Chapter One:
She had been there from the beginning. She was there when he had been changed. She had been there when he had roamed. She had been there all along. Every fight. Every battle. Every bought with a slayer. She was there. Never letting him see her...that was forbidden...but she was there nonetheless, watching over him. She never pictured it ending this way...she never thought she would die in his arms, but that's what it came to...
They'd been fighting for what seemed like hours...each punch seemed to deliver less and less of an impact. < "What was the deal?" > Buffy had always been able to best Spike each time she encountered him. No matter how hard she kicked or punched, nothing was getting through. It was as though she wasn't even making contact. Spike seemed almost robotic. He had neither emotion nor the usual passion he exhibited when he fought the slayer. He was simply going through the motions. Finally, a swift kick to Spike's face put him face up on the ground. Buffy quickly approached with her stake aimed and ready, she lunged toward the ground but was unable to make contact...a sharp pain was engulfing her head...she thought to herself, < "what was that?" > She found herself unbelievably dizzy and unable to stand. She couldn't make out the figure that had delivered the painful blow...all she heard was buzzing...buzzing...buzzing
She rolled over and turned off her alarm clock.
< "Great another "Slayer" dream. Why can't I just dream about one of those guys from Dawson's Creek like every other college girl?" >
Willow had already left for her 7:50 Intercultural Studies class, leaving Buffy the chance to crank her music for her morning ritual.
She got up and prepared herself for another day at Sunnydale University.
Buffy and Willow had just gotten out of Gen Psych, their afternoon class, and were headed toward Stevenson hall for a relaxing afternoon, as if they could call any afternoon "relaxing." Life had been kind of quiet on the hellmouth for awhile. With nothing really going on and Spike left "impotent" there weren't too many things to do in the way of fighting evil. It was almost eerie how calm things had been lately, and Buffy knew it.
"Classes seemed to go by kind of quick today, huh Buf?" Willow had spoken the words, but Buffy's mind was obviously a mile away right now.
"Huh?" Buffy finally responded.
"I said, Did you see that Prof. Vermilion's fly was open?"
"Um yeah, I'll ask Giles about it....What?"
Willow couldn't help but giggle.
"I said, 'Classes seemed to go by kind of quick today?' Are you o.k.? You've been on the non-participating side of talking today."
"I know, I'm sorry...I just had this dream about..." she couldn't even get the words out before Willow jumped on it.
"A prophecy dream? Oh great, just what I need the end of the world to come and me without Oz."
"No, Wil, it seemed just like an ordinary dream, but I can't get it out of my mind."
Willow could see the look of anxiety on Buffy's face...she didn't get the look that often, but when she did, it made Willow uneasy.
"Well, maybe you should tell Giles, you know, just to be safe."
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. I'm swinging by today to go over some new training stuff. You wanna come?"
"Sure, I'm good."
The two headed off toward their room before going to Giles apartment.
As they walked, they were unaware that they were being watched. A stranger was lurking...though she was not mortal...hadn't been for over a hundred years now...no disguise was needed, she blended right in with the college crowd, but she was there nonetheless...watching and waiting.
Giles heard the all too familiar annoying voice from his kitchen where he was trying to warm yet another glass of blood for his wayward roommate.
"Remember, only 45 seconds or it gets too hot."
Giles' patience was growing thin. He was getting tired of hearing the same thing every time he prepared a "meal" for the prisoner that was invading his home.
"If you're going to be so demanding every time I fix your dinner, you can just do it yourself." Giles retorted back with a bit of snip in his voice.
"Well, if you would undo these bloody restraints then I could make my own dinner now couldn't I?"
Giles knew good and well that Spike could prepare his own meal, but something kept him from trusting Spike completely. It had been a couple of weeks since the gang had determined he was "neutered," but Giles wasn't taking any chances.
:Knock, knock, knock:
Spike raised his voice to that of a woman's, "Honey, I can't quite get that, I don't want to ruin my manicure."
