Alex yawned, and opened her eyes, finding herself staring at the wall. She shook her head, and ran her hand down her face, rolling over. She closed her eyes again, ready to fall back to sleep, but heard a light thud, and opened her eyes. Alex was sitting up in a flash when she saw her dresser sitting against the wall opposite her bed.
"What the…?" she muttered, and let her feet drop the floor. She looked down to find a rug sitting there, and she hopped up and headed into the living room. Her boxes were unpacked, her furniture had been arranged, and the front door was propped open to let in some fresh air. "What the hell is going on?" she asked, looking around. Spike poked his head out of another bedroom, and smiled.
"Sorry if we woke you," he said, walking over to her. She pulled away from his hug, and walked back into her room to see what else was in there. Alex opened her closet, and found her clothes hung up nicely, and yanked open her dresser drawers, finding her jeans folded up inside.
"Spike, what the hell happened here?" she asked, looking up, surprised. He smirked, and pulled her away from the dresser.
"Come here…" he said, and led her down the hall.
"Spike, I don't want any more surprises…All I want to know is…what happened?"
"Hang on a second," he said, and pushed open the door to the room he'd just come out of. Buffy, Xander, Kennedy, Willow, Dawn, and Anya stood in there, smiling.
"Surprise!" Alex knitted her eyebrows together, and looked up at Spike. He was just smiling, leaning against the doorframe. Alex lowered her head, eyes still wide. When she didn't say anything for a few seconds, Spike lifted her chin, to see if she was even awake. Her eyes were closed now, and she was barely breathing. Spike's smile faded, and he took hold of her as she teetered. Xander grabbed a pillow off the extra bed, and laid it down beneath her head as Spike rested her on the floor.
"What happened?" Dawn asked.
"She must've had a bit of an overload…She did just wake up…" Willow said, leaning over Xander to see.
"Guys, lets put her back on a bed, so she doesn't wake up on a floor," Buffy stated, stepping away from the bed. Spike picked her up, and laid her down on the blanketed mattress of the bed in the room.
Alex rubbed her face again, rolling away from the wall. She slowly opened her eyes, and found Xander sitting there, his hand over hers, waiting for her to wake up.
"…Xander?" she asked softly. He glanced at her, and smiled.
"How you feelin', Alex?"
"Um…I'm not sure…what happened?"
"Spike came by about…seven or so this morning, and brought me, and Buff, and Dawn, and Willow, and Kennedy, and Anya over, so we could unpack your things for you. We let the girls take care of your clothes and things, and Spike and I moved the furniture around…I had an extra bed, and you had an extra room, so I donated it to you…Your actually laying on it right now. But…When you got up, Spike brought you in here, and we surprised you, and, according to Willow, you had a mental overload, and passed out. Uh, Spike then brought you to this bed, and laid you down so you could rest." Alex sighed, and rubbed her eyes again, giving his hand a squeeze.
"Where to begin…Uh…Thanks for the bed, Xander, you really didn't have to…"
"I didn't have any use for it…Any girl that stays at my house is either staying on the couch or…"
"Don't finish that sentence, please…" He smiled.
"Yeah, you know how it ends."
"Unfortunately, I do," she said jokingly. He gave her a look, and laughed.
"Yeah, but, it's really no problem." She smiled.
"Um…Thanks for helping unpack and move my things…"
"No problem." She looked around the room.
"…Where's everyone else?"
"Hanging out in your newly decorated living room," he said, pointing behind him. Alex pushed herself into a sitting position. "Want some help?"
"Yeah, thanks…" He pulled her left arm over his shoulder, and held it with his left hand, and put his right arm around her waist, holding her up. She walked out into the living room with Xander at her side, and smiled. The couches were placed in a neat semicircle, and the entertainment system was placed along the opposite wall from the front windows. She had end tables, a coffee table, pictures on the walls, a few antique-looking candleholders suspended on the walls. Alex put a hand over her mouth, smiling brightly. "Guys…" Buffy looked up, and stood.
"How're you feeling?"
"I guess I'm feeling better…You guys really didn't have to do this," she said.
"Didn't want you to stress yourself trying to do it alone…" She hugged them all, and then looked around.
"Hey…are we missing somebody?"
"Spike's in the basement…" Alex groaned, and turned her head.
"Xander, can you take me to the basement door?" He nodded, and walked her back down the hall, letting her lean against the door.
"Want me to take you downstairs?" he asked, opening the door. She shook her head.
"Thanks, though." He nodded.
"Listen, I'm going to take the girls out for breakfast…you wanna join us?" She shook her head. He kissed her cheek, and headed back to the living room. Alex slowly headed down the steps, closing the door behind her. She tried to move as quietly as possible.
"What're you doing, Alex? You should be upstairs, sleeping." She turned her head, and leaned over the railing. Spike was shoving his cot into the corner of the basement that was behind the stairs.
"Are you planning on living in my basement now? Or is this just for when…I send you to your room and make you think about what you've done?" she asked, sounding as much like her mother as she could. Spike turned to face her, and crossed to the bottom of the steps, looking at her.
"Alex, I've dealt with a lot of your shit over the years: fighting against me, even when we both had control over ourselves; killing vamps that, at the time, were the friends I knew; and running off after graduation in ninety-nine. But if you ever mimic my mother again, I'm going to have to bite you…" Alex looked down at him from her place on the third step from the bottom, and closed her mouth. They stared at each other for a moment before she felt the tear slide down her cheek and over her lips. Faintly, she heard the front door close, and knew the others had left.
