Chapter Summary: Moving along from "Inca Mummy Girl" through to "Lie to Me". Summarizing for the non-Spuffy times. Instead of Buffy and Angel moving closer towards a relationship, Buffy forced herself to try to do things with Angel to forget about the bad boy Spike. She finds herself still thinking of Spike a lot more often than she should, and she isn't thinking about killing him. She actually looked through all of Giles' books to find as much information about William and Spike that she could.

Author's Note: Not all dialogue or scenes are going to be exactly like the episodes because I am tweaking them to fit the progression of this story. Credit to the great Joss Whedon and his writers for the quotes that I do use from the episodes. Blood play will more than likely have some part in almost every chapter from here on out. It might just be a little bit or a lot as we are moving things along with Buffy and Spike. Also, Buffy has not cut her hair as short as she did in canon. She left it as long as it was in "School Hard".

The weeks following the Parent-Teacher night passed in a blur of various activities for the Scoobies. Instead of growing closer, Angel and Buffy seemed to only go through the motions of an early relationship. Buffy tried to get closer to Angel, but one look at her neck, and he would withdraw further away from her. She had a feeling that there were a lot of things Angel wasn't telling them about Spike. She spent many hours hidden in the book stacks at the library searching for any information Giles had on Spike or "William the Bloody".

After Xander's failed attempt to date a foreign exchange student, who turned out to be a life force sucking Inca Mummy, Willow was determined to step up her pursuit of her childhood friend. Halloween was approaching, and she wanted to find just the right outfit to make Xander notice her.

Thinking along similar lines towards Angel, in an attempt to push all thoughts of Spike from her system, Buffy picked up an elegant costume at a place called Ethan's. The ivory gown had yellowed some over the years, but its lace was still intact over the silk main skirt and bodice with various pearl embellishments.

What Buffy failed to realize about her purchase was that it was a wedding dress crafted in England around the late 1800's. Something drew her to purchase the dress. She originally thought it would be something that Angel would enjoy seeing her in, but if she'd wanted to entice Angel with something from his era, she was about 100 years too late. Angel was turned into a vampire in the 1700's. Was her mind subconsciously being drawn to purchase something that Spike would recognize, or was Buffy just that off on her history lessons?

Buffy stood in her bedroom and tried to get ready to take the younger children of Sunnydale out trick or treating. "I swear Principal Snyder just loves to be an ass." She grumbled to herself while she fanned out the layers of lace and satin of the dress hanging from her closet door. "I still don't see how he can force us to do half of the things he does. I should punch him in the nose and be done with it. He has to be some sort of demon."

Buffy picked up the ivory accented silver combs from her dresser. They shimmered in the trickles of light from her vanity. The combs were a gift from her grandmother on her 15th birthday, the year she was called to be the Slayer. Grandma Summers told her that they were a gift from her grandmother when she turned 15.

The combs were so elegant. Buffy rubbed her fingers over the prongs. Hand carved ivory roses nestled along the width of the top of the combs. Buffy looked down at the wig on her dresser. "Nah, I'd rather go with my real hair. With my luck some kid would pull the wig off, and Grandma's combs could be lost."

Buffy pulled up the sides of her hair and looked at one side of her face and then another. She plugged her curling iron in. It was going to take her an hour just to curl her hair if she wanted it to look like the wig did.

Buffy didn't want to look like herself for one day, the Slayer. She wanted to be looked at as a lady and not some tomboy or fighter. For once she wanted to be cared for and doted on by the man she wanted in her life, even if she wasn't quite sure who that was at the moment.

'Maybe I should give up on men completely. Maybe then I could get Spike out of my head, and I wouldn't have to worry about Angel freaking out like he did the other week.' Buffy shivered at the memory of the look in Angel's eyes when he confronted her in the cemetery about their relationship. She knew she had been trying harder to get together with Angel since Spike arrived in Sunnydale, but it seemed as if Angel was pushing her away.

The anger and pain in Angel's eyes when he yelled at her in the cemetery scared her. Even in the middle of her battle with Spike, the evil vampire never looked at her like that. She wondered why Angel was so angry. Thinking back on that night, she couldn't find anything that should have upset him that much.

Angel, in his superior acting way, took the whole situation tongue in cheek style. "So you just want to have coffee or something." He knew that Buffy had a bit of a crush on him. Before the episode at the school with Spike he would have even said that she was falling in love with him. Now, he wasn't so sure. She'd been acting weird lately.

"Coffee?" Buffy frowned. Why was this sounding like her conversation with Willow earlier that day?

Angel sighed. He figured the only way out of this mess was to toss it off as nothing he was seriously considering. He always wanted to come out on top, whether it was for the brush off or the seduction. "I knew this was going to happen."

