Fix You by Enigmaticblue

1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 :: 6 :: 7 :: 8 :: 9 :: 10 :: 11 :: 12 :: 13 :: 14 :: 15 :: 16 :: 17 :: 18 :: 19 :: 20 :: 21 :: 22 :: 23 :: 24 :: 25 :: 26 :: 27 :: 28 :: 29 :: 30 :: 31 :: 32 :: 33 :: 34 :: 35 :: 36 :: 37 :: 38 :: 39 :: 40 :: 41 :: 42 :: 43 :: 44 :: 45 :: 46 :: 47 :: 48 :: 49 :: 50 ::

Chapter 39: Double the Trouble

Spike was not happy. When Buffy had told him that they were going after Toth, and that he was not invited, he’d argued vehemently, pointing out that it would be just as dangerous if she got split in two. She’d suggested that having his demon and soul split would likely result in harm to others and to himself; her Slayer half could at least be trusted not to eat people.

It might be true, but he didn’t have to like it.

Spending the evening with Joyce and Dawn was an enjoyable way to pass the time, but he was preoccupied with worry over Buffy.

Joyce noticed his anxiety, of course, as sensitive as she usually was. “I’m sure she’s fine, Spike.” She spoke in a low voice to prevent Dawn from hearing. The girl was entranced by some drivel about a boy band, which was keeping her occupied. He didn’t think he was up to fielding her questions tonight.

“I know.” He mustered a smile, knowing that his worry only fed hers. “When are you goin’ in for the tests?”

Joyce looked startled. “How did you know?”

“Lucky guess,” he admitted. “Knew you’d make sure it happened, an’ I knew you had a doctor’s appointment.”

She nodded. “Rupert is going to go with me.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You an’ Rupert, huh?”

She blushed. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“He’s a friend,” she hissed, casting an anxious look at Dawn. “And they don’t know.”

Spike didn’t need to ask who “they” were. “When are you goin’ to tell them? About the tests an’ the relationship?”

“I don’t know that there is a relationship,” Joyce was quick to say. “And I’ll talk to both of them after the results come back. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t say anything.”

He hated the thought of keeping a secret from Buffy, but he understood why Joyce was asking him to do so. “Yeah, sure.”

When the phone rang, they looked at one another. Joyce was the first to reach for the phone. “Hello?”

Spike picked up Buffy’s voice on the other end easily. “Hey, Mom. Have you seen Giles?”

“No, I thought he was with you.”

“He is. I mean, he was. If he shows up, could you do your best to keep him there?”

Joyce frowned. “Buffy, what’s this about?”

“There was a small incident with Toth,” Buffy hedged. “It’ll be fine, Mom. We’re working on it.”

Joyce’s voice got very suspicious. “What does that have to do with Rupert?”

“He, um, he might have gotten split. In two.” Buffy rushed on. “But I promise we’re going to put him back together. Sorry, Mom. Gotta go. Love you!”

The line went dead, and Joyce put the phone down slowly. “Do you know what she was talking about?”

“Toth’s staff will split a person into their better and worse halves,” Spike replied. “It was why she didn’t want me comin’ along tonight. Dunno what would be so bad about Rupert getting split, though. He’s a tough old—” Spike reconsidered what he was about to say. “—bloke, but don’t think he’d be dangerous.”

Joyce didn’t comment on his change in word choice. “You didn’t know him when he was sixteen.”

Spike raised an eyebrow. “And you did?”

“Has Buffy told you about the band candy?”

He shook his head. “No. What happened?”

“Let’s just say that Rupert wasn’t always so responsible,” Joyce hedged.

