Part XII - The Morning After

“Buffy…” he gently whispered her name. When she didn’t show any sign of waking he lightly ran his fingers over her shoulder and down her arm.

She moaned, still half asleep.

“Luv, wake up.” He called out her name. He wondered how someone as strong and powerful as the creature that now slept beside him could look so frail and helpless during slumber.

Buffy refused to wake nuzzling her face against his chest, but instead of feeling the softness of his skin she was surprised by the rough touch of his red shirt. She forced her lids to open to see a fully clothed Spike laying over the covers of her bed. The room was completely dark, so she assumed it was still night.

“What are you doing all dressed?” she asked curiously as she continued to nuzzle against him.

He ignored her question and stood up, moving toward her nightstand from which he picked up a tray and brought it down on the bed in front of her.

“What’s this?” she questioned while he turned on the bedside light. As the small lamp illuminated her room she saw that the tray contained a plate with a sandwich, a cup of orange juice, a box of chocolates and a single red rose.

“I owed you a Spike-Special, remember?” he smiled at her, sitting on the bed.

Buffy couldn’t help the smile that spread over her lips.

“Thank you!” she whispered and leaned forward to give him a light peck on the lips.

“You’re welcome, luv.”

As she was about to bite into the sandwich a gush of wind blew the opaque curtains apart and Buffy was able to see it was daylight. Immediately she dropped the sandwich and sat up.

“What time is it?”

“Eleven.””

“Oh my God, Dawn!”

“Don’t worry, I made her breakfast and she said she was going to buy lunch, I guess she’s kinda tired of my sandwiches.” He smiled at Buffy. But his answer didn’t seem to calm her one bit, if all it appeared to add to her uneasiness.

“What did you tell her?” her tone was a mixture between anxiety and anger as she stood up abruptly.

“What do you mean what did I tell her?” Spike asked completely oblivious to the reasons behind Buffy’s jumpiness.

She inhaled sharply and sighed, closing her eyes before speaking.

“What did you tell her about this-this thing…” she trailed off pointing to the bed and then to him.

Spike grimaced watching her with a questioning expression, but suddenly he noticed the desperation and fear in her eyes and everything became clear. Range took over him and he stood up not caring his sudden movement had caused the glass on the tray to tip over and cover Buffy’s bed with orange juice.

“So now we are back to this being a ‘thing’, is that it?” he hissed between clenched teeth. Not giving her a chance to respond he continued blinded by anger. “Nothing has changed, has it? I’m still just a convenient scratching post that you use when you get a horny itch, is that it?” he shouted waving his arm. He paused for a while, trying hard to control himself as the tears of range and pain threatened to overflow, and then continued with a softer tone. “I asked you, Buffy. I asked you last night. Why…” he choked on the words as the tears ran down his face. “Why didn’t you say something then?”

Buffy’s own eyes where soggy and bright with tears, but she swallowed hard and repeated coldly. “What did you tell her?”

For a second he stood there, staring at her, expecting at any second to turn to dust as he was sure that this time she had ripped his heart from his chest and was clutching it in her powerful hands. But he didn’t, and the throat clenching pain inside him wouldn’t disappear, so he did the only thing he could. He left, slamming the door behind him, vowing to leave Sunnydale and never return.

Buffy wasn’t sure how long she had stood there, frozen in place, after Spike hard stormed out of her room. She felt numb all over, unable to move an inch, insensitive to anything and everything around her, as if she had lost all ability to feel. Gradually, a distant sound became clearer and clearer, until she identified it as being the ringing of her telephone. She willed herself to move in the direction of the sound and slowly picked up the phone. From the other side of the line Willow’s familiar voice was heard.

“Buffy? Where have you been, I’ve been calling you for and hour.” She asked.

“Hum… I was… What’s up, Willow?” Buffy forced the words out of her mouth.

“Anya called from the hospital. Xander will be able to go home in the afternoon.” Willow paused, waiting for a reaction from her friend, but when it never came she continued. “She said the dagger is already at the Magic Shop. Do you want us to pick it up?”

Silence.

“Buffy?”

