Solace

Title: Solace

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: S/W

Summary: We find comfort in the strangest of places.

Reviews: I need reviews like I need air. They help to inspire me! So please leave your comments, good, bad, or indifferent.

Random Quote: Comfort is the only thing our civilization can give us. ~Oscar Wilde

Disclaimer: I don’t own them I’m just playing with them a little bit… Sue me and all you will get is my debt.
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“We need to find out what this thing is! I’m sick of just sitting here!” Buffy yelled as she slammed her hand down on the table at the Magic Box.

“Buffy would you please just calm down? We are doing the best we can perhaps if you could give a better description…” Giles interjected trying to calm the slayer.

“I told you big, green, slimy, and nasty I really don’t know what else you want me to tell you. This thing is out there and we are just sitting here.” Buffy paced, “that’s it I’m going patrolling.”

“Do you really think that’s wise? This this what ever it is almost killed you the last time.” Giles sighed.

“Buffy, Giles has a point.” Willow chimed in, “We don’t know what it is capable of and…”

“Fine I’ll be in the back call me if you have anything.” With that Buffy grabbed her jacket and headed for the training room.

Willow sighed setting her book down on the table. “Giles I think we need help. I’m going to go talk to Spike he usually has some pretty good information.”

“For payment. The bleached-wonder isn’t just going to help you.” Xander chimed in as he looked up from his book for the first time.

“I have cookies. He likes my cookies.”

“Please tell me you were talking about the chocolate chip type of cookie goodness, right Wills?”

“Oh! Eww yes! Cookies! Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies!” Willow stuttered as she pulled a large zip lock bag of cookies from her messenger bag.

“Oh good I thought for a minute that you had lost your mind Wills. This is Spike after all.” Xander nodded and went back to reading his book.

Willow sighed as she left the Magic Box. The walk to Spike’s crypt was uneventful. The sun was still high enough to ensure that the resident vampires would still be sleeping. She passed several newly dug graves and sighed, she knew the new inhabitants would be rising again soon. Sometimes she really hated living on the Hellmouth.

Willow knocked on the crypt door. She hoped he was not still asleep, she really did not want to be rude and wake him. She waited for a few moments and knocked again.

“Bugger off!” came the crass answer from inside.

Willow frowned and then put on her resolve face. She pushed open the door and walked into the dimly lit room. She looked around not seeing the body the voice belonged to. The crypt was darker than normal and she noted that it was in a shambles. Chairs were toppled over and the TV was broken. Panic filled her as she walked closer to the hole in the center of the floor.

“What part of bugger off can’t you understand Slayer?”

“Umm Spike?”

“Oi! Red?... Bugger off.”

“Would you please stop saying that? Where are you? What happened here?” She could hear him moving around in the lower level. She shrugged as stared down the ladder.

She reached the bottom of the ladder and looked around. None of the candles were lit. It was like being in the bowels of the earth with no way to surface. She almost turned and went back up the ladder to wait for Spike but she did not. There were things that needed done.

“Iluminar” she whispered and a small glowing orb appeared before her. As she walked it lit the way around the lower level of the crypt. She could hear Spike moving but every time she would get close to where she had heard him he would already be gone. Her level of frustration was growing and as it did the green of her eyes was taken over by black. As she let out a growl of agitation the small glowing orb exploded, lighting all of the candles that surrounded the lower level of the crypt. “Opps.”

“Come to laugh ‘ave you?”

She heard his voice but still could not see him, even with all of the light. “Umm no I brought cookies?”

“Whipping boy was late, come to laugh at his misery?”

“Spike I have no idea what you are talking about. I came to ask you about a demon and give you cookies.”

“What kind?”

“Of demon or cookie?”

“Cookies first demon later.”

“Oatmeal chocolate chip.” Willow dug in her bag revealing the large zip lock bag of cookies. She held them up hoping that where ever he was he could see the large bag of cookies. “All of these are for you if you want them.”

“Not here to laugh then?”

“No Spike. Please come out, you are kind of making me uncomfortable.”

Slowly Spike stepped forward. He had been pressed against the fall back wall where the candle light did not reach. When Willow saw him her breath caught in her throat. His body was covered in bruises, his left eye so swollen it refused to open. He favored his right leg and even through the jeans Willow could see swelling around the left knee. He held his right arm still, pressing it against his bare chest.

