THIS PART OF THE SITE IS NO LONGER BEING UPDATED. PLEASE VISIT THE NEW FICTION ARCHIVE WHERE ALL OF JACKOFSPIKES' WIP'S ARE STILL BEING UPDATED, NEW ONES BEING ADDED, AND ALL HER OLDER COMPLETED PIECES ARE THERE TOO. I'M KEEPING THIS UP FOR NOW FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE JACK'S STORIES BOOKMARKED DIRECTLY.

Beta’d by AtheneHahn and written in answer to Redwulf50’s Challenge 109. Challenge details at the end.

“I didn’t say a word, Slayer!” shouted the agitated vampire. His expression a mixture of frustration, confusion, anger and longing.

Buffy’s eyes flashed with anger. “Well, I know you're thinking about it, so just stop! There will be no discussion of any spell induced kissage.”

“Then stop bleedin’ bringin’ it up!”

Buffy’s fist shot out and connected with Spike’s nose. “OW! You bloody BITCH!” Holding his nose to staunch the flow of blood, Spike glared at the defiant blond who merely smirked at him.

Silently contemplating the young woman in front of him, Spike had a sudden insight. She was scared. Scared of what he made her feel. She's given her heart to his sire and then His Broodiness ripped it to shreds. Almost as bad as that was the soldier boy. He never held her heart, but he made her question her own self-worth. In blaming her for going to the suck whores, his own actions helped to damage the Slayer even more then Angelus had.

Spike shook his head. ‘If I could have one bloody wish, it would be to go back to that alley where we met. I would do things over and protect her from those wankers. I wouldn’t let them do that to her again, I wouldn’t do that to her again.

A sudden change in the winds direction brought a familiar scent to the vampire. Spike quietly alerted the Slayer. “Heads up, pet. We’ve got visitors.”

“What kind?” she asked in a hushed tone.

“Three, they’re human; two magic users and…” Spike stood and turned towards the three observers, finishing his sentence loudly. “Someone who builds robots.”

Buffy’s voice was filled with boredom and contempt. “Warren.” Following Spike’s lead, she turned in the general direction he had.

Realising they had been discovered, Warren and his two friends awkwardly stood from their hiding place, struggling to keep something behind their backs hidden.

“Jonathan?” Buffy was slightly shocked when she recognised the second boy. The third boy had her completely stumped though. “Who are you?”

“Andrew,” he said. Buffy shrugged and shook her head, showing a complete lack of recognition.

“I summoned the flying monkeys that attacked the high school during the school play, you know?”

Before Buffy could again shake her head, Jonathan spoke up. “Tucker's brother.”

“Oh...so what are you guys doing out here, in a graveyard, in the middle of the night? Don’t you know how dangerous that is?” Buffy asked, her features expressed a look of concerned curiosity. She noticed Spike taking a cautious step closer to her. Something was wrong here and it was clear that he sensed it too.

“We’ve got plans…and you're just going to get in our way., Warren announced, his ire directed at the blond slayer as he finally showed the duo what they had been hiding. The strange device looked like some weird type of Star Wars prop gun and he had it pointed directly at Buffy. “I’m just going to fix that problem, send you to a time when it will be too late for you to do anything.”

As Warren fired the gun, Spike jumped in front of Buffy, taking the full blast of the ray. Both disappeared without a trace.

“Um…Warren?” Jonathon cautiously addressed the taller boy. “Did you mean to send them into the past? ’Cause that setting is for travelling back, not forward.”

“Oh shit.”

*******

Spike opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings. They were in the alley behind the Bronze and Buffy was unconscious. Concentrating on checking her for injuries, he at first failed to notice the events unfolding at the other end of the alley. Hearing fighting, Spike looked up to see Buffy- a very young Buffy- fighting a vampire who was mouthing off about St. Vigeous.

‘Bugger’, Spike thought to himself. ‘Last time I make a wish on the bloody Hellmouth.’

Quickly considering his options, Spike picked up his Buffy and made his way out of the alley.

“Best go see your Watcher, luv.”

*****

When Giles opened his apartment door, he was shocked to see a strange young man carrying what looked like an older version of his Slayer.

“We’re from the future, mate. She’s out cold and I didn’t want to take her to her mum. Joyce doesn’t know about her being the slayer yet, and I didn’t think this was the best way to break it to her. Will you help us?”

“Of course, please come in.” Giles motioned to the couch, “You can just settle her over there. Does she need anything?”

Spike ignored the questions as he propped Buffy on the couch. Finally he turned back towards Giles. “You might want to get your Scotch, mate. It looks like we’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“Maybe you could begin with exactly who you are and why I just allowed a vampire to enter my home?” Giles smirked at the shocked vampire. He was just as shocked at having invited this creature into his house, but how often does one show up with one’s unconscious slayer?

“He’s an annoying pain in my butt,” Buffy groaned from her position on the couch.

“No, luv. That would be the stick up your arse. Now, get up. You got a watcher to confuse.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Spike! Now, can someone tell me where are we and what’s going on?”

"Make up your mind, Slayer. Do you want me to shut up, or to answer your questions?” Spike smirked. “It’s a bit difficult to do both.”

“Just answer the damn questions,” Buffy ground out through tightly clenched teeth.

“That thing the robot geek fired at us appears to have sent us into our own past. It dropped us into the alley behind the Bronze, where we first met. You were out cold, so I thought the best thing was to bring us to your watcher,” Spike explained.

“What are you talking about? Buffy looked confused. “Our first meeting was on Parent Teacher Night at the school.”

Spike swore under his breath. “No, luv. In our time, our first meeting was in the alley, but tonight I got you out of there and didn’t say anything to the other Buffy. It seems that we can affect the future and change things, including our memories.”

“Even if you didn't interact with my Buffy, surely this time’s Spike would still have initiated the contact that you remember?” Giles interjected.

“Your right Watcher, he would have - if I hadn’t taken over his body when we made the jump.”

“What?!” Buffy exclaimed.

“Oh dear, do you have any idea what this means?” Giles collapsed into his chair.

“Yeah, it’s gonna change everything and there’s nothing we can do to stop it,” Spike answered with finality.

“Yeah, it’s gonna change everything and there’s nothing we can do to stop it,” Spike answered with finality.

“What do you mean, ‘change everything’?” Buffy was totally confused.

“Well, the good news is that the people I killed the first time ‘round won’t die this time. Bad news is; Dru’s gonna know. We’re gonna have to decide what to do about her. I can go in and kill the Annoying One again, but Dru’s another story. I dust her and there’s no tellin’ what the Poof’s gonna do,” Spike started to explain before being cut off by Buffy.

“Why would Angel care about the Ho? He’s got his soul,” Buffy stated dismissively.

“Drusilla is Angelus’ favourite childe, we dust her and Soul Boy may not be able to control his demon. Can we take that chance, luv?” Spike asked Buffy earnestly.

“I think you need to tell me everything, starting with- Spike, is it?” Giles intervened. At Spike’s nod, Giles continued. “Then after I have all the facts, we can address the problems we may or may not be facing.”

Over the next couple of hours Giles was given an overview of the events the other two had already experienced. Explaining how William the Bloody had managed to stay undusted, get chipped, and start working with the white hats had the flabbergasted watcher reaching for his glass. Buffy’s second death and resurrection had him reaching for the bottle. The release of Angelus and Jenny’s death devastated him.

“Look, I know there’s a lot we have to look at, problems and whatnot, but the most immediate problem is the Annoying One and his Bloody St. Vigeous Day ritual. I took him out in our time, let me do it again. I can kill some minions as well and then get Dru restrained. If I chose the right minions to look after her, I can order 'em to stick to pigs blood until we’ve come up with some sort of plan of what to do next,” Spike suggested.

“Yes, perhaps that is the best idea,” Giles offered his weary agreement.

“I’m going with,” The Slayer stated, not expecting an argument. Heading to the door, she informed Giles that they would be returning as soon as possible. The Watcher offered them his spare key and said he'd make up their beds while they were gone.

*******

Spike walked into the factory and directly over to Dalton. He knew from his own experiences that the meek little bookworm was loyal to him.

“Go check on Dru. Stay there till I come for you,” Spike ordered the vampire then watched as he scuttled away.

Turning to survey the rest of the room, he noted the position of every vampire there. Knowing Buffy’s tendency to be impatient, Spike wasted no time in making his way over to the Anointed One. Without a word of warning, he grabbed Colin by the neck, snapped it, and threw him into the cage that was suspended by chains from the ceiling in the center of the large room. Setting the evil childe alight with his trusty lighter, Spike turned back to the room’s other inhabitants. “Who chooses to pledge their loyalty to me?” Spike asked the remaining vampires. Two stepped forward immediately, pledging allegiance. Spike sent the two to Dalton. “Well, by my count, that makes fifteen that choose to be dust,” Spike stated calmly, a grin of anticipation starting to form.

“Fifteen of us against one of you. Looks like you’re the one that’s gonna be dust, Spike. You should never have sent your backup away,” crowed one brave minion. It was obvious that he was delighted at the opportunity to take on the infamous Slayer of Slayers. The rest smiled or laughed in agreement as they all started to advance on the Master Vampire.

“Hey, Spike," Buffy’s voice rang out. "Is this a spectator sport, or can I play too?”

“Doesn’t seem fair, luv. There’s only fifteen of them,” Spike answered the disembodied voice, his demeanour serious while his eyes twinkled in amusement.

“You’re evil, Spike,” she reminded him. The minions spun in circles, attempting to discover the source of the voice.

“Oh, yeah! So I am.” Spike grinned, looking up at her. “Then come join the party, luv.”

As the minions watched Buffy’s perfectly executed forward somersault from the catwalk, Spike staked four of them. The remaining eleven didn’t take long to dust. Fluid and synchronized teamwork got the job done quickly.

Buffy waited while Spike had a hysterical Dru chained to her bed. After giving the minions strict instructions for her care and feeding, Spike joined Buffy and the two started on their way back to the watcher’s apartment.

“How come we remember our first meeting differently, Spike?” Buffy’s confusion laced voice broke through the silence of the night.

“Not sure, pet, but I think it’s somethin’ like that movie; you know, the one where the kid goes back in time and because he does somethin’ different it changes how things happened? He changed his own past.

"I think you don’t remember our first meeting 'cause, well…it wasn’t you that made the meeting happen, it was me, and this time I didn’t let you know-I mean the you of this time- that I was there, so if she didn’t meet me then, then you didn’t meet me at that time. She’s you, Slayer. What she lives through, you remember. Me, I’m different, I’ve got the one from this time inside me, and he’s got access to all my memories, so I guess I still know it because he knows it. You know what I’m sayin’?” Spike tried to explain his thoughts.

“So, what? We’re like Michael J. Fox and we have to find a way ‘Back to the Future’ before we change things so much we disappear?” Buffy grinned, making light of the situation.

“Luv, even if we could find a way to get back to our time, unless we can find a way to get Past Me out of my body, I can’t go back.” Spike tried to make Buffy understand the seriousness of their situation.

“There is no way I’m leaving you here alone, Spike. There’s no telling what sort of damage you could do to my life,” Buffy retorted angrily.

The clenching of his jaw and the closed expression on his face were her only indications that her words had affected him. They returned to the apartment in tense silence, their earlier comradery gone. As Buffy made her way to the small office opposite the bathroom where Giles had made up a bed for her, she heard Spike say in a quiet voice filled with sad resignation,

“You really don’t know me at all, do you, Slayer?”

When Buffy finally woke up, it was late afternoon. It had taken her a long time to get to sleep the night before. She had tossed and turned, Spikes words replaying over and over in her head. His words had haunted her; he had sounded so sad. It was times like this that she doubted her Watcher's teachings and the very foundations of that which she had been taught. Did the chip manufacture feelings, emotions? No, it only rendered him helpless, unable to hurt humans. He'd had to adapt, to learn to cope, and his insistence on supporting her, of loving her was only a charade, an elaborate coping mechanism to give himself purpose. He couldn’t feel, couldn't love... if he did, then Angel should have been able to. Angel agreed with Giles, demons couldn’t love. Spike couldn’t love, and with that thought she’d finally managed to fall asleep.

Looking over at her clothes, she felt a twinge of disgust. Wearing the same clothes for two days was bad enough, but the thought of putting on clothing covered in vampire dust made her quail in revulsion. Looking around the small room, as if an inspiration was there just waiting to make an appearance, Buffy considered her options. When Spike knocked on the door, she was still standing in the middle of the room in her underwear.

“Watcher dropped off some clothes for you to change into, pet. I’ll leave the bag outside your door. He dropped off some lunch, too.”

Spike hadn’t had much of a chance to speak to Giles before the watcher had left for the school, but he knew he needed to. Most of the night had been spent thinking over their situation, trying really hard to figure out the right thing to do. Though he was fine when it came to clear-cut choices between good and bad, the choices that weren’t so unmistakable had given him a great deal of trouble. He knew he could help his Buffy, but what else would it change if he did? Would he lose Dawn, or maybe Tara? He didn’t have enough faith in his own ability to make the right moral choice. He couldn’t do this on his own, but he didn’t want to put anything more on Buffy. He needed Giles and for a second time, he was going to ask for help. He just hoped this time worked out better than the last.

He did have an idea he wanted to run by his Slayer, he just hoped she’d be open to it. He knew he had to set it up carefully, explain the problem before he offered his solution. These days he had to step very carefully where she was concerned, caution had to be his catch phrase. Looking over at his notes on the coffee table, Spike decided to check them again. He had to get this right…for both their sakes.

