As Buffy reached the entrance of Wolfram and Hart she had to admit the place looked pretty damn impressive. It took up a large portion of L.A skyline and it had to go at least one hundred stories up, if not a lot more. The outside was covered mainly in glass but was tinted black and you could not see into it. Buffy stood by the entrance sign that stated the company name boldly and proudly. The Slayer was anything but proud as she stood in front of the large, modern, slick building. She thought that disgusted might not have been too strong a word – no, it was a perfect word.

She looked up at the bright Los Angeles sunshine shining down on this little cornerstone of evil. It was enough to make her skin crawl...and she hadn’t even stepped foot inside the door yet.

Buffy took one last look at it from outside before she walked briskly up the steps passing men and women all dressed in a businesslike manner and pulled open one of the heavy doors stepping inside and, reluctantly, letting it shut behind her. The Slayer walked in a couple of steps as she took in the large white interior; the place looked a lot bigger inside than it even had outside. There were sharp lines everywhere, black marble flooring, white paint everywhere, and cold metal staircases. It was all very now, very hip, very minimalist. It was the kind of place every business aspired to look like, yet to Buffy it was all too cold, too clean, as if a lot of polishing up had been done to get rid of the stains. With a place like Wolfram and Hart, all she had heard about it, she was betting there were a lot of stains.

The Slayer felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck just by standing in this huge complex. It was a law firm but there was a lot more to it then that, there were things here that weren’t only evil and unnatural they were so powerful that everything told her to prepare for an attack. Her fists balled at her sides and it took everything she had not to get paranoid and lash out at the people all bustling about – all looked so normal, so human...or at least as normal and human as lawyers could ever look. In their sharp suits and slicked hair they were just too normal.

She took a few more slow steps into the huge place and she heard talking, phones ringing, a few laughs, coughing, and shouting...all very normal sounds for a place of work. It was a good facade, if Buffy had not had her supernatural senses she would have sworn it was just a normal, if very expensive, law firm.

She made her way to the elevators and stepped inside standing at the front of a huge crowd of men and woman all dressed in power suits. She felt way too casual in her tight blue jeans; brown boots, white shirt and beige fitted jacket. As soon as they reached the second floor Buffy stepped out of the elevator and everything was different. The interior was much the same except it was wooden flooring, pastel colored walls but it was the people that were different. The lawyers were still bustling in and out of offices but then so were the demons. Demons of all shapes and sizes wandering around, arguing with their lawyers and eating jelly donuts provided by the firm to keep their clients happy, either jelly donuts or little babies, whatever they wanted. Buffy felt herself tense; she had often bent the rules of being a Slayer and become friends with reformed demons but she knew that these demons were not reformed, not most of them. They wanted lawyers because they had committed crimes, evil crimes that no one was ever to know about. Some of the demons looked more human and they could get tried at a human court but ninety eight percent of the time Wolfram and Hart would make sure the verdict was not guilty – if the price was right. Buffy saw these demons that appeared to be humans but she could easily pick out which were and which weren’t the real deal.

Buffy saw a receptionist talking hastily on the phone; nodding, scribbling things down and then the moment she was finished with one call another call would come along. The Slayer turned and walked back to the elevator calling it up as she shook her head in reproach. Places like this were what made her job just that much harder, which was a thing a Slayer really did not need. She stepped back in the elevator filled with new yet somehow almost identical looking people and rode it all the way up.

She had only wanted to get a feel for the place, the real place before she went where she actually needed to go.

There were many hidden rooms, alternate dimensions, and secrets in Wolfram and Hart and Buffy felt no desire to see what went on in this place like this. What was worse here then the open dealing with demons? The torture rooms, the prisoner cells, the place where useful body parts were held, where evil beings lurked and plotted. She had no desire to see these things, no she did not need to see them to want to destroy the place and salt the earth it left behind. It would be very little use though, to do such a thing, there were hundreds of branches of Wolfram and Hart all over the world, some secret some public but all evil. Besides, places like these were always built with magick detectors and wards; protection spells would be wrapped around the place like layers of several dirty blankets.

Gradually as she rode the elevator farther and farther up the numbers of lawyers dwindled until there was only her and four men left in it. She stood in front and felt the men behind her; they were human but they were, in a way, worse then the demons because they had souls and they did the demon’s dirty work for money. It made her want to turn around and punch them just for that, just for the knowledge that they made evil’s existence just that much easier. Buffy even felt her fist clench, ready for a fight but then the elevator made a small ‘ding’ sound and the doors slid open.

The Slayer stepped out and the men stepped out and fanned around her then moved off to their separate ways. There were fewer offices up here but they were bigger, roomier and classier then the ones on lower levels. These were for the big boys. This is where she had been heading for. The floors here were polished and wooden, the walls painted a dark peach and the doors to the offices were all closed, frosted glass gave some vision into them but not much.

Buffy walked slowly down the corridor, which only had a few people walking up and down it, and she made it to the office at the end of the corridor, its door was closed too. She stopped in front of it. Buffy took a breath – what to do? What to do? Should she make an entrance or knock politely on the door?

Since she was never one to follow protocol but didn’t like to be overtly rude she settled on a mixture of the two. She knocked on the door and then pushed it open and stepped in. The room was empty and she let out the pent up breath, so much for her grand entrance. Buffy turned and shut the door behind her then she walked over to the desk against the back wall of the large office, which had a beautiful art deco mural on it. The walls were dark, the carpet cream and there were two black leather couch’s over to one side and a coffee machine, a coffee table in front of the couch’s. It was all very rich and attractive; it was also furnished and decorated expensively. She noticed the window blinds were pulled away exposing the bright sunlight to the room almost blinding and she quirked her eyebrow at that.

Buffy looked at the desk and it’s piles of papers, phone line, computer and other bits and bobs and she sighed, shook her head and walked over to the large windows which took up most of the side wall. She folded her arms and stood with her back to the door as she looked out of the window at the view of Los Angeles that was so beautiful it was undeniable. Buffy had lived in L.A at one time and it still held a little bit of her heart but since moving to Europe she was not as impressed by the huge buildings, bustling streets and skyline as she had once been. She preferred the hills, the trees now, not to say that she didn’t like to throw down and party once in a while but she had become more...at peace with herself she guessed.

"...So, you’re telling me I can’t kill this guy, then?" Came the familiar voice as both of the office doors were pushed open.

"Not unless you wanna have a hoard of fire breathin’ uglies on your ass" Another male voice came this one she did not recognize.

Buffy heard them stop abruptly as they saw her but she did not turn around, yet, she needed just another second.

"How’d you get in here?" The unfamiliar voice asked, surprised and angry.

The Slayer turned, arms still folded, to face the two men. The man who had spoke was tall around six feet, black chocolate skin tone, black hair shaven close, with full lips and a wide nose, large brown eyes that looked at her clearly liking what he saw. He was dressed in a snazzy and expensive charcoal suit, white shirt, and dark gray tie with silver tiepin, black shiny loafers and a brown leather briefcase in one hand.

Buffy’s eyes moved to the man she had really come to see. Angel stood staring at her with his eyes a fraction wide and mouth open but with no words coming out. She had always loved seeing Angel’s shocked face but she could find no humor in it today. His pale skin stood out against the dark walls and his dark brown hair was gelled back – not his usual spikiness, it had grown out since she had last seen him. He was tall but not as tall as the other man and his broad shoulders and chest seemed a little broader, his waist a little wider but it all suited him. As if anything could not suit Angel. He wore black pants, black shoes, a dark blue shirt and a black jacket over the top of it. Angel looked well, for a vampire.

"Security around here isn’t all it’s cracked up to be," Buffy answered the man’s question but kept her eyes on Angel "Guess the new management isn’t either"

The black man took a step forward "Oh, yeah? How about I just call up here some of that security and we’ll see how good they are?" He arched an eyebrow and pulled out a small silver flip phone.

Buffy shrugged "Go ahead"

He didn’t seem to expect that response.

"Buffy," Angel finally managed and put his hand up to the other man to motion him into putting the phone away.

The man frowned and looked at her "Buffy? As in Buffy-the-vampire-slayer-love-of-your-undead-life-and-all-around-apocolypse-averter Buffy?"

"No, the other one" She replied a small smile on her lips before it dropped and her gaze turned back to the vampire "Nice setup you’ve got here. Shiny. New. Evil"

He opened and closed his mouth a few times then looked at his companion "Gunn, can I get –"

"A moment alone with your sweetie? Sure, nice to finally meet you" Gunn looked at her and walked over his hand outstretched.

She took it and shook firmly, he winced a little and she realized she had shook a little too firmly "Sorry" She apologized.

Gunn nodded and backed away, looked at Angel "Any trouble you know where I am" He turned and walked out of the doorway pulling the doors shut behind him.

The vampire and the Slayer locked eyes and neither moved nor said anything for a long while. Angel finally moved away from the door and walked around to his desk, shrugging his jacket off and laying it around the back of his chair. Then he walked back around the desk to stand close in front of her.

"Buffy," Angel looked deep at her "Good to see you. You look –"

"So, what’s with the walking around in sunlight?" She said briskly looking back out of the window at the city "You not telling me something?"

He shook his head "It’s special glass means I can walk around in here and not burst into flames"

"That’s gotta be...neat"

"Yeah..." Angel shifted on his feet "I heard from Andrew that you weren’t exactly pleased about the..."

Buffy turned back to him sharply "About the you taking over an evil law firm? Yeah, I don’t know why but for some reason that really bothers me"

He sighed and stepped closer to her "Buffy, I’m here to do good. The resources here are more than anything we could come up with on our own and I’m in charge, I’m changing this place slowly but surely. I figure in a few years time we could have this place completely turned around"

She nodded "Okay, a few years time...sorry, if I don’t get this Angel but you could turn this place around in a few weeks, a month. Burn it down. Kill everyone on your client list that is evil, which would be about...ninety five percent, right? Then move on. That would turn this place around and nothing less than that"

"Buffy, you don’t understand –" He held his hands out.

"I do understand. It’s you who don’t. I guess the power has gone to your head," She said, "because you are helping these things get away with murder literally. Has your mission changed that much now, Angel? Do you think you’ve atoned for your past uglies and you’re a little bored so you might as well make some new ones for yourself?"

Angel puffed his chest and shook his head "We are changing things here. We are doing the best we can. We can’t just kill everyone on the list. If we did a new branch would appear somewhere and we’d be out, we would have had a chance at changing things and we would have thrown it away. Why did you come here, just to criticize my judgements? Andrew made it pretty damn clear what you thought"

"You know that’s not the only reason I came" Buffy said softly.

