First Day Jitters
As the plane landed, Willow felt fear raise bile to her throat. She was too scared to move, and watched as her fellow passengers departed the plane. The stewardess came back when she saw the lone red head sitting near the back.
"Are you all right, miss?"
Willow stood up. "Oh, yeah. Just working up my nerve."
"I see. Well, we have a schedule to keep. Are you all right now?"
"Yes. I'm okay." She pulled the carry on from under her seat and settled the strap over her shoulder.
"Thank you for flying with us." The woman called.
Willow forced a smile over her shoulder, then headed down the isle to the exit. She took unhurried steps through the retractable bridge that lead into the airport. Giles had warned her not to be afraid. That her friends would be there for her. The faces of Xander, Buffy, Dawn, and even Anya passed through her head. She really didn't think anyone could forgive her.
She walked off of bridge, and into the airport.
There, standing in a row were here friends, all smiling widely and waiting for her. Dawn was the first to move, running to Willow and throwing her arms around her. "We missed you."
Willow wasn't sure how to react. This was nothing close to the reception she had expected. She looked over Dawn's shoulder to see Buffy, Xander, and Anya all coming towards her. Before she knew it, she was the center of a group hug.
"Um, guys... if you really want to kill me, could we do something other than suffocation?"
All at once they backed off to give her some air.
"Hey, Willow." Xander waved quickly, then let his hand drop to his side.
"Hey." She returned the wave.
She looked over the faces to Buffy. The Slayer gave her a softer smile.
"How are you?"
"No more magics."
"That's not what I meant."
"Oh." She took a deep breath. "I'm okay. You?"
"Me? I'm a police woman."
"Yeah, you already told me that. Top of your class. Trying to fill in for me while I was gone?"
"You betcha." She gave a weak smile.
Anya took that moment to greet the recovering witch. "You are welcome to the magic shop, as long as all of your magic is gone. Xander helped to rebuild it."
Willow couldn't help but smile. "Glad to know it."
Anya looked around at the minor glares she was getting from the others. "Oh, and welcome back."
"Thanks."
Dawn stood beside Buffy, still confused and not sure how to act. ˜Should I ask her about England? Maybe she didn't see much. Maybe I should ask her what she remembers. No, might make her upset. Maybe I could tell her about the detective who's after Buffy. I bet she'd have something Willowy to say about that."
Willow looked at Dawn, gently and she heard her mind. "Don't worry Dawnie. You don't have to be careful about what you say. It's okay." Then she turned to Buffy. "So, who's this detective?"
Dawn's jaw dropped. "How did you… I mean-" She looked at her sister. "I was just thinking about what to say." She looked back at Willow. "How'd you do that?"
All eyes were on the red head. "Don't worry. It's not magic. The fates... they gifted me. They said I was a necessity, and when I woke up from the dream, I could 'listen' to people's thoughts, like last summer, only now it's more controlled. I can't reach into anything people don't want me to know."
"As long as it's not magic," Anya said mater of factly.
"Huh. Cool," Dawn said smiling.
"Well. I guess I should get my other bags," Willow said as she headed
for the luggage area hefting her carry on over her shoulder. Buffy and Xander were left standing there. Neither had any thoughts they wanted read.
Willow stopped at the luggage pick up, and felt something strange in the back of her mind. As she picked up the bag, she heard Buffy silently chanting Spike's name in her mind.
The group walked out of the airport to Xander's awaiting car. The five piled in, with Dawn and Xander in the front, and the ladies in the back seat.
Willow easily cut off Buffy's mantra in her head, but in less time than it had taken her to walk to the car, she had found out something about her best girlfriend, that no one else had found out all summer.
Whatever else had happened, Buffy had not only forgiven Spike, but was in love with him.
~~`~~
Spike found out immediately that he was not a morning person. The sound of his new alarm clock nearly gave him a heart attack. Something that was an actual concern nowadays.
His morning ritual had not been set, and his body protested every move he made to start his day. By the time he got out of the shower he felt better, but decided to try some coffee.
Dressed, and now only mildly comatose, he grabbed his briefcase and the cardboard box holding what he hoped would be suitable props for a history class, and headed to his DeSoto.
He pulled into his newly assigned parking spot, and headed into the office to pick up his class list. The other teachers already had theirs, but as a late newcomer, he had to pick it up that morning.
He made his way through the halls to room 106, his classroom. Of course, this early the room was empty, but it gave him time to set a few things up.
Spike placed the box and briefcase on his desk, and began to unpack the posters, and other items he had brought. Before the first bell rang, he was finished with his decorating, and set up for the first day of class.
Soon the halls were buzzing with teenagers all greeting each other after a long summer vacation. He stood outside the door and wondered just how long it would take before Dawn saw him.
