Chapter 12

Ginny had been sitting and watching the Scoobies research for a while now. Although she had clothes now, she had refused to part with Spike’s duster until he came back. She leant back on the couch, and tucked her hands behind her head. She was bored. She decided to be annoying, so she started to sing in lazy, husky tones, suitable for the song. “Cake expires from China tries to steal your mind’s elation. Little girls from Sweden dream of silver screen flirtation, and if you want these kind of dreams, it’s Californication…” Her foot started to slowly tap on the armrest. “It’s the, edge of the world in all of Western civilization. The sun may rise from the east, but at least it settles in a final location. It’s understood that Hollywood sells Californication…” She knew they were getting more annoyed as she crooned through the song. “Dream of Californication, dream of Californication…”

“Can you stop that? We are trying to work here.” If it had been anyone but Buffy, they may have stood a chance. Ginny just shrugged, and switched songs.

“Well, I guess it would be nice. If I could touch your body. I know not everybody got a body like me-ee. But I gotta think twice, before I give my heart away, and I know all the games you play, cos I play them too-oo. Oh, but I need some time off from that emotion. Time to pick my heart up off the floor. And love comes down without devotion, well, it takes a song now baby, but I’m showing you that door. I gotta have FAAIITTH!” Ginny suddenly screamed out, and they all jumped. She took pleasure in that. “Gotta have FAAIITHH! Gotta have faith! Gotta have faith! Baabbyy! I know you’re asking me to stay, saying please, please get away cos you’re giving me the blues! Baaaaabbby! You might mean all the words you say, can’t help but think of yesterday…” She sang, devious smile twisting her lips, and then a male voice joined hers. “Before this river becomes an ocean, before you pick my heart up off the floor, love goes down without devotion, well it takes a song now, baby, but I’m showing you that door…” And then after a few more lines, she sucked in a breath to scream out, “GET THE FUCK OFF! Gotta have faith, gotta have faiiithhh!” She looked up to see Spike raise a calm eyebrow at her before sitting down beside her.

“’Lo, pet.”

“Hi, Spike.”

“Good singing.”

“Not too bad yourself. Gotta love classics all punked up.” She rolled her eyes at the Scoobies. “Do you care what they think?”

“Not particularly, why?” Ginny smirked and then flung herself into his arms, knees straddling his hips and smashing her mouth on his in a brutal kiss.

“That’s why.” He was gazing up at her with something akin to amazement. “That was hello, remember?”

“Flame, you can say hello to me like that, anytime.” He leered at her, and she laughed throatily before her head swung around to look at the horrified Scoobies disdainfully.

“I spent the last five years sighing after the golden boy. Let me have my fun with the bad boy now. And he’s such a wicked looking spunk. Why are all the good looking guys dead, gay or taken?”

“You’ve got me duster, pet.”

“I need one. It’s gorgeous.” Ginny leant back and shimmied out of it. She could sense that guy, Xander was his name, his eyes on her. She smirked. “So. When they figure out how I get home, you wanna come with? Or if they never do, can I stay with you?”

“Can you stay with me, what?”

“Can I stay wit’ you, please?” She batted her eyes at him, and he broke into laughter. After a beat, she joined him, collapsing on his chest and snickering.

“Is anyone else getting a wiggins here?” She heard Buffy whisper loudly, and Ginny raised her head enough off Spike’s chest to send a very bloodcurdling snarl the Slayer’s way.

“I’m impressed, luv.” Ginny winked at him, before wriggling around so she was laying full length across him and the back of her head cradled in the hollow between his arm and neck. “That was a very big bad snarl.”

“Goodo. Been sick of being a mouse. Doormat Ginny. Have a crush on Harry, Ginny. Shoo, Ginny, the big people are talking now. Ginny, don’t you worry your pretty little red head about it,” she said in a whining falsetto. “Ginny, stay away from the big bad Slytherins. Ginny, you can’t know those words. Ginny, stay a little girl forever, cos heaven forbid I should grow up and embrace the darkness.” Spike chuckled against her head.

