And Then There Were Three
Chapter Ten: Sunshine
"What the hell are you doin' here?" I practically scream at them.
They exchange glances and clutch their stakes as if they were their first born and about to be sacrificed to a big, lumpy demon.
"We're here to help," Tara tells me.
"Help with what?" I shout. "Bloody interior decorating?"
"No," Anya says. "Why would we want to do that? For one thing we're outside and I doubt the demons would appreciate it."
"Oh, I see," I fold my arms – hard when you're holding an axe – and glare at them. "Come out for a piece of the action, did ya?" I slip into game face and lunge at them threateningly. "There – action. Now off you go."
"We -" Tara starts but I wave her into silence.
"Well, that's rude," Anya mutters.
"Something out there," I hiss. "Stay put. Don't move."
I push through some bushes, but it's not the Fraygon demon that attacked the girls the other night, (yes, I did do research. Stake me now). It's some two-bit vamp trollop. I lift my axe and swing it downwards as she runs past. Her head comes off and she's dust before she knows what hit her. Which was my axe, obviously.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
Fan-bloody-tastic.
"Your job, Slayer," I return and start to walk away from her and her entourage.
"Is someone at your place?" Willow asks, looking, for some reason, worried.
"Why -"
"Spike? Spike, is it the Fraygon?"
Great, keeps getting better. Tara and Anya burst through the bushes like something out of some tacky Broadway stage show.
"No one's at your apartment?" the Slayer almost screeches.
"Not unless copies of us have manifested themselves there," Anya says. "Which, y'know, could happen. Unlikely, but possible."
"But we left Dawn there!" Willow shrieks.
"What?" I yell.
"We didn't know you weren't in!" Xander splutters.
"What's she doing there?" I ask, ignoring the whelp, who's till looking underfed, good to know they help each other out.
"We all decided to patrol," Buffy says. "So we took Dawn to your place, but this big demon turned up outside and we told her to go in and go straight to your apartment."
"And you didn't check when you'd done the demon in?" I asked incredulously.
"We were chased for five blocks!"
"You let it chase you? Anya asks, then mutters to Tara, "The girl's slipping."
"It was a civilian area, Ahn," Xander explains. "Didn't want anyone getting caught up in the crossfire."
"Shame you didn't," Anya snaps. "And don't call me 'Ahn'!"
"The demon that chased you," Tara cuts in. "Was he blue with a black beard and dressed in normal clothes?"
"Yes," Willow says. "You haven't had trouble with him, have you?" she notices the half-healed cut on Tara's temple. "Did he do that?"
"No, no," Tara shakes her head then looks at me and Anya. "It was Franco. Maybe we should tell him to wear a hat to hide the horns... Oh, no! You didn't kill him?"
"No, he got away when this vamp gang came along. Wait, you know him?" Buffy asks.
"He's our neighbour," Anya tells her.
"Yeah," I nod. "Now I'm goin' to get the L'il Bit."
"I'll go," Buffy snaps.
"She might be a little upset that you left her," Tara says and at the look on Buffy's face, she amends with. "Not that you m-meant to or anything. But she c-could stay the night with us, we'd make sure she was a-all right and there's no school t-tomorrow."
Buffy's about to protest when Red lays her hand on the Slayer's shoulder.
"Maybe she'll need some away time," she says quietly.
"Fine," Buffy huffs and stalks off.
Seems to do a lot of that. Wonder if she knows it makes her look weird from behind?
"Where is she?" Anya asks as we stare at the place the Niblet should have been – in front of our front door.
"Maybe she went looking for us, or Buffy?" Tara suggests.
"Out there?" I ask, waving in the vague direction of the world outside. I feel a surge of panic. Niblet. Out there. Alone. I really want to hurt something, like, I don't know, Buffy? Xander? Willow?
"Ok," Tara says, struggling to remain calm. "We'll ask around, see if anyone here has seen her."
