Chapter 7
Dawn slumped down on the couch, letting the heavy backpack fall to the floor. "Makeup homework. I think they gave me enough for the semester. I only missed two weeks. There really can't be this much, can there?"
Spike chuckled. "You'll be fine, Niblet. I'll help where I can."
"Oh goody, I have this essay paper to write in history. You can write it for me."
"Depends on what history." Spike said.
"Oh and a doctors note. I have to have a doctor's note. I think I'm gonna have to go back to the running away thing even though that's not going to be fun." Dawn said. She would have to go to run away counseling and a bunch of other junk if she decided to use the run away story.
"I think we can get you a doctor's note, Niblet. Just goin to take a little bit of creativity."
They used the sewers to get into the emergency medical clinic. Spike glanced around and leaned over whispering the plan in Dawn's ear. She nodded. She stuck to the corners of the clinic's waiting room. Spike walked up to the admission's desk.
"Yeah, I think I need to see a doc." Spike said. He swayed on his feet a bit as he talked and generally acted over dramatic.
The young nurse looked up at him and smiled. "What's wrong?"
"I think I'm having a bloody heart attack. Chest hurts like bloody hell and my arm has gone all numb and I'm pale. Don't I look pale to you?" Spike said.
A line creased the nurse's pretty features. "Alright then, let me go ahead and get you into a room. We'll listen to your heart; take your blood pressure, things like that." The nurse said.
Spike nodded and waited until the nurse had brought around a wheelchair she insisted he use. He winked at Dawn as the nurse wheeled him down a short hall into one of the examining rooms. Dawn scooted closer to the hallway they had taken Spike down. She cocked her head and listened. Spike had told her to wait until all hell had broken loose. She watched as the young pretty nurse, now considerably paler then she had been, came out of the examining room and poked her head in another room.
"Doctor, there's a man in room 3b that I think you might want to take a look at." The nurse said.
Dawn heard an exasperated voice come from inside the room, "Jeanne, I'm a bit busy right now. I'll be with him as soon as I'm done here."
"No, Doctor, I really think you need to see this man, he uhm, well he, for all practical purposes, appears dead." The nurse said.
Dawn bit her lip to keep from giggling.
"Then call the morgue and notify the family. I'll be in there to make an examination as soon as I'm done here." The disembodied voice said.
"That's the problem Sir, he's not dead. He's uhm, well he sounds British and he called me a doll and told me I should probably get the doctor now." The nurse said.
The doctor emerged from his room rather quickly and followed the nurse into exam room 3b. There was a rustle of excitement and voices from Spike's room. Dawn heard Spike's voice proclaim rather loudly "Well do I sound bloody dead? I think it's a thing a bloke would know."
Dawn giggled. When the other nurse was called she snuck down the hall way, hazarding a peek into exam 3b. They were all gathered around Spike poking him with needles, drawing blood and hooking various machines up to him.
"Paddles? You are not shocking me with those bloody things. I don't care if you think my heart does need to be started. You know people are generally less conscious when you use those things. I've seen ER and it looks like it hurts like bloody hell." Spike said loudly.
Dawn bit her lip to contain her laughter. Spike was having entirely too much fun with this. She continued down the hallway and slipped into the doctor's office. His office was a mess of file folders, empty coffee mugs and medical texts. Buried under a stack of file folders she found what they came for, a little blue note pad with Sunnydale Emergency Clinic on the top of it. Underneath the heading was the address, telephone number and the name Dr. Melvin Andrews. Dawn peeled several pieces of paper off the notepad. She carefully folded them and slipped them in her pocket. She snuck back down the hall and into the waiting room. She bumped into someone and loudly fussed over them.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going. You are okay aren't you? Oh, gosh, I'm sorry." She then ran to the small parking garage and disappeared into the sewers to wait for Spike.
Spike heard Dawn fussing over whoever she'd bumped into. He grinned. She'd gotten the notepad. He stood up, removed a blood pressure cuff from his arm, pulled an IV out, grabbed the bag of blood they were about to transfuse into him and slipped on his jacket. The nurses and doctor stood agape looking at him.
"You know, I feel better, really. I'll just be going now." He strolled out of the clinic. The nurse tried half heartedly to stop him. He jumped down into the sewers a few moments later and grinned roguishly at Dawn. He held up the bag of blood. "Want to stop by the video store? We can have dinner and a movie."
