Chapter 3 -Arriving
Even though it was 1 am, the airport was crowded. Family's sat on chairs, some of the sleepy children was lying on the floor next to their parents, men and woman that where going abroad for business sat in café's reading, or talking with others that might be headed the same way as them.
In the midst of it all, the five humans and two not so human were walking towards their gate, all wrapped up in their own trail of thoughts. Buffy was in the front, with Spike and Dawn shortly after her. Then came Giles, Willow and Anya, and a little after the others came a still grumpy Xander.
Buffy could feel Spike watching her, but she didn't slow down so that he could walk next to her, because for some reason she didn't feel like talking to him at the moment. She didn't regret kissing him earlier, but she wasn't sure about how she wanted to continue their strange relationship, determined not to let it end as badly as it had the last time. But that couldn't happen, she told herself, Spike's a different person now. And maybe that's the problem, she maybe missed the old, self- confident Spike, who didn't give a damn about what other people thought of him, and of who he might hurt if he said something mean.
She let herself look back at the blond vampire, who seemed to be doing his best not to look at the people around them. His usual cocky expression wasn't at all visible in his beautiful, pale face, all that was there was the sad lost look that he'd had since the day that he finally got his sanity back.
When he saw her looking at him, he increased his pace so that he was walking next to her.
"You all right?" he asked softly and took her hand in his.
She smiled faintly and gave his hand a light squeeze.
"Peachy."
He grinned at her.
"Well that's great, 'cus if you hadn't been, I'd have to bite you."
She felt her lips start to form into the shape of a smile but held it back. Joking with him was just like old times, before Tara's death and Spike's soul, and that were something she wanted right now.
"Bite me? You wouldn't even dare trying."
Spike gave her another grin, and leaned closer to her.
"Maybe, maybe no'. But the real question is, would you stop me," he said with a fake evil voice.
She punched him lightly in the arm, and that only made him grin wider.
"What's the matter Slayer. That barely hurt, you losing you're touch?"
"No," she said grimly.
"Yes you are," he said back in the same tone, but his eyes were sparkling.
"I'm not."
"Liar."
"Killer."
"Slut."
"Crazy freak."
"Bimbo."
They were now standing face to face staring at each other, and to someone that didn't know them they looked extremely angry.
"Cheater."
Spike laughed.
"Wait, what had cheating to do with this?" he asked.
She sniggered and pushed him lightly.
"Not more then 'Bimbo' has," she replied.
He grinned and pushed her back.
"Children!" they suddenly heard a tired British voice say harshly behind them. "We do have a plane to catch."
The blondes looked at each other and smiled.
"Ladies first," Spike said.
She giggled and started walking past him, when she suddenly was stopped. She looked up at the vampire confused.
"I just remember that you aren't a lady," he said teasingly and hurried after Giles and the others before she had a chance to reply.
"And you are?" she said to herself, a little disappointed at not being able to say that to his face. "That was actually quite funny," she added with a grin, making the two women walking beside her look at her strangely.
~*~
Soon they all where sitting in their seats on the plane. Willow was laying a blanket over Spike's sleeping body.
"Do we really have to do that already? The sun won't be for hours yet," Buffy asked confused.
Willow made sure no part of Spike was visible before turning to her best friend.
"No, but the longer he is visible, the more people will notice when he suddenly isn't here anymore. There is no other way."
Buffy sighed and leaned back on the soft pillow she had planted behind her head.
"Yeah, yeah. I understand. But did you really have to put that sleep spell on him?"
Willow smiled.
"No, not really. But what if he decided to start talking after I'd done the glamour to hide him, it would look very strange, a voice coming from nowhere."
Buffy nodded.
"All right, is it anything I can help you with, you know, with the glamour."
Willow nodded.
"Yes, you can read this out loud," she said, giving the Slayer a paper with a couple of words Buffy didn't understand.
"And then when we're finished, Spike won't be visible anymore, right?"
