Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, and no one sends bushels of money my way because of my stories. Alas.

Thanks so much to all the reviewers who spur me onward!


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Chapter 16
********************
 
Buffy rode home huddled under her blanket, with Dawn in the back seat next to her worrying, leaving Spike to his own thoughts for a moment. She said she loved me, he thought wonderingly. Bloody miracle it is. His inner poet was already composing sonnets in honor of the occasion, but he reluctantly clamped down on all thoughts of celebration. Focus now, William. They’ll be plenty of time for basking after we get her healed up and our bodies sorted out. He prayed to whatever god would listen to a vampire that this blissful state of affairs would survive the reshuffling of their bodies.
 
They repeated the dash back into Buffy’s house on arrival, with Buffy smoking slightly as she threw the blanket off. “That is completely nerve wracking!” she groused.
 
“Another one of those things that takes a few decades to get used to,” Spike said sympathetically.
 
“How’s your shoulder feeling?” Dawn asked anxiously. She was nearly shaking with the idea that she had almost lost her sister again.
 
“Hey, it’s okay, Dawnie,” Buffy said, giving her sister a reassuring hug with her good arm. “It hurts, but I’ll survive. Especially if I have some more to eat.”
 
“One mug of blood, coming right up,” Spike said. Buffy took off the duster and sat down, awkwardly probing at her wounded shoulder with the other hand, assessing the damage. A knock came at the door, and Spike called, “Come on in, Glinda!”
 
Tara had a pensive look on her face, and Buffy felt for her. “Thanks for coming, Tara,” she said, nodding her thanks to Spike as he gave her the mug of blood. “I’m sorry to have to keep pestering you.”
 
“It’s no trouble, really,” Tara said. She sat down, looking subdued and drained.
 
“The thing with Willow’s pretty hard, huh?” said Dawn.
 
Tara nodded. “I miss her a lot,” she admitted. “But she needs to stop trying to run everyone’s lives to her liking.”
 
“Hear, hear,” Spike chimed in. “How about some lunch for the rest of us while we make our plans?” The others agreed, so the three humans made sandwiches, and Tara heated up some tomato soup as well. “Just don’t forget whose mug is whose,” Spike remarked as he passed Dawn her serving.
 
“Ew, gross!” Dawn squealed, moving her soup as far away from Buffy’s blood as possible.
 
“So, what’s the plan?” Tara asked as they munched.
 
“After lunch, let’s turn on the news and see if any more crimes have been committed,” Buffy suggested.
 
“Yeah, then what?” Dawn wondered.
 
Spike contemplated for a moment. “Tara, can you do a locator spell on them?”
 
Tara thought about it. “I can, although I may not be able to pinpoint things as accurately as Willow.”
 
“It would give us a place to start at least,” Spike said.
 
“If we track them down, what then?” Buffy asked.
 
“I guess we figure that out when we get there,” Spike shrugged. “If we can be quiet about it, we should be able to gain the advantage.”
 
“Let’s hope so,” Buffy said. “I don’t really want to get hit with that ray again. Who knows where we’ll end up?” They finished their lunches and trooped into the living room to turn on the news. After a few minutes a story came on about two gas stations within a mile of each other that had been robbed the night before. The clerks had once more been found in a state of confusion, with no idea who they were. “I see our boys are at it again,” Buffy said, turning off the TV.
 
“Do we have a map of Sunnydale?” Spike asked suddenly. “It occurs to me to wonder if there is any pattern to their attacks. Maybe we can anticipate their next move.”
 
“There’s one in the car,” Dawn offered. She ran out to get it and brought it back, spreading it out on the coffee table.
 
“The first one was at the mall,” Buffy said, circling that location with a pencil.
 
“Then they hit that convenience store over on Maple,” Tara said, indicating the spot for Buffy to circle.
 
“And the gas stations were here and here,” Spike said, indicating two more spots. The four spots seemed to be moving further out from the center of town.
 
“They seem to be heading out in a sort of spiral or something,” Buffy observed.
 
“So maybe their next hit will be somewhere in this area,” Spike suggested, pointing out a region to the north.
 
“What are the likely targets out that way?” Tara wondered.
 
“There’s more gas stations…” Buffy began.
 
“The Gold Rush!” Spike exclaimed. The others looked him like he had five heads until he explained, “Great big pawn shop that specializes in jewelry and antiques and such. They’re open until midnight on weekends. They have a lot of commercials during Passions.” The girls tried very, very hard not to snicker at the Big Bad Vampire with the sappy soap opera fixation, and nearly succeeded. But a little giggle escaped Dawn’s lips, to which Spike replied, “Watch it, you. I’ll have you know it’s a bloody interesting show.”
 
