An hour later a very relieved, but subdued group of Scoobies were gathered in the library. Giles was quietly studying the texts they had received from Isaac, in an attempt to translate them quickly. Willow sat in a chair leaning against Oz, half asleep from the drain of using so much power. Dawn had already fallen asleep, her head lay on the table in front of her. Buffy and Faith were finishing up some food they had thrown together in the kitchen. While Angel, Spike and Xander had just come back from disposing of Robin’s body.


Xander noticed, that even relieved everyone seemed on edge. He knew Faith was still reeling because not only was Robin a traitor, but also that she had to kill him. He wanted to say something to her, but had no idea what he could say that would make anything better for her. Xander also noticed with some surprise that Buffy and Spike seemed to be keeping their distance from each other. He had expected them to be all over each other like Willow and Oz, but instead Spike sat on a table far away from the one Buffy was seated at. He wondered if something had happened to cause another problem between the two.

“Found anything out yet, guys?” Angel asked Giles.

“Its going to take us a couple of hours to translate these documents.” Giles told him, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes tiredly.
“Then it will probably take another couple of hours to decipher the meaning of them. However, I believe we should be able to get it finished by tomorrow evening.” Giles finished.

“Well, it looks like your best translator is out for the night.” Xander pointed at Dawn who was now snoring quite loudly. “Personally, I think that is the best idea for all of us right now.”

“What about the runaways?” Spike asked.

“Eight of the girls decided to return with us. Surprisingly enough Rhona was one of them.” Xander answered.

In her seat, Faith snorted. “I hope she’s under lock and key.”

“Willow has her contained in her rooms.” Xander shrugged.

“It took the last of her energy.” Oz added, as he stroked Willow’s cheek lightly.

“You aren’t just going to take Rhona back, are you Giles?” Buffy asked.

“No, however, I didn’t want to leave her with Isaac. She is going to be kept under close observation.” Giles looked up to reply.“

“She’s a traitor.” Faith’s voice was clear and strong. “You can’t just let her back in here.”

“And I don’t plan to, Faith. But she does have information that could prove useful to us.”

“Froggy.” Dawn’s voice carried across the room. Everyone turned to look at her, but the teenager was still fast asleep.

“Yeah, I should take her up to bed.” Buffy said, she stood up and stretched. She wondered briefly about the fairness of being immortal and still having to deal with sore muscles.

“I’ll get her Buff.” Xander stopped her. “You look like you could fall asleep right next to her.”

Buffy snuck a glance at Spike. Yes she was tired, but more than that she wanted to ravage her vampire to assure herself that he was ok. She knew inside herself that even if he had died today that they wouldn’t have been separated, but just knowing first hand the pain Robin put him through made her feel the need to comfort herself and him. For that reason, she made certain to stay far away from him, she knew if he got too close to her she would wind up jumping him in front of her friends.


“You’re right, Xander. Do you mind taking her?”

“Nah. She’s still light enough for me to carry her.”

“I should get Willow up to bed too.” Oz said, trying to stand up and support Willow at the same time. Willow murmured slightly, but didn’t react when he picked her up in his arms and cradled her to him.

Even knowing he was also a werewolf it was surprising for Buffy to see such his slight figure picking up her friend. Buffy smiled at the tender look in Oz’s eyes as he gazed down at Willow. She glanced over at Spike to see him staring at her with a very similar look. She didn’t need the bond to sense his love for her.

“Ok.” Faith, jumped up. “We’re done here?“ She didn’t pause for a response. “So we meet back here tomorrow, then we can find out what kind of freak B is now and then decide how big a threat this Milton guy is to us and then interrogate the traitor.”

Faith was anxious to be alone and figure out all the conflicting emotions inside of her. The pain she felt inside herself was raw and jagged and she wondered briefly if this was what Buffy felt after having to kill Angelus.

She also couldn’t take the looks of love flying between Buffy and Spike and Willow and Oz.


Buffy interrupted her maudlin thoughts. “I may not be human anymore, but you will always be a bigger freak than me, Faith. Just look at your clothes.” Buffy was trying to tease a smile out of Faith. She knew, from personal experience, how much Faith was hurting and even though she wanted to ease her pain she knew the only thing she could offer the other Slayer was platitudes.

“Excuse me!! At least I don‘t flash all the vamps my underwear every time I do a high kick because my skirts are so short.” Faith answered her back, only a ghost of her usual fight showing.

“My skirts aren’t that short!!” Buffy protested loudly.

“Yes they are.” Echoed from most of the men in the room. Buffy chose to direct her indignant glare at Spike. A small laugh erupted out of Faith before it choked off.

