I've seen a surprising (to me) number of readers who are concered that as soon as Willow breaks her spell, Adam will suddenly become whole again (after blowing up with his power pack).  I’m not sure why that is so. When Willow ended her spell in canon, it didn’t make the spell’s results not have happened, it simply ended them. So, Giles got his sight back, but it didn’t alter the fact that he’d spent several hours unable to see. Had he tripped and barked his shin badly while blind, the bruises wouldn’t have vanished with the spell. His shin would still have received that whack and would be wearing the evidence. Ditto for any damage Xander might have suffered from the demons trying to get to him. And neither Buffy nor Spike had suddenly not spent time indulging in lots of PDAs while thinking they were engaged. They were embarrassed by them, but well aware of what they’d been doing.
 
So, following that pattern, there’s no reason to assume that once his “heart” explodes, Adam won’t still be in little bitty pieces even though the “my will be done” spell may be broken. The gist of Willow’s spell breaking is that her will would be safe again, and she could no longer accidentally make things happen that she wouldn’t have done on purpose. She wished that the spell be broken so the things she wished on them didn’t apply anymore, but she doesn’t do or say anything to alter what’s already happened, she just ends it.  So if she ends her “my will be done” spell so as to not have to worry about accidentally hurting her friends, it isn’t going to change anything she already did unless she specifically says to make it not have happened (the way she got her stuff back when Buffy told her to say “all my stuff is back”). Makes sense?
 
And, as long as we’re explaining stuff, there were also some concerns that some of the things Willow says in the story should be having effects.  In my version of the world, she has to be pretty specific that something is going to happen or is a fact in order for it to go into effect. “I think” or “what if” or “he probably did” types of phrasing are not sufficiently “her will” for them to occur.  So “Xander’s head will explode” would have been really bad, but “Spike probably did it….” is not.  This is also true in canon. She says a lot of stuff, but only the ones plot related actually happened. Don’t blame me – love BtVS, but consistency wasn’t one of its attributes. J
 
 
CHAPTER SIX
 
The pause when she finished was a bit of a letdown as they realized they had no way to know if it was going to work until the next day. Giles cleared his throat, saying, “That was quite clever of you, Willow. To use the fire alarms to let us know when it happens.”
 
“I’m pretty impressed with myself,” Willow said with a smile that almost immediately turned into a satisfied smirk.  When she saw the expressions on their faces, the smirk faded. “Uh oh… maybe that was an oops?”
 
“Maybe?” Buffy tried to be diplomatic. “I mean, we all know how brilliant you are, so obviously you do too… but…”
 
“But I probably just gave myself an unnecessary boost in self-esteem?” She narrowed her eyes at them. “Is that what you’re all thinking? That I just made myself too cocky for my own good?  Or for your good?”
 
“I believe it is something for you to consider,” Giles said diplomatically. 
 
Meanwhile, Buffy was trying to glare Spike into not saying the things he clearly wanted to, without drawing Willow’s attention to him. With a growl, he retreated behind the couch again, rolling his eyes at the conversation going on across the room.
 
“Well I believe I just saved the world from a big bad, and without Buffy having to risk her life to fight him.”  Willow stared at Giles defiantly, growing visibly more annoyed when he couldn’t keep the concern from his expression.
 
“Willow… “ Buffy began, not sure exactly what she was going to say, but knowing she had to do something. “… 
 
“Willow, what?  Did I or did I not just keep you from having to fight something it took four of us to help you do in your time? Are you going to tell me you want me to give up the ability to do that?  Seriously? I could do your job for you. Think about it… all I’d have to do is say ‘all vampires are du—‘”
 
Buffy’s hand was on her mouth before she could finish. She had no idea if that kind of loosely worded statement would be enough, but she wasn’t about to find out. Willow glared at her and shook off her hand, then sighed and nodded.
 
“I forgot. I guess that’s not a good idea, huh? Sorry, Spike,” she said as she glanced over her shoulder to where he was staring at her over the back of the couch, his eyes wide and frightened.
 
