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Meanwhile, Back at the Hellmouth..... by slaymesoftly
 
Three
 
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Chapter Three
 
When they reached the basement level apartment they’d rented not too far from Joyce’s gallery, Spike sniffed the air and growled.
 
“What?” Buffy immediately tensed up but left her sword in its harness. Her hand throbbed from the burn on it, and she didn’t really want to have to handle a weapon if she didn’t need to.
 
“Dunno,” he said, still sniffing.  “Somebody’s been here...” He put his key in the lock and pushed the door open, nostrils flaring as he inhaled the air from inside. “Don’t think they were inside,” he finally said, following Buffy in after a last scan of their surroundings.
 
The apartment was in the basement of a building housing a doughnut shop on the first floor and offices on the two floors above it, and on a street of equally commercial buildings. As a result, the neighborhood tended to be pretty deserted after early evening and it would be unusual for anyone to be walking near their somewhat secluded, ground-level entrance.
 
Buffy had turned on the lights, but did nothing else but shrug out of her sword harness and flop onto the couch.  Spike frowned at her.
 
“What’s wrong?”
 
She waved her hand dismissively. “I’m okay. Just kinda still a little woozy.”
 
He sat down on the edge of the couch and picked up her hand. “Need to do something about this burn,” he said, kissing her palm so lightly she barely felt it. “Be right back.”
 
He went to the refrigerator and took out one of many handy cold packs that filled their freezer, bringing it back and handing it to her. Buffy smiled her thanks and wrapped her sore hand around it.  Spike threw his coat over a chair and sat on the couch, picking her feet up and placing them across his lap. He pulled her boots off and began to play with her toes, tickling her feet and making her giggle.
 
“Feeling better, love?”  He wriggled his eyebrows at her, even as he picked up the remote and turned on the TV. “Could tickle something else for you if you need a distraction...”
 
“What I need is for my head to stop spinning...” She gave him an apologetic smile. “But hold that thought, ‘K?”
 
He snorted. “Like you don’t know that thought never leaves my mind when you’re around.”
 
She laughed softly and shook her head.  “I don’t know what you’re going to do with yourself when I get old and—” Before he could protest that he would love her when she was bald and toothless, she sighed. “Guess that’s not really something I’m going to need to worry about, is it?”  She stared at him with suddenly frightened eyes. “Do you think the Powers plan to just keep bringing me back?  That I’m never going to be allowed to die for real?”
 
“Bloody hell, pet! Where did that come from?” He dropped the remote and gaped at her.   “The Powers that like to mess with people didn’t bring you back when you were dead. You can thank the witch for that.” He stopped and took a deep breath. “Although don’t expect me to ever be anything but happy that she did it. Hate that you didn’t get that rest you deserved, and never want to see you that miserable again, but I can’t ever be sorry you came back into my life. Don’t ask me to pretend to.”
 
“Yeah, but—”
 
“An’ this time, they didn’t resurrect you, they just sent you to a place where you’d have a better shot at being happy. And gave you a face-lift in process,” he said, grinning and ducking when she tried to hit him.
 
“Very funny,” Buffy muttered. “Are you perving on this younger body? Cause that would just be grounds for divorce before we even—”
 
“Slayer, I ‘perved’ on your body when you were a plump, juicy teenager, I lusted after it when you were all grown up with muscles and curves, I still wanted it when you were too thin from stress and working to save the world and I was all souled up and afraid to touch you. And I crave this version of it just as much as I did any of those other ones. But the most important thing about this one is that the woman I love is wearing it.” He peered at her and gave a wicked smirk. “That, and the fact that my grandsire didn’t get to put any scars on this one.”
 
Her hand automatically went to her neck, feeling first the relatively smooth skin on the right, and then the small raised area on the other side where Spike’s claiming bite marked her.
 
“You’re an ass,” she said, but she smiled anyway as she continued to stroke her scar.
 
“Ah, but I’m your arse,” he replied, touching own neck and smiling back at her. “All signed, sealed and delivered.”
 
“Come here.” Buffy tugged on his arms until he was stretched out on the couch on top of her. “I think I’m feeling better.” She wriggled beneath him and smiled at the delight on his face.
 
“Can’t argue with that,” he said, letting his weight press their bodies together. “If you felt any better, I’d probably just go off right here in my pants like a—“
 
“Kisses. Now.”
 
