Chapter 7

“Hey, what’s going on?” Riley asked Buffy, catching up with her as her class let out. He tried to slip his arm around her shoulder, but she shrugged out of his embrace.

“Your friends are assholes,” she muttered, quickening her pace.

Puzzled by Buffy’s apparent return to avoiding him, Riley hurried to keep up. “What happened? Did you talk to Graham?”

“We had a chat,” she conceded, not giving anything away.

“And?” he prompted. “Did you find out anything?”

“Yeah. Funny thing is, he led me straight back to you.”

Riley stopped in his tracks, grabbing Buffy’s arm to pull her back. “Whoa, what do you mean?”

“He admitted he was the one who spiked my drink,” she told him. “And he said he did it for you. He was trying to make it easier to get me to sleep with you.” Her voice was wavering and thick with tears. “What, was I not fast enough for you?”

“What?” His eyes bugged out. “Buffy, you can’t think I had anything to do with this.”

“I don’t know!” she cried, attracting the attention of passing students, but she didn’t even notice the stares. “I don’t know anything anymore.”

Riley clutched her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him. “Buffy, listen to me. I didn’t know about this! I swear.”

“What’s Hydracin-12?” she demanded.

His eyes narrowed. “Is that what he gave you?”

“What is it?”

“It’s an Initiative drug,” he told her, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “Experimental. Not supposed to be used on humans. God, Buffy, if I’d known he was gonna use it on you, I never would’ve let him.”

She still wouldn’t look at him. “What does it do?”

“It causes weakness and reduces aggressive behavior. Probably also made you sleepy, a little out of it.” Riley hesitated. “We’ve been using it to make the HSTs more… compliant. One side effect in sentient demons seems to be, uh, lowered inhibitions. To your friends, you would’ve just seemed drunk.”

“So, it’s a date rape drug for demons,” Buffy replied angrily. “The regular old human stuff is no match for Slayer strength, right? So they had to find something stronger? Gosh, it’s a good thing you’re all part of a secret demon-hunting operation!”

“Buffy –”

She held up her hand and shook her head. “No. I can’t – I just can’t, right now.”

“Buffy, please,” Riley begged her. “Tell me you don’t think I did this, that I knew anything about it.”

“I know,” she murmured, and in her heart, she did – she believed him when he said he wasn’t involved. But his friends were, and it made her sick to think he’d trusted them. “I know,” she repeated, on the verge of tears. “I just… need to be alone right now.”

*****

“Ri, wait up.”

Riley recognized the voice, and he turned around just long enough to fire a deadly glare at Graham, and Forrest behind him. Graham was sporting a black eye and a bruise that covered the entire left side of his face. Good, Riley thought angrily. Way to go, Buffy.

“I don’t even want to look at you right now,” he said, his voice low and intense with rage.

“Look, man, I know you’re pissed –”

Riley spun around and seized Graham by the front of his shirt. “Oh, really, man? You drugged my girlfriend!” He let loose with a punch that would likely blacken Graham’s other eye.

“Whoa!” Forrest said, stepping in between his two best friends before Riley had a chance to hit Graham again. “No time for that right now, bro. There’s something you need to see.”

“Get the hell off me,” Riley snapped. He narrowed his eyes at Forrest, ready to tell him to fuck off unless he wanted a beating, too, but upon seeing the serious expression on his fellow soldier’s face, he reluctantly backed down. “What is it?”

Forrest shook his head. “Can’t talk here. Come on back to base. You’ll just have to see for yourself.”

*****

Buffy hesitated at the crypt entrance, her last chance to turn around and forget this idea. Mustering up her courage, she raised her fist and rapped on the door.

“Hey,” she said, when a surprised Spike answered her knock.

“Slayer? Didn’t expect to see you darkening my door.”

She gave him a sheepish half-smile. “I just thought… I could use someone to talk to, if you don’t mind.”

Spike nodded, opening the door wider to let her in. “Sure. Have a seat… the seat,” he corrected himself, realizing he only had the one.

