Catastrophe
by
Princess McPhee
Disclaimer: I don't claim. Not mine. Bow to Joss Whedon.
Author's Note: Feedback may decide whether I finish this, so please tell me if you loved it, hated it, or somewhere in between!
Summary: An AU version of the events after the 5/15/01 BtVS episode. (Right after 'Spiral')
Rating: PG, so far.
Life, and unlife, went on quite smoothly in the Hyperion. Though the hotel was distinctly more busy than before, there was no semblance of crowding. After all, it was built to accommodate large numbers of people, and even with Spike, Buffy and Dawn moving in, only four people lived permanently there, plus the three who came and went.
Buffy and Dawn sometimes complained about having to live together, but there was really nothing anyone could do about that. There was only one room downstairs, so they had to share it. Angel, however, promised them any room they wanted as soon as one of them was able to make it up the stairs alone, and it became sort of a race to recover first.
One day, Cordelia got the idea that Buffy and Dawn, who had been moping around the house for days, complaining about never going anywhere, needed an Angel-sponsored shopping trip to bring up their spirits.
"Come on, Angel?" She whined.
Angel shrugged. "Why don't you go talk to Wesley, Cordelia? I don't own this business anymore, remember?"
"But you have lots of money, and I want some."
"You don't need any money, Cordelia. Granted, you're not living the life of the rich and famous, but you're financially secure."
"It's not for me. Buffy and Dawn need to get out."
Angel shook his head a little. "I'd give you the money, but it's not safe, Cordy."
"Why not? It's broad daylight. I wasn't thinking of taking them shopping in the back-alleys of LA, you know."
Angel shook his head again, a little sadly. "Buffy can't take care of herself anymore. Dawn never could. And Spike and I can't go with you."
Cordelia was getting exasperated. "Angel. It's downtown LA. There's like a million people there, and even if a demon shows up which it won't, because it's broad daylight, we can get away."
Angel shook his head once more, this time silent, letting his look convey what was going through his head.
"We'll take Gunn and Wesley!" Cordelia's last attempt at making this work.
Angel smirked a little. "You will."
"You know that no man can resist my subtle charms."
Angel looked at her for a moment, like he was trying to assess whether she was telling the truth, and then shrugged. "Alright. If you can get Gunn and Wesley to go with you, and promise me none of you will be left alone at any time, I'll supply the money to fund this little operation."
Cordy gave a little shriek of happiness, and jumped in the air, grabbing Angel around the neck. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" She cried.
Angel smiled tolerantly, while he waited for her to stop hanging from his neck. "You're welcome. But you still have to get Wes and Gunn to agree."
Cordelia dropped her body from her hold on her former boss's shoulders, and turned away. Swaying her hips a little, he smirked at Angel. "They'll come."
Angel watched her go, wondering what had happened to the sixteen-year-old Cordy he'd know in Sunnydale.
Buffy and Dawn were, not surprisingly, thrilled to hear about Cordy's plan. They proceeded to launch themselves on Angel, showing him with thanks, while he constantly reminded them about the terms of the agree. Ignoring him, they then happily planned which shops they were going to go to first, what they 'needed', and all the while, schemed about ways to make Wesley and Gunn go with them.
Dawn pointed excitedly at her feet. "I need new boots," She said. "I want black leather calf-high ones."
Buffy sobered a little. "Dawn, we're going to be using Angel's money. We can't buy too much."
Cordy waved her off. "Oh, he's rolling in dough. We can spend however much we want. If you really feel guilty, you can promise to pay him back and then not do it. But don't let money stand between us and our wonderful shopping trip plans!"
Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed a little. Then she smiled. "Alright," She conceded. Then, brighter, "Where were we?"
At three that afternoon, Wesley and Gunn piled in the front door, covered in goo and slime. After dropping their weapons carefully, shedding as much of their clothing as possible while still being decent, and wiping their faces with the towels Angel handed them, they trooped up the stairs, and in moments, the sounds of two showers being run could be heard.
Buffy, Cordy, and Dawn looked at each other and decided that tomorrow might be better.
