When I make it to Mom's house, I'm surprised to see Spike there, I thought I was meeting him back at the crypt later. Apparently, he had the same thought I did and figured that it's time for a check-in. He and my mom are friends now and I love it. Well, actually they were friends in the other timeline too, I just didn't know it at the time, and definitely wouldn't have liked it if I did. It's good that we came around dinnertime because I've been wanting a good home-cooked meal. Mm-hmm, tacos are one of my favorites! When we all sit down, no one talks for a few minutes because we're all enjoying the food.
I cringe at the amount of hot sauce Spike puts on his food. He's not getting any smoochies from me until he brushes his teeth. I laughed the first time I saw him brush his teeth because he brushes them regularly, like a human, then he vamps out and brushes them like that too. I shake my head, we have important things we have to talk about tonight, like telling everyone Spike and I are moving in together. Also I have to ask them how they feel about telling the rest of the Scoobies about the time-travel situation, and I have to let them know that Glory won't be a problem this time around.
"What's up, Buffy? You have your serious face on," Dawn asks.
"Well, I was thinking it might be time to come clean with the rest of the Scoobies about the time-travel. I think I might have actually gotten through to Willow about why what she did was wrong, but I think if we really want to get through to her we have to tell her what happened to her in our original timeline." I leave out the part about her thinking that Spike and I are moving too fast, since they don't know about my new living situation yet.
"I don't know, Buffy. The reasons we had for not telling them in the first place are still valid." Dawn points out.
"I don't know if they are, we have the rings so they can't do any magic on us, plus Giles took the information pretty well, I think. Willow and Xander might want to try to send us back, but they won't be able to. I don't think they will, though."
"Buffy, Willow did the 'will be done' spell like two days ago. She's deeper in the magic than we thought when we came here. We thought we could change it but it still happened, even if it happened in a different way. Do you really want to take that chance?"
"I think it will help things more than it will hurt but if you don't agree, I won't say anything. This involves you too."
"Well, it's not just the two of us. Spike, what do you think about Buffy's idea?"
"Don't rightly know, nibblet. I don't know them all that well. I have some flashes of memories of them and none of them make those two look too good. I know I like Red just fine, she and the wolf are good fun to hang out with. I thought we were friends but then she did that spell and tried to tear Buffy and me apart. Don't think I trust her all that much. I'll leave this one up to you two."
"Well, that was no help," Dawn said, annoyed.
"Dawn! Don't be rude," Mom interjected.
"What do you think, Mom?" I ask.
"I think that you shouldn't do it unless you all agree, and you obviously don't."
"Okay, we'll wait on that for now. There are some other things we have to talk about anyway. Glory won't be a problem in this timeline anymore, Spike and I handled it."
I see relief erupt on Dawn's face. Wow, I didn't know she was that worried about it, but I guess I should have. That had to be super traumatizing for her. Mom looks just as relieved. I doubt she'd be too happy to learn about how we did it though, I'm going to try to keep that to myself if possible.
"Really?" She asks hopefully.
"Yeah, Spike and I made sure of it a few nights ago. Now we shouldn't have to deal with The First either."
"How'd you do it, Buffy?" Dawn asks. Ugh, I knew this question would come, I should have thought of something to tell her but I didn't. I don't want to tell her the truth at all but I especially don't want to tell her in front of Mom. Spike must feel my apprehension because he answers before I do.
"Killed her before she could do any damage. Don't worry Nibblet, you won't be opening any interdimensional doors this time around."
I don't know if Dawn takes what he said at face value or realizes we don't want to give details in front of Mom but she just smiles widely, jumps up from her chair and hugs each of us. "Thank you! I was so worried, I didn't want to go through that hellish year again!"
"Dawn, language," Mom chides, but she has a big smile on her face too. She knows what could have happened if we didn't stop Glory in time.
"That's such a relief, you two. Now next year will be a lot easier and safer, right? Well, other than my illness of course."
My mouth drops open at the flippancy in her tone. Like her brain cancer is no big deal. Like it didn't take ten years off mine and Dawn's life. Like we didn't have to bury her. Finally, once I realize everyone else is just as flabbergasted as me, I diplomatically answer, "I don't know about easy but we won't have a Hell God breathing down our backs so we'll be able to put all our focus on getting you healthy."
"Maybe we should bring you to a doctor now for headaches. How long was the tumor there before she started showing symptoms?" Dawn suggests.
"The doctors said it progressed super fast so I don't think it'll be there yet, but it might not be a bad idea to start appointments."
