A/N : Thanx to all my fabulous reviewers; kargrif, Brunettepet, bella-lover, spuffy-monica, igore, Ember91, Moluvsnumber17, aej1085, Inuyasha-xcgirl, SpuffyChiclet, Spuffy2008, Lifes-Slayer, wicked-angel413, Ape18, souled-angel, Sandra, KelleyTheSelfToastablePopTart, eternalgorithm, kim, Baby Girl Geller-Green, Decaf Love, casey, Daniel Wesley Rydell, funkydevil206, Spikez-babe91, Liraels Mogget. So glad you're all enjoying (possibly the wrong word!) the fic so much, you all get so passionate about it, it's amazing! Oh, and a quick note to the anonymous reviewer who I seem to offend so much, no, I don't care who does and does not read this fic - please feel free to stop reading at any time if you are so offended andangered by what I write. For those of you who want to read this fic, here's the next chapter.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 24 - The Chase
"Good afternoon" Giles called deliberately loudly as his nephew stumbled into the dining room at lunch time holding his head.
"What's soddin' good about it?" Spike muttered, feeling like death warmed up.
He hadn't meant to get quite so wasted last night, but at least drinking was all he had done. Despite the fact he felt terrible he remembered everything that had happened at the club. Harmony, the drunken ditz, and Wes coming to save him from himself, but most of all the pain. Oh he remembered the pain that lingered, like a knife in his heart. It was still far worse than anything that was happening in his head this morning.
"If you will drink in such copious amounts, you must learn to cope with the after effects" Giles snapped a little too harshly as he ate his meal, "I'm sure your father could help you with that"
Spike closed his eyes and sighed before walking unsteadily over to the table and sitting down by his Uncle. The smell of the food made his stomach lurch and there was simply no way he'd be eating anything just yet, he was sure.
"You know I'm nothing like him" he reminded the older man, "Last night was... I did a bloody stupid thing, probably would've done worse if not for Wes coming over there and dragging me out of that club" he explained, "Still, I don't plan on making a habit out of it. God only knows how anybody finds drinking and such to be a cure for anything. Reckon I'm in more pain now than I was before" he said, putting his head in his hands on the table, "God what's happened to my life?" he moaned.
"Well, a few days ago I might have said it had taken a turn for the worse" Giles admitted, "but it seems it was not as bad as I first thought"
"What are you talking about?" Spike asked, glancing up at him with a questioning look.
"What I am saying, William, is that you have evidently changed" his Uncle told him, "Both yourself and Buffy. I did believe she might be using you at first, and indeed her actions now might serve to prove my theory" he said and Spike hated to hear it, despite the fact he'd had the same thought himself several times.
"However" Giles surprised him by continuing, "It seems to me it may not be as simple as I thought, but then where love is involved it never can be simple, now can it?"
"How should I bloody know?" Spike said grumpily, "'S not like she felt anything real for me"
"William Timothy Rayne at times you are completely insufferable" his Uncle snapped, slamming his knife down on the edge of the plate and making Spike's head throb all the more. He watched Giles get up from the table and head for the door, quickly getting to his feet Spike followed.
"What did I bloody do?" he wanted to know, "I treated her decently, I loved her like I never loved anyone, and all she wanted was... was to use me" he said bitterly, finding that saying it aloud somehow made it hurt even more.
"If that were the case, William" Giles sighed, "Do you really think she would have waited this long to leave? Do you really think you would be the only young man here she would... take a shine to, as it were?" he asked him, "I too suspected the girl of playing games as you know, but there was something, the fact she couldn't look at you when her friends were here, she looked too pained by it all... and then I remembered something else" he admitted as he removed his glasses and polished them on his handkerchief.
"Remembered what?" William asked curiously.
"The day you returned home from London" Giles told him, "The day you told Ethan exactly what you thought of his behaviour"
"Yeah, bet that made you really proud" Spike snorted as he thought of it, "Me being a loud-mouth brawler just like that git"
"Indeed William, I could not blame you" Giles smiled as he replaced his glasses on his nose, "Your father has been so much less than he ought to have been and whilst your sudden change in both looks and attitude shocked me somewhat I was indeed very proud of you for standing up to the man who has held you back so long"
Spike smiled at that, feeling stupidly touched by the fact his Uncle was proud of him. He was the only person who ever really bothered about him, expect for Dru of course, and he'd thought Buffy. That led to another thought.
