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The Subtle Notes In-Between by Schehrezade
 
Chapter One
 
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Life was short.

Especially if you were a Slayer.

Well, any Slayer but her. She had friends who seemed determined to drag her kicking and screaming back to life-- either by CPR or magicks.

Life was brutal, especially if you were a Slayer. Life was harsh, especially if you were a Slayer.

Life was cruel, especially it you were a Slayer.

Life was ironic, especially if you were Buffy Anne Summers - the First Slayer. The one that all the newbies had been drawn from by Willow’s spell-casting that fateful day in the Hellmouth. When she had lost him, when he had denied her love.

This was all she could think as she stared down at his slumped form.

The normally bright blond hair was now daubed with various different colours of blood. His beautiful high cheekbones mashed beyond recognition. A flicker of pure fury vied for a place in her heart alongside the elation that he was back, the despair that he hadn't come to her, the betrayal that he had stayed with Angel and fought with him and not sought her out.

Almost like a rainbow, she thought irreverently, the situation too serious for any kind of silliness. Buffy squatted next to Spike's still form and ran her fingers through his curly hair, her sharp eyes missing nothing. The coat was new. She’d known the other on a visceral level-- the small tear in the collar that he had never fixed. It was one her own fingers had created as she had tugged him round to face her so she could kiss him one night when they had been patrolling. He had teased her about it and refused to mend it-- he had called it a precious memory.

Always the romantic, her vampire. A small smile tickled at the corners of her mouth. The worn patches on the elbows were all gone. No, she knew it, this was a replacement coat. Buffy wondered what had happened to his original duster. Her hazel eyes took note of the blood pouring from the deep cut on his cheekbone and her full mouth firmed in anger.

She was wasting time bemoaning the loss of his coat when her Spike was hurt and in danger. Now wasn't the time. Now was a time to stand your ground against the demon hoards. Stand over fallen lovers and their friends and fight tooth and nail against the hordes of darkness.

She had thought it was all over - that their final song had been sung in the collapsing Hellmouth. She had left him to burn, with a fumbled attempt of declaring her feelings, only to be rebuffed by him. Spike had hurt her with his rejection of her heartfelt words. Stupid vampire! She stood and straddled his body, ready to fight. All around her she could hear her girls fighting against the throngs of demons that W & H had decided to send to the apocalyptic party Angel had rashly decided to throw in downtown LA.

Buffy didn't spare a glance for her former, who was still fighting a rather large lizardytype thing. ‘So not a dragon!’ She'd seen dragons in Italy and they where HUGE and more often than not, friendly. Paolo had taken her to meet some of the gorgeous beasts; he'd saved a nest of Dragons a while back and was now an honorary member of the clan of Draco-Imperialise.

Buffy grinned at the thought of Paolo, or as he was known to all and sundry The Immortal. He had been a surprise. All she'd ever heard about him in the nightclubs in Rome was, 'Ohhh he's so sexy and such a great lover!' Buffy had been positive he'd make a pass at her the moment they met. But instead, he'd taken her hand and looked deep into her eyes, smiled and then nodded.

The first words out of his mouth had been sooo not what she'd thought he'd say. "Finally, a friend I can rely on." And that had been it. The two of them had been inseparable from that moment on. With Paolo there was no ‘if you're my friend, then what do I get out of the situation? If we become buddies, then do we move from school geek to friend of a Slayer and help hinder ‘save the day’? Well save the day sometimes, but most of the time get in the way and make it worse. Even better, be the cause of the next apocalypse. Or even better again, become moral judge and jury on her life.’

Buffy dodged the meaty fist that swung at her and slammed a stake through the vamp that had attacked her . She could hear Dawn's voice and see her little sister's patented eyeroll. 'Wow, bitter much Buffy.'

As Buffy fought, her mind was on the surprising events of the past year. The last year in Rome with Dawn, Andrew and Paolo had been a revelation, the four of them becoming a close unit of friends and family. So unlike anything else she had ever experienced.

Her relationship with Dawn had never been better, and Dawn had blossomed in Rome. Going to school and graduating with high honours and was now starting at the American university in Rome. Buffy had been so proud of her baby sister. She, Andrew and Paolo had stood, cheered and applauded as they watched the tall girl graduate. She knew that Spike would be pissed he'd missed so much of Dawnie's life.

Andrew was still a nerd, but he was rapidly becoming a good guy. Once he had realised that being a Watcher wasn't for him, and he had stopped with the tweed wearing and answering to Giles, he had become a friend. It also helped that he had finally fallen in love and the love was reciprocated.

Giles and the others had been conspicuous in their absence at Dawn's big day. But then again, since leaving the ruins of Sunnydale they had barely been in touch with each other.

Xander had disappeared the first night and had never been heard of again. They had all been staying in a cheap motel that night recovering from the battle and Buffy had heard a noise. She remembered going to the door of her and Dawn's room and watching Xander walk away without a backward glance. She had known instinctively not to try and stop him. Her Xander-shaped friend had done enough... lost enough, an eye and then the love of his life, Anya. It was time to let him go and hope that one day he'd come and find her and they could find a common ground again. When the others-- in particular Willow-- had found his bed unslept in and Xander gone, it had been chaos. And it was also the beginning of the end.

