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Disclaimer: Everyone bloody knows by now that I don't own even a smidgen of the rights to these delicious characters. The creator of BTVS does which is fine and dandy.

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Dawn was in hysterics, pacing the floor back and forth, back and forth. Buffy still held an unconscious Spike in her arms.

"Dawn,--- Dawn,---DAWNIE!" Buffy screamed.

"WHAT?" Dawn stopped cold in her tracks when she realized Buffy was trying to get her attention.

"Dawn, I need your help. We have to get Spike up off the floor and onto the couch. I'll get the top part, you grab his feet."

Buffy stood while hooking her arms under Spike's and Dawn lifted his legs up as they shuffled him over and not very gracefully laid him out on the sofa, both almost joining him in the process.

"Buffy, is he---dead?"

"Dawn, he has always been dead.---Or undead. Whatever. He's alive for an undead person. Otherwise, we'd be sweeping him up into the vacuum."

Dawn swatted her on the arm, gave her a nasty, hateful look and huffed.

"Don't be so mean.---So what do you think is wrong with him?"

Buffy leaned over and looked him over again, searching for any markings or injuries that could be visible. She straightened back up, placed her hands on her hips and shook her head.

"I have no idea. No clue what-so-ever."

Dawn snapped her fingers a couple of times and then shook her finger at her sister.

"Wait, wait. He said the warlock may have cursed him. Do you think that just maybe it was a curse that wasn't supposed to happen until later or until he did something to set it off?"

"Well, it was midnight when he passed out. Could be maybe it *was* a timed curse, you know, like in fairy tales? 'At the strike of midnight you will turn into a pumpkin' or something to that effect. I don't know. I think we should just go to bed and leave him here to sleep it off."

"You're not concerned if he happens to wake up in the middle of the night, all monsterish and attacks us in our sleep all grr and, and?"

"Dawnie, he's already a vampire, a monster so to speak. Besides, Spike already told you not to worry about it. He said it was nothing. So go, shoo, go on up to bed. I'll get the curtains closed and make sure he's all comfy. I'll keep my bedroom door open so I can hear him if he happens to come to." Buffy did her best reassurance speech to her little sister.

Dawn slowly ascended the stairs, glancing every once in a while over her shoulder to look at her friend on the couch, trying not to worry so much. Buffy pulled the curtains tight to make sure no morning sunlight could filter through it and placed the blanket over the vampire. She turned out the lights and headed to bed.

**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**

Buffy was the first one up in the morning. As she passed by the sofa, she glanced over to see if it was empty. He still lay there in the exact same position she left him in. Now Buffy was getting concerned, but she couldn't let Dawn know that she was. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his forhead, then moved it to the side of his face. He was still cool to the touch, so nothing to worry about in that area.

While Buffy was in the kitchen preparing breakfast, Dawn bounded down the stairs. Buffy walked back into the living room and saw her sister sitting on the floor next to the couch, holding the vampire's hand.

"Are you ok?" Buffy asked her sister.

She turned around still holding on to his hand, tears evident in her eyes.

"Buffy, what if something is seriously wrong? We need to do some research. Can we do research?" She gave Buffy her best sad puppy eyes.

"Yeah, sure we can. Maybe we can get Willow to look on the internet. I'll call her up and see if she can stop by the Magic Box and pick up some books to look through. Forget asking Xander. I know if he knew who we were helping, we'd have to listen to him rant and carry on." Buffy turned to go back into the kitchen to call her good friend. When she came back in, Dawn still sat by Spike.

"Willow said she would be happy to help. She should be here within the hour."

"Thank you, Buffy. This means a lot to me."

"I know it does. I guess I'm a little worried about him, too. Don't tell anybody, though." Buffy smiled and Dawn returned a sad smile.

**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**

Six hours later, they had hit a deadend. Willow apologized to the two girls. She had to call it a day.

"I'm sorry, Dawnie. But, hey, I'll keep looking. I just have to be somewhere in about an hour. I'll come by tomorrow and help some more." Willow turned her head and stared at the sleeping vampire. "Aww, he almost looks like he's sleeping lying there like that, just waiting for his Prince Charming , uh, I mean Princess, to appear and wake him with a kiss."

Dawn sat up at the mention of Willow's observation.

"Hey, Will, could you drop me off at the library on your way to wherever? Only if it's not out of the way. There's some books I need to look for."

"Sure, Dawn, I'd be happy to."

"I'll be back before 7, Buffy." She skipped out ahead of Willow, leaving Buffy alone in the house with a disturbingly peaceful Spike.

**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**

Buffy ended up going upstairs. She couldn't stand to be in the vicinity of the slumbering vampire without oogey feelings running through her mind. She had cleaned not only her bedroom but the bathroom as well to keep herself preoccupied.

