Chapter Summary: Giles and Willow return to his house after the ritual to find out that they aren't the first to arrive. Buffy and Joyce pick up some blood for Spike on the way to Giles' place for the meeting. The Scoobies try to get through their meeting to talk about Angelus as well as Buffy and Spike's relationship. Angelus wakes up to realize that his "Childe" isn't quite as dusty as he wanted him to be, and he is lacking a certain power that he feels should be his.

"Please tell me that is not a place you usually go into." The car doors closed behind Buffy and Joyce Summers.

"From time to time I beat up Willy for information. He's fairly harmless." Buffy shrugged. "He's always involved in something. Plus he always hears the good gossip from both worlds."

"It was so dark and smelly in there." Joyce blocked out her curious mind's desire to figure out what was on the floor. "Are all demon bars like that one?"

"No way. Willy is just a weasely little guy. His place is one of the seedier ones in town." Buffy shifted the large grocery bag full of blood packets and containers around in her lap. "Spike told me about these places that demons mingle around with the rest of us humans, unknown."

"You keep talking about this Spike fellow. I can tell you are quite taken with him, but this is the first day I've heard his name from you." Joyce tried to be subtle in her approach to pry information about Buffy's new boyfriend from Buffy. She had several preconceptions of what a man named Spike was like, but she wanted to give her daughter the benefit of the doubt.

"I was keeping him a secret from everyone." Buffy nibbled on her lower lip. "Giles only found out yesterday because I slipped up."

"From what I read, the Council doesn't allow their Slayers to have boyfriends, friends or even family around. Is that why Mr. Giles was mad? The boyfriend bit was too much to allow since you already have friends and live with your mother still?"

Xander hummed a quirky tune. The paper bag of various teenage favorite snacks was full to the brim. He knocked on the door to Giles' place. After a couple minutes without an answer, he wiggled the doorknob. He shrugged when the door opened with ease. 'He must be upstairs or something.' He walked through the main room to the breakfast nook counter.

While Xander unloaded the various munchies and sugary treats from his bag, a deep growling moan from behind him caught his attention. He slowly turned around and crept back across the room to the living room couch. The closer he got to the couch the more he could see of the creature lying on it.

The shock of seeing a full head of bleach blonde hair, had Xander squealing in fright. "Spike!" He jumped back from the couch and frantically searched the room for a stake.

"Bloody Hell, what is all that noise?" Spike's eyes opened, and he tried to sit up. He'd barely fallen asleep and now something was waking him up. 'The least the Watcher could do is keep the natives quiet for a little while,' He thought to himself.

"You … You …" Xander stuttered. He finally found a stake near the answering machine. He gripped the pointed piece of wood tightly and pounced on the couch. "What did you do with Giles?"

Spike wrestled against the adrenaline laden teenager. Although his legs weren't moving, his upper body strength more than made up for the lacking lower half. He could have easily snapped the boy's neck in two, but he worried that Buffy might not understand that he was just trying to defend himself. Instead, he blocked several downward thrusts of the stake from piercing his chest. "I didn't do anything with him you wanker. Get off me."

"Not likely, Spike." Xander continued to thrust the stake into any part of Spike's flesh that he could reach. He didn't even realize that the vampire hadn't tried to stand up. His adrenaline and fear kept him reacting to what he saw as a threat to his friends and himself.

"ARGH!" Spike screamed. He'd failed to block one of Xander's thrusts, and the stake embedded itself below his shoulder between his heart and his collarbone.

Giles and Willow were getting out of Giles' parked car when the scream of agony echoed through the courtyard. Giles dropped what he was carrying and ran for his front door.

Willow quickly followed behind Giles. She reached his door in time to see Giles wrenching Xander off of Spike's writhing body. She stood frozen in the doorway, unable to move to assist in hurting the vampire or rescuing Xander.

Xander struggled against the man holding him, not knowing that it was Giles trying to rescue Spike and not another vampire. "You can kill me, but I'll enjoy watching Buffy hunt you down from my viewpoint in heaven."

"Xander, stop it!" Giles barked out the command angrily. "No one is trying to kill you."

"Giles?" Xander's struggling ceased for a moment. Then, it began anew, "Oh my God, he turned you. HELP!" He screamed.

Giles pulled his arm back and fisted a solid punch to the back of Xander's head to knock him out. The teenager was stronger than he looked, and it was the only way that Giles could think of to keep Xander calm for the moment. He carried the unconscious boy to one of the recliner chairs and flopped him into it.

"Um, Giles …" Willow pointed at the game faced Spike on Giles' couch. "That's Spike."

