Fix You

Author: enigmaticblue

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own these characters, which is really too bad, since I'm a lot nicer than Joss ever was.

Summary: Desperate times call for desperate measures where the First is involved. In order to prevent the end of the world, Buffy asks Willow to do a spell that's supposed to fix everything, and Spike goes along for the ride.

A/N: Written for effulgent_girl, who requested that S7 Buffy and Spike be sent back to S4, which got me to thinking. Always a dangerous thing.

A/N: You'll probably notice that I've took some liberties with the timing in canon. Since I'm running the show, I'm allowed to do that.

Chapter 32: Summer Sun

“And now we know the answer to the question,” Buffy said.

“The answer to what question?”

“Will you freckle?”

Spike let out a short bark of laughter and rolled onto his side. “And what answer is that?”

“No, but you don’t really tan either.” Buffy began rubbing more tanning lotion on her arms, unsurprised when Spike took over.

“Let me do that.” He looked around. “Where did everybody get to?”

“They’re in the water,” Buffy responded. “You were asleep, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

He shrugged. “Still feels wrong to be awake in the middle of the day.”

“And yet you do an admirable job.”

“Have to see my girl sometime, don’t I?”

“Look who’s awake!” Xander said as he and Anya approached. He pushed his wet hair out of his eyes. “You guys getting hungry?”

“I am,” Buffy said. “Spike?”

“Long as my burger is rare,” he said amiably.

Xander pulled a face. “We’re going to have to make it look cooked,” he pointed out. “Otherwise the neighbors will talk.”

“Talk about what?” Willow asked, plopping down on her towel.

“Spike’s uncooked meat,” Anya said. She gave the vampire a curious look. “I don’t think I’ve ever known another vampire who ate anything other than blood.”

Spike shrugged. “You blend in better when you do,” he pointed out, “an’ there’s nothin’ that says we can’t. It’s just we don’t need it.” He gave her a quick grin. “Of course, when you get right down to it, you don’t need sex either, but I don’t know of anybody who’d willingly give that up.”

Anya opened her mouth to say something, and Xander quickly jumped in. “Anybody else hungry?” She rolled her eyes, knowing when her boyfriend was attempting to change the subject.

“So, are you guys ready to go?” Buffy asked Tara and Willow.

Willow grinned. “Yep. I don’t know if we’ll get much chance for sight-seeing, but I’ve made a list of places we could see, just in case.”

Tara ducked her head. “I think so.”

“You’ll be fine, pet,” Spike said encouragingly.

Buffy never failed to be amazed at how gentle Spike could be—when he wanted. He seemed to have taken responsibility for Tara, since Willow was still with Oz, and it looked to stay that way. “What are you going to do this summer, Oz?”

He shrugged. “We’ve got some gigs up and down the coast, so I’ll stay pretty busy.”

Xander sighed. “Which means I’ll be the only one working.”

“Not the only one,” Buffy said, shooting a look over at Spike.

The vampire’s eyes narrowed. “Summers—” he said, his tone a warning.

She just grinned. “What?”

“Wait.” Xander looked up from his attempts to light the charcoal in the fire pit. “Spike has a job?”

“It’s not a job,” Spike growled.

Buffy smirked. “You’re getting paid, aren’t you?”

“What are you doing?” Anya leaned forward, looking interested. “I haven’t yet decided what I’d like to do.”

“I’m just doing someone a favor,” he said, clearly trying to end the questions, but Willow’s curiosity had been stirred, and she kept pressing for answers.

Buffy grinned. The truth was that Spike had rescued a perfectly harmless demon from one of the remaining Initiative patrols, and he now had a rather booming business in the security field. With the ring, he was nearly invulnerable, and with the soul, he was a lot more trustworthy than most vampires. Even the fact that he was dating the Slayer wasn’t enough to dissuade his clients.

Of course, since most of them just wanted to be left alone, Buffy had no problem obliging them. She was, after all, a vampire Slayer. There was nothing in her contract about demons.

Not unless they started causing trouble.

“You’re running errands for demons?” Xander finally asked incredulously. “Why?”

“Why not?” Anya jumped in before Spike could reply. “It’s perfectly reasonable.”

Buffy nodded. “She’s right, Xan. Wait until you meet Clem. He’s really nice.”

“It’s just—demons,” Xander muttered.