“Willow, think about this. Do you want to hurt us? Any of us? And do you want to go through life having to watch everything you say? Just in case something you say without meaning to causes something bad to happen?”
 
“I wouldn’t hurt anyone,” she said with a stubborn pout.
 
“Not on purpose, of course you wouldn’t.” Buffy refrained from reminding Willow that she’d threatened to make Spike’s chip fire continuously only a little while ago. “But remember how you almost said Xander’s head was going to explode?  Do you really want to have to worry about that? And if you say something about dusting vampires, that’s going to include the man I love. Who I thought was dead, by the way, and just found again yesterday. I haven’t even had time to… well, never mind. The point is, you won’t know if something you say has hurt somebody until it’s too late.”
 
Willow chewed her lip, her innate affection for her friends and view of herself as a nice person clearly at war with her new-found sense of importance.  “What if…. what if I change the spell for me… to say that my will is done only when I need to do it to save the world? Or one of my friends?”  At their dubious expressions, she added, “There could be a ‘safe’ word or something.  Some word I have to say first before whatever comes out of my mouth can actually happen?”
 
She looked back and forth between Buffy and Giles, sparing a quick glance at Spike who was staring at her with a bemused smile.  “What?”
 
“Nothing,” he said, the smile growing into a grin. “Just wondering how you know what a safe word is.”
 
“I read,” she huffed, turning back to Giles and Buffy. “So, what do you think? If I say that I can only make things happen if I have to save somebody or something, and that I have to use a certain word first to make it happen?”
 
Buffy and Giles exchanged a look that said they were going to be discussing it later, but acknowledging that something was better than nothing. It was clear Willow had no intention of giving up her newly found power. Giles nodded and forced a smile.
 
“That sounds like an excellent solution to what could be a dangerous problem,” he said. “Have you thought about how to word it?”
 
Willow grabbed the pad back and bit her lip as she wrote and rewrote several times before sitting back with a satisfied smile. “This should do it,” she said, and before Buffy or Giles could look over what she’d written, she said, “I can only use the My Will Be Done spell’s powers when it’s important, and I have to say ‘gefilte fish’ first.”   When they all blinked at her, she said, “That’s a good word… words. I hate… that thing, so I’m not likely to say it by accident.”
 
Buffy and Spike exchanged nods, knowing from experience that they’d probably done the best they could to keep Willow from accidently doing any damage.
 
“That’s… that’s great, Wills. I guess all there is to do now is wait to hear the alarms go off.”
 
Willow looked around at the three people watching her with so much caution and said, “You’re still worried, aren’t you? You don’t think I can handle this.”
 
“I think,” Giles said with as much affection as he could put into his voice, “that I will bow to the knowledge of those who’ve known you longer and who know what you are capable of doing with magic. If they’re worried, I’m worried.”
 
Willow turned her gaze to Buffy. “Are you worried?”
 
Buffy shook her head. “I shouldn’t have to be. Once we change what happened in our time, none of the rest of it should happen either. And, trust me, you will have a chance to do some really amazing things…” She frowned. “… or not, I guess, if everything works out right.”  She shrugged and smiled. “I think we have to assume there’s always going to be a spring apocalypse, so I’m sure you’ll get chances to be amazing. Just maybe not the same ones.”
 
“If nothing else, she can try to counteract that spell that made humans forget about seeing Glory change into Ben. That right there will be a big help when I’m trying to convince all of you that Ben is Glory and Glory is Ben.” Spike gave Willow an encouraging nod. “I’ll let you know when it’s time to do that,” he said. “Not something we need to worry about till sometime next year.”
 
“C’mon, Willow. Spike and I will walk you back to the dorm.  I think it’s dark enough outside now.”
 
“And then what are you going to do?” Giles struggled to keep the frown off his face.
 
“Patrol.” Buffy stared at him. “That’s what I do every night. Remember? Slayer. Graveyards. Vampires….” 
 
“I meant, what will you do with Spike?”  As he saw the genuine confusion on both her face and Spike’s, he reminded himself that he knew very little about their lives since this time. 
 
