Memory Redux

Chapter 21, Infy
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One moment she was looking at Whistler’s face and the next she was in a foggy white room, pillars you would expect to see in Rome and a man and woman dressed in togas. A man and a woman whose looks shouted ATTITUDE. All important, god like, yada, yada, yada.

The woman spoke first. “What gives you the right to demand an audience with us?”

Buffy put her hands on her hips, adopting her own arrogant stance. “Oh, let me think. How about I am your most successful and longest lived slayer.”

Mr. Stern Face shook his head. “If you have come about your wish…”

“Aaaannn, wrong answer. Actually the way the wish turned out is fine with me. Yeah, who’d a thought? But I’m here to renegotiate my chosen one contract.”

“What contract? There is no such contract.”

‘Gotcha,’ Buffy thought. “Exactly. I just did the slaying gig with no payment. And I don’t mean money. So if you want me to go on saving the world from going to hell in a hand basket, we need to work out some terms.”

“What gives you the right to demand payment from us?”

“Is that all you can say?” Buffy adopted her best falsetto. “What gives you the right to demand…blah, blah…”
Switching back to her own major league attitude, Buffy continued. “Besides, you gotta be joking. Oh, my bad. You two don’t look like you even know what a joke is. And the right? I think saving the world all those times and killing so many big bads gives me the right. Namely, the Master, twice if you count his rrectrection I broke up. Angelus, I even sent Angel to hell to take out Acatha. The Mayor, Adam, Glory and my personal hatred, the First Evil. I think that gives me the r to to bargain. If you want your MVP back playing for the team, there’s going to be some give and take on both sides. And did I mention that you had to give a guarantee like in writing that you other worldly types can’t welch on.”

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Six days later, Spike is standing at his window overlooking the cemetery, watching it come to life as the sun rose. Squirrels, birds, and other animals moving around the dew covered grass, trees, and leaves. He had been looking out at the same scene most of the time lately. Getting up from bed, throwing on a pair of silk pajama bottoms, and standing at the window, not seeing the tableau outside but going through his memories over and over. He stood for hours before having a shower and some blood before going to work. That’s what he did. There was one other thing that took up most of his day. He waited for Whistler’s visit to take away his memories.

The first couple of nights, he hadn’t been able to sleep, he could smell her on the bed, all over the room, and just tossed and turned. The next he finally fell asleep on the couch. And last two nights, he worked through the nights and was so exhausted at dawn that he could fall asleep in his bed again. But after his job the night before, he got home early, around 3 AM, fell asleep but woke back up at dawn.
When he wasn’t lost in his memories, his thoughts were going round and around in circles. He cursed himself for setting himself up for this fall. He knew that he should not have ever any contact with Beth. He hadn’t made the first contact, but he should have made sure that it was the last. Then he would think that he hadn’t set himself up for a fall but for a blessing. Blessed that she had a little jog of memory so that she walked into that music store that fateful day. Then his thought continued on its circle. He rejoiced in that he had the opportunity to love both Buffy and Beth. At first he had seen them as opposite but that wasn’t true. He knew Buffy with glimpses of Beth, and Beth with glimpses of the slayer. But he had lost her for the second time in his existence. Lost her again, and she lost her ideal life. That brought him back again to cursing himself for setting himself up for that fall and also for setting Buffy up for her fall back to the dark side of life.

Still looking out the window, he was stunned by an intense flash of white light, bright enough that he took a step back and was briefly blinded. Since the flash was sudden and unexpected, it took him a few seconds to figure out the origin of the light. His first thought was that it was from outside, assuming it was a bolt of lightening. But no, the sky was clear and rain wasn’t even forecasted for the rest of the week. So if not outside that only left that the flash had come from within his loft. Spike spun on his heels, instinctually taking up a defensive stance. Not given the time to consider possible sources inside for such a light, the last thing he expected to see was Buffy standing on the coffee table, wobbling precariously on her feet. The stun caused hesitation so as he lunged, she fell onto the sofa before he could reach her. When he did make it to Buffy, he helped her up into a sitting position on the sofa and took a seat on the coffee table facing her. Her closed legs were between his spread ones, but they weren’t touching, much to Buffy’s chagrin.

Buffy shook the pieces of paper she was holding at the ceiling. “You did that on purpose. nguinguin with one wing would land better than that.” Then she tilted her head back down to look at Spike. Her smile lit up the room. “Hi.”

Spike’s only reply was to blink a few times as if trying to focus his eyes.

“Earth calling Spike. Hellloooo.”

