With this Ring.... by Lilachigh
 
 
Chapter #1 - Chp 1 A Big Bad
 
WITH THIS RING...


By Lilachigh

Chapter One A Big Bad

‘Well all I can say, Willow, is that you’re obviously not trying hard enough!’ Giles rubbed his glasses with the end of his tie. Since his sight had been restored, he was greedy for every little detail to be absolutely clear. Being blind had been terrifying, but the situation he found when his sight came back was the most horrific he’d ever experienced in his whole life.

‘Giles, I am!’ In the late evening gloom, Willow sat cross-legged in the back yard of Buffy’s house and stared in despair at 24 brightly flickering candles standing in a circle, linked with a trail of bright pink and green powder. ‘It’s the strongest reversal spell I know, but it just won’t work.’

Xander was pacing backwards and forwards, wearing a path through the grass. ‘Look, Will, in 24 hours time, Buffy is going to come out of that door wearing a floaty white dress, stand under that flower arch and - and - marry William the Bloody! You have got to stop it!’

Anya was sitting on a bench, filing her nails. ‘And will her name then be Mrs Buffy Bloody? It sounds very odd. And a flower arch in the garden in the dark! No one will be able to see it. When I get married - ’ she cast a sideways glance at Xander, ‘Oh, my wedding will be very special. I’ll need far more room than there is in this yard.’

‘Yes, Anya, I’m sure we can hire St Paul’s Cathedral in London for you,’ said Giles in his most sarcastic tones.

Anya sniffed. Sarcasm, she knew sarcasm, but it rolled off her like water off a duck’s back. She glanced up Buffy’s bedroom window. ‘Well, if they’re doing what I think they’re doing up there at the moment, it’s very silly of her spending all that money on a white dress, floaty or not! What? What?’

She saw the appalled stares directed at her and shrugged. ‘There’s no need to look at me like that, Xander Harris. You’re all thinking the same thing. I just have the courage to say it out loud.’

Anya was quite right. Upstairs you could cut the tension with a very blunt knife. ‘You are not wearing your leather duster when we get married, and that’s final!’ Buffy stood, hands on hips, glaring at her fiancé.

Spike was lying stretched out on her bed. He’d taken off his boots and she wondered vaguely if that was the first time she’d ever seen his bare feet. Obviously socks didn’t feature in his wardrobe. He wiggled his toes at her and grinned. ‘What else do you want me to wear, sweetheart?’

Buffy pouted. ‘I don’t know. How about a tux? A nice pale blue one. ’

‘How about washing out your mouth with soap?’

Buffy sighed. ‘OK, a new shirt, then. And some smart pants. No jeans. No T-shirt.’

‘I could come in my birthday suit,’ Spike said suggestively and held out his hand to her.

Buffy launched herself onto the bed and wriggled up next to him. She was so looking forward to her wedding; she wanted it to be absolutely perfect. But at every turn she was facing problems. It wasn’t fair. Everyone was out to spoil it for her and her beloved vampire. ‘At least Mom isn’t causing any problems,’ she said, nibbling at Spike’s ear.

‘Ummm. Joyce has been sweet about it. Did you hear the row she had with your Watcher Wanker?’

Buffy frowned at the language and turned her attention to Spike’s mouth. She ran her finger round the outline of his lips, giggling as he kept trying to nip her finger with his teeth.

‘Giles seems so odd since Willow reversed his blindness spell. Don’t you think he’s odd? All condemny and doomy. Did you hear what he said to me? ‘It can never be. It goes against nature. It’s the end of the world as we know it.’ Why does he think we shouldn’t get married? He’s mean. A big old meanie. I think it’s because he‘s very, very old and doesn’t remember what it was like to....’

‘To do this!’ Spike whispered and ran his hand up her leg, under the skimpy cotton skirt she was wearing.

Buffy giggled and pushed his hand away. ‘Stop that! They’ll hear!’

Spike pulled her closer. ‘Not my fault if you scream, Slayer. I bet you can’t keep quiet for the whole time while I make love to you.’

Buffy sat up. ‘Could too. Bet you couldn’t!’

‘Try me!’

She grinned. ‘Later. Do you realise how much I’ve got to do before tomorrow evening? I still haven’t persuaded Willow to be my maid of honour. Every time I ask her, she splutters at me and runs off to hide in the garden to play with her candles. So, who’s going to be your best man?’

Spike frowned. Male friends of the acceptable variety were a little sparse on the ground. ‘I’ve got a mate called Clem,’ he said slowly. ’He’s OK. Good-hearted. A demon, not a vampire, but we get on. I’ll ask him,’ he decided.

‘Well, don’t leave it too late.’ She glanced at the clock on her dressing-table. ‘This time tomorrow, we’ll be out in the garden, the moon will be shining, there will be flowers everywhere, soft music playing and everyone - ’

‘Everyone will probably be attacking me with pointed wooden objects to stop me putting the ring on your finger.’

Buffy swung herself off the bed and looked out of the window at the little group huddled together in the back yard. ‘They‘re still there,‘ she sighed. ‘Why won’t they go away? They could be helping with the arrangements. Xander could go and collect the cake. Anya could cut the grass. Giles could just go and sulk. I’ve got to patrol in a minute and I want to have a happy killing evening. They’re spoiling everything.’

Spike got up and stood behind her, wrapping his arms round her and holding her tightly against his chest. He buried his chin in the nape of her neck and kissed her.

‘Don’t get upset, Goldilocks. Giles will come round. I’ll try talking to him again, man to man. After all, we’re both English. You’d think he’d be pleased that a fellow compatriot was marrying his Slayer.’

Buffy leant against him, loving the strength that supported her so effortlessly. This was what she needed, what the others didn’t realise. With Spike she felt secure - for the first time in her life she felt safe. And of course she loved him to bits and fancied him like mad...but then who wouldn’t. Well, to be fair, she thought as she gazed out of the window, my friends aren’t keen. My friends really don’t like him.

‘They’re prejudiced, that’s what it is,’ she said. ‘It’s because you’re a vampire. They should be ashamed. If you were black or disabled or impotent...’

‘Watch it, missy!’

‘Sorry, I meant an immigrant, then they’d be all, ‘Oh yes, that‘s a really good thing you’re doing Buffy,’ but no, they just stand around looking miserable and saying ‘Why, Why, Why,’

Down in the back yard, the Scoobies were in despair. ‘Why is this happening? I don’t understand why Mrs Summers won’t stop it?’ Xander said.

‘God knows, I’ve tried to talk to Joyce,’ Giles replied. ‘She just keeps telling me that it’s all for the best and in the long run will be the right thing to do. I don’t understand what she means and she can’t tell me. Are you sure you didn’t put a spell on her as well, Willow.’

‘Yes! I mean, no! Of course I didn’t. And anyway, all the spells have been reversed, except for - ’

‘And Anya, you tried to speak to D’Hoffryn again?’

Anya nodded brightly. ‘I tried calling him, but he‘s refusing to answer. I think he’s in a snit because Willow refused to become a vengeance demon. He’s very sensitive, you know. He may not look it to you, but he has feelings, too.’

Giles buried his head in his hands, then, ‘And you spoke to Riley, Willow?’

‘He‘s not around. Apparently after Buffy told him she was engaged, he went away for a couple of weeks. By the time he gets back it will be too late.’

‘So we’re back to square one,’ Xander groaned. ‘Tomorrow evening, Buffy and Spike are getting married.’

Giles looked round at the anxious faces. ‘And we can’t allow that to happen,’ he said firmly. ‘Right, from now on it’s war. This is a Big Bad that must not take place. Whatever happens, we have to stop this wedding!’

Two hours later, they were gathered together in Giles’s house for a council of war. The Englishman looked anxiously at Willow. ‘So you reckon you’ve found the right spell to reverse Buffy and Spike’s strange, unnatural attraction to each other?’

Willow nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes, it was in one of your very oldest books. It isn’t actually very difficult, but it needs a load of different ingredients. I’ll need a bit of time to get them altogether. Penguin eggs aren’t that plentiful in Sunnydale.’

‘Well, we‘ve got until nine tomorrow evening,’ Xander said grimly. ‘Is that enough time?’

‘I...I’m not sure,’ Willow stuttered, hating to be the one everyone was relying on. Since Oz had left, she’d reverted to a very unsure Willow.

‘It’s got to be!’ Xander replied, banging his hand on the table and making everybody jump.

Anya glared at him. Honestly, she thought, you’d have thought Xander imagined he should marry Buffy instead of Spike, the way he was carrying on, How many men did Buffy need falling at her feet? She had that nice Riley boy, already, why couldn’t she leave Xander alone?

‘So, what we need to do is split them up and keep them apart,’ said Giles. ‘As long as they’re not together, they can’t get married, can they? Right, Anya, you’re supposed to be going with Buffy to collect her dress tomorrow, aren’t you? Keep her there as long as possible and Xander and I will find a way to get Spike away from Sunnydale.’

‘Why not just get rid of him altogether,’ Xander said in disgust. ‘He’s nothing but a problem the whole time.’

‘Xander, he’s got that chip in his brain,’ Willow said. ‘It would be like putting down a dog who used to bite and now has had all his teeth extracted, if you ever do extract a dog’s teeth, because, hey, not sure about dogs’ dentistry and...’

‘Yes, yes, Willow. We get your point,’ said Giles. ‘So we won’t kill Spike - we’ll just remove him until you do the right spell. All agreed? Fine. Then that’s the plan. We’ll stop this wedding. Buffy will thank us one day.’

‘Right.’ Xander sounded happier. ‘You start working on the spell, Will, and I’ll go and keep an eye on the happy couple. If I’m there, then they can’t...won’t....well, I’ll just go and keep watch.’

Buffy, at that moment, was wandering hand in hand with her fiancé through the local graveyard. ‘One thing we haven’t sorted out,’ she murmured, gazing at him with love.

‘What’s that, pet? I thought everything was under control.’

‘The wedding, yes, and you’ve said the honeymoon will be - ’

Spike pulled her close and kissed her long and hard. ‘Exciting, sweetheart,’ he muttered, running his hands up under her sweater to cup her breasts.

Buffy gave a little moan and wriggled closer. ‘Promise?’

‘Oh yes. Have you ever....’

He bent to whisper in her ear what he was going to do to her and was delighted to see the hot colour flood up into her cheeks.

‘Spike!’ she squealed. ‘That’s...that’s rude! And impossible?’

He gave that lazy grin she loved so much. ‘I’ll teach you, pet. You’ll love it.’ He couldn’t quite believe that this gorgeous girl was going to be his alone, but he knew from the past few days that she was almost untouched sexually.

Whatever she and Angel had experienced, or the other couple of idiots who’d managed to get into her bed, it had hardly touched the deep well of passion he sensed bubbled just under the surface.

‘So what else needs to be done,’ he went on.

‘Where are we going to live? Your crypt is OK, and I could really do a lot with the downstairs part - paint it all off white, maybe, with pale primrose drapes and...’

‘Joyce said we could stay with her,’ Spike said hastily, swinging her round to sit on top of a tombstone as visions of his gothic hidey-hole being girlyfied swam before his eyes.

Buffy stared at him in astonishment. ‘Do you really want to live with your mother-in-law? I mean, what about, well... privacy... and things?’

Spike grinned and nuzzled his mouth against her neck. He hated the scar that marred it and wished he could dig his own teeth into the tender skin and put his own mark on her.
‘Well, sweetheart, unless you want to run naked through the house at odd hours, screaming, ‘take me, Spike, take me now!’ I reckon we’ll be OK.’

Buffy punched him in the ribs and felt a sweet satisfaction as she heard the air that he didn’t need, escape from his lungs in a grunt. ‘I suppose it will be more convenient and we can make my room really cosy for you during the day.’

‘I’ll get a TV just for us,’ Spike agreed and they cuddled together in companionable silence, both savouring the vision of a future together. ‘Buffy,’ Spike murmured a few minutes later.

‘Ummmm.’ She was twirling one of his blond curls round and round her finger, loving the feel of it on her skin. He must have curls everywhere, she thought, suddenly and buried her face harder against his shoulder to hide the flood of red that rushed through her.

How on earth had she become so besotted with this man so quickly, she wondered. She vaguely remembered a time, oh, days ago, now, when she violently hated him.
Maybe I was under a spell, she thought dreamily. Yes, that was what it was, a spell to make me hate my lover. I wonder who cast it? Thank goodness it’s been broken. I could never, ever live without Spike.

‘Buffy...’ Spike repeated. ‘Why is the boy lurking behind that tree, pretending he can’t be seen? Is it some sort of game?’

She raised her head and looked across at where Xander’s shoulder and arm were in plain view. ‘I’ve no idea. Oh yes!’ she said with a giggle. ‘I know. He’s come to collect you for your stag night!’

‘What?’

‘You know, where all you men go out and get very drunk and there are strippers and....Spike, don’t go with him!’

He tightened his arm around her waist and grinned. ‘Sounds fun, but with Xander and Giles? Bloody hell, I’d end up carrying them home and having to fight off every demon in Sunnydale who wanted to take a bite out of their dainty arses.’

‘Xander!’ Buffy yelled. ‘We can see you. Come out of there. What’s going on?’

‘Ah...hey, Buffy, Spike...just passing by and....Giles said.....’ Embarrassed, he shuffled towards them, gazing at the ‘get a roominess’ of their body language, angry, jealous, bewildered by what was happening.

They jumped down from the tombstone towards him - there was a long sizzling sound..... Phuttzzz!!!....and a flash of orange and purple almost blinded him. Blinking, he rubbed his eyes and stared. ‘What the heck!’ He was gazing at an empty tombstone. Buffy and Spike had disappeared.

to be continued


















 
 
Chapter #2 - Chp 2 Just Come Home
 
With This Ring... by Lilachigh

Chapter 2 Just Come Home

“But Xander, they couldn’t have just vanished!“ Giles was sounding thoroughly exasperated. He was polishing his glasses so hard, the others were afraid the lens would fall out.

“Giles, believe me - not a joke - in the cemetery, watching them, then big flash, all orangey-purpley with fizzing sound effects and then poof, they’d gone.”

Xander had stumbled back from the to Giles’ house to tell a horrified Scoobie gang what had happened. Willow’s face was whiter than pale. “It must have been some reaction to the last spell. Maybe it was too soon to mix it with the first one. I thought it seemed a bit unstable towards the end. Maybe one of the penguin eggs was bad. It can happen. They don’t travel well.”

Giles was almost tearing out his hair in exasperation. “But where have they gone? Was it a time warp of some sort? Have you sent them, I don’t know, back a couple of centuries, perhaps?”

Willow shook her head doubtfully. “I don’t think so. I wasn’t moving time at all; you know I can’t do that yet, Giles. This was just a spell to make them dislike each other again. Wipe the slate clean of the getting-all-cosy effect and bring them back to what they ought to feel for each other. But something’s gone wrong, obviously.”

