Wild Horses
Part 02
By Jeconais
"Where are Spike and Buffy?" Xander asked, dropping into a comfy chair and yawning. He had spent the entire day in meetings with local politicians, ironing out issues with the rebuilding of his high school. For the first time the carpenter was regretting blowing it up 5 years ago, when they had destroyed the Ascending Mayor of Sunnydale.
Willow briefly looked up from the book she was studying. "Don't know," she said, sounding disinterested and went back to reading.
"Dawn Patrol?" Xander tried.
Dawn sat staring into space, as she had been doing for some time.
Xander frowned as he watched her. "Dawn?" Getting no response, he stood and walked over to the table she was sitting at. He waved his hand in front of her face. "Yo. Dawn! Earth to Dawn, come in, Morning Dawnie."
Dawn blushed and looked up, "Sorry Xand, got something on my mind."
Xander pulled up a chair and sat down. "Want to talk about it?" he asked, keeping his voice low.
Dawn's response was lost as the front door swung open and Buffy and Spike entered together.
"Buffy," Xander said cheerfully; in lieu of an official greeting, he patently ignored Spike. As always, Buffy rolled her eyes at his hatred for the vampire.
"Wills, come over here a second, we've got an announcement."
Willow placed the book down, carefully marking her page.
"What were you reading?" Xander asked, suddenly curious.
The Wicca shrugged lightly, "Sumerian book. Giles suggested I study it after that hassle with the First," she said, referring to the deadly super vamp that had caused them so much trouble,
"How is the G-Man?"
"Enjoying New York, the S.I.T's are dragging him all over on a massive site-seeing tour. I think he's enjoying being Uncle Giles without the threat of imminent death."
Xander laughed, and was about to reply when Buffy interrupted.
"I hate to interrupt," she lied casually, "but as I said, we have an announcement."
"Sorry," Xander responded, rolling his eyes slightly, "please go ahead, you have our complete attention."
Buffy took a deep breath, and blurted out, "Spike asked me to marry him, and I accepted."
Complete silence followed the revelation.
"He's done what and you've done what now?" Xander asked quietly, tilting his head to one side as he was positive she'd said something insane.
Buffy sighed at Xander, "I am engaged to Spike."
"Why?" Xander asked. His brain was having a lot of trouble processing this information.
"Because I love him and he asked me."
"After he's spent over a hundred years killing people, including several of the potential Slayers last week, you're marrying him?" The disbelief in Xander's voice was obvious.
"He was being controlled by the First," Buffy groaned at him, "We've been over this. Spike was innocent; he has a soul now."
Xander was starting to get upset; he could see that this was an incredibly bad idea, for Buffy, for all of them.
"Why the Hell did you even keep him alive?" Xander said forcefully. "He doesn't deserve life." He was aware that this argument was going off on a tangent, but he couldn't stop now. There was too much bad blood between them.
"We kept him alive because we needed him; he's the best fighter we've got."
"No he's not! He's betrayed us or let us down every single time. Even with Glory he was only partly effective."
"At least he's not been a fucking liability, like you."
"I've saved your life, and the world, many times, Slayer," Xander growled, getting right in Buffy's face.
Buffy sneered, her need to attack any threat overcame any semblance of thought. "Finally, you bring that up. You've just been saving it, haven't you, for an argument, any argument you couldn't win normally. Feeling superior ever time, because you knew you had this as your ace in the hole." She paused for breath, then continued, her voice mocking Xander's deeper tones. "Oh, I'm Xander, I'm not useless, I saved the world and all of you guys and I keep it to myself, aren't I the quiet hero, love me."
"You knew about that?" Xander asked, shocked.
"Of course! Slayer here. We were all busy upstairs, so when a load of dead Zombies are found, it was obviously you. I wondered why you were keeping it quiet till Spike pointed out that you were just holding it over my head to use later. What did you think?" Buffy mocked him viciously, "You'd bring it up and I'd say 'Oooo, Xander, I misjudged you, you aren't useless, I love you, let's go to Vegas and have lots of sex?'"
Xander physically shook himself out of the shock caused by Buffy's reaction. "You think this about me having feelings for you?" he asked, "that I'm in some way jealous?"
"Duh," Buffy said, reverting to the behavior of a former head cheerleader. "Of course."
"Maybe once I would have been," the carpenter replied, "but I sure as hell wasn't in love with you when I was with Ahn, and any residual feelings were pretty much killed when you shacked up with Deadboy junior again. Once could be a mistake, but twice is a lifestyle choice. You remember the word for that? Necrophilia: sleeping with the dead."
Xander was already leaning back as he said those words, guessing correctly that Buffy's first reaction would be violence. As she missed with her roundhouse punch and over balanced herself, Xander pushed her into Spike.
"Typical Buffy, you can't even have an argument without resorting to physical violence. What the hell happened to you? I remember you lying on the floor of the bathroom, crying your eyes out after HE," Xander spat the description of Spike, "tried to rape you."
"Wait a second," Dawn interrupted. "Spike tried to rape you?"
"Not now, Dawn," Buffy said dismissively.
"Yes, now," Dawn insisted.
"Look, it was back when he didn't have a soul. It's old news."
"You left me alone with a rapist? You asked a rapist to look after me while you were off fighting?" she asked, her voice bordering on the hysterical.
"I would never have touched you, Dawn," Spike said, visibly wincing at the accusations flung.
"I'd've said the same thing about you and Buffy," Dawn snapped back.
"What are you complaining about anyway?" Buffy spat. "It would have been what you wanted."
"What?" Xander and Dawn asked at the same time. They both had identical expressions of shock on their faces.
