A/N: Thank you to Sue and Niamh for the beta. And big squishy hugs to everyone who is leaving me the wonderful feedback, it is much appreciated!



Chapter 3: Calm Before The Storm.


“That’ll be all for today.”

Willow scribbled down the last few notes from the lecture before shutting her notebook and returning her pencil to its case.

The last few weeks had been somewhat normal; class, hanging out with her friends, Tara, and a noticeable lack of life threatening situations. It was a nice change from the normal chaos that was life in Sunnydale.

Picking up her text and notebooks Willow exited the small lecture theatre.

“Hey, Will!”

Willow jumped slightly, startled by the unexpected presence of her best friend. “Buffy, don’t do that!”

“Sorry,” Buffy apologised genuinely as she fell in step next to the wiccan, her own books clutched at her chest. “So, how was class?”

“Good. I’ve got a lot of reading to do but it should be fun.”

“Fun?” Buffy repeated with a raised brow. “Will, you need to get out more if you think mountains of reading is fun,” she joked.

“I still enjoy the book learning,” Willow admitted with a shrug. “You don’t think word will get out do you? Cos I’ve been trying hard to get past the ‘Willow is a geek’ days of my past.”

“Will, you’re not a geek,” Buffy scolded. At her friend’s raised brow she laughed. “Okay, so maybe just a teensy bit,” she conceded. “But I don’t think you’ll get lynched for it.”

“No? Oh good. Cos that would be a drag.”

The pair laughed and conversed as they made their way out through the double doors and into the sunlight. It was another beautiful day in So-Cal. The pessimist in Willow knew that the quiet wouldn’t last forever; their run of good luck would eventually change. But until then she was determined to enjoy the peace while they could.

“So, how’s patrol going?” she inquired.

Buffy’s blush answered the question well enough.

“That good, huh?”

“NO!” Buffy responded adamantly. “I mean, yes, patrol is going well. But in the random fledgling vampires being the only opponents I’ve come across sorta way.”

“So the good has nothing to do with the smoochies time you’ve been clocking up with Spike?” Willow probed, stifling a laugh when Buffy’s cheeks blushed even redder.

Buffy could lie, but Willow could always see through any fakeness on her part, so there wasn’t much point. “It’s not like I’ve been neglecting my patrolling duties or anything,” Buffy explained, wringing her fingers in front of her and almost dropping her books as they walked across the quad. “It’s just been quiet and…”

“You don’t have to make apologies to me, Buffy,” Willow teased lightly. “You know I’m all for you being happy. But it’s part of my best friendly duty to poke fun at you every now and then.”

“Really?” Buffy asked wryly. “Can we have that retracted from the pinkie swear contract please?”

Both girls laughed again, Buffy’s expression becoming pensive moments later. “The quiet has been great, but it’s starting to wig me out a little. I know it won’t last and I’m just waiting for the next big battle to come bashing on my door.”

“Think of it as a well earned break,” Willow suggested. “Perhaps the Powers decided that you’ve done your share of civic duty for the year and are giving you a holiday?”

At Buffy’s arched brow Willow shrugged. “It could happen!”

“Yeah, and pigs might fly,” Buffy scoffed.

“You know, I actually read something the other day about…”

~~~

At the Summers’ residence Dawn was busily packing a suitcase for the much dreaded trip to LA. It seemed that Hank had decided it was about time the girls came down for a visit. Buffy had managed to weasel out of the trip with excuses about college and needing to work—supposedly at the Magic Box—so that bills could be paid. The same excuse hadn’t been accepted from Dawn.

Hank had already arranged with the school for Dawn to take a few weeks off for ‘personal time’ in light of her mother’s passing. Why her father decided now of all times to spring this bonding session on her she didn’t know. All that she cared about was the fact that she had to go but Buffy didn’t.

Uber-bitch…

Sitting on her suitcase to zip it shut, she looked around her bedroom one final time before resigning herself to the fate awaiting her. With a heavy sigh she grabbed the case by its handle, dragging it out of her bedroom towards the stairs. A loud clunk sounded as the small wheels hit each stair and Dawn almost wished Buffy were home, and asleep right now.

When she reached the bottom she dragged the luggage over to the front door, and then made her way into the living room for some cartoon action before her father arrived.

~~~

Spike paced back and forth across the compacted dirt floor of his crypt. Staying indoors had never been that big an issue for Spike in his past, but all of that changed the moment he’d first set food in Sunnydale, a little over three years ago.

Spike had been drawn to the Hellmouth as had so many others of his kind; the power and the evil emanating from the deceptively peaceful little town sucking him in and ultimately changing his life. A cure for Dru had been what they sought when his black Desoto had crashed through the ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ sign on that night years ago.

It was that night he had first spied the Slayer, dancing and having fun with her friends, which had changed his un-life forever. So carefree, so delectable, Buffy Summers would have made the perfect addition to his little trophy case of slayers. They were here for a cure to restore his Dark Princess, but his plans had definitely changed that fateful night at the Bronze.

He had watched her fight, lured her outside almost too easily with the overly loud voicing of someone in danger. Though he would not confess it to her face now, at the time he had been almost disappointed by Buffy’s gullibility, rushing right out into the night without a moment’s consideration. It was one of the first things to draw him to her, the unrelenting duty she felt to protect the residents of this town. That, and the way she moved.

Boy, could she fight. Her style was a veritable assortment of martial arts techniques all mashed together, combined with something that was uniquely Buffy. She had a fire within her, something that made her stand out from the rest. Spike knew that night that she would be his greatest conquest.

