The shop fell silent—a fairly unusual circumstance—as all eyes turned to the platinum blond standing just behind the Slayer. Buffy’s cheeks turned a bright red as Spike shot the group a cocky little grin. Couldn’t he, at least, have the decency to be a little embarrassed?
“O-kay,” Xander rolled his eyes leaning back in his chair to assume his usual position signaling frustration at the numerous hours of research looming in the near future. “What’s going on? Annoying us at night wasn’t enough?”
“Xander!” Willow shot him a glare from the far side of the table. “Explanations now, insults later. What happened, Buffy? He didn’t find another gem, did he?”
“There isn’t another gem,” Spike supplied pulling a chair up to the table and taking a seat next to Xander. The boy shot him an evil look the moment he sat down. Vampire or not, he’d always love getting under construction boy’s skin.
“Then how?” Tara asked quietly.
“Anya’s friend,” Buffy jumped in before Spike could supply an answer. The last thing she needed was for him to spill the beans about their relationship. “He made a wish.”
“An ‘unwish’,” Spike reminded her absently while lighting one of his cigarettes.
“Okay, ‘unwish’, whatever,” she sighed. “It seems that Spike has made a deal with Hallie.”
“You made a deal with a vengeance demon?” Xander groaned. “Has anybody tried to get out of here?”
“It’s not like that,” Spike flicked the ashes from the tip of his cigarette in Xander’s direction. “I…”
“Spike, well, William, made a wish,” Buffy jumped in. It was best to keep Spike’s explanations to a minimum. He’d already revealed too much in front of Dawn.
“So, y-you wished to become a vampire?” Tara asked a little crease of confusion forming between her eyes.
“Not exactly…”
“He wished for vengeance. The vampire part was a means to an end.” Spike shot the Slayer a dirty look for her interruption, but let her continue with her explanation. It wasn’t like the Scoobies ever had any desire to help him.
“Apparently,” Buffy resumed returning his look, “Halfrek decided to reverse the wish.”
“Can she do that?” Xander shot a questioning look at his fiancée. “Don’t demons have no give backs or something?”
“It doesn’t look like it,” Buffy agreed also turning towards the ex-demon. “That’s why we’re here. We already know the ‘delightful’ after effects of a wish, but we have no idea what might happen when one’s taken back. Anya, has this ever happened before?”
She tapped her red-polished nails on the counter pausing a moment to think back. “I can’t say I’ve ever heard of a wish being reversed. Usually, it’s the person who the wisher takes revenge on begging for forgiveness, not the other way around.”
“So, we’re in the dark then? Possible Apocalypse in the near future?” Xander’s hands curled into fists on the table. “Why does that sound so familiar?”
“Any ideas on what might happen?” she continued questioning Anya. It was probably a long shot, but she was the only link they had at the moment.
“Well,” the girl answered, “this is only a guess, but I would say the people who suffered the revenge would want to get revenge themselves, but in this case, they’re long since gone. Even if they were ghosts, they probably would have tried something by now.”
“So, we have nothing to worry about,” Willow added cheerfully failing to hide the underlying nervousness. “At least, not yet anyway.”
“Got to love that sense of impending doom,” Xander sighed. “So, what do we do now, Buffster?”
“Anya, is there a way you can get a hold of Halfrek? Since she reversed the spell, we really should talk to her,” she suggested.
“Well, I can try,” Anya sighed. “It’s not like she has a beeper or anything. Besides, you’d think Spike not being a vampire would be a good thing. She is going to be at the wedding.”
“Ahn, hon, we can’t wait that long,” Xander reminded her.
“Well, I’m just saying…” she paused catching sight of the looks she was receiving from the group at the table. “I’ll try.”
“Great,” Buffy turned towards the door, not bothering to check if Spike might be following her. “So I guess what we do is what we always do. We research. We still have to find out what my arch nemesis-is-ies are up to, so we deal with one problem at a time. Right now, I’ve got to get to work before I have to add unemployment to my list of problems.”
Buffy hesitated on the front porch twisting her DoubleMeat hat in her slender hands. How she despised the stupid little cow smiling mindlessly over the brim! It had to be the biggest fashion monstrosity she had ever encountered. The only thing she hated more was the ex-vampire she could see through the window sitting in the living room with her sister making her dread entering her own home. After a far from fun night of pushing fast food, she really did not look forward to dealing with him or trying to explain what had been going on between them to Dawn either. For about the thousandth time since finding Spike in her living room she wished that Giles was back, not only to help them figure out the situation, but also so he could have the pest as his house quest again!
