Impetuous

I'm alive. Details at the end of the chappy!

Chapter 28: Graveyards and school libraries are highly underused hangouts

Conversation between Giles and Dawn’s daughters as Giles tries to convince them the library is fun:

Giles There are lots of things to do in a library. Why look at all these books and… books. I bet that neither of you have read the Canterbury Tales.

Girls: ::Pause, as the kids give Giles a blank look::

Giles: Well, I read this book at your age. Chaucer is a wonderful author.

Girls ::Pause, more blank looks::

Giles: If you don’t feel like reading, I know something really fun that we can do. First we take these cards and then…

Girls: ::Instantly chime in:: Mom said to remind you that child labour is illegal if you said the word fun.

Giles: I’d hardly call organising the card catalogue illegal child labour.

Girls ::Pause, more blank looks::

Giles: Fine then, what would you like to do?

Girls: ::Youngest girl pulls on Giles’ jacket to get him to bend down so she can whisper in his ear::

Giles: ::miffed voice:: We are not going to *hangout* at a graveyard.

Girls: ::together, whiney voice:: But Uncle Spike would take us!

Giles: ::mutters under breath:: That’s exactly why I wouldn’t.

~~~~ We start with Xander, Willow, Spike and Buffy searching the graveyard for the charmed stake Faith used to incapacitate Buffy. Joyce and Giles are at the library and not in this scene. ~~~~~

"Oh, for the love of… Willow, make them stop!" Xander pleaded, groaning at the sight of Spike and Buffy kissing. Again. This time they were sucking face just three tombstones away from where he and Willow stood. The four of them were supposed to be looking for the charm. That was the whole reason they’d returned to the graveyard. But Spike, apparently, had other ideas. Every few minutes Spike would stop and grab Buffy, pulling her in for a searing kiss. Personally, Xander thought fang-face was doing it just to get a rise out of him. And damned if it wasn't working, too. If this kept up he was going to insist that they get a crypt. His eyes and ears could only take so much.

Willow did her best to ignore Xander's childish plea, just as she had the first five times. Despite how easy going she normally was, his constant complaining was really starting to get on her nerves. She found it just as strange as Xander did to see Buffy and Spike together. After the Angel disaster, she hadn’t expected Buffy to date another Vampire, let alone declare her love for one in front of her mother! But as long as Buffy’s mom approved there wasn’t anything she could say. And Xander was just going to have to live with it.

Needing to get away from Xander’s whining, Willow pointed at a crypt halfway across the graveyard, far from the offending couple. "I think I see something in the grass over there," she said, quickly darting off. She breathed a sigh of relief when Xander didn't follow.

Spike opened his eyes when he heard Red dash off, watching Xander's reaction while he deepened the kiss he was giving Buffy. He couldn’t get over Buffy’s declaration in front of all the scoobies. He no longer was something she had to hide, or wanted to. And he knew it rubbed Xander in the worst way possible.

Naturally, Spike didn’t see anything wrong with waving a red flag in front of the whelp. He winked at Xander as he placed a possessive hand on Buffy’s ass, making sure to visibly give it a squeeze. Then he bent down and kissed her neck, leering at her cleavage before kissing her lips once more. Xander’s sigh of disgust told him when he’d stuck his tongue far enough in her mouth. Not that he’d stop now; Buffy was making the most arousing little noise…

Xander glared at Spike. How dare he take advantage of Buffy like that! If Giles was here he’d make sure that Spike didn’t force Buffy to… Xander’s train of thought was interrupted by what sounded like a moan. Buffy couldn’t have made *that* noise. Something had to be wrong with his hearing. Dear God, he hoped so. Just in case there wasn’t, Xander prayed to be momentarily struck deaf. At least until Don Juan stopped practicing tongue exercises with Buffy.

Buffy pushed Spike away as she heard Xander’s displeased sigh. Why did she get the sneaking suspicion that Spike had ulterior motives for kissing her at least five times on the way over here? She rolled her eyes at Spike to show him her appreciation of his maturity. If Spike thought that she was going to let him…

“Luv, is that vanilla I smell?” Spike asked, licking the shell of Buffy’s ear as he breathed in the scent of her shampoo. Before she could answer, he nipped her earlobe and said, “You smell so good, I could eat you all up. From head to toe.”

