Author’s Notes: Thanks to Kar for the edits and to you all for the reviews. And also a big thank you to whoever nommed me at the LLGAs. I am so thrilled that people are enjoying the story so much. This chapter contains a few bits of familiar dialog.

In our seventh installment Buffy starts working on a mystery, Dawn stumbles upon another one, and Willow gets dumped.

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She had kissed Spike. Spike had kissed her back. Not a peck-on-the-cheek kiss. Not a nice to see you, glad you're not dead kiss. A chest-heaving, head-spinning, long, hungry, breathless kiss. Like, several of them.

She was in trouble.

When she'd pulled away she'd been shocked at herself and had tried to split. But then Spike had grabbed her and yanked her back and vampires were strong. So it wasn't really her fault that their bodies has crashed together like that, so that they'd ended up twined together and sucking face like no one's business until she'd finally come to her senses and shoved him away hard and taken off down the alley. Totally not her fault at all.

She'd spent the rest of the night hidden in her room, clutching a cross, wide awake. And more aroused than she'd ever been in her life.

She was in so much trouble.

Running into him on patrol hadn’t helped, especially with the whole full-body-tackle thing. She'd hoped that a workout would get her all un-kinked, and she had missed her session with Giles the day before -- probably a good thing. Otherwise an eighties power ballad might have kicked off. She was so deep in her own thoughts that she was barely aware of the conversation taking place in the Magic Box's front room. Buffy just kept whacking her punching bag, trying to wear herself out, occupy herself until she could corner Tara and start figuring out what the hell was wrong with her.

There was yelling and then there was quiet and just as she was about to go after Tara, Tara opened the door and blinked at her. The witch looked near tears and a little embarrassed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I... I'll go, I just.."

"No, stay," Buffy insisted. "I was hoping to talk to you. Unless you want me to go… Is everything okay?"

Tara gave a harsh chuckle. "Um, define okay?"

Buffy managed a wry smile. "If this is a bad time..."

"No," Tara flopped onto a stack of mats. "If there's something I can do for you, I'd really like to. I owe you. We all owe you, Buffy. I'm so sorry." She blew out a breath and played with a string on her sleeve. "Xander thinks we should form a movie club or something."

Buffy pondered that for a moment. "That actually sounds kinda nice. We haven't really been hanging out much lately."

Tara looked away. "I guess now we know why."

Buffy winced a little. "I should have trusted you guys more."

"No, I get it, Buffy. What did you want to talk about?"

"I just don't feel like I can go to Willow with this." She noted the pained look on Tara's face, but plunged on. "I'm pretty sure something went wrong when she did the whole re-Buffication spell."

"What makes you think that?"

She kicked at the leg of the pommel horse. "Spike. He can hit me. Without getting all 'arg!' It's got me a little freaked out." She rubbed her hands together and took a deep breath. "Alsowemadeout."

Tara blinked at her a few times before venturing, "He hit you and you made out?"

I do beat him up a lot. For Spike that's like third base. Third base. Spike. Oral fixation.

"Buffy?"

"Different incidents!" Buffy squeaked, wondering just how red her face had turned and really hoping Tara couldn't read her mind. "Different problems. I think. But it's not going to happen again. The Spike-kissage, I mean." At least that's what she was telling herself and him. And, the stupid loan shark if he asked. "But the chip thing, Tara, I'm wigged."

Tara cleared her throat. "We really don't know that much about how the chip works, Buffy. It could be malfunctioning, or--"

"Nope, tested it. It still fires, just not when it's me." She chewed her bottom lip. "So I'd like to know what I am now."

Tara forced a smile. "I'm pretty sure you're Buffy. I mean, your aura, it's still all Buffy-like. But I can do some spells if you'll give me some hair."

She blinked. "Wow," she commented as she brushed a few loose strands out with her fingers. "Are you going to use some eye of newt, too?"

Tara managed a fake giggle. "Give me a few days," she requested, tucking the hairs into a little cloth bag.

"Please don't tell anyone. I know I shouldn't ask you to keep secrets from Willow--"

"I'm not sure that's going to matter anymore," Tara confided.

