Summary: Some truths are discovered. Dawn gets busted. Buffy and Elizabeth have an entertaining conversation about the ex's. Spike's whereabouts are disclosed.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own everything. But I wouldn't mind leasing Spike from them for a couple of weeks :)
Feedback: As always, appreciated.
The Whole Truth
The phone call to Giles had been surreal. At least that's the word he had used. To add to his confusion, Elizabeth and Buffy had picked up different extensions, talking to him at the same time. Giles was flustered during the entire conversation; not knowing which of the Slayers was talking to him at any given moment. When both girls simultaneously told him they needed him, Giles thought his heart would break. He was flying back to the States in a few days.
Similar conversations kept happening. Someone would ask a question or make a statement, and both Elizabeth and Buffy would reply. Same words, same tone of voice. Xander had called it creepy. But the Slayers didn't seem to mind. They took it all in stride. Dawn was the only other person it didn't bother.
The only awkward incident for the Summers' family occurred when Dawn started asking questions about Joyce. Willow had left to go to the movies. She said she wanted to give the three of them time alone, but they knew she was just as wigged as Xander. Elizabeth told Dawn that mom did have a message for her. Dawn's eyes were bright as she asked what it was. Elizabeth said that mom's exact words were 'I saw that'. Dawn had turned sheet white. Mom expected Dawn to tell Buffy about what she had done. She was going to return everything. And she was going to apologize to Anya.
After an hour of explaining and apologizing, Dawn was sent to her room. She was grounded for life as far as Buffy was concerned. Stealing from her own friends was really low. As part of her punishment, Dawn was forbidden to see Janice again. No more trips to the mall. And as soon as Buffy worked it out with Anya, Dawn was going to work at the Magic Box after school until she paid for everything she had taken. Dawn had whined a little, saying she didn't understand why she had to pay for the stuff is she was returning it. She backed down when she saw Buffy's resolve face.
So here they were. Giles was driving in from the LA airport. Dawn was restocking shelves while Anya kept a parole-officer eye on her. Elizabeth and Buffy were training in the back room.
"Enough already!" Buffy called out to her double. "It's no fun training with you." Buffy walked over to grab one of the bottled waters sitting on the floor next to the back wall. She tossed the other to Elizabeth.
"I know. It's no fun for me either." Elizabeth wiped the sweat from her forehead. "I mean, there's no spontaneity. I know what you're going to do; you know what I'm going to do. How boring is that?" The girls had realized early on that training with yourself was frustrating. No one landed a decent punch or kick. Moves were anticipated and readily blocked. "There's no challenge."
Buffy sat down on the couch. "Now training with Spike. That's challenging. I never know what he's going to do." It wasn't the first time the vampire's name had been brought up in their conversations. Everything seemed to circle back to him. "Maybe we can get him to join us?"
Elizabeth plopped down next to Buffy. A fake smile on her face as she said, "Oh goody! A three-way. Just what Spike's been dreaming about." Buffy almost choked on her water. Elizabeth patted her on the back. Once Buffy was breathing normally again, Elizabeth continued. "What are you going to do about him?"
Buffy dropped her head to the back of the couch. "I don't know." She closed her eyes. "He's the most annoying, agitating, confusing monster I've ever met."
"And we love him." Elizabeth glanced at her stunned double. "Please, Buffy. It's just us now. Don't feel like taking a boat ride on the river of denial. We. Love. Spike. Admit it. It's not like you can hide it from me."
For once, Buffy didn't argue. She was talking to herself, right? Not like it was a declaration to the rest of the Scoobies. "When? When did we fall in love with him? I've been so mixed up since I've been back, I can't remember."
"I know it happened before we died. I wouldn't feel it to if it was something that happened after you came back. But I'm not sure." Elizabeth thought about it for a minute. "We were always jealous of his relationship with Dru."
