"Spike?"

   Willow's voice brought him back to the present. He looked up into Sarah's
brown eyes. She was looking at him with incredulity and confusion.

"You don't remember me?" he asked in disbelief.

   Sarah shook her head. No, she didn't remember him. She knew his features,
so she knew she had already seen him somewhere. Her memory of him was
constantly slipping away from her grasp, each time she was about to pinpoint
it.

"I bet she'll remember *me*," a low voice said from behind the group.

   Sarah heard Spike growl, and shivers went down her spine as she somehow
recognised the voice. She turned around fearfully, and there he was,
standing in the door frame.

   Images of her death flashed before her eyes. She remembered his face, his
voice, her fascination, her fear, his touch, his fangs, her pain, her agony,
her exhaustion, Martha's death and her death. The images, the sounds and the
sensations twirled in her mind until she was brought back to reality by
Methos' hand on her shoulder.

   Anger invaded her. He had killed her. He had killed Martha. He was a
monster, a vampire, he didn't deserve to live.

   She rushed towards him, taking her sword in hand, all her fury
concentrated on this angelic face of his. Only she was stopped in her course
by a strong kick in her stomach. The pain made her bend in two. The next
thing she knew, her rapier was taken away from her.

   She straightened up to face the blond Slayer.

"Give me my sword back," she demanded slowly.

"So that you can kill Angel? No way," the Slayer replied.

"Give me my sword back, now," Sarah repeated.

"No," the Slayer simply answered.

"Fine."

   Sarah turned back to Angel, who hadn't moved in the meantime, before
jumping on Buffy, making her lose her balance and let go of the sword. The
Immortal seized its hilt and started to rush towards the tall vampire again,
when she felt the Slayer grab her ankle. She fell to the floor, cursing, as
Buffy jumped on her and tried to immobilise her.

"Buffy, stop it."

   The Slayer looked up at Angel incredulously. Everybody in the room but
Spike was now looking at him. Even Sarah had stopped fighting. This wasn't
the same man who had killed her; she had felt the difference in this short
sentence.

"She has every reason to want to kill me," Angel went on.

   Buffy got up from Sarah and offered her a hand to get up. Sarah took it
with a small smile.

"He killed me," she said as a way of explanation.

"I thought you didn't know about vampires," Willow interjected.

"I didn't. I never remembered my death. Must have been too traumatising and
I repressed it. Now I remember," the last sentence was spoken harshly,
hatefully. She turned to Spike, who had not made a move and was still
watching her in shock. "What was your role in this?"

"It was all my fault," Angel interrupted. "He was falling in love with you,
a mortal, and I couldn't accept it. I killed you to force him into turning
you into one of us. But he couldn't."

   Buffy looked at him with disapproval. She had never been able to cope
with his evil side. She felt Riley behind her and she took his hand
reassuringly.

"To me, your death had just been a way to reassert my control over him,"
Angel finished.

"But now he has a soul and he's all nice and broody and sorry about
everything," Willow put in quickly. Someone had to defend Angel.

"She's right about that," Spike confirmed, shaking himself out of his
transe. "Peaches has nothing to do with Angelus anymore. Now he's more of a
poof than ever before."

"Thanks, Spike, I'll remember that," Angel smiled.

"Y're welcome, mate," the blond vampire, back to his usual self, replied
with a grin.

"Listen, Sarah, I'm sorry," Buffy began. "I shouldn't have -"

"No, I'm sorry," the Immortal interrupted her. "I shouldn't have lunged at
him like that. Sorry about the mess, sir," she turned to Giles after having
looked at the spot where she and the Slayer had fought.

"I've seen worse, believe me," he replied with a smile, discarding her
apologies with a gesture of his hand. "And call me Giles, everybody does."

"I have a question," Riley ventured. "Why's he here?" he asked, gesturing
towards Angel.

"Cordelia had a vision of Sarah. She only told me I needed to go there to
make things right with her," the vampire explained quickly, his eyes fixed
on Buffy¹s. "Of course, then I didn't know who she was really talking
about."