Buffy felt her heart sink just a little. Willow did not deal well with breakups and Tara looked like she might be sick. "I'm sorry, Tara."

"Me too," she whispered. Buffy felt like Tara was studying her hair for a moment and then the witch said, “So, Spike? Really?”

Buffy shook her head. “I know. It’s really not good and –“

“Do you like him? I…It's okay if you do. He's done a lot of good, and, and he does love you,” Tara blurted at her.

If only it were that simple. “I know he’s non-practicing evil, but that doesn’t exactly make him good.”

“I didn’t say he was good, I said he does good. Maybe that’s more important. W-What we do.”

The Slayer considered this for a moment before something glimmered and she collapsed against the pommel horse.

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“Auguries and prophecies. Of course, that’s often a lot of nothing, but the Council is concerned. And, of course, I’m concerned, too. I’ve found out all I can here.”

Dawn sighed and flattened herself against the wall. Giles was making some sort of deep confession to her mother while they waited for the discharge papers. She wasn’t sure how long they thought she was going to be in the bathroom, but maybe they’d just forgotten her or hadn’t noticed her. That happened a lot. Which was how she’d ended up “borrowing” a necklace from the Magic Box. Wouldn’t be doing that again.

Inevitably, people would discover her hovering nearby and be like ‘oh, Dawn’ and give her inquiring looks or sidelong glances as though they could gauge from her expression how much she’d overheard. She’d long ago learned how to put on an innocent face and act like she’d just walked in. Seriously, you would think they’d have learned.

Mom and Giles were agreeing not to tell Buffy, to spare her delicate baby feelings, but Dawn thought that was stupid. After all, secrets always came out eventually – sometimes in song even – and then people were even more wound up than if you’d just told them whatever in the first place.

But she guessed it was fair that Giles was keeping a secret from Buffy since Buffy had sworn her to silence about the chip thing. And the chip thing did have her sister really scared, so maybe she really didn’t need anything else to freak out about. Not that the chip was keeping her away from Spike. Unless someone else was making her sister come home all flustered and agitated. Like, God, just do it already.

So she was guessing from what the adults were saying that the COWs were all worried about some old book and the fact that no one had gotten all chosen when Buffy went over. Of course, Buffy had already died once and begat Kendra or something. Maybe you only got one shot. Otherwise, why wouldn’t the Council have found a way to like temporarily kill and revive a Slayer centuries ago so they could have a little slayer army.

“…balance. These mysterious Powers -- whatever they are – seem very concerned with it, according to Travers.” Giles was blathering on. “However, there has been little evidence of concern with Slayers in the past. In fact, their limited contact with Buffy has concerned Angel. I assume you understand my reluctance to consult him.”

“Yes,” her mom was saying, her annoyance palpable. Her toned was lighter when she added, “One vampire skulking around my daughter is quite enough.”

“Hey guys,” Dawn burst in on that note. “Are we ready to go?”

They both looked a bit flustered. “Oh, Dawn,” her mother chirped. “Yes, sweetie, let’s get going. Thank you again, Rupert, I know you have to get the airport.”

“Not at all,” Giles replied. Giles gave Dawn the look, but she gave him the blank face so he just picked up Mom’s bag and followed them out to the car.


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What the hell was the matter with her? Vampires bad. Kissing vampires? Very bad. Practically dry humping Spike at the Bronze? Really most definitely crazy bad.

Giles. It was all Giles's fault. And maybe Tara’s too, for suggesting that maybe it was okay, which is totally wasn’t, because: vampires bad. Even when the vampire was a good vampire, it all went to hell, or at least the vampire did, and where was she? Oh yeah, absolutely it was Giles’s fault. Giles was taking off on her, even though he knew now what she was going through. So she'd been upset and a little tipsy and still reeling from having all that awareness slam back into her and she couldn't stop thinking about how his skin had felt when he'd given her a hand up.

Totally not her fault.

She parked the bike and wandered through All Faiths Memorial Park, but she seemed to be the only undead haunting it. Stars and tiny flashing lights lit the fall sky. Maybe that was Giles's plane flying overhead, inching away from her blink by blink.

