A/N: It’s important that you carefully read the scene in the last chapter with the mysterious woman – especially the last thing she said. And in a certain section of this chapter, I will be going back and forth simultaneously between two different scenes/places. Hopefully it’s not confusing. Thanks for the continued support!


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“Hey guys. Did you miss me?” Leanna said with a haughty smirk.


Everyone froze. It took a deafening second before Willow seemed to snap out of it and replied meekly, “Hi Leanna…”

No one knew how to react – they all knew Spike had already broken up with her and she was not known for her good temper. Any moment now, they were expecting the bitch fest to explode.


“Oh c’mon guys! I don’t bite,” Leanna raised her brow as an amused smile lit her skanky face.


“H-how are you, Leanna?” Tara managed to stutter out. She wasn’t sure what to say or why Leanna was here. Usually, she came as a Spike accessory.


“I’m great and how are you, Tara?” Leanna answered back with false sincerity. It was kind of creepy.


“Huh?” Xander interjected, confused at her out-of-character reply. “Who are you and what have you done to Leanna?”


“What he means to say is, why are you here and why are you being nice when Spike dumped you the other day?” Anya demanded to know.


Leanna’s eyes briefly flashed with anger, but she quickly turned her expression into a mischievous smile a.k.a. a sluttish-looking smile. “Spike didn’t dump me. He said he wanted to take a break. By the end of the week, he’ll be running back to me. And it will probably lead to one of our many sessions of make-up sex.”


“Oh sweet mother of all that is good and pure! Please don’t say things like that!” Xander exclaimed as he shuddered at the thought. Everyone else cringed – except Anya of course.


“Whatever,” Leanna rolled her eyes. “Where’s Spike?”


“Actually,” Giles began with a pondering look, “that’s a good question.” He turned to the others.


“We don’t know either, do we?” Willow said as she turned to look at Tara, Xander and Anya.


They all shook their heads.


Leanna looked pissed off. Her grey eyes shone with anger. “I guess the better question is: where’s little miss Buffy??”


“Anddddd she’s back!” Xander commented sarcastically.


“W-we haven’t seen them today,” Tara dared to reply.


“Well, I guess I’ll just have to stay here and wait,” Leanna said as she began to pull out a chair at the table and sat down – to everyone’s dismay.


-----------------------------------------------------


She desperately needed to shower, like NOW. Ever since Spike left, she had been pacing around the crypt arguing with herself, with her emotions. She was confused, mad, weirded out, and again, confused.


But then, she heard a noise from above. Halting in her steps, she heard the door of the crypt open. A part of her prayed it was Spike, while the other hoped she didn’t have to see him and confront it all. Her thoughts were shattered by someone else’s voice calling out, “Buffy? You here?”


Knowing that wasn’t Spike’s voice, she panicked with her state of undress, and her crypt’s current state of chaos. Heart racing, she flew around the room grabbing her clothes, quickly flung a sweater over her head and practically jumped into a pair of pants. Bracing herself for a possible assailant, she grabbed the lamp on her dresser and posed herself with a spread-out stance.


“Buffy? You down here?”


Buffy was about to step forward and bash the lamp across the top of the descending figure on her ladder, when he suddenly turned around.


“AHHHHHH! It’s me! It’s me!! Don’t hit me!!” the guy screamed.


She stopped the lamp inches before it hit the stranger in the head. “Who are you!?!” Buffy demanded, skepticism in her eyes. One thing made her relax – he was human.


The guy clutched his chest as he breathed heavily from the near-attack. “Are you trying to kill me? What’s gotten into you??”


Buffy looked skeptic. She peered at the intruder, who she didn’t think she had ever seen before. Yet he was acting like he knew her, and he had a slight feeling of familiarity to him. He was a young looking guy, somewhere in his twenties she guessed.


“Do I know you?” Buffy asked with a puzzled look.


“Earth to Buffy! It’s Clem! What’s wrong with you?” he said as he peered at her curiously. “Uh, can you lose the lamp?”