“Spike patrols with me, Giles. You know— Okay, sorry. I guess you don’t know that. And he wasn’t actually doing it with me yet in this time. “ She glanced at Spike. “What do you think? Is it too weird to have you patrol with me? It isn’t something we’d be doing together yet. And Riley and his men are probably still looking for a potential chipee.”
 
“Don’t know, love. It’s your call. Yours and Rupert’s I guess. I’ll walk Willow home with you and then we can decide. Maybe I’ll go look for a place for us to live that—”
 
“Spike, we can’t live anywhere.  Not until we have a chance to figure out how much getting rid of Adam is going to change things. And you need to keep a low profile – at least until we’ve convinced Riley that you’re just another Scooby.”
 
“Well, you know I’m going to be kicked out of here when Rupert’s friend comes to call, so I need to start thinking about it. Not going back to Harris’s hovel.”
 
“Hey, it was perfect. A basement apartment. What could be better?”
 
A growl was his only response as he held the door for the two girls. “I guess I’ll go look for a place to live. By myself.  I’ll be back later,” he said to Giles as he pulled the door closed. “Don’t wait up.”
 
XXXXXX
 
After seeing Spike off to check out his old crypt and some apartment buildings with basement units, Buffy and Willow continued their walk to the dorm.
 
“So, in your time, you and Riley got together, huh?”
 
“Yeah. We gave it a try. But he… he couldn’t handle being the Slayer’s boyfriend, which he doesn’t even know about yet. I guess he’ll probably find out pretty soon… but maybe not.”
 
“Why not? Don’t you want him to know?”
 
“Well, I hadn’t decided what to tell him yet in our time, and we spent a lot of time lying to each other about our nighttime activities. But when the Gentlemen came to Sunnydale, we ended up fighting their minions at the same time and we sort of worked together to end them, so I had to tell him about being the Slayer. And then Angel showed up and they had a fight, and he found out we were keeping Spike, and his boss tried to kill me, and he slept with Faith, and… yeah, it was kind of downhill from there. “
 
“Riley slept with Faith?”
 
“Yep. I mean, he thought she was me, so… but he should have figured it out. Tara knew right aw—“
 
“Tara?”
 
“Um, yeah. A new friend. She’s really nice and you’ll like her, and we all like her, so… I’m just going to stop talking now….”
 
 
“There’s a Tara in my Wicca group. She’s really quiet, but she seems nice…”
 
“That’s her! You should talk to her more. She is really quiet, but when you get to know her….” Buffy looked at Willow from the corner of her eye. “She’s a witch too. A real one, not like those wannabes in your group. She does earth magic. Spike called her “Glinda” after the—”
 
“After the good witch in the Wizard of Oz. Yeah, I got it.”  She made a face. “Spike doesn’t think much of me and magic, does he? Is that because I couldn’t do the spell without the book last year?  The one to make Dru take him back?”
 
Buffy sighed. “It’s not that he doesn’t think you’re amazing, and really, by our time you and Spike are pretty much friends, and he’s seen you be amazing and help me save the world more than once…. It’s just that…. You know what? None of it’s going to happen this time around, so there’s no point in talking about it. I’ll smack him down the next time he sounds cranky about you and magic, ‘K?”
 
Buffy stopped in front of the dorm. “Here you are. I probably won’t be too late. I’ll just hit a couple of cemeteries and call it a night. But I should patrol. Can’t leave it all to Riley and his men.”
 
“”K. Be careful.”
 
“Hey, to the creatures of the night, I’m the boogieman – er, girl. They should be careful.”
 
XXXXXX
 
Buffy strolled through two newer cemeteries, staking a few fledglings as they climbed from their graves and scaring a small demon into running off screaming. Buffy recognized the demon as one of the relatively harmless ones that Sunnydale was full of, and winced as she remembered that her younger self would have slain the small demon without thinking about it twice.  “If nothing else, more demons will be safe from me this time around,” she muttered. “What if I’d killed Clem?”
 