Xander had in a sense been the glue that held them together. The one who was friend to all and the anchor of the group. His absence left a gaping hole that couldn't be filled.

Buffy remembered the fight with Willow, with a sneering Kennedy in the background. Buffy had been adamant that the redhead didn't use magic to locate Xander and to let him be. Reasoning with her that if indeed he was her bestfriend then she should let him go, let him heal and when he was ready, Xander would come back. As someone who had just lost the 'one', Buffy understood all too well how Xander needed some time to just be alone and heal.

Willow had tried the wobbly lower lip and then when Buffy wouldn't cave, had stopped and actually listened to what she had to say.

Finally she’d nodded and agreed with Buffy. It was time to let Xander go. The small redhead had ushered her shrieking and belligerent, newly Slayered girlfriend out of the room with an apologetic smile. Buffy had never been happier to see anyone leave the following week when Willow had taken Kennedy away and headed for South America. She and Wills still called each other now and then, but more often than not, Willow was in contact with Giles.

Buffy's face darkened at the thought of her erstwhile Watcher who had taken it upon himself to re-establish the stuffy tweed shirt brigade of wannabe Slayer bosses. She pulled her drinking face at the memory of her final call with Giles. They had never really recovered their relationship, how could you?

First he'd dumped her and run away to England, claiming she needed to grow up. Yeah, she did! But she also needed a watcher, someone with the know-how to fight the creatures that go bump in the night. But he'd gone as soon as she'd gotten yanked out of Heaven, and then when he had come back, he'd been weird. Then in that final year he'd turned up with Kennedy and the other two potentials. Buffy stuck her lower lip out. 'Man, it was all Giles's fault Kennedy had turned up, he’s the FE!'

Another black mark in his book, one to add to the massive big black and underlined over and over one marked in there. It read:' I hooked up with nut job Robin Wood and tried to kill the guy who in the end saved the world'. Buffy smiled at the irony of it all. If Giles and Robin had succeeded and killed Spike, then the world would have been overrun with Turok Han and the First Evil would have won.

When they finally went their separate ways, Buffy had no problems taking the massive monthly salary Giles offered and moved to Rome with Dawn-- and for some reason, Andrew decided to follow her. Even though he played at being a Watcher now and then, luckily he had recently grown out of it.

Buffy spun around, dodging an axe and then yanked the same axe from the slimey Chaos demon's hands and with a back slice, cut her attacker's head off. The antlered head clattered to the ground as the body fell backwards. With a jubilant shout, Buffy stepped back over Spike's body and tossed the axe from hand to hand. Silently daring the rapidly dwindling minions of hell to come and get her. Her lips peeled back in a feral snarl that would've done Spike proud and she bounced on the balls of her feet, ready for her next attacker.

In the distance she could see the blue skinned woman fighting an ork-shaped demon and was batting it around as if it were a whiffle ball. Angel was still struggling with the lizard and was unaware that backup in the form of Paolo and his employees were here and helping to turn the tide of battle.

Paolo had mentioned the whole chaining up of Angelus and Spike and screwing Darla and Dru incident, and yuck! He also told her about the blustering vamps trying to get into his club and pick a fight, only to be turned away by the doorman. Buffy grinned at the sight of two quarters of the Scourge of Europe being bounced! 'Man, she was gonna bug Spike about that when they got home!'

Her eyes widened as worry filled her. What if he didn't want to come home with her? He'd never called or anything. What if he'd moved on? Buffy's narrowed as she glared at the blue string bean. 'Was that his new girl? Ewww, she better not be! If Spike had touched that weird looking demoness thingy the he was going to be immersed in sheep dip! Maybe she should slice and dice her and blame it on the heat of battle? Nahhh, I can't do that! It wouldn’t be right!' She chewed her lower lip in anxiety, not missing a beat as she fought the demon attacking her. Her confidence in battle not showing the emotional mess she was in mentally. Buffy tried not to be jealous of the blue woman fighting stoically, but she was, she’d been near Spike for the past year and Buffy ached all over. Spike was hers no one else’s.

There was a sickening squelchy thud and a severed arm landed in front of Buffy.

'Huh, guess vamps arms don't dust when they get chopped off!' Buffy thought irreverently as she stared in shock at Angel's right arm. Then she blanched and stared up at the idiot who had started this fight. Angel was even paler than normal but still hacking away at the flying lizard with his remaining arm. Blood poured from the stump soaking Buffy's upturned face and Spike's body. She squinted through the red haze and then threw the axe straight up and into the lizard demon's heart. Killing it with one blow.

"Uh oh!" Buffy squeaked. The corpse was plummeting towards them with Angel clinging to its neck. Buffy reached down, grabbed Spike's limp body and ran as fast as she could. Leaping over demon corpses and trying not to slip in the pools of blood that were mixing together in a psychedelic mess, Buffy ran as fast as she could with Spike on her back.

There was a squishy splat and then she heard Paulo yell ‘duck’. Buffy hit the ground and covered Spike's body with hers.

There was am almighty bang and then a ball of fire rolled over her back and kept going. Burning everything in its path. Demons were incinerated-- both alive and dead.

The lizard demon was doing a heck of a clean up job in its demise.
 
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