*Author's Note: Thanks so much to everyone who has been reviewing and reading this story. Never in a million years did I think I'd get such overwhelming support.

This chapter is a bit shorter then most, but check back tonight for another update. I'm on spring break so I hope to get a lot written in the next few days. Who needs to work on their thesis anyway?

~*~

Willow was tired. There was no doubt about that. It had been at least an hour and she hadn’t heard from anyone. The spell was starting to wear her out, and despite the three very large cups of coffee she’d consumed, she was more jittery then anything else. Draining the dregs of her last cup, she lowered the mug to the table, sighing heavily. She had no clue what the images were even talking about anymore. It had been fun for a little while, making Xander exclaim his undying love to her, having Buffy give her props for her awesome witchyness, and letting Spike go on and on about how he would tear Oz’s head off if he ever saw him again. But now the novelty was wearing off. And she was soooo tired.

Looking around the Bronze, which had been steadily emptying out, Willow realized that eventually she’d have to figure out a way to get out of there *with* the images, and she wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to make all three of them walk towards the door.

*Okay, Wills. You can do this. Maybe you can do it one image at a time? Concentrate.* Focusing as much of her effort as she could on image Xander, while not releasing image Spike and Buffy, Willow made him get up and walk to the door. Watching the image, as she guided it to the door, she thanked the gods that someone was walking in at the same time image Xander was leaving. There was no way she could open the door without a lot more power then she had now.

The door was just about to swing shut, and Willow was attempting to maneuver the hallucination through, when the two men that stumbled in caught her attention. Her mouth formed a little ‘o’ of surprise and she let image Xander disappear as in walked real life Xander, an extremely haggard looking Giles leaning against him. Standing up much too quickly, she wobbled a bit before making image Buffy and Spike walk over to the door with her, where she ushered the images and Xander and Giles into the alley.

“Dear lord,” Giles muttered, nodding his battered head in the direction of Buffy and Spike. “How did they make it back here so quickly?”

“They didn’t.” Looking around the outside of the Bronze to make sure no one was watching, Willow let the images disappear with a sigh of relief. Sagging against the wall of the building, she turned to Giles.

“Are you okay? What happened?" Pausing she motioned to the Desoto. "We should get in the car. Be ready to make a fast getaway.”

Pulling the keys to Spike’s car out of her pocket, she hastily unlocked the rear passenger door, sliding in quickly, so that she and Xander could help the injured Giles into the Desoto, one from the outside, one from the inside.

Once the three of them were settled comfortably in the large backseat, Giles briefly filled Xander and Willow in on what had happened. “I was taken by the council as some sort of trial the Slayer must endure,” Giles explained. “I’m not quite sure what this test is about, but I think I have a way of finding out.”

Leaning a head back against the seat rest, Giles scrubbed his good eye with the back of his hand. “I dare say it’s not safe for us to return to my flat.”

Patting his arm, Willow stared out the window, willing Buffy to hurry. “Don’t worry, Giles. We thought of that.”

*I just don’t know if you’re going to like our new hideout,* she thought guiltily.

~*~

*I need a smoke, and… and a good kill, is what I need. Bloody Slayer, screwin’ around with my head. No idea where she gets off kissing me like that.*

Staring down at the hand that was still clasped tightly in the Slayer’s, Spike had no clue what the fuck was going on. Replaying the night in his head, as he trekked through the sewer he was for once in his life at a loss. *No mate, you are buggered, is what you are. Kissing the Slayer! She’ll probably stake you once she comes to her senses, you stupid ponce.*

From tracking her down in the cemetery, to pledging his help in her watcher’s flat, to proposing to her in order to make that cardboard cut out of a soldier get off their backs, he had no idea when the night got so thoroughly fucked up. He’d had the Slayer in his arms more times then he could count, not once dreaming of draining her, or snapping her pretty little neck. No, instead, he was more concerned with getting her to stop crying and keeping her family safe.

*Face it, William. You’ve gone soft.*

A slight squeeze from the Slayer had him glancing at their entwined fingers.

*Might not be such a *bad* thing. Going soft.*

~*~

Buffy squeezed Spike’s hand as they rounded a bend in the sewers. Replaying the night in her head she tried to figure out just when she had fallen for her second vampire.

*Guess I’m not trying to deny it anymore. Stupid Willow and her stupid spells. This is all her fault.*

She was the Vampire Slayer. Emphasis on the “Slay.” She wasn’t supposed to work with vampires, Travers had hit the nail on the head when he called her out on that one. And she certainly wasn’t supposed to be making out with them in the sewers. *Or holding their hands like some pathetic high school kid on a first date.*

But Buffy couldn’t hide it anymore. When Spike had promised to help her find Giles, she wasn’t sure she could trust him. Yet, all the things he did for her tonight, from driving her all the way across Sunnydale to check on her mom, to pretending to be her fiancé to get rid of Riley, she knew something had changed. She *trusted* him. That was sooo stupid of her. And still, there it was, she trusted him.

Squeezing his hand once more, she stopped at the exit right below the Bronze.

*Thank you Wills. You can cast spells whenever you want.*