Beautiful Disaster - Chapter 8

Buffy frowned as she stretched and her back made a series of quiet cracking noises. She decided that a day of hard labour at the Magic Box followed with falling asleep on Spike on the couch wasn’t the best thing for her body. Following it with another hard day of labour was killing her. Rolling her shoulders, she stared at the boxes that were surrounding her and then sighed.

This was going to take forever.

Yesterday she’d managed to sort everything into little sections that comprised of things she thought was similar. This morning she’d come in to find that Giles didn’t think it was very wise to group some objects with others and that he had a different opinion as to what was similar. He’d given her a list detailing all the things that should be kept together and whereabouts in the basement they should be stored.

He’d even drawn a diagram.

Buffy knew she was in the wrong when Giles felt the need to draw her a diagram.

Trudging up the steps, she pushed the door open and walked straight over to the kettle. She needed tea and fast. Her tiredness was causing her temper to fray and she was starting to consider throwing all the stupid boxes in the basement at Giles and telling him to sort out his own mess.

She sighed as she leaned against the side table where the kettle was kept and folded her arms. Her eyes moved to the front windows and she was stunned to see that it was dark out and the shutters were drawn down. She glanced at the clock above the back wall and saw it was a few hours past closing.

Looking at Spike where he was messing around with the children, she wished that she could join in. He was letting them completely mob him, they were crawling all over him and all he was doing was laughing.

Buffy smiled at Giles as he came to stand next to her, pouring the hot water into the teapot and turning over two cups.

“He makes a good father.” She said idly as she watched Spike.

Giles looked over at him where he was playing with Elizabeth and William.

“He does.” He didn’t miss the stunned look on Buffy’s face as he agreed with her.

Pouring the tea, he let his gaze follow Buffy as she walked over to Spike and relieved him of Elizabeth.

“You make a good mother too, Buffy.” He whispered as he watched her smiling down at Spike and then spinning around with Elizabeth.

Buffy smiled warmly at Spike as she set Elizabeth down and then picked William up. She span around with him and laughed as he did. Coming to a halt, she looked at the little boy as he continued to giggle and wondered what was going to happen.

Both of them were half vampire, both of them shared hers and Spike’s blood. She couldn’t help being worried about what would happen if either of them were to turn. As William yawned, Buffy decided that that was enough for the day.

“Come on, Spike… let’s get these two home before they fall asleep on us.” She waited for him to stand up before handing William to him and taking hold of Elizabeth’s hand.

“I’ll be by again tomorrow.” Buffy waved at Giles as he bid them goodbye and then looked down at the two cups of tea he’d just poured.

Picking his one up, he settled down at the research table and pulled the book he’d been looking through towards him.


Buffy couldn’t believe how good it felt to be out of the Magic Box. She felt as though she’d spent the entire day locked away in the dark and now that she was free, it was dark outside. She looked up at the stars, letting her eyes trace patterns in them and picking out all the brightest ones. Bringing her eyes back down to earth, she smiled at Spike as he walked beside her with William.

Still, it was good to be out of the shop.

She suppressed a yawn as they walked together and listened to Elizabeth as she chatted animatedly about everything they had done while she was in the basement. Buffy smiled the whole time, happy that things were beginning to get back to how they had been before the incident yesterday.

As they rounded the corner by the park, she picked up something on the edge of her senses and a quick glance at Spike told her that he’d felt it too. She placed Elizabeth down beside a bench and brushed the hair from her face as Spike sat William down next to her.

“Sweeties, stay right here, okay? Don’t move.” She whispered and then pressed a kiss to both of their foreheads and smiled at them.

Turning slowly, she pulled her stake out of her pocket and held it at the ready as she advanced towards the shadows with Spike.

Buffy moved back into a defensive position as two vampires came out of the darkness. She quickly glanced at Spike and saw he was ready to deal with the first vampire, and she blocked the attack the second one made.

It was hard keeping her concentration as she fought the vampire. She kept wanting to check the children and Spike. She knew that he could handle himself, but there seemed to be so much more at stake now that they were a family and she was frightened of something happening to him. As the vampire she was fighting caught her off guard, she reminded herself that it was probably best if she focused on him rather than the one Spike was attacking.

She quickly retorted with a series of punches and a swift kick to the stomach as she vampire tried to attack her again. Not giving it a second to recover, she caught it hard across the cheek with her right fist and followed it with a left upper cut to the jaw. She watched as the vampire stumbled backwards and then she picked up her fallen stake.

Moving swiftly towards it, she rolled as it went to punch her and plunged the stake through its back. She waited for it to disintegrate before rushing to help Spike. By the time she had reached his side, he had decapitated the vampire he was fighting and was brushing the dust off his hands.

“Well, that was fun.” Spike snorted and then frowned as Buffy’s eyes went wide and she looked petrified.

Turning sharply, he saw the bench they had sat Elizabeth and William on was empty.

“Spike… Spike… Spike!” Buffy rushed to the bench and gave him a panicked look when she couldn’t see the children anywhere.

