Part Seven: Trouble On This Island
The first day back following prom, Buffy skipped into first block with a grin on her face while humming “Monday Monday” under her breath. She greeted a bemused Willow with a cheery nod but otherwise ignored the stares she was attracting.
Willow stared at her for a moment before breaking into a grin. “So, I take it you two had fun after prom, eh?”
Buffy shrugged. “What makes you say that?”
“The fact that I called your house last night around nine and you still weren’t home. I had to convince your mom to not go prowling the town.”
At that, Buffy winced. “I got the big scold when I got home.”
“When did you get home?”
“About a quarter till two last night,” she admitted sheepishly.
“Buffy!”
“We…lost track of time.”
Willow’s eyes narrowed. “Well, obviously. Doing what, I wonder?”
“We actually did a lot of…stuff. Lots of patrols. Watched a movie or two. Oh, and sparring—and he’s really good at that because he likes it when I hit him and doesn’t expect me to hold back.”
“Your boyfriend is so weird.”
Buffy wisely decided to refrain from adding that fighting with her turned Spike on like nobody’s business. “He also prepped me on Marcus Aurelius. So homeworky stuff was done.” She shrugged again, doing her best to look as casual as possible. “It was nice. We haven’t had an ‘us’ day in a while. With all things Faith quiet right now and Graduation coming closer… It was wonderful. Just what I needed, really. A real day off.”
Willow cleared her throat.
“All right. A weekend off.”
And yeah, a good part of that weekend had been spent in bed. But Buffy figured that much went without say.
“Mom threatened to ground me, of course,” Buffy continued. “Says I’m getting too reckless where Spike is concerned.”
Willow frowned and bit her lip.
“What. You don’t agree with her, do you?”
“Well, not at first. But you’ve been spending a lot of time with him. He’s distracting you.”
“He’s helping me, Will. Big diff. Look into it.”
Willow brought her hands up in defense. “Whoa. Calm down. I’m just making an observation. Remember, I like Spike. I’ve forgiven the entire ‘trying to kill us multiple times’ and the ever important ‘bottle-in-face’ incident because I know he makes you happy. But remember the last time you got too wound up in your boyfriend? He turned evil.”
“Spike is already evil. He can’t turn much more evil.”
“Well, technically he can, but…” She shook her head and forced herself back on track. “That’s not the point and you know it. I’m not saying that Spike’s going to pull an Angelus and try to kill us. I’m saying that you might be focused a little too much on—well, you—to pay attention to what’s going on.”
“I’m not. I’m really not.”
“Buffy—”
“Look. I took a weekend. All right? And hey, we’re all still here.” Buffy scowled. “It’d be different if we’d heard anything from the Mayor or Faith. We haven’t. It’s been all on the side of extremely quiet for a long time. And until Giles and Wesley crack what this Ascension is, how the hell am I supposed to plan to stop it? I’ve still done my job, haven’t I? Took care of the hellhounds with a big smile on my face.” She paused, considered, and plowed onward. “And besides, suppose the Ascension is the big it. Don’t I deserve a little—”
Willow held up a hand. “All right, all right. I get you.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah. I just…it’s been too long, you know? Since we heard anything.” Her friend looked down, her brow furrowing. “The hellhounds were something, but they weren’t Mayor-related. I’d like to hear something Mayor-related. But you’re right. You stopped them—”
“Spike and I stopped them. He helps me, Wills. He—”
“I gotcha. I’m just… I can’t shake the wiggy feeling that the longer things stay this quiet, the louder the big boom is gonna be, you know?”
“I don’t like silences any more than the next slayer, but until we figure out what to expect…”
Willow shook her head. “It’s not just the silences, Buffy. It’s this. I don’t like this. Big booms are loud and scary, a-and they always make me scream and then the people in the movie theater get angry with me. I’m thinking an-Ascension boom might make me, you know, sound an alarm.”
Buffy offered a sympathetic smile and gave her friend’s shoulder a pat. “We’ll be fine.”