Spike waited until Buffy had eaten her lunch before broaching the subject on his mind.

“I’ve been thinkin’ about our situation, Slayer, and I think I’ve come up with somethin’ that can fix our immediate problems and also offer us some help in the future.”

“What are you thinking about, Spike?” Buffy asked, intrigued despite herself.

“We have no idea how long we’re gonna be stuck here, right? We can’t live off your watcher, pet. It’s not fair on him. We’re gonna need clothes and food, but we’ve got no money and we can’t get jobs. Hell, we can’t do anything for fear that it'll upset the timeline until we have a better idea of what will happen. We need to talk it over with Rupes. But, there’s a way to get money that’s legal and won’t upset the timeline, I think,” Spike offered, his eagerness to please almost tactile.

“What’s the idea?” Buffy questioned suspiciously. Crossing her arms across her chest, she gave the vampire a hard and distrusting glare.

“Hear me out, Slayer, that’s all I ask,” he implored, desperate to show he didn’t have ulterior motives. With her cautious nod, he continued. “We can dig up the treasure of Amara and get your watcher to check for any magical items other than the ring, but the rest we can take to your mum’s gallery to be auctioned off. She gets the commission and we get the money we need. There’s gonna be a lot, so we can get the watcher to open an account to deposit it in and the funds can be used as a sort of Slayer emergency fund. Now, before you say anything, we get the watcher to look after the ring and that way we have it if we need it; like against Glory.”

“Sounds like a good plan, Spike. Of course I’ll be with you to make sure none of it goes missing,” Buffy stated unemotionally.

“Never doubted it for a minute, Slayer,” Spike replied coldly. Turning away from her abruptly, he left the room and headed for the bathroom. He was happy that she had agreed with his suggestion, but angry and hurt that she trusted him so little. Bloody Slayer was always running hot and cold. He loved her so much and he wanted so badly to help her ease her pain that he’d do anything for her. Anything. Why couldn’t she see that? Why couldn’t she see him? He missed the easier relationship they’d had when she first came back from Heaven. She had trusted him more before they’d kissed and while he wouldn’t go as far as wishing those kisses hadn’t happened, he missed being her friend.

Buffy watched him go. Deep down in the place where she hid her innermost thoughts, the ones she feared showing the world, her friends, and her watcher; she knew he would never betray her. She knew he had probably been up all night thinking of ways to help her. Not them. Her. She knew he would put her first; her needs, her wants, her desires. She knew, but she didn’t want to know. She wasn’t ready to know. Knowing and admitting she knew were two entirely different things and she couldn’t admit she knew. Admitting opened up too many cans of worms, too many other questions. Hard questions. She wasn’t ready for hard questions. Hell, she wasn’t ready for easy questions. So she buried what she knew to be true deep down in the place where she kept her innermost thoughts, and watched him go, never saying a word.

When Giles arrived home that evening, he had dinner with him. While the three ate in companionable silence, Spike noted that Buffy seemed to treat him better when the watcher was around. He considered this and the possible reasons while he drank his dinner. When they had all finished, the Watcher sat back in his armchair and informed the other two of the meeting he'd had with his slayer and her friends. “I was a participant in a very strange conversation with Angel and my Buffy earlier.”

“How do you mean, Giles?” Buffy asked as she shot a daggered glare at the snickering vampire beside her.

“I don’t want to upset you dear, but it appeared to me that Angel was acting a little suspiciously,” Giles offered hesitantly.

“Don’t go cryptic on me now, Giles. I need to know what happened,” she stated firmly.

Taking a breath, Giles looked hard at the older slayer, judging her openness to his upcoming revelations. He apparently found what he was looking for and nodded to her before continuing. “He seemed to be very casual when he asked my Buffy to tell him about her slaying activities last evening. He was particularly interested in what she had to say about the vampire she dusted outside the Bronze, but tried to hide his interest. He made a few suggestions relating to researching the St. Vigeous Day Ritual, none very helpful, I'm afraid. Apparently, when Buffy was fighting the vampire in the alley, she said she heard him call out for help to someone named ‘Spike’. Angel clearly recognized your name, Spike, but he said nothing. He did, however, say that he’d heard some rumours and that he needed to do a little more checking, but he might be able to remove the threat of the Anointed One for Buffy. As you can understand, Buffy was extremely grateful to him for this.” Giles’ expression was void of emotion as he imparted his tale.

Spike followed Giles’ lead on this, keeping his expression blank. He sat back and waited for Buffy’s reactions.

“That’s so weird. I remember that conversation like it just happened, you know? But that’s like, four and a half years ago for me and-and I remember thinking that Angel was being a little more weird than normal, but I was sooo happy that he was going to help me with the annoying one. Why do I remember it so clearly? Is it like what you were saying about her being me, Spike? That whole changing the future in the past deal?” Buffy questioned.

Spike noticed that the fact that she remembered the conversation so clearly was more important to her than the content of the conversation. He inwardly sighed at her need to avoid all matters that put Angel’s behaviour into question. The whole 'soul equals good, no soul equals bad' theory, was beginning to pull at him. The bloody great Poofter was gonna pay for that one day.

“What’s this?” Giles was intrigued.

“What? Oh Spike has a theory," Buffy told him and then looked to the vampire to explain further, as did the Watcher.

“Huh? Oh, well it’s not much of a theory, really. It's just my way of thinkin’ on the matter.” Spike started slowly, trying to explain what his thoughts on the matter were. “That ray that the nerds shot at us hit me directly and I got sent back into my old body, but the old me? He’s still in here. I can hear him. I can feel him. And he can feel and hear me. Not like having a conversation, mind you; it's more like a voice on the edge of my awareness. But Buffy here, she got hit by a filtered ray. It went through me and into her, so I figure that was why she didn’t get sent into her old body. Not enough power or somethin’. Thing is though, because he’s in here with me, he has access to all my memories. So even if he hasn’t lived through them, he knows what I lived through. Buffy on the other hand, isn’t in her old body, so their memories aren’t shared. They're still the same person, just at a different point in the timeline. So anytime somethin’ happens to your Buffy that’s different from what this Buffy lived through, this Buffy’s past changes and she doesn’t remember the difference. Her memories have already been changed. If we’re not careful, we could seriously bollocks up her life and the lives of the people she loves.”

“It’s an interesting theory, Spike, and one that I’m more then a little inclined to agree with. It certainly covers everything. However, it does leave us with some rather large problems,” Giles offered his opinion, all the while contemplating the intriguing vampire. He had noticed that Spike seemed far more concerned about the effects this situation might have on Buffy than any adverse effects it might have on himself. Giles had not been prepared for the apparent selflessness that the soulless vampire appeared to be displaying. This vampire was nothing like the watcher had always believed William the Bloody to be; the vampire that had many tomes depicting his violent nature. Giles longed to be able sit down with Spike and discuss all the events that had effectively changed this vampire into the individual he now was, rather than the monster that he was portrayed as in Giles’ books.

“Well, Spike came up with a really good idea about how we can survive financially and it helps my mom and us at the same time,” Buffy offered eagerly not even aware of how much she had come to rely on Spike. Spike however, was more than pleased at Buffy’s enthusiastic recant of his earlier ideas.

Giles’ shock that the mystical ring of Amara was actually real was quickly abated by his eagerness at hearing about the possibility of other magical items. The subject matter also gave him the opportunity to offer an idea of his own. “As my own magical abilities are limited, I was wondering how you would feel about allowing Miss Calendar to assist us?”

“It’s gonna affect the timeline, Giles.” Buffy considered her Watcher, momentarily contemplating how Jenny’s inclusion could change the events in her past. “But maybe that could be a good thing.”

Spike silently considered his own memories. If what he had been told and what he remembered was right, the Gypsy could help with more than just the magical items from the treasure of Amara. She could help get rid of the threat of Angelus. Then, maybe with a little encouragement, Angel would show his true colours and Buffy would see him for the manipulative lying bastard that he was.

“Only if you’re sure, Slayer.”

“Buffy, I think it would be beneficial to us if you were to write down as many as possible of the adversaries that you remember facing from this time and how you vanquished them. That way only minimal time would be required to deal with those problems and we can focus more fully on the issue of you and Spike,” Giles suggested.

“Um…okay. Sounds like a plan. I’ll do it in my room. It’ll be easier to concentrate.” Buffy picked up a notebook and pen and moved towards the hallway “But, if you’re gonna question him about his past, remember he gets loud when he gets pissed.” She threw a smirk over her shoulder at the vampire doing the fish impression.

Waiting until he heard the door close, Giles turned to his companion and asked the question that had been burning in his mind all day. “What didn’t she tell me, Spike?”

Spike considered the earnest expression on the face of the man in front of him as he internally argued with himself. 'She asked you not to tell them…but that was the Scoobies from your time…and they all know now anyway…she didn’t tell him herself…but she didn’t tell you not to either…this isn’t the same bitter watcher that you know, mate…maybe he could help her…girl needs her mum…maybe…if I can convince the watcher…Joyce could help my Slayer.'” Making his decision, Spike faced the concerned watcher “She was in heaven. The Scoobies pulled her out of heaven and left her in her grave. She had to dig her way out. She needs help, Watcher."

“Her mum died, she faced a hell god and then she died and went to heaven. She was at peace and they ripped her out of there, Rupert. She thinks heaven didn’t want her. She’s angry and hurting, and she really doesn’t need any more bullshit in her life. I can try and protect her from it, but that just brasses her off. Girl needs her mum, Watcher. We need to tell Joyce everything.” Spike’s worry and concern for his slayer was etched deeply into his expression.

“Good Lord.” Giles sat back in shock. He sat forward, as if to speak on several occasions but, until Spike placed a glass and his scotch in front of him and he drank his first glass, he was silent with the exception of a few inarticulate sounds.

“Perhaps the council…”

“NO! She’d never forgive you mate. I don’t know all the details, but I do know she doesn’t trust ‘em…and mate?” Spike waited until he had Giles’ undivided attention. “What ever went on with the Council of Wankers made you not trust ‘em either.”

Giles considered Spike’s words, making a mental note to himself that when the opportunity arose he would endeavour to find out what exactly happened between his Slayer, himself, and the Council.

“Do you honestly believe telling Joyce is the best choice?” Giles seriously inquired of the vampire.

“Bloody hell, Watcher, I think it’s the only choice.”

“I don’t know Mrs Summers, but I don’t imagine she’ll take the news well,” Giles commented mildly.

“What? The news that her only child is destined to fight monsters until she dies? That she’s destined to die young? That she’ll never have a normal life with a husband, kids, white picket fence, and a puppy, or that my Slayer has died twice and was then ripped out of heaven? My advice…make sure when you tell her there are no axes around. Buffy didn’t get all her aggression from her slayer side.” Spike smirked at the watcher.

Giving the vampire a sour look, Giles pointed out an obvious concern. “How will telling Mrs Summers affect the timeline?”

“Joyce found out, in my time, in a couple of months. The Slayer had to dust a vamp right in front of her. Joyce didn’t take it well, and the Slayer had to rush off to stop the Poof from opening Acathla so they didn’t have much time to talk. If I remember right, the other Slayer got killed and the cops thought my Slayer had done it. Joyce wanted to call the cops and tell ‘em everything, and she and Buffy had words. It wasn’t a happy time, I can tell you. I think, or maybe hope, that tellin’ Joyce now, in some sort of controlled environment, it‘ll make it easier on Buffy an’ safer for Joyce, especially if the Poof still manages to lose his soul.”

Giles smirked at the vampire. “I take it you are not particularly friendly with Angel?”

Spike looked at the watcher, his expression hard. “Mate, even if you took away everything that he’s done to me, the things he’s put that girl in there through…” he shook his head in disbelief. “The way he’s manipulated her into taking the blame for things he did…and still, she thinks he’s a bloody saint. The bastard has been the root of almost all her bloody emotional problems and she just can’t see him for what he is. It’s taking everything in me to not just go out and dust the bastard now.”

“Tell me,” Giles ground out, a touch of Ripper slipping into his voice.

So Spike did, and an hour later he had found an ally in the last person he would have expected to.

“Tell me about you, Spike. I’ve noticed that you’re very focused on protecting Buffy and doing what’s right for her, but what about you? How are you coping?”

Spike was left momentarily speechless by the apparent concern in the Watcher’s voice. It was so unexpected. Few people had ever shown him such concern; his mother, Joyce and Dawn. He never dreamed he'd get that sort of treatment from Giles. The shock caused William to come to the forefront, and with tears in his eyes, Spike spoke softly, “I’m lost Giles.”

“What do you mean, Spike?” the watcher gently encouraged the tearful vampire.

“I don’t want to go back. Not to what it was like before,” he whispered; his head hanging in shame. “I want to be a better man, but none of them will let me. They won’t give me a chance. They won’t help me. I want to help, but they always question my motives. Oh, I know it’s not their fault. Angelus really did a number on all of them, but they take it out on me…guess that’s ‘cause they can’t or won’t take it out on him, not with his soul and all. But I don’t understand watcher, aren’t you white-hats s’posed to help? Maybe point me in the right direction? Encourage me? I’m a vampire, this is all against my nature, and it’s hard. Who am I s’posed to go to for advice when no-one believes me?”

“I’ll help you, Spike,” Giles offered the morose vampire. Neither man nor vampire noticed the click of Buffy’s door when it closed.

‘No, no, no, no, no! This is not happening…but he seemed so sincere. NO! He’s a soulless demon. No soul equals no feelings. But Spike couldn’t lie to save himself, and that seemed sooo real. Okay, need to get a grip here.’ As Buffy’s continued inner argument unfolded, she moved in small circles around the room.

