MORE TOIL AND TROUBLE (a sequel to Double Bubble, Toil and...)
 
CHAPTER ONE
 
“Where’s Spike?”  Buffy’s sent her gaze around the living room as casually as she could without missing any corners.  While part of her breathed a sign of relief at not having to spend another evening awkwardly avoiding any mention of their time spent under Willow’s spells, and avoiding his occasional surreptitious wink, another part of her missed his presence at their Scooby meetings. In just a short amount of time, they’d all become so used to him that they noticed when he wasn’t there.
 
“What do you care?”  Willow fixed Buffy with a suspicious gaze. Although Buffy insisted Willow had misunderstood her when she’d appeared to admit having had sex with Spike, she still hadn’t been able to completely convince her that it didn’t happen.
 
“Maybe I’m concerned because somebody threatened to make his chip start firing until it fried his brain,” Buffy snapped, her glare reminding Willow that she was not anyone’s favorite person just then.  With her magic still just barely a tingle on the back of her neck, Willow appeared appropriately apologetic instead of snapping back as Buffy could tell she wanted to.
 
“I wouldn’t really have done it,” Willow said with a tentative, but forced, smile. Buffy stared at her coldly, then relaxed and sighed.
 
“I’d really like to think so, Wills, but you know, you were really out of control there for a while.”
 
“I was in perfect control!” Willow clapped her hands over her mouth as she realized what she’d said. Buffy saw Giles’s head snap up from where he’d appeared engrossed in something at his desk. His narrowed eyes didn’t bode well for Willow’s chances of being trusted again anytime soon.
 
“So, then you did all that stuff to us on purpose? Is that right? You tried to get Xander killed, and made Giles blind, and tried to make Spike and me—” Buffy remembered what Giles had called it at the same time Willow did and she shuddered. “You tried to rape us.”
 
“No! No, Giles is wrong. It wasn’t rape. I was just giving you both something to do that would keep you busy. Nobody was raping anybody.”
 
“So, you think I’d have had—wanted to have—sex with Spike if I wasn’t under a spell?”
 
“Ewww! No. Of course not! .... Would you?”
 
“No! Kinda my point, Willow. I would have been doing it against my will.”
 
“But you didn’t do it. Or so you say. You said the demons stopped you the first time.  And the last time....”
 
“The last time, Spike wasn’t under a spell and he could tell I was. He didn’t want to.” Buffy bit her lip at the lie she knew she was telling, but decided it was the safest route. “But if I’d made him do it anyway, I would have been raping him – because of something you did.”
 
Xander held up his hand. “Speaking as someone who shares the same Y chromosome, can I just say Spike probably wouldn’t see it that way?”
 
“It doesn’t matter how he would have seen it. That’s what I would have been doing. I’m stronger than he is. If I’d really tried to make him.... well, even if he didn’t mind doing it, it still wouldn’t have been his idea.” Buffy turned away from her friends’ curious looks.  “Giles? Where is he? Did you put him back in the tub?”
 
Giles shook his head and answered her absently, his attention focused on a very real concern at Willow’s lack of understanding about her dangerous use of magic and obvious resentment at being called on it.
 
“No. I’ve determined he’s harmless as long as that chip is functioning, and he has shown himself to be... perhaps not as mindlessly evil as he seems.  I told him he could go out and try to find himself a safe place to live. Somewhere the soldiers are unlikely to find him again, and somewhere not here, interfering with my privacy.”
 
“Privacy?” Xander mimicked Giles’s British pronunciation. “What do you need privacy for? It’s not like you have a date or something.”  Xander’s grin faded at Giles’s cold stare.  “Do you?”
 
Somewhat stiffly, Giles said, “I do have an... old friend... from England flying in next week to spend some time in this country. She will be staying here, and I would prefer not to subject her to Spike’s presence.”
 
“So you’re turning him loose on Sunnydale, just ‘cause you have a hot date?”
 
“The alternative would be to send him home with you. Would you have preferred that?”
 
Xander’s eyes grew wide. “Sunnydale’s populace it is. You’re on your own, people.” He put his arm around Anya and pulled her against his side.
 
Buffy sighed. On the one hand, it was nice not to have to spend the evening avoiding Spike’s knowing eyes, or his suggestive lip licking, on the other hand....
 
“I guess I’d better go patrol. I’ll keep an eye out for Spike in case he’s doing something he shouldn’t be.”
 
