." Spike looked up from the book and glanced at Buffy. "Where is dawn?"
A loud crash sounded as a huge rock landed at Buffy's feet. A piece of paper was attached to it and she knew exactly what the note would say. It was more cliché than anything that had happened so far. "Oh please.couldn't they find an original way of informing me that they have my sister?" She knelt down and tore the note off the rock. "Dear Slayer, we have your sister. You know what we want. Come alone and come soon.Ok guess I know what's next in our not so complete plan."
"Buffy, you can't go there alone. It's suicide." Giles said worriedly.
"Giles is right. You can do this alone." Angel's attempt to support Giles wasn't even given chance before Buffy shot it down.
"This is my sister we're talking about. My BLOOD. Do you think I'm just going to sit here reading books while they do God knows what to her? I'm sorry, but I'm just not in the mood to sit on my ass while my sister gets tortured."
"Buffy."
"I'll go with her." Spike said interrupting Giles. All eyes turned towards him and the earnest look on his face shocked them all. "Look, I'm a demon so they wouldn't think anything if I showed up before or after the slayer. If you don't want her to be alone then let me go and help her out."
Angel stepped forward shaking his head. "There's no way I'm going to trust you to take care of her. If you go I go. I'm just as much a demon."
"That's a bunch of bull Angel and you know it. Your soul screams out to an evil spirit. There's no way you could pass for a demon. Besides I can handle it temporarily."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh Bugger do I have to think of everything?" Spike exasperatedly threw his hands up in the air to show his growing annoyance with the group of people. "The note only says for her to come alone. It doesn't say anything about anyone coming afterwards."
"Good Lord. He's right." Giles stated, shuffling his feet in embarrassment. "I'm must be extremely rusty if an impotent vampire can pick up on something so simple and I'm completely clueless."
"Oh he's not impotent." Buffy started to say until she realized he meant Spike's chip. "Nevermind."
Spike bowed his head so no one could see the grin he had on his face. For a moment there was an awkward silence that no one wanted to be the first to break so Buffy stood up. "If we're going to do this then let's pack up and go."
Spike nodded his head in agreement. "I'm ready when you are."
"Buffy, I really think you should re-think the whole Spike thing. I don't trust him." Angel whispered just loud enough for Buffy to hear.
"Angel, you haven't been here in a while so you really don't know what's been going on." He voice was growing louder as she continued. "So I really don't think you're in any place to tell me what you THINK. Now because I care about you I'll let it go, but there's one thing you need to get straight. Spike is one of us now. I know it took me a long time to finally come to that conclusion, but now I have and I have to say I don't know what we'd do with out him.
"He's protected Dawn and the rest of our friends without even caring what happened to himself in the process. I trust him completely and I would appreciate it if while you're here you do the same thing. Do you think you can handle that?"
Angel was unprepared for her sudden leap to Spike's defense. At another point in their lives they would have been on the same page when it came to Spike. The page that said, "Spike is an evil vampire who has tortured and killed too many people to count that needs to be killed." But that time had passed and he missed too much to understand where her sudden need to defend him came from.
"Fine. It's your sister who's life is on the line and if you're willing to put all on the line for one majorly crazed vampire then so be it." Angel walked off angrily and Buffy felt something tug at her heart and she suddenly felt tons of remorse and guilt.
"He'll be ok luv. It just takes a bit of getting used to. He's known me for a hundred and twenty sum odd years more than you and all that time I was nothing, but evil. It's the only way he's ever known me."
"I know you're right Spike.I really don't know why I got so upset."
"Well." Spike started giving her a cocky grin.
"Don't start with me. It has nothing to do with these feelings you insist I have for you." Buffy huffed and made her way to Giles who was busy examining the weapons Spike and Buffy had retrieved from her house. She sat down and laid her head on his shoulder willing herself not to let the tears welling up in her eyes run down her cheeks. Nothing needed to be said between them. Giles understood her and even when he didn't he accepted her and moved on.
There wasn't anyone in the room that could make her feel the way Giles did. When he father had decided to stay away for reasons unknown to her, Giles had been there and become the father figure she'd needed. Even when he left to go to England, not matter how much she had fussed, she knew that he still loved her and that it was mostly for her own benefit.
"Buffy!" Xander called, breaking her out of her daze.
"Huh?"
"Anya, tell her."
"There's a possibility that Dawn might just be a way out of this entire mess. No one has talked about the fact that even though Glory was killed and even though Dawn is no longer needed as her key, that doesn't mean that she isn't the key to something else. I think we've all just assumed that because the portal was closed when you jumped into it, that it was all over and no harm would ever come to dawn because of the whole key thing.
"When in fact, Dawn has never changed. Her blood still has the same effect and it could open another portal. I'm thinking that the only reason these demons kidnapped her and told us about it is because they don't know the true power that Dawn possesses. If we make that fact known to them then maybe, just maybe it'll buy us enough time to come up with another plan."
Buffy raised her eyebrows and looked deep in thought. "So let me get this right. You think that we should let the demons have my sister just long enough for them to open a hell dimension, so that we can have just a little bit more time to come up with a plan to close it again?"
"Buffy, it's just an idea. Don't get all huffy towards her." Xander said, protectively putting his arm around his fiancée.
Buffy massaged her temples and closed her eyes. "I know. I just keep jumping on everybody today. I'm sorry Anya I know you're just trying to help, but I can't just sacrifice my sister like that."
"Buffy, I think you should really think about Anya's idea. Maybe not the whole thing, but she has several points that could work towards out advantage." Giles offered gently smiling in her direction.