“See, even your vampy knows, B.” With that Faith turned and left the library.

Buffy watched Faith walk out the door. “Do you think she’s going to be OK by herself?” Buffy asked quietly.

Angel stood up. “I‘m going to make sure she‘s Ok.” He assured Buffy.

Buffy smiled her appreciation as he exited the library after Faith.


“Are you ready to go upstairs?” Buffy asked Spike the exhaustion plain in her voice.

“More than ready, luv.”

“Good, because I’m beyond ready too and we learned earlier that you can’t be trusted to find your way upstairs alone.”

“It wasn’t my fault. Blame your witchy house.” Everyone looked at him confused. “Well something led me down that wing to find Faith and I don‘t know what else it could have been.” He addressed Buffy.
“You told me you felt like it led you to find your rooms upstairs.”

“Anything’s possible, but I’m too tired to deal with another mystery right now.” Buffy yawned. “The next time something starts ‘leading’ you somewhere, take the time to let someone know where you are going, ok.” Her voice came out much more irritated than she meant for it to sound.

“Ok, kids, time for beddy bye. I hope we’ll all be less cranky in the morning.” Xander carefully picked Dawn up and carried her out of the library.

Buffy, Spike and Oz carrying the sleeping Willow headed towards the doors to leave when suddenly they flew open, banging into the walls behind them and Riley stormed in with Sam following behind him.

At the loud noise Willow woke up. She looked around blearily trying to figure out what was going on.

“What now?” Spike asked tiredly.

Riley marched right up to Buffy and stood directly in front of her ignoring Spike completely.

“Its true, isn't it?" Buffy looked up at Riley there, glaring at her hatefully.

"What's true Riley?" She tried to ask calmly, but the weariness was evident in her voice.

Sam was standing behind Riley looking extremely uncomfortable at the situation.


"That you married him in some Vampire blood and sex magic ritual and that‘s the reason the school came under attack."

"Ok, first of all the school wasn’t under attack, we were.” Buffy gestured to Spike. “Some of the girls have decided that they would rather train under Mr. Milton and his idea of a Council. Although I think when they realize how uptight they are I think they‘ll come back.” She sighed before continuing. “As far as Spike and I go, we are Mated or Married in the most traditional sense of the words."

"Well, it looks like I was wrong about nothing being able to diminish who you were. How could you do this?" He yelled at her.

She didn't answer him, just continued to watch her face showed her irritation at having to go through this again.

"It was bad enough that you let this dead thing..."he sneered those words at her "touch you, but to actually go and marry him. Don't you have any self-respect? What happened to you? You aren‘t the woman I fell in love with."

Buffy watched Sam’s face flinch with Riley’s words.

Next to her Spike had tensed up and was trying with all his might to tune out the arrogant bastard so he wouldn't have to kill him.
Riley looked at Willow in disgust.

Oz let Willow down as she faced Riley’s anger.

"You were supposed to care about her. You were her friends and family” Riley looked up and glared at Giles still standing a ways off. “and you let her do this?" He slammed his hands down on the table in front of them. "What is wrong with you!?!"

“You need to back off her.” Oz said menacingly, coming between Willow and Riley.

“Riley, I think you’ll find Buffy is a grown woman. No one ‘lets’ her do anything. She makes her own decisions regardless of what anyone else thinks.” Giles said stiffly. “If you will excuse me.” Giles turned and walked into his office with Wesley following behind him.

"Finn." Sam tried to get Riley’s attention. "It really isn't our place..."

"You don't understand Sam." Riley interrupted her. "This isn't about jealousy or any of that. This about a sweet girl marrying a demon, a killer, a rapist..."



Spike closed his eyes, his hands were balled tightly into fists. He opened his eyes and looked over at Buffy trying to calm himself enough to speak without screaming. He had been beaten, electrified, threatened and tied up today, not to mention the fact that he hadn’t made love to Buffy in over 24 hours and that alone was enough to make him very cranky, without all the other stuff thrown in. He just wanted to get away her upstairs alone, before he lost control and got violent.

Buffy was just looking at him expectantly. In the background, Riley was still listing off his past crimes to Sam. Buffy raised her eyebrow at him as if to say 'Well?'. He tilted his head trying to judge if she was serious. She nodded at him.

"...murdered Robin's mother because she was a Slayer. He gets off on killing Slayers." Riley was still ranting furiously. "He doesn't love her, he probably just wants to brag that he "had" this Slayer wrapped around his finger, literally and figuratively before killing her."

