A/N: sorry for the kind of short chapter, but anything else would be just
filler and I had to keep away from the smut before the spuffy-ites decide
to kill me. Hope you enjoy and please review.
Disclaimer: I keep telling these people that I don't own anything, especially not the lines from Smashed. And Jake? He owns himself. Thanks.
CHP 8 Not smashed, but broken.
I woke up first that morning, with the Slayer still snoozing peacefully curled against me. I stroked her hair softly, trying not to wake her. She slowly opened one eye and looked at me before she smiled. We followed almost exactly the same routine from the previous morning, me folding the sheets while she checked in on Willow, Dawn and Amy and then took her turn in the bathroom. She opened the bathroom door; the sweet vanilla smell permeated the air as steam from her shower billowing out, just as I reached the top of the stairs. I smiled at her as I ducked past her into her bedroom to grab my bag and she followed me in, waiting until I left to close the door behind me. I got in and out of the shower quickly and was waiting for her downstairs. Dawn raised her eyebrows at me but continued eating her cereal as I came in and she nodded at my good morning. I found a banana and poured a glass of juice so I could be ready to hand it over to Buffy as she came in a few seconds later.
"So when did you get here?" Buffy and I both looked at her sister at the same time, but Buffy answered for me.
"What are you doing today, Dawnie?"
"Oh, I'm going to meet Tara for our big movie and milkshake fun-day. What are you guys doing?"
"Well, we've got that frozen guy from the museum last night we have to find out what did that to him. The Scoobies are meeting at the Magic Box this afternoon." I looked at my watch, realizing it was eleven o'clock, as Willow came in, looking not too badly for her breakup, and went to the fridge. She didn't even bat an eye when she saw me, but I heard her psychic message to me clearly while she wore what I would learn to be her mischievous face, 'Good morning and I hope you both got a lot of rest last night.' I nodded at her, but she didn't send me anything else. Willow grabbed an apple before heading back up the stairs. Shortly Buffy and I left, quietly so as not to wake up the still sleeping Amy. We got in the car and I took her to lunch, before driving to the Magic Box.
Once we arrived, I took a spot in the background as the scoobies greeted each other. I nodded at Xander, but he looked at me guardedly as he nodded back. I really didn't think he liked me. We waited for Willow before really getting started with the research. Xander had brought some newspapers that we started going through looking for stories about the museum guy. Willow found the first article and Xander continued reading about how everything in the dude's system just slowed down and he was still in a coma. I pulled a book off the shelf next to me and started going through it as Willow pulled out her laptop. I watched as Buffy started saying how great it was to see her go back to the basics, but then change her mind once she saw willow using magic to look through the internal police records.
I didn't know what the big deal was for a witch to use magic, so I kept my mouth shut and watched as Xander feigned a yawn and claimed to be tired while claiming that what Willow was doing was tiring as well. Willow seemed to get defensive as she asked what the deal was. I gained admiration for Anya as she threw what she thought right out in front of everyone. Willow was defending herself to her friends, but I was reading about something that caught my attention. After they quieted down, the whole group kept reading, first finishing the newspapers before moving into the books, looking for any clues about either demons or the diamond. Willow was the first to leave, heading right home from what she said, but it wasn't long before I got a phone call saying she was going out with Amy. It was dark outside by the time Xander finally came upon a lead. Unfortunately it was a lead in a D&D manual. How frustrating was this? Anya further clarified that there was no such thing as what we were looking for and proclaimed our search hopeless. I stayed quiet as the friends put themselves down.
"We need new brains. What's up with Willow?" I looked at Buffy, letting her answer for me.
"Out with Amy, I guess."
"Oh great, someone to do more magic with." Anya threw her two cents in easily.
"But at least she's not all cooped up and crying. That's forward momentum. I know that I don't know everything that happened with her and Tara but it's-"
"Tara thinks Willow's doing too much magic; she's not the only one." Xander seemed sincere in his criticism of his friend. So that's what happened. I understood now why Tara left after what I now guessed was Willow's spell gone wrong.
"I know, but I think she'll be fine. I mean, its willow, she of the level head."
I stopped listening to the conversation between the rest of the scoobies as I got caught up in the text I was reading. I looked at the cover to verify it was one of the watcher diaries. It looked like Giles wasn't the first watcher to read the prophesy that was haunting me and see if it could be enacted to help his Slayer. I was absorbed by the text on how many different people this watcher had researched, including Angel, and even of the Seer he'd paid to search for the man it mentioned. All was to no avail, as his Slayer was shortly killed. I was pulled out of my reverie by the phone ringing and Buffy got up to answer it.
