A Slayer's Forsaken Love

Chapter Eighteen: "I'm Gonna Shanshu Tonight"

Chapter 18:

        Everyone else arrived at Buffy's house and everyone was exhausted from the battle with Deidra. Willow and Oz had gone straight upstairs to her room so Willow could help Oz with his wounds and make him lie down and get some rest. Xander, Giles, and Clem stayed downstairs and went into the dining room where all of Giles' books were. All three of them sat down at the table and were finally able to have the relief of not worrying about Deidra and the ritual with Buffy. Giles got up from the table and went to his luggage and fiddled inside. Xander had finished rubbing his face in exhaustion and exasperation, noticed him.

"What are you doing?" Xander asked Giles as he now watched him go through his bag.

"I promised Buffy that I would try to help her find a reason as to why Spike is the way he is. There has to be some sort of an explanation as to why the dagger did not kill him when he stabbed himself in the heart," Giles replied to Xander's question. Xander sighed deeply and gave a slight nod.

"I know what you mean... usually vampires tend to go poof when they are stabbed in the heart... and he didn't. That dagger has so much power that there has to be some type of reason as to why he is not dead," Xander stated as he got up from the table and slowly walked up to Giles.

        Giles grabbed every book that he had brought with him that explained different rituals and placed them on the table. He looked up at Xander and Clem and sighed.

"Would you both mind helping me search and try to find a reason for this?" Giles asked them both. Both Xander and Clem nodded and grabbed a book from the stack and instantly began to read to find that reason.

        Buffy stirred in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes. She rubbed them, waking up as she did so, and rose to see that she was still in Spike's bed. She looked down to see him still there out cold. She scooted closer to him and placed her hand on his cheek to feel that he was not cold anymore but now his flesh felt warm. She had pulled the covers off of him to check out his chest wound and once she looked at the bandage, she saw that it was soaked with blood. She crawled out of the bed and grabbed some more bandages to replace the old one. Once she removed the old bandage, she saw that the wound was still there and had not healed yet. This began to worry her even more. 'Vampires heal... why is he not healing?' Buffy thought to herself.

        She took the new bandages, wiped up the blood, cleaned his wound carefully, and stuck the new bandages into place. When she was finished and disposed of the bloody bandages, she went back to his bedroom and sat down on the bed next to where he was lying. She sighed deeply and got really close to him. She gently grabbed onto him and held him in her arms.

"I will never leave you...," Buffy softly whispered as she still held onto him.

        The next morning, Willow had woken up and saw that Oz was still asleep. She smiled looking down at him and leaned into him and gently kissed his lips which had made him slightly stir in his sleep but not wake up. She slowly got out of bed and left the room to not disturb his rest. She made her way downstairs and her attention was drawn to the dining room, seeing Giles reading through a book and both Xander and Clem were passed out, laying their heads on top of the books they were reading through. She softly smiled and shook her head before entering. Giles looked up at her and gave her a loving smile.

"Good morning, Willow," Giles quietly said to her, sounding tired.

"Morning Giles, did you get any sleep?" Willow said as she walked up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. Giles sighed deeply and shook his head.