Disclaimer: Don't own characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any other shows mentioned throughout this fic.

Author's notes: This is a particularly long chapter and hopefully you'll notice I have taken reviews on board and (hopefully) improved the quality of this chapter. I'm very sorry that not a lot is happening but this must be done. The next chapter will be a while in coming as I still need to sort out some of the details but believe me when I say it will be worth it. Thanks for all reviews. Please keep them coming.

Chapter Six: Secrets

Falling on to her bed at home, Liz thought about everything she'd been through. Honestly the only part hazardous to her health had been the incident with the wall. She didn't count the endless stress of hiding a vampire at school. Her window was open and the soothing sound of cars driving by was making her feel very drowsy. Probably the only thing keeping her awake was the straining aches in her back. Something told her she'd be paying for today for a long time to come.

It was five twenty in the afternoon. She'd had a lesson at three but had decided to visit Spike before she came back. He was staying at school overnight. It was so much easier than sneaking him out of school and back home. He was fine with staying there anyway; he didn't fancy wearing the hat again. And truthfully it was one less thing for her to worry about.

Homework lay in the school bag which lay on the floor. She wasn't going to touch it anytime soon though. Like many people who attend school, Liz had a thing where homework was rarely done at home, if done at all.

Breathing deep she tried to settle to sleep but realised that it was impossible for her to fall asleep in the day. No rational explanation but for as long as she can remember she'd been unable to sleep. Well actually there was that one time, but she doesn't count it really as her mum had given her a sleeping tablet after motion-sickness tablets failed on a particularly long car journey. In all fairness it had worked.

After about ten minutes she got bored with just lying around so she went downstairs to help Nan with dinner. And she was greatly pleased she was only having pasta with Dolmio tomato and basil sauce. For some reason the thought of eating something 'heavy' just made her feel queasy.

"Oh what I would give for the simple life." She sighed, sitting down in front of the television in her room. She flicked through the channels and perked up. "Oh." It was anything but simple but BBC2 was showing The Good Life and Liz settled into watching it. After that she found something else to watch and the rest of that evening followed on much a similar way.

Ten O'clock came and Liz laid on her bed and closed her eyes trying to sleep. The blind was pulled down and the window still open. It allowed the cold night air to pass in and make the room like a fridge when she woke up. She knew from experience that she would black out about half an hour before falling asleep so she still had a while left.

After a while, she was just beginning to drop off when she heard a sharp 'clink!' The first time she heard it she ignored it and when it happened again and again she put the pillow over her ears. Doing this helped in no way what so ever. The noise kept going every minute or so and after a while she heard someone hissing something.

Eventually she decided to lift the pillow but instantly regretted it because she heard what the person was hissing.

"Beebs!"

She went to the window and lifted the blind and sure enough in her Nan's front garden was stood Spike. He was wearing her dad's coat and granddad's hat.

"What?" she hissed at him leaning out of the window. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"I'm nocturnal, dumbass."

"And I'm not, buttmunch. I'm human. And I'm in major need of sleep due to lots of pain in my back and stress from today."

"Bloody hell! I've said I'm sorry." Spike was holding onto the hat as there was a wind that seemed determined to whisk it off his head. "What more do you want?"

"Go away and let me sleep."

"And what am I supposed to do? Wander around aimlessly?"

"I don't know. And truthfully I don't care." she was getting louder and someone shifted next door. "Hide!"

Quickly she pulled the blind closed and jumped into bed just as her bedroom door opened and someone looked inside. Whichever of her grandparents it was must have been happy that nothing was happening as after barely a minute the door was closed and Liz heard them move into the bathroom.

She waited a couple of minutes to make sure she wasn't going to get caught before returning to the window.

"Spike!" she hissed. He stepped out from below her window. "What do you want?"

"Grown bored haven't I. Hardly much to do up at that school o' yours, pet."

"And?"

"I decided to go for a walk and I figured I could save myself getting in trouble with the violent harpy queen from hell by turning up at her house and letting her know."

"And you didn't know where else to go?" Spike shrugged, partly turning his back on her. "And because of that you're throwing rocks at my window?" She looked down at him. "Well there is no way I can knowingly let you wander round on your own."

