A/N: Special thanks to Slaymesoftly for being my beta for this story!

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“Can I take your order, ma’am?”

Buffy looked up at the waitress. “Just a cup of coffee.” She had lost her appetite after talking to Dawn.

“Are you sure? Our cook makes a mean omelet.”

“I’m sure. Thanks.”

“Alright then.” The young girl smiled and bounced back towards the front counter.

The girl looked to be in her early twenties. Her red hair, which she currently had hanging in pigtails, and the freckles that dotted her cheeks and nose, seemed to match her southern accent well. An accent that men surely found charming. An accent like Katie’s.

Buffy put a hand to her forehead and sighed. She had hoped that by talking to her sister, that she would get some sort of reassurance that the life that she’d left in England was the right one for her, but all she had gotten was Dawn basically asking if she wanted her to stall with the others. Which of course had put the thought into her head; did she want her to stall? And if so, what did that mean?

The call that was supposed to have made all of this easier had somehow seemed to make it only more complicated. When she had left the apartment, Spike hadn’t been in the best of moods. It was partly her fault, she knew. But what had he expected? He had kissed her when he knew she was getting married. Who did that?

‘Who lets a man kiss her, no…kisses him back…when they are getting married?’ her mind kept asking her. ‘And worse yet, who likes it?’

All of the questions that kept plaguing her brain were melting all together. They seemed to be forming one question, or rather, one two part question. Did Spike really love her more than anyone else, and if he did, did she love him back? It was something that she hadn’t had to think about or deal with for years. Back in Sunnydale, she had been so sure that she couldn’t love him, at least until those last few months. But even then she hadn’t been sure. No, it wasn’t until that moment that their hands had caught fire that she had been almost sure she was wrong all along. Loving him was not impossible. And a part of her had felt the emotion and the words had come out of her mouth before she could give it a second thought.

But those feelings had been left in the rubble and that was where she intended for them to remain. And yet somehow she was sitting alone in a diner in Atlanta, Georgia trying to convince herself that going home was the right thing to do.

“Here you go,” the waitress said as she set the cup of coffee down on the table. “Sure I can’t get you nothing else?”

“No, I’m good. Thank you.”

The girl nodded and headed over to help a group of older gentlemen that had seated themselves at one of the larger tables.

Buffy took a sip of coffee. Any other day she would have put enough sugar into it that it may as well have not even been coffee, but today, for some reason, she preferred it black.
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Spike glanced at the clock. It was almost eleven and the slayer still wasn’t back. She’d said she was going to the diner, but that had been nearly two hours ago. His mind told him she was just trying to avoid him.

What the bloody hell had he been thinking? That was just it. He hadn’t been thinking. That seemed to be something he couldn’t do effectively when the slayer was around. He would really need to work on that. Not that it really mattered. She would be gone in a few days, back to England and out of his life forever. Unless of course he himself paid a visit to the motherland. It was his home after all.

Spike shook his head. No. He would not visit her again, and she would never come back to him. In reality, she hadn’t even willingly come this time. A stupid mix up of words in a spell had done that for her. Magic had always been something Spike tried to steer clear from. Nothing good ever came of it. And no matter how much the back of his mind tried to scream that maybe this was a good thing, he couldn’t convince himself of it. It couldn’t be that good of a thing. Yes, he was getting to see Buffy again, but she would also be leaving as soon as possible and heading back to marry Captain Forehead. It was something he wouldn’t have even had to think about if she’d not been magically poofed into his bed. At least not this much.

He also wouldn’t have been unfaithful to his girlfriend. Spike still felt a pang of guilt when he thought about Katie. She would be angry and hurt if she ever found out about the kiss. But really there was no real reason to tell her. Buffy would be gone soon and he had no intention of trying to kiss her anymore.

Spike turned his head at the sound of the door opening, but when he saw her coming in he quickly looked away. No reason for her to think he was waiting for her.

Buffy spotted him on the couch as soon as she walked through the door.

“Hey.”

He nodded in her direction but didn’t say anything.

She stood there in the middle of the living room for a moment, waiting for him to say something…anything. When he didn’t, she decided to fill in the silence.

“I talked to Dawn. She already mailed my passport, so it should be here tomorrow around noon. Or…maybe. I don’t know that she accounted for the time difference.”

