Smashed                                           

Buffy comes across a mugging in an alley, stops it.  The guys are human, but they're stupid enough to try to fight her.  Spike leaps into the fray, knocking one guy down, and immediately roars in pain. The muggers run off.

"What the hell are you doing?" Buffy asks.  She'd tried to warn him,but there wasn't time, he came in so fast.

"Thought they were demons," he says, holding his head.

"Way to go with the keen observiness, Jessica Fletcher," Buffy says, rolling her eyes.

Spike glares at her.  "Remind me not to help you," he says.

Buffy raises an eyebrow.  "=More= often?" she says, heavy on the sarcasm.

"Hey," Spike says, "Little sympathy for the man with the migraine, can we?"

"Well, that's what you get for attacking a human," she replies.  Duh...

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He shakes his head.  "Yeah," he says, "you'd think if the government was going to put a chip in my head, they'd at least make it so I could attack criminals and that sort."

"Yes," Buffy drawls, even heavier with the sarcasm, "because muggers deserve to be eaten."  He gives her a withering glare.  "You'll just have to get your rocks off fighting demons," she goes on.

Oho.  Not one to let that kind of opening pass him by, Spike gives her a sultry look.  "There are other ways...," he says.

Buffy's eyes widen.  "and to that, an extreme 'see you later'," she says, and turns to go.  He follows her.

"Buffy...," he says, slightly amused.

She heaves a big sigh and turns around.  "Spike, it's late," she says.  "Hey, can we just finish this another time?"

He stalks toward her, That Look on his face.  The You-Want-Me-So-Bad look.  "So," he says, almost purring, "you want to jump right to the kissing, then."

Another eye-roll from Buffy.  "I am =not= kissing you, Spike.  Once was more than..."

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But he cuts her off.  "Twice," he says.

"But not again."  She's being patiently firm.  She turns to walk away again.

"You're a tease, you know that, Slayer?" he says, more than a little frustrated.  "Get a fellow's motor revving, let the tension marinate for a couple of days, then BAM!  You crown yourself the Ice Queen."

Buffy continues to walk away.  "You need a few more metaphors for that mix?" she says.  Doesn't he =ever= give up?

She's out of frame now, and we pull back and up as he calls after her, "It's only a matter of time before you realize I'm the only one here for you, Pet."  He's alone in the alley, small in the frame. "You got no one else!" he shouts.

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Buffy comes to the museum to investigate the frozen guard, and sees the EMTs bringing him out.  There's nothing she can do here, what with the cops and the crowd, so she starts off.  Spike steps in front of her.

"Great," she says.  Probably with another eye-roll.

"Well, well, well," Spike says.  "Look who decided to show up."

"What are you doing here, Spike?"

He feigns concern.  "Well, you know, a man -was- frozen alive in there.  A little compassion, love."

Another eye-roll.

He goes on, pitching.  Just in case.  "You know, as long as you're here, you might a well tag along.  I mean, as a team, we're..."

"Yeah," she breaks in, not really wanting to hear that team thing, "That never really ends well, does it?"

He looks at her, smiling at the memory.  "It did the other night," he says.

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She pushes past him.  "You really seem awfully fixated on a couple of kisses, Spike."  She so doesn't want to remember that...

"And you seem awfully quick to forget about 'em," he replies, trying not to be stung.

Buffy stops, turns around.  "Look," she says quietly, sincerely, "I'm sorry, okay?  I'm sorry if you thought they meant more."

He looks at her.  "But...?"

"But you know, when I kissed you...," she tries to explain, "You know I was thinking about Giles, right?"

Right.  Giles.  "You know," he says, "I always wondered about you two."

"What?"  It takes her a second.  "Oh, GROSS, Spike!"  So did not need -that- mental image...  "He left.  I was depressed.  Ergo,vulnerability and bad kiss decisions."  He's smiling.  Why is he smiling?  "That's all it was.  You have to let it go."

Spike's smile widens  He knows what she's doing.  "Did it work?" he says.

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"What?"

"Did you convince yourself?"  Still smiling.

God, he never quits.  "Please," she says, deadly serious.  "Stop." She turns away from him, starts to walk off.  He follows.

"A man can change," he says.  Dammit, why can't she see that?

She turns.  "You're not a man."  She turns away again.  "You're a thing."  She starts to walk away.

A thing?  After all they've been through?  He grabs her shoulder. "Stop walking away!" he says.  He's getting so sick of her turning her back on him...

"Don't touch me!" she shouts, and belts him one.  Not hard, just enough to rock him back on his heels.

That's it.  He's had enough, and he backhands her before he can stop himself.  The blow knocks her to the ground, and she doesn't see that his chip has failed to shock him.  He puts his hand to his head, puzzled, and then realizes she's going to know something's up.  He fakes a headache.

Buffy gets up and hits him again, knocking him to his knees. "You're a thing," she says to his back, "An evil, disgusting =thing=."  She stalks away.

