Spike knelt behind the bushes edging the backyard of the Slayer’s house feeling like an idiot. He should never have let the Bit talk him into this. He didn’t want Buffy to know he was back, and here he was only a few feet from her back door just begging to be found.
For a moment, he thought about heading back to the crypt, but dismissed the idea. If Dawn came out and found him missing from his post, she would never forgive him. So, instead, he sat down in the grass and lit a cigarette while he waited.
“Cor,” the vampire growled snubbing the cigarette on the ground next to him. “Just brilliant, Spike.”
If he wasn’t tempting fate hiding in the bushes, he had to send up smoke signals just in case she missed him. He continued to mumble expletives as he drove the cigarette into the ground, ending only when his eyes caught sight of something a few feet away. His blue eyes narrowed as he spotted a few more close to the first mark, a little larger than the first. They were definitely footprints and from the looks of it fairly fresh. Maybe Buffy had been doing some gardening. He laughed dryly at the thought, The Slayer was hardly the gardening type. It looked like someone had been keeping an eye on the Slayer. Maybe Niblet wasn’t completely wrong to worry.
***
“This is my sister Dawn” Buffy introduced her sister to her new boyfriend looking happier than Dawn had seen her in months. Their discussion about the necklace had given her doubts, and Buffy almost expected Ryan to refuse when she had suggested that he join them for dinner. He not only didn’t turn her down, but he actually seemed anxious to meet her sister.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” he told the girl with a broad smile as he took her hand and pumped it vigorously.
“Nice to meet you too—finally.” Dawn pulled her hand back as she eyed the young man before her suspiciously. He looked normal enough, kind of cute even, but so had her date last Halloween. She wasn’t going to be fooled so easily this time. If he was normal, he was going to have to prove it.
“So what are you in the mood for?” the Slayer piped up breaking the brief silence. “Ryan offered to take us anywhere we want for dinner.”
The teenager’s eyes narrowed for a moment. He was cute, happy to meet the little sister, and generous with his money. So much for normal, but they couldn’t leave the house. It had been hard enough to get Spike to show up. He wasn’t going to follow them all over town.
“Um, actually,” she paused a moment trying to think of a good excuse, “could we order in tonight? I… um… have some major studying I should be doing.”
Buffy’s smile faded a bit as she looked away from Ryan and faced her sister. “You? Study? Did I miss something here?”
“It’s no problem,” Ryan cut in. “I know a great little Chinese place that delivers. I don’t want to interrupt the studying. Education is always important.”
“Yeah, right, don’t want to neglect the academics. Buffy’s always telling me that school is more important than being a Slay—slacker.” It was official. Buffy’s boyfriend actually thought studying was more important than going out. He definitely wasn’t normal.
“I knew you were gorgeous, and a beautiful brain to top it off. I am a lucky man,” Ryan laughed placing a light kiss on the tip of Buffy’s nose. Dawn forced a smile as she felt her stomach begin to churn. “Just point me towards the phone, and I’ll have some fried rice here before you know it.”
“Isn’t he great?” Buffy sighed sinking onto the couch after Ryan left the room.
“Yeah, just super,” Dawn replied rolling her eyes in her sister’s direction. “Um, I’m going upstairs and get some studying in before the food gets here.”
“Yeah, sure,” Buffy answered. There was a far off look in her eyes, no doubt planning what she and Ryan would be doing while waiting for dinner to arrive. “We’ll call you when dinner gets here.”
“Whatever,” the girl groaned as she left the living room heading for her room. She stopped just short of the stairway and looked towards the phone on the stand. The hallway was empty. There was another phone in the kitchen, but why would Ryan walk past the phone to find another one in another room that he didn’t even know they had? Her eyebrows drew together when her gaze moved from the phone to the door leading to the basement. She knew it hadn’t been ajar before Buffy and Ryan had gotten home. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder. Seeing that the Slayer’s attention was once more focused on her precious necklace, Dawn made her way towards the basement door.
“Stop your complaining!” Dawn pressed herself against the wall when Ryan’s voice drifted up the stairway. For a moment she thought of alerting Spike, but from her vantage point, she couldn’t tell who or what Ryan might be talking to. Buffy wasn’t going to be of much help at the moment. Better to know what they were dealing with before throwing Spike into the middle of it.
“You’ve just got to keep an eye on her a little longer,” Ryan continued. “I don’t have time to argue with you. They’re going to miss me. Be patient and you’ll get your reward.”
