The house was finally quiet. It had been a bizarre day. Well, a bizarre day for a normal person, but for the petite blond curling up in her bed it had been pretty much the usual disaster-filled day.

Spike had been right on one thing. She really should consider not celebrating her birthday in the future!

She’d had worse birthdays if the truth were told. The demon had been a bit of an annoyance—she’d faced a lot worse in her time. Being locked up in the house hadn’t even been that bad. There were worse places to be locked up in. Although, being stuck in the house with Spike had been far from pleasant.

Buffy had spent the majority of the evening after her friends had departed sitting in the kitchen with Dawn having a long overdue talk over cups of steaming cups of hot chocolate. It was only the instant variety, the kind with the minuscule marshmallows that melted away to nothing before you finished adding the hot water. It wasn’t nearly as good as her mother’s, but it was comforting all the same.

She had been furious with her sister when she had found out about the wish and the stealing, but by the time they had been released from the house her anger had dwindled down to guilty understanding. Dawn had every right to feel like she was being ignored. Ever since she had come back, she had been so worried about everything. She had worried about Dawn—worried about the caseworker, keeping a roof over their heads. She had worried about things that concerned her little sister, but ultimately she had been ignoring her.

It had gotten worse after that night with Spike in the abandoned house. Buffy had felt guilty leaving Dawn alone at the house that fist night, but it had gotten worse after that. She knew it was wrong, but she found herself back at his crypt in his arms night after night. Tara had insisted that she hadn’t come back wrong. She even seemed amused at the way Spike had pursued Buffy during the party, but the witch was wrong. She definitely had not come back right. The old Buffy had a purpose in life. She cared about her sister, and she most definitely did not sleep with annoying blond soulless vampires!

Buffy rolled about restlessly on her bed, the sheets tangling about her bare legs as images of the things she had done during her evenings away from the house flooded her mind. She couldn’t possibly be the same Slayer to be spending the evening doing…that over taking care of Dawn. Why did Spike have to show up for her birthday? Well, she knew why. He’d never miss out on an opportunity to torment her.

It wasn’t the vampire that had her on edge, as it was the vengeance demon. She had know Anya’s friend, Halfreck, was in town for the wedding, but she had been surprised that she had been the one to grant Dawn’s wish. Apparently, being her friend’s maid of honor really didn’t mean very much in the demon world. Somehow, though, she had known Spike. It was possible they had met before—maybe when he had been traveling around with Drusilla after they had left Sunnydale. The fact that she had called him William was unnerving. Buffy remembered his story. Before becoming a vampire, he’d been a timid, lovesick poet. A timid poet that knew about vengeance demons—that really didn’t fit together.

Buffy flipped over on her stomach and gave her pillow a frustrated punch. The fact that Spike happened to know a vengeance demon really didn’t matter. It was time she started concentrating on what was important and that was Dawn not Spike!





XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX





“Nice place you have her, William,” Halfreck said as she took in the lower level of the vampire’s tomb, “for a crypt.”

“Well, a vamp’s got to have a place to call home. Not like I can really get a sunny, beachside condo,” Spike took a slow drag off his cigarette. “And it’s Spike now, Hallie.”

“Yes, yes, much more fear provoking, I suppose,” she replied with a wave of her perfectly manicured fingers—a definite contrast to her complexion. “So does she like it?”

“What?” Spike asked his blue eyes studying the demon suspiciously. “Does who like it?”

“Oh, come on, Wil—Spike,” Hallie laughed. “Anya told me all about it!”

“All about what?” he asked. What had Buffy told her friends about them? He really didn’t see her saying anything. Not to mention, confiding in Anya? She wasn’t known for being discreet.

“All about you in love with the Slayer, of course,” she told him. “Surely, she appreciates all the trouble you’ve gone to here.”

“Yeah, well,” he replied studying the cigarette in his hand with a look of boredom on his face, “she’s a little less than appreciative.”

“Oh, my poor William,” she sighed. “How could she not succumb to your charms? You know all you have to do is wish.”

“I thought you handled kids’ wishes,” he reminded her.

“Oh, that’s just a specialty of mine,” she explained. “I do like to delve into other areas. You should know that.”

Spike smiled at the vengeance demon as she walked about the room absently examining various objects that caught her eye. He was well aware of her fondness for branching out of her chosen field. He recalled one wish that had turned out quite nicely—much better than the birthday party that would never end. He didn’t mind being locked up with Buffy, but he could have done without the Scoobies milling about.

“So, what’s it going to be, William?” Halfreck asked as she raised a candle to her wrinkled nose to test the scent. “I’m sure we could think of some kind of punishment for taking your feelings for granted. I know, how about a nasty case of boils every time she thinks bad thoughts about you?”

“Hallie, I love the girl, remember?” he sighed. She always did have an enthusiasm for her work.

“I suppose boils wouldn’t make her all that appealing,” she agreed. “I’m in the punishment field, but I guess I could make an exception for such an old friend.”

“Yeah, thanks for the offer, luv,” he replied, “but there’s one thing I haven’t got, and I’ll always be a monster in her eyes without it.”

“Oh yes, her excuse for loving the other one,” Hallie added with a snort. “Like having a should makes you worthy of love…”

“You know about the pouf?” he growled. Why did his grandsire have to turn up in the conversation every time he discussed his relationship with Buffy?

“I told you. Anya and I had a long talk,” she replied examining another candle. “Was there a sale on these things? You know, just because it seems to be a bargain, doesn’t mean you need to buy out the store!”

“Hallie!” Spike growled.

“What?” she asked with an innocent smile. Well, as innocent as a smile can look on a vengeance demon.

“What do you know about Angel?” he demanded.

It was no wonder she and Anya were such good friends. Trying to get information out of either of them was like pulling teeth!

“Oh, keep your pants on! I’m getting to it!” she laughed enjoying how irritated the vampire had become and being the cause of it. “She told me about the relationship our little Slayer had with the vampire with a soul. So, you think if you has a should, she’d love you too?”

Spike shrugged his shoulders snubbing out his cigarette in a dusty metal urn next to the bed before he spoke. “She’s the one always saying I’m a monster because I don’t have a soul>”

“So, you want me to give you back your soul?” she asked.

“Well, it might work…”

“It’s all or nothing, you know,” Hallie warned the vampire. “I’m not a gypsy. Besides, I’d hate to curse a friend.”

“You’d love it,” he contradicted. “How do I know you could even do it?”

“Oh, I took it away,” she assured him. “I can give it back.”

“Actually,” he reminded, “that was Dru’s doing.”

“And how do you think that crazy little vamp found you?” Hallie asked. “London’s a big place. Meeting up with her wasn’t just a lucky break.”





XXXXXXXXXX





The kitchen filled with a thick cloud of steam as the water made contact with the pan. Small black blobs, which ere supposed to have been pancakes, bobbed about in the pool of water. Buffy knew she should have just gone with the microwaveable kind, but Tara had made it look so easy!

“Buffy?” Dawn asked as she entered the room squinting her brown eyes to see through the hazy room. “What are you doing?”

Buffy sighed in frustration as she turned from the sink. “Well, I was trying to make some breakfast before you went to school, but it got a little crispy.”

“That’s okay,” Dawn gave her older sister a smile as she took in the mess on the kitchen counter.

Cooking had never been Buffy’s strong point. She had always been so caught up with her Slayer duties to worry about such mundane things as housekeeping. She’d done the best she could after their mother died, but there still were some chores—like making pancakes from scratch—that she had yet to master. Dawn held back a giggle as Buffy pushed back a stray lock of hair smearing pancake batter across her forehead in the process.

“I could make you some toast,” she suggested. “The toaster isn’t all that complicated.”

“I’ll just grab something at school,” she replied continuing quickly at her sister’s defeated look. “I’m really not that hungry.”

“Well, okay,” Buffy sighed, “but I want you to come straight home from school. I thought we could do Chinese, maybe rent a couple of movies.”

Dawn looked at her sister in surprise. It was pretty rare that Buffy was home when she returned from school. If she wasn’t at work, she was in bed sleeping. She couldn’t help but feel happy that Buffy was finally remembering that she had a little sister, but there was a nagging worry in the back of her mind.

“Don’t you have to work?” she asked.

“Nope,” Buffy smiled. “Called off. Thought we could use a little girl time. Besides, it’ll be nice to not smell of grease for one night.”

Dawn fingered her textbooks, looking down at them as if they were suddenly extremely interesting. “Can we afford that?”

“Let me worry about that,” Buffy replied softly. “You’d better get to school. I’ll get this place cleaned up. I have a couple of errands to run today, and than I’ll meet you back here. Sound good?”

“Sounds great,” Dawn gave her sister a broad smile as she headed towards the door. “See you tonight!”

“Yeah, great,” Buffy sighed as she turned towards the mess she had made in her failed attempt at breakfast.

Things were going well, barring the pancakes. She had a day off work, she and Dawn were getting along, but she still really didn’t feel happy. She could pretend to be on the outside, but she still feel empty on the inside. She worked on gathering up the ingredients on the counter and placing them back in the cupboard. She wasn’t going to sit around wallowing in self-pity anymore. There were more important things to worry about than her happiness—like Dawn. She had a full day ahead of her, and she didn’t know which she dreaded more—talking to Anya about Dawn’s stealing or confronting Spike and telling him it was over. It was bad enough she had to leave Dawn alone at night while she went out on patrol, but it was another to leave her alone while she was with him. She wasn’t supposed to be with him to begin with, and she was just going to have to make him understand that.

Buffy cringed at the tinny sound of the tiny bell over her head as the door to the Magick Shop swung shut behind her. It still hurt to visit the shop knowing Giles wasn’t there. With everything that had happened in the past couple of months, she had been rather preoccupied to give much thought about her absentee Watcher, but that didn’t mean she missed him any less. Every time she came to the shop part of her always expected Giles to come strolling out of the back, nosed buried in some musty old volume of demon lore, ready to tell her about her latest enemy.

The shop was empty, save for Anya behind the counter engaged in one of her favorite pastimes—counting the money from the register. Buffy still had a few reservations about the whole Xander and Anya wedding thing, but she knew with Anya handling the checkbook, her friends would never be hurting financially!

“Good morning, Buffy,” Anya greeted placing her hand protectively over the money on the counter.

“Hey,” Buffy returned her smile as she took a seat on one of the stools by the counter. She knew it was just Anya’s miserly personality, but she couldn’t help but feel offended by the way she was stuffing the bills back in the register.

“What can I do for you today?”

“Look, Anya,” the Slayer sighed. How many times was she going to have to do this? “I’m really sorry for what Dawn did.”

“Well, I would hope so,” Anya broke in pushing the cash register door shut. “It was really a horrible thing to do after all I did for her over the summer, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s illegal too.”

She decided to let that one lie. Anya had been running the whole “stealing is wrong” issue into the ground ever since they had discovered the stolen items in Dawn’s room. They really didn’t need the police involved, not with a caseworker breathing down her neck just waiting for her next screw up.

“Anya,” Buffy said sharply, “Dawn knows it’s wrong. We had a long talk, and she’s very sorry. She’s going to make it up to you.”

The ex-demon’s features brightened at the mention of reimbursement. “Well, if she’s willing to pay for what she took…”

“Well, we really don’t have the money to pay for it,” she looked down at her hands folded together on the edge of the counter. She wondered if it was possible for one day in her life to go by without her having to worry about finances.

“The how do you plan on paying for what she took?” Anya asked.

“I…I thought she could work off what she owes you,” she suggested. “She can work here a couple of hours after school till Willow can get out of class and take her home.”

“Well,” she looked at the Slayer thoughtfully for a moment, “I guess that would be okay, as long as she doesn’t take anything else.”

“She won’t” Buffy promised. “Anya, there’s something else I wanted to ask you.”

“What? Is it about the wedding? I really hope so,” she smiled at the thought of discussing her third favorite topic after sex and money. “With all the excitement on your birthday, I haven’t gotten to plan anything in nearly two days!”

“Actually, it’s not about the wedding,” the blond answered slowly. “It’s about Halfrek.”

“Halfrek? What about her?” Anya’s forehead creased in confusion. “It was not really her fault. I mean, I was angry too, but Dawn really should have thought before she just started wishing willy nilly.”

“I’m not upset with her,” Buffy responded. “It’s just that she called Spike William.”

“Well, that’s his name isn’t it?” Anya asked.

“Yeah, I suppose so,” she agreed, “but how did Halfrek know that? It was like they knew each other.”

“Maybe they do,” Anya replied with a shrug.

“But how?” Buffy pushed.

“I don’t know,” the ex-demon eyed the Slayer suspiciously. “They’ve both been around for a while, maybe they met somewhere along the line. Maybe Spike made a wish…”

“A wish?” Buffy repeated more to herself than to Anya. She supposed it was possible that the vampire could have wished for something. It could have been a very reasonable explanation for what had happened between them. Under normal circumstances, she would have never let him kiss her much less make…do what they had done together.

“There was that whole thing with Drusilla,” Anya pointed out. “He could have wanted revenge on her. We usually only answer mortals’ wishes, but Halfrek does like to dabble a bit. Why are you so interested anyway?”

“What?” she gasped. Had she been that obvious? “Me? Interested in Spike? No interest there, what so ever. It was just professional curiosity, that’s all. Listen, I’ve got to go.”

Buffy jumped from the stool so quickly it nearly tipped over and walked quickly towards the door. She kept her gaze focused on her destination, refusing to look at the girl behind the counter. Anya’s suspicions were already dangerously close to the truth without the look in Buffy’s eyes confirming them.

“Are you alright?” Anya called out as the Slayer opened the door.

“Yeah, fine,” she growled over her shoulder as the door clicked shut behind her.





^^^^^^^^^^^^





“Spike?” Buffy growled as she stalked into the crypt. She had really hoped to avoid him, but this had to be done.

“Buffy,” Spike said from one of the darker corners of the crypt. “And what do I owe this pleasant surprise to?”

