Buffy woke up the next morning with a wide grin on her face. This day was nearly perfect – nothing could spoil her good mood now. Nothing. She had stopped Warren; hadn't had any bad dreams about it; best of all, Tara was going to live!

Okay, Willow now wasn't going to have to freak out and go all veiny and stuff and so wouldn't have all that magic at her fingertips but now there would be two witches to deal with whatever came their way. It was going to be fine!

She actually hummed as she made her way down the stairs after getting ready. The only small fly in the ointment was that Spike wasn't back...

That was okay though. Given the time frame before, he still had time. She definitely wasn't panicking. Nope.

Not panicking! Just keeping very, very busy.

Dawn looked up as Buffy walked into the kitchen. "Well, you're in a good mood this morning. Can't remember the last time you were so perky and… humming." She raised a brow as she studied her sister. "Are you really this happy because the trio have been stopped? I mean, it's good news and all but…"

Buffy grinned and almost danced over to her sister to hug her. "Dawn, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the trio has been stopped and friends are coming over to spend a lazy Saturday with us. What could be better? You wanna invite Janice over?"

Dawn nearly choked. "Wow, really?" For a moment she allowed herself to get excited then shook her head. "Nah. The last time I brought her over here, the demon with the funky hair attacked. Obviously I couldn't tell her what it really was so she decided I'd played a prank on her. Took ages for her to forgive me after that. I don't think I'll tempt fate."

Buffy winced a little at the remembered incident. "Probably took her a good ten washes to get that stuff outta her hair. I see your point. Ah well, looks like it'll just be the gang then – minus Giles, obviously."

Dawn frowned as she moved over to grab a glass. "Still no sign of Spike yet?"

The blonde shook her head. "No, not yet but it's okay – I'm not expecting anything yet. I mean, getting your soul back is bound to be complicated, right? I mean, look how complicated Angel's soul return was and it's not even permanent and binding!"

Dawn nodded. "He'll be back – Spike never could stay away from you for very long," she shrugged, "even when he wanted to kill you."

Strangely that thought gave the Slayer comfort and she beamed at her sister. "Right."

eieio

The party was going well – even Tara and Willow had managed to take time away from the bedroom and were down talking and even more unthinkably, putting as much as a whole metre of space between each other at times. Buffy smiled and looked around, spotted Xander sitting by himself with his eyes closed, just soaking up the sun. With a soft sigh, she lifted her drink and made her way over to him.

She was standing in front of him but he still didn't move or acknowledge her in any way. Which meant that he was really mad with her or she had been a tad too stealthy. She hoped fervently it was the latter but previous conversations between the two friends, which related to Spike, hadn't exactly gone well so she didn't get her hopes up. "Hey. Mind if I join you?"

Xander opened his eyes and straightened, even smiled a little as he looked at her. "No, come on and sit, enjoy the laziness of lolling in the sun with me on this lovely day."

She smiled and sat down with a sigh as she actually took the time to notice the feel of the sun on her skin. "That does feel very nice. Y'know, I think I missed my calling - I should have been a cat in this life. That way I could spend most of my days just basking in the sun."

Xander snorted. "Interesting. Then again, we know how well it went when Buffy Summers didn't come to Sunnydale so perhaps it's a good thing that you were born human after all. Well, a slightly superior human being than most but still… human. Don't really think that a cat would have cut the mustard when it came to slaying vampires and demons."

Buffy frowned as she was forced then to remember the conversation that she had had with Tara now a lifetime ago. "Well, for the most part I'm human now. Slightly different though – I came back just slightly wrong." She smiled a little. "I was so worried when I first discovered that Spike could hit me. I thought that there was something wrong with me - something that made me seek him out."

Xander smiled and shook his head. "Have you noticed how many of your conversations of late go back to him?"

Buffy blinked and looked at him. "They do?"

Xander shrugged. "Nah, not really but I figured I'd just run with the idea as a subtle lead-in to the 'you and Spike' conversation."

Buffy inclined her head. "Ah. Subtle. I like it."

Xander grinned at her. "Subtlety isn't really my strong point after living with Anya for so long… do you love him, Buffy?"

The blonde looked her friend in the eye so he could see that she was telling him the truth. "I do. Very much! I know that he's not your favourite person in the world and all but he has so much potential to be good, Xander."

Xander frowned. "What if the chip stops working some day? What then?"

Buffy shrugged. "It will stop working, Xander. Everything has only a certain amount of time in this world," her gaze skipped briefly over to Tara, "but I'm not worried. He's gone to get a soul. For me! He loves me too. Think how much more he'll love me with a soul! How many people would have withstood Glory's torture just because losing her would have killed me?"

Xander leaned back. "Well, that changes things… and yes, I knew that he loved you or at least as close as any demon could get but… doesn't that stop you … you know… getting down to it?"

The woman smiled and shook her head. "It's an entirely different set up to Angel's. This isn't a curse. This is a prize. He had to take part in a series of trials that were not pleasant or easy so when he succeeded, the soul was his for keeps."

Xander nodded. "Good. I'm glad." He mulled that over for a moment then sat up. "Well, he wouldn't be my choice for you. Ideally someone like Riley but look at how he ran out on you!" He wrinkled his nose. "One thing you can say about Spike is that he never leaves you for long."

Buffy watched his face, trying to work out what he was thinking. "You don't seem… as disapproving as I had expected. Part of me was really really expecting you to point out that he wasn't good enough, that I could do better…"

Xander studied his friend's face for a moment before speaking. "For the most part, I don't like the guy, Buffy. He rubs me up the wrong way – I guess it's the vampire part of him that just can't resist finding people's weak spots and exploiting them. You though, you look happy and it's been a long time since I saw you look that way. Back in the early days of Riley, maybe… before you found out that he wasn't just a regular guy."