“So what do you do to get them back?” Anya asked. “I’ve had a lot of experience of these sorts of spells. They always have nasty consequences if you’re not very careful. You might have turned Buffy into a fish, or a toad, or something slimy.” She went very pale. “Oh no, you might have turned Spike into a bunny. You didn’t see any white haired, blue eyed bunnies in the graveyard, did you Xander?”

“No, Ahn, no bunnies, no toads, no fish. Nothing. Nought. De nada. Just a great big empty nothing.”

Willow jumped to her feet. “I’ll hit the books again. What we need is a locator spell. If I can see where they are, I can probably open a portal and then work out how to get them back.”

Giles’s face was grim. “I just hope you can, Willow. I keep telling you how dangerous it is to play around with witchcraft when you’re not very experienced. I just hope
Buffy is OK. And Spike, too, I suppose, although I must admit, if he’s lost in the past, he’ll feel quite at home! He might want to stat there.”

“Oh, no,Spike has to come back, too. He went with Buffy; I don’t think I can bring one back without the other.”

Xander looked gloomy. “Well, Giles, there is a bright side to all of this. At least we don’t have to worry about them getting married! Let’s just wait until Willow magics them back. And let’s hope that wherever they are, they’re not in any danger.”

* * * * *

Buffy came downstairs in her pyjamas, yawning widely, her blonde hair tousled, tied back loosely in a ponytail. She stretched luxuriously as she came into the kitchen. She was tired. Well, it had been quite a night! She vaguely wondered if it had all been a dream, but then she remembered quite clearly the marks she’d spotted on her body when she woke and knew that it had been no dream.

She poured herself a glass of juice and perched on a stool, wondering what to do with the rest of her day. Suddenly there was a loud sizzling noise and a bright purple and orange flash and Willow appeared in the kitchen, her face screwed up, eyes shut.

As the sizzling stopped, she opened her eyes, saw Buffy and gasped. “Buffy! I’ve found you! Where have you been? Oh, it’s your kitchen. You mean you’ve been here all the time? I just sent you home? ”

Buffy’s lips twitched. When her friend went into rant mode, nothing made a lot of sense. “Will. Slow down. Yes, my kitchen. My home where I have been in bed all night. And why are you transporting when you could just walk down the road or pick up the phone and speak to me?”

“We couldn’t find you, Buffy. We were so scared. Well, I was scared. Xander is just upset because he saw you go and Giles is angry, in that dreadfully British, stiff-upper-lippy way he has.“

Buffy stared at her as if she’d grown two heads. “Willow, have any of Oz’s weird friends been giving you anything odd to eat or drink? You haven’t tried any peculiar looking cigarettes, have you? You’re out of it.“

“Oz?“ Willow’s voice trembled. “That’s mean, Buffy. You know Oz has gone. ”

“Oz has gone? Gone where? He was sitting in your family room playing his guitar yesterday. He didn’t say anything about going anywhere.”

“Buffy, what are you talking about. Oz left Sunnydale because of the wolfy business. You know he did. And what family room?“

Buffy was beginning to get irritated. “Look, Will. Is this some sort of game, because if it is, then I don’t know the rules. Oz has never left Sunnydale. And never owned a wolf, as far as I know. You and Oz are engaged, living together in your parents’ house while they’re touring Europe.”

Willow sat down abruptly, as if her legs wouldn’t hold her up. “Buffy, it isn’t true. I’m not engaged to Oz. He left town. And he’s a werewolf. I think...Buffy, in my world - that is our world - I did a spell because I was unhappy that Oz had left me. Then I reversed it, but it didn’t work and I think I must have sent you into an alternative reality. But it isn’t too late. I’ve done a spell to open a portal. You come through it with me, then I can just do the reverse magic and this reality will disappear and things will be back as they ought to be. All we need to do is find Spike and take him with us, because, well, he was there when I did the spell in the first place...and you do know where he is, don’t you?”

“Someone talking about me?”

Willow spun round. Lounging in the doorway, wearing tight dark jeans and a red shirt open to the waist stood Spike. His hair wasn’t gelled back as normal, but rioted over his head in tight blond curls. Bare-footed and yawning, he looked as if he‘d just rolled out of bed.

To Willow’s horrified astonishment, Buffy walked across and wrapped her arms round the vampire. “Sweetheart, Will’s got the weirdest ideas about alternative reality thingies and Oz being a werewolf. Can you understand what she’s talking about?”

Spike dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Doubt it, pet, never can on a good day, but after last night – ” He gave her a slow, lascivious smile and Willow felt she should glance away, because this was an emotion that wasn’t for a third party to witness.

Oh god, no, she thought. In this reality, Buffy and Spike were still in love. She had to get them back and fast. “Buffy, you both have to come with me. You don’t love each other, not really. It’s all down to a spell I did – ”

“Not love each other? That’s an odd thing to say about a husband and wife,” Buffy broke in.

“H-husband and - what?”

“Wife. You know, trouble and strife, the old lady, the old Dutch, the old chain and ball, whichever saying you like,” Spike drawled, sounding very English.

“You’re married?” Willow’s voice hurtled up several scales to an unbearable squeak.

“Will, this is getting silly. Of course we’re married. It was magical. Midnight under an arch of white roses. You were there, you and Oz and all the Scoobies. You wore your green and brown outfit and Oz and Xander were ushers. Xander got very drunk, as usual - we’re going to have to do something about his drinking, you know - and Giles gave me away and Mum caught my bouquet when I threw it and got all giggly about it. You can’t have forgotten the wedding!”

“Buffy, there hasn’t been a wedding,“ the witch whispered. “Not in my reality.”

Spike pulled Buffy closer still and nuzzled her neck. “Seems like a damn boring one to me, Red. Can’t be any better than what we’ve got here.”

“What about Riley?”

Buffy looked puzzled. “You mean Riley Finn, the psych guy at college? He left to join the Marines. You know he did. There was a big party and a load of demons invaded the room and we had a marvellous fight. Remember?”

Willow shook her head. “Buffy, none of this is true. You’re not married to Spike. You hate him. He’s your arch enemy. This is not how things ought to be.”

The Slayer reached up and ran a finger across her husband’s lips. He sucked it into his mouth and she giggled, remembering.... “It all seems very true to me. How can I not be married to the man I love?”

“So, are you saying you won’t come back? I can’t dissolve this reality unless you do.“

“Look, as far as I know, my Willow is a quarter of a mile away, in bed with her fiancé. We’re going shopping later today, to the Bronze tonight, then Spike and I are going to patrol until very late. Then supper and bed. Lots of lovely bed. A good day all round. Why would I trade that for a place where you say Spike and I hate each other?”

And as Willow watched them, entwined, their bodies melting together, she knew she would never win. And for a long moment she wondered about her other self, living with Oz, being happy. All that would vanish at her command.

“But what about your Mom,” she said at last. “She’ll be frantic when you don’t come home.”

Buffy hesitated as if she didn’t know what to say, then, suddenly, the strange sizzling noise started again and little purple and orange flashes began slanting through the kitchen.

“It’s the spell working, taking me back,” Willow cried. “Buffy, please come home. Look, I’ll leave the portal open for another hour, but that’s all I can manage. Then it will be too late. Just - come - home - ”

And with a brighter orange flash, she’d gone.


There was a long silence in the kitchen, then – “Do you reckon she bought it?” Spike pushed his bare foot against the small orange and purple flashing circle on the kitchen floor. “Hey, look, it‘s all squidgy!”

“Squidgy? There’s no such word! And don’t play around with portals from one dimension to another. You might get sucked through against your will.”

Spike raised his eyebrows but nodded and swung himself up to sit on the table. “So, I’ll ask again, luv. Did Willow believe we are just duplicates, living in this world, not knowing about her universe? Did she believe we were married?”

Buffy sighed and leant against his legs. “I don’t know. I thought our acting was pretty damn hot. Oscar type material. I wasn’t expecting her to arrive here so soon; I thought we‘d have, oh I don‘t know, a couple more days to....well, to...”

“Make mad passionate love all over this Sunnydale?” Spike asked hopefully and lobed a little cheese cracker through the portal.

“I said don’t do that!“ Buffy snapped. When they‘d found themselves transported to a parallel world, she’d freaked out for a while. She’d been desperate to get home.

But then, that first night, Spike had come to her room and - she felt her face flood with colour as she remembered what they’d done to each other - how they’d felt - what they’d said - well, in comparison the other Sunnydale seemed a hard, cruel place, one she didn’t want to remember. And here, strangely, their friends were quite comfortable that they were lovers. The Slayer and a vampire. No biggie.

“WillowTwo explained it pretty well,” Buffy said. “This universe was made when the second spell was cast. Time moves faster here, apparently. We have a week to their day.”

Spike grunted. “It bloody well turns my brain inside out. Two universes, two Xanders, two Willows. Hey, what about your Watcher in this world? We haven’t seen him since we got here.”

“He’s in England, apparently,” Buffy said. “Thank goodness. It’s one less person to worry about.”

“WillOne said she could only hold the portal open for an hour,” Spike said. “But WillTwo says she can hold it open indefinitely. Is she stronger in this reality?”

Buffy nodded and rubbed her head against his arm like a little blonde cat who needed to be stroked. “Yes, much. But then because time goes by so much faster here, she’s had months more practice.”

“Wish between them they’d put the portal somewhere less obvious than the kitchen floor,” grumbled Spike. “You’d think they could have put it in the spare bedroom, or the garage. What the hell do we tell people it is?”

“I don’t think anyone except Willow can see it,“ Buffy said thoughtfully and regretfully pulled herself away from him and his wandering hands to make some hot chocolate. “I’ll put a bucket on top of it so no one can fall in! And it’ll stop you chucking bits at it as if it’s a dustbin! Just think, all those crackers and candies are arriving unannounced in the other Sunnydale!”

Spike watched her. He loved looking at her; she was so graceful, even when doing something as prosaic as making a drink. Bloody hell, this was one of the weirdest situations he’d ever found himself in since Dru had turned him all those years ago.
He had a memory of hating the Slayer, knew somewhere in his head that he should want to kill her, must kill her. It was what he did. But he had the chip thingy in his brain, so couldn’t hurt anyone.

So, one minute, hating, then the next so deeply in love, he couldn’t even begin to put his feelings into words. They were engaged, about to be married, everyone hated it, except them, then bam! - they were here, in a Sunnydale they both knew wasn’t theirs.

Same house, but this Joyce was living with her sister, Xander was drinking too much, and Oz was still with Willow. And he and Buffy? He felt the silly smile he couldn’t shake off begin to form on his mouth again. Last night had been - well, fantastic was a very over used word, but bloody hell, it had been the best night of his life. He ached in places he didn’t know he had places.

The Slayer was amazing in bed; so innocent in lots of ways - oh god, what he could teach her! - so passionate in others. Like a little animal when she came, screaming his name, begging him not to stop, her head arched back, her legs wrapped so tightly round his waist that he was sure he’d got a couple of cracked ribs this morning! Yes, in this world they were together, in every possible way.

A knock at the back door heralded WillTwo’s arrival and Spike casually pulled a towel across his lap. There was no need to show anyone else how aroused he was!

“I stayed away as long as I could,” the red-headed witch said breathlessly. “But Oz is still asleep and I got bored just sitting waiting. Did I - I mean - me - I mean other Willow come through?“

“Yes, just as you thought she would, Red,“ Spike said. “Have you told Oz about all this?”

WillTwo shook her head. “No, it’s so odd. How can I tell him that in an alternative universe he’s left me because he’s a werewolf! Even I don’t fully understand it.”

“Do we tell the boy any of this?” Spike drawled, pushing the little marshmallows he liked round his mug of chocolate.

Buffy frowned. “Spike, XanOne knows already, remember. But XanTwo, he’s - well - he’s different here.”

“You mean he’s permanently sloshed, sweetheart!”

Buffy bit her lip. “Well, he does enjoy the odd drink of beer, and yes, perhaps he does have too much, but hey, we’ve all been down that road! I went BC in a big way, remember?’

WillTwo pulled a face. “Buffy, Spike‘s right. We’ve always known Xander had a drinking problem. There’s no use in shutting our eyes to it. How could he avoid it with parents like his? They used to give him beer to drink at every meal - even when we were at nursery school!”

Buffy bit her lip. Even WillTwo didn’t really get it. There had been no nursery school, no parents, no beery Xander. This world hadn’t even existed until WillOne had cast her spell that had gone so very wrong. Or, of course, so very right, depending on your point of view! And remembering what she and Spike had been doing all night long in the privacy of her bedroom, there was no real contest as to which was right and which was wrong.

“XanOne avoided it,” Buffy said softly, catching Spike’s eye and shaking her head slightly. It was so difficult to remember not to compare the two worlds.

As soon as they’d arrived in this Sunnydale, they’d made a pact not to talk about their friends and family, except to WillTwo. But it was hard. WillTwo was very good and tried hard not to ask too many questions, but she’d been horrified to learn what her counterpart’s life was like. It had made her extra affectionate towards Oz, who’d been quite bewildered by this show of love from his girlfriend.

“You haven’t told me yet what you’ve decided?” WillTwo said, changing the subject. “Are you staying or going?”

Buffy turned away and gazed out of the window. She could feel the tension rising from her lover and knew Spike was waiting for her to speak as well. “The problem is my mom,” she said, fighting back tears. “Here in this world, she’s away living with my aunt, she doesn’t know anything about our lives here in Sunnydale. I ring her every week, but we’re not that close. But in the other world, she’s there for me all the time. I know she’d be desperately upset if I vanished completely. I can’t do that to her. I thought I could. I thought that if she knew I was happy, she would be too. But I was wrong. And I’m the Slayer in both worlds, too, don’t forget. And in that world there’s far more demon activity than there is here. I’m needed all the time.”

“So you’re going?” WillTwo said sadly.

Buffy spun round and reached out to Spike. He immediately pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “We have to,” she said, gazing into his bright blue eyes. “You do see that, don’t you, sweetheart.”

Spike buried his lips in her tangled hair. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt like this. In all his years with Drusilla, he’d never been this happy, this satisfied. He would have cheerfully stayed in this world, with her, but if she was going to be unhappy then there was no choice.

“I take it when we go back, we’ll be enemies again,” he growled. “You’ll still fancy that Riley wanker and the Initiative will still be on our backs. That really gives me something to look forward to.“

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Will we remember this world at all, Slayer?”

Buffy looked questioningly at WillTwo who frowned. “I don‘t see why you shouldn’t,” she said. “I imagine it will seem like a dream.”

“So when do we go?” Spike asked quietly, lighting a cigarette and then stubbing it out with a puzzled frown when he realised he apparently didn’t like smoking in this world.

Buffy hesitated. She had a feeling that whatever WillTwo said, once the portal was shut, they wouldn’t remember anything. She gazed at Spike, the platinum curls, the slash of cheekbones that had grazed against her thighs so often last night. Oh god, she wanted him so badly. She could feel herself growing wet just looking at him. He could make her come just by one flick of a finger on her clit. She could feel her breathing growing ragged at the memory. If WillTwo hadn’t been there, she knew she would have pulled him down on the kitchen floor and begged him to fuck her.

