The Road to Nowhere, Leads to Me

Chp.6

Questions Upon Questions

No joke, I own all of this. Joss decided he'd give it to me. In my dreams. ME, Joss and all the usuals own it, I just write it.

Angel stands in front of her expecting an answer to the question he'd asked. Her eyes flicker over to the now standing form of Spike. He looks pissed off, and miserable all at once. She can't figure out how his face could show so many emotions, and never move a muscle. It had always been beyond her, how one minute he could have the most relaxed expression, and then in a blink of an eye the same expression could become deadly. She smiles over at him.

Spike's eyes grow wide, at seeing her standing in the middle of Angels desk. He breathes in a steadying breath. "WHAT THE BLEEDING HELL IS GOING ON," he yells, looking over to her as he makes wild, movements with his hands.

"That's quite a good question, Spike." Wesley steps forward, towards the ghostly figure of Buffy. "Seeing as how Angel has just told us some of the most bloody awful news. I would have to admit that this occurrence is quite an anomaly." His gaze slides from the imploring blue eyes of the ghost vamp, and into the eyes of the girl in question. "Buffy, what's the last thing you can remember doing?" He's already calculating the possibilities that could have been the catalyst of this strange happening.

Her green gaze falls from Spike, to land on the ex-watcher. "Lets see. I was driving a car, up a big, freaking mountain when a blizzard hit" The sarcasm in her tone doesn't go unnoticed. "I had taken an assignment from Giles to go get a new slayer, I think I hit a patch of ice. The car started spinning, then it was like one of the scary as hell roller coaster rides, except the car was constantly going down. Then there was a thud, and the car started doing flips." Her eyes grow watery, at the memory. She can remember the pain of her breaking ribs, as the car hit the first tree. "Some of my ribs broke with the first thud, then as the car flew down the side of the mountain, I felt the glass stick in my neck." She is out and out sobbing now. "Then the second tree was hit, and that was all she wrote." Her head hangs down onto her chest. "That's the last thing I can remember." She concludes sucking in the tears, she places her hands on her hips, and puts her weight on one leg.

She watches as Spike walks to her side, and places a caressing hand on her cheek. He wipes at the tears still lingering there with the pad of his thumb. "Buffy?" She looks into his deep, bottomless, blue eyes. "You're a bloody ghost, Luv." He stares deeply into her eyes, awaiting her reaction.

"You're still on that?" She says it without venom. She doesn't have the heart to be sarcastic to him. "I sorta figured that out, when my hand kept passing through the knob of the door." She smiles up at him. "Even if I hadn't figured it out then, I'm sure I would've gotten it when I went right straight through Angel there a moment ago" She feels his touch across her cheek, and her eyebrows crease together. "How come you can touch me?" Her eyes find those of the watchers again, imploring him for an answer, and also to keep from having to look directly into her beloved's soulful eyes. She thought she'd never see him, again. She'd tried to move on, but the guys she'd dated just seemed too normal, they weren't Spike, and none of them ever would be. That's why she'd jumped right to the mission that Giles had assigned for her. Now that he stands right here, she can't bare to look in his eyes.

His hand had slid from her beautiful face when she'd turned to Wes for answers, but he's the only one that can give her those. Reaching up he places his hands on her cheeks making her have to turn back to him. Taking a deep breath, he glares deeply into those dark, green pools of emerald. "Luv." He half smiles at the almost silent hmm that emanates from between her lips. "If you want something bad enough, you can touch it, pet." Licking his lips, he takes his gaze from hers. Seeing a coffee mug sitting on the desk, he concentrates as he reaches for it. "You can even pick stuff up if you concentrate hard enough." He waves the coffee mug in front of her face, with a huge smile.

His countenance turns seriously thoughtful. "I thought..." He ducks his head, shaking it. "Anyway, I want to touch you, god you can't imagine what it's like."

"Yes, I do," she whispers on a sigh.

He hadn't heard her, and keeps explaining. "I figured out that in some ways another incorporeal being can unconsciously touch me. Just like I'm doing now, Luv." He explains, planting his eyes back into hers. He smirks as her fingers come up to rest against the hand softly caressing her cheek.

"Buffy?" She lets her hand fall back down to her side, as she turns in the direction of the dark vampire that had called her name.

"Angel?" She smirks.

"Do you have an idea of how this could have happened?"

She'd been expecting that question, but had figured on Wesley asking it. "Like I've always said. You kill me, I always come back."

Angel looks at her broodingly, or it may be condescendingly. She's never quite sure which one, even when they were together he only had like three facial expressions. She giggles, inaudibly. "For some reason, I just can't seem to stay dead. I don't even think that whoever..."

"The Powers." Angel cuts her sentence short.

"The Who-ers?" She asks in total confusion over what he'd just said. What the hell is he talking about.

"The Powers that Be." She still looks confused.

"They're the ones that control everything, in this dimension, and many more. Lord knows they've messed with me enough." He explains further, watching as the understanding comes to her eyes.

"Well, The Powers, seem to think that it's fun to keep bringing me back. It must be their cosmic joke on me or something. I think they've given me a permanent Get Out Of Death Free, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, card." She agitatedly flips a lock of hair over her shoulder, crosses her arms over her chest, and glares intently at everyone surrounding her.

When her gaze lands on Spike it softens into a look of longing, that which he just can't describe. It takes his breath away, he thought he'd never see that look again. It's the one that he'd seen in her eyes down in the Hellmouth. The one before she'd said what she'd said, and he'd denied her.