Countdown: Fifteen Minutes
By ElsaF
Spoilers: S6 through Dead Things, then off into the "24-verse"
Summary: In the 24-verse, Buffy apologized for the Dead
Things beating. She also let Spike explain what was going on
with the demon eggs in As You Were. But even though they
didn't break up in AYW, a little while later Spike told Buffy he
didn't want to be her dirty secret anymore, so they have broken
up anyway.
They were all the same. Exactly. The same weight, the same
thickness, the same color. And that was disturbing. Beef
shouldn't be the same color as chicken, should it? They could
at least put some artificial color in to make the beef patty look
like beef, couldn't they?
Buffy watched the slicer. The Doublemeat (TM) patties fell off
with a steady rhythm. It was soothing. It made the time pass.
She could stand here and watch the patented processed meat
product fall onto the tray with one wet slap after another, and
time became meaningless -- until someone tapped her on the
shoulder and said, "You've got a customer."
"Can I help you?" she said as she pasted on her patented
processed meat product smile and poised her finger over the
buttons on the point of purchase fulfillment input terminal.
"Buffy! It's me!"
Buffy snapped out of her patented processed meat product
trance and realized she was looking straight at Willow.
"Oh! Willow!"
"Look, I'll order a milk shake, they don't put any beef fat in
those, do they? That way you won't get in trouble, right?"
"Far as I know, they don't put beef fat in the shakes. But
knowing this place, they probably don't put any dairy products
in them either. What flavor?"
"Um... chocolate. That sounds safe. Anyway, what I came by
to tell you -- I think I've got a line on your nemis-sis-isis,"
Willow said with a bright smile.
Buffy went to the shake machine and returned with something
thick and gray in a cup.
"You think so?" she said listlessly.
"Yeah! Boy are they dumb! I couldn't believe it. It was so
easy."
"So what did they do?"
"They stole Xander's cell phone!" Willow was all but bouncing
up and down with enthusiasm. "And they've been using it!"
"Oh? Does that help?"
"Of course is does. I can trace it! I can triangulate off the
towers receiving the signal and get a location within a few feet.
I've hacked into his provider's network, and all we have to do is
keep monitoring his phone's I.D. and the next time they make a
call, we've got them!"
"Really? Gee, that's good, Will."
"I thought you'd be really happy..."
"Oh... I am. That's great. It's just... I guess I'm a little under the
weather."
"Maybe you should ask for the rest of the night off, if you're
not feeling well..."
"Nope. Robo-Buffy stays on the job. I'm out of sick days," she
said with a roll of her eyes. "Riley's little adventure -- it's going
to be a while before I can take any time off again."
"Bummer... what if there's urgent slaying to be done?"
Buffy shrugged. "Doesn't seem to have been much urgent
slaying lately..."
Willow frowned. "Doesn't mean there won't be."
Buffy shrugged again. "Don't let me bring you down. I've got
them patented-processed-meat-product blues. I'm glad you've
got a line on Warren, et al. And I'm glad you're feeling
empowered."
"It's not just empowerment," Willow said, leaning over the
counter to speak in confidence. "I've been having a really good
day. I mean really good. Tara and I went out for coffee
yesterday, and it went really, really well. And we're going to
the Bronze tonight -- in fact, she's waiting out in the car."
"Oh! Willow! That's wonderful. It really is. I'm happy it's
working out for you."
"I'm happy too. But I'm not going to shirk my duty. We're
going back to the house, and I've got my computer set up with
an alarm that will go off if there's a phone call. We'll keep it
with us. And if they use they phone -- we've got 'em!"
Buffy took Willow's money and closed out the sale.
"You have a good time. Good luck!"
Willow grinned. "If you're wondering whether I'm going to get
lucky -- I already have." She winked at Buffy and headed for
the door, a distinct bounce in her step.
Buffy turned away from the counter, blinking back tears.
