Buffy and Spike exited the law firm on the street level, deciding to walk instead of taking one of the company cars.
Even though a car would probably be quicker, Buffy knew Spike was enjoying the novelty of being outside during the day. She couldn’t object to that. Not when she saw how happy and excited he was.
It was really nice to be able to walk down the street holding his hand in the warm afternoon. If she didn’t think about the fact they were going off to hunt demons who were ripping people apart, or that they were also searching for a werewolf who happened to be her ex-boyfriends current girlfriend, she could almost pretend they were just a normal couple.
Of course she was beginning to realize the whole normal thing was vastly overrated. She didn’t see too many ‘normal’ people who took the time to enjoy their lives. Most were too caught up in the day-to-day grind to really appreciate what they had.
None of them seemed particularly happy.
She looked over at Spike and grinned.
At least not as happy as she was now.
It didn’t matter what her life was going to be like. She wasn’t alone anymore. Even being a Super Slayer wasn’t so bad with Spike next to her sharing it.
Feeling her eyes on him he looked over at her and smiled.
“Have I told you how beautiful you look in sunlight?” He asked before kissing her lightly.
“Hmmm.” She beamed up at him when he pulled back from her. “Not in the last fifteen minutes or so.”
“I’m slipping up then.”
Her smile brightened even further at his words. She could definitely get used to this.
They both looked around, scanning the area carefully.
Occasionally a passerby on the side walk would stop and do a double take, certain they had just seen glowing eyes on one or both of them, but when they looked again they would realize that it must have just been a trick of the light.
“Nothing?” Buffy asked.
“Nothing.” Spike confirmed.
They moved farther down the street to the next block.
“So what’s the deal with the Shanpoo thingy?” Buffy asked.
“Oh, its just some nonsense. Its about a vampire with a soul, who saves the world, and gets to be human.”
Buffy stopped in her tracks. “WHAT?!?”
Spike stopped, but didn’t seem to notice the extent of her distress as he scanned the area they were in. “Yeah, that’s what has Peaches so bent out of shape. He’s afraid I came back to take his prophecy from him.”
“And you were going to tell me about this when?” Buffy demanded, all but yelling at him.
Spike finally realized something wasn’t right and turned to face her. “What the hell is wrong with you?” He asked, bristling under her tone and the anger he now was acutely aware of.
“Gee, I wonder. You give this big speech about us being together forever and mated and all that, but you forgot to mention that forever might only be until you become a human!!” She stormed off down the street.
“What?” Spike said confused. Wouldn’t that be something she wanted?
“Wait a minute!” He yelled and ran after her, grabbing her arm to slow her down. “I thought you would be a happy if I became human.”
”Right, because I’m such a normal girl these days!”
“I don’t even think the stupid thing was written about me. Angel is the Champion, not me.”
“Really? Which part doesn’t apply to you?” Buffy finally stopped trying to get away and turned to face him again. “Let’s see. Soul? Check. Saved the world? Check. Vampire?”
“Not much of a vampire anymore, am I, pet?” Spike interrupted her gently.
“Yeah, well what if the Powers decide you are? I mean look at the alternative.” She said referring to Angel.
Spike couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh that nice. Just laugh at me. What do I care?” Spike grabbed her and kissed her soundly.
“You are adorable, that’s what I was laughing at. I love that you are worried about losing me, but you don’t have to.” He brushed a small piece of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail off her face. “Do you honestly think I’d let a little issue of mortality come between us?”
“You let being a ghost come between us.” Buffy insisted, unwilling to let him just brush this aside.
Spike sighed, and then he felt something. He and Buffy looked at each other.
“Werewolf.” They said at the same time.
People started to run past them screaming in fear. Next thing they knew a werewolf ran past them, bleeding profusely from numerous cuts running across it. They couldn’t tell whether it was chasing the people or running from whatever had hurt it, but they didn’t waste any time, just ran after it.
Illyria and Wesley sat at a booth in a small diner next to the large window, where they had been most of the night talking.
Illyria had explained to him at great length her world and the atmosphere of the time she lived in. It was strange for her to describe these things to him, because he would ask her questions about things she never paid much attention to, like the lives the lesser beings had or how things came to be the way they were. Things she had always just taken for granted as the way things were. He made her see her previous life differently from the way she had always seen it.
