Crushing

Thank you so much for the reviews. And thank you for defending me Diane, It is very inspiring to have people like what you are writing.

Still messing with timelines. I hope you are still enjoying this.

Crushing_4

She picked Spike up effortlessly and carried him home to her house.
No one heard what he whispered in her ear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I can be a good man Buffy…for you I could…”

~ I know. ~ She thought to herself. She didn’t let herself respond to him. Incase her friends overheard.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She lay him gently on the already made up cot downstairs. “Buffy…talk to me…please…” Spike Whispered. “Please…”

She stopped beside the bed and looked down at his broken bruised body. “I have to go and get you some blood.” She said softly. She tried to ignore the trembling in her body.

“Just…wanted to say thanks…for…”

“We’ll talk later. When you’re better…” Buffy murmured.

“Promise?” He begged, his voice laced with vulnerability and fear.

“Yes Spike. I promise we will talk later.” Buffy turned and made her way upstairs.
~ I have to face this sooner or later. ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I don’t know. All I know is that something has changed between them. She’s more…accepting of him…” Willow whispered.

“Here we go again…” Xander groaned.

“We don’t know that for sure…we don’t know anything except the fact that she wanted to save him from Glory.” Giles said glaring at Xander.

“Yeah. And where did she bring him once we found him?” Xander grumbled.

They all turned towards the basement door when they heard it open. “How’s the evil undead?” Xander asked.

Buffy grimaced. “He needs blood. He’s hurt pretty bad.” Buffy said softly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Thanks for taking me to pick her up.” Buffy murmured. She was happy Joyce was finally being released.

“No problem Buffy. You know I’d do anything for you.” Xander beamed.

Buffy looked at him and smiled sadly. “I’m scared Xan. Give me a demon I can kick it’s ass to hell, no matter how big or bad. I can’t fight this… thing in her head. I can’t and it terrifies me.” Buffy felt the tears rushing hotly down her cheeks but she was powerless to stop them.

Xander pulled the car over and opened his arms to her. Buffy sank into him gratefully and cried out all of her fears. “It’s ok Buffy…It will all work out, I promise you it will…” Xander said softly stroking her back.

“It’s not just that Xander. There’s so much going on right now and I…I feel so helpless. I don’t know if I can win against Glory. I…oh god…” She sobbed uncontrollably. “If she dies Xan…either one of them…”

“I know Buff…I know.” He said rocking her gently.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Four days later.

“I have to go to the magic box for a while…Giles said it was important…will you be ok just you and Spike?” Buffy asked.

“Yes sweetheart. I’ll be fine.” Joyce said exasperated. “I…I am fine now. And you said Spike hasn’t been up for more than a few minutes at a time anyway.”

“I know he hasn’t. I just worry. I love you.” She said wrapping her arms fully around Joyce.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Spike? You’re awake.” Joyce said happily. “Are you hungry?”

“No. Heard the slayer leaving…” Spike said softly. He stopped suddenly sniffing the air. He turned to Joyce and looked her in the eyes.

“Something’s wrong.” He growled stepping closer to her and sniffing again. He inhaled the mixture of medicine, Joyce’s scent and something else. Old congealing blood. “We need to get you to the hospital right away.” He growled startling Joyce by picking her up and starting for the door.

“Spike. I’m fine. I feel fine…” She murmured.

“Don’t care how you feel. I can sense it, Joyce there’s something wrong and I am not going to waste precious time arguing with you.” He walked to the door and carried Joyce to her car.
He set her gingerly in the passenger seat and went back to the house to retrieve the keys.

Joyce leaned her head back against the seat and sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You guys didn't come all the way from England to determine whether or not I was good enough to be let back in. You came to beg me to let you back in. To give your jobs, your lives some semblance of meaning.” Buffy said angrily.

”This is beyond insolence…” Nigel was interrupted.