"Oh yeah," I snort. "Because they're gonna turn 'round and say, 'Yep, got your girl all bound and gagged in the kitchen cupboard, hang about, I'll just go get her for you.' I don't think so, pet."
"Stop being snobby, Spike," Anya tells me. "Now go knock on the doors."
Well, what other option do I have? So I knock on the door opposite us: Clem.
"Clem, mate," I say, yeah, maybe I should've said 'hello' but I got bigger things to think about, lost little Slayer's sisters for one. Which, come to think of it, is actually quite small in size. The girl, not her being missing. God, how heartless d'ya think I am?
"Hi," he waves.
"You haven't seen the Slayer's sis, have you?"
"Yeah," he says with what I s'pose passes for a grin.
"Where?" I ask.
He pushes the door back and there's Bit, curled on the couch with a bowl of Cheetos, a TV remote and a smile.
"Dawn?" Tara gasps and pushes past me and Clem into the apartment. "Dawnie," she hugs Dawn tightly and suddenly Dawn doesn't seem all smiley, now she looks scared and lost.
"You found her?" Anya asks, peering over my shoulder.
"Yeah," I tell her in a low voice. "Oi, Platelet?"
She looks up and, for a second, looks mad, like it's my fault her sister dumped her here, just assuming that us three don't have lives, assuming we live to do her bidding. Then she smiles and pulls away from Tara.
"Hey, Spike," she says. "You came back, I was beginning to think I'd be stuck here all night," she glances at Clem. "No offence."
"None taken," he shrugs pleasantly. Saggy skin and bad wrinkles or no saggy skin and bad wrinkles, right then I wanted to kiss him for keeping Dawn safe. Didn't though, quashed that thought soon as it reared it's ugly, floppy skinned head.
"Want to stay the night?" I ask.
"Really? With you guys?" she asks excitedly. "Cool."
So I we go back to Chateau Scrappy. Well, they went, I hung around to have a word with Clem.
"Thanks," I tell him gruffly.
"For what?" he asks, shovelling Cheetos into his gob.
"Looking after L'il Bit for me."
"Yeah, well, couldn't leave her out in the cold. Humans are fragile."
That they are, unless they're Slayer's o'course, then you can bang 'em and – sorry, lost track there.
"'Bye then," I say.
"You gonna be at poker tomorrow?" he asks.
I glance across the hall, through the open door of my place and I see Anya, Tara and Dawn sitting on the couch, laughing.
"Don't think so, mate," I tell him, still looking at my girls. "Think I'll stay in."
Never thought I'd enjoy the company of a bunch of women. Not that I've never enjoyed the company of a woman before, I mean – Dru, Harmony, Buffy! But the company of three women with no sex and just… fun? Things have been getting complicated lately.
The night we had to get home and find Dawn, that was a week ago now. Tara called Buffy so she wouldn't worry and we had a good night in. Bit's taken to coming over every day after school and Tara arranged that she stays every Friday night to give Buffy a break. Not that it's Buffy that's needs the break, bet the bint's hell to live with.
The last couple of days, I've been wishing for the old times. Not because they were any better than now, 'cause I think I'm doin' all right, but 'cause they were less complicated. See, when I was with Dru, it was simple: I loved Dru, she loved me, we killed and I wanted the Slayer dead. See? Now that's an easy to remember code of vampire conduct, didn't need a notebook to jot down all the rule changes then, did I?
Then, when I fell for the Slayer, it was still simple: I loved the Slayer, I shouldn't love the Slayer, she hated me and I wanted her. It all got complicated when she got in my pants and then said it was wrong. Only so much a guy can take and there's only a little more that a vampire can take. That little more came when I realised that I don't want Buffy anymore. Well, I do but I want her to want me. I want her to come to me and say she wants me, to tell her friends and stuff, 'til I get that, I don't want anything. All or nothing from now on, sweetheart.
I s'pose you want to know how I came to this 'epiphany'? Well, to tell you the truth, it was when I was looking at L'il Miss Sunshine…