Chapter 8: Breathe

The sun was high and bright as it shined over Sunnydale. The town looked completely different during the day. During the day the town looked deserted, there were no vampires or demons to be seen or heard. However, living on the Hellmouth didn't mean that if you heard nothing that nothing was there, there was always something unseen by the naked eye.

In the shadows vampires hide away from Mr. Sunshine and waited till sunset. Even though Spike thought he was better than the other demons and vampires in the town didn't mean he couldn't avoid the sunshine, so like the others he had to hide in the dark too. Just before dawn Spike traveled back to the graveyard to his old crypt, it was the only place he knew that was a guaranteed save place to stay.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Spike asked Clem. Spike was sitting in the comfortable chair looking down at the ground with his hand rubbing the top of his head, moving his curly bleached hair.

"You didn't give me a chance." Clem shrugged. Clem sat opposite of Spike on a coffin watching the vampire's actions.

Spike moved his head to look up at the ceiling and shut his eyes, "God…" he mumbled.

"Do you know where she went?" Clem asked.

"No…she ran off before I could…" Spike looked straight ahead into space.

"I'll help you look for her when night falls." Clem suggested trying to get an actually emotion out of Spike. At the moment Clem couldn't read what Spike was feeling. Spike's hurt, anger, joy, sadness just wasn't coming to surface, "Are you okay?" Clem asked.

Spike eyes were glossy and he blinked back tears, "She was there…" Spike whispered, "Right in front of me, she was there…" Spike shook his head and continued to stare off, "I touched her…and she was real…"

Clem looked down at his lap.

"…but…her eyes…they were different…" Spike looked down at his lap, "Like she lost her fire… like she was angry, afraid, and hopeless all at the same time." Spike said.

"She came back from the grave man…that's not something you can get over in a snap." Clem said.

Spike looked up at Clem, "I got to find her."

"I don't think Mr. Sunshine will let you right now." Clem nodded towards a window in the crypt that showed a little sunlight.

"Then I'll take sewers or the alleys…" Spike got up from his seat and started to the bottom level.

"What are you going to do when you find her?" Clem asked.

"I don't know." Spike said and went down the ladder to the bottom level that was connected to the sewers, "But I can't stay here while she's out there."

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After going through every dirty and smelly sewer, and looking in all the potential dark alley's that someone would hide Spike was still unsuccessful at finding Buffy. By the time he was done searching the last tunnel in the sewer it was dark outside again and he could now venture the streets and cover more ground.

While walking down the sidewalk towards the old shopping area Spike heard a sound. The noise sounded like pieces of metal hitting each other. Spike looked to his left and saw a huge fence blocking the area where the noise was coming from. He continued to walk forward when he spotted a hole in the fence that he could walk through.

Once Spike got through the other side of the fence he saw her…Buffy. She was sitting on a large piece of debris that once was the tower that she swan dived into the portal that killed her eighty years ago. The pieces of the tower looked rusted and shrubs were starting to grow in-between the spaces of the tower. Buffy continued to sit and look down at her healing knuckles, oblivious that Spike had entered the scene, and Spike looked at Buffy as he did the night before, shocked and in disbelief. However, in a few moments he was over it and slowly and quietly walked forward towards her until he was standing in front of her.

Buffy sat staring at the two heavy black boots that entered her view for a minute until she let her eyes wonder up and meet the blue eyes. Buffy sat like a child looking up at a grown up while staring back at her old nemesis that fell in love with her and became her allied so many years ago.

Spike crouched down to be eye to eye with her green sparking eyes that looked like they were about to burst into tears. It took every ounce he had in him to not lift his hand and touch her face.

"Nothing seems to feel right anymore…" Buffy said while looking at Spike.

Spike looked a little shock that she talked.

"I…I know." Spike said to her.

They didn't say anything the rest of the night. Spike later sat on iron beam watching Buffy look up at the sky and into space. He analyzed her breath and the way her hair danced when a gust of wind came out of no where.

About an hour before dawn he looked over at Buffy and saw she had laid her head down and fell asleep. Spike walked over to her and wrapped his coat around her body to keep her warm and picked her limp body in his arms. Once he lifted her up he could see her face up close, he got the sudden memory of the way Buffy looked when she lied dead on the pieces of rubble, the way her face looked then and now was exactly the same with only one small difference…Spike could see and feel her breathe.

TBC…

A/N: Yeah i know my grammar is bad...i'm trying to fix the best i can. I'm glad with number of reviews i keep getting. Thanks so much. I would like to hear how you would like to see happen, to see if we are in the same frame of mind. And I promise more talking between characters.