Title: Come Back To Me
Author: Pattyanne
snapkik@yahoo.com
Part Two....
"The situation has been upgraded from
a disaster to a catastrophe."
The other three people sitting around
the table just stared at Willow, wondering
what else could possibly go wrong.
"We have GOT to find Spike," she
told them. "And we have to find him
NOW."
"Why?" Xander asked. "What's happened?"
Willow took a deep breath and dropped
her bomb.
"Buffy's pregnant," she said. "Spike's
the father. And DON'T ask me how it
happened."
Xander was the first to find his voice.
"Don't ask you HOW?" he repeated. "What
do you mean...don't ask you how? Spike
is a vampire. Buffy's a human." He paused
slightly. "How can they have a..."
Gritting her teeth, Willow slammed the
flat of her hand down on the table.
"XANDER!" she yelled to get his atten-
tion, then drew a calming breath. "It
doesn't matter HOW it happened. We'll
figure that out some other time when
things are...settled. Okay?"
After a long pause, he nodded. "Okay."
"Good," Willow said. "What we have to do
now is deal with the reality, no matter how
anyone feels about them."
When she saw that she had their atten-
tion, she went on. "Buffy is going to have a
baby...and she's not happy the way an
expectant mother should be happy. She
needs her baby's father to be here..with
her. And we have to do everything we can
to make that happen."
Everyone nodded agreeably.
"So, does anyone know just how we're
gonna pull that one off?" Anya asked.
"That's why we're here," Willow explained. "To
come up with an idea."
"I wish Giles was still here," Anya sighed. "He
was uptight and repressed, but he was pretty
handy with the ideas."
"Yeah, I wish he was here, too," Willow said. "But
he's NOT. That means that WE have to be
the grown-ups now, so brainstorm me, people.
Don't hold back. If you've got an idea, spill it."
"I've been thinking," Tara interjected. "What
about a locating spell?"
Willow shook her head. "I thought of that, too,"
she said. "But it won't work."
"Why not?" Xander asked.
"Because he could be anywhere on the pla-
net," she explained. "And if he's moving
around a lot, he could be long gone before we ever get
to him. We'll end up chasing him all over the world, and we
don't have time for that."
"True," Tara agreed. "But maybe we could tweak
it a little. Combine the locating spell with
something else...make a whole new spell. It's
worth trying, isn't it?"
"You can do that?" Xander asked.
Tara shrugged. "Yeah, I think I can,"
she said, smiling at Willow. "I think WE
can."
Willow smiled back at her. "See why I love
you so much?" she marveled.
"Yes, that's very sweet," Anya said im-
patiently. "Now can we get going, before
Buffy's baby goes off to college?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Tell me again how this works."
Xander moved around the dim upper level
of Spike's former home, lighting candles.
Willow and Tara sat on the cold floor, in-
dian style, facing each other.
"It's a combination of a locating spell
and the spell that Willow did to get into
Buffy's mind," Tara explained. "I'll do
the magicks, and overlap both spells."
"And you're sure this will work?" Xan-
asked.
"It had better work," Willow said grimly. "It's
all we've got."
Tara nodded. "Let's get started."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"BLOODY HELL!!"
"Hi, there!" Willow smiled and waved
cheerfully.
Spike shot straight up in bed. "Where
the hell did YOU come from?"
"I came from Sunnydale," she told
him. "Well...actually, I'm still there.
My body is still there."
Spike stared at her. "So you're...what? A
bloody ghost?"
"Oh, no," she said quickly. "I mean, yes. I
mean, kind of. Not a ghost in the sense
that I'm dead. Because I'm NOT...dead, that is."
She cocked her head contemplatively. "I guess
I'm kind of a...
"I see YOU haven't changed a bit," Spike
said, rubbing his eyes.
...having a vision sort of ghost," she
finished with a hopeful smile. "Under-
stand?"
Spike leaned back against the pillows
piled in front of the headboard. "Right. So..
who's having this vision, me or you?"