After Angel picked Buffy up from physical therapy that evening, Spike unveiled a surprise. Walking right into the girls' room, since their door was open, he was met with the sight of the sisters chatting about absolutely nothing, from what he could hear, and Buffy doing her stretching.
"Nice, Slayer," He told her as he casually strolled into the room. Buffy was lying on her side, propped up on her elbow, and stretching her leg up in the air. The vampire knew that she wasn't quite back to what was normal for her, but it was impressive for a human. Even if said human was the slayer.
Buffy dropped her stretch and laid back against the pillows, looking up at him. "Hey, Spike."
Dawn watched them, not saying a thing.
There was comfortable silence in the room as Spike rummaged around in his prized leather duster and finally pulled out three thin strips of paper. Then the questions started.
"What's that?"
"Are we going somewhere?"
"Did you do something wrong, Spike?"
Spike smiled, the last having been said in jest. Turning his head to the Slayer first, then to her sister, and back to Buffy, he answered them all. "They're tickets, yes, we are going somewhere, provided you want to, and no, I didn't do anything wrong. That I'm aware of yet."
Dawn pushed her chair up towards Spike, trying to see the tickets in his hand. "Where are we going?" She asked.
Buffy was a little more practical. "When are we going?"
Spike looked at the sisters. He wasn't sure if they'd want to go that night, physical therapy looked tiring. But, from experience, he knew that the Slayer usually came out of it invigorated, and that Dawn had been bored to death that day, and that tonight might be a good time. "Tonight, if you want."
Dawn's eyes went wide. "Of course we want! Right, Buffy?"
Buffy smiled at her sister. Then she looked up at the vampire, gratitude in her eyes, something Spike wasn't sure if he'd ever see there, facing him. "If you want to, I'm good." Pause. "Thanks, Spike."
There was a moment of silence as both parties recognized this step in their friendship, and then Dawn broke it with all the impatience of a cooped-up teenager. "What are we doing?" She asked.
Spike grinned. "Well, pet, I have reservations at the best Italian restaurant in the city" little shrieks from both girls, "and the tickets are to a local production of Romeo and Juliet."
"Yeah!"
"When are we leaving?"
Spike looked at the watch that Angel had made him wear. At first, he'd just carried it around, to show his sire that he didn't take orders, but after a while, it had gotten to be a real pain, and he'd started wearing it. "In about half an hour," He said. "So, I'll just leave, and you girls can put on your makeup or take a shower, or whatever it is you do to get ready."
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!"
Spike grinned. "You're welcome, little bit. I know you're bored here."
Dawn nodded fervently. "You bet I am."
Spike waved the tickets once more, and then stepped out of the room, calling back over his shoulder. "Half an hour, girls! Then we need to go."
When Buffy and Dawn were ready to leave, they went to the lobby to wait for Spike. He wasn't there, but it hadn't been half an hour yet, and they weren't worried. They smiled anxiously and exchanged little looks and "how do I look?"s and Buffy danced from foot to foot standing behind her walker until Dawn reminded her not to wear herself out.
When Spike walked down the stairs, Buffy was looking away and Dawn was the first to see his appearance. Putting the fingers of her uninjured hand deep in her mouth, she blew, hard. A piercing whistle filled the lobby and startled the Slayer, who jumped. Turning around to see what was there and ready to chastise her younger sister for the noise at the same time, she was struck breathless at the sight that greeted her.
The vampire was grinning proudly as he took the last couple of steps. He was wearing a real tux, something that Buffy had been absolutely sure she'd never see him in, and his white-blond hair was slicked back with even more gel than usual. Dawn almost smiled at the irony. Like father like son... not! True, they both wore gel in their hair, but Spike wore it to make curly, unmanageable hair stay put, and Angel wore it to make flat, boring hair stand up.
When Buffy got her voice back, the first thing she did was close her mouth. This time, Dawn did laugh, but offered no explanation when Spike looked at her, wondering what she younger Summers girl found funny.
Bowing dramatically to first Buffy, then Dawn, the grin on Spike's face never faltered. Then, getting behind Dawn's wheelchair, he looked at Buffy. "Ready, love?"
