Fight Your Own Demon: Part 12
by AKA Becker
Upon seeing Angel enter the basement, Spike shook his head and said, "You’re home early this evening. Let me guess; we still have a slayer and all her little friends still running around out there. Hmm?"

"Well, I don’t think she is going to just invite me into her house. Besides, there were some other things going on tonight. I did find myself a tasty little snack though," Angelus replied.

"It’s OK, Angel. I know you’ll find a...Ewww. It’s dirty. Something dirty is in our home!" Dru exclaimed.

"What’s wrong now, Dru? This whole place is filthy," Spike said, shooting a glare at Angelus during that second sentence.

Then the vampire that Angelus saw with Oz came down into the basement.

"It’s dirty! Get it out. It’s unclean!" Dru demanded.

"She wants you to leave, I recommend immediately," Spike said to him.

"What did I do?" the vampire replied.

"You bit him, didn’t you?" Angelus said, then added to no-one, "What an idiot." He turned to Spike and Dru, who was practically hiding behind the wheelchair, "He bit a werewolf." Turning back to the vampire, "Who made you anyway?"

"Angel, make it go away," Dru asked.

"You better find a new place to stay. And if you happen to survive the next night, I hope you realize what else you have done," Angelus spoke.

The new vampire turned to leave, "What else did I do?"

"That boy is the Slayer’s best friend’s boyfriend. If you don’t kill yourself first, she’ll gladly do it for you. And let me tell you, you don’t stand a chance. Look at him," Angelus explained, pointing to Spike.

"Now, I thought I asked you to leave already," Spike seethed.

The vampire looked at the three elder vampires in the basement, then quickly made his exit from the basement.

"I warned him," Angel said.

"It’s gone from our home," Druscilla said, and visibly relaxed.

* * *

Giles, Buffy and Willow had just gotten inside of Giles’ apartment when Xander and Cordelia arrived. There was no mistaking that she was driving. Giles threw a plastic tarp over his couch and set it up for Oz to lay on. A moment later, Xander came through the door carrying Oz, his shirt wrapped around Oz’s neck to absorb what blood was left. Oz was out, but still alive. Cordelia came in right behind Xander and closed the door.

"My God, Oz!" Willow cried.

Giles motioned Xander to put Oz down on the couch. Giles had a first aid kit sitting on the coffee table and pulled out some gauze and bandages. He also found some surgical stitches and tools to stitch up the wound.

Willow Sat down next to Oz on the floor.

"Buffy get me a pot of warm water." Giles asked. "Willow, I’m not very good at this. Do you think you can do the stitching?"

"I don’t know. I know how, but I’m shaking too much," Willow replied.

Buffy came back into the room with the pot of water and put it down on the table where Giles pointed.

"You have to do it. Only you can do it. It will help him greatly. He’ll be ok either way, but if you stitch him up right, he’ll recover sooner," Giles explained.

"Giles, I don’t know," Willow said. Still looking at the shirt with the red stain wrapped around Oz’ neck.

"Will, I know you can do it. Remember the time you stitched my arm when I fell off the swings a few years ago?" Xander said, "I don’t even have a scar now." He sat down behind her and massaged her shoulders. "You’ll feel better if you do it, and you can do it." He kissed her on the back of the head.

Buffy was keep a close eye on Cordy to make sure she didn’t start to say anything that would blow what Xander was trying to do for Willow.

"Are you ready?" Giles asked Willow.

"OK," she said meekly.

Giles unwrapped the shirt from Oz’ neck. Willow immediately cringed. Giles wet one of the rags in the kit and wiped his neck down. The wound was not as bad as it had appeared under the bush. Just two small but slightly jagged holes.

Xander stepped up his massage as he felt Willow tighten back up again. She had seen those holes many times now, but just never on Oz. She had to look into the first aid kit to find the right tools, if only to look away from that neck. "Xander, you can stop now, I have to be still when I do this," she said.

Xander stood up and walked across to Buffy and Cordelia.

Willow began to fix Oz with Giles’ help.

"Good job, Xander," Buffy whispered.

"Thanks," he replied.

"Why don’t you give me massages like that?" Cordy asked.

"When we’re together, I’m usually the one who gets tense," he replied.

"Guys," Buffy said, and motioned for them to go to the kitchen. She didn’t want them to fight in there, and she really didn’t want to watch what Willow and Giles were doing.

"OK," Xander said, and motioned for Cordy to follow Buffy into the kitchen. As she got in front of him, he started massaging her shoulders.

Cordelia smiled for the first time since she first went to sleep.


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