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CHAPTER ELEVEN
Evelyn was polite, but relentless. “If you do not see yourself as unforgiving, vindictive, or willing to cause harm to people you think you care about, why do you suppose you behaved that way?”
Spike’s “hear, hear” wasn’t as soft as he’d planned, and Willow whipped her head around.
“I can still make that chip fire if I want to, Spike. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be considered demon magic if I made a vampire’s head explode. I mean, that’s practically a public ser—”
The collective gasp from everyone in the room stopped her in mid-threat. Before Buffy could follow up on her obviously violent intentions, Xander grabbed her and tugged her back onto the couch where Spike put a restraining hand on her arm and raised his eyebrows at Xander.
“Let me handle this, Buffy. You stay with the evil undead.”
Xander crossed the room and knelt at Willow’s feet, smiling apologetically at Evelyn who had to move out of his way. She rose and went to stand by Giles while Xander took Willow’s hands in his, gazing into her wary eyes.
“You know how much I love you, right? You’re my best friend since forever, and I know what kind of person you are. My Willow would never do something like that – even to Spike.” He threw an almost apologetic glance over his shoulder, but Spike shrugged and gestured for him to go on.
“My Willow, the one I love? She wouldn’t do anything to hurt anybody. And if she did hurt somebody accidentally, she’d fix it as soon as she could.” He squeezed her hands when she tried to pull them away. “I’m not saying you are any of those things she said. I’m saying you aren’t those things, so you ought to think about it a little bit and ask yourself if maybe, just maybe, you are tapping into something Hellmouthy. Some energy that maybe isn’t something you want to be messing with.”
He waited, holding her hands, while she stared back at him. “I’ll love you anyway,” he said as he released her. “But I’d like you more if you were my Willow again.”
He waited, kneeling at her feet, until her face crumpled and she began to sob. Immediately, he put his arms around her and held her until she trailed off to sniffles. When she stopped sniffling and raised her head, he let go and rocked back onto his heels.
“Are we okay now?”
Willow nodded, then glanced over at Spike and Buffy. “I’m sorry, Spike. I mean, if you were still evil... but in the long run, it looks like...” She switched her attention to Buffy. “I wouldn’t do that to him. Not really. Not unless he—”
Buffy nodded. “If you did, you know you’d be hurting me too, right?”
“Oh, I know. I know. I’m okay now. I’ll be fine. That was just a moment of—” Willow paled and looked at Evelyn. “I was going to hurt my friends again, wasn’t I?”
Evelyn gave a grave nod, but didn’t speak. Willow turned teary eyes back on Xander, and then on Buffy. “I’m so sorry, guys. You know I love you.”
Buffy ran over and bent down to hug Willow. “We love you too. I’m just glad you’re back.” She stepped back a half step and studied Willow’s face. “Youare back, right? No more bad-spell casting Willow?”
“No more. No spells for me unless I’m using good magic.”
Standing up, Willow pulled Xander’s hand until all three of them were sharing a group hug and saying how much they loved each other. Spike rolled his eyes and strolled over to Giles and Evelyn.
“If they start singing “Kumbaya” I’m going to toss my bloody cookies.” He looked at the two frowning people beside him. “Do you think Harris got through to her?”
“If so, I think you owe him a vote of thanks,” Giles said. “I’m not sure Evelyn and I would have been able to stop her in time to save your life.”
“But I take it you were ready to try?”
Evelyn sighed. “If it was necessary, I was prepared to contain her magic. Somewhat as Rupert did last month. But I would prefer not to be in such a confrontational situation. Mr. Harris’s approach to talking her down was much better than our having to contain her would have been. That would have just sparked more resentment and left her open to more demonic influences – possibly even a vengeance demon.”
Spike and Giles exchanged a glance of agreement that it was just as well Anya hadn’t come with Xander, then turned their attention back to Willow. She walked over to Evelyn and said, “If you still want to help me, I want to learn about earth magic. I want to be able to do good with my magic, not evil.”
“I would be happy to do that, Willow. Perhaps we can begin tomorrow? I’m a bit jet lagged this evening and could really use some sleep.”
“Oh sure. Of course! You should sleep and I’ll just do... something else. Something good and non-magicky.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
After an hour or so of discussing possible scenarios, Giles sighed and rubbed his forehead. Xander had already left, pleading work in the morning and promising to be back the following evening.
“I believe we have come up with a workable plan. Sharing our best qualities with Buffy to enhance her own powerful slayer talents should be enough to take care of Adam. If Agent Finn can get us into the area safely and keep us safe while we set up... it could work. I’ll go over the details and magic involved with Evelyn tomorrow and we’ll work out exactly what needs to happen and when.”
