You Mean The World To Me

Chapter Eighteen


*Flashback**

"Spike, do you ever miss your family and friends?"She asked, breaking the silence that had been comfortably between them as they lay under the blanket of stars on a nearby pier. The lapping of the waves against the posts had been the only noise for about a half hour.

He continued to stare up at the sky as he answered. "Yes, at times. I don't try to think about it too much."

"Did you want to turn your family after you were?"

"No. Soul or no, I didn't want to do that."

"If you could have turned one, who would it have been?"

"My mother. She was my best friend."

"Is my mom anything like her? Is that why you love my mom so much?"

Spike nodded. "She's very much like my mother."

"Maybe she was, maybe she was reincarnated. That would make me your sister."

He smiled. "Maybe not then."

"Wouldn't it be cool if we knew each other?"

"Before or after I was turned?"

"Any time. I could have been someone you passed by on the street, or met someplace. A nameless random person. Maybe subconsciously we clicked because we knew it."

"Given this a lot of thought, have you?" He asked, turning his head to look at her.

She smiled. "Wouldn't it be cool though?"

"Something tells me that if I knew you, I wouldn't have let you go."

"That's sweet, thank you."

"Just the truth, luv."

"Spike, you could call my mother 'mom' if you wanted. She would love it. She considers you the son she never had."

"Bloody great woman, your mom," Spike whispered, wiping away tears he hadn't known had formed.

She knew though. She scooted herself closer, turned to her side and wrapped an arm across him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You know if you ever want to talk about them, you can. I would love to know more about you back then. About your family and all those people whom you grew up with," she told him.

"Thank you pet."

"I'm glad you were turned, Spike."

"Why's that?"

"Because even if we had met before, we were meant to be together now. You're my best friend and if you hadn't been turned, I might never have known you."

Her words touched him deeply and he let the fat tears drop without care.

"I'm glad Whistler brought you to me. I don't like to think of you all alone aonelonely. Makes me sad."

He was so overwhelmed by the love and care he felt coming for her that he didn't know what to say. That seemed all right by Buffy. She instinctively knew and she hugged him tighter, and left a kiss on his tear- stained cheek. "I won't ever leave you, Spike." She whispered her promise.

**End Flashback**

"Where is my mate?" Spike barged through the door and demanded of Giles.

Giles looked up, startled and then annoyed at Spike. "Excuse me?"

"My mate, where is she?"

Giles frowned, "She told me she was on her way to see you."

"Well, she's not with me!" Spike barked. "I have a bad feeling. I can't tell what?s happening to her."

"I thought the binding was supposed to tell you if she were in danger?"

"It is unless she doesn't feel she is in danger. I won't be able to clearly know until she claims me back. God, I can't tell what's happening to her. I feel her mark calling to me. I got a brief tinge of danger, and then it all but disappeared. I haven't felt her since."

"Perplexing."

"Quite. How long ago did she leave?"

Giles looked up at the clock and paled considerably. "Two hours ago."

Spike bolted out the door, Giles following close behind.

Spike was concentrating, sending out his feelers and calling to her mark. He was getting a fuzzy message if best. It was frustrating him and worrying him. He started and stopped many times on the path he felt she was at. Giles seemed to understand that now was not the time to speak and instead followed Spike as best he could. Spike knew the man was worried himself.

Then Spike was able to pick up the scent of his mate and the signal. He also picked up the familiar scent of the woman he had spent over a century with. The same woman Buffy asked him about, the same woman he had left ong ong ago. He nearly choked on what he would find. Standing before a crypt, he turned to Giles.

"What is it?" Giles whispered.

Spike put up his hand to silence him. He gestured for Giles to stay put and Giles adamantly shook his head. Spike nodded and Giles still refused. Seeing this was a losing battle, he pointed the pentacle Giles wore. Giles nodded, seeming to understand Spike meant for him to use it as protection.

Spike opened the crypt door and nearly ret at at the sight before him as Giles screamed "Buffy, Stop!"

There she was, laying on the cold crypt floor, bloody and beaten. In her hand she held a knife and she held it to her forearm, cutting herself. She was halfway up, when Spike sprinted across the room and grabbed the knife from her. She passed out and Spike let out a battle cry.

"Oh, Spikey. You came too early. Didn't let mommy finish gutting your sweet pixie like a fish." Drusilla, in all her regal morbidness stood before him with a twisted smile on her pretty face.

"Why--how?" He managed to sputter.

"I missed you, my boy. I heard you were fighting demons with your shiny new soul. Heard you were taking up with a witch, helping her. I had to come and right that wrong."

Spike nodded, "you're right, " T" The words choked him. He knelt down to his mate and took in her state. She needed a hospital. A sob choked him and he turned to Dru.


"You put her in a thrall."

Dru nodded. "I did. Not easy to do with that one. Let me finish her off, Spikey. Then we go away again. Together."

Spike shook his head. "The way it was always meant to be?"

"Of course my love."

Spike stood and slowly made his way to her. He forced a small smile and prowled over to her.

She smiled broadly as he did so. "Will you let me finish? Will you run with me, my love?"


He nodded slowly and opened his arms. Dru gleefully flew into them. She purred against his neck and Spike nodded to Giles. Giles came out of his stupor of the spectacle before him and threw Spike a stake. With a swift flick of his wrist, Spike slammed the stake into his ex and watched her body dissolve into dust. Quickly, he turned and Giles joined him on the floor next to Buffy.

"Buffy, talk to me, pet. Please talk to me, luv." Spike said softly as he checked for a heartbeat. It was faint, but there.

"Hospital," Giles managed to croak.

As gently as he could, Spike swung her into his arms and whispered soothing words and words of love to her as he carried her to Giles's car. Tears fell freely from his eyes and he made no notice of them as he beheld her broken, bloody body. He prayed for the first time in a long time to whatever God/dess would listen to him.

At the hospital, he flatly refused to leave her side and stayed in the room never taking his eyes off her. The nurses watched him sympathetically. She needed stitches, blood and fluids. In his haze he heard the doctor and Giles speak. He knew the doctor wanted to know how it happened and Giles quickly came up with a story. Spike didn't even care, all he cared about was his sweet girl. She had to stay over night and Spike told the doctor he was staying. When he protested, the fangs came out and the doctor sputtered to the nurses to bring in an extra cot. Giles told him it would be difficult come sunup, but Spike didn't care. Giles shut the curtains and watched as his witch lay in a deep sleep, an IV hooked up to her, stitches up her arm, bruises covering her other arm, and a black eye. He watched as her mate sobbed against the hand he held, all the while whispering how much he loved her, needed her and couldn't make un life without her. Giles stayed until Spike fell into restless sleep and allowed himself the cry he had been holding in for Buffy and her mate.

TBC.....