CHAPTER SIX
 
Daylight coming through the dirty windows cast a dim, but visible light into the room, waking Buffy who groaned as she stretched.  With no idea what time it was, she remained on her uncomfortable bed and tried to remember the previous night’s events.
 
Patrolled and killed some vamps – so yay! Riley saw me doing it and also heard me say Spike was mine, so less with the yay. Told everybody I had sex with Spike for two days. Very not a yay. Overheard Riley and his men talk about grabbing me and taking me in with them – even more of a not yay. Let Spike give me a happy while we were rolling around in the bushes.... Wow. Hard not to call that a yay, but... encouraging the vampire to think we’re.... Gah!
 
With that thought, Buffy sat up and looked around the now dimly lit room. Without the flattering candlelight, the cast off furniture Spike had found looked even shabbier than it had the night before and Buffy had an uncomfortable moment in which she couldn’t believe she was hiding out in a crypt, with Spike, never mind letting him— The sight of him, sound asleep and apparently naked under a red sheet on top of a stone sarcophagus interrupted that line of thought.
 
She tiptoed toward him, thinking when he was still, how much he looked like the corpse he was.  When his chest rose up and down, just as a human’s would when sleeping, she blinked and backed up, but he just rolled over, pulling the sheet with him and exposing most of his muscular back down to the curve of his ass. She noted that the dent from the missing flesh taken from him in the lab was already filled in and the scar over it was much less noticeable than it had been when he first showed it to her.
 
Before she thought about what she was doing, she had reached out and brushed her fingers over the scar, causing Spike to stiffen and flinch, then relax and roll back over to face her. With the sheet now barely covering his legs and lower torso, Buffy struggled for a safe place to look. The sleepy, amused, and very warm eyes looking at her didn’t seem to be a good choice.
 
“Did you need something, love?” he asked.
 
“No. No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just—”
 
“Just couldn’t keep your hands off my hot, little body?”
 
She laughed, blushing as she did so. “Hah! You wish!”
 
“You know I do, Buffy,” he responded in a more serious tone as he sat up and pulled the sheet around his waist.
 
“I don’t suppose you have a clock in here?” she said, avoiding his comment and looking around the room for one rather than look at his so tempting body.
 
“No. All I care about is sunrise and sunset. But if I had to guess, I’d say sun’s been up for a couple of hours, so prob’ly about 7:30 or so.”
 
Buffy sighed and stared around again. “There’s no bathroom in a crypt, is there?”
 
“Not yet. You’ve got two choices, pet. The bushes outside the door, or I can take you down below and you can find your way to the sewer.”
 
“Awesome...”
 
“Sorry, luv. If I’d known you were going to be spending the night here, I would have found a way to make it more comfortable for you.”
 
“I’m not complaining,” she said quickly. “It beats trying to find a place to hide by myself.  But I do need to pee,” she added, making a face. “Bushes in the daylight, or the sewers in the dark....”
 
“I’d go with the bushes, if I were you. No one’s likely to be out and about this early in the morning. And not much traffic back here in this old part of the cemetery anyway.”
 
“Fine. The bushes it is.” She walked toward the door, looking over her shoulder. “Don’t peek!”
 
The sound of his laughter followed her out the door, which she left just enough ajar that she could get back in easily.  To the right of the door were some overgrown shrubs that Buffy could easily slip behind and take care of her bodily needs.  She was quickly done, and emerged to gaze around in the daylight, taking note of the other nearby graves and crypts, as well as the unpaved drive a short distance away that seemed to meander in the direction of the main gate. Satisfied that she could find her way back when she needed to, she opened the door and slipped inside.
 
“I wonder why they never make the roads in cemeteries in straight lines?” she mused to herself as she pulled the door closed. She couldn’t decide if she was disappointed or happy to find that Spike had put his jeans on while she was outside.
 
