Title: Detour Author: kindred Disclaimer: The BtVS characters are the property of Joss Whedon and his associates. Rating: NC-17 Feedback: Yes Summary: Future fic. Vengeance, memory and the course of true love. 18. As he did every morning, Rupert Giles arrived at the Magic Box early with a copy of the L.A. and London Times tucked under his arm. He sauntered toward his office ready to start the day off right with a steaming cup of Chi tea and some meditative reading. As he set the papers down he noticed Buffy's jacket slung on the back of a chair, exactly where she'd left it the previous evening. His lips pursed in thought for a moment and then action took over as Giles strode to the room at the back of the premises. He flung open the door and looked upon the debauched scene before him. Clothes and bed linens were strewn everywhere. In a central tableau, entwined, writhing flesh met his stunned gaze. Pale and tanned intermingling shapes filled his field of vision: a foot, a thigh, the curve of-- Darkened blotches crowded his eyes, blotting out the specter of spirited coitus before him. The unregulated sound effects were equally traumatizing. "Gah! Oh, good lord!" Giles jumped at the sight. "GI--LES?!" Buffy jerked hard in response, prompting a volatile groan from her partner. She flopped down against Spike's chest, grabbed a blanket and flung it over their sweat slicked bodies. Instinct took over as Spike bared his teeth and released a warning growl. It was a territorial response to the sudden presence of another male. Not another step closer. The worst possible scenario sprang to Giles' mind: Spike had turned Buffy. Her love had led her straight into his fiendish trap. Giles flew down the hallway and grabbed a handful of stakes, his crossbow, and a large wooden cross and then returned, struggling to hold his unwieldy arsenal together. He saw Buffy wriggling into her clothing under the blanket. Spike lay in a relaxed sprawl, unmoved except to peek under the blanket at Buffy's flustered rush to clothe herself. "Did he turn you, Buffy? Are you a vampire?" Giles stood with the crossbow wedged between his knees, trying to brandish the cross and load the weapon at the same time. A stake clattered to the floor from his armpit. "Oh, I turned her all right," Spike smirked, his mind clearing a bit from the glut of pleasure they were steeped in. "Turned her right 'round." He reached under the blanket and pinched Buffy's bum. "Shush-- EEP!" Buffy scolded and squeaked. She emerged from the blanket disheveled and hurriedly dressed. "I'm not a vampire, Giles. Calm down." "I am perfectly calm!" Giles exclaimed in a loud and unconvincing voice. He grabbed the crossbow with haste and gestured boldly, discharging a bolt that hit the ceiling and ricocheted back down to the floor. "Giles! Calm down." Spike folded his arms behind his head. "I like this in-charge you, Watcher. Very daring. Mack Sennet himself couldn't have entertained me any better." "Buffy?" There was a wild look in Giles' eyes. Buffy reached out and took the cross from him. "Not a vampire, see?" "Well, that's a relief." Giles released a great volume of air and felt his heartbeat slow to tolerable levels. "Then, this is just...er..." "This is none of your business, Giles." Buffy nodded pertly and turned back to Spike. "Would you like a donut or something? I can go to the coffee shop and get something." Buffy felt an attack of the post coital munchies coming on. "I think you know what I'd like," Spike raised himself high on his elbows. The blanket slipped dangerously low on his hips, barely concealing the protuberance beneath. The piping sound of water boiling in a kettle came as a welcome escape for Giles. "That would be the kettle." Giles pointed in the direction of his office. "I'll just go see to that. Right now." "There's tea? Oi! Watcher-man, I'll have a cuppa!" Spike called out the door, stood up and walked toward Buffy. "Clothes, Spike! Giles is in the building." She hissed an unnecessary whisper. "He already knows I'm starkers. I think you've got a right pervert there, love." "Oh God, I have to talk to Giles about this." A knot of muscle gathered on Buffy's forehead. "Listen, if the lad has any questions, I could draw him some helpful diagrams." Spike figured the Watcher's current sexual quotient was nil. "Spike--" He swept her into an embrace and kissed her. Buffy pushed herself away only to have him grip her tighter. "Stay with me. I think there's a few nooks and crannies I missed last night. What say I give you a thorough seeing to, hmm?" The tenor of his voice settled deep in Buffy's abdomen. She looked into his promising eyes. "I really should--" The sentence ended as she melted into his mouth once again. A strong hand slid down her back and cupped her bottom tightly. Buffy surfaced from the kiss and took a deep, dreamy breath. "This is me going to talk to Giles." She sighed with contentment but didn't move. A few kisses later she finally made it to the door. She combed her fingers through her hair quickly while her gaze lingered over his gleaming flesh. "Um, you really better put something on." * After a brief visit to the washroom, Buffy walked out onto the floor of the shop. Giles stood waiting for her with his hands on his hips and a look of complete exasperation on his face. He had an uncanny way of making Buffy feel like she was about twelve. His eyelids began to blink at an accelerated rate. "Buffy, have you any idea what could have happened to you last night? How could you think of engaging in such dangerous activities with that...creature?" Giles' old prejudices came to the fore. "This was just the sort of incident I was trying to avoid." "He's not a creature, Giles, and I'll thank you never to say such a thing to me again." Buffy nailed Giles with her best back off scowl. "He's Spike, my Spike." "You don't know that!" "I DO know it! I've been with him the most and I know. I've seen it." "You're looking through the eyes of love, Buffy. Your perspective, not to mention your judgement, is clearly clouded by your emotions." Buffy glared at him. She wasn't some hormone bomb with a hair trigger fuse. She knew what she knew. "You're wrong Giles. You've been wrong