'Red-Eyed and Blue' by Sabrina

Summary: : A bit of slightly angsty fluff in response to Evenstar's challenge. Post-'Bring on the Night'. PG-13

Feedback: Absolutely. E-mail me!

Archival: My site and Spike Christmas site only. Feel free to link.

Disclaimer: Don't own them. All praise and glory goes to Joss Whedon, ME, and 20th Century Fox.

Buffy rolled over groggily and felt the blanket slip off of her shoulder leaving her bare skin exposed to the cool air of the room. For California it had suddenly become rather chill-even for December. Something or somebody touched her shoulder and she felt herself began to pull back from the world of dreams into reality.

'Buffy! Buffy!? You need to wake up!'

Stretching her shoulders back, Buffy stifled a groan, forced her eyes open, and sat up.

Anya was standing beside her bed. 'Good,' the ex-demon looked pleased. 'I thought you were dead to the world. You weren't exactly forthcoming with the waking. You need to get up.'

'Why?' Buffy looked around the room her eyes falling on the clock at the side of the bed. 'It's still early.'

Anya's gaze followed Buffy's. 'No,' she said. 'That clock's wrong. It's really nearly sunset. Look.'

Buffy's eyes followed Anya's pointed finger towards the direction of the curtains. As Anya had said, the sky outside was casting a pinkish-red glow on the window panes, filling the room with an almost peaceful crimson glow.

'I overslept.' Buffy jumped out of bed. 'Why didn't you wake me before?'

Anya shrugged and Buffy jumped past her out through the hallway and down the stairs. She had laid down to rest. She'd wanted to rest and yet in spite of her good intentions, she still felt tired. Try as she might, she could not vanish her fears from her sleep. They invaded even her dreams and she still felt tired and groggy. Tired and groggy were not part of a perfect Slayer package so even as she ran down the stairs she forced herself by stretching her arms over her head. In spite of her desire to rest, her fears still kept her awake. Some part of her could not help but remember the demon that Xander, Willow, and she had fought on Halloween quite literally, another lifetime ago. A demon that fed on fears, her fears. And her fears would not disappear.

Downstairs, she could hear voices. Anya and Dawn, arguing about Andrew. Andrew. What should she do about him? He wasn't a danger. So far the First hadn't seemed to want him back, content to keep Spike only. Still, Andrew couldn't remain tied up in her living room for the next year. He had already been there for… a week? A month? Two months? Buffy couldn't remember. Willow bringing Andrew to their house seemed nearly another lifetime ago.

Buffy sighed. She needed her weapons. She walked into the living room and crossed the rug to where her weapons chest was sitting behind the sofa. She knelt beside the wooden box and unlatched the lid, swinging it open. The scent of fresh cedar wood greeted her nose. Xander had been so good to make the chest for her. So many lifetimes ago.

From her weapons chest she took a stake, some handcuffs, and a tiny black velvet box.

She didn't remember that box being in there… Laying the handcuffs aside, she opened the tiny black box and it hinged backwards, revealing inside on a backdrop of deep burgundy velvet a solitaire diamond ring. Frowning, Buffy took the ring between her thumb and her index finger and lifted it up to the light. It caught the deepening purple rays and threw smattered pieces of light around the room where they bounced off of the furniture, the books the Scoobies had laid out across the coffee table, and glinted on the blade of a sword she'd left propped up against the wall.

She turned it around, watching the prisms dance on the far wall like lights from a mirror ball.

'You'll never kill me.'

She whirled around and found herself face to face with Andrew. He was leaned casually against the side of the wall, wearing a long leather duster as he had when Willow had brought him into their house. He turned his eyes straight to her.

'How did you get loose?' She asked wondering what had happened to Dawn and Anya. She'd heard them only a minute ago but now they were nowhere to be seen.

'Buffy?' Dawn came up behind Andrew and stood holding two snow globes in her hand. 'Which one do we want to put on the dining room table?'

'Dawn, why is Andrew loose?' Buffy looked at her sister who ignored Buffy's question and instead held out the larger of the two globes.

