A/N: I'm aware that this update took me forever. I needed to figure out a lasting plot, and I have found it. Thanks to all you wonderful people who have reviewed and added my story to your alert list! You guys rock! Stay tuned for the next chapter, it won't take me nearly as long.

Willow didn't know how she managed to make it back to her dorm. She was exhausted and the adrenaline she had experienced earlier was fading, and her head was pounding. She honestly felt like crap. Kissing Spike had been nice, well ok more than nice, but she wasn't going to focus on that. He tasted like blood, cigarettes, and alcohol, honestly something that one would think would not be enjoyable, but on Spike it was beyond amazing.

Mentally slapping herself, Willow stumbled up the stairs and towards the bathroom on their floor. She couldn't go in the room with blood smeared all over her and looking like hell. Pushing open the door, Willow held back a gasp when she spotted herself in the mirror. Her hair was a wreck, the red locks sticking out all over the place and in some parts plastered to her head, there was blood smeared on her face and she had a puffy lip. Bruises lined her arms and face too. It must have come from her face and side smashing into the brick wall. She hurt, but at least for once it was physical rather than emotional.

Deciding she couldn't go back to her dorm room looking like she did, she gathered her extra shower items she had stored in one of the showers and turned on the water, stripping off her bloodied, sweaty clothes. Willow was actually surprised that nobody had taken her stuff, and surprised she had left an extra towel in there. Sticking her hand in the water and satisfied it was warm enough, she stepped inside and hissed slightly in pain as the water ran into some of the various cuts she had on her body. She hadn't done anything and she was still this injured, she felt bad for Spike. He looked like he'd been in a lot of pain.

After cleaning herself off, Willow wrapped the warm fluffy towel around her and padded barefoot to her door, glad that Buffy never remembered to lock the door. She had the mentality that if she could handle vampires and demons, she could handle horny boys wanting to peek into their room. She quietly opened the door and looked around, puzzled. Buffy was gone and it didn't even look like she'd messed up her bed. Panic shot through Willow. Buffy had gone out. What if she had been at the Bronze and Willow hadn't even noticed? She buzzed about the room, feeling nervous and thinking of possible explanations to a very upset Buffy. Glancing at the alarm clock by her bedside, Willow sighed. Her first class of the day started in about an hour, and she couldn't risk being late to Professor Walsh's class again.

She had just finished getting dressed in a long sleeved shirt and a floor-length brown skirt when the door squeaked open behind her, revealing a well-rested and post-sex-glowing Buffy. Buffy smiled at her friend and started digging frantically through her closet since their class started in an hour and she still needed to shower and do her hair.

"Hey Willow, how'd your night at the library go?" Buffy asked, but didn't notice Willow's unwrinkled bed. Realizing that her bed was pristine from when she'd made it the day before, Willow launched herself onto it and ruffled it up before replying to Buffy's question.

"Oh great, got some serious studying in. You didn't come back last night?" Willow asked and Buffy blushed despite everyone's knowledge that Buffy wasn't 'little miss innocent.' Compared to Willow, Buffy really wasn't.

"Oh, I spent the night at Riley's. It was nice," Buffy replied a bit awkwardly. Things were just uneasy between them and she didn't know what to do. She wanted to confront Willow about it, but she was worried about upsetting her. Since they'd hit college they just hadn't been as close as they used to be. It was really something both of them were troubled about, but didn't know how to go about fixing things.

"That's great, Buffy. I'm glad you found a nice, normal guy," Willow said with a false smile. Buffy nodded and searched around for her bag full of her books for her classes.

"Yeah, I mean he has nights when he's pretty wiggy, but he's usually normal."

"Wiggy? Wiggy how?" Willow asked, genuinely curious as to what would cause Buffy to call her new boyfriend wiggy.

"Well like a few nights ago, we were talking and hanging out and his friends showed up and practically dragged him with him. He seemed concerned, but when I asked about it, nada, like it never happened." Buffy didn't seem that concerned, but what she said sent Willow on edge. A few nights ago Spike had escaped from a secret organization, and he had described one of the men, and the description had sounded a lot like Riley. Maybe he wasn't as normal as Buffy thought. In order to not arouse suspicion, Willow kept her mouth shut. The girls kept up idle chit-chat until Buffy left to go take a shower. Willow sighed, relieved, and sank onto her bed, relaxing until class.

Spike felt even worse than he had last night. Drinking pigs' blood didn't exactly do wonders for healing either. To numb the pain, Spike had downed a whole bottle of whiskey and was now napping in his chair, his T.V. turned to some old horror movie. He was so out of it he didn't even notice the light knocking on his crypt door. He continued dozing even as the door slowly creaked open and was quickly shut in order to not bathe Spike in lethal sunlight. Still he didn't notice when Willow stepped inside his crypt.

She avoided half empty bottles of whiskey and scotch, cartons of cigarettes, and surprisingly enough, Chinese takeout. She'd have to ask about that one later. A smile graced her face as she stared at the vampire snoozing on the chair. He was curled up with his sun blanket under his head, using it as a pillow. He looked so… innocent, which is something she was smart enough not to ever say to his face. Worrying about waking him up, she turned around and paced in front of the entrance to his crypt, trying to decide whether or not to leave. A thought occurring to her, she wandered towards his fridge he had set up in the corner of his…home, and opened it up, glancing through it. It was nearly empty; only two jars full of what could only be blood. Wrinkling her face in disgust she closed it and started to head back outside, figuring she could stop by later or something.