‘Let’s analyse this logically. I was doing well in psychology, even if the teacher was an insane-o Frankenstein’s monster making Nazi, I can do this. He said he wants to be a better man. Could the chip make him want that, or is it just because he knows he can’t be…well…what he was? Or does he really want to be a better man? Which is totally of the good if it’s true. He did pick me over the crazy ho, so that means she wanted to take him back and he could have gone anywhere and maybe found a doctor to get the chip out, but he stayed in Sunnydale, knowing that that meant keeping the chip or being dusted, even when I told him I wanted him gone and had him disinvited and everything. He stayed, Ooh, and then there was that whole beating he took from Glory, and he still didn’t tell about Dawnie. I told him I wouldn’t forget it, and I did sorta trust him when we were trying to escape. Even though he’d taken that whole beating and torture from the crazy hell ho, he didn’t hesitate to keep helping. I trusted him enough to leave Dawnie and Mom with him. He did stop that knight’s sword from turning me into Buffy-kebab. Nobody could say that him staying and helping to fight and look after Dawnie when I was in heaven was him just trying to get in to my…ah…good books, ‘cause…well…dead. And he was the only one I could talk to when my wonderful heaven stealing friends…Okay, not going there…

'So maybe he really is trying to be a better man and the chip just kinda made it easier to change…and really I did say I wouldn’t forget that whole Glory deal, and he knows not to mention any spell induced kissage, so maybe…wait a minute…he picked me over the crazy ho. He picked me over the crazy ho? Spike picked Buffy over Drusilla?? Spike totally worshiped Drusilla, but he picked me??? He stayed and he picked me over the love of his unlife??? Love?!? Spike loved Drusilla. Spike actually loved Drusilla…but, the books all say that’s not possible, demons can’t love. Angel said demons can’t love…and really, what with the effect of the soul and all, if demons could love then Angelus would have sooo totally loved me and he sooo totally didn’t…so we have like proof or something that demons can’t love…so how is it that Spike loved Dru…ooh…ooh, I know, maybe Spike’s like the exception to the rule and if I was like a friend to him I could totally help him be…well…one of the good guys…I could do that…and he’d be a really great help, what with the super powers and the fighting skills and the staying and all.’

Buffy smiled, but as she reached the decision to help him, she heard his voice replay in her mind, ‘I don’t want to go back’ and she froze, her mind reeling. “But, I need him,” she whispered to herself.

Buffy made a snap decision. This time there would be no leaving of Buffy, it was time to show Spike that he belonged and just exactly who it was that he belonged to. He belonged to the Summers women and the Summers women took care of their own. He seemed to be hurting just like she was; maybe helping him would help her feel better too. Squaring her shoulders, Buffy took a deep breath and left the sanctuary of her room.

“I feel like I’ve already failed her twice; I don’t want to fail her again, Giles.”

Buffy stopped as she heard Spike speak and wondered what he was talking about.

“Failed her how, Spike?” Giles gently asked Buffy’s question.

“I didn’t do a good enough job protecting Dawn; she got cut and Buffy had to sacrifice herself because of it. If I hadn’t failed, Buffy wouldn’t have died…then I failed her again by not stopping the Scoobies from bringing her back.”

“That’s crap, Spike,” Buffy interrupted him as she moved to sit next to him, her gentle tone at odds with her words. “You didn’t even know about the spell, how could you have stopped it? And you didn’t fail me on the tower, either. You tried your best, Spike; that’s the most any of us can do. You fell off a ten story tower and survived to look after my sister. You kept your promise to me and you kept me sane when I came back. You kept another promise to me, Spike. You kept my secret. You were the one that saved me from burning from the inside out with the dancing demon. You saved me, Spike. You never failed me, but I’m beginning to think that I've failed you.”

Spike’s look of shocked awe was enough to make Buffy almost cringe with guilt, but his words brought her world back into focus. “You under a spell again, Slayer?”

“Sheesh, Spike.” Buffy rolled her eyes. “It’s not like I have to be under a spell to be nice to you.”

“Wouldn’t know, pet,” Spike snarked back with a smirk.

Half-heartedly punching his bicep, Buffy grinned. “Shut up, Spike.”

“Make me, Slayer,” Spike teased.

Buffy’s speculative look caused the vampire much trepidation. “Okay, I claim you, Spike of Aurelius, in the name of the Summers women. You are ours.”

The answering “yours,” was out of his mouth before the poleaxed vampire could think. As his fish impression continued, Buffy smiled smugly at him. Lifting one eyebrow as she looked at him, she sardonically commented, “Well! I guess that worked.”

“Buffy, do you realise what you’ve done?” Giles asked mildly.

“Yep,” she answered, popping her ‘p’. “I claimed Spike…and even though it wasn’t a blood claim, I got his word and Spike always keeps his promise to a lady.”

“Actually dear, it’s a little more complicated than that. You just instigated the beginning of the mating ritual and had his demon cut his family ties to the Aurelian clan.”

“I what with the who?”

"I only bloody asked for a crumb, slayer," the vampire whispered in awe.

"I didn’t mean to," she said sheepishly.

"You said that when you made the bear, too." Spike pointed out, dryly.

“Oh, that sooo wasn’t my fault!” Buffy replied indignantly.

“Didn’t mean to? Are you saying you don’t wish to claim Spike, Buffy?” Giles asked sharply, concerned that the emotional vampire would be unnecessarily hurt.

“Oh, no, he’s mine Giles, but I sure as hell didn’t know about the matey thing.”

*******

“What the hell..?” Angel abruptly stopped walking. He’d just felt the family connection snap somewhere. Somewhere close. Extending his senses cautiously through the family bond, as he didn’t want anyone to know he was there, Angel felt for his Childer and through them his Grandchilder. There! There was the hole…Spike? Drusilla’s ire hit him like a ton of bricks. His childe was furious and for some reason it was all directed at him. ‘Well, it wasn’t my fault…I didn’t dust the little attention whore…maybe Buffy…no she was asleep when I stopped watching her.' Angel let his attention drift for a few minutes, images of his beautiful Buffy flitted through his mind, her blond tresses fanned over the pure white cotton pillowcase, the innocence of her face in repose. He shook his head as if to clear it of the images. Time to get back to the manner at hand. ‘What in the hell do I do now? Inconsiderate bastard, getting himself dusted before I had a chance to find out what he was planning. Oh well, at least he killed the Anointed One, so I can tell Buffy that problem has been handled. Best not to mention Spike though; it will only complicate matters. I’ll have to take the credit.' Angel’s deeply put upon sigh echoed through the night.

*******

Young Buffy sat up in bed, with a start. “Weird dream,” she mumbled as flashes of cerulean blue eyes and white blond hair played across her mind’s eye. Deeply chiselled cheekbones, full lips, and washboard abs completed the picture. Smiling to herself, she snuggled back under the covers with an almost inaudible ‘yum’.

“Mrs Summers,” Giles smiled in greeting. “Thank-you for joining me.”

“Please, call me Joyce,” she said returning his smile. She allowed herself to be ushered to a secluded booth at the rear of the coffee shop. “Buffy speaks of you often, Mr Giles.”

“Rupert,” he offered graciously.

“Rupert,” Joyce agreed.

“Joyce, the…er…subject I need to discuss with you is rather a delicate one. I know that you will be shocked by what I am going to say, but I ask you to hear me out before you decide that I require psychiatric evaluation.” Giles smiled in amused self-deprecation, but his earnestness encouraged Joyce’s willingness to hear him out.

“Can I assume that this has something to do with Buffy?” she cautiously asked the librarian.

“Yes, but let me first assure you that Buffy has done nothing wrong,” Giles quickly assured the concerned woman. “I am sure that you have heard of the gangs on PCP that are supposedly plaguing Sunnydale?"

“Of course, what a terrible epidemic...” Pausing, Joyce gave him a terrified look. “You’re not suggesting that Buffy is involved somehow?”

“Certainly not,” Giles firmly interrupted the concerned mother.

“Oh, thank God!” Joyce was relieved to hear his negation of her fears.

“PCP gangs are…well…ah…they are actually the Sunnydale Police Department’s euphemism for vampires,” Giles finally managed to say.

“Vampires? Are you on drugs, Rupert?” Joyce scoffed, raising an eyebrow in scepticism. “Please don’t tell me that you share in my daughter's delusions?”

“Joyce, I assure you I'm neither crazy, nor is Buffy delusional.”

“This is ridiculous! What kind of sane person would believe in vampires?” Joyce gathered her pocket book, preparing to leave.

“Please don't leave, Joyce. Your daughter needs your help right now,” he begged her. Desperate to help his two houseguests, he offered her a solution, “What if I can show you undeniable proof?”

“Proof? That vampires exist?” She looked at him in amusement; “Oh, yes. Please, show me your proof,” crossing her arms and looking remarkably like her daughter, Joyce focused on Giles in expectation as she decided to call his bluff.

Joyce watched as Giles appeared to gesture to someone behind her, indicating that whoever it was should join them. As she felt the presence behind her, all the hairs on the back of her neck stood up; a feeling of deep foreboding overcame her. For a brief moment, she considered the possibility that her daughter’s tendency towards denial might just have been inherited.

“Joyce, I’d like you to meet Angel.”

Joyce turned to greet the newcomer. He stood tall, his expression pinched and sombre. She felt momentarily overcome as a wave of intense emotion swept over her. She absolutely hated this man and she had no idea why. Dawning recognition dictated her cold response. “We’ve met before. Buffy’s tutor, I believe was the explanation I was originally given.”

“Um…that was actually Buffy’s idea, Joyce.” Angel looked acutely embarrassed.

“Please call me Mrs. Summers,” she ordered. “Do you often lie at the request of a child, er…Angel, is it?”

“Buffy thought it was best. She was trying to protect you.” Angel attempted to salvage the quickly disintegrating meeting.

“Buffy is sixteen. Surely as the adult, you should have known better.” She dismissed him in disgust. Returning her attention to Giles, she made her demand. “You said something about proof, Rupert?”

“Angel is a vampire, Joyce. I am going to ask him to show you his true face, but as we are in a public place, you will need to remain calm. Angel, if you would?” Giles made his request of the vampire, but kept his eyes firmly on Joyce. He watched as she went through a gamut of expressions, fear, horror, disgust, shock, and finally back to horror.

“Oh, no…we had her committed…we didn’t believe…Oh Rupert, I’m a bad mother.” Joyce’s eyes filled with tears as she thought of her child and what she had gone through. Buffy had begged them to believe her. She had promised that she could prove what she was saying. She had pleaded with them to give her a chance, but furious and embarrassed over the burning down of the school gym, Joyce and Hank hadn’t even considered for a moment that their daughter might have been telling the truth.

Giles reached his hand across the table to Joyce’s, patting while he muttered nonsensical words, hoping to ease her guilt. While he waited for her to regain her composure, he motioned Angel to leave, much to the displeasure of the morose vampire.

When Joyce was ready, Giles told her about Slayers and the life Buffy was called to. He offered her books to read and offered to answer any question she had at any time. He told her about the most recent situation; about Buffy being torn from Heaven. He told Joyce about Buffy’s claim on Spike. He told her of Spike’s suggestion that she be told everything. He told her that Spike felt that older Buffy needed her mother. He made certain she knew that neither Buffy knew that he was talking to her and he told her why it was imperative at this time that the younger version didn’t find out.

He was not surprised when Joyce, after hearing of all that the older Buffy had and was facing, immediately demanded to meet the older version of her daughter, but he was surprised when Joyce also demanded to meet her daughter’s vampire protector. The one her daughter had claimed as family.

*******

“Um…we may have another problem,” Buffy informed Spike as she made her way into the living room from the bathroom.

“And what would that be, pet?” he asked cautiously.

“You remember that when something changed for the other Buffy, it changed for me too?” She tried to explain the confusing array of memories that seemed to assail her.

“Yeah?” He prompted her to continue.

“Well I woke up with another one of those moments.” Buffy’s face showed clearly just how confused she was feeling.

“Do you remember what you were thinking about, luv?” Spike’s concern started to blossom.

“Dawn,” Buffy replied absently, mentally going over her memories again. Abruptly stiffening at an obvious anomaly, she turned to Spike and shared her confusion. “Can you think of any reason why I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that my sister Dawn is fifteen and that she is one year younger than me, but I also remember her as being five years younger than me at mom’s funeral?”

*******

‘Oh, well, this is just perfect! Why do these things always happen to me? Okay, you’re the sister of the slayer that doesn’t stay dead, She doesn’t know that you’re alive, but she doesn’t stay dead. Note to self – bitterness, look into it. Concentrate, Dawnie! Pluses: Mom’s alive. Buffy’s kinda cool at this age. You’re only a year younger than her. Maybe this Buffy will let you research. Okay, liking the pluses. Could get used to it here. Minuses: no Spike. Well, there is a Spike, but this one’s still with the crazy ho-bag. This one doesn’t have a chip and isn't my best friend. Argggh! What do I do? Crap! I’m gonna have to sneak out and go see Giles. When this gets straightened out, I am sooo going to tell Buffy to slay Snyder. I just hate that little troll!"

Giles ushered Joyce into his apartment. He was just getting her settled when he heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and a voice floated down.

"Oi, Watcher? The Slayer wants to know where you hide the good shampoo? When you had me chained to the tub, you hid it in the upstairs linen closet. She's right particular about what she puts on that shampoo commercial hair of hers.”

