Buffy felt her face getting hot and covered by an intensive redness.
"Huh?" Her brain seemed to have forgotten how to build words, it took her some time before she asked with a shaky voice:
"Dawn... uh... where have you been?"
She did her best to keep from looking caught in the act or nervous. Truth be told, she was both.

" I was at Janice's. I told you earlier today!"
Dawn looked reproachfully at her sister and wanted to add something, when she noticed Spike who lay motionlessly on the couch.
"Spike!" she squeaked. "What are you doin' here?"
"I'm injured," he explained to her. "Something bit me into my shoulder and now I can't move anymore."

He glanced at Buffy while he talked to Dawn, his eyes clearly showing how much he regretted the interruption. Buffy couldn't help but leaving the room hastily, knowing fully well that it looked like an escape.
She ran the stairs up to the bathroom, closed the door behind her and turned on the faucet to let the cold water run over her trembling hands.
She rubbed over her face with her hands as if wanting to wash away the touch of his lips.

Damn, what was this?
Had she just been about to kiss him?
What the hell was wrong with her?
When she turned off the faucet, she heard Spike's and Dawn's voices from below.
A few moments later the doorbell rang.
She waited until she felt that she had regained her self-control before she went down the stairs on wobbly knees to welcome Willow, whom Spike just told what had happened to him.

"And you really can't move? ", Willow asked surprised.
"No, not at all. Um, I can turn my head a little. I can open and close my eyes. I also can move my mouth and my tongue."
With the last words he looked penetratingly at Buffy and for a tiny moment he leered before he continued: "And that's it."

"But you can feel your body, can't you? I mean, if I touch you, you're feelin' it?"
Willow asked and softly pinched him into his arm.
"Oh yeah, I do feel my body."
His eyebrows went up and slowly he moistened his lips, never taking his look from Buffys face.
She widened her eyes at him and quickly held up a hand as if wanting to forestall any other comment.
To her relief, he turned his head away after a few moments, trying to follow Willow's questions.

He explained to her that he hadn't seen what had attacked him but had only felt the painful bite.
Willow had brought some books which she now leafed hectically, but after she was quiet for about fifteen minutes, there was no doubt that she didn't have the tiniest idea what this mysterious bite was about.
In the end, just in order to say something, she asked: "Can I have a look at the bite?"
Spike nodded, as much as it was possible for him and looked expectantly at Willow.
"We should take your shirt off. Um...Buffy?"

Buffy winced and answered in a voice which didn't seem to belong to her: "Take off...WHAT?"
Willow shot her a confused look, apparently not understanding what was going on with her.
Buffy breathed discreetly in and out, before she went to the couch and shoved her hands under Spike's scapulas to raise his upper part of the body. She did it while trying to look completely uninterested, although a strange feeling in her stomach told her that Spike knew perfectly well that she felt all nervous and sort of excited.

When she had managed this, she pulled his black t-shirt over his head and forced herself not to stare at the upper part of his body, which, however, wasn't as simple as she had imagined.

She swallowed hard while she watched his firm and well built body.
Whenever she had imagined how he might look naked, she would have never expected THAT at all. Well, not that she had ever imagined his naked body...
Fortunately, her irritating thoughts were turned away by Willow who had stepped up behind her to look at the tiny, red prick on Spike's shoulder.
"Hmmm," she murmured lost in thought and chewed on her lower lip, before she said: "I'm sorry, Spike, but I really can't figure out what this could have been. I'll need a little more time, okay? It would have been easier, if you had seen what the thing, whatever it was, looked like."

"Does that mean that Spike stays here until you have found out what has bitten him and what can be done against the paralysis," Dawn asked eagerly, trying to conceal her joy about it unsuccessfully.
"Erm... seems like." Willow mumbled.

"Oh, fuck . . . I'm handicapped! Who knows for how long...? Do you have any idea what it feels like?" the vampire moaned while Willow tried to calm him down.
Buffy unconsciously pressed her hand against her mouth as she became aware what it meant.
Spike would stay for an uncertain time.
In her nearness.
He would shoot her these provocative looks which, for any reasons, made her feel completely weak.
He would say these things with his deep, soft voice to her, which somehow caused her gooseflesh and a strange feeling of tenseness.
Oh God, this couldn't be true.

In the middle of the night Buffy still turned restlessly in her bed to and fro, trying desperately to get some sleep.
A look at the watch told her that it was already two o'clock and the more she intended to turn her thoughts away from Spike, the more intensively she had to think about him being in the living room, only few metres away from her.
Okay, I really didn't wanna kiss him! Her attempt to convince herself didn't work at all, but she kept on trying.
It was simply one... impulse. A stupid, unplanned, completely insignificant coincidence.

She pressed her lips on each other and tried to forget how his skin had felt under her fingers when she had taken off his t-shirt.
She succeeded just as little in forgetting this, as she could forget the feeling which his lips had caused her at the tiny moment when they had touched hers.

Food, she suddenly thought.
The only thing which can turn me away now is eating something... sweet and full of fat.
She thought of pancakes dripped with maple syrup and it didn't take her long to get up and creep down the stairs.

Spike lay on the back as she had left him and seemed to sleep tightly.
The door shut silently behind her as she went into the kitchen on tiptoes without switching on the light.
She looked around for the gas lighter after she had put the necessary ingredients for the pancakes on the table, but she couldn't find it anywhere.
She rummaged all cupboards for the gas lighter, without success.
Oh, great! Why can´t we have an electric range?

While wondering what to do now, she suddenly remembered Spike's lighter.
She had seen it in his trouser pocket and she was sure that if she was absolutely careful and quiet, she could certainly pull it out without waking him up.
She crept into the living room, watched Spike from a couple of paces of distance and then slowly got closer.

She leant down to him carefully, saw the silvery edge of the lighter in his trouser pocket and extended slowly her hand.
His eyes were closed and he didn't breathe.
Carefully she grasped the lighter with her thumb and forefinger and started to pull it out slowly but to her trouble it didn't move at all.
Why the hell did he always need to put on so damn tight jeans?

She dared to reach a little more deeply into his trouser pocket and forcefully pulled the lighter out, forgetting all caution.
She was to intent upon her trying to look at his face and when she finally did it, she winced and her eyes widened as she met his which were open.

And there she stood, too shocked to move or to speak, her hand deeply buried in his trouser pocket, while she heard him whispering:
"So... look what we have here, Slayer... "
He grinned at her smugly as he continued, enjoying every single word:
"Has noone ever told you that sexual harassment of disabled persons is punishable?"