Ring on her Finger
By Nickeltaffy
Disclaimer: I would like to thank Joss for the use of his characters. They are still his and will never be mine. (heavy sigh).
…
Chapter 23
Spike got up from the utility room floor and purposefully marched into the main living area. He turned and waited for Buffy, Giles and the rest of the Scoobies to file in. He stood there with a renewed purpose, with his hands on his hips, tapping his fingers; while the Scoobies wandered with stunned expressions They scattered as they entered the room, that seem to give off an impression that a flock of ducks would have more directed purpose.
"Come on, ladies. Things to do." Spike commanded with a disparaging tone as his body language communicated that his patience was wearing thin.
"Spike, what is going on?" Giles asked in a perplexed tone. "You start off the evening, flinching from Buffy and then you're passing out .." Giles stopped talking once he felt the heated glare coming from the slayer aimed solely at him.
Buffy looked over at Giles with a shocked expression, her head rifling around to glare at Spike with her mouth open in indignation. Giving a stunned expression, Spike wrinkled his face and shook his head at Buffy indicating that never happened. Spike, then raised his eyebrows at Giles to see how he was going to handle sticking his foot in it, when Buffy turned back to glare at the Watcher. Giles winced slightly and tried to think of something to diffuse the situation quickly, but could only stutter in a panicked manner.
Totally flummoxed, Giles managed to stammer "Err…well.."
"Buffy, I think we're all a little overwhelmed right now- you know with the howling in the utility room and all." Willow spoke up, hoping to distract her friend from launching into a full on snit. "Spike, what was going on back there?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Spike sighed, bringing up a hand and letting it fall. He knew better to provide a detailed description of what just happened to this group.
"Who's up for a story? Let loose on us¸ Fangless." Xander smirked, looking around the room to see who would join in on the taunt.
"Yes, yes, I would enjoy a story right now." Anya said, moving forward, the hope apparent on her face. "I hope there are lots of sexy vampire scenes."
"Hey, what's with the sexy vampire thing?" Xander griped. "You're with me. Remember?"
"Oh, that's just the typical psychological substitution to distract from the lack of recent orgasms. I haven't had an orgasm for the last fifteen hours since you decided to sleep in this morning and not in a good way, but the unconscious way." Anya went on to reflect. "I am obviously going through withdrawal…I wonder if they could make a patch for that. If not, they should. I could see lines going around the block for an item like that in the stores."
With a mortified grin across his face, Xander peered around the room, as he let a huffing embarrassed laugh as if it was one big joke. Sauntering over a few steps, Xander leaned over to the ex-Demon, placing his hand on her arm to get her attention.
"Do I have to remind you about what constitutes a private conversation again? " Xander said in higher tone than normal, keeping his eyes averted.
"Xander, I do not understand why you support these idiotic social conventions about discussion of simple human pleasures." Anya countered, with a thrust of her chin. "It is already bad enough that you're human; but on top of that you've got traffic, taxes, uncomfortable family gatherings and heartbreak of psoriasis. I would think you would want to concentrate on the few benefits of being human. It seems to me that everyone would have a lot less energy for aggression, if they got happy more often."
For a moment, the rest of the occupants in the room just stood there in stunned silence at this discussion.
"I think she has a point." Willow said solemnly. She added as she looked at Giles' face. "Color me surprised."
"Yes, yes. I believe she does." Giles said, who pulled off his glasses, pinched his nose while giving his head a brisk shake. "Now back to what we were talking about. Spike, what exactly is going on?"
"Oh. Um. Right, right." Spike muttered glancing over at the watcher while trying to break the hold of Anya's revelation. He stood tall and declared. "I bleedin aim to defeat that creature tonight. I got a bit of an old score to settle with him."
"Spike, we don't even know what we're dealing with." Giles protested.
"He's a cunning deceiver. Aye, that's what he is." Spike spoke lowly as he recalled what Avestan had told him. Breaking himself free of his introspection, Spike suddenly shook his head and sniffed. "It's all about the ring."
"What? What about it?" Buffy said as she came forward to place her hand on Spike's arm.
"It is the means to defeat the creature and bar him from this reality permanently." Spike said as he picked up Buffy's hand and looked into her eyes.
"My ring? My ring is a weapon? And you're just mentioning this, NOW?" Buffy said slowly, withdrawing her hand from Spike's. Everyone could sense the rising level of danger in the air coming from the Slayer. "Who gives an engagement ring that's a weapon? I just can't get a pretty ring that symbolizes our love and devotion. Oh no, I don't merit a diamond of my own. She's the Slayer, just get her the equivalent of the Swiss army knife version of jewelry."
"It's not like I knew, pet." Spike answered softly. "You know that proposal was under unusual circumstances..in the heat of the moment, you know."
"Spike, how is the ring a weapon?" Giles interjected. Clearly intrigued by this latest discovery, he moved a few feet toward the vampire.
"I've come across some information. It turns out the creature has an old enemy, who was more than willing to share." Spike answered as he looked away from Buffy to Giles.
"Where did you find that out?" Willow asked, peering up from looking at the ring on Buffy's hand.
"I was informed of it while I was… never mind where I was. It was a good source." Spike said realizing how impossible the source of that information would seem to the Scoobies.
"Spike, if you knew this before…why didn't you mention it. I mean it would have been helpful to know this before now." Giles countered in an almost condemning tone.
"I didn't know before." Spike said, begrudgingly to the Watcher.
"So why do you know now?" Giles said, staring over his glasses.
"The ring." Spike said with a grimace, surrendering to the notion that he must provide the information of where he had been. "It transported me to another realm. I got the information there."
"Spike, you've been here the entire time, albeit snarly and moving furniture." Willow piped up
"Oh, that was the demon. He couldn't enter the realm so he was stuck here, enjoying all your lovely company." Spike smirked at the group.
