"Never was a cornflake girl
Thought that was a good solution
Hangin' with the raisin girls
She's gone to the other side..."
It was much colder at night in the Midwest, Buffy noted as she snugged her cardigan closer to her body. And the days were hotter than she was used to. The ambiance of the town was nice, and she'd managed to land a waitressing job and a place to live within a few days of arriving here in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. How she'd done it was a fluke, really, having more to do with being in the right place at the right time than anything else. *Anything else is right,* she thought to herself as she began to walk along the river. *It was that or sleep at the Y.*
A t 3:30 A.M., downtown Milwaukee was almost completely deserted, except -- a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye. "Who's there?" she called into the darkness. No answer. She shrugged; kept walking as if nothing was wrong. All the while, she waited in anticipation for the attack, her muscles tensed, locked anxiously. A pause, a step, a breath, waiting....
It came swiftly, from a side she didn't expect. Six vampires jumped out of the river, circling her in the blink of an eye, They lashed out, striking her from all sides. Buffy tried to fight back, but it had been almost three weeks since her last real fight. Sure, she worked out every day, but she just wasn't as fast as she'd been at the end of school. One vamp attacked her from behind, hitting her squarely in the back of the head. Cosnciousness wavered, and her last memory was hitting the water before the world went black.
******
"Wake up, pet. Come on now." The voice was vaguely familiar to the dazed Slayer, and somehow she thought she should get away from it, but if he'd just pulled her from the water, then..."Come on, love. Wake up. Can't get you safe if you can't walk."
"Uhmmmm." she moaned. "Ow. Head hurts..."
"I imagine it does, pet. We'll get you some aspirin when we get you inside." the familiar voice sounded concerned. It occurred to Buffy that she'd never heard quite that note in the voice before, but she still couldn't place it. She tried to remember, but the pain in her head was so intense that she blacked out again.
******
"We'll see how brave you are.
We'll see how fast you'll be running.
We'll see how brave you are.
Yes, Anastasia..."
*She looks horrible all passed out like that.* Spike thought as he gently laid her down in his bed. She was soaking wet; soon the blankets and sheets would be too. Spike wondered idly as he began to undress her, how many vampires (besides Angelus, of course, but there was an exception to every rule) how many evil vampires, he amended, had had the pleasure of stripping a slayer?
He grinned as het set to his task. Her shoes, sensible crocheted flats, came off first, then her panty hose. He smiled as he reached under her black miniskirt to remove them. *She's going to kick my ass for this,* he thought. He reached up and unzipped the fly of the cotton skirt, gently tugging the material down her legs, and tossing them in a heap with the shoes and tights. Her t-shirt was next. It was a bit of a struggle, dragging sopping material over the blond head as it lolled side to side like a newborn's, but he managed with a smile on his lips.
He paused as she lay there in her underwear. Her soaking wet hair was beginning to dry in clumps as debris from the river tangled it further. He opened a drawer in his nightstand and pulled out Drusilla's hairbrush.
"Drusilla," he murmured, "won't be needing this anymore." He gently propped her up in his lap and quickly and efficiently brushed the tangles and river droppings from her hair. He'd had lots of practice when Dru was...
Dru. He wasn't going to think about her at all. She was the one who left him, running off into the night and leaving him stranded in the middle of Iowa. Iowa, of all places! With nothing but a note saying that she was coming after him..He sighed as he remembered the long walk to the train station in Des Moines. It had been uneventful; no slayer, no other vampires, no disturbances, no Drusilla.
She'd really been his world. One hundred years plus. For the first decade or so, she'd been Angelus' pet, at his beck and call when Darla wasn't around. When Darla was, though, Dru had been all his.
Spike had fallen in love with her the first time they'd kissed. And, one hundred and thirteen years after Angelus' disappearance, she'd left him. He supposed he should be grateful he'd had her around as long as he had. Mortal couples were lucky to get a few short decades.
The blond cretaure in his arms stirred. He looked down at her. *I could kill her now.* he thought.
