Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox,
etc... except of course the ones I make up.
Summary: While Dawn is dealing with balancing school, slaying and dating, Buffy and Spike are dealing with their relation. And all together they are dealing with impending apocalypse.
Spoilers: Well, it takes place about a year and a half after "Normal Again", but it's pretty AU. Xander and Anya are married and Tara is alive.
Continuity: It's the sequel to "The Delegation of Aurelius". However, you don't really need to read it to understand this fic. It sort of just picks up where "TDoA" left off.
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APOCALYPSE NOW... AGAIN
Chapter 14: Sick
Buffy and Spike walked hurriedly through the front door just as they beat the sun by minutes. Buffy removed her arm from around Spike's shoulder which she had been leaning on the whole way home. They had had to stop twice so that Buffy could run to the garbage can on the corner of the street and throw up again.
At the sound of the door closing behind them, Spike could hear Dawn's feet patting her way to the top of the stairs.
"Where were you guys? You just left without saying anything."
"We were sparring," Buffy answered queasily. "Sorry we left so abruptly."
Dawn cocked an eyebrow. "So that's what your calling it now."
Buffy was about to make a retort when Spike beat her to the disciplining part. "Listen, and listen good, Dawn. I'll have no more cheek from you. Your sister AND I work very hard to take of you and it's about bloody time you showed some respect."
"Geez," Dawn whined, a bit taken aback from the harshness in his tone, "take a joke."
At that moment, Buffy covered here mouth as any color left in her face drained. She ran up the stairs past Dawn, almost knocking the youngest slayer over. The bathroom dorr slammed and Dawn looked at Spike with concern in her eyes.
"Spike?"
"She's sick, been doin' that about every fifteen minutes. Poor thing."
The vampire walked up the stairs and to the bathroom door where he knocked and entered cautiously. Dawn sulked back to her room guilty. Janice was sitting up in her sleeping bag.
"Are they back?"
"Yeah."
"Where'd they go?"
"Magic Box. They were training. Apparently Buffy got pretty sick so..."
"Oh."
Dawn walked back over to her bed and they sat in silence for a few moments before she jumped up again and walked to her door.
"I'll be right back."
She walked down the hall to Buffy's room where Spike was carefully placing Buffy in their- her bed, Dawn mentally checked herself. She wasn't sure why they didn't consider it "theirs," or at least it was never called that.
"I'm sorry," she said softly from the doorway.
Spike and Buffy both turned their attention toward the slayer and Buffy smiled kindly. "Don't worry bout it, Dawnie."
"No, Buffy, I worry. Spike is right. You guys give me what I need to live the normalest life I can I should appreciate it more. I never appreciated mom the way I should have, then it was too late..."
Dawn stopped before the tears. The last things she wanted was to break down feeling sorry for herself was Buffy was pretty much vomiting every vital organ she had out. But Spike could see, even without the tears, how much the mention of her mother hurt Dawn. He kissed Buffy's hand and she nodded and Spike tended to the littlest Summers. He opened his arms to her and embraced her tightly. She tried her very best not to cry but it was no use, the tears began to flow like salty rivers from her eyes as she cried furiously into Spike's chest.
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It was just after two, Janice was still over and all the Scoobies had managed to find their way back to the Summers' house without being called. Neither Dawn nor Buffy minded, they always enjoyed the company of good friends.
Buffy sat on the couch sipping on a glass of ginger ale and nibbling on saltines. Anya looked at her quizzically.
"What?" Buffy asked, more annoyance in her voice than she would have liked to let out.
"Do you think it's morning sickness?" Anya asked seriously.
Buffy stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter, soon followed by the others.
"I'm serious," Anya whined. "Maybe my morning sickness has inadvertently caused you to be sick. It's been known to happen between friends and relatives."
"Honey, I think you've been reading a little too much Dr. Spock," Xander chuckled.
Anya narrowed her eyes. "Fine, don't listen to me."
Dawn looked at the clock and suddenly gasped which startled everyone in the room.
"Omigod," she said anxiously. "Dave is gonna be here at three."
"What?" Buffy and Spike asked in unison.
"Remember? We're going to the movies."
"You so are not," Buffy told her. "First of all, it's a school night-"
"It's three in the afternoon!" Dawn protested.
"Not the point. Second-"
"Second you were supposed to train with me tonight," Giles interrupted.
"This is so not fair," Dawn pleaded.
"Dawn, we let you off the hook on Friday, you should have thought of that before you made a date for today," Buffy told her as calmly as she could.
"But I really wanna go!"
Buffy sighed. "No."