They had also talked about human emotions and concepts such as humor, love, and friendship.
This led into a conversation about Fred.
It was difficult for Wesley, at first, to hear her talk about Fred’s feelings and memories, having seen them in Fred’s own mind. Yet, even though she had first hand knowledge of all these things that didn’t mean she truly comprehended what they meant and this made it easier. Wesley spent a great deal of time explaining to her why it took so long for he and Fred to actually admit their feelings and get together. He found himself having to explain human insecurities and frailties to her.
“Why do humans make things so complicated?” Illyria was asking him.
“Something specific you are referring to or just in general?” He answered with a smile. It didn’t even feel odd to enjoy a conversation with her anymore and he no longer felt the gut wrenching guilt for it either.
She opened her mouth to answer him when the sound of screaming stopped her. They both looked out the window and watched as a large group of people went running past the diner, followed by a werewolf.
“I wonder if Angel decided to try the spell on Nina without us?” Wesley asked dryly.
“The one you choose as your leader is really not an intelligent being.” Illyria told him. “You are aware of this fact, are you not?”
Wesley sighed. “He does have his moments.”
They saw Buffy and Spike run by obviously chasing after Nina.
“Was that Spike?” Wesley asked
“It appeared to be.”
“Perhaps we should see if we could lend a hand.” Wesley pulled out his phone, which he had turned off when they got to the diner. “Eighteen missed calls. I wonder what that’s about?” He commented.
Illyria considered him as they stood up.
“And this dry way of speaking you are doing is called ‘British Wit’?”
“Yes, we also have a fascination with men in drag, for example Monty Python or the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Its something the African American culture has also picked up on.”
“That is the reason behind those films ‘White Girls’ and ‘Juwanna Mann’ that Gunn is so fond of?” Referring to the night she spent with Gunn, when he decided she needed to learn about humor.
“Yes, I’m afraid so.” Wesley left a tip and they went off in the direction Spike and Buffy headed towards.
After Buffy and Spike left, it took a while before Giles could get Angel to return his attention to the situation at hand. Personally, Giles wanted nothing more than to follow Buffy’s example and knock him across the room, but given what was going on, they didn’t have time for those theatrics.
Giles had never really cared for Angel, even before he lost his soul and killed Jenny. He never liked the way he seemed to cling to Buffy and her calling, as if she were the vehicle that could grant him salvation, instead of relying on his own actions. When Angel left her, Giles had been pleased her separated himself, but he was furious at the self-righteous way Angel did it, not to mention the stalking missions he engaged in after he left.
Even though he was upset with Buffy right now for choosing to spend her life with a vampire, Giles was actually a little relieved that she chose Spike over Angel. In his opinion, if she had to spend her life with one of them, Spike would treat her better than Angel ever could hope to.
“Gunn, do you have anything new for us?” Angel asked into the phone.
“Man, people are pouring into the ER down here. Still no confirmed sightings of what’s doing this.” He sighed. “Of course its hard to question someone yelling in pain. It just chaos down here.”
Giles sat up straight and his eyes narrowed.
Chaos.
Of course.
He stood up to leave.
“What is it?” Angel asked him.
Giles glared at him. “I’m going after the cause of this mess.”
“I didn’t think we knew what that was.” Dawn said confused.
“I do now.” Giles began to look around for his brief case and took off his jacket. “This stunt screams of Ethan.” Unable to find his briefcase Giles yelled for Andrew.
“Andrew, I’ll need my things now.” When he didn’t get a response Giles looked around perplexed. “I say. Does anyone have any idea where Andrew ran off to?”
“I bet I can guess.” Dawn answered.
Buffy and Spike finally managed to catch up with Nina and corral her into a dead end alley, but now they weren’t sure what to do with her.
“Don’t suppose you brought anything to knock her out with?” Buffy asked him.
“Do you see a weapon on me anyplace?” He asked her sarcastically.
“Look, just because you got caught keeping secrets from me is no reason to be a pissy jerk.” She snapped.
“I’m not pissy because of that, I’m pissy…” Spike realized at that moment, only children and women who had their monthlies got pissy. “Er, angry.” He corrected himself. “I’m angry you don’t have any faith in me.”
