Chapter 5

Spike lay awake the rest of that night, many things running through his mind. The main thing on his mind was his new attraction to a certain young woman, that was slumbering in the bed only a couple of feet away. He sighed and sat up to gaze at Swan. She stirred a little but calmed down after a moment. Spike realised it wasn't the best use of time to be gazing at her sleeping figure but couldn't take his eyes off her. He stayed like that for a while until he got tired and closed his eyes to get to sleep. The next morning, he woke up to see Swan coming out of the bathroom, fully dressed, and heading to the kitchen. When she noticed him, Swan turned around and gave him what he considered the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. "Hey blondie" she said. Spike's dream last night immediately came to mind. "Looks like Buffy defeated the Gentlemen because we have our voices back" Swan said. "Right" Spike nodded, distracted by his own thoughts. "You ok?" Swan asked, sitting next to him on the couch. "Yeah. Just didn't sleep well" Spike lied. "Well, I'm going to make us some breakfast" Swan replied, giving his shoulder a reassuring squeeze before getting up and walking to the kitchen. She made herself some tea and toast and put a packet of blood in the microwave. Five minutes later, she returned to the couch with Spike's blood and her toast. "Thanks snow" Spike smiled, taking the mug of blood out of her hand. "You're welcome blondie" Swan nodded, munching on her toast.

Suddenly, the table started to shake, and Swan's plate and cup fell of and smashed on to the ground. It was an earthquake. The whole apartment shook, and things started to fall of Swan's vanity and table. Swan covered her head with her hands and Spike scooted closer to her. He was about to protect her head with his when everything suddenly stopped shaking and they were safe. After a moment of silence, fearing that if the uttered a word, the whole building would collapse, Swan got up. Swan started to pick things up and straighten things out in silence. As Swan brushed past him to go to the kitchen and get the rubbish bin, Spike was alerted to the smell of blood and spun around to Swan. He grabbed her arm as gently as he could while stopping her from moving and looked down at her arm. Halfway down her arm, her shirt had been ripped and there was blood pouring down her arm from a wound. Swan gave him a look of confusion as he pulled up her sleeve, a look of concern written across his face. She honestly had no idea what the hell he was doing until his hand lightly touched her wound and a sharp pain spread through her arm. "Ow" she hissed painfully. "Sorry" Spike mumbled, not looking up from her wound. After a moment of Swan watching Spike study her wound carefully, Swan realised that if they stayed like that, the blood on her arm would soon drip to the cream carpet that was spread across the living room. "I should...um, clean the wound" Swan said quietly. "Right" Spike replied, looking up from Swan's bleeding arm. Swan walked towards the kitchen, holding her arm as she walked. She grabbed the first aid kit from the floor and opened it. "What happened?" Spike asked as Swan cleaned her wound. "Don't know. I think my arm banged off the side of a table when the earthquake started" Swan shrugged. After Swan cleaned her wound, she struggled to wrap the bandage around her wound. Spike noticed this and stepped forward, taking her arm and the bandages. He stared to wrap the bandage around Swan's arm. When he was finished, he patted her arm and looked up to see Swan smiling at him. "Thanks" she said, packing away the first aid kit and continuing to clean up the apartment.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning up the apartment and checking in on the Scoobies to see if they were ok. At eight o'clock, Swan started to potter around the apartment, grabbing a small handbag and applying a coat of strawberry lipstick to her lips. "Ok, I'm going out for a while" Swan said, putting on her leather jacket. "Ok" Spike nodded. "Alright, I'm off" Swan said, opening the door and walking out, secretly disappointed that he hadn't asked to go with her, leaving Spike sitting on the couch, secretly disappointed that she hadn't asked him to go with her.

