Chapter Two

It had been a productive day for the group and a profitable one for Giles as at ten o'clock, the Magic Box was still filled to the brim with pushy customer's ordering the staff around and throwing wads of uncounted money at Anya behind the counter. Not that she particularly minded.

"Thank you for your generous donations to me. Please, come back tomorrow and give me more of your hard earned money!" she grinned at every last unpleasent customer, refusing to let their foul moods ruin her money making. Xander stared at her from across the crowded room, admiring his beautiful fiance' and thinking about their impending wedding day. He sighed happily before wading back into the horde.

Dawn, having recovered from her tantrum the night before, was in the corner giggling at Spike's jokes. Spike of course had volunteered to come the Magic Box to 'help out', which translated in Spike launguage as sit around and watch the others struggle with unpleasent buyers and heavy boxes while not lifting a finger. Dawn adopted this strategy with ease, laughing with the vampire as Giles wiped his glasses for the seventeenth time in half an hour.

"I see you two have chosen the path of productiveness instead of helpyness..." Buffy shook her head. She really had to stop making up her own words. Spike snorted and Dawn grinned at her pissed off sister. Buffy raised an eyebrow in a menacing way and Dawn changed her mind quickly.

"I'll go and help Willow..." she grumbled and left them alone to dive headfirst into the sea of people milling around the store.

"Well love, you're a party poop," Spike pouted up at her and Buffy willed her girly parts to behave. They didn't know what they were doing, she decided. Girly parts reacted without thinking and they didn't care who they reacted to. This was Spike. Bad, evil vampire Spike. Once again, the tingling in her stomach did not disappear with this information.

"Well someone said they'd come down to help out." She gave him a pointed look. He grinned that shit-eating grin at her that frustrated her and excited her all at once, before standing up and spreading his arms.

"Alright love, you win. Where do you want me?" he smirked suggestively and Buffy groaned, her head in her hands.

"Just go and help Giles bag things." The look on his face made her smile.

"Bagging? Bloody bagging? Slayer, please don't do that to me," he grimaced openly at the thought of being nice to pushy people who wanted him to bag their goods faster than the speed of light and do it with a smile at the same time. Buffy gave him a sadistic grin and ushered him in the direction of the counter. "Fine, fine. Give me bloody strength."

Buffy couldn't help but laugh at him. This was beginning to get out of hand she decided. Since when was she laughing at something Spike did? Since when did she get tingly or warm achey feelings about Spike. His words echoed in her mind and only now did she see the double entendre. "Where do you want me?" She whimpered softly, her flushed cheeks earning her looks from passing customer's. She blushed harder. Stupid sexy vampire.

x-x

The two shape-shifter's walked slowly and instinctively towards the Magic Box, through the dark night. As they passed under lamp lights, no shadow was cast under them, drawing the attention of the occasional observant passer by. They paused for a moment as the female sniffed the air once more and they turned left on the next corner, the Magic Box coming into their view.

As they entered, they grimaced. Crowds.

Chloe was not amused at the people pushing past her at every angle. She'd even growled at one point, but her mate Tony had grabbed her shoulders and steered her in the direction of the counter. "I hate humans," she grumbled. "Mindless violent creatures."

Tony mused behind her, still walking her in the direction of the Magic Box counter. "So last night's little vamp attack wasn't mindless violence?" he purred at her and Chloe smirked.

"It was self-defense. Now stop trying to seduce me in the middle of a store," she paused, looking over the heads of the bustling crowd that showed no intention of thinning anytime soon. "There he is."

Spike sniffed the air and a look of confusion and slight recognition crossed his face. He knew that smell. He would know that smell anywhere. He let his eyes sweep the crowd and picked her out instantly. She looked the same as always, with Tony gripping her shoulders to stop her from slicing her way through the ungrateful humans. The long hair she prided herself on still shone brightly even in the dim light of the shop, and the crowd parted as the two made their way to the counter. Tony looked as he always did, his messy black hair still as untidy as usual. He'd grown alot of stubble since the last time he'd seen him.

Chloe was looking for him and he grinned from ear to ear, immediately choosing to leave a disgruntled Giles to bag the rest of the crap by himself. He walked towards the pair silently and acceptingly.

She stood in front of him with a soft and sincere smile on her face. She couldn't help herself, her affection for the vampire removing all traces of the mission from her head. "We have a lot to talk about William."