Willow nodded again and started with the glamour.
~*~
Two hours later the two friends where both very tired, but none of them wanted to sleep.
"What is it with Xander?" Willow asked curiously. "His been in a bad mood all day. No actually, for the whole week."
Buffy shrugged.
"I think he's mad about Spike being back. And him seeing me and Spike asleep on a sofa together earlier didn't help."
This made Willow jump.
"You and Spike.? Have I missed something here? I thought you said you were never going to be with him again."
Buffy looked uncertain about what to say.
"I know. It's just, he has changed so much, he isn't the same person, I mean vampire, as he was a year ago. He would never hurt me now. I was able to forgive Angel for what he did when he was Angelus, so why shouldn't I be able to forgive Spike for what he did when he had no soul?"
Willow thought about it for a second.
"Yes, you're probably right." The witch hesitated for a second before she continued. She had tears in her eyes now. "I want you to know that I'm with you whatever you choose to do. You can count on me. I know that I've done some stuff that was really bad, but I promise I will do everything I can to keep that from happening again."
Buffy gave her best friend a quick hug.
"I know that, Will. And I'm not angry with you for what you did. You loved Tara so much, and when she died. You just snapped, it could have happened to anyone."
Willow looked relieved, but she could still feel the tears threatening to fall.
"Yeah, but 'anyone' doesn't have super wicca powers."
Buffy didn't know what to say to that.
~*~
The faint light of the sun that burned his hand through a small hole in the blanket that was supposed to protect him from the dangerous rays of sunlight woke him up. He frowned and quickly moved his hand into the comforting darkness again. Spike had no idea where he was, he had no memories of anything that had happened after that he'd sat down in the plane. His curiosity won over his fear of being burned again, and he lifted the blanket slowly. To his surprise, he found that he lay on a bed in a small room that he guessed was a hotel room, and he could see that it was snowing outside. Snowing! He definitely wasn't in Sunnydale anymore.
When he'd started to realize where he actually where, he laid back again, waiting for the sun to set. But soon he found he wouldn't have to wait that long. Five minutes later he could hear someone sneaking in and closing the curtains for the windows.
"Buffy?" he asked softly, even though he already knew it was her.
Buffy walked up to the bed and sat down next to him, taking the blanket of his face.
"Yes," she said with a smile. "We're in Sweden now."
He laughed and sat up.
"Yeah, I bloody noticed! Can't you give a bloke some warning, luv?"
She laughed back and took his hand. He was a little surprised, but didn't complain.
"Sorry. Willow just thought it would be easier for you to lay hidden under a blanket for hours if you where asleep."
He rolled his eyes and leaned closer to him.
"Willow thought? And here I've always had the impression that you're the boss," he teased her.
Buffy leaned closer to him to, their noses where almost touching.
"No, we're all in this together."
"Sure pet, whatever you say," Spike replied just before he kissed her.
The kiss lasted only a couple of seconds, but to Spike it felt like hours. But then Buffy pulled away.
"Don't," she whispered softly. "We can't."
Spike looked at her with hurtful eyes.
"We can't 'what'? We could yesterday."
She looked away from him, obviously not feeling good about what she was doing.
"I'm sorry Spike. It's just. My life is complicated enough as it is, I don't need another problem."
He stared at her, doing his best to keep the tears from reaching his eyes.
"Problem? 'S that all I am to you? A soddin' problem?"
"No! Of course not. Bad choice of words, that's all. I just can't get into another relationship with you, not after what happened last time."
He looked away, tears in his eyes.
"So that's what this is all about, Slayer? I can understand that you're still hurt, but I thought you said that you'd put that behind you, that I was different now."
She sighed and put her hand under his chin and made him look at her.
"No, I'm not talking about that in particular. I'm talking about us as a couple. It didn't work out then, what makes you so sure that it will now?"
