Blocker
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Chapter Five
She'd stopped crying; he'd give her that. The girl was stronger than she thought she was. Her tears had lasted only long enough for him to lead her back to his crypt and into his only chair.
With everything she'd been through lately, most birds would be wailing for hours. Not Tara. She wasn't back to normal, anyone could see that, but she was reigning in her emotions and holding them to her like a blanket.
Was that healthy? He wasn't sure what was best. Some said get it all out, but his proper British upbringing had always taught him to keep a stiff upper lip. But that wasn't the common thought today, was it?
Was it?
He needed to stop watching Dr. Phil. Is he even a real doctor?
Tara wasn't moving anymore. She wasn't doing anything but staring off into space. She seemed numb and if it were him, he'd be drowning himself in whiskey; but he didn't think Tara would want to indulge that way. Maybe some wine?
Before he could decide, she asked, "Can I stay here tonight? I can't face - can't face that empty room on my own. Not tonight. Is that all right? I don't want to put you out-"
"Sure, luv."
At least she was talking.
He led her downstairs and gave her a tee shirt to sleep in and then conveniently had to go upstairs and get some blood while she changed. When he came back down, he brought some wine but it was too late. Tara was sound asleep in his bed.
He got back from taking out a nest about an hour before sunrise and Tara was awake and dressed and downing a bottle of water as if she was dehydrated. Watching her gulp down the water so fast made him smile and Tara caught him at it.
"I'm sorry," she apologized, "for falling asleep in your bed." But he waved away her apology.
"No need. Wasn't using it anyway. Got myself a nest tonight. Taking out demons is getting pretty lucrative. Took over two thousand off 'em before I turned 'em to dust."
Tara stared. "You can make that much money from killing vampires? In one night?"
"Sure. Demons of every sort need human money and even if they don't, they usually take it off their victims anyway. Never know when it'll be useful to 'em."
Tara thought about that. "Does Buffy know about this? It might solve her money problems."
Spike shrugged. The slayer - Buffy - wasn't a subject he wanted to think about right now. "You could tell her if you want, when you go-" and he stopped, realizing that she wasn't living at Buffy's house anymore. "When ya talk to her later," he amended.
"Yeah, I will."
She looked around. "Maybe you could use some of that money to-" She stopped, realizing too late that what she was about to say would be rude. How he lived was his business, not hers - even if they had become sort of friends in the last day.
"Take you out to dinner tonight?" he finished for her, aware of what she'd been about to say. "Properly this time. Someplace with cloth napkins and silverware instead of plastic sporks."
She smiled, remembering him making fun of the sporks last night. She'd like that. Going somewhere fun instead of sitting around moping sounded good to her. She nodded.
"I'd better go. I have class today."
"What time should I pick you up?" he asked, then added, "And what's your room number?"
Suddenly inspired, she suggested, "Why don't you come back with me? You could sleep in my bed - my room has heavy curtains but my window is also three feet away from the solid back wall of the Computer Sciences building. Direct sunlight couldn't get in there if it wanted to. And then we could go out later."
Not finding fault with this logic, Spike led the way out of the crypt and into his car and the streets of Sunnydale.
Driving along, Spike felt peaceful for the first time in a long time. Losing his obsession with the slayer had brought him out of his funk and made unlife seem good once again. Or as good as it could be, what with the chip. But still. Nice town. Lots of demons to fight and rob. Somewhere with a roof over his head. Beautiful girl by his side who didn't hate him. Even if she wasn't his girl. It could be - and had been - so much worse.
He looked at the young woman sitting beside him. She deserved someone so much better than a witch who'd fuck with her mind and try to change her into what she wasn't. She was bloody near perfect - what needed to be changed?
It meant a lot to him that she wanted to stay with him today. Maybe he wasn't a worthless 'thing' after all. Not to all of them anyway. Tara seemed to like him and want him around. He glanced at her; she looked lost in thought, but not numb any more.
"Tuppence for your thoughts, luv."
Tara couldn't help but giggle. "Tuppence?"
Spike shrugged. "Don't change the subject."