Dawn laughed and tucked her hand under his arm. They walked back to the crypt. Dawn let Spike choose the movie. They ended up watching Lethal Weapon 4. Dawn spent most of the movie curled up next to Spike working on her homework. Occasionally she'd look up and ask him a question. He was useless in Math and Science but he managed to make the English, History and Art homework interesting.
The next morning Dawn showed up at school with an official looking, handwritten, signed note by one Dr. Melvin Andrews, an expertly forged scrawl of a signature. The school secretary barely glanced at the note and nodded, ordering her to get to class before she was late.
At lunch, Dawn was considering if she actually wanted to find out what the surprise in Mexican Surprise was when her friend Janice slid into a seat next to her.
"So, Dawn, what's the deal? I called your house yesterday and your sister said you weren't living there anymore."
"Oh, yeah, she and I had a fight and I sort of moved out." Dawn said poking her food with a plastic fork.
"Where are you staying?" Janice asked.
"With my boyfriend, only don't tell Buffy that if you see her. He's sort of older then me and she would have kittens if she knew." Dawn said.
"Oh, a college guy," Janice said knowingly.
"No, uhm sort of older then that." Dawn said.
Janice's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Older then college? How old is he?"
"Uh, 25," Dawn said. It sounded good. She had no idea how old Spike had been when he was turned.
"Ok, you have so got to bring him to the Bronze so I can meet him." Janice said.
Dawn smiled. The idea actually appealed to her. So far she and Spike had stayed pretty cloistered in his crypt hiding from Buffy. It might be fun to take him out and show him off. He was a total honey to look at. "Bronzing tonight then?" She asked.
"Of course, like there's any other place to go in Sunnydale. It might be kind of slow but it'll be better then sitting at home." Janice said.
Dawn nodded. "Kay, maybe I'll see you there tonight."
The rest of the day went off pretty easily. Dawn managed to catch up pretty easily. She walked back to the crypt and jumped down the trap door, forgoing the stairs and landing in a crouch. She found Spike sprawled across the bed reading something, something that looked suspiciously familiar. He didn't look up, even though she knew there was no way she could have snuck up on him. He would have smelled her coming long before she got there.
"Spike, what are you reading?" Dawn asked walking to the bed.
"Your diary," he replied nonchalantly.
Dawn's eyes widened and she sputtered "my-my-my what?"
"Diary, might want to sit down, Niblet. Don't feature you getting a lump on the head if you faint. Concrete floor's hard." Spike said without looking up from the page he was reading.
Dawn sat down on the edge of the bed and snatched the book from his hands. "This is not alright. A diary is personal, private, you can't just go and read it."
"Didn't read all of it, just the bits about me." Spike said lighting a cigarette.
Dawn blushed. She vividly remembered the "bits" she'd written about Spike. She had gone on for quite a while about his washboard abs and his blue eyes, not to mention the wicked little grin he had. She was also really afraid she remembered chronicling a list of things she'd like to do with Spike but she was desperately trying to block it out.
"One question though, I'm assuming it's a good thing to be referred to as various things food items, things you eat, like muffin, honey." Spike said. His blue eyes twinkled with a mischievous sparkle and that wicked little grin spread across his face.
She smacked him in the chest with the diary. "Yes it's a good thing and this is still not okay! Those are like the most private thoughts." Dawn said. She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to look at him.
He crawled up on his knees behind her and moved her long hair to the side. He nibbled on her neck and against her will she trembled. "Come on, Niblet. Don't be angry with me, just wanted to know what you thought about me. I swear I skipped over all the parts that didn't say Spike, well except for the part where some bloke asked you out. He hasn't asked again has he? Because if he has I'll spill his entrails out and play with them while he watches."
Dawn grinned in spite of herself. "No, he hasn't asked me out again, but I bet he wouldn't read my diary."
"Oh, so that's how it is, huh?" He started tickling her. Dawn tried to wiggle away squealing between giggles. Spike captured her wrists and held them easily over her head. He twined one leg between hers, effectively holding her down. He begin tickling her with his free hand. Dawn laughed until she was red and gasping for breath.
"Okay, okay I surrender." She panted.
He slid his hand back up her body and felt the shivers that went through her at his touch. He rested his fingers against her jawbone and just looked at her. His eyes lost their twinkle and went soft, darker somehow. Dawn caught her breath and bit down on her bottom lip. She struggled for the breath to speak and the lack of it had nothing to do with the tickling she'd just endured. "You know, if you wanted to know what I thought of you, you could have asked."
