Chapter 7

Dawn woke up, one eye at a time, glancing around as she did so. Where was she, she asked herself, who didn't seem to know any better than she did. Where ever she was it was kind of dark. She sat up to get a better look around. In that one movement, she caused herself so much pain. Her hand flew to her head, as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying with no avail to block it out. Oh yes, it was definite, she had a hangover. But when? She tried to think back, but all the details were fuzzy and there weren't many.

She carefully opened her eyes waiting for another onslaught of pain. When it didn't come, she sighed in relief, promising to be more careful next time. She took another look around, finding she was in her living room. One mystery solved, but now there was a phone ringing and the noise caused her to groan in pain again.

She fumbled for the cell ringing on the side table next to her. She flipped it open without even looking at it to see who it was. She figured it was her boss asking her to come in early. "Yeah?" she said into the phone, attempting to get up from the floor.

For a moment there was no answer on the other end of the line. "Hello?" she tried again.

"Who is this and why are you answering Spike's phone?"

"What? Who are you calling my phone?" It hadn't hit Dawn right away that only had she not checked to see who had called but that if it was even her phone that was ringing.

"Look, lady, I don't know who you are, but you better put Spike on the phone right now!"

"Hey, asshole…!" But Dawn never got to finish her sentence as Spike had jumped up and swiped the phone from her.

"What do ya want, Peaches?"Spike sighed into the phone, rubbing the bridge of his nose, trying to wake-up and fight off his own hangover.

Angel ignored his comment an continued on, "This is your wake-up call! You are now two hours late for work!" Angel huffed into the phone "do you know how many mettings you missed this morning?"

"I don't know, um… three?" Spike guessed sarcastically.

"Seven, and you're about to miss another one in twenty minutes!" Angel yelled back. "Spike, I don't care where you are, just…"

"What's that? You're break…up! I ca…hello? I can't…you…"

"Hello! Spike? Just get here!"

"What?"

"I said, just…" Angel heard the beep as the call disconnected. "Stupid cell phones," he said as he threw his across the office.

"Was that necessary?" Dawn asked Spike, raising an eyebrow at him.

Spike looked at her innocently. "What?"

"You can get good reception in this area." Spike shrugged at her and then gave a smirk. She shook her head in response, and then remembered the promise she had made to herself the she just broke. "Ah!"

"You too?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, I haven't felt this bad in a long time."

"I second that," he said as he settled back down on the floor and patted the area next to him. "Let's go back to bed."

Dawn winkled her nose at the hard floor. "Nah, I'm going to the real bed. It's way more comfy there, I already have a crik in my neck." She squinted, thinking, "How did we get on the floor anyway?"

Spiek looked around confussed, "I'm not sure. What did we do last night?"

"Don't look at me."

"I guess I spent the night," he answered, with a shrug.

"What do you mean you guess?"

"Just that I thought I went home last night." He frowned, "I think. I remember driving here to drop you off. You asked me to come in?"

"Well you're lucky, 'cause I don't remember anything." Spike looked between the two of them. They were both fully clothed and it looked as if they had pulled some pillows and blankets off the couch to sleep on the floor. "Hold it, are you still wearing your underwear?" Spike asked, taking into consideration that she was wearing her skirt from last night.

Dawn gave him a dirty look, "Yes, I am," she answered matter of fact-ly. "Why?"

"Good 'cuz I didn't want to have sex with you and not remembered." Dawn rolled her eyes at his comment.

"Thanks, I think." Dawn turned and headed for her bed room.

"Where are you goin'?" Spike crawled up off the floor trying to catch up with her. He noticed there were a few liquor bottles sitting on the kitchen counter.

"To bed," she called over her shoulder.

"I think I found the answer to our problem," Spike called back, picking up one of the empty bottles.

"What is that?"

"Alcohol," he responded simply.

"I already have a head ache I don't want to make it worse. Besides it's too early."

"No, not to help your head ache it's the cause of your headache. It looks like we had a little somethin' to drink last night. About four bottles worth." He turned to follow Dawn into the bedroom. "Ok, well if you're going to bed, what am I supposed to do?" He stopped in the doorway seeing Dawn begin to undress. It was like his own private show. Not as flashy as he was used to seeing her, normally there was dancing involved, but he'd settle for this. Hs head tilted to the side as he watched her half naked body sway around the room.

"Well, do you want to go to work?" Dawn asked peeling off the rest of last night's clothes.

"No," was all he could come up with. He was too distracted to come up with anything more.

"So then do you want to come to bed?" Dawn asked, seductively running her finger along the side of her bed, wearing only her bra and underwear. He nodded deftly in response. She smiled to herself at his awkward behavior. "Then put your tongue back in your mouth and get over here."

"You mean you want to…," he pointed back and forth between them.

"Sleep in the same bed? Yes." His face fell a bit. "Oh c'mon, why does everything with you have to be about me?" She slouched her body, pulling the sheets back to get into bed. "Besides I'm too tired to have sex with you even if I wanted to." He made his way to the other side of the bed.

He started to take his shirt off, and then stopped, looking to Dawn. "Do you mind if I shed some clothes?" Dawn looked at him for a moment, a brief thought of him naked running through her head.

She shook the thought away, releasing him from her gaze. "Sure, it's no big deal," she shrugged it off.

"Ok," Spike pulled his shirt off, slowly, carefully, taking his time. Dawn tried not to watch him. She wondered if he was undressing that was on purpose. When he let his pants fall, she hunkered down into bed, turning her back to him.

Spike smirked at her reactions, realizing that the nonchalant stripper was made very uncomfortable by his little show he had put on for her. He got into bed and laid down facing her back. He wondered about her lately, it was so nice to have her back in his life. However he was confused by his sudden attraction to her. He had never seen her like this before, he wanted to do nothing else but run his hands all over her body right now. She was so close to him now, he could feel the heat radiating off of her body. Her body was so soft.

Wait, 'her body was so soft'? He hadn't realized, but his hand was stroking her back. "Spike, what are you doing?" Dawn asked, looking over her shoulder.

He sighed before he answered, his unneeded breath brushing across her skin, "I'm sorry," but he didn't stop, "I just can't control myself around you anymore. I've been fighting for days, but seeing you like this now, it's getting to be too much for me to handle." She shifted all the way around to face him, and his hand went to her face, running it along her cheek. She moved into the touch. "Do you still feel like we're moving too fast?" he asked her breathlessly.

She didn't know how to respond. She was glad that he was being honest with her and she did care for him. However she knew that if she said no he would move in for the kill, and she wasn't ready yet. Her eyes roamed his face and she bit her lip. "Looking even hotter won't help the situation, Bit," he shook his head with a smile.

"Spike, I think we're moving just fine now," she said carefully. Before she could say anything more, his lips came crashing down onto hers. She froze at first, surprised by the contact, but soon let the sensations rain over her. She pulled back a moment later for some much needed air.

Spike looked at her concerned, "You ok?" he asked her.

Dawn nodded with a smile, "I just wanted to stop before we got too far along. I don't want you to think that I've changed my mind, because I haven't. I just don't want you to get the wrong idea. Let's just lay here and enjoy each other's company. I'm still interested in taking it slow." She watched his expression, waiting for his understanding.

Spike laid down in the bed next to her, sighing contentedly at their new revelation. "C'mon, Bit, lay down and we'll go back to sleep and we can work on it later." She smiled broadly, happy to know that the two of them were on the same page. She gently moved next to him, lying her head on his chest.

They fell asleep soon after, quietly cuddled in bed together.