Inside Us All
by Hallucination
Spike closed Giles's door gently. He caught up with
the Scooby Gang, falling into an easy stride next to
Xander, who immediately moved to the other side of
Buffy, leaving her sandwiched between the two of them.
A look Buffy couldn't quite decipher flashed briefly
across Spike's face, but it disappeared so quickly she
wondered if she had imagined it. She walked along
slowly, waiting for Spike to start hurling insults at
her like he always did whenever they were together,
but the peroxide blonde simply kept his gaze to the
ground, seemingly unaware of her presence. He seemed
to be struggling with something. Ok, Spike is
*thinking* instead of trying to piss me off? Something
is definitely up in Vamp Land. Buffy sighed, shifting
her gaze to Xander. He too seemed deep in thought. In
fact he'd been spacing out all night. She wanted to
ask him what happened in the living room with Spike,
but then thought better of it. As if he'd tell her
anything while Spike was there anyway. So the three of
them walked along in silence.
And it was so damn awkward.
Suddenly, Spike's head snapped up. He staggered
backwards with a sharp gasp, traces of panic in his
eyes. Xander immediately jumped to attention,
forgetting to be angry with the blonde vampire.
"Spike, what is it?" he demanded.
Spike spoke softly, trying unsuccessfully to mask his
fear. "The sun is going to rise. I can smell it." He
murmured.
"What?" Xander yelped. " That's impossible!" God, how
long had they been at Giles?
Buffy looked at her watch. She gasped inwardly when
she saw the time. "No," her voice trembled. "Not
impossible." Her mind whirled frantically, grasping at
straws, wondering mindlessly how the hell they were
going to get out of this one. Wake someone up at six
thirty in the morning? *Hi, could you let us in for a
while please? We have a vampire here who'll burn to
death if you don't. * She tried to suppress a
hysterical giggle. No. Even if they did come up with a
plausible explanation, Spike wouldn't be able to leave
until the sun set, and how the hell were they going to
explain that? Any urges of the giggle kind were
quickly replaced by a deep fear in the pit of her
stomach. For once in her life they were in trouble,
and Buffy had no idea what to do.
"How long?" Xander's voice broke into her thoughts.
Buffy and Spike looked at each other solemnly, saying
nothing. They both knew the answer.
Panic bubbled up within Xander, and he resisted the
urge to throttle them. Did they have to get all
mysterious on him NOW? He took a deep, shuddering
breath, trying to calm his shot nerves. "Buffy what do
we do?" he pleaded.
"Um...um...Okay... Spike, we're too far away from Giles's
house to turn back." Buffy instructed firmly, finally
slipping into full Slayer mode. "And we can't just pay
a visit to somebody random. Believe me, that won't end
well. Xander's house is only six minutes from here.
With your natural vampiric speed, you should make it
in less than two. You'll have to make a run for it."
"Wait!" Xander chimed in, removing his trench coat.
"Here. Take my coat. It's long and you can use it to
cover your head."
Spike accepted it with a barely audible "Thank you.",
but his eyes showed that he was truly touched by the
boy's action. He took one last, hard look at Xander
and Buffy.
"Goodbye slayer. Goodbye, Nummy Treat." He whispered.
Then he took off, racing like the wind.
Xander glanced at Buffy. " He's gonna make it, right?"
Buffy avoided Xander's eyes.
She didn't have the heart to tell her best friend that
Spike had less than a minute left.
=======================================================
The rushing wind stung his eyes and burned into the
skin of his face, yet Spike didn't slow down for a
minute. He didn't HAVE a minute, for Christ's sake!
Spike made a sharp turn around the corner, and
narrowly avoided landing in several bags of garbage.
"Stupid bint!" He yelled. " 'Avent you 'eard of trash
cans!" He ran across the road blindly, zigzagging
wildly between cars, causing two to collide and one to
end up on the sidewalk. Tires screeched, horns blared
and drivers cursed loudly, but Spike paid them no
heed. He had worse things to worry about than car
insurance, he had. Xander's house was less than a
minute away. "Nearly there Spike ol' boy." He
muttered. "Come on, come on..." The smell of sunrise was
stronger than ever, the sharp and sour stink making
Spike gag.
He choked back a sob.
