Chapter 5: In the Morning

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The morning did not start well, to say the least. Due to the rather unusual circumstances the night before, Spike had forgotten to shut the blinds, and thus woke up on fire.

"Owww!" he yelled, leaping out of the sunlight and trying to put the flames out. Luckily, only his hand and part of his arm had caught fire.

Unluckily, however, was Buffy's reaction to the whole event. Her first instinct was to go to him and help, but she was scared of the few flames. She curled up into a ball and began screeching piteously.

Spike tried to go to her, but the patch of sunlight lay between them.

Then it was Dawn to the rescue. She shut the blinds first, almost instinctively doing so after having lived with the vampire for several months. Spike was holding Buffy with one arm in an instant. She quieted.

"Thanks, Bit."

"No problem. I don't know why the blinds were open in the first place. Want me to get you the first aid kit?"

Grimacing, Spike nodded. It was pretty gruesome, and he'd rather take care of it himself, but it was hard to do one-handed.

To her credit, Dawn only blanched slightly at the sight of his charred arm. She quickly wrapped the wound, not bothering with antiseptic since no infection could grow on a corpse, walking or not.

"Thanks, Niblet. Look, do me a favor? Get big sis here fed and cleaned up a bit, I'm knackered, gonna catch some sleep."

Seeing the worry on her face at the thought of being left alone with her unstable sister, Spike hastened to reassure her. "You can do it, Bit. Just try to avoid loud noises and sudden movements, ok?"

Dawn nodded bravely.

Gently taking Buffy's face in his hands, Spike explained to her, "Go get some grub with your sis, ok?" He gestured to Dawn, and helped Buffy stand, and gently pushed her in the direction of the door. As she hesitated, he smiled and told her, "You'll be safe with Dawn, and I'll be right here, ok?"

Whether it was his words or his tone of voice, Buffy seemed all right with the situation, and let Dawn lead her down to the kitchen while Spike got some sleep.

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Spike was awoken abruptly by the sound of angry voices.

Bloody hell, not this again! he thought to himself as he staggered out of bed.

Dawn looked up in relief as she saw Spike descending the staircase. "Spike! Thank goodness. Could ya help me out here?"

Spike looked over the scene. It looked as though Dawn and the girls were lined up against Xander, who was ranting and railing again, undoubtedly about Spike.

Voices were being raised as emotions heightened, and Buffy was looking upset, and about ready to run away. That, or hit something, which would be a serious problem with her Slayer strength.

Spike went to take the scared girl in his arms, but Xander intercepted him.

"Stay away from her, Spike!" Xander warned him, giving him a hard shove, followed by some punches, most of which Spike dodged.

Anya and Willow went to pull Xander away from Spike, but Buffy beat them to it. With one punch, she sent Xander flying, crashing into a wall which he slid down, dazed.

Ignoring him, Buffy turned to Spike, and once again looked him over to see if he was ok. And again he reassured her, hugging her tightly.

Meanwhile, Anya and Willow were helping Xander to his feet, though both looked rather angry.

Leading a limping, subdued Xander out to their car, Anya said, "Sorry about this. I'll go get him patched up and try and... explain a few things to him." She sounded angry, and almost ashamed.

Once they'd left, those that remained just stood there, unsure of how to proceed. Buffy was still tightly wrapped around Spike, and not looking as if she'd let go anytime soon.

"W-why don't we all go sit down in the family room," Tara suggested quietly.

They all trooped in there, with Dawn running ahead to make sure all the blinds were closed.

After they were seated, Tara spotted the bandages on the arm Spike wasn't holding Buffy with.

"What happened?" she asked.

"What? Oh, that. Nothin' much, forgot to shut the blinds last night is all, woke up this mornin' on fire. We had a... an interestin' night."

It was Willow's turn to ask what had happened.

Before Spike could speak, Tara said, "Wait. Actually, if you don't mind, Spike, c-could you tell us about when and where you found her? And what's happened since? I don't mean to pry..."

