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Real Me by CG again
 
Chapter 18
 
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There is a warning in this chapter. I've posted it at the end.

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The next hour was a blur of motion. I was carted off to the emergency room via ambulance, Willow and Tara by my side the whole time. Finally, after Willow’s fifth worried phone call to my house to reach Dawn, I sent them away to find the others. And once the painkillers kicked in, I was just as anxious.

I was fitted with a cast and set up in a hospital room for the night. The break was a severe one. I had claimed that a table had fallen on my leg and crushed it, but the hand-shaped bruise on my leg ensured that I fooled no one. Luckily, Sunnydale doctors knew better than to ask too many questions. But I wasn’t going to be walking anytime soon.

“And now I’m even more useless than usual,” I grumped, trying ineffectually to move the leg again. “I’m just a sitting duck, waiting for…”

The door slammed open, and Spike tore in, looking desperately furious. Or maybe furiously desperate. A little of both? I wondered, a little dazed. “Buffy!” He scooped me up, mindful of my raised leg, and raced out of the room.

“The doctors said I need to stay here overnight,” I protested, struggling to be set down.

“I’m not leaving you where Angelus can get to you!” Spike growled, tightening his hold on me. “Not again!”

I turned my attention back from the gaping orderlies around us to the vampire carrying me. “I’ll be fine. Is Miss Calendar…?”

Spike shook his head. “Last I heard, they were still searching for her. Her computer and all her notes were ashes in the library when your sis’s friend got back. I don’t know anything beyond that. I heard that you were hurt, and I took off.”

I rested my head against his neck. “Thanks.”

“This was my fault,” he mumbled. “I wanted to hurt Angelus so badly after last night…I shouldn’t have left you with the witches. I should have stayed with you.”

I pinched him in the arm, and he nearly dropped me in surprise. “What?”

“For the millionth time, I’m not a damsel in distress! My injuries are mine and Angelus’s responsibilities, not yours!” I shook my head. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for it. I don’t need to be babied!”

He bent his head to rest his lips against mine. “Fair enough, love,” he agreed. But his eyes were still dark with anger.

“Buffy!” Dawn called from Mom’s car, parked outside of the hospital. “Get in!”

“What are you doing? You don’t have your license yet!” I didn’t even have my license yet. Of course, that was totally my choice. It had nothing to do with failing drivers’ ed, or crashing Mom’s car during practice drives, or getting my first ticket a week after getting my first permit (how was I supposed to know that the traffic light had a camera?)…

“Like that matters now!” Dawn unlocked the doors so Spike could clamber in with me. He refused to put me down even then, clutching me close like I was going to fade away if he let me go. “Miss Calendar’s still missing. Giles and Janice went to her house, and it was empty. They don’t know where else she could be, but I don’t think they’re planning on going home until they’re sure that she’s okay. Angelus was definitely at the library. The spell is gone.” She sped up.

“I told you we should have just worked on killing him,” Kennedy sighed from the passenger seat. “Now your sister’s an invalid and your teacher’s dead-“

The car swerved. “Kennedy, shut up or you’re leaving this car,” Dawn hissed.

Spike frowned. “So where’s the Watcher now?”

Dawn shrugged. “I guess they’re still trying to trace Miss Calendar’s steps. We split up a while back. Willow was trying to salvage the hard drive, I wanted to come get you, Kennedy was whining…”

“Just seems to me there’s only one more place where the gypsy could be. And those two were close enough to her to get reckless…”

“Crap!” Dawn turned the car around sharply, and I was jerked against the window. Spike, still holding onto me with a vice-like grip, followed.

“What the hell, Dawn?” Kennedy demanded.

“The factory,” I answered for my sister. “Giles and Janice are going to do something stupid.”

“They couldn’t have waited for a Slayer?” Kennedy asked disbelievingly. “My Watcher would never-“ Spike set me down and conked Kennedy on the side of her head, knocking her unconscious.

“Thanks,” Dawn said with much gratitude.

We made it to the other side of town in record time. Dawn was out of the car in an instant. She turned back to Spike. “Aren’t you coming?”