Spike had a feeling that this could get very interesting.

~~~~~

“We absolutely must find my other half immediately, Buffy,” Giles insisted. “There’s no telling what damage he—I—might do.”

Buffy barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I know, Giles. Believe me, I know.” She looked at Graham. “How are you doing?”

The soldier still looked a little stunned. Buffy remembered how she’d felt after realizing that vampires and demons were real; Graham was probably feeling much the same after seeing how magic worked with his own eyes. He’d kept his head, though, and he was the one who had killed Toth, so at least they didn’t have to worry about him.

Unfortunately, while Giles wanted to reverse Toth’s magic immediately, Ripper had a completely different idea.

“I’m okay,” he said, his voice steady. “It’s just—” Graham shook his head. “I thought Adam was weird.”

Buffy grinned. “He was. At least magic is sort of natural. Have Willow or one of the others explain it sometime. It’s all natural forces, or something like that.”

“Do you think they’ll be able to find the other one?” Graham asked with a sideways look at Giles.

Buffy shook her head. “I don’t know. They weren’t sure how the locator spell would work with two of them.”

“It will probably locate both of us,” Giles said. “That’s what I would assume, at least. The locator spell focuses in on a person’s essence.”

“Thank you for the lesson, Giles.” Buffy didn’t bother hiding her sarcasm. She’d forgotten how stuffy and pedantic he could be at times. It appeared that she’d been left with tweedy Giles; she hadn’t missed him.

“I’m just saying that perhaps we should wait until the spell is complete,” Giles said.

Buffy turned to glare at him. “Who’s the Slayer here?”

“I am your Watcher,” he reminded her needlessly. “I know what’s best.”

She snorted. “Sure you do. Look, let me handle this, okay?”

“If I let you handle it, there’s no telling whether I’ll be put back together again.”

Buffy stopped in her tracks. “Okay, you know what, Giles? Go home. Wait for me there. You’re not helping.”

“Buffy—”

“Go.” She wasn’t about to argue with him; his words had stung more than she wanted to acknowledge.

He frowned at her, but turned and walked away. Buffy sighed as she watched him go. “Do you still want to help, Graham?”

“Just tell me what you need me to do,” he replied.

She gave him a grateful smile. “You’re doing it.”

~~~~~

“Come on, Anya,” Xander muttered. “Open the door.”

“I’m not talking to you, Xander,” she told him through the door. “You found an apartment without me.”

“I wanted to surprise you!” he protested.

“You should have told me!”

“Can we talk about this inside?” Xander asked. “Please?”

The door opened slowly. “By letting you in, I’m not saying that I forgive you.”

“Fine,” he replied, ready to agree to anything if only she’d talk to him. When she stepped away from the door, Xander followed her inside. “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”

Anya turned to glare at him. “You didn’t even tell me that you were going to get that apartment. It’s like you don’t even care what I think.”

Xander ran his fingers through his hair. “I care. I’ve always cared.”

She sat down on her second hand couch and crossed her arms. “I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t know how to prove that.”

“You could start by being honest with me.”

“How have I not been honest?” Xander demanded.

Anya stared at him. “You’re in love with Buffy.”

His eyes went wide. “What?”

“I know something happens between us,” Anya said. “From what Buffy and Spike have said, I know this doesn’t last, and if it doesn’t, maybe it would be better to end it now.”

Xander shook his head. “No, An. Don’t do this.”

“Why not when you don’t care about me?”

“I do care about you!” he burst out. “I’m moving into the apartment for you! So you can be with me, and we don’t have to worry about my drunk parents fighting all the time! You were the one telling me that I had to move, and I wanted to surprise you. I did it for you!”

Anya stared at him, her eyes wide. “You really mean it?”

“Of course I mean it,” Xander said, lowering his voice. “I don’t know what else to say to prove it to you.”

“I thought you were in love with Buffy,” Anya confessed. “You always put her first, and sometimes you look at her—”

Xander wasn’t often completely honest, even with himself, but he knew that he didn’t have a choice now. “Buffy’s my hero, but you’re the woman I want to be with. I can’t lose you.”

“Really?”

“Really. I love you.” He leaned forward and captured her lips with his. Anya clutched his shirt, pulling him closer. Xander tangled his fingers in her hair, cradling her head with his hands.

She fumbled at the hem of his shirt. “I don’t want to lose you, either,” she confessed.

“You won’t,” he promised. “As soon as I get the keys to the apartment, we’ll go over there. I’ll need your help decorating. I’m no good at that, and you are.”

“I love you.”

