Buffy entered a dark alley of an abandoned house. Smelled creepy with cobwebs. The wooden planks creaked with slayer's every step. Her slayer sense told her that 'something's wrong and not-human here.' She strained her ear to get faint sounds in the background. Suddenly two vampires appear from nowhere and took Buffy unaware. She fell down. One of them thrust a knife right under Buffy's knee-joint. She groaned in pain. Guts is what the vamps had.to mess with the slayer is to mess with their lives..uh deaths?!. Anyway. She reached for the stake. A knife flied, misses Buffy, a stake flied.the vamp is dust. The other ran. Buffy tried to pursue. But coudn't. She fell down and groaned in pain. She limped back to her house. So.after a tiring day of slaying business, Buffy was totally worn out. She limped and fell onto her bed. The next moment.asleep. But not for long. The glass panel of the window was forced open by eager hands.Spike!! He looked different! He wore a pair of worn out 'blue' jeans, a 'red' shirt and a 'short' black leather jacket (not the usual long one). He climbed in and threw himself onto the floor. "Bloody sodder", panted Spike. Meanwhile, confused Buffy got up, "Spike?" half in sleep. " How dare you get in my house like that?" she got up, for a while noticing that slight distraction of Spike's appearance, got him by the collar..thrash..pinned him to the wall. " New wardrobe, huh?", then raised an eyebrow in interest when his 'short red shirt' was pulled up revealing his naval.

"Druscilla's back" panted Spike, " with a whole pack of bloody hounds.(pants again).she found some buddies.some real pain-in-asses.she wants to kill me." Buffy still pinning him hard onto the wall smirked at him, " As if I'm buying it" " Would you let go off my collar! I'm a man in trouble!!" " Correction. A 'vampire' in 'fake' trouble" "Buffy! I'm in serious mess. I just need shelter for sometime" " What a lame excuse for getting in my house. And why the hell she wants to kill you? Uh.though you are already dead and also." " I left her.", he cut him, staring at the floor. His past was flying in front of his eyes..and his present was standing before him. " I heard 'she' left you" " Yeah. She did. But you see, even when she didn't, I was not quite 'with' her." "What do you mean?" "When I started feeling.uh.I mean, when she was with me, and you came by, I didn't love her anymore. I was with her just physically, but my heart was not with her." " Heart!? What is that supposed to mean!!" she smirked. Spike looked up, with a hint of pain in his eyes and voice that was restrained, " That's enough Buffy. I can't take it anymore. I've ached my tongue saying it again and again and again." His voice grew deeper.and sensitive, "I love you, dammit, I love you.....i love you" the last three words faded into silence. Spike stared blankly into void. He had given her all that he could possibly give... maybe more. Just then, a distant rattling is heard. It grows stronger, into recognizable sounds. Buffy peeps through the window. There's a vampire, in his 'demonic countanence, in brown leather jacket and boots, directing a pack of vampires. "Get your balls rolling boys. We've got a bloodsucker to hit upon." He turned to face Druscilla. Evil grins were exchanged. The vamp straightened his face and grew handsome. The vamp's handsome and the vamp's Ben Affleck!!! " Did anyone tell you that you are the prettiest vampress ever?" " Oh Victor1", Druscilla smiled, thought for a moment, " a vampire used to say it all the time" her face hardened, "a not-so-deserving vampire." Then letting that wave of agony and revenge pass by, she gently lifted her left hand. Victor kneeled and planted a kiss on the back of her palm.

"Oh my God", said Buffy-a predictable reaction. " Now you believe me?", Spike took out a cigarette, lit it and had hardly taken a puff and buff snatched the cigarette out of his out and threw it out if the window. " Don't do it in my room." The rattling and rumbling of the vampire faded away. Buffy was still at the window. With that expression on his face, it looked as if Spike desperately wanted to start a conversation. But there being no point in his staying there any longer, since the vamps had left, he turned to go away. Still at the window, Buffy started, " Its been a year now since mom died." Spike stopped and turned around. " I remember," he said sympathetically. He moved a step closer to her. " Everyday I was totally freaked out ..by vampires, by demons, by school, but everyday after she hugged me, and I laid down in her lap, she made me forget everything that troubled me. She always knew what I was feeling," her voice grew hoarse, " She was always there for me. She knew how to make things better." She closed her eyes in pain and a tear trickled down her eye. Spike who was standing just behind her stretched out his hand and placed it on her shoulder. " I know your pain," he tried to sympathize, his every part fluttering, wanting to envelope Buffy in his arms and say-'I know what you're feeling. Its hard. But I'm there for you.and I always will'. But Buffy jerked herself around so hard that Spike had to retrieve his hand and step back. " No you don't", she yelled, " You're only one dead man. You don't understand anything. I don't care if you love me. A chip in your head doesn't make you human. You are still dead. You are a vampire, a monster. You are evil." With that sarcasm in her words, she gave Spike enough reason to go to his crypt, thrash and break everything that's intact, including his knuckles, get heavily drunk and throw himself in some dark corner with a bottle of liquor and Buffy's blue sweater, (which he once stole and was caught red handed stealing it by Riley) and smell and abuse it for the rest of eternity.

Buffy drove past Spike and in her anguish and haste, tripped on the table's leg and got hit again behind the knee joint where the vamp had thrust a knife earlier that day. She growled in pain. Spike, who otherwise would have left the room, hurried and reached for her. Her wound was bleeding and her pajama was stained with blood. " Bloody hell, you're bleeding." Buffy, still groaning, stood up and tried to get to the bed, and almost tripped again,but was supported by two dead hands. " You shouldn't be running around like that," he said softly, helping her on to the bed. "Where do you keep your first aid kit?", he asked. " In the drawer", she said folding her leg to inspect her wound, which she didn't get time to do before.

Spike started opening all the drawers, throwing out thing to find the first aid kit. He found it and was about to go, when something caught his attention. Something happened to him. His agony for what Buffy had said before was now gone. He had a weird look of joy on his face.