"Like what?"
"Well, if you tell them that Dawn's the key that will get their mind off things and they will be more likely to miss intruders that might slip into the factory. Therefore if they are too busy trying to come up with the ritual we can get in and stop them before they open the gateway."
"But Giles, what about the prophecy? What if this is what is supposed to happen and it leads to all of our deaths?"
"Buffy, worrying about that is absolutely normal, but every single decision we make could be taking us to that tragic ending. We can't spend so much time worrying about what could happen, we can fight this thing and I think there's a chance we could win."
"This is so confusing. I just don't see how this has anything to do with what we've all been discussing. Oh SREW IT ALL! Let's just do it. We're damned if we don't save dawn and we're damned if we do."
Willow put her hand on her outraged friend's arm. "Buffy that's not true. We can do this. I know I wasn't very optimistic earlier, but I was being childish. I know that we can save the world again. It's what we're meant to do. Who needs some prophecy telling us out future? Why don't we forget about it and make our way up as we go along?"
"We're all with you Buffy. We're not going to leave you alone and there's no way we're going to let you give up when we know that you can do it." Xander added, getting a chorus of agreement from the rest of the group including Gunn even though he didn't really know her.
"Well I'm glad you all think so highly of me. I wish I could feel as confident, but I'm just not sure of anything anymore." She rubbed her arms up and down in a nervous manner. It wasn't everyday that Buffy showed any sort of insecurity in front of her friends. "All I know is that I can't just sit here and do nothing. If we're going to try this plan then lets do it because I don't if I can take standing still for very long."
Buffy left them worried and confused. "I've never seen Buffy this way before. It's kind of unnerving." Xander said, sitting back down at the table.
Spike, unwilling to let them analyze Buffy's seemingly weak moment stepped forward. "Why is it that you all expect her to be so strong all the time? I know the damn slayer, but she's also a twenty-year-old woman who really has never had a chance to be weak. Can't you just allow her that? Just this once. Let her be normal for a bit."
"But Spike, Buffy's not normal. She never has been and she never will be. We can't pretend she's something she's not." Xander replied.
"Why the hell not?" Spike said angrily, before looking at the people in front of him who was supposed to be Buffy's friends. It was completely an outrage to him because of they way they were unwilling to give Buffy what she needed the most. "Argh! Just leave her be and maybe that'll be enough for her. I can't believe you call yourself her friends. You nothing, but selfish.I can't even think of a name for you." He angrily made his leave slamming the door behind him as he went.
"Ok what crawled up his."
"Oh shut up Xander! He's absolutely right." Giles proclaimed. " I don't know how to change the situation, but."
Their voices faded out as Buffy shut the door to the basement. She sat down on one of the steps and took deep breaths to calm herself. They counted on her for so much and she was so afraid that she would let them down. What also scared her was the fact that she could no longer hide her feelings from them. For so long she had been able to cloak her sadness and complete misery only letting it out when she was with one person.
That one person who had just stood up for her in front of all her friends even though she had constantly put him down whenever the opportunity arose. She was constantly fighting the urges that rose up inside her whenever he was near her. The urges that she had only allowed to come through one time.
They'd demolished the entire house and she couldn't help but smile at the thought of what they'd done together. Not all of it had been destructive. It had also been beautiful and he'd been so easy with her. He had treated her like she was a delicate doll who would break if he moved her the wrong way.
"What are you smiling at luv?" Spike's smooth voice traveled up the stairs.
"I.I uh.I didn't know you were down here. I thought you left."
" So you were listening then." He said, kneeling down and taking a seat on the floor below her. He looked up and she could see his feelings for her so evidently. "I came through the backway. I didn't want to go back inside and embarrass my self any more in front of them."
"It embarrasses you to take up for me?"
"Well no." If Buffy hadn't known better, she would have thought he was blushing. "I'll always take up for you, but I looked so dumb running out of there."
Buffy made her way down the stairs and knelt down in front of him. "I don't think you looked dumb at all. In fact I appreciate you so much right now it's not even funny. You're the only one who understands what I'm feeling right now and the only one who is willing to give me even a moment of normalcy."
"Are you ok?"
Buffy laughed softly and nodded her head. "Considering everything I'm fine.now." She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lips. "Thank you." She said, before leaving him dazed on the floor and heading upstairs. As soon as she caught site of the others standing around doing nothing she sighed. "Ok guys! I'm ready to go. We're going to save Dawn and the rest of the world.using Anya's idea."
"Buffy are you sure?" Giles asked, tilting his head and trying to understand what she was thinking.
"No, but it's time to get some action." Every raised their eyes towards her. "You know fighting demons and stuff. Listen Spike and I are going to take care of our half of the plan, but I need you guys to be clear on what you're supposed to do. I'll send Spike to give a signal when you can come in while I take care of the whole 'dawn is still the key' thing. I want you guys to get Dawn and get out."
"Buffy." Giles' automatic response was to tell her that she couldn't take them all alone, but then he realized that it was something that she had to do for herself if no one else. "Nevermind continue."
"I can't risk you guys being there with me because if you are then I can't protect you and I can't have that on my mind while I'm fighting, it would distract me. Angel." she said turning towards him. "I want you to make sure dawn's in a safe place and then I need you to come back and help me. You're the only one other than Spike that's got enough strength to handle himself."
"Ok. Whatever you want me to do."
Buffy smiled in appreciation. "Ok Spike let's go." Spike, who had arrived back upstairs, nodded his head and after grabbing some weapons they both left to start the beginning of the battle. The battle that would either make or break them all.
