Doing the Right Thing

Chapter Six


Los Angeles, Wolfram and Hart


Angel had Harmony clear his calendar for the afternoon. The sorcery department had finally called with good news. With any luck, any bond Buffy and Spike might have forged would be dissolved by nightfall.

“Oh, and Harm?”

“Yeah boss.”

“I may need you to work late tonight. I’ll make sure you get a bonus.“Okay, Boss. But instead of a bonus, could I have the next three Fridays off? I’d like to go to Vegas with my boyfriend. He works there on the weekends, you know.”

“Right. No problem.”

Harmony squealed in delight and hung up the phone. Angel rubbed his ear.


The Sorcery department arrived in full force, with the head of the department, Dr. Finnais, a Mage, and a dozen assistants and flunkies, who got busy preparing the room for the ritual.

“You have a female, of course? To stand proxy for Buffy Summers? If not we can order one up from the typing pool.” Dr Finnais said.

“Uh, my secretary, Harmony, can fill in.”

“Great.”

Harmony was called in and the Mage gave them directions.

“After you bite you only take one mouth full of blood, but instead of swallowing, like in a claiming, you spit it into this cauldron, which will contain certain magickal elements. The blood will evaporate, and the bond between Buffy and Spike will evaporate with it.”

“Okay, I understand that. But what if they didn’t do a claim? What if it’s something else? Like a crazy love spell, or something?”

“Or, true love?” Harmony asked her nose wrinkling in disgust.

“Not a vampire claim? That’s highly unlikely, isn’t it? But, of course we’ve planned for those contingencies. The spell will work.” The Mage swept away and began to yammer at his crew.


The ritual was long, and very boring, in Harmony’s opinion. And the demon language ‘song’! Ugh. Sounded like gargling mixed with horny tomcat yowls. She smirked. She knew a little about horny tomcats. Her yummy kittybaby, waiting for her in her apartment! Thank goodness this would be over by sunset.

Harmony discreetly peeked at her manicure, to see how the new perfect plum polish was holding up, and then it was time to bite and spit.

She should have asked for four Fridays off. Yuck, what was that cologne he was wearing? It was so–

Harmony bit and spat, and then realized–one taste of Angel was not enough! She grabbed at him, he grabbed her first, and sank his fangs back into her neck.

“Oh, Angelbaby!” she howled. “I’m yours! Only yours!”

Angel growled in agreement, “Mine,” and then began to rip off her box pleated pink linen skirt and matching suit jacket, while she kicked her pink leather stilettos across the room, totally not noticing that the shoe struck the fleeing Mage in the back of the head.

“What just happened?” whispered the Mage’s chief assistant as they made their way directly to the parking lot.

“It wasn’t a vampire claim bonding them. It was something else. Something strong. Had some type of mystical repelling quality. You saw what happened with the proxies.”

“We are in such deep shit.”

The Mage reached his car and leaped in. “Don’t try to find me,” he warned.

“Ditto.” said his assistant, melting into the dark garage.

********

Cleveland

“What the fuck, Buffy?”

The goon bouncers–probably real goons– had deposited Faith, Buffy and a barely conscious Spike into the street.

Buffy was running her hands over Spike and plastering kisses on his face. “Sorry, sorry Spike. I just reacted. After the First and all. . . Can’t believe you’re alive.”

“ ‘s okay. M’ fault. Shoulda called.” Spike mumbled around her kisses. “Thought you were in Rome.”

“I’m on vacation. Oh, Spike!”

“Didn’t hear one word I said, did ya?” Faith grabbed Spike under one arm. “Come on! Let's get to the slayer mobile before we have to slay something.”

The slayer mobile was a staid grey minivan, provided by the New Council. Faith despised it, but it was handy for hauling slayerettes to school and slay time. She helped shove Spike into the middle seat. Buffy crawled in after him.

Faith drove, studiously keeping her eyes off the rear view mirror. She heard a couple “Oh, Spike!” whispers and a few moany, “Buffy”s, plus the slurpy sounds of a major makeout session.

“Jeez, you guys, get a room!”she said.

“I’ve got a room.” Spike suddenly piped up. “ At the Cleveland Motel by the highway. Wanna go to my room, luv?”

“Oh, yeah,” Buffy moaned. “I’m sharing Faith’s room. A motel, much better.”

Faith tried to keep her eyes on the road as she back tracked to Spike’s motel, but she kept seeing a light in the rear view mirror. Finally she glanced back.

“Holy shit!” She yelped, and pounded on the brake. “Fire!”

The van screeched to a halt. Buffy and Spike were thrown to the floor. Faith leaped out and yanked the entwined couple to the street.

Buffy clambered up and then reached a hand down to Spike, who still looked a little dazed. “What are you doing, Faith? Are you trying to get us killed? For--”

Spike had grabbed her hand to hoist himself up. Their joined hands flickered with fire.

They gazed at their hands in awe. “Doesn’t burn this time,” Spike said softly.

“No. It’s lovely, isn’t it?” Buffy said, turning soft eyes to his.

“What. The. Fuck.” Faith said.

“It happened, when Spike closed the Hell Mouth. We held hands, and there was this fire. Just like this.” Buffy didn’t continue the narrative, remembering how it ended. She didn’t take her eyes off Spike.

“I love you,” he mouthed softly, just for her ears. She smiled.

“Come on, let's get going.” Buffy and Spike dropped hands, and the flames ceased.

“You might want to get that checked out,” Faith said. “Kinda freaky, you know?”

“I think it’s beautiful,” Buffy said. She and Spike held hands all the way to his motel, enjoying the flame the didn’t burn.

“Oh, new information.” Spike said, as they pulled into the parking lot. “You know that blond haired Wicca that used to be Willow’s girl? The one that got shot? She came back. Something to do with the amulet and Hell mouth, I think. I found her while I was driving here.”

Buffy stared at him. “Tara?”

“Yeah. But she has amnesia. There’s a witch here that is going to try and restore her memory. So you might want to give Red a call. Might advise her to lose the dead president and get over here.”

Buffy insisted they go see Tara right away, so they were soon crowded into Tara’s motel room, where a sleepy and confused Tara awkwardly patted a wildly weeping Buffy on the back.

Spike gently pulled Buffy off Tara, “That’s enough, now, luv. She’s not going anywhere, you can see her tomorrow. And her Tigger jammies need time to dry. So no more tears.”

Faith jingled her car keys and said, “I’ll call Willow, catch her up on . . . stuff. Kay? Call me when you get up tomorrow.” She left for the Slayer home.

Spike and Buffy stayed in Tara’s room until Buffy–and Tara– had settled down a little, and then made plans to get together the next day.

Buffy walked to Spike’s room in a daze.”I can’t believe it. You and Tara both came back? Good things are happening to us? To me? Something’s wrong here, Spike--”

Spike shut her up with a kiss.

Buffy felt those cool, firm lips. . . she felt them all the way down her spine. “Ohmygod,” she moaned.

How could she ever have thought those blond boys could replace him?


***

A/N Next chapter is hot Spuffy.