Dirk slid the bowl of oatmeal towards John, who stared blankly at the wall in their tiny dining room.

“Eat. I don’t want to miss the good waves.”

A lazy grin flitted across John’s face as he thought of the reason why he was so tired this morning. He blindly reached for his coffee mug and took a sip of the hot liquid. He wondered if Buffy was still asleep or not, the image of her in flannel pajamas with happy teddy bears scattered on them in his mind.

“You’ve got it bad.” Dirk shook his head in pity.

“No secret there. She’s bloody glorious,” John said, mixing his English slang with surfer talk. Finally, he took a spoonful of the cooling oatmeal and swallowed. “I had the craziest dream about her last night.”

Dirk snorted. “Was she dancing around a pole in nothing but a g-string?” John clenched a fist and glared across the table at him. “Dude, guess not. I had a dream like that about Misty.”

Almost as if he forgot Dirk was there, John started talking. “We were in this house that was falling apart. Her hair was pulled back and she kept sneering at me, saying things to me that I couldn’t make out. The words were garbled as if she was talking underwater, but I knew she hated me.”

“That’s some twisted mind you have there, bro, ‘cause from where I sit, the girl has it just as bad for you as you have it for her.”

“I know.” John paused to take another bite. “I have no idea why I would have a dream like that, but it gets crazier. Crap is falling down all around us, she slams me against a cracked wall and then… Well it went on from there.”

The only way he could describe what she did next in the dream was that she’d flat out shagged him, impaling herself on him where he stood...until they fell through the floor. John had never had such a crazy dream before. There was no logic to it at all. He ended up flat on his back, with very little pain from the fall, in the messed up basement with bits of house falling all around him.

“She rode me like a woman possessed,” he said with wonder and disbelief that his brain could conjure up such images.

Dirk got up and took their plates to soak in soapy water. “Yeah, well, I’m fixing to ride my board like a surfer possessed. Let’s go.”

John grabbed his short board and stood outside the hall, waiting for Dirk. The surfer paused and looked him over. “Where’s all your other gear?”

“Not planning to stay. Just gonna catch a few gnarly ones and then I’m meeting Buffy at the gym.”

~ * ~ * ~

The insistent ringing of the telephone woke Buffy up. She blindly reached for it on the bedside table, knocking over a glass of water in the process.

“Hello,” she whispered, then cleared her throat and tried again. “Hello.”

“Buffy?”

Buffy sat up, a frown of concern marring her features. “Angel? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing really,” he said in that monotone way that had gotten on her nerves the last two years. “I just thought you’d like to know that two of your slayers are coming to stay at the hotel.”

She rubbed at her eyes. “Why?”

“Giles called and said that he wanted to start up a center here again. He asked me to house the girls until they can get a new building, but I don’t see the point in that. This place is huge. Might as well get some use out of it.”

“Too quiet for you after my crew left?”

“Yeah, maybe a little.”

“Well, I’m not surprised Giles agreed. He tries to save Council money any way he can and there’s a certain justice to having The Senior Partner’s cash funding an L.A. operation.”

Angel had siphoned millions from the company before he’d staged his last stand. During the major battle, Slayer Central, set up just blocks from the Wolfram and Hart building, had been destroyed.

“I’m using some of that money now to fix up the hotel. I was wondering if you could come down here Friday and meet with the contractor. He won’t come at night.”

“You can’t get Illyria to, you know, do that changey thing where she looks like a woman?”

There was a pause and then Angel grumbled, “I hate when she does that. You didn’t know Fred like I did. It’s just—”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do it.”

“Thank you,” he said softly. “I’ll have all the repairs that I want done written down in detail, but the first thing that needs to be done are the glass doors and windows up front.”

“You’ve had those windows fixed more times than Xander had to repair my window in Sunnydale.”

“I’m requesting bullet proof glass this time.”

“Smart.” She paused and got out of bed. “So did Giles say which slayers would be coming?”

“Um…yes. Vi and Sharelle. They will be here in ten days.”

That was good. Vi and Sharelle had been a part of her team and had lived in the Hyperion with her and ten other slayers. They were seasoned warriors after two years in L.A. and they had probably volunteered to come back.

“Good. So what time should I be there on Friday?”

“Is 9:00 a.m. okay?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Buffy?”

“Yeah?”

“How is Spike?”

“He goes by John now,” Buffy said, letting her deep-rooted anger with Angel over keeping Spike’s return after burning up on the Hellmouth a secret come to the surface. She didn’t want to share John with Angel.

“Despite the black eye, he looked good.”

“He is good. Fit as a horse.”

“It was a good thing you were there to help fight off those bikers,” Angel said.

