Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

Chp.11

Apprehension Due to Family

There's a number you can call for information, but I suppose that you don't want that kind of info, chp.1 has what you want.

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It had been three days, and the blonde couple was still as inseparable as the day they'd come out of their comas. They sit in Spikes room, on the sunny, Saturday morning. His elusive family had been slated to come in from London, this afternoon.

He'd been told last night that they'd be by today, and he didn't have any inkling of who was going to show up.

Knowing that Buffy's reunion with her mother had gone well, he is now worried that his so-called family would be a big, bunch of anal retentive wankers. 'Oh wait, most old English people were at that. Just look at Rupert Giles'

He smiles as he remembers Joyce, she'd shown up for a few minutes everyday, and Buffy was completely ecstatic that in this world that she still had her mother, but had lost a father. Which really wasn't all that hard to except, he hadn't been in the delusions, and she really didn't miss him in this reality.

She'd told him after Joyce had left, what all had transpired while she'd chatted with her mother yesterday. It had gotten ugly for a moment, that's when she had been screaming bloody murder. But before Joyce had broached the subject of Spike himself, they'd been talking of other things. One of those things being her father.

He'd died the same way that Joyce had in Sunnydale, which made Spike remember how devastated Buffy had been when it had happened. The death of her mother had hit her so hard that she didn't care about anything or anyone else. She protected what she held near and dear, but she had basically shut down after the aneurysm took the life of her mother. Seeing her that way, the vacant look in her eyes during that time, it had nearly killed him again. His heart had broken a little more each time he'd seen her. Seemed her father passing in the same manner didn't really bother her as much.

Glancing over to where she lay beside him, he sees the vibrant girl that he'd seen dancing with her friends, at the Bronze. That fateful night, he'd seen her for the first time. She had completely reverted back to the girl that he remembered seeing that first time in Sunnydale, with just a visit from her mother. He had worried that she would become more distant for that first night here. But she'd done a one-eighty with the appearance of Joyce.

Now all he worried about, the family that wasn't really his. Knowing this he didn't mind the so-called delusional world of Sunnydale. At least there he knew whom his family was, and that they'd been dead for over a hundred and twenty years. Thinking about it, worried wasn't really the word for what he felt he's terrified of the whole thing.

Buffy waves her hand in front of his face as she leans up on an elbow. "Spikey?" She asks, now snapping her fingers, because waving her hand wasn't getting his attention. He'd been spaced out for over ten minutes, and she was starting to get worried that he might have slipped off into another coma, and left her here all alone.

At the snap of her fingers, he shakes his head, "Huh? What?" He says, trying to come out of the thoughts of his faux families visit.

"You do know that I've been acting like a fool for the last five minutes, trying to get you to come back down to earth." She replies, sliding as close as she can up against him, and takes his hand in hers. "What's up with you? It never takes more than a few seconds for little, ole me to catch your attention." She smiles, and flutters her eyelashes at him. "Thought you'd gone comatose on me, sooo not a good feeling."

Smiling, he rolls his eyes toward the ceiling. "Right, 'bout now, think I'd rather be in the coma fighting off a horde of Fyarls," he replies.

"Why's that Spikey?"

He growls deep in his throat, giving her a scathing look.

"OH!" She smiles, a little glimmer of light showing in her eyes. "Is Spikey nervous about his family?"

His eyes harden into hatred.

"Afraid they won't like his psycho girlfriend?" Whoops, she'd done it now.

She suddenly finds herself trapped under a very hard body. He'd tackled her in a flash, she didn't think he could move that fast here. Damn, it was very hard to stick to the rule of the not having of the horizontal Mambo. At least he wasn't giving her that hard stare now. It was more like a look of wonder now.

"What did you just say?"

"Umm, nervous about your family?" She swallows hard, as the softer gaze turns hard again.

"After that."

Her breathing gets heavier, as he stares into her eyes. "Psycho?"

"Buffy." He growls, getting fed up with her.

"Girlfriend?" Her eyes glance over to the wall as she speaks.

He smiles, at that admission. "Is that what you are?"

She knew the deer in headlights look wasn't a good look on her, but she couldn't help it. 'What the hell am I gonna say?' She simply nods her head in acceptance, and his smile widens and brightens at that. Okay she stand to be his girlfriend if he'd just keep giving her that smile.

She racks her brain trying to figure something witty to say, cause she just knows that he's going to start with the touching, and then they'd be breaking the rule, and that wouldn't be too good. "Knew I could get a smile. You were being too serious, and with you that's usually a bad thing."

He rolls off of her with a groan. He knows what she's doing, and after admitting that she's his girlfriend, he was about to start something she would've enjoyed very much within the moment that it was happening, then she'd have done the guilt tripping on herself.

He places a soft kiss on her cheek, as he moves from her delectable body. "Sorry, Luv. I was jus' thinkin' 'bout when my 'family' gets here, and havin' to meet 'em 's'all." He grabs her hand possessively, ducking his head, "You're not psycho, luv. Just sometimes not to right in the head 's all." He chuckles as she squeezes his hand tightly, but she lets it go. He rolls to his side to better see her.

"Spike." She drops his hand, and wraps her arm around his stomach. "It's gonna be okay, I promise. I'll be right here with you. Just like you've always been there for me." She explains, holding him tightly to her.

"What did I ever do to deserve even just one glance from you?" Trying to keep his tears in check, he pulls her on top of him.

She notices one lone tear roll out of the corner of his eye. "I think I'm the one that should be asking that question." She answers, reaching her hand up and wiping the tear away. "I don't deserve you, not after the way I treated you in those delusions. You should hate me for the rest of my life." She sighs, laying her head on his chest, as he pulls her even tighter in his embrace.

At her admission, his eyes find the top of her head, "Buffy." He whispers, raising a hand and threading her hair through his fingers. "You know I could never hate you. I don't think I even hated you when we first met. Hell! First time I saw you just wanted to throw you down and shag you senseless. That little dance you were doing, got so hard for you practically couldn't walk."

He feels her chuckle against his chest. "No, you just wanted me dead for the fun of it?"

"Well, yeah! Me vampire, you slayer, that was the game." He chuckles, with a deep, resonating tone.

"I know that, Spike. I said it enough, but you really didn't hate me?"

"No, not you personally. It was never a question of whom you were, just what you were, and represented. But. . ." He pauses, cocking his head on the pillow he's propped on. "I got over that didn't I?" Smiling, he drops a kiss on the crown of her head. "Now I just love you, all of you. What you are and all that rot. You've heard it once, no need to go into all that, again."

"You did." She admits, softly saying it into the fabric covering his chest. "And I couldn't be happier about it." She had found out a lot of things in the last three days, and her hot breath passing through the fabric onto his skin was one of her favorites.

She hears the groan, and laughs.

"Keep doing that, luv, and I won't be responsible for my actions, or for breaking the rules," he mummurs against the crown of her head.

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(Well another chappy done, hope everyone enjoyed. Please review and tell me how you like or not.)