Till the End of Time: Chapter Two
For gh_lover :)
Chapter Two
Staring up into the night sky as she lay on her back, dust covering her, Buffy thought perhaps she wasn’t so good at the slaying anymore. Or, perhaps she was all right with the slaying, but not so well with being as quick and stealth like as she had once been.
“I’m getting too old for this,” she muttered.
“No, pet, you’re not gettin’ old for this. Just bein’ reckless.”
Buffy sighed. Spike. Of course. Why wouldn’t he be there, watching over her? And that didn’t bother her as much as it should either.
Standing up and dusting off, she peered over her shoulder, finding him on top of a tombstone, puffing on a cigarette.
“What was it? Did I drop my shoulder or something?” she asked, “What does the Englishman give me for follow through? A seven?”
“He gives you a five for not bein’ alert and quick on your feet.”
“I can’t be expected to always be quick on my feet.”
Spike jumped down from the tombstone, flicking his cigarette away and glared down his nose at her. “No, you can’t be ‘expected’ to always be quick on your feet, but if you’re not gonna be, then stay the fuck home.”
“Geez, what’s wrong with you? I was just kidding--”
“Don’t kid about your life, Buffy.”
“Technically I’m not supposed to be alive.”
“But you are.”
Their eyes met then and she saw the worry in his eyes, just behind the anger.
“Duly noted. Buffy’s alive…again. If Buffy’s not going to be quick on her feet, then Buffy needs to stay home. Hey, you know what would work really well is if I was invisible again. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about being quick on anything. They wouldn’t be able to see me!”
Spike stared at her heatedly and it took her a minute to figure out why. Oh yes. Hot sex in his crypt that day. That day she had come to him to rekindle what they’d started in that falling down building. Perhaps it was best to not venture down memory lane with her jilted lover.
“Keep yourself alive, Slayer,” Spike finally said and Buffy winced. Slayer. He was back to calling her that again. It was so much nicer to hear him call her “Buffy”.
“I’m trying, Spike.”
“Don’t try, do.”
“Kay Yoda,” she said breezily and started off on her not so merry way when Spike grabbed her and spun her to him in the fraction of a second.
“I mean it, Buffy. I am not going to another one of your funerals and if I’m not here…Watch your back, would you?”
She was struck dumb for several reasons. The way he implored her to stay alive, the look on his face- the look that told her if anything happened to her he’d be lost, and the fact that he called her Buffy- just as she’d wished he would do a minute before. All she could do was nod. He was gone in a flash then, his duster flapping in the wind behind him.
“Hey,” she called out a full minute later, “my funeral was during the day - how were you there?”
********
“Absolutely not,” was the definitive answer Mike Celucci gave Vicki when she told him she and Henry were heading to Sunnydale, California. Smartly, Henry thought, she’d left out the part about the vampires and the Slayer. That was the last thing Celucci needed to hear from Vicki’s mouth. The man was up her ass enough as it was.
Henry had to concede the point that it was probably not good on Vicki’s part to tell Celucci of her plans while she packed her suitcase for their trip. For his part, he busied himself by sitting in the Victorian replica chair tucked in the corner. He was staying out of Celucci’s path of self-righteousness. Better to let the man bury himself than to help him do it. Vicki hated it when both men argued over her in front of her - or argued over her at all. In Henry’s efforts to grant Vicki some reprieve from the stress she received well enough from Celucci - and of course to look like the proverbial angel in her eyes - Henry kept out of their spats. Unless of course he was provoked to defend her.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing you’re not my partner anymore then,” Vicki told him, trying to discreetly stuff some lacy panties in her suitcase. Henry caught the sight of them though, and slowly grinned.
“You’re going with him?” Celucci pointed at Henry. “How in the hell is he going to travel?”
“I have my ways of traveling,” Henry piped up.
Celucci turned his glare on Henry. “I bet you’re loving this, aren’t you Fitzroy?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Henry replied, failing at keeping the goading smile off his face.
Vicki shot him a warning glare. “Mike, I’m on a case here--”
“Then let her hire someone in Sunnydale to find her daughter!”
“Well, if it’s as… big… as we think it might be, then I need to be there to bring these kidnappers down.”
Good job, Henry thought, don’t tell him exactly what this case entails or he’ll tie you to the bed and never let you leave. He shifted in the chair, images of Vicki tied up and in bed provoking his senses.
“No, you don’t need to be there,” Mike was saying, “You just want to be there. You’re obsessed.”
“Me? When was the last time you took a vacation?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It has to do with the fact that you’re just as obsessed with your job as I am with mine.” She frowned, “I’m not obsessed.”