“Hello,” Spike replied but lapsed back into staring. He didn’t even have a guess on what was going on. All he knew for sure was that Buffy was sitting in front of him, and she was holding two sheets of paper.

“Ok, one word. Simple, concise. I can work with that.” She reached out and grabbed one of his hands and pulled him towards her until they were almost nose to nose. “Hi.” And she tilted her head to kiss him on the lips and then pulling back a few inches so she could see him better. She laid her hand on the side of his face. “I’m sorry.”

His brows drew together as he moved further back away from her until he was sitting up straight. “For what?”

“we’rwe’re up to two words.” Buffy teased as she pulled him back near her. “Come back here. I’m sorry for running away from you in the cemetery. You would think I was on Sunnydale’s track team as many times as you’ve seen me run away from you. I’ve got to admit last night was pretty overwhelming, but regardless, I don’t want to run away anymore. The Buffy track season is officially over.”

“Six nights.”

“Huh?” Well, she hadn’t been expecting those two words.

“You’ve been gone six nights.” Spike was having a very hard time figuring out what the bloody hell was going on. For now, he would just stick to being freaked that she was there.

“Aaahh. Five words this time. Definite improvement. And six nights? Again, huh? It felt like the same night for me.” When Spike looked even more freaked out, she decided to take mercy on him and start explaining. “I guess I will do the talking. But first…” She leaned forward to kiss him again and was happy to feel some participa thi this time. When she pulled back to look into his face, he was smiling a small smile and she teased, “I knew I could get a smile.”

Hearing the words he had said to her so long ago in Sunnydale finally shook him out of his daze. “Buffy…you remember…Beth? Buffy memories?”

“Yes to both. I have Buffy memories and Beth memories all mixy in here.” She point to her head. “Confusing but good. I remember being the slayer, and I remember being a normal girl, too. And before I go any further, relax. I’m glad that I remembered my true past, and I’m glad I remember the new li was was given. I was happy I got to know you, all the parts of you that I had refused to see before. But, even without the soul, you’re a very strange and loveable vampire.” She shook herself trying to get serious. “Ok, back to the story. I ran from you; I ran to my car and drove off. I know no shock there. Before I could even start the engine, Whistler was sitting in the passenger seat. He talked…I listened…I got mad…I demanded to see the Powers That Be, mys An And boom, I was there.”

“You actually talked to them?” Spike couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“More like I yelled at them. They copped an attitude, but I turned out to be the bigger bitch.” Spike opened his mouth to comment, but Buffy waved him off. “But wait, let me get to the good part, which was when we started the negotiations. Can you believe it? Buffy the negotiation girl.” Buffy abruptly stood up. “Do you have something to drink? I haven’t had anything to drink for six days.” She made a Beth like giggle at her own joke.

When she started to head for the kitchen, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back down on the sofa. “Negotiations with the Power That Be? For what?” How could he actually understand less than before.

“I made an educated guess that they wanted me back on the job. Why else would they let me even talk to them? As Whistler said, ‘the Powers That Be are leaving it up to you to decide what you want to do about slaying’ Yeah, right! They were ablyably celebrating when my memory came back completely.”

“Buffy, you know I didn’t try to…”

She laid her finger tips against his lips. “I know you didn’t. I know you tried to protect me from remembering. It was me that kept pushing, which Whistler not so gently pointed out. By the way, where the DeSoto?”

“In storage.”

“What about the duster?”

“With the car.”

“I knew you kept them,” she said as she gave him a cocky grin but was not able to keep her mind on track when touching him. So she stood up and started walking around the room. “Ok, back to explaining about the contract the way the lower being wanted.”

That word “contract” made him start to worry. Contract with higher beings were rarely worked out well for the lower beings.

“As I thought, they want me back fighting the good fight, but they can’t make me. What, through the council which is back again in this reality? I had already quit the council before it blo blown up and the Hellmouth in Sunnydale closed. I won’t work for them again. So we made a deal, but there had to be some ground work first. Mom, Dawn, and Tara stay alive. Ms. Calendar is added back to this world and stays that way. I couldn’t believe I pulled that one off for Giles. I know that make things a little wonky, but that’s the PTB’s problem, not mine, and they didn’t look too worried. All the Scoobies will have both sets of memories just like you and me. Little tricky with Dawn’s fake memories but again, they can deal. But I am forgetting the best part; you get to keep your memories of your years in Sunnydale even though I lost my wish from contact with you. Whistler said that with no memory of me or Sunnydale, you would go back to Drusilla. So not happening letting her have you back.”

