Replacement by sus

Author: sus
Summary: They were meant to be. The council thought they knew better than The Powers, as well as her friends. An enemy from the future changes the past.
Author's Note:
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Violence, Adult Language, Sexual Situations


Chapter 33: Replacement

Spike hauled his body into the bedroom with difficulties. He was worn out, just from getting out of the tub and into his jeans. He dropped down on the freshly made bed, where Buffy was waiting to help him getting wrapped up again.

Buffy convinced him to lay down again and get some more rest, after he had consumed the blood she had gotten.

She stayed with him, while he emptied the mug. He looked at her through his demon’s eyes while he was drinking, daring her to say something. She just smiled that little smile she seemed to be wearing a lot of the time she was around him.

Buffy joined Merrick downstairs.

He was signing for crates and boxes of different size. "What's all this, Buffy?"

"Things I ordered in L.A.. Has the furniture store been here?" she asked as she looked out over the room. There were parcels and boxes scattered all over.

"There has been delivered some big boxes, they are over there." He pointed.

After a moment Buffy appeared beside Merrick. "No, that’s workout equipment."

"How much did you order?" Merrick gave the pad back to the driver of the truck. "And what’s this." He gave her the copy of what he had just signed.

Buffy smiled pleased. "That’s the televisions, computers and such stuff, you'll see. Just handle it carefully."

"Why don’t you take care of it yourself?" Merrick said tired. "Place it where it goes."

"Can’t do that. Most need furniture to stand on, that’s why I asked for it." Buffy smiled sweetly at him. "Calm down, Merrick, we have all the time in the world."

"Look around." He was sweeping his arm out, indicating the room. "It’s a mess!"

"I’ll sort through it. We have four empty rooms down here, what doesn’t belong in this room, I’ll move to one of them, if I can’t place it where I want it to be. Satisfied?" Buffy asked with a raised brow.

Merrick studied her face. "Something wrong?"

Buffy closed her eyes, bowed her head and shook it. "How can you read me so easily?" She wriggled her hands into her back pockets of her tight jeans, slowly looking up at Merrick. "I have to tell him about the future. I can’t or won’t keep it a secret, and I won’t lie to him either."

"How much do you intend to tell him?"

"Whatever he wants to know about me and him," she said with a whisper, looking at a spot behind him.

Merrick placed two fingers under her chin, tilted her head up. "It’ll be okay."

"You really think so?" Tears accumulated in her eyes. "And what about The Powers?"

Merrick gathered her in his arms. "Remember, you can do as you please, and I have seen the look in Spike’s eyes when he looks at you." He wiped her tears away and pushed her further into the room. "Now go and take care of this mess."

She smiled grateful and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, before she started on the task ahead of her.

There wasn’t as much as there seemed to be, it just covered a lot of space. The television for her bedroom, she carried upstairs. Left it outside the door, she didn’t want to wake Spike. She knew she had forgotten something, a toolbox and a drill, she hoped Merrick could handled those items. In her past she had always relied on Clem, so if Merrick couldn’t help, Clem was just a call away.

"Merrick," she called as she bounced down the stairs. "Can you handle a toolbox and a drill?"

"What have you broken?"

"Why do you think I broke something," she asked, Merrick would not succeed in ruin her good mood. "And why the bad mood?"

"I’m sorry, Buffy." He sighed. "I wanted to see your mother, but every time I try to leave; there is a delivery to receive."

Buffy giggled. "That would be my fault. I shouldn’t have ordered it all at once. Give me the pen and I’ll take over. You go do whatever you want," she said as she practically pushed him out of the door. "Greet her from me."

Merrick nodded. "I have my phone on me, if you need me."

As Merrick left, a truck pulled up. The furniture had been unloaded when the sun was down.

Buffy was getting hungry. Tonight she would order food. She found a tray, filled it with a soft drink and blood, plates and what else she needed. With the bag from the Chinese place over her wrist, she took the tray and opened her bedroom door with her elbow. "Sleepy head," she was singsonging. "Time to get up and stuff your stomach. I have blood and spicy wings." She watched as Spike robbed his eyes.

"What time is it? My body clock has gone completely wonky."

"It’s a bit after sundown. How are you feeling?" She placed the tray on the bed. Watching him test his body’s reaction to stretching and turning.

"Feels better, but it will take time, especially the stake wound." He touched the spot with his fingertips. "What do you have there?" He gestured with his chin to the bag she had placed beside the tray.

Buffy had shoved her back up against the headboard. "Chinese, there are spicy wings, but first." She gave him one of the mugs of blood, she had warmed.

"Thanks." He took a mouthful, tilted his head while he looked at her. "You know an awful lot about me. What I like to eat or drink, even that I like a hot bath. Makes me wonder what else you know? And how you know?" He watched her empty the bag, placing the boxes on the bed. The spicy ones near him. "It’s unsettling how much you know in comparing to the startling little I know about you. You won’t even tell me about you, and how it comes you know me so well." He took the mug she gave him for the empty one, she had taken out of his hand.

