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Blood and Fire	By : addielogan Category: -Buffy the Vampire Slayer > Het - Male/Female > Buffy/Spike(William) > Buffy/Spike(William) Views: 8173 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Willow sat on one end of the cot with Buffy
on the other, and Spike on his feet, pacing. He reminded Willow a bit of a
caged tiger, yet she felt oddly safe anyway. Something about his assurances
that he would protect her rather than harm her rang true, and Willow suspected
she had more to fear from the Slayer upstairs than the vampire in the basement.
"Willow, do you have any idea what sort
of thing Nancy could be up to?" Buffy asked, pulling Willow's attention
over to her.
"No, I don't," Willow replied, shaking
her head. "I never really did know what Nancy did half the time. She'd
just have me do research, and then she'd take it and go. Kind of like those
girls who were always trying to make me do their homework back in junior
high."
"Nancy's got herself more than few
control issues," Spike said, stopping his pacing. "I picked up on it
when I was fighting her and then more so later from some of the things Angelus
said after the big soul loss. She likes everything nice and orderly, and
preferably, centered on her. You've messed that up for her Buffy, and she's
going to want to right it. Or at least what the version of 'righting it' is in
her mind."
"Do you think she'll try to hurt
me?" Buffy asked, frowning.
Spike looked grimly at Buffy, meeting her
eyes. "I know she will. Me, too, but that was already a given. What
she said about your mum being evil, I think she meant it."
"I do, too," Willow said, adding
her voice to Spike's concerns. "Nancy doesn't let go of things easily, and
I've never heard her just turn around and say she was wrong about something the
very next day. Her behavior in the kitchen was very weird. I think Giles knew
it, too, but he didn't want to make a big deal of it in case it just made
things worse."
Spike nodded. He'd certainly gotten that
impression, too. Red was perceptive, more than he'd given her credit for in the
past. He'd lumped her with that idiot boy Nancy also palled around with, but
clearly she was smarter than he'd realized. He was gladder now that she'd taken
their side, and not just because it gave Buffy a friend. If they were going to
have to be dealing with a damage-bound Slayer, a scorned friend was a good ally
to have.
"If she's got herself convinced that
Joyce was evil because the Council went after her, then she's probably thinking
along the same lines with you, pet," Spike said. "After all, you're
with me�for her, that's going to be proof enough."
"One thing I don't think she was lying
about this morning was when she said she was jealous," Willow added.
"She clearly was last night when she told me I couldn't be friends with
her and Buffy, and she always seemed to get annoyed if she thought I was
spending too much time with Giles. Or heck, even Xander, even though he was my
friend long before he was ever hers."
"So add her jealousy to the
Slayer-approved reason to get rid of me in the form of my supposed evilness,
and I'm in trouble." Buffy's shoulders slumped. "Crap. This is so not
something I have time to deal with. I have a major revenge plot to cook up here,
and if I have to fight off a psycho Slayer, too, it's just going to waste
valuable time that I could be spending thinking up ways to make the evil
Watchers pay."
"So what are we going to do about Nancy
then?" Willow asked. She felt like this should make her feel all traitory.
She was down in a basement discussing someone she'd once thought of as a friend
with someone who had tried to kill that same friend. However, her instincts
were telling her something else, that there, with Buffy, was the side she truly
belonged on, and she was going to listen to them. With the cold look in Nancy's
eyes this morning, Willow knew this could actually turn out to be literally the
safer bet.
She did worry what would happen to Xander in
all of this, since she doubted he'd be willing to think anything bad about
Nancy, despite the fact Willow had been more there for him than Nancy ever had.
Not with the way Nancy had Xander at her beck and call. But Willow would dwell
on that later, after things had time to settle.
"We should probably lay low for now,
keep an eye on her," Buffy said. "If she does have a plan, none of us
know it, and I doubt she'll be quick to divulge it, even if we play along with
her little 'let's all be friends' speech."
"Buffy's right," Spike added.
