When he arrived he put the items carefully down on the desk and looked over the Slayer. Her breathing was steady as was her heart rate so he again crawled into bed next to her hoping she would just wake up. He took her hand and whispered against her ear, “Slayer, wake up. I don’t know what the bloody Hell you were thinking out there tonight. You were just about dead before I found you. We are in this together. I promised your mum I’d keep you safe until I could bring you home and I damn well plan to but if you keep pulling shit like this… Well I don’t know if I can. I shouldn’t have ever bloody touched you. I’m soulless, and a monster and I just shouldn’t have touched you in the first place.”
Buffy’s eyes fluttered as she whispered, “That wasn’t why I ran. I’m just not ready. I’m sorry I ran. Why am I still alive? That big vampire he bit me.” With that memory, she shot up in bed and brought her free hand to her neck feeling the wound there and flinched, “Yeah he definitely did bite me. God it hurt but I wanted to die.”
Spike frowned looking at Buffy and shook his head, “You don’t get to die, pet. Not when you are pathetically laying there asking for it. That’s not the way things work. When you go out, you go out fighting and saving some person, perhaps even the world. You don’t get to walk around looking for Death. Snap out of it, pet, because you are the Slayer."
Buffy turned her head from his eyes feeling a bit guilty for her outburst and remembering everything that had happened. She almost got herself killed as well as him and yet after all that he still saved her. “Thanks for saving me, Spike. I know I don’t deserve it, but thanks.”
Spike turned her head towards him and he nodded, “Don’t mention it, pet. Are you hungry? It’s morning now and we didn’t get to go out as planned but I do have some snack food. I don’t know if it’s anything you like but it was all they had,” Spike offered. He was hesitant to mention the whole free food thing so he didn’t. She sat up a little in the bed and nodded. Spike got up and picked up what he had gotten and dropped it on her lap in the bed. She smiled up at him gratefully and picked up a bag of barbeque chips and devoured the bag within seconds only to pick up a bag of crackers and eat those as well. When she opened up the lemonade to drink and she suddenly whipped around and looked at him, “You didn’t eat. I’m sorry I ruined the plans. We were supposed to raid the hospital and supposed to find us a new place to stay rather than spending all the cash on the hotel.”
Spike shrugged, “Slayer blood is like ambrosia and it lasts a long time. Just a few sips equal a night of feeding pretty much.”
Buffy looked at Spike and asked timidly, “Did you really kill two other slayers? Did you drain them dry?”
Spike looked away not really wanting to answer the Slayer’s question. It would only start trouble and nervously he took the bottle of lemonade from her hands and took a sip. Noticing Buffy was still watching him, he took a bag of chips from her lap and opened them to take out a chip, hoping she wouldn’t re-ask it but it wasn’t meant to be. She tapped Spike on the shoulder, “I’m not going to stake you tonight for it. I just was curious and wanted to know how much the Watchers knew about you.”
Spike frowned finally admitting, “I killed three slayers not two. I drained them all. All were fighters but you’re the best I’ve seen. I did it for Dru.” He looked down at his lap taking another chip before explaining, “The first time I killed a slayer was because I was trying to prove to Angelus that I was better than him. It was something Angelus had never done. He and Dru were proud for a few minutes. Dru was all over me and ignoring Angelus. It felt amazing but it didn’t last long. So I did another one. Same reaction and it was great but by then Angelus had his soul so the competition wasn’t for him, it was for other things Dru had gotten involved with. The third, I purposely went across the world to New York to kill her. It was a great victory. She was tough but not tough enough. I got a souvenir from each. The first, I got a ring but I gave it to Dru. It was a pretty little ring. She liked it. The second I got this scar on my eyebrow from a cursed sword and the third I got this duster.” Spike shrugged and then stated a bit angry, “Happy now?”
Buffy shrugged too and replied, “Not really but I doubt I’m ever going to be happy again. Thanks for the food and again I’m sorry for running.”
Spike still decided not to say much about it and instead spilled his plans, “Tonight when the sun sets I’d like to do three things. First find us a spot to nest, then hit up the hospital, then do a grocery store.”
Buffy’s eyebrow raised, “Do a grocery store?”
Spike looked sheepishly at her, “Um I guess I have to start paying for things now...”
Buffy nodded and then asked, “Will I need to find a job Spike? I don’t mean to pry but I have to eat every day and I’m okay if I have to. I was working at that diner and it worked out okay. I was just curious.”
Spike nodded and then said, “No need. I got lots of cash and more if needed although we might have to hit up a bank in L.A. That is, if I need more than $5,000.”
Buffy gasped, “You have $5,000 on you?”
Spike shrugged not wanting to admit where he got it. He didn’t think Buffy would appreciate the fact he killed robbers and pickpockets to collect the cash so instead he offered, “I figured we would need some cash to get where we needed to go so I brought some along.”
Buffy yawned. Spike noticed and took pity on her “I think that’s a hint it’s bedtime. You lost a lot of blood in the last few days. That would probably make a girl sleepy.”
Buffy frowned, “Are you hungry Spike?”
Spike looked at her kind of shocked she even asked knowing that she had nothing to give him. He shrugged, “I’ll live until night fall.”
Buffy nodded not wanting to say anymore and curled up in the bed thankful he had put a shirt on her while Spike undressed to crawl into bed beside her. Without asking, he pulled her to his side and she rested her head against his chest not saying a word and that’s how she fell asleep with him not far behind.
Spike woke up first and looked over at his sleeping Slayer. She looked better than she did last night. The cut on her forehead was still there but not as bad as it had looked, The one on her arm, that was wrapped around his waist, looked much better; barely pink with a slight slash of red in the center. It would heal in another night or so. He wondered about the one on her back and carefully without waking her lifted her shirt to look at her back. It was healing nicely as well. There was a big bruise around the cut that looked worse than the actual cut itself.
He sighed feeling relieved that he had gotten there in time. When he had walked into the cemetery and smelt her blood, the fear that went through him as well as anger was intense. It was so intense he had lost control for a while there. All he wanted was for those vampires to suffer for hurting Buffy. The feelings he was experiencing for her were a bit scary because sometimes when he looked at her, deep into her eyes, he could almost see them mirrored back and then other times she looked like a lost puppy. He felt her wake up and whispered, “Morning Goldilocks.”
She grinned and then asked, “Is the sun down yet?”
He nodded and she jumped up dragging her bag into the shower. He didn’t offer to join her and she didn’t mention it so he pulled on some pants and grabbed a cigarette making a note to buy a new pack when they went to the store. As he was taking a drag outside while he waited, he got to thinking some more. ‘It was obvious that Buffy was really confused. I should have never drank her blood that night or if I did, I should just have drank it and not gone about making it sweet for her. Why did I make it sweet? I always knew we had that ability but I never bothered before. Everyone else I’ve always drained, I just did so without thinking.’ Half the time, he didn’t even bother to finish thinking they weren’t worth his time. He had never pleasured someone with the desire to bring them pleasure even with his bite.
Something was going on with him. Someone was messing with him. It was probably Dru’s talk of sunshine and destiny and stuff that was getting to him. He heard the door to the hotel open and Buffy emerged smelling of vanilla and strawberries. He smiled before he could stop himself and noticed she smiled back. She whispered, “You need a shirt. I’m ready to go when you are.”
He took one last drag of the cigarette throwing it into the ground as Buffy toed it out while he went inside grabbing a black shirt and his duster responding quickly, “Ready to go, pet.”
With that they went into the night to find a place to live.