CHAPTER FIVE
 
After dropping Dawn off at school and running home to change her clothes, Buffy drove to the hospital and went directly to Joyce’s room.  On the way there, she watched with curiosity as several strangely dressed and clearly confused men were led off toward the psychiatric ward.  The woman on duty at the nurses’ station shook her head and sighed.
 
“That makes three more today,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going on in this town. All these people losing their minds all of a sudden.”
 
“Huh,” was Buffy’s reply, putting in the back of her mind that there might be a brain-stealing demon out there, but more concerned about Joyce at the moment. She walked into her mother’s room to find the young doctor she’d had on her list of people to see standing by the bed. He looked up, startled, when Buffy entered.
 
“Oh. Miss Summers – Buffy. I wasn’t expecting to see you so early in the day. I was just... uh... just checking your mother’s vitals. Morning rounds and all that.” He gave Buffy a very unconvincing smile and she narrowed her eyes at him.
 
“Don’t the nurses generally do that sort of thing?” she asked, blocking the door in rather obvious fashion.
 
“Well, yes. Usually, but I... we... “ He trailed off, correctly reading the expression on her face.  “Can we talk?”
 
“No problem. A talk with you is right there on my list for this morning. I just wanted to see my mother first.  Don’t leave,” she added as he sidled toward the door.
 
He stopped, frowning uncertainly. “I probably shouldn’t be here,” he said finally. “I really shouldn’t.”
 
Buffy nodded. “I’m starting to agree with you, but we do need to talk.”
 
“I’ll just wait in the hall?”
 
“Fine.” Buffy moved away from the door and over to a puzzled Joyce.  “But don’t go away.” She glared at him until he was out of sight and then turned to her mother. “How do you feel?”
 
“I feel good. Still sleepy a lot of the time, but that’s to be expected they tell me.  The older doctor said I can probably go home tomorrow morning if everything continues to be good.”
 
Buffy nodded, still glaring at the doorway. “If you get a chance, ask him if you can leave tonight, okay?”
 
“Buffy? Is something wrong? Is Dawn okay?”
 
“She’s fine. We spent the night at Spike’s and—”
 
“Why?” Joyce’s look sharpened suddenly as concern for her daughters overcame her desire to doze.
 
“I’ll tell you later. Just... do me a favor, huh? If that guy, Ben, comes back in? Press your button for help. Okay?”
 
“Ben? But why? He’s been nothing but helpful and kind and—”
 
“And he knows about Glory somehow.  Until I find out how and why he knows where she is and that I wouldn’t want her to find me, I don’t want him anywhere near you.  It’s only a question of time before it occurs to her that kidnapping you or Dawn would be the fastest way to get her Key from me. Or... it would be if the Key wasn’t... what it is.” 
 
“All right, Buffy. You go do whatever you need to do. I’ll see if the surgeon will release me tonight.”
 
“’K. I’ll check back with you late this afternoon.” Buffy started to leave, then paused. “Are you okay with it if I send Spike to pick you up?”
 
Joyce raised her eyebrows, but just nodded her head and smiled.  “So, how does he feel about having guests?”
 
“He’s fine with it,” Buffy mumbled. “I told you he would be.”
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 
She found Ben waiting at the end of the hallway, and breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t been close enough to hear her conversation. She walked up to him and said, “I want you to stay away from my mother. Do you hear me? Don’t go near her.”
 
He nodded, hanging his head. “It’s probably for the best... but I... I’m not always... I can’t promise that I—she—”
 
“How are you involved with Glory? What do you know about her?”
 
“I can’t tell you that.” At Buffy’s narrowed eyes and clenched fists, he hastened on. “I mean I really can’t as in – am not able to. It’s just not... not something I have any control over. I’ll do my best to keep you and your family safe, but I’m not always... in charge.”
 
