CHAPTER 11

Dear Nancy,

Well I’m settled into Sunnydale now. Giles’s flat is on the poky side, but it’s comfy and close to where I need to be. Working for Anyanka is working out pretty well (she sends her best, by the way). It’s less quiet than working at the plant, but at least the customers are marginally less likely to be carrying mad cow disease.

I’ve seen Buffy and Dawn already. The Bit (that’s Dawn) gave me a hard time about some stuff; I hope we’ll be able to mend some fences. She’s grown up so much since I saw her – all black and high heels, these days. I guess that’s sixteen for you.

Buffy – the Slayer – seems to be doing okay. She’s still too tense, of course, but she’s getting there, I think. Don’t know how she feels about me turning up again though – sometimes I feel like the proverbial bad penny. Haven’t seen Xander yet – now there’s a reunion I’m not looking forward to! Giles’ll let you know if he stakes me, at least.

Speaking of young Rupert, I have to tell you that you were right. I swear I can hear the birds singing and smell the roses every time he and Anya float in these days. Practically have to dodge the rays of sunshine emanating from the pair of them. They’ve not told anyone else yet. Can’t blame them myself; the Scoobies have never been big on tolerance, particularly where someone of the demon variety is concerned. Figured I should give you a heads-up though, so you have something to tease the Watcher about when he drops by.

Willow seems to be doing okay back here. Nothing untoward, and she’s keeping up the exercises the witches gave her. She’s been by Tara’s grave once or twice – I think it was touch and go the first time, but she seems to have accepted her death now.

Nothing much is happening here, although we may have a bit of a demon situation on our hands. I’ll keep you posted of how it goes.

Look after yourself, and give my best to Richard, Sarah and the kiddies.

Love,

Spike.

***

The first of the books Spike had ordered arrived the next morning. Unfortunately, it didn’t have a great deal to add to the minimal knowledge he’d gained of the Grshnit demons, although there was a fascinating chapter on less well-known demon varieties. He made a mental note to stop by Kinko’s and make a copy for Giles.

The book was from a public library in a small town in north-eastern Oklahoma. Giles seemed surprised by this, but Spike had understood immediately.

“There’s a fairly big demon community out there,” he’d explained. “They’re very peaceful, and they keep to themselves; try to have as little to do with humans as possible.”

He and Dru had been there once, when she’d first started to deteriorate, but they’d not been welcome. They’d found the slow pace and lack of prey rather dull – but these days, Spike wondered whether that community might be a refuge after his work in Sunnydale was done.

***

Buffy entered the Magic Box just after lunchtime, looking around tentatively. Surely that wasn’t disappointment she felt at the sight of Anya behind the counter. Of course she hadn’t been hoping to see Spike.

“Buffy!” said Anya brightly. “Are you looking for Giles or Spike? Because they’re not here.”

“No … No!” was the decisive answer.

“Okay,” Anya replied. “I wanted to talk to you anyway. Are you and Spike going to resume your illicit sexual liaison?”

Buffy frowned. “How can you ask - have you forgotten what he did to me?”

Anya shook her head. “No, but I thought you might have. I’m still a Justice demon, remember. I don’t sense any of those feelings from you, so I know you must have forgiven him.” She thought for a moment, then frowned. “Actually, I never had that sort of feeling from you. Why is that? I have a professional need to know.”

Buffy paused and thought before answering. “I guess … I did something awful to Spike once. I didn’t want to hear him, so I didn’t listen. I was so ashamed of being with him, I thought what I did to him didn’t matter. That was wrong.” She swallowed. “What he did to me; it was terrible. I couldn’t believe that Spike would do that. Then I realised, he didn’t. Do it, I mean. I had to throw him off to make him hear me, but once he heard me, he stopped. Apologised, even. I threw him out; I needed him to be away from here. Away from me. You see, I didn’t stop.” She looked directly at Anya, eyes brimming with tears. “I didn’t mean for him to go away, though. I needed him; we all needed him. I just needed what was between us to finish.”

“Why?”

Buffy looked at her blankly.

“Why did you need it to stop?” the demon repeated.

“I’m the slayer, Anya. I’m meant to be staking vampires, not putting out for them.”

Anya shrugged. “But it’s Spike, Buffy. We know him. He’s been helping you for nearly three years, and I know for a fact that you haven’t paid him a penny for at least eighteen months. He stayed around to help us out even when you were dead and decomposing. So what if he’s a vampire? He was our friend.”

Buffy stared, then turned and walked out of the shop.

“I guess she has a lot to think about,” Anya mused as she turned her attention back to the sales receipts.

***

“Grab its arm, Xander.”

