Twining Vines (COMPLETE)

*~*Twining Vines*~* By Echidna

Author's Note - Thanks so much to Ali for BETA reading this chapter and for noting a few glitches in the story! ;)

Part X - Untwining the Vines

They sat around the coffee table debating as the thick raindrops continued to slam against the windows.

“Well, if it’s not time shifting, what is it?” Buffy asked confused.

The smile that Willow displayed on her lips crumbled as she realised she had no answer to the question. Everyone looked at each other, a worried expression on their faces as their minds came out blank.

“Let’s see what we have.” Buffy started to sum it up. “Something is making the past repeat itself, but it’s not actually a repetition of the past because… the glasses didn’t break. God… this is just absurd!” she sighed loudly as she let her arms fall limply at her sides.

As the argument developed, Spike’s gaze fell over the redhead standing furthest from them, leaning on the wall, her arms crossed over her chest. She remained expressionless as she watched them debate the issue, without interfering, as if she had no opinion. There was something wrong. She always had an opinion! On everything! And she always made sure everyone knew about it. He continued to stare at her, when, eventually, their eyes met. She immediately looked away, pretending not to have seen him tilt his head towards the hall.

She continued to observe the group while, out of the corner of her eyes she tried to disregard the vampire that was now staring intensely at her. Suddenly, she got a flash of him and her talking in the kitchen. It was a clear message from Spike’s mind. She ignored the signal and soon another image reached her, this one of him dragging her out of the living room by her hair. She winced and immediately darted an ugly look at him. The vampire, however, remained unaltered as he mouthed the words: “Kitchen, now!” before standing up and walking out.

Everyone was so wrapped up ieir eir discussion they didn’t notice Spike, or even Sam as she left the room a couple of minutes after him.

The redhead tiptoed her way across the hall and into the kitchen. A frown settled over her eyebrows as she reached the doorframe of the room and failed to find him. As she walked in and, suddenly, he stepped in her way, blocking her passage.

“Jesus Christ!” She gasped; her trembling hand slammed against her chest. “What the hell are you doing?” She whispered as she remembered the others weren’t supposed to know they were there. “You do know I’m human right now, don’t you? I *can* die of a heart attack!” she grumbled stumbling her way towards the nearest chair around the counter, her hand still clinging to the red fabric over her chest as her heart pounded furiously underneath. “Jesus…”

“What’s going on, freckles?” Spike asked ignoring her protests.

“Don’t call me that.” She pouted bringing her hand to cover her nose and frowning. She looked like a five year-old child.

“What do you know?” The vampire remained unaltered as he hovered over her sitting form.

“What do you mean?” She pretended not to know what he was talking about.

“Stop poncing around and just tell me.” He grumbled.

She looked up at him, her fingers still over her nose as she contemplated him with a pondering look. After a few moments of silence she brought her hand down to rest on the counter and sighed:

“I can’t tell you. I wish I could, but I can’t. I *really* can’t.” Her eyes pleaded him to let the subject go, but he would have none of that as he shook his head and gave her a cold look. “You have to figure it out for yourselves. I can’t get involved. I’m already involve up to my neck in this thing and if I cross that line…” She trailed off and for the first time since he’d met her he saw a flash of fear in her eyes.

He swallowed hard before speaking:

“The Slayer almost got eaten by some giant black, scaly thing right out of Jurassic Park, Dawn and Willow almost got killed by a vampire version of Buffy. I need to know what’s going on. You have to tell me.” His tone was calm and soft as his hand came to rest on her forearm.

Silence filtered between the two of them once more. It wasn’t an uncomfortable one; it was just there as he waited for her to make her decision. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she got a crunching pain in her stomach and the image of herself and Spike holding hands flashed before her. She looked up towards the door to find a frozen Buffy standing there staring back at her.

The vampire turned around to see the object of Sam’s attention and the blond girl’s gaze dropped to the floor.

