Chapter 6: Odd Couples
Buffy flopped down on the couch with a sigh. Wesley had just left with Drusilla in tow, and the Slayer had to admit that she was happy to have the ex-vampire off her hands. Not that the last couple days had been bad, but Drusilla had definitely required more work than Buffy was accustomed to.
At least she’d had Willow and Tara to give her a hand. Drusilla had seemed to form an instantaneous bond with the two witches, especially Tara, and Buffy was immensely grateful for the blonde witch’s patience and sweet spirit. Drusilla had done so well, in fact, that they’d ended up having a girls’ night. The three of them had introduced the ex-vampire to the joys of Ben and Jerry’s, (and Buffy was really hoping that the woman had a high metabolism since her sweet tooth rivaled the Slayer’s) and teen movies. Drusilla had liked the teen movies too.
In fact, as Spike had said, Drusilla was very nearly normal. She had asked about Spike only once, wanting to know if Buffy had seen him. When the Slayer said she hadn’t, Drusilla had seemed to go off somewhere in her head, muttering something about a “lamb caught in the blackberry patch.” Buffy had no idea what she meant, and she didn’t bother asking.
That was really the extent of the craziness, however. Once in a while, Drusilla would go off and then she’d be back. Sometimes she would spout nonsense and other times she would just-not be there. The only time Drusilla had really wigged Buffy out was when she’d started talking about how her sister would be the key to the doors of the world.
Hello? Buffy didn’t have a sister, as Dru should know, since she’d been living in their house.
Still, as weird as Drusilla could be at times, Buffy was almost sorry to see her leave. At least she’d gone with Wesley quietly enough. The ex-vampire had murmured something about another “brave knight,” and had cackled about messing up someone’s plans, but that had been it.
The Slayer had given her a brief hug, and when Drusilla asked her to look after Spike, Buffy had promised to do so. More to get her out the door without hysterics than for any other reason.
Wesley had pulled Buffy to the side before they’d left, letting her know that the lawyers didn’t seem to know where Drusilla was, nor did they seem intent on finding her again. Which was definitely a relief.
And speaking of Wesley, Buffy wondered when the heck he turned into a real person. The Slayer almost believed that he might be capable of looking after Drusilla until they figured out what to do with her.
Buffy sighed. She supposed she needed to get out there and patrol. She had let things slip the last few nights on account of Dru.
While she was at it, Buffy figured she might as well check on Spike.
At least Giles was happy. He’d gotten enough information from Drusilla to have him researching the spell that brought her back for the rest of the summer. Giles was in Watcher heaven.
Too bad his Slayer wasn’t.
Buffy was hurting for some attention of the male kind, truthfully. Not that she’d ever had a boyfriend over the summer months before. Not since before she’d become the Slayer anyway. The summer days seemed to stretch endlessly on, however, leaving Buffy very much at loose ends.
She hated to even think it, but Buffy was dying for a good apocalypse.
Even slaying wasn’t that exciting lately. Sunnydale was definitely both vamp and demon-lite ever since they’d stopped Adam and shut down the Initiative. Give it a little time, and Buffy was certain that the undead population would be back up to normal levels, but for right now it was Boring City.
There was only one demon left to bother…
Buffy stopped in front of the crypt’s door with the insane urge to knock. It made no sense. Spike was an evil vampire. One did not perform the courtesy of knocking on evil vampires’ doors. It was a law or something.
The Slayer finally decided to compromise by not flinging the door open with a resounding crash. There was only the sound of squeaky hinges and a little thump as it hit the wall. “Spike?”
No answer. Buffy frowned. Her vamp-sense was tingling, so she knew he was somewhere nearby. “Spike? Come on, I know you’re here.”
“Go away.” Spike’s voice had a definite snarly quality.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Geez, Spike. Bad moody much?”
“Yeah, well, you watch the love of your life ride off into the sunset and see how much you like it,” he replied, not sounding at all sorry.
As he came into the dim light of the candles, Buffy could see a new bruise on his cheek. “What happened to you?” she demanded, before she could remind herself that she didn’t care.
“Got jumped by a pack of vamps, if you must know,” Spike replied snidely. “They’re dust now.”
Buffy wrinkled her nose, not pleased. “You couldn’t have saved them for someone whose job it is to kill them?”
“Not when they were tryin’ to off me first, no,” Spike returned sharply. His words were slightly slurred, and Buffy sniffed the air.