Because he was so busy ranting Riley never saw the punch coming. He flew across the room into one of the racks of books knocking it over.

Spike followed his flight and now stood over him, demon out, growling.

Giles and Wesley returned quickly to see what the commotion was all about.

Sam moved to help Riley, but Buffy grabbed her arm and stopped her. "This is between the two of them Sam."

"Buffy, he’s going to kill him." Sam cried, terrified.

"No, he won't." Buffy answered more confidently than she felt. She could feel Spike's rage, and his happiness at finally getting to confront Riley.

Spike picked Riley up and threw him onto one of the tables. Riley tried to punch him, but it had no more effect than if he were a child.

Riley was scared, but even scared he didn't have enough sense to keep his mouth shut.

"Go ahead and kill me, you'll just be proving me right, you're nothing more than killer." He sneered at him.

"You think you know so much, boy?" Spike asked him. He held him down on the table by his throat. "You probably think this is because you insulted me. You think I've been waiting all this time just so I can avenge my wounded ego and hurt feelings over your opinion. You think I care what you think of me?"

He pulled him up into his face, Riley had no choice, but to look at him.

"This is for her.” He growled, pointing at Buffy. “I watched you play with those vampire whores, then blame her, for your indiscretions. You made her believe it was her fault, just like Angelus. You added to her fears of inadequacy, when in fact it was you who was lacking. You weren't man enough to keep her.
Now, years after you left her, you come back here and insult her again. You think she is some brain dead bimbo who doesn't know up from down because she chose to be with me?" He snarled at him and threw him on the floor.

"You don't know the first thing about her or our relationship." Riley made a move to stand up, but Spike quickly kicked him back down.

"You would do well to stay there until I've said my peace boy." Spike growled out at him and Riley stayed where he was.

"The next time I hear you putting her down in any way, whether it is because of me or because you don't like her shoes, I'll rip your throat out."

With that Spike stood back from Riley and looked over at Buffy, human mask returning. Buffy just shook her head at him, smiling as released Sam's arm as she crossed the room to stand over Riley.

"Spike has his soul now, any problems you have over his past, too bad. He atoned for them. I don't ever want to hear you bad mouthing my husband again.
You left me Riley. You weren't here to see what happened between us or how he changed, even before he chose to go get a soul to be with me. I'm sorry you don't think he's good enough for me, but that is your problem, not ours.
As far as me not being the same girl you fell in love with." Buffy closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened them and spoke again her voice softened, almost asking him to understand. “Riley, I never was that girl. You never understood I was the Slayer. You could never understand what that meant for me. I’m sorry.”

She looked up at Spike and saw him smiling at her.

"Is there anyone else who wants to yell at me today for this?“ Buffy asked the silent room angrily. “Good.“
She turned to Spike. “I think its past time we went up to bed."

She raised her eyebrow at him, mimicking the look he often gave her. Then she got a very lewd picture in her mind and thought about it loud enough for him to get an idea of where her mind was at.

Spike grabbed her hand and started pulling her out of the library.

Buffy took one last look back at Riley.

Sam was by his side nursing his wounds, with Willow next to her. Buffy felt a moment of worry over Riley's wounds, but then Willow looked up and met her eyes. She could hear Willow’s voice in her head.
"It's Ok. I think he is making it out to be worse than it is, Spike didn't hurt him really at all. Just some bruises and stuff."

Buffy smiled at her.

"Will, why don't you come up to my rooms tomorrow night, that way we can have dinner and talk there...PRIVATELY.” She concluded by looking pointedly at Riley. Spike was pulling at her hand impatiently, he didn‘t want to have to wait any longer to touch her.

“Tell Xander and the others." She called behind her as they quickly left the library.

Willow’s worried voice called down the hall after them. “You aren’t going to try and cook, are you Buffy?”



Buffy and Spike made it up the stairs and into her suite in record time. As soon as the door was closed behind them Buffy was pushed up against the door as Spike dove for her lips.

((I thought we’d never get to be alone.)) She heard his voice inside her.

Buffy ran her tongue over his lips and into his mouth.

He pulled her tight against him, but it wasn’t close enough he needed to feel her skin next to his.

He drew back from her long enough to pull her shirt over her head, then pulled off his own shirt off. With a quick flick of his fingers Buffy felt her bra fall off her shoulders and then down onto the floor. She quickly unhooked her pants and slid those over her hips with her underwear. She stood before him naked and the sight caused him to have trouble working his fingers on his own pants. Finally he just ripped them open and pulled them down pushing her back against the door.

Buffy held him tight against her as he kissed and sucked on her neck, his hands were kneading her breasts causing her to grind against the hard length pushing against her stomach.