His silent response was all she could have wished for, and they had soon rolled off the couch in the process of removing the clothing getting in their way.  Spike was kissing his way down Buffy’s body, enjoying the way he could make her writhe just by moving his mouth and tongue from one spot to another, when they eventually heard a knock on the door.
 
Spike’s growl shook both their bodies, distracting Buffy so much she forgot what had caused it until the knocking got louder.  The sound of Dawn’s voice brought matching sighs of resignation, and Spike reached for his pants as Buffy shouted back.
 
“Hold your horses!” She left her clothes where they were and ran to grab a robe from the bedroom.
 
“Just get your clothes on and let me in. It’s dark out here and—” 
 
Spike was at the door, barefoot and with his jeans barely zipped, but sword in hand, before the scream ended. He threw the door open, blocking Buffy, who was still tying her robe as she came out, from seeing that Dawn was dangling from the hand of another cyborg wearing bits and pieces of Initiative fatigues.  They stood, frozen, knowing he could break Dawn’s neck before either of them could take him down.
 
“Can you—?”  With no way to answer Buffy’s question, Dawn just widened her eyes, then shut them and disappeared with her usual pop.  The cyborg was left staring at his now-empty hand, the expression on his face almost comical.  It faded to anger when Spike ran the point of a sword into his chest, causing the battery in there to spark and smoke.  With a grunt, Spike pushed harder and the battery exploded, sending him flying back into the apartment.
 
“Wow, what a kick!”  Spike grinned up at Buffy. “Think that may have started my old heart beating again.”
 
Once she saw Spike was all right, Buffy turned her attention back to the half-man, half-robot swaying in the doorway. As it listed toward her, she leapt into action.
 
“Oh no you don’t!” 
 
She shoved it backwards, away from the door, and watched with satisfaction as it toppled over.  Glancing up and down the street and seeing no one, Buffy darted out and began to drag the large body out of the alley and onto the road.  She left it in the middle of the street and ran back to her apartment before anyone could report seeing a half-naked woman dragging a body.
 
She closed and locked the door just as there was another pop and Dawn appeared in the living room.  Her sister glanced at the clothes still strewn around the floor and sighed.
 
“That,” she said, pointing to Spike’s bare chest and Buffy’s skimpy bathrobe, “is why I had to arrive outside instead of in here where I’d be nice and safe.”
 
“Sorry, Bit,” Spike mumbled, still looking a little buzzed from his jolt. “Nobody was expecting you back already. Thought you had a date?”
 
“I did—do have a date. But when I got back, I remembered the other reason I came in the first place, and I thought I’d have time to just pop in and out.”
 
Buffy laughed. 
 
“What?”
 
“Nothing. It’s just, usually when people use that expression, they don’t quite mean the way you do.  So, what’s the other thing?”
 
“Oh. The other thing is that I want to bring George to the wedding, and I wanted to make sure that’s okay before I tell him about it tonight.”
 
“Oh course it’s okay! I mean, I don’t know how much fun he’ll have standing around in a portal bubble, but....”
 
“He’ll be fine. It’s going to have to be a pretty big bubble to hold everybody, so he’ll have lots of company. I figure if I want him to be okay with two Buffys – neither one of which he’s ever met, a dead mom who’s just fine in this world, two Willows, two Xanders—”
 
“Think we get the picture, Bit. You’re going to be feeding him details a little bit at a time. Is that right?”
 
“Something like that. I mean, of course he already knows some stuff, but... yeah meeting everybody, including my vampire brother-in-law.... I’m going to work up to that gradually.”
 
“It’s fine, Dawn. We’re happy to have him.”  She leaned back against Spike who had wrapped his arms around her thinly-clad body and was leering at Dawn over her shoulder. Buffy giggled and smiled up at him before looking back at Dawn, who was rolling her eyes.
 
“You two are disgusting. You know that, right?”
 
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” 
 
“I’m on my way. Trust me. I’ve seen all the bare body parts I want to.  Go back to whatever you were doing.”
 
“Bye, Bit!”
 
“Good night, Dawn”
 
Buffy was already turning to meet his kiss before the sound of the closing portal had faded.
 
“What say we take this to the bed?” Spike said, picking her up and beginning to walk to the other room while Buffy wrapped her legs around his waist and began to pepper his chest with kisses. “Hey now, don’t start without me,” he complained when she began to rub herself against him.
 