******
Buffy woke up with a pounding headache. "Uhhhn," she moaned as she rolled over. Then the scent of hamburger drifted to her nose. She sniffed again. Fries. Oooh...
"Feeling better, pet?" Spike asked as he entered, Burger King bag in hand.
"Spike?!" the Slayer shrieked and scrambled back on the bed, frantically reaching for the stake in her skirt pocket. She discovered, too late, that she was not wearing her skirt. She was not, in fact, wearing anything at all. She pulled the sheets closer around herself. "What do you want?"
The peroxided vampire sat on the edge of the bed and held out the bag. "I hope you're not a vegetarian." Buffy looked at him strangely. "Go on, take it."
The girl warily reached across the bed and took the bag from him. She reached in for a french fry, still peering at Spike. "All right, then. What do I want." he paused. "I want you to stay here. And I want you to get better, and--"
Buffy waved a long fry in the air as she interrupted him. "We had this discussion in Sunnydale, Spike. Mortal enemies, yadda yadda yadda." She poked him with it for emphasis, punctuatuing every word. "What do you really want?"
"Fine, then. I want your help."
The Slayer looked at him incredulously. "You're kidding! What could you possibly need my help for?"
"Dru's come after me. Because of Angelus. I helped you beat him, and you obviously won. She's a bit brassed off at me, and she's followed me here trying to kill me." Buffy thoughtfully munched away and motioned for him to continue."Well, I helped you, you helped me...and you're the only one I can trust."
Buffy choked on her Whopper.
******
"She's convinced she could hold back a Glacier
But she couldn't keep Baby alive
Doubting if there's a woman in there somewhere..."
"So what's in this for me?" Buffy asked as she finished the burger. "You leave me alone permanently?"
"I was thinking, love," Spike started, "that I'd owe you."
Buffy glared at him. "Not like I need another vampire in my life. Owe me what?"
"Well, whom do you want me to kill, pet?" he began. "I imagine you know what I'm capable of."
"I know that Drusilla was the brains of your operation, and that she was a big ho." Buffy growled. "Where are my clothes?"
"In the dryer. I'll go get them." Spike stood and turned toward the door.
"Spike," Buffy said, "Stop acting so whipped." Spike turned around and looked at her, alone on his big bed, wrapped in a white linen sheet. She looked small and frightened, but the fire had begun to return to her eyes. He smiled and thought, not for the first time, that she would make a damned good vampire.
"I owe you one for saving my life tonight. I'll help you get rid of Drusilla. And you won't owe me. Anything." She smiled at him and looked down. "I'm sorry she left you."
"It wasn't your fault, pet." *No,* he thought, *it was mine.* He shrugged and left the room.
******
Half an hour later, a showered, dressed Slayer headed for the door of her mortal enemy's apartment. "I'll stop by after work today."
"What time do you get done?" he asked, looking at the clock on his wall. Ten AM. The sun was out in full force, and Spike was silently thankful for the black construction paper covering his windows.
"Ten o'clock. I'm working a long shift. I thought we could, um, plan....something." She shrugged. "My experience with Angelus could be, ah, helpful."
"Empathy?" Spike smiled. Buffy thought, not for the first time, that he had to have been handsome when he was mortal. Before Angel, she'd always gone for his type: tall, skinny, rebellious. She smiled and shook her head at him before replying.
"No. The bitch stole my boyfriend. I'm gonna kick her ass."
Buffy left his apartment, the sound of Spike's laughter following her down the hall.
******
Buffy had been happy to note that Spike lived a scant block from her place of employment, and as she walked in the door, her boss handed her a paycheck and a pink slip of paper. "Morning, Buffy." he said in passing.
"Want me to cash that for you right away?" asked the bartender.
Buffy handed him the check and smiled grimly. "Thanks, Pete." Fired? Buffy thought back to the previous weekend, when she'd sensed a vampire in her section of the bar, and had followed it outside and staked it. The boss must have seen her slip out. It was a good thing the vamps' wallets never disintegrated, she thought. Her mood turned sour.
