Chapter 20: Sleeping Arrangements.


Buffy’s gaze finally lifted from the floor when Angel spoke. All the talk of the Judge and Acathla had brought bad memories to the surface. That was not a happy period of her life, for many reasons. “Yes.” Buffy said with a nod. “That’s what we believe.”

Spike’s gaze ticked between Buffy and Angel, noting the agitated way in which Buffy was holding herself. She was worried. Worried about Angel. He clenched his jaw in resentment. Angel on the other hand, didn’t look all that fazed. But then, he wasn’t much for expressions.

“What does this have to do with Dawn?” Xander asked. “Or the Master?”

“I don’t believe it has anything to do with either of them.” Giles answered. “Either Darla had several plans up her sleeve…” he trailed off.

“Or she’s playing cat an’ mouse.” Spike offered. “We can rule out the Master’s resurrection as her motivation. The old codger’s goin’ no where.”

Giles quirked an eyebrow in surprise. “Oh?”

Buffy was filled with momentary hope. To rule out the Master’s revivification would lift a large weight from her shoulders. “How?” she asked.

“Paid a little visit to Willy last night.”

“Oh yeah?” Xander asked with a broad grin. “He still whining about his nose?” he couldn’t help but be proud of himself. Giles directed a frown at him and Xander returned an apologetic shrug. “Which is totally not the issue right now.”

Spike grinned. “Tried to tell me you paid him.”

“Spike.” Buffy urged impatiently. “You were saying… Master staying all dust like?”

“Spell’s a sham.” Spike said confidently.

“How can you be sure?” Angel said with a narrow stare.

Spike cocked a brow. “Because that fool Jake she has spreading the word about was a little too inventive when it came to details.” He turned his attention back to Buffy, a smile creeping across his face when he continued. “The git mentioned the Gem of Amarra. Spell is sposed to bind him to the ring.”

A bright smile stretched across Buffy’s face.

“The Gem of…. OH!” Xander said in realization. He explained further when Anya nudged him. “Vampire’s holy grail. Spike dug it out of a cavern, Buffy took it from him…” Grinning broadly he elaborated. “Beat him around a bit first of course.”

“Hey!” Spike said indignantly. “I held my own. Knocked you out good and proper.”

Xander frowned. He had forgotten about that part. “Moving along. Buffy gave the gem to Angel.”

“And Angel destroyed it.” Giles said, his own relief beginning to settle in.

“Yes.” Angel affirmed with a nod.

A sigh rolled off Buffy’s shoulders, some of the tension she had been holding within her releasing. The Master was not a threat. She wouldn’t have to face him again. That was… a relief. More than a relief. She gave Spike a grateful smile.

Which he saw, and returned. “Right then.” He said happily. She was smiling because of him. “So we find Darla before she gets all stabby with the soul eatin’ dagger, keeping the bit safe from both Darla and her godliness and we might actually get some quiet in this town.”

Buffy sighed. “That’s a nice thought.” Snapping out of the little day-dream she looked at the clock on the mantle and stood up from her seat on the sofa. The pain in her abdomen was almost non-existent now, and the wound was healing nicely. But she was still taking it easy, just to be on the safe side. “I’ll go check on this spell of Willow’s and then we can discuss sleeping arrangements.”

“Sleeping arrangements?” Xander repeated. “You throwing a party Buff?” he teased.

“My parties always end with violence and death. So that’s a big no.” she said with a small grin before her expression became serious. “Until we find and eliminate the threat everyone is housebound.” She looked pointedly at Spike and Angel.

“No-one and I mean no-one is to go outside after dark alone. That includes you two.” She said pressing her hands against her hips, daring them to argue with her.

“I’m not bloody sharin’ with peaches.” Spike muttered under his breath.

“Spike.” Buffy said in warning. “Kitchen, now.”

He was about to argue when he saw the determined look on her face, the kind of expression that meant big trouble and a likely bloody nose if he argued. So he followed her. But not until he waggled his brows at Angel.