“Ok, on to the more give and take stuff. On their side, they will start creating new slayers like they did before the fight with the first evil. On my part, I will help train any new slayers, and then will consult on some important occasions. Second, I would help out with any major hot spots of demon activity that may develop. But they have to be uber major. But, and a very important but, I would have a life outside of slaying. Slaying would be just on the side now.”

Buffy hesitated for a second. Even though he knew that Spike was happy about mom, Dawn and Tara, she knew from his tense posture that he wasn’t too happy with the contract so far. Unfortunately, he would most likely go ballistic on the next one. “Next. In exchange for the slaying stuff, the contract is good for an infinite amount of time.” Yes, she was right she thought as he did explode, shooting to his feet. She bet he came up so fast that he actually left the ground for a second.

“What do you mean infinite?” His shouting could probably be heard on tirstirst floor.

Buffy yelled right back. “Shut up and let me finish.”

He was pissed but kept his mouth shut with the muscles in his jaw bulging, and he started pacing. Two signs that he would hear her out but wasn’t happy about it. “Now the rest of the coct gct gets a little dicey.”

“Slayer, don’t push me. How dicey is dicey?”

“I…uh…maybe you should sit down.”

Spike growled. “Not gonna happen.”

“Ok, geez. See I…it’s like this…ah, hell, I did some bargaining for you, too. Hope that’s ok, but I think they wanted you back also.”

He didn’t look too freaked out…yet. “You have to help train slayers, consult, and help with hot spots along with me.”

Spike grinned for only the second time since she had arrived. “Luv, you didn’t have to negotiate that for me. I will go anywhere you go anyway.”

“Whew, good. I thought that might be your answer, but I wasn’t 100% sure. One down. Now this one, promise me that you will listen to all of it before you say anything. In other words, don’t go all ballistic before I am finished. Now promise.”

“Slayer, I know I will regret this, but I promise.”

“Thanks. You remember the infinite part of the contract, right? Well, it applies to you, too. Not the immortal part which you already have, but that forever fighting and helping slayers thing.”

Now that didn’t go over as well as Spike instantly grasped the implication. “So since you are human, and I am a vampire, I have to go on fighting their fight after you are dead? Well, you can just tell them to go fuck themselves, long and slow. When you die, I go to dust, praying, no pleading to be wherever you are in the afterlife. There is no bleedin’ way it will be like last timen yen you died. I won’t go on without you.”

After she had returned from the dead the last time, she had thought as much even though he had never said it. Buffy paused a few seconds so he could calm down. “You promised, you hard headed big mouth. I’m still not finished. I guessed that you thought about my death that way so I didn’t argue the infinite clause when they said it meant that they would make me immortal.”

“Immortal? Like vampires immortal?”

“Yep, like you immortal. Did you get hit on your head while I was upstairs? I decided I like this life thing after all. No more death wish for me and no more expiration date for this slayer. See, there was a certain man who will go unnamed but I will say he gets a little fangy sometimes. He helped me get through that year after I was pulled out of heaven, we were on the outs for a little while, then that same vampire came back and gave me the strength to fight the First Evil and win. Last of all, when my reality changed, he showed me how much fun life can be. Did I mention that one of the things I love best about him is, that he may go away sometimes, but he always came back into my life someway or another.”

Spike smiled hopefully. She used the word love describing him. Buffy not Beth this time.

“But immortal, luv? You don’t know what you are getting into.”

“Dense much? Let’s see. Who do I know that is immortal that I would want to be with? Clem? No. Angel? Ok, that was a bad joke. Sorry. I want to be immortal to be like you, to stay with you because I love you. That’s all I care about.” She raised her hand signaling him to stop as he started to come after her with one of those leers promising the delights he would do with his hands when they touch her. “Let me finish before you decide how happy you are with the deal because the contract still requires your signature.” She closed the distance until she was barely beyond his reach. “Infinity? I also wanted you to be with me. Always.”

“You know I want that, too, Slayer. Now at first I thought the whole Buffy eternity thing was bad news, but now after reading the subtitles, where’s the bloody dilemma?”

“Not a problem really. But...” Buffy could tell that Spike was no longer listening to her.

“Someone is here.” Spike paused and listened intently. “I hear a heartbeat, and it’s not yours, slayer.”

“Maybe someone downstairs didn’t stay dead.”

The joke zoomed right in one ear and out of the other. Spike was all business. “Too close for that. No, he is on this floor.”

TBC