Backfire - Spander Files

“I don’t get you. All this about losing the ‘love of his life.’ Vampires can’t love.”
“Excuse me? Aren’t you dating one?”
“Angel’s different. He’s got a soul.”
“Ah, yes. Sweet, sweet Angel with his good and pure soul.”
“Xander, don’t-”
“Listen, you believe whatever you want about Angel, okay. I don’t care. I’m not
talking about him. And, yeah, maybe love isn’t the right word for what Spike felt
for Drusilla. But…you’ve never heard him talk about her. If it’s not love, than it’s
obsession. And you don’t get over that with just one fight with you.”
“Xander, do you care about Spike? After everything he‘s done to you? He‘ll kill
you the moment he gets you alone. You know that, right?”
The first question threw him. Did he care about Spike? The possibility of death had
been hanging over his head for months now. And Spike had had the opportunity to
kill him many times over and didn’t. Not that Buffy knew that. He decided that he
didn’t want to create another Mini at that moment to deal with it and shoved the
issue through a hole in his brain.
“That’s beside the point, Buff. Go home and get patched up. I’ll stay here today. I’d
have to come back at some point, anyway.” He pulled the collar of his shirt back to
reveal the Angel-scar. “Bite, remember?”
Buffy grimaced. “Yeah, okay. Be careful.” She gave him a bloody peck on the
cheek and turned toward home, limping slightly and shuffling through the piles of
dust, which kicked up and spun around her before resettling pointlessly on the
ground.
Xander absently palmed the blood off his cheek and re-entered the crypt. Neither
vampire had moved. He glared at Angel for a moment, then sat down next to Spike.
The injured one just sat, staring at the far wall. He looked hollow and destroyed.