The candles scattered throughout the crypt cast flickering shadows in the gloom, and Buffy could make out the ratty chair positioned in front of the old TV. A sarcophagus loomed off to one side, and cobwebs draped between the pillars.

“I’d offer to get you something, but all I have is blood and liquor.”

“Um, I’m good, thanks,” Buffy replied, perching hesitantly on the edge of the chair.

Spike took a seat on the sarcophagus facing her, his legs dangling over the side. “So, uh, Timmy saw Tabitha’s head in the fishbowl –”

“No,” she interrupted him. “This time I came to talk about… to talk.”

He nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Buffy took a deep breath to steady herself before continuing. “My counselor thinks it’ll help me if I try to find out who raped me.”

“Oh, yeah?” he said, a nervous tone in his voice, fidgeting in his seat. Buffy had to suppress a smile at how uncomfortable it must be for him to be in this position. But hey, he’d started it by being nice to her.

“Yeah. So, I told Riley, and –”

“Wait, you mean the big lug didn’t know?” Spike cut in, shocked.

She was suddenly incredibly engrossed in the cuff of her sweater. “No.”

“All this time, you’ve been pretending you were fine, and he bought it?” He shook his head. “Anyone with eyes could see you weren’t all right.”

“It wasn’t like that. He knew something was wrong, he just…”

“Didn’t know the whole story. So, let me get this straight. You told your mortal enemy that you were raped before you told you boyfriend?”

And my mother, and my Watcher… If I’d had a choice, even Xander wouldn’t know. “The only reason I told you was because I thought you did it,” she retorted, though she knew it was a weak argument.

Spike flinched at the reminder, but he saw through it just as easily as she did. “Yeah, and the reason you keep talking about it with me instead of him is…? Or, hell, you got family, friends. Why me?”

Her gaze dropped down to her hands in her lap, again unwilling to meet his. “I feel like I can talk to you… like I can trust you.”

She risked a glance up, and she thought she saw the vaguest hint of discomfort at the notion, but it was mostly drowned out by the sympathy in his eyes. It was still startling to find that reaction from him, to realize that as much as she inexplicably longed for his help and comfort, he was just as willing to give it.

“Look, it’s not important,” she said, although the expression on his face indicated otherwise. “The point is, I told Riley, and I found out who drugged me, but that was pretty much a dead end, and now I don’t know what to do.”

“Who drugged you?” he asked, mercifully letting her get away with changing the subject.

She rolled her eyes in disgust. “Riley’s friend Graham. He’s one of the Initiative guys, used some kind of experimental demon drug on me. But he swears he was down there all night, and Riley would know if he was lying, so…”

“So you’re back to square one,” Spike finished for her.

“Yeah, which is why I was hoping to bounce some ideas off of you.”

“Okay… uh, let’s start with what you remember.”

“Well, there was you. And then there was Parker. And seeing Parker made me drink a lot.” She grimaced. “So then, I started to get dizzy, and then Xander took me upstairs –”

“Wait.” Spike held up his hand. “You don't think Harris, maybe...?”

“No! He wouldn’t do that.” She flinched at the very thought.

He tilted his head and raised his eyebrows skeptically. “Boy’s had it bad for you for years now, and you’ve been shooting him down all along. You don’t think he’d take the opportunity, when you couldn’t say no?”

“No!” she repeated, springing out of the chair. “How can you say that? Spike, he’s my best friend!” Throwing him a disgusted glare in parting, she stormed toward the door. “Forget it, this was a stupid idea.”

Spike leapt off the sarcophagus and rushed to block her path. “Buffy, wait! Look, I’m sorr–”

“Shut up! I came here for help, and you accuse my best friend of rape? What, are you gonna tell me it was Willow next?”

He frowned. “Willow’s not even a – right, no, not the point,” he hurriedly corrected himself as she tried to shove past him with a dirty look. “Would you just wait a bloody minute?”

