Chapter 10: Reconciliation and Manly Things

Buffy made sure to stop by the Magic Box bright and early on Saturday morning. She would have preferred to sleep late on the weekend, but the previous evening’s unexpected visitor meant there was some business to take care of. Fortunately, Willow and Tara were already there when she got there, looking through spell books while Xander helped Anya restock some shelves.

“Ahn, honey? I think the frog’s eyes are looking at me,” was the first thing Buffy heard when she walked in the door.

“Just don’t make eye contact and they’ll stop,” Anya suggested.

“Hey, Buffy. How was the date?” said Willow.

Buffy sighed. “Somewhat overshadowed by the demon that attacked my house while I was gone.”

The news elicited surprised and concerned murmurs from the Scoobies. “Are you guys all right?” Tara asked.

“We’re fine. It’s just a good thing Spike was there. You guys feel like getting researchy?” When the others nodded, she gave them the details. “Spike and Dawn said it was big and scaly, with spines on its back. Didn’t die when Spike cut off its head, only when he cut off the spines. Oh, and it bleeds some kind of greenish stuff that is now all over my carpet.” She rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Sure thing, Buff,” Xander said. “We’re on it.”

Buffy shook her head. “Not you. Xand, I’m gonna need some serious carpentry work. Spike and the demon did a number on the house.”

“Yeah, okay. Just call me Norm Abram.”

Buffy frowned. “The guy from Cheers?”

“No, that was Norm Peterson,” he corrected her. “Norm Abram is the guy from The New Yankee Workshop.”

Willow looked up at him, puzzled. “So you’re gonna make rocking chairs and birdhouses?” When the others gave her a surprised look, she shrugged. “I watched a lot of PBS as a kid.”

“You’re a funny one, Will. Anyway,” Xander said, turning back to Buffy. “I’ll make with the fixing, they’ll make with the research, and we’ll have this case cracked in no time.”

“I, uh, called Giles,” Buffy told them, wary that things were still a little tense. “I figured he could help. I hope you don’t –”

The door jingled. “Buffy?” her Watcher said.

“…mind,” Buffy finished quietly. “Hi, Giles,” she continued, more brightly. “These guys can fill you in. Xander and I are going to fix the holes in my house. Call me if you find anything.” She grabbed Xander by the arm and dragged him out of the Magic Box.

*****

Willow, Tara, Anya, and Giles sat around the research table in silence, poring over a stack of large dusty tomes. After bringing Giles up to speed on the situation, conversation had become scarce.

Anya got everyone’s attention by shutting a book so loudly it made the others look up at her in surprise. “So,” she said, leaning forward with her arms resting on the book in front of her, “I think we should discuss the awkwardness that’s been permeating the atmosphere, hovering like a… like a…”

“The elephant in the room?” Tara supplied.

“I don’t know.” Anya tilted her head to the side in thought. “Are elephants generally considered awkward? No, I’m talking about – it’s like this presence, like the awkwardness is just there, in the room, staring at us with its beady little eyes, and no one wants to say anything.” She either didn’t notice or ignored the looks she was getting from the others. “And I think we should deal with it.”

“O… kay,” said Willow, glancing nervously at Tara.

“Anya,” Giles started, taking off his glasses and rubbing his hand across his eyes.

Anya barreled on, relishing her role as mediator. “We’re all mad at Giles because he almost got Buffy killed, right?” Giles visibly flinched, but that didn’t stop her. “So what? Buffy got over it.”

“Look who’s talking, Anya,” said Willow. “Xander’s the one who’s been the most holding-a-grudgy. Maybe you should be talking to your fiancé about it.”

Anya sighed and shook her head. “Well, I love Xander, and he’s excellent in bed, but sometimes he’s kind of stupid.” She looked around at them. “So what do we say? Do we forgive Giles?”

“Anya, really,” said Giles. “Look, perhaps if I tried to explain… I know you found my actions reprehensible, and in retrospect I… find I agree.”

Willow and Tara seemed surprised at his admission, but remained silent and let him continue. “I believed Buffy to be suicidal, and I was rash in my decision.” He fiddled with the pages of the book in front of him. “I suppose I was also angry at her, for keeping it from me, and –”

“And you were angry at me for doing the spell in the first place.”

He looked at her, taken aback. “Willow –”

“No. You were right. You’d been telling me all along I did a stupid thing, and you were right. If I hadn’t brought her back, she never would’ve been feeling that way.”

“But then she’d be dead, and I think we all agree that wouldn’t be better, right?” Anya said. Willow and Giles both averted their eyes, unwilling to make the judgment call. Maybe they were better off with Buffy back, but what about what she wanted?

“There’s nothing we can do to change things now,” said Tara. “Buffy’s back, and I think she’s okay now, so maybe the best thing we can do for her is, you know, be a team again. Support her, in a united front.”

Giles looked from her to Willow and nodded. “I think that’s wise.”

“Good, okay.” Willow let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “Wow, that feels –”

“Well, I’m glad we worked through that,” Anya said, never one to dwell on other people’s emotional moments for long. “I kind of have a personal reason for making up with Giles.” She suddenly got nervous and glanced down shyly, playing with her sleeve. “I don’t exactly have a father, see, and well, it’s kind of a tradition when you get married, and so I was hoping” – she looked at Giles – “you’d be the one to walk me down the aisle?”

