Pain.

i Pain. Oww! Oh bloody fuck the pain! Where was it coming from? /i

Spike shifted, trying to clear his sleep hazed mind, and realized there was something on his chest. He looked down to see a small blonde head pillowed on his chest. Her cheek was pressed tightly against his comforting heartbeat through his skin. Her breathing was deep and even and she gave off a small amount of body heat. That was a good sign.

He had almost forgotten the agony he was in for a moment as he watched the angel resting peacefully with him. His arm lay curled tightly around her, keeping her close to him and she had slipped slightly in his duster under his arm adding extra warmth for them both. He shifted his arm and had to bite back a painful howl.

So that's where it was coming from.

He gently unwrapped his arm from around Buffy, letting her sleep on for a while longer, and slowly lifted ups his arm. Attached to his wrist he saw a big yellow and purple balloon that used to be his hand. He winced as he tried to wiggle his fingers and found trying to move then was useless. His hand was infected and in a bad way.

The skin looked bubbled up and hard although it was really soft and puffy. The skin around the teeth marks was so dark purple it was almost black and the bruising on the back on his hand around to the space between his thumb and forefinger were a hue of yellow, blue and a lighter purple.

"Bloody fantastic."

He muttered to him self and immediately regretted it as Buffy began to stir at his side. She stretched almost leisurely and yawned before opening her eyes and looking around.

She was warm, only slightly, but it felt wonderful after days of being freezing. She felt much stronger and remembered their feast of the night before. They were still in danger as soon as they left this place but even so she let out a small smile and looked up at the pained blue eyes staring down at her own. Her smile faded and she sat up to face him fully.

"What's wrong? You look like..."

She couldn't explain how he looked. He looked pale and drawn, as did she but his eyes held something she guessed he didn't want her to know. She raised her hand tentatively and laid it on his cheek ever so lightly as if afraid to touch him.

"Are you alright?"

Spike's eyes traveled from her pretty hazel eyes to her mouth that was speaking to him. He flicked his gaze back to her eyes and leaned closer asking for silent permission. He leaned in and tilted his head just slightly, he watched as she wet her dry lips with her tongue quickly and closed her eyes waiting for his token. He took this as encouragement and leaned in fully, pressing his snow bitten lips to her own.

Even now, in the middle of a frozen land with only a log to protect them the kiss was just as he imagined it would be since the first time he saw her. So soft and sweet like she was. His heart fluttered and he added just a little more pressure to her lips, which seemed to wake up and respond to him. He pulled away after what seemed just a few seconds and opened his eyes watching her open hers.

She smiled slightly and was happy to be rewarded with a small smile back. That linger in his eyes was still there and she desperately wanted to know what he was hiding. Her fingers wormed their way into his bleached locks of hair and she caressed his scalp soothingly.

His eyes closed and he leaned into her touch.

That was a good sign and she was encouraged by it. She continued the soft reassuring movement of her fingers through his hair and watched as his head bowed onto her shoulder kissing the juncture where her neck and shoulders met. An involuntary shiver ran through her and she felt him sigh against her skin as he began to talk.

"My hand, luv."

She looked slightly confused and ran her memory on rewind. What about his hand?

She came across the memory of that nasty little badger they had come across and shook her head slightly as she remembered. Holding his head on her shoulder lightly she took her other hand from his hair and gently took hiss bitten hand in her own lifting it up so she could see. What she saw shocked her and she felt him let out a small groan of pain against her shoulder.

"Oh Spike. Why didn't you tell me it was like this?"

He had obviously untied the bandage on the swollen limb after it had started to swell up alarmingly. She turned his hand over and looked at the punctures where the badger's bottom set of jaws had sunken into Spike's tender flesh. They were big and painful looking, the same as the ones left on the back on his hand just behind his knuckles.

"Didn't want to worry you luv, nothing we can do about it out here. Best if we keep going and look for those ranger stations that the lodge states are around here somewhere, that's our best bet."

He lifted his head from her shoulder and watched her gaze at his hand pitifully with shiny eyes ready to spill tears for his poor hand. The blood pumping muscle in his chest twisted at the look on her face.

i Wow. She cares. She actually cares! /i

"Hey now. None of that, it's going to be just fine. As soon as we get to one of those stations they'll patch us up in no time."

He offered her a smile which she accepted and she carefully ripped a part of her thin but warm sweater, re-wrapping his hand as gently as she could, making the bandage a lot less tight but hard enough to keep his fingers immobile for the time being. With that job done she looked back at the handsome features of his face.