Spike scowled. “M’not leaving Buffy!”

“Go!” I ordered him.

In response, he reached over to Kennedy and shook her until she was wide awake and spouting curses at him. “You’ve got a second. Now git!”

“Do you smell smoke?” I asked suddenly.

He nodded. “Smells like Watcher’s revenge.” He grinned. “Don’t make ‘em like they used to. Back in the day, Watchers were all stodgy little wankers who’d no sooner go out into the field and fight with their Slayers than burn up all their demon books.”

“Dawn’s in there!” I said frantically. “We have to-“

“No.” Spike peered out the window at the now smoky factory. “Fire’s just started. And if I know Angelus, there’s no way he’d let any of them escape. If the Slayer’s going to save them, she’ll want to be in there right now.”

Sure enough, Dawn and Kennedy reappeared moments later. Dawn was carrying Giles and Janice was resting limply in Kennedy’s arms.

“Janice!” But Kennedy had set her down and was pumping her chest, breathing into her mouth rhythmically. And for the first time, I was actually glad that Kennedy was around.

I pulled open the car door and struggled to move with my cast. “You know, they were going to get me crutches to walk with,” I panted to Spike. “All I had to do was stay put.”

Spike lifted me easily. “You don’t need crutches, pet. You’ve got me.” He brought me over to Kennedy.

“Anything I can do?” I may not have had the use of one leg, but I didn’t need that for CPR.

She gestured at Janice. “Go ahead. I’m going to go after that bastard.”

“No need.” The voice sent chills up my spine. “I’m right here.”

Dawn leaped up from where she and Giles had been sobbing together. “You!”

He dodged her first attack but miscalculated, moving right into Kennedy’s territory. The two girls threw punches, kicks, and stakes right and left, hitting Angels just often as he hit them.

“Aw, you guys! If you keep this up, I’m going to start to think that you don’t love me anymore, Dawnie.” He grinned shamelessly. “Come on, she was just a teacher…” Dawn swung at his nose, but hit his cheek instead as he turned toward Kennedy.

I bent back down, focusing on Janice again. Within moments, I had her sputtering for air.

“Buffy!” she gasped. “What’s…?”

Spike, satisfied that I’d be fine, jumped up to join the fray.

Angelus shook his head. “Well, these odds are no good.” He smirked. “Tell you what, lover. I’ve gotta go now, but I promise I’ll make it up to you. Next time, I’ll pick someone fun. Like another one of you charming Summers women!” He turned and ran.

Dawn was very pale as we all piled into the car.

“It’s fine,” I said encouragingly, mostly to break the tense silence in the car. Giles and Janice were both quiet, and not even Kennedy was stupid enough to try and start up a conversation with them. She just sat in the back seat, glowering at Spike, who leered back unashamedly. I elbowed him. “I’ve got this idiot watching me, and Mom’s out of town.”

“She’s on her way back,” Dawn said dully. “I heard her message on the machine when I went to get the car. The hospital called her, so she’s taking the next flight in.”

“Damn.” There was another long silence.

Kennedy finally got up the nerve to speak. “Look, don’t you think we should make sure that the gypsy’s fully gone? Did you actually see the body when you charged in-?”

“He snapped her neck,” Giles said dully. Janice moved from her spot beside Kennedy to yank open the car door and heaved, the vomit streaking a path down the road as the car kept going.

“Wh-where was she?” I asked timidly, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

Giles turned away from us. “My bed.”

Oh, god. Finally, the tears came, spilling down my cheeks in buckets. They opened the floodgates, and soon Janice, Giles, and Dawn were all crying again.

We dropped off Giles at his house, and Janice decided that she was going to join him in lieu of Kennedy. “He shouldn’t be alone right now,” she’d decided through her tears. Kennedy, in an uncharacteristically nice gesture, had decided that she’d be staying at our house.

“We’ll go back to the dorm,” I offered. “Kennedy can take my room.”

Dawn nodded. “Okay.”

“Janice really took this whole thing hard,” I played with the edges of my cast. “Were they close?”

