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They stepped off the plane with the carryon suitcases that were all they’d been traveling with these long weeks they’d been trotting around the globe.

Happy to be on ground that felt somewhat familiar Dawn looked at her sister with a relieved smile that was eventually returned.

Silently they walked side by side through the gate and Buffy ground to a stunned halt upon seeing her former watcher apparently waiting for their arrival.

“Willow called me,” Giles said simply as the girls made their way to him.

Still without saying a word Buffy nodded her acceptance of that statement as Dawn happily threw herself in the older man’s arms.

“Have you any baggage to collect?” the watcher asked over her sister’s shoulder as he hugged the girl back.

Buffy raised her carryon with the silent message that that was all they had and the man nodded before freeing himself from Dawn’s embrace.

“I’ve a car outside,” he informed them both. “Shall we go?”

Silently the trio made their way through the bustling airport and outside to make their way to his car and then wherever they would be staying.

~*~*~

“All settled in, I trust,” Giles greeted Buffy as she came down the stairs of his house for dinner.

“Dawn’s happy,” she replied coolly.

“Willow filled me in,” he informed her with a touch of indifference in response to her attitude. “Even dead he’s trying to destroy you.”

Eyes opening wide in fury, Buffy lunged at her former watcher and slammed him back against a wall with her hand on his throat.

“Do. Not. Ever. Talk. About. Him. Like that. Again,” she said through clenched teeth. “He never tried to destroy me. All he ever did was love me and try to make me the incredible woman he saw me as.”

Giles looked her straight in the eye and calmly removed her hand from his throat.

“Exactly,” he said as he gasped for breath. “So why are you acting like this with him gone. You know what it would do to him to hear what Dawn has to say about how you pass the nights. Stop doing it, move on and be strong like he would have wanted.”

“Is that what that was about? More of your damned cruel to be kind teachings?” she swallowed the pain and anger inside her and turned away from the man.

“Someone has to be there to remind you of the realities we much live with, Buffy, and unfortunately with you that duty has always fallen on me. It’s why you’re here,” he informed her quietly.

“So, um, we’re not gonna have some bland and gross English dish for dinner are we?” Dawn asked awkwardly from the stairs behind them.

“English dishes may be bland on occasion, but they certainly are not gross,” the Englishman said wryly as he removed and cleaned his glasses.

“Need I remind you that I know what’s in that ‘hot pot’ thing you tried to feed me back in Sunnydale. Anything with lamb neck and kidneys in the recipe is totally gross,” the teenager teased with a grin to ease the tension in the room.

“Lamb kidneys. That was lamb kidneys?” Buffy asked in horror at the revelation. “I ate lamb kidneys?”

~*~*~

After two days with Giles Dawn was completely back to her carefree teenaged self and Buffy had managed to keep her nightly grieving so quiet that both her sister and former watcher believed she too was improving with this change of scenery.

The slayer knew the truth of that lie, though.

She wasn’t getting better. Her dreams and nightmares weren’t going away. Her need and love and longing for Spike were growing stronger not lessening so that she could feel normal again.

And that is why on the third night of her stay with Rupert she was quietly roaming the halls of his house searching for something to distract her from her mourning.

“She’s finally showing signs of improvement, this is the last thing we need. Are you certain there is no mistake?” she heard suddenly when she arrived downstairs and passed his office on the way to the library.

Something about the low and secret way he was speaking at this late hour within that office had her stopping in her tracks outside the door as her ears focused in to try and hear more.

“He died. There was nothing left of him or Sunnydale. Nothing to bring back or have back, your sources must be wrong,” her watcher said firmly to whoever he was talking to. “With your own eyes and ears?” she heard after a moments pause. “So … Spike is in LA,” Giles said tiredly.

“Repeat that for me,” Buffy said to the man after bursting into the room without even knowing she had moved.

“I will have to call you back,” Giles muttered into the receiver he held before dropping in its cradle and rising to go to his liquor cabinet.

“Tell me that you did not just say what I think you said,” she ordered in her hardest tone.

Calmly he opened a bottle and poured some of its contents into two glasses before picking one up for himself and moving to hand the other one to her.

“I wish that I could just as much as I wish you hadn’t been eavesdropping on that particular call,” the man sat down in his chair behind the desk and took a sip of his drink. “How long were you listening.”

“Long enough to imagine I heard you say that Spike is in LA,” she met his gaze. “Is Spike really in LA?”

Giles gulped down the remainder of the amber liquid in his glass then gave her a simple, “Yes” of confirmation.

“How long?”

“Your entrance,” he glanced pointedly at the door behind her that was hanging crooked on it’s hinges, “prevented me from getting the exact details. All I know is that apparently he’s back, at Wolfram & Hart and that those two facts are being closely guarded by Angel.”

She studied him closely for any signs that he was lying, but the reluctance and weariness written all over her former watcher spoke to the truth of his statement.

“I’ll be leaving as soon as I make the arrangements,” she knocked back the drink he’d given her then rose to her feet. “I trust you’ll be able to drive me to the airport?”

He moved to close up his liquor cabinet as he gave her a nod of agreement.

“And Dawn?”

“Goes with me always,” Buffy stated as she left the office to make some calls and get packed.

~*~*~

“Dawnie, wake up.”

Not wanting to wake up from the great dream she was having Dawn muttered and smacked away the hand on her shoulder trying to shake her awake.

“Dawn, wake up. We’re leaving.”

“What?”

Those last two words ringing clear as a bell in her sleep fogged mind awakened the teenager and she stared at her sister in disbelief.

“Wake up, get packed, we’re going to LA,” Buffy said firmly.

“Now?! What time is it? And what’s in LA?” she asked groggily.

“Yes, now. Our flight leaves at 4:40 and Spike is in LA.”

“Buffy,” Dawn stilled at that and looked at her sibling worriedly. “Spike is dead. He died in Sunnydale. I know it hurts and you may not want to accept that, but we all saw it happen.”

“He’s alive,” Buffy said to her with a smile touching her lips and tears springing to her eyes. “Ask Giles. I’m not crazy or dreaming or wishful thinking here. Spike is in LA and we’re gonna go get him.”

“How much time do I have to get ready?” Dawn subdued her reservations and slid from the bed.

“Twenty minutes to get dressed and pack.”

~*~*~

“You aren’t coming with us?” Dawn was asking Giles while Buffy got their passports and papers in order for departure.

“I believe this is one reunion I’ll gladly pass on,” the Englishman said with a glance in the slayers direction.

Buffy ignored him and the silent reprimand in that look as their flight was announced.

“That’s us,” she gave the man an abrupt nod then grabbed Dawn’s arm to lead her sister to the proper gate.

“Buffy,” Giles called out before they got to far away from him.

She paused and looked back at him over her shoulder.

“You always have my number. If you need me call it and I will help you.”

“Thank you,” she replied before turning to continue on her way.

After making sure their flight took off on time and without problems, Rupert hurried to his car to get back home. Once there he went straight to his study and dialed an all too familiar phone number.

“They’re on their way,” he said the second the call was answered.

“I knew I should’ve kept my big blabber mouth shut,” Willow’s sigh of regret echoed across the phone lines.

“No, Willow, it was something we all needed to know,” he assured the girl. “Unfortunately Buffy decided to listen in at a rather revealing moment.”

“Was she … much with the mad?”

“My study door will need replaced, but in all honesty I don’t think she’s really believing what she heard. And I am in a similar situation. How could he have survived that?” Giles sighed.

“Uh … that’s something I probably should’ve said up front. He … um … didn’t survive it.”

“What on Earth does that mean?”

“It means you need to tell me when their flight should be landing so I can head them off at the airport.”





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