Hearing Ryan feet on the stairs, Dawn took off for her room. She’d just have to wait until dinner was over and tell Spike her latest discovery.
***
“Spike?” Dawn called scanning the bushes for her friend. Dinner had been uneventful, save for Buffy’s constant chattering about how wonderful her new boyfriend was—and Dawn had thought her sister had been nauseating when she had gushed about Spike while under Willow’s spell a couple of years back. Dinner was finally over, and no sooner had they opened their fortune cookies, than Ryan had suggested they go out.
“Spike, where are you?” she growled into the darkness. “We don’t have time to play hide and seek!”
“You’re getting as impatient as the Slayer,” Spike laughed as he stepped from the cover of the bushes.
“Don’t tell me you fell asleep,” she accused not bothering to comment on his last statement.
“Did not!” Okay, so he had dozed off for a bit. Watching them eat dinner through a window could only hold a vamp’s interest for so long. “Can I help it that you throw boring dinner parties?”
“You could have been inside listening to Buffy sing Ryan’s praises,” Dawn sighed. “I think the only thing he hasn’t done is discovered a cure for cancer. Although, I’m sure he probably has that penciled into his schedule.”
“Well, it sounds like the Slayer found herself a decent guy. Good for her.” Spike sounded anything but sincere as he placed a cigarette to his lips and pulled his lighter from his pocket. “She deserves a little happiness.”
“Yeah, he’s really decent!” Dawn snapped. Why was everyone refusing to believe there was something wrong with her sister’s new boyfriend? “He’s absolutely perfect. He’s done everything there is to do and done it better than everyone else. He even likes to have meetings in our basement and have his minions keep an eye on Buffy.”
“He what?” the vampire asked giving her a curious look through a cloud of smoke.
“I heard him,” Dawn continued happy to finally have the vampire’s attention. “He was downstairs talking to someone, and don’t tell me it was nothing. He wasn’t having a discussion with the washing machine!”
After discovering the footprints in the bushes, Spike knew it wasn’t nothing. He suddenly felt the urge to wrap his fingers around this Ryan’s neck, despite the new soul telling him how wrong violence was. “Niblet, I want you to get inside the house and stay there.”
“What?” she cried. “Aren’t you listening to me? Buffy is in trouble. I can’t sit around the house and not help her…”
“Dawn, do what you’re told!” the blond snapped. “Please, just go inside. I’ll keep an eye on the Slayer.”
Dawn’s jaw dropped as she watched him flick his half-smoked cigarette to the ground and stalk out of the yard. It wasn’t like Spike to snap at her. She glanced at this retreating back for a moment before turning back to the house. If it was enough to make Spike edgy maybe she should listen to him, at least for the time being.
***
“Beginning to wonder if you’d ever get back.” The blond vampire looked up from the cards laid out on the large rock he was using as a card table as Ryan entered the small cavern.
“Took forever to get away from the Slayer tonight,” he replied sinking down on another rock near the vampire. “She’s definitely a devoted little thing.”
“Thought that’s what you wanted,” the vampire reminded him with a snort. “Part of the plan and all.”
“Doesn’t mean that I have to like it.” He shot the demon a glare. “But it will all be over soon.”
“So, we’re finally going to move forward?” he asked his lips curling into a grin as he dropped the cards in his hand on the rock with the rest. “That stupid demon stopped by with another gift for the girl. Can’t have a necklace without matching earrings. I’m getting sick of playing Santa Claus.”
“Soon,” Ryan confirmed. “I’ve got our friend watching the girl. Once we get the Slayer out of the way, he can bring her to us.”
“Not to sound over anxious,” his smile faltered, “but I thought we were working on getting rid of the Slayer. Why are we wasting time on her sister?”
“Because she’s the Key.”
“Well, yeah. I was in Sunnydale for the whole dimension shifting thing—actually was kind of fun before the Slayer had to go an save the world yet again—but what’s the girl good for now?”
“You’ve been spending too much time with those idiots.” Ryan sighed. “The Hellbitch’s plan might have fallen through, but that doesn’t mean the energy isn’t still inside the girl. Once the Slayer is taken out of the picture all hell is going to break loose on the Hellmouth—pardon the pun. Not that it’s not going to be quite the party, but I didn’t go to all this trouble just to create chaos on earth. To be in charge, we need power…”
“And it’s in that girl.” The vampire’s smile returned as understanding brought a glint of excitement to his eyes.
“Now you’re getting it,” Ryan laughed. “So do we have all the supplies we’ll need for tomorrow night?”
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