Kathy's Revenge

Chapter 41
Spikes POV

The atmosphere in the house is pretty bollocks at the minute; I guess it would be after what happened. I don’t think anyone has gone to check on Faith yet…

I walk through the house peering in on everyone doing different things, Buffy went out a while ago, Willow, Xander, Dawn and Giles are all sitting at the large table trying to get through a pile of books about seven feet tall, research is not my strong point. Give me something to kill and I’m fine, can’t be doing with the entire sitting around thing.

I find Oz and that Rachel chick in the kitchen talking quietly.

Andrew is again busy showing Jake his video tapes about us all; Jen is sitting close by looking extremely bored.

I shake my head as I walk past the rest of the houses occupants. Damn people can’t even go and check she is okay… not even Willow.

I bound up the stairs to the roof, feeling angrier than I should… I mean how would they like it? Okay, okay I know Spike’s gone soft right? Well I do have a soul now and am pretty much human so I can exercise some compassion occasionally.

I find her where she usually is, I sit next to her and take out a smoke, and it looks like she has been here for a while. We swept the roof of all the fag ends yesterday and now there are at least ten or so.

“What the fuck was that about then pet?” I ask flicking ash off the end of my fag.

“I think it was pretty obvious wasn’t it?” She says quietly, her voice is slightly croaky… I don’t know if it because she is still angry or because she has been crying.

“The footnotes I got was that he was a memory come to life… still don’t get why we couldn’t hurt him though… when he could hurt us.” I explain looking at the floor.

“In my mind he was untouchable… he came to life and he still was ‘cause I thought he was… then I thought that he wasn’t and then he wasn’t.” She explains slowly as if she is only just figuring it out as she says it.

“Who the hell was he though?” I ask blowing smoke out my nose.

“I don’t wonna talk about it, okay?” She asks turning her head to look at me for the first time since I have been up here. I am pretty sure she has been crying, her eyes are bloodshot and still seem watery.

“Well what do you wonna talk about then?”

“I don’t know, anything but this… I just don’t wonna think about it anymore, you know what I mean?”

I nod my head. “Yeah I defiantly know what you mean.”

She drops her cigarette to the ground then stamps it out before lighting yet another one. Her movements change and I can see she is getting back to her old self again, regaining all the control. “What’s goin’ on with you and B?” She asks with a smirk… yeah she’s back.

I roll my eyes at her. “Nothing is going on.” Okay so not convincing. I feel like a schoolgirl getting caught by her best friend for having a crush on my English teacher.

“Yeah is that why I hear you creeping out of her room in the early hours pretty much every morning?” She smirks at me again.

I don’t say anything, what can I say? I lie and she knows and if I tell the truth then she knows.

She gets up in a sort of leap then points her index finger at me. “Busted!”

I smile at her then she flicks her fag end over the edge of the roof and heads down the ladder.

I am guessing that Buffy isn’t going to be too pleased that she knows… what the hell, she is gonna have to deal with it sooner or later and the sooner the better I say… then at least I will be able to sleep a whole night through without having to keep checking the clock to see if I can sneak out yet.

I sit up on the roof for a while thinking about how exactly I am gonna tell her. She isn’t exactly all friendly with Faith of late although she seemed to spring into action in the basement, I don’t know if that was because she wanted to protect the rest of us, or because it’s just what she does, I mean she is a slayer or maybe she was doing it for Faith.

I put out my fag and make my way back downstairs. I see Buffy come up the garden path through the bay window in the living room. I walk to the door and open it just as she is reaching for the handle.

“We need to talk.” Is all I say, I then walk up the stairs to her bedroom… to my amazement she follows me.

She sits on the bed crossing her legs. “What’s up?” She asks leaning back on her hands.

“Faith knows.”

Her eyes widen a little. “How the hell? Did you tell her? I thought we sorted this out, that I would tell them all together when all this stuff had blown over, after I was sure that I was better.”

“I didn’t tell her, she sort of already knew… she said she could hear me sneaking out in the mornings.” I explain standing in front of her.

“Damn slayer hearing.” I hear her mutter under her breath. “I guess we will have to tell them all about it now then?” She says, I’m guessing it’s rhetorical though. She sits for a second and then gets up off the bed to walk out of the room, I stand in front of the door. “What?” She asks with her hands on her hips. “You can’t want me to do that thing again already!”

I have to laugh… but when you think about it… is that what she thinks I am like? Wait a minute, that IS what I am like…

“No it’s not that, you and Faith… Are you?”

“Are we what? Happy? Healthy? Friends? Weird? Getting it on behind your back? …What?” She has put on her cute innocent voice, I hate it when she does that to manipulate me… now I forgot what I was gonna ask and am thinking about the last question she asked.

“Are you and her going to be okay? I mean with each other… you don’t seem to be all friendly lately.”

“Have you just been blacking out the last four years, me and Faith have never exactly been having sleepovers or doing each others nails.”

Yeah, yeah she has to get all cocky and sarcastic when I am trying to make peace in this house. I make a serious face at her.

She takes a deep breath and sits back down. “I don’t know anymore Spike, the old days it was all boo Faith, bad Faith, Kill Faith then it was all, yay Faith has come and saved the day then it was all boo Faith again well for me anyway… everyone else seemed pretty cosy with her. Then it went all yay Faith again… I don’t know where I stand with her, I mean I don’t really have anything against her anymore… not after everything that has happened in the past four years anyway.” She pauses for a while.

“So what now?” I ask.

“She scares me Spike, not her really but… I know I can be a bitch and be all woe is me about stuff I have done and seen and had done to me but after what just happened… she has some really bad things in her past and if they are all going to come back then I don’t wonna be around… all those demons were bad enough the first time around and if they get as warped as that guy was then I don’t know if we can do it.”

“What do you mean pet?”

“You never met Kakistos did you?” She asks with raised eyebrows.

“Heard of him, nasty bugger he was… old too, smart unlike a lot of them vamps.” I reply.

“Yeah well, when Faith came to Sunnydale is was because he had killed her watcher and she didn’t know where else to go, then he got pretty close to killing her and he gave me a pretty good beating too.”

I think on this a minute… if this Gable guy was only a human and he was that strong and hard to kill… Kakistos is going to be a bastard…

“Shit.” I whisper.

“My sentiments exactly.”