Note: Thanks to my betas MadRog and t_geyer for their unending patience, perseverance and support.


SECTION 4 - YOU'RE THE ONE

When the cold wind blows
And the rain keeps tumbling down
And there's no one there
And the morning light shines on

You're the one to lend a hand
You're the one who understands
You're the one to comfort me
The keeper of my heart

(Clannad, Album - anam, Words and lyrics A. Brennan, Additional lyrics M. Brennan)



Chapter 4.01
Tuesday, May 14th, 2002

"Are we ready to rock?" Spike asked as they strolled back downstairs and into the hotel lobby.

"Hmm?" Buffy was obviously confused by his turn of phrase.

"Are you ready to leave now?"

"Well everything's all packed and sitting in the lobby and I guess you're finished here or you wouldn't be asking, so I'll take a chance and say yes."

"How many have we got?" the vampire asked.

"Just Clem and Lily. Will and Tara are going to stick around and take the rental car back in the morning and then head back with Lori." Buffy transferred her gaze to the other vampire in the group. "If that's okay with you?"

Angel gave her a rueful smile. "I think we've got room."

"Right then. Time we were on the move, pet." Spike turned to the older vampire. "If you've got a pen and some paper, I'll scribble down the number for my place. I did have a cell, but it's gone walkies. Some of Dru's lot probably chucked it, but you know Buffy's number. Chances are you'll catch us on one of them. So ring. If we don't hear from you before, we'll probably be back down shopping a couple of times before the wedding."

"Actually, Lorne had your phone. It's packed up somewhere, but it's flat," Buffy told him. "He was trying to work out why someone had this place listed as TGP."

"Yeah, well, easy to remember." Spike looked slightly shame-faced, but didn't clarify any further.

"We'll be in touch," Angel assured him. "I'll get your numbers another time. I'm sure if I call Buffy's place somebody there will be able to tell me where to call if neither of you are in."

"I suspect you're right," Spike allowed. "Tell the kid we said bye and make sure-." Spike stopped himself when he realised he was sounding like a mother hen. "Later," he told his grandsire before scooping up as many of the bags from the lobby as he could carry and leaving Buffy with Angel. Clem jumped up from his seat on one of the sofas, grabbed the rest and giving Angel a quick wave, he followed his friend. Lily was nowhere to be seen.

"You were right. He has changed." Angel kept his words quiet in hope that Spike might be too preoccupied to make an effort to listen.

"Told ya." Buffy flashed him a grin, and for the first time in a long while, Angel recognised shades of the teenager Buffy had been before her responsibilities had made her so careworn. The smile quickly faded however, and Buffy's expression grew serious. "Look, there's something I need to tell you while Mr Tact and Diplomacy's otherwise engaged. It's about the wedding-."

"You don't know how Giles would take it if I were there. And part of you having your perfect day is knowing it's perfect for him too. So, if we can't sort things out when Giles comes back from England, then it might be better if I don't come."

Buffy's jaw dropped open and her voice when she spoke showed her amazement. "And you're okay with that?"

"I'm fine with it. We all have to live with the consequences of our actions. I've just got more consequences to live with than most."

Lily came striding downstairs into the lobby. "I think best we go," she told Buffy. "I can feel William impatient from ladies' room third floor."

Buffy smiled at Lily's words. "You heard the lady." She gave Angel a brief hug. "Go talk to your son," she told him. "You shouldn't be alone tonight."

"I haven't been. Take care of each other."

Buffy looked back over her shoulder to answer, as she pushed the door open. "We will. It's what we do."

 

---

 

Buffy waited to see which seat Lily made for before she got in the car, content to defer to Lily's seniority if she decided to ride shotgun, but the older woman chose to slide into the backseat beside her son. When Buffy opened the passenger door to get in, just the sight of Spike looking up at her was enough to make her catch her breath. Her relief at having him back and her love for him hit home like a tidal wave, right along with a whole stack of baser impulses she really didn't want their empathic passengers picking up on. Unfortunately, it was a little late for that.

"Not be guilty. If women wrong to feel for husband, marriage be empty. I feel same when I see husband, from day we meet till day he die. You just little slow." Lily told her.

Spike smirked. "Gotta love these psychic types."

"Just wait till she's picking up on all your deep, dark secrets," Buffy responded as she climbed into the passenger seat.

"The way I feel about you's been common knowledge for years, pet."

Buffy rolled her eyes. Four in the morning was just too late or too early to bother responding to that one.

"Less with the talking and more with the driving, you. I want you all tucked up in bed before the sun's up." Buffy told him.

"Oh yeah?" Spike drawled, his eyebrow arching skyward as he pulled onto the almost empty streets.

"Yeah." Buffy's expression dared him to make more mileage from her confirmation. Instead, the vampire just smiled and told her, "As you wish, pet. As you wish."

True to his word, when they reached the highway and the lanes were empty as far as vampire eyes could see through hairline cracks in the paint that covered the windshield, he pressed the accelerator down as far as it would go.