Well, one more kiss wouldn’t hurt. Buffy brushed her lips against Spike’s and pulled back just a bit, looking into his eyes to make sure he was watching her and not Xander this time. She saw the teasing light fade from his eyes as he stared down at her. Her breath hitched as he slowly bent his head down and kissed her.

Xander snorted with disgust when Buffy went right back into Spike’s arms when it had looked like she was about to push him away. When the snort didn’t get them to unlock lips, he yelled out, “Giles?”

Spike had the nicest lips. Just the right amount of firmness and… Giles?? Buffy almost fell backwards as she shoved hard against Spike’s chest to get out of his embrace. She gave Xander a fuming look when she saw that Giles was nowhere to be seen. But the mood had been interrupted, so she chased after Willow, shouting, “Wait for me! The boys could sort out their differences on their own.

Spike watched as Buffy raced after Willow. Stupid Xander! Now Buffy and Willow would spend the night giggling and gossiping, not searching. It was going to be up to him and Xander to find the bloody stake. What a perfect ending to his night… spending time with the boy. Alone. Sauntering over to where Xander was standing, Spike gestured at Willow and Buffy, giving Xander a knowing look. “We never fought anywhere near there with Wesley and Faith.”

Xander sighed again, this time with acceptance. “Where should we look, then?” he asked. He crossed his arms over his chest so fang breath wouldn’t actually think he was eager to help him search. All he cared about was finding this charm as quickly as possible. He’d had enough of watching Spike grope Buffy and all he wanted was to go home, sleep and pretend it had been a nightmare.

Spike ignored Xander’s petulant stance and walked past him towards the gravestone he had thrown Wesley against. “This way,” he tossed over his shoulder, not bothering to turn around to see if the whelp followed.

Xander rolled his eyes and moved to follow Spike. How did he get stuck with Spike anyway? You’d think that someone had set out to torture him, purposely making him work with the bleached Vampire. Xander glared at Buffy and then Willow, missing a step and tripping over a gravemarker. He fell to his knees, cursing. How in the hell was he supposed to find this stupid charm when it was so fucking dark? Forcing himself to look up at Spike, he prepared for the smirk that would be on the vampire’s face.

“Well, I guess that would be the best way to look for the thing,” Spike commented, his head tilted to the side as he gazed at Xander. He mentally congratulated himself for managing to sound serious. He hadn’t even needed to talk Xander into crawling around in the grass to search for the Charm. Of course, it wouldn’t do to piss the boy off now; else he’d be stuck crawling around on all fours by himself. Better to have someone else looking stupid with him. And by the looks of it, Xander would do a bang-up job of that.

Spike glanced over to where Buffy and Willow were still doing everything but searching. With a resigned sigh, he removed his black, leather duster and placed it over a gravestone. He then dropped to his knees by Xander and began to search.

Xander parted the blades of grass, pretending to look for the charm. What he really wanted to do was look over at Spike. It couldn’t possibly be Spike that was crawling around in the grass helping him search for the charm, right? The thought of them attempting to work together was, frankly, a little scary. Confused, Xander turned away from Spike and began to earnestly search the grass in front of him.

Spike Vamped, realizing his enhanced vision would really be an asset. Thick, dark clouds had smothered the moon, and the yellow streetlights barely penetrated the shadows cloaking the graveyard. He glanced over at Xander as he watched the boy plod his way through the grass. He didn’t know why the whelp was bothering; the only way Xander would ever find the charm was if he accidentally touched it while crawling around. But, the ponce still kept on looking. Xander would never give up; he’d willingly camp out here until the charm was found. And it impressed Spike, despite his desire to not give the boy any credit.

Xander finally gave in to his urge and looked over at Spike, surprised by his own lack of reaction upon seeing the Vampire’s demon features. It should have repulsed him but he found he had grown seemingly indifferent to seeing Spike’s other face. That worried him. Looking away from Spike’s Vamped features, his eyes caught a glimpse of the fresh wound on Spike’s wrist. The jagged tear was revealed by yellow lamplight as Spike reached up to slick back a piece of hair that fallen forward. It looked as if an animal had torn into Spike’s wrist with its fangs. Suddenly, Xander remembered that Spike had to use his fangs on himself to give Buffy the blood she’d needed to heal. Now he felt the shock he’d been expecting earlier.