******
"I almost ran over an angel
He had a nice big fat cigar
'In a sense,' he said, 'you're alone here,
So if you jump you best jump far...'"
It had been a long day of cleaning and packing her scant belongings into a large duffel bag. Her furnished apartment was empty of her things, and she'd spent a large portion of the day scrubbing floors and washing windows. She wasn't looking forward to visiting Spike, but, it was better than trying to figure out where to go next, and how to get there on thirty-five dollars.
Buffy tried to set her mind to the mission ahead. She'd secretly wanted to kill Drusilla anyway, just because Dru was more malicious, flaunting Angelus at Buffy like a rich kid with a lollipop. She could very nearly hear the vampiress' singsong voice: "You can't have him, la-la-lala-la!"She wondered idly if she could crash at Spike's without gaining decorative puncture wounds in her neck.
A hand tapped her on the shoulder. "Hello, love."
Buffy whirled around, stake in hand. "Don't do that!"
"Dru's coming for me tonight." Spike said. "She left a dead bird in my bathtub."
"A dead bird? In your bathtub?" Buffy rolled her eyes. "Few bricks shy, hey?"
"No shit." Spike paused and looked over at the Slayer. "You do know, she'll use her magic on you. If you try to stop her, I mean."
"So she'll use her bad mojo on me. She's not killing my friends. Call it an upside." Buffy pulled a wicked looking nail file from her purse and began to do her nails as they entered Spike's apartment building.
Spike looked over at the petite blonde. "I was against that, you know."
Buffy continued filing as she spoke. "I imagine you were. Your profile, along with the info we got from Angel before, well...before, said that you were a direct sort of person. You know, fight your enemy instead of toying with them."
"I wasn't keen on Angelus leaving presents in your friends' beds, no." He looked down, a pained expression crossing his face. "He should've just killed you and been done with it."
"He did have an all access pass to my house. He certainly had the opportunity." The unlikely duo stopped in front of Spike's door, and the vampire's and the Slayer's preternatural senses kicked in.
They looked at each other, at the broken door handle, at the scratchmarks in the door knocker. "She's here." Buffy whispered. "Hang on. I have a plan."
Spike looked at her askance. "Fast planning."
"With enemies like you, I have to be." Buffy abruptly threw her right arm around Spike's neck. "Trust me?" she said, pulling a stake from between her breasts with her left hand and wrapping her legs around his waist.
"I think I know what you're getting at, Slayer, And I'm not sure I like it." He was nose-to-nose with the girl, and as she stretched up to kiss him, he said, "Oh, hell..."
******
"Father Lucifer, you never looked so sane,
You always did prefer the drizzle to the rain.
Tell me that you're still in love with that Milkmaid.
How's the Lizzies
How's your Jesus Christ been hanging..."
It was a bruising, passionate kiss, and the two mortal enemies paused for a moment to enjoy it. Spike's lips were soft, for a vampire's, and Buffy took her time in exploring him, reveling in the sheer percieved naughtiness of the whole thing. Whoever thought she would be playing tonsil hockey with Spike of all people -- um, vampires?
The vamp, for his part, was thorougly enjoying himself. It wasn't often that he had nublie mortal girls throwing themselves in his lap with such...abandon. He turned quickly and crushed the Slayer into the wall as she bent her head to nuzzle his neck. Her teeth scraped his jugular vein and he moaned softly.
"Spike," she whispered.
"Yeah, pet?"
"We don't have time for this. In the apartment, now." She commanded.
He held her pinned against the wall a moment longer. "I'm going to remember that kiss, Slayer. I expect you to deliver, later."
"You wish." She smirked at him. "Let's do this thing."
"Hey, you kissed me, little one. You're in no position to argue the point. You're here to help me kill Dru."
"Let's get it over with, then."
Still locked together, the pair burst through the door of his apartment, their mock embrace growing more serious by the minute. A deranged shriek emitted from the shadows as Drusilla launched herself at them, pulling Buffy off of Spike and throwing her to the floor, her holstered stake slipping out of her grasp, even as the vampiress launched herself at her former beau.