How could that change? It was impossible to believe that in a few seconds she could be hating him, wishing he was dead. “I think....I think we’ll go back tomorrow,” she said at last. She looked up to find Spike gazing at her. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip and she felt the heat pour up and over her body.

Yes, she was going to have one more day and one more night with her vampire lover. And if that was wrong, then for once, that was what she was going to be.

to be continued























 
 
Chapter #3 - Chp 3 Three Little Words
 
With This Ring....by Lilachigh


chapt. 3 Three Little Words


Buffy woke the next morning and refused to open her eyes. She used to play this game when she was little: if I don’t open my eyes, it won’t be time to get up, I won’t have to go to school and I can stay all warm and cozy in bed. If I don’t open my eyes, Mom won’t know I’m here at all. I’m hiding!

Yes, she was hiding! If she didn’t wake up, she would have to stay here in bed with Spike and not go back to a world where she hated him and he loathed her.

“I know you’re awake, pet. Your breathing’s changed tempo.”

“Did I ever tell you how much I detest a vampire’s weird increased hearing ability,” she grumped, still keeping her eyes clenched tightly shut. “There’s something bizarre about having ears that can hear sounds like a bat and a nose that can – ”

The said nose was pushed into the soft curls between her legs and she squealed and her eyes flashed open. “Unfair!” she said. “Cheat!”

“What can I say, Slayer,” he murmured, rolling completely on top of her, “I’ve always been bad.”

She stared up into the dancing blue eyes above her. Somehow in this world she doubted the truthfulness of that last remark. Back in the other Sunnydale, she had no problem with Spike being a long term evil being, but here it was different.

Buffy sighed and his expression changed immediately from smirk to frown. It was amazing how quickly he picked up her mood swing. “You still worried about going back today?”

She bit her lip and nodded. “I know we’ve got to go, but I’m finding it hard to leave here.”

“After last night, I must admit a future of you kicking my arse all round town and punching me on the nose whenever you see me does seem less than enjoyable.”

“Last night was - ” she stopped, colour flooding into her cheeks. Last night had been wonderful, wild, wayout and wanton. She hadn’t known she could behave like that.

At one point Spike had pulled her across his lap. He’d insisted on still wearing his jeans and T-shirt but - heaven knows why it was so sexy but it was - he’d stripped her stark naked and the rough denim had scratched at her nipples.

She’d lain there, hair swinging down to the floor, as he fondled her breasts with one hand and stroked her bottom, gently, over and over again, lulling her into relaxing, purring, until suddenly he’d spanked her, once, twice, hard enough to sting. And before she could even squeal, his fingers had been inside her and she’d come so hard she thought her head was going to explode as it thrashed from side to side.

Spike swung himself off the bed and grinned down at her. “We can play all those games again when we get home, Slayer. And more, lots more, I can teach you.”

Buffy headed for the shower. Sometimes she hated it when he called her that. It made her remember just what she had to give up in life. “Spike, you’re forgetting we hate each other back in the other Sunnydale. There won’t be any more games, any more - anything.”

If she’d looked over her shoulder at that moment she might have hesitated, might have been worried. Spike had a look on his face that she knew only too well in both worlds. It was the fatal expression that said, “I’ve had a bloody brilliant idea and I’m going to put it into practice without any thought of any problems that might arise.”

When she came out of the shower, he’d gone. She padded downstairs, rubbing her hair dry. There was a note on the work top. ‘Gone out. Back later. Don’t go without me!’

Buffy frowned. She’d wanted to spend every second of every minute with him before they stepped through the flickering purple and orange circle in the corner of the kitchen that would transport them to their original universe. She thought he’d wanted the same, but obviously not.

She poured herself some juice and stared at the upturned bucket on the kitchen floor. It looked so stupid there. A bright red bucket - but underneath she knew was the portal that led back to her other life. And whether she liked it or not, she and Spike were going to go through it later that day.

Where on earth was he? “Stupid vampire. He makes me so mad sometimes! No, rephrase that. He makes me so mad all the time!” she muttered. “If he can write a note, why not say where he was going.” It was interesting to discover that he could annoy her just as much in this reality as he did in the other.

A knock at the back door made her spin round, a smile lighting up her face, but it was XanTwo who came in. Even at this early hour she could smell he’d been drinking.

“Hey, Buff. Good to shtee you. You’re looking great.”

“Hi, Xander. Coffee?”

He half fell into a chair at the kitchen table and lay with his dark head pillowed on his arms. She stared down at him, pity, affection and irritation fighting to become uppermost in her mind. “Yup, I reckon coffee’s pretty much on your immediate menu!”

This Xander didn’t seem to have the willpower that XanOne did. He’d been unable to pull away from his dreadful parents and in this world there was no Anya to be his girlfriend and boost his self confidence.

Buffy made him an extra strong cup of coffee and watched as he drank it, the caffeine beginning to work on his system.

“Thanks, Buffy, you’re a life-saver. What would I do without you? Hey, where’s Spike? I want to know if he fancies a game of pool tonight, down at the Bronze. He beat me last time and I will have my revenge! Ha. Ha. Ha!”

Buffy turned away, muttering something about being not sure what their plans were for the evening. In this world Xander and Spike were friends. She tried to imagine XanOne asking Spike out for a beer and failed.

“Hey, I met a really nice girl last night,” XanTwo said, cheerfully buttering himself some toast. “Think I might have made the right sort of impression. She certainly knows a lot about some weird things. I don’t think the Slayer thing will worry her.”

Buffy laughed. “Anya certainly won’t find it difficult to understand.”

“Anya?” XanTwo sounded puzzled. “No, her name‘s Tara. She’s a wiccan girl. Long amber hair and beautiful skin. A creamy sort of girl. You’ll love her. I really think she could be the one, Buff.”

“I’m sure I’ll love her,” Buffy said. “If you do, then I will, too. Are you certain her name’s not Anya?”

“No, I mean yes. Tara.”

“Oh.”

“I’m going to ask Willow and Oz to come out for a pizza with us. Why don’t you and Spike make it a sixer?”

“I’ve just said, I’m not sure what our plans are for - ”

“Sorry, mate. We’re going to be busy.” It was Spike, standing in the doorway, tossing aside the blanket he’d draped over his head.

“Oh, pity, well, I’d better get going. There might be a job going on the building site for the new college. Can but try. I can carry bricks with the best of them. See you guys.”

“Take care of yourself.” Buffy reached up to give him a hug. XanTwo looked at her in surprise.

“Wow. That was very nice. What have I done to deserve that?”

Buffy laughed shakily. How could she tell this lovable idiot that in a few minutes time, she and Spike would be gone and all memories of her would cease in his mind.

When he’d left, Buffy whirled round on her lover. “Where on earth have you been? I thought we were going to spend all day together - before we have to – ”

“Don’t loose your temper, Goldilocks! I’ve got a surprise for you. One last thing to do here before we go.”

Buffy looked at him suspiciously, but although his eyes were twinkling, he seemed serious. “Go and get dressed.”

“Hey, standing right here wearing clothes!” she mocked. “Know that’s not how you usually want me, but – ”

“Put on a dress!” he said firmly, pushing her towards the stairs. “That blue effort with the little straps. I like that one.”

Buffy stared at him. “Where are we going?”

The blue eyes grew dark and for a second the tough, hard bitten man she knew back in the other Sunnydale looked out at her. “You say we might not remember all this?”

“I don’t know, Spike. You might, or I might. Or we both could. Neither Willow could tell us. Once the spell is broken, all I know is that you’ll hate me and I’ll – ” she tried to say the words, but they wouldn’t come. “I’ll hate you.” Three little words, but impossible for her to speak them. Because they were just impossible to believe.

Spike looked down at his boots, then up again, his gaze searching her face with a burning intensity. “Buffy, I’ve done a lot of dreadful things in my life, never had anything in it that was worth much. I loved Dru for years, I know that. Angel and Darla were my family. But you - me - I want....it’s so different.”

Buffy reached out her hands and placed them in his. His grasp tightened so much that she knew any other girl would have screamed as her bones broke. “What do you want, Spike?” she whispered.

“I want us to belong to each other!”

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥

Two hours later, Buffy stood in the kitchen again, hand in hand with Spike, staring down at the small flickering flames that surrounded the portal back to the other Sunnydale. The time had finally come. And she couldn’t bear it. She wanted to stay, stay, stay. Oh God, she would give anything, do anything, but - “Ready?” she whispered.

He pulled her tightly against his chest and ran his hand tenderly down her cheek, wiping away the tears as he went. “No crying,” he ordered. “This is the happiest day of your life, remember?”

She tilted her head back for his kiss. If he could be brave, then so could she. She would take his courage and build on it.

“Let’s give them something to worry about as we arrive, pet,’” he said.

She smiled wickedly and felt in her pocket. There was the crackle of paper. It was safe - a certificate of marriage between Elizabeth and William. Now, just as Spike had wanted, just as he had arranged so hurriedly, they belonged to each other.

“And let no man put asunder,” Spike said savagely and his tongue plundered her mouth as they jumped into the flaming portal.

to be continued




 
 
Chapter #4 - Chp 4 Across the Darkness
 
With This Ring - by Lilachigh

Chp.4 Across the Darkness



The Sunnydale graveyard was dark and quiet at three in the morning. A couple of newly risen vampires had dragged themselves out of their graves earlier and staggered off into the night, puzzled and confused by what had happened to them, but now all was silent.

A tiny sliver of moon cut the dark sky but gave no light to the grassy mounds and moss encrusted tombstones. Suddenly, a bright orange and purple circle appeared behind one of the tombstones and with a hissing flash, a couple, kissing deeply, passionately, fell through it and rolled onto the grass.

At last a platinum blond head was lifted and Spike gazed round. ‘We’re back, pet,’ he said drearily.

Buffy kept her hands clasped tightly behind his back. ‘I don’t want to know.’

‘Hey, denial girl, I’m with you on this one, but don’t think we’ve got much option, luv. This is what we planned. You’re the Slayer and you’re needed here.’

Buffy pressed her whole body against his, revelling in the feel of it, hard where she was soft. How could she give this up. It wasn’t fair. ‘I resign,’ she muttered, burying her face in his neck.

Spike ran his hands over her body. He knew it would the last time, probably for ever, that he would get to touch her like this. He had no illusions about the future. He knew that once Willow got her spells right, he’d be back to being the despised ex big bad, chipped by the military and unable to do much to anyone. Buffy wouldn’t let him so much as touch her foot once that happened.

So for a few more long minutes he could hold her, smell her hair, the scent of her skin, the musk of her arousal triggering all his emotions once again.

Then he lifted his head, his acute vampire hearing a blessing and a curse. ‘We’ve no time left, sweetheart. Judging by their famous impression of a herd of wild elephants, I can hear your Watcher, Red and Xander coming across the cemetery. They must have heard the portal open.‘

Buffy reluctantly let him go and stood up. She pushed her hand into the pocket of her jeans where her wedding certificate still lay. She remembered the little chapel Spike had found in the other Sunnydale, the elderly clergyman who’d agreed to do the ceremony. There had been white flowers everywhere - lilies, roses, gardenias - a forest of white candles, and WillTwo and XanTwo, the witnesses, puzzled at attending their wedding again, but only too happy for them to be married in both worlds.

The words, so old but still so true, rang in her mind. ‘For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health...till death do you part.’

She could still see in her mind the candlelight reflecting in the vampire’s blazing blue eyes, feel the pressure of his hand as he slipped one of his rings on her finger. Her lips still ached from his kiss - her husband - her life.

And now -

‘Buffy! Are you there? Buffy, answer us?’ It was Giles.

Without thinking, she pulled Spike down behind a large gravestone so they couldn’t be seen. ‘They’re going to do the rest of the spell to make us go back to what it was like before - hating each other again,’ she said in despair. ‘We’re going to forget all about this, aren’t we, about being married, about the other Sunnydale.’

Spike stroked her hair. ‘I’ll go back to being your enemy, even if I have got this rotten chip in my head, and you’ll go back to college and your boyfriend. That’s the way it’s meant to be in this universe, Buffy. You know that.

‘You’re the Slayer and you’re needed here. I’ve no idea what I’m needed for. Except to annoy the hell out of Xander, I suppose! But, listen to me,’ - his voice became deeper, more urgent, ‘ I’ve lived for a hell of a long time, and I’ve seen all kind of weird and wonderful things.’

He put a finger under her chin and tilted her face up to the starlit sky. ‘Believe me, Slayer. We’re meant to be together. In your heart, in your soul, you know it and so do I. True, I might not have a soul, but I feel it with every sinew, every nerve in my body. Maybe not now, maybe not even soon, but one day, believe me, in this Sunnydale not just the other, you’ll tell me you love me.’

‘But we’re married, Spike. How can I go on seeing Riley. What happens - ’ she faltered to a stop, almost unable to put the next words into a sentence, the pain was so great. ‘What happens if one day someone else asks me to marry them? I’m your wife, Spike! It doesn’t matter which universe I’m in, I’ll always be your wife.’

Spike pulled her closer still until their bodies merged into one. ‘I’ve no idea what’s going to happen to us, Slayer. But I do know this - even if they make me forget what’s happened, I’ll never hurt you and I’ll always be there if you need me.’

Buffy reached up, running her fingers through the mussed up curls and kissed him passionately. ‘And even if I don‘t remember, I promise you this, William - I’ll never marry anyone else, I’ll never hurt you and you’ll always be in my heart.’

She could hear her friends getting closer and knew their time together was nearly up. She held up her hand and Spike, without a word, gently pulled off his ring from her finger. He started to put it in his pocket, but Buffy stopped him and, kissing it, slipped her wedding ring down inside her bra, next to her heart.

With a gasp, she stood up, knowing if she didn’t move now, she would never let him go. She could hear Giles and Willow shouting, hugging her, explaining about the spell, how great it was to have her back, Xander was telling Spike in exasperated tones to ‘let go of Buffy’s hand, bleach boy,’ and she felt a great sense of bereavement as they pulled her away from him.

They were laughing, crying and Willow began chanting yet another spell. And Buffy knew exactly what this one was for - it was the one that would part them for ever.

Desperately, she turned to look for him; he’d already moved away and was standing a little way off in the shadow of a crypt. Even as the world shimmered magically around her, she saw him lift his hand to his mouth and blow her a kiss goodbye across the darkness.

But as life in this Sunnydale swung back to normal, behind the nearby moss encrusted gravestone, the tiny orange and purple portal to the other place flickered once, twice, trying to close - but it remained open!

* * * * * *

Sunnydale Cemetery lay dark and peaceful. A thin sliver of moon sailed high amongst wide clouds that blew on a strong wind. The gusts scurried up the grassy paths, whirled round the tombstones and set odd pieces of paper flying into the air.

