"Dawn's Advise."
Part twenty-six of the "What
Am I?" series.
Rating: R. for the entire
series.
Spoilers: I don't have the
time or the energy to go through and state exactly what spoilers are contained
in my fics just assume that anything that has aired in the US is fair game.
Disclaimers: Joss owns everything
fun. I only borrow it for a while.
Feedback: Let me know what
you think. (ladyduvessa19@icqmail.com)
He woke up when he heard Dawn come down the stairs. Buffy was still asleep. It felt good having her in his arms, her head resting on his chest. Then he remembered what she had said about taking things slow for Dawn so he lifted her body off his and quietly left her to sleep. He went to the kitchen hoping that there would be some blood in the fridge. He didn't expect to find any. He never thought that Buffy would be that considerate of his needs. Dawn was sitting at the counter eating cereal.
"Hey bit." He said opening the refrigerator door. There was no blood that he could find so he took out a carton of orange juice and started drinking it.
"Hey Spike. You know you might want to use a glass in this house." Dawn said.
He brought the carton of juice down from his mouth and put it on the counter. "Sorry."
"That's ok. You might want to just finish it off. I don't think that anyone's going to want to drink that anymore." Dawn said finishing her breakfast.
"I'll be sure to remember the glass for next time." He said and sat down next to her.
"Why are you drinking juice anyways. I kinda thought blood was your beverage of choice." She said while she took her empty bowl to the sink and rinsed it out.
"There isn't any blood. I'll have to go to out and buy some."
"Buffy's got some for you in a cooler in the basement. She said it was a little too gross to keep it in with all of our food." Dawn said and started to put her homework into her book bag.
He was shocked. He didn't think that Buffy would ever do that for him. Maybe she really could accept him as a demon. She had admitted she loved him and she had told her friends, but he never really thought that she would ever get over the fact that he was a demon. "She does, does she? Never thought she would be one to provide me with that." He said surprised.
"Spike she's stubborn. It doesn't mean she doesn't think about you. And she does care. She admitted that she does. And I saw the two of you this morning. All cuddly on the couch. I know your relationship can never be normal, but you have to stop thinking that she's going to hurt you." Dawn said.
"I don't think that." He said.
"Yes you do. And you have every right. She treated you like dirt. And just because now she decides that it's right for her the two of you can be together. She was wrong. You loved her for so long and she didn't want to see it. But I think she means it. I think this is what she wants. And I know that the two of you are never going to stop fighting. I think that's part of the reason she gave into you. Because you challenge her. Angel fought beside her, Riley was her attempt at normality, but neither one of them could ever be what she needed. She needs someone who can treat her like a princess and at the same time tell her that she's a bitch. And no one can do that quite like you can. But you have to stop wondering if she's going to stop caring. I know Buffy. She'll drop you the second she feels pressured. And if you keep thinking that she's going to hurt you, you're going to screw it up. You're going to say something that makes her feel pressured. And then I won't get see you anymore." Dawn said. Spike didn't know how Dawn could know this much about him and Buffy. How did she know that he wondered if Buffy was going to go back to hating him.
He decided that he didn't want to find out. He didn't like it when people knew that part of him. He didn't want to be looked at as a person who was afraid of being hurt. He spent his whole life before he was turned being that man. "Don't you have school or something?" he asked her trying to change the subject.
"Yeah. I have to get going in about fifteen minutes. I better go get Buffy." Dawn said heading out the room.
"Wait. Let her sleep. She's had a rough couple of days. What do you need her for?" Spike asked.
"She usually makes me a lunch."
"You can't make your own lunch?" he asked with a laugh.
"I could if there was any food in the house, but it's kind of all gone. I was hoping maybe Buffy would have some cash so I could buy some food at the school."
"Oh." He said reaching in his pocket. "Here is $20 enough? I think that's all I've got." He put the money on the counter and Dawn picked it up.
"It's plenty. We usually only have like cheep burgers and fries at school. It's so gross. I don't actually think they make the burgers out of beef. But no one can really prove it." Dawn said putting on her jacket.
"I'll get you some real food for tomorrow." Spike said.
"Ok. But I still have to get Buffy up. I have a field trip slip that needs to be signed. We're going to the amusement park the last day of school." She took the slip of paper out of her pocket and found a pen by the phone.
"Give it here." Spike said still not wanting her to wake up Buffy.
"Spike you can't sign it. It needs to be my legal guardian. And besides I don't think that the school would ever accept a field trip slip signed by either 'Spike' or 'William the Bloody'. It's just weird." She said and Spike snatched the slip out of her hand.