“You’ve been drinking,” she accused.
“So what?” Spike replied. “Not like anybody needs me for anythin’.”
Now the vampire was just feeling sorry for himself, causing Buffy to roll her eyes expressively. “You could have stopped by to see her before she left for L.A., you know.”
“She didn’t want to see me,” Spike replied glumly. “Besides, I thought I wasn’t welcome.”
They had moved rapidly back to the snide part of the conversation, and Buffy snapped back, “Mom said you could both stay, Spike. Don’t be going all broody on me.”
“I do not brood!” Spike was yelling now, and it felt good. After the events of the last few days fighting with the Slayer put him back on even ground. “Your precious Angel is the one who broods.”
“He’s not mine!” Buffy shot back hotly. “Why do you have to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Be such a jerk when I was just trying to be nice?”
“Since when are you nice?”
“Since your girlfriend asked me to look after you!”
Silence fell over the crypt. The old enemies regarded each other warily for a moment, each not quite willing to admit that their relationship had changed at a fundamental level. Of course, that didn’t change the fact that it had. “Well, thanks for stopping by,” Spike said grudgingly, sounding almost polite.
Buffy shifted her weight, wondering what “looking after Spike” entailed. Wondering why she even cared. If Xander or the others found out about her promise, she’d never hear the end of it. With uncharacteristic abandonment, Buffy suddenly decided that she didn’t care what her friends thought. They were all wrapped up in their respective significant others. If she wanted to spend her time haunting cemeteries with an undead bleached menace that was her problem.
“Do you want to finish patrol with me?”
Spike’s eyebrow went up. He wasn’t actually that drunk, although he had been drinking. Which was odd, since he could have sworn that Buffy had just asked him to go out on patrol with her. “Are you serious?”
She shrugged. “I’m bored.”
Spike frowned, remembering his promise to Dru. He’d sworn to look after the Slayer’s mum-and the sister that she didn’t have. “Yeah, why not?” he replied. “Let’s go.”
~~~~~
Wesley allowed Drusilla to precede him into his apartment. “I, uh, thought you might want to take the bed,” he began awkwardly. “I can sleep on the couch until-well, until we get things settled.”
Drusilla looked around the apartment, feeling lost. She was lost without Spike, which meant it was true penance. It wasn’t real penance unless it hurt. The priests had always been very clear about that.
“Would you like some tea?”
Wesley’s tentative question broke her train of thought, and Drusilla glanced over at him, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. The ex-Watcher looked nervous, uncomfortable. “I don’t bite.”
It was the sly tone as much as the words that caused him to smile, almost unwillingly. “No, I don’t suppose you do,” Wesley replied, relaxing slightly. “Drusilla-” He stopped, unsure of how to say what he wanted. “I realize that this is probably uncomfortable for you, and I am sorry for that.”
She looked away again, her eyes unfocused. “It can’t be helped.”
“No,” Wesley agreed. “Would you? Like some tea, I mean.”
She smiled at him then, and Wesley found himself reflecting on her beauty, in spite of his best intentions. “That would be lovely.”
~~~~~
“Did they make it in okay?” Angel asked Cordelia anxiously when she put down the phone.
She raised an eyebrow. “No, actually that was Wesley calling from the hospital. They were in a five car pile-up on the interstate.” At the look on the vampire’s face, Cordelia rolled her eyes. “Yes, Angel, they’re fine. So can you stop brooding now?”
“Maybe I should go see her,” he suggested, ignoring her suggestion. “I could help her settle in.”
Cordelia stared at him as though he’d grown another head. “Or you could set her off again, and with no Spike to calm her down, Wesley would probably end up staking you. Forget it, Angel.”
Angel sat on her couch, his shoulders slumped, the very picture of dejection. “I don’t understand,” he said plaintively. “Surely Dru’s over her fear of me by now.”
“It’s been three days since the last time you saw her,” Cordelia replied. “I don’t think that’s long enough. Besides, Angel, Wesley’s got everything under control. What you need to concentrate on is finding a new place so you’re not living in my apartment any longer. Wes is only going to put up with a house guest for so long, and then it’s going to be my turn.”
While Cordelia didn’t look terribly happy about having Drusilla as a guest, she did like the idea of Angel getting out of her apartment. Hopefully once that happened, they could convince Drusilla that Angel was harmless, and then foist her off on the vampire.
If he wanted to take responsibility for her so badly, then they would let him.