She smiled sadly. "It scares me, just thinking about telling you my story. It's not pretty, and I ′m scared to death that you are going to run when I tell you. I'll tell you everything, no lies, everything you need to know and then some." She turned her attention to the tray. Placed a plate close to Spike. "But not before you can take care of yourself, in every way."

"And why is that? You know I’ll start eating the happy meals on legs as soon as I get out of here, why didn’t you just stake me when you saw me hanging from the wall?" Spike looked intense at her, tried to find the reason why she was keeping him alive.

Buffy sighed, it seemed she had to give him something. She stopped piling food on her plate, and placed it on the tray, before she turned and looked at him with her heart in her eyes. "Don’t you know why?" Her hand found his cheek, her thumb running delicate over his cheekbone, a soft smile played on her lips.

Spike had a hard time believing what her eyes reveal, what she had been hiding. Such tender feelings for him, it felt as if he was drowning in them. It couldn’t be real, nobody had ever felt that much for him other than his long dead mother.

He had to accept it, it was right there to read in her eyes and the way she touched him, as if he meant the world to her. He swallowed audible. "How? When? Why?" His head was buzzing with questions.

"When the time is right." she leaned forward and lightly rubbed his nose with hers. "Join me, eat some of this food. If I have to eat it all, I’ll get fat," she said cheerfully.

He agreed with a smile and a nod. Spike knew he wouldn’t get more out of her before she allowed it.

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Giles had spent the night on Joyce's couch, and Willow had been granted the privilege to use Buffy’s bed.

Willow looked tired when Giles drove her home.

Willow was happy to get home and get a change of clothes, before attending school, but even more relieved to know she would be sleeping in her own bed tonight. She hadn’t slept much in Buffy’s, it somehow gave her a bad feeling inside, as soon as she got up from the bed this morning, the feeling was gone. It was soon forgotten in the rush to get to school in time.

Giles worked with translating the book, in the school's library. Late in the afternoon, close to sunset a noise startled him out of his studies. He scrambled behind the counter and placed his hand over the crossbow he had there for emergencies. "Who is there?" His eyes firmly on the stacks.

Skulking carefully out of the stacks came Angel, holding his hands up in surrender. "Careful with that."

Giles had aimed the crossbow at Angel's chest.

"I’m all with the soul-having again."

Giles relaxed a bit but kept the crossbow. "What do you want?"

Angel was taken aback by his harsh tone. "I wanted to apologize and thank you for the return of my soul, and ask if I somehow can help with the book now that we have two slayers out there, they don’t need me." He was slowly moving into the room, keeping an eye on Giles’ finger on the trigger of the crossbow.

"You don’t have to thank me. I didn’t have anything to do with the returning of your soul. There you have to thank Buffy." As an afterthought Giles said: "I think?"

Angel squeezed his eyes together to two small cracks. "You don’t know how I got the soul back?"

Giles placed the crossbow under the counter. Instead he armed himself with a big cross, a stake and in his pocket was a mouth freshener with holy water. The holy water in the mouth freshener was a Council secret, they were given when they graduated as a watcher.

He cleared his throat as he more dignified walked back to his table. "Buffy told us she would take care of the situation. Late in the night we got a call from Merrick. He told us the situation was under control, that you had been given your soul back." Giles placed the stake in easy reach but kept the cross in his left hand, turning the pages with his right.

"Then I’ll have to ask her, where can I find her?" Inside Angel was jumping with joy, it was Buffy, who had been there, who couldn’t kill him.

Giles kept his eyes locked firmly on the book in front of him. "She never informed me of her address."

Angel saw Giles’ ears turn red. "Who else would know her address?"

"Merrick or her mother."

"Where can I find them at this time?" Angel felt that pulling teeth out would be easier than getting an answer he could use, from Giles.

"Merrick is with Buffy. Joyce is probably at home, but I wouldn’t ask her if I were you, you scared her when you turned up at her doorstep. I doubt she'll open her door for you. Anyway I don’t think she'll be able to invite you in."

"What about Willow? She's Buffy’s best friend? Or Xander?" Angel was now standing at the table on the other side from Giles.

Giles still had the cross in his hand, now he reached out for the stake. Angel was too close to Giles’ likening. "Things has changed." He looked up at Angel. "Whatever we did to Buffy in her past, isn’t just something to get over. I've noticed that she avoids looking at any one of us for a longer time. Sometimes I have even seen what I think is hate in her eyes, when she doesn’t know she's being observed."

Angel pulled a chair out and sat down. "I see. There isn’t any way to get to know how I got my soul back, at the moment. Can I help you translate the book? I would like to know more about this other half of Buffy’s."

"Try this part, it might give us something." Giles showed Angel a side in the book.