Previously: Spike and Buffy decided to home school Dawn, Faith took over Buffy's body for a bit, then Angel took Faith away to L.A., and the Dagon Sphere turned up.

Enemies Old

Spike was having a quiet, productive morning, for a change. Buffy had gone out to class while he'd taken it upon himself to help Dawn improve her reading. They were having a snack break when a loud bang was heard at the back of the house.

"Bloody hell, what now?" Spike groused. He was starting to form a theory that Buffy going to college was a bad omen.

Walking into his kitchen to find his backdoor lying flat on the floor, Spike stood rooted in place at the sight of Drusilla on the other side of the invisible barrier to his house. She had a rather bulky henchman on one side of her – a demon under a human guise, Spike reckoned, and no doubt the thing that broke down his door. It held a large, black umbrella over Drusilla, shielding her head and shoulders from the sun.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" asked Dru, sweetly, before wagging her finger and adding, "Ah, but you can't. Got to be the human inhabitant to do that."

Spike was still silent. Stunned.

Dru carried on, casually, "I hear my Spike's got himself a lovely little dolly."

At that he found his voice. "I'm not yours anymore, bitch."

He was shocked with the amount of venom he put into the word, never expecting to have such huge animosity towards his sire. She looked unbothered, though.

"What exactly is it you want, Dru?"

Drusilla pouted. "None of my other princes take care of me proper."

"Yeah?"

She nodded glumly and gave a little whimper, but the little girl lost routine didn't work on him anymore.

He leaned in real close and said, "Tough shit."

All pretenses dropped from her in an instant and she swung for him, but was of course foiled by the barrier. It was at that point Dawn walked into the room. Spike disengaged from his battle stance immediately.

"There she is," cooed Dru. "What's your name, Dolly?"

Dawn was halfway through chewing a cookie. Swallowing it down, she looked to her dad for permission.

"It's okay, pet," he told her, "You don' need to talk to the strange woman."

Dru growled, under her breath, to which Spike grinned and elaborated, "The strange, old, bitter hag of a woman."

Drusilla practically gnashed her teeth at him, then. Dawn admonished him with a stern, "That's not very nice."

"Yeah?" Spike swept her up in his arms, "Maybe I'm a mean old man, then."

Dawn giggled, "Don't be silly, daddy, you're very nice."

She got a kiss on the forehead for that.

Utterly horrified by Spike's lack of concern at her presence – his lack of respect, or fear – Dru decided to move her plan into stage two, and stepped out of the way to let the mystic at the barrier.

"Hey!" Spike placed Dawn on the ground again and pushed her behind him. "What's he doing? Dru?!"

"Dru? Huh?!" said Buffy, aloud, as she jolted awake in the middle of class.

Everyone was staring at her, naturally.

"Uh, nothing," she muttered, in response to the professors questioning gaze, before seeking Spike through the claim.

There was no reply. His thoughts were silent. She knew something was wrong, and there was a firm feeling that it was something to do with Drusilla.

Buffy excused herself from class, and ran most of the way home.

Entering her home to find Dawn missing and Spike knocked out, with a large gash in the side of his head, Buffy was tempted to break down in tears. She forced herself to look around for clues, though. The kitchen was a torn up, but that was about it.

Buffy was just about to return to Spike, but as she passed through the front of the house again, she came face to face with Glory. She didn't know how she knew it was her, but she knew. They stared at each other, for a moment.

To be continued...