For The Love Of Spike
Chapter 13
"No! You bastard!" Katherine screamed, swingy wildly at Angelus as he tied her to the
headboard of his bed. He ignored her and continued to tie the bast around her wrists. He used
this, the inner fiber of wood, because it was the only thing that a vampire couldn't break out of.
When he had successfully bound her wrists, Angelus picked up a piece of cloth and gagged her.
The last clear sound out of her mouth was a roar of pure rage."And now," he said, straightening above her and smiling, "we get to the fun part." He turned away for a moment, and when he faced her again, Katherine saw that he held a crowbar in his hands. He raised it high above his head. "Ready?" he asked, and brought the crowbar down.
After a few minutes, Angelus grew tired of his "game", and Katherine had long before blacked out. He dropped the bar with a clang, now covered with blood and strands of hair, and turned from the figure on the bed.
"Yecch," he said, holding his blood-spattered shirt away from his chest. He retrieved a clean one from his wardrobe and, after pulling it on, left the apartment to find Drusilla.
"Oh my god!" Spike gasped suddenly as he was pulling on his boots. Buffy turned quickly from her spot by the window.
"What? More pain?" She took a step towards him.
"N-no. It's just...agh!" Spike straightened from his bent position and pressed a hand to his forehead. "I'm feeling like something....ohdeargod NO!" he suddenly shouted, and ran from the room. Buffy sprinted after him. Giles was already down in the car after checking Spike out of the hospital. She caught up to him right as he climbed in the Explorer and urgently told Giles to head for Angelus' apartment.
"I had...I guess that it would have been a vision, even though I'm not psychic at all. Anyway, I suddenly had this feeling that something was terribly wrong with Katherine, and that we had to get to her, pronto. Like I said, I'm not psychic, but..."
Giles turned his head to look at Spike in the passenger seat. "It's better to be safe than sorry with Angelus around."
Buffy, the only one with the key to Angelus' apartment, was the first to enter the rooms. Spike followed close behind, at first on the lookout for Angelus or Drusilla, but then relaxed as the two realized that no one was there.
"Now what?" Buffy asked, standing in the middle of the living room area and looking at Spike and Giles, who was the last to enter.
"We haven't checked the bed area," Spike said, feeling dread sink a heavy weight in his stomach. He reached the bed first and pulled the curtain open.
"No," Spike whispered brokenly. "Oh, dear god..." He knelt and started untying the bloody cords at Katherine's wrists as Buffy turned away in horror. But before he could even finish releasing Katherine from her bonds, Spike lowered his head, letting his fingers fall limp. Giles placed a hand on his shoulder. Spike rose and stepped back, letting Giles in to finish untying Katherine's limp form.
When Giles had finished, Spike reached out a hand to gently stroke the matted curls.
"Goodnight, my love," he whispered, and turned away.
"Wait," Buffy said, sounding intrigued, "I think..." She placed two fingers below Katherine's chin, and pressed lightly. After a minute, she exclaimed, "I feel a pulse! She's alive!"
Spike whipped around and shoved Buffy out of his way. He bent over Katherine, urgently calling her name and lightly slapping her bruised face.
"C'mon, c'mon," he whispered, switching to rubbing her chafed wrists. After a moment, Katherine's eyelashes fluttered and she groaned softly.
"Yes!" Spike whispered in relief. "Kathy? C'mon, baby, wake up, please." Buffy ran to the kitchenette and returned with a glass of water and a damp washcloth. Giles took the cloth and began wiping away the blood from Katherine's face. She turned her head away in reflex and spoke.
"Spike?" she asked quietly. She couldn't have seen him - both of her eyes were swollen shut. Spike nearly wept in relief.
"Yeah, baby. I'm right here. I've got you." He began running his hands over her limbs, checking for broken bones. When he checked her rib cage and Katherine sobbed and twisted away in pain, Spike knew that she was in trouble. "Don't move, pet. We need to get you to a hospital."
"No," she whispered. "No doctors."
Buffy leaned close and said to her, "Katherine? It's Buffy. It's okay. I hate hospitals too, but there's no other choice."
"No...hospitals..." Katherine whispered before she fell limp.
"She's fainted from the pain, I imagine. I don't want to lift her, so I suppose we'd better call an ambulance. Meanwhile, Buffy, you and I should get back to The Woodside." Giles said, taking charge of the situation. He replaced the water glass and cloth to the kitchenette and picked up the phone. Buffy nodded, but could do nothing but watch as Spike continued to kneel by Katherine's side.
About ten minutes later, Spike was pacing in the waiting room of Sunnydale General after watching a large group of physicians wheel Katherine away into a separate room.
The nurse at the front desk hung up the phone, took a confused look at Spike, and said, "Didn't you just come in here about a half hour ago, and on a gurney too?"
Spike stopped pacing for a moment and looked at the nurse. He smiled, a bit sheepishly, for the woman's benefit. "Well, yes, but I'm much better now. Then my girlfriend's, ah...ex- boyfriend got a hold of her and, well...here I am."
The nurse clucked her tongue. "I'm sorry to hear that. Too often these days girls are getting knocked around by their beaus." Spike stopped pacing again and stared. Had she just said, "beaus?" The middle-aged black woman continued. "Now, thirty years ago that wouldn't have happened. Boys back then knew how to treat a girl. But I suppose you would've been too young to know that, huh?"
Spike smiled wryly. "Well, actually," he said, "I was quite old enough by then." But before the nurse could ask him what he'd meant, a doctor walked in and asked for a Mr. William Smith.
Chapter 14