A/N: Please Review

Chapter 4: A shoulder to lean on

Buffy walked into the coffee house and looked around to see if Spike was there yet. He wasn't so, she walked over to the same booth as last time. Ordering an herbal tea from a passing waitress in the hope that it would calm her down a little. She had been on edge all day, re running the argument in her mind. Every time that her mom's words came back to her a fresh flood of tears had welled behind her eyes. So far, she had managed to keep them at bay. Barely. She looked at her surroundings to pass the time. She hadn't noticed the previous Saturday how small and intimate it was. There were a couple of sofa's sitting near the counter, a few booths along one side and a few tables scattered around. Most of the customers seemed to be college aged, with some older people coming in and out. It was very cosy and inviting. The waitress returned and sat the tea down, Buffy never looking up. She took out her books so that everything was set for when Spike came in. When that was done it was back to thinking about the argument. And the tears welled up again.

Spike noticed that Buffy was upset as soon as he spotted her sitting at the booth. He felt an urge to put his arms around her, but there was that niggling part that kept reminding him how inappropriate that would be. He stood where he was for a few minutes watching the conflicting emotions that seemed to be fighting to be the overall emotion. Slowly, he made his way towards her, watching her all the way. He wanted to know what was wrong but knew that if she wanted him to know then she would tell him later. After all that was the deal. He fixed a normal look on his face as if he hadn't noticed anything wrong and approached the table

"Hey Buffy" Her head snapped up at the sound of his greeting and she fixed a plastic smile on her face, hiding all traces of her previous upset.

"Hi Spike"

"So how was school today?" he asked her as he took a seat across from her in the booth

"Okay actually" she lied "I actually understood what my history teacher was talking about"

"Good. So what are we studying today?"

"Well I have to give an oral presentation in Spanish on Thursday, thought it might be a good idea to cover that" was her suggestion. She had known about it for weeks and Willow had helped her write it. She just needed to practice it, and she wanted something easy for today, she didn't feel up to working on something new.

That's a good idea" he nodded in agreement "have you written it yet?"

"yeah"

He reached for her folder where everything was "Is it in here?"

"Yeah" she repeated

Spike flipped through the folder until he came to the Spanish section and noticed a few essays "Which one is it?"

"The one on vacations"

"Ok" he took the sheet of paper out and looked over it quickly "this looks good. Did you work on it for long?"

"Well we found out about it a couple weeks ago, so my friend helped me write it, I just haven't had a chance to practice it yet"

"That's fine. We can do that today" he handed her the sheet of paper "Just read over it for a few minutes and I'll go order a drink. You want anything?"

Buffy looked down at her now cold tea "Another herbal tea please"

"Ok, I'll be back in a minute"

Buffy watched as he walked away and then lowered her head to scan over the piece of paper in her hands. The words seemed to blur into one another. The way she felt today nothing was making any sense. Everything was just one big blur. She kept reading until she felt Spike place a mug in front of her. She looked up at him, giving a small smile of thanks, before placing the sheet of paper down in front of her.

"Ready to start?" he questioned "you can use the paper the first couple times"

"Ok, here goes" Buffy took a deep breath and lowered her eyes to the paper, quickly scanning the words.

Spike sat waiting patiently for her to start, he had noticed that it always worked better when people let him do things when he was ready school- wise so he figured it would be the same in this situation. He took a sip of his coffee while he waited. He could tell she was having trouble, but knew that she had to be left to it. So he continued to wait and eventually she started "Durante las vacaciones" she started tentatively "pase dos semanas en Espana con mi amiga y no lo olvidare nunca. Nos alojamos en un piso cerca de la playa. Viajamos en avion porque es mas rapido y comodo pero es bastante caro. Hay un vuelo directo de Sunnydale a Espana. De todas maneras fue un viaje agredable sin problemas. Nos alojamos en un piso co aire acondicionado y lo es necesitan. Hay un piscina en el jardin con flores y arboles por todas portes. El piso era a la vaz amplio y moderno. Ibamos a la playa todos las dias. Tambien, a veces durante el dia nos gustaba pasear en el parque y tomando un refresco uno de sus bares al aire libre. Por la tarde ibamos de juerga descumbriendo la vida nocturno. A veces nos gustaba comer an un restaurante, la comida Espanola es muy rica. No cabe duda de que ha sido la mejor experiencia de mi vido y merece la pena hacerla porque tienes la oportunidad de conocer otras culturas, estar con gente extranjeras de tu edad, practicar idiomas y lo mas importante pasarlo bien. Si pudiera la volveria ahacer manana."

When she finished she looked up, she saw Spike watching and listening intently and blushed a little. When she finished Spike looked up at her with a smile.

"That was good" he praised her "a few pronunciation errors but we can fix that. If you can manage to learn that for Thursday then you should do well" He held out his hand for Buffy to give him the paper, when she did so he proceeded to immediately read what was written.

Buffy was heaven for those few moments. She thought that he couldn't have sounded any sexier than he did when he spoke with his regular accent, but she had been mistaken. He had a great Spanish accent and spoke the language well. His voice was smooth and sexy. She could listen to it for hours she decided. She hardly even noticed that he had finished.

"Did you hear those changes?" he questioned breaking her out of her daydream. She jumped a little but covered her surprise by smiling at him and answering his question

"Yeah, I'll try and remember them"

"Ok, well, here you go. Why don't you have another shot"

She took the sheet again and began to read the words trying to commit them to memory as she went along. She could vaguely remember some changes when Spike had been reading and tried to include them in the right places. She read the whole thing through twice, one after the other and by that time she felt she could remember it. She placed the paper down with the words facing the table deciding to give it a shot without reading. She looked at Spike for confirmation that it was ok to do so, he only shrugged leaving the decision up to her. She had to do it when she was ready.