"Spike…I wasn't meaning to sound like your mother. I was making fun of my own mother…And I don't know how many damn times I have to say that I'm sorry I ran off! My choice was to leave and be free from all the shit I've seen and heard and done over the years, or stay and let it haunt me, and slowly kill me from the inside out. Which would you rather? A sane Alex who had to go away to keep from losing her mind? Or one who was a complete and utter nutcase, who seemed to be in denial over the whole vampire/demon thing? Why don't you tell me, Spike, so that I know what I should have done, and so that I can go up to my own room and wish that I could take back the things I've done! What is it that you want!" she cried, her fists clenched at her sides, her eyes turning red from the tears streaming down her cheeks. Spike stared up at her, and shook his head.
"I would've rather you at least said goodbye before you ran off…You didn't have to stay and lose your mind, but you didn't exactly have to leave, either. You could have dealt with it then…"
"Spike, at that time, I didn't know what I was dealing with. I thought that I'd already begun to lose my damned mind! I thought that, if someone out there, outside of Sunnydale, had a conversation with me, they'd report me to the Mental Institution!" Spike gave her a look of pure confusion.
"You left Sunnydale, with a fear that talking to someone from out there would end up with you in an Institution?" Alex sighed, shaking her head.
"You just…you don't understand, Spike. You don't know what I was thinking, what I was worrying about, when I took off. I didn't do it to get away from my friends, from my life… I did it to get away from my past. To get away from my mother. I just…"
"So you did do it to get away from me…"
"What?"
"You said you didn't do it to get away from your friends or your life. Am I one of the reasons you left?" Alex waved her hands, as if saying, "Not what I meant, not what I meant at all."
"Spike…It killed me to leave Sunnydale, knowing I may never see you again. It's because of you I was here as long as I was…" Spike rubbed his eyes, and looked up at her. Her cheeks were red, her eyes bloodshot, and she still had a few tears falling down to her lips here and there. Spike sighed, and reached over, putting his hands against her hips, and bringing her down another step. She didn't make any other moves until he rested his head against her stomach, and slid his hands around her waist. Alex faintly smiled, and laid one arm over his shoulder, her hand on his back, and the other hand on the back of his head.
"I put the cot up for when you choose to send me to my corner for being a bad boy," he said, answering her original question. She laughed, and moved down the rest of the steps, pushing her lips against his. He smiled, and spun her around, leading her back upstairs, to her room.
Alex lay with her back to Spike, sleeping. The sheet was pulled up, covering her body up until her shoulders. Spike, though, was laying beside her, holding up his head with his left hand, his right hand repeatedly running down her side. He moved his hand over her arm, and gently brushed his fingers against her neck. She had her arm beneath her head, tilting it to the side a little and widening the view of her neck. Spike felt his face change, and his teeth grow.
"No…no, no, no…" he mumbled. Alex sighed in her sleep, but didn't move. He lowered his head, scraping his teeth over her neck, his eyes now closed. He pulled back, to jam his teeth into her skin, to bite her, and she rolled over towards him, tilting her head the other way, and closing nearly all of the view of her neck. His face changed back, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Spike lowered his head to the pillow, and whispered, "Thank you, Alex." She shrugged, and buried her head in his chest, slipping her arm around his waist.
Alex was curled on the couch, flipping thru the channels, and looked up as Spike walked in, tugging his shirt over his head.
"How'd you sleep?" she asked.
"Eh…You?"
"I didn't wake up screaming, or seeing images of the undead…uh…well…Seeing images of bloody corpses, anyways." Spike chuckled, and sat down against the arm of the couch. Alex smiled, and laid down, resting her head on his leg. He looked down at her, and squeezed her shoulder.
"Alex, that might not be the best idea right now…" She rolled onto her back, and looked up at him.
"Why?"
"It just…wouldn't be…" Alex looked at him, confused.
"Tell me why, and I'll move." He reached down, grabbing her shoulders, and sat her up.
"How bout I just move you myself…" he grumbled, looking up at her.
"Spike…?"
"I don't want to risk getting the urge to bite you…" She scoffed.
"Spike, you've never tried to bite me after our first encounter, why now?"
"I don't know, alright? But I almost did this morning, until you rolled over and covered your neck…" Alex moved herself up onto the arm of the couch that he wasn't by.
"Your serious…"
"Of course I'm serious, why would I joke about biting you?" he asked, giving her an odd look.
"Why would you…want to bite me?" she asked softly.
"I don't know, Alex…You just…" He moved his hand up, and ran his finger over her neck. "It just seems so perfect, from a vampire's view of things…" She looked away from him, pushing his hand off her neck. "Oh, come on Alex, don't act so surprised. You know that all vampires, at one point or another, after meeting you, think that you may prove to be one of the better feedings they'll have…"
"Yeah, I know that, but I didn't know you've thought it before…" He shrugged.
"I am a vampire, Alex, I do think of these things…" She sighed, and stood up.
"I'm going to go over to Buffy's…do some circle work with Willow…" She leaned over, pushing her lips against his cheek, and headed out the door.
Alex sat down across from Willow, a candle between them.
"Alright…We'll do a bit of memory work, is that okay? Just…we'll use my memories…okay?"
"That's great, Willow. Not sure I can handle my own right now." Willow nodded, and they closed their eyes, chanting.
Alex heard a faint, faint buzzing sound in her ear, but didn't turn her head, not wanting to break the circle.
"It's Alex! She's gone!" The words sounded throughout the basement, and Alex twitched a little, knowing when they had been said.
"What do you mean she's gone?" Buffy's voice asked.
"She actually did it! She actually left us!" Willow's voice sounded. Alex knitted her eyebrows together, listening.
"She actually did it…Alex actually took off without saying goodbye…She left Buffy…and Dawn, and Willow…and Spike……And…Me…no word of goodbye…" This time it wasn't a female voice. It was a male voice, one they both knew, and were surprised to hear. "I didn't even get the chance to tell anyone else how I really felt about her…How I've always felt about her…" It was Xander.