‘Clem!?!? He doesn’t look like Clem!’ Buffy was confused. She should have guessed Clem was human, considering Harmony was too, but this guy??


(This is what he looks like, James Charles Leary, the actor who plays Clem http://www.imdb.com/gallery/hh/0495262/HH/0495262/headshot.JPG?path=pgallery&path_key=Leary,%20James%20Charles )


“But you have tight skin and…and you’re…normal looking!” Buffy both exclaimed and questioned.


“Uh…yeaaaa. Can you put the lamp down first?” Clem asked with a worried look.


“Oh! Yea, sorry…” Buffy put the lamp down, as she continued to be baffled.


“You feeling alright, Buffy?” Clem asked with a suspicious look. He took that moment to pause and look at her current state of disheveled hair and clothing, and the crypt for that matter. “WHOA! What happened here??”


Buffy, who had been starring at Clem with a ‘HUH?’ look, snapped out of it and saw what he was asking about.


Buffy’s eyes widened and she opened her mouth to explain. But Clem’s eyes reached the bed, and he darted his eyes from Buffy to the mess on the ground to the bed and back again. Before she could say anything, she saw Clem’s eyes widen in understanding. ‘Shit’ she thought.


“You and Spike had sex here!!” Clem exclaimed with an amused, but accusing tone.


---


Spike was mentally hitting himself in the head while he was walking home. He couldn’t believe he allowed himself to get THAT drunk and let all that happen. ‘Yea, just keep telling yourself that, you wanker.’


“Oh bugger,” Spike said out loud as he stopped in his steps, reaching the front of his house. He had forgotten about how he was going to explain to Dawn and mum. He couldn’t go in there looking and smelling like he did – like Buffy. Standing there thinking for a few minutes, he knew he was going to have to make a run for it up to the shower.


He exhaled an unnecessary breath, and started a full out run, whipping open the door, and dashing for the stairs. ‘Almost there!’ he thought to himself urgently.


“Spike!” Dawn exclaimed, as she popped out into view at the top of the stairs, effectively blocking his path and almost causing him to stumble backward down the steps.


“Where have you been? Mom and I have been wor-,” Dawn cut herself off. She made a puzzled face, and sniffed.


‘Oh shit,’ Spike thought with his eyes closed.


Looking at her brother, Dawn saw his disheveled hair and her eyes widened at the unmistakable smell that reached her nose.


“OMG,” Dawn began.


“Nibblet…”


“EWWWWW,” Dawn said with a disgusted face. “You had sex! With Buffy! I can smell her all over you!!” She paused in her initial disgust, and a small smile lit her face, “And yay.”

---

Buffy went on the defensive, “What? No, No - No sex!”


“Buffy, it’s so obvious! Look around you! Look at you! Oh wow, I guess I should have seen it coming, but I never knew you guys would get over yourselves!” Clem said with an amazed voice.


“No, it’s not what you think!” She shook her head adamantly.


Clem rolled his eyes, “It’s not like you didn’t want to, what with you in love with him and everything.”


“No love! I don’t love Spike!” Buffy yelled with a slight whine at the end.


“Oh you’re back to pretending you hate him again…” Clem said as he sighed.


“I’m not pretending, I swear! It was all an accident!” Buffy defended with denial face.


“Uh-huh sureeeeee. Then why did you sleep with him? Let’s hear it, just for the heck of it.” He crossed his arms and looked at her with a challenging look.


---


“Dawn, it’s not what you think!”


Dawn gave Spike a disbelieving look. “Uh….huh…What I think is that you two finally had sex because you could no longer contain your pent up sexual frustrations for each other.” She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow at him.


“…”


Well, he really couldn’t contest with that.


“Exactly,” Dawn said with a satisfied smirk.


Spike sighed, “No, it was-…We were drunk!”


With an indifferent look, she asked, “And that is different from other nights….how?”