Tara took a moment to compose her thoughts and then replied, "Just - just thinking about how this isn't as bad as I thought it would be. Being without Willow. I thought I'd be shattered and lying in broken pieces all over the floor. But I'm not. I'll survive. We all will." She put her arm through his and leaned her head against his shoulder. "And I have you to thank for my part of that."
"You don't need Red, luv. You'll be fine. Better, I'll wager. You'll find someone good for you when you're ready."
"You think?" She seemed unsure.
"You need a girl who'll love you for the woman you are. Not try to change you. You'll find the real deal next time around."
"It doesn't have to be a girl," Tara said softly, thinking out loud.
That gave Spike a whole lot to think about.
UC Sunnydale came into view then and Tara directed them around behind the Physical Sciences building to a tan stucco building four stories tall with red clay tiles on the roof and glazed ceramic insets above the doors and windows.
"I'm on the second floor."
They met a couple of girls that Tara said hello to and she introduced Spike to them. They lived in this dorm and were in one of Tara's classes. She led the way down the hall and around a corner to room 236 - the only dorm room in this part of the building. The other doors in this hall were marked for maintenance and supplies.
"I was lucky Maria let me have this room. I could have been homeless."
"Nah, could have stayed with me," Spike told her off-handedly, looking in and thinking about how unsafe she'd be here all alone.
Tara wondered again how Buffy could have not seen the decency and kindness in this man. She'd heard about what he'd done before, but that obviously wasn't who he was anymore. She'd seen it over the summer while Buffy was gone, and even though Buffy hadn't been there for it, the others seemed to have missed it too.
She unlocked the door, walked in, and looked over her shoulder to see Spike still standing in the hall. "Oh, sorry. You're welcome to come in, Spike."
"Ta, luv," he said, walking through the barrier that kept out most creatures of the night.
The room was barren and smelled musty, as if no one had been living there for a long time. Tara guessed what he was thinking. "It's all the way in the back of the building and with no view, so they give out all the other rooms first. Since it was empty, I got lucky."
Looking at the bare grey linoleum floor and ugly paint peeling off the walls, Spike wasn't sure 'luck' was the word he would have used. His crypt was dark and dank, but it was a crypt after all. This was a room meant for a human girl. It should look better. She pulled back the curtains to reveal the sight of another tan wall just like the ones on this building. You could hardly tell the sun had started to rise; the other building blocked out almost all the light. Definitely wouldn't have to worry about any breezes blowing the curtains around while he slept.
Tara pulled a pillow and thin blanket out of one of the boxes and put them on the bed. "Sorry, I don't have any sheets yet."
She then grabbed a towel and a plastic basket full of bathroom things out of one of her boxes.
"Make yourself at home. I'm going to go take a shower. Wash some of the crypt dust off."
"Sure thing, pet. I'll just settle in. Sun's about to break the horizon, not that we'll have to worry about it in here." This room wasn't so bad after all, if you were a vampire.
Tara left and Spike took off his boots and shirt and tried to get comfortable on the thin and lumpy mattress. He turned this way and that, trying to find a comfortable spot. The mattress wasn't just uncomfortable, but the bed itself was too small. He liked something wider now that he wasn't sleeping on biers anymore. Poor Tara would never be able to get to sleep on this thing. It wasn't until he put the pillow down at the other end that he was able to get comfortable enough to sleep.
He was asleep when Tara came into the room twenty minutes later but she still went into the closet to get dressed.
Spike woke up before Tara returned. It was only a little past noon. He didn't know what time she was done for the day. He got dressed and went through her boxes, finding a schedule that said on Mondays her last class ended at 5:30. It looked like he had some time then.
He wandered out into the hall and borrowed some hangers from eight different girls who thought he was sweet for helping his girlfriend unpack. He didn't clue them in to his and Tara's real status. They helped him find an old bureau, a mini-fridge, and a decent desk that some people had left at the end of last year in one of the storerooms.
Claire, who was in 223, called Maria about getting the room painted but Maria said there was no money in the budget for that, as much as she would like to help Tara out.