Silence filled the room and it was one of tension, Angel’s face held anger and resentment whilst she kept hers centered and as calm as she could be. The silence stretched on and that was about the times the doors to the office burst open and a green skinned demon with small red horns and a jazzy yellow suit walked in followed by Wesley Wyndham-Price, Buffy’s former Watcher. Buffy saw he no longer wore glasses, contact’s she was betting, and he had a rugged looking covering of stubble over his chin and jaw. He also wore a dark green shirt and black slacks and he held a couple of file folders in his hand.

"Angel-cakes, who’s your gorgeous friend?" The green skinned demon asked turning his red eyes to Buffy as he wandered over, walking jauntily.

"This is –" Angel started.

"Buffy," Wesley saw her and smiled he walked over and there was warmth in his eyes "It’s good to see you again"

Buffy couldn’t help but smile too "Hey, Wesley"

She had expected just a handshake or mutual smile but her old Watcher pulled her into an impulsive hug and she felt her eyes widen. Wesley had certainly changed – as the new muscles in his body testified. He had become a demon hunter and, by all accounts, a good one. He moved away and gave her another smile this one sheepish.

"Buffy? Oh, wait Buffy! The Slayer, of course!" The green demon grinned to show his pearly whites and he slapped his hands together in mirth "Good to meet you finally, honey-cheeks. I’ve heard so much. Yet none did you justice"

"Oh, uh...thanks..." She frowned.

"Lorne," He told her his name and held out his hand, which she shook.

Buffy nodded "Lorne, right. Nice to meet you. I’d like to say I’ve heard a lot too but..."

Lorne nodded and grinned flamboyantly "But Angel-face isn’t real forthcoming with details, right? Ha! I know"

Angel turned to the two men "Guys, we were kind of having a private conversation here"

"Oh, of course. We’ll go but we need to discuss the Hornbill Deal after, Angel" Wesley started to walk away.

Buffy shook her head "No, you guys stay. I have other people I need to see here"

Wesley and Lorne gave each other a knowing look whereas Angel just fumed.

"Right," Wesley cleared his throat "Of course you do"

"Any ideas as to that person’s whereabouts?" Buffy asked politely.

He nodded "Yes, I think you’ll find what you’re looking for on the third story. The lab."

The Slayer smiled her thanks and then turned and walked out of the office closing the doors behind herself and letting out a deep tension filled breath. She could practically feel Angel’s anger even from out here. She heard the three men talking rapidly and her hearing was good enough to know it was all about her and not the Hornbill Deal. However, Buffy had other places to be – a science lab for instance. That was one place Buffy Summers never thought she’d end up. Willow would have been proud.

The ride down in the elevator was a long one and this time she got the whole thing to herself. Buffy bounced on the balls of her feet and whistled along to the dreadfully cheery music that the elevator was playing. After a while she realized it was an instrumental of Wind Beneath my Wings by Bette Midler and Buffy flushed at her whistling of it. This place really was evil.

The doors slid open to the lab level and she was almost blinded by the sheer amount of white – white floors, walls, and ceilings. She stepped in and the doors slid closed behind her leaving her in this hospital like place and boy, did she hate hospitals. As she walked further in she saw that a lot of the place had glass walls and as she walked down a corridor she could see into the main body of the lab where people in white coats were looking down through microscopes at slides and others were testing new machinery, some tapping at computers, others blowtorching things to test durability she guessed. Buffy had presumed it would be like the Initiative complex back in Sunnydale but she saw no testing on demons, no live demons anyway. There were dead bodies that were being worked on and all the machinery just made Buffy’s head spin; she had never been a science queen.

The Slayer walked down the flight of steps that lead down into the lab and she walked across as various scientists ignored her. All of the people here were human or at least all of the alive people in here and all seemed to be deeply involved in their work.

Finally someone seemed to notice her, a guy of about her age maybe a little older walked over with a bounce in his step. He had floppy brown hair and brown eyes, a goofy grin on his face – he was tall and lanky but that grin was infectious. He looked strangely familiar but she didn’t know why.

"Woah, hey! Non-science geek alert! Non-science geek alert!" He whooped "Are you lost? Believe me it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I got lost my whole first month here"

Buffy tilted her head "What makes you think I’m not a science geek?"

"Well, you don’t look the type" He grinned "Besides, you’re not wearing a cool white coat. Hi, I’m Knox, can I help you?"

She nodded "Yeah, I’m looking for a guy"

"Well, you found one" Knox wiggled his eyebrows.

Buffy smiled a little "He’s about this tall, blond hair, leather coat –"

"Oh, sure," Knox turned and pointed to another small staircase that "First office on the left"

She nodded and walked toward that staircase paused, looked back at Knox to find him watching her. He waved at her and she turned and walked slowly up the stairs the broke into a little run. The corridor those stairs lead to was painted white –surprise, surprise – and as Buffy reached the first door on the left she saw it was open and bit’s of conversation wafted out as she came and stood in the doorway.

"...You’re fine"

"No more ghostly goings on? You’re sure, luv?..."

"...I am totally sure, Spike"

Buffy took in the scene quickly a brunette woman sat on the edge of her desk, her dark hair was loose and a little wavy and she wore square-rimmed glasses that suited her slender face well. She wore a knee level flowery skirt, a light blue shirt and one of those white lab coats. Her lips were painted red and she pushed a hand through her hair shyly as her brown eyes looked at the vampire in front of her. The word gawky came to Buffy’s mind when she saw the pretty but shy girl.

The Slayer’s eyes turned to Spike who stood in front of the girl with his back turned to Buffy. He wore his dark black duster and his hair was still slicked back, peroxide colored and he was so very much here. Not dead. Not dead. Andrew had spilled the secret Spike had not wanted to him to tell her – that he was actually alive...or as alive a vampire could get. Right then though all her anger left at his lying because he was here.

"Looking good for a pile of dust, Spike" Buffy spoke and there was no tremor in her voice, which she was very proud of.

The brunette woman’s eyes looked up at her and she jumped standing up straight as Spike spun on his heel, his duster flowing around him like a cape. His beautiful light blue eyes locked on her, looked her over and then rested on her eyes wide with shock. She looked him over his pale skin still molded to those cheekbones that looked so sharp they might cut but she knew from experience that they did not. His soft lips fell open a little and he mouthed something silently. Buffy saw he wore his usual tight black T-shirt, black jeans under the duster plus biker boots of course.

"Buffy" Spike whispered and his face was one of an exquisite mixture of joy and surprise "Buffy, you’re..."

The Slayer stepped into the room slowly.

"So this is Buffy..." She heard the other woman say quietly.

Buffy and Spike walked toward one another slowly and she smiled at him, still looking him over and feeling an overwhelming relief that he was well and so very much not dead. As if synchronized they reached each other in the middle and Buffy looked at him. Spike threw his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug, he lifted her off the ground, which Buffy widened her eyes at but allowed. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he swung her around once before setting her back down on the floor but neither one let go.

"Why didn’t you call...?" Buffy whispered in his ear, still in his embrace.

"Was a ghost for a fair bit of time, luv," He whispered back "Couldn’t pick up a sodding phone. Tried to go to you but I couldn’t leave the city limits"

Buffy pulled back enough to look in his eyes "And after?"

"And after..." Spike hung his head "After, I didn’t want to ruin things for you. I saved the bloody world and I was afraid I would never live up to that again. So, I s’pose I wanted you to remember me like that"

She looked at him "That is so lame"

He let out a loud chuckle and she laughed with him until she stepped back into him and slipped her arms around his waist, leaned her head on his chest and listened to his heart not beating. Spike stroked her hair and his body shivered at her touch.

Neither of them noticed Angel standing in the doorway, arms folded and a blank face.

"So, what do you think about her then?" Gunn asked as he stood leaning against the wall looking out at the whole of Angel’s office.

Wesley was sat on the leather couch and Lorne was making himself a drink from the cabinet whereas Fred was pacing the room anxiously. They all stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him with different variations of a puzzled expression on their faces.

"Of Buffy, the Slayer?" He said "’Cos to me, the hype surrounding her? Pretty much justified. The girl is fine"

"You think?" Fred asked critically.

"Hell yes" Gunn grinned, "Am I right, Wes?"

Wesley looked up "Hmm? Oh, Buffy. Well, I don’t really think of her like that, I was once her Watcher you know"

"That don’t mean you haven’t got eyes, man" Gunn grinned.

"Well, no. I suppose that she is quite attractive..." Wesley mused.

"Quite? Honey, the girl is a stunner!" Lorne announced swirling his scotch around in his tumbler "I would kill for eyes that big and those lips! To die for!"

Fred started pacing again then stopped and cocked her head "Really? I don’t know I just thought she was...average. I mean pretty, but not that great"

"Yeah right. Am I sensing a little of the green eyed-monster here, sweetie?" Lorne looked at the Texan girl.

She looked at him "What? Me? Jealous? No! Why would I care?"

"’Cos you used to have a thing for Angel and Spike was totally your new flirt-buddy" Gunn pointed out, leaning back against the wall "Can you say ‘jealous’"

"Can you say ‘wrong’" Fred frowned "Spike was not my...flirt buddy! Besides, I’m over Angel and I am not a little girl. I just think it’s a little weird that these two vampires with souls would fall for the same girl. The way they made her out to be I’d have thought she glowed and her feet didn’t touch the ground"

"Jealous" Gunn coughed the word out and Fred narrowed her eyes at him.

Wesley looked at the woman "Fred, Angel and Buffy have a very complicated history remember and Spike and Buffy seemed to have something deep too. You can’t choose who you fall in love with" He said pointedly looking at her.

Fred blushed and nodded looking around and then she continued to pace up and down up and down. Wesley cleared his throat and then looked back down at his file flicking through it absently. Lorne raised his eyebrows at Gunn and then took a swig of his scotch. Gunn heard the Slayer and the two vampires outside and he motioned to the guys that they were coming. Fred stopped pacing, Wesley stood, Gunn pushed away from the wall and Lorne sidled up. They ended up all in a line staring straight at the door as the three of them entered. Angel and Spike were arguing, as usual, and Buffy rolled her eyes but they all froze in a line too as they saw the members of Angel’s team.

"What are you all lookin’ at?" Spike growled lighting up a cigarette.

Buffy stood in-between the two vampires as a sort of barrier and it was clear she was wondering the same thing.

"Nothing, Billy-boy" Gunn grinned.

