Time Explains Us by Erykah Miszti

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Chapter Three: The Learning Curve

The nebulous mass of energy and its associates took a jump to the left, then a step to the right and did the Time Warp again..

Xxxxxx

"No! No! No!" Dru protested as she watched her prize slip away through the door.

"Go after them, don't let them leave here alive." Angelus told them, his eyes never leaving Buffy's. "I've a mind ta try out the little Slayer here."

The look did get to her but there was no way she was going to let him know that. She had the advantage here. She'd fought him before.. and won.

Darla eyed the pair warily, not liking the obvious chemistry between them perhaps, but she and Dru advanced towards the door after the Castlemaine's.

Buffy sprang into action, pushing furniture between the vampires and the door to slow them down. Extra seconds were all the family needed to escape. The woman fought to climb over and pass through the tables, chairs and barrage of ornaments Buffy sent flying in their direction. She half hoped that a stray piece of wood might end this decisively but she didn't really want to kill any of them, at least not until she'd found someone to explain to her whether changing history was really a good idea or not.

Eventually there was very little left to throw and the amused Angelus, who had been staying out of this until now, jumped into the fray. Angelus' slamming Buffy onto the ground gave Dru and Darla the time they needed to get past and go through the door. Buffy re-prioritized on the fly. Now, she needed to get through that door after them. She blazed back against Angelus' attack, not giving him an inch.

"You know, Angelus, one day you might actually be good at this." Buffy told him snidely as she rained punches on his face.

"So, ya heard a me then, Slayer?" He grinned as he landed a good one on her.

"I know what you like to do for fun but let me just say.." She kicked him in the chest, sending him flying across the room. She was panting slightly and had had to lift her skirt to do that. "..that nothing could have prepared me for the bad accent and the worse hair." She stood there and adopted a pose (caught her breath past the corset) while he struggled to get up. "I mean, what is it with this century? Are their no hair stylists at all?!"

His attack came stronger and more furious this time.

"I'm kinda disappointed. Where's the infamous Angelus finesse?" Buffy grabbed him and kneed him in the back. "I KNOW you can do better than this."

He managed to turn it around and sent her flying over his head. Luckily she landed in a chair. Unluckily it was with her skirt tangled around her head and no air left in her lungs. She couldn't breathe in. Buffy fought the oxygen depravation that came on far too rapidly and tried to right herself. She did so just in time to see Angelus bearing down on her, game face in place, fangs ready to bite in the same place that Angel had once bitten before.

Buffy felt sure it was over. Poetic irony. She goes down to Angelus before she was even really born.

There was an unexpected thud though and Angelus was thrown away from her and to the side. Buffy looked up to see William standing there with a broken lamp in his hands. He smiled sheepishly.

"I thought you might need some help." He told her.

"Your parents?" She asked, still struggling to stand up.

William held out his hand and pulled her to her feet. They found themselves standing very close together. The air disappeared again from Buffy's lungs as their eyes met.

"My parents… uh.." He licked his lips. "They're safe… gone."

"Good.." Buffy replied, unable suddenly to break eye contact.

Angelus leapt up from the spot where he'd fallen and lunged at them. William was ready, he snapped out of his absorption with Buffy and held out a large crucifix at Angelus. The vampire's skin came into full contact with it and smoke began to rise. He fell away in pain, the image burned onto him through his clothes.

Buffy stood behind William and the protection of the cross. She clutched his shoulder.

"Come on, Spike.." She told him, still eyeing Angelus warily. He was glaring at them. "We. Are. Leaving!"

"I'll get ya, little girl!" Angelus threatened. "You and that.. puppy! He'll be one of us. He'll kill 'n' enjoy it. He'll wipe out little girls like ya fer breakfast, lunch 'n' dinner! By the time I finished with him he'll be a monster!"

They continued to back away, towards the door. Buffy picked up a fire poker as they passed. They reached the doorway and Buffy threw the poker. It was a great hit, straight through the right shoulder, pinning Angelus to the wall. He screamed in pain.

"You know what, Peaches?" Buffy said and his eyes blazed as they met hers. "I wouldn't flatter yourself that you could make this one do anything he didn't want to."

Xxxxxx

"May I inquire.. um.. you called me Spike in there?" William asked as they walked down a street well away from his home. "I may not have been thinking well yesterday but I am sure you called me Spike then as well."

Buffy said nothing, deciding instead to think about how to answer that but he started talking again anyway.

"No one has called me that since I was a child." William stated.

She turned from her place at his side and stepped in front of him to stop him.

"Wait." She began, confused. "You were called Spike as a kid?"

He lowered his head and grinned sheepishly.

"Yes." He replied. "Very stupid really." He looked up at her but looked away again quickly. "Only, the family made it's money through the railways, and my father once took me to see some track being laid… I've, well, I have always been a bit clumsy.. I was playing with one of the spikes they use to hold the ties in place and.. well, I dropped it. Dratted thing when straight through my foot."

"So your father called you Spike after that?" Buffy suddenly wanted to punch his father very hard indeed. "To remind you of your clumsiness?!"

"He didn't mean it unkindly." William rushed to his father's defense. "He felt that discipline, hard work and punishment for stupidity would toughen me up. Make me into a man. How did I let him down so badly? In one night, I find myself spurned by a woman, nearly murdered by another and finally rescued yet another. You SHOULD call me Spike and maybe from your sweet lips the name will toughen me up, just like my father has always wanted."

He hung his head again.

"William…" Buffy smiled and put her hand under his chin, raising it so that he had to look at her. "Your father is an idiot. I just watched you bash a vampire with a table lamp and then face him down with a crucifix. You are a man. A name's just a name. YOU saved ME back there."

She dropped her hand. He reached out immediately and took her hands into his.

"Who are you.. really?" He looked down at her intently. "Those were vampires in there… vampires!! The cross, it burnt him…"

"Yeah, they were vampires." She said softly, looking down at their joined hands. She held on tighter.

"Why are they after me? My family?" He demanded hoarsely. "You are here protecting us, are you not? Why?"

"I wish I knew." When Buffy looked up there was a glimmer of tears in her eyes. "You're in very great danger and I'm gonna try my best to protect you from them. Because it's the right thing to do."

"Why me?" Their eyes met. His were tortured and the blue was a living sea of waves and ripples. Hers were pained, confused as his were, no less an ocean of doubt.

"I don't know." She replied as a whisper, then she was suddenly angry. "It's just what I do, okay?! I help people. You need help, so I'm helping you. There's nothing more to it."

She broke out of the grip of his hands and started striding down the street away from him.