Chapter 4

“There is nothing you can say, Angel. You should have told me Spike was back! How could you keep this from me?”

Buffy and Angel had been shouting at each other for quite awhile, but were getting nowhere. The Slayer’s voice was beginning to feel raw, and her throat hurt from holding back the tears that wanted to flow. Her hysterical laughter had passed into frustration, to anger and then sadness that Angel hadn’t told her that Spike was back.

Angel just stared back at Buffy. He opened his mouth to give another angry retort back, but then closed it with no words coming out. He sighed heavily, and then turned and flopped down onto the couch. He glanced up at Buffy, and then patted the seat next to him. Buffy, in defiance, sat in the seat opposite the couch instead. She continued to glare at him.

He again sighed heavily, and bowed his head to try and collect his thoughts. After a moment, he met her steady gaze. “Buffy, I am sorry. You are right. I really have no excuse. The only thing I can say is that I wanted you to have some peace for awhile. And I had planned on telling you in time, when Fred figures out exactly how Spike returned, and what we can do about it. I mean, he isn’t in corporeal form now, but Fred’s working on it…and I just wanted some answers first.”

He shrugged at her. “I guess I didn’t really know what to tell you…or how to. I really am sorry.” There really was nothing else he could say.

Buffy continued to glare at him. With his final apology, she frowned. “You didn’t know what to say? How about, ‘Buffy, Spike is alive…sort of. He’s here in LA.’”

Angel bowed his head again, and stared at the toes of his boots. Buffy exhaled in frustration, and sunk further into the chair. “Why didn’t Spike tell me himself?” She wondered aloud.

“Oh, I can answer that. He’s tied here by some force. He can’t leave. For some reason he seems to be connected to me, and to LA. Trust me, I’m not happy about it.”

Buffy snorted at that, and then giggled. Angel glanced up at her mirth, and smiled himself. “I bet you aren’t,” Buffy said. When her giggles had ceased, she stood. “So, if he’s here, where is he?”

“Oh, uh…of course. You’ll want to see him. I think he’s in the lab with Fred. He likes to hang out there. I’ll take you.” He opened the door for her and led her towards the stairs. Neither noticed that Harmony was not at her desk.

Harmony had decided to go on the offensive, and not just sit back and watch the festivities. As soon as the voices had quieted behind Angel’s door, she had rushed up the stairs towards the lab. “Spikey?” She cried, as she pushed through the door.

There wasn’t much action going on this afternoon in the lab. Knox was out to lunch, and Fred was busy reading something behind her desk. Harmony saw Spike perched on the end of the desk. He was trying to pick up a pencil, his face contorted in concentration. “Bugger!” He swore at Harmony’s interruption, the pencil never budging from the flat surface of the desk. He scowled at her. “What are you doing in here?”

Fred wondered the same thing, but pretended to ignore the both of them, flipping the page in her research book.

“Blondie Bear, I have something to tell you, but you have to promise me something first.” She came and stood before him. He unfolded himself from the desk, standing to tower over her. “I’m not going to promise you anything. Does the poofter know you are out and about?”

“No, I don’t.” Angel stood at the door to the lab, startling the three occupants within. Spike turned to retort some clever witticism, but froze when he saw Buffy standing beside Angel.

“Darn it. Why can’t anything ever go my way?” Harmony pouted, and flounced into a chair opposite Fred’s desk. Fred was frozen in her own chair.

No one spoke as Spike and Buffy stared at each other. Slowly Buffy approached him. The tears were now flowing freely down her face, as she stood in front of him. “Don’t cry, Pet.” Spike went to brush the tears from her face, and frowned as his fingers went right through her, not touching her at all.

“Spike?” she whispered. She tried to touch his face, and found that her fingers passed right through him as well.

Fred spoke up then. “He’s non-corporeal.”

Spike shushed her. “I just need to focus,” he said softly, and then he frowned in concentration, slowly moved his fingers towards Buffy’s face, and softly ran the pads of his fingertips down her cheek, brushing a tear away. “Ah, there.” He whispered, and smiled. Buffy’s smile radiated back to him.

Angel took in the scene, and then mumbled something about how he had work to do, glared at Harmony to follow him, and led her back down to his office. Harmony grumbled the entire way, but neither Spike nor Buffy even noticed. Fred excused herself as well, hoping to get a proper introduction to Buffy at a later time.

“Are you okay?” Buffy asked. Spike smiled, and placed his hands down into his duster pockets. He would never forget the feel of her tears on his fingertips. “Well, it’s been bloody hell, Buffy. Especially being stuck here. But things are looking up now, I’d say!” Buffy sniffed loudly, and smiled back at him. Now that she was here in front of him, she was at a loss for words. “Spike…I…uh…I thought…well, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I saw you burning. Sunnydale is a big fat nothing now because of you. How is it possible that you are here?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, luv. Fred is working on it, I guess. It must have something to do with that bloody Elizabeth Taylor trinket you made me wear.” He was grinning at her when her eyes flashed. “Made you? You practically grabbed it right out of my hands!”