Buffy glared at him with her fiercest “I could break you half” glare, but he continued to appear frightened and helpless to do anything to appease her.  “Fine,” she finally said. “Just stay away from my mother – and tell Glory to stay away from her too!”
 
~~~~~~~~~
 
Buffy went directly to the Magic Box to tell Giles what she’d found out from Spike and Ben, only to find him holding a shaft of papers from the Council.
 
“Ah, Buffy. There you are. We have some new information. It would appear that it will be Dawn’s blood that is required to open the portal. And once opened, more of her blood, perhaps all of it, would be required to close it.  In addition, we’ve found that Glory is only able to remain viable in this dimension by sucking the energy from humans. Leaving them barely functional, but herself energized.  When she isn’t strong enough to maintain her hellgod persona, she most likely inhabits the body of a normal human. One who may or may not know that she is harboring a hellgod.  Of course, this is largely guesswork on the part of the council’s experts on such creatures. But they think she—”
 
“He,” Buffy said, sinking into a chair. “She’s a he when she’s human.  We’ve met him, and he works in the hospital where my mom is now.”
 
“You already know this?” Giles seemed disappointed.
 
“Not all of it, no.  But Spike guessed about the blood thing. And Ben... he’s kinda given it away as much as he can without actually saying who he really is. And I’ve seen some of her brain-sucked people. The psych ward is filling up with them.”
 
“Spike?”
 
“What? Oh, yeah, Spike. He’s come back to help me. He got in really early this morning.”
 
“And you know this because...?”
 
“Dawn and I spent the night in his crypt. I’ve been using it to stash Mom and Dawn when I couldn’t be with them. After Ben went into a closet and Glory’s voice started coming out of it yesterday, I figured I needed a safe place to hide Dawn.  I didn’t think Glory would go looking for her Key in a crypt. And so far, she doesn’t know that Dawn is the Key. All she knows is that I know where it is.”
 
Giles rubbed his forehead. “You can’t keep her hidden forever, Buffy. Glory is going to escalate her search now that the deadline is coming closer. The Council was able to narrow it down to a night two weeks from now.”
 
“I’ve got a plan.... Look, she doesn’t know anything about you guys, other than I hang out here sometimes, right? I mean, I guess Ben knows you’re my friends.... Damn, I thought I had it there for a second. I was just going to take Mom and Dawn and go somewhere until the portal-opening thingie was past. But you guys might be in danger too. I can’t leave you here.”
 
Giles frowned, deep in thought.  “It’s not a bad plan, Buffy. It just needs some tweaking.  I’ll work on it and we’ll discuss it tonight.”  He peered at her. “Where is Spike now?”
 
“Sleeping, I guess. He said he’d be here tonight, but I think I’d better go bring him up to speed.  I hope he’s not a cranky waker-upper...”
 
“Would you please share with him that I should like to speak with him before tonight, if that’s possible?”
 
“You want to talk to Spike? Why?” 
 
“Well, for one thing, I’d like to hear why he has decided to come back to Sunnydale, just when we could use the extra help...” He looked at Buffy expectantly.  She took a deep breath, exhaling her words so rapidly, he wasn’t sure he’d caught them.
 
“Iaskedhimto.”  She stared at Giles defiantly, daring him to question her decision.  He sighed and nodded.
 
“I see.  Which brings up several other questions, all of which can probably wait until a less stressful time.”
 
“Is that your stuffy British way of saying you aren’t going to be nosey?”
 
Heaving another deep sigh, Giles nodded. “Indeed. As curious... and concerned... as I may be about Spike’s motives, what’s important is that you have someone to back you up who is capable of actually...”
 
“... actually backing me up?”
 
Buffy cocked her head at him, waiting until he acknowledged her grin before waving her hand and leaving the store. She went to the house on Revello drive first, doing her best to pack bags for Joyce, Dawn and herself.  Throwing them in the back of the SUV, she headed for Restfield and the vampire she still wasn’t sure how she felt about.
 
~~~~~~~~~
 
 
Some of her confusion vanished when she peered down the stairs to see Spike sprawled across the bed on his stomach – naked. His pale skin gleamed in the faint light from the flickering candle, and she couldn’t take her eyes off his muscular back and legs.  Her gasp brought him awake and he whirled, providing her with a glimpse of an equally mouth-watering torso before she covered her eyes with a small “Eek! Spike! Cover up!”
 
“Why?” He remained where he was, relaxed now that he’d seen there was no danger, and laughing at Buffy’s red face. He could see her peeking through her fingers and deliberately ran one hand down his chest and stomach, drawing her eyes to his growing cock.
 
“You’re... you’re naked! With no clothes on! At least pull up a sheet.”
 
“I sleep naked, love,” he said, while obediently pulling the duvet up to his middle and sitting up on the bed. “Best to remember that in the future if you don’t want to damage your innocent little eyes.”
 