"Hi, I don’t think we were introduced" Fred stepped forward and held her hand out to Buffy "I’m Fred"

"Oh, right. Willow told me a lot about you," Buffy shook her hand and smiled warmly "She said you were a genius"

"Oh, I don’t really think..." Fred blushed with pride.

"Hey, with these two around" Buffy motioned to the vampires "You guys probably need all the brains you can get"

Spike looked at her "Back five minutes and you’re insulting me again. Think you’d be happy I was back from the dead"

"No excuse for missing out on a good insult" The Slayer smiled.

"Well, as heartwarming as this is..." Angel walked into his office and picked up his jacket "I kind of want some time by myself. Got a lot of paperwork to do" He dropped in his chair.

Everyone looked around awkwardly and they all piled out except Spike and Buffy who stayed behind and the Slayer shut the doors. Angel started scribbling away at papers and she watched him with disdain – how he had changed in a couple of months amazed her and not in a good way.

"S’all he ever does now – soddin’ paperwork" Spike whispered to Buffy.

Angel looked up, eyes dark "I can hear you – vampire hearing, remember?"
Spike grinned at him gleefully "I know"

The dark haired vampire stood and walked around his desk "Spike, you aren’t welcome in my office. You aren’t welcome anywhere here"

"It’s a public place so get lost," Spike spat taking a drag of his cigarette and swaggering over to his immortal enemy "mate"

"I am not your mate" Angel folded his arms and glowered down at him.

"Too bloody right you’re not" He smirked.

"Nothing’s keeping you here anymore, Spike," Angel motioned to the door "So, why don’t you just go?"

The blond vampire shrugged "Maybe I’ve got used to a few things ’round here"

"Like what?"

"Well, I got a bit of a soft spot for your pretty science girl, Charlie’s an all right bloke and, oh yeah, I just love getting right up you nose" Spike grinned blowing the smoke from his cigarette into Angel’s face.

Angel’s face grew stone cold "Why don’t you go back with Buffy, hmm? I’ll tell you why because you know she doesn’t want you there. That’s what you think and, well, she’s not exactly dragging you out of the door is she?"

Buffy started to interject.

"Oh yeah?" Spike looked at him; eyebrows raised "Well, doesn’t seem too keen on you right now either, does she? Mr. Sell-Out to the dark side. She’s seen what a bloody moron you are finally. You’re meant to be such a champ but look at you you’re nothin’ but the senior partners whipping boy"

Angel launched himself forward lightening quick and grabbed the lapels of Spike’s jacket he hurled him over his desk and into the wall behind – the vampire crumpled to the floor. Angel turned and jumped on his desk and leapt off it to land on the blond. The two of them morphed faces and rolled around on the floor knocking over random items in their fighting.

Spike got his boot to Angel’s abdomen and kicked him back so hard he flew through the air and hit the windows with a crunch. If they had been made out of normal glass he would have sailed right through into the bright sunshine. Angel recovered just in time to get a series of vicious punches in the face by Spike.

The blond vampire grinned showing plenty of fangs "What’s this then, Angelus? Want me to beat you down again. My pleasure"

Spike went to punch him again but Angel grabbed his fist and twisted it, ducking underneath Spike’s arm to shove him from behind into the spider-webbed window face first.

"Like to see you try it again, Spiky-boy" Angel growled in his ear.

Before either could do anymore damaged to each other Angel was propelled backwards and hit the opposite wall hard with his back. Then Spike was spun around and shoved to the back of the room as far away as they could get. Angel picked himself up off of the floor and turned to the Slayer hissing, his demon face filled with rage.

Buffy motioned for him to come closer "You wanna fight? Either of you? Then fight me"

Neither got the chance to answer because as that moment a team of commandos crashed through the door all dressed in black swat gear and carrying guns. Buffy realized they had come to protect their boss. They fanned around her and pointed their guns at her expertly. There were six of them and the Slayer just smiled.

"Hands up!" One cried.

Buffy put her hands slowly in the air, the smile still on her face "What’s the problem, guys?"

At that moment Fred, Gunn, Lorne and Wesley rushed in all with varying degrees of shock and surprise on their faces. Fred had come in first and in his hurry Gunn had run into the back of her followed by Wesley into the back of him and Lorne into the back of Wesley. They all halted and just watched the show.

The Slayer looked at the commandos "Say, do any of you know an Agent Finn? ’Cos, he can verify I get on well with army guys"

Spike snorted "Yeah, she does at that"

Buffy grinned and then out of the corner of her eye she saw Angel step forward and take in the situation.

The vampire boss morphed his face back to human "Put your weapons down"

The men all hesitated.

"Yeah, guys, put them down" Buffy urged.

The Slayer jumped back a split second before a bullet would have gone straight through her temple – instead it zipped in front of her face and she watched it in slow motion. From then on the Slayer was no longer Miss. Nice Girl. Buffy jumped up and lashed out with a snap kick to the commando that had attempted to shoot her. He flailed backward his gun firing wildly into the ceiling and she slammed a hard kick to his stomach which sent him sailing backward in to the wall and knocking him unconscious.

It was about that time that the others all pulled their triggers simultaneously.

Buffy jumped up and somersaulted backward in the air landing on Angel’s desk the bullets firing around her. She jumped off and landed an awesome kick to the face of another commando instantly breaking his nose and sending him crashing to the floor. His gun went up and she plucked it out of the air and swung it around into the head of another commando who had turned to shoot her just a second too slow. The commando staggered to the side and Buffy spun around and hurled the barrel of the gun into the gut of another soldier behind her. He gagged and doubled over and she took the opportunity to smash his face with the gun then follow through with a punch to his jaw. He fell backward and hit his head on the edge of Angel’s desk going down and staying down. Buffy turned back to the commando she had previously hit but who had now more or less recovered she knocked his gun out of his hand and punched him twice before kicking him in the stomach. The commando careening backward and into the last two commando’s standing that had been about to pump her full of lead. The three of them fell to the floor just as the guy she had broken the nose of got back up and rushed at her with a knife. The Slayer sidestepped him and as he rushed past she grabbed the back of his neck and slammed his head down onto Angel’s desk once, twice and three times until he fell to the floor.

"Buffy!" Spike and Angel called out warning.

The Slayer vaulted over the desk and took cover as bullets rained everywhere. Buffy grabbed the bottom of the desk and then crouched down before she heaved the whole thing upwards and forwards. She stood just in time to see the heavy desk hit all three remaining commandos and force them into the back wall devastatingly hard. They all slumped to the floor with the desk landing on their legs and they did not move.

Buffy heard Lorne wince and Gunn let out a low appreciative whistle.

She looked around and saw that the floor was littered with bodies of unconscious commandos and she looked up to see Fred looking at her wide-eyed and more than a little scared, Gunn was grinning and had an eyebrow arched, Wesley just looked satisfied and Lorne looked a little stunned. She ticked her gaze to the back wall where Spike stood dangerously close to where she had launched the desk and he turned to her still in demon face and grinned.

"Made easy work of them, luv" He clapped with pride.

Lastly the Slayer turned her gaze on Angel who stood off to her left and who looked at her with wide, apologetic eyes. His arms hung loosely at his sides but he was hunched over a little and she figured he was probably hurt from her pushing him against the wall with excess force.

"Buffy, I –" Angel started.

"Thanks for the welcoming committee, Angel," She said looking at him with a blank face "But it really wasn’t necessary. Reminds me why I don’t live in Los Angeles anymore – dangerous."

At that moment a very familiar blond vampire entered the room wearing a pink summer dress and strappy sandals.

"Angel, you have a troop of Garagos demons outside for your twelve o’ clock and –" Harmony noticed Buffy "Slayer, hey. So, the Garagos are outside and they are pretty testy, if you know what I mean"

"Harmony..." Angel groaned.

"Harmony is working for you!" Buffy’s eyes widened and she let out a bitter laugh "Oh, well that’s just the icing on the cake. She’s a vampire, Angel"

"So is he!" Harmony pointed to Angel then turned to Spike "And him!"

Angel ignored her "It wasn’t my choice. She was already working here and –"

Buffy put her hand up "None of my business, Angel. Obviously your priorities have changed since we last spoke. I thought you wanted to fight evil – not give it a pay rise"

"Pay rise? Ha!" Harmony snorted and rolled her eyes.

"I guess I’ve seen all I need to see," Buffy locked eyes with the vampire "It looks like we’re not allies anymore, Angel. That’s one of the things I never thought I’d have to say"

"’Cept for when he loses his soul" Spike pointed out.

Angel shot him a look then turned back to the Slayer "Buffy, you don’t understand"

"I do, Angel. You’re not the same man I used to know or you wouldn’t be doing this" Buffy turned and walked toward the door passing Harmony and stepping over bodies as she went.

She walked past Team Angel who all followed her with their eyes and then she was out of the door and walking to the elevator.

Spike morphed his face back to human and looked at Angel "Well done, mate. I think you really made your point and stood your ground" He let out a long laugh and then turned and walked to the door, looking back at him and quirking an eyebrow "I better go after her. Give her a shoulder to cry on, if you know what I mean"

With that the peroxide haired vampire turned and strolled out of the door a smug expression on his face.

Everyone left in the room was silent and all looked around at one another. The bodies still were littering the floor.

"So, shall I show the Garagos demons in?" Harmony asked, looking at her boss innocently.

Buffy felt herself fuming as she stepped into the elevator and turned to face the corridor as the doors started to close. Angel had just stood there and let her get attacked by his bodyguards for Christ’s sake and Harmony was working for him! Harmony! It was so unbelievable. When Andrew had told them about what was going on in L.A fully she didn’t believe it so she had to find out for herself. She had also known that he was hiding something and had badgered him until he had spilled the beans on Spike and she couldn’t believe that either – had to see him with her own eyes.

Pale fingers prized the doors open and the vampire she had just been thinking about stepped in. He had lit up a fresh cigarette and gave her a look as he entered the elevator stood side by side with her at the front. Behind them stood five lawyers – two women three men and none conversed amongst themselves.

Spike took a long puff as the doors closed, looked at her sideways but continued to face front "I see you haven’t lost any of your moves, pet"

"It’s only been a couple of months since..." Buffy trailed off, looking down at her shoes for a moment then back up at the elevator doors.

"Funny, it seemed longer," Spike mused melancholically then took a breath "So, heard you’re in England with Giles. I could just see you there – it always bucketing down with rain, mud in your wellies, sun never shining. Yeah, you fit in real well with that picture" He snorted.