Behind a tall tombstone that backed up to the wall of a crypt, ten months growth of weeds and mud and rubbish jammed into the space began to quiver and glow and finally, with a sparkle of orange and purple, a portal widened and a figure stepped hesitantly through.

It was a slight young man with short reddish hair wearing a green T-shirt with a picture of a monkey printed on it. He stood, gazing around curiously, then hoisted himself up onto a flat gravestone and sat waiting, whistling softly.

An hour later he fell silent as two other figures appeared. A girl in denim was walking down one of the paths, a wooden stake in one hand. Walking backwards in front of her, a slim, blond man wearing a long black leather coat.

“OK, Slayer, so let-me-Count-the ways-I-can show-off-Dracula has gone flying off into the night again. Still without paying me back the eleven quid he owes me! Why doesn’t that surprise me. Couldn’t you have asked him for the cash before he went? “

“Get out of my way, Spike. I’m working.”

“And I’m not? Annoying you is my work - and bloody hard it is, too. You’ve no idea how much energy it takes to - ”

“Spike - what will it take to make you shut your mouth for five minutes?”

The vampire halted, causing the girl to stop as well. A dark scarred eyebrow lifted and a smile flashed. “Well, I can think of one way to stop me talking, luv. Want to try?”

“Oh gross, Spike. Just crawl back inside your crypt and watch something inane on that TV of yours. And, by the way, where are you getting the electricity to run it?”

Spike sighed. “Cables, sweetheart. They run underground everywhere. I haven’t lived all these years and not be able to get plugged into the plumbing and electrics where I live. Buffy? Buffy, are you listening to me, Slayer?”

Buffy was staring over his shoulder, her mouth open in astonishment. “Oz? Oz! Is that you.”

The figure on the tombstone jumped down and wandered up to them. “Hi, Buffy. Spike.”

“Oz! You’re back again!” Buffy threw her arms round him and hugged him, then she glanced anxiously up at the moon. “Are you OK? This isn’t one of your wolfy nights, is it?”

He stared at her puzzled. “Wolfy? Not sure what you mean, Buffy. Listen, I’ve been sent by Willow.”

“Will knows you’re back? She never said. When did you get here?”

“An hour ago. Buffy, I’m from the other Sunnydale. I’m the one you call OzTwo.”

“I think he’s flipped his lid, Slayer,” Spike said, leaning against the crypt wall and lighting a cigarette. “It’s all that running around covered in fur in all weathers. It’s bound to make you go crazy after a few months.”

OzT stared at them, understanding dawning on his face. “You don’t remember, do you? Neither of you remember.”

“Remember what?”

“Look, if you and dog boy are going to have long boring chats, can you at least go home and have them,” Spike said. “I’ve got things to do.”

OzT turned and looked at him with enough affection to make Spike step back a pace. “No, Spike, sorry, man, this sort of concerns you as well.” He walked away, behind a huge tombstone and, puzzled, the Slayer and Spike followed, keeping a good distance from each other.

“Bloody hell!”

“What on earth is that?” Buffy stared down at the purple and orange flames dancing in a circle on the ground. “No, never mind. I know a portal when I see one. Oz, what the heck’s going on?”

OzT stared at them. “OK. Short version. Through that ring of fire there’s another Sunnydale. Life’s roughly the same as here,so I’m told. Few differences. Will and me are living together. I’m not a werewolf, which apparently I am here. Giles works in England and only visits occasionally. Your mum lives with her sister - and you - ”

He stopped and stared Buffy. She stared back, in appalled fascination. “What about me?”

“Well, you’re still the Slayer but - you’re married to Spike!”

“Whaaat!” Spike roared, flashing into game face.

“Eeewwww, Oz, don’t be so revolting. That’s ridiculous. As if I would ever marry Spike.” She turned towards the portal, so Oz couldn’t see the flush on her cheeks.

As he’d spoken those words, a flash of hidden, buried memory had burnt its way across her mind. A pair of dirty jeans, thrown in the back of her closet. She never washed them.

Once, shortly after they’d all been struck dumb by the Gentlemen, she’d gone through the pockets in readiness for the laundry and found a silly joke piece of paper, probably put there by Xander.

Because she couldn’t speak, she hadn’t been able to yell at him about it and in the months that had since passed, all the trouble with Faith and Jonathan, her relationship with Riley, she’d pushed it out of her mind.

The piece of paper had pretended to be her marriage certificate to Spike.

Now another memory hit her with all the force of a lightning strike. It was her bedroom, but the furnishings and curtains were different. There was a bed with royal blue sheets, a brass bedstead and her hands were tied with silk scarves above her head to the corner posts.

Her bottom was lifting off the bed as she arched into the air, but her legs were free - free to wrap themselves tightly round someone‘s waist while he drove her on and on into an enormous, mind bending climax . But what she was feeling wasn’t just desire, lust, she knew she loved this man, deeply, passionately.

And as the veil of her memory tore a little more, she could see the face above hers, the blazing blue eyes, the mouth about to descend once more to her breast. And the face was Spike’s.

She sank to the ground only too aware that she was wet between the thighs. “Oh-my-god!” she whimpered. “Oh-my-god!”

Spike stared down at her, his eyes fading from gold to blue. He reached out with the toe of his boot and kicked at the portal’s flames. One of them wrapped itself round his foot like a snake and as memories returned, he froze -

…..It was nearly dawn, he could tell from the light outside the curtained windows, the dark blue sheets were rumpled, tangled round his naked body, the whole room smelt of sex and arousal and passion.

He was holding a small, slender naked woman tightly in his arms. Her blonde hair was splayed across his chest, one of her hands was still clasped possessively round his balls in her sleep. He could feel the bite marks she’d inflicted, feel that utter relaxation of every muscle that only came when you were completely and utterly shagged out of your mind. He was looking down, kissing her forehead - this was the woman he loved more than life itself, a love he’d never ever felt for anyone ever before - and that woman was Buffy.....

“Slayer?” he said hoarsely now.

“Spike? We couldn’t....we didn’t....Oz?”

OzT pulled a face. “The portal is unlocking your memories, Buffy. It was a spell Willow did. When the Oz in this world left her. Remember. You and Spike can live in either world. You came back to this one because you were needed more here, and as soon as you got back, I think your Willow here did a spell so you wouldn’t remember anything. But if you get too close to the portal, the spell vanishes and your memories return.”

Buffy held out a hand and, without a word, Spike hauled her to her feet. She refused to look at him. Now wasn’t the time to think about this. She wouldn‘t have been able to get two thoughts straight in her head anyhow. She and Spike were husband and wife. Was this what Dracula had meant?

“You think you know what you are, what’s to come. You haven’t even begun.”

“What do you want, Oz?” she said quietly.

“Will sent me. She’s trying to find Xander. He’s disappeared. We’re seriously wigged, Buffy. We need you back in our Sunnydale - fast.”

“I can’t just - go to another reality!” she protested. “What about Mum and Dawn and patrolling - ”

“Hey, you won’t want me,” Spike muttered, not wanting her to see how shaken he was, how his returning memories were turning upside down all his ideas about his life and his feelings for Slayers.

Buffy whirled round and, for the first time since Oz had told her she was married to him, looked Spike straight in the eyes. And there he was - her husband, the man she loved more than words could say. She smiled, her hazel eyes dancing. “You mean you’d let me go without you, William. Now that I don’t believe.”

And as he looked at her, there was his wife and he couldn’t imagine how he could have spent the last ten months wishing this woman was out of his life.

OzT backed towards the portal. “I can’t stay any longer. My Will said I must just give you the message and come straight back. It’s up to you now, Buffy.” And with a nod, he stepped into the ring of fire and vanished with a sizzling crack.

“Quite chatty for Oz. How much do you remember?” Spike asked quietly.

“Everything, now I’m close to the portal. The spells, the life, the marriage. I can’t believe it, I don’t want to believe it, but I can remember it.”

Spike nodded and thrust his fingers through his slicked back platinum hair, turning it into a riot of little curls. “Life was pretty good, as far as I can recall.”

Buffy felt herself going red again. “It’s all part of an ongoing spell, Spike. But even so, XanT is just as important to me there as our Xander is here. I have to go and help. Let’s just concentrate on finding him. We don’t have to do - well, we don’t have to act as if we’re married when we get there!”

‘So you want us to go as what - partners? Colleagues?”

Buffy pulled a face. ‘More like army personnel. Like Riley’s friends. You watch my back and I’ll watch - ’ She stopped abruptly at his expression.

‘Oh you can watch whatever part of me you like, Slayer!’ he whispered and held out his hand.

Buffy hesitated, glaring at him, then she laced her fingers with his and together they stepped into the circle of flames.

to be continued












to be continued

 
 
Chapter #5 - Chp 5 Starved for too Long
 
With This Ring - by Lilachigh

Author’s note: From now on, the AU Sunnydale characters will just have the initial T attached to their name, instead of me spelling out Two every time. Hope people can relate to that!



Chp 8 Starved for too Long

It was dark in the kitchen. The portal glowed briefly and two figures flew through it, hand in hand. ‘Bloody hell!’ Spike skidded to a halt before he could crash into the sink. ‘I’ll say it again, couldn’t the Willows have put the portals somewhere sensible! Like in the middle of the back yard!’

Buffy picked herself up and gazed round. Nothing had changed, and here, unlike the other Sunnydale, all her memories of both places were complete.

Spike padded over to the fridge and pulled out a packet of blood. ‘Good old WillTwo. She’s stocked us up with supplies, pet.’ He threw Buffy a can of Coke and put the blood in the microwave.

Buffy sat on a kitchen stool and watched him, lovingly. The enemy of minutes ago was now her husband, the man she adored, passionately, deeply, endlessly. ‘Why is it that in this Sunnydale, you have the appetite of a horse?’ she asked with a giggle.

Spike turned and raised an eyebrow at her. ‘Well, pet,’ he drawled, ‘in this world, I need to keep my strength up!’ He prowled across the room to her, took the can away from her and kissed her, licking the remains of the fizzy drink from her tongue. ‘Hey, slayer,’ he muttered against her neck. ‘Do you realise everything we do here is legal?’

‘Well, it’s legal wherever we are,’ she replied grumpily, pushing her hands under his T-shirt, searching for his bare skin like a woman who’d been starved for too long. ‘It’s just that we don’t remember!’

She pressed the length of her body against his, trying to imprint every centimetre of him into her brain cells. Surely this feeling should survive back in the other world?

‘Achemm! Excuse us! We did knock!’

They broke apart slowly. Here there was no need to feel ashamed at showing their feelings for each other. OzT and WillT stood in the doorway, smiling. Behind them stood a pretty, creamy skinned girl with long braided hair.

‘Buffy, Spike, this is Tara, Xander’s girl friend.’

Buffy gave her brain a mental shake. By his expression she knew Spike was doing the same thing. Keeping everyone’s relationships straight in the two different worlds was confusing. Here Tara and Xander were obviously together. Oz and Willow. And she was married to Spike.

‘Hi, Tara.’

‘B..B...Buffy, hello. And S...Spike. It’s great to meet you both at l...last. Do you think you can help f..f...find Xander?’

Buffy gestured to them all to sit down round the dining table. ‘We still don’t fully understand what’s been happening. Will, can you explain?’

The red-headed witch bit her lip. She looked pale and unhappy. OzT reached out and placed a hand comfortingly on her shoulder. ‘Buffy, we don’t know what to think. Xander’s been, well, Xander‘s been acting oddly for a couple of months now.’ She flashed a glance over at TaraT who nodded, head down, fiddling with the piece of ribbon at the end of her braid.

‘Quiet, jumpy, a bit bad tempered.’

‘On the sauce?’ Spike broke in laconically.

‘You mean d..drinking?’ TaraT looked up, her cheeks reddening. ‘No, he’s b...been much better since we...since we - ’

‘OK, we get the picture!’ Buffy broke in hastily. ‘So no drinking. What about work?’

‘He got a job just after you left last time. Working bar at the Bronze. He seemed really okay with it.’ OzT’s voice was concerned.

‘I used to go there after m..my Wiccan meeting,’ TaraT put in. ‘We’d have coffee and talk and he’d walk me home. Then...l...lately, he asked me not to c...come to the Bronze.’

‘Why?’

‘H..he said there was a bunch of roughs using it and h..he didn’t w...want me around them,’ TaraT explained, her eyes huge and glistening.

Spike tipped his chair onto its back legs. ‘And has everything else been OK between you?’

‘W..what do you mean?’

Spike looked slightly disconcerted. This Tara was even shyer than TaraOne. ‘Well, I take it you and Xander are, well, - ’

‘He means you are sleeping together, aren’t you?’ Buffy said, glaring at her husband, who leered at her and made a kissing motion with his lips, ‘Honestly, Spike, what’s that got to do with Xander going missing.’

Spike suddenly looked serious and banged his chair back down with a thump. ‘A lot, sweetheart. Bloke doesn’t walk out on a gorgeous girl like Tara for no good reason. Just wondered if he’d been showing signs of problems, that’s all. I know humans do have these little failures in that department, unlike us vamps, who as you know only too well...’

‘Yes, all right. Thank you, Mr Love God 2000,’ Buffy said hastily, not wanting details of their love life to be broadcast round this Sunnydale universe.

‘Anyway, Buffy,’ WillT said, trying to get the conversation back on track. ‘Three nights ago, Xander never came home from the Bronze. Tara went down there the next day and the girl behind the bar said she thought he’d left at the usual time, but no one had actually seen him leaving.’

‘I checked out a couple of other bars,’ OzT said. ‘You know - sorry, Tara - but ones where guys go sometimes.’

‘And I’ve cast a locator spell for him,’ WillT said. ‘Tara helped so it was quite a strong one. Buffy, there’s no sign of him in Sunnydale at all!’

Buffy looked at Spike and could tell by his expression that he wasn’t too happy with this news. In this world, he and Xander were quite friendly. In the old Sunnydale, she knew the vampire would just have laughed and hoped out loud that some little nasty had taken a bite out of the boy, but not here. Here he was concerned. It left her feeling very odd.

‘So, we don’t know what to do next,’ WillT went on. `That’s why I sent Oz through the portal to get you. I know how busy you are over there, but we really do need your help here, Buffy.’

‘Don’t worry, Will, we’ll find him,’ Buffy said. ‘Me and Mr Love God will go and call on a few of the neighbourhood demons. If anything has happened to Xander, they’ll know for sure.‘

‘B..Buffy...’ Tara looked up, her beautiful face stricken. ‘What if Spike’s sort of right. What if he’s just decided he d...doesn’t want m...me any more? Perhaps I sh...should move away and then he m...might come back.’

Buffy laid a hand gently on the other girl’s arm. ‘Tara, he wouldn’t walk out on someone he loved. Even if he was drinking a lot - which you say he wasn’t. Xander may not be a fighter like me and Spike, but he’s still brave in his own way. He wouldn’t be a coward about your relationship. No, something’s happened to him. And tomorrow we’ll find out exactly what.’