Buffy agreed. "Yeah. Not the twisted, psycho part, but the I'll-do-anything-for-you part. He betrayed his grand-sire because he was jealous of Dru's feelings for Angelus. Totally devoted to her. Would fight the world to be with her."
Elizabeth propped one leg on the couch as she turned to Buffy. "Exactly. And then Angel leaves us because he doesn't have the strength to fight for our relationship. All that talk about a normal life. Please! We're the Slayer. We have no normal life."
Buffy was getting into it now. All the unsaid thoughts she really had about the past. "Spike stayed with Dru while she was crazy, well, still is. But he cared for her while she was weak. Brought her to Sunnydale in an attempt to cure her. Was almost dusted when the piano fell on him. Put up with Angelus for as long as he could. Even tried to have Willow cast a love spell. He did all that. And Angel runs because we can't have sex."
"Typical male. Thinks with his dick. I guess some things never change, even after you're dead." Elizabeth took another sip of water. "Then has he nerve to come back and give us hell about Riley."
Buffy snorted. In a sing-song voice she said, "I want you to have a normal relationship. To find a normal guy, so you can walk in the sun." She rolled her eyes. "Who has time to walk in the sun when you patrol all night and work all day? Anyway. Then we meet the normal guy, and he wants to kill him. There's so much about us Angel never understood."
"And Riley." Elizabeth face fell as she remembered the ex-commando. "Poor Riley. He never got it, did he?"
"The whole Slayer thing?" Elizabeth nodded at Buffy's question. "No, he never got it. He chose to go into the army. He chose to fight demons. He never got the part about life sort of choosing us. He wanted to separate us from the Slayer. He was commando-boy when he put on the clothes, and college-guy when he took them off. But we are all Slayer, all the time. He couldn't make it fit."
"And we didn't love him." Elizabeth was slightly embarrassed by that point of truth. "We tried, but it just wasn't there. Ever wonder what we would have said to him if we caught up with him that night?"
Buffy was just as embarrassed. "I try not to think about it. Xander had us so freaked out. Same old Angel tune. Normal life, normal boy. We would have destroyed Riley if we stopped him from getting on that helicopter. Mister Gung-ho would have been stomped by Glory or he would have been devastated when we died. Either way, he would've been screwed."
"You are so right. He would've gone straight after Glory. No thought, no real plan. And God forbid he take orders from us. He hated the fact that we were in charge. Can you imagine if Glory had tried to torture him the way she tortured Spike?" A shiver went through Elizabeth's body. "He never would have survived."
"I got a letter from him a couple of months ago." Buffy dolled out that information to her twin. She hadn't even told the Scoobies about the letter. To her, it had been another sign of failure. She wasn't so sure anymore.
Elizabeth was shocked. "You did? Army boy finally wrote to us. I thought he wasn't allowed to have contact with civilians?"
Buffy continued. "Seems that mission ended. He was on leave in Iowa, visiting the family. But not to worry, the world is still safe. He signed up for another, even more dangerous mission. Of course, he couldn't tell me where he was going. Top Secret stuff. And you are NOT going to believe the next part. He's married."
Elizabeth's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "Married!" Riley Finn was married. If that didn't beat all.
Buffy's had a satisfied smile on her face. It felt good to finally tell somebody. "Married some chick he met in the jungle. She's an American. Works with him destroying all the evil in the world. Name's Sam."
Elizabeth let out a low whistle. "Mr and Mrs Captain America." A twinge of jealousy passed through her. So goes the life of the normal people. "Wonder what she looks like?"
"He didn't say. But I bet she's perfect." Buffy felt the same bite of jealousy. Marriage, family, demon fighting. If Riley could have it all, why couldn't she? Buffy leaned a little closer to Elizabeth. "What I'm dieing to know, is how much he told her about us."
