Chapter 10
 
Buffy gaped at Anya for a few seconds. Guiltily, she realised that she hadn’t given her boyfriend a single thought since Spike had turned up. As the silence stretched out, she tried to affect an air of nonchalance and turned to met Spike’s eyes. “Oh, he’s just this guy I’ve been kinda seeing for a while.”
 
Spike tensed beneath her. “You’ve been dating…?”
 
“Not really dating. Just kinda…”
 
“You have so been dating him,” Xander put in unhelpfully. “The guy is so into you, he even turned down the offer to go back into the military when Graham came and told him about that new unit. Come to think of it, where is he? Didn’t you tell him about the meeting?”
 
“I don’t know where he is. I never thought…” Buffy began hesitantly before steadying her resolve. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks anyway. Now Spike’s back, I’m going to break up with Riley for good. I’ve tried to do it a couple times, but somehow he keeps hanging on. Kinda like a puppy that follows you home and you don’t have the heart to take it to the pound and you start feeding it and then it just kinda stays and becomes part of the family, even though you never had any intention of having a puppy in the first place.”
 
Spike let out a sceptical grunt and relaxed slightly, but when Xander started going on about what a great guy Riley was, Buffy decided she’d better get Spike out of there before Xander revealed information that she wasn’t ready to share. Besides, they’d all been looking at her as though she’d suddenly sprouted a second head since she’d revealed her relationship with Spike and it was freaking her out. She needed to get away.
 
She directed a ‘pissed off slayer’ glare at Xander which effectively shut him up for a minute, climbed out of Spike’s lap and said brightly, “Well, now the spells are all broken, I hereby declare this Scooby meeting adjourned. I promised Spike he could come on patrol with me, so… we’re just gonna go do that. Now.”
 
She grabbed Spike’s hand, dragged him up out of the chair and tugged him towards the front door.
 
“But we still have so much to discuss, Buffy! For one thing, we still have no idea how you became pregnant with a vampire’s child!”
 
Buffy shrugged into her coat and checked that the pockets contained their usual complement of stakes. “Well why don’t you start looking into that, Giles? You’re the researchy one. You know I’m not into all that, I’m the fighty one.”
 
Xander and Giles both called for her to stay, Giles citing the need for immediate research and Xander objecting to her going anywhere with Spike and continuing to talk about Riley.
 
Willow was frowning at her, absently gnawing on a hangnail, and Anya was grinning happily as she made apparently random comments, probably just because she could.
 
Buffy ignored them all.
 
She grabbed an axe from the child-proof weapons chest by the hallstand, raised her hand to give them a jaunty little finger wave and escaped out into the night, taking Spike with her.
 
~*~*~*~
 
Laughing gaily, Buffy ran to the corner of the street, pulling Spike along by the hand. Once safely out of sight of the house, she drew him to a halt and turned to look up at him.
 
Her face was flushed from the exertion in the cool night air and Spike found her dazzling smile infectious.
 
“Is this a dream? I can’t believe you’re really here,” She whispered breathlessly, reaching up to touch his cheek.
 
“If you’re dreaming, then so am I. Having a bit of trouble believing it myself.” He mirrored her action, cupping her cheek then stroking her silky hair, freeing it from its constricting scrunchy so that he could comb his fingers through the full length. He inhaled deeply, the sweet scent of her rose hip shampoo, at once fresh and familiar. “You grew your hair. ‘S gorgeous.” He cupped the back of her head and pressed a kiss to her upturned lips.
 
He had just pulled her closer and tilted his head to deepen the kiss when she moaned and pulled away from him, pressing her palms against his chest to put a little distance between them. “No,” she gasped.
 
“No? No what?”
 
“Much as I want the smoochies, and oh boy, do I want Spike smoochies, I can’t do this.”
 
“’Course you can.” Spike reached for her again, only for her to take a step back and hold up a hand to stop him.
 
