Disclaimer- See first chapter…
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My Sorry For 2004

"I figured you of all people would be happy that she was mad at me."

Not thirty minutes after Spike had arrived at his place Angel had shown up wanting to talk about what happened.

"I didn't tell her to come here."

"Yeah, not too put off by it though, are you?"

Angel shook his head. He knew this was a bad idea. Trying to talk to Spike never ended well, but for some reason he had felt compelled to come down here. Actually, it had been Fred who'd convinced him to do so. She'd apparently overheard the whole thing and after Angel had went into his office she had come in to talk to him. She questioned him about the slayer. After hearing his opinion on the whole thing, which was that Spike was an idiot, she decided he should try and talk to the other vampire. After much disagreement he found himself making his way to Spike's apartment.

"Look, I didn't come here to argue with you."

"So what did you come for, Peaches? To counsel me?" Spike was sitting on his couch with his feet propped up on the coffee table.

"I just came to tell you that I think you should…go talk to Buffy."

Spike wasn't sure that he believed what he was hearing. He put his feet down and stood up. "You want me to talk to Buffy."

"As crazy as it sounds…yes."

Spike eyed him curiously. "Why?"

"Because it's the right thing to do." Angel actually sounded sincere.

"The Angel I know and loathe would have taken it upon himself to go talk to Buffy, making me look as bad as possible to her."

"Is that what you want me to do Spike? Because I will. I'll go right over there and tell her that I'm sorry for not telling her that you were alive. I'm sure she'll understand completely, and will thank me for being the bigger man and coming to talk to her. Then she'll fall into my arms and we'll live happily ever after."

Spike glared at him. Whereas he was sure it wouldn't happen exactly like that, because he was sure she would be mad at him for a while, it was possible that she would eventually decide that that was indeed what she wanted. And he'd be damned if he was going to let her end up with him.

"That's what I thought," Angel said when Spike didn't respond.

The younger vampire only turned and stalked to the kitchen. "And what exactly am I supposed to say to her? Gee, luv, I'm sorry I didn't tell you that I really didn't die that day in the hell mouth."

"That's a start."

Spike sighed a set the glass he'd gotten out of the sink on the counter. "I doubt she'll even want to see me."

"Only one way to find out."

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Spike couldn't believe he had let himself get talked into this. There was a chance that he was walking into his death. The slayer had not looked too happy last time he had seen her. Not that he'd expected her to fall into his arms and say how much she missed him. But…maybe a part of him had wished that. Wished that things could just go back to the way they were before he…whatever the hell happened to him. But he knew that was impossible. Too much time had passed. And yet here he was, at her door, knowing that he had to say something, but not really knowing what. What could he possibly say to her? Instead of taking time to think about it and plan it out, which he figured would be pointless anyway, he knocked on the door.

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"I'm hungry," Dawn stated. "Are you hungry?"

"Not really." The slayer was still lying on the bed staring at the ceiling.

"Are you sure?"

Dawn was worried about her sister. She knew that this whole thing was a big shock for her. After thinking Spike had died almost a year ago, and then finding out that he had been alive the whole time, she knew that it must be hard for her. She had come here to get back with Angel and had run into Spike, a man whom she had let go months ago. For a while after his "death" she seemed distracted a lot. She didn't mope or cry, but she wasn't herself. Every time she saw something that reminded her of him she would get quite for a while. Dawn had worried because she had never cried. She knew that the two of them had become close over the last few weeks they spent in Sunnydale and had expected her to be very sad after his death. Dawn became concerned that she was keeping all of her emotions inside and was worried that it would catch up to her eventually and then she would have a full breakdown. But she hadn't. And now she was doing it again. Just sitting there, not saying anything.

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to go get some dinner."

"Okay. Be careful."

The younger girl shook her head. "I will." She grabbed her purse and walked out the door, not noticing the vampire standing only mere feet away peeking around the corner.

Only minutes after Dawn left, Buffy heard a knock at the door. Her first thought was that her sister had forgotten something and didn't take her key.

"Dammit Dawn." She sat up and pushed herself up off of the bed. "I'm coming." She mumbled to herself as she approached the door. She opened it and started to speak, "forget your…" then she saw him, "…key…"

He had his hands in his pockets and looked nervous.

"Spike."

"Hey Buffy."

"What are you doing here?" she tried to sound as nonchalant as she could.

"I just…I wanted to talk to you."