"What? What do you think is happening?" Buffy wondered what Angel was assuming. All she'd done was find the bracelet on the ground and attempt to carry on a bit of conversation with him. What unspoken words was he pulling out of the air on her?

"I've done the math," Buffy answered meekly. 'And Spike is a little under 150.' Her thoughts wandered briefly.

"You don't know what you're doing. You don't know what you want." Angel looked off into the distance.

Buffy started to get ticked. 'Oh so this is how he wants to play it?' She absentmindedly rubbed her neck. It tingled and itched all of a sudden. "Oh, no. I think I do. I want out of this conversation."

"Listen." Angel grabbed Buffy's arm and turned her retreating form around to face him. "If we date, you and I both know one thing's gonna lead to another." There was no way he was letting anyone walk away from him. He would have the last word, and he would be the one to end things.

"One thing already has led to another." Buffy stared up into Angel's eyes. "Don't you think it's a little late to be reading me the warning label," Buffy sighed. She wanted to scream out her frustration over the situation.

"I'm just trying to protect you. This could get out of control." Angel growled low when Buffy rubbed the barely visible lines on her neck again. "That is one reason why I won't let this go any further."

"You touch it all the time." Angel pointed to Buffy's neck. "You let him that close to you."

"Is that what this is about? A macho contest between vampires?" Buffy was enraged. She hadn't realized that she touched her neck that often, but sometimes it tingled. "I was fighting for my life. He sunk his claws in after he saw the Master's mark. Would you rather he finished with the biting me he was about to do before he saw the scars?"

"No, of course not." Angel reached out to Buffy only to have her back away from him.

"Don't touch me, Angel." Buffy felt revulsion at the mere thought of him touching her at that moment.

"So instead of showing me that you care for my safety or love me in any way, you are going to run away because some vampire scratched me in a fight?"

"It's more than that, Buffy. You don't understand about vampires and marks." Angel tossed out the remarks in anger. "He's preparing you."

"Preparing me for what? To kill me?" Buffy spat back at Angel. "You know what, I don't care." She stepped away more from Angel. "You're punishing me for something I had no control over. This just isn't worth it." She turned and ran away from the cemetery before Angel could stop her this time.

Angel threw his hands up in the air. He growled and stormed off in the opposite direction. He hoped that he found some demons on the way back to his apartment. He needed to kill something.

A small glowing red ember burned in the darkness. A rolling deep chuckle echoed in the silence. 'Trouble in paradise.' Spike pressed the cigarette butt under his boot to put it out and headed in the direction the Slayer left in. 'Good, because she is mine Angelus, not yours.'

Buffy sighed. "Not like normal worked for me either. I swear that I should never listen to Cordelia about anything ever again." She flopped down on her bed. "I almost ended up reptile fodder because I wanted to have a normal party night like any teenager should have."

Buffy fell back on her pillow. "Stupid frat boys and their demon sacrifices." She rested her cheek against the pillow. She stared at herself in the vanity mirror across the room. "Who am I really supposed to be? Where do I fit in?"

After being drugged at a fraternity party that she went to with Cordelia, and being offered up as a sacrifice, Angel apologized for his comments. They made up a little bit, but they were still distant. She hoped that tonight's costume would help to show Angel that she wasn't just the Slayer. She could be a lady too.

A knock on her bedroom door brought Buffy out of her self-involved reverie. "Yes?"

Willow walked in shyly. Her hands were clasped in front of her over the short black leather skirt she wore. "Hello Buffy."

"Oh wow, Wills." Buffy sat up quickly. "You look fantastic." She pointed to the white sheet in Willow's hands. "What is that for?"

"I don't think I can go out dressed like this." Willow shifted from one foot to another. "This is so I can go as a ghost. It was the backup costume I purchased at the shop after you talked me into this outfit."

"Wills, you can't back out now. You are going to knock Xander's socks off with that outfit." Buffy tried to encourage her friend to help break the lack of confidence Willow had. "Xander would have to be blind not to notice you in that outfit. It's the only way you'll get his attention. I know you can do it."

"Turtlenecks, baggy sweaters, jumpers, jeans and ankle length skirts will not a Xander catch." Buffy rubbed Willow's arms in comfort. "He's kind of dumb when it comes to you. He's too blind to see what is right in front of his face." She directed Willow to sit down in the chair in front of Buffy's vanity. "Tonight we're going to give him a Willow tinted pair of glasses."

"Dru, I don't bloody want to go out there." Spike paced back and forth in front of Drusilla. "This is a night off for demons, remember?" He grew more frustrated with the lack of a cure for Drusilla daily. She nagged him constantly about his promise to kill the Slayer. When Dru wasn't simpering about the Slayer, she was yammering on about the return of her daddy. It was all enough to nearly drive him insane.