"Traitor!" she wailed. "You helped her kill my Angel!" She swiped at him with her right hand, claws drawing blood where they came in contact with milk-white forehead. Spike howled.
Angrily, he swung at Drusilla even as his blood ran into his eyes, clouding his vision. He connected once, twice: puching, then backhanding his enemy viciously in the mouth. She reeled, and came back up swiftly, uppercutting Spike into the wall, dazing him.
From the floor, Buffy swirled her legs, using the momentum to propel herself up, and tripping Drusilla in the process. The female vampire went down in a heap of black petticoats and red silk. Buffy fell to her, punching and kicking as she attempted to pin her adversary.
Stilled finally, for a moment, Drusilla stopped struggling. Buffy looked up, and was locked inside her eyes. The glowing orbs pulled her in deeper, deeper into a trance.
******
"Say you know what you want
You said we were the real thing
So I show you some more
And I learn what black magic can do..."
"Come into my eyes, girl, come into them...yessss....inside me, inside my head, yesss...." Drusilla's voice droned on, thudding blood pounded through Buffy's ears, Drusilla's features shifted....
...to Angel's.
"Buffy...my love..." she said, and bent down and kissed the confused Slayer. "It's been forever."
Buffy nodded numbly, and tears formed in her eyes. "Oh, Angel, I didn't mean it, please, forgive me, please...." Her voice dissolved into a whisper, and her shoulders shook with sobs.
Drusilla pulled her quarry closer, making soft cooing noises. "I know you didn't, it's all right, I'm fine, and we're together...we can be together forever..." The vampire hauled Buffy into a standing position, still hugging her close and whispering in her ear. "Forever, my love...forever..." The pair, Vampire and Slayer, rocked back and forth in place, a slow dance of predator and prey, of lovers lost to one another, of liar and innocent.
Spike came out of his daze enough to see Drusilla kiss Buffy. He was very sure that the Slayer had no idea who Drusilla really was. He'd seen Dru pull this stunt on unsuspecting people, most recently the Watcher. It would have been entertaining if he didn't know that Dru was there to kill him.
Stealthily, Spike crept up behind Drusilla, picking up Buffy's discarded stake, watching Dru mesmerize the girl, watching them kiss. Dru certainly seemed to be enjoying herself. Normally, Spike would be as well, but he didn't fancy being consigned to the very depths of hell. He'd rather look at the sun through a telescope than die by Drusilla's hand.
"Angel, Angel, angelangelangelangel..."Buffy repeated her mantra, swaying in place as Drusilla gently let go of her arms. She reared back to slash at Buffy's throaght just as Spike reached her and turned her around.
She slashed at him again, and he caught her right hand. "Go to hell." she said simply.
"You first." he replied, and sank the stake into her heart.
Drusilla exploded to dust and Buffy immediately was released from her trance. She shook her head, her vision cleared and she looked around for Spike. She realized, belatedly, that she had been caught by Drusilla in some sort of magick or illusion...of Angel. The pain of losing him was still fresh. Buffy held back tears at the though of her Angel, consigned to hell and herself here, helping his immortal child and enemy. The wise thing to do, she thought, would be to stake him and be done with it. Then she looked down.
Spike was weeping. He was bent over his former beau's ashes, head in hands, blood tears streaming down his face, his body wracking with sobs. "It didn't have to be this way, Dru baby, it didn't..."
Buffy turned away from Spike and silently left the apartment, leaving the vampire his life and his misery.
*******
"Building
Tumbling down
Didn't know our love was
So small
Couldn't stand at all..."
The bus station was quiet at two o'clock on this muggy June morning, and as Buffy stared at the destination board, she pondered her destination. She had eight hundred dollars on her. and could go basically anywhere she wanted. She watched as a man began to change the letters on the board, slowly spelling: T-O-R-O-N-T-O via Detroit.
Buffy smiled through her tears and stepped up to the counter for her ticket.
the end...for now