Chapter 2
At school the next day, Buffy tried to hide her good mood. Even the restless night she spent tossing and turning in bed wasn’t enough to bring her down. She got weird looks from both Willow and Xander as the day wore on, until she had to blame her cheerfulness on the fact that she was getting to bed early, all thanks to a quiet hellmouth. That Spike was the reason behind that never entered into the conversation.
The day wore on, slowly, because she couldn’t keep from glancing at the clock every few minutes.
“Got a hot date, Buffster?” Xander asked during lunch, having noticed her preoccupation.
“Nope,” she lied. Patrolling wasn’t technically a date, was it?
“Are you sure? I haven’t seen you this happy since you made the cheerleading team, and that was a magically enhanced, over-peppy happy.” Xander frowned slightly and gave her an appraisingly look. “You haven’t taken anything have you?”
“No,” she drew the word out and rolled her eyes. “Can’t a girl be happy because she’s worry free and practically on vacation? Even Giles says there’s nothing out of the ordinary going on.”
“Oh! If that’s the case, we should so Bronze it tonight,” Willow interjected. “You know… celebrate the whole ‘being free’ thing.”
Buffy mentally cringed even as she forced herself to smile at her friend. “I’ll have to patrol first. Maybe I can meet you guys there afterwards?” She looked between Willow and Xander.
“But you just said there’s nothing going on—”
“I’ve still got to patrol, Xan. Chosen One here. Sacred duty yada yada. It shouldn’t take too long though.” I hope.
The bell rang announcing the end of the lunch period, and Buffy jumped up and grabbed her tray, effectively ending the conversation. “Gotta run, guys. I’ll catch you after last period.” A quick wave and she was gone.
Unfortunately, Buffy’s last three classes were much like the first three – long and boring. She did her best to pay attention in class and jot down notes, however, her notebook ended up being liberally scrawled with Spike’s and her name along with random hearts interspaced all over the page.
Finally, the last bell rang and she gathered her things together and made her way to the library. She needed to check in with Giles and make sure nothing new was in the works, then she was going to beg off from their training session and go home, get her homework finished and pick out an outfit for the Bronze – keeping in mind that Spike would be seeing her first.
“Hey, Giles! What’s new?” she called out as she pushed through the swinging doors of the library.
Giles was behind the counter and looked up as she approached, greeting her in his usual staid British manner. “Hello, Buffy. You’re looking well rested.”
Buffy gave a mock curtsey and grinned. “Compliments of a dead hellmouth.”
“Hmmm. I trust last night was uneventful.”
Buffy crossed her fingers behind her back. “Uh huh,” she lied. “Totally without event. Event-less—”
“Uh huh.”
Giles drew the word out and Buffy tried not to fidget. Finally lowered her head to hide from Giles’ too-perceptive gaze.
“So, um? Find out anything?” Buffy asked as she put her books down on one of the tables. She chanced a glance at Giles, and thankfully, he’d turned away, intent on the bookcase behind the counter.
“I’ve still yet to find any reason for the hellmouth’s sudden downturn in activity. Which leads me to suspect that some outside force is at work here. Is it possible that Angel is patrolling alone?”
“Angel is more cryptic guy, big on words and foreboding. Not so much action guy – unless he wanted to patrol with me. But, I guess he could be though,” Buffy finally allowed.
“Well, as much as I hate to say this, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
“Wait and see what happens?”
“I’m afraid so, yes.”
“Works for me!” Buffy chirped. Then she grabbed her books and practically ran from the library, tossing over her shoulder, “See you tomorrow, Giles!”
She missed how Giles’ eyes narrowed thoughtfully on her retreating back.
~*~*~*~*~
The sun had just set when Spike snuck into the blood bank and filched a handful of blood packets. He bit into the first one and grimaced in distaste as the chilled blood hit his tongue, and as he did so, he gave thought to possibly warming it up beforehand to see if it improved the taste. After the last packet was drunk, Spike slipped out the way he’d come to head over towards the Slayer’s house.
He’d wasted enough time dithering over involving the watcher, and it was only the fact that he couldn’t be sure of protecting the Slayer himself that decided him. So, he’d hatched a plan to play the good little vamp, which he was hoping would at least grant him a chance to plead his case… without the threat of being staked outright.
But that had taken time, and while Angelus and Drusilla had seemed content enough wrapped up in each other as they’d been, it would only be a matter of time before they’d turn their sights to the hellmouth, and the untapped power it contained.
Spike was just about to ring the doorbell when the door was thrown open and the Slayer stood in the doorway, a huge smile on her face. He couldn’t help but smile back as she yelled over her shoulder to her mother that she was leaving for the Bronze.