He watched as the kids walked by him and seated themselves at desks at random. A few girls giggled from the classroom, and when he turned he watched all of them turn their heads away from him. He looked back to the hall to see Dawn's back. She had passed him when his back was turned.
The hall was nearly empty when the second bell rang. He closed the door, and walked up in front of the class. The kids were still jabbering when he wrote his name on the board "Mr. Worthington."
He turned and faced the room. "Good morning class. My name is Mr. Worthington, and this class is World History."
Janice sat in the back and began writing a note to Dawn.
~~`~~
Dawn made her way through the cafeteria to the table holding her best friend. "Hey Janice."
"Saved you a seat."
"Thanks. So who's the new teacher?"
"You got my note didn't you?"
"Yea, but writing how gorgeous he is over and over doesn't tell me much." Dawn took a sip of her milk. "What does he look like?"
Janice flattened her palms on the table and leaned forward. "Blonde hair, blue eyes, English accent... God, I'm getting an A in that class."
Dawn giggled. "Janice, you always ace History."
"Yes, but now I have real incentive. Maybe I'll get an A plus."
"Well, I'll see for myself last period. Then we can compare notes. Okay?"
Janice nodded her head, and took a bite of her sandwich.
~~`~~
Spike sat in the teacher's lounge munching an apple while writing the names of his students in his grade book. He was nearly done with the last class when a woman walked up to him.
"Hello." The woman was slender and tall. Her dark blue eyes looked down at him. Her black hair was pinned up neatly in a bun.
"Hello." Spike set down his pen. "I'm William." He extended his hand.
"Kathy." She took his hand lightly. "Music department."
"History," He released her hand, but kept eye contact.
"You looked kind of lonely over here all yourself, thought I'd introduce myself."
Spike sat back and stretched. "Right nice of you. I came in a bit late in the game. Been too busy to make introductions."
The woman took it upon herself to sit at the table with him crossing her legs purposefully. "Yes, I heard you were hired at the last minute."
"Yeah, just got this list today. I think my hand is going to fall off from all this writing." Spike held up his hand. The impression of the pen was embedded into his left hand. The woman nodded.
"If it makes you feel better, it gets worse."
Spike chuckled. "Not really."
He looked at the clock. "I got a bit more to do before that bleedin' bell rings."
She smiled, and stood up. "Well, that you do get used to."
He smiled as she walked away, then picked up his pen to finish filling in the blanks in his grade book. He was nearly finished when. "Oh, bloody hell!"
Kathy, who had not yet reached her seat, came back. "What is it?"
Spike shook his head at the name "Summers, Dawn."
"This class name can't be right. I thought this was a class for the seniors?"
Kathy looked over the names until she reached the one he was pointing to.
"Miss Summers. Yes, well... she had some trouble last year, but her history marks have always been high. Some of the juniors who have shown an aptitude for particular subjects are given the choice to take senior year courses so they can have an extra elective period their senior year."
She looked back at Spike. "Except for her problems last year, she has always been an exceptionally good student."
"Of that I have no doubt, I just hadn't expected her to be in my class."
"If I could ask, how do you know her?"
He wasn't sure how to answer that one, but decided on honesty. "Used to see her big sis."
"Buffy?" Kathy stood up straight.
"Yeah. You know 'er?"
There was a grimace on her face that she didn‘t really try to hide. "By reputation only."
"Reputation?" Spike wasn't sure he wanted to hear this. What did she do? Sleep with the teachers? No, not Buffy.
"Yes, she and her senior class destroyed the old high school."
"Oh. That," Spike said, unimpressed.
The woman shook her head. "I still can't figure out why no one ever pressed charges."
Spike scoffed. "Maybe it saved them the price of a demolition. Coulda been planning on building a new school all along."
Kathy looked at him as though he were purple. "Yeah. That must be it." And walked away.
"Git," Spike mumbled under his breath, and tried to figure out what the hell he was going to say last period.
~~`~~
Dawn filed into the classroom following Kevin. They had sworn to sit next to each other.
Being smart was a pain sometimes. They were the only juniors in the class, but at least they had each other. Poor Janice was the only one in the first period class. They took seats in the middle of the back row.
When Dawn searched for the teacher, she couldn't find him. Kevin watched her. He still had an insane crush on her. But Dawn always acted like he was her best friend, not like he was a guy.
The girls in the class were all murmuring, and soon the young man understood why Dawn was searching the room. Apparently the teacher was 'to die for', 'gorgeous', 'hot' and several other adjectives that were lost in the gossip that was teenage female oriented.
The second bell rang and still no teacher. Dawn looked to her right. "I wonder if he already quit, or came up missing?" she asked Kevin.
Kevin's gaze moved over her head, and when Dawn turned to see, the Instructor’s back was what she saw. Not that it was a bad back. ˜Cute Butt,” she thought to herself.
