By Samantha MacLeod

Rating: Over all R for Language and Violence

Pairing(s): W/S maybe more later

Disclaimer: I don’t own. Joss does. But if he ever wanted to loan them to me for a book or an episode, I wouldn’t mind one bit. Alexandria is mine. So is most of the plot.

Feedback: I would love it. It feeds the creative juices.

Note: If anyone wants to archive this, just ask and you shall receive. On with the tale and enjoy.

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Chapter One-Resolutions

Dear Diary,

I, Willow Rosenberg, have made the most dramatic move in my whole life. A month ago when I got the letter from Oxford stating that they still wanted me for a student, I was shocked. I forgot that after Oz left I had written them to see if my acceptance was still good. And I was startled today when I got the letter from them. I can’t believe I forgot about it.

Although, considering everything that has happened, I’m not surprised. First Spike comes back and tries to attack me, but he couldn’t. It seems that this group on campus has implanted a computer chip in his brain that cause him extreme pain whenever he even thinks of hurting a human. Normally that would be a good thing, but when you’re a vampire and the only way you can live in off of blood, it’s not. I feel sorry for him, and mad at the people that did this to him. Sure, I fight the good fight with Buffy, but we don’t torture the demons before we kill them. Stake though the heart, then they are dust. It’s the more humane way of dealing with the legions of the undead.

It was weird when he came into my room that night. I wanted to die, but then when it was offered to me, I declined. At first when he couldn’t bite me, I thought it was me. He told me it wasn’t and actually comforted me in his own way. I guess that’s why when he showed up on Giles’s door step on Thanksgiving, I couldn’t let Buffy kill him. When Giles had him, chain in the bath tub, and after Buffy’s attempts to get information from him about the Initiative, I was the one that took him his meals. During those times, we started talking a little and became kinda friends. Well, we were until my botched ‘Will Be Done’ spell. After that, he went back to being the same pissed off Big Bad that he was. I actually miss our talks.

Oh man, I even babble when I write in here, but where is a better place right?

Lately, I’ve been feeling more out of place then normal. Everyone has someone, but me. Buffy has Riley. Xander has Anya. Giles has Olivia and Spike sort of has Harmony. I’m alone. I guess that’s why I made the decision that I did. I need a change, so I’m going to Oxford. I’m leaving Sunnydale and the Slaying life style for London, where the Headquarters for the Watcher’s Council is located.

Now, I just have to tell the Scoobies. I hope they understand. I going to miss them all so much, even Spike, but I have to do this.

~Willow

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As Willow walked up to the front door she was nervous. Today she was telling the gang that she was leaving. She was going to London to continue her education at Oxford. Well, here goes nothing. She turned the door handle and pushed the door open. At first she didn’t see anyone in the livingroom, so she walked in farther and set her messenger bag down on the couch.

"Hello?" She called to the seemingly empty room. That’s when she heard the microwave beep from in the kitchen. That was followed by the British voice of Spike. "They’re not here, Red."

Willow walked into the kitchen and found Spike pouring his bagged blood into Giles’s former favorite mug. "Oh. Do you know when they’ll be back?"

Spike kept his back to her as he spoke. "The Watcher went to the Magic Box pick up a book that he ordered. Cubs was here with Demon girl but they left to go back to the basement. And Slutty hasn’t been around all day. So it’s just you and me, pet. Doesn’t that sound like fun?" He turned to her with his usual cocky smirk.

"Yeah, loads." She noticed his smirk vanished when she spoke, so she quickly continued. "Being that you’re still mad at me and all."

Spike motioned to the kitchen table as he spoke. "Why would I be mad at you? You’re only one of the bloody group that I can stand." He sat down and Willow followed into the chair across from him.

Willow looked down at her hands that she had set on the table as she started speaking. "Well, after what happened with that spell and all, And the way you haven’t been talking to me like you used to, I thought you were mad at me. Well, all of that and the fact that every time you have talked to me you have been snapping at me."

She looked up at him when he didn’t answer right away. She found him sipping from the mug, looking at her as if he was measuring her up for something. "Well, Red. You had me kissing Slutty and all being all cuddly wuddly with her. Of course I was mad, but now, I’m not." He took another sip. "But that’s not why you’re here. What’s going on in that brain of yours?"

"I have some news. I have to tell everyone tonight. I want to wait and tell all of them at once, so can you wait until then?"

"Sure, Red. So what are we going to talk about until the Watcher gets back, and we get everyone here?" When he finished speaking, he let his vamp face come through and he downed the rest of the blood in the mug. Willow was a bit surprised to find that it didn’t freak her out as it used to, she was actually fascinated by it. As he took the mug to the sink, she spoke.

"Tell me about London."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dear Diary,

I told them. Buffy started crying and hugging me. Between her and Xander they wouldn’t let me go. Giles was shocked. He told me that I would do great, and that if I needed anything to just call him. Then he left the room, and didn’t come back until I was going home. Then he hugged me. Anya didn’t seem to care. Riley gave me a hug and thanked me again for helping him with Buffy. Spike left soon after I told them all. I still haven’t seen him, but I got a weird phone call from Angel asking about him. I told Angel everything that happened with the chip, and then about me leaving. He said the same thing that Giles had, that of I ever needed anything to just let him know.

I’m leaving in a week. Buffy and Xander have already made plans to spend every moment they could with me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Willow put her pen down, as she heard the soft tapping at the door. She looked over and saw that Buffy was asleep, so she got up to answer the door. She opened the door and taken back to find Spike standing there. "I need to talk to you, Red." He said as he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the hallway. Willow closed the door softly not to wake Buffy, then she followed him to the stair well. When they got there, he sat down on the top step and she sat next to him. They sat in quiet for a few moments before he spoke.

"I’m gonna miss you, Red."

Willow could smell the whiskey on him and knew he had been drinking, but she also knew he wasn’t drunk. She had delt with a drunk Spike before and this was not it. "I’m going to miss you, too, Spike."

"With you going, I’m going to stay with Peaches. I’ll never handle being around them. I’ll probably try to kill them and end up with my head exploding. So you know where I am. If you need me." When he finished talking, he got up and walked down a few steps before turning to her. He gave her a smirk, but his eye held sadness. "By the way, love the boxers, Red."

Willow looked down and saw that she was wearing the boxers that Buffy had given her last Christmas. They had little vampires on the black material. She looked back up to say something, but Spike was gone.

"Bye, Spike." She whispered before she headed back to her room.
 

Chapter Two-Surprises and First Meetings

Dear Diary,

Well, I’m here. I’m in Oxford and I still haven’t met my roommate. From what Maggie said, Alex, my roommate, is in London for the day and that she should be back tonight. I can’t wait. Maybe next time Alex goes to London she wouldn’t mind me tagging along. I would love to see London. Spike had told me so much about it before I left. I had no idea at the time that Oxford wasn’t in London. Oh, well, you learn something new everyday. So I’ll just have to ask Alex. Maggie said that Alex is really nice, smart and a bit wild. As I was unpacking, I noticed the sound system and CDS, and records over on Alex’s side of the room. I looked at them briefly, because I didn’t want to seem like I was snooping on her while she wasn’t there, but I was curious. I found that she had anything Billy Idol ever did, along with The Who, The Doors, and so many others that I had only seen at Giles’s house. I also couldn’t help but notice that there was a laptop sitting on the desk, and on her closet door was a huge Billy Idol poster. Maggie came in to see if I needed anything when I was looking at it, so I asked her about it. Maggie said that Alex had meet Billy when she was thirteen and that they had been really good friends ever since. She said also that she wouldn’t have believed it, except that he has come to visit her a few times that he was in town. Maggie also said that it caused a few of the girls on the floor to start acting really nicey nice to Alex, just so they could get near him. Alex had gotten mad and told them off in front of the whole floor. I also found out why Maggie was telling me so much about Alex, Maggie is one of Alex’s only female friends, and Maggie figured that if she liked me then Alex would also. I can’t wait to meet Alex, but until then I got Maggie to keep me company.

Maggie is really great. She’s about Buffy’s height and almost the same build, except Maggie has dark brown hair with chunky blonde streaks through it, and she has warm brown eyes. Her eyes remind me of Angel, especially when she gave me the puppy dog look to get me to go to lunch with her. Maggie is twenty-six like Alex and they are both Grad students. Maggie said that I ended up rooming with Alex because she was the only one without a roommate. Another thing that I like about Maggie is that she babbles just like me, so we can easily understand each other.

My classes don’t start until tomorrow, so that I can get settled, so I’m off to lunch with Maggie.

~Willow

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Willow and Maggie were walking across the lawn in front of the dorms, when they heard the roar of a motorcycle. They were deep in a conversation about Shakespear when they suddenly hear the roar coming up behind them. Willow was about to jump out of the way, but Maggie held her where she was as the motorcycle stopped suddenly next to them. The person stopped the bike, but didn’t get off as they took off their helmet. Willow noticed that on the side of the all black helmet was a small pentagram painted with silver paint. When the helmet was removed Willow found herself face to face with another girl, she had long light brown hair, only slightly lighter then Giles’s hair. Willow looked at the girl’s face and noticed that her eyes were a clear blue and seemed to gleam with mischief, anyone else would have missed it, but Willow had seen the same look in Spike’s eyes when he was about to cause trouble. The girl smiled when as she held out her hand and spoke for the first time. "I’m Alexandria. Call me Alex."

"I’m Willow. I guess I’m your new roommate." Willow said as she shook Alex’s hand.

"Coolness." Alex answered. Willow noticed that she didn’t have an English accent like Maggie. "So they told me that your from Cali? Where? I lived in San Fran for a bit, among other places."

"I’m from Sunnydale." Willow said. After she spoke, she noticed that the gleam in Alex’s eyes disappeared, but they still seemed to smile.

"That’s cool." Alex looked to Maggie then back to Willow. "I see you met Mags. And judging by the time, I would say that she is dragging you to get lunch, right?"

"Yep." Maggie said watching Alex, she had known her for four years and just knew that something was wrong with her.

"Ok. I’m going to head up to the room and put my stuff away and I’ll meet you there." Alex said as she turned her bike around and before either of them could respond she started it up and left them standing there.

"That was weird. Is she always like that?" Willow asked still watching the way Alex left.

"Sometimes. Sometimes not. Alex is just Alex. Come on, before all of the tables are gone." Maggie said as she grabbed Willow’s arm and started dragging her toward one of the many buildings.

~*~Alex and Willow’s room~*~

Alex walked in and threw her helmet on her bed as she walked straight to the phone on her desk. She picked it up and quickly dialed one of the few numbers that she knew by heart. As she waited for someone to pick up, she went over what she had been told about Sunnydale. Blonde Slayer. Buffy. Brown hair boy who hates vampires. Xander. Red haired witch. Willow. That’s it. Willow’s the red-haired witch that helped the Slayer in Sunnydale, But what is she doing here? I swear if he sent her to check up on me.... Alex was brought out of her thoughts when she heard the female voice on the other end answer. "Angel Investigations. We help the helpless."