“Sorry, I-I didn’t mean to interrupt. I-I was just…” she stammered incoherently as she tried to explain her presence in her own kitchen.

“You’re not interrupting anything. Actually, we were just heading back into the living room.” Sam said quickly as she stood up and started to leave.

A strong cold grip on her arm stopped her, forcing her to turn around and find Spike’s eyes bearing into hers. For a second, his blue eyes looked away from her as he spoke:

“We’ll be there in a second.” He replied as he waited for the Slayer to leave the room.

Awkwardly, and feeling a heart-wrenching pain in her chest, the blond turned on her heels and disappeared from the tiled room. Turning his attention back to the redhead he still held by her arm he asked:

“Are you gonna tell me?”

“I’ll tell you what I can.” She nodded and he loosened his grip on her, letting her walk out of the kitchen as he followed her close behind.

When they reached the living room, everyone was speaking in a loud, fired-up discussion, oblivious to the two, except for Buffy, who was leaning on the armchair Dawn was sitting on.

“Guys…” Sam tried to call out, but her suddenly weak voice didn’t have much effect on the small crowd. She whirled around with hopeful eyes and quipped: “They’re too busy. I’ll tell them later.” And with a plastic smile she tried to walk away, but the vampire stood his ground and towered over her.

“Hey!” Spike bellowed to the gossiping crowd.

Everyone froze as they turned to look at the vampire.

“Sam wants to say something.” He announced.

They all sat and waited in silence as the redhead sighed loudly before turning around to face them.

“I have a… theory.” She started. “About what’s happening… I mean.”

Silence. She looked up at the vampire who stood next to her and seeing the resolve in his eyes she made a painful face before continuing:

“Has anyone here ever heard of parallel universes?” She asked.

“Sure. It’s this theory that says there are various other universes where we make other choices and consequentially we lead completely different lives.” Willow explained.

“Exactly. For every choice you make in your life, another universe is created, a parallel universe, where you chose one of the other options you had.” Seeing the frown on Xander’s face she exemplified: “Say you woke up today and had to choose between a sandwich and a cookie, and you chose the sandwich, in another universe you chose a cookie, and in another you chose not to eat at all. Basically, if you consider how many people there are in the world and how many there were, you’ll figure out there is a myriad, an infinite number of parallel universes.” Sam clarified.

“Like the time Cordy wished Buffy had never come to Sunnydale.” Willow noted.

Everyone in the room eyed Anya.

“What?! It was my job!” The ex-demon defended herself.

Realizing his fiancée was the focus of negative attention, Xander tried to change the topic of conversation.

“So what does that have to do with what’s happening?”

“Well, what if instead of time shifting, what was happening were junctions of different universes.”

The confused look on everyone told her she had to elaborate on the subject.

“Like different dimensions coming together, except its not dimensions but different universes. Something might be causing the various universes to get mixed up, entangling them like twining vines until you can’t tell which is your universe.” The redhead explained.

“Is that even possible?” Dawn asked.

“So what I saw in my room was a Willow from a parallel universe? But, she looked exactly like our Willow. She had on exactly the same clothes and all.” Buffy spoke as she tried to ignore the knot that formed in her stomach from seeing Spike and the redhead standing together.

“Probably the choice that Willow made was a very small one. Maybe it was coming to see you a few minutes after our Willow came into your room.” Sam shrugged.

“A-and the woman we saw, the difference was that she didn’t break her glasses.” Tara exclaimed.

“Probably.” Sam brought her lips together.

“So the place where we were was a parallel universe? A place where I didn’t stop Glory from opening the portal? Where Dawn…” Buffy swallowed hard as she looked at her younger sister.

“Who knows? Maybe you weren’t even there. Maybe in that place you never really existed and Dawn was never even created. The Key was something else and Glory managed to find it and open the gate.” Sam offered.

“Man, that’st cst creepy.” Xander spoke.

Anya lifted her hand shyly and the redhead nodded giving her permission to speak.

