Spike and Sarah had been walking in silence for a couple of minutes.
They felt both quite awkward, being alone in the night, after all those
years. Of course, Sarah didn¹t know the vampire all that well, but knowing
that he had been in love with her did it.

"So, what about this chip?" she asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"How did you get it?"

"The commando boys," he replied.

"Commando?"

"Oh, right, nobody told you about the Initiative," Spike realised. "The
Initiative was a military operation based here in Sunnydale. They wanted to
study demons and so on. They labelled me hostile 17. They paralysed me with
these special guns of theirs, brought me to their base - in the basement of
one of the university residences - and put this bloody chip in my head. I
managed to escape, though I didn't have a clue about the chip. I went to the
Slayer's bedroom in order to kill the chit, but I found only Red. Wanted to
turn her, but we found out I couldn't bite her. She was cute - she thought
it was because she wasn't biteable." Spike chuckled at the thought.

"Does the big bad ass vampire have a crush on a mortal witch?" Sarah mocked
gently.

"She *is* incredibly gorgeous, and she *would* make a great vampire, but
she's got this bloody witch of hers," Spike replied honestly. "Plus, I'll
leave her to Adam."

"What? You think that-?" Sarah remembered the way Willow and Methos had
hugged. "Yes, I guess that's a possibility. Even a certainty, actually."

"Should we turn into matchmakers?" Spike asked mischieviously.

"I intend to keep my head where it is," Sarah laughed softly. "I don't think
Adam would be very pleased with us meddling in his love life."

"Which is the exact reason why it would be so amusing," Spike remarked.

    A few minutes of silence ensued. They were walking side by side, their
hands touching from time to time. Finally, Sarah spoke again.

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you," she nervously began. "It
might seem a bit inappropriate or whatever, and I don't really know why I'm
even asking this, but-"

"Love, please get to the point." Spike smiled.

"Ok," she took a deep breath. "Are you-"

    Only she stopped her sentence there as she caught sight of a sort of
blue version of Hulk in front of them.

"Spike, what the hell is that?" she whispered.

"I think it's a Jaspro demon," he ventured, cocking his head to the side.

"And how do we kill it?"

"I don't know. You could always try beheading. It works on an amazing amount
of different species," he said as he lit up a cigarette.

"And *I* get to do all the work?" Sarah asked, half-seriously.

"I just love watching you, pet," Spike replied with a half-smile before
drawing on the cigarette.

"Spike?" the Immortal called. Once she had his attention, she drew her sword
and cut his cigarette in two. "Don't call me pet."

    The vampire smiled at her as he watched her turn to the demon. He was
huge. Maybe he should help her out. Oh well, it's not as if the bloody thing
would kill her. Permanently. He could always come to her rescue then. He
chuckled lightly as he took out another cigarette.

    Sarah faced the - what did he call it? A Jaspro demon, right? She
sighed. The thing was enormous. Of course, it was consequently far from
being quick. She advanced towards it, tired of waiting.

    She easily dodged the first blow, powerful but slow. She ran behind the
creature and drove her rapier into its heart. The thing let out a small cry
of agony as she took her rapier out. She beheaded it nonchalantly.

    Spike was amused. It hadn't been much of a fight for the poor demon. And
it hadn't enabled him to see how good of a fighter Sarah was. Suddenly, he
thought of the perfect way to find out: the vampire lair he had found. Just
perfect.

    He watched her coming back to him. She had rolled the corpse to the side
of the road.

"What should we do with the cadaver?" she asked him.

"I'm not much into necrophilia, and especially not with Jaspros, but it's
your choice, love," Spike replied.

"Spike," she sighed. "I mean where should we take it?"

"Well, we just leave it here. I don't know how come, but we never dispose of
the numerous demon corpses we leave behind us, and nobody ever complained
about finding one in his garden. It's just the way things are," he
explained, shrugging. "It's like with your sword. Even Satan can't know how
you manage to hide it, but you do."

"I'm not so sure I know it myself," Sarah muttered to herself.

"Anyway, love, what about a massacre in a vampire lair?" he asked.

"Sounds good," the Immortal replied as she took his arm.

-------------

"The only Adam you ever knew was a mixture of human, demon and robot, whose
plan was to destroy the human species?" Methos exclaimed, half-laughing.
"Well I guess I have to restore Adam-named people in your opinion."

"You're doing a great job, believe me," Willow replied, her eyes twinkling
with mischief. "True, it wasn't that hard to be more pleasant than him, you
know. You only needed to be human. And not to believe that emotions were a
hindrance as well."

    Methos fell in a sudden silence. Oooops, Willow thought, I bet I
reopened an old wound. The look in his eyes was very vague, as if he was
called off to some other place in his mind. I wish Giles was still here, the
redhead thought again. He'd know what to do. Why did he have to be so
suddenly exhausted and go up into his room?

"Huh... Adam?" she ventured, putting a hand on one of his.

    Immediately, his eyes resumed their usual look and Willow sighed with
relief. She didn't remove her hand from his.

"Sorry," he apologised with a small smile. "I was lost in memories."

"Yes, you really seemed to be totally elsewhere," Willow remarked.

"Well, yes, it often happens to us. We do not keep many conscious memories,
obviously, because of the long life span, but from time to time certain
memories assault us. And it seems as if we lived them again."

"What memory just 'assaulted' you then?" the redhead asked, curious.

"A period of my life of which I am not proud at all," he replied with what
sounded like nostalgia, surprisingly.

    Willow could not bring herself to ask more. She understood very clearly
that it would be of no use; he wouldn't tell her anymore. She turned the
conversation to something else she was curious about.

"So how old are you?"

"Older than you think, little one," he replied mischieviously. Before she
could protest, he went on. "And old enough to have the right to call you
little one."

    She playfully slapped his arm and appeared to be vexed. He watched her
with amusement, and she soon abandoned her little pretense.

"You know, we've already encountered really old vampires. Angel is about two
hundred and I don't know how many years old. See?" she told him, meaning to
impress him.

"I'm older than you think. Much older," Methos replied with a smile. "To
give you the beginning of an idea, I've been married 68 times."

"Really? To mortals or Immortals?" she asked inquisitively.

"Mortals, only mortals," he replied, his eyes laughing. "Marrying another
Immortal would be far too big of a committment for me. I tried to live with
Sarah, as a couple, I mean. Didn't work out, we didn't even last a decade.
And if I had got married to an Immortal, it would definitely have been her."

"But isn't it too hard to see them age and die, while you stay young
forever?"

"It's something you never get used to. But it's worth it. Despite the fact
that I've become a widower, or worse than that, 68 times, I do not regret a
single one of them. Love is worth it."

    As he uttered these last words, he stared intently into her green eyes
and put his hand over hers, clutching it. Their faces leaned towards one
another.  As their lips touched, Willow closed her eyes and suppressed a
moan of pleasure.
 

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