Alone with her thoughts, she had decided she was actually more than a little concerned about Spike's predicament. She was befuddled more than anyone could imagine. Was he going to end up being a permanent fixture in the Summers' house? Would he eventually turn to dust in front of them suddenly or over time slowly crumble away? She thought about how much she would miss having him around, annoying though he was. He was an excellent fighter and most of the time a fairly decent slaying partner. He knew a lot about the underworld and the demons who inhabited it. He knew many different languages and was more intelligent than he let on. So, yeah, he was useful to have around. She had resigned to herself that on her nightly patrol that night, she would be searching for a particular warlock or pumping unsuspecting victims for any information. Hearing the front door slam brought her out of her thoughts.

"Buffy," Dawn yelled for her sister at the foot of the stairs.

"I'm up here, Dawnie, my room," Buffy called back.

Dawn was up the flight of stairs and through her bedroom door in a blink of an eye, out of breath and her eyes wide and bright as if she had discovered a trove of gold and jewels buried somewhere. Buffy stood suddenly.

"What's wrong? Is Spike awake?"

"No, he's still sleeping. Sit down, I need to show you some stuff that I found at the library. Maybe we can have Willow check things out on the internet tomorrow when she comes by, but look."

Dawn took a couple of large books out of her bookbag and sat down next to her sister on the bed. The large text she held in her hands was a book of fairy tales. Dawn had earmarked the page she had found interesting. The story she opened it to was The Brothers Grimm version of Sleeping Beauty.

"First, you mentioned the "at the strike of midnight" then when Willow mentioned how much Spike looked like he was just sleeping, waiting to be awakened, this was the first thing I thought of. A fairy tale. You know, Spike didn't seem too worried about the curse the warlock placed on him, as if he thought the guy was just teasing him with all his big talk. But what if he *was* actually teasing him, and this is what he cursed Spike with, just like the witch did to Sleeping Beauty. You know Spike, he probably annoyed the warlock so much that he wanted to show Spike up and bring him down a notch or two. I don't know, what do you think, Buffy? Buffy? What's wrong?"

"Didn't Sleeping Beauty have to be woke up with a kiss?" Dawn shook her head yes. "Just curious but who----? No, no, no, no, please tell me---no don't tell me. Oh, please no."

"Well, I'm certainly not going to. I'm too young, remember? And besides, he's like a trillion years older than me and way too much like a big brother, eww. And Willow, well with the whole gay thing, I don't think she---and Anya, well you said you didn't want Xander involved and I think if Anya did it, Xander would have to know. So---that leaves---you, Buffy."

Buffy stood facing the wall in her bedroom, leaning forward slightly until her forehead touched it. Lightly she began to bang her head on it. A low moan escaped from her throat.

"Buffy? It's worth a try, don't you think?" Dawn asked her, pleading in her voice. What Buffy didn't know was that Dawn wished deep down that the two once mortal enemies would end up together, her two favorite people. She knew how Spike felt about her sister, even though Buffy was oblivious to anything.

Buffy still stood leaning her head against the wall. She mumbled, "I guess." She snapped around and glared at her little sister.

"But so help me, if I get any flak from this, I'll never speak to you again."

"Never?" Dawn gulped.

"Well, at least a couple of days, but don't push it.---Come on, let's get this over with."

Buffy walked out of her room and down the stairs to stand next to the dozing vampire lounging on the sofa. He really did look peaceful lying there, like they should be paying their last respects. And hmm, she never really took the time to notice how handsome he was, with his ivory pallor and angular features. Almost beautiful in an immoral immortal kind of way. Buffy glanced over at Dawn, who really looked too eager for this upcoming scenario to happen, before lowering herself to Spike's level.

She sat there on her folded legs staring at him, working up the nerve to place the kiss on his perfectly delicious---lips. Hey, did she just think that? 'Oh, get on with it, Buffy.' She inhaled deeply, shut her eyes tightly, leaned forward, but then had to open her eyes slightly to find the target, and placed a soft, gentle kiss on his inviting mouth. After a couple of seconds she pulled back slowly. Nothing happened. Her shoulders sagged and she looked down at her hands sitting in her lap. It was worth a try, she had to agree with her sister. Dawn sighed loudly behind her. Buffy looked up just in time to see Spike's eyes flutter open, trying to focus on his surroundings. She quickly stood up on her knees.

"Spike!" she said, a rather bit too enthusiastic.

He gave her a frightened, puzzled look.

"Begging your pardon?" he gasped out.

"Spike, you're awake," she joyously cried, reaching out to touch his arm. Dawn scurried over to sit next to Buffy, excited as well.

Spike scrambled up to a sitting position, pulling his legs to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. He looked at the two girls with fear in his eyes.

"Do tell, what is this spike your taking on about?"

"Spike?" Dawn was worried. "It's your name."

"Sorry, miss, my name is William. I am sure of it. What I'm not sure of is my whereabouts. Could you be so kind as to tell me where I am exactly?"

Dawn and Buffy turned to look at one another in utter confusion. Dawn exhaled sharply.

"Oh, boy."

TBC





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