---

“How bloody long does it take for your Watcher to answer the flamin’ door?” Spike growled in frustration as he waited for Giles to open his door. “’Been bloody well knocking for ten minutes!”

“More like one, Spike. Why don’t you give him a chance? It’s like three thirty in the morning. I think he would probably be asleep…..Don’t you?” This was the first thing that Buffy had said since they’d left Spike’s crypt.

“All the more reason to hurry, after all it would have to be important for someone to come callin’ at this hour.”

At that moment Giles opened his door, armed with a crossbow, clearly still half asleep and not in a very good mood.

“Buffy, w-what’s wrong? Do you know what time it is?” Giles asked as he lowered his crossbow.

“Giles, I-I had to talk to you. I’m so scared. I didn’t know what else to do…” As Buffy started to talk, the dam broke and she started crying again. Seeing her Watcher, knowing that she would have to tell him that she was a vampire, was just too much for her to handle. She just wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

Spike tried to comfort Buffy by placing his hand on her shoulder only to have her pull away. Taking the hint he took a step away from her. She clearly blamed him for her current situation, not that there was anything different about that. Buffy tended to blame him for everything that went wrong in her life. Although in this case he couldn’t blame her for hating him….. but it still hurt.

“So you gonna let us in, Watcher? Or will we just stand out here all night?”

“Oh, oh yes of course come in,” Giles took a step back to allow Buffy and Spike into his home.

“Buffy, what’s wrong? What’s happened? Is Dawn alright?”

At this Buffy’s head shot up.

“Oh god, Giles, the others, he could have gone to them first,” Buffy sobbed near hysterical. “You have to call them and make sure they’re alright.”

“Who could have gone to them? Buffy, what’s going on?” Giles asked, his voice filled with concern.

“Just call them please,” Buffy sobbed out. She hadn’t even thought about the rest of the gang. Knowing Angelus, he most likely would have gone after her friends before coming for her. What was that he said about the advantages of having a soul, something about people opening themselves up in delicious ways? Buffy’s eyes widened in horror, that’s what he meant……Angelus had killed her friends, she could feel it in her bones. Suddenly she couldn’t breathe, there was no air left in the room and she was suffocating…….the room was spinning out of control.

“Buffy, tell me what’s going on. Who are they in danger from?” Giles asked, his brow creased with concern. He knew something bad had to have happened for Buffy to be this upset.

Buffy started to hyperventilate. The thought of Angelus hurting her friends was just too much for her to bear. She half-heartedly wondered if the vivid images that flashed through her mind of Angelus torturing her friends were a side effect of being a demon. She didn’t hear Giles’ insistent questions. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, almost like she was watching herself from a great distance.

Spike had had enough. He couldn’t stand seeing Giles badger Buffy with stupid, ill timed question.

“JUST BLOODY WELL CALL THEM, YOU STUPID BLOODY PONCE, CAN”T YOU SEE SHE’S UPSET?!!” he yelled in frustration. *How could her Watcher be so bloody dense?*

“Yes, yes of course…..I-I’ll go call them now,” Giles stammered, shocked by Spike’s outburst.

As Giles scurried off to call the rest of the Scoobies, Spike led Buffy to the couch, trying to comfort her by rubbing her back and stroking her hair.

“It’s all right, Buffy. The Scoobies are a tough bunch. They can handle themselves,” he said in a comforting tone as he sat down next to her. He hoped that he was right. He didn’t think that the former Slayer could cope if Angelus had harmed any of her friends or the Nibblet.

Spike was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice that Giles had re-entered the room.

“I just called everyone, they’re all fine. Dawn’s still at Willow and Tara’s, and Xander and Anya are at home,” he took his glasses off and started to clean them. “Now would you kindly tell me what happened and who we are in danger from?”

“Angelus.” Buffy said in a small voice. “He, he b-b-bit m-me.”

“What?” Giles was shocked. This was the last thing he expected to hear. If Angel had lost his soul, why hadn’t he heard from Wesley or Cordelia?

“Angelus was in the alley…… I hugged him….. Oh god he bit me a-a-and I still have a heartbeat and I need to breathe…… Oh, Giles I’m so scared.” Buffy tried to explain to her watcher what had happened to her but she couldn’t find the words.

“Buffy I don’t understand, y-you need to calm down and tell me what happened,” Giles knelt down in front of her.

“You said, Angelus bit you…. are you alright?”

