Disclaimer: All the vampires and other folks belong to Joss Whedon.

Thanks for your patience! I should be done traveling for a while - more time to write!

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Chapter 7
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All the Scoobies slept late the next day. Xander and Anya went home soon after Angel and crashed like rocks, thanking all the gods that it was a Saturday. Tara had tried to talk to Dawn, but the teen had locked her bedroom door and refused to come out. She and Willow had decided that leaving Buffy in her magically induced sleep was probably a good idea and they were soon dropping off as well. The house dropped rapidly into a silence punctuated only by breathing and ticking clocks.
 
Dawn woke feeling miserable at almost one in the afternoon. She went to the bathroom and got a drink of water. Her face looked awful, her eyes red from crying and broken sleep. Curious, she went across the hall and checked in on Buffy. She took one look and with an expression of horror turned to flee the room and bang on Willow and Tara’s door, calling for help.
 
The others rushed in to see what Dawn was upset about. Buffy was thrashing about on the bed, sweating bullets and grinding her teeth. Her hands clawed the air wildly, and although the spell seemed to prevent her from making any sound, she was clearly in the silent throes of a nightmare.
 
The demons were chasing her, through flaming streets and down dark alleyways, and they caught her and tore her over and over. She kept feeling like she was dying, but then that voice would call out again and it would start all over. After a while she knew at some level that it must be a dream – no one could die that many times. But if it was a dream, why couldn’t she wake up? It went on, and on and she wanted to scream, and cry, and beg for mercy but she couldn’t and it wouldn’t stop and why why why oh God…
 
“Shit,” Willow said. Hurriedly she said the words to end the spell as she ran over to shake Buffy’s arm. “Buffy wake up! You were dreaming!” she said.
 
Buffy erupted into an ear piercing scream as she woke. When she saw Willow she screamed again, rolling away so quickly that she fell to the floor. She crab-crawled backward into the corner, screaming over and over. When she could go no farther she covered her head with her arms and repeated, “No… no… please… no…” again and again.
 
“Buffy, it’s okay,” Willow began, circling the bed to get nearer to Buffy.
 
“Leave her alone!” Dawn cried. “You’re scaring her!” She ran over to Willow and pulled her arm as hard as she could away from the bed and Buffy.
 
Willow’s eyes flashed dark for a moment. Tara noticed and yelled, “Willow what are you doing?” She stepped between Willow and Dawn. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” Dawn backed away from Willow, suddenly frightened.
 
Willow shook herself, instantly abashed. “I’m so sorry, Dawnie. I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m just… really upset. Just like you are.”
 
“She was trapped in some nightmare and she couldn’t wake up!” Dawn cried. “Just leave her alone! Stop… magicking her for five minutes and get OUT!”
 
Willow started to speak but Tara stepped in. “Willow, let’s go. Come on.” She started to protest, but stern looks from Tara and Dawn, coupled with Buffy’s frantic protestations caused the words to stick in her throat. She reluctantly turned and followed Tara out, chewing her lip the whole way.
 
Dawn knelt down next to Buffy, who was still curled up and begging pitifully, “No… please… s..stop… Angel… please…” Dawn reached out to stroke her sister’s hair, but Buffy jumped as if scalded and shied away. Dawn tried to reach out to her, talk to her, anything to calm her down, but in the end she got up and left, fighting her own tears.
 
Downstairs, Willow and Tara were having a heated discussion about the whole situation. “I don’t see why you won’t let me do a memory spell on her,” Willow was saying. “If she forgets about hell, it can’t possibly do her anything but good.”
 
“We have no idea what her mental state is, Willow,” Tara insisted. “We can’t know what a memory spell would do.” Tara broke off as Dawn came into the kitchen. “Has she calmed down at all?” Tara asked.
 
Dawn shook her head. “No. She’s crying for Angel again, and keeps saying ‘stop’.”
 
“Stop what?” Willow wondered.
 
“I dunno, maybe knocking her out over and over?” Dawn snapped. Frustrated, Dawn grabbed her coat. “I need to take a walk. I’ll be back later.” Before the witches could protest she had slammed the door behind her and was making a beeline for Restfield. Spike will know what to do. I don’t know why he isn’t here right now, but he’s got to come help her. As she walked across town Dawn hoped with all her heart that Spike would come through for her again.
 
A short while later, Dawn was pushing open the door to Spike’s crypt. “Spike? Are you home?” She walked in to behold Spike passed out in his armchair. Two empty whiskey bottles lay on the floor, with a third resting in his lap. His hair was a mess, he had bruises healing on his face, and his clothes were filthy. “Spike?” Dawn repeated. The vampire slept on, oblivious. Exasperated, Dawn yelled, “SPIKE!” at the top of her lungs.
 