Dawn made an annoyed growling noise and she stalked up to her room. Janice followed her to her room.
"I think I'm gonna just head home."
Dawn nodded. "Okay. See you tomorrow."
Janice grabbed her stuff and ran back down the stairs. She thanked Buffy for letting her stay over and left to walk home. The gang chatted for a while after Janice had left but the conversation eventually became dry and the inevitable came up.
"So what are we gonna do about this apocalypse?" Buffy asked bluntly.
"Die, mostly," Anya said somberly. "The powers that the coven had to harness and channel just to bind her were tremendous and there's no one here who could do that. Well, not anymore." Anya shot a look at Willow.
"You guys, I'll do whatever I have to do. Even if it means..."
"No!" Tara stated strongly. "I WILL NOT allow you to put yourself in that position. Not again."
"Tara-"
"She right, Will," Buffy said. "I don't want you doing anything that will put yourself in danger."
"And I don't want people telling mw what I can and cannot do! I will do what HAS TO BE done. Nothing more, nothing less."
Buffy could see protest forming on Tara's lips but she shook her head to quiet her.
"Okay Will," Buffy said plainly, and she changed the subject abruptly. "Now, in terms of alternative tactics-"
"Shouldn't the Bit be here for this sort of conversation?" Spike asked.
"Your right I'll go get her."
"No Buffy, you relax, I'll run up."
"Thanks, Tara."
The witch nodded and smiled as she turned and left the room. She walked lightly up the stairs to the youngest slayer's room. She opened the door to see Dawn working on her homework.
"Hey Sweetie, we're talking about this new baddie and we figured that you should partake in the conversation."
Dawn slammed her pencil down angrily on her notebook and she looked up at Tara. "You know, since I'm probably gonna die before I'm twenty, I don't see the point in my doing ANY of this. You'd think I'd be allowed to like, enjoy what little of my life I'll probably had. But no, from Buffy all I here about is school. Giles does not get off my back about the training. And Spike? God, don't even get me started on Spike and his issues with me dating. It's like my life belongs to all these other people and I never even have any time to myself just to god damn BREATHE!"
Tara sighed in response to the young slayer's rant. She was right. Tara had seen the way Dawn had been being pushed around by her superiors. Her heart went out to the teen but the wicca knew none of them were completely wrong.
"I know how hard it is, Dawnie. I can see the amount of pressure that's being put on you; it's practically radiating off of your aura. But here's the thing, Buffy wants you to do your homework because it's just something that we all had to do. Giles is making you train because, again, it's important. Having to save the world is something that you can't do unprepared and Giles just wants you to be ready. Plus it's his job. And Spike, all he's doing is caring about you. He worries and all he wants is the best for you and with Spike it just comes through as anxiety. So you have to understand, no one is putting this pressure on you just to make your life more difficult than it already is. They all do it because they care."
Dawn slumped back into her chair and pouted. "I hate it when you're right."
Tara smiled at Dawn. "Come on, let's go downstairs. They're waiting."
Dawn nodded and followed Tara out of her room. They came downstairs to where the gang seemed to be eagerly waiting. Dawn sat down wordlessly in the empty armchair across from Buffy and crossed her arms defiantly at her sister.
"Hey Dawnie, how's the homework sitch?"
Dawn opened her mouth to snap at her sister but Tara pleaded the teen with her eyes to just not.
"Fine."
"Good, then we can get on with it. Okay, so here's what we know, evil sorceress thingy from four hundred years ago wants to destroy the earth. She tried once and fail because a very powerful coven binded her and in the process they all died." Buffy took a breath. "Is that everything?"
"That's it," Anya confirmed. "You've just taken a long and horrible tragedy and summed it up into a nice little nutshell... good job."
Buffy smiled sarcastically and sighed. "It's what I do."
"So what does this mean?" Spike asked. "What does she think she will accomplish by killing all the good on earth?"
"No one knows, really. She was just so angry. I mean, the look in her eyes, it was just, hatred and darkness..." Anya trailed off and looked as if she might tear up again.
""It's okay," Buffy told her, placing a comforting hand on her knee. "You don't need to tell us anymore."
Anya nodded and relaxed against Xander's body. He had been sitting next to her and holding her but it was the first time since they had gotten there that he had felt her body simply relax. He put his hand softly on her stomach where their baby was growing inside of her. He sighed with happiness because despite the horrible thing that were going on, he was going to be a father.
And the next thing he knew, his wife was gone.
TBC...
