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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hey everybody, thanks for the wonderful reviews.
And yes this story is one that used to be posted on B/S central, It was never finished, and subsequently became lost when the site was hacked.
Please keep reviewing. Its all you guys on the Spuffy realm that have made me determined to finish this.
Bitchee.
The Immortals car pulled up in front of Buffy’s apartment, she was out and half way up the stairs before he had even turned off the ignition.

When he entered her apartment moments later, she was already on the phone trying to reach Willow.
With a frustrated grunt, she hung up the phone and went in search of Dawn.

“Dawnie, Where are you” she called heading towards the younger girls bedroom.

“In the kitchen Buffy.”

The Immortal touched her arm, indicating that he would wait in the living room for her while she talked to her sister.
Buffy flashed him a quick look of gratitude then braced herself for the coming conversation.

When she entered the kitchen, her sombre mood vanished, replaced by a sudden fit of the giggles.

Andrew and Dawn had been attempting to cook again. The evidence of their labors, spread from one end of the kitchen to the other.
Funnier than the mess, was the fact that Andrew himself, and Dawn to a lesser degree, seemed to have more of the ingredients on themselves than on the work surfaces.
Andrew looked like someone had dipped him in the flour and Dawn had egg running down her cheek

“I’ve heard of being caught with egg on your face, but Dawnie C’mon…”

Buffy tried to control her mirth but the indignant looks on both Dawn and Andrew’s faces were just too much for her.
She burst into full-throated laughter, which was only made worse by Dawn’s furious glare.

“Oh God, if you two could just see yourselves” She sniggered.
“You look like you battled the shake and bake monster… and lost”

Trying to get herself under control, she turned her attention to the object of their labor, something unrecognizable bubbling in a pot behind them.

“Eww, I’m not even going to ask!” Wrinkling her nose with disgust, she turned her attention back to the still glowering cooks.

“Ok guys, truce. We will discuss the whole 'no more cooking thing' later.
I have something really important I need to tell you and I don’t have time to answer questions, so shut up and listen till I’m finished… OK?”

The two would-be cooks glanced at each other, before turning back and with a very eerie synchronistic shrug, nodded.

Note to self, thought Buffy. Dawn and Andrew spend 'way to much time together.

Now that she was actually about to tell Dawn about Spike, she didn’t quite know where to start.
She opted for the stalling rout, quizzing Dawn about Willows whereabouts.

“Hey Dawnie, when Giles called did he mention anything about Willow leaving to help the coven, and how long she was gonna be?
Cos I just rang there and Ken said that she’d left sometime last night, and she wasn’t sure when she’d be back.”

Dawn looked puzzled.
“I dunno Buff, I don’t think he mentioned anything but maybe he called before Willow told him. Anyway, if it’s important I’m sure he’ll call and let us know.
Why, is something up?” she inquired, a gleam of excitement in her eyes at the prospect of some possible slayer related business.

“Yes and No Dawnie” Buffy replied carefully, still stalling.
“I need to ask Will’s to do a little location spell… but if she’s not there?”

“Ooh Ooh I can do it” squeaked Dawn excitedly.
Willow lent me this book and I’ve seen her do it like a gazillion times…Please please please c’mon. I promise I can do it, just give me a chance” she begged, jumping up and down on the spot in anticipation.


“I dunno” Buffy eyed her younger sister sceptically.
“I know we agreed that Will could teach you some spells, but this one has a habit of going a little wonky unless done right.
And you do remember that whole 'incident' with the coffee table in Giles office!”

Dawn flashed her a sheepish grin.
“Yeah, but that was completely different, I just used one wrong ingredient.
C’mon” she whined rolling her eyes. “How was I to know that Devils claw and Devil’s shoestring would be so different. Anyway the table was only invisible for an hour… it came back!”

“That is so not the point Dawnie,” she scolded “Three people tripped over it, and lets not forget Giles glasses were on it at the time” she finished, trying hard to keep a straight face.

“Yeah Well coulda happened to anyone, and besides” Dawn added brightening“. That was a protection spell, this is a location spell…Completely different dealy.
Anyway, just tell me what it is you need to locate and if I don’t think I can do it we’ll wait for Willow to get back, or we could ask Giles to help.”

“No!… No Giles. I don’t want you to tell Giles anything about what were doing…. at least not until I know where…”
She paused seeing the sudden look of suspicion on her sister’s face.

“Look Dawnie just trust me, this has to stay between us three… Ok?”

“O-Ok Buffy, but your gonna have to tell me what it is you want me to find before I can do the spell?”

