A/n yeah, Yeah I know, I don't update my other stories enough, and you all hate me for starting a new one with out finishing the others.
Warning!: Buffy will seem weak in this story.... Get over it.
Disclaimer: Spike, Angel and Oz. That's all I want, but I don't even have them.... Man this sucks.
Catch Me If I FallIt was dark out, but that didn't really bother Spike as he walked out of the butcher's shop. He would much rather have it dark than light out, seeing as the sun would turn him into a nice pile of smothering ash if he went out in it. Yeah, he really did prefer the moon to the sun any day.
You can look at it with out blinding yourself, and it made for the perfect romantic evening, you know, if you were into that kind of thing, and even if you weren't, it was still nice to just look at.
He entered the cemetery carrying a large brown grocery bag filled with packets of blood. The local butcher never asked questions about what Spike was going to do with the blood, and it was always easy to get it at a low price, if not for free.
He hummed to himself as he walked down the familiar path that would take him back to his crypt, feeling content to know he had gotten the blood for free tonight. Which, of course, put him in a rather good mood. But then again, something always happens to get him out of his good mood.
A scream rang out across the cemetery, and Spike sighed, it was just a normal day in Sunnydale. Somehow someone finds them self in the cemetery, whether they be taking a short cut, or are just weird, and are attacked by some evil... thing.
He dropped the bag of blood he had been carrying, and raced in the direction the scream had come from, wondering why he cared. He kept running over the familiar grounds until he came across the source of the scream.
A petite blonde girl was pinned beneath a rather large man, struggling hard to get away. Her arms, and legs were held down by the man's, she was trapped, and Spike could tell this was no ordinary man.
It was a vampire.
It growled, almost happily, as the girl stopped her struggle to get away, obviously tired from the fight between her and the demon. She whimpered softly, somehow knowing what was coming next. Her eyes closed and she gritted her teeth, wondering how long it would take before this vamp killed her. Drained her of all her blood, and left her pale and lifeless in the middle of the cemetery.
The Vampire slowly lowered his head to the girl's neck, letting the demon inside him take over his facial features. He licked and nipped at her neck, before he prepared to bite down, and drink the precious crimson liquid. But that moment never came as the Vampire on top of the girl disappeared, or more accurately turned to dust.
She opened her eyes as the weight on top of her disappeared, blinking the dust out of her eyes. A man stood over her, dressed in all black, and holding a stake in one hand. The girl recognized him immediately. He looked down at her, seemingly concerned.
"You ok, luv?" he asked as the girl sat up, offering her a hand.
"I'm fine, Spike." She said angrily, shaking her head and taking Spike's offered hand, she stood up.
"Yeah, you are now. But what would have happened if I hadn't come along? He asked, "Would you have been fine then, Slayer?"
"Of course, I had the situation completely under control." She said, brushing the dust off her clothes.
"Right.... And that's what you have teeth marks all over you neck, isn't it?" he asked sarcastically.
She glared at him, "Shut up Spike. I had a plan."
"And what was that, to get killed again?"
Buffy blinked, pain flickering in her eyes before she closed them, and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. It didn't work. A tear fell from her eyes, and she stifled a sob, finding it difficult not to cry.
Spike had known she had been in heaven, hell, he was the only one she had told so far for some odd reason. And all he seemed to do, in Buffy's view, was try to make her life harder than it already was for her.
Spike on the other hand, was actually trying to help, and was regretting what he had just said, instantly realizing that he shouldn't have.
"Buffy, luv, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that...." He said, moving closer to her, and wrapping his arms around her in a protective embrace.
Surprisingly, Buffy didn't object, and hid her face in his chest crying, feeling the pain of coming back, like she had the first couple of days after her resurrection, the first days she had spent out of heaven.
She had been doing this a lot. Crying in his arms, the pain taking full hold of her. She had begun about a week ago, instead of staying silent with a morbid look on her face; she would seek shelter in Spike's arms, crying her eyes out.
Tonight, as she cried in his arms thinking about being ripped out of heaven, Spike stared down at her, stroking her hair gently, mumbling comforting words to her. He was thinking about what he had just seen. Buffy struggling with a vampire, would she have really just given up like that, and let that scum kill her? Take her life without a fight? Was she really that desperate for death?
It was then that his hand fell across a wet sticky area on the back of her head. He looked at his hand as he brought it up to eye level, watching the unmistakable red liquid drip off his fingers.
It was blood. Buffy's blood. Slayer's blood. And now, holding her close to him, he could smell it, strong, and almost intoxicating.
"Luv, you're hurt." He said bluntly.
She looked up at him, but didn't answer, and he saw something he hadn't earlier.
Her face was pale, and her eyes had lost that undeniable sparkle he saw every night she was with him. She was bleeding from more than just the large gash on her head, and she was leaning against him for support, favoring her left leg a little.
"What happened here, pet?" he asked, growing concerned when he saw her wounds.
She didn't answer, instead she focus on trying to stand on her own, but just ended up need Spike as more of a crutch than she did before.
"Buffy?"
She looked up at him, now wrapping her arms around him for support, and whimpering softly.
"Vampires...." She mumbled pulling herself closer to him.
Spike, seeing her obvious distress in the area of standing, sighed, and picked her up fireman style.
"You're a mess, pet." He told her.
Buffy ignored his comment and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder, seemingly unaware that it was Spike who was holding her.
He carried her back to his crypt, and lay her down on his couch, knowing that, a) there was no way he could carry her down a ladder to his bed, and b) if he ever did manage to do that, she would beat the crap out of him for putting her in his bed.
"There you go, luv." He said, grabbing the first aid kit, and kneeling down next to the couch.
Opening the kit, he took out some gauze, and the antiseptic he knew he'd only use if he were helping her, seeing as he was dead and really couldn't get infected.
She winced as he poured the cool liquid over one of her open wounds, cleaning it out, and stinging it like a bee. She bit her lip as Spike continued to fix up all the cuts and scratches. She felt like hell, everything hurt, all because of those damn Vampires.
A couple of a dozen had just came put of nowhere and attacked her that night, and if Spike hadn't come along, she probably would have been killed by the only one she had been to tired to stake.
He looked up at her when she winced, wondering how this could have happened. But then again, Spike had only seen one of the Vampires, not the full set of twenty-four.
Buffy was only wondering how much longer this was going to take, and until the pain would stop. Her foot ached real badly, and it might have been sprained, if not broken during the fight.
"Spike?" she asked, quietly.
"Hm?" he asked, not looking up at her, accessing the damage of her leg.
"Why are you helping me?" she asked.
"You know why." He said, wrapping her foot in an ace bandage.
"No, I don't." she said, and he looked up at her.
"Well, if you don't know, than you haven't been listening to me much lately, luv, 'cause I sure as hell say it a lot."
She rolled her eyes, "Well seeing as you know I never listen to you, why don't you just tell me?"
"Because.... I-I love you, Buffy." He said, quietly, and as fast as he could, knowing fully that she was actually listening when he said it this time.
"You w-what?" she asked; only thinking she had heard him right.
"Nothing, luv, now you need to rest, and seeing as you have one nasty sprained ankle on your hands, or rather, on your foot.... You're going to need to stay put." He said, cleaning up the first aid kit and standing.
She was going to protest, but when she tried to sit up, she immediately found it more to her liking if she just stayed put, even if she would have to deal with him for the rest of the night.