“You’re doing a good job of it, pet.”

“Blech. Do gooders make me wanna vomit. All self-righteous and so forth. Soooo bored with it.” She started to hum under her breath. “So bored now. I need to style my hair something awful. They don’t have any styling wax or good gel. And my Goth makeup. Black, black, black. I have a black cat, who’s really a demon, I’m sure. Him and the Slytherin four are the only things I’m missing. You look like one of them actually. And sound like my wolf. Well, not really my wolf but he’s all grrr about me so there.”

“Should I be jealous, pet?”

“Mordred’s gay, so no. He’d probably like you and wanna steal you though. Draco you might need to be wary of, cos he’s straight but we play the flirtation game very well. Shocks the socks off my brother, especially when I play with Blaise and Vortigern at the same time. Not that Vortigern needs to say hardly a thing. He just thee’s and thou’s and speaks the High English very well indeed. Pulls it off too. Blaise is a bit Seer-ish I think, so many mystic comments. Slightly off putting if you don’t know ‘im. And all of them spunks of the first order.” Ginny took a breath. “I get so many death stares now, it’s exceedingly funny.”

“Ahem, can we continue researching now?” Ginny sighed noisily at the Watcher’s tone.

“I really don’t think you’ll find anything. But if you can find a way to keep Tom outta my head, I’ll be hella grateful.”

“Hopefully not as grateful as you are to me, pet.”

“Well, Fang boy, take a look at you, then take a look at him. Really not into sleeping with father figures.” Spike lost it there and then, and Ginny raised an eyebrow wickedly at the Scoobies while Giles stared at her open-mouthed and blushing. “And one more to the red head, while the good guys have yet to score.”

“I like her,” Anya said firmly. “Can we keep her?”

“Honey, I really don’t think…” Xander stuttered.

“You couldn’t afford me. I’m *very* expensive in upkeep.” Ginny waggled her eyebrows at the woman, who laughed.

“I really like her. She takes the focus off me and my sometimes badly timed comments.”

“Well, someone besides the evil vampire likes me. I must be doing something wrong.” Ginny sighed and cuddled back into Spike, who started nuzzling at her neck. “Biting comes later, when the de-chipping is done.”

“What?!” Xander leapt to his feet, eyes wide. “What are you on about?”

“I need a big bad vampire protector. He fits the bill, except for the minor thing of the chip. Claim bite, and he’ll protect me, he’ll have to. We have this thing worked out, don’t we, Spike?”

“Should take you to see my Sire, but there is no fucking way he’s exercising Droit de Seignur. He left me and Dru, should be bloody grateful I’m doing anything according to tradition.” Spike broke off from his licking of Ginny’s neck long enough to comment bitterly.

“What?” Willow looked from Spike to Giles in horror. “Please say he didn’t say what I thought he did?”

“Rights of the Sire. Old vampiric tradition. Sire has first rights to anything captured, turned or claimed by his Childer,” Spike told them bluntly. “But seeing as how peaches is all soul having, I really don’t think he’ll take me up on it.”

“And hello, witch here! Like anyone is biting me who I don’t invite.” Ginny raised a hand. “I have already sent the Slayer flying. Really not thinking a vampire poses much of a problem.”

“But this ain’t any old vamp, Flame, this is Angelus.”

“Oh, that’s right. Angelus didn’t go poof! here.”

“Well, he did, but not in the way you mean,” Spike said snarkily.

“Spike clued me in a few things, and I figure that’s where our dimensions diverged,” Ginny told them as all of them registered surprise. “What? Like the big bad vampire isn’t intelligent enough to help. I’m shocked and disappointed in you all.” The Scoobies researched and occasionally Ginny threw more pointed barbs their way, usually aided and abetted by Spike. And they came up with nada, even after Ginny got up to help. Giles pushed back the book he was looking in after hours of researching and rubbed his temples tiredly. Ginny was falling asleep at the table, the shock and exertions catching up to her.

