For RKF22, Quindecim, madcloisfan, and RAGAnne.

Unfortunately, given Xander's talk with Buffy post-Lowell House, Willow's reaction to Tara's kidnapping, and Buffy's talk with Spike about how they're a mess as a team and don't stand a chance against Adam, this has been a long time coming. Add the fact that they've all been stressing and sleep deprived and...

Next couple of chapters are more fluffy and sweet, I promise!

Chapter 37

Buffy had just gotten out of poetry. She was somehow managing to make it to more classes now than she had in high school. Getting the occasional hour to stop thinking in slay mode was nice. Plus she didn't want to obsess over the things she wasn't supposed to see in Spike's head. There was no way to know exactly what that was all about without asking him, but something about the emotions she'd felt second-hand while seeing most of it... It was too painful. She didn't want to be cruel, figured maybe it had to do with what he was supposed to change in the first place.

Holding her books to her chest, Buffy peeked down the hall. Willow had promised to meet her so they could head to the library together. Wills thought there might be more stuff on spells there which, considering it was in Sunnydale, might not have been too far off-base. But Willow was nowhere to be found.

That was when Buffy noticed a tall, buff guy limping down the hall past her. It took her a minute, but she recognized him. Buffy, checking one more time for Willow, followed him down the hall, around the corner, and into a little alcove. There were tons of people only ten feet away, and all she had to do to get their attention was make a loud noise. She wasn't going to leave campus. And he owed them after they got him away from Adam. Plus, she could totally kick even a non-injured Initiative Boy's ass in a fight. No one would be happy that she was doing this alone, but maybe they didn't have to know...

When he unlocked the office door, Buffy slipped in after him and shut it behind her. "Riley?"

Riley jumped, the folders in his hands exploding to the floor. "Buffy?"

"Sorry." Buffy knelt down to help him pick it all up. They were essays and stuff with big red letter grades on the front. "How are you doing?"

"Me? Great. No longer have a secret government chip in my chest. Still stings, though."

"Probably wouldn't hurt as bad if a real doctor had taken it out." Buffy glanced at the walls, at the diplomas and certificates and stuff all around. "Is this Professor Walsh's office?"

"Uh, yeah." Riley took the folders from Buffy and the both of them stood. "The TAs are leading her classes this semester, since..."

"Right." Way to make it sad and awkward, Buffy.

"Is there something you want?"

"Huh?"

"Not to be rude, but I've really got a lot to do before tomorrow."

"Right, of course." Buffy rubbed her eyes. "I just... My friends and I were trying to figure out how to stop Adam. I was wondering if anything else might've occurred to you? Or if there were entrances you might be able to tell us into The Initiative? According to Spike, all it took was one door to get from Adam's lair into The Initiative, so..."

"You're still working with an HST?" Riley grimaced.

"I'm working with the man who saved your life, yes. Not big on the grudges. Since, you know, I could kick your ass for having lured me down into The Initiative and making me the new favorite lab rat." Buffy's jaw locked as she glared at him, daring him to say the wrong thing.

"I didn't know Maggie was going to do that."

"Fine. Whatever. Could you tell me the entrances?"

"That's treason."

"Your buddies don't know what they're up against."

"What, and some girl from LA and her friends who experiment with voodoo are going to do better than the military?" He dumped all his paperwork on Maggie's desk.

"No. The Slayer, the ancient vamp, the powerful witches, the ex-demon, the watcher, and the guy who's been staking vamps since he was sixteen are going to do better." Buffy planted her hands on her hips.

Riley's face scrunched up. "Wait. Who's an ex-demon?"

"Don't even go there." Buffy's voice was full of Slayer steel. "You're seriously not going to help? You'd rather let Adam run free than maybe get in trouble at work?"

Riley laughed. "I should've known you wouldn't understand."

"Yeah, that's me. Dumb blonde who thinks that saving the world is just a teensy bit more important than your orders."

"Buffy—"

She held up a hand. "Forget it. I should've known this would get us nowhere. I'd just kinda hoped Spike saving your life might knock some sense into you. My mistake."

When Buffy left the office, slamming the door so hard behind her it might've knocked off its hinges a little, she stormed back into the main hallway and almost ran Willow flat over. Will tilted her head.

"Buffy. Are you okay?"

"Riley is a jerk. A big, unhelpful jerk."

Willow gulped, her eyes wide. "Want me to hex him?"

Buffy laughed. "I think I just need to go punch things."

"Oh. Uh. I guess I'll run to the library and meet you at The Magic Box?"

"Sure." Buffy attempted a deep breath, running her hand over her hair. "It's gonna be a lot harder to use the magic shop for Scooby stuff when Giles opens it next week."