“I’ve been looking,” Angel protested. “I just haven’t found the right place yet.”
Cordelia stifled a sigh, since that was the whole reason they had been using her apartment in the first place. Angel was the pickiest vampire she’d ever met. “Fine, Angel, but you’d better find something quick, because otherwise you’re going to have a mutiny on your hands.”
~~~~~
“We have to get her back.” Now Lilah Morgan didn’t usually make obscenely obvious comments like that, but she could be excused in this instance. After all, the Senior Partners breathing down one’s neck did have a tendency to induce nervous twitching.
Lindsay gave her a dirty look. “No shit, Lilah,” he muttered. “Look, we know she’s back in L.A.”
Lilah was feeling distinctly panicky. “What good does that do us, Lindsay, when Angel has her?”
The lawyer frowned. “Maybe we can work this to our advantage,” he said, trying to placate her enough so that he could actually think. “If she’s around Angel, it might-“
“What?” Lilah argued. “Drusilla might do what? We were trying to raise Darla for a reason. This is your fault.”
“My fault?” Lindsay didn’t like being blamed for things any more than anyone else did. “How is this my fault?”
“You’re the one that finished the ritual,” Lilah pointed out. “It has to be your fault.”
Lindsay glared at her. “If I hadn’t finished the ritual, nothing would have happened.”
“Which also would have been your fault,” Lilah replied smugly. “Trust me, Lindsay, it’s always going to be your fault.”
He gave her a patently fake smile. “Trust me, Lilah, if I go down for this, I’m going to make sure you come with me.” Lindsay was trying to figure out how they could make good on this mess. Getting the wrong woman back was bad enough, but having lost her was even worse. Of course, the guard who had fallen asleep had been disciplined for dereliction of duty, but that didn’t do much for retrieving Drusilla.
They knew that she’d gone to Sunnydale, which was troubling. The last thing they needed was to get the Slayer involved. Drusilla was back in Los Angeles now, and she wasn’t staying with Angel, which was interesting. Lindsay wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, and he didn’t know if it boded well or ill for them.
“We have to get her back,” Lilah repeated.
A smile blossomed on Lindsay’s face. “Maybe,” he said, thinking about their options. “Then again, maybe not.”
~~~~~
Unfortunately, even using Spike for bait wasn’t bringing out the evil. “I am so bored.”
“Why aren’t you home or with your mates?” Spike asked.
Buffy sighed. “For your information, my ‘mates’ are probably doing the couple thing tonight.”
“An’ you don’t have Captain Cardboard to act as second part of a couple.”
Buffy shot him a dirty look. “Why do you always have to do that?”
“Do what?”
“Be rude.”
“I’m evil.”
“You aren’t rude to Drusilla,” Buffy pointed out reasonably.
Spike frowned. “I love her.”
There wasn’t an argument Buffy could make to that. They walked along in silence for a while, and it was very nearly comfortable. In a strange way. “Slayer?”
“What?”
“Dru told me somethin’. Made me promise to look after your mum.” Spike glanced over at Buffy, trying to determine how she was taking his comment.
For her part, Buffy wasn’t too surprised. “Yeah, what did she tell you?”
“She said your mum was ill.”
“She’s not sick, Spike. Mom’s fine.” There wasn’t any room in Buffy’s tone for argument, so Spike decided to let it go with a sigh. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried anyway. Then, a moment later, Buffy asked, “How often is she right about this kind of thing?”
“More often than chance would indicate,” Spike replied. “Why’d you promise her to check in on me?”
“To get her to leave with Wes without making a huge fuss,” Buffy admitted. “But-“
“But what?” The Slayer shook her head, unwilling to say it. “But what, Slayer?” Spike pressed.
“You were nice,” she finally said. “I wanted to know if it was a fluke.”
“Dru’s nice to me,” he pointed out reasonably. “Only makes sense I’d be nice back, even if I wasn’t in love with her.”
“She dumped you,” Buffy replied.
Spike frowned, kicking at a stone on the ground. “Well, yeah.”
There was another long silence. Buffy decided that while she didn’t like Spike, it was nice to have company for patrol. And she had promised to look after him. “You wanna come with me tomorrow night?”
Spike thought of all the ways he could wind the Slayer up, which was always fun, and a lot more interesting than spending night after night alone in his crypt or dodging demons that wanted to kill him. “Alright.”
Both of them squashed the next thought that entered their heads. It was definitely not a date.