"As I recall I wasn't asking permission."

"As I recall you sorta kinda were." She said, ignoring the obvious sneer in his voice. "Give me a couple of minutes.

She closed the blind again before Spike could protest and pulled out some clothes from her wardrobe. In two minutes she was dressed and in her sister's bedroom. Unlocking and opening the window she twisted the handle all the way round and pulled the window back. It was one of those windows which was designed to open completely so that in the event of a fire people, could climb out to safety. Looking out she saw that just beneath the window was the conservatory.

She climbed out and slid herself across the conservatory roof before jumping off. Taking twenty seconds to let the feeling get back into her legs she began to think if what she was doing was wise. Remembering that she never did the wise thing anyway she climbed onto a couple of garden chairs and leapt over the garden fence that led onto the street. It was colder than she expected outside and the thin grey jacket she'd thrown on wasn't any good. Drawing the jacket closer around herself she trudged along the driveway towards the front garden. Sure enough, the vampire was there looking expectantly at her bedroom window.

"Come on." She croaked and Spike turned. "Before I fall asleep on my feet." She led the way off the driveway and round the front of the house.

"Where are we going?"

"You're a vampire. And where do vampires like to hang out?"

"Bars?"

"Well, yeah. Places that sell or give out alcohol are pretty popular among the dead. I think that's because you don't have to worry about things like liver disease or whatever." Liz said as they crossed over the road. "But d'you really think that anyone in their right mind would let me in a bar?" Spike thought about it before nodding.

They turned down a beaten track which was poorly lit by a streetlamp from the road behind them. The road carried on down into darkness and beyond.

"Just down here." Something deep inside her was telling her to turn back. She hadn't been down here in over a year and she felt it was guilt attempting to push her away. That and a deeply-rooted fear of the dark dating back to childhood fears of an octopus living on her bedroom floor. Details are best left unknown. They had to climb a small hill and pass through a small field.

"So where the bloody hell are we?"

"Hang on a sec. Stay there." She walked a bit further into the open. She waved her arm about a bit and sure enough, she heard a click and the light went on. She turned around and faced Spike. "Welcome to our very own little graveyard." She said.

She watched Spike look around and was glad to see him suppress a smile. He continued to glance around as he strode over towards her.

"No crypts."

"No." she agreed sighing as he reached where she was standing. "Crypts are more of an American thing it would seem. Or French. They have lots of crypts there. Small things though barely eight by six. Not nearly as extravagant as yours." As she paused she noticed Spike staring at her with an eyebrow raised. "I'm tired. I babble. Get used to it." He rolled his eyes and pushed past her. "You see I thought, you being a vampire and all, you'd feel better around the dead." Spike walked to the furthest edge of the pool of light and gazed at all the gravestones.

"Yeah. Being dead means I only hang with dead folks." He said sarcastically. "And crazy people." She saw him glance at her momentarily.

"You know, for someone who called me the…violent harpy queen from hell was it…you seem very mouthy all of a sudden." She grinned. "Has Spike got spunk?"

"Why is there a motion-sensitive light?" he said without pausing.

"Well you often get the midnight mourners and the church is quite small and self-financed. It saves the electricity bill to have one that turns on and off than keep one on all night."

"I imagine."

She was thinking about how 'excited' Spike sounded when he lifted his hand and pointed at a grave quite a way away and in the grimness.

"What's on that grave?" he asked. Peering into the darkness, she saw the grave he meant. There were some white things sitting on the gravestone and a few things around the actual headstone. It was impossible to see from there but Liz had passed it a couple of times before and had to ask her grandparents about it.

"Toys." She swallowed. Spike nodded knowingly and Liz was grateful she didn't have to explain it to him. Talking about children's graves was never an easy task. Not that she'd had to try before. Thankfully.

She closed her eyes, momentarily succumbing to the over-whelming desire to sleep. Tilting her head back she felt the slight wind on her face which helped keep her awake.

"So what d'you think?" she asked.

"What're are these?" His voice came from behind her. She opened her eyes and turned to see he'd climbed the small bank behind them.