When Spike reached the bottom of the stairs, he noticed Joyce. His eyes moistened as he gazed upon the woman he had looked on both as a friend and a second mother. He whispered his name for her as one might whisper a prayer, “Mum.”

Joyce felt an overwhelming need to offer Spike comfort. She opened her arms to him and invited him in. As her arms wrapped tightly around the tearful vampire, she internally recognized him as one of her own; another child to love and protect. Her own eyes filled with tears of joy. Pulling slightly back from him to gaze into his tear streaked face, she smiled and offered him the most wonderful words he’d heard in more than a century. “Welcome home.”

Turning slightly to face the smiling watcher, Joyce shot him a look that promised pain and lots of it, her voice cold enough to freeze flame. “You chained him to your bathtub?”

Spike chuckled warmly, delighted at her protective stance. “It’s not like that, mum. It was the watcher from my time and I’d given him plenty of reason not to trust me. This one’s been nothin’ but kind to me.”

“SPIKE!” Buffy bellowed from the bathroom. “Where’s that shampoo?”

"Comin’, luv." Spike rolled his eyes at Joyce.

"EWWWWW!" she cried. her joke not successfully disguised as disgust.

"And she thinks I have a dirty mind," He chuckled.

Giles calmly walked to the bathroom door, “It’s in the cupboard under the sink, dear,” he informed her through the door, almost positive that he heard an embarrassed little ‘eep’ before she thanked him.

As Giles moved to rejoin Spike and Joyce in the living room, his front door was accosted by an abusive knocker and was opened before anyone could move.

“OH, MY GOD!” Dawn stood stock still at the sight of her mother hugging Spike. Evil Spike. Evil Chipless Spike.

“Easy on the ears there, Nibblet.” Spike grinned at the girl. This was his Dawn; he didn’t know how he knew it, but he did.

Dawn’s look of shock was exchanged for one of hope, as she asked in a voice that trembled with emotion. “Spike? My Spike?” His nod and gentle smile had her almost leaping into his comforting embrace. She wasn’t alone; her best friend was here too. She promptly burst into tears.

“Dawnie?” Buffy’s voice trembled as she spotted her weeping sister in the arms of her vampire.

“Buffy?” Joyce paused mid-step in her move towards her younger, weeping daughter.

“Mommy?” both girls whispered in prayer-like unison. Time seemed to freeze for an instant and then both weeping girls were in their mother’s arms.

~*~*~

The younger Buffy was busily doling out punch into cups, getting ready for the arrival of parents for Parent-Teacher night, when Willow approached her.

“What kinda punch did you make?”

“Uh…lemonade.” Buffy smiled, handing Willow a cup. “I made it fresh and everything.”

“How much sugar did you use?” Willow asked, smiling at her friend and taking a sip.

“Sugar?” Buffy questioned vacuously, her eyes wide in confusion. Looking back at the punchbowl, she failed to see Willow’s grimace at the incredibly sour taste of the lemonade.

“It's very good,” Willow offered loyally.

Buffy looked around the room to assure herself that there were no unwanted ears listening. Leaning into her friend conspiratorially, Buffy kept her voice low. “I had this dream last night about some droolworthy guy who sooo wasn’t Angel.”

“Really?” Willow asked excitedly.

“Uh huh! Wicked hot, and I think it was a Slayer Dream,” Buffy informed her. “It felt like I was being introduced to him or something; like I was destined to meet him and that he’s like really important to my future.”

“Have you told Giles? I mean with him being your watcher and you being the Slayer and it being a Slayer Dream, shouldn’t you be sorta going with the telling? ‘Cause he would be able to explain it and what are you going to do about Angel? Aren’t you sort of in love with him, ‘cause new guy could kinda cause you a problem there?” Willow babbled.

“Nah, I haven’t said anything,” Buffy admitted sheepishly, “I kinda wanted to see if I had…you know…another one tonight.”

“That good, huh?” Willow smiled at her friend.

“Better than chocolate,” Buffy assured her.

“Better than chocolate?” Willow responded, shocked.

“Ya huh,” Buffy confirmed.

“But what about Angel, Buffy?” Willow asked, her voiced laced with concern.

“Oh, he wasn’t in it. Just the blond hottie,” Buffy informed her friend cluelessly.

~*~*~

Angel awkwardly sat in his one chair in his dark basement apartment, morosely going over his meeting with the mother of his love. His demon was furious at Giles’ dismissal of him. How dare Giles discard him like that? He wasn’t even given the opportunity to prove he was a good man to Joyce. And Joyce; what was that ‘call me Mrs. Summers’ crap about? Angel shook his head in disbelief.

Buffy was not going to be happy when she found out that Giles had gone behind her back and informed her mother about her slayer destiny. Why was it now that Giles had suddenly decided to tell Joyce? And there was no way he was calling her Mrs. Summers, he was six times her age.

There was something wrong here; he could almost smell it. Giles had been adamant that Buffy keep her slayer identity secret. He wondered what could have changed the watcher’s mind and why now? Clearly there was something going on that he was not privy to. He was going to have to do something about that. How was he supposed to do what was best for Buffy if he wasn’t told everything? It looked like a little visit to the library was in order for the evening. It was time he and the watcher had a conversation. After all, he was the one who was chosen by the powers to help her. How could he do that if they withheld information? He was only trying to help. Giles should understand that he, Angel, always knew what was best.

Moving to the fridge to get himself some blood, Angel’s thoughts again returned to the meeting with Joyce. While he warmed up his blood in the microwave, he thought about her reactions to him. Granted, she may have had reason to be a little ticked over the tutor thing. After all, Buffy did lie to her. But it’s not like it was his fault. He didn’t tell Buffy to lie to her mother. If anyone was to blame, it should be Giles. He was the one that wanted Buffy to lie. Maybe letting Joyce know that would be the right thing to do?

He knew that Joyce might feel he was a little old for her daughter, that maybe their beautiful relationship was wrong, but he felt sure that if he explained to her that he was Buffy’s soulmate and that their love was true love and that true love can't be wrong, she would eagerly offer her support. Yes, Buffy was young and innocent, but he wasn't that much older when he was turned. Only twenty nine.

“Let me see if I have this straight,” Joyce said from her position on the couch, firmly settled between her two daughters.

“At this point in time, I have a sixteen year old daughter, who is the Slayer – the one girl in all the world who fights demons, but she’s not actually the only one anymore because when she was killed by a bat-faced old master, known affectionately as ‘the ugly old git’. My daughter was then resuscitated by a young man who may or may not have a crush on her while her useless ‘poofter’ of a boyfriend stood by and did nothing. Because she did technically die, another girl was called.” Joyce paused for breath before continuing.

“My fifteen year old daughter is not actually my daughter, but an ancient mystical ‘glow-y key thing-y’ that a group of monks turned into an innocent child and sent to the slayer for protection from a ‘skanky ho hell god’, who wants to ‘stick her in a lock’. This would kill Dawn and pull down all the dimensional walls causing hell on earth. Dawnie is thought to have come to us in 2000, where she suddenly appeared as an ‘annoying' fourteen year old, but because of a spell done by the ‘stupid’ monks, everyone’s memories had been altered to include Dawn in our lives, making it difficult to pinpoint the timing of her arrival.

“Last night, when Dawn went to bed it was 2001 and she was fifteen. When she woke up, it was 1997 and she was still fifteen, but apparently all of our memories with the exception of Dawn, Spike, and possibly this Buffy, have again been altered to fit the reality of Dawnie being here, now aged fifteen. At this point we don’t have any idea why this has happened.” Joyce took another deep breath and turned to Buffy.

“This Buffy is my twenty year old daughter from 2001, who was sent back in time with Spike by a ‘bunch of nerds with a ray-gun’ and while Buffy is stuck here for an indefinite amount of time, Spike can’t go back because the Spike of this time is trapped in this Spike’s body…is that it?” Joyce asked her audience, her obvious amusement highlighted by a raised eyebrow.

“Wow, way to go with the non-wigginess, mom.” Dawn looked at her mother, impressed.

“You’re sure taking it better than you did in my time,” Buffy huffed, pouting.

Tearing his eyes away from her lips and stifling a groan, Spike offered a gentle rebuke. “In all fairness, luv, you’d been accused of murdering the other slayer, you’d just dusted a vamp in front of her, told her you were the slayer, and didn’t give her any time to process it before you told her you were off to save the world.”

“Stop using logic on me, that is so not fair,” Buffy pretended to whine, but when Spike smirked at her, she turned to Dawn and asked in mock seriousness. "How can he be so brilliant and yet so amazingly dense at the same time?"

Dawn giggled as Spike’s expression alternated between wounded for the insult and delight for the compliment.

Buffy’s shot up straight, her body still, and her eyes closed. Opening them wide she looked directly at Spike. “Na ah, that so did not happen.”

“What’s that, pet?” he quickly asked the shocked girl.

“I think I know what’s causing some of our problems.” Buffy diverted everyone’s attention away from Spike’s question.

“What would that be Buffy?” Giles asked.

“The claim, I think it’s causing a connection between all the Summers women. Like Dawnie, for example. When the monks sent her to me, what if they bonded her to me or something and when I was sent through time, the key part of her sort of recognized a distance between us and tried to like re-establish contact, or something, but because I was back in time…I don’t know, maybe the connection was weak?” Buffy tried to explain her way of thinking.

“And you think that the claim, because it was in the name of Summers women, made the connection stronger and ‘bit’s keyness brought her back here to us?” Spike finished her thought.

“Well...yeah. Ooh, ooh, and maybe the memory changes happen automatically to like protect Dawnie. The spell is muta-whatsey,” Buffy offered excitedly.

“That would be mutable, Buffy,” Giles gently corrected. “And that is certainly a feasible explanation.”

“So, what was the other Buffy’s memory change that brought on this little epiphany, Slayer?” Spike grinned at the girl, one eyebrow raised. He knew his slayer; he knew she had sidestepped his earlier question and he was mightily curious to know why.

“It’s nothing. I just remembered a conversation I had with Willow once,” She responded with forced casualness.

“About what, Buffy?” Giles’ interest was equally piqued.

“So not going there.” Buffy’s stubborn expression brooked no argument and Spike was suddenly sure that the claim was also having some sort of effect on the younger version of his slayer, which meant things were going to start getting real interesting, real soon.

~*~*~

“Buffy, I need to speak to you.” Angel caught the attention of the beautiful young blond.

“Angel,” Buffy hissed at the brooding vampire, while she grabbed his arm and ushered him into the hall. “What are you doing here? It’s Parent/Teacher night, everyone will be arriving soon. You can't be here.”

“Look, I have something important to tell you and I didn’t think it should wait,” Angel firmly told the young girl.

“Well, can you like, hurry up, so you can move on to the part where you’re not here?” Buffy looked around frantically, terrified that Snyder, that little troll, would find them.

"Giles told your mother about you being the Chosen One," Angel patiently explained to Buffy. "I thought you should know what was going on."

“Oh, thank God. I'm so glad I didn't have to do that.” Buffy thought for a minute. “How'd she take it? Was she mad?” Suspicion suddenly dawned on the petite blond. “How exactly is it that you know this?”

“I know you’re busy, I’ll wait in the library with Giles so you don’t have to deal with him alone.” Coat billowing dramatically, Angel ignored the question from the fuming blond and left her to her Snyder inflicted duties.

~*~*~

“Giles, Angel just told the younger me about you telling mom,” Buffy told the watcher. “He’s waiting in the library for you and I think he expects her to be pissed at you, but from what I’m getting, she’s more pissed at Angel than you.”

“She’s not the only one,” Giles muttered, as he reached for the door. “I’m happy to see that you are able to utilise the memory changes, Buffy. I believe we can use it to our advantage."

“It’s getting really easy. I suddenly get a memory from when I lived through this time. It’s like a vision…sort of. It tells me there’s a memory change. I just tell you about the vision,” Buffy shrugged nonchalantly.

“Yes, well that is excellent news.” Giles smiled at her. “Right then, we had best be on our way. While we’re at the school’s Parent/Teacher night, what will you two be doing?”

“We’re heading over to the caves. We’re gonna take the digging thingies you got us and make a start on getting the treasure. We’ll probably be late, so we’ll take the key you gave us,” Buffy informed him as she and Spike moved to hug Dawn and Joyce goodbye.

~*~*~

Buffy and Spike worked well together. Spike had come to the conclusion that Buffy was certainly better to work with than the minions he’d had the last time he’d done this. In his estimation, they’d be through to the chamber in minutes. He wasn’t wrong.

When they got into the cavern, Spike walked directly over to the fabled ring of Amara. Picking it up, he silently handed it over to Buffy. Moving away, he grabbed one of the smaller boxes they had thought to bring with them and started to move around the room, placing specific items in the box. He directed his words over his shoulder to Buffy. “Just let me pick up the magical things, Slayer, and then we can pack up the rest.”

“How do you know which ones are magical?” Buffy asked curiously.

“I can sense ‘em. Magic always leaves a residual scent,” he explained offhandedly.

Once all the magical items had been found and packed into the small box, Spike marked it and left it by the entrance. The two of them then started to systematically go through the room and pack up the rest of the treasure. The companionable silence that they were working in was suddenly shattered by Buffy’s exclamation of shocked indignation.

“I can’t believe he just did that!” Buffy exclaimed furiously.

“What’s that, luv?” Spike focused on her, his curiously piqued.

“Angel! He just took credit for taking out the Annoying One!”

“Hey guys, what’s the what?” Buffy came bouncing into the library; she seemed to be positively bubbling over with happiness.