"Cordy. It’s Alex. I need to talk to Angel."

"Alex? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Yeah, and considering you answered the phone I would say that your working on a case this early in the morning. So do me a favor and get him on the phone I need to talk to him. Ok? Then you can tell me what you guys are working on and I’ll try to help you out. Ok?"

"Ok, but you owe me one." Cordy’s voice answered sounding exhausted.

Alex waited for a few moments before she heard a male voice come on the line. "Lexia, what’s wrong?" He sounded worried.

"Angel, I’m sorry to make you worry. I just needed to know if there was something you, oh I don’t know, needed to tell me?"

"Lexia. Your birthday already passed, so what are you talking about?" Angel’s voice lightened as he talked.

"Oh, just that I meet my new roommate, and guess where she’s from?" Alex started up her computer as she waited for him to answer her.

"Alexandria. It’s late here, and we’re busy on a case. I don’t have time for guessing games. What is going on?" Angel’s voice started to loose that lightness that was in it a few moments before. Cranky Vamps can be such pains.

"Willow is my new roommate. She’s from Sunnydale. Did you send her to watch out for me or did you just forget to tell me that a girl that knows about the things that go bump in the night, first hand I might say, was coming to Oxford?"

"Lexia. I’m sorry. I was going to call you but I’ve been having some problems of my own here. Willow decided to transfer to Oxford from UC Sunnydale. She’ll be able to help you if you need it, but its up to you to tell her. I never told any of them about you, so if you don’t want to tell her its ok. But I would say tell her. Willow is really special, she the one that gave me my soul back the last time. And you’ll be able to help her with her magic, from what I have heard she has been having some problems with it."

"She is very powerful. I felt it when I met her. I’m not sure if I’ll tell her or not. It’s up to her, if she helps or not, maybe that was one of the big appeals of coming here. No Slayage. And here she is stuck being a roommate with another Slayer. Besides, I’m having a problem with the Council again, tomorrow I’m going straight to Travers and having a little talk with him."

"Lexia, hold the temper when dealing with Travers. As for Willow, do what you will. Like I said, It’s your choice."

"I’ll remember that about Travers. So onto a different topic. You are coming for Christmas, right? Billy said he was going to be home, so you better be here. I want a nice family Christmas for once. No more of this over the phone. I haven’t seen you since I left the states, and I miss my Big Brother, so your coming and there is nothing you can do to get out of it. So you’re either here for Christmas or I’m coming to L.A. and I’m gonna kick your broody ass. Got it?" Alex said feeling better after talking to Angel.

"Yeah, I’ll be there. I know Wesley was planning on going home for Christmas and as long as Cordy can come, I’ll be there."

"Yeah, Cordy can come. I can finally meet her, instead of just talking to her over the phone. Now, put her back on. I told her I would try to help her with the case."

Alex logged onto the Internet as she waited for Cordy to get back on the phone. "Ok, Alex this is what I have."

"Cordy email me the files. I’ll look them over, and call you back. All right?"

Cordy let out a breath as she thanked Alex for her help. After they hung up, Alex went through her emails, waiting for the one from Cordy. When it came through, she pulled it up and opened it.

As she read over the information, she got lost in the case and never noticed the door to the room open, when Willow came back.

Willow opened the door and found Alex in front of her computer like Maggie said she would probably be.

"Alex?" Willow asked as she walked over to her side of the room.

"Uh?" Alex turned and found Willow sitting on her bed. "Oh, Willow I’m sorry. I had to call a friend of mine and I got pulled into helping him on something. Did you have a good lunch?"

"Yeah, it was good. It was crowded in there so we went to eat outside. It was a bit cold, but I liked it. Do you need any help with anything?" Willow looked over at the computer when she finished speaking.

"Naw, I got it. I was just going to email him what I found and some things that might help." Alex wasn’t sure how to tell Willow about her being a Slayer or even how she would take the news, so she quickly changed the subject. "So you practice?"

Willow was taken back by the question, so much so that she wasn’t sure what she was talking about. "Practice what?"

"Wicca. I know you’re a witch, I can feel your power. I’ve been practicing since I was really little my mother started training me. When she died, my grandmother and Michael took over my training. I can help you if you want any. Help that is?"

"Yeah, that would be great. Thanks." Willow answered smiling. I think I’m going to really like England. "So Maggie tells me that you actually know Billy Idol, what’s he like?"

"Billy’s like my Big Brother, as it is he calls me Lit’le Sis. Sometimes, he’s great, and sometimes, he’s a pain in my ass, but I love him just the same." Alex looked at the girl as if sizing her up for something. "You’re not trying to get to him through me are you?"

"No. No. I would never do that. I’ve just always wondered what he was like, and I have a good friend that acts like I’ve seen him act."

"Ok, I believe you. Just to prove how much, I’m gonna tell you that he’s supposed to be in town by the end of the week, and guess what?" Alex said smiling and getting a bit giddy at the thought of seeing Billy again.

"What?" Willow said laughing a bit at the way Alex was acting. That how Spike was acting when he realized that he could beat up demons. Just like a little kid. Thinking of Spike was reminding her of everyone in Sunnydale. I miss them so much.

"You, me and Mags are going to see him, and I’m not taking no for an answer."

"Ok, I’ll go. How could I possibly say no to that?" Willow said smiling. Yeah, I miss everyone, but I’m starting to really like England.

~*~At the offices of Angel Investigations~*~

Angel gave the phone back to Cordelia as Spike walked in the front door. He looked over at him and noticed that he had gotten into a fight. "Do you find anything out?"

"No. That demon is laying low. Really low. No one around ha heard about him." Spike said taking a seat on the couch, and pulling a cigarette out and putting it in his mouth. "Did you come up with anything?"

"We’re waiting. I have news from England." Angel said as he watched Spike closely.

At the mention of England, Spike was at full attention. He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth, before he started talking. "Red called?"

"No. Willow didn’t call, but she is there and settling."

Spike lit the smoke and took a drag off of it, before he started talking again. "So, you’ve got someone watching her?"

"No. Actually her roommate called and sort of yelled at me, when she found out that Willow was from Sunnydale." Angel said sitting on the couch next to Spike. He turned to look at him to see if he caught the connection on his own.

"Peaches, I know for a fact that besides, Fluffy the Vampire Slayer, the only other person that could ever get away with yelling at you is Alexandria, so don’t play games. How’s Alex doing?"

Angel let out an unneeded breath, before he spoke again. "Lexia, is doing well. As far as I know she’s not planning on bring Willow into her life as a Slayer. She also made me an offer about Christmas that I couldn’t refuse."

"Yeah, that’s Alex." Spike said taking a long drag off of his cigarette, and smirking at the memory of the girl.

"You have to face her sooner or later. I’m not going to push you on the subject of Alex, but you have to talk to her, Spike. You owe her that much." Angel said getting up and heading toward his office, when he got to the door he turned back to Spike. "Oh, and Spike. After you talk to Alex, maybe you should tell Willow how you feel about her."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don’t you go and do what you do best, Peaches?" Spike replied sarcastically as he got up and headed out the door, again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dear Diary,

I miss everyone so much. I got emails from the gang, and I wrote them back. Sunnydale is actually quite in the baddies department. Cody emailed me and she sounded happy. It seems that they had been having a problem on one of their cases and they had finally gotten what they needed. So that’s over and done with for them. She also told me that Spike is doing good. I actually miss him making fun of the gang. Cordy said that he called Buffy, ‘Fluffy the Vampire Slayer’. She said that he started calling her that after Angel hit him a few times for calling her Slutty. I wish he would call me. It’s weird that now, I can notice how much his voice and talking to him calmed me.

As for England, I love it here. I ate lunch outside today with Maggie. And I finally met Alex. She’s awesome. She reminds me of Buffy, with a bit of myself, and a bit of Spike thrown in for good measure. She’s a practicing witch and has offered to help me with the craft. I can’t wait, finally someone that can help me. I know Giles’s was helping me, but sometimes, you can’t protect someone from the very thing that they are trying to learn.

Well, I’m going for a walk. I want to look around campus a bit, then it’s to bed with this hacker. Early classes, and all that fun stuff.

~Willow

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Willow had been walking around for about an hour, when she heard the sounds of a fight. Her hand tightened automatically on the stake that she had in her jacket pocket. You can take the girl out of Sunnydale, but you can’t take Sunnydale out of the girl. She rounded the corner of the main building when and she saw the fight. It was Alex and she seemed to be fighting a guy that was almost twice her size, but the same height as her. Willow watched as Alex fought. Alex when she was standing was the same height as Spike and Xander. She had a lean build, but she had muscles.

The more she watched the fight she realized that Alex was doing really good. She seemed to know exactly what she was doing, like she had been doing it for years. Just like Buffy. Just as the thought entered her mind, Willow saw Alex pull something from her pocket and plunge it into the guy’s chest. Then the guy did something, Willow thought she left back in Sunnydale. He exploded into dust. Oh Goddess! He was a vampire!

Willow walked closer to Alex as she was dusting off her pants and the front of her shirt. Alex looked up as she heard Willow’s voice. "Alex?"

"Aw, shit!" Alex said as she saw the confused look on Willow’s face. "Did you see that?"

Willow just nodded as she waited for Alex to explain. She didn’t have to wait long. "Come on. Let’s take a walk." They started heading toward the quad as Alex started talking. "I didn’t want you to find out about all of this. I know you helped Buffy in Sunnydale, but I wanted to keep you out of as much of my life as a Slayer as possible. I know you know about Slayers, so I’m just going to tell you my story. Well, the short version. I’m a Slayer. I was called when I was thirteen. Michael was my Watcher and he was killed when I was sixteen. He was the only father I ever had and when he died, and the Council came to bring me back to England so that they could give me a New Watcher. I told them to shove it. I told them I would still be their Slayer, but I would not take another Watcher. When I was twenty, I found some stuff out and wanted to die. I ended up facing the vampire that had killed my mother, Michael and my best friend Toby. The vampire had taken everything from me and I wanted to die. I almost did, but I had a friend who was a vampire and he found me before I died. He gave me his blood, but something freaky happened. I’m still alive, but I’m also part vampire. When the demon became part of my body I technically died, so the next Slayer was called, India. And then Buffy was called. I still fight the fight. But I have also been running from the Council. They want to study me, and I still want nothing to do with them." Alex noticed that they had come to a bench by the fountain so she sat down. "Any questions?"

Willow sat in silence for a moment before she spoke. "How did you know I helped Buffy?"