He nodded and his blue eyes met those of Tony behind her, who grinned in a friendly and nostalgic way. "Lot's of things to discuss pet? Anything in particular?"

"One thing," she smiled. "What the fuck is wrong with your hair?"

x-x

Buffy emerged from the basement carrying yet another box of magic parifinalia, that they had run out of. As she worked her way carefully towards the counter and set the box on the crowded surface, she noticed Spike's absence. Gile's was becoming more and more flustered by the second and she was pretty sure he was going to rub through the lenses of his glasses.

"I thought Spike was helping you?" she asked, moving around the help him bag a mountain of candles that lay on the counter.

"The useless lump abandoned me twenty minutes ago. He left with a someone around half past..." Giles grumbled, before returning back to another customer.

"Did you see who?" she asked, wondering if Clem, his demon buddy had put in an appearance.

"Just a woman," Giles answered absentmindedly. Buffy frowned and a tight feeling came over her chest. Spike left with another woman? What the hell? He loved her, not some floozy that just wandered in from the street...

Buffy shook herself. This was a good thing. She shouldn't care who Spike dated. She shouldn't care that he was off with some random woman... alone. She shouldn't give a damn that he was supposed to love her and she wasn't supposed to have this tight feeling of jealousy that was spreading through her chest.

So why did she?

Spike occupied her thoughts right up until the last customer had left the shop and she slammed the door behind them, flipping the closed sign. Only then did Dawn draw her attention to something else for an hour. After she collapsed into bed that night she realised that Spike had never come back and she groaned as he pushed his way into her thoughts once more. Stupid betraying vampire. Where they out there now, in his crypt? In his bed? She growled in frustration and threw the covers from her bed, rolling out and stalking down to the kitchen, willing herself not to give a damn.

But she did. She couldn't help or stop the jealousy that was now coursing through her. And a little bit of anger at him so easily forgetting about her.

She sat at the kitchen counter in a daze for hours, trying to work through these new and confusing feelings, and she didn't notice her sleepy mother entering the kitchen and looking at the clock in confusion.

"Buffy?" the girl in question jumped in fright, before turning towards her mother.

"Mom, you're up..." she went back to staring at the bread bin. Joyce raised an eyebrow and looked at the clock again. Quarter past four in the morning and her daughter was sitting in the kitchen staring at the bread bin with a dazed look on her face.

She was either drunk or in love.

Joyce quickly determined which option it was and sat down next to her daughter, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Who is he then?" Buffy looked like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, but chose to deny it anyway. It was pointless when it came to Joyce. She was like a demon with a talisman. Or a mother with an issue.

"I don't know what you're talking about mom," Buffy laughed nervously. "There's no he."

Joyce raised a disbelieving eyebrow and looked at Buffy pointedly. The Slayer bit her lip. Demon's she could handle and the end of the world was like a day at a candy store in comparison to facing her mom on the subject of men.

"Buffy please. I am your mother. I know everything and I know that you only stare at the bread bin in the kitchen when you're thinking about a boy."

"Wrong, I also do it when I'm drunk." Buffy argued back and Joyce laughed.

"True, but you're not drunk. In fact, you haven't been drunk for a long time. Now, we could do this the easy way, or the hard way," Joyce smiled kindly at her daughter and the Slayer, defender of worlds and killer of hell Gods, caved to the middle aged woman on the kitchen stool.

"Fine, but you can't tell anyone mom. I don't even know what it is myself yet..." Buffy gave in and sat next to her mother at the counter.

"Cross my heart." Joyce motioned drawing a cross over her heart and Buffy sighed in frustration.

"Lately, I've been feeling really strange emotions about someone I never thought I would feel those things about. It's wrong and weird, and yet he's just always in my head you know?" Joyce nodded in an understanding way, and let Buffy continue. "He's always around and I don't know why, but I can't stop thinking about him. But I know Giles would kill me, and Xander would kill me and... well they would kill me mom!"

Buffy lay her head in her hands and groaned.

"Well if it helps, I think Spike is a wonderful man Buffy." The Slayer's head shot up.

"How did you-"

"Buffy please. I'm your mother. I know everything," she smiled cryptically and Buffy sighed again. "If you want to be with Spike, then neither Rupert or Xander should have anything to do with the decision. It's your life Buffy, and I know that Spike would do anything for you, and for us. He can be a good man Buffy, if you give him the chance."