"I know it's Spike." Giles hurried over to Spike. He reached down for the stake, but he jumped back in fear at the face of a snarling and enraged vampire. "Spike, it's Rupert Giles. I can't take care of the stake if you don't let me near."

Spike panted with unnecessary breaths that weren't helping to ease the pain of his injuries this time. His tolerance levels had been tested to the limits between the organ pipes falling on him, the fire, and now being staked so close to his heart. His demon was in an uproar, and Spike was having a hard time focusing on anything other than the pain. His mind and demon called out in desperation for the only one who could help to ease his pain. He needed her. He needed his Slayer. "SLAYER!"

Buffy screamed out in pain. She startled her mother so much that they almost ran off the road into a tree. "Oh God. Oh God." She wrapped her arms around her chest. The heel of one palm pressed close to her shoulder near her collarbone as if trying to ease the pain of a wound she didn't have. "Spike!"

Joyce took in the ashen white features on her daughter's face, and she stepped harder on the gas. Something was terribly wrong, and she had no idea what to do about it.

Giles paced back and forth in front of the couch. Every time he tried to get closer to Spike, the vampire only growled louder. "I can't help you like this, Spike."

"Why are we helping him at all?" Willow asked meekly. She was getting more confused by the moment. Giles hadn't made any attempt to check on Xander's well being. All he seemed to care about was Spike's injury.

"It was to be part of the meeting, if I can ever get the stake out of him before he shifts too far and dusts himself," Giles said angrily. Xander was Buffy's friend, but Giles was afraid that the Slayer would be the one to rush through that door and not Buffy. He would have shot Spike with one of his tranquilizer darts if he wasn't worried about the effect it would have on the already wounded vampire.

Tires screeched along the pavement outside Giles' window. Car doors opened and slammed. A woman was calling out Buffy's name, but it was obvious that Buffy wasn't listening to anything.

Giles moved away from the couch, and he pulled Willow as far away from the couch as possible as well. He knew who was coming through the door next, and he didn't want Willow to get caught in the crossfire.

The door to Giles' house slammed open. The walls shook, and the door fell off the lower hinges to hang onto the wall only by the top ones.

Willow stared at her friend slack jawed. Buffy's eyes were silver laced with green and they glowed. The smaller fangs that showed when Buffy turned her head to snarl at Willow and Giles made Willow, "eep!" Willow clutched Giles' arm tightly. If Buffy hadn't just run in from the sun, Willow would swear that she was a vampire.

The anger coming off the Slayer was palpable. He felt it hit him in waves even across the room. He raised his hands up in a surrender motion. "He wouldn't let me near enough to remove it." He pointed at Spike's writhing body on the couch. He wasn't sure if the Slayer even understood human speech in her condition.

Buffy leapt across the room in one fluid motion. She straddled the vampire's waist and leaned down to sniff at the stake wound.

The vampire snarled up at the Slayer. Then his snarls turned into whimpers of pain, like a wounded child telling its mother about a boo boo.

The Slayer growled out several sentences and cooed next to the vampire's ear. She rubbed her cheek against the side of the vampire's face in an attempt to soothe his fears.

The vampire answered the Slayer's growled inquiry. He turned his head towards Xander's slumped form on the recliner. When the Slayer moved to stand up and take care of the threat, the vampire gripped the Slayer's arms.

The Slayer was upset at being kept from exacting the justice she felt was due. The movement by the vampire to keep her in place aggravated his wound further. His pain filled cry brought the Slayer's attention back to her vampire's wounds instead.

Giles watched the pair interact. He was amazed that Spike stopped Buffy from harming Xander. He saw that the Slayer was in full control over the shared body she had with Buffy. They needed to do some research to find out how to reach Buffy when the Slayer was this aggressive. Although he understood the Slayer's need for revenge, he knew that it would be Buffy's human side that could temper the Slayer's more aggressive nature.

Joyce finally made it inside the door of Giles' home. Buffy had jumped out of the car before Joyce had it in park, and Joyce was very rattled. It took her a while to get the car fully parked and get out. She screamed at the image of her daughter straddling what she knew was a vampire, and her daughter was sporting her own set of fangs.

"It's all right, Mrs. Summers. He won't hurt her." Giles scooted along the wall as far from Buffy and Spike as he could. Willow stood frozen in her spot. Giles reached out his hand for Joyce to accept. "Please, come away from the door."

Joyce blinked. At the moment Buffy had her face buried against the vampire's shoulder sniffing a piece of wood that was sticking out of the vampire's body.