"Hello, Magic Box." Then she glanced at me and lowered her voice as she looked puzzled and continued to talk.
"Spike?" was all I heard for a bit and then,
"You have a lead on this frost monster thingy?" She listened for a bit longer before hanging up without saying goodbye.
"So, what did captain peroxide want?" Xander asked what was really on my mind. I checked myself to make sure I wasn't broadcasting. How could a single mention of spike get me so fired up?
"Nothing." It wasn't long before the Slayer called a halt to our research craze and she asked me if I wanted to patrol. After saying goodnight to Xander and Anya we went our separate ways. Our path took us downtown and towards some alleys while I tried to find a way to lead into the topic I wanted to talk with her about.
"I think you should watch out for Spike." Okay, so I couldn't really find a way to lead it in.
"Spike? He's harmless. Unless this is some sort of over protecty boyfriend kind of thing here, 'cause then that could be kinda sweet." Boyfriend? Did she just say boyfriend? I brought myself back to the subject at hand just as Spike made an unexpected entrance.
"Speak of the devil." I said as I nodded a greeting at spike and then walked a short distance away to answer my vibrating phone.
"You never showed, slayer."
"My night is now complete." I started talking to Tara as I vaguely heard Buffy ask Spike to get out of her way and get out of here. I thanked Tara and hung up with her just in time to see Buffy knock spike a good one. Spike waited for a second before backhanding her with his left, turning the Slayer around. Just as I suspected, Spike's chip had a short or something; no pain.
"Oh the pain. The pain... is gone." I started forward to help Buffy, but she put up her hand and I stopped.
"How?" She seemed still to be shocked by this development.
"Don't you get it? Don't you see? You came back wrong." I couldn't believe what he was saying. Surely she didn't believe that crap. She took a few steps forward and knocked him back a few steps with a right. He actually seemed to laughing a little as she continued to beat him back. Until, that is, he blocked one of her backhand blows and knocked her into the fence.
"It's a trick. You did something to the chip. It's a trick."
"It's no trick. It's not me, it's you. Just you, in fact, that's the funny part." He hit her again, with a right, and kept talking
"You're the one that's changed." He connected with a left. "That's why this doesn't hurt me." She blocked and pushed down his next intended blow.
"Came back a little less human than you were."
"You're wrong." The Slayer finally retorted and then kicked him across the alley.
"Then how come you're so spooked love. And why can I –"He hit her with a left before he finished his sentence, "-do that?" Now Buffy started getting her Irish up. I gotta admit I felt a little sorry for Spike now. She asserted herself and punched him, knocking him back across the alley before grabbing him and hitting him again. As he got back up she pushed him through the closed door of the condemned warehouse. I took that as my cue and followed them into first the open hallway and then into a larger room as Buffy continued to beat Spike across this room as well and knocked him to the floor. He got up kinda slow, but laughing. And the wisecracks just kept on coming.
"Poor little lost gurl." He'd jumped up and grabbed the chandelier to swing forward and kick Buffy with both feet. Now, I'm all for woman power and I'm all for a good fight between good and evil, but I'm not all about some guy trying to play with her head. I just couldn't stand by watching anymore. I stepped in while he was still holding onto the crystal light fixture and hit him with a solid left to the chest, knocking him to the floor and sliding him a few feet before he rolled over to stand up. I ran forward and kicked him, sending him sliding more than a few feet before I moved to his side and caught his lapels in both hands, lifting him up to hit him again, but kept a hold of him and bringing him all the way to his feet.
"You don't hit her." I didn't realize how pissed off I was until I said that. I hit him a few more times before he finally tried to swing on me and fell back in pain as his chip activated. So, it was true. I heard Buffy's intake of breath behind me as realization hit her much harder than Spike had. I held back and let him get up on his own. He looked at me with hate in his eyes, but made no move against me. Finally he spoke but it wasn't me he addressed.
"I'll deal with you later, pet. Super boy here can't be around you all the bloody time." He started walking out the door, and I moved to keep myself between him and Buffy. It wasn't that I didn't think she could kill him if she truly wanted to. I was more afraid that she wouldn't. He stopped right at the doorway and turned to face me.
"Watch out for her, mate." I wasn't sure if his words were meant as a warning or a request, but I had other things I needed to take care of right now. I turned to see Buffy standing with her arms crossed, as if she was hugging herself. When she looked at me it seemed as if she was still processing what had just happened; like she just couldn't believe it. I was at a loss myself, but I couldn't let her see that. Her voice was quiet as she asked me a question I knew the answer to, but lacked the evidence to prove.
