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Author's Chapter Notes:
Still working on this story. Chapter 3 should be coming soon. The first few chapters are just about Buffy finding out and reacting to the news that Spike is alive.
Chapter 2 – Shock & Awe

Buffy silently drank her beer and stared into oblivion. She couldn’t believe what he had said. Spike was alive. How? When? Why? Somehow she was remaining surprisingly calm. It was surprising even to her as she continued to stay quiet even when her beer was empty. She acknowledged Andrew’s gesture to get her another beer by shaking her head ‘No’ and keeping quite still.

“Buffy?” Andrew waved his hand in front of her face.

“Huh?” She said coming back to the present situation.

“You okay?” he asked gently.

“Yep,” she said quickly and closed her mouth once again.

“You ready to leave?” he asked next.

“Yeah, I guess so,” she said saying a few more words this time.

Andrew left some money on the table and walked out with Buffy. He kept a close eye on her feeling a little worried that she may have gone into some kind of shock over the news.

They were quiet all the way back to the apartment and Buffy remained quiet even after they got back. She walked to her room in a daze and went through the motions of getting ready for bed.

When she had changed into pajamas she sat down on her bed and got under the covers. She remained sitting up as she tried to sift through her thoughts. Buffy sat upright on her bed and looked out of the window on the opposite wall. It was a nice window and it had a view of the rising sun. A view she was awake to see when she stayed sitting in her bed through the wee hours of the morning.

As she watched the sun rise through her bedroom window she began to come to terms with what Andrew had told her. When she finally realized that Spike was really alive a huge sigh escaped her. She felt as if some weight had been lifted from her shoulders. “What do I do now?” she asked herself.

Buffy was thinking, Do I go to LA? Or Do I call him? Or Angel? Then, “Oh God! How do I tell Giles?”

Thinking of Giles Buffy’s memory went back to the morning Giles had found her curled up in a chair in the Sunnydale High library researching portals. That night she had found a feral Angel and wanted to find out if there was any way he could have returned from the demon dimension she had sent him to. This thing with Spike was different in her mind because, one, she didn’t kill him, and two, he hadn’t been sent to a different dimension, at least to her knowledge.

With her mind racing over the many things it could about Spike Buffy didn’t feel tired. She looked to her side and glanced at her clock realizing it was now mid morning. She got out of bed and went out to the living room. Buffy looked into the kitchen and saw no Andrew. “Must still be asleep,” she mumbled to herself.

She looked over at the couch and saw the tousled blonde hair of the young watcher. Buffy leaned over the back of the couch and shook Andrew’s shoulder, “Andrew. Andrew.”

Buffy watched as he groaned and rolled over to look up at the girl who was waking him up so unceremoniously. She almost felt pity for waking him up when he was probably going through some jet lag from his recent trip to LA. “Sorry Andrew…there’s just so much I want to talk to you about…concerning Spike.” She smiled a little smile at him and then walked around to sit on the couch at his feet.

Andrew groaned some more and moved his feet so he too was sitting up on the couch. He stretched his arms above his head and yawned. He started to rub his eyes too but when he saw the gesture was lost to Buffy he gave it up and asked, “So what do you want to know?”

Buffy looked at her hands for a minute. They were clasped in a girlish gesture that she didn’t remember ever practicing in her life. After the minute passed she glanced over at Andrew and then back to her hands. “Well…I kinda want to know everything.” She finally looked over at Andrew and held his gaze. “I want to know how he’s back, and why, and how long he’s been back, whatever you know.”

Andrew stared at her for a few seconds, holding her gaze. “Ok…but first I’m gonna need some coffee. I don’t know how much I know and if it’s going to satisfy your questions, but I’ll tell you what I know.”

Andrew got up from the couch and walked to the bathroom. He needed to use the bathroom before coming to the kitchen for coffee.

