Willow stared across the picnic table at her friends, waiting with a
mixture of impatience and nervousness for their reactions to her
explanation of how she and Spike had ended up together. Buffy was
carefully studying her shoes as if they had suddenly and mysteriously
appeared on her feet. Xander was looking at some point beyond the
redhead's shoulder, lost in the mental images of exploding clowns, and
Giles was busily cleaning his glasses for, if Willow had counted
correctly, the ninth time. Spike slid a little closer to her, pressing
his thigh firmly against hers and winding his arm low around her waist
where it was shielded by the table from the others' view. He felt her
body relax a little against his and nuzzled her hair with his cheek.

"So, no one has anything to say?" Willow asked. "I guess Spike and I
should probably just go, then."

"No, Will," Buffy shook her head. "We definitely have something to say.
Lots of somethings to say, in fact."

"I'm thinking maybe we should go someplace a little
less--outdoors--than this before we discuss the merits, or lack
thereof, of Willow and Spike," Xander suggested, peering around him
into the darkness.

Willow shook her head, "You've been spending too much time with Giles
again, haven't you? Anyway, we are not going back to Giles' stuffy old
library to be cornered by all of you. This is neutral territory. And as
for the merits of Spike and me--"

"Willow, let me handle this," Spike interrupted.

She looked at him skeptically, "Spike, I don't think--"

"It isn't you they have a problem with, pet. It's me," he cut her off
and looked across the table at the others. "What exactly _is_ your
problem with me seeing Willow? I mean, you obviously have something
against me."

"Something against--" Buffy blew out an exasperated breath. "How about
the fact you're a vicious, cruel, evil, blood-sucking monster?"

"Yeah, but besides that, what's the problem?"

The sparkle of laughter in his eyes was not lost on the slayer, and she
found her anger growing in direct proportion to his derisive attitude.

"What other reasons do we need?" she asked between clenched teeth.

"I've been helping you slay evil nasties for months. Surely, you know
you can trust me by now," he blinked innocently.

"I wouldn't trust you if you were chained to a tree surrounded by
crosses and holy water in broad daylight!" Buffy snarled.

Spike turned to look at his redhead and said with feigned sadness, "I
don't think they trust me, baby."

Willow giggled and nudged her elbow against his ribs, "Would you stop
it?"

"This is not a colossal joke!" Xander blurted out. "Willow, you're
spending your time with a soulless vampire. You do realize what he
could do to you, don't you?"

"Oh, yeah," she breathed dreamily. "But I give as good as I get."

"I'll attest to that," Spike nodded enthusiastically. "She literally
tackled me to the bedroom floor and fucked the soul right out of me
last night. And even after I begged her to stop, she continued to
ravage me mercilessly."

Willow snorted and dropped her hand to his thigh, "When the hell have
you ever begged me to--"

Giles groaned softly and thumped his fist against the table, "Could we
be serious for a moment, please?"

"I'm always serious where Willow is concerned," Spike remarked.

"You are not!" Willow argued, grinning widely.

"Well, usually," he said and stared down into her amused green eyes.
"Okay, sometimes."

Willow laughed out loud and caressed his cheek with a cupped hand.

"You're in love with him," Buffy stated flatly.

Willow waved her hand at the statement, "I told you before. We're in--"

"Deep like, I remember," the slayer nodded.

"Sweetheart, 'deep like' does _not_ pound the soul out of a vampire,"
Spike teased his lover. "Admit it; you love me."

"You first!" she countered.

He grinned and brushed his lips over her cheek, "We're in 'deep like.'"

"Uh huh," Buffy responded sarcastically and glared at the vampire.
"Well, we aren't--not with you."

"Which, when you think about it for just a second, makes absolutely no
difference whatsoever," he replied casually.

"Give me thirty minutes alone with Willow, and I'll change her mind,"
Buffy dared him.

"Give _me_ thirty minutes alone with Willow, and I'll change it right
back," he answered.

"Enough!" Giles shouted. "This is a pointless waste of time since it's
evident to me that Willow's mind is made up."

"You got that right," she nodded.

"Then the rest of us will just have to deal with it, won't we?" the
watcher replied.

After several minutes of heavy silence, Willow ventured to ask, "So, is
that it?"

