All she could do was stare. She'd had an uncertain feeling since she entered the plane, but she'd blamed it on it being her first time flying.
Spike's clear blue eyes held both shock and recognition, but there was something else there, something that hadn't been in the cold eyes of her killer. Something resembling sadness. Regret.
He was just pissing her off, pretending to care, enthralling her with some sort of vamp mojo. Well, it wouldn't work on this gal.
As her anger took over, her hands were around his neck in a second, pressing him up against the windowside. All she had to do now was squeeze enough to cut his neck off, and it'd all be over. She pressed, all the time being cautious of his strength.
Something was wrong. He wasn't fighting back. His arms were just hanging limply at his sides, and his eyes were regarding her quietly. He seemed so fragile and tired right at that moment. Tired of the world and ready to just give up. The torment in his eyes seemed so genuine, but Nikki knew that he was a cunning master vampire, probably even more so as he'd had twenty five years to polish his skills after their last encounter.
But there was something in those blue eyes. Something that made her hesitate. Something that made her loosen her grip a little.
"What 'r you waitin' for? Do it." His voice matched his eyes, ragged and raspy, but still holding the same Cockney accent she'd come to find almost charming.
His statement only confirmed her suspicions. Something was different. Something had happened while she was away.
She let go, leaving pretty nasty-looking bruises along his neck.
The look he shot her was a strange mix of surprise, disappointment and relief. And suspicion.
When the small slayer was holding her hands around his neck, he could feel the way out of his torment. The light at the end of the tunnel. A scarily blissful peace.
But she let go. She had the chance to kill the monster that had murdered her. To end his miserable unlife and sent him on his merry way to hell. What on earth made her let go?
"What happened?" The cocky voice he hadn't heard for so long made him almost painfully nostalgic. He let out a humorless laugh.
"Was about to ask you the same. Nikki."
Just then, a stewardess came to them, begging them to sit down and fasten their seatbelts, as the plane was about to take off.
Spike rolled his eyes at the bizarreness of the whole situation, but sat down, following Nikki's example. The stewardess smiled thanks in that slimy fake way only stewardesses can, and left them.
They were silent for a minute, before Nikki's patience got the better of her.
"Well?" She said impatiently.
Spike thought about how he would answer. Would he let her in on his little secret? Like she'd believe him. She'd just laugh in his face, and - to hell with it all. What did it matter anyway?
"I got my soul back." His voice, unquavering, said with five words what had changed his whole existanse.
The words weren't greeted by laughter but by silence. He regarded her closely, seeing the emotions roam over her features. Confusion, doubt. Shocking him, she turned to look him in the eyes.
"You're not joking are you?" It was more of a statement than a question.
He shrugged and she nodded thoughtfully.
She believed him, god knows why, but she did. There were so many questions unanswered though.
"How? Did you get cursed?" She'd heard of the ensouled vampire, Angelus, and she also knew that Spike was either his Childe or Grandchilde.
The emotion she saw in his eyes was almost unbearable. Hate? Anger? Regret?
"Won it back. For a bird." He gave a small bitter laugh at that.
She was speechless. A vampire getting his soul back for someone. He must've loved her. She had a thousand more questions for him, but one look said that it wasn't something he wanted to talk about.
So, she nodded and settled for small talk. It was ridiculous, she knew.
"So you're going to LA?" He frowned at her kind, unsure voice, but visibly relaxed.
"Yeah. Don't have the faintest bloody idea as to why, but yeah."
Nikki didn't see the connection there, being so unfamiliar to this creature sitting beside her, the cold blooded murderer turned all soul-having. She didn't know what to do, comfort him?
She decided to give him a second chance though. After all, it probably wasn't his choice to become a vampire, but it was his choice to gain his soul back, knowing about all the torment it'd cause him. In her mind, he deserved a second chance.
She couldn't get over the way he looked either. Granted, he'd been handsome un-souled as well, but now it was something else entirely. He had another dimension to him, a deeper, more human side. She wondered what he looked like when he was smiling. Where the hell did that come from?
"I just woke up in New York. In my cascet. Had to dig myself out."Her voice was a bit sad, and Spike seemed to react to that.
"God, Nikki, I'm sorry, I- " It reminded Spike of the time he'd had to do just that. It was terrible. And when Buffy did it. He suddenly felt very much for her and grabbed her hand, hoping she wouldn't flinch and pull away.
The pressure in his ears told him that the plane was taking off.
Nikki looked down at their hands, frowned, but didn't pull away. His hand was cold. Well, not exactly cold, but room temperature, she guessed. And as this was her first flight, she figured it couldn't hurt to have a little support.
And what was that stupid pressure in her ears?
"First flight, pet?" The low, raspy voice was very soothing, not to say sexy.
She nodded and closed her eyes as the pressure got worse.
"Here. It helps a bit." She opened her eyes to see that he was holding a piece of gum in his hand.
"You're trying to poison me." She was only half joking.
He shrugged and was about to put the gum in his own mouth when it got snatched from him. He looked up, surprised, only to find an embarrased-looking slayer chewing frantically.
"Shorry" She said between chews. "I figured that even if you were trying to poison me, it would be better than this goddamn pressure."
He smiled victoriously, and it took her a few seconds to realize that he'd done it. Smiled. Not sneered, not grinned evilly, just plain smiled. It was so cute she had to smile back.
He'd been right. The chewing gum did help.
When they'd gone high enough, the pressure eased, and Nikki realised she'd been squeezing his hand the whole time. If he'd been human, he'd have some broken bones, she thought as she let go of it with an apology. He didn't seem to mind, though, just gave her another heart melting smile.