"It’s not that bad and you know it" She smiled a little

"Yeah but you’re Californian girl at heart, all sunbeams and endless beaches" Spike sighed taking another drag of his cigarette.

"I don’t know...maybe," Buffy nodded "But it’s a new start. A clean slate, you know? I get to live a normal...or at least a more normal life. I still patrol every so often but there’s enough Slayers the world over now that I don’t have to do it on a regular basis. Giles’ house is big enough for him and the gang and, I don’t know, it just feels right. Peaceful. Safe. –"

"Boring" Spike turned and looked at her.

Buffy turned to face him too and shook her head "No, it’s not, it’s –"

"Boring" Spike said again "I might be all right for ordinary folk but you are most definitely not normal, Slayer. Buffy, you are extraordinary and you deserve to lead an exciting life. I get that you’re taking a well deserved break from slaying but, honestly, luv, are you happy just wandering around good ol’ Blighty?"

She looked at him "It’s good enough for now. What about you Spike? Never really saw you as working for Angel"

"He bloody wishes" Spike grunted "I’m not working for him I was haunting him"

"And now?"

"Now, I’m..." He sighed and looked down at the floor "I’m..."

Buffy reached over and took his hand and they both looked down at their fingers entwined and Buffy was pretty sure they were both remembering the same thing. The day Spike had sacrificed himself to save the whole world from the First Evil. They looked up into each other’s eyes simultaneously and let go of each other’s hand.

"You should go home, Spike" Buffy whispered.

"Where’s home?"

"Wherever you can be yourself and be accepted as you are" She said.

Spike looked away then back at her "There’s only once place I can think of then"

"Where?"

"Wherever you are" Spike spoke softly, looked deeply into her eyes.

Buffy tilted her head "Then why don’t you come back with me?"

He shrugged then his eyes lit up in a small show of hope "I didn’t know if I was welcome"

"Spike," The Slayer looked back at him and she smiled a little "You’re a hero. A good man. I like to keep as many of those around me as possible"

He grinned "That an invite?"

"That an acceptance?" She countered.

Spike grin turned to a slight smile and he looked down at the elevator small and Buffy was sure that if he could blush he would be blushing right about then. He took a few puffs of his cigarette and then looked off shyly to one side and Buffy had to smile at his coyness.

The vampire looked up again "So are you off home right now?"

"I can get a flight back for tomorrow night," She said slowly "If I want"

He looked at her "Thinkin’ bout taking a holiday here? I thought you made it clear you wanted nothing to do with the big poof upstairs"

"He’s not the only reason I came," Buffy said looking pointedly at him "Besides, L.A has a great night life"

"Dangerous, though" Spike grinned mimicking her earlier words.

The Slayer smiled back for a moment "A little bit of danger..."

"...is good for the soul." He finished taking another puff and exhaling "So, how do you feel about me showing you around? I happen to know some very good pubs"

The elevator hit ground floor, the doors slid open and she stepped out.

"It’s daylight, Spike" Buffy said.

"Tonight then?" He said holding the doors open.

She looked at him for a long while "Yeah. Okay"

"Meet you here at nine?" Spike asked.

"Sure, great way to start the night – meet in a place of evil" She smiled "Nine o’clock. Got it. Great to see you again Spike. You really do look good for a pile of dust"

Spike chuckled as her eyes sparkled and then she turned and walked across the large lobby to the exit. He watched her go and then stepped out himself and made his way to the blood bank, he was suddenly hungry – she always did hasten his appetite.

The remaining lawyers in the elevator all had raised eyebrows.

One cleared his throat "Heavy"

The others nodded in agreement. The doors slid closed.

Buffy followed Spike as he pushed his way to the front of a line of one of Los Angeles most popular nightclubs. She had no idea how he expected to get in because you had to cue in a place like this and Spike was not dressed up he was dressed as he had been this morning. Not that he didn’t look good in it but that wasn’t the point in one of these places – they had a code. Buffy, herself, had made a bit of an effort. She was wearing a short black dress that had a keyhole neck at the front showing a bit of cleavage and had a tie around her neck which was the only thing keeping it up. It just just dusted her knees and with that she wore three-inch spike heels with thin straps that she found easy to walk in. She had a jacket on too it was waist level and black leather. Spike had seemed very appreciative of what she had been wearing when he met her outside Wolfram and Hart. A few years ago he would have made a lewd comment but tonight his eyes had just widened and he had choked on the smoke from his cigarette – she took that as a good sign as to what she looked like.

Now as people made sounds of disgruntlement because of Spike’s shoving Buffy felt herself getting separated from the vampire. She called out his name and he turned, grabbed her hand and then pulled her along. Buffy didn’t allow herself to be pulled along by just anyone and she couldn’t help the small shot of electricity that ran up her hand, wrist and arm from the contact. The fact that she had thought she would never get to see this man again was probably what intensified that. Probably.

Someone tried to challenge Spike’s pushing in so he morphed faces and hissed at the man and then no one challenged him again. They got to the front of the line where the velvet rope was pulled across and the big bouncers looked at them.

"Hey, Spike!" One of the big guys asked, his brown eyes looking down on them, as he seemed to be seven feet tall.

"Maurice" Spike nodded at him.

Maurice looked over at Buffy "Who’s your honey?"

"Never you mind that" Spike squeezed her hand a little "So, you gonna let us in or am I gonna freeze my perfect arse off?"

The large man chuckled and the pulled the velvet rope off and motioned them in, Spike walked through and kept hold of her as he did. They made it to the cloakroom and Buffy took her jacket off but Spike, not surprisingly, chose to keep his. As they walked down the stairway to the main body of the club loud throbbing music pounded up to them and Buffy felt the vibrations through her feet. There were bodies packed tight on the dance floor, all writhing very closely together to frenetic beats, some couples hadn’t even made it to the floor and were packed tightly on the staircase so that the supernatural couple had to squeeze through them.

When the strobe lights stopped pulsing the lights were very muted and it made the whole place seem strangely intimate. There were hundreds of people packed close and yet it looked intimate. The walls of the club were painted black and the whole place had a slightly gothic theme to it with high chandeliers, which didn’t provide any light but were very pretty in a medieval way.

When they reached the bottom of the steps and the music started up a hauntingly dark melody as if on cue Buffy felt a strong arm slip around her waist. She turned around in surprise and found herself encircled in Spike’s arms, strong, familiar and strangely electrifying. A thin tendril of excitement ran up her spine and it was a feeling she hadn’t felt for a while – the feeling of exhilaration, of being in the arms of someone that made her excited. Buffy felt her eyes widened as she looked up at him and Spike stepped away taking it as a sign of rejection.

"I’m out of line," Spike said softly but she heard it above the music as his arms fell away from her.

"No, Spike, you’re not. It’s fine" She wanted to say it was better than fine but instead she reached out and took his hand.

Buffy turned toward the dance floor and held Spike’s hand above her head as she walked towards it and pulled him along behind her. It was kind of a slow dance but still with a rhythm you could really dance to – it was also very melodic and dusky and she figured it was the kind of music Spike could dance to. Man, was that an understatement.

As she turned back around to face him when they reached somewhere near the middle of the floor where they had managed, somehow, to clear a space Spike’s eyes were all for hers. She found that particularly honorable because there were a lot of girls that had on less than Buffy’s dress around them. In fact Buffy looked positively demure next to a lot of the girls here.

Spike’s arm slid back around her waist and he pulled her into him possessively so that their chests were pressed together but Buffy made sure their thighs were not as she did not want to risk him getting the wrong idea. She wasn’t even sure herself what the right idea was because she was just happy too see him again, touch him again and she didn’t want to get carried away.

The words of the song floated to her ears, sung by a husky voiced male.

Buffy felt her eyes flicker up to Spike’s at those words as they swayed slowly together, he held one of her hands in his as his other hand stroked her lower back. The words seemed to describe her relationship with him back when she had been using him to feel something, anything. Spike looked down at her with a serious expression on his alabaster face.

Buffy felt that this song might have been written for her and Spike and he seemed to think the same thing because he gave her one of those smoldering looks and she had to look away and lean her head against his shoulder. She felt his hand run up from her lower back to the large portion of her bare back that the dress exposed. His cold fingers slid up between her shoulder blades and then traced them lightly, teasingly. She felt herself move against him because of the light contact and Spike’s grip on her hand tightened a little as if reacting to her reaction.

Buffy’s other hand gripped Spike’s shoulder and his hand moved up from her shoulder blades to nestle on the back of her neck under her loose blond hair. His fingers found the base of her skull and stroked there before moving around to the soft skin just behind her ear, which he ran a finger softly down making her close her eyes in relaxation.

At that moment the song ended and a more upbeat dance one came on.

Spike and Buffy remained in an embrace for a few moments until she pulled back and out of the circle of his arms, as she pulled away he ran his hands down her biceps, forearms and hands until she was out of reach. She looked at him feeling suddenly awkward.

Spike seemed to understand because he quirked an eyebrow and jabbed his thumb at the bar "Drink?"

"I don’t think yes would be a strong enough word" Buffy nodded quickly.

He gave her a faint smile and turned pushing his way through the throng of gyrating people. Buffy followed close behind and leaned against a free space of the bar as Spike craned down so she could whisper in his ear what she wanted. Buffy was tempted to answer isn’t that just the question? But instead she said a bottle of beer. Spike ordered the two beers and moments later they were there and he had paid, handed one to her and taken a large gulp of his own.

"So, how you liking L.A so far?" He yelled.

Buffy shrugged "I used to live here but, I guess, it’s pretty...lively"

"Yeah," He laughed "Not that I’d know anything about that being a dead guy"

She almost smiled but held it back looking back over the crowd. When she turned back she saw a young pretty blond had pretty much attached herself to Spike’s side and was whispering something in his ear provocatively. Buffy turned to stare at him full on and as the blond whispered he kept his eyes on Buffy as she arched an eyebrow at him. Spike chuckled at her look and then turned to the girl and whispered something in her ear. The girl frowned and then turned on her heel and left in a hurry.

"What did you say to her?" She asked.

"Told her you were my wife and had a black belt in practically every martial art known to man" Spike smirked "Works every time"

Buffy slugged some beer "Also a partial truth. Which is new for you, Spike"

He did laugh then and widened his eyes for a second before letting them drop to normal "Have you forgotten I’m all reformed and with honor now? Righting wrongs and defending...fluffy rabbits and the like"

"That I would like to see" She looked him in the eye.

"So, you really wailed on Angel-breath’s gang of chaperone’s – they’re still in the infirmary last thing I heard and are not best pleased" Spike sipped his beer "You could’ve killed them"

"They were human. Barely" Buffy shrugged.

