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Author's Chapter Notes:
Alright, I've been up all night reading the last book in the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. It's 4 am but I promised myself when I finished the reading I'd post so here ya go, and I highly suggest reading Stephenie Meyer's Vampire series.
Unexpected Information

Spike sat with all eyes on him the following morning.

After Giles woke that morning, he found Buffy sleeping face down on the table. He looked over the papers she had near her and came to a similar conclusion. In all likelihood, the demon that was now Spike, long ago, may have been the Pure's mate. "Spike has to be the mate, but how did his demon escape its prison?" he asked himself.

After waking all of the Scoobies, they gathered in his apartment once more while Buffy and he related their suspicions.

Willow was the first to verbalize her problem with the hypothesis. "But where is she? Wasn't this 'Last of the Pure' supposed to help him find a way out of the other dimension?"

Giles ruffled through the papers. "I think I may have an answer to that actually." He opened the book, scanned it quickly, then looked back to Spike whose face still held the shocked expression. "It said she can't call you in her form." He closed the book. "I believe she is no longer in her form. In other words, the Pure is no longer pure."

Tara looked from Spike to Giles. "So, s-she's like the r-rest of the Vampires now?"

"I believe so."

Dawn was worried "And she wants to take Spike?" She stood up and put her arms around Spike. "Well, she can't have him."

Xander watched as Dawn's eyes filled with tears. He looked back at Anya and thought, 'What if one of her ex's showed up and demanded she come back?' It wasn't like Xander loved the Vamp, but Spike was one of them now. He'd even go so far as to say family. He stood up. "No one's takin' him, Dawn. We won't let her."

Willow looked over at Buffy who sat by Giles, now beginning to look up from her feet. "Buffy?"

Spike looked over to the blonde. She was crying freely now, and her shoulders began shaking. Dawn pulled her arms back to her side and let Spike stand, take the few steps to Buffy, then crouch beside her. "Not goin' anywhere, luv." He picked up a red leather bound book. "These are just words, not goin' anywhere. Understand me?"

Buffy tried to look into his eyes, but hers were too clouded by tears to see clearly. "After everything last spring and now..."

Anya looked at the book and something clicked in her head. "The missing pages!"

"What, An?" Xander asked.

"The missing pages." She took a breath. "We need to see those missing pages or we won't know what this Pure one even wants with him. I mean sure, it could be mating," She stood up and paced a bit. "But you just went to see the sisters," the ex-demon looked at the blonde couple, "so you're supposed to end up together. I mean, big duh. So it can't be as simple as a mate."

Giles cut in. "Then I suppose we need to figure out who has the missing pages."

Buffy looked up at Giles, angry now despite the wetness on her cheeks. "Who here has tried to control my every move until I made it clear he couldn't?"

"Travers," Willow answered. Buffy nodded as did Giles.

Buffy was now fueled with a purpose and reassurance. "We need to get to his office. A guy like that always has a safe in his office."

"Like Shawshank," Xander said. The room looked at him as though he had grown an extra head. "The warden in 'The Shawshank Redemption'?"

Collective "oh's" filled the room. He just shook his head at his friends.

"S-so, you n-need to break into the H-head of the C-council's office," Tara said, suddenly very nervous.

The Slayer and the Vampire looked at each other. Buffy looked back at the room. "Looks like." She sat back down next to Giles. "Do you know how to get there?"

A knock came at the door, and Anya stood to open it.

Randall stood there looking at the gathering. "Everything ok?"

Buffy stood up. "Yes, I was just trying to catch up with everyone. I'm on a pretty busy schedule here. Thought I'd see if everyone's been having a good time." She walked to the door with Spike. "Could you write that stuff down for me, Giles?"

"Of course," he said as the door shut.

~~`~~

Michelle headed down the balcony towards the Summers' apartment a few minutes later, and knocked on the door. There was no answer. She turned to go, then heard the sound of her new friend's voice come from the apartment one door down. She walked to it, intent on asking Dawn to join her for a tennis match.

She stopped in front of the door when an older voice, that of the retired Watcher, began speaking. "There is a reason. He is having dreams, dreams that didn't start until your trip here."

