With a Little Help

Whew! I promised it out on Tuesday, and here it is – just later in the day than I thought. Thank you so much for all the review and feedback. They were very much appreciated!!! Now, I have to run and go watch Showtime. Thank


Chapter 7, Cleaning House:

Buffy finally fell asleep due to the calming effect of the rain outside, a heavy rain which lulled her into sleeping well through the next morning. Upon waking and looking at the alarm clock, she was happy that it was Saturday, which meant no classes. In fact, she had been tempted to cancel her lunch with Riley and stay in bed, buried beneath the covers with a pillow over her head.

However, instead of hiding away from the world, Buffy met Riley at the agreed upon restaurant for lunch. After that, Riley drove her to the Magic Box to meet up with Giles. When they pulled up in front of the store, Riley, always the gentleman, came around to open her door. When she stepped out, Riley leaned down for a goodbye kiss, into which Buffy put everything she could muster. When Riley pulled back, she could tell he was pleasantly surprised. Buffy, however, was painfully aware of the height difference between them and the difference of this kiss from Spike’s kisses the night before. Cursing the blonde vampire for at least the tenth time that day, she tried to s as as Riley leaned down to kiss her again before he returned to his car and left.

Buffy entered the Magic Box on autopilot. “Hey, Giles.”

Giles was behind the counter, busily writing in his ledger. “Oh, Buffy, I am glad you are here. How has your Eloquaw hunting last night?”

Buffy began to wander around the store, absently picking up and looking at various objects. “Uh…great. No prob.”

Perplexed, Giles took off his glasses and looked at her. “I still don’t think I quite understand why you don’t want any assistance with these demons. That is, except for Spike’s help.”

“Spike and I…uh…are the only ones fast enough. Besides, you so don’t want to get licked by these guys. Way yuck!” She hoped her guilt didn’t show on her face because she didn’t want to admit to herself why she didn’t want anyone else’s help but Spike’s, let alone admit it to Giles. Subject change time. “So, Giles, where’s Anya?”

“She’s gone to an ex-demon support group retreat in Salem.” Giles put his glasses back on and looked back down at his ledger.

Shocked, Buffy stopped her wanderings and turned to face Giles for the first time. “Anya’s socializing and supporting instead of earning money?”

The corners of Gilesuth uth tilted up into a very small smile. “In true Anya style, she did mention that she was also going to pick up some inventory, and then she could write off the trip as business.”

Buffy laughed, “Shocker there.”

*****

That night Buffy left her house to patrol as soon as the sun set. She knew that she would be early, but that was more than fine with her. What she didn’t want was Spike to know how painstakingly she had styled her hair, or that she had spent over an hour picking out the perfect outfit to wear that night. Thinking back on it, Buffy felt slightly sick when she realized that she had taken more care dressing before seeing Spike than she had to see Riley for lunch earlier that day. Riley was a great guy, but Buffy was beginning to wonder if their boat of romance had already sunk.

As Buffy approached Spike’s crypt, she could see a cardboard box full of clothes sitting next to the open door. Unsure what to expect, Buffy warily stepped inside to find Spike busy packing up another box. Curious, she crossed the crypt to peek inside the box. “What’s this? Fall cleaning? And imagine, I had thought you were going for that ‘who would want to live here’ look.”

Spike didn’t even bother to look up, just kept packing items away. “Granted all the unicorns would drive anybody off their bloody rocker and out the door of this place, but the truth is, pet, that I’m nudging Harmony on her merry way.”

“And that translates to…?” Buffy thought she already knew but wanted to make sure.

“Harmony’s arse should be hurting right about now since I gave her the boot, but knowing Harm, I suspect she has already moved on to a greener pasture. Said she already had possibilities. Guess my charms are a little lacking of late.”

“Oh.” Brilliant reply, but she couldn’t very well say what she could hear whispered in her head; that his charm wasn’t lacking but was just fine and mixed with a healthy dose of sex appeal. “I would say I was sorry, but I don’t think either one of us would believe it.”

“Good call, slayer. Besides, my fling with Harm has been over for weeks, so no harm, no foul. And no pun intended.” Spike finished with a smirk. After he carried the second box and set it outside, he shrugged into his duster and headed for the door. “You ready to go, luv?”

“Sure.”

Spike held the door open as Buffy approached. As if impatient, he stepped half way into the door way so she had to step around. As she passed through, he inhaled deeply, “Hmm.” Buffy made a mental note to buy another bottle of the fragrant shampoo that he could smell.

*****

“Come on, Slayer. Move it. He’s getting away.” Hot on the chase, Buffy followed Spike’s form, which was about thirty feet in front of her. As they ran into a grove of trees, Spike suddenly took a sharp turn to the left, leaving her line of sight. Clearing the turn, Buffy started to pick up speed again while looking for Spike’s platinum blonde hair in the dark.

