Subject: [SpikesSalvation] Friends and Strangers- Chapter 9
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003 18:52:17 -0800 (PST)
From: Jerusha Hancock <enigmaticblue@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: SpikesSalvation@yahoogroups.com
To: SpikesSalvation@yahoogroups.com


October 11

"Would you do me a favor?" Rachel asked in the quiet of a Friday
night. Spike lounged in his chair, watching the flickering
images cross the screen, and Rachel lay on her stomach on the
stone slab. She'd brought in a blanket and pillow from her own
house, and could usually be found studying by candlelight in the
evening hours. Spike found himself at home most nights anymore,
at least until Rachel was in bed. Buffy came by every night,
maybe every other night to ask him to patrol with her, but his
roommate was normally asleep by then. They kept such different
hours, it was amazing they saw one another at all, but over the
last few weeks, Spike found himself going out of his way to
spend time with her. Her presence soothed him. When he was with
her, he found himself believing that he was almost normal.

Spike glanced from the TV set to look at her. "Depends on the
favor, duchess, but yeah."

"Would you teach me how to fight?" she asked innocently.

The vampire's eyebrows shot up, and he turned to face her fully.
"Now why would a nice girl like you want to learn how to fight?"

She wouldn't quite meet his eyes, and flushed a bit. "I talked
to my dad today, and he said I could move into the house in
another couple weeks. Anyway, you aren't going to be able to
walk me home every night, so I thought it would be a good idea
if I learned, you know, how to take care of myself."

Spike felt his senses prick up. It wasn't just that he could
smell the fact that she was keeping something from him, though
that was part of it, but he had learned to read her just as well
as she read him. Rachel might have been good at keeping everyone
else at a distance, but not him. "Even the Slayer works up a
little sweat taking four vampires, luv," Spike said, referring
to their first meeting. "And it would take a lot longer than two
weeks to turn you into the Slayer, if that were even possible.
Besides, I'll still be walking you home. Now, you want to tell
me what the real problem is?" He got up and sat down next to her
on the slab, noting how she still continued to look away from
him.

"You're going to be busy with Buffy," she protested, "you might
not have time to meet me every night. If I just knew a few more
tricks, I could handle myself."

Spike was listening to the underlying emotion in her tone.
"Again, you probably could handle one or two by yourself
already, and you're not walking home alone." Gently, he took her
chin and forced her to meet his eyes. "Now what the bloody hell
are you not telling me, Rachel?"

Despite her best efforts, tears formed in her eyes. "It's
just--you're doing so much better, and I think that's great, but
you won't need me anymore once I move out."

Spike frowned. He wasn't terribly surprised that this was
coming up. It was true. He was doing better; he hadn't had a
flashback since Buffy had literally knocked him out of it,
though the nightmares were something else altogether. But Rachel
had been left by just about everyone else, and while he might be
an idiot when it came to other people, he knew the girl in front
of him like the back of his own hand. "So you're saying we
aren't friends?" he asked.

She frowned indignantly. "Of course we're friends."

"Then what makes you think I'd just abandon you? You must really
think I'm a soddin' wanker if you think you movin' would change
things that much," he put some affront into his tone, knowing
that she would feel bad for hurting his feelings.

"No! You're great, Spike, I just thought..." she trailed off,
then narrowed her eyes. "You're trying to make me feel better,"
she accused.

"Did it work?" he asked with a smirk.

With an exasperated sigh, she rolled her eyes. "Yeah. I guess
I'm just going to miss this. You know, just hanging together."

Spike didn't let himself think about how much he was going to
miss the kid. She was like sunshine to him, just much better for
his health. "Me too," he looked over at her. She'd sat up next
to him, and he could tell that she was still thinking. "You want
to tell me what the real reason is that you asked me to teach
you how to fight now?"

Rachel made a face. "Can't hide anything from you, can I?" It
was a rhetorical question, and Spike let it go, waiting for the
answer. "I feel something coming. It's like a gut feeling, like
I get when I see somebody for the first time. I think I'm going
to be needed, and I want to be ready."

"Not to be rude, duchess, but we've got fighters," Spike said.

