Summary: A broken Slayer befriends Clem as she starts spending more and more time at Spike’s crypt after the bleach blonde flees to Africa. Then Spike returns with dire news and the Slayer’s world is turned upside down once more.

Spoilers: Set post “Grave”

Rating: PG-13

Author’s Notes: None

Distribution: If ya want it, take it, just give me credit… And, if ya could, let me know where it’s going.

Feedback: You can send it to brock3005@aol.com or otownfan1520@yahoo.com.

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“Xander…” Buffy’s tone was firm; her eyes warning. She’d known it was coming, but there really wasn’t time to deal with it at the moment. Once everything was over, she’d take whatever he had to throw at them… But there wasn’t time.

Dawn chose that moment to break out of her stunned silence… Nearly Shrieking Spike’s name, she launched herself out of her chair and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Briefly, the thought that he was lucky oxygen wasn’t a necessity flashed through his mind, but after a moment it had retreated and he was smiling brightly… A real, genuine smile. Something he didn’t do often. Wrapping his arms around the girl, he hugged her back. He’d missed her, too… Almost as much as he’d missed Buffy.

Immediately, Xander was on his feet, moving toward Dawn protectively… Hell bent on getting her away from Spike. Buffy stood firm, refusing to allow Xander an accessible path around her.

“Xander, would you just stop!” Buffy begged, standing directly in front of him; her anger beginning to show through.

“How the hell can you let him anywhere near her?!” Xander’s voice rose with each word… His eyes dancing with hatred for the bleach blonde vampire. “After what he did to you?! You’re willing to just let him back in?! Give him an all access pass to not only you, but your sister!!! God only knows what he’s been doing since he left?! How do you know he didn’t run off and find a way to get the chip out of his head?! Did you even think about that?!”

“Damnit, Xander!!! Stop!!!”

“No, Buffy!!! I’m not gonna stop anything until he gets the hell outta here!!!”

Buffy was pissed… She wasn’t gonna take this from him. Not now, not ever. There were much more productive things to be done that didn’t involve a screaming contest over the vampire. “Back room. Now.” She pointed toward the training room, her expression leaving no room for discussion. Either he was gonna get over this thing, at least for the moment, or she was gonna kick his ass out. She wasn’t going to deny that his help was much needed right now, but they weren’t getting much done by arguing about the Spike situation.

“I’m not leaving him out here with them!”

“Back. Room. Now.” She was nearly growling now, and she knew it. Not that she had really planned for it to come out that way… It had just kind of happened. But it worked. Within seconds, Xander was on his way to the training room; Buffy on his heels.

The second the door was closed, Xander exploded, his anger getting the best of him. “Ya know, I really don’t get this Buffy! After everything he did… How the hell could you let him anywhere near Dawn?!”

“But you were okay with taking her over to his place not 24 hours after it actually happened?! I mean, okay, yeah, you did try to talk me out of it and all, but you weren’t half as reluctant as you should’ve been if you feel this strongly about the situation… So what’s the difference?!”

“There were circumstances then!” he tried to argue… That didn’t even sound very convincing to his own ears. She was right… He knew it, but that didn’t mean he had to admit it to her.

“What circumstances?!” She was nearly screaming… Really, she wasn’t sure why she’d ordered him back here in the first place. There was no doubt that everyone in the other room could hear every word they were saying… Hell, half the town could probably hear them… Her anger was boiling over, and she was praying she’d be able to focus long enough to not knock him across the room. As it was, she wasn’t so sure that was gonna happen… Her eyes were cold; her feet planted firmly on the floor in an almost defensive stance… All she could feel was the way her fingernails were biting into her palms, reminding her to keep the rage in check. “It’s not like we couldn’t have found somewhere else to send her! If we’d tried at all we could have! But we didn’t! Why?! Because even you know that Spike would die before he’d ever hurt Dawn!!!”

“And I also thought he’d never hurt you! As much as I hate to admit it; the guy loved you… In his own sick and twisted way. And after you came back, yeah, I thought you were safe with him… But he proved me wrong, didn’t he?!”

Her eyes softened a bit as she looked at him. He was being sincere. What Spike had done had been terrible, and Xander was one of her best friends. Even if he was a pain in the ass, he was only looking out for her. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she sighed; smiling slightly at him. “I understand what you’re saying.” Her voice was quiet now. She’d calmed down quite a bit. “But Xander… You know that Spike and I is a lot different from Spike and Dawn. Right before he left it was like we did everything we could to test the limits… See who could push who further. It was like this big game. He tried to provoke me; I tried to provoke him. I think we both looking for a reason to get out. Ya know… Let go. Beating up on one another isn’t exactly unexplored territory when it comes to me and Spike. You and I both know he wouldn’t ever hurt Dawn… Ever. She means the world to him. I saw it the night you brought me back… She’d run off to find me and when he couldn’t find her, he was terrified. He’d never hurt her… He’d never hurt any of us.”

“But how do you really know that? I mean, do you even know if he’s still got the chip?”

The conversation was a lot calmer now… Which was definitely of the good. She no longer had the urge to throw him through a window. “He doesn’t…” When he attempted to reply, she held up a hand, intent on stopping the argument before it started. He was quiet. He knew better than to further piss off the already angry Slayer. “But he won’t hurt us. It hasn’t worked on me since I was brought back because of the whole resurrection thing. He knew that… But he didn’t hurt me. And he won’t.”

“Okay, so maybe he won’t hurt you, or even any of us, but who’s to say he won’t go back to getting blood the old fashioned way? Just because he’ll leave us alone doesn’t mean he won’t go after someone else…”

“He won’t.” She was calm… Her voice confident.

“But how do you know?”

“Because he’s got a soul…”

Upon saying the words, she examined Xander’s face… He was almost as shocked as she had been. His features were twisted in an amusing mixture of shock, disbelief, and amazement. For a moment, she wondered if she had looked that strange when Spike had told her… Probably, considering the fact that she was in love with the guy… Actually, she had probably looked stranger… Still, she almost laughed. This had to have been the first time she’d ever seen Xander speechless. And he really, really was. Spike with a soul was like… Well, Spike with a soul. There really was no comparison to that.

And then they heard Giles’ voice from the doorway. When they turned to him, both knew that he wasn’t exactly having an easy time digesting the information he wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly…

“Spike has a soul?”