Welcome to the Hellmouth

The Deal


“And it was that easy?” Joyce asked incredulously after Buffy finished her tale of how she had first encountered Wesley.

“Truth,” said the former slayer, “is way stranger than fiction. I know it seems easy and weird, but that’s how it happened. Of course, I didn’t know until later that he was borderline obsessed with me, but I kind of figured when he agreed so willingly. I’d actually been trying to find an ex-watcher to help me out. I asked one, but she refused.”

“If you knew he wouldn’t help you cure… Angelus, was it… why would you even ask?”

“Even after I was turned, I killed other vamps, demons, all that jazz,” Buffy explained. “In the early nineteen-hundreds, I was friendly with a watcher, and he gave me information about upcoming battles. With Wesley, if I knew something that could be of help, I told him and he passed it on to the Council. It was a trade. I never expected him to stay for five years.”

“He’s with Giles,” Spike interrupted, having heard the majority of Buffy’s account. “Da—Giles called Red and Harris to warn them. Red’s working on a way to reverse the invitation so Dru can’t get in. They’re all staying over at Da—Giles’ until she can figure something out.”

“William, he’s your father. If you want to call him Dad, I don’t have a problem with it,” Joyce said sympathetically. Glancing at the clock, she added, “It’s late and a school night. You need to get to bed.”

Spike thought to protest, but the weary look in his mother’s eyes silenced him. Nodding, he grabbed his backpack and kissed Joyce’s cheek lightly. “G’night, Mum. Night, Buffy.”

As soon as Spike had left the kitchen, Joyce cupped her forehead and sighed heavily. It was so much so soon… She had expected to have a little more time before the chaos began.

“It’s a lot to deal with,” said Buffy knowingly. “But as hard as it is for you, it’s even harder for him. Believe me, I know.”

“Why did you leave Angelus?” inquired Joyce, suddenly worried. Buffy seemed so devoted to him, yet she had left – it was suspicious, to say the least.

“Good question. He had me under his thrall – that’s kind of like hypnosis – and when Dru lost her soul, he must have been so excited that he let up on it. I didn’t matter anymore.” Her voice thickened with emotion when she realized exactly how unimportant she was to him.

“Well… I don’t really know if I should be sorry or not,” Joyce replied honestly.

“Don’t be,” Buffy told her. “I wouldn’t be here otherwise. You should get some sleep, Joyce. I’ll watch for anything unusual, but I really don’t think Dru would try anything now.”

Setting her empty mug in the sink to wash in the morning, Joyce then did something that shocked the former slayer into speechlessness. She hugged her briefly and kissed her temple the way she did William. “Good night, Buffy, and thank you for all you’ve done for William and me.”

“I-it was nothing,” she stammered, eyes wide as she watched Joyce climb the stairs. For a moment, she allowed herself to imagine that her own mother was still alive; her mother had been a lot like Joyce. Shaking her head as though the act would clear her mind, Buffy retreated to the living room to listen for any sound of a would-be intruder, her hand curled around a wooden stake.

Thirty minutes later, the blonde vampire heard footfalls, and she shot to her feet instinctively only to realize that it was only Spike. He must have been waiting for his mother to fall asleep before sneaking out of bed again. She returned to the couch and inclined her head in greeting when the slayer took a seat beside her.

“Mum’s asleep,” he offered in explanation, running his fingers through disheveled hair.

Unlike Drusilla, who would have told him he needed to be asleep as well, Buffy merely shrugged and lit a cigarette. “I figured you’d be back.”

“Can’t sleep.”

“I don’t blame you.”

“Do you think she’ll hurt them?” he asked worriedly.

Shaking her head, the former slayer replied confidently, “I think I won’t let her.”

At length, he admitted, “I know it’s pathetic, but I miss her.

“It’s not pathetic,” Buffy said gently. “I miss Angelus. I think a part of us will always miss them because they’ve shaped us in some way. They’re a part of our past, and that will never change.”

“I hate it.”

“You’d be a moron if you didn’t.”

“A moron or a masochist, haven’t decided which.”

“You’re not stupid, Spike. I said you would be if you didn’t hate this mess. I’ve spent a lot of time watching slayers to see how different they are from me, and you’re the smartest I’ve seen.”

“I’m not smart,” Spike retorted. “Resourceful, yeah, but not smart.”

“Jeez, take a compliment.”

“I’m not used to hearin’ them.”

“I figured, but I don’t get it. You’ve got the greatest mom in the world, you have Giles, and you have friends… I never had friends.”

“Slayers aren’t supposed to, but I’ve never been one for followin’ rules. For once, I wish to God I’d listened. My friends could die because of me, because I couldn’t keep it in my pants.”

“You didn’t know what would happen. Not even Wesley did, and he’s the smartest man I’ve ever met.”

Laughing bitterly, the slayer lit a cigarette of his own and answered, “It’s still me… my doin’. You said Dru killed your family and your watcher; you know how it feels.”

“That’s why we’re going to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to you,” Buffy said firmly. “You don’t have anyone holding you back the way Angelus did me, that’s why we’re going to beat her.”

“You mean kill her?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready… Could you kill Angelus?”

“If I have to,” she vowed. “If I have to kill him, I will.”

“I could do it,” he mused aloud, “and you could kill Dru.”

Buffy extended a small hand. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

Spike took the offered hand and shook it firmly before responding. “Deal.”