"Yeah. Let's imagine THAT conversation. 'Honey, my last girlfriend was the Slayer. Yes, the Chosen One. But don't worry, she won't ever want me back. Not after she found out I get my kicks having my arms sucked by vampire hoes.' Wonder how he explained the marks on his arms during his army physical." Both Slayers laughed. Talking maliciously about the ex's was fun. "Hopefully he learned a little more about sex before he got married. If not, I feel sorry for the girl."
"Oh, I don't know. He met her in a jungle. Maybe she likes the missionary position." Buffy moved her finger in a circle as she continued in a bored voice. "Over, and over, and over, again."
Elizabeth's butt slid off the couch as she continued to laugh. "Good face, great body, decent kisser, but no points for imagination. Best night with him, when we got caught in the haunted house. Still only missionary, but much better stamina."
"Spoiled. We were so spoiled by that night. Before – Angel, Parker, Riley. One time, then nighty-nighty. After, we have the marathon sex parade. How could he ever beat that record?" Buffy thought about the nights she snuck out of bed to relieve her pent up frustrations by slaying.
Elizabeth was thinking the same thing. But she noticed that Spike hadn't been included in Buffy's short list of 15-minute men. "Now for the million dollar question. Spike. Body, kissage, stamina, imagination. What's the verdict?"
A slow, lecherous smile crept across Buffy's face. "Judges give a ten, all categories. Body – to die for. Not an ounce of fat. And have you seen those abs? Come on. Kissage – never the same twice. Except for the totally-forgetting-the-rest-of-the-world-exists part. Stamina – can't be explained, can only be experienced. Imagination – being over a hundred years old gives him the advantage." Buffy started to drift into her own thoughts. "The things he can do with his hands. And that mouth!"
"Too much information." Elizabeth was quick to stop her. "Leave that conversation for you and Willow. Together the two of you can discuss the benefits of demon lovers. I haven't slept with him, remember? I don't need the visual."
Buffy sighed. "You're the one who asked." She pushed the delicious imagines from her mind. She'd think about them later. "But you're right. Let's get back to the original point of this twisted conversation."
Elizabeth grabbed the water from Buffy's hand, having finished with her own. "Love. Spike. When did it happen." Elizabeth moved back onto the couch. "Okay. I thought maybe after Glory tortured him. He was so serious about not wanting to see us in pain if anything happened to Dawn."
Buffy remembered the look on his face. The perceived pain in his eyes had shadowed the real pain evident on his body. "But we were stilled wigged about the Buffy-bot, so it can't be then."
Elizabeth stuck her tongue out as she scrunched up her face in disgust. "The Buffy-bot! Whatever happened to that thing?" At Buffy's exasperated look, Elizabeth relented. "Sorry, random thought. We'll talk about it later." Both girls were silent. Each thinking of all the time they had spent with Spike. "It was the stairs." Elizabeth looked at Buffy, needing to see agreement in her eyes.
Buffy blinked. Her mind drifted back to the last night she was alive. Spike had gone with her to pick up weapons. "God, that night on the stairs. You're right. That's when it happened." Tears were starting to form.
As if on cue, both girls repeated Spike's words. "I know you'll never love me, I know that I'm a monster, but you treat me like a man, and that's…" They looked down into their laps.
"We fell in love with an unfinished sentence." Buffy's voice caught on the emotions stuck in her throat. The laughter of a few minutes ago was dead as she remembered the feeling expressed in those words.
Elizabeth grabbed her hand. "No, we'd been falling since that day in his crypt after Glory. We stumbled when he told us to hand him the weapons through the open door, so we wouldn't have to invite him in. We crashed into it on the stairs." Elizabeth's eyes were also filling with tears.
Buffy's voice was so quiet, Elizabeth almost didn't hear her. "He thought he was going to die that night. He was prepared to die, for us." Buffy bit her bottom lip. "He'd have traded places with us in a heart beat."
Elizabeth leaned her head back on the couch. "Til the end of the world, even if that happens to be tonight." She closed her eyes. "I can't remember the last thing Dawn said to us before she left for school this morning, but I can remember every word he said that night."
