Title: "To Find Oneself"

Timeline: Post A5. Just before they get back to the office and see Andrew.

Summary: What if during episode "Damage" Buffy went with Andrew to find Dana.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to the creator and writers of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' no copyright infringement intended. This story was created for entertainment purposes only.

Rating: PG

Parings: B/S

Slayers

-Wolfram and Hart-

The elevator door rings and opens in the Wolfram and Hart main lobby, people and demons alike are going about their busy schedules hurrying past as Spike and Angel walk out. Now at least they knew what Dana was, a slayer and a crazy one at that, however just what they were going to do with her neither of them knew. Nonetheless they still had to catch her before anything could happen.

"A psychotic vampire slayer," Spike says.

"How many times you gonna keep sayin' that?" Angel replies annoyed.

"Just tryin' to wrap my lobes around it. A psycho slayer"

"And you let her get away."

"At least I was tryin' to stop her."

"Oh… how'd that work out?"

"At least I know the game, now, don't I? I killed 2 slayers with my own hands. Think I can handle one that's gone daft in the melon."

"You're not handling anything, Spike. OK? Wes contacted Rupert Giles. He's sendin' his top guy to retrieve her."

-Conference room-

Spike and Angel walk into the conference room where Gunn, Wesley, Fred, and Lorne are waiting sitting around the conference table, the room has a soft glow to it as it was lit but the office lamps and harsh daylight was hidden by the cover of night. There is a chair in the room where someone appears to be sitting however you can't tell who it is by the way the chair is facing. Then as they enter the room and everyone turns to face Spike and Angel the chair turns and leaves both of the souled vampires speechless. There she sat one of, if not the most powerful Slayer of all time, her eyes widen at the sight of the vampires before her, she had been expecting to see Angel, but never Spike. Spike had died there was no reason for her to think that he would be here, was he here? Buffy wasn't even sure that the person before her was real. Silence fills the room as Buffy and Spike glare at each other intensely.

"Buffy," Spike says hesitantly.

"…Spike?" Buffy responds with doubt drenched in her voice.

The rest of the room is silent watching attentively the slayer and vampire before them wondering what they are about to do. Even Angel who wasn't particularly happy with the attention that Spike was getting from Buffy was soundless; everyone seemed to understand how emotional this moment was for both of them. Buffy slowly stood up from her chair and in a few slow steps she was standing before him. Spike looked down at her as if he was seeing her for the first time; he watched as the soft light made shadows dance across her face, she looks at him with awe. Tentatively he places an arm on Buffy's shoulder and she instantly falls into his embrace. He holds her close, her essence surrounds him, the smell of her hair, the warmth of her skin; it's so real that Spike wonders if it might be a dream.

"I've missed you so much…God Buffy, I…"

Buffy pulls back slightly so that she can look up at Spike, her eyes are slightly glossy but no tears.

"I know…I…"

"Oh, my God!" A voice says from behind the pair.

Both Buffy and Spike turn to see Andrew in the doorway with a look of astonishment on his face, his hair is slightly longer and is looking slightly more sophisticated then Spike last saw, however he still had the overall appearance of a nerd. Buffy and Spike break apart just as Andrew rushes forward to hug Spike, a hug which is not returned, Buffy backs up slightly to give the two of them more room and is now standing next to Angel, a smirk across both of their faces and a pleading look on Spike's.

"Spike...It's you. It's really you…My therapist thought I was holding onto false hope, but... I knew you'd come back. You're like... you're like Gandalf the White, resurrected from the pit of the Balrog…more beautiful than ever…Ohh... he's alive, Frodo. He's alive," Andrew says with all the enthusiasm he can muster.

"You two know each other?" Angel asks.

Angel just stands with a proud smirk on his face while Spike stands uncomfortably and glares back at him with daggers. Buffy's still watching with awe in her eyes and is chuckling slightly at the sight before her. Andrew then backs away from Spike straightening his jacket and attempts to look professional.

"Uh, yeah. Um... We-we saved the world together…" Andrew says.

"Hey!" Buffy says offended.

"I mean, Buffy helped, but... it was mostly us…Uh, so what happened? Last I heard, you went all pillar of fire down in the hellmouth."

