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Author's Chapter Notes:
Actual Cleveland people, places, and events mentioned here. I should know, I lived there and sometimes truth is stranger than the Jossverse.
To anyone who came upon Buffy and Giles as they sat in quiet conference, they looked like father and daughter. It was a serene picture. To others around them, Giles looked like a father comforting his daughter through a great sorrow. And, at this precise moment, they were, exactly, what they appeared to be.

"Giles," Buffy stifled a sob in his shoulder, "I don't know what to do. He says he isn't angry. But, how do I know that? If I were Spike, lying there, unable to see or move," Buffy closed her eyes to the image of his battered face and body. It was an image she didn't wish to keep with her, but knew she would never be rid of, for as long as she was on the earth, "Unable to see, and someone told me that my soul mate," she stopped speaking, looking up at Giles with wet eyes, "That's what he is, you know? I finally get it. If someone had even thought about touching my soul mate, I know I wouldn't take it, not even for a second. And yet," Buffy dabbed her eyes, "he hugged me. Giles, I actually felt him hug me. How is that even possible, after everything that's happened?"

Giles bowed his head in consideration, both for the seriousness of her inquiry, and her depth of feeling for a vampire, who he, himself, had greatly, greatly, misjudged. To his own, perhaps, eternal, detriment, "Spike has proven to be quite...remarkable, over the years. I now see that it was my...past experience that blinded me to that, quite obvious, fact. Perhaps this is just another example of his capacity to," Giles choked on the next words, not because he didn't believe in what he was saying, but because of those prior experiences, "care for you?"

Buffy sniffed, "I hope that he knows how much I care for him, Giles. How much I love him."

Giles pulled Buffy into a comforting embrace, "I'm sure he knows, Buffy."

Upstairs, in the church proper, all the congregants began to feel a slight rumbling beneath their feet, some became alarmed, and, thinking an earthquake had hit, got up to run for shelter. Buffy and Giles knew that this was no earthquake under their feet, no this was something much worse, and descended from serenity into chaos.
***********

" 'That's not a prize you're holding, Spike. It's a burden. It's a cross,'" Spike yelled, in a gruff approximation of Angel's voice, and continued yelling, "I'll give him a cross! Only question is, which end does he want it shoved into," the intensity of Spike's words rose as Buffy raced the long labyrinth of stone, "Thought you'd burn me to ashes and take Buffy from me, did you? Well, didn't work quite like you'd hoped, did it, Angelus? Still here, burned to a bloody crisp, but I'm still here, you ponce! My demon may be under the delusion that you are in control here, but, unlike you, I have an organ other than my John Thomas! It's called a brain. I know that Buffy loves me! She told me so, and I believe her. You think you've got her just because she has your teeth marks on her neck? Think again!" Buffy reached the archway of the chamber just as his anger and rage lost all its gale, and his voice became a lost, and lonely whimper, "I haven't seen Buffy in four hundred and forty-two days," his voice was strained with emotion, adding to the desperate sound hitting Buffy's ears. Spike seemed to lose hope, and moaned, "And now, thanks to you, I might never see her again."

Buffy looked up to see her sister, Dawn, crying silent tears, as she handed Buffy her latest lab report.

She took it, in her trembling hands, and read what was written, "It's in his blood?"

Dawn nodded, mutely.

As Buffy read on, her jaw fell open, in shock, "It's reacting to my blood. Human hemoglobin, that's what this thing eats?" Buffy didn't wait for Dawn to answer but continued reading, "The Initiative had this? As part of the 'HST elimination campaign'," Buffy tried to put all the pieces together, "So, in a world full of goodies," Buffy looked at Dawn's stricken face, and knew that the horror on Dawn's face mirrored her own, "vampires starve to death."

Dawn nodded again.

"But, the Initiative was shut down, how did...?

"Willow hacked into some old government files that were, recently, declassified, because the Senator mentioned in them, is dead."

"Which Senator?"

"Senator Brucker," Dawn bit her lip, "Buffy the Senator gave the last vile of the serum to a man named Lindsey McDonald. He was supposed to use it to kill Angel, as part of his initiation into The Circle of Black Thorn."

"And, the Senator?"

Dawn nodded, "Buffy, Senator Brucker was a member of The Circle of Black Thorn."

Buffy wanted to vomit, "Oh, God," she gasped, and rushed in to see Spike. His eyes were closed, and his face calm, his voice, however, held a timber of sorrow in it that Buffy had never heard before, the hollowness of it made her lose her breath as she listened to his soul lament her.

... "Sunshine. I've lost my sunshine. Forever."

Buffy looked at Dawn in shock, "You told Spike about this?"

Dawn whimpered, "I couldn't lie, Buffy. Not to him."

Right now, Spike needed something to focus on, other than the grim news from that report. So, putting on her best "Buffy hates Spike" tone, she snapped, "Spike! When's the last time, other than the past two months, you've had human blood?"

His answer was clear, "You're the first since before the Hellmouth closed."

"After your injuries, who fed you? Has anyone fed you except me?

"No."

"Angel didn't feed you, why?"

"He said he tried, but, as he isn't my blood sire, it didn't take."

Buffy looked for Dawn, who was hanging on her every word, near the outer edge of the crypt, "Dawn," she said, " I think there's a homeless shelter, or a convent, adjacent to the church grounds. See if you can find some blankets and something to put something in, like a bowl. If you have to, stand in line for soup. But hurry. "

"I'm on it," Dawn said, as she rushed out.

