Incensed
Chapter 8 of “The Evolution
of Spike”
By Chani
Spike looked up from the TV—his new TV, which he had managed to snag for a very reasonable price from some guy who was selling a multitude of electronics equipment off the back of a truck—when he heard his crypt door quietly open. A smile slowly made its way onto his face. There were some visitors he was always happy to have, and this was one of them. “Hey Niblet.”
“You busy, Spike?”
“Nope. C’mon in, I’m just watching…” His eyes shot around the crypt, looking around for the remote. He shoved his hands down into the cushions of the oversized chair he was sitting in, desperately searching. “Umm, news.”
Dawn gave him a knowing look when she saw the commercial on the screen. “TBS doesn’t have news.” She spotted the remote on the floor and snatched it up, dodging out of his reach when he tried to get it away from her. “Hmm, if I remember correctly, ‘Little House on the Prairie’ is on right about now. Two in a row, right?”
He grimaced. “Yeah, well, you got me hooked on the bleeding thing last summer. Tell anyone you caught me watching this and I’ll put Nair in your shampoo.”
She giggled and sat down on the arm of the chair, leaning closer to him. “What happened to ripping my head of my spinal cord, or whatever it was you threatened that night you couldn’t find me?”
“Yeah, well, if I had to make a list of people I wanted to do that to, you’d be at the bottom of it.”
“You mean I’d actually be on it?” she pouted.
“That depends on whether you tell anyone about my TV viewing habits or not.” He couldn’t help but smile at the disbelieving look on her face. She knew bloody well he’d never hurt her. “Okay, fine, you wouldn’t be on it at all.”
“I knew it.”
Spike smiled at first, then his eyes narrowed. “Shouldn’t you be at school?”
She just shrugged. “I cut.” The look on the vampire’s face made her squeak, “What? Don’t look at me like that! It’s not a big deal.”
“Somehow I think Big Sis would disagree.”
“Like she cares.”
“Niblet…she cares, she just—”
“Doesn’t want to have anything to do with me.” Dawn sighed. “She’s never around. And when she is…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “She doesn’t want to be here, Spike…doesn’t want to be alive. I think she blames me for being pulled out of heaven.
“She doesn’t blame you,” he corrected. “She just needs time to—”
“If she doesn’t blame me, then why is she so nice to them and so cold to me even though they’re the ones who brought her back?”
He honestly had no answer for her question, but he had to say something. The girl needed to be reassured and right now he was the only one who could do it. However, before he had a chance to think of a response, she began speaking again, with even more emotion than before.
“It doesn’t matter what they do…any of them, but especially Willow…she forgives them.” Tears sprang to her eyes and she ran her hand over her forehead in distress. “But she can’t even forgive me for existing. None of them can. If it weren’t for me, she never would’ve had to die. If it weren’t for me—”
“Stop it,” Spike ordered, taking her hand in his. “Nobody blames you, luv. And Buffy does care about you. Everyone does.”
“Everyone?” She met his eyes with a questioning glance.
“Yes, everyone.”
“I guess you’ve just been busy doin’ other stuff. Like everybody else. At you least didn’t do like Willow and—” The girl froze, swallowing hard.
Spike could tell that, although she hadn’t meant to say what she did, she did actually want to tell someone about it. “What did Red do?”
She only hesitated a moment before beginning her story. “She was supposed to take me out to make up for ignoring me lately, and she did. But she ended up leaving me in this nasty place while she went off and did magick stuff. I waited two hours, but she never came out so I gave up and walked home. Alone. All the way across town. When she finally got home—at three o’clock in the morning—she was mad at me for leaving without her.” She sighed. “She came into my room and woke me up to yell at me…then Buffy woke up…”
He waited for the girl to finish, but when she didn’t, he finished for her. “And she…”
“Started yelling at me, too. Told me how irresponsible it was for me to walk across town alone. She wouldn’t even listen to what I had to say. Who knows what would’ve happened to me if I had stayed there?”
“Well, walking across town by yourself late at night isn’t exactly safe, but she should’ve at least let you explain why you left.” He gave her a stern look. “By the way, don’t you ever do that again. Call someone—Buffy or Tara or even the whelp—to come get you…or call a cab and take it home or here, but no more late night jaunts alone, okay?”
“’Kay,” she promised, smiling half-heartedly. “Buffy acted like it was all my fault. Didn’t even care that Willow took me to some gross place so she could go on some magic power trip.”
“Magic power trip?”
Dawn nodded. “I started talking to some weirdo in the room Willow left me in and he said something about going to get some more power to do spells. I figure that’s what she went there for.” She watched the vampire’s eyes narrow, and saw the muscles in his jaw twitching. “Umm…what’s wrong?”
“Nothin’ for you to worry about, but I think I know the place she took you to…who she was going to see. Promise me you won’t ever go back to that place, luv. Ever. Got it?”
She nodded. “But what if Willow—”
“If Willow’s goin’ there, you stay home. I mean it.” He sighed, shaking his head. “What she’s messin’ with is nothing but bad news. Very bad news.”
“Okay.”
“And Niblet?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m never too busy for you.”