"No easy ones first, huh?" Alex smirked as she looked out over the fountain. "When I was twenty-three, Whistler paid me a visit, and brought Angel with him. The Powers that Be had decided that before he was to help Buffy, I had to help him be able to live among the humans. In away I was his rehab. I helped him and we became friends. We still are. When you told me you were from Sunnydale, I thought he had sent you to check up on me. I called him and he told me that you just decided that you wanted to come here. So I’m just chalking it all up to the PTBs way of things."

"When Angel was in Sunnydale, he told me all about you guys. I always wanted to meet you, but I stayed away, after what happened with India."

"What happened?" Willow asked, remembering when her body had been taken over by India so that they could fight the Gatherer.

"I met India and Kit, Her Watcher, soon after she was called. When she died, I went to see Kit. He said some very painful things, which basically boil down to the fact that I was still alive and she was dead. I knew I was causing him pain, so I left. I didn’t want a repeat, so I stayed away from Sunnydale. But I got to know you all through what Angel told me. By the way, thank you."

Willow looked up at Alex confused. "For what?"

"For giving Angel back his soul. When he lost it, Angelus called me and lets just say it wasn’t a nice phone conversation. Angelus hated me as much as he hated Buffy, but where Buffy made Angel feel love, I made Angel feel human. I always treated him like a person, not just a demon. Angel’s part of my family. Billy, him and Mags are all I have."

Willow noticed the pain in Alex’s eyes as she talked. "You have me too. Just think of me as a little sister."

Alex turned to the girl she had heard so much about, but had just met that afternoon. Alex pulled Willow into a hug as she spoke. "Thanks. Now I know how Buffy survived so long." Alex pulled out of the hug quickly. "Come on. We need to get some sleep. You have classes, and I have to take a trip to London and have a talk with the Council."

"Can I come with you?" Willow asked not sure whether or not Alex would let her.

"Sure. You can meet Spike. We’ll leave in the afternoon that way you can go to some of your classes. I don’t want to have Peaches yelling at me about your academic record." Alex said jokingly.

"Spike? Peaches?" Willow was confused. Spike calls Angel Peaches, but she never mentioned Spike, before.

"Well, Spike’s my dog. He’s a rottweiler. And Peaches is Angel. A friend of mine from a long, long time ago, used to call him that." Alex said her joking attitude dropping from her voice.

"So then you know Spike?" Willow asked.

"If the Spike," Alex said the name with a bit of anger in her voice. "You’re talking about is William the Bloody, then yeah, I know him, and I hope I never see him again." Alex turned to look at Willow as she spoke again after a few moments. "Come on, our beds are waiting for us."
 

Chapter Three-Revelations of the Past

Dear Diary,

I’m going into London today!!!! I can’t wait. I just woke up, and as I checked my email I found the note from Alex. She woke up early this morning to go running, and she left me coffee in the small coffee maker on her dresser. She also asked for me to leave her a copy of my class schedule, so its right up there next to her note.

I like Alex a lot. She’s really neat. I found out last night that she’s a Slayer. Yep, that’s right. I’m rooming with another Slayer. Alex was called when she was thirteen, I think she might have been the youngest Slayer ever called, but I have to check with Giles on that one. She was the Slayer before India, and India was the one before Buffy. Alex told me that she’s still around because she’s part vampire. I wonder if she has a Grr face like, Angel or Spike. Oh, and that’s another thing. She knows Angel, and Spike.

She told me that she was the one that help Angel to get ready to help Buffy, and that they became really good friends. So that’s cool. I guess I’m going to be talking to Angel a lot more now.

But the part that has me stumped, is her connection with Spike. She reminds me so much of him at times, and uses some of his mannerisms, but when I mentioned him, I got the feeling that there is some very bad blood between them. How am I going to do this? Be friends with Alex and Spike. I’m not going to choose, I don’t want to lose either of them. I just met Alex and already I can’t see my life with out her around.

Oh, jeeze. I forgot the time. I have to get to my classes.

~Willow

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Medieval and Modern Greek literature. Willow was sitting at the chair that she found in the middle of the room when she first arrived. She was listening to the Professor go over the books that the students were going to be using for her part of the class, when the knock on the door came. Willow, along with the rest of the class, looked over at the door as the Professor motioned the new comer in. When the girl entered, it was Alex.

When Alex entered, Willow noticed that she had that same air of cockiness that Spike has so often placed in his own walk. Willow noticed that her clothes seemed to have her own style to them, kind of Punk Rock meets Today’s styles. She was wearing a pair of hip hugging black leather pants that flared ever so slightly around her black Doc Martins. There’s another Spike thing. Willow noticed that her hair was left down and had a slight curl to it as it reached the waist line of her pants. Willow had to suppress a giggle when she read what was written on her blood red baby tee shirt. Stay Away... I Bite! Well, that defiantly original for a Slayer to wear. Willow also noticed that Alex was carrying a black leather biker jacket, that was worn in, like she’s had it forever, in her left hand as she crossed to talk to the Professor.

Willow watched as Alex and the Professor talked for a few moments, until the Professor turned to the class. "Miss Rosenberg?"

Willow raised up from her seat a bit when the professor called her name. "Yes, Professor?"

The Profess or looked up at Willow and smiled. "What are you doing hiding all the way up there for?" Willow noticed that She was joking as her smile brightened as she continued to speak. "Come on. Alexandria is here to free you from this boring day of classes, when you could be outside on you way to London."

Willow was taken back. None of her other teachers were anything like that, well, except for Miss Calender, but that was back in High School. She quickly gathered her things as she walked down the stairs towards the front of the classroom. When she got there the Professor smiled at her again as she spoke. "Don’t worry. Alex has taken my class before and if I know her correctly she still had all of her books and notes stashed away somewhere, so you won’t miss anything."

Willow couldn’t help but smile at the teacher. "Thank you, Professor." Willow turned and exited the classroom as when Alex grabbed her arm and tugged it lightly.

"See ya, later, Professor Cole." Alex called as walked out the door.

They walked down the hall in silence until Alex let go of Willow’s arm so she could put on her jacket, that’s when Willow spoke. "I thought we were going to meet in the room?"

Alex smiled at Willow. "We were. Now we’re not. Besides, Professor Cole, is really cool. She’s one of the few who are still in touch with there inner student, and like she said, I got all the things you’ll ever need for her class." Alex noticed that Willow still looked confused. "Look, today I have to go and talk to the Council, and there’s major bad blood there, so I need to get to London A.S.A.P. so I can meditate and get myself together, or I’ll end up doing what Angel told me not to do."

Willow seemed to think everything over before she spoke. "What did Angel tell you not to do?"

Alex looked straight ahead of them and Willow noticed that she seemed to fall in to the "no emotional face" that she had seen Spike slip into many times. "Kill Quintin Travers."

"I can see where that could be of the bad." Willow said softly.

"Yeah." Alex answered shortly, as they reached the exit and stepped outside. Parked in front of the doors was a black Mustang, with purple and silver flames creeping up the hood. The windows were heavily tinted and almost appeared black. Willow looked over the car, and found herself in awe of it. "Is this yours?"

Alex looked over and found Willow staring at her car with her jaw open. She couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the awe struck look on her new friends face. "Yeah, It’s mine. Now close your mouth your drawing flies. Oh, and get in."

Alex got in and started up the car as Willow put her books in the back of the car. As Willow sat in the passenger seat Alex was putting in a cd, and as soon as Willow closed the door Alex stepped on the gas, and the first strands of "Sedated" by the Ramones could be heard coming out of the speakers. Oh, Goddess! She drives like Spike!

~*~In L.A.~*~

All was quiet in the building the housed Angel’s Investigations. Angel was sleep in his room, and Spike was in his room sorting through memories. Memories of another life. Memories of a little sister. A best friend. An old love. A Slayer. Memories of Alexandria. The one girl in her generation, chosen to fight the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She was his natural enemy, but Alexandria was much more then all of that, She is his Childe. In his hundred and twenty-six years as a vampire, William the Bloody, had only made two children. The first was a total mistake. She held no respect for him or Dru. To many times, she had dishonored him in the vampire community, but she did have a nack for having information her needed at one time, and after she had given it to him, he had killed her.

Alexandria had been different. He was in love with her, and when he found out what had happened to her, he was selfish and tried to turn her. It was his fault to begin with, he lied to her for most of her life, and caused the deaths of her mother, her father figure, and her best friend. Although, He didn’t kill them out right. He did protect the one that did, and thus causing her "death". She hated him after that, and he couldn’t blame her. But what he felt, when he remembered anything about her, was regret. And that was not acceptable for a demon, then Spike had never been what would be considered normal in the demon world.

Spike turned over on his side and was pulled out of his thoughts by the picture that he had lying on his dresser. There were two of them. One was of a certain red haired witch, that had left to go to England, and the other was a picture of three women. He got up and walked over to it and picked it up. He traced the face of the oldest of the three. The woman was about sixty years old when the picture was taken. She had long reddish brown hair that had the sides brought together in the back. There were a few streaks of gray through out her hair but she still had a youthful glow to her. "Aldrianna." He spoke her name as he remembered when he first met her. She was the one that brought him into this family, and into Alexandria’s life.

He had met her in London, while he was looking for Dru. After Prague, Dru had been getting steadily worse. She was slipping away in her mind and her health. Dru had taken to wondering off at night, and this one night Aldrianna had found her. Spike had caught Dru’s sent and followed it to the light blue Victorian house on Willow Brooke Lane. When he went to the door to knock it was opened by her, and she spoke the first words that had ever thrown him for a loop. "You are welcome here vampire. Your Sire is resting in the parlor." She stepped aside to allow him to enter her home. She had known he was a vampire, that Dru was his Sire, and she wasn’t afraid. He entered the home and his life had changed. Aldrianna was a very powerful witch and she had helped Dru with a spell that had paused her illness. Dru was still a bit lost in the head, but she wasn’t getting sicker. That night, Aldrianna had only asked him for one thing in return for Dru’s life. His protection for her family. He knew he could have just killed her and went on his merry way, but there was something about her that called to his demon. His demon respected her and that was cause for him to hold respect for her as well.

He moved his fingers to the next woman in the photo. Her hair was the same color as Aldrianna, but without the gray. She, too, had long hair but left it to fall gracefully around her face. "Adianna." Her name was said with sadness. She used to be one of his few human friends. She had one of the most purest souls, and the wickedest sense of humor. He had actually been able to corrupt her a bit. He had gotten her into the world of punk rock. Got her to listen to the Sex Pistols, and others, then that led to her brilliant idea to bleach his hair. She had done it for him the first time. He remembered her words as if it was yesterday, and they were sitting in her bathroom after washing all of the bleach out. "That is you. The way it was before was William, this is Spike." Spike smirked at the memory. It was soon after that he had gone to the states. He wasn’t there when she fell in love, and had to make the most important choice of her life. To leave the love of her life to protect her daughter.