“We will? ‘Cause dying… I’ve heard it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. A-and if it’s true that only the good die young, I’m gonna take up smoking a-and staying out past curfew. And you know that test in physics? I’ll—”
“Go and ace?”
“You mock my plan.”
“It’s an excellent plan,” Buffy replied. “You know what happened the last time you thought being good and reliable constituted a major bad, right?”
There was a sigh. Time past differently on the Hellmouth, but that didn’t mean anyone would soon forget how vamp-Willow had nearly killed everyone at the Bronze. “Really don’t have to remind me,” the redhead muttered.
“Good thing.”
*~*~*
She was still singing as she made her way to the library for the usual bout of after-school training. Giles had some teacher conference to attend, and Wesley felt rather uncomfortable loitering around the library when Giles was not around, thus she had the wing to herself.
Which was good, because she was going to take up some room. The weekend of playtime was over. And it was good. The sooner they got past the Ascension, the better. With as perfect as things were going, she feared something of the massively bad nature striking in a colossal way. The two days with Spike had given her such energy, such reassurance, it was nearly impossible to ignore what loomed around the corner.
If trouble was coming, and of that Buffy had no doubt, she wanted to be fully prepared. There was simply too much to lose. More than anything she had faced in the past. This wasn’t a vampire’s evil plan—it was something larger. She could take nothing for granted, especially when she had so much to lose.
Her friends. Her family. Her Spike.
Spike.
Buffy set up a modest training module and placed her stereo on the library counter before popping in the latest mixed CD that Xander had burned for her. The air immediately exploded with a favorite oldie.
“Nice,” she murmured appreciatively. Then got to work.
As any normal, healthy, and perpetually cursed teenage girl, Buffy had gone through the obligatory obsession with Dirty Dancing and likewise developed a fondness for the music. It was a fondness shared with Xander, though she had been sworn to secrecy on penalty of a very upset best friend. Therefore, his choices reflected their mutual love of Dirty Dancing with a few other songs interspersed.
“I can really move,” Buffy sang absently, throwing herself into the heat of her workout, attacking the various props and displays she had set about the foyer with grace and precision. “Do you love me? I’m in the groove. Ah, do you love me? Do you love me? Now that I can da-a-a-a-ance! Watch me now, hey!”
One by one, the barriers around her came down. There was nothing quite like a good workout. It was the only activity that granted total solitude—not that she wasn’t thrilled to be around her friends, but lately, the pressure she had been receiving was too much to handle. Yes, she knew everyone’s intentions were about as good as she could have expected, she felt the weight of their collective expectation anytime she entered a room. Which made Spike the only person she could stand to be around for any length of time. He was the only one not constantly pressuring her. The only one not always reminding her of what had to be done. He grew worried on occasion, of course, but ultimately trusted that she knew what she was doing. And it was nice. It was one of the reasons the weekend had been so superb.
It was strange to think her healthiest relationship of all time was with a soulless vampire. Strange, but no less true.
She loved this. Loved everything about this.
“I can mash-potato. Mash-potato! And I can do the twist. Do the twist! Tell me baby, tell me baby! Do you like it like this? Like it like this! Tell me!”
“All right, love, you’re asking for it.”
The next thing she knew, the music was off and Buffy was on her back across the nearest table with a very aroused vampire caught between her legs. He clamped her wrists to the wooden surface and pressed against her hard, rubbing his erection against her center. The look on his face was dangerous and his grin was nothing pure wicked—and once the surprise faded, Buffy found that, yeah, she liked this. A lot.
“There’s only so much a bloke can take,” he informed her before demanding her mouth in a hot, hungry kiss.
Buffy moaned, battling his invasive tongue with her own and seizing his arms as she thrust her hips hard against him. He had the power to turn her into jelly so effortlessly, and he never put it to waste. Except he wasn’t supposed to be here, and though it took a few seconds to remember or care, she was able to get a hold of herself long enough to push him away.