"No, I don't want to do that yet. How about this, if it will make you two feel better, I'll go at the beginning of next year if the headaches don't start by then. No sooner than that."
"No, that's too long. How about next school year, not next calendar year," Dawn counters.
"You drive a hard bargain but I'll agree as long as you three don't bring it up again until then. I'm not sick yet and I don't want to live my life as if I am. It's already frightening enough knowing it's going to happen."
That makes me feel bad, I didn't want to scare her, I just wanted to let her know as soon as possible so that we could save her. I can tell Dawn feels the same way because she looks just as upset as I do.
"Deal," we both say.
Mom holds her hand out for me to shake, once I do she repeats the process with Dawn. Once that's done we go back to eating while I work my nerve up to tell them the last piece of information. Spike smirks at me knowing I'm freaking out. That jerk, he's going to be no help. I take a deep breath, I don't know why I'm so nervous, Mom knows how old I really am and how much Spike means to me. The problem is, she might logically know that I'm older than I should be, but emotionally, to her I'm only 18 and I've only been with Spike for a few months.
"So there's something else I want to tell you. Spike and I decided to move in together. We found an apartment. You'll love it, Mom. Since Spike and I both have money coming in now we were able to get a pretty nice place." Spike reaches for my hand and holds on to it while we wait for them to respond.
"Congratulations Buffy, Spike! I hope you know I'm going to be spending the night there a lot and we'll watch movies. We'll even kick Spike out some nights and have a girl's night." Dawn says excitedly with a big smile.
"Of course, you're always welcome, Dawnie."
"Yeah Nib, there's a second bedroom with your name on it," Spike says with another smirk.
We look over to Mom who's been sitting quietly with no expression on her face. Finally, she smiles, I can tell she's happy but she's also a little sad. "Congratulations, guys. We should have a housewarming party!"
"Oh, prezzies," I say, excitedly. In our bond, I can tell Spike is a lot less excited about the party than I am but he smiles anyway.
"That's a right fine idea, mum. We're signing papers tomorrow and can move in sometime early next week."
I look at the clock and realize we're super late. "Crap! Sorry guys, we're going to have to run, we're going to be late for our meeting with our undercover agents. I don't want them to get in trouble with their bosses by being out later than they're supposed to be. I promise we'll be on clean-up duty for the next two dinners."
"Don't worry about it, Buffy. Go, do what you have to do to stop the next crazy villain from trying to take over the world," Mom says with a laugh.
I giggle then walk over to my mom and kiss her on the cheek. I don't think I show her enough affection, so I'm going to change that. "Goodnight guys, I'll let you know when the next Scooby meeting is, I want you to keep coming to them. Well, if you want to, anyway."
"Night Buffy, and duh I want you to let me know about the meetings. I'll be there with bells on. What does that saying even mean? Why would someone want to wear bells? I'd think that'd get heavy after a while and it would be annoying to everyone around you having to constantly listen to their jingling. I don't see how that would be a good thing."
"Christ, lil' bit is sounding more like you every day, Buffy,"
"That better be a compliment, Spike!" Dawn yells as we're walking out the door.
Spike's only response is a scoff. I give him the evil eye. "Dawn is right, Spikey. That better have been a compliment," I say as we get into the car.
"And what if it wasn't?"
"Little Spikey won't get to have any fun tonight."
"Oi! Don't call it little, I think I remember you complimenting its size just last night," he says with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"Oh don't get a big head about it. I've seen bigger." It's a lie but I know it'll get him riled up.
He scoffs, "Oh yeah, who? I know what Angel's packing so I know it ain't him. Doubt it's cardboard." I decide to stay quiet and let him stew. After we're driving in silence for two minutes he continues, "Buffy, who?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" I say cheekily. Then what he said earlier hits me. "Wait, when did you see Angel's… thingie?"
"Thingie? Buffy, you're a grown woman, say the word. Fuck there are plenty of different names to choose from, prick, cock, dick, penis, to name a few, but don't say thingie. Go on, say one."
"Stop trying to change the subject, when did you see it?"
He shrugs, "Plenty o' times. We were together in a nest for a few decades before he got his soul. He was much more shy when he came back with us for a few years after. Of course, at the time, I had no idea why he was so different, didn't learn about the soul until he came here."
"You know what? I don't think I want any more details of you seeing Angel sans clothes."
Spike just shrugs in response. When we get close to the cemetery where we're meeting Graham and the others, we park a few blocks away and walk there slowly. We take careful watch of our surroundings because they seemed to be on our team when we made the deal, but there's a chance they changed their minds since then. We have to be sure this isn't a setup and they're not trying to capture us. I don't think Graham will change his mind since he's been working with us longer than the others but I don't know the other two enough to trust them blindly.
