A/N: Betas: Mabel_Marsters, Xanit, & Slaymesoftly.

For those of you who don't know, I had a small fire at my home last Sunday night. I had to stay with relatives until the house was safe to move back into. This is why this update is so late in being posted. I'm sorry :) My mom has dial up and I could not connect with my laptop. I'm so glad to be home. Thank you all for the wonderful reviews I have gotten so far for this story. It means a lot to me.

In Harm's Way

Chapter Sixteen: Visiting Hours



Troy was just taking her dinner tray away when Willow, Xander, and Anya filed into the room.

“Hey, Buff,” Xander said with a goofy smile and a raised brow at the retreating form of her nurse. “How do you like the service here?”

Buffy's heart soared at the sight of them. All were alive and well, except for the extra large beige band-aid on Xander's forehead. Anya hung back, obviously feeling uncomfortable.

“It's not too bad, except I'm on an all liquid diet until tomorrow morning. There was Jell-o, though.”

“Oh, was it lime?” Willow asked, gingerly sitting on the edge of the bed and placing Buffy's duffel bag on the floor.

“Orange.” Buffy smiled politely and waved at Anya, who sat on the other bed and bounced.

“Not bad, Xander,” the ex-demon said. “One of these would come in handy in your basement for when we play doctor.”

“Ahn! What did we talk about?” Xander patiently told his girlfriend.

“Oh, was that inappropriate? Because I was going to suggest that Buffy should invite that cute nurse to play doctor when we leave.”

Buffy and Willow smiled at each other as Xander ushered Anya out of the room with the excuse of finding something to eat from the vending machine.

“Bring me back something chocolate,” Buffy called out.

Willow's smile faded. “Are you really OK?”

“I'm fine. I want out of this place, like yesterday, but I'm fine.”

The redhead breathed a sigh of relief and pulled the duffel bag onto the chair next to the bed. “I brought you some of your stuff, including your make-up.” She opened the bag and started pulling things out. “And, see. Your yummy sushi pajamas.”

“Quick! Shut the door and help me put them on before Xander gets back.” To be in her own clothes, instead of the awful white and blue hospital gown, was like a little bit of heaven.

Once she was settled back on the bed, Willow said, “Your mom told me that she saw Spike here, the night you were admitted.”

“That's what she told me, too. I didn't see him.” Buffy glanced at the TV, not wanting to look her friend in the eye. “One of the nurses thought he was my boyfriend because she caught him in my room holding my hand.”

“What?” Willow said, her eyes wide in shock.

Buffy shrugged. “That's what she says.”

Buffy let the silence hang for a minute while Willow absorbed that bit of information. She desperately wanted to tell Willow about the baby. Without even thinking about it, she placed her hands over her abdomen. She should be able to tell her best friend.

She'd just found the courage to tell her when Willow said, “Giles thinks that we’re safe from Spike until you get better, because Spike wants to take you down in a fair fight.”

Something in Willow's tone was off. “And you don't think that's the case?”

“I don't know what to think.” Willow glanced at the closed door and then back at Buffy, whispering quickly, “What's going on between you two?”

“Nothing!” Buffy said with a shake of her head.

“Oh, really?”

Buffy nodded her head.

“Then why did I find this between your mattress and box spring at the dorms?” Willow pulled a neatly folded black t-shirt out of the bag. “And why does it smell like leather and Spike?”

Buffy squeaked and snatched the shirt from her, quickly shoving it under the sheets. “Were you snooping through my stuff?” she asked her friend with as much indignation as she could muster, hoping to distract Willow, so she wouldn't have to come up with an answer.

“No. You know I would never do that.” Willow frowned. “When Adam came by our dorm room, he tore it up. Your mattress was hanging off to the side, and I saw the shirt when I was putting the room back together. You still haven't answered my question.”

Buffy looked away and fiddled with the remote for the TV.

“Buffy, talk to me. Why do you have Spike's shirt? Because, right now, my imagination is going wild with the possibilities, especially after you told me that he was in your ICU room, holding your hand.”

“I don't know why he was in my room.” She opened her mouth to tell Willow what happened that night.

“And the shirt?”

With a sigh of resignation, she told her. “I've had that since the morning you reversed that love spell.”

“Why?”

Buffy groaned. “This is so embarrassing. My shirt got destroyed and I had to wear his home.” Willow looked on with her mouth formed into a small 'O' and eyes wide. Buffy glanced behind Willow to make sure the door was still closed, then whispered, “While I was under the spell, I slept with Spike.”

