NOTE: Speech in italics between Buffy and Spike is telepathy.
Buffy tied her hair back into a ponytail as she walked down the stairs. Her bathrobe had been replaced with dark blue jeans and a deep red jumper that had sleeves long enough to cover her hands-or at least the band-aid that was now firmly stuck over the wound on her wrist. It wasn't that Spike hadn't done a good job of healing it; she just didn't want her mother or her friends to see the cut there and get panicked about what she was doing.
Rounding the bottom of the stairs, she smiled warmly as she saw Willow sitting in the living room with a large book on her lap.
"Hey, Buffy." Willow placed the book down carefully on the coffee table and wrapped her friend up in a hug.
"Hey, yourself." Buffy smiled warmly at her as she was released. "How come you didn't come up and see me?"
"Your mom said you were sleeping. She made it pretty clear in her own little way that she didn't want you to be disturbed. So we thought we'd do a little research and wait for you to wake up." Willow sat back down and picked up her book again.
Sitting down next to her friend, Buffy frowned at the large tome she was reading. The pages were crinkled and delicate looking and she could tell by the gentle way Willow turned them that it was very old.
"Spike woke me up." Buffy said casually and watched her friend's fingers pause. "We? Who else is here?"
"Spike? Is he feeling better?" Willow looked up to see Buffy smiling slightly. "Giles gave me a lift. He's talking to your mom in the kitchen. I suspect it's about your houseguest."
"Spike…when he makes lewd suggestions that means he's feeling better, right?" She watched Willow's eyes widen dramatically. "Kidding…he's good, he's in the shower…which is progress."
"It's my house, Rupert…it's up to me who stay…" Joyce cut herself off as she noticed Buffy sitting on the couch.
Giles looked awkward. "Buffy, looking a little better today."
Buffy let the frown that had developed on her face melt away as she realised that her mother had been standing her ground on the Spike as a houseguest issue.
"All good with the sleep." She beamed up at him.
There was a loud thump upstairs and the muffled sound of swearing, Buffy pressed her hand against her mouth to stifle a giggle-afraid that Spike would know she was laughing at him.
Joyce, Giles and Willow stared up at the ceiling and then down at Buffy for an explanation.
"Spike. He's a not so patient English patient. He was looking a little bored in bed and he's feeling a little better today, so I said he could take a shower and get dressed."
"That's good to hear, sweetie. Does he need anything?" Joyce gave her a look that Buffy interpreted as the 'anything' in question being blood related.
"He's fine." She curled up on the sofa and peered over Willow's shoulder again as she started to flick through the book. "So what're we looking for?"
The phone ringing caused Buffy to frown for a second, and then dismiss it. The chances were it was someone for her mother or just Xander calling in. Except part of her knew that it wouldn't be Xander. Since he'd found out that she was bonded to Spike and that Spike would be staying no matter what he said, he'd been avoiding her. Everyone else she knew was already here.
Joyce saw that Buffy wasn't going to make a move to answer it and walked across the room to the phone and picked it up.
"We're looking for information on claims. Just trying to see what kinds of things you and Spike are likely to share, and if there is any information on human-vampire claiming." Willow gave Giles a little look to see if she'd got it right, when he smiled reassuringly, she turned to Buffy.
"I already know some of the things we can do…Spike woke me earlier, he was talking…" Buffy beamed at them and then trailed off as her mother spoke.
"Cordelia?" Joyce breathed out in a sigh and then frowned into the phone as the room descended into silence.
"Cordy?" Buffy was on her feet immediately, crossing the room to where her mother was standing and ready to take the phone from her.
"She's right here, hang on." Joyce handed Buffy the phone and gave her a concerned look.
"Cordy?" Buffy furrowed her brows as she heard her sniffling down the line. "What's wrong…seriously? No…it's going to be fine…I'll do everything I can to get there…we'll find him, Cordy. Don't do anything until I get there…when? I'll do my best. Bye."
Placing the phone back down, she stared at it for a moment as she tried to get everything straight in her head. She felt nauseous, her body suddenly drained of energy as she tried to figure out what to do.
"Buffy? What is it?" Willow touched her arm and Buffy gave her a look that said she hadn't even noticed she had moved from the couch.
"Angel." Buffy stated flatly and started towards her weapons chest. Opening the lid she pulled out her axe and crossbow and then froze-she didn't know where to look. She turned to find her friends staring at her with confused looks. "Angel. The people who had Spike…they tracked Angel down and took him."
"What are you going to do?" Giles gave her a questioning look. "You can't go after them alone."
"I know." Buffy raised her head up and gave him a hard look. "I know. Spike would go with me but he's not strong enough, he'd be itching for payback and he'd know where to look. I know him; he could hunt down Angel from the tiniest trace of blood. I have to do something, Giles."
"I'm going with you." Giles stepped forward and put his hand gently on her shoulder. He was relieved when she only tensed and didn't swat his hand away-it was a good sign that she was making progress with controlling the effects the claim had on her.
"Me too." Willow stood up. "You're not leaving me behind. Besides, Oz has a van he could drive us to LA in."
Buffy smiled mischievously as an idea popped into her head. She only hoped they'd have the time to do it before they had to leave for LA.
"What is it?" Giles frowned at her as she grinned, her hands gripping the axe tightly.
"Spike will come with us. He'll be strong enough if I help him." She held her hand up as Giles went to protest. "Not blood. Something else, this time. Something he was looking for in Sunnydale and I know he was close to finding it."
"What?"
"A gem."
"A gem?" Willow looked incredulous-how could a gem make Spike strong?
"God…he told me…boasted about it…um…Gem of…I remember I teased him, I said 'Gem of A-what-huh?'."
"Amara?" Giles offered.
"Bingo!" Buffy pressed her finger against her nose and pointed at him. "Gem of Amara."