"Would you have told me?" Spike asked. His voice was soft and filled with tenderness.
"You mean would I have told you that there's no place I'd rather be then right here right now with you?" Dawn said.
He smiled. "Something like that."
"You know, it's not really fair. You know what I think about you now. I don't." Dawn whispered. She cast her eyes away, afraid to hear what he had to say.
He turned her face so that she was looking at him again. "You make me want/Things I did not realize I wanted/Like sunlight to see if your eyes are the same shade of blue/As they are beneath the secret of the moon/You make me want warmth/ So that I may warm your body as you do mine/You make me want a heart/So that I have it to give to you/You make me want."
Dawn's eyes filled with tears. She exhaled a slow, shaky breath. He smiled at her. It was all more then she could handle. The tears spilled over on to her cheeks. He kissed them away. She placed her hands on both sides of his face, pulling his mouth to hers. Her lips explored his. He let her take her time. Her tongue slipped into his mouth. She marveled at the coolness of it. He tried to let her set the pace, tried to keep the desire, the need out of the kiss. He couldn't. Slow, sweet kisses evolved into wet, hungry mouthfuls. He pushed away when he smelled the first hint of fear in her. She sat up and scrubbed her hands over her face, running them through her hair.
"God, I'm sorry. I-"she said. Her voice was shaky, unsure.
"No reason to be sorry, Niblet. I'm not. No reason to hurry either. I've got all the time in the world." Spike promised her. He pulled her into his arms. He listened as her heartbeat slowed down gradually. He didn't let her go until her breathing was normal and steady. She leaned back and looked at him, ran her finger down the sharp line of his cheekbone.
"Let's go to the Bronze tonight." She said.
"What the bloody hell for?" He asked.
"I want to show you off." She said.
He laughed. "Show me off?"
"Yup, no one else has a boyfriend as beautiful as you." She said.
He chuckled. "I've been a lot of things to a lot of women; I don't think I've ever been a boyfriend, kind of like the idea of it. By the way, you tell anyone the Big Bad recites poetry to you and I'll tickle you 'til you piss your pants." He grinned.
She smiled back at him. "It'll be our secret." She preferred it that way anyhow.
Dawn slumped down on the couch, letting the heavy backpack fall to the floor. "Makeup homework. I think they gave me enough for the semester. I only missed two weeks. There really can't be this much, can there?"
Spike chuckled. "You'll be fine, Niblet. I'll help where I can."
"Oh goody, I have this essay paper to write in history. You can write it for me."
"Depends on what history." Spike said.
"Oh and a doctors note. I have to have a doctor's note. I think I'm gonna have to go back to the running away thing even though that's not going to be fun." Dawn said. She would have to go to run away counseling and a bunch of other junk if she decided to use the run away story.
"I think we can get you a doctor's note, Niblet. Just goin to take a little bit of creativity."
They used the sewers to get into the emergency medical clinic. Spike glanced around and leaned over whispering the plan in Dawn's ear. She nodded. She stuck to the corners of the clinic's waiting room. Spike walked up to the admission's desk.
"Yeah, I think I need to see a doc." Spike said. He swayed on his feet a bit as he talked and generally acted over dramatic.
The young nurse looked up at him and smiled. "What's wrong?"
"I think I'm having a bloody heart attack. Chest hurts like bloody hell and my arm has gone all numb and I'm pale. Don't I look pale to you?" Spike said.
A line creased the nurse's pretty features. "Alright then, let me go ahead and get you into a room. We'll listen to your heart; take your blood pressure, things like that." The nurse said.
Spike nodded and waited until the nurse had brought around a wheelchair she insisted he use. He winked at Dawn as the nurse wheeled him down a short hall into one of the examining rooms. Dawn scooted closer to the hallway they had taken Spike down. She cocked her head and listened. Spike had told her to wait until all hell had broken loose. She watched as the young pretty nurse, now considerably paler then she had been, came out of the examining room and poked her head in another room.
"Doctor, there's a man in room 3b that I think you might want to take a look at." The nurse said.
Dawn heard an exasperated voice come from inside the room, "Jeanne, I'm a bit busy right now. I'll be with him as soon as I'm done here."
"No, Doctor, I really think you need to see this man, he uhm, well he, for all practical purposes, appears dead." The nurse said.
Dawn bit her lip to keep from giggling.
