CHAPTER TWO
 
After a few more quiet Scooby meetings in which Spike was conspicuously absent, Buffy’s snapped out, “Who the hell cares?” when asked if she knew where he’d been lately. Her overly emphatic response had everyone staring at her in varying degrees of shock or satisfaction.
 
“So,” Xander clearly tried not to sound too curious, “does that mean you finally staked him?”  If there was an undercurrent of concern that the only other man even close to his age might not be around to hang around and banter with him, no one else noticed it... until Anya spoke up.
 
“You know you don’t want Buffy to stake Spike. You said so just yesterday, remember? You said it was kind of nice having some guys your age around for a change. Not that Spike is really your age, of course, he’s much older than you or Giles, but—”
 
“That enough, Ahn. I didn’t mean I cared if she staked him, just that I was getting used to—never mind.  I’m guessing she didn’t... did you, Buffy?”
 
“No. I didn’t stake him. Letting stupid things fall out of your mouth isn’t a slaying offense. Not yet, anyway.”  She stared at Xander. “What other guy your age were you talking about?  I know it can’t be Giles! He’s like... ancient. Older than my mom, even.”
 
“In the room,” Giles muttered, retreating behind his desk and trying to read the book lying open there.
 
“I meant the guy Willow says is all hot and heavy for you. The guy in your psych class?”
 
“Oh.” Buffy blushed. “You mean Riley. He’s the TA and yeah, we’re kind of sort of.... but the spell kinda put the brakes on that.  I mean, I was gone for two days – when those demons had us,” she quickly added. “And then there was more spelling, and other... stuff, and I just haven’t seen much of him lately.  Only in class and sometimes he buys me lunch.  I guess I should do something about that... He seems like a nice guy. All human and normal and... like that. Yep, I should definitely be doing something about reminding him that we were working on a thing.”
 
Willow frowned at Buffy.  “You mean you still haven’t told him that you were under a spell when you said you were getting married?  That was weeks ago!”
 
Buffy flushed and ducked her head.  “Well, I mean... how do I explain that the redhead he thinks is so brilliant put a spell on me that made me think I was getting married to a vampire?  How do I explain about vampires?  It just seemed like it would lead to awkward questions, you know?”
 
“Right. Whereas letting him think you were getting married isn’t awkward at all.”
 
“Okay, fine. I’ll try to find a way to sneak it into a conversation. I think we’re having lunch tomorrow....”
 
Giles looked up from his books. “Buffy, I don’t know that I think it’s wise of you to share too much with this man you hardly know. If he truly is one of those responsible for Spike’s condition, then there is a great deal you still don’t know about him.”
 
“I know he’s a nice, normal guy. And he might know something about vampires, I guess. He just doesn’t know that I know about them.”
 
 
XXXX
 
 
Which changed a week later when Riley and his team ended up in the same bell tower where Buffy was fighting to destroy the Gentlemen....
 
Rather than answering the questions Riley was obviously planning to ask after her scream had made the Gentlemens’ heads explode, Buffy just gave him a weak smile and a wave.
 
“Hey. Hi! Gotta go. Studying to do.”
 
She ran past him and down the stairs, ignoring the shouts of “Hey!” and “Stop her!” from his men. She ran to Giles’s to double check that everyone had their voices back, turning down his offer to get some sleep there in favor of returning to her own home to check on her mother. She wasn’t sure if Olivia’s sigh was one of relief that they were going to be left alone, or resignation that it wouldn’t have occurred to Giles not to make the offer.  Buffy smiled weakly and asked if she was having a good visit. There was an uncomfortable silence for several seconds before Giles cleared his throat and explained that Olivia did not care for her taste of life on the Hellmouth, and would be returning to England the following morning.
 
“Oh. Well that’s too bad. I mean I know those guys were creepy and all, but usually we don’t get anything that bad until Spring, and then I have to slay something to save the world, and... I’m not helping, am I?”
 
 
XXXXX
 
 
Buffy’s good mood and feeling of accomplishment were ruined when she found her mother and Spike sitting in the kitchen.
 
“What is he doing here?” She turned her glare on Spike.  “What are you doing here?”
 
“Buffy! Spike is a guest. Don’t speak to him like that.”
 
“Spike is a piece of unsoulled, piggy, vampire dust-waiting-to-happen. Not guest material, Mom.”  She turned her attention back to the uncharacteristically quiet vampire. “Answer me, Spike. What are you doing here?”
 
“I reckoned you’d be busy being all heroic and whatnot,” he growled. “Thought maybe your mum could use somebody to make sure her heart stays in her chest where it belongs.”
 
