AUTHOR: Sophie
EMAIL: sophie_limbourg@hotmail.com
RATING: G
PAIRING: Buffy/Spike
SPOILERS: Season 6, 'Seeing Red'
DISCLAIMER: Nothing is mine.
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Buffy turns around. By doing so, she winces from the pain in her back.

She gives an annoyed look to Spike, who just entered the bathroom.

“Do I look ok to you ?”

“What happened ?”

She shrugs. Ouch, bad idea.

“Some nasty vamp…and a very hard tombstone.”

Buffy turns the hot-water tap. She watches him discreetly. He’s not wearing his coat, just a black long-sleeves t-shirt. He looks good…but she quickly banish that kind of thought from her mind.

She sits carefully on the bath edge.

“ Is there something you wanted ?” she asks.

“ Yeah…Buffy, I’m sorry for…”

She raises her hand.

“ Don’t. Don’t apologize. What happened…it’s certainly not your fault. It’s no one’s fault. We all made wrong choices…now we have to deal with the consequences…and we’re not very good at it so far, I’m afraid.”

He nods, not knowing exactly what to say. He would like to take her in his arms, tell her everything’s going to be ok. But he doesn’t want to lie to her. Because they are in Sunnydale, and generally when things are bad, they don’t get better.

They’re getting worse.

“I heard the Wicca’s are back together. I’m glad for them. They deserve it.”

“Everybody deserves to be happy.”

Spike smiles bitterly.

“Yeah, well, for some of us it seems bloody doomed.”

“Tell me about it” Buffy sighs with lassitude.

There is a short silence, but not an uncomfortable one. Buffy watches absently as the water fills the bath with a soft, familiar sound.

“I’m leaving.”

She turns to Spike, makes a slight smile.

“Oh. Ok.”

“No, I mean…I’m leaving Sunnydale.”

Her smile vanishes.

“What ?”

“I have to do something about that soddin’chip. Find a way…I can’t go on like this. It’s not me…It’s killing me.”

She struggles to breathe. Somehow, she understands him. But she had always thought Spike would be the one to stay. All the others had leave…but he had stayed. And now…now she will be alone again.

She fights the tears that threaten to come. She’s not going to cry in front of him. It’s not what he needs, a weeping Slayer. He needs a friend. Why hasn’t she figured that out sooner ?

She smiles bravely.

“Good Luck” she tells him gently.

He looks surprised. He’s so used to hear mean words coming from her…

He opens the bathroom door, prepares to leave.

“Tell Dawn…”

He doesn’t know how to put this. She smiles.

“I know…and I will.”

“Thanks. Take care of you, Slayer.”

“You too”. And she means it.

He’s already in the hall when she calls him back.

“Spike !”

He comes back, stares at her.

“When…when will you be back ?”

He doesn’t answer right away. Then he looks her in the eyes.

“ I don’t know…Do you want me to come back ?”

She holds his gaze, not blinking.

“Yes”. That’s all. Just a simple word.

But it means the world to him.

FIN