"Very funny" but Giles didn't find anything funny about it.
He proceeded to open the door only to find Buffy and Willow standing there.
"Ah, you're early. I see Willow decided to tag along."
Giles could see that there was more than just training on Buffy’s mind.
"Buffy had a dream" Willow could never resist telling what was going on.
"Willow, you said you weren't going to make this of the big, besides I wanted to tell him."
"Too late." Willow let out a little giggle as she made her way into the apartment.
She bounced over to the couch next to the chair that Spike was chained to.
"And are we feeling virile today?" Willow couldn't help but to make fun of Spike's current condition...none of the Scooby gang could.
"You just wait Red, when I get it back, you're the first on my list...and while we're on the subject...I know you'll enjoy it since Wolfboy's been out of the picture for awhile. You're probably dying for a good..."
"Eh hem." Buffy felt it was time to step in. She could see that Willow wasn't joking anymore. Willow excused herself to the restroom.
Buffy and Giles had made their way into the living room during Spike and Willow's exchange of words.
Buffy took this opportunity to give Spike a much deserved come back.
"You got anything to say to me, Captain Viagra?" She paused thinking he would say something, but he never did.
"That's what I thought." Buffy felt good about winning that little clash of words.
From outside the stranger was watching as the Slayer minced words with him...she was relieved to see him confined...She thought to herself, "this makes things a lot easier on me, that's for sure. I may even get some downtime for once." She thought she had lost him when "The Initiative" had taken him, but what they had done had turned out to be a blessing in disguise. She hadn't seen him this close in a very long time...it was nice..."No, stay focused. You don't have time to think about the past...focus on the present." She had no idea that what was taking place inside was about her...and what was to come of her place in his life.
"So, none of your attacks were working?" Giles didn't find anything strange about what he had heard so far.
"Well, I for one think it sounds pretty accurate, none of your punches ever really felt that hard to me anyway." Spike never could let anything slide when it came to Buffy's fighting.
"Yeah, and you're sitting in a chair with chains because...?" Buffy knew that one would hit home.
"It's only temporary little girl, when I get my..."
"Yeah, yeah, you're gonna kill us all...we've heard this one before. You really should get some new material. The old stuff just isn't doing it for me anymore." < "Score yet another one for the Buffster" > she thought to herself.
"If we could get past the show of maturity and get back to the dream...you weren't able to do any real damage to Spike, but you were about to stake him?"
"Yep, had the sharp end headed for the aorta…but then I got this horrible pain in my head like someone had hit me with a brick."
"And then you woke up?"
"Yep."
Willow finally piped in,
" So, is there a big evil afoot? "
"I'm inclined to think not. This dream just sounds like one of anxiety. You haven't really fought any strong vampires lately...at least none as strong as Spike, this may just be your minds way of being anxious about future matches against the undead."
Buffy never like Giles' explanations...she thought < "where's the Xander speak when you need it?" >
"But why would I still be thinking about it now? I usually forget my dreams by mid-day, that is unless their about Riley being naked...."
Willow started clearing her throat and waving her hand to try to get Buffy's attention as her mind wandered,
"and ok, that's not really important right now, so I'm just going to get back to my original point."
"Which was?" Sometimes Giles didn't know how this girl functioned on a day-to-day basis.
"Why would I one, dream about Spike, and two, still be thinking about it like it just happened?"
"Maybe you just can't get enough of me.?" Buffy looked over to see Spike with his usual smirk.
Without thinking, Buffy snapped back,
"Maybe I should see if Giles has any duct tape for your mouth."
"Alright, do I need to separate the two of you?" Giles was getting tired of the bickering.
"I'm still not convinced that this is a prophecy of any kind...we'll just have to see how things play out over the next few days." Giles hoped she was satisfied with that answer before he segwayed into her original purpose for coming.
"Now, if you don't mind...we have training to do."
Buffy was reluctant but trusted Giles' judgement just the same.
"Ok, where do we begin?"