AN: Sorry for spamming the verse with this. I'm planning to have patience in my next life...

Chapter Three

The three vampires watched in silence as the watcher drove off with Buffy’s remaining human friends. Now that the battle was over and they had prevented the apocalypse, there seemed to be nothing holding the threesome together.

“Good job, guys,” Buffy finally broke the uncomfortable silence, giving each vampire a small smile of appreciation. “I guess we can go home now, too.”

Angel sent a resentful look in Spike’s direction before touching Buffy’s arm and asking quietly, “Could we talk, privately? I have something important to tell you.”

“Ran out of hair gel, then, did you, Angelus?”

“Shut up, Spike. This is none of your business.”

Buffy’s hand on the blond vampire’s arm forestalled any comeback that could have re-ignited the earlier argument between the two now-glaring men. When she saw that Spike was forcing himself to answer her unspoken plea, she turned her attention back to Angel.

“Can’t it wait?” she asked plaintively. “I’m tired too. I just want to go home and go to bed.”

Angel clenched his jaw and exhaled sharply. “Buffy, you’re a vampire. You don’t go home and go to bed when it’s only midnight. When are you going to stop trying to pretend that you’re still human?”

“When I stop feeling like one,” she snapped. “What the hell is wrong with you? I’ve been up for most of the past two days AND nights, I just outran a giant snake, almost got turned into a Buffy pancake, had a fight with my sire about my job and fought a bunch of evil Mayor minions. I’m tired and I want to take a shower and sleep for the next two days. How does that make me a bad vampire?”

“You had a fight with Spike?” Angel’s expression became more interested as he focused on the only part of her rant that held any interest for him. “Did you hurt him?”

Buffy’s eyes rolled. “It wasn’t a fight, fight, you big dope. It was an argument.”

“Which you won, of course,” Angel sneered, temporarily forgetting the beating Buffy had administered the last time he implied that her sire was shirking his duty.

To Buffy’s surprise, it was Spike who put a restraining hand on her arm this time, saying just loud enough for Angel to overhear, “Leave it go, Slayer. We’ve got better things to do than deal with his jealousy.”

“We do? Oh, yes! We do. That’s right.”

Turning her back on the puzzled Angel, she took Spike’s arm and looked up at him with a dazzling smile.

“We have showers to take, beds to fall into…and…and sleeping to have…and…I think I’m losing the theme here,” she whispered finally.

“Not a problem, luv. I’ll be there to remind you.”

“Buffy.” Angel's cold, controlled voice cut through the flirting banter she was sharing with her sire and she turned with a sigh.

“Yes, Angel. Let’s get it over with. What do you want to tell me?”

“Privately. I said I wanted to discuss it privately.”

Buffy watched Spike’s face darken as her sire realized that she was going to let Angel have his conversation. He shook his head at her, turning away and muttering, “I’ll see you around, Slayer,” as he began walking away.

Buffy looked back and forth between the two vampires, desperate to follow Spike and reassure him that she wasn’t choosing Angel over him again. Before she could do so, the blond vampire was out of sight and she was left with a very self-satisfied looking Angel.

“What do you want that’s so freakin’ important that it couldn’t wait?” she snapped.

“I wanted to tell you that I’m leaving Sunnydale,” he said quietly. “I didn’t sign on to follow a fledgling vampire around and watch her flirting with my grandchilde. I’ll let you know where I am when I get set up and if and when you come to your senses and want to learn what it means to be a real vampire, you can call me.”

She gawked at him, her mouth hanging open as she tried to process what he was saying.

“You’re leaving? Leaving Sunnydale? Leaving me?”

“I’m going somewhere that I can do some good. You don’t need me – you’ve got that bleached moron to help you fight – and, you clearly don’t have any interest in learning how difficult it can be to live as a vampire with a soul. When you are ready to be taught about being a vampire, and how to handle the soul, you can come to me.”

Buffy stared at him, waiting for the heartbreak she was sure she was going to feel. Instead, a calm sadness settled over her and she went up on tip toe to kiss his cheek.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Angel, but maybe you’re right. Hellmouth or not, Sunnydale probably doesn’t need both of us. And LA isn’t that far away; if I need you for another apocalypse or something.”

“So, I was right.” The bigger vampire’s voice was sad, only his clenched fists and the amber flashes of his eyes gave a clue to his real emotions. “You would prefer to be with Spike.”

“Actually,” she said quietly, “Spike says he’s leaving too. And I wasn’t aware that you were giving me a choice. You said you were leaving.”

“Well, obviously, if he goes, I won’t need to,” Angel said stiffly. “You should have said that right away.”

“I thought this was about going where you could do some good? It sounds to me more like it’s about being jealous of Spike!” She glared at her former boyfriend, torn between anger and a tiny surge of pleasure to think that two master vampires were fighting over her.