“Spike, what are you doing here?” His name came out a heady gasp, and she arched off the table as he trailed kisses down her throat. “What…are you…”
“Missed you,” he replied, stepping back.
Swoon. “I was only gone for a few hours.”
“House’s big and lonely without you.”
“Your house is not big.”
He shrugged, sliding his hands into his duster pockets. “Bloke gets spoiled. Got used to you being there. So I thought I’d come by. You mind?”
“No. Don’t mind at all.”
She hopped off the table to close the space between them and brought his mouth down to hers in a hot kiss just to show him how much she didn’t mind. And as with them, the kiss quickly spiraled out of control, to the point where she was debating finding the darkest corner in the place to make her feelings on the subject clear. From the way he was grinding against her, hard and ready to be convinced, Spike was on the same page. And they might have stayed there had a very familiar voice not chosen that moment to interrupt.
“What is—oh good lord!”
Buffy pulled back with a world-full of reluctance and peeked at Giles and Wesley over Spike’s shoulder. She pouted. “Busted.”
Spike chuckled and treated her lips to one last nibble. “Hold that thought,” he murmured, then turned and greeted the watchers with a wave. “’Lo all.”
There was a long pause.
“Rupert and I were about to engage in a little fencing,” Wesley explained, his voice overly cheery. “I do hope that we’re not interrupting.”
“Nope!” Buffy replied. She was at Spike’s side the next minute, gesturing that he should close his duster to hide his erection. “We were…just…ummm…”
“No need to add a caption to the diagram,” Giles retorted, brows arched. “I believe we could see what you were doing.”
“It wasn’t what it looked like.”
“Really? Because it looked like you were three seconds from getting defiled in my library by a soulless killer.”
She winced. Okay, so yeah, it was what it had looked like. She glanced at Spike for help, a bit worried how he’d react to the hostility Giles had not yet learned to hide behind a poker face.
But Spike seemed thoroughly unbothered. He shrugged and dragged a pack of cigarettes. “Bloke’s not wrong, you know.”
Ugh. Whose side was he on?
“And it’s my fault,” he continued, nodding at Giles as he lit up. “I ambushed her while she was working out. She didn’t know I was comin’ by.”
Giles’s expression remained stony. “And why are you here, one wonders?”
“Please, put out that cigarette,” Wesley said. “I do not believe smoking is tolerated on school grounds.”
Spike favored him with a snicker, then blew out a long stream of smoke. “I’m here,” he said to Giles, “’cause I wanna be.”
Buffy held up a hand before her Watcher could retort. “Just lay off. Whatever it is. He’s here, I’m here, we’re all here. Deal with it.” She sighed. “So, you all are fencing? We can just leave and—”
“Actually,” Giles said, and though he didn’t look particularly happy, it seemed he wouldn’t press the issue, “I was hoping to catch you before you left.”
“Oh?”
“I don’t suppose you got a look at the newspaper this morning?”
No. She hadn’t. She had been too sleepy from her late return home and had employed the time she usually dedicated to breakfast to catch a few more winks.
Giles and Wesley exchanged a grave glance.
“There’s been a murder,” the latter explained. “Brutally stabbed. A visiting professor by the name of Wirth. He was found late last night.”
“There’s nothing there that bellows motive,” Giles observed. “But we thought it better if you were aware of it.”
Neither one of them would say it, but the word murder told Buffy everything she needed to know. Faith had struck again. “A professor of what?” Buffy asked hoarsely.
“Geology,” Wesley replied. “Like Rupert said, there is no reason why we should automatically—”
“Unless he knew something,” Giles added. “A visiting professor with no known enemies, no family in the area…I simply fear that it might be that there was an issue of importance that he was guarding.”
“Something to do with the Ascension?”
“Like I said, Buffy, we don’t—”
She shook her head. “I know.”
