"Buffy! Wait – oh, c'mon!"

The sound of Spike's heavy boots clomping on the pavement as he chased after her was annoying enough for her to just turn around with an exasperated sigh and rest her hands on her hips. Buffy rolled her eyes as she waited the few seconds for Spike to catch up. When he did, he shot her a brief dirty look before pleading his case.

"Look – I just want to help, yeah? These demons are tougher than they look and you're in over your pretty lil head," he explained with his hands shoved into his pockets as she resumed walking and he kept pace alongside her to the cemetery.

"Newsflash, Sid Vicious, I'm stronger than I look. Slayer here, hellloooo," she retorted, vaguely annoyed he was doubting her and practically her shadow ever since she'd come back. She wouldn't think about the other things he was doing for her now either. That was a whole other, messier issue that she honestly didn't want to deal with. Ever.

"Oh believe me, luv. I know," he replied with a leer. "The way you squeeze your – OW, bloody hell! What was that for!?" Spike grabbed at his now-bleeding nose and glared. "Wouldn't start this if I were you, Buffy. We know how this ended last time."

"You're a pig, Spike," her voice was no more than a seething whisper as she tried to hold in her anger. How dare he throw that back in my face! It wasn't as if she wanted to revisit that now or ever. "I told you to stop talking about that. We're done with whatever that was. It'll never happen again. Ever!"

Spike went to follow her as she stormed off, but she was expecting it, and all the time she'd spent around Spike made her senses perfect at locating him without looking. In a movement too quick for even Spike to follow, she spun and kicked him square in his chest. Fueled by the anger pounding through her bloodstream, the strength of the kick caused him to fly backwards at least a dozen feet and land in some thorny bushes. Her enraged gaze met his and the betrayal and hurt that flashed in his eyes caused her to momentarily falter until his eyes clouded over with anger to hide his true feelings. She started to turn away from him and continue her walk in peace, but the venom in his next words froze her.

"Don't expect me to let you come crawling back to me when you get an itch you can't scratch, Slayer!"

He yelled after her from his place still firmly planted in the bushes, but she recovered from the bite in his tone and kept walking, lifting her head high, showing dignity she didn't feel like she had anymore. She was the Slayer, she was supposed to be stronger than this. Most Slayers probably hadn't died and come back as much as she had, but it didn't matter. With Faith locked away in a jail cell, Buffy was the only thing between Sunnydale and the forces of darkness. This post-resurrection depression just needed to let her be, but she knew it wasn't that easy. It was clinging on for dear life and turning her into something she didn't want to be.

"Don't expect me to come crawling," she murmured under her breath, but even to her the words lacked conviction. Being with Spike . . . in that moment it had been . . . easy. She'd sated some part of herself that needed that fury and passion, and now she craved more, but with Spike it was coming with way too many strings, and so far he hadn't failed to remind her how terrible of a person she was for obviously using him. It was making her sick inside.

Spike watched her walk away from him and felt that all too familiar pang in his chest. You can't love without a soul, my arse, he thought with a shake of his head (which he soon regretted since he was covered in thorns at the present). He'd be bloody better off if he couldn't love the bitch. Buffy with her damn luxurious locks, piercing green eyes, strength, passion . . . Oh bollocks. Spike sighed and attempted to push all thoughts of Buffy out of his head and he began the painful process of making his way out of his thorny predicament.

While Spike was throwing out every curse word he knew, Buffy was nearing the cemetery gates and readying herself for a fight. These demons had broken into the magic shop and stolen a few things, so at Anya's "request," Buffy was taking the monsters out. Admittedly, she was going in here half-cocked, but she figured beheading worked on basically any demon-y thing she'd encountered, so she didn't feel much cause for alarm. Also, if she hadn't escaped from everyone's pitying looks when she did, she might have beheaded them.

Buffy paused when she reached the middle of the cemetery. Her tinglies were going crazy, but there were still no demons in sight. Wimps. She casually pulled her sword out of her weapons bag and hefted it in her hand before she let her bag drop to the ground.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you it's not polite to keep a lady waiting?" She called out tauntingly and realized she was feeling a little reckless. It was just a run of the mill slay anyways – no matter what Spike said. When seven burly demons stepped out of the shadows though, she started to change her mind.

"You heard her boys – let's not keep her waiting."

Without more warning than a couple guttural snarls, the demons charged her all at once. She readied herself and her first arc of her sword cut through the midsection of one of them and splattered her with demon goo while it howled and fell to its knees. The rest of her fight didn't go so easy. Before she could even mentally celebrate her small victory, a blow to the side of her head nearly knocked her sideways and momentarily sent her world spinning. She felt blood trickling down her face, but she fought back with all she had. The sound of fighting filled the graveyard as they punched, kicked, and stabbed each other and Buffy slowly but surely worked her way through three more demons, but she was wearing down a lot faster than she'd been expecting.

In an attempt to catch her breath for at least a few seconds, she bolted towards one of the headstones and leapt onto it in order to jump from it to reach the top of one of the mausoleums. As with her luck for the night, she landed a little wrong and twisted her ankle enough to send a jolt of pain through it, but adrenaline quickly masked the pain when one of the demons leapt from the ground and landed in front of her. It was using a human femur as a makeshift weapon (talk about ick factor) and Buffy would have felt a bit ridiculous sword fighting like this, but she was too focused on kicking this nasty demon's ass.

"Buffy! Look out!"

The yell startled her and all she managed was a confused "huh?" before she felt a blinding, searing pain on the back of her head and was suddenly flying through the air. Her head smacked against a tombstone with a sickening crack, and the last thing she saw was a blurry, fading image of two demons chortling and holding a tombstone on top of the mausoleum she'd been fighting the third demon on, and a swirling leather coat as it leapt up to fight the demons she'd left behind. Her lips formed together to shape the word Spike, but no sound came out and the world suddenly went black.