She shook her head stubbornly. "No, I mean you're going to need
what I can do, and I want to be able to take care of myself when
it comes down to it. It's going to get messy, Spike. That's all
I can tell for sure."

The vampire studied her for a long moment. He didn't pretend to
understand that he knew how Rachel's mind or her gift worked.
She was one of the most logical people he knew, but at the same
time, that logic was driven by what she knew, and hence what she
felt about her environment and the people in it. Rachel came to
perfectly reasonable conclusions, but those conclusions were
products of emotion. In a strange way, she was a lot like Dru,
who had had an odd gift as well. His insane sire had often told
him things that he had simply accepted, because he knew they
were true, even though it made no sense. "All right, luv," he
said. "Like I said, I can't make you the Slayer in a couple
weeks, but I can teach you to fight dirty. Maybe that'll keep
you alive if you ever get yourself into a situation." He didn't
say it, but he had no intention of her ever needing the skills
he taught her.

Rachel smiled at him. "Thank you," she replied.

"Right then," he said, pushing himself off the slab. "You
ready?"

"Now?" she asked.

"No time like the present, luv."

~~~~~

Buffy and Dawn walked side by side in silence, the teen still
sulking. "I still don't see why we have to take him," Dawn
muttered, breaking the silence.

Her sister sighed. They'd been over this a half dozen times
already, and while Buffy understood her little sister's
reluctance to forgive Spike for what he'd done, it was still
mildly annoying. She was the one he'd hurt, she was the one who
was supposed to hate him, but she didn't, and she was trying to
move past that. If she could get over it, so could everyone
else. It might have been a selfish thought, but she was tired of
defending her actions where it concerned Spike. About the only
time her friends seemed willing to accept their relationship was
when it concerned her heaping abuse on him, and that was part of
what got them into trouble in the first place. "We're taking him
because I want him along, and because a few Grishnalk demons
aren't something you take lightly."

"But after what he did to you--" Dawn protested.

Buffy stopped, looking her younger sister in the eye. "I told
you what happened, Dawnie," she said quietly. "He wasn't the
only one who screwed up in our relationship. And he's changed.
He has a soul now."

"Angel had a soul," Dawn muttered. She still remembered what
Angel had done to their family, to her sister, and Buffy had
forgiven him too. No matter how nice Angel was as Angel, she
couldn't wipe Angelus out of her mind.

Buffy reached out and took her hand. "Angel could lose his soul.
Spike can't. From what I understand, it's pretty much a
permanent addition, and he's trying really hard to make things
right with me. So don't give him too hard of a time,
understand?"

Dawn nodded. She supposed, more than anything else, she was
confused about how to feel about Spike. She had loved him,
whatever anyone said about his being evil, but you weren't
supposed to love somebody who would try to rape your sister. And
yet, she'd missed him while he'd been gone, and no matter how
much she wanted to hate him, she couldn't. Buffy had given her
about half the story over the summer, and she'd told the rest
when he'd first reappeared in town. The teen realized that most
of her confusion stemmed from the fact that Spike was a good
person who had done something really rotten. And her sister had
been completely horrible to him. Good people didn't do things
like that, just like Willow should never have tried to kill her,
and Anya should never have gone back to being a demon. Despite
being thousands of years old, Dawn was still an ordinary
teenager, and she was just beginning to understand how
complicated people could be.

Buffy grabbed her arm, interrupting her thoughts. Dawn froze,
and then heard the sounds of a fight, including labored
breathing and scuffling noises. The Slayer held a finger to her
lips for silence, and then motioned for Dawn to follow her. As
they drew nearer to the bushes in Spike's cemetery, they could
make out two figures that were circling each other warily.

"If you don't keep that bloody arm up, you're going to wind up
dead," Spike warned his opponent.

"If you don't stop your yapping, you're going to wind up with a
stake in your chest," Rachel replied. She moved to where Buffy
and Dawn could make out her features, sweat and dirt streaked,
with a scratch running down one cheek. Dawn made a movement, but
Buffy held her back, shaking her head.

Spike leaped at the girl with a growl. Buffy could tell that he
wasn't moving quite as quickly as he usually did, but his fist
snapped out quickly enough. Apparently, Rachel had taken his
advice to heart, because she blocked the fist with one arm,
though she didn't see Spike's leg, which came up to catch her in
the side, throwing her a couple of feet. "I told you to watch
your bloody left side, duchess. If I were a starving vampire
you'd be the first course," he growled, the half-annoyed look on
his face turning to one of concern when the figure on the ground
didn't move. "Duchess?" he called, moving closer. When he still
received no answer, he moved to her side. "Rachel? Are you
alright?"

He didn't get the last question all the way out of his mouth
before, in a maneuver almost too fast to follow, Rachel's legs
came around to sweep Spike's out from underneath him. He'd
barely hit the ground before she was sitting on top of him, a
carrot hovering, point down, over his heart. "You were saying?"
she asked sweetly.

Spike opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when he felt
Buffy's presence. "Slayer," he said as she and Dawn stepped out
of the shadows. Rachel scrambled off his chest, and Spike picked
himself off the ground.

"A carrot?" Buffy asked incredulously.

The two looked at each other and shrugged. "Spike didn't want to
use a real stake, you know, just in case, and I had a couple
carrots. They're sorta stake-shaped." Buffy opened her mouth to
say something else, but stopped as she remembered that she and
Angel used baguettes at times.

"Nice moves," she complimented.

Rachel shrugged, flushing. "It's nothing special. Spike's killed
me about a hundred times tonight already."

"She's doing good, though," the vampire interjected. "I wasn't
expectin' that last move. Caught me flat-footed." He looked at
Buffy, and Rachel could sense his interest and excitement. "Take
it you need me tonight." Rachel took the stab of envy she felt
and buried it deep. She knew better than anyone that feelings
could not be forced. You felt what you felt, and that was the
end of the story. But knowing that didn't change the fact that
she wished someone would look at her like that, and it didn't
change the fact that chances were no one ever would.

"A bunch of Grishnalk demons are causing trouble in the old
Catholic cemetery," Buffy said. "If you're not too busy, we
could use your help."

"We were just about done," Rachel said, before Spike could
reply. "I should finish my homework before I go to bed anyway."
She looked at the other three, sensing them, tasting their
essences, and smiling, she wished them goodnight and began
walking back to the crypt. Once there, Rachel cursed her own
weakness. "Stupid girl," she muttered to herself. "Starting to
fall in love with a stupid vampire." She got inside the crypt
before the tears started to fall, and she wiped them away
impatiently. Life just sucked sometimes.

