Dawn walked out of the house carrying a plate loaded with burgers and hotdogs to be cooked on the barbecue. She paused by the two women.

“It’s like watching a car crash, isn‘t it? Horrifying, yet, you can‘t look away.” She shook her head and walked away, ponytail swinging behind her, leaving the two women laughing.

Faith grinned. “I like the brat. She’s sassy.”

Buffy chuckled. “Yeah, she has quite a mouth on her.”

The brunette gave her a friendly slap on the shoulder. “I’ll go get myself a refill if you don’t mind. I think I’ll need to get plastered if I want to survive Harmony.”

Buffy watched as Faith walked to where Xander was taking care of the bar, hips swinging seductively in her outrageously short cut-off jeans and tight black cotton tank top. She knew it wouldn’t take long for Cordelia to come running, her territorial instincts kicking in. Should be fun to watch. Buffy smiled.

The heat wave was unusual for the end of November, and Buffy had decided to make the most of it by organizing an outdoor party at her place. So far, the day was a success. Ok. Not really if you considered that the goal of her barbecue was to help the employees who didn’t like her to warm up to her and the only ones who showed up were the ones who liked her already. But maybe it was better this way. It’s always better to be surrounded by your loved ones anyway. And those were all there gathered in her back yard.

Giles was cooking burgers and hotdogs on the grill while Anya was watching him, Dawn standing next to her and making a shocked face at something the nurse told her. Probably something horribly weird, knowing Anya. Cordelia was playing with Camille in the pool while chatting with Joyce, Buffy’s mom. Willow wasn’t there yet, but she had called saying she was on her way. She had to wait for Oz, who had a rehearsal with his band in the morning. Oz was bringing his band members with him and they’d be giving them a little private show later on. Buffy had warned her neighbors about the possible noise and invited them over if they wanted to come.

Everything was perfect. The weather, the company… She tried not to think about the fact that Spike would probably never enjoy a pool party ever again or she’d be too sad to have fun. She was still upset about her conversation with the lawyer a week ago. But these were bad thoughts and she was supposed to be happy and have fun today.

“Buffy!”

Buffy turned around to face the new arrival. Willow was coming towards her, holding the hand of a man with purple hair that could only be her husband, Oz. Trailing behind them were two other guys that she assumed were his band members.

“Willow! Hi!” She hugged the other woman.

“This is my husband, Daniel. But call him Oz.”

Oz shook her hand. “Daniel just doesn’t fit me.” He stated matter-of-factly. “Nice to meet you.”

Buffy smiled at him. He seemed like the quiet type, but there was a warmth behind his eyes that made her understand what Willow saw in him.

Willow introduced her to the two other guys, then the girls left so Willow could say hello to Xander, whom she hadn’t seen in years. After the initial shock, the hugs and squeals, they all sat to eat what Giles had cooked for them. Surprisingly enough, Cordelia and Willow, now older and more mature, seemed to be getting along quite well. Buffy had been worried about how they would interact together, but they sat next to each other and talked during the entire meal, Camille sitting in Willow’s lap.

Buffy was smiling happily, watching her friends, when her Blackberry warned her that she had a text message. She tried not to react, but it must have shown on her face because she noticed Dawn giving her a curious look.

Buffy tried to smile at her as casually as she could, but she felt herself blushing. Dawn gave her an eye roll before taking a huge bite of her burger.

She turned the device on to check her message, hiding it from view under the table.

[Bloody_poet: Hey pet. How’s the party going? Don‘t have too much fun without me. Sorry, just being a selfish git. Seriously though, I hope you‘re having a bloody great time with your mates. Eat an extra burger for me, would you? For some reason, I miss greasy American food lol]

Buffy smiled, forgetting for a moment there were people around her.

[Anne_pet: It’s great. Wish you were here. I’ll have another burger and a beer for you. I’ll probably throw up for eating too much junk, but I don’t mind suffering for you ;-)]

[Bloody_poet: lol Don’t make yourself sick, pet. Don’t want that on my conscience. Did a lot of people show up?]

[Anne_pet: Yes. The ones I expected to come did. But too bad none of the guards showed up except for Faith and Giles. Guess they caught on to my lame attempt at befriending them.]

[Bloody_poet: They’re fools. Anybody should be honored to have an opportunity to be your friend. Sod those wankers. At least, your real friends showed up, right?]

[Anne_pet: Yeah, they did.] Buffy looked around. Everybody was talking and laughing, and nobody was paying attention to what she was doing. [Babe? Do you have access to the phone right now?]

[Bloody_poet: Sure pet. If you give me five minutes to get there.]

[Anne_pet: All right. Call me, I‘ll be waiting.]

[Bloody_poet: Talk to you in a minute.]

Buffy turned the phone off and looked up. Xander was smiling at her.

“Glad to see my ‘gift’ gets you all happy and smiley”

Buffy blushed, sensing the interrogation coming. As if on cue, Cordelia frowned, looking at her husband. “What gift?”

