It's my day

[slaymesoftly]

»

It's my day!

(



slaymesoftly posting in



seasonal_spuffy May. 21st, 2023 08:53 am)

This is a sequel to an earlier short story titled Redemption Redux. The old prequel was written for a Good Angel prompt, so in it, he is less arrogant and cranky about Buffy and Spike than he will be in this sequel. Not much to be done about that, except realize that after all that time with Buffy, he was still pretty sure of himself… I will post a link to that fic at the end of this post.

In a brief summary of that short story, he has received the Shanshu, Spike has not, and he has left it to Angel to find Buffy. Both of them are sure that Buffy would prefer human Angel to vampire Spike. She has no idea Spike didn’t die in the battle, and Angel prefers to keep it that way. However, after Dawn has insisted several times that Buffy is still mourning Spike, and after Angel has paid more attention and realized that’s true, he confesses that Spike is alive, and gives her a ticket to Cleveland to find out if she still loves him. This story begins very shortly after the ending of the first one.

These are the first three chapters - more to be posted later. I'll fix the tags then also.

There Should Be Groveling (Sequel to Redemption Redux)



Chapter One

Despite Buffy’s gentle words to Angel when she got over her first anger and dismay at realizing what he’d been hiding from her, she didn’t return to their bedroom except to get the clothes she wanted to pack for her trip to Cleveland. As she was sorting through her drawers and closet, Angel stood in the doorway watching with a frown.

“Are you moving out?” he asked, clearly surprised.

Buffy stopped and glared at him. “This is my apartment, Angel. This is where I live. I’m going to sleep in Dawn’s room until I leave for Cleveland. That should give you enough time to find yourself another place to live.”

“I can’t stay here? And why are you moving out of our room?”

She gaped at him. How was it not obvious that she no longer felt comfortable sleeping with him? Her anger at how he’d lied while she grieved, flared anew.

“A-it’s my bedroom that I have shared with you because I thought Spike was dead and it didn’t matter that I was…. And B-you can’t live here anymore. We’re not together. We never will be. Even if Spike and I…. even if it doesn’t work out, I’m not coming back to someone who would treat me like that. Who I chose to spend my life with was my decision to make. Not yours, not Spike’s, mine.

“And don’t think he’s not going get an earful about it too. But his dishonesty is omission. Not telling me he was alive to begin with, and then disappearing and allowing me to think he was dead. That discussion could get loud and painful for him. But it’s got nothing to do with whether or not you stay here.”

She threw her arms up in the air for emphasis.

“You flat out lied! To me, to everyone. Even when Dawn told you how much I missed him, you lied. You let me grieve, even after you knew why I was. The only reason you aren’t moaning out in the alley right now, is because you’re human, and I’m afraid if I allowed myself to hit you, I’d kill you.“

She stopped to catch her breath, her gasps for more air indicating even to human Angel that she wasn’t joking about wanting to kill him. He backed slowly away from the door, still frowning, but recognizing that it was in his best interest to remain out of her sight. Buffy went back to sorting out her clothing for the next few days, gradually calming down until she felt she could safely be around Angel without physically harming him.

XXX

Dawn said nothing when Buffy took over the extra bed in her room, just smirked to herself. Although she’d usually tried to be polite to Angel, she’d never tried to hide that she was also grieving for the vampire that both Summers girls had thought gone forever. And she’d made no attempt to hide her own anger at him, suggesting quite vigorously that since he was no longer living with Buffy, he needed to get out of their apartment immediately. Yesterday would have been good.

“Look, Dawn,” Buffy said with a sigh. “I know this is awkward for you. But it’s just for a few days, until he can find something. We are in a foreign country, you know. It might take a while. You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to, but I’m going to be busy getting ready to leave, and once I’m gone, you’ll be safer if he’s still here.”

“Buffy. Angel lied to you-to us. He deliberately let us think Spike was dead. If I hadn’t told him you were still grieving for Spike, he would never have even considered it. I told him you were, and he just refused to believe it. I don’t want to stay here with him.”

Buffy sighed again, sitting down on the edge of the bed. “I just don’t have time to make other arrangements for you. I have to leave in two days. And we can’t just kick Angel out without giving him time to find another place.”

“The hell we can’t.” Dawn’s expression didn’t bode well for Angel’s future happiness, but she stopped arguing, just saying, “Tell Spike to get his ass back here fast.”

“I don’t even know for sure where he is. Cleveland is a big city, and he won’t know to be looking for me. So, it might take me a while to find him, never mind talk him into coming back with me.”

“You won’t have to talk him into it,” Dawn said confidently. “You might have to grovel a little for sleeping with Angel, but-”

“That’s enough!” Buffy pulled her semi-packed suitcase on the floor. “I’ll see if the local Slayers will let you stay with them. Is that okay?”

“Or, one of them could stay here,” Dawn offered. “Sophia and I get along good.”

“I’ll look into it.”

XXX

Buffy’s calmer attitude toward Angel, due mostly to her belief that he’d done what he did because he loved her, lasted only until he tried to tell her what to do when she got to Cleveland.

“I know what I said when I gave you that ticket, about talking to Spike and making love if you needed to, but I don’t actually mean that. I mean, obviously, you still care about him, and of course you want to see him and be happy he’s alive, but I don’t want you to think that means you owe him anything. If he really cared about you, he’d have come here to fight for you, wouldn’t he?”

“Excuse me?” Buffy’s hard-come-by calm was rapidly fading.

“I just don’t want you running off expecting some big happy reunion. It’s Spike. You know what he’s like with women. He’s probably already got someone in his life. I realize you and he have a lot of history and he helped you out from time to time, but you don’t owe him anything.”