Spike's voice was puzzled, "Buffy what are you doing?"

Spike could hear Buffy moving around the vault as she spoke, "Spike, how long can a vampire go on without feeding on blood, at all?"

"If he's healthy, sometimes months. In the case of injury," Spike remembered all the anxious hours he spent, doing nothing but counting nights and watching Drusilla slip further and further away from him, "Ten weeks."

"Ten weeks from today?"

"Yes."

Buffy looked at her watch, "Today is August 2nd. That gives us until October 16th to find Dru," she smiled, even though she knew he couldn't see her, "Piece of pineapple."

Spike sighed, "Cake, Love. It's cake."
************

As Roberta closed up her little magic shop, "Pandora's Box," she wondered about the strange woman who was her last customer, before closing. She seemed so pale, Roberta thought that maybe she was ill, or crazy, after all, there was an asylum just over the hill. Roberta shook her head, as she closed out the cash register. No one ever asks for an Orb of Thesula anymore. The woman was lucky she still had one in stock.
*******

Robin Wood decided to take one last sweep of the docks, before meeting up with Faith after her sweeps of the cemeteries. He wanted to get home before the light rain became a downpour. He was just about to turn and head for Faith, when he saw her, huddled near the edge of the pier, and it looked as if she was crying.

"My boy has drowned," she was saying, "He's gone away and I can't find him."

Robin approached her, cautiously, "Is there something I can do?"

"Why yes," Drusilla said, as she looked up, "Bad boy. You, lion cub, should know better than to wander from your lioness."

Before Robin had a chance to think about how, and why, it happened, Drusilla's fangs were in his neck, and all of his lifeblood was drained.
*********************

Dawn came back to the crypt, breathless, but with, blankets and bowl, minus the pea soup, in hand, "Buffy, I have what you wanted!"

"Good," Buffy said, "Now, spread one of the blankets on the floor."

Dawn didn't question, she just unfurled the blanket with a soft snap of the wool, and spread it on the floor, "Done. Now what?"

Spike was curious, if not mildly alarmed by the movement around him. Yeah, now what, Love, he thought.

"Now, I need you to help me get Spike down from there, and on to the floor. Dawn, take his feet."

As Spike felt little hands grasping his feet and shoulders, and his body begin to sway, he asked, "Buffy, what are you doing?"

"Spike, this thing in you, it bonded to the blood I gave you," she gave a wicked grin that she knew he would be able to hear from her tone, "I gave it to you, so, I can take it back."

As Spike felt his body touch solid ground again, he screamed, as loud as his weakling voice would allow, "No, Buffy! This thing, it's in me, if it got inside you? Buffy, you could die!"

Buffy's voice wavered a little, "So could you, again. I thought you were clear on how I wasn't going to let that happen again."

His voice was firm, "No, Buffy, I won't let you do it!"

Buffy sighed, exasperated, "We've been over this, haven't we? But, in case you didn't hear me the first time, stop me!"

"Buffy, No!"

Buffy knelt down next to Spike, placed the bowl on the floor next to her knees, and said, "It'll be okay, Spike. This is just like snakebite. I finally get to use some of the training I learned from Riley, who knew he'd actually help save your life?"

The point of her pocketknife went into the flesh of his neck opening the vain. She watched the blood bubble up and spill out onto his neck, she leaned over, and whispered into his ear, "I'm just going to give you a little kiss, Spike. It won't hurt a bit."

As she bent down to kiss his neck, the world went away.

Love. Hate. Fear. Rage. Ecstasy. Bliss. Cecily. Sorrow. Tear, rip, break, and destroy. Watch the blood flow, crimson and bright. Dru. So happy. Spinning. Whirling in her bright darkness, tumbling down, and down still more. The light. The light in the dark. So strong. Reach up to the light, need the light. The light hurts. Must keep on reaching, always reaching. Climbing up and up then sliding down. Pushed down, by the light. The light doesn't know me, but I know her. I love her. So tired. Buffy. Love you. So bright and shining. My sunshine beam. Look at you, so happy, so sad, so full of pain and Love, I love you. Do you see me? The pain. You're so small, Love where did you go? I'll save you. Hit me. Pain. There's my bright girl. Hit me again. Let me take the dark. You need the light. You don't need me, I need you. No, don't go! Go, fly away! Buffy, want me. Please. Love you. Need you. Love you. Where did you go? Love you. Need you. Buffy. Burning. Afraid. I'm afraid of the dark. Need the light. Need to see the light. Where did it go? Buffy, where are you? Too dark. Buffy! Buffy! Buffy!

In a dizzy haze Buffy cleaned the small wound in his neck, passed Dawn the bowl full of blood, and lain down next to him holding on as fierce as she dared. She thought she heard a choked whisper, "Buffy," as she drifted into sleep.
***************

Angel hadn't been to Cleveland since he'd tracked that Boritz demon to Kingsburry Run. He thought he could help. Elliot Ness could track a Boritz all on his own. Fine, Elliot Ness. You do that.

Now, he was back, in a nightclub, with a name that couldn't scream 'Hellmouth' any louder if it tried. "Howl at the Moon''? Were they kidding?

"Have you seen this woman?" he asked the bartender, showing him an old photo of Drusilla.

"Yeah," he nodded, " about a week ago. Gone now, though."
**********

Drusilla waited below decks. She just hoped the key was where her boy had left it.





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