Shaking herself a bit, she headed back to the bike. She had to stop this, this dwelling on her own problems. After all, she'd basically assigned them to Tara. Her friends’ problems were more dangerous anyway. Xander had summoned a demon and Willow was casting spells right and left.

Demons and witches she could handle. She'd been there, done that. Of course, that was true of doomed vampire romance, too. She sighed and tried again to distract herself from Spike-related thoughts. If she just knew what was going on with the stupid chip! But Tara was probably busy arguing with Willow or trying to help her or...

Or not. Because there was Willow, wrapped in what looked like a hank of shag carpeting with a duffel and a backpack at her feet.

"I didn't know where else to go," she warbled.

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Dawn was trying to figure out a way to sneak into Giles’s old desk at the Magic Box when Willow knocked. Mom was upstairs sleeping and Dawn decided to pretend she was too. When she realized that Willow was just going to hang out on the porch until Buffy got home, she took her planning session upstairs. Let Buffy deal with stupid Willow.

She had more important things to do. Like figuring out what Giles and Council were so worried about. Maybe Giles had left some notes in his desk and she could be Research Girl and see if she could help.

“Just put your stuff in the guest room,” she could hear Buffy saying to Willow.

Willow was all sniffling and whimpery and Dawn could just imagine the expression on her face as she wailed, “She threw me out, Buffy. I just don’t understand.”

Buffy just cleared her throat and told Willow she should get some sleep.

“You want to understand?” Dawn couldn’t contain herself. She threw open her bedroom door and rounded on Willow. “Seriously? How do you not get it? She was already pissed at you for getting all abracadabra on her and then you did it again. Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one? God!”

“Dawnie,” Buffy chided quietly. “You’re going to wake Mom.”

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m sure Willow can just snap her back to sleep or something.”

“I’m not going to do that anymore, Dawnie, I swear.” Willow had gone all water works and Dawn started to feel a little bad, but not really.

“Yeah, that’s what you told Tara, too,” she retorted and sashayed back into her room. She could hear their muffled voices and then the shower kicking on.

“Hey.” Buffy was framed in her doorway.

“I don’t want her in the house,” Dawn grumbled.

Her sister sighed. “I really understand, believe me. But she’s my friend.”

“Whatever,” Dawn gruffed.

“Whatever yourself, Umad,” Buffy replied. “Look on the bright side. She’s feeling guilty, so we’ll probably get some cookies out of the deal.”

Dawn really looked at her sister, standing there trying to look cheerful. Tired smile, slumped shoulders, hair all messed up. She’d had a rough night, clearly. It wasn’t fair that she had to deal with attitude on all sides, plus it was possible that some prophecy was predicting even more suck for her. “You know,” Dawn said to her, “I’m not sure I’ve said it since… but I love you.”

Buffy’s smile seemed a little more genuine. “I love you too, Dawn.”

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Willow lay on top of the quilts, staring at the ceiling. She couldn't sleep, not without Tara's soft warm body next to hers. She sat up and settled into a half-lotus, trying to calm and center herself.

Tara was furious, Dawn was pissed at her. She was afraid Buffy would be mad at her too, now that Willow knew what she'd actually done to her best friend. Instead Buffy was just distant. Willow didn't know how to apologize. She hadn't meant to hurt Buffy, and she was glad her friend was back. She just hoped they were still friends.

Maybe they were. Apparently, Buffy didn't think Xander's movie idea was such a bad one. In fact she had suggested that the three of them get together, like old times, and just hang. That could be nice; she could make cookies.

Ten ujjayi breaths, twenty sukha pranayama breaths and she began to feel better. She settled back down against the pillows. She would show Tara, show all of them. She had the magic thing under control. No more spells that would affect her friends. That was what they wanted, wasn't it?

She expanded her goal to no spells that acted on people, period. Well, with an exception for imminent peril. That should be enough. She snapped the sheets back with a wave of her hands and crawled in for a satisfied slumber.

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I hope it’s clear that Giles did not have a musical scene with Buffy in this version of events since the OMWF training session was canceled. There wasn’t really a good way to cover that in the previous chapter. Chapter Eight is now with Kar and I am very nervous about it as it is time for things to heat up between our heroes.