"Yeah, that was your demon, so why didn't it attack us?" Xander blustered at the vampire.
"Hello, the chip also didn't make the trip. I am sure that the demon very much wanted to attack you. Believe me, I can understand the feeling." Spike said, with a roll of his eyes. "While you were dealing with the vampire demon side of me, I was undergoing a community college extension course on that unwelcome entity."
"From whom?" Giles asked, intently measuring the vampire's response as he pulled off his glasses.
"Let's just say an old family friend." Spike guardedly responded, looking at the floor.
"In the other realm…." Giles continued with his interrogation, intrigued by the vampire's reaction.
"Yes." Spike said calmly.
"That you were transported to…." Giles slowly stated, as if the questions had become difficult.
"Yes." The vampire said, emphatically, growing tired of the patronizing questions.
"Yeah, that's right. I know this story!" With a snort, Xander jumped into the conversation "So, how did you get back, Bleach boy? Click the heels of your ruby slippers three times?"
"Yeah, Spike, where's the sparkly footwear?" Anya giggled, who was the only one who seemed to enjoy Xander's joke.
"Are you sure you just didn't hallucinate it?" Giles asked, again trying to bring the conversation back to a strictly scientific disposition.
"No." Spike said, growing tired of the tedious questions. "It happened. I can feel it. I am complete now."
"Spike, you've been experiencing some highly tumultuous mental and emotional occurrences recently." Giles said as he cleaned his glasses. "It is quite alright if you admit that it is too much for you."
"Hey, I don't think I like what you're intimating, Watcher." The vampire warned with a growl in his voice. He glared at the Watcher with menace in his eyes.
"Spike, there's no reason to get upset. Giles is just expressing his concern that you may be…" Willow said as she stepped forward with her hand up toward the vampire, trying to placate the situation.
"Crazy? Again, with the vampire is just off his soddin block routine!" Spike uttered, turning away from the group and loudly announced. "ARGH! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU BLEEDIN PEOPLE?"
"Hey, Spike, honey. I don't think anyone is saying that." Buffy interjected. "If you would just calm down and listen to what Giles is actually saying."
"What? You're on their side? You think I'm around the bleedin bend too?" Spike stared at the Slayer, his eyes betraying a hurt. Then after a moment, he pulled back his head and said. "Fine. Your precious Scoobies are never wrong! Far be it for me to get in between you and them."
"Well, Spike you have to admit what you're saying does seem a bit farfetched." Buffy said. "You know that I love you.."
"Oh, that's rich! This coming from a woman who delighted in the thought of me burning to death outside the Giles' doorway last week." Spike interrupting and turning away from Buffy. "Spare me your inflated platitudes."
"What did he say?" Willow whispered, leaning over to Anya.
"I think he's really lost it. I'm not sure…He seems to want us not to blow up a platypus or something..You know, I don't get these human idioms." Anya whispered back.
"Spike, please don't do this. You know this is hard for me." Buffy pleaded. "They're my friends."
"That's right Buffy. They'll always be there. Always. Right in between us. They're the main players in your life. I am just someone who is kept off stage." Spike declared angrily. Upon seeing no response coming from Buffy, the emotion boiled up in his voice. "Have it your way!"
Spike marched to the front door, grabbing his coat went out into the dusky courtyard. Slamming the door, he stood there for a moment, seething with anger and indignation. Pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, he took a long pull on it as he waited just outside of Giles' apartment. He just stood there as the moments went by like hours, listening for the door to open. Hoping that Buffy would appear, validating his worth to her. It didn't happen. Pushing down the hurt, Spike felt his anger well up inside him again until it became a consuming wave. Throwing down his cigarette and mashing it like a bug under his boot, he gritted his teeth as the emotion seethed within him. Without thinking, Spike's feet pounded against the cobblestones as he marched out of the courtyard toward the street.
Once he had achieved some distance from the building, Spike stopped as he took a deep breath. He allowed himself to calm down. He stood there for a moment to collect himself and reflect on just what happened. He looked down at his feet and then that's when he saw the little red lights trained on his chest.
"Buggar!"
….
Buffy turned around and looked at the Scoobies a moment after Spike flung the door closed after him. Her face reflecting the turmoil of emotions going on inside her, she asked herself why the Scoobies were more important to her than the man she loved. At that instant, Buffy chose a side.
"Why? Why couldn't you believe him? You know Spike. What reason would he have for lying? He's just as much as risk as anyone, maybe more." Buffy declared as she spun on the rest of the group.
"Come on, Buff. What he was saying was just impossible. You know, it's just too ..weird." Xander said with a skeptical grin on his face.
"Hello? Vampires, demons, witchcraft, there's a creature sucking everybody up….it must be Tuesday in Sunnydale! What's so hard to believe that he was taken to another realm?" Buffy demanded as she glared at the group. "Don't think I'm letting myself off the hook. I am just as guilty, maybe more of letting him down. I am telling you now, it stops tonight. You either respect Spike from now on, or you are out of my life. There, I said it!"
There were several moments of complete silence in the room, as everyone digested what had just been said. Then in order to break the uncomfortable atmosphere, Willow stepped forward.
"Uh, Buffy? " Willow gently spoke up, with some trepidation evident in her body language.
"Yeah?" Buffy stood there, shaking her head while beating herself up inside.
"Um..Spike went outside." Willow stated, trying to lead Buffy in a train of thought.
"I am not surprised. Seeing how he was treated in here." Buffy answered, with the remnants of anger still evident.
"Yeah, but he went alone." Willow said, gesturing to the door.
"So?" Buffy said, cocking her head to the side, not getting what Willow was saying.
"The Initiative?" Willow said in a high tone, with a nervous smile.
"Oh, Crap!"