“Oh Goddess Spike.” Willow whispered, as the cookies slipped from her hands and landed on the dirty crypt floor. “What did this too you? Was it the demon?”

Spike lowered his eyes to the ground, “A demon, not the one you are looking for I’d wager.”

Willow rushed over to Spike and helped him to the bed. She pulled her bag off her shoulder and sat it next to him. She knelt down and started rummaging throw its contents. “Are you allergic to beeswax, cream, comfrey oil, or tea-tree oil?”

Spike chuckled then grabbed his side, “Luv I’m dead, don’t have any allergies.”

“Oh right heh sorry I forgot.” She smiled as she held out a small jar filled with a thick white cream. She unscrewed the top and generously applied the salve to all of Spike’s visible wounds. “When was the last time you ate?” She asked as she placed the jar on a small table next to his bed.

He looked at her with confusion, “Why are you helping me?”

“It’s the right thing to do?” She shrugged and grabbed the discarded cookies. She handed him the bag and smiled. “Besides you like my cookies.”

“That I do luv. Can’t eat ‘em right now but that doesn’t mean I won’t.” He took the bag from her and placed it on the bed next to him. He watched with a cocked eyebrow as Willow pulled two more jars from her bag and without a word headed back up the ladder.

She returned a few minutes later with a warm mug of blood. She handed it to Spike who sniffed it then looked at her in confusion. “I mixed ginger and green tea to help with the healing, plus it should add some good flavor to the blood.” She gave a soft smile.

He gulped down the meal then licked his lips. He could feel his injuries as they mended. The little witch had sped his healing process up by at least a day. “Thanks luv.” He grunted as he pulled himself to rest against the headboard of his bed.

Willow nodded. “I left the herbs upstairs with a note for measurements if you I mean you could use it some more I guess. I have more of the salve so umm I could leave that one if you want me too.”

“That be good.” Spike smiled he grabbed a cookie from the bag and slowly eat it. His eyes glazed over as if in deep thought.

Willow sat quietly on the end of the bed watching him. Whatever had gotten to him had to be a seriously strong and pissed off demon. She had not seen him this messed up since Glory had used him as a punching bag.

“Do us a favor?”

“Sure Spike what is it?”

“Don’t walk home alone at night anymore, yeah?”

“What?”

“The last two nights you’ve been walking alone. Stop it.” He looked at her irritation danced in his visible blue eye.

“How did you know? Were you following me?” Tears glistened in the corners of her eyes, “did this happen because of me?”

“Yes and no. I followed you waited for you to get snug in your bed before I left I did. But this happened after you were in blissful slumber. Not your fault Red, mine.”

She nodded then looked back up at him, “What did this to you? Was it big, green, and slimy?”

He snorted with amused annoyance, “not hardly.” He grabbed another one of the cookies, “So is big, green, and slimy what you came to ask me about?”

“You’re avoiding.”

“Am not, just ‘ave no urge to talk about it is all.”

“But what if whatever got you is out there and …”

“It won’t trust me. Big, green, and slimy sounds like it could be a D’rave’g’na demon, then again it could be Slimer from Ghostbusters, either way that’s all I’ve got.”

“Ok, Spike?” Willow stood to leave, her eyes fixed on the ground.

“Yeah?”

“You know where to find me if this demon should come back.” She grabbed his empty blood mug and headed upstairs. She stopped on her way to the fridge and turned to the main crypt. She waved her hand, “Limpar e fixar.” The room shimmered as objects righted themselves and broken vases rebuilt. The TV flickered back to life and the sound of the opening credits to Passions erupted from the speakers.

“Oi Red what did you do?” Spike called from the bottom of the ladder, looking up at her.

“Just cleaned up a bit.” Her smile twinkled in her eyes and Spike cocked an eyebrow at her.

“What did Glenda tell you about using too much magic?” He grunted as he pulled himself through the opening.

“She’s not here now is she?” Willow’s green eyes were kissed with black before fading back to green.

“Right then off you go. Passions is on.”

Willow smiled before waving good-bye. She needed to get back to the Magic Box to tell the group what she had found out. Hopefully the D’rave’g’na demon was the one that Buffy saw. Then once they got this figured out she could get back to Spike to check on him and maybe get him to tell her about the demon that had gotten to him.