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Disclaimer: The characters all belong to Joss.

Chapter 12:

A/N A big thanks to all my betas for keeping me from embarrassing mistakes, and for helping me figure out what path the story needed to take.

Willow and Tara walked hand in hand down the streets of Sunnydale on their way to Buffy's house. Ever since her encounter with the purple demon, and her break up with Riley, Buffy had been all work and no play. She'd gone patrolling every single night. The two witches had agreed that what their friend needed was some serious Bronze time.

They stopped across the street from Revello Drive, seeing the headlights of a car coming. There were enough perils in Sunnydale without getting hit by a car, so the couple waited patiently to make sure the car had come to a stop.

When it stopped, they proceeded in front of it, not really paying any attention, until the driver of the convertible called out, "Willow?"

Willow stopped, trying to see past the headlights. She squinted and said in amazement, "Angel?"

Tara couldn't really see the man either, but she could see his aura blazing bright. The outside of it shone bright silver, but there was an inner ring that was the strange sickly yellow that Tara had learned meant vampire.

"Hey, what are you doing here? Does Buffy know you're here? Oh, have you met Tara?" Willow blurted out all at once.

Willow looked over at her girlfriend and saw the puzzled look on Tara's face.

"Tara, this is Angel, Buffy's ex."

A couple of things clicked into place in Tara's mind. Veiled references to a bad romance in Buffy's past started to make sense.

"Y-you have a s-s-soul?" Tara asked.

"I take it you've heard of me?"

"N-no,"

"Oh," Willow said with sudden understanding. "Tara's a witch, she's really good at sensing auras. I guess a vampire with a soul would have a pretty unique aura. So anyway, what's going on?"

"You're going to Buffy's, right?" Angel asked. The two girls nodded. "I know it's only another block, but why don't you get in and I'll tell you."

They all got into the front seat of Angel's car. Tara was a little nervous, not because Angel was a vampire - she could see his soul and was sure he wouldn't hurt them - but because she was afraid that he would be able to sense the demon hidden in her.

"There have been rumors all the way to L.A. about. . . I think maybe Spike's planning something," Angel told them as he started up the car.

Tara caught his slight pause, and knew he wasn't telling the whole truth. 'Rumors? What could those be?' Tara wondered. Her home town had been full of gossipers. Although she doubted demons spent much time discussing who was cheating on. . . unless of course they did. Tara's experience with demon's showed them to be much like normal people. She knew that Spike had something of a reputation, maybe a lot of demons did gossip about who he had slept with.

"I don't think you have to worry, Angel," Willow said. "The government put a chip in Spike's head. He's pretty fangless these days. I don't think he could really hurt Buffy."

Angel began to pull into the driveway at Buffy's house.

"Maybe not directly. But he could still-" Angel stopped in mid sentence. Suddenly his eyes were golden and his vampiric nature was plain to see.

He leapt from the car. His feet had barely touched the ground when he sprang up onto the tree that stood in front of the Summers' house. A moment later he came crashing down, but he wasn't alone. Another dark figure fell from the tree with him. They hit the ground together, both letting out a loud, "Oofff!"

Tara recognized the second figure instantly by his aura. Spike. Although his aura had the same sickly yellow color as that of other vampires, his aura was punctuated by a whole other set of colors that would appear and disappear like sea serpents among the waves. Whenever she could, Tara would study his aura trying to decipher it. But it always made her nervous when the vampire caught her watching him.

The two black forms struggled against each other on the ground. Suddenly there was a high pitched shriek. Angel was on his feet. The whole thing had happened almost too fast for Willow and Tara to see. They were still in Angel's car as Willow struggled with the handle of the door.

Abruptly the upstairs window was flung open and Buffy came hurtling out of it. As her bare feet hit the grass, Tara tried not to notice Buffy's black lace thong which was revealed as the skirt of her skimpy black dress flew up.

Buff landed in a fighter's stance, her stake raised and ready. "Angel?" she said mystified. "What are you doing here?" Then she saw Spike curled up on the ground in a little ball, moaning. "Spike? What did you do to him?" she asked Angel accusingly.