“Bloody hell, Nibblet, what are you trying to do, kill me?” he growled as he jerked awake. He sat up, wincing at the raging headache this induced.
 
“You’re already dead,” Dawn observed. “Where have you been?”
 
“Killing things and drinking, if you must know,” he grumbled. He tried to do more of the latter, but found that the bottle in his lap was also empty, and he dropped it clattering to the floor.
 
“Where did you go?” Dawn asked. “The others said you were taking care of Buffy, but then when they brought her home you disappeared.”
 
“My presence is clearly not required,” he said sullenly.
 
“What do you mean?”
 
“I was disinvited from the house and told your sis was calling for Angel,” he growled. “Clearly, my services are no longer desired by the Scoobies or the Slayer.”
 
“They disinvited you?” Dawn asked, astonished. “When were you there?”
 
Spike looked at her curiously. “You didn’t know?”
 
Dawn shook her head. “After they brought her home, I was in there trying to talk to her. She was so scared, and then she started calling for Angel. I didn’t know what the others were doing.”
 
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, closing his eyes and resting his head on the back of the chair. “The great poof will come and wake sleeping beauty and they’ll bloody live happily ever after.”
 
“But that’s just it,” Dawn said, fighting the tears. “Angel came last night and she attacked him!”
 
Spike opened his eyes again and sat up. “Come again, Bit?”
 
“She just went berserk and pounded his face until Willow froze her with a spell and then knocked her out. If we hadn’t taken all the weapons out of the room she might have killed him,” Dawn explained.
 
“That’s my girl,” Spike said with a smirk. But then he frowned. “I don’t get it. If she wanted Angel, why would she go after him?”
 
“We can’t figure it out. Spike, I’m so worried,” she wailed. “Willow keeps knocking her out with magic, and the last time she was having a nightmare and she couldn’t wake up! And now she won’t let any of us near her, and she won’t stop screaming.”
 
Sobering rapidly, Spike got up and pulled Dawn into a hug. “Shh, Bit. Don’t take on so,” he soothed.
 
Dawn clutched at him while she sobbed. “Willow says she wants to erase her memories of hell, but I’m scared that it’s just going to make things w..worse.”
 
Rage built inside Spike at the idea of Willow indiscriminately throwing spells at Buffy without any thought to the consequences, but he kept the lid on his temper for the time being. “Here now, listen to me,” he said, pulling back to take Dawn by the shoulders and look into her eyes. “You need to go home and get on the phone to the Watcher in England. Tell him what’s going on and tell him to get his ass back to Sunnydale right away. I’ll come by the second the sun goes down. I’ll need you to invite me in.”
 
Sniffling, Dawn said, “But what if Angel’s there?”
 
“I can handle my grandsire, Nibblet. Don’t worry about that. You just go get a hold of Rupert. We’re going to need him to help figure out what’s up with your sister, and to keep Willow in check. I’ll be there as soon as I can, understand?”
 
Dawn nodded. “Thanks, Spike,” she said, giving the vampire another quick hug. “I don’t know why she was calling for Angel, but it’s pretty clear that he’s not what she needs. Don’t let the others drive you away. Please?”
 
“Always got your back, Bit,” Spike replied. “Now get going. I’ll be there later.” With a last sniffle, Dawn turned to go. Spike waited until she was out of earshot before he picked up a bottle and threw it with a roar across the crypt. I will fucking rip Willow’s throat out if she casts one more spell on Buffy. He raged at the thought of his Slayer trapped in a nightmare, unable to wake up, because her friends couldn’t leave her be. He grabbed some blood out of his fridge and drank it while he stared out the crypt window, waiting for the sun to go down.
 
****************
 
When Dawn came back into the house it was eerily quiet. “Hello?” she called.
 
“In here Dawn,” Tara called from the living room. Dawn went in to find Willow and Tara surrounded by piles of books, deep in research mode.
 
“Where did you go?” Willow asked.
 
“Like I said, for a walk,” Dawn said shortly. She looked up toward the stairs. “Why is it so quiet? You didn’t knock her out again, did you?”
 
“No,” said Willow, a trifle defensively. “We just left her alone and she quieted down after a while.”
 
Dawn frowned a bit, unsure if she believed the witch. She hung up her coat and grabbed the portable phone from the kitchen before going upstairs to check on her sister. She opened Buffy’s door slowly, poking her head in. Buffy was where she had left her, curled up in the little corner between the bed and the wall. Her eyes were open and staring into nothing and she sat, still as a statue. Dawn went over to her quietly. “Buffy?” There was no answer. Dawn knelt down and hesitatingly touched Buffy’s shoulder. Buffy shivered a bit, but otherwise didn’t respond. Buffy’s catatonic state alarmed Dawn more than any of her previous behavior, and she left the room quickly, dashing across to her own bedroom and locking the door. With slightly shaking hands she found Giles’ number in the phone’s memory and pressed ‘dial’.
 