"You are," Willow said. "Although, I
suppose you could say that I'm having
it too..since I'm not actually here. Maybe.."
Spike cut her off before she rambled off
in another direction. "Why are you here?"
Willow sank into a chair. "I'm here be-
cause..." She looked around the room
curiously. "Where ARE we, anyway? Is
this a hotel?"
He struggled for patience. All things con-
sidered, Willow had always been pretty
decent to him...unlike her male side-
kick...and he didn't want to be unkind to
her.
"Yes," he said. "This is a hotel room. In
Washington."
"No kidding?" She was surprised. "DC or
State of?"
"State of."
"Hmmm." She finished her perusal of her
surroundings. "This is a nice room."
"Actually, it's a suite," Spike said, a little
exasperated by her small talk. "A penthouse
suite."
"Really?" She left her chair and looked out
the window. "Wow...we're really up here,
aren't we?"
"We are indeed."
"Looks expensive," she mused.
"Very."
"Well...if you don't mind my asking.."
"Mind?" Spike cut in. "Why would I mind? An-
swering your nosy questions is what I live for."
Being the literal girl she was, Willow took his
remark sincerely. "How are you paying for it?"
"Well..." Spike said slowly. "If you really MUST
know...I traded sexual favors with the desk clerk
for it."
Her brow furrowed. "You're kidding...aren't you?"
He nearly laughed out loud. She really was a
cute little thing and he'd missed teasing her.
"The demon who owns the place is an old mate
of mine," he explained.
"Friends in low places, huh?"
He smiled a little. "You might say that."
Time for polite amenities was over, Willow
knew, time to cut to the chase. "Why are you
here?"
"Didn't I just ask YOU that same question?"
he reminded her. "And, by the by, Red..if you
didn't know where I was, then how in bleeding
hell did you find me?"
Willow shrugged. "Performed a locating spell
combined with a kind of mind melding....thing."
"Okay, I buy the HOW," he said. "Having a
little trouble with the WHY. What do you
want?"
Willow tried to choose her words so as to im-
part the maximum amount of urgency. "You
have to go back to Sunnydale. Now."
It was the only thing she could think of to say.
Of all the possible answers in the entire
world, it was the last one he had expected.
He let out a short laugh. "Huh! Are you insane?"
he asked. "I just got loose of that shitty
little town. No way in hell am I going back."
"But, there's a reason..."
"I don't CARE if there's a reason," he informed
her. "I'm not going within a hundred miles of
that Seventh Circle of Hell."
"Spike...please listen..."
"No!"
"But it's important...you think I'd BE here like this
if it wasn't?"
"No!"
Willow was getting desperate. "It's about Buffy,"
she blurted.
Spike slammed both hands down on the bed and
sat up. "Look," he snapped. "Are you deaf or
something? I told you.." He changed directions
in mid stream. "What about Buffy."
"She wants you to come home," Willow said. "She
needs you."
He stared at her for a full thirty seconds. "Yeah,
right," he said. "Now tell me another one and make
it just as funny."
Willow wanted to scream with frustration. Wanted
to hit, slap, and shake some sense into his
head.
"I'm telling you the truth," she insisted. "Buffy
needs you."
"Oh, please," Spike scoffed. "Slayer needs a
lot of things, all right, but she does not NOW,
nor has she EVER needed me."
"Things change," Willow protested. "People
change."
"Yeah, I used to think so too," he said. "But
SHE taught me differently. She'll NEVER
change!"
"Spike..."
"Forget it. I said no." He slid back down in bed
and turned his back on her. "Now click your heels
together three times and shove off."
Willows temper began to stir. "Damn it, Spike!"
she said harshly. "I'm serious!"
"I'm serious, too. Get lost!"
This wasn't going at all the way she'd
hoped it would. She needed something
bigger...something he could see.
Spotting a cheval glass mirror across
the room, she dragged it over next to the
bed.
Spike's curiousity won out over his irri-
tation when he heard Willow mumbling
something under her breath.
He sat up again, surprised when the
mirror turned black, showing no reflection
of the room.