“There’s nothing pleasant about this,” she gave him her nastiest glare which wasn’t easy considering the view provided by the open red shirt he wore. How she wished for his trademark t-shirts back!

“I seem to remember you liked it that way, luv,” he teased with a cocky grin.

“Stop it!” she shook her head angrily to force her attention away from his tongue as it ran lightly over his lower lip. “I am not here for that!”

“Then what are you here for?” he asked slowly crossing the distance between them.

Buffy felt her body tense as he approached. She forced herself to hold her ground even though the look in his blue eyes made her want to melt inside.

“It’s over!” she blurted out as he came to a stop only a few inched separating them.

“Over?” he laughed softly as he trailed his cold fingers over her cheek and down her throat to rest lightly against the erratic pulse beat at the base of her neck. “I’ve heard that one before.”

“Well, I mean it this time!” she snarled jerking away from the vampire’s touch. “We can’t do this anymore…I can’t do this anymore!”

“But yet you keep coming back for more,” he raised is hand to cup her breast his lips curving into a smile as she leaned into his touch in spite of herself.

“That’s going to end right now,” she gasped taking a large step backwards. “This is wrong, and you know it! I need to take care of my sister…my friends. I can’t keep ignoring them.”

“If you were honest with them,” he replied sharply. “Then you wouldn’t have to sneak around behind their backs…”

“They will never know,” she spat. “You’re a vampire, Spike. I could never love you!”

“Let’s not go there again!” he fought hard not to yell. “We already know you have nothing against loving vamps!”

“That was different…”

“Yeah, yeah,” Spike sighed, “spare me the whole soul lecture! Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t love me. I’ll make it easier on you, just tell me you don’t feel something for me.”

“I…I,” Buffy quickly averted her eyes and started for the door. “I can’t love you, Spike. You’re and evil, soulless killer, and Dawn needs me. It’s over.”

With that parting insult, she rushed outside slamming the crypt door with a loud clang behind her. Buffy slumped back against the cold steel door expelling the air from her lungs in one long gasp. The sunshine was nearly glaring after the dimness inside Spike’s crypt, and she was glad for it. If it weren’t for the daylight, he would have followed her right out into the cemetery and continued badgering her. She could hear him moving about behind the door, and nearly jumped when he raised his voice calling out a name. She swore under her breath as she cross the cemetery. She was not angry, or so she kept telling herself. There was no reason for her to get angry just because Spike had called out a woman’s name and it wasn’t hers.

Buffy looked about the kitchen nervously. The place looked like a junk food junkie’s wet dream. She had definitely overdone it at the grocery store, but to make up for her months of taking Dawn for granted, it was worth blowing the month’s budget—not that they really had any budget to speak of. Besides, it helped to get her mind off things—things like Spike.

She had gone to the crypt to end things, put an end to all the wrongness that Spike insistently believed was love. She hated how guilty she felt, but it just wasn’t guilt that she felt. She couldn’t forget that scene while she had stood outside his door. She had expected him to be angry, but she hadn’t expected him to call out another woman’s name, not even another woman, a vengeance demon.

“Damn!” she growled as she pulled the pizza pan from the cupboard only to have three more pans slide out along with it and land with a loud bang on the floor.

It figured! All she had to do was think of that vampire and things started going wrong. It was ridiculous to be so upset over his relationship with Halfrek. She had broken up with him, hadn’t she? Still, she felt curious. Perhaps, Anya was right, and Spike had made a wish. She had been rather doubtful when he had admitted to being a shy poet when he was alive. That little admission had come after a particularly long session of love mak…sex, she reminded herself. Love had nothing to do with what had occurred between them. Spike had never been ashamed of his violent past, but even he was smart enough not to bring up how horrible he had been in his mortal life as a topic for pillow talk.

She slammed the oven shut on the frozen pizza inside. What did it take to get that blond pest of her mind?! She was supposed to be concentrating on her relationship with her sister and getting their lives back in order. She was doing a really good job of it!

“Buffy?”

“What?” She turned from the stove with a start to find her little sister looking at her questioningly. “Dawn, I…I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Yeah,” the younger girl smirked. “You seemed pretty fascinated with the stove. Are you okay?”

She had been so deep in thought; she hadn’t even realized she had just been standing there staring off into space. Way to go, Summers! She wanted things back to normal, and there she was standing in the kitchen examining major appliances!

“I’m fine,” she replied crossing the room and ducking her head behind the refrigerator door as she reached for a can of soda to hide her flushed cheeks from Dawn’s view. “Just making sure everything is ready for our girls’ night of fun.”

“Night?” Dawn gave a little laugh as she placed her schoolbooks on the already crowded counter and took the soda the Slayer offered. “Did you leave anything on the shelves when you left the grocery store?”

“Went a little over board?” Buffy surveyed the stockpile of snack items littered about the kitchen.

“Maybe a smidge,” she agreed. “Buffy, you really don’t have to do this. I mean, if you have to patrol, I…”

“No, I do,” Buffy told her. “I’ve been a rotten sister since I came back, and I’m going to make it up to you. Besides, we deserve a night off. Tomorrow, it’s back to the real world for both of us.”

Dawn ran her finger over her drink thoughtfully tracing a little design in the condensation before she spoke. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“Probably not,” she replied. “I stopped by the Magick Shop today and talked to Anya.”

Dawn looked down at her soda. At the mention of the ex-demon her hands began to tremble. Anya had been far from happy when they had discovered her stash of stolen goods.

“She’s still pretty angry, isn’t she?”

“Well, she is upset,” Buffy replied, “but she’s getting over it. You’re going to have to pay for what you took though.”

“Pay?” Dawn eyed her sister nervously. “I know what I did was wrong, but she’s got to know we can’t afford…”

“We made a deal,” Buffy explained trying to sound firm, but praying they wouldn’t end up spending the night fighting. “You’re going to help out at the Magick Shop after school.”

Dawn rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. “Every afternoon?”

“Dawn,” she sighed impatiently. “You can’t expect Anya to just forget what you did!”

“It’s not that,” the younger girl giggled. “I’m just picturing the hours of wedding talk!”

“Well, as they say, you do the crime,” Buffy smiled. Maybe this wasn’t going to be as hard as she thought. “Maybe you can talk her out of those bridesmaid gowns!”

“I thought they were cute!” she teased remembering the look of horror that had crossed Buffy’s face when Xander’s fiancée had shared her top three choices. Calling them atrocious was a compliment!

“Um, you have to wear them too, kiddo!” Buffy reminded her.

“But I’m just watching the guestbook!” she protested. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Buffy smiled broadly at the girl on the opposite side of the counter. She should have done this earlier. For the first time since she had come back, she had actually gone a few minutes without thinking about the fact that she had come back. She actually felt normal again.







Spike hesitated on the Summers’ front porch his fist frozen in midair just inches from making contact with the door. It felt unusual to actually knock. He really couldn’t recall the last time he had actually knocked before entering the Slayer’s house, but this time was different. She was going to see that he could be different.

Still, he couldn’t shake the knot of fear that was forming in his stomach. He growled at himself. The Bid Bad didn’t feel fear! Then again, he reminded himself, he wasn’t exactly the Big Bad anymore was he?

“Come on!” Buffy laughed. “That is the worst demon I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some major uglies!”

“Can’t you forget work for one night!” Dawn laughed tossing the pillow she had been clutching throughout the horror movie at her sister’s head.

“Hey! No throwing things in the house, young lady!” she scolded with a smile as she ducked the sailing pillow.

“No fair using Slayer powers either!” Dawn added. “Who’s that?”

Buffy jumped at the sound of a sharp rapping at the front door. Some Slayer she was! She spent her evenings stalking the undead—well until recently—and a sudden knock at the door during a horror movie set her on edge. Of course, it really was the noise that set her nerves on overdrive. Willow was spending the night at Xander and Anya’s. They all knew that this was an important evening for the Summers girls. That only left one being stupid enough to interrupt, but it couldn’t be him. He had his Halfrek now--unless, he was there to rub her nose in his new relationship.

“I haven’t got a clue,” she replied trying to cover up the uneasy tremble in her voice. “Probably nothing important.”

“Nothing important?” Dawn gave her sister a look like she was growing a second head. “People don’t knock on our door at ten o’clock at night if it’s not important.”

“I’m sure if there was something going on,” she insisted, “the guys would call first.”

“Come on, Buffy,” Dawn rose from the couch and walked to the door. “You act like you’re afraid to answer the door! It’s not like there’s…”

“Dawn, don’t!” the petite blond jumped from the couch hoping to make it to the door before her sister.

Buffy’s hand landed on Dawn’s shoulder just as she swung the door open. Her eyes locked with Spike’s blue ones as he stood in the doorway.

“Spike!” Dawn cried happily. “What are you doing here?”

Spike’s eyes didn’t budge from Buffy’s face when he replied. “I was in the neighborhood, so I decided to drop by.”

“You decided to drop by?” Buffy glared at the vampire just daring him to take a step into the house. “We were just going to bed, so you’ll just have to find someone else to bug for the night.”

“I can see that,” he whispered his eyed drifted from her face making her wish for her thick terry cloth bathrobe to cover up her tank top and pajama bottoms. God, she hated how he could make her feel so uncomfortable with just a look!

“We’re not going to bed!” Dawn objected.

“Dawn, it’s late,” she said between clenched teeth, “and you have school in the morning.”

“It’s not that late,” she complained giving the vampire a pleading look for a little backup. “Besides I haven’t seen Spike in weeks.”

“You just saw him at my birthday party!” Buffy reminded her sister.

“I know,” Dawn rolled her eyes, “but that doesn’t count. We were too busy running from that demon and trying to get out of the house! I really don’t call that quality time.”

“Quality time?! Dawn, you don’t spend ‘quality time’ with a vampire, or didn’t you learn that after Halloween?”

“The Bit does have a point,” Spike added helpfully obviously enjoying the little conflict from the smile on his face.

“That’s not fair!” Dawn crossed her arms over her chest trying not to lose her temper. What was with her sister? She said she wanted to make up for treating her like crap the past few months. Couldn’t she put up with Spike for a little while to make her happy? She just wanted them to be civil for a couple of hours.

“Besides,” she continued, “this is Spike, not some creep looking to kill us!”

“This was supposed to be our night,” the Slayer replied.

She was quickly running out of excuses, and she couldn’t tell her sister the real reason why she didn’t want to spend the evening with Spike. Why couldn’t he just go spend the night with his newfound love and leave her alone!

“I know, and I’ve had a great time, really,” she answered, “but couldn’t we let Spike visit for a little while, please?”

“Fine!” the Slayer grumbled as she stalked back into the living room and slumped onto the couch. She was still dead set against letting the vampire in the house, but it was either that or spend the evening arguing with Dawn at the front door. She could ignore him, and hopefully, he’d soon get the hint that he wasn’t going to get under her skin and go away.

“So, what are we doing for entertainment, Niblet?” the vampire asked as he followed the younger Summers into the living room.

He shot Buffy a victorious smirk as he joined her on the couch. He had known just gaining entrance wasn’t going to be easy, but he could always count on Dawn. Now that the hurtle of getting into the house was over, he just had to work on getting Buffy alone so he could spring his little surprise. He was rather surprised she hasn’t sensed it already.

“Well, we were watching movies,” Dawn told him as she plopped down happily on the floor next to the coffee table, “but we can do something else if you want.”

Spike leaned back on the couch propping his combat boots on the table. He couldn’t help but enjoy being near his Slayer, even if she was furious with him and refused to move only for fear of raising her sister’s suspicions.

“I wouldn’t want to interrupt the festivities,” he replied. “What are we watching?”

“Well, Buffy picked out a really lame horror movie,” Dawn replied. “Like we don’t get enough of that in real life! I wanted to watch ‘Ten Things I Hate About You’.”

Buffy rolled her eyes, but stubbornly refused to comment on her sister’s choice of movies. The last thing she wanted to do was sit there with Spike beside her watching some angsty teenage romance flick.

“What’s it about?” he asked.

“Well, it’s about this really bitchy girl…”

“Dawn!” Buffy shot her sister a warning look.

“She is!” she complained turning her attention back to the blond vampire. “But this really cute guy falls in love with her.”

“I’m sure Spike wouldn’t want to watch that,” Buffy broke in.

“Sure, I would,” he gave her a sly smile. “The story sounds vaguely familiar. So do we have anything to drink, Little Bit?”

“Nothing you’d be into,” Buffy growled clenching her small hands into tight fists on her lap. “No bourbon, no…”

"We do have hot chocolate,” Dawn shot her sister an angry look.

“With marshmallows?”

“Of course!” she laughed jumping up and heading for the kitchen.

“Sounds great,” he told her with a content sigh.

Buffy watched her sister leave the room before she spoke. This was going too far! Spike was taking advantage of the situation, and Dawn was acting like they were a happy little family spending a quiet evening at home!

“What the hell do you think you’re doing!” she hissed careful to keep her voice low so Dawn wouldn’t hear in the next room.

“Such language,” he scolded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “You know exactly what I mean!” she glared fighting down the urge to slap the mocking smirk off his face. “I told you it was over!”

“And I decided it wasn’t,” he stated.

“I didn’t give you a choice!” she reminded him. “I told you what we did was wrong. So why don’t you just go back to Halfrek and leave us alone!”

“Careful, Slayer,” he laughed softly, “your jealousy is showing.”

“Jealous of you?” she said with a snort. “Hardly!”

“She’s just a friend,” he assured her his voice suddenly serious.

“It doesn’t matter what she is! I an not jealous of anything concerning you!” Buffy crossed her arms angrily over her chest and turned her gaze back towards the blank screen of the television.

“Buffy, I love you…”

“Would you stop saying that!” she said quickly. He seemed to think professing his undying love would make everything better. “You can’t feel love! You have no idea what that is!”

“I do too!” he protested. “And I have something to tell you…”

“And I don’t want to hear it!”

