Made by Spikes Slayer2


“You’re never gonna get away with this!” Riley snarled in a voice trembling with rage and fear, as he struggled to his feet facing his wife and her vampire lover. “Do you really think you can even get out of here alive? This whole complex is full of my men, and they’re all looking for you!”

“And why is that, exactly?” Spike demanded, his voice calm, but his eyes narrowed with anger. “Considering that you’d already found us and caught us. I s’pose you didn’t want them to know we’d been captured. Because that would raise the nasty question of just what you’d intended to do with us.”

“That much is pretty clear,” Buffy shrugged casually. “Have me turned and then blame you, and dust you before you could say anything. Then, of course, once I was turned, it’d be too late to save me,” she guessed in a mocking tone, turning her gaze on her husband, “but being the generous, big-hearted man that you are, and being so deeply in love with me,” she sneered sarcastically, “you’d do the compassionate thing and take me as your own, even though I’d be a vampire, so you’d have every legal right to kill me if you wanted.”

“Hmm,” Spike mused with a smirk that barely concealed his anger at the cruel plans Riley had held for Buffy. “Neat little plan there, very nice little set up. Just one thing you didn’t count on.” He paused, his smile fading completely as he met the larger man’s eyes, his arm unconsciously tightening around Buffy’s waist as he spoke. “The fact that in spite of the bloody lies you like to sell to the public – I can and *do* love this woman – and I’d have died before I’d ever have hurt her.”

The passion, the intensity in his low, trembling voice, filled Buffy’s heart with a warmth and affection for him to rival any she had felt before, and she returned his sideways embrace with a gentle squeeze of her hand on his side, calming him, drawing his attention back to her.

She could see the turmoil of emotions in his eyes when he looked at her – the fury at Riley for what he had almost done…the fear that had not quite completely passed at the thought of losing her for good…and the tremendous relief that the danger *did* seem to be over, at least for the moment. As she gazed into his eyes for a long moment, love and gratitude in her own, she saw his expression soften somewhat as he focused on her, and the hard set of his mouth formed a tender smile.

“You can’t prove anything!” Riley annoyingly interrupted their moment. “All you’ve got is speculation…as far as the public’s concerned, it’s just your opinion!”

“All three of us know that’s not true…is it, Riley?” Buffy said quietly, turning her eyes to the trembling, furious man a few yards from them.

He laughed harshly and said. “No…but as long as it’s just the three of us…can’t see how it’s gonna do you any good. ‘Cause I’ll go to my grave denying all of it!”

“If you make it to a grave at all,” Spike muttered, a flash of angry menace returning to his ice blue eyes.

“Hmm,” Buffy mused with a secretive little smirk. “Good thing we’ve got it all recorded for posterity, then.”

Spike turned puzzled eyes to her for just a moment, before they widened with realization, his full lips forming a slow smile as he remembered.

Riley, on the other hand, was completely lost. “What are you talking about?” he demanded irritably, but there was a new fear in his eyes at her words, as he began to put the pieces together.

Buffy smiled a cheerful smile of satisfaction at him as her hand went to the tiny little camera on her collar, holding it out a bit to draw Riley’s attention to it. “The last few hours – pretty much everything since we got here – is all recorded on this little camera, Riley. So, no matter what you try to deny – what lies you tell – we’ve got *plenty* of evidence.”

Riley’s eyes widened with a trapped look of dismay as he realized the truth of his situation.

“Do you know what kind of prison sentences go along with attempted murder, conspiracy – oh, that’s right!” Buffy remembered suddenly, eyes wide with false shock. “And *actual* murder, too, as a matter of fact.” She frowned thoughtfully at Spike. “Does murder of a public official count as treason?”

“Sometimes,” Spike shrugged. “Depends.” He looked back at Riley, his eyes narrowed over a cold smile. “But don’t worry, mate,” he said lightly. “Don’t think you’ll need to be worrying about that.” As he spoke, he pulled out of Buffy’s easy embrace and started slowly toward Riley.