“Oh, my, goddess!” Willow stood up and stared at Buffy incredulously. “He took advantage of you while you thought you were in love with him--that creepy...vampire!”

Buffy put her hands over her eyes and groaned. “It's worse than that. As Spike puts it, I jumped his bones and wouldn't take no for an answer.” She knew she was blushing and kept her hands over her face, peeking out through her fingers at her stunned friend.

“So that's why he went all hero guy on us and saved you from Adam.” Willow sat down and grinned as if she'd solved a great mystery.

“I'm not getting it.”

Ignoring Buffy, Willow continued to talk to herself. “And now, his 'Buffy wouldn't like it if you got hurt' and 'grrr, go back in the house'--it all makes sense.”

“What are you talking about?” Buffy asked, getting a little peeved at her mumbling friend.

Willow snapped out of it and asked, “Oh, did you guys—I mean—when you both thought you were engaged to each other?”

“What? No!” Buffy exclaimed when she caught on to what Willow was trying to ask. “To be honest though, if we'd had a chance to be alone...”

“Oh, wow.”

“We were under a spell—that you made,” Buffy reminded her.

“How do you feel about him now?” Willow asked softly.

Buffy bit her lip and looked the other way.

“Oh, my, goddess! You like him, don't you?”

“No! I mean, I don't know. It's--”

“I mean, I don't blame you,” Willow interjected, staring at Buffy with sly, knowing eyes. “He's kind of sexy, and he does smell pretty good.”

Buffy knew she was caught when, on pure instinct, she glared at Willow and said, “How would you know how good he smells?”

“The time he tried to bite me,” Willow said quickly. “Remember, when he found out he couldn't hurt humans?”

“See, this is the problem. He's evil. I can't have feelings for someone who's tried to kill my friends.”

“Well, to be fair, he did try to make me feel good about myself and said some really nice things to me.”

Buffy raised a brow at her.

“OK. You're right. He's evil and there is no good there,” Willow said with a straight face, that was slowly replaced with a small grin. “But, you have to admit, he's damn good looking.”

They both giggled and Willow asked, “Was he—did he—I mean, did he hurt you? You know, when you guys…?”


“What? No, he didn't hurt me.” Well, we were kind of rough with each other.

“Why are you smiling like that? Wait! You liked it!” Willow lowered her voice and smiled like she'd just heard the latest celebrity gossip before anyone else had. “You had sex with Spike and you liked it.”

“No more.” Buffy shook her head. “Have mercy on the sick person here. And, no one else hears about this, OK?” When Willow nodded her head in agreement, Buffy added, “Promise me, right now, you won't tell anybody about this.”

Willow crossed her heart and zipped her lips.

Buffy smiled at her silly friend, but then she remembered her other news and groaned. “Willow, I have something even more wigsome to tell you.”

“ What could be more shocking than that?”

“Oh, you have no idea—but you have to promise that no one else hears about this until I'm ready to talk about it.”

“I promise. Now spill!”

Buffy adjusted her covers and grimaced. “I just found out, when I woke up after surgery, that I'm--”
She shook her head, not able to actually say the words. It still wasn't real to her.

“You're what? You know you can tell me anything.”

“I'm pregnant.”

Willow shot to her feet, again. “You're what? A baby? Really?”

Buffy nodded. “I don't know what to do. What with the father being dead and all.”

Willow let a small snort out. “Buffy, I know you aren't research girl, but you do know vampires can't make babies, right?”

Thinking about her crazy dream from earlier, she frowned and told Willow, “Of course I know that. I...I was talking about Parker. He's the dead one.”

Sinking back into her chair, Willow stared at Buffy with pity, making Buffy really uncomfortable. “Didn't you guys use protection?”

After Buffy went into great detail about how careful they had been, Willow added a light pat on Buffy's arm to her sad look. “What are you going to do?”

“I don't know. But, please, you promised. Don't tell anyone. I'm not ready for the others to know.”

“I'm so glad you told me. You shouldn't have to go through this alone.”

Their conversation was cut off when Xander and Anya came back with chocolate bars. Xander tried to hand one to Buffy, but Willow snatched it away.

“Your doctor said only liquids until tomorrow, right?”

Stomach growling, Buffy glared at Willow. “Give me the Snickers Bar.”

“Buffy, you have to take care of yourself now.” Willow stared at her with one eyebrow raised then directed her gaze to Buffy's stomach.

“Ok. Ok.”

“Thatta girl,” Willow said cheerfully. “I'll put it in this drawer, and you can have it tomorrow after your doctor says it's OK to eat solids.”

