Buffy and Spike didn’t make it back to the school that night. Buffy was more tired than she first thought, passing out in Spike’s arms before they even made it back to the hotel.

Once Buffy was tucked in bed Spike called Willow. After she used her magic to make sure no one could hear their conversation, Spike told her everything that had happened. Willow was surprised about Amy and Ethan, but she also seemed he did the right thing by killing the two. She was even more concerned at Buffy’s apparent immortality.

“So she can’t be killed?” Willow asked.

“Well, guns don’t seem to get the job done?”

“What about things that would kill a vamp? Stakes? Beheading? Fire?”

“You know what I know, Red. I’m not planning on trying any of that to see whether or not it actually kills her.”

“Right, of course not.” Willow was silent a moment. “Is it my fault? Because of the resurrection spell?”

“I don’t think so. Tara didn’t say.”

“TARA?”

“Red, it’s a long story and I’m beat. I promise we’ll tell you everything when we get back.”


“Darn right you will.“ Willow wanted to know how they talked to Tara, but she could hear how tired Spike was so she got back to the business at hand. “Any ideas on the informant?”

“You’ve been living there, you would know better than me who could be a likely candidate.” Then he had a thought. “Are Finn and his bird still there?”

“Yeah, but with everything going on I haven’t seen them too much.”

“Might be a good idea to check on what they’ve been up to. Its kind of a coincidence them showing up when they did. Then the next day someone attacks us. Finny doesn’t care too much for me.”

“You’re right. We’ll look into it. What time will you be back tomorrow?”

“It will be early. Rally the troops and we’ll have one of those famous meetings when we get there. Tell the Watcher we’re going to need him if he can keep his cool for a while.”

“I think he feels badly about what happened.” Willow told Spike.

Spike just snorted. “As well he should.”

They exchanged goodbyes before hanging up.

Spike settled himself on the bed, gathering Buffy up in his arms. He cherished the feeling of her warm body snuggled against him. He was almost afraid to fall asleep, he felt he should be on guard against anything else that might try and hurt her before she was one hundred percent better. But the stress and emotional upheavals of the day had worn him out and soon his eyes drifted closed listening to the sound of her heartbeat.



Willow turned to Oz, Xander, Dawn and Andrew. “Ok guys we have another long night ahead of us. Xander, I want you and Oz to find out what Riley and Sam have been up to since they got here. Also check and see if anyone else has been acting strange or has said anything negative about Buffy’s new relationship.”

Andrew raised his hand excitedly.

“We’re not in high school, Andrew? What?” Willow asked him wearily.

”Kennedy and Rhona thought Buffy was betraying their heritage by sleeping with a vampire, I heard them talking to some of the younger girls.”

”That‘s not good.” Xander said. “I’ll go find Faith and get her to run damage control there. I’ll also see if any of the girls I’ve talked to in the past are upset or confused about Buffy and Spike’s relationship.”

“It may be a good idea for someone to address that issue with the girls anyway, make sure they understand that Buffy and Spike aren’t the typical Slayer or Vampire.” Oz added.

“Ok, we’ll add that to our list.” Willow said, the exhaustion she felt was evident in her face. “Andrew, Dawn and I will continue to research in the library.
Dawn, I need you back on the prophecies. See if there is any mention of what exactly is fatal to Buffy now, or any reference to her immortality.

Andrew, I want you to look through the magic books see if you can find any spells to use with the spells already in the house to find out if anyone has an ill intentions towards us.

I’m going to talk to Giles.

Remember guys, no one outside this room except for Giles and Faith needs to know what’s happening. We don’t want our informant to get any more information out to the old Council members.”

Xander left to go find Faith, while Dawn and Andrew headed for the library.

Oz walked up to Willow. “Are you Ok?”

“I guess. I’m just tired. I didn’t get too much sleep the past couple of days.” Oz reached out and rubbed at her shoulders. “Why don’t you come back up to Canada with me for a few days when I have to go back? You could use some down time.”

“If we get this mess cleared up I just might do that.” Willow smiled at him. “Let’s go, maybe I can get SOME sleep tonight.”


Buffy and Spike arrived early the next day. They parked in the garage so Spike didn’t burn. Willow was at the door waiting for them.
“You have to come with me now.” The urgency in her voice put them both on edge, immediately.

“What’s…” Buffy started to ask, but Willow interrupted her.

“Just follow me.”

