Alex listened to him shut off the bike as she pulled the helmet off her head. Spike climbed off first, and started to remove the duffel from the back of the bike. Alex hung the helmet from one of the handles, and walked up over to the sidewalk that led from the driveway to the front door. It was a one story blue house, with a shingled roof. The front door was white, a black-framed screen door on the outside. She faintly smiled.
"Home…" she murmured. Spike walked up beside her with her duffel in his hand.
"You just going to look at it, or go in?" She chuckled, and walked up to the front door, removing her key from her pocket. She pushed open the screen door, and Spike stood in front of it, holding it open while she unlocked the inner door. She walked in, and clicked on the ceiling fan. Tugging her jacket over her shoulders, she tossed it onto the couch and stepped up to her answering machine.
"Damn…"
"What?" She hit PLAY, and Spike listened as the machine said, "You have thirty-four new messages…To hear your messages, press play again." Alex just left it, and moved into the kitchen. "You aren't going to listen to them?"
"I assure you, it's solicitors and my boss. Maybe a neighbor asking why I haven't mowed my lawn, but other than that…" Spike set her bag next to the couch in the living room, and walked up behind her as she leaned against her kitchen table.
"You happy now that your home?" She shrugged.
"I thought I would be…" He wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed her neck. Alex smiled but didn't turn around. "So are you staying, or leaving?" she asked softly. Spike shrugged, stepping away.
"I don't know…what do you want me to do?"
"Don't leave this up to me. If I ask you to stay, I'm going to feel like I'm keeping you all to myself, and if I ask you to leave, I'll feel even shittier than I already do." Spike sat down on one of the chairs at the table, and placed his hands on her waist, pulling her onto his lap. She giggled, a smile spread over her face, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him.
"If I chose, I'll feel like a jackass…" She shrugged, and rested her head on his shoulder for the few silent seconds they had before the doorbell rang.
"Damnit…" She stood up, and glanced behind her. "Stay here…" He nodded, but stood and leaned against the wall beside the door, listening. She opened the front door, and smiled.
"Hello, Ms. Hardt," a little voice said. Spike smirked.
"Hey, Danny…What's up?"
"Good to have you back in town…I collected your mail for you," he said, holding out a small stack of envelopes.
"Aw, Danny, thank you very much…Hang on a second, let me get you something for going out of your way to do this…" She stepped inside, and rifled thru her purse, which was still sitting on her table, and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. She stepped back over, and held it out to him. "Here you go, kid-o."
"Thank you, Ms. Hardt. Hope you had fun on your trip."
"Yeah…lots of fun…"
"Bye."
"Bye, Danny…" she replied, watching him run back to his bike, which was standing on the sidewalk closer to the road. She sighed, and pushed the door closed, leaning against it. Spike walked out, and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him. She faintly smiled as he kissed her, but didn't seem as into it as before, so he pulled away.
"You're really worried about this choice, aren't you?" he asked. She shrugged, slipping her arms around his neck.
"Yeah, I suppose I am…" He sighed, and, hands pushing into her hips, lifted her up a bit. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and rested her head on his shoulder. He carried her into the living room, and sat down on the couch, her still on his lap. Lifting her head off his shoulder, Spike pushed his lips against hers.
"Alex, listen. Why don't you call a mover, and pack all your things, and buy that house a couple houses away from Buffy? You won't have to feel bad about leaving your friends, and you can overcome all that shit back there with people. You don't have to do it alone…" She smiled, and shrugged.
"I'll think about it…" He pushed his lips against hers.
"Good…"
Alex sat on the edge of the bed, the phone against her ear, a sheet wrapped around her. Spike laid beside her, sleeping, the blanket pulled up to his chest.
"That's right…Fourteen thirteen Maple Lane…Can you get a U-Haul here this evening?" she asked.
"Yeah, we can…"
"Oh, goody…Thank you…"
"Now, do you want it to be a U-Haul that you would drive, or one that we'd send a driver with?" Alex paused.
"Send one with a driver…Because when I get where I'm going and unload all my things, I don't want to have to come back…" The man on the other end of line chuckled.
"Yeah, I've had many a call from people who said the same thing…The truck will be there by six, is that okay?" Alex looked at her clock. It read 2:59 PM.
"Yeah, that's okay. Thank you, sir."
"Your very welcome." Alex hung up the phone, and she felt Spike's hand on her back, followed by his lips.
"What're you doin', Alex?" She turned her head.
"Spike, can you pull at least your jeans on? I need you to help me pack my things…" He sat up, looking at her.
"So…You're saying…Your moving back to Sunnydale?" She smiled, nodding.
"Yep…Buffy and the others are going to be quite surprised…But in that letter I wrote each of them, I never said I was staying here permanently…Only that I was going back home…I called the realtor for that house, they said it's been for sale for quite a while, and they were willing to sell it to me for the same price I bought this house for, and that they'd also take care of this house for me…And a U-Haul will be here by six, with a driver, so we can load all my things up into the truck, and head back to Sunnydale…We can go in front of the truck, and when we unload everything, he can just return here…" Spike leaned over, kissing her.
"I knew that's what you'd choose…" Alex smiled, and smacked her hand into his thigh.
"Good…Now get dressed, and help me pack…"
She tugged her shirt over her head, and leaned into her room.
"Spike, on the shelf in my closet are folded boxes…take them down, put them together with the tape in my drawer, and start packing up whatever you find in there, okay?"
"Kay…" She jogged down into the basement, finding more boxes in a corner.
At six, all the boxes were on the front lawn, as was all her furniture. Spike kissed her cheek, brushing her hair off her shoulder.