“Well, you’re going to,” Spike growled. “Buffy, I’m…”

“Chocolate’s ready!” Dawn announced as she came in caring the steaming cups of hot chocolate. Buffy couldn’t help but take notice that she had forgotten to bring in a cup for her big sister.

The rest of the evening progressed fairly quietly with only Dawn and Spike making the occasional comment on the movie here and there while Buffy stubbornly kept her eyes glued to the screen. The on screen couple had only made it to their first kiss before Dawn had drifted off. No sooner did the credits begin to roll than Buffy leapt from the couch, rounded the coffee table, and scooped her dozing sibling into her arms.

“Looks like Niblet had a big day,” Spike observed smiling fondly at the Slayer’s sister.

“Look Spike, I’m not having a casual chat with you!” Buffy growled. “I’m not having a casual anything with you! Not get out!”

Spike stood to confront her trying to keep calm in the face of her stubborn refusal to hear him out. “I came here to tell you something, Slayer, and I’m not leaving until I do!”

“And I told you, I do not want to hear it!” she replied turning towards the stairs. “I’m putting Dawn to bed, and then I’m going to sleep. I’m sure you can find your own way out!”

“Buffy,” he pleaded but she didn’t even pause as she climbed the stairs.

Spike sighed as he sat back down on the couch. He had known it wouldn’t be easy to get the Slayer to listen to what he had to tell her, but he had never been one to give up easily. He could ignore him all she wanted, but he wasn’t going to leave until he had told her about his deal with Halfrek.









Buffy yawned sleepily as she descended the stairs. Thanks to Spike, she had only managed to doze off for a few hours before the alarm went off. Absently, she toyed with the idea of calling off again. The idea of working the closing shift that evening was extremely unappealing, but she knew she couldn’t push her luck and lose this job, no matter how crappy of job it was! She’d just have to manage to fit a nap in after she cleaned the house from the night before.

“Spike!” she shrieked when she entered the living room.

Spike bolted from the couch at the sound of the Slayer’s voice looking about the room in confusion. He had done a little cleaning the night before mainly to keep his thoughts off his frustration over Buffy’s refusal to listen to him. At some point he must have dozed off. Well, he had said he wasn’t going to leave until she listened to him!

“What are you doing here!” Buffy demanded. “I told you to get out!”

“And I said I wasn’t going anywhere until you listened to me!” he shot back.

“God, I don’t want to go over this again!” she sighed. “Just get out of here before Dawn wakes up! I don’t want her to think…”

“What?” Spike interrupted. “That I spent the night. That we might have…”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence!” she snapped. “Dawn will never know…”

“Dawn will never know what?”

Buffy spun towards the sound of her sister’s voice a guilty blush covering her cheeks. Her sister leaned against the banister her foot hanging in midair as she was about to step off the last stair. Her eyes were wide as she stared past the Slayer and into the living room at Spike.

“Dawn, it’s not what you think,” she said quickly. “I…we…”

“Why isn’t he burning?” Dawn asked slowly.

“What?” Buffy gave her a confused look than turned back to the vampire.

She had been so tired and angry when she had come down the stairs and found him asleep on her couch she hadn’t even noticed. She hadn’t bothered to close the curtains when she had carried Dawn up to bed. She never did any evening, and it definitely hadn’t been like she had planned on having Spike as a houseguest. Now, he stood there in her living room the rays of sunlight streaming through the window encircling him, and for some reason he had yet to even spark much less burst into flames.

“Spike,” she had to force the words out as her mind worked overtime trying to deal with the scene before her. “What the hell is going on here!”

Buffy stood in the doorway of her living room just staring at the vampire next to her couch. Dawn peaked curiously over her shoulder, but she didn’t take notice. He mind was spiraling from the shock of discovering Spike’s newly acquired immunity to the sun. She could only think of the last time she had faced him in the daytime. She had told him she was breaking up with him. Had he somehow managed to find another way to become that invincible vampire again? He had made no made to harm them, and he had had an entire night of opportunity to do so. She had to remember, even after all he had done to help them, he was still a vampire. He hadn’t attacked yet, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t.

“Buffy, I…” Spike began softly. A look of panic flashed in his eyes as he searched for a way to explain. It had been so much easier when he had played out the scenario in his crypt. Of course, he had planned on doing it in private, not in a sun-drenched living room with both of the Summers woman staring at him accusingly.

“Did you finally find a way around the chip, Spike?” the Slayer growled. She tried her best to hide her fear. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him, but she knew what she had to do if he really was back to his old self. She had already sent one lover to hell, and she didn’t know if she could do it again. “If you try anything, I won’t hesistate to stake you!”

He cringed at her words. They didn’t exactly have the most loving relationship, but it had been quite some time since she’d actually threatened to kill him and truly meant it. “I’m not here to hurt anybody!”

“Why should I believe you?” she snapped. “You’ve been oh-so honest before! You just felt like taking a little stroll in the sunshine…”

“Actually, I just woke up. I haven’t been walking anywhere,” he shot back. “If you’d stop badgering me, I’d explain!”

“Well, then explain already!” she sighed.

“Fine!” he snapped trying desperately to keep his calm, and as usual the Slayer was making it next to impossible. “I made a wish.”

“A wish?” Buffy repeated.

“Halfrek!” Dawn jumped in. “You made a wish, and she granted it. Didn’t the birthday party that would not end teach you anything?”

The Slayer continued to glare at him. She was just as surprised as her sibling. “You want to get revenge on me because I…because…what were you thinking?”

“It wasn’t that kind of wish, luv,” he pleaded. “When you said you were leaving me, because you couldn’t love a soulless monster like me…”

“Wait a minute!” Dawn interrupted looking at her older sister questioningly. “You left Spike? When were you ever with him?”

“I…Dawn…I,” Buffy sputtered turning to face her sister. The angry glare she had been giving to Spike was now replaced with one of utter helplessness. Only moments before she had been concerned that she wouldn’t be able to turn Spike to dust, and now she was itching to do it! Damned that vampire and his big mouth! She hadn’t wanted Dawn to find out this way. She hadn’t wanted Dawn to find out at all!

“Dawn,” she continued, “Janice and her mom are going to be here soon. You better go get dressed.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” the younger girl informed her leaning against the doorframe and crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re keeping something from me. Besides, Spike made a wish. God knows how it’s going to backfire! I might not even be able to get out of the house again!”

“Bloody hell! It’s not going to backfire!” Spike sighed. “It wasn’t a wish. It was more of an unwish.”

“An unwish?” Dawn shifted her attention from her sister to the vampire.

“Yeah, Halfek gave me back my soul,” he explained as he settled down on the couch. Suddenly, he felt exhausted.

“She did…” Buffy went pale. She felt and overwhelming urge to join Spike in having a seat. “You have a…You’re…”

“You’re human?” Dawn finished her thought.

“Well, uh, yeah,” he nodded giving Dawn an almost sheepish grin.

“But how? Why?” she asked quickly. “We already know why, but how?”

“Well, uh, that’s kind of a longer story,” he gave the girl a weak smile as he pulled out his cigarettes from his duster, which was draped over the back of the couch.

“Which you don’t have time to hear,” she informed her sister.

"Come on,” she protested. “If Spike made a wish who knows what kind of world I might be walking into!”

“Probably a word still filled with social workers. Now get your butt in gear. And you,” the Slayer’s eyes flickered toward the cigarette, “don’t even think about it! I really don’t need a visit from the wicked witch of Social Services with the house smelling of cigarettes.”

Spike sighed as he placed the cigarette back into the pack. He leaned back on the couch and sat in silence as Dawn headed towards the kitchen.

“Fine, I’m going,” she moped. “Spike can fill me in when I get home.”

“He will be long gone by then,” Buffy told her departing sister’s back.

"You can’t send him back to that crypt, Buffy!” Dawn stopped just short of the door and spun around to face the Slayer. “He’s human now. He’ll freeze to death out there!”

“Dawn, we live in California,” Buffy reminded her.

“It still gets cold,” she argued. “If you don’t let him stay, I don’t go!”

“Fine!” Buffy threw her hands up in surrender. “He can stay! Now go!”

Buffy watched Dawn leave the room. She spotted Spike’s triumphant smirk out of the corner of her eye, but chose to ignore it. She needed answers, not an argument.

“Now,” she groaned setting into a seat facing the couch. “What exactly did you wish…er…unwish?”

Spike shifted a bit on the couch feeling rather uncomfortable under the Slayer’s glare, not that she hadn’t glared at him many times before, but this time was different. He couldn’t say he had expected her to accept him with open arms when he had made his little announcement, but still explaining the situation to the real Slayer wasn’t nearly as easy as he had rehearsed back in his crypt.

“Well,” he began slowly not rather to blurt it all out or give her the long version. He finally decided on the latter not wanting this new version of his life to begin with any secrets. “It happened right after you left my crypt, after you said you couldn’t love me…”
“Would you keep your voice down!” Buffy hissed. She could still hear Dawn moving things about in the kitchen, and she knew her sister well enough to know that even though she was making it sound like she was keeping herself busy in there, she was also straining to hear the least little bit of information coming out of the living room.

“I think it’s a little too late for that love,” he gave her a small smile. “The cat’s pretty much out of the bag.”

“Don’t remind me,” she sighed her eyes rolling towards the ceiling. “I’m already working on a passable excuse, but you don’t need to fuel the fire any more than you already have!”

“She’s going to know the whole story eventually,” he added. “They all will. I think they’re going to notice me walking around in the daytime. Things like that do tend to lead to questions.”

“Questions like how did this happen?” she asked ignoring his last comment. She wasn’t quite ready to deal with the idea of what was going to happen when the Scoobies found out about the situation. Finally, she heard the door in the kitchen close as her sister left, and they could finally speak freely. “Halfrek’s a vengeance demon, they aren’t really big on returns.”

“She returned everything to normal after your party, didn’t she?” Spike protested.

“Yeah, but that was different. Anya’s her friend…”

“Are you trying to say I can’t have friends?”

“I didn’t say that!” Buffy sighed. The conversation was really going nowhere. It seemed like every conversation they had lately tended to follow that pattern. “You said that she gave back your soul. Why would she do that? I mean how could she return it to you when she had nothing to do with it being taken in the first place?”
“But she did,” he stated simply as if it should be obvious.

“I could have sworn Drusilla had a major hand in it,” Buffy reminded him. “Last time I checked Vengeance Demons didn’t make vampires.”

“Well, no, not in the direct sense anyway,” he agreed, “but in this case she was the cause of it.”

Buffy fought back the urge to throw something at him. There he was sitting on her couch with the sun streaming through the window, and he wanted to play twenty questions. All she had wanted was to get her life back on even ground, and then he had to walk into her home and put yet another kink in it.

“Look Spike, I really don’t have time for this,” she told him through clenched teeth. “If you have a point, would you please just get to it?”

“I’m trying to, luv. This isn’t something you just blurt out.”

“No, not like you just did in front of my sister!”

“Do you want to hear this story or not?” Spike growled finding himself losing his patience rather quickly. It was nice to know that even with the soul things between them hadn’t really changed all that much.

“Fine, spill it,” she answered settling back into her chair for what was shaping up to be a rather long stay.

“Fine,” he snapped back before continuing his story. “Yes, Drusilla was the one who brought me over, but how do you think she found me? I wasn’t exactly a prime candidate for a vampire. Besides we were in London, what were the odds of three vampires just happening to run into one extremely upset poet?”

“So, Halfrek, made sure that it was you that Drusilla found that night?” Buffy concluded. “But why would she bother? Nothing better to do than see you become a vampire, or did you wrong someone and this was the best punishment that she could come up with at the time?”

“I told you I made the wish Slayer,” he growled angry at the interruption. “I was upset that night and wishing there was some way to get even with all those high society snobs for their condescending attitudes.”

“And she made sure that you would be made a vampire, so you could go back and kill everyone,” she jumped in again. “Don’t you think that was just a bit of overkill, pardon the pun, of course.”
He gave a casual shrug of his shoulders. “We are talking vengeance demon here. They aren’t exactly known for their subtle torments. Besides, at the time it did serve the purpose.”

“Okay, so she felt sorry for you, and decided to reverse the wish,” she continued still finding it rather hard to swallow, but considering he was there and not turning into charcoal, it seemed like the most rational explanation they had at the time. “So now that you have a soul, you don’t seem overly remorseful.”

“I’m not Angel, pet,” he said with a sigh. Was it possible that she would ever stop comparing him to that bloody pouf! “I may have a soul now, and I do feel badly for all those people, but it wasn’t me that did all those horrible things. I was in here,” he tapped his temple lightly, “but it was the demon that was in control. For all intensive purposes, William was only a spectator to the blood bath. Besides, at the moment, I have more important things to worry about.”

“Such as?” she prompted. Knowing the answer, but hoping beyond hope that he might have something else on his agenda.

“You know why,” he stated simply, he piercing blue eyes giving her that look that always made her insides feel like they were melting.

“Spike, you know just because you’ve gotten yourself a soul,” she began hesitantly unsure of just how much of the old Spike was left behind, “doesn’t mean I’m instantly going to fall in love with you.”

“Cor, woman,” he growled jumping up from the couch to pace the living room. Buffy was glad she didn’t have a cat or surely he would have kicked it halfway across the room. As if was Dawn’s sneakers sitting at the end of the coffee table ended up being a pretty good target for his anger. “What do I bloody have to do? You say you can’t love me, because I don’t have a soul, not because you think I suck in bed, I have bad table manners…No, the only thing I can get out of you is the bloody soul thing, and now you won’t even give me a chance!”

“I didn’t say that, Spike…”

“So, there is a chance?” he turned to face her. There was a spark of hope in his eyes.

“I didn’t say that either,” she replied feeling a slight tug at her heart when his eyes fell to study the floor. “I’m saying we really don’t have the time to sit here and debate on this! You made a wish…”

“An unwish,” he reminded her.