Spike froze. He felt Xander’s eyes focus on his injured wrist and knew that the ponce had just figured out where the wound had come from. Great, no doubt this was going to cost him his search partner. Xander had made it very clear how he felt about the blood ritual Spike had shared with Buffy when he made her his Blood Childe. What had Giles said? He’d made Buffy a slave. The ungrateful whelp wouldn’t bother to ponder how it had been the only way to save Buffy’s life tonight. Refusing the urge to hide his wound, Spike resigned himself to crawling around in the grass alone.

Xander looked back down at the grass in front of him, away from the torn flesh of Spike’s wrist. Funny how seeing something for yourself was so different than hearing about it from someone else. It hit Xander in the gut as he saw how Spike had mutilated himself in his rush to save Buffy’s live. It made it real. Realising he’d been staring too long, Xander cleared his throat and asked, “Aren’t Vampire’s supposed to heal quickly? That… looks like it happened just five minutes ago.” He risked a quick look up at Spike’s eyes to judge his reaction.

Spike tutored his features into an unreadable mask as Xander’s head swung back up. Affecting nonchalance, he replied, “I gave her some Vamp strength to heal… didn’t take it back yet.” Looking out towards Buffy, his mask of indifference slipped, although he was too focused on his Mate to realize it. “She still needs my strength… Faith really did a number on her.” Gesturing towards Buffy, rather abruptly, he added, “And now she’s out here, stomping around in graveyard when she ought to be in bed, sleeping.”

Xander snorted. “Just try and tell Buffy what her limits are. The rest of us learned long ago that it’s a wasted effort. In fact, Giles will usually tell her to do the opposite of what he wants done… a little bit of reverse psychology.” He grinned conspiratorially, “She still falls for that a lot.”

Spike chuckled. “I learned that the hard way. Told her to stay put while I took out some Vamps trying to rob a blood delivery I wanted… but like you said, pure waste of effort. She jumped right into the melee and then lectured me afterwards.”

Xander was about to tell Spike about his own experience with Buffy’s *selective hearing* when he suddenly realized what he was doing: joking around and talking with Spike? Spike! Grunting indeterminately, he began to search for the charm again.

Spike stopped smiling as he realized what had just happened: he’d joked around and talked to Xander. Xander! Trying to cover up this horrendous blunder, he scrambled on all fours to search for the charm far away from the ponce.

***********************

Willow glanced over at Xander and Spike, across the graveyard. Jaw dropping, she stared as she caught them talking and laughing together. She was about to point out this astounding sight to Buffy when they suddenly stopped laughing. A heartbeat later Xander and Spike had busied themselves with their search, totally ignoring each other. She squinted one more time at them: still ignoring each other. Shaking her sleepy head, Willow decided that she had been seeing things. Xander and Spike getting along?

Impossible.

All Xander and Spike did was argue, make up insulting names for one another and try to out-do the other in order to impress Buffy. Their constant bickering was enough to drive her past her near limitless patience. Xander fought more with Spike than he ever had with Cordelia. ‘And we all know how that ended,’ Willow thought. One moment they were arguing and then the next they were passionately kissing, hiding their forbidden love in janitor closets and… Wait. This was Xander and Spike. Spike, not Cordelia! Willow tried really hard to block the mental image of Xander and Spike in a closet.

It didn’t work. Stupid sleep deprived brain.

“Whacha thinking?” Buffy asked. Willow had the most peculiar look on her face as she stared at Xander and Spike.

Blushing, Willow blurted out, “Buffy, do you think it’s safe to leave them all alone?” She immediately clapped a hand over her mouth. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud! The idea that Xander and Spike would…

Buffy interrupted Willow’s mortified thoughts. “Sure. They’ll be fine. Spike ate before we left.” She wondered why Willow was acting so weird. Just what had her friend been thinking?

Willow rolled her eyes at Buffy’s flip answer. “You know what I mean,” she said, ignoring the part of her brain that argued Buffy hadn’t known at all. Embarrassed, she decided to change subjects. “Xander was pretty upset when he found out about Spike’s little spell over you.” She gestured to Xander and Spike, who, annoyingly, were managing to act civil, if not friendly. They weren’t exactly conveying upset.