“Its kind of hard when you didn’t even bother to tell me you were back!!” Buffy started yelling again, turning her attention away from the injured werewolf to face Spike fully.
Spike threw his hands in the air and turned towards her. “Just how long are you planning on holding onto to that? Huh?” Nina studied them both, making sure they were both ignoring her. Spike continued. “Because I’d like to know now if I’m going to have to hear about this for the next century.”
“You don’t have to worry, you’ll probably be dead of old age by then Mr. Human Guy!!”
Deciding that both of them were completely unaware of her now, Nina decided to attack.
“Bloody Hell! You really are the most stubborn, insufferable bint!”
Nina leapt into the air, claws and fangs bared.
Wesley and Illyria turned the corner.
“Behind you!!” Wesley shouted once he realized the situation.
Buffy and Spike looked towards him, then up at Nina about to land on them, but by that time, they couldn’t even move out of the way.
Suddenly, Nina let out a yelp and fell straight down, missing Buffy and Spike by centimeters. Everyone looked towards the opposite side of the alley and saw Andrew standing there with a tranquilizer gun.
“I know you guys had that under control, but I thought I would help out anyway.” Andrew said.
Several minutes later Wesley was on the phone with Angel, being screamed at while the others secured Nina with the chains Andrew had thought to bring along with him.
“If you’d just listen for a moment…” Wesley tried to say.
Even though they were a good distance away everyone could hear Angel screaming.
“…Been calling you all night…”
“I was otherwise…”Wesley tried again.
“…People were dying, Nina is missing…”
Spike stood up and grabbed the phone from Wesley.
“Would you quit you damn belly aching!! We have your girly. Percy, Blue and Giles Jr. are heading back now with her. If you can focus on the innocent people dying instead of your control freak issue, is there any word on the other demons?”
It was Dawn who answered. “Giles thinks Ethan Rayne is behind all this.” Buffy stepped closer to Spike to better hear her sister, since she was talking much lower than Angel. “He went out after him a while ago.”
“Oh that just brilliant.” Spike sighed and glared at Buffy.
“I didn’t tell him to go out.” She said defensively.
“He wonders where you get it from.” Spike responded. “Any idea where he headed Bit?” He said into the phone.
“No, he said he needed to find the source of the chaos.”
“Is Nina all right?” Angel asked anxiously.
“She has some nasty looking scrapes, but otherwise she seems to be ok.” Spike wrapped an arm around Buffy, happy that she was by his side instead of like Nina. “Slayer and I are gonna go after Rupert, make sure he’s not in over his head. Here’s Percy, back.”
Spike handed the phone back Wesley.
He pulled Buffy closer to him and pressed a kiss to her forehead, all their earlier disagreements forgotten as she allowed herself to find some comfort in his embrace. “Don’t worry, luv. We’ll find Rupert. He’ll be ok. You’ll see.”
She nodded and pulled back looking determined. “If he’s not, Ethan is going to have a very painful experience.”
“That’s my girl.” Spike paused. “Any thoughts on where the source of Chaos might be?”
Buffy looked blank. “In LA?” Her forehead scrunched up as she thought. “The WB studios?” She offered. “Maybe Fox?”
“Actually, I’m willing to bet its someplace close to the hospital. That way he can utilize most of the energy created from the chaos, plus most of the attacks form a circle away from that point.” Andrew said from his position inches away from them. Spike looked over at him sideway and forced a smile.
“Thank you Andrew.”
“No problem.”
“Don’t suppose you want to give us some space?” Spike asked sweetly.
”Actually I was thinking that we should hurry up and get moving, Mr. Giles has quite the lead on us and we don’t want anything to happen to him.”
“What do you mean ‘we’, Andrew?” Buffy asked exasperated. “You are not going anywhere but back with Nina and Wesley.”
“They already left and you don’t want me to wander around out here by myself, do you? What if I get caught by one of those demons?”
Buffy looked over and realized Andrew was right they had indeed gone and left him there.
“Remind me to get them for this.” Buffy told Spike.
“It will be a joint effort.”
“Guys, hurry up, lets go.” Andrew called them already halfway down the block.
“Can we use him as bait?” Spike asked.
“I’m surprisingly ok with that.” Buffy answered as they followed behind him
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