Dawn, seeing the stricken look on her sisters face, frowned, her excitement over the spell forgotten.
What the frick could Buffy want to find that would make her look so upset.
“Buffy what is it?” she asked gently.

Meanwhile Andrew, who had been busy trying to clean up and eavesdrop at the same time, paused, fingers wrapped around the handle of the pot containing their earlier attempt at dinner. Andrew (unfortunately for him) chose that moment to glance at Buffy just as she answered Dawn’s question.

“Spike… He’s alive.”

“Yowww” hollered Andrew. The former nerd jerked in surprise, upending the contents of the pot. The still hot contents went everywhere, most of it on Andrew.


It wasn’t until they had gotten Andrew calmed down and his burns bandaged that Buffy even had a chance to think about the boy’s reaction.

That was when the suspicion set in.

Ok, so he was understandably startled by her words, yes, she mused. But even for Andrew the reaction seemed pretty extreme. Eying him thoughtfully, she tried to catch his eye.

After studying him intently, she was quick to note that he was uneasy and on edge, fidgety but uncharacteristically quiet while Dawn examined and dressed the burn.
The very telling lack of whining and the quick glances he kept darting at her were making Buffy’s crap antenna wobble.

Dawn of course, had been distracted by Andrews’s initial shriek, but now the boy was bandaged her mind returned to her sisters shocking statement.

She gnawed on her lip as she watched Buffy, watching Andrew.

Buffy was looking thoughtful, and it was then that she finally noticed Andrew doing the whole avoidy thing.
He had the same look he got on his face whenever Dawn caught him doing something sneaky.
Like the time she caught him reading Buffy’s diary.
Hmm… maybe she shouldn’t mention that, after all it wouldn’t do if Buffy found a better hiding place.
Not that she would ever read it!

“Ok Andrew, spill! What do you know?” demanded Dawn, glaring at him when he wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Reaching over, she grabbed the former nerd by the ear and twisted hard.

Andrew predictably, shrieked like a girl before reaching up to bat Dawns hand away.

“Hey, stop that I’m injured” he whined plaintively “Jeeze Dawn what’s with the uber bossiness, I didn’t do anything” he muttered, trying to edge away from the glaring younger Summers.

Dawn looked at her sister and Buffy gave a slight nod.
That was enough for Dawn.
Staring hard into his face, she reached for him and twisted his ear even harder. Her tighter grip, thwarted his attempts to wriggle free.

“I’m only asking you this once Andrew and then I’ll let Buffy ask the next question.
Spike… What do you know?”

For a beat, Andrew looked mutinous. Nevertheless, under the combined stare of the slayer and the ex key he folded like a deck of cards.

“Ok, ok, all right all ready… I’ll tell you, just let the ear go.”

Dawn smirked in satisfaction. Releasing his ear, she folded her arms across her chest and waited for his confession.

It was funny she mused, she should have been upset or surprised at her sisters words but the only thoughts that had come to mind at the time was…of course he is… and its about time.
Weird she knew, and later she would be sure to discuss it with Buffy, but it somehow seemed like she had known that the vampire wasn’t really gone… like she could still feel him out there in the world… somewhere.

Mind you, that didn’t mean when she saw him that she wasn’t gonna kick his ass for scaring them.
Eying her sister, she had a feeling she might have to get in line, Buffy’s expression growing darker as Andrew spilled his guts.


The story was that apparently 19 days after the Hellmouth collapsed Spike was back as a ghost, appearing in Angel’s office in the middle of a meeting.
Much to both Angel’s and Spike’s disgust, it was discovered that he was tied to Wolfram and hart, and unable to leave LA.
When he was eventually all touchy feely again, he then decided for some reason that Buffy didn’t need him, and she probably wouldn’t want to see him any way.
(Andrew had no answer for that particular doozie)

The upshot of the whole thing… he decided staying in LA and working with Angel, however grudgingly his assistance was accepted, was better than traipsing across Europe looking for the slayer.

Buffy was fuming….
Dawn could practically see the steam coming out of her ears, and she was pretty sure she had heard the word Dead and vampire muttered more than a few times during Andrews little infomercial.

But it wasn’t till Andrew told her about Spike and Angel’s trip to Rome that she finally flipped her lid.

“They fucking did what!...Twice!...You told them What!”

It took them another ten minutes to get Andrew to stop crying, and another 15 before his nose stopped bleeding, but Dawn consoled herself with the fact that.. Hey, at least he was still in one piece.

