Chapter Five: The Blond Bombshell Pt. 2


Buffy shook all the thoughts of Angel out of her head. She turned the handle and entered the hotel. She moved stealthily, so as not to disturb anyone. She looked around. There. A familiar figure stood in the middle of the lobby. She smiled, deciding best to creep up on him. She reached out, but no one was there. It was just a figment of her imagination. The funny thing was the figment wasn't of Angel. It was of her other lover. A familiar scent filled her nose, making her eyes water as she stood in the middle of the lobby of the hotel, quivering.


*** "Last night was the best night I have ev'r 'ad in all my years. It was the first time I was close to someone." ***

*** "Angel. He should have warned me." Buffy suddenly realized what he was talking about. "He makes a good show of forgetting," Spike continued. "But it's here, in me... all the time. The spark." He paused. "I wanted to give you... what you deserve. And I got it. They put the spark in me. And now all it does is burn."
"Your soul."
Spike laughed, "Bit worse for lack of use."
"You got your soul back. How?"
"It's what you wanted, right? It's what you wanted, right?! And-and now everybody's in here, talking. Everything I did, everyone I. and him. And it. The other... the thing... beneath... beneath you. It's here, too. Everybody... they all just tell me go. Go... to hell."
"Why? Why would you do that?"
"Buffy, shame on you. Why does a man do what he mustn't? For her. To be hers. To be the kind of man who would nev..." His voice cracked. He was close to crying. "To be a kind of man. And she shall look on him with forgiveness... and everybody will forgive and love." Buffy watched as Spike went to the cross at the front of the church they were in. "He will be loved." To her horror he draped himself over the cross. His skin beginning to burn. "So everybody's okay, right?" Buffy was crying. "C-can we rest now? Buffy? Can we rest?" ***


*** "Stop, Spike Get off!

"I'm going to make you feel it!" ***

Buffy cringed at that memory. It was one of the worst nights of her life.


*** He tried stopping her from confessing to Katrina's 'murder'. He said that he had dumped the body and no one would ever know.

"You are not going in there."

"I have to do this. Just let me go."

"I can't. I love you."

"No you don't"

"You think I haven't tried not to?"

She flung him into a can. "Try harder."

"You are not throwing your life away over this."

"It's not your choice!"

"Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"A girl is dead because of me"

"And how many people are alive because of you? How many have you saved? One dead girl doesn't tip the scale."

"That's all this is to you, just another dead body?"

"Buffy!"

"You can't understand why this is killing me. Can you?"

"Explain it." She hit him. "That's it put it on me, put it all on me. That's my girl."

"I am not your girl! You don't have a soul There is nothing good or clean in you You are dead inside. You can't feel anything real. I could never be your girl." She hit him over and over. She stood back in horror as she saw what she had done to him. She beat him into a bloody pulp.

"You always hurt the one you love, pet"


*** Fighting in the abandoned building, after she found out his chip didn't work.

"I wasn't planning on hurting you... much."

"You haven't even come close to hurting me!"

"Afraid to give me the chance?

"You afraid I'm gonna..."

Suddenly she forced her mouth on his and he stared at her. He didn't question it long, as he kissed her back. Crashing against walls, but never letting go of each other's lips. He lifted her up as she wrapped her legs around him and unzipped his pants and suddenly he was there. A moment of confusion, realization, and the odd sense of it being right passed as he thrust into her. They kissed again. And the building began to crumble around them. They crashed through the floor, her landing on top of him. ***


*** She discovered him in Glory's place, bleeding, bruised. She had planned to knock him senseless, but she didn't. Instead, she took pity on him. Even though he had made a Buffybot and had sex with it which was just gross. He had changed her perception of him in a single sentence. She walked into Spike's crypt disguised as the Buffybot.

"If anything happened to Dawn, it'd destroy you, and I couldn't live with you being in that much pain."

