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Chapter 11: Breaking Point

At precisely nine o’clock the next morning, Buffy walked into the Magic Box’s front door with her head held high. No customers or workers were milling about since the shop just opened. Giles was up in the loft area probably cataloging the ancient texts housed up there. He looked down at the sound of the door ring at her entry. A wide smile erupted from his face when he noticed his surrogate daughter there, alone, that is no other people or beings around. This was his chance to catch up with her. He quickly shut the book and headed down to the main floor of the shop to greet his visitor. She smiled up at him when he made his presence known by walking down the ladder.

“Buffy, it’s good to see you.” He came over to hug the young woman standing in front of him.

“Yeah. Nice that is.” She returned his hug halfway, not sure how she should try to confront Giles.

“So, dear, it’s been a while since we’ve gotten to be able to talk with that Traver’s business and all.” She nodded her head in agreement. “Please sit, would you like a cup of tea?”

“No thanks, Giles. I’m a coffee girl.” She sat down at the research table with Giles. “So where’s Anya?”

“She doesn’t come in until afternoon since the babies.” The awkwardness was starting to thicken.

“Yeah.” This was even harder than she originally thought.

After a minute of silence, Giles began again, “So how are you, dear girl?”

“Peachy,” she spit sarcastically. He looked alarmed at her sudden outburst. “Sorry, Giles, just under some stress.” She tried to explain it away.

“Do you need to talk about it?” Buffy cast her eyes downward, trying to get enough courage to confront her mentor. Over hearing his misgivings and thoughts on her chosen path in life was one thing, but to hear it directly from his mouth was another.

“Yeah, I guess.” Buffy squared her shoulders as she gave herself a pep talk. First, it’s your life. Second, you are happy, well, not so happy with the Spike situation, but that is so not in this conversation. Third, you came back to train the new slayer. Giles asked you to come back. Ready to confront him, Buffy looked up into his eyes.

Giles knew why Buffy was here. He suspected she was in the training room last night, but had no tangible proof. She was quiet when she entered and exited the back room and left no evidence of her position. He barely noticed her presence except a slight grinding noise during one of Xander’s more interesting rants about Spike. She definitely had reconnaissance down pat. “Dear girl, whatever put that frown on your face?”

“Giles?” She used her little girl voice, the one that melted his heart every time. It was absurd to watch a 27, almost 28-year-old woman, stick out her bottom lip in a perfect pout. Her arms were hugging her torso in an attempt to comfort herself. Oh, she was good. Playing on his fatherly emotions. She knew which buttons to push, always did. “We are close right?” Giles nodded. “Even when I left here, we still communicated. Maybe even better than when I was here.” He nodded again. Her journalistic instincts kicked in, he saw it coming. She was going to get him to dangle himself over the proverbial barrel before she attack. The girl was good. She knew how to get what she wanted. “You knew before anyone about the bar and hotel. And you helped me with the legal stuff. I really appreciated that. I don’t know if I ever told you, but thank you.”

“Pish, Buffy. You needed my help, I would do anything for you.” He knew he was stepping into her trap. He knew it, but couldn’t stop it. His little slayer grew up to be a magnificent woman. A woman that could handle herself.

He saw the trap, yet he had to step into it.

“Me too, Giles. You know that right? I love you.” She stood up and walked over to hug him. Giles relaxed, hoping Buffy wasn’t trying to trap him, yet now she was going in for the kill. “Remember when I thought I was losing my humanity my ability of showing emotion? We went on the Slayer Quest thingy.” He nodded as she sat down next to him. Giles took off his glasses as she rambled on, setting the trap, and started to clean them with his hankie. “Yeah. Long way from there now, aren’t we?” She fidgeted with an imaginary piece of dust on the table. “So anyways, just wanted to let you know. I love you and would do anything for you.” Here it comes. “Like for instance. Drop everything in my life and fly back here, on my dime I might add that the council never paid me, to help you train the slayer.” She always hated that she never got paid or reimbursed for clothing being ruined. No wonder why the First Slayer walked around in rags.

“Yes, you did. I appreciate that.”

“So, here I am wondering.” She looked directly into his eyes. “Why haven’t you used me to my full potential?”

“S-see, I didn’t want to scare the girl off. You know how it is when you first start. Everything is overwhelming.” Her eyes glint. Danger. Danger, Mr. Giles. Back peddle FAST! Buffy was docile as a dove on the phone but face-to-face, she’s a hound dog. Smells fear.

“Really?”

“Rightly so.”

“She seemed perfectly fine after I talked to her that first night and she has been progressing along and all. Seemed she wasn’t scared off or anything. What do you say?”