Suppressing her own giggle, Buffy turned back to the problem at hand. “That would be quite the target for these guys,” she said. “It’s sort of isolated, probably not a lot of staff, although the guard is probably armed I’m guessing.”
 
“How do they manage not to get caught by cameras?” Tara wondered. “Other than the loading dock camera at the mall, we haven’t heard anything on the news about anyone suspicious before the robbery.”
 
“Disguise, maybe?” Spike suggested. “Go in as someone else, zap the clerk, get them to turn off the camera, then do whatever?”
 
Buffy shrugged. “It’s possible, I guess.”
 
“Okay, I think I’ve got a plan,” Spike said. The girls listened intently, nodding their understanding. Buffy in particular thought, It’s should work. But when we take these guys out, what then? Can we switch back? And what’s going to happen to us after that? She swallowed down her fears and uncertainties, and concentrated on plotting their attack.
 
*****************************
 
“Hey! What are you doing?” Andrew squeaked furiously to Jonathan. “You can’t put the Star Wars and the Star Trek figurines on the same shelf! That’s some sort of sacrilege or something!”
 
Warren rolled his eyes for the fifteenth time that hour at the stupid argument. Their new lair was shaping up rather nicely. With the take from their first two heists they had had enough money for the security deposit on a two bedroom apartment in a quiet part of town. They had set up their newly acquired computers and were working on hacking into various security systems. The money from the most recent heists had gone toward furniture, in particular shelving for the large collection of science fiction memorabilia. It was looking pretty swank, but Warren was about ready to turn the amnesia device on his partners if they didn’t shut up.
 
“Fine,” Jonathan was saying. “It you’re such an expert, then you unpack everything. I quit.”
 
“Will you two ladies quit your bitching?” Warren grumbled. “Jonathan, are we all ready for tonight?”
 
“We should be,” Jonathan said. “Although all these glamour spells are starting to wear me out. Why do I always have to be the one disguised?”
 
“Because you know how to,” Warren replied. He failed to add that he wanted Jonathan to be the one to disguise himself and distract the clerk, so that if anything went wrong, Warren would be outside and safe from being identified. They had found that the ray worked from a reasonable distance and through windows as well. At the gas stations it had been painfully easy for Jonathan, disguised as a girl, to distract the clerk while Warren stood to the side, out of sight, and hit the clerk with the ray through the glass. Jonathan could then tell the clerk to turn off the cameras and open the door, and they could walk in and help themselves to anything they liked.
 
“Why do we have to rob a skanky pawn shop?” Andrew whined. “Why don’t we just rob a bank or something?”
 
“I told you, dipshit,” Warren snarled. “Until we get hacked into the bank’s camera system, there are just too many ways for someone to see us before we can zap the tellers. It’s too risky. The pawn shop has a ton of valuable, portable stuff that we can get rid of on eBay or wherever. Plus they only have the two cameras, and at night it’s just one or two guards. Piece of cake.”
 
“Have the first guys remembered anything yet?” Jonathan asked. He was secretly a bit nervous about that. The intention had been to cause temporary amnesia, but this seemed to be lasting a lot longer than Warren had said it would. It made Jonathan wonder what else Warren was wrong about.
 
Warren shook his head. “The latest news says that they’re still out of it,” he said. “Better for us.”
 
“Have you been keeping tabs on the Slayer?” Andrew wondered, busily arranging Star Trek figures in chronological order as they had first appeared on the show.
 
“Why?” Warren said with a shrug. “We know it worked. She’s not a problem anymore.”
 
“Seems kinda harsh to erase people’s minds forever,” Jonathan commented. “I thought it was supposed to be temporary.”
 
Warren shrugged again. “Who cares? I mean, they’ll probably get their memories back eventually. Personally, I have no problem with having no Slayer around to worry about.” Jonathan looked doubtful, and Warren added, “Relax, alright? So far, everything is going our way.” Warren turned back to his computer, and Jonathan frowned and went back to unpacking.
 
**************************
 
“So where are these assholes?” Spike muttered to himself. Tara was chanting while the rest of them watched the map of Sunnydale. A small bright light appeared in the air in front of Tara, then floated down to rest on the map.
 
“There,” Buffy said, putting her finger on the spot. Tara sat back, a bit drained, while Dawn drew a circle around Buffy’s finger. “They’re over on Sycamore Terrace.”
 