Spike trailed his finger to the last woman in the photo, although she wasn’t a woman at all. She was a child. She stood in front of her mother and Grandmother with a sparkling smile on her small face. Her long light brown hair draped around her face like a curtain. Her light blue eyes looked straight at him with a gleam of mischief to them. She was four when the photo was taken, just three months before her mother was killed. "Alexandria." As her name left his mouth, Spike was taken back to the first time he ever met her. Adrianna had written to him about her since her birth, but he never met her until after Adrianna’s death.

It was a brief two years, since he had killed the Slayer in New York. He got the letter from Aldrianna and was on the next flight, back to England. He had found himself in front of the same door as he had that first night. When he knocked he was greeted, not by the woman he met the first time, but a small child. She didn’t speak at first, she just looked up at him. Then she opened her mouth and he was attacked by a million questions, coming out at almost 55mile per hour. He had learned a lot that night. Most importantly was to never call her ‘pet’. But next to that fact was that she was the reason he was drawn to the family of witches. Alexandria was to do great things in her life time, and she needed a protector. That was him.

"I guess, I royally fucked that up. Didn’t I, Blue?" He spoke to her picture, calling her by her nickname, as if she would be able to answer him. She didn’t, but someone did.

"You saved her in the end." Came the deep voice of his Grand Sire. "Its because you saved her that I was able to live with my soul."

Spike didn’t turn around to face Angel as he spoke. "Peaches, If it wasn’t for me she would have never been in trouble to begin with. She wouldn’t have gone hunting. She wouldn’t have been hurt so bad that she wanted to die. She wouldn’t have spent most of her life running from the Council."

"Spike." Angel started, but waited to finish until Spike had turned to look at him. "Alexandria found out something very important about why she’s a half breed. She found out that Slayers and Vampires are from the same blood line. We never found the specifics, but we did find out that’s why Vampires and Slayers can sense each other, and why Slayers have the strength and heightened senses. Vampires can’t turn something that is already like them. She wouldn’t have found that out with out you, she would have been dead. You were and important part of her life, and I know you still are. You need to make this right, you both have been avoiding each other for over 7 years. Make it right, and get your best friend back."

Spike nodded at what Angel had said. He was right, and a nod was as much of admission of that fact that he was ever going to give. Angel accepted it, and continued to speak. "I know just the person you have to talk to. He’ll be able to tell you how Alex has been doing."

When Spike looked confused at him, Angel just laughed. " Just get changed. We have a mini concert to get to."

Spike heard what he said and everything clicked in his head. "Aw, Peaches, come on. Do we have to go see the copycat?"

Angel just laughed at the slight whine to Spike’s voice, as he left the room. "Yes, we do."

~*~In London~*~

Alex pulled the car into front of an old light blue Victorian house. Willow looked at it all. She saw the white trim and the white front porch, then she was drawn to the rose bushes that lined the walkway. "Is this your house?"

Alex looked over and saw Willow gazing in awe at the house. "Yeah, It was my Grandmother’s house, when she died, it went to me. Its exactly how it was when she was alive. If you think the outside is great wait until you see the inside." With that Alex got out of the car and headed to the front door, as Willow followed behind her.

As they walked inside, Alex showed the different rooms as she entered each one. "This is the living room. When my grandmother lived here the Tv was in the den, I moved it out here. I like it better here."

Willow looked around and saw a big screen Tv with a VCR, DVD player on one side of it and a stereo on the other side of it. Across from the Tv was a long black leather couch, with twin matching chairs on its sides, in side the square of furniture was a glass coffee table that had a black iron frame to hold it up. On the coffee table, Willow couldn’t help but notice a few books on demonology, there along with a few magazines. She followed Alex into the next room.

"This is the parlor, or as I used to call it when I was younger, the Tea Room. This is just like it was when my Grandmother was alive."

Willow noticed that the room had antique furniture. There was a small couch, two chairs and a table in the middle of them. On the wall across from the couch were a lot of framed photos. Willow took a closer look at them and noticed that along with what looked to be Alex’s family, there were also a few charcoal drawings. Willow recognized the people in the drawings instantly. There were two of Alex, and one of Spike, those each had an A in the right hand corner of the paper. Willow knew that these were done by ‘Angel’. There were two more drawings, one of Angel himself, and the other was a drawing of a man that Willow had never seen before, in the corner of each of these was a name ‘Lexia’. Before Willow could ask Alex about them, she spoke from her right side. She pointed to each picture as she did.

"That’s my Grandmother, Aldrianna. My mother, Adrianna. There’s Michael. Um, me when I was four. These, you should know who they are." She said pointing to the drawings of Spike and herself. "Angel did these for me. These ones." She pointed to the one of Angel and the other man. "I did. You know Angel, and the other one is Doyle."

Willow recognized the name from Cordy’s emails. "Didn’t he help Angel in L.A.?"

Alex looked at the picture and smiled sadly. "Yeah, he did. He was a friend of mine before I met Angel. He was sent by the PTBs to help me deal with my other half."

Willow looked confused a bit, so Alex continued. "My demon. Don’t freak on me ok?" When Willow nodded. Alex vamped out. Her forehead broadened and ridges formed upwards from her nose, her pale blue eyes turned yellow, and her teeth turned into a sharp set of fangs. Then as fast as it appeared it was gone and Alex’s normal face was back. "I’m sorry, if I scared you."

Willow smiled at her friend. "No you didn’t. I’m used to seeing Spike and Angel’s face like that, and even though it was a bit freaky seeing it on you, it didn’t scare me."

Alex smiled back at Willow. "Good. Are you hungry? I have to bring Spike in for his food, so we can make lunch and get to know each other better. I know a lot about what happened in Sunnydale from Angel, but I would love to hear your side of everything. And you can ask me anything. Deal?"

Willow smiled as she followed Alex into the kitchen. "Deal." Alex opened the back door and as soon as it was opened a huge black dog with a bit of brown over his eyes and on his stomach came running in. The dog stopped as soon as he saw Willow. She looked down at him and he sat down in front of her. He turned his head slightly to the left and then he held his right paw up, as if asking for a handshake. Willow heard Alex laugh as she watched her and the dog. "Willow meet Spike. Go ahead, shake his hand." The dog looked over at Alex. "Spike this is Willow. She’s my new friend. She knows Angel." And as if that was what the dog wanted to know, he jumped up to Willow and placed his paws around her waist, as if to give her a hug. Willow couldn’t help but laugh at the gesture. She petted the back of his head as she spoke to him. "It’s nice to meet you Spike."

The dog barked once as if to say the same. Then he jumped down and walked over to his food dish, in front of a group of cabinets. Willow smiled again at the dog as she sat down at the table in front of a big picture window that faced the back yard. "It’s he’s part human."

"Yeah, I know. He acts like that all of the time. I don’t know were he got it from, I never had to really train him. He just picked everything up on his own. Oh, you have to talk to him like you would a normal person, if you don’t he gives you a look and won’t ever come near you again. It happened a few times, when I lived in New York." Alex said as she put the food into Spike’s dish.

"Ok, first question. Why is he named Spike?" Willow asked.

Alex laughed a bit as she went about the kitchen getting stuff for lunch. "Ok, I have to go back to when I was a little girl. I’ve always hated being called ‘Pet’, and you know how Spike had a habit of ALWAYS calling women ‘pet’, well, when I first meet him he made the mistake of calling me ‘Pet’ and I yelled at him. I also hated the name Spike, I always called him William or Will, but he hated that wanted to be called ‘Spike’ and well, he never listened when I told him that name is more for a dog and not a person, so when he gave me Spike for my nineteenth birthday, I named him Spike to prove my point. That’s how Spike got his name." Alex smiled at Willow as she set down two cans of soda on the table. "Ok, my turn. Nicknames? I know Will and he always has a nickname for people, What does he call you guys?"

Willow smiled and laughed a bit as she opened the soda. Last night Alex seemed to hate Spike with a fiery passion, I wonder what happened? "Well, he calls me Red a lot. He calls Buffy, Slutty or now Fluffy. Xander to him is Chubs or Zapper. Anya is Demon girl. And Giles is Watcher. My turn. What’s yours?"

"Well, he mostly called me Blue, cause of my eyes, like Red for you hair. It was either that or Lex. Me. How did you come to meet him, and then become friends with him?" Alex said taking a sip from her soda.

"Ok, I’ll tell you the short version now, cause I want to get to my question. We can go into things later, Ok?" When Alex nodded Willow continued. "He first came to Sunnydale to kill Buffy. Failed attempts. When Angelus came back, Spike sided with Buffy to stop Angelus from sucking the world into hell. Then he left with Dru. He came back, kidnapped me and Xander so I could do a love spell for him to get Dru back, seems she left him, saying he wasn’t demon enough for her or something and took up with a Chaos demon. Well, after coming to the conclusion that he would rather get her back a demon way, he left. This year, he came back looking for the Gem of Amara, again to kill Buffy. Failed again, we sent the gem to Angel, so he followed. Then he came back gemless, and was attacked by these military guys. They put a chip in his brain that causes him a great deal of pain when he ever thinks of hurting a human. He ended up coming to us for help, and he’s been there ever since. He found out a little while ago that he could still fight demons so he’s been helping us. Although, he complains about it constantly, and makes fun of us every chance he gets. I was the one that ended up always taking him his blood and we got to talking. Now, I’m the only one that he doesn’t mind, cause I’m the only one that has been nice to him, and we kind of became friends. Ok, my question. How did you meet him, and what happened? Last night, the way you talked about him, I could tell you were angry at him."

Alex nodded. " I was. I still am a bit. Ok, short version. My Grandmother helped Dru, asked Spike to protect her family as payment. He agreed. He was friends with my mother, when she died, I finally met him. The whole time he was here he was like a big brother to me. Then he left, and I didn’t see him again until I was thirteen. It was a few months after I was called and I was on patrol. I had just dusted this vamp and heard clapping and turned to find William there. When I saw him, I remembered him instantly. A few days later, I realized he was a vampire. Then a few months later, the Council had Michael and I move to Boston. I didn’t see William again until my sixteenth birthday. He just showed up on the doorstep. Dru left him. He stayed with us, help me with slaying, and we became friends. A little while later, we became involved. I loved him, and he loved me. He was with me on my seventeenth birthday when Michael was killed. When I turned twenty I found out some things, that he had been lying to me about, He’s the one that was protecting the one that killed my mother, Michael, and Toby. Well, like I said last night, I went after the vamp, almost got killed, but William tried to turn me, and now I’m like I am today. I was so mad that he lied to me, but I would have gotten over it, but I couldn’t get over the fact that he went back to the one that did everything to me in the first place. That’s why I’m mad at him. He betrayed me."

