Chapter One
From Here to There

---

It didn’t happen right away. It was a gradual shift in perspective that got her to this point…all of them actually.

At first there were consecutive days when Buffy woke up in the middle of the night thinking she was coming out of her catatonic state and that the gang would be working on how to wake her up, rescue Dawn, defeat Glory and save the world. Those times found her rushing across the hall at every hour to reassure herself of her sister’s presence. Throwing open the door to see Dawn sleeping soundly would inevitably result in a suddenly weepy Buffy whose slow descent down the wall ended in a loose sprawl on the floor. She would sit there for long minutes trying to grasp that it was really over – Glory was dead and Dawn was safe… And it was all thanks to Spike. Without his sacrifice… She would shake her head and refuse again to go there because she couldn’t think of what she would have done if Dawn had died. She would send up a silent thanks to Spike and go back to her own bed to sleep peacefully.

Eventually life got back on a more even keel, and then came weeks of boring patrols that found her spending ridiculous amounts of time protecting his cemetery, making sure no one moved into his crypt or touched his stuff. And how ridiculous was that? Spike was gone. What did he care if someone took his old TV or the records and books that Buffy found stored in a niche in the wall? But she did care and for reasons she couldn’t quite fathom. Justifying it to herself that Dawn would surely want these keepsakes and that she owed it to Spike in honor of the fallen, she bundled up all of the personal items one night and took them back to her house. But the next night found her stopping by his crypt again, and the one after that, and again the following night. Realizing that her behavior was bordering on some weirdo obsession, she finally decided to just accept it and made stopping by his place a part of her routine – choosing to store some extra weapons and first aid supplies there for herself when needed. And yet it still wasn’t her place. It would always be his in her mind. And if she thought of him a little more than she probably should… Well, who did it hurt anyway?

Things might have continued on indefinitely had it not been for a rather unsettling conversation one night at the Magic Box. One that Buffy was so not prepared to have. The gang was all there talking about the latest threats to the Hellmouth. After Glory’s defeat Buffy had decided that since Dawn had already been through the worst possible experience, she would be allowed to sit in on the discussions rather than relegated to the loft to study. Dawn had been thrilled to be included and was usually very vocal, asking questions and soaking up information like a sponge. But this particular evening she had been extremely quiet, barely participating, until a pause in the conversation when she suddenly voiced a question that would set a chain of events in motion that none of them could have imagined. “Do you guys think that the portal Glory opened went to multiple places or just her world?”

Stunned silence was her only response. The others looked at each other and then to Buffy to see how to respond to this unexpected query. After Spike’s sacrifice and Glory’s defeat, they’d all been careful not to discuss that day in front of her. Other than a small memorial ceremony to honor Spike (that had been Tara’s idea) where all of them had spoken up to give him just due for loving and protecting Dawn, that topic was pretty much off limits as far as everyone was concerned. None of them had been close to Spike except for Dawn and she had been devastated by his loss. Even Xander had been unusually careful to keep his mouth shut out of respect for her feelings. Now Dawn was bringing up the day that none of them wanted to think about, and no one knew what to say.

Finally Buffy broke the silence. “We know Glory was trying to get back home through the portal, Dawnie…”

“But Giles said that the walls between dimensions were opened allowing things to bleed through, so the portal could have gone to other places, right?” Dawn interrupted her with a rushed statement and looked up then – surprising them all with the tears running down her face.

Buffy felt totally helpless in the face of those tears and had no idea what was causing them. She was grateful when Tara reached over and took Dawn’s hand gently and asked her why this was important. She stood up to walk around the table and hug her sister, but Dawn’s response literally stopped her in her tracks.

“I don’t think Spike dusted when he went through the portal. I think he ended up in another dimension.”

All of them were silent in light of that statement for several moments. Then the questions started and the answers or possible answers had all of them thinking. Dawn had been looking down at the portal when Spike jumped and she saw him disappear in a flash of blinding light, but afterward she didn’t see any vampire dust floating around. With all the confusion of that morning, this might have been disregarded except that Willow confirmed the same impression from her view on the ground. When Buffy and Giles both established that they had witnessed vampires die in every means possible including combustion and there was always a cloud of dust, everyone was silent as the implications of this possibility struck them.

Dawn was the first to speak, voicing her desire to have Spike back if that was in any way possible. Her heartfelt plea touched all there and even Xander realized that the thought of having the bleached wonder back didn’t really upset or anger him. Along the way, Spike had become a reluctantly (by most anyway) accepted part of their group. If he was somewhere needing to be rescued, then it was only right they try to save him considering that he had saved them all from Glory in the end.

