Summary: Spike goes on the hunt for the third missing piece. He could never dream of what he finds.
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own everything. But I wouldn't mind leasing Spike from them for a couple of weeks :)
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This Can't be HappeningSpike hated jumping through that portal. The experience even gave his demon pause. To be on top of that building, looking into the swirling light. His mind flashed back to the night Buffy had died. Was that what it had been like for her? Not really knowing what would happen when she jumped, but knowing it had to be done? He was beginning to think these little adventures were causing more headaches than they were worth. That, plus the fact that he broke his leg when he hit the ground. Lord, he was a mess. Broken bones, healing bite marks. When this was over, he wasn't going to leave his bed for a month. A quick smirk creeped across his face. Maybe the Slayer would join him.
The Powers hadn't told him where he was going. No, they had invaded his mind, pushing him to the building on Stanton St. It had taken all his will power to make it to Revello Dr to leave the note for Buffy before he had given in to the increasing pressure in his brain. But he knew the note was important. Buffy had been mad enough the first time he left, she would be mad at him again when she found out he had left without her. Not leaving a note was out of the question.
Spike sat on the ground taking stock of the situation. It was night. The Powers had been nice enough not to drop him into full sunlight. But exactly where had they dropped him? It definitely wasn't the demon dimension he had expected. This was the place Glory had come from? It looked like, hell, it felt like his own world. Spike was sitting in the middle of a cemetery, and he could swear he recognized the statue to his left. If he didn't know any better, he'd say he was in SunnyD.
On shaky legs, Spike managed to stand up. The first thing he needed was a crutch. Then he would find a place to hold-up while he looked for the Slayer. Maybe he would do some recon tonight, if he had time before the sun came up. According to his internal clock, he had a couple of hours before that was going to happen.
He dragged his leg behind him as he made his way to a tree with low hanging branches. Spike was able to break off a few sturdy branches to help him with his leg. He sat on a tombstone, tearing his blue shirt into strips to tie the wood to his leg like a split. The longest piece he used as a make-shift crutch. Once that was complete, he roamed the tombs, looking for an unoccupied crypt.
The one he found made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. His crypt? What the devil was his crypt doing in the middle of this cemetery? He slowly pushed the door open. Okay, so it wasn't his crypt. Inside he didn't find his frig or his telly or his chair, but he could swear the sarcophagus in the corner looked familiar. At least the damn thing was empty. It would do as a headquarters until he found out where he really was.
Still some time before daylight; might as well have a wider look around the area, he thought. Spike walked to the entrance of the cemetery looking around for clues to his whereabouts. The street in front of him looked like any street he would have seen at home. He limped down the sidewalk, looking at the familiar surroundings. This was getting creepier and creepier by the minute.
Spike didn't realize his subconscious was directing the movements of his feet until he came to the signpost that marked an intersection for Revello Dr. Actually the intersection closest to Buffy's house, which he could see from where he stood. "Bloody hell!" Okay, maybe he was dreaming the whole thing. Maybe the Powers hadn't sent him to another dimension. Maybe, just maybe, he was asleep and all of this was some strange nightmare. Well there was only one way to find out.
But the sun, at least he thought it was the sun, was starting to rise in the East. Now was not the time to test his delusional theory. He'd go back to the crypt and get some sleep. Either he'd wake up from this dream, or he'd still find himself here to deal with it tomorrow.
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When Spike woke up he knew he was still in his alternate reality. The homey touches of his crypt were still missing and his leg was still broken. Now, to top things off, he was hungry. Great. At least in Hell he hadn't needed to eat.
Spike made his way back to the house he had seen the night before. He'd just go up and knock on the door. What else was he supposed to do? If this was some different plane of existence that mirrored his own, maybe whoever lived in the house would be able to tell him where the Slayer was. Right now, it was his only lead.
Spike hesitantly knocked on the door, a door he had grown quite accustomed to just barging through. When no one answered, he knocked slightly louder. His apprehension grew. If this place was anything like Sunnydale, the residence might not take kindly to strangers knocking on their door after dark. Spike wasn't sure he could run if a protective property owner came at him with a stake. Core, this was a bad idea.
Spike had almost talked himself into leaving when the front door swung open. He shifted his gaze downwards to look at the small child standing in front of him. The girls' eyes brightened when she saw who had been knocking at the door. "Uncle Willum!" The girl, all of about seven years old, started jumping up and down. "Mommy! Mommy! Come quick! It's Uncle Willum! And he cut his hair!"
Spike was completely frozen to the spot. Uncle William? The child knew who he was? Or at least she thought she knew who he was. Every instinct told Spike to get the hell off the porch. Something was definitely wrong. But then the girl's mother came into site, and he's heart lurched to the floor.