The black began to fade, and a picture
formed until it looked like a oval tele-
vision screen.
"Hey, that's.." He pointed at the mirror. "That's
Buffy's bedroom." He was about to say some-
thing else, when the door to her room banged
open and she ran in.
Spike stared at her. "Slayer.." he whispered,
his eyes hungry for the sight of her as she
threw herself down on the bed and, to his com-
plete and utter horror, burst into tears. "Buffy?"
"Watch this," Willow said, pointing at the
mirror. "This is happening right now as we
speak."
Spike watched helplessly as Buffy cried so
hard that her small body trembled.
Then, abruptly, like Alice Through the Look-
ing Glass, he found himself sitting in the
tree next to Buffy's bedroom window.
"See?" Willow said from her own perch higher
up. "I've never seen her this unhappy before. Not
when Riley left...not even when Angel left."
"What's wrong?" he asked, not taking his
eyes off Buffy.
Willow shrugged. "Listen and learn."
"Please make him come back," Buffy begged
an unnamed deity. "I'll do anything..I promise..
one more chance..please send him home...I
love him so much..."
"Oh, God," Spike said softly as Buffy's raging
tears turned to soft weeping. "What have I done?"
Willow sighed. "Don't blame yourself completely.
She knows it was mostly her fault."
"No." He shook his head in denial. "No, I should
have stayed. Should have tried harder."
"That doesn't matter, Spike," she said. "The
only thing that matters is what you do now."
She paused. "What are you gonna do?"
He wasn't listening. Every bit of his attention
was focused on the girl huddling on her bed,
crying out the anguish of a horribly broken heart.
"Don't cry," he begged softly. "Please don't
cry...not over me."
His voice rose as he placed his hands on
the window pane. "Buffy!" Desperate to reach
her, he banged on the glass. "Don't cry, sweet-
heart!"
"She can't hear you," Willow said. "You're
in Washington, State of...remember?"
"Buffy!"
Willow rolled her eyes. "Spike! Look at me!"
she demanded. "It's not too late. You can still
fix this...if you go back now. Hurry!"
He looked wretchedly unhappy, and Willow was
afraid that he was going to join Buffy in her
crying.
She had to get him going. "Listen to me," she
said urgently. "If you don't go back, you'll miss
out on something very special. It isn't just about
Buffy anymore. There's..something else that
has to be considered."
Grabbing his chin suddenly, Willow forced him
to look at her. "I don't know how much longer
Buffy can take this. Go home now!" she said
firmly, "before something happens that YOU
can't take back."
Spike stared at her, sick with a sudden
realization of what she was telling him.
"No...no!" He jerked his chin out of her grasp,
and turned his eyes back on Buffy. "NO! BUFFY!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Buffy, no!"
Brought fully awake by the sound of his own
panicky voice, Spike sat up in bed violently, his
eyes darting around the dim room.
Willow was nowhere in sight...but had she
really been here in the first place? Or did
he just want to go back so desperately
that he'd summoned her into his dreams to
talk him into it.
And what about Buffy? Was what Willow
had said true, or did he want it to be so
badly that his subconscious mind had put
the words in her mouth?
Yes. That had to be it, he deduced. Because
only HE was capable of self-delusion on
such a cosmic scale.
There was no way in hell that Buffy had ever
felt such things, let alone voiced them out-
loud.
She and Willow, and the rest of her little
band, were all back in Sunnydale, not one
of them giving him a second thought.
The whole sorry experience was nothing
but an illusion, dreamed up and given
life by him. Buffy wasn't lying on her
bed crying over him, and Willow certainly
hadn't been in this room....
His jaw sagged when he saw it. The mirror
he'd looked into during his dream.
It was once again a plain and ordinary
mirror. No pictures on it now, but
someone had scrawled a message on
it in what looked like lipstick the color
of blood. A short message. Just three
words....
GO HOME, SPIKE!
Half an hour later, he was in his car and head-
ing towards Sunnydale. Heading back to Buffy.
Heading for home....
TBC......
Let me know what you think, okay?
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