Buffy smiled at the memory of the fight. “It was kinda like old times. And I think he might have retained some of his strength. I mean, he definitely didn’t forget his fighting skills.”

“You think he’s stronger than the average human?”

Angel sounded equal parts excited and envious. Another thing that he missed out on by signing his right to the Shanshu prophecy away, though Giles had told Buffy that Angel was just assuming the prophecy was about him and that Spike was just as likely to have been the one all along.

“I can’t be sure. I was busy fighting off a couple of the bikers myself, but John held his own in that parking lot and walked away with only the black eye. We’re going to work out together today and I’m hoping to talk him into sparring with me so I can test his strength.”

It was quiet on the other end. She was just about to say goodbye and hang up when Angel spoke again.

“He recognized me.”

This was something that she didn’t want to admit. An envy that ran so deep that it was irrational. John had written books about her, but when he’d been face to face with her, he only thought she might be a model used for his book cover. He saw Angel for two seconds and yet he asked him outright if they knew each other in the past.

“You said yourself that he recognized you from the book signing.”

“Buffy, he didn’t even look up at me. There was a very long line and I was towards the end. He was tired and I think he just wanted to hurry and get out of there.”

“Why would he remember you and not me?” she asked, knowing that she sounded petty. “He was in love with me.”

“We’ve known each other much longer and we have a deep connection. That last year, we were becoming close.”

“Oh, God, you two weren’t—”

“Of course not,” he said, peeved. “We’re family. We fought like brothers and we fought side by side like brothers too.”

Stunned, Buffy held the phone and stared off into space. They’d argued about Spike that first week after Angel had come to, two years ago. Her heart and mind had been in anguish and she’d refused to see that he’d been feeling the same way. After a week of butting heads over the issue of Spike, they silently and mutually agreed to not discuss him at all. Spike’s name just never came up. They had more important things to do, like keeping L.A. from going under the way Sunnydale had, figuratively speaking. She had no idea that Spike and Angel had been getting along at all. That still didn’t make her feel better about John recognizing Angel and not her.

“I have to go, but I’ll see you in two days.”

~ * ~ * ~

Buffy crinkled her nose in distaste. John hadn’t exaggerated when he said the building’s gym smelled bad. Like dirty socks, moldy water and--she paused just inside the doors and braved a deeper intake of breath--cheeseburgers. Unlike a commercial gym, there were no employees milling about. In fact, the gym was empty.

Buffy had come dressed in sweatpants and a black tank top, but she carried a bag with her towel and water bottle. She took the bag with her, set it by one of the few weight machines in the room and stretched, getting ready for her warm up.

The door creaked open and John walked in, wearing the outfit he’d had on last night and grinning at her. His tennis shoes squeaked as he walked towards her and ran a hand through his damp hair.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said and then planted a quick kiss on her lips. “The surf was better than I thought it was going to be.”

“That’s okay. I just got started.” She glanced around. “Guess this place doesn’t get much use.”

Facing Buffy, John stretched his arm behind his head. “I’m usually the only one here when I work out during the day, but after five, there’s always a few people in here.”

After a quick warm up, they worked with the weights. Buffy was mindful of not lifting too much and not to make it look effortless. She remembered all too clearly how Riley had handled the fact that she was stronger than he was. But after a few minutes, she forgot about her weights and just admired John while he lifted his set.

He didn’t lift the pounds that Spike could have, but he looked just as good as he did when he was a vampire, so she wouldn’t pity him. Spike would have hated that. Pity. She abandoned her weights and got on a bike across from where John was still working the free weights.

John paused and pulled his sweaty t-shirt over his head. She wanted to cry "unfair!" If she’d been distracted before, she was doubly distracted now. So much so that when he spoke to her, he had to ask twice.

He sat up, straddling the bench. “I said, what is your secret for being so strong for a girl?”

She stopped pedaling and was both nervous by his question and a little peeved. “What, girls can’t be strong?”

“I didn’t say that. I think it’s awesome the way you took on those bikers, but I just want to know how you got so strong. Does the government give you drugs or something?”

“What, you mean like steroids?”

“Well considering that you aren’t growing a beard, no, I wasn’t thinking steroids.”

She shook her head and dismounted the bike. “No. No drugs. Just diet, exercise and intense training.”

“That must be some awesome training.” He said it with a smile and then went back to his weights.

Buffy moved around the room attempting to look busy, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off him. Every time he lifted a weight, the muscles in his stomach rippled. She didn’t think it was possible for him to look any better than he had as a vampire, but humanity looked good on Spike. The tan was a great improvement.

John stopped when he noticed her appreciative gaze. Standing up, he grabbed his towel and put it around his neck. With hooded eyes, he asked, “Like what you see?”