Drusilla claimed that the Slayer had bewitched him with her light that night; she’d sucked him in just like she had so many others. The whelp, the witch, her watcher, even the great Angelus had been drawn to this incredible being. That had been most surprising, witnessing the former ‘Scourge of Europe’ jumping at every whim of a human girl, a girl who would soon become the bane of his very existence. What had begun as a game of cat and mouse had soon become an all-encompassing obsession.

Spike’s fascination with this creature, this warrior of the light did not even wane when thousands of miles separated them. Not being able to get her out of his head had been the reason Drusilla had left him in the first place.

Dru had claimed he loved her, and that he had since first laying eyes upon her. It was only now he realized that Dru mightn’t have been as daft in the melon as she seemed.

For Spike did love Buffy.

And times like this, cooped up inside a dusty old crypt, only drove that truth home even further. He could barely stand it, not being near her, knowing she was out in the world. Buffy was out in the light, a place he could never venture. Right now she was probably at college, no doubt chattering away with Willow, the both of them completely oblivious to any attentions they almost certainly would be gaining from the male population.

It incensed him, knowing they could and would dare to look at her, his Buffy, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Spike shot a balled fist at the wall, the satisfying crunch doing nothing to quell the jealousy was slowly growing within him. The copper tang of blood filled the air and made its way to his nostrils, his attention diverted to his now split knuckles. He suckled on the wound to stave the flow of blood, moments later the gash sealed.

Resuming his pacing, Spike came to the decision he wasn’t going to sit around his crypt all day waiting for sunset. No, he was going to head out, maybe surprise Buffy with a little gift.

Yeah, somethin’ pretty…

He loved the way her face lit up whenever he brought her a gift, be it flowers or a shiny new dagger. Lifting the blanket from the armchair in front of the television Spike swept out of the crypt and into the light, careful to keep the shroud covering his flammable bits as he leapt for the safety of shadows.

~~~

Dawn harrumphed for the fifteenth or possible sixteenth time when her channel surfing once more provided her with boundless amounts of uninteresting programming options. Resigned to her fate of boredom until her father’s arrival she switched off the television and leaned back into the cushions of the sofa.

Her eyes floated from one picture frame to another, a deep sigh leaving her mouth as she settled further back into her seat. Dawn’s eyes were just fluttering closed when a thump at the front door had her jumping to her feet.

“Wh-who’s there?” she stuttered as she inched towards the front door. Spying an umbrella in the stand by the door, she wrapped her fingers around the handle and held it over her shoulder, ready to strike. Before she could ask a second time, with more confidence, the door swung open and a figure stepped inside.

Shutting her eyes Dawn swung, a shriek of effort ripping from her lungs as she did so. The attack hit home, the shrouded person grunting in surprise.

“Bloody hell niblet!”

Dawn’s eyes blinked open. “Spike?”

“Who the bleedin’ else would be wanderin’ around—in bright afternoon sunlight I might add—with a blanket over their head?”

The door was kicked shut and the covering dropped, the mussed head of her favourite vampire finally visible. “Good to know you’re bein’ careful though,” he conceded.

“Don’t tell Buffy?” Dawn pleaded, as she returned the umbrella to its home and then leant down to pick up the blanket, carrying it with her into the living room and placing it on the sofa.

“M’lips are sealed,” he promised.

“Thanks.”

A comfortable silence filled the room as Spike made his way to the sofa and sat down next to his second favourite Summers. The movement of his hand sliding down next to his outer leg caught Dawn’s eye.

“What’ve you got there?”

“Nothin’,” Spike immediately replied.

“Doesn’t look like nothing,” Dawn pointed out. She leaned over to reach for the hidden object, Spike’s hands shooting up to still her progress.

“Don’t be getting’ ideas, niblet.”

Dawn stuck her bottom lip out in a pout, folding her arms over her chest as she moved back to her side of the sofa. “No fair,” she whined. “First, Buffy doesn’t have to go to LA and now she’s getting a present? I thought the youngest was supposed to get their way.”

Spike’s attention darted to the stairs, instantly spying the neatly stacked luggage by the stairs. He hadn’t noticed them at first. Might have somethin’ to do with the bein’ hit over the head with an umbrella of all things…

“LA, you say? Who’s it you’ll be visitin’?” he questioned, instantly jumping to his own conclusions, but then wondering why Buffy wouldn’t be going.

“My Dad,” Dawn grumbled. “It seems he’s decided that spending time with me is actually a priority.” She rolled her eyes, refolding her arms across her chest in a show of annoyance. “Buffy managed to weasel her way out of it. It’s not fair.”

“Did she now?”

Dawn nodded. “She didn’t want to go to LA. And not just because she didn’t want to spend time with our father.”

“Really?” Spike asked, a grin stretching its way across his face.

“Yes, really,” Dawn confirmed with a nod of her head, rolling her eyes at his obvious happiness. She was glad Buffy had finally opened her eyes and noticed the man behind the bleach. Spike was good for her. But she had expected the goofy grins from Spike’s end to have waned, even slightly. Apparently, so long as he was with Buffy, they would become a permanent fixture on the former Big Bad’s face.

A rap of knuckles at the front door interrupted the beginnings of familiar banter between the two. Dawn immediately stiffened beside Spike, the vampire watching her with a curious frown as she awkwardly made her way to answer it.

The door swung open and Dawn’s shoulders slumped.



~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: Hope you all liked, more up soon!