Between classes, someone had erased Spike’s name from the board and he was rewriting it.
The fact that he could hide from Dawn a few more minutes didn't hurt either. Slowly he deposited the chalk onto the ledge at the base of the chalkboard, and turned to begin his introduction for the last time.
"Good afternoon class. My name is Mr. Worthington."
A high-pitched short squeak came from the back of the room. Everyone turned to see Dawn's eyes open so wide her brow was wrinkled. Her mouth was open as well, but other than the squeak, no sound came forth. She couldn't help it. It was Spike! Had to be!
So what if it's mid-afternoon and the sun is shining through the windows right on him. It really didn't matter that his hair was different, or that he was dressed like any other random teacher, or that he was standing in front of her class teaching.
Kevin watched his friend frozen. "Dawn?" He shook her shoulder.
"Dawn?" He shook her a little harder.
"Huh?" She looked around the room, then back at Spike.
With no other plan coming to mind, she shot up out of her seat and walked past the students and out the door saying something about the restroom on her way out. Spike watched her go, but didn't stop her. Sighing to himself, he turned back to the class. "First day jitters?"
The class laughed a bit, then brushed off the incident. "Now first off, let me tell you something about myself, have several degrees, one happens to be in history, just in case you were wondering."
Another round of chuckles filled the room.
"This is my first position teaching, so I may not be perfect, but I can give you a very good idea of what it is to expect. I don't want you to think about this class like your learning about dead people, I want you to feel like you could have lived the events we will be studying."
He turned around and picked up the text on his desk. "You will each receive a copy of this text book. When you do, I want you each to write your name where indicated, then. "He picked up a clipboard. "I would like you to each fill in your name and book number on this sheet. Any questions?"
Dawn was standing just outside of the classroom listening, hoping for some sign that her eyes and ears were lying to her. Other then the logical reasoning that told her vampires were not teachers, did not stand in direct sunlight and very rarely handed out textbooks to teenagers on the first day of school, she couldn’t come up with anything.
She took a cleansing breath and tried to push her anxiety aside before entering the room again and quickly taking her seat.
She avoided direct eye contact, but took her usual notes and wrote down the reading assignment.
The rest of the class went by with the speed of a snail on depressants, ending with their first homework assignment. As the rest of the class filed out, Dawn asked Kevin to go on ahead.
Kevin left, and once the room was empty, Dawn picked up her bag and walked up to the teacher's desk. Spike was leaning casually against the front of it. Dawn stood only a foot from him.
Before she knew it, her eyes were tearing.
"How?" She kept looking from the window to him. His hair was darker. He'd stopped bleaching it, but there were streaks. Sun streaks. And he was tan. He'd been like this for awhile. If it wasn't for that scar, she'd doubt her conclusion, but it had to be Spike.
"Hey, Niblet."
Dawn dropped her bag and flung her fist throwing a punch to his nose. A powerful one at that.
He fell head over heals backwards over his desk. Dawn walked around the desk as Spike stood himself up.
"You know, bit, I think you can get in serious trouble for hitting the teacher." He stood himself up, wiping away the blood from his nose using, not his hand so he could lick it clean as she'd expected, but the handkerchief in his pocket.
"You're not a teacher. You're a vampire. One who apparently figured out a way to get around a few rules. And you hurt Buffy."
"Look, I went away cause of what I did. I changed." Spike was backing away from her.
Whatever had changed, so had this girl. He hadn't expected to be physically hurt by a blow from her. Emotionally, sure, but a bleeding nose?
Dawn crossed her arms. "You really are stupid you know that?"
He stopped backing off. "I know. I'm an idiot, but I swear, It's all taken care of."
"Taken care of? You left her, and now she's trying to pretend again, like she did with Riley."
Spike cocked his head. "You mean you're mad about me leaving? I thought it was for...I mean Giles said Xander told you about…."
Dawn uncrossed her arms. "He did, I was, Anya explained it." Then Dawn looked back at him. "But then, if you left so you couldn't hurt Buffy, why'd you come back?"
Spike took a step towards Dawn and took her hand in his. Slowly he raised it until her hand was against the thumping in his chest.
For the second time in an hour, Dawn's shock was more than visible on her face. "Spike. You're alive."
"I noticed," he chuckled. "Demon's gone."
Dawn pulled her hand away from the steady rhythm slowly. "But, how?"
"It's why I left. And why I'm back."
Dawn sat on the desktop behind her. "So, you're human?"
One side of Spike's mouth turned up. "Just as human as big sis."
"Wow, that's gre-" Dawn stood up. "What do you mean, like Buffy?"
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Author's Chapter Notes:
If this is the first chapter you've read in a few days or.. a week.. STOP!!! Go back to CH 5 cuz I put up 4 chappies in a day. Kisses.