Chapter Eight

Using Maggie and Riley as human shields, and helped considerably by the confusion caused by the escaping demons, it took very little time for the two blonds to make their way to the nearest exit. As they emerged from a hidden entrance behind Maggie’s office, they stopped. Buffy took a quick look outside to confirm that it was now night and safe for Spike to emerge; then she waved him out and they began walking toward Giles’ apartment. In spite of verbal protests from their two hostages, Buffy insisted that they bring them both until Giles could contact the Council and see what could be done through semi-official channels.

“What if the Council of Wankers won’t help out?” Spike wondered aloud. “Can I eat them, then?”

Buffy shot him a glare and he shrugged. “Was worth a try, pet. I’m still feeling a mite peckish – and I owe them.”

“I know you do,” she sighed. “And part of me is right there with you…”

“Which part would that be, Slayer? One of the good parts, I hope.” His leer broke through Riley’s forced cooperation and the commando tried to break free, saying, “How dare you talk to her like that? Buffy, I can’t believe you let this---“

“Shut up. Both of you,” she added when Spike’s mouth opened automatically. “I’m not going to deal with testosterone poisoning right now.” She pointed at Riley, her cold look telling him what he’d already guessed. “You – we – are done. You were going to let this bitch try to get me killed. Neither one of you knew that Spike wasn’t going to hurt me – so, you’re as guilty as she is. And you,” she turned toward the gleeful looking vampire. “Just because Cave Buffy thinks you have a right to a little revenge, doesn’t mean that the Slayer is going to let you kill anybody. So, get over it.”

“Bollocks,” he muttered, yanking harder than necessary on Riley’s arm. “’S what I get for fallin’ for a bloody do-gooder.”

Buffy pretended she didn’t hear him and tried to smother the little thrill that went through her at his words.

With Maggie Walsh having already been on Giles’ list of least-favorite people, he was more than happy to tie her to a chair in his living room while he waited for it to be morning in England. He found some chains in the back of a closet, which caused the vampire to raise his eyebrows and smirk knowingly until the watcher threatened to chain him up too. It had taken Buffy several minutes of talking to convince the ex-watcher that it was okay to let William the Bloody into his home, but eventually she got him to agree to trust her judgment; and she kicked Spike in the shin when he appeared to be trying to irritate Giles into regretting his decision.

Riley was chained to the plumbing in the bathroom and both Spike and Buffy tested the chains for strength before leaving the commando in there unattended. While they waited until it was late enough to phone the Council offices, Buffy filled Giles in on what she’d seen in the Initiative complex, as well as admitting she’d released all the captives. To her surprise, the man who had taught her that the best demon was a dead demon - the surrogate father figure who had lost the woman he loved because she couldn’t kill her vampire lover - just nodded his head and commented mildly that if any of the escapees became a problem, she could just kill them later. As he spoke, he glared fiercely at the blond vampire sitting, in his opinion, much too close to his slayer.

“Hey!” Spike protested. “I’m on your side!” At Giles’ disbelieving snort, he lowered his voice and amended, “Well, I’m on her side, anyway. Not goin’ to give her any reason to stake me.”

“Why not?” Giles looked back and forth between the blushing girl and the suddenly meek vampire and groaned mentally. “Never mind,” he moaned. “I don’t want to know.”

Buffy giggled with embarrassment, but allowed Spike to put his arm across the back of the couch in what was clearly a proprietary fashion.

“I’ll never hurt her, Watcher,” Spike said seriously. “Not her or anyone she cares about. I –“

“I really, and I cannot emphasize this enough, do not, want to know!”

Buffy made a quick call to a very sleepy Willow to fill her in on what had happened and to reassure her that she was fine and that Giles was handling the situation. When her friend asked if she would be back in the dorm room later, Buffy glanced at Spike and blushed before answering.

“I don’t think so, Wills. We – I - need to wait here until we find out what is going to be done about these people, and then it’ll be late and we – I…”


“Oh my god! It was Spike, wasn’t it?” Willow’s now wide-awake shriek reached the vampire’s sensitive ears and he raised a questioning eyebrow at Buffy. “That’s who you…oh my god. Oh, Xander is sooo going to wig.”

“Um,” Buffy blushed fiercely as Spike began to grin. “Can we talk about this some other time? Like, maybe, never?”

“Oh, we’re going to talk about it, missy. You can count on it. I want details and…okay, maybe not detail-details, but…you need to tell me what’s going on. Are you and Spike…like…together?”

“Later, Willow. When I’ve figured it out. ‘K?”

“Okay.” Willow’s sounded unconvinced, but she agreed to wait and hung up. She drifted back to sleep picturing Xander’s reaction to finding out Buffy had another vampire boyfriend and all night her dreams were of her best male friend’s exploding head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Spike stood up and walked toward the door, both Giles and Buffy stared at him in surprise.

