Title: Caught Between Two Lovers
Author: Pattyanne
           snapkik@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: All I own is nothing at all.
Summary: AU I suppose. This is a
retelling of the way Spike and Buffy
first met.  Angel has never existed
in this story, and Spike is a little...dif-
ferent. (I had to make him a little more
initially appealing to Buffy, and death
threats just weren't cutting it.)



Part Two...

After a half hour of flirtatious conversation,
Buffy was beginning to wonder if he was
ever going to ask her to dance. It seemed
like the obvious next step.

The music was soft and slow, and she very
much wanted to know what his arms felt
like around her.

Her happy bubble had nearly been popped
when Cordelia had stopped at their table
at one point.

Turning on all her charm and using her
considerable good looks, she had spent
a few minutes shamelessly trying to separate
William  from Buffy.

But he had shown no interest in her beyond
the bounds of polite society. After acknowled-
ging Buffy's introduction to her, he had been
fairly silent, responding to none of Cordelia's
sexy banter or body language.

In fact, he had actually looked impatient
when she wouldn't leave quickly enough.

After finally managing to drop enough hints
to get rid of her, he had looked at Buffy with
an amused expression. "I can see why she
wasn't at the table with your other friends ear-
lier," he'd said.

When Buffy had asked him what he meant,
he'd merely shrugged and said "She's not your
friend, angelface. Don't let her push you around.
You're three times the woman she is."

His words had sent an excited shiver down
her spine, knowing that he considered her to
be a woman, and not some gawky little girl.

Now, she was afraid that the Bronze would
close before he could ask her if she'd like
to dance, so she decided to throw embarras-
sment into the void.

"The music's nice, isn't it?" she ventured.

He glanced at the band, then back at her. "It's
nice," he agreed. "Very romantic."

Buffy swallowed hard. "You...you wouldn't want
to dance or something...would you?"

Spike hesitated. Dancing with her wasn't an
option right now, especially slow dancing. This
game would be over the minute he touched
her and he wasn't ready for it to end just yet.

If he'd fed recently, it would have worked, but
if he placed his less than 98.6 degree hands
on her, and with all that bare skin she was
showing it would be impossible to avoid, she'd
be busting table legs off for stakes faster than
he could say "Wait, I can explain!"

No, he couldn't risk it.  This was not the right
time to "Come out" to the slayer about who
and what he was.  The last thing he wanted
to do right now was fight with her.

For the time being, anyway.

"I would love to dance with you, angelface, but
I'm very bad at it."

Highly mortified at what was a lamely obvious
excuse to turn her down, Buffy shrugged as if
it didn't matter to her one way or the other.

"It's all right...never mind."

"Maybe," he added. "Someday you could give
me lessons?" he suggested.

<Someday...there's gonna be a someday?>

Buffy smiled. "Okay," she said agreeably. "I
could do that."

He leaned forward and smiled into her eyes.

"I'll look forward to it, then."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"Oh, my gosh...is that the time? I have
to go."  Buffy began gathering up her books
and shoving them into her tote bag, careful
to keep him from seeing the tools of her
trade and ask questions that she wasn't
prepared to answer. "It's late...my mother..."

"Will start to worry?"

"Yeah," she nodded, standing up and lingering
when she knew she should be double clutching
it for home.

"I understand." He stood up and and dropped
a ten dollar bill on the table for the waitress,
then followed Buffy out the door of the club.

She turned to face him, waiting. This surely
was the point in the evening when he would
ask for her phone number.

"Can I walk you home?" he asked. "I would
offer you a ride, but my car is in for repairs,
and I didn't want to bother with a rental."

"Oh, um...you really don't have to. I mean, I'll
be fine.  I don't live too far from here and..."

A sharp scream cut off her words, and she
spun around in time to see one of the waitresses
from the Bronze being pulled into the back
alley.

Buffy wanted to scream, too. One night..they
couldn't go just one night without this crap.
Now what was she supposed to do?

Spike knew without asking just what she
was thinking about. She didn't want to reveal
herself any more than he did, but she had a
duty to perform now.

Pretending he hadn't heard the girl yelling,
he looked at Buffy as she shifted from foot
to foot. "You know, I think I dropped my
keys inside. Be right back."

The look of relief on her face was almost comical.

He went back inside, and waited for a count of
sixty, figuring that was more than enough time
for her to do her job.

When he went back out, he waited at the
end of the alley.

"Can't you guys...take a night off...once in
a while?" he heard Buffy ask.

"Well.." the vampire she was fighting with
replied. "I..thought...you had switched...sides,
Slayer."

A wooden crate shattered, the pieces of it
clattering to the ground.

"What...hold still...do you mean by...that? Hey!
Get back here, you little coward."

"Ha! You missed." There was a loud crash. "I'm
just...saying...how come you were...sitting
with...a...vampire....all evening...and hey...HEY!
Just...wait a..."

Spike swore softly, as the sounds of the fight
abruptly stopped.

Buffy came out of the alley, still holding a
wooden slat in her hands.

When she saw him, she cocked her head to one
side and examined him thoroughly.

Spike knew there was no bluffing his way
out of this one. The game was over and now it
was time to...

To what?  To...kill her? Why did that sound so
unappealing? She was a slayer, and he'd already
killed two slayers. He'd had every intention
of killing this one, and any others that had the
misfortune to cross him.

So, why did the expression in those lovely
eyes of hers make him so unsure of himself?
She looked confused, and hurt and for some
reason it bothered him terribly. He wanted to
take that look from her face and replace it with
the smile she'd given him earlier.

God!  What the HELL was happening here? Was
it possible that this was all far more than the
game it had started out to be for him?

He knew he had to go home. Dru was waiting
for him there and it was where he belonged.

So why wasn't he going? Why did he want to
stay here...with this girl who was surely no
more than sixteen years old?

"I have to go home now," she said softly.

"Can I talk to you first?" he asked. "Please?"

She turned around and walked away. "There's
nothing to talk about...not anymore."

He followed a few paces behind her. "Yes. There
is. Buffy...I know who you are."

That stopped her in her tracks, although
she didn't turn around.

"You know I'm..."

"The slayer," he said. "Yes."

She sighed. "Then you know you should stay
away from me."

"Yes," he agreed. "But I don't want to. I want to
see you again."

Buffy shook her head. "Please don't follow me."

She didn't want him to know where she lived. All
right, he could understand that.

He stopped, and she kept walking. "Can I call
you?  Buffy...what's your phone number? Your
last name?"

She didn't answer him. Walking at a steady pace,
she turned the corner.

And, feeling strangely unsettled, Spike turned too
and headed for home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'


End of part 2

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