"It's Sunnydale," Willow said. "I think people tend to overlook a few things. Remember the aftermath of M.O.O.?"

"Oh God, don't remind me." Buffy rolled her eyes. "The smell of bar-be-ques still makes me squirm."

xxxxx

Buffy landed five alternating jabs on the scarecrow dummy, the last one sending him spinning even though she landed it a little too far to her left. Spike stopped the thing, resetting it in front of the Slayer. She just needed an hour of smash and bash to work out the Riley rage.

"Your elbow dropped on the last one, love. Need to watch that."

"What? Are you Giles now?" Buffy didn't mean to snap that badly, but she wasn't in the mood for all the tai-chi and technique corrections.

"I'm just sayin'. Adam, we're gonna need everything we got, a'right? All need to be at the top of our game."

"Fine." Buffy licked her lips. She turned slightly, facing Spike. "Let's go, then."

"You alright, Slayer?"

"Why?"

"You seem a little more... Well, you're honestly bein' all thorns today. What bee got in your bonnet?"

"Shut up and fight."

Spike sneered, yanking his coat off and flinging it across the room. "Fine."

Buffy punched him in the side of the face and he returned the blow. She swerved down after, then kicked him in the torso. Spike stumbled backwards a few steps but recovered nearly immediately, stalking toward Buffy. He had her by the back of the shirt and flung her across the room in a flash. Buffy snapped back to her feet. When he approached her again, she ducked his next attempt to deck her, then popped back up.

"What the bloody hell is going on in here?"

Buffy, realizing she was panting heavily, looked to the doorway. Giles was glaring at the both of them.

"Slayer wanted to spar," Spike grumbled. He stomped his way out of the room, grabbing his coat before heading for the main shop.

Giles' eyes narrowed at Buffy. "Are you alright?"

"God, people need to stop asking me that. I'm just dandy!"

Buffy huffed. She took her pink zip-up hoodie from the gymnastics horse thing and pulled it onto her arms as she moved toward the main shop as well. She could hear the shouting before she even saw anyone.

"And no one thought maybe to tell me?"

"The Slayer would never do something that bloody stupid! Git's lyin' to you. Shouldn't be a shock."

"What now?" Giles shouted, coming into the room.

"I think we need a research break," Tara suggested, her voice soft. She was sitting next to Willow at the table, with tons of books open in front of them. "We're all getting a little overworked and tired and, um, cranky?"

"You know how we said Ahn and I should try talking some sense into Riley? Apparently Buffy thought she should just do the job herself," Xander yelled, waving in Buffy's direction. He and Anya were standing by the door of the shop.

"And I'm tryin' to tell Harris that the Slayer wouldn't..." Spike turned to Buffy, who was attempting to avoid eye contact with all of them and failing spectacularly. "Buffy?"

"Willow, why would you tell them?"

"Willow knew? Great! I guess I really am just the third wheel in the girl power hour."

"Buffy." Wills stood, her eyebrows scrunching down. "I wouldn't tell them something like that. How could you think I'd go behind your back? Riley said it when they went to see him."

"Slayer, that's the kind of thing that gets you trapped and fightin' the army," Spike said. His expression was as shocked as it would've been if Buffy had slapped him while he was reading the morning paper.

Buffy decided to ignore Spike's protest for a minute. It was real easy for them to tell her all her wrong moves she'd made. They weren't slayers. They didn't get it. Mistakes happened, but she always had to try. She stopped trying, people died. "I mean, I don't know why you're so upset, Xand. You guys only need Slayer Buffy, right? I was just doing my sacred duty."

"What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Think about it. When was the last time we just hung out? Like people? Bronze, movie night, Espresso Pump, anything?"

"Buffy, that's not fair," Willow said. "We've had a lot on our plates and—"

"Fine. When was the last time you and Tara went on a date?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Buffy blinked away the stinging in her eyes. "Apocalypses happen. We always made time for each other before. I bet you've been spending loads of time with your honeys."

"Oh, and you haven't been spending your nights in the arms of your dead lover boy?" Xander shot back.

"Don't you start on Spike," Buffy gritted out, her voice sharp. In truth, she couldn't remember the last good night's sleep she got. She just wanted to curl up and forget about Adam for a while, but she couldn't. The only break she ever got was class and the hour here and there that she and Spike managed to carve out for themselves.

"I knew you had a problem with this. Me and Tara." Willow frowned.

"Will," Xander said, "we don't—"

"Xander, how can I think you'd accept that I've got a girlfriend? You don't even like that I'm a witch!"

"You can be bigoted sometimes, sweetie," Anya nonchalantly volunteered.