She nodded. Spike walked slowly, pushing the chair slowly as Buffy walked steadily, if not exactly quickly, beside them. When they made it to the car, Spike loaded Buffy into the front seat, took her walker and folded it up. He then put it in the trunk, and returned to Dawn. Picking her up and depositing her into the seat, he folded her wheelchair as much as it went, and stuck it in the trunk, too. Then he climbed into the driver's seat of Angel's car, and off they went.
Dinner was fun, and Buffy and Dawn watched as the vampire sampled everything he possibly could. Eating sugar, NutraSweet and another, generic non-sugar sweetener and then arguing about which one was better and how they tasted, made up most of the time before they were served for him and Dawn. Buffy, for her part, just watched, most of the time smiling, trying not to think about her dead friends on this happy occasion.
By the time dinner was over, Spike had eaten breadsticks with both marinara and alfredo sauce, plus trying it with the salad dressing, salad, fettuccine alfredo, cheese ravioli, veal parmesan, coke, both regular and diet, sprite, and both chocolate and angel's food cake. Of course, it wasn't all his, a great part of it was him having traded bits of his meal (the veal parmesan) for bits of Buffy and Dawn's. He said it had been a long time since he'd been in an Italian restaurant, and whether they believed him or not, the Summers girls indulged him.
When the dessert menu came, Spike wanted the chocolate cake, but couldn't resist eating something that was named after his grandsire, he'd decided. So they got two desserts to split three ways, though Spike claimed the biggest portion of the angel food cake, because, he told them, '"My sire's been a pain in my bleeding ass for longer than either of you have been alive, so it's only right that I get to vicariously obliterate the biggest piece of him."'
Buffy laughed, and Dawn snorted. Spike grinned harder, and handed her a napkin. "Careful, little bit. Wouldn't want your big sis to think I'm a bad influence on you, she might make me leave." He was joking, but the younger Summers sister could see the seriousness in his eyes as he spoke. She chose not to say anything, not wanting to ruin the evening, but she vowed to speak to her sister later. It wasn't fair. Spike had done nothing but help them out for the past six months, and he was still worried that Buffy might get fed up with him and kick him out.
The play was sad and well acted, and Dawn cried. Buffy, too emotionally numb to let tears fall down her cheeks, nonetheless cried inside, and Spike leaned over and took her hand. She was surprised at first, but then settled in, realizing that he didn't want anything else, he didn't have any ulterior motives, the vampire just wanted to comfort her. Smiling a little, she let him hold onto her.
When they were piling into the car again, ready to leave for Angel's mansion, Dawn yawning and Buffy looking decidedly sleepy herself, Spike smiled as he looked at what he thought of as 'his' girls, and hoped they'd had a good time. Hoped he'd managed to take their minds off things for a bit, even though he knew they never entirely forgot what happened in Sunnydale.
The drive to Angel's was longer than any of them had expected, as they seemed to catch every stoplight along the route, and though the only thing that happened to Spike was that he got frustrated and cranky, both of the girls fell asleep. When he pulled up in front of the hotel and realized that, a happy little smile broke out on his face, and he just watched them for long moments, Dawn looking remarkably childlike, and Buffy calm and regal in her sleep.
Then, waking Buffy, he gathered her walker out of the trunk and helped her out of the car. Pulling the back door open, and effortlessly gathering the teenager into his arms, he motioned Buffy silently to head inside. They did, and as soon as they were inside, Spike left the Slayer's side to take Dawn to bed. Once he had lain her down gently on top of the covers and taken her one shoe off, he headed back out of the room, got her wheelchair, closed and locked the car, and came back.
Buffy had made her way into the girls' room by then, and Spike knocked softly on the door before coming in to Buffy's soft call. Dawn was changed, laying half under the covers in her nightgown, and Buffy was pulling hers out of the top drawer of the dresser. "Hey, Spike," She greeted him. "Thanks."
"You're welcome, pet."
She nodded, and there was silence in the room for a few long moments. Then, standing silently like the predator he was, Spike headed out of the room. "Good-night, love."
"Good-night, Spike."
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