“The phone. Buffy asked me to buy her the Blackberry and put it under my name for some reason…”

Everybody turned to the blonde girl, waiting for her to explain the story. Buffy chuckled nervously, trying not to look at Dawn. The girl knew full well why her sister had asked Xander to put the phone under his name and was now giving her sister an amused look. She was probably hoping she would be tripping over her own feet and was ready to enjoy the show. Evil.

Buffy’s blush deepened and she stammered some weird reason as of why she would ask someone to buy a phone for her. As the words came tumbling out of her lips, even her found her excuse ridiculous. But she didn’t stick around long enough to find out if they were buying it or not.

Standing up, she excused herself saying that she had a phone call to make and that she’d be back in a moment. She went inside so she could have some privacy. She knew it was stupid to talk to Spike on the phone when all her coworkers were in her backyard, especially after what had just happened, but she couldn’t help it. She needed to hear his voice.

She went down to the basement and sat on the floor behind the bar. She put the earphone in her ear and waited for his call. She didn’t have long to wait. A minute or so later, the phone rang. She answered.

“Hey you!”

“Hello pet. What are you doing all by yourself talking to me? Shouldn’t you be enjoying your party with your mates?”

She pouted even though he couldn’t see her. “I was. But then, I missed you. I needed to hear your voice.”

She could almost hear the smile in his voice. “Miss you too.”

“Sucks, you know. Everybody is here with their husband or boyfriend and they all think I’m their pathetic single friend. But I’m not. They just don’t know that.” She hesitated for a moment. “I’m not, right?”

He chuckled softly into the receiver. “As taken as a girl can be with an absentee boyfriend who happens to be in jail. But I can only imagine their faces if you’d tell them that.”

She tried to hide her giddiness at his use of the word ‘boyfriend’, taking a moment before answering. “Yeah. I’m not single and pathetic but my boyfriend couldn’t make it because he’s kinda busy in prison right now. That would go over well with them, I’m sure. Though, it could be kind of entertaining to see their reaction. If the party gets boring, I know what to do. Actually, I already kinda made it more interesting a minute ago…”

“What did you do?”

Buffy pouted even though he couldn’t see her. “It’s all Xander’s fault. Remind me to kick his ass when everybody else is gone.”

“Ok. What did Xander do then?” Spike had a fair idea of who Xander was since Buffy had talked about her friends during some of their chat sessions. She told him about Cordelia, Xander, Willow, Dawn and her mom. Finding out about Buffy‘s life outside of the prison was now his biggest passion beside Buffy herself. But it went hand in hand, so it was his biggest passion. She was.

“He mentioned buying the phone for me and putting the bill under his name. At the table. In front of EVERYBODY. And you know how well I lie, especially under pressure, right?”

“You blush bright red like a bloody virgin and start babbling. It’s adorable as hell.”

“Not so adorable when the moment is crucial and you need people to actually believe you.”

“Aw, come on, pet. Couldn’t be that bad. What did you say?”

“Not quite sure. I was so freaked out that I just said the first thing that popped into my mind. Something about already having a phone paid by the prison and always wanting a Blackberry but not wanting to pay for it. Xander doesn’t have a cell so I figured he could deduct it on his taxes as being work related.”

“Not bad. It’s almost believable.”

“I’m sure it would have been more believable if I had said it in a coherent manner and I hadn’t been bet red.”

“Did you give your guests some booze today?”

“Huh… Yeah, why?”

“Nah,” he casually dismissed. “They probably didn’t care, or if they did, they won’t remember tomorrow. Alcohol does have its up side.”

Buffy laughed. How could this man make all her worries go away so easily.

“I’ll have to go, luv. The guard is glaring at me. I think that means my fifteen minutes are over.”

“Damn it! Remind me to change the rule to an hour every day instead of fifteen lousy minutes. This sucks.”

“Come on, go back to your party before you’re faced with more embarrassing questions.”

“Yeah, I guess I should. I promise I‘ll try to find a way to see you this week.”

“You better! Every minute without you is a torture. At least I still have my wet dreams to keep me company. I wonder what it’s gonna be tonight? School teacher, flight attendant, mistress of pain…”

“You’re pig, Spike.” She said lightly, obviously not meaning it.

“What can I say, luv… I’ve always been bad.”

“Yeah right. Bad, perverse, poet of my dreams.”

“All right. The bloody tosser’s coming towards me and pulled out his big bad stick. I think he’s ready to hit me upside the head if I don’t hang up.”

“Ok then. I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye.”

Spike hung up, and Buffy sighed heavily.

She jumped out of her skin when she heard the voice coming from the door way. “Poet of my dreams? How lame is that?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike placed the receiver back and took a deep breath to collect himself.

The annoying cackle of the security guard’s laughter snapped him out of his Buffy induced musing. He gritted his teeth, trying not to hit the man.

“Got yourself a little girlfriend, Spikey?” The guard sing-songed.

The man must have seen the danger written plainly across Spike’s face because he took a step back.