“Ah, yes, but I was the champion. You said so yourself.” He missed the banter between them.

“Yes. Well, it turns out I was right. You were…..are…a champion, Spike.” She was serious, and he knew it. It touched him more than she would ever know. He nodded at her. “So, what’s been up with you? Heard you were in Europe.”

“Yeah. Willow and Xander and Andrew and I have been staying at Giles’ estate. Willow and Giles are working with the coven to help the new slayers, and Faith and Wood, who are in Cleveland at another Hellmouth.”

“Another one?” He rolled his eyes. Buffy smiled. “Yes, well, I guess a slayer’s work is never done.”

“Your work should be. You’ve more than earned it, Buffy. You were the leader, the true champion. Those bloody pillocks didn’t know what they were doing when they mutinied. I should have killed them all then.” Buffy snorted, remembering the entire affair. “Yes, well, if you had, then we never would have won in the end.”

He frowned. “I guess that’s true.” He was quiet for a moment as he peered at her. “Europe agrees with you. You look really good.” She beamed at him again.

“I love it there. It’s the first vacation I’ve ever had.” She told him then of the horses, and the greenery, and the rain, and the peace and relaxation she had found in Giles’ home. His heart pricked a bit when he heard her say the Watcher’s name, and saw the look on her face. Some things never changed, he saw. She never looked like that when she said his name, he’d wager.

“So now what?” he asked after she finished telling him of her summer.

“Now, we find answers. We need to get you all touchy feely again. Um, that didn’t come out right. Corporeal. We need to get you back to normal.”

Spike laughed. “I’d like that. Then maybe I can get the hell out of this place.”

“I’ll phone Giles after I talk with Fred. I’m sure he can help us.” Buffy walked towards the door intent on finding Fred. Spike reluctantly followed, mumbling under his breath. “I’m sure Giles will be thrilled.”

“What was that?” Buffy looked over her shoulder at him.

“I said that would be great.” He quirked an eyebrow at her. She looked confused for a moment, then charged down the stairs, intent on her new mission.

* * *

The phone rang early in the morning, waking Giles from his fitful sleep. He groaned, and then rolled over to grab the receiver up from his nightstand. “Hullo?”

“Oh, hey, sorry there Giles. I forgot the time difference thing again.”

Giles rolled onto his back and closed his eyes. “Quite alright, Faith. How is Cleveland?”

“It’s great! We’ve got new slayers coming out of the woodwork here! You’d never believe it. It’s nothing like the old days, that’s for sure.”

Giles smiled, thinking of Faith as a leader of the new troupe. She was in her element as the general. Gone was the insecure, scared slayer that he had first known in Faith. She was needed now, and admired by so many, and if anyone had made amends it was Faith.

Faith continued on the conversation, filling him in on the latest adventures of the Cleveland Hellmouth. Vampire and demon activity was down around the entire globe, and most time was now spent in training the new slayers, organizing them, educating them, and preparing them for when the next evil force made its will known. Evil would always exist, they all knew. It was just gathering steam from its last defeat. And when the time came, Faith had vowed that her team would be ready. She phoned Giles on a regular basis to keep him informed, ask for any research needs they needed, and to also speak with Willow or Buffy.

“How’s B doing? She’s probably still asleep there, huh?”

Giles swallowed and frowned into the phone. “Actually, she’s in LA.”

“LA?” Faith sounded surprised. She knew how happy Buffy was these days. “I figured she’d never leave Europe. All she ever talks about when I call is Europe this, and Europe that and ‘oh the pretty horses’ and ‘Giles and I did this’ and ‘I love retirement’ and crap like that.”

“Yes, well, something came up that needed her attention.”

“Oh, man, I wasn’t even thinking. Is Dawn okay?”

“Oh, yes Faith, it’s nothing like that. You see, when Willow called Wesley last week she found out that Spike is there, in LA.”

“Spike?” Faith didn’t understand. “Giles? Did you bump your head again?”

“No, I did not bump my head again.” He rolled his eyes at the ceiling. “Apparently Spike is back. We don’t really know anything else yet. Buffy went to find out what is going on. I’m sure she’ll let us know soon.”

Faith wondered what was going on herself. “Too bad I have to stay here, I’d love to go get in on the scoop. Keep me informed, would you?”

Giles promised to let her know as soon as he knew anything, and then they rang off.

He stared at the ceiling, lost in thought. He missed her. It had only been a couple of days, but he ached for her. He rolled over on to his stomach, and hugged the pillow to his chest. He knew he should be used to the pain by now, and used to the loneliness, but after the joy of the past few months, it was more difficult than ever to let her go.

He tossed and turned for a bit longer, and then threw the covers off, exasperated. He decided to go for a run. He ignored the rain that pattered down around him, his feet pounding through the woods to the rhythm of his heart.

Chapter 5