Buffy's expression was one of pure fury; she was enraged that both her sister and best male friend could not be happy for her and she was reacting the only way she knew how. - with violence, whether it be verbal or physical.
"Didn't your little friend tell you, Xander?" she spat out visciously. "She tried to come on to my fiancé then swore to break us up when Spike turned the slut down."
Xander looked at Dawn. A second was all it took for him to confirm that Spike had been lying to Buffy. "You believed a vampire over your own sister?" he asked incredulously.
"Spike Has A Soul" Buffy ground out through clenched teeth, as if that statement was enough.
"So?" Xander responded curtly.
"So, now he can't lie," Buffy said, talking slowly as if she was dealing with a two year old.
"Because he has a soul?" The disbelief was almost physical in Xander's voice.
"Of course."
Willow watched her two friends fight, torn between them, trying to decided which side to join.
Flashback
2 days earlier.
"Hey Wills," Xander said as he sat at her table.
The red head looked up at him and smiled happily. "Hey Xand, how's things?"
"Good, good," the building constructor replied.
"I wanted to have a word with you," he continued as he looked over at his oldest friend.
"Go ahead." Willow folded the book she was reading and placed it neatly on the table.
"It's about Kennedy," Xander looked a little uncomfortable and said in a rush, "I'm afraid that you're getting too close to her, Wills."
"What do you mean?" Willow asked, her eyes suddenly wary.
"She's only 16, Willow. She's a lot younger than you are. Despite how forward she is, she's still below the legal age of consent."
"This isn't any of your business, Xander," Willow said shortly, her eyes darkening slightly.
"Hey, hey Willow, calm down. You know I love you - I just don't want you getting hurt or getting in trouble."
"I know, Xander," Willow said, visibly calming down. "It's just that, in five years, no one will know the difference."
Xander smiled softly, thinking he had gotten his point through to the witch. "In two years Willow, no one will mind - just give her a chance to grow up a bit first."
Reluctantly, Willow nodded.
She missed Kennedy, her current partner, the slayer in training. The red-haired Wiccan eventually realized that she had to support Buffy, as she had so many times in the past. It was the only way to get what she wanted now.
"Spike has a soul and Buffy's happy. Why can't you be happy for her, Xander?" Willow asked, entering the argument for the first time.
Xander threw her a hurt look, as he realized she was joining Buffy and Spike against him. "Spike is a vampire; a creature of the night."
"He has a soul," Willow replied, repeating Buffy's earlier defense.
"So did you," Xander snapped. "It didn't stop you from trying to end the world."
Willow burst into tears and sat down, Spike and Buffy both threw Xander disgusted looks.
"There was no need for that, Droopy," Spike spat, aware that he could get away with interfering now. Xander's reaction had been so predictable and easy to manipulate.
Xander slowly looked into the face of his erstwhile friend and said softly "What happened to you? When did you die?"
"What?" Buffy asked, confused.
"You're not Buffy. I'm not sure who you are, but you're not Buffy. Buffy always cared about her sister; she even died trying to save the world."
Xander took a deep breath, then relaxed a little. The turmoil was rocking inside him as he realized he had finally reached the end of his tether. All the problems over the years had built up, and now it finally exploded inside him. The damage was massive, and yet subtle. Xander simply stopped caring any longer about the people who had once been his friends.
As the others watched, they could see Xander change; his eyes darkened and his back straightened.
He turned to the door. "Coming, Dawn?" he asked.
Dawn didn't hesitate. The knowledge that her sister had left her with a would-be rapist had hurt her on a level she didn't know she had. All through her memories, both the artificially created and the natural ones, she had adored her sister, had felt protected by her. Buffy had been her secret hero for as long as she could remember; now she felt betrayed. The hero worship was gone, and she wasn't sure what was left in its place.
She turned and walked away from her sister and her supporters, following Xander. Spike jumped between them, deciding that Xander wasn't getting away that easily.
Xander didn't hesitate; he punched Spike as hard as he could. The punch started low and gathered weight as it flew upwards. He put all of his body and mind behind it. It caught Spike firmly on the chin, rocking his head back. It would have knocked a human out for the count; it barely affected the vampire.
But Spike was a consummate actor. He moved his head with the punch, pushing off with his legs at the same time. He flew heavily into the wall, before slumping down on to the ground.
"Spike!" Buffy yelled, jumping forwards. She launched into a spinning kick that caught Xander in the chest. Like the en-souled vampire had a few seconds before, the carpenter flew backwards, landing roughly on the table.
Spike got back to his feet, play acting his rage. Buffy stood back and callously watched him as he stalked Xander. Aiming carefully, the vampire grabbed the dark haired man by the collar and threw him across the room.
Xander landed, banging his head on a small coffee table. He immediately felt a stab of pain in his left eye, and could have sworn he heard a small popping sound. He groaned, worried because he couldn't see out of his eye, everything was black. He hoped that it was just because of the blood he could feel pouring down his cheek.
"Xander," Dawn cried, rushing over to him and helping him up. "Let's get out of here."
The heavily bleeding man put his arm around the brunette girl, and followed her out. Inside, he was hardly feeling the physical pain - the emotional pain he was experiencing was so much worse than any physical suffering he could ever undergo.
Buffy and Willow watched together, suddenly realizing that something had gone very wrong with their world; they just weren't sure what.
"Xander, wait!" Willow shouted, as Xander and Dawn got to the door.
Xander paused, still leaning heavily on the girl next to him. He impassively surveyed the three people standing in the room behind them with the eye he could still see out off. Finally, he whispered, "Only my friends call me Xander."
Xander turned; leaving the silence that had followed his parting remark behind and stumbled with Dawn's help to his car. He handed her his keys, and whispered softly, "I think you'd better get me to the hospital, Dawnie."