A man had ordered a large arrangement of red and white roses shaped in a heart. The requested arrangement had been prepared, but no one showed up to Sunnydale Floral to pick it up. The manager was almost ready to close shop when a man entered.
He was very blonde and rather pale for one living in California, but judging by his clothes, it was likely that he ran with a strange crowd. Despite the heat in the air, the man wore two shirts and a leather trench coat. "Flowers for Summers, Buffy," the man said in a clipped tone identifying him as British.
The florist brought the rose heart from the back refrigerator. "Here it is, sir." He hesitated, " The card, sir. Did we do it right? Is this what you wanted?"
Checking the card briefly, the man nodded, "Perfect." He shook hands with the florist before paying in cash. Then he walked out into the darkening evening, leaving the florist to wonder at the coolness of his customer's handshake.
Spike walked the hall, greeting those who saw him. The ladies in the hallway shared knowing smiles. The recognized him as the only person whom they had ever seen entering room 151. He certainly cut a dashing romantic figure, but that was expected, considering the beauty of the woman who lived in the room. He came nearly every night, and they took pains not to gossip about him and Miss Summers.
Closing the door securely behind him, Spike addressed the sole occupant of the room, "Well, pet, here I am. Brought you some flowers."
Buffy didn't respond because she was sleeping peacefully. Her long golden hair lay spread on the pillow. The hard lines in her face were less visible while she slept. The anger, hurt, and suffering which had so long been part of her seemed to be erased by her rest. All that remained was the fresh beauty, embodying the pure goodness of life.
He slipped a hand under the blanket to gently cradle her warm one in his cold one. Then he spoke softly as if not to wake her. "It's me, luv. I'll bet you never expected it to be you and me together. You never planned on me being the one here holding your hand." He caressed the soft locks of hair that fell across her temple.
"Everything must have been so hard for you. First your mum went when those vampire salesmen got into the house."
Adjusting the photos on a nearby table, he looked at the one of Willow and Buffy smiling, "Red and her witch friend died when the zombies broke through their warding spell. Your pal Xander wasn't the same after that, which was probably why he didn't struggle when he and the demon-girl got eaten by the Allinete demons in the sewer."
"Then it's not like I have anyone left either. My sire bought it along with Cordelia and the other Watcher when Faith burned down their building. Just too bad she was trapped inside too." Spike patted her hand, "You staked Harmony, but that was understandable since she had feed the witch's rat to a cat. And Dru . . . well, I'll wait to talk about her."
He chuckled, "Now your Watcher, he was one lucky bloke. Giles lived almost a whole year after the Oscuro demons started eliminating the whole Watcher's Council. They couldn't find him for a while since he had been fired! Then they got him. On the bright side, they got that helpful Rayne pillock too, so he wasn't alone."
"You didn't think I'd be end up playing Angel, did you? I fight that evil so fast that lots still think I'm the Slayer as they die. Since the Initiative put that chip in me, I had to help you." Spike frowned, "The Initiative. Always comes back to them. They caught Dru during a visit and sliced her up real good to see how her head worked. Your ex, Riley, had an unfortunate accident in the sewers. Coincidentally in the same spot Professor Walsh had tried to do you in once."
"Of course, the last straw was when Oz showed. He wasn't happy to find out the witch was dead. Not playing with a full deck is more like it. He stopped locking himself up at night. You shouldn't have felt bad about him. The boy was begging the Initiative to bag him."
"And they did." Spike rolled his eyes. "So you decided we had to storm the Initiative to free him. The two of us against all of them. I knew Wolvie was never gonna make it out, but we tried anyway. We got in there, and he was already dead. That had to be tough, Slayer." He paused for a second, "In exchange, we trashed the joint, painted the town red, and all that bloody jazz."
Spike wrapped both his hands around hers. "And here we are. You never thought it would be me. You might have thought it was gonna be Angel, or Riley, or even that Oz."
Her slumber continued uninterrupted. "You could never tell how I felt about you, Slayer. You aren't like any other slayer I ever knew and killed. All that fire and spirit bottled up in one tiny package. You were the biggest challenge I ever faced. Neither of us could ever back down. Nothing you faced made you give up. Not with all your friends dying, not with anything. You are the only thing left in this life that is even worth the bother. My best enemy."
"So that brings us back to where we are now. You didn't believe we would be in this position. It's just you and me now." Her breathing continued at its slow steady pace. "Do you know how helpless you are when you sleep? I remember being helpless, and you spared my life. One turn deserves another. I guess that's why I can't take advantage of your weakness."
"But you've been very careless about me though. That's the best way to tell who's gonna make it and whose gonna be a meal. I was careless about you once. The time I spent in that bleeding wheelchair taught me my lesson. But you didn't learn. And you were careless about me. Look where it got you."
"Which puts us back here, the two of us. All we have now is each other; all the rules have been broken. Me, being here, in this room, with you, is a direct violation of every code in the evil vampire handbook. My own clan should stake me for this, and the Watcher's Council should arrest you for your part. But there are no other vampires in Sunnydale, my clan is all dead, and there is not a Watcher left alive. The demons did their job quite well."
"The Initiative, however, was not as thorough. When we took out their main power generator, all their high-tech gadgets and what-not stopped." He took a deep unneeded breath, "You never thought it would be me." He planted a small peck on her forehead. "As I said, you are my biggest challenge. And I, your mortal enemy, am going to wait for you to wake up. See, I even have it on a card." Spike unfolded the card from the flowers. '"I will wait forever."' He kissed her warm hand. "You know I will. I will wait right here for you to wake up."
The only answer he received was the humming of the machines in the room that kept the body of Buffy Summers alive.
"We think it's her husband. He was the one that brought her in. She had this huge cut on her neck and had lost lots of blood. This guy was all sad when the doctors told him she would never regain consciousness."
"I saw her chart. She's been here for a few months. That guy visits almost every day."
"Now that is devotion. He is sure she will wake, though the doctors told him its not possible. Yet he continues to come."
The nurses smiled sadly to each other, wondering at the man and the woman in the coma in room 151, never knowing it was a meeting of enemies. The slayer in the coma, being watched by the man who put her there.
Where you surprised? Comments(It was my first stand alone)