When Buffy went in to the other room to quiz her ex boyfriend on his part in the whole fiasco, Dawn took the opportunity to ask a few additional questions that her sister had overlooked, understandably distracted by her attempt to kill the former nerd.

“Ok you big momma’s boy, the bleeding has stopped for now, and Buffy isn’t here.
You’re going to tell me everything you observed with that sneaky little brain of yours... Cos I wanna know what the frick Spike is thinking, not tracking us down, never mind working for a man he refers to as the Great Poofy Brooding One.”

Andrew then explained about the whole Dana cutting of his arms thing. When Dawn asked again, he was quick to reassure her that though he really didn’t know for sure why Spike hadn’t sought them out… other than the two times in Rome.
He was still totally sure Spike was just as in love with Buffy as he had been in Sunnydale.

The bottom line seemed to be that after seeing her with the Immortal at a local club, and hearing Andrew’s little speech, he had decided that he’d made the right decision.
Though Andrew did say that Spike had made the comment that being with the Immortal was not exactly the normal life he had wanted for her, but then again who was he to judge. If she was happy… well that’s all he had ever wanted for her.
Ok, Andrew admitted. So he hadn’t exactly put it in those words… but Andrew said he was too much of a gentleman to repeat Spike’s exact words.



The Immortal had been somewhat startled to see Buffy heading his way in full battle mode, and even more shocked when she reached down and slapped him.
Hard!

“You lying Bastard! You fucking knew how I felt about him and you didn’t tell me!”

“Wait” he threw his arm up in a gesture both of surrender and denial. “Wait Buffy, I do not know what it is that you are saying” his expression was both confused and shocked.
“Calm down caro mia, tell me why you are so angry?”

Grabbing her by both wrists to prevent further violence to his person, he pulled her on to the couch and tried to make some sort of sense out of what she was saying.

Five minutes later, she had calmed down enough for him to understand that she thought he had deliberately gotten rid of Spike and Angel when they had come to Rome to pick up some Demon head?

It did not take him long, after finding out that Wolfram and Hart were behind sending them, to realize that All of them had been set up.
He had explained his past run ins with Angelus and Spike months earlier, so he didn’t need to try to hard to convince her that he had had no Idea that either of the vampires were in Rome. And that he knew absolutely nothing about a head, or a visit to Buffy’s apartment, never mind trying to blow the two of them up.

It hurt him a little to think that Buffy’s trust in him was so easily breached, but after asking her a few questions about the family whose head they had come to retrieve, he managed to piece it together.

Somebody was very determined that Buffy, Angel, and Spike not have any reason to meet.

By giving the vampires the impression that the Immortal was behind the whole thing, and what’s more was now Buffy’s new love, they had done a neat job of making sure that the slayer would be the last one called upon should they ever need help.

Of course, the rumors that Giles had heard about the law firm that Angel was currently running, made it doubly unlikely that Buffy would be approaching Angel for any help in the future either, the whole Dana incident notwithstanding.

Someone at Wolfram and Hart, had done there very best to make sure that all contact between the Scoobies and the LA crew was thoroughly severed.
Buffy realized then, that for some of Angel’s crew it was probably already too late.

Up until now, she had only been thinking about Spike and whether she would kill him or kiss him when she saw him.
However, with the Immortals words it suddenly hit her that there was a distinct possibility that Angel and the others were dead.

She knew deep down in her heart that she didn’t love Angel anymore… not like she had.
But that didn’t stop the knife like pain at the thought of his death.
She couldn’t begin to imagine a world where Angel wasn’t out there somewhere, fighting the same battles she did.

Then there was Cordelia. The last she had heard was that she was still in a coma.
God, she had grated on Buffy’s last nerve over the years, but for Queen C to actually be gone.

Oh, God…that probably meant that Wesley was dead as well.
Good old stuffy Wes, who come to think of it, had been far from the wimp she remembered the last time she’d seen him.
Another Watcher gone she thought sadly.

It seemed somehow cruel that he’d survived the firsts attack on the council, only to be killed less than two years later… and probably by the institution employing him.

She hadn’t really known the others in Angel’s crew, but Willow had spoken fondly of Fred and Gun, and told Buffy about Lorne and his empathic abilities.

These people had all been Angel’s family for the last few years, and Buffy found herself hoping that Spike wasn’t the only one to survive what had gone down in LA.


She was so lost in her thoughts it took her a moment to realize that Armando was still holding her hands, and had been trying to get her attention for the last couple of minutes.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry Armando… I totally jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Can you ever forgive me?”