“Are you having second thoughts about telling me he’s alive?” Buffy said, her quiet question belied by the tension in her body. She knew that without his vampire senses, Angel would have no idea how she was reacting to his words, and she kept her fists tightly clenched at her sides. Clearly he’d forgotten what she said about the only reason he wasn’t seriously injured being that he was human and she didn’t trust herself not to kill him.

“Because reminding me that you could have ended my pain the minute you showed up at my doorstep, just isn’t in your best interest. The only thing I thing I owe Spike is an apology for waiting so long to tell him I loved him that he didn’t believe it was true. And I think staying away from me for so long has more than punished me for it, so we’re even. You and I will never be even. Please get out of my sight before I hurt you.”

She went so far as to step toward him, the glare never leaving her eyes, and he quickly ran out of the apartment.

XXX

By the time Buffy was leaving for the airport, she’d made arrangements for one of the local slayers to stay in their apartment. Angel, seeming to take her threats to heart, had made plans of his own, and was moving out the same day. She briefly wondered if he knew that she had a slayer coming to stay with Dawn, or had just gone ahead and decided to leave without worrying about her little sister. Deciding it was just one more nail in the coffin that held their relationship, she didn’t respond to that information except to nod.

They ended up leaving at the same time; standing awkwardly on the sidewalk as Buffy waited for a cab and Angel assured her he had a friend coming to pick him up.

“So….”

“Yeah….”

“You’ll let me know what’s going on, won’t you?” Angel said. “I mean, I don’t need details of the happy reunion.” He rolled his eyes. “But let me know that you’ve found him, so I’m not picturing you wandering around a strange city calling for Spike.”

“That wasn’t exactly how I planned to find him,” Buffy snorted. “But I’m not too proud to do that if it seems necessary.” She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry Angel….” She paused, frowning. “Actually, I’m not all that sorry for leaving you. Even if Spike was dead… again… it was really shitty of you to let me think he was dead all that time he was with you.” She raised her hand when he started to speak.

“And, yes, I’m well aware that he could have found a way to let me know, or to… to come to me. But that’s between him and me. And I know if you had told him about my meltdown over his death after we got to LA from Sunnydale, he wouldn’t have thought he shouldn’t call me. So, maybe it’s not totally your fault that he didn’t come to me, but I know damn good and well you didn’t do anything to encourage it. And you flat out lied by not telling me you knew he was alive after that battle.”

She stopped and stared at him, her anger fading to sadness. “So, I’m sorry you’re going to be hurt that I stay with Spike, but you had it coming. You could have avoided all this by telling me he was with you in LA. You knew how to find me.”

Angel nodded. “I was wrong. But I thought I was doing the right thing for you. That you would be happy to move on. I did it for your own good,” he added pompously.

Buffy gawked at him. “I don’t even know where to begin to answer that.” As she finished speaking, her cab pulled up. She swallowed the outrage she was feeling and turned away. As she got into her transportation to the airport, she added, “Someday you’ll learn not to make decisions for me….” Without a backward glance, she closed the door and asked the driver to take her to the terminal listed on her ticket.

XXX

During a stopover at LaGuardia to change to a domestic flight, Buffy called Faith to tell her what time she would be getting into Cleveland and to ask if anyone had warned her she was coming.

There was short silence, then Faith said, “Yeah, B. Angel, the I-know-best-asshole, told me you were on your way. And he told me why.” She snorted a laugh. “Kinda surprised you didn’t beat him to a pulp, to be honest.”

“It was touch and go from time to time,” Buffy sighed. “He probably shouldn’t be expecting a Christmas card.”

“So. You think short, blond, and sexy is here?”

“Isn’t he?” Buffy’s tone sharpened. “That’s what Angel said.”

Faith sighed. “Yeah, I think he’s here. I wouldn’t have sworn for absolute sure that I saw him when I thought I did, but I have a couple of girls who said somebody or something stepped into a fight just when they were about to lose it. They could tell it was a vamp, and that he was wearing black, but that was all they saw. I asked about his hair and they said it wasn’t blond. That it looked black just like his clothes. And no leather coat swirling around. He took off as soon as he’d evened the odds and they didn’t see him again.”

“Well, if Spike didn’t want to be found, he might try to disguise himself….”

“It would be the smart thing to do. Got to go. Somebody will be at the airport. If it isn’t me, she’ll be holding a sign with your name on it.”

“Okay. Thanks. See you in a few hours.”

“See ya.”

XXX

Cleveland was everything Rome wasn’t - cloudy and cold, and full of people in a hurry.

“Is it always like this?” Buffy asked Maria, the slayer Faith had sent to pick her up at the airport.

“Nah, sometimes the weather is really crappy.” Maria chortled at her own humor while Buffy groaned. “I’m kidding. I mean, it’s still winter, you know? So yeah, it’s cloudy, and it snows, and it sucks to be out in it at night, but it’s okay in the summer. And spring and fall are kinda pretty. You just picked the wrong season to be a tourist.”

“Not exactly here to be a tourist,” Buffy said with a sigh. “Did Faith tell you who I’m looking for?”

“She said something about it being the vamp that helped Katie and me out last month? Why do you want to find him? He didn’t hurt us, he just kicked demon butt and disappeared.” She sounded mildly unhappy about Buffy’s desire to find the vampire.

“What can you tell me about him?” Buffy asked, ignoring Maria’s question “How tall was he? Right or left-handed? Did he speak with an accent?”

Maria shook her head as she turned into the parking lot behind the slayer house.

“He didn’t say anything, so I don’t know how he talks. And he was good with both hands and his feet. Didn’t have time to notice if he favored one more than the other. He was really fast, and pretty strong, but not all that big. Taller than me, of course, but not like you’d notice him for his height.”