"Spike, the pixies tell me that a change is coming." Drusilla stood in Spike's path to keep him from pacing. She was mad over all the time Spike spent each night watching and studying the Slayer. Now when she actually wanted him to find the Slayer, he wouldn't. "She will be weak tonight. She'll never suspect my Spike until it is too late."

"Halloween is for humans, Dru." Spike zigzagged around Dru. "Demons do not hunt on Halloween, especially vampires. It's tradition."

"You never wanted to follow the traditions before." Drusilla stomped her foot to the ground like a child in a temper tantrum. "You don't want to kill her. She swims around your thoughts like little fishies. Bad fishies."

Spike grabbed Dru's upper arms and squeezed tightly. "I do what I wish, and I've never violated the Halloween tradition." He squeezed tighter until Dru yelped. "If you weren't so whacked out, you'd remember that."

"If you don't kill her, she will destroy us. The stars have painted the sky with the last moments before our final death at her hands." Although Dru's vision showed her only her own death, she wasn't going to share that tidbit with Spike.

Spike pushed Dru away from him with a hard thrust. "Enough!" He growled and stalked towards the exit from the factory. "I'll go out, but I am NOT bloody hunting tonight. I just want the hell away from you!" He slammed the door shut behind him.

Dru's eyes twinkled with delight. "You won't have to hunt." She spoke softly with a very sane clarity. "The little lamb will fall right into your arms, and you will be unable to resist the pull of her blood." She giggled and clapped. Then, she headed back to her room.

Buffy trotted down the stairs of her house to meet Xander at the door. She opened the door, standing behind it, waiting for him to see her.

"Private Harris reporting for ..." Xander's voice trailed off, and his toy gun lowered from his mock salute. "Buffy! Lady of Buffdom, Duchess of Buffonia, I am in awe." His mouth gaped open at the sight of Buffy in her Victorian style dress. "I completely renounce spandex."

Buffy lowered herself in an exaggerated curtsy. "Thank you, kind sir." She giggled playfully.

Xander bowed in return. Their attention was drawn to the shuffling at the stairs.

"Wait until you see ..." Buffy sighed and shook her head. "Casper." She rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Will! That's ... a fine "Boo!" you got there." Xander teased his friend in the same joyful manner that they always shared.

"Come on. Let's get out of here." Buffy reopened the door. "We need to get to the school before Snyder has a fit."

Several hours later, Buffy knelt down in front of her three charges. "So what did you guys get?" She shook her head in mock disgust at the toothbrushes they all showed her. "Awful. She must be stopped."

The children snickered and nodded. Buffy stood back up. "I think we have time to do the rest of this block before we need to get back." She took the youngest child's hand in hers and continued along the sidewalk.

Back in his shop, Ethan Rayne continued the incantations he'd prepared and recited all day long. With a chaotic prayer of supplication to Janus, he finished the rites and completed his plan for chaos and revenge.

All around Sunnydale, a costume purchased from Ethan's transformed its new owner into what they masqueraded as. Xander became a real soldier, equipped with a proper gun. Willow dropped to the ground unconscious for a moment before she awoke in a ghostly form. Buffy nearly fainted, but she righted herself on a nearby fencepost. She gazed out at everything fearfully. She wondered where her fianc� was and how she came to be in her strange location.

It didn't take Willow long to round up Xander and Buffy. Willow managed to convince them both that she could help them find safety in a nearby house, which happened to be Buffy's. Willow didn't tell the other two who's house it was though.

"Why are we here?" Buffy's English was articulately spoken. Gone were the California bits of slang she usually uttered. In its place, Buffy spoke the Queen's English with perfect clarity and form, complete with an aristocratic English accent.

"This is your house, Buffy," Willow explained. "We should be able to find weapons here."

"Weapons?" Buffy gasped and clutched her hand to her chest. "I am not accustomed to handling such matters, and please stop calling me Buffy. I don't know who she is. You may address me as Lady Elizabeth."

Willow rolled her eyes. They needed the Slayer right now not a pampered princess. "She couldn't have gone as Xena this year?" She muttered to herself.

Cordelia joined the group shortly after the three of them arrived at Buffy's house. Strangely Cordelia seemed unaffected by amnesia or costume changes. Willow decided that they needed Giles' help. She walked clear through the wall to the outside.

Lady Elizabeth, Buffy, shrieked and stuttered, "She ... She ... Oh dear Lord!" She fainted dead away just as Angel came into the house through the kitchen.

With lightning reflexes and vampire speed, Angel caught Buffy before she hit the floor. "I'm glad both of you are here." He looked up at Xander. "It's crazy out there. What happened to Buffy?" He cradled her head in his lap.

