Part Three
They arrived back at the crypt to find that Spike was no longer lying where Buffy had left him earlier.
"Spike?" Buffy called out to him and then noticed the blood on the ground. It ran the length of the room and over to the opening that led to the lower level. "Tara stay here while I check to see if Spike managed to drag himself to his room."
Buffy didn't bother with the ladder instead she jumped down into the hole. She saw Spike immediately. He was lying face down on the floor, eyes closed and unmoving. Oh, God. Was she too late? Buffy knelt beside his prone form. "Spike? Spike wake up!"
Buffy rolled him over and noticed that the bleeding seemed to have stopped but his wound looked livid and swollen with black tendrils of poison spreading out from the opening. Whatever this poison was, it was aggressive. Buffy felt the coldness seeping into her skin. She yelled up to Tara that she needed to join Buffy below.
As Tara was making her way down, Buffy had managed to pick Spike up and was half dragging half carrying him to the bed. Tara had reached the side of the bed and stood staring at Spike. "Is he d-dead?"
"Well he is a vampire so, yeah, he's pretty much of the dead. It's not like he has a pulse you can check or anything." Buffy instantly regretted her sharp tone. "Just do what you can."
Tara looked at the wound and gave a small gasp at the sight of the festering injury. "Buffy, it's spreading quickly. I think that I can cast a spell that might contain it, ya know, make it move slower or hopefully even stop it. But it's only temporary, eventually the poison will become immune to the spell and continue to move throughout his body like a decay." Tara shivered involuntarily and seemed extremely nervous. Most likely due to her close proximity to the unconscious vamp but there was also a determined set to her shoulders. Buffy had no doubt that Tara would do her best to help in this completely helpless situation.
Tara began to remove some books and few other magical implements from her
backpack and moved to light the candles Spike had around the room. Buffy could hear the seemingly meaningless
words Tara was speaking but she wasn't paying close attention. Instead her eyes were drawn back to Spike's
face. He looked peaceful. Too peaceful for Buffy's comfort and she
began to feel the panic making a comeback.
It became more and more difficult to deny how deeply he affected her.
But in what way did he affect her? What were her feelings? Since her return she had felt so little about anything. Where huge depths of emotions had once existed there was now only emptiness, numb to all those whom she fought so hard to protect. In the absence of emotion there was comfort but also the feeling that a vital part of her was missing. How could she go on this way? How could she be there for her sister, for her friends? Did she want to?
Then there was Spike. When Spike was around, Buffy was confused. At first she viewed his attention as restful, Spike didn't treat her as if anything was wrong with her or as if he expected something from her. In fact all he had ever done as try to be there for her. What was completely unexpected was that she had begun to experience something more than the emotional vacuum she had been living in. Not a lot at first but little by little she began to come awake, as if the spell cast to bring her back was still working out the details. First there was fear, then anger. The anger was so powerful that at times she felt out of control, but for the most part she was able to keep it hidden from Dawn and the others but somehow Spike knew. Almost like he could see inside and recognize that anger in her and didn't judge.
Buffy knew that Spike loved her, he had told her but it was more than that. She felt it. Every time he looked at her or touched her she felt it. And it made her angrier and when she was with Spike she didn't try to hide her rage. In fact she gave in to it over and over. That is how they ended up in a pile of rubble together. Buffy knew that there was something between them, something more than the passionate fury that drove them together time after time. Something deeper. But what? Buffy was afraid of the answer because right now she just couldn't deal, could she?
Tara was at Spike's side and Buffy could see that she held a crystal that emitted a pulsing red light in her trembling hand. Tara moved the crystal in a clockwise motion as she repeated the spell's mantra. As Buffy watched, the poison seemed to stop its progress and then retreat back towards the opening of the wound. Her breath caught in her throat. Was it working? She wanted to question Tara but didn't want to interrupt the spell.
Finally Tara looked back at Buffy. "I th-think I did it. I can feel the taint receding. The crystal is drawing on the poison, kinda like a magnet and should keep it from spreading. Whatever this is, it's strong and I don't know how long the crystal can hold it but I think that he's still in there. What I mean is that he isn't deader." There were dark rings under Tara's eyes but she seemed relieved that her spell was holding.
Buffy could only nod, her eyes glued to the still unconscious vampire. Hope was dangerous but it spilled from her in waves. Buffy mentally willed his eyes to open.
"It might help if he had some b-blood." Tara was unsure of herself in the face of Buffy's silence.
"Oh. Yeah. It's up top in the fridge." Buffy had yet to look away from Spike.
"Don't worry, I'll get it." Tara seemed relieved to be doing something less close to the vampire.
As Tara went up the ladder Buffy moved closer to Spike. When she was standing next to his bedside she hesitantly reached out a hand towards his but before she made contact she heard a moan escape his lips. Buffy's quickly snatched her hand away and watched as he struggled to regain wakefulness.
The first thing Spike saw when he opened his eyes was his angel. She was looking down at him rather sternly and he wondered what he had done to tick her off this time. Then he realized he didn't really care why she was here, only that she was. Bloody poof.
"I feel wrecked. What happened?" It seemed safer to get right to it.