'This one is you and Angel obviously, he's got dark hair, broody eyes, obviously a good guy here. And this one might be you and Spike. He's quite handsome, Buffy.' Dawn held out the smaller globe towards her sister. 'You're quite a cute pair. I think that one has to go on the kitchen table, don't you?' Dawn turned as if to go and then turned back around. 'Oh, yeah, Giles wanted me to let you know that he's already hung the icicles and you shouldn't worry. And he suggested maybe you began staking vampires with ice instead of wood. But it was a just a new idea he had.' Dawn turned around and moved into the other room humming 'jingle bells' as she did so.

'You think you want me dead. But you don't. You want me to hurt you. You want to hurt me.' Andrew continued as if he hadn't been interrupted

'I thought we covered this,' she said, her eyes moving back to Andrew and then to the ring in her hand. 'I don't want to hurt anybody.'

'It's too late for that, you know.' He straightened and tilted his head at her, his thoughts seeming to bore into her mind with just the glance. Tore my heart out you did. As red as that stone there.

Buffy looked down again at the ring in her hand. Almost as if it had drawn in the light from the sunset the diamond set had turned blood-red. No longer a diamond, she held a ruby ring that glowed as if it were fire set in gold. She looked back up and the doorway stood, filled only with empty air. Andrew had left her and he shouldn't be loose. He was dangerous.

She picked up the stake and held the ring between her fingers. Her stake held at ready, she walked around, through the entryway, and back into the kitchen. She entered the room and Xander looked up at her.

'You'd better hurry Buffy, you'll be too late.'

'Too late? For what?' Buffy asked. 'Have you seen Andrew? I thought he came by here.'

'You mean, Spike?' Xander asked her.

'No,' she shook her head. 'I don't think so. I mean Andrew. He was in the living room, but I thought he was tied up. Who let him loose?'

'He said he had to go. He said he had a journey to make. He said he'd be back.' Xander took a bite of anchovy pizza and the sauce dripped down his chin. 'Oops, better wipe that away. Might mistake me for one of your lovers.' He picked up a blue napkin and wiped it across his skin, smearing the access tomato sauce across his mouth and lips.

'I don't think so,' Buffy turned away. 'Are you sure Andrew left? Why did we let him go?'

'We had to Buffy. He had a journey. It doesn't come easily,' came a voice from behind her. 'All that journey stuff, it's hard on the sole.'

Buffy turned around at the familiar voice. Framed by the door into the basement was a tall man, dark hair, and familiar angelic face. He held a shoe up to the light.

'Been practically worn clean through. It's awful dirty too,' he examined the bottom of the shoe more closely and taking out a pocket knife began to scrape at the sole of the shoe, little flecks of dried mud falling off and down onto the stairs.

'Angel.' She took a step towards him. 'Why are you here? I need your help. I can't find Spike.'

'Maybe you're looking in the wrong places,' Angel looked around her. 'Xander, toss me one of those pieces you've got there, preferably something vegetarian.'

'Vegetari-' Buffy stared at her ex as he caught a slice of vegetable covered pizza as a baseball player might catch a baseball. 'Angel, what are you doing?'

'Saving the world. Gotta have energy. I'm saving animals now,' he raised the piece in tribute. 'No more blood. No more meat. Gotta have a cause.'

Without another word he turned away from her and walked down the basement stairs. Buffy turned back at Xander who had picked up a second piece of pizza and was eating it, the sauce still dribbling unnoticed down his chin.

'Wait, Angel!'

She moved through the door to the basement and quickly down the stairs. She stepped off of the bottom step onto the stone floor. She blinked at the pillars and dim light. It might have been twilight upstairs, but at least she could see.

'Take this,' a voice to her left held out a piece of wood towards her and she turned. A man stood beside her, the long leather coat had been discarded on a chair.

'Andrew, why are you in Spike's crypt?'

