Pretty Dollies: Our Girl
Part 7
A/N: I just watched the Angel finale. I won't ruin it for anyone who hasn't watched
but I must say this…I HATE YOU JOSS!!! sob sob
Disclaimer: It all belongs to the terrible and wonderful Joss.
'
Spike sighed, watching Buffy read. She was still smarting from their little argument yesterday, he could tell. He loved her so much…why couldn't she see that? He had lost his temper with her, and he was sorry, but she would never acknowledge it. She thought he was evil. Below her notice. Less than a man in the eyes of the great Slayer. Stupid bitch! He thought angrily, eyes narrowing. She tormented him and twisted with his feelings. Led him on, then shut him down. He hated her so much!
Then she paused in her reading to push a strand of hair away from her face. So beautiful…so perfect. He forgot his anger in a second and his face softened. She made him want to compose poetry. Write a thousand verses about her, and know he could write a thousand more and still be unable to capture even a single aspect of his Buffy. He bit his lip. He just had to make things better between them. But what? What could he do?
"Buffy," he started and she looked up quickly, "I don't think Gwinnie's ever been ice skating…"
Buffy glided around the edge of the rink and just let herself feel the ice rushing beneath her skates. She loved skating so much. It was a great idea of Spike's to take Gwinnie. She had, of course, insisted that she did not need any assistance with such a simple and trivial task. That is, until she fall flat on her backside when she stepped onto the ice. Spike was guiding her around the rink. She was wobbling horribly, and looked like a perfectly normal little girl learning how to ice skate.
Buffy executed a quick axel and hummed quietly along to the cheery pop music blaring through the speakers. Surveying the rink again, she saw Spike and Gwinnie had stopped to take a break. She skated effortlessly over to them, and hopped out to sit next to them.
"Having fun, Gwinnie?"
"This is a pointless activity," she said with a pout. Spike grinned at Buffy with a look that told her this was how Gwinnie always reacted to things she couldn't do well. Buffy grinned back before remembering she was upset with him and looked away. The music paused, the lights dimmed, and a new slow, mushy hit began to play. All the couples eagerly skated out to enjoy the special mood.
"Buffy," she looked back to Spike to see him holding out his hand, "May I have this skate?"
No way Mr. Time Bomb Guy! Forget it! Her head shouted. "Sure" said her mouth. He took her delicate hand gently in his cool one and led her out onto the rink. They skated slowly together, hand in hand. Buffy found that it felt perfectly normal to be out with Spike for a couples' skate. That was setting off all sorts of warning bells in her head, but she was pretty much ignoring them.
Buffy felt Spike moving, and soon he was skating on her side, still holding hands, but looping the other arm lightly over her shoulder. She reacted on instinct and slipped her own arm around his waist. They skated in silence, like any of the other couples enjoying each other's company. The song started to wind down and Buffy felt her knees wobbling. I'm tired, she thought helplessly, I've been skating for a couple hours. She slipped slightly and was spun around to face Spike. They stared at each other for a while.
Oh no he's leaning, he's leaning down, and he was indeed. Despite her frantic thoughts, she tilted her face up to look at him. No, get away, don't touch me, don't do this, it's wrong, it's horrible it-was too late. Their lips met, very softly, very tentative, just brushing. Spike tightened his grip around her and she instinctively tensed. In moments she was standing alone on the ice, Spike at least a foot away.
"Sorry…uh…I didn't…well…I know how you…" he became very interested in one of the still-kissing couples a few feet away. Buffy stared at him, feeling for some reason like she had never really looked at him before. He was…a vampire. But so beautiful. She knew that word wasn't usually a compliment for a man, but he truly was beautiful. And he loved her. And she had just kissed him.
"Spike," she began quietly, "I…I'm willing to…try. This." He looked up cautiously, not fully trusting his ears were hearing what she was saying and not what he wished she would, "I know, that you like things…fast. And strong. But…could we be slow?"
"Buffy," he said, skating back to her slowly, "slow, steady, whatever you want. It's always been whatever you want." Buffy smiled shyly at him and he returned it. And watching from the side, Guindeviere smiled as well.
The frightened little girl peered out of the shadows at the bustling airport. The world was much noisier than she had remembered it to be. Possibly it had gotten louder since she entered the Dark, but probably she was just unused to other creatures' presence. Her eyes darted from person to person as they walked by. None of them appeared threatening. She stepped experimentally out of her shadow and was nearly run down by some rolling luggage. She squeaked and darted to the other side of the hallway. This could be more difficult than it appeared.
Tara sat quietly, brushing her hair and thinking. It was so nice to have Willow back in her life. She had been so furious when she found out Willow did a memory charm on her. Willow knew how horrible it had been when Glory messed with her thoughts, but she had done the same. The trust was gone. But Gwinnie helped change that.
She didn't know why the small girl held such sway over everyone in the house, but she wasn't complaining. Gwinnie had showed her that Willow had done what she had because she cared. And that she had admitted to it. She could have never brought it up, and Tara would have never known. But Willow knew she had been wrong, and had apologized. Wonderful, wonderful Willow…
Gwinnie stood at the top of the stairs, calculating how many she could jump at once without shattering her leg bones. Suddenly, the door opened. She hopped all of them at once and landed cat like at the bottom. She looked up from the floor at the giant of a stranger and her eyes widened.
"Buffy-Mummy Mummy-Buffy!" She began to cry without pausing for breath. Buffy jogged in and put a hand on the girl's shoulder.
"What is it Gwinnie? What's going o-" she looked up and her own eyes widened considerably, "Riley."
And it was Riley, imposingly filling the doorway and staring at her.
"You…you have a daughter," he said, voice filled with shock, and, Buffy thought, a little disgust, "And you named her 'Gwinnie'."
"Riley, it isn't what you-" A door opened upstairs and everyone turned to see Spike jumping cheerfully down the stairs wearing only a pair of jeans and drying his soggy hair with a towel.
"Here's my little girl," he growled playfully and swept Gwinnie, who whooped with delight, into his arms. "And my big girl…" he leaned in to kiss her cheek, "What's going on, ducks? I thought I heard comp-" feeling the horrified eyes of Riley Finn boring into him he turned his head slightly, still centimeters away from Buffy's face, "-any."
"Riley, it, it isn't as bad as it looks," Buffy said helplessly.
"You're right, Buff," he said, voice now dripping with disgust, "It's worse."
Buffy stomped down the stairs to the basement. She had finally gotten Riley to come back and talk in the morning.
"What is it?" Spike asked when he heard her. She began to dig through his dresser.
"You've gotta have some liquor in here somewhere…" Spike looked guiltily around and pulled a rather large bottle out from beneath his bed.
"Just some whiskey…whoa, hold it luv," he held his hand out as Buffy snatched it away and took a long drink, "It's pretty strong, and if you aren't used to drinking-" She ignored him and took another swig.
"Shut up Spike."
Ooh, naughty Buffy. RRR!