“I was so afraid I wasn’t ever going to feel you like this again.” She whimpered.

He stopped what he was doing long enough to look up into her eyes. “Nothing will ever keep us apart.” He swore to her. The intensity in his voice cause a flood of wetness between her legs.

“Spike, I need you, now.” She pleaded with him. She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him towards her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he lifted her up and impaled her on his hard cock. At the feeling of him penetrating her so deeply she moaned out loud in pleasure.

The violence and ferocity of their actions briefly reminded Spike of their first time together in the abandoned house. Then he looked up into her eyes and knew this was nothing like that. Instead of the fear and hesitancy he saw in her that night, now he could see her love for him shining back at him. He knew, with certainty, that she needed him just as much as he needed her.

After only a few minutes his thrusts got desperate and as soon as he felt her clasp her muscles around him and cry out her release he let himself go, emptying inside her.

They leaned against the door both panting for a couple of seconds before Buffy unhooked her legs from his waist and he lowered her until she touched the ground. She looked up at him and kissed him softly.

“Bed, now.” She ordered.

They made it as far as the dining table in the back, then his hunger took over again and he lay her across the table and lowered his mouth to her dripping sex.

“Spike.” She moaned, while trying to ignore the tongue moving inside her and sit up. “We have to eat on this table tomorrow with all my friends.” He looked up at her from his spot between her legs with an evil glint in his eyes.

((This will give you something to think about then.)) He said attacking he clit ferociously until all she could do was lay there and let him pleasure her until she came loudly. When the waves slowly subsided he picked her up gently and carried up the stairs.

When they reached her bed, he lay her down across it. Buffy pulled him down on top of her before he could move away. She immediately arched against him, drawing him inside her again. Her legs wrapped around his waist urging him in as deep as he could go.

For a long time they stayed just like that, rocking gently against each other, while lightly caressing each other’s faces and kissing hungrily. Whispered words of love and devotion flowed between the two.

Buffy started using her internal muscles to squeeze him, trying to pull him even deeper insider her. Shivers of rapture ran through her at every slight movement until she became too much for her to bear. Her nails dug into his back as she fell over the edge bringing him with her. She felt him pour his seed and his essence into her until once again she was no longer just herself, but also a part of him.

When they came back to themselves Buffy lay in Spike’s cool embrace, only to find the sleep she had been looking forward to was now evading her. She traced patterns on his chest with her fingers as she stared out the windows. She could hear the quiet music of the crickets outside.

“You know if you’re still this tense after all that, then I’m doing something wrong.” Spike told her, only partly kidding.

“I was thinking about what happened today and how it all happened because of us.” She said quietly.

“Having second thoughts?” He asked her, trying not to sound worried.

“Never.” She reassured him. “I’m just wishing we could leave here sooner. I’m tired of my friends having to pay the price for my choices.”

“We can leave whenever you want, Buffy. Hell, we can leave tomorrow if that’s what you want.”

“I wish,” Her tone was regretful. “but we have to get all this straightened out first.”

“And by the time we straighten this mess out another one will come along and we’ll never get to leave.” He argued gently.

Buffy didn’t answer him, she was too afraid he was right.

“Tell me what its going to be like.” She whispered.

“What? Us traveling the world?” She nodded her head.

“Do you want the fairy tale version or the more accurate version?” He asked.

“What’s the difference?”

”Well, you see pet, in the fairy tale version we will leave here and see all the sights of the world. We’ll never want for money. We will live the high life. I will take you to the theatre, the opera, and all the fancy restaurants in every city we go to. You will be the belle of every ball we go to and we’ll be treated like visiting royalty everywhere we go.
In our spare time, we will go out and take out vamps and demons for fun and fame. Nothing too serious, just enough to keep our blood flowing and the urge for a good rough and tumble under control.”

“Oooh, I like that. Throw in lots of shopping and elegant clothes and you have a winner.”

“Well that goes without saying doesn’t it?”

“Ok, so what’s the accurate version then?”

“That’s the one where we’ll travel the world and everywhere we go we’ll get wrapped up in another impending apocalypse. We won’t ever have enough money because we use it to help other people. We won’t get to see any theatre or the like because we’ll be too busy saving people and running errands for the Watchers or Peaches. Your friends will pop in whenever they want thanks to the Bit’s new talent and our new friend, Milton, will hunt us down every chance he gets.”

“That version isn’t as good, but it still has us traveling the world together and lots of action and adventure so you can’t get bored with me.”

“I don’t think I could ever get bored with you.”