Willow was shocked. She could read between the lines enough to know exactly who had taken so much from Alex and who Spike had protected. "It was Dru."

Alex just nodded. "Yeah, and from what I hear she’s still out for my blood."
 
 

Chapter Four-Old Wounds

Willow found herself in the den of Alex’s house. She was sitting in one of the old leather chairs that were placed on one side of the room across from an old wooden desk. She was instantly in love with the room when she first walked in to it. There were two walls that were completely covered with shelves, that were full of books. The other wall behind the chairs had two windows that faced the side of the house next door, and the other wall was where the doorway was, around its frame were various weapons hanging as if on display. Willow spent a few moments looking over the weapons, she could tell that they were all older then her, and that if Giles ever found this room he would be in heaven.

Willow had then moved onto the books. She noticed that there were tons of magical book along with ones on demons and anything else a Slayer would have to deal with, but there were also cooking books, classics, poetry, and any other kind of book you could possibly want to ever read. That’s what Willow was doing, reading. She had found a very old Book of Shadows, that she had found belonged to Alex’s Grandmother, Aldrianna.

Willow was flabbergasted by what she was reading. Aldrianna had gone into details about a great many things about her life and the future life of her daughter and granddaughter. As she read she found out a lot about Alexandria’s heritage, like the astounding fact that Alex is a descendant of the same Romani Gypsy clan, the Kalderash, as Jenny Calender. But where Jenny was still a member of the clan before her death, Alex’s family had been renounced, because Aldrianna had chosen to marry outside of the clan’s wishes. She married an Irish man, by the name of Joseph Fitzsimons, whose family line could be traced back to Angel. Well, not Angel, but Liam. Angel when he was human. It seems Angel does have a family out there, and Alex is part of it, by blood. By human blood. Willow reread the passage again, to make sure she didn’t get it wrong. The passage told of how when Angel was human, he had taken up with a, for lack of a better word, whore. She had become pregnant, but when she told Liam he had claimed that it wasn’t his, but as it turns out, it was. It told how that when she was seeing Liam, she had no other clients, therefore knew that the child was his, but he wanted nothing to do with the child, so she left Galway to have the child. That was 1752, the year before Angel was turned by Darla. That was the whole reason behind the clan disowning Aldrianna, she was in love with a man, who had Angelus’s blood in his veins. I wonder if Alex, or Angel for that matter know any of this?

Willow was brought out of her thoughts by a light knocking on the door. She looked up to find Alex standing there. Willow noticed that she had changed again, but this time she looked ready for a fight. Alex was wearing a pair of cargo pants that were a black, gray, and white version of camouflage, with a simple form fitting black long sleeve tee shirt. Alex had put her hair up into a french braid so it would stay out of her face, and her eyes held a resolve that Willow had seen so many times before in Buffy’s own eyes. Alex was in Slayer mode. Willow was brought out of her thoughts again as Alex spoke. "I’m gonna need your help, and what you are wearing is not going to work. You should be able to fit in my old clothes, so I’m sure we’ll be able to find something for you. Come on."

Willow followed Alex as she walked upstairs. They entered a room that Willow could tell was completely Alex. "How am I going to fit in your old clothes? Your taller then me and we’re not even the same body type." Willow asked as she took a seat on the bed.

Alex laughed a bit from the closet before she spoke. "Actually, we were. I was your height when I was younger, and only a bit bigger in the frame department. I was a slow developer, I didn’t hit the growth spirt until I was about sixteen, and by then I had already been a Slayer for three years. So I know I have some clothes that you can use for fighting in, if it comes to that, but it shouldn’t." Alex turned and had a pair of army camouflage pants and moved to her dresser and pulled out an olive colored tee shirt. "Here there’s will work." Alex handed her the clothes, and turned to leave Willow to change. "Oh, also go through the closet and find a few change of clothes. After our trip to the Council, We’re going to see a friend of mine. Angel told me that your into computers and stuff, so you have got to meet Bryce. Now get changed, we need to leave soon."

Willow was shocked. Alex had just given her a new outfit and free reign to her stuff. Then Willow remembered something. "Alex? What about school?"

Alex turned and smiled. "Willow. Its Friday. I know you want to see London, so I figured we would stay here for the weekend. I should have told you sooner, but I actually just thought about it, while I was meditating. Is that ok? Do you want to stay? Cause if you don’t we can go back?"

Willow smiled at her new friend. I said I wanted a change, and here it is bitting me in the ass. "No, that’s great. I’ll get changed and the clothes together and meet you down stairs in ten minutes. Alright?"

Alex nodded and closed the door behind her. Willow quickly changed and looked at herself in the mirror. "Wow. These fit perfectly. Man, Buffy and Xander would freak. These are defiantly not a Willowish style." She turned in front of the mirror as she took in her appearance. The pants clung low on her hips and were loose fitting, where the tee shirt fit her like a glove. The color of the clothes brought out her eyes and hair. Willow had put on a pair of black doc martins that she had found at the bottom of the closet. She had found a lot of other clothes in the closet that would fit, so she had put together a group of five outfits, for just about ever occasion, but looking in the mirror she was really starting to like this look. Especially for Slaying. She thought as she grabbed the duffle bag, that she had put the other clothes in and headed down to meet Alex.

She found Alex in the livingroom, sitting on the couch with her own dufflebag and Spike sitting by her feet, which she had put her doc martins back on. She turned when she heard Willow enter. Alex stood and looked Willow over. "See, I told you. Perfect fit." Alex picked up her duffle and headed toward the front door. Willow was right behind her. "Come on, Spike." Alex called over her shoulder.

After the bags and Spike were settled in the back seat, Willow and Alex got in. Alex looked over at Willow and smiled wickedly. "Hope the Council’s ready, cause I sure as hell am."

~*~In L.A.~*~

Inferno was packed. The club that was situated between the House of Blues and the Viper Room on the Sunset Strip was normally busy on Friday nights, but tonight they had something better then a DJ. Tonight, they had Live music. Billy Idol was playing here, tonight only, before heading back to England to work on his greatest hits album. It was also special, because he was recording a live version of ‘Rebel Yell’ for said album.

Tonight, was also special, cause Billy was doing this concert as a favor to a friend. Alex had called him, and asked if he could play at her friend, Donovan’s club. Normally, Billy would have said no, but it was Alex that had asked him. She had never asked him for anything like that before, and when it came to Alex he could never tell her ‘no’ for anything. She was as much of a little sister to him, as if his parents had her themselves. She also saved his life a few times, so he owed her big time.

It was a few minutes until he was to go on stage, so Billy sneaked a peak at the crowd by the side of the curtain. As he scanned over the crowd, he noticed a pair of very familiar guys walking in the front doors. The men were different as night and day. One was tall, broad shouldered, with dark brown hair, while the other was slightly shorter, lanky, with bleached blonde hair that matched Billy’s own hair. "Bloody Hell. What are they doing here?" He mumbled through clenched teeth. He didn’t have time to think about the reason the two men had shown up, because it was time for him to go on.
 
 

As Spike and Angel walked into the club, Angel was watching the stage and Spike was looking around making sure no one he knew from the vampire community was lurking around. He gaze ended at the bar, when he noticed a muscular black man, behind the bar. Spike remembered him instantly. "Peaches, did you know that Donovan owned this club?" He asked as he remembered the first time he met the man or rather demon in question. He and Alex had moved to New Orleans, after Alex had her run in with the Council over getting a new Watcher, after Michael’s death. Alex had went out patrolling and ended up in the French Quarter, while he was going over the other side of town. Alex had saved Donovan from a group of anger vampires that had taken it upon themselves to try and take over his bar. Normally a hulk of a man like Donovan wouldn’t have had to much problem with the vampires, but being that he is a Factiallian Demon, which are a race of pacifist demons, he refused to fight. So Alex fought in his place, she won, and gained a new friend. Donovan had turned in a helpful resource for Alex, he had taken on the role, like Willy in Sunnydale, as an informant. He told Alex if there were any demon that were about to cause trouble in town. He became a great accomplice, and also a very good friend to both of them. Spike hadn’t seen him, since him and Alex had moved to a small town in Pennsylvania, called Forest City, to get away from the Council again.

Spike was brought out of his memories, by Angel speaking to him. "Actually, no I didn’t. Maybe you should introduce us. Alex mention him, but I never met the man before."

"Fine. Come on." Spike walked over to the bar as Donovan looked over towards them. The demon smiled at his old friend. "Will, long time no see. How you been?" Came the deep voice that was thick with a Cajun accent. The two demons shook hands as Spike spoke. "I have been better, and don’t get me started on it. I still need to talk to the Rebel One later. Think you can help me out? Its about Alex."

"No need ta worry. As long as you no plan ta hurt her again, I can arrange." Donovan looked from Spike to Angel and held his hand out to the other vampire. "I be Donovan, and dis be me place."

Angel shook his hand. "I’m Angel. Another friend of Alex."

"Ah, I know ya. You de one wit’ de soul." Donovan smiled as Angel looked shocked at what he had just said. Their attention was drawn from their conversation, as Billy took the stage and the opening riffs to ‘Dancing with myself’ started, and the crowd started yelling.
 
 

~*~In London~*~

Alex pulled her car to a stop in front of a building at the far end of Great Russell Street. Willow looked up at the building. It was huge. On the forth floor, you could see sets of huge windows. The rest of the building looked like any other place of business, around the area. Alex got out and started walking to the front door. She turned when she noticed that Willow wasn’t behind her. "Are you coming or are you just going to stare at the building all day?"

Willow shook herself from her thoughts as she got out and followed Alex rang the door bell off to the side of the door. Willow was about to ask Alex something, when the speaker over the bell crackled to live and voice came out of it. "How may I help you?" Came the voice of a young man. His accent wasn’t British likes, Giles or Wesley, but it was french.

"Sir, If would be so kind to please open the door, I have information on Alexandria Fitzsimons for Mr. Travers." Alex spoke into the speaker, slipping into her British accent. Willow smiled a bit as she spoke, she sounded like Wesley, when he had first come to Sunnydale, all proper and straight laced. Alex looked at Willow and held her finger to her lips, to motion Willow not to say anything.

There was few moments that passed before the young man’s voice came back. "I’ll be down in a moment, Miss."

After a few moments more, the door opened. Willow looked at the young man, and saw that he was wearing a full suit of a dark blue color. He had his hair slicked back and neatly combed. That’s when she noticed his eyes, held no emotion. They seemed cold and calculating. He spoke to her, because Alex was standing off to the side of the door and he had yet to see her. "Please, Come in. I’m Mr. Dunbrough. Mr. Travers’s asked me to take down the information that you have and I’ll see that he gets it." As he stepped back to allow Willow entrance, that’s when Alex stepped out from her spot. Her voice was hard and still held her accent as she spoke. "Actually, I’ll just go in and talk to Mr. Travers myself." Then she quickly punched the guy in the jaw. He fell back from the blow and was out cold by the time he hit the floor. Alex walked in the door and pulled Willow with her. That’s when Willow found her voice.

