Takes place during season 4 of BTVS after "Pangs" and during Season one of Angel after "I will remember"

Part one

What the hell is wrong with this guy?  Buffy thought as she punched him squarely in the face.  He's not even trying to hurt me

"Hello?" Buffy cried exasperated, "are we dancing or fighting?"

She ducked a half hearted punch from the smug vampire.

"You know some of us have homework to do, fang face!" she continued to say as she swept her leg out in an effort to trip the vampire.  He jumped forward to avoid the attack and slammed into Buffy.  She rolled backwards and recovered quickly only to realize she had lost her stake in the process.  She looked up at her foe and smiled sarcastically.

"That didn't even sting," she said to him mockingly, "you know, you're putting your kind to shame, and not to mention wasting a very busy slayer's time."

He just smiled and blew her a kiss.  She made a disgusted face and kicked him across the graveyard into a mausoleum.  She smiled, proud of herself, and walked towards him, pausing to pick up her stake. 

"Score one for the self-respecting women out there," she said preparing for his counterattack, "I'm just making a difference, one disgusting vampire pig at a time."

Instead of attacking her, he simply stood up and brushed himself off, smiling at her all the while.

"A friend of mine told me vampires got you hot," he said in a silky voice, "I just thought I might have a chance, beautiful. That's all."

"Okay.  I can either stake you right now, and make it much easier on the both of us, or I can just kick your ass some more," Buffy threatened though clenched teeth, "Which do you prefer?  Cause I'm thinking I could go ether way."

"The same friend would like me to ask you how Giles is these days," he continued with no regard to her threats.

She narrowed her eyes at the smiling vampire.  He winked at her and ran off into the nearby woods.  She was about to go after him when something stopped her.  That was weird.  How does he....

"Giles!" she cried, suddenly understanding that the vampire had only been playing with her, "I'm such an idiot!  That little shit was trying to wasting my time!"

With that she ran off in the direction of her former watcher's residence.

Buffy knocked on the door to Giles' home.  To her surprise, the door slowly creaked open.  She cautiously walked into the dim house, her senses on high alert.  She fumbled around on the wall to locate the light switch.  She flicked it to no avail.  Someone had cut the power.  Fuck.  It was so dark she couldn't see anything.  She felt vulnerable, a feeling Buffy wasn't used to.  Just then she cried out as she tripped over a body on the floor.  Giles!  She had to get him out of there.  Lifting him easily, she carried him outside the house.  The light was bright enough outside for her to soon realize it wasn't Giles.  It was Spike she carried.  She let out an eep! of surprise and fought back the urge to drop him right there.  Instead she laid him down on the ground and tried to wake him up.

"Spike!" she tentatively whispered in his ear, "Wake up!  Is anyone still inside the house?  Hello?!"

He murmured and groaned in pain.

"Wake up!" she whispered again in a much less tender volume.

"What the bloody hell?" he growled, trying to focus on the little face that hovered over his.  His vision was blurred, but he could make out that it was Buffy.  He felt her breath on his face and was suddenly very aware that this was the first time they had been this close since her little witch friend's blasted spell.

"Spike! Come on, is anyone still in the house?" she demanded uncomfortable with him staring at her like he was.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts and croaked a "no".

"Do you remember what happened?" she asked.

"Not very much.  I think some bloke knocked me out," he said rubbing the back of his head in pain.

"Who, Spike?!" she cried in a panicked voice, grabbing him roughly by the shirt.

"Lay off slayer!' he growled pulling away from her grasp, "don't you have any bloody sympathy, woman?  I got a bleeding head ache."

She sighed in annoyance and sat back, "some help you are."

She knew she needed to get the power back on in the house, so she took a deep breath and went in cautiously.  Despite her caution she still managed to trip over something.  Spike heard the loud bang and went in to find Buffy sitting on the ground grasping her shin.

"So much for slayer sense," he chuckled.

"Bite me...oh wait, you can't!" she replied with venom.

He glared at her and lit his Zippo.  He held it up to search for the fuse box.  He fumbled around the room for a while and finally located it.  Within minutes the room was flooded in light.  Buffy squinted her eyes.

"Well, now that your whole vampire thing isn't going to pan out, at least you can make a living at being an electrician," she stated looking around the disheveled room.

"And if you'd stop tripping over things and learn how to thank people that help you, your whole slayer thing might just work out for you," he replied coolly.

"Well good thing you're not exactly people," she snapped and got up to use the phone, limping a bit. 