Buffy was thrown off by the subject change. Stammering a defence she said, “It wasn’t a spell… it was a… a…”

“Spell?” Willow supplied. Her dry tone silenced Buffy’s mumbling.

“Ritual,” Buffy snapped back.

“That’s the same thing!” Willow insisted. Then thinking about it she added, “Well, that’s not always true. Spells and rituals have a very long history and…”

Buffy rushed to interrupt Willow before she revved up to full lecture mode. Blurting out the first thing that came to mind she said, “There weren’t any toads or newts involved.”

Willow stopped talking as her brain shut down, trying to process Buffy’s logic. Or lack thereof. Shaking her head she decided to ignore it and move on, for the sake of her own sanity. She was alone with Buffy, so now was as good a time as any to say what Xander had wanted her say.

“Buffy, it doesn’t really matter whether it was a spell or a ritual or whatever. Spike controlled you. He forced you. Even thought Spike was able to save your life, he took away your freedom of choice with that ritual.”

Buffy frowned. She hadn’t known that Willow felt that way. Things were happening so quickly with her and Spike that she hadn’t taken the time to talk to her friends about it. Glancing back towards Xander and Spike, she saw they were still occupied with the search. As long as they could stay busy for the next fifteen minutes, she’d be able to tell Willow something that she should have a long time ago. It was something she’d been keeping secret for much too long. Still, she wasn’t prepared to share this particular secret with Spike yet. He’d never let her live it down. Another sound barrier between her and Spike’s Vampyric hearing wouldn’t hurt.

Willow squeaked in response when Buffy yanked her out of sight of the boys, dragging her behind the crypt. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to lecture Buffy right now. She always was grumpy when Giles made her work past 11pm on a Friday night. Protesting as Buffy yanked her even further behind the crypt, nearly pulling her arm out of joint, Willow said, “Ouch, Buffy! Fine, I’m sorry… I take it back. It was a ritual not a spell.”

“Shh!” Buffy hissed. She popped her head back around the crypt to peer at Spike. It would be just like him to sneak up and listen to her conversation with Willow. Looking back at her friend, she very quietly said, “I didn’t want to talk to you about that.”

Willow decided not to argue with Buffy. After all, Buffy still had her fingers wrapped around her arm… and Willow’s shoulder couldn’t take another Slayer-strength yank.

When she was sure she had Willow’s attention, Buffy whispered, “Spike didn’t force me to do anything. I let him do it.”

That hadn’t sounded any better the second time. Buffy had *let* Spike do that to her? Willow immediately rejected the idea. “Buffy, you were unconsc-”

Buffy shushed Willow again. “Not so loud.”

Somewhat annoyed, Willow still lowered her voice to a whisper. “You were unconscious at the time, I don’t think you gave your consent.”

“I knew he was coming for me before then… I knew what he was going to do. And I wanted it… I just didn’t know it was him.”

Annoyance dropped from Willow’s face as confusion took over. “Huh?”

“I dreamed about him my first night in LA.”

Willow hadn’t lost her confused look yet. “You dreamed about Spike making you his Blood Childe?”

“Not exactly.” Buffy paused as she tried to find the right words. She yanked Willow really close and whispered the dream into her ear.

Willow’s face told the story of Buffy’s dream. Her features were painted with horror first, then disbelief and lastly awe. When Buffy had finished, Willow said, “It was destined then. You and Spike must be part of some sort of prophecy.” Excited as something suddenly occurred to her, she added, “Maybe the Council is telling Giles all about it right now.” She hugged a less than enthusiastic Buffy close, telling her, “Oh Buffy, this is so romantic… all destiny and fa-”

Buffy pushed back from Willow’s happy hug and placed a finger on her friend’s lips. “Shh!” Buffy reminded her. Spike couldn’t help but overhear if Willow kept up her excited babble. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“Buffy! We have to tell everyone. Don’t you see what this means? It wasn’t just a coincidence that you and Spike are together. Giles has to kn-”

Clapping a hand over her friend’s mouth, obviously the only way she was going to stop the incriminating flow of words from Willow, Buffy listened carefully for the sound of footsteps. She heard more leafs rustle as someone walked towards them. Before she walked around the crypt to see who approached, she firmly told Willow, “Tell no one.”

