Chapter 77 - Stages

On Wednesday, Buffy went to class. It was refreshing to do something so horribly normal. No vampires or Watchers or slaying. She almost enjoyed listening to the lectures.

However, afterward, she knew she had to go by the Magic Box.

Willow was behind the counter when she came in, and Oz was leaning casually against it, talking to her. There weren’t any customers in the store.

They both looked up as the bell announced her presence.

“Buffy!” Willow beamed. “You’re all okay! I mean, not that I thought you wouldn’t be, and Giles already said you were fine, but yay!”

“What did Giles say?”

“Just that you were fine. The Council reported it to him or something.”

“Is he here?”

“Yeah.” Willow looked towards the back room. “But he hasn’t come out or said much. So how did you do it?” she asked eagerly.

Buffy actually found herself smiling.

“There was this fire, right? So I grabbed a stick.” She picked up a candle from the display and held it out like a torch. “And I’m going through the house looking for the vampire. And when I see him, he’s all, ‘Gonna have to do better than that,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ So I took my hairspray—” she mimed holding a can up to the candle “—and whoosh!” Buffy opened her hand and shot it forward. “Instant fiery pillar of vampire death.”

“Wow.”

“I like it,” Oz said. “It’s not subtle.”

“Sort of subtle,” Willow said. “Cause who would see it coming?”

“True.” He considered. “The fire itself isn’t subtle, but the execution is understated.”

“Yeah,” Buffy said. “This could be my new favorite way to dust. Although, it’s sort of a disadvantage because you have to use two hands.”

“It was quite brilliant.”

They all turned at the voice. Giles was standing at the back of the store.

“Hello, Buffy.”

“Hi.”

“May I perhaps speak to you for a moment?” He glanced at Willow and Oz. “Privately?”

Buffy crossed her arms, staying in place. “I’m not going back there with you. I might need witnesses.”

“Very well,” he said stiffly. He looked resigned as he began. “I am sorry. You must believe that. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have a choice. If I hadn’t done it, it would have been done a different way. I never meant to—to—”

“Betray me?”

“Hurt you,” Giles finished.

“That sort of seemed to be the point of it to me.”

“Emotionally hurt you.”

“Well, guess what? You did. And look! Physically hurt, too.” Buffy pulled her jacket off. Maybe it was a low blow, but she didn’t care. She wanted Giles to feel guilty.

He looked at her arm. “Is that from last night?”

“No.”

“From the vampire that bit you earlier?”

“Yeah.”

“How were you able to kill it?”

She gave Giles a tight smile. “My dangerous boyfriend.”

Buffy sighed. While trying to convince Spike not to kill Giles, she had realized how truly angry with Giles she wasn’t. She recognized to some extent that this hadn’t been Giles’s idea, that he had only played the part he was instructed to. But that didn’t stop her from feeling hurt.

Buffy pulled her jacket back up. “Look. I’m the Slayer. And you’re my Watcher. But we’re not friends. Maybe we can be again someday, but not right now.”

He looked down, but slowly nodded.

“I understand that you’re upset,” Giles said. “But I hope that, in time, I—I can make it up to you. Whatever I can do. I—I’ve been working on your prophecy,” he added.

He looked slightly hopeful.

“Oh,” Buffy said. “Good.”

There was a short silence, and he stepped forward a bit.

“May I ask how you thought to defeat the vampire? The Council gave me a report. You really were quite ingenious.”

Buffy considered. “I don’t know. I’m not going to be disqualified, am I?”

Giles frowned. “I don’t know what you mean. But whatever you tell me, it will be in confidence.”

What the heck? Throw Giles a bone. A small one.

“Faith told me how. I had a dream, and she just told me.”

“That’s extraordinary.”

“Yeah, ghost girl was useful for once.”

He took off his glasses. “You’re sure it simply didn’t come to you in sleep?”

“Definitely sure. There’s no way I could have thought of something as twisted as that.”

-----“A lighter and a spray can.” Faith licked her lips.

It took Buffy a moment to realize what she meant. “Where do you come up with this stuff?”