"I'm still human... aren't I?" This just wouldn't do. I met her gaze without flinching as she asked more questions while growing increasingly loud.
"Am I still human? Am I really supposed to be here? What's happened to me?"
"I don't know what has happened to you, but I do know that you are still you."
"What if I did come back wrong? If I didn't come back wrong why did I think those things?" Not knowing what she thought was working against me here, but I had to make her listen to me. She turned and knocked a chunk out of the pillar beside her and then stared down at her fist and the blood starting to drip from it.
"You are still you, Buffy. Really, you are." She seemed close to tears as I finally got close enough to her to grab her to me.
"Am I? How do you know that?" I pulled her in close and met her lips with mine and let the passion behind our kiss grow before breaking it and locking her gaze with mine. I had to make her believe.
"Because it takes a real human, a real woman, to make me feel the way you do. Not an hour goes by that I don't get amazed by what you do as a human, let alone as the Slayer. Nothing about you is average, true, but you are one hundred percent real woman. Nothing else but a real woman could do the things you do to me." Due to our close proximity and physical contact, I got a flash of thought from her right before her mouth met mine in a very needy way and she backed me across the room, shoving me up against a pillar. The flash said 'prove to me that I'm real' and even if I wanted to I couldn't argue with her. Her passion sparked a strong response from me as we continued to kiss, bodies pressed close. Her force pushing against me into the pillar was very strong, but she allowed me to push back against her and move her up against the far pillar. That pillar creaked and then cracked against our combined weight hitting it, but our lips were locked and locked they stayed.
I was only vaguely aware of other parts of the room starting to fall down as she turned us around and shoved me back up against he pillar, picking her legs up to wrap around me. My left hand went to her butt as my right found the hem of her skirt and drew it up, her hand going to my zipper. I couldn't hear a thing, couldn't feel anything but her, even as we turned again and fell through the floor together. She kept moving against me as the chandelier above me fell and shattered on the edge of the hole above us with a few shards of sharp crystal falling down upon us. I caught the one aimed for the back of her head as another slid its way down my brow and digging into my cheek before a shake of my head kicked it and a few drops of blood away from where we continued our steady motion. All else but her fades away.
A/N: More to come including my next plot twist. Please review.
Disclaimer: I keep telling these people that I don't own anything, especially not the lines from Smashed. And Jake? He owns himself. Thanks.
CHP 8 Not smashed, but broken.
I woke up first that morning, with the Slayer still snoozing peacefully curled against me. I stroked her hair softly, trying not to wake her. She slowly opened one eye and looked at me before she smiled. We followed almost exactly the same routine from the previous morning, me folding the sheets while she checked in on Willow, Dawn and Amy and then took her turn in the bathroom. She opened the bathroom door; the sweet vanilla smell permeated the air as steam from her shower billowing out, just as I reached the top of the stairs. I smiled at her as I ducked past her into her bedroom to grab my bag and she followed me in, waiting until I left to close the door behind me. I got in and out of the shower quickly and was waiting for her downstairs. Dawn raised her eyebrows at me but continued eating her cereal as I came in and she nodded at my good morning. I found a banana and poured a glass of juice so I could be ready to hand it over to Buffy as she came in a few seconds later.
"So when did you get here?" Buffy and I both looked at her sister at the same time, but Buffy answered for me.
"What are you doing today, Dawnie?"
"Oh, I'm going to meet Tara for our big movie and milkshake fun-day. What are you guys doing?"
"Well, we've got that frozen guy from the museum last night we have to find out what did that to him. The Scoobies are meeting at the Magic Box this afternoon." I looked at my watch, realizing it was eleven o'clock, as Willow came in, looking not too badly for her breakup, and went to the fridge. She didn't even bat an eye when she saw me, but I heard her psychic message to me clearly while she wore what I would learn to be her mischievous face, 'Good morning and I hope you both got a lot of rest last night.' I nodded at her, but she didn't send me anything else. Willow grabbed an apple before heading back up the stairs. Shortly Buffy and I left, quietly so as not to wake up the still sleeping Amy. We got in the car and I took her to lunch, before driving to the Magic Box.
