Remembrance: 29
by Selene
This was a moment that Spike wanted to remember. He could see it clearly now. The pain made everything bright and focused. Buffy looked at him with all of the raw emotion in her eyes that he felt inside for her. His voice low and trembling he replied, “That we are, luv.”
Buffy leaned own and placed a feather light kiss on his lips. “I need you to drink from me. This is something that I can do to help you, and now that you are my boyfriend you have to do what I say!”
Spike felt dizzy from trying to follow her twisted logic, and from the prospect of tasting the slayer blood that was being offered.
She looked deep in his eyes, and brought his lips to her bare neck. She gave him one last look that conveyed her love and complete trust, and pressed his lips across the marks he had made earlier. She felt the bones shift in his face and felt his fangs enter her artery. A small trickle of blood escaped and trickled down her collarbone. A testament to how truly hurt Spike was.
Angel hung suspended in the air forced to bear witness to Buffy and Spike’s reunion. All of his work here had been undone. There was nothing that he could do now to tear them apart. He felt bitter regret that he hadn’t found a way to kill Spike when he first arrived in his office at Wolfram & Hart. Seeing them together like this was the salt poured in to the wound. That image would be the last thing he would see in a long time as he felt himself being mystically pulled to the Well.
Giles watched the tender scene between Buffy and Spike and unconsciously tightened his grip on Willow. He winced when he saw Spike sink his fangs into Buffy’s neck, every instinct telling him to pull Spike off of her. He kept his mouth shut knowing that this was Buffy’s call and that she truly did know what she was doing. He had to let her go of her at last.
Willow felt Giles stiffen and knew what was bothering him without being told. She turned in his embrace and placed her hands on either side of his face and would not let go. She smiled when he returned her look with a thunderous one of his own. The aftermath of Angel’s attack made him tremble as his last shred of concentration faltered and the barrier around them fell.
Willow leaned toward Giles and whispered, “Who is messing around with the ferocious and primal magics now?”
Giles had the grace to look a bit sheepish, “I had to come up with something strong and powerful enough to stop him. He was going to kill you...” There was a pained look on Giles face.
Willow felt horrible that she had inadvertently reminded him about Jenny’s death. She had just wanted to tease him about the comments that he had made to her about the type of magic that she had practiced. The magic that he had been playing with here was definitely of the grey... She laid a hand on his shoulder as a type of peace gesture.
“I am sorry Giles I was just trying to lighten the mood here. I am really grateful for your help.”
Illyria was the only one that witnessed the subtle shimmer around Angel before he winked out. Her authoritative voice rung out a solid, “Goodbye, guardian.”
The couples broke apart and looked at where Angel had been moments before. Giles was the first to break the silence.
“Ummm... Well, Buffy what do you think we should do with Spike here? I know that he can’t possibly healed from that blow yet, even with your help.” It was as close as Giles could come to admit that he had full knowledge of their relationship and gave them his blessings of sorts.
Buffy blinked back her surprise, Giles didn’t have a lecture handy? This day needed to go down in the books. “Well... We could put him in the room across from Faith and we should check up on Margaret. Oh, and make sure that the room has a western exposure and heavy drapes.” She looked down at Spike’s chest wound, and while it was starting to close over a bit, it still was deep and ragged.
It wasn’t long before the group had gone to check on the others. Most of the Coven was resting in their beds and were still so sick that they could barely move. Giles and Willow found Margaret on her bathroom floor and tried to do a healing spell on her. It didn’t help the strange sickness was even worse than when it had started. They helped her back to bed and while Willow bathed her face Giles broke the terrible news that some of the Coven was killed.
Tears slid down her face and Margaret felt another kind of helplessness and bitterness. Why was it that the powers that be granted her the ability to see only certain things. The events that mattered most to her were always shrouded. She rarely ever glimpsed anything that effected her directly. She forcibly put aside her resentment and asked about the other women.
