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Author's Chapter Notes:
This story is very special to me, and was very hard ro write. I hope you like it, and let me know if I should update!
Don't own them, just wish I did.
Thanks to Nickole :-)
One


William ‘Spike’ Giles walked across the UC Sunnydale campus, heading toward one of the tables in the quad where his two new, and currently only, friends were sitting. He had met Xander Harris and Willow Rosenberg earlier that week, during his first day in town. They had made it their job to show him around the campus and tell him the what’s and how’s of the school. He had immediately taken a liking to the pair, and had spent the past couple of days getting to know his new home town with their help. As he approached the table, Willow spotted him and waved.

“Hey Red. Whelp.” Spike joined them at the table and chuckled as Xander frowned at his nick name.

“Hi Spike.” Willow smiled at him before taking a bite of her sandwich. “How was History?”

“You know, dates and names, same ol’ same ol’.” Spike grabbed a couple of fries from Xander’s tray.

“Hey!” Xander gave Spike an offended look. Spike just smirked at him.

“So, what’s on the agenda for tonight?” Spike asked. It was Friday night, and his first weekend in Sunnydale.

“Well, the only place worth going to is the Bronze.” Xander answered, stuffing what was left of his fries into his mouth. “It’s a club, they don’t have an age limit, but it’s cool. They have food, drinks, music and live bands every Friday.”

“Sounds like fun.” Spike nodded.

“Yeah, we thought we’d...” Spike shut Willow’s voice out as his eyes lingered on a girl walking across the lawn about fifty feet away. She had semi long, blonde hair and was dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt with UCS on it. He couldn’t see the color of her eyes, but he could bet anything they were green. ‘God, she’s beautiful’ he thought.

“Who’s that?” He asked out loud. Willow followed his eyes, and sighed before she answered.

“That’s Buffy.”

*****

Buffy Summers walked across the quad and continued over the lawn toward the parking lot, her eyes firmly fixed on the ground in front of her feet. She was supposed to have met Riley by his car five minutes ago to go to lunch.

“You’re late.” Buffy looked up at Riley’s voice, and met her boyfriend’s eyes.

“I know, I’m sorry, Mr Fredericks kept us a little late...” She mumbled, knowing her excuses would get her nowhere.

“Let’s go.” Riley put an arm around her in a seemingly loving and protective gesture, but Buffy winced as he dug his fingers into her side where she was pretty sure a couple of her ribs were broken.

*****

Spike watched as the girl, Buffy, was joined by a guy, tall, bulky looking. He saw them exchanging a few words before the guy put his arm around Buffy and led her toward the parking lot.

“And that would be Riley.” Spike noticed the contempt in Xander’s voice and raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Boyfriend.” Willow explained.

“I’m guessing there’s more to the story than that?” Spike assumed, waiting for an explanation.

“Buffy moved here our sophomore year of high school.” Xander started. “Her parents had just gotten divorced and her mom had been offered a job at the Sunnydale Art Gallery, so she packed up Buffy and Dawnie and came here.”

“Dawnie?” Spike asked.

“Her sister.” Willow took over the explanation. “She asked me to tutor her, cause her mom had been complaining about her grades back in LA, that’s where they lived before. That’s how we became friends. Through high school, it was basically the three of us. Then, when we started college, me and Buffy became room mates. She was so happy to get out of the house, her sister was driving her crazy.” Willow smiled at the memory and Xander laughed.

“Remember when Dawnie was spying on Buffy on one of her dates? She was so furious.” The two friends laughed together for a little while, before seeing the questioning look on Spike’s face.

“Sorry.” Willow gave him an apologetic smile before continuing her story. “Anyway, a couple of weeks after we started classes here, she met Riley. They started dating, and were really in love. A few months later, right after Christmas, Buffy’s mom died. Buffy’s dad decided that Dawnie should come live with him in Miami, and Buffy moved back into her old house. Riley went with her.” Spike could hear the pain evident in the red head’s voice. Xander seemed to have noticed too, because he took.

“After her mom’s funeral, Buffy closed herself off, from everyone. Except Riley.” The hatred Xander felt for the other man was obvious. “She stopped calling, didn’t talk to us in school, sometimes she wouldn’t even say hi when we met her in the hallway or out here. And every time she did talk to us, she kept looking over her shoulder all the time, like she thought someone was watching her. When she’d see Riley, she would practically run from us.”

“Like she was afraid of him...” Willow thought out loud.

“You think he’s hurting her or something?” Spike asked, his voice full of loathing. Willow shook her head.

“No. I don’t think Riley would do that.” She sighed. “But I really don’t like him.”

