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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to Tasha for her betaing and to JackofSpikes and Karyn for being such great IM buddies.
Spike put the phone down, and he turned to the others, "Giles is on his way to Sunnydale, and I suppose the big brooding poofter will be, too.

"I don't think that Angel will be coming," Buffy whispered. She looked down at her battered hands. How was she going to tell the others that she suspected that Angel knew about the spell three years ago when he returned from Hell?

Spike heard the question silently spoken by his mate. Luv, what do you mean? he questioned silently. He was rewarded with the insight about the instant the spell broke for Buffy. It was when she hit the dimensional barrier opened with Dawn's blood. Spike saw himself through her eyes as he lay on the ground bleeding from the fall from the tower. Then, he watched as Buffy told Angel to close his eyes, kissed him, and rammed the sword through Angel's stomach. Spike watched as Angel was sucked into the portal opened by Acathla. He returned to his mate's side, and he took her hands into his before she could hurt them by twisting them together too much.

"Why don't you think so, Buffy?" Willow asked. She noticed the silent understanding spark between Buffy and Spike. Willow watched as the vampire and the Slayer exchanged a look of silent communication. This was a look she had seen before between the two blonds, but with the new informaton those looks took on new meaning. So, she wasn't surprised when Spike answered her question instead of Buffy.

"The Slayer thinks that the son of a bitch has known about the spell ever since Hell spit his sorry ass back into this dimension," Spike growled. His anger at his grandsire hung on every word.

For several century long minutes silence reigned over the Magic Box. The pandemonium that followed caused the still traumatized Slayer to cover her ears and whimper. Her nerves were now on overload from finding herself in her grave, the subsquent climb to the surface, and the reconnection to Spike. The reactions of her friends over the knowledge that Angel knew about the spell and decided it was best not to confide in anyone sent her over the edge of sanity.

Spike felt the panic inside his mate escalate, and his ire jumped right along with it. A soft growl started deep in his chest that grew with its intensity until it drowned out the rest of the noise. All eyes swung around to look at the irate master vampire and the quaking woman sitting beside him with her face buried in her hands.

Dawn slid closer to Buffy, and she put her arms around her sister. She whispered reassurances into her older sibling's ear. At the back of her mind though, Dawn wondered how exactly the monks were able to insert the memories of her childhood into two different sets of awareness.

"What is it with him and his need to decide what's best for others?" Cordelia growled.

"Who? Angel or Giles?" Dawn asked. She caught the look on the seer's face. Dawn was glad she wasn't involved in the spell in any way.

"I meant Angel. That lying sack of..." Cordelia stopped to consider the actions of the men in question, "But I guess Giles falls in the same category, doesn't he?"

"Those two won't be making any decisions for us ever again," Dawn hissed, "I can't believe Angel told Buffy to get a normal boyfriend knowing that she was mated to Spike." She reached over, and she gripped Spike's hand. "Wow, and you fell in love with Buffy even with the spell in force, Spike. That's amazing, poetic even."

"Wasn't just him, Dawnie," Buffy whispered, "I fell in love, too. After he protected your identity how could I not?" She leaned into the vampire's shoulder. "Things happened so fast, though. I was scared to say anything." Buffy allowed her feelings to wash over Spike.

"W-why were you scared, Buffy?" Tara asked. She was sitting next to Dawn. So, she had heard what the Slayer had whispered.

Buffy glanced up into Spike's face, and then she attempted to twist her hands together in her lap. A single tear trickled down Buffy's face when Spike grabbed her hands to still them, and he kissed her on the forehead.

"It's okay, luv," Spike said quietly, "You can tell them."

"The spell filled me with so much hatred," Buffy glanced around at the others in the room, "So, when I realized I had fallen in love with another vampire, I was terrified, and yet, I just had to kiss him to know what it felt like again." She traced her lips with her fingers. "Then I thought of all of you and how upset you would get. I knew how upset Giles would get if I got involved with another vampire especially since this one evil and soulless."

Spike winced beside Buffy. He understood where she was coming from. Honestly, he did. Angelus had done a real number on the Slayer and her friends while he had toured Sunnyhell years before. Understanding her feelings didn't make it hurt any less.

Buffy collected her thoughts, and she stared off into space while she continued talking, "I think though, that was because part of me remembered Giles doing the spell. I felt helpless when he blew the dust on me so I couldn't move. He made it so I couldn't get Spike away from Angel or get to Giles to make him shut up."

Spike knew how distressed Buffy felt about being helpless. Her memories shifted around, and he relived his mate's 18th birthday. He learned how Giles had made his charge helpless at the Council's request. He knew how she felt when she found the photo of her kidnapped mother, and how she had fought a crazed vampire with nothing but her wits. He realized that her two most vulnerable moments had happened at the hands of her Watcher. This had affected her more deeply than anything ever had before or since. Spike felt admiration for the strength of his Slayer.