“Whatever, same difference,” Buffy continued rising from the chair and heading towards the closet to grab her jacket. “Either way, there’s going to be consequences, and I would like to know what I’m dealing with before I end up locked up in the house with an invisible demon looking to kill me.”

“So what do you have in mind, luv?” he asked as he pulled his duster over his shoulders. He hadn’t given up on the whole love issue, but he had decided it was better not to push. He could be patient, at least for a little while.

“Where else?” she sighed. “To the Magick Shop. Anya’s an ex-vengeance demon. I’m sure they don’t take back wishes very often, but she she’s been around for a while. Maybe she will have some information.”





*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





Buffy had rushed across town the whole time her eyes scanned the street for any sign of disturbance, but once she reached the Magick Shop she lingered on the sidewalk, hesitant to go inside. She could hear Spike’s labored breathing over her shoulder as he stopped next to her. It was definitely going to take some getting used to, not that she hadn’t heard him breath before, but it was the first time she’d seen him do it because he had to, and only because he actually had to run to keep up with her.

“So, luv,” he asked between gasps for air, “are we going in, or are we going stand out here all day and study the finer points of Sunnydale store front architecture?”

“Please,” she scowled at him, “remind me to laugh when this is over. Good to see Halfrek remembered to return your sense of humor while she was at it!”

Slowly Buffy pushed the door of the Magick Shop open, the sound of the bell above the door grating on her already raw nerves. It took everything in her to take the first step inside the store. Her heart lurched to see all the Scoobies seated at the research table—all save Anya who was at her usual post near the cash register flipping through yet another bride’s magazine. Absently, Buffy wondered if there were any of those left in Sunnydale that the ex-demon hadn’t read. Plastering her most happy fake smile on her lips, she took a deep breath and walked purposely towards the table.

“Hey, Buffy!” Xander was the first to speak as she approached. His smile quickly faded when he caught sight of her companion. “What’s he doing here?”

“Xander, I asked him to come here,” she sighed not surprised by his hostile welcome. His reaction would only have been shocking had he welcomed Spike to the store with open arms.

“Um, Xander,” Tara cut in softly. Buffy was happy to see her there hoping that it might be a sign that she and Willow were going to try an work out their problems, and she reminded herself to tell the Wicca that once they solved her little problem.

“Buffy, he has no right to be here!” Xander continued ranting.

“Xander!” Willow added her objection her brown eyes also focusing on Spike, but rather than echoing the angry glare Xander was throwing him, she looked completely floored.

“He’s just following you around, trying to pretend that he’s changed…”

“Well, actually…” Buffy began her voice shaking a bit.

“Oh, Xander,” Anya flung the magazine down on the counter. “Would you shut up for a minute? I would like to know why Spike can walk around in the daytime!”

The shop fell silent—a fairly unusual circumstance—as all eyes turned to the platinum blond standing just behind the Slayer. Buffy’s cheeks turned a bright red as Spike shot the group a cocky little grin. Couldn’t he, at least, have the decency to be a little embarrassed?

“O-kay,” Xander rolled his eyes leaning back in his chair to assume his usual position signaling frustration at the numerous hours of research looming in the near future. “What’s going on? Annoying us at night wasn’t enough?”

“Xander!” Willow shot him a glare from the far side of the table. “Explanations now, insults later. What happened, Buffy? He didn’t find another gem, did he?”

“There isn’t another gem,” Spike supplied pulling a chair up to the table and taking a seat next to Xander. The boy shot him an evil look the moment he sat down. Vampire or not, he’d always love getting under construction boy’s skin.

“Then how?” Tara asked quietly.

“Anya’s friend,” Buffy jumped in before Spike could supply an answer. The last thing she needed was for him to spill the beans about their relationship. “He made a wish.”

“An ‘unwish’,” Spike reminded her absently while lighting one of his cigarettes.

“Okay, ‘unwish’, whatever,” she sighed. “It seems that Spike has made a deal with Hallie.”

“You made a deal with a vengeance demon?” Xander groaned. “Has anybody tried to get out of here?”

“It’s not like that,” Spike flicked the ashes from the tip of his cigarette in Xander’s direction. “I…”

“Spike, well, William, made a wish,” Buffy jumped in. It was best to keep Spike’s explanations to a minimum. He’d already revealed too much in front of Dawn.

“So, y-you wished to become a vampire?” Tara asked a little crease of confusion forming between her eyes.

“Not exactly…”

“He wished for vengeance. The vampire part was a means to an end.” Spike shot the Slayer a dirty look for her interruption, but let her continue with her explanation. It wasn’t like the Scoobies ever had any desire to help him.

“Apparently,” Buffy resumed returning his look, “Halfrek decided to reverse the wish.”

“Can she do that?” Xander shot a questioning look at his fiancée. “Don’t demons have no give backs or something?”

“It doesn’t look like it,” Buffy agreed also turning towards the ex-demon. “That’s why we’re here. We already know the ‘delightful’ after effects of a wish, but we have no idea what might happen when one’s taken back. Anya, has this ever happened before?”

She tapped her red-polished nails on the counter pausing a moment to think back. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a wish being reversed. Usually, it’s the person who the wisher takes revenge on begging for forgiveness, not the other way around.”

“So, we’re in the dark then? Possible Apocalypse in the near future?” Xander’s hands curled into fists on the table. “Why does that sound so familiar?”

“Any ideas on what might happen?” she continued questioning Anya. It was probably a long shot, but she was the only link they had at the moment.

“Well,” the girl answered, “this is only a guess, but I would say the people who suffered the revenge would want to get revenge themselves, but in this case, they’re long since gone. Even if they were ghosts, they probably would have tried something by now.”

“So, we have nothing to worry about,” Willow added cheerfully failing to hide the underlying nervousness. “At least, not yet anyway.”

“Got to love that sense of impending doom,” Xander sighed. “So, what do we do now, Buffster?”

“Anya, is there a way you can get a hold of Halfrek? Since she reversed the spell, we really should talk to her,” she suggested.

“Well, I can try,” Anya sighed. “It’s not like she has a beeper or anything. Besides, you’d think Spike not being a vampire would be a good thing. She is going to be at the wedding.”

“Ahn, hon, we can’t wait that long,” Xander reminded her.

“Well, I’m just saying…” she paused catching sight of the looks she was receiving from the group at the table. “I’ll try.”

“Great,” Buffy turned towards the door, not bothering to check if Spike might be following her. “So I guess what we do is what we always do. We research. We still have to find out what my arch nemesis-is-ies are up to, so we deal with one problem at a time. Right now, I’ve got to get to work before I have to add unemployment to my list of problems.”














Buffy hesitated on the front porch twisting her DoubleMeat hat in her slender hands. How she despised the stupid little cow smiling mindlessly over the brim! It had to be the biggest fashion monstrosity she had ever encountered. The only thing she hated more was the ex-vampire she could see through the window sitting in the living room with her sister making her dread entering her own home. After a far from fun night of pushing fast food, she really did not look forward to dealing with him or trying to explain what had been going on between them to Dawn either. For about the thousandth time since finding Spike in her living room she wished that Giles was back, not only to help them figure out the situation, but also so he could have the pest as his house quest again!

With a small groan of irritation she turned the knob and gave the door a push. She couldn’t stand outside all night. Well, she could always take a patrol of the cemetery, but she doubted the leftover Medley Meals she had toted home would survive the journey. There was already telltale grease stains soaking through the paper bag, and Dawn wondered why her older sister never joined her for the evening meal.

“Buffy’s home!” Dawn announced happily before she could enter the room. It was the smell that signaled her entry long before her appearance. She could take off the loud uniform before she left the restaurant, but there was no getting rid of the stench.

“So, what’s for dinner?” she asked as Buffy rounded the corner.

“Filet mignon and caviar, my dear,” she sighed dropping the bag of food on the coffee table. Her sister never sounded this happy any other night when she got home, and she never actually looked forward to leftovers from the DoubleMeat Palace!

“Cute,” Dawn laughed plunging into the bag. “We’re starving.”

“Um, I think I’ll pass, Niblet,” Spike smiled fondly at the younger Summers. “DoubleMeat isn’t my idea of an appetizing first meal.”

“This coming from a guy who drinks Weetabix and blood cocktails,” Buffy growled.

“And that was fine dining compared to the fare at the Palace, luv,” he replied gazing at her intently. She could almost feel his gaze like he was physically touching her. “I could think of much better things to eat for my first meal as a human again.”

Buffy shot her sister a warning glare as she stifled a giggle. “Well, I suggest you take what you can get, because there is nothing else on the menu.”

“Oh, come on, Buffy,” Dawn still smirked ignoring the menacing glares from her older sibling. “He was just teasing. I think it’s cute.”

“There is nothing cute about it, Dawn,” she objected. “This is Spike, and…”

“And what?” Dawn’s happy expression quickly clouded over. “Hello, not a vampire anymore. You need to come up with a new excuse!”

“Dawn,” her mouth fell open in surprise. What happen to the festive mood Dawn had welcomed her home with? Well, she knew what had happen, but was it really asking too much for Dawn to actually side with her sister rather than the ex-blood-sucking fiend? “I didn’t mean…”

“Yes, you did!” Dawn dropped her burger to the table ignoring the gobs of mayo-drenched lettuce landing on the floor as she jumped to her feet. “Why can’t you just give him a break already! We were having a really good time till you decided to come home and ruin it!”

“I wasn’t trying to ruin anything!” Buffy shot back desperately trying to keep her voice even. She knew how emotional her sister could get, and yelling at her would only make things worse. “This isn’t right, and you know it. Spike isn’t supposed to be here, and he’s not supposed to be human. We’re not a happy little family.”

Dawn’s eyes glittered with anger as she studied her sister for a moment. Her hands clenched and unclenched slowly, and for a minute, Buffy wondered if her sister might take a swing at her. Muttering something she was sure she didn’t really want to understand, Dawn took off for the stairs her long brown hair flaring out striking the Slayer’s arm instead of her fists.

“It’s only not right, because you won’t let it!” Dawn told her before bolting up the stairs. “We could be a family if you were so against having one!”

“Dawn, wait!” Buffy started to follow her sister’s retreat, but stopped at the feel of fingers lying lightly on her arm.

“I’ll talk to her,” Spike said softly, and she was rather surprised to see the caring in his eyes. There wasn’t the usual angry glare that accompanied her barge of insults, but then again, this concerned Dawn. So of course, the look of caring was not meant for her.

“No, I should do it,” she replied rather surprised with herself that she wasn’t throwing him out for starting yet another conflict in the Summers household. “I’m her sister…”

“Who she’s furious with right now,” he reminded her. “I’ll go up and calm her down, and then you two can talk.”

“Fine,” she sighed moving out of the doorway to let him pass and heading straight for the couch. She slumped down on the cushions ignoring the mayonnaise from Dawn’s sandwich that was quickly soaking into the carpet. She fought the urge to flip her hat with the mockingly happy cow across the room. All she had wanted was to get her life back to normal, or as normal as a Slayer’s life could be, and instead all she had managed to do was double the insanity.

She listened to the silence filtering through the house for a moment. There were no sounds of sobbing or things being flung at walls coming from her sister’s room. That, at least, was a good sign. She really should go up there and talk to her sister, she decided, tossing her hat onto the coffee table and rolling her eyes as it conveniently landed in the mess left by Dawn’s burger. She should go upstairs and check on her sister, but for some reason her body had decided to respond in slow motion. Steeling herself for the onslaught she knew she was going to face once she reached her sister’s room, she pushed herself up from the couch and slowly made her way towards the stairs

Spike hesitated in the hallway just outside Dawn’s door. Even without his vampiric hearing he could hear her sobbing softly inside. Perhaps it would be better if he just left the house rather than stirring up more trouble, he thought as he stood facing the door. He hadn’t meant to stir up more strife between the Slayer and her sister when he had made the deal with Hallie. He had simply wanted to remove the excuses that had made up such a huge roadblock for their relationship. Of course, he hadn’t really thought the Slayer would fall right into his arms the moment she discovered his newfound humanity. Oh, it had happened in his dreams, but it was time to be a realist. It just didn’t happen that way, and now Dawn was even more hopeful than he had been. She was hurting because of him, and he couldn’t just leave and let her to suffer.

“Bit?” he rapped on the door softly. Hoping the storm of emotions that had erupted just before she had come upstairs had calmed down; he turned to knob and slowly pushed the door open. He carefully poked his head into the room, all the while wishing he had a hat to poke in first like one of those cowboys on those horrible westerns he watched on Sunday mornings for lack of anything else better.

“What do you want?” Dawn growled sounding every bit as vicious as any vampire Spike had come across. “If Buffy’s with you, I don’t want to speak to her!”

Dawn was sitting on the middle of her bed clutching her pillow to her chest. Her eyes were red and puffy, but Spike was glad to see he had missed the brunt tearfest. It was hard enough trying to be the responsible one; her tears would have been his undoing. She sat on the bed her slender frame trembling slightly, her breath catching every now and then as she tried to calm down. She looked every bit like a normal teenage girl. No one would have ever expected her to have stood up to a hellgod or befriended a vampire.

“Don’t worry, Niblet, I’m alone,” he replied. She still held the pillow to her chest, so he took that as a sign that it was safe to cross the room and join her on the bed.

“Figures!” she snorted her brown eyes throwing the door an evil glare.

“What figures?” he asked.

“Figures, you’d be the one to come up and talk to me,” Dawn replied, “and she’d stay downstairs. Probably watching TV or trying figuring out the best way to slay a demon and still make it to the Bronze by nine. She never gives a crap about what I think.”

“That’s not true,” he sighed brushing a strand of chestnut hair from her cheek, “I told her I wanted to talk to you first…”

“Why? So you could keep me from yelling at her?” she snorted. “It’s not fair Spike. You go to all this trouble for her, and she doesn’t even care. She doesn’t even care that having you here makes me happy. It’s almost like having mom around again. Well, except that you’re not really the mom type, but you know what I mean. I mean, it kind of felt like having a family again. Not that I don’t care about Willow and the others, but it’s not like, well, like…”

“I know, Bit,” Spike smiled at her fondly. “I feel the same way about you, but I think we’re going to have to give Big Sis some time. It’ll just take some time for her to get used to the idea of me being around in the day time.”