“Great.”

His one word answers were starting to annoy her. “Can’t we just move past this?”

“What’s that?”

“Us being all avoidy and non-talky. We kissed. It was…wrong and stupid…” ‘And great,’ she thought despite herself. “And like you said…it won’t happen again. So we can just forget about it and move on. And since I’m gonna be here another night, we may as well not spend it staring at the wall.”

He raised an eyebrow at her little speech. So she wanted to spend the night what? Talking? Patrolling? “So what exactly do you have in mind?”

“Well,” she said, seemingly thinking about what to say, “I thought maybe you could show me around town. I’ve never been to Atlanta.” She’d been trying to come up with a good plan since she’d left the diner; something they could do that wouldn’t seem to…natural. It was the patrolling that had done it. It had reminded her of old times and how good it used to feel killing things and somehow those feelings had been transferred to Spike. But that would not happen tonight. They would do something out of the ordinary for them. Sightseeing seemed like the obvious choice.

“Yeah, I suppose I could do that.” Her request sounded innocent enough, but he had a feeling that she was trying to avoid talking about something.

“And maybe Katie could come with us.” It wasn’t that Buffy really wanted to face the other girl, the one she felt she had wronged, but it would be better if she were there, if they were not alone.

Spike gave her a curious expression. So she didn’t want to be alone with him, that much was obvious. “You don’t know what you’re in for, luv. There’s nothing Katie likes to talk about more than Georgia.”

“Well, that’s good then because I don’t know anything about it.”

Buffy knew she sounded a little too enthusiastic about the whole thing and it wasn’t like she had a dire need to learn about this state, especially since she was leaving tomorrow, but getting out of the apartment would be good…for everyone.

The rest of the afternoon passed slowly as Buffy watched TV while Spike tried to busy himself with anything and everything he had been meaning to catch up on. When five o’clock finally rolled around they were both thankful for the brunette woman who walked through the door.

“Hey,” she called out.

“Hello luv,” Spike returned.

She approached him and gave him their ritual kiss, as Buffy had come to call it in her head, before sitting down on the edge of the table.

“So, what have ya’ll been up to today?”

“Not much. We’ve been waiting for you actually.”

“Me? Why?”

“Well, Buffy was hoping you wouldn’t mind showing her around the city on her last night here.”

“Her last night? Buffy, you’re leaving?” she asked, turning to face the girl on the couch.

“Yeah. My passport is on its way as we speak.”

“I hate it that you’re leaving, but I guess it is a good thing.”

“Pet,” Spike said in a slightly disapproving voice.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that she seemed like she really wanted to get back home is all.”

“Yeah,” Buffy replied. “Who knows what all I’ve missed.”
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“What the bloody hell happened here?” Giles demanded.

The two young slayers looked up at him with ‘hand caught in the cookie jar’ guilt written all over their faces. Surrounding them were piles of books that had been knocked off of the shelves in the library.

“We’re really sorry, Mr. Giles. We’ll clean it up,” the girl with dark brown hair said.

“Bloody right you will.” He rubbed his temples and sighed. Sometimes it felt like he was running a daycare more so than a Watcher’s Council. “And why are you two not in class?”

“Angel didn’t show,” the blonde replied. “So we decided to practice on our own. I guess the library wasn’t the best place, huh?”

“I should say not.” Giles pulled his cellular phone from his pocket and dialed. Angel had not called to say he would not be in class so where was he? ‘Hopefully not on his way to America,’ he thought to himself.

The phone rang several times but he received no reply. Almost immediately after ending the call the phone began to vibrate. At first he thought it might be the ex-vampire calling him back, but a quick look at the caller ID told him it was Dawn.

“Hello.”

“Hey Giles. Listen, I mailed Buffy’s passport. They said it should get there around noon their time tomorrow, so she should be home tomorrow night if she can get a flight.”

“That’s great, Dawn.”

“What’s wrong? You sound all bad moody?”

“It’s nothing. I just…have you spoken with Angel today?”

“No why?”

“He hasn’t shown up for work.”

“That’s not like him. Wait, Giles…you don’t think… You don’t think he went to America, do you?”