"Nothing!" he cried. "Nothing, except the love that I feel for you, now more then ever. And I'm not the same man as I where before, I've changed. You got to believe that."
"I do," she whispered, tears now also in her eyes. "But I don't love you."
She had never seen anyone look so devastated as he did at that moment. His whole body slouched and he looked away again.
"I know," he whispered, almost to silent for her to hear. "Please leave."
Buffy wanted to stay and hold him and say that everything would be all right, but she knew that that would only make this harder for him. So she just stood up and walked out of the room, leaving a sobbing vampire behind.
~*~
Giles had seen the look on Buffy's face when she'd gotten out of Spike's room. He knew what had happened, because she had talked with him about it earlier. He had advised her to brake it of, before anyone got hurt, either her, Spike or someone else. But the former Watcher knew it had been hard on her, and he also knew she wouldn't had done it if it weren't for the very complicated task they had before them, a task she needed her full attention to be able to do.
But now he wondered if this had only made it worse.
~*~
Hours later a very tired Spike came into the small restaurant on the lowest floor. He didn't look at Dawn and Anya that sat at a table near the entrance, he didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment.
After he'd ordered a stake that was close to rare, he sat down close enough to the kitchen that he could hear what was said inside, a hobby he'd developed over the years. There was always something interesting going on in a kitchen.
"Håll tyst! Vad fan håller du på med? Den ska inte vara där, din idiot!" (Shut up! What the hell are you doing? That isn't supposed to be there, you idiot!), he heard a man with a deep voice shout, he imagined it was the boss.
Soon after he could hear an angry response from what sounded like a young woman.
"Förlåt så mycket då! Om du bara kunde lära dig att vara trevlig nån gång, så skulle jag kanske till och med lyssna på dig." (I'm so sorry. If you only could be polite sometime I might even listen to you.)
Spike listened to the argument in fascination, finding it an amusing brake in his at the moment not very amusing un-life. But someone standing behind him interrupted him.
"You all right Spike?" Anya said.
Spike frowned. She was the last person he would have expected to be concerned about him, no actually that was Harris. But anyway, he was surprised.
"Why you ask?" he muttered in response.
She sighed and sat down next to him.
"Oh, nothing really. Just the fact that I saw Buffy running out of you're room with tears in her eyes, and then you didn't come out of there for hours, and when you finally do, you have tear tracks in you're face."
Spike immediately touched his cheeks self-consciously making sure there was no tears there.
"I DO not have ear tracks in my face!"
She smiled lightly, and he realized she'd tricked him.
"No, but now I know you've been crying."
Spike rolled his eyes and looked away. For some reason he hadn't felt really comfortable with the demon since that day in the Magic Shop. Then a thought hit him.
"She was running? With the tears, and all?" he asked.
"Who?"
He rolled his eyes once more.
"Buffy, of course."
She stared at him with an annoyed expression.
"What do you mean, 'of course'. Does everything always have to be about Buffy and her stupid problems? Just because she's this superhero everyone else suddenly don't matter?"
Spike ignored her, he'd had a lot of practice doing that since the day he'd got chipped. She sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, she ran. And with the tears. She broke up with you again, or what?"
Spike didn't respond, he just walked up to the table Dawn was sitting at and looked at the Slayer's little sister pleadingly.
"Where's Buffy?"
She smiled at him, clearly happy to see him. That warmed him a little.
"Hi Spike! I'm glad you're up. I think Buffy's talking to Giles, Willow and Xander about the whole war plan. It's just two rooms down the hall from yours." She looked a little mad for a moment. "They didn't want me there, they didn't say it out loud, but they suggested that I and Anya checked out the hotel. Its only two floors for God's sake!"
Spike smiled at her, and gave her a small kiss on the head.
"Thanks bit. Ever so thankful, and all that."
She smiled back at him.
"I hope everything will work out between the two of you."
So do I, he thought as he walked in the direction Dawn had pointed out to him.