Silence.

“Buffy?” Willow called out loud enough that it brought the Slayer back to reality.

“Hum…”

“I was saying the dagger-“

“Yeah, I heard. No, I’ll pick it up. But I need a favour. Can you guys come over and sit It. I have to go out.”

“Sure, Tara and I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

After Willow had hung up, Buffy stood there holding the phone in her hand, completely oblivious to the dial tone. She felt like she had just finished speaking to the Wicca when she heard the doorbell ring. She looked at herself and realised that somewhere in her numbness she had dressed into a pair of jeans and a white shirt. Zombie-like she made her way downstairs and opened the door to the two witches.

“Hey, Buffy!” They greeted joyfully in unison.

Buffy simply nodded, picking up her leather jacket and heading for the door.

“Buffy?” Willow called out. She never got an answer as the Slayer walked out.

******************************

She walked awkwardly into the high school as the dagger tucked into the jeans bit into the tender skin of her lower back.

She knocked on the door as she reached the classroom. In a few seconds a middle-aged woman stood in front of her:

“May I help you?”

“Hi. I’m sorry to interrupt. I’m Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers’ older sister and guardian.” She spoke calmly, but inside her heartbeat began to accelerate as she thought of how she would deal with her sister, now that she knew.

“Pleased to meat you. I was wondering why Dawn hadn’t come to class today. Is she sick?” the teacher asked.

“What?” Buffy asked surprised.

“Is she sick?” the older woman repeated.

Thinking quickly on her feet, Buffy lied:

“Yes… hum… She’s been feeling a little under the weather, so I came by… hum… to let you know that she’d be missing classes today.”

“There was no need to come all the way here. You could’ve called.” The older woman smiled.

“Our phone is out.” Buffy explained.

There was an awkward silence, but Buffy quickly broke it:

“Well, I’ll be going now. Goodbye.

“Goodbye.”

*********************************

Buffy nervously fidgeted with the key as she tried to open the door.

“Dawn!” she called out as she walked into her house. “Dawn!”

“Buffy!” Willow appeared coming from the kitchen.

“Where’s Dawn?” Buffy asked anxiously.

“She’s at school.” The Wicca offered.

“No, I’ve been there. She’s gone.” Buffy spoke quickly as she moved between the various compartments of the house in search of her sister. “She must have been too upset.” Buffy thought to herself. “I knew she’d never accept it.”

“Where did she go?” Willow asked as she followed the Slayer.

“I don’t know. If I knew I wouldn’t be looking for her, now would I.” She spat out arrogantly, but seeing her friend’s face she added. “I’m sorry Willow. I’m just worried, that’s all.”

“It’s ok. Well maybe she’s just skipping class… you know she-she’s done it before.” The Wicca stuttered.

Buffy sighed, leaning on the door to her sister’s room. “I think she’s upset about something.”

“Upset about what?”

“Just…” Buffy pondered her words and decided not to tell anything to the witch. “Just sister stuff. We had a fight.” She lied once more.

“Was it big?”

“I don’t know, I really don’t know.”

*************************

Buffy hung up the phone after another unsuccessful attempt at locating her sister.

“She’s not at Angela’s house either. Do you know anyone else?” she turned to the two Wiccas sitting on the couch, who both nodded negatively.

Buffy sighed. She had checked out all of Dawn’s usual hangouts and nothing. She had called all of her friends and also failed to have any clue as to her whereabouts.

“Stay here in case she shows up. I’ll take a walk around town, see if I can find her.”

The two Wiccas nodded once more.

“You’ll find here, I’m sure.” Willow tried to calm her friend.

Buffy didn’t answer and walked out silently.

******************************

Buffy searched her mind for another place where Dawn could be. She realised how little she knew about her own sister. All she knew was that she liked staying at her friends’ house and sometimes walk in the park. Nothing else.

She thought of what Spike might have told her sister and how much it must have hurt her. Buffy always knew that Dawn had a not so secret crush over the vampire. Everyone had noticed it, even Xander. Maybe that was one of the reasons why he disliked Spike so much. Before him, Xander was the one Dawn drooled over. The vampire himself must have been the only one who hadn’t realised it. Or maybe he just chose to ignore it.