“Mind your own soddin’ business, mate. Now, bring me back to my cell before I lose my temper and use my teeth to rip your throat out.”

The guard’s eyes narrowed in warning. He slapped the handcuffs on Spike’s wrists and pushed him roughly towards the door.

“Watch your mouth if you don’t want trouble, Spike. You already don’t have too many friends in here.”

**I have the only friend that matters, wanker.** Spike thought, a smirk forming on his lips. **Your boss**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dawn! Damn it, you scared me half to death.”

Buffy let out a relieved sigh when she realized it was only her sister. She remembered saying Spike’s name and someone like Giles, or anybody attending the party for that matter, except maybe Camille, would have known who she was talking to.

“God, Buffy. You really suck at keeping secrets. No wonder you ended up at the police station so often when you were younger. You just can’t do something bad without the whole world finding out about it.”

Buffy had the decency to look sheepish under Dawn’s scolding glare.

“I know. It was stupid.”

“Stupid?! All your coworkers are here! Anybody could have decided to come downstairs to play pool or something. You are so lucky it was me or you would have been busted, missy.”

Buffy didn’t answer, so Dawn went to sit next to her on the floor.

“So. Things are getting pretty serious with your hottie?”

“Yeah. I know it’s stupid, but it was kinda unavoidable. The spark between us was just too bright to ignore, even if we wanted to. Which we really don’t, no matter how risky the situation is.”

“Did you tell him yet?”

“Tell him what?”

“Duh! That you love him.”

“No, not yet. I’m not sure how he feels. He does seem to love me, and I do act like I love him, but you know me…”

“Yeah I do.” Dawn mimicked a whiney voice, making fun of her sister. “What if he doesn’t love me back? What if he makes fun of me? What if he runs away screaming? What if, what if, what if.”

“Don’t make fun of me, brat!”

“I’ll make fun of you if I feel like it, dumb blonde!”

They chuckled.

“I’ve never said the big ‘L’ word to a guy before, can you blame me for being a little scared?”

“No, I guess not. Have you… ya know.”

Buffy squealed and stuck her fingers in her ears. “Argh! Not talking about sex with my baby sister!”

“I’m 18, you doofus! I’m not even a virgin anymore. Stop being a baby and spill!”

Buffy pouted. “In my head, you’re still 12 and you’re still supposed to be having tea parties with your stuffed animals in the backyard. But to answer your question… No, we haven’t. Heavy making out sessions, but no sex. It kinda feels wrong, you know? When you finally meet the man that makes your heart do crazy flips, you dream of romance. Not a quick fuck on the couch in your office. Though if he keeps driving me crazy the way he has, it might happen soon enough.”

“I know what you mean. Sorry Buff. It really does suck. Have you tried anything to get him out of there yet? Anything that doesn’t involve kidnappings and crazy police chases all the way to the Mexican border?”

“I went to see a lawyer last weekend in L.A.”

Dawn got all excited. “And? What did they say? Was it good?”

Buffy shook her head. “No. It was bad. Really bad. As in ‘don’t waste your time’ kinda bad.”

“Oh. Sorry to hear that. They didn’t give you any hope at all?”

“Just said that unless I get a confession from the real killer, Spike better start decorating his cell cause he’ll live there for a long time.”

“Ok. Confession. That’s good… not. Do you even know who the real killer is?”

“Actually, I do. Now, don’t freak out, ok?”

Dawn gave her a perfect eye roll. “Whatever, Buff. You know I will. Go on.”

“Is name is Angel…”

“What kind of a gay name is that? Actually, no. That’s an insult to the gay community and I happen to have a few gay friends at school who would be horrified…”

“Do you mind? I’m telling you something here.”

“Sorry. You were saying?”

“His name is not Angel. It’s a NICKNAME you brain dead. Though how he got that nickname is beyond me but whatever. Him and his wife Darla are real low lifes. Trailer park trash kinda low. I saw the house where it all happened. I even followed them from a distance a couple of times over the past few weeks.”

“You did WHAT?!”

“I told you not to freak out.” Buffy warned her sister. “Anyway, I was really careful. I wasn’t surprised to find out that they hang out at that bar you mentioned should be burned down to the ground the other day.”

“The Fish Tank?”

“Yeah, that one. Real classy.”

“And Spike hung out with these people?”

“No. His girlfriend did. He just tagged along to please her. Which he now knows was a mistake.”

“The kinda mistake he’s gonna pay for the rest of his life.”

Buffy gave Dawn an cold smile. “Thank you so much for reminding me.”

Dawn looked away. “Insert foot in mouth.” The young girl mumbled.

Buffy’s glare soften. “What do you say we go back to the party before everybody comes looking for us? I can’t talk about this stuff anymore, it’s giving me a headache.”

The brunette perked up. “I know a good cure for that. Alcohol!”

“Another up side of Alcohol. You and Spike would get along quite well.”

Dawn gave her a curious look and Buffy just laughed.

“Never mind!”

“Let’s go then. I think the Dingoes are about to play. Should be fun.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER 17: Unpleasant slumber

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