Picking up the pieces

Rating: I decided, after some thought, to give story a T rating. However there will be two short passages (in chapters 13 and 17) where an M rating might be more appropriate. If you are very sensitive to sexual themes you have been warned.
Pairings: will be disclosed later on as they happen. Not that I think they are great surprises but…
Disclaimer: I don't own nor did I create these characters. Writing this makes me happy even without making any money so please don't sue me. That would make me unhappy.
A/N: Some people say they suck at summaries. I definitely suck at titles – at least more than summaries. I hope this one is a little better than plain Post NFA.

Chapter 1

"Hello!" a red haired witch yelled in the middle of the empty hotel lobby. Boy, it looked shabby here, she thought to herself. Maybe they didn't use it at all. Giles said that they'd changed locations but the locating spell she had done had definitely pointed to this place. Angel at least was here somewhere even if the others might not be.

She took a few more steps forward. "Angel? Wesley? Cordelia? Fred?"

Finally some noise came from behind the reception desk. Willow heard glass hitting the floor but not breaking, rolling – probably a bottle and fabrics rustling.

"What bloody racket is this?" A blond haired pale skinned man in a black leather duster appeared. He seemed to loose his words when his eyes managed to make his brain realize exactly who was standing before him.

The girl's first reactions were just to gape, her mouth opening and closing but making no sound despite the effort.

"Red? What brings you here?" the man asked sounding almost as surprised as she looked.

"Spike?" Willow finally managed to whisper. "You're alive!" She rushed over to him and threw her arms around him.

Spike hadn't expected that kind of reaction and just stood there awkwardly with the girl wrapped tightly around him but slowly relaxed his muscles, put his arms on her back and pulled closer to him. It was a nice feeling having someone touching him; even if it was a person he had half a minute ago wondered if would flay him alive.

After a while she let go and looked up at him wide eyed as if he was one of the seven world wonders. To her he actually was more remarkable than that. "Spike? What are you doing here? How did you…? Buffy said you were dead."

"Still am luv," he smirked at her. "Just as I've been for the past hundred twenty something years. But to what you're asking I haven't got a clue. Angel got the bloody amulet in the mail and I just popped out of it like some poofy genie."

Spike watched the confusion and curiosity come over Willow's eyes: "Come again?"

They really had a lot to talk about. She hadn't been in touch with the L.A. gang since she came here to ensoul Angel again. That was well over a year ago. In their line of work a whole lot could happen in a year.

Spike had fished two unbroken chairs from the piles of broken furniture and other junk around the lobby for them to sit on. He even offered her something to drink before realizing that the only two things this household had stocked up on, in the two months they had been there, were blood and whiskey. And since sometime last night they were out of the latter.

Much to Spike's surprise Willow hadn't had any wind of his "resurrection" when coming. Apparently little Andrew was capable of keeping a secret after all. That explained why no-one had come to see him, neither to hug him or drive a piece of wood through his heart.

"So, what brings you here, Red?" He asked after telling her what he knew about his coming back.

"Oh, I felt a slight shift in magic here a couple of months ago. It felt rather strange and I wanted to see if I could find out what exactly that was… plus I'm gonna go visit my parents for the first time we defeated the First."

He had stopped listening after the 'slight shift' bit… and snickered. "I'm not sure how you rate these shifts you feel but we did have an incident about that time. But I personally wouldn't rate the world's most powerful cross dimensional evil law firm being sucked into hell just like that, leaving us a few dozens of some seriously angry demons, a handful of trolls and a dragon to slay a slight disturbance… not even with English modesty."

This was their next long topic for discussion. Willow was sorry to hear about Wesley and Gunn and slowly a few more things concerning her current surroundings and the way she had found Spike were falling into place. "So, you've just been drinking and lying on the floor for the last couple of months?" she asked after he had gone through the tale of the latest California apocalypse.

"You know, it's a bit hard doing something with mr. Broody doubling up on his brooding. Illyria has been going out though. Went with her the first few times to get her up to speed on that helping the helpless gig and all."

"Who is this Illyria exactly?" Willow asked but was interrupted by a loud growl from her stomach and they continued their conversation in a small restaurant. She was already having desert when he finally got the chance to ask her about what had happened to her and the rest of the gang from Sunnyhell after they had separated.

Later Willow lay in bed in one of the Hyperions not totally run down bedrooms and went over all that she had heard tonight. She hadn't even seen Angel yet. Spike's story had been enough for one night. Her head was overflowing with information. Not only was Spike alive… well not dust at the bottom of a very large hole where Sunnydale had been, but most of the people she had expected to find here were dead… even if one of their body's was apparently possessed by a dampened spirit of an ancient demon, if she had understood correctly.

And the disturbance she had felt…. Maybe she wasn't as powerful as she had thought if that had only been a slight disturbance to her…. But no use wondering about that now…. The length of the e-mail she would have to write to Giles in the morning would make up for some of it. Somehow she had a feeling that her stay in a L.A. could drag out for little longer than she had planned… something needed to be done here.