"Then call the morgue and notify the family. I'll be in there to make an examination as soon as I'm done here." The disembodied voice said.
"That's the problem Sir, he's not dead. He's uhm, well he sounds British and he called me a doll and told me I should probably get the doctor now." The nurse said.
The doctor emerged from his room rather quickly and followed the nurse into exam room 3b. There was a rustle of excitement and voices from Spike's room. Dawn heard Spike's voice proclaim rather loudly "Well do I sound bloody dead? I think it's a thing a bloke would know."
Dawn giggled. When the other nurse was called she snuck down the hall way, hazarding a peek into exam 3b. They were all gathered around Spike poking him with needles, drawing blood and hooking various machines up to him.
"Paddles? You are not shocking me with those bloody things. I don't care if you think my heart does need to be started. You know people are generally less conscious when you use those things. I've seen ER and it looks like it hurts like bloody hell." Spike said loudly.
Dawn bit her lip to contain her laughter. Spike was having entirely too much fun with this. She continued down the hallway and slipped into the doctor's office. His office was a mess of file folders, empty coffee mugs and medical texts. Buried under a stack of file folders she found what they came for, a little blue note pad with Sunnydale Emergency Clinic on the top of it. Underneath the heading was the address, telephone number and the name Dr. Melvin Andrews. Dawn peeled several pieces of paper off the notepad. She carefully folded them and slipped them in her pocket. She snuck back down the hall and into the waiting room. She bumped into someone and loudly fussed over them.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going. You are okay aren't you? Oh, gosh, I'm sorry." She then ran to the small parking garage and disappeared into the sewers to wait for Spike.
Spike heard Dawn fussing over whoever she'd bumped into. He grinned. She'd gotten the notepad. He stood up, removed a blood pressure cuff from his arm, pulled an IV out, grabbed the bag of blood they were about to transfuse into him and slipped on his jacket. The nurses and doctor stood agape looking at him.
"You know, I feel better, really. I'll just be going now." He strolled out of the clinic. The nurse tried half heartedly to stop him. He jumped down into the sewers a few moments later and grinned roguishly at Dawn. He held up the bag of blood. "Want to stop by the video store? We can have dinner and a movie."
Dawn laughed and tucked her hand under his arm. They walked back to the crypt. Dawn let Spike choose the movie. They ended up watching Lethal Weapon 4. Dawn spent most of the movie curled up next to Spike working on her homework. Occasionally she'd look up and ask him a question. He was useless in Math and Science but he managed to make the English, History and Art homework interesting.
The next morning Dawn showed up at school with an official looking, handwritten, signed note by one Dr. Melvin Andrews, an expertly forged scrawl of a signature. The school secretary barely glanced at the note and nodded, ordering her to get to class before she was late.
At lunch, Dawn was considering if she actually wanted to find out what the surprise in Mexican Surprise was when her friend Janice slid into a seat next to her.
"So, Dawn, what's the deal? I called your house yesterday and your sister said you weren't living there anymore."
"Oh, yeah, she and I had a fight and I sort of moved out." Dawn said poking her food with a plastic fork.
"Where are you staying?" Janice asked.
"With my boyfriend, only don't tell Buffy that if you see her. He's sort of older then me and she would have kittens if she knew." Dawn said.
"Oh, a college guy," Janice said knowingly.
"No, uhm sort of older then that." Dawn said.
Janice's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Older then college? How old is he?"
"Uh, 25," Dawn said. It sounded good. She had no idea how old Spike had been when he was turned.
"Ok, you have so got to bring him to the Bronze so I can meet him." Janice said.
Dawn smiled. The idea actually appealed to her. So far she and Spike had stayed pretty cloistered in his crypt hiding from Buffy. It might be fun to take him out and show him off. He was a total honey to look at. "Bronzing tonight then?" She asked.
"Of course, like there's any other place to go in Sunnydale. It might be kind of slow but it'll be better then sitting at home." Janice said.
Dawn nodded. "Kay, maybe I'll see you there tonight."
The rest of the day went off pretty easily. Dawn managed to catch up pretty easily. She walked back to the crypt and jumped down the trap door, forgoing the stairs and landing in a crouch. She found Spike sprawled across the bed reading something, something that looked suspiciously familiar. He didn't look up, even though she knew there was no way she could have snuck up on him. He would have smelled her coming long before she got there.
"Spike, what are you reading?" Dawn asked walking to the bed.
"Your diary," he replied nonchalantly.