“Isn’t that pretty much everything he does?” Anya asked in all seriousness.
 
“Yeah. Most of the time, I guess it is. All the more reason to keep track of where he is and what he’s doing.”
 
“If you think he’s going to be that big a problem, Buff, why don’t you just stake him?”
 
“Why, indeed,” Giles muttered as Buffy blushed and struggled for an answer.
 
Ignoring Giles’s almost under-his-breath comment, Buffy shrugged. “It’s not going to be a big deal. I’ll probably run into him in some cemetery every once in a while, and Willy can keep me in the loop on whatever else he’s is doing.  If it’s evil, he goes poof! If it isn’t, then it really isn’t any of my business what he does.”
 
Having said her piece, and not wanting to answer any more questions, Buffy waved and went out the door.  “If it’s not too late, Giles, I’ll report back. Otherwise, I’ll catch you tomorrow.”  She grinned at Willow and Xander. “I can’t wait to meet your ‘old friend’.”
 
If Giles responded, she didn’t hear it over the sound of her friends’ laughter as she pulled the door shut behind her.
 
 
XXXX
 
 
She was strolling through Restfield, one of the older cemeteries, when she felt familiar tingles on her neck. Two days in such close physical contact with Spike had given her body an awareness of his signature far greater than what she would get from a run-of-the-mill vamp.  Pretending she had no idea he was there, she continued her stroll, twirling her stake and humming to herself.
 
She giggled when he leapt off the roof of a crypt, not trying to hide his disappointment that she wasn’t startled.
 
“What’s wrong with you? If I’d wanted to kill you—”
 
“If you weren’t you – which I knew you were – then I wouldn’t have been so casual. Stop pouting. I knew it was you.”
 
“Humph!” he snorted, falling into step beside her. “I’m not sure if I should be flattered or annoyed that you could tell it was me.”
 
“I’m not sure about that either,” Buffy admitted. “But I can. Ever since we....”
 
 “Makes sense, when you put it that way,” he agreed. “It’s not like I wouldn’t be able to pick your scent out of a crowd without even tryin’.”
 
“So I guess one of us trying to sneak up on the other is not worth the effort, huh?”
 
“Guess not.  Why? Were you feelin’ sneaky?”
 
“Not right now. But you never know when I might have to sneak up on you to catch you doing something evil.”
 
“Note to self, the Slayer’s willing to sneak to catch me being evil.” He cocked his head at her. “Isn’t the normal Scooby line that I’m being evil just by existing? No sneaking necessary.”
 
Buffy blushed but shrugged her agreement. “Not being evil, but doing something evil. There’s a fine line.”
 
“If you say so, pet. Pretty sure you’ve mentioned more than once that my unsoulled self is evil personified. Remember it well, truth be told.”
 
“Well, that was before... Are you trying to make me stake you?”
 
He brushed against her arm and bumped her with his hip.  “Just pullin’ your chain, Slayer.”  When she didn’t move away, he brushed against her again. “Are you sayin’ my little demonstration of self-control made an impression on you? Evilness- wise?”
 
“Well,” she said as she pushed him away. “It did show me that if I catch you being – doing – something evil, it won’t be because you can’t control your true nature. I’ll know you’re being evil on purpose.”
 
“Hmmmm. So, my gentlemanly behavior might come back and bite me on the arse?”
 
“I dunno. Maybe? I mean now that I know you can be....” She trailed off, not sure what she now thought she knew about him.
 
“Charming, considerate, fun, sexy, a perfect gentleman and a brilliant lover?  Stop me when I run of things you could call me.”
 
“I doubt I could run out things you might call you,” she said with a snort of laughter.  “I’d have to stop at... nice.  You can be nice,” she said firmly. “That’s as good as you’ll get from me. Take it or leave it.”
 
“NICE? I keep you from seducing me on your watcher’s couch and nice is the best you can do? I backed up your story so your little gang of holier than thou Scoobies wouldn’t know what we did for two full days.” As he warmed to his subject, he began to raise his voice and wave his arms around. “And I... I...”
 
“And you said you’re not going to stop trying to get me back into bed,” Buffy finished for him. “Just so you know, that doesn’t count as being any of those things you want to think you are. Duck!”
 
