A/N: The story takes place 3 years after the events of "Not Fade Away", and ignores all comics written afterwards. Some events may not match actual timeline corresponding to 2007, such as music, TV, technology, so don't stake me for that. =)
Key: Italics refer to thoughts, quotes, lyrics of songs and in some cases, memories. Bold refers to emphasis.
Spike, Angel, Buffy, Andrew belong to Joss Whedon, except for Rose/Scarlett, which is my own invention.
London, 2007
Spike lurked around the cemetery once again, hoping to find any trace of this mysterious vampire. He never thought he was gonna come back to the Mother Country ever again, let alone with Angel. Surprisingly, they have been getting along just fine, but of course it had everything to do with him having moved on. Angel, on the other hand, would never be over her. Truth be told, Spike knew he himself still cared for Buffy, but not in the way he used to. That trip to Rome he and his grandsire made three years ago turned out to be a bloody revelation about his feelings for the Slayer, she had made it pretty clear she didn't want them in her life until she sorted out whatever feelings she had for them. That had been it for Spike, no more games. So the fact that Angel was still in love with her didn't bother him, at all.
He perched himself over a crypt and waited, hoping something would come out of all this search. He hadn't been entirely happy when he and Angel heard the rumors, and the elder vampire was even more broody than usual about it. It had been distressing enough for Angel to know that he was no longer the one and only vampire with a soul, that of all the vampires in the world, it just had to have been Spike the one to crash his exclusive status. And now Spike could totally relate with Angel, for they have heard word of yet another ensouled vampire. So when the bitter news sank in, and egos felt less bruised, they caught the first cargo ship back to Europe.
They have been searching for days now, sweeping all over London, trying to find info, any info at all, about this vampire. Spike lit another cigarette and let himself relax a little bit, the cool breeze caressing his cheekbones. Oddly enough, somehow, it felt good to be back in England. "This is sodding boring", he muttered to himself, "should've gotten me a good ol' bottle of Hooch." But when he was about to give up on his part of this quest, his enhanced ears caught the sound of a brawl happening somewhere near. He smirked to himself and intended to take off and head over to wherever all the noise was coming from. There's no way I'm turning down a good spot of violence, he thought. But before he could jump off the roof of the crypt, he saw a young red-haired woman running for dear life, with five vampires chasing not far behind. Spike was in motion in a split of a second, but not without thinking what moron takes a stroll in a cemetery, at night, wearing those inhumanly -and painfully looking- high heels? But before he managed to even run ten meters, the woman, all clad in black -including her long leather coat-, spun around drawing two long swords out of nowhere and started chopping heads. What'd you know, Spike thought while stopping on his tracks, a Slayer.
He watched as she effortlessly dusted two of the remaining bloodsuckers, and now she was fighting the last one. Spike had to fight his urges, he so wanted to fight, but he wasn't gonna go anywhere near those swords. Specially when he noticed they had wooden ends. "Yeah, definitely not getting near those", he muttered just as the vampire foe managed to hurt the redhead in her left forearm. Now, the events that unfolded right after, caught Spike completely off guard, in what it could only be described as a massive what-the-fuck moment, for the girl was now in game-face, growling at her opponent and fighting him mercilessly until he was dust. Spike couldn't believe what he was witnessing. And as he was about to pull out his cell phone and call Angel and inform him -because he was bloody sure now- that he had found their mysterious ensouled vampire, the redhead was already gone. Nonetheless, he called his grandsire and filled him in. But what information he hid from Angel was the fact that Spike recognized her, he had not been wrong about her being a Slayer, for he had fought her before, a long time ago.
That night he found himself unable to sleep, tossing and turning, he kept going back to what happened in the cemetery earlier tonight. Of course, he and Angel tried to track her down but they couldn't find any traces, her scent simply vanished at some spot, and both vampires were left much more frustrated than they already had been. She knows very well how to avoid being tracked. She is good, Spike thought while taking a drag from his cigarette, and smirked to himself, knowing he wasn't upset anymore about this soul-party crasher. He kept replaying the events over and over, and as he was slowly dozing off, bits and pieces of old memories slowly started mixing with his current thoughts until he finally fell asleep, where the whole memory finally kicked in.