Disclaimer: I wish I owned Spike! Alas no. I own nothing you recognise from the actual TV show (Or from Harry Potter coz I like to add that sometimes too).

A/N: I lied about the once a week thing huh? I am such a bad person. Shoot me, Stuff me, Mount me.

Chapter 9: Fire and Ice

"Go." Willow said.

"No." Buffy hissed.

"Buffy! It's been two days and I am tired of you pretending as if he doesn't mean anything to you. You're bringing the atmosphere in this house down and you're upsetting Dawn. She's young and she shouldn't be upset." Willow tried to reason with her best friend for all it was worth – it wasn't working. "You've stopped you sister from visiting her best friend. Are you going to stop me from seeing him too?"

Buffy pouted at the red-head. "Fine. Go. I'm not your mother. I can't stop you." She sounded – for all the world – like a PMSing adolescent, not a 21 year old.

"But you can stop me?!" Dawn screeched from the doorway of the kitchen. It was as she had miraculously forgotten that she had gone behind her sister's back and visited him. "Because of you, he doesn't even come over anymore."

Buffy shoved her chair back harshly and stood up. "He's gone Dawn. He should never have been here in the first place and I am glad that we are now back in the world of the living. I have had it ok!" She stomped over to the front door and grabbed her keys and jacket. "I'm going to work."

"Willow!!" Dawn whined.

Willow patted her shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry about it Dawn. Your sister has always been hard headed. Tara said that she's going to visit him today. I have classes from dawn – no pun intended - till dusk so there's no hope for me.

"Just do you homework, stay on your sister's good side and pray for a miracle." She left through the back door, Dawn still sulking. "I hate half term."

There was no way that anyone was going to leave Dawn alone in the house. It was like Buffy thought that if she had too much free will, she would eventually ransack the house. That was probably true in many cases but right now, she had no intention of staying in the house. She would have left if it hadn't been for Tara walking into the kitchen at that moment.

"I heard that you're going to visit Spike." Dawn said optimistically.

Tara levelled her with a stare. "Yes Dawn. I am going alone to see Spike."

Dawn caught the hint loud and clear and pouted – looking exactly like a certain slayer of a sister.

"Please Tara." She wondered if begging would work with her.

Tara poured herself a mug of water. She didn't know why she always used the mugs and not the glasses but it was an old habit and pointless to break it. It wasn't like it was hurting anyone. She pulled up a chair at the island and sat down leaving Dawn to follow suit. "Dawnie, I would take you if I could but your sister doesn't want you to go and she'll be here when I'm there. It'll be a bit obvious if you're not home and I don't want her to shout at me."

Dawn raised an eyebrow. "No, she'd shout at me not you."

"I'm sorry." Tara said honestly.

"It's ok. Buffy will never learn. I bet anything that the day she does is when he dies." Dawn paused "Scratch that, that day he ceases to exist."

Tara took a sip of the cold water and pondered Dawn's predicament. She felt sorry for her. She shouldn't have to be on the receiving end of Buffy's pain. Tara took a few more sips of the water and poured the rest down the sink. "Honey, I have to go to college too. Xander said that he'd be here by 9 o'clock. That's in 10 minutes and I'm late so I have to go. Will you be ok until then?"

"Uh-huh." Dawn nodded vigorously.

Tara stopped and turned to Dawn. "Don't try it. A word of advice. Xander doesn't like Spike and if there's a chance that he can get him into trouble, Xander will take the opportunity." Tara left Dawn to her misery.

"How can he get Spike into trouble? Buffy insists on believing that he doesn't exist anymore which mean's that all the blame is on me." She mumbled.

"What's that Dawnster?"

Dawn turned to see Xander walking in through the kitchen door minus one Anya. Dawn was thankful.

"Doesn't anyone use the front door anymore? Is the back door the cool new thing?" She asked exasperatedly. "So I guess you're on Dawn watch huh? I'd hate to be in your position."

"Nah!" Xander dismissed. "It'll be fun. We can play games and watch movies and talk about boys." Sometimes it was hard to know when he was being sarcastic because all the guises of Xander were used so often that they had all melded into one personality.