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“I just wish you would have let us know that you were calling him,” Willow said to Dawn.
 
“Why? So you could make it seem like none of this is your fault?” Dawn shouted back. She had been finishing up a long, tense discussion with Giles, punctuated by a number of ‘Good Lord’s when Willow had picked up the extension, intending to call Xander and see what his plans were. Willow had been surprised to hear Giles’ voice, and hadn’t been able to hide her gasp. When Dawn realized someone was on the other line, she had stomped downstairs to find out who it was. When she realized it was Willow, she said as much to Giles, who asked to speak to the witch. The conversation had led to some furious blushing on Willow’s part, in between protestations about her motivations in all this. The call had ended with Giles promising to be on the very next flight to Sunnydale.
 
Willow looked at Dawn with irritation. It’s not that she didn’t want Giles to know what happened. But she was hoping to have Buffy all fixed up and back to normal before Giles was informed. Now she had Angel on her hands and Giles on the way. I suppose I could turn them all into rats like Amy for a while, she thought half-jokingly.
 
While Willow fumed, Tara spoke up. “I think you did the right thing, Dawnie. We should have told Giles she was back already. We just sort of forgot in all the commotion.”
 
Dawn was grateful for Tara’s support. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t ask permission before using, like, my own phone, but I thought we needed Giles’ help,” she said crossly. She turned to go upstairs without another word.
 
“Great,” muttered Willow. “Someone else to put in their two cents.”
 
Tara looked at Willow in astonishment. “I can’t believe you. I mean, who cares who helps? You can’t fix this yourself, Willow.”
 
“How do you know?” Willow shot back. “No one will get out of my way and let me actually use my powers! None of you believe I can do it!” Willow turned her back on Tara, looking angrily out the window at the setting sun.
 
Tara went up behind Willow and wrapped her arms around Willow’s waist, resting her cheek on Willow’s shoulder. “Willow, I love you. And I’m proud of you, and completely amazed by some of the things you can do. I’m not saying you’re incapable of doing it. I just think you shouldn’t do more spells on Buffy right now.”
 
Somewhat mollified, Willow turned and wrapped her arms around Tara in return. “I’m sorry, baby,” she said. “I just really, really want to make things better.”
 
“We all do,” Tara said. “But it’s okay if it doesn’t get better this very second, alright?”
 
“Alright,” Willow agreed. She pulled Tara into a kiss that was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.
 
“I’ll get it!” Dawn called, running down the stairs. The witches became aware of loud voices on the porch as Dawn ran to open the door. “Spike! Come in! Quick!” she said as she noticed the vampire smoking slightly under the fading rays of the sun.
 
“What did you invite him in for?” said Xander, coming in behind Spike looking irritated. “We didn’t want him here adding to the aggravation!”
 
“I invited him over,” Dawn said defiantly. “So far he’s the only one of us who seems to be able to get near her, and if he can help, then he needs to be here.”
 
“Why the hell did you disinvite me?” Spike demanded of the Scoobies. He threw off the blanket he had been using to protect himself and glared at them, furious.
 
“We thought you and Angel would start fighting,” said Anya, who had followed Xander in.
 
“This is the bloody thanks I get?” he said angrily. “I save your asses night after night, take care of Nibblet, do your patrols and dirty work, and the second Buffy’s back you kick me out?”
 
“Buffy’s screwed up enough,” said Xander. “She doesn’t need your bad influence.”
 
“Oh, and you lot are doing such a bang up job helping her,” Spike scoffed. He turned to Willow. “How long was she suffering through a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from while you had her under your spell, Red? Did you even think of that when you knocked her out?”
 
“How was I supposed to know that…” Willow’s protest was interrupted by another ring at the doorbell. Rolling her eyes, Dawn stomped over to open the door.
 
“Great. Come in, Angel. We don’t have nearly enough stress here yet,” Dawn said sarcastically as she stepped aside to let the vampire through.
 
“What the hell is he doing here?” Angel snarled when he saw Spike.
 
“Same as you, trying to help the Slayer,” Spike retorted. “From what I hear, she wasn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet for you, Peaches.”
 
“Why are you even here, Spike?” Angel asked, moving menacingly toward the other vampire. “What the hell are you playing at?”
 
“Not playing at anything,” said Spike. “Care about the girl, same as you, and I don’t intend to…”
 
“Angel?”
 
Spike turned at the soft voice that came from the stairs. Buffy stood there, looking small and lost, her face pale with huge circles under her eyes. “Buffy?” he said. “You alright love?”
 
