Chapter
4.01
Tuesday, May 14th, 2002
"Are we ready to rock?" Spike asked
as they strolled back downstairs and into the hotel lobby.
"Hmm?" Buffy was obviously confused
by his turn of phrase.
"Are you ready to leave now?"
"Well everything's all packed and sitting
in the lobby and I guess you're finished here or you wouldn't
be asking, so I'll take a chance and say yes."
"How many have we got?" the vampire
asked.
"Just Clem and Lily. Will and Tara are going
to stick around and take the rental car back in the morning and
then head back with Lori." Buffy transferred her gaze to
the other vampire in the group. "If that's okay with you?"
Angel gave her a rueful smile. "I think
we've got room."
"Right then. Time we were on the move, pet."
Spike turned to the older vampire. "If you've got a pen and
some paper, I'll scribble down the number for my place. I did
have a cell, but it's gone walkies. Some of Dru's lot probably
chucked it, but you know Buffy's number. Chances are you'll catch
us on one of them. So ring. If we don't hear from you before,
we'll probably be back down shopping a couple of times before
the wedding."
"Actually, Lorne had your phone. It's packed
up somewhere, but it's flat," Buffy told him. "He was
trying to work out why someone had this place listed as TGP."
"Yeah, well, easy to remember." Spike
looked slightly shame-faced, but didn't clarify any further.
"We'll be in touch," Angel assured
him. "I'll get your numbers another time. I'm sure if I call
Buffy's place somebody there will be able to tell me where to
call if neither of you are in."
"I suspect you're right," Spike allowed.
"Tell the kid we said bye and make sure—" Spike stopped
himself when he realised he was sounding like a mother hen. "Later,"
he told his grandsire before scooping up as many of the bags from
the lobby as he could carry and leaving Buffy with Angel. Clem
jumped up from his seat on one of the sofas, grabbed the rest
and giving Angel a quick wave, he followed his friend. Lily was
nowhere to be seen.
"You were right. He has changed." Angel
kept his words quiet in hope that Spike might be too preoccupied
to make an effort to listen.
"Told ya." Buffy flashed him a grin,
and for the first time in a long while, Angel recognised shades
of the teenager Buffy had been before her responsibilities had
made her so careworn. The smile quickly faded however, and Buffy's
expression grew serious. "Look, there's something I need
to tell you while Mr Tact and Diplomacy's otherwise engaged. It's
about the wedding—"
"You don't know how Giles would take it
if I were there. And part of you having your perfect day is knowing
it's perfect for him too. So, if we can't sort things out when
Giles comes back from England, then it might be better if I don't
come."
Buffy's jaw dropped open and her voice when she
spoke showed her amazement. "And you're okay with that?"
"I'm fine with it. We all have to live with
the consequences of our actions. I've just got more consequences
to live with than most."
Lily came striding downstairs into the lobby.
"I think best we go," she told Buffy. "I can feel
William impatient from ladies' room third floor."
Buffy smiled at Lily's words. "You heard
the lady." She gave Angel a brief hug. "Go talk to your
son," she told him. "You shouldn't be alone tonight."
"I haven't been. Take care of each other."
Buffy looked back over her shoulder to answer,
as she pushed the door open. "We will. It's what we do."
Buffy waited to see which seat Lily made for
before she got in the car, content to defer to Lily's seniority
if she decided to ride shotgun, but the older woman chose to slide
into the backseat beside her son. When Buffy opened the passenger
door to get in, just the sight of Spike looking up at her was
enough to make her catch her breath. Her relief at having him
back and her love for him hit home like a tidal wave, right along
with a whole stack of baser impulses she really didn't want their
empathic passengers picking up on. Unfortunately, it was a little
late for that.
"Not be guilty. If women wrong to feel for
husband, marriage be empty. I feel same when I see husband, from
day we meet till day he die. You just little slow." Lily
told her.
Spike smirked. "Gotta love these psychic
types."
"Just wait till she's picking up on all
your deep, dark secrets," Buffy responded as she climbed
into the passenger seat.
"The way I feel about you's been common
knowledge for years, pet."
Buffy rolled her eyes. Four in the morning was
just too late or too early to bother responding to that one.
"Less with the talking and more with the
driving, you. I want you all tucked up in bed before the sun's
up." Buffy told him.
"Oh yeah?" Spike drawled, his eyebrow
arching skyward as he pulled onto the almost empty streets.
"Yeah." Buffy's expression dared him
to make more mileage from her confirmation. Instead, the vampire
just smiled and told her, "As you wish, pet. As you wish."
True to his word, when they reached the highway
and the lanes were empty as far as vampire eyes could see through
hairline cracks in the paint that covered the windshield, he pressed
the accelerator down as far as it would go.
"We'll wait out here for a bit. Give it
a few minutes. If Bit wakes up when you go in and she wants to
see us or she wants to head back home, just flick the lights on
and off, and we'll come in. Otherwise we'll just head over to
Buffy's and give her a ring in an hour or two."
Spike placed his share of Clem and Lily's luggage
by the front door of the apartment. "An' thanks, all of you.