"Tell you something though, luv, you drew some big attention to yourself. You’re the new buzz around the office –they’ve seen a Slayer before but the Wolfram and Hart big wigs seem to know you’re the Slayer. They’re all getting very sweaty about it," Spike frowned "Not sure if they’re excited or just scared as hell of you"

"Here’s hoping it’s the latter" Buffy raised her beer.

They clinked their bottles together – a toast.

When Buffy stepped out of another club two hours later she was laughing throatily and Spike followed close behind also giving a hearty laugh. She hadn’t had this much fun for a long time – what with the apocalypse and then the aftermath of that, moving to a different country...it made for a very stressful time. But here and now with a man she had thought was dead to the world she was having a great time.

Buffy pulled her jacket on against the chilly night air and let out a breath as they walked down the dark street – music from clubs blaring out behind them.

Soon they were almost the only people out and Buffy’s heels clacking against the sidewalk were loud, echoing through the empty back street. If she was any other girl she would have been freaked out by the dark and the eerie feel of it all but she was the Slayer and if an empty street was all she had to worry about then it was a good day.

Spike lit up a cigarette and inhaled deeply blowing the smoke out into the night sky before glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"You gave those blokes a right telling off" He grinned.

Buffy smiled and shrugged "When I say I don’t wanna dance I mean it"

"Yeah, I think the fact that their wrinklies are squashed to a pulp will remind them of that next time, don’t you?" Spike laughed, took a hit of his cigarette.

The Slayer smiled remembering the two jerks that had practically tried to drag her onto the dance floor as she had come out of the bathroom. She had politely refused at first but they hadn’t got the picture so she had rammed a foot between the legs of both of them before they had a time to react. She hadn’t used her Slayer strength just her normal girl kind – she didn’t want to stop them from having children in later life when they had matured a little, she just wanted to make sure they got the picture.

"Been meaning to ask, how’s Dawn?" Spike asked sounding as casual about it as he could.

Buffy looked at him then faced front "She’s doin’ great. Started high school again and she’s the cool American kid – most popular girl in her year"

"Good for ’er" He nodded "Deserves some happiness"

She nodded slowly and spoke softly "We all do"

Spike cleared his throat "So, what about the rest of them? Did...did they all get out...did they all survive?"

"...Anya, she...she didn’t make it" Buffy said solemnly.

Spike was quiet for a few moments "Bloody shame. She was a nice bird"

Buffy nodded "I thought Andrew would have told you"

"I stayed away from him as much as I could, didn’t want him knowing I was..."

"Alive?" She looked at him then "Spike, why? I don’t understand...I know you tried to explain but it just sounds like a load of crap. You know we would have wanted to know if you were alive"

"I doubt that...its not like I was best pals with your mates"

"You know I would have wanted to know" Buffy stopped walking in turn making him stop as she faced him down "But you were too afraid that I would, what, send you away?"

Spike gritted his teeth "For all I bloody knew you were living it up in Blighty. I didn’t want to show up and mess things up for you not when you’d worked so bloody hard to make your life right again. For all I knew you had another soddin’ wanker of a boyfriend, a nice little house and plans for the future all to your name. I didn’t want to intrude on that. The way I went out was a noble way, better than I deserved to leave this world. Then I got pulled back and I thought that maybe you would be..."

"Be what, Spike?" She yelled.

"Be disappointed!" He yelled back throwing his hands up in the air.

Buffy looked at him with wide eyes and she shook her head not able to actually speak as his statement sunk in. She took a deep breath and felt her brow furrow as Spike grunted and took a deep rough hit off his cigarette then threw it to the ground and stamped on it. The vampire threw up his hands in derision and then turned on his heel and stormed off down the street.

The Slayer was having none of that she was going to tell him how stupid he was being so she started to run after him in her heels. Spike reached the end of the street with his coat swishing around him and he was about to turn the corner when a large black van sped around it and nearly ran him over. He yelled a curse at it and Buffy stopped as the van skidded to a halt on the road next to her. Spike turned around just as around eight commandos all dressed in black jumped out of the back of the van and onto the sidewalk.

Buffy brought her hands up into a defensive stance and readied herself for an attack as Spike called her name and started to run back to her. She didn’t figure upon one of the commandos pulling a tranquilizer gun and shooting it into her chest. The Slayer pulled it out and slammed her foot into a commando that tried to grab her. As she did that another dart stuck into her back and she began to feel a little drowsy. Spike was pounding down the pavement towards her but he was a way away yet. The Slayer turned around and slugged her fist into another commando’s face making him fall to the ground. Two more tranquilizers hit her and the Slayer went down. She fell forward into the arms of one commando who quickly lifted her over his shoulder and then ran back around the van. He jumped in the back followed by the seven others, two of them carrying their comrade who she had punched. Buffy was slammed down onto the floor of the van and then she fell into unconsciousness.

Spike reached the van just as they pulled the back doors shut and locked them. The vampire had morphed faces in his hurry and careened into the back of the van just as they had shut the doors. He growled and pounded his fists against the metal denting it. The van peeled away from the sidewalk and he jumped onto the back of it crawling up onto the roof and holding on tight. Spike punched his fist through the roof of the van and hissed. The driver jerked the wheel from side to side trying to shake him off but he held on tight.

Spike crawled down onto the front of the moving van to see the driver who was also geared up in army clothes but through his eyeholes he could see red eyes with a pinprick of white for pupils. Spike punched his way through the front windshield and crawled in trying to throttle the driver. He didn’t account on the guy bringing out a gun and shooting him in the head.

Pain exploded through Spike’s brain as the driver took the opportunity to swerve again and the vampire was propelled off and he hit a signpost with his back. Spike fell to the ground unconscious.

Fred sat in her office looking through some paperwork and feeling supremely bored. Science was her passion but paperwork was not. She rested her head in her hands and massaged her fingers against her scalp.

The Slayer had shaken things up and she had only stayed for little over an hour. Now Angel was sulking in his apartment and wondering yet again if what he was doing was the right and Spike was off out with her making Angel’s mood even worse. Wesley for his part had been pleased to see Buffy and Fred guessed that he reminded her of at least some good memories. Gunn had been salivating pretty much since she had come and Lorne had been buzzing around excited as he had finally met the ‘lead female’ in the ‘saga of the two soulful vampires in love with the killer of their kind’ or so he had pitched it to her. She could tell he was dying to make it into a movie – a blockbuster he assured her.

Fred had always wondered what the famous Buffy Summers would look like, be like, think like and though she had not exactly picked her brain she had to admit that the girl had power. The way she had dispatched of Angel’s security team had been breathtaking she had sharp, hard, swift moves and they had been down within less than a minute. She had done this all without killing one of them although when she had taken three out with Angel’s desk Fred had feared that they may have sustained brain damage. It had turned out that none of them had been seriously injured just their pride. It seemed that Buffy Summers knew exactly how much to hurt them without actually hurting them. The Slayer was dangerous but she looked like a prom queen and that’s what, Fred guessed, made her so effective. You just didn’t see her coming and by the time you did it was too late.

Fred looked up as she heard a ruckus coming from the lab she stood and walked around her desk to look out of the window that looked down on the whole lab. Her eyes widened as she saw Spike in the middle of the floor clutching the side of his head with dark blood running down his face and dripping down onto the white floor. She turned and ran out of her office, down the stairs and toward him.

"Spike! Oh my god! What happened?" She pushed her way through the crowd of scientists and grabbed his arm.

He looked at her blankly and then fell into her. Fred staggered backward as she tried to support his weight in her arms. They both ended up on the floor on their knees and Spike’s head rested against her chest; she cradled his head feeling blood pouring over her hands and down her shirt.

"Get me the medics!" Fred yelled at her workers who immediately started rushing about "Someone get Angel and Wesley!"

She looked down at the top of Spike’s head, as he was dead weight against her. As far as she could tell there was a wound in Spike’s temple and it looked deep. She pressed her hand against it even though it really wouldn’t help because he was a vampire. Finally Wesley arrived and rushed over looking at Spike himself. He and two other guys carried Spike over to one of their gurneys in the corner.

Wesley looked at Spike’s wound "He seems to have been shot. Get me some pliers"

"What? Why?" Fred asked a little hysterically.

"I need to get the bullet out" He replied calmly.

Someone handed him the instrument and Wesley placed his hand on Spike’s head to steady it as he plunged the pliers deep into the wound. The vampire’s eyes opened and he thrashed around as Fred and three others tried to hold him down. Wesley pulled the pliers out and there was a small bloody bullet held in them. Spike screamed in pain and his face morphed to vampire as he shot his hand up and wrapped it around Wesley’s throat. Fred picked up a fire hydrant and cracked it against Spike’s arm as Wesley started to gag.

Spike’s arm dropped and someone rushed up with a syringe, which they plunged into Spike’s arm that two others held down. The vampire thrashed about and gnashed his teeth and then suddenly his eyes widened and then closed as he was sedated.

"Someone shot Spike?" Fred asked taking deep breaths.

"It would appear so," Wesley replied rubbing his throat "The question is who?"

She ran her hand down the vampire’s face "Is he going to be all right? Can he have brain damage?"

"Spike? I’d say yeah," Angel said darkly as he had appeared beside them arms folded.

Fred’s eyes widened "Angel! He got shot!"

"I can see that" Angel said

"Any ideas on who did it?" Wesley questioned quietly.

"Nope" Angel replied casually.

Fred looked at him "Angel, Spike is seriously hurt. Someone did this to him, don’t you care?"

"Honestly? Not really"

Wesley and Fred looked at the dark-haired vampire.

When Buffy woke up naked and manacled to the ceiling by long chains fixed around her wrists and inside a cage she was not best pleased. She blinked over and over again as her vision cleared because the drugs had pretty much worn off but she was still drowsy. They must have given her enough to sink two full sized elephants. She had no idea how long she had been out but it must have been quite long because she felt like crap.

She looked around hazily and seemed to be in some kind of dungeon – it was dark, dank and there was a heavy door with a barred window so Buffy was guessing it was a dungeon. The Slayer pulled on her chains weakly at first and then as she regained her strength she pulled on them harder and harder but they refused to budge and she was betting that they were made of titanium or whatever other metal was basically unbreakable without a blowtorch.

It was freezing and she didn’t know if that was because she was naked or because it was just really cold wherever she was being held. Her shoulders felt like they were being dislocated from the angle they were being held above her head by the chains and because she was so short her toes were only just touching the ground and it made it so that almost all her weight was on her wrists. Whoever the guys were who had taken her they knew their stuff.