“Ooh, Spike, wait a second, Baby,” Buffy hurriedly stopped him, her tone still casual and easy, as if she had merely forgotten something.

“What is it, love?” he asked with a hint of impatience, glancing between her and Riley.

Her eyes were focused on the tiny device attached to her collar, a thoughtful frown on her face that shifted to a pout as she struggled to figure the thing out. Finally, her expression broke into a smile as she found the tiny switch she was looking for and turned the device off.

“There we go,” she said, looking up at Spike with satisfaction. “I didn’t think this part would need to be recorded,” she shrugged, wrinkling her nose with distaste. “I mean, after all – it’s kind of personal.”

The blonde vampire let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head in pleased surprise at his lover’s forethought – and her general acceptance of the whole situation.

Although Riley had been responsible for the torture and death of countless individuals, mostly vampires, but some human, and was responsible for his own agonizing past that he was still dealing with, and had even been plotting her own death and enslavement – Spike had had his doubts as to how far Buffy would want to allow him to go in carrying out his vengeance.

Spike liked to think of it as justice.

And apparently, Buffy was inclined to agree at the moment.

His smile faded into a slightly questioning look as he searched her eyes, sobered with the weight of the situation. After all, he knew that Buffy was likely furious with Riley at the moment, and in the heat of the moment might condone something now that she would later regret. He wanted his vengeance, but not as much as he loved and wanted Buffy.

The last thing he wanted to do was something that would eventually drive a wedge between them.

“Love – you’re sure?” he murmured softly, outside of Riley’s hearing range.

Her own cheeky smile faded in response to the serious tone of his voice, the concern in his expressive blue eyes. She reached out and took his hand, looking away for a moment before meeting his eyes again with a solemn, earnest gaze.

“I’ve slain hundreds of vampires – creatures who’d done less than what he’s done, fledglings fresh out of their graves,” she pointed out softly. “And I did it – to protect people – from what they *might* do. Because you and I both know that left to their own devices, without any guidance whatsoever, the blood lust would have driven them to hurt someone. It was completely inevitable.”

Spike nodded slowly to indicate that he was following her. He was relieved, considering the recent changes in her mindset regarding the relationship between humans and vampires, to hear that she did not seem to be carrying much guilt over her years of indiscriminate slayage. She had only done it because she had believed it was the right thing to do, to protect humanity from a grievous threat.

He firmly believed that in that, she had done no wrong.

Another look away as Buffy gathered her thoughts, trying to put them into words, before looking him in the eye again and going on, “Riley’s every bit as likely to hurt someone if he’s let go as any vampire I’ve ever slain. I know for a fact that if he gets away with this, he’s gonna go right on doing the exact same things he’s been doing all along – and he’s still gonna be out to get us.”

“There are – other ways, pet,” he reminded her softly, his eyes downcast for a moment. His nature, beaten down and violated so viciously by the wounded man behind him, was crying out for his blood – but he had to be sure that *she* was sure. “We have the evidence. He wouldn’t get away with it…”

Buffy shook her head slowly, a soft, sad smile on her lips. “He wouldn’t get away with having the senator killed – or attempting to kill me, or the others he’s tried to kill.” She paused, her smile fading with sorrow. “But – Giles and the others – they’re working on changing things – changing the laws so that places like this, treating vampires the way he has, would be illegal – but right now, it *is* legal. He *would* get away with what he did to you – what he did to so many others.”

Spike looked away, a bit uncomfortable even now with such importance being placed on the things he had suffered, the things he had been cruelly trained to believe were no less than he deserved. A tender hand on his cheek drew his eyes reluctantly back to hers, and he swallowed back a hard lump that rose in his throat at her affection – still to a point, believed to be undeserved.

