"Willow, do you have any idea what sort of thing Nancy could be up to?" Buffy asked, pulling Willow's attention over to her.
"No, I don't," Willow replied, shaking her head. "I never really did know what Nancy did half the time. She'd just have me do research, and then she'd take it and go. Kind of like those girls who were always trying to make me do their homework back in junior high."
"Nancy's got herself more than few control issues," Spike said, stopping his pacing. "I picked up on it when I was fighting her and then more so later from some of the things Angelus said after the big soul loss. She likes everything nice and orderly, and preferably, centered on her. You've messed that up for her Buffy, and she's going to want to right it. Or at least what the version of 'righting it' is in her mind."
"Do you think she'll try to hurt me?" Buffy asked, frowning.
Spike looked grimly at Buffy, meeting her eyes. "I know she will. Me, too, but that was already a given. What she said about your mum being evil, I think she meant it."
"I do, too," Willow said, adding her voice to Spike's concerns. "Nancy doesn't let go of things easily, and I've never heard her just turn around and say she was wrong about something the very next day. Her behavior in the kitchen was very weird. I think Giles knew it, too, but he didn't want to make a big deal of it in case it just made things worse."
Spike nodded. He'd certainly gotten that impression, too. Red was perceptive, more than he'd given her credit for in the past. He'd lumped her with that idiot boy Nancy also palled around with, but clearly she was smarter than he'd realized. He was gladder now that she'd taken their side, and not just because it gave Buffy a friend. If they were going to have to be dealing with a damage-bound Slayer, a scorned friend was a good ally to have.
"If she's got herself convinced that Joyce was evil because the Council went after her, then she's probably thinking along the same lines with you, pet," Spike said. "After all, you're with me—for her, that's going to be proof enough."
"One thing I don't think she was lying about this morning was when she said she was jealous," Willow added. "She clearly was last night when she told me I couldn't be friends with her and Buffy, and she always seemed to get annoyed if she thought I was spending too much time with Giles. Or heck, even Xander, even though he was my friend long before he was ever hers."
"So add her jealousy to the Slayer-approved reason to get rid of me in the form of my supposed evilness, and I'm in trouble." Buffy's shoulders slumped. "Crap. This is so not something I have time to deal with. I have a major revenge plot to cook up here, and if I have to fight off a psycho Slayer, too, it's just going to waste valuable time that I could be spending thinking up ways to make the evil Watchers pay."
"So what are we going to do about Nancy then?" Willow asked. She felt like this should make her feel all traitory. She was down in a basement discussing someone she'd once thought of as a friend with someone who had tried to kill that same friend. However, her instincts were telling her something else, that there, with Buffy, was the side she truly belonged on, and she was going to listen to them. With the cold look in Nancy's eyes this morning, Willow knew this could actually turn out to be literally the safer bet.
She did worry what would happen to Xander in all of this, since she doubted he'd be willing to think anything bad about Nancy, despite the fact Willow had been more there for him than Nancy ever had. Not with the way Nancy had Xander at her beck and call. But Willow would dwell on that later, after things had time to settle.
"We should probably lay low for now, keep an eye on her," Buffy said. "If she does have a plan, none of us know it, and I doubt she'll be quick to divulge it, even if we play along with her little 'let's all be friends' speech."
"Buffy's right," Spike added. "As much as I'm loathed to ever start a game of wait-n-see, we don't have enough information to jump right now, and since the chit's more than likely got a mark on my mate, I'm not taking my usual chances."
"So we wait her out?" Willow asked. "Try to see if we can piece together what she's up to?"
"Best we got right now," Spike replied. "We just need to make sure we stay on our guards."
"I probably have the best chance of getting anything out of her," Willow announced, surprising herself when she said it, and even more as she kept talking. "Out of the three of us, I'm the one she's most likely trust at all. Maybe I could get her to tell me something." Inside of her chest, Willow's heart rate picked up. Could she even do what she was offering? She'd never exactly been good at subterfuge. She got nervous and twitchy when she tried to lie. But it did sound like it could be their best bet, and she was willing to try it for Buffy.
"You think you can do that, Red?" Spike asked, his eyes level with hers, and for a moment Willow wondered if he could read her mind.
"Yes," Willow replied, trying to infuse both her answer and herself with confidence. "I mean, in all honesty I've been pretending to like Nancy more than I actually do for a while now."
Buffy shook her head. "I don't know. We don't know what she's thinking or how much she's convinced herself that I'm the bad guy here. If she gets wind that you're spying on her for Spike and me, it could put you in danger."
"I don't think so," Willow said. "I mean, it might not get me any answers, but I don't think Nancy will come after me. She usually just assumes I'm too clueless about demons and stuff to know what I'm doing when she thinks I've done something wrong. I'm facing at worse snide comments and lectures about my choices in life."
"Wow. She sounds like the girl you want to party with," Buffy remarked, rolling her eyes. Then, she was serious again. "Okay, if we're going to do this, how are we going to work it?"
"I guess I try to tell her I've seen the error of my ways, and I'm not your friend anymore," Willow said. "Get her to think I'm all Team Nancy again."
"Don't be too over the top with it, Red," Spike warned. "Keep it simple. Easier to make it seem natural that way."
"Right, I can do that," Willow said, even though her words were tinged with nervousness. "Just gotta remember KISS."
Spike frowned, his head cocked to the side. "What are you going to do, paint your face like a black and white cat?"