Buffy remembered them now – black commandos with weaponry...mmh, where had she seen that before? But Angel wouldn’t have done this to her and she was one hundred percent sure of that. It could be that his guys were working on their own accord but she couldn’t be sure of that.

The Slayer flexed her arms again and tried again again on her chains but all she got from that was cut up wrists.

"Well, I can honestly say that I have woke up in a few strange places but this..." Buffy looked around, at the cold stone floor, stone walls "...this is one of the nicest"

She was feeling more that a little self-conscious hanging there naked but she tried to make light of it. God, if only Giles could see her now...or actually no, that was probably a bad, bad idea what with the nakedness. Still, she was sure he would be proud of the way she was handling things.

"You’ve been out for hours" Came a small female voice to the side and slightly behind her.

Buffy started and then turned her head at a painful angle and saw that off to the left and behind her was another giant cage and inside was a tall, lithe, brunette who was also naked and chained upright to the ceiling. Her long brown hair covered her chest but that was about it and from beneath the veil of hair were large scared brown eyes. She was a pretty girl but she was also bruised and battered and cold and scared – Buffy could sympathize. The Slayer noticed several cuts and puncture wounds all over her body.

"Who are you?" Buffy asked.

"My name is Katia" The girl said defiantly "And you are?" Her accent was slightly Russian.

"Buffy" She replied "Who’s keeping us here?"

The girl shrugged "Good question. I’ve been here for...too long. All I know is that every day they come and they...cut me, take my blood"

Buffy looked at her "They don’t drink it do they?"

"What? No! Why would they?" She cried, "They take it away in bottles...I don’t know what they do with it. I just know that is hurts and that a girl died two weeks ago because they took too much"

"Are we the only two here?"

"For now" Katia nodded.

"When do they come to collect the blood?" Buffy asked looking back at the door.

"Every day...early afternoon, I don’t know what time exactly. I don’t even know what month it is"

"February"

"So that’s why it’s so cold"

Buffy took a breath "The lack of clothes probably doesn’t help that"

"God, I’m never gonna get out of here, am I? I’m gonna die like that other girl...we both are" Katia bowed her head and took a few deep breaths "Oh God"

"We aren’t gonna die" Buffy said confidently.

"How do you know?"

The Slayer looked back at her with serious eyes "Because I won’t let us die. I’ve been through a hell of a lot worse than this and, frankly, I’m not even worried. Whatever they throw at us. We can get through this. I just saved the world and lived through it – I am not going out because of my universal donor status. No way"

Katia paused the nodded "Okay. You sound pretty sure. I believe you"

Buffy frowned then nodded slowly "Okay. Great" She turned back around to face the door and tilted her head "That was easier than I thought it would be"

Right then the heavy locks on the door were drawn back and the heavy wooden door was pushed open, two men entered and shut and locked the door behind them. Both were dressed in expensive looking suits tailored to fit them.

The first man was around thirty with black hair slicked against his head and ice cold blue eyes. His jaw and cheekbones with chiseled and he was clean-shaven, his eyebrows were perfectly plucked and his sideburns were short and clipped. The gray suit fit his body nicely showing off his muscled physique, his skin was tanned just right and his teeth were bright white. He was the poster boy for business chic.

The second man was around the age of fifty with silver-gray hair that was cut short and fine it didn’t cover any of his forehead and was shaven very neatly around the temples as ears – it looked like it had just been cut. His eyes were also blue by they were a darker blue and his skin tone was paler – his face angular and her had a small nose, with soft pale lips. His face was nearly devoid of wrinkles except for thin crow’s feet by his eyes and smile lines around his lips – he was a smiley person, go figure. His suit was black with a black shirt and white tie. The man held a black briefcase in his hand whereas the other man held nothing. Both were very handsome – and also evil.

Buffy looked between them and saw them both look her completely over the gray haired man grinned but the other did not, just registered her appearance and showed no facial expression.

"Hey," Buffy spoke conversationally "You know, it’s a little chilly in here. I don’t want to catch a cold"

The older man chuckled "We’ll bear it in mind, Miss Summers"

So they knew her name – the plot thickens.

"Great. So how about you also bear in mind letting me go before I smash your face in," Buffy said also in a conversational tone.

He took a few steps back and put his hands up laughing "Woah, now that was scary. I really don’t think you’re in any position to make threats"

"Promises" Buffy corrected "So, I heard you want our blood. Wanna share why?"

"No" The dark haired man spoke finally in a deep rolling base of a voice.

She flicked her eyes over to him and looked him over.

"Oh, I think we can tell Buffy," The other man grinned "She’s a pro. Well, as you’re aware you changed things drastically in the world of the Slayers, Buffy. Vampires still exist and still want to kill you and drink your blood. They may not be able to kill you but now they can drink your blood"

Buffy looked into the old man’s eyes and she understood. She understood and it disgusted her. Katia and the girl that had died before her had been Slayers and neither had probably known it. They were taking their blood and selling it to vampires on the black market. Slayer blood was the champagne, the vintage wine of the vampire scene. Now they could but it in a bottle. That was a cheery thought.

"For a price" Buffy showed all her disgust on her face.

He nodded "Of course. We’re not gonna risk our lives for nothing, are we?"

"Vampires!" Katia cried, "Are you all crazy?"

The older man ignored her and looked straight at Buffy "Of course you are the Slayer, Buffy. So we can charge more for your blood. Its power is pure. Every other Slayer’s blood is slightly diluted of that power. We’re very excited"

"I can see that" She looked down pointedly at his crotch.

He looked down then back up at her and laughed "Hey, I’m just a normal red-blooded man"

"No, you’re really not" Buffy spoke low and dangerous "’Cos normal guys do not take girls hostage and drain them of blood. It’s really considered kind of rude"

The two men looked at each other and then the older man with the briefcase put it down on the floor and then opened it up right about that time Katia began to whimper and Buffy knew it was time for pain. He pulled out two syringes one filled with something and one empty and then handed it to the younger, quieter man.

"So, how’d you find out I was in town?" Buffy asked keeping her eyes on those needles.

"We’re all one big happy family in L.A" The gray haired man stood and dusted his hands "Word gets around. You’re known throughout the world Buffy, you can’t go anywhere or do anything without people like us knowing"

The Slayer rolled her eyes "Melodramatic. In other words someone from Wolfram and Hart tipped you off. I’m thinking you are one of their many valued customers who deals in the demon black market"

"I couldn’t possibly say" He smiled and clutched his hands in front of himself.

Buffy watched as the younger man walked up to her cage and unlocked it with a set of keys he had clipped to his waistband. He walked in and then locked the door behind himself, turning around to face her his eyes held no emotion. The man brandished the empty syringe first.

"You two got names?" Buffy tried to move away but her feet didn’t reach the ground properly.

"You can call me Mr. Gray" The older man smiled "And he is Mr. Black"

"Original" She snorted.

Mr. Black was moving toward her and she didn’t want him anywhere near her. She grabbed her chains with her hands and jumped off the floor then swung towards him to smack her feet into his chest. Or at least that was her intention but he moved so fast she didn’t have a chance.

"Oh, of course; vampire" Buffy groaned.

Mr. Black the vampire was behind her and before she knew what had happened he had wrapped one arm around her legs and was crouching down on the floor so she was unable to move. Buffy really didn’t like the idea of him being behind her that close to...naked private things. But it seemed sex was not on his mind just blood. Mr. Black stuck the needle into the back of her upper thigh and she winced trying unsuccessfully to shake him off. He was a powerful vampire and she wasn’t at full strength. A few moments later he withdrew the needle and then stuck the second one into her leg and she felt liquid enter her body. Crap was all she could think as her vision began to blur again.

Buffy was conscious for long enough to see Mr. Black withdraw from her cage with one empty syringe and one full of her blood. Then she saw nothing more.

Spike’s eyes burst open "Buffy!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

The vampire tried to sit up but found he was strapped down to a gurney by leather bindings he yelled and thrashed as he looked up at the white ceiling and pain throbbed in his head. Fred’s face suddenly hovered over him and she was saying something to him over and over again and it took him a few minutes to hear it clearly enough to realize it was his name. He moved his head rapidly to both sides and saw the whole of Team Angel stood around him in one of their medical rooms.

"Let me bloody go!" He cried, "Get these things off me!"

Spike struggled and morphed back and forwards between vampire and human face. Fred placed a pack of ice on his head and it was such a shock to the system he shivered at the feeling of it but it felt good, nice. He calmed a little and lay still and then he remembered Buffy and went crazy again.

"Spike, you’ve been shot in the head" Wesley was saying, "You need to calm down. We haven’t been able to establish if –"

"Buffy!" Spike said frantically his eyes bulging "You don’t understand! They took her! They took her!"

Angel strode across the length of the floor and grabbed the front of Spike’s T-shirt pulled him right up into his face and looked at him with eyes full of fire and promises of pain.

"Who took Buffy?" He growled.

"I don’t know! There were these guys in...in a van and...they were..." Spike’s brain was all muddled.

The other vampire shook him "They were what? What did they look like? What?"

"Angel!" Wesley looked at him sternly "Spike was shot in the head there’s no telling what sort of damage that has done to his memory or –"

"Where is she?" Angel hissed spitting into Spike’s face as he spoke.

"I don’t...I can’t..." Spike yet out a long, terrible scream as pain tore through his head and down his back.

Angel let go as Spike fell back against the gurney and began to thrash around. His eyes rolled back in his head and his screams ceased until all he did was go rigid and not make a sound. Fred looked wide-eyed at Wesley and the two of them tried to understand what was happening.

"Spike? Spike!" Fred called taking the vampire’s face in her hands.

Angel turned on his heel and started to the door pulling his jacket on as he went.

"Yo, Angel!" Gunn called after him "Where you going?"

"Someone’s got Buffy. I’m gonna find out who" He didn’t look back.

Gunn followed him "I’m comin’ with"

Fred turned to Wesley "Shall I get the supernatural medic in here?
"I think it would be wise" He nodded.

Angel waked to the elevator and stepped in and Gunn came a second later. He pressed the button for the basement floor and then stood in the elevator and balled his fists. Gunn stood next to him and looked at him sideways not sure if speaking to him right now was a good idea so he didn’t bother.

When they reached the basement they found Eve there in the records room she was chatting to the guy on the desk and being flirtatious as usual. Angel stormed up to her and just looked at her menacingly with Gunn at his back.

"Can I help you, boss?" Eve grinned but quirked an eyebrow as if she were being sincere.