Willow's appearance had broken through the Doublemeat
trance. The pain was back. Willow was happy. She was in love.
She was doing useful things -- successfully. Damn. Why can't I
have any of that?
She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"You all right, Buffy?" Lorraine asked.
Buffy nodded.
"Why don't you take your break now," the manager suggested.
"Fifteen minutes of fresh air might do you some good."
Right, everybody knows Buffy usually doesn't take her breaks
in the break room. She'd made the excuse that the place
smelled of smoke, that she liked to go out back for the fresh
air. How many times had she made that excuse? It wasn't fresh
air that drew her to the alley -- there was no stretch of the
imagination that made the air next to that dumpster fresh.
No, it was Spike that made her breaks worth waiting for.
Waiting next to the trash bin. Black duster, black jeans,
insolent expression, gentle hands, gentle kisses, lifting her up,
pressing her against the wall... A 15-minute break, but he'd
always managed to make the very best use of that quarter hour,
and she always went back inside feeling a little bit more alive.
Buffy shook her head. No more of that. It was over. He
wouldn't be there. Not any more. No more 15-minute trips to
paradise.
She stepped out into the cool dark thinking of Willow. She'd
had the courage to let everyone know she loved another
woman. There was probably someone, somewhere snickering
and calling her friend a dyke. But did it matter?
"'Evenin', pet."
"Spike!"
He was leaning against the dumpster, just as he always did, one
thumb hooked in his belt, the fingers pointing down toward --
what she really shouldn't be staring at.
"Ran into Red and Glinda 'round front. Good news about the
phone."
"Yeah."
"Just thought I'd stop by and see if maybe you'd given our last
talk any more thought..."
Buffy's expression hardened.
"I don't react well to ultimatums," she said firmly.
"Yeah, me neither. But look at it this way, love. I never meant
it as an ultimatum. That's when you try to bluff someone into
doing what you want. This is just -- it's just the way it is. I'm
not bluffing."
"Right, no bluff. You're just telling me I have to do what you
want or you won't do what I want."
"Listen to me, Buffy. I love you. You are everything to me.
You're my whole world. You're everything I need and
everything I desire. But, what I want -- I can't have what I want
if I'm not good enough to be seen with you. So if that's the
shape of it, better break it off now. I can't go on this way. I
can't go on living near you, touching you, holding you, and
knowing that I'm nothing to you but a self-powered sex toy.
The kind you keep hidden under your bed so people won't
know you like to have it off when you're by yourself.
"I'm done with being alone when I'm with you."
"Why did you come here tonight?"
"Just what I said. I wondered if you'd given it any thought."
"Look, Spike. I think we need to talk. But I don't think we can
cover it in 15 minutes. I care about you. I really do. Love? I
don't know. I'm just starting to feel like I'm alive. I think I'm
starting to feel -- but I need more time. I've got to figure out
what I'm supposed to be doing back here -- in this world. Can't
you see? It's too much right now."
"I'll wait as long as you want. If you want to talk, I'll listen
until my ears fall off. I'll watch your back. Help your friends.
Look after your sister. But don't ask me to be your lover if you
think so little of me that you won't be seen with me. I'm not a
motorized dildo."
"Is that how you think I see you?"
"What am I supposed to think? You never had a problem with
being seen with Angel."
"That was different. I was different then."
"And Angel was different, right?"
"Angel has a soul..."
"Right, and he keeps it down in LA where you can't get to it
and kill it, doesn't he," Spike said bitterly.
Buffy drew back. The anger in his voice stung her like a slap to
the face.
"That wasn't fair," she said.
"I'm a soulless dead thing, and you expect me to be fair?"
"Spike..."
"Forget it. I don't know why I bothered to come here." He
turned to go.
"Please don't go. Not this way."
"Is there any reason for me to stay?"
"No ultimatums, Spike. I'm not going to give in that way."
He turned back and glared at her. He moved close and backed
her against the wall, his eyes full of righteous anger.