The other vampire watched with undisguised hostility as Spike left the room with Buffy.

~~~

Buffy turned to face Spike as soon as they were in the kitchen. She opened her mouth to begin her scolding but he beat her to the chase.

“Before the lecture, I just wanted to say sorry.” Spike said quickly.

Buffy frowned in confusion. “For being an ass to Angel?”

Spike smirked at her perplexed expression, snorting his response. “Not bloody likely.”

Buffy huffed in frustration. “Well what then?”

“For opening my mouth and spilling your little secret to your sis.” He said, his gaze downcast.

Buffy folded her arms over her chest. “Oh yes. I’d almost forgotten about that.”

Stupid…

“Right. Well. Sorry.” He said as he tried to step past her.

“Uh ah. You’re not getting off so easy Mr.”

Spike arched a brow at her choice of words; a moment later he cheeks reddening when she realized what she said. “Well if you wanna make it hard…” he drawled, his voice dripping with innuendo.

“No!” Buffy blurted out. “There will be no hardness between us.”

His smirk stretched even broader, and Buffy’s eyes widened again.

Spike took a slow step towards her and Buffy’s shoulders went rigid. She took a step backwards and bumped into the bench. He moved another step towards her, closing the distance between them. He refrained from reaching out and touching her, mainly for the sake of his nose, but also because he didn’t want her hurting herself and opening up that wound again.

“You alright pet? You’re lookin’ a little… flustered.” he asked as he tilted his head to the side to study her. Her eyes were darting around wildly, nervousness rolling off her in waves. But he detected no fear.

“No. I’m fine.” she retorted with a shake of her head. “I should probably be…”

“Leavin’ so soon?” he quirked an eyebrow. “Thought we were going to discuss the sleepin’ arrangements.”

Buffy’s jaw gaped. “I-I… what?”

A warm chuckle passed through his lips. She was right in front of him. Twitchy as all hell, but she wasn’t backing away. Even better, she wasn’t swinging punches.

“E-excuse me.” She finally managed to get out.

Spike took a step to the side and let her walk past him. It had taken all of his self-control to not reach out and grab her, kiss her like he wanted to kiss her. But if he had done that, he doubted that he would be walking away from it with his nose in tact.

He was going to wait for her. Things were changing between them. He had convinced himself that they had. She was actually being nice to him on occasion. Had even said thanks to him a couple a times the last few days. Punches were few and fair between; he was getting invites to the scooby meetings now and when he had told her about the nil possibility of the Master arising she had smiled at him. Genuinely smiled. One of those smiles that was blindingly bright. This was progress. Just now, there had been progress. Instead of her usual mode, punch and run, there had just been a quick escape. No anger, no fear, just nervousness.

Spike was not renowned as being a patient vampire. His normal mode of conduct was to throw himself into things headfirst. In his past that had worked just fine. With Buffy all it got him was headaches and bloody noses. He had learned from his repeated mistakes.

He was going to wait.

Because things were changing.

A smile stretched across his face and when he turned to walk out of the kitchen he was confronted with a very pissed off Angel.

“Bollocks.”

~~~

Buffy climbed the stairs quickly, making her way to Dawn’s room and knocking on the door lightly but opening it before she received a response.

Tara was seated on the edge of Dawn’s bed, watching on as Dawn and Willow sat on the floor. Dawn blew out a candle and began gathering supplies from the floor and packing them away in the small box Willow had brought into the room.

When she saw her sister there, she turned and smiled brightly. “Hey! We did it, the spell. Even vampires of the super sneaky variety won’t be able to set foot on the property without our knowing.”

Buffy smiled at her sister, who was obviously immensely proud of her involvement in setting up the ward.

“Will?” Buffy asked for confirmation.

“We’re all set.” She said with a thumbs up. “Spike and Angel are inside the house so they won’t set it off until they go outside.” She shrugged her shoulders apologetically. “I couldn’t figure out how to exclude them from the spell. So expect some loud ringing when --“

WHOOOOOOP! WHOOOOOOP! WHOOOOOOP!

“Vampire!” Dawn jumped to feet in alarm.

Buffy walked over to the window and peeked out through the curtains, sighing when she saw Angel and Spike in a stand off in the middle of the back yard.