“Should we go over there and take them out?” Dawn said eagerly.
 
“Hold up, Nibblet,” Spike said. “Your sister can’t go over there right now in her current condition, and I don’t fancy knocking on their door and having them greet me with their Forget-o-matic 2000.”
 
“Maybe we do a drive-by during the day,” Tara suggested. “Then we can figure out where the best place is to lie in wait for them.”
 
“Good idea,” Spike agreed. “Want to come with, Nibblet?”
 
Dawn’s face lit up. “Sure! Just let me get my sweatshirt!” Dawn dashed up the stairs, leaving Buffy to turn to Spike with a slight frown.
 
“I don’t want my sister in danger,” she said.
 
Spike put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “You know I won’t let anything happen to her. We’re just going to drive past and scope the place out. Besides, if we leave her out entirely, she’ll be more likely to do something stupid and dangerous.”
 
“Ok, but she is so not coming tonight,” Buffy said sternly.
 
“I’ll stay with her,” Tara offered. “The two of you work well together. We can be your backup if you need us.”
 
“Thanks, Tara,” Buffy said gratefully. Dawn bounded back down the stairs, and she and Spike headed out for their reconnaissance mission.
 
Buffy went to get some more blood out of the fridge, while Tara made herself a cup of a strange herbal tea that she found helped overcome the after-spell hangover. They sat down with their mugs of hot liquid and sipped contentedly. “How’s your shoulder doing?” Tara asked.
 
“It’s improving,” Buffy responded. “Vampire healing is about as fast as Slayer healing. Seems unfair somehow. Shouldn’t one of us have an advantage or something?”
 
Tara smiled. “I guess not.” She looked down into her tea. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
 
“Why are you apologizing?” Buffy asked. “You didn’t do anything.”
 
“I know. I just wish…” Tara’s voice trailed off for a moment. “I should never have let her try that resurrection spell,” she finished quietly.
 
Buffy looked down at her mug for a moment. “I suppose once you raise someone from the dead you start to think you can do anything,” Buffy mused.
 
“Yeah,” Tara said. She drank off her tea and sat studying the leaves. “I miss her. But I just can’t trust her right now. I want the old Willow back.”
 
“One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t get the old version of anything back,” Buffy said. “It’s like with computers. Once version two comes out, version one doesn’t work anymore. I guess we have to wait for Willow 3.0 and hope the bugs get fixed.”
 
Tara looked at her with a crooked smile. “I think that’s the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
 
Buffy smiled too. “Not sure where that analogy came from,” she admitted. “But that’s what I’ve felt like. I came back as some new version, and everyone was expecting the old one, and no one seemed to know how to operate me.”
 
“Except for Spike,” Tara observed.
 
“True,” Buffy said. “He just… he just listened, you know? Didn’t expect anything of me in particular. It was so easy to be around him, and so hard to be around Willow and Xander. Between their being guilty at me, and trying to fix me, and letting me know how much they hated Spike, I just couldn’t win.”
 
“I’m glad you stood up to them,” Tara said. “They needed a wakeup call.”
 
Buffy sighed. “I hope someday we can patch things up, but right now I just need a break.”
 
“I completely understand.” The two women got themselves a second helping of their drinks, and continued chatting while they waited for the others to return.
 
***********************
 
Anya found herself taking a deep breath before opening the door of her apartment. She loved Xander. She did. But she had to admit that if she was still a vengeance demon she would be putting boils on his penis about now. She squared her shoulders and opened the door saying, “I’m home.”
 
“Hey, Ahn,” Xander said. He was on the couch with an ice pack on his nose and a can of beer in his hand. Anya sat on the coffee table across from him and gently pulled the ice pack off his nose to see the damage. “How does it look?” he asked.
 
“Like you pissed off a supernaturally strong person,” she said matter-of-factly. She replaced the ice pack and sat down next to him. “Xander, we need to talk.”
 
Xander sighed. “It was an honest mistake! How was I supposed to know they hadn’t switched back?”
 
“You could have asked, you know,” Anya admonished.
 
“I just thought that I would have a better chance to rid the world of the bleached wonder if I caught him off guard,” he explained.
 
Anya looked at him with disapproval. “Xander, you do realize you can’t kill him, right?”
 
Xander winced as he repositioned the ice pack. “I guess I figured out it isn’t as simple as I thought.”
 
Anya rolled her eyes to the heavens. “No, I mean, you have no right to kill him. He loves Buffy. Buffy enjoys his company. You can’t kill him.”
 
“But she can’t be getting involved with him,” Xander began.
 