'I live down here,' he replied. 'Down here in the darkness. But you force me up to the light.' He nodded up the stairway. 'I'd best go back. Your sister is waiting to tie me up, Anya promised to bitch-slap me a bit, and Xander wanted to demean me with some of his jokes at my expense. They think I'm funny, evil and all that. Think I don't have feelings. But pain's nothing next to what we've had down here.'

'But I can't light it...' she whispered.

He took a step up the stairs and Buffy stared after him. A noise in the back part of the crypt made her jump and she turned around.

'You've got the spark already. He got it for you, gave it to you.'

Buffy turned around to see the outline of Giles' face in the shadows. 'I don't understand,' she said. 'What spark?'

'On your finger there,' Giles motioned. 'He gave it to you. Now, these boughs of holly should brighten this place up a bit,' he reached over the stained glass window, hanging green ivy across the window frame. Securing those he moved over to Spike's bed. 'Here,' Giles smiled slightly. 'A little mistletoe for some secret fun?' He leaned over and attached the small flowers directly over the middle of the bed.

'Giles, what are you doing?'

'Making the place right for you and him,' her Watcher stepped back and admired his handiwork. 'He's like a son really. You'd best hurry Buffy. When you get back I'll be waiting.'

'Hurry? Hurry where?' Buffy looked in front of her as far as she could see and then moved the useless unlit torch to the hand wearing the ring. Instantly the end of the log flamed up and the cavern was lit with shadows and light across everything. 'Giles, where do I?' She turned back around and realized that Giles was gone. There was a noise in the shadow and she turned waving the torch in front of her. It was as if something had moved in the shadows.

'Hello?' She called out, her voice echoing against the empty stone walls. 'Who's there?'

There was no response except for the steady drip somewhere throughout the cavern, water dripping from above ground into the earth. She turned back around and moved forward through the passageway. The stonewalls gave way to earth walls and the passage became narrower and narrower. Buffy felt her breath tighten in her chest as she moved along, the walls closing in around her. Just as she thought she would not be able to stand it, she stepped out of the walls and onto a ledge.

Her eyes widened as the ground beneath her seemed to drop out from underneath her feet. Holding out the torch, she could see that the cavern dropped into a huge hold, pitch black and as far as she could see, unending.

'It's the narrow path that's the hardest,' a woman's voice said from beside her and Buffy looked up.

'Willow? Where are we?' Buffy looked pleadingly at her friend.

'You mean you don't recognize it?' Willow took a step, the step emphasizing the arch of her foot and the pale ivory ballet shoes that she had tied around her ankles. 'That means you haven't danced here before. This is the journey Buffy… The precipice we all must cross. You don't want to fall. It's a long ways back up. I climbed it though. You threw me a rope.'

'I did?' Buffy asked. 'But when? I don't remember throwing you a rope. I don't remember ever being here. You're really very strong.'

'From up there,' Willow pointed up and Buffy turned her eyes upwards. Across the chasm at the top there was a strongly woven suspension bridge teaming with people.

'I know that place...' Buffy whispered. 'Will, how do we--?' Her voice stopped as she turned her head to empty air. '-get across,' her finished whisper was barely audible.

Buffy looked down at her feet and then moved her right foot out in front of her. A pebble from the ledge scattered to the edge and fell off into the precipice. Buffy didn't even hear it hit the bottom. Looking forward, her eyes only on the ledge she was on, a piece of rock no wider than the widest part of her foot, she moved forward slowly-inch by inch.

Halfway across, Buffy glanced to the side and a sense of dizziness overtook her as she realized that she was alone on a slab of rock not two inches across, with dizzying empty dark holes on either side, hundreds of people above her and yet not a single one with her. She closed her eyes for a second and then forced them open again, taking her foot to the front and placing it on the smooth rock.

She took a shuddery breath, and as she did so a cool breeze rushed across the cavern causing her hair to stand on end and her balance to be shaken. With a gasp she realized that her right foot was no longer standing on anything stable and even as she fought to maintain the hold her left foot had on the solid rock, she felt herself tumble away from the ledge.