"Unhand that woman." Xander pulled back the mechanism of his weapon, readying it to fire. "State your name and your purpose."

"Are you crazy, Xander?" Angel lowered Buffy's head to the floor. He stood up to full height. He gripped the barrel of the weapon and pushed it away from pointing at him. "You know who I am."

"Actually he doesn't." Cordelia stepped up alongside Angel. "Buffy, Xander and half this town have flipped out."

"I don't understand." Angel looked down at Buffy. She was starting to stir. "Why is Buffy in that gown? Is that a wedding dress?" He thought he recognized the style and embellishments.

"It must have been her costume. She probably wore it to impress you." Cordelia rolled her eyes. "I know Xander was doing the whole five and dime soldier thing for his costume, and now he's a real military man."

"Oh dear." Lady Elizabeth, Buffy, waved her hand in front of her face. "I swear that I must be having a fit of the vapors, or maybe it's jitters before the ceremony." She looked up at Cordelia in her cat outfit, soldier Xander, and Angel. "Or perhaps not. I declare this is my worst nightmare come true."

"Let me help you, Miss." Angel bent down to help Buffy stand back up. He wrapped his hands around her tiny cinched waistline. He drank in her scent with his face pressed up next to her cheek. She smelled like Heaven.

"Take care to keep your space, Sir." Elizabeth pushed herself away from Angel. She flicked open the fan that hung from her wrist and fanned herself. "You have no right to such liberties."

"Oh please." Cordelia laughed. "Spare us the Miss innocent act. I don't care what century you think you are from, Buffy, but that is ridiculous."

"It was commonplace for such things to be said in the late 19th century, Cordelia," Angel explained. "If my guess is right her dress is dated around the late 1800's."

"I really don't care what either of you think." Elizabeth stomped her foot down in a petulant fit of anger. She turned to Xander. "I demand that you return me to the church where I am to be married to my betrothed. William will be quite upset if I am not there on time."

"Look lady, I don't know anything about a church. We have to get ourselves set up tight in here." Xander shouldered his gun by the strap. "You need to stay out of the way while we men get this place secure."

Elizabeth pouted. She flicked her fan closed quickly and slapped it against the layers of satin covering her hips in a gesture of defiance. She stomped into the kitchen and plopped down on one of the stools around the island.

Angel followed "Buffy" into the kitchen. He started to offer some comfort when he looked up at the now open door. "I don't remember leaving that open." He slowly moved towards the dark opening.

A cloaked figure jumped out at Angel. He grabbed Angel around the neck and tried to choke him first and then bite him.

Elizabeth screamed in a high pitched wail. She backed up against the sink to get away from the battle.

"Buffy, I need a stake," Angel called out to Buffy. He kicked the intruder in the gut. He followed the kick with a punch to the jaw. The two wrestled along the floor between the kitchen and dining rooms. "Now Buffy!!" He turned around in full demonic visage and growled at Buffy.

Elizabeth, who had been halfway towards Angel with a large knife, dropped the knife as soon as she saw the beast looking her way. She ran out of the house. Her only thought was to get as far away from the monster as she could. She shrieked and dodged through the neighborhood, in-between the houses to get away from the many creatures filling the streets.

"William, where are you?" Elizabeth cried out into the black night. Frightened and confused, she crouched against a wall outside a broken down church on the outskirts of one of Sunnydale's cemeteries.

"Why did she run off in the first place," Cordelia whined. Children and adults dressed like demons and other things ran through the Sunnydale streets. She really didn't want to be out in it. Unfortunately, they were trying to find an escaped Buffy who didn't realize she was the Slayer.

"I vamped out during the fight in the kitchen," Angel ground out annoyed. "She saw it and ran."

"Way to go big guy," Soldier Xander taunted. Something inside of him told his amnesiac mind that he didn't like the man. "Now we have to go find her instead of building our stockade."

"Buffy can handle herself. We don't have to be out here." Cordelia wanted to get back home as soon as possible and forget that this night happened.

"The real Buffy could, but not this one." Angel remembered the style of dress that Buffy wore. The combs and jewelry pieces screamed Victorian noblewoman to him. He was positive that the dress was a wedding dress to boot. "This one doesn't know the right end of a stake. She is helpless out here."

"Did you hear that?" Spike pulled back from his little band of demons to stand up straight. "Somewhere out there is the tastiest morsel you could ever sink your teeth into, and all we have to do is find her first."

The band of demons growled and squawked in approval to go get a bite to eat. Spike wanted to find the Slayer all right, but not for the reason he gave. Oh, he'd have a bite to eat, but not in the way they expected. He needed to make sure that no one else found the Slayer before he did. Only he was allowed to touch her.

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