   There were a few seconds of silence before Giles suggested something.

"Why don't you kids go for a late patrol? I'll stay here with Adam; we still
haven't been able to talk of the Watchers."

"Actually, I'm quite curious too," Willow interjected.

"Ok, who goes patrolling with me?" Buffy asked.

   Riley and Angel lifted their hands up. The Slayer sighed, wincing
internally at the potential for disaster of having both Riley and Angel
patrol with her.

"Fine. Let's go."

   The three headed out of the house into the night. Meanwhile, Giles
finally brought the Immortals their requested coffees.

"She looked quite desperate," Sarah remarked, sitting down on the coach and
pushing all the memories of her death away. Now was not the time. "How
come?"

"Angel's her ex, and Riley's her current boyfriend. I guess you could say
that they do not get along very well," Willow explained with a small smile.

"She dated a vampire?" Methos asked in disbelief. "Isn't it somehow against
the rules of the Slayer profession or whatever?"

"It *is* quite unconventionnal," Giles admitted, "but Buffy is not a
conventionnal Slayer, nor Angel a conventionnal vampire. He was cursed by
Romanis into having his soul, and when he eventually lost it, Willow here
gave it back to him."

"Our Red is a hell of a witch." Spike smiled. "When she doesn't mess up her
spells too much."

   Willow, who had been wearing a proud smile till then, blushed and
stuttered.

"Well, huh, I think I have t-to - to call Tara," she sounded relieved to
have found something to do. "I'll be right back."

"Who's Tara?" Sarah asked as the redhead headed for the phone.

"Her girlfriend and fellow witch," Spike replied.

   Methos inwardly sighed. Too bad. He felt quite drawn to the redheaded
witch. He would just have to bury those rising feelings of his.

"She's gay?"

   Sarah was surprised. The redhead seemed quite shy, and, well, it was
always surprising in somewhat that young.

"I'm more inclined to say that she is bi," Spike remarked. "Before Tara, she
dated a werewolf. A male one."

   Giles coughed slightly.

"I think we could find topics more fitting than Willow's sexual preferences,
couldn't we?"

"Yes, definitely," Methos added. "What about telling me a bit more about
your Watchers?"

   Spike and Sarah looked at each other, rolling their eyes. They smiled,
enjoying the sparkles in one another's eyes. Sarah moved to the other end of
the couch, the one closer to Spike's armchair.

"So, you - you were really falling in love with me all those years ago?" she
asked under her breath, almost ashamed to ask that particular question.

"Yes," Spike replied, his usually piercing blue eyes becoming vague, as he
remembered those times. "I had caught sight of you at a ball then. I had
come there to find myself a nice dinner, but when I saw you I forgot all
about my plans. You looked so alive. Of course, you were circled by what
appeared to be numerous suitors. I made a habit of following you around at
night, or just watching you from your window. I never talked to you, apart
from one time when you were hurrying back to your cab and I 'accidentally'
hustled you. I apologised and you accepted it with a smile. You smiled to
me. If you could only imagine how beautiful that smile was on your face, in
the moonlight..."

"How come you found yourself falling for a 'mortal' as Angel puts it?" Sarah
asked, watching his eyes come back from the past of memories.

"I don't know," he replied honestly, locking eyes with her. "It just
happened. And I loved you too much to turn you. That was what Angelus was
afraid of."

"Yes, I can understand that." Sarah smiled coldly.

"Listen, love, what about going patrolling too? I fear the conversation of
these three," Spike gestured towards Giles, Methos and Willow, "is going to
stay focused on bloody boring Watcher business for quite some time."

"Sure, let's go," Sarah agreed. She stood up and seized her coat, in which
she had put her rapier back. "Adam, we're going to go patrolling as well.
Don't wait for me, I'll probably go back directly at the motel. It was nice
meeting you, Giles, Willow."

   She opened the door and waited for Spike to come out. Then she followed
him into the night.

   As the door closed on the couple, Methos found Willow smiling at them.
Their eyes locked and he could see she was hoping for the same thing he was.
They went back to their conversation with the ex-Watcher.
 

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