Chapter 9

Spike was still there, sitting in his little chair, never leaving Buffy's side except for a few minutes at a time to get stuff to make her more comfortable. He brought her bottles of water and would carefully pour the water into her mouth, making sure not to drop any. This way she wouldn't dehydrate.

He didn't have any food in the crypt though and he certainly wasn't going to leave to get any, but she was sick, and most humans didn't eat very much when they were sick anyway, so she should be fine, at least for a few more day and by that time she should, hopefully, be awake.

He didn't even bother to get himself any food. Vampires could go for days without eating and even if they couldn't, he would rather starve than leave her for long enough to warm up some blood.

He had just returned from getting her some more water, when he realized that there was a change in her condition. –Whether it was good or not was still up for debate in his mind.– She was slightly flushed and was breathing heavily. Spike went running to her side, and immediately started to examine her for some clue as to what was wrong.

All of her bruises and the cuts on her face had healed nicely in the previous days, as well as the cuts on both arms and her left side. The only thing that still needed any attention was the gash on her thigh, but it was nearly closed as well. After checking her over and finding that she was physically fine, he was confused.

She started to whimper and rolled over to her side, pulling the covers closer to her body. Spike took this as a good sign, saying as she hadn't moved so much as an inch over the last two days. This must mean she was simply dreaming and should wake up soon. So, he started to replace and re-light the candles that he had forgotten he had set out when she first arrived.

Being a vampire, he could see just fine in the dark, so it hadn't been a problem when the candles burned themselves out, but it would matter to Buffy. She would want to be able to look around and see where she was. He hoped she would be okay that he hadn't taken her to the hospital or even the Scoobies.

He was so busy that he didn't hear the noise upstairs.