"The coast seems clear," Spike says after we walked around the cemetery twice. We already found the group of three, alone, and waiting for us.
"Yeah I think so too, let's go meet them."
When we make ourselves known to them, they look relieved. That's probably of the bad. "Thank God you guys are here. We need to get back. We tried to slow them down as much as possible but it wasn't enough, the Frankenstein Cyborg creature woke up! It killed Walsh, things are a mess down there and we can't find it. Our people tried to take it down before it left the facility but it was so strong, it killed everyone that got in its way."
"Oh, God. We have to come up with a new plan, and fast. Adam is going to start killing people and demons to try to create more of its own kind. What is the Initiative doing to try to stop him?"
"Since Walsh is dead, the higher-ups sent another leader to us. Our new objective is to deactivate the creature. Apparently, Walsh went rogue, the military never sanctioned a creature like that to be made. The whole operation will get a rehaul once the threat is neutralized."
"Okay, we should focus on Adam then. Oh, we decided to do a spell on Riley to make him forget the last few days since he won't change his mind about Walsh. Although that might be a mute point now that she's dead."
"It's moot, luv."
"That's what I said, right?" Spike shakes his head at me. "Whatever. Either way I think the spell is still necessary because he'd just spill it all to whoever is in charge now. When we meet in a few days, I'll have him with us and he'll either remember nothing at all, or remember being held captive by demons who were trying to get one of their own out of the Initiative. That depends on whether Giles can find the right spell. I'm just worried that if he doesn't remember anything, your people will try to do a spell to get his memories back."
"You don't have to worry about that, ma'am. No one inside the Initiative believes magic exists so there's no way they'd think to try it."
"Oh, yeah, that's true. Then maybe I'll tell Giles to stop looking for the second spell. Okay, I'll focus on finding Adam and finding a way to beat him. You guys do the same and we'll meet the day after tomorrow to catch each other up, and so I can give you Riley."
"How did you know the creature calls himself Adam?"
Crap, I just say the first thing that comes to mind. "Slayer dream?"
"What's that?"
"It's a dream that the Powers That Be send me to let me know when something bad is coming. Most of the time it's really cryptic and gives me just enough information to freak out until the bad thing actually happens, but not enough to do anything about it. This time, I saw him, and Adam was definitely his name."
"Oh, that's interesting, I can see how that could come in handy."
"Lately they've been super helpful but most of the time they usually leave me with more questions than I had before I went to sleep. Okay, you guys have my Watcher's number to get in contact with me in case of emergency, right?" They nod, so I continue, "Okay, talk to you guys soon. Hopefully, we'll be able to deal with Adam fast this time around." I internally cringe because I didn't mean to say that. Thankfully, they just give me strange looks then turn around and head on their way.
When it's just me and Spike, I take the time to think about the consequences of Adam being awake. I really don't want to do the adjoining spell again but I guess we will if we have to. At least we already know where he's hiding, if it's the same place as last time, that is. Although, I'm pretty sure this is happening a little earlier than it did my first go around. I'll have Dawn check the Watcher diaries to find out for certain.
The good news is that Giles' mentor is sending someone to help Willow, so maybe that person will help with magic and possibly even suggest a better spell than the adjoining one. God, after Adam is handled I want to go on vacation so I can finally have a break. I might be able to make it work too because we'll be able to look into the diaries and pick the week with the least amount of Hellmouth tomfoolery happening. Yeah, that's something to look forward to, maybe a nice sunny beach. Spike will even be able to enjoy it because of the ring.
Thinking of Spike, I must have been lost in my thoughts for too long because he walks up to me and wraps his arms around me, breaking me out of my reverie. I relax into him and enjoy this second of peace before we have to get back to work. Now we have to go to Giles' to let him know about Adam, when before I was hoping we'd be able to just go back to the crypt to get some smoochie and cuddle time in. At least the Scythe will be a big help in taking Adam down…
"The scythe! We forgot to get the scythe from the vineyard now that it's abandoned! I can't believe we haven't gotten it yet, things have just been so crazy the last week. We have to go there now and check it out. See how much work will need to get it. You kept all the digging things from when you were looking for the treasure, like I asked, right?"
"Yeah, kitten. The machines and tools are all hidden away safe and sound. We can grab them whenever."