“She called me, William,” Angel said contemptuously as he moved toward the stairs. “It’s okay, Buffy. Angel’s here.”
 
Buffy moved tentatively down the stairs, then her face lit up and she cried, “Angel! Angel Angel Angel…” She flew down the stairs past Angel’s outstretched arms and buried herself in Spike’s black-clad chest. “Angel… stay… please… stay…” she said over and over as she practically climbed his body.
 
Spike was bewildered, but he put his arms around her and murmured, “Shh, love. I’m here. Not going anywhere. You’re safe.”
 
“Stay… please… angel,” she whispered. Angel was completely flabbergasted as he watched Buffy cling to Spike, who held her and soothed her, stroking her hair while he tried to work out what she was getting at.
 
“Buffy, this is Angel,” Xander said, pointing to the confused and increasingly irritated vampire. “Don’t you remember?”
 
Without letting go of Spike she shook her head. “No… b..bad. Hurt… not a..angel.”
 
“Well he certainly isn’t an angel,” Angel scoffed. Buffy didn’t respond to Angel, but just kept clinging to Spike and saying over and over, “Angel… don’t go… stay…”
 
Why would she think I was an angel? Spike wondered. A thought occurred to him. He gently took her by her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Buffy. Listen to me, okay? Where do you think we are right now? Can you tell me?”
 
Buffy looked around, frightened. “H..hell,” she whispered.
 
The others exchanged looks of complete confusion. “Why would she think this was hell?” Willow asked, which caused Buffy to whimper and clutch Spike more tightly.
 
Spike tried again to figure out what was frightening Buffy. “Why are you so afraid, love?”
 
Buffy looked at Willow, then up at Spike. “V..voice. Hurt. P...punish.”
 
“Whose voice? Who is punishing you?” Spike asked, leaning down to catch her eye.
 
With a shaking hand Buffy pointed at Willow. “Bad. Hurt. P..p..pulled m..me out.” Every word sounded like she was dragging it out of the deepest recesses of her mind.
 
“But why should it hurt to be pulled out of hell?” Anya wondered.
 
And then Spike got it. Oh fucking hell. He once more looked down into her tear stained face. “Buffy, who do you think I am?”
 
“Angel. F..found me. H..help me go b..back.”
 
“Back where?” Willow asked.
 
“Warm place,” she said, trying to burrow into Spike once more.
 
“What the heck is she talking about?” Xander asked, completely exasperated. Anya, Willow and Dawn were confused, but realization started to dawn on Tara and she shook her head back and forth in dismay.
 
“Heaven,” Spike said softly. “You pulled her out of heaven.” He looked down at the terrified girl. “Isn’t that right, love?”
 
Buffy looked up at him and nodded, Spike having supplied the word for the warm place that had been eluding her. “Heaven. Mother. Warm place. Please…”
 
“Oh no,” Dawn whimpered. “She was…” Dawn covered her mouth in horror at the implications. She was with Mommy and she had to leave. Oh no…
 
“She was in heaven,” Spike repeated, fixing cold, accusing eyes on Willow. “And you pulled her out, so she could wake up in her own bloody coffin. Then you hex her fifteen times so she’s trapped in nightmares and pull her away from me when she thinks I’m here to save her. Small wonder she’s fucking terrified of you. You put her in this hell. Your voice. Your spell.” His voice was growing more and more angry, and only a small nervous sound from Buffy kept him from losing it completely.
 
“I didn’t know,” Willow said in a shaky voice. “I thought… I was sure she was…”
 
“You didn’t even think,” Spike spat out. “You decided you wanted her back and you were going to make it so, and to hell with the consequences.”
 
“But why you?” Angel said. “Why does she think you’re here to save her and I’m evil?”
 
“All I know is that I found her in my crypt, and cleaned her up, and bandaged her hands, and took care of her. I fed her, made her comfortable, read to her, all that stuff. You remember, when I used to take care of Dru? After you drove her to nearly the same state time and time again?” Spike’s eyes flashed slightly yellow as he glared accusingly at Angel.
 
Angel bristled at Spike’s words. “So you’re just a regular Florence Nightingale, aren’t you William? What are you going to do when she wakes up and finds out who you really are?”
 
“I’ll keep loving her,” Spike said, pulling the shuddering girl closer. “I made a promise to take care of Dawn. That means I need to watch over Dawn’s sister. If she throws me out when she comes to, then so be it. But until that happens, I’ll not leave the girl again. Understood?” He put his arm around Buffy’s shoulders and led her upstairs without another word. The others stood shell shocked, staring at the pair’s retreating backs until they heard Buffy’s door close.

TBC