"Mostly I was hurt that you didn't trust me enough to tell me the news yourself – I had to find out about you having feelings for Spike via the fact that he was there in your dream world hallucination and you were having noisy dream sex... There was a time that we told each other everything. Now, we're still close and all be we don't really talk," he sighed and looked over at Anya, "I think a lot of it stems from the fact that I love you and Willow so much yet there are days that I feel like we're growing apart, y'know? We all have other stuff in our lives now…"

Buffy snorted. "Just because we've become adults somewhere along the line, found people we love and have actually done normal adult things like own houses with our names on the deeds does not mean that we've grown apart, Xander. You're still one of my best friends and I absolutely would not have it any other way! We're family plain and simple."

She smiled at Xander and opened her arms up for a hug. Xander couldn't resist smiling back as he hugged her. "I love you Buffy. You're still one of my best friends too."

eieio

Of course this being Buffy's world, she couldn't just get to enjoy the simple pleasure of hugging her friend. Buffy tensed as she heard Dawn shouting a warning to her, her voice sounding more than a little panicked.

The Slayer released her friend, stood and quickly scanning the garden for a threat… her blood ran cold as she saw it: a furious Warren heading her way, gun in hand. "No! You're in jail!"

Warren smirked at her, looking every bit as insane as she remembered. "YOU'D THINK SO, WOULDN'T YOU? THAT'S THE THING ABOUT HAVING MORE BRAINS THAN YOU THOUGH – NOT THAT THAT WOULD BE HARD – I HAD A CONTINGENCY PLAN IN PLACE SHOULD SOMETHING HAPPEN!" he tapped the side of his head with his left forefinger. "TOLD YOU, BITCH! YOU CAN'T WIN AGAINST ME! I HAVE THE SMARTS THAT YOU JUST… DON'T!"

Buffy cast a wary glance around. "Everyone, get into the house, okay?" She heard Xander about to protest, "NO arguments! Just go! Now!" She would NOT allow this to happen again.

Warren glared as he looked around at everyone. "WHY DON'T YOU BUNCH OF LOSERS DO AS SHE SAYS, HUH? THIS IS BETWEEN ME AND THE SLAYER BITCH HERE!"

The Slayer relaxed a little as she heard the sounds of them retreating. No doubt someone was calling the police right now but that was okay. Hopefully they would get here on time to stop any fatalities.

"Alright Warren, you have my attention… why don't you put the gun down now and we'll talk." She held her hands up to show that she was not a threat to him – not yet, anyway. That didn't mean that she wouldn't keep her eyes open for a chance to get the gun off him and knock him to the ground unconscious to stop him.

"TALK? YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME! EVERYTHING! NOW I'M GOING TO TAKE EVERYTHING FROM YOU – SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT!"

Buffy eyed him as he glanced over at the house; not liking what he was insinuating one bit. She needed to keep him focused on her until the police got there. "You lost everything yourself, Warren - you should have known better than to come to come back to this town. What did I ever do to you anyway? That you thought you needed to come here and ruin my life?"

Warren stared at her, looking amazed that she even had to ask.

"WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU RUINED MY LIFE! EVERYTHING WAS GOING SO WELL AND THEN YOU TOOK IT FROM ME. YOU!"

Warren was definitely getting angrier, more erratic. Still, as long as he focused solely on her, she didn't have to worry that he would hurt anyone else. She noted the way that his finger was twitching on the trigger but she could hear sirens in the distance. She just needed to find a way to calm him down a little…

For the second time in less than ten minutes, her blood ran cold as she registered a hesitant voice speaking from her side.

"W-warren, you j-just need to c-calm down a little, okay? If you p-put down the gun, we can all talk – c-can't we Buffy."

Buffy closed her eyes as dread washed over her. Her voice when she spoke was tinged with desperation. "Warren, ignore her. Just look at me here, okay? Remember all the bad things that I have done to you? Bad Slayer… must pay the price, yada yada."

It was no good though. The insane Warren had switched his attention: "WHAT? YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN HELP ME? LAST TIME I CHECKED, YOU WEREN'T MY TYPE. I LIKE MY WOMEN TO BE ABLE TO TALK PROPERLY FOR ONE!"

Undaunted, Tara shook her head, trying to reason with or calm down a desperate, crazy man. "U-using that gun i-isn't going to help a-anyone, Warren – least of all you."

Buffy spoke up again, trying to get Warren's attention back on her so that she could shove Tara out of the way or down or something but Warren ignored her, too angry now and currently raging with Tara.

Warren glared at the witch. "FUCK YOU, BITCH!"

The sound of the gun going off seemed incredibly loud in Buffy's ears. She could only watch in horror as a red mark appeared on Tara's shirt before she slumped to the ground. "TARA!"

Buffy fell to her knees beside her friend, too shocked to do anything more than try to stop the blood coming out of her body. She certainly didn't register the sound of Warren leaving or the sounds of the others rushing out into the back yard once more, or Willow's agonised scream. She was simply too stunned that it had happened anyway. Tara was dead!

Willow sobbed as she clung to Tara. "Baby please… don't leave me! Don't go!" Realising though, that it was hopeless, Willow lifted her head as if to plead with the heavens themselves, her eyes dark red. Buffy didn't notice any of it.

Willow suddenly stood and left, no word to anyone. The rest of the group were simply in too much shock to stop her.

eieio