When Willow, Oz and Tara had left, Buffy went upstairs to their bedroom and sat at the dressing-table, brushing her hair. It crackled under the bristles, flying up round her head like a fiery blonde halo. She was gazing at her reflection when she felt two hands on her shoulders, even though she could see no one in the mirror. The brush was taken out of her hand and she arched her head back as Spike continued where she’d left off.

‘You look worried, pet,’ he said, softly. ‘Do you think something bad’s happened to the boy? Want to go out now and have a hunt round. It’s almost dawn, but I could still get a couple of hours in with the demon gangs.’

Buffy shook her head. ‘I can’t believe OzT wouldn’t have discovered if he’d been in a fight. The vamps and demons would be only too happy to tell him if they’d made a killing.’

Spike threw the brush down and pulled her into his arms. She buried her fingers in his hair as he bent his head to kiss her, deeply, passionately.

For ages they stood, locked together, just staring into each other’s eyes. It was all so natural, Buffy thought. Here they were, together, married, in love, in their bedroom and there was no need to worry, no need to apologise, or hide or feel any guilt. For a fleeting second, Riley’s face came into her mind, then faded away like mist on a hot day. He was there but she was here and so was Spike, her husband.

He slid his hands under her T.shirt and she quivered as his rough fingers sort the hard tips of her breasts and circled them slowly. She heard little mewing noises coming from her mouth, it was getting hard to breathe.

Now he was peeling off her jeans, hissing as he scented the wet scarlet panties that only just covered the curls between her thighs. She groaned. He was being so slow, she was shaking with desire and expectation. She reached for him, but he just tutted, smiled and held her hands effortlessly behind her back.

Then he reached down, slowly sliding his other hand inside her panties, tugging at the curls, easing her lips apart, never breaking his gaze, glorying in the expression that crossed her face as his fingers found her clit.

‘Please, please, now, do it, do me, now, Spike, for god’s sake, fuck me, it’s been so long, so long, do it, now, now, please, oh don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t...oh god, ’ A babble of words broke from her as his thumb strummed her, once, twice, again and again and oh god she was flooding, her legs stiffened, and she screamed as her body roared up and up and up, the climax shattering her into tiny atoms of feeling, each one exploding in red, gold,crimson and scarlet stars.

Then they were in the bed, naked and before she could come down from the heights he’d sent her to, he was deep, deep inside her, riding her harder and harder, and she’d never known it could be like this, oh god, there was no way he could get any deeper inside her, but he tossed her legs up over his shoulders and as her bottom came up off the sheet and her head tossed side to side in ecstasy, he vamped out and thundered out his climax as she exploded into hers.

An hour later Buffy came to from her fourth climax. Spike’s head was buried between her thighs and she felt as if every bone in her body had turned to jelly. But oh god did she feel good.

Now she realised why she always felt she was holding back with Riley. Somewhere, buried inside her consciousness was this knowledge that she belonged to Spike. Her body knew it, even if her memory didn’t. And even if she had sex with Riley, she knew it was a very pale imitation of the real thing.

She could feel the breath he didn’t need tickling her damp thigh. If he reached his tongue out and licked her clit one more time, she would surely die. And if he didn’t, she would kill him!

Buffy lay back and shut her eyes. She knew that very soon they would have to get up and start on their hunt for Xander. She whimpered in glee as the cold tongue suddenly prised her lips apart and assaulted her clit again. And before all sense vanished from her mind and the waves of passion overtook her once more, she knew it might not be a very long hunt.

For just as OzT had been leaving, he’d told her one little extra thing. The name of the girl behind the bar at the Bronze was - Anya.






Buffy walked through the town streets to the Bronze. She pushed open the big doors and the smell - stale beer, cigarette smoke and rancid sweat from teenage dancers, assaulted her nose.

She and Spike had decided that she should come here during the day time to catch the staff before they became busy. Spike had kissed her and gone down into their basement, heading off through a tunnel that linked up to the maze of underground passages he knew so well, both here and in their other world.

As he said, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust OzT to find out from the local demon community if XanT had been in a fight, but there were some vamps who kept themselves hidden out of sight and he knew exactly where to find them.

Inside the Bronze, a bored looking boy was sweeping the floor and behind the bar - yes - Buffy’s stomach lurched - it was AnyaT, polishing the glasses.

“Hi,” Buffy said cheerfully. “You don’t know me - my name’s Buffy Summers.”

“Hi! Can I help you?”

Buffy hesitated. Was this Anya a vengeance demon, too? It wasn’t the sort of question you could ask straight out. Had XanT annoyed her in some way? Knowing what pain Anya had inflicted on victims in the other world, perhaps she’d given XanT some dreadful punishment.

“I hope so. I’m looking for a friend of mine. He works in here in the evenings. You must know him. XanT - I mean Xander Harris.”

AnyaT’s eyes lit up. ‘Xander - oh yes, of course I know him. ’

“I haven’t seen you here before, have I?” Buffy said cautiously.

“No.” AnyaT frowned. “I came to Sunnydale when I married my boyfriend, - ” she stopped and to Buffy’s horror, tears glinted in her eyes.

“Hey - are you okay?”

AnyaT dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “Sorry. Yes, I’m fine!”

Buffy patted the girl’s hand. This Anya was thinner, she looked desperately tired, her hair a mousey colour, badly cut, her skin was blotchy, as if she spent too long indoors and ate too many burgers and shakes. She was wearing faded jeans and a dreadful beige top with a purple pattern worked into the long sleeves.

AnyaT sniffed hard. “Thanks. The cigarette smoke makes my eyes ache. I’d really like to get a job in a nice dress shop, but we need the money and the Bronze pays quite well.”

“There’s nothing wrong with the Bronze. We come here a lot.”

AnyaT pursed her lips and looked disapproving. “Well, as soon as I find myself another job, I’m leaving. But my husband needs our money. He’s writing a book, you see, so he can’t take a regular job. He’s very clever. I don’t know what he sees in me.”

“Have you been married long?” Buffy glanced at the girl’s red, rough hands where the shiny gold ring sat and thought it was a great shame the guy wasn’t a vampire so she could stake him!

“No - not long. I met him in New York, but he comes from Sunnydale so we’ve come back here to live. He’s had a really hard life and he’s trying to put it all into his book.
Anyway, you’re not here to listen to my life story, are you? You said you’re looking for Xander. Isn’t he at home? No, wait, his girl friend came in searching for him, didn’t she?”

“Yes, Tara. Someone told her he left here at the usual time. Was that you?”

“No.” AnyaT folded the drying cloth neatly and lined up the little dishes of peanuts in a nice straight line. “There’s another girl who sometimes does shifts when we’re very busy. She was working with Xander that evening.”

Buffy sighed. She didn’t seem to be getting very far. When OzT had told her there was a girl at the Bronze called Anya, she’d been absolutely certain that the trail would lead straight to XanT. Even though in this universe he was in love with TaraT, she’d thought that he must have made some connection to AnyaT.

But obviously she was wrong. She couldn’t see XanT being attracted to this dowdy, timid girl at all. TaraT was shy, but you still felt she could be as brave as a lion if something threatened the man she loved. This Anya seemed far more uncertain, worried. It was all so confusing, trying to keep the different world’s relationships straight.

“Okay, thanks for your help. Can you jot down the girl’s name and address for me?” Buffy asked, pulling a coaster across the bar and fishing in her pocket for a pencil.

AnyaT started to write when the door to the Bronze banged open and a man strode in. “For god’s sake Ahn, aren’t you ready yet? I thought we were going out for lunch. I’ve been slaving over that computer all morning. I don’t think you’ve any idea how hard it is when I’m pouring out all this emotion in words, not to eat properly.”

Buffy spun round. The same dark hair, soulful eyes, long thick lashes any girl would die for, same pouty, spoilt mouth. There was no mistaking him. “Parker!” she said.

“Well, goodness, look who’s here! Hi Buffy! Long time no see. Have you been away? ” The sulky expression was washed away by the blinding, charming smile she remembered so well. But in this world, thank god, she knew she hadn’t slept with Parker. She remembered they’d gone out on a couple of dates and she’d ended up loathing him so much that she’d dumped him as quickly as she could.

“Yes, I’ve been - out of town,” she said shortly.

“Oh - really - interesting - I’ve been in the Big Apple myself, media work, you know. TV, radio, film scripts Got a big commission to write a book. So we came back to Sunnydale. I need the sun, the quiet - ”

“The money your wife earns,” Buffy said before she could stop herself.

ParkerT shot AnyaT a filthy look. “Been telling everyone our private business, pet?” he said angrily.

“No, of course not.” AnyaT gasped and winced as he grabbed hold of her arm.

“I’ve told you before what will happen to you if you don’t keep your stupid mouth shut!”

“But Parker, I didn’t, I haven’t - ”

“I think you should leave the lady alone.”

They all spun round. Spike was leaning against a table, hands in jeans pockets, staring at ParkerT and the girl.

ParkerT sneered at him. “Oh, yes, and who’s going to stop me?”

Buffy groaned. “That is not a sensible thing to say to Spike,” she said cheerfully. “Just let go of Anya’s arm before my husband makes you.”

“I can do what I like to my own - Yooowwwwwhk” His voice screamed out as Spike effortlessly lifted him and hurled him across the room to smash into a table and lie moaning on the floor.

“Parker!” AnyaT started to run across to him, but Spike caught hold of her round the waist and turned her to face him.

‘Stupid bint!” he shouted. “Stop wasting your time on that one. Walk away while you bloody well have the chance.”

“Spike?” Buffy asked cautiously, not sure what he meant.

Without another word, Spike pushed up the long sleeve of AnyaT’s shirt. Buffy gasped and felt sick. There was a row of black and yellow bruises all the way up the girl’s arm and what looked suspiciously like a cigarette burn.

AnyaT had began to cry. “He doesn’t mean it,” she sobbed. “He’s so artistic, you see. So sensitive. I annoy him by being clumsy, by being ugly. He needs to be surrounded by beauty and lovely things. I can’t earn enough money for us. It was different in New York. I had a good job. But here....”

“Anya!” Buffy reached out to grip her hands. “Listen to yourself. This isn’t your fault! It’s his. I dated him a couple of times in college and he was a rotten little prick then and, as far as I can tell, he hasn’t changed at all.”

‘Did he ever hit you?” Spike’s voice was dreadful because it was so quiet, so deadly.

Buffy shook her head. “There were rumours from other girls, but I broke it off with him before we got physical.”

There was a long silence broken only by ParkerT’s moans that doubled as Spike kicked him in the ribs. Buffy knew that was nothing compared to what he would have done if she’d told him that on their second date in this universe, ParkerT had grabbed her hair and pulled it so hard tears had run down her face. She’d been so tempted to kill him herself, but had known she had to control her Slayer strength. Spike would have no compunction on that count.

“You don’t need to stay with him,” she insisted to AnyaT.

The other girl looked at Buffy and for the first time, the Slayer could see a resemblance to the other Anya dawning in her expression. “The truth is - I’m scared of him,” she said simply. “I thought he was so sweet and sensitive when I met him. I wanted to look after him, make up to him for all the bad things he told me had happened to him in his life. But when we got here he changed. Nothing I did was right. And there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with his life or his family! I didn’t know how to deal with him on my own.”

“Well, you’re not on your own any more, You’ve got us right behind you. But now you’ve taken the first step, I don’t think you’ll let him scare you so much.”

AnyaT pushed her mousey hair behind her ears and straightened her shoulders. ‘I’m going home to pack,’ she said. “I’ll book into a motel tonight and find myself another room tomorrow.”

Buffy scribbled a phone number on the back of AnyaT’s hand. “That’s my friend Willow,’ she said. ‘Ring her, tell her what’s happened. She knew Parker in college, too. She’ll put you up. Trust her.”

Other words trembled in Buffy’s mouth. Words like - if you meet a tall, weird looking guy called D’Hoffryn, give him my regards.

“Thanks. Oh, here’s that name you wanted.” Anya handed over the coaster and without another look at the moaning figure of her husband still lying on the dirty floor, she walked out of the Bronze.

Spike crossed to Buffy and wrapped his arms round her. “Leave you alone for ten minutes and you’re up to your pretty little round ass in trouble,’ he murmured into her hair.

Buffy relaxed against him, luxuriating in the feel of his muscles wondering how she’d come to be so lucky in both universes.

“It’s all so weird, Spike,” she said. “How can AnyaT be an abused wife and our Anya is a vengeance demon? Everything is different here - even us! Can you imagine us spending a night like last night back in the other Sunnydale?”

Spike growled deep inside his chest as the memories of their night roared through his body. He kissed her, running his lips along the delicate lobe of her ear. “Perhaps one day we will,’ he said hopefully. ‘In the meantime, pet, we don’t seem to have got very far in our XanT hunt. The vamps are doing their three monkeys routine all over town.”

Buffy sighed. ‘Perhaps this girl can help. She was the last person to see him.”

She read the name AnyaT had written on the coaster and began to giggle. Oh no! It couldn’t be, but then, why not? She handed it to Spike.

“Bloody hell. Cordelia bloody Chase!”

to be continued




















 
 
Chapter #6 - Chp 6 A bottomless pit
 
With This Ring by Lilachigh


Chp 10 A bottomless pit

The Bronze was empty now. The cleaner boy had vanished and Parker had dragged himself to his feet and staggered off, mouthing curses at Buffy who ignored him.
She hoped AnyaT would take her advice and go to stay with WillT. It was so weird that she was a vengeance demon in one world and a battered wife in the other.

Spike wandered behind the bar and poured himself a whisky and Buffy a glass of Coke. He shook his head to clear his mind. “So Cordelia works here, eh?” he said. “That’s something I’d have paid good money to see back home. Why don’t I recall her in this world? I should do. I can remember us being friends with WillT, OzT and XanT. Do you remember CordyT?”

Buffy nodded slowly. “Yes, we were at school together in both universes. But here she didn’t leave town, she got a job - ” She frowned and tried to force her brain to work. Living in two worlds that were geographically the same but slightly different otherwise was doing her head in.

“Yes, she was working in a riding stables, just outside of town. She loves horses in this Sunnydale. I used to watch her in gymkhanas and shows. She was - is - very good. I’ve no idea why she’s working shifts here at the Bronze.”

“So we head out and find her - maybe she and XanT are shacked up together somewhere cosy. They had quite a thing going in the other Sunnydale. Perhaps the connection started here, too. They might well be humping like rabbits somewhere and he’s just lost track of time.”

Buffy gulped down her drink, suddenly feeling irritated. “Honestly, Spike, why do you think everything is to do with sex? I’m worried about XanT. Perhaps he’s had an accident and is lying somewhere badly injured. Had that occurred to your over-heated brain or rather to the other over-heated part of your anatomy - which, OK, not heated, but definitely over stimulated most of the time?”

Spike whirled round and pulled her into his arms. She struggled, glaring into his laughing blue eyes, but he held her tightly - the only person she knew who could pit his strength against her and sometimes win.