"You don't get it, do you? It's not about giving in, pet. It's just
giving. You can't keep taking and never expect to have to give
anything back."
He turned and was gone in the blink of an eye.
Buffy leaned back against the wall and wiped away the hot
tears that were trickling down her cheek. Her knees felt weak.
She glanced at her watch and realized her break was over.
Fifteen minutes -- that was all it took to destroy what might
have been. What was the matter with her? Was what he was
asking for so unreasonable?
Would it be so horrible to have people know she cared about a
soulless vampire? One who had completely changed himself.
Maybe it hadn't been his choice, originally, but he had
changed. She couldn't deny that. Giles always said that
vampires had no free will -- they could only follow their evil
impulses. But here was Spike disproving everything the
Council said about his kind.
Why was it so hard to make up her mind?
------------
Jonathan sat in the dark listening to his two cohorts in crime
snoring softly.
Becoming a supervillian hadn't been all it had been cracked up
to be. And he knew they didn't trust him anymore. They
watched him like a hawk. They never gave him an opportunity
to get away. Even now, as they slept, the doors were alarmed
so he couldn't leave without waking them. And the phones
were rigged, so they'd know if he tried to call anyone.
And he couldn't just turn them in, anyway. They'd know it was
him, and they'd find a way to get back at him. He needed a way
to stop this, without them ever knowing that he was the one
who did it.
And now he had a plan. He'd read a newspaper story a while
ago about a robber who was caught because he used his
victim's cell phone. He reached under the covers and took out
the phone he'd picked up and pocketed at the bank.
Who to call? It didn't matter, really. He wasn't going to talk to
anybody. Andrew and Warren would hear him if he did. No, all
that was important was to make the call -- as he'd been doing
every chance he got when he wouldn't be observed since the
bank robbery.
In fact, he didn't even need to know who he was calling. He
pressed "memory dial" and "1."
The phone rang in Buffy's kitchen.
By ElsaF
Spoilers: S6 through Dead Things, then off into the "24-verse"
Summary: In the 24-verse, Buffy apologized for the Dead
Things beating. She also let Spike explain what was going on
with the demon eggs in As You Were. But even though they
didn't break up in AYW, a little while later Spike told Buffy he
didn't want to be her dirty secret anymore, so they have broken
up anyway.
They were all the same. Exactly. The same weight, the same
thickness, the same color. And that was disturbing. Beef
shouldn't be the same color as chicken, should it? They could
at least put some artificial color in to make the beef patty look
like beef, couldn't they?
Buffy watched the slicer. The Doublemeat (TM) patties fell off
with a steady rhythm. It was soothing. It made the time pass.
She could stand here and watch the patented processed meat
product fall onto the tray with one wet slap after another, and
time became meaningless -- until someone tapped her on the
shoulder and said, "You've got a customer."
"Can I help you?" she said as she pasted on her patented
processed meat product smile and poised her finger over the
buttons on the point of purchase fulfillment input terminal.
"Buffy! It's me!"
Buffy snapped out of her patented processed meat product
trance and realized she was looking straight at Willow.
"Oh! Willow!"
"Look, I'll order a milk shake, they don't put any beef fat in
those, do they? That way you won't get in trouble, right?"
"Far as I know, they don't put beef fat in the shakes. But
knowing this place, they probably don't put any dairy products
in them either. What flavor?"
"Um... chocolate. That sounds safe. Anyway, what I came by
to tell you -- I think I've got a line on your nemis-sis-isis,"
Willow said with a bright smile.
Buffy went to the shake machine and returned with something
thick and gray in a cup.
"You think so?" she said listlessly.
"Yeah! Boy are they dumb! I couldn't believe it. It was so
easy."
"So what did they do?"
"They stole Xander's cell phone!" Willow was all but bouncing
up and down with enthusiasm. "And they've been using it!"
"Oh? Does that help?"
