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Buffy and Willow continued to stare at the symbol on the mailbox until the sound of a screen door closing captured their attention. An elderly lady was exiting the house; the house that had the same half-sun symbol as the guys that were after her, guys that she had only seen in her dreams but knew were real. Buffy shared a look with Willow and at once they both made their way to the old lady that was making her way to her car.

"Excuse me," Buffy called.

"Yes," the lady stopped and turned towards them before answering. "Can I help you?"

"Well, we saw that the house is for sale, and we were wondering if maybe we could have a look inside."

"Well, I have to get to the post office before it closes but there's a spare key under the mat. You can go ahead and have a look inside if you like," the lady continued to make her way to her car. "I won't be gone long, if you'd like to stick around."

"Um, sure," Willow answered.

People were apparently a lot more trusting in Europe than in the United States. Buffy knew for a fact that she would never let anyone into her home without her there, especially some stranger. But as she and Willow walked through the front door, Buffy realized that the lady had left them in her empty house. There was nothing there. They'd searched the house up and down and found nothing other than small things that the lady wasn't keeping and was giving to whoever wanted them. Small things like stuffed animals and old lamps with no lampshades.

They had made their way to the second floor when they came upon the attic. In the attic they found box after box of things and while Buffy had no problems with snooping, Willow felt a little weird about going through the nice old lady's stuff.

"Come on, Willow," Buffy encouraged. "I have to see what's here and if this stuff is connected to the men who want to kill my baby."

Buffy had already started digging in one of the boxes and after a moment of hesitation, Willow joined her. They didn't expect what they found.
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Dawn blinked as she began to wake. It took her a second to come to, though when she did she wished she hadn't. There was a pounding in her head that resembled that of a pounding on a door. She carefully sat up and scanned the room. Or cave. She took a look at the rock walls and dirt flooring.

Yep, definitely a cave.

Standing, she wiped the dust off her pants and looked up from where she had fallen. Momentarily blinded by the sunlight, she brought a hand up to shield her eyes. She blinked as the dust bunnies clouded her vision as she scanned the hole in the earth that she'd just fallen through. There! A long vine was hanging down. Jumping a little to reach it, Dawn grabbed a hold of it and immediately came crashing to the ground, a hundred feet of vine tangling around her.

Dawn groaned. This was shaping out to be one of the worst days ever.
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"Look," Willow waved Buffy over from her own box that she'd been searching through. "It's a dairy, from like ages ago. See how the pages are sort of yellow," she pointed out.

"Yeah, Will's," Buffy smiled. "That's real exciting."

Willow frowned at the lack of interest in her friend's voice.

"Sorry," she apologized. "I got a little sidetracked."

"No," Buffy sighed. "I'm sorry, Willow. I didn't mean to snap. It's probably some sort of hormone thing."

"Still," Willow objected. "I'll keep looking."

The two friends shared a smile as they each went back to rummaging into their designated boxes. It was nothing but junk to Buffy. Old photographs and old books. Willow on the other hand, was having the time of her life, reading some of the old journals. She'd been a little wary at first, not wanting to snoop, but after checking the date on the entry's she figured they wouldn't mind now. Most of it was scribbles, words crossed out and reworked across the pages, but from what Willow could see, it looked like a bunch of poems. And not very good ones at that. Though she could tell that as the author grew, so did the quality of the poems.

Willow sat the journal down at her side, deciding to come back to it later and continue searching. She was gently pushing the yellowed photographs out of the way when one caught her eye.

"Buffy?"

"Yeah," Buffy sighed, shoving more junk out of the way. There had to be something here to give her some answers. There just had to be.

"Um, I think I found something," she called over her shoulder.

"Really?" Buffy crawled her way through the boxes to her friend. She could have stood but the ceiling was low and she'd already hit her head once. "What is it?"

Willow handled the picture carefully, pointing to one of the guys in it.

"Doesn't that look a little like..." Willow trailed off.

"Spike," Buffy gasped. He looked different. His hair was... well, a mess, and he was wearing Giles-like clothes but Buffy could tell. It was him.

"Yeah," Willow breathed.

Buffy shook her head, "No, it can't be."

"But.." Willow protested.

"No, Willow," Buffy interrupted, her eyes filling with tears. "It can't be him. He's gone."

