DECEMBER 23, 2005-

Buffy hung up the phone. “Georgie agreed. She’ll look after Jonina tonight. A nice, normal sleepover, and in the morning…”

“All’s right with the world?” Willow finished, hopefully.

“Right. Now, where’s Angel?”

“I’m right here,” Angel’s voice came out of the dark, suddenly, and it made Buffy start.

“Jesus!” Buffy breathed, “Angel, you haven’t changed since I was sixteen!”

“I guess not,” Angel admitted, “But,” he reached into the pocket of his duster for the small vial and syringe, “I still have connections.”
********************************************************

“Spike? Can you hear me?” Buffy looked at Spike, his eyes were glassy, and there was almost no blue in them now. She didn’t like it. They were desperate to help Joni, but… “Angel, are you sure this will work?”

“She has his D.N.A. If it works on him, it should work on Jonina, too. All that it would need is an adjustment for her height and weight.”

Buffy shook her head, sadly, “So, he’s a lab rat…again. This had better work. I am very attached to my neck, and if this isn’t right…I could lose them both!”I’ve made dozens, maybe thousands of life and death decisions…so easy…But this…this…

“Would you rather it was Joni?” Angel hissed in frustration.

“No!” Buffy yelped, “But, your source? You can trust him?”

“Yes. Yes, I can.”
*********************************************************************************

Spike struggled to sit up, but couldn’t stop the room from spinning, so he gave in to the tide, resting his head on the floor, which, blissfully seemed to hold him steady. His eyes found Buffy, floating in the space next to him, and his stomach rolled in on itself; the fear crept up behind him and put a cold hand on his shoulder as the rattle of chains reached through the muslin that surrounded him. Why am I restrained? What happened? Funny that…never really looked at it from this side before, it’s downright rude.

“If you wanted to play, Slayer, all you had to do was ask,” Spike growled, in a way that Buffy hadn’t heard since the night he put fear in her heart with one sentence: If I find your friends first, I’m gonna suck ‘em dry…“I don’t need this much persuasion.”

That was when he heard it. That little intake of air, as though she’d been rabbit punched in the kidneys. Understanding began to lift the fog and he looked at her, “Buffy, I know there must be a good reason for this, I don’t question you at all. But, I honestly don’t remember.”

Fear. He hated feeling it, and worse still, he hated seeing it in Buffy’s eyes.

“I know. It’s all right. What do you remember?”

Spike tried to focus but couldn’t seem to grasp anything beyond his own name, and he wasn’t even sure of that. What was she expecting? The look in her eyes, there must be something…something, but he couldn’t find it. He knew something was there, he just couldn’t reach it and the calm he felt seemed wrong somehow, when all he saw in Buffy’s eyes was a quietly screeching fear.

Why is it so quiet?

He looked up at the ceiling and his eyes widened, “Okay,” he said, wearily, “now I know this isn’t L.A.”

“And how do you know that?”

Buffy’s heart skipped a beat when Spike fixed her with an almost playful glance, a small smile teasing across his face as he told her, “Sound’s too muffled. Soft. Like there’s…snow on the roof. Doesn’t snow in L.A., Pet.”

“Oh,” Buffy tried to keep the fear from her voice as she slowly backed away from him. It was obvious Willow had done it wrong, maybe taken too much.

She looked at Willow, “Willow…what did you do?”

Willow’s eyes widened at Buffy’s heated glance, “Me? I didn’t…I mean, all I did was suggest that…he take himself back to a place, a time, when he was confident and at peace, so that if we had to…” she swallowed hard and tried to slow her heart rate. It was difficult to know what he could and couldn’t discern right now. This wasn’t the time to take any chances, “ tell him what happened to him,” she whispered, “It would be happening to someone else, like a forgotten story, and it might not hurt as much. It was the only thing I could think of, and it might help,” she bit her lip in nervous thought as she took in the almost drunken, glazed, look in Spike’s eyes, “I don’t know, Buffy…I hope I got the dosage right. And I think Angel’s left. He didn’t say anything about side effects…But then, vampires don’t have circulating blood, so that won’t be a problem. Will it?”

