Alex leaned out the front door, and waved to Buffy and Dawn and Willow as they pulled out of the driveway. Buffy paused, and rolled down the passenger window.
"Alex? You sure you don't want to come to the movies with us?" she called.
"Yes! Now, go on, have fun!" she called, smiling. They waved, and took off. Alex sighed, still smiling, and closed the front door. After making sure they hadn't turned around and come back, Alex pulled open the basement door, and moved down one step, pulling the door shut behind her. Carefully descending the steps, she turned her head and saw Spike, just laying on his cot, staring blankly up at the ceiling, without a shirt on, the blanket pulled up to the middle of his stomach. She smiled, and dropped down, sitting a couple steps from the bottom. "Are you still awake over there?" she asked, her smile gone. He jumped, and turned to see her.
"Didn't know you were there," he replied, moving to sit up. She shrugged, leaning back against the wall.
"Well…I am…Buffy, Dawn, and Willow went to see a couple movies…"
"Why didn't you go with them?" he asked, pulling his left leg beneath him, and raising his right leg up so his knee was up, and resting his right arm on his knee. She shrugged again, dropping her head against the cool concrete.
"Because I didn't feel like watching movies today…"
"I wanted you to spend at least one day with your friends, Alex, not just one day…"
"Spike, from the way that you guys have described the past two days, I technically have spent more than one day with them. I was unconscious, but I was still with them…" He groaned.
"I meant while you were awake, Alex…Not half dead in your room because you thought you needed to be redeemed…" She raised her head.
"I did need to be redeemed. Otherwise, the whole time I was here, I would've tried to sleep all the time, had nightmares instead, barely eat, and never see anyone. My mother was taking control of all my thoughts, and turning my dreams into nightmares. I wanted it all to just go away, so that I could be here with my friends. Be here with the people that I came to see…be here with you. I didn't want her here. I loved my mother, but she's done nothing but haunt me, and torture me. I wanted her to leave me alone…I had to do it, Spike…" He didn't respond: just stared off at a dark corner. Alex sighed, and pushed herself off the steps, crossing over and sitting beside him.
"I know you did, Alex…But there had to have been another way. Willow has hundreds of spells, I'm sure one of them could have gotten her to leave you alone without hurting you in anyway…" She shrugged.
"Maybe there was…"
They sat there for a minute, in silence, and she leaned back against the wall, arms crossed over her chest.
"You really freaked me out last night, you know," he said suddenly. She looked over.
"What do you mean?"
"I left to get you a bottle of water, after I put those clothes on you and laid you down, and when I came back, you were asleep, but chanting that spell again. Your mother was hovering over you, and when I tried to wake you, she tried to kill me…And then you woke up…And you looked like evil Willow, only your eyes were blood red: hers go black. You screamed out the same spell Willow yelled at your mother in the tomb to get her to leave, and your mother just went…poof…" Alex lowered her head, thinking.
"Did I?"
"Yeah…Freaked me out that you did that, because I didn't know you even heard the spell…We pretty much, at first, thought you were dead…But you were breathing, so we brought you back here." Alex nodded her head, and sighed.
"Oh…By the way…Sorry for knocking you about on my way to the tomb that day…" He shrugged, waving his hand.
"Not your fault…You were trying to get rid of your mum…" She nodded. They sat in silence again, and didn't say anything else for a good while. She glanced at his hands, seeing that, though the chains were there, he wasn't wearing them.
Finally, he reached over, grabbing hold of her by the hips, and pulled her towards him, kissing her. She squealed, giggling, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He laid her down, pulling the blanket over her, and kissed her again, making her smile even more.
Alex rested her head on his chest, eyes closed, sighing. Spike's eyes were half closed, but he was running his hand over her hair, over and over again. Alex had her right leg over his right leg, and her right arm on his chest, her hand flat against him, right in front of her face. Spike bowed his head, kissing the top of hers, neither one of them hearing the front door open and close. Alex lifted her head a bit, and looked at Spike.
"How do you feel now, Spike?" she asked, smirking. He chuckled.
"I'm feeling pretty good…What about you?"
"Same…" She moved up a bit, kissing him. He rubbed her shoulder a little, and she put her head down on the pillow as he sat up a bit, pulling a cigarette out of the pocket of his jeans, which were hanging on the corner of a cabinet a few feet from the head of the cot. Alex pulled her lighter from her jeans, which were on the floor beside her, and lit it for him.
"Thanks…"
"Any time…" She sighed contently, and rolled her head away from the stairs, her arm falling over her chest, keeping the blanket up by her neck. The door at the top of the steps opened, and Buffy's voice carried down.
"Spike? Alex? Either one of you two down here?" Spike looked up, but by now, Alex was half asleep.
"Both of us are…Why?" Buffy came down a few steps, and paused.
"Is it safe for me to come down?"