"So you just stopped by to raid my refrigerator? I can assure you you'll find my selection to be rather…not to your liking," mumbled a sleepy-sounding Spike. His voice startled her and her heart thumped rapidly in her chest until she turned around to face him. He grinned at her and stretched out, as if he was trying to get Willow's eyes to wander where they shouldn't. Mentally slapping herself, she quickly darted her eyes back up to his face. Spike of course had caught her little look and his grin widened even more, causing Willow to blush nearly as red as her hair.

Once her eyes had locked back onto his face, she couldn't help but notice how beat up he still appeared. One of his eyes was still nearly swollen shut and the other was still darkly bruised. His lip was swollen in a few places and had been split. Bruises lined his gorgeous, prominent cheekbones and he had deep scratches in his arms from the demon's claws. He looked pretty miserable; no wonder he had been in such a deep sleep.

"Are you ok? Well, oh, I guess that was a silly question since you are all covered in bruises, and fought with a demon last night-morning- and drank a whole bottle of whiskey and-"

"Ok pet, you're rambling now. In regard to the injuries, I've handled worse," he paused, looking her over, noticing the bruises on the side of her face and where her cheek had bled from striking the wall. "Now you look a bit worse for wear. How have you been feeling?" Spike sat up, slowly as to not hurt his bruised ribs, and stared at her. She fidgeted under his heavy gaze, but sat down on the floor, after glancing worriedly around for spiders or other nastiness.

"Oh, I mean yeah there's some pain, but I can handle it. You should have seen Buffy's face when she finally realized I looked all beat up. It was nearly impossible to convince her I tripped on a stack of books in the library and fell into one of the shelves." Spike snorted at this, just imagining Willow falling over books. Finally, he decided to go ahead and go through with the plan he had devised earlier. He was going to get her to help him remove the chip. Of course she wouldn't realize that's what she was doing, but she would. Willow was too much of a goody-goody to go without knowing just who had kidnapped and chipped him. She would want to tell the Slayer that somebody was encroaching on her turf. Spike already knew about the two who had been at the Bronze, but they obviously weren't that important.

"I bet that was successful then, well its good you aren't hurt too badly, figure I'd feel the effects since it was my fault you were hurt. Listen, did you find out anything about this chip, or the people who put it there? I figure it could help the Slayer fight evil and all." Spike's stomach growled so he rose from the chair he was occupying and headed towards the meager blood supply in his fridge. Willow raised an eyebrow at him. Why would he want to help Buffy? He hated her. Like he hated you not to long ago . . . maybe he's changed . . . maybe this chip is a good thing. She couldn't help these thoughts from traveling through her mind. If he changed into something good then she could tell Buffy about what was developing between them. Willow wanted to believe that Spike may actually like her. She needed to believe that or else she'd fall back into her pit of depression. Being wanted was something that felt beautiful; it made her feel like she was meant to be there.

"Why would you want to help Buffy? Don't you hate her?" Spike glanced at her and shrugged as he finished downing his blood.

"Well yeah," he started and placed his blood back in the fridge. He slowly started walking back towards Willow. Her heart couldn't help but flutter as she felt his eyes bore into her. "But you would want to help her right? I figure that would make you want to figure out what happened to me."

"Honestly I'd probably look into this anyways. It's just so weird that one little piece of plastic could completely alter your functioning. One device that can debilitate you and remove anything that made you able to hurt people."

"Thanks for reminding me," Spike commented sarcastically. Even with being attracted to the girl, he wanted to snap her neck for that. She had just nonchalantly waved him off as not being a threat. It pissed him off, but he needed her, so he couldn't be his usual evil self.

"Sorry, but it's true, it's fascinating really." Willow could tell she had that look in her eye, the one where her inner nerd was being stimulated. She had a purpose now, and that would lead to her resolve face pretty soon. "Anyways, you remember telling me about the one who led your capture? He sounds a lot like Buffy's new boyfriend."

I knew it! I knew the bloody Slayer had something to do with this! He thought. He had figured that even when he was still captured. It just reeked of that stupid blonde and how she always ruins everything. Spike was having another moment of wishing he had never stuck around in Sunnyhell. Of course then he looked at Willow and decided that maybe he would find something worthwhile here. She'd be nice to have around to spy on the Slayer with. He'd be able to take the Slayer down from the inside, and the witch would have no idea she would have been a part of it.

"Should have known the Slayer would have her hands in on this. . . So tell me about this boy-toy of hers. Is he tough?" Spike nearly winced at how similar that sounded to what he'd asked about Buffy when he'd first come to this stupid town. That certainly hadn't played out well for him, and he figured he was going to jinx himself. Before Willow could reply, they heard loud footsteps outside of Spike's crypt. Puzzled, Spike grabbed Willow and they backed away from the door, just in case. After a few silent moments, the door flew off of its hinges and let in a large amount of fatal sunlight. Spike hissed and backed away from the light as his arms sizzled. He glanced at what had entered the crypt, and if his heart beat, it would have stilled in his chest. Since it was already still, he didn't have to worry about the ensuing death that would have occurred.

Standing in the doorway of his crypt was one of the worst demons around. They were nearly impossible to kill, and extremely intelligent, which was different from most demons. Willow couldn't help but scream. If Spike looked terrified, this had to be something very bad. As if her scream jolted him out of his frozen state, he grabbed her and they bolted down towards where his crypt connected to the sewers. Spike was glad he knew the sewers by heart. They heard a great roar behind them and it sounded like the demon had just crushed his TV.

"Oh bugger."