Buffy pondered her mothers words. "I think I've left it too late though. He left the Magic Box with a woman tonight and he didn't come back. He's not even smoking outside my window like he usually is..." she looked at her mother searching for a solution as to what she should do.

"Well don't assume Buffy. Go to him tomorrow night or get him on his own during a patrol and ask him about it. I doubt he'd be so quick to betray you sweetie."

Buffy knew that her mother was right. Her mother was always right. She looked up at the smiling know it all and couldn't help but grin. "Thanks mom. I love you," she pressed a kiss to her hair and bid her goodnight.

As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was asleep.

x-x

"So you came all this way to warn the Slayer about this?" Spike turned his head from the mug of blood he was currently heating, to question his guests who were now making themselves comfortable on his couch.

"Hell yes. This is one of my favourite dimensions. I don't want it to go poof any more than you do," Chloe grumbled. "If Septath wants a fight, then he'll damn well get one, and I figured the Slayer would be useful in the fight against evil."

"Septath," Spike mused. "Where have I heard that name before?"

Tony took the beer that Spike held out to him before he answered. "He's the King of the Cruor Everto." He gulped down the cool bitter liquid, while Spike grumbled.

"The Blood Demons?" Chloe nodded at him grimly. "Ugh, blood demons think they're so high and mighty..."

"They are high and mighty Spike. Blood demons are merciless, you know that, and they want this world to fall to ruin."

"Yes but why? I know that the high and mighty Septath likes abit of the old human blood, but then again who doesn't? Can't he just conjour up a mug for himself and have at it? S'not like he really has to take a shit fit on the whole world is it?" Spike sat down in his battered armchair and heaved a sigh.

"According to our resources, during the chaos that the spell will create, the Blood Demons will enter through the dimensional portal and harvest every last human and vampire on the planet, effectively creating a human farm. Like a dairy farm, but with-"

"Blood..." Spike finished Tony's sentence for him. "Any clue as to when it's going down?"

"The only thing our elders told us, was that it was likely that Septath wants this over and done with as quickly as possible. So we're thinking the next two months at least. That should give your Slayer some time to prepare," Chloe looked at him thoughtfully. "I think we'll stick around too. We could come in handy against Septath's devil dogs," she snorted. "How clique."

"Well when do we get to meet this Slayer that has our friend so whipped?" Tony changed the subject briefly, causing Spike to growl at him. "Easy buddy," Tony held his hands up. "Only asking."

"You can meet her tomorrow night. She'll be out patrolling with the Scoobies..."

"Scoobies? Like that TV show with the cartoon dog?" Chloe raised an eyebrow and Spike chuckled, nodding.

"Two wiccans, Red and Glinda-"

"Tell me they're only your pet names for them," Tony snorted and Spike smirked.

"Real names are Willow and Tara. They've got a thousand year old ex-vengence Demon named Anya and her-" he grimaced, "Fiance' Xander. Then there's the Watcher, ol' Rupes. Likes to be called Giles. Buffy's mum Joyce, nice lady who once bashed me over the head with an axe. But she likes Passions so we're all friends again," he laughed at their expressions. "And last but not least the Niblet. Buffy's little sister Dawn, used to be a mystical key dealy, now just a regular hormonal teenager."

He counted in his head before he was sure he'd gotten them all.

Chloe smirked at him, eyes full of humour. "Did you ever think about finding some nice normal vampires to hang around with? Kids your own age?" Spike narrowed his eyes at her and she rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Spike, I was kidding..."

"Your jokes never did hit the mark," he picked up a nearby beer can and threw it at her, hitting the shapeshifter on the head. Tony watched the pair, laughing all the time.

"Fine Spike, so I'm not the most amusing wolf girl in this dimension. Incedentally, how many others do you know?" Chloe rasied an eyebrow. Spike shook his head, raising his mug of blood to his lips. "Now, about that chip in your head. I think I'll remove it..."

Spike choked on his mouthful of blood.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

A/N: So yeah, second chapter up. I hope you enjoy. Thanks for the reviews so far, they're sweet and brighten my day. My exams are almost over and it's also my birthday today so woot! It's a gift from me to you ^^

BTW, critism is welcome, just make it constructive and not a flame.