“But what if she never gets used to it?” Dawn voiced the thing he feared most.

“Well, we’ve just got to hope she does,” he sighed. “You know I love her, and I know it. Your sister is a smart girl—we’ll leave Captain Cardboard out of the equation—it’s only a matter or time before she starts to see it herself.”

The little joke was enough to elicit a small smile from Dawn. He knew no matter how bad things seemed he could at least get Niblet to smile for him. Now if dealing with the Slayer could only be so easy.

“Don’t you ever get tired of picking on Riley?”

Spike looked towards the door to find the Slayer standing in the doorway. Her arms were crossed over her chest, but she there was a smile on her lips. He wondered just how long she had been standing there listening in on their conversation.

“Nope,” he smiled back at her. “It just never seems to get old, luv.”

“Well, maybe one of these days you’ll think of getting a new hobby,” Buffy sighed taking a few steps into the room. “Would you mind if I talked to Dawn alone for a little bit?”

He was slightly caught off guard. It was rare that the Slayer would ask him to leave the room rather than simply telling him to get out—okay, it never happened. “Sure, luv,” he replied throwing a hopeful looked over his shoulder at Dawn as he rose from the bed and headed for the door. “Just let me know if she gives you any trouble, and I’ll help you hold her down.”

“Yeah right,” she laughed. “Like Xander couldn’t kick your butt now.”

“That hurt, Slayer,” he laughed as he pulled the door shut behind him. “That really did.”

He stood outside the door for a moment wishing he still had retained the vampire hearing. He had insulted the ex, and instead of giving him the usual glare she had actually joked with him. He could only hope that meant that she was finally willing to give him a chance. Deciding it would probably be better that Buffy didn’t open the door and find him outside eavesdropping, he started for the stairs and headed for the kitchen in search of a nice relaxing cup of hot chocolate.





*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





“Mind if I sit down?” Buffy asked nervously. After Spike’s departure the air in the room suddenly started to feel heavy.

“Sure,” Dawn replied.

She sighed as she sat on the edge of the bed. It shouldn’t surprise her that Dawn wasn’t going to make this easy on her. You would think after all they had been through together talking should have been easy for them, but not when the topic was Spike. They always seemed to come up at odds when he was concerned.

“Look, Dawn, I’m sorry,” she started out slowly, really not sure what to say and afraid anything she did chose to say would just spark the fight all over again. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Well, you did,” she growled stubbornly looking down at the pillow. “Why do you always have to be so mean to him? We were having a good time before you showed up. No worrying about money or demons or social workers…”

“I know, and I am sorry, Dawn,” Buffy repeated. “I shouldn’t have blown up.”

“He only made the wish because he thought it would make you happy,” she pushed, “and you won’t even give him a chance.”

“Once again, I know,” she sighed. “I know you want to give him a chance, but we can’t forget he did make a wish. We have to keep an eye out for the after effect.”

“I know,” Dawn rolled her eyes towards the ceiling remembering the birthday party. How much longer was it going to take for her to live that one down? “But couldn’t we at least enjoy the peace and quiet until then? Couldn’t you just be the littlest bit nice to him?”

“Well, since he’s not a vampire anymore, I promise I won’t try to put a stake through his heart anymore,” she replied hoping to lighten the mood. Having a serious discussion about Spike with anyone made her extremely uncomfortable.

“Very funny,” Dawn groaned, but she did smile. “Come on, Buffy, can’t he stay, for a little while at least?”

“Fine,” she answered throwing her hands up in a sign of surrender, “he can stay. For a little while, and he will have to sleep on the couch. I doubt Willow would want to share mom’s room.”

“He could always…”

“Stop right there,” Buffy interrupted knowing exactly where her sister was heading. “I said I would be nice to him, but that is as far as it goes. He sleeps on the couch. Happy now?”

“Very,” Dawn giggled tossing the pillow aside. “Do you think that we could order a pizza? I’m starving.”

“Sure,” Buffy sighed as she followed her sister out of the room. She dreaded the thought of what she had just gotten herself into, but at least Dawn was happy again.

Buffy handed Spike her favorite childhood sheet set trying hard to fight down the blush rising in her cheeks when he glanced down at the embarrassing print and shot her one of his cocky grins. She still hadn’t managed to find the guest sheets her mom had tucked away somewhere in the house. It had been bad enough breaking them out for Giles, but getting them out for Spike made her want to find the nearest rock, crawl under it, and die.

She was tempted to tell him to go without—he did have his duster after all—but she knew Dawn wouldn’t stand for it. The last thing she wanted to do was give her sister a reason to blow up again. The evening had gone well after the first incident, although Buffy had sat quietly on the couch munching on her pizza for most of what was left of the evening. Unlike her sister, she couldn’t forget who Spike was—correction, had been.

Luckily, Willow had understood about their new houseguest when she arrived home. It had actually been Buffy who had brought the topic up. Surprisingly, when the Wicca had gotten home, helped herself to a slice of pizza, gave everyone her usual chipper hello, and headed up to her room to study. Buffy had expected at least a “What’s he doing here?”. It wasn’t like finding Spike at their house munching of pepperoni pizza was an every night occurrence, but apparently, Buffy was the only one having trouble accepting the vampire’s newly found humanity.

“Cute,” she heard him mutter as he tucked the sheet around the couch cushions.

“Sorry,” Buffy snapped, “I couldn’t find the big people sheets.”

“It’s okay, luv,” he laughed. “They are cute. You know, I find everything about you cute, if not down right…”

“Spike.” She placed a hand on his chest keeping him at arm’s length. A familiar tingle shot up through her fingers. It was simply the feeling of a beating heart under her hand, nothing more, she insisted silently. “You know this is only temporary, and there will be no physical contact.”

“Well, actually…” His blue eyes flickered down to her small hand still resting on his chest.

Buffy snatched her hand back with a growl. “You know what I mean!”

She quickly walked to the other side of the coffee table in an attempt to put a little distance between them. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to make any attempt to follow her she sat down on one of the chairs facing the couch sitting on the very edge of the cushion ready to dart for the stairs if she needed to.

“I’m sorry, if you think there’s going to be anything more,” she started out slowly really not wanting to have this conversation, but knowing she couldn’t let this go too long, “but this is only temporary. I know Dawn wants to be one big, happy family, and you think your getting a soul makes everything okay between us, but it doesn’t. It’s only a matter of time before that wish you made backfires, and I don’t even want to think what will happen when it does. You didn’t even think about that did you?”

“Buffy,” he sighed deciding to take a seat on the couch rather than try to touch her. He knew better than to push his luck when she was in this type of mood. She was apt to start sparing with him, and he had a feeling her kicks and punches would hurt a lot worse now that he was human. “Did you ever think that there might not be consequences? Hallie took the wish back, kind of like when she took Dawn’s back and left us get out of the house. I haven’t seen any side effects of that one yet.”

Buffy had to admit he did have a point. She really hated when he was right, but it still didn’t clear things up. They might not have to worry about any mystical kickbacks, but that didn’t mean there weren’t going to be any other problems.

“Okay, so say nothing does happen,” she replied, “what about Dawn’s caseworker? Remember her? I still have child services breathing down my neck. I barely was able to explain why you were here the first time. It’s going to be just a little tough to explain why you are living here.”

He grinned at her again and she knew she wasn’t going to like his answer before he even said it. “Well, we could always get married. Dawn could use a strong male role model…”

“That is not even close to funny,” she growled her fingers clenching the arms of the chair in an effort to keep herself from punching him. “Not to mention, I have Warren and his little friends to worry about. I really don’t have room to fit taking care of you into my schedule too.”

“You don’t have to take care of me! Halfrek didn’t turn me into a soddin’ baby!” he protested. “Besides, I can help you with your little want to be villains. I still have my connections in the demon world.”

“Connections that could easily kill you now that you’re human,” she reminded him. “I’m not going to have you going out there and getting yourself killed because of me.”

“Well, it’s nice to know that the wish wasn’t a total waste,” he sighed.

“What?” Buffy asked a look of confusion taking over the angry one she had been wearing.

He gave her a small, satisfied smile as he leaned back on the couch and propped his feet on the coffee table. “You might be too damned stubborn to admit that you have feelings for me, but at least, it finally got you to admit that you’re concerned.”

“I did not…” she quickly cut off her denial. She was concerned for him, and she had already said as much. It was too late to take it back now. She hated how he always seemed to know the right buttons to push to make her angry. She never was good at keeping her mouth shut when she was upset. “Fine, I don’t want to see you dead, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have a problem here.”

“It’s only a problem because you want it to be, Slayer,” he pushed. “Why don’t you just accept that this is something you can’t change? Maybe it would help if you’d just stop worrying about every little thing that comes along, and…”

“And what?” she snapped jumping up from the chair. “Fall deeply in love with you? I’m sorry, but that might make you and Dawn happy, but it’s not going to pay the bills, keep a roof over our heads, or keep Warren and his friends from doing whatever it is they’re planning on doing. If I don’t worry, nobody else is going to do it for me!”

“Buffy,” he called after her as left the room. He wanted to take her into his arms, tell her everything would be all right, but she had more than let him know that now was not the time. Instead he forced himself to be patient and remained on the couch. “I’m just asking you to give me a chance.”

Buffy paused at the foot of the stairs and looked back at him over her shoulder. “I am giving you a chance Spike. I’m letting you stay in my home, but that’s as far as it goes. I’m sorry if you thought being human would solve all our problems, but it doesn’t. I’m the Slayer, and I have to take care of Dawn, meaning I can’t be involved with anyone, not you, not anyone. I think my past track record proves that my relationships only tend to lead to more problems, and I have more than enough now as it is.”

Buffy didn’t wait for him to reply. Instead, she darted up the stairs before he was able to voice yet another argument. Spike waited until he heard the door to her room thud shut before he moved. Slowly, he stood up and returned to making his makeshift bed. Their little conversation had gone far from well, but it had gone better than most discussions they had had in the past. She had actually admitted that she cared for him. Okay, she had admitted she didn’t want him dead, but he’d take what he could get. Best of all, she hadn’t kicked him out, which meant he still had a chance.

Buffy stifled a yawn as she entered the kitchen. There was no need to let everyone know how little sleep she had managed to get the night before. She had tossed and turned most of the night until she had finally fallen asleep out of sheer exhaustion. She had actually gotten up once or twice, but had managed to catch herself before she had opened the bedroom door. She had been harsh with Spike—probably more that he deserved—but even he couldn’t deny she was right. She had to get on with her life and make Dawn her first priority. She couldn’t get involved in another relationship, even if he wad human now. It wasn’t exactly like her track record was all that good to begin with. Dawn needed something normal and stable, with an older sister who was the Slayer that was next to impossible as it was. No matter how guilty she felt she just couldn’t let herself get involved with anyone.



“I don’t remember them forecasting a hurricane on the news last night,” Buffy plastered a fake smile on her lips as she took in the state of the kitchen.



Thankfully, she had the night off from the Palace, since she’d probably be spending the day cleaning the kitchen. Apparently, someone had decided to make breakfast judging from all the dirty dishes piled in and around the sink, various smudges of pancake batter decorating the counter, the floor, pretty much everywhere, an the small stack of blackened discs sitting on the plate on the island in the center of the kitchen.



“We, um, were making breakfast,” Willow confirmed from her post in front of the stove.



“We were going to surprise you,” Dawn pouted vainly trying to brush a few spots of dried batter from the red sweater she was wearing. “Spike thought you would like breakfast in bed.”



“Breakfast in bed?” Buffy gazed angrily as the blond ex-vampire sitting on a stool next to the island in the center of the kitchen. She just bet that’s what he thought she would like in bed! He was relatively clean in comparison to the other two. She must not have been harsh enough the night before, she decided.



“Nothing’s too good for my Slayer,” Spike added with a smirk.



“Sorry about the mess,” Will chimed in. The sparkle in her brown eyes left Buffy no doubt that she hadn’t missed the “my” in Spike’s comment. “Tara made this look a lot easier than it actually is.”



“Don’t worry. We’ll clean everything up,” Dawn added. Her smile nearly broke her older sister’s heart. If only things could be as simple as Dawn thought they were.



“Sure, kiddo,” she replied with a smile as she leaned against the counter and picked up one of the blackened pancakes. She examined it for a moment and then dropped it back on the pile with the others. “How about you take Spike into the living room. I’m sure there’s a talk show or something on that he wouldn’t want to miss.”



“But we’re not finished making breakfast,” the girl objected. “I’m sure the next batch will turn out better, well, at least, edible.”



“That’s okay,” Buffy ventured another look at the dark circles lying on the plate. “Really. I think a cup of coffee will be plenty.”



“But…”



“Come on, Bit,” Spike rose from his seat and gave the door a brief nod. “I think that’s a hint that we should leave. Girl talk is about to commence.”



Dawn’s brown eyes darted from her sister to Spike. She paused a moment as if deciding on a good excuse to stay and then with a sigh she gave up and followed her friend to the living room.



Willow took the pan from the burner and added it, half-cooked pancakes and all, to the stack in the sink. She rounded the counter and pulled the chair Spike had just vacated next to the Slayer.



“So, um,” the Wicca plopped down smiling with fake enthusiasm, “sorry about the kitchen. Spike suggested breakfast in bed might cheer you up. I didn’t think the yummy goodness would turn into such a messy disaster.”



“It’s okay, Will,” she answered. “It’s the thought that counts. That’s not what’s wrong.”



“Then what’s the matter?” Willow asked fingering one of the pancakes nervously. Since she had come back, Buffy never really opened up about anything. If Buffy was willing to talk about what was bothering her, then it had to be something big.



“You know,” she sighed still not feeling particularly comfortable about discussing the topic.



