The next morning, Willow walked into her dorm room. It didn’t occur to her to knock on the door of her own room until it was too late. It also didn’t occur to her Buffy would be snuggled up naked in the bed with Spike, with a fresh bite mark on her neck, but she was.

Buffy looks contented, Willow thought. She’d never before looked contented when she was sleeping. Usually, she thrashed around at night, having her crazy Slayer dreams.

The instant Willow opened the door, Spike ripped into his vamp face, placing his arm over Buffy protectively. When he saw Willow at the door, he shook away his vamp face and turned back to Buffy. He drew his arm tighter around her as if Willow might try to steal her away from him.

During the past few weeks, Willow forgot how fierce and dangerous Spike could be. She forgot, that without the chip, he was a ruthless, vicious killer. The chilling sight of Spike in his vamp face brought those terrible memories back and made her heart pound with fear.

The lights were out and the curtains were closed tight to block out the sunlight, but Willow could see Spike tenderly touching and kissing Buffy’s face and tucking the sheet around her, covering her soft pink nipples and hear him speaking to her in a low voice.

Willow ducked back out of the room. She was embarrassed to see Buffy and Spike together and even more embarrassed at her own reaction to seeing her best friend’s nude body.

Spike called out to her in a quiet voice, so he wouldn’t wake up Buffy.

“Wait, Red, let me put on my pants. I want to talk to you.”

“Meet you downstairs in the lounge,” Willow said. She closed the door quickly. She did not want to see Spike without his pants.

While she was waiting for Spike, Willow had time to calm down from the heart-stopping terror of seeing him vamped out and to think about what else she saw. The bite on Buffy’s neck for one thing. Spike wasn’t supposed to be able to hurt people, bite them and stuff, with the chip in his brain. He might have bitten Buffy in spite of the chip and endured the pain. Spike’s willingness to endure pain didn’t explain why Buffy let him bite her or why she had sex with him or why she was cuddled up next to him.

It was all were very confusing, as many things involving Buffy were.

Then, there was the Spike lovey-dovey stuff and the whole protective male vamping-out business. What was that all about? Willow never thought Spike capable of such behavior. Did Spike have a romantic thing for Buffy?

And, Buffy was tucked up against him as if there was no place in this dimension she’d rather be. Was she becoming involved with a vampire again? Willow felt an unpleasant wave of guilt about the spell she cast over Spike and Buffy earlier. She was afraid the spell had lingering effects. It might be all her fault the two of them were together.

Spike came downstairs a few minutes later. He’d put his clothes on, downed a slug of scotch from his pocket flask, and attempted, not very successfully, to smooth back his hair. He was carrying the black zapper box and wristband.

Willow thought Spike looked exactly like he’d gotten thoroughly laid, with his hair rumpled up and his shirt ripped. She hoped Spike would say whatever it was he wanted to say quickly. She did not want to dwell on what Buffy had been up to, which Willow could hardly avoid thinking about when the very who Buffy had been up to with was sitting right next to her.

“I need your help, Red. It’s about this box,” Spike said. “I don’t think it does what the professor told Buffy it was supposed to do. What do you know about it?”

“Buffy told me she was to use the box to give you positive reinforcement when you did something good. The zaps make you feel good, so you’ll want to do nice things in the future. The more nice things you do, the more Buffy zaps you and the more you get zapped, the more nice things you want to do.”

“Yeah, it’s a vicious circle,” Spike said. He looked disgusted. “That’s not what’s happening. I think it’s zapping both of us to get us to have sex. I’m not complaining, mind you.”

Willow looked at Spike in astonishment. Was the box zapping Buffy into having sex with Spike? Talk about positive reinforcement. And, boy, Buffy was going to be mad when she found out.

“Are you sure? What makes you think the machine is making you and Buffy, you know?”

“Buffy has to wear this wristband for the machine to work, right?”

Willow nodded. She’d wondered about the wristband herself when Buffy first brought the device to their dorm room. The band didn’t seem to serve any useful purpose for firing off Spike’s chip.

“When Buffy zaps me, the light on the band goes off,” Spike turned the controls to the lowest level, and hit the zap button. The wristband blinked on and off.