Dawn stopped for a light. “Yeah. She and Miss Calendar really bonded from the start. I know that they used to hang out outside of school, and Janice would sometime stay over at her apartment…It’s kind of like Janice lost her older sister tonight.” She choked on the words. “Buffy… I know I don’t really say it much, but I love you. And if…”

I reached out to squeeze her arm. “I love you, too. And we’re going to make it through this thing.”

When we finally reached the campus, Dawn stopped the car and got out. “I’m counting on you,” she told Spike. “To protect her.”

Any other time, I might have protested them treating me like a victim again. But this was just as much about their own reassurance as mine.

Spike brushed a stray hair out of my face with a gentle finger. “Till the end of the world,” he murmured.

“Can we go?” Kennedy demanded, her internal grace period post-Miss Calendar over. “It’s getting late.”

Dawn sighed. “I’m gonna call Xander, see if he can give me a ride to the airport.”

“Xander?” I asked, surprised. “Since when are you two so close?”

Dawn shrugged. “He’s totally crushing on Janice these days. So he hangs out at the Bronze a lot. He’ll help me out.” She smiled for the first time that night. “I know how the whole Xander-crush thing works. Do you know how often I got him to do stuff for me when we were in high school? All I’d have to do was bring up his hotness at the dinner table or mention his washboard abs to you once in a while.”

I shook my head at her. “Dawnie, Dawnie, Dawnie…”

She gave me a quick hug. “Be careful, Buffy.”

“Like I’d let her be anything else,” Spike scoffed.

I kicked him with my free foot.

--

It was nearly two AM when we made it into the room. Willow and Tara were curled up next to each other in Willow’s bed, fully clothed and fast asleep.

“What, they decided that since I would be at the hospital, they could use the room?” I asked sulkily.

“We do practically every night,” Spike pointed out. “And they were probably waiting up for you. When the witches came to find us, I told them I’d be getting you.”

Sure enough, Willow was rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Buffy? You’re back! How are you?”

“I’m fine. Just a broken leg.” Spike set me down on my bed.

“Miss Calendar?” Her eyes shone hopefully. I looked away. “Buffy?” Her voice grew shrill with urgency. “Miss Calendar?”

Spike shook his head. “I’m sorry, Red.”

Then she was crying and Tara was sleepily trying to comfort her, and soon enough, I was in tears again, too.

Spike wrapped me in his arms and kissed me reverently, not letting go even after the tears had subsided.

“W-We’re going to go,” Willow said shakily. “To Tara’s dorm.” Her voice was steadier, and her eyes were challenging me to argue.

I shrugged. “Have a good night, guys.”

Willow looked like she was going to cry again, and I hastily turned back around to face Spike while the witches left.

“Come, let’s get you changed,” Spike said, jumping up.

“You love this, don’t you?” I said peevishly. “The whole ‘caring for a weak woman’ thing. I’ll bet you did it with Dru all the time, and…what?” Spike had stopped short.

His eyes were glowing with sudden lust. “You left it on.”

“Huh? Oh, that.” I had kept the stupid lingerie on. It felt silly to me now, planning this morning for a night with Spike, never expecting what would come next. “Now’s not really the time for it, though.”

Spike looked up to face me, suddenly serious. “Now’s exactly the time for it,” he corrected me, reaching to pull my shirt over my head. “I’ve never had to worry about it before, so I never bothered, but…life’s far too short to waste time.”

“But the cast, and…”

He put a finger to my lips and I fell silent. “Shh. Let me make love to you, Buffy.”

I stared at him. He had spoken about his feelings for me before and I had made my own obvious. But we had skated around the word ‘love’ until now. This was the closest we’d ever gotten to discussing it.

But moments later, the time for discussion was gone.

--

I didn’t get to sleep until past sunrise, and so I chose to forgo my classes for the day, sleeping until nearly sunset when a knock at the door roused me. I hastily covered myself with my blanket and nudged Spike until he woke up, pulled on his pants, and got the door.

“Uh. Hello, Mrs. Summers,” he said sheepishly.