“Well,” she dropped the charred pancake and brushed her hands together briskly, “if it’s not the breakfast that didn’t want to be, my best guess would be Spike.”



“Who else has made it their mission to annoy me?” confirmed Buffy.



“So what’s wrong, Buffy? I mean other than the normal sarcasm, he seems to be on his best behavior.”



“Sure, he’s just been a real peach, hasn’t he?” her eyes rolled towards the ceiling. “Don’t you mind that he’s staying here?”



“Mind?” Willow nibbled her lower lip considering her answer. “Well, I..I suppose not. I mean, he is human now. He really shouldn’t be living in that crypt. It really wouldn’t be fair to spend your first week as a human after a century with a nasty case of the sniffles.”



“So, it really doesn’t bother you?” she pushed, her unwavering stare making Willow shift uncomfortably on her seat.



“Well, I guess not. It’s kind of weird him walking around in the daytime and all, but I suppose I don’t have a problem with it,” she paused a moment to study her friend still as confused as ever. “Should it bother me?”



The blond studied her hands that were clasped together so tightly on the countertop that the knuckles were turning an unnatural shade of white. Slowly her eyes drifted up to meet her friend’s gaze. Her look was pleading as if she was willing her friend to say it for her.



“Will,” she started slowly, “don’t you wonder why he did it?”



“Well, yeah, I suppose so,” she replied, “but he loves you, Buffy. I just figured he did it for you. It’s kind of romantic.”



“Romantic?” Buffy scoffed. “Think about it, Will. He’s claimed to love me for a while. Why now?”



“Buffy, what are you trying to say?” she asked still fighting to understand what her friend was getting at.



“I…nothing,” she sighed. “I really shouldn’t be bugging you with this.”



Willow laid her hand on the Slayer’s wrist before she could bolt from the room. “No, Buffy, bug me. Really, if it’s bothering you, then you should talk about it.”

“Will, I…” she blinked her eyes rapidly trying to hold back the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. She shouldn’t have even started on this topic, but she was just so tired of pretending that everything was all right.



“You have enough on your mind,” Buffy continued. “You should be worrying about Tara. You shouldn’t have to worry about me too.”



“But I want to worry,” she gave her friend a weak smile. “I miss Tara, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not here for you too. Just tell me.”



“I…” she took a deep, unsteady breath and squared her shoulders. “I broke up with him, Will.”



“Well, I guess that would upset him. I know how I felt when Tara left, and… Wait.” Willow’s eyes grew round with understanding. “You need to be with someone to break up with them. You were with Spike?”



“Yeah,” she answered her voice hardly louder than a whisper.



“Buffy!” her grip tightened on the Slayer’s arm. “When? How? I mean.. No, um, you really don’t need to give details.”



“You’re disgusted with me, aren’t you?” she couldn’t look Will in the eye as she withdrew her arm from the Wiccan’s vice-like grip. “I’m sorry, I just needed someone to talk to, and Tara wasn’t around.”



“No…no, it’s not that! I’m glad you said something. Really, you must…wait…Tara knows? Have you told Xander? Anya?”



“No!” Buffy’s eyes snapped up. “No, Will, they can’t know. Xander would never understand. What I did was so wrong.”



“Oh, sweetie, no,” Willow forced herself to stay put. She wanted to give her friend a hug, but judging from her expression, that was the last thing Buffy wanted. “How do you feel? I mean, it’s not wrong if you care about him.”



“That’s what Tara said,” she wiped the back of her hand across her eyes and tried to force a smile.



“Well, she’s right, Buffy,” Will smiled back even though she was still feeling extremely uncomfortable. “You, ah, you love him, don’t you?”



“I…” she studied the ceiling for a moment. She knew this question was coming. Why did everyone think it was so simple? “That doesn’t matter. This is Spike, remember?”



“He’s human now,” Will reminded her. “He did it for you.”



“And the wish could backfire at any time. Even if it doesn’t, how do I explain him living here?” she pleaded. “You know how happy that caseworker was when I tried to explain you and Tara. Dawn deserves something normal.”



“We live on a Hellmouth, Buff. I think we’ve got it about as normal as it gets. Besides, Dawn seems pretty happy he’s around. So which do you want? A happy teenager or a normal miserable one?”



“You make it sound so simple,” Buffy sighed. The lack of sleep was quickly catching up with her.



Her eyes searched Buffy’s face for a moment. Realizing the conversation was over, Willow slowly got to her feet and headed for the door.



She paused a moment before leaving the room glancing over her shoulder at her friend. Buffy hadn’t moved from her seat, sitting there just staring off into space.



“It’s only hard, because you want it to be,” Willow added before departing to join the others in the living room.



Buffy raised her fingers to her temples moving them in a slow circular motion. If being exhausted wasn’t enough, she was pretty sure she was on her way to experiencing her first migraine. She shouldn’t have told Willow about Spike, but it was just becoming too much to keep bottled up. Perhaps, she should have bared her soul to Xander. Sure, he would have been disgusted by her actions, but it was a sure bet he wouldn’t be joining Spike’s growing cheering section.



Buffy pushed back from the counter with a groan. She had to stop obsessing about the bleached blond ex-vampire before she drove herself insane. She left her eyes take in the kitchen one last time as she rose to her feet. She had at least a few hours of housework ahead of her to keep her mind occupied.



After a brief hesitation, she followed Willow into the living room. She was far from anxious to confront Spike again, but she couldn’t hide in the kitchen forever.



They made such a normal picture sitting there watching the television. An outsider would never have expected that they were looking at a Wiccan battling a magic addiction, an ageless, mystic Key, and an ex-vampire. Both Will and Spike sat comfortably on either end of the couch. While Dawn lounged on the floor leaning back against Spike’s leg. Buffy focused on the empty space in the middle of the couch. How easy it would be to fill that space, to let him put his arm around her, lay her head on his shoulder, just forget who she really was, but she knew she couldn’t. How many times had she tried to pretend she was something normal, only to have everything blow up in her face?



“So, anything good on TV?” she asked leaning against a nearby chair. She forced her lips into a smile hoping her eyes weren’t too red.



“Just your usual daytime fare,” Dawn replied rolling her eyes a bit. “The usual high school dramas, game shows, talk shows about strippers…I mean good, wholesome educational shows on PBS>”



“You’re letting her watch stripper?” her eyebrows rose in mock shock as she crossed her arms over her chest and took on her best parental “you’re going to get such a lecture” stance.



“The Bit’s got the remote, luv. We’re at her mercy,” Spike replied with a smirk. “Although, they did have some very educational ideas on the uses of chocolate syrup. I could fill you in, if…”



“In your dreams,” she tossed him a glare and then turned back to her sister. “I think you have a kitchen waiting to be cleaning.”



“Hey, breakfast was Spike’s idea,” Dawn pouted as she headed back to the disaster area in the kitchen.



“Don’t worry, you’ll have help in a minute,” she called after her sister. “So, are we up for another research session tonight?”



“Um, I think we’re pretty burnt on the old research thing,” Willow replied.



“Still trying to find a way to get rid of me, pet?” Spike growled angrily reverting his eyes back to the television.



“The world does not revolve around you,” she snapped. “We really need to find out what Warren and company are up to.”



“Yeah, but they’ve been really quietly lately,” Willow sighed. “We thought we’ take a night off. Maybe go to the Bronze. Besides Anya and Xander could use a night away from the wedding planning.”



Buffy nibbled on her lower lip. She had forgotten about the upcoming wedding. As if she didn’t feel guilty enough, now she was making her friends stress out too. She had been making a point to throw herself into her work and her slaying to forget her problems. She hadn’t even noticed that she was forcing her friends to do the same.



“I’m sorry, Will,” she managed a weak smile. “You’re right. You guys do deserve a night off.”



“Well, you can come too,” Will replied quickly. “No play makes Buffy a dull girl.”



“That’s okay. You guys go and have fun,” she dropped into the chair absently watching the television. “I think I’m going to do a quick patrol. I haven’t really been keeping up with the Slayer duties.”



“I’ll go with you,” Spike suggested.



“No,” Buffy snapped shooting her houseguest a glare hoping to cover up the nervousness creeping around in the pit of her stomach at the prospect of spending the evening alone with him. It was so much easier to keep him at arm’s length when her friends were around.



“What do you mean ‘no’?” he demanded. “I can help you…”



“That was before you decided to be human again.”



“Now, you’re going to gripe about me being human?” his blue eyes narrowed as his hands curled into tight fists. “You’re the one who said you couldn’t love me because I was a soulless thing!”



Willow’s eyes flickered nervously between the two. Quickly, she rose to her feet and followed Dawn to the kitchen. “I, uh, I think I hear Dawn calling for some help.”



“I didn’t ask you to go out soul shopping!” she growled not even glancing away from the man on the couch as her friend left the room. “I’m just saying you’re human now. You won’t be able to protect yourself.”



“Construction boy is human too,” he reminded her. “You let him go out and wander in the dark.”



“Xander has experience fighting demons…”



“Experience?” Spike scoffed. “Hello, Slayer, I was a demon for a hundred years. I think I might be qualified! Besides, I really need to stop by the crypt for a change of clothes. Unless, you enjoy the smell…”



“Fine!” Buffy snapped. “But be ready to go at eight, or I’m going alone!”

Buffy paced before the front door twirling her stake between her fingers. She fought the urge to fling the piece of wood in the wall. They definitely couldn’t afford to pay for a re-plaster job on top of the other bills. Spike was already five minutes late, and Willow was still home. If she would have just kept her mouth shut that morning, she could have taken off, and no one would have been the wiser. As it was the idea wasn’t looking all that bad, even if Dawn and Willow would berate her in the morning for not giving him a chance.



“No Spike yet?’



Buffy spun around to find Willow coming down the stairs. She was dressed in a thick, sleeveless blue sweater and a pair of low riding black pants. The outfit was rather daring for Willow, but Buffy was fairly certain she had picked out the outfit for Tara’s benefit.



“Apparently being punctual did not come with the soul,” the Slayer growled now tapping the stake against her thigh.



“Maybe he’s just trying to make himself all beautiful for your date,” Will teased as she stepped off the last step.



“That is so far from funny, Will,” her lips thinned into a disapproving line. “This is a patrol, most definitely not a date.”



“Oh, call it what you will,” her friend smiled broadly ignoring the glare she was getting. “You, Spike, moonlight… Sounds romantic to me.”



“Cemetery, vampires, open graves,” she ticked each item off on the fingers of her empty hand.



“Okay, okay,” Willow raised her hands in surrender. “It’s work. Don’t worry if you feel like putting in a little overtime. I won’t wait up!”



Buffy opened her mouth to deny Will’s comments, but the Wicca escaped out the door before she could think of something to say. She slammed the stake on the hallway table in frustration causing the phone to rattle in protest.



“Spike!” she called up the stairs. “Get you ass down here, or I’m leaving without you!”





****









Spike peered at his reflection in the bathroom mirror as he ran a comb through his platinum locks. He had always gone to quite a bit of trouble with his appearance when he was going to see the Slayer, but being able to see the results was something rather novel.



He ran the comb slowly over his head studying each platinum strand as it fell into place. He had to admit seeing the shade for the first time. It was a rather interesting tint. He frowned slightly leaning over the sink to study his reflection closer. It must have been a trick of the light making a few of the strands here and there appear lighter than the rest, almost white even.



“Spike!”



He dropped the comb into the sink as the sound of Buffy’s voice rolled up the stairs, loud even through the closed door. He pulled himself away from the image in the mirror and exited the small room. Becoming human must have turned him into an idiot too. Buffy was waiting downstairs, actually waiting for him, and there he was wasting time obsessing over hair care.



****





“Finally,” Buffy rolled her eyes as he descended the stairs. “I could have sworn I said eight o’clock.”



“Like you’re Ms. Punctuality,” he shot back as he grabbed his duster from the banister and shrugged in on over his shoulders. “Excuse me for getting ready.”



“We’re going out to kill demons, or did you forget?” she snapped snatching her stake from the table. “They really don’t care if your hair is out of place.”



Spike winced slightly at her comment as he followed the petite blond out the door. Had she also noticed what he had seen in the mirror?



“Actually, luv,” he replied falling into step just behind her, “I’ve met quite a few demons who find their appearance quite important.”



“Kind of like Clem?” she shot back ignoring his lightly veiled shot at Angel.



“Hey, quite a few lady demons find Clem quite a catch,” Spike objected.



“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose,” Buffy sighed as she stepped through the cemetery gates. Clem seemed nice enough from the few times she had met him, but his “skin condition: could not really be teamed as attractive. “Can we please not talk anymore?”



“You brought it up,” he pointed out.



“I did not,” she snapped trying to keep her attention focused on the shadows and tombstones before her. “You were the one locked up in the bathroom half the night.”



“And I’m sure you just roll out of bed with that perfect hair and makeup,” he added one eyebrow rising up mockingly as his eyes roamed slowly down her body. How he loved watching her face flush with color when she was angry.



“Can we just drop it already!” Buffy clenched her teeth so tightly she thought they would crack.



“Fine,” he replied. “Where’s the Bit tonight? You didn’t send her off with Red for a beer or two?”



“No!” Buffy’s eyes rolled towards the sky. Was there any topic they couldn’t argue about? “She’s spending the night over at Janice’s.”



“Janice?” he paused to think a moment. “As in Halloween Janice?”



“Don’t worry,” she growled. “I made Janice’s mom come and pick her up. They’re not going to take any late night strolls. Thanks for your confidence in my parenting skills.”



“Not a problem, pet,” he smirked. “Just worry about Niblet is all. Don’t want to see her getting in with a bad crowd again.”



“I repeat,” she sighed. “Don’t worry about it. She’s my responsibility, and I am keeping and eye on her.”



“I didn’t say you weren’t. I just want her to stay safe, no little beasties at her neck,” he held up his hands partially in a sign of surrender and partially expecting the fists to start flying. This was usually the point where he ended up holding his nose grimacing in pain.