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Muahahahahahaha! What a great way to end the chapter huh? LOL... well, not that I'm pushing or anything, but reviews wouldn't hurt in making the next chapter come faster. :)
Summary: While Dawn is dealing with balancing school, slaying and dating, Buffy and Spike are dealing with their relation. And all together they are dealing with impending apocalypse.
Spoilers: Well, it takes place about a year and a half after "Normal Again", but it's pretty AU. Xander and Anya are married and Tara is alive.
Continuity: It's the sequel to "The Delegation of Aurelius". However, you don't really need to read it to understand this fic. It sort of just picks up where "TDoA" left off.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
APOCALYPSE NOW... AGAIN
Chapter 14: Sick
Buffy and Spike walked hurriedly through the front door just as they beat the sun by minutes. Buffy removed her arm from around Spike's shoulder which she had been leaning on the whole way home. They had had to stop twice so that Buffy could run to the garbage can on the corner of the street and throw up again.
At the sound of the door closing behind them, Spike could hear Dawn's feet patting her way to the top of the stairs.
"Where were you guys? You just left without saying anything."
"We were sparring," Buffy answered queasily. "Sorry we left so abruptly."
Dawn cocked an eyebrow. "So that's what your calling it now."
Buffy was about to make a retort when Spike beat her to the disciplining part. "Listen, and listen good, Dawn. I'll have no more cheek from you. Your sister AND I work very hard to take of you and it's about bloody time you showed some respect."
"Geez," Dawn whined, a bit taken aback from the harshness in his tone, "take a joke."
At that moment, Buffy covered here mouth as any color left in her face drained. She ran up the stairs past Dawn, almost knocking the youngest slayer over. The bathroom dorr slammed and Dawn looked at Spike with concern in her eyes.
"Spike?"
"She's sick, been doin' that about every fifteen minutes. Poor thing."
The vampire walked up the stairs and to the bathroom door where he knocked and entered cautiously. Dawn sulked back to her room guilty. Janice was sitting up in her sleeping bag.
"Are they back?"
"Yeah."
"Where'd they go?"
"Magic Box. They were training. Apparently Buffy got pretty sick so..."
"Oh."
Dawn walked back over to her bed and they sat in silence for a few moments before she jumped up again and walked to her door.
"I'll be right back."
She walked down the hall to Buffy's room where Spike was carefully placing Buffy in their- her bed, Dawn mentally checked herself. She wasn't sure why they didn't consider it "theirs," or at least it was never called that.
"I'm sorry," she said softly from the doorway.
Spike and Buffy both turned their attention toward the slayer and Buffy smiled kindly. "Don't worry bout it, Dawnie."
"No, Buffy, I worry. Spike is right. You guys give me what I need to live the normalest life I can I should appreciate it more. I never appreciated mom the way I should have, then it was too late..."
Dawn stopped before the tears. The last things she wanted was to break down feeling sorry for herself was Buffy was pretty much vomiting every vital organ she had out. But Spike could see, even without the tears, how much the mention of her mother hurt Dawn. He kissed Buffy's hand and she nodded and Spike tended to the littlest Summers. He opened his arms to her and embraced her tightly. She tried her very best not to cry but it was no use, the tears began to flow like salty rivers from her eyes as she cried furiously into Spike's chest.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was just after two, Janice was still over and all the Scoobies had managed to find their way back to the Summers' house without being called. Neither Dawn nor Buffy minded, they always enjoyed the company of good friends.
Buffy sat on the couch sipping on a glass of ginger ale and nibbling on saltines. Anya looked at her quizzically.
"What?" Buffy asked, more annoyance in her voice than she would have liked to let out.
"Do you think it's morning sickness?" Anya asked seriously.
Buffy stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter, soon followed by the others.
"I'm serious," Anya whined. "Maybe my morning sickness has inadvertently caused you to be sick. It's been known to happen between friends and relatives."
"Honey, I think you've been reading a little too much Dr. Spock," Xander chuckled.
Anya narrowed her eyes. "Fine, don't listen to me."
Dawn looked at the clock and suddenly gasped which startled everyone in the room.
"Omigod," she said anxiously. "Dave is gonna be here at three."
"What?" Buffy and Spike asked in unison.
"Remember? We're going to the movies."
"You so are not," Buffy told her. "First of all, it's a school night-"
"It's three in the afternoon!" Dawn protested.
"Not the point. Second-"
"Second you were supposed to train with me tonight," Giles interrupted.
"This is so not fair," Dawn pleaded.
"Dawn, we let you off the hook on Friday, you should have thought of that before you made a date for today," Buffy told her as calmly as she could.
"But I really wanna go!"
Buffy sighed. "No."