"Of course is does. I can trace it! I can triangulate off the
towers receiving the signal and get a location within a few feet.
I've hacked into his provider's network, and all we have to do is
keep monitoring his phone's I.D. and the next time they make a
call, we've got them!"
"Really? Gee, that's good, Will."
"I thought you'd be really happy..."
"Oh... I am. That's great. It's just... I guess I'm a little under the
weather."
"Maybe you should ask for the rest of the night off, if you're
not feeling well..."
"Nope. Robo-Buffy stays on the job. I'm out of sick days," she
said with a roll of her eyes. "Riley's little adventure -- it's going
to be a while before I can take any time off again."
"Bummer... what if there's urgent slaying to be done?"
Buffy shrugged. "Doesn't seem to have been much urgent
slaying lately..."
Willow frowned. "Doesn't mean there won't be."
Buffy shrugged again. "Don't let me bring you down. I've got
them patented-processed-meat-product blues. I'm glad you've
got a line on Warren, et al. And I'm glad you're feeling
empowered."
"It's not just empowerment," Willow said, leaning over the
counter to speak in confidence. "I've been having a really good
day. I mean really good. Tara and I went out for coffee
yesterday, and it went really, really well. And we're going to
the Bronze tonight -- in fact, she's waiting out in the car."
"Oh! Willow! That's wonderful. It really is. I'm happy it's
working out for you."
"I'm happy too. But I'm not going to shirk my duty. We're
going back to the house, and I've got my computer set up with
an alarm that will go off if there's a phone call. We'll keep it
with us. And if they use they phone -- we've got 'em!"
Buffy took Willow's money and closed out the sale.
"You have a good time. Good luck!"
Willow grinned. "If you're wondering whether I'm going to get
lucky -- I already have." She winked at Buffy and headed for
the door, a distinct bounce in her step.
Buffy turned away from the counter, blinking back tears.
Willow's appearance had broken through the Doublemeat
trance. The pain was back. Willow was happy. She was in love.
She was doing useful things -- successfully. Damn. Why can't I
have any of that?
She felt a hand on her shoulder.
"You all right, Buffy?" Lorraine asked.
Buffy nodded.
"Why don't you take your break now," the manager suggested.
"Fifteen minutes of fresh air might do you some good."
Right, everybody knows Buffy usually doesn't take her breaks
in the break room. She'd made the excuse that the place
smelled of smoke, that she liked to go out back for the fresh
air. How many times had she made that excuse? It wasn't fresh
air that drew her to the alley -- there was no stretch of the
imagination that made the air next to that dumpster fresh.
No, it was Spike that made her breaks worth waiting for.
Waiting next to the trash bin. Black duster, black jeans,
insolent expression, gentle hands, gentle kisses, lifting her up,
pressing her against the wall... A 15-minute break, but he'd
always managed to make the very best use of that quarter hour,
and she always went back inside feeling a little bit more alive.
Buffy shook her head. No more of that. It was over. He
wouldn't be there. Not any more. No more 15-minute trips to
paradise.
She stepped out into the cool dark thinking of Willow. She'd
had the courage to let everyone know she loved another
woman. There was probably someone, somewhere snickering
and calling her friend a dyke. But did it matter?
"'Evenin', pet."
"Spike!"
He was leaning against the dumpster, just as he always did, one
thumb hooked in his belt, the fingers pointing down toward --
what she really shouldn't be staring at.
"Ran into Red and Glinda 'round front. Good news about the
phone."
"Yeah."
"Just thought I'd stop by and see if maybe you'd given our last
talk any more thought..."
Buffy's expression hardened.
"I don't react well to ultimatums," she said firmly.
"Yeah, me neither. But look at it this way, love. I never meant
it as an ultimatum. That's when you try to bluff someone into
doing what you want. This is just -- it's just the way it is. I'm
not bluffing."