Smiling indulgently, Giles came out of his office. He had voluntarily sequestered himself, in an effort to avoid the brooding brunette vampire and keep his temper from erupting. “You seem happy, dear?”

“Yeah, definitely lookin’ like you took your happy pills there, Buffster.” Xander joked, mentally doing a happy dance that the object of his desire hadn’t given the hated vampire any special greeting.

“Did something happen, Buffy?” Willow grinned at her friend and picking up on Buffy’s apparent happiness, she felt her own happiness bubble inside her in solidarity.

“Mom! She totally slammed Snyder,” Buffy gushed enthusiastically, “She told him that if he were like, an example of the people responsible for her child’s education, then it was no wonder that I had average grades. Which I should totally be mad about, ‘cause, hello, grades not that bad, but then she told him that he came across as a man that didn’t even like kids so maybe he should like, look for another line of work! So…not so much with the madness. I’m happy-Buffy.”

“Oh wow, can she be my mom too?” Xander asked, in awe. He momentarily thought of his own parents and stifled his groan of friendly jealousy, why couldn’t his parents be like that?

Willow, on the other hand, bit her bottom lip, internally debating whether to speak her concerns or not. Her belief that forewarned is forearmed convinced her to speak up, “You don’t think he’ll, like take it out on you, do you Buffy?”

“Don’t care,” Buffy shrugged, “The look on his face will stay with me forever.” Her smile seemed to light up the room.

“Buffy,” Angel waited until he had everyone’s attention, “You don’t have to worry about the Anointed One or his minions anymore. They’ve been taken care of.”

Buffy gave a happy squeal and raced to give him a human-breaking hug.

“Angel, are you saying that you are responsible for vanquishing the Anointed One and his minions?” Angel really didn’t like the disbelief that seemed to lace Giles’ question. Pausing briefly, he looked the watcher directly in the eye and replied firmly, “Yes, Giles. I am responsible.”

~*~*~

Silently Buffy and Spike manoeuvred the boxes filled with treasure into the safe at the Gallery; Joyce had given them the combination and alarm codes earlier. When they’d placed the final box, they made their way out of the walk-in safe, and reset everything before heading back to Giles’ with only the box of magical items. As they walked, Spike looked over at the still fuming slayer and attempted to refocus the direction of her thoughts; it was never a good thing to be around a brassed-off slayer and he didn’t want her to take her mood out on him. “Slayer, can I ask you a question?”

Looking at him warily, Buffy ventured cautiously, “What?”

“How does the memory thing work?”

“Oh that,” she was relieved at his question, she was seriously freaked by the other Buffy’s dream and in no way did she want to even think about the fantasies that the other her was now having, “It’s really weird. I know I should be wigged by having my memories disappearing, or I guess being replaced is really more accurate, but I’m not. I’m not losing the things I’m doing now, but my past is changing and that’s kinda scary ‘cause, you know, what if it gets worse or something? But then, what if it gets better?

“Right now, I don’t remember when I first met you. I remember you and I remember the whole Halloween incident and that I knew you then, but I don’t remember meeting you before then so how could I know you at Halloween? You get what I mean?”

“Yeah, I get it. But, when something happens to the other Buffy that changes your memories, you get a warnin’, right?” He tried to clarify the confusion.

Nodding excitedly in agreement, Buffy continued, “Its sooo cool, I get this like vision and it plays like a movie in my head, with me in the starring role. I see the situation so clearly and it’s like I’m suddenly reliving my memory, but it only happens with memories that are being changed, so that gives me a heads up that something’s different. Like before, I now have this memory of Angel telling us that he took care of the Anointed One, and although I don’t remember what happened in my time, I know that he didn’t take credit for it then and I know that you did it then. But I also know that you and I took the annoying one out this time, because that’s not a past past memory for me, I mean like four years past, twenty year old Buffy was involved not sixteen year old Buffy, so I know that memory can’t be altered.”

“I hate to bring this up luv, but since you mentioned the Poof, did you tell Giles about the Gypsy?” Spike knew this was going to be a difficult conversation for Buffy, but he honestly believed they had to get it out of the way before they got back to the watcher.

“No, did you?”

“No, but I think we should.” Spike offered his opinion, “Look we’re already changing history and yeah, we have to be careful, but, we might need the curse, luv.”

Thinking about it, Buffy knew he was right, but her own ambivalent feelings towards the teacher remained. She didn’t want the teacher to die. She didn’t want Angelus to make an appearance. If talking to Giles about Jenny Calendar could stop either or both of those things, then there really wasn’t much choice. “You’re right.”

~*~*~

When Buffy and Spike let themselves into Giles’ apartment, they found the agitated watcher pacing around his living room. Before they could say a word of greeting, he had launched into his tirade, “Do you know what that bastard did? Have you any idea of the height of that vampire’s gall? He actually berated me for hiding things from him. He told me that because he was the all mighty bloody champion, that the Powers That Be had called him to be MY SLAYER’S protector, that he should be the one to make all the decisions relating to Buffy. He told me that he EXPECTED a full report as to why I felt it necessary to go behind his slayer’s back and tell her mother about her calling, when I had previously been against the idea. The very idea, that that sanctimonious bore deems himself worthy of my slayer is farcical in the extreme and if that wasn’t enough, he then waited around for Buffy and took credit for the demise of the Anointed One and his minions!”

Buffy had never seen this side of her watcher. She had absolutely no idea what to say or do. She was terrified that if she said the wrong thing, she would set him off again and that was seriously the last thing she wanted. Looking to Spike for inspiration, Buffy watched in awe as the unfazed bleached blond calmly put down the box he was carrying, made Giles a drink and handed it to him. Spike then waited until Giles had finished his first and offered him a second. With the second drink, Giles seemed to calm down considerably and this helped Buffy calm down too.

Spike watched the watcher visibly relax, when his heart rate had slowed to a healthier speed, Spike took the opportunity to add some levity, “So, what you’re sayin’ is, that the Poof’s been sniffin’ his own hair gel and that he’s a bloody wanker.”

Giles started snickering, his snickers soon escalated into chortles and then onto a full out belly laugh, tears included. It didn’t take long for the other two to join him, his laughter was infectious. When their laughter had finally died down, Buffy took the opportunity to broach the subject of Jenny.

“Ah…Giles, you know how we told you about Angel’s curse being kinda shaky?” Buffy started, hesitantly. The idea of telling Giles about Jenny scared her; she didn’t want to hurt him.

“Yes?”

“Well I sorta didn’t mention that we knew of a way to get all the information on the curse that you need.” Buffy offered.

“How?” Giles was beginning to suspect that, as much as he wanted the information, he was not going to be happy about where that information was coming from.

“Jenny Calendar,” Buffy began, “She’s a member of the Calderash Clan, they’re the ones that cursed him in the first place.”

Giles stared at Buffy, his expression blank. Slowly a smile started to appear, “Jenny is part of the clan that cursed Angel, you say?”

“Uh-huh,” Buffy answered him, still cautious, but pleased that he seemed to be taking it better than the last time he’d found out.

“Well that’s marvellous,” he beamed. But, when he noted the caution on his slayer’s face, his smile faded slightly. Realising he obviously didn’t have the full story, Giles did a quick mental calculation of all known facts, in an effort to ready himself for the rest of the information relating to the woman to whom he was slowly becoming enamoured.

“In our time,” Buffy paused momentarily, struggling to keep her anger at the gypsy out of her voice, it wasn’t fair on Giles to prejudice him for something the woman he cared for had yet to do. “Jenny didn’t tell us the details of the curse or her mission, until after Angel had lost his soul. I honestly believe that, had she told us, our lives would have been very different…and Jenny would have lived. I think by not telling us, she started a chain reaction that, well, that’s had devastating effects on all of us.”

Moved, by the soft sadness of her voice, Giles gently encouraged his soft hearted slayer to continue, “Go on, dear.”

Buffy really didn’t want to think of those times; the memories were too painful. The bitterness that she’d bottled up for years waited like a predator of the night. She was terrified that once she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop. She’d been the slayer for almost six years and even though she’d complained about wanting to be a normal teenager, if she was honest with herself, she would have to admit that given time, she would have found a way to make it work for her. Given time, she would have found herself.

It wasn’t being the slayer that had damaged her so completely; it was the people she’d trusted, loved, that had caused her the most pain. If she started this, if she told Giles everything, would it achieve anything? Would it help? Or would it just cause him pain? Would it just cause her pain? Ripping away the scab of a wound that had festered into a poisonous lesion would be a painful experience, but by attempting to cleanse the injury, would it finally be allowed to heal? Or would she be doing more damage? Taking a deep breath, Buffy made her decision; it was time to clean the wound.

“You have to remember, none of this has happened in this timeline yet. But, I can’t go through most of it again, Giles, I just can’t. I want to actively alter the events I lived through. I want your input on this, I know that changing my past doesn’t guarantee that my life, all our lives, will be better, but I don’t believe it’s possible to make it worse.” Buffy implored her watcher to recognize just how serious she was.

“I understand, Buffy,” he assured her.

“Okay,” Buffy took a deep breath and began her tale. “Jenny didn’t tell us anything, so the only actual knowledge we had at the time was that Angelus had been cursed by a clan of gypsies as retribution for killing one of them. We found out after Angelus returned that Jenny had been sent here by her clan to keep an eye on him. Apparently, up until the time he started working with me, they didn’t feel that the curse was under any threat of being broken. But, when he started to work with me, that all changed.

“There is only one way to break the curse. If Angel experiences a moment of perfect happiness, the curse will be broken. In my time, I gave him that moment.” Only the slight shaking of her hands betrayed the depths of her pain. Talking about this memory from her past brought with it all the emotions she’d long buried away. The wound had been opened.

“After Angelus reappeared, everything came out. I think we all felt betrayed that she hadn’t told us who she really was or that there was a possibility of the curse being broken; I know I was furious at her. If we’d known beforehand that the curse wasn’t stable, we might have been able to prevent hundreds of deaths and the not so little amount of psychological pain that that bastard put us through.”

Buffy stood and started pacing, her memories assailed her; the pain of them was almost palpable. “Jenny found a copy of the curse and started working on deciphering it, so that she could re-curse him. Most of us had agreed that if we could re-soul him, we would be saving a warrior for the Powers. Xander, of course just wanted him dusted.

“You had managed to get over your feelings of betrayal and had started a tentative relationship with Jenny, you were falling in love.” Buffy smiled sadly at Giles, “But then Angelus found out that she was planning to re-ensoul him and killed her, leaving her body for you to find.

“Jenny had managed to decipher the curse before she was killed and Willow found it. Willow was the one to curse him, but I really believe it was too much magic for her to be trying and it started her on a bad road. Most of the really bad things that happened after that can be traced back to Angel losing his soul; if we stop that happening…everything will change.” Buffy sat back down, she looked exhausted.

Contemplating all that he had been told, Giles started formulating a plan. He agreed with Buffy, that her past should be changed, but when he took into account all that Spike had told him, he realised something that she clearly hadn’t - the appearance of Angelus had been the beginning of the end of Buffy’s relationship with Angel. While he had no intention of allowing Angelus to be released, he also had no intention of allowing Buffy’s relationship with Angel to develop any further. It would appear that he and Spike needed to have another little conversation. However, for the moment, there were more pressing details to address. “Do you think we should invite Jenny to join us?”

“I think that sounds like a plan,” Buffy smiled tiredly, “But, for now, I’m going to bed…it’s been a long day.” She offered them both a ‘goodnight’ before leaving the room.

~*~*~

"Mom," Dawn hissed, "I just saw Angel hovering around outside like a giant bat." Dawn pulled her mother over to the window, and the two of them carefully peeked out the curtain. Sure enough, there he was sitting in the tree, outside Buffy’s window.

Joyce gave a growl that would have made Spike proud. "That idiot is really starting to get on my nerves." Joyce thought for a second. "I have a plan. You go talk him out of the tree, but give me enough time to get out there."

As Dawn made her way up to her sister’s room, Joyce made a beeline for the broom closet. Dramatically throwing the curtains open, Dawn glared at the brooding vampire in the tree, “You know,” she started casually, “Using the gel like that just makes your forehead look larger.”

Ignoring her remark and giving her a look as aloof as was possible from a vampire sitting in a tree, Angel announced, “I’m just waiting for Buffy.”

“Yeah, well, Buffy’s in the shower and stalker that you are, I think you’re just here to sneak a peek. Not tonight Brood Boy, Buffy’s going to be busy, so you can just make like a bat and fly away.” Dawn smirked, a look which reminded Angel eerily of Spike. Throwing a glare at the belligerent teenager, he made his way out of the tree. As he reached the ground he was momentarily dazed by a resounding whack to the head.

“Stay the hell away from my daughter.” Joyce ground out. With her axe held loosely but firmly by her side, she looked decidedly like a Valkyrie warrior.

Angel slowly backed away from the crazy woman in front of him. Seeing her like this, completely unbalanced had him coming to the hurried decision that he should be talking to Giles soon, Buffy needed to be removed from this unhealthy environment.

As he hurried down the street holding his throbbing head, he was distressed to hear the sound of the laughing teen in the window as she called out "Go mom! At least this time you whacked the right vamp.”

Xander was the first to reach the library door, putting his hand to the door and opening it fractionally as he smiled over his shoulder at the straggling girls. As they reached him, Xander heard something through the opening that caused him to halt their progress and beckon them to join him in listening to the ongoing conversation.