"When I came back." Buffy glanced in Elizabeth's direction. "When he first saw me. I asked him how long I had been gone. He didn't even think about it. He said 147 days. He had counted the days since we died." Buffy had a heart-breaking, questioning look on her face. "How can someone without a soul be the most soulful creature we've ever known?"
Elizabeth stood up. She wiped her hands across her face. "Okay, this is so not of the good for either of us right now." Buffy looked up at her. "Buffy, you have to tell him. He deserves to know. He's risking his life for us." Elizabeth realized what she said the minute the words were out of her mouth. Slight panic spread across her face.
But Buffy didn't notice. "You're right. I've struggled it for so long, but it's not the loving him I struggle with. That's just there. I can't get rid of it. And believe me, I've tried. It's the other part. The telling everyone. The deciding what to do after that. The living with it. That's the hard part. He's still evil, you know. He still screws up. I mean, he screws up bad. But I'll tell him. When all of this is over, I'll tell him."
"I just hope it's not too late." Elizabeth whispered. Should she tell Buffy what was going on? No, Spike told her not to say anything. He thought it would only make matters worse.
Buffy almost laughed. "What are you talking about? Of course it's not too late. It's Spike. He's not going to leave us." Elizabeth still looked doubtful. "Look, if you're that worried about it, I'll go to his crypt right now."
The panic was back in Elizabeth's eyes, stronger. Her voice, a little more adamant than she intended. "No! You can't go there!"
This time Buffy did notice. Now she was worried. "Why not? No denial, remember. Why can't I go to Spike's crypt? What's he done now that I'm not supposed to know about?"
Elizabeth walked out of the training room. Okay, so she had been dropping hints. She called over her shoulder. "Buffy, it's nothing. Just leave it alone."
Buffy followed after her. Thankfully, there were no customers in the shop. If there had been, they would have seen the beginnings of a fight. Buffy was almost yelling. "Elizabeth, we are a terrible liar. What are you hiding from me?"
Anya and Dawn watched the two Slayers. This was the first time they had argued since Elizabeth's arrival. She looked frightened. Buffy looked angry. Dawn took a tentative step towards her sisters. "Buffy, why are you yelling at Elizabeth?"
Buffy never took her eyes off the other Slayer. "Dawnie, stay out of this." Buffy advanced. She wanted answers and she wanted them now. "Elizabeth!"
Elizabeth was torn. "He made me promise not to tell you. I, I can't! Don't you understand?" She sat down at the research table. She didn't want to keep this from Buffy, but she didn't want to break her promise to Spike. Life was so complicated. She wished she were back in limbo.
Buffy sat down opposite her twin. She knew there had been something going on between the two of them. "Elizabeth, I'm really starting to worry now. If you don't answer me soon, I'll go beat the truth out of Spike. Tell me what the HELL is going on!"
The tears were back in Elizabeth's eyes. She just couldn't do it. She couldn't lie to herself. Her forehead hit the top of the table as she mumbled her answer. "They sent him. Is that what you want to hear? They sent Spike."
At first she didn't understand. Then, in a split-second, Buffy's eyes widened as her hand flew to cover her mouth. "Oh, my God." So much for beating the truth out of him. She couldn't even touch him.
Dawn ran over to the weeping Elizabeth. Something wasn't right about any of this. Who had sent Spike? And where did they send him? Why was Elizabeth crying about it? And why was Buffy looking like that? "Buffy, what's wrong?"
Buffy's eyes made short, erratic movements as she looked between her sister and Elizabeth. Dawn wasn't going to take this well either. She stood up and rounded the table. "They sent Spike, Dawnie. The Powers That Be sent Spike to find what's missing."
Anya's head popped up from behind the cash register. She was finally interested in the conversation. "The Powers That Be sent Spike to Hell?"
---TBC
