CHAPTER 22: You and me against the world

She'd thought getting there would be the worse part. Then, once she made it, she changed her mind and decided that walking there had been a piece of cake compared to actually opening the door. But after spending a good five minutes standing in front of said door, then finding the inner courage to open it, walking in turned out to be quite the challenge. The inside of Spike's crypt was silent and dark. As she took a few tentative steps, Buffy half expected an invisible orchestra to play a suspenseful score to accompany her. Instead, the only soundtrack to her nerve wracking march was her own heart beat. Finally, she took a deep breath and called out Spike's name, if only to break the painful silence.

When she didn't get any answer, she walked to the trap door and jumped down, not bothering with the ladder.

"Spike?"

Buffy blinked a few times, her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness surrounding her. She knew Spike was there, could feel the tingling at the back of her neck, but didn't see him right away. Looking around, she finally spotted him sitting in his old, ratty armchair.

"Not a good time, Buffy." He finally said after a few uncomfortable moments. He almost spat out her name.

He was in a bad mood. Fine. She'd been expecting that. "Spike, we need to talk."

"Don't." He nearly growled.

"Look, I know you're angry, and you have every right to be," she started to say.

His eyes fixed on her, Spike slowly stood up. Every muscle in his body was tensed, but he still moved with feline grace.

Buffy didn't step back--she knew he would never hurt her--but her heart rate increased nevertheless.

"I'm sure the last thing you want to do is listen to me right now, but I had to tell you..."

Spike stopped mere inches from her. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was not hearing a word she was saying.

"Spike..."

Before she could react, he'd grabbed her and pulled her hard against him, his lips crashing on hers.

"Mmmph!" She tried to say something, but was silence by the cool tongue invading her mouth. She struggled a little, managed to pull away long enough to say "I told..." but never finished her sentence.

She did a little mental shrug, then kissed him back just as ferociously. Since her original goal was to get back the Spike lovin' and that's what seemed to be happening at the moment, it didn't make a difference anymore whether she told him about her friends now and after. The second he stopped, she'd tell him.

Buffy closed her eyes and yielded power to him, giving him complete control of the situation and offering no resistance.

He picked her up and walked her to the bed where he dropped her unceremoniously, following her in her fall, but landing on his elbows to avoid hurting her. He ripped her silk chocolate brown wrap dress opened and kissed a path across her naked chest before going back to her lips. He didn’t even seem to notice his face had shifted and the demon had taken control.

Not taking his lips off of hers, he reached down with one hand and made her panties disappear with a flick of his wrist. He threw the torn underwear away and returned his attention to the naked blonde goddess beneath him.

Buffy fumbled with the buttons of his jeans, all the while thanking God that he was shirtless which would significantly cut back on the undressing time. If he'd been wearing a shirt, it would have probably got ruined.

Spike flipped them so she was on top of him, and she automatically sat up on him and sunk down on his cock, gasping and panting. She let the relief of having him deep inside of her wash over her before starting to move.

Their frenzied, desperate movements slowed as they slipped into the comfortable familiarity of making love together. Spike sat up and scooted back, bringing Buffy with him. Her knees on either side of him and her arms around his neck, she rose and fell on his erection, squeezing him tightly with each downward motion.

As they both neared their orgasm, Spike nuzzled her neck and bit down on her tender flesh. Buffy whimpered but only held him closer to her. After a few pull of her blood, he retracted his fangs and whispered a simple word: Mine.

His head was down, as if he was afraid to look at her. She put her hand under his chin and looked into the yellow eyes of the demon. "Yours."

Spike looked shocked. He'd claimed her instinctively, without thinking about what he was doing, and hadn't expected her to accept it. Hesitantly, he bit his own wrist. Knowing what to do without having to be told, without having to be told, Buffy grabbed his arm with both hands and put her lips to the open wound. She sucked on it for a moment, then looked at him again. "Mine."

"Yours."

They both came hard, then Spike fell back, his head resting against the wall and Buffy's cheek against his chest. After a while, she sat up to look at him, worried by his silence. His eyes were closed.

"Spike?"

He didn't open his eyes. "Buffy, I'm so sorry..."

"Oh no you don't!" She exclaimed angrily.

His eyes shot open.

"Don't you dare ruin this moment, Spike, or I swear to God, claim or not, I will stake you."

"But, we didn't even talk about this first. You mean, you really wanted this?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Did you have to pin me down and twist my arm behind my back?"