“Amen to that.” Xander added, looking after the car that pulled out of the college parking lot, Buffy in the front seat next to Riley.

*****

Buffy looked through the windshield, keeping her eyes on the road. She didn’t say anything, wanting to let Riley calm down. Not that he would. They pulled into the parking lot of the diner where they always had lunch, and Riley turned off the engine.

“What were you doing?” Buffy heard the hardly concealed rage in his voice.

“I told you, Mr Fredericks kept us a little late, he...” She almost cried out in pain as Riley grabbed her arm and turned her to face him, his face only inches from her own.

“Don’t. Lie. To. Me.” He emphasized every word with a squeeze to her upper arm, where he knew she still had a painful bruise. Tears formed in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall.

“I’m not.” She whispered through the pain. Somehow, he seemed to finally believe her because he let go of her arm and sat back in his seat, running his hand over his face.

“I’m sorry, baby. You know I love you, right?” He pleaded with her. “I’ll never, ever hurt you again, I promise.” He pulled her into a hug, and she let him, knowing that, whatever he said, it would happen again. It always did.

*****

Spike walked into his last class of the day, English. He was about to sit down in one of the seats near the back of the auditorium when his eyes locked on a certain blonde in one of the front seats. Buffy. He smiled a little and made his way over to her.

“This seat taken?” He asked, one eyebrow raised, questioning. She looked up at him, and he could see what he thought was fear in her eyes for a split moment.

“Um, no, not really, but...”

“Good.” He interrupted her and sat down, dropping his books on the fold-up table.

Buffy observed his actions, desperately trying to figure out a way to get him to leave. If Riley saw him sitting next to her... she tried to shrug the thought off. Riley hadn’t been inside the college since he graduated almost a year and a half ago. Why would he come in today? She was pulled out of her line of thoughts by Willow, who had sat down on Buffy’s other side.

“Hey Buffy.” Willow smiled at her former best friend. Buffy smiled back.

“Hey Wils.” She said, using Willow’s old nick name.

“I see you’ve met Spike.” At Buffy’s confused look, Willow explained. “This is Spike. Buffy, Spike, Spike, Buffy.” She introduced.

“Hi.” Buffy gave Spike a little smile. He returned it.

“It’s nice to meet you. Red and the Whelp’s been telling me all about you.”

“Red? Whelp?” Buffy said in a questioning tone.

“My little nick names for Willow and Xander.” Spike explained.

“Oh.”

“Spike’s new in town. He’s from England and got a scholarship to come here.” Willow interjected.

“Well, I had actually figured out the English part.” Buffy giggled and Willow smiled at the sight of her friend laughing. She hadn’t seen it in a long time. They quieted down as the professor entered the room, starting the lecture.

*****

A couple of weeks later, Buffy, Willow and Spike had gotten into a pleasant routine. They had English together three times a week, and spent a couple of hours every Monday and Thursday studying in the college library together. Buffy and Willow were quickly becoming best friends again, and Spike was getting more and more interested in Buffy. Knowing that she had a boyfriend, however, he hadn’t done anything about it. He was grateful to just have her as a friend.

As the trio walked out of the classroom after their class one Friday in December, Willow looped her arm with Buffy. Buffy smiled at her friend’s action. It felt just like old times.

She was abruptly pulled back to reality as they walked down the steps outside the English department and she spotted Riley a few feet away, leaning against a tree, his eyes fixed upon her. He always came to meet her after her last class. How could she have forgotten? She quickly said goodbye to Willow and Spike and went to meet her boyfriend. She put on a fake smile, hoping that he hadn’t seen her talking to Spike. But of course he had.

“Who’s that?” Riley asked as he grabbed her arm and lead her toward his car.

“You know Willow, Riley. She used to be my best friend before...” Buffy was cut off as Riley pushed her up against his car, not caring who saw.

“You know damn well that I’m not talking about your little friend.” He said in a threatening voice. “Who’s the guy?”

“Riley, people are looking.” Buffy pleaded, desperately trying to hold the tears that threatened to surface back.

Riley looked around and noticed the little group of people that were staring at them. He let Buffy go and opened the car door.

“Fine. Get in. We’ll finish this at home.”

*****

Willow and Spike had been watching Riley’s outburst from a distance. Spike clenched his hands as he saw Riley practically throw Buffy against the car. Only Willow holding him back kept him from attacking the guy right there. He didn’t even know Buffy and still he felt a sudden need to protect her.

“Not hurting her, huh?” He turned to Willow as she pulled him away from the scene. He could see pain and anger in the girl’s eyes.

“I was hoping he wasn’t.”





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