That was all Xander needed to know, and all he wanted.

~~~~~

The doorbell rang, and Spike waved Joyce to sit. “I’ll get it.”

Joyce frowned, listening as he pulled the door open. “Rupert. I wondered if you were going to drop by.”

“Is Joyce here?”

“She’s in the living room,” Spike replied.

She rose from the couch to meet him, wondering if Buffy had put him back together again, and if she hadn’t, which Giles had shown up at her door. “Joyce.” His eyes flicked over Dawn, who was watching with wide eyes. “Let’s get out of here.”

She frowned. “And where are we going?”

“My place,” he replied. “Spike can stay with Dawn.”

“Mom?” Dawn asked, looking between the two of them in surprise.

Joyce was forcibly reminded of the evening Buffy had walked in on her kissing Ted; that had not gone well. “Spike, would you take Dawn into the kitchen, please? We could all use some hot cocoa.”

Spike raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t argue. “Come on, Bit.” He put a hand on the girl’s shoulder to steer her into the kitchen. “You can show me where your mum keeps the little marshmallows.”

Joyce rounded on Giles immediately. “What the hell are you thinking?”

“I was thinking we could finally take this to the next level without that annoying berk getting in the way,” he said.

She remembered the expression on his face from the band candy—all too well. Ripper’s attitude had appealed to her teenage self; Joyce had always had a thing for the bad boy. She was a grown woman, however, and her daughter had just been told that she was in a relationship with someone in the most callous way possible.

“I happen to like ‘that annoying berk,’” she shot back. “Have you completely forgotten that we were taking our relationship slow? Or that my daughters didn’t know about it yet?”

“I thought we could move past that,” he replied, sounding sulky. “We’ve got something, Joyce.” Giles stepped closer, and she could smell his aftershave and sweat. To tell the truth, it made her a bit weak in the knees. “You know,” he whispered in her ear. “You could give the two of us a go at once.”

Joyce would never, ever admit it out loud, but the thought was tempting. “I think we should put you back together.” She squelched the small pang of regret. It was no fun being the grownup at times.

He shrugged. “I’ll see you later, then. I’ve got things to do tonight.”

“No, you don’t,” Spike said, entering the living room. “You’re stayin’ right here.”

Giles pushed his chest out belligerently. “Oh, yeah? Why should I?”

“Can’t answer that, but I can tell you why you’re not leavin’,” Spike replied. “I’d hate to hurt you, but I will. So sit down.”

For a moment, Joyce thought that Giles was going to do as he was told, but then he swung at Spike, hitting him with a solid upper-cut.

Dawn let out a frightened squeak from the doorway, and Giles brushed past her, coming close to knocking her over on his way out the door. Spike was up, rubbing his jaw, a split-second later. “Bloody hell!” he burst out. “Nibblet? You alright?”

“I’m good,” she replied.

Spike was out the door a moment later, and Joyce went to put her arm around Dawn, who allowed it, even though the stiffness of her posture said that she wasn’t happy.

It only took a few minutes for Spike to drag Giles inside again by the back of his shirt, his expression showing a grim satisfaction. “Now sit,” he ordered, shoving Giles at the general direction of the couch. “An’ if you try somethin’ like that again, I’ll lay you out.”

“You wouldn’t,” Giles sneered. “You’re too henpecked.”

Spike smirked. “An’ happy for it, with a woman like Buffy, but no. You go ahead an’ try it, an’ I’ll plant one on you.”

“Buffy left us with very specific instructions to keep you here,” Joyce said primly, trying to defuse the tension. “Do you want hot cocoa?”

“Are there little marshmallows?” he asked hopefully, sounding more like the Giles she’d come to be very fond of. He was apparently very easily distracted, and Joyce remembered that he’d been this way while under the influence of the band candy, too.

Joyce sighed. “I think there’s enough for the two of you.” She headed towards the kitchen; it appeared that the question of whether or not Giles was attracted to her had been answered, although it could have come at a better time.

“You didn’t tell me you were dating Buffy’s Watcher!” Dawn said, following her into the kitchen, and clearly outraged.

Joyce closed her eyes and prayed silently for patience. “We’re not dating; we’re friends. Giles only said what he did because of Toth’s spell.” She could hardly believe those words had come out of her mouth. When had magic and demons become commonplace?

Dawn pouted. “You should have told me. It’s not fair that I’m always the last person to know.”

“Frankly, Dawn, it’s really not any of your business that I’m friends with Rupert. Now, you may stay up and drink your cocoa if you can act like an adult. Otherwise, you can go to bed.” Joyce used her best “mom voice.”

The girl looked as sulky as Giles had a moment ago. “Okay.”

“Good.” Joyce took a deep breath. “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t say anything to Buffy about this?”

Dawn brightened immediately. “Buffy doesn’t know?”

“There isn’t anything to know,” Joyce insisted. “But if there were something to know, then no. Buffy doesn’t know, and I want to keep it that way.” At least until she had a chance to break the news herself.

“Okay.”

“Go take Giles’ mug out to him,” Joyce directed, pausing before grabbing the other two mugs. “It could be worse,” she reminded herself. “I don’t know how, but it could always be worse.”

~~~~~

“Can you tell where they are?” Mairead asked anxiously.

Tara nodded. “One is at Giles’ apartment, and the other is at Buffy’s house.” She glanced up. “How are we going to put them back together?”

“Wouldn’t Buffy know?” Willow asked. “Or Spike?”