"It's a legend, Buffy…a vampire Holy Grail, it doesn't exist."
"Spike thinks it does, and I think it must since it made him come back here to find it, risking a major ass kicking by me. He had a whole team looking for it. He was close, Giles, I know he was."
"But Buffy…" Giles was cut off as she raised her hand up to silence him, her eyes closing as she knit her brows.
She reached out. "Spike?"
His voice came back loud and clear, making her stomach swirl as he purred at her. "Yeah, love?"
"The Gem…do you know where it is?" Buffy knit her brows a little tighter, trying to get a lock on his location in the house and wondering if he was still in the shower. She blushed at that thought.
"Yeah…why? Didn't think you'd been one to endorse my finding it, pet."
"The guys who hurt you, they have Angel. I need you to help me…you need the Gem."
There was a long pause and Buffy wondered if the mention of Angel was the cause of it or whether he was just considering his answer to her plea.
"Why?" Came his reply, his voice laced with suspicion.
Buffy hesitated this time, unsure of whether she wanted to give him the reason that had just come into her head, fearing he would see it as an admission of her feelings if she didn't word it right.
"Because…I can't do this without you and you're still weak. The Gem will make you strong, invincible right? Then you can come kick their asses with me. Get some payback?"
As she waited quietly for his reply, she could feel everyone in the room staring at her-they probably thought she'd gone insane just standing silently in the room with her eyes closed, one hand raised in the air.
"Invincible." Spike slipped into his combats.
"As in they can't kill you?"
He paused with his fingers on the button of his fly, her words hitting him hard in the chest. Giving himself a moment, he put to memory her words and the concerned voice she'd spoken them with. He slipped his shirt on.
"Wouldn't let them kill me, kitten."
"You dressed?" Buffy let her frown disappear as her stomach heated through. She couldn't stop imagining that she'd been talking in his head while he'd been naked.
"I am now." Spike swore he could feel her blushing as desire laced what he was feeling from her.
"Come downstairs?"
"Anyone holding pointy weapons?"
She glanced around the room and then closed her eyes again, trying to ignore the way his tone of voice had told her he didn't exactly trust her friends.
"Only me." She replied.
"That's good then." Spike appeared at the bottom of the stairs and watched her open her eyes. He had to admit she really was cute when concentrating so hard on talking to him telepathically.
Relief washed through her on seeing him standing there, dressed in his red shirt and black combats and looking like he was almost back to normal. Only he wasn't. Neither of them ever would be back to normal again; they were changed irrevocably by what they had been through together, and what she had done.
Buffy moved across the room to him immediately, her instincts making her want to protect him from the unsure looks he was receiving from Giles and Willow. When she reached him, she noticed the way his eyes had narrowed and his head had cocked to one side as he watched her. She smiled nervously.
"So you want me to play bloodhound and find him for you?" Spike's tender look disappeared. It stung him inside to talk about Angel with her. He'd witnessed them enough over the years to know that a small thing like a claim wasn't going to stop them feeling for each other. All he really wanted to do was ignore her plea for help and let Angel die, that way he'd be guaranteed there was no way for his grandsire to steal his new found girl away from him.
But he couldn't.
He knew that if he told her he wouldn't help her that she would just go out into LA alone and do her best to find Angel using her senses. It was more dangerous if he didn't help. The chances were she would either get herself killed by the gang, or she would rescue Angel and stay with him.
He wasn't about to let either of those happen.
No, he'd go with her to LA and help her as best he could under the pretence of getting revenge on the gang who beat him to within an inch of his existence. Buffy would know that he was going solely to protect her and his interests but she wouldn't say anything. He'd realised since capturing her and the aftermath of the events that followed that she was the kind of girl that noticed everything, picked up on the tiniest things and saw straight through the lies but never said anything. She'd let him pretend that he was only going so he could do some vengeance, and all the while, she'd know he was there purely to protect his girl.
Dragging his eyes away from her, he looked at the other people in the room, the little red headed Wicca that he'd threatened to bottle, the ever-diligent Watcher that was giving him a look that was clearly meant to tell him not to step out of line, and the mother.
Joyce.
She was a good woman. The only one who'd really listened to him when Drusilla had left him, the only one of them that had actually got close to killing him, the only one he wouldn't eat if given the chance.
He gave her a smile and wasn't surprised when he received a warm smile in return.
Buffy watched the way he was looking around the room, his eyes seemingly just taking in his surroundings as her senses told her different. He was weighing up the situation, measuring up the adversaries and figuring out their strengths and weaknesses.
"Find him with me." She said quietly and watched his head immediately turn to face her, his eyes narrowing questioningly.
He ignored the rest of the room as he fixed his eyes on hers. They seemed to sparkle at him as he looked into them, searching them for the truth behind what she'd just said.
She wasn't commanding him or pleading with him anymore. Her emphasis had been on showing him that she wanted him to be with her on this mission, she wanted him to fight alongside her.
As an equal.
As her mate.
Spike took a step towards her and ran his fingers lightly over her hair, his eyes following them as he gently moved to cup her cheek and raise her head up so he could see into her eyes.
Buffy let her eyes run over the small cuts that still littered his face, the bruises slowly fading more and more each day. She knew the blood she'd given him had helped to quicken the pace of his healing, and if he needed more to strengthen him, she'd offer it to him.
Leaning into the palm of his hand, she almost averted her eyes from his as he smiled down at her. The warmth of it caught her off guard. She was so used to seeing him with a cold expression on his face that the sudden show of real tenderness towards her hit her hard in the chest and she found herself questioning the concept of a soul again. From where she was standing, and the depth of emotions playing out in his eyes, it seemed suddenly clear that he didn't need one to love.
"I've got your back, Summers."