The vampire howled, an eerie and blood curdling sound, as the Slayer ripped the stake from his chest. Only the Slayer's strength, and body pinning the vampire down, kept the vampire from bucking the Slayer off him.

The Slayer buried her face into the wound and licked around the jagged edges of it. The stake disintegrated under the pressure of Slayer's crushing fist. She tossed the bits of splinters and dust behind the couch.

"Oh my God! Buffy …" Joyce tried to move towards the couch, but Giles stopped her. He shook his head back and forth. "Don't get in her way right now. She's more Slayer now than human. She might not recognize you."

The Slayer pulled the hair off the left side of her neck. She growled out a command to the vampire and continued to lathe her tongue over his wound to help with his healing much like vampire saliva would help heal a wound.

The vampire buried his face into the Slayer's neck and pierced her throat with his fangs. He gurgled and cooed as the pleasure of the Slayer's blood helped to over ride the pain of his body. Before the Slayer told him to stop, the vampire removed his fangs and licked the twin puncture marks to seal them. His head fell back against the cushion of the arm of the couch.

The Slayer kissed the vampire's closed lips with a tenderness that belayed the ferocity of her earlier actions. Then, she sat up and watched as the power of her blood and saliva healed and sealed the wound. Content in the knowledge that her vampire was healing, she started to relax. Her fangs slowly receded until no one would be able to tell they ever existed.

The vampire's face returned to his human mask, and he panted. The Slayer blood he'd received was zinging through him. His various wounds and injuries tingled and itched as the dose of blood helped to further the healing process. Spike's eyes locked with the now green orbs of Buffy's eyes, and he smiled.

Fully calmed down, and more in control of herself, Buffy sighed. Her muscles ached from being so tense, and her body hummed from the let down of adrenaline. She rested her hands on Spike's chest. Her pinky grazed over the now healed over skin, and she burst into tears. Buffy laid her body on top of Spike's and cried against his neck.

"Shhh … It's all right, Buffy." Spike spread his fingers through Buffy's blond locks. "Everything's good now, pet."

"I felt … and then I … Oh my God, what happened to me," Buffy babbled through her worry and questions.

"We'll suss it out love." Spike lifted his head slightly to look over Buffy's shoulder. "Guess we have a lot more to look into, don't we Rupes?"

"Why don't you sit down, Mrs. Summers?" Giles led Joyce over to another recliner in the living room. "I'll go make some tea. I think we are all going to need something soothing."

Buffy's head snapped up off Spike's shoulder. "He'd better not try anything like that again if he knows what's good for him." She knew everything that the Slayer knew, and she felt everything that she did too. She was furious at her friend for trying to harm Spike.

A part of Buffy's mind told her that Xander probably just reacted to Spike's presence, but she was very protective of Spike especially since he was already injured trying to save her from Angelus. "I was just so scared that I'd lose you." With tears in her eyes she slapped Spike on the uninjured shoulder. "You have almost died on me twice in the last 2 days. You have to stop it."

"I'll try to do better, pet." Spike teased. "Not like I had much choice the first time either. If the choice is my life or yours, I will choose to save yours every time. Don't expect me not to." He cupped her cheek lovingly.

"Buffy?" Joyce Summers tried to get her daughter's attention. She clutched her bag of books and the grocery bag of blood against her chest. "Do … Do you still need this?"

"Oh gosh yes!" Buffy hopped up off Spike. She took the bag from her mom and lifted out several packets of blood. She handed them to Spike one at a time. They weren't completely room temperature, but they weren't refrigerator cold either.

"Sorry honey." Buffy turned back to face her mom after Spike refused any more packets of the human blood she'd purchased. She hugged her mom tightly. "I love you, Mommy."

"That's good to hear honey because you were seriously scaring me a few minutes ago."

"Perhaps I can shed some light on that." Giles arrived from the kitchen with a couple teapots full of steaming liquid on a tray with cream and sugar containers. "The Slayer and vampire demons are bonded in every sense of the word, even if they haven't completed any other claiming yet. They can tell when the other in extreme pain or danger among other things."

Giles placed the tray down on the living room table. He motioned for everyone to help themselves. "It's chamomile. It will help to calm us down."

Joyce was the first to reach for a cup. "That's why Buffy knew Spike was hurt even when we were in the car?"

"Indeed it is." Giles' further explanations were interrupted by Xander's spluttering and grumbling as he returned to consciousness.

Xander held the back of his head and groaned. He screamed at the sight of Spike still laying on the couch and Buffy now in his lap. "SPIKE!" Xander tried to find another stake, but Buffy's body collided with his before he could move.