“She hit me over the head with an axe, Giles. She is obviously unstable.” Angel spoke the words harshly, still smarting over the wound to his pride. “Buffy’s kid sister just laughed. There is no telling what Joyce will do to Buffy, I need to protect her.”

Xander looked at Buffy and judging from the look of fury on her face she was not pleased with what she was hearing.

Giles just looked at the fuming vampire in front of him; it amazed him that the more time he spent with soulless Spike the more he hated the brooding souled vampire he was forced to work with. Glancing past the vampire to the door of the library he noted that it was slightly ajar. There was no way that could happen unless someone was holding it on the other side. He really hoped that the person listening was his young charge; it was time her eyes were opened. “While I do not believe for one moment that Mrs. Summers is in any way unstable, what exactly is it that you are suggesting?”

“Can’t the council take over as her legal guardian, that way you could get her out of that mad house?” Angel eagerly asked.

Giles’ look of outrage was the first thing Buffy noticed as she silently entered the library and she was really pleased to see it. “Mad house?” She queried mildly, her crossed arms belying the calmness of her demeanour.

Spinning around at her voice, Angel gasped out her name, “Buffy!” Clearly panicked for the moment, he looked lost for words. Quickly deciding that the best defence was a good offence, he opened his big brown puppy dog eyes and made his accusation; “Your mother attacked me last night, Buffy.”

“Why?” She asked simply, her face devoid of emotion.

“I don’t know, Buffy, she didn’t say anything before she me hit from behind.” Angel responded, his tone grave.

“What were you doing?” Buffy again tried to get to the facts behind Angel’s bland statements.

Again giving Buffy his well practiced expression of pained martyrdom, Angel informed her of his innocent actions. “I’d been at your window, I was just checking on you. When I climbed down, your mother hit me.”

“Gee Angel, what was she thinking?” Buffy commented sarcastically, “She sees a grown man hovering in the tree and looking in her sixteen year old daughter’s bedroom window, how did you expect her to act? You could have been a Peeping Tom for all she knew. You’re lucky she didn’t just call the cops.”

Angel looked at her, his shock visible to all. He couldn’t believe it; she was supposed to be on his side. Didn’t she realise that her mother should have known it was him? He was her protector after all! Why didn’t Joyce know that he was someone she should be happy was looking out for her daughter? Joyce had had enough time to be told everything, hadn’t Giles told her his position in Buffy’s life? Maybe not, the watcher had been less that friendly with him recently. Maybe the watcher was trying to ingratiate himself into Joyce’s life and push him, Angel, out. It seemed like another talk with the watcher was on the cards.

Heaving a put upon sigh, Angel told Buffy and Giles he’d talk to them later, knowing that he would be getting Giles alone for the little chat he had in mind for the watcher. Nodding to the rest, he turned towards the stacks and made his exit.

The entire group waited in silence until Buffy indicated that Angel was indeed gone. Turning to her watcher, Buffy felt an urgent need for reassurance. “You’re not going to ask the council to do that, are you Giles?”

“No, of course not, Buffy; your mother is a wonderful woman and she’s doing a wonderful job raising you and your sister. Regardless of anything Angel might say.” Giles’ disdain for the vampire was clear in his tone.

Giles knew that during their talk the day before, Joyce and the older slayer had made the decision that they needed to talk alone. Joyce had made arrangements for Dawn to stay at a friend’s place for the night and Spike had volunteered to join Giles at the library to meet with Jenny. The younger slayer and her friends were going to the Bronze so Giles was not concerned with them walking in on them in the middle any of the conversations and accidentally discovering Spike. Giles knew that in order to talk with Jenny he needed to catch her before she went home for the evening, so after telling the group that they had earned a night off he made his way to the computer lab and invited the dark haired beauty to join him in the library when she was free.

Spike arrived at the library just moments after Giles had returned from the computer room. With Spike’s arrival Giles picked up the book he had been reading and handed it to the bleached blond vampire.

“What’s this?” He asked the watcher, his curiosity piqued.

“It’s a ritual I’d like you to look at,” Giles smiled at the vampire with barely contained excitement, “I believe you wanted to be accepted as a …er…whitehat?”

“Yeah?”

“Then I think you’ll find that to be very interesting, Spike.”

Before Spike could comment the doors to the library opened and Jenny walked in. Spike decided his questions could wait.

Giles introduced Spike to her as his friend and earned Spike’s eternal loyalty. Indicating that they should all sit, Giles waited until they had before he started. “Jenny, a situation has arisen with which we will require your assistance. There are only six of us that know about this situation and once you’ve learned what it is, I’m sure you will understand the need for secrecy.”

Jenny smiled encouragingly at the watcher, silently urging him to continue.

“Spike and…his companion were sent back in time, by non-magical means from four years in the future. They have already started affecting the timeline and from what they have told me I totally understand why. The reason it was important to bring you into this was because of your history.”

Jenny sat up very straight, wariness infused her, “What do you mean, ‘my history’?”

“In my time, your history didn’t come out until it was too late. Angelus was freed of the curse before you said anything and everyone paid the price – both you and your uncle died. I was in a bloody wheelchair at the time and the bastard couldn’t wait to brag.” Spike informed the shocked gypsy. “This time will be different, but we need you to get together with us and my slayer, so we can suss out our options. Reckon you can come ‘round to the watcher’s tomorrow afternoon?”

After assuring them that she would be there and wishing them a good night, Jenny left. After she had gone, Spike and Giles turned their attention back to the book and the ritual within. Spike read the ritual and all the relevant details about it twice before tuning to Giles and almost whispering his question, “Is it true? Can this really be done?”

~*~*~

Spike wandered aimlessly, his thoughts moving at a hundred miles a minute. The implications of the ritual existing at all flew in the face of everything that Giles, Buffy and the Scoobies of his time had believed. It could be very dangerous and failure would ensure his dusting, but to succeed…success could bring him his dreams.

Taking note of his surroundings for the first time in a good ten minutes, Spike noticed he was just around the corner from the Bronze. Thinking that Buffy might like some snacks he headed for the back door, flowering onions and an order of wings were calling his name.

Buffy sat in her chair, sipping at her diet cola and absently gazed around the room. The music was inviting, but she was getting a bit sick of the ‘accidental’ touchage that was coming from Xander. She wished he would get the message that she didn’t like him in that way. The room was crowded, so crowded that it was almost impossible to see the pool tables or the bar from where she was seated. However, sometimes mysterious powers come together and allow a moment, a very special moment, to happen. Just as Buffy was looking toward the bar, the crowd seemed to momentarily part and Buffy gazed into the eyes from her dream. Gasping in shock, she lost sight of him as the crowd moved back and he was hidden from her view.

“What?” Willow anxiously asked her friend.

“He’s here, Will. The guy from my dream.”

Spike picked up his order and hurriedly made his way outside. Heading directly back to the watcher’s, he muttered as he moved, “Bugger. Buffy’s gonna kill me.”

”So sweetie, how are you doing?” Joyce asked her beautiful daughter once they had settled on the couch in Giles’ living room.

“Confused,” Buffy told her mother honestly. “We haven’t really made any big changes yet, but my memories are still changing. I mean…I totally get the whole cause and effect thingy, but I can’t work out how we’re causing some of these changes.” Buffy shook her head as if to clear her thoughts.

“Why don’t you tell me about the latest memory, maybe we can work it out together,” Joyce offered, encouraging her daughter to talk.

Buffy thought for a minute before attempting to vocalize her altered memories. “I had this whole scene replay for me earlier. I was standing outside the library with Xander and Willow, and Xander had the door opened just a little bit so we could hear Giles and Angel talking. The things that Angel was saying…I just can’t imagine the Angel that I know saying those sorts of things or acting the way he does. But I saw and heard it, so it’s kind of hard to reconcile what I know with…well, what I know.” Buffy turned to her mother, her confusion bringing tears to her eyes.

Joyce gathered her tearful daughter into her warm embrace and tried to help her emotionally scarred child. “Sweetie, have you considered that maybe the Angel you know, you only know through the eyes of the child that you were? That maybe in your timeline, you were so in love with him that you didn’t notice any faults and that now that you are seeing him from an adult’s point of view?

“Honey, I loved your father, but as we grew older we both changed and the people that we grew into had different goals and dreams, different beliefs. He wasn’t the man I fell in love with and I wasn’t the woman he fell in love with. Some couples grow together and some grow apart. Maybe the woman you are now needs something else in a partner and this is allowing you to see Angel clearly.”

Buffy wiped her tears and looked up guilelessly into her mother’s eyes, becoming vulnerable and young once again, “I don’t know if I ever really knew him mom. The younger me is already seeing the flaws, he hid them from me mom and maybe if I had seen it, maybe we wouldn’t have even been a couple, and then none of the badness that came after, would have come, you know?”

Joyce hugged Buffy tightly to her, running a hand gently down the side of her face. “I know, sweetie, but this could be a good thing too, honey. If the younger you, doesn’t go through the pain that you did, doesn’t that mean that you won’t have to live with it anymore?”

Smiling softly to herself, Buffy offered a heartfelt, “Yes.”

~*~*~

Angel sat in his only chair; the dark basement’s only source of illumination was a single candle. He knew there was something funny going on with Giles. He’d clearly known that Buffy was listening to them; Giles might even have set him up deliberately, trying to make him look bad in front of Buffy. Of course once he explained everything to his beautiful little slayer, she would understand that he, Angel, only had her best interests at heart. She would understand.

He pitied Giles; the poor man had clearly never had a true love of his own, so of course he couldn’t understand the connection between soulmates. But, that didn’t excuse Giles for doubting him in the matter of Joyce’s sanity; as if he wouldn’t recognise insanity, he’d perfected the art of making someone insane, who was Giles to question him?

~*~*~

“I’ll kill him!” Buffy spat out furiously.

Giles looked up from the book he was showing Joyce on slayers and, after a shared glance it was silently agreed that he would be the one to question the angry Slayer. “Who are you planning on killing, Buffy?”

“Spike,” she glared at the watcher, as if daring him to disagree. “He went to the Bronze and let the other me see him.”

“Was there a fight?” Joyce hesitantly asked, her smile well concealed. She was fairly certain that the emotion she was sensing from her daughter was a little closer to jealousy than anger.

“No, she saw him from across the room.” Buffy explained, her ire building by the minute. Dammed idiot, didn’t he realise that the other Buffy would be at the Bronze tonight…and what the hell was he doing going there anyway?

Giles and Joyce shared another glance; both had a good idea as to the source of the slayer’s anger. “I don’t understand the problem then Buffy, surely if they didn’t communicate in any way, her seeing him shouldn’t cause a problem, should it?” Giles innocently asked.

“No problem?” Buffy almost screamed, “She’s been dreaming about him, she just saw him and thinks he’s her destiny, a gift from the Powers, let her get her own damn gift!”

“Oh dear,” Giles commented, desperately trying to stop himself from laughing.

~*~*~

When Spike entered Giles’ apartment, it was to discover both Joyce and Giles in the middle of a laughing fit, doubled over and with tears streaming down their faces. Buffy stood watching them, her arms crossed and her foot tapping out her irritation, clearly not seeing the funny side of what ever it was that had the other two in near hysterics.

Slowly turning her head towards the sound of the door, Buffy’s eyes narrowed. “You,” she spat out in anger as she started to stalk towards him.

Moving behind the dining table, and fully intending to keep said table between him and the little warrior at all costs, Spike’s first thought was, ‘Bollocks. Spikey, me lad, you’re toast’.

“You did that deliberately.” She fumed.

“I forgot she’d be there, alright. It wasn’t bloody intentional,” he barked back; he wasn’t going down without a fight.

Buffy would not be halted, no table was going to stop her from getting to him; it was time for tactics. “Don’t think I haven’t worked out what you’re trying to do, Blood Breath. You’re trying to get her to fall for you so that I will.” Buffy announced with calculated accusation.

Spike stopped, frozen in shock at her wild and unfounded accusation, hell he hadn’t even thought of that. “Are you all sack of hammers, Slayer? I only saw her for a soddin' second and then I scooted right out of there.”

“What’s sack of hammers? Is that one of those weird British things?” She moved closer; almost there.

“Are you bloody crazy, is what it means, you stupid bint,” he snapped right back at her, getting right into her personal space and trying to stare her down. It was the flash of triumph in her eyes a fraction of a second before she grabbed his lapels that had him thinking, ‘You’re buggered now, mate’.

“She is off limits, Spike.” She almost growled the words.

“She is a child, Slayer.” He did growl out the words.

“So you’ve got no plans of trying your chances with her then?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I don’t want her, Slayer, I want you and if I haven’t made that perfectly clear by now, it’s about bloody time I did.” Swiftly lifting his hands to the back of her shoulders, he pulled her to him, his lips crashed down on hers with bruising deliberation.

When Spike’s lips touched hers, Buffy’s brain went on hiatus. The kiss prompted memories of other kisses. As he gentled his hold on her, softening the bruising punishment but not the intensity of the kiss, her hands seemed to move of their own volition to the nape of his neck, her fingers teasing the soft curls there. Pictures of engagement induced caresses, musical nights with movie ending kisses and passionate embraces under the stairs at the Bronze flittered past her mind’s eye. Buffy was lost in the moment, but a gentle cough from the watcher on the couch bought her back with a crash.

Pushing away from the kissable blond vampire, Buffy was stopped from launching into her usual litany of recriminations by her mother’s playful tease. “It’s nice to see you treating your gifts so well, dear.”

“Gift?”