"At the time, I was so scared something would happen, and I would have to kill another person I loved." Buffy's fingers slid through a lock of Dawn's dark brown hair, and her voice turned fierce. "Especially after Giles told me I had to kill Dawn to save the world. A little dolly told me that if Giles and Angel hadn't played God with us, I wouldn't have had to die. We would have seen Glory for what she was from the beginning."

"What little dolly?" Dawn asked. She thought that those words coming from her sister were very strange. Was all this really driving Buffy over the edge that far?

"Can I have something to drink, please?" Buffy asked. She waited to continue until after Anya brought her a glass of water. "Limbo's an interesting place. You meet the most interesting people there. I met Liam. He's a drunken womanizer, and you'd think after that many years he would outgrow the tendencies, wouldn't you? I also met Edith. She was so sweet and innocent, and I liked her."

Spike jumped just a bit when Buffy said the name Edith. He has spent over 100 years hauling around Drusilla's doll, Miss Edith. Spike felt a little smirk come through the claim, and he suddenly feared that his mate was going to reveal all of his secrets.

"Then I met Will." Buffy leaned in very close to Spike, and she whispered into his ear too low for anyone to hear. That included her sister sitting right next to her, "I adore nerdy poets."

Spike pretended to mishear what the Slayer had whispered to him. He was still evil, you know. "You adore dirty poems, luv? I have the perfect one to tell you. I heard it at kitten poker the other night. There was a demon from Nantucket..." Spike stopped speaking when Buffy clapped a hand over his mouth.

Buffy had seen where the joke was going. She hissed loudly at her mate, "Not in front of Dawn. I said nerdy poets, not dirty poems." This caused the others to start giggling.

Spike blanched even paler than normal, until he realized that the laughter the others were engaged in wasn't cruel. He even managed a chuckle or two himself before Xander decided it was his turn to speak up.

"See, this is what they took away from me. A guy to make jokes with," Xander announced, "There are just some things that only another male understands." He sighed. He'd spent the last several years feeling like the odd man out in a sea of estrogen when he was suppose to have had a true male friend instead.

"Did you just call me a guy, Harris?" Spike snarked.

Xander thought about what he had just said, and he chuckled, "I guess I did." Xander sensed the return of what he felt towards the vampire before Giles's hate spell. He remembered bonding over jock terrorization and pool. It made Xander ashamed of how he treated Spike for the past couple of years. Xander put his best foot forward, and he took a leap. "I'm sorry about how I've treated you the past few years. I hope we can be friends, again."

"No worries, mate. Can't help what you can't remember." Spike stuck his hand out towards the other man. "I seem to remember your pool playing skills have improved. Maybe we should get together so I can wipe up the Bronze with your arse."

Xander narrowed his eyes at the vampire, and then his face broke out in a grin. He grabbed Spike's hand. Xander teased, his voice full of confidence, "I'd like to see you try."

"We'll make it a double date. Me and the Slayer and you and the demon-bird," Spike announced. The years of hate filled taunting disappeared, and it was replaced by the banter of two long lost friends.

Dawn laid her hand on Buffy's arm to get her attention. "What was this Will like?"

"Oh Dawnie, he was..." Buffy bit her lower lip when she glanced up at Spike from under her lashes, "Beautiful. You could see the chord that connected him to his earthly body. It was so ... eflugent."

"Slayer," Spike growled in caution.

"Well, he was, Spike," Buffy assured her mate, "And it was. The chord was as bright as a sun. Edith had one, too, but it wasn't as bright as Will's. We won't talk about Liam except to say I should have kicked him harder in the nuts in the mall."

"What about the bitch?" Spike asked. He was curious about where Darla was in this little story of Buffy's. Spike ignored the curious looks the others gave him.

"Will said she disappeared some time ago, and she hadn't returned. I think Cordy can tell us about Darla," Buffy answered. She turned her attention from Spike to Cordelia.

"Last year Wolfram and Hart somehow resurrected Darla," Cordelia announced, "Before you say she was dusted by Angel. Yeah, she was, but they undusted her and made her living. Well, and dying, too."

"What do you mean?" Willow asked.

"Grandmum loved to brag that the Master rescued her from her deathbed," Spike informed the redheaded witch, "Seems she was dying from that nasty little disease Harris had for Thanksgiving just a couple of years ago. Of course, hers wasn't a mystical curse from Native Amercian vengeance spirits. She was a whore."

"Why the hell would anyone bring back that... ?" Dawn was at a loss of word for the right word to call Darla, but that was a good thing since both Spike and Buffy were giving her a look that said 'you better not continue that question'.

"Wolfram and Hart wanted Angelus to reemerge." Cordelia seemed to be lost in her memories. "They didn't get the reaction they expected." She shuddered as she remembered the events of the previous winter.