She looked up and saw that she was at the gate to Restfield. “Huh, guess I’ll see if Spike’s still here.” She was almost to his future home when she caught movement in the shadows. Her slayer senses weren’t tingling, but whatever was moving was definitely large and dressed all in black.  Crap! Commandos. In Restfield.  I hope Spike isn’t— No sooner did she have the thought, than she saw his brightly colored head in the distance.
 
He spotted her at the same time and changed his path, his eyes on nothing but her as he began to smile. Thinking quickly, she spoke loudly enough for his ears, but she hoped not loud enough for the approaching commandos to hear.
 
“Soldiers! Get lost!.”  She whirled and darted away from Spike’s direction, only to find herself flailing in a net that dropped over her head. She was in the process of swearing and dragging the net and whatever was holding it further into the cemetery when she heard voices.
 
“Got one!” “Hang on, it’s strong!”  “I’m coming, I’ve got the—urk”
 
There were several more sounds of surprise and abruptly cut off words before Buffy was able to throw off the now loose net. As she’d guessed, she was surrounded by a small group of commandos, all lying on the ground and – she hoped – unconscious.  Spike was just fading back to his human face as he walked up to her.
 
“Are you all right?” he asked, grinning at her. “Can’t wait till they explain how something your size got shed of the net and knocked them all out. I’ll wager you’ll be seven feet tall by the time they have to explain themselves.”
 
“Is that all you did? Knock them out?”
 
“More or less,” he mumbled. “The point is, they’re all alive and if they wake up before something else finds them, they’ll be fine.”
 
“Okay. Well let’s get out of sight in case they wake up and we have to knock them out again.”
 
“The crypt isn’t very clean yet… why don’t we just hit the Bronze? If anybody sees us, we just look like two normal people out on a date. Not like whatever they’re going to claim they saw tonight in a cemetery.”
 
“You don’t think they’d recognize us?”
 
“Only one of them had night goggles on and I got him first. I don’t think any of them saw you clear enough to recognize you. And I don’t think they even saw me comin’. Too busy trying to hang on to you.”
 
“What kind of idiot doesn’t make sure what he’s trapping before he throws a net over it?  Do I look like a vamp to you?” The more Buffy thought about it, the madder she got.  “I should have kicked their butts!”
 
Spike was laughing as he tugged on her arm. “Next time, I’ll leave one of them standing for you, Slayer. But for now, let’s get out of here before they wake up and do see what you look like.”
 
XXXXXXX
 
Buffy had just sat down at a table to wait for Spike to come back with drinks when she felt like someone was watching her. She scanned the room, as casually as she could, pausing when Spike returned with a beer for himself and a Diet Coke for her.
 
“What?”
 
“I felt like somebody was looking at me,” she said, taking a sip of her drink.
 
“Of course somebody was looking at you. You’re beautiful. But now that they can see you have an escort, they—bloody hell….” He trailed off in a snarl, visibly struggling to keep his brow wrinkle-free and his fangs hidden.
 
Buffy turned to follow his gaze and found Riley staring back at her, his expression a mixture of anger and disappointment. “Oh shit,” she whispered, giving him a sick smile and a small wave. She quickly turned back to Spike. “It’s okay. This Riley doesn’t know you. He has no idea you’re a vampire. Just be cool.”
 
“The look he’s giving me isn’t friendly,” Spike said, pretending to laugh at something she said. “How long have you been dating him?”
 
“Oh, I don’t remember. Just a few weeks I think. I started dating him right after our fight when you had the gem, so whenever that was.”
 
“Then he’s got no right to be looking at me like that, just because you happen to be enjoying a drink with me,” Spike grumbled. “How do you want to play this? Looks like he’s thinkin’ about coming over here.”
 
“Ugh! I’m not ready for this yet. I was hoping to avoid him outside of class at least until we have to do something about the Gentlemen.  I dunno. Let’s just go with you’re a friend he hasn’t met yet. ‘K? And skip the handshake if you can, just in case….” She stopped whispering as Riley approached the table, but she noticed Spike rubbing his hands together under the table.
 