Dawn made an annoyed growling noise and she stalked up to her room. Janice followed her to her room.
"I think I'm gonna just head home."
Dawn nodded. "Okay. See you tomorrow."
Janice grabbed her stuff and ran back down the stairs. She thanked Buffy for letting her stay over and left to walk home. The gang chatted for a while after Janice had left but the conversation eventually became dry and the inevitable came up.
"So what are we gonna do about this apocalypse?" Buffy asked bluntly.
"Die, mostly," Anya said somberly. "The powers that the coven had to harness and channel just to bind her were tremendous and there's no one here who could do that. Well, not anymore." Anya shot a look at Willow.
"You guys, I'll do whatever I have to do. Even if it means..."
"No!" Tara stated strongly. "I WILL NOT allow you to put yourself in that position. Not again."
"Tara-"
"She right, Will," Buffy said. "I don't want you doing anything that will put yourself in danger."
"And I don't want people telling mw what I can and cannot do! I will do what HAS TO BE done. Nothing more, nothing less."
Buffy could see protest forming on Tara's lips but she shook her head to quiet her.
"Okay Will," Buffy said plainly, and she changed the subject abruptly. "Now, in terms of alternative tactics-"
"Shouldn't the Bit be here for this sort of conversation?" Spike asked.
"Your right I'll go get her."
"No Buffy, you relax, I'll run up."
"Thanks, Tara."
The witch nodded and smiled as she turned and left the room. She walked lightly up the stairs to the youngest slayer's room. She opened the door to see Dawn working on her homework.
"Hey Sweetie, we're talking about this new baddie and we figured that you should partake in the conversation."
Dawn slammed her pencil down angrily on her notebook and she looked up at Tara. "You know, since I'm probably gonna die before I'm twenty, I don't see the point in my doing ANY of this. You'd think I'd be allowed to like, enjoy what little of my life I'll probably had. But no, from Buffy all I here about is school. Giles does not get off my back about the training. And Spike? God, don't even get me started on Spike and his issues with me dating. It's like my life belongs to all these other people and I never even have any time to myself just to god damn BREATHE!"
Tara sighed in response to the young slayer's rant. She was right. Tara had seen the way Dawn had been being pushed around by her superiors. Her heart went out to the teen but the wicca knew none of them were completely wrong.
"I know how hard it is, Dawnie. I can see the amount of pressure that's being put on you; it's practically radiating off of your aura. But here's the thing, Buffy wants you to do your homework because it's just something that we all had to do. Giles is making you train because, again, it's important. Having to save the world is something that you can't do unprepared and Giles just wants you to be ready. Plus it's his job. And Spike, all he's doing is caring about you. He worries and all he wants is the best for you and with Spike it just comes through as anxiety. So you have to understand, no one is putting this pressure on you just to make your life more difficult than it already is. They all do it because they care."
Dawn slumped back into her chair and pouted. "I hate it when you're right."
Tara smiled at Dawn. "Come on, let's go downstairs. They're waiting."
Dawn nodded and followed Tara out of her room. They came downstairs to where the gang seemed to be eagerly waiting. Dawn sat down wordlessly in the empty armchair across from Buffy and crossed her arms defiantly at her sister.
"Hey Dawnie, how's the homework sitch?"
Dawn opened her mouth to snap at her sister but Tara pleaded the teen with her eyes to just not.
"Fine."
"Good, then we can get on with it. Okay, so here's what we know, evil sorceress thingy from four hundred years ago wants to destroy the earth. She tried once and fail because a very powerful coven binded her and in the process they all died." Buffy took a breath. "Is that everything?"
"That's it," Anya confirmed. "You've just taken a long and horrible tragedy and summed it up into a nice little nutshell... good job."
Buffy smiled sarcastically and sighed. "It's what I do."
"So what does this mean?" Spike asked. "What does she think she will accomplish by killing all the good on earth?"
"No one knows, really. She was just so angry. I mean, the look in her eyes, it was just, hatred and darkness..." Anya trailed off and looked as if she might tear up again.
""It's okay," Buffy told her, placing a comforting hand on her knee. "You don't need to tell us anymore."
Anya nodded and relaxed against Xander's body. He had been sitting next to her and holding her but it was the first time since they had gotten there that he had felt her body simply relax. He put his hand softly on her stomach where their baby was growing inside of her. He sighed with happiness because despite the horrible thing that were going on, he was going to be a father.
And the next thing he knew, his wife was gone.
TBC...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Muahahahahahaha! What a great way to end the chapter huh? LOL... well, not that I'm pushing or anything, but reviews wouldn't hurt in making the next chapter come faster. :)