~~~~~ Meanwhile, in the library... ~~~~~

“That’s untrue; furthermore, I’m shocked that you would say such a thing in front of Buffy. How can I instil a sense of respect for the Watcher’s council if you make biased, unwarranted comments like that?”

Joyce’s right eyebrow shot up in disbelief as Giles spoke. He didn’t really think she would take it back, did he? Those idiots at the Council did not deserve her daughter’s respect, and she was going to make sure that he understood that.

Giles watched with apprehension as Joyce marched up to him. He knew he was in for it.

Joyce pointed a finger right at Giles’ chest, poking him with it to punctuate each sentence of her rant. “It’s been months since Buffy left and council hasn’t called even once. I’d say that qualifies as phone-a-phobic. If they want respect they could show a bit more concern for her. Aren’t Watcher’s capable of using a phone, or does the council still like to employ the telegraph and messenger pigeons?”

“Don’t be absurd.”

Joyce crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

“There was a good reason for the pigeons. Besides, why should you stop using something that still works?” Giles fiddled with the glasses on his nose and stood up straighter. “Now, if you will excuse me for a moment, I need to use the *telephone* to call the Council and inform them of the latest events. It’s time we brought them in on this.”

Joyce smiled to herself as Giles loftily walked over to his desk and picked up the receiver, acting as if he was making a call the Queen of England. His pompous ceremony of importance just emphasized how rare an event this was. “Exactly how long has it been since you called the council, Giles?” she asked, a niggling suspicion forming in her thoughts.

“Well, it’s been, um, a while. I’m very busy here with the children and the books.” He tried to look busy, shuffling through his Rolodex, which only had two entries in it. Hopefully Joyce wouldn’t notice that from where she was standing.

When Giles stuttered an excuse about being busy and then fidgeted with his Rolodex, Joyce knew her suspicion was dead on.” You never called to inform the Council that Buffy ran away.”

Giles froze, the guilty expression on his face giving him away.

“Rupert, how could you?” Joyce asked in exasperation. Really! These Watchers took their stoic attitudes too far. Had he been too afraid of showing any emotion over Buffy’s disappearance by phoning the council?

“I… I knew she would eventually come back. I’d hoped, anyway. Phoning the Council would have been tantamount to admitting Buffy wasn’t going to return on her own. I couldn’t do that.”

Giles took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose, slumping back further in his chair. “The council isn’t very tolerant or sympathetic to the other aspects of a Slayer’s life. They command absolute devotion to a Slayer’s duties at all times. She would have been hunted down and dragged back; forced to re-enter the life that had only hurt her thus far.” He stared into Joyce’s eyes, letting her see how much he abhorred that notion. “She deserved to choose for herself. After everything she’s given, I needed to give back to her. So I gave her the time she needed, not bothering to call the Council. I just sent back the reports, saying everything was going fine.”

Joyce closed her mouth, as Giles’ speech rendered her own irrelevant. He had ignored his own duty in order to make Buffy happy, or at least to avert causing her anymore pain. And knowing how seriously Giles took his responsibilities, she was quite moved. She decided to not interrupt him further. Gesturing to the phone, she tried to lighten the mood by wisecracking, “Well I hope they still have the same number.”

Sitting up straight in his chair once more, Giles spared Joyce a look of disdain for that poor jest before he reached for the phone. He glanced back at her when she didn’t move from the doorway. Was she just going to stand there and *watch* while he made the call? He shuffled thought the Rolodex one more time, hoping she’d lose interest and leave the office. When that failed, he dragged the phone close to the edge of his desk and hunched over it as best he could, hiding it from sight.

Joyce jumped as a loud beeping emitted from the phone when Giles tried to directly dial the number. She smothered a laugh as he slammed the receiver back in its cradle to stop the annoying beeping. Obviously he was a bit out of practice.

“New phone,” Giles excused, glaring at it. Hadn’t the installer said he had to push some button first before he could make a call? Who’d ever heard of a phone that wasn’t ready to make call? Which button was he supposed to hit first? There was message, conference, transfer, hold, speed dial… Ah, speed dial! That sounded good… he could make a quick call and get this over with.

Joyce took pity on Giles and got up to help him. But then he threw her a haughty look as he picked up the receiver again, which made her sit right back down to enjoy the show.

Giles grinned with satisfaction as the dial tone sounded after he clicked the speed dial. Then he reached out and began to punch in the long distance number. But he’d gotten no further than the first two digits when the phone began to ring. What the-

“Hello, pizza palace. How can I help you?”