“I’ll remember it,” she muttered. “Trust me.”  She worked her way down the stairs, just as the fading candle guttered out, leaving them in complete darkness. She stood on the bottom step, straining to see. She heard Spike get up off the bed and move around the room.  As her eyes adjusted to the dimness, only slightly alleviated by the small amount of light coming down the stairs, she added, “I hope you’re putting some clothes on.”
 
The room came into view again as Spike lit a new candle. He was just putting his lighter back into the pocket of his unfastened jeans as he turned toward her. Buffy’s involuntary “guh” as she stared at him, his lean, muscular chest and abdomen accentuated by the way his jeans were just barely hanging on to his hips, made Spike smile. As did the way the muscles of his flat abdomen seemed to be drawing her eyes to the trail of light brown hair that disappeared into the partially-open zipper.
 
“See anything you like, Slayer?” he purred, running his hand down his body again. She flashed back to the night they’d fought for the first time and the way he’d used that hand to draw her innocent young eyes to his body then. She gave herself a mental shake and made a face at him.
 
“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” she said, with what she hoped was a casual shrug. “I’m not that innocent little virgin you met the first time you came here, you know.”
 
“Oh, I know,” he growled, the grin disappearing. “Had too bloody much time in that wheelchair, regretting how happy you made old Angelus, not to remember when you lost your cherry. Not to mention spending a good bit of last year smelling the soldier boy all over you.”  He sniffed the air.  “Still can smell him, now that I think of it, but it’s not very strong this time around.  Trouble in Paradise, pet?”
 
“I... you... it’s complicated,” she mumbled, “and you’re disgusting. That is so not what we need to talk about!”
 
“Alright then, Slayer.” He fastened his pants and pulled a tee shirt over his head. “What’s so important that you needed to interrupt the only sleep I’ve had in two days?”  He picked up his boots and sat on the bed.  “Do I need to put my boots on, or is it enough that I covered up my goodies?”
 
“Asshole,” she said, looking around for a chair. He raised his eyebrows and patted the bed beside him, but Buffy just rolled her eyes and settled for leaning against the ladder.  “Okay, here’s the thing – and I’m sorry for waking you up, by the way,” she said with sincerity, as she remembered where he’d been. “I forgot that you’ve been on the road since I called you.”
 
“’S alright, pet. I was just pulling your chain. Got to admit, though, it feels pretty good to get an ‘I’m sorry’ out of a slayer. Not something I’m used to from you bints.”
 
“Way to remind me of who and what you are, Spike,” she said, her face suddenly much sadder than before.
 
“Didn’t know you’d forgotten it,” he said, his own expression as non-committal as he could make it. “Thought we’d established it was pretty important to you – you being all that’s good and me bein’ all that’s... not good.”
 
“I haven’t forgotten it,” she said. “I never forget it. Hence the me being over here and you over there.”
 
“So, if I wasn’t all evil and whatnot, there’d be a chance?”
 
The look he gave her made her heart beat faster and her breathing increase.  She could see that he’d noticed, and watched as his eyes darkened. She held up her hand to forestall any movement on his part.
 
“I know you can tell how I...  but that’s all just physical stuff. I don’t know why I... we... seem to... but it’s all hormones and... and something else I can’t think of right now. It doesn’t mean anything except that we probably shouldn’t spend too much time alone... together... where....” Her voice trailed off as he ignored her still-upright hand and flowed off the bed to face her.
 
“Alone, together? You mean like now? In my bedroom? Where nobody can see us?”
 
“You... you’re pushing me...” she almost whimpered, leaning toward him in spite of herself. “You said you’d wait....”
 
“Want you too bad,” he whispered back, his lips just brushing hers. “Want to kiss you all over, want to hold you, feel you around me, bury myself in you forever....” He ran his lips down her neck and sucked on the soft skin there. When he felt her flinch, he recovered himself and stepped back, leaving her relieved and disappointed at the same time.
 
He turned away from her and took a deep breath before speaking. “Let me explain something Buffy. About me.  On the one hand, there’s the part of me that’s still William, a gently raised Victorian man who would be content.... Well, almost content,” he muttered, giving an embarrassed shrug. “William actually spent most of his adult life trying to hide the effect women were having on him.” 
 