"You know for a dead guy who spends a lot of his time in graveyards," she said walking over to join him, "you don't know very much about them."

She looked at what he was talking about. A series of small slabs set in the ground arranged into about thirteen rows, although the one furthest from them wasn't complete.

"This is where cremated people are buried."

"Cremated?"

"Yeah." She turned to him. "You never come across cremation before?"

"I'm dead it makes no difference to me." Spike shrugged. Liz gazed back over the grave slabs.

"It's when you take a dead body and burn it so it's nothing but a pile of ash. You then bury the pile of ash." Her eyes flicked to a particular grave and she prayed that Spike didn't see. Panic shot through her when she saw Spike was watching her.

Taking his attention from her, he slowly strode through the rows, carefully avoiding the fallen flowers from the graves. As she went to follow him, he stopped about eight rows back. As she caught up with him, she saw he'd stopped with a slab at his feet. One glance made her want to run.

Instead of stopping, she strode straight past aiming for the wooden bench five yards away on the other side of the slabs.

"I see." Said Spike knowingly. "Now that explains a lot."

"What does?" Liz shrugged settling down onto the bench. He bent over the slab.

"Beloved son and father." He read. "You never told me your dad was dead."

"You never asked if he was." She pulled her jacket closer around herself.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Strangely enough things haven't changed a bit since you asked if it was a sensitive subject this morning."

"Pretending it never happened won't do you no good, luv." She looked at him half-expecting him to be laughing at her but he looked deadly serious.

"Spike the psychiatrist, are you?" she said.

"Screw that." he scoffed before wandering off. After a while Liz lifted her legs onto the bench and held them against her chest. It was bitterly cold and she really hadn't thought through what she was wearing. The shirt had short sleeves and the jacket was no help.

She couldn't see Spike but she could hear him shuffling about beyond the pool of light. After a while the tiredness really began to take hold of her body and she was just about aware of where she was and what was going on. Closing her eyes she managed to doze for a while but couldn't quite achieve actual sleep.

It was after an hour that she felt the bench beneath her shake so violently that she rolled off it landing on the hard ground. She didn't need to see to know who was behind it.

"Spike!" she yelled from the floor. "You bastard!"

"I've found another one." He hissed. Looking up she saw Spike was stood behind the bench, leaning over it. His mouth was curled in a slight smile and his eyes were lit up in excitement.

Minutes later they were stood round the back of the church, Spike next to the wall and Liz a little way back. Spike glanced round, probably to make sure she was watching, before reaching out with his fingers. Like with the one at school, his fingers passed through a blue shimmer appeared on the wall.

"Was walking around and noticed the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. They did that near the other one." He withdrew his fingers and turned round. His grin was so wide it was in danger of jumping off his face. "That's where I came through."

"Are you sure?"

"Well it makes sense, don't it?" he said. "I don't remember much about what happened before and after I came through but I know that I didn't go far before I found your house." He kept glancing back at the portal and she guessed that she'd do the same if presented with the only way back home. "I think I know how this got here."

"Really?" she tried to sound interested, for she was very interested, but the weariness of her body was reaching her voice and at best she sounded bored.

"Never mind." his voice told her that he'd automatically come to the wrong conclusion. She rolled her eyes thinking how he'd most likely sulk for a while now and he wouldn't share his theory.

"So that portal thing will take you back home?" she asked in an attempt to keep the conversation going. Spike nodded and Liz groaned inwardly. Annoying as he was, it was exciting having an actual real live vampire around. Sure he was violent and abusive and horrible to be around most of the time but so was she; or so people told her. "Are you gonna go now?"

"What?" he exclaimed. "And leave my favourite jacket up at your school? Not sodding likely!"

Part of her was angry he was only staying to retrieve his jacket and the other part was relieved he wasn't going yet.

"Besides," he said walking up to her and placing his hand on her head, "I want to hear more about this world. Tell me about it, Beebs." He ruffled her hair before wandering back to the light. Slowly Liz followed him, heading straight back to the bench and settling down in the way she had before.

"Well…Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a big thing here." She said meekly.

"Really?" he wandered slowly round by the perimeter of the cremated graves. "Specifically Buffy?"