"Right, no bluff. You're just telling me I have to do what you
want or you won't do what I want."
"Listen to me, Buffy. I love you. You are everything to me.
You're my whole world. You're everything I need and
everything I desire. But, what I want -- I can't have what I want
if I'm not good enough to be seen with you. So if that's the
shape of it, better break it off now. I can't go on this way. I
can't go on living near you, touching you, holding you, and
knowing that I'm nothing to you but a self-powered sex toy.
The kind you keep hidden under your bed so people won't
know you like to have it off when you're by yourself.
"I'm done with being alone when I'm with you."
"Why did you come here tonight?"
"Just what I said. I wondered if you'd given it any thought."
"Look, Spike. I think we need to talk. But I don't think we can
cover it in 15 minutes. I care about you. I really do. Love? I
don't know. I'm just starting to feel like I'm alive. I think I'm
starting to feel -- but I need more time. I've got to figure out
what I'm supposed to be doing back here -- in this world. Can't
you see? It's too much right now."
"I'll wait as long as you want. If you want to talk, I'll listen
until my ears fall off. I'll watch your back. Help your friends.
Look after your sister. But don't ask me to be your lover if you
think so little of me that you won't be seen with me. I'm not a
motorized dildo."
"Is that how you think I see you?"
"What am I supposed to think? You never had a problem with
being seen with Angel."
"That was different. I was different then."
"And Angel was different, right?"
"Angel has a soul..."
"Right, and he keeps it down in LA where you can't get to it
and kill it, doesn't he," Spike said bitterly.
Buffy drew back. The anger in his voice stung her like a slap to
the face.
"That wasn't fair," she said.
"I'm a soulless dead thing, and you expect me to be fair?"
"Spike..."
"Forget it. I don't know why I bothered to come here." He
turned to go.
"Please don't go. Not this way."
"Is there any reason for me to stay?"
"No ultimatums, Spike. I'm not going to give in that way."
He turned back and glared at her. He moved close and backed
her against the wall, his eyes full of righteous anger.
"You don't get it, do you? It's not about giving in, pet. It's just
giving. You can't keep taking and never expect to have to give
anything back."
He turned and was gone in the blink of an eye.
Buffy leaned back against the wall and wiped away the hot
tears that were trickling down her cheek. Her knees felt weak.
She glanced at her watch and realized her break was over.
Fifteen minutes -- that was all it took to destroy what might
have been. What was the matter with her? Was what he was
asking for so unreasonable?
Would it be so horrible to have people know she cared about a
soulless vampire? One who had completely changed himself.
Maybe it hadn't been his choice, originally, but he had
changed. She couldn't deny that. Giles always said that
vampires had no free will -- they could only follow their evil
impulses. But here was Spike disproving everything the
Council said about his kind.
Why was it so hard to make up her mind?
------------
Jonathan sat in the dark listening to his two cohorts in crime
snoring softly.
Becoming a supervillian hadn't been all it had been cracked up
to be. And he knew they didn't trust him anymore. They
watched him like a hawk. They never gave him an opportunity
to get away. Even now, as they slept, the doors were alarmed
so he couldn't leave without waking them. And the phones
were rigged, so they'd know if he tried to call anyone.
And he couldn't just turn them in, anyway. They'd know it was
him, and they'd find a way to get back at him. He needed a way
to stop this, without them ever knowing that he was the one
who did it.
And now he had a plan. He'd read a newspaper story a while
ago about a robber who was caught because he used his
victim's cell phone. He reached under the covers and took out
the phone he'd picked up and pocketed at the bank.
Who to call? It didn't matter, really. He wasn't going to talk to
anybody. Andrew and Warren would hear him if he did. No, all
that was important was to make the call -- as he'd been doing
every chance he got when he wouldn't be observed since the
bank robbery.
In fact, he didn't even need to know who he was calling. He
pressed "memory dial" and "1."
The phone rang in Buffy's kitchen.