"As much as I'm loathed to ever start a game of wait-n-see, we don't have
enough information to jump right now, and since the chit's more than likely got
a mark on my mate, I'm not taking my usual chances."
"So we wait her out?" Willow
asked. "Try to see if we can piece together what she's up to?"
"Best we got right now," Spike
replied. "We just need to make sure we stay on our guards."
"I probably have the best chance of
getting anything out of her," Willow announced, surprising herself when
she said it, and even more as she kept talking. "Out of the three of us,
I'm the one she's most likely trust at all. Maybe I could get her to tell me
something." Inside of her chest, Willow's heart rate picked up. Could she
even do what she was offering? She'd never exactly been good at subterfuge. She
got nervous and twitchy when she tried to lie. But it did sound like it
could be their best bet, and she was willing to try it for Buffy.
"You think you can do that, Red?"
Spike asked, his eyes level with hers, and for a moment Willow wondered if he
could read her mind.
"Yes," Willow replied, trying to
infuse both her answer and herself with confidence. "I mean, in all
honesty I've been pretending to like Nancy more than I actually do for a
while now."
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. We
don't know what she's thinking or how much she's convinced herself that I'm the
bad guy here. If she gets wind that you're spying on her for Spike and me, it
could put you in danger."
"I don't think so," Willow said.
"I mean, it might not get me any answers, but I don't think Nancy will
come after me. She usually just assumes I'm too clueless about demons and stuff
to know what I'm doing when she thinks I've done something wrong. I'm facing at
worse snide comments and lectures about my choices in life."
"Wow. She sounds like the girl you want
to party with," Buffy remarked, rolling her eyes. Then, she was serious
again. "Okay, if we're going to do this, how are we going to work
it?"
"I guess I try to tell her I've seen
the error of my ways, and I'm not your friend anymore," Willow said.
"Get her to think I'm all Team Nancy again."
"Don't be too over the top with it,
Red," Spike warned. "Keep it simple. Easier to make it seem natural
that way."
"Right, I can do that," Willow
said, even though her words were tinged with nervousness. "Just gotta
remember KISS."
Spike frowned, his head cocked to the side.
"What are you going to do, paint your face like a black and white
cat?"
"Huh?" Willow asked, frowning for
several seconds until a light bulb clicked on in her mind, and she got the
reference. "Oh! No! It's something my math teacher used to say, 'Keep It
Simple, Stupid'�KISS. Well, until a parent complained, and he had to change the
stupid to silly, but now I'm totally rambling when I should be upstairs playing
super spy Willow, so I'm just going to go now."
Willow got to her feet, but stopped when she
felt Buffy's hand on her arm. "Be careful, Will. We don't know how
dangerous Nancy is or how far she'd go to get rid of me and Spike. If you get
even the slightest feeling that she might try to hurt you, come down here, and
we'll protect you, okay?"
Willow nodded. "I will. I'll be fine,
Buffy." She smiled at the other girl. "Thanks for caring. And,
y'know, thanks for thinking I'm actually capable of doing something
helpful."
"I think you're very capable. Now get
up there and pretend you hate me."
Willow giggled. "Aye aye," she
said with a salute, then made her way up the stairs.

***
*** ***
Willow took a series of deep, theoretically
calming breaths as she stood outside of Nancy's bedroom door. She told herself
over and over again that she could do this. She was just going to talk to
Nancy, something she'd done plenty of times in the past. She'd known her for
close to two years now, and she seriously doubted Nancy was going to hurt her.
It wasn't a big deal at all.
Besides, lying to Nancy right now�so not a
bad thing to do. From the way Nancy had been acting in the kitchen that
morning, it had seemed pretty obvious the Slayer was up to something dubious.
So if she was being less than honest, then Willow shouldn't feel guilty if she
was, too.
Willow nodded and brought forth her resolve
face. Nancy was the one who had turned on her, demanding the night before that
she choose sides. Well, Willow had chosen her side, and she wasn't about
to feel sorry for it either.
She raised her hand and knocked, waiting a
moment for Nancy's "Who's there?"