When she didn’t stop, he seized her by the arm and yanked her toward him, only to be struck by a blinding pain in his skull. He fell to his knees with a cry, releasing his grip on Buffy to clutch his throbbing head.

“Are – are you okay?” she asked, her anger dissipating as she knelt tentatively beside him. “I didn’t mean to –”

“Shh, shh. Not your fault, pet,” he murmured, catching her by the shoulders and running his hands up and down her arms to reassure her. “You were right. I’m sorry. Please, don’t go.”

One of his hands found its way to the nape of her neck, his fingers twining in her hair. His eyes, apologetic and tender, met hers, and she was once again struck by their sheer expressiveness, the depth of the emotions that lingered there. It seemed hardly unexpected, then, when his eyelids lowered and he pulled her fractionally closer, so that she could feel his hesitant breath on her cheek. Her heart suddenly started pounding, her mouth went dry, and she focused in on his slightly parted lips, hovering inches from hers.

Abruptly, Spike pulled away with a mumbled apology, and a brief flicker of self-loathing crossed his face. Not looking at her, he stood up and began to pace back and forth, his hands running restlessly through his hair.

“Spike?” she said, rising slowly, baffled by his sudden change in demeanor.

He whirled around to face her with an apologetic look. “Buffy, there’s – there’s something I have to tell you. Should’ve said something before, but…” He shook his head.

“Spike, what is it?”

He opened his mouth to speak, but then seemed to lose his nerve. “What about this Parker bloke?” he asked finally. “Didn’t seem too concerned with your well-being the first time around.”

She knitted her brow. “Yeah, but he already got me to sleep with him willingly. Why would he need to…?”

Spike shrugged. “If the milk stops bein’ free, some blokes’ll stop drinking. Others’ll steal it.”

“Ugh. Could you have possibly found a less degrading way to say that?”

“It’s still true.”

“Fine.” Buffy let out a sigh. “Okay, well, at least that’s a direction, right? I go question Parker, and we’ll find out something, one way or another.”

“What’re you gonna do if it’s him, pet? You gonna give him the thrashing he deserves, or hand him over to the police?”

She paused. “I – I don’t know. I mean, he’s human, so… the police really should be the ones to handle it.”

“Yeah,” Spike said, though it was clear from his tone of voice that he held a contrary opinion.

“Spike? What would you do? If you could get the people who chipped you, what would you do?”

He gave her a wry smile. “What do you think, pet?”

*****

“You’re sure this is his place?” Riley asked, crouched in the bushes on the edge of the cemetery with his four-man team, his eyes on the crypt ahead of them in the distance.

“Beta Team saw him leaving last night,” Graham reported.

“So why didn’t Beta Team bag him?”

“He gave them the slip. But they doubled back and checked out the crypt. He’s definitely living there.”

“Okay.” Riley glanced over at the soldier manning the body heat sensor. “We’re sure he’s in there?”

“Affirmative. There’s a human, too. He’s got a victim.”

“We gotta move now,” Forrest said, shouldering his stun gun.

Riley nodded. “On my mark –”

“Wait!” Graham interrupted, peering at the crypt through his night vision binoculars. “I got movement. He’s coming out… oh, shit, Finn, you gotta see this.”

Riley took the binoculars from him. As expected, he saw the target leaving the crypt, but he was stunned to find Buffy at his side, Spike’s hand resting casually on the small of her back. They appeared to be friendly, laughing together, and Buffy showed no sign that she thought she was in danger – and definitely no sign that she was about to stake the vampire. Riley took it in like a punch to the gut.

“What is it?” Forrest demanded. Numbly, Riley handed off the binoculars. “Son of a bitch,” Forrest mused. “Maybe she wasn’t raped after all.”

“Shut the hell up,” Riley replied, giving Forrest a shove and knocking him to the ground. “He’s got her fooled, is all, got her thinking he’s harmless because we put a muzzle on him.”

“You gonna tell her?” Graham asked.

Riley shook his head. “No. We’ll take care of this ourselves. Come back when it’s light, so he won’t have anywhere to run.”