Chapter 6

AN* Right then, you have all been far too patient with me – time to sort a lot of things out – don’t you think?


By the way, I love you ALL, and I *heart* smudgiboo for the banner


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Buffy sat, cold and numb, on the couch between her mother and sister. Once again she had been abandoned by someone who professed to love her above all else. His leaving had torn her apart at the seams; his confession to being mated almost killed her. Three years she had kept her heart intact for him, and this was how she was repaid.

The fact that she had tried to hit him again never entered her mind. That small aberration had conveniently removed itself from her recent memory. However, the look on his face as he had spoken to her would be etched there forever.

Gradually her mother’s calm voice penetrated her thoughts. What was her mother saying her, she wondered, as she sat there in her misery. Pulling her stray thoughts back into focus, she turned to look into her mother’s eyes.

“Buffy, you have to talk to him and find out about this ‘mate’ business.”

“No, mom, I really don’t.” Buffy venomously replied. “He came back to help Dawn and once we fix that he can go back to his bitch.”

Both Joyce and Buffy were suddenly conscious of Dawn sniggering behind them. Turning an angry look on her sister, Buffy’s eyebrows flew into her hairline in inquiry.

“Sorry, Buffy, but that is just too funny. Spike going back to his bitch. Jealous much?” she asked blithely. “And how can you be so sure it’s a woman? From all the research I’ve done over the past few years, vampires don’t really care who they sleep with.”

Anger rose quickly inside Buffy as she continued to stare at her sister. Of course she wasn’t jealous, what a ridiculous notion. She was just……disappointed. Yes, that’s what she felt, disappointment.

Finally she found her voice, even though it sounded scratchy to her own ears. “Don’t be stupid, Dawn. How can I be jealous of Spike’s bitch, or boy, or whatever? I’m sure they are very happy together in their land of volcanoes, darkness and bitey claimy shit.”

Dawn’s whoops of laughter broke the tension in the room, and even Buffy started to smile. Small smiles played on Joyce’s lips as she listened to her girls discuss Spike and his mate.

Joyce’s instinct told her there was something very wrong in Spike’s ‘mate’ declaration, and she was determined to find out the truth. Making an instant decision, she rose from the couch and walked calmly into the kitchen to make a telephone call. Punching a well-known number into the phone, she waited impatiently for Giles to pick up. A sigh of relief passed her lips when she heard his voice say ‘Hello’ Quickly she began to recount Spike’s tales of working for the Watcher’s Council, and his new found mate.

As Giles replaced the receiver on the woman who had become his friend, he removed the glasses from his face and started to polish them. He had known for over two years of Spike’s role within the Council, but had chosen not to relate the facts to his slayer.

The fact that Spike had told the Summers’ family he was mated concerned him. He knew Buffy held strong feelings for Spike, though she had never confided them to him. Knowing her as he did, he could not help notice the change in her since his departure. Her slaying had become more aggressive, and on occasion, downright foolhardy. Often she would sit at the research table in the Magic Shop staring at nothing, her thoughts obviously somewhere else.

There was only one thing he could do to try and right this situation. With trepidation, he lifted the receiver to his ear ready to make one of the hardest telephone calls of his life.

The Council would have the answers he needed.


##

Two demons, one as pale as the moonlight, and one with far too much skin, sat side by side on the plush leather sofa in the crypt. Steam rising from the untouched coffee mugs placed carefully on coasters on the low table in front of them, held their attention. Neither seemed to be able to start the conversation that each knew was long overdue.

Spike lifted his eyes to the ceiling as he flopped back. Long legs stretched in front of him, tension holding his body rigid. He did not want to do this, but his friend deserved the truth. Telling the truth wasn’t the issue, it was dealing with Clem’s disappointment in him that did.

“Well, Spike.” Clem’s voice finally broke the silence. “When did you get mated? And why did I hear it from Dawn and not you.”

“Oh Clem,” Spike smiled at the ceiling. He was not ready to look his friend in the eye just yet. “There is no mate, and you damn well know it.” Closing his eyes, Spike sat up straight on the sofa; he dared not open his eyes just yet. “I blurted that out before Joyce and Dawn tried to persuade me to stay on after we defeat the prophecy.”

Clem looked at his friend in bewilderment. “Why would they ask you to stay?” he asked simply.

How was he to answer that? How could he explain to Clem the love he had felt from both Joyce and Dawn? He had just known that they would try and persuade him to stay on after the prophecy.

And he couldn’t do that.

His silence lasted too long for Clem. “I asked a question, Spike. What makes you think they would ask you to stay?”

Finally opening his eyes, Spike turned his head and smiled. “I could sense how much they missed me, old friend. It’s hard to explain in words, ‘cos it was just a feeling, you know?”