“Saw it in a backroom bar fight. Poker game got out of hand. This dude just grabs the cooking spray and fries the guy who beat him up. The guy was lighting his cigarette.”-----

While that had slightly taken the shine off her new vamp killing trick, Giles’s next words removed it completely.

“Come to think of it, I believe she nearly did something similar to Wesley.”

Buffy made a face. “Lovely.”

“Has Faith said anything else to you?”

“Yeah. She said, ‘Angelus killed me, stay away from vampires, the Council are bastards.’ Can I go now?”

There was another awkward silence.

“Very well.”

Buffy turned, smiling slightly. “See you around, Willow. Oz.”

Willow smiled and he nodded.

As the shop door closed behind her, Giles sank down in a chair. He glanced up at Willow. “I suppose you are angry with me as well?”

Her brow wrinkled, and she paused before answering. “On the one hand, I know it’s a Watcher thing and you didn’t have a choice. But on the other hand, how could you do that?” She waved her arms. “I get why Buffy’s angry. I would be, too. But it’s between you and her.”

“I see.”

“Oh, but one more thing.” Willow raised her brows and lifted a finger, an over bubbly smile on her face. “If there’s ever some witchy test like that you do to me, I’ll have to find a way to get ya. Okie-dokie?”

“There isn’t, but understood.”

Willow smiled. “Just so we’re clear.”

-----

Buffy went back to the apartment and found Spike stretched out halfway on the bed, leaning against propped up pillows.

“Were you going to sleep?” she asked.

“Thinkin’ about a nap.”

Buffy got on the opposite side of the bed, sitting back and sticking her feet out.

“Have a good day?” Spike said.

“I did, actually.”

“Stronger yet?”

“Nope.”

It was quiet for a minute, and then Buffy turned to look at him.

“I used to have this fantasy—”

“Sounds good so far.” Spike leered.

“This daydream,” she continued, “about things I would do with my boyfriend. One of them was wrestling.”

“Wrestling?” He looked disbelieving.

“You know, play wrestling. I wouldn’t actually be able to beat him, of course, but we’d roll around on the floor and sometimes he’d let me win. It’d be fun.”

“We never did that.”

“Yeah, well, we weren’t really together. And then we were actually fighting every day, so not much point. And of course I was as strong as you.”

Spike suddenly shoved her, sending her toppling to the side.

“Oops,” he said innocently.

And then it was on.

Buffy pounced, tackling him. She pressed him back against the pillows, straddling him as she tried to get hold of his hands.

He wedged a knee between their bodies and pushed her backwards. She fell onto the mattress and shrieked as he started tickling her. Buffy wiggled and kicked, finally managing to roll out from underneath him. She started to crawl away, but hands on her feet flipped her over and started pulling her back to the head of the bed.

Spike had a wicked grin on his face as he reeled her in. “Goin’ somewhere, love?”

“Right here.” Buffy grabbed a pillow, hitting him over the head with it.

She planted a foot on his chest, pushing back, and managed to get her other leg away from him. She swung the pillow again, but he caught it and leapt at her, pinning her near the edge of the bed. Some part of her mind registered that he never touched her upper arms.

Buffy used her legs to try and flip them over. He let her after a moment, and she ended up on top of him in the middle of the bed. Then he smirked, grabbing her close and rolling. He was on top once again, but only for an instant.

Spike kept going, and Buffy had the sensation of dropping as he rolled them right over the edge. He purposefully landed on bottom, easily catching her against his chest. Buffy started to push herself up, but Spike locked his arms around her, keeping her firmly in place.

“No fair,” she complained. “The one on top is the winner.”

Spike tightened his grip on her. “Sometimes you have to fight dirty.”

“I know,” she said mischievously.

Her hands crept down his sides and tickled, causing his grip to loosen. She giggled and twisted off him, but he was after her in a second. Spike caught her and she tried to tickle him again, but he took her wrists and planted them against the floor on either side of her head. Buffy twisted, and he let her flip them again.