“So… let’s suppose this universe momentarily merges with another… If I eat a sandwich that is from the other universe… do I gain weight?”

Everyone frowned and looked questioningly at the ex-demon.

“What? It’s a perfectly legitimate question!” Anya defended herself as she looked at Sam for the answer.

Bringing her eyebrows high on her forehead and setting her lips in a straight line she answered as she shook her head slightly:

“I have absolutely no idea.”

“See, if I eat while the universes are entangled the sandwich will pass through me, but…” The ex-demon raised her index finger as she triumphantly made her point “the moment the universes disentangle… the sandwich should just disappear from within me and appear in the other universe out of nowhere. Just plop on the floor in the middle of whatever street I am. Just a green, slobbery, munched up sandwich dropping out of nothing.”

As she listened to the twisted theory, Sam’s face slowly started to curl into a painful expression of disgust as the images coming from the ex-demon flashed before her eyes.

“Can we please change the subject?” Willow intervened pleadingly.

“My vote on that one would be a loud and resounding yay!” Dawn agreed.

“S-so… What do we do now?” Tara asked.

Buffy uncrossed her arms and stood up straight.

“I guess we research for anything that can cause the universes to get all mix-y.”

~++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++~

Dawn dropped her dead weight on the couch and it screeched under the sudden burden.

“God, I’m tired!” She breathed as she stared up at the ceiling.

“Don’t get comfy, we’ve got to get things cleaned up.” Buffy warned as she began to pick up one of the many cups of coffee left on the table.

“Can’t. Sleeping now.” Dawn muttered, quickly closing her eyes.

“Dawn…”

“I’m not the Dawn of this universe. I come from a parallel universe where I never went to a bachelor party, hence I don’t have to clean up.” The young girl explained.

“Dawn!” Buffy warned her.

Sighing the brunette stood up and dragged her feet into the kitchen; her hands filled with mugs.

“It’s not fair.” She grumbled.

“Nothing is.” Buffy replied as she turned on the water and began to wash the cups.

“Wasn’t Sam just amazing today?” Dawn spoke enthusiastically as she took the towel in her hand and began to dry the mugs that were handed to her by her sister. “I mean, coming up with that whole… Universe thing was just…” The brunette widened her eyes to emphasize her words.

“I guess.e Sle Slayer reluctantly admitted.

“She’s just so cool. I’m glad Spike’s got such a cool girlfriend, he-“ she stopped in mid sentence as the cup that Buffy was handing her slipped from her big sister’s hands and fell to the floor, shattering to pieces.

“Damn it!” Buffy cursed, picking up the broken item.

“Are you ok?” Dawn asked concerned crouching next to her.

“I’m fine.” The Slayer snapped.

“Oh, right, you’re just a world of fine today.” The brunette mocked sarcastic. “W. “What is it? You don’t like Sam?”

“Like Sam just fine!” The slayer spoke with restrained anger in her voice as she threw the broken pieces into a garbage bag. She stopped for a second, standing up and looking at her sister. “You know what? I hope Spike and her are really happy together. Get married, move to the suburbs, build a house with a stupid picket fence and have lots of horrible little brats, ok?!”

“Gee… Buffy, jealous much?” Dawn asked as her sister walked outside and dropped the bag on the porch.

At her sister’s words she froze and turned around.

“I. Am. Not. Jealous!” She grinded her teeth together and the words barely left her mouth. “What is it with everyone?”

“Whatever…” The teenager sighed, crossing her arms and walking out of the room, leaving her sister planted there, with an angry look on her face.

~+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++~

A loud thud was heard and everyone turned to see Xander’s face pressed between two yellow pages of a book.

“Xander… Wake up.” Anya encouraged him as she patted his back.

He mumbled something incoherent from between the pages as he shook his head.

“Honey…” The ex-demon continued to massage his back as she leaned in and whispered something in his ear.

Immediately, he whipped his head up and looked wide-eyed at everyone.