“Why?” Anya broke in. “Is there some custom I don’t know about where the male friends of a single woman get final say over who they are involved with?”
 
“No, but…”
 
“Xander, if you want Buffy for yourself, then by all means, break up with me and go ask her out,” Anya said, growing more irritated by the minute. “But if you intend to marry me, as you said, then you have to stop obsessing over other women and who they sleep with.”
 
Xander sputtered, “I don’t want…”
 
“Yes, you do. You always have,” she said, a little sadness in her voice. “I feel like I’m always going to be in Buffy’s shadow. You’ll probably skip our honeymoon so you can keep track of Buffy’s comings and goings so you can find something to disapprove of. You can’t beat her in a fight, and she’s never going to see you as more than a friend, so you’ve declared yourself her guardian or warden or whatever to make yourself feel better.”
 
Xander stared open-mouthed at Anya. He slowly put down the ice pack and shook his head. “Anya, she’s my friend. I can’t just turn my back on her.”
 
“And I’m your fiancé,” she said, standing up. “Here I am. I’m an ex-demon, and I color my hair, and I sometimes say things that embarrass you, and I give you good orgasms. Decide if you want me, or if you want your Slayer on a pedestal. And decide soon before one or both of us ditches you for good.” She spun around and stomped into the bathroom, slamming the door.
 
Xander sat there, flabbergasted. A small flame of guilt and shame bloomed in his gut. She’s going to leave me. She’s really going to leave me. He couldn’t understand where Anya was coming from. He wasn’t obsessed with Buffy, was he? That’s Spike’s job. He’s one who’s always over at her house, always trying to get her to hang out with him. She’s so messed up these days. How could it possibly help to have a love-sick vampire mooning about? And vampires can’t really love anyhow!
 
Then Xander realized what he was doing. Here he was, having a serious discussion with Anya, who was all but giving him an ultimatum, and who was he thinking of? Buffy. He looked toward the bathroom door, and he thought he heard the sound of Anya sniffling. What would happen if she left? He looked around the room, imagining coming home to it empty, night after night. I’d still have the Scoobies, I guess. But would he? Buffy was pissed at him. Dawn was pissed at him. Tara wasn’t particularly chummy these days either. That left Willow, who was alternating between fighting the magic addiction and pining for Tara. Xander suddenly got a chill down his spine when he realized he could very well end up cast adrift, with none of his usual anchors.
 
The thought spurred him into action. He got up, swaying slightly as his aching head made itself known. He made his way to the bathroom door and knocked gently. “Anya?” he asked quietly.
 
“What?” came her muffled, hurt voice.
 
Xander swallowed. “I’m sorry. You’re right, and I’m sorry.”
 
The door opened and Anya came out, her face streaked with tears. “Do you really mean it?”
 
Xander took her into his arms and buried his face in her hair. “I love you, Anya,” he said. “And I’m sorry I’ve been such an ass.”
 
Anya pulled away and looked at him. “So are you going to stay out of Buffy’s way?”
 
“I promise,” Xander said, his eyes focused directly on hers. “I don’t want to lose you. I’d be completely lost without you. Can you forgive me?”
 
“I think so,” she replied. Anya smiled then and pulled him into a kiss. She started to deepen it when her nose bumped Xander’s, causing him to yelp in pain. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “Perhaps we should ice that a little more before we launch into the make-up sex, huh?”
 
Xander smiled and shook his head. “You’re one in a million, Ahn,” he said. “And I swear I’ll try to do better.”
 
“Please do,” she replied. Together they retired to the living room for more icing and discussion.
 
***********************
 
“We’re home!” Dawn called. Tara and Buffy were hanging out in the living room as Spike and Dawn came in from their quest.
 
“What did you find?” Buffy asked.
 
“Apartment building,” Spike reported. “Big black van parked out back – I think it’s theirs, based on what Willow saw in the security video.”
 
“There’s an alley nearby that we can ambush them from,” Dawn said.
 
“Um, there’s no we in this tonight, Dawnie,” Buffy admonished. “You’re staying here with Tara.”
 
“Aw, come on!” Dawn pleaded. “I can help!”
 
“Sorry, Nibblet,” Spike said. “Gotta agree with Buffy on this one. If things go badly, we need someone who can come after us. If we’re all there and we all get hit by their ray gun gadget, then we’re all screwed.”
 
Dawn threw herself onto the couch to sulk. “Fine. But you’d better not get hurt or I’ll… I’ll kick whatever’s left of you until my foot hurts.”
 