Spike caught her shoulders and tried to keep her still as he fought against his own panic. “I’m sure they haven’t gone far. They probably just got a little scared, is all… we’ll find them.”

“Yeah… I’m sure you’re right… oh god, what if something happens to them? They’re just kids…”

Spike managed to keep calm as he thought about all the dangers that Sunnydale held, especially for small children. He decided that the most important thing right now was keeping Buffy calm. They would never find the children if she worked herself into hysterics like she had last night. Taking hold of her hand, he led her back to the bench and sat her down.

“Deep breaths, love.” He said as he took her cell phone out of her jacket pocket and opened it up. “Call the gang, let them know what happened and tell them to get their butts out of bed or wherever they are and get searching.”

Buffy nodded dumbly and then stared at the phone as he handed it to her. Spike quickly realised that she was in no condition to be dealing with explaining what was going on to her friends and took the phone back. Frowning at it, he smiled briefly as he managed to figure out how to get into the contact list and found Willow’s number.

“Come on… come on…” He muttered as he pressed the ringing phone to his ear and let his free hand run in soothing circles on Buffy’s back. He didn’t give Willow a chance to speak as she answered the phone. “Red, we need your help. Little tykes have done a runner while we were fighting some vampires. We haven’t a bloody clue where they are and Buffy’s fretting up a storm. Do me a favour, round up the others and get them searching. We’ll meet back at the Magic Box, call us if you find them.”

“I’m on it.” Willow answered quickly and put the phone down as she rushed to dial the others.

“See… cavalry is on their way. We’ll find them in no time, love.” Spike patted Buffy’s shoulder gently and then frowned briefly as her fingers slipped into his and she held his hand tightly. “It’ll be okay, Buffy… we’ll find them.”

“Can we go find them now?” She looked up at him with a tearful expression and he nodded.


Spike was starting to lose hope of finding the children as they walked through the town. It had been over an hour since they’d disappeared and they had walked almost every inch of Sunnydale looking for them. Buffy was still firmly holding his hand and part of him thought that his persistence was the only thing that was keeping her going. If he stopped walking, he knew that she wouldn’t find the strength to carry on. She had such a lost expression in her eyes and he could see that all her happiness had drained away again. He wished he could turn back the clock and make everything right so she would smile again, but it wasn’t possible. All he could do was keep searching and keep her moving, and hopefully they would find the children.

Buffy felt hollow. She felt as though she was a zombie or sleepwalking. She didn’t even know where they were anymore. She was just following Spike’s lead and placing all her trust in him. She knew he wouldn’t give up like she wanted to. He would walk to the ends of the earth to find William and Elizabeth. All hope of finding them was draining away and she was sinking further and further into despair.

As Spike slowed and sniffed the air, she looked up at him. He wasn’t fooling her. She could see in his eyes that he was feeling as terrible as she did. She wanted to find the words to comfort him, wanted to tell him that everything was going to be okay, but she didn’t have the strength to say anything.

Instead, she let her thumb brush against his and blinked slowly as he looked into her eyes.

Spike offered her a little smile as he squeezed her hand and then froze as he heard a noise. Scanning his surroundings, he frowned up an alley that was opposite them and started in that direction.

Buffy stumbled along behind him as he picked up speed until they were nearly sprinting. As they skidded around a corner, her eyes widened and she felt like throwing up as her last shred of hope disappeared.

They’d found the children.

Only it was too late.

Spike swallowed hard as he looked at the body on the floor and then up at the children. He felt Buffy’s hand slip from his and frowned as he tried to take in what he was seeing.

William’s face was covered in blood, along with Elizabeth’s hands. His eyes dropped to the dead man on the floor and he felt sick as he saw the deep marks on his throat.

“He tried to hurt us.” Elizabeth said in their defence and took hold of William’s hand as he snarled at Buffy and Spike.

Spike closed his eyes as he listened to William’s heartbeat slowing and then gave Buffy a sorrowful look. He could see that she didn’t understand—she couldn’t sense what was happening to the children. He wished he couldn’t either. The sound of William’s heartbeat slowing felt like a death march in his ears and he felt useless, unable to do anything to stop the boy from becoming a monster like his father. He frowned as he felt a Slayer nearby and somehow he knew it wasn’t Buffy. Looking at Elizabeth, he saw the familiar steely determination in her eyes and then let his gaze come to rest on William.

The little boy slid into vampire guise and roared at him. He could see how scared he was, could sense the fear in him, but before he could do anything the children were running.

Looking at Buffy, he felt his heart sink as he saw why the children had run.

She’d instinctively pulled her stake out when William had put on his game face.

“At least the other Slayer Buffy doesn’t go around doing that.” Spike spat the words at her as he started in the direction the children had run.

“Spike… I wouldn’t…” Buffy felt mortified as she realised what she’d done and quickly put her stake away as she followed him.

“Don’t give me that. We’ve played this game long enough to know that you…” Spike almost lost his footing as the ground beneath him trembled and the buildings around him shook. “Bloody hell was that?”

Buffy moved her feet and tried to retain her balance as another rumble shook the ground.

“I don’t know… but it had a sense of foreboding about it.”

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