“Well, I – wha –” Giles sputtered. “I’m floored.” His face broke out into a sheepish grin. “Anya, of course, I would be happy to. It’s an honor.”

*****

Buffy inhaled, breathing in the smell of wood, paint, and other manly things. “Ah, I’ve missed this place.”

“Yeah, I know how you love our trips to Home Depot, Buff,” Xander replied, grabbing assorted supplies that Buffy couldn’t even begin to name and tossing them into the cart.

“I’m serious, this place is incredible.” She pointed to one of the aisle markers. “Look, they have an aisle of nails. A whole aisle of different kinds of nails.” She tugged on his sleeve excitedly. “It’s amazing.”

“Come on, Bob Vila. Let’s just get the stuff and get back to your house.” Buffy watched as Xander examined two different tools that to her looked exactly the same, then, after thoughtful consideration, put one in the cart and the other back on the shelf.

“Is Dawn home alone?” Xander asked.

“No, I asked Spike to come back.” She sighed at the face he made. “Like there’s anyone else who can fight off a demon. I cannot be with her all of the time.” Her first thought this morning had been to call Jacob and ask him to sit with Dawn while she went out. But she knew he’d be just as helpless as her sister against anything that might attack them, and she didn’t want to put him in danger. Besides, she had no idea how she’d explain the damage to the house – or the demon in the backyard. Comforting as it was having a new boyfriend, there were some things he just wasn’t ready for.

On the other hand, she hadn’t relished dragging a sleepy vampire out of bed early in the morning. Especially since, being relatively nocturnal, he’d probably only just gone to sleep.

“Spike,” she said, walking right into the crypt without knocking. No one sprawled on the sarcophagus – he must be downstairs. She climbed down the ladder to his lair, where she found him sleeping soundly, his head buried in a mound of pillows and a sheet tangled around his lower body.

“Spike.” He didn’t stir. “Spike, wake up,” she said again, this time louder and accompanied by a finger poking his bare chest. No response. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him. Still nothing.

“Ugh! Spike!” She socked him in the jaw with a swift punch.

“Bloody hell, woman!” Spike snarled, shooting up in bed and rubbing his jaw.

“You are impossible to wake up, you know that? You sleep like the…”

“Like the dead?”

“Well… yeah.”

“You ever think maybe I was ignoring you?”

“I…” Buffy glanced down and jumped backwards as she caught sight of Spike where the sheet had slipped down and was no longer concealing as much as it had been. “Oh, God, you’re naked!” She turned away and covered her eyes with one hand, just for good measure. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, doubly so because of the involuntary heat that flared between her thighs at the sight of naked Spike.

“Well, yeah,” he replied, in a sarcastic imitation of her, trying not to leer at the faint but unmistakable scent of arousal. “Hand me my trousers, will you?” Without looking at him – oh, she was a chaste little thing, or at least she pretended to be – she bent down, picked up his black jeans off the floor, and held them out at arm’s length. Spike shook his head and smirked as he grabbed them from her.

In the hardware store, Buffy blushed again just thinking about it. She really had to find a new baby-sitter. Yeah, right, she thought to herself. I wonder if Superman’s available. This baby-sitting job definitely required a superhero.

Meanwhile, her sitter of last resort was sprawled on the sofa, watching cartoons with all the curtains drawn. Spike let out a yawn and shook his head to clear the cobwebs, trying to stay awake until Buffy got back. He heard them approaching and was watching the front door expectantly when Buffy and Xander came in.

“Spike?” Buffy dropped her Home Depot bags on the floor in the foyer. “Where’s Dawn?”

“It’s Saturday morning, Slayer. She’s still sleeping.” He got up off the couch and shot her a look. “Where I’d like to be, too, might add. ’S past my bedtime, you know.”

“Look, I appreciate you coming over. Go home. Get some rest.”

“’S daylight out there, couldn’t I just…?” He gestured up the stairs.

Buffy glanced at Xander, who was bringing in a load of wood. “No,” she replied quickly.

Spike made a face. “Fine. On my merry way, then.” He grabbed the ratty blanket he used to protect himself from the sun and headed out the door, breaking into a run as soon as he hit sunlight.

Xander watched him go. “I don’t like that guy. I may have said it before, but it bears repeating.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. It really didn’t, actually. Xander’s hatred of Spike was well documented. “I know, Xand.”

“Do you, Buff?” He looked at her hard, giving her a glimpse of the thinly veiled mistrust he saved only for Buffy’s vampire cohorts. “Do you really? I mean,” he sighed, losing the edge and becoming caring, concerned Xander again, “I don’t want to see you or Dawn get hurt. Spike may be Buffy-whipped for now, but he’s still an evil, soulless monster. What if he decides to do something extreme, like – God, remember last year? When he almost let Drusilla kill you?”

Buffy glanced away. The thought had crossed her mind.

“He’s jealous now, Buff. You’ve got a new boyfriend. Who knows what he might do?”

Buffy folded her arms across her chest protectively, her brows knitted with concern. Spike had been kind of weird lately. Jealous. She worried about something setting him off. “This is the last time,” she said. “No more baby-sitting.”

“I thought the last time was the last time.”

She had said that, hadn’t she? “It’s just, with this new demon thing…”

“If Spike gets an idea in his head, he could be just as dangerous as the demon.”

Buffy sighed. “Just build something, will you? I’ll worry about Spike. But for now, I’m gonna go bury the demon carcass in the backyard.”