Giles looked at his old friend and felt regret. Willow and Giles had gained so much from coming to this place and in return for the Coven’s help several of the members had been slain, all of them had been sickened presumably by something Angel had done. He was puzzled by the fact that their healing spell had failed. There had to be a reason that the Coven was still so horribly sickened. He had hoped that when Angel was gone that the effects of the spell would lessen. The Slayers had been filtering back in and most of them had headed to bed after the news had been broken to them.
It was still so hard to tell young girls such tragic news. It was what they had been trained to deal with but whenever one of their own went down it was a reminder that they weren’t invincible and that being a Slayer was a burden. How Buffy had dealt with these issues alone baffled him. Looking back he realized that he had not been there for her when he should have and meddled when left best alone. Regret would always be with him it seemed.
He focused on the problem at hand, the Coven must be restored to full health and the wounded needed to be tended. Sleep would wait.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Xander could feel his inner child just dying to say the words I told you so. Angel had been his least favorite “person” and to have all of his suspicions confirmed was justification of some of his own past actions. Another larger part of him felt sad for both Buffy and Faith. Deadboy had played a key part in making them what they are today, and in Faith’s life he had actually made it a change for the better.
He didn’t really relish the thought of breaking the news to Faith. He knew all of the issues that Faith had, having lived through most of it, and had to admit that Angel had helped her when everyone else had given up on her. Even himself. It took all of the glee out Angel’s downfall. Faith was still hurt her slaying healing had been overtaxed by the wound she received from the demon. Willow and Giles had promised to stop by and try to cast a healing charm on her to speed things along.
It had been a long night for everyone and he was glad that he had stayed in Faith’s room last night to make sure that she didn’t need anything. Sprawling in the overstuffed chair had probably saved his life. He had to rank high on Angel’s snackable tidbits right? Or was he not even bite worthy...
Faith was majorly pissed off that Angel had been behind it. If Xander heard her rasp out, “Are you sure?” one more time he was going to go mental.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He saw the blueish smudges underneath her eyes. Her body swayed a sure sign of her utter exhaustion. The face off against Angel had provided the only means for Giles to stay on his feet, pure adrenaline mixed with the after effect of magic coursing through his veins. He brushed aside all thought about Angel not ready to give in to his rage and utter hatred just yet. He had to be focused on what was going on in the here and now, people needed help and for once he was able to do something instead of just offer advice.
He had just found out about Gunn’s condition and had to tamp down on his anger once again. Gunn’s needs took precedence over anyone else since his healing charms didn’t seem to be helping anyone in the Coven. Wes looked up in hope as Giles and Willow brought in supplies to mend the wound in Gunn’s neck. There was blood all over, in one part of his mind Giles was taking in all the little details so he could piece together what had happened in this room.
His hands automatically went through the motions of preparing the spell. Barely aware of the trembling of his voice Giles intoned the necessary blessing before laying the poultice on thick. The room smelled heavily of feverfew and some less identifiable herbs and for a few moments nothing happened.
Gunn’s body suddenly stiffened and his eyes that had been shut flew open in alarm. Giles laid a restraining hand on his chest and Wes took his hand in his once more. Gunn relaxed as the poultice began its work. A warm glow enfolded him for a moment and the wound closed over.
Grateful that the charm had worked Giles started to clean up the remainder of the poultice, carefully holding it he asked Willow if she would apply the excess to Faith’s wounds. Sighing in relief when she agreed Giles went to figure out who else needed help and tried to round up Dawn to do a head count.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Willow walked into the room to hear Faith mutter, “Angel?”
There was so much bewilderment in her voice that Willow felt an unfamiliar compassion for her. She caught Xander’s look of frustration and realized that Faith was having a hard time accepting the change that had come over Angel.
After Xander shot her his best pleading look Willow briskly walked into the room and placed her bundle carefully on the nightstand. She placed a cool hand on Faith’s forehead and and bit her lip in worry. “Xander? Could you please go to the kitchen and get a pitcher of cold water?”
After reluctantly nodding his head he jogged out the door. That gave them a few uninterrupted minutes since the kitchen was on the whole other side of the manor. Willow gave Faith a small smile that Faith regarded a bit suspiciously.
After all, she had seen the bundle that the witch had brought in...
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