A scream tore between her lips, echoing throughout the chambers as she tumbled head over heels for what felt like an eternity until she hit another ledge. She bounced painfully and she sat up in the darkness. Her torch had fallen from her hands when she had fallen from the ledge. Stretching out with her hands she felt along the side of the ledge she was on. Wide enough for her to sit on but who knew where it led.

Her fingers touched something soft-velvety-and she picked the object up. Feeling a crack she pushed her fingers between it and a box opened. Inside was the ruby ring she'd had earlier as she watched it began to change and glow, warming the area with its light and before her eyes it changed from a deep crimson glow to a brilliant, warming, golden light. Picking it up with her fingers, she touched it almost reverently and then before her eyes it began to move, rising upward, lighting the area that she was on completely.

'You a need a hand Slayer?'

Buffy whirled around to see a pale man standing on a nearby ledge. This ledge was immediately above her and exited out into another cavern.

'Spike!' She looked up at him. 'I've been looking for you!'

'I know you have, love.' He was dressed in a deep royal blue shirt and his hair was ruffled, not the pure peroxide white that she was used to, it was instead tipped with a light white, the majority of it deep brown.

'What are you doing down here?'

'Same as you, I 'spect,' he held a torch in front of him and then knelt on the stone over her. 'Trying to go somewhere.'

He reached out, his hand extending over the bare limestone.

She looked up at the bright light that her ring had become. A shining beacon illuminating the exit Spike was standing beside. She reached her hand up and their skin touched, hands clasping.

With strength she hadn't realized that he had, he pulled her up to his level.

'Thank you,' she whispered.

'Did it for me, pet,' he answered back.

He did not drop her hand but instead led her through the stone entrance and into her bedroom. 'You'll be safe here,' he said. 'You should rest.'

'I can't,' she whispered, her voice low with the vulnerability in herself that she was suddenly aware of. 'I worry for you. Spike, I have your ring. I left it back there. I think I might have broke it.'

'No you didn't,' he said raising her hand to the light at the window. 'It's here.'

Buffy looked down at her finger. Once again he had been right. The diamond solitaire was on her ring finger and she looked up at him. 'Did you keep it safe for me?'

'Always,' he replied.

'William,' the name was off her lips and she reached up, running her fingers through his curls. 'I need you to save me.'

'Every night, Buffy,' his voice was low.

'I can't protect this alone,' she lifted the hand with the diamond up to his face and ran it down his cheek.

'Yes you can,' he whispered back to her. 'You have believe in yourself Buffy. You think you do, but mostly, you believe you're not strong enough to stop it.'

She felt tears running down her cheeks. 'Spike, I'm not strong. I can't.'

'You can,' he persisted. 'You are strong, Buffy. You're full of love. It makes you stronger. That strength will win you the war.'

She lifted her face to his and their lips met in a strong seal and a promise of the love she felt for him. His hand slipped behind her neck and they stood, embracing each other.

'I love you, Spike,' she whispered as their lips parted. 'I need you. I love you. Don't leave me.'

'I never will. I never could.'

And she was lifted in his arms, wrapped tightly in his embrace and carried towards something. They were in her room, in her bed, his ring still on her finger and her lips still on his lips.

'Buffy!? Buffy! Get up!'

Awaking with a start, Buffy sat straight up and stared Anya straight in the eyes. 'Anya!? What?'

'We need you downstairs,' Anya said. 'Kennedy thinks she found him.'

'Who?' Buffy asked unnecessarily and sprang from the bed.

'Spike. If it's him, it's the perfect opportunity to get him back.'

Buffy slipped on her shoes. 'I'll be right down. I need to find him.'

She pulled a sweatshirt over her head and pulled her hair back quickly in an elastic. She walked towards the room, and suddenly turned back, her eyes focusing on the bed she'd been lying in. She blinked and stood for a moment. A breeze from the window rustled the curtain but Buffy didn't feel the cool air, her skin felt warm and for the first time since Spike had been taken however long ago it had been, she began to feel something stirring in her heart.

Warmth and light and perhaps most importantly... hope.