So, here they were a couple of weeks later, gathered in the Magic Box and waiting on Willow and Tara to finish preparations for the spell to retrieve Spike from whatever dimension he might be in. With varying emotions, they stood in a circle and Willow began to chant softly. The temperature in the room raised several degrees and hair stood on end as energy crackled in their midst. As the incantation reached a crescendo, there was a blinding flash of light and they knew no more.

---

Dawn was the first to regain consciousness. Finding herself in a darkened field in the middle of nowhere did not exactly inspire confidence, but a quick glance around showed the others were also there and that made her feel better. She wasn’t sure what had happened with the spell, but at least she wasn’t alone. She knelt to waken Buffy first and then moved on to rouse the others.

When they were all awake and had shaken off the grogginess induced by the result of the spell, several expectant stares were aimed at Willow. She squeaked in realization that she had done this and turned an apologetic look on everyone as she opened her mouth to speak. She never voiced her thoughts though because two things happened at once. The moon suddenly peaked out of the clouds giving them a good look at their surroundings and sounds of fighting could be heard in the distance. Giles admonished them all to be cautious as they made their way as quietly as possible toward the source of the noise.

Rounding a small knoll, they were brought up short by the unexpected sight of a cloaked man battling two large beasts that vaguely resembled Olaf the Troll in stature and bearing. Buffy started to step forward to join the battle and help the outnumbered man when Giles stayed her with a whispered word that they didn’t know who was the enemy here. Pulling back into the shadow of the knoll, they watched the surprisingly short fight that ensued. It became quickly evident that the smaller man dashing between his opponents was simply toying with the larger beasts who lumbered clumsily around trying to smash him with log like weapons. The cloak swirled around him like wings as he launched himself off a large rock and somersaulted over both their heads, which he cleanly removed in the process with a single swipe of a large gleaming axe.

Buffy was amazed by the fluidity and grace of this fighter. She wanted to know how he did that flippy move. That could come in quite handy, although she suspected she might not be able to get quite that high given her lack of height. Her introspection was interrupted by a strangled gasp from Dawn. Looking up she realized that the hood had slipped of the man’s head and the moonlight clearly revealed a profile that could belong to no one other than Spike. Granted Spike with long hair pulled back in a ponytail, hair that certainly wasn’t platinum blond anymore, but still it was Spike. Until that very moment, Buffy hadn’t realized how much she had wanted Willow’s spell to succeed. She had steeled herself to be disappointed for Dawn’s sake if it failed, had acknowledged that they owed it to him to try and rescue him if he really was in another dimension being tortured, and had even admitted to herself that it would be of the good to have her slaying partner back. But she hadn’t allowed herself to accept the bevy of emotions swirling around in her just under the surface. Until this moment when she saw him again for the first time in what felt like forever and realized that her heart was swelling with happiness and she felt like crying. Glancing around, she noticed that the others all wore stunned expressions similar to hers, all except Dawn who wasn’t there any longer.

By the time the others had accepted what their eyeballs were clearly telling their brains, Dawn was already running and had covered most of the distance separating her from Spike. She could hear him cursing at the fallen creatures, but couldn’t quite make out the words. She was out of breath, but managed to gasp out his name, counting on his vampire hearing. His head jerked around immediately and his face was the picture of pure shock. Dawn knew she was grinning like a loon, but she couldn’t help it. One moment Spike was staring at her in total amazement and the next he was a blur of speed racing toward her. Then he was suddenly grabbing her about the waist and lifting her in the air and hugging her tightly to him.

“Niblet? God, Niblet. Is that really you? You okay, Bit? You’re not hurt or anything are you? How’d you get here? Are the others okay? What happened?” A litany of questions spilled out of his mouth as he set Dawn on the ground again and ran his sharp eyes over her form looking for any obvious injuries. Finding none apparent, he relaxed slightly and hugged her again. Pulling back, he was surprised to see tears running down her cheeks, but the wide smile she sported reassured him these were good tears. Tears never made him comfortable, but it warmed his heart to realize these tears were apparently shed on his behalf. Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, he held her close a moment longer basking in the pleasure of reunion with one he thought to never see again.

Dawn slightly relaxed her tight hold on Spike and started to speak, when he suddenly removed her arms from his middle and pushed her behind him to assume a protective stance. He relaxed that pose moments later when his eyes were able to determine that several familiar faces were the cause of the noises he had just heard. Shaking his head and smiling, he wondered what in the world the Scoobies were doing in Middle Earth.

---

TBC

---