“No, I can’t. Not yet. I might not want to be with Riley any more, but I’m no cheater. I know you remember what it felt like when you found Drusilla with that Chaos Demon. I can’t do that to him. He doesn’t deserve it.”
 
Spike remembered only to well and despite his eagerness to show Buffy just how much he’d missed her, he sighed and muttered sulkily, “Better tell the git soon.” He folded his arms across his chest and tilted his head to study her closely. “Tell me about this Riley bloke.”
 
“Uh, okay, but let’s talk while we walk. I really do have to do the patrolly thing.” She grabbed his right hand with her left and started along the street towards the closest cemetery. “The most important thing for you to keep in mind when I tell you what happened is that I didn’t remember you. At all.
 
“Okay, so Angel left for L.A. as soon as we defeated the Mayor…”
 
“That was when you blew up the school, right?”
 
“Yes. Well, no. Not me personally. I was kinda on maternity leave. That was Faith with Angel and the gang.”
 
“Faith. That’s the other slayer, yeah?”
 
“That’s right. She was called when Dru killed Kendra. Faith arrived at exactly the right moment for me. My pregnancy was beginning to slow me down and everyone was nagging me to give up patrolling. Faith stepped straight into the active slayer slot and I went into a more backuppy support position.
 
“When Angel came back from Hell all wild, Faith and Cordelia had to look after him because he really couldn’t handle the fact that I was pregnant. It was even worse when he got his wits back and found out I didn’t know who the father was. Mucho brooding and disapproving frowns. He kept saying that the baby had to be demonic or at least mystical since I didn’t know how I got pregnant.” She took a deep breath and focussed on her boots, quietly saying, “He told me I should get rid of it.”
 
“Bleedin’ wanker.”
 
“Of course I didn’t even consider that, not when the first scan had shown I was carrying a perfectly normal human baby. He kept his distance after that. He agreed to stay on until we’d dealt with the mayor, but then he couldn’t get away fast enough.
 
“Anyway, to get back on track; Angel went off to L.A. and I quickly got back into active slayer mode over the summer. I met Riley in the college bookshop at the start of freshman year when I dropped some books on his head. He turned out to be my T.A. in Psychology class. He was nice enough and seemed to like me…”
 
“Wait a minute. You’re dating your T.A? Isn’t that kind of thing frowned on over here?”
 
“I guess. I never really thought about that. He totally freaked about the teenage unwed mother thing, but he was nice and normal and what everyone said I should want, particularly now Annie was in the picture. But there wasn’t much chemistry, you know?”
 
Spike couldn’t hold in a derisory snort. “In other words he was boring.” Buffy tried to hide her little smile at that, but Spike saw it.
 
“Uh… when I started college, Giles said I had to be all secret identity gal again, so I tried to do the normal thing. We had coffee a few times and he even made me a totally lame little picnic once. Then we kinda decided that we weren’t a match made in Heaven and that we’d do better as friends.” Buffy frowned thoughtfully. “Not quite sure why we started dating after that, but it seemed to go well, although we didn’t get physical until…”
 
Buffy paused and looked up at Spike warily and he realised he was growling low in his chest. He tried to suppress the surge of jealous rage, forcefully reminding himself that she hadn’t deliberately cheated on him. She hadn’t even been aware of his existence. “Sorry, love. Go on.”
 
“You sure you really want to hear this?”
 
“Think I need to, Buffy. I need to know exactly what that meddlesome witch screwed up.” He smirked down at her. “You sure you don’t want to take back that rule about not eating your friends? The more I hear, the more tempting a prospect that becomes.”
 
Buffy let out a wry chuckle. “No, you can’t, but I’m beginning to consider killing her myself. How could she…?” She shook her head, took another deep breath and started gabbling, “It was during a frat party. There was a kinda spell thingy on the house freeing lots of wild sexual energy and Riley and I got caught up in it. Afterwards everyone just assumed we were together and were happy for me, and Riley was eager for us to stay together. I couldn’t face disappointing everyone so I just kinda went with it.”
 