Dawn distinctly remembered them telling him not to do that; that it would be a waste of time. And Buffy would be home sometime late tomorrow or early the morning after that. Surely he wasn’t that stupid; though the ex-vampire had made more than one questionable decision as of late. It was the stress of the wedding Buffy had said when Angel had started losing important papers and missing appointments. It was his adjustment to being human that had caused him to choose to take on a large demon by himself which ended him up in the hospital with a few broken ribs. The young girl sighed. Of course he had gone to get her.

“I’ll try to call him.”

“Alright. Let me know if you hear anything.”

“I will.”

Dawn hung up the phone and immediately wished she could call Buffy to warn her. What if her sister had done what she seemed so afraid to; admitted that the spell had probably worked and that she did indeed love Spike back. And what if they were trying to work things out and Angel came knocking? Getting angrier by the minute Dawn dialed Angel’s number and listened as it rang one too many times for her liking. She was well prepared to fuss him out if he ever answered.
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“This is...pretty nifty,” Buffy said lamely.

“Yeah, well, I think so. But I guess I’m a little biased. I bet it’s nothing compared to England, though. They have all of those historic landmarks and buildings. I told Spike he has to take me there someday.”

Buffy and Katie were standing outside of the Hard Rock Café. After finding out Buffy had never eaten at one, Katie had insisted that be where they go. “Everyone should eat at Hard Rock sometime. And everyone should own at least one piece of Hard Rock apparel.” That’s where Spike currently was; waiting in line to buy Buffy her very own Hard Rock shirt. She’d been quite insistent that she didn’t need one; why have a reminder of this trip? But Katie wouldn’t give up until she agreed.

“Yeah.”

“So, tell me more about your fiancé. He must be worried sick about you. Have you talked to him recently?”

“There’s really not much to tell. And no, I haven’t talked to him since I got here.”

“You haven’t talked to him since you got to America? Spike said you’d been here like a week before he ran into you.”

Crap. “He’s uhh…been working a lot. I didn’t want to distract him.”

“Uhuh.” Katie nodded and looked like she was thinking about something.

“I have talked to my sister. I’m sure she’s relaying everything I say.”

“That’s nice of her. You know, I always wished that I had a sister. I have a younger brother, though. He’s the best, but boys don’t like to do things like shop. Like that one,” she said pointing at Spike who was coming out of the door. “I have the hardest time getting him to go anywhere. I’m surprised he volunteered to get your shirt. Usually he won’t stand in line.”

“Yeah, Angel doesn’t like it either,” Buffy said as much for her own benefit as for Katie’s.

“Men.”

“Talking about me?” Spike asked approaching the two of them.

“Of course not, honey,” Katie said giving him a peck on the mouth.

Buffy found herself looking at the pavement. It really shouldn’t bother her, but of course it did.

Spike handed the bag to Buffy.

“Thanks.”

He nodded his ‘you’re welcome’.

“So where to next?” Katie asked them.

“Wherever you want, luv.”

“Or wherever Buffy wants.”

They both looked at her.

“I don’t have a preference. Katie’s the tour guide. Where do you recommend?” She caught herself casting a glance at Spike.

“Well….we could go to the aquarium. Do you like aquariums, Buffy?”

“Sure.” Fish would be a nice distraction. Maybe they wouldn’t have to talk much in there. Buffy didn’t think she could take any more small talk with the country girl.

“We’re off then,” Spike said making motions with his hands. He wasn’t exactly crazy about the idea. He didn’t give a bloody rip about sea life, but he would do whatever his girls…girl wanted to do.

As they started walking, Spike in the middle of the girls, towards the aquarium, Buffy couldn’t help but feel a little comfort. The vampire’s presence always seemed to bring that feeling to the surface and she decided not to let it bother her. What was the point in fretting over it? It didn’t mean anything. Friends should feel comfortable around other friends. That was how it worked. She let herself relax for the first time since she’d woken up in Atlanta, Georgia and it felt good.

Spike cast a look over at the slayer and noticed that she was smiling. After a moment she realized he was looking at her and turned her gaze on him. He couldn’t help but to slightly smile back. The moment was over almost as soon as it had begun, but it left them both with a sense of ease.

Katie watched them out of the corner of her eye. The way Spike acted around this girl bothered her more than a little. Yes, Buffy had said she was getting married, but that had only temporarily calmed her fears. She got an uneasy feeling around them; almost like she didn’t belong, and she didn’t like it at all.
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