full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
Future Sins Past by DreamsofSpike
 
Temporary Solution
 
<<     >>
 
A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta, Eowyn315!!! :)



“So…do we do this now? This…re-souling spell, or whatever?” Buffy asked uncertainly, looking between her Watcher and Miss Calendar with wide, tearful eyes that seemed far more vulnerable than they had been a mere twenty-four hours earlier. “I mean…we need to know if it’s…if it’s gonna work…”

“Well, I’ll need supplies,” Jenny replied. “I used up what we had doing the spell to restore Angel’s soul. And the magic shop won’t open until later this morning.”

“What time is it now?” Giles asked wearily, rubbing his eyes with one hand as he turned slightly away, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

The whirlwind sequence of violent and traumatic events over the course of the evening was beginning to catch up with all of them.

“It’s five o’clock in the morning,” Buffy observed, glancing at the clock on the wall.

“Which means we’ve got at least four or five hours before we can do this,” Spike sighed in frustration.

“Well, I wish we could do it now, too.” The Slayer frowned at the troubled expression on the blond vampire’s face as she turned to face him. “But it’s only a few hours. I mean, it’s gonna drive me absolutely insane…but we can wait…”

Spike shook his head, dismissing her assumptions as to what was bothering him with a wave of his hand, a thoughtful frown on his face. “That’s not…Slayer…” He looked up at her again appraisingly, before nodding toward the front door. “Come for a walk with me? Got something I need to talk to you about.”

Buffy’s eyes widened in surprise as she stared at Spike, barely aware of her Watcher’s sputtered protest from behind her.

“And leave these two unguarded in a room with three defenseless human beings? That’s hardly wise, is it?” Giles pointed out a bit nervously as he glanced toward the two rather subdued vampires with suspicion.

“They have to be controlled,” Buffy agreed, her words and eyes still directed toward Spike. “If we go…”

“They’ll be fine,” Spike assured her. “They’re still under my commands from before. But…but I need to tell you this, right away…”

“It’s utterly out of the question,” Giles insisted, though Buffy did not react, simply stayed in the same place, studying Spike’s face closely. “You can’t possibly think that’s a good idea, Buffy, not when Angel’s and Willow’s relative statuses are still so unclear. Buffy, we can’t even really be certain of Spike just yet, can we? Anything he has to say, I see no reason why he shouldn’t simply say it right here and…”

“Let me get my coat.”

“Quite…wait. Buffy!” Giles objected, moving toward her, attempting to face her as she abruptly ended her intense eye contact session with Spike and walked toward the couch where she had left her jacket. “Buffy, you can’t possibly think that…”

“I’ll be right back, Giles,” Buffy stated flatly, shrugging into her jacket as Spike nodded in satisfaction and headed purposefully toward the door.

“Buffy, this could still be some kind of trick! We can’t possibly know…”

“*I* know. I know that Spike’s telling the truth. And I know that if he wasn’t…I could *so* take him.”

“But…well, yes, I see your point,” Giles conceded with a sideways nod. “But…”

Spike looked up at her sharply from where he stood beside the open door. “Hey!”

“Seriously, Giles. We’ll be gone, like…an hour. Maybe less. If Spike tries anything…I’m still the Slayer. One vampire…not such a threat.”

Spike’s impatient, warning growl from the doorway only earned him a roll of her eyes as she took the hint and followed him out the door into the night.

*****************************

“Okay. So, what is this?” Buffy demanded as soon as Giles’ door had closed behind them. “What’s so important, and so secret, that you’ve got to…” She stopped, puzzled, as Spike frowned and shook his head at her, nodding toward the sidewalk as he walked past her and away from the apartment. “What?” she pressed impatiently, hurrying after him. “Spike…Spike, why won’t you answer me?”

Only once she had caught up to him, halfway down Giles’ block, did Spike finally respond.

“Vampires in that apartment, love, remember? Supernatural hearing and all that? Don’t want them to hear this.”

Buffy glanced back toward the apartment, blinking in surprise as she finally caught on to what Spike was saying, hurrying after him as he kept moving down the sidewalk. “You mean…all the way from here?”

Spike was quiet for a few more moments, his stride quick and deliberate, before he finally stopped and turned to face her, a satisfied smile on his face, as he shot back, “No. Not from *here*.”