“Where are you going?” she blurted, ashamed of the note of fear in her voice.

“Gonna go find a new place to live,” he growled. “It’s not like I’m going back to Harmony’s cave—“

One look at Buffy’s face and he regretted reminding her that he hadn’t been living by himself when he first came back to Sunnydale. Ignoring Giles, who was trying very hard to pretend he wasn’t listening, he stepped closer to Buffy and said softly, “We both have baggage, pet. I’m not goin’ away; not unless you tell me to. Gonna be here for you and yours, if you’ll have me; but I’m trying to give you some space. You’ve got things you need to do, decisions to make. I’ll let you know where I am.”

Buffy realized he had heard Willow’s question about whether they were together, as well as her non-committal answer to it, and she nodded silently.

(I do have a decision to make. Riley – that’s easy. He’s history. But am I willing to get into a relationship with another vampire? And what kind of a relationship could it be? He’s the one who said it wasn’t really going anywhere, isn’t he? If the evil vampire can see why it couldn’t work, you’d think that the slayer would---gah!)


After Giles had spoken to the Council and given them all the information he had on the Initiative, there was nothing for them to do but wait to be called back. Buffy took the offer of his guest room and used it for a short nap.

She awoke in time to run to her dorm room and change clothes, as well as get her books for her first class. She breathed a sigh of relief that Willow wasn’t there.

(It’s not like I know what to tell her. I don’t know if we’re together. He sounds like he wants to be with me – but do I want to be with him? Aside from the whole I-crave-his-body-more-than-I-should thing, do I want HIM? ‘Cause kinda getting the feeling that with Spike there’s no half-way. He claimed me, for crap’s sake – I don’t even know if he can leave. Can I have another vampire in my life? Should I have another vampire in my life? One without a soul? And Angel and I are sooo going to have a discussion about Spike’s ability to control his demon and to love. If he can do it, what the hell was Angelus’ problem?)

Pushing thoughts of Spike and any possible relationship between them to the back of her mind, Buffy went through the motions of going to class, phoned her mother to give her a brief recap of where she’d been and what had happened. She tried not to be miffed when Joyce sounded more concerned about Spike’s wellbeing that she was about Buffy’s.

“He’s fine, Mom,” she said with some irritation. “Whatever they did to him is all fixed. He’s a little skinny, but a couple of good meals…Oh my god! I’ve got to find him before he kills somebody. Talk to you later, bye, Mom!”

Buffy raced out the room, heading directly to the butcher’s and using up all the money in her wallet to buy pigs blood. As she emerged with the heavy bag, she realized she had no idea where to look for the vampire and she wandered into a park, sitting on the first bench she came to. The park, of course, was empty – as were most of the poorly lit places in Sunnydale after sunset. The strengthening tingle she could soon feel had her sitting up alertly until she recognized the specific vampire who was raising the hairs on her neck.

“Come on out,” she called. “I know you’re there.”

“Getting’ better at that, aren’t you, pet?” His voice held a hint of admiration and she nodded, smiling.

“It’s easy when it’s you,” she admitted, ducking her head and peering at him through her hair.

“That so?” His tone was noncommittal as he sat at the other end of the bench, the bag of blood between them. “What’s this then?” He gestured at the bag, clearly marked with the name of the butcher shop.

“I…I got you some blood. So you wouldn’t have to…I mean, I can’t let you…” She stopped and looked at him steadily. “I can’t let you stay in my town and kill people, Spike. I can’t. I won’t.”

Her last words sounded almost like a plea and with supernatural speed he had moved the bag to the ground and was beside her. He cupped her chin with one large hand, staring intently into her worried eyes.

“You think I don’t know that, Buffy? I haven’t touched anybody. The question is - do you want me to stay in your town?”

“I don’t want you to not be here,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes.

“Not good enough, love.” He dropped his hand, but didn’t move away.

“What do you want to do?” she fired back. “Do you want to stay here and drink pigs blood? Can you even do that? Can you stop killing? What do you want, Spike?”

He tilted his head and waited until she met his gaze before replying.

“I want to shag you silly every day for the rest of your life,” he replied honestly. “And if I have to drink pigs blood and get my spot of violence by beating up on demons…” His voice trailed off and he brushed his lips across hers. “It will be worth it. If I can have you, it will be worth it.”

“Oh.” She had no idea how to reply. The soft lips that kept drifting across hers were too distracting for her to form a coherent thought. “Oh,” she breathed out again as his tongue came out to ask for hers. As she sank into the bone-melting kiss, it occurred to her that she hadn’t really said he could have her, although her body apparently had already decided on an answer.