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Author's Chapter Notes:
I think I'll go ahead and add one more chapter after this one.
Re-Opening

"Five," Anya squealed, her hand grasping the key in the door.

"Four." She looked back at Buffy, who was almost laughing at her friend's excitement.

"Three." Dawn waited with her hands clasped behind her back.

"Two," the vengeance demon’s high voice cracked with enthusiasm.

"One!" She turned the key, flipped the Open/Close sign over, and opened the door.
"Welcome valued customers," she sang to the empty air.

Anya took a few steps out the door, and looked down the street. a few people walked by, merely gazing through the window before continuing down the sidewalk. She frowned and walked back into the store. Dawn and Buffy both watched as Anya's slouched form clopped her feet to the research table and flopped into a chair. "All of my customers forgot about us."

"Oh no." Buffy soothed comfortingly and went to her side. "No, Anya. I'm sure it's just a little early for 'dark power shopping'."

"Yeah." Dawn added. "Dark magics are done in the dark. M-maybe they were up late casting spells. And they're just sleeping late."

Anya smiled a little past her frown. "You think so?"

The Summers girls both nodded vigorously, throwing out reassurances. "I'm sure." "Oh definitely." "Yup."

Anya sighed. "Well, Giles did have to wait before customers came when he opened up, and this store has been here a long time." She smiled and nodded at her words. "Yes. They are just sleeping in." She looked up at Buffy now assured. "They will be here later."

"And this gives us time to check the stock." Anya stood up and went behind the counter.

"Again?" Dawn rolled her eyes. They had gone over the merchandise list at least fifty times already.

The bell rang as someone came through.

Anya dropped the clipboard on the counter and skipped to the center of
the store. "Welcome Magic Box customer." She smiled brightly at Jason.

"Well. Thanks. Buffy said you were opening today, thought I'd come by and see what a real magic shop has." He came down the steps looking around the small store as he went.

The table he stopped at was filled with jars, all different sizes. He picked one up. "Is this really eye of newt?"

"Yes. Do you need an even dozen?" Anya inquired eagerly.

He smiled at the woman. "No thanks. I don't think they'd do me much good."

Buffy stood to the side watching the exchange. He really had taken all of the 'I'm a Slayer, there are Vampires, my friends are demons and witches' whole thing well.

Buffy decided to cut in before Anya tried to get him to buy the chicken feet. "Not everything in here is for spells."

Jason turned around and smiled at the blonde. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Buffy returned the smile and walked past him to the candles and incense.

Anya watched the two walk by, and went over to Dawn. "Is that the detective?"

"The very one."

"He's very large and dark."

Dawn smiled. "Buffy seems to like him. She's been waiting for him to ask her out."

They watched as Buffy picked up a candle. Jason said something and she laughed. "I've seen that body language before. He likes her, and will ask her out. Buffy seems to want it to happen, but she has a shoulder turned away."

Dawn looked at Anya questioningly. "What?"

"I rented this seminar on tape. It tells you how to read body language. See. His shoulders are turned towards her, but Buffy is turned away just enough to make you wonder exactly how interested she is."

Dawn studied the couple talking. Anya was right. “Oh brother,” she thought to herself. “Hot guy, standing two feet away from her, and she's only "acting" interested?”

Anya studied them as well. "She must still miss Spike."

Dawns eyes widened. "What? How do you know?"

Anya led the girl to the training room, out of the range of hearing.
"Dawnie, sit down."

Dawn was perplexed, but sat on one of the mats. Anya joined her. "Buffy and I, we had a talk. About Spike."

"What, when?"

"A few days after Tara's funeral. I wanted to let her know I never wanted to hurt her. That if I'd known she and Spike... I just wanted to tell her I was sorry, for what we did."

"But, Buffy wasn't mad at you. Was she?"

Anya shook her head. "No, not really. But I still needed to say it. That's when I found out about what Spike did later."

Dawn nodded, and looked down at the blue mat she was sitting on. "I till can't believe Spike tried to-" She looked up at Anya with tears in her eyes. "I mean, I trusted him. Even Buffy trusted him, and then he does something terrible." She wiped the tears away from her reddened eyes. "He shoulda just gone and eaten someone!"

"You don't mean that." Anya looked over her shoulder to be sure Dawn hadn't alarmed Buffy. Apparently she hadn't yelled loud enough for the older Summers to hear from the shop. "Dawn I want you to listen to me and listen very carefully. Okay?"

Dawn nodded her head slowly, not taking her eyes from the vengeance
demon's face.

"I know you understand what a vampire's bloodlust is. It's not just hunger, it's an innate need. Irrepressible because the demon, the worst part of it, controls the needs of the host."

Dawn nodded. Understanding what had been explained to her only three years ago, at least in her memory.

"No matter how much pain that chip caused, if Spike went a few months, maybe less without blood, eventually he'd feed. It might kill him, but if the hunger was bad enough, he wouldn't care. That part of him, the piece of the demon that controls satisfaction of a need, took over when Buffy made it clear that she didn't want to copulate." Anya tried to explain the same way she had to Buffy, but wasn't sure just how graphic she should be with the teen.

"Your sister is a Slayer, Spike is a vampire, so aggressiveness is expected. This rule includes sex."

"Ew. Too much information, Anya," Dawn laughed past her tears.

"I do apologize. I will try to include less description."

"Thanks." Dawn's grin faded, but she didn't replace it with a frown, just a look of interest.