They each took turns giving her a hug, even Anya. They left, promising to come back tomorrow, Willow adding that she'd bring Buffy her assignments and books, so that she wouldn't get behind in her classes.

Buffy watched some TV and after getting a set of pills from Troy, she took a long nap. She woke up when her mom and Giles came in. Giles held her hand for a brief moment after he sat in the chair next to her. “I'm so glad you're OK.”

Soon, the talk got around to what happened that night, and Giles gave her a play-by-play of how Spike had defeated Adam. “If I hadn't seen him with my own eyes, fighting on our behalf, I would never have believed it.”

“It's a miracle that we came away from that without even more injuries,” Buffy said.

Joyce said, “All thanks to Spike.”

Giles advised Buffy to act like she was weaker than she really was if Spike showed up looking for a fight. He promised to keep doing research and see if there was any way to defeat a vampire wearing the Gem, but he couldn't promise anything, because all the literature that he'd seen so far listed the Gem as a mere legend.

Trying not to think about Spike, or the fact that she had an even bigger secret, she changed the subject and asked about Giles' leg.

They stayed for about an hour, and Troy shooed them out when visiting hours were over. He took her vitals and watched as she swallowed all three of the pills in the little paper cup that he handed her. He apologized in advance for all the times he would be waking her up during the night and then left her alone.

She desperately wanted to be asleep already. Being in a hospital was one of her least favorite things. Buffy kept expecting something bad to happen -- an invisible demon to start killing off the patients or something -- and it put her on edge. She tried to focus on other things, but that just brought her back to Spike and babies.

Where was Spike? She didn't want to think about what he could be doing. He'd told her mom that she shouldn't worry about him, but she couldn't help it. She was alive and Adam was now a thing of the past, but what of all those innocent people out there in Spike's path? Buffy felt exhausted just thinking about how she was going to have to track him down and deal with him.

The look on Spike's face that night in the kitchen, when she’d turned down his bargain and he'd said that she was under his skin. Buffy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force the memory away. It would be so much easier if he was just her enemy again.

The medication began to kick in and she drifted off into a fitful sleep.


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~



A few hours later, Spike was on the highway, getting closer to Sunnydale. All in all, he'd had a pretty good day. He'd gotten the black paint off his windows and had enjoyed a peaceful drive to L.A. Even the infamous morning rush hour traffic couldn't dampen his mood.

He'd been too early for his doctor's appointment, so he’d casually strolled through a Wal-mart near by. He nicked a few black t-shirts and a gray button down shirt, stuffing them in his battered coat. On his way out, he saw a display of sickeningly cheerful looking stuffed bears. They were a rainbow of colors with little designs on their stomachs. On impulse, he'd grabbed a hot pink one with a heart shaped padlock on its stomach and stood in line to buy it, knowing that the Slayer would not appreciate it if she found out he'd nicked it.

The leather goods store had been his next stop. He shelled out a lot of money for the repairs and left his beloved coat with a man who promised he could fix it. Spike hoped he was telling the truth. He'd had it repaired in the early eighties once at that very shop, but it hadn't been as damaged then. No amount of money would get the coat fixed by the time he would be ready to go back to Sunnydale, so he'd left instructions for it to be sent to Joyce's house when it was done. They assured him that he should have it in a couple of days.

With a little time yet to kill before his appointment with the surgeon, he carried a large sack into a run down pawn shop and came out a half hour later, much richer. Harmony wasn't that bright of a bulb, but she had good taste in jewelry. The things she'd swiped from the crypt where he'd found his ring were worth a hefty sum.

He’d then stopped at a liquor store and attempted to drink himself some courage, but the alcohol had no effect on him. For the first time, he found himself cursing the Gem and its healing properties that would not allow him to get sloshed. Even knowing that he would come out fine, the thought of going under the knife was making him nervous.

In spite of his fears, the chipectomy was quick and painless. He made sure to take the ring off before the surgeon started the procedure, but kept it clutched in his closed fist, giving instructions to the surgical team to slip it on his finger if he woke up paralyzed. As soon as he came out of the magically induced sleep, he slipped the Gem of Amara back on and was as good, if not better, than new.



Now, he was on his way back home with the blasted chip in his pocket, instead of his head. He'd thought up all kinds of ways to return the little torture device. His favorite idea was finding the new git in charge and shoving it up his nose until it was smashed into his gray matter.