Henry had to agree with Celucci on this one, but he knew better than to say it out loud - especially in front of the fired up cop. Besides, he didn’t want to agree with anything Celucci said in front of Vicki. She’d just turn on both of them. It was best to take Vicki aside after these matters and deal with her wrath and stubbornness then.
“Vicki,” Celucci said, calmer now. Apparently he’d figured out that going in guns blazing with Vicki was not going to get him anywhere. The look on Vicki’s face though told Henry that she saw right through it. “Don’t go, please. We’ll send some good guys out there and have it all squared away in a week. Think of all those people that could need you here.”
“Nice try, Mike,” Vicki said zipping up her suitcase. “You almost had me at that pathetic ‘Vicki, don’t go’.”
Celucci growled and Henry figured it was time now to intervene. Standing, he came over and took Vicki’s suitcase. She tried to snatch it back, shooting him a challenging look, but he raised his brow and said, “Please?” and she sighed and let it go.
“Vicki,” Henry said, “Why don’t you go down to the car and wait for me?”
“Vicki!” Celucci bellowed and Vicki flew out of the room with a quick “Bye Mike!” over her shoulder. If she’d had her suitcase, she never would have been able to move so fast.
“What the hell are you doing Fitzroy?”
“I am helping her. Protecting her. Just as you want to. I’m her partner now, Mike. Maybe you need to let go of the past and stop trying to control her. Things have changed. If you want her to remain at least somewhat in your life, then it’d be in your best interests to loosen the grip you have on her.”
“And is that what you do?” Celucci spat. “Give her freedom and all that crap? You’ve brought her into a dangerous world--”
“She got herself in that world; I kept her safe when she was faced with it.”
“By keeping her there!”
“You know as well as I do that no one can keep Vicki anywhere she doesn’t want to be. I just figured she’d do better having someone at her back that knows a bit about what’s happening around her than going in blind. What do you think Mike - you can protect her from demons and zombies and voodoo? You don’t even believe in those things, so how can you expect to help Vicki with them? I mean her no harm--”
“Not yet anyway,” Celucci pointed a finger at him, “You harm a hair on her head--”
“I wouldn’t ever.”
“You want her!”
“Don’t you?” Henry countered and left Celucci standing there, gaping at him and making like a guppy.
Chapter Two
Staring up into the night sky as she lay on her back, dust covering her, Buffy thought perhaps she wasn’t so good at the slaying anymore. Or, perhaps she was all right with the slaying, but not so well with being as quick and stealth like as she had once been.
“I’m getting too old for this,” she muttered.
“No, pet, you’re not gettin’ old for this. Just bein’ reckless.”
Buffy sighed. Spike. Of course. Why wouldn’t he be there, watching over her? And that didn’t bother her as much as it should either.
Standing up and dusting off, she peered over her shoulder, finding him on top of a tombstone, puffing on a cigarette.
“What was it? Did I drop my shoulder or something?” she asked, “What does the Englishman give me for follow through? A seven?”
“He gives you a five for not bein’ alert and quick on your feet.”
“I can’t be expected to always be quick on my feet.”
Spike jumped down from the tombstone, flicking his cigarette away and glared down his nose at her. “No, you can’t be ‘expected’ to always be quick on your feet, but if you’re not gonna be, then stay the fuck home.”
“Geez, what’s wrong with you? I was just kidding--”
“Don’t kid about your life, Buffy.”
“Technically I’m not supposed to be alive.”
“But you are.”
Their eyes met then and she saw the worry in his eyes, just behind the anger.
“Duly noted. Buffy’s alive…again. If Buffy’s not going to be quick on her feet, then Buffy needs to stay home. Hey, you know what would work really well is if I was invisible again. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about being quick on anything. They wouldn’t be able to see me!”
Spike stared at her heatedly and it took her a minute to figure out why. Oh yes. Hot sex in his crypt that day. That day she had come to him to rekindle what they’d started in that falling down building. Perhaps it was best to not venture down memory lane with her jilted lover.
“Keep yourself alive, Slayer,” Spike finally said and Buffy winced. Slayer. He was back to calling her that again. It was so much nicer to hear him call her “Buffy”.
“I’m trying, Spike.”
“Don’t try, do.”
“Kay Yoda,” she said breezily and started off on her not so merry way when Spike grabbed her and spun her to him in the fraction of a second.
“I mean it, Buffy. I am not going to another one of your funerals and if I’m not here…Watch your back, would you?”