A seasoned fighter, even if he was still more used to fighting against Buffy than with her, Spike dropped to the ground and rolled in time to see Buffy take the head off a demon that was bringing a club down just where Spike had been standing.  He continued rolling until he was far enough away to see Buffy face off against three more of the odd-looking creatures wielding clubs. Rather than coming at her one at a time, they moved apart and tried to encircle her. With a roar, he covered the space in one leap, just in time to block a blow to her blind side.
 
“Demons that know how to fight by ganging up on me,” Buffy gasped as she took the head off one of the two remain demons.  “What’s the world coming to?”
 
Spike had wrestled the club away from his opponent and was busy whacking away with it while Buffy dealt with the lone remaining foe.  When she had dodged often enough to be tired of it, she flipped over the demon’s head and sliced his club-wielding arm off with her sword.  She landed in a fighting position, poised on the balls of her feet, sword at the ready, but the hapless one-armed creature stared at his missing arm for a moment, then gave a scream and went running off, leaving arm and club behind.
 
“Spike, I think you’ve made your point,” Buffy said, leaning against a tree and watching him continue to pound the obviously dead body in front of him, his expression one of sheer glee.
 
“Just wanted to make sure the wanker wasn’t getting up again,” he said, letting the ichor-covered club drop to the ground. “Feels good to be able to fight back again.”
 
“About that....” Buffy’s sword was still dangling from her hand, loosely held, but clearly not put away.  “Why didn’t your chip fire?”
 
“Doesn’t fire when I hit other demons – just humans.” He glanced sideways at her, watching her expression carefully.
 
“And you know that because...” She lifted the sword just enough to be able to bring it into play quickly.
 
“Because we fought our way out of that demon gang that captured us. Don’t you remember?”
 
“Spike, we made that up, remember? There was no gang of demons, just us and a skeevy motel room.”
 
“But that’s what we told your little band of do-gooders, isn’t it? So that’s how I would know I can hurt demons.”  He beamed at her, pleased with his explanation.
 
“I’m not asking you what you’re going to tell anybody else. I’m asking you how you know. How do you know that now?”
 
He shuffled his feet, seeming embarrassed, then sighed.  “I ran into one of my old minions earlier tonight and he brassed me off so bad I hit him without thinking about it – and nothing happened. No electricity in my head, no headache. Made him dust – just to be sure – and then I tried it out on a couple other former employees that couldn’t be arsed to help me when I needed it. No pain at all... not for me anyway,” he finished in a mutter, his head turned away from her.
 
“Maybe the chip has quit working. Did you think about that? Maybe you can kill again and I should just—” She raised the sword and gestured to his neck.  Spike danced back a few steps and help up his hands.
 
“No, no. Easy there, Slayer. Chip works just fine on humans.”
 
Buffy just raised an eyebrow at him and waited for him to answer her obvious question.  He moved back a little more and ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck.
 
“Might have tried it out.... just for the sake of experimentation, you understand?  Needed to know if I—”
 
“You tried to kill somebody?”  She advanced on him, keeping pace with his rapid back-pedaling.
 
“Not as such, no!” he sputtered. “I mean, I might have tried to have a little taste of—” Buffy’s blow to his face interrupted his explanation. She’d dropped the sword and began to hit him, spitting out curses between her clenched teeth.
 
“You tried to kill somebody. You tried to eat somebody! Xander was right. If that chip ever comes out, you’ll go right back to killing. Give me one reason I shouldn’t dust you right now!”
 
Spike cowered under her blows, but made no attempt to fight back until she caught him in the nose. He retaliated the only way he could – with words.
 
“Ow! You self-righteous bitch! I’m a vampire! What the bloody hell did you think I was going to do?  Wear a white hat and sip pig swill for the rest of my life just because the Slayer let me into her knickers?”
 
Buffy’s face went white, but rather than dealing the lethal blow he was already cringing away from, she froze and stared at him, ignoring the growing regret she could easily read in his eyes.
 
“Buffy... I—”
 
She chopped the air with her hand.  “No. Don’t talk to me. Don’t ever talk to me. Just stay away, Spike. Far, far away. I can’t believe I was that stupid.” 
 
She whirled, grabbing her sword off the ground without even looking, and began to march away, blinking back what she told herself were tears of anger. She didn’t turn around to see what Spike was doing, so missed the way he slumped to the ground, head down, hands dangling between his knees. She couldn’t hear the names he was calling himself, nor could she see the pain on his face that had nothing to do with his broken nose.