“No” she said in a hoarse whisper, tightly gripping Spike’s hand.

“S’okay, luv. Do you want me to tell him?”

“No I-I will, I’m okay,” she took a deep breath to calm herself down. Feeling a little better she turned to Giles. “You better sit down for this one, Giles.”

As Giles moved to sit in the chair across from her, Buffy took another deep breath, finally getting herself under control. She told Giles about meeting Angelus in the alley behind the Bronze, him biting her, Spike staking him and how he made her drink his blood.

Giles was furious at the thought of Spike making Buffy drink from him. Abruptly jumping from his chair, he ripped Spike from his seat and pushed him up against the nearest wall.

“What the hell where you thinking? You did this to her?” Giles screamed. “Do you have any idea what a Slayer turned into a vampire could be capable of?” “Did you even think of that?” “Did you even think how she would feel waking as a vampire?” Giles was furious. He was about two seconds away from staking the blonde vampire once and for all.

“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

Spike was stunned. He had never seen this side of Giles before. To tell the truth, he was a little scared. Of course, he would never let Giles know this.

“What, mate? Would you rather her be dead?”

“No! Of course not!”

Giles looked over at Buffy, who was still sitting on the couch with tears streaming down her face. *If she’s a vampire why was she so upset? And why hasn’t she tried to attack me?* Giles loosened his hold on Spike.

“Why did you do it?”

“I love her…. couldn’t lose her…. Not when there was something I could do.”

Spike was looking Giles directly in the eyes as he spoke. Giles could tell he was telling the truth and released his grip on the vampire.

“Why is she so upset? Vampires don’t feel remorse.”

“Well, that would be why we’re here. Seems, Buffy’s not much like other vampires. For one thing, she still has a heartbeat and she’s breathing. And as you can tell from the cryin’ and the you not bein’ dead yet, she’s still got her soul.”

“That’s impossible!” Giles gasped as he looked over at Buffy, who just sat there like a deer caught in a set of headlights. “If s-she still has a heartbeat t-that would mean she’s not a vampire.”

“Beg to differ mate, saw it m’self, she’s a vampire, blood drinking and all.”

“YOU ALLOWED HER TO HUNT?!” Giles yelled.

“NO!..... Gave her some blood from m’ fridge, didn’t I!!”

“Giles… please help me. I’m so scared,” Buffy begged barely above a whisper.

Giles looked at his charge. She was looking at him with desperate pleading eyes. He’d never seen her look so scared. Not even when he arrived at her house after she found her mother’s dead body did she look this lost. He quickly walked over to her and pulled her into a tight embrace.

“Oh, Buffy, I’m so sorry.”

Buffy had her face pressed into Giles’s neck. She could smell his blood pumping through his veins, warm and sweet beckoning her to drink, to drain him dry. She felt her face shift, allowing her demon to surface. With all her strength she forced herself to pull away from Giles’ neck and giving him a slight push she hissed, “Get away from me!”

Giles didn’t know what had caused such a sudden change in her mood. “Buffy, what’s wrong?”

“I SAID, GET AWAY FROM ME!” she yelled as she pushed Giles to the floor, allowing him to see her face before she ran past him out the front door.


~*~~*~~*~


Buffy had no idea where she was running to. She just had to get away from Giles before she lost what little control she had left.

Before long she found herself in the same alley in which she had met Angelus earlier that evening. As she entered she noticed a small shiny object on the ground. Buffy bent down to see what it was, only to find that it was Angel’s claddagh ring. She fell to the ground sobbing. She couldn’t breathe--it felt like she was dying inside.

That was how Spike found her, lying on the ground in the filthy alley. With her knees tucked up to her chest holding Angel’s ring so tightly it had started to cut into her hand. Her tiny body shook uncontrollably as the night’s event flashed through her mind. If Spike’s heart could have broken, it would have shattered into a thousand pieces.

He bent down and pulled the former Slayer into his arms, brushing some hair away from her face and wiping away the tears that ran down her flushed and swollen cheeks. Spike held her to his chest, rocking her and cooing softly in her ear. They sat that was for what seamed to both like hours.

He could smell the sunrise coming--it would be morning soon. Slowly Spike pulled away from Buffy so he could look her eyes.

“Buffy, luv. We’ve got to go now. The suns coming up.”


Spike pulled Buffy up off the ground, wrapping his arms protectively around her shoulders as they headed back to Giles’ apartment.