“It’s not your job to guard my mother!”  Seeing Joyce’s steadily growing anger, Buffy realized that her response to finding Spike in the house was an overreaction that she needed to tone down if she wasn’t going to be explaining to her mother why she was so unreasonably angry at someone she’d been spending a lot of time with until fairly recently.
 
“But thanks, anyway,” she mumbled, with as apologetic a shrug as she could manage.  “I was busy making creepy guys go boom.”  She took a deep breath and smiled at her mom. “So, you’re okay? Got your voice back and no ugly guys trying to get in the house?”
 
“There was some kind of creature trying to get through the door, but Spike threw him out in the yard and had a fight with him. I was just about to try to patch him up when you came and—”
 
For the first time, Buffy took a good look at Spike and saw that he was developing a black eye and that he had deep scratches on the side of his face.  She grimaced with guilt as her hand went to his cheek, just barely brushing the scratches.
 
“They’ve got long arms, don’t they?” she said, for lack of any better idea how to apologize.
 
“Had some reach on me,” he admitted. “How’d you handle ‘em?”
 
“You don’t want to know,” she said, remembering that the soldiers were not Spike’s favorite residents of Sunnydale.
 
“Little help from the military?” he guessed, smiling when she flinched.  “Come on, Slayer. It’s not like we don’t know that’s what your new boytoy is. Him and his over-fed, over-muscled mates. Stands to reason they’d have been out looking too. Could’ve been worse.”
 
“Worse than Riley watching me kick ugly minion ass and then scream until their creepy bosses exploded?” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, nothing impresses a guy like watching a girl beat up something he can’t. And then get rid of the rest of them by shrieking like a banshee.”
 
“What did you tell him, Buffy? Doesn’t he know about your slayer duties?” Joyce frowned in genuine confusion.
 
“Giles doesn’t like for too many people to know about me. Especially people who are pretending not to be what they really are.”
 
“Watcher’s probably right, luv,” Spike said, taking the ice bag Joyce handed him and smiling his thanks at her. He pressed it to his eye and continued talking to Buffy. “You’re every bit as... unusual... as any vampire or demon. And if he’s seen you in action, he’s gonna be looking for an explanation.  What did you tell him?” he asked, repeating Joyce’s question.
 
“I told him I had studying to do and I ran out,” she admitted, glaring at Spike when he snorted.
 
 “Well, that was brilliant.”
 
“I didn’t feel like trying to explain right then!  I wanted to check on Mom, and tell Giles it was over, and go back to my room and sleep!”
 
“Why don’t you stay here tonight?” Joyce asked. “You could get up early and I’ll drop you at your dorm on my way to work.  You too, Spike,” she said. “There’s still a cot in the basement. You can stay here if you want to.”
 
While Buffy sputtered, “Oh no he can’t!” Spike smirked at her, but said, “I appreciate the offer, Joyce, but I found a place for myself the other night and I should probably make sure it’s still mine. Got some more work to do to make it homey.”
 
“I can’t stay, Mom. I really do have some reading to do before bed, and the closer I am to my classes, the later I can sleep in tomorrow. But thanks. I wish I could. I miss my own comfy bed. I’d better get going. It’ll take me a while to get from here to the dorm.”
 
“She can save the world, but she can’t drive a car....” Spike’s comment was barely audible, although Joyce’s smile told him she’d guessed what it was.
 
Buffy’s suspicious “What did you say?” got an innocent blink.
 
“Said my car’s jus’ down the street. Could ride you back to your uncomfortable little bed if you like.”
 
She narrowed her eyes, but the idea of walking all the way to the campus when she could ride was too stupid to pass on his offer.
 
“Fine.  Let’s go.”
 
Spike put the icebag in the sink and thanked Joyce again for her offer of a place to stay.
 
“I should be thanking you. I don’t know what I would have done if that creature had actually come in the house when you weren’t here.”
 
“You’d have hit it with an axe or something,” he said with a grin. “Know good and well where Buffy got her knack for whacking things, don’t I?”
 
From the laugh Spike and Joyce shared, Buffy could tell it wasn’t the first time they’d talked about their first meeting. Rolling her eyes at the way they obviously thought it was a funny memory, Buffy gave her mother a hug and went to the door.
 
“Come on, Spike. While you’re driving me home, you can explain to me why you’re so buddy-buddy with my mom.”
 
“It’s ‘cause she’s nicer to be around than you are, Slayer,” he said, waving his good-bye as he followed Buffy out the door. “Thought that’d be obvious.”
 
“Ha, ha.”
 
“’s truth, pet. She’s right nice, your mum is.”
 
“I can be nice!”
 
