Chapter 4: A Helping Hand

Buffy and Dawn sat on their living room couch talking about Buffy's near death experience on the streets of London. Spike was pacing in front of them and responding to their conversation even though technically he couldn't.

"So two hands pushed you away?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah…it was weird…" Buffy said and looked straight in front of her in deep though, like she was trying to solve what caused her magical rescue. Ironically Spike was in the same very spot she was looking at.

"You can say that again luv…" Spike mumbled, responding to Buffy's comment.

"Are you sure their was no one behind you when you were walking across…I mean you didn't notice that car coming at you, so maybe you didn't notice—" Dawn reasoned but stopped when she got a glare from Buffy.

"There was no one there!" Buffy exclaimed, "I know I felt two hands on my back and then fiercely push me away."

"What kind of hands?" Dawn asked.

Buffy gave Dawn a funny look, "What?"

"Well were the hands small, large, muscular, boney?" Dawn asked.

"What difference does it make?"

"Because…I don't know! Maybe it can narrow the mystery down a bit." Dawn quipped and shrugged.

Buffy rubbed her forehead, "Dawn please…"

"Alright! Alright!" Dawn held her hands up in surrender.

"Maybe…maybe I imaged it." Buffy said as she looked up.

Spike stopped pacing and turned to Buffy. "No! No, no, no…" Spike said and kneeled down in front of Buffy, "You didn't imagine it and you know it luv."

"Maybe…you said you were feeling a bit off lately." Dawn pointed out.

"Yeah…" Buffy sighed.

"I touched you luv…I touched you for some reason and you can't ignore this!" Spike said and put his hand on her arm but his hand went right through her, "Why can't I do it now?" he mumbled to himself and stared at his own hand.

"I'm going to take a nap…" Buffy said and got up from the couch and passed right through Spike. "Getting almost run over takes a lot out of you." She mumbled.

Dawn and Spike frowned. Spike sighed and turned to Dawn, who was staring down at her lap.

"Dawn?" Spike whispered and waved his hand in front of her face, "Dawn, can you hear me?"

Dawn got up from the couch and passed right through Spike and went into the kitchen.

Spike growled in frustration and got up and walked into Buffy's room wall. The first thing Spike noticed was Buffy standing near her nightstand and looking into her jewelry box. He walked up behind her and found the amulet in her hands. Spike glanced from the amulet to the side of her face.

"Maybe that's why you can sense me…when you got the amulet it made some sort of connection…" he said softly and close to her ear.

Buffy's body trembled a little; this made Spike's eyes widen a little.

"Buffy?" Spike whispered and slowly reached his hand out and tried to place it on her shoulder. At first he didn't succeed but then he concentrated more. He concentrated on Buffy'

Buffy froze when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up in her mirror and saw there was no one behind her. Her heart was racing with the contact of the mysterious presence on her shoulder.

"Who are you?" she whispered while glancing at her shoulder and still feeling the weight that was put on it.

"It's me luv…can you hear me now?" Spike asked.

"Whoever you are…please leave me alone…" she said with a touch of fear in her throat.

"Luv it's me…I'm not going to hurt you...wherever I am I seem to be connected to that amulet…which means I'm connected to you." Spike whispered, "I…I need your help…you're not imaging this…"

"Please…please just go…" Buffy whispered.

Spike stood still for a moment and then took his hand off of her shoulder. He needed a better plan to reach Buffy and tell her it was really him. Spike couldn't just go like Buffy asked, they both needed each other. He couldn't stay a ghost forever.

The next morning Spike waited for Buffy to wake up and take her morning shower. He walked into the bathroom wall and noticed that the room was filled up with steam. Spike glanced at the mirror in the bathroom and walked towards it…
Buffy stepped out of the shower stall and grabbed a towel started to dry herself off. She went over to the bathroom sink and started to retrieve water into a cup from the tap. When Buffy looked up and saw writing on her fogged up mirror. She gasped when she saw 'SPIKE' written in the mirror. The plastic cup of water in her hand fell to the floor and spilled water all over the tile.

TBC….