Doppelganger

A/N --I do not own Buffy the Vampire slayer or any of the characters. Josh says he won't give them to me no matter how many times I call so I guess I'll just have to be content with saying that...*sob.* Thus I am also not writing this for money..unless some of you want to discreatly slip me a few dollars under the table....anyone...no? Damn...

Rating NC-17---like you could have a Buffy/Spike fic that wasn't rated at least that!


Summery

Buffy’s mental health isn’t all that great after she comes back from helping ward off the apocalypse in LA. Her friends decide that if she just has the chance to say good bye to the one she loves then perhaps Buffy will get better. Magic does some pretty strange things however and this time is no exception. Set after the end on Angel. WIP


Doppelganger

Chapter One

Spike looked around him, complete darkness the only thing he could see. “So this is what it’s like to be dead….again” He thought as searched for something in the darkness.

Suddenly a bright light flashed and Spike covered his eyes in a reflex motion. When he opened them again he found himself standing in a circle of light with three figures encircling him just out of the light so that shadows blocked their features.

“Welcome William” one of the figures said stepping into the circle of light. She was an old woman with long grey hair. She had an aura of ancient power that Spike could feel traveling through him.

“Name’s Spike lady” Spike shot back, he might be dead but he’d be damned if he was going out a sissy boy.

“Spike dead” A second voice said as they stepped into the light; or more accurately crawled. The figure was crouched with a painted face and a strange lilting style of speech. Spike thought there was something familiar about this figure, a sense that he had felt this before, but he couldn’t quite pin down the sensation.

“Ya, I got that much” Spike said rolling his eyes, the last thing he remembered was being torn apart by a hoard of demons. Of course he was dead, silly bint didn’t need to rub it in though.

“William, she needs you go to her.” The third figure said stepping into the light, a hooded cloak blocking her features. Now spike knew he knew this one, the voice, the way she moved….but who was it?

“Go to who?” Spike said confused. He was dead where could he go.

“The slayer she needs you.” The figure said looking up at Spike.

“Who are you?” Spike yelled “Take off that hood!”

“The figure pulled the hood back and Spike let out and involuntary gasp. “Buffy?” He stammered. No, she couldn’t be dead too! She had been miles away when that last battle had gone down. He had made sure of that.

“No.” The figure said shaking her head. “We are the guardians of the slayer’s power. I am not Buffy, but I have access to her feelings, thoughts, and emotions. This is the best form I could take so your mind can conceive of what I am. She needs you William. Go to her.”

“But I’m dead.” Spike said wondering if they had vodka in the afterlife because he was sure going to need a drink after this conversation….and maybe a cold shower if the slayer wannabe kept looking at him like that.

“Spike dead” The painted figure said again in her strange lilting manor.

“She needs you William. Find her. Comfort her. Heal her.” The slayer figure laid a hand on his cheek. “Have a nice life William.”

Spike was about to say something when he felt the ground fall away from him. Abruptly, Spike started tumbling towards the earth.

* * *

“Buffy! Buffy!” Dawn was panicking trying to get her sister to wake up. Dawn knew that Buffy often had nightmares, especially after she had come back from LA, but she had always been able to wake her older sister up. Buffy was thrashing around in the bed, completely engrossed in the nightmare, and Dawn could tell that this was a bad one.

Finally, Buffy sat up with a start and immediately began to cry. Dawn just held her, unsure of what she could do to help her sister. The nightmares had been going on for weeks now. Giles had told Dawn that they might eventually stop, but Dawn knew that he was just as worried about Buffy’s state of mental health as she was. In fact, the last time they had let Buffy go out patrolling she didn’t even had the will to fight, and had almost gotten herself killed.

Buffy’s crying eventually subsided, and Dawn went back to her bed on the other side of the hotel room. When Buffy and Dawn had been living in Italy they had had an apartment that was more then big enough for the two of them, each sister having a separate room. Here in London, however, it was a different story. Giles had suggested after the massacre in LA that Buffy needed to come to London to help train the girls, but it was more then that Dawn knew. Dawn knew Giles needed to keep an eye on Buffy. Unfortunately, apartments were hard to find in London these days, and the two girls had ended up staying in a rather shoddy hotel.

“Dawnie?” Dawn heard her sister call out into the darkness.

“I’m here Buffy. I was just going back to bed.”

“No, please stay with me” Buffy said sounding for the first time like the younger sibling. It was nearly killing Dawn to see Buffy like this, after all Buffy had always been the strong one; the one who was willing to jump off towers to save a life. Now all she sounded was broken.

“Alright,” Dawn conceded, crawling back into bed with her sister. “But you better not hog all the blankets.” This didn’t even raise a response out of Buffy and Dawn sighed wrapping her arms protectively around the broken girl beside her.

It wasn’t long before Buffy heard the soft breathing coming from her sister that indicated the other girl had fallen asleep. “The dream can’t be true.” She thought, cuddling up to Dawn’s side for comfort. But it felt like a slayer dream. It was too real, to clear. Not at all like the nightmares she had been having in the last couple of weeks.

There was absolutely no way that the dream was true Buffy eventually decided. For one thing Spike was dead; she knew he was dead. He had been at the battle in LA and few friends had walked away from that apocalypse. Spike had not been one of them. Also in the dream he was in a hospital hooked up to a heart monitor. Since Spike’s heart no longer beat, it was impossible. Impossible…if she just kept repeating that to herself, she could get through this. She was beginning to wonder if her mind hated her.

* * *

A few blocks away a John Doe lay in a hospital bed hooked up to a heart monitor that beat at strong regular intervals.

“It’s a shame.” The nurse said, talking to the patient as she adjusted the medication on his IV drip. “They don’t think you’ll ever wake up. I would sure have liked to know you, even pale and sick, I can tell you’re hot.”

“Flirting with the patients in the coma ward now, Emily?” The doctor teased as he walked in. “And here I thought you were in love with me.” Giving Emily a fake pout that only succeeded in making her laugh at him, he took a look at the patients chart.

“Looks good for the night Emily. You almost done your shift?”

“Yup! And all ready for dinner with you.” She replied teasingly a sexy glint in her eye.

“It’s not dinner I’m interested in tonight.” The doctor said pulling Emily into his arms, causing her to emit yet another playful giggle.

“Watch it,” she teased “Or I might trade you in for the cute boy in the bed.”

“Trade me in for a boy with a bad bleach job?” The doctor mocked. “I’m never going to let you do that, baby. Come on lets go to dinner.” With that he led the pretty little nurse out of the room, leaving only the steady sound of the heart monitor.