"I don't care, and she's almost asleep…" Buffy moved down a few more steps, and bit her lip when she saw Alex laying down and Spike partially sitting up, smoking. "What'd you need?"
"Uh, a couple things. One was to find out if you were here, and the other was to find out what she wanted for dinner…but I can ask her later…"
"Hang on…" He gently shook her shoulder, and she mumbled some choice words under her breath, squeezing her eyes together.
"What?" Spike nodded to Buffy.
"Anything you want for dinner?" Buffy asked. Alex shrugged.
"Food…" she muttered, pushing her hand over her eyes.
"Alright…" Buffy nodded to Spike, and headed back up the steps. She paused, and turned her head. "What about you, Spike?"
"Food," he answered, and Buffy laughed, leaving them alone in the basement. Spike reached over, and put his cigarette out against the wall, setting it on the cabinet and laying down beside Alex. She wrapped her arms around him, and scooted a little closer.
"Spike?" she asked softly.
"Hm?"
"Why do you care so much about how I feel?" she asked. He looked down at her.
"What kind of question is that?"
"Just curious…" Her eyes were still closed, and her voice was soft and fragile. He wasn't sure if she was awake or talking in her sleep.
"Well…Because I do…There's just an air about you that makes you so confident that it's unreal, and I worry about you…Because I just always seem to have worried about you," he said, yawning, and closed his eyes. Alex nodded, and faintly smiled as they both fell asleep.
Alex tossed her duffel bag onto the bed, and threw her clothes into it, and her pictures, and her candle. As she zipped it up, a knock came at her door.
"Who is it?"
"Me," Spike replied.
"C'mon in…" He opened the door, and as he closed it, he stopped. All her things were gone, all stuffed into her duffel except her jacket, which hung on the hook in the foyer. She looked up, pushing her hair behind her ear. "What's up?"
"Came to see if you were hungry, are you going somewhere?" She sighed, and nodded.
"I'm going home, Spike. I've done what I came here to do, and I need to go home…I have to go back to work, or else I'm going to get fired, and I'll end up living on the street or something…"
"Do the others know your leaving?" She held up four envelopes.
"They will in the morning. I'm leaving three of them here, in the girls' rooms, and dropping one off at Xander's on my way…" Spike sighed.
"You got one there for me?" She shook her head.
"I was going to go downstairs to see you…" Spike leaned back against the door.
"I don't want you leaving without actually telling them goodbye…You know they'll never get over this." Alex shrugged.
"They've gotten over it before, they can do it again…" She reached out for the doorknob, but he knocked her hand away. She sighed, and sat down on the end of the bed. "Spike, I can't stay here, not anymore. I may have gotten rid of my mother's demon, but the other demons that haunt me only haunt me within a twenty mile radius of Sunnydale, because the stories of Sunnydale are haunting everyone that's lived thru them, whether those people chose to admit it or not…" Spike shrugged.
"What were you going to do, call a cab? Get a lift a hundred miles home?"
"No…Going to the bus station…I can be home either tomorrow afternoon or the next morning…" Spike stepped in front of her, and lifted her chin.
"You aren't getting on any bus…"
"Spike, you can't stop me from going home…"
"I'm not…I'm taking you." She looked up, and faintly smiled.
"Really?"
"Yeah…C'mon, let's go." Alex handed him her duffel, but slid down the hall, taping Willow's, Buffy's, and Dawn's envelopes to the inside of their doors. She followed Spike out the front door, pulling her jacket over her shoulders, but stopped. He looked back at her. "What?"
"I didn't think you'd be taking me home…Hang on…" She slid into the kitchen, taking a napkin from the holder beside the sink, and removing a pen from her pocket.
Guys Spike is with me for the time being. If you haven't already, check the inside of your bedroom doors. There's an envelope hanging there from me…Love you guys. Alex.
She shoved the pen in her pocket, and closed the front door behind her. Spike looked up as he strapped her duffel to the back of his bike, and tossed her a helmet.
"Put this on…"
"When we leave Xander's…" He nodded, and she climbed on behind him. He drove out of the driveway, and took her to Xander's house. He sat out front while she jogged up to the front door, shoving his envelope thru the mail slot, hearing it hit the floor with a soft scratchy sound. Smiling faintly, she jogged back down to Spike, and tugged on the helmet as she sat behind him.
"You ready?"
"As ready as I can be…" He smiled at her, and took off down the road, turning the bike around at the corner. Alex slid her arms around his waist, and looked over his shoulder as the left Sunnydale.
"You sure you want to go back home now, Alex? I can still turn around if you want…"
"Yeah, Spike, I'm positive. If I go back, I'll never go home…I'll have to sell my house by the phone, and have them ship all my stuff out here…" He chuckled, turning the bike on a curve. She moved a bit closer to him, clasping her hands around his waist. He smiled, and she rested her helmeted head on his shoulder.