“’Course you can. Never doubted it... just haven’t seen it.” He laughed and ducked away from the punch she threw at his head.
 
When they reached his car, he sped up and opened the passenger side door for her. Buffy’s eyes went wide, and he quickly shook the keys at her. “Had to unlock it, Slayer. Don’t leave my baby unprotected in this town.”  Muttering to himself, he walked around, unlocked the driver’s side door and slid behind the wheel.
 
Buffy got in gingerly, but was surprised to see that the interior, at least in the front seats, was relatively clean. She peered into the back and found the expected empty cans and bottles on the floor.
 
“Okay, that looks more like what I expected to see in here. You had me worried for a while there – with the opening the door for me and the clean front seat.”
 
To her surprise, he didn’t answer immediately, and she could see a muscle twitch in his cheek.
 
“Are you growling at me?”
 
He blew out his breath and shook his head. “No, Slayer. Not growling at you. Growling at myself for being a stupid git.”
 
“I don’t get it.”
 
“Too bloody right you don’t,” was his terse reply.  “We’re here.”  He stopped the car in front of the main gate into the dorm area and waited, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.
 
“What flew up your butt?”
 
“Nothing. What do you care? Don’t want to talk to me anyway, do you?”
 
Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really want to me remind of that? I was trying to forget about it because you came to take care of my mom, but I can go there if you really want to...”
 
He sighed and dropped his head against the back of the seat.  “No. I don’t want to go there, but I reckon I should.” He turned his head and met her glare.  “It was stupid and uncalled for, and you had every right to be brassed off.  My only defense is that my nose hurt, and knowin’ I couldn’t hit you back, I—” He sighed. “Wasn’t my finest moment, I admit.”
 
“So if you could have hit me back...” She rolled her eyes. “Spike, if you could’ve hit me back, I would’ve had to stake you. That was the whole point – you tried to kill somebody.”
 
“Did not.”
 
“You said you did!”
 
“I said I tried to bite somebody. Didn’t say a bloody thing about killing him. Jus’ needed to see if I could bite. If I could defend myself against—Wasn’t planning to kill him. I just needed to know. You decided I’d tried to kill somebody and used it as an excuse to beat me up.” He dropped his head back again and closed his eyes. “Didn’t give me time to explain.”
 
“You make it sound like it was my fault you said... what you said. I didn’t ask you to talk about what we did like it was something—” She waved a hand around, at a loss for what to call his crude version of their time under the spell.
 
“It wasn’t.” He interrupted her, shaking his head. “You know it wasn’t. I was just shooting off my mouth, trying to hurt you.”
 
“Congratulations.”
 
“Yeah. Got that memo. I’m sorry, lo—Slayer.”
 
“Well you oughtta be....” She tipped her head to look at him out of the corner of her eyes. “You’re really sorry?”
 
“Was sorry before the words were all the way out of my soddin’ mouth,” he said. “Can’t tell you how much I wanted to take them back. But it was too late, wasn’t it? Figured I was lucky not to be blowing in the wind.”
 
Buffy frowned. “I never really thought about staking you. Which is kinda weird... I just wanted to get away from you and not have to look at you or hear you anymore.”
 
She saw him flinch.
 
“Did I mention – sorry?”
 
“You did. But it bears repeating. Possibly every day for the next couple of weeks...” When he turned his head to growl at her, she giggled, which turned his growl into a reluctant smile.
 
“You’re pushing it, Slayer.”
 
“Yep. I am. How often are you gonna feel bad enough about something you do to apologize to me? I’m going to... to savor it.”
 
He gave a rueful chuckle.  “Guess you’re entitled at that.  Alright, savor away, pet.”
 
They were quiet for a moment, then Buffy sighed and pulled the handle to open her door.  “I do have to get in. If I’m lucky, I won’t fall face down in the middle of Shakespeare’s sonnets.”
 
“Old Will’s sonnets can be right amusing if you pick the right ones. You’ll be alright.”
 
There was another silence while Buffy stared at him with wide eyes, a frown forming as she digested Spike’s words and his I-didn’t-really-say-that expression.
 
“Did you just—“
 
“Nope. Didn’t. Time to go, Slayer. Don’t slam the door when you get out. Good night.”
 
Without meeting her eyes, he conspicuously put the car in gear and waited for her to get out. Still frowning at him, she opened the door and put her legs out, then turned to say, “We’re going to talk about this again.”
 
“No we’re not.  Night-night, Buffy.”
 
Shaking her head, she got out of the car. “Thanks for the ride, Spike. And yes we are.” She closed the door gently and stepped away as the car began to move away. She stared after it, the puzzled frown never leaving her face.