She was struck dumb for several reasons. The way he implored her to stay alive, the look on his face- the look that told her if anything happened to her he’d be lost, and the fact that he called her Buffy- just as she’d wished he would do a minute before. All she could do was nod. He was gone in a flash then, his duster flapping in the wind behind him.
“Hey,” she called out a full minute later, “my funeral was during the day - how were you there?”
********
“Absolutely not,” was the definitive answer Mike Celucci gave Vicki when she told him she and Henry were heading to Sunnydale, California. Smartly, Henry thought, she’d left out the part about the vampires and the Slayer. That was the last thing Celucci needed to hear from Vicki’s mouth. The man was up her ass enough as it was.
Henry had to concede the point that it was probably not good on Vicki’s part to tell Celucci of her plans while she packed her suitcase for their trip. For his part, he busied himself by sitting in the Victorian replica chair tucked in the corner. He was staying out of Celucci’s path of self-righteousness. Better to let the man bury himself than to help him do it. Vicki hated it when both men argued over her in front of her - or argued over her at all. In Henry’s efforts to grant Vicki some reprieve from the stress she received well enough from Celucci - and of course to look like the proverbial angel in her eyes - Henry kept out of their spats. Unless of course he was provoked to defend her.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing you’re not my partner anymore then,” Vicki told him, trying to discreetly stuff some lacy panties in her suitcase. Henry caught the sight of them though, and slowly grinned.
“You’re going with him?” Celucci pointed at Henry. “How in the hell is he going to travel?”
“I have my ways of traveling,” Henry piped up.
Celucci turned his glare on Henry. “I bet you’re loving this, aren’t you Fitzroy?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Henry replied, failing at keeping the goading smile off his face.
Vicki shot him a warning glare. “Mike, I’m on a case here--”
“Then let her hire someone in Sunnydale to find her daughter!”
“Well, if it’s as… big… as we think it might be, then I need to be there to bring these kidnappers down.”
Good job, Henry thought, don’t tell him exactly what this case entails or he’ll tie you to the bed and never let you leave. He shifted in the chair, images of Vicki tied up and in bed provoking his senses.
“No, you don’t need to be there,” Mike was saying, “You just want to be there. You’re obsessed.”
“Me? When was the last time you took a vacation?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“It has to do with the fact that you’re just as obsessed with your job as I am with mine.” She frowned, “I’m not obsessed.”
Henry had to agree with Celucci on this one, but he knew better than to say it out loud - especially in front of the fired up cop. Besides, he didn’t want to agree with anything Celucci said in front of Vicki. She’d just turn on both of them. It was best to take Vicki aside after these matters and deal with her wrath and stubbornness then.
“Vicki,” Celucci said, calmer now. Apparently he’d figured out that going in guns blazing with Vicki was not going to get him anywhere. The look on Vicki’s face though told Henry that she saw right through it. “Don’t go, please. We’ll send some good guys out there and have it all squared away in a week. Think of all those people that could need you here.”
“Nice try, Mike,” Vicki said zipping up her suitcase. “You almost had me at that pathetic ‘Vicki, don’t go’.”
Celucci growled and Henry figured it was time now to intervene. Standing, he came over and took Vicki’s suitcase. She tried to snatch it back, shooting him a challenging look, but he raised his brow and said, “Please?” and she sighed and let it go.
“Vicki,” Henry said, “Why don’t you go down to the car and wait for me?”
“Vicki!” Celucci bellowed and Vicki flew out of the room with a quick “Bye Mike!” over her shoulder. If she’d had her suitcase, she never would have been able to move so fast.
“What the hell are you doing Fitzroy?”
“I am helping her. Protecting her. Just as you want to. I’m her partner now, Mike. Maybe you need to let go of the past and stop trying to control her. Things have changed. If you want her to remain at least somewhat in your life, then it’d be in your best interests to loosen the grip you have on her.”
“And is that what you do?” Celucci spat. “Give her freedom and all that crap? You’ve brought her into a dangerous world--”
“She got herself in that world; I kept her safe when she was faced with it.”
“By keeping her there!”
“You know as well as I do that no one can keep Vicki anywhere she doesn’t want to be. I just figured she’d do better having someone at her back that knows a bit about what’s happening around her than going in blind. What do you think Mike - you can protect her from demons and zombies and voodoo? You don’t even believe in those things, so how can you expect to help Vicki with them? I mean her no harm--”
“Not yet anyway,” Celucci pointed a finger at him, “You harm a hair on her head--”
“I wouldn’t ever.”
“You want her!”
“Don’t you?” Henry countered and left Celucci standing there, gaping at him and making like a guppy.