(A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, guys! You have been really great! =D Now, go read and review kiddies!)

Chapter 6: Recovering

Spike searched around the school's front yard. Almost half of the school residence filled the green grass coated yard. He promised Xander that they'd go to the Bronze to play pool…and probably pouring what was in his heart into their man-to-man conversation.

A large crowd that started gathering caught his interest. Most of the teenagers were cheering at something that obviously amused them. He sauntered towards the crowd, curiosity taking over him. He nudged a guy's arm to ask what was going on.

"It's chick fight, dude!" The guy he asked replied him in excitement.

Spike still couldn't see clearly the people who had been engaging the crowd's attention. He pushed himself forwards to see the view in a better spot. Some of the people reluctantly gave way for him to be close to the object of the entertainment.

He was bemused as the said chick fight became thrilling. It hadn't been five seconds when he recognized the girls involved in the fight. His amused face screwed up into furiousness. Without any further thought, he walked towards them and hauled up the petite blonde head that now sat on top of the raven-haired girl. He tightened his grip as she struggled to be free. Then he dragged her far from the crowd that turned its attention to the two blondes.

Once they were in a safe and quiet place, Spike dropped her and turned her around. Her face turned into shock the moment she looked at him in the eye. "Spike!" Buffy shrieked at the cold blue eyes. Spike took a deep breath, trying to put his temper down.

"What.The Hell.Was.That.About?"

Spike pronounced the words carefully, he clenched his teeth still attempting to calm himself. His British accent sharpened like a knife slicing through her throat. She winced at the thought. After twelve years of friendship, Buffy had known that when his British accent got sharpened, it meant that Spike was REALLY pissed off.

"I-I was giving a piece of my mind to that whore. I was trying to defend you…" Buffy's eyes pleaded.

"It's not any of your business, Buffy!" Spike snapped.

"Well IT IS if it involves my best friend!" Buffy snapped back, raging.

Spike's face softened, heartened at Buffy's reply. He put his head down for a moment before he faced her still fuming face.

"Buffy, luv, I know you care about me. And I really appreciate it that you defended me. But sometimes, it's better to let it go, especially when it involves some sort of humiliation."

Spike flashed a quick gracious smile. Buffy sighed heavily. She didn't want to argue with Spike right now, especially when he was still hurt by that brainwashing slut. As much as she wanted to put more scratches on the raven-haired girl, she knew better that it wouldn't do anything to help her best friend mend his heart. So she reluctantly decided to let it go.

"Alright. I swear I'm not gonna bring this matter up again. I just...I don't wanna see you get hurt is all. It's bad enough to see you with a girl of your bad taste and have a serious relationship with the worst girl you've ever had."

A smile curled over Buffy's lips when she saw Spike chuckle. She closed her distance and put her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug. Spike, accepting her hug, wrapped his arms around her waist. He pulled back when he heard her whimper. The scratch on her cheek reddened and worsened by the minute.

He touched it lightly, afraid to hurt her.

"Does it still hurt? Come on, I'll take you to the school nurse." Buffy nodded in agreement and they started to walk inside the school building.


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"Hi, Honey! How's school today?" Joyce called out when she heard Buffy open the front door. Buffy didn't reply, she instead made her way to her bedroom but was caught by Joyce's arm first. "Buffy? Oh dear god, what happened?" Joyce gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth. Buffy still didn't say a word. She just bowed her head down.

"Come to the kitchen and tell me everything. Now," said Joyce sternly as she pulled Buffy by the arm to follow her to the kitchen. Joyce then seated her only daughter to one of the stools and she seated herself next to her. She lifted Buffy's chin up with her index finger, demanding an answer.

"Buffy? What happened at school?" She repeated her question as she touched her daughter's scratched cheek with her thumb. Buffy winced a little at her touch. It obviously still hurt.

"I-I...had a fight with Drusilla, you know Spike's psycho girlfriend. Well, actually ex-girlfriend after he caught her cheating with Mr. No-brain-at-all..." Buffy stopped her ramble when she looked at her mom still watching her with a stern look. She held her head down again. A worried look plastered on her face as she silently counted the number of months she would be grounded.

"Way to go, Buffy! Say, did you leave a scratch on her face as well?" Buffy almost fell off from her stool when she heard her mom's response. She looked up to see if the person in front of her was really her mom, not some alien pretending to be her.