Buffy grabbed a sword from the table and threw it across the room in a single movement. It flew point-first into the wall directly in front of Nigel's nose. He jumped back with a shocked expression on his face and cleared his throat.

“I'm fairly certain I said no interruptions.” Buffy growled. “You're Watchers. Without a Slayer, you're pretty much just watchin' Masterpiece Theater.” She looked around the room at the gathered watchers.

“You can't stop Glory. You can't do anything with the information you have except maybe publish it in the "Everyone Thinks We're Insane-O's Home Journal." She paused, looking at Quentin Travers again. “So here's how it's gonna work. You're gonna tell me everything you know. Then you're gonna go away.”

Quentin nodded. “Well, there's a lot to go through.”

”Just tell me what kind of demon I'm fighting.” Buffy said softly.

”Well, that's the thing, you see. Glory isn't a demon.”

”What is she?”

“She's a god.”

Buffy’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oi. I need some help.” Spike growled carrying a protesting Joyce into the hospital.

“Spike…I said I was fine…”

“What’s the problem Sir?” A nurse asked walking up to him.

“This feisty lady just had brain surgery, and something is wrong, her blood is congealing instead of flowing. She needs to be looked at.”

“You can’t possibly know that…” The nurse said wide-eyed. ‘We don’t just operate on people because some unqualified punk tells us to.

“Uh…excuse me…this unqualified punk as you called him is a doctor from England and if he says Mrs. Summers need a doctor you better get one.”

Spike stared at Ben in shock.

“I…Uh…I’m sorry sir…” She said softly. She turned to Spike. “I’m sorry Doctor…”
Spike just stood there stunned as the nurse walked away to find Joyce’s doctor.

“Thanks Mate.” Spike said softly.

“No problem. I know about you…what you are…and I know Buffy would flip out if we didn’t help her mother…I just did what I had to do…” Ben smiled softly and walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~

“Magic box…how may I help you?” Anya said chirpily into the phone.

“Get the Slayer.” Spike growled impatiently into the phone.

“Spike? What’s wrong?” Anya asked. She could hear the agitation in his voice.

“Get. Her. Now.” He growled.

Anya held out the phone to Buffy. “It’s Spike…”

Buffy frowned and held the phone to her ear. “Spike? What”

Shs ins interrupted by Spike’s next words. “Get one of your friends to pick up Dawn. You need to come to the hospital. Now.”

“Is it my mom?” She asked, cold fear gripping her heart.

“Yeah. I’ll explain when you get here.” He said sighing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Spike? Where is she? Is she ok? What happened?” Buffy asked as soon as she entered the hospital, he had been waiting for her.

“I brought her here. Something was wrong…I smelled old Blood on her. Wasn’t right so I…”

“Miss Summers?” The doctor came up behind her.

“Yes.” She turned. A look of fear in her luminescent green eyes.

“Your mother will be fine. Now. Thanks to your Doctor friend who brought her in.” He nodded in Spike’s direction. “She had a blood clot forming in her brain. It’s one of the complications that can happen with the type of surgery she had, but we did manage to fix it, and she will be fine.”

“What would have happened if he didn’t…” ~ Wait did he say Doctor? ~ She glanced at Spike out of the corner of her eye. She saw that he was relieved Joyce would be ok. ~ He never stops surprising me. ~

“If she hadn’t been brought in when she was she surely would have died. There would have been nothing anyone could have done…” The doctor smiled sympathetically at the tears that were forming in her eyes.

“Thank you.” She said softly to the doctor, as the tears fell from her eyes.

“We’re going to keep her in the hospital for a week, two brain surgeries is an awful lot for a woman Joyce’s age…we want to make sure nothing like this happens again. You can see her tomorrow when she is awake from the surgery ok?”

Buffy only nodded.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” The doctor said softly. He turned and walked down the hall. Buffy watched him go.

“Slayer? You alright?” Spike asked. He wanted to grab her and pull her into his arms. He wanted to take away all of her fear and insecurity. He just wanted to hold her.