Buffy chuckled humorlessly, “ Leave it to Angel to vanish into the night when the dirty work starts. Spike looks so out of it, got any more of that stuff? I could use a shot right now.”

“No, sorry. It’s not meant for humans. Vampires only, Angel’s special recipe,” Willow shook her head in astonishment. That was some fast acting stuff, “And, judging by the thousand-yard stare, that’s some really powerful magic.”

Buffy nodded in silent agreement, “He still knows who I am?”

“Yeah, he does. At least he should. All that happened is there, I think. He knows but it’s all fuzzy to him.”

“Like he’s watching it instead of being part of it?”

“I suppose so. I’m sorry, Buffy.”

“ Yeah. Well,” she sighed as she stepped closer to where Spike was lying and knelt, “here goes,” Buffy took a deep breath and asked, in a small, pleasant voice, “Spike?”

“Hmmm?” the response seemed sluggish, drugged.

Buffy looked at Willow, “Are you sure?”

“No, Buffy. I’m not a vampire. He knows, Buffy. Ask him.”

“Spike, can you see what happened?”

He nodded.

“Can you tell me?”

Buffy watched him nod again, but he seemed so far away that she wasn’t really sure he understood her. His eyes were unfocused as he turned away from her and stared at the corner of the room, “You’re here,” he whispered, and Buffy could tell that he was overwhelmed with emotion by what, or who, he saw, “I thought you’d gone.”

Oscar smiled at him, “We wanted to say hello.”

“We?” Spike asked.

Oscar nodded, and then Spike saw whom he was talking about. There she was, just as she was all those years ago…and she was * alive. *

“Diana!”

“And, that’s not all…”

Just then, two other little girls appeared; one Spike knew… “Joni! Oh, Dove, are you all right?”

“Yes, Daddy, I’m fine. I promise.”

Joni was holding someone’s hand. A little girl with blue eyes and blonde pigtails, and bumblebee shoelaces.

“Well,” Spike purred, still not looking at Buffy, “aren’t you a pretty thing? Who are you?”

“I’m your gift, Daddy.”

“My gift?”

Buffy held her breath listening to him. There was something familiar about this…She remembered her dream about circles and sand “Oh, Mom!” Buffy said a silent thank you to her mother.

“…What’s your name, Sweetheart?” Spike was saying.

“My name is Mabel”

“That’s a beautiful name. It means ‘lovable’ doesn’t it?”

Her big blue eyes sparkled and she nodded.

“I don’t see him, is Homer with you?”

“He’s safe,” Mabel said, touching her heart as she walked up to him. She sat down on the floor in front of him, leaned over, and kissed his cheek. Spike felt a rush of heat, the love washing over him…

******************************************



DECEMBER 22, 2027-

Joni knew that her mother wouldn’t understand. In fact, she would be furious, and so would he, but he would be alive and that’s all that mattered at this point.

There was a reason she was back here, in Los Angeles…well two reasons, but Aunt Willow and her Mom did not need to know about that; they were already crazed when it came to her, but if her family wouldn’t tell her, someone else would, for the right price.

Sometimes it was hard to convince them that she wasn’t eight years old anymore. Did they forget that she was the Slayer?

And sometimes Joni wanted to be, so very badly; so bad it hurt. But, she couldn’t think about that now. She had a job to do. She took a deep breath as she walked through the doors of the Wolfram & Hart building, and made her way to the thirtieth floor.

The elevators opened on a deafening quiet. Thick carpeting and soundproof walls muffled the work of day-to-day evil. And, Joni understood that what she was about to do would not change anything. Evil was still here, it still destroyed hearts and lives; Angel and her Daddy were proof of that, and people still died every day.

As she walked to the reception desk that stood, like a great imposing obelisk, the axis on which the wheel of chaos turned, Joni knew what her Daddy would say.

She could almost hear him whispering in her ear, feel his breath on her neck as he pleaded, “Jonina Irene Dustin, stop right now! Don’t do this! Please! I can’t lose you…again.”

She pushed the quiet scream out of her mind, and when the pretty woman smiled at her she said, “Yes, hello. I have an appointment with Webster Drake. My name is Jonina Dustin.”

The woman’s eyes widened a little at that, “Oh yes,” she said, “He’s been expecting you.”