Spike glanced at Buffy to gauge her reaction to what Cordelia said, and he felt her reassurances of his place in her life pass over him. He smirked down at her when he reminded her of one of their past bad experiences that involved chains and jealous exs. "That's when he let the bitch and Dru eat the lawyers, isn't it?"

Cordelia gasped, "How did you know that?" She was quite sure Angel hadn't shared any confidences with the Sunnydale people.

"Had a right informative little visit from Dru this past spring. Didn't we, pet?" Spike directed his question to Buffy.

"You didn't mention dead lawyers, though, Spike," Buffy replied. She arched an eyebrow at the vampire.

"Had our own little drama goin', luv," Spike continued to smirk at Buffy.

Buffy looked down at her hands in shame as she remembered her reaction to Spike's declaration of love. The cruel jibes paired with the disinvite spell had caused more heartbreak in the amorous vampire. Buffy's own fear of rejection caused the Slayer not to reveal that her own feelings towards Spike had changed. "I was scared of you, too, Spike."

"Ah luv," Spike whispered. He gathered his mate into his arms and into his lap. Spike was privy to the inside info on all of Buffy's past relationships, and that was before they reestablished the claim.

"The things I did and said before I died," Buffy murmured, "If you rejected me right now, I wouldn't blame you." She played with a button Spike's duster, and she pushed her lower lip out into a bit of a pout.

Spike looked at the quivering lower lip, and he growled, "Pouty." He curled his tongue behind his upper teeth when Buffy's head shot up, and she stared into his eyes.

"You gonna get it?" Buffy whispered. She smiled into the kiss that Spike planted on her lips. "Oh, stop." Memories of their brief engagement during Willow's "Thy Will Be Done" spell emerged, and she felt herself melting further into Spike's embrace.

Spike pulled slightly away from Buffy. "You've made me the happiest man in the world. Do you really think I'm goin' to reject you now that 've got you right where 've always wanted you?"

Buffy wiggled around on Spike's lap, and she shoved her hands into her jeans pocket. When she pulled her hand out of her pocket, the others saw a flash of silver that she quickly dropped into Spike's hand.

"Forgot you never gave that back, pet," Spike remarked. He gently put the silver skull ring on Buffy's left hand. "I can't believe you kept it."

"Not every day a girl gets engaged," Buffy said in return, "Even if it is to her mortal enemy." She smiled up at Spike when she cupped his jaw with her hand.

"Can I be blind, too?" Xander teased. He grinned when Spike and Buffy turned to stare at him, and the three of them burst out laughing. Everyone, except an extremely bored Anya, looked at them like they were crazy.

"You guys are really weird," Dawn grumbled.

"No, they're just pretending that Willow's spell happened again, and they're engaged again. Xander wants to be blind like Giles." Anya grimaced as a thought hit her. "Does that mean because you announced your engagement before mine, I have to wait to get married until after you do?"

"Anya!" Xander got a 'deer in the headlights' look on his face. "We agreed we weren't supposed to say anything till the time was right."

"Well, Spike and Buffy basically announced their re-engagement," Anya pointed out, "So why can't we announce ours?"

"I think you just did, demon-girl," Spike chuckled around his words. He refused to relinquish his grip on Buffy as she struggled in his lap. After a few seconds she resigned herself to being trapped against the vampire's body.

"Congratulations Anya, Xander," Buffy said from the confines of Spike's arms. The others seemed to have been waiting to see Spike and Buffy's response to the announcement. As soon as they saw the blonde couple's reaction to the news, the rest gathered around the darker haired couple to ooh and ahh over Anya's ring.

Spike held up Buffy's hand with his ring on it. He whispered into her ear. "I'm goin' to get you something a lot nicer than this."

Cordelia suddenly began to sneeze violently. She pressed her fists to her head when she spat out the word vision from between gritted teeth.

"Grab her before she falls," Spike shouted loudly. He recognized the signs of a person having a violent vision.

Xander and Willow grabbed the oblivious Cordelia and helped her back into her chair. Anya rushed to the bathroom for cool rags after Spike informed her that the woman would probably have a killer headache when the vision was over. Tara gathered ingredients for a spell to help ease the headache. Buffy and Dawn sat out of the way, and they let the others do the work for a change.

"Woozy," Cordelia muttered groggily. She moaned in pleasure when Anya gently laid a cool rag on her forehead. "I saw Buffy fighting a demon, but it's incorporeal. Willow and Tara chanting ... the demon is solid ... Buffy kills it." She sighed in relief as the small spell that Tara chanted took the edge off her pain.

"Have the nose bleeds started yet?" Anya asked in a very serious voice. She barely noticed the others looking at her as she continued on. "I've seen it before. Humans just are not strong enough to handle the visions sent by the Powers That Be. You've lasted longer than any of the others."