They rolled several more times on the rug. He laughed and smiled just as much as she did as they tumbled together over the floor.

Spike finally paused when they were at the edge of the room and he had her pinned next to the wall. Buffy writhed, but he didn’t immediately let her up. Spike smirked as he looked down at her.

“Do you know what cute noises you make when you’re tryin’ to get away?”

She thrashed against him. “Do not.”

“Do so.”

Buffy continued to struggle, trying in vain not to make any noise.

He grinned and then his grasp lessened. Buffy pushed him to the side, straddling him as she caught his arms and pushed them to the carpet.

Spike went still beneath her. “Looks like you won, love.”

“Of course. The girlfriend always wins.”

“So now what?”

A sly smile graced her lips as she moved his arms above his head and stretched herself out over him. “The winner gets to have sex with the loser. That’s how it goes, right?”

“Seems like a good suggestion, if I recall.”

Buffy slid her hands down his arms as she rubbed herself against him. She felt him hardening beneath her. Giggling, she reached for his belt buckle.

-----
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Her strength was back by the next day. She and Spike made plans to go patrolling, but Buffy spent most of her day at home. She was less enthusiastic about doing her homework than she had been about going to her classes the day before, but she managed to slog through it.

She was also having dinner with her mother, which she hadn’t done in several days. Joyce had not so subtly asked about Spike again. Once her mother had gotten over the shock of him being a vampire, she had latched on to the fact that he had been around for over one hundred years, and was now determined to get some historical details out of him.

Buffy actually felt a bit sorry for Spike, but promised that she would bring him around soon.

-----

It was near closing time. There hadn’t been a customer in over half an hour. At least some people realized that they shouldn’t be out after dark in this town. Giles had sometimes wondered if people who frequented magic shops were more aware of what came out at night.

He turned to put his book back on the shelf and was surprised to find someone right behind him. He couldn’t help the slight gasp that escaped his lips.

“I’m sorry, I thought I was quite alone. I didn’t hear the bell.”

“Didn’t you?”

Giles placed him. Buffy’s significant other.

“The bell did ring,” he said.

“Of course,” Giles said, suddenly unsure why he felt uncomfortable.

The other man smiled and walked away, meandering through the store.

“Can I, er, help you find something?”

“Yeah. Buffy wants to do the place up.”

“Place?”

“My place.” He picked up a crystal and set it back down. Then he picked up a statue, looking bored. “Not sure if she’d like this.” He carelessly flipped it around.

“That’s—rather expensive,” Giles said, resisting the urge to go take the statue away from him.

“Is it?”

He’d managed to pick up one of the most expensive items in the store.

“Oh, well. Sorta ugly.” He set it back down, moving around the shelves again. “Candles. She wanted some candles.”

“Ah. Well, we have plenty of candles. What type?”

“Somethin’ that will burn a while. How about some of those pillar ones?”

“All of our non-magical candles are on the far wall, there,” Giles said, gesturing.

He made no movement, just looked at the wall, and then pointedly at Giles.

Resisting the urge to mutter about bloody rude customers, Giles crossed the store himself. “How many?” he asked curtly.

“Four or five.”

Giles took five candles off the shelf. He set them down on the counter and went behind the register.

“Will that be all?”

He nodded. “Thanks, mate,” he said agreeably.

Giles momentarily wondered if he had imagined the malice. He rang up the candles and began putting them in a bag. “Buffy, er, told me how you saved her life.”

“Really. Cause she told me how you risked hers.”

“That’s—Watchers must— That isn’t any of your business.”

He slowly leaned on the countertop. “See, here’s the thing. It is my business. Anything that hurts her automatically becomes my business.”

“She wasn’t hurt.”

“Good for you.”

“Is that some sort of threat?”

He said nothing, but just tilted his head to the side. His gaze never wavered.

“Your total is $16.42,” Giles said brusquely. He took the twenty from the outstretched hand and put the change on the counter.

“Count it back.”

“What?”

“Don’t stores do that anymore?” He smirked, before his face became severe. “Count. It back.”