"Don't even think about it, Xander." Buffy held Xander's hand together behind his back. Her mouth hid the small fangs that wanted to tear into Xander's throat. She fought against the urge to do so, but she made her warning clear. "It wouldn't be healthy for you if you ever touch him again."

Jenny Calendar thumbed the pages of her journal. It was a long flight from L.A. to her final destination in Romania. She had plenty of time on her hands to go over the events of the last couple years.

'What happened to Angel's soul?' Jenny pondered. Her uncle warned her that Angel needed to remain suffering. At the time she assumed it was just a means of making sure their vengeance was fully served. 'Maybe there was a magical reason why he had to remain unhappy.'

'So what would make Angel happy?' Jenny turned the pages of her journal after she skimmed each page for a clue. "Buffy!" She exclaimed out loud.

Several passengers gave Jenny dirty looks. She wanted to crawl under her seat and hide.

'Angel was happier around Buffy.' Jenny marked a couple entries with Post-It flags to help her find them again later. 'At least he was for a while. He didn't seem too happy with her lately.' Her fingertip guided her eyes over other pages, looking for any patterns or specifics on Angel's moods.

It had taken Giles another hour to get everyone back into their own seats and away from each other's throats either figuratively or literally. Faces were red either from being near to tears, in tears, or fuming with anger. It wasn't a good situation all around.

Spike's strength was gaining, but he wasn't able to move his legs. Spike did say that his feet tingled. He held Buffy in his lap. His arms were securely wrapped around the woman he loved in comfort and support for whatever she decided to do. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like some of it, but neither he nor his demon could refuse her desires. They needed her like they needed blood to survive.

Now that everyone was much calmer, and Spike's newest wounds were on the mend, Giles was anxious to get the meeting underway. "I want to thank you all for all coming. I wish it was under better circumstances."

Xander glared across the room at Spike. It was bad enough to deal with Buffy's infatuation with Angel. At least Angel hadn't tried to kill Buffy. The same could not be said for Spike. His stomach churned and wanted to heave at the sight of Buffy sitting so contently on Spike's lap.

Willow watched everything with wide eyes of fear laced with curiosity. Buffy seemed quite upset when she burst in to find Spike wounded. Why was Spike even there? Why was Mrs. Summers at the meeting and not freaking out over Spike's vampiric face when she arrived? She tried to snap her attention back to what Giles was saying. She didn't want to miss the answers to her questions.

Joyce gazed at the two blondes on the couch. Her daughter was enamored with the "bad boy" she was snuggled against. 'My daughter is supposed to kill vampires, but she's dating one?' She wasn't sure if she should be completely petrified or not. Depending on which book she read, having a vampire as a partner was a good or very bad thing. She hoped it was the former and not the latter.

"Before I get into everything about last night, I want to say that Slayers and vampires both have a similar form of demon that "animates" them or gives them their abilities. Until recently, I believed the Slayer portion of that statement to be a myth. After a ritual that I witnessed this morning, I know it to be true."

Everyone in the room shared a gasp of shock over the declaration. "If I hadn't witnessed a ritual between the two, demons for lack of a better explanation, I might still be skeptical. Their supernatural sides are mated." Giles jotted down a couple things in his notebook. "After what I witnessed this afternoon, I believe this to be a good thing. Of course this belief is also based on a conversation that I had with Spike about his intentions."

"How can you believe anything the blood sucking fiend says, Giles?" Xander spat the words at Giles.

"It is my choice to believe or not believe, Xander." Giles poked his pen in Xander's direction. "If I can have an open mind about all of this, you can at least make an effort not to be an arse."

"If you think you're going to stake me with your piercing glance, you're mistaken Whelp." Spike rolled his eyes.

Joyce pulled out the non-Council approved leather bound book from her bag. She shuffled through several marked pages in search of the familiar sounding information. When she finally found it she interrupted the conversation. "Mr. Giles?"

"Please call me Rupert, Mrs. Summers." Giles smiled at Buffy's mother. He was happy that she wasn't trying to skin him alive for his part in Buffy's nightly calling.

Joyce walked over to Giles and put the book on the table in front of him. "Thank you, Rupert. Please call me Joyce. Mrs. Summers makes me sound like my mother in law." She shuddered. "In this book that I was given to read, it says that some Slayers find themselves more connected with their inner strength after a near death experience. Their inner strength would be linked to the demon right? Did Buffy have any near death experiences?"

"It was last year, but it didn't last for long," Giles tried to explain. "The Master bit her and drowned her, but Xander revived her with CPR."

"Where did you get this book?" Giles read the passages that Joyce pointed to. He was intrigued by the information he read. He quickly skipped ahead a few pages to read more.

