She sat on the bench in the park staring up to the night sky. Twisting and twirling the wooden stake in her hand she waited for the vampires to come out and play.
"Oh, come on." The brunette called out.
"Dawn?" A voice said from beyond the bushes and trees.
"Who's there?" She jumped up off of the bench and stared into the dark forest, searching for the perpetrator. William the Bloody also known as Spike walked out of the blackened forest grounds and graced her presence.
"But..."
"Yea, I'm dead, well, undead is the correct term for it."
"But you..."
"Yea, put on the pretty necklace and went into the Hell Mouth with you guys and then burst with sunrays coming out of me."
Dawn opened her mouth trying to get something out of her system as she weighed the issues and questions running through her mind. Spike stepped forward as the moonlight hit his darkened hair and ruggedly handsome good looks.
"Your hair... it's brown?"
"Yeah, something about coming back to the Mother land. It turns brown." He said, coming forward again, hoping to get a hug out of the girl.
"Does Buffy know you're here?"
"Buffy? No, she doesn't. Dawn, she doesn't even know I'm alive!" He came forward again as the stake in her hands fell to the pathway. "Am I gonna have to beg for a hug?"
Dawn smiled coyly and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly. "Hi Spike."
"Hi Dawn." He pulled back to look at her shining face. "So, you slay all by yourself now?"
"Well, Buffy is out on a date tonight and I'm training a new slayer. She's around her somewhere." Dawn looked around them, watching for the quiet and somewhat creepy recruit who was still dealing with some issues.
"So you're a watcher now? Like Andrew?"
"No, not there yet and Andrew's still training as well. He likes to exaggerate. We are talking about the same Andrew right?"
"Yea, I think so." Spike walked with her down the pathway as they looked out for a lurking slayer who was silently on the prowl. "So, Buffy's on a date?"
"Yea, with some creepy guy from Devonshire. He's alright but... never mind."
"But what Dawn?"
"Well, he's not you." Dawn stopped in the middle of the pathway and looked over at him. The new recruit pounced on his back and pinned him down on the cold cement. "Paola! Stop!" Dawn tried to get her off of him, but the slayer strength was too much of a match for her. Dawn flew back off of her and watched as Paola got out her wooden stake to kill Spike. He pushed the novice slayer off of him, tossing her back onto the landscaped parkway.
"Dawn! Some help here?" Spike yelled as he pinned the apprentice to the cold and damp ground. Dawn ran back over to his side and helped him as she took the stake and rest of the weapons from her body.
"Paola, where are your pictures?"
"The pocket." Her accent escaped her raging mouth.
Dawn took the wallet from her jeans and flipped through the tiny photographs that the slayers received when they came to the main base. The pictures were given to the slayers to show them who was an ally and who was evil. Spike's picture was the first one in Paola's wallet and Dawn showed it to the novice.
"Look Paola. Look at the picture. He's good."
"But, vampire..."
"Yes, he is a vampire, but he's good. He has a soul."
"Still...vampire."
"Paola, just trust me. Don't kill him." Dawn nodded her head to Spike for him to let her up off the ground. Handing the wallet back to Paola, she intertwined her arm with hers and started walking back down the pathway. "Plus, killing Spike is Buffy's job."

Giles was in his office, searching through a sixteenth century old book for absolutely nothing in particular when Dawn and Paola returned with a man standing outside in the dark. Giles walked out of his office and looked up to the young watcher and slayer.
"Done so soon?" He took off his glasses and started to clean them.
"Come on, Giles. You've had us patrolling all day. There are hardly any things or...things lurking in that park now. Trust us." Dawn said, laying the weaponry on the table. She heard Spike's grunt from outside the door.
"Oh, sorry. I invite you in."
"Is Buffy here?" Spike asked as Giles put his glasses back on, squinting into the doorway to see who was there.
"No, she's not back yet. Is that who..." Giles said, contemplating in his mind of who else in the world had an accent like that.
"Who you think it is?" Spike walked through the door in his ankle length black leather coat and brown locks. "Yea, it's me."
"How..."
"Oh bugger, Rupert, I'm gonna have to start to explain myself aren't I?"
Dawn nodded towards him as he took off his coat and laid it on a chair. He sat down and put his feet up on the library table, laughing at Giles' face.
"I would've thought that Andrew explained this all to you. But then again, I did tell him not to tell you all." He paused as Giles swiped his feet off of the table and sat across from him. "Well, somehow, at the end of the whole apocalypse thing, I was sucked into that pretty little necklace and sent to Los Angeles to none other than everyone's favorite vampire with a soul, Angel." Spike propped his elbows up on the table as the new slayers and watchers came into the room and sat around the legendary Spike, listening to his story. "Well, along the while, I got a job at Evil Incorporated, working side by side with Dead boy and his minions. We fought the next apocalypse with only the four of us and won, I guess you could say. All of us are taking a break right now and I decided to come home."
"Where is Angel? And who's the four of us?"
"Wesley died Giles. He was killed. Sad, it was. He was probably the bravest of us all. Angel is..." Spike thought what to tell the Head Watcher of the soul boy's whereabouts. "He's on a sabbatical."
Dawn came back from the kitchen with Willow by her side and set the cup of blood in front of him.
"Spike!?!" Willow's shrieky voice echoed off of the cathedral ceiling and towering bookcases. She leaped into the air and took him down to the floor with her, hugging him close.
"Hi Willow." He said, muffled under her long auburn hair. She lifted her head up and laid a kiss on him. "Whoa now, did you switch back?"
"Heck no. You just deserve a kiss." She flashed him a smile and got up off the ground, pulling him with her yet again. "So, how'd that fight go?"
"Why are you asking me that? You already know."
"Yeah, I do. Nice job with that dragon."
"Thank you, my dear lady." He bowed in noble fashion and took the glass of blood from the table, drinking it.

Buffy and Tomas got into slayer central just after three a.m. and were all over each other. The main study was silent as Spike stood in the dark corner and watched her move into the young Englishman, kissing his neck and moving up to his lips. He smiled and smirked, shaking his head down to the ground, not wanting to watch her be in the arms of another man or vampire with a soul for that matter. Tomas cupped Buffy's head and leaned her back onto the table when Spike's watch alarm went off. The beeping echoed into the bookcases and broke off the embrace between the two lovers in front of him. Spike quickly took off the watch and set it silently on the next library table. He moved back into the next row of bookshelves so she wouldn't see him.
"Who's there?" She yelled out, picking up at stake out of her purse and defending Tomas from whoever was there.
"Buffy..." Tomas whispered to her. She turned around and looked at him. "I think I should go."
"But..." Her pouty lip came out to play then. Look at that pout, I'm gonna get it. Spike remembered that time where he was actually pretending to be in love with her. Willow's spell came true, well on his part it did. "But...tonight was going to be the night..."
"As much as I would like that to happen..."
"As much as we would all like to see it..." Giles came out of his office and turned on the lights with Andrew following him close behind. Willow, Dawn, and Kennedy came out of the hallway and eyed Tomas to get out. "Get out."
"What is this?" Tomas asked raising his arms about.
"You heard the watcher, Tomas. Get out." Willow showed the Englishman out the door and turned to Buffy. "Have a nice time?"
"I don't think so." Buffy yelled at them. "You don't get to throw my date out of here, pretending that it didn't mean anything and then turn around and ask me if I had a nice time. What the hell is going on here?" Buffy asked, taking her stand as head slayer as she always did. The gang looked at each other searching for an answer. Buffy stood still as she felt the chill go up her back. "Oh my god..." She whispered and put her hand over her mouth, realizing who was here. And still alive.