Please Don't Leave Me
Chapter Eight
The lives of The Scoobies were crumbling, Tara and Willow had broken up and Tara had left Buffy's house and was now living in the dorms again. Giles had left for England the day after Buffy and Spike got their memories back.
Xander and Anya were in the throes of wedding planning and the panic in the eyes of Xander whenever the wedding was mentioned was scary. Buffy was struggling with Giles not being around, she was leaning on Spike more and more not that he minded but being this needy wasn't a good look for her.
Spike had begun to take the tunnels over to Buffy's just in time for Dawn arriving home from school to help her with her homework. He'd stay and have dinner with his girls and then he and Buffy would would patrol. They hadn't talked about their kiss, and neither had attempted a second one since.
Buffy had overheard the news that a man was frozen at the Sunnydale Museum. She headed over there to check it out.
"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up" said Spike coming up behind her
"What are you doing here, Spike?" She asked
"Well, you know, a man was frozen alive in there. A little compassion, luv" he smirked
"Do you see anything?" She asked
"Nothing otherworldly" he shrugged
"Great" Buffy huffed "I better get the gang together for a research party… god I love them so much"
"The research party or your friends?" He asked
Buffy gave him a look
"What? You're friends have the tendency to try and fix your life but end up ruining it all the more" he told her
"She didn't ruin it, it's just different… I'm dealing" she told him "Wanna come and get researchy?"
"Me? With your Scoobies?" He asked
"You guys fought side by side when I was gone…"
Spike nodded as they started to make their way to The Magic Box.
"Ohh did I tell you that Willow managed to get Amy back?" said Buffy
"Amy?" He asked
"Y'know rat Amy… well not a rat anymore just y'know Amy…" said Buffy
"And this Amy she was a witch yeah?" asked Spike
"Yeah, why?" asked Buffy
"So Willow made herself another little witchy playmate now Glinda's gone" said Spike
"No, just… a friend" Buffy told him
XXXXX
Willow had bailed on the research party a few hours ago, saying she was checking in on Amy but the two of them ended up at The Bronze.
The research party was in full swing, there was takeout coffees and doughnuts galore. The table in The Magic Box was full of books the gang were painstakingly going through.
"Aha! I got it! Uh, here's our villain right here!" Xander said triumphantly
Anya and Buffy looked over at him then both shake their heads. Buffy returned to her book.
"What?" asked Xander
"That's a D manual, sweetie" Anya told him
"No, but it could- Oh" said Xander closing the book
"Let's face it, we're not gonna find this thing because it doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a frost monster who eats diamonds" Anya said
"Well, maybe he doesn't eat them. You know, maybe he just ... thinks they're pretty" Buffy said hopefully
Spike looked over at her and she maxed a face at him and slammed her book shut "We suck"
"We need new brains. What's up with Willow?" asked Xander
"Out with Amy, I guess" Buffy shrugged
"Great, someone to do more magic with" said Anya
"Exactly what I said" Spike chimed in
Xander shot Spike a warning look
"But at least she's not all cooped up and crying. That's forward momentum. Now, I know that I don't ... know everything that happened with her and Tara, but it-"
"Tara thinks Willow is doing too much magic. And she's not the only one" Xander told her
"I know. But I-I think she'll be fine. You know, it's, it's Willow. She of the level head" said Buffy
"Well, those are the ones you have to watch out for the most. Responsible types" said Spike
"Right, she might go crazy and start alphabetizing everything" said Buffy
"Responsible people are ... always so concerned with ... being good all the time, that when they finally get a taste of being bad ... they can't get enough. It's like all kablooey" Anya agreed with Spike
"That's not true" Buffy protested
"Okay, not kablooey, more like bam" said Anya
"It's human nature, Buff. Will's getting a taste of something powerful, way bigger than her" said Xander
"Yeah, she was getting out of control with it before Tara left, and now that she's gone..." Anya shrugged
"It's gotta be seductive" said Xander
Buffy looked over at Spike when she heard the word seductive. He was looking right back her her grinning a little
"Just giving in to it. Going totally wild" Xander continued
Buffy stares at Spike whilst Xander carried on talking.
