A/N: Thank you for the great reviews! Once again, thanks to PaganBaby for beta reading.

Chapter Four

After the debacle with the inappropriately placed hands, Ned disappeared. She didn’t know whether he was giving her some space to cool down, or if he’d decided she wasn’t worth the trouble and had moved on to a new assignment, but weirdly, she was missing him.

It wasn’t that she liked the guy, but he was someone to talk to about the hellish state of her life. She couldn’t talk to her friends because they were the ones who had pulled her from heaven, and she’d thought she was able to confide in Spike, but after the hands incident, she didn’t know if she could face him any time soon. Chances were, he’d make a lewd comment and she’d get pissed at him and then she wouldn’t even be able to talk to him anyway.

Things were better with Dawn, however, and she knew that if Ned did show up again, she’d get him to cross the ‘sister issues’ off the list.

After leaving Spike’s crypt on Halloween, Buffy had suffered endless questions from Dawn about her behaviour, none of which she answered with the truth. Dawn would think she was nuts if she told her she had an Imaginary Friend, so she remained tight-lipped and red-faced.

Somehow, however, they’d ended up laughing hysterically about it over a pint of Phish Food when they got home, and as a result the sister’s relationship was better than ever.

The same couldn’t be said for her relationships with her friends. Willow and Tara had gone to the Bronze after leaving the Magic Box on Halloween, and had had a huge fight about something or other, resulting in Tara moving out of the house the following day. Willow was surly and unresponsive, and not good company in the slightest.

Xander and Anya seemed happy enough, continuing to plan their engagement with an impromptu party the next day. It was perhaps not the best timing considering the state of Willow and Tara’s relationship, but Buffy congratulated them with hugs and smiles, all the while trying not to be jealous of their seemingly normal and settled lives.

And to top it all off, Giles had told them that he had plans to return to England – for good. He didn’t plan to leave for a few weeks, wanting to make sure that all his affairs were in order first, but the fact remained that he was going, and nothing was going to make him change his mind.

Buffy kind of hated him a little bit.

So now it was Monday afternoon, and she’d spent the day wandering around the empty house, trying to find something constructive to do, and failing. Dawn had school and Willow was at the university and what she wouldn’t do for some company right about now.

As if he’d read her mind, she was startled from a staring competition with the wall by the sound of the front door slamming open to reveal Spike, steaming blanket in hand, gazing at her triumphantly.

“Seriously, Spike, you need to stop going out in the sunshine,” she said, wrinkling her nose at the slight charred smell that accompanied the vampire into the house. “One of these days you’ll accidentally dust yourself.”

“That’d be a bad thing?” Spike asked, settling himself down into the armchair across from the couch.

“Well… yeah,” Buffy frowned. “Wouldn’t it?”

“You tell me, Slayer,” he replied, eyebrow raised in an expression she wished she didn’t find sexy.

She groaned. “Let’s not start this again.”

Spike shrugged and silence fell.

“So,” he said, a few minutes later, “haven’t seen you in a couple of days. Everything all right?”

“Fine,” she said, “except that Willow and Tara broke up and Giles is moving back to Britain. But hey, Dawnie doesn’t hate me anymore, so that’s a bonus.”

“Shame about the lovebirds,” Spike said, sounding genuinely remorseful, “and I know you’ll miss your Watcher, pet. Bleedin’ idiot, he is, for leaving now when you need him the most.”

“Don’t I know it,” Buffy replied, “but I can’t think of anything to say that will make him change his mind. I’ve already exhausted the whole ‘But England will make you bland and boring’ argument.”

“England’s not bland and boring,” Spike said, sounding disgruntled. “But even if it was, not like you’d notice much of a change in the old man, eh?”

“You’re mean, Spike.”

He looked kind of pleased.

“That wasn’t a compliment, you know.”

Spike shrugged, and then sat forwards, resting his elbows on his knees. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times, as though he was going to speak but didn’t know what to say.

“How are you really, pet?” he said, voice pitched low and soothing. “You were acting kind of… strangely the other night.”

Buffy felt her eyes fill at his kind tone, wondering what it was about this vampire – this man – that caused her to let all her emotional defences drop. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, brushing away the barely fallen tears.

“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me,” she said.

“Try me.”

“No, really. You’d think I was crazy, or insane or something.”

“Well, I already think that, so it’s not like much would change,” Spike smirked.

Buffy shot him a withering glance. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But you won’t believe me.”

“Wanna bet?”

“No chance in hell,” Buffy replied, “I’ve seen you the way you gamble.”

“Suit yourself. And stop trying to change the subject. Something weird’s going on, a Hellmouth kind of weird, so spill.”

“I have an Imaginary Friend,” Buffy said, and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the ridicule.

“Oh,” Spike replied, his voice betraying neither surprise nor confusion. “Is that all?”

Buffy opened her eyes in shock and stared at him. “What do you mean, is that all? I just told you I have an Imaginary Friend and you’re not finding that weird?”

“’Course not,” Spike said, “everyone in the demon world knows about Imaginary Friends. Actually, it makes a lot sense if one of them has appeared to you right about now. So, who’d you get? Knew a few of them, back in the day.” His eyes widened in sudden realisation. “So that’s what was going on the other day? With the hands and you talking to yourself?”

“Yeah,” Buffy said, blushing again, then she punched Spike lightly in the arm. “I can’t believe you! There I was, going crazy because I’ve got this weird little man following me around wanting to talk about my ‘issues’, half thinking I was going insane or hallucinating, and you knew about Imaginary Friend’s all along? Jeez!”

“Well it’s not like I knew he was there, did I?” Spike said, “I just thought you were losin’ it, stress and all that rot.”

“Yeah well, the stress was me having my own personal shrink stalking my every move.” She folded her arms and laid her head against the back of the couch, staring at the ceiling. “His name’s Ned McNabb, and despite the fact that one or two of the things he thinks are just insanely wrong, he’s actually helped a bit.”

“Yeah? Not met a McNabb. Knew a McAllister back in the fifties, hated the bastard. Then there was Anders, he was a good bloke.” He eyed her worriedly. “This one treating you all right?”

Buffy snorted. “If by ‘all right’ you mean, ‘is he making me put my hands all over you?’ then, yeah, you could say that.”

“Well that was all right by me, pet,” Spike leered, tongue behind his teeth.

“Shut up,” she said, then sighed. “I guess, apart from the hands thing, he’s been fine. Helped me talk through a few things, gave me some Tinny sleeping thing to help me get through the nights.”

“Good,” Spike nodded. “Look, you all right with him hanging around you, really? Cos if you wanted, I’d find some way of getting rid of him for you. Look up Anders, perhaps, or force your McNabb to show himself, yeah?”

“No,” Buffy said slowly, thinking about it for a moment. Then, more definitely, “No. I think he is helping me, for all he’s an annoying so-and-so. Besides, he hasn’t been around for a couple of days, not since…”

Spike raised his eyebrow.

“Well anyway,” she hurried on. “If he does come back, I think I want him to stick around. Might be able to help me some more. But it was sweet of you to offer, Spike.”

“I’m not sweet!” he replied, looking positively horrified by the thought.

Buffy just smiled.

“Right, then,” Spike said, a few moments later as he peered out the window. “Better be off, Niblet’ll be home soon and you’ll want to spend some time with her.”

“It’s still daytime,” Buffy said, “and I know Dawn will want to see you. Um, why don’t you stay for dinner?”

“What?”

“Er, dinner. You. With the staying.”

“Oh. All right then.” And he smiled, a look of surprised happiness on his face.

***