“I would never be jealous of that bleached pain in the ass. He is beneath me – and he’s beneath you. The sooner you realize that, the better. Clearly, the proper mate for a souled vampire is another souled vampire, but until you come to your senses and stop blaming me for—“

“For killing me?” she asked wryly.

“For accidentally drinking too much from you,” he continued with a growl. “When you can get over being mad about that – and thinking that Spike ‘saved’ you, you will understand that we belong together and that he is just standing in the way.”

Buffy shook her head in disbelief. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing, Angel; but I’m too tired to argue about it tonight. If you want to go, go. I’ll miss you. But I’m not sending Spike away just to make you happy. Good night, Angel.”

She turned and without looking back, began to jog slowly in the direction Spike had taken. She knew she would have no chance of catching the angry vampire if he was really trying to stay away from her, but she was equally sure that he wouldn’t leave Sunnydale without telling her mother ‘good-bye’ first. Increasing her speed, she began to run toward her house, the knot of fear growing in her stomach giving her the first indication of which of the older vampires’ departures would leave the largest hole in her life.

She neared her house just in time to see Spike exiting the backdoor, waving back over his shoulder to the woman silhouetted in the light from the kitchen. When the door closed behind him, his shoulders sagged and his head dropped onto his chest, preventing him from seeing the slender blonde sitting on the hood of his Desoto.

Spike was reaching for the door, when he finally realized what his senses had been trying to tell him and he froze, his thumb still on the door lock.

“You weren’t going to tell me ‘good-bye’? Even Angel was man enough to do that.” Her voice was flat and hard, giving no indication of the emotions roiling through her.

One look into the devastated eyes he raised to meet hers, and she immediately regretted her words. She was momentarily lost, absorbing without conscious thought the easily visible emotions that the vampire had been hiding behind his cocky attitude and sexual innuendos.

“I don’t think I have that in me, pet,” he responded after long minutes of soaking up the gradual realization dawning in her eyes. “I’m a bloody coward and a weak man.”

Buffy slid off the hood of the car, slowly approaching the wary vampire. Spike’s hand dropped to his side, his fingers twitching with the need to touch her just once again before he left. He remained stiff and still as she moved into his personal space, lifting her hands to rest them lightly on his shoulders. Neither one had looked away yet, and Buffy held his gaze as she asked softly, “Does that mean you can’t go if I ask you not to?”

Hope warred with experience as he struggled to believe what she was saying.

“See,” he said with a shaky laugh, “there you go again – confusin’ who’s the sire and who’s the childe. I’m the one should be doin’ the asking and you should be doin’ what you’re asked.”

“What would you ask me to do?”

“I’d ask you to tell me what you want. Do you want me to leave, Buffy?”

She shook her head silently, still staring into his eyes.

“What about the big poof?” he asked, sounding more petulant than he intended.

“He wanted me to choose,” she said simply. “So I did.”

Her quiet statement was all it took to break his self-control. In fractions of a second, she was pressed against him, the arms holding her in place comfortingly strong and gentle. Her hands slid from his shoulders to his neck, her slender arms wrapping around it and bringing their faces together.

“Don’t leave me, Spike. I need you,” she whispered into his neck. “I need my sire…and I need my…friend.”

“Right,” he managed to say, her words reminding him that just because he was her sire and she enjoyed his company, it didn’t mean that her feelings for him in any way mirrored his own. “What kind of a sire would I be to leave my only childe jus’ because I was…”

“Jealous?” she guessed shrewdly. Angel’s sarcasm about which vampire would make the proper mate for her had opened her eyes and she suddenly had a better understanding of the tension between the two.

“Of the poof? Don’t be—“ he broke off when he saw the grin growing on her face. “Did you really choose me?” he asked. “Over your soulful boyfriend?”

“He hasn’t been my boyfriend since the night he killed me,” she said firmly. “It’s just taken him a while to figure that out.”

“So, then…” he began, pulling her closer to his body again, “Does that mean there’s a vacancy at that position?”

His lips brushed over hers, waiting for the final assurance that he wasn’t misunderstanding her intent.

“I hope not,” she whispered, rising on her toes to press back with her own lips. “I was kinda hoping it was already filled.”

His non-verbal response, which left her weak-kneed and panting, was the answer for which she’d been hoping. Only when she had begun to wrap her legs around his hips and move against the hard length pressing into her, did she remember that they were still in the driveway of a house in which her mother was undoubtedly still awake. Reluctantly, she dropped her legs and tried to push herself away.

“Spike…Spike! We have to…to stop. My mom…” Her complaint trailed off in the wake of another bone-melting kiss and this time it was the other vampire who pulled away. He held her at arm’s length, taking deep, unnecessary breaths to calm himself while he stared at her hungrily. He cast a look at the darkened house and dropped his hands.

“You’re right, love. I don’t want Mum coming after me with the axe again. And you’re right exhausted. What say we postpone the rest of this…discussion...until you’ve had that hot bath and some sleep?”