Dawn's eyes widened and she sputtered "my-my-my what?"
"Diary, might want to sit down, Niblet. Don't feature you getting a lump on the head if you faint. Concrete floor's hard." Spike said without looking up from the page he was reading.
Dawn sat down on the edge of the bed and snatched the book from his hands. "This is not alright. A diary is personal, private, you can't just go and read it."
"Didn't read all of it, just the bits about me." Spike said lighting a cigarette.
Dawn blushed. She vividly remembered the "bits" she'd written about Spike. She had gone on for quite a while about his washboard abs and his blue eyes, not to mention the wicked little grin he had. She was also really afraid she remembered chronicling a list of things she'd like to do with Spike but she was desperately trying to block it out.
"One question though, I'm assuming it's a good thing to be referred to as various things food items, things you eat, like muffin, honey." Spike said. His blue eyes twinkled with a mischievous sparkle and that wicked little grin spread across his face.
She smacked him in the chest with the diary. "Yes it's a good thing and this is still not okay! Those are like the most private thoughts." Dawn said. She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to look at him.
He crawled up on his knees behind her and moved her long hair to the side. He nibbled on her neck and against her will she trembled. "Come on, Niblet. Don't be angry with me, just wanted to know what you thought about me. I swear I skipped over all the parts that didn't say Spike, well except for the part where some bloke asked you out. He hasn't asked again has he? Because if he has I'll spill his entrails out and play with them while he watches."
Dawn grinned in spite of herself. "No, he hasn't asked me out again, but I bet he wouldn't read my diary."
"Oh, so that's how it is, huh?" He started tickling her. Dawn tried to wiggle away squealing between giggles. Spike captured her wrists and held them easily over her head. He twined one leg between hers, effectively holding her down. He begin tickling her with his free hand. Dawn laughed until she was red and gasping for breath.
"Okay, okay I surrender." She panted.
He slid his hand back up her body and felt the shivers that went through her at his touch. He rested his fingers against her jawbone and just looked at her. His eyes lost their twinkle and went soft, darker somehow. Dawn caught her breath and bit down on her bottom lip. She struggled for the breath to speak and the lack of it had nothing to do with the tickling she'd just endured. "You know, if you wanted to know what I thought of you, you could have asked."
"Would you have told me?" Spike asked. His voice was soft and filled with tenderness.
"You mean would I have told you that there's no place I'd rather be then right here right now with you?" Dawn said.
He smiled. "Something like that."
"You know, it's not really fair. You know what I think about you now. I don't." Dawn whispered. She cast her eyes away, afraid to hear what he had to say.
He turned her face so that she was looking at him again. "You make me want/Things I did not realize I wanted/Like sunlight to see if your eyes are the same shade of blue/As they are beneath the secret of the moon/You make me want warmth/ So that I may warm your body as you do mine/You make me want a heart/So that I have it to give to you/You make me want."
Dawn's eyes filled with tears. She exhaled a slow, shaky breath. He smiled at her. It was all more then she could handle. The tears spilled over on to her cheeks. He kissed them away. She placed her hands on both sides of his face, pulling his mouth to hers. Her lips explored his. He let her take her time. Her tongue slipped into his mouth. She marveled at the coolness of it. He tried to let her set the pace, tried to keep the desire, the need out of the kiss. He couldn't. Slow, sweet kisses evolved into wet, hungry mouthfuls. He pushed away when he smelled the first hint of fear in her. She sat up and scrubbed her hands over her face, running them through her hair.
"God, I'm sorry. I-"she said. Her voice was shaky, unsure.
"No reason to be sorry, Niblet. I'm not. No reason to hurry either. I've got all the time in the world." Spike promised her. He pulled her into his arms. He listened as her heartbeat slowed down gradually. He didn't let her go until her breathing was normal and steady. She leaned back and looked at him, ran her finger down the sharp line of his cheekbone.
"Let's go to the Bronze tonight." She said.
"What the bloody hell for?" He asked.
"I want to show you off." She said.
He laughed. "Show me off?"
"Yup, no one else has a boyfriend as beautiful as you." She said.
He chuckled. "I've been a lot of things to a lot of women; I don't think I've ever been a boyfriend, kind of like the idea of it. By the way, you tell anyone the Big Bad recites poetry to you and I'll tickle you 'til you piss your pants." He grinned.
She smiled back at him. "It'll be our secret." She preferred it that way anyhow.