"I think I can remember it. I'll give it a shot" H nodded and waited for her to start, she was right, she remembered the words almost completely with only a couple of mistakes. She smiled excitedly when she was through

"Oh my gosh, I have never memorised anything that quickly before" she squealed in her excitement leaning over to hug Spike. He responded by patting her back briefly but not allowing himself to really return the hug. If he did it would be too easy to get carried away and that would be bad. When she pulled away he flashed her a smile and congratulated her

"Well done, you did good. You've obviously been working"

"It's because of you. You don't force me to get it right then and there, that helps"

He smiled again, feeling flattered that she thought he really helped her "Well I'm glad you are starting to get it. Your smart"

Buffy blushed again. She wasn't used to the compliments. Her mom thought she was dumb and her sister loved to tell her that she was. It felt good to have someone as smart as Spike think otherwise

"Thanks"

"So our hour is up" he announced "how about that talk?"

"I'd like that£" she told him

"Cool. So I'll go get us some more drinks, these are finished. Same again?"

"Um no I'll have a latte with caramel syrup, please" she requested

"No problem. Be right back"

Buffy put her things back in her bag while she waited and thought about whether or not to tell him about that morning's argument. She knew that he probably wouldn't judge her but she wasn't sure if that was a bit too personal a topic. She decided as she saw him on his way back that she wouldn't tell him. She couldn't face it. He sat down again and pushed her drink towards her.

"So how have things been since Saturday?" he started the conversation with what he thought would be a neutral, he had no idea what a can of worms it potentially was that had just been opened.

Buffy smiled a fake smile and spoke "Ok, I guess. Really just the usual. Had a few rows with mom, but that's nothing out of the ordinary. I told my friends about our first session"

"Cool"

"Yeah, Xander doesn't really like the idea of my being tutored by a guy, especially a college guy" she finished with a laugh

Spike tried to look cool as he asked the next question "Xander, is that your boyfriend?"

"Xander?" she exclaimed "A world of no. He's my best friend. He has a crush on me, but I only like him as a friend. He just gets jealous and overprotective sometimes"

"Well, that's a good thing. At least you know he cares"

"Yeah I guess" she sighed "it's just that sometimes it gets old"

"Give him a break. He just cares about you"

Buffy looked down at her watch and sighed

"Well looks like my half hour is up with doctor Spike. I should go. Spike was shocked, he hadn't noticed how much time had passed. He stood up gathering his own things as Buffy gathered hers

"I'll walk you out" he told her

They walked out together and stood by the door to say their goodbyes. Buffy's cell phone beeped indicating a message. She took read the message 'Buffy, you should be home by now. Your lesson finished 40 minutes ago. But I can probably guess what you are doing. Get straight home hen you're finished, we have some talking to do. Mom' Buffy was fuming. The earlier argument came to her mind again and she decided that she liked Spike and since her mom seemed to think that she was a slut and that she was busy screwing Spike, she may as well do just that. She stuffed her phone in her jacket, looked at Spike and got to work.

"Spike I want to show you something, but not here. Follow me" she turned and walked to the alley at the side of the coffee house and turned up it.

Spike looked puzzled but followed her anyway. He figured it was innocent enough and that she just wanted to talk to him somewhere a bit more privately than the middle of the street. He walked up to her and was taken by surprise when she grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pressed her lips to his. He tried to protest for only a moment before giving in to the kiss. He ran his tongue over her lips begging entrance which she readily granted. Their tongues were locked in a fierce battle. Buffy spun them so that Spike was against the wall. She ran her hand down his chest to place over the growing bulge in his pants. She rubbed up and down softly at first slowly growing in strength and speed. Spike seemed to have lost all sense of reason. He moaned at the sensations running through him, giving himself over to them completely. Buffy trailed kisses down his jaw to his throat. Suddenly Spike seemed to come to his senses and pulled back, ignoring the constant ache of need he was feeling. He wanted her yes, but not like that and he was going to tell her that. Buffy looked at him with a question in her eyes

"What? Don't you want to?"

"Yes, I think that's obvious. But Buffy. I don't want you like this. You're not that kind of girl" he insisted

"Yes I am" she shouted "everyone seems to think I am"

"Buffy what are you talking about?" he asked softly. She stood away from him and he stepped towards her, begging her with his eyes to tell him. And then the floodgates opened. All the tears she had been holding back started to fall and she started to open her heart and pour her hurt out

"I'm a slut. Or at least that's what my mom seems to think. Seems to think I've been with half of sunnydale. If I wear a certain outfit I must be looking for a good screw because god forbid it could simply be a case of liking the outfit." She cried

Spike looked at her sympathetically. That explained why she had looked so down when he had saw her sitting at the booth earlier before he had the chance to interrupt she started again

"She seems to think I must be fucking you, after all you are a guy. Thinks it's my way of getting it easy in these sessions. I sleep with one guy, one time and all of a sudden I'm the town whore. She doesn't trust me. And it hurts. It hurts so much" she fell to her knees sobbing and Spike went to her, kneeling beside her he wrapped his arms around her soothing her

"You don't deserve that Buffy. You're a good person. Don't let yourself be put down like that."

"No one cares about me anymore" she whispered

"Yes they do. I care" he whispered in her ear. Holding her close and allowing her to cry as much as she needed.