Pizza palace? Giles quickly brought the phone up to his ear. “Um, hello. I think I dialled the wrong number.” He ignored Joyce’s blatant smirk.

“Rupert?”

Giles looked over to where Joyce was still smirking. Oh, she was trying to hide it now that he was watching, but that just made it worse. He didn’t need to be humoured! Turning back to the phone, Giles glowered at it. He desperately wished to be home, where he had a good, old-fashioned phone. There were only buttons for the essentials on his home phone, such as for the numbers 0-9… and there certainly wasn’t any speed dial or Rls? What was Rls anyway?

Joyce was worried that ff she continued to stay silent, they might be here all night, giving death-glares to the phone. Giles was apparently suffering from a syndrome closely related to the male *never-ask-for-directions* disease, which was only cured when the woman offered to drive. Usually some superficial excuse had to be made up so the man wouldn’t get offended.

“Rupert, I think that someone unplugged the, um, power,” Joyce said, leaning over and giving him an unobstructed view down her blouse while she reached over and pretended to push the phone’s power cord back in. “Right here. That must have been what made it beep, ” she told him, trying to draw his attention back to the phone. “Um, Rupert… the phone,” Joyce reminded him when he gave no sign of wanting to call anyone soon.

“The phone… the Phone!” Giles snapped his gaze back up to the phone.

Joyce picked up the receiver, dialled nine, and handed it to Giles with an innocent, helpful smile.

Giles accepted the phone and dialled the Watcher’s council. Smiling at Joyce he said, “My dear, I might not know what button to push to dial out, but I do know that’s not the power cord.” He pointed to the grey phone cord that she still had her hand on and smirked.

Before Joyce could swat him for that smirk, she heard an accented ‘hullo’ from the receiver.

“Oh, hello.” Giles switched from the playful tone he’d employed with Joyce to his austere Watcher’s voice. “I’d like to speak to Mr. Travers, please. It’s Mr. Giles calling him.”

Joyce frowned as Giles’ gripped the phone more tightly.

“What do you mean, ‘Who am I?’ I’m Buffy’s Watcher, that’s who.”

Joyce put a hand on Giles shoulder. That didn’t sound right. Why would they have someone answer the phones that didn’t know the name of the current Slayer’s Watcher? You’d think the tweedy council members would be a stickler for such things.

“Now listen here. Don’t you dare hang up.”

Joyce could see that Giles was losing this battle. But there was no way she was going to let these overbearing morons ignore her daughter anymore. Buffy had been there when they’d needed her, so the Council better be there for her now.

Giles gawked at Joyce as she yanked the phone out of his hand and started lecturing the man who’d been about to hang up on him.

“No, you listen to me, you uptight, pompous, useless artefact. If you hang up on me, I swear I’ll come down there personally and choke you with your own necktie. Slowly.”

Giles gulped and shifted just an inch further from Joyce. He was glad that he didn’t wear neckties anymore.

“My daughter is the Slayer. She has done everything you asked and the least you can do is remember her name, as well as her Watcher’s. Now, you will go get Mr. Travers for me right now.”

Giles accepted the phone back from Joyce and continued to stare. She was amazing.

“Don’t let that Travers push you around,” Joyce advised, moving close so she could overhear the voice coming from the phone.

But she needn’t have moved. The voice that came out of the phone projected quite well from its sheer volume.

“This is Quentin Travers. I don’t know what kind of joke you hooligans think you are pulling, but there is no Buffy here.”

“Travers.” Giles uttered, his voice very low and Ripper-like. It gave Joyce shivers.

“Giles?” the voice affirmed, less loud now.

Giles didn’t respond. He waited for Travers to start explaining.

After a moment’s hesitation, Travers’ voice spoke again. “What are you playing at, Giles? And what is this about Buffy? You know she’s been dead for months. Faith’s the Slayer now and Wesley is her Watcher.”