“Spike, where are…Aaahhh…” Her feet slid out from under her, and her ass hit the ground, sending her sliding on her back over ten feet. As she came to a stop, Buffy found herself looking up at the canopy of the trees. Below she could feel cold and wet beneath her. Sitting up, Buffy was dumbfounded to discover that she was now lying in an enormous, mud puddle, a byproduct of the recent rain.

Buffy tensed when she heard steps approaching from her right. Bracing herself for the attack of a demon, the hunter could now very well be the hunted. Thankfully, she could make out a platinum blonde head through the dark. Calling out, she asked him, “Did you get him?”

“No, Slayer, he got away.”

Not the answer Buffy wanted to hear. “I’m covered in mud, and you didn’t even catch that demon?”

Ignoring her question, Spike wiggled his eyebrows. “Does it squish in the right places, Slayer? By the way, I know a place in LA that you could make lots of money wallowing in the mud. More if you do it topless.”

“Eeww, you would know places like that.” Looking down at the mud again, Buffy thought for a moment before looking back at him suspiciously. “Why didn’t you slide in this muck, too?”

Spike casually shrugged. “You’re just lucky, pet. Maybe I should have played poker or the lottery tonight.”

“You did this on purpose.” Buffy could feel her b pre pressure rising.

“Slayer, you’ve hurt my tender feelings. I’m a sensitive bloke, ya know.”

“Evasive much?”

Dropping the innocent act, Spike smirked. “Ok, I *may* have scouted around here earlier.” Spike walked up to stand at the edge of the puddle. “But remember, slayer, payback is…”

“Is a bitch, and you’re looking at a very pissed off one.” Buffy glared as best she could while covered in mud. “You did this because I threw your cigarettes out the window, didn’t you?”

Spike appeared to think about his answer for a minute, “Nooo, I did this because of your seat belt prank, then my fag thrown out the window, which was followed by the whole pack.”

“You’re just begging to be staked.” She pulled out a stake and pointed at him, but most of the effect was lost as the point of the stake dripped mud. Aggravated, Buffy rolled her eyes. “But you’re paying for new clothes before I dust you.”

Fast, Buffy’s hand shot out and latched onto his ankle, then gave it a jerk. Arms waving in a doomed attempt to keep his balance, Spike fell flat on his back with a noisy splash.

For a moment, the vampire was speechless. He had been expecting Buffy to try to pull him in if he gave her a hand up, but not this attack. Always keeps you on your toes, that bird did, or in this case, on his arse. Annoying as it was, her unpredictability was one of the things he loved about the slayer.

Nonetheless, a vampire does have his pride. Growling, Spike glared at her but didn’t succeed any better than Buffy had covered in the muck. “Slayer, I’m gonna kill you.”

“As if,” Buffy quipped and tried to ignore him as she tried to get the majority of the mud out of her hair.

“Just look at my coat.” Horrified, Spike held up the sides of his duster, which Buffy looked at with no sympathy.

“Big baby.” She punctuated her accusation with a splat, hitting Spike right between the eyes with a glob of mud.
Steaming now, Spike swiped the mud out of his eyes. “I’m the baby. Look whose throwing this muck.”

Buffy thought he still looked a little too clean for her taste, so her next shot hit him in the chest.

The fight was on with both throwing mud. The fight quickly escalated to a new level when Spike grabbed her leg and yanked off one of her boots, tossing it as far as he could. “Now you can get the full effect of mud squishing between those dainty slayer toes.”

Not thinking she could get his laced up boots off without a major struggle, Buffy retaliated by aiming at a much easier and prized target, Spike’s ever-perfect hair. Taking him down with a dive, she rubbed with both hands full of mud into his bleached hair, until not one strand was left blonde. Next, she went for stuffing mud down his trade mark, black t-shirt until Spike rolled them both over, so that he was now on top and pinning her hands to the ground.

In this new position, Buffy could feel the undeniable bulge of his arousal, and the answering heat ben hen her thighs. Looking up into his blue eyes, she waited breathlessly as he leaned down to kiss her, but she wanted to scream when he stopped just a couple of inches away and rolled off of her.

Spike also wanted to scream and yell from frustration on top of that. But instead, avoiding any eye contact, he stood up and made an attempt at wiping off the mud.

Buffy continued lying in the puddle, hoping the mud covered up her blush of embarrassment and shame. She knew why hd std stopped. Riley was who she was suppose to be kissing, not Spike. Finally, sitting up, Buffy thought, ‘One way or another, this just can’t go on. Now I just have to figure out what way that is.’

Spike’s strained voice broke into her thoughts, “I’m going to go wash up.”

“Good idea.” Buffy looked in to his face, trying to figure out what he was really thinking about. But she already knew. He had broken up with Harmony, but she still had Riley.