 

---

 

"We'll wait out here for a bit. Give it a few minutes. If Bit wakes up when you go in and she wants to see us or she wants to head back home, just flick the lights on and off, and we'll come in. Otherwise we'll just head over to Buffy's and give her a ring in an hour or two."

Spike placed his share of Clem and Lily's luggage by the front door of the apartment. "An' thanks, all of you. 'S been a long time since there's been people that'd go out of their way like you did for the likes of me, droppin' everythin' to come to LA and Marie lookin' after Bit and what all." Spike dropped a kiss on Lily's cheek before he backed away to let her open the door. "I'll see you all tonight. Okay?"

"We'll be there."

"Great. Now I've just got to find a way to tell all her mates without her findin' out."

"She got the parcel yesterday, man," Clem told him. "Gonna be kinda hard to keep it a surprise now."

"Damn. I thought I had time to warn demon bint before it turned up."

"Probably would have, if things hadn't got a bit hectic," the loose skinned demon told him.

"Guess so. Well, even if she finds out now, it's only a few hours before."

The door was pulled open. "Finds out what?" asked Dawn, still clad in a skimpy night-shirt that made Spike resolve to have a word with her about what was and wasn't considered proper nightwear when staying at other people's houses.

"About tonight. And you're supposed to be asleep."

"I'd be getting up in an hour anyway. It's not like it's worth even trying to get back to sleep."

Spike sighed. "I guess we're going to be imposin' on your hospitality for a couple of cups of coffee then," he told Lily before he turned to Dawn. "Go and put some clothes on, pet, and I'll go get your sister. And don't mention tonight. 'S meant to be a surprise."

"She told you about the bathtub yet?" Dawn asked him before he could turn away.

"No, but I'm sure we'll get round to it while we're sortin' out what we're goin' to do with that boyfriend of yours tonight."

"Don't you start. He's already had the lecture from Willow and Xander."

"Then hearing it again won't come as any surprise, will it? Clothes, Bitlet. Now."

"Who died and made you the fashion police?" the teenager asked.

The looks on all three faces told their own story, and the girl quickly back-pedalled. "Right, me, clothes, now. You fetch Buffy." Dawn backed away toward the door leading to the bedrooms while making shooing motions to the vampire to get him to go back to the car.

Spike made a shrugging gesture to the other two demons. "Back in a minute."

"We'll leave the door open," Lily assured him.

 

---

 

"C'mon, pet. Bit was waitin' for us. Said it wasn't worth her while goin' back to bed."

"Damn. And I thought we'd just sneak back to your cosy, little bachelor-pad and while away the day in bed."

"That's a plan I could normally live with, but seein' as we've got to sort out the eats for tonight, I think we might find it easier at your place. And I think she's becoming obsessed. She keeps wanting to know if you've told me about the bathtub.

Is there something I should know?"

"Just. It'll keep. Put it this way, I haven't sprouted fangs, but there have been some other side effects, but the way I see it, it's nobody's business but ours, but we haven't really had much of a chance to be on our own. And I've got way too many buts."

Spike smirked but didn't comment. It would just have been too easy. He held out his hand to help Buffy out of the car as she finally forced herself to open the car door.

"C'mon, pet. Another hour and we can drop Bit off at school and crash out again."

Buffy took his hand and levered herself out of the car, letting him lock it up after her. "And another couple of hours after that we'll have to start shopping and cooking and everything." She stifled a yawn. "Remind me again why we're letting my little sister date?"

"Something to do with the fact she'd do it anyway, and you not having a leg to stand on if you try to stop her what with you dating the Great Poof when you were her age."

"Okay. Just checking there was a reason." Buffy leaned against him as they walked down the path to the apartment block's main door. "What about you? Did you date anyone when you were her age? Maybe you could tell her she can't see him."

Spike let his lip fall into a pout. "No one'd 'ave me," he teased, making light of the truth.

"Yeah, right. Everywhere we go, you get way more attention than me." Buffy pushed the door open. "You've got to know you're gorgeous, right?"

Spike quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah, 'cause I spend hours lookin' at my reflection. An' attraction's a lot less about looks than you think it is. It's about confidence and how you put yourself across an' back then."

"You." Buffy cut herself off as she remembered the dream he'd had when she was trapped in his body with him. "You were way too good for the girls you liked. You still are, but I'm just lucky I realised it before it was too late."

"What d'you want, slayer?"

"I'm not allowed to pay you a compliment?"

"It's hardly an established habit of yours," the vampire responded warily.

"Then it's time I made it one," Buffy told him as she opened the door into Lily's apartment. She paused in the corridor between the front door and the apartment's main room, reaching up to cup his cheek with her hand.

"You're gorgeous. You're loving. You're considerate and talented in bed. Considerate all round in fact. You're loyal and supportive. You make me feel whole. You make me feel like I can do the Slayer thing and the mom thing and the wife thing and the student thing without it pulling me apart trying to be all things to all people. I don't have to pretend to be less than I am, or pander to your ego. Well, only occasionally," she amended remembering their fight on the way back from their last trip to LA. "I feel like there's nothing we can't do together. And maybe I'm not big with saying the words, but it doesn't mean I don't know it, or I don't appreciate it."