~*~*~

Coat billowing dramatically behind him, Angel strode with confident purpose towards his goal. It was Saturday morning, Buffy and the others would still be sleeping, this time the watcher would face him alone.

He had returned to the Summers home in the early hours of the morning. Watching his beautiful Buffy sleep, he had seen her dreaming. Clearly the dreams had been of a sensual natural; writhing in the bed until she dislodged her sheet and mumbling things too quietly for him to hear. His cock had hardened painfully at the sight of her nubile young body. Soon. Soon she would be his completely. The fact that she was dreaming of him like that suggested he wouldn’t have to wait long at all.

As Angel entered the library, ready to battle the watcher, he found the place empty. Deciding to wait, he made himself comfortable at the table, mentally going over all that he had to say. He was sure he wouldn’t have long to wait.

~*~*~

“Buffy, may I ask you something?” Giles looked over at the petite blond.

“Sure, Giles,” she smiled over at the watcher from her seat on the couch.

Sitting forward in his recliner, hand clasped and resting on his knees, Giles was the very picture of seriousness. “Why are you so insistent that the council should not be brought into this?”

“Oh that reminds me, you have to contact another watcher. He’s in the Caribbean somewhere…um, Sam something.” Buffy looked at him expectantly.

“Sam Zabuto?”

”That sounds right. Can you contact him? He’s the watcher for the other slayer and we sooo don’t need Kendra turning up here too. You have to make sure he knows that there’s already a slayer in Sunnydale and that she should stay where she is.” Memories of the beautiful and exotic dark skinned slayer flitted through Buffy’s mind.

“It would be easier to go through the council, Buffy.” Her insistence for no council involvement had him puzzled. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out the cause for her reluctance to contact the council. They dealt with the supernatural. Surely this situation was something right up their alley.

Giving Giles a look that held him like a vice grip, Buffy plainly stated her position; “There are so many reasons why I don’t trust the council, Giles, but first and foremost is always going to be the Cruciamentum.”

“I didn’t?” the shocked disbelief in his voice, caused Buffy to study him curiously. He seemed totally horrified at the thought of being a part of the ritual.

“You did, Giles. You had me study crystals and while I was hypnotised you injected me with the serum that stole my powers.” Buffy’s voice filled with pain as she relived the night of horror. “On my eighteenth birthday, my father and I had a tradition, we would go to the ice-capades, but that year he cancelled out on me and just sent me the tickets instead. I asked you to go with me; I figured that you were a better father than he was, so, why not have you replace him in the birthday tradition too.

“I’d been getting weaker for days, but I felt safe knowing that I would be with you on my birthday.” So lost in her memories, Buffy failed to see the gentle watcher’s eyes fill with tears. “Apparently you stopped by the place where the ritual was to take place to check in on things and discovered the tomb of the vampire the council was going to use was empty and one of the guys looking after him was dead. That was when you decided to tell me what was going on.

“Long story short, the vampire kidnapped my mom and I was forced to face him to save her. I had finally managed to beat him, by tricking him into drinking holy water, just before you arrived to help. When we got back to the library, Quentin Travers was there.” Buffy spat out the man’s name, her distain for the head of the Council of Watchers obvious. “He commended me on successfully passing the test, but he said that you demonstrated a relationship with me that the Council deemed too close, like the way a father loves his daughter and you were fired.” Looking directly at the tear-streaked face of the watcher, and begged him; “Please don’t involve the council, Giles, I couldn’t handle being betrayed by you again.”

The devastated man sat silently, trying desperately to get his bearings. He couldn’t imagine any scenario that would have him agreeing to perform the outdated and barbaric ritual. Floundering in confusion, he lifted tear filled eyes to the daughter of his heart and pleaded with her to help him understand the upheaval his mind was going through. “Why would I do that? I don’t approve of the ritual. I swore I’d never put you through that. What could have happened to make me change my mind?”

“Angelus,” Spike offered from the hallway, his hair still damp and curling from his shower. “I don’t mean to intrude, Rupert. So tell me if I’m butting in where I’m not wanted.”

“Not at all, Spike. Please, if you can cast any light on this matter at all, I would be most grateful.” The distressed watcher almost begged his new friend.

Spike moved further into the room, mentally arranging his thoughts. “I think that Angelus damaged all of you, but you losing your gypsy girl, like you did, changed you Giles. You would never have admitted it, but on some level you blamed Buffy, and, more importantly, you blamed yourself.

“You believed that if you had been a better watcher, Buffy wouldn’t have hesitated when she had the chance to kill the bastard. I think that’s why you changed your mind about the ritual. You never wanted to lose another person you loved. If the ritual could harden her resolve and turn her into a more focused warrior, one who wasn’t governed by her emotions, then you would have accepted the need for it, the demand for it even.”

“That makes sense, in a scary sooo don’t want to go through it again way.” Buffy nodded in agreement.

“I think we need to do what ever we can to ensure that we never have to.” Giles offered solemnly.

~*~*~

Just after lunch, a brisk knock on the watcher’s door, had both Buffy and Spike scrambling for cover. Giles checked to make sure they were indeed hidden before he opened the door to a stranger. “My name is Brother Luther. I’m here to see the protector of the Key.”

“Let him in, Giles,” Buffy demanded from the hallway.

Giles followed Buffy’s direction and the three were joined by Spike as they made themselves comfortable in the living room of the small apartment. The jovial little monk looked around the room in curiosity then, smiling broadly, he returned his attention to the group. “I’ll bet the last couple of days have been interesting.”

“Do you know what’s happened?” Buffy jumped right to the heart of the matter.

“Yes, dear. We do now, but it took us two days and a locator spell to find you. I must say, it gave us a bit of a scare when we woke and found the key gone. We thought the Beast had managed to get past our defences.” Brother Luther smiled benignly at the perplexed blond. “It is most important that you realise, though, that with the events of the last week you have managed to achieve the miracle that our order has been searching for, for a millennia.”

“Huh?”

“I think what Buffy is trying to ask is, what exactly is it you think we did?” Giles smiled indulgently at his confused slayer.

Choosing his words carefully, the monk hesitated before answering. “Would it not be best to have the key that is now your sister and her mother here too? I am sure that they will have questions that I will need to answer.”

Buffy, Giles, and Spike shared a communicative glance before Buffy suggested Giles make the call. Neither Buffy nor Spike wanted to take the chance of accidentally speaking to the other Buffy.

~*~*~

‘What the hell is taking him so long?’ Angel thought to himself. He’d been waiting in the library for what seemed like hours. Absentmindedly picking up the book that Giles and Spike had been looking at the night before, Angel flicked through the pages as he waited.

As the fates would have it, he stopped at the very same ritual that had had Spike so enthralled the night before. ‘Hmmph, if that was possible, I would have done it.’ Angel thought derisively.

~*~*~

“I am sure you have many questions, and I will try to answer them all, but I feel it is important to tell you about what is happening now and the miracle,” Brother Luther started. “My brothers and I have been the protectors of the key since it was sent to this dimension a millennia ago. We always knew that we were protecting it from the Beast, but we did not know when the Beast would arrive in this dimension. So, we have worked hard for many centuries, trying to find a way to dilute the power of the Key so the Beast would be unable to sense it. All our attempts have failed,” the smiling monk informed them, his smile not detracting from the seriousness of the conversation. “However, the events of the last couple of days have succeeded where we failed; the key is no longer detectable.”

“You’re not taking her back,” Joyce’s declaration was cut with steel.

“No, no, this delightful child is your daughter. The fact that she was born of the power of the key is irrelevant; she is yours now, and she and the world are finally safe from the Beast,” he assured her.

“But how?” Buffy asked.

The monk looked at the confused faces surrounding him, “Thursday morning, we awoke to find the key missing. We could find no trace of it in this dimension. One of my brothers has been gifted with visions, and that is how were able to understand what had happened. In the future, we sent the key to a new protector. We were apparently able to channel the key’s power enough to change its form, but without a blood link to the protector, the key would have remained inanimate. So in essence Protector, your sister was born of you,” he told Buffy. “Apparently, at some point after that, you were sent back in time by non-magical means. The blood connection demanded that the part of your sister that is the key follow you. She was unable to do that until the blood connection was strengthened. I am not sure how you strengthened the connection, but whatever you did allowed the Key from the future to connect to the Key from now and the two combined. The future key was brought to the past and absorbed the essence of our Key to do that, but the trip itself depleted the power of the key to such an extent that it is now undetectable. Once used, the power cannot regenerate itself, so many of the problems you faced in your time will now not happen.”

Turning to Joyce, the monk continued. “You will not suffer the illness that you were to have suffered in the future. The monks that sent the Key to you were not aware of the consequences of prolonged exposure to the Key. We have always been protected.”

“Oi! You bloody stupid git, you don’t say something like that in front of the girl.” Spike spat out in disgust as he reached for Dawn.

Batting Spike’s hands away in an attempt to get away from him, Dawn all but screamed her concern. “NO! No, don’t touch me. I kill the people I love.”

Ignoring both her physical and verbal protests, the vampire gently but firmly pulled the distressed teen into his arms. “’M already dead, sweet bit.”

While Spike rocked Dawn, Joyce went into battle mode. “How dare you,” she hissed at the apologetic monk. “You don’t deserve to be responsible for anything if you can speak so thoughtlessly in front of a defenceless child.” Adding her arms to Spike’s, she completed the circle surrounding and protecting her youngest. “It’s okay, baby. I’m alright and I’m right here.”

“Was there anything else you needed to say, before you left?” The Slayer crossed her arms across her chest, furious at how her life had been played with, furious that these thoughtless fools had been responsible for her mother’s death in her own time, but thankful that this time she would be able to keep both her sister and her mother.

Giles watched the family as they interacted, the researcher in him studying the actions of the unique vampire while the father in him was thankful that the girl he thought of as a daughter seemed to be warming up to this incredible individual. He cast his glance back to the monk that was responsible for the distress of the other child his heart had claimed as family and he seriously considered letting Ripper out for a bit.

“I am so sorry, I did not mean to course you pain, little one. If you need to blame someone for the trauma that you have faced, blame the monks that acted in desperation and without thought. Please do not blame yourself, you are innocent. Let go of your pain, child. You have been given a second chance and you can now enjoy your family. Please child, try and look on this as a blessing,” The monk pleaded desperately with Dawn, praying that she would hear his words.

Looking up at the monk from the safety of her mother’s and pseudo-brother’s arms, her face streaked with tears, Dawn asked, her voice small and innocent in its hope filled tones. “So, mom and Buffy won’t die because I’m the Key now?”

“You are more girl than key now, child. The time of the Key has past. You have changed it all by finding your sister.”

~*~*~

Okay, now he was getting mad, Giles probably knew he was here and was making him wait deliberately. Well, now, Angel was no fool, he could be patient with the best of them. Let’s just see who broke first.

All feelings of animosity toward the monk seemed to ease as he pleaded with Dawn to look upon the events of the past week as a gift, a second chance. Her tears dried with the knowledge that she was no longer a threat to the dimensional walls; that the horrors of the previous year would and could not be repeated. She thought back to when she’d made her mental list of the pros and cons of her present situation and realised somewhat guiltily, that she had not even considered the consequences of being back in this time as an active Key. She hadn’t even considered the possibility of having to face Glory all over again. Thinking about it now made her mind whirl. This changed everything, but wouldn’t that cause a…oh, what was the word…

“Ooh, ooh! A paradox!”

“What do you mean, little one?” the bemused monk asked.

“Well now that I’m not the Key anymore, Mom and Buffy won’t die, and Buffy won’t be brought back from the dead and, well, what if all that had something to do with Buffy being sent back in time and that now stops Buffy from being sent back in time, then I won’t be following her because she’s like, still there, so I’ll still be the Key, but I’m not, so…paradox.” Dawn tried really hard to explain her thoughts, but she really feared that she had not done a very good job. Biting her lower lip, her eyes pleaded with them all to understand what she had been trying to say.

“The future is not written, child. We may get warnings of events that could happen if we continue on a certain path, but we have free choice so we have the power to change the events that have been foreseen,” the monk started to explain.

Both Buffy and Giles stiffened at the monk’s words. Giles was the first to react, “But…the Codex? Prophecy cannot be thwarted.”

“Of course it can. Prophecies are just warnings and the Codex is full of them. Most of the warnings can be easily averted. It’s not always easy mind you, but it certainly can be done. I like to call them our little early warning system from the Powers That Be.” Smiling at the group, as if sharing a joke, the monk had no idea of the distress his words were causing.

“So, I didn’t have to die at the Master’s hand?” Buffy asked flatly.

The monk looked shocked at her revelation, “But…I don’t understand. You were sent a guardian to stop that from happening.”

“A what huh?” A room full of confused faces stared at the monk.

“The cursed one,” he enunciated clearly, “He was sent to protect you from that prophecy. As family he would have been able to get close enough without too much suspicion to the Master to kill him, thereby averting your foretold death. This was his entire purpose for being here. I don’t understand, was he injured before performing his duty?” Confusion etched unfamiliar lines into his face.

“No, he wasn’t injured,” Ripper snarled. His ability to remain civil to the so-called champion of the Powers was going to require every ounce of self-control he possessed.

Buffy looked shell-shocked. She tried desperately to wrap her mind around the implications of what she had just heard. Angel had been sent here to save her? But…he had agreed with Giles. He had said the prophecy couldn’t be stopped, that there was nothing he could do. She would have willingly given her life for him, and she had believed that he would do the same for her. ‘Spike would have done it’, the traitorous voice in her head spoke up. “There had to have been a misunderstanding,” she pleaded with the group.