“Buffy, I cannot lie to you…” Snap. The trap was triggered and Giles was stuck. A figure slowly made it’s way through the back doorway to the Magic Box. It crept towards the door leading to the main store and stopped to listen.

Buffy waved off his next comment. “So then… I ask myself precisely why you insisted that I did not patrol or come here last night. Surely you aren’t trying to turn Katerina against me?”

“It wasn’t like that…”

“Or having ill-equipped people train her with bad positioning and posture.” Giles knew it was coming. There was no explanation he could give her.

“Really? Because I saw the one man I trust with everything… and I mean EVERYTHING… betray me. I would have rather you not even include me in the new slayer stuff if you were going to act this way.”

“I understand that. And I felt horribly about it, especially when I saw that Xander and Willow really didn’t have the fighting stances down anymore, but their heart was in the right place.”

“Right place? Was that before or after to poison Katerina with their prejudices of the past?” Giles looked like a fish out of water as his mouth opened and closed repeatedly. She was definitely a spitfire.

“I tried to stop it…” The figure in the back room didn’t allow Giles to continue. The body moved forward through the open door to reveal her, yet the two were engrossed with their conversation to notice right away.

“You know, since I see you are inept to train her personally and allowed the ill-equipped gang to train her, maybe I should just take over the training. At least she will have a chance to live longer than a week.”

Meanwhile in another part of town…

There was a knock on the door. The prone figure on the bed lifted its head up trying to comprehend the knocking. The semi-alert vampire trudged over to the door fiddling with the different locks and mechanisms on it. Slowly, coming to his senses he finished the task of unlocking the door.

Angel opened the door slowly, not allowing light to hit him. There was a flash of gray as Angel shook his head free of cobwebs. Seeing no one was outside, Angel closed the door and turned back towards the bed. “Peaches, ain’t going to give me a proper greeting?”

“Huh? Spike how’d you get in here?”

“Opened the door, didn’t you?”

Awareness struck Angel over the head like the proverbial anvil. “You’ve gotten faster in your old age, boy. Must be all that slayer blood… Oh, sorry. I forgot… you haven’t bitten her.” Angel’s evil smirk arose. His plan was clicking into place better than what he thought possible. Spike snarled at the comment, but Angel continued. “She’s sweet you know. The best I’ve ever had. Mmmm,” he licked his lips, “Sweet.”

“Shut up, wanker.”

“Or what? Poor wittle Spikey is going to hit me? Go ahead, boy, I think we both know who is going to win. Especially after my little visit with her last night.”

Spike snarled, “The only reason you got me last time was because I was drunk, and you know it!”

“And why were you drunk? Oh yeah, because you had a fight about me. You were jealous about me, and you should be.”

“Shut up!” Spike wanted to hit Angel so bad, but he knew he wasn’t entirely healed from last time. Instead he decided on another tactic. Scaring off Angel wasn’t going to work, but maybe another would. “Tell you what, Peaches, I know nothing happened between you two last night. Point in fact, I know that she rejected your sorry ass.”

“How the hell do you know that?”

“I was there, you ponce. I saw her whip out the stake and threaten you.” The two vampires stood there staring at each other.

Back at the Magic Box…

Willow stood with her chin held high as two pairs of eyes turned to look at her. She heard the fight outside and decided to go through the back. “Buffy it wasn’t like that.”

“Really? Because from my vantage point it was exactly like that.” Buffy stalked over to her friend.

“I know what it sounded like, but you know Xander, he doesn’t give up on an idea until it’s been beaten into the ground.”

“I think Spike has been beaten into the ground… I mean the subject of Spike.” Buffy was pacing, rubbing her forehead with her hand. This separation from Spike was driving her crazy. She understood that he was jealous and he let it get the better of him, but he still locked her out of the room, refusing to let her back in.

“Buffy, we are just worried about you.” Giles interrupted her train of thought.

“Why? If Spike wanted to harm me I would already be dead. He has had plenty of chances.” Buffy was trying to make sense of their objections, but was coming up with nothing. “You two… he came to see you and he didn’t try to hurt you.”

“He wanted information.”

“True, but when he found out you lied to him he didn’t go all ‘grrr’,” she scrunched her face up and made a claw with her fingers in demonstration. “Did he?” Giles nodded. “So I don’t see why you think he is a danger?”

“What if he wants you to fall for him and then BAM!” Trying to stay on task, Willow was grasping at straws. She was starting to have trouble following the reason why the gang thought it would be better for Buffy to be away from Spike. It was true, Spike could have attacked them anything he wanted to, but he didn’t. Willow was having doubts about the plan, plain and simple.

