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Buffy smiled as she recognized the dorm laundry facility. This was the day that Spike proved his manliness and started his true mission. He told her on the night he asked her to marry him that he'd known that day she was to be his, and from that day forward he made it was his mission to make it so. Once again, she watched a moment from her past replay itself, with her as the spectator.

"Lorne, I can't believe that really happened," Buffy giggled as she listened to her friend talk about how he had come out to his best friend about being gay.

"Honey, girl, let me tell you! He' bout had the coronary event of the century. His sister tried to warn him. His mother tried to tell him. I dropped little hints over and over, but no, he had to come into my apartment while I'm getting busy with boyfriend surfer dude. Lo and behold he gets an eye full and faints dead away." Lorne chuckled as he helped her move her things to the dryers.

"Just don't tell me what he got an eyeful of. I don't need the visual," Buffy snorted as she put the coins in the slots. "Are you guys still friends?"

"Best buds in fact," Lorne said. "I was the best man at his wedding last year."

"Is this a private meeting or can anyone party?" a familiar voice asked.

Buffy blushed, since she was holding a pair of her thong underwear in her hand. "Open to all students," she quipped trying not to look at the man who gave her his number three days ago.

"Good to hear, pet. Long time no see," Spike said, as he looked from her flushed face back to the pink scrap of silk in her hands.

"Well, well! Aren't you just the sweetest thing?" Lorne purred as he checked out the handsome Englishman.

"Sorry, handsome, but I'm not your type," Spike chuckled. "Though I wouldn't mind getting to know your friend there a little better."

"I'm sure you would, sweetness," Lorne replied, giving Buffy a knowing wink.

"So, are you a student here, Greenjeans?" Spike asked Lorne, who happened to be wearing a pair of bright green pants.

"Yeah. Graduate this year, majoring in Dramatic Arts," Lorne said as he shut the dryer door and then turned to ask, "How about you, Blondie?"

Spike replied, "Business and Accounting with a little dabble in Creative Writing."

"My, a looker and a thinker. Buffy, I think this one could be a keeper," Lorne teased.

Buffy glared at her friend. He knew how she felt about romantic entanglements.

"Don't worry, pet, I’ll wait for when you’re ready to call that number I gave you," Spike said as he emptied his bag of laundry into the closest empty machine.

"Don't tell me you're washing all of that together?" Buffy asked as she glanced from Spike to the clothes he had dumped in the washer.

"Well, yeah." Spike shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't you separate your lights and darks?" she asked.

"All darks, pet," Spike replied as he added his money and started the washer.

"But different fabrics need different temperatures," she tried to explain.

"Just doing the jeans, tee shirts, and socks is all."

"No under-…OH!" Buffy almost said underwear before she realized he might not wear any.

"Oh, smart, romantic, and goes commando,” Lorne said as he gave the blonde hunka man another perusal.

"Well, I guess you can wash them all together," Buffy mumbled, face flaming as she tried not to check if he wasn't wearing any undergarments right now.

"Don't like how they leave panty lines," Spike joked. He caught her eye and winked as he walked over to take a seat and wait for his clothes.

"I'll be back." Buffy practically ran to the restroom.

"She's been hurt." Lorne dropped all pretense as he stood before the other man. "If you’re just looking for a good time, leave her alone."

"I kinda figured that one out," Spike replied, keeping his eyes on the bathroom door. "Not looking for just a quick fuck, here."

"Good. I would hate to have to hurt you," Lorne's voice altered, becoming lower and threatening.

"Don't want you to hurt me either," Spike replied. "'Sides, she might be the one to hurt me."

"Best advice I can give is to not give up," Lorne told him.

"I'm now on a mission," Spike said with a determined look on his face.

"Could be mission impossible, and you're not Tom Cruise," Lorne replied.

"Nope I'm taller and prettier to look at," Spike snorted.

"That I have to agree with," Lorne laughed.

Spike started to hum the Mission Impossible theme when Buffy came out of the bathroom.

Dream Buffy remembered how after that day, it became an every Saturday occurrence. The three of them and sometimes Charles Gunn would meet to do laundry and play poker while they waited. One week later, Lorne had dared her to call Spike and agree to meet him for coffee.

If only she'd known then what she knew now. Maybe she wouldn't be having this mind travel right now.

*******

Doyle slid down the wall as he looked at Buffy's brain on the view screen of the MRI. The relief of finding nothing showing a stroke or tumor had made him too weak to stand. Still, no answer as to why his favorite patient was unconscious. If the sound of machines didn't wake her up, he didn't know what would. The damn thing could wake the dead, it was so loud and irritating to listen to.

Now they needed the EGG tech in so they could measure her brain activity. That was the next important step. They were making room for her now, thinking the need for the Magnetic Resonance Imaging was more important.

"This is promising, very promising," Dr Ethan Rayne, the Chief of Neurology, said as he examined the different views on the screen. "Has she been under a lot of stress lately?" he asked.

"I know she and the babies’ father recently divorced and he doesn't know about the pregnancy," Doyle answered. "She has seemed mildly depressed, but not to the point of interfering in taking care of herself."

"We'll be able to tell more once we see the EEG results," Ethan commented as he changed the screen to a different view.

"I think I'll go and tell her family what we know so far," Doyle said as he worked to stand up.

"I'd like to go with you and interview the family if you don't mind," Ethan muttered as he started to run the case and the presenting facts, so far, through his head.

"It's her mother, stepfather, sister, and a couple of family friends," Doyle informed him.

*******

"Babycakes, you need to stop letting that not-so-Angel freak interfere in your happiness," Lorne sighed as he and Buffy sat on his couch sharing a pint of double chocolate mint ice cream.

"I don't want to talk about it," Buffy pouted, as she spooned another portion of creamy goodness.

"But Spike is too damn cute to pass up, girlfriend," Lorne protested as he gave her a disbelieving look. "Plus he knows how to treat a lady."

"Lorne, please you don't understand." Buffy's voice became tearful as she stopped eating her ice cream. "Angel left me on our wedding day after telling me I wasn't worth it. He left me and married the mayor's slut of a daughter at our church not long after."

"That no good, dirty rotten, slime, rat eating, blood sucking, soulless, evil, poor excuse of manhood that ever walked this earth," Lorne growled out without taking a breath.

Buffy started to cry, and then laugh, and then cry again. She felt Lorne's left arm wrap around her and he murmured, "You let it out, honey. Lorne's here and will be your crying towel."

Her cry session lasted for a good twenty minutes before she was able to sit up and use the back of her hands to dry her eyes. She got a look at the tearstains on the man's shirt and felt worse. Never mind that the ice cream was now melted, what was left of it, anyway.

"Lorne, I ruined your shirt," she said as she gave him a worried look.

"Listen toots, it's only a shirt," he replied, not mad at her whatsoever. "Do you feel better?"

She gave him a sheepish look and nodded her head, "But not because I cried all over your shirt."

"I know, sweets," Lorne soothed her. "But you can do something to repay me," he said thinking he'd use guilt to get it done if he had too.

"What?"

"Call that gorgeous hunk of British cream cake and take him out for coffee," Lorne suggested.

Buffy contemplated his request. On one hand, she wanted to push him away and tell him to leave. On the other hand, she wanted to go over to her purse and find the number and call.

"Okay," she said, shocking both her and Lorne.

"That's my girl. Don't let that brute of an ex keep you from your prince charming," Lorne cheered as he pulled away, standing up. "You get the number, shortcake, and I'll get you the phone. No time like the present to make the call that will change your life for the better."

Buffy watched another part of her past play out as she made the fated call that started her on the path of becoming Spike's wife.

*******





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