"What does that have to do with this situation with Buffy?" he checked, a frown marring his features.
"Ah, yes" Giles nodded as he remembered what he'd originally been saying, "After your conflict with Ethan, you stormed away, and Buffy and I both came after you. We met on the landing and we had the strangest conversation, I'd almost completely forgotten it until last night. She asked me if I'd ever been in love, and if I had, how I had known exactly what it was I felt"
The look on Spike's face was a strange one as many mixed emotions ran through him.
"I can see no reason why she would ask such a question if she did not suspect her feelings for you ran deeper than she originally thought" Giles told him, waiting for a reaction. Eventually Spike answered him.
"Then why would she leave like she did?" he asked bitterly, "If she loved me so damn much, why didn't she say so?"
"How long did you love her before you found the courage to tell her?" Giles countered, making Spike look away.
"Reckon I fell a little bit in love with her from the first moment I laid eyes on her" he smirked, "Bloody idiot I was about it too"
"William" Giles sighed, "If you still love the girl, which clearly you do, and she could be strongly suspected of feeling the same, then go and find her, talk to her. For heavens sake man have at it before you drive us all to distraction"
"She could be anywhere" Spike said as he began to consider what Giles was saying. He did still love Buffy, of course he did, and he was so certain before that she loved him. She'd told him so, it'd scared her half to death but she'd done it. Maybe that was it then, she was clinging to the familiar, so afraid of admitting her feelings of love for him were stronger than anything else. It was quite frightening really, to feel so deeply for someone, to have fallen so fast, but that didn't mean he could let go so easily.
"I would doubt very much she has gone far" Giles reminded him, "Did I not hear Wesley and Willow saying there would be no flights to Los Angeles until this evening?"
"Yeah" Spike snapped his fingers, "You're bloody right" he realised, as he made his best effort to hurry up the stairs to get ready to leave, the worst of his hangover seemingly forgotten as he moved towards his room.
"Was that William?" Willow asked as she appeared behind her employer, "Is he okay?"
"Yes, my dear" Giles assured the girl, "I do believe he will be fine, just so long as he can get to the airport in one piece and on time"
"You want?" Faith asked, holding out a hip flask to Buffy who declined.
They were sitting in the airport, waiting for their flight which was due to leave in two hours, Faith sitting sideways on one seat with her legs hanging over into Angel's lap next to her. Buffy was opposite her supposed friends with her headphones in her ears and the volume of the music pumped right up. With her eyes closed and the rhythm pounding she could block out all reasonable thought, well, almost anyway. The memories of Spike just refused to leave her alone no matter how she tried to banish them from her mind. Words they'd said, things they'd done, nothing was loud enough to drown out the memories and Buffy was getting to the point where she felt like screaming.
She opened her eyes only to see Angel whispering in Faith's ear, his hand sliding up her thigh as she laughed loudly. What bothered Buffy about that particular situation was that she didn't care. Surely it should hurt to know her cousin and her almost-boyfriend had been doing it all the time she'd been away and still were in fact, but she felt nothing, just numb and a little nauseous as she watched their public display. People were staring, pointing, talking about Faith and Angel and not in a good way. That could so easily have been her a month ago, not caring what the world thought, and whilst that was still mostly true, the opinions of some people mattered, the people at Giles House.
'Am I doing the right thing?' she asked herself as her CD ended and she pulled her headphones from her ears. It was scary to admit she cared for Spike and to believe he might actually love her like he'd said, but the thought of going back to LA appealed a lot less than it should right now.
"Oh my God" a woman gasped across the room and Buffy turned to see a man on one knee with a ring in his hand, apparently proposing to his stunned girlfriend who was crying tears of joy as she accepted and the ring was put onto her finger before the couple kissed each other passionately. They just looked so in love and it made Buffy's heart ache to watch them together, knowing she might have had something like that one day if she'd have been less scared, if she'd have stayed with Spike.