"I will just tell you, that from what your sister told me, it is possible that, at first, Spike misunderstood signals, but before he understood, he was out of control with the demon guiding his actions more than the vampire's mind." Anya cocked her head. "Do you understand?"

"I, I don't know Anya. He controlled his bloodlust, why couldn't he control his 'Buffylust'?"

Anya smiled slightly. "Dawn, he controls his bloodlust by drinking blood. Not human, but he can control it that way. And he is controlling his 'Buffylust'. He left so he couldn't do it again."

Dawn sniffled and blinked away the last of her tears. "You mean, you think he left because he hurt her?"

Anya nodded.

"Oh."

"Dawn? Dawn, are you ok?" Buffy rushed through the door to her sister when she saw Dawn's tear stained face. "Anya, what happened?"

Dawn wiped her face with the back of her hand. "It's okay, Buffy. Anya was just helping me figure something out."

"What?" Buffy looked back at Anya.

Dawn pushed herself up off the mat. "Really, Buffy. I think I understand, at least a little. Don't worry. I'm fine."

Buffy was lost. "What?"

"I explained a few things to her, about Spike.," Anya said, very much feeling like the helpful one in the group. "I told her how it was possible Spike may have misunderstood when he came to your house the day he left." She grinned.

Buffy, however, was not grinning. "You what?!"

Dawn stepped between the two ladies. "Buffy. Don't be mad. You should have explained it to me yourself."

Buffy looked to the demon, then to her sister. "Huh? Wait. Huh?"

Dawn giggled at her sister. "I get why Spike left. I get what happened, or at least I understand why. Still not inviting him in if he comes back, but at least now I know he didn't want to hurt you."

Buffy was silent as she stood before her sister and her friend. She had tried to explain to Dawn, but because Dawn had always trusted Spike, for whatever reason, she had never really considered the demon part that always controlled him.

With Anya, the demon was so obvious, that her explanation was clean and simple.

"So," Dawn decided to change the subject. "Where did the detective go?"

"Oh. He bought some scented candles, and said the store looked great."

Anya beamed.

England

"Willow..."

A voice called for her.

She moved through the fog, trying to see where she was going.

"Willow..." the voice called again.

"I'm over here!" She couldn't see anything. She tried to wave the thick fog away with her hands.

"Willow..."

"I'm right here. I can't see you. Where are you?" She moved forward, not knowing where she would end up.

Something brushed past her leg, and she turned around to see what it was. The fog receded enough to reveal Tara standing in a white gown, smiling gently at her.

"Tara?" she whimpered. "Is it you?"

"We have taken this form for you."

Willow's eyes became watery, but she held her tears in check. "W-we?"

Tara nodded. "You are a necessity. We have watched you, and followed you in your pain."

Willow stood studying the face of her lover. "You have?"

"Yes. We could feel your power."

Willow took a few steps back. "Oh no. I said no more magic. Tara would never-"

"Not that power." Tara closed the distance between the ladies. "This power." She placed her right hand on the red heads brow. "And this power. "She placed her hand over Willow's heart.

Willow watched the familiar hand fall from her chest. "I don't understand?"

"You are needed. It is time for you to return."

"Return?"

The blonde head nodded. "We have given you a gift. One that surpasses the power of magic, and that you alone will hold. Use these powers wisely, and bring that which was once one, back to her side."

"Um, okay." Willow scrunched her face up, not knowing what Tara meant.

"What exactly does that mean?"

Tara smiled as she faded into the fog. "You will know, when it is time."

"Tara?" Willow began to run through the fog. "Tara!!" She ran, and ran.

"Taarraa!!"

Willow fell to the cobblestone ground below her, and cried for Tara wholeheartedly, releasing all of the pain she had left for her lost love, her actions, and everyone who had been hurt by her hands.

Giles came running to the bedroom he had gladly given up while Willow was recovering. He watched the tears run down her face in her sleep.

With a resigned sigh, he returned to the living room, picked up the phone and dialed.
A few moments passed before he spoke into the mouthpiece.

"Yes, I'd like to book a flight."

"One way, to Sunnydale, California."

He smiled. "For one, adult. Willow Rosenberg."

"Yes. Tomorrow please."

Sunnydale California: the following day

Anya sat behind the counter. She had missed paperwork, especially the kind that added up her gross take for the day.

Xander, Buffy and Dawn sat at the research table, exhausted.

"Ok. I just want to say, man I'm bushed," Xander said.

Buffy and Dawn both raised their hand. "Ditto."

Anya came happily from behind the counter. "Well I for one am too excited to be tired. Look how well I...we did."

Buffy lofted her head. "I'm just glad I get a free week before I have to go to work."

Xander sat up. "Hey, yeah, Buffster. How did you do on the final? I forgot to ask you today."

Buffy grinned widely. "Can you say, 'highest score in my graduating class'? I already called Willow. I can't wait for her to get here tomorrow."

Dawn, still resting her head on the tabletop, rolled her head to the side to see her sister. "Did Giles say how she was doing?"

"He said she had a dream, and that it was the sign for her to come home. I don't think she'd be coming if he didn't think she was ready."

Anya walked up behind Buffy. "And the coven basically sucked all the magic out of her, so we should all be safe."

"Yeah. But it's still going to be hard for her."

Dawn looked at her sister. "Don't worry. We'll be careful. No Tara talk."

"That's the worst thing you can do, Dawn. She needs to be able to talk about it. We need to let her if she wants to." Buffy stated sternly.

"Oh." The teen was confused, but accepted Buffy's word.





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