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Chapter Six


So, the tree through the window made Buffy panic.



She and Spike had gone upstairs from the basement and then upstairs from the first floor, following the whooshing and whistling sound of the wind. The rainfall had asserted itself just under the sound of the wind, and Buffy felt it pelting her skin in cool, hard strikes.



Anxiety revving up her heart rate, she pushed past Spike to witness the tree shoved through Dawn’s window. The branches were oddly dotted with leaves as if someone had been plucking them off in odd intervals, leaving the tree half-bald. Water was already soaking the carpet and walls. Even the ceiling was wet. Luckily, Dawn had had the presence of mind to move most of her belongings to the basement.



A sudden thought hit Buffy. This was her safe haven – her home. This was supposed to be impenetrable despite the zombie-raising mask debacle and the everyone-fell-in-love-with-Xander chase. It mostly wasn’t a target for the vampires and demons of Sunnydale. The house and a well-timed-Willow spell had saved her and her family and friends from Angelus. Now, a storm – a stupid freak of mother nature was destroying her safe place.



Oh, god. Oh, god. What about her room?



Not even bothering to glance at Spike or take in his reaction, Buffy rushed through the doorway and to her room, which was happily intact. She had been too distracted by her mom and Dawn and Glory and the evacuation that she hadn’t touched her own room.



Glancing around, she ran from place to place, snatching up a few outfits – something to slay in and something to relax in. She threw these items into the tote bag she’d used to run away to L.A. the summer after she’d killed Angel. This time, she snapped up Mr. Gordo because she’d forgotten him last time. And then, she snagged the photos off her bulletin board, taking care not to tear the photos of her family and friends. Her favorite jewelry, including the necklace her father had bought her for her thirteenth birthday, went into the smallest trinket box on her dresser and then into her bag. She zipped the bag up and slung it over her shoulder. As an almost afterthought, she snagged a pair of boots with her free hand.



She came up short to find Spike watching her with an amused glint in his eyes.



“What?” she asked, the irritation in her voice a little too harsh for her liking.



“You rushing around. Saving your baubles. None of that stuff matters in the grand scheme.”



She jutted her chin up. “It does to me. Mr. Unsentimental.”



Hurt flashed over his features but was quickly gone as she blinked. She wondered if she’d seen it right. She opened her mouth to ask him about it, but another crack followed by a thump and shattering glass made her jump into action again like a rabbit frightened by a tractor being started up. She and Spike hurried to her mom’s room to find a similar display of limbs, leaves, water, and wind.



A stray gust zoomed into the room and hit Buffy in the chest. She stumbled backward in surprise and crashed into Spike, who caught her in his arms, hands landing every place. Before she might have expected a sneer on his face, but he was taken aback, too, and righted her quickly.



“You okay?” she asked in apology for her earlier name-calling. She was shaking a bit as she picked up her bag from where it had fallen onto the floor.



He nodded without a word – some intensity of emotion in his eyes that she couldn’t read.



“I can’t stay here.” She hurried back down the hall and bounced down the stairs. Her eyes fell on a box in the living room. “Crap.”



“What’s going on?” Spike asked, slinging his way onto the ground floor again.



Buffy nodded her head at the bookcase. “I need to bring that, too.”



Spike strode over without questioning and pulled a large photo album off the shelf. There were ten more matching ones, which had been meticulously organized by her mom. “Photos?” He opened the cover and flipped through. “Oooo, Slayer. You were an adorable little tike.”



“No!” Buffy practically shouted. “The weapons. There’s a box on the bottom shelf.”



Spike pulled out the long, decorative box. It wasn’t huge but it held some basics in case they were needed right away. “Kinda small.”



Buffy didn’t feel like explaining it. “We might need them. I-I left a lot in my dorm.”



“You have weapons in your dorm room? Like at university?” Spike frowned with incredulity. “Won’t some sneaky R.A. find them and get you kicked out?”



She huffed. “No. I don’t know. No one’s found them yet. Just carry the weapons. Don’t question.”



Balancing one end of the weapons box on a shelf, Spike started stacking photo albums on top.



She sighed. “What are you doing now?”



“What I was gonna say earlier before you completely took what I was saying out of context – ”



“What – ”



Spike gestured at her with his free hand. “You see? You don’t even let me finish.”



“You just interrupted me!”



“You did it to me first!”



“Argh!” Buffy rushed forward with a glare, hooking her boots between the bag and the bag strap. She began grabbing some of the remaining photo albums. “Mom took all the negatives, so I didn’t think these mattered as much.”



“’Course they matter.”



“You just said they didn’t.”



They glared at each other with the windows rattling louder.



“Was gonna say what matters are the people you care about. Photos are important.”



“Oh.” Now she felt terrible. She hugged the books to her chest. Spike was right. “Come on. I’ll let you make fun of Buffy-the-awkward-years.”



Spike put a hand on the spine of the books she was holding. “I got these. You scrounge up some food.”



“It’s that bad?” Buffy was not sure why she was surprised.



Spike’s eyebrow lifted just slightly. “Electricity’s gone. Food will spoil. Might as well partake.”



Buffy decided he was right. “And more trees might fall. What time is it?”



“Dunno. I can usually tell when dawn’s on her way, but the storm’s muddling things up.”



“So, it’s going to be dark for a while.”



“Seems like.” Spike’s face told her that he didn’t seem to mind even with their sniping at each other, and Buffy didn’t know what to make of that.





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