“Very cheeky, nibblet.”


“Well?”


“Well, I got caught up in the moment. This guy just pissed me off, and I saved her from him. Post-saving madness, I’m telling you!” Spike replied in a very uncharacteristic rant.


“Once again, and that is different how? Spike, you save Buffy from something or another like every week and have been doing so for the past few years. When are you going to realize what that means?”


---


“Well?” Clem asked, “What’s the story?”


“It was an accident - Last night we got drunk and…and I wasn’t thinking clearly and he gave me a flower and he saved me from that ugly guy and then next thing I know we were kissing! It’s not my fault – I swear! He’s a stupid vampire for saving me!” Buffy finished with childish emphasis.


“Stupid, yes,” Clem said with a roll of his eyes. “But you know he saves you all the time – has been for the past few years now – how is that your excuse for sleeping with him accidentally?” Clem said the last word with finger air quotes.


Buffy stood there stunned. She hadn’t expected to hear that Spike had been saving her ass for the past few years. She had somehow assumed that before she landed in this crazy place, Spike was a total bastard to her -judging from his initial slamming-of-door-in-face the first night she got here.


‘Even here, he keeps looking out for me’ Buffy thought, as she felt a tightening of her stomach at the mushy thought.


“Why don’t you two just be official already?” Clem asked.


Buffy’s eyes shot up to his at his question. “What makes you think I want a relationship with him?” Buffy answered defensively. And a flicker of sadness crossed her face, as she remembered what world she was in, “…Or that he would want one with me?”


“Because of the way you two look at each other. And now the apparently long night of sex you guys had…,” Clem replied as he looked around the room.


---


“It means that it’s not right to let her die when she can’t hurt anyone,” Spike replied evenly.


“If I have to hear that one more time, I’m going to bleach your hair blue while you’re sleeping,” Dawn said curtly.


She threw her hands up in frustration at Spike’s denial. “Ugh! You make me want to kick you! Just go out with her already!”


Spike shook his head, “It’s wrong...” As he uttered these words, his mind drifted to a memory. But the memory that flashed through his mind wasn’t of Buffy – it was the image of Drusilla killing a child, and how he hid the truth about it. Subconsciously, he had linked Drusilla to Buffy because they were both humans, which somehow made being with Buffy another mistake he couldn’t afford to make.


“But I don’t know anymore...,” he trailed off, thinking about the way he had felt right before he woke up with Buffy in his arms. “Promise me you won’t tell anyone,” Spike said with a serious look.


“Whatever,” Dawn rolled her eyes.


“Dawn,” Spike pushed.


“Ok fine. I promise,” Dawn said with a sour expression. “You better shower now because mom will be home any minute. And in the shower you should come up with your story for why you didn’t come home…”


He relaxed, and moved to go up the stairs to the shower, messing up Dawn’s hair in a sign of playful thanks.


“Hey! I just straightened it!”


---


“I don’t know,” Buffy said, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting her hands in her face. “I don’t know what’s going on with anything around here. I’m like 40 kinds of confused…”


Clem looked at her sympathetically, but didn’t say anything.


Buffy realized something that snapped her out of her pity party. “Hey Clem,” Buffy started, “Why are you my friend if you’re human?? Aren’t I like some kind of backstabber to you people? Fighting with vampires and all that? Or did you not know that and now you are going to try to kill me? Oh wait, you know Spike is a vampire though…That’s weird…OK sorry, rant over,” Buffy finished as she waited for an answer.


“You know, there were some rumors going around about you having amnesia, but I didn’t really think much about it until now,” Clem looked at her curiously before continuing. “I’m not the violent type …I got a wife and a new-born baby at home. You can do whatever you want, Buffy. We’ve been good friends for a while and you’ve always protected my family, so I don’t question it. I just came over to check up on you since I haven’t seen you come around in a while. But I can see you’ve been busy,” Clem said with a smile.