“We’ll continue tomorrow.”

“Why should we help her?” Buffy asked him angrily. “All she does is laugh at us and, ew, cuddle with *Spike*. Are you sure she’s not a demon?”

Ginny got up slowly, hands gripping the edges of the table. “Would you like to see my back? Cos I am sure I manoeuvred my way into coming here, without my friends, my family and my familiar, just to annoy you. I got my mind taken over by an evil *thing* that was once human, basically being raped, just so I could come here. Fuck you, Slayer. Fuck you up your stupid vanilla arse.” Ginny’s shoulders shook as she started to cry silently.

“And how do we know what you’ve told us is true?” Buffy sneered. Ginny’s head snapped up and she turned, flipping up her shirt that she’d been lent. Willow gasped at the angry red and weeping sores on Ginny’s back.

“They go all the way down to my ankles,” Ginny said almost conversationally as she exhibited the signs of her passage through the dimensions. The younger members of the Scoobies gaped as she continued to stand there. Anya wasn’t that bothered, she’d done worse then that. Willow was on the verge of tears, Xander was just shocked and Buffy was wondering uncomfortably if she’d gone too far. “I don’t think they were really part of the spell, just Tom’s way of making sure I’d be helpless once I reached the Hellmouth. Look a lot like whipmarks, don’t they? I’m actually pretty sure they are. I nearly bled to death before Spike picked me up. He could have just let me die, and none of you would have known any different. He could have licked the blood from my body, gathered it from the floor, and let me die. He so easily could have,” she said softly, and shook her head slightly in mild amazement. “He is a vampire, after all. I’m not unaware of what he is. He’s not souled. He’s just muzzled.”

“But still bloody evil, and none of you better forget it,” Spike threw in from the couch.

“Slayer wasn’t going to let him in. I still could have bled to death there, on her front porch while she behaved like a spoilt child. He held me when I fainted. He is evil, yes, but not heartless.” Ginny finally let the shirt drop, hissing slightly as the cloth fell against her sensitively sore skin. She wavered on her feet and placed one hand heavily on the table as she fought to center herself.

“You alright, pet?” Spike inquired disinterestedly, but a tic in his jaw pronounced otherwise. Ginny nodded, breathing shallowly through her nose. He frowned. “Your heart’s going like the clappers, Flame.”

Giles got to his feet slowly, forehead creased in concern. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’ll be fine. I’d be a lot finer if I could just go *home*!” Ginny covered her eyes with her free hand and forced the hysteria back down. If she started, she’d never stop. “I need to sleep before I collapse again.”

“We’ve got a spare bedroom,” Buffy volunteered grudgingly. Ginny nodded as Buffy stood up. “Tomorrow night?”

“Yes. I must say this is very fascinating, considering as far as we know you have no alternate self here. It must be because the dimensions diverged a long time ago…” Giles trailed off as Ginny and Spike stared at him. “Well then. I’ll see you all here tomorrow night, and we can continue researching.”

“Do I get paid, watcher?” Spike asked as he stood slowly, slipping his duster on over his arms.

“Yes, yes, Spike.” Suddenly, the door opened and there were three boys standing there, one of them hung between the two others, arms around their shoulders as they supported him. There was another guy behind them, obviously acting guard. They were all dressed in black robes. Ginny’s mouth dropped open as Azrael darted into the room between their legs and leapt into her arms.

“What, how, what?” She tightened her arms automatically around Azrael’s purring body.

Mordred blew the hair hanging over his eyes out of them. “Hey, Red. Thought we’d come by and say hello. And I am going to fucking kill you. We were very worried.”

“Shut up, Mordred, and let’s get inside,” Draco snapped as his eyes scanned the darkness.

“I need to sit down,” Blaise rasped. “That spell was too much, even with Azrael’s help.” Vortigern and Mordred shifted him slightly on their shoulders as he raised his head a little and the three stepped into the room, Draco still guarding their backs. “We came looking, babe. Did you really think we wouldn’t?”