She dropped the stake, and knelt by the bleached vampire, tenderly running her fingers across his face. Concern was evident on her face.

"Buffy, you don't understand. He was watching you," Angel explained.

"Help me get him inside." Buffy seemed to ignore what he was saying.

Reluctantly Angel picked up Spike's legs, while Buffy lifted him under the arms. Willow opened the front door of the house, and they placed Spike on the couch.

The way Spike was gripping his groin made the nature of his injury obvious. Tara ran into the kitchen and opened the freezer, pulling out an ice pack. She grabbed a towel from the bathroom and offered them to Spike. He smiled weekly at her, and took them with one hand. As his hand moved away to grab the ice pack, Tara thought she saw a flash of flesh. She looked away blushing.

It was times like this when she thought Willow's life and friends were just a tad too. . . exciting. She was just glad that Willow hadn't seen. Not that she didn't trust her girlfriend.

Buffy had arranged the vampire on the couch so that his head was lying in her lap. She ran her fingers through his hair in a soothing manner. For the hundredth time Tara wondered what it would take for the two of them to realize they were meant for each other. It was obvious to Tara by the way their aura's interacted, blending together. She had thought the encounter with the Charoite demon would do it. But they seemed to be further apart than before.

Once Buffy was satisfied that the mewling vampire had been made comfortable, she looked up at Angel and asked, "Okay, so what's the deal? Why are you in town?"

"Spike's up to something. There have been rumor's in L.A. about. . . " as Angel struggled for words Buffy's eyes grew wide.

She lightly thumped Spike on the side of the head. "You've been bragging about the. . . demon. . . thing?"

"What?" Spike muttered weakly. "No. . . vampires. After I left Giles'. . . jumped me. . . remember? One of them smelled you. . . got away."

Buffy looked skeptical. Angel looked aghast.

"Uh, Buffy, you couldn't have. I mean, this must be something else. What I heard. . . was that you had slept with Spike," Angel managed to say finally.

"It's not Buffy's fault," Willow broke in, "There was this demon. It interfered with her, um. . . she wasn't herself."

"You slept with Spike!" Angel blurted out all at once. His anger and disapproval were evident in his voice.

Buffy's eyes flashed. Any anger that she might have had toward Spike was instantly transferred to Angel.

"So what if I did? It's none of your business. And why did you have to show up in town? They have phones in L.A. I know, I used to live there."

"It's Spike. He's a vampire. And what about that other guy?"

"Riley and I broke up." Angel was obviously going to interrupt so Buffy cut him off, "It's none of your business. None of this is any of your business."

Tara and Willow exchanged looks. They were both uncomfortable being within hearing distance of this conversation, but Willow obviously felt the need to stick around to lend her friend support if she needed it.

"It's Spike," Angel repeated.

"Yeah, we've established that. Look, not my finest hour I admit, but still not your business."

"He's stalking you, Buffy. I caught him outside your window."

"He was up in the tree, Buffy," Willow concurred.

"You think I don't know when I'm being stalked?" Buffy stopped and blushed. From the expression on her face it was clear that hadn't come out the way she wanted it too. "I mean. . . I can take care of myself."

At that moment the front door opened and Joyce returned home.

"Hi I'm- Angel what are you- Spike. Oh dear, what happened?" The older Summers rushed into the living room and knelt by the couch. Joyce put her hand on Spike's forehead as if she were checking for a fever.

"Angel beat him up," Buffy said.

"I did not!" Angel insisted.

"You poor thing," Joyce said. Spike whimpered.

"He's a vampire!" Angel insisted.

"So are you and I want you out of my house." Joyce said getting up.

"But-"

"No buts. Spike is a friend of mine and I won't tolerate anyone who hurts my friends in my house. Now out."

Joyce glared at the vampire. Angel looked like he wanted to say something else, but he wilted under the stern gaze of Buffy's mom. Hanging his head he shuffled his feet out of the Summers' home.

"Now Spike, would you like some hot chocolate?" Joyce asked.

"With marshmallows?" he said hopefully.

"Of course."





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