"Quick work when it's just the two of us, hm?" She bit her lip, giggling, and smacked his shoulder. The U-Haul pulled into the driveway backwards, and the driver shoved it into park, climbing out to help them load up all her things.
The man pulled down the gate in the back, and Alex glanced back at her garage.
"So what now?" he asked.
"Now…oh, crud…"
"What?" Spike asked. Alex jogged up, setting her key underneath the welcome mat on the porch, and moved to the garage.
"I need you to pull the U-Haul in front of the house, and then park it and open up the back again…" The guy nodded, and did as he was told. Spike walked up to Alex, and she pulled open the door to the garage. Inside was her silver Infiniti. "Spike, when he opens it up, you have to move your bike into the back…Unless you want to ride it back alone…"
"I'll load it up…" She smiled, and walked over to the shelves along one wall. She pulled open her back door and trunk, and piled some things in them, until she filled the trunk, and as much of the back seat as she could without blocking her view. She slammed the trunk and the backdoors, and lifted a toolbox from the floor, setting it in the car, on the floor in front of the passenger seat. She looked up, and watched the driver pull the gate back down, as Spike hopped off the back, walking up to her.
"Spike, you mind driving? I'm still a little sleepy…"
"Whatever…" Alex looked over at the U-Haul driver.
"Just follow us, okay?" she called. He waved, nodding.
The car was parked in the garage, with everything unloaded, Spike's bike sitting next to it. It was just about 9:00 when they pulled into the driveway of the new house, being as they had to go roughly 40 MPH the whole way. After unloading all the things from the back of the U-Haul, the guy pulled out of the driveway, and stopped in front of the house.
"Hey, which way to the main road?" he called out the passenger window. Spike pulled his bike from the garage, and glanced back at Alex.
"I'll show you!" he called, and pulled out into the street. Alex nodded, and climbed into her car as they disappeared.
"Okay…Now…to go sign off on this house…" she muttered, and pulled out of the driveway, heading the opposite way of Spike.
Spike led the guy down a dark, deserted gravel road, and pulled off to the side. The driver stopped, too, and opened his door.
"You sure this is the way to the main road?" he called. Spike climbed off his bike, and walked back to the driver.
"Of course I'm sure, I've been living around here forever," he stated, and motioned for the guy to come down. He hopped onto the gravel.
"What's up?"
"If you keep on this road for five more miles, you'll come out on the main road, and it will lead you straight to the highway…" The guy squinted, trying to see thru the trees, and took a few steps away from Spike.
"Hm…Really doesn't look like it…" Spike nodded.
"Well…" He morphed his face, smirking. "It is…" He roughly grabbed the guys head, and slammed him into the side of his truck. Baring his teeth, he bent his head down, and jammed them into the man's throat.
Alex pulled back into her garage, and climbed out of the car after shutting it off. Closing the garage door, she walked out, and stopped. Spike was leaning against his bike, hands jammed into the pockets of his long black coat, staring over at the grass. She moved down the driveway, and stepped up beside him.
"Spike?" she asked. He blinked, and looked over at her.
"What?"
"Are you alright? You seem sort of…confused…" He shrugged.
"I'm fine…" She sighed, and looked over at Buffy's house, and watched the light in the living room go off.
"Must be going to bed…So did the mover get back to main road alright?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah…Pointed him in the right direction, and let him go." Alex nodded, and started up to the house, rubbing her face. Spike walked up behind her, not moving his hands from his pockets, and waited beside her as she unlocked the door. "You going to bed now?" he asked.
"Uh…" She paused, thinking about whether or not they'd put the bed in a bedroom, and nodded. "Yeah…just gotta get my sheets and a couple pillows…" Alex turned her head to see him, and then looked back down at a box at her feet. It was marked "Bedroom crap." She faintly smiled, and kneeled down, opening the box. Reaching down to the bottom, she pulled out a couple of sheets, and moved across the room to a bigger box, marked the same way. Tossing the sheets to Spike, she yanked open the box and pulled out a couple of pillows. Spike followed her into her bedroom, and she threw the pillows to the head of bed before turning to take the sheets from him. She paused, and glanced back at him, as she sat down on the end of her mattress.
"What?"
"Are you going to stay here or go back to Buffy's?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. Spike shrugged, leaning against the doorframe.
"I don't know yet. Finish making your bed, I'll let you know after I go get my cigarettes from the bike." She nodded, and stood back up.
"Alright…" She turned back, and spread the sheets over her mattress, yawning.
Spike walked outside, and pulled his pack of cigarettes from his pocket, leaning against the bike. He parted his lips, and ran his fingers over his teeth, taking a look at them in the faint glow of the streetlight. Seeing no blood, he jammed a cigarette in his mouth, and lit it, taking a puff. He sighed, looking around him. The street was dark, but some houses still had a light on. Buffy's was the main house that was completely darkened, the only one he really noticed. He stood up a bit straighter when he saw the front door open, and close, and someone move down the sidewalk towards the street. They walked down the road, and beneath a streetlight, and he sighed. It was Willow and Kennedy, who were talking very quietly as they walked. Spike puffed out the last of his cigarette, and tossed it to the drive, stepping on it as he headed back inside.
He tugged his jacket off, and hung it up, as he headed to her room. Beneath it he wore a '70s style, sleeveless black shirt. He opened her door, and walked in.
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna stay here…" He looked up at her, and smiled. Alex was laying on her bed, shoes and shirt laying on the floor, with her sheet pulled up to her waist. Her back was to him, and she was fast asleep. "…with you," he finished quietly, and closed the door, crossing over and laying beside her.