“I know,” Buffy replied quietly, “Can we not talk about this…anything, please. I’m here to do my job. Well, one of them anyway, and I’d really concentrate on not getting dead.”



His eyes widen in shock, and he felt the urge to look about the cemetery for alien body snatchers. It wasn’t like the Slayer to give up on their arguments so easily, not that he minded the non-pain aspect.



“Right, luv,” he replied searching the inside pocket of his duster for his cigarettes, “but I’ve never known you to dispatch an evil baddie without your fair share of jaunty banter.”



“God, Spike,” she glared at him getting even angrier with him for causing her to raise her voice while on patrol, “ do you ever…Look out!”



“What?” Spike gasped as the wind was knocked out of him He was about to curse at the Slayer for crushing his last cigarette and sending his favorite lighter wherever it might have landed, when the pain actually began to register. He glanced down at his shoulder to see four long nasty claw marks showing through his t-shirt. Behind him, he could hear Buffy fighting off whatever nasty had managed to sneak up on them while they were in the midst of their discussion. Slowly he got to his feet cursing the pain in his shoulder and his damned human hearing. He should have heard the big lumbering demon from halfway across the cemetery.



“Need a little help, luv?” he asked trying desperately to hide the grimace as he ran his fingers over the scratches on his shoulder. “I could hold him down for you or something.”



“Nope,” Buffy replied with a little smile as she managed to get her arm around the thing’s thick blue neck. She was actually enjoying having something to focus her attention on rather than work, teenage little sisters, or trouble with ex-vampires. “Think I got it handled.”



She pulled the demon’s horned head to the right a small smile coming to her lips when she heard a satisfied popping sound coming from its neck. It hadn’t nearly been the biggest battle of her life, but it had been just what she needed.



“Nice work, luv,” Spike declared looking down at the blue demon at the Slayer’s feet.



“Yeah, well, I…” her eyes drifted to his shoulder. “You’re hurt.”



“Just a scratch,” Spike replied with a shrug. This time he failed to hide the grimace as the pain squeezed through his shoulder and down into his arm.



“It’s not nothing,” Buffy stepped over the demon’s body and closed the distance between them. Carefully, she pushed back the bit of t-shirt covering the wound. The cuts weren’t all that deep, probably wouldn’t even need stitches, but she was sure he’d be quite sore for a while.



“It’s just a scratch,” he insisted. He was going to go running home to mummy over a little cut or two, but he had to admit he was enjoying her sudden concern for his wellbeing.



“Just a scratch that could get infected. You’re human now, remember?” she reminded him. “No more super healing powers.”



Luv,” he placed a finger under her chin gently urging her to look into his eyes, “I will be fine.”



“I…I…” she stammered feeling his gaze almost like a caress as his lips lowered to hers. “Spike, I…”



The rest of her sentence was lost against his lips as he tugged her behind the nearest crypt. She could have easily have stopped him, but she was so tired of fighting, and the feel of his hands running lightly down her spine to cup her bottom had all of her attention at the moment.







****







“Spike?” Buffy pushed a few stray hairs from her eyes as she leaned heavily against the cool stone of the crypt.



“Don’t say a word, Slayer,” he growled angrily cursing beneath his breath as he pulled his jeans back into place. “I don’t want to hear it!”



“Don’t be mad, Spike,” she insisted ignoring his protest. She stepped forward and placed her hands lightly on his shoulders. “It’s alright, really! It happens to all guys at one time or another. It’s no big deal.”



Spike shot a look over his shoulder that would have made even a master vampire run the other way. “It doesn’t happen to me,” he growled, “and I said I didn’t want to talk about it.”



Buffy sighed settling back against the crypt again as Spike stalked off towards home.

Buffy’s knee bounced uncontrollably while she sat on the edge of her bed staring at the door. There had been no sign of Spike when she had returned home. It hadn’t really been a surprise—not after what happened. He had probably dropped by Willy’s before coming home, and that only made her worry more. He wasn’t well liked there to begin with since his discovery that he could still hurt demons in spite of the chip. She dreaded the idea of what would happen if word got out about Spike’s newly found humanity.



Her ears perked at the sound of steps coming down the hallway toward her door. He was obviously drunk—stomping down the hall not caring if he woke up the entire house.



“Spike!” she growled as the door shot open prepared to berate him for being so loud. “Dawn?”



“What did you do to him?” the teenager demanded slamming the door shut behind her.



“Dawn,” she repeated trying to keep her voice steady, “what are you doing home?”



“Janice and her mom had a fight, so I came home,” Dawn supplied as she stood by the door with her arms crossed tightly over her chest and tapped her foot angrily. The sight would have been intimidating had she not been wearing a pair of blue flannel pj’s sporting a teddy bear design. “Now, are you going to tell me what you did to Spike?”



“It’s three a.m., Dawn,” she scolded glancing at the red glow of the alarm clock on her nightstand. “You know better than to go walking around Sunnydale at night by yourself.”



“Her mom drove me home,” the teenager snapped. “Would you quit avoiding the question!”



“I didn’t do anything to him,” Buffy sighed. Well, nothing she wanted to discuss with her little sister.



“I saw the marks on his shoulder…”



“You saw Spike?” she demanded turning her full attention to her sister. “When? Where is he?”



“Like you care,” she snorted. “He’s downstairs. I went down to get a drink, and he came stumbling in. I asked him what was wrong, but all I could catch was your name before he passed out on the couch. So what happened?”



“Dawn, I didn’t do anything,” she replied quietly. “We were surprised in the cemetery by a demon. It managed to catch Spike before I got a chance to kill it.”



“Okay,” Dawn replied a little calmer now, but her foot continued tapping impatiently. “That explains the cuts, but he’s been attacked by demons before, and he didn’t go out and get sloshed. So what else happened? You didn’t start another fight with him, did you?”



“No. Well, nothing more than the usual,” she admitted drawing her legs up on the bed hoping her sister might get the idea that she wanted to go to bed, and then she could go downstairs and check on Spike. “We were talking, the demon attacked, I killed it, and then…and then end of story.”



Dawn eyed her sister suspiciously as she curled up on the bed against the pillows and stifled a yawn. She knew there was more to it than that, and she wasn’t leaving until she got the whole story. Slowly she crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed net to her sister.



“Not end of story,” she sighed. “Now, come on, Buffy, spill. What else happened?”



“Dawn, I really don’t want to talk about it,” she protested. “It wasn’t anything…”



“Meaning you don’t want to talk to little sister about it,” Dawn broke in giving the Slayer her harshest glare.



“It’s not that, Dawn,” Buffy insisted. “It’s just that it’s…it’s about…”



“About sex.” Dawn finished her sentence making Buffy wince in response. “Come on, Buffy, it’s not like I haven’t figured it out. You had sex with Spike. You can talk to me about it. I’m fifteen. I do know a little about the subject.”



Buffy looked at her sister deciding what to do. Discussing sex with her sister—with anyone—was really not an appealing idea, but she did feel like talking to someone. Spike was unconscious, and Willow hadn’t returned home apparently spending the night with Tara. Still discussing the subject with Dawn was taking an effort.



“Fine,” Buffy relented all the air exiting her lungs in one long sigh. She couldn’t believe she was going to tell Dawn this, but it wasn’t like she hadn’t already figured out what her sister and Spike had been up to. “Spike and I had…we…”



“Had sex?” Dawn supplied helpfully.



“Yes, well, no,” she continued—and she thought conversations with Spike could be unnerving. “Not exactly. Do you have to be so blunt?”



“You’re rambling,” Dawn smiled encouragingly. “So what happened to make Spike so upset?”



She studied her trembling hands as she twisted her fingers together. Things had been so much easier when she had been seeing the vampire in secret. She had felt guilty, but that was nothing in comparison to the embarrassment she felt having this little sisterly chat.



“It wasn’t me,” she insisted. “Well, I don’t think it was. Everything was fine, and then he just couldn’t.”



“What do you mean couldn’t?” Dawn asked catching the look on her older sister’s face. “Oh, you mean couldn’t.”



“Yeah,” she sighed. “I don’t know what happened. It just didn’t happen, and then he took off.”



“Well, it’s probably nothing, Buffy,” she told her giving her a hug. “He’s been stressed out lately, becoming human, dealing with the gang. I’m sure it wasn’t your fault.”



“I know, but…”



“No but’s. I’m sure things will be better in the morning,” Dawn gave her a smile that reminded her of their mom, “as she crossed the room to the door. “I’m going to get some sleep, and Buffy, thanks.”



“For what?”



“For not talking to me like I was a little kid and for giving Spike a chance. Night, Buffy,” she answered as she left the room to leave Buffy to lie on her bed wondering who confused her more—the ex-vampire sleeping it off on her couch or her sister’s newly found maturity.





***







“Good morning, sunshine,” Buffy gave the blond sitting at the island in the kitchen with his fingers wrapped around a nearly empty glass of water a smile. She was rather surprised to see him conscious considering the shape he had come home in. It was obvious from his expression he was enjoying the full effects of the past evening and his present state of health made her decide that jumping into a discussion about their relationship was probably not the best idea.



“How are we feeling today?” she asked reaching into the fridge and pulling out a carton of orange juice.



“Don’t ask,” he groaned gripping the glass a little tighter.



She pulled a glass out of the cupboard and poured herself a healthy dose of juice. He definitely looked miserable as he closed his eyes and rubbed his temples slowly.



“I take it vampire Spike didn’t get hangovers?” she asked keeping her voice low, remembering how she had felt after her drinking binge after the geek trio had decided to start screwing with her life.



“Feeling like death warmed over when you’re already dead wasn’t all that bad,” he replied, his voice raspy. “Just all kind of blended together.”



“I can get you an aspirin,” she offered. “I always have a fairly large supply on hand.”



“What’s with the Florence Nightingale routine, luv?” he eyed her suspiciously. “Not complaining or anything, mind you.”



“Just concerned, I suppose,” she turned quickly trying to hide the redness rising in her cheeks and began to search for her supply of aspirin. “I’m planning on heading over to the Magick Shop later.”



“Still looking for a way to get rid of me?” he grumbled.



“No,” she replied placing the pills on the counter next to his glass of water. “I do want to see if Anya’s found out about any kickbacks from your wish, but I need to check and see if we’ve made any progress on finding Warren and company, and I want to check on that demon we ran into last night. It’s probably nothing, but I’d still like to check it out.”



“Sounds like a fun-filled day,” he commented pooping a couple of white tablets into his mouth.



“Yeah” she replied between sips of juice, “the exciting life of a Slayer. You don’t have to come though. I mean, if you’re not feeling up to it.”



“No, I’ll go,” Spike replied not sounding overly excited about the idea. “Just give me some time to feel human again.”



She smiled behind the rim of her glass. It was definitely a comment she never thought she would hear coming from Spike’s mouth. “That will give me time to grab a shower.”

Buffy entered the Magick Shop and instantly went into happy mode. It wasn’t like anything had really happened between her and Spike—a lot more had occurred when he had been a vampire—and it wasn’t like the majority of the Scoobies didn’t already know about what had happened, but it was just force of habit. Besides, Xander didn’t know yet, and she was fairly sure he wouldn’t be nearly as accepting as Will and Tara.



“Hey, guys!” she called to Xander and Anya who were standing behind the counter going over the reception’s seating plan for the thousandth time as she and Spike joined the two Wiccas at the table. The table was piled high with various dusty old tomes, which the two girls had already searched through in their latest research-fest.



“Hey, Buffy,” Xander looked up from the plan obviously happy for the diversion from the wedding planning, “and you’ve brought Spike. I thought he would have moved back to his crypt by now.”



“Nice to see you again to, Harris,” Spike growled as he slumped into a chair at the table.



“Okay, guys,” the Slayer cut in. She knew Spike was still suffering from the remnants of his hangover, and she really wasn’t in the mood for another of their verbal battles. “Let’s just move on. We’ve got things to talk about.”



“Yes, we’ve come to quite an impasse on the seating arrangement,” Anya added. “Xander thinks we should keep the humans and demons at separate tables, but then how are they going to mingle? Mingling is a very important part of the reception experience.”



“Ahn, I think Buffy was referring more to the Slayer type business,” Xander explained.



"Actually, I was wondering if you might have heard from Halfrek yet?” the Slayer asked taking a seat next to the Spike.



“Well, she did RSVP for the wedding,” Anya supplied, “but that was before the whole human thing. It’s really difficult to call a Vengeance Demon when you’re not making a wish.”



“Well, we really can’t make another wish,” she sighed. “Just keep trying, okay? Any news on Warren, Will?”



“Nothing so far,” the redhead replied with an impatient sigh from the far side of the table. She was getting rather discouraged with their lack of progress on the situation. “They’re being pretty quiet lately.”



“Which is what worries me. Quiet usually means plotting,” Buffy added. She hated the inactivity. Peace and quiet in Sunnydale was rarely a good thing. It usually meant the nasties of the week were holed up plotting and planning, and there was something big coming up right around the corner.



“And in the meantime, we enjoy some well-earned R&R,” Xander added grinning broadly.



“Actually, I’ve got more research for you,” Buffy replied.



“Should have known,” he sighed rolling his eyes in mock exhaustion. “No rest for the Scoobies.”



“Did you find something on patrol?” Willow asked shooting Xander an impatient look.



“Well, it’s probably nothing, but with all that’s been going on we probably should check it out,” she replied. “We ran into big blue demon.”



“Runaway Smurf on steroids?” Xander suggested.



“Minus the cheery, smurfy attitude,” Buffy replied.



“This one had a fondness for slashing things,” Spike added touching his injured shoulder gingerly.



“So we’re looking for a large Smurf in a bad mood?” Tara asked flipping absently through one of the heavy volumes on the table.



“He had horns and red eyes,” Buffy added helpfully. Unfortunately that was the best description she could come up with since her attention had been otherwise occupied during the dispatching said demon.