"What's going to happen to her?" Tara asked quietly. She could sense how much pain the ex-cheerleader was in. If this happened every time, the gentle hearted Wicca had no idea how Cordy kept a smiling face.

"First there are headaches that debilitate the seer. Then the nose bleeds start," Anya replied very matter of factly, "Usually that's followed by a gradual loss of brain function until the day the vision actually causes the brain to be scrambled. This usually leaves the seer either dead or brain dead."

"I-I didn't know it would do that," Cordelia gasped. She covered her face with her hands. "I finally have a good purpose for being in the group besides being the bait and it's going to get me killed anyway."

"Well, if you were a demon it wouldn't," Anya continued to speak in her matter of fact tone, "Of course there are very few ways for a human to become a demon. There are vengeance wishes. I remember this one time a few years before Giles so rudely smashed my pendant; a sweet young thing in Rio De Janeiro said that her boyfriend was slimy horny creep, So, she wished that's what he looked like. I turned him into a Chaos demon."

"Anya, the matter at hand, please?" Willow stated. She had no desire to listen to any of the ex-vengeance demon's stories even if they did pertain to what was happening.

"Oh sorry. So, vengeance wishes, the Powers that Be could actually change you into a demon or find a parasitic demon like a vampire to host inside your body." Anya finished in a hurry.

"I don't want to be a vampire," Cordelia screeched. This made her head throb, and she pressed her hands to her temples. "Ow. Ow. I don't want to be evil."

"Too late for that," Willow muttered. She didn't notice the looks of rebuke that Tara and Dawn gave her.

"Not all parasitic demons are evil," Anya replied, "They just don't reveal themselves like vampires do. The most common are known as the Penhuibin. They are a form of non-corporal angel."

"If they don't reveal themselves, how are we going to find one?" Buffy asked.

"That's no problem," Anya announced confidently, "Hassib at the Donut Drive-thru is a Penhuibin."

Xander's jaw actually dropped, and he sputtered, "How long has he been a demon?"

"How should I know? I just know he was already a demon when I met him," Anya replied. She sat down in her chair, unconcerned that she just shocked her fiance into near speechlessness.

"You met him on our first not-a-date," Xander sputtered some more, "That was 2 years ago."

"Yeah, so?" came the bored answer.

"Can we get back to me and the fact my brain is going to turn mush?" Cordelia grumbled, "Damn that Doyle. Why couldn't he have kissed someone else? Like say Angel." Cordelia thought about her coworkers in Los Angeles, and she jolted to attention as she suddenly remembered something. "Oh my God, I didn't tell Wes I was coming here."

"You can use the phone, but I expect to be compensated for the long distance charges," Anya declared. She showed Cordelia where the phone was, and the rest of the room tried hard not to appear like they were eavesdropping as the brunette seer made her call.

Cordelia dialed the familiar number, and then she fiddled with the cord while she waited for someone to answer. "Hey, Wesley." Cordelia paused. She looked at the others in the room. "Funny you should ask that. I'm in Sunnydale with the old gang. Is Angel close by?"

The Scoobies waited with baited breath for Cordelia to continue her conversation. They knew that when Angel found out that the reason the spell was broken was because Buffy had asked for it, that the broody vampire would rush to Sunnydale.

"No. I do not want to talk to him. I'm very mad at him right now." Cordelia gave the Scoobies a little smile. "You tell him he has a lot to make up for right now." Cordelia paused for a few very long minutes as she listened to what Wesley had to say. "You want to know who's here? Well, the whole gang. You know Willow, Xander and their girlfriends. Dawn too, of course. You won't believe how much she's grown. Spike's also here with his..." Cordelia hesitated for just a second. "mate."

The Scoobies jumped a little when Cordelia held the phone away from her ear. They could hear a voice yelling over the phone line. They all began to laugh when, after a few minutes, Cordelia hit the receiver on the counter a few times.

"Please give the phone back to Wesley," Cordelia declared hotly, "You're not the boss of me, Angel." She listened for a few more minutes before she growled, and she shoved the phone receiver out to the group. "Someone else talk to him before I do something really stupid like wish vengeance, again."

The Scoobies looked at the receiver like it was an acid spitting snot demon of unknown origins. They stared at Cordelia with wide eyes until she finally pushed the phone towards Buffy who buried her face in Spike's neck. Everyone could tell that Buffy wasn't ready to speak to the other Aurelian vampire. She curled into Spike's body and allowed him to soothe her with his purring.

Finally Xander had enough. Listening to Angel complain, plead and attempt to bribe Cordelia while he apparently held off the other people at his end of the phone prompted the young man to leap to his feet and grab the receiver from Cordelia's hand. "Hello, Deadboy," he deadpanned.





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