As Spike turned to leave, he paused. “I don’t think I can help you hunt tomorrow night.”

“Ok.”

“See ya around, Slayer.”

As Spike disappeared into the surrounding trees, Buffy climbed to her feet and headed home. Who would have thought that this would be the night that Spike’s conscience kicked in?

*****

When Buffy finished her shower and put on her favorite pajamas, she went down the hall to her mother’s bedroom. Buffy found her sitting in bed, reading a book. “Mom, can we talk, woman to woman instead of mom to daughter.”

‘Woman to Woman? This must be about men,” Joyce speculated with a smile. “I’ll try, honey, but I warn you, it’s hard to switch off the mom part.” Joyce patted the empty space beside her on the bed.

Buffy sat down beside her mom, unsure how to begin. “What…what if a girl is no longer attracted to her boyfriend? See, the boyfriend hasn’t done anything wrong. In fact, he is just about perfect: nice, caring, handsome, stable, normal…”

‘Yep,’ Joyce thought, ‘it’s about boys.’ “Buffy, he sounds like the model boyfriend, but by any chance, does this girl have her eye on another guy?”

Buffy wanted to roll her eyes, but refrained. ‘Why do Moms always ask the hard questions?’ Buffy thought before answering her mom. “She may have looked, may have been tempted, but he is a big no-way no-how. Text book bad boy.”

Joyce had already figured out that Buffy was talking about herself and Riley, and now she knew who “the other man” was. She also knew that she should be horrified, but over a cup of hot chocolate a year ago, Joyce had discovered that there was a great deal more to Spike than the leather and fangs he hid behind. Sure, he was another vampire, but he wasn’t Angel, and Joyce felt sure that Spike would cherish and protect her daughter with everything he had. And to be perfectly honest, she had a soft spot for Spike.

Nevertheless, Joyce knew it was still Buffy’s choice. “Does this girl love her boyfriend?”

Buffy began to play with the blanket, extremely uneasy with the question. “Well…she thought she did, but now, she’s thinking it’s a not.”

“It sounds like she needs to tell Ri…him that it is over and move on.”

“But Mom, he hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Joyce wrapped her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and squeezed. “Honey, if her heart is no longer in the relationship with her boyfriend, she needs to let go. Tell her to ask herself if that is how she would want to be treated.”

Buffy contemplated that advice for a moment, and then with a sad smile, Buffy hugged her mom. “Thanks, Mom.”

Before Buffy made it out the door of the bedroom, Joyce’s voice stopped her. “And, Buffy, sometimes the bad boy is only the top layer, and it may be worth it to look a litter deeper.”

*****

The man had been waiting for Harmony for the last half hour, impatiently cooling his heels since he was able to get free sooner than he had previously thought. Sitting on the sofa, he idly slapped a rolled up newspaper against his hand. Next to him lay a leash and some chocolate “doggie treats.” He quickly stood up when he heard Harmony come through the back door.

Yelling at the top of her lungs before the back door had time to slam, Harmony came into the living room where he was waiting. The vampiress was so mad that she practically had smoke coming out of her ears. “Can you believe it? Who does that asshole think he is? After all I’ve done for him, I can’t believe he did this to me.”

“Harmony…HARMONY!” He thumped her on the side of her head with the newspaper to get her attention.

“What the hell are you raving about?”

“Spike, William the Wimpy. He can’t even hurt humans, let alone feed, but he thinks he’s so great. He…”

He thumped her on the head a couple of more times. “All right already. You know I agree with you. You know I hate him as much as you do, maybe more, but what did he do *this* time?”

“Quit hitting me already. I’m not in the mood yet.” Harmony took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm down, but it didn’t help. “That bastard kicked me out, acting like that crypt is his. Like he had claimed it or something. Well…I guess he was there first. But I don’t see his name on that crypt. Besides, he wasn’t even buried in Sunnydale.”

“Color me dense, I d I don’t see a problem here. Spike doesn’t treat you as well as you should be treated, and you should have left him before now. Now, let’s forget about the biteless undead and play.” He picked up the leash off the sofa, dangling it in front of her face. “I’ve got your leash. Now, does puppy have her collar?”

“Yes,” Harmony pouted, “but puppy needs a new dog house.”

“Then puppy can stay here. Now be a good puppy.” Looping the leash around her neck and pulling her up against him, they kissed until she moaned. When he came up for air, her mouth moved down to his neck, seductively biting with her human teeth.

Groaning, he playfully admonished her, hitting her on the ass a couple of times with the newspaper. “Bad puppy. Bad puppy. No bite.” He heard her giggle before he felt her fangs extend against his neck and pierce his skin. As she fed, his cock grew hard almost to the point of painful. “Oohhh, yes. Yes bite. Gooood puppy.”


TBC