She fell silent; the only sounds the rustling of the trees in the breeze and the occasional vehicle passing close by.
 
Spike strode on, hardly noticing his surroundings, as he pondered Buffy’s confession. He knew deep down that he had no right to be angry or hurt, but he was. The sensation of bones shifting in his grip drew his attention back to Buffy herself, and he became aware that he was squeezing her little hand with all his might. “Sorry love,” he muttered as he released his grip, stuffing his clenched fist deep into his duster pocket.
 
Buffy shook out her hand and immediately slipped it into the same pocket, teasing his hand open again and weaving their fingers together. “S’okay.”
 
One question nagged at Spike, but he was reluctant to ask it because the answer could change everything. Finally he summoned up the courage. “Do you love him?”
 
“What? No! I love you!”
 
“But before…”
 
Buffy paused for a few seconds’ thought before answering, “No. No, I didn’t love him. I guess I was… fond of him. He’s really a nice guy. He’s just not…” Her voice trailed off and her pace slowed, then stopped. “Oh, crap. I am so not in the mood…”
 
Spike glanced down at her disgusted expression then looked around to see what had disturbed her. They were in the middle of a cemetery, surrounded by half a dozen scabby demons wearing brown robes.
 
“I'm so sorry to intrude, oh Heavenly Slayer, but I wonder if I might beg a moment of your time?” the lead demon said obsequiously, with a little bow.
 
Well, Spike thought, that was... original. “Friends of yours, slayer?”
 
Buffy snorted. “Not so as you’d notice. Look, can we not do this now?” she said to the demon who had spoken, taking up a fighting stance and flexing the arm holding her axe. “You have to know I’m not gonna let Glory have the Key, whatever you do to me.”
 
Spike withdrew a combat knife from the leather sheath at his hip and took a step away from Buffy to give them both room to manoeuvre. He turned slowly to pinpoint the position of each of the demons and noted that none of them was carrying weapons. He grinned. There was very little that he found more fun than fighting alongside his slayer. He was eager to see how her fighting skills had matured during the time they’d been apart. “Got your back, slayer,” he murmured, bouncing slightly on his toes as he tossed the knife low in the air so that moonlight glinted off the spinning blade before he neatly caught it again.
 
“The Key will remain the Key, oh Celestial One, but the Mighty Glorificus has no further need for it. Your custodianship will continue, untroubled.” The lead demon bowed again and took a step back.
 
Buffy relaxed her posture slightly and cocked her head to one side in puzzlement. “Huh? You don’t want to fight?”
 
She sounded almost disappointed, and Spike chuckled quietly. However much she protested to the contrary, his slayer did love a good rough and tumble.
 
“To fight would be superfluous at this point, your Gracious Slayerness, for the most Glamorous, Magnificently-Scented Glorificus is no more.” A tear slipped from his eye and trickled down his scabby cheek. He sniffed. “We conferred and decided that you should be made aware of this calamity before we performed the ritual to sacrifice our miserable, pathetic selves in Her Splendiferous Memory for our dismal failure in Her service.”
 
A muffled sob came from behind Spike and he glanced back to see one of the demons mopping his tear-streaked face with a large, very grubby handkerchief.
 
“Wait, Glory’s dead?” Buffy asked in hopeful disbelief. She scrubbed her hand down her face. Her shoulders slumped and she swayed on suddenly unsteady legs.
 
Spike wrapped a supporting arm around her shoulders and steered her to sit on a nearby headstone. “You okay, slayer?”
 
“Hmmm? Yeah, I’m fine.” Buffy straightened her spine and looked up. “I don’t get it! How…?” She twisted and looked around, Spike following her gaze. The demons had melted away into the shadows, a single quiet sob in the distance the only sign that they had ever been there.
 
 

A/N a couple of lines borrowed and partially adapted from S5 Ep18   ‘Intervention’, written by Michael Gershman.