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Recap: I know it’s been a while since I have updated this story, but I haven’t abandoned it. It’s been a pretty long wind up, but here’s a recap of what has happened so far.

Buffy meets Spike Thorndale, a rich businessman, at a retrospective showing of her late mother’s work, where they both admire Joyce’s rarely displayed painting “Girl with Stars.”

The attraction between the two is immediate, but Buffy is more than she seems – in addition to running the gallery, she works for a government agency as an art investigator. Buffy soon realizes that Spike is also a man of mystery. While he claims to have known her mother for years before her death, Buffy can’t remember Joyce ever mentioning Spike.

Buffy tells her long time friend and co-worker Willow about the man she met, and Willow warns Buffy that Thorndale is suspected of connections to a criminal art forgery ring. Hearing that the two have already met, Giles (Buffy’s boss) assigns the normally behind the scenes art investigator to work clandestinely to try to find evidence against him.

While undercover, Spike and Buffy grow closer. On a trip to New York, the two run into some street thugs and Spike is afraid that he may have used more force than necessary to dispatch them. The pair also run into Angelus and Dru, Spike’s ex-wife. It turns out that Angelus wooed, debauched and then dumped Buffy back when she was a teenager in Sunnydale. As a result, Spike arranges for Buffy to get counseling from his friend Tara, who as it turns out (and unknown to Spike) works for the same government agency as Buffy.

Another friend they have in common is Anya. When he was first divorced by Dru, Spike went through a long string of women, including both one night stands and prostitutes. He was closest to Anya, a retired pro who is now engaged to Xander.

At long last Buffy finally gets a good look at Spike’s house and has almost convinced herself that he is innocent, until Buffy sees his paintings and learns some very disturbing facts about his past.

In addition to the more mundane crimes he was originally suspected of, Spike’s fingerprints implicate him in the long ago murders of three young girls, one in New York, one in China, and one in Romania.

Buffy decides to spend the night in Spike’s mansion, and using the information only she knows about Spike, manages to figure out the combination to his wall safe. She photographs some documents that she passes on: some to Giles and one personal journal to Tara.

That same night, Buffy discovers that Spike has been living (platonically) with Dawn, a not so naïve, but innocent fourteen-year-old whose contract he purchased from the whore house he used to frequent. Learning of the arrangement, and that Dawn is the daughter of the house madam (Glory), whose plan was for Spike to ‘educate her’ for professional life, Buffy takes Dawn home with her.

Spying on the night’s events using Spike’s own security cameras are Spike’s three assistants, Jonathan, Andrew and Warren, who may not be as loyal to Spike as he thinks. Later a polygraph test seems to clear Spike of the murder charges, and since nothing can be proven either way, Buffy decides to give him the benefit of the doubt (at least provisionally).

That is until her old college boyfriend, Riley, shows up in her apartment. Riley claims that he works for Maggie Walsh, who, like Giles and Ethan Rayne, each head up one division under the overall direction of Quentin Travers.

Riley warns Buffy to stay away from Spike Thorndale, and although he somehow knows that Giles has cleared Spike, he and Walsh plan to indite Thorndale on unrelated charges.

Autnor's Note: Whew! I think that was the highlights of everything important so far. Sounds like a soap opera, doesn’t it? Since the actual chapter is quite short, I’ll try to post the next one quickly. Also I am trying to move this story along a little faster. Thanks for hanging in there, those of you who are still following this story. As you can tell, the plot is a little more complicated than most of these fics, and there are many more twists and turns still to come. (It’s been a bit of a bear to write.) But I am getting closer. Reviews would help.





Chapter 37: Choosing Sides

“You really think I should warn Spike about Riley?” Buffy queried.

“Of course.” Dawn rolled her eyes. Buffy could be so thick sometimes. “I heard what you told Riley, everything checked out fine with Spike’s story. He’s been the victim in all this – not the criminal. And I think Spike deserves to know that your ex-boyfriend seems to want to reclaim his territory – and thinks that the way to do it is by putting the competition in jail.”

“Dawn, if you’ve been listening to me at all you know that there is no way that I am ever getting back with Riley.”

“Yeah, well, the question isn’t whether or not I was listening, it’s whether or not you got through to Mr. Meat for Brains. Was he always so full of himself? What did you ever see in him?”

“I’m not sure. You should go back to bed, Dawn. A growing teenager needs lots of sleep.”

“I know you just want to get rid of me. But you will think about what I said? About warning Spike?”

“But if he’s innocent, there should be no reason to warn him.” Buffy was nothing if not stubborn.

“But he’s being set up, Buffy. I don’t for one minute believe that Riley is above planting false evidence on him. And with everyone already suspicious, well, who would believe Spike?”

“Fine, Dawn. I’ll warn him. I’ll call him in the morning and tell him that my evil ex-boyfriend is plotting against him and that he should be careful. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the heads up.”

“If you don’t do it Buffy, then I will. He needs to know. I just think it would be better coming from you. It might make forgiving you a little easier.”

“Forgiving me?”

“For lying to him. Betraying his trust? Turning him in to the Feds?”

“But that was my job! If he was innocent, it shouldn’t matter. And if he wasn’t, well, it was his own fault. And anyway, it didn’t amount to anything.”

“I’m pretty sure that it didn’t feel that way to Spike. Finding out that you were spying on him the whole time you pretended to date him? He’s not going to forgive that easily.”

“It’s not like I care what he thinks of me. The case is over, and I’ll probably never talk to him again.” Dawn started to protest before Buffy continued. “Except for when I call him in the morning to tell him what Riley said. Besides, if you’re right, he probably never wants to hear from me again, either.”

“Sure. Good night, Buffy.”

“Nite Dawn.”

In the morning, Buffy decided to have a chat with her boss before calling Spike. Giles needed to know that Maggie Walsh’s department was interested in Spike. At least it wasn’t Ethan Rayne’s division. Buffy had only met him twice, but that guy seemed seriously power mad. And he dealt in heavy duty stuff. Maggie’s division was probably interested in Spike because of his association with the prostitutes who worked for Glory. That was easy to explain away.

Unless, the thought came to her, Giles already knew that Walsh was investigating Thorndale, and just hadn’t bothered to tell her? Surely Giles wouldn’t leave her in the dark like that.

She also wanted a formal record of Riley’s actions. She didn’t remember him as being so obstinate and possessive. It had been creepy. Buffy wanted it on record that Riley had broken into another Agent’s home, even if he did have a spare key she had given him years ago.

It was only Giles’s desire to avoid an inter-departmental incident that reluctantly convinced Buffy not to file a second report with the regular police. She wanted to be sure that Riley stayed as far away from her as possible. She’d get a restraining order against Riley if she had to.





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