“Got something against sex all of a sudden, pet?” he murmured. “Haven’t noticed it myself, but then if your actions last night are you being anti sex, well, I can’t wait for the day you do get interested in it!” He bent forward as she indignantly opened her mouth to speak and worried her lower lip between his teeth. She shuddered as his tongue followed, teasing hers until it gave in and twined with his.

She felt a rush of fluid dampen her panties and groaned. She pressed her breasts against his chest. They ached so much, the nipples were so hard, so raw, they needed loving, moisture, they needed -

Her top was pushed up and at last his thumbs reached inside her bra and rubbed abrasively over the quivering tips. Buffy felt her legs go. They started to tremble and it was only the wooden bar behind her that was keeping her upright.

“Say it,” he whispered as her fingers drove into his hair, pulling at the blond curls. “Just bloody say you love this.”

“I love it!” she gasped and gloried in the way he lifted her up, tore aside her panties and thrust inside her. Because it was true. Whatever they did to and for each other, it was driven by love. But even as Spike vamped out as he climaxed, a small knot of worry wormed its way into her brain.

She loved having sex with Spike because she loved him. But, as she’d said to him earlier, he seemed to think of everything in terms of physical passion. Did he really love her, Buffy Summers the person, or did he just like making love to her? Did he even see that there was a difference?

What was even worse was the thought, did she really love him, or just what he made her feel physically when he touched her? Was she driven by lust or love?

Twenty minutes later, Buffy rolled out of his arms and got to her feet, gazing round the Bronze. “This is where we first met, isn’t it?”

“Well, it’s where I first saw you. We spoke outside. Remember. You were fighting a demon. That was in the other place. Here - ” he got to his feet and pulled on his jeans which had somehow got flung over the bar. “I saw you and we danced. That was that, pet, as far as I was concerned. You caught me, hook, line and sinker, whatever a sinker is! Fat chance I had of escaping!”

Buffy pulled on her own clothes, suddenly feeling chilly. Spike was making it sound as if she’d set out to trap him, that he didn’t have any say in the matter. Indeed, he was making it sound as though he would rather not have been caught!

Spike reached out to stroke her cheek, but she turned her face away before his fingers could touch her and pretended to glance at her watch. “We’d better go and find CordyT and see what she has to say about XanT,” she said.

“OK, sweetheart.” Spike looked at her, puzzled. He had a strong desire to shiver, which was ridiculous as he didn’t feel the cold.

Spike had gone back to Revello Drive by underground tunnel to fetch their car. Luckily it had windows of dark glass so driving out of town to the stables was easy. Buffy was glad of the rock tape playing as they drove. It made conversation impossible which, at the moment, was a good thing. She realised she was terrified he would ask her what was wrong. And she didn’t know. All she felt was that within minutes, what had seemed like a rock like certainty in her life had become a bottomless pit of quicksand.

The stables lay just outside town. Buffy could see horses standing in the shade under the trees as they drove up. They lifted their heads and scented the air as the car passed them. Eyes rolled whitely in their heads - vampire!

“Stay here. I’ll see if she’s home,” Buffy said, swinging herself out of the car before he could protest. But banging on the front door brought no Cordelia out onto the porch. Buffy slid back into the car.

‘Where now, Goldilocks?” Spike asked.

“Drive over to the barn,” she replied. “She might be in there, working.”

Spike parked in the deep shade cast by the tall wooden building and joined Buffy as she pushed open the huge double doors. “Hello! Cordelia! Hi! Are you there? It’s Buffy and Spike.”

The barn lay in silence before them, dust motes drifting up to the rafters through the thin beams of sunlight that lanced down from the high windows. Spike moved himself out of one, wincing as it caught the bare skin of his neck. “Place is a ruddy death trap,” he muttered. “Cordy!!!” His voice echoed round the stacked bales of hay and straw.

‘There’s no one here,” Buffy said.

Spike bent and touched the ground. “Well, someone’s be here very recently, pet. Look, the ground’s been scruffed up and the soil underneath is still damp.”

They moved deeper into the barn, then suddenly Spike stopped and, to Buffy’s amazement, jumped up and down. “What the heck - ?”

“It’s hollow, luv. Underneath our feet. Trap door. Used too many myself not to recognise one.” He bent and scraped away the straw covering. A wooden door lay in the floor. Spike pulled it up and it swung easily on oiled hinges.

Buffy and Spike looked at each other and he raised an eyebrow. “Well used,” he said tersely. “What do you reckon, pet. Storage chamber? Tunnel entrance? CordyT’s own little love nest to shag in secret away from prying eyes and ears?”

Buffy winced.

Spike frowned. “OK, what the bleeding hell is wrong, Slayer? You’re giving me the heebie-jeebies. What have I done that’s upset you? Was it meeting AnyaT like that?”

Buffy shook her head. There was no way she could even begin to explain how she felt to Spike, because she didn’t know herself! To her horror she could feel tears stinging in her eyes. Without speaking, she pulled a stake from her pocket, pushed past her husband and lowered herself cautiously down the ladder into the darkness below.

Feeling irritated, Spike followed Buffy down through the trap door in the barn floor, down a ladder into the darkness below. He just wished he bloody well knew what he’d done wrong to make her so antsy. In the Sunnydale where they weren’t married, he could have guessed at a thousand things that would piss her off, but here where he could remember both worlds, they were husband and wife and happy, so why couldn’t she tell him?

The light from above was just enough to show him a wide empty space with tunnels leading off in several directions. Buffy had found a torch on a ledge and switched it on, the beam bouncing off the rock walls.

Spike sniffed the air. Buffy turned, her eyes questioning. “ XanT’s been here,” he said. ‘But not recently. It’s old scent.”

“Where on earth do all these tunnels go?” Buffy flashed the torch from one to the other. “Sometimes I think the whole of California is sitting on top of a vast maze.”

Spike grinned. “You’re not far wrong, pet. Especially around Sunnydale and the Hellmouth. So much vampire and demon activity. For centuries we’ve been digging out pathways and places to live. Lots have been abandoned for years - I know quite a few, but there’s miles and miles I’ve never explored.”

“Why would XanT be down here?”

Spike shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair. “Knowing the boy as well as we do, perhaps he has a secret store of booze down here somewhere. Nice and private, away from all his friends’ inquisitive eyes.”

Buffy pulled a face. “OK, we know he has a drink problem in this world. But right out here, miles from town? Why not stash it closer to home?”

Spike sat on the ladder. He was trying hard not to show her that he was getting bored with the whole “let’s save Xander” scenario. Okay, in this world he liked the boy - hell, they’d even gone out for a beer together once or twice and XanT had never been even the slightest bit bothered by him and Buffy being together.

But in the other world - Spike frowned - it was almost as if his life here was slowly dissolving, and he was reverting to the other Spike, the one who couldn’t stand Xander Harris in any shape or form. And the one who definitely wasn’t married to the Slayer.

He felt a shaft of fear jet through him. Was that what all her odd reactions had been about? Did she feel that way, too? Was the magic that Willow had conjured up fading in some way?

“Too many friendly eyes on him all the time, I suppose, luv. You and me - when we’re here and not busy saving another world - Willow, Oz. Now there’s Tara. A nice girl in both worlds, that’s obvious. But sometimes nice girls can be hard on a bloke. Perhaps trying to live up to everyone’s expectations just gets too much for the poor guy sometimes.”

Buffy shuddered. She couldn’t look at Spike. It was chilly down here and his words were making her feel cold. Living up to everyone’s expectations. Well, that was something she could write a book about - a very large book, with pictures and an index.

“Whatever - he still isn’t here. We’d better get back. I want to find Cordy. She might know something. She’s the last person to see him at the Bronze, as far as we know.” She turned to go up the ladder, but Spike was still sitting on it, not moving. “What’s up?”

“You tell me, Buffy.” His voice was cool and silky and it made little shivers run up and down her spine.

“Tell you what?”

“Why you’re suddenly acting as if I’m a stranger you’ve just met. I can feel the bloody disapproval coming off of you in waves. Just tell me what I’ve done. Or rather, what the precious Slayer thinks I’ve done.”

Buffy tried to push past him, but he was too strong. She didn’t understand what was happening, They never argued in this world. In the struggle, the flashlight was knocked from her grasp and fell with a smash on the rocky floor.

“Oh great, Spike. Hope you’ve got some cash to pay Cordy for that. Will you please stop being such a ....a....clod and let me pass!”

In the dark, Spike grabbed her fists and pulled her towards him, to kneel between his legs on the step of the ladder below his. He could smell the shampoo she’d used in her hair, the fabric softener on her jeans, sweat on her skin, the mint on her breath from a long discarded piece of chewing gum.

“Kiss me!” he demanded suddenly.

“What? No. Stop it, Spike. We’ve no time for this nonsense. Why would I want to kiss you, anyway?”

‘“You’re my wife. Isn’t that a good enough reason?”

Buffy struggled to free her hands from his. “Your wife....I’m not really....” her head felt muzzy. It must be the damp musty air down here that was affecting her.

Yes, of course in this Sunnydale she was his wife, but in the other one she wasn’t. Which world was real? Why did she suddenly feel that if she could turn the flashlight on again, she would see a thin, blond man sitting there on the ladder. A vampire who irritated and teased her, who was a continual thorn in her side, but not her husband.

But here she loved him. Yes, in the mists of the uncertainty that were swirling through her brain, that at least was something concrete. But in that other place? Why didn’t she love him there, too?

“Buffy...make love to me!”

A flood of desire swept over her. She had the dreadful feeling that what she was doing was very wrong, but oh god, she wanted him so badly.

She leant forward into his embrace and kissed him, softly at first, feeling his lips soft and eager, then hungrily, greedily. His tongue demanded and took her own and she felt the spark of desire that was always present between them ignite and travel down to her breasts, her stomach, that soft, damp place between her legs that would only answer to his touch.

A little moan sounded deep in her throat as his hands slid under her top to caress her breasts, the thumbs moving slowly and seductively over her nipples, sending little ripples of feeling flashing across her nerve endings. Then one hand was sliding down inside her jeans, pushing them down so she could kick them off into the darkness.

And his thumb was - oh god it was inside her, rubbing her clit so slowly, so lightly, she could feel moisture running over her thighs.

Oh god, he was going to fuck her. She began to pant as a finger joined his thumb and drove her on. And she wanted him to. Because she loved him, because he was - her husband? But, he wasn’t, was he? He was just Spike....

She began a soft keening noise as her first climax hit her, and by the time he drove his prick inside her she was screaming his name, begging for him to do it harder, faster, deeper, again and again - and he did.

Buffy didn’t look at Spike as she got dressed. She couldn’t find the words she needed.

“You still haven’t told me what’s wrong?” he said wearily as they climbed back up the ladder into the barn. “You enjoyed that, you can’t tell me you didn’t, sweetheart.”

Buffy gave a little laugh. “Ten out of ten for the sex, Spike. That’s not the problem.”

“Then what in god’s name is it?” he roared, swinging round in game face, his black coat flying.

“I think...I think that’s what holds us together in this world, Spike. Sex. Lust. Passion. Call it what you want. Okay, we loved each other. Got married. But in the other Sunnydale we’re - well sort of enemies. And somehow, Willow’s spell is fading and in this world we’re reverting to the people we are back on the other side of the portal. So yes, having sex is great, but it’s still wrong because our life here is a sham, isn’t it?”

His face reverted to human and his blue gaze burnt into hers. He reached out a finger and traced a line down her face from forehead, cheek and chin. God, how beautiful his golden girl was.

She thought his feelings were a sham? Bloody Hell. How on earth could he make her understand that he felt like this about her in both worlds? Well, he could only try. He took a deep breath -

‘Buffy! Spike! What on earth are you doing out here in the barn? ”

They spun round to find Cordelia Chase standing in the doorway, looking at them with a very puzzled expression on her face.

to be continued















 
 
Chapter #7 - Chp 7 Just Nonsense
 
With This Ring... by Lilachigh


Chp 12 Just Nonsense

Cordelia Chase stood looking at Spike and Buffy, a puzzled expression on her face. She was wearing jodhpurs and a bright yellow shirt, her dark hair tied back at the nape of her neck with a yellow scarf. In both worlds, Cordelia never looked anything but smart.

Buffy smiled at the pretty, dark haired girl. “Oh, hi, Cordy, we couldn’t find you up at the house, so thought you might be here in the barn.”

“I’ve been exercising one of the horses out on a trail. How are you two? It’s lovely to see you. You haven’t been around for ages and ages. Willow said you’d been away?”

“Er, yes, we have,” Buffy said, wondering if an alternative universe counted as ‘away’. “But we’re back now - for a little while, at least.”

Spike moved to her side and put his hand on her shoulder.

CordyT laughed. “You two love-birds! You’ve always been the same. Unable to keep your hands off each other for two minutes at a time. You don’t have to tell me why you were out here in the barn. It’s written all over your faces what you’ve been doing. Honestly, Spike, if you don’t want to give the game away, you might be more careful and button your fly with the right buttons in the right holes!”

Spike glanced down and cursed. He’d been in too much of a fret over Buffy’s behaviour to get himself done up right. Thank god he’d fastened some of the buttons at least!

Buffy felt her face going red. Thank god CordyT hadn’t appeared a few minutes earlier while she and Spike had been - well, just thank heavens she hadn’t. “Umm, well, hey, Cordy, we’re looking for Xander? He’s missing and people are beginning to worry. As far as we can tell, you were the last person to see him at the Bronze a few nights ago. Have you got any idea where he’s gone?’

CordyT frowned. “Xander? I think I remember serving him a beer. I’ve been working extra shifts at the Bronze. I so need the money.”

Buffy stared at her. Warm eyes, smiling face, approachable manner - it was hard to realise this was Cordelia Chase, but in this alternative Sunnydale, she was completely different from the uptight little snob Buffy had known so well in school.

“So, do you know where Xander went? Did he mention anything?”

CordyT frowned. “Well, he’d had a lot to drink - as usual! ”

“So the boy was drunk?” Spike put in dryly. “What a surprise.”

CordyT pulled a face. “You know what Xan’s like. He can’t hold his drink. He wanted another beer after the one I sold him, but I told him no, you’ve had enough.”

“So he just went home?”

CordyT pulled off the yellow scarf and shook out her dark hair. “Oh come on, Buffy. You know as well as I do that when Xan decides to go on one of his drunken sprees, he’ll find a bar where someone will sell him booze.”

Buffy and Spike exchanged glances. That was what she’d been worried about. If XanT had wandered into a bar somewhere on the rougher side of town, anything could have happened to him. And it didn’t have to be demon inspired either.

“I could scent him down in the tunnels under this barn,” Spike said shortly. “Did you know he’s been using them?”

CordyT laughed. “You must be mistaken, Spike. Xander hasn’t been out here to the stables for months - no probably at least a year.”