“And he didn’t have bleached blond hair?”

“No. We would have been able to see that I think. His hair looked black, just like his clothes.”

By the time they finished their conversation, Buffy had grabbed her suitcase and the long duffle bag she kept close to hand. She followed Maria into the house where she was introduced to Katie and two other girls who seemed to be just getting up.

“Where’s Faith?” Buffy glanced around the big room.

“She said to tell you to catch up on your sleep and she’ll talk to you tonight after she gets back.”

“What time is it here, anyway. I got lost somewhere over the ocean.” Buffy pulled out her phone to see that it was two in the afternoon, Cleveland time. “Whoa. Okay, bed sounds like a good idea, actually. Where is it?”

Maria gestured to the staircase on the far side of the room. “I’ll show you. You even get the guest room, so you have your own bathroom.”

“You aren’t going to slay him, are you?” Katie blurted out before Buffy could leave the room. “He saved us.”

Buffy sighed and turned around. “No. I’m not here to slay him… although I can’t promise I’m not going to kick his ass….” She shook herself. “That’s none of your business-it’s between Spike and me. I’m surprised Faith didn’t tell you.”

“She just said he was your “honey” whatever that means, and that you were probably going to kill him.”

Buffy snorted. “Spike is…. Was…. We’re….” She paused, and took a deep breath. “She didn’t mean I was really going to kill him, as in slay him. I’m just pretty pissed off at him for letting me think he was dead. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I need to find him first. Or he has to find me. Anyway, I’m here because he’s here, and I… I love him and I want him to come home with me.”

Without another word, she left the gaping girls behind and, duffle on her back and suitcase bumping along, ran up the stairs behind Maria. She followed her into a pleasant bedroom with a bed that suddenly looked very appealing. She dropped the suitcase and took off her shoes.

“So, you think our vamp is your missing boyfriend?” Maria inquired.

Buffy shrugged. “That’s as good a word for him as any,” she replied. “Look, I need to catch some sleep before I go out tonight. Can I give with the longer explanations later?”

“Sure. No problem. We were just worried you might want to slay one of the good guys.”

“I’m not saying our reunion might not get pretty loud or physical, but I won’t be slaying him. I only just learned he was still alive a few days ago.”

Maria gave a soft laugh and pulled the door closed behind her as she walked out.

Buffy checked out the attached bathroom, then decided she needed to pee and sleep more than she needed a shower. She did what she needed to do, left her clothes on the floor, put the scythe in the closet, and fell into the bed. She was asleep within minutes.

XXX

“So, what’s the plan, B?” Faith leaned back in her chair, ignoring the dirty plate in front of her. “Just go around shouting for him?”

“If it comes to that,” Buffy huffed. “But I’m hoping that once he sees me, or smells me-” She wrinkled her nose, and Faith laughed in agreement. “I’m hoping that he’ll see me and stop hiding.” She frowned. “Assuming he has enough sense to know I’m here for him. I didn’t think about that. He might think it’s just a coincidence.”

“Seems like the easiest thing would be to get yourself in trouble one night and holler for help. That’s when the girls have seen him.”

“Maybe…” Buffy looked dubious. “If this place has a hellmouth, it must have some demon bars too. Maybe I can just check them out.”

“It does have some, but they aren’t quite like Willy’s. It’s gonna be a lot harder for you to just drop in and start asking questions. Not unless we take an army with us. We usually stick to the human bars and just try to keep them un-vamp-friendly.”

“Well, I’ll hang out with you and your girls for a while until I feel like I won’t get lost if I’m by myself, and just keep my fingers crossed that he sees me and is curious enough to let me know he’s there. If that doesn’t work, then I might have to hit a demon bar or two.” Buffy grinned a little. “It’s been a long time since I had to clean out a demon bar. Might be fun.”

“And it probably would bring your honey running, once he heard about it.”

“And that.”

They laughed together. And then carried their dinner dishes to the kitchen and dropped them in the sink full of hot water before donning coats and other warm apparel and venturing out into the night.

Chapter Two

After several nights of patrolling with Faith or one or two of the other slayers, Buffy was no closer to finding Spike than when she got there.

“Where were you when he showed up to help?” she asked Katie as they strolled through a cemetery that had offered nothing but one new vampire just barely out of the dirt. Katie staked him without even waiting for him to notice their presence.

“We were over by St. Mathews. It’s kinda in the same area as the hellmouth, actually. There’d been a lot of burials there recently and we wanted to check it out. Turned out one of the newbies had a welcoming party of vamps and demons waiting, and we ended up having to fight him and all his buddies. Just the two of us.”

“So, where did Spike come in?”

Katie shook her head. “I’m not sure. I mean, we weren’t all that far from the entrance, so if he was walking by or something…. I guess he could have heard us? All I know is it got kind of dicey, and then, all of a sudden, there weren’t as many of them coming at us. When I got a chance to look up, there was this one guy fighting two vamps by himself, and laughing while he did it. He dusted them both, nodded at us, and disappeared.”

She glanced sideways at Buffy. “Does that sound like your guy?”

“Well, the fighting two at once and laughing about it does. The hair color and no leather coat doesn’t. But if he doesn’t want to be found, it makes sense he’d change his hair color and wear different clothes.”

She sighed and sent her senses out, somewhat disappointed when she felt no vampire tingles. “I guess I need to find some other way to get his attention. Just patrolling every night doesn’t seem to be working.”

“Uh, you’ve only been here a few days. I was born here and I’ve only seen him once. This is a pretty big city, you know.”