He stretched his arms over his head, giving her a view of his flexed biceps and flat abs as he pretended not to notice her. When he grinned at her muffled gasp, she blushed and threw a candle at his head.  Catching it in one hand, he laughed as he set it on his bed. “Something wrong, pet?”
 
“You did that on purpose, you... you... showing off person!” she sputtered, glaring at him. “How would you like it if I did something like that to you, huh?”
 
“That would be entirely different, Slayer,” he said, all laughter gone.
 
“How would it be different? If I was half-dressed and showing off my body, you’d call it... you’d call it what you called it before when I just wanted to snuggle.”
 
“I probably would,” he admitted. “Because it would be. If you were just waving it in my face and telling me I couldn’t have it at the same time... that would be teasing.  Taunting the demon with what he couldn’t have.”
 
“So what were you doing?”
 
“Just showing you what was available. It’s yours for the taking, Buffy. Any place, any time. I wasn’t dangling something that’s out of your reach, I’m just throwing out a lure and hoping you’ll bite. Completely different thing.”
 
Unable to think of a quick counter to his very logical explanation, she shook her head and gazed around again. “No phone either, huh?”
 
“I’ve only been here a little while. I’m working on things like electricity, running water, a real bed.... but it takes time. Next time you’re here, it’ll be different, I promise.” He pulled on a shirt and walked toward her. “What’s the plan for today?”
 
She shrugged. “That’s why I wanted a phone. I need to call Giles and see what he wants me to do. I should go to class, but if Riley and his guys are going to try to grab me...” She shrugged again and gave him a little smile that grew into a grin. “I guess I could let them try, couldn’t I? That might be fun.”
 
He smiled back at her and nodded, but said, “Much as I’d enjoy watching you teach them what a slayer really is, luv, even you can’t fight guns and tasers.”
 
She pouted. “I suppose not. But I’d really like to kick some soldier butt... possibly starting with my about-to-be-ex ‘boyfriend’.”
 
“Tell you what, Slayer. Why don’t I take you through the sewers till we get close to your watcher’s place?” He seemed to think for a moment, then said, “Better yet, we can go to the caretaker’s house and you can call from there to see if it’s safe.”
 
“The caretaker’s house? Somebody lives here? A human? How is he not a vamp?”
 
“He’s a pretty savvy old guy. I’ve known him a long time. Since my first trip to Sunnydale. Got himself a little mojo on the house and makes damn sure he doesn’t set foot out of it at night.  He’s going to help me get some electricity and what-not here.”
 
“Nothing personal, but if he’s so savvy, why is he helping you?” She smiled to soften her comment, but Spike nodded his agreement and smiled back.
 
“He had to get savvy the hard way... before I had my little operation, back when I was the master of Sunnydale, I had to stop a few minions from eating him. He was cutting it pretty close getting home, and they’d put up a road block so his car would be stopped too far away for him to make it on foot. He’d been right accommodating to me when I was searching for some things I needed, and he was on my untouchable list. Minions knew that, but they thought they could get away with disobeying me.” His expression hardened.  “They were wrong.”
 
“So you saved his life. When you were still evil.”
 
“His life was already safe – or was supposed to be anyway. First thing I did when the watcher cut me loose was go to old Jim and tell him I needed a place to live.”
 
He shook himself.  “Anyway, old news. Point is, he has a phone and I’m sure he’d be happy to let you use it. He knows who you are. Has probably seen you in action once or twice. Just let me gets my boots on and we’ll go.”
 
“Don’t you want to sleep?”
 
“Can sleep later. After I know you’re safely stowed away somewhere for the day.”
 
“You make me sound like a piece of equipment,” she muttered, following him to an opening in the floor that she hadn’t noticed in the dark.
 
“Or something very valuable that I don’t want anything to happen to,” was his quiet response.  “Let me go first so I can light some candles.” He disappeared down the opening and soon flickering light was visible.
 
“I’m coming down now,” Buffy said, approaching the opening with some trepidation. “How far down is it?”
 