Mom took in his bare chest and my blushing face and shook her head. “How about this?” she suggested. “I’m going to be back in five minutes, at which time we can pretend that this never happened.”

“Thanks, Mom! You’re the best,” I said gratefully. We dressed in a hurry, and Mom was back exactly five minutes later.

She sat beside me on my bed. “Did you hear about Miss Calendar?” she asked sadly. I nodded. “Dawn’s taking it rather hard. She’s been so clingy today… I actually had to sneak out to get over here alone.” She shook her head. “I guess our mortality just hit her.”

“Yeah,” I agreed noncommittally.

“And you, too, last night.” Mom patted the cast. “Now, I didn’t ask Dawnie because she has enough on her mind. But I spoke to the doctors and they seemed to be under the impression that there was some violence involved with the break.” She turned to face me, her eyes serious. “I want an honest answer. Was that Angel involved in this?”

There was no point in denying it. I nodded miserably.

Mom sighed heavily. “Okay, now this may be a long shot, but was Angel the one who… Miss Calendar…? I know that she was close to Dawn and Janice…”

I looked down.

Mom stood up. “That’s it. I’m going to the police with this.”

“No!”

“You keep saying that, and what has it done?” Mom cried out. “Someone is dead because of him. This has gone too far!”

“It won’t do any good. The police can’t stop him,” Spike said quietly.

“William?” Mom rounded on him. “Do you know Angel?”

“Yes,” he said simply. “And I can tell you that if you send the cops after him, the cops will die.”

Mom reeled back. “No. Someone must be able…”

Spike shook his head. “There are only a few people who can. And they’re working on it.”

“But there must be something…”

“Mrs. Summers,” Spike said patiently. “What you need to do right now is go home and make sure your other daughter is alright. She’s probably worried sick about you by now.”

“Yeah, Mom,” I agreed. I glanced outside the window. The sun was already down. “And Sp- William’s going to go with you.”

Mom looked confused. Spike was shaking his head. “Absolutely not.”

“Spike, please do this for me,” I pleaded. “Keep my mother safe.” His eyes darkened when they met my beseeching ones. Finally, after what seemed like hours of nonverbal communication, he slumped in resignation.

“Do you think I’m in danger from Angel, too?” Mom asked worriedly.

“Just a minute, Mrs. Summers.” Spike knelt down next to the bed and took my hand. “Do not leave this room, no matter what. I’ll be back in a bit.” He kissed me chastely on the lips, cognizant of my mother behind him. “I love you.”

He was out the door before I could shut my gaping mouth.

Spike loved me.

Spike loved me.

I was smiling like an idiot, but I didn’t care.

Spike loved me!

Nothing could ruin this moment. Not my worry about Mom, not the cast on my leg, not the familiar voice I could hear in the hallway and the shrieks from my dormmates…

Wait.

Oh, no.

“Open the door now, there’s a good girl,” Angelus coaxed from right outside my room.

Then my door was opened by my neighbor Kyra’s only free hand. The rest of her trembling body was trapped in Angelus’s deathly embrace.

“Hey, you! I’ve just been hanging around with your friends, when, funny coincidence- I realized that you live around here!” He grinned. “Gosh, but that Spike did stay in there for a while. I’ve been waiting since sunup!”

“Let her go, Angelus,” I ordered him, sounding much stronger than I felt.

He pouted. “But she’s so delicious.” His tongue snaked out and lapped at Kyra’s neck. “Unless you’ve got something better?”

“Help me, please,” Kyra sobbed. “He’s…he’s some kind of monster. His face…and he bit me…and r-r-rap-“

“Oh, get over it,” Angelus drawled. “You weren’t even any good.” He turned to me. “Now, the way I see it, you’ve got two options. You can invite me in, or I can snack on your friend’s neck. Don’t touch that phone!” he warned me, his eyes flickering to my wandering hand.

This was it, then. There was no way I could run with a broken leg. Spike wasn’t going to get back in time. And no one else was going to die if I could stop it.

I closed my eyes. I love you, too, Spike. And you, Mom. And Dawnie. Be safe.

“Come in, Angelus.”

--

Warning: Character death
 
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