Spike restrained himself. Oh, he knew he didn’t have all the details, but he was smart enough to work out the story; his useless wanker of a grandsire has been meant to take out ol’ Batface and because he’d failed to do his job, the slayer had paid the ultimate price. He wanted to add his condemnation to the watcher’s, but the little voice he never listened to was screaming to be heard. ‘Don’t say a bloody word, you moron. She has to work this out for herself. You add your two bobs worth now and she’ll turn stubborn on you.’ This once, he listened to the voice.

“Clearly, there must be a misunderstanding. Perhaps there have been changes to his redemptive journey that I was not aware of.” Turning to Giles, Brother Luther made his request. “If you would be so kind, sir, may I borrow your telephone?”

“Of course,” Giles readily agreed.

~*~*~

“Willow, I just found a note from my mom.” Buffy propped the phone on her shoulder and picked up the note. “She said that she’s taken Dawn out, but I heard her earlier on the phone and they’re going to Giles’. You don’t think that Giles and my mom…ewww,” Buffy cringed at the thought. Oh, she loved Giles like a dad, but like her dad…away from her mom.

“Oh, no, Buffy, I’m sure it’s nothing like that. Giles likes Miss Calendar remember? At least I think he does. It’s kinda hard to tell, what with that whole keep-everything-to-yourself-cause-I’m-British thing he has going on. Ooh, ooh! Unless he wants them both and then that would be just plain wrong as well as ewww.” While attempting to cheer up her best friend, Willow often found that she’d managed to do the complete opposite.

“He cancelled training last night and told us to go out, and then when I got home, my mom was going out too, and she didn’t tell me where she was going and I’m thinking…do you think…Giles?” she almost whispered his name, as if afraid if she said it any louder it might make it true.

Willow didn’t really think Giles was like that, although the little crush she had on him might be influencing her opinion. She hesitated over her suggestion, “Do you want to go over to Giles’ and check it out?”

“Check what out?” Xander asked as he breezed into Willow’s bedroom unannounced.

“Who’s that?” Buffy asked from the other end of the phone.

“Xander just got here,” Willow answered Buffy first then, turning to her oldest friend, she filled him in on their suspicions. “Buffy thinks there might be something going on between Giles and her mom.”

“Have we ewwwed?” Xander snarked.

Willow waved her free hand dismissively. “Past the ewww’s and on to suggestions.”

“I’m on my way over, Wills. I think it’s time for a group meeting,” Buffy declared before she hung up the phone.

“Hurricane Buffy’s on her way over, huh?” Xander asked as he made himself comfortable on Willows bed and opened the bag of Doritos he had brought with him, shoving a handful into his mouth before he thought to offer any to Willow.

~*~*~

Angel smiled down at the picture of the beautiful sleeping girl he had drawn. He much preferred to use pencils or charcoal, but the pen had been the only thing available to him, so he’d made do. He’d had to go through all of Giles’ drawers just to find the pen and some paper, but the end result was worth the trouble. At least his skills had not been diminished by the use of the unfamiliar tool. Her face came so easily to him and at the rate he was going, he’d soon have another dozen pictures to add to his collection.

It was always easier to draw her when she was sleeping. Angel found it difficult to capture the right combination of expressions on her face when she was awake. It was also harder to hide that unattractive little bump on her nose. He wondered if she’d considered plastic surgery to fix the object that marred her perfection. Maybe he should mention it to her?

A/N: Angels alterations to the lyrics of Barry Manilow’s Mandy are not meant as a slight to the original lyrics in anyway…and certainly not worth suing me over!

After he made his phone call, Brother Luther begged the group to have patience until the next day. He told them he would return with a representative from the Powers, and that everything would be explained to them then. He was unable to give them any more information as his contact had been, at that time, unaware of all the facts himself. Assuring them all that their patience would be rewarded, he bid them all a good day.

Buffy watched the door that the little monk had gone through long after he had disappeared. She was so concentrated on sorting through her jumbled thoughts that she almost failed to recognise it when another memory change occurred. As she focused on the new memories, her eyes opened wide in horrified shock.

“Ewww,” she stated with great deliberation and amused disgust. Openly focusing her words at her mother, Buffy expanded on her less than pleased reaction. “The other Buffy thinks you and Giles are…um…sneaking around.”

Giles spluttered incoherently, Joyce blustered and blushed, and Buffy, Dawn, and Spike snickered.

Buffy’s comment managed to defuse the emotions that the monk’s visit had created. Each one of them visibly relaxed.

Looking speculatively at her sister, Dawn felt compelled to ask the question she’d wondered about since the monk had mentioned it. “Buffy, how did you strengthen the bond between us?”

“Oh…um…well, about that…” Buffy instinctively turned to her watcher in desperation. How the hell was she going to explain to her mom and her sister that she had basically linked them to a vampire without their knowledge or consent? This could seriously be of the bad.

Giles mentally rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, yes, that’s bloody typical, isn’t it? You get yourself into this mess, then I’m supposed to…Oh, I see what you're trying to do. Tying to deflect your mother’s wrath, are you? Well, not this time, my girl!’

“Buffy claimed Spike as belonging to the Summers family women. She was apparently unaware that a blood oath was not necessary, nor was she aware that the particular ritual she was performing was actually a ma….”

“Thank you, Giles!” Buffy jumped in to cut the watcher off, ‘jeez, can we say over-sharing?’

“You adopted a vampire?” Joyce lifted an eyebrow to emphasize her displeasure at her eldest.

Buffy found herself praying that the big eyed, innocent look still worked on her mother. “Actually, it’s more of a ‘we’ thing than a ‘me’ thing, mom.”

“Sooo, Spike is like my brother now?” Dawn couldn’t restrain her excitement.

Joyce held her hand up, effectively silencing both daughters. “Let me get this straight, please.” Turning to face Buffy, Joyce’s deceptively gentle voice sent warning alarms through the lot of them. “You performed a ritual that you had not bothered to research?”

“Uh…” Buffy was cut off before she could answer.

“Without knowing the risks involved?” Joyce was on a roll, working her way up to a full boil. Buffy’s half-hearted attempts to interject some sort of response were given the same amount of attention as her not speaking at all.

“Er…”

“Without knowing the consequences?” Joyce’s rapid fire questions followed one after the other.

“Um…”

“Without even knowing if it was the right ritual?” Joyce was holding nothing back, Buffy might be the slayer, but she was still Joyce’s daughter.

“Mooooom,” Buffy whined.

Joyce sighed in exasperation. “Even if you didn’t want to ask Rupert for some reason, why didn’t you ask Spike? Surely he knows all about the ritual?”

“Well it happened really fast. It’s not like I had time to tell Spike what I was going to do before I did it,” Buffy pouted.

“Buffy Anne Summers!” Joyce yelled. “Are you telling me that you didn’t even ask him for permission? You never asked him if he wanted this?” If Joyce were a teapot, her whistle would have just exploded.

“Of course he wanted this,” Buffy responded indignantly. Turning to the vampire in question, she slapped him on the arm and hissed, “Tell her, you bleached moron!”

Turning wounded eyes to Joyce, Spike asked her sadly, “Don’t you want me as part of the family, Mum?”

Joyce instantly drew the poor vampire into her embrace. With a wink at Dawn as he spotted her over her mother’s shoulder, she and Spike shared a conspiratorial little grin.

Noting Dawn’s smile, Buffy offered a disgruntled warning to Spike. “Yeah, well, lets see how much smiling you do when she grounds your ass.”

“She can do that?” Spike’s look of abject horror warmed Buffy all over.

~*~*~

The people standing around him looked at him as if he was crazy, but then how often do you see a short, smelly individual wearing a leisure suit and a fedora shaking his fist at the sky while yelling loudly, “What do you mean, ‘damage control’? I had it all set up!”

~*~*~

When Jenny arrived, there had been no need to hide. Spike recognised the scent of the gypsy he had met the night before. Jenny smiled as she greeted everyone until she came face to face with the older slayer for the first time, at which point her smile disappeared completely.

“This is going to cause a huge problem.” Collapsing heavily into the second armchair, Jenny looked around the room as if trying to grasp the magnitude of the situation as she saw it. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected anything like this. She felt like she’d just stepped into the imagination of Jules Verne. Quickly processing the little she knew, Jenny offered a suggestion. “I think you are going to have to bring in the others.”

Quelling their arguments with a quick wave of the hand, Jenny continued. “Willow has the mind of a scientist and she loves to research. Buffy will need to be told because there is no way that Willow will be able to keep a secret of this magnitude from her best friend, and really it is Buffy’s life that this involves.”

“And Xander?” Giles questioned dubiously. He couldn’t believe the lazy brunette would offer much in the way of help.

“Xander reads comic books and is into science fiction movies. He’s probably more knowledgeable about time travel and temporal paradoxes than the rest of us combined,” Jenny told them seriously.

~*~*~

Angel sang his slightly altered lyrics softly as he continued to draw images of the beautiful blond slayer.

“I remember my unlife, blood can be as cold as ice. A shadow of a man; no face in the mirror; crying in the night, the night goes into morning, just another day. Happy people pass my way. Looking in their eyes, I see my memories. I never realized you make me forget them, oh Buffy, well it’s time that you gave without taking, then I’ll keep you with me, oh Buffy, when you kiss me you make me start aching and I’ll have you someday, oh Buffy…”

~*~*~

Buffy, Willow, and Xander crept quietly into the library from the back entrance. They had come to the conclusion that the only way they could know for sure if there was anything between Giles and Buffy’s mom was to check it out for themselves.

The quiet singing from the main part of the library seemed to drift all around them, the acoustics of the room a perfect conduit for amplification. The melody was familiar, but the lyrics…

~*~*~

“Ewww!”

Buffy shared her younger self’s reaction. Her mind was reeling. Angel, her soul mate, her one true love, was changing literally before her eyes into someone she didn’t know and it terrified her. He had been her role model, her balance, her safe haven. He had been the individual she had judged all others by. She didn’t recognise the Angel she was seeing, she could feel the duplicity of her emotions; she still loved him, but now she didn’t know why.

Buffy could feel her younger self’s growing discontent with the brunette vampire. The Younger Buffy was getting seriously weirded out by what she perceived as Angel’s creepy behaviour and more and more obsessed with the ‘man’ from her dreams, while the older Buffy was forced to go through every emotion with her. She felt like she was being torn in two. She didn’t know how to reconcile what she thought she knew with what she was seeing. She had heard her mother’s words, but she didn’t want them to be true. She didn’t want to be forced to acknowledge that she had been so wrong about Angel. The very thought that the Angel that lived in her memories was disappearing didn’t even occur to her.

Lost in her musings, Buffy was startled when Giles gently cleared his throat.

“Huh?”

“You ewwwed?” Dawn glibly reminded her sister.

“Oh…um…Angel’s in the library…there was singing…” Buffy screwed up her face in distaste.

“'nough said,” Spike snorted derisively. Looking around at the blank faces that regarded him, he expanded on his comment, “Makes Peewee Herman sound like Pavarotti…or for the younger generation, makes nails on a blackboard sound like one of those boy bands you like so much, niblet.”

Giles looked at Buffy with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity; suspicion that she wasn’t sharing the whole story and curiosity as to what Angel was doing in the library in the first place. He chose to voice his curiosity; “Why on earth is Angel at the library?”

“Not a clue, but the gang is there because they wanted to try and see what you and mom were up to.” Buffy grinned at the obvious discomfort of her mother and the watcher. At the same time she fervently hoped that she had successfully diverted the conversation.

“I’ll tell her that Dawn and I are spending time with Rupert so we can better understand what’s going on, but, that being said, I think we’ll need to organise a meeting with the others fairly soon.” Now that the decision to inform the younger Buffy had been made, Joyce was not prepared to mislead her daughter any more than necessary.

“I agree. However, I feel that it is important to hear what Brother Luther has to say first. Would Monday evening be acceptable?” Giles asked.

“We should have the meeting at my house, but I don’t want that Angel to be there.” Joyce’s dislike of the brooding vampire was quite evident.

Buffy made a split second decision; the threat of Angelus not withstanding, while she was feeling so ambivalent towards him, it might be easier if his invitation was revoked. Turning to Jenny, Buffy took a deep breath, before asking the question that she never would have believed she would ask. Not again anyway.

“Can you do a disinvite spell?”

Jenny carefully considered her words before speaking. “Actually, I have a special disinvite spell that you might be more interested in. I was going to offer it to Rupert.”

“Special, you say?” Giles queried, intrigued.

“Yes, it’s a mixture between a protection spell and a disinvite spell. Even if you invite a vampire into your home, they can’t get past the barrier and thrall doesn’t work on the person protected by the barrier, so they can’t be tricked to come out,” Jenny explained. She had worked for a long time to perfect the spell; she knew exactly how beneficial it would be to them all.

While Giles was delighting in the benefits of such a spell, Dawn was far from pleased, “No way! That would keep Spike out too.”

“Not if he’s in the house when I do the spell.” Jenny smiled at the teen, happy to alleviate her fears.

“Oh…cool.” Dawn tried to act nonchalant while she bubbled inside with glee. She couldn’t wait to see Angel’s face when he discovered that one.

“Yes, that does sound like the best idea,” Joyce beamed. Turning to Spike and placing a gentle hand on his cheek, she continued to speak “We can’t very well have family unable to get in, can we?” She watched as Spike’s eyes filled with awe at her words. “But if you ever try to emotionally blackmail me again, you will be grounded until Dawn graduates.” Spike smiled sheepi