Two vamps, a girl, and a prophecy

Summary: What happens to Spike (and Angel) after ‘Not Fade Away.’
Rating: NC-17 Explicit sexual descriptions (later on), some language.
Pairings: Dawn/Spike, with a small side of Buffy/Xander.
Feedback: Yes, please. This is my first time posting a fic, so be gentle!
Archive? : Ask me first.
Beta: I need one!
Disclaimer: I don’t own ‘em. I’m just borrowing them for a while since Joss isn’t using them anymore.

Chapter 28

“Spike! Calm down!” Dawn shrieked, stumbling to her feet and trying to wrap her arms around him. He ignored her and continued stomping around the room, muttering under his breath. “Spike, please!”

Meanwhile, Xander and Angel burst through the doorway, Xander still holding a bottle of rum, wielding it upside down in a tight grip, seemingly unaware of the clear fluid dripping down his arm. “What is it? What happened? Who…who killed my coffee table?!”

“The Powers that Be wanted to let Dawn die!” Spike hissed, focusing on Willow, still ignoring Dawn’s efforts to calm him.

“So…they attacked…the coffee table?” Angel frowned confusedly at Xander, who shrugged and lowered the bottle.

“Spike! Dawn’s okay, remember?” Buffy approached the enraged vampire with her hands held up in surrender. “She’s fine! She is fine, right?” She turned to Willow.

“She’s fine,” Willow confirmed. Placing her hand gently on Spike’s shoulder as he passed by, she murmured, “I’m sorry it took so long to bring her back, but she really was supposed to die…she actually did die. But that’s when the Lesser Powers decided to step in…”

“You healed her?” Faith piped up suddenly. “Wicked!”

“Will, maybe it would help if you told us how you know all this,” Dawn suggested, wrapping her arms around Spike, who had finally stopped his pacing right in front of her. He slumped into her embrace, wrapping his arms around her waist with a soft growl.

Willow shook her head and slapped herself lightly on the forehead. “I’m sorry! I guess it might help if I told you what happened to me.

“And why the Powers wanted to kill Dawn in the first place,” Angel pointed out.

“Don’t forget my coffee table,” Xander muttered, trying to wring out his sleeve.

“Not on the rug, sweetie,” Buffy sighed, patting him on the back.

“The coffee table has nothing to do with it, you git! I…I’m sorry, I’ll buy you a new one!” Spike grumbled, waving his hand dismissively at Xander.

“I built this coffee table,” The brunet grumbled, rising to his feet and heading for the wreckage.

“Xander, I’d shut up about the fucking coffee table if I were you,” Faith snickered, looking wearily at Spike, who still looked like he might start demolishing more furniture.

“Spike’s not going to break anything else,” Dawn insisted, backing toward the sofa and pulling him down with her. “Are you, honey?”

“I don’t plan to, but I can’t make any promises, luv,” he mumbled.

“People!” Angel barked. “Can someone please explain why the PTB would want to kill Dawn?”

“Well, they weren’t going to kill her…” Willow protested. “They were just going to…let her die. That’s not much better, I guess?” She shrugged sheepishly at Dawn.

“I’m not getting any warm fuzzies over the difference,” Buffy intoned dryly.

“Anyhoo…” Willow shook her head slightly, as if to clear her mind. “The Powers knew about the First’s plan to try to get Dawn to heal Spike. It was obviously hoping that either Spike would live, as according to the prophecy, and he would be devastated over Dawn’s death, or that Spike would die, and we’d all turn on Dawn for killing him, thus tearing the group apart.”

“But, if it hadn’t done anything, he would have died for sure…” Faith blurted suddenly. “So, why’d it bother?”

“Because the First was looking to inflict the most pain possible.” Willow sighed. “If it let the Powers tell you how to save him, and they would have, we would all know that the information had come from the Powers. So, if either of them died, no one would blame anyone but the Powers. It was probably counting on the Powers’ ‘need to know’ policy to keep us from finding out who ‘Skip’ really was. By coming to you first, in the form of someone so obviously evil, it hoped that even if, by some miracle, everyone made it through alive, there would still be fighting between us, weakening the group so it could make another attempt later.” Willow looked around sternly, obviously daring any of them to have the nerve to prove the First right by giving Dawn a hard time. “Now that we know, it should be fairly easy to kill it if it comes back for more.” Rubbing her head irritably, she moaned. “You know, I’ve had a month to think about all this, and it still gives me a headache.”

“So…um…how is it that you were able to save Dawnie?” Buffy asked softly, smiling affectionately at the redhead.

