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A few S.I.T’s were there, as well as Dawn and Willow. Anya and Xander had gone back to his apartment after that morning’s Scooby meeting. Giles and Connor were out back, training with some of the Potentials.
Dawn looked at her sister for confirmation, silently asking if she and Spike were really a couple. With a small nod and a smile, Buffy let her know.
Squealing in delight, Dawn leapt up from the couch to engulf her sister and Spike in a huge hug. Willow was right behind her with more hugs, while the SIT’s in the room looked on bemusedly.
Laughing at her sister and her friend’s antics, over their excited remarks, Buffy told them, “Yes, yes, we are really together... and listen, before we head out on patrol, I want all the troops together. We may as well go out back, since I guess that’s where most everyone is. Can you two gather up any stragglers?”
“Yep!!”
“Sure thing, Buff!”
The Slayer giggled as they went bouncing away.
Drawing her into another room, Spike asked his girlfriend (and oh! how he loved that word) “What’s this about, pet?”
“I told you we’re not gonna be a secret.”
“Yeah, but a meetin’ just to let ‘em know you have a new boyfriend?”
“No, a meeting to let them know I have a new boyfriend who is a vampire. I need to talk about this with them, Spike, and make sure they know that these are unusual circumstances; or rather, that this is an extraordinary vampire. I don’t want them to have any doubts about whether they’re staking potential boyfriends; with two exceptions, vampires are Evil with a capital E, no questions, no hesitations that could get them killed.”
“Oh,” was all Spike said. He hadn’t thought about the ramifications of their relationship on the Potentials, and felt slightly guilty for that. Buffy was right, the girls couldn’t afford hesitations. They’d been confused enough by his presence as it was; explanations were clearly in order.
“All right, luv, do you want me at the meetin’?”
“Hmmm.... yeah, you can back me up on the whole ‘vampires are evil’ thing... And no sarcastic remarks or anything that might confuse the girls, ok?”
As he followed her outside, clutching his hand to his heart in a dramatic gesture, Spike said, “Me? Sarcastic? You wound me, luv, you wound me.”
Buffy laughed at his antics, feeling much freer in his presence. While she’d originally wanted to wait to straighten things out with him so that she could concentrate on the apocalypse at hand, she’d realized that not being with him was more distracting and more straining than if she just gave in to her feelings and was with him. Part of what had been holding her back was her fear of her friends’ rejection, but most of it had just been her own fears and insecurities.
****
Buffy walked towards Xander’s apartment, deep in thought. The meeting at her house had gone fairly well; the Scoobies were glad, the S.I.T.’s confused, but mostly catching the happy mood. There had been a few exceptions: Buffy had noticed Kennedy scowling at her. Thankfully, it looked as though Willow had stepped in and explained a few things.
It was too late for Buffy to impart the news to everyone at Xander’s; most would be out patrolling. But when Dawn had mentioned she’d heard Riley had been slightly wounded and wouldn’t be patrolling, Buffy decided she ought to go talk to her ex.
Trusting her patrolling duties with the SIT’s to the other Scoobies at her house, Buffy had headed towards Xander’s with no real plan in mind.
Spike had, of course, looked rather doubtful as she’d explained what she wanted to do, but had acquiesced gracefully. While he didn’t love the idea of Buffy visiting Soldier Boy, her wanting to tell her ex about them made him glad.
Looking up, Buffy found she’d arrived at the apartment complex.
A very surprised Riley answered her knock, nearly falling backward with his haste to let her in.
“B-Buffy! What are you- I mean, what a pleasant surprise!” He stood aside an gestured for her to come in.
She smiled slightly at him. “Thanks, Riley. Come and sit down, I heard you were hurt.
He hobbled over to her. “Just a sprained ankle, no big deal. Can I get you anything to drink?”
“No, thank you. Sit down, please, we need to talk.”
As they seated themselves, Buffy took this opportunity to study his face more carefully. The ugly scar was still there, but his face was more relaxed than it had been.
Looking at her rather nervously, Riley asked, “Buffy? What is it, what’s wrong?”
Twisting her hands, she replied, “Nothing’s wrong, exactly... No, nothing’s wrong, in fact something’s quite right, at least for me. But I think maybe you might not think this is quite right, in fact I’m afraid you’ll think it’s quite wrong, really, but see, it’s not, because....” she trailed off, seeing Riley’s confused expression.
Before he could question her, she started over. “Right, forget that. Riley, I wanted to tell you that, well... Spike and I are together now,” Buffy finished in a rush.
To her surprise, his expression only changed slightly. There was a trace of disappointment in there, but little of the shock and rage she’d feared - and expected.
Riley sighed. “I can’t say I’m happy about this... but I’ll deal.”
Seeing her confusion, he explained. “Xander and I have been talking a lot, lately... and Anya, too. I’ve gotten a pretty good picture of everything’s that’s happened since I left... and I get it, or at least I get it better than I did... What happened with Sam-” he choked and looked away. Buffy laid her hand on his compassionately, silently offering comfort.
Nodding gratefully at her, he continued. “Well, that really shook me. I think I was pretty much off the deep end for a while. But I’m getting better now, I really am... it’s just taking a long time to heal... Anyway, so I appreciate your telling me about this, I really do. But I’m all right, not gonna spaz out and try and stake Spike.”
Happy at this unusually peaceful conclusion, having expected much worse, Buffy hugged him gently.
“I’m glad you’re getting better, Riley, and I’m glad you’re trying to understand.”
She stood to leave. Pausing at the door, she turned around to look at him once more. “And I’m glad you’re here, fighting with us. I hear you’ve been doing a good job training the girls. Thank you.”
After catching his quiet, “You’re welcome,” she left, happy to have that task over with.
Time to head home... and see if my boyfriend is back from patrolling...
Buffy giggled at the thought. She loved being able to ‘officially’ call Spike her boyfriend, but in some ways, the word just didn’t seem to fit. Riley, yeah, he was a ‘boyfriend’; Scott, Owen, they’d been potential ‘boyfriends.’
But after all they’d gone through, Spike was more than just her boyfriend... how could their so incredibly unconventional relationship be described by so mundane a term? It really couldn’t. But she had to have something to refer to him as... it became rather tiresome to explain that he was someone she trusted and liked but had hated in the past and now was confused about and maybe loved... nope, the term ‘boyfriend’ was much simpler.
The Slayer took a shortcut through a graveyard on her way home, pleasantly surprised to only find one vampire to stake. All the patrols with the Potentials were really cutting down the number of demons around.
Having happily pummeled and staked the lone vamp, Buffy headed home to her boyfriend.