"Huh?" Willow asked, frowning for several seconds until a light bulb clicked on in her mind, and she got the reference. "Oh! No! It's something my math teacher used to say, 'Keep It Simple, Stupid'—KISS. Well, until a parent complained, and he had to change the stupid to silly, but now I'm totally rambling when I should be upstairs playing super spy Willow, so I'm just going to go now."
Willow got to her feet, but stopped when she felt Buffy's hand on her arm. "Be careful, Will. We don't know how dangerous Nancy is or how far she'd go to get rid of me and Spike. If you get even the slightest feeling that she might try to hurt you, come down here, and we'll protect you, okay?"
Willow nodded. "I will. I'll be fine, Buffy." She smiled at the other girl. "Thanks for caring. And, y'know, thanks for thinking I'm actually capable of doing something helpful."
"I think you're very capable. Now get up there and pretend you hate me."
Willow giggled. "Aye aye," she said with a salute, then made her way up the stairs.
Willow took a series of deep, theoretically calming breaths as she stood outside of Nancy's bedroom door. She told herself over and over again that she could do this. She was just going to talk to Nancy, something she'd done plenty of times in the past. She'd known her for close to two years now, and she seriously doubted Nancy was going to hurt her. It wasn't a big deal at all.
Besides, lying to Nancy right now—so not a bad thing to do. From the way Nancy had been acting in the kitchen that morning, it had seemed pretty obvious the Slayer was up to something dubious. So if she was being less than honest, then Willow shouldn't feel guilty if she was, too.
Willow nodded and brought forth her resolve face. Nancy was the one who had turned on her, demanding the night before that she choose sides. Well, Willow had chosen her side, and she wasn't about to feel sorry for it either.
She raised her hand and knocked, waiting a moment for Nancy's "Who's there?"
"It's Willow," she replied, "Can I come in?"
"Yeah, sure," Nancy called. "The door isn't locked."
Willow traded resolved for what she hoped was chagrined as she walked into Nancy's bedroom. This should be easy. Just like acting.
Only she hadn't had any acting experience since kindergarten, in which she'd played the world's most terrified strawberry. If this was going to be her life, maybe she should take a drama class so next time she had to go all Emma Peele she'd have some practice.
Willow didn't realize she'd been standing in Nancy's room for several moments until the Slayer raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did you want something?"
"Oh, right, sorry," Willow said. "I came to apologize. I don't know why I was siding with Buffy like that when you're my friend."
"It's all right." Nancy replied with a shrug. "I'm not mad at you anymore. I'm really not even all that surprised."
Willow took a step back. "What do you mean by that?"
Nancy sighed. "You know, there's always been that competition between us because you have a crush on Xander, but he's interested in me and not you."
"Oh. That," Willow said, any lingering concerns she had about betraying Nancy suddenly flying right out the window. "Yeah, that's what it was. I get so jealous of you and all with my never-ending Xander love."
"But I can forgive you for that," Nancy said. "So it's no big deal." She turned her attention to the magazine she'd been flipping through before Willow had come in. "Besides, Buffy won't be a problem for much longer anyway."
That made Willow's blood chill. "What do you mean by that?"
"Just that problems like Buffy have a way of sorting themselves out. She'll be gone and out our hair soon enough."
"Well that's good then. Buffy will leave and everything can go back to normal." Willow replied, even though she was starting to feel a little ill. There was something in Nancy's tone, something dark that Willow didn't like the sound of. They'd been right—Nancy had done something, put some sort of plan into motion. And it must be going to happen soon if Nancy was suddenly so calm about Buffy being there.
"Yep, back to normal," Nancy concurred. She held up the magazine. "What do you think of these shoes? I mean, probably not the best for Slaying, but they'd work for the Bronze."
"They're…shiny," Willow replied. "I like the, um, sparkles. Hey, I need to get home. I promised my mom I'd…dust in the den today."
"Okay. Thanks for apologizing, Will. And things really will be going back to normal soon. I promise."
"Uh huh. Good thing, that normal. Well, I'll see you around. Bye, Nancy."
Nancy had already turned her focus back to her magazine. "Bye."
Willow shut Nancy's bedroom door behind her and took a deep breath before she all but ran back down to the basement.
Just a little note to clarify a plot point that seems to have not been very clear from some of the reviews and emails I've gotten. I hate explaining plot points like this because it always makes me feel like I've failed in my writing if I haven't made it clear enough, but enough people seem confused that I think I need to. Angel is not supporting Spike by not going along with Nancy's "stake him in his sleep and throw Buffy out" plan. Angel does NOT think Spike is a good guy, As you'll recall, there was definite antagonism between the two of them when they talked outside by Spike's car. I didn't include the scene where Angel and Nancy talk because this isn't a story about them, and I didn't think at the time it was necessary, but maybe I was wrong. Nancy does, however, make mention of Angel worrying she'd get hurt if she went after Spike. That is why Angel's reluctant to support Nancy's plan to go after Spike. Nancy and Spike have been barely evenly matched in the past, and Angel is afraid that if he's fighting for his mate, it'll give Spike the advantage. Angel has some experience with mated vampires and knows that they become very, very dangerous when their mates are threatened. Angel does think something should be done about Spike, he just thinks Nancy needs to proceed with caution for her own good. This does not mean Angel has accepted Spike as part of the good guys, or that Nancy's necessarily correct in her thoughts that Angel not wanting to go right after Spike means Angel's not fully re-ensouled. Everything clear now?
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