After he said that, she placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He pulled away first, realizing it was the Real Buffy. ***


*** "I love you." Spike said.
Buffy looked away, sickened, "Oh my God."
Spike lifted her chin to look at her. "No, look at me. I love you. You're all I bloody think about... dream about. You're in my gut... in my throat... I'm drowning in ya Summers, drowning." ***


*** Spike opened door for her. What are you doing?" Buffy said.
"I... I... was... I wasn't thinking."
"What is this?"
"Oh, don't get your knickers twisted, I was..."
"What is this? The late-night stakeout, the bogus suspects, the flask! Is this a date?"
"God. please! A date! You are completely off your bird! I mean..." He changed his tone. "Do you want it to be?"
Buffy was utterly disgusted. "Oh my God!" ***


Of course, they didn't always get along.

*** "When I get this spell reversed, they'll be finding your body for weeks."
"Oh, make a move. Please. I'm dying for a good slay! " ***


*** "Look at my poor neck . all bare, and tender, and exposed. All that blood, just pumping away."
"Giles, make her stop!" ***

*** "Oh, do it again. It tickles. You know, in a good way." Spike said after Buffy staked him.
"The Gem."
"Oh yeah, the Gem of Amara. Official sponsor of my killing you." ***

*** "Do we really need weapons for this?"
" No. I just like them. They make me feel all manly. ***


Flashbacks kept invading Buffy's mind. Their late night sex-capades. Their kiss behind the alley after that weird singing and dancing day. Crashing through the floor after their fight lead to a night that was wild and passionate. His return after he earned his soul. That night in the abandoned house, curled in each other's arms. All the times they spent talking, fighting, doing things that most people wouldn't do. She had fallen in love with Angel, and still cared for him deeply, but with Spike it was different. She had grown because of Spike. He brought out the absolute worst tin her while still managing to bring out the very best. She loved him for that.


*** "I love you."

"No you don't. But thanks for saying it."***


Spike thought it wasn't true what she had told him. But it was. She had thought he couldn't love her when he did because he was a soulless, useless demon. But he did. She loved him for everything he had given her and everything he had taken from her. He protected her sister and her friends when she couldn't. And they were actually friends, despite being mortal enemies. Spike.

"Hey, Buffy?" Buffy turned to see Willow and Xander entering the hotel.

"We got worried." Willow said.

"Is everything all right?" Xander asked. He looked around the hotel and whistled. "Whew, this sure beats the Best Western with the heated pool in Sunnydale."

Willow elbowed Xander in the ribs. She went to Buffy's side. "Are you all right?"

Buffy nodded, shaking herself out of the trance she had been in, and blinked back those unused tears. "Let's get Robin to a hospital," she said.

"Oh, uh, we got a call from Angel on Giles' cell phone. He wants us to meet him at a place called Wolfram & Hart. It sounds like a law firm." Willow told her.

"Giles had a cell phone?" Xander asked, but dropped the subject when Willow gave him a Look.

"Fine," Buffy said. Taking one last look at the hotel she had another flashback.


*** "Good-bye William." ***


She closed the door behind her.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Angel paced back and forth. The team of doctors that had been working on the person he brought in worked hard. They called out phrases that Angel didn't understand, but figured out they were mainly bad news. Wes, Fred and Gunn had all come when they heard of who Angel had brought. Angel bit his nails while Fred did her best to comfort him. She really didn't know about his past with the blond-haired stranger, but Angel was obviously concerned. Wesley did his best to look distressed, but couldn't hide his obvious disdain for the ailing person. He read a book instead. Gunn just stood at the doorway, looking around like some sort of suspicious FBI agent.

Finally, after almost three hours, a doctor emerged from the operating room to talk with Angel. "You can go in now," he said. Angel thanked and rushed into the room. He stared at the person on the bed. He couldn't think of what to say. The blonde's eyes opened slowly. The gray-blue eyes looked around, dreamily. Then focused on Angel.

"Oh, bugger. I'm in Hell."