There was no reason that he should feel so intimidated by the other man. Yet Giles couldn’t help the feeling of unease that settled over him.

But he found himself counting the change back.

“I know what you’re thinking.”

“I sincerely doubt it,” Giles said.

He grinned, putting the money in his pocket and picking up the bag. “You’re thinkin’ about tellin’ Buffy about this. If she were speakin’ to you, that is.”

This was exactly the sort of thing he had tried to make a point about to Buffy. “I’m thinking that it’s a shame Buffy became involved with someone who shows her one face and shows everyone else the other.”

To Giles’s immense surprise, he laughed. “Believe me, she’s seen all my faces.”

Giles bit back a remark about Buffy perhaps having poor judgment. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave now. The store is closing.”

He could find no rational explanation for the supreme relief he felt when he was once again alone.

-----

Buffy was patrolling with Spike later that night when he suddenly pulled her to the side and pointed up ahead. There were three vamps walking down the street—the first they’d seen tonight.

“Those are Angelus’ minions,” he said.

“How can you tell?”

“I saw them once.”

Buffy squinted. “All vamps look the same.”

Spike sort of glared at her.

“Well, not you, obviously.”

He turned back around, and they waited until the vampires were nearer. Then they stepped out onto the street.

“So,” Buffy said. “Who knows something about Angelus?”

One vampire stepped forward. “I don’t know anything,” he said cockily.

Spike staked him before he knew what was happening. “Not much use then,” he said. “Who else doesn’t know anything?” he challenged.

The vampire toward the rear took off running down the street. Buffy caught hold of the remaining one and twisted his arm back when he took a swing at her. Spike grabbed him on the other side and pushed him up against a tree. Buffy bent his arm around the tree while Spike pinned the vampire with his body.

“So,” Spike said casually, “what do you know?”

The vampire growled and struggled, but he couldn’t get leverage with both of them on him.

“Guess he’s not useful, either,” Buffy commented.

“Guess not.” Spike pushed the stake against the vampire’s chest.

“What do you want to know?” the vampire exclaimed.

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Spike said.

“If—if I tell you, you’ll let me go, right?”

He glanced at Buffy, a look passing between them. “Yeah, I will.”

“Angelus—he, he left town.”

Spike pressed the stake in harder. “Gonna have to do better than that.”

“Where did he go?” Buffy asked.

“I don’t know.”

Spike jabbed his elbow into the vampire’s throat.

He made choking noise as he tried to say something.

“I know vampires don’t have to breathe,” Buffy said, “but I don’t think he can talk when you’re doing that.”

Spike let up slightly.

“I really don’t know!” the vampire sputtered as Spike forced his chin up. “You think he tells us anything?”

“What do you know, mate? Cause I’m losing patience.”

“When did he leave?” Buffy said.

“Just over a week ago.”

“Is he coming back?”

“Of course.”

“Drusilla?” Spike asked evenly.

“He took her with him. Drusilla—” he cut off.

“What about Dru?”

“The few days after…Darla, she wasn’t right. She’d stare out off the porch, ramble on for hours. Angelus wasn’t around a lot. He’d leave early to kill and not come back until dawn. One night he came back and she had a fire going in the middle of the floor. She was throwing all of Darla’s dresses into it, singing that she was sending them to her. He shouted at her and tore one out of her hands, saying it was Darla’s favorite. Angelus smacked her and she started screaming. She wouldn’t stop after that, started wailing and rambling on.”

“What did she say?”

“She—she was almost incoherent—ranting about the fire in the yard, and grandmother and the sun, and the moon and the stars. She just kept screaming and screaming. Then suddenly it was dead quiet. I thought maybe Angelus had just done her in. But a minute later, he comes out to the hall. He had the strangest look on his face—completely calm. He told us to go steal him a car. They left that night.”

The vampire was quiet, obviously finished.

“Is that it?” Spike asked.

“Yeah. So…you’re gonna let me go, right?”

Spike stepped back. “Yeah.”

Buffy staked the vampire.