The Slayer sighed as she realised what she had to do.

*********************************

Instead of the usual powerful kick, she turned the knob to open the door that lead to Spike’s crypt. Inside there was complete silence and Buffy’s footsteps echoed thunderously through the entire room as she moved towards the lower level of the crypt.

She was surprised to find it completely empty. She looked around, but there was no indication that anyone had ever lived there.

“Spike.” she whispered.

Silence.

“Spike!” she cried out.

Silence.

There was no one there. She climbed up the stairs and made her was out of the crypt. As the door closed, Spike came out of the shadows, where he had been hiding the entire time.

Suddenly the door was kicked open and Spike found himself pressed against the wall, the Slayer’s enraged eyes staring at him.

“What did you tell her?” she spat out venomously.

When she didn’t get an answer, she tightened her grip around his throat and repeated the question. “What. Did you. Tell her?”

Spike flung her across the room as he pushed her away. Buffy landed on the floor but soon enough she was back on her feet.

“Wha, afraid I did some damage? Afraid your lil sis will find out what you really are?” he spoke coldly and arrogantly. “Afraid she’ll learn that the only thing that does it for you is the feel of a cold, dead body pumping into you?”

Buffy stood there, taking it all in. She knew that she had hurt him and he needed to settle the score.

“Afraid she’ll figure out that a normal, warm blooded, human body just doesn’t get you all wet and horny like I do? Afr-“

“She’s gone.” Buffy whispered, her eyes filled with tears.

Spike immediately stopped and with a concerned tone asked.

“How?”

“Whatever you told her made her run away. She’s not at school, I called all of her friends.” She paused to be able to swallow the salty tears. “She’s gone.”

“I didn’t tell her anything.” Spike confessed.

“What?”

“She doesn’t know about… us.”

“But-“

“I woke up before her. I didn’t want her to find out like that. I wanted us to tell her.” Spike struggled with the words as he recalled his fight with the Slayer earlier that morning. He had woken up so hopeful, so strangely happy. “Woke her up, made her breakfast and she left for school. She never even saw me leave your room.”

Buffy looked at him surprised. A dreadful feeling of guilt and regret made her stomach turn as her mind replayed the events that had happen in the past few hours. As she remembered Dawn’s disappearance she shook her head and asked unemotionally:

“Then where is she?”

“I don’t know.” He confessed.

*********************************************

“I don’t understand.” Willow sighed as she looked through her notes.

“What is it honey?” Tara asked spooning a generous amount of rise into an empty plate.

“This translation, it doesn’t make sense ‘an inhuman heart which has possess Slayer blood’? I can’t seem to get it right.”

“You will.” Tara encouraged, caressing Willow’s fiery hair before walking out of the kitchen and into the living room to feed It.

Willow continued scrambling through her notes and the demon language dictionary.

“Why the two verbs if they mean the same thing…” she thought out loud, tapping her pencil on the table. “Do they both refer to the inhuman heart as the subject of the sentence?”

She looked through the dictionary searching for a different meaning for a certain word.

“Gyali… Gyali…” she spoke as her finger searched ran down the page of the dictionary. “Gyali – Present form of the verb to have.” She read “Ok, that would be has.” She rationalized and continued reading “commonly used in scrolls dated from 1000 BC. Prior to this date Gyali also constituted the past tense of the verb…” Willow stopped reading as she came to the realization she had translated the passage incorrectly. She looked horrified at the dictionary, reading it over and over again. There was no doubt about it.

***********************************

“Hey, Buffy any luck?” Tara asked as the opened the door to the tired girl and the familiar vampire.

“No.” she answered bitterly.

“Buffy…” Buffy turned to see Willow staring at her, bright red with tears streaming down her face.

“What?” Buffy panicked.

“I’m so sorry.” The witch whispered. “I was wrong…”

“What is it, Willow?” Tara asked concerned.

“Dawn…” Willow paused to swallow back the tears. “Dawn’s the inhuman heart.”

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