Buffy sighed. “Yes, it is. I guess thinking about Spike makes me remember Sunnydale, and I could walk from one side of the city to the other in an hour. You’re right. I need to give it some time.”

XXX

A week later, Buffy had become much less interested in being patient. She’d been to several bars, some of them not as vamp-free as the younger girls thought. Although, Buffy didn’t bother to point out the clearly older vampire drinking quietly at their current establishment of choice. She watched him for a while, smiling to herself when he was careful not to sit where he should be visible in the mirror. She thought she’d been subtle, but as he stood up to leave, he smiled and tipped his empty glass at her before setting it on the bar.

“Do you know that guy?” Maria asked, catching the byplay. “Did you think he might be your vampire?”

“No, he’s not Spike. But he is a vampire, and not a young one. I’m surprised you girls didn’t pick up on that.”

Maria and the other girl with them whirled to where the door was just shutting behind the vamp.

“Should we go after him?”

Buffy shrugged. “He wasn’t hunting, and he’s pretty old. I’d say wait until you catch him being evil, then stake him. If you can,” she added quietly.

Something about the unconcerned attitude the vampire had in the face of three slayers told her he wasn’t worried about them. Of course, he didn’t know who she was. Buffy assumed he wouldn’t have been so relaxed if he had known the only slayer in the world older than Faith was staring at him.

When she mentioned it to Faith, trying not to sound critical that the girls hadn’t recognized the presence of an old vampire, the other older slayer just laughed.

“That was probably Thomas, checking out the competition. He was there to take a look at the bar, not you. Trust me, if he’d known who you were, he would probably have introduced himself.”

“Thomas?”

Faith nodded. “Yes. Thomas Vandekirk. He owns one of the major demon bars here. He doesn’t hunt anymore-at least that’s what he says…. Anyway, if there was a vamp master of the city, he’d probably be it. He’s old, wicked rich, and, aside from the demon bar, runs a couple of more respectable businesses. He’s a good source of information sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

“It took him a while to get over the idea that multiple slayers here meant he couldn’t just do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. But he did get over it, and we have kind of a truce going. I don’t slay him or bust his establishment, and he lets me know if there’s something or somebody I should know about. Turns out, it’s usually somebody he’d just as soon get rid of, or a demon that was planning something that could hurt his business, but whatever works, you know?”

“I wonder if he’d know about Spike?”

“Wouldn’t be surprised. I just haven’t tried to ask him. I stay away from his club and he keeps it below the human radar.”

“I guess I need to do it then. Wanna come?”

“I probably should. Just to vouch for you if nothing else. I don’t want him thinking I’m breaking the truce.”

“I’m not planning to clean out his bar,” Buffy said, rolling her eyes, “but, yeah, introductions might be a good plan.”

XXX

It was several busy, but Spikeless, nights of patrol later before Faith and Buffy got an opportunity to visit The Crypt.

“The Crypt?”

“I said he was old and rich. I didn’t say he had any imagination.” Faith laughed. “I don’t know why he calls it that. It’s as much a demon hang out as it is for vamps.”

“So, will we be able to get in? Without kicking down the door, I mean,” Buffy added quickly.

“Should be. I haven’t been there for a long time, so it’s possible the bouncer might not know me, but whatever it is, it probably won’t be a problem.”

“It won’t be a problem?”

Faith shrugged. “He uses different demons and vamps. Hard to tell what it will turn out to be.”

XXX

What the doorman turned out to be was… missing. The door wasn’t guarded by anyone or anything, so the two slayers just strolled in, causing no small amount of consternation among the customers. The club owner made his appearance very quickly, intercepting them before they’d come very far into the large room.

“Faith! To what do I owe this surprise visit?” He glared at the unguarded door, clearly angry about their sudden appearance.

“Probably to the fact that you don’t have anybody watching the door,” she snarked back at him. “But relax, Tommy-boy, B. and I are just here to ask you a question.”

He turned his glance on Buffy, frowning as he recognized her as the slayer he’d saluted a few nights ago. He gazed at her for a full minute, then back and forth between her and Faith. He then bowed to Buffy.

“My apologies,” he said. “Had I been closer to you, I would have felt your power and known you weren’t an ordinary slayer.” He held out his hand. “My name is Thomas, and you are….”

“She’s Buffy.”

Spike’s quiet voice behind him made Thomas whirl around, but not before he’d seen Buffy’s expression change from shock to a slayer’s angry glare.

“And you are fired,” Thomas snarled. “They shouldn’t have made it inside without my permission.”

“Can’t be fired, I quit,” Spike snapped back, never taking his gaze off Buffy’s face.

She ran her eyes over him quickly, noting the dyed black hair and lack of leather coat, before fastening them on his again.

“You left the door and hid because you saw me coming, didn’t you?” Buffy said, proud that her voice didn’t tremble. She put her hands on her hips in case he missed the anger in it.

“Did,” he agreed. “Thought better of it, though. No sense letting you take the place apart looking for me.”

“What makes you think I was looking for you? We might have just been stopping in for a drink,” Buffy said, stepping closer to him, chin tipped up belligerently.

“Right. ‘Cause dark and nosy here is such a regular customer.” He flicked a glance at Faith, then back to Buffy, his own expression not revealing anything about his reaction to seeing Buffy for the first time since Sunnydale.

“If you knew I was looking for you, why didn’t you let me find you? I’ve been here for two freaking weeks!” Buffy tried to tell herself she shouldn’t begin their reunion by yelling at him, but her need to spark a reaction to her pain and anger was overwhelming a competing desire to throw her arms around him.

Thomas was staring at the two people who never lost eye contact as they gradually drew closer together. He made an aborted attempt to step in between them, stopping when Faith shook her head and gestured at him to join her at the bar some distance away.