"I'm not going to sign my name. You got anything with Buffy's handwriting on it?"
"You're going to forge her signature?" Dawn said shocked.
"No you're going to. You're in bloody high school Dawn. Every high school student should know how to forge their parents signatures. It's just not right if you don't." he said with a smirk.
"I can't do that. Buffy writes way different than I do." She said showing Spike a piece of paper with Buffy's writing on it.
"Get a blank sheet of paper and then just try to copy what she wrote." Spike said looking at Buffy's note. He had never really seen her handwriting before. It was cheery. Not what was written, but the way it was written.
Dawn had tried her best to copy her sister's handwriting, but she wasn't very good at it. The tails on all of Buffy's letters were huge loops and Dawns looked more like tangled knots. Spike tried to explain to her how to form the letters, but she still wasn't getting it. He would have to teach her later. She was going to be late, so he took the permission slip and signed Buffy Summers. It wasn't perfect, but he didn't think that the blokes at school would know the difference. "We'll work on it later." He said and then handed her the permission slip.
"Work on what later?" Buffy said standing behind them.
"Nothing. Spike just gave me some lunch money. I have to go." Dawn said while stuffing the permission slip in her book bag.
"Ok. Have a good day." Buffy said.
"I will. Bye Spike. Thanks for the help. And remember what I said." Dawn said heading out the door.
"What help? And what did she say?" Buffy asked when Dawn was gone.
"It was nothing Buffy. Forget about it." He said.
Buffy gave him a suspicious look. "Oh my god. I forgot to sign her permission slip. It's due today. I have to go to the school."
"Buffy I took care of it." He said.
"You signed it? But they don't know who you are. They're never going to accept it. She won't get to go and then she'll hate me." Buffy said.
"I signed your name." He said.
"You what!"
"I signed your name. I just thought you were tired. Didn't want to wake you. She needed it signed so I did it. Not the end of the world." He said.
"Oh. I'm going to go take a shower. There's some blood for you downstairs in a cooler. Then we're going to have to find you someplace to live. I was thinking maybe instead of a crypt this time you could maybe get a condo. You know one overlooking the ocean with big huge windows." She said smiling.
"Luv, I don't really fancy windows."
"Right. Well we'll find someplace. And we should really try to figure out about the council. What they're doing to the slayers is wrong. They shouldn't be able to just give people demon blood. And Aurora. She probably didn't die in that fire. And I'm not so sure it wasn't her and Drusilla who started it. They're probably not that happy with you." Buffy said.
"Can't you ever just take a break?" Spike asked.
"No I can't. I'm the slayer. I didn't have a choice. But I think that others should. And I'm not going to kill the slayers in waiting to stop the council. There needs to be a slayer. There needs to be someone who takes care of the world. And right now that person is me. And I could quit, but this is what I want to do. And I think that it should be a choice. And I hope you'll help me make it right. Help me make it so the others have a choice. But for now I'm taking a shower." Buffy said and headed up the stairs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Buffy went upstairs to take a shower Spike went downstairs to get some blood from the cooler. When he opened the cooler he was shocked by what he saw. It was human blood. Not animal blood from the butcher, but real human blood. She had went to Willy's and bought him real human blood. As he grabbed a bag of blood and headed upstairs he began to think that Dawn was right. Maybe this thing really was what she wanted.
He found a mug and heated his blood in the microwave. While the seconds were counting down on the microwave he opened the cupboards searching for something to give his blood a little flavor. There really wasn't much that he could use. There really wasn't anything in them at all. They had hardly any food. He knew that they had been going through money trouble. Buffy had been talking about getting a job, but he didn't know that it was this bad. And he thought things were ok after Giles had given her the check. He shut the cupboard doors when the microwave beeped and grabbed the mug and headed to the living room.
As he sat on the couch he began coming up with a plan to help Buffy. He would go and buy them groceries. No scratch that plan he couldn't go there. All the little kids running around screaming while their mothers debated between fluffy or extra fluffy fabric softener was enough to make him want to kill himself. He was more of a shop at the corner gas station kind of guy, but they needed real food not just chips and pop. Maybe he could just give her money and she could go to the store. And if she can't buy groceries she probably has other things that she can't buy or bills she can't pay. He would help with that too. He would talk to her as soon as she got out of the shower.