“So?” Willow didn’t want to believe this electronic box could make Buffy get groiny with Spike. Ewww.

“Every time Buffy gives me a strong enough zap, we have sex. Right away.”

Willow felt her throat tighten. She thought she might gag.

“How many times are we talking about here?” Willow said. Buffy hasn’t had the machine for 24 hours yet. How bad could it be?

Spike appeared to be counting. He shouldn’t be counting. Counting sexual events is not right, she thought.

“There was the bathtub – twice, the mall – twice, no three times, the cemetery …” Spike said.

“No details! No details. Just tell me the number of zaps to number of, er, incidents.” Oh, no, thought Willow, not the mall. She’d never be able to go shopping at the mall again. And, they did the dirty in Giles’ bathtub. Buffy and Spike must have been having sex while she and Giles were in the next room. Twice.

“Six times after she zapped me, but I’m not counting how many times we had sex once we got started. I think the zap lasts awhile.”

Willow could feel her face turning hot and red. She did not want to know about Slayer-Vampire sex. Spike made it sound like the two of them were athletes running a marathon. Spike didn’t appear embarrassed either.

“The box is doing something else, too,” Spike said. “Touch my hand.”

Willow did not want to touch Spike’s hand. Vampires were cold and ewww to touch. She’d touched Angel once and the chilly feel of his skin creeped her out. There was the whole Buffy-Spike sex thing to think about as well. Vampire sex had a high potential creep factor and made her even less willing to touch Spike.

He held out his hand and she didn’t think she could refuse without upsetting him. She reached out one finger to touch the back of Spike’s hand. She frowned.

“You’re warm.”

“Yes, and I haven’t drunk any blood since, well, in a while. I should be room temperature. I’ve been warm like this since yesterday afternoon when Buffy first tested the machine on me.”

Willow knew perfectly well when Spike drank his last drink of blood. She knew he got his latest drink from Buffy, too, although it was nice of him not to mention Buffy’s name. Concentrate on the problem, she said to herself; don’t think about the bite on Buffy’s neck. How can Spike be warm? What was going on?

“I don’t get it,” she said.

“The box is doing something to both of us. First, the box gets us to have sex, then, it warms me up, or the other way around.”

“What am I supposed to do?” Willow was quite sure she didn’t want to hear what was coming next.

“Break into the Initiative’s computer and find out what this positive reinforcement program is about. The Initiative has to be involved since they’re using my chip.”

“Whoa, hacking into a super-secret government computer is not of the good. Big felony here. Assuming I can find the computer site and the right information, the government has the best encryption programs available and I doubt I will be able to crack their passwords and firewalls.

Her friends thought she could hack into any computer she liked. She’d let them think she was Super Hacker Girl, and usually the sites were easy pickings – Sunnydale City Hall, their old high school, the Wilkins County Morgue, The Sunnydale Sunset and other local newspapers and sites that didn’t use much security. Hacking into a top-secret federal government computer was a whole other kettle of newt eyes.

“There’s a spell,” Spike said.

Willow was puzzled. Spike was certainly full of surprises today. What did he know about spells?

“There was a spell in the New Age Spells for Modern Technology Review a few months ago for operating electronic machines. You can use it to locate the computer and break into the password files.”

Spike was reading magic magazines Willow never heard of before. He’d been kissing Buffy in her sleep and protecting her like Sensitive Guy. Willow was going to have to rethink everything she thought she knew about Spike.

She still didn’t want to hack into the Initiative’s computer.

“Why doesn’t Buffy pretend to use the box and make up something for the computer entries? After six weeks, she’ll be through and Professor Walsh won’t be any wiser.”

And, Willow wanted to add, you two won’t have to have Slayer-Vampire sex any more, unless you want to. She was afraid they might.

“I’d agree if we knew exactly what the box is doing, but we don’t. I’m afraid the zaps will hurt Buffy. We need to find out before we use the box again.”

Spike is right, she thought. Buffy might get hurt. Willow didn’t want that to happen.

“Okay,” Willow said, “but this is going to take a lot of donuts.”