A/N: Remember...Buffy is Elizabeth...Elizabeth is Buffy and if you don't understand why read the chapters before.
Chapter 7: You Got A Friend
New York
The song on the car radio was the only thing Spike heard as he drove through his old neighborhood. The lyrics were really getting to his emotions.
You left me with goodbye and open arms
A cut so deep I don't deserve
You were always invincible in my eyes
the only thing against us now is time
Could it be any harder to say goodbye and without you,
Could it be any harder to watch you go, to face what's true
If I only had one more day
The singer's voice echoed in the car, and Spike continued to drive down the lonely road passing landmarks of his town that would only be important to a native.
In the middle of the song Spike turned off the radio, having reached his destination.
Spike got out of the car and walked towards the person's front door and knocked. He shoved his hands in his coat pocket and looked around at the neighborhood homes and saw some children playing in the fresh snow that fell earlier in the week. Spike's head turned back to the door when he heard the sound of the door squeak open. For a fraction of a second he saw a sixteen year old Buffy answering the door, smiling. However, that fraction of the second was gone and it was Mrs. Summers at the threshold instead.
"Hello Spike." She said and gave a small smile and gestured for him to come in.
"Hi." Spike simply said and walked through the door.
"Did you just start your winter recess?" Joyce asked with a polite smile.
"Yeah…well actually a couple of days ago but I only decided to come home now…" he said and gave no explanation why he didn't come back to his hometown earlier, he just sort of hoped that Joyce would understand or just not ask.
"I see…" Joyce said.
"My mom sends her love." Spike said.
Joyce smiled, "I miss seeing your mother around….maybe I should give her a call and we can all get together for dinner sometime."
"I think she'd like that." Spike said.
Both of them stood in place for a few moments avoiding eye contact and lost in there own thoughts.
"Mom?!" Dawn yelled from upstairs, which made both Spike and Joyce turn and look up at the stairs. Dawn was a few steps down but stopped when she saw Spike.
"Spike." Dawn said softly as she was astonished to see him.
"Hey Nibblet." Spike smiled and tried to sound cheery.
"Long time no see." Dawn plainly said.
"Yeah…been a while hasn't it?" Spike laughed nervously and looked down at his shoes and then back at Dawn, who rushed back up the stairs and into her room.
"Can see I'm not her favorite person at the moment huh?" Spike continued to look up the staircase, hoping that Dawn would come back down. But he also deeply hoped that it was Buffy that would descend down the stairs like he had seen many times when they were about to go on a date.
"She's just having a bad day." Joyce said.
"Mind if I go talk to her?" Spike asked.
"Go ahead. It would be nice if you two talk. I'm going to make some hot chocolate." Joyce said with a smile and walked into the kitchen.
As Spike walked up the stairs he noticed that Joyce was acting different. He knew Mrs. Summers as a more cheerful lady that had an inner teenager inside that was dying to get out and hang with Buffy's friends.
When Spike reached the top of the stairs he moved down the hallway towards Buffy and Dawn's room. Dawn's door was the closest to him and Buffy's was just a few feet away on the right side of the hallway. Dawn's door was shut and had her sign that said "KEEP OUT" hanging on the door handle.
Spike turned from Dawn's door to Buffy's and saw it was half open and that parts of the furniture were visible through the cracked open door. Instead of knocking on Dawn's door he walked pass to Buffy's room and pushed the door completely open. Spike looked around at the dark room that seemed to be untouched. In the back of Spike's head he heard a distant sound of giggling that was getting louder and louder.
Fifteen year old Buffy and Spike were sitting on the floor playing the game of Risk laughing. The game started off with the Oz, Cordelia, Xander, Spike, and Buffy but three hours later it was down to Spike and Buffy. The rest of the gang decided to go home, deciding that the game had grown too ugly and didn't want to stick around with the very competitive Buffy and Spike.
"We are never going to finish this game!" Buffy laughed.
"Are you giving up luv?" Spike asked.
"Never!" Buffy said with a smile and grabbed the dice and rolled, "You're going down Spiky. I already conquered Willow, Oz, and Xander's land an hour ago."
"But I overtook Cordelia's land and she was covering most of Asia and some of Europe, which is a lot." Spike defended himself.
"Okay, I'll give you that…Cordelia is kind of competitive too." Buffy mumbled.
"And you're not?!" Spike laughed out.
"Okay! Okay! I'm a little competitive…just a little." Buffy mumbled.
Spike smiled and shook his head, 'She's so cute', he thought to himself.
Buffy looked down at the board game smiling and analyzing her next move, and when she looked up to speak she was stopped by Spike quickly leaning across the board in a surprising kiss. It was there first kiss. They both have been hanging out as friends for a couple of months since they met at The Bronze. They both felt the attraction towards each other but never gave in to there temptations, that is until now.
When they parted Buffy's eyes were still closed, and when she finally opened them she realized that Spike's face was still centimeters from hers. Both of them didn't say anything, the kiss was so spontaneous, out of the blue, and mind blowing that both of them were left speechless.
While Spike was quickly thinking of what to say to her his thoughts were stopped when he realized that Buffy was moving closer to him. Then this time it was her that leaned in and kissed him on the lips with more passion.
As their kiss carried on, Buffy moved over the board game that was separating them to get closer to him; she knocked game pieces over in her attempt to kissing him.
