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Author's Chapter Notes:
Nominated at the Breathless Awards
Chapter 3: Puzzles the Will

Buffy had taken up a position behind a tree, looking at the back of Spike's crypt. Hopefully from the position she'd be able to see him leave without him seeing her. She just had to hope that the wind didn't change so that he wouldn't smell her.

Spike was up to something, and she was going to figure out what it was. However he was getting money couldn't be good and she would catch him doing whatever it was, so that she could justify her refusal to spend his money.

That's why she was in a graveyard before the sun had gone down. She just had to hope that whatever he was doing, he was doing it at night, and not going by sewer. But there was no way she could hide from him in the sewers.

"Hey Buff, what's happening?"

Buffy nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of Xander's voice. He and Anya had come up behind her.

"Don't you know not to sneak up on people in graveyards?" she asked him.

"Sorry," he apologized. "But it's not even dark yet. So what's the what? Big evil afoot?"

Buffy cast a furtive glance towards Spike's crypt, the sun would be down soon, and if she was lucky, Spike would emerge.

"Sort of. It's Spike, he's up to something."

"Really?" Anya asked. "Spike hasn't done anything evil in quite a while. It seems doubtful that he would start now."

"Well, he is," Buffy argued. "Look, um, could you guys maybe. . . It's just I need to follow Spike, without him knowing."

"Ah yes. Stealth," said Xander. "But if Spike's up to his old tricks, are you sure that you don't need help?"

"No, I'm on it guys, really, thanks."

Buffy was desperate to get rid of them. The sun was already setting, Spike could appear any moment.

"It still seems rather odd to me that Spike would be doing evil things. Have you done something to make him evil, Buffy?" Anya asked.

"What?" Buffy asked confused. "No. What do I have to do with this?"

"Well," Anya explained. "Spike started acting good around the time he fell in love with you. It stand's to reason that if he's doing evil again it's because Buffy has broken his heart, or done something to force him to return to his evil ways."

"Ahn, that's ridiculous," Xander countered. "Spike doesn't need an excuse to be evil. He's a vampire. Sure he's helped us out of a few scraps, dusted a vampire or two, but it's only natural for him to follow his nature."

"Perhaps, but I have often found that love, or rather thwarted love is what leads most people to evil. Certainly it's the cause of most of the vengeance in the world."

"Vengeance? You don't think Spike's up to some sort of revenge do you?" Xander asked alarmed.

"Revenge for what?" Buffy asked.

"Well," Xander shrugged. "He was kind of upset with Willow, Tara, Anya and I for not including him in the resurrection plan."

This was one of those moments where it was hard for Buffy to be nice to her friends. Why did they keep having to bring up the fact that they brought her back from the dead? Of course they still thought they'd saved her from a hell dimension but still. She couldn't help thinking that if you were going to raise the dead, the living dead would be a good resource. Spike would have known to dig up her grave for starters.

She shivered as the memories of waking up in her coffin overtook her. They did that less and less, but still, she thought that that was one horrible experience she would never be fully rid of.

"Hey, Buffy. Are you cold?" Xander asked seeing her shiver. Before she could protest he'd taken off his jacket and put it over her shoulders.

"No, I'm fine. Look, do you guys mind maybe leaving?" she asked as politely as she could. The sun was down now, and she'd been so caught up in her conversation with Xander and Anya that she hadn't been paying attention to Spike's crypt. "I really need to do, you know, the stealth thing."

"Oh, right. Well, if you need back up just call," Xander said, a little hurt.

Finally they retreated, and Buffy could resume her stakeout.

She hid in the shadows for what seemed an eternity, waiting for Spike to appear. She started to feel sure that she'd missed him while talking to Xander and Anya. She checked her watch, and saw to her dismay that it was only fifteen minutes past sunset. She never had been good at that waiting part of slaying.

Then to her relief, she saw a familiar platinum head move through the darkness. Slowly, carefully she followed after him.

Tailing Spike was not an easy task. Several times he stopped and she was sure he'd realized she was there. But he always started up again after a few minutes. Luckily Buffy had followed a fair share of vampires in her day. There were a thousand potential nests in Sunnydale, and no way of her to keep track of which were occupied at any one time. So she often followed vampires until they led her back to their lairs.

Spike was smarter than the typical Sunnydale vampire, however. And she was twice as careful following him as she would have been with any other vampire. After all, if the others vampires discovered her following them, it simply meant they fought a battle to the death, their death. If Spike discovered her, she would have little hope of finding out where his new found wealth was coming from.

And she was sure that he was one his way to do whatever it was he did to get money, because he was carrying a beat-up brown leather briefcase. The kind that had buckles that held a large flap shut. It was so un-Spike like an accessory that she was sure he would lead her to whatever he was doing.

To her surprise Spike went, not only to the UC Sunnydale campus, but he went directly to the gym. Buffy was so startled by this, that he had disappeared into the building before she could quite believe what had happened. Following him out in the open was one thing, but following him through a building would be much harder, especially now that he no doubt turned down a hallways, or gone up or down stairs or into a room.

So she crouched in the bushes, trying to figure out what she should do next. She could try using her Slayer sense to track him through the building, but that was tricky.

As she sat there debating what to do, a grad student exited the building. At least she first thought it was a grad student. It was only after a moment she realized to her shock it was Spike. If it wasn't that his hair was still bleached blond, and that he was carrying the same briefcase she never would have recognized him.

He'd changed his clothes. No longer was he wearing his traditional black on black, now he wore a white button down shirt with this blue vertical strips and a light blue tie. His jeans had been replaced with slacks, and he was wearing glasses. His hair was parted in the middle in a style that screamed 'nerd'. Well, except for the color.

Buffy was stunned. It was like she'd suddenly fallen into bizarro world. Why on earth would Spike dress like that, and what could he possibly be doing?

Buffy quickly followed after him and watched him cross the campus. He stopped outside the humanities building and met two women who were on the patio in front smoking.

Buffy didn't dare get close enough that she could hear what they were saying, but it was obvious the two women knew him. As soon as he arrived, he bummed a cigarette off one of the women and began talking to them.

Even if she couldn't hear them she could tell by their body language that the two women were flirting outrageously with him. What was worse, Spike was flirting back.

After a few minutes they all put out their cigarettes and headed inside. Spike made a great show of holding the door open for the two women to pass though.

It was all getting to be too much for Buffy. She had to know what was going on, and she had to know now. So this time she didn't even think twice about following him into the building. She quickly moved upstairs to the second floor, and she could hear voices coming from a class room door that was propped open.

"I'm sure you gave us all A's, Mr. Summers," she heard a woman say.

"Well, only because you deserved them. And how many times must I tell you to call me Henry, Rebecca?" a British man's voice replied.

It took Buffy a moment to identify the voice. Or rather to convince herself that she'd heard it correctly. The accent was similar to Giles' refined accent, but the voice was clearly Spike's.





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