Buffy hoped that it didn’t take him quite as long this time to figure out how many shades of gray there were, especially when talking about humans and demons.

~~~~~

“Okay, I think I’ve got everything,” Willow said, looking around her for any last minute additions.

Oz was watching her with ill-concealed amusement. “You’re going to be fine.”

Willow plopped down on her bed. She was storing most of her things at her parents’ house for the summer, and was trying to take only a bare minimum of items. Giles had told her that the coven would provide the books and other magical ingredients she would need.

“Am I?” she asked quietly. “What if—” She wanted to ask what if she couldn’t be helped. What if the possible future she’d seen couldn’t be altered. If that was true—if that’s the person she was going to turn into—Willow would much rather have the coven take her magical abilities away.

Far better to be ordinary, geeky Willow Rosenberg, than to turn into the monster she’d seen.

“What are you really worried about?” Oz asked softly.

“That what I saw will come true.”

“Not gonna happen.” He touched her cheek gently. “You’ve heard Buffy and Spike talking. You know how much has changed already.”

“Yeah.” Willow took a deep breath. Oz was right, of course. “You’ll write me?”

“Sure. I’ll even email if you’ll have access.”

She leaned forward, kissing him desperately. They hadn’t had nearly enough time together over the past few weeks since he’d returned. Oz had been gone for months, and now she was going away. He held her tightly, returning her embrace with the same desperation. It was that, more than anything he’d said, that told Willow he would miss her as much as she would miss him.

Knowing that was somehow reassuring.

When they broke off the kiss to breathe, Oz glanced over at the clock. “We’ve got to go if you’re going to make your flight.”

Willow nodded. “Okay.”

She’d said goodbye to the others the previous day, not really wanting a big leave-taking at the airport. Willow didn’t feel like this trip was a reward, and she didn’t want to treat it as such.

Willow wasn’t surprised to see Spike and Buffy there with Tara, however. They both seemed protective of the other witch in a way that didn’t quite make sense to her, but Willow wasn’t sure she wanted to know the reasons behind it. She didn’t think she’d like the answer.

Buffy came over to give her a hug as soon as she saw her. “Take care of yourself, Will.”

“You too,” Willow said. “Be careful with the Initiative this summer, okay?”

Spike smiled. “We’ve got a man on the inside now, and they aren’t going to mess with us.”

Buffy hugged Tara, too, then both of them headed out.

Oz gave Willow one last kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered, her forehead resting against his.

After a few moments, they pulled apart, and Willow looked at Tara. “Are you ready?”

Tara nodded, not saying anything. Willow thought she might be too nervous to speak, and she couldn’t blame the other girl. They were both entering unfamiliar territory.

~~~~~

Buffy stretched slowly, feeling the quiet ache in her muscles that told her she’d had a good workout. She was finally fully healed; it felt as though it had taken her forever to get back into shape after her long convalescence.

“You heard from Faith yet?” Spike asked, lounging against the wall.

She straightened, then went into a back bend, feeling the scar tissue on her stomach stretch, although it wasn’t painful. “Not yet. I wasn’t really expecting to.”

“What about Angel?”

“Angel and I didn’t talk after he moved to L.A.,” Buffy reminded him. “He would show up out of the blue, or I would go down to yell at him about something, but we didn’t stay in touch.” She kicked up into a handstand, then tucked into a roll.

“Thought you might have talked to him is all,” Spike explained. “To see how Faith is doing.”

Buffy sat down on the floor of her basement, cross-legged, waiting patiently for Spike to join her. “Why? It’s not my business now. Faith is responsible for herself, and Angel’s looking out for her.” She grinned maliciously. “Although, I’d love to see the fireworks between her and Cordelia.”

Spike stretched out on the floor next to her, staring up at the ceiling. “Things with the Initiative may yet get nasty, luv.”

“I know.” Buffy realized that the failure to completely shut the operation down, at least in Sunnydale, might prove to be a problem down the road. For the moment, at least, she and Spike had an uneasy truce with the soldiers. The patrols didn’t mess with them while they were out, and seemed to be staying out of their way, preferring to stick close to the campus.

That was all well and good, but Buffy knew that they would eventually run into a group of soldiers that wasn’t so understanding, particularly if a harmless demon got caught in between.

Last time they’d seen Graham, he’d told them that there were rumors that the army was planning on transferring the operation, or at least reducing the number of soldiers stationed in Sunnydale. Apparently the Hellmouth in Cleveland was worse, and demand for mobile units was rising. Those had been his words, and Buffy knew she’d be relieved if it happened.

So far, they hadn’t been forced to make a tough decision, but it might yet come to that. They would need Willow to be successful, however, and so it was at least postponed until the end of the summer.