'S been a long time since there's been people that'd go out of
their way like you did for the likes of me, droppin' everythin'
to come to LA and Marie lookin' after Bit and what all."
Spike dropped a kiss on Lily's cheek before he backed away to
let her open the door. "I'll see you all tonight. Okay?"
"We'll be there."
"Great. Now I've just got to find a way
to tell all her mates without her findin' out."
"She got the parcel yesterday, man,"
Clem told him. "Gonna be kinda hard to keep it a surprise
now."
"Damn. I thought I had time to warn demon
bint before it turned up."
"Probably would have, if things hadn't got
a bit hectic," the loose skinned demon told him.
"Guess so. Well, even if she finds out now,
it's only a few hours before."
The door was pulled open. "Finds out what?"
asked Dawn, still clad in a skimpy night-shirt that made Spike
resolve to have a word with her about what was and wasn't considered
proper nightwear when staying at other people's houses.
"About tonight. And you're supposed to be
asleep."
"I'd be getting up in an hour anyway. It's
not like it's worth even trying to get back to sleep."
Spike sighed. "I guess we're going to be
imposin' on your hospitality for a couple of cups of coffee then,"
he told Lily before he turned to Dawn. "Go and put some clothes
on, pet, and I'll go get your sister. And don't mention tonight.
'S meant to be a surprise."
"She told you about the bathtub yet?"
Dawn asked him before he could turn away.
"No, but I'm sure we'll get round to it
while we're sortin' out what we're goin' to do with that boyfriend
of yours tonight."
"Don't you start. He's already had the lecture
from Willow and Xander."
"Then hearing it again won't come as any
surprise, will it? Clothes, Bitlet. Now."
"Who died and made you the fashion police?"
the teenager asked.
The looks on all three faces told their own story,
and the girl quickly back-pedalled. "Right, me, clothes,
now. You fetch Buffy." Dawn backed away toward the door leading
to the bedrooms while making shooing motions to the vampire to
get him to go back to the car.
Spike made a shrugging gesture to the other two
demons. "Back in a minute."
"We'll leave the door open," Lily assured
him.
"C'mon, pet. Bit was waitin' for us. Said
it wasn't worth her while goin' back to bed."
"Damn. And I thought we'd just sneak back
to your cosy, little bachelor-pad and while away the day in bed."
"That's a plan I could normally live with,
but seein' as we've got to sort out the eats for tonight, I think
we might find it easier at your place. And I think she's becoming
obsessed. She keeps wanting to know if you've told me about the
bathtub.
Is there something I should know?"
"Just— It'll keep. Put it this way, I haven't
sprouted fangs, but there have been some other side effects, but
the way I see it, it's nobody's business but ours, but we haven't
really had much of a chance to be on our own. And I've got way
too many buts."
Spike smirked but didn't comment. It would just
have been too easy. He held out his hand to help Buffy out of
the car as she finally forced herself to open the car door.
"C'mon, pet. Another hour and we can drop
Bit off at school and crash out again."
Buffy took his hand and levered herself out of
the car, letting him lock it up after her. "And another couple
of hours after that we'll have to start shopping and cooking and
everything." She stifled a yawn. "Remind me again why
we're letting my little sister date?"
"Something to do with the fact she'd do
it anyway, and you not having a leg to stand on if you try to
stop her what with you dating the Great Poof when you were her
age."
"Okay. Just checking there was a reason."
Buffy leaned against him as they walked down the path to the apartment
block's main door. "What about you? Did you date anyone when
you were her age? Maybe you could tell her she can't see him."
Spike let his lip fall into a pout. "No
one'd 'ave me," he teased, making light of the truth.
"Yeah, right. Everywhere we go, you get
way more attention than me." Buffy pushed the door open.
"You've got to know you're gorgeous, right?"
Spike quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah, 'cause
I spend hours lookin' at my reflection. An' attraction's a lot
less about looks than you think it is. It's about confidence and
how you put yourself across an' back then..."
"You." Buffy cut herself off as she
remembered the dream he'd had when she was trapped in his body
with him. "You were way too good for the girls you liked.
You still are, but I'm just lucky I realised it before it was
too late."
"What d'you want, slayer?"
"I'm not allowed to pay you a compliment?"
"It's hardly an established habit of yours,"
the vampire responded warily.
"Then it's time I made it one," Buffy
told him as she opened the door into Lily's apartment. She paused
in the corridor between the front door and the apartment's main
room, reaching up to cup his cheek with her hand.
"You're gorgeous. You're loving. You're
considerate and talented in bed. Considerate all round in fact.
You're loyal and supportive. You make me feel whole. You make
me feel like I can do the Slayer thing and the mom thing and the
wife thing and the student thing without it pulling me apart trying
to be all things to all people. I don't have to pretend to be
less than I am, or pander to your ego. Well, only occasionally,"
she amended remembering their fight on the way back from their
last trip to LA. "I feel like there's nothing we can't do
together. And maybe I'm not big with saying the words, but it
doesn't mean I don't know it, or I don't appreciate it."