“You look a treat, pet,” he told her as he took her hand in his and they started down the front walk together.
“Er… thanks,” Buffy replied, blushing slightly. Though, she was secretly pleased that Spike seemed to notice the extra attention she’d paid to her appearance. Her bedroom bore the brunt of her indecision in choice of attire, though, and it was going to take her hours to get everything she’d tried on and discarded back into her closet once she returned home. “So… patrol?”
Spike nodded. “Could do with a spot of violence before seeing your watcher, yeah.”
When the Slayer seemed about to ask him more, he just shook his head as if to say “later”. He heard her sigh, but she settled into step beside him as he led her to the first of several cemeteries they swept through before eventually changing direction and heading towards the watcher’s home.
~*~*~*~*~
Buffy never made it to the Bronze.
For one thing, Spike refused to set foot inside the club, actually scrunching up his nose in distaste at being caught in a place that had, in his words, ‘bad music and hormonal children’. Then there’d been Giles, who had taken one look at who stood on his doorstep with her and… wigged.
There’d just been no other word to describe the wide array of emotions that had crossed her watcher’s face, the floundering of limbs before he’d reached frantically for stake and cross on the small table near the front door. The sputtering had been typical Giles, of course, and if his hands hadn’t been otherwise engaged at the time, Buffy knew that a serious eyeglass cleaning would have commenced.
As it was, the glasses were now gone, and the narrowed look Giles was casting between her and Spike was enough to give pause to the vampire sitting beside her on the couch.
“You expect me to believe that you… that you’ve been… patrolling? And you’ve been feeding on bagged blood since you’ve set foot inside Sunnydale?”
“I’m a lot of things, Watcher, but I’m not a liar.” At said watcher’s pointed look, Spike clarified. “Well, yeah, I am. But not with her… and not about this. Listen. Drusilla’s done something to Angelus; his soul is gone. He’s looking for payback and is gonna start with the Slayer here.”
“And why is that? By all accounts, Angelus tended to avoid slayers. You’re the one that purportedly sought them out.”
“I don’t think we need to focus on the why,” Buffy interrupted, or tried to. Giles had other ideas, shushing her with a look. Frustrated, she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back into the couch while the two set to bickering back and forth, the volume in the room steadily rising.
Until Giles froze mid-argument.
Buffy flinched at the near apoplectic look now on Giles’ face, failing to realize that the move had pulled her shirt down and away from her neck, exposing the recent bite marks Spike had made.
“What?” she asked, somewhat nervously.
“Buffy, have you bloody well lost your mind? You let him bite you?”
An accusing finger was switched from her to Spike, and she didn’t know who Giles was angrier at, her or him.
Buffy didn’t have time, just then, to figure it out either, because Spike was surging to his feet, growling angrily, and Giles seemed ready – eager, in fact – to take him on, stake and cross poised to defend himself.
“Enough!” she snapped as she stood as well, placing herself between the two, arms outstretched to keep them from getting closer to one another. “Spike. Sit. Giles. Back off.” A firm look at both of them, and Spike sat, though he muttered under his breath about “pushy bints”. Giles took longer to relent, but he did, finally, taking a seat in the single chair situated opposite the couch; he set the cross and stake on the table beside him, close enough to be within easy reach if he so needed.
“Very well, Buffy. I’m listening.”
Buffy resumed her place at Spike’s side. She took courage in the fingers that linked with hers and took a deep breath before she began.
“It started with the spelled rocks Willow gave me. When Spike and I… when we were fighting, I, uh… somehow activated them and we got locked in that club together. The only reason I was able to leave was, well…” Buffy trailed off, unsure, unable to accurately explain her unique relationship with Spike.
“She trusts me,” Spike told him quietly, giving the Slayers hand a slight squeeze. “She trusts me not to hurt her. And, it’s not misplaced.”
“Yet she bears your mark upon her neck.” Giles was still sounding less than pleased, but he’d tamped down the emotion behind a cool British reserve.
“Yes.”
Spike was back to being mulish; Buffy smacked his chest with the back of her hand.
“He didn’t hurt me, Giles. He can’t. That spell—”
“A spell that strong, one that affects one’s behavior…” Giles cut her off. “And to say nothing of it working on a demon… No. It’s just not possible.” He shook his head in denial.
“It didn’t affect his behavior. Or mine. Well, not directly anyway.”
Buffy chuckled in memory of their first days spent in captivity. Even Spike cracked a smile.
“Fine. Let’s say for the moment that I believe all this.” Giles gestured vaguely with his hand at Buffy and Spike. “Now… tell me about Angelus.”
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