"Alright, let's go to the vineyard to see what we're working with and you can decide what tools we'll need then go to Giles' place to give him an update. Then finally, we'll be able to go relax. It's been a long night, Buffy needs sleep. No, Buffy needs cuddles and smoochies then sleep."
He looks at me the way he always does when he thinks I said something adorable and then pulls me in for a kiss. I let myself get lost in it for a while before I pull away. "Let's get what we have to get done, so we can focus on doing more of that."
"Right you are, luv. Lead the way."
I barely make it to class on time and I'm only half awake. It was already in the early morning hours when we got to the crypt after doing everything we had to do last night. Giles wouldn't stop with the questions, he's really interested in the scythe and he promised to talk to Althenia about finding a better spell for taking out Adam. Although, if we can hurry up and get the scythe, there's a chance that none of that will be necessary. I might be able to kill him with some good old-fashioned Slayer elbow grease. I think if it can take down a Tyrikon it can cut the head off of Adam and I can use the stake to take out his power source. Well, Giles isn't as confident in my plan, he thinks I'm focusing too much on just my strength and the scythe. He thinks we should focus on the adjoining spell we used in the last timeline. I guess we'll see how it goes, Spike and I think we can get the scythe in just a few days if we have everyone helping out with the dig.
I focus back on class because midterms are coming up soon. As long as we handle Adam in a timely manner, I might be able to actually graduate since I don't have to worry about Glory next year. I'll take a light course load for the first semester so I can focus on Mom. There was so much time just sitting in the hospital waiting room waiting for news, and since I already know what the news will be, I'll be able to get work done while waiting. I won't have to worry about calming Dawn because she's older and already knows what's going on too. Plus, I'll have Spike there to help also.
I shake my head because I had stopped paying attention and started making plans again. I focus back on class, I manage to keep my focus until the end of class. Once it's over, I go to the cafeteria to get some food. I see Willow and Tara sitting together, they look happy and flirty. I wonder if that's going to happen again, can she really be over Oz already? They were just taking a break so that Willow could get her magic under control. I'm going to stay out of it, whatever happens, happens. I just don't want anyone getting hurt, but I guess that might be foolish thinking. I can stop a lot of pain for my friends with what I know, but I can't fix everything. I have all intentions of just getting my food and leaving since I'm still serious about needing some space from Willow until she gets her magic under control. The problem is, Tara sees me and waves me over. I love Tara and I'm not mad at her, so I don't want to ignore her. I decide to go over and say hi.
"Hey Tara, how are you doing?"
"Hey Buffy, I'm good. I feel like I haven't seen you for a while. It's strange."
"Yeah, we haven't had a Scooby meeting for a while because things have been quiet. That just changed though, if you're free, we're going to have a meeting tomorrow night at Giles'. We have our next big baddie to take down. Even if we didn't though, I miss you! We should set up a Bronze night with one rule, no Slayer talk at all, just friends hanging out, dancing, and having fun together."
"T-that sounds fun, I'm free this weekend." Since Tara joined the Scoobies and became comfortable with us, she's lost most of the stutter but sometimes it comes out anyway when she feels a little flustered. I wonder what about this makes her flustered?
"Hey, Buffy," Willow says with a shy, slightly uncomfortable smile.
"Hey, Wills. Are you heading to Giles' soon? We're meeting the new witchy lady today, I'm excited."
"Yeah, Tara and I were planning on walking over there after we finished eating."
"Yeah, I-I'm really excited to meet her. I think we can learn a lot from her. I've heard of that coven, they're like celebrities in wicca circles. My mom always wanted to go study with them."
"That's awesome, Tara. I bet she'd be really proud of you for studying with them and taking their lessons to heart." I hope that comment wasn't too pointed, but I really want Willow to know how important it is to take this seriously. I can tell it got to Willow because she flinches.
"Oh yeah, this is a once in a lifetime chance."
"I'll see you guys there!" I leave the cafeteria and I'm surprised to see the DeSoto parked outside, waiting for me.
"Hey, I thought I was supposed to meet you at the crypt and then we would go to Giles'," I say as I get in the car and lean over to kiss him. I was planning on making it a peck but Spike has other plans, apparently.
Eventually, when a car behind him honks, he pulls away lazily and puts the car in drive. "Figured I'd save you the time… and maybe use that time doing something more pleasurable," he ends with a leer.
I shiver, just that look alone can make my insides all gooey. I give him a look that hopefully shows all the lust that I'm feeling, then remember the claim we have and push all my lust at him. He growls and finds somewhere to pull over. We didn't get to Giles' place till much later.