Normal Again

Spike is walking through the cemetery, carrying a paper bag with cartons of cigarettes. He stops.

"You looking for me?" he says, and we see that he's talking to Buffy.

"Really not," she says, turning away.

"Oh. right then," he says. "Off you go." She starts to leave, and, not quite willing to give up the conversation that easily, he calls after her, "Did you cry?"

"What?" she says, and it's obvious that she's not on the same page he is.

"The wedding," he says. "You know, two hearts joined for eternity, great pelting showers of rice and so forth?"

"You didn't hear," she says. She turns around and comes to him.

"What ?" he says, "Families get out of hand? Tear the place apart?"

"No," she says. "Well, yes, absolutely. But... Xander left. The wedding didn't happen."

"Well," he says, sitting down on a bench. "Gotta say. Didn't see that one coming."

Buffy sits down on the other end of the bench. "It was awful. Anya was devastated."

"Is that right."

"Xander thinks maybe they can still get bac k together but...he hurt her a lot."

"Some people just can't see a good thing when they've got it," he says, trying not to lift an eyebrow at her. She gives him a "don't start" look.

"Spike." It's Willow, accompanied by Xander.

"I should have known you'd be tagging along," Xander says. It's typical Xander/Spike interaction, but with maybe a little more edge than usual.

Buffy stands up. "Hey. Guys. I, uh, I found Spike and I was just... trying to figure out what kind of dangerous contraband he had..."

Spike, disgusted, gets up. He throws his cigarette on the ground, grinds it out with his boot, his mouth set. "Tell you what, Slayer," he says, his tone calm but with an undertone of bitterness. "Let me get out of your way. Stop bothering you." He starts off.

"Yeah," Xander says, "Why don't you do that? Just run along." Needling.

Spike stops, stalks back to Xander.
"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" he says. He may not be able to hit Xander physically, but verbally, well, that's another story.
"The king of the Big Exit. Heard it brought the house down."

"I don't need this crap from you." Xander's raw, and right now, this moment, he's dangeous. Spike, of course, doesn't care.

"Right," he says, bitter sarcasm in his voice. "Let's not listen to Spike. Might get a bit of truth on you." He starts to shove past Xander, but Willow stops him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," she says, very nervous, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. "Calm now. Let's just turn around the other way and release this very manly thing the other way."

"Hey," Xander says, staring Spike down, "I just remembered that Willie Wannabite here can't hurt me. Time to pick a fight, I guess." He's coiled, just aching for a fight.

"Xander..." Willow says. Meanwhile, Buffy clutches her head and sinks down onto the bench.

Spike gets up in his face. "More than happy to beat you through the pain, you pathetic poof," he snarls, and tosses aside the bag. Xander takes the opportunity to punch him in the face, and he goes tumbling ass over teakettle.

"Guys, don't," Buffy moans. Flash to the hospital.

"Buffy?" Willow says, going to her. Xander follows. "Are you okay?"

Another flash to the hospital, where Buffy sees Joyce and Hank.

"No," Buffy says, back in the cemetery, holding her head.

"Here," Spike says, worried, "Let's get her back to my crypt..."

"Spike," Xander snaps, "Just...go. She's -our- friend, we'll take care of her."

Buffy looks very confused, but realizes she's worrying everyone. "No, guys," she says, "I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Come on, Xander," Willow says, helping Buffy up. "Let's get her home." With Willow and Xander supporting her, they lead her off. Spike watches them go.

"Put a little ice on the back of her neck," he calls after them, then turns and picks up the bag of smokes. "She likes that," he says, his voice not quite steady, and heads for his crypt.

Spike and Xander are hunting the demon, out in the woods.

"So," Spike says, "she's having the wiggins, is she? Thinks none of us are real. Bloody self centered, if you ask me." He's slightly amused, shading into bitter.

"Spike, we need muscle, not color commentary," Xander says, his eyes peeled for the demon. Does this vamp never stop talking?

"On the other hand," Spike goes on, ignoring the whelp, "it might explain some things. This all being just in that brain of hers. Yeah, whips up some chip in my head, make me soft, fall in love with her. Then, turn me into her soddin' sex slave." He's clearly unhappy with how she was treating him, and with himself for letting her do it.

"What???" Xander, still watching out for the demon, and plainly not paying close attention to Spike's ramblings, caught that sex slave part...

"Nothing," Spike says, sighing. "Alternative realities. Where we're all little figments of Buffy's funny farm delusion. You know, in a different reality, you might not have left your bride at the altar. You might have gone through with it like a man."

Xander stops dead, finally looking at Spike. "Okay," he says, "one more syllable about Anya or..." But the demon jumps out at them. They both jump.

Spike gets a good look at the thing, and rolls his eyes. "Oh, balls," he says, completely disgusted with Xander, "you didn't say it was a Glarga Ghul Gashminik."

"Because I can't say glarba..." Once again the demon interupts Xander, by attacking them. Spike does most of the fighting, and Xander gets off two tranquilizer darts, dead into the thing's chest. Spike finally overpowers it and it slumps, unconscious.

Xander looks at it, grinning. "I altered his reality," he says. "Get it? I..." And he realizes that he's joking around with Spike. "Never mind."

Xander and Spike are wrestling with the now-awake demon in Buffy's basement. They're trying to chain it to a support beam. Spike "accidentally" pushes the demon into Xander and knocks them both down, then chains the demon up. It kicks Xander on the shin. They both hold its arms while Willow stabs it in the arm with a big fork, making its stinger come out. Willow breaks it off. She tells Xander to go to the Magic Box for some herbs, and tells him to meet her at the campus lab.

Spike, still securing the demon, says, "I'll hold here, keep an eye on the wax job."

"Make sure that's all you're ogling," Xander snaps, and Willow shushes him. (NOTE: there appears to be a dubbed line change here. Xander originally said "doing" instead of "ogling." The line was obviously changed in looping during post.)

Willow brings Buffy the antidote, which took longer than she though, because she couldn't use magic.

Buffy takes the cup. "You never stop coming through," she says, sounding very lost. "Thank you, Willow."

Spike comes in, looking worried.

"How is she?" he asks Willow.

"Make sure she drinks all that," Willow says. She's acting as though Spike were soemone she'd trust Buffy with completely. "I'm going to tell Dawn that everything's going to be okay." She leaves them alone.

"You all right?" He looks at her, plainly worried.

"You need to leave me alone," she says, her face twisting in pain. "You're -not- part of my life."

There's a flash of hurt, and then the anger kicks in. "Fine then," he says, turning to go. He changes his mind about leaving before he finishes the first step, and comes back. "But I hope you don't think this an..." He steps into a sunbeam and flinces back from it. "I hope you don't think this antidote is going to rid you of that nasty martyrdom. See, I figured it out, love. You can't help yourself.You're not drawn to the dark like I thought. You're addicted to the misery. S'why you won't tell your pals about us. Might actually have to be happy if you did. They'd either understand and help you, God forbid, or drive you out, and you could finally be at peace. in the dark. With me."

She closes her eyes, pained at the thought.
"Either way, you'd be better off for it, but you're too twisted for that." He pauses, throat working. This is so important, and he needs to get through to her so badly...
"Let yourself live, already," he says, pushing the words out through a tight throat. "And stop with the bloody hero trip for a second. We'd all be the better for it." He stops, looks at her, curled up on her bed, so miserable... "You either tell your friends about us...," he says, his tone all steel, "or I will."

She closes her eyes. God, this is so hard... She starts to drink the antidote, but she stops. Her brow smooths out as she makes a decision, and then she leans over and pours the stuff into the trash can.

--

Dori

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