He blew out an exasperated sigh.  “Never mind that. The point is, there’s a part of me that could and would worship you from afar, writing bad poetry and being grateful for the touch of your hand or a kind word. And that part of me is what keeps me from tryin’ to nudge you into something you aren’t ready to give me. That part wants to love you. But he wants to be loved in return, and I know that pushing you to do something you may regret isn’t the best way to make that happen.”
 
He turned and faced her, letting his true face out. “But the other part of me, the part that’s been all me for most of the past 126 years, is pure demon. And the demon wants you, Slayer. Wants you every way he can possibly have you, and a few ways I haven’t even tried yet. And when he—I—can sense your body responding to mine....” He shook his head, going back to his normal human face.
 
“You see the problem,” he said. “William wants to believe he has to earn your... affection. The demon can tell when your body wants me.”  He met her eyes with as much honesty as he could put into his gaze. “It’s hard, love. I’ll do my best, but sometimes I’m going to slip.”
 
Buffy stared at him, her mind whirling not only with what she’d just learned about Spike and his background, but with the implications of what he was saying. His ability to control his demon, as well as his belief that he was still the man he’d been when alive, flew in the face of everything she thought she knew about vampires.
 
“So... so what are you saying?  That I... that you shouldn’t be here?”
 
He shook his head and stepped back in front of her, resting his hands on her shoulders. “Not saying that at all. Told you I’d help if you needed me – and I meant it. William and the demon are agreed on that much. Won’t let anything hurt you or yours if I have to dust to keep it from happening.” His gaze never left hers as he willed her to believe him. 
 
“But I am a demon, love. Got no soul to keep me from overstepping my boundaries.”  He dropped his hands and turned away. “I guess what I’m saying is... Bloody hell!” He threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know what I’m sayin’. Maybe I’m just trying to apologize in advance for anything I do that brasses you off. In case I do it while we’re in the middle of some kind of crisis and I don’t have time to explain or grovel.” 
 
“I’m having a hard time imagining you groveling,” Buffy said with a small smile. “Although now that I think about it, it could be....” She slapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh God, I shouldn’t talk to you like that, should I? I take it back!”
 
He shook his head with a laugh. “You probably shouldn’t. Letting me know you’re having naughty thoughts isn’t going to be the best way of getting me to back off.  But I don’t want you to feel like you have to walk on eggshells around me. I’m a big boy. I can handle a little harmless flirtin’ without letting it go to my head... not this head, anyway,” he said, tapping his forehead and grinning at her.
 
“And there he is, piggy Spike!” 
 
“Sauce for the goose, love.” He sat back down and rested against the back of the bed. “Now, back to what you’re doing here when I wasn’t going to see you till later.”
 
Buffy shook her head, blushing all the way down her to her chest.  “I’m not sure I remember...” She threw a clod of dirt at him when he laughed and curled his tongue up in his mouth. “Oh yeah. So, it looks like Glory is brainsucking people to keep her energy up – so we have to watch out for that. And she’s... she’s a human sometimes. A for real human. And he’s one of the doctors at the hospital. He kinda tried to warn me, but some things he can talk about and some he can’t, so I don’t really know....”
 
Spike had sat up at the mention of a human. “She spends part of her time as a normal human?”
 
“Yeah, Giles can tell you about it, I don’t understand it, but I believe it because I almost saw Ben change—"
 
“You know what this means, Slayer?”
 
“That Ben can’t be near my mother or Dawn? Yeah, figured that out already. That’s why Dawn was here last night, and why I’m going to bring Mom and Dawn here tonight—Why are you looking at me like that?”
 
“Then all we have to do is take out this Ben character, and problem solved! Right?”
 
“Wrong!!!! Wrong, Spike! We don’t kill innocent humans just because some hellgod has decided to live inside them when she’s not out hellgodding.”
 
He gave her a hard stare, his eyes flaring yellow.  “Right. Silly me.” 
 
Unsure of what he meant, and anxious to get back to see if she could take Joyce out of the hospital, Buffy turned to go up the ladder.  She paused half-way up and turned to see him leaning back, eyes shut and a defeated expression on his face.
 
“By the way, Giles wants to talk with you before the meeting tonight. He wouldn’t tell me why.”
 
Spike just nodded silently without opening his eyes, and after waiting a few seconds, Buffy continued up the ladder and out of the crypt.