"They didn’t know we were coming did they?" She asked with a slight sound of worry in her voice.

Alex smirked a Spike smirk at Willow, before she spoke. "Now, Ducks, Where would the fun be in that?"

Willow shook her head as she followed Alex up the stairs. "One of these days, I’m really going to stop asking questions I already know the answer to." Alex chuckled lightly at the comment that came from behind her.

When they reached the forth floor, They turned down a slight hallway and came to a pair of double doors. Alex listened for a moment, then motioned Willow back a bit. When Willow was out of the way, Alex lifted her right leg and kicked out with it hitting the double doors in the middle where they met. The doors flew open and Alex walked in to the room, with that same air of cockiness. Willow followed and found herself in a room that seemed to take up most of the floor. There were high back leather chairs with little tables next to them over by the windows. On the other side of the room, the way Alex was facing, was a long conference table with several people seated around it. Willow saw that Quentin Travers, the man who had fired Giles because he refused to keep giving Buffy the drug that took her powers away from her, so she could do the Council’s stupid test on her eighteenth birthday, was seated at the head of the table.

A few of the people seated were looking around worriedly, but a few like Quentin were sitting calmly. Alex stood in the middle of the room, looking hard at the people in the chairs. When her gaze rested on Quentin, he spoke. "Miss Fitzsimons. It been awhile since I have had the pleasure of your company. What may I ask has brought you here?" His voice was calm as he spoke, and Willow knew that if his voice was having a upsetting affect on her, then Alex was already upset.

"Mr. Travers. You know very well why I’m here, but I wonder, How many of you fellow Council members know what you have been up to? You’ve been a very bad boy, haven’t you Quentin?" Alex spoke with a slight accent, and a sweet manner to her words.

"I don’t have the faintest idea what you are talking about, child. It seems you have been misinformed, about what ever you are going on about." He voice took on a condescending tone to it.

"You don’t? Well, let me enlighten you as well as the Board." Alex turned her head to Willow. "Watch the door, if someone comes let me know, but stay on this side." Willow nodded and Alex turned back to the group. "Where should I begin? Oh, I know. How about the promotion, you have offered to any member that would bring me in, alive or dead? Oh, how about the time you came after me yourself to bring me back so you could run testes on me? Or How about the careless way, you and a few others members acted when Michael was killed?"

"There was nothing careless about that, my dear, we were following Council guidelines, concerning the matter at hand."

"The matter at hand? You saw it as, ‘Oh, well, her Watcher is dead, time for her to get a new one’, that was how you handled the matter at hand. Michael was my father, not by blood but in every other way possible. And you all acted like I should have cared about him." Alex’s accent was slipping each time she spoke.
 
 

A woman to the left of Travers spoke up. Willow noticed that she was probably in her late sixties, or early seventies. "My dear child, You were out of control then, as you are now."

Alex shot the woman an iced glare. "How dare you? Really, How did you tell your own son that one of his best friends was dead? Or didn’t you tell him? Did you just let him find out by your bloody newsletter or something? Your son, Michael and my mother were friends way before the Council came into the whole mess, I know how Michael reacted when my mother was killed, so I can imagine how it hurt your son. So until you grow a heart, Mrs. Giles. You should not be the one to tell me what is and isn’t the proper way to act at the death of a father figure."

At the mention of the woman’s name Willow took a closer look at her. Oh, my Goddess! That’s Giles’s mother. No wonder he never mentions anything good about her.

Quentin spoke up again, before Mrs. Giles could speak again. "Why don’t you tell everyone what you were living with at the time of Michael’s death?"

Alex folded her arms across her chest before she spoke. Willow could see the tension as Alex held her hands so she wouldn’t attack him.

"At the time, I was living and was involved with an old family friend. Who was helping with my training and my patrols. You might now him, He used to go by the name of William The Bloody, but he mostly goes by Spike." There was a collective gasp from the other occupants in the room, but Travers and Mrs. Giles did nothing. "And we are going into that area, why don’t we mention that fact that I was the one that help Angelus get ready to help another Slayer. So I would choose my words very carefully Mr. Travers, considering that I have been around two of the most feared vampires, who have been nicknamed ‘The Scourges of Europe’ by the journals of your fellow Watchers, do you really think I didn’t pick up a few tricks from them?"

"Is that a threat, child?"

"No its just a fact that I thought you would want to know. Here’s another one. William The Bloody killed three Slayers in his time, yet I was perfectly safe with him. I knew everything he did, I heard all from his own mouth, but I still felt safe with him. Just as Buffy feels safe with Angel." Quentin seemed a bit taken back by Alex’s mention of Buffy. "Intrusting. You didn’t realize that I knew about Buffy did you? Well, I do. And the only reason I’m here today is to tell you. To leave me, Buffy and Faith alone. I know what you tried to do to Faith, Travers. You tried to kill her because she wasn’t your perfect little Slayer. She took the wrong road in life, and instead of helping her, you tried to kill her. Just so you could get another Slayer that you could form, into your perfect fighting machine." Alex crossed the room quickly and held Travers by his shirt with one hand and started to raise him in the air as she spoke again. "If I ever hear of you trying to come after me, or Faith or turning your slimy eyes towards Buffy, again, THAT fact, will become a whole lot more. Do you understand?"

When he didn’t answer her, Alex let her game face come to the fore for a moment and then repeated her question, empathizing each word. "Do. You. Understand?"

When Quentin nodded, she left him fall back into his chair. " Its been a pleasure talking to you, and now, I must take my leave." Alex turned to walk out of the room, when Willow yelled.

"BEHIND YOU!"

Alex didn’t even turn, she just moved her hand behind her and the man, that had been charging after her was thrown back against the wall. There was a loud ‘thud’ when his body hit, and he slid to the floor. Alex turned to the stunned faces of the people seated. "Oh, did He forget to mention that I have been trained in the craft since I was a little girl, so can we figure how powerful I am in it now?" Alex looked pointedly at Travers. "I always keep my promises, just remember that, when you think of trying to mess with any of us again."

Then Alex turned back around and walked out of the room with Willow next to her. They walked out of the building and never looked back. Alex had went back to normal self laughing and joking the moment they got back in the car. As they drove Alex started telling Willow about where they were going. As Alex spoke of her friend Willow became fascinated, by Bryce, and even Lara, the woman who Bryce worked for. They were both friends of Alex’s and she need to speak with Lara about artifact that Alex had come across in one of her books that would cause a lot of problems if it was to fall into the hands of the wrong person or demon as the case may be. Alex explained that Lara was a ‘Tomb Raider’, which Willow had broken down to a female Indiana Jones.

"Yeah, but with a lot better toys." Alex said laughing at Willow’s statement.
 

~*~In L.A.~*~

At the end of the concert, Donovan lead Spike and Angel backstage so Spike could talk to Billy. Billy looked up from his drink when he saw them coming closer. He stood and held out his hand to Angel. "Angel, mate, Its good to see you again."

"Yeah, same here. You been behaving?" Angel asked jokingly.

"I never behave. You know that." Billy said laughing. Billy looked over at Spike and stopped laughing. "You on the other hand. Can’t say I’m happy to see you, again? What do you want?"

Spike looked at him, he had this urge to just turn around and walk away. "Look, I need to talk to Alex. I want to apologize for everything."

"You the last thing she ever would want to see. Why should I help you?" Billy said getting defensive for Alex.

"Because I fucked up royally, and I need to talk to her. She’s my only real family, besides Peaches here, but he doesn’t count to much. I need to know that she’s alright for myself. I need to talk to her. Will you help me?" Spike hated what he was doing. He was begging, but for Alex he would do it. He needed to make things right with her. He needed her back in his life, he missed her to damn much.
 

Chapter Five- New friends

Dear Diary,

I’m staying at the house, no that’s not right, the Estate of Lady Lara Croft. This place is huge. I just know I’m going to get lost. Alex brought me here because she had to talk to Lara, about a ‘Mission’ as she called it that she needed to go on. She wouldn’t tell me anything about it, just that she had to get something from this vampire so that he wouldn’t be able to cause the end of the world. She also refused to let me go, I’m a bit miffed about that but Bryce explained that sometimes, its better to let the ‘Professionals’ handle missions like this. So I’m here, with Bryce and Hillary, he’s the butler, cook, and everything rolled into one.

Bryce is really cool. He’s a bit geeky, but he’s really smart and has this awesome flare for anything technical. He’s been showing me most of his gadgets and even some he’s just started working on. He showed me Lara’s motorcycle, and told me that he made Alex’s for her. They both have more speed then anything that can be bought, plus added bonuses. Lara’s has a special place for her backpack, along with a hidden gun and a special communication unit built into the helmet. Alex’s bike has the com unit and also a stake projectile unit, along with the place for Alex’s backpack.

He also set up different training programs, for Lara and Alex, that have mechanical droids to kind of go after them as if they were real threats. When I was looking at them, I couldn’t help, but make a Star Wars remark to him. Bryce laughed and said that’s actually where he got the idea, and that it was all C-3PO’s fault. He also showed me the information head quarters that he has set up. He uses the satellites to relay a lot of the information to any where on the globe where Lara might be. He also showed me the tracking system that he has set up to make sure that he could tell where Alex and Lara are at all times. I was worried for them both, after Bryce showed the information on where they were going. Alex went after a very powerful vampire by the name of Marcos. He’s older then the Master was and he’s also twice as powerful. Alex went after him because he has an amulet known as ‘The Fire’s Heart’. The Fire’s Heart has the same properties as the Gem of Amara, except it also gives the wear the power to cause anything to burst into flames with just a thought. If it fell into the wrong hands, like Marcos, then he could very easily bring about the end of the world and no on would be able to stop him.

Its really good that Alex went after it, but I can’t help but feel worried for her. Another thought that keeps popping in my head about this whole situation is, ‘What would Angel do if he knew that this is what Alex has been doing.’ Alex told me that there were a lot of times that she had to not tell him exactly what she was doing, because if he knew the he would probably be on the first flight to London to drag her back so he could keep and eye on her. Alex told me a lot about her and Angel’s relationship. The Powers That Be had turned Alex into the key for his redemption, so along with help the innocent he also has to make sure Alex is around for when she is needed most, but Angel’s not the only one in charge of making sure that Alex stays alive. Spike is also her protector. That’s why Aldrianna had welcomed him into her family.