Swan had decided to go to a new place she had heard of in Sunnydale. The Bronze. She walked in and was greeted by blazing loud music, and a bunch of people dancing like crazy. She walked around the club, taking everything in, and went to get a drink. As she was ordering her drink, a guy came over and sat beside her. He looked around 20 and had dark hair and green eyes. He was wearing some sweatpants and a t-shirt. "Here's your diet coke mam" the bartender said as he handed Swan her drink. "Thanks" she nodded, taking a sip. The guy beside her ordered a beer, and turned to Swan, who just got up and walked away. She took another gulp of her drink and set it down on a table before moving to the dance floor. A song came on and she began to sway her hips to the rhythm. "Hey" she heard a voice behind her. She spun around and noticed the guy who was at the bar next to her. "Um... hey?" she asked, unsure why this strange, not so good looking, guy was bugging her during her happy time. "You wanna dance?" he asked, holding out his hand. "Nah" Swan shrugged, turning around. Meanwhile, Spike was walking to the Bronze, needing a drink to distract himself from Swan. Little did he know she was there. "I said... do...you...want...to...dance?" the guy asked again, grabbing Swan's arm, and tightening his grip on her arm after every word. Swan wasn't about to put up with this. She grabbed his arm with her free hand and threw him across the club. Everyone turned around and looked at the guy on the floor. He scampered away and ran outside. Outside the club, Spike heard a loud bang and smiled to himself...if he had to hang around humans, he would at least like to see a spot of violence...even the drunken bar fight kind. Suddenly, a guy came running out. He clearly didn't look mentally stable. He was mumbling something about some chink that threw him across the room. Spike was now very curious and quickened his pace, so he was at the club a few seconds later. He entered the club and was greeted by loud music. He glanced around the room and his eyes fell on Swan, who was swaying her hips and nodding her head to the beat of the music. He contemplated walking over to her but decided against it and walked to the bar. As he turned and left for the bar, Swan noticed him walking away and decided to follow the vampire.

Spike ordered his drink and sat down on the bar stool. "Hey blondie" He heard a voice say behind him. He turned around to see Swan standing there, hands on hips. "Ah, you found me" Spike sighed. "Question is...why did I need to look? You're not afraid of little old' me are ya?" Swan asked, sitting beside him on the vacant bar stool and setting her diet coke on the bar. "Huh?" Spike asked, acting totally clueless. "You walked into the club, walked to the dance floor, saw me, and went away" she replied as bluntly as possible. "You saw that huh?" Spike asked. "Got eyes at the back of my head" Swan replied simply. "Sorry, been on the hellmouth too long...that was a metaphor, right?" Spike asked. "Yes, that was a metaphor...now, answer the question" Swan answered, pushing for Spike to answer her. "Well, you said you were going out to enjoy yourself...didn't want to bug you" Spike mumbled. "You're not the smartest corpse in the grave, are ya?" Swan joked. "I like you bugging me. You're a fun and sweet- evil soulless vampire who enjoys violence and is a horrible influence on a sweet, little girl like me" Swan joked with him. Spike grinned at her joke and took a gulp of his beer. Swan grinned back and sipped her diet coke, not taking her eyes off the bleached blonde. An hour later they both finished their drink and payed before Swan spoke up. "Ok, that was fun for about an hour, now I'm bored" she complained. "Me too" Spike replied. "Do you wanna head back?" Swan asked. "Yeah" Spike nodded, and the duo walked back to Swan's apartment.

It was midnight by the time they got home. Swan threw the keys into the bowl after unlocking the door, allowing them to step inside. Swan grabbed her pjs and headed to the bathroom. When she exited the bathroom, she was in her pjs and Spike walked in to change into a pair of sweatpants. While Spike was in the bathroom, Swan got into her bed and settled down. She fell asleep the minute her head touched the pillow. Spike came out of the bathroom a few minutes later to see Swan fast asleep. She looked so peaceful when she slept, and Spike felt himself reaching out to stroke her hair. As Spike ran his fingers through Swan's thick ebony hair, he relished in how soft it felt as it fell through his fingers, and though he could stay there forever, he realised that Swan probably wouldn't enjoy to wake up with him standing over her, stroking her hair, so he moved away and sat down back on the couch. Soon after he sat down, he too fell asleep in just a few minutes. Now, what Spike didn't know was that Swan had woken up the minute the bathroom door had opened and the light from the room shone through to the rest of the apartment. At first, she was going to sit up and say goodnight to Spike but decided against it when he started to run his fingers through her hair. Now, if this were any other guy, she probably would have taken off his hand for doing that, but this was Spike, and something felt right about the way he stroked her hair with his soft fingers. Alas, her happy moment ended all too soon when he pulled his hand away and walked off. And, although she would never admit this to anyone...she really didn't want him to leave.