He glanced at the Care Bear sitting on the passenger seat. He'd read the tag while sitting in the waiting room, nearly getting into a fight with a Hedlipod Demon when he’d made fun of Spike for holding a pink bear. Out of all the bloody bears, he had to grab one called Secret Bear, which came with a heart shaped lock on his stomach. It didn't even occur to him how weird it was that he'd bought the Slayer a stuffed bear. The fact that he had a secret, because he was in love with her, was all he could think about.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

It was two a.m. when he finally entered the hospital. He casually strolled along the corridors until he got to Buffy's room. Just as he put his hand on the door handle, the nurse whispered, “Excuse me, sir, but you can't go in there. Mr. Cooper won't be able to have family visit for another couple of hours.”

“Who the bloody hell is Mr. Cooper? Where is Buffy Summers?”

After getting things sorted out, he found where they'd moved her and slipped past the nurses’ station and into the room, closing the door softly behind him. The good thing about coming after visiting hours: he didn't have to worry about bumping into her meddling friends.

He could see well in the dark room that was illuminated only by a muted TV set high in the corner. Spike walked by the empty bed and then stood over her peaceful, sleeping form. If he was inclined, he could lean down, sink his fangs into her neck and finish the job he'd started over three weeks ago. He was not inclined.

Instead, he placed Secret Bear on the pillow next to her head and watched her sleep, admiring her beautiful, full eyelashes. Smiling when he saw the makeup bag on the nightstand, he picked up a tube of mascara. Figures, she'd be worried about her looks and put her face together before going to bed. Could he hope that she had been expecting him? Probably not. If she was, she'd have a stake clutched in her hand not a—what was that?

Gently, he pulled the cover back and grinned. His t-shirt? That couldn't be the one Giles used to put pressure on her wound. Where had it come from?

When the door clicked open, Spike quickly covered Buffy's hand back up and turned to face the intruder. The man who entered was wearing a loose, maroon-colored pants set similar to a nurse’s uniform, but different enough that Spike concluded that he just had bad taste in clothes. Guessing that the young bloke had got the wrong room, Spike whispered, trying not to wake Buffy. “Sorry, mate. I think you've got the wrong room. Might want to ask at the nurses’ station.”

Troy stopped just a few feet away from Spike. “You can't be here. Come back during visiting hours.” He went past the vampire and reached out to wake Buffy.

Spike jumped at the young man and grabbed his wrist, quickly twisting his arm behind his back. “Stay away from the girl. If you wake her, I'll make you pay.”

“Hey! Hey! Ow!” Troy said and Spike tightened his hold on him, dragging him further away from Buffy's bed.

She stirred and sat up. “Spike?”

He let go and rushed over to her when she tried to get out of bed. “Don't. You'll hurt yourself.”

“I'm calling security,” Troy said from the door.

Buffy called out, “Troy! Wait.” Then she glared at Spike. “What are you—just sit down.”

“That wanker was trying to wake you up.”

“He's my nurse; it's his job.”

The nurse flipped on the light and Spike narrowed his eye, guessing now why she'd worn makeup to bed.

“What kind of pansy gets a job as a nurse?” Spike sneered.

“That's it; out!” Troy said.

Spike stood up, flexing his hands into fists. “Make me.” How easy it would be to get to the nurse and snap his neck.

Troy glared at Spike. “I don't have to. That's what security gets paid to do.” He turned on his heels and took several steps towards the door.

Buffy sighed and said, “Troy, wait. Please. Come back here.”

Spike sneered, “No. Let him go. Let's see if his security team could get rid of the likes of me.”

“Spike. You're not helping,” the Slayer said out of the side of her mouth, even as Troy came back to her bedside.

It took a bit of pleading, but Buffy finally convinced Troy to let Spike stay just long enough for her to talk to him. Spike thought it was a good sign that she wasn't kicking him out. The vampire watched with barely concealed jealousy as Troy checked her blood pressure and temperature. Then the nurse gave her some pills. They both smiled at her as she groaned before swallowing them, one by one.

Troy hesitated by Buffy's bedside when he was finished. “Are you sure you want me to leave you alone with this guy?”

Spike made a short, jerky move as if to get up and he smiled with great satisfaction when Troy jumped back in fear.

“It's OK, really,” Buffy told him calmly while absently hugging the bear. “I need to talk to him, but as soon as I'm done, I'll make him go.”

Troy gave Spike one last glare before backing up. “Well, then, I'll see you when I have my next shift. I'm going home now.”

The nurse walked out, but left the door wide open. Spike got up, glad for something to do, and gently closed it. He leaned against the door and their eyes met. She looked just as uncomfortable as he felt. He didn't know what to say. Should he come out right away and declare his feelings for her? Feelings that were too raw and strange yet to him.

How does a vampire go about telling his arch enemy that he is in love with her, anyway?