Once we arrived, I took a spot in the background as the scoobies greeted each other. I nodded at Xander, but he looked at me guardedly as he nodded back. I really didn't think he liked me. We waited for Willow before really getting started with the research. Xander had brought some newspapers that we started going through looking for stories about the museum guy. Willow found the first article and Xander continued reading about how everything in the dude's system just slowed down and he was still in a coma. I pulled a book off the shelf next to me and started going through it as Willow pulled out her laptop. I watched as Buffy started saying how great it was to see her go back to the basics, but then change her mind once she saw willow using magic to look through the internal police records.
I didn't know what the big deal was for a witch to use magic, so I kept my mouth shut and watched as Xander feigned a yawn and claimed to be tired while claiming that what Willow was doing was tiring as well. Willow seemed to get defensive as she asked what the deal was. I gained admiration for Anya as she threw what she thought right out in front of everyone. Willow was defending herself to her friends, but I was reading about something that caught my attention. After they quieted down, the whole group kept reading, first finishing the newspapers before moving into the books, looking for any clues about either demons or the diamond. Willow was the first to leave, heading right home from what she said, but it wasn't long before I got a phone call saying she was going out with Amy. It was dark outside by the time Xander finally came upon a lead. Unfortunately it was a lead in a D&D manual. How frustrating was this? Anya further clarified that there was no such thing as what we were looking for and proclaimed our search hopeless. I stayed quiet as the friends put themselves down.
"We need new brains. What's up with Willow?" I looked at Buffy, letting her answer for me.
"Out with Amy, I guess."
"Oh great, someone to do more magic with." Anya threw her two cents in easily.
"But at least she's not all cooped up and crying. That's forward momentum. I know that I don't know everything that happened with her and Tara but it's-"
"Tara thinks Willow's doing too much magic; she's not the only one." Xander seemed sincere in his criticism of his friend. So that's what happened. I understood now why Tara left after what I now guessed was Willow's spell gone wrong.
"I know, but I think she'll be fine. I mean, its willow, she of the level head."
I stopped listening to the conversation between the rest of the scoobies as I got caught up in the text I was reading. I looked at the cover to verify it was one of the watcher diaries. It looked like Giles wasn't the first watcher to read the prophesy that was haunting me and see if it could be enacted to help his Slayer. I was absorbed by the text on how many different people this watcher had researched, including Angel, and even of the Seer he'd paid to search for the man it mentioned. All was to no avail, as his Slayer was shortly killed. I was pulled out of my reverie by the phone ringing and Buffy got up to answer it.
"Hello, Magic Box." Then she glanced at me and lowered her voice as she looked puzzled and continued to talk.
"Spike?" was all I heard for a bit and then,
"You have a lead on this frost monster thingy?" She listened for a bit longer before hanging up without saying goodbye.
"So, what did captain peroxide want?" Xander asked what was really on my mind. I checked myself to make sure I wasn't broadcasting. How could a single mention of spike get me so fired up?
"Nothing." It wasn't long before the Slayer called a halt to our research craze and she asked me if I wanted to patrol. After saying goodnight to Xander and Anya we went our separate ways. Our path took us downtown and towards some alleys while I tried to find a way to lead into the topic I wanted to talk with her about.
"I think you should watch out for Spike." Okay, so I couldn't really find a way to lead it in.
"Spike? He's harmless. Unless this is some sort of over protecty boyfriend kind of thing here, 'cause then that could be kinda sweet." Boyfriend? Did she just say boyfriend? I brought myself back to the subject at hand just as Spike made an unexpected entrance.
"Speak of the devil." I said as I nodded a greeting at spike and then walked a short distance away to answer my vibrating phone.
"You never showed, slayer."
"My night is now complete." I started talking to Tara as I vaguely heard Buffy ask Spike to get out of her way and get out of here. I thanked Tara and hung up with her just in time to see Buffy knock spike a good one. Spike waited for a second before backhanding her with his left, turning the Slayer around. Just as I suspected, Spike's chip had a short or something; no pain.
"Oh the pain. The pain... is gone." I started forward to help Buffy, but she put up her hand and I stopped.
"How?" She seemed still to be shocked by this development.
"Don't you get it? Don't you see? You came back wrong." I couldn't believe what he was saying. Surely she didn't believe that crap. She took a few steps forward and knocked him back a few steps with a right. He actually seemed to laughing a little as she continued to beat him back. Until, that is, he blocked one of her backhand blows and knocked her into the fence.
"It's a trick. You did something to the chip. It's a trick."
"It's no trick. It's not me, it's you. Just you, in fact, that's the funny part." He hit her again, with a right, and kept talking
"You're the one that's changed." He connected with a left. "That's why this doesn't hurt me." She blocked and pushed down his next intended blow.
"Came back a little less human than you were."