“Yeah, I kinda do.”

And she really liked when he threw all that Spike confidence at her. Her heart picked up its pace when he walked towards her, the swagger so familiar that she went weak in the knees. He stopped in front of her and cut the sexy demeanor off in a snap. With a sheepish grin, he said, “I would kiss you, but I’m sweaty.”

She swallowed and took a deep breath. No one could turn a mood on a dime the way Spike could. The way this human version of him could. Buffy reached out and tentatively touched his gleaming chest.

“I don’t care. It’s really sexy and,” she paused to breath in, “you smell like the ocean.”

“Sorry ‘bout that. Didn’t have time to shower.”

She tilted her head and rose up slightly until their lips met. John tried to kiss her and keep his body away from her, but that wasn’t good enough. She pressed against him, kissing him with vigor.

They were both breathing heavily when they parted. He grinned at her while he patted a damp spot on her tank top. “You are something else.”

With a sidelong glance, she asked, “Is that good or bad?”

“Very, very good.”

It felt great to be with him. To tease and joke with him, to kiss him, touch him. There was so much more that she wanted to do with him. She glanced around and noticed a door on the side wall that was made mostly of glass.

Nodding towards it, she said, “Do you think that is an aerobic room?”

“It is, but they don’t hire an instructor anymore.”

“I need to keep up my training and an open room like that is perfect. You wanna help me?”

“What? You mean like train with you?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

She nodded and without hesitation, he took her hand and led her to the room. It smelled a lot better than the other room, like lemon-scented cleanser. He turned on lights and headed for a set of cupboards. Buffy helped him drag out the thin blue mats and then they stood in the middle of them, facing each other, unsure how to start.

“I have to warn you,” John said, “I have no idea how I know martial arts or even what type I know. It’s just pure instinct.”

Buffy shrugged, eager to get started. “I know a little of everything and it’s second nature or instinct for me too. Something tells me we're going to get on fine. Just don’t go easy on me.”

“Yeah,” he said, backing up a little. “But you’re a g—”

“If you finish that sentence, I’ll lay you flat on this mat right now.”

A sparkle of interest in John’s eye had her smiling. He went on the offensive in a surprise move, attempting a sweeping kick that would have knocked down a mere mortal. She was able to leap over his leg like a jump roper on the playground. John paused for just a second, not expecting her to still be standing. Buffy waited.

He attacked again and again, but she was able to block every punch and kick. With a grunt of exertion, John upped his game and came at her with full strength. It wasn’t Spike the vampire strength, but she was thrilled to see that he was very strong. Buffy switched tactics and went on the offensive. With speed and precision, he blocked her moves, even ducking just in time to miss a punch thrown to his head.

But, she did have to go easy on him.

The determined glint in his eye coupled with the grin on his face said he was enjoying himself and so was she. Their grunts echoed off the empty room and soon their loud breathing added to the cadence. After another five minutes of going back and forth, Buffy could tell that John was tiring. She got her leg between his, gripped his shoulders and had him on his back before he knew what was happening.

Buffy straddled his hips and waited for his breathing to go back to normal. He propped himself up on his elbows and shook his head.

“That was crazy! You’ve got skills. And I must have learned some of the same disciplines as you to anticipate so many of your moves?” he said, with head tilted and his lips slightly parted.

“You weren’t expecting that last one,” she said with pride.

He chuckled. “You’re right about that, but I’m not complaining about my predicament.”

His eyes drifted to where their bodies met and his smile slowly waned, replaced with the heat of lust in his gaze.

Relief didn’t describe how glad she was to see that he wasn’t threatened by the fact she’d bested him. She smiled shyly at him. Apparently, humanity hadn’t taken his lust for dominant women out of him. Buffy couldn’t help herself; she rotated her hips as she’d done the night before. Suddenly, John grabbed her and hugged her to him, rolling them over so he was on top.

He smirked while he played with her hair. “So you like a little rough play, do you?”

“How did you guess?” was her coy reply.

“You’re perfect for me, you know that?”

And Buffy did know it. As he leaned down to kiss her again, she gripped his head and helped him get there faster. All the time that she’d fought his obsession with her, all that time she agonized with guilt over the sex they’d been having while her friends were clueless, had been a waste. A waste she hadn’t felt until she’d lost him.

It was amazing to be in his arms again. To let herself stay there. She made a promise to herself, right there. She wouldn’t waste any more time.

John nibbled on her lip, but she held him there when he tried to rise up. Buffy touched the scar on his eyebrow and he closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her hands on him. When he opened them again, she looked him in the eye.

“Come up to my apartment with me.”

He nodded, stood and offered his hand to her.