~~~~~

Spike sat on the front steps next to Buffy. She'd sent the bit
inside, but had told him he could stay if he wanted. So he'd lit
a cigarette and let the smoke curl up lazily, watching the
stars. He felt her come back outside, and watched from the
corner of his eye as she sat down next to him, though not close.
He understood her awkwardness in letting him inside her house.
Had, in fact, assumed that the invitation had been rescinded,
though he'd been in no mood to try and find out by following her
in the door. They'd had a good night; there had been no barbs
flung between the two of them, they'd killed the demons, and no
one had gotten hurt. There was something to be said for an
evening like that.

"I've really appreciated your help on patrol, Spike," Buffy said
softly. She watched as he glanced over at her, surprised by both
the tone of her voice and her words. "Dawn's really coming
along, but--" she stopped.

"It's the least I can do," he said softly. The silence stretched
out between the two of them, and Buffy wondered when it was that
they had lost the fine art of being quiet together. She wondered
for the millionth time what had happened between the two of
them, and realized that she had no answers.

"You and Rachel seem really good together," Buffy finally said.
"I like her."

He took a drag, deepening the orange glow of his cigarette tip.
"She's a likable girl." A thoughtful look shaded his eyes.
"Don't think I could have survived without her help."

Buffy looked over at him, unsure of what she should say, what
she could say. "You've been good for her." Spike looked at her
in surprise. "You're taking care of her. From what Willow's told
me, and from what I gathered, she needed a friend."

The vampire shrugged uncomfortably. "She's done a lot more for
me. How do you know I haven't just kept her around for what she
can do for me?"

"Because I know you better than that," Buffy replied. An almost
shy smile lit Spike's lips as he looked at her, and the next
silence was one that could be found only between two old
friends.

---------------------------------