“I’m trying, Dawn,” he replied. “This would be much easier if it would just … stay … still.” The exertions of the fight punctuated his words as he tried to subdue the Rewadh Demon they were fighting.

Dawn had fallen into the habit of patrolling with Xander. Willow accompanied them occasionally, but she had been tired all day and had opted for an early night. Dawn found she preferred her “big brother’s” company to patrolling with Buffy; she was less ready to admit that it was the lure of danger that encouraged her to patrol without her sister’s help. Of course, if Buffy had known that they were patrolling in the more dangerous parts of Sunnydale rather than the well-lit main streets, she might have been less sanguine about the exercise. Dawn had skipped over that particular piece of information, and it had simply never occurred to Xander to question either of the women as to where they were supposed to be heading.

So far, they’d not encountered anything of the Too Nasty variety, although Xander was starting to wonder whether angry Rewadh Demon was really something he wanted to be facing this evening. “Never fight anything you can’t spell” was fast becoming his motto, and he’d suggested to Dawn that it was one she might consider adopting as well.

Finally gaining a grip, he tugged on its arm, attempting to keep it between him and the sword Dawn was wielding. Her extra height helped to compensate for the strength and speed that she hadn’t inherited from her sister. The release of the demon’s spines, which had been hidden in its arms, caused him to release it with a howl of pain. Dawn fell back in surprise as the demon advanced on her once again.

A howl of anger made him jump, as a black-and-silver blur passed him at superhuman speed. Moments later, Spike stood over the body of the demon, with an extremely pissed teenager glaring at him.

“Spike,” Xander croaked, then remembered what had caused the vampire to leave Sunnydale. He reached for the stake that he was never without these days.

“Spike,” said Dawn, glaring at him angrily. The vampire just stood there, with a half-smile on his face.

“What the hell are you doing out so late, Bit? And with only Xander to protect you?” He did a double take. “Is that Buffy’s sword you’ve borrowed?”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “I’m patrolling, Spike. Buffy’s been teaching me. And I was doing just fine on my own before you stepped in.”

“Yeah? Taking down Rewadh demons isn’t exactly a pillow fight, pet.”

She looked abashed. “I know. It was pretty tough, but I was beating it.”

Spike felt a touch of pride, despite himself. “You were doing pretty well. I liked the move you pulled when you first jumped him, throwing the dagger with your left hand and then following it with the sword.”

She grinned, demonstrating the move for him, more slowly now she didn’t have a seven-foot demon attacking. “You saw that? I’ve been practising that move. I figured it would come in handy.”

Xander looked from one to the other, confused.

“Okay, let’s just think for a moment Dawn. Evil vampire comes to town, tries to kill your sister, tries to rape your sister, has sex with my fiancée,”

“Ex-fiancée,” Spike interjected.

Xander glared at him, then continued, “disappears who knows where, probably to get out the chip that’'s the only thing stopping him from murdering us all, turns up out of nowhere and you greet him with mime?” He turned to Spike. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t use this stake on you right now.”

Spike tried not to smirk. Xander had a point, buried somewhere in that triumph of emotion over logic, but his means of making it was hardly convincing.

“Well for starters, I just saved your hide and Dawn’s as well,” he replied. “And I hardly turned up out of nowhere. I’ve been back for nearly a fortnight now. I’m working at the Magic Box.”

“And Buffy wouldn’t want you to stake him, Xander,” added Dawn. She frowned. “I guess I don’t, either.”

Spike relaxed a little. He’d not been sure of her.

Xander scowled. He’d got used to having his hide saved by the women his upbringing had taught him he needed to protect; first Buffy, then Dawn, then Willow as her powers emerged, Anya, even Tara. He was okay with that, or resigned to it, at worst, even if he did occasionally wish for his moment in the sun. But being saved by something you loathed – that was different. Especially when, as it turned out, you were the only person who didn’t know they were even in town. And they were working for your ex-fiancée, with whom they had already spent more naked time than you wanted to know about.

Spike understood Xander’s expression. He’d worn it himself a few times, back before Angelus got his soul. As the leader of their little band, the other vampire had liked nothing better than to destroy William in order to show up his own superiority. Angelus, Darla and Drusilla were a tight-knit group into which he’d never really fitted. It had been a moment similar to this that had led Spike to visit his sister.

So this is empathy, he mused.

Flushing with shame, he offered the young man a half smile. “Dunno if it makes you feel any better, but it was Dawn I was saving. I’d’ve left you to be maimed or eaten.”

Xander looked up. It did help a little. “You too,” he muttered before he turned to lead Dawn home.

“You’re welcome,” Spike called after him. Maybe those souvenirs would find a home with Bob the Builder after all.

***

Meanwhile, in a greenish-grey pool in a container on the docks, something began to stir.