It's Not Where You Start Out (17/17)
by Kelly Frieders
raykel2@cox.net

Genre: Drama, B/S
Rating: PG-13, nothing you wouldn't see on the show
Disclaimer: Spike's not mine. Wish he were, but my husband might object. Buffy and all the rest aren't mine, either. I'm just borrowing them from Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy for a while.

Summary: Post "The Gift." Way post "The Gift," actually. Takes place sometime the following year. There's some new interest in the Key and an old enemy is back in town. Spoilers for everything up to and including "The Gift."

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17.

It was Saturday night at the Bronze, just a little more than a week since their last group gathering here, but it felt to Buffy like it had been a lifetime. The place was packed so they had only been able to get a small table this time, and all seven of them were crammed tightly around it, trading stories of their separate adventures the night before.

"And we're sure the monks are gone for good?" Anya was asking as she took a sip from a beer bottle.

"Willy said they packed up and headed back for Czechoslovakia first thing this morning," Willow confirmed.

"Ooh Will, look at you," Buffy teased, "all big with the Willy shake-downs."

Willow smiled self-consciously. "Nah. I sorta had to pay him back for the shot glasses and liquor bottle I broke. Oh! And just so you know I haven't totally left my geek roots, I also hacked into the airline reservation system and confirmed that they were on a nine AM flight out of LAX this morning."

"And speaking of flights out of the country," Buffy added, "I talked to Giles this morning and the Council of Watchers pulled some strings to get Ethan extradited back to England immediately. He also should be winging his way across the Atlantic even as we speak."

"Woo, and may I add, Hoo," Xander said cheerily, raising his beer bottle in a toast.

"Okay, not to be, like, the downer here, but what about those guys the monks hired? They're still around, right? And they know Brother Ondrih didn't really have me," Dawn put in.

"Don't fret, Pidge. They were just looking to get paid. They got paid, end of story. Blokes like that don't much care about why they're doing what they're doing, so long as they get the cash."

"What about the ones that came after you?" she pointed out.

"Well yeah," Spike admitted, "that Hawk fella's got a few axes to grind now. But the way I figure it isn't any different than any of the garden variety demons gunning for me or big sis, except he's human. So long as they're not looking for you, I don't care."

Dawn smiled, satisfied, and Spike leaned back in his seat. Buffy noticed him wince as he did so, and then he leaned forward again.

"How's your back doing?" Xander asked.

Spike shrugged. "It'll heal."

"Good," Xander replied. Buffy smiled.

"And the demonette's cheek?"

"It *should* heal by the wedding," Anya answered testily, "but if it doesn't I'm thinking of summoning Palawgi again and doing a little deception of my own. That Hawk person is going to be *very* sorry if I'm all scarred for my wedding pictures."

"You and Palawgi are quite chummy these days," Buffy said with a mischievous grin. "He really coming to your wedding?"

"Yes!" Anya cried, while simultaneously Xander shouted:

"No! I'm not having some scabby guy in a black robe at my wedding," Xander said.

"Why not? Fella looks like Death. Innit what most blokes associate with weddings?" Spike quipped.

Buffy kicked him in the shin.

"Is that what you think?" Anya asked Xander.

"Me? No! I didn't say that, Spike did. I'm the one who *doesn't* want Death at my wedding!"

"He's not Death, he's Deception. And you're forgetting his whole power is **changing forms.** He can come as a human. He's quite attractive in human form, actually. He'd probably look very nice in a tux."

"Great, now they'll be going on like this all night," Dawn said, rolling her eyes. Then her face brightened. "Oh look, Lisa's here! Gotta go!" She jumped up and pulled her chair away from the overcrowded table, giving the others a little more room.

"Just stay away from all those insipid teenage boys," Spike told her. "They're none of 'em good enough for you."

Dawn rolled her eyes even more dramatically this time. "Okay, *Dad.*" Then she went off to join Lisa, who after her share in their exploits yesterday was so relieved to see Dawn -- the real Dawn -- alive and well she practically tackled her.

"Poor Lisa," Buffy commented. "Not exactly a fun day for her yesterday."

"Oh, I don't know," Willow said. "I think she handled herself pretty well. She'd make a good junior Scooby."

"She really was very calm under fire," Tara agreed.

"No," Buffy said firmly.

"Well, we were only a year older than that when you came breezing into Sunnydale," Willow pointed out.

"Don't remind me," Buffy sighed. "No wonder my mom wanted to lock me in the house when she found out I was the Slayer."

"I'd've thought she'd be relieved you weren't really a drummer in a band," Spike snorted, referring to the lie Buffy had told her mom just before she first admitted she was the Slayer. She had forgotten Spike had been there the night her mom had first found out. They were enemies then, of course, but somehow now in retrospect it seemed oddly appropriate that he would be the one to share such a momentous event in her life.

"Shut up, Spike," she said shot back, "and put those things away," she added, noticing he had just fished a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket. "I wanna dance."

He eyed her slyly. "You sure I won't scare ya?"

"I'd like to see you try," she challenged.

Spike pocketed his smokes and got up from his chair and extended his hand to her. She took it, letting him help her up, and the two of them moved to the crowded dance floor.

The music was perfect; not a slow song, really, but something with a rhythm that allowed for close dancing. Spike put his hands on her waist and pulled her close to him and they began swaying in time together.

"You feeling better?" he asked in her ear over the music.

"I'm feeling pretty good," she replied with a wicked grin.

He smiled broadly, but said "That's not what I meant, pet. You recovered from the monks' mojo?"

She looked into his eyes and nodded reassuringly. "A little more tired than usual, but that's it. I'm okay. Really."

He accepted this, so she asked him "And your back?"

"Like I said, it'll heal."

"What you did for Anya--"

He shrugged it off. "Wasn't even thinking."

"I know. Xander's pretty grateful," she added.

"Yeah," he replied with a half-grin, "now he only hates my guts instead of all of me."

"See, everything back to normal," Buffy said brightly.

He smirked at her, guiding her in a gentle turn across the dance floor, then sobered again. "Had another close call, back at the crypt."

"Xander told me. You went vamp on one of the mercenaries. To find out where they took me."

He pursed his lips. "Yeah. Sure was easier when I just ate people."

She cocked her head at him. "Funny, you always struck me as someone who liked to do everything the hard way."

"True enough," he snorted.

"Xander also told me you threw off one of them in the middle of a fight. Between that and bursting into flames for Anya, I think you came out a little ahead."

"Not looking to score points," he told her matter-of-factly. "Just reminding you what I am."

"I know what you are. I'm not afraid."

With a dangerous smile he leaned into her, putting his lips right by her ear. "Sure about that, are you?"

She closed her eyes and a thrill coursed through her at the feel of his breath on her ear and neck. Her arms encircled his neck and they swayed together slowly, in perfect concert with each other and the music, and this time she didn't run away from the heady feelings he stirred in her. She reveled in how good it felt to be close to him, dancing in his arms, until almost without thinking her lips found his and she kissed him deeply. When at last she had to come up for air, she pulled back just far enough to look into his eyes, and they held each other's gaze a long time. Then a smile touched Buffy's lips.

"I'm sure," she said.

FIN

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