Willow led them into the library where Giles, Dawn, Andrew, Xander, Faith and Oz sat. Everyone looked exhausted and tense.

After they entered Willow put a spell on the library so no one else could come in and no one could listen in.

“Ok. Now we can talk.” Willow announced when she was done

“Ok. What’s up? Did you find anything out?” Buffy asked.

“Anything about you or our current problems? No. Something else has come up.”

Spike groaned. “God, you people are unbelievable. Bloody, Melrose Place around here.”

“What’s the problem, Will?”

Willow looked at Giles for help.

“We don’t think it’s a problem, really, Buffy. Its more like uh…. Well that is to say…” Giles floundered unsure of what to say.

“Oh let me tell her. Its about me anyway.” Dawn stood up. “Last night we were here late researching. Well, Andrew decided instead of doing what Willow asked, he would ‘help’ me. Which, of course, turned into a disaster.”

“Hey I was trying to be helpful. Doesn’t that count for anything with you people?” Andrew tried to defend himself.

Dawn just ignored him. “He lost the book I found that might have had a prophecy in it regarding you two, but before I could properly translate it, he moved it and forgot where he moved it to.

So I got really mad and proceeded to beat him up.”

“Way to go, bit.” Spike said with approval. Buffy just turned to glare at him.

“Sorry, continue.”

“ANYHOW, he had a pencil in his hand and it stabbed me. I yelled and started to bleed, and he got up and ran away.” Dawn stopped her story to glare over at Andrew. “Chicken.” She said.

“Hey, I just left before I hurt you even worse.” Dawn took a step towards him threateningly. He backed away quickly.

“Dawn.” Buffy got her attention. “What happened next?”

“Well, I went to find something to clean up my arm, it was bleeding pretty bad. Some of my blood dripped onto the table and I remember yelling something to Andrew about sending him off to Africa where he could be with the rest of the monkeys. Next thing I know I looked down at the table and there is this green portal thingy. In the center was the African Savannah.”

Buffy and Spike just gaped at her.

“WHAT?” Buffy yelled.

“It seems, Buffy, Dawn is still the Key.” Giles informed.

“Gee, thanks Giles. I wouldn’t have put that together without your help.” Buffy was still furious with her Watcher.

Buffy turned back to Dawn. “Who else knows about this?”

“Just us Buffy.” Xander answered her. “We’ve kept everything quiet so far.”

“Are you sure it was Africa, bit?” Spike asked her.

“Yep, I even got to see a Wildebeest.”

“How did you get the portal to close?” Buffy wondered.

“Some more of my blood dripped down and it closed on its own.”

“So what now?” Buffy asked the others.

“Well, B. We have to find the informant, take care of him. Giles and Willow are going to try and track down Mr. Isaac Milton and take care of him. Then I was thinking we could use your sis, over there and take a vacation to the Virgin Islands.” Faith joked.

“We are not going to bleed my sister for a vacation, Faith.” Buffy snapped at her.

“Chill, B. A little humor.”

“I’m not finding this situation humorous!!”

“Buffy, its ok. No one knows who shouldn’t know. Don’t worry about me.” Dawn tried to calm her sister down.

“That’s not going to happen.” Spike answered for Buffy. “We will always worry about you. I think your sister is just overwhelmed right now. A lot has happened in a short amount of time and a lot more is fixin to happen when we find out who’s leaking information.” Spike looked over at Willow.

“Anything on Captain America?” He asked her.

“Nope, they’ve been the perfect guests. They helped with training lessons, they’ve taken long walks together, they’ve eaten their meals with the girls and the other Watchers. Nothing funny at all.”

“Well, keep looking.” A ringing noise sounded throughout the library.

“What’s that?” Xander asked.

“Someone’s trying to come in.” Willow explained.

“Do want some time to process, Buffy?”

Buffy nodded. She turned back to Spike. “Can I go back to bed now?” He just smiled and put an arm around her shoulders.

Willow released the shields and removed the extra magics. As she finished the doors to the library opened and Angel walked in. He walked up to Buffy and Spike quickly.

“I’d like to talk to you both.” He didn’t really sound like he was asking and Spike snorted at his presumption.

Buffy didn’t answer, she was afraid of what she would say if she opened her mouth.

“We have other things to be doing right now.” Willow and Oz left followed by Xander and Faith.

“Yeah, I have to go find a book.” Dawn headed towards the secret room of the library.

“I’ll just be in my office.” Giles quickly ducked inside.