Dawn walked into the living room and threw herself onto the couch. It had taken quite a battering these last few days. All she did was jump on it, throw tantrums on it and throw herself onto it. "What fun(!)" She muttered under her breath. Xander Levelle Harris was enemy number two.

Buffy worked tirelessly at the Double Meat Palace. It wasn't that hard since she was the Slayer, all the strength and skill cam in use when she was scrubbing down grills and baked on oven grease. It was a smelly job but someone had to do it.

At this moment, she was tackling the grease with more ease than she had ever done before. This could all be because she was imagining Spike's head on each and every spot. She had seen hide nor tail of him since he had left without so much as a goodbye or thank you two and a half days ago. It made her laugh when she imagined what he would say thank you for. Thank you for breaking my legs or depriving my of the substance I need to live.

She had been an all round bad host and she had treated him like crap yet when he had left, she had been…disappointed?

In the end she supposed it all led down to the same thing. Abandonment. Just like every other man – or beast - that got within hearing range of her.

Her time at work was almost up and there was nothing left to clean due to her efficiency. She turned to the worker next to her. "Is it okay if I leave now Kathy? Everything's clean and I have a sister to berate."

Kathy nodded. She was still serving a customer. "Nothing else needs cooking today and if you're done." She turned to look at the cooking appliances. "Which you are, you can go."

"Thanks!" Buffy stated gratefully and left.

Buffy walked in through the front door to find Dawn in front of the TV and Tara getting up. The witch walked over to Buffy smiling. "Willow's still at college. She should get out in a bit. She called a while ago and told me that she'd meet me at the graveyard. Dawn's watching TV." She said unnecessarily.

Buffy nodded in understanding. "Just go. Be careful though. There aren't just vampires out there you know."

Tara nodded. "I'll be fine."

Tara grabbed her keys, she already had her coat on, and left.

She hated to walk the streets of Sunnydale. In normal cities, you worried about gangs and murderers and thieves but in Sunnydale, you worried about that and Vampires, demons, beasts and various out-of-space lizard types on top of it.

She shivered, huddled into her coat and set of at a faster pace than normal. Why did she have to set off so late? Then she remembered that it was because Buffy didn't want Dawn alone in the house lest she try and escape to join her undead friend; exactly where Tara was headed now. It wasn't like she didn't have any defence. She knew plenty of tricks to keep the normal blood thirsty mortals at bay but when up against demons and such, it would only cause a temporary shock.

Tara finally reached the graveyard and marvelled at the fact that she felt safer here than out on the streets. She supposed it was because Spike lived here and her would never let her get killed. She didn't understand why Buffy didn't get that yet. Spike cared. He still felt, even without his soul and that was saying something.

She walked up to his crypt and stopped short. Something was wrong. For one, there was no safe, protective Spike inside there but there was also something else. What was it?

Just then, something moved out of the shadows. Tara spun around quickly to face the assailant, breath held. She released the breath and smiled when she saw that it was just Willow.

"Oh sorry. Did I scare you?" Willow asked protectively.

"Oh no." Tara smiled. "I'm used to things jumping out and me and catching me unaware." Tara turned back to the crypt looking troubled.

"What?" Willow asked after this went on for quite a few seconds.

Tara turned back to her worriedly. "There's something wrong. I can feel it but I don't know what. I-It feels wrong."

"Spike?" Willow asked confused.

Tara shook her head. "No, he's not in there. It's just the aura."

"Buildings have auras?" Willow asked sceptically.

Tara looked at her sidelong. "No they don't. That's the point. They're not supposed to but this crypt does and it's not a good aura either." Tara looked at her disturbed. "I don't like this. Spike definitely didn't do it."

Now Willow was looking panicked. "We can't do anything until we are sure of what it is. If we do, we may just set whatever it is off.

"Tell Buffy?"

Tara inclined her head but her eyes clearly agreed. "It's the only thing we can do."

The door to the Summers residence burst open and Willow and Tara came rushing inside. "Buffy?!" Willow called loudly, poking her head into the living room and finding it empty. The red-head turned to Tara. "I hope she's not out patrolling or we'll never find her. Probably just missed her."

"What?" Buffy asked, coming down the stairs in her PJ's with a packet of chips in her hand, munching away.

Willow's eyes narrowed. "Well now that's not very healthy is it?"