TBC
Even though it was 1 am, the airport was crowded. Family's sat on chairs, some of the sleepy children was lying on the floor next to their parents, men and woman that where going abroad for business sat in café's reading, or talking with others that might be headed the same way as them.
In the midst of it all, the five humans and two not so human were walking towards their gate, all wrapped up in their own trail of thoughts. Buffy was in the front, with Spike and Dawn shortly after her. Then came Giles, Willow and Anya, and a little after the others came a still grumpy Xander.
Buffy could feel Spike watching her, but she didn't slow down so that he could walk next to her, because for some reason she didn't feel like talking to him at the moment. She didn't regret kissing him earlier, but she wasn't sure about how she wanted to continue their strange relationship, determined not to let it end as badly as it had the last time. But that couldn't happen, she told herself, Spike's a different person now. And maybe that's the problem, she maybe missed the old, self- confident Spike, who didn't give a damn about what other people thought of him, and of who he might hurt if he said something mean.
She let herself look back at the blond vampire, who seemed to be doing his best not to look at the people around them. His usual cocky expression wasn't at all visible in his beautiful, pale face, all that was there was the sad lost look that he'd had since the day that he finally got his sanity back.
When he saw her looking at him, he increased his pace so that he was walking next to her.
"You all right?" he asked softly and took her hand in his.
She smiled faintly and gave his hand a light squeeze.
"Peachy."
He grinned at her.
"Well that's great, 'cus if you hadn't been, I'd have to bite you."
She felt her lips start to form into the shape of a smile but held it back. Joking with him was just like old times, before Tara's death and Spike's soul, and that were something she wanted right now.
"Bite me? You wouldn't even dare trying."
Spike gave her another grin, and leaned closer to her.
"Maybe, maybe no'. But the real question is, would you stop me," he said with a fake evil voice.
She punched him lightly in the arm, and that only made him grin wider.
"What's the matter Slayer. That barely hurt, you losing you're touch?"
"No," she said grimly.
"Yes you are," he said back in the same tone, but his eyes were sparkling.
"I'm not."
"Liar."
"Killer."
"Slut."
"Crazy freak."
"Bimbo."
They were now standing face to face staring at each other, and to someone that didn't know them they looked extremely angry.
"Cheater."
Spike laughed.
"Wait, what had cheating to do with this?" he asked.
She sniggered and pushed him lightly.
"Not more then 'Bimbo' has," she replied.
He grinned and pushed her back.
"Children!" they suddenly heard a tired British voice say harshly behind them. "We do have a plane to catch."
The blondes looked at each other and smiled.
"Ladies first," Spike said.
She giggled and started walking past him, when she suddenly was stopped. She looked up at the vampire confused.
"I just remember that you aren't a lady," he said teasingly and hurried after Giles and the others before she had a chance to reply.
"And you are?" she said to herself, a little disappointed at not being able to say that to his face. "That was actually quite funny," she added with a grin, making the two women walking beside her look at her strangely.
~*~
Soon they all where sitting in their seats on the plane. Willow was laying a blanket over Spike's sleeping body.
"Do we really have to do that already? The sun won't be for hours yet," Buffy asked confused.
Willow made sure no part of Spike was visible before turning to her best friend.
"No, but the longer he is visible, the more people will notice when he suddenly isn't here anymore. There is no other way."
Buffy sighed and leaned back on the soft pillow she had planted behind her head.
"Yeah, yeah. I understand. But did you really have to put that sleep spell on him?"
Willow smiled.
"No, not really. But what if he decided to start talking after I'd done the glamour to hide him, it would look very strange, a voice coming from nowhere."
Buffy nodded.
"All right, is it anything I can help you with, you know, with the glamour."
Willow nodded.
"Yes, you can read this out loud," she said, giving the Slayer a paper with a couple of words Buffy didn't understand.
"And then when we're finished, Spike won't be visible anymore, right?"