"Buffy," Willow started cautiously. "I know you're hurting, and I'm sorry I haven't been around, what with council business and all. And that's no excuse," she rushed. "But it still doesn't change the fact that Spike's gone, and he's not coming back." Willow rested her hands on her friends shoulder. "I'm not saying that you should move on right away. You need time to grieve. I get that."

"Willow," Buffy interrupted.

"No, Buffy," Willow cut her off. "I know I haven't been reliable Willow for a while now, but that's going to change from now on. I'm going to be the best Auntie Willow in all of Europe. You'll see."

Buffy brought a hand to cover the sound of her sobs.

"That's so sweet," she cried before pulling the redhead into a hug.
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His eyes were burning with the amount of stress he put on them. Book after book lay open all around his living room in his hast to find answers, but it was worth it. After extensive research, Giles had finally found what he was looking for. A Barbican, also known as a la barbacana, was a missionary demon, known for their ability to protect something or someone. They took their work very seriously. It was a matter of life and death to them. Giles imagined that if they failed what they were supposed to protect, their client would kill them, so they'd might as well go out in battle.

Now that he'd found this information, he didn't really know what to do with it. They were parts of a puzzle that he had yet to complete. Sighing, he laid the book on the coffee table among the others so he could rub his eyes.

Again, Giles sighed. He'd been doing that a lot lately what with everything he had going on. Looking between his fingers, he laid eyes on the picture of the man that had been left for him. He still had stuff to figure out. Who was the man in picture? What was the symbol? What library was the call number from?

Making a decision, Giles grabbed the picture in one hand, a jacket in the other, and left the comfort of his living from. It was only three in the afternoon, and he had a library to find.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once getting to her feet for the second time that day, Dawn gave the vine a sharp pull. It didn't come loose, which meant it had to be stuck on something. Her arms hurt from how she had landed and she knew she wouldn't be able to climb out at the moment. So instead, she turned and took her first detailed look at her surroundings. It was dark. The sun had moved so that not nearly the amount of light that had been pouring in through the hole earlier was now.

Her hands went to her pocket, searching for her house keys that had a tiny flashlight on it. Finding it, she pressed the tiny button and took a look around. Rock and more rock. More or less what you'd expect to find in a cave. There was nothing there. Turning to take her chances on the vine, she almost missed the door in the corner, concealed by shadows. But she didn't.

Feeling a little scared now, for a moment all she could do was just stare at it. Fear told her to rush to the vine and climb as fast as she could, but some part of her wanted to know what was behind that door. Eventually her curiosity won out and she made her way to the door slowly.

When she reached it, she put her ear against it, listening for any sound that could mean that someone was inside. Hearing nothing, she reached out, grabbing the handle, and pushed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Um, Buffy," Willow's voice broke the moment the two friends were sharing as they broke their hug. "I know we sort of had a moment there, but there's still the fact that the photos are here, and they seem to be of Spike from like a long time ago."

"Yeah," Buffy paused to wipe the tears from her eyes. "I'm not sure if I can..."

"We can wait," Willow rushed. "We can take them back to the house with us."

Buffy shook her head, "No. No, I've gotta be strong. Maybe I'll even find something to show my little girl. Or boy."

Willow gave her friend a hug of encouragement. She was proud of everything Buffy was getting though these days. She'd lost the man she loved, found out she was pregnant with his child, and she was still standing. Willow wished she could help somehow.

The sound of a door opening and shutting brought them back to the present.

"Did you hear that?" Buffy whispered.

"It's the lady!"

"What should we do?"

"Hide!" Willow immediately hurried to the stairs seeing as there was no place to hide in the little attic and Buffy followed, reaching out to grab her arm.

"No, Willow," Buffy objected. "We have to go out and talk to her."

"But, Buffy…" Willow looked to the stairs where she could hear footsteps. Confrontations really weren't her thing and what would the lady think if she found them snooping.

"No, Willow. I sort of want to see about buying this place," she admitted.

"What?"

"Well, the whole time we were searching the place, I couldn't help the feeling as if I should be here," she explained. "I even picked out which rooms the baby's."

"Oh," Willow paused. "Well, if you feel that strongly about it then… Ok, we'll get the place," Willow smiled as they exited the attic and closed the door behind them. "And don't worry about multiple offers. I've got connections," she winked.

"The council," Buffy smiled.

"Yep," Willow flaunted as they greeted the lady by the stairs.





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