“But she won’t,” he said with a smirk. Spike looked at Buffy. “Not very sporting, pet.”

“Oh, please. Like you were going to let him just go back and tell on us.” She was silent for a moment. “So what do you think all that means?”

“He’s up to something.”

“But what? He needs something? He knows something?”

Spike sighed. “I have no idea.”

-----

Buffy had felt obligated to go by the Magic Box the next night and tell Giles about Angelus.

“Hey,” Willow said when she came in.

“Hey. Is Giles here?”

“He’s in the back.”

Buffy nodded. “I guess I need to talk to him.”

She noticed Xander sitting at the big table with Anya. “Hey, Xander.” She started to walk back to the training room, but paused. “You know, we should all go to the Bronze sometime. Do something.”

Then she went into the back, shutting the door behind her.

“What’s with the Buffster?”

“She doesn’t like hanging around here anymore,” Anya said. “Giles took her powers away and tried to feed her to a vampire.”

“He did not!” Willow said. “It was…a test. And it’s a long story.”

“No, it’s not. I just told it. Anyway, it’s no wonder I’d never actually heard of that. I never talked to Watchers.”

“How is it that I miss these things?” Xander asked.

“You have a job,” Anya said. “A nice job that isn’t here and that pays a lot.”

“So who’s going to fill me in?”

Willow pulled up a chair.
.
.
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Buffy told Giles what the vampire had said about Angelus leaving town, and then she turned to leave.

“Buffy,” he started hesitantly. “I wanted to— Could I talk to you about something personal?”

They were alone, but she didn’t particularly want to talk to him about anything personal.

“What?” she said testily, refusing to sit down on the couch with him.

“Will—was it?—came in yesterday.”

Will? Oh, right.

“And?”

“He—he was rather rude, and, well, hostile.”

“What did he do?” Buffy asked, feeling a bit angered that Spike had done something to Giles after he’d promised not to.

Giles looked like he was trying to figure out what to say. “He purchased some candles,” he finally said.

Buffy had noticed the candles on their dresser. “Is that it?” she said.

“He made me get them and count his change back.”

“Gee, it sort of sounds like he bought some candles.”

“Buffy, it wasn’t what he did, but how he did it. His entire manner was nothing but threatening. He implied that it was beneficial to me that you hadn’t gotten hurt.”

“Are you going somewhere with this? Is this the part where you tell me he’s nothing but bad news?”

“I’m merely concerned.”

“Well, you don’t get to be. Is that it?”

“Actually, no.” He gestured to the books spread beside him. “There’s something I do get to be concerned about. I believe I’ve found your prophecy.”

Buffy’s mood shifted. “Oh. So…?”

Giles tapped his pen, glancing down. “Simply translated: The Slayer that is called the latest will live the longest.”

She was silent for a moment. “That’s great, isn’t it? What’s bad about that?”

“Yes, well, nothing inherently. But the prophecy continues, stating that said Slayer will make ‘an unholy alliance, a pact with the dark forces to prolong her life.’”

“Um, so not doing that. No darkness pacts here.”

He turned to look at her. “Buffy, there’s nothing in this book that does not come to pass in some form or another.”

“So? What about free will and all that? I’ll just make sure future me does nothing of the sort.”

Giles was silent.

“Do you have a better suggestion?”

“No,” he admitted. “Though perhaps I should do more research.”

She paused. “I suppose you’ll be telling the Council that I’m the next bad Slayer now.”

“Buffy, despite what you may believe, I do not set out to purposely endanger you. I’m certainly not going to inform the Council.”

“Isn’t it your duty?” she snapped.

“I only did my bloody duty before because they were here and I didn’t have a choice!”

She was taken aback by how upset he looked.

“Okay,” she said quietly.

Giles looked back down.

Buffy shouldered her purse. “Fine. You don’t tell the Council, and I won’t make any demonic bargains.”

-----
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It wasn’t until the next night, when Spike was sinking his teeth into her jugular that it hit her.

Buffy brought her hand up to the back of his head.

As unholy alliances went, she could have done a lot worse.