“I’m up!”

His gaze then fell over his fiancée giving her a wicked smile.

“Erg… I don’t even think it’s legal for me to know what you just told him.” Dawn said as she made an ‘I’m about to puke’ face.

~++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++~

Sam stumbled in her path and made a disgusted face as Spike prepared to open the door to the Magic Box.

“Wha’?” The vampire asked, frowning.

“Just got a flash from Xander.” She muttered in repugnance.

He grinned as he pushed the door open and let Sam walk into the shop.

“It’s not funny.” She sulked. “It’s a curse. ~++ ~++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++~

A rebellion started in Buffy’s stomach as her breakfast decido mao make a run for it and crawl up her oesophagus at the sight of the bleached vampire holding the door open for the redhead. She wore a cute pout on her face while he displayed his usual cocky grin. He was probably teasing her. The Slayer swallowed hard before asking:

“What’s a curse?”

The couple walking into the room exchanged a guilty look and then answered in unison.

“Nothing!”

The perfectly timed reply doubled the pain in her gut and she dropped her gaze to the book in front of her.

“Anything?” Spike asked as he pulled out a chair for Sam to sit on before he took one for himself.

The Slayer’s eyes widened at the sight and Sam got a flash of herself laying face down in a puddle of mud.

“Here we go again…” The redhead thought as the painful images started to assault her mind.

“Nothing.” Willow answered the vampire’s question. “But then again we have just started, so…”

They sat around for hours, going through a mountain of books piled up on top of the wooden table.

“I give up! There is nothing here.” Xander stated between loud sighs.

“You give up? You haven’t even started. You’ve been skimming through the books just looking at the pretty pictures the whole time.” Spike grumbled, his eyes never leaving the leather covered volume he held in his hands.

“Hey!” The young man started to protest when he felt someone kick him in the shin under the table. “Double hey!” he added looking at Anya.

“What?” The ex-demon asked innocently.

Xander leaned in to whisper in her ear:

“Why are you taking his side?”

“Because we like him.” She answered as her index moved between the two of them alternating between pointing at herself and at her fiancée.

“Since when do *we*” Xander imitated her motion. “Like him?”

“Since he’s started dating Sam.” Anya replied matter-of-factly.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, they are the only couple we know, besides Willow and Tara, and they don’t count because they are gay. We need to hang out with couples. It’s important for the stability of our relationship, it helps to solidify emotional bonding it if we interact with other couples and find common interests with them.”

“Says who?” The young man asked in disbelief.

“Cosmopolitan.” Anya answered matter-of-factly, her eyes never leaving the book she held.

“We have to be nice to Spike because some magazine says so?” Xander asked in disbelief.

“Yes and... Well, I like Sam. She understands me. We have girl-talks.” The ex-demon pouted. “So if she likes Spike, then we like Spike. We can even go on a double date.”

“What?!” Xander bawled a bit louder.

Everyone around the table looked at him and the young man gave them his best “I’m sorry” look. Their gazes dropped back to theks tks they all held and Xander whispered once again:

“We are not going on a double date! I am *not* going on a double date with Spike.” He grumbled.

Anya however, ignored him and continued to flip through the eggshell coloured pages.

“I’m done with this one.” Spike said as he threw the book onto the table and leaned back on the chair.

“Well, there are a few other volumes of that collection in the back row, top self.” Anya informed and the vampire gave her a look, but didn’t say anything as he stood up and disappeared behind a wall of books.

After a few seconds a noisy thud was heard followed by an equally loud string of British curses.

“Will someone give a hand back here? Bloody hell.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy noticed Sam shuffle in her seat, preparing to stand. As if she had been burnt, the Slayer immediately rose from her chair; all eyes were on her. Awkwardly, and stumbling on her own feet, the blond stuttered as she pointed with her thumb over her shoulder:

“I-I’ll go and… help.”