“Idiots.”

~~~

“Do you not understand what STAY INSIDE means?” Buffy demanded angrily as she walked through the back door to confront the two vampires who were in the middle of a heated argument.

“Buffy I really don’t think that he should be staying here tonight.” Angel said with a stabbing motion of his thumb in Spike’s direction.

“Feelin’s mutual.” Spike retorted loudly before muttering under his breath. “Bloody ponce.”

“ENOUGH!” Buffy snapped loudly. “Inside now before Willow’s spell gives me an bigger headache than I’ve already got.”

Angel opened his mouth to protest and Buffy jutted out an arm and pointed it at the back door. “I swear to god if either of you gets yourselves killed because you didn’t listen to me, I’ll bring you back to life just so I can beat you to death myself.”

Surprised at the venom in her voice, both vampires moved towards the door, glaring at each other as they passed inside the door. The alarm instantly stopped sounding and Buffy let out a sigh of relief. Closing the door to the back yard behind them she turned to confront the two vampires, her arms folded in front of her chest.

“What exactly were you two doing out there?” she demanded.

“Expressing our mutual dislike for each other.” Spike explained, ignoring the withering glare Angel shot in his direction. “Point of fact is, neither of us is too keen on sharin’ a sleeping space.” He said titling his head towards the basement door.

Buffy’s eyebrows rose. “Really?” she asked. “Well point of fact is, I don’t care. Right now I need both of you to be safe.” She said emphatically. “And the only way I can be sure of that is if you’re here.”

“I don’t know about Peaches here but I can take care of myself pet.” Spike continued. “I’ve managed to survive this long ‘aven’t I?”

“Because she let you.” Angel snorted.

Spike shot a glare in Angel’s direction, which was ignored, and Buffy rolled her eyes at the two vampires before her.

“Grow up.” She cried in frustration. “Both of you. You’re acting like…” she thought for a moment. “…like Harmony and Xander.”

“Harm and the whelp?” Spike said incredulously. “And which one do you suppose I am then?”

“That’s not the point.” Buffy retorted. “Point is, this testosterone display is getting old. Learn to ignore each others presence.”

“Why both of us?” Angel asked, realizing how childish it sounded a moment later. He continued, clarifying what he meant. “You said you need both of us to be safe.”

Buffy nodded. “Yes?”

Angel paused for a moment, carefully considering his choice of words. “If Darla has the Dagger of Cortanzine in her possession, then I think it’s safe to say that Giles’ theory is a valid one.” He paused again. “Why would she want Spike?”

“HEY!?” Spike interrupted. “I’ll have you know that --“

Buffy rolled her eyes at the bleached vampire, silencing him with a look.

“He doesn’t have a soul to steal.” Angel finished.

“I still need him to be safe.” Buffy said, her expression becoming thoughtful. “There’s a prophecy that Giles hasn’t completely cleared up yet and…” she trailed off.

“There’s a prophecy about me? Anything interesting?” Spike asked, this being the first he had heard of it.

“Only that your death will make way for Dawn’s.” Buffy revealed. Pain filled her eyes at the thought of losing her sister, and she allowed herself to wallow in it only for a moment before her expression became firm once more.

“Giles hasn’t been able to make much ground on research into this prophecy, so until then we need to take this as a genuine threat.” Buffy said. “So if keeping you safe will keep Dawn safe, then you’re not leaving my sight.”

Spike knew that her concern was for her sister’s safety, and he nodded in acknowledgement. He also resisted the urge to point out that if he were going to stay in her sight, literally speaking, then that would mean sharing a room.

“I’ll call Wes.” Angel offered. “Get him to look into it.”

Buffy’s expression softened. “Thank you.” She said, turning her back on the two vampires and leaving the kitchen to join Xander, Anya and Giles in the living room.

“Prat.” Spike muttered under his breath as Angel followed.

“I heard that.”

~~~

“Of course.” Wesley said with a nod of his head. “I’ll call immediately if anything should surface.”

Cordelia hovered around the desk, waiting for Wesley to get off the phone so that she could grill him for information. He was talking to Angel, that much she knew. And by the sounds of it he wouldn’t be returning anytime soon. She looked up to see Gunn walking into the office and waved as he made his way towards the weapons cabinet to put away the axe he was carrying.

“Yes of course.” Wesley said again. “Alright. Bye.” With that farewell he placed the receiver back in its cradle and looked down at his scribbled notes before him.

“Yo English.” Gunn said as he sauntered into the office. “What’s happenin’?”

“Mr Broody face finally decided to call and check in.” Cordelia said huffily as she folded her arms over her chest with annoyance.

“Angel called?” Gunn inquired.

Wesley nodded. “He wants me to look into a prophecy concerning Spike.”

“SPIKE?!?” Cordelia repeated more than a little bewildered by this. “Why would he want you to do that? Not forgetting the fact that he is a murdering, evil vampire, but Angel hates him. With a passion.”

Gunn cocked an eyebrow. “We in the business of protecting vampires now?” he asked. “Cos that wasn’t what I signed up for.”

Wesley sighed in exasperation. “Spike is harmless now. He has that chip in his head care of the defunct government agency the Initiative. Remember?” he directed at Cordelia.

The brunette just shrugged her shoulders, not really caring. Spike was house broken, couldn’t hurt anyone now, but that didn’t mean anything to her. He had tried to kill her on several occasions and that was not something she forgot easily.

“The prophecy implicates Buffy’s sister Dawn. It seems Spike’s existence is tied to Dawn’s for some reason.” Wesley continued. “So as you can imagine, Buffy is concerned for Spike’s welfare.”

“I’m sure Angel’s loving that.” Cordelia snorted.

“Yes, well.” Wesley said as he reached for a text before him and opened it up. “Right now my priorities are in regards to cementing or disproving this prophecy.”

“What you want me to do?” Gunn asked, offering his assistance.

Wesley pointed to a stack of books on the shelf behind him. “Look for any reference to the Key, the Ally and the Prodigal.”

Gunn did as instructed and retrieved a few books from the shelf and sat down in one of the free chairs, opening the first one up. With a dramatic sigh, Cordelia did the same.



~~~~~~~~~~