Buffy raised an eyebrow and asked around the food in her mouth. "Is that what you wanted to say to me?"

Willow smacked herself on the head lightly. "Oops, almost forgot."

"Forgot what?"

"Something is wrong with Spike's crypt." Tara said at last.

Buffy rolled her eyes and set the chips down in the phone table. "Well of course there's something wrong with his crypt. It's got Spike in it."

"Buffy, we're being serious!" Willow scolded. She was all for teasing but not when it was something Tara sensed.

"Look." Tara said quietly. "There was a kind of force around his crypt. He wasn't in it at the time and we don't know what it was."

"We're worried Buffy." Willow said earnestly.

"Guys." Buffy sighed as she took a seat on the couch and turned to talk to them. "Spike can look after himself and I'm sure that it's nothing at all."

Willow took a seat next to her. "I trust Tara. You should too. Remember two years ago when Faith switched bodies with you? Tara had never met you yet at first sight, she knew that something was wrong. It's because of her that we found out and managed to get you back into your respective bodies."

Tara was standing uncomfortably off to the side, half embarrassed and half wanting to disappear.

Buffy could argue with that. It was thanks to Tara and some quick thinking with Giles that managed to restore her identity. Buffy huffed. "I'm not even dressed for the occasion."

"Well get dressed and hurry up. We don't have a lot of time and I'm really worried that something bad is going to happen soon."

Buffy jogged up the stairs. Willow called after her "Don't take your time!"

Buffy came back a short while later in clean clothes and stood in front of them. "What am I going to do? I'm the Slayer. It's not like I can Slay bad energy. Right?"

At the moment, Giles and Xander came through the door. Buffy turned to them bewildered. "Giles? Xander? OK, Giles I understand but why are you here Xander?"

Xander smiled. "I tagged along for the ride. Anya's still at the shop."

"We couldn't try and reverse whatever is put on the crypt because we might trip the spell and set it off so we called Giles." Tara answered.

"You actually decided to help?" Buffy asked. She was shocked and in all fairness, she had every right to be. Giles hated Spike.

"U-um…actually, Willow and Tara didn't er actually tell me what my services were needed for." He replied uncomfortably.

"Well let's go then." Buffy put her coat on. "I still want to get some sleep you know."

"What about Dawn?" Willow asked. Suddenly remembering the youngest Summers.

"Oops." Buffy covered her mouth with her hand. She bought it back down. "She's sleeping right now." Buffy turned to Xander grinning. "Turns out that we do need your help. Stay with Dawn while we deal with this. We shouldn't be too long.

Xander frowned. "Why do I always have to do your babysitting?"

"Because I know you wouldn't say no?"

"Oh just go!" He closed the door behind them.

They stepped into the graveyard and spotted Spike's crypt. Buffy and Willow led the group over to it. Tara didn't like being in the forefront of any line-up and Giles was too busy flipping through one of his many – tatty - texts to watch where he was going without some assistance.

They came to a stop about a meter from the crypt. The door was open and Buffy could see Spike moving around in there.

"Buffy!" Willow hissed.

Buffy turned to face her and saw Willow looking at Tara. Tara had gone unusually rigid and her eyes had widened in apprehension.

"Tara, what is it?" Buffy said adamantly.

Tara turned to them looking stricken. She had seen Spike in there too. All nervousness had vanished. "It's much stronger. We're too late."

Buffy shook her head uncomprehendingly. "No we're not. I can still get him out." She rushed towards the crypt but threw her arm over her eyes when it glowed blindingly red. It gradually turned and unearthly blue and pulsed. Buffy still tried to make her way towards the crypt but the force was too powerful. Her easy rang from it until she couldn't hear her friend's shouts and pleads.

Then suddenly, the crypt caught fire and exploded with such force that it upturned gravestones and threw the Slayer clear across the graveyard as if she was nothing but a piece of fluff. Willow, Tara and Giles followed not long afterwards.

Buffy landed hard and looked up at what had once been Spike's crypt. It was now a pile of burning, smoking rubble. "No." She whispered, stricken. "SPIKE!"

Apparently, this is not the only story that I have left with a cliff-hanger. I do enjoy those the most. Only Spike was in the crypt and fire does kill vampires. :S

Until next time folks.

Dina

Please review and don't flame. Thanx.