Buffy rolls her eyes while Angel starts to get annoyed by Andrew. It's then that the mood is broken and everyone realizes that they have to get back on track. There will be time to answer questions later.

"Could we save memory lane till after we contain this psychotic super powered killing machine?" Angel says.

"Yes, Buffy was just about to tell us about the dreams that she's been having," Wesley explains.

"You've been having dreams pet?" Spike asks.

"Yeah, slayer dreams…there's this girl…"

"Dana," Angel says finishing Buffy's sentence.

"yea, she's a slayer, but I'm sure that you've figured that much out by now…anyways, she's…she's been tortured, traumatized, and she's gonna really hurt someone if we don't find her soon, she's been having slayer dreams herself, of past slayers, like I did when I was first called but…"

"With her mental instability she's using the things that she sees in her dreams to lash out at people she perceives to be her own aggressors," Wesley says.

"My hypothesis exactly, Pryce. I see Mr. Giles may have been wrong about you," Andrew says acting as watcher-ly as he can.

"Explains why that skirt was yappin'' at me in Chinese. Must've thought she was the slayer I took out back in the Boxer Rebellion," Spike says.

"You mean the slayer you murdered," Angel corrects.

"Well, I didn't have a soul back then, did I?"

"Right, 'cause having one now is making such a difference."

"Enough! Arguing isn't going to help us here," Buffy interjects.

"Right," Spike says.

"Sorry," Angel says.

Buffy takes a deep breath and looks at the two vampires before her, she wonders if they would ever get along and figures that they probably would always be at each others throats, too much history. History, something that she had with the both of them in mass quantity and now it's almost humorous to watch them bicker, however they had more important things to do, when they were done though she would have to have a long talk with the both of them to catch up on missed time, especially Spike. She had far too many questions to even think about asking them at the moment and simply decided to proceed with plan A: find the crazy slayer.

"Ok, first things first, we have to find this girl and restrain her and then we'll go from there."

"Alright then, anyone needs me I'll be out doing hair gel boy's job," Spike replies.

"Spike, you're the last person who should be going…she's a slayer she has every reason to hate us, especially you, you have killed two slayers before and I'm betting that she knows that," Angel says.

"What do you want me to do? Go all boo-hoo 'cause she got tortured and driven out of her gourd? Not like we haven't done worse back in the day."

"Yeah and it's something I'm still paying for."

"And you should let it go, mate. It's startin' to make you look old."

"Spike, I'm serious."

"So what do you suggest, just stay here, do nothing…let Buffy and Andrew handle it all, I don't bloody think so."

"Spike…"

"Hey, what did I say about arguing! If you two are going to continue this at least loose the shirts and let me get some body oil, cause other wise it's just not worth my time," Buffy says successfully interrupting their argument.

Her words had not only caught their attention but also the rest of the room. Spike's infamous smirk crossed his face and Buffy can't help but smile, Angel however at this point looks annoyed.

"Seeing as the two of you are unable to come up with a plan this is how it's gonna go…Spike, Angel and I will split up taking different sides of town around where you last saw her, if someone finds her call the other two and we all take her down."

"Hey! What do I do? I can help!" Andrew says.

"So…go with Spike."

"Hey, why do I get stuck with em'," Spike says annoyed and partly hurt that Buffy wasn't going with him to search for Dana.

"Because I've been stuck with him since the hellmouth closed and he knows you…besides the both of you tend to get into trouble, you'll be able to keep an eye on each other."

"Good plan, Spike and I work well together, like the time we were sent by Giles on a secret mission to…"

"Come-on Andrew…we get the west side," Spike says cutting off Andrew's sentence.

With a final nod to Buffy Spike walks out of the conference room with Andrew tailing behind. Buffy watches him go, it's a simple action she had seen from him many times before, nothing significant about it, just walking away; but the fact that he was here to walk away was overwhelming, she still couldn't believe that he was back. Not that she knew what they were going to do now that they could be together, if they would, if he had moved on, she didn't even know if what they had before was still entirely there… it's not like he had called her to tell her that he was alive…Buffy couldn't think about what had just happened anymore, she just needed to concentrate on what she needed to do, she would have time to talk with Spike later.