full 3/4 1/2   skin light dark       
 
Because He Needs Me by DreamsofSpike
 
A Cause for Hope
 
<<     >>
 
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

This lovely banner was created for me by the amazing Tamakin84!! Thanks so much, love!!!




Anya and Dawn regarded each other for a moment, equally surprised at each other’s presence in the room.

Not surprisingly, Anya was the first to break the silence.

“So you changed your mind, then?” she asked Buffy as she took a packet of blood – standard hospital issue – from the brown paper bag on the coffee table and headed cautiously closer to the couch, holding it out for Buffy to take it.

“Not exactly,” the Slayer replied flatly, not looking at the vengeance demon or her sister as she spoke.

“Not cold,” Dawn said suddenly, as Buffy took the blood bag from Anya. “Put it in the microwave – 55 seconds on high.”

Buffy turned and looked at her quickly, an expression of surprise on her face, as Anya took the bag back from her and headed for the kitchen without a word.

Dawn shrugged at the unspoken question, replying simply, “Last summer – while you were gone – Spike practically lived here half the time.” She paused, her tone taking on a wistful quality, her eyes softening with tenderness as she looked at Spike again, and added softly, “There’s a lot of little things I still remember.”

Buffy was surprised herself at how easily she accepted that – and she found herself wondering idly why it would have been such a big deal in the first place, had she found out before all this just how close her sister had been to the chipped vampire.

Dawn’s tone did not change, and she did not take her eyes from Spike’s face as she remarked quietly, “So – you weren’t going to tell me.”

Buffy glanced up at her from her spot on the floor, a bit guiltily, before looking down again with a sigh. “Not tonight,” she clarified. “I just – I didn’t want you to see him like this. I knew – it’d be hard. I would have told you in the morning, after I had him all cleaned up and settled and everything – but – if you hadn’t happened to wake up…” Her voice trailed off, as she shrugged again, not quite sure how to finish.

Dawn nodded slowly, looking at her sister thoughtfully. “I get that,” she conceded softly.

There was a moment’s silence between them, each girl lost in her own thoughts, before Buffy spoke again, her voice trembling slightly with a quiet gratitude.

“I’m *glad* you did happen to wake up.”

Before Dawn could respond, Anya reappeared, a large glass of steaming red liquid in her hand. Buffy swallowed back a natural sense of revulsion at the sight of it, giving Anya a questioning look, wondering why she had bypassed the usual choice of a coffee mug for the clear glass which made it all too clear just what was being served to the injured vampire.

Anya shrugged slightly, understanding what Buffy was thinking without her saying a word. “I figured he needed a little more than a mug would hold,” she explained, handing the warm glass to Buffy.

Immediately, Buffy’s disgust melted away in the face of Spike’s obvious need, as she accepted the glass and turned toward the vampire – who had visibly tensed, apparently at the scent of the blood, judging by the odd upward tilt of his head, the way he kept sniffing the air, his eyes wide and disbelieving, as if he could not quite make himself believe that he was actually about to be fed.

“You hungry, Spike?” Dawn asked gently, more for the sake of casual conversation, aimed at making him feel comfortable, than genuinely seeking an answer. She *knew* the answer to that question, beyond all doubt. “We’ve got blood here for you…”

Before she could go on, much to the horror of all three women, Spike had leaned forward, falling from the couch to his knees on the floor, his head bowed low in pleading submission.

Unfortunately, he had no way of seeing what was around him, of knowing what obstacles might be in the way of the gesture that his training in captivity had led him to believe was required of him. Instead of the floor, as he had intended, his face encountered the Slayer’s lap – at which point he scrambled backward, startled, knocking into the coffee table and sending himself into a further panic – not to mention nearly spilling the glass of blood in Buffy’s hand.

Dawn swiftly took the glass from her sister’s hand before it could spill, as Buffy regained her balance, crouching down on the floor between her sister and the cringing, cowering vampire, who was huddled against the couch, not daring to move any further, disoriented and unsure of his surroundings.

“Shhh,” Dawn whispered soothingly, holding out the glass as she dropped to her knees and crawled slowly toward him. “Spike…it’s okay…you don’t have to beg for it, Spike…it’s right here…come here, Spike…”

He hesitated only a moment before starting toward her, his movements halting and uncertain, hanging back slightly as if still expecting to be punished for some nameless mistake – though Buffy could not imagine anything he had done that he might think deserving of punishment.

When he grew close enough to her, Dawn reached out her free hand to close firmly around his, and then rose to her feet. Assisted by Anya, she helped Spike to sit down again on the sofa, and then pressed the warm glass into his trembling free hand.

“Go ahead,” she whispered. “Drink…it’s okay…”

Apparently, that was another command that he was familiar with, because Spike quickly, gratefully raised the glass to his lips, draining it in a matter of seconds, and holding out the empty glass in the vague direction of the girl who had given it to him, his head humbly bowed.

*So fast,* Buffy thought, shaking her head slightly in surprise. *Almost as if – he’s afraid we’re gonna take it away from him…*

She forced herself to take her thoughts from the smoldering anger, ever present in her chest since the moment she had found him, and to focus them on Spike, and what he might need from her in this moment. There would be plenty of time for justice later – and she *would* get justice for Spike, of that she was certain – but for now, she had to focus on helping him get well.

“Do you want more?” Dawn asked softly, taking the glass from him.

He frowned slightly, uncertain.

“More blood? Do you want more, Spike?”

The frown deepened, frustration obvious in his expression, though he made no attempt to respond – he did not understand the question.