She could hear some papers being shuffled. "There has to be a connection between what The Council is doing with a Slayer here, and the dreams of her...Spike." His voice was becoming louder; she heard a woman shush him gently.

The Watcher apparently had calmed down, but then another voice was heard. It was the younger man. "Plus, cameras to see what we're up to. I'm surprised they haven't already asked."

A female voice came next. "Well, maybe they aren't using it. Maybe it's old...or broken.

Oh I hope that it's broken. I hope no one saw me dressed up in-"

"AN!" the younger male yelled.

Another female voice. "M-maybe they just t-think were h-helping Giles."

The Watcher's voice came through again. "I hate to say it, but I am afraid we may have put Buffy and Spike both in danger by being here." There was a pause.

"Quentin has always firmly believed that a Slayer is a tool. The training he had was adamant on this point, as was mine." Another pause. "But that was before I met Buffy."

Michelle heard a chair being moved. "We have all seen the changes in Spike, you more than I, but it is evident that he is no longer the ma-...Vampire we knew." Another pause. "That along with Buffy's new independence, a Watcherless Slayer...I would venture to guess that Quentin has no intention of allowing her to take complete control. She is the tool."

"W-what would he d-do to stop her?" The same female voice asked.

A few seconds passed before the Watcher replied. "Anything he has to." A long silence followed.

The raven haired teen almost turned to leave when anther voice she remembered as the redhead's came.

"But why is Spike acting so...not Spike like?"

" Yeah," the familiar voice of Michelle's new friend said. "I thought he was going to cry when he saw that Slayer's picture out there. The only other time I’ve ever seen him cry was when..."

Silence followed the unfinished statement.

Michelle turned and headed to the lift. She pressed the button for the floor of her best friend in the complex. When she arrived at the door, she knocked and waited. The young man Dawn had tried to talk to days ago opened the door.

"Michelle," he said in his English accent and smiled, looking past her, then back when he noted Dawn wasn't with her. "Where's Dawn? You said you'd invite her?"

"Christian, I don't know if I believe what I just heard, but I have got to tell someone," she pertinently said in her French accent.

The young man stood back and let her in.

On the couch was the fourth for the now forgotten tennis match. "Richard, you should hear this, too. You're not going to believe it, but if you really want to have a Slayer someday...you better," she said to the slightly older blonde. He sat up straight as Christian shut the door.

A few minutes later, Richard and Christian sat speechless.

The young man who had hoped to be the Slayer's Watcher someday spoke first. "You're sure they were talking about this place?" Richard could not believe it. She had been right about that, but somewhere inside him he knew she would never lie.

Was everything he had learned about the importance of a Slayer worth a human being giving up all things? And what did the old Watcher mean when he said Mr. Travers would do 'anything he has too'?

Christian, in his own right, had been raised much the way all of the children of the Council were. They understood what made things go bump in the night. They were raised to believe it was up to them to make sure that a Slayer would always be prepared. Classes on their specified gifts were strenuous, but necessary. His specialty was spell casting, as had been his mother's. His father was a Watcher of Vampires at one time but had died years ago. "This isn't right. How can they hurt the Slayer?"

Michelle. She was the special one. Her mother's line was introduced to the Council three generations ago. Unlike those whose families had been here for twenty generation, she was brought here for a reason.

Her grandparents were specialists in demonology and were asked to join the Council. Her mother had followed in the family's footsteps and had married another demonologist. Michelle was also following the tradition. "They aren't going to. Ever since the Council came back from America the last time, Mr. Travers has acted strangely."

"It's the times," Richard said. "Things are so different now." The older teen stood up, and took the glasses of his nose. "I have been reading several of the Diaries lately for my courses, and there are two notable differences between Buffy Summers and the women in those books." He finished cleaning his glasses and put them back in their place. "Buffy Summers does not follow orders, and she has friends, both things that, from what I have heard, have saved her life."

Christian spoke up excitedly, remembering the stories of spell castings done by the unusual group who helped the Slayer. "She died, and her friends brought her back. Oh, and the Vampire, Angel...one of her friends returned his soul."

The conversation went on. They had to decide not only what they thought about the ideas they had been raised on, but what to do about them.

