“It’s mine. Angel isn’t into watching it.” When Giles looked awkwardly around, Spike gestured toward the other side of the couch. “You may as well have a sit. The two lovebirds are making up in the new training room. I’d wait until they were done so everybody is in a happy mood.”

“Oh, is anything wrong?”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Spike laughed at the hopeful note in the Watcher’s tone. “It’s just a little misunderstanding that’s all. They’re going to be fine.”

After taking a seat next to Spike on the couch Giles nodded toward the television. “What are you watching?”

“Passions. Ever watched it?”

“No, don’t believe I have.”

“Best show on the telly. Look, that’s Timmy but he’s really a doll…”

They both settled in to watch the television program while waiting for Angel and Buffy to appear. Spike caught Giles up on the characters and plot lines. During one of the commercial breaks Giles turned to Spike and studied the vampire for a moment.

“What Rup old man? Is my hair out of place or you just enjoying the view?”

“Actually, Spike, I want to know something. I know that over the summer you have helped Angel with things but I’ve felt that it was because you felt like you had to.”

“Yeah, I helped out. What’s your point?”

The Watcher leaned forward on his elbows contemplating how to pose the question without causing problems. Not only for Buffy but for his own piece of mind he needed to know.

“Now that Buffy is back,” he started. “Are you going to become a full fledged member of this team or just a hanger on?”

“Oh, I’m supposed to suddenly become a member of the Scooby Gang just because I’m sleeping with the heroes?”

The two men stared at each other for a moment before Giles continued. “Buffy is going to be going through a lot of resistance from everyone. She is going to need you on her side.”

Spike sighed as he contemplated the Slayer and his very speech to Angel earlier about the guilt being laid on her since she had come back. If her friends were going to give her trouble about everything then she wouldn’t be certain they would give her full support in the Slaying department either. If she wasn’t confident of who was fighting with her then it could only lead to the girl getting hurt and when it came down to it he really didn’t want to see that.

“Look, I don’t want to work with you people. And I’m not going to change my plans for when I get this chip out but as long as I’m here living with her then I’ll help her.” Spike finally said. “If anyone is going to rip her throat out it’s going to be me.”

Giles quickly hid a smile, “That’s enough for now. Thank you, Spike.”

The pair returned to viewing the television show in companionable silence. Giles was satisfied with Spike’s answer for now. He had promised a lot more than he had ever shown in effort and it was beginning to become apparent that Spike was slowly changing his ways even if he was fighting it every step of the way.

The show was almost over when Buffy and Angel joined them and Giles had to fight the urge to ignore them so he could watch the ending. Thanks to Spike he now had a new guilty pleasure.

“Hey guys, what cha doin’?” Buffy asked.

“Watching the telly while waiting for you two to quit being all cute and sickening.”

“Jealous?” she asked as she sat on the arm of the couch. Her hand casually rested on his upper back while Angel took a seat in the chair next to them.

“Please, don’t think so.” Spike answered while looking up at her. “You’ve been keeping your Watcher waiting so don’t you have training to do? Something to do besides sitting around?”

“Hi Giles,” Buffy said.

“Hello Buffy. Spike said the training room was ready?”

She laughed, “It’s cleaner but I wouldn’t say it was ready.”

“We’ll get it set up. I’ve got some equipment in the car for us to bring in and we’ll make a list of what else we need.”

“Let’s go. You can pull the car around to the side so we can just unload directly into the room.”

Buffy jumped up and led Giles toward the door to bring the equipment in for her training. As they left the room, Spike glanced over at Angel.

“Everything okay?” He asked.

“It will be. I apologized to her, told her I was wrong,” Angel said and shrugged. “Do you want to help me work on her room some more.”

“Fine with me. Burn off some aggression before those Scoobies show up for their meeting.”

