TITLE: Yesterday's Child

AUTHOR: Drusilla

RATING: PG-13

PAIRING: Spike/Buffy, Max/Liz

SPOILERS: Season 5 of Buffy, Season Two of Roswell

SUMMARY: When Max is haunted by odd dreams of a certain petite blonde, he brings Liz along
to Sunnydale, California to investigate, in hopes of finding more of his kind.
Meanwhile, Buffy explores her feelings for Spike and discovers that everything
has changed during her absence. Set five years in the future.

Buffy/Roswell crossover, Spike/Buffy and Max/Liz 'ships.

DISCLAIMER: The characters aren't mine. They belong to Joss Whedon and Jason Katims.

DISRIBUTION: Sure, take it! Just let me know and credit me, please

FEEDBACK: Yes, please!



YESTERDAY'S CHILD

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CHAPTER 5: Glass

* * *



Tears stain her cheeks and she watches him, letting the droplets fall to the pavement.

Cold. The world no longer welcomes her and she feels the breeze's pull. Hugging her
knees to her breast, she sobs silently for the fates of her loved ones.

It would be easier if she could hate him, or if he had killed them out of hate.

But she is not so lucky.

Hate is too easy, and she loves him still.

He turns away and reaches for his coat pocket. Withdrawing a pack of cigarettes and a
lighter, he smokes his pains away.

"How can you be so cold?" She whispers, seeing his indifference.

He laughs cruelly, maniacally, and she is afraid that it is not him, after all.

"Cold." He shakes his head. "Don't speak to me about cold, love. You have no idea.
You're not real. Buffy is dead. She is rotting right now in six feet of graveyard dirt.
You're an illusion. You're something they made up to punish me."

Her tears never stop falling. "No."

Again, he puts his back to her. He is glad she cannot see his face.

"Why?" Her voice is raspy and she chokes on the words. "How could you?"

"I *saved* them." His tone is harsh again, hurtful. "I did the one thing you never could
have done, because you would never have had the guts."

"You lie." She says desperately. "They could have lived."

"Yes, they could have. What would you have done, Buffy? You would have killed them to
save Dawn. Would you have killed them to save themselves?" He sneers.

No. The answer is no.

And she weeps. For Xander. For Willow. For Giles, and Tara, and Anya. For the girl
whose name she cannot remember, and a little for herself.

And yes, even for him.

For the boy she once knew-- the love-sick man who was sweet and adored her, for the
beautiful boy she loved who had become a monster she cannot recognize.

"Finish the story."

"There's nothing left to tell." He looks at her strangely.

"There's always something. Tell me how they died."

The cigarette burns out and he lights another, the flame from the small silver box the only
thing alive in the grayness. "He went after the witches first." He takes a deep drag and
the smokes flies away quickly, eager to leave the gloom. Seeing her look, he smiles grimly.
"No, he did not feed from them. He snapped their necks. They died quickly."

Another drag, and he continues. "The whelp was next. He was harder. Never trusted the
vampire, the poor bloke, and it made things difficult. Finally the vamp had to settle
with stabbing him. Not pretty." He shakes his head, sighing. "By the time he died his
clothes, the carpet, the walls: all painted red. He shouldn't have fought back."

"That's when the girlfriend decided to stop by. She was brave and all that, wanted to
avenge her lover's death. She gave up in the end; died with a smile on her lips and
a rusty dagger in the heart."

"The Watcher was the hardest of them all. They didn't call him Ripper for nothing, you
know. Gave the vamp a good fight there." He pauses for a moment, remembering the fight.

"And?"

"He ripped the old man's throat out."

Her crying does not stop and she wonders how much moisture is left in her. She hates her
weakness; but it is all that is standing between her and the night.

"What happened to the vampire after that?"

Spike laughs, almost. "The idiot stayed in Sunnyhell. Maybe because he had nowhere else
to go. Maybe because the ghosts of memories still haunt him. He became a vampire again.
You can't drink pig's blood if there's no butcher left to buy it from. He hunted again, but
he killed only to feed. Only when it was needed.

"He stopped killing demons. How could he? He was one of them."

"There were no other Slayers? They just left the town to burn?"

"Others might have been called, but none came. And it was fine that way. Demons were free
to roam about in the night; there was no one left that they were afraid of. They walked
the streets openly, and still, humans failed to acknowledge them. And demon races
prospered, with no predators."

She closes her eyes. "Not even you."

"What do you think I am, Slayer, your little pet dog? Someone that you can kick around and
expect to always come back? You *died*." He chokes at horrid words, and his eyes become
wet for the first time. "You died and I did the best I could. I kept my promises, but they
still didn't accept me, did they?"

His guard collapses momentarily and he sits down onto the ground with her, burying his face
into his hands. "You died and there was no reason left. There was nothing left for me.
No purpose."

She touches his face gently, and he jerks back suddenly and stands up again, disgusted with
his behaviour.

"So what have you got to say, Slayer?" He says venomously. "You said you figured something
out."

A single tear, her last, rolls down her cheek. "I loved you." She says in a hushed tone,
like it is something sacred that cannot be uttered in anything above a whisper.

He is stunned at first, and then he scoffs, nonplussed. "Yeah. Bit like Romeo and Juliet,
then, aren't we?" He says casually.

She is hurt by his reaction. "Romeo and Juliet are dead."

"You're right, pet. And so are we."


* * *


TO BE CONTINUED...

A.N.: I know there hasn't been too much of the Roswell folks yet, but there will be more
of them soon!

I can't promise too much though, because this fic will be more 'Buffy' than 'Roswell'.
The story will revolve mainly around Buffy and Spike, Max and Liz being only "sidekicks."


Please review, guys! I desperately need ideas and encouragement.