Willow nodded again and started with the glamour.
~*~
Two hours later the two friends where both very tired, but none of them wanted to sleep.
"What is it with Xander?" Willow asked curiously. "His been in a bad mood all day. No actually, for the whole week."
Buffy shrugged.
"I think he's mad about Spike being back. And him seeing me and Spike asleep on a sofa together earlier didn't help."
This made Willow jump.
"You and Spike.? Have I missed something here? I thought you said you were never going to be with him again."
Buffy looked uncertain about what to say.
"I know. It's just, he has changed so much, he isn't the same person, I mean vampire, as he was a year ago. He would never hurt me now. I was able to forgive Angel for what he did when he was Angelus, so why shouldn't I be able to forgive Spike for what he did when he had no soul?"
Willow thought about it for a second.
"Yes, you're probably right." The witch hesitated for a second before she continued. She had tears in her eyes now. "I want you to know that I'm with you whatever you choose to do. You can count on me. I know that I've done some stuff that was really bad, but I promise I will do everything I can to keep that from happening again."
Buffy gave her best friend a quick hug.
"I know that, Will. And I'm not angry with you for what you did. You loved Tara so much, and when she died. You just snapped, it could have happened to anyone."
Willow looked relieved, but she could still feel the tears threatening to fall.
"Yeah, but 'anyone' doesn't have super wicca powers."
Buffy didn't know what to say to that.
~*~
The faint light of the sun that burned his hand through a small hole in the blanket that was supposed to protect him from the dangerous rays of sunlight woke him up. He frowned and quickly moved his hand into the comforting darkness again. Spike had no idea where he was, he had no memories of anything that had happened after that he'd sat down in the plane. His curiosity won over his fear of being burned again, and he lifted the blanket slowly. To his surprise, he found that he lay on a bed in a small room that he guessed was a hotel room, and he could see that it was snowing outside. Snowing! He definitely wasn't in Sunnydale anymore.
When he'd started to realize where he actually where, he laid back again, waiting for the sun to set. But soon he found he wouldn't have to wait that long. Five minutes later he could hear someone sneaking in and closing the curtains for the windows.
"Buffy?" he asked softly, even though he already knew it was her.
Buffy walked up to the bed and sat down next to him, taking the blanket of his face.
"Yes," she said with a smile. "We're in Sweden now."
He laughed and sat up.
"Yeah, I bloody noticed! Can't you give a bloke some warning, luv?"
She laughed back and took his hand. He was a little surprised, but didn't complain.
"Sorry. Willow just thought it would be easier for you to lay hidden under a blanket for hours if you where asleep."
He rolled his eyes and leaned closer to him.
"Willow thought? And here I've always had the impression that you're the boss," he teased her.
Buffy leaned closer to him to, their noses where almost touching.
"No, we're all in this together."
"Sure pet, whatever you say," Spike replied just before he kissed her.
The kiss lasted only a couple of seconds, but to Spike it felt like hours. But then Buffy pulled away.
"Don't," she whispered softly. "We can't."
Spike looked at her with hurtful eyes.
"We can't 'what'? We could yesterday."
She looked away from him, obviously not feeling good about what she was doing.
"I'm sorry Spike. It's just. My life is complicated enough as it is, I don't need another problem."
He stared at her, doing his best to keep the tears from reaching his eyes.
"Problem? 'S that all I am to you? A soddin' problem?"
"No! Of course not. Bad choice of words, that's all. I just can't get into another relationship with you, not after what happened last time."
He looked away, tears in his eyes.
"So that's what this is all about, Slayer? I can understand that you're still hurt, but I thought you said that you'd put that behind you, that I was different now."
She sighed and put her hand under his chin and made him look at her.
"No, I'm not talking about that in particular. I'm talking about us as a couple. It didn't work out then, what makes you so sure that it will now?"
