Time For An Explanation

[capj_harkness]

Who: Captain Jack Harkness, Buffy Summers and, at some point, Spike.
Where: Buffy's room.
When: A couple days or so after Owen came to Jack about his deaths.
What: Jack found out from Kaylee that Owen learned his fate from Spike. Jack didn't tell Spike the details of his friends' recent deaths, but Spike spends an awful lot of time with Buffy.

Comments

[capj_harkness]

Jack didn't react outwardly to being spat at in the face and he didn't give any ground when Spike moved closer.

"So you get to decide what's best for Owen because you don't think I shouldn't decide what's best for him, is that it?" Jack said coldly. "At least I know Owen. Just because your people aren't here for you to fuck with, doesn't mean you get to start fucking with mine."

He gave Spike a rough shove into the door behind him. "You may be happy resigning yourself to staying here until you 'wither away of old age and boredom in this hellhole', but we aren't. We're still trying to get out, and he didn't need that to look forward to when he gets back." He leveled his gaze at Spike. "So don't go mistaking a kindness for a lack of balls. I don't know what kind of world you're from, but the whole reason I fight to save that planet is because sometimes mercy still has a place on it."

[william_tbloody]

Okay, that was it.

Conversation over.

Spike launched himself at Jack, not pulling any punches. And since he had spent so much time lately sparring with Buffy, he knew all the limits of his humanized body, and was in more than fighting shape. Jack had clearly come over spoiling for a fight, and Spike all to happy to give him one.

[capj_harkness]

Finally.

Jack didn't tend to come across to people are being much of a fighter, personality-wise, but he'd been a soldier for a long time and fighting was almost second nature to him. He knew how to handle himself when he needed to. He didn't hold back either. He could tell that Spike was prepared to do as much damage as possible and he responded in kind.

[first_summers]

When the might-as-well-be-twelve-year-olds launched themselves at each other, Buffy figured it was probably time to step in and do something. If she didn't, they might actually manage to break each other, and she refused to listen to Spike whining about his aches and pains again.

Dashing forward, she threw herself into the middle of them, trying to at least keep them from getting at each other. "Stop it!" She didn't know if they'd even pay attention to her, but someone didn't have the best reflexes anymore, her or the boys, because something hit her hard enough on the shoulder to leave a nice big bruise and almost knock her over.

[william_tbloody]

When he saw Buffy throw herself in the middle of the melee and then consequently stagger back, Spike turned his attention towards her to make sure she was okay and therefore did not see the right hook headed straight for his nose. As his head whipped to the side, he decided he was done playing and it was time to end this. Lifting one leg he sent a powerful kick directly to the center of the captain's chest.

"Are you alright kitten?" he asked turning to look at the Slayer. "He started it," he felt the need to add when he saw the look on her face.

[capj_harkness]

Jack didn't know which one of them had accidentally struck Buffy, but he knew it didn't really matter.

He was winded for a moment by the blow to the chest, but pushed himself to his feet through the burning in his lungs regardless.

If he had still been in the mood to argue, he would have pointed out that Spike had, in fact, 'started it' a couple days earlier at the poker game, but he'd already seen that there was no convincing either of them that that hadn't been right (or, in the very least hadn't been their place) so he dusted himself off, gingerly fingered the painful cut above his right eye, then spared Spike one last icy look before walking towards his room, just the other side of the one Buffy was in the middle of moving out of.

[first_summers]

Buffy didn't say anything to Spike, just continued to give him a very unhappy and slightly angry look. That expression was turned on Jack as he walked away. She wanted to call after him, try to fix things, but... part of her didn't care to, honestly. Not if he was going to be like this. She didn't know if anything they might have said would have caused things to end differently, but she very much doubted.

[william_tbloody]

Spike knew that Buffy wasn't happy, but he wasn't exactly whistling a merry tune either. "Can you believe that soddin wanker?!" he exclaimed going into their room and straight to the bathroom to clean up his face.

Looking in the mirror he took a mental rundown of his injuries as he wet a washcloth. There was his split lip, his nose was swollen but luckily not broken, and he'd have a pretty sizable on the left side of his jaw. As he lifted one arm to clean the blood from out from under his nose, he winced, and added a couple bruised ribs to his tally. All in all, he didn't fare to bad.

[capj_harkness]

Jack resisted the urge to slam his door when we went into his room. He didn't want to give them the satisfaction of having ruffled him that badly.

He sat painfully on the couch for all of a minute before he wished he'd gone to Ianto's room instead, though that would have involved knocking on the door while they were still in the corridor. He certainly didn't want to go back out in the hall at this point. He glanced at the laptop and considered using it.

[first_summers]

Buffy followed Spike into the room, cringing at the sound of Jack's door closing down the hall. She was mad, there was no doubt, but she was hurt as well. Hurt that Jack would treat them like that, that perhaps she was so wrong in her estimation of him. Filling a little towel with some ice, she went into the bathroom and held it out for Spike; he'd need it somewhere.

[william_tbloody]

Spike looked behind him in the mirror when Buffy walked into the bathroom. "Thanks love," he said, tossing the bloody washcloth into the sink and taking the icepack and holding it against the bruise on his jaw. "I wasn't wrong was I?" he asked leaning back against the counter, he wasnt about to apologize either way, but he was curious to hear her take on it.

[first_summers]

She shook her head and sat on the edge of the bathtub. "No, you weren't," she said quietly, tucking her hair behind her ears. She didn't know what to say other than that. How much she wished they hadn't fought? That was a given, and Spike wasn't the one who'd thrown the first punch.

[william_tbloody]

"Gormless tosser," he muttered to himself, turning back to the mirror to prod at his still tender nose, "had to go for the nose."

"I think I showed a right lot bit of restraint, if I do say so," he said unknowingly picking up on Buffy's train of thought as he picked up the towel again to clean off a bit of blood that was streaked on his forearm, which he was fairly confident wasn't his.

[first_summers]

"You did," she agreed. She was grateful for it, but it didn't make things better. She still felt like she was losing a friend. Even if she hadn't seen Jack in... who knew how long, she still felt his presence in the room down the hall, knew she could go to him if she needed to. Now... she didn't know where they stood. Jack had been right there from the beginning, he'd helped her deal with so many things, and it hurt to think of this standing between them now.

[william_tbloody]

"I think I deserve some sort of reward," he told her confidently, a slight smirk playing on his lips as he dumped the stained towel and icepack back in the sink.

[first_summers]

Buffy closed her eyes for a moment, then stood. "Maybe later," she told him as she wandered out of the bathroom. She toed off her shoes before climbing up onto the bed, curling up on her side to stare out the window. It was still white outside, with fresh snow falling down on top of the ever present layer. She wished it would be warm and sunny again...