“Spike ... why did you do that?” She asked turning to him.

”Not for money, if that's what you're thinking. Your heartfelt gratitude's plenty.” The tentative smile vanished from his face. “I expect I'll be getting that any moment.”

Buffy launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. “You saved her. Spike you saved my mom. Thank you so much…” She was really sobbing now. “I couldn’t have done that… I wouldn’t even have known anything was wrong until it was too late…” She pulled back and looked into his eyes.

“S’ no problem Slayer. I like your mum, world would be a much sorrier place without her in it.” Spike said softly.

“Can we go home now? We need to talk.” Buffy said softly clutching his hand tightly.
Spike was floating on air. She didn’t let go of his hand until he opened the car door for her.
Buffy climbed into the seat and put on her seatbelt. Spike climbed in the driver’s door and glanced at her. She was staring at the hospital doors. Buffy’s eyes didn’t move. He watched her hand moving towards him. He placed his hand in hers and drove them home silently, letting her be alone with her thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buffy got out of the car and waited for Spike. When he came up beside her she grabbed his hand tightly and led him to the house.

“Buffy? Oh god…how is she?” Dawn launched herself at Buffy the instant she walked through the door.

Spike let her hand drop when they entered the house and he realized the whole gang was gathered in the living room.

Buffy glanced at him when he dropped her hand, but he wasn’t looking at her. He was staring at the ground. “Thanks to Spike she’ll be fine. Spike saved her…”

“He did?” Dawn asked hugging the vampire fiercely. Spike hugged her back wincing in pain.

“Watch the ribs niblet. Still not fully healed.” Spike murmured softly.

“Oh. Sorry Spike. I’m sorry…” Dawn babbled releasing her hold a little. “I was so worried…”

“T’s ok. I’m quite knackered actually so I’m gonna head downstairs.” Spike started walking in that direction.

“I’ll bring you down something to eat in a little bit. I’m just gonna get Dawn settled.” Buffy said softly.

Spike turned and looked at her. He nodded slightly and continued on his way.

~ I knew it! ~ Xander caught the look that passed between them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buffy told tem all what happened. Each and every one of them noticed how her eyes sparkled when she talked about Spike. Xander was the only one who chose to comment.

“How long has this THING With Spike been going on?” He sneered.

Everyone looked at him with shocked expressions. Everyone except for Buffy.

“There is no THING with Spike, Xander much as I’d like there to be. And If I do decide to start something with him, I don’t want to hear a word. NOT ONE WORD. About it. I mean it. Who I chose to spend my free time with is my own business just like it is for all of you. I may be the Slayer Xander but I am still a woman.” She glared at him daring him to respond.

“Yeah. We all know how well it turns out when you make your own choices.” Xander growled spitefully.

Buffy slapped him. Hard. Right across the face.

Xander looked at her, shock written all over his face. “Buffy…I’m sorry…” He whimpered.
She didn’t respond. Buffy turned on her heal and walked into the kitchen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“How dare he? I mean yeah granted my choices haven’t always been great but…neither have his…the Mummy girl, the insect teacher…”

“Anya…” Willow smiled at her best friend. “He’s just jealous Buffy. He has wanted you since…since he
first saw you. I think that’s what has him wigged. You keep choosing…”

“I know Will. I do really. But With Spike…I can’t explain it. I Know He’s a demon. But I know he loves me. He really does. It’s real. And I do feel something for him…I’m just not sure what…” Buffy sighed.

“I get that. I really do. Just don’t…don’t start something with him just cause’re ’re grateful about him saving your mom, and Dawn.”

“It’s not just that Will…I‘ve been feeling this pull to him for a while. I’ve tried to deny it…but I don’t think I can anymore…I need to talk to him…” Buffy said picking up the warmed mug of blood.
“Ok. I’ll make sure Dawn gets to bed. Go talk to your vampire.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please let me know if you like it…. ;) Az