“Riley! Hi. I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight.  Riley, this is… Spike. I don’t think you’ve had a chance to meet him yet.  Spike, this is Riley. He’s the guy I was telling you about the other day. He’s the TA in my psychology class and a new… friend. He knows Willow, cause she’s in the same class, and I think he’s met Xander and Anya… but not Giles. And not you. Except now he has. Met you, I mean… I think I’ll just stop talking now…”
 
Riley smiled affectionately at Buffy, then at Spike. “She’s adorable when she babbles, isn’t she?” he said as he held out his hand. “So you’re part of her little gang of townie friends?”
 
Spike took Riley’s hand and forced his own smile. “Yes. We say that all the time… how bloody adorable Buffy is when she’s babbling. Nice to meet you.”
 
Buffy frowned as it became obvious that the two men were engaging in that old male competition of who can make the other guy let go first.  She kicked Spike’s foot under the table, causing him to let go and shake his hand out.
 
“That’s quite a grip you’ve got there, Cap—Riley.”
 
“You too… Spike,” Riley said, rubbing his own hand against his leg. “Surprising for someone your size.”
 
“I’m stronger than I look,” Spike said blandly. “Like little Buffy here. She can surprise you.”
 
While Buffy muttered, “Little Buffy!” with a glare that made Spike grin, Riley replied, “She constantly surprises me. I’m looking forward to more of it,” he continued turned his warm gaze on Buffy. “I’m hoping you’ll have many more surprises for me. Good ones.”
 
“Heh,” she managed. “You can probably count on it.” She tried to finish her comment with a smile that wasn’t flirty enough to make Spike growl aloud, but warm enough to give Riley no reason to think he couldn’t keep seeing her.
 
“Well, I’d ask to join you and your… friend, but I was just about to head out when you came in.  It’s getting kinda late to just be starting an evening, isn’t it?
 
“We were visiting with some old high school friends and chatting up a storm. I was feeling a little parched, so we thought we’d stop for something to drink before I see Buffy back to her dorm room. She’s a bit of a night owl – but then you probably know that by now, don’t you?”  Spike’s expression was open and friendly as he waited for Riley to agree with him.
 
“Uh, well, I can’t say I… I mean usually when we see each other, it’s daytime and…” He paused and looked at Buffy again. “Although I think I may have caught her dozing off during Maggie’s lectures once or twice.  Good thing she’s got Willow there to poke her awake.”
 
“Yeah. Good thing. That’s Willow for you. I can always count on her to keep me awake.”  Buffy did her best to look both ditsy and not as sleepy as she actually felt.
 
“Well, nobody pokes me awake except—I mean, I guess I’d better get back to the frat house.  See you tomorrow for lunch, Buffy?”
 
“Sure,” she said before thinking about it. “I’ll meet you in the cafeteria around noon, ‘K?”
 
“Sounds like a date,” he said, smiling at her.  “Goodnight. Hope you both have a good rest of your evening.”
 
Spike waited until Riley had left the Bronze before growling, “Sounds too bloody much like a date to me.”
 
“What else was I going to do? We’ve been having lunch together almost every day for a couple of weeks. It’s not like I can just shut him down now. It’s bad enough that I’m not sure he believed me that you’re just one of the gang.”
 
“Don’t care what he believes,” Spike said, continuing to pout. “The wanker tried to crush my hand.”
 
“He couldn’t really do that, could he?”
 
Spike gave her one of his lifted eyebrows. “Seriously, Slayer?”
 
“Well, you didn’t crush his, did you?”  Buffy plowed on with her need to know what they had and hadn’t given away.
 
“Was giving it some thought by then. All things considered, it’s probably good that you kicked me when you did. Pretty sure this time around the big hayseed and I aren’t going to like each other any more than we did before.”
 
“He doesn’t have to like you, as long as he doesn’t suspect you’re one of the creatures he captures or dusts every night. When he sees you with us fighting Vahrall demons on the hellmouth, he’ll probably believe that you’re just another Scooby.”
 
Spike nodded. “I’ll try to remember not to punch one of them into the opening,” he said. “No need for anyone to be hanging over that maw trying to pull anything out of it.”
 
Buffy shuddered. “That wasn’t a highlight of the night, for sure.”