Spike stood up and stretched. “Sounds like a plan. C’mon, Red, the Slayer and I will walk you home.”
Giles fixed Spike with a hard glare. “I believe Buffy and Willow live in the same place, do they not? Surely Buffy is planning to sleep in her own bed tonight.”
Her face bright red, Buffy stood up too. “Of course I am, Giles. He just forgot that Willow and I live in the same dorm.”
Spike’s expression was non-committal, but he just said, “Slip o’ the tongue, Watcher. No need to get your knickers in a twist about it.” He walked to the door and held it open for the girls to walk out. When they were through the door he glanced back to stare coldly into Giles’s equally icy gaze. “Jus’ so you know, where Buffy sleeps is only your business when you need to know how to find her.”
Before he could elaborate, he was yanked through the door, which shut behind him. He stumbled after them, losing his balance when Buffy let go of the arm she’d used to pull him out of the apartment. He caught himself and moved to catch up to the two girls, one of whose rigid body was stomping toward the campus. Only when Willow timidly mentioned that she didn’t have superpowered walking skills did Buffy slow down enough for Spike to fall into step beside her. He kept pace for a few strides, then nudged her arm.
“Did my mouth get me in trouble again?”
She sighed and slowed even more. “Let’s just say it’s a good thing your mouth can do other things besides make words.” When Willow gasped and Spike appeared to be choking, Buffy said hastily, “Kissing! I meant kissing. Spike’s a really good kisser, and....”
“And hickey-giver,” Willow said with a giggle. “Maybe that’s what you meant.”
“And that,” Buffy mumbled. “That’s what I meant. That’s all.”
“Should I be offended then?” Spike leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Do you need a reminder?”
“No! Yes! I mean – shut up, Spike!”
The rest of the walk to the campus was passed in relative silence with Spike giving an occasional chuckle and Willow casting sidelong glances at them. As they reached the dorm, she finally said, “So, Buffy, are you really going to stay here tonight, or are you going...” She waved her hand in Spike’s direction.
Buffy looked confused, biting her lip and unconsciously moving closer to Spike, even as she said, “I don’t — we should probably —” She raised her eyes to his and said, “I need to see what I can find out from Riley tomorrow, and maybe even go to a class or two. We need a way to get close enough to Adam for our plan to work.”
“You go on, love,” he said, ignoring Willow’s curious eyes and stroking Buffy’s face. “Much as I’d like to have you spend the night in my bed, I expect a good night’s sleep would be a better idea. I’m going to see if I can get into that place again and already be there when you lot come marching in with white hats shining.”
“That sounds dangerous. What if he knows about me... us? He might kill you. If you dust, I’d never know what happened and I—”
“Won’t do that to you, Slayer. Wouldn’t do anything to throw you off your game. If it doesn’t look like I should stay, I’ll take myself right back out. I promise.” He brushed his lips over hers. “Got too much to live for now. I’ll see you either at the watcher’s tomorrow, or when you make your move.”
“Be careful.” Buffy turned to follow Willow into their building, casting a last glance back at Spike before entering.
XXXXXXXX
Other than giving a few casual greetings to other students as they found their way to their room, Buffy and Willow remained silent until they reached their room and had shut the door.
“Okay, spill, Missy. Are you and Spike a couple? Cause that looked pretty couply to me.”
“I don’t know what we are,” Buffy sighed. “Giles is obviously not happy about us being an us, and Mom doesn’t even know yet. But he... and I... and we....”
“Stammering and incoherence. Sounds like love to me.” Willow said with a small smile tinged with the sadness that had become so familiar since Oz’s departure.
“I think it’s a little early to say that,” Buffy said quickly. “There’s... liking... and lust... and when we aren’t fighting about something, more liking. But I think love is a pretty strong word to use for two people who were trying to kill each other not very long ago.”
“You guys have tried to kill each other a lot, haven’t you? Wonder why one or the other of you didn’t get lucky... in the having good luck killing something sense of the word, not—”
“I got it, Wills. I dunno. Maybe we’re just too evenly matched?”
“Or maybe you just didn’t really want to kill each other? Or maybe the Powers That Be didn’t want you to kill each other? Maybe there’s a reason you fell in love when I just said you should marry—”
“Slow down there, witchy woman. Even when we had a truce so I could do something about Angelus, we didn’t like each other. We got along okay when we had to, and he sucked up to my mom, but there was no liking or even lusting. We were just temporary allies.”
Willow shrugged. “If you say so. I’m just pointing out that you two spent more time talking about killing each other than actually doing it, and maybe you both were subconsciously—” She stopped when Buffy rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay. I’m just looking for a reason why you’re so close now. Other than my spell gave you a chance to do something besides fight each other.... And I’m not mentioning that again!” She added hastily when Buffy’s rolled eyes turned into a glare.