Spike frowned. “You’re sure? You don’t know anythin’ about this other than what these blokes have told you. It could’ve been—”
Buffy met his eyes. “It’s Faith. She’s been quiet for far too long. And you know Faith…she’s not the quiet type. And a professor of geology—visiting, no less—this close to graduation? My slayer tinglies are all over this one. The Mayor’s trying to hide. I say we go seek.”
“Ah.” Wesley beamed. “By attempting to keep a valuable clue from us, the Mayor may have inadvertently led us right to it.”
Buffy and Spike gave him a virtually identical narrowed glance. “What page are you on, Wes?” Buffy asked, quirking a small grin. “’Cause we already got there.”
Wesley glanced down, flustered. “Yes, well. You will go tonight. Look over his apartment. Anything of note, report back here.”
“I just love it when you take charge, you man, you.”
“Getting a bit big for your britches there, aren’t you?” Spike added, eyes glimmering.
There was a confused pause. “Uh, we…was that a yes? I have trouble keeping track.”
Buffy grinned. “I’ll go.”
“We’ll go,” Spike reaffirmed, taking her hand.
“We’ll go.”
Giles nodded. Evidently, that much amounted to some relief. “Be careful. If Faith should show up…”
“Faith won’t get anywhere near her,” Spike said coldly.
“I don’t think she’ll show. Been there, killed that. She’s not much for follow-up.” Buffy nodded toward Spike. “And even if she does, I have my own slayer-slayer along with, so no big. All with the protection.”
Spike broke into an adoring dimpled smile and brushed a kiss over her cheek. “Gotta admire your spunk, sweetheart,” he told her.
“I’m all with the spunk.”
“Nonetheless,” Giles argued, clearing his throat, “I want you to be careful.”
She rolled her eyes to conceal her gratitude at his concern. “Well,” she said, “I’m not gonna go around with a big sign over my head that says, ‘Faith Attack Here,’ if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m worried about you, Buffy. I always am.”
“Join the bloody club,” Spike grumbled, earning a look of fleeting respect from the Watchers. “I think we have hats.”
Giles smiled grimly and nodded. “Well, I believe Willow was going to come here after Math Club, and Xander thought he might drop in as well. Do you think it wiser to go now or later?”
“Later,” Buffy answered. “No sun, safer. We could get there all right now, but I don’t exactly want a crispy boyfriend.”
“Thanks ever so.”
“And I think it safe to say that there’s a better chance that Faith’ll show up tonight rather than this second.”
Giles frowned and stepped forward. “Do you think it wise to purposefully seek her out? That could be exactly what she wants. And, no offense”—he glanced to Spike—“but she is well aware that you have a vampire with a history of killing slayers on your side. Faith might be erratic, but she is neither naïve nor gullible. If she wants to cross you, she will. And she will be prepared.”
“I know.”
Spike tightened his grip on her hand. “Do you?” He ignored her hurt glance and pressed, “As much as I hate to admit it, pet, Rupert is right. If we should run into the other Chosen bird tonight, it’ll be because she wants us to.”
“Then we’ll take her out tonight. Get her out of the Mayor’s running for the Ascension ensemble.”
Giles shook his head. “Buffy—”
“Look. I know what I’m doing. All right? And hey, not even going alone.” She nodded at Spike again. “I just know that waiting for her to come to us isn’t doing anything but get professors murdered. I’d really prefer to nix that part and go to her.” The faces around her were somber. “Guys, she’s not even gonna show. It’s not her style. I just wanna be prepared.”
The air grew thick.
“I’ll be with her,” Spike reiterated. “My word, Watcher. She won’t get hurt.”
“I can look after myself,” Buffy argued.
“Yeah. But I got your back. That bitch tries anything and she goes in the ground.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Giles replied with a nod. “Report back here immediately. Wesley and I will be researching the Ascension until such time.” He looked back to Buffy, eyes filled with concern. “Be careful, Buffy.”
A weak smile fluttered across her lips. “Hey—it’s me, right?”
Spike favored her with a skeptical glance.
“Yes,” Giles agreed dryly. “That’s why I worry.”