OMG! hugs everybody I love you! I missed you all when I went away to camp...ee; sorry..I've been hugging everyone...I'm suddenly appreciative of everybody around me. Anyway...this is a long chappie...sorta...last chapter was longer by ALOT...() wewt...this one is like...HUGE! Dramatic and like...kinda scary...well...read it and see!

Chapter 12:

Tourniquet

Spike dashed up the apartment building's stairs. He was hoping she'd be in her apartment. He knew that would probably be the first place she would go, but he prayed that another bounty hunter wouldn't be there as well. As he approached her apartment, he heard a clamor and he started to fear that his nightmare had become a reality.

He rushed into her apartment and luckily, there was no bounty hunter, but what he saw made him wonder if another bounty hunter would be any worse. The handcuffs that were snapped onto her alcohol cabinet were gone and that was when he remembered that he had taken them off when he had his drink, but all was not well in her kitchen. There was Emp, stumbling around chairs as every single bottle of booze she owned was wobbling on the table, half empty. When she saw him standing there, she dropped her glass of brandy and it went shattering to the floor.

"Spike, you're alive! How was the afterlife? Did you have a great time?" slurred Emp, struggling to keep standing. She then realized that she had dropped her glass so she took up a bottle and began to drink from it. Spike strode over to her quickly and snatched the bottle from her.

"Oh, you want some too? Go for it! I'll take this one over here." She sputtered again, reaching for another bottle, but he snatched that one and some of the others too. It took her a minute to realize what he was doing, but when she did, she let out a yell.

"NOOO! Don't pour them down the drain! What the hell are you doing, stupid bunty hatter!" she shrieked and tried to snatch them from his hand frantically, but he continued to pour them down even as she screamed bloody murder.

"I told you I don't want you drinking anymore. It's going to kill you before Sabatino does." Spike tried to reason, but Emp wouldn't have it so she picked up an empty bottle from her table and smashed it against her chair. Then, with a loud battle shriek, she attempted to run at him with the sharp bottle half, but she tripped and dropped it on the floor. Luckily, Spike caught her before she fell to the floor in despair. She sagged in his arms, practically kneeling on the floor, sobbing more than he had ever seen her.

"Emp…" he began, but she cut him off.

"Why didn't you tell me about you and Faye?" she bawled, her face distorted in sorrow

"What do you mean? What about me and Faye?" asked Spike, trying to pull her up from the floor.

"She told me everything! You and her…you're her lover!" she continued, trying to stand up to the best of her ability. She knew what all this drinking would do to her, but she didn't care. In fact, she felt that she would be lucky if it killed her before Sabatino did.

"No, Emp. I'm not with Faye. She lied to you." Spike tried to look into her eyes, but he almost didn't want to. Emp's eyes were always filled with such emotion and he could hear how dispirited Emp was. He was afraid to see all that sorrow in her eyes.

Spike had always been trusted by Emp, even when he shouldn't have been trusted. He thought that today would be just like any other day: he would say something and she would take his word for it. It was just the way things operated in the past. However, Emp was not only a lot less reasonable when she was drunk, but she had convinced herself that Faye had told her the truth. So, Spike was at a lost for words when Emp cried, "Liar. LIAR! You let me believe that you were single! You let me believe that you loved me! How do you sleep at night, knowing that you've been luring me into the bounty hunter death trap that you had set for me? Do you do that often? Play with women's hearts, making them fall helplessly in love with you and making them believe that you truly love them back? Well, do you, Spike Spiegel!"

"Emp…I…" choked Spike, but he couldn't say anything. He couldn't find words to say and if he did, he wouldn't be able to say them.

"I was ready to do anything for you!" Emp screamed again, but her rage slowed. "If you wanted the bounty, you could have just asked. I would have gladly turned myself in if it made you happy. I would have, Spike. I really would have. I would have even handed you the woolongs myself if you wanted. I thought you loved me. How could I have been so foolish? How could a great guy like you ever possibly fall in love with me? Who wants to love a drunken, ugly, poor tramp like me? Nobody has loved me before, why should the man I love suddenly fall in love with me? How could I have been so blind?" Spike couldn't stand her tears. Emp wasn't just ready for death, she was asking the Grim Reaper to take her. He didn't want to see her like this. He had seen her truly happy and content and to see her now, wanting death and hating life, was torture to him.

"Emp, don't listen to Faye or anyone else. I love you. I love you more than life and definitely more than money." He said, his voice steady and soothing. She almost succumbed to his tender voice, but her blood-alcohol level wouldn't allow it.

"Oh shut it! Just shut up! I wish you would just die!" she bellowed, her tears flowing nonstop from her bloodshot eyes. Spike stood there for a moment, wishing that she would come back to her senses and trust him, but it was useless. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his gun. Without disrupting their eye contact, he brought the gun slowly to his head and placed the barrel to his temple. Emp stared into his eyes, seeing a melancholy which reflected the same pain as was in her soul, and just as his finger was beginning to move down on the trigger, she screamed, "NO! SPIKE!"

Spike's finger released pressure on the trigger, but he kept the gun to his temple. He watched as his miserable Emp, sobbing and pleading, dropped to her knees, her face in her hands. She was trembling all over, her shaking head accentuated by her shivers, and she kept weeping and repeating, "No. Don't. Stop." He slowly lowered the gun and set it down on the table. He approached her gently as she was rocking back and forth, her face glued to her hands and crying the same thing over and over again. No. Don't. Stop. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to his own body. He placed one hand tenderly on the back of her head and soothingly rested it on his shoulder.