"Wh-who are you? Y-you're not my mom! What have you done with my mom? My mom would never ever in a million years say those kinds of things!" Buffy stammered, eyes widened.

She started to climb down from her stool and back away from Joyce. Her mom just rolled her eyes as she climbed down from her stool as well, walked around the island and took an orange juice jar from the fridge.

"I honestly don't like her either. She's...what was the word you said before? Oh yes, psycho...too psycho for William I suppose." Joyce poured the orange juice in a glass and handed it to Buffy.

Buffy was silenced for a few seconds, thinking as she drained the glass. "When did you meet Drusilla? Please don't tell me that Spike brought her to this house."

Buffy cringed at the thought of that psycho woman entering her house and started tearing apart her bedroom. Oh my god! What'll happen to Mr. Gordo if she really was here?

"No, William did not bring her to this house. Even if he did, I would've thrown her out of the house before she landed one foot on the floor."

Buffy giggled as she imagined her mom swinging Drusilla's slim form to the front yard and the horrorified look on Spike's face. "We actually happened to meet at the mall when I did my grocery shopping. That girl kept shooting me death glares when William was talking to me. I didn't know what'd gotten into her. At first I thought she was actually cross-eyed, but it turned out that she's just really...you know, psycho." Joyce grinned at her only daughter. Buffy burst into laughter as Joyce finished her tale, but then flinched a little when she realized that her cheek was still sore.


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For weeks Buffy took care of Spike while he mended his broken heart. She spent almost 7 days in a row sleeping over Spike's place, just to make sure that he wouldn't do any crazy things like killing himself or watching too many episodes of recorded Passions in one day. She even hid all available knives and anything with sharp edges from his kitchen, which started irritating Spike since he couldn't use any tools to fix meals.

Angel was also getting irritated. Every time Angel asked Buffy to go out on a date, she always made excuses saying that Spike was still in bad shape and he really needed her to be there for him.

"Spike, my vanilla body spray is run out. Did you get a new one yesterday?" Buffy called out from Spike's bathroom. Spike barely managed not to roll his eyes right that second.

"Nooo...because I don't need one," he answered in a sarcastic tone. Although he never admitted that he liked it more if he sniffed it on her body.

"By the way, why did you buy this blue Listerine? I don't like this one. I told you the green one is better." Buffy made a face, she put the Listerine bottle away and started brushing her teeth. She had suggested to him hundreds of times to buy the green Listerine because she thought it was much better. But Spike kept saying no since he was the one who used it and he could buy any type of Listerine he wanted to put in his own bathroom.

Already getting annoyed, he stomped his boots to the open bathroom. "Buffy, remember the house at 1630 Revello Drive? You know, the one with the big pretty tree in its front yard?"

"Huh?!?" Buffy answered, dumbfounded. She automatically stopped her brushing. "Yeah I thought so. You see, pet, THAT house is owned by the Summers. And guess what, YOU'RE one of them! But for some reason you don't even live there because you enjoy my place too much and as much as I like your companionship, I'm lacking of my bleeding privacy here!!" His tone rose up at the last statement. Buffy didn't really catch his ramble but she did hear his last sentence. She was silenced for a few seconds doing what seemed like thinking. Spike almost felt guilty of his previous words.

"Oh relax, Spike! You are so NOT lacking of your privacy. What about when I was at school? You get your privacy at that time."

Buffy shrugged her shoulders. Spike almost popped his eyes out at her as if she had grown a second head. He couldn't believe the words she just said. He just yelled at her with overloaded sarcasm, asking her to live in her own house but she just said RELAX?!? Hellooo!! Privacy crisis happening over here!!

"Buffy, WE go to school together remember? So when at THAT sodding time am I going to get some privacy?"

Buffy bit her lower lip, smiled sheepishly at him. Spike just shook his head, feeling a headache coming on. Having this non-existent bratty little sister was more than enough. Thank god he didn't have a real one!

"Okay, fine. I promise you're gonna get your privacy back. But...not until friday-"

"What?!?" Spike asked incredulously. Buffy gave another sheepish smile. "Please Spike...my mom won't be back from Boston till this friday and I sooo do not want to be alone at home for four days!"

Buffy held four fingers up. Her hazel eyes turned into puppy ones, pleading. Spike rubbed his temple with the heels of his fingers, his headache really hit him hard this time. He let out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine. But you're going to sleep in your own bed by Friday, do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal. Now about this Listerine-"

"NO!!"