She stood on tiptoe to kiss his him one last
time before they relinquished their privacy again. "And most
miraculous of all," she finished, "you not only put
up with my eavesdropping little sister, you actually like her."
"Very funny, and if you were that bothered
about privacy, you would save your make out sessions for when
the pair of you are alone," Dawn answered from just beyond
the living room door.
Spike momentarily debated whether the shock value
of telling Dawn they didn't have make out sessions they just fucked
like bunnies, was worth the trauma of having to listen to the
responsible parenting lecture from Buffy. He eventually decided
that while he'd been considering, the moment had passed.
"Marie and Rosa still sleeping?" Buffy
asked.
"Pro'bly," Spike answered. "They're
in one of the second floor apartments."
"So you don't all live together?"
"Yes and no," answered Clem. "Marie
owns the whole block, or she will do once the mortgage is paid
off. Mom's got downstairs. It was originally two apartments, but
we knocked it into one so that we'd have the big family room and
stuff. Marie and me have our own apartments on second and then
she rents out the ones on third and fourth. But most evenings
we all eat together and stuff, and we're all close by if anyone
needs anything, but like... You didn't think I still lived with
my mom, did you? 'Cause that would be like lame."
"Honestly, until Spike told me we were coming
over for dinner last week, it never even occurred to me that you
had a mom," Buffy admitted. "And I know, I know. I just
never thought about it."
"Enough with the happy families. I want
to know what happened to you all and where you've all been till
this time in the morning," Dawn interrupted.
Spike was first to respond. "Where we've
been, is the middle of nowhere. I could even give you a grid reference,
but it's not like it would mean anything. I'm more interested
in knowing when we can expect your whatever you want to call him
this evening. And what we've been doing is watching the Poof try
'n' immolate himself to get a kid out of burnin' buildin'."
"Okay, where are the real Buffy and Spike?"
the teenager asked. "'Cause he said something almost nice
about Angel, and she wouldn't have let anybody else do the rescuing."
Buffy gave a shrug of her shoulders. "He
had Xander's orbs. It only seemed fair to let him do it."
"'Cept when he found the kid, the daft wanker
put the bloody things on him, didn't he, so that by the time he
got back out again he was already smouldering in six different
places."
"See, now that sounds more like you talking
about Angel." After a brief pause the teenager continued
her cross-examination.
"So anything else happen that I should know
about?" Dawn did some fishing to see what all the gloom had
been about earlier.
"Dru's dead," Spike told her, his voice
flat and expressionless.
"And this is good or bad?" the teenager
asked.
"Kinda both," Buffy answered soberly,
watching Spike through her lashes.
"So what actually happened?"
Both the blondes shrugged their shoulders. "Dunno,
pet. We were kinda preoccupied with other things?" Buffy
could feel the waves of guilt washing through Spike as he made
the comment, but there was nothing she could do to alleviate them.
"She was shot. With an ex-bow. Two times,"
answered Lily.
"An ex— Oh a crossbow?" Dawn asked.
"Ex-bow... crossbow... is all same."
"So who?"
Lily looked across at Spike before she answered.
Deciding it was safest not to know, Spike made a move for the
door. "I'm just goin' to go get some air, have a fag."
To his surprise, Buffy came with him.
"Smoking's a really bad habit, you know?"
she told him.
"Worse than drinking?" The vampire
went along with her teasing tone, his words coming out as a seductive
drawl.
"Uh huh. You know people get used to having
something in their hands," she told him as they stepped out
into the outer hallway. "They get all fidgety without some
sort of placebo." Turning in towards him she guided the hand
she'd been holding to her breast and wasn't at all surprised when
his other hand slid around her waist and then down to cup her
ass. Her eyes seemed unable to look anywhere but at his lips as
they moved closer, and her arms wrapped around his neck urging
him closer still. "And then they need something to suck on."
Even as she said the words, Buffy could feel the heat flare between
her legs at the prospect.
Spike leaned in so close that she could feel
the air from his mouth brushing against her lips as he whispered
his reply. "Do you have any idea what you do to me?"
He pulled her close against him so she could feel his erection
pressing against her stomach through two layers of denim.
In return, Buffy stood on tiptoe, hooking her
right leg around him so that he could feel the waves of damp warmth
that emanated from her crotch as she pressed herself against his
hips. He was supporting both their weights now, and he picked
Buffy up and pressed her into the wall.
"Don't think Marie would be too happy, if
we ended up givin' Bite-size a show," the vampire whispered
as he ground against her, his breath teasing her with his lips'
proximity, while still they remained tantalisingly distant.
"Or if we demolish the building."
"We kinda hammered the car going full throttle
all the way back. Maybe we need to check the suspension."
"May-be."
"Jeez, do you guys own shares in Viagra
or something? It's like every time you're alone for two minutes
you're—"
"Dawn, do not say another word unless
you want to find yourself grounded for a very long time."
"I was going to ask if you guys could take
me home to get some things before you drop me off at school, but
I think maybe I'll walk to school or get Brandon to pick me up."
"Well," drawled Spike, unfazed by her
teenage rancour. "If he's going to be hanging around he might
as well be useful."
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