"Where is Buffy?" Angel folded his arms.

She mock-frowned "Who?"

"Buffy"

"Buffy...Buffy...the Slayer? Well, I guess she’s in Europe" Eve tilted her head "Right?"

Angel shook his head "Cut the crap, Eve. You know she’s been here and I know you’ve had a surveillance team on her without my permission"

"And how would you know that?"

"Because that’s the kind of scum you are," He said coldly.

Gunn stepped forward "You better tell him. Shame to get that pretty face messed up"

"That a threat?" Eve looked at him, amused.

He shook his head "I’m a lawyer, I don’t make threats. I just advise"

"Well, I’m sorry, guys but you’re wrong" She looked back at Angel "I wasn’t even aware Miss. Summers had come to L.A"

"You are lying" Angel hissed "You expect me to think that you wouldn’t notice a visit from a Slayer. There are mystical barriers all over this place and you didn’t pick up on her?"

Eve shrugged "Maybe she’s just not as powerful as you think she is"

It was then that Angel snapped and grabbed Eve by the neck shoving her down on the desk and pinning her there. Papers went flying everywhere and the man behind the desk jumped up and scurried out after excusing himself. Even as Angel’s hand tightened around her throat the brunette smiled up at him although she was trying to inhale desperately.

Gunn put a hand on his shoulder "Ease up man. You don’t want to kill her"

"Don’t I?" Angel answered but didn’t stop looking into the woman’s eyes.

"No because she’s human. More or less"

Angel let go of Eve’s neck but continued to look down at her and she stayed down on the desk and looked up at him taking deep breaths, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

"Where is she, Eve?" Angel asked.

She sighed "Well, you’re wrong actually we don’t have a team watching her but..."

"But what?" His tone demanded an answer.

"But, we did have one on Spike. And, well, he was out with a blond beauty this evening, if I’m not mistaken" Eve looked at Angel and their was delight in her eyes, delight in hurting him.

Angel felt his jaw clench "Where is the tape?"

Ten minutes later Angel sat in his office with Fred, Gunn, Wesley and Lorne all sitting around on the couch’s as he stood. The tape started and it showed Spike wandering around this morning, Angel fast-forwarded it past Spike’s hug with Buffy in Fred’s office and he felt his fist clench. He fast-forwarded it all the way until they saw Spike standing around outside of Wolfram and Hart at nighttime. They saw Buffy arrive and Gunn let out a whistle at her outfit. Angel shot him a look and the man shut up.

The group saw Spike and Buffy going into and coming out of various clubs but he fast-forwarded that until he saw them walking up a dark street. At first they were just talking but then they started arguing about it – they couldn’t hear any sound but it looked pretty heated. Spike turned and stormed away and then Buffy started after him. That was when the large van tore around the corner and they watched Buffy fight and get drugged and pulled into the back of the van. They saw Spike jumping on the van and then getting shot and falling off. Angel rewound it and saw there were no license plates on the van and he wasn’t surprised.

Still he sent Wesley off to check on the database for vans of that make in garages to see if they had tried to get the front window repaired. It was a long shot but all they really had.

Angel turned to Fred, Gunn and Lorne "Any ideas?"

"Trained commandos?" Lorne looked at Angel "Can’t think were you could find some of those"

"It does kind of look like..." Fred trailed off.

"Wolfram and Hart" Angel spoke darkly.

Spike looked up at the white ceiling and groaned he had woken five minutes ago being prodded and poked by a demon medic – it hadn’t been pleasant and now there was no one in his room but him. The vampire strained against his bindings. The pain in his head was gone and he figured that was down to the medic and Wesley, he owed them a thanks.

Right now though his mind was on Buffy and just thinking about her made him strain even more and he sat up pushing with all his strength against the straps that held him across the chest, the waist and the legs, his arms were pinned to his sides. Using all his strength meant he vamped out but he got the job done and the binding around his chest tore so that he could sit completely upright. Then it was just a matter of pulling his hands free and unbuckling the other two bindings.

Spike jumped up off the gurney and landed on the floor he put his hand to his head and it didn’t come back with blood. He picked up a shiny metal bedpan and looked at himself in it. There was no wound on his head anymore and he felt good. Ready to get the Slayer back. Somehow.

He grabbed up his duster and shirt that had been removed somewhere down the line and draped over a chair. He pulled the items of clothing on quickly and then left the room.

Spike made his way through Fred’s lab and he got a few stares from her science people. He just ignored them and strolled quickly to the elevator. The vampire didn’t doubt that Angel was already looking for Buffy but he would go about it using his connections with Wolfram and Hart. Having seen the eyes of the driver Spike was pretty sure that it was a demon and that his demon contacts may be able to help. He took the elevator down to below ground level and walked into Angel’s car lot. All the shiny, new, expensive cars were there meaning that Angel had not left the building as he had suspected. Spike climbed into the silver Viper and hot-wired it. He turned and sped out of the car lot and up into the streets of Los Angeles.

Angel could do things his way.

Spike was gonna find Buffy his own way. As he turned sharply around a corner he thought about tonight the way he had just stormed off like a stupid git and left the Slayer to get outnumbered and attacked. If he had run faster, if he had never rowed with her, if he had never tried to take her out...there were a lot of ifs and he couldn’t change any of them.

The vampire turned the radio on and cranked it onto a heavy rock station because he couldn’t listen to his own moronic thoughts anymore. None of this would help Buffy. He needed to concentrate of the job at hand. He put his foot down harder on the accelerator and turned a corner so sharply he skidded swiftly.

Spike pulled into a side road outside a small house that was pretty much rundown and looked like no one inhabited it. He knew better. He jumped out of the Viper and strolled down the path, knocked frantically at the door over and over until the little window slid open in the center of the door. A small, dark green-eyed face with blue skin peeked out.

"Spike" The little demon hissed "Nice to see you again, how can I –"

"Demon with red eyes that have small white pupils – what are they, where can I find ’em and how do I kill ’em?" Spike interrupted and then gritted his teeth.

The demon looked at him with those green eyes "I know not of any demons who –"

"Don’t lie to me!" He pounded his fist on the door.

"There is no such demon!" The small window in the door was slid shut again.

Spike kicked and punched at the door and then he leaned his forehead against it and closed his eyes taking deep, useless breaths. He slammed his fists against the door one more time and then turned abruptly and walked back up the path. He climbed back into the Viper and peeled away from the curb putting pedal to the metal and tearing up the roads. He wasn’t about to give up on her. Buffy was tough. Buffy wouldn’t get hurt. Buffy was his.

When Buffy had awoken ten minutes earlier to find she was still naked, tied to the ceiling with her feet barely touching the floor in a cage she let out a groan of annoyance. She was half wishing it had all been a terrible dream and that she would be back in England snuggled in her bed in Giles’ house. Alas, that was not so and she had a killer pain in her thigh that reminded her of the whole blood letting thing. Except that she didn’t exactly let them take her blood.

Katia was still knocked out and Buffy saw a fresh wound on the girl’s neck. She had turned away and tried not to think about some vampires drinking a bottle of House Buffy. Instead she spent her time getting some swinging momentum going on her chain and then wrapping her feet around a bar on her cage, she yanked as hard as she could but the cage just rattled and did not give. So then she tried swinging again and then kicking the bars; this made it rattle even more but not enough. The vibrations reverberated up her legs and it shook her bones painfully. She wasn’t about to give up just yet – that wasn’t what being the Slayer was about. Buffy started swinging a little again and then built up the momentum again putting her legs up in the air and putting all of her weight on her wrists and hands clutching the chains. She looked like she was on some invisible swing and, god, did she wish that she was so that the manacles wouldn’t be cutting into her wrists so much and making blood run in a tickling line down her arms. This time she slammed into the bars with all of her strength going into it and the cage door dislodge on its hinges a little. Buffy let out a cry of triumph but she was exhausted and needed to rest so she stopped swinging and gather her strength again.

What she needed to do now was figure out a way to snap the chains or break the hooks that were fixed into the ceiling to keep her upright. She knew that the chains were unbreakable so that was pretty much a no go but if she could pull the fixtures out of the ceiling then she would at least be free enough to knock the cage door off it’s hinges. The chains would be heavy to drag along but she would manage just fine, anything was better then where she was now.

Buffy was pretty sure that Angel and Co would be looking for her by now but she couldn’t be sure. There was no telling if they had even found out she was gone. Or cared. Spike. Spike had been running to help her – had he been hurt? Was he okay? She suddenly and irrationally started to pull on the chains as if her sheer desperation to see if he was okay was enough to break the bindings. She let out a grunt of frustration and then went limp in the chains, bowed her head, felt her blood running all the way down her arms from her cuts. This was useless.

The Slayer had no idea how long she had been sedated this time and for all she knew it had been days. She was alone now, Katia was still out and all she had was her own panic and stupid escape plans to think about. She ran through countless scenarios on how she would get out of here but none of them were even remotely plausible. One of them even involved the US Airforce crashing in through the ceiling and hovering over in a plane – soldiers would climb down, set her free and then whisk her up into the plane.

Buffy knew that if she stayed here for as long as Katia had been here she would be well and truly crazy.

The door to the room opened again after sounds of several locks being pulled back and Mr. Black stepped into the room this time unaccompanied. He now carried the black case and set it down on the floor. Buffy had closed her eyes and was pretending to still be out cold.

"I know you are awake. You made a lot of noise," Mr. Black said as he opened the case.

She opened her eyes "What’s your deal, Black? I get that you might want a taste of me and the others but why sell it to other vamps?"

He stood with two new needles like last time one empty and one full "It’s best if you don’t fight it. I know it’s in your nature but it’ll hurt less if you just do not struggle"

Buffy watched him "Thanks for the advice but I think I’ll just struggle anyway"

"Your choice" Mr. Black shrugged indifferently.

He pulled the door of the cage open and Buffy prayed he would not notice it was a little loose on his hinges but he didn’t and she let out a breath of relief. He stepped inside and she kept her eyes on him as intently as he kept his eyes on hers.

"You’re a vampire" She stated looking at him "Don’t you ever feel just a little tempted to kill the girls you bring in here? It’s in your nature"

Mr. Black wasn’t exactly a talker unlike his colleague Mr. Gray and he ignored he like a pro, which she found mildly annoying. Talk was the only weapon she had with her in this little slice of hell and he was taking that away as well.