“Not far. I can catch you if you’d like.”
 
She peered over the edge at his hopeful face. “I can do it. Just give me some room.” She finished speaking and pushed off from the edge, dropping gracefully to land in a crouch.  Straightening up, she glanced around to see that much of the dirt floor was covered with rugs of various thicknesses and patterns; other rugs were rolled up against a wall that was draped in something that looked like old curtains. The uncovered walls were decorated with the roots of bushes and trees, and the occasional bone.
 
“Ew” Buffy pointed at one of the bones.
 
“Sorry, pet. I think there’ve been graves here for a long, long time. Crypt was built on top of the old graves. It’s just a bone. Can’t hurt you.”
 
“I know that! But still... ew.”  She looked at the pieces of wood and the wrapped mattress leaning against the wall. “Is that...?”
 
“Will be. When I get it set up, it’ll be a right decent bed. Not as nice as the one I had to leave behind when—but nice enough. Mattress is new. Bought it from demon friend whose wife didn’t like the brand name.”
 
“Wow. Demons buy beds. And have wives... that tell them what to do.  Who knew?”
 
“Sunnydale is full of demons you never meet ‘cause they aren’t evil and aren’t looking to have trouble with the Slayer.” He cocked his head at her. “You know, you’re the bogeyman to demon brats. Their parents threaten them with a visit from the Slayer if they aren’t good.”
 
“Huh. I’m not sure how I feel about that...” She was frowning as she followed Spike into a tunnel leading off from the room.
 
“Come on, Slayer. Let’s get goin’. Need to catch Jim before he begins the day’s chores.”
 
She trailed Spike and the candle he was holding until he paused to light a torch. She could see water reflecting the light back to them and wrinkled her nose at the smell.
 
“Why don’t you just hop on my back till we get to the house? I stay out of the water as much as I can, but sometimes...”
 
Buffy gave him dubious frown, but stepped closer. “Can you see in here?”
 
“Pretty well if I go into game face. Why?”
 
“Because I don’t want my hair to catch fire from that torch,” she said. “If you don’t need it to get where we’re going, why don’t you leave it here?”
 
He nodded and reached past her to put it back in its holder. “Good idea, pet.  Up you go then.” He turned his back to her and bent over slightly. Buffy hopped up and put her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. Too late, she realized that she was pressed up against him with nothing between them but a couple of layers of thin cloth.
 
“Comfy?” he asked, snaking his arms around so that he could hold her in place.
 
“Your hands are on my butt.”
 
“Gotta support you, don’t I?”
 
“Spike, I’m clinging like a monkey. I don’t need support.”
 
“Spoil sport,” he grumbled, but obediently dropped his arms to his sides.  “Here we go then.”
 
He strode off with long ground-eating strides, only the occasional small splash marking places where the trail beside the water was too narrow. Buffy buried her nose in his neck, breathing in his scent rather than the smells permeating the air in the sewer.
 
“Are you sniffing me, or just avoiding the smell down here?”
 
“If I said both, would you take that the wrong way?”
 
“What’s the right way to take it?”
 
“That I’m just smelling you because... well, not because I actually like the way you smell or anything. So don’t go thinking that.”
 
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, his smile more than apparent in his voice.
 
“Liar.”
 
“That I am, luv.”  He halted in a small alcove with a ladder going up to a grated opening. Just enough light came through to allow Buffy to see him turn his head in her direction, and she watched him fade back to his human face. “Time to get off, Slayer,” he whispered, his lips only inches away from hers.
 
Buffy hesitated, then dropped her legs and slid down his back until she was standing behind him.
 
“I guess I should go up, huh?  Are you sure he knows who I am?” Her hands were still resting lightly on his shoulders.
 
“I’m sure.  Just go knock on the door and tell him you need to use his phone.” He turned around and nudged her toward the ladder.  “Up you go, Slayer.”
 
