AN: A HUGE thank you to everyone who has reviewed and added this to their favorites. I know it's been far too long, and I hope you are still reading. There are fun times ahead, and some scariness as well. I'm trying to get Spike *just right*, so please let me know how I'm doing. I'll be updating fast and furious for the next few days.

Willow rounded the corner to find her parents' room empty. A quick look around confirmed that Cordelia wasn't under the bed or in the closet. A missing telephone and a closed bathroom door made the witch smile.

Of course.

"Cordy?" Willow giggled at the sharp 'eep' that greeted her voice from the other side of the door. "You can come out now. She's gone."

"Gone?" The door opened, revealing a clearly shaken seer clutching the telephone to her chest.

"Yes, gone. I threw her out."

"And what? She left, just like that?"

"Well, there was some threatening involved and a lot of kicking and punching at the glass. I wouldn't call it peaceful. Is that Angel?"

"Huh?" Cordelia had moved into the room proper and was peering out the door, moving to get a better view.

Willow pointed to the phone Cordelia had in a death grip. "Are you talking to Angel?"

Nodding quickly, the brunette brought it back to her ear. "Angel? - Geez, you don't have to yell.- Fine. We're both fine."

Willow sprinted down the hall to her room and pulled the cordless phone from its base on her bedside table. Hitting the 'talk' button, the redhead was immediately assaulted by a deep Irish voice barely discernible over a thick English accent, both demanding to know what was going on.

"It's okay! We're Fine!" The noise stopped just long enough for Willow to take a breath.

"Are you okay?"

"What the bloody hell is going on?!"

"One at a time! First off, we're fine. Cordy's a little wigged, but we're fine. Buffy showed up wanting me to give her Spike." Willow waited until the blonde vampire finished his grumbling, trying not to laugh as he mentioned the 'blonde whore of a slayer'. "I told her you were sleeping in a safe room where you couldn't feel each other."

"That's what got Cordelia all scared?" Angel sounded disbelieving, and Willow could almost see the look that he had on his face. "I've seen her face some truly horrific things without getting this riled up."

"I think she must have overheard Buffy saying that she's punishing me for bringing her back, making me suffer because I made her suffer."

"You didn't-"

"I did, Angel." Willow sunk down on the corner of her parents' bed, facing Cordelia. "I didn't mean to, I thought I was going something good, but I was wrong."

"You don't deserve this, though." Spike's voice was comforting, but the edge in it told Willow that he was reining in his temper. "Red, I know you wanted to take your exams, but you need to come back to LA."

"She's going to hurt Xander, Spike."

"What?" Angel answered, the pitch of his voice impossibly high.

"She was going to start with Xander until she realized, somehow, that I had feelings for Spike. That's why she started with him instead."

"Why would she go after them?" A new voice tickled over the phone, a thick southern twang very noticeable.

"Hello Fred." Willow cleared her throat, hating to say the next sentence. "She learned it from Angelus."

"Learned what?" Angel was clearly trying to come to grips with the entire situation.

"She's going to go through them all, one by one, until I'm left broken and alone."

"Then she'll come for you."

"No, Angel, that's where she's got Angelus beat."

This time it was Spike's soft voice that came over the line. "How's that, luv?"

"She's not going to kill me. She knows that, since I was a little girl and my parents started leaving me alone, I've always hated being alone."

"You're not alone, Red."

"I will be... I will be."

It had taken the two vampires and the seer an hour to calm the witch down. After assuring Angel that she was okay, she spent another half hour trying to convince Spike that he needed to rest more than he needed to drive all the way back to Sunnydale.

"Spike, I'll be fine. I'm going to get Xander, Anya, and Giles together to tell them what's going on. I can't just leave them here if Buffy wants to hurt them. I at least have to warn them."

"You're right, luv." Spike sighed audibly. "I just want you here where I can look after you."

"I can take care of myself, you know." A stray thought popped into her mind. "Spike?"

"Yeah, luv?"

"What did you mean about women putting their hair up?"

A husky laugh floated over the phone, caressing her ear and tingling its way down her spine. "When I was young, women would wear their hair up unless they were going to bed. Their hair was their one last great mystery."

"But didn't they wear long skirts and stuff?"

"Once you've seen a pair of legs, you've seen them all. The sight of all that hair floating down around a woman's shoulders," Spike groaned. "That's something to behold."

"Oh," Willow smiled and said her good-byes.

Now, Willow, with a sort of messy bun at the top of her head with curls framing her face, opened the door to greet Xander and Anya.

"We came as soon as we got your message." Xander smiled at Willow as he came through the door. "You said Spike wasn't here, so we came baring only pizza and- Cordelia!"

Willow couldn't contain the giggle at Xander's shocked expression. He had stopped just inside the front door, completely blocking Anya's path.

"Xander, we brought soda." Anya elbowed her way past her boyfriend's frozen form, halting when she saw the two women standing in the foyer. "Oh, that Cordelia."

Willow moved to stand between the two women. "Let me re-introduce the two of you. The last time you met wasn't the best of times for anyone. Anyanka, this is Cordelia, one of my good friends. Cordy, meet Anya."

"Hello." Cordy extended an uncertain hand to Anya.

"Are you here to try and take my Xander away?"

"No." Cordy looked at Willow, getting only an encouraging nod. "I'm here to help Willow."

"Oh," Anya's face lit up with her smile as she grasped Cordy's hand. "Pleased to meet you. As long as you're not after Xander, we should get along fine."