This time taking the lead she curled her hands behind his neck and pulled his mouth to hers into a tender kiss. Their tongues probed and tangled softly in each other's mouths and lips. Their kiss offered companionship, hope and a spark. God did she hoped that spark could grow one day.

They pulled away to breathe softly into the other's face and eyes slowly opened to gaze at mutual pairs. Both help hope and a new twinkle that had disappeared since they had gotten lost.

Spike reached out his good hand and ran his fingers through her now hay like hair. He imagined how it would feel when they were out of this mess and warmed up. Soft and silky just like her.

"Grab some of the heat we cooked luv, we'll have to take it with us. It should last us for awhile, he was a big bugger so I'd say a couple of days."

Buffy turned around and did as he said, they had wrapped it up in strips of his now tattered over shirt and she stuffed as much as she could down her pockets while he did the same. Once they had their food packed and their muscles stretched they said goodbye to their little safe haven and began trudging through the snow once more.

It had been snowing the whole night from the time they found their warm burrow to near the time they had woken up. The snow was almost knee deep and trudging through it proved hard work for their frozen warm out bodies.

They kept on; knowing that a ranger station had to be close there was one every few miles apart on this wilderness or so said the lodge. Arms wrapped around shoulders and waists for balance, support, warmth and comfort.

After four long hours of plodding through the thick and slippery snow and ice they came across something very surprising.

A clearing.

Spike looked up through their shield of trees and wondered if he should rub his eyes. At the edge of the brush they were coming through was a huge clearing, surrounded by a circle of snow-dusted trees. The snow on the floor of the clearing looked slightly icier but much less deep that the snow on the floor under the trees.

It wouldn't take them long to walk across the clearing. Only about fifteen minutes at their pace but when Spike looked up further into the distance his heart gave a jump that sparked a burst of heat and excitement from somewhere inside him.

A Tower. There was a bloody tower ahead of them!

"Buffy, luv, look! Look up, up there. It's a station pet, it's a bloody ranger station. We're almost there."

Buffy jumped at his outburst and let her eyes wander to where he was pointing with his bad hand as best as he could. She could see it! This wasn't a snow mirage was it? No if it was a snow mirage there would be a hot spring with food and drinks and a place to sleep.

Their pace quickened and soon enough they were around twenty feet out into the clearing. It was much more slippery on the clearing as if the snow had iced over underneath but neither of them thought about it, all they thought of was what was waiting for them. A warm ranger station.

At about twenty-five feet out into the clearing Spike slowed down, noticing the further out into the clearing they got the less steady his feet felt. He looked down and kicked some of the snow gently with his boot, his eyes widening in horror when he saw what was underneath.

Buffy had carried on and was now standing almost in the center of the clearing skipping along in her good mood at seeing the sight of their destination. She stopped and turned when she heard Spike almost scream her name. He looked petrified and she looked at him confused. She started to skip back to him but when he started shouting at her to stop she jumped hard to stop fast and a loud deep moan came from beneath her feet.

"No! Buffy stop! Stop! Don't move a muscle I'm coming!"

And he was walking so very slowly to her as if he was treading on eggshells. She wondered what the Hell was up with him but before she could shout she heard another slow terrifying groan came from beneath her and she realized with horror why Spike was acting as he was. Buffy's heart pounded and she felt the ice under her feet melting from her small amount of body heat. She was about to break into a run to Spike from terror before one final moan and an almighty crack broke the ice under her feet.

The ice under her opened under her weight and as Buffy started to run the ice in front of her feet gave away from being so thin and unused in the middle of the clearing.

Her scream of fear tore Spike's heart and he looked up seeing her fall forward and smack her head on the blisteringly cold ice. He broke into a run but alas, the ice under her unconscious form broke into smaller pieces melted by the deadly water under it.

A lake. The clearing was a fucking lake!

i Oh God get to Buffy you ponce, run faster! /i

He looked at his feat hearing moan and groans from the slurping ice under his feet and he looked up from fear. Buffy.

Buffy. Buffy Oh God where was she?

Buffy's form could be seen nowhere on the ice, not a trace of her was left except for the large hole in the thinner ice where she had been sucked through into the deathly cold water.

"BUFFY!!!!!"

Sorry to put an AN here but I just wanted to appologise for the delays between chapters. I know you all hate my cliff hangers but I promise reviews will mean the next chapter A LOT quicker ;) Thank you so much to my reviewers you all rock and I love you and your comments.

Kitten xxx