XXXXX
The following evening, they gathered again at Giles’s apartment. Willow had spent much of the day there, talking with Evelyn, practicing calling upon the earth’s magic to work simple spells, and contributing what she could to the plan Giles was explaining to them. Giles and Evelyn seemed confident that between themselves and Willow, they would have no trouble doing a spell to give Buffy the strength of everyone who contributed to it – making her, temporarily, at least as strong as Adam. They just needed to be able to get close enough to work the spell in safety as it wasn’t going to last very long.
When Buffy arrived, she had a very quiet Riley Finn with her. At her urging, he shared what he knew of ways in and out of the lab area where Adam had set up his headquarters.
“It’s actually right on the edge of a cave system that the vamps and demons can use to get in to him without being seen on campus. We’ve been picking them off where we can, but we can’t cover all the ways into the main tunnel. If we can clear that tunnel out without raising an alarm, you should be able to find a place to set up... whatever it is you’re setting up...”
His puzzled frown was indicative of how small a part magic played in his own knowledge of the supernatural. Although he considered Adam a scientific experiment gone bad, he admitted to a lack of understanding when it came to the vampires and demons. The demons he could tell himself were just animals, sub terrestrial creatures that had just never been seen before. The vampires – living dead men – were harder to explain away, particularly when Buffy talked about souls and their importance to how evil a vampire was.
“We may be able to help with that also,” Giles said. “If we can provide a cloaking spell for Buffy, keeping her invisible for a short time, she should be able to clear out the tunnels without too much noise.”
“By herself?”
“Not going to be by herself.” Spike’s voice preceded him into the room as he entered just behind Xander.
“Spike! Are you okay? What happened?” Ignoring the looks from the other men in the room, Buffy ran to Spike and lightly touched his somewhat battered-looking face.
“Did alright for a bit, then some wanker of a demon that saw us when we were under that bloody spell...”
He paused to glare at Willow, who snapped back, “Don’t you even think about telling me you’re sorry I did that spell, mister. I know better!” Spike shook his head and growled, but didn’t argue.
“That’s beside the point. Anyway, I talked my way out of that mess, almost had the big git convinced I’d do anything to get this chip out...even deliver you to him... when one of his half-soldier, half-robot things said he’d seen me goin’ in and out of here too many times for it to be coincidence.”
He held up his hands so they could see his knuckles. “Had to fight my way back out. If you can make us both invisible, I’m willin’ to fight my way back in.”
“Better go put some ice on those knuckles. You might need them soon,” Buffy said, nudging him toward the kitchen before turning to Giles. “So, what do we think? Invisible Spike and Buffy clear the tunnels so you guys can set up your spell, I go in to tackle Adam and make him an ex-monster?”
“What can we do?” Riley asked. “I don’t have a lot of men left, but we’ve got some firepower.”
“Can you blow that place up after we get out? I’m really not up for fighting a lot of escaping demons tonight on top of—”
“We can do that. If Adam isn’t able to fight anymore, we can take care of what’s left of his army. Will you need somebody to guard the... the... spell casters?”
“They’ve got that,” Spike said shortly. “Nothing’s getting’ past me to interrupt the people who are keeping the Slayer safe.” His eyes glittered, sending Riley unconsciously shrinking away.
“Shouldn’t Spike be part of the spell?” Buffy moved closer to him. “He’s almost as strong as I am – I could probably use that too.”
Evelyn exchanged a long look with Spike, who tipped his chin at her, saying, “Go on, tell them why I can’t be part of it.”
“Spike, as different a vampire as he appears to be now, is still a demon. An unsoulled demon. Including him in the spell would be opening all of us up to demonic influences. As it is, being surrounded by evil as we will be, we will need every bit of earth magic we can pull into ourselves to maintain the spell. The Slayer is inherently good – allowing a demon’s influence to affect her while she is fighting evil could be disastrous.”
“Oh.” Buffy looked up at Spike as if she was seeing him for the first time. He gave her a sad smile and, despite the other humans watching, he put his arms around her, holding her in a loose embrace.
“I’ll be more useful as extra muscle to protect your white hat supporters, Buffy. You know if I thought it would help, I’d jump at the chance to share my strength with you, but I won’t do anything to put you in more danger.”
“What about me?” Xander raised his hand. “I don’t have any magic to contribute – and I can’t fight like fangface here. I don’t really want to sit this out.”
“Oh, you’re an important part of the spell, Xander!” Willow hastened to pull him over closer to Giles and Evelyn. “You’re going to be the heart of the group. We each have something to contribute to Buffy’s strength, and that’s yours. Your heart and courage. We can’t do it without you.”
“Oh. Well that’s... pretty cool, I guess. When do we leave?”
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