"Then we're good."

Anya's reply was cut off by a knock on the door behind her still unmoving boyfriend. "Don't just stand there, Xander. Answer the door."

Giles entered, took one look at the faces surrounding him, and herded them all into the living room. Xander placed the pizza on the coffee table beside the plates Willow had set out when he mentioned bringing food. Anya simply removed her coat and sat on one of the chairs.

"What is so important that I close shop and come running over here?"

Willow took a deep, calming breath and launched into her explanation.

The faces surrounding Willow were slack with shock, and she wasn't absolutely sure that they had heard anything after her description of Spike when she found him at the old mansion. It wasn't until she began retelling Buffy's expulsion from her house that any of them moved. This, too, was limited to four sets of eyes (Cordelia joined the group for this part of the explanation) sliding from Willow to the perfectly remade French door and back again.

"So, plans have been messed up a bit." Willow sighed in relief that her speech drew to a close. "Instead of just the two of us," Willow motioned to herself and Cordelia. "Now, we all have to go."

Xander, Anya, and Giles simply stared at the redhead.

"All of us."

Another stoic look from the others.

"To LA."

Still no response.

"As in... Now."

Giles finally came out of his stupor. "Just pack up and leave? Just like that?"

"She's not right, Giles. We need to put some distance between us and her. At least long enough to come up with a plan. After that, you guys can come back."

"'You guys'... You aren't coming back, Wills?" Xander sounded forlorn in his seat along the wall.

"I can't be a Scooby anymore, Xan. Not after all of this."

Anya had pulled herself out of Xander's lap and turned to face Giles. "You mean... we have to close the Magic Box? Do we have to stop making money for this?"

"It does sound like the logical thing to do, though I believe that it's a little predictable. Don't you think so, Willow?"

"Anywhere else has innocent people who have no clue about vampires, or slayers, or real witches with new powers they don't fully understand." Willow stood and moved to look out the window, her hands lacing and unlacing her fingers. "Spike's already there, so it just seems like the easiest thing right now. Angel has more than enough room in that hotel, and there are enough rooms restored for us all to sleep there."

"You're in love with him." Xander's voice was accusatory. "What is it with you girls and that vampire?"

"What?" Willow rounded to stare at her oldest friend. "In love with who?"

"Angel." The one word was said with more venom than anything Willow had ever heard pass the young man's lips.

"She's not in love with Angel." Anya rolled her eyes at her boyfriend, and Willow sagged in relief until Anya finished her thought. "She's in love with Spike."

"What!" The shout came from either side of the room, making it hard for Willow to look either her oldest friend or her mentor in the eye.

"Okay, so I'm in love with Spike." Willow nodded to herself. I can't believe I just admitted to that without any stuttering or trying to backpedal.

"Go for it."

"Huh?"

Xander shrugged and gave a small grin. "If you're in love with him, then you should just... Go for it."

"I don't think he's over Buffy. It's too soon."

Xander crossed to her in three strides, grasped her arms in his hands, and bent down to look her in the eyes. "He wasn't in love with Buffy. She's the slayer. There's no way Spike would ever let himself be fully in love with someone who would never fit together with him. We both know you would fit. You're his puzzle piece, and I say go for it."

Willow nodded at Xander's forceful words, smiling as she remembered the way her body fit with Spike's as they kissed. Well, they were perfect puzzle pieces that way... It was a start.

"Maybe you're right."

"I know I'm right. If you don't give it a shot, you'll regret it."

Willow nodded, more to herself than to Xander or his words, and smiled. "I will, Xan."

"Good then."

They shared a smile before the sound of Cordelia clearing her throat got their attention.

"What's wrong, Cordy?" Willow wasn't sure what had the brunette acting so impatient.

Cordelia slid from her seat on the end table beside the couch to stand beside Willow. "If we're planning to get home before midnight, we should probably get moving."

"Right. You're right." Willow nodded and pushed Xander toward Anya.

"Xander. They want to close the shop until we figure out if Buffy's really crazy and going to come after us." The confusion Anya was feeling clearly written on her face. "Why would she destroy a place of business to get back at someone? That's just not right."

"I know, baby, but that's just the way things sometimes work." Xander pulled the small ex demon close to his chest, running a palm over the waves of her hair.

"Well, it sucks."

"Yeah, it does." Cordelia nodded and turned to Giles. "So, are you coming or what?"

"Yes, I suppose I have no other choice but to go along with this plan until a more reasonable one can be made."

"Do you ever do unstuffy?" The seer shook her head and dismissed him with the wave of one perfectly manicured hand. "Willow and I are already packed. Our things are in Angel's car. Giles will drive it back to LA so that Willow can drive her car-"

"No." The redhead interrupted Cordelia.

"What do you mean, 'no'?"

"The sedan belongs to my parents."

"Oh." Cordelia regrouped in the amount of time it took for Xander to cough once. "Willow will drive Angel's car back with Xander and Anya. Giles can take his car, and I'll ride with him since it's a two seater. We go to Giles' first, then to your guys' apartment. We stay together as a group."

"Safety in numbers?" Anya looked at Xander and then grinned happily at his distracted nod. She'd gotten something right.

Willow, Cordelia, Giles, and Anya began moving toward the garage door until Xander's voice brought them up short.

"Wait."

"What is it now, Xander?"

"Sorry, G-Man. It's just..." Xander took a deep breath and looked at Willow. "What about Dawn?"