"Not helping, Ahn."

"Now, would you all just—"

"I get it. You don't want me around anymore," Willow said, ignoring Giles. "I'm not the exact same quiet, computer-hacking sidekick Willow who just helps you break into the coroner's office, so you—"

"Maybe we should take a—"

"Hey, the Slayer doesn't get best buds, right?" Buffy shot back over Tara, her voice cracking. She shrugged. "Maybe you guys should just call me when you need me to hit big scary things for you."

"Hey, I mean, at least you're useful," Xander laughed, bitter. "After I give you a couple of one-liners and maybe a funny monkey dance, my part is done."

Willow bolted for the door to The Magic Box. "I'm going to feed Miss Kitty Fantastico."

Buffy and Xander locked eyes across the room when she left. Xander's mouth hung open for a second. "Miss who?" he asked.

"Oh, um." Tara stood, playing with the ends of her hair. "Miss Kitty Fantastico. Our kitten."

"You got a kitten?" Buffy shook her head. Willow didn't tell her about that. The last few weeks were a little fuzzy on the specifics. She couldn't remember much outside of Mission. Adam. Initiative. Slay. Train. Things kinda went on autopilot.

"I'm sure you and Wills can chat about it while you're braiding each other's hair," Xander snapped, turning for the door. "In between jokes about how worthless I am."

"Xand—"

"You know," he said, pausing at the open door, "she was my best friend first, before all the witch stuff and the Slayer stuff." Xander slammed the door shut behind him.

Buffy turned back to Tara. "Are you two living together?"

"Um."

"Great." Why had Willow been keeping that from her? Willow, who had been the one to comfort her the most when Angel went dark side, who had tried so hard to help Buffy adjust to college, who hadn't freaked when Buffy confessed she'd kissed Spike. Buffy couldn't take it. It was too much. She was too tired and emotional and didn't feel like getting pity pats on the back if she burst into tears here.

"I'm going back to my mother's." Buffy sprinted for the door, wiping at her eyes as she left The Magic Shop.

xxxxx

"Well, that certainly could've gone better," Spike said. He chewed on the inside of his cheek, watching the door as though the whole lot of 'em would return any minute and realize they were being insane.

"I don't understand where that even came from." Giles pinched the bridge of his nose, not bothering to remove his glasses.

"I know Willow's been stressed lately." The little witch curled her arms around herself. "She... She was worried, when she told them, about us. That they might, um, think of her differently? Maybe not even love her anymore."

"And Xander has been on this whole nobody loves me thing," Anya added. She fussed with her nails.

Spike smirked, then giggled, checking to see if any of the rest of the B-team had caught it yet. "It's the Yoko factor."

"As in Ono?" Giles asked.

"Yeah. Beatles would've broken up with or without her. Last time 'round, when I was workin' with Adam, I pushed buttons until the three of 'em—and you, Watcher—decided to part ways. Makes it easier to take down a Slayer if she doesn't have her back-up dancers about."

"But they've managed to upset one another regardless." Giles nodded, clearly deep in thought.

"Lack of sleep and overworking will do that," Anya said.

"And growing up, taking different paths in life." Giles looked around at the three of them. "So we'll have to go convince them to reconvene. Hopefully before Adam decides to attack."

"Right. Slayer prolly doesn't want to see me right now." Spike held a hand to the back of his head. "I think I might've pissed her off while we were trainin'."

"I could go to her," Rupert offered.

Spike shook his head. "When I pissed her off, said I reminded her of you."

Giles scoffed, indignant. "Excuse me?"

"It's possibly the British thing," Lady Vengeance piped up. "Or the rugged handsome thing."

Giles, swiftly bashful, looked to the floor. Spike rolled his eyes. "I was tellin' her how to take a swing better."

"Well, I'm not going to see her. I don't think she likes me very much. She and Willow have told me many times that I lack tact, and people skills."

"Um, Willow and I had found a spell that the cards might be tied to," the witch said, ending the sentence with a crooked smile. "You can see if it's really useful? It's in Sumerian, I think, so I can't read it anyway."

"Lucky for you, I happen to know my share of Sumerian." Anya nodded and headed off toward the table.

"So I guess that leaves you with Buffy," Spike said, nodding at Tara.

"Sure. I can t-try to help."

"Rupert, you want to take the other Wicca or Joe Construction?"

"She really looks up to you, Mr. Giles. I think... I think she'd appreciate it if you talked to her."

"Right. So I get stuck with Harris." Spike glanced toward the table. "Any advice from the peanut gallery over there, pet?"

"Don't bring up his former girlfriends," Anya said. She flipped the pages of a book, muttering to herself, "He gets snippy."

"Super."