"Nothing!" he cried. "Nothing, except the love that I feel for you, now more then ever. And I'm not the same man as I where before, I've changed. You got to believe that."
"I do," she whispered, tears now also in her eyes. "But I don't love you."
She had never seen anyone look so devastated as he did at that moment. His whole body slouched and he looked away again.
"I know," he whispered, almost to silent for her to hear. "Please leave."
Buffy wanted to stay and hold him and say that everything would be all right, but she knew that that would only make this harder for him. So she just stood up and walked out of the room, leaving a sobbing vampire behind.
~*~
Giles had seen the look on Buffy's face when she'd gotten out of Spike's room. He knew what had happened, because she had talked with him about it earlier. He had advised her to brake it of, before anyone got hurt, either her, Spike or someone else. But the former Watcher knew it had been hard on her, and he also knew she wouldn't had done it if it weren't for the very complicated task they had before them, a task she needed her full attention to be able to do.
But now he wondered if this had only made it worse.
~*~
Hours later a very tired Spike came into the small restaurant on the lowest floor. He didn't look at Dawn and Anya that sat at a table near the entrance, he didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment.
After he'd ordered a stake that was close to rare, he sat down close enough to the kitchen that he could hear what was said inside, a hobby he'd developed over the years. There was always something interesting going on in a kitchen.
"Håll tyst! Vad fan håller du på med? Den ska inte vara där, din idiot!" (Shut up! What the hell are you doing? That isn't supposed to be there, you idiot!), he heard a man with a deep voice shout, he imagined it was the boss.
Soon after he could hear an angry response from what sounded like a young woman.
"Förlåt så mycket då! Om du bara kunde lära dig att vara trevlig nån gång, så skulle jag kanske till och med lyssna på dig." (I'm so sorry. If you only could be polite sometime I might even listen to you.)
Spike listened to the argument in fascination, finding it an amusing brake in his at the moment not very amusing un-life. But someone standing behind him interrupted him.
"You all right Spike?" Anya said.
Spike frowned. She was the last person he would have expected to be concerned about him, no actually that was Harris. But anyway, he was surprised.
"Why you ask?" he muttered in response.
She sighed and sat down next to him.
"Oh, nothing really. Just the fact that I saw Buffy running out of you're room with tears in her eyes, and then you didn't come out of there for hours, and when you finally do, you have tear tracks in you're face."
Spike immediately touched his cheeks self-consciously making sure there was no tears there.
"I DO not have ear tracks in my face!"
She smiled lightly, and he realized she'd tricked him.
"No, but now I know you've been crying."
Spike rolled his eyes and looked away. For some reason he hadn't felt really comfortable with the demon since that day in the Magic Shop. Then a thought hit him.
"She was running? With the tears, and all?" he asked.
"Who?"
He rolled his eyes once more.
"Buffy, of course."
She stared at him with an annoyed expression.
"What do you mean, 'of course'. Does everything always have to be about Buffy and her stupid problems? Just because she's this superhero everyone else suddenly don't matter?"
Spike ignored her, he'd had a lot of practice doing that since the day he'd got chipped. She sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, she ran. And with the tears. She broke up with you again, or what?"
Spike didn't respond, he just walked up to the table Dawn was sitting at and looked at the Slayer's little sister pleadingly.
"Where's Buffy?"
She smiled at him, clearly happy to see him. That warmed him a little.
"Hi Spike! I'm glad you're up. I think Buffy's talking to Giles, Willow and Xander about the whole war plan. It's just two rooms down the hall from yours." She looked a little mad for a moment. "They didn't want me there, they didn't say it out loud, but they suggested that I and Anya checked out the hotel. Its only two floors for God's sake!"
Spike smiled at her, and gave her a small kiss on the head.
"Thanks bit. Ever so thankful, and all that."
She smiled back at him.
"I hope everything will work out between the two of you."
So do I, he thought as he walked in the direction Dawn had pointed out to him.
TBC