“You thought about taking a vacation this summer?”

Buffy looked over at him in surprise. “A vacation?”

“Yeah, getting out of Sunnydale, seeing some other part of the world.” He smirked. “I’ve got the dosh to take care of it.”

“Where would we go?”

“Where do you want to go?”

Buffy stared at him. “You’re serious. What about the Hellmouth?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why not let the Initiative handle it? Let them be useful for a change. It’s not like we’d be gone for that long; a week at most.”

She considered the idea. Buffy hadn’t had a real vacation in—well, pretty much ever. She knew her dad had been planning to take them to Europe before the divorce, but then she’d been Called, and things had gotten crazy.

“I don’t know.” Buffy thought for a minute. “It would be kind of silly to go somewhere else with a beach.”

“We could try the mountains,” Spike suggested. “Or New York City. It’s an interesting place.”

“You’ve been everywhere, haven’t you?”

“Not quite, but close.” He gave her a lazy smile. “What do you say?”

Buffy considered her options: staying in Sunnydale the entire summer, or going somewhere that might actually be fun. It was an easy choice. “Maybe a long weekend?” she suggested.

“Yeah, sure. Where to?”

“New York,” Buffy said. “I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Then we will. I can show you the sights.”

Buffy drank in the sight of him stretched out on the floor, chest bare, hair mussed, and she felt her love of him swell up and overflow. It struck her sometimes—how far they’d come, how much she loved him, how good things were between them. “I love you.”

His face lit up. “I love you, too.”

~~~~~

Xander swiped his arm over his forehead and glanced up at the sky. The sun was getting low enough on the horizon that he was pretty sure it was nearly time to go home for the day, and he was grateful. It had been almost unbearably hot over the last week, and he hadn’t been able to do much more than collapse once he got home.

Much to Anya’s displeasure.

“Harris!”

He looked up to see his boss standing there. “Yeah?”

“Go home. We’re done for the day.”

“Sure thing.” Xander put his tools away, and even though he was exhausted, he still felt a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. His dad had always said he’d never amount to anything, and it looked like he was going to prove the old man wrong.

Climbing into his car, he turned on the air conditioning full blast, and was just beginning to get the benefit by the time he pulled up in front of his parents’ house. It was probably time to think about finding another place to stay. This job seemed to be pretty solid; he liked it, and the pay was good. From what Buffy had said, he’d be at it for a while, and it would be something he’d be happy doing.

And anywhere would be better than the basement.

He stripped off his grimy, sweaty clothing and immediately headed for the shower. This had been the first summer Xander had spent the bulk of his time working, and certainly was the first summer he’d spent without Willow since kindergarten. He couldn’t help but feel slightly left out, with Willow in England, Oz on tour, and Buffy and Spike in New York for the weekend.

Xander was here, trapped in Sunnydale. The only time he’d tried to get out, to see the fifty states, he’d been stuck in Oxnard for the summer, at the Fabulous Ladies’ Nightclub. And that was a story that would never be told.

“Xander?”

“I’m in the shower, An!” he called back, grateful for the one ray of light in an otherwise dull summer.

He heard the bathroom door open. “Are you too tired for orgasms tonight?”

Xander had never thought it possible, but there had been a couple of nights recently where that had been the case. Not tonight, though, since he knew that he’d have the next day off. “No, I’m good. I’m hungry, though.”

“I brought that chicken you like so much,” she replied.

Xander felt a warm glow. Anya had been doing that a lot lately. Every time he started to feel sorry for himself, she’d say something or do something—or just look at him, and he’d start to feel as though he were the luckiest man on earth.

“I’ll be out in a minute,” he called, quickly rinsing off and turning off the water. Sunnydale might not be the best place in the world, but at least he was in good company.

~~~~~

“Iced tea?”

Giles accepted the glass with a smile. “Thank you, Joyce. How have you been?”

“Oh, fine,” Joyce replied. “I thought I’d have a little more time with Buffy, though.”

He smiled. “Did you mind her going to New York?”

“Not at all!” She paused. “Well, a little bit. It’s hard to remember sometimes that she’s not really nineteen, even though she looks it.”

“Indeed,” Giles murmured. “It’s quite remarkable.”

She gave him a searching look. “What brought you by today? I know you said you wanted to talk with me, but—”

“I—it’s—to be honest, it had been a while since I’d seen you, and I thought I’d visit.” Giles could feel himself blushing. In truth, he hadn’t enjoyed spending time with a woman quite this much since Jenny had been alive. The attraction was different, but it was still there.

