Lies

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“How are you today, Buffy?” Giles asked as soon as she stepped inside his house, her hand in Riley’s.

“Erm, fine. Good, even.”

“Any more dreams?”

“Actually, no,” she commented lightly, glancing around her, “I think it’s fading.”

“Fading?”

“Yeah. I mean, I haven’t heard anything from Spike’s end for hours. And I’m pretty sure he’s not dead…dead-dead.”

“Fascinating,” Giles remarked and she forced a smile, sinking to the sofa and rearranging her shirt to make sure no-one would see the small wounds on her neck.

“Well, Spike did say that can happen. It’s only if you keep, you know, reaffirming the claim, that it stays strong.”

“Well, I bet you’re glad to be out of a psycho vamp’s head!” Xander exclaimed and she laughed.

“Sure. It’s nice to have normal dreams that don’t involve people dying.”

Her friends laughed and she sank against Riley, smiling weakly. She hated lying to them but she knew things would be a lot worse if she told them what she had done.


Things seemed to be getting back-on-track now and she had an introduction to the huge operation that was the Initiative to look forward to.

“Professor Walsh is really interested in what you can do.”

“What?! Wait!” she exclaimed, halting Riley in his steps, “Professor Walsh is part of the Initiative?!”

“Yeah. She’s our top scientist.”

“Was she the one that put the chip in Spike’s head?”

“I, err, I don’t know,” he answered awkwardly and she realised that mentioning Spike probably wasn’t a good idea right now.

“Never mind. I’m excited to see your secret base and all. It’s very Batman.”

“Sure is. I should get a cape.”

She laughed and twined her fingers in his, letting him lead her towards the fraternity house and the top-secret entrance to the Initiative base.


After a gruelling Initiative initiation, during which she definitely seemed to have impressed Professor Walsh with her ability to take out several of her men without losing her breath, she was glad to go back to Riley’s room and relax.

“You were amazing,” he exclaimed, sitting beside her on the bed.

“Well, you know, four years of training.”

He smiled and brushed her hair from her face.

“And despite all the running about and fighting, you still look beautiful.”

She smiled somewhat shyly and gladly received his kiss, locking her arms around him as his mouth moved against hers. Their kiss grew hungrier and she felt her whole body tense in anticipation. She parted from Riley hesitantly though, smiling softly to cover her nerves.

“I’m just going to, err, freshen up.”

He frowned in confusion but before he could say anything, she jumped up and went to the ensuite bathroom. She sat on the edge of the bath and tried to stop her hands from shaking.
She was a grown woman now- you’d think she’d be much less like a silly schoolgirl when faced with the prospect of sleeping with a man she cared about. But it’d gone wrong before.



“Was it me? Was I not good?”

“Oh, you were great. Really, I thought you were a pro.”


She could still see Angel’s face smiling at her in amusement and she shook her head. Riley wasn’t a vampire, he wasn’t going to go evil overnight. But then Parker hadn’t been a vampire and he had turned out to be pretty evil.

Slayer, stop stressing and live a little, for God’s sake.

How? Spike? Maybe he had sensed her confusion and was sending her a little encouragement. Whether it was actually him or not, it spurred her on and she made her way back into the bedroom.

“Sorry about that,” she murmured, moving to sit beside Riley again, “Where were we?”

Before he could speak, she leant up and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck.


She woke and smiled softly, before turning and looking at the man next to her. He was fast asleep still, his arm draped across her waist and she ran her fingers lightly over his arm. It was so much nicer to wake up and find the person you had gone to bed with still there. She was so glad she had taken a risk. She sent out a silent thanks to Spike and moved closer to Riley, resting her cheek against his chest. He mumbled something in his sleep and his arm tightened around her as he awoke.

“Morning,” he murmured huskily and she felt him press a kiss to her forehead.

“Morning.”

She pulled back and looked up at him with a soft smile. His hand stroked over her cheek and then he leant down to kiss her gently. She sank against him, wrapping her arm around him as she moved closer. Finally, something in her life made sense.

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She thought it was strange that Professor Walsh had sent her off on her own to deal with a demon in the sewers- they usually operated in teams of no less than six- but maybe they had realised that she was quite capable on her own. The weapon they had given her hung at her side as she climbed down into the sewers in the location Professor Walsh had indicated.

One demon to kill seemed a pretty easy task and when she was done, she could go to Riley’s and spend some quality time with her boyfriend. She smiled at the thought of him and moved on through the sewers, decidedly ignoring the awful smell. She was close now and she dropped down into an opening, searching for signs of demon habitation.

Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting roar just to her left and she winced. Think I found him. Then there was the sound of heavy footsteps and soon a large demon joined her in the opening.

“About time,” she quipped.

The demon roared once more and flew at her, big arms flailing. She ducked them with ease but she knew they were going to run out of room. If she could just lead him out of here and find somewhere more open. She rolled under his arm and raced for one of the tunnels- but to her dismay, a gate suddenly came crashing down, blocking off the tunnel. She turned and looked around her, she was trapped. Only one thing for it. She raised the gun and levelled it at the demon, pulling the trigger. There was a pulse of energy but nothing happened and she stared at the weapon in confusion.

“What did I do?”