Willow was curled up on her bed back at her and Buffy's dorm.  She had loud country music blaring though out the room.  Xander always said it was the music of pain and, boy, was she in pain.  Oz was still gone.  He was not coming back, and to top it all off, everyone was still very sensitive about her little magic coops, especially Buffy.  She guessed kissing Spike wasn't all that great after all....not that she ever wondered how that might feel.  Come on, you can't have a crush on something evil and dead.  Well you can, you just don't tell anyone about it.  And it wasn't a crush!  Man, she was one confused witch.  The phone ringing startled her out of her thoughts.  She shut off the radio and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Willow!  It's Buffy," Buffy replied.

"Oh hey-"

"Willow, Giles is missing and his house is trashed."

"Oh, God," Willow murmured, "have you called Xander yet?"

"No, not yet, I was going to call him next."

"No, no I'll call him and we'll be right there....wait, where's Spike?"

"Drinking Giles' alcohol," she replied dryly.

"Does he have anything to do with this?"

"I doubt it.  He was knocked out when I got here and besides, his old buddies would probably think he's a joke because he's been neutered and all."

"Watch it slayer!" she could hear Spike shouting in the back ground.

"Well, does he at least remember anything?" Willow asked ignoring Spike's outburst.

"Of course he doesn't," Buffy replied in an annoyed voice, "Since when is he of any help to us?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry my massive head trauma inconveniences you!" Spike shouted, again. "And remind me who got the bleeding lights back on?"

"He's driving me crazy, Willow," Buffy whispered.

"Okay, we'll be there soon," Willow sighed and hung up the phone.

Xander knocked on Giles' door and looked down at a very worried Willow.

"It's going to be fine Will.  We'll find Giles and kill whatever big bad guy is behind all this!" he said putting a reassuring arm around her shoulder.

She smiled up at him as Buffy opened the door looking very unnerved. 

"This is third rate booze!" they heard Spike slur.

"Hi guys," Buffy said though a forced smile, "don't mind the intoxicated vampire."

"I am not drunk!" Spike yelled.

Buffy sighed and moved over to let her friends in.  Willow immediately gave Buffy a big hug. 

"I'm so worried about Giles," she whimpered into her shoulder.

"I know.  Me too," Buffy replied.

Xander leaned over and pulled the two petite girls into his arms.

"Ugh," Spike said in disgust flopping on the couch with a bottle of Jack Daniels, "I've come over a bit queasy."

"Could it be all the third rate booze you've been funneling?" Buffy asked easing out of the group hug.

"Yeah, yuck, I can smell you from here," Willow said with a scrunched up nose.

"And you smell like my dad!" Xander added disgustedly.

Spike glared at Xander and said, "un-like your alcoholic pop, I made the intelligent decision not to produce a sad excuse for a whelp like you."

"My dad is not an alcoholic!  For your information, he never goes to meetings," Xander shot back pointing a finger at Spike.  

"Ah, Red," Spike said ignoring Xander and turning his attention to Willow, "I trust you brought your 'impressive' magic skills with you as always."

She shifted her eyes to the floor trying to hide her hurt.

"So, Buffy, what do we know?" Xander asked avoiding Willow's obvious discomfort.

"Well, aside from Giles being missing, not much." she replied. 

"Based on the looks of things, he didn't leave willingly," Willow said surveying the disheveled room.

"Ya think?" Spike quipped.

Buffy glared at him and said "I think vamps had something to do with this.  Before I got here, I ran into a very annoying vampire in the graveyard.  I really didn't like him." She absentmindedly picked up some of Giles' books that were scattered across the floor.  "I know he had something to do with Giles' disappearance."

"Who would want to hurt Giles?" Willow asked.

"Someone who is going to very sorry when I find them," Buffy replied angrily.

"Rupert, we meet again" Angelus smiled wickedly at him, "and you're in quite the same position you were in last time.  I trust the ropes aren't too tight?"

Giles groaned as Angelus pulled them tighter around his already raw wrists.  Giles' head bobbed as he tried to stay conscious.  The vampires goons had beat him mercilessly before Angelus had even arrived.  Now it seemed that he was planning on continuing that trend.

"Aw, are you in pain?" Angelus asked him as he roughly dug his finger into the gash on Giles' forehead licking the blood off his finger.

Giles moaned from the searing pain.

"You're a monster," he croaked.

"Why, thank you, Rupert," Angelus sneered, "now enough with the pleasantries.  Let's get down to business."

Angelus crouched before Giles wearing his game face.

"See, we need to meet up with an old girlfriend of mind and I don't think you're not properly attired for the affair," with that he viciously bit into Giles' neck causing him to scream out once again from the pain.