Spike quickened his speed and gave it all he got. Soon
he was nothing but a blur whizzing past the trees. But
it was too late. The tip of the sun was just peeking
out into the horizon, but that was all it took to make
his insides start to twist uncomfortably. A prickly
feeling spread all over his skin. Spike ignored it and
continued to run madly, heading straight for Xander's
front door. But the sun showed so sign of giving up
either. Slowly but surely it rose higher into the sky,
and the faint smell of burning hung in the air. Spike
kicked open Xander's door with a growl and flung his
coat on a chair, only to find that Xander had
forgotten to close any of the curtains in the living
room. The sunlight poured in, and Spike's flesh
started to sizzle madly. He yelped when his hand
caught fire, and beat it out on his jeans frantically.
Spike made a mad dash for the door to Xander's
basement and reached it just in time to feel a lick of
fire travel across his entire back. He remained awake
long enough to shut the door with a loud bang and then
collapsed on the floor unconscious.
=======================================================
The first thing Spike's muddled brain registered when
he awoke was that he was in someone's basement...and he
heard voices.
"Xander...have to...doctor...bad shape... not waking up..." A
girl's voice. She sounded...scared. For some reason this
struck Spike as unnatural. He couldn't quite place her
name in the state he was in, but he recalled that this
girl usually laughed in the face of fear, and she had
certainly never been afraid for him. She hated his
guts. Suddenly it clicked. Slutty the vampire slayer.
Spike groaned. He was slowly starting to think clearly
again. He blinked his eyes a few times, and closed
them immediately when they started to hurt.
A masculine voice answered. Xander, Spike thought
dizzily. "Yeah right. And just how are you going to
explain to the doctors why he doesn't have a pulse?"
Spike laughed through his pain. The whelp had a point.
The voices stopped. And then suddenly all these people
started charging towards him. There was a chorus of
"Oh God he's awake!" "Totally my fault" "No it was
mine" "I should've looked at the time" And finally...
"Are you ok?"
Spike looked up into Xander's eyes, and their gazes
locked.
"Just peachy." He answered. He tried to smile, but the
pain was excruciating, and Spike winced.
"Liar." Xander quipped cheerfully. "But I give you an
A for effort." The boy was visibly trying to hold back
tears.
Spike cleared his throat, which hurt like hell.
"Uh...could you people clear outta here for a minute? I
want to speak to Xandman 'ere." Spike could feel
everyone frowning.
"NOW."
The basement emptied itself.
Spike shifted uncomfortably. He didn't quite know how
to put this. But then again, he never did. Oh well
here goes nothing.
"Aaah...thanks for loaning me the coat luv...although I
think you'll need to buy a new one now, that one's
finished." Xander nodded his head in understanding.
"You're welcome Spike. It was no big deal."
Spike opened his eyes wide, ignoring the pain that
followed. "It WAS a big deal pet. Without that
trenchcoat I woulda fried out there, it's thanks to
you that I'm still here now." Xander turned pink, and
Spike chuckled.
"You know pet you're cute when you blush." He said
before he could stop himself. Where the hell did that
come from? Spike wondered.
"Stop it." Xander said quietly, his whole demeanor
changing.
"Pet?"
"Don't call me that." Xander closed his eyes. "This is
your game, Spike. I don't want to play it anymore."
Spike lay on the bed, his eyes silently questioning
Xander.
"Don't you see it Spike? This is what you do. One
minute you're all sweet to me and the next you just
don't wanna know. You're only nice when you *need* me
Spike, and after you've used me for your purpose you
just throw me away like an old rag doll. You-" Xander
paused.
"What pet? What do I do?" Spike asked softly.
"You ignore me." Xander whispered.
Spike suddenly got a very bad feeling in the pit of
his stomach. Dru had spoken to him this way before.
"Xan, why are you speaking to me like this? Why does
it even matter to you what I do?"
"I - because...I..."Xander shifted around uneasily.
"S'alright ducks, don't worry about it." Spike
soothed, hiding the shock that registered within him.
He faked a yawn. " You let the Big Bad get some sleep
now, ok?"
"Ok." Xander said, relief evident in his voice. "You
sleep."
Spike turned away from Xander, gritting his teeth at
the sharp pains that coursed through his body. Leave,
he willed Xander. Just leave me to myself now. He
pretended to close his eyes and forced his body to
look relaxed until he heard the door close.
Spike's eyes snapped open, and he gasped for unneeded
breath.
"Oh bloody bollocky hell." Spike wheezed. "What am I
supposed to do now?" His unlife had been getting worse
and worse by the minute, but if this wasn't a sure
sign of the bloody apocalypse he didn't know what was.
Xander was in love with him.
End pt 6