"A man at the Magic Box gave it to me when I went looking for information on the Slayer." Joyce pulled the second book out of her bag. "He said this one was Council approved, but the other one wasn't. Based on what I've already seen here … I'd say that I believe the non-Council one a bit more if I hadn't already."

"Extraordinary." Giles' eyes were wide open to what the one book said different from what he was taught. Buffy was the living proof in front of him about which set of teachings was right. "This supports the theory that a Slayer's abilities were first inherited by the demon that possessed her. When Buffy died, she crossed over the plains of existence to the next world, but when Xander revived her it pulled her back."

"What about the fact that the Master bit her? Could that have made a difference about what traveled back with her?" Spike posed the question. "If even one drop of his blood mingled with hers when he bit her, then it could have called to her demon side, couldn't it?"

"It is all supposition, but I think that is a possibility, Spike." Giles twirled his pen between his fingers absentmindedly. "When Buffy came back, the realms were crossed and the Slayer demon could have come back with her soul."

Buffy raised her hand slowly. "That scarily makes a lot of sense." She looked at her mom and Giles sadly. "When I went to L.A. for the summer it was really bad at night. I didn't just go out to slay at night because it was my duty. I did it because I had to."

"Yes, if I didn't, I got all jumpy and shaky, like a drug addict in withdrawl." Buffy hung her head a little. "I would stay out from dusk until dawn hunting almost every vampire and demon I could find."

"Yeah, some of them I just seemed to sense and disregard for some reason." Buffy twisted her hands nervously in her lap. "Like I knew they weren't a threat or something."

"Usually that is Giles speak for we're going to have to do some research," Willow translated the statement for Mrs. Summers.

"I'm not going to sit here and listen to this garbage." Xander stood up. "If you all want to believe this bunch of brainwashed bull crap, go ahead. If Buffy is a demon now that I saw we kill her along with her undead boyfriend because obviously something is wrong here."

"Xander!" Xander's name was said in shock or anger from every being in the room.

Joyce Summers was the first to move. She slapped Xander upside the back of his head and pushed him back down into the chair he vacated. "Sit your butt right there Xander Harris, or I'll tie you there. It is narrow minds like you that run that Council and cause all of this hatred to fester."

"Don't you now Joyce me, Rupert." Joyce pounded on the top of both books she brought. "One book tells you one thing and the other book says another. My daughter is sitting right in front of you as living proof over which book is right. Whatever you saw confirms that even more so. I'm not saying that the Council is all lies, but they have whitewashed over key facts that they didn't like, have they not?"

"Yes, you are right about that Joyce. I'm sorry." Giles cleared his throat. "Let's get on with the original portion of the meeting. The greater threat to us is not in this room. We can discuss Buffy and Spike's relationship later."

On the way back to her seat, Joyce clipped Xander in the back of the head again. She'd heard his grumbling retort.

The sun was getting closer to setting, and the Scoobies still had a lot of ground to cover before Angelus and Drusilla would be out to feast on Sunnydale's citizens.

Angelus stretched his arms out over his head in the king sized bed he awoke in. His arms came down and wrapped around the dark queen that lay next to him, his insane Childe Drusilla. He was ready to stake his claim on the town of Sunnydale and make the streets bleed red in the carnage.

Drusilla squirmed in her Sire's arms. She cooed and giggled with delight. She felt the excitement rolling off her Sire. Today would be their day to play. All of a sudden she sat up in bed with a frown.

"What is it Drusilla?" Angelus asked his Childe. One of the things he loved about Drusilla was her gift of sight. Half the time he didn't understand what she was saying, but he loved to watch her in the throes of the magical moment.

Drusilla's body weaved back and forth. "My Spike has been a naughty boy. He's taken all of the toys from the toy box, and he won't share with Daddy anymore."

"What do you mean?" Angelus sat up abruptly. He still felt Spike at the edges of his mind. "Damn, he should be dust."

"He holds the match, and all the fireworks are his to command." Dru rubbed her fingertips into her temples. "No rabbits for Daddy because William has all the magical hats locked up."

Angelus felt something else on the outskirts of his vampiric senses. There was a stronger power roaming through the familial links. He couldn't pinpoint it or figure out what it meant. He also felt the power of his line beyond his reach. It still centered on Spike. He raged, "The power should have been mine! That sniveling upstart should have lost it the moment a true master returned to the fold. Damn it!" His fist smashed through the wall of the factory.

Dru shied away from her irate Sire. She tried to bury herself into a little ball on the bed and rocked herself back and forth. "I'm sorry, Daddy. So sorry."

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