She looked at him a moment, contemplating what he said. He wanted to talk. No doubt it would be about what had happened earlier. He probably wanted to explain himself. She stepped aside and motioned him in. He stepped past her and stood in the middle of the room. She closed the door and turned towards him, crossing her arms.

"So?"

"Right." He took an unneeded breath. "Well, I guess I owe you an explanation."

"Yeah."

"I uhh...I'm sorry. Which I know doesn't really mean anything these days, but…I…" he shook his head, frustrated at himself, "I don't know what to say. I'm not good at this."

"Good at what? Telling the truth."

"That's not fair."

"No. What's not fair is you being back all this time and not even so much as calling."

He started to say something, but she interrupted.

"How could you not tell me? After everything. How could you not tell me?" Her voice was low and had a hint of sadness in it.

"I wanted to. Believe me. The first thing I wanted to do when I came back was to come and find you. But then I realized that I couldn't do that. I couldn't let myself do that." He took a step closer to her. "I made it all the way across the country and I was about to get on this boat to take me to England when I realized that what I was doing was wrong. I was being selfish. I knew that you probably had this whole new life going for you and all I would do by coming back would be to ruin it. I wasn't going to do that again." There; he had said it. Everything he'd wanted to say, but didn't think that he would be able to.

She looked at him with sad eyes. "Spike, you never ruined my life. Yeah, sure, some things weren't so good, but lets' not forget all of the things that were."

"Kinda hard to remember all three of those good things."

She shook her head. "Spike." She approached him slowly. "You did so much for me. Even back when I didn't like you, when I treated you like shit, even then you stayed by my side and helped me when I needed it."

Spike didn't know what to say to her. All he could do was stand, looking at the ground. She reached out and grabbed his hand.

"Why are you always so damn stubborn?"

He stared at their hands, the hands that had caught on fire the last time they'd touched. He noticed her hand, like his, still had scars on it. It had surprised him when the scars had shown up, and surprised him even more when they hadn't gone away.

"Defense mechanism," he offered.

She smiled slightly.

They stood there in silence for a moment before she pulled her hand away and backed away from him. Feelings had started to resurface in her and she would definitely need time to think about this. Instead, she decided to try light conversation.

"So what have you been up to?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Not much. Crime fightin' and all that."

"With Angel?"

"Well, not really with him. We don't work so well together."

"But you're working there? At Wolfram and Hart?"

"Not so much working as lounging about annoying the hell out of Peaches."

She shook her head and smiled slightly. That definitely sounded like a Spike thing to say; at least he seemingly hadn't changed much.

"But honestly, Slayer, I hate the 'business' world. I don't do the whole hero thing. That's Angel's bit. I really only stuck around cause I didn't have anyplace else to go."

She thought about saying 'you could have come to stay with me', but knew that that wouldn't help this situation. A part of her wondered what would have happened if he had come back to her. Would they be together now? Would she have ever been with Carlos or Joc? Would she have still decided that she wanted to be with Angel? She couldn't be sure. She was pulled out of her thoughts when he spoke.

"Buffy, luv, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"What are you doing here? In LA I mean. And I'm guessing it has nothing to do with me since you seemed to be as shocked to see me as I was to see you."

"Yeah…" What could she say? She had come here to get back with Angel? She had a feeling he wouldn't take that too well. Though there was another reason she had come.

"Giles called and said there was something brewing here, and I thought I'd come check it out."

"And visit Angel."

"That too." She searched his face trying to figure out what he was thinking, but before she really had time he spoke again.

"So what's the trouble?"

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"Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Yes I'm sure this time." Gregory was becoming more frustrated by the minute. Not only had Zarea sent him on this mission, she had sent him with a bunch of morons who couldn't even cast a simple transportation spell correctly. They had been popped all over the globe and he was beginning to get jet lag. Finally, it appeared they had reached their destination, now all they had to do was locate the problem and fix it.

The only problem was how they were going to do that. Amora had suggested a plan of action that seemed reasonable enough, though he had heard the people he was going to be dealing with weren't exactly the understanding type.

"Sir…sir…" a member of his team said out of breath as he ran up to him. "I just received some interesting information. It seems that we won't have to make that other trip after all."

"What do you mean?" he asked the man curiously.

"The slayer is already here in LA."

"The slayer?"

"Yes, Ms. Summers I believe is her name."

"Yes." Gregory wasn't sure how to feel about this.

Yes, it meant they wouldn't have to make another trip, thank God, but he wasn't sure if her being here would make their job easier, or harder.

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