A slow smile spread across Buffy’s face at the infectious amusement in his eyes, but as their eyes locked, all humor faded from both of their expressions, and Buffy’s eyes became solemn and troubled as she drew Spike’s attention back to the matter at hand.

“What is it?” she asked softly. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s just…” Spike hesitated, drawing in a deep breath, his eyes averted as he finally admitted, “…I don’t know if we can wait ’til morning, love. I don’t know if…if my control over them will last that long.”

Buffy’s jaw tightened, her eyes widening as she took that in. “Okay…*what*? I thought this sire/childe power bond thing was supposed to be just a…a natural thing. What, are you saying it’s gonna…wear off?”

“Not exactly.” Spike tried to find the words to explain. “It’s just…this sort of control…it’s not just automatic. I mean, it’s normal for a sire to be able to dominate their childe like this, but…but this much prolonged control, well…it’s an active thing. It doesn’t just happen. It takes effort, to subdue the childe’s will to your own, right? And eventually…well, I just don’t know how long I’ll be able to maintain it.”

“How long? Roughly?” Buffy’s expression was all business now, her mind already racing ahead in search of some kind of solution to the new problem Spike had presented.

Spike shrugged. “With him resisting like he is right now? A few hours.”

Buffy sighed, raising a hand to her forehead and shaking her head in frustration.

“And…there’s more, love,” Spike confessed, giving her an apologetic grimace when she raised her dark, suspicious gaze to his. “Angel…being weakened like he is, what with my controlling him at the moment and all…well, I’m not sure how long *his* hold over *Willow* will last, either.”

“Great,” Buffy muttered. “Just great. So…so I’m guessing…chains are in order, right?”

Spike nodded. “Oughta work for Angel. Red, though…she’s got enough magical power to get right out of them. We’ll have to…to come up with something different for her.”

Buffy was quiet for a moment, thoughtful as she considered the problem, apparently completely unaware of her casual closeness to the blond vampire she was currently facing.

Spike, for his part, was far from unaware.

“I think I’ve got it,” Buffy finally said, her voice low and grim. “It’s not gonna be fun, and I’m not gonna like it…but we haven’t got much choice at the moment. Come on.” She turned and started abruptly back toward her Watcher’s apartment.

She was caught off guard as a strong hand suddenly caught her arm, spinning her around and throwing her roughly to the ground on her back beneath her unexpected attacker. She stared up in indignant surprise at the blond vampire now hovering over her, a satisfied smirk on his face as he slowly stood up again.

“Can bloody well take me anytime you like, can you? Right. Just didn’t want there to be any confusion.”

With a contemptuous snort, Spike turned and made his way down the sidewalk…only to be yanked backward and thrown against a nearby tree by an apparently very determined, very brassed off…*bloody gorgeous*…Slayer.

“Yeah, Spike,” she said with a deadly smile that made him feel cold in all the wrong places -- and hot in all the right ones -- as she sauntered closer to him with deceptively slow, casual steps. Suddenly, she moved with lightning speed, one knee pinning his right wrist against the tree trunk, while one powerful fist gripped his arm and twisted it behind his back, and the other produced -- seemingly from nowhere -- a stake, which she pressed against the spot directly over his heart. She gave him a wink that was both playful and threatening as she concluded.

“No confusion at all.”

Spike’s mouth twisted into a sarcastic smile as she released him and stepped away, turning her back on him.

Foolishly.

Within moments the Slayer found herself pinned against the ground once more, on her stomach this time, her staking hand bent up behind her back, and a pair of glistening fangs hovering over her throat, Spike’s cool breath brushing against her skin and sending shivers down her spine…shivers that were not altogether unpleasant.

“Well…maybe still just a *bit* of confusion, Slayer.” Spike’s voice was low and dangerous in her ear. “Because I’ve gotta say…I’m still not quite convinced.”

Buffy’s teeth clenched with anger, and a determination to win, as she ground out the words, “Well, let me convince you, then.” As she spoke, her arm twisted in Spike’s grasp, her hand locking onto his arm and flipping him backwards onto the ground, freeing herself and ending up reversing their positions once more. Her stake pressed against his chest again as she pointed out, “That’s twice I would have had you…and I’m not even trying that hard.”

Spike smirked up at her, unfazed by the deadly piece of wood in her hand, pressing uncomfortably into his chest. “Who says I am?” he asked her, his eyes glinting with sly amusement as he kicked her legs out from under her in a sweeping motion, causing her to lose her balance and collapse onto him, the stake turning harmlessly sideways.