Her lip crept out in a pout, evoking a heartfelt groan from the vampire. “Ah, now, that’s cheatin’, love. Here I am tryin’ to do the right thing and let you scamper off to bed and you go and stick that lower lip out at me.”

“I don’t want to go to bed right now. Want more kissing,” she demanded, evoking another groan. Spike pulled her close again, allowing her to feel what she was doing to him.

“I don’t want to kiss you, love,” he growled, tightening his hold when he felt her stiffen. “Didn’t mean it that way, Buffy. You know I didn’t. Meant I don’t want to just kiss you. I want more, Slayer. Want all of you. Want to touch you, taste you, feel you around me…If we keep standin’ here snogging each other, I’m gonna be embarrassing the both of us.”

“I…I want more too,” she whispered, ducking her head. She knew if it were possible, she would have been blushing. “Just not here in my Mom’s driveway.”

“Tell you what, pet. You go inside, take that nice hot bath and get some rest. If, before dawn, you’re sure this is what you want, come to my crypt and we’ll spend the day there. And,” he added, stroking her face softly, “If you decide it’s not what you want. If you’re not ready…that’s alright. I’ll wait for you. I’m not goin’ anywhere. Not now.”

“Okay,” she agreed shyly. “But I’m not changing my mind, so you’d better be there when I get there.”

“I will, I promise. An’ I never break a promise to a lady.”

“’K, then. I’ll see you before dawn…” She rose on her toes and kissed him again, pulling back before it could turn into something more than the promise she meant it to be.

“I’ll be waiting. With bells on,” he added, wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively.

“Just so that’s all you have on,” she replied saucily, running into the house with a giggle when he choked and coughed. She waved happily from the entrance before shutting the door on his thunderstruck expression. She ran up the stairs quickly, pausing when her mother opened her bedroom door and touched her arm tentatively.

“Does your happy expression mean that Spike isn’t leaving Sunnydale?” Joyce asked, her face giving no hint of whether she thought it would be a good or bad thing.

“Yes, it does; and no, he isn’t.”

“And?”

Buffy flinched at her mother’s insistent tone, then straightened up and looked her in the eye. With a sudden burst of confidence, she said simply, “I think I love him. And I think he loves me. We’re…we’re going to be together.”

“You don’t mean sire/childe together, do you?” her mother asked with a sigh.

Buffy shook her head, embarrassed but firm.

With an unexpected smile, her mother visibly relaxed, her shoulders dropping and her face softening.

“I believe he does love you, Buffy. I’ve been able to see it for a long time. I guess this is as close as I’m going to come to having an actual son-in-law someday, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Buffy said softly with a wisdom beyond her years. “I know this isn’t what you wanted for me.”

Joyce shook her head. “Don’t apologize, Buffy. You aren’t responsible for being Chosen, and you’re not responsible for being a vampire. I can lay that one at my own feet. And, I don’t regret it!” she added quickly when Buffy’s face fell. “I would much rather have you around than not – no matter what you are. You are still my daughter and I will always love you and be grateful to Spike for saving your life.”

“Well,” Buffy said with a small smile, “technically…”

“He saved you.” Her mother’s tone brooked no argument. “He did as I asked, and he saved my daughter for me.” Joyce waved her hand dismissively. “It was that other vampire that killed you. Not Spike.”

Buffy grinned at hearing Angel referred to as “that other vampire” and nodded her head. Giving her mother a quick peck on the cheek, she said, “I’m going to take a hot bath now and try to catch some sleep.” She hesitated, then added softly, “I probably won’t be here when you get up in the morning, but we-I’ll come by tomorrow evening. After dark.”

Joyce studied Buffy’s face briefly, then nodded. “All right, sweetheart. I’ll see you tomorrow night then.” She backed into her bedroom and closed the door, leaning her head on it briefly as she let go on any last hope that Buffy would be living a normal life. She knew exactly where Buffy would be going before dawn – and why.

(My daughter is a vampire. She is going to the cemetery to sleep the day away in a crypt with her vampire lover.)

Brushing away a lone tear that had slipped out, Joyce shrugged and climbed into her bed, closing her eyes and allowing sleep to overtake her.

Buffy luxuriated in the tub full of hot bubble bath until she felt it begin to cool. Although she was not as affected by heat and cold as she had been as a human, she could still feel temperature differences and she still enjoyed the muscle-relaxing therapy of a good hot soak. However, with the heat rapidly fading, she quickly washed her hair and scrubbed her skin until it tingled; then got out of the tub. She got out, dried herself off and applied her usual after-bath moisturizers and deodorants.

(I guess old habits die hard) She made a wry face as she applied deodorant to sweat-free armpits. She quickly blew her hair dry, brushing it out as she did so and leaving it hanging loose the way she knew Spike liked it, but rarely got to see. Not sure enough of her vampire sense of time yet, Buffy set her alarm to go off at 4:00 AM and tucked herself into bed for a few hours of much-needed rest.