When they both parted they noticed that they were lacking breath which made there chest rise up in down. Buffy noticed her hands were rested on Spike's chest and Spike's were on the sides of her waist.
"So…" Spike spoke, which made Buffy look up at him, "Do you want to go out tomorrow night or something?"
There was a silent pause and then Buffy burst into laughter, she laughed so hard she leaned head on Spike's shoulder at one point.
"What?" Spike laughed out.
"Nothing…just…I think the answer is obvious don't you?" Buffy looked up at Spike with innocent eyes.
"You know what Summers?" Spike asked looking down at Buffy's eyes.
"What?" she whispered.
"I think…you're something special." He said softly in a serious tone.
Buffy smiled and leaned up and gave another kiss.
The voices and laughter of long ago faded out of Spike's head and all that was left was silence that lied in Buffy's bedroom.
Spike leaned on the doorframe of Buffy's room for a moment until he turned away and walked towards Dawn's room and knocked.
"Go away" Dawn said in a muffled voice on the other side of the door.
"It's me Nibblet…" Spike said loud enough so Dawn could hear.
"…Please…just-just go away." Dawn said.
Spike twisted the door knob and found the door wasn't locked, so he slowly and quietly entered the room. Once he was in he saw Dawn lying on her side on the bed facing away from him. It took a moment for Dawn to realize there was another presence in her room; she instantly sat up and turned and looked to see Spike.
"Please just go away Spike." Dawn said looking as if she was tired.
"Sorry can't do that." Spike said and walked closer to Dawn so he can be face to face with her.
"Why not?" Dawn questioned.
"Because I don't like see a sad Nibblet around the holidays…" Spike said.
"Why can't I be sad…I'm allowed to be sad if I want to." Dawn crossed her arms in front of her chest, "You're sad…" she mumbled.
Spike paused and looked at Dawn, "Why would you say that?" he asked as if in a whisper.
Dawn looked up, "Because you're sad for the same reasons I am."
Spike looked down at the carpet and his shoes, avoiding eye contact with the teen.
"Are you ever going to be happy again?" Dawn asked, "Or are you only sad when you're around here?" Spike didn't answer her question which made Dawn think for a moment before she asked a question that had been nagging her for a while, "Is…do you even like being around me?"
Spike shot his head up and looked at the sister of his lost love with widen eyes. He realized that the kid in front of him, that he had grown to love like his own sister, was having a doubts about there friendship.
"Dawn…" Spike said softly. He moved forward and crouched down to be eye to eye with her, "I'm…I'm so sorry that you think---I---how could you even ask me…you know I care about you and your mum…that you two are just like my own family…"
"So…being around me doesn't remind you of…" Dawn began but stopped.
Spike looked down at the floor as he started to talk, "Yeah…you remind of her but…that's not a bad thing." Spike looked back up at Dawn, "I will always love your sister…and even though it still hurts, I still have to live my life....nothing in this world could stop me from coming around to see my Summers girls."
Dawn smiled at Spike and leaned forward and gave him a hug that she knew he need.
There was a knock at the door that made Dawn and Spike break there hug. The door opened and Joyce walked in with a little more cheery smile, "Dinner's almost ready you two…Spike you're staying right?" Joyce asked.
"Wouldn't miss it Joyce." Spike said with a smile.
"Good because Willow and Oz are on there way over too…" Joyce said and left the room.
"Well Nibblet…" Spike sighed and got up to his feet, "Let's go raid your mother's marshmallow bag."
"I bet I can beat your record of stuffing marshmallows in my mug." Dawn said as stood up and they both headed out the door.
Spike let out a fake gasp, "Is that a challenge?"
"Yep." Dawn smiled.
"You're on!" Spike said.
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Sunnydale
"Joy to the world the vampires are dead, they all have funny looking heads…" Elizabeth sang as she entered Giles's apartment.
"Hello Elizabeth." Giles said as he saw his Slayer walk through the door.
"Hey Giles…" she said and looked around the apartment, "Hey what's all the undecorated apartment thing that is happening in here?" she pouted.
"I really don't have time to decorate…quit busy actually." Giles said as he picked up a book and moved to his desk to read.
"Well set some time aside and get decorating…you don't even have a tree…get a tree for crying out loud…it's Christmas." Elizabeth mumbled as she sat down on Giles's couch.
"I think after last years Christmas together I think I'll skip the holidays." Giles said while reading.
"Ohhhh you had fun and you know it." Elizabeth smiled.
"What part was fun for you? When the vampires decided to break into the house during dinnertime or when the carolers turned out to be zombies?" Giles looked up at Elizabeth when he asked.
Elizabeth didn't answer and just slouched in her seat and Giles went back to reading. Elizabeth got up off the couch and walked towards Giles and picked behind his shoulder to see what he was reading.
"What's the big bad this time that has your knickers in a twist?" Elizabeth asked.
"'Knickers…in…a….twist?'" Giles asked.
Elizabeth shrugged and Giles sighed.
"It seems we do have a new big bad arising." Giles said.
"What is it this time?" Elizabeth asked.
Giles turned a page of his book and Elizabeth saw a picture on the page of a funny looking creature that sort of looked like a vampire.
"They call him 'The Master'." Giles said.
TBC…the song was 'Could it be Any Harder' by The Calling.