Spike smirked. “I guess I’ll have to risk that, Bit.” Dawn stuck her tongue out at him and grabbed the remote. The rest of the day was spent in tense preparations. Buffy gorged herself on blood, trying to heal her shoulder as fast as possible. Spike and Buffy discussed tactics, with Buffy reiterating that killing humans was not an option, which Spike reluctantly agreed to. Tara spent some time packing up Willow’s things for her, silently wishing that Willow would come to her senses with every box. The boxes were placed on the back porch – she would call Willow later to come get them. The four of them began to get restless as they waited and waited for sunset.
 
“We should have some dinner,” Tara said after she finished with Willow’s things.
 
“Can’t fight nerds on an empty stomach,” Spike agreed.
 
“What are you going to do when you don’t have to think about food anymore?” Buffy teased.
 
“Start sampling local Slayers,” Spike teased back. “I hear they’re delicious.”
 
“Maybe I should take this body to the dentist and have the fangs pulled,” Buffy retorted.
 
“Oi! Not funny!” Spike cried. Tara laughed at their banter as she and Dawn went into the kitchen to see what to cook. They settled on a tuna casserole and got to work, telling Spike and Buffy to relax and save their energy for later.
 
“Maybe you should change into something dark,” Buffy suggested, seeing that Spike was wearing a white sweater.
 
“Good point. Not exactly stealth wear,” he admitted. “Mind showing me where the stealth wear lives in that clothing store you have upstairs?” They both went upstairs and Buffy picked out black jeans and a black turtleneck. “How’s the shoulder?” he asked as he changed.
 
Buffy shrugged. “Still sore, but I think it will be okay,” she replied. “The one time I’m grateful vamps heal so fast. It’s kind of a pain in the ass when you’re trying to kill them otherwise. But still, I hereby apologize for all the times I staked someone and didn’t kill them outright.”
 
Spike pulled the turtleneck down over his head and freed his face to look at Buffy. “I will genuinely kick your ass if you start feeling sorry for us vampires, you know that, right?”
 
“You can try,” Buffy said with a smirk. “Besides, I can’t live in your body for all this time and not be a little sympathetic.”
 
Spike grabbed Buffy’s upper arms and pulled her close. “I won’t watch you get killed again,” he said, his face serious and determined. “Won’t go through that again. You told me you loved me. Well I hope you knew what you were doing, because you’re bloody well stuck with me, Slayer.”
 
“Relax, it’s okay,” Buffy said, silencing him with a kiss. “I get it – vamps bad. And I’m truly not bent on self destruction anymore. You’ve convinced me to stick around.”
 
Spike smiled and kissed her in return. “Good. Because God help me, I do love you, stubborn bint that you are. You and the Bit. Plan to look after you two good and proper if you’ll let me.”
 
“I think that might be arranged,” Buffy responded. “But first, let’s go eat dinner and get back into our bodies.”
 
“Agreed.” Spike stole one more quick kiss, then led her downstairs.
 
Dinner was served, and Spike raved once more about it. Dawn laughed as Spike crooned over the casserole. “I get the feeling we could put five day old pizza in front of you and you’d be happy,” she remarked.
 
“I’m a little more discriminating than that,” Spike protested. “But you have absolutely no idea what it’s like. You know when you have a cold, and can’t taste anything? Imagine that for a hundred years, then imagine that you finally got better.”
 
Tara whistled. “That must be quite a change,” she said.
 
“I guess if you have to eat blood all the time, having dull taste buds isn’t a terrible thing,” Buffy put in, eyeing her liquid dinner with a bit of a grimace.
 
“Actually, you can taste the difference in different people’s blood,” Spike said. “Older people taste different than younger people, women taste different than men, etcetera.”
 
“Ew! Different topic please!” Dawn protested, turning a little green at the thought. “I really don’t need a menu of ‘Yummy People Through the Ages’.”
 
“You’re right. Probably best not to know that teenage girls who started life as mystical Keys are the absolute tastiest,” Spike teased. Dawn gave him a dirty look, but he grinned and went back to eating.
 
They cleared dinner away as they waited for the sun to go down. Finally, Buffy and Spike were able to gear up and get ready to go. “Wish us luck,” Buffy said as she put on Spike’s duster.
 
Dawn came up and hugged first Buffy, then Spike. “Be careful, okay? I want you both back, bodies in one piece, and no deleted memories, got it?”
 
“Don’t worry, Bit. We’ll be okay,” Spike reassured her. Buffy and Spike looked at each other, took a collective deep breath, and left on their mission. 

TBC