Part 1

      "You owe me five thousand dollars."
      "I don’t have it.  Will you take a trade for it."
      "What do you have that I might want?"
      "How about this?"
      "Done,"  Willow took the offered two railroads from Spike, smiling.  She
loved playing Monopoly with him because, unlike her other friends, he was
always willing to make the game a bit of fun.  Spike and Willow had grown
closer in the months since his capture by the Initiative, her always trying
to draw him into the group’s activities, no matter how much he protested and
whined.  Spike, for his part, found her innocence despite knowing the truth
about the world, refreshing.  He loved making her laugh with his off-color
jokes that only she got.
      "So what did you and the wolf talk about?"  Spike questioned.  Oz had come
back the day before and he knew that Willow and Oz had talked earlier that
day.
      "He wanted to apologize to me for leaving and tried to make me understand
why he did what he did," Willow answered.  "Also wanted to tell me that he
wanted to try and win me back.  That he still loved me."
      "I hope you told him where to stick his apology," Spike told her.  "After
everything that he did to you, he just expects you to willingly set yourself
up for another fall."
      "Spike," Willow admonished the blonde vampire by her side, "let me handle
things my way, please."
      "I just worry about you, pet," he told her.  Spike remembered how much pain
Willow had been in when Oz had first left, even letting him to continue to
try and bite her when he had come to her room looking to kill the Slayer.
He compared it to how much he had hurt when Drusilla had left him for that
Chaos demon down in Brazil.  Through their pain, they formed a friendship
that left the other scooby members baffled.  "I don’t want to see you hurt
again."
      "I know," Willow said, touched by his concern.  "And don’t worry, I’m not
going to let him get to me again.  The only thing I want from him is
friendship, if that.  I don’t think I can handle anything more than that
from him."
      "Are you sure?"
      "Yeah.  I mean, I wasn’t sure how I would react when he finally came back,
but when I saw him there was nothing there," Willow explained.  "I mean,
there was still a little of the love I used to feel for him, but not this
all encompassing despair that I had expected.  It was just like a pleasant
memory.  That’s when I knew that I was over him."  Spike grinned at the red
head, pleased at her realization.
      "Couldn’t have anything to do with that poof of a sire of mine, now could
it?" Spike teased.  Willow blushed at Spike’s comments, throwing a pillow at
him.  Willow and Spike had often gone to Los Angeles to see Angel and
Cordelia, the rest of their group of friends in Sunnydale not knowing about
the trips.  Willow and Cordelia had become good friends, both recognizing
the changes that had taken place in the other, while Spike and Angel had
worked hard at regaining the friendship that they had once shared before
Angel had regained his soul.  It had been hard, but all four had felt that
the end was worth it.
      "Of course not, Spike," she replied.  "You know that Angel and I are only
friends."
      "Sure, friends is all," he smirked, enjoying the discomfort that Willow was
feeling.  "That’s what they call it now."
      "Yup, friends.  Just like you and Cordelia."  Spike actually looked away
from Willow.  Willow giggled at his reaction.  "Come on, Spikey, tell Willow
all about your little crush on Cordelia."
      "Sod off," he growled, no threat in his voice.  "There’s nothing to tell.
She only sees me as a friend."  Willow nodded her understanding.
      "Some pair we are.  First we get together and mourn love lost and now we
sit here and mourn something that we haven’t even had a chance to find yet,"
Willow commented.
      "Yeah, well, nothing we can really do about it.  I mean, Cordelia would
never go for someone like me because of the whole soulless vampire thing.."
      "Spike," Willow interrupted, "you know as well as I do that Cordy doesn’t
see you that way.  Not anymore."   Willow knew that the former cheerleader
had actually formed a crush on Spike but wasn’t sure what to do about it.
Willow was determined to get her two friends together.  "Sure she
understands that the only reason you haven’t killed anyone lately is because
of that chip in your head, but she still likes you.  I mean, there’s a lot
to like once you get underneath all that sarcastic crap you are always
spitting out."
      "Thanks, pet," he sneered.  "Now, as I was saying before I was interrupted.
  Cordelia wouldn’t be interested in me and Peaches won’t allow himself to
fall in love again.  Even if he did, he sure as hell wouldn’t risk anything
because of what might happen."
      "Is that why he hasn’t dated anyone since he left Sunnydale," Willow asked,
confused at what Spike was saying.  "What does Angel think he will be
risking?  Sure, him and Buffy didn’t work out, but that could have something
to do with the whole Slayer/Vampire thing.  I mean, he wouldn’t always have
that problem."
      "Come on, pet, you remember what happened the last time my sire got happy,"
Spike said, surprised at how Willow had seemingly forgot about the whole
happiness clause in Angel’s curse.
      "Yeah, and.  Not like it can happen again." Willow replied, nonchalantly,
still not understanding why Spike seemed so concerned about whether Angel
could be happy or not.
      "What are you talking about?  Do you really think the Slayer is the only
one that could make Peaches so happy that he would lose his soul?"
      "But he can’t," Willow told him.  Spike looked at her in  surprise.  "The
clause is gone.  I took it out before I did the spell.  Angel can get as
happy as he possibly wants and he’ll keep his soul.  I would have thought he
would have told you considering how much the two of you talk to each other."
      Spike was dumbfounded.  "He doesn’t know."
      "What?" Willow shouted.
      "I mean, he doesn’t know.  As far as he is concerned, that clause is still
there."
      "I don’t believe this," Willow muttered, ranting to herself.  "She told me
that she would tell him about it being gone.  She asked me not to say
anything because she didn’t want the others to know. I never understood why
she didn’t, but it makes sense now.  She never told him.  That bitch.  How
dare she keep something like this from him?  Doesn’t Angel deserve some kind
of happiness after everything that he has had to go through? Hell, she’s
moved on, why can’t he?"  With each sentence, Willow’s voice got steadily
louder until she was practically screaming.  Spike went over to her, trying
to calm her down.
      "There, there, pet.  What are you talking about?" He asked, concerned.  He
had never seen Willow so angry before and was glad that he wasn’t the person
that had gotten her that mad.  "Who knew and asked you not to say anything?"
      "Buffy," Willow spat out.  "I told her about the clause being gone as soon
as I found out that Angel had come back. I thought that it would help her
and him fix up their relationship if they knew that they didn’t have to
worry about Angelus coming back. I would have told Angel too, but she asked
me not to say anything.  I can’t believe she didn’t tell him."
      "I’m not," Spike informed her.  "I mean, sure I can’t believe that she
didn’t immediately go and shag the bloke, but we are talking about little
miss talks a lot.  She’s not exactly with it in the brains department, if
you know what I mean."
      "But Angel was supposed to be the love of her life.  Why wouldn’t she want
him to know that his soul was permanent?"
      "Probably because she couldn’t handle everything that had happened after he
had lost it the first time," Spike explained, understanding why Buffy did
what she did but still not liking it.  "You know how she is.  She says one
thing while doing the complete opposite."
      "Yeah, I guess you’re right," Willow agreed, silently cursing her friend
for her betrayal.  "I just don’t like the fact that Angel is still going
around guilting himself and thinking that he can never be happy."
      "Well, there is a way to fix that, luv," Spike grinned.  Willow saw the
gleam in his eye and knew what he had planned.
      "You drive.  Let’s see how quick we can make it to LA.  We have a pair of
detectives to see."
 

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