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Angels and Demons by TalesofSpike
 
Chapter 4.01
 
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Note: Thanks to my beta t_geyer for her unending patience, perseverance and support.

SECTION 4 - ANGELS AND DEMONS

I always knew that
You wanted to say
You always knew there'd
Be a price to pay
Like freezing nights
In some cold stark lights
When you said everyone must fight


(The Tourists)




Chapter 4.01
Wednesday, June 12th, 2002


Buffy watched helplessly as Spike tossed and muttered in his sleep. She reached instinctively to put her book down on the table by her armchair, but then she pulled her arm back and tried to read once more. There was a reason that she had taken to waiting up every night until Spike was too tired after patrol to do anything other than fall into bed, a reason she didn't go on his patrols with him, a reason she flinched away whenever he reached out to her.








Rosa pushed open the door of Wesley's bedroom. Her mother lifted her head from the pillow and, seeing which of the house's other residents had come to join her, she raised an arm and shuffled back to the empty side of the bed.

"More bad dreams, honey?" Marie asked, as the small child climbed into the bed next to her.

The girl nodded, dragging her stuffed Tigger into the bed, too. Marie wrapped her arms around her daughter and tried to soothe her back to sleep. When the dreams had first started she had been worried that Rosa had some reservations about her mother's relationship with Wes, that maybe she wasn't ready for a new father-figure in her life. Then, Marie had found out that the disturbed sleep wasn't limited to Rosa. Lily, Clem, his girlfriend Ha Nath, Bee, Spike, everyone she knew with any demon blood, they were all feeling the stirrings. Now, Marie wasn't just worried.








"Look, love, I don't bloody remember where the hell I put them. I just remember it was somewhere safe." Spike opened the doors of the dining room cabinets, looking through their contents as if hoping he might recognise something.

Tara sighed. "Spike, this is important."

"If they worked , then it would be important. They're bust. I don't exactly see what the big rush is."

"We need to find them. I need to find out if the Nezzla Khan's spirit is still bound to them and if it is we need to return them to his people. It's only decent."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Not exactly my thing, pet."

Tara gave the vampire a gentle push. "Just find them, Spike."








Giles waited until Buffy's blows against the punchbag, which he was bracing, fell far short of her initial forcefulness and frequency before he broached the subject of her private life. "Buffy, what exactly are you doing here?"

Buffy's next kick knocked the bag into his guts with enough force to drive the wind out of him. "I'm training. I made a deal with Quentin that he would help with Cordelia and I would do the training thing again... So I'm training."

Giles sighed. "I'm perfectly sure that Quentin did not intend you to be here from eleven until two every weekday and longer on weekends. You get your driving instructor to drop you off here when you finish your lesson and if you could park a bit further away from my new car, I'd be grateful."

"I touched the fender once . That's what fenders are for."

"All the same I would actually prefer mine to stay attached but that is by the by. You train for three hours and then, if Brandon doesn't have her too preoccupied, you meet Dawn and go to the mall or to bible class or whatever, anywhere but home. When you do go home, from what I've heard, you disappear into the basement with Xander and leave Spike to patrol either alone or occasionally with Anya for company... and from what I've heard of those patrols, Spike's more interested in blowing off steam, than protecting himself-."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. Anya says that he's picked up injuries on the last couple of patrols she's been on with him... but then you should know that."

"If he's been endangering Anya-."

"No, he hasn't, but Anya has noticed that he's becoming more reckless regarding his own safety and when I mentioned to Dawn that I was going to look at an apartment, she told me I couldn't move out of Spike's yet because, if I did, Spike would have his bags packed in five minutes flat the way you were treating him. So, Buffy, what is going on?"

"It's personal."

"There was a time you would have felt able to talk to me about it."

"There was a time when you didn't disappear when I needed you most."

Giles gave a tired sigh. "I left because I thought it was necessary and I suppose I deserve your disdain... but as your watcher I have to ask if there is something going on between you and Spike that is having an affect on your slaying or perhaps is the reason for the total lack of it... And as your friend I have to ask what happened to the almost unbelievably happy girl I met when I came back from England and ask why you're putting hours into planning a wedding and creating a home to share with a man you no longer seem to want to be in the same room with."

"It's not-. I mean-. Giles, just butt out. You don't understand. You can't understand, not without going through it."

"Buffy, I tried to warn you, before you rushed so rashly into it, that performing a bond between you both was not something to be taken lightly. If you did not wish him to be part of your life in every sense, if you weren't sure, then you should never have gone ahead with it, but wisely or unwisely you did and you have to either live with that fact and embrace what you have done or end it. To push him away entirely because you find yourself unable to cope with the intimacy the claim forces on you is too cruel."

"That's not it. There-."

"No? Dawn says you flinch if he even touches you. She said he doesn't even try any more. If that isn't because you're afraid to share your feelings with him, then the only other explanation is such that..." Giles fixed his slayer with a long, hard look.

"Spike wouldn't hurt me."

"Then, perhaps you should extend him the same courtesy..." the watcher suggested, turning away to find a towel to wipe his face. "Or just admit it was a mistake, stake him, free yourself and end his pain. I've no doubt he's probably done plenty to deserve it, but it seems rather late in the day to decide it's your job to punish him for past sins... at least, if you want your relationship to work."

Giles bluntly stated the two choices that were open to her and then left her to vent her ire on the equipment. His hope that Spike wouldn't find himself on the wrong end of a stake was rather unexpected, unlike the crash that intimated he would have to rehang the punchbag before tomorrow's training session.








"Where did you find them?" Tara asked before her mouth dropped open, surprised by the unexpected flash of violet lightning that illuminated Spike's eyes as he passed the orbs to her.

"Buffy's knicker drawer an' yeah, yeah, they're working again, which kinda makes checking for your demon prince redundant."

"We have to give them back, you know."

"With The First up to goodness only knows what?"

"That's not the point. We'll deal with The First, and it's not like physical strength is going to help out there, anyway, but when we've done that, there'll be something else or someone else. There will always be some excuse why we need to keep them just a bit longer, but it wouldn't be right. He sacrificed his life to protect his people and he misses them."

Spike's face twisted into an embarrassed scowl. "That wasn't the only reason I wanted to hold onto them a bit longer."

"Spike, I know it's hard for you shut away all day, but if The Council find out that you can walk in sunshine with impunity let alone the unstoppable strength and the invulnerability, some of them are bound to see it as their duty to destroy the orbs before they fall into the hands of someone who would abuse their power. We already thought they were broken once. We need to return them before they are broken for real."

"I know that. I just-. I wanted to take Buffy somewhere special for her honeymoon. She deserves better than all night drives and days on her own, but then..."

"Don't you dare say she deserves better than you," Tara warned.

"Why not?"

"Because I can see it in your auras. I can see how good you are together when things are right and I can see how hurt you've been because she's keeping you at arm's length. She just isn't ready to share how she feels about... things, yet."

"But-."

"Grief makes people irrational. It'll be fine. She wouldn't be running around organising things for the wedding or labouring for Xander if she wasn't expecting there-."

The doorbell cut off whatever Tara had been planning to say and she bustled to the door, leaving Spike in the shady dining room, at least until he caught sight of the look on Tara's face when she saw who was there. His sensitive senses caught an unmistakable musk in the air and Rogue's frantic and hostile barking could be heard from one end of the neighbourhood to the other.
 
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