Part One:
Buffy let herself relax in the comfortable warmth of her bed. The simple joys of being a Slayer instructor under the pay of the Watcher’s Council, she made her own hours, no more apocalypses, and no more Double Meat Palace. Now she could take the time to be a girl, a girl with supernatural powers that still had to go out and slay like she was back on the hellmouth at least twice a week. But unlike in Sunnydale no one would come with her when she patrolled. She refused any offer, even her new boyfriend.
Dawn had tried to get the younger slayers to shadow her when she did this, but they couldn’t keep up with her. No one could accept him, Him whose name would not be mentioned, or thought. In fact it was the only argument she and Dawn had since leaving Sunnydale, and one she knew Dawn would take up with her the moment she got up this morning. So Buffy let herself sink back into the blankets, and pray to god for a few more minutes of peace and relaxation before Dawn made her presence known.
Unfortunately God did not appear all that giving today.
“BUFFY!” Dawn screamed as she walked angrily into her sister’s room.
“Dawn good morning? So what’s for breakfast?” Buffy said in a cheerful voice hoping it would keep Dawn from making her now routine morning rant.
“Ohhh, no you don’t.” Apparently Dawn was not going to be dissuaded today.
“Is there anyway I can escape this today?”
“Is there any chance you will stop going out and taking unnecessary risks?”
Buffy sighed and pushed the covers off her body as she forced herself from the friendly confines of her bed. “Dawn there not unnecessary risks, I was the slayer for eight years. Seven of which were on Sunnydale. You know the hellmouth? I can handle myself better alone.”
“There are other slayers now Buffy. You don’t have to go out alone. You don’t have to be the one out there in danger.”
“I’m not in danger,” Buffy almost screamed.
“You arrogant….”
“Don’t finish that thought Dawn. I meant I am not in as much danger because of experience, training, and having stopped seven or eight apocalypses. I can take care of myself.”
“Don’t give me this I know what I’m doing crap. I see you Buffy. I see how you don’t even let the scoobies patrol with you anymore. Ohhh you go out with them, you’ve got your boyfriend. Everyone gets to see the happy Buffy, the free Buffy, the I am so happy please don’t ask me about how I really feel Buffy. You know what I think? I think every time you go out with the other slayers you have flashbacks?”
Buffy didn’t answer. She just glared at Dawn. Her eyes telling her she had gone too far this time, to close to the truth, and too much like him.
“I don’t think if you guys come with me that I’ll lose you. I know you can handle yourself.”
“I’ll buy that if you tell me right now you’re not praying I stop.” Dawn didn’t finish that statement. She didn’t add what both knew she was thinking. If I don’t stop just like him, he whose name neither she or both had spoken aloud in almost a year.
---
Spike, oh wonderful special lovable SPIKE! Andrew thought as he skipped down the street. He was still on a high from Spike and Angel’s visit. Although he still worried about Angel’s involvement with Wolfram and Hart, but his major concern was that Spike was no caught in Angel’s web. He didn’t understand why Spike had not come back to Buffy like a conquering hero. Sure the Immortal was great, but he was not Spike. Spike who had died for the world then came back, ahh Spike.
It was already Dawn, but Andrew had been out walking for over an hour. Rome’s streets had become drastically safer since Buffy had arrived, and chosen it as her place to train new slayers. If Buffy wasn’t going out then it was the younger slayers. So Andrew felt it was safe enough to go for a walk. He noticed he’d been doing this because he was afraid that he’d blurt out to Buffy that Spike was back. He knew Buffy and the others wouldn’t have believed him capable of it, and usually he wouldn’t be.
Still he was beginning to wonder if maybe he was doing the wrong thing. If not just because having Spike here would make him personally happy, there was Dawn who was the only member of the scoobies that he could talk about Spike with. Without knowing it Andrew found himself back out in front of the apartment he shared with Dawn and Buffy. He knew she felt guilty about the loss of the brother/sister relationship she’d had with Spike. He knew she would love a chance to fix that. Dawn. Oh how special thou art. How beautiful, how shinny, how great a…
“DAWN! Enough!”
Andrew sighed. Buffy and Dawn were clearly in the middle of their daily battle. Looking around Andrew just kept walking. Now back to thoughts of Spike. Maybe I could offer him a Boba Fett to get him back here? No that wouldn’t work, plus I lost my Fett in Sunnydale. Must think of something, Andrew thought. Even great watchers such as myself need sleep, and Buffy and Dawn’s fight keep getting earlier and earlier. I need sleep.
---
Giles swore very loudly as the phone he thought he’d unplugged. He’d never thought that putting the Watcher’s Council back together could possibly be more tiring then being a watcher on the hellmouth. He still he missed the closeness of the scoobies. The bond he had formed as they had battle in Sunnydale, and more specifically the daughter in Buffy that now seemed more distant then when she had died. He knew what had caused that distance or more specifically who, Spike.
She had forgiven him his attempted assassination of Spike in the file weeks of Sunnydale’s existence, but the closeness they once shared had become incredibly strained. Finally finding the phone, he swore one more time then answered. “Rupert Giles.”
“Giles, this is Cassandra. We have a problem.”
---
Buffy watched from the morning movement of the ‘Imperial City’. Rome had existed for more then two thousand years, and so the practices of the city had an almost timeless quality to them. Plus it meant she could avoid thinking about her argument with Dawn. Looking down at the street she could see Andrew coming back from his morning walk with a strange look on his face. She was probably just searching for anything to avoid thinking of the implications of her fight with Dawn.
Implications she was sick of Dawn throwing in her face. Still maybe she should talk to Dawn about him, okay come on Buffy you can say his name. Spike. Spike, her champion, the second lover she had left dead on the hellmouth. Or that her last words to both had been, “I love you.” She knew Angel had believed her, but…no she wouldn’t go there. That way led to badness, to the possibility he really hadn’t believed her.
That was a thought she refused to let settle in her head. She looked over the city one last time the view no longer a comfort from her thoughts. Just then as Andrew entered the apartment her phone started ringing. “Ahhh, the batphone signals the heroes to action!” Andrew said as he made a dash for the phone.
“Andrew, what have we talked about with the comic book references?” Dawn said as she took the phone from his hand.
“That men do not make strange, scary, and stupid comparisons to comic books no one beyond the age of twelve would read,” Andrew replied. Buffy almost laughed at how easily Dawn had taken control of Andrew. Heck, she could almost be his girlfriend…Oh god what am I thinking! Bad, bad, bad Buffy.
“Good Andrew. Now you may answer the phone. Normally!”
“What if it’s Xander?”
“Normally.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Buffy tried desperately not to laugh. Andrew whatever his problems did not deserve to be laughed at. I guess I’ll just go get ready for work, Buffy thought. But before she got more then a step she heard Andrew call out. “Buffy it’s Giles! He says he needs to talk to you, now!”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I do not own Buffy or Spike, but wouldn't it be cool if I did?