The morning paper was sitting on the coffee table and he picked it up. He remembered when he used to read the Sunnydale News Tribune every day. Back when he was with Dru and they were trying to kill Buffy. He used to love to read the stories the cops would make up about how the people he and Dru killed had died. Not once had there ever been as story that simply said 'Teenager found in park dead. Vampires suspected.' It was like they never got any credit. But he hadn't read the paper in a long time.
The front page said something about adding on to the new Sunnydale High building. Not really caring if the high schoolers got their new theater. Although maybe he should care. Dawn was going there. But still he didn't. As far as he was concerned Dawn should be sent to Catholic school. An all girls Catholic school where there were no boys to have perverted thoughts about her. A school with many crosses hung from every wall, so that big bads like himself would steer clear.
He flipped the paper over and found the weather staring back at him. Everyday this week was going to be 'Sunny and Hot' according to Jim Sky the Weather Guy. That was just the thing a vampire wanted to hear. Sunny. Not that he minded not being able to go out in the day. Being a prince of darkness gave him an edge. It was just that 'Sunny' meant that he would need to be careful. He had a tendency to not be paying attention and all of a sudden be smoking. And not just his cigarette.
He finally found the section on apartments for rent. Maybe he could find one in Xander and Anya's building. That would really tork Xander off. Having him as a neighbor. But then he realized that he would have to have Xander as a neighbor and that was too much for him. Especially since he and Angel were probably plotting his death. There was one ad that stuck out at him. It was for a two bedroom, fully furnished, apartment in the 'upper class' side of Sunnydale. The ad said the apartment came with a full kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a dining room, an office and tons of built in bookshelves. With apartment rental you got access to the buildings indoor and outdoor swimming pools, full equipment gym, and a parking spot in the apartment garage.
"Oh look. My boyfriends sitting on the couch drinking his blood and reading the paper. My life is so deranged." Buffy said drying her hair with a towel.
"What's deranged about me reading the paper?" Spike asked.
"The blood." She said.
"Oh right. Hey thanks for that. You didn't have to you know. Should have bought some food for you and Dawn." He said.
"Didn't buy it. I went down to Willy's asking for information on Aurora and I asked him for some blood and he gave it too me and said 'don't worry about the bill'."
"So you beat him up then?" Spike asked.
"Yep. So what are you reading anyways?" she asked.
"Found myself an apartment." He said and pointed at the ad in the paper.
"You can't live there." Buffy said.
"Why the hell not?"
"Because that's the most expensive apartment complex in all of Sunnydale and you can't afford it." She said plainly.
"Yes I can."
"How? You do remember I'm the slayer and if you take up bank robbery I will have to stop you." She said.
"I don't have to rob anything Buffy. I've got my own money." He said.
"What?" she said sounding a bit stunned.
"Well you don't think that you can live as long as I have and not set up a good nest egg do you?" he said.
"But you steal. And you lived in a crusty old crypt which you don't pay any rent for. And… And you steal." She said.
"Because I'm a vampire. Big bad remember. You don't pay bills when you're a vampire. But I'll do it for you. I'll buy an apartment and live in it as long as you promise to visit me. You know break in the new bed."
She didn't even react to his last comment. She just continued to ask him about the money. "How much do you have? Where did it come from?"
"I have plenty. It's in the bank. Had some money when I was alive. It wasn't much, but I held on to it. Transferring it to my make believe son every once and a while. Invested it in the stock market here in the states. Made a fortune. Sold the stocks last year so all the moneys just been sitting in the bank collecting dust. Never really had the need to use it. But it was nice to have in case I needed to bribe someone or pay someone off. Other than that it just sits there." He said looking again at the ad for the apartment. He would call there later.
"Oh." Buffy said and then looked away.
"I know things are rough for you and the little bit. Let me help you. I'll give you some money and you can go get groceries or whatever else you need. And your bills. I'll get them to stop harassing you. I'll pay them off. Whatever you need." He said being sincere.
"I don't want your charity." She said.
"Damn it Buffy. This is not charity. I don't think of you as some charity case. This is me trying to help out the woman that I love. You're the slayer. It doesn't exactly give you time to go out and make a living." She didn't react so he added "You took money from Giles!"
"That was different." She said.
"How?"
"He's like a father to me."
"And I'm what? Dirt." He yelled.
"No that's not what I meant." She said.
"Forget it. Forget I ever said anything. I'll be out of here as soon as the sun goes down. Won't have 'ol Spike here to worry about you. You lot can starve for all I care. And you can loose the house and live on the street." He yelled standing up heading for the door.
"Wait." Buffy yelled after him. "The bills are all downstairs."
He turned around and smiled.
Dawn was right. She does need the fight.
Part 25 || Part 27