Alex also explained the reason why Spike was on his whole ‘Kill the Slayer’ campaign when he first showed up in Sunnydale, and how it involved everything that happened to her on her Twentieth birthday. Alex had been on patrol had come across Drusilla. Dru had told Alex about how, she had been the one that killed Michael on her sixteenth birthday, and how that was not all she did. Dru then showed Alex the head of her best friend Toby. Alex had almost attacked her when Dru asked if she liked the prezzie she had given her on her fifth birthday. The death of her mother, Adrianna. Alex was taken back by that but what made her loose it was when Dru told her that Spike had known all along. Alex freaked and left Dru there to get a straight answer from Spike. At the time, her and Spike were lovers and very much in love, so when he admitted that he knew about Michael and her mother, she freaked. She went after Dru, she didn’t care who died just as long as it was one of them. Alex had gotten sloppy and Dru had grabbed her, but Dru didn’t kill her right away. Dru had taken Alex and had beaten, cut, whipped, and put to use many of Angelus’s little toys, all the while gloating about what she had done, and that Spike would never love her the way that he loves his Princess. Dru had left Alex to die there, but Spike had found her. He tried to turn her. When Alex woke up the next morning, she knew that she was different and somehow she knew what had happened to her. When she saw Spike, all the pain and betrayal had come back to her and she left him. When she was far enough away from him, she had revoked the spell that her grandmother had used to delay Dru’s illness, that’s why Dru was so sick when she and Spike had first come to Sunnydale. Spike was on his campaign because of his own pain of what happened between Alex and him, and he couldn’t go after Alex so he took it out on Buffy. After hearing all of that I can understand why she would have some ‘issues’ with Spike, and I also see that they need to talk about a lot of stuff. He’s changed, even though he will deny it to his dying breath, can you actually say that about a vampire? I, mean, they don’t breath so they can’t really have a dying breath, so would it be til he turns to dust? Again, with the babbling.

Anyway, I was in the kitchen getting a snack when Hillary came in. We started talking and I found out that Michael was Lord Croft’s nephew, and actually the only one in the family that he even liked. When he died, Michael had stayed close to Lara and helped in anyway to take care of her. Alex and Lara were brought up together, Lara is a few years older then Alex but they are as close as sisters can be, although there is no real blood between them. After everything happened with Spike, Alex had come back to stay with Lara for a bit. That’s when she started helping Lara with the ‘Tomb Raiding Gig’. Hillary also said that’s where Alex gets most of her money. She also has the money left to her by her mother, Michael and her grandmother, also it seems that Billy had set up an account for her, along with Angel, but Alex has never touched those. Hillary said that Alex had told him once that it didn’t feel right. They had set the accounts up for her, incase she needed anything, but Alex had always been very independent and preferred to do things her own way. So Alex has been discreetly transferring the money back into Billy’s and Angel’s own accounts. Hillary said that as of yet, they both don’t know, and it was to stay that way.

Hillary is really nice. He helps out around the house and is a very good friend to Lara. I’m glad that Alex has had someone like him in her life. He seems like he is a really good father figure, like Giles.

That’s another thing that has been bothering me. When we were at the Council’s place, Alex had turned on Mrs. Giles, about how she had told her son about the death of one of his best friends. That means if Giles knew Michael and Alex’s mother then he might know who Alex’s father is. Even though she had never come right out and said anything, there’s something in her voice when she mentions Michael not being her birth father, that tells me that she would like the chance to meet and possibly get to know him.

But then that just opens a whole new set of possible problems. What if her father was part of that whole group that Giles belonged to when he was younger. Oh, what if Ethan Ryane is her father? Oh, that would be of the major bad. Man, I wish I could ask Giles what he would do. I can’t really ask him this in an email, even if he did ever get that ‘dreaded machine’ working. And actually answered them. I wonder if Alex would mind if I called them from her house. Yeah, I said them. I’m going tough withdrawal. I haven’t talked to Buffy, Xander, or even Anya since I got here. That was two days ago. How am I ever going to make it three more years?

Oh, Alex and Lara are back. More later.

~Willow

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Willow looked up as Lara and Alex walked into the livingroom. They both looked like they had been in a fight, but at least they were both alive. "Did you get it?"

Alex smiled wearily as she held up a thick gold chain that had an ornate star at the end of it. In the center of the star was a large green stone. "Its beautiful, but very dangerous. I’m defiantly glad its off the street." She turned to Lara. "I’m gonna go and put this in the vault, Ok?"

Lara smiled and nodded. "What else would we have done with it? By the way, Thanks for the adventure, sis." Then Lara turned to Willow. "It been great to meet you. Anytime you want to come by is fine with me. Brycie needs more friends, maybe you could get him away from his toys for a bit."

Alex coughed. "Lara, quit with the matchmaking. Do we remember what happened when you tried that with me and Richard Covington?"

Lara laughed as she looked back at Alex. "Yes, But you had fun."

"Ah, yeah, running away from him." Alex said laughing also.

Lara looked back at Willow. ‘No, seriously. Your welcome anytime. Your part of the family now."

Willow smiled at Lara. "Thank you." Lara and Willow both watched as Alex walked out of the room. Lara sat down next to Willow on the couch. "I’m really glad she has someone like you. She needs someone to keep her out of trouble. I worry about her sometimes. She like me in a lot of ways. One of our biggest flaws is that we keep people we care about at an arms length. Don’t let her, do that anymore."

Willow looked over at Lara. "And who will help you?"

Lara smiled. "That, my dear, will be Alex’s job. I have a feeling she’s already doing it, and has been since we were children. Now, I need to get some sleep, as I suspect you do as well. From what Alex has said, Billy is coming home tomorrow. So that means, you are in for a night of the rock life."

Willow smiled again. "That’s sounds like something I would never do. I can’t wait. So which room am I staying in?"

*** *** ***

Alex walked into the vault and placed the amulet, next to another one that looked like a normal necklace, but one that Alex knew held more power and had cause to many deaths in its time. Freyja’s Strand. I got it, William, but no one will ever get it again. Alex looked at the amulets again and then turned and walked out of the vault. As she closed the door, she heard a voice call her name. "Alexandria."

She turned and found Hillary standing there, he was dressed for bed in his pajamas and his royal blue robe. Alex had seen him in that robe so many times in the past. It was usually when he was wearing it that they had there best talks. "Hilly. I thinks its time for some of your hot chocolate."

"Of course. Same Bat place?" Hillary said in his best Alfred impersonation, although he didn’t have to try to hard.

"Same Bat Channel." Alex said laughing a bit at the old joke from when she was a child. She looked down at her watch. "Oh, and look at that. It’s the same Bat time, too."

Alex tucked her arm around his as they walked into the kitchen. Alex sat up on the chopping block as Hillary busied himself with making the hot chocolate. "So are you going to start this or am I?"

"I think I will, because I know you, my dear, and how you have a habit of avoiding what is really the matter at hand. What happened with the Council today?"

"Gee, just cut right to the chase." When Hillary turned and gave her that ‘Don’t start backing out, now’ look. "Fine. I went in there, after kicking in the door to get their attention. I told them to leave me, and the other three Slayers alone. I said it real nice like and everything." Hillary again, turned to look at her. This time he gave her the ‘Yeah, ok pull the other leg’ look. "Ok, fine. Fine. I threatened him, and it worked. Of course I think me flinging the guy he had go to attack me into the wall on the other side of the room with my magic, helped a bit. It better have, or I’m going to have to go a bit William The Bloody with a little Angelus thrown in for good measure on him. I’m not complete sure I’m up for that, but Travers has always had a way of pushing me."

Hillary turned from the stove with two mugs of hot chocolate and handed her one. "Well, I trust you’ll know what to do if the time should come. Now, You had a call while you were out. It was Billy. He was calling from the plane, He’s on his way here." He noticed that she was starting to get excited, so he quickly added. "He told me to tell you that he’s bring someone with him. Someone that you have to face one of these days. He just wanted to warn you, but he and I both agree that you need to talk to him, or your never going to be able to get on with your life."

Alex looked at him and knew who he was talking about. She looked down into her mug as if it held the answer to all of her problems, before she spoke. "William." She nodded a few times, as if resigning to the fact that she was going to have to deal with this, which she was. She just didn’t think it would happen so soon. "I don’t know how I’m going to handle it. I feel like I’m sixteen again, and he just showed up on our door step. There he was. I knew him as my best friend, but then there were all of these weird feelings along with it, and then five months later I get smacked in the fact with an epiphany. I was in love with him. That was the one thing that scared me more than anything. Then when I found out that he felt the same, it was like everything clicked. Then I found out everything, and my whole world collapsed. Now, I have to see him again. My older brother. My lover. My sire. My best friend. I think that’s what I missed the most, the loss of the one person who knew everything about me, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and he didn’t care. Hell, he did worse things in his life span, and I didn’t care about that either. He was my friend."

Alex looked up at Hillary and he nodded, motioning her to continue. "Did you know that Willow knows him? She had delt with the Big Bad on a few occasions first hand, and yet she became his friend. He’s different now. He has a chip in his head that stops him from hurting humans. He’s been helping Buffy, and when he found out that Willow was coming here, he went to help Angel. Angel. The one person he probably hates more then me. He’s changed. What if he doesn’t want anything to do with me? I kinda left without giving him a chance to talk."

Hillary chose that moment to finally speak. "Billy said that William came to him. He wants to talk to you, and you need to talk to him. You need to get the thing you need the most back. Your friendship. People change that is a fact of life. You may not be in love with him anymore, but you do love him. Just give him the chance to be your friend again."

Alex nodded again. She smiled a bit. "Wanna know something else?" When he nodded she continued. "I think Willow is in love with him. She didn’t say anything, by I could tell by the way she was talking about him. She loves him. And you know that if he even feels a bit of the same, I’m going to have to do something about that."

"Yes, I know, Alexandria." He said shaking his head, between her and Lara they are both always trying to play matchmaker with their friends lives. "Now, It’s time for you to get some sleep."

Alex nodded and jumped off the chopping block. She kissed him on the cheek and headed up stairs calling behind her. "Night, Hilly."
 

Chapter Six- Past Returns to London

Dear Diary,

We just got back to Alex’s house, from Croft Manner. Before we got here, Alex took me shopping for what she calls ‘Proper Clubbing Attire’. From the clothes she showed me and what I picked out, I can safely say, ‘I’m not in Sunnydale anymore, Toto.’ Oh, that and my ‘Fluffy Wear’ is a thing of the past. As Alex was telling me the whole time we were shopping, ‘No One knows me here. I can be what ever I want to be, and dress whatever way I want.’ I have taken that to heart. I, mean, simply put, I bought a pair of black leather pants that ride low on my hips, and a short black Baby tee that says, "Don’t make me get my flying monkeys." I loved it at first sight. Alex started laughing when I showed it to her, turns out she has the same one in red. When I put the outfit on it leaves my abs open, but I’m tone enough that it looks really good, if I don’t say so myself. I also got a pair of short heeled boots, and a belly chain that we found that has a pair of pentagrams on the ends of it.