Faith appeared at her side then, making a wretching sound and pretending to push her fingers down her throat as she watched the newly engaged couple.
"Another lamb to the slaughter" she said with a shake of her head.
"Yeah" Buffy answered absently, eyes not moving from the embracing pair just yet, "Er, I have to go" she said suddenly scrambling to her feet.
"What's up?" Faith asked with a frown and Buffy shook her head.
"Nothing, I just... need to go to the bathroom" she said, forcing a smile as she walked away, and shifting her bag on her shoulder as she went.
"Something is not right with her" Angel said to Faith as they watched her go.
"Maybe" the girl said thoughtfully, "Or maybe somethin' is finally right with her" she said absently as Angel wrapped his arms around her once again.
"Hey William" Xander smiled as the bleached blond came into the garage in his black and red outfit once again, "Or should I be calling you Spike now?" he checked.
"Whatever you want, mate" Spike shook his head, "I don't really have time to talk right now. Places to be, women to catch" he said as he selected a car to drive to the airport.
"You can't go" the brunette shook his head, "The way Will and Wes tell it you were pretty wasted last night, there's no way you should be driving"
"Appreciate the concern Xand, but I'm not losing Buffy, I can't, not without at least making an effort to talk to her" Spike told him firmly as he pushed the button on the keys in his hand and the alarm beeped on the Viper across the garage, "Had to be this one" he smirked as he advanced on the vehicle, but Xander got in his way.
"Look, I know it's none of my business" he said fast, not loving the almost nasty look in the eyes of one who used to be so docile, "but your Uncle would kill me if he knew I let you drive out of here when I knew it wasn't safe. Let me drive" he offered.
Spike considered for a brief moment before handing over the keys and jumping into the passenger seat of the car.
"Let's go" he said, "And put your bloody foot down, alright?"
"Sure thing" the brunette nodded as he pulled the seatbelt across himself and slipped the key into the ignition. He grinned, loving the fact he was finally getting to drive such a great car further than the end of the driveway!
"Let's rock and roll"
The voice over the tanoy made a final call for the LA flight and Angel was growing impatient of waiting. Faith had run off almost a half hour ago to find Buffy and was still not back. Two more minutes and she'd be too late.
"What the hell is going on...?" he muttered to himself when suddenly the brunette came into view, "Faith! Get your ass over here!"
"She ain't there, Angel" the girl told him with a frown, "She ain't anywhere"
"The flight is leaving now, we have to go without her" Angel said firmly.
"I dunno, man" Faith shook her head as she glanced around, "She can't have just disappeared, I mean..."
"Faith!" a voice called and she swung around to see Spike hurrying towards her.
"Angel, go" she told him firmly, "I'll be there in two seconds"
He gave her a quizzical look before doing as she said and passing through the gate to board the plane.
"Yo, Spike" Faith said as he reached her, "Buffy ain't here"
"What do you mean?" he asked looking panicked, "She can't have gone already, she can't have just..."
Faith held up a hand to silence him.
"Spike, I got like one minute here so shut up and listen" she told him, "Buffy's changed, I saw it yesterday, more than once, and today was like the last straw. She's not like me, man, she thinks she is but we're not the same. I was born to be wild, she came along for the ride. She was always waiting for her prince to come, y'know? I figured she'd get over it since there ain't no guy in the land ever gonna make either of us fall, but you did it"
"What are you sayin' to me, pet?" Spike checked, wanting to make sure he'd understood properly.
"I'm sayin' you win, she's yours" Faith grinned, as she backed towards the gate, "I know that girl better than anyone, and I know she wants you, pretty much think she loves you, so if you can find her and tell her you feel all that stuff for her too, I think she might get the happy ever after her eight year old self is still lookin' for" the girl winked as she handed over her boarding pass and disappeared from sight.
Xander came running up behind Spike, having just managed to find a safe parking space.
"Are we too late?" he asked breathlessly, hands on his knees as he bent double and tried to get oxygen into his lungs, "Did we miss the Buffster?"
"No, she's not here" Spike shook his head as a smile came over his face, "But we made it just in time"
To Be Continued...