"Spike?" Buffy questioned the darkness, sitting up in bed. She let her demon show, peering into the night with vampire's vision.
"Mm?" He questioned her without stirring.
"Do you smell that?" She waited while he sniffed the air tiredly, and then opened his eyes and joined her in sitting.
"Someone's been here." He said throwing his legs out of bed. Realizing that they were alone, no pulse in the house let him know that the human was long gone, he relaxed again into the bed. "Gone now love, no worries." He put his arms comfortably behind his head and shut his eyes.
"No worries?" She said astonished. "Someone that probably had a stake was just hanging over our bed watching us sleep, and you say no worries?" She didn't realize that she had called his bed 'ours', but he did.
"No love, I'm not. Not worried at all." He put his hand through the hair at the back of her head, and leaned closer to her. "No one is going to hurt you if I'm here. I'm not worried about you at all."
Without knowing what she was doing, she had her lips pressed to his, and he was kissing her back. He pulled her against him and deepened the kiss before a sound upstairs caught their attention abruptly. Their visitor was back, and he'd brought company. Spike hissed at the scent of his grand sire. He was with a human. Most likely one of the scoobies, the scent was familiar enough. He looked around the room quickly, wondering if he should hide the girl, but presumed that she would chose to go with her boyfriend. Remembering the relationship she'd left behind in her death sickened him. He'd forgotten her strong love for Angel. But she seemed to like him enough now. Maybe it would be enough. Finding himself thinking about the matter shocked him enough that when Angel jumped through the trapdoor he caught Spike off guard and flung him into the opposite wall. Giles was quickly behind him.
"Buffy," Angel sighed and moved over to where she was still on the bed, to stunned to have moved. "Thank god," he pulled her into his arms, not caring that she didn't respond to him.
Giles stared at her, feeling dawn break across his face. He knew he shouldn't be happy about the undeadness of his slayer, but the overwhelming being happy that she wasn't dead shook any thought of 'Buffy the vampire vampire slayer' out of his head. Soon he found that he too, was holding her.
Buffy shook them off quickly though, tearfully, and helped Spike up from the floor by the arm. Noticing the half tug she gave towards Giles, Spike decided quickly to restrain her from him. Of course she wouldn't hurt the watcher – if she retained her soul – but she also seemed thirsty enough. Actually, in the intense occurrences of the past few days, both male vampires had neglected to check to see if she had kept her soul. If she hadn't, it meant death for Giles – not that Spike cared. If she attacked him, she most likely wouldn't regret it in the morning. It would only mean she didn't have a soul. At the thought, he removed his hold from her, waiting to see how the test played out. She looked at him nervously, green eyes having returned, and mouthed to him, "I'm thirsty," and pleaded him with an almost sad look.
Understanding perfectly, he took her hand and led her up to the main crypt, to be followed quickly by the other two suddenly angry men. He reached for a blood bag, and warmed it up slightly before pouring it into a dark mug and handing it to her. She decided to take it like last time; she still wasn't able to suck it down properly. It would be never and a day before she'd enjoy the taste. She held his arm, pleased when he wrapped it around her, and stood close to him before taking a small sip and screwing up her face in disgust.
"Ugh," she looked into the mug. "How can you stand it?" She took another short sip.
Spike chuckled. "It's an acquired taste love." He kissed the top of her head, still smiling. Her dead heart gave a lurch when she felt his lips touch her.
"Spike, what are you doing?"Angel growled from across the room.
"Taking care of what you didn't." He taunted, looking tyrannically at his foe.
Giles felt a fight coming on, and stepped in quickly to keep himself and Buffy out of the violence. "Buffy, can we please talk?" He put out his hand to her, and she accepted it gratefully, letting him lead her out into the night.
Both Spike and Angel became anxious for her when the door closed, neither wanted find a pile of dust when they exited, but couldn't decide if the watcher really had it in them. A silent truce passed between them as they made their way outside to find Buffy in the arms of her father figure, tears streaming down both their faces.
"Buffy I'm so sorry," Giles whispered hoarsely. "This is my entire fault." He took off his glasses to wipe his eyes.
"No Giles, it was my stupid missing slayer strength." She said reassuringly. She didn't want him to beat himself up over an accident.
"No Buffy, I'm the reason you didn't have your strength." She pulled away from him, not understanding, not wanting to. "Please, let me explain." He told her quickly about the test, the needle, the council's orders, everything. With each passing second, his words stabbed her like knives and each one carved a new scar.
Game face came forward, and she snarled viciously at him. "You," she growled accusingly. "Did this to me." She went to punch him but her flying fist was caught by Angel's, holding her back. He yanked her away from Giles, and she fell back onto Spike who caught her quickly.
"Don't touch her!" Angel tried to snatch her away but she kicked at his hand.
"Why are you helping him?" She growled to her boyfriend. "After all he did."
"Buffy he's still human; he only did what he had to do." Angel stood up for the librarian like they were old friends rather than being rough acquaintances.
Feeling her stress building, Spike knew she had her soul and gathered her in his embrace and pulled her back into the crypt with him. Of course she has a soul, he thought bitterly. Slayer turned vampire, self righteous bint. How could she not? He held her tight, letting her cry against him again. He wouldn't let anything hurt her. He would do his absolute best to keep the two vultures away from the two of them. The scoobies would leave Buffy alone, and they would leave the two of them be.
"It's true." Giles slammed open the door to the library, and he and Angel strode in irately. "She's with Spike." The heated glares that were identical on both their faces made the teens nervous.
"Is she ok though?" Willow asked. Well of course not stupid, she's a vampire. "I mean, is she still aliveish?"
Xander wrapped his arm around her while they waited for their answer.
"Yes, and she wants to be with Spike." Angel spat.
"Oh Angel, I'm so sorry, I mean, I'm sure it's just a thing, I mean, it's only because, you know." Willow's attempt to help the beautiful broody vampire failed miserably when she couldn't find any words that made sense together.
"So what do we do?" Cordelia asked. "I mean, we have to do something right? Right?"
"Well I suppose, we need to see if she's still willing to fight the good fight, and if she isn't, I mean, if she is hurting humans, we have to do our job." They all looked at one another painfully.
"But she's Buffy," Xander looked incredulous. "Of course she isn't hurting humans. She still has a soul right? She hasn't hurt anyone yet?"
"Yet-" Giles repeated. "Is exactly the word that brings us to our current situation." He took off his glasses to clean them, but didn't put them back on his face. He stared out the high library window and frowned to the clouds.