With a small groan of irritation she turned the knob and gave the door a push. She couldn’t stand outside all night. Well, she could always take a patrol of the cemetery, but she doubted the leftover Medley Meals she had toted home would survive the journey. There was already telltale grease stains soaking through the paper bag, and Dawn wondered why her older sister never joined her for the evening meal.
“Buffy’s home!” Dawn announced happily before she could enter the room. It was the smell that signaled her entry long before her appearance. She could take off the loud uniform before she left the restaurant, but there was no getting rid of the stench.
“So, what’s for dinner?” she asked as Buffy rounded the corner.
“Filet mignon and caviar, my dear,” she sighed dropping the bag of food on the coffee table. Her sister never sounded this happy any other night when she got home, and she never actually looked forward to leftovers from the DoubleMeat Palace!
“Cute,” Dawn laughed plunging into the bag. “We’re starving.”
“Um, I think I’ll pass, Niblet,” Spike smiled fondly at the younger Summers. “DoubleMeat isn’t my idea of an appetizing first meal.”
“This coming from a guy who drinks Weetabix and blood cocktails,” Buffy growled.
“And that was fine dining compared to the fare at the Palace, luv,” he replied gazing at her intently. She could almost feel his gaze like he was physically touching her. “I could think of much better things to eat for my first meal as a human again.”
Buffy shot her sister a warning glare as she stifled a giggle. “Well, I suggest you take what you can get, because there is nothing else on the menu.”
“Oh, come on, Buffy,” Dawn still smirked ignoring the menacing glares from her older sibling. “He was just teasing. I think it’s cute.”
“There is nothing cute about it, Dawn,” she objected. “This is Spike, and…”
“And what?” Dawn’s happy expression quickly clouded over. “Hello, not a vampire anymore. You need to come up with a new excuse!”
“Dawn,” her mouth fell open in surprise. What happen to the festive mood Dawn had welcomed her home with? Well, she knew what had happen, but was it really asking too much for Dawn to actually side with her sister rather than the ex-blood-sucking fiend? “I didn’t mean…”
“Yes, you did!” Dawn dropped her burger to the table ignoring the gobs of mayo-drenched lettuce landing on the floor as she jumped to her feet. “Why can’t you just give him a break already! We were having a really good time till you decided to come home and ruin it!”
“I wasn’t trying to ruin anything!” Buffy shot back desperately trying to keep her voice even. She knew how emotional her sister could get, and yelling at her would only make things worse. “This isn’t right, and you know it. Spike isn’t supposed to be here, and he’s not supposed to be human. We’re not a happy little family.”
Dawn’s eyes glittered with anger as she studied her sister for a moment. Her hands clenched and unclenched slowly, and for a minute, Buffy wondered if her sister might take a swing at her. Muttering something she was sure she didn’t really want to understand, Dawn took off for the stairs her long brown hair flaring out striking the Slayer’s arm instead of her fists.
“It’s only not right, because you won’t let it!” Dawn told her before bolting up the stairs. “We could be a family if you were so against having one!”
“Dawn, wait!” Buffy started to follow her sister’s retreat, but stopped at the feel of fingers lying lightly on her arm.
“I’ll talk to her,” Spike said softly, and she was rather surprised to see the caring in his eyes. There wasn’t the usual angry glare that accompanied her barge of insults, but then again, this concerned Dawn. So of course, the look of caring was not meant for her.
“No, I should do it,” she replied rather surprised with herself that she wasn’t throwing him out for starting yet another conflict in the Summers household. “I’m her sister…”
“Who she’s furious with right now,” he reminded her. “I’ll go up and calm her down, and then you two can talk.”
“Fine,” she sighed moving out of the doorway to let him pass and heading straight for the couch. She slumped down on the cushions ignoring the mayonnaise from Dawn’s sandwich that was quickly soaking into the carpet. She fought the urge to flip her hat with the mockingly happy cow across the room. All she had wanted was to get her life back to normal, or as normal as a Slayer’s life could be, and instead all she had managed to do was double the insanity.
She listened to the silence filtering through the house for a moment. There were no sounds of sobbing or things being flung at walls coming from her sister’s room. That, at least, was a good sign. She really should go up there and talk to her sister, she decided, tossing her hat onto the coffee table and rolling her eyes as it conveniently landed in the mess left by Dawn’s burger. She should go upstairs and check on her sister, but for some reason her body had decided to respond in slow motion. Steeling herself for the onslaught she knew she was going to face once she reached her sister’s room, she pushed herself up from the couch and slowly made her way towards the stairs
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