Spike pulled the wad of cash he had appropriated out his pocket and Claire smiled and held out her hand. He gave her a fifty but she simply kept her hand out until she had three hundred dollars in it.
"Be back soon," she said as she flew out the door.
Patsy sat down on the bed, intending to get all the details on this turn in Tara's sexuality but was stopped from asking anything by the lumps that kept her posterior from getting comfortable.
"You need a new mattress."
Spike knew she was right. Tara would never be able to sleep on that. He pulled out the money again and raised a questioning eyebrow at Patsy.
"This one's too small, get one of them bigger ones, what's it called? A double or some such?"
Patsy just grinned, wondering what interesting stories this new bed might be able to tell in a few weeks. He looked like he knew his way around a vulva.
"Five hundred ought to do it - eight if you want a good one. I'll get Mike, he has a pickup truck." She got the eight.
As she left, Spike followed her out to the common room where he sat and watched Passions until Claire returned. With several more bags than were needed for just paint.
Claire had picked a very light shrimp-pink for the walls -"If the college has a problem with the color then they should have paid for it from the budget," was her only comment. She also got an off-white for the desk. They were helped by a couple of guys who didn't have class on Monday afternoons. Soon, the guys had the room empty and they painted the walls while Claire painted the desk. Patsy and Mike returned with the new mattress and helped clean the newspapers off the floor along with the cleaning up the brushes and rollers.
As they headed to the common room to watch tv, Spike turned to the ever-efficient Claire. "Hey, um, need a decent restaurant to take Tara out tonight. What's the best place around here?"
"I'm on it," said Claire, pulling a cell phone out of her pocket. "Name?"
"What?"
"I need a name for the reservation. You want me to just say 'Spike'?"
"Oh. William, William… Pratt."
"Gotcha." She spoke into the phone for a few minutes and then told him, "Wilder's, corner of Fourth and Main. Eight o'clock."
"Thanks, luv."
"Hey, no problem. Anything for Tara's hot new honey."
They watched Cash Cab for an hour until they felt the walls were dry enough to chance moving things back in. They were careful not to touch the walls, though, just in case. Claire and Mike bantered over furniture placement and Spike left them to it. He didn't want Tara to have to live in a bare and cheerless room, but he'd had no idea how to go about changing it. If Claire and Mike thought they knew what they were doing, he'd let them fight it out.
Claire had gotten sheets and blankets and something she called a duvet. She had even more surprises in her bags. Some bookends and a vase, candleholders and white lily of the valley scented candles. She had two small pillows for the bed and three large pillows; Tara could use them as seating when she had guests since there was the only one bed in the room. Out of a big bag, Claire pulled a light green rug that would cover a good bit of the floor. There were also two pictures of Victorian houses with English gardens in matching golden frames and a couple of smaller empty golden picture frames - "for personal photos," Claire said.
Patsy was so impressed with how much Claire had gotten with the money that she made Claire promise to help her redo her own room.
"The secret is knowing which thrift shops carry the good stuff," she confessed, handing Spike his change of eighteen dollars. "The bedding and paint is new, but the other stuff all came from the Goodwill over at Third and Garden Avenue."
The girls were sharing a laugh when Tara walked in the door. She couldn't believe the transformation. She checked the number on the door to make sure she was in the right room - even though Spike was standing there looking at her.
"Spike? Claire? What's going on here? In my… my room?"
Patsy smiled and led her in to show her what they'd done. "We found the furniture in the storage room and painted it. Claire got you all this great stuff with money from your boyfriend - I swear, if you ever need anything, you should make her go shopping with you! And Mike and I bought the new mattress - again courtesy of Spike's dough - and voila! New room for the new you!"
"New… new me?" She didn't know what to say. That she had friends who would spend all day doing this for her… It looked like she hadn't lost all her friends when she left Willow after all. And Spike…
"Thank you," was all she could say. She was looking at them all but her eyes settled on Spike. Her words were heartfelt and the others discreetly left them alone so that Tara could thank her new honey properly. That was what the others thought anyway. It was interesting that neither Spike nor Tara had set the record straight.
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