"We need to keep an eye on her" Xander finished
"Okay. Okay, we'll, we'll keep an eye. But we can't assume that everybody's getting seduced"
"Yeah" said Spike "Not everybody is giving in to that power"
Xander frowned and looked over at Spike "What the hell are you talking about?"
"What?" Spike said gingerly "Nothing"
XXXXX
Buffy, Spike, Anya, and Xander emerge from the shop. Anya locks the store up and they all walk down the sidewalk.
"I'm telling you, I, I think there's something about this thing" said Buffy
"Well, I don't know, Buff. It seems like we've been through every book" said Xander
"Yeah, even the ones that weren't so boring you wanted to kill yourself" Anya sighed
"We have those?" Xander asked
"I'm just saying, all the things that have happened lately? Okay, there was a bank robbery, the jewelry heist..." said Buffy "I-is it me, or do these things seem really-"
"Lame?" Anya offered
Buffy shrugged "Well, I was gonna go with unusual, but, yeah"
"We'll do a quick patrol tonight, and after a good night's sleep, we can solve this tomorrow" said Buffy
"Optimism. I remember optimism" said Anya
"That's because you're like a thousand" Xander smirked
"Good night, guys" said Buffy
"Good night" they both chimed
Anya and Xander walked off towards their apartment, whilst Buffy and Spike walked along towards the cemetery.
"You've been awfully quiet tonight" said Buffy
Spike shrugged "I didn't want to rock the boat"
"What?" Buffy asked
"Well, you've not asked me to do research with you and your lot before. I didn't want to ruin it" said Spike
Buffy smiled "You wanna be invited to research parties more often?"
"Well no… but spending time with you. That I'd like to do more" he said
"Spike we spend tons of time together lately, I'm surprised nobody has noticed" said Buffy
"They've noticed… they just don't wanna say anything and feel the wrath of the Slayer" he told her
"Have I been that bad?" She asked
"A little bit snappier than usual" said Spike
"Ohh…" Buffy frowned "I'm sorry"
Spike shrugged "Doesn't matter to me, I can handle a crabby Slayer"
"I've just not been sleeping too well" she told him
"You've been having the dreams again?" He asked
"Just the last few nights, I figured it's my brains way of catching up with the memories I lost there for a while" Buffy shrugged it off
"Can I do anything?" He asked
Buffy paused for a moment before looking at him "Could you… I mean it helped before…"
"You want me to stay with you?" He asked
Buffy nodded
XXXXX
Buffy didn't know what she was thinking, somehow she agreed to staying in Spike's crypt for the night. She wasn't sure how this would cure her nightmares about waking up in a coffin whilst technically being in another place for the dead, but Spike had told her he had made the downstairs of his crypt more comfortable.
She followed him down the ladder and was met with a four poster bed with silk red sheets on the top of it. She was kind of blown away by how much effort the vampire had gone to, to make his crypt more homey. He'd even managed to board out the walls so the downstairs now resembled an apartment of sorts.
"I've just got my plumbing sorted" he told her as she looked around the room
"Plumbing?" asked Buffy
"Yeah, a demon I know, he's a hell of a plumber. He's fixed me up with a shower and a loo" he told her
"But you don't use those things" said Buffy
"No but if you or the Nibblet are visiting" he shifted awkwardly
"You did this for us?" Buffy asked "How sweet… and really presumptuous"
"Just wanted to make my home more home for you two" he said
Buffy smiled "You're one of a kind Spike"
"Thanks luv" he smiled back "So…"
"You wanna get me into bed?" She asked
"What?" He asked as his eyes grew wide
"Sleepover… making those pesky awful dreams go away so I can have one good night of rest… what did you think I meant?" She laughed sitting on the edge of the bed to take her shoes off
"I… uh… wasn't" he stumbled over his words
"Spike… relax" she said tapping the space in the bed next to her
He slowly climbed onto the bed and lay down next to her. She snuggled into him almost immediately.
"Spike?" she asked
"Yeah" he answered
She sat up and faced him, she didn't say anything but just kissed him sweetly on the lips "This was really cute"
She lay back down and snuggled into him again. He couldn't wipe the smile off his face as he wrapped his arms around her.