While he was in the bathroom Buffy went to the kitchen and started the coffee. She looked at the clock on the oven to see how late it was getting. “Ten o’clock,” she thought to herself. Buffy knew that Dawn would be getting up soon and she wanted to be done talking to Andrew then. Buffy wanted to be the one to tell Dawn what was going on. After she talked to Andrew Buffy thought she would have a better idea of what she wanted to do about everything. At the moment she was still in a state of shock & awe. It was still quite unbelievable that Spike was alive.

A minute or two passed before Andrew came out of the bathroom. He walked into the kitchen and grabbed a mug from the cabinet. The coffee was nearly ready and he reached back to the cabinet to get Buffy a mug. Both mugs were set on the counter as Andrew and Buffy looked from the coffee pot to one another while waiting. Andrew was just preparing to say something when the coffee pot beeped its readiness.

Buffy pressed a button and lifted the pot up and poured the black liquid into the two mugs. She was grateful to be getting some caffeine after her sleepless night, but she was still feeling a bit energized from the news. She got some creamer from the fridge and sat down at the table.

Andrew picked up the sugar and got two spoons out and sat down with Buffy. As Andrew prepared his coffee he steadied his voice and got ready to tell Buffy the little that he knew. He just hoped that it would be enough to satisfy her questions. Spike hadn’t even wanted Andrew to tell Buffy that he was alive, and Andrew had a distinct feeling the blonde vampire would not be too happy if the slayer decided to pay a visit to LA.

Buffy sat quietly waiting for Andrew to begin. She didn’t want to pressure him or rush him. For now she just tried to keep some patience at hand when it came to news of Spike, no matter how badly she wanted to know more.

“I arrived in LA and went to the firm to see Angel. We knew he’d be getting info on Dana at some time or another and we didn’t want him making a wrong move. When I got to the office I saw Spike. I greeted him and was very surprised to see him. He was surprised to see me too.”

Andrew sipped his coffee as he allowed a certain aspect of the storyteller to come out. It aggravated Buffy a little but she dealt with it as she was eager to know more about Spike.

“We had a meeting about Dana before splitting up to search for her. Spike headed out away from the rest. I followed him wanting to catch up some on how he’d been and such. He had an instinct on how to find the slayer…something to do with the fact that he’d killed two in his days as William the Bloody.”

Andrew shrugged and sipped from his coffee more.

“I was with him amongst some abandoned warehouses or something. He asked about you…whether you knew that he was alive. I said no. He told me not to say anything. I think he wanted to tell you himself.”

Andrew pondered the meaning of that for a moment.

“Somehow we got separated. He ended up finding Dana, but in her crazed state she thought that he was someone from her past. So she cut off his arms and legs as punishment for what he’d done to her. Only it wasn’t Spike who had done those things to her. She had transposed his image into her memories.”

Buffy got a look of concern for Spike when Andrew said he got cut up. He noticed it.

“Don’t worry. He’ll be fine. Well…that’s when I took Dana with the help of other slayers as back up. Of course I also mentioned your distrust of Angel. That’s what happened while I was in LA.”

Buffy looked at him seriously for a moment. Her face remained emotionless until she stood up obviously upset and glared at Andrew. “That’s all!?”

She continued glaring. “I thought you’d have something more…answers…and all you have is a story of what happened while you were in LA. Andrew…”

A door opened and Dawn walked out into the living room. “Buffy what’s going on? Why are you mad at Andrew?”

Buffy looked at Dawn for a minute still feeling her anger flaring. It took her a moment to calm herself before she could say anything to Dawn. She looked at Dawn and tried to smile, but she had a feeling that Dawn was seeing right through it.

Dawn looked from her sister to Andrew. Andrew was cool now and stayed with them from time to time when he was passing through Rome. This morning things felt different though. Dawn could feel the tension radiating from Buffy and she knew there was something going on. “Buffy, what is it?” Dawn asked with worry beginning to enter her voice.

The worry in Dawn’s voice wiped out Buffy’s anger towards Andrew. All she wanted to do now was comfort her sister. Buffy looked at Dawn and softened her expression. “Dawnie…you better sit down to hear this.”





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