"No but..."

"No but nothing." She interrupted. "I'm a big girl and no one makes me do something I don't want to do. I wanted this more than anything and I'm happy. You have nothing to apologize for."

She bent down and kissed him softly. She was surprised to feel his relief and love as if it was hers. She looked at him questioningly.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing. It's just..." She didn't know how to explain what she was feeling.

Spike smiled. "You can feel it too?"

Buffy nodded. "Is it normal that I know how you feel?"

"Part of the claim, pet. There are a lot of misconceptions about claims, like that you can read each other's thoughts, or that two mates glow when they‘re near each other, or that if one dies, the other one does too. A bunch of bollocks that some people believe. Because of that, not too many vampires mate. But the truth is, a claim is like a deep connection. And yes, other vampires can smell it on you. Might not stop them from trying to kill you, but they'll be a little more wary of consequences, and they'll never try to turn you."

She smiled, then rested her head on his shoulder, cuddling to his side contentedly. "Good to know."

"No regrets then?"

"Nope. You?"

The vampire laughed at the question. "No. Never."

"Spike?"

"Yeah?"

"Before we got sidetracked, I was here to say that I told my friends about us."

Spike stared at the top of Buffy's head, surprise in his blue eyes. "... You did?"

She nodded against him.

He wasn't sure what to say. This was the last thing he’d expected. "How did they react?" The distress he felt coming from her answered his question.

Buffy looked up at him with a sad little smile.

"Oh luv." He pulled her closer against him. "You didn't have to do this alone. That's not what I wanted. I'm sorry, I should have been there."

"To do what?"

"I don't know. Emotional support? Or," he looked slightly sheepish, "make it worse, probably."

She chuckled. "Like they say, it's the thought that counts. But I'm sure you standing there smirking at him wouldn't have helped with Xander's reaction. Or Giles' for that matter."

"They gave you a hard time? You want me to brave the headache and bite them?"

"No. But thanks for the offer." She sighed. "I'm not even all that upset about that. I kinda expected them to flip out. But it's the girls' reaction that surprised me. I hoped they would defend me but they didn't."

"I'm sorry to hear that, pet. But Buffy, you do realize it's not that you didn't tell them that got me upset, it's that you couldn't be honest with me. If you weren't ready to tell your friends about you and me, I would have understood. But saying you would, then acting all embarrassed in front of them, that I wasn't fine with. Made me feel like a bloody idiot for believing you."

"That's the thing, I was ready to tell them. I just didn't want them to find out this way."

"You should have told me that."

"I know. Can I just say I'm sorry?"

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. "Yes you can. And I'm sorry I acted like a real wanker and didn't give you a chance to explain."

"Apology accepted, moving on."

"Yes, moving on."

"Can I say something without you thinking I'm completely paranoid?"

Spike could sense the tension in her and it made him tense too. Being connected on such a deep level would take some getting use to. "What is it?"

"It's probably nothing. It's just that after what happened in Hawaii with Quentin Travers trying to get rid of us, Giles' reaction worried me. It will sound stupid. I know Giles is not exactly Mr. Council man, but... Do you think there is a possibility that maybe Travers got to him?"

"You mean, convinced him that you need to be taken out of the picture because you're with me?"

She chuckled nervously. "Uh... yeah. Something like that."

"I really don't think that could ever happen, pet."

"You think?"

"Rupert's an uptight wanker, but there's no denying the man loves you Buffy. Even if I was caught up in my own grief at the time, it didn't blind me enough not to see his despair after you died. The watcher drank himself unconscious every night that you were gone. There's no way he would participate in any plot against you."

"I know that. He does love me, but sometimes I think he loves someone who just doesn't exist. He'd want me to be perfect and sometimes, I disappoint him. He is a watcher before everything else. And don't you find it suspicious that just when Quentin Travers was trying to have us killed, Giles got called for an unplanned trip to London? God knows what they talked about. Did Travers convince him that I'm unfit and it would be best for the greater good and the safety of the world to get rid of you, me and Faith? Get a new Slayer and start with a clean slate? You know to what length he's willing to go to protect the world. Xander told me after I came back that Giles was the one who killed Ben that night. He didn't hesitate to take a human life."

Spike shook his head while Buffy said the last words. "Pet... No. You can't hold that against him. As much as it pains me to defend the old wanker, he did what had to be done. Even if you hadn't been up on the tower at the time, he couldn't have let you do this. Killing an innocent goes against your nature. It would have changed you forever. No luv, he had to do it or the Glory problem would have never gone away."