Buffy looked sheepish. “Uh yea...thanks for checking up on me, but I kind of REALLY need a shower, so do you mind if we…” Buffy didn’t have to finish.


“Sure thing. I’ll talk to you soon.” Clem smiled and then left her alone.


‘Now to that shower. A cold, cold one,’ Buffy thought with her eyes closed.


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Back at the Magic Box, the others exchanged nervous glances. It was deafly quiet – especially since none of them had a heartbeat. It was an awkward moment, but Leanna just looked around with wide eyes, pretending not to notice their puzzled glances.


“Oh what’s this thing?” Leanna asked as she grabbed the tree-book on the table to examine it. She flipped through the pages quickly like some girly magazine and had a bored expression on her face. “Yawn.”


“It’s a book that Tara found today,” Giles replied.

“Oh yea, I forgot for a second that you guys are complete nerds.” Leanna stood up and tossed her hair back. “Well if Spike isn’t showing up, I’m leaving because you guys are making me fall asleep.” She began to step forward towards the door when Giles jumped in.


“Actually, Leanna,” he began, “I was wondering if you could do some extra patrolling this week. There’s been some extra human activity at the border of the north cemetery that has been causing trouble.”


“Yea sure, whatever,” Leanna replied with indifference.


“I appreciate it…thanks…,” Giles finished hesitantly. She usually wasn’t this agreeable. Something had to be wrong…


As she turned to leave, the door opened before she reached it, revealing Spike.


His eyes widened in surprise, as his body remained frozen in place – a true deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.


“Leanna!” Spike exclaimed with a surprised tone. “What are you doing here?” He glanced behind her to look at his friends, who had all slowly begun backing away from them. ‘I’m glad I took a shower first!’ Spike thought, relieved.


She looked at him with an uplifted brow and stepped forward, causing him to move to the right in reaction. He didn’t want a replay of the punch-the-Spike episode in the alley.


“Whoa now, Leanna,” Spike said as he put up his arms in protest.


“I’m not trying to hit you, Spike,” Leanna said in a sugar-coated voice, “I’m sorry about punching you before.”


“What?? You’re sorry?” Spike asked, bewildered. He looked at her suspiciously, “Who are you?”


Leanna’s patience broke. “I can be nice, ok!? God, can’t I say sorry and see how people are doing without you guys accusing me of being someone else!?”


‘There she is!’ Spike thought.


“So…what? You’re not mad at me anymore? You’re ok with breaking up?” Spike asked hesitantly.


“Yea sure, whatever. I know it won’t last,” Leanna said as she approached him. Giving him a coy smile, she whispered close to his face, “the making-up is the best part, remember?”


Spike mentally cringed, but showed no emotion on the outside. Why he was ever with her was now a mystery to him. So much had changed so soon. But one thing he knew for sure was that Leanna was out of the picture. And she needed to know it.


“Leanna…when I said taking a break, I meant breaking up,” Spike bluntly replied. More shuffling backwards was heard in the background.


The pissed off look on her face was only intensified by her freakish grey eyes. But instead of an expected explosion, Leanna lifted the corners of her mouth into a tight smirk, and challenged him. “You know I don’t lose, Spike,” Leanna said with a seductive tone, “ever.” ‘Even if it takes getting rid of my competition.’

She trailed one finger down his chest as her face came close to his, almost kissing him. But instead of a kiss, she pushed him back with her finger, shot him a challenging glare and stormed out of the Magic Box.

The gang let out collective sighs of relief, as Spike stood there looking thoroughly annoyed. ‘How did I stand that bint for so long? She’s completely nuts.’

Spike finally looked up at his friends. Xander looked like he was about to say something snarky. “Not a bloody word out of you, whelp.”

Xander closed his mouth and decided to let it go at the look on Spike’s face.


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On the other side of town, a train pulled into Sunnydale station. As a crowd of people began stepping off the train, she emerged slowly and looked around her with a dreamy expression.

"Look Ms. Edith, we're home."

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