A/N Thanks for your reviews! They keep me going )
Demondamon: Thank you so much! I won't stop writing )
Briedee: I am updating! Thx for you review )
ness345: I'm loving all the spuffy too ;)
SpuffyReader: A HUGE thanks to you! As you said, this is a challenge and the challenger wanted Riley to be really, really mean to Buffy, and she just wouldn't understand. I'm actually not from an English speaking country, and I know that I should get a BETAreader, but I just wanted to get this fic posted…Sorry for your confusion with the scene changing… I actually had marks but I guess they disappeared… Thank you for your review, it helped a lot.. ) p.s if you don't like Buffy being weak and stuff… Don't read anymore.. )
Let's get on with the fic.. ) /Anna
Chapter 4
Spike knew that Buffy didn't like hospitals, and to tell the truth, he wasn't too fond of them himself. All the white and the florescent lights made him look deader than usual. He sat quietly outside the room they've taken Buffy to, fingering with the hem of his shirt and dying for a smoke. Just when he was about to go and check on his princess, a nurse came out through the door, which was painted a pale green. Spike stood up and faced the nurse. Her nametag read 'Ms. Grace Grove'.
"How is she?" Spike asked, not wasting time on chit-chat.
Grace smiled at the pale man in front of her. "Well… Mr…? I'm sorry, sir. I didn't catch your name."
"William Brown."
"Well, Mr.Brown, your…girlfriend?" Spike nodded thinking it was for the best, and the nurse continued. "She is, considering the circumstances, feeling good. We saw that she had several bruises on her, do you know anything about what happened to her?"
Spike searched for the best explanation. "She… Um, she was mugged. Yeah, mugged." Spike smiled at the nurse trying to melt her icy stare. And, of course, it worked.
"I see. Well Ms. Summers is awake. I really have to run, but you can see her if you want to."
Spike waited until the nurse had rounded a corner to open Buffy's door. He stood in the doorway taking in her still form; she looked so frail, nothing like the golden warrior he was used to. He walked towards her and sat down beside her bed.
"Buffy?"
She opened her eyes and was greeted with a hint of a smile on Spike's lips. "Hello, cutie."
She stared blankly at him. He frowned a little. "Pet, what's wrong?"
She swallowed and turned her head to stare into the wall. "You can't tell anyone. Not ever. They would only try to break us up." Her voice was nothing but a mere whisper, but his vampire hearing picked it up anyway.
He sighed and put his face in his hands. Trying to control his demon, he said;
"Buffy, why are you doing this? You're lying to yourself. You have to understand that a bloke doesn't love you when he… Well, when he beats you."
Buffy still didn't look at him, when she answered him; her voice was low and full of anger.
"What do you know! You're just a vampire. He loves me, I know he does, he loves me! He loves me… I'm just not good enough."
Spike looked at her with wide-eyes and took her cheek in his hand, making her look at him. His voice was low and he almost growled.
"Are you daft? Can't you see what he has done to you? Buffy, I love you. I know that I don't mean a thing to you, but I can't stop loving you. You see? I love you, but I don't hit you. I don't make you believe you have to change to be loved. I love you just the way you are."
He rose from his seat and turned to walk out of the door, when he remembered. "Oh right. I called Willow. She will get you in the morning, I said you were attacked." He opened the door and walked out. The door closed just as Buffy whispered;
"Thank you…"
Spike's words echoed through her head as she tried to sleep, she tossed and turned under the thin hospital sheets, remembering the look in his eyes. 'Buffy, I love you. I love you just the way you are'.
She sighed and stared at the starry sky outside of her window, repeating his words over and over in her head.
Willow cast occasional glances on her friend who sat next to her, staring out through the window. Willow tried to ease the uncomfortable silence with a cheery smile. "So, Buff. How's 'living with your boyfriend life' treating you?"
Buffy turned to look at her best friend and smiled slightly. "Oh… I'm doing fine… "Willow seemed to be happy with that answer and Buffy continued to gaze out through the window. She sighed quietly; she just couldn't get Spike's sweet words out of her head. She could still see his beautiful smile… 'No! He doesn't have a beautiful smile. He's an evil vampire, slayer of two Slayers. Remember?'
"Buffy? Are you coming, or do you want to sit in the car all day?"
Buffy snapped out of her daydreaming and found that she was at her mother's house once again. She followed her friend in through the front door and before she even could blink, she was in her sister's embrace.
"Buffy! I was so worried… How are you? Spike was here and dropped your sweater off; he said you'd forgotten it at his crypt… And Riley called! He's really worried about you!"
Buffy expected herself to feel the usual warmth in her chest that she always felt when somebody mentioned Riley, but instead it was replaced by an emptiness she couldn't explain, but she smiled sweetly at Dawn and went upstairs to call Riley.
"Hello?" Riley's voice was heard on the other line.
"Hi, Riley"
"Buffy." Riley seemed disappointed but he continued. "I want to see you."
Buffy smiled. "Yeah, that would be nice."
"Come home tonight and we'll have a little…chat." Buffy didn't like Riley's tone but agreed on meeting him and she hang up the phone.
As she lay down on the bed she saw her sweater lying on her nightstand. She sat up and looked at it. It still had a stain of her blood on it. That meant that he hadn't cleaned it. 'I wonder why I thought of that…' She picked the sweater up and brought it to her nose. She inhaled the scent of the sweater. It smelled slightly of smoke and bourbon, from lying the whole night at Spike's place.
She walked down the stairs and found herself staring at the front door.
She smiled slightly to herself and walked out into the sun.
"Bye, guys, I'm going for a walk!" She yelled to her two friends inside the house, and closed the door before anyone could argue with her.
Buffy walked through the door to Spike's crypt, surprised when he didn't greet her. She looked around the crypt and she felt strangely annoyed when he didn't show. 'Stupid vampire, don't you sense that there's a slayer in your crypt?' She pouted and frowned. She sat down in his couch. Then her eyes fell on the ladder to his lower level. 'Stupid Buffy, where else would he be, it's noon!' She climbed down the ladder and her breath caught in her throat at the sight she saw in front of her.
A/N Review! Sorry for the kinda Cliffhanger ;)