"It's okay. I'm not going to do it." He told her. She slowly stopped repeating 'No. Don't. Stop' and soon, all Spike could hear was her sobs. Finally, after she had calmed down enough to listen to him reasonably, he whispered to her, slowly and compassionately, "Emp, I love you more than anything and for your sake, don't forget that."

That night, Emp slept soundly while clinging to Spike, however he wasn't as lucky. He kept on thinking about her bounty and how much he wanted to assuage her pain. He hadn't seen her in such hysterics before and he hoped that he never had to see it again. He wanted to make her happy, but how? As long as her bounty was 200,000,000 woolongs, she was going to be in danger wherever she went. It was getting harder and harder for a bounty to hide, not to mention harder and harder to keep Emp from falling off the deep end. To think of all the anxiety she went through when he got shot; it was almost more painful than his bullet wound.

The next day, neither of them spoke much. Emp was quiet, solemn, and, as much as Spike wished it wasn't so, ashamed. He wanted her to forget what happened the night before, but he decided not to say anything. Finally, half way through the morning, Emp convinced Spike to let her change his bandages. He sat on the edge of the bed while she took off his old bandages and put on new ones. All was silent until finally Emp spoke timidly.

"Spike, listen…about last night…" She sniffled avoiding eye contact with him.

"What about it?" asked Spike, soothingly. He wanted to avoid the conversation as much as he figured she did. Emp looked up, almost startled and Spike caught a glimpse of anxiety in her eyes.

"Well, I didn't mean to say…" she began, but Spike cut her off.

"Let's try to forget about last night." He said.

"Forget about it? How can we just forget about it! I said that I wanted you…" she trailed off; Spike was staring into her eyes and she couldn't help but be drawn into them. She forgot what she was going to say for a few moments, but then she continued, "I just wanted to say…"

"Sorry?" Spike cut her off, "No. Dont apologize. You don't need to and it's probably better if we just dont talk about last night." She looked at him, almost helpless, but then, to his surprise, she placed her hand on his face and kissed him. However, this wasn't just one of her little kisses she gave him; this was a full kiss. Soon Spike was on his back and they were passionately kissing. After a few more seconds, Emp pulled away and tried to hide a smile.

"So, do you think I've apologized enough?" she said, her smile showing.

"Just barely." Laughed Spike and he wrapped his arms around her as she rested her head on his shoulder, giggling. However, this moment was cut short by a loud knocking on the door. They both sat up quickly and Spike could hear Emp's breath quicken. He looked around and saw that the corner between her bed and the window could probably hide Emp enough if the person at the door was a bounty hunter. He pointed to the corner and whispered to Emp, "go hide over there until I tell you to come out." Emp did as she was told, but inside, she was so scared that she couldn't cry. Both of them feared that it might be another bounty hunter come to claim her price tag, but they were only half right.

Spike slowly opened the door just enough to see out into the hallway and saw that it was Jet. Spike opened the door wide, but stood in the doorway, a stern look of distrust on his face. Jet sighed and said, "Spike, I just came to see if she was alright." Spike let him in, but didn't motion for Emp to come out of hiding.

"Well, I guess you're late like me. She's not here." Spike lied, but this time, it was very believable. Jet stared at him aghast.

"You mean, you never found her? Well, what are you doing here? Go find her!" yelled Jet, almost in a panic.

"Why? Because another bounty hunter might get to her?" asked Spike, annoyed.

"Yeah, that or Sabatino might get to her. Don't you care? I mean, you cared enough to take a bullet for her…" said Jet, but Spike began listening to something else.

"Quiet!" he whispered and Jet stopped talking. Spike looked towards the door and all of a sudden ran towards the other side of the bed and yelled "Get down!"

Jet followed him behind the bed just as a bounty hunter kicked down the door. Spike looked at Jet sternly and said, "Protect her and get her out of here as soon as you can." Then, he ran around to the middle of the room, gun drawn. Jet looked after him in confusion and almost jumped when he turned to see Emp cowering in the corner, tears streaming down her face.

Spike was concealed in a corner when the bounty hunter came strolling into the middle of the room casually with his pistol drawn. When he passed in front of Spike in the corner, Spike lunged at him with a kick to the head. As they were fist fighting, Spike found that this bounty hunter, or whoever he was, was a formidable opponent. Jet had paid attention to what Spike told him; as soon as Spike and the intruder carried their fight off to the kitchen, Jet grabbed Emp's arm and pulled her towards the door.

"C'mon, we're getting out of here!" he yelled as he yanked the scared Emp towards the front door and she tried to look back to see Spike, but was outside the door before she could catch a glimpse. Jet pulled her down the stairs and by the time they exited the building, Emp was running as well. She followed him down an alleyway and they jumped into his ship, the Hammerhead.

"Wha…what are we going to do?" cried Emp, looking down every possible entrance and exit to the alleyway.

"We're going to wait for a sign from Spike." He said, then turned to her and growled, "And stop looking down the alleyway. Nobody's coming!" Emp cowered at his tone and Jet sighed, scratched his head, and continued, "Don't worry about anything. Spike and I've got you covered." He laughed and almost expected Emp to continue to cower, but instead, she gave him a small smile. Even with a smile as small as she gave him, Jet couldn't help but understand why Spike fell in love with her. However that wasn't the only thing he realized; he realized that she really was innocent.

Okay...perhaps it was a tad OOC for Spike...he gets really hard to write. xx; bah. Jet is such a nice guy...sheesh...lol. I mean...yeah he's a bounty hunter, but I always pictured him as a guy with a soft spot for people inneed. Especially for somebody likeEmp...and as for poorEmp...wow...does SHE have issues..xx; lets just say that her attributes, other than being totally in love with Spike, areCOMPLETELY different frommine. XDD See yaguys next week...I better start writing chapter 16...you guys are catching up to me!