"Can't you see she doesn't love you?" Spike was staring directly at the T.V. in the Summers' living room; dawn was sat next to him on the couch, staring at the floor. "Blind idiot."

Dawn reached over Spike to grab the remote off of the couch arm, muting the T.V.

"Oi, Niblett; I was watching that!"

"You'll live."

Spike sighed.

"What is it, bit?"

"How- how's Buffy?"

Spike instantly tensed up.

"I- I mean I know she's not okay," Dawn continued, "But is there anything that I can do? As usual I feel completely useless and-"

"Dawn; big sis is gonna be a bit of all right. She's tough."

"I know she's tough but I wanna help."

Spike put his hand on Dawn's shoulder

"Not sure you can right now," He paused thinking of just a few hours earlier in Buffy's room, "she can't even wake up okay."

Dawn waited for Spike to say more, when he didn't she said, "What does that mean?"

"It means when she wakes up and it's all dark, all she can think about is waking up six feet under."

"Oh." Dawn looked down at her sock covered feet.

"She's strong." Spike was trying to reassure himself more than Dawn at this point, he knew that the Buffy he fell in love with would be okay, but he didn't know how much of her stayed buried after she came back to life.

"Hold on." Dawn got up and ran up the stairs.

"Niblett?" Spike rose from the couch following her up the stairs, down the hall and into the open doorframe of her bedroom.

Dawn was going through a bin she had pulled out from the bottom of her bookshelf.

"Ha!" Dawn pulled a package of plastic stars out of the bin and brought them over to Spike.

He took them in his hands and then gave her a confused look.

"They uh, they're sticky and they glow in the dark, I thought maybe we could put them on her celling so when she wakes up she doesn't feel like she's…" Dawn's voice trailed off, neither one of them wanted to hear the word coffin. They didn't want to imagine what it was like for her any clearer.

Spike stared at the package of glow-y stars in his hand.

"Is it stupid?" Dawn looked back down at her feet.

"It's great." Spike gave her a warm smile as their eyes met. Bit silly, yeah. But I think it'll mean something to the both of them. "I'll go get the latter" Spike handed Dawn the package and walked off.


"That's probably the sort of stuff I'm not supposed to see; right?" Dawn closed her eyes, moving her head towards Xander as the demon's head rolled onto the ground.

"At least she didn't disappear!" Anya chimed in cheerfully from behind Dawn.

If only. Buffy felt bad that she still didn't want to be back. She dropped the axe onto her bed, placing her hands on the back of her neck and tilting her head upwards letting out a breath; eyes closed.

"Supreme slaying there, Buffster. Glad to see you back in action." Xander, Dawn and Anya were all still standing in the doorway to Buffy's bedroom.

"I try my best." Buffy opened her eyes to see a whole galaxy of stars above her. "Why does my celling look like space? Can you all see that?"

"Spike helped me put them up," Dawn moved closer to Buffy. "he mentioned that you didn't like waking up in the dark after… everything… so I thought if you saw the stars it would be… better?"

Buffy took her eyes away from the celling to look at Dawn, a tear rolled down her cheek.

"Dawnie, this… thank you." Buffy pulled her sister into an embrace.

"So it's not stupid?"

"I think it's wonderful."


Spike heard a knock on his crypt door from the downstairs where he had been laying, shirt off, thinking about… guess who. He began to climb up the latter.

He reached the crypt door and opened it. Buffy?

Hot. Buffy had immediately noticed Spike's lack of upper body clothing.

"Don't you usually, you know, bust open the door? Knock it off its hinges?"

Buffy shrugged.

"I guess being dead gave me manners" She smiled and he gestured for her to come inside. "Thanks." She walked inside suddenly finding herself unsure of where to stand.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I wanted to say thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything."

Spike was taken aback by this.

"Taking care of Dawn when I was gone, sitting with me all night last night, helping out today, the stars."

Spike couldn't help but smile; he took a few steps towards her.

"Little sis's Idea, don't know how effective it'll be but I thought it might be nice…" Buffy was staring directly into his eyes; she took a step forward.

"Really, thank you, William. If anything had happened to Dawn while I was away, or if I hadn't had you with me last night, I don't know what I'd be doing right about now… probably be a good few steps closer a mental breakdown…" Her sentence slowed and stopped realizing that she was babbling.

His eyes are so blue, and- gentle.

"Anything for you, Buffy."

Buffy felt her eyes start to well up with tears again and concluded that it was sensory overload from being back, she was usually so much better at holding these things in.

Seeing the tears in her eyes, his filled with worry and he raised a hand to her cheek, brushing against it lightly.

"Can I do anything else for you?"

Buffy shook her head, the tears retreated and she felt herself calm.

"Spike?"

He cocked his head to the side in curiosity and Buffy took another step closer, their bodies centimeters from touching.

Suddenly Spike's mind was reeling as Buffy pressed her warm lips to his.

Pull away now, don't let this weird… these weird new feelings make you do something stupid. But Buffy didn't pull away, she couldn't, all of the weird chemistry she'd brushed off for years, all of the little moments of Spike's willingness to protect her and the people she loved, every glance that had lasted a little longer than it should have, it all flooded her brain and it clicked. She liked him.

She isn't pulling away. After almost ten blissful seconds of having her lips pressed to his, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him. She still didn't move away.

Within moments Spike had gently pressed Buffy against a crypt wall, their kissing becoming more passionate and intense as the seconds flew by. Buffy's legs wrapped around Spike's waist as he lifted her up, she slipped her tongue into his mouth.

Spike couldn't believe what was happening; he had Buffy wrapped perfectly around him, a hand cupped under her ass, pressed up against one of his crypt walls with her tongue expertly exploring his mouth. He wanted to take her then, to rip off her clothes and feel every part of her; to see what they could be… but he couldn't and he knew that. Whether this was her weakness or genuine interest, Spike knew that having Buffy completely now, if she would even let him, would make her think that he couldn't really love her. He knew it would make her feel used and eventually that would come back to bite him; besides, she didn't need to feel any worse.

The passion was intense and Buffy could feel their connection vibrating through her entire body, she wanted him, she needed to- stop! What am I doing?

Buffy released her mouth from Spike's and he got the message letting her down gently so she could try to stand. Her knees were weak and she was suddenly very grateful of the wall behind her as she stared into Spike's eyes, breathing heavily.

He brushed a tuft of hair lovingly behind her ear, pretending not to notice how much trouble she was having with keeping her balance.

"Do you have to go?" his words were soft and gentle like the night she came back, unlike the other men in Buffy's life, there wasn't any coddling or air of innocence directed at her in his words… she was just Buffy.

She liked that.

"No."

"Do you want to stay?"

Buffy paused, What kind of question is that Spike? I'm not going to stay here to have sex with you! Maybe he'd just hold me… what am I thinking?! Am I even considering staying here with Spike? Oh my god… I kissed Spike, what was I thinking?

She knew what she had been thinking; Caring, hot, sexy, sweet, lips, chest-

Spike realized she was putting a different spin on his words than he had intended.

"We could watch a bit of telly, keep you out of the house for a while?"

Buffy relaxed, hoping she really could trust him.

"Okay."