The two vampires made their way back upstairs while Buffy and Giles worked on the training room and for the moment everything was as it should be.

~~~~~~~~~~

There was an awkward silence as the four of them waited. There really wasn’t a lot to say. Encourage her. Tell her it was going to be all right when it was becoming more apparent with each passing minute that it probably wasn’t. Buffy’s face went from apprehension to nervousness to dejection as the wait became longer. Tears were hovering and the three men weren’t sure what to do to console her. So, they waited in silence.

“It’s time to quit waiting.” Buffy finally said. It was time to suck it up and start over. If her lifestyle was so reprehensible to her friends then she would make new ones. Maybe there were some lonely vampires out there that could understand the relationship that she was in. “Giles tell me what you know so far.”

“There’s not a lot really. It’s actually kind of humiliating the lack of knowledge we have.” Giles said.

“Starting the meeting without us? It’s going to make us feel a little not wanted.” Xander said as he walked into the mansion with Anya beside him.

Behind them were Willow and Oz. The hellos were quickly said as the room filled with tension as the new arrivals took seats around the room.

Buffy look of relief from seeing her friends returned to its earlier apprehension. It was time to start moving on and get past this. “I’m glad that you all showed up. I was getting worried.”

“We’ve been involved for too long to walk away now. We know what’s out there and it wouldn’t be right just to…” Willow said.

“Walk away because I’m a perv.” Buffy said.

“Oh, I don’t think you are.” Anya said. “They were all talking about how disgusting the relationship was. I think it’s very practical. Lot’s of orgasms for everyone.”

Spike laughed while everyone else looked uncomfortable and Buffy looked at the blonde vampire as he winked at her. A feeling that it was all going to work out came over her and she smiled. Not everyone thought her choices were wrong. Some were actually glad for it.

“Anya, I don’t that we are going to discuss that but in a way thank you for the support,” the Slayer said before changing the subject. “Giles was just going to fill me in on what’s been going on.”

Everyone’s attention turned to Giles as he explained to Buffy what they knew so far about the monster that had killed the little boy and the Initiative.

“How do we know that this monster was created by this lab?” Buffy asked.

“They were doing all sorts of weird experiments on us. The demons were talking about it and a lot of them are even scared of what they are doing.” Spike explained.

“Okay, this lab place is kidnapping demons putting chips in their heads to prevent them from doing harm and then doing experiments that make some of them worse than they are. It doesn’t really make sense.”

“Nothing these people are doing makes sense.” Angel said. “When we’ve been patrolling we’ve seen these soldiers out acting like they are doing the same thing that we are.”

Buffy looked around the room taking in everyone’s faces. There had to be something to go on other than what they already knew. “Willow have you checked to see if these soldiers are actually with the government or not?”

“Yeah, but so far no luck but I’ll keep trying.”

“Thanks. Look, I want Spike to take me to where he thinks this place might be and see if we can find out anything new.”

“Buffy, we’ve already been out there a couple of times and nothing,” Angel said.

“I haven’t been and I want to see myself. So, will you take patrolling tonight while we do that?”

She could see by the look on Angel’s face that he wasn’t happy about her request and that she hadn’t just accepted his word for it. Still, she needed to see for herself.

“Fine,” Angel said.

“And the rest of us?” Xander asked.

“For right now I think it’s covered unless you all know something else.”

“Told you that she wouldn’t have anything for us to do.” Anya said.

“She just got back. Things will pick up. They usually do around here.” Oz said.

“Thank you, Oz.” Buffy smiled at him. “It will. I’m sure as we find out more about these people. I do need you guys on the team.”

“No problem, Buffy, that’s why we are here.” Willow said. “And I’ll get back to work on hacking into the government database and see what I can find.”

“Great, any questions or anything?” Buffy asked.

“I do,” Anya said. “Willow said that the three of you sleep together but….”

And Anya was silenced as everyone else groaned and Xander told her that it wasn’t appropriate.

“Fine, now, I’ll never know and Xander won’t let me bring anyone else into our bed.”

~~~~~~~

The woods were quiet as Buffy followed Spike. He had already shown her the spot on the college campus where he had been taken and she was trying to push aside the fact that he had been looking for coeds to eat when it had happened. At least he didn’t lie to her about it. And if she had to admit it she was kind of relieved that he had been there looking for food and not picking anyone up.

“Yeah, I came out of the place somewhere up here.”

Buffy glanced around as they moved. Anything to keep her mind off the way Spike looked in the outfit she had made him wear. It didn’t make sense to go into the enemy’s camp wearing the same outfit that you had been taken in so she had made him dress in a pair of faded blue jeans and a black sweater. He still looked like Spike but it made him look more human and more approachable which was quickly becoming a liability on this trip.

“Slayer,” Spike called while snapping his fingers.

“Sorry,” Buffy said while she pretended she had been checking other things out besides him. “Did you come out through a door or what?”

“There was a door that opened into a cave which led out here.”

“But you don’t remember which cave?”

“Wasn’t making a map, just trying to get the bloody hell out of there.”

She nodded slowly. “I wonder if there are any geological maps of the area that would show the caves and then we could start checking them out.”

“Good idea.”

When he smiled at her it made her stomach do a small flip flop and she smiled back. It was then that she heard the cracking of a twig as someone moved toward them. A quick glance at Spike told her that he had heard it too and she also saw the momentary look of panic in his eyes at the thought of being taken back into the lab. Buffy moved quickly toward him while her fingers undid the first couple of buttons on her blouse.

“Buffy, this isn’t exactly…”

And as her hands mussed up her hair he realized what she was up to and backed her up against a tree. As the person or persons came toward them he buried his face in her neck while Buffy ran her fingers through his hair and across his shoulders.

“Spike, we’re pretending.” She whispered when he nibbled on her neck and his hand cupped her bottom to pull her against him. “Oh,” she moaned as she realized that he was quickly becoming hard against her.

“Need you flushed and panty to make it look more realistic.” He whispered and she only nodded her understanding against him.

As the footsteps came closer they realized that there was definitely more than one of them. Suddenly there were four men around them with guns pointing at them and the couple broke apart reluctantly. Buffy stayed standing in front of Spike keeping him in the shadows as much as possible but her heart sank as one of the men used a flashlight to check them over.

“What are you doing here?”

Buffy giggled and tossed her hair. “I’m sorry. My boyfriend and I were looking for a place to be alone. Did we do something wrong?”

A couple of the men laughed as they looked her over and she coquettishly preened for them.

“This is private property and you’re trespassing.” The leader said as he dropped the flashlight. “Don’t I know you?”

With the flashlight out of her eyes Buffy looked at the man a little closer and with horror she recognized him.

“Riley Finn?”

“Yeah, and you’re that girl that signed up for Professor Walsh’s psychology class, the one who needed a sign off for late registration.” Riley appeared to be searching for her name.

“Buffy, Buffy Summers, oh boy, didn’t think I’d ever see you, well out here anyway.” Buffy said as she looked him over slowly.

“And it’s actually kind of a surprise to see you here too. So, this guy is your boyfriend?”

“Yeah, this is William. Will, this Riley Finn, the TA for one of my classes.” Buffy introduced them. “What are you doing out here? All dressed up in army gear and playing with guns?” She asked as she batted her eyes at the weapon.

“ROTC practice. These woods belong to the government now for us to use for these kinds of runs. It isn’t safe to be out here.”

Buffy giggled again as her eyes darted over the four. She could feel Spike tensing behind her but she ignored him for now.

“We are just going to get out of here then. Don’t want to interrupt anything that you all might be doing,” she said as she tugged on Spike’s hand and walked away praying that Riley or his goons wouldn’t say anything else to them.