1860

Drusilla took the basket into Rose's loft without a backward glance at Angelus. Rose said she could survive anything he threw at her. That she had nothing to worry about and needed to stay strong. Rose said that Angelus wanted her sanity and wouldn't be happy until she was a lunatic. So she left the door open and let him watch while she sewed Rose's head back onto her neck while Rose blinked and smiled at her.

"I'm make you new again. Sylvia will take good care of you."

In the hallway, Angelus fumed. "I took liberties with your beloved. She screamed for more."

Without even a pause, Drusilla continued to sew Rose back together piece by piece.

1965

"What's wrong, my Rose?" Drusilla asked as she wrapped her arms around Willow's shoulders.

Willow had been staring out the window, tears silently falling. "You tie me to you tighter with every touch."

"Then I'll touch you all the time. I never want you to leave me. You saved my family, all but mother. You saved my sanity. What can I do to make you smile?" Drusilla stroked Willow's hair back revealing the top of the scar on Willow's neck. She always wore turtlenecks to hide it, but Drusilla loved every last one of Willow's scars. They were the concrete sign of Willow's love and dedication to her.

"Promise me something, Dru. Promise me that you won't use magic on me ever again. Not unless I ask you to. Can you do that?" Willow wiped her tears away, turned in Dru's embrace and held her tight.

"Such a simple request is easy to do for someone I love so much." Drusilla wrapped her arms around Willow's torso and sighed into her hair.

Later that night, Willow sat on the patio with a sheet wrapped around her. Her cigarette burned between her fingers, the ash now an inch long. Spike walked out of the house they were occupying. "Aren't you happy with us?"

"Spike, I wanted to be alone." Willow flicked her ash and took a drag, blowing ribbons into the crisp night air.

He tapped the glass of tequila on the table as he sat across from her. "I never let a lady drink alone. Now answer the question."

"No."

"Is that the answer to the question or are you telling me you won't answer it?" He took her cigarette off her and put it between his lips.

"We're not doing this."

"Rose."

"Stop calling me Rose."

"Then what the hell am I supposed to call you?"

"Nevermind." She bumped a new cigarette out of her pack, and he lit it for her.

"Sometimes I wonder if you ever got your sanity back after what Angelus did to you." Spike poured himself a glass of tequila.

"Me too. I have these memories, and they don't belong to Rose. They belong to a girl that fought evil. She didn't live with it or love it or fuck it. And I like her so much more than I like Rose. It's like I'm only a small part of that girl, the evil part." She downed her drink and poured another.

"How drunk are you?" Spike asked as he leaned back, glass in the same hand as his cigarette.

"Not nearly enough."

"You're forgetting your smoke again."

"These things taste like shit, and they'll kill me one day, but I have to pay for my crimes somehow." Willow took a drag then sipped her drink. "If I keep you from harm, will you promise to kill me when I find out how to do it?"

He clinked his glass to hers. "Let's drink to that being a long time from now. You make life interesting."

Willow stubbed her cigarette out and didn't touch her glass. "Good day, Spike."

Spike watched her limp into the house. He thought she'd have healed from their hostile takeover of the pushers that had owned this neighborhood.

1997

There was a niggle in the back of Spike's brain as they mowed down the Welcome to Sunnydale sign. He worried that Rose, Willow, was mortal now, and would want him to kill her like he promised to in '65. Drusilla brought him out of his thoughts with her laughter. "Let's find our Willow right away. I miss her and don't want to miss her for a second longer."

"We'll be at her door in five minutes." Spike lit a cigarette as he continued to drive. And they were in front of the Rosenberg residence in exactly five minutes.

They looked at the house. "It's so plain," Drusilla said as she got out of the car. "My Rose is anything but boring. How could she live here?"

"Dru, her name is Willow, and this is her parents' house. She's only sixteen right now." Spike sauntered up the sidewalk to the front door, arm around Drusilla's shoulders. He pressed the doorbell and flicked his cigarette to the side when the light went on.

The door opened, and Spike smiled. "And there she is."

Willow grabbed her coat and joined them on the porch. After a moment's hesitation, she threw her arms around Dru's neck. Big globby tears told Spike that she'd missed them too. She even hugged him. "You found me."

"Only because you were looking for us, my Willow." Drusilla kissed Willow all over her face, leaving dark red lipstick stains behind.

Spike watched them and couldn't help but notice that Willow still had all of Rose's scars. They were a lot less pronounced, but they were there. He'd have to talk to her about that later when he could get her alone. "So can we come in or what?"

"Oh, do invite us in." Drusilla pleaded Willow with her eyes, hands clasped.

A touch of grief flashed across her face before Willow nodded. "Come in. Both of you."

2000

"You're a monster! I've done everything to keep both of you safe, and you're going to deny my one request! I haven't laid a hand on you since China, and I've put up with your murdering Slayers, and you can't do this for me? Why can't you do this for me?" Willow beat her fists against Spike's chest as she wailed.

"For the same reason you haven't hurt me in a century. I couldn't hurt Dru like that." Spike let her punch him, claw at his face, and cry in his arms.

When her legs gave out, he eased them to the ground. After an hour of her hiccups, she looked up at him with pleading eyes. "What if I promised you the Gem of Amara? If I got that for you would you kill me then?"

"Dru didn't free you for me to kill you. She freed you so you could have the life you want." Spike swiped her hair back. "I like your hair short."

"Answer me. Please. I need to know."

"I'll think about it, love." Spike held onto her until she fell asleep, then he carried her to her parents' home and tucked her into bed. Dru hadn't completely freed the girl. There were caveats and addendum to Willow's so called freedom. He sat at her desk after pinning blankets over the balcony doors. There was no way he would leave her like this. There were two creatures he cared about on this planet. He loved Drusilla because she made him and he loved Willow because she made things interesting. She was like a sister and mother rolled into one, and she'd asked him for one thing he would never do: hurt Dru.