“What’s going on?” he demanded. “I may have fired Will for not staying on the door, but I’m not going let her slay him in my club.”

“She doesn’t want to slay him,” Faith assured him. “Although I’m not promising there won’t be some broken furniture before they thrash out their issues….”

Showing he’d been listening to them even as he and Buffy stared at each other, Spike said, “We’ll take it outside.”

He’d switched his attention to Thomas for a moment, then back to Buffy. “That all right with you, love?”

“Don’t you ‘love’ me, you big jerk!” Even as she snapped at him, Buffy whirled to go back outside. Spike shrugged an apology at his former boss, then followed her out.

“You don’t need to stay with her?” Thomas asked Faith when she dropped onto a bar stool and waved the bartender over.

“Nope. They aren’t going to kill each other, and I’ve got no interest in getting the middle of this reunion. It could be loud and violent.”

Thomas gestured at the bartender to bring her a drink and settled onto the stool beside her. Behind them, his customers slowly went back to enjoying themselves as they realized they weren’t being raided and weren’t going to see a fight.

“So, tell me about them,” he said, pushing a beer in front of Faith. “Clearly this reunion isn’t between an ordinary slayer and vampire.”

She took a long drink from her glass, then set it down. “Well, here’s the short version….”

When she’d finished a brief, but full, account of what she knew of Buffy and Spike’s history-as well as making sure Thomas knew that Buffy was the last of the solitary slayers, and had been one even longer than she had, Faith picked up her glass again and drained it.

“So, my best bouncer is actually William the Bloody. I knew he was older, but I had no idea…. I’ll admit to having been a bit curious as to how he became so old and strong without being well-known.”

“You don’t know him as Spike?” Faith raised her eyebrows.

“He introduced himself as ‘Will’. I had no reason to question it or pry. He was a good bouncer and gate man. Charming when he wanted to be, and a hell of a fighter when he had to be. And I had no idea the woman he refused to talk about was Buffy Summers, the slayer who closed the California hellmouth and created all these other slayers. I just chalked it up to a bad relationship that he was still getting over.”

“Spike closed the hellmouth, all by himself,” Faith said with a smirk. “Burned to a crisp in the process, I’m told. Got brought back by a magical piece of ugly jewelry that he wore to do it.”

Unable to hide his shock, Thomas said, “And he was hiding here because….”

Faith shook her head. “Speaking of the undead that should have been dead, dead a long time ago…. I’m guessing he thought with Buffy’s first boyfriend, Angelus, being human now, she’d prefer him. The arrogant bastard obviously agreed with him, and never told Buffy that Spike survived their little dust-up with the Senior Partners. Not sure exactly what made him change his mind, but a few weeks ago he let her know that Spike had survived , and he told her where she could probably find him. She was here right away, but so far he hasn’t shown up anywhere she’s been looking.”

“What made her think he was here, in my club? Was she coming here for him?”

“Nah, we had no idea. She was just curious about you, and thought you might be able to help her find him. We had no idea your bouncer was the vamp she’s been looking for.”

“So, he’ll be leaving now, even if I hadn’t fired him?” Thomas looked like he was re-thinking his hasty decision about Spike’s role in his organization.

“Not safe to take anything about those two for granted,” Faith said with a snort of laughter. “But yeah, I’d guess once they get through yelling at each other, he’ll be leaving with her. Thanks for the beer, but I’d better go find out what’s going on.”

She nodded at the bemused old vampire and stood up. “Cheer up, Tommy-boy. If he still wants to stay away from her, he’d probably disappear again anyway.”

XXX

To Faith’s obvious surprise, Buffy and Spike were literally just outside, off to one side of the door, but close enough for Spike to keep an eye on the entrance.

“Didn’t expect to find you two still here,” Faith said. “Or standing so far apart.” She grinned at her own humor.

“What did you think we’d be doing?” Buffy demanded, her attitude not improved by anything Spike had said or done so far.

“Figured you’d either be fighting or-”

“Got some issues to clear up, don’t we?” Spike growled, as he waved a couple of wary demons past the two slayers. They scuttled inside, throwing a “Thanks, Will” at Spike as they did so. “Need to do that in neutral territory, not in front of a place of business.”

“I thought you got fired,” Faith said.

“Didn’t get fired, I quit,” Spike said. “But the boss man’s been good to me, and the door needs mindin’ until he can get somebody else out here.”

“William the Bloody. Employee of the month?” Faith burst out laughing. “How the mighty have fallen.”

He turned a baleful eye on her, snarling, “I don’t leave my friends in the lurch.” Buffy flinched at the reminder that Spike had been living a life that didn’t include her long enough to have friends she didn’t know.

Showing he’d been listening, Thomas stepped through the door and looked from a clearly impatient Buffy to an embarrassed Spike. Faith was still grinning her amusement.

“If you’ll finish out this shift,” Thomas said, “I’ll have somebody else out here in an hour, and you can pick up your last paycheck.”

Spike looked surprised. “You really are firing me?”

Thomas gazed at Buffy, who was glaring at Spike and tapping her foot.

“You’re not planning to leave with her?” he asked, causing Spike and Buffy to turn their glares on Faith, who just laughed and flipped them the bird.

“He needed to know your history,” she said. “But if that’s settled, I’m just going to finish a patrol and go back to the house.” She lost her grin momentarily and asked Buffy, “You can find your way back if you need to, can’t you?”

Buffy sighed. “I’m not going to stand around here freezing for an hour. I’ll come with you. I’m sure he knows where the house is. If he wants to talk to me, he can come and find me.”

She stopped talking and held Spike’s gaze as he digested what she’d said. After a painful few minutes, during which Buffy couldn’t quite hide her disappointment and fear, he nodded.

“Haven’t even had time for a good row yet, have we?” he said, giving her a soft smile. “Wouldn’t take that away from you, love. I’ll be over later.” He paused. “Unless you’d rather wait till tomorrow night? If you’re tired and want to sleep….”

“I’ve been waiting for two dammed years!” Buffy sputtered. “You’re just lucky I haven’t staked you!”

She began to stomp away, muttering to herself as she did so. Spike’s hearing could pick up much of the muttering, and he relaxed with a small smile on his face.

“So, she’s not going to stake you?” Thomas said, as he picked up much of Buffy’s muttering, curiosity getting the better of his determination to stay out it.

Spike shook his head and laughed. “Don’t think so. She’s got a right to be brassed off at me. I’ll give her that. She’ll probably take it out of my hide at some point, but I don’t think she wants me dusted.”

“None of my business, but you must have one hell of an explanation for staying away from her and letting her think you were dead.”

“I thought I did,” Spike admitted, as he held an arm in front of a vampire couple. He cocked his head at Thomas who nodded, and Spike waved them in with an “Enjoy your evening.” He looked back at Thomas and frowned. “I’m rethinking it a bit now. May have to do some serious groveling….”

“Like I said, it’s none of my business, but if I had a woman like that-beautiful and a slayer-wild horses couldn’t have kept me away from her.”

“No offense, boss, but it is none of your business,” Spike growled. “Why don’t you to back inside and make like a host or something.”

Thomas laughed and turned to go inside, pausing to add, “If you don’t want her, maybe I’ll-”

One look at Spike’s shifting face told him finishing that sentence, even as a joke, would be a very bad idea. Suddenly his charming-when-he-wanted-to-be gate keeper looked every bit the lethal bouncer he could turn into when needed.

“Right. Bad idea.” He met Spike’s amber glare with interest, speaking as if almost to himself, “If you’re who they say you are, I probably couldn’t take you, could I?”

“Were you plannin’ to try?” Spike held his game face long enough to make sure Thomas got the point, then dropped back into his human mien, albeit, still looking deadly. His eyes were now chips of blue ice.

Thomas shrugged. “I didn’t live this long by being stupid,” he said as he disappeared into the building.

Spike just snorted and turned to smile at the new customers approached the entrance. “Evenin’ ladies. Enjoy your visit.” He ushered them in, holding the door politely, but not responding to their obvious interest in him.

Chapter Three

“So, you gonna wait up for your honey?”

“It’s only going to be an hour or so. He said he’d be here, so he will.” Buffy glanced at Faith with curiosity. “Will he be able to get in?”

“Doubt it. He’s never been here. I’m not surprised he knows where the Slayer House is, but as far as I know, he’s never let us know he was around.”

“In that case, I should probably wait outside,” Buffy said. She shuddered as she said it, having just warmed up from their short patrol.

Faith nodded. “Not going to invite any vamps in, not even ones with souls and a hard on for you. Make him take you somewhere warm.”

Buffy made a face and began layering on her outdoor clothes, very grateful for Dawn’s insistence that she pack a warm knit hat and gloves. She finished by wrapping a green scarf around her neck. “Don’t wait up,” she said, her words muffled by the scarf covering her lower face.

“Wasn’t planning to. Give his ass a good kicking,” Faith said as she turned to go to her room.

Buffy laughed and stepped outside, pulling the door shut behind her and making sure it was secure enough to keep out the cold. She had no worries about intruders, knowing the house had wards up to keep the inhabitants safe, but keeping out the late-winter cold was another story.

She settled into a corner of the unused porch swing and waited for Spike to show up. She made no attempt to keep herself from napping, assuming the cold would make sure she was too uncomfortable to drift off. When that turned out not to be true, the movement of the swing startled her awake. She had her stake in hand before she realized that Spike was sitting in the opposite corner and using one foot to keep the swing swaying.

“How long have you been here?” Buffy demanded, embarrassed at having been so easily approached.

“Long enough to wonder if you’d gone into hypothermia on me,” he said with a smile. “I was starting to worry.”

“I’m fine,” she grumbled, sitting up straighter and putting the stake away. “Slayers don’t get hypothermia.”

“Know that for a fact, do you?” he said.

“I’m sure it’s true,” she sniffed. “But I’d be more than happy to go somewhere warmer.”

“Slayer Number Two doesn’t want me in her house?” He grinned at his own question, knowing Faith wouldn’t have let him in. Then his expression sobered and he said, “Prob’ly a wise decision on her part. No sense in letting William the Bloody have access to all those deadly little girls.”

“Or one of those deadly little girls having access to William the Bloody’s heart,” Buffy responded, blushing when she realized what she’d accidentally said. “I didn’t-"

Spike shook his head and smiled at her. “No worries, love. Only one slayer has her stake in my heart. No one else is getting near it.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Buffy mumbled. “You know I didn’t.”

“I know. Just wanted to clear it up right out of the gate. I didn’t stay away because I don’t love you anymore. Anything else is up for discussion, but not that.”

“Then, how could you-” She paused as a full-body shiver went through her.

Spike leapt to his feet. “You’re freezing out here. Let’s go find somewhere warm for you to properly give me hell about this.”

“What if I want to hit you?” Buffy asked querulously, even as she let him help her to her feet and support her as she tottered down the porch steps on feet she could barely feel.

“Then we’ll go back outside. You’re too cold to do a decent job of kicking my very deserving arse right now. C’mon, love.”

He steered her to a nondescript Honda, waiting at the curb with the engine still running.

“You have a car?”

He shrugged. “Old Tom pays pretty well, and it’s a big city. Need to get around, don’t I?”

Buffy didn’t answer, just slipped into the warm interior with a sigh of gratitude. She didn’t even watch Spike as he walked around and got in behind the wheel, just kept her eyes closed and let the warmth sink into her bones.

“Where are we going?” she asked as she felt the car begin to move.

“Got a couple of choices,” he said. “First one is a Waffle House a few blocks from here. It’s warm, open all night, and has food.”

“Sounds good. What was the other one?”

“My place,” he said quietly. “Also warm and open all night, but no food.”

“I think we need to stick to public places for a while, don’t you? I haven’t even decided if I’m going to kill you yet.”

He gave a warm chuckle, but didn’t reply.

Buffy remained curled up in her seat, eyes closed, just enjoying the heat until she felt the car stop. “Are we there?”

“We are. But you don’t need to get out until you’ve shaken off the chill.”

“I’m fine,” she said, sitting up and opening her eyes for the first time. “Not a Buffycicle anymore.”

“Okay then. Here we go.”

Buffy opened her own door before he could get around to do it, smiling at his disappointed expression. “I know you can be a gentleman,” she said. “But I needed to remind you that I can open my own doors. And anyway,” she added as she preceded him into the small restaurant, “you mentioned waffles and I’m hungry.”

XXX

Once they’d settled into a booth near a window and Buffy had ordered a plate of waffles, there was nothing left to do but stare at each other.

“You look good, love,” he said, giving her one of those warm smiles she was sure no one else had ever seen.

“I look like an arctic explorer,” she replied as she shrugged out of her coat and took her scarf, hat, and gloves off. “And I have hat hair.” In spite of her words, she acknowledged his compliment with what was almost a smile.

“I like the clothes,” she said as she studied him in turn. He was wearing a puffy jacket over his more normal black shirt and jeans. In an apparent attempt to appear more human and less oblivious to the cold, he wore a vee-neck white sweater that set off his eyes. She frowned when she got to his face. “That hair’s got to go, though. Dyed black hair is just so….”

“Sexy?”

“I was going to say cliché,” she sniffed. “Everybody who wants to seem evil dyes their hair black.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Is that a disguise? To help you hide from me?”

He sighed. “Was hiding from everybody, love, not just you. The blond hair would have been a dead giveaway to anyone who knew me. Faith would have twigged to it right away. As it was, she wasn’t sure if I was really me, so I got away before she could follow up her suspicions.”

“Why didn’t you want me to know you were alive? Didn’t you care that I was mourning for you? Again.” She didn’t try to hide her anger and pain, opting for visible anger over the tears she was blinking back.

Spike studied the Formica table in front of him as if it contained important information. “Had yourself a human Liam, didn’t you? No pesky soul thing to worry about. I would have just been in the way, confusing things….” He glanced up sharply. “It would have confused things, wouldn’t it?”

“What things? I mean, yeah, it might have taken me a minute to convince Angel I was happy for him, just not interested in dating, but I wouldn’t have been confused about having you back. I would have been ridiculously happy to see that you weren’t dead.”

“You weren’t happy to have Angel?” He was looking down at the table again and missed her eye roll.

“No! I was still grieving for you, you moron! Ask Dawn, she’ll tell you. She told Angel that’s what was wrong with me, and he got mad at her, but it made him pay more attention. I guess he finally figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“That I was just going through the motions with him and still missing you. Dumbass,” she grumbled. She didn’t specify who the dumbass was, leaving him to assume who she was referring to.

She fixed a serious glare on him, but he still refused to look up from the incredibly interesting table top. She softened her tone a little as she continued.

“I think it took him a while longer to feel guilty enough to do something about it. He’s lucky I didn’t put him in the hospital when he finally told me. If he wasn’t human, I probably would have staked him for letting me think you were dead and gone all that time.”

She sighed and shook her head. “I guess he meant well. He was so sure I’d choose human him…”

“That made two of us,” Spike growled, admitting for the first time that he’d disappeared on purpose.

Buffy smiled at the waitress who put her plate of waffles in front of her, then switched her focus back on Spike.

“Neither one of you had the right to make that decision for me,” she almost growled. “If I didn’t still love you, I’d tell you both to go to hell, so I could go find myself a man who didn’t think he should run my life.”

“I don’t know what to say, love. I knew you cared about me, but-"

“But nothing, asshole!” Buffy lowered her voice when she realized she was shouting. Fortunately, there were very few other patrons in the restaurant and the waitress was talking to the cook. “I told you I loved you, and you couldn’t even let me know the amulet brought you back. And then you died again! Or at least that’s what everyone thought. So, I got to grieve all over again.” Her voice trembled a little, in defiance of her determination to remain stoic.

He flinched and glanced up at her, giving her time to see the growing horror and genuine regret on his face. Her anger faded and she stared at him with eyes bright with tears.

“How could you do that to me, Spike? You told me I was the one, and that you would never hurt me again. How could you do that?” she repeated softly.

Spike looked like he was going to be sick. He shuddered all over.

“Bloody hell, Buffy. If I’d had any idea….” His shoulders slumped and he sank back in the booth, thunking his head against the back of it. “You must hate me now.”

“I didn’t fly all the way over here to the North Pole because I hate you,” she muttered, spreading butter and syrup over her food. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to kill you.”

“You’ve got every right, love. I was a git and a first-class wanker not to let you make your own decision about who you wanted in your life.” His voice was low, but the regret was palpable.

“You left out insecure jerk,” she mumbled around a mouthful of sweetness.

“And that,” he sighed, watching her eat. “I’ll be apologizing about this for the rest of my unlife, won’t I?”

Buffy looked up from her almost empty plate. “I guess that depends on where you plan to spend the rest of your life,” she said, forcing him to hold her gaze and understand what she was saying. “’Cause, just so you know? Cleveland isn’t my idea of a garden spot.”

“I hear Rome is nice this time of the year…” he ventured, clearly wanting to be sure he was understanding her, even as the growing hope was visible in his eyes.

“It’s a hell of a lot nicer than this is, for sure.” She waved her hand at the cold parking lot outside the window. “And I have a place to live there.”

“No roommates?” he asked, blinking innocently. Buffy narrowed her eyes at him, wondering what, if anything, he might know about her life.

“Just Dawn,” she responded, waiting for the next question.

He didn’t ask it, only raised one eyebrow at her and waited. Buffy scraped up the last of her syrup before she met his skeptical gaze.

“I made him move out. Dawn didn’t want him there, and I was sleeping in her room after….”

“After….?” She thought she heard just the trace of a growl in his voice.

“After he was shamed into telling me you were alive and probably living here.” She watched him wince, and added quietly, “I thought you were dead, Spike. Gone forever. So yeah, I did what you both thought I would, and I let human Angel into my life.”

“And your bed,” Spike rumbled, stopping abruptly when her sympathetic expression went back to a glare. “Sorry,” he said, hanging his head. “You thought I was dead, and I’ve got no right to complain about it.”

“Just so that’s perfectly clear….”

“It is, love. Trust me. It’s just that living with the mental images of what I knew was probably happening, and hearing it confirmed, turn out to be two different things. I’m jealous, and my demon is feeling homicidal.”

“Your demon can suck it up,” she snapped. “I did what you and Angel expected me to do. I’m not going to apologize for it, and I stopped as soon as I found out you were alive.”

He nodded. “Got the message, love. I promise. I’ll try to keep the growling to a minimum.”

“See that you do.” She tried to maintain her glare, but felt her face soften into the first real smile she’d given him. “Unless I ask you to growl. Sometimes it’s pretty sexy….”

He smiled back at her.

“Does that mean you’re going to come home with me tonight? Now that I’ve fed you and warmed you up?”

She sighed and shook her head, more in confusion than denial.

“I don’t know. We’ve got a lot of baggage to sort through yet, don’t we?”

“We do. I wasn’t asking for…. Well, yeah, I guess that’s what I was thinkin’, but I’m really only asking you to stay with me while we get used to each other again. Have some logistics to sort out, and more talking to do, don’t we? Can’t do that in a house that’s full of bloodthirsty little girls with stakes, which I couldn’t get into anyway.”

“I guess you’re right. Okay, your place it is…. It isn’t a crypt, is it?”

“Nope. Basement apartment with a good heating system and furniture.”

“’K then. Let’s go.” Buffy began to pull on her coat and warm accessories, while Spike quietly paid for her meal and tipped the waitress.

XXX

Spike’s apartment turned out to be a fairly warm and pleasant one in the basement of a very respectable-looking apartment building. In addition to the underground parking garage in which Spike parked the car, the apartment had its own private entrance, which Spike pointed out to Buffy as they drove past it to turn down the ramp to the garage. The street entrance was just next to the more elaborate double glass doors into the main lobby of the building.

However, Spike ushered Buffy from his parking spot through a metal door marked “No entry. Service Only”. He closed that unlocked door and flicked on a light illuminating a flight of stairs leading up to the street level entrance. To their left was another door, this one painted black and having to be opened with a key on the same ring as his car key. Buffy added that Spike carrying around a set of keys, just as most humans did, as one more thing that was different about him.

He opened the door, then held it as he ushered Buffy in. Light from the stairs was sufficient for her to see to enter the room and locate a wall switch. She flicked it on as Spike pulled the door shut behind them, locking it with a deadbolt. When she raised her eyebrows at him, he shrugged.

“Apartment’s home to a vampire,” he said. “No mystical barrier to keep out the nasties-vamps or humans.”

Buffy walked into the comfortable-looking room and began to remove her outdoor things.
Spike helped her out of her coat and draped it over a chair by the door. “No coat closet, pet, but I pretend the chair is a valet.”

Buffy nodded and dropped her hat and gloves onto the chair. She also took a stake from a holster on her leg, and added it to the pile. Spike grinned at her.

“Should I be worried that you brought a stake with you?”

“Someone once told me I should always have my weapons with me,” she said with a small smile of her own.

“Wise man,” he responded. “Did he give you any other advice?”

“Probably. I didn’t always listen. And he wasn’t always smart…. In fact, sometimes he can be downright stupid.” She finished speaking with her hands on her hips, her smile having faded into a mock frown.

Spike sighed and shook his head. “Don’t doubt it, love. Do I need to start groveling again?”

Buffy shrugged and curled up in the corner of a comfy-looking loveseat. “Wouldn’t hurt,” she said as she gazed around the room, noting the warm colors, shelves of books, and a few watercolors on the walls. Spike had turned on a lamp on a small desk, and another one on an end table, bathing the room in much softer light than from the overhead bulb that he switched off.

“It’s nice,” Buffy said, still looking around. “I like it.”

“Step up from a crypt,” he agreed.

“And from my basement.”

“Your basement had something this place lacks.”

“What?” She stared around. “A washing machine? Leaky pipes?”

“You,” he said quietly, holding her gaze. “It had you.”

“Oh,” she replied softly, not sure how to respond. “But now I’m here,” she said at last, chin up as she challenged him to acknowledge what that meant.

Link to Redemption Redux if you want to look at it. https://dark-solace.org/elysian/viewstory.php?sid=5041&chapter=6

creator: slaymesoftly, era: post series, form: fic, rating: NC17