Joyce blushed charmingly. “Well, I’ve always enjoyed the time we’ve spent together,” she admitted. “I certainly appreciate how much you’ve done for Buffy, particularly since Hank…” She trailed off. “Well, I know she’s quite fond of you.”

“As I am of her,” Giles responded, sipping his tea. He never would understand the American penchant for putting everything on ice, but he was growing used to the idea. In California, anyway, a cold drink was quite refreshing.

A silence fell, although it was more companionable than awkward. “Do you want to stay for dinner?” Joyce asked.

“Of course,” he said immediately. “I’d love to.”

~~~~~

Tara watched as Willow wiped the sweat out of her eyes. “Again,” Miss Harkness ordered. “Control, Miss Rosenberg.”

“Here.”

She glanced up at Mairead, taking the cup of tea she held out gratefully. “Thank you.”

“She’s doing quite well, you know,” Mairead said softly. “It took me weeks to successfully complete that exercise, and she might get it today.”

“Tell that to Willow,” Tara replied with a rueful smile. “She doesn’t think it’s a success unless she gets it on the first try.”

The other witch shook her head. “That’s where you and she differ most, and that is why you did accomplish it the first time out.”

“Willow’s more powerful than I am,” Tara replied dismissively. “She has a harder time with control for a reason.”

“So modest.” Mairead smiled coyly. “It is one of your many endearing qualities.”

Tara blushed furiously. Although she’d sensed that the other woman might be interested in her as more than a friend, this had been the first time she’d been quite so open about it. Too embarrassed to reply, Tara looked back over at Willow, who was finally making progress.

The red haired witch stood in the center of a circle, colored smoke drifting up from the four points of the compass around her. The exercise was completed outdoors, and the slight breeze made it very difficult to keep the four different colored plumes distinct.

The exercise was all about control, and being completely in tune with the wind. Both of them had been doing similar things since they’d arrived, dealing with all four of the elements. To her surprise, Tara had been better than Willow at accomplishing the various tasks; she’d done similar things with her mother as a child, when she’d viewed it as a game.

It appeared as though her mom had trained her carefully, and almost from birth, without Tara ever being aware of it. Willow hadn’t had the same advantage, and her sheer power had made her so self-assured that she’d found it very hard-going from the start.

As she watched, the plumes of smoke suddenly coalesced into four separate lines, streaming steadily upwards.

“Very good,” Miss Harkness said. “Very good, indeed, Miss Rosenberg.”

Willow nodded, clearly near exhaustion, although she waited until the smoke disappeared before letting her guard down. “Thanks,” she said hoarsely.

“You should eat something,” Miss Harkness said. “I’ll have something different for both of you tomorrow.”

Willow’s shoulders drooped as she made her way over to where Tara and Mairead were sitting. “Here,” Mairead said, handing her a tall glass. “That should help.”

Willow sipped slowly. “Thanks. Do you know what she was talking about? Something different?”

Mairead looked apologetic. “I’m sorry, no. Even if I did, I probably wouldn’t be allowed to tell you.”

“I thought you did really well,” Tara offered, knowing that Willow had been feeling pretty down. Tara had always known that she wasn’t very powerful, and that she didn’t know half of what she needed to know, but Willow was different. Being around the witches of the coven had taught her how far she had yet to go, and how difficult the road would be, if she wanted to do it right.

Willow smiled. “Thanks. I’m going to get cleaned up. Oz was supposed to call me tonight.”

Tara watched her go anxiously. It was probably a good thing that Willow was with Oz, and not her. She didn’t think that their relationship would have survived, not with their wildly different abilities.

“It’s harder for her than it is for you,” Mairead observed.

Tara shrugged. “My mom taught me a lot more than I ever knew.”

“You miss her.”

“So much.” She looked around the grassy clearing that the coven used for all their outdoor spell casting. “She would have loved it here. If she’d known a place like this existed…” Tara trailed off, unable to complete the thought.

If her mom had known, she might never have stayed with her dad. Maybe she have still been alive.

“Was it hard, leaving your family to come here?”

Tara shook her head. “I left a long time ago. It was hard to leave Sunnydale, though,” she admitted. “I had friends there for the first time.”

“Anyone special?”

Tara knew Mairead was flirting again, and this time she decided to face it head on. “No, there wasn’t.”

The other woman reached out, touching her cheek gently. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you for a while.”

A smile curved Tara’s lips. “Okay.”

It turned out that England had a lot to offer.