Buffy was about to speak when she felt Spike’s hand on her shoulder again, pressing a warning. This was weird. She might query Spike about lots of things in their odd life that spanned two worlds, but if he said he could scent XanT in the tunnels, then XanT had been there. So why was CordyT pretending he hadn’t? She could have made up all sorts of excuses as to why he’d been there.

‘Right, well, thanks for your help. We’d better get back to town,’ Buffy said brightly. “You ready, Spike?”

“Whenever you are, sweetheart.”

“Oh, have you got to go so soon? We haven’t had a chance to catch up. Harmony’s coming over this evening for a drink. You remember her from school, don’t you. Harmony Kendall. Nice girl. Incredibly brainy. She‘s on vacation from Harvard. She’s studying law. She’ll be sad to miss you.”

Buffy felt a shudder run through Spike’s body and knew he was trying to stop laughing at the thought of Harmony being brainy. She had to admit the desire to lie on the floor and kick hysterically was overwhelming her, too! “Maybe next time,” she said.

CordyT sighed. “OK. But you’ll miss meeting my boyfriend, too. I wanted us all to hang out together.”

Buffy had stopped listening. She was urging Spike towards the door before he exploded. “Must dash. See you soon, Cordy. Thanks for the info. We’ll hunt through all the bars in town for Xander. Expect he’s lying behind one.”

Together, she and Spike hurtled out of the bar and dived into the car which was still standing in the shadow of the barn. Spike flung himself behind the wheel and reached for a flask under the dashboard. “Oh god, Harmony is studying law at Harvard. I think I’m going to have to get very very drunk to deal with that one.”

“Must you start now?” Buffy snapped, wondering why she was so on edge with him.

“This is blood, sweetheart, not whisky,” Spike drawled, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. “Hey, Vampire, remember? Need to eat occasionally. So do you, by the way. How about stopping off on the way back into town to get you a burger?”

“Spike - wake up and smell the coffee! XanT wandered away from the Bronze to find another drink. He must have ended up facing off some nasty or other. He could be dead. Why do you think I’d be interested in eating?’

Spike flung the flask onto the back seat. “Back off, Slayer. What the heck’s wrong with you today? We’ll find XanT - I promise. You passing out from hunger isn’t going to improve the situation any. Besides, I don’t think he’s in any bar in town. I told you - checked the demon grapevine. No one’s seen him.”

“Perhaps they were lying?”

Spike reached out and ran a finger slowly down her cheek, across her throat and down to where the soft flesh of her breast showed at the edge of her V necked T shirt. ‘“I can be awfully persuasive, sweetheart. Remember?”

Buffy caught her breath and fought the desire to wrap her arms round his neck and pull his head down onto her breast, let his tongue weave its magic across her aching nipples. She clenched her fists, turned her head away and gazed out of the window at the horses standing head to tail under the trees in the paddock. She wouldn’t let Spike see, but there were tears in her eyes.

In her heart she knew what was happening. It was obvious. Whatever spell Willow had cast ten months ago was beginning to erode at last. The happy Buffy and Spike, married to each other and living contentedly with friends and family were fading away, becoming a nonsense.

All that remained was the chipped, evil Spike and herself, Buffy Summers, the Slayer who was going out with a nice guy called Riley Finn. She had a mother, an irritating little sister, friends, a life of her own. All she had to do was tell Spike the spell had worn off, that even if he was still under its thrall, she wasn’t. Then they could stop all this lust and passion and bone-achingly good sex. Because it was wrong. She was wrong. And she had to tell him. It wasn’t fair to go on like this, acting out this charade.

“Spike - listen - ” she got out.

“Hey, yes, how weird was that about CordyT saying XanT hadn’t been down in those tunnels, sweetheart. Because the scent was there. And I’ve been thinking about that. I said it was old, but I could have been wrong. The more I think about it, the more it seems it was sort of muffled, covered up.”

Buffy frowned and postponed what she was going to say. There would be plenty of time to sort out her relationship with Spike once they’d found XanT and returned him to TaraT. And time to let him touch you again, a tiny voice muttered at the back of her brain.

“You mean someone had deliberately tried to hide his scent?”

Spike shook his blond head and gazed out of the darkened car window to where they could see CordyT walking back towards the house.

“No, not exactly. More, bloody hell, I don’t know. You’re the brains of the outfit. More as if - well, daft as it sounds, it was as if he‘d been wrapped up in something heavy that cloaked the scent.”

“So CordyT is lying?”

Spike shrugged. “You get better odds on Miss Chase telling porkies than you do a few measly demons holding out against yours truly, pet.”

“But why?”

Spike grinned and ran his hand up her bare arm. “Told you before, I reckon she’s got a secret sex den hidden down in the tunnels. Perhaps she’s keeping XanT as her latest sex toy.”

“Ewww, Spike. Gross.” Buffy moved away slightly from his touch, hoping that he wouldn’t notice. The last thing she needed at the moment was a show down with Spike. Hopefully, they could find XanT and then get back to their own Sunnydale. Surely, once she was safely home, back in a world that made sense, all this loving Spike nonsense would become just that - nonsense.

Spike started the car and they drove away down the track back towards town. They’d gone about a mile when Buffy said firmly, “Spike, stop the car. Turn round. We’re going back.”

The vampire swung the wheel violently and the car spun in its own length, throwing up clouds of dust from the track. “Sounds as if you’ve got a plan, Slayer.”

“All I know is that if CordyT is lying, then she should get a prize. Something very big and shiny with bells on and stars! I believed her completely. So, if there’s something that needs to be lied about that well, I want to know what it is. We need to get back inside those tunnels, Spike. Somewhere down there is the answer.”

Buffy followed Spike back inside the barn. She’d stopped to collect another flashlight from the car, knowing that the remains of the one they’d smashed earlier were still in the tunnel. Spike lifted the trapdoor and she followed him silently down into the darkness, pulling the cover back over their heads as she went. She didn’t want CordyT to see that they’d come back to explore.

As she neared the bottom of the ladder, she felt his hands reach up to her waist to lift her down the final few feet. It wasn’t necessary; she knew he was only doing it because that was what they did in this Sunnydale - use every available second to touch each other.

Buffy felt the scalding tears burn at the back of her throat and couldn’t stop herself from tensing. She knew that Willow’s spell had almost vanished, as far as she was concerned. She didn’t really understand why Spike was still pretending that he loved her. Silently she pulled away from him and could sense bewilderment and hurt. But she couldn’t help it. They weren’t really in love. It was a spell. Magic. She had to keep telling herself that.

“Right, pet, here we are again, and I can still smell a faint trace of XanT,’ Spike said quietly. Then he frowned. “There’s another scent, too, but....no, bloody hell, I’m going barmy, that can’t be right,” he muttered under his breath.

Buffy wasn’t listening. All she wanted to do now was find XanT, get him home to TaraT and then get herself and Spike back to their own world, where their relationship was clearly defined, Slayer and Vampire, with no love, no feelings and definitely no sex.

She flashed the light around, noticing for the first time that of the three tunnels leading out of the cave area, one headed back towards the house. “We don’t want to go that way. It must come up somewhere indoors. CordyT could hear us. Which way is the XanT scent the strongest?”

Spike half shut his eyes and took a deep breath. Then he nodded towards the right hand passage. “That one. Definitely. But as I said before, sweetheart, it’s bloody odd. The scent is in the air - almost as if he wasn’t touching the ground at all.”

Buffy frowned, then bit her lip. “You mean, he might have been carried?”

Spike looked grave. He nodded silently and headed off down the passage. That second scent had started a strange suspicion growing second by second inside his head, but there was no way he could tell Buffy. What if he was wrong?

The air grew colder as they walked further. Buffy began to shiver. How could it be so cold when it was so hot above ground?

“I’d loan you the duster to warm you up, but it might be a bit big on you,” Spike commented with a grin. “Teach you to run around wearing bits of cotton with little strings holding it up.” He ran a finger lovingly over the bronze rounded top of her arm.. “You’ve got goose bumps, luv.”

“Chilly down here,” Buffy replied, not wanting to admit that the goose bumps were mainly caused by his touch on her skin, not the dip in temperature.

“I could warm you up in a second, sweetheart,” he drawled in her ear and she shuddered as she laughed and moved swiftly ahead of him.

‘I shuddered because he’s a vampire,’ she told herself firmly. ‘Not because I want him. Vampire. Evil. No soul. Just remember last time you gave your heart to a vampire and saw it smashed to pieces. You don’t love him. It was just a spell. And now it’s wearing off. Oh god, Willow, I could kill you. If only you hadn’t been so unhappy about Oz, none of this would ever have happened.’

“You want to go back, don’t you?” Spike said suddenly. He knew he should keep his mouth shut but then tact had never been his strong point in either Sunnydale. “You would rather live in the other world, the one where we’re not married!”

Buffy hugged her arms round her cold body. “Spike, I don’t want to get into this now. We’ve got too much to do here.”

Spike stopped and leant against the rocky wall of the passage. The beam from the flashlight swung up and caught the high cheekbones, the slanting scar on his eyebrow, the gleam of bright blue eyes.

“I think we have to get into it, pet. Bloody hell, Buffy, you’re my wife! I love you. OK, not in the other place, but it’s hard to remember that when I'm here. And anyway - ” he paused, then went on, “I love you there, too.”

She shook her head. “It’s a spell, Spike. Magic. You know it is. You don’t really love me here. Or there. And I don’t love you. Of course I don’t. You’re a vampire. I’ve got a boyfriend, Riley, you know I have.”

“Not in this world you don’t.”

“But that’s just the point! Don’t you see, I’m not two different people. I’m me, Buffy Summers. If I’m your wife here, then I’m cheating on you with Riley, and cheating on Riley with you! And I just...I just can’t cope with that any more.”

“I’m not two different people, either. And I know exactly how I feel about you in both worlds. That won’t change. And I know damn well you love me in this world.”

“No, it’s Willow’s old spell that - ”

“For God’s sake, Buffy. Why are you always looking for an escape clause in life? You just think, oh magic, must be the spell that’s making me feel something for Spike. You’re not honest, Slayer. Not to me and not even to yourself.”

Buffy felt her fists clench, anger coursing through her. “Well, many thanks for the character assassination. If I wanted lessons on my morals, I think I’d have better people to ask than William the Bloody.”

“Oh right. Who, for example. Red? The whelp? Your Watcher? What the hell do they know about love, Buffy? They’re too weird, too young and too old!”

“Old? Excuse me, Mr over a hundred years and counting. Weird? Look in a mirror sometimes, why don’t you - oh no point is there, you haven’t got a reflection to look at. As for young - ”

“Hush!”

“What?”

Spike’s hand was across her mouth and for a second she struggled, then realised he was being serious. She nodded slightly to accept what he was doing and he gently took his hand away and pointed down the passageway. “Voices,” he murmured, his lips brushing her ear.

“How many?”

“Two or three.”

“XanT?”

Spike shook his head, absentmindedly. “Maybe. But ....” The scent he’d found in the air earlier was stronger now. He couldn’t believe it, but his nose wasn’t lying to him. He hesitated. Should he tell Buffy now? He opened his mouth to whisper, but she was already moving away. She’d covered the face of the flashlight with her fingers so only a faint pink glow showed her the way.

Spike followed, the duster swishing behind him. This could get really messy. The passage swung sharply and Spike realised it was getting lighter ahead. A jumble of big boulders littered their path and Buffy crawled cautiously across them.

The voices were louder now. They were chanting, deep and monotonous. Buffy hooked her fingers over a rocky ridge and pulled herself up as far as she could. She stared down into a big cave. The entrance to the outside was covered with green undergrowth and enough light came in for her to see quite clearly. She froze, only vaguely aware of Spike’s body pressed next to hers. There in the centre of the cave, XanT was staked out on the floor, a gag in his mouth, his shirt torn open to expose his chest.

Three people were kneeling around him. CordyT, her eyes gleaming as she swayed from side to side, HarmonyT, her bright blonde hair a mass of curls, happily chanting as she stared down at XanT.

And between them, broad-shouldered, dark hair tousled, chanting in a low voice and holding a shiny silver knife over XanT’s chest, was her ex lover, the man she would cheerfully have died for. Spike’s grandsire.

It was Angel.

to be continued
Thank you all for the lovely reviews. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much .

















 
 
Chapter #8 - Chp 8 All over again
 
With This Ring.... by Lilachigh


Chapter 8 All over again


Buffy stared down at the scene below her in disbelief. Even as she watched, frozen, Angel flicked the knife across XanT’s chest and a thin line red appeared on his pale skin. She must have cried out as her friend in both Sunnydale’s gasped in pain and writhed against the ropes that bound him. AngelT, CordyT and HarmonyT spun round to see where the noise had come from.

“Spike - ” Buffy forced her legs to move.

“Easy, sweetheart,” he murmured in her ear, his hand under her elbow. “Remember, it isn’t our Angel. We don’t know who he is in this world.”

AngelT stood up, snarling, blood dripping from the point of the knife. CordyT grasped his arm. “Well look who’s come to join the party, lover. It’s my friend Buffy and Spike. I told you about them.” She gazed up at Buffy, her dark eyes glinting. “You should have kept on driving back to town, Buffy. This isn’t your concern.”

Buffy slid her way down the loose rock onto the cave floor, Spike following at her back. She circled warily round the three of them, desperate to see if XanT was badly hurt.
“What the hell are you doing, Cordelia?”

“Hi, Buffy. Hi, Spike. Long time no see.” It was HarmonyT who was still sitting cross-legged besides XanT’s bound body. “How you doing?”

CordyT stepped away from AngelT but Buffy never took her eyes off the dark haired vampire. Spike was right. This wasn’t the man she’d known, loved and lost. He looked the same but his eyes were hard, like stones, and the mouth that could be tender, looked cruel in this world. He still hadn’t spoken, but shifted easily on bare feet, tossing the knife from hand to hand. Angelus? No, there was nothing of the cold evil that emanated from the vampire when he was in that stage of being. This vamp was just cruel and sullen.

“He’s a vampire, Cordy,” Buffy said, sensing that whoever else Angel was, that was still the same.

“Of course he is,” CordyT said impatiently. “Why do you always think that you’re the only person in Sunnydale who can have a relationship with one? You always were the drama queen. You and Spike, your great love. Oh no one has ever loved like us. Slayer and Vampire. What a mixture. God, I got so tired of hearing about it. He doesn’t kill humans because he loves me. He controls his vamp side because of our love. God, I’d like to throw up. On and on. Well, Angel is my boyfriend. I told you earlier I wanted you to meet him. Well, now you have. A pity it will only be for a few seconds before you die, but hey, that‘s life!”

“So this is the Slayer,” AngelT spoke at last with a thick Irish accent. “Who’s the other vamp?”

Buffy sensed Spike circling the cave behind her. She knew he had CordyT in his sights.
“You don’t recognize me?” Spike sounded surprised and, Buffy realised, a little hurt.

“Never seen you before, boy,” AngelT sneered. “Why don’t you clear off and go and find your own meal.”

“You’re feeding from Xander?” Buffy asked, horrified. “Cordy, Harmony, you’re not vampires. How could you - “?