“I already have,” Buffy stated simply. “I love him. More than I ever thought possible.”

“So why aren’t you two staying in the same hotel room?”

Where did she get that piece of information? Her moving out only happened yesterday, there is a mole and her name is Dawn! “We are having a misunderstanding right now. We will resolve it by ourselves.” Buffy headed towards the door. No matter what she said, they weren’t going to listen. They had already convicted Spike of his past crimes.

“But Buffy…” Willow’s whining voice rose, trying desperately to get Buffy to stop and it worked. Buffy stopped midway out of the door and turned around.

“Tell Xander to keep his nose out of my business. If I see him try to hurt Spike or break us up permanently he will see what ‘powers’ a 27 year old slayer has collected through out the past eleven years.” With that Buffy walked out of the Magic Box and headed to her new charge.

Back at Angel’s hotel room… the argument heats up.

“Yeah, but I still got a kiss from her sweet mouth.” Angel knew she struggled the whole time, but he also knew which buttons to push with Spike.

“Only because you caught her off guard.” She pushed him away; really, Spike saw it with his own eyes. Suddenly all his insecurities smashed down on top of him.

“She didn’t seem to mind.” Angel stepped towards Spike, in attempts to intimidate him.

“Oh, I think she did.” The two men glowered at each other just a few inches apart.

“Why did you come here, Spike?” Angel hissed through clenched teeth.

“Warn you, mate… but I don’t want to anymore. I think it will be fun to watch Buffy reject your sorry ass.” Spike stepped around Angel and headed to the door.

Angel had one last parting shot, “Yeah, just like how she will reject you, too!”
~*~*~
Simultaneously…

Spike was in the sewers traveling back to his hotel when inspiration hit him. He turned around and headed in another direction, anxious to win back the heart of the woman he loves.

Buffy was above ground, driving back to her hotel. Katerina was too tired and sore from last night to train. She considered dropping by Revello or Spike’s hotel room but decided that maybe the old saying ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ may be right in this instance. Spike knew how she felt, if he wanted to change their situation then he would have to make the first step.

She parked the car outside and headed towards her room, but the concierge stopped her mid way through the lobby. He ran up to Buffy smiling from ear to ear handing over a very elegant envelope. On the front if was addressed in a writing not unlike calligraphy to Miss Elizabeth Summers. She walked over to row of elevators and hit the up button while studying the envelope. In the privacy of the elevator compartment she carefully opened the envelope. She removed the expensive looking paper and opened up the letter inside.

Beauty and love are all my dream;
They change not with the changing day;
Love stays forever like a stream
That flows but never flows away;

And beauty is the bright sun-bow
That blossoms on the spray that showers
Where the loud water falls below,
Making a wind among the flowers.

Elizabeth, I know I am a bad poet, so I will not try to woo you with my words, but the
Sentiments of the author, Andrew Young, seem to fit. I know I over reacted the other night
and am terribly sorry. I hope that my formality of apology does not shock you.
For I look forward to earning your love once again, my precious sun. ~William

Buffy’s eyes started to water when she read the name he refused to use in Hawaii, Elizabeth. She read and reread the letter as the elevator made its slow way to her floor and as she stepped out. Buffy fumbled with the key while trying to stave off her tears. Finally opening the door, Buffy stepped in and looked around. All over the tables were wild exotic flowers that reminded her of home, Hawaii. The aroma drifted around her and filled her senses. On the pillow was an identical envelope; she slowly made her way to the bed to pick the envelope up. She sank her body down on the soft mattress and bedding and opened the second letter up.

Buffy, no matter what I do will not make up for what I have done or the way I have acted recently.
I love you with all that I am and want to see you happy.
You know where you can find me. I love you.
~Spike

Well, he made the first move. Buffy sat on the bed holding her two letters from her love contemplating her next move. They need to work on the issues, but they could prevail if they stayed together and worked on it. On a whim, Buffy picked up the phone and dialed the number of the Radisson. She was connected to the room Spike was staying in, but there was no answer. Instead a voice mail messaging system clicked in. “Spike, I love you. Since you must know where I am at, please call me. I miss you, baby.” She hoped he would get the hidden message that she wasn’t ready to move back, but she wanted to. A smile erupted on Buffy’s face as she looked around at the pink Anthuriums, Orchids of all colors, red Kauai Sunset, purple Birds of Paradise, and a bunch she didn’t know the name of. Spike must have spent a fortune on them. Thinking back Buffy realized that he always made grand gestures. Something to work on. With a wide smile on her face, Buffy headed into the bathroom; ready to relax in the tub.

A/N: The poem Beauty and Love by Andrew Young were found at lovepoetry.com





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