Her tone was so filled with remorse that the Immortal found himself smiling at the petite blond, quickly reassuring her that it was totally understandable, considering the lengths Wolfram and Heart had gone too to set them up.

Squeezing her hands gently, he informed her that while she had been in the kitchen with her sister and Andrew, he had made all the arrangements for her flight to LA.

Buffy, upon hearing his kind words, cringed with guilt, ashamed that she had doubted this man who obviously had only her best interests at heart.

“What can I say Armando, a world of sorry wont come close to being enough of an apology for the way I treated you… I don’t deserve to have someone so good in my life.”
Her eyes welled up with tears as she looked into his concerned ones, once again wondering if there was something wrong with her for not being able to love this man.

“Ah… but that is life Caro… Sometimes you win and sometimes you loose”…he smiled.
“The gift of your companionship and friendship is something that I will treasure always. I would not be true to you or myself if I kept you from what you truly want.”
He shrugged. “So we will be just good friends. Yes? And I will be happy that my friend is happy.”

Buffy, humbled by his words, was touched that he cared more for her happiness, than his own.
Though he had never put what he felt for her into words, she had seen the depth of his feelings in his eyes when he looked at her.
To be fair, she had never promised him more than she had given. He had known right from the start that her heart belonged to a dead man, and that it would be a long time, if ever, before she was ready to make peace with her loss.

But still, his care for her touched her deeply.
She promised herself that in the days to come, she would try to be worthy of his friendship by being as caring and honest with the people in her life as he had been with her.

Boy, a certain bleached blond was in for one hell of a shock when she saw him.
She was going to make very sure that he believed every single word that came out of her mouth, even if he didn’t return her feelings.

Even, if he doesn’t love me anymore.

It didn’t matter anymore, that loving someone meant opening yourself to hurt. And it didn’t matter that he probably didn’t love her anymore.
All that mattered was letting him know that she loved him, that she would be there for him, no matter what his decision… even if all she could ever be to him was a friend.

My God I’m finally baked she thought, with a touch of awed surprise.
Now I just have to let him know my cookies are ready to be eaten.

Blushing at the somewhat inappropriate and naughty mental picture that the thought of Spike eating anything of hers caused, she turned her attention back to the Immortal and pulled him into a fierce slayer worthy hug.

“Ok so let’s do it” she said, releasing him as hazel eyes met brown.

“Dawn” she yelled. “Get packed we’re going to the airport.”

“All done” chirped Dawn, entering the living room, overnight bag slung over one shoulder.

“Wow that was fast” said Buffy with a wide grin at her sisters’ sudden take charge attitude.

“Na not really… after Sunnydale I sorta figured that I should be prepared, so I put an emergency kit together in case we ever had to go somewhere in a hurry.
Oh yeah… your case is in the hall, and don’t worry I thought of everything.”

“Ok, so now I know what happened to my blue sweater” quipped Buffy; grateful understanding and relief in her voice and gaze.

Turning back to the Immortal, she gave his hand a gentle squeeze.


“Would you mind Armando? I mean you’ve already done so much… could you drive us to the airport?”

“Of course Buffy I would not have it any other way,
Besides, I must make sure you get there in the whole piece.”

The teasing in his voice was light but Buffy could sense his worry under it.

She frowned in mock irritation, knowing it was his worry over Wolfram and Hart’s plans that had him so concerned, but determined to lighten both their moods.

“I hope that wasn’t a dig at my driving skills” she said pouting indignantly.
“Cos the police did say that that thing with the tour bus wasn’t strictly my fault, ya know!”
She gave him a cheeky grin before turning to talk to her sister.

“So Dawnie what did you do with Andrew? Please tell me there was rope and a gag involved” she inquired hopefully.

Dawn giggled as she got a rather vivid mental picture of Andrew, bound, tied, and gagged, just like a thanksgiving turkey… Ok, so maybe less of the gag, but still pretty funny if you thought about it.

“No the whole bondage thing... while fun... not really of the necessary.
Oooh, though I did threaten him,” she offered helpfully.
Her eyes twinkling, she smiled at her sisters snicker before continuing, her expression sobering.
“He knows that if he breathes even a word to Giles or any of the others he’s dead meat… well not him exactly,” she confessed with an evil smile.
“Just his three most prised star wars collectibles… also part of my emergency package.”

“God, your evil” offered Buffy admiringly “My baby sister is all grown up” she finished with a sigh.

Dawn just rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help the small smug smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth.

“Ok people… to the Airport” ordered Buffy. Full slayer command mode engaged.
Her thoughts again turning to Spike, and what she might find in Los Angeles.

TBC...





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