Spike caught it in his hand, crushing it easily and tossing the wooden splinters aside as his free hand fisted in the Slayer’s golden hair, jerking her head back and exposing her throat as his fangs came forward once more, and his lunged forward as if to strike the killing bite, only to stop short a bare inch from her neck and whisper,

“That’s two points for me, Slayer. You still so sure you can take me?”

“Oh, I *know* I can!” Buffy snarled, her competitive streak taking over as she brought her knee up sharply between Spike’s legs.

She stopped just short of doing any actual damage, but Spike did not know she was going to do so, and automatically released her with a startled gasp, his body adopting a defensive posture as he moved to block the blow…leaving himself wide open to the sharp right hook that came down across his face.

To the Slayer’s fury and frustration, Spike only laughed with triumph and exultation.

“That’s it, Slayer!” he declared as he returned her blow. “That’s it! Now you’re really giving it to me! Don’t hold back…”

“If I didn’t hold back, you’d be dust!”

“So…you *are* holding back, then?”

Buffy frowned. “Yes,” she admitted, surprise in her voice, as if she was not quite sure why she was pulling her punches, making any effort at all not to actually harm the blond vampire.

“Hmmm,” Spike mused, an exaggeratedly thoughtful frown creasing his brow. “Wonder why.”

Abruptly Buffy stood up, moving to put some distance between them, though she wasn’t exactly sure why that seemed so important at the moment.

“Yeah, well…you’re the only one besides me that’s strong enough to deal with Angel and Willow right now, so…it’s not like I have a choice,” Buffy finally settled on a reasonable excuse for her behavior, which even she did not quite understand. “And besides…it’s not like you’ve really given me a reason in the last couple of days to *really* hurt you. I…don’t really want to. It’s just…I could. If I wanted to…I’d win.”

“Remains to be seen,” Spike sneered, his eyes twinkling with good-natured mockery, his tongue darting out briefly between his teeth in a teasingly suggestive gesture. “Come on, Slayer…”

“Spike…we *don’t* have time for this!” Buffy insisted, turning deliberately back toward Giles’ apartment. “I don’t know why we’re even fighting in the first place!”

“*You’re* the one who said you could take me so easy…just had to prove the soddin’ point.” Spike shrugged.

“Well, you haven’t proved anything…”

“But I will.”

Buffy turned back toward Spike, an incredulous look of outraged disbelief on her face. When she saw the humor, the teasing challenge in Spike’s eyes, the defensive anger in her own expression gradually faded as she released the tense breath she was holding in a slow, heavy sigh.

“We can do the whole sparring thing later,” she relented. “But for now…we don’t have time. I’ve got to take care of Willow and Angel.” With that, she turned again and started to walk back toward the apartment, Spike following close behind her, not saying a word.

As he fell into step beside her, however, Buffy spoke again.

“Thank you.”

Spike raised one eyebrow, glancing at her uncertainly. “For?”

“For that,” Buffy replied, gesturing back in the direction they had come from, in a vague reference to the aborted sparring match he had engaged her in. “I think I…needed that.”

Spike smiled and nodded slowly. “You did.”

Buffy cast him a sharp look. “And you…knew that.”

Spike shrugged again. “Know *you*, love. Better than you might think. Those visions… powerful things, Buffy. I…just wanted to get you to blow off a little steam. Thought it might…might help.”

Buffy eyed him appraisingly as they stopped on the porch outside Giles’ door, hesitating a moment, studying him as she prepared to ring the doorbell. Finally, she shook her head as she pressed the button.

“You’re the strangest vampire I’ve ever met, Spike.”

For some reason, Spike seemed to take that as a compliment, his smile widening as the Watcher opened the door and ushered them back into his apartment. Buffy did not hesitate, crossing the room until she was standing directly in front of Willow. The little redhead smirked up at the Slayer defiantly, though she could not move or speak.

Buffy had no way of knowing how long that might last.

“Sorry, Will,” the Slayer said softly, in a voice that was still filled with her affection for the girl. “It’s just…I know you can’t hurt us, if you can’t do magic. And you can’t do magic…” Abruptly she cut her own sentence off by delivering a sharp uppercut to the vampire witch’s jaw, sending her tumbling backwards to the floor in a limp, boneless heap.

“…if you’re unconscious.”
 
<<     >>