Buffy stretched for the highest rung she could reach, giving a small “eep!” when she was suddenly able to reach all the way to the top.  She grabbed the top rung and felt around with her feet until they were also resting on something solid. It only took one hand to move the metal grate to the side.  She glanced down a Spike to see him shrinking against the wall, away from the sunlight now pouring into the tunnel.
 
“Oops! Sorry!” Buffy jumped up and out, quickly replacing the grate when she was safely on the ground. “Are you okay?”
 
“”m fine, luv. Just go tell Rupert what’s going on.”
 
 
XXXX
 
 
Buffy approached the tidy little cottage and raised her hand to knock, only to have the door open for her. She blinked at the man staring back at her.
 
“Are you who I think you are?” he asked. “Why were you coming out of Spike’s tunnel? Is he okay? You didn’t stake him did you?”
 
“Uh...yes, I’m me? And no, I didn’t. He brought me here. He said to ask you if I could use your phone – to call my watcher.”
 
Jim peered over her shoulder at the now-covered manhole before nodding and holding the door open for her. “Come on in. I’ll get it for you.”
 
He was only gone a moment and came back to hand her a portable phone. Buffy smiled her thanks and quickly tapped in Giles’s number.  She giggled at his sleepy “Hello?”
 
“Hey, Giles. I think you need to get a job. You’re getting too used to sleeping in.”
 
“Buffy? Why are you calling me so early? Is there something wrong?”
 
Buffy quickly explained about what they’d heard after she left his apartment, and where she’d spent the night.
 
“You spent the night with Spike?”
 
“I spent the night on Spike’s couch,” she said, her tone making it clear it wasn’t up for discussion.  “That is not the issue here. The issue is, that Riley and his men want to catch me and take me to their – to Professor Walsh. Even if it’s daytime and I’m at school.”
 
“Then you must remain hidden for now,” he said. “The Council is working through their contacts in this country’s military to find out about this “Initiative” organization. But it will be some time before they get any information or results. In the meantime, we cannot afford to risk your capture and possible harm at their hands.”
 
“You want me to hide in the sewers till the Council gets its act together? I don’t think so! At least let me hide at your place. Where there's food and television and a bathroom.
 
“I don’t believe it’s safe here either. Although not for the same reasons—one moment.” 
 
Buffy listened impatiently as Giles went to the door and opened it. She gasped when she heard Riley’s voice demanding that Giles tell him where Buffy was.
 
“I know she didn’t go back to the dorm, and she isn’t at her mother’s”—Buffy’s eyes grew wide than narrowed to angry slits. Jim backed away from his suddenly dangerous-looking guest—“Where is she? Is she here? Why don’t I just take a look?”
 
Buffy could hear Giles sputtering about home invasions and being a British citizen as Riley clearly forced his way into the apartment.
 
“Excuse me,” Giles said into the phone, his tone even and clipped. “My apologies for the interruption. I’ve had an unexpected guest arrive and will need to see to him. Perhaps we can chat about that job again later.”
 
“I heard him,” Buffy growled. “I’m going to come over there and kick his—“
 
“No. No. That’s quite all right. If you’ll give me an address or phone number, I’ll get back to you when I’m free to arrange a meeting.”
 
“I’m in Restfield. I’m calling from the caretaker’s house. His name is Jim and he can show you where Spike lives.  I’ll stay here today, but if I don’t hear from you...”
 
“Yes, that sounds fine. Thank you for being so understanding. I’ll be in touch soon.”
 
“Bring food. Spike doesn’t have any.”
 
“Yes. I understand. Good-bye then.”
 
Buffy handed the phone back to Jim and gave him an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry to pull you into this. If a stuffy British man comes by looking for Spike or me, would you please show him where the crypt is? Thanks!”  She started out the door, pausing to add, “And if any soldiers, or big guys come looking for us – tell them there’s nobody here but dead people!”