Title: Bandaids and Candy
Summary: Post-Intervention. It’s sort of hard to dole out TLC to a dead guy.
Someday, Buffy was gonna learn that sending Dawn upstairs to go sleep was not so effective. What, like she was just going to curl up and nod off when a freaking God wanted her dead and might have killed Spike?
Someday, Buffy would also learn to talk more quietly. Hopefully never. Now, if you leaned on the second-from-the-top-stair in just the right spot… There we go. “…he’s in pretty bad shape. But I’m sure he didn’t tell Glory. You should have seen him when he thought I was the robot. He practically leapt off his coffin to stop me leaving to tell her. Even with the broken bones.”
And really, that was all she needed to hear. Giles might have something to add, but… Buffy was totally a bitch sometimes. How many people would go out and get tortured, just for you? She was probably jealous. Because, you know, Spike wouldn’t get himself beat up for just anybody. God. She would leave him all by himself. What if he needed something?
And, hey? If Glory had snagged Spike because she thought he was super-important to Buffy… Maybe the safest place was far from Buffy… But she wasn’t exactly the Queen of Calm. She’d come up here to check for sure, and then freak out and before you knew it Glory would know just exactly who was so important.
You know, maybe if she left a note that said something like that… She rummaged under her bed until she found an old Lisa Frank notebook. Yuck. So elementary school, but it was good enough for her sister. Hey Buffy, she scribbled, I went to visit Spike. Stupid. She ripped the paper out of the notebook and tossed it in the general direction of the trash. Can’t tell her where she’s going; it would be too easy to find her, no search party needed. Besides, even if Spike was a little beat up, he was totally as strong as Buffy. So it was even safe. Mostly. Hey Buffy, There’s something that I needed to do. Don’t come looking for me or Glory might think I’m important, just like she thought Spike was. I’ll be back really soon, promise. And then, just to butter her up, Love, Dawn.
***
Ok, the one good thing about Glory? Graveyards were totally less scary now. Regular old vampires? Piece of cake. Not that she’d seen any, but… Anyway.
Maybe she’d sneak in the back way. Bet Buffy didn’t even know there was a back way. She was totally mean to Spike. Bet she never came to visit.
Ok, this back way plan might not have been so great. It was all filled with cobwebs, and maybe a giant spider, but that might have been a trick of the light. Not that there was much. A little moonlight was leaking in somehow, but only one of the candles was lit.
If she weren’t a slayer’s sister, she would definitely have barfed all over the place. Spike… He didn’t look like Spike. He looked like somebody had made a sculpture of Spike out of hamburger, all oozing cuts and… Eew. Just… eew.
He opened an eye – sort of – when she got really close. “Dawn?” He was croaking. Could you, like, get tortured on your voicebox?
She made herself smile at him. “I brought you some candy bars. I would have got some more stuff, but Buffy was in the kitchen and…”
“Buffy doesn’ know you’re…”
“You think she’d let me out at night? I heard her talking about what you did.” She could feel her cheeks getting hot. God, he was totally gonna see her blush. “Thank you.” She closed her eyes. “I can tell this hurt a lot. Thanks for protecting me.”
“Course, snack-size. Where else I gonna get my free candy?”
OK, not his best, but, you know, mortal injuries. Maybe she wouldn’t be so clever either. “Do you need anything? Like, bandages or blood or something?”
“Gotta know you’re safe. Go home to Buffy.”
“Just a second.” She scrambled down his ladder to the little bathroom down there, got the corner of a towel soaking wet. It’s not like he really needed a doctor, but all of that blood… it must itch. And that thought? Totally proved that her sister had warped her forever.
“Spike? I’m gonna wash your face, ok?” He kind of sighed, and closed his eyes. That was close enough to permission.
OK, this was way gross, and plus it seemed like it hurt, if those grunty noises were anything to go by. Maybe not her best plan.
“Maybe if you…” And then the crypt door banged open. Buffy was totally mussed, still wearing her robo-Buffy outfit except now the skirt was torn from running. She didn’t stop when she got in the crypt. Uh-oh. The steamrolling? And the narrow eyes? Not good signs. “I just didn’t want to leave him alone! He got hurt for me!”
Her eyes loosened up a little, and she changed course. Disaster averted. For a minute it seemed like she was gonna yell at Spike, but she seemed to realize that would be a whole new level of bitchy, even for her. She kinda smiled, ran a hand through his hair. Spike? Definitely enjoying it a little too much. His eyes fell shut and everything.
“Come on, Dawn,” she barked. Great. Still in trouble then. Buffy seized her wrist and marched her out of the crypt. Barely time to turn around, see Spike’s feeble wave. “Thanks,” she called, before Buffy kicked the door shut. He’d been kind of hugging the bag of candy bars.
That? Totally worth getting in trouble for.
Drat. I think that I shall not finish my “Entropy” and “Flooded” fics on time. And here I was hoping to do one for each heavily Spuffy season… Le sigh. If you’re interested, I’m sure I’ll put those up in my journal very soon, along with an update to my big WIP started here for seasonal_spuffy last time. As in, this week. Thanks, itmustbetuesday, for keeping this place up and running even at a busy time! And I can’t wait for everybody else’s stuff. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this is the best community ever!
Originally posted at http://seasonal-spuffy.livejournal.com/147819.html