All that remained were the two vampires, Buffy and Andrew. Buffy and the vampires turned to look at Andrew expectantly.

“Oh don’t mind me.” He told them.

Dawn came back out before Spike could throw Andrew. “Sorry I forgot something.” She grabbed Andrew’s ear and drug him from the room.

The remaining three turned back to each other.

“I wanted…” Angel began.

“Oh no. You don’t get to say anything, you arrogant, egotistical asshole. There is nothing you could say, anyway, that could ever make up for everything you’ve done.” Buffy exploded. Spike just stepped back and let her go. He knew he was going to enjoy this. “How dare you try to convince Spike to leave.”

Buffy got right into Angel’s face. “And when I think about what you did, throwing away a gift like becoming human and blaming it on your relationship with me WHEN YOU WEREN‘T PLANNING ON STAYING WITH ME!!!”

Angel tried to break in, but Buffy put her hand over his mouth. “I’m not finished, yet.” She growled.

“I knew I wasn’t in love with you anymore, Angel, but I don’t even really like you that much. You want to think you are a Champion, but you have a long way to go before you’ll ever be a Champion.” Buffy turned away from him and walked over to Spike. She leaned back against him facing Angel.

“I’m not the only one who thinks so, either. Spike isn’t your seer anymore. He’s my seer. Even the Higher Powers are losing faith in you.” Angel wasn’t expecting that piece of news.

“I’m going to give you a piece of advice,” Buffy kept going. “only because, once upon a time I thought I loved you. Stop with the brooding already!!! You need to realize that just feeling bad about it, doesn’t mean you’ve learned anything from it. You can feel bad all you want about the past, but if you don’t ever change whatever it is INSIDE YOU that did those things, then you are just wasting your life. Go to Africa and get you soul anchored…”

“Hey we could send him right now…oof.” Spike broke off when Buffy’s elbow hit his rib cage.

“…deal with your demon, make him work for you.” Buffy never even paused for breath in dealing with Spike’s outburst.

“Now, you’ve caused both Spike and I a lot of pain and suffering over the years and I think its time that we got reimbursed for all that.”

“What?” Spike had no idea where she was headed with this. Angel, probably afraid for his safety, didn’t say anything.

“I happen to know that you have quite the little nest egg stashed away.” Buffy continued on. “It has become apparent to me that we won’t be able to stay here much longer and I don’t want to impose on Giles or the Council to support us. I want to travel the world, as you know. It may be a bit hard though Spike being sunlight challenged and all. All this brings me to you.” Buffy paused for a moment, smiling big at Angel.

“I want 5 million in a bank account in both our names. I know you have it, so don’t even try to deny it. I also want you to give the Ring of Amara back to Spike.”

No one spoke. Spike was floored. Angel was still afraid to talk. Buffy was waiting for a response.

“Well?” She asked Angel, when he didn‘t say anything.

“I don’t have the Ring anymore Buffy.” Angel told her when he found he was allowed to talk again.

“That figures. I guess you’ll just have to track it down then. Thankfully, you work for a demonic law firm, I bet they have very thorough investigators.
I want that ring here by tomorrow.”

Angel opened his mouth, but Buffy spoke again firmly.

“Tomorrow, Angel.” Buffy looked up at Spike. “I’m going up to our room. Tell Dawn to have the everyone meet back here this afternoon before you come up, Ok?”

“Sure, luv.” Spike bent down and kissed her forehead. Buffy left the library.

Spike looked at Angel and burst out laughing. “Man, she told you.”

“She hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you, she’s angry. She’s been angry for a long time. Since Angelus, since Faith, since you left her. She never did get to tell you off for the way you treated her the morning after, did she?”

“No, but that wasn’t really me…”

“Please, who do you think you are talking to? She was right. Get your soul anchored, deal with your demon. Live your life. You aren‘t helping anyone right now.”

“I never expected you to be the calm one about all this.”

Spike just laughed and stood up to go find Dawn. “Ah, Peaches, one of us had to be the good cop. Besides I never expected much from you, so you can’t disappoint me. You’re still the same arrogant prat as always.”

Spike stopped, for a moment. “But after 100 years of knowing you, you tend to grow on a fella. Kinda like fungus.”

For some reason Spike’s words helped Angel to feel better. He knew he had a lot to make up for and it was time he started, because he wanted to.

He opened his cell phone.

“I need to talk to someone in our Investigation dept…”