Yawning loudly, Willow shrugged. “It was Tara. Apparently, she’s earned herself a minor goddess-hood,” The redhead’s tone was casual, but she positively beamed as she continued, “The Powers didn’t care what was going on, beyond wanting their champion to live. But some of the lesser, more compassionate gods recognized the cruelty in saving Spike’s life at the expense of his true love’s. Tara rallied some of the others, but they all knew that the Powers wouldn’t allow any of them to…well…slack off on their responsibilities…to intervene. They worked together, covering for Tara so she could…uh…descend…just long enough to come and warn me. I’m no goddess, but she knew I might be able to bring Dawn back from the brink. She helped me…merge…with Dawnie and keep her body alive. I stayed with her for as long as it took for Tara to find and return her soul. Which she just finally managed to do today. She said to tell you she’s sorry it took so long, but she could only look on her time off. Apparently, making sure toddlers don’t break every bone in their body, or burn themselves, is really a full time job.”

“Huh?” Buffy snorted.

“Haven’t you ever noticed how little kids almost seem to bounce sometimes? Or heard a parent talk about their kid mysteriously spilling a cup of coffee on themselves, only to have it turn out to be cold when it was hot only a few seconds before? That’s what Tara does now. Apparently, there’s a whole army of minor gods who try to watch over children.” Willow smiled proudly. “Parents need all the help they can get, you know.” She winked, nodding her head at Buffy’s stomach.

“That’s sweet, but this is ridiculous! The Powers were going to let stuff like that happen right under their noses? And Tara’s a freaking goddess?” Xander laughed loudly. “People don’t just become gods! And why on earth would the First think Dawnie would be stupid enough to fall for a vision from some kind of demon?” Dawn cleared her throat loudly, and he froze. “Uh…I mean…”

“People do ascend to godhood,” Angel muttered. “And it probably knew that Dawnie would believe in Skip because she’s not the first perfectly intelligent woman to listen to him.” He glared at Xander as he spoke, his expression making it perfectly clear that the other man would be wise not to say anything more on the subject.

“Oh…o-okay,” Xander raised his eyebrows and turned questioningly to Willow

She winked and nodded, then turned to Angel, “That reminds me, Angel…Tara said to tell you Cordy says ‘hi,’” She smiled softly as the vampire bit his lip and nodded frantically, wiping his eyes.

“Thanks,” Angel mumbled, finally, his voice slightly strained. Faith looked sideways at him, then reached up to pull him down beside her.

“So…lemme get this straight…” Spike growled. “There’s a prophecy that the Key would die to save its…her soul mate. Me. The Powers knew that the First was out to hurt me in whatever way it could, but they didn’t so much as send me a memo to warn me about it, because they were planning to let Dawn, my soul mate, die to save me. And they expected me to just…what…get over it? So, if it weren’t for you and Glenda, Dawnie would have died for me? Is that right?”

“Uh…y-yes,” Willow nodded, cringing slightly.

Spike narrowed his eyes at her, studying her silently for several minutes as Dawn exchanged nervous glances with Buffy. Xander quickly left his spot near the broken table and moved, rather conspicuously, to sit on the hand carved wooden table beside his favorite chair. Faith and Angel looked at each other and also moved to sit on other small tables around the room. “Hmmm,” Spike murmured finally. “Yeah, that sounds like them, the bastards.” Shaking his head slightly, he turned to Dawn and said, “I don’t know about you, but I’ve had about enough of this shit for one night. Wanna hit the sack?”

“But, Spike, there’s more…” Willow began.

“Not now, Red,” He snapped, standing up and pulling Dawn to her feet. “Right now, I just want to be with Dawn, okay? Whatever else you want to tell me can wait until morning.”

“But…” Willow sputtered, jumping to her feet as well. “It’s about the…the Shanshu prophecy…Tara said you know about it. Apparently, the copy Angel got was a fake…Wolfram and Hart made sure you guys never saw the real thing…”

“Not tonight!” Spike snarled, morphing for a moment and snapping angrily at the startled redhead.

“B-but,” Willow’s voice was strained and she looked frantically at Angel, was now on the edge of his seat. “I really think you should hear…”

“I said…” Spike leaned into Willow’s personal space and bellowed, “not tonight!”

Willow stumbled backwards, until Buffy caught her and wrapped a comforting arm around her, and stammered, “Uh, okay, then. Don’t say I didn’t try to warn ya.”

Dawn raised her eyebrows and glanced at Xander, who shot a goofy ‘what the hell?’ look at her from his place on the end table. “Uh, good night, guys!” She called over her shoulder as Spike suddenly dragged her into the hallway.