Alex showed me the clothes she’s wearing and I had to laugh, just because the shirt she has is a muscle tee that has theses silver studs around the arm holes and neck, and it also had a picture of Billy Idol printed over the chest. Its black as well as the leather pants that she’s going to wear, their the same ones that she was wearing when she came to get me out of class. She said she’s going to wear her doc martins again, cause you never know what baddies you might run into, that’s why I went for the short heeled boots. She also gave me a few of her black jelly bracelets. I had forgotten about those, I used to love them when I was younger in the 80s when everyone was wearing them. She going to wear them as well, so in a way we’re going for a matching black look tonight.

Maggie called and told us that she would meet us there, so Alex had called Billy’s house and left a message for him to meet us at Marco’s place. She told me that it’s a friend of his’s club, so no matter what we won’t pay for anything. That’s cool, I mean, I’m the one that had once suggested that we sneak in our own tea bags and just ask for hot water at the Bronze. Besides, that left me more money for the clothes.

I’m so excited. Alex told me that the music is going to be all techno, and that’s great cause I’ve always loved the fact that with techno you can feel the beat and you can really let loose.

Well, I have to go and get ready. More later.

~Willow

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Willow and Alex walked up to the front door of the club called ‘Flame’. Outside you could hear the music pumping throughout the place. Alex walked up to the bouncer and he smiled and gave her a quick hug. Alex turned to Willow and smiled. "Mick. This is Willow. She’s with me." She turned back to Mick as she continued to talk. "Mags, is supposed to be here, and Billy’s coming. Have you seen either of them?"

"Yeah, Mags is in there. I haven’t seen Billy yet. I’ll let him know that you’re here." Mick opened the gate to let the two of them in as Alex spoke. "Thanks, Mick. I owe ya a dance later."

Willow followed Alex into the club and she could feel the bass from the music coming through her feet. She loved it. It was the kind of music you could let go and just move to, and that what Alex did. She pulled Willow into the crowd were she had spotted Maggie. The three of them started moving to the music and let their minds go free from everything.

After an hour of dancing Alex felt the sensation that a Slayer gets when a vampire is around, that would have been nothing, except this time it had the added sensation of her Sire. William was there. She casually moved her head so she was able to look around and not seem like she was really looking. She saw him standing up on one of the many catwalks in the club.

His hair was still bleached blonde and slicked back as it had been the last time she saw him. She could tell he was wearing a royal blue button down shirt over a black tee shirt, with his normal black jeans. Even though she couldn’t see them, she had a feeling that he was also wearing his doc martins. Those and his ever present black leather duster, were constantly on him. When her eyes met his face she found that he was looking right at her. She smirked a bit at him, and then looked next to him and saw that Billy was standing there watching her reaction. She waved at him and pointed to the back of the club. He nodded, and tapped Spike’s arm.

*** *** ***

When Billy lead Spike into the club, he thought he had lost his mind. Alex had never been to one of these places in her life. But he followed him anyway. When they had reached one of the catwalks, Spike took this time to look around. He felt his demon pull at him, telling him that a part of him is near. He looked over the crowd below and instantly found her. Alexandria. She was still beautiful after all of these years, and although she was wearing clothes that he had never seen her even look at, she still looked the same to him. His eyes grazed over the other two girls she was dancing with and stopped at the red head. "Red?" He said before he even realized that he spoke. He looked back over at Alex and found her looking at him. She looked over to Billy, waved and pointed. Then she started walking towards the back of the club. He felt Billy tap him on the arm, so he followed him.

Billy walked into the private room at the back of the club. Spike stayed just outside the door as he heard her speak. "Billy. I missed you so much. How have you been? What’s been going on? You’re here for a while, right?" Spike heard Alex’s voice start rattling off question a mile a minute. Just like when I first met her. Spike stepped into the room and saw Alex hugging Billy. She looked up and their eyes met, she silently stepped away from Billy, never breaking contact with Spike’s eyes. "Blue." Spike didn’t even realize he spoke first until he heard it and saw her quickly come up to him and hug him. "William." She said her voice as soft as his was when he spoke. He held her for a moment before she pushed away from him. She stood back looking at him. She looks just like she did when she was sixteen. Spike was brought out of his thoughts, to a shooting pain that had erupted in his jaw and sent him flying back against the nearest wall.

It was at that time that Willow and Maggie had walked in. Willow saw Alex punch Spiek and send him flying back. Spike looked confused as to what happened, and Alex was just standing there looking down at him. Willow looked over to the other side of Alex and saw another man standing there. He had bleach blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, and Willow figured that must be Billy. Willow looked back at Spike, he was the last person she would have ever thought she would see here, but she was really happy he was here. "Alex? Spike?"

Alex was brought out of her shock, by Willow’s voice. She looked back at Willow and then back to Spike before she spoke. "That’s for lying to me." Then she turned and headed back though the club to the front door. Leaving Spike confused on the floor, and Willow, Maggie and Billy looking at each other.

This time Maggie broke the silence as she walked over to Billy. "Is it a curse or does it just follow you?" Billy smiled and shook her hand as he spoke. "I think it follows. How’ve you been Mags?"

They continued to speak as Willow walked over and knelt down next to Spike. "Spike?" She tilted his head a bit to get a better look at his jaw, that seemed to pull him out of his trance. "Red?" His blue eyes turned to meet her green, as she smiled. "Yeah, who else ends up helping you look after your wounds?"

"Only you." He grinned back at her. Then his grin turned to a look of worry. "Where’d Alex go?"

"I think she went outside." Willow said as she helped him up. "Go talk to her." She slightly pushed him to where Alex had left. "We’ll meet you both back at her house." She called as he left the room.
 

~*~Outside~*~

Alex was pacing back and forth just down the block from the club, next to her car. "Ok, Alex let’s go over this." She started talking to herself, She always ended up doing that whenever she was upset. "Last night, you were ready to talk everything out, and now, you see him and one minute your hugging him and the next you punch him into the wall. Yeah, there’s the best way to get your friend back. But Oh, I just had to do that. I saw him and all of the pain came back, but now, its gone. Like I needed to punch him to get my closure? Yeah, like that makes any sense what so ever." She was about to go on but was interrupted by a voice from behind her.

"Actually, Blue that makes a lot of sense."

Alex froze at his voice. She slowly turned to him and where she was expecting hatred, and anger, she actually found hope and worry. "I’m sorry. How’s the jaw?"

"Alex you have nothing to be sorry for, I’m the one that lied to you. I should have told you when I found out, but when I showed up at your door and I saw you standing there...I couldn’t bring myself to hurt you anymore then you had already been hurt. I came here to ask for your forgiveness. I want my friend back. After everything that has happened these past few months, I realized how much I needed you in my life." Spike took out a cigarette and lit it waiting for her to speak.

"Cam I have one of those?" Alex asked walking up to him. He handed her one before he spoke. "When did you start smoking?"

"About a month after I left. I missed you too much, and these reminded me of you." She lit it and took a drag off of it. "I forgave you then, but then I found out you went back to her. That hurt more then anything. That after everything you went back to her."

"I know. I’m sorry. I was mad and I just wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me." Spike moved a piece of her hair away from her face and tucked behind her ear. That when he noticed her scar. He moved his hand down and ran his fingers over the mark of his turning her.

Alex looked up at him and smiled lightly. "That’s the only physical scar I have from that night. I guess the Powers didn’t want me to forget. I miss my best friend, too." She reached and pulled him into a hug again this time she didn’t pull away. "I’ll be your best friend again, if you’ll have me."

"Always, Blue. Always." He pulled her closer to him as if he was afraid she would disappear if he let go.
 

Chapter Seven- The End is the Beginning and the Beginning is the End

Dear Dairy,

Billy brought me back to Alex’s house to wait for her and Spike. Maggie went home and said that she would see us Monday at the dorms. Billy waited for a few hours then he went home too. He had a hard few days and it was starting to catch up with him, so I sent him home to get some rest. Alex would never forgive me, if I made him miss his beauty rest. I told him and he started laughing. He told me the same thing that Lara did. That he was glad that Alex had a friend like me to keep her in line.

Its been a very interesting weekend. I’ll never be able to say that my life has been boring. And I’m not complaining. If this weekend says anything about what the rest of my time in England is going to be like, I can’t wait. Plus, I now have the added bonus of Spike being here. I missed him so much, and when I saw him tonight it hit me like a ton of bricks. I love him. I’m still trying to deal with that stumper. I just hope I’m not alone in that little revelation. Sure, Buffy will flip her top, and Xander would probably blow a gasket, but I don’t care. There not here, and my life, as much as it seems to be a bit of the same its far from it.

We’re going back to the dorm on Monday, so that’s back to classes for me and Alex. But the actual upside is that Christmas Break is coming up in a week, and from what Alex said Angel and Cordy are coming. I can’t wait. I can’t believe I’m actually looking forward to not having school. Coming to England, I think was the best thing that could have happened to me. I’ve already changed so much, and I’m growing up a lot more.

Man, I need to get some rest. I hope they get home soon. More later.

~Willow

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Alex opened the door and saw Willow sleeping on the couch. She turned and looked at Spike, standing just outside the doorway. "You’ve never been de-invited from this house. Nana’s invitation still stands firm." She whispered to him. When he gave her a funny look, Alex pointed over to Willow. Spike nodded, and quietly walked into the house. Alex walked over and stood behind the couch. She turned to find Spike standing next to her smiling slightly at the red head sleeping there. Alex leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "I’m going to bed. Carry her up to her room? She’s in Michael’s old room. Your rooms still the way you left it also. So I’ll see you in the morning." Alex turned and started to go, before she turned back to him. "I’m glad your home, Will."

Spike took his eyes off of Willow and looked at Alex. "I’m bloody well happy I finally found it, again. Sweet Dreams, Blue."

Alex smiled as she watched him carefully pick Willow up and follow her up the stairs. Alex went in her room, but left the door open so she could hear what was happening in Willow’s room. She heard the sounds of her being placed on the bed and the blanket being pulled over her, then she heard the soft sound of a light kiss, followed by Spike’s soft voice. "My home is where ever you and Blue are, Red." When Alex heard him walking back towards the door she quickly shut her door and got changed for bed. As she laid there, waiting for sleep to come, she kept going over a few thoughts in her head. This is defiantly going to be an interesting few years. Now, if I could just get the Vamp and the Witch to admit that they are in love with each other, and then find a love of my own, and my father, then my life would be complete. I wonder if Peaches would mind having a talk with the PTBs for me?
 

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