He takes that in, then, slowly, he smiles.  He's free.

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Later, Spike is wandering down Main Street.  People are out, and he watches them.  "Look at all the goodies," he says.  He's been eating MREs for three years, and now here's a banquet laid before him.

He notices one woman, obviously upset at having to wait for a ride, start to walk rapidly.  He gets into the alley and as she passes, he steps out.  She gasps, preparing to scream.

"Yeah," he says, "You should scream."  He grins and takes a step, all hipshot and slouchy--very much the Big Bad, back again.  The woman tries to run, but he cuts her off.  "Creature of the night, here, yeah?" he says.  "Some people forget that."

She backs away.  "Please," she says, very frightened.

But he's not listening to her.  "She thinks I'm housebroken," Spike says, starting to pace in front of the woman like a big cat.  "She forgets who she's dealing with."

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"Please," the woman tries again, "anything you want..."

But he talks right over her.  "She thinks because she's confused about where she fits in, I should be too?  Cause I'm =not=.  I know what I am.  I'm dangerous.  And evil."  He comes toward the woman.

She tries to calm him.

"I'm sure you're not evil..." she says.

"Yes, I am," he says, slowly coming closer.  "I am a killer. That's what I do.  I kill.  And yeah, maybe it's been a long time, but it's not like you forget how.  You just..."  He looks at her, hungry.  And not entirely for food.  "Do it."  And now I can.  Again. So here goes."  He shifts into vamp face, gives her a toothy grin. "This might hurt a little..."  He snarls, opens his mouth, leaps on her...and roars in pain as the chip kicks in.  He reels back, bangs into a dumpster, holds on to it as the woman flees.  "What the HELL is going on?" he demands of the air.

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The Troika are admiring the diamond they stole, making plans, when the door explodes inward.  It's Spike; he saunters into the room.  He wants Warren to see what's going on with his chip.  After some negotiating, using a Boba Fett figure as hostage, Warren agrees, hoping to call in a marker from Spike later.  Spike, however, declines to "scratch anything" of Warren's, and tells them that he's in charge.

After Warren has run the tests on the chip, he tells Spike that the thing is functioning properly.  He doesn't know what it does--but he'd sure like to.  Spike warns them not to tell anyone about what's happened.  Warren says he won't talk, and anyway, he doesn't know what is going on.

"It's about the rules having changed," Spike says.  "Everything's different now."  He leaves the Troika.  "Nothing's wrong with me," he says to himself.  "Something's wrong with her..."

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Buffy is at the magic shop with Xander and Anya, trying to figure out the frozen guy.  They're discussing Willow, and how Tara thinks she's using too much magic.  "She's not the only one," Xander says, gravely.  They talk about how seductive the Dark Side must be.  Buffy is not comfortable with the word seduction.  The phone rings, and Buffy answers it.

"Slayer," says a seductive voice on the other end.

"Spike?"  What the hell...?

It is.  He's calling from a pay phone.  "Meet me in the cemetery. Twenty minutes.  Come alone."  His voice is low, dangerous, dripping menace or sex, or maybe both.

"Spike??"

He rolls his eyes.  "Bloody hell," he mutters, and then, louder, to Buffy, "Yes, It's me."

Buffy is puzzled.  "You're...calling me on the phone?"

"Just be there," he says.  God, the bint is dim.

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"Why?" she says.  "Are you...helping again?"  She glances over at Xander and Anya.  Are they listening?  What do they think of Spike calling?  "You have a lead on this ice monster thingy?"

He grins.  "Something like that, yeah.  Thought you might be up for a little grunt-work."

That gives her a mental image.  "What?!?  No!"  She lowers her voice so the others won't hear.  "No grunting!"

His grin widens.  "I was talking shop, love, but if you've got other ideas...  You, me, a cozy little tomb with a view..."  She hangs up on him.

Xander wants to know what Spike wanted, and Buffy tells him that Spike wanted to know if she wanted to go patrolling, and she told him no.

Later the three of them are closing the Magic Box.  Buffy goes her way, and Spike steps out of the alley, into her path.

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"Slayer," he says.  Obviously not happy.

She sighs. "And now my night is complete," she says.  Again with the sarcasm.

"You never showed."

"Sorry," she says, obviously not at all sorry.  "Little busy actually doing things." She walks past him, and he follows.

"You shouldn't be so flip, love," he says, a note of warning in his voice.

"What are you gonna do, walk behind me to death?"  She doesn't even turn around.

He steps in front of her, and she stops.  "I'm just saying things might be a little different," he says.  "You ought to be careful."

She so doesn't want to listen to this again.  "Enough."  She steps forward, but he doesn't move.  Her lips curve in a slight smile.

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That's the way he wants it?  Fine.  "Get out of my way," she says, and her tone dares him not to do it.  He smirks at her.

"Or what?"