"Well…she is pretty popular, being the title character and all. But everyone has their own fan base and group of people who like them. Xander; Anya; Oz; Willow; Tara; everyone." She saw the expectant look in his eyes as he watched the ground in front of him. "You're really popular too."

He paused and glanced over. "Yeah?"

"Oh yeah! HUGE fan bases and tons of fanfics."

"Fan-what?"

"Never mind. You know," she glanced at him, "I used to have this big crush on you."

"Very funny." He said, continuing his patrol.

"No really." She picked up a piece of grass and began to strip it. She did that sometimes while talking. Fidgety fingers as it was. "I was eight at the time though. And a teensy bit crazy."

"Whereas now you're the prime example of sanity." Spike said sarcastically.

"Just like you, then." Liz quipped.

"Sod off." Spike said as he stopped walking. Straight away he reached inside the jacket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. Sliding one out, he lit and began smoking it.

"I've got a theory." She blurted out. He took the cigarette out his mouth and breathed out the noxious fumes. "I am never going to be able to say that ever again without thinking of the song." She scrunched up her eyes so she couldn't see the glare she knew he was giving her. "I was hoping to bring this up at an appropriate time in conversation but it sort of hasn't presented itself."

Warily, Liz opened one eye and screamed because Spike was in her face with his cigarettes a couple of centimetres away from her cheek. The vampire drew back from her and laughed.

"You bastard!" she yelled.

Spike kept laughing as he put his cigarette in his mouth again.

"What's this theory?" He said. He took out the cigarette and let the fumes out again. She ignored him, tempted not to reveal what she knew to him. It must have shown on his face because his face softened and he said, "No hard feelings, pet."

Although she still felt like smacking him in the face, she felt it was important to get this said. Might make him slightly easier to tolerate. She swung her legs over the edge of the bench and sat up properly.

"You came into my house uninvited. You have a reflection and you can go out in the sun."

"Observant little bugger, aren't you?" Spike said.

"Not helping." She said, shooting a look at him. "You see, where you come from, vampires exist and there are rules that stop them killing absolutely everyone. The having to be invited in, the inability to hunt in daylight without going 'poof' and the lack of reflection."

"Having no reflection doesn't stop us hunting."

"Well…I guess not. But it makes you easier to identify." Spike seemed t think about it before he nodded in agreement.

"Your point is?"

"Those rules exist where you come from but you reach here and because we're not supposed to have actual vampires here, those rules just don't exist." She pointed at Spike. "It doesn't change the fact that you're a vampire or that you have a behavioural chip in your head. All that's changed is the rules."

She stopped talking and let it hang in the air for a while. Then as Spike was stood there smoking and, presumably, taking in what she'd said, a horrid thought struck her. What if he got upset and threw her at another wall?

This thought was ridiculous as there was no way that Spike could find this idea upsetting. However Liz happened to have the horrible knack to latch onto a horrifying, if improbable, thought and worry over it for long amounts of time. Luckily she didn't have to worry for too long.

"Anything's possible I guess." He said. He flicked his butt on the ground and Liz tried to ignore that he'd flicked it onto one of the graves. "I suppose you want to hear my theory about the blue wall things now."

"Not really." She shrugged and managed not to smile when Spike looked at her shocked. "I'm sure I'll live without it."

"Now you hang on one sodding minute." He huffed. "I listened to your theory and am willing to share now. So you're gonna bloody well listen." He walked over and sat on the bench next to her. "A little while ago…where I'm from…there was this…God thing called Glory." He kept pausing as though he was searching for the right words every few seconds. She didn't dare try and interrupt though. "She wanted to use the key…Dawn…to try and open the gateways between all worlds." He reached into the jacket and pulled out another cigarette. He didn't continue, instead twiddling the cigarette between his fingers.

"So you think these gateways might be…left over from that then?"

He stood up and strode away very quickly, stopping a short way away. Turning back to her, he was already lighting it.

"Possibly." He flicked the lighter off and stood there smoking another cigarette.

She curled up on the bench again. Spike was being all avoid-y and if he stopped talking maybe she could get some more sleep. After en minutes though, he spoke again.