“Oh my god.” Ginny was still lost for words.

“Can we put Zabini down? He’s really not getting any lighter.” Blaise laughed weakly as Mordred growled.

“Indeed. Methinks thee needs must go on a slimming regime, Zabini,” Vortigern added in his lilting voice, a complete contrast to Mordred’s husky, hoarse one.

“Don’t make me laugh, please,” Blaise protested. Draco chuckled as he stepped in after them and closed the door.

“So. Where the hell are we anyway?”

“Welcome to the Hellmouth,” Ginny said with a smile as she carefully put Azrael down, and then rushed into their arms. “You have no idea how glad I am to see you four!” Blaise and Vortigern hugged her briefly and then Mordred and Draco did as well.

“Enough with the sap. What the fuck do you mean, Hellmouth? Last one closed in the 1800’s. Bloody vampires.” Mordred commented, and Spike snarled.

“Watch it, mate.”

“I’m not your anything, let alone your mate, bleach boy,” Mordred snarled back. Ginny choked back a laugh.

“Ease up, wolf. He *is* a vampire.” All four of the Slytherins whipped out their wands, Blaise visibly swaying on his feet. “Chill, guys. He’s muzzled. And nice, in an evil way.”

“I’m the Big Bad, and you better not forget it, Pixie,” Spike growled. Ginny laughed as she stepped out of their circle. Vortigern and Mordred led Blaise to the couch and sat him down on it.

“I suppose I should do introductions,” Ginny said wryly.

“Why not?” Draco agreed. Mordred had been looking from Spike to Draco, and then started to snicker.

“What are you laughin’ about?” Spike asked nastily.

“You look almost exactly like our dragon,” Mordred said between snickers. “And that in itself is just bloody amusing.”

“Indeed, there is a certain resemblance,” Vortigern mused. “As usual, brother mine, you have picked it aright.”

“The funny thing is he looks like Draco, but sounds like you, wolf,” Ginny said as she wavered on her feet. In a flash, Spike was at her side, offering her his shoulder. Ginny leant on it thankfully as one of his arms went around her waist to support her. Mordred’s eyebrow went up.

“Well, aren’t you the fast worker then? You’ve been in this dimension, what, a day at the most, and already you’ve got a spunk looking after you.”

“Shut up, wolf. You’re just jealous.” A smile played over Ginny’s lips.

“Damn straight, I’m jealous. Or maybe I should say, damn bent?” Mordred smiled lazily.

“You are such a male whore, Mordred,” Draco laughed.

“Oh, like you haven’t been eyeing off the blonde and the red head since we walked in, mate?” Mordred threw back. Draco grinned.

“You know me too well, but I need to get my kicks elsewhere, seeing as how Ginny refuses to fall for my charm.”

“I’m smart, that’s why,” Ginny said teasingly.

“Oh, I’m wounded, I am. I’m not that bad.” Draco placed a hand over his heart.

“Yeah right, Prince of the Slytherin house. I’ve been warned by my brothers about Slytherins.” Ginny tilted her head and then said thoughtfully, “which *is* why I took up with you guys in the first place. I’ve been rather rebellious this year.”

“Is that what you call it? I’d call it waking up to the sheer stupidity inherent in the Gryffindor house,” Draco said, and then he placed his hands together. “As fun as our verbal sparring is, I think we better tell them who we are before the little blonde over there decides to throw that stake. Not that it would connect, mind you, but I would end up being *very* upset. Things tend to go up in flames when I do that. I’m Draco Malfoy, the guy on the couch is Blaise Zabini, Mordred and Vortigern Pendyrwyrdd.”

“They’re twins, believe it or not,” Ginny added.

“Twins? Say it like it is, Red. We’re the one person in two bodies.” Mordred ran his hands through his hair, making it wilder as Vortigern gazed around calmly.

“How did you get here anyway?” Ginny asked something that had been puzzling her. Blaise raised a hand from the couch.

“That would be me, and the why? That’s a bit harder and more complicated to explain.”

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