Richard was a Watcher at heart, he knew that, but if hurting the one person who was born to fight evil was part of the deal, he wasn't so sure he wanted in on it. The rules were antiquated as it was. Women's lib was old news now, but for some reason, the entire movement had been lost on his predecessors.

Christian's mind was simple. It was wrong. The spying and controlling. Wrong, plain and simple. "What are we going to do?"

Michelle began pacing while thoughts raced through her mind.

~~`~~

Buffy read through the paragraph for the fourth time. She was supposed to find a pattern in the sentences; for the life of her she couldn't find any.

Today's evaluations were problem solving. She had tried to argue that problem solving while fighting for your life was completely different than the kind written down, but still here she sat at the long wood table in a room separate from the ones that had been used for the physical tests. The number of rooms and offices still reeled her imagination.

Spike pressed the button on the timer sitting in front of him and proclaimed the answer, "There's no pattern."

"Correct," Randall commented. Spike was elated. Today he would come out one ahead, finally.

"Well done, Buffy." Randall smiled at the girl.

Spike was confused. He'd figured out there wasn't a bleedin' pattern first.

Buffy looked up from her paper. "Huh?"

Randall smiled at her. "You didn't give up. A sign of a true warrior." Buffy looked over at Spike who was mouthing 'dirty pillock,' 'stupid git,' and 'bloody hell' one after the other.

Somehow it seemed a little backwards for her to win on the 'who won't give up' test, but she sure wasn't going to tell Spike that. "Thanks, Randall," she said, smiling as she stood up to leave.

Spike stood as well and headed for the door. That had been their fourth test, and that meant it was time to leave. At least it always had.

"There is one more thing I'd like to ask of you for today, Miss Summers." Buffy turned and Spike stopped beside her. They wanted to get back and find out if the other Scoobies had found more. Plus there was this whole trespassing in Mr. Travers' private office. Buffy was really looking forward to it.

"What's that, Randall?" she asked as the young Watcher shuffled his feet.

"It's such an odd request, I know, but it would help with-"

"Spit it out."

"Blood sample."

"Excuse me?" both the Vampire and Slayer answered.

Randall looked at both of them. "A blood sample." He took a breath as Buffy stared him down. "Our scientists would like to see if your immune system has gotten stronger. It's a fairly simple procedure. It would only take a minute if you-"

"Fine," Buffy said. Spike was shocked.

Randall walked out of the room. Spike looked down at her and commenced teasing. "I don't even get a nip, but the boy there gets a whole test tube full?"

Buffy looked up at him. "He's not going to use it as a nightcap later," she answered with a touch of fire in her tongue.

Spike hadn't pushed the subject much. He knew that Angel had fed off of her, but that it was for his life. Spike's own demon ached for it, though. Not the blood of the Slayer, but that most intimate act of Vampires when they drank from their lovers. It was a link that marked each for life.

The peroxide Vampire, however much he wanted it, knew that the human he had all but mated would not be willing. And so he never pressed the subject. Had in fact never brought it up except in jokes and jibes that could be dismissed without losing face.

"Ok, Miss Summers." A woman in a white lab coat came in with several vials and a sterile needle. She tied a band around Buffy's arm. "This will only hurt for a moment."

~~`~~

Buffy sat at the table going over the directions once more with Giles. "And then a left?"

"Yes. It's the door at the end of the corridor, but there is no name above to mark it." He turned to the Vampire. "I assume you can pick locks if need be?" Spike nodded.

~~`~~

An hour after the evening bell rang, Buffy and Spike opened the metal sliding door and headed in the direction of the hall with the doors to the streets of London.

Once they were sure no one was following, they changed their direction and snuck through the halls. They soon came to one remembered from several nights ago. From there, the halls were covered with portraits of Watchers. Buffy scanned the hallway and headed forward.

It took longer than she had anticipated, but they reached the door that led into Quentin's office. Spike listened for a heartbeat; unfortunately there was one. "He's in there now, Pet."

"Damn." Buffy stood there for a few minutes. "I suppose we could go patrol and come back after. He'd be gone by 2:00 in the morning I would think."

Spike nodded, and the two headed back through the maze to the hall that held the portals to London's surface.


Chapter End Notes:
To all of you also reading Deserving, I'll be updating that sometime tomorrow, erm, I guess that would be today now. I need a nap...Zzzzz



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