"How old were you?" He asked.

"Hmm?" she turned to him.

"When your dad died?"

Liz stared at him with her weary eyes. He looked like he was genuinely curious and not just pissing about. This wasn't a subject she often talked about; it wasn't one she was often asked about. Everyone pretty much heard she lived with her grandparents and her dad was dead and said 'I'm sorry' before settling into an uncomfortable silence.

She half-expected him to press the matter but he must have seen she was thinking as he didn't say anything; he just stood there taking puffs of the cigarette. After a while she realised he wasn't going to pressure her into an answer and figured she may as well tell him about it.

"I was eleven." She said plainly. "It was exactly one month after my birthday."

Spike paused before asking, "Were you with him, when it happened?" She shook her head.

"D'you know what I was doing? I was sat with my cousin watching Harry Potter." she laughed slightly with embarrassment. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. And the thing I remember most about that night is telling my cousin that if my dad died I hoped he'd meet the guy who plays Dumbledore in it. See I remembered that he'd died which is why they got in Michael Gambon in for the third film." She smiled at the memory of that. It was quite childish but it made her feel sort of warm inside to think of a happy thought to do with that time.

"So where does mum fit into this?"

Her smile instantly disappeared and she wished he hadn't asked about her.

"She doesn't." She stopped watching Spike, instead focusing on her knees. She heard him flick his cigarette butt away.

"Care to expand on that?"

"Nope." The tone of her voice made sure that he was aware that there was no negotiating the matter. Unfortunately Spike either didn't pick up on it or he decided to ignore it.

"Did she leave you?"

"Nope." Liz said, curtly.

"What did she do?"

"Nope."

"Beebs."

"Nope."

"Beebs!"

"No!" She literally leapt up off the bench. "Maybe it's taking a while for you to get it into your thick head, Spike, but I don't want to talk about my mother." Slowly she sat back down on the bench as the cold bit into her.

"Fine." He said starting to stride around again. "But tell me this. Did you say goodbye?"

"No way. Do you have any idea what Goodbye means?"

"Goodbye?" he guessed.

"No!" she scoffed. "It's like 'The End'." Se glanced over and saw the 'what the eff' look she was expecting. "Imagine every time you say 'Hello' to someone it's like you're starting a story. 'Once Upon A Time'. And when you say 'Goodbye' you're basically saying 'The End'; 'it's over'."

"So what do you say?"

"'See you later'. It's like saying 'To Be Continued' and is a hell of a lot easier to say." She looked over at Spike who laughed.

"You are bloody barking." He laughed. Something inside Liz just snapped. He kept pushing her and pushing her while she was talking about things that mattered to her. This was just one remark too far so she stood up and started to walk towards the path that led back home. "Whoa! Wait!" Spike chased after her and grabbed her on the arm. "Where are you going?"

She turned back to him. "You don't want to listen to my ramblings? Fine. There's no need to drag me out in the middle of the night to tell me that. I'm tired and I'm cold and I'm going home."

She tried to pull out of his grip only to find it was quite firm. Attempting to yank her arm away from him, something in her arm cracked.

She yelled as the pain coursed through her arm and instantly Spike let go of her arm drawing back. Cradling her arm and looking over at him, she saw he was clutching at his head and crying out in pain. She realised that the chip in his head had gone off because he hadn't let go and she'd become hurt because of it.

"I'm sorry." She said. Really it was her fault for trying to pull away. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry." She babbled.

He looked up at her and stood up straight. Pulling the jacket he was wearing straight he tried to look composed as though nothing had happened and Liz couldn't help laughing.

Together they just stood there looking at each other for a few minutes. Doing nothing; saying nothing. No unspoken messages passed between them. Nothing happened.

And because nothing was happening the motion-sensitive light switched itself off.

Both of them burst out laughing. It wasn't clear why they were laughing, but to both of them the situation they were in seemed ridiculous.

Both of them walked back into the graveyard and, after turning the light back, sat on the bench and talked. There weren't anymore uncomfortable silences or arguments. Once or twice Spike would stand up and have another cigarette.

And it continued like this till the early hours of the morning.

Next: Problems