before and you're wrong now. I thought the Council was working toward a more paranoia free modus operandi, or is that just for the brochures? I guess old habits die hard." "Buffy--" "Spike's better now. He's calmer, in control. Why can't you see that? He's been in control for weeks. It's his soul, Giles, it was never touched by that demon. He could have killed me or turned me but he didn't." Giles took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose readying himself for the inevitable. "Spike is coming home with me today. He's not staying in that lock box another night." "And what is your guarantee that he won't start killing again once he's loose?" "I don't have guarantees Giles. I don't have a checklist when it comes to Spike. He showed me once he could be a good man, that he is a good man. Those instincts are still in him. I know they are. I know it. I made promises to him and I'm not going back on them." "It's simply too soon." "There's never going to be a right time for you Giles and I'm going to be with him. I'm not going to let him down." "Is there nothing I can say to convince you otherwise?" "No. There's nothing to say. I don't need your permission, Giles, and you won't need to call in the troops. I'll be with him." Giles knew it was useless to argue. Stubbornness ran deep in the slayer line and the Summers line. "You'll need to be vigilant." "I'm going to believe in him, Giles, and love him. His love made me better. It made the world better. He still has that inside him. I know he does. I can feel it." * Willow answered her door in a pair of baggy cargo pants and a t-shirt with an image of Tweety Bird emblazoned on it. "Hey Buffy, come on in." Willow recognized a resolve face when she saw it. She closed the door and walked toward her small kitchenette, already suspecting the reason for Buffy's early morning visit. "I've got some of that organic juice you liked. Would you care for a glass?" "That sounds great, thanks." Buffy slid into a chair at Willow's table. Willow poured two tumblers of a murky liquid. The friends sat in silence for a few moments before Buffy began to speak. Willow wasn't exactly shocked at the news Buffy revealed. There had always been something incendiary between Buffy and Spike even way back when Willow wore jumpers. In all honesty, Willow was surprised Buffy had lasted this long. It was a risk, of course. There could have been biting, very bad biting, but from what she could see behind Buffy's collar there apparently had been some biting of the very good kind. That had to be a positive sign. If there was a cheery thought to be had, Willow would try her darnedest to have it. Buffy liked to talk out her problems but often she didn't require much of a response, just a willing ear. Saying things aloud sometimes reduced trouble from apocalyptic proportions into tidy bite sized snacks. Of course, that didn't always hold true. Buffy had a way of talking herself around an issue until she wound up more confused than not. Willow found herself nodding for no reason. Maybe she should say something. Perhaps a perky grin was in order. Rarely was the Willow perky grin unwelcome. Buffy sounded hopeful, yet conflicted, fearful that the other shoe may drop. Sunnydale had a tendency to do that to a person. "Will, help me out here. Tell me I'm not doing exactly what Drusilla did." It was obvious to Willow that Buffy had lost the reins of perspective in this matter. She twisted her mouth. "Huh?" "Trying to make him what I want. What he was with me." That made absolutely no sense to Willow. Who Spike was with Buffy WAS Spike. "Buffy, what Drusilla did was retribution. You know that. What you've-- we've done is nothing like that." "He's in a cage, Will. A cage. And I put him in there. He's totally dependent on me and what do I do? I have sex all over him; a lot of hot, nasty, magnificent sex. If he's developing feelings, then no wonder. What if it's that weird Stocking Syndrome that hostages get?" "Stockholm." "Huh?" "Don't do this to yourself, Buffy. You were keeping him safe, you are keeping him safe." "Corralled, you mean. How is keeping him confined any different than that stupid chip?" "Well...um...it is different than the chip and he did need to be corralled. Don't forget that whole foaming at the mouth phase, Buffy, that was not pretty." "But he's over that and still I've kept him in a box." Buffy closed her eyes and sighed. "What you've done, you've done out of love--" "I don't know, Will. I think I may be using him. I look at him and I see the man I love and I want him." "Buffy, stop torturing yourself. Really. You've acted from a good place. You have." "I don't know about that. I can get pretty needy." The one thing she needed was Spike. "I'm afraid of losing him." "Considering what Drusilla did to him, that's perfectly understandable." Buffy appreciated Willow's support. Fear, however, was not a good building block for a new relationship. Everything she and Spike once had was gone. Drusilla made sure of that. Sex was one thing but would he want anything else with her? "He can't be in there forever, Will." "Hey, not forever. Nobody said forever. Who said forever?" "Just until he decides to love me? How desperate does that sound? I have to be better than that." Buffy's forehead softened. The tension evaporated from her temples. "I owe him. He gave me love and a life beyond slaying. How can I hold him hostage and force him to jump through my hoops?" "Whoa, there's no hoops. Buffy, you are hoopless." Buffy's mouth quirked with an uneasy chagrin. "I think there's been some hoops, Will." "What are you saying?" "I have to do what's right for him." "Something tells me Giles isn't going to like this." "I've already talked to Giles. This isn't his decision to make. I can't do what's right for Giles. Spike has to be my top priority. I have to do what's right for him. I have to show him that I trust him enough..." How could she deny Spike the very thing he gave to her: a better life, and the world for an oyster. Whether it was sooner or later the risk would be there. When Buffy spoke again Willow leaned forward to hear. The words accompanied a steely determination. "I have to give him what he deserves." tbc...