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CHAPTER 1: Sweet Dreams, part 2


After the last Scooby left the store, Giles went behind the counter and poured himself a scotch. He took in his surroundings. The place still wasn’t opened for business, but it was a long way from what it was when they started the renovations… Or was it reconstruction? When Willow had been done with the place, on the night he liked to refer to as possibly the worst night of their lives, it was nothing but rubbles. Now, the back part had been restored to almost its original state, and the front wall and front window were also back in place. Only some carpentry needed to be done, but Xander was on it. About a week, and the Magic Box would be back in business.


But things would never be the same for the ones Giles secretly called his children. The scoobies. They’ve had to readjust to practically everything. Everything they knew to be true, had to be rewritten. Tara was dead. Anya was a demon again. Willow had proved that when push comes to shove, she’d had it in her to kill humans. Now she had to spend half her days meditating, and trying to rebuild her relationships with her friends and himself. Buffy was… Well, she was unhappy to say the least. And Spike was far away and probably not coming back. *Idiot vampire* Giles thought to himself while pouring himself another glass of scotch. Only Xander and Dawn seemed to be doing all right.


He shook his head, contemplating the mess that was their lives, as he sat himself down at the round table they used for Scooby meetings. Once again, he found himself in the middle of things. A situation he had been in so many times over the years. They were all looking up to him for answers he wasn’t sure he could find. Waiting for him to fix everything up. And God knew he wanted to. But he also knew that it didn’t depend on him only. Too many players involved this time around. Too many tempers and feelings to deal with.


He had known for a long time his Slayer was in love with the blond vampire. Actually, it hit him in the face the night he came back and she had admitted sleeping with Spike while he was away in England. She had said it like it was nothing, but he knew deep down what the truth was. Nevertheless, he had hoped that with Spike gone, she’d move on and forget about him. But tonight, Giles had the confirmation that it wouldn’t happen, and he honestly didn’t know what to do to help her. So he did the only thing he could.


Giles took the cordless phone and dialed the long number to England. A familiar voice answered.


"Hello Spike, it's Giles... How are you holding on?"


"I'll live. Not literally, of course, but that's just a technicality." The vampire answered, his tone dull and lifeless.


"Is my flat still standing?"


"Don't worry 'bout your flat, mate, I'm taking great care of it.” he said before asking innocently: “When you said I could use whatever I need, that included that expensive bottle of scotch hidden underneath your bed, right?"


"Spike... I don't want to know."


"Hey, how's a bloke s'pose to deal with the whole soul thing? Do you have any idea what I'm going through right now? Is it not worth a bloody bottle of scotch? Do you..."


"Spike. Please. You can do whatever you want in order to deal with this, um, situation. Drink whatever horribly expensive scotch I own, I don’t bloody care. Are you getting any better?"


"Yeah. I'm dealing. Just trying to avoid turning into a self pity poof master like Angel, is all."


“Good. That’s… good.” Giles cleared his throat, suddenly uncomfortable. "Spike, when.. when do you think... you will be able to come back to Sunnydale?"


"..."


"Spike? Are you still there?"


"I am."


"Is there any way for you to tell me when?"


"No. I can't bloody well tell you because I don't know. Hell I don't even know if I'm ever going back at all."


Silence.


"She needs you."


More silence.


"She doesn't need me. She'll never need me. She made this quite clear."


"Spike..."


"NO. Look Watcher, I'm very grateful that you're helping me in such a hard time, but if you're planning on bugging me to go back to Sunnyhell, I'd rather try to make it on my own. I'm not going back to this bloody hellhole, and I don't want to hear about it."


"This is understandable. She told me everything that happened and she feels quite horrible about..."


"DON'T. WANT. TO HEAR. IT."


"Alright. I'm never going to mention it again. All I wanted was for you to know that something terrible is going to happen, and for some reason, you seem to be the only one who could help. Now that you know about it, you can make a decision and do what you feel is right."


"Fine."


"You know that if you need anything..."


"I know Giles. Thank you." and after an hesitation:


"Giles?"


"Yes?"


"Don't..."


"I won't tell her."


"Thanks mate."


They both hung up, and Giles banged his head on the table in a very none-British way. “Dear Lord, save me from stubborn vampires, confused Slayers, out of control witches, money obsessed vengeance demons… shall I go on?”


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"I'm not sure this was such a good idea Dawny. There's something bad coming up, I can feel it, and I'm not sure you're quite ready for the big fight yet."


Dawn sighed heavily and rolled her eyes at her sister. "Yeah. Because you patrolling alone while you're all distracted because of God-knows-what is soooo much smarter?"


"I'll have you know that I'm the Slayer. Even distracted, I can still hold my own. You are a Scooby-in-training. You may have natural talent with a sword, but that doesn't make you a warrior. And I'm so not distracted!.. I'm focus girl!"


Dawn snorted and started walking again. She wasn’t sure what was wrong with her sister, but something definitely WAS way wrong. Though she did have her little theory about that. Buffy might still see her as her baby sister, but she wasn’t stupid or blind. Buffy had been getting weirder and weirder, and spacing out an awful lot, right after that night when she found out Spike was gone. Ok, it could also have been because of the show down with Willow… But now, things had mostly gotten back to normal with Willow and it didn’t make Buffy go back to normal. She was still missing the main point of most conversations, staring at walls, putting salt in her coffee… Heck, Dawn had even been able to get in a good punch to her sister’s nose during training yesterday! That said it all according to the teenage girl. *I’m good* She thought smugly, *but not good enough to accomplish that when Buff is in her normal state of mind*


They were done patrolling, and the two girls were now making their way to the crypt in a silent agreement.


"Wanna say hello to Clem?"


"Sure"


But even though Clem was a nice guy and they liked him very much, the visit had nothing to do with the fact that the girls missed him or not. Just being in Spike's crypt made them feel like he was out to get cigarettes and spicy wings, and he would be walking through the door any minutes. Dawn missed Spike just as much as her big sis and secretly blamed her for the loss of her best friend. But she had stopped being bitchy about it awhile ago, seeing how upset Buffy seemed to be about the vampire's departure.


On their way to the crypt, they walked by the old high school. Lights were still on at the construction site, giving the old half destroyed building an eerie glow.


Buffy shivered. "How creepy is that. I cannot believe they're going to make you go to that school. Do you have any idea how many people died in there?"


"Thanks for freaking me out even more than I already was."


Buffy smiled. "You're welcomed!"


Both girls stopped for a second to look at the building. Both having the same sinking feeling at the pit of their stomach. It was nine-thirty at night and the sun had set a long time ago. So why was the construction team still there working on the building? When Xander was working on a project, he was always back home right after sunset.


“Construction sites are already dangerous enough,” he once told them, “no need to make it worst by working in the dark unless it’s a special project and we have to hurry. Then we add some spotlights to see what we’re doing. But that basically never happens”.


But why would they be in such a hurry to finish Sunnydale High of all places? It was already too late to get it ready in time for school to start. Therefore, they still had quite a few months in front of them to finish it in time for next year. So why would they work after dark? *Unless of course there’s something Hellmouthy going on over there…


* Buffy frowned at her own not-so-pleasant thoughts.


"Why do you think the city would decide to reconstruct Sunnydale High anyway?" Dawn asked, more than a little worried herself at the idea that she would be forced to attend the same school her sister had to go to. The youngest Summers had heard so many horror stories about this place. Seemed like all her sister had been doing during the three years she had gone to that school was to try to stay alive, and try to keep everyone else alive as well.


"That I don't know Dawny. I really don't know."


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