She stood on tiptoe to kiss his him one last time before they relinquished their privacy again. "And most miraculous of all," she finished, "you not only put up with my eavesdropping little sister, you actually like her."

"Very funny, and if you were that bothered about privacy, you would save your make out sessions for when the pair of you are alone," Dawn answered from just beyond the living room door.

Spike momentarily debated whether the shock value of telling Dawn they didn't have make out sessions they just fucked like bunnies, was worth the trauma of having to listen to the responsible parenting lecture from Buffy. He eventually decided that while he'd been considering, the moment had passed.

"Marie and Rosa still sleeping?" Buffy asked.

"Pro'bly," Spike answered. "They're in one of the second floor apartments."

"So you don't all live together?"

"Yes and no," answered Clem. "Marie owns the whole block, or she will do once the mortgage is paid off. Mom's got downstairs. It was originally two apartments, but we knocked it into one so that we'd have the big family room and stuff. Marie and me have our own apartments on second and then she rents out the ones on third and fourth. But most evenings we all eat together and stuff, and we're all close by if anyone needs anything, but like. You didn't think I still lived with my mom, did you? 'Cause that would be like lame."

"Honestly, until Spike told me we were coming over for dinner last week, it never even occurred to me that you had a mom," Buffy admitted. "And I know, I know. I just never thought about it."

"Enough with the happy families. I want to know what happened to you all and where you've all been till this time in the morning," Dawn interrupted.

Spike was first to respond. "Where we've been, is the middle of nowhere. I could even give you a grid reference, but it's not like it would mean anything. I'm more interested in knowing when we can expect your whatever you want to call him this evening. And what we've been doing is watching the Poof try 'n' immolate himself to get a kid out of burnin' buildin'."

"Okay, where are the real Buffy and Spike?" the teenager asked. "'Cause he said something almost nice about Angel, and she wouldn't have let anybody else do the rescuing."

Buffy gave a shrug of her shoulders. "He had Xander's orbs. It only seemed fair to let him do it."

"'Cept when he found the kid, the daft wanker put the bloody things on him, didn't he, so that by the time he got back out again he was already smouldering in six different places."

"See, now that sounds more like you talking about Angel." After a brief pause the teenager continued her cross-examination.

"So anything else happen that I should know about?" Dawn did some fishing to see what all the gloom had been about earlier.

"Dru's dead," Spike told her, his voice flat and expressionless.

"And this is good or bad?" the teenager asked.

"Kinda both," Buffy answered soberly, watching Spike through her lashes.

"So what actually happened?"

Both the blondes shrugged their shoulders. "Dunno, pet. We were kinda preoccupied with other things?" Buffy could feel the waves of guilt washing through Spike as he made the comment, but there was nothing she could do to alleviate them.

"She was shot. With an ex-bow. Two times," answered Lily.

"An ex-. Oh a crossbow?" Dawn asked.

"Ex-bow. crossbow. is all same."

"So who?"

Lily looked across at Spike before she answered. Deciding it was safest not to know, Spike made a move for the door. "I'm just goin' to go get some air, have a fag." To his surprise, Buffy came with him.

"Smoking's a really bad habit, you know?" she told him.

"Worse than drinking?" The vampire went along with her teasing tone, his words coming out as a seductive drawl.

"Uh huh. You know people get used to having something in their hands," she told him as they stepped out into the outer hallway. "They get all fidgety without some sort of placebo." Turning in towards him she guided the hand she'd been holding to her breast and wasn't at all surprised when his other hand slid around her waist and then down to cup her ass. Her eyes seemed unable to look anywhere but at his lips as they moved closer, and her arms wrapped around his neck urging him closer still. "And then they need something to suck on." Even as she said the words, Buffy could feel the heat flare between her legs at the prospect.

Spike leaned in so close that she could feel the air from his mouth brushing against her lips as he whispered his reply. "Do you have any idea what you do to me?" He pulled her close against him so she could feel his erection pressing against her stomach through two layers of denim.

In return, Buffy stood on tiptoe, hooking her right leg around him so that he could feel the waves of damp warmth that emanated from her crotch as she pressed herself against his hips. He was supporting both their weights now, and he picked Buffy up and pressed her into the wall.

"Don't think Marie would be too happy, if we ended up givin' Bite-size a show," the vampire whispered as he ground against her, his breath teasing her with his lips' proximity, while still they remained tantalisingly distant.

"Or if we demolish the building."

"We kinda hammered the car going full throttle all the way back. Maybe we need to check the suspension."

"May-be-."

"Jeez, do you guys own shares in Viagra or something? It's like every time you're alone for two minutes you're-."

"Dawn, do not say another word unless you want to find yourself grounded for a very long time."

"I was going to ask if you guys could take me home to get some things before you drop me off at school, but I think maybe I'll walk to school or get Brandon to pick me up."

"Well," drawled Spike, unfazed by her teenage rancour. "If he's going to be hanging around he might as well be useful."