"There was a poison in the dagger that pierced your gut. According to the books it's pretty lethal."
Spike remembered. He remembered the dagger slicing into his flesh and the pain. The intense, burning pain. The sensation seemed to have dulled somewhat.
"Then what am I doing here, still among the unliving? Oh no, don't tell me, I finally kicked it and this is my hell. You standing there looking at me like that."
"Like what?" Buffy was confused. What was he talking about? Was he delirious?
"Like I just ate your pup or somethin'." Spike turned away from her, away from her eyes. Sometimes it was just too unbearable to see how much she didn't love him and his chest ached with the now familiar pain of her constant rejection.
"Whatever. Spike we were able to stop the poison from advancing but it's only temporary."
"Ah. So you saw an opportunity for painful torture and you took it. I see. And who is we?" Spike's mouth was out of his control always had been really.
"Well it wasn't we exactly as much as it was Tara. She was able to use a spell to contain the poison." Buffy gestured vaguely to the crystal still pulsing with a steady crimson light. She was flustered. She hadn't known what to expect but she was caught off guard by Spike's sarcasm.
"That little mouse? I'm surprised she didn't faint at the sight of my naked chest." Spike smiled weakly.
"Um-excuse me. H-here's your blood." Tara had managed to slip back down the ladder without either Buffy or Spike noticing. A trembling hand held out the two bags of blood she had retrieved from the refrigerator.
"Oh, bugger it." Spike's voice was low and he had the grace to look embarrassed. "Look, I didn't mean anything by it-"
"No." She interrupted his apology. "That's okay and probably t-true." Tara's face was flushed as she turned to Buffy. "I should go now."
"Yeah, sure. I'll take you." Buffy took the bags from Tara's hands and gave them over to Spike with a hard look. "I'm going to take Tara home, but I will be back."
With a final look in Spike's direction Buffy followed Tara up the ladder.
Spike watched them leave. Idiot. Insulting the person who had worked to save his sorry ass. Real smart, William. As if he needed to give Buffy any more reasons to add to the "Why I Will Never Love Spike" list.
Spike tried to push himself up into a sitting position but was stopped short by a blinding pain that shot up his side. "Ahhhhhhh! Fuck!"
Spike hated weakness, especially his own and here he was injured and vulnerable. An easy target, a sitting duck. Since he had gone all soft in the head and taken up with the gang of bloody do gooders the other kids didn't want to play with him anymore. In fact they would just love to see him reduced to ashes.
Spike's fatalistic meanderings were quickly replaced by thoughts of Buffy. Why had she brought the witch? Why did she want to save him? Spike chose to believe that this was a sign that she was softening towards him.
Spike tore open the bag and drained the contents and more like himself until he tossed the bad to the floor and the pain renewed itself, reminding him of his current circumstances. He was seriously wounded and according to Buffy, the witch could only fix him temporarily. Frustration washed over him. He wasn't ready to leave this earth quite yet. The dreams he harbored about the little blond slayer were beginning to see the light of day and he was determined to see it through.
A small smile graced his pale lips at the thought of the slayer and he promptly fell asleep.
Once again Buffy found herself standing beside Spike's bed watching him sleep. Why was he smiling?
Buffy had returned Tara to her dorm room safe and sound leaving Buffy with the news that Spike had three maybe four days tops before the toxin would begin to counter the spell. Buffy could only hope that she proved to be such an irresistible sacrifice so the demon would make its reappearance in time. For now she needed to fill Spike in on all the icky details.
"Spike."
Spike came instantly awake when she spoke. "You're back."
"Obvious much? Look I said I would come back so here I am. Back. Here. I wanted to let you know what's going on."
As Buffy gave Spike the low down, she began to feel the effects of he past forty-eight hours settling in her body. She was so tired.
"So, anyway, I guess I'll just have to wait for it to come back for another try and grab the glowy um…stuff." The fatigue was making it difficult to concentrate and she felt her body sway. Buffy hurriedly straightened hoping that Spike hadn't noticed her lapse.
Spike did notice, "Damnit, Slayer! Sit down before you fall down. When was the last time you slept?"
Too tired to argue, Buffy sat down hard on the end of the bed. She was having trouble keeping her eyes open. "I lay down to sleep a lot but it doesn't always work out that I actually sleep for too long." She turned her head to look at him with a look of desperate frustration, "Spike, why can't I sleep?"
"Buffy, crawl up here and lay down. Now." Spike tone was firm.
"Don't tell me what to-okay." With that Buffy stretched out beside Spike and immediately fell asleep.
Ignoring the pain, Spike reached across the bed to pull the covers over her sleeping form and watched her sleep. She was breathtaking. Spike had lived for over a hundred years and met thousands of beautiful women, some more beautiful even than Buffy, but none with her fire and spirit. Even now with all of the internal conflict brought on by her amazing resurrection, her passion burned, it just had no direction. Inside this tiny girl was a heart that was meant to love and be loved and Spike hoped that he would still be around to help her when she finally recognized that fact.
Spike could no longer fight his body for consciousness and he soon followed Buffy into sleep.