"Nah, it's ok, Glenda." Spike proceeded to give the witches the gist of what happened. He couldn't keep the anger out of his voice a few times, such as when he mentioned bandaging Buffy's hands. Willow and Tara exchanged a guilty look, and he was about to start in on them about the whole idea, how wrong it was, etc. Unconsciously, his body tensed, and Buffy became agitated. He decided to wait till he had the Watcher to back him up to get into that. Patience wasn't usually his forté, but Buffy's warm arms around him helped him calm down.

When he was finished reciting the events of last night and this morning, he gave them a warning. "Look, try not to startle her. You saw what she did to Xander. She did the same to Dawn and me, on accident. Don't get too near her in her sleep, either. Slayer doesn't know her own strength, and when she gets back to her old self she'll feel bad if she hurt any of you lot."

For the first time, Dawn spoke up quietly. "So, you think she'll get back to her old self? Like she used to be? Anya... last night, she said something about zombies..."

Willow, Tara, and Spike all cried out indignantly at that, all of them assuring the girl that Buffy was certainly human.

"As for getting back to the way she was," Spike said, "no, she probably won't be exactly the same. Wherever she's been, whatever's happened to 'er, well, it changes a person. But she'll still be your big sis Buffy... though I don't know if she has any memories, or if they'll come back..." he looked to the witches questioningly.

Willow shrugged. "I, well, I don't really know. We know Angel was wild at first when he came back from hell; it just took time and care for him to get back to normal. I bet that's the same case here, Dawnie," the witch said reassuringly.

"D-do you want us to stay and help, Spike?" Tara asked hesitatingly, unsure of how the offer would be received.

"Dunno how well that'll work," he replied. "Here, let's try something. Me and Dawn'll go upstairs and see if Buffy is ok staying with you two."

Gently unwinding Buffy's arms from around him, he carefully stood up. When Buffy moved to stand up with him, he gestured for her to remain sitting, and repeated the command aloud. "Buffy, stay here with Red -uh, Willow and Tara, ok? You'll be safe with them, I promise."

Buffy reluctantly complied. She whined a bit as Dawn and Spike left the room, but then seemed to settle down. Willow and Tara began talking softly to her, reassuring her they wouldn't hurt her. It seemed ok at first, till Willow tried to scooch closer to Buffy and give her a hug. With Slayer-fast reflexes, Buffy knocked Willow away, and scuttled backward, curling into a ball again. Luckily Willow hadn't been badly hurt. She and Tara tried to approach Buffy to calm her down, but as they came closer she started wailing again.

The second the sound of her crying drifted up the stairs, Spike was down and at her side, holding her and soothing her. Once she was quieter, he looked at the witches, almost vamping in his anger. "What did you do to her?"

"We were just talking! I tried to hug her, and she hit me and started crying," Willow explained tearfully.

"Look, I think you'd better go, she's not gonna let anyone touch her except me and Dawn," Spike said, striving for calmness.

"Y-yes, we'll go. Perhaps we can find a spell t-to tell us what's wrong - uh, if anything is wrong- with Buffy. W-we'll come back tonight, and see if we can do anything," Tara said, gently tugging her girlfriend out the door.

"Good luck, Spike," Willow said as she walked out the door, nursing her bruise from Buffy.

"Yeah, thanks," he muttered gruffly, his eyes focusing on the scared girl in his arms. "Ah, luv, what am I gonna do with you?"

Though a part of him certainly enjoyed having Buffy trust and depend on him, a much larger part wanted her to be herself again, bantering and fighting with him as usual. But till then, he'd make damn sure to take good care of her.

Drusilla had been much more of a handful to deal with, he reflected. Always trying to wander off, occasionally in the deadly daytime, talking with the stars and her dolls, ignoring him sometimes...

I can do this, he reassured himself. Spike's biggest fear was that he'd fail Buffy again, as he had on the tower. But not this time, he vowed. Not this time.

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A/N: Once again, thank you all so very very much for the reviews! It's good to know people are reading :)