“Spike,” Buffy went on softly, her voice aching with sorrow and sympathy. “He’s beaten you – tortured you – allowed – unspeakable things to be done to you, with his complete approval. He made you helpless – made you unable to defend yourself against the complete violation of your most basic rights. He allowed you to be – abused, and – and treated like – like nothing. Like you didn’t matter – like you deserved it.”

Her face was streaked with tears as she gently stroked her hand down his cheek – and only when it came away glistening did he realize that his was as well.

“And worst of all,” she went on, her voice barely over a whisper by now with the weight of the emotions in her words. “Worse than any of that – which is hard to believe even as I’m saying it – he made you *believe* that. He made you think that you were nothing, less than nothing. A monster. He punished you without mercy just for being what you are – when all the time he was guilty of so much worse than you are, Spike.”

She paused, thoughtful for a long moment, before adding in a soft voice of strength and sincerity, “I’m really having a hard time seeing anything wrong with anything you’d choose to do to him right now.”

Spike was moved beyond words by her tender, heart-felt sentiment, and he knew that she believed every word of it – *right now*.

He raised a gentle hand in an echo of her affectionate gesture, wiping a tear from her cheek before pulling her in for a brief but tender kiss, his love for her shining in his eyes when they parted. He knew that she was telling the truth, and that if he went through with what his instincts were screaming for him to do – she would never mention it to him, never hold it against him.

Herself, on the other hand – she would not so easily absolve.

He knew his girl, and he knew that regardless of Riley’s crimes, the time would come when Buffy would slow down and remember that he had in fact been human – and that she had openly given her permission for the taking of his life. An image flew to his mind – Buffy’s stricken, horrified face in the cemetery above the complex, after taking the life of the soldier who had mocked and threatened him. The shock had been almost too much for the Slayer to take.

Buffy was going to have enough guilt to work through when they finally left this place and returned home, without his adding to it here in this room.

“Thank you,” he whispered, as he met her eyes with a depth of emotion that took her breath away, and in his whispered words she heard more than this moment – feelings that went back to the very beginnings of this strange but beautiful relationship they had slowly built.

She felt a sweet ache in her chest, a pain that came from feeling overwhelmed with a fullness of emotions too great for a single person to bear, as he went on quietly.

“Buffy – I know you’d let me – but…” He shook his head slowly, a bittersweet smile on his lips as he met her eyes. “I can’t *let* you let me, love. I – I love you too much. I love you – so much more than I hate him.”

Suddenly, Riley’s harsh voice, shaking with anger and bordering on panic, broke into their moment. “Sooner or later my men are gonna find us in here!” he informed them with a false bravado that came off only as annoying. “And when they do, you’re gonna be sorry! You’re gonna pay for this!”

Spike looked speculatively at Buffy, without a trace of fear, but with a question in his eyes. How *were* they going to get out of this, anyway?

Buffy’s eyes sparkled mischievously as she said, “I’ve got an idea. It might take a little while to get it worked out though.”

“How long’s a little while?”

“An hour or so?” Buffy guessed with a little shrug. She glanced with a disgusted smirk toward her husband, cowering against the wall, trying to appear so much bigger and braver than he was – like any trapped animal would – before looking back to Spike with a conspiratorial grin. “I’m sure you can think of a way to kill an hour or so.”

Understanding slowly dawned on the vampire, and a slow smile spread across his face to match hers. No, he knew Buffy too well to think that she would ever forgive herself for ordering Riley’s death, no matter how many deaths he had been guilty of ordering.

Turning her back for an hour or so while Spike took out his frustrations on his abuser, however, leaving him alive – though possibly wishing that he wasn’t?

Much more forgivable.

As Buffy began fiddling with the tiny camera again, walking a few steps away from her vampire to focus on what she was doing, Spike turned his attention back to Riley with a cold smile.

“Well, mate,” he said softly, an edge of menace to his voice as he slowly approached the increasingly terrified soldier. “Looks like you and I’ve got time for a little chat.”