Giles dropped the phone, ignoring Travers’ indignant screech as the receiver banged onto the desk.

~~~~~ Back at the graveyard. ~~~~~

“Spike!” Buffy said, very loudly. She walked around the crypt, relieved to see he still wasn’t that close. He probably hadn’t overheard her conversation with Willow.

Willow’s mouth formed an ‘O’ of surprise. She quickly followed Buffy, trying to hide the blush that threatened to give he away. She was terrible at keeping secrets. She was glad when Xander’s shout distracted Spike’s attention away from her and Buffy.

“Found it!” Xander shouted again, looking up at the rest of the Scoobies as they approached.

Catching sight of the Charm in Xander’s hands, Spike shook his head in disbelief. It was nearly pitch black out now, and yet it had been the ponce that found the charm?

“About time,” Spike said, determined not to let Xander know how pleased he was.

Buffy gave Spike a stake-worthy glare. “Thanks, Xander,” she said, trying to make up for Spike’s rudeness.

Xander held the stake up. “It doesn’t look like much.”

Willow eyed the stake with interest. “It’s powerful.” She reached out for it to get a better look.

“Willow!” Buffy screamed as her best friend grabbed the stake and was hit by a bolt of white light. The blast threw the stake one way and the Scoobies another way.

Spike got up first and walked over to Willow, picking her up off the ground from where she’d collapsed. But she stirred in his grip right away.

“I’m okay,” Willow insisted, brushing Spike’s hands away and standing up on her own. She looked at all of them and said, “That was so… cool!”

“Did you hit your head on the way down?” Xander asked, brushing himself off. “We should get you to the hospital.”

“I’m fine,” Willow insisted. “Better than fine… I feel amazing,” she told them with awe.

“What happened, Will?” Buffy asked. She was worried about the way her friend was acting. What the hell had the Charm done to Willow?

“Do you know a Travers, Buffy?” Willow asked.

~~~~~ Sunnydale High Library ~~~~~

“Giles?”

“We’ve already been over this,” Giles said with frustration to Travers. It had taken him five minutes just to placate Travers after he’d dropped the phone. And now he was wasting time explaining the same thing over and over to Travers. “Yes, it’s me. But why you can’t remember that Buffy’s the Slayer we haven’t covered. It must have something to do with Faith and Wesley.”

“Giles, is Buffy with you?”

“Not at the moment, no. And you remember her now?”

“She’s in a lot of danger.”

Joyce gasped as she overheard that last word.

Giles hugged Joyce close to his side as Travers explained what he had just remembered… the spell the council had been under, the prophecy and the danger to Buffy.

As Travers finished talking, Giles hung up and said, “Joyce, about that book you read…”

~~~~~ Back at the graveyard. ~~~~~

“Damn it, Willow, did you have to fling the stake so far? We’re never going to find it,” Xander grumbled.

“I kind of had no choice, Xander. Hit by big wave of Magicks, remember?”

Spike had spent way too much time in the company of the Scoobies for one night. It was time to take charge. “Xander and Willow, you two head out to that side of the crypt and Buffy and I will take this side.”

Xander immediately grumbled about that plan.

Spike pointed over at Willow, pulling his Ace on Xander. “Look. The sooner we find this Charm, the sooner we can get it to Giles. And then he can tell us exactly what happened to Red and how this Watcher, Travers, is involved.”

Still grumbling, Xander complied and took off with Willow to search the other of the crypt. He was really worried about Willow. Ever since she’d touched that Charm she’d been acting different.

Buffy could practically hear Spike’s thoughts as Willow and Xander left them alone. “No way,” she told him as he approached.

Spike ignored Buffy’s protest and backed her against the crypt wall. “Come on, luv… we never did get to finish our game.” He tugged her little red hood down a bit, leaned in and nibbled on her neck.

“Spike!” Buffy said, trying to reprimand him… it came out as more of a moan. She shoved against his hard chest but not hard enough to actually push him away.

Spike knew he almost had her, just a few more love bites and she’d…

“Spike! I see the charm,” Buffy shouted excitedly, finally pushing him fully away.

Damn! He should have kissed her lips instead and not left her view unblocked so she could spot the stupid stake. And how the hell had she seen it when it was so dark, anyway? He watched her scamper over and pick it up. Hmm… at least he got to watch the pants tighten so nicely across her ass when she bent down.

Buffy turned around to pin Spike with a glare. She had felt his lecherous gaze on her ass.

Spike didn’t notice that Willow and Xander had walked over towards the two of them at Buffy’s triumphant shout. He was too busy staring helplessly at Buffy’s yellow eyes as they flashed up at him to pay attention to their shocked reactions.

TBC... This is a brand new chappy. I'd really love to get some feedback and hear what you guys think.  :p Leave an email and I will reply. Or request a reply in the reviews and I'll comment there.

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