"How long do the girls last? Prolonged blood loss without a lot of time to recover" Buffy tried to back away unsuccessfully "Must take a lot of effort to track down Slayers and catch ’em"

Again he was ignoring her and she had to lash out her legs at him just because she wouldn’t let him just walk up to her and take her blood. Mr. Black tried to grab her leg but she was fast and the drugs had almost completely worn off. She caught him in the side of his head with one foot and he fell into the bars of the cage, stunned. He fell to the floor and hit his head against a bar dropping the needle full of tranquilizer. Buffy swung backwards and lashed out at him but Mr. Black rolled underneath her legs and jumped up behind her. As she swung backward he grabbed her around the waist tight so that she felt a couple of her ribs break.

Buffy winced but wouldn’t show any pain "Vampires. Always with the grabbing"

Mr. Black continued to ignore her and stuck the needle into her neck. Buffy hissed and he withdrew her blood then let go of her and rolled back underneath her legs picking up the tranquilizer needle as he jumped back to his feet in front of her. There was blood running down her neck but she still tried to take another swipe at him. He retaliated by sticking the needle into he ankle and plunging the liquid into her.

Buffy fell back down and looked at him "You have got to be kidding me. Again?"

"It’s nothing personal, Slayer" Mr. Black opened her cage door and stepped out locking it.

"Like hell it isn’t" She sighed and tried to get rid of the feeling of having the vampire pressed up against her and breaking her ribs.

If breaking her ribs and stealing her blood was his idea of nothing personal she hated to think what he would be like with someone who had actually done something to him. She looked into those ice blue eyes as her eyelids started to get heavier and heavier. If they kept drugging her up like this she was in big trouble – she would have more tranquilizers in her blood stream then actual blood.

"I hope you know that when I get out of here I’m gonna kill you" Buffy managed to get out.

"I know" Mr. Black said quietly.

She closed her eyes.

Angel looked at Harmony with a stern and unyielding expression on his face as she tapped on the keyboard of her computer. The blond vampire kept glancing up nervously at her boss and his expression didn’t change. She finally accessed the right files and looked up sighing in relief.

"Wolfram and Hart did not send any S.W.A.T teams out themselves, boss" Harmony informed.

He grunted "And what about loaning? Do they loan security to anybody?"

She looked back down on her computer for a few moments "Woah. Yeah. A lot of people"

"Give me a list of people, companies that had any of our security teams last night" Angel demanded.

Harmony nodded and gave him a beaming smile before clicking a few times on the computer and then printing out a piece of paper from the printer which he grabbed up and then turned on his heel and left.

Gunn looked at Harmony "Run a check on Spike. He took Angel’s Viper and hasn’t been back – it’s daylight he could be in trouble"

"Not that Angel would care," Harmony said then quickly added "Or me" Before doing, reluctantly, as he asked.

Angel took the elevator down to his car lot and walked over to the space where his Viper had once been, he growled at the thought of Spike stealing it again. He took the next car and swung out of the car lot fast. He was glad for the black tinted windows in the car that allowed him to drive around in sunlight and also, by default, allowed Spike to do so when he stole one of Angel’s cars.

He looked down at the list and was a little surprised and relieved to see that there was only three names on the list. He looked at the address of the first one.

At the same time Spike was sitting in a side road in the Viper smoking and rubbing his head where he had once had a gunshot wound. This was getting him nowhere. No one he spoke to seemed to have heard of any demon’s with red and white eyes – it was unheard of. He found that a little hard to believe considering the number of species of demons out there. Maybe the guy had been a one of a kind.

Still every time Spike replayed seeing those eyes in his mind he found them familiar as if he had seen them somewhere before and it had been recently. He slapped his head and cursed himself because if only he wasn’t so thick he would know where he had seen those eyes before. Having a bullet lodged in his brain probably wasn’t helping his memory either, the demon medic had assured him it would not be permanently damaging and that everything should be normal in a few hours. That had been almost twelve hours ago. It was mid-afternoon but the sunlight was still bright and he hadn’t found a damn trace of his Slayer.

Spike turned on the car and pulled into the road driving around slowly and hoping it would come to him where he had seen those eyes before. Where? Where?

"Think, you idiot, think" He cursed to himself taking a hit from his cigarette and rounding a corner.

Buffy’s life may depend on it.

Angel rushed to his car and jumped in shutting the door behind him and hissing as billows of smoke rose from him. He scowled and started the car up again. The first address had been a bust. They were obviously nothing to do with a plot to take Buffy.

Angel pulled his cell phone out and called Wesley to see if there had been any developments on the van. He assured him he was narrowing the search down but it could be a while. Angel hung up in anger and then pulled away from the car back up the road. He looked down at the second address. Time to move on.

Spike thought back on the night before with Buffy. It had started so well, she had looked amazing as usual and it reminded him of all he had been missing out on. She was right he didn’t belong in Los Angeles, not if she wasn’t there. He remembered the first club dancing with the Slayer was something he had not seen coming. It had felt so right to hold her in his arms and he had felt what he always felt when Buffy was close by – exhilaration, full of adrenaline and a little scared. Him dying had definitely not dampened his feeling for her. He was as much in love with her as he had been since he had first thought of her in that way, more so actually. Without a soul he had still been capable of loving her but with one he had been capable of loving her in a way that he had not been able to before. With a soul he understood her, the human side of her a lot better than he had done before.

Then he chuckled to himself as he remembered them going to the second club where two stupid gits had tried it on with her and she had kicked them both in the balls. Spike had laughed even more when two members of staff came to ask Buffy if she was all right. Spike laughed now at the memory and then stopped abruptly.

The two male members of staff had been wearing red contact lenses with white pinpricks!

They weren’t demons they were just wearing contact lenses. He remembered now that the club had been a theme club and that they wore the contact lenses to look scary. It had been called Blood Red and Buffy had rolled her eyes as he had taken her there. It was a mock-horror club and they had been involved in taking Buffy. It all made sense now. Clients of Wolfram and Hart must have owned the club and when the Slayer had turned up there they decided they wanted her for some reason. So they had used a Wolfram and Hart security team plus a member of staff to drive to kidnap Buffy as she came out of the club. What Spike found strange was why a nightclub needed a Slayer. However if they were clients of Wolfram and Hart then the owners weren’t probably human or good.

Spike took a moment to remember where the club was and then did an abrupt one eighty and sped down the road in the opposite direction finally he was getting somewhere.

As Angel pulled up to the curb of the club Blood Red his eyes widened as he saw Spike pull up at the exact same time next to him in his Viper. The other vampire didn’t seem to notice him as he jumped out of the car in the searing sunlight and pulled his duster over his head running toward the entrance of the club. Angel growled and jumped out too pulling his own jacket over his head. He ran into Spike and knocked them both into the darkened alley next to the club where they were shielded from directed sunlight.

Spike was knocked to the floor and he whipped his head up to face him bearing fangs and hissing. He flipped himself up on to his feet and punched Angel. Angel staggered backward but caught Spike’s fist as he tried to hit him again. He lifted his foot up and kicked Spike in the abdomen making him stumbled backward into the brick wall hard. The blond started to come at him again after a second.

Angel put his hands up "Spike! We’re both here for the same thing – to help Buffy. As much as I don’t want to admit this, we’re stronger allied in this"

Spike stopped and morphed faces back to human "Screw that. She’s in there and I’m goin’ in!" He tried to storm past him but Angel shoved him back.

"Don’t you understand? That club has heavy security and they aren’t just gonna let us walk in there and take her, we have no idea what is inside those doors"

"A bloody night club you ninny!" Spike growled "And the reason they have so much sodding security is because your law firm gave it to them. Just take the security team back and then I’ll do the rest"

"Really not gonna happen, Spike" Angel narrowed his eyes "The easiest way to get in there insuring ours and Buffy’s safety is to go in as an inside job. Kicking and punching will only get us so far before we get a pointy wooden thing shoved through our hearts"

The other vampire threw his hands up "Maybe you would but I am not afraid of a few idiots in army gear. You want to wait around here and let them do god knows what to Buffy, fine but I wont be a part of it" Again he tried to get past him.

When Angel tried to stop him again Spike lay into him; he landed two swift hard punches to the vampires gut and then spun around with a roundhouse kick that knocked the dark-haired vampire to his knees. Once there Spike aimed a kick at his face but Angel deflected the blow and grabbed Spike’s foot, pushed him backward on it and Spike ended up falling hard on his back. Angel leapt up and onto Spike punching him hard around the face. He stopped and grabbed him around the neck looking down into his vampire face with his own.

"Listen to me you stupid idiot, if we rush in there we are gonna get Buffy killed!" Angel hissed "We need a strategy. We need plans of the layout of the building. We need a plan"

"You need some balls!" Spike spat.

Angel grabbed his head and slammed it down against the pavement knocking him out sharply and painfully. He grunted and climbed off of Spike then grabbed him up and threw him over his shoulder. He carried the prone vampire to the Viper, which he liked better, and threw him in the back seat as the sun sizzled him. Angel shut the door and then jumped into the driver side shutting it behind him and hissing at the small burns he had gotten.

Angel looked at Blood Red and thought about Buffy inside being held against her will, which wasn’t an easy thing to do to any Slayer but especially her. For a moment he wanted to take the same approach as Spike and storm in her but he couldn’t risk her like that. He would be no use to her as a pile of dust either so strategy was key. Still, a small animalistic, primal part of him wanted to rip those doors off their hinges and tear the place down whilst rescuing the girl. Not that Buffy ever needed rescuing.

Spike still lay knocked out cold in the back seat and Angel hesitated only a moment more before starting up the engine and reversing out of the place, he turned and drove back to base-camp. It was one of the hardest decisions he had ever made. Still, he was pretty sure Buffy would understand his reasoning...then again they had not seen eye to eye on most things lately. Angel tried not to think about it to hard because if he did he knew he would turn back there and end up doing something supremely stupid like trying to break in there and getting killed.

Buffy would get through this; she was the strongest person he knew both physically and emotionally. She may even break out herself not needing their help at all it wasn’t like she hadn’t surprised him like that before. She was constantly surprising him and that was part of what he loved about her. Even with her mad at him for accepting the Wolfram and Hart deal she was still beautiful and she was still perfect and she was still his, as far as he was concerned. So, she had gone out with Spike, so what? She had just found out he was back from the dead and he did help her save the world so, Angel kind of understood it...even if it was Spike and he couldn’t really comprehend the thing between William the Bloody and his Slayer. That’s what she was; his.

So, yeah he was ninety-five percent sure Buffy would deal.

If he knew her as well as he knew he did then Buffy was in there right now about to come up with some master plan to kick ass and get the hell out of that place.