Spike stood absolutely still for a moment, his mouth practically hanging open in shock. After what seemed like eternity to Dawn, he let out a pained sound and leaned back against the alley's wall.

"Bloody hell."

The teenager looked up at him with tears welling in her eyes once again. She could sense all of the emotions in his voice: the anger, the disappointment... the sudden urge to murder someone.

When he finally let his gaze drift back toward her, there was glint in his eyes that could only be described as homicidal. In a slow, dangerous voice, he asked the question that she had wanted with all her might to keep in the dark. "Do you know who he was?"

Dawn looked down at the ground for a moment, trying to figure out exactly how to word her answer. Finally she took a deep breath and looked directly into his eyes. She could hear the tremble in her voice as she quietly answered.

"No," she said weakly. "I don't… I don't actually remember much about that night. I'm pretty sure it was consensual on my part, but other than that…"

The vampire once again let out something that resembled a moan as he closed his eyes and tenderly rubbed his brow. "Damn."

----------

Just as she had two months earlier, Buffy paced nervously in the middle of the Magic Box. This time, however, her eyes were full of anger and hurt instead of worry.

"What the hell am I going to do with her?" Buffy ranted. "She promised that she wouldn't pull a stunt like this. God, am I ever going to be able to trust her again?"

With a worried sigh, the Slayer collapsed into a nearby chair and promptly buried her head in her arms. Anya looked at Buffy helplessly for a moment before giving her husband a quick shove in her direction.

"Go and do something to make her feel better!" she whispered loudly. "Just don't have sex with her. That's not allowed."

A surprised expression appeared on Xander's face, but he quickly replaced it with one of concern. He placed his hands on Buffy's shoulders and did his best to try and reassure her.

"Come on, this is Dawn that we're talking about," he said reassuringly. "She probably had a good reason to disappear. I mean, when you had a good reason when you ran off. You know, with the whole 'my boyfriend is a big, bad murdering vampire that I have to kill and...' I'm not going to try and help anymore."

Buffy pulled her head out of her arms and gave her friend a weak smile. "That's probably a good idea, Xander," she said lightly. "A few more minutes of that, and I'd be letting out all of my frustrations over Dawn on you."

The door suddenly flung open, and the three occupants of the room shot their heads towards it. Their disappointment was obvious to the two young women who walked into the room, but they both chose to ignore it. Tara gave them an apologetic look as she pulled off her jacket.

"I got some results from the spell," she said, shaking her head, "but there were some... difficulties."

With a worried look on her face, Buffy pulled herself to her feet. "What kind of difficulties, Tara? She is still okay, isn't she?"

Tara quickly nodded her head, doing her best to try and not alarm the Slayer any more than she already had. "I'm fairly certain that she's fine," she said gently. "I'm just getting a few... discrepancies when I tried the spell. It was almost like..."

A troubled expression appeared on her face as a thought crossed her mind, and Willow quickly reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder. "Tara, are you okay?"

The young witch quickly shook her head as she leaned against the wall. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just... thinking about what might have caused the problems I had with the spell. I guess I was thinking a little too hard."

She gave them a reassuring smile. With a shaky sigh she looked at the redhead standing beside her and motioned with her eyes. Willow gave her an understanding nod as she turned back to the others.

"I checked around, without using any magic," she said tiredly, "but I couldn't find a trace of her."

"Is it just me or does this seem a little familiar?" Xander asked curiously. "And I don't mean, 'didn't something happen a few years ago in some movie that vaguely resembled this' kind of familiar. It's more of a 'this is almost exactly the same as what happened two months ago' kind of familiar."

Anya wrapped her arms around his waist and smiled gently. "Of course honey, whatever you say," she said, obviously attempting to placate him. "I'm sure that everyone else sees just what you're talking about."

"I'm going to have to agree with Xander on this one," Buffy said tiredly.

Xander shook his head. "It's almost exactly like what happened last time," he said. "I wouldn't be very surprised if Captain Peroxide came walking through the door in a few minutes, carrying Dawn in his arms..."

"Now where would you ever get an idea like that," Spike said as he walked into the room, pushing the missing teenager in front of him as he came. "Just because some vampire decided to take a little bite out of--"

"Spike!" Dawn hissed, shooting him a dirty look as everyone's eyes immediately turned to the bloody handkerchief she was holding to her neck. "It's not even enough of a bite to cause a scar."

Spike shook his head, but he carefully drew the conversation away from the topic. "I was just walking around, minding my own business, and I came across the 'Lil Bit here," he said casually. "I'm guessing that she's the reason all of you are gathered here."

Buffy shot him an exasperated look before stomping over to where they were standing. "Come on Dawn, we're going back to the house and this time you're going to be grounded for a lot longer that three months," she said coldly. "I think that 'for the rest of your life' is a good place to start. What the hell were..."

She trailed off suddenly as Spike grabbed her arm. "You better hold it there, luv," he said warningly. "The Nibblet here has something she wants to tell you, and I think that it might be safer if you find out now."

"Safer for me, at least," Dawn muttered weakly, drawing an uncertain look from her sister. "I think that we need to go in the back for me to tell you this."

She turned and started walking towards the back room before turning back to look at her sister. "One thing Buffy... after I tell you this, please don't kill me."

At those words, the Slayer's eyes widened even more, and -- after sharing a worried look with both Willow and Tara -- she hurried after Dawn. As the door shut behind them, Spike pulled out a cigarette and put it up to his lips. Ignoring the incredulous looks on the others' faces, he merely lighted it and took in a few breaths. The worried expression on his face was enough to let them know that something was terribly wrong though.

But they didn't have much time to ponder over what it might be.

Less than a minute after the two of them entered the backroom, the eerie stillness of the Magic Box was broken by a loud shattering coming from the back room. Xander, Anya, Tara, and Willow shared a quick look before dashing towards the back, leaving Spike to slowly pull the cigarette away from his lips.

"Well, it sounds like the Slayer took it better than I would have thought," he said dryly.

Flicking the cigarette to the floor, he carefully ground it underneath his foot. Taking in a shaky breath, even though he didn't actually need it, he then followed the others. There was a murderous glint in his eyes though. Dawn had said that she didn't know who the guy was, but when he found out...

It might give him a hell of a headache, but he wasn't going to let that bloody chip in his head stop him. No, not in the least bit.