"You're wrong." The Slayer finally retorted and then kicked him across the alley.
"Then how come you're so spooked love. And why can I –"He hit her with a left before he finished his sentence, "-do that?" Now Buffy started getting her Irish up. I gotta admit I felt a little sorry for Spike now. She asserted herself and punched him, knocking him back across the alley before grabbing him and hitting him again. As he got back up she pushed him through the closed door of the condemned warehouse. I took that as my cue and followed them into first the open hallway and then into a larger room as Buffy continued to beat Spike across this room as well and knocked him to the floor. He got up kinda slow, but laughing. And the wisecracks just kept on coming.
"Poor little lost gurl." He'd jumped up and grabbed the chandelier to swing forward and kick Buffy with both feet. Now, I'm all for woman power and I'm all for a good fight between good and evil, but I'm not all about some guy trying to play with her head. I just couldn't stand by watching anymore. I stepped in while he was still holding onto the crystal light fixture and hit him with a solid left to the chest, knocking him to the floor and sliding him a few feet before he rolled over to stand up. I ran forward and kicked him, sending him sliding more than a few feet before I moved to his side and caught his lapels in both hands, lifting him up to hit him again, but kept a hold of him and bringing him all the way to his feet.
"You don't hit her." I didn't realize how pissed off I was until I said that. I hit him a few more times before he finally tried to swing on me and fell back in pain as his chip activated. So, it was true. I heard Buffy's intake of breath behind me as realization hit her much harder than Spike had. I held back and let him get up on his own. He looked at me with hate in his eyes, but made no move against me. Finally he spoke but it wasn't me he addressed.
"I'll deal with you later, pet. Super boy here can't be around you all the bloody time." He started walking out the door, and I moved to keep myself between him and Buffy. It wasn't that I didn't think she could kill him if she truly wanted to. I was more afraid that she wouldn't. He stopped right at the doorway and turned to face me.
"Watch out for her, mate." I wasn't sure if his words were meant as a warning or a request, but I had other things I needed to take care of right now. I turned to see Buffy standing with her arms crossed, as if she was hugging herself. When she looked at me it seemed as if she was still processing what had just happened; like she just couldn't believe it. I was at a loss myself, but I couldn't let her see that. Her voice was quiet as she asked me a question I knew the answer to, but lacked the evidence to prove.
"I'm still human... aren't I?" This just wouldn't do. I met her gaze without flinching as she asked more questions while growing increasingly loud.
"Am I still human? Am I really supposed to be here? What's happened to me?"
"I don't know what has happened to you, but I do know that you are still you."
"What if I did come back wrong? If I didn't come back wrong why did I think those things?" Not knowing what she thought was working against me here, but I had to make her listen to me. She turned and knocked a chunk out of the pillar beside her and then stared down at her fist and the blood starting to drip from it.
"You are still you, Buffy. Really, you are." She seemed close to tears as I finally got close enough to her to grab her to me.
"Am I? How do you know that?" I pulled her in close and met her lips with mine and let the passion behind our kiss grow before breaking it and locking her gaze with mine. I had to make her believe.
"Because it takes a real human, a real woman, to make me feel the way you do. Not an hour goes by that I don't get amazed by what you do as a human, let alone as the Slayer. Nothing about you is average, true, but you are one hundred percent real woman. Nothing else but a real woman could do the things you do to me." Due to our close proximity and physical contact, I got a flash of thought from her right before her mouth met mine in a very needy way and she backed me across the room, shoving me up against a pillar. The flash said 'prove to me that I'm real' and even if I wanted to I couldn't argue with her. Her passion sparked a strong response from me as we continued to kiss, bodies pressed close. Her force pushing against me into the pillar was very strong, but she allowed me to push back against her and move her up against the far pillar. That pillar creaked and then cracked against our combined weight hitting it, but our lips were locked and locked they stayed.
I was only vaguely aware of other parts of the room starting to fall down as she turned us around and shoved me back up against he pillar, picking her legs up to wrap around me. My left hand went to her butt as my right found the hem of her skirt and drew it up, her hand going to my zipper. I couldn't hear a thing, couldn't feel anything but her, even as we turned again and fell through the floor together. She kept moving against me as the chandelier above me fell and shattered on the edge of the hole above us with a few shards of sharp crystal falling down upon us. I caught the one aimed for the back of her head as another slid its way down my brow and digging into my cheek before a shake of my head kicked it and a few drops of blood away from where we continued our steady motion. All else but her fades away.
A/N: More to come including my next plot twist. Please review.