Buffy swept the happy girl into her arms. "How many times have I told you to ask who it is before opening the door, Nibblet?" She turned a brilliant smile to the man standing on her porch. "William, I wish you had told us you were coming. We weren't expecting…" The smile quickly faded from Buffy's eyes as she recognized the vampire standing before her. "Oh my God, Spike! Is that you?"
Spike, Master Vampire, Scourge of Europe and Big Bad extraordinaire, fell to a dead faint.
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Spike woke to find a stake being pressed menacingly into his chest. The owner of the stake looking quite menacing herself. He reached a hand up to touch her face. "Buffy."
Buffy batted away the hand of the vampire draped across her couch. She put slightly more pressure on the stake she held over his heart. "I haven't done this in quite some time, but I haven't forgotten how, so don't lie to me. And remember, I could always tell when you were lying. Do you still have the chip?" Spike nodded his head in answer. "Does it still work?" Again Spike nodded. "Were you sent to find me?" Spike nodded. "Giles? Willow?" Spike shook his head no. "Then who?"
Spike chanced a small smile. "That's a bit of an involved story, luv, but basically the Powers sent me."
Slowly Buffy pulled the offending object away from Spike's body. She sat back on the coffee table, giving him the opportunity to sit up on the couch. "First they send Whistler, now they send you. Whenever they get involved in my life, bad things happen." Buffy pushed her hair out of her eyes. "I suppose why ever you're here has to do with an undefeatable demon, a hell-god or an apocalypse. Am I right?"
Spike wasn't sure what was going on, but that was fast beginning to feel like familiar ground to him. "Not exactly. I was sent to find you and bring you home. That's all. No baddies attached."
Buffy cursed under her breath. "Damn. It's worse than I thought." She chanced another look in Spike's direction. "Hobble into the kitchen. You can explain everything in there." Buffy was already walking into the other room. "I suppose your hungry too?"
Spike scratched his head as he watched her departing form. Well, nothing left to do but follow her. "Wouldn't mind a pint or two if you have it around. Maybe a cup a' cocoa, if you can spare it."
Buffy laughed as she opened the door to the refrigerator. "You want tiny marshmallows too?"
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There were several interruptions to Spike's tale. All of them coming from Buffy's three children. None of them could understand why their mommy had sent them to their rooms when Uncle William arrived. They liked Uncle William. He always brought them presents and he could do that cool thing with his face. Buffy had patiently explained to them that the man sitting in the kitchen wasn't their Uncle William, but it was her friend Spike. They remembered her telling them about Spike, right? It had taken some time, but she had managed to scoot all of them to bed, with the promise to explain things in the morning.
Spike was totally fascinated by the children and by the woman they called mother. She resembled his Buffy, but she was older. A little over ten years older, he'd say. Her hair fell in long waves down her back. Gone were the blond highlights; her hair a pale milk chocolate brown. There were laugh lines around her mouth and eyes, giving her a softness he had seldom seen in Buffy before. It made her look more like Joyce, he thought.
And the kids. He could see bits and pieces of her in them too. He had always wondered what Buffy's children would look like. It was one of the daydreams about the Slayer he loved most. If she lived long enough to have kids, and obviously, if she found a man to have them with. It was his own form of sweet torture. But now, he would never have to imagine again. All he'd have to do is bring to mind the picture of the three little bits who had come marching into the kitchen to question their mum – Dawn, Xander and Willow. Whatever had happened, Buffy had never forgotten the family she left behind.
"Sorry about that." Buffy sat back down on the stool next to the island. "They can be tenacious. You were telling me about Anne?"
Spike shook his head to break the spell. "Yeah. So anyway, the Powers popped me down to Hell to find her. Took a bit, but we managed to escape. Been home only a few days and they send me here to find you. Believe me, pet, this wasn't the dimension I thought I'd find you in. From the look of the monsters coming out of the portal, I would have thought you were thrown into another part of Hell, not this mirror image of Sunnydale."
Buffy looked down into the cup on the counter in front of her. "This isn't the dimension I jumped into, Spike. I was brought here by the people who found me in Glory's dimension." She looked up into Spike's questioning eyes. "Maybe we should continue this tomorrow. It is getting late and I have an awful lot to explain. I know you have all kinds of questions, and you've been wonderful not asking me about the kids. Come back in the morning. I'll tell you everything."
Spike knew a dismissal when he heard one. No use arguing with the Slayer. He wouldn't get the story out of her tonight. "I'll be back, but not in the morning. I know it's been a while, luv, but sunlight and vampires don't mix, remember?"
Buffy gave him a knowing look. "Oh, but, Spike, here they do. They mix quite well."
---TBC