“Don’t worry,” Willow grabbed a book putting on her determined, studious face, “give us a couple of hours and we’ll have all the specifics on the latest big nasty.”



“Right then,” Spike quickly got up from the table as the Wiccas started pulling out various texts and headed toward the door at the back of the store, “I’m not big on the research end. If you find something I’ll be in the training room.”



Xander came out from behind the counter and joined the girls at the table. “So how come dead boy gets out of the book detail?”



“Take it easy, Xander,” Buffy snapped keeping her gaze on the texts lying scattered about on the table. “He had a rough night.”



“And he’s not dead anymore!” Willow reminded him.



“Alive or dead, he’s still a pain in the ass,” he grumbled. “I don’t know why you’re letting him stick around, Buffy. He’s only doing this to worm his way into your house. It’s just him trying to get you to be a part of his sick fantasies.”



“Xander!” Tara gasped with a slight shake of her head to signal it was time to knock his tirade off.



“Thank you for your insight, Xander,” the Slayer snapped rising from the table every muscle in her body tense. “Spike is human now, because he loves me. The least I can do is look out for him.”



Buffy gave Xander a cold glare before following the ex-vampire into the training room. The door swung shut with a resounding thud as Xander shot the two girls sitting on the far side of the table a questioning look.



“What did I say?” he whined.



“Don’t ask,” Willow grumbled looking down at the book in front of her.



“What?” he insisted turning his attention towards Tara since the redhead was making an obvious attempt to ignore him.



“You put your foot into your mouth again, Xander!” Anya told him putting the seating plan between the pages of her latest bridal magazine.



“What?’ he asked again. “I always pick on Spike.”



Anya rolled her eyes in frustration. “Do you always have to be so dense? It’s obvious that she likes him.”





***





The Slayer entered the training room to find Spike sitting on a pile of mats. He slowly unwrapped the athletic tape from his knuckles and clenched his fingers into a fist with a painful grimace.



“You okay?” she asked settling onto the mats next to him being careful to keep at least a bit of distance between them.



“Yeah, fine,” he sighed tossing the tape on the floor. “Hands are a little sore, that’s all. Still suffering from the bloody hangover, I suppose.”



“Um, Spike, you don’t get sore hands from a hangover.”



“I don’t know,” he growled. “They’re just sore. Give up on the book club?”



“They’re still at it,” she replied with a shrug as she leaned back against the wall. “Not really my thing.”



“So, you thought you’d go slumming, Slayer?” he shot her a glare.



“Knock it off Spike,” she sighed refusing to take the bait. “I’m not in the mood to fight.”



“Really?” His lips turned into a playful smirk and she could feel that annoying little jolt of electricity piercing her stomach. “So what are you here for?”



“Not that either,” she laughed nervously. Her body was quickly answering otherwise. “I thought we could talk.”



“Talk?” he asked looking rather surprised by her suggestion. “That’s something new. What’s got you in such a generous mood, pet?”



“Look, I’m trying to apologize here,” she growled.



“You? Apologize?” he scoffed and silently scolded himself for doing so. Buffy might actually be willing to give him a chance, and he was going to ruin it by being confrontational.



“Do you think you could make this just a little harder?” she sighed. She refused to lose her temper no matter how much he pushed. “I don’t want to fight anymore. I know I’ve been—difficult lately, and I’m sorry. We’re stuck together for a while, so can we at least try to get along?”



“I’m willing to give it a shot,” he replied with a smile. This time it wasn’t one of his habitual smirks, but a genuine smile. “If you’ll have dinner with me tonight.”



“A date?’ she laughed. The thought of herself and Spike on a date was a rather funny picture.



“Well, we’ve done practically everything else,” he added. He had to admit is seemed like a rather silly proposal considering what they had been up to in the last few weeks, but it couldn’t hurt. At least, he would get to spend some time with her. “Why not? Be seen in public, you know, the normal stuff that couples do.”



“I never said we were a couple,” she reminded him, “but fine. As long as we go nowhere near the Palace.”





TBC…

“So big date tonight?” Dawn asked between mouthfuls of chips as she plopped down on her sister’s bed ignoring the warning look she got for snacking on the bed.



“No.” Buffy turned back to the mirror and continued primping. “They’ve actually instated a formal dress code for patrolling. It was kind of hard to get the vamps to agree, but…”



“Very funny.” Her brown eyes rolled towards the ceiling. “Now, why don’t you tell me about what you and Spike plan on doing tonight?”



“Who said I’m going out with Spike?” she asked but the smile reflected in the mirror assured Dawn she was right.



“Well, actually Spike told me,” Dawn replied. “He seemed sort of happy today, so I asked him what was going on.”



“Should have known I couldn’t keep anything from my nosey sister,” the Slayer teased.



“I’m not nosey!” She shot her sister’s reflection a hurt look. “I can’t help it you came up in conversation. I’m glad you’re actually treating him like a person and not a disaster waiting to happen.”



“Yeah, well, I haven’t forgotten the wish,” she sighed turning from the mirror, “but he’s been trying so hard, and I think we could both use a night off.”



“Yeah, he did seem a little stressed out,” she agreed. “More than the normal human stressed out thing.”



“What do you mean?” she asked, suddenly serious, recalling their encounter in the cemetery and the mysterious aches and pains in the training room. She had just chalked it up to his new mortality. Had Dawn noticed something too? If she had, maybe they had discovered the wish’s side effect.



“Well, he was probably just tired,” she answered. Buffy’s tone made her nervous. All she wanted was for Buffy to give Spike a chance to be normal. Now that she was actually giving in, she didn’t want to spoil it.



“What happened, Dawn?” she pushed crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently.



“It probably wasn’t anything,” the girl insisted. “We were just talking, and he got quiet for a minute. When I asked him what was wrong, he sort of forgot my name.”



“Forgot your name?” That definitely didn’t sound like Spike. He adored the Slayer’s little sister. He wouldn’t forget her name—unless something was causing him to.



“I’m sure it’s nothing,” she added quickly noticing how worried Buffy looked. “He’s been through a lot lately. Maybe he’s sick or something. Maybe we should take him to the doctor.”



“You’re right. It’s probably nothing,” she agreed with her best fake smile. It did seem like he was sick, but taking him to the doctor just wasn’t an option. How would they explain it? Tell the doctor that they thought he was having an adverse reaction to being human? Besides, they didn’t have the money for a doctor. “I’ll mention something to Anya tomorrow. Maybe she’ll have an idea.”



“So where are you guys going tonight?” Dawn changed the subject. She hadn’t meant to worry Buffy when she had seemed so happy.



“You know,” she looked thoughtful for a moment, “I really don’t know. I doubt he has any money. I hope it’s not kitty poker again.”



“Kitty what?” she looked confused.



“Never mind,” Buffy sighed.





***





Spike gave his reflection a huge smile as he adjusted his red shirt over his shoulders. He hadn’t felt this happy since that night they had literally brought the house down. It was only a date, but it was a step in the right direction. He only hoped that he managed to pull it off. It wasn’t like he made a habit of dating. The closest he had gotten was an evening in with Dru with a young girl chained to the wall waiting to become the evening meal. Somehow, he didn’t think the Slayer would be impressed.



He had felt like an idiot taking dating advice from a teenager, but he hoped Dawn’s suggestions worked. She knew her sister better than anyone.



He gave his reflection on last inspection. He never really cared about his appearance—perhaps that was due to the lack of a reflection for the last 120 years. Every platinum hair was in place, his blue eyes sparkled with excitement, and…and when did he get those creases at the corners of his eyes?





***







“I was beginning to think that you were going to stand me up,” Buffy teased as her date finally descended the stairs.



“And miss our first date? Sorry, luv, can’t get out of it that easily.” He gave her a playful smirk to cover up his nervousness. It was bad enough his heart was racing like a schoolboy’s, and having Dawn grinning at him like a Cheshire cat wasn’t helping matters. Looking away from the girl before he wore a matching goofing grin, he focused his attention on pulling on his duster.



“So are we ready?” Buffy asked sounding rather nervous herself.



“Whenever you are, luv,” he reached out to take her hand, but then motioned towards the door instead. He’d let her make the first move, even on something as small as holding hands. He wasn’t going to screw up this time.



“Would you guys go already!” Dawn laughed. “You’re going to be late.”



“Late?” Buffy eyed her sister suspiciously. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”



“Yes,” she replied, “and that’s all I’m telling you.”



Buffy sighed as she shrugged her jacket over her shoulders. Dawn was giving her one of her patented difficult teenager looks. She wasn’t going to be letting her sister in on the secret any time soon. “Are you sure you’ll be alright by yourself?”



“I’ll be fine,” she replied pushing her sister and the ex-vampire towards the door. “Willow will be home soon, and Xander’s number is by the phone. Now go!”



“I don’t think we’ll be getting back in there any time soon,” Spike observed as the door quickly swung shut behind them.



“And mom always said I was the pushy one,” Buffy laughed following Spike down the porch steps towards the Desoto parked in the front of the house. It was odd to see it, not only because he had taken to riding the motorcycle, but also because the once blackened windows were now clear. “I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where we’re going?”



“Sorry, pet,” he grinned as he swung the car door open for his date. “That stays a surprise until we get there.”



She settled back against the car seat as Spike rounded the front of the car and slid into the driver’s seat. The fact that their date was turning into some little conspiracy wasn’t making her feel overly comfortable. “You’ve been busy today,” she motioned towards the windshield.



“Yeah, a little,” he replied starting the engine. “The Bit helped me clean ‘em up a bit.”



“You got Dawn to clean?” she laughed. “Maybe you should stick around.”

Buffy glanced about the restaurant uncomfortably. This was definitely not what she had expected when Spike had suggested that he wanted to have a normal evening out. She had ruled out the Doublemeat Palace, but she had kind of figured they’d end up at the Bronze. This place had the same dim lighting, but that was about the only similarity it had to their regular hangout. She doubted her date would be ale to get his beloved flowering onion at Sunnydale’s most expensive French restaurant.



“Spike, are you sure you don’t want to hit the Bronze?” she asked scanning the menu. A few of the words made sense—French hadn’t been her strongest subject back in high school—but the prices glared out at her.



“No Bronze tonight, luv,” he gave her a little smile before taking a sip of his wine. It had been waiting at the table when they had arrived. Once again making her wonder how he was going to manage to pay for this extravagance. “Tonight is going to be special.”



“Not that I don’t appreciate it,” she replied carefully, “but, um, special seems extremely pricey. Can you really afford this?”



“Let the finances to me,” Spike insisted. “The bill’s been taken care of.”



“Please tell me you didn’t give them any kittens,” she sighed only have joking.



“No, luv, the Scoobies got this one taken care of,” he explained. “Dawn and Willow agreed with me that you needed a night out…”



“You took money from Dawn and Willow?” Her eyes narrowed angrily.



“It was a loan, and it was their idea,” he told her in his defense. “Besides, Xander donated too.”



“You got Xander to give you money to take me on a date?” She glanced at her companion suspiciously over the rim of her wine glass.



“Well,” he replied a smirk playing at the corner of his lips, “I believe Red told him it was to help you with your slaying duties.”



“You asked her to lie?”



“I didn’t ask her, pet,” he answered. “She came up with the idea on her own, and a relaxing night out will help you concentrate on the Slayage, right?”



“Well,” she spoke slowly considering his words. “I’m not exactly feeling all that relaxed at the moment, but I suppose it could help. But I’m sure you could have found someplace in Sunnydale that doesn’t ask for your first born for the appetizer.”



His smirk softened into an affection smile as his index finger ran lightly over the back of her hand. “Well, I suppose that’s true, but I wanted tonight to be special. Take you somewhere Captain Cardboard would never have thought of. And I’m curious, pet, what exactly had you so tense?”



She always felt tense and excited when he was around, but there was no way she was admitting that to him. Her cheeks flamed a bright shade of crimson as she lowered her head and focused her attention on the menu lying on the table before her.



“Tense? I’m not tense,” she told him with a nervous laugh.





***



“Well, um, thanks for everything.”



Buffy stood at the foot of the stairs, her hands twitching nervously as she debated on how to end their date. She really had had a good time. Their meal at the restaurant had been delicious and listening to Spike ordering French had been surprising. He had gotten around quite a bit in his hundred and twenty some years, so he was bound to have picked up a language or two. Still, it was odd to hear a foreign language pouring from his lips.



After their meal, they had taken a drive outside of Sunnydale and ended the evening sitting on the beach gazing at the stars. It wasn’t the public place Spike had mentioned when he had suggested their date, but it had actually been the most enjoyable part of their evening together. They had even had a conversation free of their usually jibes at each other, and the entire time Spike had kept his distance, not even attempting to hold her hand.



Now that they had returned home, she didn’t know what to do. It didn’t seem right to just run up the stairs. The thought of a good night kiss had crossed her mind, but after what had already transpired between them, that didn’t really seem right either.



“I had a good time,” she smiled uneasily. Could she possibly have thought of a more stupid thing to say?



“Yeah,” he replied softly. The look he gave her was the same as the one he had worn that night she had met him on the steps after Dawn had brought her home from the ruins of Glory’s tower. “Me too. Good night, Buffy.”



He stood there for a moment as if waiting for her to say something more. When she didn’t speak, he shrugged his shoulders and turned towards the living room. Still Buffy couldn’t make herself climb the stairs.



“Spike?”



“What, luv?” He stopped just inside the doorway, but kept his back towards her. She wished he’d turn around. It was hard to think under his piercing blue gaze, but holding a discussion with his back was even harder.



“I, um,” she paused a moment trying to decide on what to say. “You don’t have to sleep on the couch.”



Buffy had to remind herself to breathe while she waited. The words hung in the air, and she could have sworn she heard them echo. After what seemed like forever, Spike slowly turned to face her. He wasn’t smiling, and she could feel her heart drop in her chest.



“And where would I sleep then?” he asked his voice completely void of emotion.



“You could come upstairs,” she suggested with a small smile.







TBC…