“Better hurry and catch up, then,” she replied, reaching for his zipper as he leaned over the bed to put her down.  By the time he followed her down to the mattress, his jeans were back on the floor and he was growling his impatience.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The sound of the phone broke into the dream Buffy was having where she was being escorted down the aisle by a cyborg in a tuxedo.  She awoke with a shudder and reached for the phone, but Spike already had it.
 
“This hour of the morning, this better be good,” he growled. His eyes narrowed, then he thrust the phone at Buffy. “It’s for you.” He got up and walked into the other room.
 
“Hello?”
 
“Buffy? Was that—”
 
“Riley? What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
 
She heard him take a deep breath. “We need to talk,” he said. “We found Forrest this morning. Adam had changed him.”
 
“I know,” she said, as sympathetically as she could manage when talking to someone from the organization that produced Adam. “There’s another one of your men in the—” She paused and decided not to share her address with him. “—somewhere on Elder   Street, downtown. We saw it last night.”
 
Riley gave another sigh. “I know. We already removed the body. Something killed—something destroyed their batteries, but we don’t know what.”
 
“Swords.”
 
“Swor— You did it?”
 
“Well Spike and I did.”  There was a long silence, broken when Buffy said gently, “Riley, they weren’t your men anymore. They were already dead. Adam killed them and he was using their bodies.”
 
“I know.”
 
“So, where do you want to meet?  The Magic Box or somewhere else?”
 
“Somewhere else.  Can I talk to you without the vampire?”
 
“Why?”
 
“He’s a hostile. I can’t think of him as a person – and I don’t like the way he looks at me,” he added, his voice getting softer as he admitted his real reason.

“All right, Riley. Where do you want to meet me?” She could hear Spike growling in from the kitchen as he slammed the refrigerator door.  Arranging to meet Riley in an hour at the coffee shop, she hung up and got dressed.
 
 
 
“Are you going to be all right with this?”  She walked up behind Spike who was watching his blood spin around in the microwave. Buffy slid her arms around his waist and rested her head against his back.  “We need them, Spike. The longer we put this off, the more damage Adam can do, and bigger risk it will be to go in after him.”
 
“You heard him, pet. He doesn’t think I’m a person. Wanker would as soon stake me as not.”
 
“I think he’s afraid of you,” she said, nudging him with her nose. “And I can’t blame him. You do spend a lot of time glaring at him like he was the Riley from our world. This one hasn’t captured or chipped you, and he isn’t dating me. You’re blaming this Riley for stuff he hasn’t done and isn’t ever going to.”
 
“You think he’s afraid of me?” As she’d hoped, Spike chose to focus on that part of her explanation. He turned around in her embrace and put his own arms around her shoulders.  “Really?”
 
“Of course he is. All he knows about you is that you’re an old vampire and you obviously don’t like him. He doesn’t even know about your soul yet.”
 
“Gonna tell him?” he asked, letting go so he could turn back to the counter and take his warmed up blood out of the oven.
 
“I dunno. Maybe?” Buffy got down the cereal and fixed herself a bowl.  “My recollection is that Riley never ‘got’ the whole soul thing, so I don’t know if it would make much of a difference to this one.  The important thing now, is that he listens to my plan and agrees to help us.  Blowing that place up and trapping all the demons and Adam in there would be so much better than having to sneak or fight our way in and get close enough for me to rip that thing out of his chest.”
 
“You know, Slayer, if he’s as invulnerable as you say he is, bringing a building down on him might not be what it takes to get the job done.  He might just crawl out of the rubble, all brassed off and vengeance-seeking.”
 
“Way to rain on my parade, Spike!”
 
“Just keeping it real, love. You’ve got to be ready for that to happen. Doesn’t mean blowing up that nightmare of a place and killing all the demons and vamps still there isn’t a good idea, it just means you can’t turn your back on it till you’ve seen the body.”
 
“All right. I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe Riley will have some ideas about how we can be sure Adam is shut down.”
 
“Bloody inconsiderate of him to want to talk to you in the daytime,” Spike grumbled as he put his empty cup in the sink.  “Means I can’t be there.”
 
“I think that was kinda his point,” she said, smiling at him.  “Go back to sleep. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
 
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