With that she whirled around to disappear behind the bookshelves. She took a deep breath once she was out of sight, trying hard to relax. But her heart leaped to her throat as she saw the familiar vampire crouching, with his back turned to her as he clumsily tried to pick up the books, which were splayed on the wooden floor. She chocked back a nervous laugh and mentally kicked herself for feeling so helpless around him. ‘This is Spike, there is no reason for you to get all nervous and sweaty.’“It’“It’s not funny, freckles.” Spike protested as he finally managed to stand up, holding all the books against his chest. “It’s not funny at…” he stopped briefly as he saw Buffy standing in front of him. “Oh, it’s you.”

She cringed a bit as she misinterpreted his surprise for disappointment.

“I thought you were…”

“Sam.” She completed his sentence.

“Yeah.” He answered, trying hard to keep his nervousness from his voice. It happened every single time he saw her, even more so when he saw her in unexpected situations, this strange knot in his stomach taunting him, crawling up to his throat and making it almost impossible to speak. He swallowed hard, causing his Adam’s apple to bob and revealing his unease.

“So… Freckles… it’s her… pet name?” The words seemed to cut their way up to her mouth as she said them.

“Yeah. She has these cute little spots on her nose…” He explained trying to point at his own nose but failing as he tried to hold onto the books. “She hates them, so I tease her about it.”

Silence settled between them, making them extremely uncomfortable. Suddenly, something snapped inside of the Slayer, she couldn’t really tell what had caused it, maybe it was the way he had said that word… cute, or maybe it was just all the pent up emotions she had been feeling lately but she blurted out:

“Are you two dating?” The moment she spoke the words, she regretted them, wishing she could take them back as she felt the blood rush to her face.

He opened his mouth in what looked more like a natural surprise-driven action than actually an attempt to answer her, but before he could say or do anything she was already vehemently shaking her hand and her head excusing herself: “Sorry, I-I shouldn’t have…I have nothing to do… I’m sorry!” the added nervousness didn’t help, causing her to stumble over all the words that flooded her mind.

Instead of saying anything else that would probably worsen the situation, she opted for making herself useful by reaching for the books he was holding. However, her racing heart and adrenaline packed limbs easily led to a miscalculation of her movements and as a result the heavy volumes were now once again covering the floor.

“I-I’m sorry.” She stammered once more as she kneeled down at the same time as the vampire did and began to pick up the books.

Suddenly, in another abrupt mood swing, she dropped the leather-covered volumes and looked up at the crouching blond in front of her.

“You know what? I’m not sorry.” She said with resolve in her voice.

“You’re not?” He questioned as an eyebrow instinctively shot up his forehead.

“No.”

“For dropping the books or for asking if I was…” He suggestively tilted his head toward the table behind the bookshelves.

“For… Why are you with her?” She asked with conviction.

He could see the mixture of fear and doubt in her eyes as she stared bravely at him.

“Well, because she’s… It’s…” The vampire struggled to find an explanation as to why he was with Sam. Truth was he didn’t really know. She had come to him one night and told him that she was… well, basically his guardian angel from Hell and that from that moment onward he would have to put up with her. But he couldn’t tell the Slayer that, he wasn’t allowed. “It’s… complicated.”

“Complicated?” She repeated a bit sceptical.

He noticed her bringing her lips together and swallowing hard before she blurted out:

“Do you like her?”

“Well…” He stopped in mid sentence as they both heard a shuffling sound coming from behind Buffy.

In a blink of an eye, the two were standing, the books forgotten on the floor as they turned to find the oddest creature they had ever seen staring back at them.

About twenty inches tall, the short demon was very thin. Its legs were extremely short, while its scrawny arms were long and slender and as a result of the odd combination its three fingered hands hovering over just over the floor. The slimy substance that covered its entire body gave his skin a shiny wet look. On his face two large eyes smiled at them when he suddenly raised his skinny hand and waved it at them.

“Hi!” It greeted them as his mouth widened in a grin that revealed his total lack of teeth.

To Be Continued...