Revenge Chapter 24

"Buffy, this is your last chance before you can back away."

"No… No, I won't. I am the only one who can get Spike free and I will."

Again she was arguing with both her mother and even with Willow. Although her best friend had been supporting her throughout this, she was not very confident in the stable mental state of Buffy.

"He won't like that you do this… he'll probably hate you."

"I don't care!" She almost shouted, before breathing deeply and trying to calm down. This was more difficult than she had thought. Even this getting ready was more than she actually could take. But she would, for Spike she would.

"Let us go."

The four of them, Buffy and her mother together with Willow and Tara, left for the court room, where Spike already had been seated down by the police officers. He felt something important was at stake, although this normally should be a quite regular day. Just a few testimonies in his favour, character witnesses, nothing more. He looked around for a moment and spotted a few of his old friends which he had known before he left for England. His lawyer had done a good thing in tracking them down, perhaps the man wasn't so bad as he was posing to be.

Buffy slipped into the courtroom and sat at the backrow, waiting for the moment where she would be called to testify in favour of Spike. His lawyer would announce her as his crown witness and they all hoped that Spike would be so stunned that he would say nothing to this.

"We call Buffy Summers to the stand."

It came quite sudden and Buffy stood and walked to the front of the room as in a dream. Spike indeed looked stunned, but it didn't take logn.

"What is she doing here?" He hissed to his lawyer.

"She is our crown witness… she'll be the one to save you."

"I don't want that!"

He said it so loud that Buffy could hear him, and she had to bite on her lip to keep her tears from falling. She knew that she could expect this kind of reaction of him, but still it hurt when it finally became the truth.

"Miss Summers, you were in the house together with Mr. Carrington at the moments of the facts?"

"Yes."

"The evidence that has been shown here has proven for good reason that Mr. Carrington is innocent to the murder of one of the victims, Riley. Would you tell your story of that evening as well, Ms. Summers?"

Buffy nodded and began to tell her story, like the lawyer of Spike had told her. She tried to stick to the facts. After that, the real work began and the lawyer of the opposite party wanted to cross examine her.

"Smith.. please don't do this to her."

"She can handle it."

"Smith, as my lawyer I demand that you don't put up this charade for me. Buffy has gone through enough, I don't want this. I don't care if I go to prison for this, I just want Buffy out of here, safe and sound."

"Too late for that, Mr. Carrington."

They had spoken softly amongst each other, but the cross examination had already begun. Spike wanted to stop it, he feared for what this could do to her.

"So, Ms. Summers… You claim that both you and Spike were tied up at the moment of the disappearance of Angel?"

"He didn't disappear, he just left.

"Right. And how where you able to cut your bonds then?"

"I wasn't tied up, I never said I was. Angel seemed to trust me for some reason, as long as Spike was… as long as he could threaten him. And he knew that I would do anything for Spike."

"What did you do after he left?"

"I untied Spike and… I can't remember much of the rest. Spike brought me upstairs and said that it was better if I rested."

"And then?"

"He went back downstairs."

"To find a plan to kill Angel."

"No! No, he didn't want Angel dead, you have to believe that. We had been rid of him for five years and still he came back. I've had nightmares for years about that man… even Spike didn't speak his name for fear that he would return. Our dreams had come to life at that moment and we just wanted it to end. It was him or us… we had seen what he was capable of, he killed Riley in front of our eyes!"

She was sniffling, tears streaming down her cheeks, but the whole room could clearly understand her words. Her head in her hands, she stayed seated until the lawyer nodded that he didn't have any further questions. When Buffy looked up then, she saw the haunting blue eyes of Spike, who looked at her with sorrow, pity and… something else. At least he wasn't mad at her for doing this.. not for the wrong reasons anyway.

With a low sigh she walked off the witness stand and went towards the back of the room, where Willow, Tara and Joyce waited for her. Then, they walked out as if they had never been there, leaving everything behind.