A/N: Thank you to my beta, EllieRose101 for being a loyal reader and fixing my remarkable number of comma errors xD
"Buffy! Buffy!"
Buffy was shaken awake, very early the next morning, by an alarmed Dawn, yelling at her.
"What? Are you okay?", she grumbled in response.
"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. It's just Spike was meant to be staying over last night, right?"
She nodded, sleepily.
"Well, he's gone."
Buffy shot upright.
"I was hungry so I went downstairs and he wasn't on the couch. I checked out the front and back and still nothing. He was acting kind of wiggy last night though."
"Wiggy? Wiggy how?"
"Erm..like he was hiding something, maybe? I don't know."
The slayer ripped the covers off of herself and set to work on seeing if Spike had left any clue as to where he had gone. Both she and Dawn searched high and low but came to the conclusion that wherever he had rushed off too, they weren't meant to follow.
"You and Spike talked yesterday, right? Dawn asked her sister. "Did he say anything at all that revealed something super secret-y?"
"I...I don't think so. I was pretty out of it though."
"Come on Buffy. Spike's good but he's not the perfect liar. He must've let something slip."
Buffy thought long and hard for several minutes. Then she recalled her dream, from the previous night. She didn't distinctly remember Spike being in it but thinking of him made her recall the dream.
"There might be something..." she started.
The silhouettes in her mind started to fill with colour and detail.
"A house. An old house across the other side of town. It has a courtyard of stone."
Dawn had picked up the phone in a flash and was dialing Giles' number.
"Giles knows Sunnydale like the back of his hand. Maybe he knows about this place."
"He doesn't have to because I do."
Dawn stopped dialling and glanced back at her sister.
"Get on the phone to everyone. Xander, Willow, Giles, Anya, Tara."
"Why?"
"Because I know why Spike's gone. He thinks he can fight off all of the Miyrids on his own."
It took less than an hour for the Scoobies to convene at the old houseBuffy described and, sure enough, they found Spike lingering there. Buffy was the first one to leap out of the car, followed by Dawn. The rest of the group held her back from following her sister, however.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?!" he yelled at her, as she angrily made her way over to him.
He was answered with a slap.
"What the hell are YOU doing here?! You really think you can take on 7 Myrids by yourself? You're crazier than I thought!"
Spike was about to question how Buffy knew his intentions for being here but something told him that now wasn't the right time for a Q+A.
"I'm doing this and you ain't stoppin' me."
He started walking away but Buffy grasped his arm.
"Yes I am! I'm not letting you throw away your life for a fight you know you're not going to win."
"Well I ain't gonna stand around anymore and watch these fucking monsters tear you down just a little more everyday. I can't bear it."
"We can do this together. We will find a way to kill them."
"Its been nearly half a year since you first said that and we've got absoloutely sod all on them. You should've bloody accepted that tosser, Travers', help and gotten rid of me. At least then you'd be safe."
Buffy was so close to slapping him again. All the time, the rest of the party were huddled in a group by the cars.
"Don't say that! I need you here."
"Then let me do this."
"Are you deaf too? There has to be anot-"
Buffy wasn't able to finish her sentence as Spike smashed his lips to hers with so much power she swore she was going to fall over. One hand was placed on either side of her face, making sure that she couldn't pull away. She was way beyond pulling away. She couldn't even think straight. They began to move backwards until they fell against some railings, partly mirroring their night together all those weeks ago, with the dresser. She didn't have a chance to move her hands as his hands suddenly flew to hold back her shoulders. They slowly began to slide down her arms, caressing every patch of skin, until they reached her hands. Their tounges continued to wrestle furiously, oblivious to the fact that there were 6 stunned faces staring at them, their mouths wide open.
Buffy withdrew from the embrace, slightly, as a clicking sound filled her ears. A cold metal, around her wrists, shocked her even more. She pulled away from his lips completely and looked down to see a pair of handcuffs, attaching her to the railings.
"What the..."
"Sorry", he whispered.
"Who the hell carries around handcuffs?"
Spike raised an eyebrow and smirked. Coming back to the situation at hand, she glared at him.
"You fucking bastard. Let me go."
"I think we both know that's not gonna happen, love. I said I'm going in, alone and that's what I'm doing."
"Please." Buffy was suddenly pleading with him. "Don't do this. Just wait a little longer. You don't need to worry about me. I'm sorry for not helping myself and everything I've done to you. I've just never been this scared." She was almost crying now.
"Sshh", the vampire soothed, running a thumb over her bottom lip.
"I'm not doin' this to punish you. Far from it. I'm doing this so you can live your life, properly. I don't want you hiding in your house 24/7. Get out there, meet someone, have a dozen sodding kids. Just live, Buffy."
"I can't lose you," she wept. "You won't be able to defeat them on your own."
Spike sighed a sigh of defeat.
"I said I wouldn't say anything but..I ain't exactly on my own in all of this."
Buffy looked up.
"Huh?"
"Just trust me. This'll all be over soon. You'll see."
"B-But," she stuttered but before she knew it, Spike had fled and wasn't in calling distance anymore.
That's when something knocked her on the head and everything stopped...
