seeking comfort: unconvincing
by nutchick
The next day at school Buffy was having a hard time opening her locker. Both Willow and Spike were watching her struggle to raise her arm. “Spike, can you please help me with my locker it won’t open for me.” Spike began to walk over to help before Willow grabbed his arm. “Wait” was all she said.

“Buffy, yesterday you had no problem opening your locker, but today you can barely lift your arm what is going on here?” Williow said. Trying to weasel information from Buffy and hoping to find out what happened at the same time.

“What do you mean what is going on? I am just having a rough morning is all.” Was buffy’s reply, though it was far from the truth. The night before he had come home piss drunk and looking for a fight. He had beaten her for well over two hours and had dislocated her shoulder. All she could do was repeat she was sorry until he stopped because she was too weak to fight back.

“Luv, what are we going to do with you?” Spike asked pulling her out of her silent rant while pulling her locker open. “Um…” she said nervously. “Thanks for opening it but now I have to go to practice, I’ll see you guys later.”

“Hold on Buffy. You have time before practice starts. And I wanted to ask you something.” Willow said.
“What is that?” pointing to Buffy’s wrist where her sweatshirt had pulled up and her skin was almost completely black from finger-tip sized bruises. Spike looked down shocked and confused he did realize that she was wearing bigger clothes but he never thought it was to hide bruises. How long had she been dressing differently exactaly. He couldn’t remember, and he was supposed to be the one who looked out for her. That was the job Spike had given himself.

“Oh… um those are from…uh…cheerleading practice…we...uh, we’re working on some new moves.” And with that she was gone. Before spike or Willow could say anything.

Willow’s mouth had dropped when Buffy had unconvincingly reached for a lie and she felt so hurt that Buffy couldn’t trust her with whatever information she was holding so dear.

Spike gently closed her locker. “Red, do you need a ride home?” he asked with his hand on Willow’s back. She could tell all of his focus was on Buffy, trying to figure out what was going on and how to fix it.

“No,” she said “I want to see the new move Buffy is practicing. And how she’s going to hold Katrina in the air with her arm like that.”

“So you don’t believe a word she said either? Good I’m not alone. Some thing is definately going on and if she won’t tell us, we’ll have to figure it out on our own. Come on red, let’s get down to the field.”

When they got to the place where the cheerleaders practiced they saw that Buffy had not changed into her uniform which was causing some sort of dispute between the teammates.
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‘God why won’t they just leave me alone?’ she screamed in her mind. “I cant wear my outfit today because it is at the dry-cleaners.” She said snatching up a lie she had used before. “Now let’s just start practicing okay girls?” with a lot of grumbling they got onto the field to practice a routine they had done a million times.

“This isn’t new.” Stated Willow simply. Her mind still racing a million miles a minute trying to piece together all the information they already knew.

“Yeah I realized that too, pet. What’s with all the lies? Unconvincing as they are what is she hiding?”

‘What could be so horrible that my love wouldn’t tell her best friend even after being confronted twice?’ Spike thought to himself.

His attention was quickly recaptured when Buffy collapsed underneath Katrina. He had never run so quickly in his life and was the first one at her side. She looked at him with tears in her eyes and said “I just want to go home Spike. Please just take me home.”

“Fine luv, but we’ve gotta talk about a few things.” He picked her up and carried her through the group of girls to his car. Willow stayed behind to smooth things over with the team as Spike drove away. Buffy sat facing the passenger window avoiding his looks. He didn’t try to speak to her until he parked out side his home. She looked at him as he got out of the car and came around to open her door. Come on in.”


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