She shrugs, then belts him across the mouth.  He stands his ground, giving her a killing glance from underneath his lashes, and then, quite deliberately, he backhands her.  "Oh, the pain," he says, mocking her, obviously not in any pain whatsoever.  "The pain...is gone."  Her eyes widen.  "Guess what I just found out?" he goes on. "Guess I'm not as toothless as you thought, sweetheart."

"How?" she says, horrified.

He gives her an evil smile.  "Don't you get it?" he asks.  "Don't you see?  You came back =wrong=."

Frightened, furious, she strikes at him, getting in two good blows and driving him back several feet.  She swings again, but he blocks the blow and lands a blow of his own, knocking her back into a fence.

"It's a trick," she says.  "You did something to the chip.  It's a trick."  She's desperate to believe that; she doesn't feel wrong...

He grins at her.  "No trick," he says.  "It's not me.  It's you. Just you, in fact, that's the funny part."  He hits her again.

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"You're the one that's changed."  Another blow.  "That's why this doesn't hurt me."  He swings again, but she blocks him.  "Came back a little less human than you were," he taunts her.   A thing, is he? Well, he's not the only one. All these months, and now he can finally vent some of the misery she's been putting him through since she got back.

"You're wrong," Buffy says, her jaw set, and punches him across the alley.  He gets up and comes back.

"Then how come you're so spooked?" he says.  "And why can I...," he backhands her, "do that?"

"You're =wrong=."  She goes after him, serious now, and their fight carries them crashing through a door and into an abandoned house. She knocks him into a wall, then throws him into an old refrigerator, then pounds him across two rooms, and he just laughs.  He's having fun with this.

"Ohhh, poor little lost girl," he says, mocking her.  He leaps up, grabs a chandelier, swings across the room and kicks her to the floor.  "She's got nobody to love."

She gets up and flings him crashing into the stairwell.  She's well and truly pissed off, now. "Me?" she says scornfully.  "I'm lost? Look at you, you idiot."  She comes over to him, picks him up. "Poooor Spikey.  Can't be a human, can't be a vampire.  Where the hell do you fit in?  She flings him into the fireplace.  The walls are starting to groan; they're weakening the structural timbers.

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Buffy advances on him.  "Your job is to kill the Slayer.  But all you can do is follow me aorund, making moon-eyes."

He gets to his knees, shakes off some of the mortar.  "I'm in love with you," he says between his teeth.

"You're in love with pain," she retorts.  "You like me because you enjoy getting beat down.  So, who's screwed up?"

He gets up.  "Hello, vampire," he says, swinging.  She blocks him. "Supposed to be treading the Dark Side."  He punches her, throwing her into a wall, which cracks.  More groaning of stressed timbers.

He goes to her, grabs her, throws her across the floor.  Comes to stand over her, pulls her up by her lapels.  "What's your excuse?"

She pushes him off, then catches him with a flying tackle.  The walls are really taking a beating.

More fighting.  He gets her down on the stairs, holding her by her jacket.  He hits her again, and laughs.  "I wasn't planning on hurting you," he says.  "Much."

"You haven't even come close to hurting me," she sneers, and it seems to be the truth.

He gives her that evil grin.  "Afraid to give me the chance?" he says.

She breaks his grip, slams him against the wall, breaking through the lath and plaster.  He looks down at her.  "You afraid I'm gonna..."

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She shuts him up by kissing him.  Fiercely.  He kisses back.  She slams her arm through the wall and doesn't even notice.  He swings them around, presses her to the wall.  The kiss is desperate, and he pulls at her skirt, trying to get to her, but the leather defeats him.  She shoves him away from her, follows him, and a beam crashes down where they were standing.  She shoves him again, against the opposite wall, cracking it.  The whole house is screaming now, and bits of plaster are starting to fall.  She grabs his coat, kisses him again.  She isn't close enough, and he lifts her up, her legs going around his waist, so that she's pressed hard against him.  They continue kissing, frantic, and she reaches down, unzips his fly, rips her skirt out of the way.  She breaks off the kiss with a moan as she sinks down on him.

He looks at her, startled, not daring to believe she's just done what it feels like she's done.  It's like he's looking at heaven.  She stares back, not sure if she believes it herself.  And then she starts to move, lost in the sensation, her eyes never leaving his, and oh, it's good.  His eyes close, his head goes back for a second; then he's drawn inexorably to her mouth, and kisses her again.  Never breaking the kiss, he turns them around, letting the wall hold her up; she reaches over her head and hangs on to...something.  They move together for a moment, mouths locked together, and then she throws her head back, gasps, makes the O-face.  He rests his head on her chest, his eyes clenched shut, at the same point she is.  Around them, the house is falling in, coming apart, debris raining down, but they don't see, don't hear.  She slumps, puts her arms around his neck and her head on his shoulder.  He stumbles backward, they crash through the floor to the level below, still together.  When they land, she starts to move again, and he stares up at her, lost again in the feel of her.

Fade to black.

--

Dori

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