“Would that be such a bad thing? I mean, I do get a bit lonely sometimes and we would make great roomies.”

Spike laughed and fixed his attention back on his un-touched coffee. “I can’t live in the same town as HER and not try to make her mine. I left ‘cos I just couldn’t be near her anymore while she continued to reject me and kick me in the head every chance she got.” He turned his head towards his concerned friend before he continued. “I love her with everything I am, Clem, but there will never be any room in her heart for me. Peaches saw to that years ago when he left her for her own good.”

Before he could carry on, Clem interrupted him vehemently. “And you did exactly the same thing, you stupid lug.”

An astonished look came over Spike’s face as he stared back at his friend. “No, that’s not true. I left ‘cos she would never love me.”

Annoyed at his friend’s stupidity, Clem continued to rail at him. “So sure of that are you? “ Suddenly Clem rose from the sofa and started to pace across the crypt. “For someone as clever as you, Spike, you can be SO stupid at times.”

Spike stared open-mouthed at Clem as he paced the floor. He had never heard his friend raise his voice before, and it fascinated him. “What do you mean, Clem?” he asked softly, afraid to anger his friend further.

Stopping in his tracks, Clem turned his large brown eyes on Spike. “For three years the slayer has talked about you, asked about you and missed you.” At look of disbelief on his friend’s face, he knew he had to try and make him understand. “You weren’t here, Spike, I was. It was me she talked to, and me she cried with.”

“Don’t believe she cried over me, Clem.”

“No, Spike, I don’t believe you do.” Exasperated at his friend’s inability to face some home truths, he continued none the less. “While you were travelling all over the world killing demons for money, Buffy stayed here fighting whatever the hellmouth threw at her. She did it all without you, waiting every day for you to come back.” Taking a deep breath to calm his emotions, Clem continued his tirade. “She talked about you all the time when she came to visit. Where you were? Were you alive? Did I know how to contact you? Do you KNOW how much it took me NOT to tell her? Do you, Spike?”

Spike’s eyes had never left Clem’s face. “I can imagine. I’m sorry, Clem.”

“It’s not me you need to say ‘sorry’ to, Spike.” Clem’s temper had cooled, but it still sat close to the surface ready to pounce. “I asked and asked you to come home, but you and your stubborn pride stayed as far away as you could.” Suddenly Clem laughed out loud. “Do you know, Buffy never asked me where I got the money to do up the crypt? Dawn guessed, I think, but she never said a thing. Joyce once said that some of the art you sent me suited you more than me. She never mentioned your name to me again.”

Head in hands at Clem’s declarations, Spike stared at the flagged floor between his booted feet. “I’ve fucked it all up, haven’t I Clem?” he asked softly.

“Oh yes, my friend.” Clem replied. “You have fucked up so royally that it will take more than sweet talk to get out of this.”

A huge sigh left Spike’s lips as he sat back against the sofa. “What do you suggest I do, Clem, ‘cos I’ve no fucking clue?”

Clem could see the torment on his friend’s face, and all anger left to be replaced by compassion. “That’s really simple, Spike. Kill whatever is trying to kill Dawn, then take Buffy in your arms and tell her you love her.”

Spike laughed at his friend’s naïve outlook on his dilemma. “Buffy will break my balls if I try that, Clem, and I wouldn’t blame her. She won’t believe me after I dropped the bombshell about a mate.” His face turned serious as he remembered her trying to slap him. “She tried to hit me when Dawn told her I was mated, and I stopped her. I’ve never seen her look so hurt, yet all I could do was demand she never touch me again.”

“Well the sex will be interesting if you never touch each other again.” Clem observed idly.

Immediately all tension broke, and both demons sat back laughing heartily on the couch.

##

Deep down in the bowels of the hellmouth, the return of the master vampire was causing concern. His return had not been mentioned in the prophecy; the slayer would fight them alone. The pack of demons gathered there had been preparing for three years for the Blood Red Moon.

It was due in three days, at the next full moon.

At first they had decided to take out the slayer, but once they had watched her fight, their reasoning changed. This Buffy Summers was, without doubt, the strongest slayer any of them had seen, and some of the brethren were almost older than time. This girl, their sworn enemy, seemed to have harnessed the first slayer’s power better than any other slayer before her.

It was with this in mind that their council had decided to attack her family instead. One of their kindred had spoken of the prophecy in the past, and they had all decided that fate had brought it to them.

The rituals had been researched and carefully carried out. They had lost some brethren to the slayer during the gathering of supplies, but they were easily replaced. An army of demons resided beneath the town of Sunnydale, each waiting for their one good day.

They would destroy the slayer by destroying what she loved.