“Not even if we just settled down in a ranch style house with a white picket fence?” She teased him.

“You would get bored with that long before I would, I think. I wouldn‘t mind a white picket fence. Until you used it to try and stake me.” He joked.

“You’re probably right.” A loud yawn came out and she could feel herself start to get sleepy. “Although, I think I could bear anything as long as you’re with me.”

He squeezed her to him. “Me, too.”

Buffy was finally able to relax and let herself fall asleep. She realized that talking to Spike helped ease her concerns. He didn’t have the answers to ease her worries, but just knowing he was there for her made everything seem much more bearable. She fell asleep with a smile on her face fully realizing for the first time, that she didn’t have to deal with everything on her own anymore.



Oz had helped Willow up to her rooms after she finished bandaging up a still sulking Riley. Sam had apologized repeatedly to her, but Willow told simply told her that she had nothing to be sorry for.

Oz tucked Willow into bed, then sat down next to her stroking her hair lightly. For a long time they lay there in silence just enjoying being together.

“I’m going to have to leave soon, Will.” Oz finally broke the comfortable silence. “And I really want you to come with me, at least for a week or two.”

Willow didn’t answer him at first, trying to figure out if she would be able to take the time away from the school now that Robin was gone.

When she didn’t answer him Oz, continued. “I don’t mean to add pressure to your life, I just thought that we had started something here. Maybe we just were ending something, though.”

“No!! I think we may have started something too. I just don’t know if I can leave the school right now. There’s a lot of craziness happening, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“I just figured it was a normal day in your life.” Oz admitted.

“Not so much in the last year, but then Buffy hasn’t been around too much in the last year.”

“Buffy is planning on leaving too, isn’t she?”

”She’s been talking about it. I don’t know if all this is going to make her leave sooner or keep her here longer.” Willow looked up at him. “How soon do you have to leave?”

“The day after tomorrow at the latest. Otherwise I could get caught somewhere populated when the full moon came and that wouldn’t be good.”

“Definitely not.” Willow agreed. “I need to wait and see what happens tomorrow before I can give you a definite answer.” Willow snuggled next to Oz, her eyes started to droop shut.

“No matter what tomorrow brings, though, I want you to know that I do want to go with you. More than anything.” She whispered to him before falling asleep.



Faith sat in the parlor by herself. Some low music played in the background and she had a bottle of whiskey in her hand.

“Are you here for a reason or did you just want to stare at me from the shadows?” She asked the seemingly empty room.

“I was worried about you.” Angel told her stepping into the light. He crossed the room and sat down next to her.

“I’m not really in the mood for company right now Angel, so if you can just get on with the pep talk or lecture or whatever, and leave me alone, I’d appreciate it.”

“I’m not here to give you a pep talk or a lecture.” Faith looked at him surprised.

“I’m here to see if there is anything I can do to help you. I thought you might need a friend to listen, right now.”

Faith laughed bitterly. “First I would probably have to know how I felt to be able to talk about it. Its like every five minutes I have a different emotion about the whole thing.” Faith stood up and began to pace. “One minute I’m mad at Robin, the next I’m mad at Buffy and Spike, then I’m upset with myself for what I had to do, next I’m mad at myself for believing in him, for believing someone like him could actually care about me.” Faith dissolved into angry tears.

Not wanting Angel to see her crying she walked over to the bar. She put her bottle down and spoke softly. “I’m not like Buffy, I‘m not good with all these emotions.”

Angel stood up, walked over to her and turned her to face him. “Buffy really isn’t too good with emotions, either.“ He told her soothingly

Faith snorted and angrily wiped at the tears streaking her face. Angel reached out and wrapped his arms around her. Faith’s control broke and she broke into sobs on his shoulder.



Giles sat alone in his office, an almost empty bottle of scotch and a half full glass sat next to him. A cigarette, from a pack he would never admit to having, burned in a an ashtray on the other side of him. He read and reread the translations he had before him. He sat back in his chair and grabbed the glass. As he swallowed down the liquid he remembered his conversation with the Eye of Beljoxa.


“If the First has been around for all time why hasn’t it attempted something like this before? Why now?”

“The opportunity has only recently presented itself.”

”Opportunity?”

“The mystical forces surrounding the Chosen One have become irrevocably altered, become unstable, vulnerable.”

“Something the First did?”

“The First Evil did not cause the disruption, only seized upon it to extinguish the lives of the Chosen forever.”

“Then what has caused the disruption? What is responsible for letting this happen?”

“The Slayer.”

Giles poured himself another glass of scotch. He raised the cigarette to his lips and stared at the wall in front of him.