“Oh, grow up, Buffy,” CordyT snapped. “We don’t have to be vamps to join in the ceremony of Turckpai. You must know that. You’ve been the Slayer long enough.”

“Turkey Pie?” Buffy moved again, trying to force AngelT away from XanT who she could see was struggling to free one of his hands where the ropes looked a little loose.

“Turckpai, pet,” Spike said from the shadows. “Haven’t heard that one since - well, for a very long time. It’s a sort of ancient initiation test vampires used to do on humans who consorted with them. You each make a cut in turn and the vamp drinks. Trouble is, you have to keep on cutting until the victim dies. Dracula was a dab hand at it. But I’ve never seen it done. Angel and Darla never did it, far as I know. But then they never hung round with humans long enough - until you came along.”

“Who are you talking about?” Angrily, AngelT spun round to Spike. “Don’t use my name when you don’t know me, wanker. And who the hell’s Darla?”

“We get a badge,” HarmonyT said eagerly. “Well, not a badge, exactly, but a sort of little mark on our arms. It’s fun. Far better than all those boring law books I’ve been studying. They are so dull, you would never believe it.”

“Harmony - ”

“I never wanted to be a lawyer,” the blonde rattled on, seemingly unaware of the tension all around her. “My parents were so keen. I want to be a model or a film star. When I get my mark, I’m going to Hollywood. I reckon I could be another Reese Witherspoon or perhaps - ”

“Harmony - ” Spike tried this time. “Shut the fuck up and get out of here now.”

His voice sliced through the damp air in the cave and the blonde stopped in mid-sentence. She glanced up, startled, caught the sapphire blue stare and stood up, hesitantly.

“Harmony, sit down!” It was AngelT. “We haven’t finished with the victim.”

The blonde tossed back a riot of curls and stared nervously back and forth between him and Spike. “Well, Angel, I’d like to stay, I really would, cos, great fun and all with the cutting and the blood, but this was always yours and Cordelia’s game, wasn’t it? She only invited me because I was staying with her. And if I hurry, I can just make the mall.”

“Harmony - run!” Buffy snapped and the girl turned and fled out of the cave without a backwards glance.

AngelT smiled at Buffy and her blood turned to ice. She had once lived to see that smile. Now, in this world, it spelt out evil and a complete lack even the smallest hint of compassion.

“Angelus?” she whispered. “No, someone else.”

“Who’s he, Slayer? Another vampire boyfriend? Don’t know why you don’t just join Cordy and me in our little drinking session if you’re so keen on our company. Make you hot, do we? Well, I wouldn’t throw out of my bed, acushla. Bet I could show you a good time. Here - take the knife, make a cut. Sure, you don’t know what you’re missing unless you try it.”

Buffy swallowed and reached for the stake in her pocket. She felt sick and her limbs were heavy and lifeless. How could she kill Angel all over again? OK, it wasn’t her Angel and - the thought blazed through her brain like a comet - she no longer loved him. No her passion for Spike had wiped all that away like footprints in sand, but the memory of love was still there.

And she couldn’t let Spike harm CordyT. She was still human, Spike was a vampire and Cordy hadn’t actually killed anyone yet. “Just let Xander go,” she said.

“No way!” CordyT snapped. “You don’t know what trouble I went to getting him here. ”

“Why Xander?”

CordyT shrugged. “Oh geez, Buffy, who’d miss him? He’s the town drunk. His new girlfriend would worry for a couple of days and then move on. His parents hate him and his best friend is far more concerned with her boyfriend than him. He was the perfect choice.”

“Sure, I’ve had enough of all this talk!” With lightning speed, AngelT leapt forward, the knife arching upwards in a vicious swing. Buffy leapt to one side, kicking out as she did, catching the vampire on the knee with her foot.

She was aware of Spike and CordyT struggling together. “Don’t kill her, Spike!” she screamed as Angel swung again with the knife, cursing as he did so.

“Fights like a hell cat!” Spike yelled, dodging to avoid the razor sharp, blood red nails that were aimed at his eyes. Bloody hell! It was all very well for Buffy to say not to kill, but it wasn’t going to be so easy. He sometimes wished he were chipped in this world, as he was in the other Sunnydale. It was easier not to kill when blinding pain stopped you. His will-power was strained to breaking point at the moment.

The fight raged on and Buffy winced as the knife slashed a thin cut down her arm. AngelT growled in delight at the sight of Slayer blood and charged in for the kill.

“Buffy! Watch out!” Spike yelled anxiously, and let CordyT go as he tried to reach his wife and put his body between hers and the black haired vampire.

Buffy spun round, backed away from AngelT’s charge, tripped over XanT and went tumbling to the floor. As she rolled across the cave, she saw XanT free one hand, and lift it above his head as if to ward off a blow as AngelT bent over him.

Then, in disbelief, she realised he must have been holding the wooden peg they’d used to fasten the rope to the ground. It caught Angel full in the chest and with a roar of disbelief he went from flesh to bone to dust.

And was gone.

* * * * * * *

“Who was that guy?” XanT was walking up and down, muttering to himself, rubbing his wrists where the ropes had cut. “He was going to kill me!”

“His name was Angel,” Buffy said distantly. She was sitting on the grass under the trees, watching the horses grazing a few yards away.

“You seemed to know him, Buff.”

Buffy stared sightlessly across the paddock. “No, I never knew him at all,” she said softly at last.

“A vampire, that’s who he was! An Irish vampire.” XanT seemed to have the same gift of stating the obvious in this universe as he did in the other Sunnydale, Buffy thought.

She glanced round but there was no sign of her husband. Spike had taken CordyT back to her house, insisting that she packed a case and got out of town immediately. Of Harmony there was no sign at all. She’d long gone. Harmony was a survivor, Buffy realized, whichever world she was living in.

She wished she was. She felt drained, hollow, weary beyond belief. And she didn’t know why. She had told XanT the truth. She didn’t know this Angel. His death should have meant nothing to her.

“So, who was that guy?”

Buffy found she was pulling up handfuls of grass, angrily, compulsively. “Xander, why don’t you go back to town? Tara will be so worried about you. You need to let her know you’re OK.”

“You’re right. Tara - worried - so me make her better. God, I could do with a drink. Don’t suppose Spike’s got any whisky in your car, has he?”

Buffy looked up at him. It was so weird. The same dark hair, dark eyes, friendly, funny face. And yet she didn’t like this Xander. She sensed that inside he was weak where her Xander in the other Sunnydale was strong.

“No, no whisky. Take the car and go, Xander. We’ll come back when we’ve finished up here. There’s a truck in the barn we can use.”

“OK, see you later.” and he moved away, still muttering, “Who was that guy?”

Buffy sat on in the shade. She felt she had lost all power of movement. Her legs seemed dead and she had a thumping headache. She wanted to be home, curled up in her bed where the sheets were soft and cool and smelt of her mother’s vanilla fabric softener.

The hairs on her back of her neck stirred and then relaxed as thin cold fingers began to massage the tense muscles across her shoulders, digging into that spot inside her shoulder blades that ached so much. Buffy rolled her head round. God that felt good.

“Not happy pet, are you?”

She couldn’t lie to him. He knew her too well. “No.”

“He wasn’t our Angel, you know. He never sired Dru. Didn’t know Darla. He never loved you in this world. You never loved him.”

“I know.”

She felt him sit on the grass behind her, then his legs were stretched out on either side of her and he pulled her back between them to lean against his chest. He rubbed his chin on the top of her head. “So, did this Angel dying make you realise you still love him back in our Sunnydale? Is that what all this angst is about?”

Buffy tried to turn, but he held her still and after a second or two she stopped struggling and just relaxed back against him. “No, Spike. I don’t love him in either world. I did love him, once, but that seems a long time ago when I was very young.”

“Oh yes, and you’re so old now, of course! Ancient, even.”

“I feel it.”

She felt the muscles in his chest tighten. “God, Buffy, sometimes you can really irritate me, do you know that?”

She shrugged, hurt but determined not to show it. “You don’t have to stay around if you don’t want to.”

“Buffy, we’re married. Husband and wife. Or have you forgotten that? Just because I get irritated with you or you get annoyed with me, doesn’t mean either of us needs to walk away. Married people have rows, disagreements.” He dropped a kiss on the blonde curls tickling his nose. “Then they make up. It’s fun.”

“And sometimes they walk away and never come back,” she said softly, a picture of her father loading suitcases into his car flashing into her brain. “So why do I irritate you?”

“It’s all you, you, you, all the time. OK, you felt weird seeing this whelp dust Angel. Great teenage love affair all angsty and broody and one perfect moment of happiness and bam, here’s our good old pal, Angelus. Then a spell and hey, honey, I’m home! Then dead again, then back again. Even I can see it would be upsetting watching him being dusted.”

“It was,” she whispered.

“So did you ever stop to think how I felt?”

Buffy wriggled round until she was kneeling, facing him. “You hated Angel.”

Spike sighed, his dark sapphire eyes shadowed. “Sweetheart, he was my grandsire. The head of my little family for more years than I care to remember. I fought him because I was young and silly, but he taught me to be a vampire. He was my role model, father figure, you name it, Angel was it. Of course I hated the great Irish poof. He loathed me. Always figured he wanted Dru and Darla all for himself, and then I came along and spoilt his little threesome. But whatever he was to me, it was real and seeing him go like that hurt me, too.”

“But it wasn’t our Angel,” Buffy said hurriedly, hating to see Spike miserable.

“I think those are my words.”

Buffy bit her lip, slipped her arms round Spike’s neck and let him hold her tight.

“So what else is bugging you, pet?” the vampire asked at last. “This mood has been coming on for days. It isn’t just Angel torturing XanT and CordyT proving to be a first class bitch, is it?”

There was silence for a while. The leaves above their heads rustled in the breeze but the shadow was still deep enough to keep Spike safe.

“Do you realise we both talk about ‘our’ Angel, and ‘our’ Sunnydale, as if they were real and this world isn’t. Is all of this slipping away from us?” she said eventually, airing her deepest fears, safe in his arms, knowing that once there, nothing could hurt her.

Spike nodded. “I’ve realised that, too. I think - ” He stopped and she nudged him to continue.

“I think you can’t live fully in two worlds at the same time. Whatever the magic was that Willow used to make the portal, it’s fading. We can either be there or here, but I don’t believe we can go backwards and forwards between the two Sunnydales any more.”

‘Are you saying we’ve got to close the portal?”

Spike traced his fingertip over her lips. He loved their shape, the soft fullness of her lower lip, the moist inside. He’d seen them bruised, smeared with his come, slack with passion, taut with desire. He would never tire of her mouth if he lived for another hundred years.

‘I don’t think I’d know how to close it, but I think maybe we’ve got to choose which Sunnydale to live in and stick to it.”

Buffy fell silent, feeling tears well up in her eyes.

‘Anyway, you’ve already made that decision, haven’t you?” Spike said heavily. “You want to go back to your ‘normal’ life, don’t you? We won’t remember any of this, you’ll be going out with soldier boy and I’ll just be the annoying chipped vampire who lives in a crypt. Not a brilliant future to look forward to, is it? So why, Buffy? Why choose that life. Is being married to me so bad?”

“No, it isn’t bad at all,” she whispered, twisting one of his platinum curls round and round her finger. “But Spike, it isn’t real. I’m the Slayer, you’re a vampire. How can we love each other? It’s all magic. Smoke and mirrors. And as soon as the spell vanishes completely, what will we have left? Can you imagine waking up one morning and finding yourself married to the Slayer? You’d stake yourself. You know that as soon as we’re home, you’ll go back to hating me, and I’ll go back to - ”

“Despising me?”

“No! I’ve never despised you. Loathed you, perhaps. Even admired you, sometimes. But whatever I feel, it won’t be love. It could never be love, Spike. You haven’t got a soul. For some reason I can forget that here, but I can’t when I’m home. I won’t when I’m home!”

“Won’t sounds more truthful. What’s the quote ”methinks the lady doth protest too much.” You won’t even give me a chance to persuade you that what we feel for each other isn’t just because of the spell, will you?”

Buffy pulled herself out of his arms and jumped up. She knew if she allowed him to go on holding her, she’d give in, agree to whatever he wanted. And that would be wrong.
“I’m sorry, William. Truly, I am. But I just want - ”

Spike stood up and leant against the tree trunk in the deepest shade, the leaves casting strange shadows across his face. “What do you want, Slayer?” he asked wearily.

“I want a chance!” she whispered. “A chance to live a normal life, like a normal girl. I know I’ll always be the Slayer, but I can be normal, too. As glorious as it might be, living here with you isn’t normal!”

Spike stared at her face, at the despair and the determination etched there. He could see all the different Buffys so clearly; the little girl whose father had walked out on her, the one whose boyfriends left, who would spend years searching for some perfect way of life, not ever realising that it was there for her, all the time, right under her nose. Glorious. She was so right and didn’t even know it.

“So we go back. Decision made. And what happens here, do you reckon?”

Buffy stared at him. She’d wanted him to agree; of course she had, so why was she feeling upset and irritated that he’d given in so quickly? What about all his protestations of eternal love? Perhaps they’d been just words, after all.

“I think if we go back and seal the portal, it’ll be as if I’ve died. Another Slayer will be called in my place.“

“Faith?”

Buffy shrugged. “We don’t know there is a Faith in this world. Or if there is, she doesn’t have to be a Slayer. For all we know, she might be serving hamburgers in the local Double Meat Palace.”

Spike laughed. “Oh yes, I can just see a Slayer doing that!” He held out his hand and Buffy took it. “OK, luv. Back to town we go. Back to the portal, and then home.” He tugged her hand and she flew forward into his arms. He bent his head and kissed her, long and deep, holding her so tightly that any normal girl would have squealed for mercy as her ribs cracked.

“That’s one for our memory banks,” he said as he raised his head and stared down at crushed pink lips and green eyes blurred by tears. “And every time someone kisses you in the future, whoever and wherever you are, deep in your blood, you’ll remember this day.”

For a second he flared into game face and Buffy stepped back, startled. Then in a flash he was back to human. “You’ve got your opinions and I respect them but I think you’re wrong, luv. We belong together. Seems pretty obvious to me, but then I was never much with the thinking. More for the action. But bloody hell, Slayer, this time I know you’re wrong, but I also know it’s useless trying to convince you.”

“Spike - ”

His cool fingers covered her mouth for a second, then cupped her cheeks as he stared into her flushed face. “Hush up for a second or two, pet. Let me have my say, then we’ll be done. We‘re going home. I agree. I won’t fight you about it. But one day, back home, you’ll tell me you love me as often as you do here. And listen well to what I say - we’re still married, Buffy. And nothing, not all the magic in both universes, can alter that. Whatever the future brings for both of us - you, Buffy Summers, are and always will be, my wife!

The End

Hope you all enjoyed this story. I loved writing it. Be glad of your views.
The sequel will begin soon. It’s called SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT...