Chapter 6

 

 

 

 

Xander let his breath exhale in one angry puff and pushing the blanket he’d wrapped around himself sat up on the couch he’d been attempting to sleep on.

 

Part of him half-expected Will’s non-corporeal double to pop up any moment. Although he figured if not!William decided to make another appearance it wouldn’t be to any of them, it would only be to Buffy.

 

For some reason whatever not!William was, they all recognized the fact that it was attempting to drive Buffy crazy. And quite probably already had.

 

He only had vague memories of her trying to stake herself before. Right after she’d returned to Sunnydale and had the behavior modification chip installed. He and Willow, well just Willow because if it had been just him he would have let her do it, had stopped her.

 

Then there was one or two instances that he could recall over the summer that William had been dead that she’d mentioned something about dusting herself. But one look at Dawnie had always stayed her hand.

 

He wondered if Dawn would have the same impact on her now.

 

Somehow he thought now.

 

The house was silent as he forced himself to listen for the sounds of movement.

 

Wanting to hear the sounds of movement.

 

Everyone had disappeared upstairs to rest while they could, all present recognizing that the call to battle could come at any time.

 

Willow and Dawn had disappeared into her room, Willow leaving her room for Anya to crash in… although Anya had disappeared into William’s room with William and Buffy.

 

And had not emerged since.

 

Hence the angry puff of air.

 

He’d fought William when the Slayer had announced the Buffy was sleeping with him. Ignoring William’s insistence that she was to weak to try anything, that she was to scared and was half the time not even conscious. His only thought was that William and Buffy alone in William’s room… nothing good could come from it.

 

Which of course was what he’d tried to voice, only to get a sarcastic “she’s barely able to stand Xander do you really think we’re going to have sex now?” from his best friend.

 

It was all made worse a few minutes later when William had tried  to take Buffy upstairs and the vampiress had refused to let go of Anya’s arm. In fact the more William tried to coax her up the stairs, the more ashen her already pale complexion became, eyes widening as they flitted between William and Anya. Finally Anya had taken the petite vampire into her arms and told William in no uncertain terms that she would be staying with them until Buffy went to sleep.

 

That had been hours ago and Anya had yet to depart the Slayer’s room.

 

Not that Xander thought that anything would happen between his best friend and his ex-fiancé but…

 

Maybe, just maybe he should go up and check and make sure that Buffy hadn’t slaughtered both Anya and William and escaped out the bedroom window.

 

 

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William’s eyes snapped open and his form stiffened as a creak on the stairs wound its way through his sleep waking him instantly. Waiting tensely for the inevitable assault he heard Xander cursing on the other side of the door when he realized that it was locked and then his friends’ steps as he departed back down the stairs.

 

Relaxing once more he took stock of his surroundings.

 

When he’d fallen asleep hours earlier Buffy had been on the far side of the bed, hugging the corner, back to him. Every time he shifted to make himself comfortable she jumped as if terrified of actually touching him.

 

The fact that she was terrified of him, that fact that something had made her scared of his very touch caused his blood to boil in anger and it took several of the deep breathing exercises that Giles had taught him before he’d been able to relax enough to even contemplate sleeping.

 

He had been so angry at the thing that had done this to her, it was you, his mind had reminded him softly.

 

Not me, he’d warred with himself. Something playing at being me.

 

He’d been so angry that he’d wanted to forgo the usual wait for the bad guy to come to them and go hunting for it, then when he found it he wanted to destroy it a hundred times over for the pain that Buffy was currently in.

 

The others had reminded him that they had no idea what they were looking for, especially since Willow’s spell had shown him as being Buffy’s tormentor and since they all knew that William wasn’t… well there wasn’t much more they could do until whatever this thing was announced itself.

 

Normally in the traditional way of an assault on one of the core Scoobs.

 

It had been Anya that pointed out that Buffy wasn’t a core Scooby and that this thing hadn’t attacked anyone else.

 

That maybe Buffy was its chosen target and it wanted nothing to do with the Slayer and his entourage.

 

William had winced at the hardness in her tone. And the truth.

 

It was just that if there was going to be a demon attack normally either he, Xander, Willow or Dawn would be the ones attacked. It had never even dawned on him that they weren’t wanted by this thing.

 

At least not yet.

 

He smiled slightly when he realized that in sleep Buffy didn’t seem to fear him. People who were terrified of someone else didn’t mold themselves to that persons back.

 

Touching her hand slightly his smile turned to a frown as he realized that Buffy’s fingers were entwined with someone else’s. And since his other hand was currently under his pillow…

 

Who?

 

Twisting himself slightly he found Anya sleeping on the other side of Buffy. Both females sleeping peacefully, and in Buffy’s case the rest was probably the first that she’d managed untormented.

 

“She wouldn’t let me leave,” he heard Anya’s soft voice felt the demoness shifting on the bed so that she could lie on her back. “I tried and…”

 

Lifting Buffy’s hand from where it rested on his hip he rolled onto his back, Buffy settling, still asleep, into his side. Head resting on the pillow that he realized suddenly that they were sharing.

 

“It’s okay Anya,” he muttered softly. Turning his head slightly he saw Anya’s hand resting in the smile of Buffy’s back. Sighing as the realization that most likely the only reason that Buffy wasn’t shifting away from him and to Anya was the fact that the demoness was still touching her.

 

Anya herself was studying the way that Buffy was soundly sleeping.

 

And the way that William wasn’t moving away from her.

 

In fact he curled an arm around her, holding her gently in an one armed embrace.

 

Idly she wondered how much longer he would insist to feeling nothing for the vampiress. While she knew for a fact that Xander owned a co-op in denial land she hadn’t thought William that dense.

 

Possibly she’d been wrong.

 

“At least she’s sleeping,” he murmured his eyes raking over the slight form next to him. When he’d emerged from the bathroom after changing he’d found her clad in one of his t-shirts and a pair of Willow’s sweatpants. Two articles of clothing that she swam in, although with the short sleeves of the t-shirt he could see that some of the worst injuries on her arms had almost totally healed.

 

Sitting on the side of the bed, he’d found to restrain the growl because both girls had changed in the short time he’d been gone and now Buffy had her head laying in Anya’s lap, eyes closed as the demoness stroked her hair.

 

She had allowed herself to be stretched out on the bed by Anya, hugging the opposite side of the mattress but both refused to make eye contact or allow any part of their body to touch.

 

And that alone had hurt, he could remember a time when she’d all but tried to climb inside his skin and possess him… and now she was terrified of touching him?

 

“I wonder what it’ll take to repair the damage that’s been done to her,” Anya’s voice broke through his thoughts and his eyes rose to meet hers.

 

“I think my blood took care of the worst of it.”

 

“The wounds to her body yes… but what about her mind?”

 

“I don’t know,” he admitted softly.

 

“It tried to drive her insane…”

 

“I know.”

 

“And it tried to use you in order to do that… I don’t think we can rule out the fact that it might try again…”

 

“So what? We can’t see this thing Anya… we don’t even know when it’s with her, with us… how are we supposed to…”

 

“I sensed it,” Anya mumbled her eyes lowering to the girl lying cradled between them. “In the apartment… it was like this chill, it was…”

 

“It was what?” William asked with narrowed eyes.

 

“It was what I would imagine evil feeling like. It felt like the coldest, darkest Artic winter had permeated Xander’s apartment and…” her eyes rose slowly to meet his. “I don’t know if we can fight this thing… I don’t know if we even want to.”

 

“So what? We just let it have Buffy? Because that’s what its wants, you heard it. It wants Buffy dead.”

 

“And if we help her it’s going to want us dead to.”

 

“I’m not letting it have her, not without a fight… and I can’t believe that you would let it take her either…” William scowled as he realized what the demoness was about.

 

“I had to make sure…” she said softly a small smile forming on her lips. “If we help her it’s going to come up after us as well. We saw what it used with Buffy, it used you. Lord only knows what it’ll use to try and get to the rest of us.”

 

 

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Dawn rolled over onto her side, frowning at the clock as she closed her eyes and sighed.

 

She’d never had to actually share a room with Willow ever before… she’d stayed over with Willow and Tara numerous times but there hadn’t actually been sleep at those slumber parties.

 

They’d normally stayed up all night watching movies and pigging out on junk food, that William with his health-conscious lifestyle didn’t allow.

 

But now she knew why both William and Xander had refused to allow the Witch within a room of them while they were sleeping.

 

Willow sang in her sleep.

 

Off key at that.

 

She wished that someone had warned her. She would have shared a room with Anya instead.

 

Or even let Willow have her room and slept downstairs with Xander in her sleeping bag.

 

At least he only snored.

 

With another long suffering sigh she pushed the covers aside and sat up in bed. Allowing a few seconds for full wakefulness, not that she gotten more than a minutes sleep before Willow had started her solo concert, she stood and making her way around the still sleeping, still singing bundle on the floor she left her room.

 

A few steps down the hall she stopped and  gently knocked on the door to Willow’s room(William’s old room). Frowning to herself when no one responded she swung the door open, surprised when the open door revealed a bed not slept in and no Anya in sight.

 

Leaving the door open she took a few more steps down the hall stopping in front of William’s room. Her hand stopped just inches away from the door as she heard the low rumble of voices inside.

 

“Will?” she called softly.

 

The voices went silent and then a soft “Hold on a second Dawnie,” from Will.

 

The soft padding of feet and the door swung open. Revealing Anya smiling at her.

 

“Good morning Dawn.”

 

“Uh yeah… morning…” Dawn smirked to herself as she caught sight of Buffy and William lying on the bed. Buffy still out from the looks of it, though Will was awake. “I was going to take a shower…”

 

“Go ahead Dawn… if something attacks us I’m sure you’ll hear it in there,” William grinned as Dawn snorted at him.

 

“Ha, ha… I just thought that while I’m taking a shower someone might want to go down and explain to Xander why Anya didn’t sleep in Willow’s room last night… you know so you could get all that embarrassing sex talk out of the way before I get down there.”

 

“Why? Do you guys think that the three of us were in here having sex when some unknown evil is stalking Buffy?”

 

“Well I didn’t think that,” Dawn smirked as she began closing the door. “But you know Xander…”

 

 

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