“Spike stayed with Joyce tonight, so we could ask him when we get there,” Tara replied. “But I don’t know how much he really knows about this thing.”

Mairead shook her head. “That bit shouldn’t be difficult. The natural inclination would be to unite; we can merely facilitate the joining.”

“What do you guys need?” Oz asked from the sidelines.

Willow gave him a grateful smile. “Would you grab my bag? It’s under the bed. I’ll call Mrs. Summers and let her know we’re coming.”

“We can pick up the other Giles on the way,” Tara agreed. “If Oz doesn’t mind driving, it won’t take long.”

“I don’t mind,” Oz called from their bedroom, his sharp ears picking up her comment.

Mairead smirked. “You know,” she began in a whisper, “if I had known that men like that existed…” She trailed off, letting her expression fill in the blanks.

Tara snickered, knowing that her girlfriend was teasing, but they had both commented on Oz’s sweetness more than once. She often wondered what he thought of being in a house with three women, but he kept his feelings to himself.

Willow blushed but confined her reply to a very smug, “I know.”

Tara wondered if Oz had any idea why they started to giggle as soon as he re-entered the room.

~~~~~

Dawn was not happy with the evening’s events. Her mom was dating Giles, who didn’t even like her all that much. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, it was supposed to be a night where she had Joyce and Spike all to herself; that didn’t happen very often.

Instead, her mom was flustered and upset because Giles had let the cat out of the bag, Spike was busy watching him to make sure he didn’t try to leave and get into trouble somewhere, and Dawn was stuck on her own. Again. It really wasn’t fair.

She punctuated the sentence in her journal with a stab of the pen.

Dawn could remember her mom dating Ted, and how he and Buffy hadn’t gotten along at all. She hadn’t thought he was so bad, and he’d made really good food. She had totally been on her sister’s side of things, though, when he’d started coming down on her. They might not always get along, but they were sisters, which meant that no one got to mess with one without incurring the wrath of the other.

Not that Giles would be mean or rude, but he would probably be huffy and ignore her a lot, and he was Buffy’s Watcher, so she would probably be on his side.

It really wasn’t fair.

The quiet knock on the door had her eyes narrowing. “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Bit.” Spike opened the door cautiously. “Can I come in?”

She scrambled off of her stomach to sit up, trying to straighten her clothes. “Yeah.”

“You should be asleep,” he observed with a smile.

Dawn shook her head. “I’m not tired.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit too exciting downstairs to sleep, isn’t it?”

“Have they put him back together yet?”

Spike shrugged. “They’re workin’ on it. The magic circle has to be just so, but Oz an’ your mum are keepin’ an eye on both of them.” There was a glint in his eye that Dawn didn’t understand.

She stared down at the floor. “Did you know about them?”

“Knew they were friends, but nothin’ more than that.” He put an arm around her shoulders. “Give her a break, Bit. Life can get awful lonely sometimes, an’ there’s nothin’ wrong with wanting someone to share it with.”

Dawn looked up at him, betrayed. “She has me! And Buffy.”

“Not the same.” His eyes were very kind. “You just wait. Someday, you’ll have some handsome bloke knockin’ on your door, an’ this will make a whole lot more sense.” Spike flashed her an evil smile. “That is, if I don’t scare him off first.”

“You wouldn’t,” Dawn said matter-of-factly. “Not if he made me happy.”

Spike swallowed. “Yeah. Not if he made you happy. Unless he was a wanker, an’ then I’d chase him off for your own good.”

Dawn rolled her eyes, then leaned back against him. “Spike?”

“Yeah, Dawn?”

“Will you tell me something?”

“If I can.”

“Why is Buffy acting so weird around me lately?”

She felt him draw in a deep breath, and she wondered if he was going to lie to her. Dawn was tired of being lied to. “Buffy’s worried about you.”

That sounded like the truth. “Why?”

“Because she knows that there are bad guys out there who might come after you or your mum knowin’ that she’s the Slayer.”

Dawn hadn’t thought about that before. “Oh.”

He moved so he could see her face, meeting her eyes with an intensity that Dawn had never seen before. “I need you to promise me that you’re goin’ to be careful, Bit. If anythin’ happened to you, it would kill both of us.”

Dawn felt a thrill of fear, and she nodded shakily. “I promise.”

“Good girl.” Spike pulled her into a rough hug. “Best get to bed. You’ve got school tomorrow.”

She hesitated. “Okay, but can I ask you one more thing?”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“Would you stay until I fall asleep?”

Spike smiled. “I’ll stay.”

Dawn didn’t know why, but she felt safest when she was with Spike.

Submit a Review!