“He has to,” Buffy stated quietly, her eyes focused on Spike’s face, her heart breaking at the pitiful struggle clear on his features, to comprehend something that he simply couldn’t, his memories of such simple concepts having been ruthlessly torn from his mind. “He’s starving…he has to need more…”

Anya immediately turned and went back to the kitchen to get more blood, leaving the Summers sisters alone with Spike. Dawn’s eyes narrowed slightly as she sat there on the couch beside him, a contemplative expression on her face.

“What?” Buffy asked her curiously. It was clear that the littlest Summers’ mind was racing with some inkling of an idea.

“I was just thinking – I – I wanna try something…” Dawn replied thoughtfully, as Anya returned to the room with the second glass of blood, this time bypassing Buffy completely and handing the glass to Dawn.

Spike’s free hand – the one that wasn’t clutching Dawn’s for dear life – twitched slightly in his lap with anticipation, but he did not dare so much as to actually reach for the blood that was now in her hand.

“Spike – I have more blood here,” Dawn spoke slowly and clearly, though she was fairly certain he didn’t understand more than one or two of the words. “Do you want more?”

He hesitated, biting his lower lip as a slight frown of concentration furrowed his brow.

Dawn slowly, deliberately placed the glass in his free hand, but still held onto it with her own, holding it down in his lap, not allowing him to raise it to his mouth just yet.

“*More*,” she stated firmly, pressing her hand around his, around the glass. “Do you want more, Spike?”

Buffy held her breath, biting her own lip in anxious anticipation, eyes wide as she waited to see if her sister’s attempt would work – and then felt her heart dance for joy when the vampire slowly, cautiously nodded, as if not quite sure if he had understood what was being asked of him or not.

But he had – he really had!

Dawn’s laugh of joy and relief held an almost musical quality as she released his hand, exulting softly, “Good! Good, Spike! That’s very good! Go ahead, drink it…it’s yours…”

The sightless blue eyes lit up with some emotion that Buffy had been beginning to fear she would never see there again, and his lips quirked just slightly upward in the barest beginnings of a tentative smile, at the simple praise of the young girl.

*God, how long has it been since anyone’s even said a kind word to him?* Buffy wondered, her heart both aching for him and rejoicing for him at the same time.

The second glass of blood was gone as quickly as the first had been, and this time when Dawn asked Spike if he wanted more, he immediately responded with an emphatic nod, much to the immense satisfaction of all three girls.

“Okay,” Anya agreed, a slightly warning note to her voice despite the smile on her face. “But this should be the last one for now. We don’t want to give him too much too fast, or it could end up just coming right back up – and that’s no good for anyone. He won’t get any nourishment from it, and you two will just end up scrubbing blood out of your carpet for hours, so…this should be the last one,” she informed them matter-of-factly. “For now.”

Buffy nodded, a slight grimace of distaste on her face at the thought of the mess that would make, as she agreed, “Just one more.”

When she turned to meet the wide eyes of her little sister, they were shining with a new hope, as she gazed up at her with excitement. “He learned that, Buffy – that quickly! Maybe he can’t remember everything yet – maybe some of it he never will – but – if he could pick that up that quick – then – he’s not stupid, Buffy…he’s not – brain dead. He can learn it all back…”

Buffy nodded slowly, the hope in Dawn’s voice taking root in her heart as she took in the words. She had been secretly wondering if it was possible that Spike would ever recover completely.

He had vampire healing, true, but it seemed that the bullet wound had erased most of his memory, even of the most basic things – and she had no way of knowing if, even when his brain had fully healed, he would have recovered those things, or if the knowledge previously imprinted on his brain would have been lost forever, leaving a sort of blank slate in its place.

“Maybe he won’t remember it,” she echoed softly, thinking it through for herself. “But he can relearn it…”

Dawn nodded slowly, her expression becoming serious as she looked at her friend with a compassion in her eyes that was both sorrowful and hopeful at the same time. Suddenly, she looked up at her sister again, a fire of determination in her sparking blue eyes.

“I want to try to teach him,” she stated firmly.

Buffy hesitated just a moment, concern for her sister coming into play as she thought of all the hard work such an endeavor would require – all the simple, basic concepts, so difficult to describe, that one would have to find a way to explain without the words that so many took for granted – and the emotional toll such a task would take on the teacher, especially one so young, and so close to Spike.

But then – Dawn’s first attempt at teaching Spike had been incredibly successful…

“I only have two days left of school, Buffy – and all my finals are done with,” Dawn continued in her most persuasive voice. “I can do this, Buffy – I know I can!” She paused, her voice trembling slightly with conviction and intense desire as she added, “I *have* to, Buffy – he would do it for me – or you – you *know* he would…”

“Dawn,” Buffy quietly but firmly interrupted her sister’s logical argument, her expression serious, and the younger girl was quiet, an anxious frown on her face.

Buffy’s face suddenly broke into a soft smile, as she pointed out, “I never said you couldn’t.”

Dawn’s brilliant, beaming smile nearly took over her face, as she exulted, “*Yes*!” She turned to Spike, declaring in an excited voice which she kept as soft as she could manage, not wanting to startle him since he could not possibly understand the reasons for her agitation, “You’re gonna get better, Spike! Between all that blood you just drank, and me and Buffy taking care of you – you’re gonna be yourself again, Spike – I promise…”

*And if you’re not,* Buffy added to herself darkly, allowing herself to think about the possibility that Dawn could not bring herself to think about, *I’m going to track down the person who did this – no matter where they try to go – and I’m going to make them pay for doing this to you – for taking you from me…*

As she took the last glass from Anya’s hand and passed it to her sister, the thought crossed her mind, with a cold, grim smile.

*Who am I kidding? – I’m *so* gonna do that anyway…they’re not gonna get away with this, Spike…I’m going to make them pay for hurting you…*
 
<<     >>