"It's Willow," she replied,
"Can I come in?"
"Yeah, sure," Nancy called.
"The door isn't locked."
Willow traded resolved for what she hoped
was chagrined as she walked into Nancy's bedroom. This should be easy. Just
like acting.
Only she hadn't had any acting experience
since kindergarten, in which she'd played the world's most terrified
strawberry. If this was going to be her life, maybe she should take a drama
class so next time she had to go all Emma Peele she'd have some practice.
Willow didn't realize she'd been standing in
Nancy's room for several moments until the Slayer raised an eyebrow and asked,
"Did you want something?"
"Oh, right, sorry," Willow said.
"I came to apologize. I don't know why I was siding with Buffy like that
when you're my friend."
"It's all right." Nancy replied
with a shrug. "I'm not mad at you anymore. I'm really not even all that
surprised."
Willow took a step back. "What do you
mean by that?"
Nancy sighed. "You know, there's always
been that competition between us because you have a crush on Xander, but he's
interested in me and not you."
"Oh. That," Willow said, any
lingering concerns she had about betraying Nancy suddenly flying right out the
window. "Yeah, that's what it was. I get so jealous of you and all with my
never-ending Xander love."
"But I can forgive you for that,"
Nancy said. "So it's no big deal." She turned her attention to the
magazine she'd been flipping through before Willow had come in. "Besides,
Buffy won't be a problem for much longer anyway."
That made Willow's blood chill. "What
do you mean by that?"
"Just that problems like Buffy have a
way of sorting themselves out. She'll be gone and out our hair soon
enough."
"Well that's good then. Buffy will
leave and everything can go back to normal." Willow replied, even though
she was starting to feel a little ill. There was something in Nancy's tone,
something dark that Willow didn't like the sound of. They'd been right�Nancy
had done something, put some sort of plan into motion. And it must be going to
happen soon if Nancy was suddenly so calm about Buffy being there.
"Yep, back to normal," Nancy
concurred. She held up the magazine. "What do you think of these shoes? I
mean, probably not the best for Slaying, but they'd work for the Bronze."
"They're�shiny," Willow replied.
"I like the, um, sparkles. Hey, I need to get home. I promised my mom
I'd�dust in the den today."
"Okay. Thanks for apologizing, Will.
And things really will be going back to normal soon. I promise."
"Uh huh. Good thing, that normal. Well,
I'll see you around. Bye, Nancy."
Nancy had already turned her focus back to
her magazine. "Bye."
Willow shut Nancy's bedroom door behind her
and took a deep breath before she all but ran back down to the basement.

***
*** ***
Just a little note to clarify a plot point
that seems to have not been very clear from some of the reviews and emails I've gotten. I hate explaining plot points like this because
it always makes me feel like I've failed in my writing if I haven't made it
clear enough, but enough people seem confused that I think I need to. Angel is
not supporting Spike by not going along with Nancy's "stake him in his
sleep and throw Buffy out" plan. Angel does NOT think Spike is a good guy,
As you'll recall, there was definite antagonism
between the two of them when they talked outside by Spike's car. I didn't
include the scene where Angel and Nancy talk because this isn't a story about
them, and I didn't think at the time it was necessary, but maybe I was wrong.
Nancy does, however, make mention of Angel worrying she'd get hurt if she went
after Spike. That is why Angel's
reluctant to support Nancy's plan to go after Spike. Nancy and Spike have been
barely evenly matched in the past, and Angel is afraid that if he's fighting
for his mate, it'll give Spike the advantage. Angel has some experience with
mated vampires and knows that they become very, very dangerous when their mates
are threatened. Angel does think something should be done about Spike, he just
thinks Nancy needs to proceed with caution for her own good. This does not mean
Angel has accepted Spike as part of the good guys, or that Nancy's necessarily
correct in her thoughts that Angel not wanting to go right after Spike means
Angel's not fully re-ensouled. Everything clear now?
Please take a moment to review!e
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Blood and Fire