"That's it," Giles responded.

"Good, because there's something else I want to ask you about."

Willow went on to describe the strange situations she and Spike had
suffered through over the past several months. The vampire occasionally
interrupted to add enough slightly off-color details to make the slayer
and Xander squirm entertainingly.

"So, Giles, what do you think? All these things can't be coincidence,
can they? Is someone after us, do you think?" Willow asked.

"I don't think these things are being directed solely at the two of
you," he answered. "We knew about the demon in the cemetery, although
Buffy had gone before the snakes appeared. And I was the one who sent
her out to kill those crows."

"But all the rest of the things that have been happening--"

"We've had our own, different, encounters, equally as strange," he
informed her.

Buffy nodded, "Some of them have been directed at just me, others have
included Xander and Giles."

"Well, what's behind them?" Willow asked.

"We've been researching almost every night for the past three months,
but we haven't come up with any likely explanations," the watcher told
her.

"Of course, we _might_ have, if we'd have had your help," Xander shot
at his friend.

"Hey! Don't try laying a guilt complex in my lap!" she objected. "We've
been dealing with our own problems."

"Then maybe you should pry yourself loose from his fanged form and help
us! Like Xander said, we might have put a stop to all this if you'd
been around to help," Buffy argued.

Spike's lips quirked into a grin, "Yeah, but then I wouldn't have had
the honor of licking icing off of Willow's--"

Willow clapped a hand over Spike's mouth and then quickly drew it away
as he began to nibble her palm.

"We're heading back to Giles' to do some more research," Buffy
continued, ignoring the vampire. "Why don't you come with us? Maybe if
we all work at it, we'll come up with an answer."

The redhead looked up at Spike, and he nodded his agreement. They stood
to leave the park, the vampire pulling back on Willow's arm to walk
several paces behind the others.

Xander stepped off the curb to cross the street, and Buffy reached out
and grabbed his elbow, pulling him back onto the sidewalk as a big,
orange dump truck rolled past. He looked back over his shoulder at her,
his eyes wide with surprise.

"That came out of nowhere!" he exclaimed.

She nodded as two more construction vehicles drove by, "That must be
the crew that's working on that new shopping strip."

"At ten o'clock at night?" Willow asked from behind them. "Seems kind
of late to me."

"All clear, now," Xander announced as the street cleared of traffic.

He stepped out into the roadway again, and Buffy screamed out his name
as the sound of a horn and squealing breaks echoed off the surrounding
buildings. She and Giles raced out into the road to make a mad grab for
the young man. Spike tightened his grip on Willow's hand and pulled her
farther back off the sidewalk and onto the grass as a heavy flat-bed
truck slammed on its brakes and skidded sideways in the street,
narrowly missing Buffy, Xander, and Giles.

Three porta-potties which were strapped onto the back of the truck
hurtled off of it and slammed down onto the pavement, spewing their
contents out over the street. Xander slipped and fell on his ass in the
refuse. Buffy reached down to help him up, lost her footing, and landed
beside him. Her legs tangled around Giles' ankles, and the watcher
found himself covered in excrement as he, too, hit the pavement.

The vampire and the witch doubled over in laughter as they watched the
mishap occur from their vantage point on the other side of the
sidewalk. Buffy managed to stand up and tried to shake some of the mess
from her shirt sleeves.

Her sodden arms hung limply at her sides, and she wrinkled her nose at
the nauseating stench as she glared over at Spike and Willow, "Stop
that damned laughing, and help us out of this--"

"Shit!" Willow supplied the missing word, her small body shaking with
laughter.

"Sorry, slayer," Spike snickered. "You got yourselves into this crap.
Get yourselves out."

Buffy growled angrily, and Spike laughed and looked down at Willow,
"Well, pet, I think your friends' plans for researching have gone right
down the loo. Shall we go find some way to entertain ourselves, or
would you rather hunt down a couple of buckets and a scraper?"

Willow giggled and looked apologetically over at the unfortunate trio,
"I'm sorry, guys."

"Willow!" Buffy shouted at her retreating form. "Get back here!"

"Sorry!" she called back over her shoulder and blew them a kiss as she
wrapped her arm around Spike to walk with him back across the park.

End.

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