Buffy ran her fingers through her messy hair, her head low. "I know. But it stills brings up the question of what he can and can't do. And he is part of the Council and they are a threat to us right now. I don't think Travers will back off so easily."

"So what do you suggest we do?"

"I think I should follow up on Benjamin Travers' suggestion. I'm going to break into Giles' house and go through the watcher journals to try to find out more about the Council and previous Slayers. It might help us figure out a way to stop Travers, or at least, get some blackmail material to get him to back off. And it might help restore my trust in Giles. I might be overreacting, but you didn’t see his face when I told him about us. He looked so cold. He wouldn't even talk to me. I need to be able to trust him, Spike. He's the one person with the most power over me. I have to trust him if I want to be safe. He's the one who provides me the information to be able to do my job as a Slayer successfully. One wrong piece of information, like forgetting to tell me a demon is poisonous, and I'm toast. "

"You might be right. It doesn't hurt to be careful. I think reading the journals might put your fears to rest."

"I'll do it tomorrow when he's at the Magic Box."

"So, pet, just curious here... do we have anybody on our side?"

"Well, I'm half expecting Xander to burst through your door with a stake in his hand, so he's definitely not going to be one of our main supporters. I think I should have talked to him alone first. Maybe he would have listened."

"Give him some time to calm down, he'll come around. He'll probably still try to stake me, but he'll forgive your bad taste in men eventually. He did forgive you for Peaches."

"Not sure he did."

Spike smirked. "Can't blame the boy for that one."

She rolled her eyes. "Moving on."

"Anya is on nobody's side but her own. As long as nothing interferes with her impending nuptial extravaganza, she couldn't care less."

"In that case, let's hope the Whelp doesn't decide to eat his way through a life time supply of Cheetos to ease the pain of you and I together. If he gets so fat he can't fit in his bloody tuxedo anymore, we might have a vengeance demon to deal with."

Buffy smiled, but her amusement faded quickly.

"We can't trust Willow either." She said sadly. She had fully expected Willow to come to her defense, and the sting was still fresh.

The blonde vampire looked surprised at her declaration. "Red's your oldest friend, pet." He tried to argue.

"She's also an incredibly powerful witch with a tendency to rely on magic to fix everything she doesn't like or agree with lately. I'm surprised she hasn't tried to make clouds disappear on a rainy day yet. Come to think of it, maybe she has."

Spike chuckled. "I guess there's no way of telling. But the sky has been suspiciously blue lately, or so I'm told. Could be that pesky California weather though."

"Spike, this isn't funny. I know you like Willow but..."

"Correction," Spike interrupted "used to. I liked the sweet, caring, brainy and slightly awkward girl she used to be, but I can't say that I'm found of the new and not so improved wicked witch in sheep's clothing. The way she uses her power to boost her ego makes me nervous. Magic isn't something to be taken lightly."

"I'm not going to jump to conclusions regarding Willow. Like you said, she is my oldest friend and even if I think she needs an attitude adjustment, I still love her. But do I trust her? No. Even if she doesn't hate the idea of you and I together, if being with you creates tension with the others, she might decide to use magic to fix things. Tara did confess to me that Willow used a spell on her to make her forget a fight they'd had."

Spike sighed. "Fine. So the little red witch goes on the list of people not to trust right now. What about Glinda?"

"I love Tara dearly, and I do believe she's happy for us. But she also loves Willow and despite their occasional fight, I don't believe Tara would openly disagree with Willow. I think she's more likely to avoid taking side. But I could be wrong."

"So that leaves..?"

"Us. You, me, and Dawn. Or at least, until proven otherwise."

"Everything will be fine, Buffy. I know things look a bit dark right now, but I know your friends and Giles love you enough to get past this. They'll come around. And we'll deal with Travers and the council of wankers. You and I might have tried to kill each other in the past, but we also make a bloody good team. And the Nibblet proved that she'll be a great addition too. She's just like her big sister. Stubborn and clever. She did manage to get us to stop fighting, didn't she?"

"She did." Buffy planted a loving kiss on Spike's lips. "Is it wrong that I wish we'd never left Hawaii?"

Spike smiled. He put a finger under her chin to make her look at him. "I do too, but things will work out. And if worst comes to worst, we jump on a plane, get new identities and disappear on an island somewhere."

"Promise?"

"Promise."